Category: Movie Discussions

  • CTH24: 15 Killings (2020)

    CTH24: 15 Killings (2020)

    With the exceptional quality of horror movies independent filmmakers are churning out these days, it must be tough going for creators in other genres. I imagine it’s harder to get good actors that can deliver the material while making it seem… genuine. Also, counterintuitively, it must be more difficult for simple settings to look and…

  • CTH24: Fourteen Hours (1951)

    CTH24: Fourteen Hours (1951)

    If you thought Riot in Cell Block 11 (1954) had the stars, wait until you see Fourteen Hours (1951.) You might have to look a little harder, though. Sure, the headliners are easy to spot, but try to find these uncredited actors among the chaos of a New York street scene as “thousands” of people…

  • CTH24: 13 Ghosts (1960)

    CTH24: 13 Ghosts (1960)

    13 Ghosts (1960) starts strong. For the first half, maybe two-thirds, it holds its own with William Castle’s two previous films, House on Haunted Hill and The Tingler, both released a year earlier. I was enjoying it greatly, but then I grew weary.  This was about the time young Buck Zorba (Charles Herbert) goes down…

  • CTH24: 12 Monkeys (1995)

    CTH24: 12 Monkeys (1995)

    Time travel movies sometimes raise the question if the person who claims to have travelled is instead suffering some type of mental breakdown. In these cases, we, the audience, usually know the truth. In 12 Monkeys (1995), though, I was not convinced that James Cole (Bruce Willis) wasn’t in the middle of his own delusion.…

  • CTH24: Riot in Cell Block 11 (1954)

    CTH24: Riot in Cell Block 11 (1954)

    Hear me out! If you wonder why we’re discussing a crime drama with virtually no thrills or chills, let me share the plethora of behind-the-scenes tidbits that tantalized me to make Riot in Cell Block 11 (1954) horror-adjacent. First, it was directed by Don Siegel and we had just released an episode of The Classic…

  • CTH24: 10 Rillington Place (1971)

    CTH24: 10 Rillington Place (1971)

    10 Rillington Place (1971) is another film I never watched because of the VHS cover box. I couldn’t tell what it was, really… it seemed like more of a a drama or a stuffy British film with people of whom, at the time, I’d never heard. I was interested only in movies that were clearly…

  • CTH24: The Ninth Configuration (1980)

    CTH24: The Ninth Configuration (1980)

    Don’t let the fact that William Peter Blatty (“The Exorcist”) wrote, produced, and directed The Ninth Configuration (1980) lead you to believe it’s a horror film. And don’t let the fact that he considered it to be the true sequel to The Exorcist (1973) lead you to believe it’s full of thrills and chills. No,…

  • CTH24: Eight Legged Freaks (2002)

    CTH24: Eight Legged Freaks (2002)

    The first movie to use computer-generated imagery (CGI) was Vertigo (1958.) Granted, it was used only in the opening credits, but I had no idea it went back that far. This is especially since the first movie I remember watching DVD bonus features to learn about CGI was The Mummy (1999.) I know, that’s skipping…

  • CTH24: Seven Deaths in the Cat’s Eyes (1973)

    CTH24: Seven Deaths in the Cat’s Eyes (1973)

    As the camera floats around the bedroom, we hear moaning and see a generous splatter of blood against the wall; then a bloody straight razor and clothing on the floor. We then cut to a trunk tumbling down the dark stairs to the cellar. When it hits the bottom, a body falls out. A plump…

  • CTH24: 6 Hours to Live (1932)

    CTH24: 6 Hours to Live (1932)

    Captain Paul Onslow (Warner Baxter) has only 6 Hours to Live (1932) and it’s not because he’s ingested poison (he hasn’t) or that he’s the target of an assassination attempt (he is.) It’s because he’s been brought back to life and there’s a flaw in Professor Otto Bauer’s (George F. Marion) process. Oooh… sci-fi with…