Category: Movie Discussions
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The Earth Dies Screaming (1964)
October 14, 1964 What a great title! However, screenwriter Harry Spalding supposedly never liked it. In a 2003 interview with Tom Weaver, he claimed that someone said the title as a joke and “somehow it kind of stuck.” As I said, it’s a great title, but not necessarily for this movie. In fact, it’s ironic…
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Color Me Blood Red (1965)
October 13, 1965 If we judge Herschell Gordon Lewis movies based on the amount of over-the-top gore, then Color Me Blood Red is the mildest one I’ve seen. With its story of a creatively stalled painter who can’t get his colors right until he discovers blood is the perfect shade of red, you’d think it…
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The Beast of the Yellow Night (1971)
October 12, 1971 Joseph Langdon (John Ashley) is the Barnabas Collins of the Philippines. He’s reluctant as The Beast of the Yellow Night (1971), regretting the deal he made with the devil many years ago. In “small town in Southeast Asia” in 1946, the murderer, rapist, and thief who’s on the run in the hills…
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The Black Scorpion (1957)
October 11, 1957 For centuries, the prayers of Mexico’s peasants have been their only shield against the devastating furies that have wrecked their homes and destroyed their lives. And so today, again they kneel, terrified and helpless, as a new volcano is created by the mysterious and rebellious forces of nature. The Earth has split…
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Captive Women (1952)
October 10, 1952 If you can withstand dialogue that sounds like is pulled directly from famous people and the Holy Bible, Captive Women (1952) is an early (maybe even the first) attempt to depict post-apocalyptic life after all-out nuclear war. As dark as this kind of movie can be, it’s comforting to know that as…
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The Brain (1962)
October 9, 1962 For some reason, I’ve never been fond of Donovan’s Brain… or any of its versions. When I watched three of them for discussion on the podcast, I rated Donovan’s Brain (1953) average, The Lady & the Monster (1944) slightly below average, and The Brain (1962) slightly above average… so it was my…
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Scream of the Demon Lover (1970)
October 8, 1970 This discussion is updated from one first published on May 22, 2023 Dr. Ivanna Rakowsky (Erna Schurer) is an assertive woman who, in Scream of the Demon Lover (1970), regularly exercises her agency. Unfortunately, it’s at the expense of her ability to make rational decisions. Not only does she completely misinterpret what’s…
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Destiny (1921)
October 6, 1921 There are at least a dozen films named, “Destiny,” over a third of them silent. Not that you’d have any trouble finding the “right” one, but just be sure you’re getting the one from 1921, directed in Germany by Fritz Lang. None of the subsequent films are remakes of this one; it’s…
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Blood of Dracula’s Castle (1969)
October 5, 1969 As much as I struggled to complete watching Blood of Dracula’s Castle (1969) and as many problems as I found with it while doing so, it’s still a masterpiece compared to Al Adamson’s (popular-with-everyone-but-me) Dracula vs. Frankenstein (1971.) Repeated attempts to appreciate that one have failed, but with only one viewing, I…
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The Doctor & the Devils (1985)
October 4, 1985 As I popped The Doctor & the Devils (1985) into the ol’ Blu-ray machine, I wondered why in the world I owned a copy of The Doctor & the Devils on Blu-ray in the first place. It only just now dawned on me that I probably had it confused with The Flesh…
Classic Horrors Club 