Elvira's Movie Macabre (DVD)

Several features from Elvira's 70s and 80s TV movie of the week series, Movie Macabre, are busting out on DVD on September 25, 2007. They are:

• Maneater of Hydra / The House That Screamed —

Maneater of Hydra: A group of tourists spends a weekend on a lush island occupied by a demented botanist. Little do they know that carnivorous plants are the welcoming committee! The House That Screamed: Students keep disappearing from a French boarding school for troubled girls. Are they running away or are they being kidnapped?

REVIEW: The House That Screamed

Also known as "The Boarding School" and "The Finishing School" and "La Residencia", this creepy 1969 Spanish lesson in fear directed by Narciso Ibáñez Serrador (who later got noticed for his follow-up horror picture, Who Can Kill A Child?, in 1975) is a most pleasant surprise. When it comes to Elvira's fave movies, one usually expects unwatchable schlock along the lines of the truly odious Blue Sunshine; but The House That Screamed is a classic in its subgenre (scary schools for girls… think: The Beguiled (1971), Phenomena (1985), The Woods (2006)).

Nicely presented in widescreen and with subtitles, The House That Screamed follows the uneasy journey of teenaged, motherless Theresa (a sweet Cristina Galbó), shortly after her father dumps her in a dark, shadowy,and isolated school for wayward young women. There, she encounters a herd of horny pubescents, stern headmistress Madame Fourneau (an imposing Lilli Palmer), and a creepy killer whose touchy-feely technique is so Argento'esque, you'd think the master of Italian suspense himself had helmed this honey.

Exploring themes of jealously, lust, longing, incest, death, lies and deception, The House That Screamed does not have much in the way of blood and gore — but it's taut, atmospheric, gripping and quite abrupt and shocking its few moments of true horror.

• Blue Sunshine / Monstroid 

Blue Sunshine: After a batch of LSD turns his friend into a psychotic killer, Jerry (Zalman King) must find the dealer responsible, before he’s wrongfully convicted of the murders. Monstroid: A small village is attacked by a creature from a nearby lake, and a corrupt chemical company sends a specialist to destroy the beast and cover up its own responsibility.

• Gamera, Super Monsters / They Came from Beyond Space —

Gamera, Super Monster: The evil alien Zanon is back, and Gamera and the Space women are the world’s only hope against total enslavement. They Came From Beyond Space: A meteor shower infects towns people with the Crimson Plague. Can Dr. Temple rid the Earth of its unwelcome visitors?

In all of the DVDs, you have the option of playing the movies with or without Elvira's interaction. (Since she is the hostess with the mostest, how could you not want to play her?) There are no additional release materials, but the movies are captioned for the hearing-impaired. Running about $10 each at discount, these DVDs are well worth the price for fans of obscure, low-budget horror.

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