From 1968’s Rosemary’s Baby.
“He has his father’s eyes.”
Category Archives: Film
Halloween Havoc!: HOUSE OF HORRORS (Universal 1946)
Rondo Hatton (1894-1946) was dubbed by “The Ugliest Man in Hollywood” by Universal for his repulsive visage. Originally a Tampa-based sportswriter, Hatton began developing the disease acromegaly as a young adult, a form of gigantism which distorts the facial features and bone structure (wrestler Andre the Giant suffered from this). Rondo moved to Hollywood and got work as a film extra and some bit parts (he can be spotted in SAFE IN HELL , IN OLD CHICAGO, THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME (’39 version), and THE OX BOW INCIDENT, among others).
1944’s “The Pearl of Death”
Hatton played “The Hoxton Creeper” in the 1944 Sherlock Holmes entry THE PEARL OF DEATH (with Universal Scream Queen Evelyn Ankers as a villainess, for a change), then proceeded to scare the daylights out of audiences in JUNGLE CAPTIVE and THE SPIDER WOMAN STRIKES BACK. While not a trained actor, his unique looks made…
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4 Shots From 4 Peter Cushing Films: Corruption, Scream and Scream Again, Asylum, Shock Waves
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.
Today, we pay tribute to one of the greatest British film stars with….
4 Shots From 4 Peter Cushing Films
Corruption (1968, dir by Robert Hartford-Davis)
Scream and Scream Again (1970, dir by Gordon Hessler)
Asylum (1972, dir by Roy Ward Baker)
Shock Waves (1977, dir by Ken Wiederhorn)
Weekly Trailer Round-Up: Bohemian Rhapsody, Vox Lux, Bird Box
The upcoming Freddy Mercury biopic, Bohemian Rhapsody, did not have an easy path to completion. After spending an eternity in Development Hell as the producers tried to find an actor who could bring Mercury to life, the movie finally went into production with Bryan Singer directing. After Singer was fired, Dexter Fletcher was brought in to complete the film. Early reviews have not been positive but everyone seems to agree that Rami Malek nails the lead role. Bohemian Rhapsody will be released on November 2nd and its final trailer leads off this week’s trailer round-up.
If Bohemian Rhapsody has not sated your appetite for films about flamboyant pop stars, Vox Lux, which stars Natalie Portman, will be released on December 7th.
In Bird Box, a family has to survive in a post-apocalyptic world. The twist is that they have to do it without being able to see anything. Bird Box will be released on December 21st.
Finally, a new trailer for How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World has been released and it promises a trip to a world that will blow your mind and excite your imagination. How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World will be unleashed on February 22nd.
Halloween (On The Big Screen) Havoc!: THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI & YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN Double Feature
Yesterday I took a break from watching every single moment of the World Series (since Friday’s game went seven freakin’ hours!) to attend a Halloween-themed double feature at the Zeiterion Theater here in New Bedford, MA. Despite the fact that a pounding rainstorm was in full effect, I was determined to get my big screen horror fix – in fact, the rain only added to the monstrous mood of the day. I met my friend Rob at the theater, and proceeded to enter the beautifully refurbished 1920’s era movie palace. First on the agenda was a real classic – Robert Weine’s 1920 Expressionistic silent film THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI!
Conrad Veidt & Werner Krauss in “Cabinet of Dr. Caligari”
CALIAGRI is a landmark of the horror genre and the German Expressionist style that influenced the visual styles of both early Universal Horrors and the film noir movement of the…
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Horror on the Lens: How To Make A Monster (dir by Herbert L. Strock)
You’ve seen I Was A Teenage Werewolf….
You’ve watched I Was A Teenage Frankenstein….
Now, it’s time to watch How To Make A Monster!
Released in 1958, How To Make A Monster is a clever little horror satire from American International Pictures in which the stars of Teenage Werewolf and Teenage Frankenstein are hypnotized into believing that they actually are the monsters that they played! The main culprit is a movie makeup artist (Robert H. Harris) who has been deemed obsolete by the new bosses at AIP.
Be sure to watch for the finale, which features cameo appearances from several other AIP monsters! And read my full review of the film by clicking here!
Vampire Party: An American Vampire Story (1997, directed by Luis Esteban)
When his parents leave to spend the summer in Europe, Frankie (Trevor Lissauer) has the entire mansion to himself. Frankie wants to spend the time getting closer to his girlfriend, Dee Dee (Daisy Torme), but his best friend Bogie (Danny Hitt) says that it’s time to “party hearty!” (That’s right. Someone in a film made after 1991 says that it’s time to party hearty.) Bogie thinks that the best way to party would be to invite Moondoggie (Johnny Venocur) and his gang (which includes Carmen Elecrta) to hang out at the house. But then it turns out that Moondoggie is a vampire and once he’s invited in, he refuses to leave! Even worse, Dee Dee dumps Frankie for Moondoggie! Luckily, there is one man on the beach who can help Frankie out of his predicament. They call him the Big Kahuna, he wears a Hawaiian shirt and he’s played by Adam West.
This is really, really dumb but at least it’s got Adam West saying lines like, “Stop that sucking!” and “Holy wipe out!” The movie is supposed to be a throwback to the old Frankie and Annette beach party movies from the 60s, just with vampires. (Moondoggie’s real named is Count Erich Von Zipper.) What the movie didn’t take into account is that there was already a perfectly good Beach Party movie with vampires and it was called The Lost Boys. Don’t be fooled by that PG-13 rating or the way that Carmen Electra is posing on the poster. An American Vampire Story is a tame and bloodless vampire story. The cast is game but most of the jokes fail to land like they should and ultimately, only Adam West keeps the anemic tale alive.
Horror Scenes That I Love: Susie Meets Helena in Dario Argento’s Suspiria
In this horror scene that I love, from Dario Argento’s Suspiria, Susie Bannion (Jessica Harper) finally meets the Mother of Sighs, Helena Markos (Lela Svasta).
To make clear, this scene is from the original Suspiria. This isn’t from the remake or the rehash or the reboot or whatever it’s supposed to be that Film Twitter is currently going crazy over. Don’t get me wrong. I haven’t seen the new Suspiria yet so it could be brilliant. It could be the best film ever made, for all I know. But regardless, Dario Argento’s Suspiria will always be the only true Suspiria for me.
Halloween Havoc!: HOUSE OF DRACULA (Universal 1945)
Since I’ve already reviewed HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN back in 2015, we now turn our attention to HOUSE OF DRACULA, the last “official” entry in the series (though the Universal Monsters would ‘Meet Abbott & Costello’ three years later). The film tries to put a new slant on things, using science to conquer the supernatural, but winds up being just a hodgepodge of familiar horror tropes without much cohesion. HOUSE OF DRACUA does have its fans, but I’m not one of them.
John Carradine returns as Count Dracula, introducing himself as Baron Latos to Dr. Edlemann (Onslow Stevens ) and seeking a cure for his vampirism. Edlemann discovers a “peculiar parasite” in Dracula’s blood, and believes he can cure him through a series of transfusions. But the Count, that sneaky devil, has his fangs set for Edlemann’s pretty nurse Militza (Martha O’Driscoll), whom he hypnotizes with those hypnotic eyes of his…
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Horror On The Lens: I Was A Teenage Frankenstein (dir by Herbert L. Strock)
From 1957, it’s I Was A Teenage Frankenstein!
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 lap 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.
Enjoy and please be sure to read my review of this film at Horror Critic!
