Category: Movie Discussions
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Phantasm II (1988)
Warning! This review contains spoilers… When I think of big Hollywood studio sequels to innovative independent films, I think of Halloween II (1981.) Like it, Phantasm II (1988) delivers more of the same thing as its predecessor, just more polished and shinier. Both make valiant attempts to continue their stories, yet just miss on the…
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Antropophagus (1980)
In the lower right-hand quadrant of the cover of Famous Monsters of Filmland #180 (cover date January 1982) appeared a close-up picture of a zombie-like man with a moustache, blood coming out of his mouth, and a distant stare in his eyes. The caption read, “The Grim Reaper, You’re on His Menu!” It provided a…
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The Freakmaker (1974) aka The Mutations
Five minutes into The Freakmaker (1974), aka The Mutations, time lapse photography creates an illusion that flowers opening their petals is a burst of fireworks. The opening credits end and I was grateful that the entirety of what I’d seen thus far, nothing but time lapse photography of plants growing, was over. Nope; it’s another…
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Let Sleeping Corpses (1974) aka The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue
For all intents and purposes, this was the first time I watched The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue (1977), the name of the movie on the Synapse Films Blu-ray. (It’s been known by many others, including Let Sleeping Corpses Lie, which is what IMDb calls it.) I have history showing that I awarded it six…
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Tintorera: Killer Shark (1977)
Before watching even one second of Tintorera: Killer Shark (1977), I could have guessed that a two-hour and six-minute running time was going to be too long. Considering the “killer shark” story plays like merely a subplot, I’m also guessing that, in the wake of Jaws, it was added to a film already in production.…
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The Head (1959)
If you sucked all the humor out of The Brain That Wouldn’t Die (1962), you might be left with The Head (1959.) However, you’d then have to bloat it with almost 20 additional minutes. This leaves a deadly serious film that’s too long and not much fun. I’d take “Jan in the Pan” any day…
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Hell Night (1981)
All these years and I’d never seen Hell Night (1981.) I’m not going to say it was a revelation when I finally watched it; however, I will say I enjoyed it much more than I ever anticipated. It’s a typical Slasher, which is to say it’s imperfect, but there are enough interesting things about it…
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Night Terror (1977) aka Night Drive
Welcome to 1977. As we’ve evolved from the beginning of the decade, our TV terrors have become a little more bloated and a little less terrifying. Therefore, it’s nice to start a new year with a return to classic form: Night Terror (aka Night Drive), a tight, exciting thriller that is simple, efficient, and scary.…
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The Body Beneath (1970)
Andy Milligan was openly gay, but made a contradictory decision in 1968: he married a woman, Candy Hammond, who was in the film he was shooting at the time, Seeds of Sin (1968.) According to fangoria.com, Milligan “usually picked up his dates in dive leather bars and the seediest stretches of the Deuce” (42nd Street…
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Night Tide (1961)
Curtis Harrington (1926-2007) I was now reaching the age where the idea of sex began to go beyond the theoretical into the actual, and I must confess that I began to make a few explorations in this direction with some of my male school chums. Of course, I went to parties and school dances with…
Classic Horrors Club 