Horror Movies

[Blackshirts BLVD]

 

[returnofjakedog]

So I've continued to watch some older horror movies lately. Some are pretty obscure. Lets see if I can get through all of them.

Eegah (1962)-


A girl is captured by a giant caveman, and her intrepid wannabe rock star boyfriend fights to rescue her.
This one is notorious for making "worst movie ever lists, and apparently was actually on MST3K at one point.
A young 7'3" Richard Kiehl (Jaws from James Bond movies) plays the mumbling cave dweller who captures people and tentatively gropes the hot chick. The young boyfriend surf rocker and the chick's dad fight to escape by racing around the desert in a dune buggy while the giant caveman runs after them.
The rock star protagonist, who looks like a young Kurt Russell with a slightly squashed face, is the director's/producer's son and this movie was made specifically to launch his actual surf rock career. It didn't work.
It isn't a good movie by any stretch but it does have it's charms, and I didn't hate the leads despite the poor acting.
A 3 outta 10 is generous as a regular movie but a 7 outta 10 if you watch it specifically as a "so bad it's good" feature.

 

[returnofjakedog]

Messiah of Evil (1973) (also known as Dead People)-



A young lady travels to a remote northern California coastal town to try to find her artist father who has seemingly disappeared. She stays at his pretty cool artist loft with 3 other out-of-towners while searching for her dad. Weird shit happens at every turn as the hostile locals dismiss and/or attack and "infect" them at every turn.

This one is a surrealistic nightmare type of movie with creepy visuals and soundtrack. If you put The Crazies, In the Mouth of Madness, and Halloween 3 into a blender, spiced up the story with hints of Ravenous and The Fog, and then set it all in an HP Lovecraft universe in the early '70s, this is might be what you would get.

The acting can be spotty, and the story sometimes just wallows in weirdness instead of moving forward. Even after watching, I'm still not 100% sure what it is. Is it a zombie flick? A movie about a killer cult? Evil dimensional invasion? All or none of the above?

I'd never heard of this one before but apparently it is a bit of a divisive cult flick. Personally, I was pleasantly surprised as I really enjoyed it. The ambience and dread really work imo.

I'll go 7 to 7.5 outta 10 range. But it might not work for everyone.

 

[returnofjakedog]

The Corpse Vanishes (1942)-



Young brides keep dying at the alter, and then their corpses are stolen. The incompetent police are useless so an intrepid female reporter does their investigating for them. She becomes entangled with mad horticulturist/scientist Bela Lugosi and his assistants who are working to "cure" his dying wife.

This one is just kinda "meh". The mystery isn't really a mystery at all (they spell it out for you right from the start). The antagonists are ok and kinda interesting, but the protagonists are generally forgettable. The storyline moves slowly towards an inevitable conclusion.

This one, like Eegah, has apparently also been featured on MST3K but I'm not sure it deserves that. It isn't good, but it also isn't bad enough for rifftrack status imo.

A 4.5 outta 10 from me. The one reason to watch it is the always creepy performance of Bela Lugosi. If that isn't enough for you then don't bother.

 

[returnofjakedog]

Horror Express (1972)-


Another Christopher Lee/Peter Cushing vehicle!

Anthropologist Christopher Lee discovers an ancient humanoid frozen in the tundra, and transports it via train across Russia(?). But the creature "wakes up" and starts taking over people's bodies, which leads to a bunch of corpses with bleeding, bleached eyes and bleeding mouths. Autopsies performed by Dr. Peter Cushing find that the brains are wholly smooth and appear to have been boiled!
People keep dying, eventually gratuitous Telly Savalas appears for a bit with his Rasputin-like spirital advisor monk who seems to embrace the evil creature as a god.

Another pretty good one considering it's age! It is essentially The Thing blended together with Murder on the Orient Express. I wasn't overly impressed early on but it picked up steam and I was really liking it as things progressed. Lee was excellent. The story starts slow but progresses and esculates nicely.

A solid 6.5 to 7 outta 10 range from me. Worth a watch for fans of older horror.

 

[returnofjakedog]

Keeping with the repeating actors theme.....another Bela Lugosi flick!

The Devil Bat (1940) -


Bela plays an olfactory scientist (perfume dude) who works for a local family that has gotten rich off of his work. He seeks revenge by raising genetically manipulated giant bats that he trains to attack people who wear his new scent creation.

So they clearly state that Bela was given every opportunity to be given a stake in the company but decided to take cash payments instead, yet he still somehow feels betrayed and wants to kill everyone for his choices? I guess it is just "crazy Lugosi" as motivation?

Much like the previously reviewed The Corpse Vanishes, there isn't a lot of mystery or intrigue as it is all clearly shown and explained.
Also much like that other film, the cops are completely retarded as they point out, discuss, and then totally disregard the obvious links that bind the murders (the flowers in The Corpse Vanishes, and the perfume here).

Also much like The Corpse Vanishes, the protagonists are generally dumb and forgettable, and Bela Lugosi is the main stand out.

Despite the stupidity I enjoyed this one a bit more. The giant bat effects are ridiculous and their attack screams are hilarious but they are creepy hanging out in the lab. Bela, as always, chews up the scenery and acts freaky. The story itself, while somewhat poorly executed, was somewhat interesting.

All in all, I give it a 5 to 5.5 outta 10 range. Considering it's 80+ age it ain't half bad.

One note on films from these really old eras (pre-mid 50s or so) is that they often come across feeling like a stage play. If you can get past that then you might be able to enjoy them but modern audiences may struggle.

 

[returnofjakedog]

The Bat (1959)-


A famous murder novelist and her companion rent a very large mansion in the countryside. However the mansion has a history of murders by a famous masked serial killer known as The Bat, who wears steel claws which he uses to rip out people's throats.
Though he has been inactive for years now, The Bat returns now to search the house, persumably for a bunch of $$ that has been embezzled from a local bank.

At this point we finally get the brilliant Vincent Price as a doctor who may or may not be helping them.

The movie suffers from some of the same issues I have discussed with the '40s films: the police are really stupid, and everyone under reacts to people being slaughtered (multiple people killed, killer in the house and police can't find him, but lets just go back to bed?!? WT holy F?!?).

This one plays out more like an old school murder mystery, only with more violence.

Not a bad flick, but it would have been much better with Vincent Price as the lead but instead he is a supporting actor and suspect.

I'll give it a 5 outta 10. I enjoyed some aspects but others failed.

The ending where the lead actress breaks the 4th wall and explaining the conclusion and then walking off well saying "Thats the end" pissed me off some. (It was like the Ferris Bueller ending without the humor).

 

[returnofjakedog]

Killers From Space (1954)-


A young Peter Graves is a military nuclear scientist who inexplicably survives a plane crash in the desert after encountering some unexplained phenomenon.

This one kinda sucks. The story is cool enough but the aliens and fxs are laughably bad, even for the time period.

Peter Graves does well with what he is given but not much else stands out. The aliens look ridiculous with their stupid costumes and ping-pong ball bug eyes.

I won't say much else but don't waste your time (like I did) unless you are a big fan of old alien invasion sci-fi, and even them it is barely passable.

I'll give it a 4 outta 10. Slightly better than Eegah but not quite as "interesting" or "fun" to watch.

 

[returnofjakedog]

........and yet another Bela Lugosi vehicle! I'm watching these through a horror host show called Creature Features and they seem to like Bela movies quite a lot!
Anyways.......

The classic White Zombie (1932)-


This one comes on the heels of Bela's breakout Dracula film in 1930. He was already 40 by this point as he had worked only on Hungarian and German films until emigrating to the USA in 1923 and doing smaller roles for some years.

A young man and his fiance arrive in Haiti to visit an rich friend and plantation owner. However the rich friend is in love with the bride to be and does everything he can to try to get her to leave her fiance. Since that doesn't work, he meets with the local voodoo zombie master (Bela) brilliantly named Murder Legendre and makes a deal to have her be hypnotized and "zombified" to be under his control.
The fiance is grief striken by her seeming death, while the plantation owner is broken up with guilt about making her an blank, unthinking creature.
The fiance figures out that she is still alive and tries to rescue her but he has to fight off the hypnotist master's servants.

While the period limitations of the time are obvious, this movie does provide a genuinely creepy ambience and is generally better done than most for the time.

Keep in mind that these are the true Haitian zombies, similar to The Serpent and the Rainbow, and not "Romero zombies". They are just mostly thoughtless (not brainless) slaves to serve Bela, who can operate with them out in the open because everyone is terrified of him. There is a brilliant scene early in the movie where Bela actually introduces the individual "zombies" and explains who they were before and that they were changed into zombies due to crossing him. It sets him up as a powerful and devious bad guy.

I'll give it a solid 6 to 6.5 outta 10, but take into account the limitations I brought up. Some of the acting isn't good. But it still holds up fairly well for a literally 90 year old film. A must see for deep classic horror fans.

 

[returnofjakedog]

The Killer Shrews (1959)-


So a small boat with supplies arrives at an island a few hours before a hurricane where the captain and his 1 crew member meet with the 5 or 6 scientific researchers posted there. They want to leave ASAP but the storm prevents that so they retreat to the compound on the island. There the captain discovers that the scientists have been genetically mutating shrews and that the one drunken idiot has carelessly allowed them to escape into the wild. The giant shrews have eaten everything on the island and are coming for the people. Can they hold out long enough for the remaining shrews to cannibalize each other?

This one was an ok ride considering the low budget and bad fxs and relatively poor acting. The drunken former fiance of the scientist's daughter (captain's kinda love interest) is a complete asshole who keeps trying to kill the captain, and also messes up their escape and other plans because he is an idiot.
The fxs are bad. They used coonhounds with some sort of shag carpets on them for the shrews. They look scary enough running around I guess, but nothing like a shrew. They then use really bad hand puppets for close ups of the shrews chewing through adobe walls. Just plain not good!

4 to 4.5 outta 10 range from me. I actually somewhat enjoyed it despite the low rating and everything else about it. It could be in the "so bad, it's good" genre.

 

[Blackshirts BLVD]

 

[Blackshirts BLVD]

 

[Nasty_Magician]

I don't know if there's a thread that delivers as consistently as this one.

 

[Blackshirts BLVD]

 

[Chef99]

So I've continued to watch some older horror movies lately. Some are pretty obscure. Lets see if I can get through all of them.

Eegah (1962)-


A girl is captured by a giant caveman, and her intrepid wannabe rock star boyfriend fights to rescue her.
This one is notorious for making "worst movie ever lists, and apparently was actually on MST3K at one point.
A young 7'3" Richard Kiehl (Jaws from James Bond movies) plays the mumbling cave dweller who captures people and tentatively gropes the hot chick. The young boyfriend surf rocker and the chick's dad fight to escape by racing around the desert in a dune buggy while the giant caveman runs after them.
The rock star protagonist, who looks like a young Kurt Russell with a slightly squashed face, is the director's/producer's son and this movie was made specifically to launch his actual surf rock career. It didn't work.
It isn't a good movie by any stretch but it does have it's charms, and I didn't hate the leads despite the poor acting.
A 3 outta 10 is generous as a regular movie but a 7 outta 10 if you watch it specifically as a "so bad it's good" feature.

Lol, MST3K turned me on to 'Eegah'. Hysterical.

 

[Blackshirts BLVD]

More cool art

 

[Nasty_Magician]

Watched Lake of Death on Shudder, a Scandanavian horror movie. It was subtitled which wasn't great but the movie itself was ok. Cool setting, acting was pretty good but they relied very heavily on irrational decision making to move the plot along and the big reveal at the end was wildly impractical.

 

[Chef99]

Been a long time since I posted a pic from one of my all time favorite guilty viewing pleasures.

ZOMBEAVERS FOREVER!

 

[Nasty_Magician]

One super overused trope that I'm sick of is using mental health as the "monster". Whether it's totally in their head or if the entire movie is "is this actually happening or are they crazy". I was never intrigued or scared by this concept and now after years of every other movie seemingly using this crutch it's time to retire it. It's lazy, it's bad, it's gotta go.

 

[FaCe-LeE-uS]

One super overused trope that I'm sick of is using mental health as the "monster". Whether it's totally in their head or if the entire movie is "is this actually happening or are they crazy". I was never intrigued or scared by this concept and now after years of every other movie seemingly using this crutch it's time to retire it. It's lazy, it's bad, it's gotta go.

Agreed. I've always found the psychological aspects to be intriguing but far too often, as you put it, its used as a crutch... And it can be exhaustingly predictable sometimes.