Just as we are presented with the spectre of Charlize Theron and Julia Roberts hamming it up for all they are worth...

Doesn’t this look interesting?  The beautifully restored Bo’ness Hippodrome is showing ‘Juve versus Fantômas’ tomorrow night (Friday 2 December). Described by film historian David Thomson as ‘the first great movie experience’, Louis Feuillade’s Fantômas consists of five films made between 1911 and 1914 and follows the thrilling adventures of inspector Juve and his evil nemesis, Fantômas. Tomorrow night’s screening is accompanied by a live score performed by cult Parisian DJs RadioMentale. For ten years the sound-artist duo have been broadcasting their own cult-show in Pa

I have found fuller information on this week’s Book at Bedtime on the BBC Radio 4 website; details follow (with the added advantage of allowing me to post another picture of David Tennant!) David Tennant returns with another selection of chilling Vampire stories. Last year the first series concentrated on Victorian Vampire output, but in these five tales we enter the 20th Century and are introduced to stories with a little twist from the UK and the USA: Tuesday: The Girl With the Hungry Eyes – written by Fritz Lieber This 1949 story has exerted its grip on many an imagi

David Tennant reads The Lady of the House of Love by Angela Carter for BBC Radio 4's Book at Bedtime this week.  Monday-Friday at 10.45pm.

American Horror Story started on FX last night, and, if you missed it, then I would urge you to try and catch it on the internet.  This new psychosexual drama comes, amazingly, from Glee creator Ryan Murphy, who has turned his attention away from the all-singing, all-dancing students of McKinley High, to something far more macabre instead.  American Horror Story is a complete indulgence of Gothic excess, jam-packed with references to, amongst others, The Shining, The Haunting, The Amityville Horror, Rosemary’s Baby, Blue Velvet and Twin Peaks. American Horror Story starts with the basic

Michelle Paver is a British-based, award-winning novelist.  In 1998 Michelle gave up a successful career in law to concentrate full-time on writing. After penning several romantic novels she embarked on the project that was to change her life – The Chronicles of Ancient Darkness – a series of Stone Age fantasy books for children which ended last year with the publication of The Ghost Hunter, winner of The Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize, 2010. Michelle then turned her considerable talents to producing a wonderful and deeply unsettling ghost story for adults: Dark Matter, published in

The currently ubiquitous (and wonderful) Dominic West stars alongside Rebecca Hall in Nick Murphy’s forthcoming film ‘The Awakening’, due for UK cinema release on the 11 November 2011.  I don’t know too much about this film, but the pair seem to be portrayed as a sort of early 20th Century Mulder and Scully – he is a believer, she is a sceptic.  Imelda Staunton also stars, and she can put a chill up anyone’s spine. Going on the trailer alone this looks really good, so fingers crossed.  Despite the story and timescale being completely different, there is something about this t

Well, Jonathon Ross has just published his first graphic novel.  Turf is set in Prohibition-era New York, where corrupt cops turn a blind eye to the bootlegging gangs who have established an uneasy truce over their particular territories.  Until, that is, a new gang shows up wanting blood – literally.  Yes, the Dragonmir family are vampires!  Not content with this, Ross also throws in an alien with futuristic levels of firepower (it is a comic, after all) who, after crash-landing on Earth, sides with the humans against the vampires in order to win his ticket home. Unfortunately this d

Last night, in the interests of academic research, I watched the FX channel’s series premiere of Falling Skies, their latest take on the end-of-days/post-apocalyptic/human-race-under-threat scenario.  OK, admittedly I was really drawn to this because Noah Wyle was starring in it (sorry to be so shallow, but he was the gorgeous Dr John Carter in ER after all), however, not even the lovely Noah could save this.  The human race is under threat, AGAIN, this time from aliens referred to as ‘skitters’ who have wiped out 90% of the population, and the planet’s future depends on a military h