Lady Frankenstein (1971)

 

When Dr. Frankenstein is killed by a monster he created, his daughter and his lab assistant Marshall continue his experiments. The two fall in love and attempt to transplant Marshall's brain in to the muscular body of a retarded servant Stephen, in order to prolong the aging Marshall's life. Meanwhile, the first monster seeks revenge on the grave robbers who sold the body parts used in its creation to Dr. Frankenstein. Soon it comes after Marshall and the doctor's daughter.

Lady Frankenstein is a 1971 Italian horror film directed by Mel Welles. It stars Joseph Cotten, Rosalba Neri (under the pseudonym Sara Bey), Mickey Hargitay and Paul Müller. The script was written by cult writer Edward di Lorenzo.

Soon you get my poon tang baby.

This movie has one stand out....Rosalba Neri.  It's a typical 70's exploitation film but man, she has a screen presence.  I haven't seen her in anything else but she's certainly feisty here. It's impossible to take your eyes off of her while she's on the screen.  She's not a bad actress either.   I'm surprised she didn't get more roles.  For once I'm being serious....she was very good in this overall shitty movie.  She's no Peter Cushing, but I 100% know which of the two I'd rather see naked.

After Mr. Frankenstein is killed Lady Frank not only wants to clear his name, she wants to build a super hot sex partner.  The doctor's former assistant is an old codger but she convinces him that if he puts his brain in this hot young stud then he can have her.  He's so hard up for the poon tang that he agrees to it.  This odd plot line at least gives us a chance to see Lady Frankenstein bare all.  And I'm not ashamed to say that I would like to conduct a few experiments on her.  As the villagers rush the castle, the monster is dead and the castle is burning....Lady Frankenstein decides that this is a great time to get some peniscillion.  Then for whatever reason, the dude chokes her to death.  The End.  Kind of an odd way to close out the movie.  I'm not real sure why he did it after he went through all the trouble of getting a brain transplant just to get her spread.

Fuck, I got a headache.

This film has many flaws but I found it somewhat entertaining.  The monster isn't one that will strike fear into you.  In fact, his head is so fucking big you'll probably be laughing instead. And he doesn't like sex...he interupts and brutalizes not just one naked couple banging away, but two couples.  The one thing I did learn from this movie is that Rob Zombie sampled the line "Who is this irresistible creature who has an insatiable love for the dead?" from the trailer for his song "Living Dead Girl."  I have always wondered where that came from.

Kevin Booker

Sex slave vs. Monster

Suspiria (1977)

"Suzy Banyon decided to perfect her ballet studies in the most famous school of dance in Europe. She chose the celebrated academy of Freeborge. One day, at nine in the morning, she left Kennedy airport, New York, and arrived in Germany at 10:40 p.m. local time."

A newcomer to a fancy ballet academy gradually comes to realize that the staff of the school are actually a coven of witches bent on chaos and destruction. 

Suspiria is an Italian horror film, directed by Dario Argento.  It was co-written by Argento and Daria Nicolodi, produced by Claudio and Salvatore Argento and stars Jessica Harper, Stefania Casini, Alida Valli and Joan Bennett.

There is probably not a lot more I can say about Suspiria that hasn't already been said or written.  The film just isn't on the lists of top horror movies of all time....it's on lists for the top movies of all time...period.  And yet, I had never seen it.  I saw it on lists and heard how good it was. Well the day came that I picked it up. And I was floored that my stupid ass had never taken the time to see it.  It's a marvelous piece of work.

Susie, do you know anything about... witches?

 There are several things that set this film apart from most. One is Argento's visual imagery. He sets scene after scene aglow with color and uses it to affect moods and feelings. Believe it or not Argento later said that he modeled the look of the film directly on Walt Disney's "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs".  Snow White couldn't have made it through this film in one piece and those seven dwarfs would have been butchered quickly.  Every single frame of this film is incredibly lit and colorful.

The score in this film may be the most effective I've ever heard.   The soundtrack was composed and performed by Goblin. The main title theme was named as one of the best songs released between 1977 and 1979 in the book The Pitchfork 500: Our Guide to the Greatest Songs from Punk to the Present, compiled by influential music website Pitchfork.  The music works so well throughout the film helping set a mood of terror and dread.  Next on my agenda is picking up this soundtrack.

You wanted to kill Helena Markos! Hell is behind that door! You're going to meet death now... the LIVING DEAD!

 The one weak point in the film is the plot. It fact, it's very weak and some things are not really explained at all.  But it really doesn't matter because that's not the main thing here. Style and atmosphere are what's important to this film and the images it provides are not easily forgotten.  It has two incredibly brutal murder scenes that linger in your mind well after completing the film.  The opening double murder may be one of the most intense in the history of film.  This one scene makes the silly murders in today's horror teenie films look tame and amatuerish in comparison.  How can such a brutal murder be so stylishly filmed?

Acting in this film must have been difficult.  All the cast spoke in their native tongues. Yet the performances don't seem to suffer. I especially enjoyed Joan Bennett's performance.  It was obvious she was having a blast making this film and I loved her in the Dark Shadows TV series.  Sadly, this was her final film. Cult actress Jessica Harper has another nice performance and her character Suzy seems to be trapped in a nightmare.  They may be the best way to describe this film.  With the colors and intensity, it's like watching a most gruesome nightmare.

This is not a perfect film but it is without a doubt a horror masterpiece.  Every horror fan must see this film...period.  Don't be a dumb ass like me and wait. 

Kevin Booker

Trivia:
Joan Bennett's last feature film.

The first part (with Inferno and Mother of Tears) of a trilogy of films about the "Three Mothers". 

Director Dario Argento composed the creepy music with the band Goblin and played it at full blast on set to unnerve the actors and elicit a truly scared performance.

It is often incorrectly assumed that, to achieve the rich color palette, the film was shot using the outdated 3-strip Technicolor process. This is untrue. No film made after the mid-1950s was shot using this method. The film was instead shot on normal Eastman Color Kodak stock, then printed using the 3-strip Technicolor process, utilizing one of the last remaining machines. This issue has been confused somewhat by the fact that, on the 25th anniversary documentary featured in the 3-disc DVD set, a discussion of the printing process by cinematographer Luciano Tovoli was incorrectly followed by a diagram showing a 3-strip camera. 

Director Dario Argento's original idea was the ballet school would accommodate young girls not older 12. However the studio and producer (his father) denied his request because a film this violent involving children would be surely banned. Dario Argento raised the age limit of the girls to 20 but didn't rewrite the script, hence the naivety of the characters and occasionally childlike dialogue. He also put all the doorknobs at about the same height as the actress' heads, so they will have to raise their arms in order to open the doors, just like children.

The woman playing Helna Markos is not credited. According to Jessica Harper, the woman was a 90 year old ex-hooker Argento found on the streets of Rome. 

The voice heard whispering on the bizarre soundtrack by Goblin is that of Goblin band member Claudio Simonetti. Simonetti stated in interviews that much of what he whispers on the music score is just gibberish.

Dario Argento was inspired to make this film by stories of Daria Nicolodi's grandmother, who claimed to have fled from a German music academy because witchcraft was being secretly practiced there.

The films finale was inspired by a dream that co-writer Daria Nicolodi once had. In the dream Nicolodi said she had encountered an invisible witch and most bizarrely there was a panther in the room with her that suddenly exploded. The dream was written into the film, only in the film it's a porcelain panther that explodes - rather than the real panther that appeared in Nicolodi'

Star Jessica Harper said in interviews that the most frightening scene in the film for her was the grand finale where everything explodes and shatters around her as she flees the academy. Harper said that the rigged explosions where quite unnerving as they were placed close to her on the sets.

For the wide shots of the 'maggots' falling from the ceiling the crew would drop gains of rice down onto the actresses from above.

 The film was shot over four months.

Argento had cinematographer Luciano Tovoli watch Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs to have him model the color scheme of that film for Suspiria. 

In an interview with star Jessica Harper, she said that many of the actors on set spoke different languages during shooting. According to Harper most either spoke Italian or German and it would make communicating difficult at times. However since the film would be dubbed for American release it was deemed not to be an issue during filming.

The Pit And The Pendulum (1961)

 

Francis Barnard goes to Spain, when he hears his sister Elizabeth has died. Her husband Nicholas Medina, the son of the brutest torturer of the Spanish Inquisition, tells him she has died of a blood disease, but Francis finds this hard to believe. After some investigating he finds out that it was extreme fear that was fatal to his sister and that she may have been buried alive! Strange things then start to happen in the Medina castle. Written by Leon Wolters - IMDB

The Pit and the Pendulum is a horror film directed by Roger Corman, starring Vincent Price, Barbara Steele, John Kerr, and Luana Anders. The screenplay by Richard Matheson was based on Edgar Allan Poe's short story of the same name.

Buried alive.....

 This was the second film from American International Pictures that was based on Poe's short stories.  The First was House Of Usher.  This is a movie that proves you don't need gore to create a masterful horror film. It will surprise many modern viewers as to how well it holds up today. The atmosphere and tension is still there and still will be after another 50 years pass.  The pacing of the film is terrific.  It never pauses for very long and is constantly moving forward.

The cast gives fine performances with the lone exception....Jon Kerr. He's like a wooden indian. His acting is way too dull for a leading role.  Fortunately, the visual presentation more than makes up for this. Barbara Steele also does a fine job in her short appearences as Medina's deceased wife. Price is, of course, fantastic with bringing sympathy to his character and then turning in the complete opposite direction as a madman.

You are going to Hell...

 The film is not a faithful adaption of the story and instead weaves many elements from Poe's stories into the framework.  It manages to effectively capture Poe's obsession with ancient buildings and Gothic settings. The sets are lavish.  It's a masterpiece of low budget film making and should be viewed by all horror fans.  Even non-horror buffs will find this movie well worth their time. It also sports one of the greatest final shots in film history.

Kevin Booker

Trivia:
This was the second of Roger Corman's "Poe" films. He had intended to do "The Masque of the Red Death" but felt that it was too close to the content of Ingmar Bergman's recent The Seventh Seal (US title: "The Seventh Seal"). Several years later Corman would go to England to make The Masque of the Red Death.

The film never had an original prologue. It was added when the film was sold to TV and a further few minutes were required to pad out the running time. Only Luana Anders from the original cast was available so an extra scene of her in a madhouse was filmed and tacked on to the beginning. This scene does not really tie in with the rest of the film. 

To increase the pendulum's sense of deadly menace, director Roger Corman took out every other frame during the editing stage making the blade appear to move twice as fast.

This film was shot in fifteen days.

The pendulum was made out of wood and had a rubber blade.

Actor John Kerr was worried about being strapped down to the table with the pendulum above him for the movie's climax. In order to demonstrate that it was perfectly safe, director Roger Corman stood in for Kerr while the scene was being set up. 

The Innkeepers (2011)

The Innkeepers is a 2011 film written, directed and edited by Ti West, starring Sara Paxton, Pat Healy and Kelly McGillis.  The story takes place at The Yankee Peddler Inn, a once grand hotel than is about to go out of business.  Claire and Luke are the only two employees working on the final weekend.  Both are ghost hunting enthusiasts and with only a few guests staying there, they do a little investigating into the legend of Madeline O'Malley.  The legend goes that Madeline's husband ran out on their honeymoon and she hung herself.

I had heard rumblings that the movie was pretty good.  It should have been an earthquake I heard.  This movie is very good. If you're looking for gore, it's not here.  If you're looking for a slow burn with lots of tension, it's here.  For the first 40 minutes not a lot happens.  You get a little comedy and learn about our Innkeepers.  Then things start to pick up.

She obviously had a rough day.

 West does a good job with lingering shots and when the scare arrives it packs a punch.  He does an excellent job building the characters early on and then adding a creepy atmosphere that delivers in the end. That's the best part of what he gives us in this film.  He takes his sweet time, building the mood instead of trying to scare us every minute. The audience gets invested in the characters. 

Sara Paxton and Pat Healy are both excellent in their roles.  They have a natural chemistry and play off of each other very well.  They show the mundane nature of running a collapsing business with the type of dialogue you may find in a Tarantino movie.  Ok...it's not quite on that level but you get the point.  The banter between the two seems natural and Paxton steals the movie with her charm.

DO NOT go down there.

 This is a movie that you turn out all the lights and crank up the sound on.  Prepare to jump.  

Student Bodies (1981)

There are some films that are bad.  Then there are some that are entertainingly bad.  Then there are some that are embarrassingly bad.  1981's Student Bodies fits into the latter category.  This film is an attempt at a spoof of the early cycle of slasher films, but the result is an appallingly bad hour and twenty-six minutes of arch and unfunny humor.  The sad thing about Student Bodies is that the cast tries hard, and it seems obvious that the filmmakers think that this material is funny.  Nevertheless, in the end, we are left dreadfully unfunny with a painful cinematic experience.

On the night of Jamie Leigh Curtis' birthday, a fiendish killer called the Breather (voiced by Jerry Belson) begins to kill the students of Lamab High School whenever they start to have sex.  He uses only the most exotic and unlikely weapons, and soon the entire school is in panic.  No one knows who the Breather is, and suspicion falls upon Toby Badger (Kristin Riter), a virgin who always seems to be found at the murder sites.

It is a pity that this is such a poor film, because it has what may be one of the funniest satiric lines that this author has ever heard.  At one point in the middle of the film, Principal Peters (Joe Talarowski) mentions that Malvert the janitor (The Stick) was once a teacher.  When someone expresses surprise that Malvert was once a teacher, Principal Peters says that “he does enjoy the raise in pay.”  If the rest of the film’s dialogue could have stayed at that level of sharpness, perhaps the film would not be as dismal as it is.  Instead, most of the dialogue seems aimed at young teenage boys, with unfunny references to farts, horsehead bookends, and lines that try to be funny in a M*A*S*H kind of way (“So you can't say it could be anybody. WE'RE anybody.”, “True, but we're also somebody.”), but are just arch and painfully unfunny.  While a good line sneaks through here and there, mostly it is abysmally juvenile.

 He does enjoy the raise in pay.

Part of the problem with Student Bodies is that it is full of ideas and scenes that probably sounded good when they were first thought of, but when actually put on film they quickly become quite tiresome.  Witness the gimmick the movie has of flashing a body count every time someone is killed.  The first time that is seen, it provokes a mild smile, but after multiple times, it is just a dead horse that the filmmakers keep beating without pity.  The same goes for the killer’s habit of selecting the most unlikely weapons to kill people, such as a paperclip or an eraser.  Again, once is mildly funny, but by the fifth or sixth time, the joke has well worn out its welcome.  Sadly, this film is chock full of this kind of humor; the few good ideas it does have are drowned out by this amateur hour “comedy.”

Writer director Mickey Rose attempts at directing are a bit better than his writing attempt, but they still are nothing outstanding.  He effectively parodies the killer’s eye view POV shots of films like Halloween (although this is also overdone).  Effective also is the climax, which shifts from “comedy” to bizarre; we see Toby running down the halls of the school while characters from the film jump out at her wearing outlandish clothes and making wild faces.  This dream sequence is actually fairly effective at depicting the imagery of a nightmare.  The rest of the direction is relatively pedestrian, with the cameras following the actors as the go about the film.  In all, Mickey Rose offers us efficient and occasionally imaginative direction.

The best aspect of the film is its cast of amateurs.  While they will never be singled out for Oscar consideration, they nevertheless give enthusiastic performances that try to raise the awful script to something worth watching.  Kristen Riter does a good job as Toby.  She adopts a school-marmish tone when talking about sex, and she also convincingly portrays her character’s “goody goody” attitude.  The most memorable performance comes from an actor credited as “The Stick” as Malvert the janitor.  He has very long arms that he swings bizarrely around, and he uses a goofy way of talking to show us that Malvert, while appearing to be an incredibly stupid person, may in fact know more than he lets on.  As a whole, the cast provides the only real energy in this film, and they are about the only thing that makes it watchable.

 Toby hears something....

Student Bodies wants to do for slasher films what Airplane did for disaster movies.  Unfortunately, the film is a disaster itself.  The cast tries its best to make this a watchable film, and the direction is adequate, but the script is so poor that it ruins any chances that this could be an entertaining parody.  The jokes are tiresome and unfunny, and the few good ideas that bubble to the surface are almost immediately drowned out.  Overall, this is a picture which is best avoided.

Eric Miller

Tales From The Crypt (1972)

Tales from the Crypt is a 1972 British horror film, directed by Freddie Francis. It is an anthology film consisting of five separate segments, based on stories from the EC horror comics of the fifties by William Gaines.  Five people on a tourist trip end up getting lost in a crypt and run into the Crypt Keeper (Ralph Richardson) who proceeds to show them how they each died.

The Crypt Keeper

 After recently reviewing films that run from average to shitty beyond belief, I now run into this gem. It's filled with a star studded cast that does a great job. (Peter Cushing, Joan Collins, Ian Hednry and Richard Greene)  This is a fantastic film with a great performance by Peter Cushing, as Arthur Grimsdyke, in his segment "Poetic Justice". In fact, Cushing won the Best Actor Of The Year Award in France for this role.  This was the first horror adaption of comic to film and could be considered an inspiration to Creepshow.

Peter Cushing has a heart in this film.

I'm not going to take you through all five tales, mainly because I'm too damn lazy to write it. But another fine segment was "And All Through The House" which has Joan Collins as the wife who kills her husband but can't call the police when a psycho Santa ambles up to the house.  This story also showed up in the "Tales From The Crypt" TV show years later.  Hell, all the stories are good and all the characters are deserving of their fate.  You don't feel bad for any of them when they get their just deserts.

Ho Ho Ho

 If you're a fan of British horror films or anthologies then this is the a film you must see. The movie is stylishly made and has suspense and gore that is sure to please.  Pick up the DVD for a cold winter's night.  It won't disappoint.

Kevin Booker

Trivia:
Peter Cushing is said to "act as himself" in this movie: Cushing's wife had died recently and he was very depressed; while Cushing's character is a widower who uses a ouija to talk with his dead wife.

Ralph Richardson filmed his major role in a day.

Peter Cushing was originally intended to play Ralph Jason, but after looking at the script he persuaded the producers that he would do more justice to the role of Mr. Grimsdyke.

Last full length cinema film of Robert Hutton.

Robert Zemeckis has said this is his favorite movie to watch on Halloween since it was released. he later produced a HBO show based off the comic series and directed the first episode, which was also the first story in the movie.

Peter Cushing wanted to do the movie so much that he took a lower fee. 

Stephen King and George A. Romero considered remaking this movie together. Their work together resulted in a completely separate but similar film, Creepshow.

Director Freddie Francis never read the original comics, fearing it would affect his personal interpretations on the stories. 

Despite being top of the bill and one of the six leads Joan Collins has only 15 lines.

Only two stories in this film - "Reflection of Death" and "Blind Alleys" - originally appeared in EC Comics' "Tales from the Crypt." "...And All Through the House" appeared in "The Vault of Horror" and "Poetic Justice" and "Wish You Were Here" both appeared in "The Haunt of Fear."

"Wishing You Were Here" has a scene where Barbara Murray eviscerates Richard Greene with a sword, exposing his intestines. This scene was originally cut in order to get a PG rating, although it was restored in later versions.

The Blood Beast Terror (1968)

The Blood Beast Terror is a 1968 horror film from Tigon Bristish Film Productions.  If you look in the left hand corner of the above movie poster you will see Peter Cushing. (One of my favorite actors)  Cushing considered this the worst film he ever made. I concur. And by that I mean the worst film HE ever made. But it looks like Citizen Kane compared to Blackenstein.

There is a basic horror movie theme here.  Victims are discovered with their blood drained and a detective (Cushing) is on the hunt to discover the killer.  Cushing as always is fun to watch and I give a tip of my hat to the filmmakers for trying to bring a different type of monster to the big screen.  Despite being a slow movie, I was intrigued as to who or what the killer really was.  I hung around just to find out.  Spoiler coming:  It's a woman that turns into a moth.   That sets up an ending that makes you groan.  The moth dies because she sees the light from a fire and flies into it, thus burning to death.

Like a moth to the flame....

 Despite terrible reviews from all around, the film is not that bad. It does have some misdirection that keeps you interested.  It also has some comic elements with Glynn Edwards (as Sergeant Allen) and Roy Hudd, as the morgue attendant who eats his frigging meals off the slabs in the morgue, complete with dead bodies.

It's obvious that this movie was shot on a shoestring budget. The movie has it's flaws such as hardly ever seeing monster and the poor ending.  The film didn't change the face of horror but it wasn't a complete disaster either.

Kevin Booker

 

You don't have to point shit out to Peter Cushing.  He sees all bumbling policeman.

Trivia:
Robert Flemyng replaced Basil Rathbone.

First film of Roy Hudd

Robert Flemyng reportedly hated working on the film. .