Category: Movie Discussions
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Yokai Monsters: Along with Ghosts (1969)
The third “Yokai Monsters” movie, Along with Ghosts (1969) is the strangest, not because of its content, but because of its lack of content. It has a decent story: When her grandfather is killed by the equivalent of gangsters, a little girl named Miyo ventures toward the city to find her father. However, there are…
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The Great Yokai War (1968) aka Spook Warfare
If this is the kid-friendly Yokai movie I was expecting, then I must have it confused with something else. Even more than 100 Monsters (1968), The Great Yokai War (1968) has truly terrifying moments with pre-1970s melted Crayola blood and Yokai that curse like drunken sailors. It’s only when the “good” monsters appear to battle…
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Yokai Monsters: 100 Monsters (1968)
Before I watched Yokai Monsters: 100 Monsters (1968), I had no idea what a “Yokai monster” was. After watching a handful of experts discuss it for 40 minutes on the Arrow Video Blu-ray special feature, Hiding in Plan Sight: A Brief History of Yokai, I learned that the term can mean many things. I’m not…
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Wacko (1985)
Since this is the last entry into our 1980’s horror-comedy/spoof series, it’s a good time to summarize them in a way that I’ve been considering for a few weeks now. The 80’s horror spoofs can be compared to the humor magazines of the era. For example, you have Mad Magazine, the cream of the crop. In…
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Transylvania 6-5000 (1985)
For the first few minutes of Transylvania 6-5000 (1985), I had real hopes that memory wasn’t served and it was going to be better than my preconceived notions. Those were a precious few minutes that soon became a long, agonizing hour and a half that I had to split over the course of two evenings.…
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Hysterical (1982)
Does anyone remember the Hudson Brothers? Bill, Brett, and Mark Hudson were discovered by a record producer in Portland and offered a contract. They released several singles in the late 1960s under the names The New Yorkers, Everyday Hudson, and Hudson. I know them from The Hudson Brothers Show, a summer replacement for The Sonny…
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Class Reunion (1982)
Welcome back to another month of “April Fools!” After unintentionally launching a month-long theme last year at this time, I’ve located four more horror spoofs that came in the wake of the Slasher phenomenon of the 1980s. Student Bodies (1981) set the high bar, but we’ll see if any of the films this month come…
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Sexton Blake & the Hooded Terror (1938)
If you’re keeping track at home, you might expect today’s review to be The Ticket of Leave Man (1937.) I’m sorry to disappoint, but it’s virtually the same film as It’s Never Too Late to Mend (1937), and while I could barely stand watching the two so closely together, I certainly can’t fathom thinking of…
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It’s Never Too Late To Mend (1937)
A title card before It’s Never Too Late to Mend (1937) reads, “Controlled and Presented by The Rev. Brian Hession, M.A., copyright Dawn Trust.” My puzzlement was reinforced when I learned that Hession, who was at the time a vicar, had created Dawn Trust Films to bring religious themes to mainstream cinema. So this was…
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The Crimes of Stephen Hawke (1936)
The fact that key roles in both movies are played by Tod Slaughter, Eric Portman, and D.J. Williams caused me to automatically compare The Crimes of Stephen Hawke (1936) with the trio’s earlier film, Maria Marten, or the Murder in the Red Barn (1935.) That further caused me to compare Slaughter’s two performances. My conclusions…
Classic Horrors Club 