For some reason, I’ve been anticipating a decline in quality of the Gamera films, but it doesn’t arrive with Gamera vs. Zigra (1971.) I may like it slightly less than its predecessor; however, that’s a personal preference. In general, it maintains the level that I’ve come to expect, and I have yet to be disappointed.…

When I watched Gamera vs. Guiron (1969) 11 months ago and paused my exploration of the Arrow Video box set, Gamera: The Complete Collection, I would have thought we were at the peak of the series. I remember rating it highly and commenting that the crazier the movies got, the more entertaining they were. Imagine…

Thanks to Rod Barnett and his podcast, The Bloody Pit, I finally took a plunge into the gory guts of Flesh for Frankenstein (1973.) Both it and its companion film, Blood for Dracula (1974), have always hidden deep in my watch list, mostly due to fear of what I might find. If I found them.…

You don’t know me at all if you thought I wouldn’t turn right around and watch Blood for Dracula (1974) after Flesh for Frankenstein. While the two are similar, and I like them for the same reasons, this one feels more like a revelation because I didn’t first listen to Rod and Mark talk about…

What do I know? My persistent thought about The Comeback (1978) was that, for a supposedly popular pop singer, the character of Nick Cooper, as played by Jack Jones, didn’t seem like a very dynamic musical performer. I learned only afterwards that Jones’s primary career was as a Grammy Award-winning singer. Then again, I’m the…

Hoping to enjoy Grizzly (1976) more than I ever have, which hasn’t been much, I recently loaded the Blu-ray into the machine and leaned back in my recliner to watch it. For a little more than half the film, I had two thoughts. First, it was better than I remembered. Second, it’s not as much…

Now comes Paul Naschy’s take on The Exorcist. He claimed the screenplay for Exorcismo (1975) was written before The Exorcist was released in 1973; however, some similarities between the two are so strong that it’s hard to deny the influence. If we don’t hold Naschy responsible, then it must be Profilmes, the production company desperately…

Devil’s Possessed (1974) is Naschy November’s first historical drama, although it’s light on historical fact. As the first of this style of film, it isn’t perfect, but instead hints at better things to come. Another collaboration with director Leon Klimovsky, I’m not saying it’s bad. I’m simply saying I’ve seen subsequent movies and they’re better.…

A Dragonfly for Each Corpse (1975) gives us a Paul Naschy we haven’t seen before. He plays Inspector Paolo Scaporella, a tough, cigar chewing detective seeking redemption for a botched case by leading the investigation into a new one, the “Dragonfly Killer.” His character defies stereotype by being a faithful husband and staying on the…