Horror on the Lens: The Boogie Man Will Get You (dir by Lew Landers)

Posted on October 8, 2023 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Today’s horror on the lens is a short horror comedy from 1942. In The Boogie Man Will Get You, Winnie Slade (Miss Jeff Donnell) buys an old house from Prof. Billings (Boris Karloff) with plans to covert it into a hotel. However, one of the conditions of the sale is that Prof. Billings and his servants be allowed to live on the property. What Winnie doesn’t know is that Prof. Billings had been conducting experiments on traveling salesman. He hopes to turn them into supermen who, much like Captain America, can then be sent overseas to fight the Nazis. However, his experiments have yet to be successful and have mostly just resulted into a lot of salesman being buried out in the rose garden.

However, things start to look up for Prof. Billings when he meets Dr. Lorencz (Peter Lorre), who is not only a doctor but also a mayor, sheriff, and dog catcher. Seriously, Dr. Lorencz can do it all!

The Boogie Man Will Get You is a fun little time capsule of the time in which it was made. For horror fans, it is mostly interesting because it features both Boris Karloff and Peter Lorre. Both Karloff and Lorre appear to be having a lot of fun parodying their usual screen images.

Enjoy!

6 Trailers For The End Of The First Week of Horrorthon

Posted on October 8, 2023 by Lisa Marie Bowman

As week 1 of the 2023 Horrorthon comes to a close, it’s time for me to admit that I am absolutely, 100% exhausted. Hopefully, this latest edition of Lisa Marie’s Favorite Grindhouse Trailers will help to keep me awake!

Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)

Here’s a trailer that’s as good as any when it comes to giving you a reason to try to stay awake!

2. Bad Dreams (1988)

Freddy isn’t the only person haunting the dream world.

3. Dreammaniac (1986)

Actually, there’s a lot of dangerous things out there in Dream Land.

4. The Cell (2000)

Even Jennifer Lopez and Vince Vaughn know better than to get lost in someone else’s dream.

5. Phantasm (1979)

And, of course, we can’t talk about sleep and dreams and nightmares without including the classic trailer for Phantasm.

6. Dreamscape (1984)

Fear not, though! If things get too intense in the dreamworld, we can always call Dennis Quaid.

Sweet dreams!

Artwork of the Day: Ghostly Vintage

Posted on October 8, 2023 by Dazzling Erin

by Erin Nicole

Even ghosts get dressed in the morning.

Music Video of the Day: Anxiety (Get Nervous) by Pat Benatar (1982, directed by Mark Robinson)

Posted on October 8, 2023 by Jedadiah Leland

If you’re suffering from anxiety, it is nothing to be ashamed of. As today’s music video of the day shows, even Pat Benatar can get nervous! Of course, when your dentist is named Dr. Pain, who can blame you for getting nervous?

This video was directed by Mark Robinson, who also did videos for The Pretenders, Tina Turner, and Eddie Money.

Enjoy!

Horror On TV: The Hitchhiker 4.13 “Cabin Fever” (dir by Clyde Monroe)

Posted on October 7, 2023 by Lisa Marie Bowman

On tonight’s episode of The Hitchhiker, Michael Woods plays a cocky gigolo who spends the weekend at a cabin with an alcoholic director (Jerry Orbach) and his sultry wife (Season Hubley). When Hubley suggests that Woods murder her husband, it seems like a standard noir-situation but it become obvious that Orbach is not quite as clueless as Woods assumed. Who is playing which game?

This is an enjoyable episode, largely due to the performance of the wonderful Jerry Orbach. This episode originally aired on May 12th, 1987.

The TSL Horror Grindhouse: Chopper Chicks in Zombietown (dir by Dan Hoskins)

Posted on October 7, 2023 by Lisa Marie Bowman

An all-women motorcycle gang called the Cycle Sluts roars through the desert. Why are they called the Cycle Sluts? As their leader puts it, they know what people are going to call them so they’re reclaiming the term for themselves. Nobody tells the Cycle Sluts what to do and nobody but the Cycle Sluts decides or defines who the Cycle Sluts are. They’re rebels and they’re singers, making music and fighting the patriarchy as they make their way through the dusty corners of America. Go, Cycle Sluts, go!

When the Cycle Sluts drive into the small desert town of Zariah, the residents are not happy to see them. Zariah is a peaceful and boring town and the citizens would like to keep it that way. The citizens are happy having a town where there’s only a few buildings, next to no businesses, and only a few residents. It’s a town where not much happens and everyone can live in peace, far away from all the evil temptations of the big city and corrupt civilization. However, the town becomes a lot less peaceful when the local mortician starts to bring the dead back to life. Soon, zombies are wandering through the desert on their way back to their former home and only the Cycle Sluts and a bus full of stranded blind kids can save the town!

That slight plot description probably tells you all you really need to know to get a feel for what type of film 1989’s Chopper Chicks in Zombietown is. It was released by Troma, which means that the humor is crude, the zombie attacks are bloody, and the film’s aesthetic is undeniably cheap. That said, the film itself is enjoyable when taken on its own dumb terms. The action moves quickly, the members of the cast perform their silly roles with an admirable amount of dedication, and the whole thing ends with a message of peace and equality. The townspeople learn how to be tolerant and the Cycle Sluts learn how to trust other people. It’s about as dumb as a movie about about bikers fighting zombies can be but it’s a surprisingly fun movie. It’s hard not to cheer a little when the Cycle Sluts and the towns people and the blind kids finally set aside their differences and do what has to be done. They even manage to save the life of a baby and anyone who has seen any other Troma films knows how rare that can be. In its way, Chopper Chicks in Zombietown serves as a reminded that not every Troma film is as bleak as Combat Shock or Beware! Children at Play. The Cycle Sluts do a good job and so does the film.

Speaking of doing a good job, keep an eye out for Billy Bob Thornton, making an early appearance as the unfortunate boyfriend of one of the residents of Zariah. Billy Bob seems to be having fun with this early job and his appearance here serves as a reminder that everyone started somewhere.

Great Moments In Comic Book History #35: Tomb of Dracula #49

Posted on October 7, 2023 by Jedadiah Leland

Marvel’s Tomb of Dracula #49 (October, 1976) finds Dracula in a foul mood. Not only does he have the pesky vampire hunters still chasing him but also the leader of his cult, Anton Lupeski, is obviously plotting against him. Dracula just wants to spend some time with his wife but instead, he finds himself suddenly transported to the mansion of Angie Turner.

Angie is a recluse who has the ability to bring fictional characters into existence. She spends her time with the Frankenstein’s Monster, D’Artagnan, Tom Sawyer, and Injun Joe. Her favorite fictional character, though, is the title character from Bram Stoker’s Dracula. The real Dracula is stunned and angered to discover that he’s been summoned by a woman who thinks that he’s the same as what calls the “inferior” who is featured in Stoker’s novel. Angie watches as Dracula not only kills all of her companions but also kills Robin Hood and Zorro when she summons them. Angie realizes that Dracula is not the tragic figure that she imagined but instead a vicious monster.

Dracula, who truly was a monster in Tomb of Dracula, taunts Angie and prepares to attack her, just to suddenly find himself back in his lair. Dracula may have claimed to have been real but Angie was not only able to wish him out of her mind but, as the final panels show, she was also able to bring back to life all of her other companions. The story ends by revealing that Angie is a mental patient who has been in a padded room ever since losing her family.

If this issue just featured Dracula dismissing Stoker’s novel, it would be an important part of Marvel’s vampire mythology. What makes the issues a classic is the suggestion that even the “real” Dracula is just a figment of Angie’s imagination. Since Tomb of Dracula regularly featured guest appearances by other Marvel character, one could argue that this one issue suggests that the entire Marvel Universe might just be an elaborate fantasy in the mind of a woman mourning the loss of her husband and children. Either way, this issue is a strong portrait of the power and comfort of imagination. Angie stands in for every comic book reader over the years.

Tomb of Dracula #49 (October, 1976)

“And With The Word Shall Come Death”

Writer — Marv Wolfman
Penciler — Gene Colan
Inker — Tom Palmer
Colorist — Michele Wolfman
Letterer — John Costanza
Editor — Marv Wolfman

Previous Great Moments In Comic Book History:

Horror Game Review: Weird Texts From An Unknown Number (2023, Mark Sample)

Posted on October 7, 2023 by Jedadiah Leland

When you get a weird text from an unknown number saying that all of your secrets will soon be revealed, you assume that it is your brother Matt, pulling another stupid prank while traveling around Europe.

But what if it isn’t?

That’s the question at the heart of Weird Texts From An Unknown Number, a short but creepy Interactive Fiction game in which how you respond to the texts can lead to five completely different but equally disturbing endings.

This is a short game that can be played in under five minutes but, because each answer leads to an entirely different ending, it is also a game that can frequently be replayed. I found myself replaying this well-written game several times because I not only wanted to see every ending but also just how bad things could get the for the main character. The answer is very bad. The lesson? Some numbers are best left unknown.

Play Weird Texts From An Unknown Number.

Horror Scenes I Love: Jamie Lee Curtis In Prom Night

Posted on October 7, 2023 by Lisa Marie Bowman

The great Jamie Lee Curtis is, of course, beloved by horror fans for starring as Laurie Strode in the original Halloween. Myself, I’ve always felt that her best horror performance was actually in 1980’s Prom Night.

Just watch her, during the film’s final minutes, when she discovers that the killer who has spent the entire day killing all of her friends is someone from her own family. This is great acting and one can see why the Canadians gave her a Genie nomination for Best Foreign Actress. Let’s hope David Gordon Green never decides or gets the chance to mess this one up.

6 Non-Horror Roles Of Vincent Price

Posted on October 7, 2023 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Vincent Price could have been Ashley Wilkes.

That may sound strange today, the idea of horror icon Vincent Price playing the courtly and handsome Ashley Wilkes in Gone With The Wind. But, when Price came to Hollywood in the late 30s, it actually seemed like ideal casting. Before he became known as a horror actor, the Missouri-born Price was known for being a handsome stage actor who specialized in playing romantic parts. Though Price would become best-known for his horror films, he was capable of much more and he also appeared in much more.

Here are just six of Vincent Price’s memorable non-horror performances!

Robert Wade in Service de Luxe (1938)

At the age of 27, Vincent Price made his film debut in this romantic comedy, playing Robert Wade. Robert Wade is a young man from Albany who comes to New York City because he is trying to raise money that he can then use to build and perfect a new tractor. It’s in New York that he meets and eventually falls in love with a life coach named Helen Murphy (Constance Bennett). Helen is relieved to discover that the earnest Robert is someone who doesn’t need a life coach to tell him how to live his life …. or design a tractor as the case may be! This is a rather slight film but, in his film debut, Price is charming and handsome.

2. Vital Dotour in The Song of Bernadette (1943)

In this Oscar-nominated film, Price has a key role as the prosecutor who looks into the claims that a girl named Bernadette (Jennifer Jones) has experienced visions of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Though the role does carry some hints of the type of work that lay in Price’s future, it’s still a far cry from his later horror roles and Price brings some needed nuance to a characters who, in lesser hands, could have just been a flat-out villain.

3. Shelby Carpenter in Laura (1944)

Perhaps the best-known and most-regarded of all of Price’s non-horror films, Laura features Price in the role of the good-for-nothing, wealthy boyfriend of Laura (Gene Tierney). When Laura is (incorrectly) believed to have been murdered, Shelby Carpenter is one of the more obvious suspects. Price is wonderfully sleazy in the role of Shelby.

4. William Gibbs McAdoo in Wilson (1944)

Vincent Price doesn’t really get to do much in this epic biopic of America’s worst President but it’s still amusing to see the instantly recognizable Price as Wilson’s son-in-law and wannabe successor, William G. McAdoo.

5. Baka In The Ten Commandments (1956)

Perhaps the worst of all the villains to be found in The Ten Commandments, Baka’s cruelty ends only when he’s killed by Charlton Heston’s Moses. Price truly does a wonderful job turning Baka into a villain who can be despised by all viewers.

6. Nicholas Maranov in The Whales of August (1988)

In one of his final roles, Price played a charming Russian who visits two elderly sisters (Lillian Gish and Bette Davis) at the seaside vacation home in Maine. After decades of being typecast as a horror actor, Price showed off his considerable charm and wit in this role and received a nomination for Best Supporting Actor from the Independent Spirit Awards.