So, in honor of Val’s commitment to her craft, I decided that today’s six trailers would be for six movies that Val either watched or mentioned in her review of The Evil Eye! Unfortunately, it turns out that not all of those movies have trailers on YouTube. And I already shared the trailer for Mario Bava’s The Girl Who Knew Too Much (a.k.a. Evil Eye) last week.
Let’s see what I did find!
Bruka, Queen of Evil (1973)
I could not find a trailer for Queen of Evil. However, when I did a search for “Queen of Evil Trailer,” one of the trailers that came up was for Bruka, Queen of Evil. I’ve never heard of this film before but it looks like something some of our readers would like.
2. Manhattan Baby (1982)
However, YouTube did have a trailer for Lucio Fulci’s Manhattan Baby, which was also known as Evil Eye. Actually, Evil Eye was probably a better title for it. I’m one of the few people willing to defend this film and even I’m unsure just what exactly Manhattan Baby is supposed to mean.
3. The Green Inferno (1988)
Val’s search for information about The Evil Eye led her to Bloody-Disgusting.com, which featured an infamous review of The Green Inferno. Here’s the trailer for 1988’s Green Inferno, which should not be mistaken for Eli Roth’s Green Inferno.
That’s a question that people have been asking for 129 years. Arguably the world’s first famous serial killer, Jack the Ripper killed at least five prostitutes in the Whitechapel section of London. Some claim that he killed as many as twenty. He may have also written several taunting letters to the police. Again, some say that the letters are authentic and some say that they were hoaxes. Hell, there’s even some people who say that Jack the Ripper himself is a myth and the five murders attributed to him were actually five unconnected crimes. It was speculated that Jack the Ripper was a butcher, a surgeon, or maybe a midwife. Just as suddenly as the murders began, they ended. The London police claimed that he had committed suicide by jumping into the Thames. Few people believed them then and even less now.
The reason that there is so much uncertainty is because Jack the Ripper was never caught. He was never identified. There were stories of confessions, though many of them came from the mentally infirm or they were heard by someone who was a friend of someone who claimed to be the Butcher of Whitechapel. At one point, there was even a claim that Jack’s diary had been found.
As a horror fan, a true crime fanatic, and a lover of history, I’ve read quite a few theories about who Jack the Ripper was. Nearly every prominent (or, at the very least, remembered) Victorian has been accused of having been Jack the Ripper. Oscar Wilde has been accused of hiding a confession in The Picture of Dorian Gray. Various members of the Royal Family have been fingered as the culprit. Even Lewis Carroll could not escape accusation. The true crime author Patricia Cornwell wrote an entire book where she (wrongly) accused the painter Walter Sickert. Cornwell’s case could basically be summed up as follows: “Walter Sicket’s paintings were weird. Walter Sickert must be Jack the Ripper.” Apparently, she managed to destroy one of Sickert’s paintings while looking for clues.
The truth of the matter is that Jack the Ripper was probably some guy who no one has ever heard of, most probably one of the unknown men who lived and worked in the shadows of Whitechapel. For all the talk of Jack being a doctor, it can be argued that the surgical precision of his murders has been overstated. He didn’t get away with murder because he was particularly clever. Instead, he got away with it because, in 1888, even fingerprinting was considered to be a radical science.
But, honestly, that’s not very intriguing. For those of us who have researched the case, it’s far more interesting to speculate that Jack the Ripper was either a famous person or that the murders were all the result of a huge conspiracy.
That’s certainly the appeal of From Hell, the 2001 film from The Hughes Brothers. Making the same basic case as Bob Clark’s Murder By Decree, From Hell argues that the Jack the Ripper murders were the result of a royal conspiracy. In reality, that theory has been discredited but it certainly is the most cinematic of all the possibilities.
And, speaking of cinematic, it must be said that From Hell is very stylish movie. Though the title comes from one of Jack the Ripper’s letters, From Hell also could just as easily be used to describe the film’s vision of Whitechapel. Whitechapel is full of shadows and secrets and the blood flows freely. If Mary Kelly (Heather Graham) isn’t killed by Jack the Ripper, it’s just as likely she’ll be killed by one of her clients. Even as the murders are committed, life and business in Whitechapel goes on. What other choice is there? It’s either risk being killed or starve.
It falls to Frederick Abberline (Johnny Depp) to solve the murders. The real-life Abberline was an almost legendary detective who lived for decades after the final Jack the Ripper murder. The movie’s Abberline is an opium addict who always seems to be on the verge of a breakdown. When he and Mary Kelly fall in love, you’re not really sure if it’s something to be happy about. Abberline seems just as likely to go crazy as everyone else.
From Hell is an uneven and somewhat overlong movie but I like it. Heather Graham and Johnny Depp give somewhat odd performances but the oddness fits right in with the Hughes Brothers’s vision of a world that’s been turned permanently upside down. It’s a movie that’s full of atmosphere and the story is intriguing even if it’s never exactly convincing. For obvious reasons, I can’t reveal who plays Jack the Ripper but I will say that he gives a very good performance. When he says that, “One day, men will look back and say that I gave birth to the 20th century,” you believe him.
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!
Psycho is an example of game that borrows a famous name but has next to nothing to do with its supposed inspiration. Despite the picture above, you do not play Norman Bates in Psycho. You are not Marion Crane, either. You are not even Aborgast, Lila, or Sam.
Instead, you are a nameless detective who is searching for some jewels that were stolen from a museum. For some reason, you believe the jewels were stolen by Norman Bates and that Norman is holding a curator hostage at his motel. (None of that sounds like Norman.) You go to investigate.
You have only four hours to find the jewels and rescue the curator. Unfortunately, once you enter the house, you will be randomly besieged by ghosts, dogs, and other members of the Bates family.
If they touch you, you fall asleep for a period of time. Somewhere in the game, there is a gun. If you find it, you can at least shoot at the ghosts. Why wouldn’t a detective have his own gun? I’m not sure.
Psycho the game has not aged well. What was probably state of the art in 1988 now feels clunky and slow.
I do like the painting of Mother Bates, though.
Since first discovering it, I have tried to play Psycho on ten separate occasions. Each time, I got frustrated with the slow gameplay and I quit. Norman can have the jewels and the curator. After all, he wouldn’t hurt a fly.
(It’s tradition here at the Lens that, every October, we watch the original Little Shop of Horrors. And always, I start things off by telling this story…)
Enter singing.
Little Shop…Little Shop of Horrors…Little Shop…Little Shop of Terrors…
Hi! Good morning and Happy October the 29th! For today’s plunge into the world of public domain horror films, I’d like to present you with a true classic. From 1960, it’s the original Little Shop of Horrors!
When I was 19 years old, I was in a community theater production of the musical Little Shop of Horrors. Though I think I would have made the perfect Audrey, everybody always snickered whenever I sang so I ended up as a part of “the ensemble.” Being in the ensemble basically meant that I spent a lot of time dancing and showing off lots of cleavage. And you know what? The girl who did play Audrey was screechy, off-key, and annoying and after every show, all the old people in the audience always came back stage and ignored her and went straight over to me. So there.
Anyway, during rehearsals, our director thought it would be so funny if we all watched the original film. Now, I’m sorry to say, much like just about everyone else in the cast, this was my first exposure to the original and I even had to be told that the masochistic dentist patient was being played by Jack Nicholson. However, I’m also very proud to say that — out of that entire cast — I’m the only one who understood that the zero-budget film I was watching was actually better than the big spectacle we were attempting to perform on stage. Certainly, I understood the film better than that screechy little thing that was playing Audrey.
The first Little Shop of Horrors certainly isn’t scary and there’s nobody singing about somewhere that’s green (I always tear up when I hear that song, by the way). However, it is a very, very funny film with the just the right amount of a dark streak to make it perfect Halloween viewing.
So, if you have 72 minutes to kill, check out the original and the best Little Shop of Horrors…
While two sorority pledges painted his face and then posed for selfies with his unconscious body, Brandon choked to death on his own vomit. The pledges were named Corey (Sarah Booth) and Elaina (Kimberly-Sue Murray) and when they were put on trial for manslaughter, they claimed that it was just a prank gone wrong and that the other members of the sorority put them up to it. Of course, no one was willing to back up their stories. Instead, the president of the sorority, Jacqueline Gill (Katherine Barrell), just went on television and said that she hoped the two would ask God for forgiveness. Corey and Elaina were convicted and sent to prison.
Two years later, Corey and Elaina have been released and now they’re looking for revenge. However, a simple revenge will not do. Elaina is an engineering genius and Corey … well, Corey’s just really angry. They’ve set up an elaborate haunted house and they’ve sent a private invite to each member of the sorority…
Two girls seeking revenge for a sorority prank gone wrong sound like either the set up for a Lifetime movie or the world’s worst Lime-a-rita commercial. (“So, this happened: we thought we were going to a haunted house but then it turned out we were actually being invited to our violent doom. Yep, it was a Lime-a-rita night.”) However, The Scarehouse is neither. Instead, it’s a rather grisly horror film with a streak of extremely dark humor.
But is it any good?
Let’s start with what works. Both Sarah Booth and Kimberly-Sue Murray give very good performances as the two girls. Even when the script lets them down, Booth and Murray keep the movie from dying. The film actually does some interesting things with the two characters. It keeps us guessing about which one of them is really the driving force behind the whole revenge plot. No sooner do you think that you’ve figured out their power dynamic then something will happen or words will said that force you to reconsider what you previously assumed.
Though I had a hard time believing that such an elaborate death trap could have been designed by just two people, the haunted house was a memorable and creepy location. It was full of atmosphere and the promise of doom. If I ever found myself in there, I’d probably be scared.
Finally, you always have to admire a horror film that doesn’t shy away from pursuing things to their darkest conclusion. Once one enters the Scarehouse, there is no escape and everyone’s worst nature will be exposed. There is no exit and Hell is other people.
At the same time, I’ve grown tired of movies that feature lengthy scenes of people being tortured. After nearly two decades of Saw films and Hostel rip-offs, whatever shock value those scenes may have once had are gone. The tortures in The Scarehouse are elaborate and sadistic and thoroughly unpleasant to sit through. A girl with an eating disorder has her corset tightened until she literally splits in half. A forced pillow fight leads to corrosive chemicals eating away at flesh. Some of it is clever but, far too often, these scenes go on too long. There’s only so long you can spend watching someone being tortured until you mentally check out.
As well, The Scarehouse uses a nonlinear time line. In between the scenes of Corey and Elaina getting their revenge, we see flashbacks to the prank that led to death of Brandon. But, since we already know what happened because it’s all Corey and Elaina ever talk about, there’s not really anything new to be discovered in the flashbacks.
Obviously, my feelings about The Scarehouse are mixed. I was pretty dismissive immediately after I watched it but the movie has definitely stuck with me. It has its flaws but it also has two memorable and frightening performances. Watch at your own discretion.
In this episode of the Boris Karloff-hosted anthology series, Thriller, murders are being committed all over Europe. What do all of the murders have in common? They have all happened outside of the same traveling wax museum!
Is it a coincidence or are the wax figures coming to life and committing murder?
This episode was written by Robert Bloch of Psycho fame and originally aired on January 8th, 1962.
Have you ever wondered what it’s like to be a cat?
Sure, we all have!
Have you ever wondered what it’s like to be in the middle of a zombie apocalypse?
Who hasn’t?
Well, now, you can get the answer to both questions! First published in 2011, You Are A Cat In The Zombie Apocalypse is a “pick-a-plot” book. It’s one of those books where, at the end of each page, you’re given a series of options. For instance, at the bottom of Page 120, we have, “Do you run? If so, take off to page 169. If you stay put, turn to page 123.”
In this book, you’re a cat named Holden Catfield. One day, you’re just waking up from a nap. You’re minding your own business. You’re just being a cat, basically. Suddenly, all the humans are acting strange. Weird-looking people are wandering the streets and biting each other! Your owner’s daughter wants you to get in a car with her and a stranger so you can all go somewhere else. Do you get in the car or do you explore your neighborhood?
That’s the first of many choices that you’ll have to make. They’re important choices because, if you do happen to find yourself in a situation where you get bitten by a weird human, you’ll turn into a zombie yourself. And then you’ll be the one looking for people to bite…
Now, our longtime readers know that I’m both a cat person and a lover of zombie films. So, needless to say, I totally and completely loved You Are A Cat In The Zombie Apocalypse! Not only does this book capture what it’s like to be a cat but it also does a pretty good job of capturing what I imagine it’s like to be a zombie. Don’t worry, though. Make the right choices and Holden will never turn into a zombie.
You Are A Cat In The Zombie Apocalypse was written and illustrated by Sherwin Tija, who did an excellent job on both counts. The book ends with a collection of “Catknowldgements” and a page that tells about the “Meowthur” and the “Mewllustrator.” If you’re a cat person, you’ll love it.
Through the Shattered Lens 