Johnny Restall
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johnnyrestall.bsky.social
Johnny Restall
@johnnyrestall.bsky.social
1.1K followers 490 following 310 posts
Writes and podcasts about films, usually cult thrillers and horror. Likes movies, music, reading, drawing. My work can be found at: https://linktr.ee/JohnnyRestall
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johnnyrestall.bsky.social
Join me and @grumpyandrew.bsky.social as we pass each other the runes and invoke Jacques Tourneur's NIGHT OF THE DEMON (1957) for the series-finale episode of The Thriller Cabinet Podcast.

Available via Spotify, Apple, and here:
thethrillercabinet.libsyn.com
Illustrated poster for the 1957 film NIGHT OF THE DEMON. Against a stormy night sky, the head and shoulders of a demon dominates the image. His body is dark and shaggy, his ears and horns pointy, and his red-lipped mouth open, with a look of mad glee in his glowing eyes. At the bottom right, a man and woman cower in fear, looking upwards apprehensively...
November 14, 2025 at 11:45 AM
johnnyrestall.bsky.social
40 years ago today, William Friedkin's TO LIVE AND DIE IN L.A. was released in the USA - a thrilling but withering takedown of sociopathic machismo on both sides of the law.

If you'd like to read more, here's a piece I wrote on it a while back:

wearecult.rocks/fake-it-till...
Poster for 'To Live and Die in L.A.' In the background to the left, the sun casts a dying orange blaze over the landscape. In the foreground on the right, a figure stands next to a concrete pillar, gun in one hand and a suitcase in the other. Although he is wearing sunglasses, most of his body is consumed by the shadows that bleach out the warm background colours. The shady, sinister side of the image seems almost at war with the more idyllic backdrop.
November 1, 2025 at 10:41 AM
johnnyrestall.bsky.social
Next month on The Thriller Cabinet Podcast:

"It's in the trees! It's coming!"
A black and white photographic image of a woodland by night. In the centre of the image, striding towards the camera, is an enormous creature backlit by light and smoke. It's a little too far away to see clearly, but seems to have horns, possibly wings too, and definitely looks malevolent...
October 29, 2025 at 3:03 PM
johnnyrestall.bsky.social
If you'd like an even darker Holmes-Vs-Ripper tale, I highly recommend Michael Dibdin's book 'The Last Sherlock Holmes Story' too, if you can track it down...
Image shows the book cover of an old copy of 'The Last Sherlock Holmes Story.' Perhaps unsurprisingly, the cover picture shows a pipe and magnifying glass, as well as medical instruments and a dark case, all lying abandoned on a rain swept pavement.
October 26, 2025 at 10:03 AM
johnnyrestall.bsky.social
As Sherlock-Holmes-vs-Jack-The-Ripper film A STUDY IN TERROR (1965) was released 60 years ago this month, here's my piece for Rue Morgue comparing & contrasting it with Bob Clark's similarly-themed MURDER BY DECREE (1979):

rue-morgue.com/sherlock-hol...
Cartoon-style poster for 'A Study In Terror.' Sherlock Holmes is the central image in deerstalker and dark overcoat, standing with gun raised and a quizzical but determined look on his face. Around him, cartoon-strip sound-effect bubbles says things like 'Biff!' and 'Crunch!'. At the bottom left of the image is a screaming damsel in distress, hair flying and dress low cut. Illustrated poster for 'Murder by Decree.' Along the left-hand side of the poster are assorted profile sketches of the characters in the film, emerging from surrounding shadows and headed by Christopher Plummer's Sherlock Holmes. To the right, a sinister figure slashes downwards with an extremely long knife, looming over a drawing of a cobbled street showing dark figures fleeing from a pursuing handsome cab. The film's title is blood red, stamped in the style of an old-fashioned wax seal.
October 26, 2025 at 9:54 AM
johnnyrestall.bsky.social
This month on The Thriller Cabinet, writer/critic Mario Dhingsa and myself take a trip to Amity Island for a dip in the water to discuss Steven Spielberg's mighty JAWS (1975).

Join us at your peril!

Available on Spotify, Apple, and here:
thethrillercabinet.libsyn.com
Classic illustrated poster for the film Jaws. The image is inset within a black background bearing cast details etc. The picture shows a young woman swimming front crawl-style on the surface of the ocean. She cannot see the absolutely enormous shark rising up from the depths heading directly for her, mouth agape in anticipation of its dinner...In the sky above her is the film's title, in blood red.
October 11, 2025 at 8:57 AM
johnnyrestall.bsky.social
We take to the high seas on next month's episode of The Thriller Cabinet podcast. I'm sure the resident marine life will take kindly to our excursion...

Coming Soon!
An overhead view of a dramatic scene at sea. In the foreground, a soaked man is climbing up the white mast of a rapidly sinking ship, a makeshift harpoon in hand. Below him, surfacing from the foaming waters, is an enormous shark, jaws akimbo and eye staring.
September 27, 2025 at 2:09 PM
johnnyrestall.bsky.social
Join @gemseddon.bsky.social and myself as we discuss Rob Reiner's MISERY (1990) on this month's episode of The Thriller Cabinet podcast.

Bates & Caan, Stephen King, hobblings - it's all here just waiting for its Number One Fans...

Available on Spotify, Apple and here: thethrillercabinet.libsyn.com
A beautiful poster for the film MISERY (1990). At the top of the image, we can see snow-capped mountains in the evening light. Working down the page, the picture descends into deep, dark blues with the title 'Misery' in red type-writer style font. At the very bottom, enclosed in the darkness, is a house. It's wooden frame and snowy roof should look homely, but instead it's laden with menace. One downstairs window is lit, shining like a cry from the depths...
September 9, 2025 at 11:29 AM
johnnyrestall.bsky.social
I had the absolute privilege of joining @top100pod.bsky.social to discuss Carol Reed's glorious noir THE THIRD MAN (1949) this month.

It's hard to do full justice to such an immortal classic, but I gave it my best shot...

Available wherever you get your podcasts!
A graveyard in Vienna. A young woman stands in the foreground on the left in long coat and hat, her dark-gloved hands clasped, her expression one of reserved, deeply private grief. Behind her looms an awkward-looking man in a long dark coat; he seems both saddened and uncomfortable, as if he's little idea how to respond to the situation. A small tabby cat crouches next to a dark shoe, its wide and lustrous eyes full of watchful tenderness. An anxious-looking man stands before a large ferris wheel. Shot from below, the angle seems to increase his nervousness - his coat draped unevenly over his shoulders, his hat slightly askew, his hands fretting, and a look that borders on distress fighting its way across his face. A narrow brickwork tunnel, ankle-deep in water. A figure stands with his back to us, arms out as if preparing to turn and run. A bright light is coming towards him from the front, illuminating his plight in the surrounding darkness.
September 6, 2025 at 7:42 AM
johnnyrestall.bsky.social
So, did he get out of the cockadoodie car or not?

Find out next month on the next episode of The Thriller Cabinet podcast.

Coming Soon...
In the foreground is a clean-shaven middle-aged man, lying on a bed in a generically-dressed guestroom, his head propped on a blue pillow. Next to him sits a middle-aged woman with shoulder-length brown hair, reading a hardback book with a lavish romantic-fiction style cover. Her attention is wrapped up in the story, while he looks into the distance, clearly wishing he was anywhere else...
August 25, 2025 at 11:58 AM
johnnyrestall.bsky.social
Join me and @fatscoleman.bsky.social on this month's episode of The Thriller Cabinet as we examine Michael Mann's MANHUNTER (1986) - the first screen adaptation of Thomas Harris's Hannibal Lecter novels, but far more than just that...

Find it on Spotify, Apple or here:
thethrillercabinet.libsyn.com
Illustrated poster for the film Manhunter. The image is dominated by a threatening, greyish and partially masked male figure. He wears a stocking on the top half of his face, his head at a quizzical but menacing angle. His bare chest appears to bear a large red tattoo, based on William Blake's 'Great Red Dragon' pictures. He is emerging from surrounding darkness, as if approaching the viewer. In the bottom half is the film title in red along with the credits in white.
August 8, 2025 at 3:34 PM
johnnyrestall.bsky.social
I've written a piece for Fangoria celebrating 40 years of FRIGHT NIGHT (1985), particularly the character arc and glorious empathy of Roddy McDowall's Peter Vincent - a truly radical hero who seems more relevant than ever today.

www.fangoria.com/fright-night...
An illustration of a blue-tinged night scene. In the bottom half is a slightly sinister suburban house with pointed gables and surrounding trees, with a figure stood in a central yellow lit window. Towering over the house in the moonlit clouds is a huge fanged, vampiric face, teeth bared. The face is surrounded by smaller bat-like ghosts swirling around it like hair.
August 1, 2025 at 5:05 PM
johnnyrestall.bsky.social
Next month on The Thriller Cabinet podcast, we'll be trying to decide just who is hunting who...

Coming Soon!
A shot of a seated man through prison cell bars. He's young but greying, with curly hair and a beard, wearing a dark suit jacket with a green shirt and blue tie, contrasting with the bright white bars and brickwork. His expression is wary, as if he were dealing with a dormant but dangerous animal. A shot of a seated man through prison bars. He is dressed in white, which matches the bright white of the bars and brickwork in the cell. His black hair is slicked back, and he is leaning forward with an expression of casual but absolute contempt on his face, as if he were toying with something far beneath his intellectual abilities.
July 27, 2025 at 10:37 AM
johnnyrestall.bsky.social
This month on The Thriller Cabinet Podcast, I'm joined by @mrstevehunt.bsky.social to talk CAPE FEAR - comparing & contrasting J. Lee Thompson's 1962 original with Martin Scorsese's 1991 remake. Which will come out on top?

Listen via Spotify or Apple, or download here:
thethrillercabinet.libsyn.com
Poster for Cape Fear (1962). The image is an illustration. To the left, a dark-haired man hunker down in the bushes with a revolver, a watchful, serious look on his face. To the left, another man leans against the ground, topless, and staring out with hatred. The pictures are divided by a strike of lightning down the middle, which strikes a woman and teenage child at the bottom centre of the illustration. Poster for Cape Fear (1991). A dark, stormy scene of a lake at night, at the top of the image is a boat in silhouette, lightning striking around it. The rest of the picture seems to sink into the blue-black depths of the lake; at its bottom is a slightly torn polaroid of a family (man, wife and teenage daughter), but the poster is dominated by two huge eyes floating just above them, staring vengefully out at the viewer.
July 6, 2025 at 10:30 AM
johnnyrestall.bsky.social
Delighted to guest on @mrstevehunt.bsky.social's excellent Boxing Movie Podcast discussing the desolate beauty of FAT CITY (1972), starring Stacy Keach, Susan Tyrrell, Jeff Bridges and Candy Clark.

Have a listen here, or find it on Spotify etc.:
boxingmoviepodcast.alitu.com/episode/14a5...
Poster for the film Fat City. The overall colour tone of the image is a sort of baked yellow, as if it has had too much sun. On this yellow background, there is black text giving the title, an enthusiastic LA Times review quote, and cast. The main image is a black and white neon sign on wooden struts bearing the legend 'Fat City' surrounding in lights. Below it to the right are profile images of three of the film's stars, all tinted sickly yellow. Strangely, the film itself is nowhere near as yellow-looking as all this. A man and woman walk down a shabby street, clearly somewhat inebriated. The man wears a straw panama hat and red t-shirt, with an arm around the woman, who wear a yellow dress with dots. They are not old, but seem haggard and beaten; they're smiling, but something beneath their expression suggests a terrible sadness and loneliness. Two men sit at a counter in a murky dive bar, a sharp neon strip light failing to puncture the general greenish gloom. On the left is a older man - his clothes are shabby and his face dirty, his hair wayward. On the right sits a younger man - while he's dressed more smartly in casual check shirt and jacket, it's clear neither is anywhere near the top of the financial ladder. Both are looking thoughtfully at something just out of sight.
July 5, 2025 at 8:00 AM
johnnyrestall.bsky.social
Next month on The Thriller Cabinet, we'll be meeting Sam and Max. They don't get on well in 1962 or in 1991. But which version is best? Looks like they'll just have to fight it out...

Coming Soon!
Black and white still of two burly white men fighting in a lake. The one behind is shirtless and has his arm around the throat of the other, looking down at his opponent with utter contempt; the man at the front is clothed but soaked, clearly struggling to breathe. Colour still of two absolutely drenched men struggling violently in the rain at night. The one at the back has his arm around the other's throat and his other hand holding his hair, a look of pitiless hate on his face; the other wears glasses and appears on the verge of passing out.
June 23, 2025 at 4:20 PM
johnnyrestall.bsky.social
40 years ago today, R.E.M. released their third album: the strange, subdued, and endlessly rewarding 'Fables of the Reconstruction.'

Here's my article from a few years back celebrating the evasive, rich and utterly beguiling beauty of their first three albums:

wearecult.rocks/murmurations...
Cover of R.E.M.'s 'Fables of the Reconstruction' album. The overall colour tone is Autumnal brown, as if it were all made in a old wood cabin. A banner along the top read 'Fables of the' in caps, while inset solo profile shots of the four members of the band appear in each corner. The large central image is of a book on a desk - it seems burnt in the middle, with a shaft of fiery light radiating from it, and some sort of metal lock at above the charred hole. As you can probably tell, it's a really strange cover. Back cover of 'Fables of the Reconstruction' by R.E.M. (Or is it? The title is reversible, so maybe the covers are too.) The image is of a stage, possibly drawn or maybe collaged, in subdued golds, aquatic green, and brown. In the centre of the stage, hanging from a cord, is a large four-sided wooden box, each side sporting a metal plaque containing an engraved human ear; it looks as if the box is in motion, caught swinging slightly to the left of the image.
June 10, 2025 at 4:19 PM
johnnyrestall.bsky.social
This month on The Thriller Cabinet Podcast, join me and @theharvestmaid.bsky.social as we travel through time to explore the endless eerie enigmas of PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK (1975).

Available through Spotify, Apple, or from Libsyn here:
thethrillercabinet.libsyn.com
Colour poster for the film Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975). The top half is an illustration, showing a young woman with blonde hair wearing a Victorian school uniform looking quizzically over her shoulder at the viewer; behind her, three other girls, their backs to the viewer, walk off into the shadows of a rock formation. The bottom section shows six photographic profile shots of members of the film's cast, looking variously stern, troubled, or cheerful. (Perhaps the ones smiling didn't get the memo.)
June 6, 2025 at 2:13 PM
johnnyrestall.bsky.social
Next month on The Thriller Cabinet Podcast, we're taking a trip through time back to Valentine's Day in the year 1900, for a genteel school trip to the countryside.

What could possibly go wrong?

Coming Soon...
A sun-dappled woodland glade on steeply sloping ground. The view is from some distance away, so the people are small and orderly, as if in a painting. They are dressed in Victorian-era clothing, some lounging, some standing, in white dresses and parasols. The scene would be idyllic, but the off-kilter ground unsettles it, as though something were about to go wrong...
May 30, 2025 at 3:01 PM
johnnyrestall.bsky.social
New door sign, courtesy of the fantastic @hiddenbritain.bsky.social.
(Sadly, it doesn't come with a complimentary supply of vintage synths and magnetic tape.)
A long, light brown rectangular sign reading 'Radiophonic Studios A & B' in white capital letters, attached at handle height to a glossy mid-blue interior door.
May 20, 2025 at 12:04 PM
johnnyrestall.bsky.social
Join me and @jamesstoorie.bsky.social on the Thriller Cabinet Podcast as we discuss the dank, watery terrors of Henri-Georges Clouzot's classic film LES DIABOLIQUES (1955). You may never bathe again...

Available now via Spotify, Apple, or here:
thethrillercabinet.libsyn.com
This beautiful illustrated poster for Les Diaboliques features a tilted wicker trunk at the left, floating on a bed of greenish watercolours above a translucent submerged body. To the right, two dark female figures stand; the shorter is made of black and white dots, while the taller towers above here in black silhouette, throwing an enlarged, spidery hand around the smaller figure.
May 2, 2025 at 3:43 PM
johnnyrestall.bsky.social
Next month on The Thriller Cabinet Podcast, we'll be finding out that bath time can be absolute...Murder!

Coming Soon...

#podcast #horror #thrillers #filmsky
A black and white image of an old-fashioned bathroom. A blonde woman looks apprehensively past the viewer to the right as she pushes a man's fully-dressed corpse under the water of a dank-looking bathtub.
April 28, 2025 at 9:18 AM
johnnyrestall.bsky.social
Time to wish a Happy 90th Birthday to THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN!

Originally premiering in the US on this day in 1935, it remains eerie, witty, subversive and beautiful to this day. Arguably not just a wonderful sequel but one of the very finest films you could hope to see.

"Friend...?"
A black and white film still, showing a laboratory inside a castle. To the left stands a woman in white bridal robes, a look of shock on her angular features and her hair combed straight back from her face in a high bouffant, shot through with a wavy streak of white. Her hand is being grasped clumsily by the man to her right; dressed in black, the top of his head is flat and he has visible marks of surgery, plus a bolt through his neck. Who says romance is dead?
April 19, 2025 at 12:15 PM
johnnyrestall.bsky.social
Fancy some Easter listening? Try THE THRILLER CABINET podcast...

We've risen again with a new episode on SECONDS, & there's an entire 1st series of in-depth film chat with expert guests for your listening pleasure too!

Available via Spotify, Apple or here:
thethrillercabinet.libsyn.com
A black and white image of a man staring in awe on the brink of tears, his face lined around the eyes and nose with surgical markings. Behind him, a middle-aged doctor looks on, impassive. A middle-aged man in priest's clothing screams towards the sky, his face contorted in terror and his arms raised as if to try to catch something falling towards him. A dark and shadowy shot of a woman's head, her face only partially lit and her eyes afraid. The background behind her catches the light, shimmering and claustrophobic. A blonde man in shirt and cravat stands by a tree aiming a thin rifle just past the viewer, his face a picture of merciless concentration.
April 18, 2025 at 1:05 PM
johnnyrestall.bsky.social
The Thriller Cabinet Podcast returns! For our 1st episode, we dissect John Frankenheimer's astonishing SECONDS (1966). Join me and @jezconolly.bsky.social as we talk identity, body horror & wild camerawork...

Available via Spotify & Apple, or download from Libsyn here:
thethrillercabinet.libsyn.com
Poster for the film SECONDS (1966). The poster is in black and white except for the movie's title and Rock Hudson's name, which are in bold yellow. The central image is circular, with its figures distorted through a fish-eye lense; it shows a man strapped to an operating table, being wheeled down a corridor by two orderlies while a bearded man stands alongside them, reading the last rites from a book. Beneath it to the left is a smaller illustration of several figures who seem to be morphing together, while the title credits are to the right.
April 4, 2025 at 1:34 PM