Filmwerk: First Birthday Testimonals

• 25th Aug 2011

Filmwerk is a year old and we’ve had our writing team submitting their own comments and moments to celebrate a year of writing about film.

Let’s let the team speak for themselves now!!

“My love for film and cinema stems from when I was 12-years-old; a long, long time ago. I distinctly remember the moment. It was Christmas and I was watching Murder on the Orient Express with a big cast that included Albert Finney as Hercule Poirot, Sean Connery, Lauren Bacall and Richard Widmark. During the ad break there was an advert for a weekly film magazine, a part works thing called The Movie spread over some 160 odd weeks. It started with the birth of the talkies, The Jazz Singer, Garbo etc. and went on from there. Before I knew it I was obsessed, hooked and have remained that way ever since. Previous to this I loved the old classic gothic horror movies with Bela Lugosi, Karloff, Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing and Vincent Price. This love of film has made me into something of a nerd and I have for years worked on my own version of the Halliwell Film Guide. Thanks to Filmwerk my geekiness has been given an outlet.”

Chris Hick 

“My first real memory of film is also one of my most important childhood memories: Freddy Kruger. Nowadays I regard him as a wise-cracking, clumsy, dream-psycho, but back in 1984 when A Nightmare on Elms Street was released I was 4 years old. By the time I was 8 the Nightmare franchise was in full swing and, although I didn’t see any of the films till I was 14, it was hard to escape the very memorable image of Kruger.

I. Was. Terrified. I slept with the lights on. I’d have nightmares if I saw him on the cover of a magazine, seeing a person wearing a black and red stripy jumper made my heart beat faster. Clearly being terrified thrilled me because my obsession with Kruger led me to sneaking down the horror aisle of the local video store to soak up the gruesome covers, diligently read synopsis and generally scare the bejesus out of myself. While other kids were nicking penny sweets I was stealing glances at Halloween.  As I grew a little older I started going to a friend’s house where absent parents meant we were able to watch an array of horror, The Amityville Horror sticks out in my mind because it petrified me and it really wasn’t meant for 10 year old girls. But this was the start of my love affair with horror and probably the reason I started reviewing films for Filmwerk. Indeed the first few films I reviewed for Filmwerk were horror and it was the desire to see the fabulously bad Dinoshark that lead to my first review. Recently I’ve even had the chance to review the very same films I used to stare at in the video shop back in the 80s, films I thought were no longer in existence, so thank you Filmwerk, without you I’d have never have seen Slaughter High and that would have been a travesty.

I love horror, I love genuinely scary films, be it gore or psychological terror and if the film has an iconic character or a genuinely good storyline then even better. But I also love the crap, the b movies, the bad special effects and ridiculous deaths. Writing for Filmwerk gives me the opportunity to see films I might not usually see, which is great…most of the time!  It’s also nice to write a review and see it published, prior to Filmwerk any opinions I had on films were limited to private discussions, so in a way Filmwerk gives film lovers a voice they might not otherwise have. I look forward to reviewing many more titles for Filmwerk, the good, the bad and the downright frightening!”

Lindsay Emerson

“It seems pretty clear that if I write for a film website then I must like films. Wrong! I bloody love films, pure and simple. Ever since a very young age, the first few films I remember are also two of the most drastically different. If memory serves, Labyrinth was one of my first childhood films along (strangely) with Die Hard (thanks for that dad!) All of this early love of films just kept on escalating into mad, devoted obsession of the highest order.

This lead me to try and make my own short films at university, unfortunately (as is the case at the moment) it is not to a stable career path for the time being. This led me to write about films, to express my love (because that truly is the word) for film in all its forms, mainly to annoy my nearest and dearest. All of this started with me writing a film blog about my general musings. It’s now turned into a hobby that I genuinely love. Writing for Filmwerk has given me the opportunity to write about films that have had a large impact on my life and new releases which vary in quality, but never fail to put a giant smile on my face when they arrive at my door. Happy Birthday Filmwerk!”

Dominic O’Brien

“Like a lot of people, I can trace my love of films back to Star Wars. I’d watch it once and then I’d watch it again, this time to see everything that was going on in the background. I wanted to know everything – all about the characters, their backgrounds, motivations; the actors, the director, the costumes. Everything. As this was in the days before DVD extras (well, the days before DVDs to be 100% accurate) and the internet, I had to find my fix elsewhere. So I developed a love for film magazines and books.

As I got older it became more about the escapism – locking myself away for a couple of hours in front of the TV or the cinema screen and forgetting about the world for a little while. And with the internet I could find out pretty much all I ever needed to know about what was going on in the background. So I talked about films for hours to pretty much anyone who’d listen. Everyone’s got an opinion on the best Bond film ever made or if The Matrix was a massive wasted opportunity. After years of heated discussions in the pub and inflicting my opinion on all my friends, it wasn’t long before I decided that I should involve the unsuspecting public via the medium of the internet. It started with blogging and ended up with Filmwerk.”

Emma Wilkin

“It may be an odd thing to say, but the measles had quite a large part to play in my love of, and devotion to, film. Yes, the measles… and my dad. My two brothers were infected with the said spotty disease so I was kept out of school for a week or two, my parents assuming that I would get infected so I should therefore sit in sweaty seclusion with my wheezing brothers. My dad had obviously caught babysitting duty on this particular day, so we sat in front of the television watching a rented video. It was Alien. The wisdom of watching Alien with three small children, let alone sick children with temperatures is, as an adult, debatable. However I thank him every time the subject arises.

I can remember every moment of those 119 minutes. Whether the fever added an extra dimension to that eerie, sinister atmosphere, or whether, even as a child, I knew what I was watching was magic. My younger brother, terrified nearly to tears, was told that if he turned away from the screen one more time, the film would be turned off. The poor boy, in fact all three of us, sat forcing ourselves not to look away. The still, pregnant darkness of space, the slick, indestructible horror of the xenomorph and the utterly chilling score made every hair on my body stand on end. As an adult, Ash’s attack is one of the most disturbing pieces of cinema I can recall. From this first viewing it was clear to me that nothing is as completely immersive as a film. A good film, anyway.

Alien still is one of my favourite films of all time – a love born in terror and sickness and carried through my life.”

Hannah Turner

“Happy Birthday Filmwerk, I first wrote for you when you were but a few months old. I didn’t know if you would like my words, or even if I could make sense at all, but it seemed to go down well with you and you even asked for seconds.

Some forty odd pieces of work later and we’re really good chums. You’re bigger and more popular, and I’m older and less chubby.

We’ve seen some of the latest Blu-ray releases together, discussed straight to DVD monster flicks, and a handful of games (those were fun until my PS3 packed up).

But mostly, you and I have been taking wonderful trips down memory lane. We’ve had some groovy times reminiscing retrospectively over some of our favourite movies of yesteryear. We’ve done Bond and Carpenter, Comics and Action Heroes and loved every last word. You’ve listened patiently to every lengthy rant, and endured my crazy analogies and contextual drivel without fuss or complaint. I thank you for that.

I’m pretty old, and you’re pretty young, but that’s ok because you are wise and well-read beyond your years, and you have seen me blossom from a moron into an imbecile (thanks to Gervais for that one).

Recently, all your friends have come together a little more in the spirit of discussing our love of movies. Thanks for being the hub around which all of us film freaks orbit in order to do this, I hope for more.

Happy Birthday again big boy, and thanks for helping me realise I have something to say about the movies I love.

Have fun today, and here’s to many more!!

In the words of the great Han Solo:

“You look strong enough to pull the ears off a Gundark”

Exactly what I was thinking”

Ben Pegley