John Carradine hams it up as mad scientist Dr. Charles Conway in THE UNEARTHLY. The actor gave fine performances in first rate productions like THE PRISONER OF SHARK ISLAND and THE GRAPES OF WRATH, but by the 1940s,he took anything offered him, mostly B- horror and Western films. One thing you can say about Carradine: he was never boring. The movies might have sucked, but ol’ John put his melodramatic stamp on every one of them.

Lovely Grace Thomas is brought to Dr. Conway’s sanitarium by her psychiatrist, Dr. Wright. But there’s something fishy going on here! Wright has been bringing patients to Conway so he can conduct his bizarre “glandular experiments”. Conway’s latest victim, Harry Jedloe, has become a zombie-like horror in a catatonic state. The good doctor’s giant servant, Lobo, is another unfortunate result of Conway’s experiments. Lobo is played by Swedish wrestler turned horror icon Tor Johnson. Tor was a 300 lb. bald hulk…

Let’s take a quick breather from our Netflix horror movie rundown to talk horror comics for just a minute (or, more accurately, several minutes), shall we? After all, man (and woman) cannot live on a diet of celluloid scares alone — even in October — and once in awhile you may just wish to get your chills and thrills via a four-color, printed delivery method. If so, I humbly suggest that there’s no better way for you to go as we approach Halloween 2015 than by plunking down five of your heard-earned dollars for the fifth issue of Alan Moore and Jacen Burrows’ superb Lovecraftian travelogue, Providence.

We’ve talked Providence around these parts before, of course — a couple of times, in fact (in fact, I halfway feel like I ought to go back and review issues two and three just to say I’ve covered ’em all) — but…

Horror icon Bela Lugosi had some superb acting roles. Count Dracula. Murder Legendre. The broken-necked Ygor. And….Dr, Paul Caruthers in THE DEVIL BAT? What, you ask? Have I gone as looney as some of Bela’s mad scientists? I know, THE DEVIL BAT is pure hokum, with a lousy script and a ludicrous premise. But that’s my point: the only reason to watch this bottom-of-the-barrel nonsense is Lugosi’s performance. The actor,  despite all the ridiculous goings-on, gives it his all and makes the picture work.

The town of Heathville is rocked by a string of murders committed by a (yes) giant bat! Intrepid reporters Johnny Layton and shutterbug One-Shot McGuire are sent by editor Joe McGinty to investigate. The prominent Heath and Morton families have been targeted. Kindly Dr. Caruthers harbors a long-time grudge against them for making them rich at his own expense. So he creates a “devil bat”, using radiation to enlarge bats…

Okay, let’s get the confusing stuff out of the way first : writer/director Luke Hyams’ 2014 British indie horror offering The Beast Of Xmoor was originally released under the simpler title X Moor, only to have  the “X” and the “Moor” combined, for reasons unknown, into one word later, perhaps to more (semi-)accurately reflect the name of the North Devon region it takes place in — which is, in fact, called Exmoor with an “E,” and really is rumored to be the favored stomping grounds of a puma-like creature that plenty of people have seen, but no one’s actually been able to photograph.

Think of it as the UK’s answer to Bigfoot, only on four legs, and you’re getting a reasonably clear idea of the “real-life” phenomenon, as well as at least some inkling as to why this particular legend could make for good horror movie material…

I don’t know much about Spanish director Marc Carrete, but I’ll say this much for the guy : he seems to be a man of his word.

His 2014 Barcelona-filmed Asmodexia, which generated at least a little bit of buzz over the past year or so on the horror festival circuit before making its way onto various on-demand and streaming platforms (including, of course, Netflix, which is why we’re talking about it here), billed itself as a “different take” on the exorcism sub-genre, and whaddya know, even though we’ve heard that same pitch a hundred times before, in this case it’s actually true.

Which isn’t to say, mind you, that it’s an entirely successful “new take,” but at least this story of five days in the life of travelling exorcist Eloy de Palma (Luis Marco) and his grand-daughter, Alba (Claudia Pons)  offers up a fairly generous number of…

I promise — our theme this month is “Netflix Halloween,” not “Netflix Movies Set In Mines,” but since Mine Games proved to be something of a pleasant-enough surprise, I figured that director Jeff Chamberlain’s 2012 filmed-in-Utah effort, Abandoned Mine (also released under the even-more-uninspired title of The Mine) might possibly be worth a look, as well.

I’ll just cut right to the chase here and say that I was wrong. And now my job is to tell you both why I was wrong and just how wrong I was.

So, it’s Halloween night, and five friends (Reiley McClendon as Brad, Adam Hendershott as Jimmy, Alexa Vega as Sharon, Saige Thompson as Laurie, and Charan Prabhakar as Ethan) are all hanging out near the old Jarvis Mine, boozing and swapping ghost stories at this supposedly haunted locale. After they get a few in ’em, they decide what the…

Been there, done that — and goddamnit, we’re doing it again!

Last year, in order to spice things up a bit during the month of October, I whittled my focus for Halloween down from reviewing horror movies in general to reviewing horror movies (then-) currently available on Netflix — and this year, since I’m fresh out of ideas thanks to a grueling 55-hours-per-week work schedule, I’m just gonna do the same exact thing.

And why not, right? I mean, it’s Netflix — there’s gotta be plenty choose from, surely?

Except, ya know, when there isn’t. Which seems to be the case these days. Honestly, have you browsed their horror film “library” recently? It absolutely sucks. I mean, they probably had more to choose from five years ago when their streaming service was just getting off the ground. They really should be embarrassed. Maybe next year we’ll try a “Halloween On…

October is  here, and Halloween is on its way! I’ll be reviewing horror movies all month on Cracked Rear Viewer and Through the Shattered Lens, covering everything from Aztec Mummies to Zombies! Pleasant screams!

This 1991 variation on THE HANDS OF ORLAC stars Jeff Fahey as psychologist Bill Chrushank, who loses an arm in a horrific car crash. Dr. Agatha Webb (Lindsay Duncan) tells his wife Karen (Kim Delaney) she can restore his arm with a new surgical procedure. Webb grafts a human arm onto Bill’s body. After surgery and therapy, the operation is a success. Bill’s new arm is good as new, but he soon begins experiencing weird visions. Upon doing some research, Bill discovers the arm belonged to executed mass murderer Charles Fletcher. He finds out others have been given Fletcher’s limbs, including artist Remo (Brad Dourif) and young Mark (Peter Murnik).Bill also starts losing control of the arm, as if it has…