David Dent is a film critic who has been reviewing films since 1980. David has recently been bestowed with the monstrous task of reviewing every British horror movie released between 2020 and 2029. I caught up with David to find out more about the ins and outs of film reviewing, the horror genre and the lasting impression of David’s 10-year challenge.
I wanted to start at the beginning, I wanted to know how David got into film and also reviewing. David answered ‘Like a lot of people of my generation it was fanzines. I had my own fanzine, DoA, which ran for precisely one issue in 1979, and then about a decade later I started a fanzine called ‘Bloodtype’ which also closed after one edition; I blame a low boredom threshold. But I was also doing bits for other, more established fanzines, and I had my first big piece in a semi-professional magazine called ‘Samhain’ in 1990. I’d been into horror movies since I was about 8 (the first movie I went to was actually a Hammer double bill – ‘She’ and ‘One Million Years BC’); my first published ‘work’ was a letter in ‘House of Hammer’ magazine in 1975: I was 14. Very proud of that.‘
In 2013 David started ‘The Dark Eyes of London’ blog, I wanted to know what the initial plan was for the blog. David responded ‘There wasn’t really a plan. I just wanted to write about the things that interested me in media terms. I had in mind to run it a bit like an e-zine and have a combination of film and book reviews, interviews and longer articles. It’s taken a long time to build it up (it’s seven years old now) and I’ve started including regular items like round ups of tatty horror movies you can find on supermarket shelves for a fiver, 1970s horror paperbacks (have to thank Grady Hendrix for that idea) and retro viewing pieces (I’m currently writing pieces on horror movies that have reached their 100th birthday). So the ‘New Wave of the British Fantastic Film’ project is just the latest: as mentioned, I have a very low boredom threshold. ‘
It was clear that David had caught the horror bug very early on, which made him the perfect candidate to take on the 10-year challenge, but I was still curious if David was daunted at all at the thought of the challenge. David said ‘While I’m taking this a year at a time, in terms of tracking films down I’m already building up a list of movies that may have started this year but won’t be completed until 2021, so in a sense identifying the films is an ongoing process. The guy who I’ve taken over from on this project, MJ Simpson, mapped out the years 2000 – 2019, so I’ve got it easy with just a decade of watching. Scarily the project will end when I turn 70, so at least I’ll be retired for the last half of the ten years!’
It’s no secret that watching every British horror movie released for 10 years is going to take its toll, so I was interested as to how David deals with the fatigue of watching so many movies. This was David’s response: ‘The writer Ray Bradbury once said that if he didn’t write he felt sick, and while I wouldn’t say that I have it that bad, it’s definitely a case that the more you watch the more you have the capacity to watch. It’s a bit like a sport really: you build up stamina. I’ll confess that I’m more of an early morning/daytime watcher really. I’ve never been one for all-nighters. What is daunting is to know that however much you watch you can’t see everything, and for a completist like me that’s kind of a painful thought.’
As an aspiring film reviewer, myself, I indulged myself a little and asked a question I personally wanted to know the answer to and that was regarding the process of starting to write a review and how David operates. This is how David responded ‘If I’m going to a press screening, it’s scribbled notes in the dark, then maybe rush around the corner afterwards and dictate the bones of the review into my phone (one casualty of watching so many films is that plots tend to blur into each other). I usually write a very rough first draft in my head - it seems easier to pick out the salient points that way – then bash out a first version as quickly as possible. I went to a Guardian review class a few years ago which was invaluable. That taught me to spend as little time as possible on plot descriptions, and to be honest about what you like and don’t like, rather than what you think readers might like to hear.’
One of the main issues that David faces is that he has written thousands of reviews over the years and I was wondering if it ever felt like he was repeating himself in reviews. David said ‘It can be all too easy to develop a ‘template’ for reviews which follows the same pattern each time. In my first draft of a review, I will generally follow that just to be able to get some words down, then move things around so that, as far as possible, things remain fresh. That’s why interviews are great, because you can spark off what others are saying.
I went on to make an observation of the anatomy of film reviews, saying that film reviews are stories in and of themselves and I wondered if there were certain ‘plot points’ that David felt he had to hit in every review. David answered ‘Well with horror there is, more often than not, a narrative spoiler, usually in the third act, that you can’t disclose when writing about it. I think part of the fun of reviewing movies is that there are very few original stories out there, so it’s useful to have in mind (and reference) other similar genre movies that the reader may have seen, but also point out where a film differs. There is usually at least one key standout element in a film, whether a specific performance, a twist on a genre type, or a technical aspect that, when it hits you, you know is going to be the takeaway in your review. With a lot of UK independent horror films, I want viewers who may be used to slicker, more ‘professional’ movies, to recalibrate their expectations and appreciate the films in the context of their essential Britishness.’
Speaking of Britishness, I wanted to know if there were stand out differences between UK horror and US horror. David responded, ‘UK horror (on film anyhow) tends to be more ‘internal’ (sweeping generalisation) whereas US horror pretty much always has a group of characters dealing with an external threat. I think this is a hangover from UK kitchen sink dramas and soap operas, which very much focus on the impact on character; it’s also a budget thing and sometimes the fault of a scriptwriter who thinks that plot is dialogue.’
The horror genre has been parodied over and over again the last 20 years and I just wondered where David thinks the horror landscape lies now? Is it mostly made up of ‘so bad it’s good’ films or most made up of genuinely good films? David said ‘I do watch a lot of films that aren’t good or bad – just tedious. In the current pandemic situation, most of the horror film festivals have gone online so I’ve been able to see a lot of new films, but the programmers will have sifted out the poorer entries, so I guess what I’m seeing is the best of the best. UK, US and Canadian films tend to be very ‘earthbound’ in their subject matter; there’s a real return to ‘stalk and slash’ themes, probably dictated by slim budgets as much as the limits of filmmakers’ imaginations. But other European directors seem happy to embrace the mythical and the supernatural more, and they’re offering more variety and imagination for my money. Which is a good thing as I love that aspect of the fright film.’
Now that we’ve made it this far into the interview, I wanted to bolster my watchlist so decided to ask David what the goriest, most thought-provoking, saddest and funniest horror movies that were released in 2020.
Goriest: Skull: The Mask dir. Armando Fonseca and Kapel Furman
Most thought-provoking: The Lighthouse dir. Robert Eggers
Saddest: Wastelands dir. Kemal Yildirim
Funniest: A Werewolf in England dir. Charlie Steeds
Whilst David is uniquely qualified to recommend horror flicks, I was also intrigued by what films resonated with David outside horror. This was David’s reply: ‘Difficult to pick one film but a lot of the films of Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda are definitely in need of wider exposure. I wasn’t so thrilled with his latest movie The Truth, but his 2018 film Shoplifters was amazing, and indeed most of his previous features have been human, witty and emotionally stunning.
To conclude I wanted to find out what David wishes the lasting impression of the 10-year challenge will be. This was David’s answer ‘Well, when MJ Simpson hung up his spurs, he commented that no-one else was comprehensively documenting independent UK horror (to the best of his knowledge) anywhere in the world, and that if he didn’t do it, it wouldn’t get done, which could be problematic for future studies of UK film. So, having accepted the challenge, a citation in 2035 would be nice!’
I want to thank David for his generosity and on behalf of Film Expo South, wish him the best of luck with the 10-year challenge.
An interview by Sam Hayward