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Showing posts from 2017

Mr. Sardonicus (1961) - William Castle

Mr. Sardonicus is a curious little story from William Castle that involves an impressive tale propelled by an enticing cast. Oskar Homolka  was engaging in a truly weird way as the man servant Krull. He tortures a young woman by hoisting her up by her thumbs and then putting leeches on her feet and face. He is cold and merciless. Definitely a strong secondary villain. But, Guy Rolfe as Mr. Sardonicus is frightful as fuck. He is a great villain. Sardonicus appears to be haunted by ghouls and discusses his displeasure with them in long discussions. His demeanor is intimidating and gloomy. He uses this emotionless mask that makes him even more frightening.  Baron Sardonicus brings the world's leading surgeon to his home to fix his freakish appearance. Sir Robert Cargrave has been brought in to the estate for this purpose. If he doesn’t do the surgery, then Sardonicus will make his wife's face appear like his own. Oh, Cargrave has been making night eyes with our evil h

Tower of Terror (1997) - D. J. MacHale

The Tower of Terror was an episode of The Wonderful World of Disney , which appeared in 1997 on ABC Network. It’s a fun movie that makes a creative connection to a ride in the Disneyland California Adventure theme park of the same name. Tower of Terror truly has the Disney look and feel. It fits right in line with a movie like Hocus Pocus or Haunted Mansion . In fact, do yourself a favor and set-up a little marathon. Those movies aren't great but it’s a fun way to pass a late October afternoon. Tower of Terror follows Buzzy, a single dad (Steve Guttenberg) taking care of his daughter Anna (Kirsten Dunst) in Hollywood, California. Buzzy is a tabloid reporter that desperately wants to start writing legitimate material again. Abigail Gregory had tapped Buzzy to investigate the Hollywood Tower Hotel. An infamous haunted hotel that had been gained popularity for some righteous parties. However, the disappearance of five people in 1939 on Halloween is what it is known for. T

The Pit (1981) - Lew Lehman

 The Pit (AKA. Teddy) is a dreadful horror film. The usual tropes exist. The list is loaded. But this poor horror movie has something all the other poor horror flicks don't have. Sammy Snyders. Snyders plays the annoying lead antagonist. Who am I to complain? This role is what brought the film to cult status. The other elements lack but Snyders' work is what remains the most notable. That's not a good thing. The picture looks interesting enough. But, doesn't take long for the picture to derail. It's just so damn curious. The box art is pleasant and weird. It's not the best art but at least it was created by hand. I hadn't heard of the movie before discovering it online. I can't think of seeing this movie on the racks at the video store. And seems to be pretty forgotten. I believe that makes it pretty rare.  The plot revolves around a kid going through puberty in the worst way. I am not one to mince words. He acts like a strange little creep.

The Mist (2007) - Frank Darabont

 With the modern IT coming out soon followed by The Dark Tower, it seemed to be a good time to look at the King adaptations. Like this revisit of Frank Darabont’s The Mist . I had reviewed this back in 2011 and decided to give it one more day in court. I am glad to go back and view The Mist . This time I had taken the advice of Rocket Film School and saw the movie in black and white. It was so much better. This picture is the closest thing we have to a Lovecraftian feature film. In the horror society it is well known that  Sir Stephen King holds H.P. Lovecraft in high regard. He has been loving up to that man for his entire career. I had always felt Cthulhu would have been genius on the big screen. In my wildest dreams I can picture Kubrick showing us a great Lovecraft story. Now I understand Ron Howard is working on something. Let's hope it is better than this... The Mist is a movie about a small town that gets terrorized by alternate dimension monsters that hid

Death Ship (1980) - Alvin Rakoff

Death Ship is striking. The exterior resembles any other small-budget horror movie released in the late-seventies or early eighties. It's muddy and coarse. But Death Ship is surely worth trying out. It has tension and terror. Plus, stages of certain fright. If that's not sufficient. Consider seeing a possessed George Kennedy starring in a movie set on a runaway Nazi ghost ship. An ocean liner is bearing out on a retirement voyage for its captain. The ship is run into by an unknown dark vessel and draws on water. This causes it to sink. A lot of the voyagers and crew are drown and are killed. But both captains and their families live along with the band leader. They are ultimately "rescued" by that same dark vessel that sank them. A solitary German World War II Nazi torture ship that desires to execute them one by one. To make things worse, the retiring captain becomes possessed by Nazi ghosts and cooperates in the deaths. It's insane. The movie doesn

Laid to Rest (2009) - Robert Hall

Laid to Rest is a low quality but high effort horror movie written and directed by Robert Hall. I say high effort because Director Hall had the drive and wanted to create something. The parts that succeed remind me of  Hatchet but the rest suffers from the Director's inability and a low-budget.  This movie features a slasher named Chromeskull. A serial killer that wears a chrome-skull mask and specializes in brutalizing his victims. Of course he does it in the goriest ways possible. Chromeskull is in pursuit of Princess, a young woman with amnesia that woke up in a morgue. Princess (Bobbi Sue Luther) is joined by Steven (Sean Whalen) and Tucker (Kevin Gage). They serve as her protectors that aid her escape from the clutches of this malicious masked stranger whose motives are a mystery chased through the entire picture. Chromeskull is awesome. His style is the coolest-looking thing in the movie. His mask reminds me of Marilyn Manson's album cover for Golden