GroovyDoom

This document captures the locations for S.F. Brownrigg's "Don't Look In The Basement" and "Don't Open The Door" as they are today. The narrator has access to the empty "Stephens Sanitarium", and scenes of the interiors are intercut with moments when they appear in the actual films. I was most surprised by how little has changed in the decades since these movies were made. Truly a fanboy's dream, and this record exists for everyone to share it. Great work!

If you place great value in how many people are murdered by a psychopath during the course of a horror film, then this movie is not for you. If the reasons for a person becoming mentally unstable and committing murder are intriguing to you, then you may enjoy this low budget gem that seems to have slipped into oblivion.

It's easy to understand why this happened. First off, the original title, "Scream Bloody Murder", was appropriated by another film almost a month after this one was originally released in November 1972. Marc B. Rey's "Scream Bloody Murder" come out about six weeks later, and it also concerned a mentally ill young man with mother issues who goes on a small but gruesome killing spree. Another distributor picked up this film in 1975 and retitled it "My Brother Has Bad Dreams", and it occasionally was advertised as simply "Bad Dreams".

The plot concerns a young man named Karl, who has led a sheltered life with his sister Anna in their family home. As a child, Karl witnessed his father murdering his mother, and the trauma has made Karl withdrawn and disassociative. The adults who are familiar with the family history, such as Anna and also the mailman, Mr. Phillips, treat Karl as if he is still a child, even though he is in his 20s. His behavior has started to worsen, as Karl constantly slips in and out of delusions that his mother is still alive, despite Anna repeatedly trying to bring him back to reality. Even more alarming, Karl has taken to collecting mannequins and substituting them for the real people he is missing from his life, carrying on with them as if they're alive. He has also started spying on Anna in a sexual way.

One day while he is swimming, Karl meets another young man named Tony, who befriends him and treats him as another adult. Karl brings him home for dinner, and Tony hits it off with Anna. Soon he is spending a few days with them, sleeping with Anna and slowly coming to understand the basics of their unusual family dynamic. Unfortunately, this threatens Karl's sense of security, pushing him even further into madness.

This is exactly the kind of movie that gets under my skin, and "Scream Bloody Murder" reminds me a lot of "Slipping Into Darkness", which also had a similar "Psycho" vibe and depicted the devastating mental breakdown of a young man. It's full of hallucinatory images, and if you think mannequins are creepy, you'll get a lot of mileage out of this for horror's sake. Nothing can prepare you for the brutally abrupt way the plot resolves itself, or the strange finale that I'd love to divulge here, but really should be experienced without prior knowledge.

I was pleased to see so many other reviews here that felt the way I do about this film, it really is an obscure gem that deserves rediscovery. The story owes a great debt to "Psycho", but I have to say that "Crazed" really digs deeper than "Psycho" does in its exploration of the emotional horror experienced by its Norman Bates character, Grahame (Lazlo Pappas). There's a Marion Crane parallel too in Karen (Beverly Ross), a troubled woman who sets out to follow her dream of becoming a journalist. When she rents a room in the boarding house where Grahame also lives, she triggers a growing obsession that quickly breaks whatever tenuous ties Grahame has to sanity and pushes him over the edge, his life spiraling downwards into madness and murder.

Grahame becomes a lurking presence in the house, spying on Karen in her most intimate moments through peepholes he has set up in the walls of the house. Every attempt he tries to make to reach out to Karen in a conventional way is met with awkward rejection, and this emotional isolation is the true horror that the film is most interested in showing us. Grahame also makes for a compelling character due to the sensitive performance by Lazlo Pappas. Beverly Ross is great, too, and these two characters emerge as doomed people who are similar, yet unable to reach one another.

Although "Crazed" isn't a film where graphic violence is the focus, it does feature several murders that are quite shocking, not because they're gory, but because they're so realistic. The thing that sticks with you after the credits, though, is the stunning performance by Pappas, who convinces us that we've just witnessed a real person losing grip of his mental health. I was shaken after I saw this movie, and it still haunts me.

Did you get excited as a child when October came around and cheap Halloween stuff started showing up in the stores? Did you listen to scary sound effects records with the lights out? Did you scour newspaper movie listings to find out what R-rated horror films were showing at the drive in theaters? If the answer to any of these is "Yes", then you will probably really enjoy "Shriek Of The Mutilated", which is the best low budget film ever made for about $15 (plus tax).

In terms of sheer cheapo horror audacity, you can't get much better than "Shriek of the Mutilated", which aspires to bizarre greatness by combining both the bigfoot and cannibal genres. Although there is something to be said for watching a film without knowing the twists and surprises, it really doesn't affect "Shriek Of The Mutilated" if you know its secrets beforehand. In fact, the producers of the movie commissioned a poster that reveals the film's big secret right in the tag line, "A frenzied hunt for a hideous beast uncovers an evil cannibal cult, and death is the devil's blessing!"

The movie is a total 70s time capsule, littered with severed bloody limbs, as four groovy college kids accompany their professor to an isolated estate where Yeti sightings have occurred. Determined to prove the beast exists, the Professor pushes the kids to stay despite the fact that one by one they are being stalked and murdered by an ominous figure covered in furry white shag. In a Scooby Doo plot development, the Yeti turns out to be a ruse: it's the professor and his evil cohorts posing as the Yeti, and they are part of an international cult of cannibals who lure kids into becoming victims, especially one in particular who they want to frighten to death as part of their ritual.

You will enjoy the movie a lot more knowing this twist is coming, as the Yeti looks really fake and the fact that it's SUPPOSED to be fake in the story somewhat excuses this. Somewhat.

What you won't see coming is a stunning double homicide early in the film (the homicide isn't the shocker, it's the method). Also, the 70s fashions and decor will either repulse or delight you. The acting is straight out of an early John Waters film, which the entire movie greatly resembles.

I know a lot of people will tell you "Shriek Of The Mutilated" is a bad film, but they're missing the point here. No matter how the movie looks, sounds, or plays, you will probably enjoy it if you like cheap these kinds of cheap drive-in exploitation movies. Seek it out!

Lynda Carter performs two songs from her album "Portrait" on this episode, "Want To Get Beside You" and "Toto". Diana poses as an unknown pop singer named Kathy to get the inside track on a record label extortion operation. It seems the label's number one big selling artist has died, and some bad guys who undoubtedly have phones in their cars are trying to blackmail the label by holding the master tapes of his now-final album for ransom. That crazy IADC, you'd think they wouldn't be all that interested in an extortion racket going on at a little ole record label, but....OH MY GOD, is that RICK SPRINGFIELD?? Yes. That working class dog appears in this as one member of far-out rock trio Anti-matter, who appear to have ingested nothing but cocaine for the past five days.

You know what could possibly be wrong with an episode like this? Not enough Wonder Woman. It's ages before we get a transformation in this one. At one point before a commercial break, a man sees Diana's shadow as she twirls, teasing us that her secret is about to be not so secret anymore. But alas, in the middle of what was sure to be the longest twirl in the series, she notices she's not alone and halts, leading me to wonder what the hell that sneaky spy thinks she was doing spinning around in the hall like that. These young musicians these days, with their funny white powder!

So yeah yeah, in the middle of all this Diana Prince action and Lynda Carter singing, there's some obligatory Wonder Woman action, including an amazing sequence where she puts her wonder eardrums to work to turn off a speaker with a serious case of feedback. Who knew she had THAT ability?

With a little more Wonder Woman, this could have been one of the best of the series, but it's still a pretty good ep.

Notes while watching "The Starships Are Coming":

• That is one seriously disco UFO. It's totally Michael Zager Band.

• WZAB in Pittsburg? I think they mentioned the Allegheny Mountains, so I'm pretty sure this isn't Pittsburg, California. They spelled the name of the city wrong!

• Diana's scotch vest is DA BOMB.

• We see the IADC Zoom at least THREE times, and in very close succession I might add. Someone wasn't paying attention, or else they were doing lots of coke in the editing room and this made total sense.

• Lynda Carter's delivery when she hears the villain's master plan and says "You really are insane"--BRILLIANT.

• The IADC is at the top of technology. Steve's desk has everything except an espresso machine and the best they can come up with is a 13" TV to watch doomsday on.

• Good god... when the final countdown is halted, it's totally a VHS tape on pause!!

• Is Bobbie the new Eve? What happened to Eve, anyway? Did the aliens get her, too? Or is Eve's disappearance from the show (as well as Joe's) supposed to have taken place during one of those off camera important events that we don't know about? Kind of like when Diana talks about people we don't know as if she has a long history with them, one we've never seen on the show? The "Wonder Woman" universe seems to imply there are numerous adventures we DON'T see happening, and that's just teasing.

• Oh wow that actor playing the General is the same actor who played Andros in a REAL alien episode in Season One! MIND WARP.

• I wonder where this flying saucer battle stock footage came from?

• Diana delivers the freeze-frame smile while implying she's become so intimate with this week's characters that she will be invited to their wedding. Now see HERE is a relationship we see forming! Hopefully they were planning in Season Four for Diana to revisit them and help them work through their marriage problems while facing off against a local supervillain. And staying in constant contact with Steve Trevor by phone.

Notes while watching "The Girl With A Gift For Disaster":

Diana and Steve seem to know everybody. Mention any given criminal of note and Diana will say something that suggests she knows their crimes intimately. But the show rarely backs this up and shows us a character more than once!

The 1st Transformation is a HUGE deal on any "Wonder Woman" episode. In this one, it happens suddenly, when we barely even knew Diana was part of the action yet. Weird!

Dick Butkus??! ALRIGHT!

OK this plot involves a girl who's bad luck who is so dumb she's being manipulated by every person she comes into contact with. In one scene, she wanders around stupidly repeating "Mark? Mark? Where are you? Mark?" Did this woman escape an institution? Because it seems she doesn't get out on her own very often.

I love when the characters refer to Wonder Woman in the third person. She's not only a legend, she's a real person to them. Steve says "Wonder Woman must have been joking!" HA!

What kind of coffee does the IADC serve? Because it's a focal point of any of the office scenes.

The "IADC Zoom" is conspicuously subdued in this episode. Booooo.

Ira's voice changes too often. Sometime's it's all super robot distorted, and other times it's just someone reading dialogue and sounding bored. Rover, on the other hand, is so tweaked out I can't understand a damn thing he says. It's in some inhuman register. THAT is the voice that needs to change.

Wait, Steve calls Diana "Di"?? When did that happen?

The conclusion goes for comedy, then leaves Diana alone in the office to give the freeze-frame smile in a short monologue! Interesting twist, writers.

Lynda Carter sure is pretty.

Couldn't they have at least written one shower scene for Dick Butkus? Boooo.

ME: I watched the second episode of WWS2. In South America, Diana and Steve discover a secret Nazi encampment who are cloning Hitler. But it's a Frankenstein type of cloning, where someone turns on a machine and 120 seconds later, there's a living breathing clone of Hitler with full intelligence, memories and personality.

J: Wow.

ME: The fact that someone has discovered the science of doing this is almost secondary to the plot. By the end of the episode, Steve and Diana are completely unmoved that this has been accomplished.

J: They were still trying to bleed off what worked from season 1. Hmm...how can Hitler show up in 1977...

ME: Human life is changed forever, and instead of being in awe of it, Wonder Woman blows up their lab and ruins it.

J: LOL

ME: Never mind this person conquered physics, science, and medical reality. He only had one leg and his methods allowed him to grow another one. This means nothing to Wonder Woman. It could heal amputees, change the lives of crippled people, even eliminate the concept of being physically handicapped in any way, and Wonder Woman decides this is not good for the human race and destroys it.

J: Did they try to clone wonder woman?

ME: No. If they had, they'd have had a race of cold-hearted, naive megalomaniacs who enjoy wearing costumes and making themselves the center of attention. Diana is clearly not possessed of a sound mind. A highlight of the episode was when Wonder Woman was forced to don a second disguise, as the Nazi doctor's "lab assistant". She removed her tiara and put on a white lab coat. She even got to salute "Heil Hitler".

J: She had to have the rest on underneath or she'd be a normal person.

ME: That's what I thought, too. Well, the belt has to stay on no matter what, or she's powerless.

J: Not to mention prone to sexual assault.

ME: It was rather impressive, Lynda Carter dangled from a helicopter for real. Wonder Woman illogically decided to follow the Nazis by surreptitiously clinging to the bottom of their helicopter, somehow without them ever knowing she was there. She also disengaged from it and circled the clearing where they landed, and they didn't see her do that, either.

J: She probably loved doing that crap, she was young.

ME: But this looks really dangerous, for real. I can't believe she did it. There was one shot where you could really see just how high up she was, they flew between these two mountains and it was significantly high. I was pissing myself, and it wasn't even me hanging from that helicopter.

J: Impressive, and all in that outfit, even.

Insanity seemed to be S.F. Brownrigg's greatest interest, as all four of his horror films were about crazy people doing crazy things in some out- of-the-way place where they were allowed to run rampant. "Keep My Grave Open" doesn't have the large cast of his earlier (and better) "Don't Look In The Basement", but what it does have is a great performance by Camilla Carr in the lead role as Lesley, a disturbed woman who carries with her the alternate personality of her brother, Kevin. When Lesley becomes Kevin, she is naturally a murderous psycho, in this case dispatching unwelcome visitors to her rural mansion with a long, sharp sword.

"Keep My Grave Open" is just as beautifully cheap as the rest of Brownrigg's movies. It goes without saying that "Don't Look In The Basement" is the best of his films, but that's mainly because the individual elements (script, concept, acting, direction) were so good. I've never seen "Scum of the Earth", but I did see "Don't Open the Door!", and that one suffered a little in the concept and script. Although "Keep My Grave Open" doesn't have a terrific script either, Brownrigg does better at emphasizing other parts of the production, most notably the cinematography and atmospheric details. Lesley's solitude at the secluded mansion leaves her alone for a lot of the film's lengthy set pieces, such as one sequence that shows her meticulously putting on exaggerated makeup and attempting seduce Kevin, whom she believes lives with her. Brownrigg does this weird point-of-view camera shot where "Kevin" starts to make love to Lesley, the camera getting on top of her and getting right up against her face for these intense closeups.

I could see many viewers being turned off by all of this and finding it dull, but honestly I thought it was unusual and surreal, even disturbing. Carr really brings Lesley and her fragile mental condition to life, and that makes these sequences work very well. There are only a few overt horror sequences in the film, which will definitely turn some viewers off. The gore factor is very low, and the death scenes are not particularly explicit.

I liked this one way better than "Don't Open the Door!", and now I can't wait to see "Scum of the Earth" to complete my quest to see all four of the horror films from Brownrigg's short career as a director.

"The House of the Devil" emulates horror films from an era of filmmaking that has come and gone, and that's why it rules. It also made me think a lot about what makes people say that movies from a previous decade are better than current films. Were horror movies really better in the 70s than they are now, or do older audiences just find it hard to relate to stylistic changes in cinema?

"The House of the Devil" is set in the early 80s, and has one of the most authentic looking recreations of that time period that I've ever seen in a film. When making a movie set in "the 80s", the temptation might be to cram too many obvious things into the same film, like pervasive day-glo fashions and outrageous hairstyles. Instead, the hair and clothes really do look a lot like the early 80s, which were simply a slight evolution of earlier 70s styles.

Too often when a director sets out to make a movie like this, it ends up being a case of style over substance. Ti West's previous film, "The Roost" is one of the first things that comes to mind. It was an awkward collage of ideas, combining a disjointed zombie movie with a wraparound horror host gimmick that resembled no horror host show I ever lived through. It was an interesting concept though, and it was clear that West was developing his craft.

In "The House of the Devil" he gets the balance right in an amazing slow burn. It's obvious that West is a really big geek for exploitation films from the 1970s and 1980s, and he also understands how to create an atmosphere for his films through a careful manipulation of everything from lighting and framing to sound design. What strikes me the most about this film seems to be the dividing factor among viewers--there are long, drawn out passages of the film where there is no dialogue and we only see the main character of the film in isolated situations. West also uses soundtrack music sparingly in these segments, which is so far removed from what contemporary audiences have come to expect from entertainment in general. Sensory overload has become so ingrained in our culture that people freak out when it's not there. Modern horror movies have fallen victim to this, too, and it's almost mandatory now that a film constantly has ominous music rumbling behind every scene whether it's called for or not. The same concept demands that when a knife is picked up on screen, there is the metallic sound of two blades rubbing together even if there's only one.

This stylistic overkill and unctuous tone is blissfully absent in "The House of the Devil", and it's easy to understand how audiences weaned on having their creepy movies spoon-fed to them would react with hostility and confusion. The complaints about how nothing happens in the film until the final 20 minutes are exactly what I'm talking about. True, there isn't much story here, but something is definitely happening throughout the entire film: we're getting to know a character and her situation, suspense is building, and the anticipation of it is the point of the entire film. Otherwise, why would a horror movie even bother with showing anything other than constant scenes of horror and violence? Ti West understands that it's not the Boogeyman that scares you, it's the anticipation of the Boogeyman.

None of this would work if it wasn't for the able cast. Tom Noonan, Mary Woronov and Dee Wallace are the most recognizable actors, but Jocelin Donahue is the one who truly carries the movie. In the best horror heroine tradition, she is authentic and vulnerable, and charming enough that we care what happens to her. Greta Gerwig is similarly good as the mouthy best friend who knows right away that something's wrong with Donahue's babysitting assignment but can't get her friend to listen to her. Only AJ Bowen seems out of place; as the acting villain of the piece, his character is a little too polished and neatly put together to be truly frightening. Fortunately, this has little consequence to the overall impression of the film, which simmers for the longest time before finally boiling over with a scary explosion of violence, blood and horrific imagery. I feel sorry for people who don't recognize this movie for the treasure that it is, blessed with a director that abandons the trappings of nonscary, dumbed-down horror and creates the ideal atmosphere of dread that a horror movie should have.

I can't give this movie anything less than a 10, since I can't remember wanting to see any contemporary horror films more than once (and usually I wish I'd never seen them the first time). The genre has become so overly tired and cliché that it's not fun anymore. "The Cabin In The Woods" gets that, and misdirects the expectations of the audience. If you go into it knowing nothing about it, you might think you see where it's going, but then the movie takes a sudden turn and suddenly you're in uncharted territory. It's not exactly terrifying, but it does show you things you've probably never seen before. For that reason alone, I can't say enough about it. Many of the negative remarks I've read seem to have been from people who wanted a traditional horror movie of the kind that's spoofed here, although I can't imagine why anybody would really want another movie about a group of young people terrorized at a cabin the woods. This movie aims higher and I appreciated that. Even if you hate it, you've got to admit, it was an original concept.

The second in the "Blood Island" series ups the ante with even more explicit sex and violence, recycling much from "Brides of Blood", including John Ashley. I didn't notice any other holdovers from the previous film, but the director hired actors who looked just like them anyway. There are carbon copies of Arcadio, Goro, Esteban Powers, and Alma, as well as the lovely Angelique Pettyjohn standing in for Beverly Hills.

The plot is even wilder than before. This time, Ashley and damsel-in-distress-to-be Pettyjohn travel to Blood Island to locate her estranged father. No, the island is not called Matool. Anyway, what they discover is that the island is being stalked by a rampaging green humanoid monster, the result of a mad doctor's botched experiment involving chlorophyll used as a means of transforming human beings. Or something like that, right? Do we really care? There's a monster and it's killing people, and the protagonists don't have the sense to leave.

Fans of naked ladies have plenty to look at, as the film literally opens with a nude woman being chased through the jungle by the creature. The gore in the film is gratuitous and ever-present, with the monster clawing people to death, ripping out their guts, and in one especially angry moment, attacking a young couple making out in the jungle. It rips off the man's arm (or was it a leg?) and efficiently removes the woman's head, tossing it in the air. What a cranky monster! It's also worth mentioning that the movie contains a very disturbing sequence where real animals are violently slaughtered on camera--a "native ritual" concludes with the natives rushing at some bound goats and pigs, stabbing them to death with knives, which was a genuine shock for me.

Yet personally, I prefer "Brides of Blood" over this one, for one major reason. The director has attempted to disguise the ridiculous monster by using a pulsating zoom lens effect every time it's on screen. It's a gimmick that you'll either love or hate, and it's much more pronounced than the shakycam shenanigans of "The Blair Witch Project" or similar hand-held horror films. On a big screen, this effect would have been absolutely nauseating to me.

Still, I'd recommend this movie to anybody who liked the first one, or anybody who digs grade-Z drive-in trash just like I do. The horror exotica settings do a lot to make the film interesting, and believe it or not, the ridiculous dialog exists alongside scenes that actually are well-written and memorable. Who expected THAT?

How much you like this movie will probably depend on how many times you saw it on television in the early 80s. It also helps if you like Gothic overtones, spooky stories about black magic, and Sam Elliott's naked butt circa 1979. I like all of the above very much, and I do remember "The Legacy" fondly from its extensive run on HBO.

It's not a very good movie, though. Watching it recently gave me a new perspective on it, and it makes very little sense. It's not quite as disjointed as Argento's "Suspiria", and nowhere near as bloody, but it was most definitely influenced by "Suspiria"--right down to a scene where Katharine Ross approaches an ominous bed, which is swathed in white sheets, and a pair of withered hands lunge out to grab her. Even though the film doesn't quite work, it's still got a couple of gruesome moments, and is often enjoyably campy. Really could have benefited from a more gratuitous approach....like "Suspiria".

Very camp, very strange sequel to an already outrageous movie. "Scream, Blacula, Scream" was the natural progression in the Blacula mythos: after having committed suicide by walking out into the sun in the original film, Mamuwalde (that's Blacula to you) finds himself unwillingly resurrected by a jive talking voodoo shaman who is insanely jealous of Lisa, a sexy voodoo chick played by none other than Pam Grier. Well, who wouldn't be jealous of Pam Grier? The lady does seem to have it all. But Blacula is no instrument of revenge, and pretty soon a bunch of blue-faced vampires are running around again.

Mamuwalde wants to use Lisa's intense voodoo powers to perform an exorcism and remove the vampiric demon from him, perhaps rendering him human again. It's an interesting premise, and the movie is full of appealing locations and personalities. It goes wrong in the silly details though, like some hokey special effect shots of Blacula flying in bat form over Los Angeles, ending with a camp confrontation between Blacula and two jive-talking pimps who make the mistake of trying to mug him.

But there's plenty of good to go around, too. The movie is full of beautiful people, both men and women, and the overall tone is very dark and frightening. The vampires violently attack their victims, and there are a number of memorable attacks that are pretty hair-raising. One finds a screaming young woman being stalked by two vampires in a large dark house; an extended chase sequence finds her confronted with both Willis and Mamuwalde, closing on her, until she faints from fright and Willis bites her.

William Marshall plays Mamuwalde with his usual utter seriousness and dignity, but the movie will never truly let his character be taken seriously. Blacula apparently has been taking some tips from Count Yorga, too, because he's got a harem of vampire chicks following him around in this one. He also does that crazy thing Count Yorga did, running down the hallway toward victims with hands up in the air like claws, fangs bared, crazy look on his face. I wonder who stole it from whom? "S,B,S" seems to be considered vastly inferior by many, given its low ratings on 'net websites. Admittedly it has some serious problems, and is cursed by an unsatisfying ending that seems to just...stop...before anything really happens. But I still dug it, baby, and if you liked the first one, you probably will dig it, too.

How to explain? I gave this movie five stars because I did like it, although it is an abomination (even worse than eating shellfish, or mixing fabrics). The movie appears to have been filmed silent and had the soundtrack dubbed in later, but it's almost like a Doris Wishman film in the way that it never shows anybody on screen speaking any lines. We hear dialogue on the soundtrack, but if any of it occurs during a close-up, it's never the person speaking who is on camera, it's somebody listening to them. Instead, a narrator rambles on and on describing things happening in the film, reciting some of the most ridiculous things you will ever hear in a movie.

Set during the Cold War, "Beast of Yucca Flats" stars Tor Johnson, that longtime veteran of studio wrestling and Ed Wood movies, as a Russian scientist--yes, a Russian scientist--who defects to the US with top secret plans. Two of the most incompetent KGB agents meet him at the airport and chase his car into the Nevada flats, where there's an atomic explosion. Yaaahh! And suddenly the former noted scientist is the Beast of Yucca Flats--simply Tor a pained expression on his face and a desire to strangle anybody he sees. The dreaded beast of Yucca Flats murders a couple passing through the area and then threatens a family of four before he is gunned down. The end. No really, that's the movie. Except it is drawn out over the course of an hour. Yes, I wouldn't recommend this movie to anybody if it was longer than that. It is pain to watch this film, but it's an enjoyable pain for movie masochists like myself. And you just might pee yourself listening to that narrator. "Vacation time. Man and woman just passing through. Not yet caught by the wheels of progress."

Astonishing B-movie is everything you would think a movie about a living head in a tray should be. The very idea of it is unimaginable...just sit back and try to envision for yourself what it would be like if your entire body was gone and you were simply an immobilized head. It's enough to scare the heck out of ME. But wait till you see the thing in the closet, another pitiful victim of the mad doctor who so gleefully reduces people to doomed, debilitated beings. Amid all of this doom and existential agony are things like swimsuit modeling contests and catfights between strippers. You'd be a fool to miss this one.

A theater director takes his troupe of amateur actors to a small, isolated island that just happens to contain a graveyard; when they perform a "Satanic ritual" designed to raise the inhabitants of the cemetery, they are surprised to discover that it works, and they are besieged by the evil dead.

Enjoyment of this movie seems to depend on your tolerance for the ridiculousness of the film's first half, in which the characters are continuously berated and humiliated by their fey ringmaster. There isn't much to it, but this movie is a textbook example of a drive-in/late nite TV flick. If you caught it in the 70s or early 80s, you will probably be more willing to accept its talky shortcomings. The makeup is cheap and effective; the zombies don't really look dead, but they're like haunted house employees who want to kill you for real.

Here's a movie where you can see Joan being one of the women she was famous for being. She plays a hard working woman who suffers through a failed marriage and is left alone to fend for her two daughters, one of whom is an ungrateful, conniving b!t@h. Sound familiar? I like this movie a lot, for everything from its campy story and drama down to the costumes and sets. A lot of people argue about whether this is true film noir; technically it's not, although the photography and sets are clearly inspired by noir. Joan won an Oscar for her performance in this movie, and she really deserved it, although Eve Arden is especially good here too.

Kate Hudson is Caroline, a hospice worker who takes a new job as a personal care assistant at a secluded New Orleans mansion. She finds that her new patient, a stroke victim, seems desperate to either escape the house or tell Carloine something, but he cannot speak. His wife is vaguely menacing, and Caroline gradually unravels a back story involving folk magic and ghosts.

How did I miss this one when it was in the theaters? I guess I let the negative reviews scare me off, but I found this to be a really great supernatural mystery with a surprising twist ending. It also has an old-fashioned feel to it that works in its favor. It might not have been as good with lesser actors, but everybody here is in great form. You could do a lot worse when dealing with horror movies, and this flick is extremely enjoyable for at least one viewing.

Logic be damned, "Horror High" has a story to tell, and it's going to get there by any means necessary. It takes place in a high school where the resident outcast, Vernon, is a science geek who would probably even be picked on by Carrie White. His mother's dead, his father's completely absent, and every single person Vernon comes into contact with abuses him verbally and often physically. His teachers berate him, even though he is clearly gifted. The school janitor is a shambling, mumbling alcoholic constantly on the verge of a violent outburst--you know, just like in real life--and not only does he seem to actually LIVE in the high school, he keeps a pet cat in the school, too--you know, just like in that same real life.

Vernon's determined to prove that people can be changed physically by drugs. No, really! Who ever thought that could happen? Anyway, he injects his guinea pig, Mr. Mumps, with a formula that causes it to turn into a feral monster with much darker fur than normal. It kills the janitor's bully of a cat, and the janitor freaks on Vernon, forcing him to drink the Jekyll/Hyde potion. Yeah. So suddenly Vernon convulses and transforms into killer-Vernon, hurling the janitor around and finally dunking his face in a giant barrel of sulfuric acid that just happens to be sitting in the lab as a means of disposal. And that's just the beginning.

Rosie Holotik from "Don't Look In the Basement!" plays a classmate of Vernon's, the only person in the whole school that likes him. She's there to be alternately romanced and threatened by killer-Vernon. Austin Stoker, he of "Abby" and "Assault on Precinct 13", is a detective investigating the sudden "rash of killings" at Vernon's high school. I mean think about that for a second...a janitor is killed, then a teacher, and yet the school dismisses it as a "rash of killings" and remains open and functioning? This is the charm of "Horror High"; it is an outrageous adolescent fantasy, where a nerd is picked on and suddenly becomes a monster that can not only take revenge on his bullies, but KILL them. When reality attempts to disrupt the fantasy, it is immediately brushed aside and never given a second thought. WHY does the school stay open after a janitor's skull is found floating in a barrel of acid? For that matter, why is a giant barrel of acid sitting in a classroom? Why does the janitor not only seem to live on the premises of the school, but keeps a pet cat there? Why would a teacher threatened in her classroom run from her desk, be chased through the hallways, then return to her classroom, and her desk, trailing her fingers along the edge of a paper cutter as if tempting fate? The answer to all of these questions and more is: "It was in the script." Vicious cruelty to animals, a melted human face, football bullies, and mean teachers. These are the things that would give any young school kid nightmares, after which "Horror High" has accomplished what it clearly set out to do.

** for even more fun, take into consideration an unrelated passage of the film that was awkwardly inserted into the television version entitled "Twisted Brain". The narrative suddenly shifts from Vernon's world to demonstrate the romantic relationship between his father and the woman he's currently living with as a traveling salesman. Then, when sufficient padding has been accomplished, the film goes back to Vernon's plight, never to mention the father or his girlfriend again.

If you're looking for a decent monster flick with some gory action, sexy babes, and killer suspense...keep looking. This is a cheap, no-budget drive-in movie that aspires to be nothing more than a diversion. The dialog is just plain ridiculous, such as a legendary moment when a main character pensively recites the secret recipe for Native American stew. But lovers of horror kitsch just may find themselves taken in by this movie's bygone world of avacado-colored furnishings and monster suit shenanigans. I was fully aware I was watching a terrible movie, but did I enjoy it? Hell yeah I did! Hmmm well let's see, the plot has been discussed more than once here, but I'll summarize for the purpose of my own review: Paul, a groovy 70s loner type from the desert meets Kathy, a gorgeous chick who looks like Charlie cut her from the angels. Unfortunately, when he takes her to his favorite stargazing spot hopin' for a little action, a meteor shower ruins their fun by spraying asteroid shrapnel on them. Paul begins experiencing dizzy spells, and yet for a couple of days nobody thinks to take him to the hospital. Instead, Kathy uses it as her moment to pounce and she moves in with Paul, apparently uninvited. Paul, however, has a major problem: when the moon comes up, he now transforms into a murderous giant man-lizard. Paul's best friend and mentor, a teacher named Johnny Longbow (!), eventually catches on and helps both the law and the doctors diagnose Paul's condition. Johnny also helps cause Paul to explode by firing an asteroid-tipped arrow into him during the film's LSD-inspired conclusion.

I was really taken in by the vacant atmosphere of this film. It's strangely similar to 1974's "The Bat People", except instead of a giant bat-monster, Paul turns into a giant lizard-monster. The makeup is pretty good, and there are a few moments that generate some mediocre chills. It's all very amateurish though, and you've got to really enjoy movies like that in order to appreciate this one. Buyer beware: you're getting a low rent product when you commit to investing 90 minutes of your life on this film. But if you've got a love for whacked out 70s monster movies, as well as a high tolerance for the ridiculous, then "Track of the Moon Beast" is a must-see.

Having never seen this film until a few weeks ago at a drive-in revival, I was taken aback by how powerful it really is. Considering its relative obscurity, "Blood on Satan's Claw" contains a great deal of disturbing material. Set in 1600s era England, the plot involves a young farmer who uncovers the remains of a bizarre humanoid creature while plowing a field; when the skeletal remains vanish, an unspeakable evil begins corrupting the children of the village, and it appears as if the Devil himself is beginning to take form.

The period setting is deceptive. The film involves a Satanic corruption that manifests itself in the form of hairy skin that appears on the bodies of the children of the village. At one point in the movie, a character attempts to remove the skin by simply cutting it off with a sharp knife, graphically depicted on screen. The children themselves carry out the majority of the film's violence, including a terrifying sequence that involves the vicious rape and murder of a child. It's strong stuff, and I can only imagine that it caused quite a stir when it was released in 1971.

The film is low budget, and the vague depiction of the Devil as a furry creature is profoundly weird as a result. You don't really see much of it, and there are some point-of-view shots as victims react to....something, ending up afflicted with bodies that now serve as limb donors for the Devil's new body. Creepy!

I am one of those who will never forget this movie's ad campaign, which advertised a double bill of this film and a movie called "I Eat Your Skin". If you already know "I Eat Your Skin" contained no eating of skin, then it will not come as a shock to you that "I Drink Your Blood" is not about vampires, and aside from an opening scene where a little blood is swilled, the focus of the film is not on blood drinking at all. It does turn into a freaked-out pseudo-zombie film in the vein of "The Crazies".

A weird hippie and his small band of followers spend their time taking acid and conducting Satanic rituals. Their Satanic, wanderin' ways bring them to a little town on the verge of being completely abandoned; when they begin to terrorize the locals, a little kid gets revenge on them by injecting meat pies with the blood of a rabid dog and feeding them to the hippies, who then go on a homicidal rampage. When a group of rowdy construction workers also get infected, the spit really hits the fan.

The ultra low budget gives the film a rickety appearance; you will either love it or hate it for that reason. Personally I loved it and think it's one of the best examples of a crazy 70s drive-in flick. It makes no sense, but there's a definite uneasy feeling going on throughout the whole thing, not the least of which is due to the obvious Manson family references. The violence is also often disturbing, and if the special effects are not always convincing, the eager spirit of things is enough to get under your skin.

Having recently discovered "Twitch of the Death Nerve", I decided to finally give "Schock" a whirl. Imagine my joy when the film opened very similar to "Twitch of the Death Nerve", with the camera exploring the deserted location where our film will take place, a similar seaside locale featuring an unusual house. Dora has returned to this house with her small son Marco and her second husband, Bruno. We learn that Dora's first husband, Carlo, died under mysterious circumstances; it appears that the man's unbalanced psyche and drug abuse led him to commit suicide by drowning himself in the ocean. Dora has returned to their former home, convinced by Bruno that they would be better off making use of the house rather than selling it. Dora, however, suffered a mental breakdown at the time of her first husband's death, and strange feelings of dread begin to overtake her. Marco begins to communicate with an unseen presence, transforming from a happy child to a devious, lurking presence in the home. Dora seems to be headed for another breakdown.

Unlike some of Bava's other work, the plot here is negligible. It doesn't hold up under consideration, and it's not very involving in the first place. Some viewers may be frustrated by preconceived notions that the film will be about the demonic possession of a child, which it is not. It's really about Dora and her fragile mental condition being unhinged by supernatural elements. If it were not for Bava's strong visual style, this movie wouldn't have a reason for being. It's not as good as his earlier work, mostly because of the weak script. It also doesn't help that the movie occasionally lapses into camp, such as a scene that depicts a near-disaster on an airplane where the passengers simply freak the hell out while the camera tilts wildly about.

Dubbing is often problematic in Italian films, especially ones involving children as main characters. In this case, Marco's voice seemed to have been actually performed by a child instead of an adult speaking in falsetto, which is the best any of us can hope for. There are a few disturbing moments involving him, including one where he asks to sleep with Dora and then fondles her throat in an erotic manner while she is sleeping, his hand appearing as the hand of a rotting corpse. Sadly, another crucial shock involving Marco is given away in the film's trailer, which I would advise that you avoid before watching the movie.

I can't forget to mention the score by Goblin, working under the name Libra here. It's memorable, while not as effective as their score for "Suspiria" done around the same time. One ingenious shot combines a very weird musical riff and a ghostly white figure circling a room. Ultimately this overlap between the style of Bava and Argento hurts "Schock"; even though Bava was doing things like that decades before Argento, in 1977 it was Argento who was at the top of the game. Even though "Schock" isn't Bava's best moment, it still delivers an effective haunted house thriller, with the disjointed atmosphere of classic Italian horror.

The bait-and-switch tactics of movie trailers are the stuff of legend. We've all been rooked into watching or attending movies that turned out to be radically different than what the trailers implied. One of my biggest memories of this was "Silent Scream", which had a highly memorable trailer that basically revealed the creepy high point of the film. At age 10, I wasn't prepared for the fact that the movie itself was more atmospheric than thrilling, not to mention a body count that tops out at a modest 2. I begged my parents to take me to see "Silent Scream" at the drive-in, and then I think I fell asleep halfway through the movie because I was so bored.

Now that I'm considerably older, I got the chance to see "Silent Scream" again, and I can appreciate it for being a very enjoyable film, somewhat lacking in the gore department but otherwise bizarre enough to hold one's interest for the brief runtime of the film. Whether you enjoy the film or not will probably depend on your own fondness for the moth-eaten elements of horror cinema, such as spooky cellars, cobwebs galore, and secret passageways that lead to nothing but trouble.

Perky Rebecca Balding is a college student whose desperation for a place to stay leads her to a foreboding mansion that anybody in their right mind would flee in a heartbeat. With three other boarders living there too, there seems to be safety in numbers, that is until one of them is found stabbed to death on the beach. How long before our heroine becomes the "final girl" who has to confront the morbid secrets of the bizarre family who rents out their rooms? The worst thing about "Silent Scream" is that the plot of it is rather obvious. The family who presides over the seaside mansion consists of Yvonne DeCarlo, the matronly elder, and a young boy named Mason who is way too young to be her son, even though he seems to think that he is. Since Barbara Steele's name is in the credits of the movie too, it isn't hard to figure out that when she doesn't show up right away, she's a surprise that'll be dragged out later. The first time you actually see her on screen in the film is one of the movie's biggest highlights. Her performance is actually quite disturbing and effective, amid the silly slasher stuff that goes on.

In fact, all the the actors are good here. Yvonne DeCarlo doesn't have much to do, but she's a formidable presence in the film nonetheless. Cameron Mitchell is on hand too, upping the cult movie factor here even further. Considering that it's clearly a slasher film inspired by the success of films like "Halloween" and "Friday the 13th", it's worlds apart from the countless cookie-cutter slasher movies that followed. The gratuitous nods to "Psycho" help lend it some weight, and you gotta love any movie with a secret passageway that leads up to a secret room in the attic.