CREATURE OF DESTRUCTION (1967)

Another terrible low budget affair from Larry Buchanen. Awful and uninspired in every way. To be honest I could only make it through 35 minutes.

You are better than I...15 minutes was all I could take. I'm sure was a great person and his family/friends loved him, but the majority of his films are very hard going, especially THE EYE CREATURES and CURSE OF THE SWAMP CREATURES.

'Attack Of The Fifty Foot Woman' (1958)
-Allison Hayes

Phantoms Review: The best of the worst. A crap classic from start to finish. Terrible acting, story and FX.
Absolutely perfect for a bad movie night
.

Dracula:Prince Of Darkness (1966)

THE HORROR OF PARTY BEACH (1964). My brother Scott and I saw this in June 1971 and we thought it was the best film we had ever seen. Bikinis, blood, surf music and monsters. A year later, we caught it again and were more convinced of its greatness...heck, a year or so later, we ordered the fumetti magazine from FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND!.
Cut to early 1989 when I'm the father of a one year old and Scott had just gotten out of the army. We came over to visit with a Blockbuster Rental of this and after gathering refreshments, we put the tape in. And within 10 minutes, we were literally on the floor laughing at how awful this is.
Watched it again yesterday and it is a stink bomb, pure and simple, but it has a goofy clueless charm to it that kind of makes me like it, although the stereotypical maid is embarassing to watch.
Think I will look for CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON (1954)... **

Introduced a friend to Godzilla via Ghidrah the Three Headed Monster and Godzilla's Revenge this weekend.

Did your friend like the movies?

THE RAVEN (1935). One of my repeated viewings. Even if Boris Karloff gets top billing, this is Bela Lugosi's film all the way and he shines as Dr. Vollin, the looney tunes sadist with a cool sense of humor. Only beef is I would liked to have some of the supporting actors get stuck in Bela's torture devices. One of my favorite turns by him...he looks handsome and why Irene Ware would prefer Lester Matthews over him is a mystery::confused::. ****

Like the Corman-Poe versions of those times, this is an Arkoff-Lovecraft adaptation. Loosely based on his short story The Color Out of Space, it has enough atmosphere and gothic setting to keep you unnerved for the length of the film, with a few genuinely jumpy scares as well.

The problem comes with the climax and the reveal, which feels forced and lacking substance. Also, the merge of gothic horror and sci-fi realism is a bit tough to swallow. This could have benefitted immensely from an angle from The Haunted Palace, with a few Lovecraftian beasties thrown into the mix. Running time is a bit short as well. The film might have added 15-20 more minutes and the above-said angle could have made it a notable masterpiece from the 60s.

Decent fare. The grand old man of horror, Boris Karloff, makes the film watchable with his towering presence.


* * *

I've seen and loved The Living Dead Girl and Zombie Lake so I highly recommend them. I really want to see Le Viol du Vampire though so will check it soon thanks for reminding me about it. ::smile::

THE LEECH WOMAN (1960). A middleaged lush discovers the secret of youth and beauty, but a high price must be paid. Cheesy, but Collen Grey really nails it and this could almost be seen as an early Womans Lib picture. ***1/2

Taste The Blood Of Dracula (1970)

Hands-down my favorite Hammer and Christopher Lee movie!!!

Hammer films are my favorite's..I am watching Dracula has risen from the grave right now,Thats another awesome hammer movie::EEK!::

'DRACULA HAS RISEN FROM THE GRAVE'(1968)
-Christopher Lee

Plot:
When his castle is blessed, Dracula seeks his revenge against the Monsignor who performed the rites by attattempting to make the holy man's young neice his bride.

Phantoms Review: First off, this is hands down my favorite title of a Dracula movie, second, it has Christopher Lee, my favorite Dracula and while it's not the best Dracula movie it still is a terrific film.
Good acting, direction, sets, costumes and atmosphere. All the hallmarks of the Hammer Films series.

Horror of Dracula (1958)

' The Horror Of It All ' (1964)
-Pat Boone (yes, THAT Pat Boone)

Plot: American encyclopedia salesman working in England pays a surprise vist to his fiancee, who lives with her relatives in an eerie countryside estate, after he arrives the relatives start getting killed off one by one.

Phantoms Review: Despite having the great Terence Fisher as it's director, this film is a complete waste of time and talent. It's supposed to be a horror/comedy but it fails on both counts. The jokes fall flat and their is absolutely no amount of horror or suspense. A terrible retread of ' The Old Dark House'.

HOUSE OF HORRORS (1945). Really good Universal that is pretty funny in parts, although not sure if it was intentional or not. Down on his luck sculptor (the great Martin Kosleck) joins forces with spine snapping serial killer "The Creeper" (Rondo Hatton) to exact payback to heartless art critics. Personally, wouldn't mind my own "Creeper" for some bozos I've had to deal with::stick out tongue::::wink:: ****

Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman 1943

3/10 Stars


Larry Talbot was in a tomb, and some grave robbers tried to snatch his jewelry on a full moon, and the wolfman kills and gets out. Talbot is found on the side of the road, and a doctor (Mannering) tries to help him. The wolfman keeps going out and killing. Now Larry knows he can't die, but will keep killing if he doesn't get dead.

He goes to Europe and finds the old gypsy woman Maleva. She tells him they will go to Dr Frankenstein's castle to help Larry. The wolfman falls down a hole and finds the Frankenstein monster frozen in ice, and releases him. Dr F is dead. So Larry meets his daughter, Elsa, and asks for Dr F's notes. Elsa refuses. Dr. Mannering follows the trail of dead bodies and finds Larry sitting with Elsa.

And then the best part of the film, and rousing gypsy sounding town folk singing song called "Faro-la Faro-Li". It's quiet good.

Well, Larry, Elsa, Maleva & Dr Mannering all go and meet the monster, and they find the Dr F's notes. Dr Mannering reads it and decides he can flip some electrical switches and suck the negative mojo out of Larry and the monster. As the Tesla coils are howling, Dr Mannering decides it's a better idea to give the monster it's full power. No, really, they actually did that.

The monster gets full power, Larry turns into the wolfman, they scuffle for a couple mins. The monster has an easy time throwing wolfy around. Well, the townsfolk decide to blowup the damn, and it destroys the castle. The End. Just four mins over one hour long.

Sets were cool, as usual. I think the above plot speaks for itself. No character depth at all. Apparently it was a bit of a struggle to get the two creatures together, and then you get a couple mins of scuffling.

3/10 Stars

Wasted opportunity. The story could have featured a new robust Dr Frankenstein as a main character. Skip the Britain & Dr Mannering thing altogether. Maleva adopts Larry, they find Dr F. Larry and the Dr could talk life and death, and try to kill Larry. Dr F's daughter Gretchen and Larry fall in love. She begs for a cure, not death. Maleva says they can transfer the wolfism to the monster. Monster is revived, wolf and monster battle once, monster ripped to shreds. Patch up monster as they try to transfer, things don't go as planned, another battle, everything goes up in flames.

NIGHT OF THE BLOODY APES (1968). Tasteless Mexi-movie of a doctor transplanting a gorilla's heart into his ailing son (believe it's real open heart surgery footage) which of course transform him into an ugly muscular rampaging beast. Lots of nudity and masked female wrestling.
Like a big bowl of fudge...really no damn good for you, but too much fun to pass up. **1/2

I LOVE this movie. The little bit of eye gouging is glorious. And then there are the masked wrestlers...

^I like that film but it is a shame the Female Wrestler didn't get to fight the bloody ape. Did you know that the film was a remake of one of the director's Father's films - Doctor of Doom.

I've heard that...have DOCTOR OF DOOM/WRESTLING WOMEN VS THE AZTEC MUMMY twopack and could see a lot of similar...everything. Except for the "good" stuff.
Also, agree with you 100% that it would have made sense for the monster to get in and throw down with the Luchadora instead of GHOST OF FRANKENSTEIN territory with him and the little girl on the roof.

PSYCHO (1960). While this has lost a lot of luster due to overfamiliarity, rip offs and the frankly bland Vera Miles/John Gavin combo, this still is an all time classic and can only imagine the impact this had in 1960 (My Mom talked about how it just terrified her).
Still marvelous performances by Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh and Martin Balsam, great camera work, incredible Bernard Herrmann score and of course, three of the most frightening scenes ever.
Saw this the first time when I had just turned 11 and BIG impact, to be sure. It seemed the old Universals weren't as scary as I had remembered and many a night with the bathroom door locked >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
POSSIBLE SPOILER ALERT))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))) ))))))))))))))>

and peeking out from the shower curtain...just in case! *****

Always a pleasure.

Love it!

Hammer's keeping me company these days.

I watched The Haunting for the first time a few days ago, and I loved it.

THE UNDYING MONSTER 1942

Simple but entertaining tale of the "cursed" Hammond family whose male family members have been murdered by a mysterious beast or committed suicide upon seeing it.

Probably the best haunted house movie ever.

I agree.

A big fan of the similar Legend of Hell House too.

Would it be safe to say that Richard Matheson took a lot from Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House?

Ooh, just a little off.
 

I was going to suggest "The Other", the creepy film based on my favorite horror novel of all time (by Thomas Tryon). But it looks like that came out in 1972 (the book was 1971). Hardly anyone has ever seen it (or read it), but they're both worth checking out (particularly the book). :)

Creature From the Black Lagoon

It's possible!


I wouldn't say hardly anyone. It's not as well known as some others, but it's had home video releases.

I've both read the book and seen the film.

The Plague of the Zombies

Was buzzing Netflix and realized " I don't think I've ever seen the original "Invasion of the Body Snatchers"

So I watched it.

Very good but I think the original ending would have been much more effective.

Agree with you, but I guess that the studio felt Whit Bissell had to make the call and save the day.
IOTBS is a classic...great film.

I watched it back in school for a Philosophy in film class. Read some interesting writing about it. My favorite bit was suggesting the bleeding palms were suggestive of bleeding vaginas. Wow.

Tarantula (1955)

http://s27.postimg.org/u1wsbkrpv/Tarantula55a.jpg

Getting inspired to make a Giant Spider Movie montage!!::cool::

>>: B+

I would love that.