Legendary Canadian film director David Cronenberg has long been a favourite with classic horror fans due to his unique “body horror” movies like Shivers (1975), Rabid (1977), The Brood (1979) and The Dead Zone (1983). But perhaps his most enigmatic and discussed film amongst cult movie fanatics is 1983′s unique blend of horror and science-fiction Videodrome starring iconic pop singer Deborah Harry. It tells the story of a guy who becomes obssessed with the broadcasts of a mysterious satellite tv station which depict the torture and murder of unwilling victims; but he soon starts to experience increasingly surreal hallucinations until he can no longer discern reality from hallucination…

Videodrome is screening in London at The Roxy Bar & Screen as part of Shivers, a Canadian genre film festival put together by independent film maker Vince D’amato and the Classic Horror Campaign’s Justin Harries. I spoke to Vince recently and asked him about the festival, his own filmic influences and about why he is such an avid supporter of the Classic Horror Campaign. The full interview is being published over at the Rue Morgue magazine website but in the meantime here is our EXCLUSIVE question and answer session with Vince about classic horror!

Q. Why do you support the Classic Horror Campaign?

A. I discovered most of the films and filmmakers I love today by catching these films on television, usually late at night. I think broadcasting genre films on television is still important as an influence on artists, audiences and culture.

Q. What are your favourite classic (pre-1980) horror films?

A. In the “classic” sense I’d definitely go with Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead, Suspiria, Carrie, Deep Red, Rabid, The Brood, The Hills Have Eyes, A Bay of Blood, Black Christmas, Don’t Look Now, The Omen, and The Exorcist.

Q. Do you have any particular “monster memories” from when you were a kid that you’d like to share with our supporters?

A. I think it was when I first saw the movie “Deathdream” on Superchannel for the first time, when I was a kid. My brother and I thought it was the freakiest thing we’d ever seen, it scared the crap out of us. We watched it three times that month! About 20 years later it was playing as a horror retrospective at Vancouver’s Pacific Cinematheque theatre, so I took my friend and my girlfriend, of course telling them how freaky this movie was -and it wasn’t scary at all! Well, my friend did jump out of her seat once, but that was it. I still love that movie, though.

Shivers: The Influence of the Canadian Tax Shelter Films takes place at the Roxy Bar & Screen in London on Sunday 20th May from 3pm. You can buy tickets now for only £8 from the Roxy website!

You can support the Classic Horror Campaign by signing our petition here and subscribing to our free monthly newsletter here.