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When I was probably six years old (we lived at 3205 W. Maine at the time and moved to 2001 Seneca in 1969), I overheard my babysitter telling my parents a story when she arrived. I don’t remember if I thought it had actually happened or if it was a book she read or a…
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With Picture Mommy Dead, Mr. B.I.G. (Bert I. Gordon) takes on a different kind of giant: William Castle. In fact, were in not filmed in color, and were Castle not on the decline with I Saw What You Did (1965) and Let’s Kill Uncle (1996), you might think Picture Mommy Dead was a thriller made…
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I survived Hillbillys in a Haunted House and it wasn’t as difficult as I expected it to be. That’s not saying it’s good, but the few minutes of actual story floating among 1960s country music performances are no worse than any other B-movie of the era featuring a man in a gorilla costume. And edit…
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Director William Castle emerges from the fog at the beginning of Mr. Sardonicus (1961) to warn us we’re about to see a story of “gallantry, graciousness, and ghouls.” He returns near the end of the film to ask us to vote whether the villain deserves “mercy or no mercy.” This Castle film is not a…
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Unusual and old-fashioned at the dawn of a new age of horror, Ghost Story (1981) nevertheless has its chilling moments, and I’m not just talking about the fact that most of it takes place during a snowy New England winter. Documentary and TV director John Irvin delivers the jump scares but favors nudity over gore.…
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Each time I watch The Evil Dead (1981), I increase my rating. One more time and I may be giving it a perfect ten. (Do these go up to eleven?) In between viewings, I forget how raw and exciting it is, its effectiveness amplified by Sam Raimi’s kinetic filmmaking. As the camera moves low across…
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For a film that runs barely over an hour but spends almost half that time setting up the story, The Walking Dead (1936) is a tight little thriller. Director Michael Curtiz (Casablanca, The Adventures of Robin Hood, Mildred Pierce) expertly weaves seemingly disparate plots together to tell an elaborate, yet simple, story. What does a…
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Watching Family Plot (1976) again, it felt more than ever like I was watching an old-fashioned Hollywood movie made at least a decade earlier. This is primarily due to the use of Poor Man’s Process for filming the car scenes, of which there are several. However, the pace and scope of the film evokes a…
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The origin of Death Takes a Holiday as a stage play are apparent in the 1934 film version. It’s talky, but the words don’t just consume time that could be used for action. They’re contemplative and meaningful. I probably didn’t catch the significance of them all, but at only 79 minutes, I’d gladly watch the…
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Soon after its release in March of 1981, I wrote about The Funhouse for my movie review column in The Quill, the Enid High School newspaper. After rewatching the film for the first time in over (gulp) 40 years, I located my original review and remembered that I didn’t like it much then. Some things…
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Classic Horrors Club 