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Don’t let the fact that William Peter Blatty (“The Exorcist”) wrote, produced, and directed The Ninth Configuration (1980) lead you to believe it’s a horror film. And don’t let the fact that he considered it to be the true sequel to The Exorcist (1973) lead you to believe it’s full of thrills and chills. No,…
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The first movie to use computer-generated imagery (CGI) was Vertigo (1958.) Granted, it was used only in the opening credits, but I had no idea it went back that far. This is especially since the first movie I remember watching DVD bonus features to learn about CGI was The Mummy (1999.) I know, that’s skipping…
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As the camera floats around the bedroom, we hear moaning and see a generous splatter of blood against the wall; then a bloody straight razor and clothing on the floor. We then cut to a trunk tumbling down the dark stairs to the cellar. When it hits the bottom, a body falls out. A plump…
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Captain Paul Onslow (Warner Baxter) has only 6 Hours to Live (1932) and it’s not because he’s ingested poison (he hasn’t) or that he’s the target of an assassination attempt (he is.) It’s because he’s been brought back to life and there’s a flaw in Professor Otto Bauer’s (George F. Marion) process. Oooh… sci-fi with…
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Thank goodness for Wikipedia! Had the entry for Five Dolls for an August Moon (1970) not included a lengthy synopsis of the plot, I would have been unclear about the goings on. It’s not that it’s incoherent in any way, but there are a lot of characters that get killed one by one, for no…
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Two things struck me during my first-time watch of Four Flies on Grey Velvet (1971.) First was how stylish it is. That may sound silly since it was directed by Dario Argento (Suspiria, 1977), but I don’t mean “stylish” as in gloriously bloody set pieces, but as in the camerawork itself. The fact that it’s…
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Prior to his untimely death in a helicopter crash at the age of 30, writer-producer-director-composer William Girdler had a promising film trajectory. Four years after his inauspicious beginnings with two drive-in quickies in 1972 (Asylum of Satan, Three on a Meathook), he made the most successful independent feature of 1976, Grizzly. Sprinkled among his nine…
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If Two on a Guillotine (1965) seems familiar, like one of William Castle’s early 1960s thrillers, please note it was directed by a different William… William Conrad. Conrad is perhaps best known from over 100 episodes each of Cannon (1971-76) and Jake & the Fatman (1987-1992), but in 1961, he was producing and directing films…
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Insurance salesman Albert L. Tuttle (Jack Haley) crashes the reading of a millionaire Cyrus J. Rutherford’s will because he’s had an appointment with him for a month and is not aware that he died. Conniving family members confuse him for the private detective hired to watch the body, and antics ensue. Why do they need…
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Curse of the Crimson Altar (or The Crimson Cult in the United States) is not usually recognized as a “good” movie. Watching it, there were times I’d call it, “bad.” However, I read that Christopher Lee, who plays the owner of an old dark house, regarded it as one of the worst films in his…
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Classic Horrors Club 