A story from Mendocino, California which may involve the very mysterious. Namely….Bigfoot! But, who knows? You decide. This is the second video episode of Halloween Video Crypt. Hope you like it!
I think “Horror In The Heights” was the best episode from the short lived “Kolchak: The Night Stalker” TV series. I have discussed Kolchak in prior posts but I watched this particular episode again recently. It was scripted by Hammer films vet, Jimmy Sangster, whose screenwriting credits included Hammer’s “Curse of Frankenstein” and “Horror of Dracula”. Very good credentials, indeed. A series of ghastly murders are occurring in a neighborhood primarily populated by the elderly. What worse is that the bodies show the signs of being partially devoured! Our fearless reporter, Kolchak, begins to sense that the killings are far [More]
The very talented actor George Segal just left us. Segal was a good dramatic actor as well as possessed of comedic timing. Segal had a long career and certainly will be missed. I include a clip from “The Terminal Man”, an adaptation of a Michael Crichton book. This was a harrowing look at science and technologies meant for good potentially having a disastrous and deadly side effect.
I just viewed this science fiction film from the 1950’s a few days ago. I admit that I was mostly entertained by this movie which eluded viewing until just recently but coincided with some articles I saw that illustrated the decline and fall of the Salton Sea recreational area located in the southern most part of the state of California, USA. Seems that this area was once a thriving vacation and resort spot before things got a little disgusting with the receding of this (basically) unnatural lake. The lake resulted as a collection of runoff of high water from the [More]
We try our hand at a video based review of the old favorite animated series, “Jonny Quest”. Join our host, Exejo Smith, and his take on “The Invisible Monster” episode.
This is a cool collection of videos which show an early Pink Floyd doing their numbers live and in the studio. The original creative spark of the band, Syd Barrett, was soon to depart. Drugs and possible mental issues led to his being replaced by David Gilmour. I love the promotional video with Syd playing acoustic guitar, “Jugband Blues”. Roger Waters and Rick Wright doubling on woodwinds for that section of the song pushes the boundaries of belief but very cool lighting is used in the video. Enjoy!!!
At one time, Phil Spector was one of the most innovative music producers in the world. He utilized an approach where he would hire a hire a group of musicians to carry out his musical ideas in the recording studio and literally create orchestras with multiple guitarists, keyboard players, percussionists, singers and what have you. The resultant thick sonic tapestry became known as The Wall of Sound. It was an influential technique that caught the ear of Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys. Wilson would pursue similar orchestrations of instruments using The Wrecking Crew, a group of accomplished players for [More]
I have mixed emotions about this twisted little horror film. I remember watching it as a kid and being terrified of many parts of it. There is a lingering memory of the mutated bullfrog chants of the human/aquatic monstrosities created from a ruptured barrel of hazardous radiation waste. The warped soundtrack music careening between creepily plodding to crazed, primitive synthesizer driven fury. Meanwhile, you’ve got a bunch of blood thirsty, shabbily costumed creatures marauding around in the dark looking for unsuspecting human victims. I think I covered my eyes more than once during this mayhem. I probably covered my ears [More]
A cadre of well off individuals are transported by plane to what turns out to be anything but an island paradise. We soon learn that these folks are a troubled lot. We are eventually introduced to each character’s particular emotional baggage and then it is revealed that each may have met with a fatal accident. Wait! We are apparently watching living, breathing people who are trying to figure out where they are stranded and why fate seems to be drawing a dark curtain over their circumstances. Are they in limbo? In fact, their dilapidated island resort becomes a purgatory from [More]
Great thriller, clocking in at a whopping 68 minutes, I think. Poor sap, Al Roberts, played by Tom Neal, is hitchhiking across the U.S. from New York to California to join his girlfriend. Along the way, he gets picked up by a “Big Spender” Haskell, in a new vehicle who agrees to take him all the way to Los Angeles. The two exchange stories during their journey but Haskell mysteriously passes out en route and never regains consciousness. Roberts panics and buries the body out in the desert and assumes the dead man’s identity and drives off with his possessions. [More]
Bob Clark’s “Black Christmas” appeared many years before the onslaught of slasher films featuring idiosyncratic, stalking killers. This killer likes to freak out future victims by calling them on the phone and issuing gibberish about his foul intentions. There are many POV impressions from the killer’s vantage point. Victims are dispatched gruesomely and left in their lifeless, idle suspension to hang or sit undiscovered in the sorority house attic where some of the killer’s work unfolds. Many of these motifs we would see again in other films. Plenty of quirky characters inhabit this world and there are a few characters [More]
Dr. Henry Jekyll has been experimenting with cocaine as a potential anesthetic drug. He over does it a bit with his experiment and his drug intake, and low and behold, manifests or converts into an evil alter ego, “Jack” Hyde, a crack pipe equipped, murderous psycho. I subtitled this entry as Hybrid Horror. Let me explain myself. The grisly murders undertaken by Hyde resemble those of the infamous Jack The Ripper. This version of Mr. Hyde dispatches his victims in a manner similar to Ye Olde Jack: destructive, savage administration of a surgical knife to parts of the victim’s anatomy. [More]
Science Fiction mind fuckage in the high mode. AI experiments run rampant in a secluded state of the art home/fortress/laboratory surrounded by some of the most grandeur examples of nature imaginable. In this fabulous environment, human and artificial intelligence interact and collide, deceiving each other along the way and providing a battleground for a survival of the fittest both mentally and physically. Not hard to imagine who comes out on top. Beautifully shot with some creepy footage of the initial AI experiments of brilliant programmer Nathan. It is his last creation, Ava, who takes on a very vibrant life of [More]
I have always enjoyed Hammer Films’ “Horror Of Dracula” starring Peter Cushing as Dr. Van Helsing, vampire authority, and Christopher Lee as the undead blood sucker, Dracula. I thought the movie was a very well done horror thriller. Lee is menacing and frightening as a very strong but cold parasitic beast bent on his own survival. Cushing is magnificent as the determined and brilliant expert on folklore and the Supernatural bent on ending the vampire’s reign of terror. With the current pandemic raging on and being newly unemployed, I found time to finally finish Bram Stoker’s novel, “Dracula”. Now, comparing [More]