The TSL Horror Grindhouse: The Chill Factor (dir by Christopher Webster)

Posted on October 13, 2023 by Lisa Marie Bowman

The 1993 film, The Chill Factor, is a bit of an oddity.

The film opens with a shot of young, attractive people racing their snowmobiles across a snowy landscape. One of them, Jeannie (Dawn Laurrie), narrates. She tells us that she can still remember everything that happened as if it was yesterday. She and her friends were visiting the ski slopes of Wisconsin. She was engaged to be married to Tom (Aaron Kjenaas), who she secretly knew didn’t really love her that way that she loved him. She mentions that they were traveling with their friends and none of them had any worries because they were young and the year 2000 was right around the corner. She mentions that one of her friends was “dating a black girl.” It’s an odd line, especially when heard in 2023, when interracial couples in movies and television are so common that it’s almost become a bit of a cliché. One thing that makes the line feel all the stranger is the rather flat tone of the narrator’s voice. The narration almost sounds as if it’s being delivered by someone who is under hypnosis.

Jeannie, Tom, and their friends stop off at a rustic lodge. Karen (Connie Snyder) is Tom’s little sister and Chris (David Fields) is her boyfriend, as well as being a medical student. Ron (Jim Cagle) is a friendly football player who has just been drafted by a pro team. Ron’s girlfriend, Lissa (Eve Montgomery), is the black girl mentioned in Jeannie’s opening narration. When two local racists confront Ron and Lissa and spit out a racial slur, friendly waitress Bessie (Bekki Vallin) makes it up to the group by telling them about a great place to race their snowmobiles. It’s called Black Friar Lake and Bessie promises to tell them why it’s named that if they come back. Even though Tom has been drinking all day long, he insists on going out to Black Friar Lake.

At Black Friar Lake, Tom pulls a Kennedy and crashes his snowmobile into a tree. His friends drag the unconscious and blood-covered Tom to an abandoned Dominican summer camp. They bandage his wounds and try to keep him warm. Chris says that Tom probably has internal injuries. However, Tom suddenly opens his eyes and, other than having a headache, he acts as if nothing serious has happened. While Ron heads back to town to try to get help, Karen searches the camp and comes across a makeshift Ouija board. Even though Jeannie believes that Ouija boards can actually summon evil spirits, she still joins the others in fooling around with it. (As Jeannie explains in her narration, “It was my nature.”) Soon, Tom is waking up more often and speaking much more aggressively than usual. (When Karen — HIS SISTER — tells him that he’s a pain in the ass, Tom tells her, “I’ll give you a pain in the ass,” and then suggests that she and Chris should go have sex.) Soon, people are dying, blood is being spilled, and the Ouija board keeps trying to send out messages.

The Chill Factor is an odd film. On the surface, it seems like a typical mash-up of slasher mayhem and Evil Dead-style supernatural activity. But there’s an intriguingly off-center quality to the film. The film moves at its own dream-like pace, with certain scenes going on longer than one might expect while other scenes end rather abruptly. When the group first arrives at the summer camp, their conversations are a bizarre mix of the mundane and the philosophical. Random shadows can be spied moving along the walls and the main characters never seem to notice that fresh blood is flowing from the eyes of a statue of Jesus. Towards the end of the film, there’s a Rosemary’s Baby-style sex scene between Tom and Jeannie, except occasionally it’s not Jeannie that Tom is making lover to but instead Karen. The falling snow gives the entire film a chilly and rather bleak atmosphere. (This may be the only film to feature a demon chasing his prey on a snowmobile.) The cast was obviously made up of amateurs and the majority of the performances are extremely stiff. However, even that contributes to the film’s otherworldly atmosphere. Indeed, watching the performers, I was reminded of Werner Herzog’s Heart of Glass, in which Herzog had his actors perform under the influence of hypnosis.

Finally, there’s an interesting subtext to this film. Jeannie, who fears that Tom will never love her the way that she loves him, has a night of passionate sex with him, just to wake up the next morning and discover that he had suddenly changed. He’s not the man who she thought he was. Now, in Tom’s case, this is because he’s been possessed by a demon. However, this scene captures a fear that every woman has felt. Will your lover still be the same man when you wake up in the morning? Or, having gotten what he wanted, will he then reveal his true self? As much as Jeannie feared the Ouija board, she still used it because, deep down, she wanted to know who Tom really was. And the board revealed the truth. In her final piece of narration, Jeannie speaks of still dreaming about that night with Tom and her flat tone leaves it up to the audience to decide if she dreams of who Tom become or who she thought Tom was before.

I suspect that The Chill Factor may have been a happy accident, a case of a low budget and an amateur cast actually coming together something that turned out to be far better than anyone was expecting. Accidentally or not, The Chill Factor is an intriguing work of existential horror.

A Blast From The Past: Stoned (dir by John Herzfeld)

Posted on October 13, 2023 by Lisa Marie Bowman

In 1980’s Stoned, Scott Baio plays Jack Melon, a teenager with a problem.

Jack is shy, awkward, and can’t escape the shadow of his older brother, Mike (Vincent Bufano). Mike is champion swimmer. Jack is someone who can barely walk down a hallway without walking into a wall. But then Teddy (Jack Finch) gets Teddy hooked on marijuana, the so-called weed with roots in Hell! Soon, Jack is acting weird, making strange jokes, and getting all of the attention in the world. Unfortunately, Jack is also alienating those closest to him and his newfound habit leads to a near-tragedy.

Stoned was aired as an ABC Afterschool Special and, while it’s not quite Reefer Madness, it does adhere to the general anti-drug formula. In record time, Jack goes from being shy and dorky to being goofy and potentially dangerous. We get all the expected scenes of Jack devouring ice cream, Jack wandering around in a daze, Jack realizing that the girl he likes what’s nothing to do with the new Jack, Jack’s well-meaning teacher (played by the show’s writer and director, John Herzfeld) confronting his students about their drug use, and Jack accidentally hitting his brother with an oar. Jack thinks that marijuana is opening his brain because, while stoned, he suddenly realizes that a tree looks like “Old Man Eber.” Stoned goes on to show Jack ruining his life but I have to admit that I spent most of the running time wondering who Old Man Eber was. (Seriously, Old Man Eber sounds like some sort of Lovecraftian ghoul, waiting in the shadows to drag one to an Arkham cemetery.) Of course, someone nearly dies as a result of Jack’s marijuana use. What’s interesting is Jack is able to save the person’s life, even though he’s stoned. Would non-stoned Jack have been able to do it?

From the fashion choices to the cast to the message that marijuana is the most dangerous thing on the planet, Stoned is one of those TV specials that epitomizes its time. This was a film that was made at a time when it was inconceivable that there would some day be commercials for edible gummies and it shows. Watching Stoned is like stepping into a time machine.

Today, of course, Scott Baio is better known for his politics than his acting. Whenever I see a headline that reads, “This veteran Hollywood star is calling out his industry for not understanding America,” I know the story is inevitably going to be about Scott Baio complaining about his taxes. That said, Scott Baio is convincing when he’s playing Jack as being awkward and insecure but he definitely goes a bit overboard once Jack starts smoking. While that probably dilutes the effectiveness of the film’s message (because, let’s be honest, real stoners are going to watch this and easily recognize the fact that Jack is trying way too hard to convince everyone that he’s stoned), it does give this film a certain entertainment value.

Here is Stoned, complete with the commercials that aired when the show was original broadcast on November 12th, 1980:

Corbin Nash (2018, directed by Ben Jagger)

Posted on October 13, 2023 by Jedadiah Leland

Corbin Nash (Dean S. Jagger) is a New York cop who has been suspended for shooting a rapist. While he and his stepfather (Bruce Davison, making a cameo appearance) sit in a bar and talk about how much the world sucks, they are approached by a mysterious man (Rutger Hauer, also making a cameo appearance) who explains that Corbin’s father was not just a minor league baseball player but he was also a demon hunter who was murdered by his enemies in Los Angeles. Jack confirms that what the stranger says is true.

Corbin does what anyone would do. He moves to Los Angeles, joins the LAPD, and starts to investigate cases of missing children. This leads to Corbin being captured and held prisoner by two vampires, a drag queen named Queeny (Corey Feldman, camping it up to a cringe-worthy degree) and Queeny’s lover, Vince (Richard Wagner). Queeny and Vince force their prisoners to participate in cage matches until finally feeding on them. Corbin escapes but, as the Blind Prophet (Malcolm McDowell, collecting a paycheck) reveals, Corbin is now a vampire. Like a less memorable version of Blade, vampire Corbin sets out to battle evil.

The film’s overall tone is grim and serious, which makes Corey Feldman’s mincing performance as Queeny feel all the more out-of-place. Watching him in films like this, it can be easy to forget that Feldman was actually a fairly good actor before his career went off the rails in the 90s. As a child, he appeared in some classic films and, as a teenager, he often redeemed otherwise subpar material. But he never made the transition into adult roles. Being one of “The Two Coreys” didn’t help and he had the misfortune of struggling with drugs before Robert Downey, Jr. made rehab cool. Well into his 20s, he was still playing high school students and, even today when he’s in his 50s, Corey Feldman still comes across as being the world’s oldest teenager. That’s certainly the impression that I got from Corbin Nash, where Feldman seems like a high school theater student who is more interested in showing off than actually acting.

Of course, Feldman’s self-indulgence is still more interesting than the rest of the film, which feels like an origin story for a super hero who never really took off. There are a few interesting idea to be found in the film but mostly, it just feels like a cut-rate version of Blade and a dozen other recent vampire films. Corbin Nash never creates an identity of its own.

Horror Scenes I Love: Kane Hodder in Friday the 13th Part VII: A New Blood

Posted on October 13, 2023 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Kane Hodder was a veteran stuntman when he first played Jason Voorhees in 1988’s Friday the 13th Part 7: The New Blood. He would go on to play Jason three more times. He also played Leatherface in Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III and, when Freddy Krueger’s gloved hand appeared at the end of Jason Goes To Hell, that was Kane Hodder’s hand grabbing the famous Jason mask and taking it to Hell.

Sadly, when Freddy vs. Jason went into production, Hodder was replaced by another stuntman. (Ironically, Hodder had been considered for the role of Freddy in the original Nightmare on Elm Street.) Still, for Friday the 13th fans, Kane Hodder will always be Jason Voorhees.

In the scene from Friday the 13th Part 7, Hodder shows off the physicality that made him the ideal zombie Jason.

Horror Novel Review: Friday the 13th Part II by Simon Hawke

Posted on October 13, 2023 by Lisa Marie Bowman

It’s been five years since Pamela Voorhees’s went on a murderous rampage at Camp Crystal Lake. Mrs. Voorhees is dead, Camp Crystal Lake has once again been declared off-limits, and the sole survivor of Pamela’s rampage is officially considered to be missing.

Paul Holt, who is renowned for his program that trains summer camp counselors, has opened up a camp on the shores of Crystal Lake. With the help of his on-and-off again girlfriend, Ginny, Paul is training his counselors on how to handle every situation and also making sure that they all know better than to go wandering around the remains of Camp Crystal Lake.

Of course, Paul assures the counselors that Jason Voorhees is just a myth and he’s not really wandering around the woods, regardless of what the old-timers in town say. Of course, Paul is wrong. Jason is out there and he’s not at all happy about having a bunch of rowdy people partying so close to his home. One night, when most of the counselors head into town, a small group remains at the camp and they soon come face-to-bag with Jason himself.

The novelization of Friday the 13th Part II was published in 1988, a full seven years after the film was first released. As such, it follows the plot of the film fairly closely, even to the extent of starting with an extended flashback to Alice’s battle with Pamela Voorhees. The kills happen in the same order and in the same way as they did in the film.

What writer Simon Hawke adds to the story is much the same thing that he added to his novelization of the first film. He gives each of the character’s a backstory and explores how they feel about being at Camp Crystal Lake. He makes them a little less generic than they were in the film. For instance, Terri — who was pretty much just a girl who didn’t wear underwear and liked to skinny dip in the film — is revealed to actually by fiercely intelligent and independent in the novel. We learn a lot more about Mark’s determination to be seen as being an individual as opposed to just the counselor in the wheelchair. We learn that Sandra’s older brother once visited the Spahn movie ranch. Ginny and Paul’s relationship also takes on a bit more depth in the novel than it did in the movie.

That said, for fans of the franchise, the most interesting thing about the novelization will be the passages that take place in Jason’s mind. Hawke presents Jason as being someone who was shunned even as a child and who only had his mother in his life. Jason is also revealed to being addicted to murder, needing the rush that he gets from the hunt. We learn a bit more about how Jason has survived in the woods for all those years and what exactly he was doing in that abandoned cabin. To be honest, it’s not as if Hawke really brings anything new to Jason’s mentality. Anyone who has watched the movies knows that Jason is addicted to murder. But it’s still interesting to see the other characters through Jason’s eyes.

The novelization of Friday the 13th Part 2 is an improvement on the first novelization though, again, it’s probably something for Friday the 13th completists only. A copy of it can be found on the Internet Archive.

Horror Novel Review: Friday the 13th by Simon Hawke

Posted on October 13, 2023 by Lisa Marie Bowman

In the woods of New Jersey, there sits a summer camp that was abandoned after a child drowned and two counselors were subsequently murdered. Now, nearly 20 years later, Steve Christy is determined to reopen Camp Crystal Lake, the summer camp that his family started and lost their fortune trying to save. Steve has a group of young and enthusiastic camp counselors helping him to get the camp ready to go and, as they soon discover, Steve is a tough taskmaster. He’s so tough that even his occasional girlfriend Alice is thinking about abandoning her job at the camp and returning home.

Of course, it’s not just Steve’s temper that the counselors have to watch out for. There’s also someone else lurking around the camp, someone who is determined to kill everyone involved in trying to reopen it. One-by-one, the counselors fall victim to the killer until finally, only one survivor is left to fight for her life….

Interestingly enough, the novelization of Friday the 13th was first published in 1987, seven years after the film came out. The novelization follows the plot of the film, with each of the murders happening in the same order and in the same way. In many places, the dialogue is recreated verbatim. The same person is the murderer in both the book and the film and the book ends with the same twist as the film.

The most interesting thing about the book — really, the only interesting thing about it — is that the book goes into a bit more detail about everyone’s backstory before they ended up at Crystal Lake. As such, we witness Mrs. Voorhees actions right after the drowning of her son, Jason, in which she begs the Christy family to rehire her as their cook. We also learn about the background of each of the victims, who are a bit less generic in this book than in the movie. We especially learn a lot about Jack and Marcie’s relationship, though I have to say that it’s hard to imagine the confident movie version of Jack having much in common with the more insecure Jack who shows up in the novel.

I was a bit disappointed by the book’s backstory for Steve Christy. My personal theory has always been that Steve Christy, with his glasses and his mustache and his ascot and his air of superiority, was a former member of the SDS who later became a Weatherman and helped in the abduction of Patty Hearst. I always assumed that he was working so hard at Camp Crystal Lake because he was on the FBI’s Most Wanted List and he needed a place to hide out. The book, however, portrays Steve as someone who just feels like he has to redeem his family’s name. I think my theory was a bit more interesting.

The novelization of Friday the 13th is probably something that will be best appreciated by Friday the 13th completists. (There’s really not much reason to read it otherwise.) A copy can be found at the Internet Archive.

October True Crime: Deranged (dir by Jeff Gillen and Alan Ormsby)

Posted on October 13, 2023 by Lisa Marie Bowman

First released in 1974, Deranged tells the story of Ezra Cobb (Roberts Blossom).

In the 1950s, Ezra is a shy and withdrawn farmer who lives in Wisconsin with his elderly mother (Cosette Lee). Ezra’s mother has raised Ezra to view all other women as being evil and to view sex as being sinful. The end result is that the middle-aged Ezra is absolutely devoted to his mother but he also has no idea what to do with himself after she dies and is buried in the nearby cemetery. After a year of being alone in the farm house, Ezra starts to hear voices telling him to dig up his mother. Ezra does so but, disappointed to see how much her body has decayed over the past few months, he decides that he should start digging up fresher bodies so that he can “rebuild” his mother.

Eeeek!

Yes, it’s a creepy story and it’s all the more creepy for being true. Ezra Cobb is based on Ed Gein, the farmer, grave robber, and serial killer whose actions not only shocked the town of Plainfield but which also inspired Robert Bloch to create the character of Norman Bates. Psycho was based on Ed Gein’s crimes. So was The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, with the bone-strewn home and Leatherface’s habit of wearing other people’s faces lifted directly from some of the more sordid details of what was found at Gein’s home. By the time the police discovered what had been happening at the farm, Ed Gein had moved on from grave robbing to committing murders. It’s known that Ed Gein killed at least three people. It’s suspected that he was responsible for more. Interestingly enough, Ed Gein was described as being very friendly and helpful after he was captured. He spent the rest of his life in various mental hospitals, where he was described as being a model patient.

A low-budget Canadian production, Deranged plays out in a documentary fashion, featuring enough gore that the film was actually banned in some countries. That said, as bloody as certain scenes are, there’s a strong strain of dark humor running through Deranged. As played by character actor Roberts Blossom, the dazed but always polite Ezra never makes much of an attempt to hide his activities. When Ezra’s friend, Harlan (Robert Warner), reads aloud an article about a missing barmaid, Ezra replies that the barmaid is over at his place. Harlan has a good laugh at the idea and Ezra responds with a somewhat shy smile. No one in town suspects Ezra, largely because he doesn’t hunt and he always seem to be so quiet and mild-mannered. Even when Ezra points a rifle at a store clerk, she laughs and asks, “What are you doing, Ez?” and, given that Ezra looks so harmless, it’s easy to understand why. Ezra? Why, he wouldn’t hurt a fly! Interestingly enough, everyone around Ezra is far more openly violent and misogynistic than Ezra. Harlan brags about his ability as a hunter. A man in a bar makes misogynistic comments about the bar maid who has become Ezra’s latest obsession. Though Ezra is the one who acts on his impulses, the film suggests that Ezra isn’t that different from the other men in town.

In a rare starring role, Roberts Blossom gives a strong performance as Ezra, playing him as someone who is so far divorced from reality that he actually seems to be genuinely offended when one of his victims tries to escape from the barn. Blossom plays Ezra as someone who alternates between being a violent madman and someone who has an almost childlike need for approval.

Ed Gein was one of the first serial killers to become national news and Deranged acknowledges this by featuring a newsman (Leslie Carlson) who not only serves as the film’s narrator but who also occasionally shows up in Gein’s farmhouse, speaking directly to the camera and explaining what was going on in Gein’s life at the time. It’s actually an effective technique, one that acknowledges the media obsession with the crimes of men like Ed Gein. That obsession, of course, led to movies, including Deranged. In many ways, Deranged’s use of the newsman is prophetic. It predicted a future in which the media would play their part into turning serial killers into almost mythological figures, sneaking their way through the more shadowy parts of American history.

Deranged is an effective film. For a long time, it was also believed to be a lost film. After the film’s 1974 run, all prints of the film disappeared. Fortunately, in the mid-90s, a copy was found in Florida and both the film and Roberts Blossoms’s performances got the reevaluation and appreciation that they deserved.

Horror Film Review: The Killer Must Kill Again (dir by Luigi Cozzi)

Posted on October 13, 2023 by Lisa Marie Bowman

In this twisty Italian thriller from 1975, George Hilton plays one of his signature roles. Hilton is cast as Giorgio Mainardi, a handsome and superficially charming man who is actually a soulless cad. Giorgio is a womanizer who is unhappily married to Norma (Tere Valazquez). Giorgio doesn’t love Norma but he does love her money and he’s eager to get his hands on it.

One night, after an argument with Norma, Giorgio goes for a late night drive so that he can call his mistress from an isolated phone booth. While Giorgio is making the call, he witnesses another man pushing his car into the nearby harbor. The man, who is simply identified as the Killer (Antoine Saint-John), is a serial rapist and murderer whose latest victim was in the car. Giorgio approaches the man and the two strike up an unlikely partnership. Giorgio agrees not to go to the police about what he saw if the Killer agrees to kill Norma for him.

A few days later, while Giorgio is at a party, the Killer drives out to Giorgio and Norma’s house. He breaks into the house and strangles Norma. He then places the body in the trunk of his car. The Killer goes back in the house to make sure that he hasn’t left anything behind. When he comes back outside, his car is gone. Realizing that his car has been stolen, with Norma’s body in the trunk, The Killer steals someone else’s car. Of course, in doing so, he sets off a car alarm and the police are called. By the time Giorgio returns home, both the Killer and the car are gone but the police are waiting for him with the news that Norma has apparently become the latest victim of Rome’s kidnapping epidemic!

(At the time this movie was made, Italy’s terroristic Red Brigades were regularly kidnapping anyone who was considered to be wealthy.)

The Killer’s car has been stolen by Luca (Alessio Orano) and his girlfriend, Laura (Cristina Galbo), who are driving to the beach. Of course, what they don’t know is that there’s a dead body in the trunk and that the Killer is tracking their every move. When they reach the beach, Laura soon finds herself fighting for her life when the Killer manages to track her and Luca down.

The Killer Must Kill Again starts out as a Hitchcock-inspired giallo, with the super-sleazy Giorgio hiring the Killer to kill his wife and apparently assuming that he’ll be able to outsmart anyone who investigates the case. However, once the Killer starts following Luca and Laura, it becomes a thriller with the Killer stalking the two clueless car thieves. Fortunately, director Luigi Cozzi is able to pull off the massive shift in tone without the story falling apart. Cozzi delivers a genuinely suspenseful film, one that will keep you guessing until the final moment. In much the same way that Brian De Palma was often criticized for his obvious love of Hitchcock, Cozzi has often been unfairly dismissed as just being an disciple of Dario Argento’s. But, with The Killer Must Kill Again, Cozzi brings his own unique spin to the giallo genre and shows himself to be a much stronger director than he was often given credit for being.

One final note: The Killer Must Kill Again features one of the scariest psycho killers that you’re ever likely to see. Antoine Saint-John is chilling as the nameless Killer. Later, he would give another excellent performance when he played the doomed painter in Lucio Fulci’s The Beyond.

4 Shots From 4 Films: Special Wes Craven Edition

Posted on October 13, 2023 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 is the great Wes Craven!

4 Shots From 4 Wes Craven Films

A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984, dir. by Wes Craven, DP: Jacques Haitkin)

Deadly Friend (1986, dir by Wes Craven, DP: Philip H. Lathrop)

Wes Craven’s New Nightmare (1994, dir by Wes Craven, DP: Mark Irwin)

Scream (1996, dir by Wes Craven, DP: Mark Irwin)

Horror Film Review: The Mummy’s Curse (dir by Leslie Goodwins)

Posted on October 13, 2023 by Lisa Marie Bowman

When last we checked in with Kharis the Mummy, he was running into a swamp in Massachusetts, carrying the reincarnation of Princess Ananka with him. Chasing after him were the standard towns people with torches and guns. It’s not a Universal horror film without angry villagers, even if the movie itself is taking place in Mapleton, Massachusetts.

Upon entering the swamp, both Kharis and Ananka sunk under the water, traumatizing Ananka’s boyfriend but apparently bringing Kharis’s reign of terror to an end.

Well, not so fast!

The 1944 film, The Mummy’s Curse, opens with the townspeople talking about how Kharis continues to haunt the old swamp, so much so that most of the locals refuse to work in the swamp. Oddly enough, though, the townspeople are suddenly a mix of Cajuns and gypsies. (The film even opens with a gypsy woman singing a song in a bar.) The swamp has now become a bayou. We are repeatedly told that the film is taking place in the same location as the previous Mummy films but suddenly, that location has changed from Massachusetts to Louisiana.

As for the plot of The Mummy’s Curse, it all centers around the swamp. The Southern Engineering Company (and that really doesn’t sound like a Massachusetts company) is draining the swamp. The locals are worried that draining the swamp will bring back the curse of the mummy. Two representatives from the Scripps Museum show up and announce that they want to search the drained swamp for the remains of the mummies. Dr. James Halsey (Dennis Moore) is typical of the archeologists who tend to show up in these Mummy films. Meanwhile, his associate is Dr. Ilzor Zandeeb (Peter Coe) who — surprise! — is that latest Egyptian high priest to come to America to try to recover the bodies of Kharis and Princess Ananka.

Ananka (Virginia Christie) is the first to emerge from the swamp, though she has no memory of who she is. When she is discovered on the side of the road by Prof. Halsey and his love interest, Betty (Kay Harding), they allow her to stay at their camp on the edge of the swamp. Everyone is really impressed by the fact that this amnesiac knows so much about ancient Egypt. Eventually, Kharis (Lon Chaney, Jr., again tightly wrapped in bandages) eventually emerges from the swamp as well, determined to protect Ananka.

The Mummy’s Curse was the final film to feature Lon Chaney, Jr. as Kharis. Unfortunately, it’s pretty forgettable and certainly not a satisfying conclusion to the story of one of Universal’s original monsters. A good deal of the film’s 60-minute running time is taking up with flashbacks to previous Mummy films and it seems like it takes forever for Kharis to actually get around to spreading the usual mummy mayhem. Though it may be too much to ask for too much continuity from these films, the sudden switch from Massachusetts to Lousiana is distracting for those of us who have actually invested the time to watch the previous Mummy films. One gets the feeling that, by the time this film went into production, no one involved really cared that much about poor Kharis and his never-ending mission to protect his princess.