School of Movies

[School of Movies 2026]

My favourite werewolf film, and one I watched at far too young an age (So, I'm pretty messed up, but I love movies). Just in time for Halloween we have this frightening, sometimes shocking yet consistently, darkly hilarious and occasionally extremely sexy tale of two Yankee college boys pitching up in Yorkshire, and a very unfriendly pub filled with paranoid and superstitious locals, only to find themselves out on the moors under a full moon, closely encountering the local wildlife.

Considering the script for this 1981 film was written 12 years earlier by the young director John Landis, it is surprising, considering how well-crafted this is- to hear that virtually nothing about the original screenplay was altered, even after they clashed with the censors over the obscene violence (though they were more worried about the sex).

You also get truly World Class creature FX from the legendary Rick Baker being given an unusual amount of time and money to make this beats and its victims look nightmarishly real in the most fascinating ways.

This movie had as profound an impact on my work as Coppola's Dracula (1992). Listen for yourselves in the new trailer for my Castlevania-inspired Lady Dracula story, Castle of the Moon at the end.

Where Can I Get This?

The Audiodrama on Bandcamp = $10

Paperback = $9

Kindle Version = $6

It brings me great pleasure to bring you my Castlevania-inspired Lady Dracula adaptation, completed at long last, and now, here with a transportive and intensely evocative trailer.

You can officially pick this story up in various forms. You don't have to have read or listened to any other New Century stories (though if you have, judging by the reception, you'll love it even more, for reasons I shall not spoil here.)

Where Can I Get This?

The Audiodrama on Bandcamp = $10

Paperback = $9

Kindle Version = $6

HUGE thanks to everyone involved with this project who worked so hard on delivering one of our best productions to date.

And of course, once you've experienced it, please do take a minute to rate and review it on Amazon. It boosts the chances of detection on an otherwise invisible work of literature.

[School of Movies 2026]

The original Rocky series comes to a close... twice.

For the longest time, sixteen years in fact, fans of the first entries in the saga of this good-natured fighter were disappointed by the fifth film. It took things out of the ring, stole all of his family's money and gave him brain damage. The result is a return to the chilly streets of Philadelphia and a tug of war between the son who needs him and the surrogate who can continue the boxing career he is now denied. But there's still merit to be found in this messy search for self-esteem.

However, in 2006, Stallone returned with a little more stuff left in the basement. I've seen some lists that classify Rocky Balboa (2006) as a mediocre entry only a smidge better than the previous. This baffles me like a right-hook from inside a baby carriage! It is the first one I saw, so I had nothing invested at the time, I didn't know who Adrian was, nor what her absence would feel to those who grew up with her around. But as a meditation on grieving, unresolved rage and a final climb up a Sisyphean mountain to prove this old man can still go the distance, it is a rousing triumph, and my abiding favourite.

This week's After School Club: The Abominable Dr. Phibes

Next week: An American Werewolf in London

[School of Movies 2026]

This trio of double-bills are arranged across three distinct stages of Rocky's life. As a thirty-year-old Boy he was fighting to prove he could go the distance. Now, as the Man of the hour he has ascended way beyond all of us mere mortals to World Champion Superhero for two helpings of 1980s American excess that are quite differently flavoured from their humble 70s roots.

In III he meets Hulk Hogan and Mr T, loses his beloved mentor and has to find that role anew in his former opponent Apollo Creed. But then in IV the Cold War comes calling and while Creed battles in vain to prove America is better than The Soviet Union, it ultimately falls to Rocky to finish the fight and end historical global conflict by boxing really well.

For IV however, after Creed II was released and during Lockdown Stallone went back to new transfers sourced from the original negatives to reconstruct it as a more serious and focused effort that would fit better with the new movies as well as the older ones, giving Sharon and I a lot to talk about regarding how her original favourite changed, both for better and worse.

Still to come, the consequences of getting hit in the head over and over again, and a surprise favourite for the original six.

This week's After School Club: Shakespeare in Love (With an Upstart Crow)

Next week: Rocky V + Rocky Balboa

[School of Movies 2026]

Welcome to a saga of films spanning fifty years and being more about male vulnerability and the struggle for self-esteem than they actually are about boxing. They skirt the line between super-marketable, modestly-budgeted mass-appeal and heartfelt and very personal artistic expression.

We have long-promised the Rocky series, and finally we are able to cover them in a trio of double-bills spanning three stages of life for the lovable, tragicomic pugilist. We have also recorded on the two remaining Creed sequels, and those will be released as a final show (for now) next year.

Here we begin in Philadelphia, 1976 with a young, broke, unknown Silvester Stallone writing a piece about his struggle to gain work and recognition, utilising the analogy of a sports movie. Then after three years of uncertainty, can he, and Rocky prove that they weren't just one-hit wonders?

This week's After School Club: Shakespeare in Love (With Anonymous)

Next week: Rocky III + Rocky IV