Ulli Lommel’s 1980 slasher film The Boogey Man is a pretty silly movie but I do like this scene. The idea of seeing something in the reflection of a mirror that doesn’t appear to actually be in the room is one of my top nightmare fuels.
Plus, after the storms we had last night and the fact that there’s still debris all over the place and just driving from one location to another is kind of a pain in the ass right now, there’s just something satisfying about watching a mirror get destroyed.
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!
This October, we’re using 4 Shots From 4 Films to look at some of the best years that horror has to offer!
4 Shots From 4 2000 Horror Films
American Psycho (2000, dir by Mary Harron)
Final Destination (2000, dir by James Wong)
Ginger Snaps (2000, dir by John Fawcett)
Shadow of the Vampire (2000, dir by E. Elias Merhige)
Along with The Haunt of Fear and Tales From The Crypt, The Vault of Horror was a horror anthology comic book that was published, from 1950 to 1955, by EC Comics. Hosted by The Vault-Keeper, The Vault of Horror featured adaptations of classic horror stories along with totally original tales of terror and fright. The Vault of Horror was so popular among young readers that eventually a psychiatrist named Fredric Wertham claimed that it, along with other comics, was responsible for juvenile delinquency and every other social ill facing 1950s America. Congress investigated and, because of all the bad publicity, EC canceled all of their horror titles.
However, the jokes on Wertham and Congress because The Vault of Horror is now eagerly sought after by collectors and is viewed as a high point in comic book history. Below are a few covers from The Vault of Horror, all done by artist Johnny Craig.
Today’s horror on the lens is 1966’s Curse of the Swamp Creature!
Probably the best thing about Curse of the Swamp Creature is that it was filmed in the town of Uncertain, Texas, which is right near the Texas/Louisiana border. Uncertain, which sits on the shores of Caddo Lake, was incorporated in 1961. Reportedly, when filling out the paperwork, the town’s founders wrote “Uncertain” in the blank for the name because they genuinely hadn’t come up with a name. And …. well, you know what happens when you try to make a joke on an official document.
Anyway, this film was directed by Larry Buchanan and that’s really all you need to know about it. Buchanan specialized in making low-budget remakes of other films, though he always claimed that Curse of the Swamp Creature was a totally original idea on his part. The film is about a mad scientist who lives in the swamp and is trying to reverse evolution. Things don’t always work out the way that they should and occasionally, the mad scientist has to feed his alligators. John Agar’s in the movie, of course.
Needless to say, the part with the dancer being controlled and then transformed into something else totally freaked me out, mostly because I’ve had nightmares like that.
And then, of course, you have the tentacles and the graffiti, which feels like something that H.P. Lovecraft would have come up with if he had lived in New York City in the 1970s and had to travel on the subway everyday. It’s easy to imagine old Howard Lovecraft, heading to an accounting job while staring at the graffiti all around him and wondering what type of monster was responsible for it. Cthulhu tags his territory.
As for the wizard with the eyes — well, glowing eyes are always freaky.
Hi, everyone. As I type this, we’ve got a tornado moving through my hometown so I’m going to go ahead and schedule this to post now, just in case we lose power. If today’s list is incomplete, just assume I lost power before I could complete it and I will complete it when the power returns!
For this year’s horrorthon’s final episode of One Step Beyond, we have the …. final episode of One Step Beyond!
In this, the series’s very last episode, a Boston newspaper reporter in 1883 somehow manages to write a firsthand account of one of the greatest natural disasters in human history, the volcanic eruption of Krakatoa. Making his accomplishment all the more amazing is that he not only filed the story the day before it happened but he also says that he has no memory of writing it! What’s going on? Take one step beyond and find out!
This episode originally aired on July 4th, 1961.
Enjoy and tomorrow, we start a new series here on the Shattered Lens!
I had a few reasons for watching the 1972 slasher film, The Flesh and Blood Show.
First off, the film was directed by Pete Walker. Though Pete Walker may not be as well-known as some of his contemporaries and his overall cinematic output is dreadfully uneven, he was still responsible for enough memorable films that I will always give him a chance.
Secondly, it’s a British film and the British were responsible for some of the best horror films of the late 60s and early 70s.
Third, speaking as a horror fan, that title is just irresistible. The Flesh and Blood Show? Well, there’s nothing subtle about that! Looking at that title, you find yourself wondering, “How much flesh and how much blood is actually in this film?”
Well, having watched the film, I can tell you that there’s very little blood and a good deal of flesh. The Flesh and Blood Show was Walker’s first horror film. Before moving into the horror genre, Walker specialized in making sexploitation movies and it’s kind of obvious that, when he directed this film, he was still more comfortable asking people to undress than asking them to play dead. As opposed to other slasher films, the majority of the young cast survives and the almost all of the murders occur off-screen. Every couple of minutes or so, someone else is getting undressed. The constant nudity actually starts to get pretty funny after a while. One could very easily use The Flesh and Blood Show to construct a drinking game.
As for the film’s plot, it deals with a group of actors who receive invitations to an abandoned theater. An unseen producer apparently wants them all to perform an infamous play, perhaps the same play that is rumored to have led to tragedy back in 1945. If it seems rather odd that the film’s characters would willingly go to an abandoned theater in the middle of nowhere and perform a possibly cursed play, no one is ever going to accuse anyone in this film of being smart. Why ask why when there’s so much dancing and undressing to do?
There’s also an elderly major (Patrick Barr) hanging out around the theater. He was actually one of my favorite characters in the movie because he approached everything with this very British, very stiff upper lip attitude. Of course, the major himself has a secret. That said, the secret isn’t that surprising. I figured it out as soon as he showed up.
Naturally, all the murders at the theater are linked back to a tragedy in the past. The final 15 minutes of the movie are made up of an extensive flashback to that tragedy and I will say this: it’s the best part of the film. The flashback was originally filmed in 3-D and Walker uses this as an excuse to indulge in some surreal flourishes.
There are a few positive things to be said about The Flesh and Blood Show. Pete Walker was a talented director and that talent comes through in even his weaker films. There are a few scenes where Walker manages to maintain a properly ominous atmosphere and the movie’s score is so melodramatic and over the top that it’s kind of hard not to love it.
But, for the most part, The Flesh and Blood Show is a rather forgettable film. If you want to see a good Pete Walker film, track down Frightmare.
Though The Vampyre was often erroneously attributed to Lord Byron, it was written by John William Polidori
First written way back in 1816, The Vampyre is a story about an amazingly naive young gentleman named Aubrey who becomes friends with the mysterious Lord Ruthven.
Everything about the enigmatic Lord Ruthven would seem to suggest that he’s a vampire but Aubrey never figures that out while he and the nobleman travel across Europe. Even after an inkeeper’s daughter dies of a vampire attack shortly after telling Aubrey about vampires (and, also, immediately after the sudden arrival of Ruthven), it still doesn’t occur to Aubrey that there might be something strange about Lord Ruthven. When Lord Ruthven is mortally wounded by bandits, he makes Aubrey swear an oath that he will not tell anyone about Ruthven’s death for a year and a day. Aubrey promises to keep the oath.
Now, apparently, back in the 19th century, people took those oaths very seriously because, even after Lord Ruthven shows up alive once again and now claiming to be the Earl of Marsden, Aubrey can’t tell anyone that he saw Ruthven die. Even after Ruthven starts to court Aubrey’s sister with the obvious intention of draining her blood, Aubrey still cannot bring himself to break his oath. Is it because oaths were really that important or is it that Aubrey himself is as in thrall of Ruthven as his sister?
John William Polidori was a physician and a writer, as well as a contemporary and friend to Mary Shelley, Lord Byron, and Percy Shelley. The Vampyre was conceived and written as a part of the same contest that saw Mary Shelley write Frankenstein. Though Polidori’s story is understandably overshadowed by Mary Shelley’s (and, it must be said, Polidori was nowhere near as good a writer as his famous friends), it’s still historically significant as the first “romantic” vampire tale. It’s the story from which so many others have sprung.
Many have also speculated that the story was based on Polidori’s friendship with Lord Byron, with Polidori represented by the unstable Aubrey while the self-centered but charismatic Lord Ruthven was perhaps meant to be a stand-in for Byron himself. This may be true or it may not. (When it comes to Byron, the Shelleys, and Polidori, it’s always perhaps a bit too tempting to read too much between the lines.)
The Vampyre is a historically important piece of work so, if you’re a fan of vampires, you have to read it. Flaws and all, we owe much to Lord Ruthven and John William Polidori.
Through the Shattered Lens 