Category Archives: Horror

4 Shots From 4 Horror Films: Special Stuart Gordon Edition

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

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 is all about letting the visuals do the talking.

This October, I am going to be using our 4 Shots From 4 Films feature to pay tribute to some of my favorite horror directors, in alphabetical order!  That’s right, we’re going from Argento to Zombie in one month!

Today’s director: Stuart Gordon!

4 Shots From 4 Stuart Gordon Films

Re-animator (1985, dir by Stuart Gordon, DP: Marc Ahlberg)

From Beyond (1981, dir by Stuart Gordon, DP: Marc Ahlberg)

The Pit and the Pendulum (1990, dir by Stuart Gordon, DP: Adolfo Bartoli)

Castle Freak (1995, dir by Stuart Gordon, DP: Mario Vulpiani)

Horror Film Review: The Pit and the Pendulum (dir by Stuart Gordon)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

AGCK!

That was my reaction when I watched the 1991 film, The Pit and the Pendulum.  Based very narrowly on several Edgar Allan Poe short stories, The Pit and the Pendulum takes place at the height of the Spanish inquisition.  Despite the objections of the Pope, Grand Inquisitor Torquemada (Lance Henriksen) is leading a reign of terror though 15th Century Spain.  In his torture chambers, Torquemada forces confessions from accused witches and other criminals.  The dirty prison cells are full of starving and beaten partners.  Witches are burned at the stake and explode while the crazed citizenry calls for blood and Torquemada tests out new torture devices.

Torquemada presents himself as being a grim and emotionless man, someone who is above all sin and who is allowed to sit in judgment of the people who are brought before him.  However, Torquemada is hardly the sinless figure that he portrays himself as being.  His actions are fueled by his repressed lust and his anger.  Maria (Rona De Ricci) has been brought before him, accused of being a witch and Torquemada is determined to get her to confess.  Maria’s refusal to be broken by Torquemada only increases Toquemada’s anger but, at the same time, Torquemada has also decided that he’s in love with Maria.  While Maria waits in the prison and takes advice from the witch Esmerelda (Frances Bay), Maria’s husband, Antonio (Jonathan Fuller), attempts to break Maria out of prison.  When Antonio is captured, Torquemada decides to try out his latest device, a swinging and sharpened pendulum that hangs in a pit….

The Pit and the Pendulum is not always an easy movie to watch.  I have to admit that I spent the majority of the movie with my hands over my eyes, not wanting to watch the extremely graphic torture scenes.  Like many of director Stuart Gordon’s film, The Pit and the Pendulum is gripped by an atmosphere of pervasive corruption and the movie captures the feeling of not being able to escape from the worst place on Earth.  Poor Maria spends a good deal of the movie naked and chained to various devices but Rona De Ricci gives such a strong and such a committed performance as Maria that, instead of being offended by the obvious exploitation element of the scenes, you instead find yourself admiring Maria and her strength.

It’s probably not a coincidence that Oliver Reed shows up in the film as a Cardinal because The Pit and the Pendulum, with its portrayal of blood frenzy and hypocrisy, is definitely influenced by Ken Russell’s The Devils.  The imagery is graphic and often disturbing but the most memorable thing about the film is Lance Henriksen’s intense performance as the evil Torquemada.  Henriksen plays Torquemada as being a hateful and self-loathing figure, a man who deals with his own demons by bringing his fury down on the innocent.  It’s a truly frightening villainous performance, one that carries shades of Vincent Price’s excellent performance in The Witchfinder General.

The Pit and the Pendulum is not an easy film to watch and I doubt I’ll watch it a second time.  In the end, it’s a disturbing film but one that definitely leaves an impression.

Horror Film Review: Monstrosity (dir by Joseph V. Mascelli)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Awwwwww, kitty!

Seriously, the best thing about the 1964 film, Monstrosity, is that it features a black cat named Xerxes.  Xerxes is not only a cute little kitty (and, seriously, who doesn’t love a black cat?) but Xerxes is also the best actor to be found in the entire film.  While everyone else is struggling to deliver their lines and not wander out of the shot, the cat delivers its meows with the skill of a pro and always hits the right mark.  If there was an Oscar category for best animal actor, Xerxes definitely would have been the one accepting the Oscar from the Breakfast at Tiffany’s cat.  Seriously, I hope Xerxes was paid well for this role.  I hope it opened up a lot of doors for Xerxes.  When animal actors get together, I hope that they take a few minutes to raise a toast and to praise a true trailblazer and a wonder performer, Xerxes the Cat!

Unfortunately, the rest of the film doesn’t really live up to Xerxes’s work.  Xerxes was obviously doing the best that a cat could do to save this film but there is only so much that a cat can do.  At some point, the humans have to step up and make a little bit of effort as well.

Monstrosity, which is also known as The Atomic Bomb, tells the story of Mrs. Hettie March (Marjorie Eaton), a thoroughly unpleasant but very wealthy woman who lives in an isolated mansion.  Working in her basement is Dr. Otto Frank (Frank Gerstle), a mad scientist whose work in the field of brain transplantation has led to a lot of strange things happening at the house.  For instance, there’s a guy who has the brain of a bulldog.  There’s also a woman who wanders around the laboratory with a blank look on her face.  Still, Mrs. March is convinced that Dr. Frank will eventually be able to take her brain and transplant it into a younger and more attractive woman.

An ad is put in the classifieds, asking for a young woman to come work as a housekeeper at Mrs. March’s mansion.  Three women show up for the job, not realizing that they are actually being set up as candidates to become Mrs. March’s new body.  Nina Rhodes (Erika Peters) is from Austria and is the most level-headed.  Bea Mullins (Judy Bamber) is from the United Kingdom and speaks with such a thick accent that the viewer will automatically know that she’s not actually British.  Anita Gonzalez (Lisa Lang) is from Mexico and rarely speaks.  The women arrive at the mansion and soon find themselves at the mercy of the rich old woman, the mad doctor, and all of the failed experiments.

Monstrosity is pretty dumb and remarkably poorly acted, with Lisa Lang’s performance as Anita being the main offender.  (Bradford Dillman, who would go on to become a very busy character actor, provided the film’s narration.)  That said, Xerxes was a true star.  All hail Xerxes!

Live Tweet Alert: Join #FridayNightFlix For The Wedding Singer!

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

 

As some of our regular readers undoubtedly know, I am involved in a few weekly live tweets on Twitter and Mastodon.  I host #FridayNightFlix every Friday, I co-host #ScarySocial on Saturday, and I am one of the five hosts of #MondayActionMovie!  Every week, we get together.  We watch a movie.  We tweet our way through it.

Tonight, at 10 pm et, #FridayNightFlix has got 1998’s The Wedding Singer, starring Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore!

If you want to join us this Friday, just hop onto twitter, start the movie at 10 pm et, and use the #FridayNightFlix hashtag!  It’s a friendly group and welcoming of newcomers so don’t be shy.

The Wedding Singer is available on Prime!  See you there!

Horror on the Lens: Dementia 13 (dir by Francis Ford Coppola)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

(I originally shared this film back in 2011, 2019, and 2022 — can you believe we’ve been doing this for that long? — but the YouTube upload keeps getting taken down!  So, I’m resharing it today!)

For today’s excursion into the world of public domain horror, I offer up the film debut of Francis Ford Coppola.  Before Coppola directed the Godfather and Apocalypse Now, he directed a low-budget, black-and-white thriller that was called Dementia 13.  In a possible sign of things to come, producer Roger Corman and Coppola ended up disagreeing on the film’s final cut and Corman reportedly brought in director Jack Hill to film and, in some cases, re-film additional scenes.

Regardless of whether the credit should go to Coppola, Corman, or Hill, Dementia 13 is a brutally effective little film that is full of moody photography and which clearly served as an influence on the slasher films that would follow it in the future.  Speaking of influence, Dementia 13 itself is obviously influenced by the Italian giallo films that, in 1963, were just now starting to make their way into the drive-ins and grindhouses of America.

Speaking of giallo films, keep an eye out for Patrick Magee, who gave a memorable performance in Lucio Fulci’s The Black Cat.  Luana Anders, who plays the duplicitous wife in this film, showed up in just about every other exploitation film made in the 60s and yes, the scene where she’s swimming freaks me out to no end.  Other films featuring Luana Anders include Night Tide and Easy Rider, in which she played one of the hippies who unsuccessfully enticed Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper to stay at the commune.

As for Francis Ford Coppola, his career has had its up and downs but he’s a beloved figured on the pop cultural landscape and a director whose best films continue to inspire and influence.  He is currently filming Megalopolis.

Music Video of the Day: Shadows Follow by Metallica (2023, directed by Tristan Zammit)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

In today’s music video of the day, Metallica proves themselves to be the band that is so powerful that they can bring out a solar eclipse, just by rocking out.

Animator Tristan Zammit is also credited with doing videos for Tory Lanez and XXXTentacion.

Enjoy!

Horror on TV: The Hitchhiker 5.22 “Cruelest Cut” (dir by Michael Robison)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Tonight’s episode of The Hitchhiker features Melody Anderson and David James Elliott as, respectively, a veteran prostitute and a polite young man who seems to be the rare honest person that the guy with the lantern was always looking for.  However, someone also happens to be killing men who talk to prostitutes.

This episode originally aired on November 18th, 1989.

Enchantress (2022, directed by Ladon Whitmire)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

Henry (Daniel Charles DesVerges) has been depressed ever since he was in a car accident that left one woman dead.  His three friends — Phil (Akam Khiziryan), Elizabeth (Kerri Smith), and Amanda (Baylee Vidal) — try to lift his spirits by taking him on vacation to a cottage in a small town.  It doesn’t work because Henry keeps having violent dreams and visions of a ghostly woman walking around the cottage.  While his friends try to help Henry come to peace with the past, Henry fears that the spirit of the woman who died the night of the accident will never stop stalking him.

The main problem with Enchantress is that Henry is such an annoying sad sack of a character that it doesn’t take long to get bored with watching him feeling bad for himself.  The movie doesn’t add up too much but it does leave you appreciating the patience of Henry’s friends, who deserve a gold medal for putting up with him.

The actors are okay and usually, they manage to make their dialogue sound naturalistic.  Movies like this always feature at least one D-List celebrity cameo and for this one, it’s Daniel Baldwin, who plays Henry’s father in a scene that lasts a minute.  Daniel is the forgotten Baldwin brother, though I will always remember him as Detective Beau Felton during the first seasons of Homicide: Life on the Streets.

Retro Television Reviews: Jennifer Slept Here 1.3 “Not With My Date You Don’t”

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past!  On Thursdays, I will be reviewing Jennifer Slept Here, which aired on NBC in 1983 and 1984.  The entire show is currently streaming on YouTube!

This week, Jennifer helps out when it looks like both Joey and Marc are about to get their hearts broken.

Episode 1.3 “Not With My Date You Don’t”

(Dir by John Bowab, originally aired on November 4th, 1983)

I should start this review with an admission.  Though every episode of Jennifer Slept Here has been uploaded to YouTube, some of the uploads are a bit better than others.  That’s not the fault of the uploader.  The uploader undoubtedly used the best copy of the third episode of Jennifer Slept Here that they had available.  It’s just an acknowledgement that Jennifer Slept Here is a show that briefly aired 40 years ago and it’s doubtful that anyone, at that time, knew that a reviewer would need a good copy of the third episode to watch in 2023.  The 3rd episode of the show is available on YouTube but the sound quality is a bit muddy and I often struggled to understand all of the dialogue.  So, I’m just going to admit right now that I did the best that I could and if I misheard anything, I apologize.

As for the episode itself, it opens with Joey rehearsing asking out a classmate in front of his mirror.  Jennifer materializes in a red dress that is to die for.  Joey asks Jennifer where she’s going to go in that outfit and Jennifer says that she’s just going out.  To be honest, Joey’s question is a good one because, seriously, where does Jennifer have to go?  She’s a ghost!

When Jennifer finds out that Joey is feeling nervous about asking pretty blonde Linda (Viveka Davis) to go on a date with him, she decides to help him out by going to school with him.  This makes sense because, as we all know, there’s nothing more attractive than a teenage boy who wanders around his school talking to himself.  Anyway, with Jennifer’s encouragement, Joey asks out Linda but she informs him that she already has a date ….. WITH MARC (Glenn Scarpelli)!  Marc is Joey’s annoying best friend.

Joey’s parents set him up with a blind date, who I think was named Eileen (Megan Daniels).  At least now Joey can go on a double date to the movies with Marc and Linda.  (Yeah, there’s no way that won’t be awkward.)  However, Eileen turns out to be a punk rocker with multi-colored hair, who yells at the movie and  totally embarrasses Joey in front of Marc, Linda, and Jennifer (who decides to tag along in ghost form).  Eileen decides that the movie sucks and leaves.  Linda asks Marc to go get her some more popcorn and, after he leaves, she immediately moves over to Marc and starts hitting on him.  Jennifer is scandalized, saying that Linda has no morals.

Later, after the date, Joey is feeling pretty proud of himself when Marc suddenly shows up and accuses Joey of “stealing my girl.”  This brings their friendship to an end.  Yay!  Seriously, Marc is a dork!  Joey needed a better friend.  Jennifer, however, is upset that Joey is allowing Linda — a girl with no morals! — come between him and his dorky friend.

The next day, in school, Jennifer decides to take actions into her own invisible ghost hands by grabbing Linda, shoving her up to the chalkboard, and then grabbing Linda’s hand and forcing her to write that she lied on the chalkboard.  Apparently, the reason she lied was to get Joey to buy her tickets to a Rick Springfield concert but don’t quote me on that.  This where that muddy soundtrack kicked in and made it difficult for me to follow all of the conversations.  All I know that Jennifer forced Linda to write, “I lied” and then Jennifer added, “Springfield tickets” underneath Linda’s admission.  So, that would suggest Linda either wanted to see Rick Springfield or maybe Dusty Springfield, depending on the depths of her musical knowledge.  Or maybe she actually wrote Springsteen on the chalkboard.  I really couldn’t tell.  The important thing is that Joey dumps Linda for being dishonest and he and Marc are friends again.

Even when it came to the parts that I could understand, I wasn’t a huge fan of this episode, largely because I felt it was way too judgmental of Linda.  I mean, really, the only thing that Linda did was flirt with a guy who she hoped would take her to a concert.  It’s not like she was married to either Marc or Joey.  In fact, she only went out with Marc once before hitting on Joey so it’s not like Linda was really even dating either one of them.  Ann Jillian’s outfits were cute but this episode just didn’t work for me.