Category: Movie Discussions
-
Doomwatch (1972)
Doomwatch (1972) is not the movie I thought I would be watching. The title has appeared in my research so many times over the years, that I did a blind-buy of the Blu-ray a while back. IMDb describes it as a “Horror, Mystery.” If anything, it’s science-fiction, but it’s barely even that. It’s more like…
-
The Beast in the Cellar (1971)
There’s a fun bonus feature on the Severin Films Blu-ray of The Beast in the Cellar (1971.) It provides a high level look at the genre output of Tigon Films, the distant third of the trio of British production companies in the 1960s and 1970s, behind Hammer Films and Amicus Productions. However, it spends most…
-
The Blood on Satan’s Claw (1971)
Few movies capture a sense of authenticity with their setting as does The Blood on Satan’s Claw (1971.) Of course, we don’t know what it was really like living in the 18th century, but after watching this film, I’d swear this was it… a gloomy countryside where the sun never shines, stone buildings that look…
-
Twilight Zone: the Movie (1983)
During the summer of 1983, I had the best time of my life. I was home from college following my sophomore year and had reconnected with a group of high school friends who were a year behind me. We loved movies and pop culture, so stood in line to see Return of the Jedi, made…
-
The Mad Bomber (1973)
After emerging from a string of movies in the mid-1950s to late 1960s that earned him the nickname, “Mr. BIG,” Bert I. Gordon branched out a little with the comedy, How to Succeed with Sex (1970), and the crime thriller, The Mad Bomber (1973.) When I read the synopsis for the recent Severin Films blu-ray…
-
Terror in the Aisles (1984)
When it was released in 1984, Terror in the Aisles was ravaged by the critics. Gene Siskel wrote: Scary movie scenes work best when they’re set up by some expository foreplay, which is why this compilation of horrors doesn’t really work. Vincent Canby wrote: Because Terror in the Aisles is composed entirely of climaxes, it…
-
The Dead One (1961)
Future recipient of the British Distinguished Flying Cross award, Barry Mahon returned from WWII a war hero and became Errol Flynn’s personal pilot. This led him to a producing gig, including Crossed Swords (1954), starring Flynn and Gina Lollobrigida. Soon, though, he widened his horizons by producing and directing over 70 drive-in movies in the…
-
Night of the Walking Dead (1975)
In Night of the Walking Dead (1975), director Leon Klimovsky borrows one of the techniques he used in The Werewolf vs. the Vampire Woman (1971), but for only one scene. It’s a type of slow-motion effect that doesn’t look like slow-motion, but like vampires eerily moving in their own unique way. Night of the Walking…
-
Cross of the Devil (1975)
John Gilling directed what, on some days, is my favorite Hammer film: The Plague of the Zombies (1966.) Nearly a decade later, he directed his final film in Spain: Cross of the Devil, or The Devil’s Cross,aka La cruz del diablo (1975.) The subject matter of Cross of the Devil is also zombies, but different…
-
Cake of Blood (1971)
Of the four segments in Cake of Blood (1971) aka Pastel de Sangre, my favorite is the second, ‘Victor Frankenstein’. As the title indicates, the character is a familiar one, but this Frankenstein (Angel Carmona Ristol) isn’t your ordinary monster-maker, and El monstrou (Eusebio Poncela) is even more unique. First of all, this isn’t a…
Classic Horrors Club 