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…

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…

We don’t know that Janis (Joyce Molloy) is Bobby Douglas’s (Stephen White) stepsister when she continually harasses him sexually. As if to somehow justify her actions, she states loudly and clearly that he’s not her brother. Nevertheless, it’s uncomfortable to watch and is, for better or worse, not the most uncomfortable thing we’ll see in…

Does watching a bad transfer of a trashy Eurohorror film enhance the experience rather than detract from it? Does the darkness obscure effects that aren’t so special? Do the choppy edits cause us to blame the supplier of the print for its flaws rather than the creators of the movie? I’ve argued both ways in…

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 happening around her and misdiagnose her employer, Baron Janos Dalmar (Carlos Quiney), but she also…

The first thing I noticed when watching Dracula & Son (1976) was how gorgeous it looks. Next, I noticed the lush score. Like the rest of the film, though, there were diminishing returns. By the time it ended, I could barely remember its most positive elements. It’s not that it’s bad; it’s just so… I…

Dark Places (1974) feels right at home with an Amicus Production, which it is not. It was the only film produced by a man named James Hannah Jr. from Chicago. Supposedly the cast didn’t know why he was making it, although they speculated that it was probably a tax write-off. With director Don Sharp (The…

It’s appropriate that we conclude Naschy November with a Waldemar Daninsky werewolf film, considering we started it with one 30 days ago. If we hadn’t seen so many movies in between, we might have thought Paul Naschy didn’t make much creative progress between Frankenstein’s Bloody Terror in 1968 and this one, Night of the Howling…

In The Devil’s Men (1976), Peter Cushing doesn’t look as gaunt as he does in Star Wars (1977.) It’s an odd coincidence, though, that both movies were released on the same day in the United States. Guess which one emerged as a box office champion? It sure wasn’t this one, known in the States as…

For years, I’ve vividly remembered a movie in which a car was driving down a lonely highway and the giant electrical towers along the road changed back and forth to and from demons. Maybe there was lightning when the demons were revealed, or maybe there were just flashes of light as they appeared and then…