I have always personally enjoyed this Boris Karloff scare fest set in the English countryside, but it may not be your cup of Earl Grey. I think it is the atmospheric locales complete with swirling fog banks and the rustic British environs plus the deeply saturated colors that most appeals to me. Boris is his sinister best in one of his latter day horror roles. I guess you could call this a cosmic horror tale as it is loosely based on H.P. Lovecraft’s “The Colour Out of Space” short tale. American Nick Adams ventures to a distant estate to visit [More]
The 1970’s had its share of weird movies that featured very bizarre characters and groups, “Lemora” (1973, also!) immediately comes to mind. This feature details a seaside community where a diabolical cult of some sort is in operation. Are these conservatively dressed people zombies, vampires, demonically possessed drones? It seems the latter. An old tale is recounted in flashback about the community where an evil preacher begins to spread his evil presence felt. The town’s weirdness continues to the present and we see a malevolent mob tracking down innocent victims and then devouring them. Very interesting visual style is applied [More]
Entertaining, creepy, filmic embellishment using Bram Stoker’s “Dracula” novel as its source material. There is a passage in Dracula which recounts the captain’s log of the sailing ship Demeter and its journey from Transylvania to London. It seems that the ship is transporting a large number of crates in its seaward passage. Count Dracula is moving to London! Unknown to the ship’s crew is that this truly uninvited, evil presence is going along for the ride. Slowly but surely, crew members start disappearing and the quest is on to discover just what in fact is going on. There are many [More]
Polyerius performing a few tunes in a studio setting – the /counter office, in particular. Very nice production to showcase Polyerius’ melodious music. Enjoy!
This is a trifle of a segment but I noticed recently while binge watching some Vincent Price scarefests that a lot of his films conclude with a purging fire breaking out and ridding the story of some of the evil situations and characters thus far encountered. Maybe it was a favored conclusion for director Roger Corman who concluded “The Fall of the House of User” (1960) and “The Haunted Palace” (1963) in such a fashion. It certainly is a flamboyant way to conclude a movie with the set catching fire and falling down into flaming pieces! Price or another actor [More]
Actor David Soul passed away at 80. Soul had a couple of notable turns in the fantastic movie genre. Soul had the lead in one of my favorite, depressing movies, “World War III” (1982). The only bleaker end to a movie can probably be found in “The Thing” (1982). Hmmm. Both released in 1982. Obviously, a very good year! I think I posted about “WW3”, years past. Look it up and catch the flick. The clip included below is from the TV mini-series of Stephen King’s “‘Salem’s Lot” (1979). Soul gives a credible performance as a writer who stumbles upon [More]
Not to start the New Year off on a bad note but I recently read an interesting article that outlines some of the difficulties we currently face in our global society and possibly safe places to go in case of catastrophe. (I guess it may not matter if you get there and don’t already have a compound set up and self-sufficient means of survival set up!) But Definitely food for thought in our currently turbulent times. When aren’t times on this planet turbulent? But read on and enjoy! The link is here: 7 Best Places to Go in the U.S. [More]
I am divided on this movie. It has a cool premise: a group of kids decides to charter a guide to take them to the restricted site of Chernobyl, Ukraine, where a nuclear reactor plant experienced a meltdown and rendered the surrounding countryside exposed to high levels of radiation. Definitely a place that the local government has made unavailable to public access because of health concerns. Well, our group gets through the blockaded area and explores the abandoned ruins of the town left behind. The guide notices that there is evidence of activity in the supposedly dead place and urges [More]
Very enjoyable, further adventure of hockey mask wearing, unstoppable serial butcher, Jason Vorhees. Jason is being studied at a government facility in the 21st century. After some murderous mayhem, he is cryogenically frozen along with one of the doctors studying him. Flash forward to the 25th century where another research team find the two iced over specimens and take them aboard their vehicle and rocket off back to their space habitat. Eventually the doctor is revived and warns that it is best to leave Jason on ice as once he is active, all proverbial Hell will break loose. Accidents happen [More]
I was intrigued with finally seeing this film as it starred Forrest Tucker, who made a few of my favorite 1950’s science fiction films namely “Abominable Snowman of the Himalayas” and “The Crawling Eye”. “Monsters” is my least favorite entry. I found it very difficult to follow the action for a couple of reasons: What I can glean from this snoozer is that scientists are conducting experiments concerning magnetism and cosmic rays and seem to have F’ed up and ripped a hole between our dimension and an unseen parallel dimension thus allowing an unwelcome invisible intruder to enter our space [More]
This is a very watchable Western that exhibits a high level of grotesque violence. I attribute the violence to the fact that this movie follows on the heels of “The Wild Bunch” which was a Western and which saw director Sam Peckinpah push the boundaries of on-screen gun play and graphically portrayed violence. “The Hunting Party” follows in the mold and shows a lot of bullet holes being made in some of the characters and there is generally sadistic bent to the character portrayed by Gene Hackman. Hackman is a cattle baron who treats his young wife like so much [More]
Director William Friedkin cemented his legacy with two filmic masterpieces, The French Connection and The Exorcist. The French Connection excites with the kinetic pacing of this violent crime drama. It doesn’t hurt that this movie also features an iconic car chase scene that was repeatedly imitated. Also, features an Academy Award winning performance by Gene Hackman as hardboiled detective Popeye Doyle. The Exorcist stills ranks, in my book, as one of the scariest movies ever made. The hackles will rise on the back of your neck as you witness a young girl being taken over by an evil presence and [More]
Enthralling portrait of slimy, degenerate gambler Howard Rattner as he attempts to pay off his prior gambling debts by engaging in one slippery scam after another. This is not your most likable character. A loud, annoying, manic schemer, Rattner, as played by normally comedic actor Adam Sandler, will fence your most valuable possessions when entrusted to his care. He is a married man with three kids yet also maintains an apartment where his girlfriend lives. Rattner owes $100K to his loan shark relative who has his Mafia pals putting pressure on Howie to pay up. Things get a little crazy [More]
Take a break from the calamitous state of the World at present and rejoice in the mellow yet haunting vibe of “Sundown” from the recently departed Gordon Lightfoot. He was a singer-songwriter who had many cool tunes. I saw him perform once in California during simpler times. Well, I was younger back then and the times certainly seemed better. Great song. Enjoy it!