1962’s CarnivalofSouls was the only feature film to be directed by Herk Harvey. It was made on a budget of $33,000 and was filmed in Kansas and Utah, often without permits. The film was also the feature acting debut of model Candace Hilligoss, cast here as a emotionally withdrawn church organist who is involved in a serious car accident and then finds herself haunted by pasty-faced ghosts and surreal visions.
When it was initially released, CarnivalofSouls was dismissed by American critics. Indeed, it would a little over twenty years before the film started to be appreciated as both a classic independent film and also a truly eerie horror movie. Today, it’s recognized as a classic of the genre, an expressionistic ghost story that also works as a character study of a woman who is haunted by not just physical death but also emotional malaise.
Carnival of Souls is a Halloween tradition here at the TSL offices. This year, the tradition continues.
2007’s The List opens during the dying days of the American Civil War.
A group of wealthy plantation owners form a secret society. They pool together their fortunes and they each sign onto a list. Over the years, whenever a member of the Society passes away, their eldest male descendant replaces them on the List and also has access to the fortune that that the Society secretly holds.
In 2007, directionless attorney Renny Jacobsen (Chuck Carrington) is shocked when his father dies and leaves him next to no money. As Renny tells us over and over again, he really could have used some of his father’s fortune. However, his father does leave him a key the leads to Renny uncovering a tape that explains everything that he needs to know about the Society. All Renny has to do is sign his name to the List.
The Society is now run by Desmond Larochette (Malcolm McDowell) and we know that he’s evil because his name is Desmond Larochette and he’s played by Malcolm McDowell. Larochette seems to be more than happy to allow Renny to join the Society but he’s not quite as happy that another member of the group died and only left behind a female heir, Jo Johnston (Hilarie Burton). The members of the Society are faced with quite a quandary. Should they allow a woman to join their society? And, if not, what should they do now that she know about the Society’s existence?
When Jo goes to the mansion for the Society’s meeting, she spots a portrait of a gray-haired gentleman and asks who he is. Gus Eicholtz (Pat Hingle) explains that the painting is of John C. Calhoun, who served as Vice President under Andrew Jackson. “He looks angry,” Jo says and honestly, that was a piece of historical and artistic criticism that was so simple-minded that Jo really should have been disqualified from joining the Society at that very moment.
First off, how are you going to join a Southern secret society if you don’t know how John C. Calhoun is? Secondly, the portrait in question is actually a pretty famous one. George Alexander Haley painted it while Calhoun was Secretary of State. Even if you don’t know who John C. Calhoun is, chances are that you’ve seen the painting. Finally, there’s the claim that “He looks angry.” The painting was completed in 1845. Everyone looked angry in 1840s! Even the noted bon vivant Henry Clay looked angry in his 1848 State Department portrait. (And Clay actually had his picture taken for his official portrait. Imagine how furious he would look if someone had painted him?)
Anyway, Renny joins the society but Jo does not, But then Renny discovers that it’s not as easy to get his hands on the money as he thought and he spends the entire movie complaining about it. That’s pretty much it. There is some suggestion that Desmond might have demonic powers, but it’s not really explored. Another heir dies mysteriously and it seems like Jo is being targeted as well. Again, it’s not really clear why. In the end, Renny puts God before the money but it kind of comes out of nowhere. It’s a muddled story and, by the end of the film, it’s still a struggle to figure out what it all meant. At the very least, Malcolm McDowell seemed to be having fun, playing an evil character and speaking in an almost indecipherable accent.
For today’s horror on television, we’re very happy to present to you, Dead of Night!
From 1977, this television film is a horror anthology, made up of three stories directed by Dan Curtis and written by Richard Matheson. In the first story, a youngish Ed Begley, Jr. travels through time. In the 2nd story, Patrick Macnee plays a man whose wife is apparently being menaced by a vampire. And in the third story, Joan Hackett plays a mother who brings her dead son back to life, just to discover that sometimes it’s best to just let sleeping corpses lies.
The entire anthology is good, though the third story is clearly the best and the most frightening. Not only is it scary but it’s got a great twist ending.
Hey, hey, wait just one second. Lifeforce is a movie everyone treasures. Here’s Arleigh’s take on the film. Check that out first and then double back here if you like.
Lifeforce (1985, dir by Tobe Hooper)
Tobe Hooper’s Lifeforce is one of those films that had a lot of play in my Grandmother’s house, primarily because of my younger Aunt, Puddin. Puddin was the other movie lover on my Dad’s side of the family, the youngest of his generation. While she couldn’t fully make the connections between actors or directors the way my father could, she loved films all the same. With films like Marnie, West Side Story, Conan the Barbarbian, she spent most of her free time immersed in movies. If you wanted to see her swoon, mention Sean Connery, Tyrone Power or Arnold Schwarzenegger in her presence. She had a habit of using movies she watched often as white noise when cleaning around the house. As a result, we saw Lifeforce a lot growing up. She adored the film mainly because the two heroes in it barely made any mistakes, but most importantly for Henry Mancini’s score. Besides, It’s a Cannon film. You know it’s good.
Lifeforce is the story of one of the greatest buddy pairings in of the 1980s. Yeah, Beck and Gallagher did awesome stuff in The Hidden. Riggs and Murtaugh solved the cases no matter how thin the leads were, and even with all his technology, Alex Murphy still needed Lewis for backup. These all pale in comparison to Lifeforce‘s Colonel Carlsen (Steve Railsback, Helter Skelter) and Colonel Caine (Peter Firth, The Hunt for Red October). The two characters’ laser focus and quick thinking help to keep the film moving, despite how crazy things can and do get. They also manage to have each other’s back in nearly every situation. They aren’t without troubles, however. Poor Carlsen is plagued with nightmares of making out with naked space vampires.
Halley’s Comet returns close to Earth. With it comes an incredibly large umbrella shaped ship that is discovered by the crew of the Churchill. Col. Carlsen, along with the other astronauts, find a series of sleeping humanoid bodies inside and bring 3 (two males and one female) on board. When the Churchill’s signal is lost, the Columbia is sent out to retrieve them. The crew is lost, Carlsen is missing, but the 3 alien bodies are brought back home to Earth for study. This goes about as well as one would hope, with the Space Girl (Mathilda May, Becoming Collette) waking up and causing havoc throughout the local Space Institute before walking away naked, into the night. Anyone she comes into contact with and kisses becomes an energy vampire, requiring a transfusion, else they shrivel and turn into dust.
Since we’re dealing with space vampires, I should inform you now that there’s quite a bit of nudity and maybe just a wee bit of sexual tension in Lifeforce. The lines between Rabid and Showgirls comes kind of close in all this. When Carlsen forces a possible suspect to divulge the location of the Space Girl, slapping her up a bit, he tells Caine he should leave. Caine’s response is that he’s “a natural voyeur”. Does much of it make sense? No. Was it entertaining? Sure. The third act of Lifeforce is the best part, with all of London just a mess. Despite all this, Carlsen & Caine split up to save the day.
The cast for the film is nice. In addition to Railsback and Firth, we’ve got a Dune crossover with both Freddie Jones and Patrick Stewart on hand. We also have a small cameo with Dragonslayer’s John Hallam as a nurse. The best role other than the leads go to Frank Finlay and to Mathilda May. Finley’s Doctor Fallada is kind of a Van Helsing like character, piecing together all of the clues so our heroes can take the proper action. May, though she’s not given a lot to say (or to wear, for that matter) makes for an impressive villain that talks with her eyes.
The effects for Lifeforce came by way of John Dykstra, who worked on Firefox and The Empire Strikes Back. He’d later go on to work on Invaders From Mars for Hooper. Musically, Henry Mancini’s score helps to carry the film along. Honestly, I’ve only ever known him from the Pink Panther scores, so I quite enjoyed it. I always let the end credits play through for the music. Overall, Lifeforce is a great watch if vampires are your thing and nudity isn’t too much of a problem. In my mind, The Adventures of Carlsen & Caine would rival some of the best supernatural tales.
In examining this, I also found that there are some connections between this and Hammer Films’ Five Million Years to Earth (a.k.a. Quatermass and the Pit). I’m still on the look out for that one.
In Tobe Hooper’s Lifeforce, Col. Carlsen & Col. Caine aren’t playing around.
2021’s 616 Wilford Lane is an odd film that has a twist ending that makes the entire film difficult review. The easy solution would be to just give away the ending but it’s actually a pretty good (if somewhat implausible) twist and I really don’t want to ruin it for anyone watching the movie. So, just take my word that there’s more to 616 Wilford Lane than meets the eye.
The films open Paranormal Activity-style, with grainy security footage of an apparently possessed young man killing his parents and his younger sister. The murders occur at 616 Wilford Lane, a lovely house in a wealthy town. The house sits empty for nearly a year until the real estate agent, Austyn (Jasmine Waltz), is able to sell it to Jim (John Littlefield). Jim explains that his wife just died and he’s looking for a nice house for himself and his teenage daughters, extrovert Randy (Jessica Chancellor) and intellectual Staci (Alyson Gorske). Austyn, realizing that she finally has chance to sell the murder house, doesn’t tell him about 616 Wilford Lane’s past.
No sooner have Jim, Randy, and Staci moved in then strange things start happening. Staci sleepwalks. Randy thinks that she sees someone looking through her window. There are strange sounds throughout the house. Staci starts to give lingering looks to the rifle that Jim owns but swears he has never fired. Jim seems as if he’s too busy sleeping with Austyn to notice what’s happening in his house. Meanwhile, the town’s mayor (Eric Roberts) warns Jim not to call the police every time something strange happens….
There are a few odd things about this film’s plot and specifically the way that some of the characters behave and talk to each other. When I was watching the movie, my first assumption was that it was just a case of an inconsistent script. However, the twist ending reveals that the film know exactly what it was doing. All of those strange moments — especially where Jim was concerned — suddenly made sense during the film’s final 10 minutes. Moments that I originally dismissed as just being a case of poor writing actually turned out to be clues as to what was going on in the house. 616 Wilford Lane is not a flawless film but it’s one that still turned out to be considerably more clever than I was expecting it to be.
Plus, the film feature Eric Roberts! And, for once, Roberts actually gets to play a real character. As the Mayor, Roberts is all smiles until he starts to suspect that Jim might bring some bad publicity to his town. Roberts gives a good performance here. Also giving good performances were Jessica Chancellor and Alyson Gorske, both of whom brought their characters to life in a way that made the twist ending all the more interesting. Randy had red hair, spent a lot of time talking about her boobs, and flirted with almost every guy she met so, for once, I felt represented in a movie.
I recommend 616 Wilford Lane. Make sure you stick around for the twist at the end.
Previous Eric Roberts Films That We Have Reviewed:
I became obsessed with the actor Rutger Hauer in the summer of 1990. I was about to go into my senior year of high school, and I was attending the Arkansas Governor’s School. I had seen Hauer before in films like THE HITCHER and WANTED: DEAD OR ALIVE, but as part of our curriculum, we all watched BLADE RUNNER and then broke up into smaller groups to analyze the film. Blown away by the film, Hauer’s powerful performance, and the opportunity to engage in a serious conversation about a movie with my peers, it was a rewarding experience, and I soon found myself seeking out every Hauer film I could find. I followed the charismatic Dutch actor’s career closely from that point forward, all the way up to his death in July of 2019. I was actually sitting on a beach in Florida when I read that he had passed away. Based on my extreme interest in every project that Hauer was associated with, I specifically remember when BONE DADDY premiered on HBO in 1998. I didn’t have HBO so I had to wait for a few months to catch it when it arrived on home video.
In BONE DADDY (1998), Rutger Hauer stars as Dr. Bill Palmer, a retired Chicago medical examiner turned bestselling author. Years earlier, Palmer investigated a series of brutal unsolved murders committed by a serial killer known as “Bone Daddy.” Retiring in frustration from not being able to solve the murders, Palmer pens the novel, “Bone Daddy,” a fictionalized account of the crimes where, unlike real life, the killer is caught and brought to justice. The book’s runaway success catapults Palmer to fame, but it also seems to pull the notorious Bone Daddy out of retirement. When his literary agent, the cocky, Rocky Carlson, is kidnapped and subjected to the killer’s signature torture, the surgical removal of bones from a living body, Palmer finds himself back on the case and teamed up with the no-nonsense police detective Sharon Wells (Barbara Williams). As the bones and the suspects pile up, Palmer is determined to make sure the killer is found and brought to justice this time around!
BONE DADDY is a pretty darn good entertainment option if you’re in the mood for an undemanding serial killer flick that’s in and out of your life in 90 minutes. It’s certainly not in the same league as SE7EN, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be enjoyed for what it is. The premise is pretty twisted, and the scenes where the killer is preparing to remove the bones of fully coherent victims is horrifying to say the least! There isn’t a lot of gore, but what’s there is pretty gross. This is B-movie territory and the lack of Hollywood gloss works in its favor. The film’s plot also has quite a bit of family drama between Dr. Palmer and his adult son Peter (Joseph Kell), who’s following in his dad’s professional footsteps in the medical field. It seems Dr. Palmer wasn’t the greatest dad and the current state of their relationship figures strongly throughout various portions of the film. This element of the story is actually handled quite well and adds some interesting tension as we move towards the end.
At the end of the day, the best thing about BONE DADDY is the presence of Rutger Hauer in the lead. He brings gravitas to the role of Dr. Palmer, a man who has had his share of successes and failures in the world. It’s his failures that continue to haunt him throughout this story and seems to put everyone around him in danger. Hauer, known for his ability to go over the top at times, plays the role completely straight with the quiet intensity and determination of a man trying to make up for past wrongs. It’s another solid performance in the career of the then-53 year old actor. I also want to give a special shout out to his nice, bushy mustache. I enjoyed it very much! The other primary performance of the film comes from Canadian actress Barbara Williams as the lead cop. In contrast to how much I enjoy Hauer, I’m just not much of a fan of Williams. She seems to be in a perpetual state of being offended in every role I’ve seen her in. She played Charles Bronson’s daughter in the FAMILY OF COPS series and her character was always on the ready to jump down someone’s throat for just about anything they said. It’s kind of the same here. I should probably try to look for some more of her work just to see if she ever smiles.
Overall, I think BONE DADDY is worth a watch, especially for fans of Rutger Hauer or movies about serial killers. The plot is predictable, and so is the identity of the killer if you’re paying attention, but you could definitely do a lot worse!
This film was produced as a direct result of the box office success of I Was A Teenage Werewolf. Just as in Teenage Werewolf, Whit Bissell plays a mad scientist who makes the mistake of trying to play God. (He also makes the mistake of keeping an alligator in his lab but that’s another story.) The end result …. Teenage Frankenstein!
The makeup on the Teenage Frankenstein is probably the best thing about this film. If nothing else, this film features a monster who actually looks like he was stitched together in a lab.
On July 3rd, 1954, Marilyn Sheppard was murdered in her bedroom.
The wife of a prominent neurosurgeon, Marilyn Sheppard was bludgeoned to death in her own bedroom. Her husband, Sam Sheppard, claimed that he had fallen asleep on a downstairs couch and was woken up by the sound of his wife screaming. Sheppard said that, when he ran upstairs to the bedroom, he saw a bushy-haired man in the shadows. The man hit Sheppard, knocking him out. When Sheppard came to, he saw the man fleeing the house and chased after him. The two fought outside and again, Sheppard was knocked out.
The police did not believe Sam Sheppard’s story and, after days of headlines that flat out accused him of being the murderer, he was arrested and charged with murdering his pregnant wife. The press had a field day with the story and the trial was frequently described as being a circus. Sheppard’s case was damaged by the revelation that he had cheated on his wife multiple times. Contemporary accounts of the trial portrayed Sheppard as being cocky and arrogant. As the jury was not sequestered, they saw every tabloid headline about Sheppard. After deliberating for four days, the jury found Dr. Sam Sheppard guilty of murdering his wife. He was sentenced to prison.
Sheppard would stay in prison until 1966. During that time, his mother committed suicide, his father died of an ulcer, and his former father-in-law also chose to end his own life. Sheppard’s original attorney died in 1961 and his appeals were taken over by a young lawyer named F. Lee Bailey. In 1966, Bailey argued before the U.S. Supreme Court that Sheppard was denied due process due to the jury not being sequestered. The Supreme Court agreed and granted Sheppard a new trial. This time, with the flamboyant Bailey defending him, Sheppard did not testify and the defense focused on the lack of any real evidence that would suggest Sheppard had lied about the Bushy-haired Man. Sheppard was acquitted.
Today, if Sam Sheppard is remembered, it’s for inspiring The Fugitive, a show about a doctor wrongly accused of murder. (The show aired while Sheppard was still in prison.) The majority of online posts and articles that I’ve read about Sam Sheppard have always focused on the retrial and usually end with Sheppard leaving prison. It’s rare that Sheppard’s life after prison is discussed, That’s probably because it’s a very sad story.
Sheppard may have been acquitted but he had also just spent 12 years in prison and he came out a changed man. Sheppard tried to return to practicing medicine but his surgical skills had deteriorated to the extent that two of his patient died after he nicked an artery. Facing multiple wrong death suits, he resigned from the only hospital that had been willing to give him a job. He became a professional wrestler and was known as “Killer” Sam Sheppard at some of his matches. He was also an alcoholic. Less than four years after getting out of prison, he was dead at the age of 46.
1998’s My Father’s Shadow: The Sam Sheppard Story features Peter Strauss as Dr. Sheppard and Henry Czerny as his namesake son. The film alternates between flashbacks to Dr. Sheppard’s life and scenes set in the 90s that focus on his son’s attempts to definitively clear his father’s name. The film suggests that the murder was actually committed by Richard Eberling (John Colicos), who worked as a handyman and a window washer at the Sheppard home and who, when he was arrested for burglary several years after the murder, was discovered to have some of Marilyn Sheppard’s jewelry in his possession. In the 80s, Eberling was convicted of murdering another one of his clients. Eberling himself died in prison, the same year that this movie aired.
It’s a big story and My Father’s Shadow tries to do a lot in just 90 minutes. Sometimes, it tries to do too much. The flashbacks are occasionally a bit difficult to keep track of. Sam Sheppard’s son goes from being a military school brat to a long-haired hippy so suddenly that, from a narrative point of view, it’s a bit distracting. Overall, though, this is an effective look at an interesting story and it features two excellent performances from Strauss and Czerny. It may not be the definitive telling of Sam Sheppard’s story but it’s a good place to start.
“It’s not just the darkness out there… it’s the darkness in here.” — Sheriff Daniel Carter
Steven Kostanski and Jeremy Gillespie’s The Void is a grisly, atmospheric plunge into Lovecraftian cosmic horror and John Carpenter-inspired body horror, set within a nearly abandoned rural hospital shrouded in eerie blue light and creeping shadows. The film expertly conjures anxiety and dread, as fragile boundaries between dimensions begin to dissolve, threatening to swallow all inside.
At the heart of the story is Deputy Sheriff Daniel Carter (Aaron Poole), whose weighty grief and fractured relationships drive his reluctant heroism. He stumbles upon a bloodied man and brings him to the hospital staffed by his estranged wife, Allison Fraser (Kathleen Munroe), a focused nurse haunted by their broken family. Dr. Richard Powell (Kenneth Welsh) looms as the villainous architect of the unfolding nightmare, his obsession with conquering death fueled by personal tragedy, twisting him into a leader of occult horrors.
The supporting characters—Vincent and Simon, survivors hardened by trauma; Maggie, a pregnant woman caught in the web of cosmic corruption; and Kim, a vulnerable young intern—saturate the siege narrative with survival-driven urgency. Though less developed than the leads, they embody the raw desperation and existential threat pervading the hospital.
The Void wears its influences on its sleeve, drawing heavily from the siege tension of John Carpenter’s Assault on Precinct 13 alongside the paranoia and isolation of The Thing. These classic Carpenter motifs—claustrophobic settings, unrelenting external threat, and mistrust among survivors—penetrate the film’s fabric, amplified by a synthesizer-driven score nodding to Carpenter’s sonic signature. The nightmarish body horror, occult elements, and grotesque practical effects owe much to Stuart Gordon’s work adapting Lovecraft’s stories, blending visceral horror with cosmic dread.
Yet, while the homage is clear and affectionate, the film sometimes falters by blending these iconic elements into a decoction that resists full cohesion. Instead of synthesizing the inspirations into an innovative whole, it assembles a patchwork—rich in style and atmosphere but struggling to commit to a coherent, fresh narrative. The mixture of Carpenter’s claustrophobic siege, Gordon’s visceral mythos, and the cultist horror trope occasionally feels like pastiche rather than a confident new voice.
The technical craftsmanship shines throughout. Practical effects—from mutated creatures to grotesque body transformations—are lovingly crafted and tactile, restoring a physicality often lost in digital horror. The cinematography and lighting accentuate the oppressive mood, favoring muted colors punctuated by blood-red and luminous blues, thinking as much about shadows as solid objects.
However, the film’s narrative and character work often leave something to be desired. While Carter’s arc of guilt and reluctant heroism is thematically resonant, key emotional beats suffer from underdevelopment, with his relationships, particularly with Allison, only superficially explored. Dialogue oscillates between exposition-heavy and clipped, hindering audience connection with the cast amid the unrelenting terror. The supporting characters serve primarily functional roles, their deeper motivations and backstories sacrificed for the sake of grim spectacle and escalating horror.
The climax descends into surreal, fragmented sequences that evoke fever dreams more than narrative resolution. This abstract finale, while visually striking, challenges viewers seeking clarity and can be polarizing: some will appreciate the cosmic horror tradition of unsolvable mysteries, while others may experience frustration with the loose plotting and ambiguity. Pacing reflects these shifts—building steadily in the opening act before devolving into frenetic, disjointed bursts that occasionally undermine tension.
Despite these narrative and pacing flaws, The Void remains a memorable experience for lovers of practical effects and cosmic horror texture. It’s a film rich with unsettling imagery and mood, capturing a form of existential terror that goes beyond cheap scares. The filmmakers’ love for classic horror runs deep, even if the resulting fusion occasionally feels like homage without full reinvention.
Ultimately, The Void is a dark, unsettling trip into the unknowable—a sonic and visual descent into a hellish siege where logic unravels and time shatters. It’s a film that prizes atmosphere and physical monstrosity over smooth storytelling, inviting viewers to surrender to dread rather than demand explanation. For fans of Carpenter’s minimalist tension, Gordon’s visceral adaptations, and the tactile nightmares of 80s horror, The Void offers a rewarding, though imperfect, journey into the cosmic abyss—an evocative invocation of terror where humanity is both survivor and prey.
No title card; so, I used this as the title card. *sigh* This AI short gave me a little jump. It did have some suspense; so, I won’t feed the creator to the sharks. Sorry Sharks.
Woman alone brushing her teeth, but there is a malevolent force in there with her. The bathroom is by definition private and you’re almost always vulnerable. The film has some suspense and payoff. It is worth watching.
Through the Shattered Lens 