A serial killer known as “The Avenger” is murdering blonde women in London (which, once again, proves that its better to be a redhead). And while nobody knows the identity of the Avenger, they do know that the enigmatic stranger (Ivor Novello), who has just recently rented a room at boarding house, happens to fit his description. They also know that the lodger’s landlord’s daughter happens to be a blonde…
Released in 1927, the silent The Lodger was Alfred Hitchcock’s third film but, according to the director, this was the first true “Hitchcock film.” Certainly it shows that even at the start of his career, Hitchcock’s famous obsessions were already present — the stranger accused of a crime, the blonde victims, and the link between sex and violence.
Also of note, the credited assistant director — Alma Reville — would become Alma Hitchcock shortly before The Lodger was released.
In this 1974 film, Vincent Price plays Paul Toombes, a talented actor who, despite his formal training and his distinguished background, is best-known for giving hammy performances in low-budget horror films.
Hmmm …. do you think Vincent Price possibly could have related to this character? I mean, one thing that people often forget is that Vincent Price did not start his career in horror movies. Price started his career as a romantic lead and then he eventually moved into character parts. He was tested and apparently quite seriously considered for the role of Ashely Wilkes in Gone With The Wind. Price was also considered for the role of Mr. Potter in It’s A Wonderful Life and rumor has it that he would have gotten the role of Addison DeWitt if George Sanders had turned down All About Eve. Before he became an icon of horror, Price had roles in big-budget Oscar nominees like The Song of Bernadette and Wilson. He even appeared in the classic film noir, Laura.
It wasn’t until the 50s that Price started to regularly appear in horror films and soon, that was what he was best known for. Price’s naturally theatrical style made him a perfect fit for the genre and it won him a legion of adoring fans. The same can be said of Paul Toombes.
Paul Toombes is best-known for playing the role of Dr. Death. He appeared in five Dr. Death films, the majority of which were written by his friend, Herbert Flay (Peter Cushing). Unfortunately, the murder of his fiancée put a temporary end to Toombes’s acting career. Even though Toombes was acquitted of the crime, everyone seems to assume that he did it. Apparently, having a nickname like Dr. Death doesn’t do much to convince people of your benevolence.
However, Toombes finally has a chance to rebuild his career! The BBC wants to produce a Dr. Death TV series and they want Toombes to once again play his most famous role. The only problem? People involved with the production are getting murdered, one-by-one. Is Dr. Death responsible or is he being set up?
Madhouse is kind of an early slasher film, though, with its gloved killer and its whodunit plot, it has more in common with an Italian giallo than an installment of Friday the 13th. The deaths are bloody but not too bloody. In fact, for a film that’s full of murder and betrayal, Madhouse is surprisingly good natured. The main appeal of the film, of course, is to see Vincent Price and Peter Cushing acting opposite of each other. Though they were both known for appearing in horror films, Price and Cushing were two very different actors and each brought his own individual approach to Madhouse. Price is his usual flamboyant self while Cushing is considerably more reserved and the contrast of their styles actually creates an interesting dynamic between Toombes and Flay.
Madhouse is also full of footage from previous films that Vincent Price had made for AIP. (Of course, these movies are presented as being Dr. Death films.) Basil Rathbone and Boris Karloff both appear in archival footage, acting opposite Price. It’s nice to see them, even if neither one of them was actually alive when Madhouse was filmed. Paul Toombes actually gets a scene where he praises Bail Rathbone’s performance and one gets the feeling that the sentiments were being expresses as much by Price as by the character he was playing.
Madhouse is okay. The plot’s not particularly challenging and the tone tends to go all over the place, as if the film can’t decide whether it wants to be a horror movie or a Hollywood satire. However, the film works whenever Vincent Price is on-screen, which is often. Price is just fun to watch, especially when he’s teamed up with an old pro like Peter Cushing. For fans of Price and Cushing, Madhouse is an entertaining chance to watch two icons of horror go at it.
In this short film from 1955, a high school teacher in Kansas is wrongly accused of being a communist. Despite the fact that he’s a Methodist Sunday School teacher, he made the mistake of assigning a book that was included on a list of subversive literature and, as a result, the entire town is turning against him! While this short film might not win any points for subtlety (or good acting), it is an effective look at paranoia and how rumors get started. I especially liked the shot of the spinning phone.
So, why am I sharing this in October? Because this film was directed by Herk Harvey. In the 50s and 60s, Harvey directed a countless number of short films. Some of them were educational. Some of them were industrial. Some of them, like this one, were specifically made to be shown to civic groups. However, horror fans will always know Harvery as the director of one of the most important horror films ever made, Carnival of Souls!
I’ll be sharing Carnival of Souls later this week. For now, enjoy The Sound of a Stone!
Today’s horror film is one that we haven’t shown on the Lens before! That’s right, it’s a premiere! Yay!
First released in 1953, Phantom From Space is about an invisible alien who wears a diving helmet. It’s a film that alternates between being extremely silly and occasionally effective, with the emphasis very much on “occasionally.” Even though the alien causes some mayhem, it’s still definitely a more sympathetic character than some of the humans that it runs into. This film is very much of the “humans screw everything up” genre of sci-fi films. Phantom From Space was also directed by Billy Wilder’s brother! I should, however, admit that there’s absolutely nothing about this film that will remind you of The Apartment,Double Indemnity, or the Lost Weekend.
(Well, I guess you could argue that they all are in black-and-white so there is that….)
Anyway, I watched this with my friends in the Late Night Movie Gang on Saturday and we enjoyed it. Maybe you will too. It’s a film that definitely rewards a certain attitude of snarkiness. It’s only 72 minutes long so give it a try.
On tonight’s episode of One Step Beyond, a man suspects that his best friend is having an affair with his fiancee. What better way to take care of the problem than by leaving his friend to die on the side of a mountain?
It seems like the perfect crime and the man might get away with it …. but only if he can do something about the ghost who seems to be stalking him in the days leading up to his wedding!
As always, this is supposedly based on a true story.
Note that actor Hy Pyke’s name is misspelled on the cover of this Blu-ray.
Sometimes, you just see a film that simply cannot be reviewed in any conventional use of the term and that’s definitely the case with the 1988 slasher/Satanist/rock musical Hack-O-Lantern.
On Friday, I watched Hack-O-Lantern on Shudder. It was broadcast as a part of Joe Bob Brigg’s Last Drive-In Halloween special. I watched the film in a bizarre sort of daze, trying to figure out just what the Hell was actually going on. It’s a film that apparently has a plot but good luck figuring out what exactly that plot is. I do know that that the film is supposed to be taking place on Halloween night but, in the world of Hack-O-Lantern, Halloween is apparently a time when people get together and dance in a gym or something. Seriously, it’s a weird movie.
As far as I can tell, the film is about Tommy (Gregory Scott Cummings), who I guess is like the local trouble maker or something. He spends all of his time listening to heavy metal music and having these elaborate fantasies in which the members of a band rip off his head. Or, at least, I assume they were meant to be fantasies. Tommy’s brother, meanwhile, is a local cop and his mother is crazy and overprotective …. I think. As I said, the film’s plot was not always easy to follow and it actually took me a while to figure out that the earnest and innocent-looking cop was also Tommy’s brother. To be honest, I’m not really sure that words alone can express just how incoherent the plot of Hack-O-Lantern is. I could tell you that the film appears to have been edited with a chainsaw but even that would not begin to capture just how difficult it is to understand why one scene follows another in this film.
Anyway, Tommy’s Grandpa (Hy Pyke) might seem like he’s a fun-loving old man but actually, he’s in charge of the local Satanic cult. He wants to bring Tommy into the cult but apparently, Tommy might be ambivalent or Tommy might just not know that the cult exists. It’s really hard to figure out what exactly is going on inside of Tommy’s head, beyond the fact that it involves a heavy metal band beheading him. Grandpa’s plot to turn Tommy into a Satanist somehow leads to several murders at the Halloween dance. The murderer wears a devil’s mask and kills people in a variety of bloody ways. If you like cheap but effective gore effects, you’ll get something out of this film. The scene with shovel is especially nasty.
It’s a bit of a strange Halloween dance, to be honest. For one thing, there’s a stripper who shows up for no particular reason and who appears to be like 70 years old. There’s also a stand-up comedian who pops up out of literally nowhere and does this long routine that has nothing to do with Satanism, Halloween, or people getting killed with shovels. Why is the comedian there? Why does the film spend so much time on him? Where does he disappear to after he tells his bizarrely long joke? These are the type of questions that you’re forced to ponder while trying to figure out what the Hell’s going on in Hack-O-Lantern.
The thing is that, as easy as it is to criticize a film like Hack-O-Lantern, there really is no other film like it. Sure, there are other slasher films. There are other films about Satanists. There are even other films that feature a random stand-up comedian and a lot of gratuitous nudity. But there are few films that mix all of those elements together quite as incoherently as Hack-O-Lantern. As such, Hack-O-Lantern is an oddly fascinating film. You watch the film and you wonder, “How the Hell did this happen?” And for that reason, it’s worth tracking down and watching.
This 1993 novel tells the story of two friends on a Greek vacation.
Now, when I say “friends,” what I mean is that we’re told that they’re friends and they spend a lot of time hanging out with each other and the entire book is pretty much about the developments in their relationship. However, for two lifelong friends, they really don’t seem to like each other that much. I mean, when I was in high school, I had friends who I secretly disliked but I never went to Greece with them.
Our friends are named Helen and Josie. Josie has a rich father, who is a screenwriter and who is accompanying the girls to Greece. Helen has a less rich father because this is a Christopher Pike book and someone always has to come from a poor but honest family. Both Helen and Josie are recovering from near-death experiences. Helen attempted to commit suicide. Josie had a heart problem of some sort. You would think that, having come close to dying, Helen and Josie would be all about celebrating life but actually, they’re still fighting over Ralph. Ralph used to date Helen and then he dated Josie and then he left town.
One thing that I quickly discovered while reading this book is that it’s not always easy to remember what happened to Helen and what happened to Josie. Even while I was reading it, I kept mixing up who had which tragic backstory. I probably should have kept better notes but, honestly, when you’re reading a 200-page YA novel from the early 90s, your first thought is not going to be, “I better go grab my notebook because these 200 pages might be too complicated for me to keep track of.”
Anyway, Josie hooks up with Tom, who is British and sensitive and who refuses to have sex on a nude beach without a condom. Helen kind of hooks up with Pascal, who doesn’t speak English. Josie steals an ancient artifact. Helen serves Josie a hamburger that’s full of ground-up glass. There’s a big storm that overturns a boat and …. wait a minute, what? Ground up glass in a hamburger!? AGCK!
Anyway, it’s all because Helen and Josie were apparently possessed by two angry Greek goddesses during their last visit to Greece. Apparently, these angry Greek spirits have been trying to kill each other for centuries or something like that. I couldn’t really follow it and, to be honest, I think Christopher Pike just made it up as he was going along.
That said, I kind of enjoyed the book, just because of how silly it all was. I mean, Helen and Josie seriously are the worst friends ever. The book may not make sense but between all of the strange dreams, the deadly hamburgers, and all the passive aggressive insults, it was never boring. If nothing else, it made me think about the vacation that I took the summer after I graduated from high school. My sisters and I traveled all over Europe and we saw all sorts of ancient ruins and we managed to do it without stealing any artifacts or trying to kill each other. I’m proud of what we accomplished!
In this short film from 1958, a terrible little kid named Larry is given detention because he’s a terrible little kid. He’s supposed to clean the chalkboard but instead he draws a cartoon character, which promptly comes to life and probably traumatizes Larry for life. Larry does learn a little something about behaving at school but at what cost? Seriously, Larry may have had bad manners but you know who I blame? The parents. That’s who the stick figure should be tormenting.
Now, believe it or not, there is a reason why I’m posting this in October. This short film — like many educational films from the 50s — was directed by Herk Harvey. Harvey spent the majority of his long career making industrial and educational films. However, horror fans will always know him as the man who directed 1962’s Carnival of Souls! I’ll be sharing Carnival Of Souls next week but for now, enjoy Manners in School!
And remember …. good manners are good for everyone! And if you don’t believe me, a stick figure is going to lecture you and give you nightmares.
Agck! Seriously, dear readers, don’t mess with Ouija boards.
That’s really the main lesson that’s to be learned from the 2017 Spanish film, Veronica. Taking place in 1991 and based on a true story (No, it really is!), Veronica tells the story of a 15 year-old girl named …. well, Veronica (Sandra Escacena). Veronica lives in a nice but cluttered apartment with her three younger siblings and her mother. Ever since the death of her father, Veronica’s life has pretty much centered around going to school and looking after her siblings. While her friends get to experience life and mature and develop, Veronica seems to be trapped in that one apartment with her responsibilities. Veronica is a good babysitter and she appears to puts up with a lot without losing her temper. You can’t help but sympathize with her.
One day, during a solar eclipse, Veronica and two friends sneak into the school’s basement. While all of the other students watch the eclipse while under the strict supervisions of the nuns, Veronica and her friends use a Ouija board in an attempt to hold a séance. Veronica wants to talk to the spirit of her father. Instead, a very different spirit shows up and Veronica faints.
When Veronica wakes up, things have changed. Her friends now seem scared to be around her and they refuse to talk about what happened during the séance. When Veronica returns home, she feels like she and her siblings are not alone in the apartment. She starts to have disturbing dreams, in which the children are in danger and a dark shadow is stalking her. Veronica becomes convinced that an evil creature is after her and her family. A blind nun known as Sister Death tells Veronica that the only way to get rid of the spirit is “by doing right what you did wrong.” Cryptic advice is always the best advice, right?
Veronica knows that she has to do something but what? With the children starting to suffer from mysterious injuries, Veronica tries to figure what she did wrong so that she can fix it. But, as you probably already guessed, she’s not going to like the answer….
Veronica is an effectively chilling horror film. I’ve seen it described as being “the scariest film on Netflix” but I wouldn’t quite go that far. It didn’t make me jump, though it did make look over my shoulder a few times just to make sure there wasn’t anything sneaking up behind me. Veronica is, however, a film that very much gets under your skin. If you’ve ever had to look after a child (let alone three children) and feared that you might not be up to the task, you’ll be able to relate to Veronica and her terror. It’s not just about bringing a bad spirit into the world. Nor is it just about the fact that Ouija boards are inherently creepy. Instead, it’s all about protecting those children and the gradual realization that, despite all of your best efforts, there are some bad things in the world that you can’t just wish away. The evil spirit that follows Veronica into the world is not just a paranormal monster. Instead, it’s a metaphor for every fear that anyone has ever had while growing up. It’s the fear of not being good enough. It’s the fear of missing out on life. It’s the fear and resentment that comes from living in a world that is inherently unfair.
Veronica is an intelligent and thoughtful horror film, one that is blessed with a great performance from Sandra Escacena in the title role. It’s on Netflix. Just look for the blind nun.
Of course, if you’ve been watching Lifetime for the past month or so, you know that. Lifetime has spent most of October showing movies about cheerleaders who are either killing or being killed. Now that Lifetime has decided to show Christmas movies for the rest of the year, the deadly cheerleader movies have moved to the Lifetime Movie Network.
For instance, last night saw the premiere of The Pom Pom Murders! Now, I was co-hosting the #ScarySocial live tweet last night so I missed The Pom Pom Murders but, fortunately, my sister Erin had the foresight to set the DVR for me. Thank you, Erin!
As I always do whenever there’s a killer cheerleader movie on the DVR, I tried to get Erin to watch it with me. Erin was a cheerleader in high school and I always feel it’s good to get an expert opinion on whether or not these films accurately reflect the cheerleading experience. (I always refused to try out for cheerleader in high school, mostly because two of my sisters had done it and I wanted to establish my own identity. Of course, since I was a teenager at the time, establishing my own identity meant writing a lot of emo poetry.) Erin, however, declined because no one was murdered while she was a cheerleader. I guess she has a point.
Anyway, The Pom Pom Murders is about Audrey (Anna Marie Dobbins), who tries out for a spot on the cheerleading squad of the Los Angeles Renegades basketball team! She makes the squad and she even gets a charming new boyfriend when star player Walter Wilson gives her a ride home! Everything seems to be perfect, until the murder of Bailey (Grace Patterson), a member of the squad and Walter’s ex-girlfriend! Bailey is strangled while her dog watches, just in case you needed any more evidence that this killer is ruthless.
With Walter as the number one suspect and an apparent killer stalking the Renegade Girls, can Audrey cheer the team to victory without losing her life? One would normally think so, seeing as how this is a Lifetime film and most Lifetime films do, eventually, have a happy ending. However, this film also features a rather snarky voice-over from Audrey, one which suggests that this story might not have a happy ending. Of course, Audrey also suggests that she might just be saying that to make you watch so one huge reason to watch the film is to see if Audrey’s an honest narrator or not!
The best Lifetime films always mix the melodrama with a healthy dose of self-awareness. These are films that go cheerfully over the top and make no apologies for doing so and that’s certainly the case with The Pom Pom Murders, which features an enjoyably eccentric group of suspects. Is the murderer the pervy janitor or the intense coach or the strange owners? Is Audrey going to be able to solve the case or is she going to end up the latest victim? Is she going to become the newest star cheerleader or is she going to finally listen to her mother and go to law school?
You’ll have to watch the film to find out! This is a fun movie. If you’re into Lifetime movies, you’ll be doing some cheering yourself.
