Horror Movies

[FaCe-LeE-uS]

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

 

[returnofjakedog]

Another oldie as I continue delving into mostly public domain "classics" of varying quality.

I Bury the Living (1958)-



A guy named Robert Kraft(!) takes over running a large cemetery. There is a large board displaying all of the plots, with different colored pins to indicate if they are occupied, sold but currently empty, or other. He mistakenly places the wrong colors on some plots and the owners soon die. He dismisses this as dusturbing coincidence but experiments yield similar results until he believes he has the power over life and death, and a very guilty conscience.

This one was actually pretty decent. It plays like a good Twilight Zone episode. Stephen King himself lists it as an obscure favorite but criticized the ending.

A solid 6 to 6.5 outta 10 range from me. Watch if you like old TZ episodes.

 

[DJ Fieri]

 

[returnofjakedog]

The Brain That Wouldn't Die (1962)-


Hotshot young surgeon is conducting grafting experiments in an isloated country house. He wrecks his car on the way there and his fiancee is decapitated. So he keeps the head alive and searches for a body to attach it to. But her head has a psychic connection to the monster that the surgeon's experimentation has previously created, and has other plans.......

A pretty cool concept with questionable execution. It is a truly horrific situation but hard to take too seriously with the overacting and methods used to find a new body as the surgeon drives around and ogles every hot chick in the area. He expresses the need to find a new body quickly but doesn't even consider anyone who isn't of fashion model caliber. So he's kinda a dick.

I'll go 4.5 outta 10 area for me. Not a good movie but interesting as it has dug it's own little niche in pop culture as it has several different stage musicals and other adaptations made over the years.

I had trouble fairly judging this one because it was spoofed in one of my fav Steve Martin movies, The Man With Two Brains, back in the '80s. Obviously it was made at the peak of Steve's coke addiction!

 

[returnofjakedog]

City of the Dead (1960)-


An old English country town is cursed by a witch they burned a couple of hundred years ago. A professor played by the legendary Christopher Lee sends a young co-eds there for research but she ends up being sacrificed by a coven. This leads to her brother, boyfriend, and a female friend going to the town to search for her but the coven is now looking to sacrifice them also.

A decent entry. Storyline is good. Lots of cool visuals and creepiness. Acting is generally ok with a few exceptions. Of course it is a product of it time in regards to aspects like fxs.
The final scene is kinda awesome with the severely injured boyfriend stumbling around wielding a huge cross and setting baddies on fire with it.

I'll give it a solid 6 outta 10. Worth a watch for the old school fans.

 

[returnofjakedog]

The Hearse (1980)-


A sweater-vest wearing lady inherits a house out in the boondocks. She moves there and strange stuff starts happening. She has visions, things move violently, etc. An old hearse is constantly driving in her vicinity. She slowly learns that her Aunt might have been involved in the occult. The locals are no help and openly hostile assholes. People start dying.

I'm not sure if I liked it. There were solid aspects but it feels more like a early/mid-70s made for tv movie than an 80s horror theatre release. Any violence is generally offscreen, and very little gore. Some creepy atmosphere.

I'll go 5 outta 10. Could have been much better with some specific changes.

 

[returnofjakedog]

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.

While I agree that it has become an overused trope and there are plenty of poor examples these days, I feel there are still very good entries in that subgenre. I'll use Hereditary and Midsommer as a couple of examples.

 

[DJ Fieri]

Been in Nashville a little over a month and still haven't had any hot chicken but had some bomb Japanese food at a steakhouse.

Twice.

 

[DJ Fieri]

 

[returnofjakedog]

So instead of spamming the board with dozens of old horror movie reviews I will try to knock out a bunch in a single post:

The Wasp Woman (1959)-
An aging beauty product mogul and a scientist create a de-aging product but it also randomly turns you into a werewasp(?) that rips out throats and drinks blood.
The wasp costume combined with the (lack of) transformation scenes comes off pretty funny, and the acting is a bit overly melodramatic. All other aspects are generally hit and miss.
Roger Corman produced and directed. Hard to believe he is still making movies!
5 outta 10 from me.

Nightmare in Blood (1977)-
A famous movie star noted for playing vampires is the guest of honor at a horror convention. But it turns out he actually is a vampire and is eating attendees. A small group of vampire hunters race to stop him.
Filmed in SF by a local horror host, this one does a good enough job considering the low budget and amateur production. The story is interesting and flows ok, and the lead actor is pretty good.
5.5 to 6 outta 10 range from me. I probably rate it a bit higher than most.

Satan's School for Girls (1973)-
A girl apparently kills herself but her sister doesn't believe that so she enrolls in the school she (her sister) had attended to investigate. There she and some others uncover satanic cult behavior.
An Aaron Spelling production that apparently led to Charle's Angels as it had both Kate Jackson and Cheryl Ladd in it. It feels like '70s Spelling (not a good thing).
For some reason this one has a bit of a cult following. I persume that is from the awesome title which implies B-movie sleaze and shockery but the movie instead gives us a bit of a sterile made for tv movie.
4 outta 10 from me. I probably went a bit low due to my expectations based solely on the title.

The Little Shop of Horrors (1960)-
Another Roger Corman film, and considered a cult classic.
This one is......interesting. The story is original and pretty awesome but the execution is pretty spotty as the acting is often poor and it would have worked better with a bit less comedy and instead focused on the horror imo. The gratuitous Jack Nicholson scene might have been the poorest acting of his brilliant career. But the plant screaming "Feed me!" and becoming more and more insatiable is great, and the ending is also quite good.
I'll go 6.5 to 7 outta 10 range, particularly if you are an early black comedy aficionado.

Scream of the Wolf (1974)-
I couldn't find a trailer so here is the full movie.
Peter Graves is a professional hunter tasked with helping to investigate a series of brutal animal attacks. He finds that the tracks change from wolf-like to bipedal, and the scent disappears. The atracks continue and Graves tries to enlist his former friend to help, which leads to interpersonal conflict while the mystery unfolds.
The storyline is cool, the acting is decent but a bit cheesy. Better than I had hoped but still not really good. Would have been improved by ramping up the violence.
I'll go 5.5 outta 10.

I still have at least 5 more but that is enough for now!

 

[returnofjakedog]

View attachment 283680

.......wait, which box are we talking about? Julia opened BOTH of her boxes.

 

[UVA_Guy81]

Does anyone use Shudder through Amazon Prime? I was wondering if I’d be able to buy it or AMC+ and still watch Joe Bob Briggs’ The Last Drive-in (the primary reason I’d want the service).

 

[returnofjakedog]

Does anyone use Shudder through Amazon Prime? I was wondering if I’d be able to buy it or AMC+ and still watch Joe Bob Briggs’ The Last Drive-in (the primary reason I’d want the service).

I don't but I probably should at some point. Digging through these old movies of questionable quality as I've recently been doing can be a grind, so maybe some newer movies of questionable quality might be a nice break!

My main reason for responding is to once again gloat about my Cameo celebrity birthday video from Joe Bob Briggs last month! 5 minutes of personal Joe Bob horror movie history and obscure recommendations. Great stuff!
Sadly, I don't see a way to post it here.

 

[returnofjakedog]

.........a little late, but a Happy Thanksgiving from the ghouls!

 

[Blackshirts BLVD]

I forget who said it (think it was @FaCe-LeE-uS), but I think he said that Bly Manor was the worst of the 3 Flanagan series (Midnight Mass, Bly Manor, and Hill House). Given that I really liked certain aspects of Midnight Mass, I decided to watch the others. They had been pushed on the backburner since they are series.

Anyway... Bly Manor.... what a joke. Idk what anyone else thought, but I did not care for this at all. I did like that he used a lot of the same actors, but I didn't find myself caring about any of the characters. And the fact that half of the series was complete 1 hr episodes devoted to back story of individual characters that I already didn't care about I found to be ridiculously boring and wildly unnecessary. I thought the au pair having her own visions were cool at first and I thought they would be meaningful, but nothing really came out of it. If it never happened and her backstory is never mentioned, it changed VERY little in the show. Need a new reason to be in the UK and change some dialogue with the gardener and that is about it.

The ghost lady has no face, which they describe as essentially a symbol for how everything she was faded away, everything but looking for a child and killing everyone in the way (including children). And apparently there are magic words to allow ghosts into your body... whatever.

I thought it had good production and fair acting, but it was a blah story. Again, I just didn't care about anything that was happening and have a hard time believing the others care too. I liked some of the thoughts around what happens when you die, but that faded quickly. I also don't like the idea of telling a 'ghost story' as if that person really did narrate everything we just saw to a group of people in detail like that. I liked how they chose to come out of that though, with it being told to the people that were actually there for the people that had forgotten.

Idk 4/10.

 

[DJ Fieri]

⁴

 

[returnofjakedog]

I forget who said it (think it was @FaCe-LeE-uS), but I think he said that Bly Manor was the worst of the 3 Flanagan series (Midnight Mass, Bly Manor, and Hill House). Given that I really liked certain aspects of Midnight Mass, I decided to watch the others. They had been pushed on the backburner since they are series.

Anyway... Bly Manor.... what a joke. Idk what anyone else thought, but I did not care for this at all. I did like that he used a lot of the same actors, but I didn't find myself caring about any of the characters. And the fact that half of the series was complete 1 hr episodes devoted to back story of individual characters that I already didn't care about I found to be ridiculously boring and wildly unnecessary. I thought the au pair having her own visions were cool at first and I thought they would be meaningful, but nothing really came out of it. If it never happened and her backstory is never mentioned, it changed VERY little in the show. Need a new reason to be in the UK and change some dialogue with the gardener and that is about it.

The ghost lady has no face, which they describe as essentially a symbol for how everything she was faded away, everything but looking for a child and killing everyone in the way (including children). And apparently there are magic words to allow ghosts into your body... whatever.

I thought it had good production and fair acting, but it was a blah story. Again, I just didn't care about anything that was happening and have a hard time believing the others care too. I liked some of the thoughts around what happens when you die, but that faded quickly. I also don't like the idea of telling a 'ghost story' as if that person really did narrate everything we just saw to a group of people in detail like that. I liked how they chose to come out of that though, with it being told to the people that were actually there for the people that had forgotten.

Idk 4/10.

I have enjoyed all of the Flanigan output, be it movies or series but I do recall Hill House being better than Bly Manor (I haven't seen Midnight Mass yet). The "funny" part is I can't really seperate these series in my mind at this point. They kinda blur together.

He has House of Usher coming out next year. It should be interesting to see where that falls.

 

[returnofjakedog]

Another batch of oldies:

Grave of the Vampire (1972)-
A couple making out near a graveyard is attacked by a vampire. The boy is killed but the woman survives. She later finds out she is pregnant. The baby feeds only on human blood.
Years later the now grown half-human child seeks out his creator/father to try to destroy him.
Not bad for a low budget '70s vampire flick. The story is interesting, and there are some freaky moments. The fxs are decent considering the time and budget. The acting isn't great overall but a few do ok.
I'll go 5.5 outta 10 area. It stands out as an interesting prequel to the Blade series!

Sisters of Death (1972/77)-

The fact that this was filmed in '72 but not released until '77 should tell you something about this one.
A group of sorority secret society chicks are going through an initiation but one is killed, possibly intentionally.
Years later the girls attend a reunion at an isolated estate only to find out it is a set up to solve and avenge the earlier death.

Not a horrible movie. The plot is interesting and the early set up is ok. But it begins to unravel in it's execution somewhere along the way.
The acting generally isn't very good. The 2 good guys that sneak into the plot are kinda annoying.

I'll give it a 4 to 4.5 outta 10 range.

The Haunted House of Horror (1969)-

A group of bored college kids go to an old house. One of the group is killed and they decide to "cover it up" because one of them is the killer(?? A complete lack of any logic there). Later, as the group succumbs to pressure, they return to the house only for more death to stalk them.

A '60s British production that for some reason has Frankie Avalon in it. The storyline held promise but turned into a bit of a nonsensical mess as it moves along. The execution and direction are ok (with a few issues), but the acting is often questionable.

3.5 to 4 outta 10 from me.

After all of this mediocre stuff, here is one that I thought was pretty good!:

Tombs of the Blind Dead (1972)-

A group of Templar knights worship evil, and sacrifice virgins and drink their blood, as graphically depicted early on. Jump forward 500 or so years and 3 tourists visit some ruins and find themselves hunted by the zombie knights.

A lot of both good and bad here. The acting and dubbing are both bad, and the story itself is intentionally a bit slim. The budget restraints are also apparent at some points. But the creepy soundtrack, and the unsettling robed zombie knights are both pretty awesome, as are the ruins they use for the main location. The slow-motion horseback zombie shots sometimes don't fit into the reality of what is going on, but it is a creepy and interesting visual.

I'll go 6.5 to 7 outra 10. All in all, a worthwhile venture into something that is, at the very least, different.


Beast From Haunted Cave (1959)-

A 3 thieves steal a bunch of gold, then escape through the mountains with the leader's unhappy girlfriend and a hired ski guide. They awaken a weird spider creature from a cave, and then fight both it and each other to survive.

This isn't a particularly good movie but there are some highlights. The story starts strong but then flounders. The acting is generally meh but I did like the main baddie who was like an evil Richard Dreyfus.
The main positive was the creepy visuals of the captured persons. While the fxs of the monster were either generally shoddy or offscreen, the still living persons captured in the webbing and sometimes seeming to be mentally controlled by the monster was pretty freaky, and could have been an influence on the Alien franchise.

I'll give it a 5 outta 10. That is with 1 extra point added for the aforementioned cocooned victims.

Scared to Death (1947)-

Trailer - Scared To Death (1947)

Fairly odd plot involving a recently deceased woman (Molly Lamont) who, from beyond, recounts the chain of events that led to her mysterious death. Bela Lug...

m.youtube.com

It opens with a lady's corpse on an autopsy table, and then tells the story of how she got there. An interesting story supposedly based on a real life murder case.
Most of this suffers from the "feels like a stage production" issue that was very common at the time. But it does have Bela Lugosi chewing up scenery in his only starring color role. He is good as always, and made even more creepy with his dwarf companion hanging around.
A couple of the characters are over-the-top stupid, particularly the former cop turned bodyguard who is a constant annoyance.

Eh. 4 outta 10 from me. Would have been good as a Alfred Hitchcock Presents episiode. Bela was good but deserved better.

I still have more of this schlock to review, but that is enough for now.

 

[Blackshirts BLVD]

I have enjoyed all of the Flanigan output, be it movies or series but I do recall Hill House being better than Bly Manor (I haven't seen Midnight Mass yet). The "funny" part is I can't really seperate these series in my mind at this point. They kinda blur together.

He has House of Usher coming out next year. It should be interesting to see where that falls.

I am on episode 4 of Hill House and it is better than Bly Manor already. It is a little frustrating how every scene is like a different timeline, makes for disjointed story-telling in my opinion, especially when some of the scenes are only a year or a few months apart.

I am surprised with the kid actors, they all seem pretty good, no complaints. Weird choice to get a different actor to play the dad as if he would have aged into a completely different person lol, idk, that's weird to me.

Again, I still have 7 episodes to go, but I am much more engaged into these characters and this story than I was with Blah Manor.

 

[FaCe-LeE-uS]

I forget who said it (think it was @FaCe-LeE-uS), but I think he said that Bly Manor was the worst of the 3 Flanagan series (Midnight Mass, Bly Manor, and Hill House). Given that I really liked certain aspects of Midnight Mass, I decided to watch the others. They had been pushed on the backburner since they are series.

Anyway... Bly Manor.... what a joke. Idk what anyone else thought, but I did not care for this at all. I did like that he used a lot of the same actors, but I didn't find myself caring about any of the characters. And the fact that half of the series was complete 1 hr episodes devoted to back story of individual characters that I already didn't care about I found to be ridiculously boring and wildly unnecessary. I thought the au pair having her own visions were cool at first and I thought they would be meaningful, but nothing really came out of it. If it never happened and her backstory is never mentioned, it changed VERY little in the show. Need a new reason to be in the UK and change some dialogue with the gardener and that is about it.

The ghost lady has no face, which they describe as essentially a symbol for how everything she was faded away, everything but looking for a child and killing everyone in the way (including children). And apparently there are magic words to allow ghosts into your body... whatever.

I thought it had good production and fair acting, but it was a blah story. Again, I just didn't care about anything that was happening and have a hard time believing the others care too. I liked some of the thoughts around what happens when you die, but that faded quickly. I also don't like the idea of telling a 'ghost story' as if that person really did narrate everything we just saw to a group of people in detail like that. I liked how they chose to come out of that though, with it being told to the people that were actually there for the people that had forgotten.

Idk 4/10.

That was @Nasty_Magician. That was the only one that I haven’t watched yet (Bly Manor).