A serial killer known as “The Avenger” is murdering blonde women in London (which, once again, proves that its better to be a redhead). And while nobody knows the identity of the Avenger, they do know that the enigmatic stranger (Ivor Novello), who has just recently rented a room at boarding house, happens to fit his description. They also know that the lodger’s landlord’s daughter happens to be a blonde…
Released in 1927, the silent The Lodger was Alfred Hitchcock’s third film but, according to the director, this was the first true “Hitchcock film.” Certainly it shows that even at the start of his career, Hitchcock’s famous obsessions were already present — the stranger accused of a crime, the blonde victims, and the link between sex and violence.
Also of note, the credited assistant director — Alma Reville — would become Alma Hitchcock shortly before The Lodger was released.
With the final week of horrorthon starting in just a few hours, it can be easy to panic. Here to help soothe those impulses is our latest AMV of the Day!
Tonight, for our horror on the lens, we have the fifteenth episode of the 2nd season of Friday the 13th: The Series!
In this episode, a doctor uses a cursed syringe (agck!) to withdraw pieces of another person’s soul that he can give them to his daughter, who is extremely violent. Unfortunately, this usually lead to bad things for soul donors. This episode was directed by Armand Mastroianni, who also directed the classic 1980 slasher film, He Knows Your Alone. That was Tom Hanks’s first film so, without Armand Mastroianni, who knows who would have ended up starring in Captain Phillips?
This episode originally aired on February 18th, 1989.
After the ship that he’s working on sinks, engineer Andrew Braddock (Michael York) washes up on an uncharted island. It’s a beautiful island but it quickly proves dangerous as another survivor of the sinking is killed by wild animals. The injured Braddock passes out and when he wakes up, he’s being cared for by a mysterious scientist named Moreau (Burt Lancaster).
Braddock discovers that the island is populated by creatures that are half-human and half-animal. Led by the Sayer of the Law (Richard Basehart), these creatures are the results of experiments conducted by Moreau and his assistant, Montgomery (Nigel Davenport). Moreau’s experiments are expected to obey Moreau’s laws. Should they fail, they will be taken to the House of Pain and punished. When Baddock objects to Moreau playing God, Moreau plots to reverse the experiment on Braddock and turn him into an animal. Even as he falls in love with a former cheetah (played by Barbara Carrera), Braddock realizes that he must escape the Island of Dr. Moeau.
This is the forgotten adaptation of H.G. Wells’s classic novel, as well as being the most faithful. The Island of Lost Souls, from 1932, is considered to be a classic. The third version, directed by John Frankenheimer and starring Marlon Brando and Val Kilmer, is a legendary disaster. This version, though, is usually overlooked. It’s also my favorite of the three but that might be because it was the first version that I ever saw. It’s a straight-forward version of H.G. Wells’s story of science gone mad with director Don Taylor not wasting any time getting the action started. Michael York, always an underrated actor, convincingly portrays Braddock’s outrage and his struggle to maintain his humanity after Moreau starts to experiment on him while Carrera is beautiful and mysterious as Maria. Probably the film’s biggest surprise is Burt Lancaster, who turns out to be ideally cast as Moreau. More subdued than either Charles Laughton or Marlon Brando, Lancaster plays Moreau as a brilliant but callous man who is too arrogant to realize that he’s become as much of an animal as those he claims to be perfecting. What makes Lancaster’s Moreau so disturbing is that he doesn’t have the excuse of being insane. Instead, he’s just too stubborn to admit that he’s potentially made a huge mistake.
It may be forgotten but this still the version of The Island of Dr, Moreau that I would recommend.
That, of course, is from 1982’s Halloween 3: The Season of the Witch. The makers of the new Halloween films might not care for the original sequels but just try to get that Silver Shamrock song out of your head! Even more importantly, just try to listen to it without thinking about the mask melting into your face and turning into a bunch of spiders and snakes. It can’t be done. That’s the sign of an effective horror movie. An effective horror movie is all scaring the audience and not about worrying about whether or not the critics are going to get it.
Speaking of horror, just 8 more days til Halloween Halloween! Just 8 more days til Hallowen! Silver Shamrock!
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.
With only a week to go until the big day, now is a good time for me to honor one of my favorite horror directors, the French surrealist Jean Rollin. Now is the time for….
If a group of vampires are determined to ruin your night, what should you do? Well, according to the classic Mexican film Santo vs. las Mujeres Vampiro, your first move should be to call a wrestler.
Through the Shattered Lens 