Horror Film Review: Forbidden Planet (dir by Fred M. Wilcox)

Posted on October 30, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

In general, I’m not really a huge fan of science fiction. A lot of that is because I tend to get bored with the huge mythologies that come along with most science fiction franchises. I don’t care who the best Star Trek captain is. Some of the Star Wars films were enjoyable, but I roll my eyes whenever I meet people who are pedantic about referring to the first movie as A New Hope. My dislike of Avatar is well-known, though it’s actually softened a bit now that everyone else seems to dislike it as well. (I find much of the current dislike to be performative, whereas mine was sincere. I disliked Avatar before it became cool to do so.) Most of the science fiction films that I have enjoyed have either poked fun at the genre (like the Guardians of the Galaxy films), were directed by Ridley Scott (Alien, Blade Runner), have featured giant monsters that were created by radiation, or are Italian (like Starcrash).

That said, I absolutely love Forbidden Planet.

First released in 1956, Forbidden Planet stars a young, handsome, and stalwart Leslie Nielsen as John J. Adams, the commander of the starship C-57D. Adams and his crew are on a mission to investigate what happened to an expedition to the planet Altair IV. As C-57D approaches the planet, they get a message warning them not to land on the planet for safety reasons. Adams ignores the message. When the ship—which rather charmingly is made up to look like a classic flying saucer—lands, Adams and his crew are met by a robot named Robby who takes them to meet his creator, Dr. Edward Morbius (Walter Pidgeon). Morbius explains that he and his daughter Altaira (Anne Francis) are the only survivors of the expedition and that there is an unseen force on the planet that attacks anyone who lands on the surface… anyone other than Morbius and his daughter. Morbius politely suggests that Adams should go back to Earth. Adams says that he can’t do anything until he gets orders…

Despite all of the grim talk about an unseen presence, Forbidden Planet actually starts off as being almost a comedy. With the exception of Commander Adams, Doc (Warren Stevens), and Lt. Jerry Farman (Jack Kelly), the C-57D seems to be exclusively manned by goofy guys who can’t get over the fact that there’s a woman on the planet. (Adams mentions that the crew has been in space for nearly two years.) The Cook (Earl Holliman) wants some alcohol and Robby the Robot knows just how to make it. Fortunately, Leslie Nielsen didn’t have his trademark white hair when he appeared in this film. Otherwise, I don’t know if I’d be able to handle his deadpan, dramatic delivery.

Things change when the unseen attack turns out to be real and starts attacking the ship. A lot of those likably goofy characters end up dying. And when Adams discovers what is truly the source of the monster… well, let’s just say that I imagine the subtext was missed by a lot of the kids who probably made up the film’s initial audience. There’s no silliness to be found in the film’s final moments, with the monster burning away a door that was supposed to be impenetrable and Morbius finally confronting the truth of what really happened to the expedition.

I can’t really remember how old I was when I first saw Forbidden Planet. It came on television one October night and I watched it with my Dad. I thought Robby the Robot was adorable, but what truly stuck with me was the scene where the monster walks into an electrified force field and is suddenly visible.

The way the monster roars and swats at the crew of the ship has always stuck with me. And once we discover the true origins of the monster, the scenes take on an entirely new meaning.

(The monster is so terrifying that even Robby the Robot shuts down rather than face it. It’s an underrated moment of fright. If even Robby can’t battle the monster, what hope is there for anyone else on the planet?)

Leslie Nielsen is likable but a little boring as the male lead. Anne Francis overacts a bit as Altaira. It doesn’t matter. Walter Pidgeon’s intense performance is the one that you remember. Forbidden Planet is an intelligent and thought-provoking film, one that holds up even today. I may not like science fiction, but I will watch it every October.

The Werewolf of Woodstock (1975, directed by John Moffitt)

Posted on October 8, 2026 by Jedadiah Leland

Shortly after the end of the famous Woodstock music festival, a hippie-hating local (Tige Andrews) goes out to the now-deserted festival grounds and attempts to destroy the stage. Since the stage is still attached to the power lines, he ends up getting electrocuted. He survives, but now, whenever there’s an electrical storm, he turns into a hippie-hating werewolf. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately, depending on how you look at it), the world’s most clean-cut hippie band has shown up in town so that they can say they performed at Woodstock.

The plot of The Werewolf of Woodstock sounds like a comedy, but the movie takes itself fairly seriously. Most of the film’s campiness appears to be unintentional. Producer Dick Clark was able to rope a fairly respectable cast into appearing in this short film. Along with Tige Andrews as the werewolf, Andrew Stevens appears as a member of the band, while Belinda Balaski plays a groupie who gets kidnapped by the werewolf. Michael Parks and Meredith MacRae show up as two big-city cops who are called in to deal with the town’s werewolf problem. I believed that Tige Andrews really did hate the hippies with every fiber of his being, but otherwise, no one seems that invested in their roles.

Is the movie worth watching? It is, just because it’s short and there’s a scene where the werewolf steals a dune buggy. I watched it on a Russian site, though it wasn’t a very good upload. It doesn’t appear that it’s even been released on DVD or Blu-ray. I’m surprised. I would think some company would have released it just for the title alone.

The TSL Grindhouse: Rebel Rousers (dir by Martin B. Cohen)

Posted on April 28, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

1970’s Rebel Rousers tell the story of what happens when Paul Collier (Cameron Mitchell) arrives in a small desert town, searching for his girlfriend, Karen (Diane Ladd). Karen ran away when she discovered she was pregnant because she was scared that Paul would attempt to force her to get an abortion. While Paul talks to Karen in a cheap motel, a motorcycle gang rides into town. The members of the gang include Randolph (Harry Dean Stanton) and Bunny (Jack Nicholson), who wears striped prison pants and a stocking hat. The leader of the gang is J.J. Weston (Bruce Dern), who went to high school with Paul. They even played on the same football team but their lives have since followed differing paths. (How exactly 30ish Bruce Dern and 50ish Cameron Mitchell could have been in the same high school class is not an issue that the film chooses to explore.)

Paul reunites with Karen and swears his love for her. However, when Paul and Karen run into the motorcycle gang, Karen is kidnapped. Bunny wants to force himself on Karen but J.J. wants to set her free. J.J. challenges Bunny to a series of motorcycle games on the beach. The winner decides what happens to Karen. Meanwhile, Paul heads back to the town in search of help but discovers that almost everyone is too much of a coward to help him out. Only Miguel (Robert Dix), the leader of a rival gang is willing to step up and save the community from the Rebels!

Rebel Rousers was filmed in 1967 but was considered to be so bad that it was put on a shelf and forgotten about until Jack Nicholson suddenly became a star in Easy Rider. Rebel Rousers was released on the drive-in circuit as a Jack Nicholson movie, even though Nicholson is barely in the film and he gives a pretty one-note performance as Bunny. The movie’s star is Cameron Mitchell, who usually played villains and doesn’t seem to be too invested in this film. (Mitchell has such a naturally sinister screen presence that I was actually worried about Paul finding Karen. Bruce Dern and Diane Ladd are the sole members of the cast who really stand out, with Dern taking on the type of cool rebel role that was usually played by Peter Fonda while Ladd (pregnant at the time with Laura Dern) actually manages to bring some real emotional depth to her character. The movie itself was obviously made for next to nothing and it seems like it was shot in a hurry. Everything feels like a first take or, even worse, like a rehearsal that was deemed “good enough.” The competition between Bunny and J.J. ultimately feels mostly like filler than anything else.

Rebel Rousers is one of the more obscure entries in Jack Nicholson’s filmography. If not for the success of Easy Rider, it never would have been released at all. By the time Rebel Rousers did come out, Jack Nicholson was too busy establishing himself as one of the best leading men of the 70s to spend too much time looking back. Today, watching this film can make it easier to understand why Nicholson was considering dropping out of Hollywood all together before he was cast in Easy Rider. That said, the film today serves as a reminder that everyone started somewhere and sometimes, the somewhere is the second feature at the grindhouse.