‘Every babysitter’s nightmare becomes real…’

When a Stranger Calls is a 1979 psychological horror feature film directed by Fred Walton (The Stepford Husbands; I Saw What You Did [1988]; April Fool’s Day) from a screenplay written with co-producer Steve Feke. The movie stars Carol Kane, Charles Durning, Colleen Dewhurst and Tony Beckley.

A massive success at the US box office, taking $21,411,158, the movie was followed by the 1993 made-for-television sequel When a Stranger Calls Back – also directed by Walton – and a remake in 2006.

High school student Jill Johnson is traumatised over an evening of babysitting by a caller who repeatedly asks, “Have you checked the children lately?” After notifying the police, Jill is told that the calls are coming from inside the house…

When a Stranger Calls is essentially an expanded remake of Fred Walton’s $12,000 short film The Sitter, which comprised the first 20 minutes of this film. Walton was inspired to turn the short into a feature-length film after the massive success of John Carpenter’s Halloween. The film derives its story from the classic urban legend of “The Babysitter and the Man Upstairs”.

Tony Beckley, who plays Curt Duncan, was terminally ill throughout production. Because of this, he did not at all fit the description of the killer, but Fred Walton declined to replace him. Beckley passed away soon after he finished filming his scenes. The 1993 sequel, When a Stranger Calls Back, was dedicated to his memory.

On December 3, 2018, Second Sight is issuing the film in the UK on Blu-ray as a Special Edition.

Buy Blu-ray: Amazon.com

• Brand new scan and restoration
• The sequel When a Stranger Calls Back in HD
• New interview with director Fred Walton
• New interview with actor Rutanya Alda
• New interview with composer Dana Kaproff
• Reversible sleeve with new artwork by Obviously Creative and original poster artwork
• English subtitles for the hearing impaired for both films
• Original Soundtrack CD
• 40 page perfect bound booklet with new essay by Kevin Lyons
• Reversible poster with new and original artwork
• Rigid slipcase packaging

Reviews:

“I admire Walton for not having relied solely on cheap scare tactics to carry the day, and for having the courage to attempt something on the order of a character-oriented thriller, even though he does allow the story to give way to some contrivances along the way.” Jack Sommersby, Monsters at Play

“While it is occasionally effective, When a Stranger Calls is also a somewhat listless film. Fred Walton strains for atmosphere and tension but the story hangs in a vacuum – the characters are virtual enigmas about which we are told almost nothing, and the exchanges of dialogue are banal. It is only Dana Kaproff’s excellent score that gives the film any atmosphere, creating a great deal of menace and tension in all the right places.” Richard Scheib, Moria

“Filmmaker Fred Walton does an absolutely superb job ratcheting up the tension during When a Stranger Calls‘ almost flawlessly executed first act, and it’s clear, too, that Kane’s utterly affable performance plays a key role in the movie’s early success. It’s equally obvious, however, that the film’s hold on the viewer dwindles considerably once that opening stretch concludes…” David Nusair, Reel Film Reviews

“Long before Drew Barrymore inadvertently answered her cell, poor Jill found herself in an increasingly demoralizing pickle. In truth, Walton’s film belonged more to the thriller genre than slasher and could not possibly expect to maintain the high levels of apprehension it delivered so effectively in its prologue. What an icebreaker though!” Rivers of Grue

“After the initial opening sequence when the film shifts to the escaped lunatic seven years later, the overall tone of the film also changes drastically from a tense and unbearable horror film to a slow, seedy dramatic thriller almost akin to the depressing character study of Taxi Driver. Quite unexpected, this change doesn’t really work for the film as a whole and these two sections feel like separate films with different agendas.” Tyler Baptist, Sound on Sight

“Quirky actress Carol Kane is very good as the young babysitter at the beginning of the film and as the older near-victim during the last half hour. A terrific opening and ending – and a watchable middle involving the search for the killer – make When a Stranger Calls a must see.” The Terror Trap

“In the ’79 film, the mid-section is pitifully dull. There’s a brief catch-up on the case when the cops learn Duncan has skipped the asylum and then largely nothing happens for about an hour. What differentiates When a Stranger Calls from the other slasher films of the era is that we get to know Curt Duncan a little.” Vegan Voorhees

“While flawed and overlong, When a Stranger Calls ’79 is still a solid enough movie for genre fans that like their slasher flicks more on the respectable side.” Mitch Lovell, The Video Vacuum

Cast and characters:

• Carol Kane … Jill Johnson –Vampirina TV series; Ava’s Possessions; Office Killer; Addams Family Values; Transylvania 6-5000; Pandemonium; The Mafu Cage
• Rutanya Alda … Mrs. Mandrakis – Late Phases; The Dark Half; The Stuff; Amityville II: The Possession; Christmas Evil; The Fury; Rosemary’s Baby (voice only)
• Carmen Argenziano … Dr. Mandrakis
• Kirsten Larkin … Nancy
• Bill Boyett … Sgt. Sacker
• Charles Durning … John Clifford – Dark Night of the Scarecrow
• Ron O’Neal … Lt. Charlie Garber
• Heetu Heetu … Houseboy
• Rachel Roberts … Dr. Monk
• Tony Beckley … Curt Duncan – Doctor Who: The Seeds of Doom; Assault
• Colleen Dewhurst … Tracy
• Michael Champion … Bill
• Joe Reale … Bartender
• Ed Wright … Retired Man
• Louise Wright … Retired Woman

Buy with Happy Birthday to Me on Blu-ray from Amazon.com

Related:

Black Christmas (1974)

When a Stranger Calls (2006)

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‘Something is after Jessica. Something very cold, very wet… And very dead.’

Let’s Scare Jessica to Death is a 1971 American horror feature film, directed by John D. Hancock from a screenplay by Norman Jonas and Ralph Rose. The movie stars Zohra Lampert as Jessica, plus Barton Heyman, Kevin O’Connor and Gretchen Corbett. It depicts the nightmarish experiences of a psychologically fragile woman in an old farmhouse on a Connecticut island.

The movie was shot in Old Saybrook, Connecticut. The village of Chester was used, as was the Chester–Hadlyme Ferry crossing the Connecticut River. Tonally similar to Rosemary’s Baby and The Haunting, the film tells its story from the vantage point of a female protagonist of doubtful sanity, and emphasises story and atmosphere rather than gore and violence.

Orville Stoeber (Freddy’s Nightmares) composed the unique erratic electronic synthesizer soundtrack score.

Moreover, like its precedents, it ends ambiguously, inviting viewers to draw their own conclusions. Though it made little impact during its theatrical release, the film later became a cult favourite on late night TV…

Reviews:

As the film begins, Jessica (Zohra Lampert) has just been released from a mental institution. As Jessica explains it, she’s been hearing voices ever since her father died. She struggles with depression and sometimes, she gets paranoid. Her husband, Duncan (Barton Heyman), has just purchased a farm in Connecticut, a place where he believes that Jessica can find some peace.

Their friend, Woody (Kevin O’Connor), will be moving out to the farm with them. Woody is a bit of a hippie. Some people would say that Jessica and Duncan are hippies as well but honestly, both of them seem to be more like people who desperately want other people to believe that they’re hippies as opposed to genuine members of the counterculture.

Upon arriving at their new farm, Jessica is shocked to discover a woman named Emily (Mariclare Costello) standing in their farmhouse. When the shocked Jessica calls out for Duncan, he immediately assures her, “I see her, too!” Emily explains that she’s spent the last few months living in the deserted farmhouse. Though Emily offers to leave, Jessica insists that Emily have dinner with them and spend the night. When it becomes obvious that Woody likes Emily, Jessica suggests that Emily should be allowed to live with them.

Duncan agrees to let Emily stay and, much like Jessica, you immediately start to wonder about his motives. Is he merely letting Emily stay to keep Woody happy? Or is he agreeing with Jessica because he’s scared that disagreeing with her will cause her have another breakdown? Or is it possible that he’s attracted to Emily himself?

As the days pass, Jessica struggles to adjust to life in the middle of nowhere. The location is beautiful but, because it’s so remote, it’s menacing as well. The people in the nearby town are strangely hostile and they always seem to be wearing bandages on their necks. Jessica starts to hear voices in the distance, taunting her and telling her that she has no place out in the country. Are they real or is it just her imagination? Is Jessica trying so hard to convince everyone that she’s okay that she’s actually pushing herself to a relapse? And what about the mysterious blonde girl that keeps appearing in the distance, watching Jessica but running away whenever Jessica tries to approach her?

And then there’s the picture that Jessica finds in an antique shop. It appears to be a picture of Emily but the shop’s owner assures her that the picture is over a hundred years old….

Apparently, the script for Let’s Scare Jessica to Death was originally titled It Drinks Hippy Blood and it’s intent was satirical. You wouldn’t be able to guess that from watching Let’s Scare Jessica To Death, which is one of the creepiest and most dream-like horror films ever. Unfolding at a leisurely pace and featuring hazy but gorgeous cinematography, the movie keeps both Jessica and the audience off-balance.

You’re never quite sure if Jessica is right about Emily and the town or if she’s relapsed and is drowning in a sea of her own paranoia. Duncan and Woody both treat Jessica as if she might fall apart at any second. At times, Duncan and his constant concern is so suffocating towards her that you feel that, if Emily hadn’t been there waiting for them, Jessica would have had to create her. As frightening as Emily may be, only Emily can set Jessica free from her domineering husband.

More than being just a character study of a woman struggling to remain above water, Let’s Scare Jessica to Death is also a portrait of the death of counterculture idealism. Jessica, Duncan, and Woody appear to have a chance to live the ideal hippy life on their Connecticut farm but that dream collapses under the weight of all the petty human emotions and foibles that they wrongly thought they could escape. Duncan treats Jessica like a child, gaslighting her whenever she questions anything that’s going on. Woody seems like a good guy but he’s so laid back that he refuses to stand against the tide. Jessica is betrayed by everyone around her. In the end, not even the mysterious blonde girl is willing to actually warn Jessica about what’s happening.

Zohra Lampert gives a wonderfully empathetic performance as Jessica and Mariclare Costello and Gretchen Corbett are well cast as the enigmatic strangers that Jessica can’t seem to escape. Let’s Scare Jessica to Death is a creepy and atmospheric dream of dark and disturbing things and it’s definitely one to see.

Lisa Marie Bowman, HORRORPEDIA – guest reviewer via Through the Shattered Lens

Other reviews:

“A classic character study of a woman under siege from those around her and from her own mind, this is an underrated film that will satisfy the discerning viewer.” Digital Retribution

“In tone, the whole thing comes across as sort of a horror cross between Easy Rider and Invasion of the Body Snatchers, with the ageing hippy-ish leads looking for a countryside idyll and finding a hostile community and a malevolent, supernatural force, unless it really is all in Jessica’s mind. The atmosphere of trespassing in a domain that ambiguously either wants you gone or wants to possess your soul for its own ends is one that is hard to shake here.” The Spinning Image

Cast and characters:

• Zohra Lampert … Jessica – The Exorcist III
• Barton Heyman … Duncan
• Kevin O’Connor … Woody – It’s Alive III: Island of the Alive; Tales from the Darkside TV series; Special Effects
• Gretchen Corbett … The Girl – Jaws of Satan; The Savage Bees
• Alan Manson … Sam Dorker
• Mariclare Costello … Emily

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The Cat Creature is a 1973 American supernatural horror feature film made for television and directed by Curtis Harrington (Ruby; The Dead Don’t Die; Night Tide; et al) from a screenplay by Robert Bloch, based on a story by producer Douglas S. Cramer and Wilford Lloyd Baumes. The TV movie stars Meredith Baxter, David Hedison and Gale Sondergaard.

Composer Leonard Rosenman also provided scores for RoboCop 2; Prophecy; The Car; The Possessed and Race with the Devil.

Plot:

Frank Lucas, a licensed appraiser, goes to the home of a dead client  to complete an inventory on a collection of ancient artifacts. He discovers a sarcophagus in the basement that holds a mummy wearing a gold amulet bearing a cat’s head with emerald eyes. However, he is killed by a feline creature.

A petty thief steals the amulet and tries to pawn it at The Sorcerer’s Shop, but the proprietress Hester Black throws him out.

Meanwhile, Lieutenant Marco is investigating the murder of Frank Lucas with the expert advice of Roger Edmonds, an archeology professor. The theft of the amulet sets off a chain of murders…

Reviews:

“At a brisk 75 minutes it’s over quite promptly, leaving me, at least, wanting more, from the plaster Egyptian ‘artifacts’ to the autumnal palette. Harrington ensures every frame is a-drip with classic horror fan / 70s childhood manna…” Acidemic

“Cat Creature is a heady Curtis Harrington combination of high-gloss production values and spinechilling terror […] Screenwriter Robert Bloch intended this film as an affectionate throwback to the stylized horror films of old. Cat Creature is the sort of film that removes the “potboiler” stigma from the made-for-TV form.” All Movie

” …has some things going for it, including a reasonably good cast and a fairly interesting plot devised by writer Robert Bloch (of Psycho fame), which draws many parallels between mummies and vampires.” Justin McKinney,  The Bloody Pit of Horror

“The Cat Creature is a relatively classy (albeit low-budget) affair until a high-camp climactic twist knocks it straight into the gonzosphere. Laughable ending notwithstanding, the film has enough going for it to warrant horror aficionados’ attention.” Ideological Content Analysis

“Harrington’s direction is ploddingly dull and fails to find anything in the way of atmosphere. Everything that happens is thuddingly obvious and is killed by a loud and overemphatic canned score. The script is a pedestrian detective story plot that schematically turns by the numbers and arrives at a desultory ending that barely lifts the show.” Richard Scheib, Moria

“The Cat Creature is a by-the-numbers TV-movie, but it’s also extremely cosy, perfect for a lazy morning. The wonderful cast is inspired – especially Gale Sondergaard, the talented and colourful actress who became a victim for the McCarthy-fascism, who also got a little comeback here…” Fred Anderson, Ninja Dixon

“Who better to direct The Cat Creature with its homage to the past than Curtis Harrington? A fine old school director if there ever was one, Harrington clearly understood his source and had respect for the Val Lewton movies of the ’40s […] Cat is a hard to find film that is worth seeking out.” The Terror Trap

“It does not apologize or wink at any of the more out there touches. Namely that Bloch’s Ancient Egyptian mythos is invented whole cloth; did you know the Tarot and Zodiac are just modern day descendants of it? Well you do now! A very fun, and very brown 75 minutes.” This Was Television

Choice dialogue:

Hester Black: “I’m Hester Black. Sounds like a witch, doesn’t it? But my customers seem to like it. Most of them are into witchcraft, black magic, satanism. ”

Lieutenant Marco: “Straight eh? (laughs). Why you could sleep on a corkscrew.”

Cast and credits:

• Meredith Baxter … Rena Carter
• David Hedison … Professor Roger Edmonds
• Gale Sondergaard … Hester Black
• John Carradine … The Hotel Clerk
• Renne Jarrett … Sherry Hastings
• Keye Luke … The Thief, Joe Sung
• Kent Smith … Frank Lucas
• Stuart Whitman … Lieutenant Marco
• Milton Parsons … The Deputy Coroner
• Peter Lorre Jr. … The Pawnbroker
• John Abbott … Doctor Reinhart
• Virgil Frye … Donovan
• William Sims … Bert

Buy: Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com | Amazon.ca

Running time:

72 minutes

Originally broadcast:

December 11, 1973, on the ABC network

Trivia:

Director Curtis Harrington’s plans to make the Hester Black character a lesbian were shot down by the network’s standards and practices department, which sent him a threatening letter stipulating that there could be no references to homosexuality in the film. Annoyed by the network’s closed-mindedness, Harrington retaliated by adding a midget prostitute character into the film.

Image credits: Acidemic

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Devil Dog: The Hound of Hell is a 1978 American made-for-television supernatural horror feature film directed by Curtis Harrington (Ruby; The Dead Don’t Die; The Cat Creature; Night Tide; et al) from a screenplay by Stephen and Elinor Karpf (Gargoyles). The movie stars Richard Crenna, Yvette Mimieux, Kim Richards and Ike Eisenmann.

Artie Kane (Eyes of Laura Mars; The Bat People) composed the soundtrack score.

Married couple Mike (Richard Crenna) and Betty (Yvette Mimeaux) decide to buy their kids (Kim Richards and Ike Eisenmann) a cute little puppy to replace their recently deceased dog. Unfortunately, unbeknownst to them, they adopt a hound from the local satanic cult that turns out to be a fuzzy demon from Hell.

Before her mysterious death, the maid is the first to suspect the pup is possessed. When the wife and kids start performing strange occult rituals, dad Mike suspects the dog has demonic powers and flies to Ecuador to seek the advice of a Shaman about exorcism rituals…

On July 26, 2011, Shriek Show released the movie on Blu-ray disc in a high-definition restoration from the original negative. Extras include:

• Audio interview with Curtis Harrington
• To the Devil a Dog featurette
• Promotional trailer
• Martine Beswick photo gallery
• Martine Beswick text interview

Reviews [may contain spoilers]:

“If you have the patience, you’ll be rewarded with a fast peek at the (admittedly cool) hellhound when it eventually shows up, some mild terror and brightly colored outrage as the kids become enchanted and evil, mom gets horny, and the house goes mad.” DF Dresden, Are You in the House Alone?, Headpress, 2016

Buy: Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com | Amazon.ca

“This is the sort of Val Lewton approach that Harrington put to good use in Night Tide… Best of all is the jokey casting of (Kim) Richards and (Ike) Eisenmann, previously seen as psychic siblings in (Disney’s) Escape to Witch Mountain…” Cinefantastique

“It was solid cheesy fun throughout. If you like 70s styles and décor, the Witch Mountain kids, young adult horror, made-for-TV horror [in which bad things might happen or be implied, but it’s never going to be really, really scary], and enjoy a current of true silliness peppered with some surprisingly suspenseful stuff… this may be for you!” Cinema de Merde

“A cute puppy with Village of the Damned style glowing eyes and a dog that just stares at people are not exactly the stuff of nightmares, unless you have some really f*cked up nightmares. I still think it’s worth a watch and it’s pretty entertaining for a 70s TV movie but one thing’s for certain: The wallpaper in the Barry household is far more frightening that anything conjured up by Devil Dog.” Crustacean Hate!

“Director Harrington does an outstanding job of keeping what could be a seriously bad, cheesy B-movie on track, and the cast sports two of this reviewer’s personal favorite TV-movie regulars from the era: Richard Crenna and Yvette Mimieux.” Debi Moore, Dread Central

” …suffers immensely through a cut-rate budget, halfheartedly implied shocks, laughable special effects, and uninspired direction by Harrington who was obviously going through the motions here. But perhaps this is what has given this cheesy little TV film such an undeserved following through the years?”  George R. Reis, DVD Drive-In

“Putting aside the whole “Hound of Hell” idea and its inherent retardedness for a moment, this movie really does not deliver the goods. I mean, I’m not trying to tell Satan’s minions how to do their job or anything, but the damn dog doesn’t even bite anyone! Come on! All he does is stare. Stare stare stare and pant.” Final Girl

“The score holds up very well and manages to impress, creating a sense of doom and foreboding each and every time Lucky starts working her magic. The score alone can’t carry this movie, however. Thankfully with the help of some veteran actors, above average performances are given by the entire cast.” Horror Digital

“Despite the dense amount of action packed into its 95 minute running time, Devil Dog falls short in the special effects department. After the laughable final showdown between Mike and Lucky, the family becomes un-possessed and son Charlie reminds all that there were at least nine other puppies in the litter.” Kindertrauma

“” …tries to pretend a story about good white upper-class people being driven to evil by the family dog is somehow frightening […] Barely a scene goes by that does not feature something sublimely ridiculous. Especially the death by hypnotism scenes…” The Horror!?

” …this is pulp horror nonsense at its most oddly compelling. Harrington marshals some suspenseful sequences […] those who caught this as youngsters have never forgotten the delirious finale where the devil dog manifests in a ball of flames as a hideous horned goblin with frilly neckwear.” Andrew Pragasm, The Spinning Image

“Implausible but fun TV terror with decent performances from Crenna and Mimieux. Best scene: the weird ‘mirror while sleeping’ trick Mike uses to reveal his wife and children as possessed devils.” The Terror Trap

Choice dialogue:

Betty Barry: “Well, it’s the American way isn’t it? Since when aren’t we rewarded for being best?”

Buy with Day of the Animals + Grizzly via Amazon.com

Cast and characters:

• Richard Crenna … Mike Barry – Leviathan; Death Ship; The Evil; Wait Until Dark
• Yvette Mimieux … Betty Barry – Snowbeast: Bell, Book and Candle (1976); Black Noon; The Time Machine
• Kim Richards … Bonnie Barry – Sharknado 3: Oh Hell No!; The Blair Witch Mountain Project; The Car; Escape to Witch Mountain; The Picture of Dorian Gray
• Ike Eisenmann … Charlie Barry [as Ike Eisenman]
• Lou Frizzell … George [as Lou Frizzel]
• Ken Kercheval … Miles Amore
• Martine Beswick … Red Haired Lady – From a Whisper to a Scream; Seizure; Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde; Slave Girls
• R.G. Armstrong … Dunworth – The Waking; Warlock: The Armageddon; Children of the Corn; Evilspeak; The Pack; Race with the Devil; et al
• Tina Menard … Maria
• Gertrude Flynn
• Bill Zuckert … Mr. Lomax, Dog Breeder – Alien Intruder; Critters 3; The Time Machine (1978); The Strange Monster of Strawberry Cove; Bewitched TV series
• Jerry Fogel … Doctor Norm
• Lois Ursone … Gloria Hadley
• Fredrick Franklin
• Bob Navarro … Newscaster
• Jack Carol … Scottie the Gate Guard
• James Reynolds … Policeman
• Victor Jory … Shaman – Kolchak: The Night Stalker TV series; The Man Who Turned to Stone

Image credits: Horror Digital

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‘They know we are here.’

The Visitor – aka Stridulum – is a 1978 Italian/American science fiction horror film directed by Giulio Paradisi (Michael J. Paradise) from a screenplay by Luciano Comici and Robert Mundi, based on a story by producer Ovidio G. Assonitis (Beyond the Door, Piranha II: The Spawning, Madhouse).

Main cast:

John Huston, Shelley Winters (Whoever Slew Auntie Roo?, Tentacles), Mel Ferrer (Nightmare City), Glenn Ford (Happy Birthday to Me), Lance Henriksen (Mansion of the Doomed, The Horror Show, Alien vs. Predator), Joanne Nail, Paige Conner and, in a cameo role, director Sam Peckinpah (Straw Dogs).

The film’s funky soundtrack score was composed by Franco Micalizzi (Black Demons; The Curse (1987); Beyond the Door, plus a host of ’70s Italian cop thrillers).

Plot:

A young girl with telekinetic powers is the focus of a battle between good and evil. Katy Collins (Paige Conner) is no ordinary eight year-old girl. Indeed, she is unique, carrying within her the power of Sateen, an inter-spacial force of immense magnitude.

Katy’s primary mission on earth is to carry these genes forward, a task accomplished by convincing her mother, Barbara (Joanne Nail) to bear a similarly endowed male child with whom Katy would eventually mate…

Buy: Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com

Review:

It’s one of the Italian occult films of the 1970s that shows just how far removed from the source material a copycat film could go. On paper, The Visitor, made in 1979, is a copy of The Omen. Or maybe Carrie. Or The Fury. Or The Exorcist. Or even Rosemary’s Baby. And so you can see the confusion right away. Because the film takes elements from all these films and their imitators and sequels, as well as a bunch of other less well-known US movies, throws in a spot of Jodorowsky and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, stirs them all together and then throws the whole chaotic mess onto the screen, performed by a genuinely strange cast that includes Franco Nero apparently playing Jesus Christ and no less than two legendary and controversial Hollywood movie directors in acting roles.

It comes as no surprise that The Visitor rarely makes much sense, and sometimes becomes entirely incoherent. It’s wildly overlong and often looks as though it is being made up as it goes along. Characters are introduced and then either killed off or forgotten about, the bombastic main theme appears seemingly at random and the movie sometimes stops to allow strange visual effect set pieces.

The film ends and then carries on anyway for several more minutes, presumably because someone had forgotten about one important character who needs to make another appearance, and John Huston wanders through the film with the bemused smile of a man who wonders how he got from directing The Treasure of the Sierra Madre to appearing in this sort of thing.

This film is entirely compelling, both as a visual experience, a hallucinogenic trip and a fascinating folly. At no point does it ever become dull; quite the opposite in fact. The longer the film goes on, the less sense it makes and the more fascinating an experience it is. This isn’t a ‘so bad it’s good’ film as much as a ‘so weird it’s great’ one.

In case it didn’t sink in earlier, it’s worth repeating – it has Franco Nero in a blonde wig as Jesus Christ! He opens the film, telling a bunch of bald kids the tale of the evil Sateen (which I think we can safely say is Satan), essentially reinventing Christianity as a space opera. Audacious stuff. It turns out that before Sateen was killed by holy birds destroying his brain, he managed to impregnate a handful of women. It’s their progeny and descendants that now sit, ageless, at his feet.

And it seems there is another one to deal with, eight-year-old Katy (Paige Conner), the daughter of Barbara Collins (Joanne Nail). Barbara is being groomed by a bunch of Sateenists, led by Dr Walker (Mel Ferrer), who want her to marry basketball executive Raymond Armstead (Lance Henricksen) and give birth to a male child who can then mate with Katy and bring about some unspecified event. John Huston is Jerzy Colsowicz, who Jesus has sent to stop this and bring Katy to him for salvation. This apparently involves him watching things from a distance and doing little to prevent Katy’s increasing reign of terror as she develops her powers and becomes an extremely potty-mouthed Bad Seed.

Soon, Mom has been ‘accidentally’ shot in the back and paralysed, and Shelly Winters has arrived as housekeeper Jane Phillips, a sort of holy Mrs Baylock from The Omen. Glenn Ford is on hand as a police detective investigating the shooting who comes to a sticky end, and cult director Sam Peckinpah pops up as Barbara’s ex-husband for no good reason beyond someone realising that hell, we can get Sam Peckinpah in this thing!

As stated earlier, Huston seems pretty bewildered by the whole thing, but still delivers his dialogue with authority, and that’s the strangest aspect of the movie – all the actors are on top form, giving fine performances despite clearly having no idea whatsoever what is going on. It’s an amazing cast for what is essentially an Italian copycat film, and no one seems to be slumming it. And that’s the weirdest aspect of the film – it has so much that is genuinely good, from the performances to the visuals – dated now of course, but often so strange and trippy that they remain extremely effective.

Plus, director Giulio Paradisi (under the unconvincing name Michael J. Paradise) fills the movie with fantastic moments. There’s a scene in a hall of mirrors that ends with a shot of Katy reflected in several broken mirrors, her various reflections seeming to represent aspects of her broken psyche, and it’s absolutely brilliant. The film is full of such little flourishes, alongside some impressive action / horror set pieces and the afore-mentioned psychedelic visual moments where Huston hops between… planets? Dimensions? It’s never made clear, but it looks fantastic while it happens.

How much of the film’s incoherence is intentional and how much accidental is hard to tell. By all accounts, Paradisi wasn’t much interested in the story, preferring a handful of moments he’d conceived that had to be weaved into the narrative – the writing credit goes to Luciano Comici and Robert Mundi, from a story by Paradisi and producer Ovidio G. Assonitis (who had previously directed the disposable Exorcist copy Beyond the Door, which became an inexplicably huge hit in the USA and opened doors for him to make star-studded movies like this, backed with American finance) – whether any of these people worked hand in hand, or simply came up with a series of unconnected ideas that then had to be strung together is anyone’s guess.

It’s worth remembering that this film was made at a time when Italian horror was at its most stylised and free-form – it came in the wake of Dario Argento’s Suspiria, which also took a slight story and used it to hang amazing visual imagery on. But while Suspiria‘s story was minimal, it still made sense. The Visitor rarely does. In the end though, that hardly matters, because the film is strangely addictive and fascinating – you don’t really need to know exactly what is going on to be drawn into the sheer hallucinatory madness of it all..

The Visitor manages to be both awful and superb at the same time. It’s derivative as hell and entirely original – unquestionably the most entertainingly delirious example of Italian copycat cinema spiralling out of control that you’ll ever see. It’s a conundrum of a film that is cinema at its most not-giving-a-f*ckness. As such, it really should be the next film you seek out to watch. And if for some reason you still have the inclination to dismiss Italian genre imitations from the 1970s and 80s, then perhaps consider again – you’re missing out on one of the weirdest, wildest and more unrestrainedly mad films ever made.

David Flint, HORRORPEDIA

Other reviews:

” …feints towards the tired horror sub-genre, but instead goes for something much grander and bizarre.  The film fearlessly bounces back between sinister B-movie and an operatic cross between extraterrestrial science-fiction and biblical inspirations.  Paradise can’t always escape the tediousness of his nefarious and diminutive villain, but nothing can overcome the exalted presence of John Huston playing God.” Matt Goldberg, Collider

“Ladies and gentlemen, this is the Mount Everest of insane ’70s Italian movies. Yes, there’s plenty of stiff competition out there with all the eccentric cash-ins on Hollywood hits like Tentacles‘ octopus vs. killer whale  showdown or Starcrash‘s tinker toy space antics. But nothing, absolutely nothing, compares to the delirium of this inscrutable mash-up…” Nathaniel Thompson, Mondo Digital

‘For a movie this bizarrely random and narratively misshapen, it does have a lot of rather slick flourishes in the cinematography and special effects departments. The opening sequence, for example, doesn’t make much sense but it is truly creepy. For the most part, however, The Visitor is a bit more fun to laugh “at” than to shiver “with.” The truly eclectic cast and the steady stream of weird moments prevent the film from ever becoming dull — and the score is an absolute riot.’ FEAR net

Buy Blu-ray: Amazon.co.uk

“Some movies are so strange that they have to be seen, regardless of quality. The Visitor, featuring one of the greatest casts in exploitation film history, has some pretty special moments. It’s not good by most measures, but it’s crazy and funny enough for two solidly entertaining hours.” Daryl Loomis, DVD Verdict

“Just when you think you’ve nailed down which direction the film is heading in, it completely shatters your notion of the time-space continuum with enough force to rival a thousand screenings of Zabriskie Point. If you miss out on this one, then you have as much regard for cinema as you do for a discarded toenail clipping.” The Cinefamily

‘Holy crap Franco Micalizzi’s score is utterly fantastic and better than Earth deserves. It’s epic and galaxy dwarfing and in complete denial about the nonsense unfolding on screen.’ Kindertrauma

Cast and characters:

• Mel Ferrer … Dr. Walker
• Glenn Ford … Det. Jake Durham
• Lance Henriksen … Raymond Armstead
• John Huston … Jerzy Colsowicz
• Joanne Nail … Barbara Collins
• Sam Peckinpah … Dr. Sam Collins
• Shelley Winters … Jane Phillips
• Paige Conner … Katy Collins
• Ja Townsend
• Jack Dorsey
• Johnny Popwell … AAA Mechanic
• Wallace Wilkinson … Police Captain
• Steve Somers
• Lou Walker … AAA Mechanic
• Walter Gordon Sr. … Thomas
• Hsio Ho Chao
• Calvin Embry … Hot Dog Man
• Betty Turner … Receptionist
• Steve Cunningham … Jerzy’s Assistant
• Neal Bortz … Businessman
• Jack H. Gordon … Businessman
• Steve Beizer … Basketball Coach
• Bill Ash … Businessman
• Charles Hardnett … Basketball Coach
• Joe Dorsey … Sheriff Paul Townsend
• Bart Russell … Skating rink patron
• Kareem Abdul-Jabbar … Himself [uncredited]
• Dave Hinchberger … Basketball game patron [uncredited]
• Franco Nero … Jesus Christ [uncredited]
• Aron Siegel … Hot dog stand customer [uncredited]

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Fear in the Night is a 1972 British psychological horror thriller feature film produced and directed by Jimmy Sangster from a screenplay co-written withMichael Syston. The Hammer Film Production stars Judy Geeson (10 Rillington Place, Inseminoid), Joan Collins (Tales from the Crypt), Ralph Bates and Peter Cushing.

In the United States, it was released on a double-bill with Demons of the Mind. 

Fear in the Night was the last of three features directed by Hammer screenwriter/producer Jimmy Sangster, following The Horror of Frankenstein and Lust for a Vampire, both in 1970.

On 30 October 2017, Studiocanal reissued the film in the UK remastered on Blu-ray + DVD. The release includes a featurette, End of Term: Inside Fear in the Night and the trailer.

Buy: Amazon.co.uk

Plot:

A young woman recovering from a nervous breakdown moves with her husband to a boys’ school, but finds herself being terrorised by a mysterious one-armed man – and nobody believes her…

Reviews [may contain spoilers]:

“Geeson is impressive in a role which requires her to show weakness and mental fragility yet still keep viewers identifying with her. The plot is pleasingly twisted and the climax suitably dramatic, if a little drawn out. Though there’s not much to make the film stand out…” Jennie Kermode. Eye for Film

“The acting is quite good from everyone here; Judy Geeson and Joan Collins do fine, fourth-billed Peter Cushing is excellent as usual, and Ralph Bates gives the best performance of his that I’ve seen so far. Unfortunately, it’s at the service of one of the most predictable scripts I’ve encountered in some time…” Dave Sindelar, Fantastic Movie Musings and Ramblings

“A relatively by the numbers rift on Les Diaboliques (1955), director Sangster compensates for the minimalist script by wringing every last possible drop of atmosphere out of prowling through the deserted classrooms, dormitories and across the windswept school grounds after woman-in-terror Peggy. ” Paul Worts, Fleapits and Picture Palaces

“Fear in the Night is a good, if somewhat slow-moving film. The quality of production, the acting and the twisty climax make the film worth watching throughout. While certainly not one of Hammer’s best, or most remembered works, it should still please Hammer fans and all those looking for an unfolding and dramatic film.” Rhett Millar, Horror Digital

“One can pull the coincidences in Fear in the Night apart but it does work. It works particularly from the director’s chair where Jimmy Sangster demonstrates a slick ability in telling an economically constructed film. All the twists work effectively. Sangster constructs some nice shocks…” Richard Scheib, Moria

“Quite simply it becomes far fetched and whilst maybe that worked back in 1972 it certainly struggles now some 40 plus years later.” Andy Webb, The Movie Scene

“Excellent performances from each of the four primary cast members, good secluded schoolhouse atmospherics from Hammer, packs some nice plot surprises.” The Terror Trap

Choice dialogue:

Robert Heller (Ralph Bates) referring to Peggy Heller (Joan Collins): “Hmm, she can be a terrible bitch.”

Cast and characters:

• Judy Geeson … Peggy Heller
• Joan Collins … Molly Carmichael
• Ralph Bates … Robert Heller
• Peter Cushing … The Headmaster – Michael Carmichael
• James Cossins … The Doctor
• Gillian Lind … Mrs. Beamish
• Brian Grellis … 2nd Policeman
• John Bown … 1st Policeman
• Jimmy Gardner … Psychiatrist [uncredited]

Trivia:

The working title was The Claw.

Tom Chantrell artwork for original poster design

The movie was later retitled Dynasty of Fear for American VHS release to exploit Joan Collins’ fame in the TV soap opera Dynasty.

Buy Ten Years of Terror: Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

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‘It’s evil… it’s horrific… it’s conceived by the Devil!’

I Don’t Want to Be Born – aka The Devil Within Her – is a 1975 British supernatural horror feature film directed by Peter Sasdy (Nothing But the Night; Hands of the Ripper; Countess Dracula; Taste the Blood of Dracula) from a screenplay by Stanley Price, based on a story by executive producer Nato De Angeles. The Unicapital production stars Joan Collins, Ralph Bates, Eileen Atkins and Donald Pleasence.

The eccentric soundtrack score was composed by Ron Grainer (The Omega Man; Night Must Fall and the Doctor Who theme).

Review:

It’s a thoroughly ludicrous, totally ridiculous movie and what makes it all the more memorable is that it doesn’t seem to realise how silly it all is.  This is a batshit crazy movie that tells its story in the most serious way possible.  This damn film is almost sombre, it’s so serious.

Lucy (Joan Collins) is an exotic dancer who performs her act with a pervy dwarf named Hercules (George Claydon).  When Hercules tries to force himself on Lucy, he is tossed out of the club by Tommy (who is played by John Steiner, a good actor who somehow always turned up in movies like this one.)  After she and Tommy make love, Lucy is confronted by Hercules who curses her, telling her that she will have a baby “as big as I am small and possessed by the devil himself!” Oh, Hercules, you weirdo.

Nine months later, Lucy’s life has somehow completely changed.  She’s no longer a dancer.  Now, she’s married to a rich Italian named Gino (played by Ralph Bates, speaking in a bizarre cod-Italian accent).

When Lucy has her baby, it’s a long and difficult delivery. The baby is huge! Not only is he huge, but he also has a bad temper and unnaturally sharp nails. The first time that Lucy holds him, he attacks her.  Whenever the baby is introduced to anyone new, he responds by biting them. When Tommy drops by to take a look at the baby that might be his son, he ends up with a bloody nose!

Yet, that’s not all this baby can do!  Anytime he’s left alone in a room, the room ends up getting destroyed.  Eventually, he apparently figures out how to climb trees and how efficiently slip a noose around the neck of anyone who walks underneath him.  And don’t think that you can escape this baby simply because you’re taller and faster.  One unfortunate person is decapitated, even though he’s standing at the time.  How did the baby reach his neck?  Who knows?

Does this baby need an exorcism?  Lucy’s sister-in-law, Sister Albana (Eileen Atkins), certainly believes that it does.  As Lucy thinks about whether the baby’s behaviour is in any way odd, she glances over at the baby and — oh my God!  The baby has Hercules’s face!

And it just keeps going from there.  Again, I feel the need to repeat that this film is meant to be taken very seriously.  The script may be full of awkward and clichéd dialogue but most of the cast attempts to act the Hell out of it.

Speaking of the cast, there’s a lot of familiar horror people in this one.  Along with John Steiner, there’s also Caroline Munro and Donald Pleasence.  Those three give performances that somehow manage to remain credible, perhaps because they had the experience necessary to understand what type of movie they were in.  But the rest of the cast … you feel bad for them because they’re just trying  so hard.

It’s a terrible movie, however it’s so weird that I have to recommend that everyone see it once.  If for nothing else, see it for the scene where Hercules responds to an attempt to exorcise the baby by swaying drunkenly on the stage.  It’s weird and it’s hard for mere words to do it justice.

Lisa Marie Bowman, HORRORPEDIA – guest reviewer via Through the Shattered Lens

Other reviews:

“It’s empty, unoriginal, utterly worthless on every level […] This is probably Sasdy’s worst film and it’s probably doing better financially than any of his others.” Cinefantastique, 1975

“It’s funniest when the baby turns into the dwarf and then changes back. For the most part, the real baby is filmed when staring intently off camera. Some shots where the baby’s eyes wander should have been edited out. It’s generally well-mad, but the persisting silliness of the main idea dooms it to camp.” David Elroy Goldweber, Claws & Saucers

Buy: Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com | Amazon.ca

“The cast seems to be trying their best, but their efforts are wasted in the type of movie where a grown man is punched in the nose by a baby. If The Devil Within Her had a Z-grade budget and second rate actors it would have been an amusing piece of genre junk. What makes it truly exceptional is the fact that this appears to be a serious attempt at a suspenseful horror film.” Cool Cinema Trash

” …about as convincing as something you’d see in a Benny Hill skit (the baby’s hand is seen pushing a woman into a lake from his carriage). As a whole, it’s a perfect example of why by this point in time, many British horror films commercially and critically failed and compared unfavorably with the competition out of Hollywood by the mid 1970s.” George R. Reis, DVD Drive-In

“There are no attempts at character development or anything of the like, and while I know it’s a lot to hope for in a movie like this, character development is part of the reason why films like Rosemary’s Baby are successful, you know? Frequently you’ll be wondering if The Devil Within Her is actually meant to be comedic.” Final Girl

” …mindless and silly exploitation piece that merely tries to combine It’s Alive! and the The Exorcist and gets nowhere as a result.” Alan Frank, The Horror Film Handbook

“This is without a doubt the silliest killer-child movie I’ve ever seen. That’s not a bad thing, and it’s way more fun than Larry Cohens snooze-fest It’s Alive! But just don’t expect something serious and scary, just expect a staring baby with eerie music in the background, a dashing Joan Collins and a very nice performance by Donald Pleasence.” Fred Anderson, Ninja Dixon

” …a cash-in on the success of Rosemary’s Baby and The Exorcist, two films that obviously function incredibly well as ‘serious’ horror movies – but The Devil Within Her throws in so much lunacy and is put together in such a bizarre and haphazard manner that it never comes close to the success of those aforementioned movies. It does, however, work incredibly well as a silly, trashy, nonsensical popcorn movie…” Ian Jane, Rock! Shock! Pop!

“In this film’s aims to be chilling, it is hopeless, but as a comedy, it’s funnier than much of the British film industry’s attempts in that area from this time.” Graeme Clark, The Spinning Image

“Sharon’s Baby is listed as a horror film and I’m sure it was written to instill terror in the hearts of 1970’s filmgoers.  However, it is best labeled these days as a horror/comedy.  It is unintentionally funny but it’s funny nonetheless.  If you view this film in this light, you’ll find it to be an enjoyable viewing experience.” Vintage Horror Films

Buy Spanish Blu-ray (with English audio option): Amazon.co.uk

Cast and characters:

• Joan Collins … Lucy Carlesi
• Eileen Atkins … Sister Albana
• Ralph Bates … Gino Carlesi
• Donald Pleasence … Dr. Finch
• Caroline Munro … Mandy Gregory
• Hilary Mason … Mrs. Hyde
• John Steiner … Tommy Morris
• Janet Key … Jill Fletcher
• George Claydon … Hercules
• Derek Benfield … Police Inspector
• Stanley Lebor … Police Sergeant
• Judy Buxton … Sheila
• Andy Secombe … Delivery Boy
• Susan Richards … Old Lady
• Phyllis McMahon … Nun
• John Moore … Priest
• Floella Benjamin … 1st Nurse
• Penny Darch … 2nd Nurse
• Maria Lopez … Exotic dancer
• Susie Lightining … Exotic dancer
• Val Hoadley … Dancer
• Janice Brett … Dancer

Filming locations:

32 Wellington Square, Kensington, London, England
Hyde Park Corner, London, England
Kings Road, Chelsea, London, England
Parliament Square, Westminster, London, England
Fortnum & Mason, Piccadilly, London, England
Pinewood Studios, Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire, England

Technical credits:

94 minutes | 1.85: 1 | Eastmancolor

Alternate titles:

The Baby – shooting title
It Lives Within Her – alternate British VHS title
The Monster
Sharon’s Baby

Censorship:

The BBFC demanded cut for an ‘X’ certificate, issued on 28 January 1975.

Related:

Dwarfs in Horror Cinema – article

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Alucarda – original title: Alucarda, la hija de las tinieblas (“Alucarda, the Daughter of Darkness”) is a 1975 Mexican horror film directed by Juan López Moctezuma (The Mansion of Madness; Mary, Mary, Bloody Mary), starring Tina Romero in the title role. It has also been released as Innocents from Hell, Sisters of Satan and, misleadingly, Mark of the Devil 3.

Often thought to be based on Sheridan Le Fanu’s 1872 novella Carmilla, the film’s plot revolves around two teenage orphan girls living in a Catholic convent, who unleash a demonic force and become possessed by Satan.

Plot:

A Mexican convent that houses nuns and is also an orphanage. Alucarda has lived at the convent her entire life. Justine, another orphan girl of similar age, arrives at the convent. She and Alucarda become very close friends.

While playing in the nearby forest, the girls stumble upon a band of mysterious gypsies and subsequently unleash a demonic force after opening a casket at a nearby burial site. A bloody chain of events follows after both Alucarda and Justine become possessed by the Satanic entity and wreak havoc on the convent and its inhabitants…

Reviews:

“Intelligent and atmospheric, if slightly bizarre, the film plays like a cross between Ken Russell’s The Devils and Piers Haggard’s Blood on Satan’s Claw. Anybody would be hard pushed to beat the stylish flair displayed by Russell in The Devils but Moctezuma, Stamatiades and Cruz throw caution, and any restraint demanded by their presumably quite small budget, to the wind and have a go anyhow.” Lee Broughton, DVD Savant

“The production values and photography are commendable; I particularly liked the stylized nun’s habits, resembling nothing so much as mummy wrappings. Screaming continues at a feverish pitch through one grotesquely satisfying set piece after another at ear-splitting frequencies…” David J. Skal, V is for Vampire

Buy: Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com | Amazon.ca

“Alucarda is one of the more striking and shocking south of the border gothic fests from the golden age of cinematic sleaze. Replete with nuns, devil worship, blood baths, and sadistic religious fanaticism, this is one drive-in jewel ripe for rediscovery.” Nathaniel Thompson, Mondo Digital

“Alucarda is an odd duck to be sure, but one worth checking out if only for the visuals alone. Director Juan Lopez Moctezuma has created a bizarre, surreal world full of striking imagery, particularly in regards to the setting. At times it’s blatantly artificial, an approach which, when coupled with the cast’s tendency to overact, gives the film an almost fairy tale-like quality.” Final Girl

Buy Hidden Horror: Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com

Buy DVD: Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com

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‘A new peak in horror’

The Incredible Melting Man is a 1977 American science fiction horror feature film about an astronaut whose body begins to melt after he is exposed to radiation during a space flight to Saturn, driving him to commit murders and consume human flesh to survive.

Financed by former Amicus partner Max J. Rosenberg (Tales from the Crypt), and written and directed by William Sachs, the film stars Alex Rebar (screenwriter of Demented) as Steve West, the protagonist of the title, alongside Burr DeBenning as a scientist trying to help him, and Myron Healey as a United States Air Force general seeking to capture him.

The film – which was initially intended as a parody – includes several homages to science fiction and horror films of the 1950s, especially First Man into Space. Makeup artist Rick Baker provided the memorably gory and gloopy visual effects for the film, assisted by Greg Cannom and Rob Bottin.

Buy Blu-ray + DVD: Amazon.co.uk

• High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) and Standard Definition DVD presentation of the feature, transferred from original film elements
• Original Mono audio (uncompressed PCM on the Blu-ray)
• Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
• Audio Commentary with William Sachs
• Super 8 digest version of the film
• Interview with Writer/Director William Sachs and Makeup Effects Artist Rick Baker
• Interview with Makeup Effects Artist Greg Cannom
• Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Gary Pullin
• Collector’s booklet featuring essays on the history of the film by Mike White and a brief history of Super 8 by Douglas Weir

Review:

“Magnificent! You’ve never seen anything till you’ve seen the Sun through the rings of Saturn” declares the magnificently wooden Alex Rebar at the opening of The Incredible Melting Man, and similarly, you’ve never seen anything until you sit down to watch this film – though only the most fanatical trash cinema fan might declare it to be “magnificent.”

There’s no denying the ridiculous entertainment value of this gloriously dreadful film, however, as it mixes a Fifties B-movie plot with spectacular bad taste to create one of the most ludicrous and – if you are in the right mood – entertaining films of the era.

I first saw The Incredible Melting Man in the early 1980s, when it turned up as support feature to – of all things – Every Which Way But Loose. Of course, an audience looking forward to Clint Eastwood’s good ol’ boy capers with a comedy Orangutan were scarcely prepared for a film in which the lead character slowly melts, eats people and gets his arm chopped off and which has a memorable long shot of a severed head floating down a stream, tumbling over a waterfall and bursting open on the rocks below. It caused quite a stir.

How this film managed to pass through the BBFC with an ‘AA’ certificate – almost equivalent to ’15’ now – in 1977, when gory scenes were still being cut from ‘X’ rated movies, is anyone’s guess [NB. Later VHS releases where rated ’18’ in a sign of darker times]. For this teenager, the film was everything I’d hoped it would be when seeing trailers on TV and gloopy stills in horror mags.

The story is pretty simple. Steve West (Rebar) is an astronaut who has something bad happen to him on a Saturn mission. Back on Earth (which seems to take no time at all), he awakens in hospital to find himself covered in bandages and strapped to a bed. Naturally unguarded (because why would you keep an astronaut whose condition is a national security top secret in a secure unit), he removes the bandages to reveal a face and hands that are beginning to melt. Naturally, this discovery forces him to chase a fat nurse through the empty hospital and then eat her.

Mission director Ted Nelson (Burr DeBenning) and General Perry (Myron Healey) set out to track Steve down, which mostly involves Nelson wandering through the woods holding a geiger counter. Steve, meanwhile, is on a rampage, ripping apart a fisherman ( cue the aforementioned head scene), frightening children and leaving corpses to be found by a young model and a lecherous photographer (who are here simply to get some bare breasts into the story – given that the breasts belong to cult icon Cheryl Rainbeaux Smith (Parasite; Lemora: A Child’s Tale of the Supernatural), I doubt anyone is complaining).

As Steve decays, he seems to get stronger and more deranged. There’s the suggestion that eating people might slow the melting down, though how the beleaguered astronaut would know that is anyone’s guess. In any case, he seems to spend most of his time lurking around houses to no obvious reason, attacking a young couple (played by film director Jonathan Demme and The Hills Have Eyes star Janus Blythe) before making his way to a power station for a final showdown with Nelson and the trigger happy cops.

The film is one of a handful of late 1970s movies that essentially channel 1950s science fiction (it would make a great double-bill with the equally retro-styled The Giant Spider Invasion), and the story here seems clearly inspired by The First Man into Space and The Quatermass Xperiment, both of which featured astronauts who return to Earth infected with something that slowly causes them to decay, losing their minds and their humanity in the process. It’s a classic science fiction concept, and one that can be given a certain emotional and intellectual clout, but of course here all that is swept aside in favour of gore and mayhem.

While the actual violence levels in the film are not that high, the graphic nature of the film is pretty remarkable. It’s not just the continually melting Rebar that will test the stamina of more sensitive viewers, though the shots of him dripping away, an eyeball falling out and eventually melting down completely will be enough to put many people off their dinners; it’s also the burst open head (filmed in loving slow motion!), the half-eaten nurse, the severed limbs and the general gore quota that still manages to be shocking. These scenes are also the best thing about the movie. Created by Rick Baker, the melting man and the gore are of a quality that the rest of the movie doesn’t even come close to. Baker’s work is the real star here (certainly more so than Rebar, who only gets the one scene without the make-up and delivers his single line of dialogue terribly).

Watching it again now, I can appreciate other things in the movie. It is, of course, terrible by any conventional standards. But then, how can we actually judge a film that calls itself The Incredible Melting Man? This is the sort of film that is almost critic proof, because it is inherently, shamelessly trashy. The only thing that really matters is this – does it entertain? And I’d say that the answer is a definite ‘yes’. It’s a film that delivers everything you want from this sort of thing – a steady supply of gore, gratuitous nudity, ripe dialogue and as few pauses for characterisation as it can get away with.

The rest of the film is pure 1950s though, and it’s easy to see that director William Sachs probably was trying to shoot a comic book style pastiche – according to him, the producers didn’t want a comedy horror and made him shoot more ‘straight’ horror scenes. The film is actually still pretty funny if you are familiar with Fifties science fiction, though how much of the comedy is deliberate is hard to tell. DeBenning is stiff as a board playing the stereotypical scientist, and most of the supporting characters are pretty one-dimensional and, yes, cartoon like. This would usually be a bad thing in a movie, but here, it’s rather appropriate. Good performances of well rounded characters spouting non-risible dialogue would probably be the death of this movie.

In the end, The Incredible Melting Man is exactly what you expect it to be. If you pick up a film with this title wanting something other than what you get, then more fool you, frankly. But if you are a lover of no-nonsense drive in madness or simply want a party movie with tits and gore and no complex plot to get caught up in, then this is for you. And Arrow’s Blu-ray ensures you can enjoy Rick Baker’s effects to their fullest!

David Flint, HORRORPEDIA

Other reviews:

“The Incredible Melting Man is an endearingly awful creature feature, without much horror or science fiction, although it can boast of gloriously gloopy special effects and make-up by Rick Baker.” Twitchfilm

“I actually found it pretty fun; once you get past the silly concept, it’s a pretty traditional “unwitting victim on a rampage” movie, with a major downer ending that adds a touch of Romero-esque cynicism to the proceedings.” Horror Movie a Day

“But most of those murders are a hoot and a holler (my favorite: the artfully composed shot of Steve’s shadow tossing the fisherman’s head, which then sails into the frame, lands in the water, and floats downstream until it goes splat at the bottom of a waterfall), and a monster as nauseating as Steve is a pretty compelling sight, even when moseying is all it’s up to. Besides, do you really watch a movie called The Incredible Melting Man for its story?” 1000 Misspent Hours and Counting

Buy Blu-ray from Amazon.com

” … a silly popcorn treat that well deserves its reputation as a cult classic thanks to its riotous dialogue and comedic performances (especially Myron Healey as the General). But the real hero here is make up legend Rick Baker whose blood, pus and mucous dripping effects are simply amazing (they look even better on Blu-ray). The film also served as a launch pad for emerging SFX talents like Greg Cannom and Rob Bottin.” Peter Fuller, Kultguy’s Keep

“Likeable throwback to the science fiction films of two decades previously, with stunning make-up by Rick Baker.” Alan Frank, The Science Fiction and Fantasy Film Handbook, Batsford, 1982

Buy novelisation: Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com

Cast and characters:

• Alex Rebar … Steve West – Amityville: The Evil Escapes
• Burr DeBenning … Dr. Ted Nelson – A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child; Freddy’s Nightmares; Wolfen; Alien Zone
• Myron Healey … General Michael Perry – RoboCop TV series; Pulse; Ghost Fever; V TV series
• Michael Alldredge … Sheriff Neil Blake
• Ann Sweeny … Judy Nelson
• Lisle Wilson … Dr. Loring
• Cheryl Smith … The Model (as Rainbeaux Smith) – Parasite; Laserblast; Massacre at Central High; Phantom of the Paradise; Lemora: A Child’s Tale of the Supernatural
• Julie Drazen … Carol
• Stuart Edmond Rodgers Stuart Edmond Rodgers … Little Boy
• Chris Witney … Little Boy
• Edwin Max … Harold
• Dorothy Love … Helen
• Janus Blythe … Nell Winters – Spine; The Hills Have Eyes Part II; The Hills Have Eyes; Eaten Alive; Drive In Massacre; Phantom of the Paradise; The Centerfold Girls
• Jonathan Demme … Matt Winters – director of  The Silence of the Lambs
• Westbrook Claridge … Second Security Guard

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Nicolas Roeg (15 August 1928 – 23 November 2018) was an English filmmaker, best known for directing Performance (1968, released 1970), Walkabout (1971), Don’t Look Now (1973), The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976), Bad Timing (1980), and The Witches (1989). For the purposes of this overview, the focus is naturally on Roeg’s contributions to the horror and science fiction genres.

Having made his directorial debut twenty-three years after his initial entry into the film business, Roeg soon became known for an idiosyncratic visual and narrative style, characterised by the use of disjointed and disorientating editing. For this reason, he was considered a highly influential filmmaker, with such directors as Steven Soderbergh, Christopher Nolan, and Danny Boyle citing him as such.

In 1947, Roeg entered the film business as a tea boy moving up to clapper-loader at Marylebone Studios in London. For a time, he worked as a camera operator on a number of film productions, such as Tarzan’s Greatest Adventure. Roeg later claimed he had only entered the film industry because the studio was across the road from his home. He became a cinematographer and amongst many movies, worked on Roger Corman’s resplendent The Masque of the Red Death (1964) and François Truffaut’s Fahrenheit 451 (1966).

Roeg’s Don’t Look Now (1973) is based on Daphne du Maurier’s short story of the same name and features Julie Christie and Donald Sutherland as a married couple in Venice mourning the death of their daughter who had drowned. It attracted scrutiny early on due to a sex scene between Sutherland and Christie, which was unusually explicit for the time. The puzzle-like film was widely praised by critics and is now considered one of the most important and influential horror films ever made.

The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976) starred David Bowie as a humanoid alien who comes to Earth to collect water for his planet, which is suffering from a drought. The film’s non-linear narrative divided critics and its length – 138 minutes – caused it to be truncated for its U.S. release. Perhaps the most memorable scene is when David Bowie’s character Newton reveals his alien form to Mary-Lou (Candy Clark); her reaction is one of pure shock and horror.

In an Empire  Blu-ray review, Kim Newman observed that the film is: “At once consistently disorientating and beguilingly beautiful […] Bowie’s cat-eyed alien is startling enough to make Clark wet herself, but his human disguise — two-tone red hair and film-noir fedora — is alien enough without the make-up.”  Over the years, The Man Who Fell to Earth developed a growing following amongst fans of more eclectic cinema and it received a BFI 4K makeover in 2016. Curiously, in 1987, it was also remade as a more conventional science fiction TV movie.

Bad Timing is a 1980 psychological thriller starring Art Garfunkel, Theresa Russell, Harvey Keitel and Denholm Elliott. An American woman and a psychology professor are living in Vienna, and, largely told via flashbacks, the plot relates their turbulent relationship as uncovered by a detective investigating her apparent suicide attempt. Bad Timing was controversial upon its release, being branded “a sick film made by sick people for sick people” by its British distributor, the Rank Organisation.

The Witches (1989, released 1990) was Roeg’s  unique adaptation of Roald Dahl’s children’s story.  The Witches is about a young boy named Luke (Jasen Fisher) whose parents have died in a tragic accident, and whose grandmother (Mai Zetterling) takes him to a posh hotel in England, where a secret coven of witches is holding its annual convention. The Grand High Witch (Anjelica Huston, in a scene-stealing performance) has decreed that all children in England be turned into mice, and Luke and his pal Bruno (Charles Potter) are the first victims on the list… The resulting movie highlights Jim Henson’s  makeup effects work and revels in the dark humour of the situation. It has been rightly acknowledged as one of the scariest of kids’ films.

Filmmakers have been paying tribute to the late director. On Twitter, Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead) said: “Farewell to the extraordinary cinematic talent, director Nicolas Roeg. His films hypnotized me for years and still continue to intrigue. Along with classics like Performance & Walkabout, I could watch Don’t Look Now on a loop & never tire of its intricacies. A master of the art.”

Joe Dante (Gremlins) said: “I followed his career first for his photographic style, later for his fascinating choice of subject matter. Walkabout is a near perfect tone poem, the restored The Man Who Fell to Earth is one of the greatest sci-fi movies ever.”

Guillermo del Terror commented: “Of his infinite talent and multiple achievements, if I was forced to choose one Roeg film (it would be hard) I would choose “Don’t Look Now” as it stands full of secrets and sadness and terror and beauty above all. A moebius strip of life and death, love and destruction.”

Wikipedia

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Ritual of Evil is a 1970 American made-for-television horror feature film directed by Robert Day (The Initiation of Sarah; Fear No Evil; Grip of the Strangler) from a screenplay by Robert Presnell Jr., based on characters created by Richard Alan Simmons. Produced by David Levinson, the Universal movie stars Louis Jourdan, Anne Baxter, Diana Hyland andWilfrid Hyde-White.

Plot:

Psychiatrist Dr. David Sorrell (Louis Jourdan) treats young heiress Loey Wiley (Belinda Montgomery), whose parents have died under mysterious circumstances. His investigation uncovers a cult, led by a powerful witch, Leila Barton (Diana Hyland). Things grow complicated as Sorrell and the witch begin to fall in love…

Review:

While lacking the feverish Dutch-angled scenes, creepy cinematography, and phantasmal script of director Paul Wendkos’ Fear No Evil, as well as the substantially sinister performance of Carroll O’Connor as Myles Donovan, director Robert Day’s Ritual of Evil still packs a punch, benefitting from composer Billy Goldenberg’s unearthly ethereal score and Anne Baxter’s eccentric channeling of Phyllis Diller in her portrayal of a stewed Jolene Wiley, mother to Loey Wiley (Belinda Montgomery) and Aline Wiley (Carla Borelli).

Its plot of occult detective battling a woozy jumble of sinister forces at the root of multiple deaths is typical of American TV horror film production of the time, and appropriately so, considering the silly ballyhoo of marketing mountebanks like Anton LaVey, Carlos Castaneda, and Timothy Leary; with them, witchcraft mingles with satanism which, in turn, becomes indistinguishable from ESP, reincarnation, ghostly communications, and paganism.

The main thrust, if you will, of Ritual of Evil is that a coven of satanic witches is performing sacrifices to Priapus, an ancient Greek fertility god who would normally be depicted with an enormously erect phallus, but in this case, is limited to representation by a vaguely sensual and smolderingly malevolent Satyr-like statue which could easily be passed off as one half of a set of macabre bookends. The sterilisation, of course, was due to the Federal Communications Commission’s regulation and definition of unacceptable content at the time, which has fluctuated along with common opinion since its inception.

Ben Spurling, HORRORPEDIA

Other reviews:

“The music (again by Billy Goldenberg) is highly reminiscent of the themes used in Fear No Evil, heavily borrowing the sonic tone and mood of the first film. Sadly, editor Byron Chudnow did not return for the sequel, as it could have used his master touch. The film commits the gravest sin (no pun intended) for a horror film, feature or TV-wise: it’s just plain not scary.” Conjure Cinema

“The story touches on a few themes pertinent to the time period but in ham-fisted fashion with laboured speeches. Day stages the spooky moments with a similar bludgeoning lack of subtlety. The protagonists are also far less interesting this time around: shrill, self-absorbed soap opera types straight out of an Aaron Spelling production about whiny rich people.” Andrew Pragasm, The Spinning Image

Cast and characters:

• Louis Jourdan … David Sorell – Swamp Thing; Count Dracula 1977; Daughter of the Mind
• Anne Baxter … Jolene Wiley
• Diana Hyland … Leila Barton
• John McMartin … Edward Bolander
• Wilfrid Hyde-White … Harry Snowden – The Cat and the Canary; Fear No Evil; Chamber of Horrors
• Belinda Montgomery … Loey Wiley – Phantom Town; Silent Madness; The Devil’s Daughter
• Carla Borelli … Aline Wiley
• Georg Stanford Brown … Larry Richmond
• Regis Cordic … The Sheriff
• Dehl Berti … Mora
• Richard Alan Knox … Hippie
• Johnny Williams … Newscaster
• Jimmy Joyce … 1st Reporter
• James LaSane … 2nd Reporter
• Clarke Lindsley … Chris [uncredited]

First broadcast:

February 23, 1970, on NBC.

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Bloodlust  aka Mosquito – original title Mosquito der Schänder – is a 1976 Swiss horror feature film directed by Marijan Vajda from a screenplay by Mario d’Alcala. The Monarex production stars Werner Pochath, Ellen Umlauf and Birgit Zamulo. It is loosely based on the macabre true story of Kuno Hofmann, the so-called “Vampire of Nuremberg” who was arrested in 1972.

Plot:

Haunted by a childhood trauma… a deaf-mute accountant develops a fixation with blood spilling across his skin. Brief flirtations with ketchup and red ink seem to satisfy him at first, but he soon develops a taste for the real thing. Though he nurses a weird fascination for a neighbourhood girl who passes the time by dancing on the rooftop, he remains socially withdrawn with his co-workers and can’t even find comfort in the arms of a streetwalker.

One night, he breaks into the property of the local undertaker and ravages the prettiest female corpse. Now addicted, he habitually raids the tombs of the dead and drinks blood from their throats via a spiked, double-pronged glass straw. Authorities and citizens are incensed by these crimes and the search is on for this modern day vampire…

Reviews:

“Veteran exploitation actor Werner Pochath is excellent as the deaf-mute (who’s name is never revealed) driven to insanity by his past. His performance has a truly haunting presence – he doesn’t utter a single word for the entire running time, yet manages to tell us a hell of a lot along the way. Equally as impressive is the grim and disturbing atmosphere director Vadja manages to sustain…” Michelle R., Digital Retribution

“Especially impressive here is Pochath, in his starring role, who is able to substitute body language and facial expressions for verbal dialogue successfully in order to communicate with both the other characters as well as the audience. Add good acting to great camera work, and Bloodlust quickly rises up the list and earns the reputation of “underrated” and “forgotten gem.” Sean Leonard, Horror News

“Shot in a staid and carefully composed style, Bloodlust succeeds more due to the perverse impact of its story than the uneven quality of its special effects; even an eyeball removal that would have  been riotous in the hands of Lucio Fulci seems more disturbing here in concept than in execution. The camera often lingers on the blood dribbling from Pochath’s lips, but overall it’s more pathetic and weirdly poignant than disgusting.” Natheniel Thompson, Mondo Digital

“The pacing of the picture is pretty deliberate and you can’t help but wish, towards the end, that there wasn’t a bit more of a character arc to follow, but Bloodlust works pretty well for the most part […] the film has an effective score from David Llewellyn…” Ian Jane, Rock! Shock! Pop!

Cast:

Werner Pochath – RatMan; Devil Hunter; The Cat o’ Nine Tails
Ellen Umlauf
Birgit Zamulo
Gerhard Ruhnke
Peter Hamm
Charly Hiltl
Hary Olsbauer
Marion Messner
Fred Berhoff
Roswitha Geuther
Karl Yblagger
Sonja Costa
Jony Soster

Release:

Mondo Macabro released Bloodlust on Blu-ray, uncut, widescreen 1.78:1, in English and German on November 13, 2018.

Censorship:

In the UK, the film was passed with cuts (no details) by BBFC censors on 14 October 1976 for distribution by Butchers Film Service.

Image credits: Mondo Digital

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Graveyard Groove: The Haunted History of Monster Music from “Monster Mash” to Horror Punk is a self-published book by David Acord (Success Secrets of Sherlock Holmes; When Mars Attacked: Orson Welles and the Radio Broadcast That Changed America Forever), released on August 26, 2018.

“In the mid-1950s, a new genre of novelty music emerged that mixed humour and horror. The result: Monster Music! Suddenly, jukeboxes were filled with songs about Frankenstein, Dracula, the Wolf Man, creatures from outer space and a multitude of supernatural terrors.

The genre reached its peak in 1962 with Bobby “Boris” Pickett’s smash “Monster Mash,” but there are many more songs worthy of rediscovery — and Monster Music still lives on today, thanks to the influence of punk pioneers like The Cramps and the Misfits. Here is the complete, untold story of Monster Music — the genre that refused to die!”

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Devil’s Nightmare – aka The Devil’s Nightmare – is a 1971 Belgian-Italian supernatural horror feature film directed by Jean Brismée from a screenplay by Patrice Rohmm (The She Wolf of Spilberg) and story by Pierre-Claude Garnier. It was released in Belgium as La plus longue nuit du diable and in Italy as La terrificante notte del demonio.

The movie stars Erika Blanc (Kill, Baby… Kill!; The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave; Mark of the Devil, Part II), Jean Servais, Jacques Monseau, Ivana Novak (Seven Blood-Stained Orchids; The Red Headed Corpse), Shirley Corrigan (The Crimes of the Black Cat; Dr. Jekyll vs. the Werewolf) and Daniel Emilfork.

The Euro-lounge soundtrack score was composed by Alessandro Alessandroni (Lady Frankenstein; The Strangler of Vienna; The Killer Nun) with vocals by Giulia De Mutiis.

Devil’s Nightmare will be released on Blu-ray by Mondo Macabro on January 24, 2019.

Review:

The Devil’s Nightmare opens with a sepia-toned flashback to the closing days of World War II.  A child has been born to the Nazi general, Baron von Rohnberg (Jean Servais) but after the Baron learns that the baby is female, he orders that she be killed.  It’s a brutally effective little opening, all the more so because there is no greater evil than a Nazi with money and a title.  As with many European horror films, the crimes and sins of Hitler cast a shadow over every scene of The Devil’s Nightmare.

Years later, like many Nazi noblemen, the Baron remains free.  He lives in his isolated castle, occasionally letting tourists stay for the night while he practices his experiments in the basement.  A reporter comes by and pays a steep price for refusing the Baron’s orders not to take any pictures.  When her body is found, she has a hoof-shaped burn on her arm.  The sign of the devil, we are told.

A small coach takes a wrong turn and the occupants become lost.  The tourists onboard are a typical collection of Eurohorror types: the greedy woman, the bitter old businessman who loudly proclaims his atheism, the fighting husband and wife, and, of course, Alvin (Jacques Monseau), the seminarian.  The tourists meet a strange man (Daniel Emilfork) who directs them to the Baron’s castle, where they can stay until the ferry arrives the next day.

As the tourists explore the castle and get to know the Baron (who shares the story of how his family came to be cursed), a storm develops outside.  And, finally, one last guest arrives.  Her name is Lisa Muller (Erika Blanc) and, over the course of the night, everyone in the castle will be tempted.

The Devil’s Nightmare works surprisingly well.  What it may have lacked in a production budget, the film more than makes up for in atmosphere.  The castle is a wonderfully creepy location and, as played by Jean Servais, the Baron becomes a potent symbol of aristocratic decay.  Daniel Emilfork brings an eccentric flair to his role and, even if he is basically playing the movie’s most boring character, Jacques Monseau is sympathetic and believable as the upright seminarian.

That said, this film belongs to Erika Blanc, who basically grabs hold of the movie and then dares anyone to try to take it away from her.  Throughout the film, Blanc shifts from elegant to evil and back again and she makes it all look not only easy but totally natural as well.

Finally, The Devil’s Nightmare ends with a twist that you’ll see coming from a mile away but that doesn’t make it any less satisfying.

Lisa Marie Bowman, HORRORPEDIA – Guest reviewer via Through the Shattered Lens

Other reviews:

‘… The Devil’s Nightmare has some unexpected strengths. Though it is compromised by a lack of thematic follow-through, the conceit that Lita has one potential victim for each of the Seven Deadly Sins is a cool touch— remember, this was 24 years before Seven. And Erika Blanc makes a terrific succubus.” 1000 Misspent Hours and Counting

“Attempts at allegory notwithstanding, La Plus longue nuit is one of those delirious Euro-horrors of the period that seems to have everything  – a ritzy score from Alessandro Alessandroni (complete with a breathy Morricone-style vocalist), a mix-and-match multi-national cast, an unconvincing and laboriously extended lesbian interlude, and a surfeit of elaborate settings…” Jonathan Rigby, Euro Gothic

Buy: Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com | Amazon.ca

“From the stormy night to the authentically spiky and unwelcoming castle (which comes complete with laboratory and torture chamber) to the heavily symbolic chess match between the priest and the atheist, this movie unrepentantly rolls around nude and cackling in its own cliches.” Love Train for the Tenebrous Empire

“Downside? The plotting is incoherent at times, and the symbolism heavy handed. But with a colorful cast of characters, this is truly a fun watch…” The Terror Trap

Cast and characters:

• Erika Blanc … Lisa Müller
• Jean Servais … Baron von Rhoneberg
• Daniel Emilfork … Satan
• Jacques Monseau … Father Alvin Sorel [as Jacques Monseu]
• Lucien Raimbourg … Mason
• Colette Emmanuelle … Nancy
• Ivana Novak … Corinne
• Shirley Corrigan … Regine
• Frédérique Hender … TBC
• Lorenzo Terzon … Howard
• Christian Maillet … Ducha
• Maurice De Groote … Hans [as Maurice Degroot]
• Yvonne Garden … TBC

International release titles:

• Au service du diable
• Castle of Death (video title)
• La nuit des pétrifiés
• La terrificante notte del demonio (Italy)
• Nightmare of Terror (video title)
• O Demonio Sai a Meia-Noite (Brazil)
• Seytanlarin hizmetinde (Turkey)
• Stin ypiresia tou diavolou (Greece)
• Succubus
• The Devil Walks at Midnight
• The Devil’s Nightmare USA)
• Vampire Playgirls (USA: reissue title)
• Yö paholaisen linnassa (Finland: TV title)

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‘Why are the good people dying?’

The Crazies aka Code Name Trixie is a 1973 American science fiction horror feature film written and directed by George A. Romero (Creepshow; Dawn of the Dead; Martin; Night of the Living Dead; et al) based on “The Mad People”, an earlier screenplay by Paul McCollough.

The movie stars Lane Carroll, WG. McMillan, Harold Wayne Jones, Lloyd Hollar and Lynn Lowry.

The Crazies was remade in 2010.

Plot:

A military plane crashes near a small town, infecting the water supply with a deadly virus codenamed “Trixie” that causes insanity then death. The army moves in to control the situation, only for the civilians to treat them as invaders and then infect them as well…

Reviews:

“The Crazies is one of those strange horror movies because it is a movie you watch and you know there is no hope.  This makes watching the movie a bit of a bummer, and it is hard to watch, but a lot of it feels scary and real.” Basement Rejects

“It’s low-budget enough to incorporate mismatched stock footage at points and many of the performances are amateurish and take some getting used to. However, once it finds its footing, it has much to offer those willing to roll with the punches.” The Bloody Pit of Horror

“Every frame is awash with feeling, be it confusion, despair, hurt, anger, or any other number of emotions that define the greater experience of the “Trixie” outbreak and the subsequent government/military response. Fortunately, the film’s rough exterior does in and of itself accentuate the gritty nature of the story…” Blu-ray.com

” …a hefty dose of Nixon-era political paranoia […] seasoned with a strong critique of the military (largely taking place within the military’s own rank and file as they try to deal with the situation), simmered with a nicely raw presentation of small-town USA values and you get a potent witch’s brew of a movie.” Cinema of the Damned

” …looks forward to Day of the Dead with its depiction of bickering, cold-hearted military personnel. When focusing on them, Romero ramps up the soundtrack, including many chattering voices at once, and edits with a staccato sputter, keeping everything off-kilter and slightly annoying.” Combustible Celluloid

“The film has the forcedly hesitant acting of an amateur cast, particularly in the opening bedroom scenes, but George Romero keeps things busy enough for such not to become too noticeable […] This is one of George Romero’s best films, one that holds a muchly underrated maturity of theme and execution.” Moria

“Romero goes for the simplistic – a contaminated aquifer. He then tosses in an inept army response corps, a Washington based cabal, random brutality, and the delightfully named toxin, “Trixie”. If that wasn’t enough, The Crazies then ladles on the dread, exposing us to material […] that we aren’t used to in a fright film, while continually building up a strong head of suspense steam.” Pop Matters

“A very quickly paced and frighteningly plausible situation makes The Crazies a remarkably tense film. It starts off reasonably enough and manages to hold your attention throughout, right up until the end. In typical Romero fashion, it was shot on a fairly low budget but every penny of that budget is up there on the screen…” Ian Jane, Rock! Shock! Pop!

“Overlong but slickly professional shocker that is well directed and effectively reworks themes from The Andromeda Strain and Invasion of the Body Snatchers.” Alan Frank, The Science Fiction and Fantasy Film Handbook, Batsford, 1982

” …too heavy handed in its anti-military premise and focuses too heavily on action at the expense of good characterization. It’s a worthwhile effort nudged between the director’s Night of the Living Dead (1968) and Dawn of the Dead (1978), but it’s not transcendental.” The Terror Trap

“It packs a punch both for what it does as well as what it says about ourselves and our society. Spellbinding, gut-wrenching stuff all the way around.” Trash Film Guru

” …any interesting ideas brought into the mix tended to get sidetracked due to the film’s obvious low-budget as well as editing that feels abrupt at times and a handful of performances (and one pretty lousy one) that felt unnatural and forced.” The Video Graveyard

“The film will be of interest primarily for those fans interested in the military theme that became so prominent in his Dead trilogy. For others, it may seem slow and improbable.” Videohound’s Complete Guide to Cult Flicks and Trash Pics

Cast and characters:

• Lane Carroll … Judy
• Will MacMillan … David
• Harold Wayne Jones … Clank
• Lloyd Hollar … Colonel Peckem
• Lynn Lowry … Kathy
• Richard Liberty … Artie
• Richard France … Dr. Watts
• Harry Spillman … Major Ryder
• Will Disney … Dr. Brookmyre
• Edith Bell … Lab Technician
• Leland Starnes … Shelby
• Bill Thunhurst … Brubaker
• A.C. McDonald … General Bowen
• Robert J. McCully … Hawks
• Robert Karlowsky … Sheriff Cooper
• Ned Schmidtke … Sgt. Tragesser
• Tony Scott … Deputy Shade
• Roy Cheverie … Army Doctor
• Jack Zaharia … Priest
• Bill Hinzman … Man in Infirmary and Crazie shooting at the doctor’s office

Filming locations:

Evans City and Zelienople, Pennsylvania

Running time:

103 minutes

Budget:

$275,000

Release:

Cambist Films released The Crazies regionally in the USA on March 16, 1973.

On 23 February 2010, the film was released onto a Blu-ray disc by Blue Underground.

Image credits: Deep Fried Movies | Video Collector

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The Red Queen Kills Seven Times is a 1972 Italian-German giallo thriller feature film directed by Emilio Miraglia [as Emilio P. Miraglia] (The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave) from a screenplay co-written with Fabio Pittorru (Nine Guests for a Crime; Calling All Police Cars; The Weekend Murders). The movie stars Barbara Bouchet, Ugo Pagliai, Marina Malfatti and Marino Masé. The Italian title is La dama rossa uccide sette volte.

The soundtrack score was composed by Bruno Nicolai (Eyeball; The Antichrist; All the Colours of the Dark; Count Dracula; et al).

Plot:

Germany: Young sisters Kitty and Eveline attack each other violently but are stopped from stabbing each other by their grandfather. They’ve been driven insane by an old painting, a depiction of ‘The Red Queen’, a figure said to curse their family, appearing every hundred years to claim seven victims.

In 1972, Kitty (Barbara Bouchet) is working as a photographer for Springe fashion house. She receives a call from her other sister, Franciska (Marina Malfatti), informing her that their grandfather has died, apparently from a heart attack induced by the appearance of a mysterious figure in a red cape. When Hans Meyer, the sleazy manager of Springe, is stabbed to death, it seems Eveline might be responsible…

Reviews:

” …what really outshines here is the murders by the red queen, the great music from Bruno Nicolai, the attractive female cast, the vintage 70’s designer fashions, and the exotic European settings. The film combines the giallo film style and Gothic horror tale with panache, and if you enjoy those two things, then TRQK7T is likely to be a treat. ” At the Mansion of Madness

” …its constant plot twists and shifts in tone are considerably better executed than in The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave. It also features a brilliantly-executed climax involving a crowd of rats and a sealed room slowly filling with water, which more than makes up for the nonsensical narrative’s failure to successfully tie up the various disparate plot strands.” The Digital Fix

“It is all rounded off with a spot of epic scenery chewing – and a climax worthy of the Perils of Pauline.  Red Queen certainly isn’t the best example of the genre – it’s unevenly paced and sometimes a little incoherent – but for those looking for some seriously demented, 70s Italian gialli fun you could do worse than check this out.” Hysteria Lives

“The Red Queen delivers everything you could want from a giallo. It boasts a winding plot that keeps you guessing, but unlike many of the entries in this genre, it holds up to scrutiny. ‘Evelyn’, clad in her blood red cape, is a classic giallo antagonist, laughing maniacally after each murder. In Bouchet, Malfatti and Sybil Danning […] you have a trio of classic European beauties…” The Movie Waffler

“The Red Queen Kills Seven Times feels like a 98-minute tour through a decade of Italian horror filmmaking. The familial, haunted-castle backstory involving the Red Queen evokes the gothic era of the early 60s, when Bava and Steele reigned as king and queen, while the bright, gaudy fashion world aesthetic recalls Bava’s transition into color filmmaking. These two contrasting styles clash throughout…” Oh, the Horror!

“Deliciously convoluted plotting reworks familiar ingredients: a creepy castle, a blonde heroine exploring cobwebbed corridors, feverish dream sequences, another lovely score from Bruno Nicolai and an undead menace named Evelyn. Allotted a bigger budget this time round, Miraglia maintains his sumptuous compositions and imaginative use of psychedelic light and shadow.” The Spinning Image

“Chock a block with red herrings galore and a surplus of characters, Miraglia’s stylish and classy giallo is definitely worth seeing. It’s a satisfying blend of gothic and modern horror. Lovely scream queen Bouchet is always a pleasure to watch and the whole enterprise is buoyed by a number of thrilling death pieces.” The Terror Trap

“Production/costume designer Lorenzo Baraldi returns to provide the same level of unique style that he brought to Evelyn and the design of the red queen’s costume ensures that we would remember this character. The contribution of cinematographer Alberto Spagnoli is also worth mentioning as he makes great use of the European architecture to his advantage.” The Video Graveyard

“The Red Queen successfully captures the haunted, murder mystery feeling of the giallo film era. High fashion in a gothic setting, sets the tone of the film as director Emilio Miraglia creates a classic crime mystery with supernatural overtones.” Without Your Head

Choice dialogue:

Elizabeth Hoffman: “All men are filthy beasts!”

Buy Blu-ray (US and UK releases): Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

• New audio commentary by Alan Jones and Kim Newman
• Exclusive new interview with Sybil Danning
• New interview with critic Stephen Thrower
• Archival introduction by production/costume designer Lorenzo Baraldi
• Dead à Porter archival interview with Lorenzo Baraldi
• Rounding Up the Usual Suspects archival interview with actor Marino Masé
• If I Met Emilio Miraglia Today archival featurette with Erika Blanc, Lorenzo Baraldi and Marino Masé
• My Favourite… Films archival interview with actress Barbara Bouchet
• Alternative opening
• Original Italian theatrical trailer
• Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Gilles Vranckx

Cast and characters:

• Barbara Bouchet … Kitty Wildenbrück
• Ugo Pagliai … Martin Hoffmann
• Marina Malfatti … Franziska Wildenbrück
• Marino Masé … Police Inspector
• Pia Giancaro … Rosemary Müller (as Maria Pia Giancaro)
• Sybil Danning … Lulu Palm
• Nino Korda … Herbert Zieler
• Fabrizio Moresco … Peter
• Rudolf Schündler … Tobias Wildenbrück (as Rudolf Schindler)
• Maria Antonietta Guido
• Carla Mancini … Elizabeth Hoffmann
• Bruno Bertocci … Hans Meyer
• Sisto Brunetti … Policeman (uncredited)
• Dolores Calò … Dress-Fitter at Fashion House (uncredited)
• Nestore Cavaricci … Policeman (uncredited)
• Carolyn De Fonseca … Lulu Palm (voice) (uncredited)
• Alfonso Giganti … Springe’s Department Director (uncredited)
• Marc Smith … Martin Hoffmann (voice) (uncredited)

Filming locations:

Weikersheim and Würzburg, Germany
Stabilimento SAFA-Palatino, Piazza dei Santi Giovanni e Paolo 8, Rome, Italy (studio)

US release:

Released in a truncated form as The Corpse Which Didn’t Want to Die; Blood Feast and Feast of Flesh.

Trivia:

In 2006, No Shame released the film in the USA in a unique box set with Emilio Miraglia’s The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave that included a Red Queen figurine.

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A Dragonfly for Each Corpse is a 1973 Spanish giallo thriller feature film directed by León Klimovsky (The Vampires’ Night Orgy; Vengeance of the Zombies; The Dracula Saga; et al) from a screenplay by Ricardo Muñoz Suay, based on a storyline by Jacinto Molina (who stars as Paul Naschy). The Profilmes-C.C. Astro co-production also stars Erika Blanc, Ángel Aranda, María Kosty and Ricardo Merino.

Plot:

A killer is cleaning up the streets of Milan by murdering those considered to be deviant. An ornamental dragonfly, soaked in the blood of the victim, is left on each body…

Reviews:

“At times, the film almost feels like an intentional send-up of the genre (especially when Naschy is seen boiling pasta, eating salami out of the fridge and making coffee in a Bialetti kettle) but there’s enough gore, nudity and fashionable outfits to make this a passable, though by no means essential, giallo.” Blood Capsules

“The violence is luridly staged and is well over the top, the dialogue is amusing, and Naschy is far more tolerable than usual. The identity of the killer is not as easy to guess as some of the other films in the genre, and I actually found the finale to be quite thrilling, not a phrase I ever thought I’d use when discussing a Klimovsky/Naschy production.” Horrorview

“It’s difficult to pin-point what sets it apart from other gialli; perhaps it’s the fact that it’s slightly less polished, not quite as classy as most of other comparable titles. Having said that it is its earthiness which makes it interesting. Naschy makes a likeable, if cocksure hero; more emotionally rounded than first impressions would suggest (he displays a light comic touch with his scenes with Blanc…” Hysteria Lives!

“If A Dragonfly for Each Corpse is mostly an aping of the classic Giallo, then it is a pretty damn good one. Naschy’s script and story of a killer attempting to wipe out the morally corrupt isn’t necessarily fresh but it’s handled fairly well, even if as a murder mystery though it is finally just functional.” Moon in the Gutter

“Well, it’s a high bodycount. Often with axe, knife and one very dangerous umbrella. But except a graphic, and very crappy-looking, hand-chopping it’s almost nothing on screen. Everything happens off screen with some splashes of blood here and there. A disappointment after the extremely sleazy and bloody “Spanish giallo” Seven Murders for the Scotland Yard, also starring Naschy.” Ninja Dixon

“It’s not quite as sexy, sleazy or violent as many of its Italian counterparts, but it does offer up a nice mix of tension, high drama and strong action set pieces. Naschy is in fine form as the lead, a cigar chomping man’s man of a cop, the kind that likes to punch first and ask questions later.” Ian Jane, Rock! Shock! Pop!

“Though it’s never dull, Klimovsky’s direction is off-form and Naschy’s script meanders through a lot of tedious soap opera sub-plots between killings. Euro-horror vamp Erika Blanc is initially wasted in a cutesy role until she turns detective (whilst studying clues naked in bed!) and deduces who the killer is.” The Spinning Image

Cast and characters:

• Paul Naschy … Inspector Paolo Scaporella
• Erika Blanc … Silvana
• Ángel Aranda … Pietro Volpini
• María Kosty … Ingrid (as Maria Kosti)
• Ricardo Merino … Edmundo
• Susana Mayo … Claudia Volpini
• Eduardo Calvo … Professor Sandro Campitelli
• Ramón Centenero
• Mariano Vidal Molina … Police Commissioner (as Vidal Molina)
• José Canalejas … Ruggero
• Anne Marie
• Beni Deus
• César Varona … (as Cesar De Barona)
• María Vidal … Lucia – Prostitute victim
• Juan Madrigal
• Ingrid Rabel … Giulia – Secretary
• Juan Cazalilla
• Javier de Rivera
• Frances O’Flynn … Marie, scrubwoman
• Rafael Albaicín
• Luis Alonso
• Antonio Mayans … Cop
• Ernesto Vañes

Filming locations:

Milan, Italy

Technical credits:

85 minutes | 1.85:1

Trivia:

As  was usually the case with Spanish movies, clothed and unclothed scenes were shot.

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Donald Moffat was a British born actor, best known for his roles in The Thing (1982), The Right Stuff (1983), The Bonfire of the Vanities (1990) and Clear and Present Danger (1994).

Born December 26, 1930 in Plymouth, England, Moffat died on December 20, 2018 in Sleepy Hollow, New York.

Selected genre filmography:

Monster in the Closet  … General Turnbull – USA, 1986

The Twilight Zone ‘The Star’ – TV series, 1985

The Thing … Garry – USA, 1982

Exo-Man … Wallace Rogers – TV movie, USA, 1977

Logan’s Run – TV series, USA, 1977 – 1978

The Terminal Man – USA, 1974

The Devil and Miss Sarah – TV Movie, USA, 1972

Night Gallery ‘Pickman’s Model’ – TV series, USA, 1971

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‘She’s alone… He’s a madman… Her nightmare is about to begin!’

The Last Victim – re-released as Forced Entry – is a 1975 American psycho thriller co-produced and directed by Jim Sotos (Sweet Sixteen) from a screenplay co-written with Henry Scarpelli. The movie stars Tanya Roberts and Ron Max.

Reviews:

“I didn’t anticipate enjoying this film and I didn’t; nor did I get anything out of it to make the watching of it worth the effort.” Fantastic Musings and Ramblings

“Poorly paced and haphazardly edited, Forced has little to recommend it (besides featuring the debut of TV’s Charlie’s Angels Roberts). Max does an okay job as the demented and mumbling Carl, but Sotos focuses on him entirely too much and the loony’s psychosis isn’t that interesting.” The Terror Trap

“The killer’s demented, misogynistic thoughts narrate most of the movie, which follows him as he rides around town in his car looking for victims. In the end he spots Tanya Roberts and holds her captive inside her own home. If you liked Maniac and have a high tolerance for tasteless exploitative trash, then you might enjoy this one.’ The Trashy Horror Charlie Show

Cast and characters:

• Tanya Roberts … Nancy Ulman – Tourist Trap
• Ron Max … Carl
• Nancy Allen … Hitch Hiker – Poltergeist III; Terror in the Aisles; Dressed to Kill; Carrie
• Brian Freilino … Peter Ulman
• Vasco Valladeres … Pimp in Car (as Vasco Valladares)
• Robin Leslie … Hooker in Car
• Billy Longo … Charlie
• Michael Tucci … Richie
• Beth Carlton … Mrs. Hayes
• David Kerman … Man with Dog
• Frankie Verroca … Delivery Boy (as Frank Verroca)
• Michele Miles … Girl on Bike
• Glenn Scarpelli … Glenn Ulman
• Amy Levitan … Amy Ulman
• Tammy Beker … Phyllis on Phone (voice)

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‘Pray to God it’s not true!’

The Legend of Blood Castle – aka Blood Ceremony and The Female Butcher – is a 1972 Spanish-Italian horror feature film directed by Jorge Grau (Let Sleeping Corpses Lie). The X Films-Luis Films production stars Lucia Bosé, Espartaco Santoni, Ewa Aulin, Ana Farra and Espartaco Santoni. Originally titled: Ceremonia sangrienta (Spain) and Le vergini cavalcano la morte (Italy).

Reviews:

“It’s slow, atmospheric, serious and ominous. Church bells, wolf howls, and harpsichord riffs are used deftly to keep the viewer on edge. It’s well acted and well shot, with authentic dark 18th century furnishings. But it’s unpleasant to watch and makes you unhappy.” David Elroy Goldweber, Claws & Saucers

Buy: Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com | Amazon.ca

“This is really a very fine example of eurohorror, well-made and with an intelligent and complex script that comes together very satisfactorily.” Cult Movie Reviews

“The cinematography is handled skillfully, the tone is downright serious, the acting doesn’t border on campy, and the gothic trappings are of the highest caliber, from authentic castles and old-world exteriors to striking period costume designs.” DVD Drive-In

“That the film originated as a personal project is obvious from the start. Despite plenty of visceral material, it’s a sombre and thoughtful affair, boasting a sophisticated focus on Erzsébet’s insecurity and accumulated guilt together with a sardonic critique of the mob mentality that holds sway directly outside her castle.” Jonathan Rigby, Euro Gothic

Buy: Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com | Amazon.ca

“It would be unfair to mention that Grau is more than just a competent filmmaker. Both his included films show some fine attention to visual detail, but he too suffers from disinterest in anything non-exploitative. It just seems too hard for producers to realise that the context in which their violence occurs can serve to make the image stronger.” Ric Meyers, For One Week Only

Buy: Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com | Amazon.ca

“While the film takes a little while to get going, an excellent last half ensures that this one delivers all the thrills and chills you’d expect from a seventies era European vampire picture. Grau directs with a pretty steady hand and paces the movie quite deliberately, building to a wholly satisfying conclusion…” Rock! Shock! Pop!

“The film itself, unusually, has very little of the gothic sumptuousness that one would expect. Grau draws a cold film around us – and this works as the subject matter suits such coldness. The jump in narrative is problematic on first view – though after that one knows that the narrative has been less jumped and more delayed.” Taliesin Meets the Vampires

“Languid pacing aside, the flick has a solid enough premise. It’s not altogether unwatchable, yet it’s slow and talky and it takes its sweet as time getting going. There’s still some cool sh*t here and there (the highlight comes when the townspeople cut the head off of a suspected vampire and burn it so nothing but the skull is left)…” The Video Vacuum

Cast and characters:

• Lucia Bosé … Erzebeth Bathory – Something Creeping in the Dark
• Espartaco Santoni … Karl Ziemmer – Lisa and the Devil
• Ewa Aulin … Marina – Death Smiles at Murder
• Ana Farra … Nodriza
• Silvano Tranquilli … Médico – The Black Belly of the Tarantula; Web of the Spider; The Horrible Dr. Hichcock
• Lola Gaos … Carmilla
• Enrique Vivó … Alcalde
• María Vico … Maria Plojovitz
• Ángel Menéndez … Magistrado
• Adolfo Thous … Juez
• Ismael García Romen … Capitán (as Ismael García-Romeu)
• Raquel Ortuño … Irina
• Loreta Tovar … Sandra (as Dolores Tovar)
• Franca Grey … Nadja
• Ghika … Inge
• Miguel Buñuel … Secretario
• Fabián Conde … Alguacil
• Estanis González … Posadero
• Antonio Puga … Olaus
• Francisco Agudín … Cartero
• Antonio De Mossul … Halconero (as Antonio de Mossul)
• Rafael Vaquero … Pintor (as Rafael Vakero)
• Roberto Daniel … Plojovitz
• Ángel Rodal … Joven Mario
• Juan José Otegui … Criado
• Ramón Pons … Periodista
• Mari Paz Ballesteros … Criada (as Mª Paz Ballesteros)
• Sergio Alberti … Sargento
• Sofía Nogueras … Niña
• Kino Pueyo … Mozo posada (as Joaquín Pueyo)
• Fernando De Bran … Párroco (as Fernando de Bran)
• Rafael Frías … Niño a caballo

Filming locations:

• Estudios Ballesteros, Madrid, Spain
• Nuevo Baztán, Madrid, Spain
• Pedraza de la Sierra, Segovia, Castilla y León, Spain
• Sepúlveda, Madrid, Spain

Image credits: Wrong Side of the Art!

Related:

Countess Dracula (1970)

Spanish horror

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