It’s Sunday and it’s October and that means that it’s time for another edition of Lisa Marie’s Favorite Grindhouse trailers! For today, we have six trailers from the early 70s. This was the era when horror started to truly get …. well, horrific!
The Bird With The Crystal Plumage (1970)
First off, we have the blood and scream-filled trailer for Dario Argento’s The Bird With The Crystal Plumage. This Italian thriller made quite a splash when it was released in America. Indeed, for many Americans, this was their first exposure to the giallo genre. This would go on to become Argento’s first (and, so far, only) film to be nominated for a Golden Globe. (Read my review here!)
2. House of Dark Shadows (1970)
Speaking of blood and screaming, 1970 also saw the release of House of Dark Shadows. Personally, I think this is one of the best vampire films ever. The trailer is heavy on atmosphere.
3. The Devils (1971)
In 1971, British director Ken Russell scandalized audiences with The Devils, a film so shocking that it was thought it would never be seen in its full form. However, times change….
4. Tombs of the Blind Dead (1972)
Italy was not the only country sending horror films over to the United States. From Spain came the Tombs of the Blind Dead.
5. The Last House on the Left (1972)
Speaking of controversy, Wes Craven made his directorial debut with the infamous The Last House OnTheLeft. The trailer featured one of the greatest and most-repeated horror tag lines of all time.
6. Dracula A.D. 1972 (1972)
Finally, even as horror cinema changed and became more extreme, Hammer Studios continued to tell the long and twisted story of Count Dracula. They brought him into the present age and dropped him in the middle of hippie-infested London. No matter how much the rest of the world changed, Dracula remained Dracula.
Some movie monsters want to conquer the planet. The creatures in Stephen Herek’s Critters seem perfectly happy eating their way through whatever happens to be standing on it. There is something refreshing about villains with such uncomplicated priorities, especially when they look like the contents of a clogged vacuum cleaner fitted with shark teeth. This is the sort of movie where the appeal is right there in the premise: nasty little aliens descend on rural America, and a perfectly ordinary family has to survive the visit. As an ’80s genre guilty pleasure, it delivers the goods with an appealing lack of pretension.
The story gets moving when a group of carnivorous aliens escapes from an extraterrestrial prison facility and makes its way to Earth. Their arrival puts the Brown family’s Kansas farm directly in the path of a feeding frenzy, while two shape-shifting bounty hunters follow close behind. Unfortunately, these heavily armed visitors are not especially concerned about keeping the peace or leaving buildings intact. Between the hungry fugitives and their destructive pursuers, an otherwise quiet community gets more excitement than it could possibly need. The setup is ridiculous, but Herek understands that explaining it too much would only spoil the fun.
What gives Critters some substance beneath the silliness is its interest in the people whose evening gets ruined. The Browns are not especially complicated characters, but their everyday disagreements and familiar household routines make them feel like a family rather than a collection of future victims. Spending time with them before the attack also gives the farmhouse a sense of normality worth protecting. The monsters are not simply invading a convenient horror-movie location; they are barging into somebody’s home. That modest distinction helps the film generate more audience investment than its toothy little troublemakers might initially suggest.
Scott Grimes makes Brad an easy young hero to root for. He has enough mischievous energy to seem capable of causing problems before the aliens ever arrive, but he never becomes so obnoxious that his survival feels like an obligation. His resourcefulness grows naturally out of that personality, giving the movie a kid protagonist who can participate in the action without seeming completely detached from his surroundings. There is a pleasing wish-fulfillment element to watching an underestimated youngster step up when things go wrong. Grimes sells that without turning Brad into an impossibly polished miniature action star.
Dee Wallace provides another important source of credibility as Brad’s mother, Helen. She brings warmth and urgency to situations that, described out loud, sound almost impossible to play straight. That commitment helps establish the film’s balance: the audience can laugh at the monsters without feeling that the characters are merely participating in a comedy routine. The family’s fear and concern remain sincere even when the surrounding action gets goofy. Critters does not require powerhouse dramatic performances, but it benefits enormously from actors willing to treat an attack by murderous furballs as an actual emergency.
Naturally, the furballs themselves are the main attraction. They look like what would happen if the Tribbles from Star Trek suddenly decided to stop being cute and start being mean and really, really hungry. Their dark hair, glowing eyes, enormous mouths, and projectile quills turn an otherwise cuddly shape into something you would desperately want off your lap. The fun comes from their rotten personalities as much as their physical design. These are greedy, bad-tempered little creatures whose curiosity usually leads directly to destruction. Their appetite drives the action, but their attitude gives it flavor, making them entertaining even when they are doing little more than looking for their next meal.
The practical effects contribute plenty of charm, although they do not always maintain the illusion. Some movements are stiff, and certain shots make the creatures look exactly like the puppets they are. Still, their physical presence gives the mayhem a satisfying texture. They seem to belong in the same messy environment as the furniture, debris, and frightened actors around them. The movie also benefits from not making them too adorable. They can be funny without losing that unpleasant suggestion of something that might bite straight through your hand. Their limitations are visible, but so is the craftsmanship behind their grotesque little faces.
The bounty hunters bring a broader, more cartoonish kind of entertainment. Terrence Mann plays Ug, who adopts the appearance of rock star Johnny Steele, while his partner Lee cycles through human identities played by Ethan Phillips, Jeremy Lawrence, and Don Keith Opper. Mann does most of the pair’s comedic heavy lifting, giving Ug a wonderfully straight-faced intensity that makes his rock-star appearance and excessive firepower even funnier. Their destructive pursuit suggests that Earth’s rescuers might require almost as much cleanup as its invaders. These scenes provide some welcome absurdity, although they also contribute to uneven pacing. Whenever the film moves away from the farmhouse, the pressure surrounding the Browns tends to ease. The hunters are amusing, particularly Mann, but their antics are not always as engaging as the central siege.
The resemblance to Gremlins is difficult to ignore, but Critters works best when it is not treated as a contest. It offers a smaller, scrappier variation on miniature-monster chaos, with a straightforward survival story holding everything together. The scares are limited, the plotting is thin, and the effects occasionally wobble, yet the movie remains likable because it commits to its own ridiculous appeal. There is no need to pretend it is a neglected masterpiece to appreciate its pleasures. Sometimes a decent creature feature only needs an appealing cast, a little suspense, and some ugly space pests making a spectacular nuisance of themselves. Critters understands the assignment.
If you’ve ever spent any time on the political side of X, formerly known as Twitter, you know that it can be an ugly and hateful place. Writers Nick Cuse and Damon Lindelof have certainly spent some time in that part of Twitter, because they’ve created a story that understands its absurdity and then uses that silliness as the basis for a bloody and funny action thriller. THE HUNT was quite controversial when it was released back in 2020, so I decided to finally check it out for myself.
The story begins with a group of strangers waking up in the middle of nowhere, confused, gagged, and wondering how in the hell they ended up that way. The field they’re in has a large crate that contains a sharply dressed pig, as well as a variety of guns and knives. Once they’ve helped themselves to the weapons, all hell breaks loose, with several of them being immediately killed in brutal ways. We soon learn that they’re being hunted by a group of wealthy elites who are sick and tired of dealing with these conspiracy-spreading, climate-denying deplorables and have decided to do something about them. One thing they didn’t account for was the amazing fighting and survival skills of Crystal May Creasey, played by Betty Gilpin. Before long, Crystal has turned the tables and the hunters have become the hunted.
I’m just going to say it right off, Gilpin is incredible as Crystal. I had not really seen her before, but I’m definitely going to be on the lookout for some of her other work. She plays Crystal with a confident coolness, which makes her reactions to the madness around her that much more effective. Hilary Swank, who plays the leader of the elites, knows her way around a fight scene, and their showdown delivers big time. Think of the fight between Uma Thurman and Vivica A. Fox in KILL BILL, and you’ll get an idea of their fight’s intensity, but this one lasts longer. The cast is sprinkled with some well-known actors like Amy Madigan, Justin Hartley, Macon Blair and Emma Roberts. I’ll just say that this isn’t the kind of film where you want to get too attached to the characters and leave it at that!
Did I mention earlier that THE HUNT is graphically violent? We know we’re in for a bloody ride when a guy’s eyeball is ripped from its socket in the second scene. The film will go on to present a wide array of impalings, blown up bodies, close-range shotgun blasts, long-distance rifle splatters, and many other creative deaths. While the violence is shown in graphic detail, it’s also played with an exaggerated sense of humor that made it easier for me to watch. It’s also presented in a way that matches the tone of the story.
What really sets this movie apart for me, though, is its political satire. I spent quite a bit of time on Twitter during Donald Trump’s first term, and this movie does an outstanding job of painting both sides in the broadest of strokes that are instantly recognizable for those in the know. The deplorables consist of a variety of conspiracy theorists, gun rights absolutists, big game hunters, and rednecks. The conspiracy theorists get it the worst, with something ridiculous to say for every occasion, even though a couple of times they’re revealed to be right! On the other hand, the elites have a hard time carrying on a conversation because they’re always correcting each other’s word usage, and they’re constantly lecturing everyone around them. And for a group of people who are never wrong, the elites make a crucial factual error that threatens to upend their entire plan. I’ll leave all of those details for you to discover, but I like that director Craig Zobel and his writers take aim at the absurdity of the entire online political spectrum, with no one getting a free pass. For me, that’s a big part of what makes THE HUNT so much fun. Beneath all the blood and guts is a recognizable version of the silly social media politics that I watched play out online just a few years ago.
I think those who understand the toxicity of American politics in the time of Donald Trump will get the most out of this film, but I still think it can work as entertainment for those who don’t. The action is energetic, the violence is outrageous, and it has a wonderfully twisted sense of humor. And it has Betty Gilpin, who plays one of the toughest, most badass female characters I’ve seen in a movie in a long time. Hell, she was worth the watch for me!
Count Dracula has been scaring people for centuries, whether as a ruthless warlord, an immortal vampire, or just a symbol of evil. Below are some portraits of the many faces of Dracula.
First released in 1964, TheCreepingTerror is the best film ever made about a carpet eating people.
This film is famous for its use of narration. Apparently, the original soundtrack was lost and, after attempting to dub a few scenes, director Vic Savage instead just hired radio news reader Larry Burrell to tell people what was happening in each scene. As well, Savage himself later vanished when the film’s investors came looking for their money. No one is really sure what happened to Vic Savage, though there is some evidence that he subsequently died of liver failure in 1975. I like to think that Vic Savage faked his dead and that he is still alive somewhere, probably in his 90s and drinking pina coladas on a beach.
Some consider this film to be one of the worst ever made. I love it.
I should start things off with a confession. This is actually not the first time that I’ve shared Manos: The Hands of Fate here on the Shattered Lens. I previously shared it during the 2013, 2015, 2020, 2022, and 2024 Horrorthons.
However, Manos proved to be such a popular choice that I simply had to post it again. Manos has a reputation for being one of the worst films ever made. And, honestly, who am I to disagree? (Though disagree, I do.) However, it’s also a film that simply has to be seen.
(As well, I love regional horror and there are a few films as regional as Manos, a film that was filmed in my home state of Texas and directed by a fertilizer salesman.)
By the way, everyone who watches Manos ends up making fun of Torgo, who was played by John Reynolds. What they may not know is that Reynolds committed suicide shortly after filming on Manos wrapped. So, as tempting at it may be to ridicule poor Mr. Reynolds’s performance, save your barbs for Torgo and leave John Reynolds alone.
Today’s music video of the day is for the haunting piece of music that we all know from Requiem For A Dream and countless Olympic ice skating routines.
Anyone who says this is not a horror song has somehow forgotten watching Ellen Burstyn get electroshock treatment while Jared Leto loses his arm.
I remember the first time that I ever watched the original Night of the Living Dead, I was really stunned and, to be honest, quite upset by the death of Tom and Judy. They were so likable and earnest that I guess I naturally assumed that they would survive or, at the very least, they wouldn’t die in such a pointless manner. But, ultimately, that’s what made Night of the Living Dead such a frightening film. It didn’t matter who you were or what you’re intentions were. The Dead were going to kill you and then they were going to eat you.
Honestly, everyone should have just stayed in the cellar.
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!
4 Shots From 4 Horror Films
The Curse of Frankenstein (1957, dir by Terence Fisher, DP: Jack Asher)
The Horror of Dracula (1958, dir by Terence Fisher, DP: Jack Asher)
The Curse of the Werewolf (1961, dir by Terence Fisher, DP: Arthur Grant)
Frankenstein and the Monster From Hell (1973, dir by Terence Fisher, DP: Brian Probyn)
