The natives are getting restless… and you will too, while watching THE MAD DOCTOR OF MARKET STREET, which feels a lot longer than its 61 minute running time. The film does have a few saving graces, mainly the great Lionel Atwill as a mad scientist experimenting with bringing people back from the dead, and is an early endeavor for future film noir auteur Joseph H. Lewis . But the extremely lame script by Al Martin, whose inexplicably long career included the Lewis-directed Bela Lugosi vehicle INVISIBLE GHOST, manages to sink this shocker despite Atwill’s and Lewis’s best efforts.
Dr. Ralph Benson offers a man $1000 to let him put the man in a “catatonic state”, and revive him later. Benson has mad dreams about conquering death and disease with his untried (and definitely not FDA approved) methods. When the man doesn’t return home the next day, his wife calls the…
4 Shots From 4 Films is just what it says it is, 4 shots from 4 of our favorite films. As opposed to the reviews and recaps that we usually post, 4 Shots From 4 Films lets the visuals do the talking.
Earlier today, I reviewed Terror Train, a horror film set on a train. There’s actually be quite a few horror films set on trains. In fact, there’s been so many that’s it’s the topic of today’s 4 Shots from 4 Films!
4 Shots From 4 Train-Set Horror Films
Horror Express (1972, dir by Eugenio Martin)
Terror Train (1980, dir by Roger Spottiswoode)
The Midnight Meat Train (2008, dir by Ryuhei Kitamura)
How else do you explain the prank that begins the 1980 slasher film, Terror Train? At a party, awkward pledge Kenny (Derek MacKinnon) is told that Alana Maxwell (Jamie Lee Curtis) is waiting for him in an upstairs bedroom and she totally wants to have sex with him! Poor Kenny. Really, he should have been able to figure that this was a prank but I guess he’s just naive. Anyway, he goes upstairs, strips down to his underwear, and listens as Alana says, “Don’t be shy …. kiss me!”
Kenny thinks that Alana is waiting for him in the bed but actually, she’s hiding behind a curtain. So, what’s in the bed? Well, as Kenny soon discovers, it’s a limbless corpse! Oh, those wacky pre-med students! Under the direction of Doc (Hart Bochner), they’ve stolen a cadaver from the medical school and they’ve used it to play the joke of the century! Everyone bursts into the room, laughing.
Ha ha! Funny joke, right?
Well, not to Kenny. Kenny totally freaks out and starts spinning around and gets all wrapped up in the sheets. Needless to say, Kenny does not get laid that night.
In fact, Kenny ends up losing his mind. And that’s unfortunate but, as they say, life goes on. Three years later, the pranksters are all due to graduate so they’re going to throw a costume party on a train! The conductor (Ben Johnson) watches as these rich, costumed college kids get on his train and you can just tell that he’s thinking, “There better not be no funny business.” He need not worry! Alana is on the train and she still feels so bad over what happened to Kenny that you can be sure that there won’t be any pranks during this graduation party!
Unfortunately for everyone else, Kenny’s decided to get on the train as well. While his former classmates are smoking weed, getting drunk, dancing to the best disco music of 1980, and taunting a magician (David Copperfield), Kenny is killing people and stealing their costumes.
Kenny’s first victim actually dies before the train leaves. When he comes staggering up to everyone with a sword sticking out of him, everyone assumes that it’s just another joke. Nope! Turns out the sword is real but everyone’s too busy boarding to notice as the guy collapses to the ground and is promptly dragged underneath the train. In a scene that always makes me cringe, the train slowly crushes him as it starts to move forward. I mean, seriously …. Agck!
So, now Kenny is wandering around the train, dressed like Grouch Marx and killing people. It takes people a while to notice because we’re not exactly dealing with the smartest group of college graduates. And, once they do realize …. well, what are they going to do? They’re stuck on a train in the middle of nowhere! Even if they do get off the train, it’s snowing and below freezing outside! I mean, it’s almost as bad as Minnesota in January out there….
Of the many slasher films that Jamie Lee Curtis appeared in after Halloween, Terror Train is definitely the best. After making his directorial debut here, Roger Spottiswoode went on to become one of the busiest directors in Hollywood and you can tell why when you watch this movie. Spottiswoode’s makes great and atmospheric use of the train and Kenny’s habit of constantly changing his costume keeps you guessing just where he might be at any given time. Even more importantly, Spottiswoode takes the time to develop the characters so that they become more than just cardboard victims. Jamie Lee Curtis, Hart Bochner, Sandee Curris, and Timothy Webber all give excellent performance as the objects of Kenny’s wrath while old veteran Ben Johnson brings some gravitas to the film as the wise conductor.
(My only objection is that the worst of the pranksters is named Doc, which happens to be the name of our cat. And let me just say that Doc the cat would never pull as cruel a prank as Doc the medical student.)
As we all know, Jamie Lee Curtis will be returning to the horror genre later this month. She’ll be playing Laurie Strode in David Gordon Green’s Halloween remake or reboot or sequel or whatever it is. Famously, Curtis refused to appear in horror films for several years, saying that she didn’t want to be typecast. That was understandable on her part and, as much as I love horror movies, it was probably a smart career move. That said, the slasher films that Curtis appeared are some of the best of the genre. Halloween, Terror Train, and even Prom Night are all classics of their kind. Terror Train is a suspense masterpiece, perfect for any cold and snowy night when you want to scream a little.
On May 24th, 2019, Disney will be releasing their live action remake of Aladdin. Earlier this week, they released this brief but intriguing teaser. It leads off this week’s trailer round-up.
Shoplifters is Japan’s official submission for the Best Foreign Film Oscar. The film, about a poverty-stricken family in Japan, won the Palme D’Or at this year’s Cannes Film Festival and will be released into theaters on November 23rd.
Starring Ansel Elgort, Jonathan is a science fiction film about two minds sharing one body. Jonathan is in control during the day while Jon is in control during the night. This movie is set to be released on November 16th.
The Best of Enemies tells the true story of the unlikely friendship between civil rights activist Ann Atwater (Taraji P. Henson) and KKK leader, C.P. Ellis (Sam Rockwell). This film is set to be released on April 5th, 2019.
On a hot August morning in 1892, the brutal double murder of Andrew Borden and his second wife Abby in the New England mill town of Fall River, Massachusetts shocked the nation. Andrew’s 32-year-old spinster daughter Lizzie Borden was accused of the ghastly crimes and brought to trial. The sensational headline-producing trial lasted thirteen days, and she was acquitted by a jury of her peers. To this day, the killings remain unsolved, with speculation still running rampant among true crime buffs. Did Lizzie Borden really hack her father and stepmother to death?
For today’s horror on the lens, we have 1939’s The Hound of the Baskervilles!
Based, of course, on the novel by Arthur Conan Doyle, The House of the Baskervilles is well-remembered for being the first of many Sherlock Holmes films to star Basil Rathbone as the detective and Nigel Bruce as his loyal sidekick, Dr. Watson. Interestingly enough, Holmes is absent for a good deal of the film, leaving it up to Watson to do the majority of the investigating. That said, you can still see why Rathbone’s interpretation of the character proved to be so popular that he would go on to play Holmes in a total of 14 movies and one radio series.
Today’s music video of the day comes from Agnes Obel.
It’s an absolutely beautiful song and the video is wonderfully atmospheric. It’s not necessarily a horror video but the eerie feel of it all makes it perfect for October.
It’s no secret to anybody who’s read this site for any length of time that I consider November Garcia to be the best comics art import to come out of the Philippines since Alex Nino, and it’s equally-public knowledge that my adoration for Mexican (by way, the last few years, of Texas) DIY cartoonist extraodrinaire Ines Estrada knows no bounds, so when John Porcellino recently listed two new self-published titles from each of them for sale at his Spit And A Half distro site, you knew I was gonna be all over them in no time. Let’s have a look at ’em, shall we?
Rookie Moves is a witty and never-less-than-completely engaging mini that charts Garcia’s “rise” from the ranks of comics fan-girl to published cartoonist in her own right and showcases her at her neurotic, self-deprecating best as she rubs shoulders with the likes of Gabrielle Bell, Jon…
On tonight’s episode of Kolchak, Carl investigates a series of mysterious thefts which could very well be connected to a series of mysterious murders.
Needless to say, it’s all very mysterious.
Kolchak is often cited as having been an influence on The X-Files and you can certainly see why in this episode. While I don’t want to spoil the nature of this episode’s monster, I will say that this episode will be enjoyed by conspiracy fans everywhere.
Through the Shattered Lens 