The Strange Door (1951)

Director: Joseph Pevney

Writers: Jerry Sackheim, Robert Lewis Stevenson

Composer: ???

Starring: Charles Laughton, Boris Karloff, Sally Forrest, Richard Wyler, William Cottrell, Alan Napier, Morgan Farley, Paul Cavanagh, Michael Pate

More info: IMDb

Tagline:  Robert Louis Stevenson's masterpiece of TERROR

Plot:  Noble-born cad Denis (Stapley) has been tricked into a forced stay at the eerie manor of the Sire de Maletroit (Laughton), an evil madman who can't get over the death of his beloved, twenty years after she married his brother (Cavanagh) instead and subsequently passed away during childbirth. Maletroit is determined to have his revenge: the brother has been stowed away in the dungeon for two decades, while he's convinced his disreputable house guest will make a suitably hellish husband for his niece. As luck would have it, the young couple manage to fall in love, and with the help of manservant Voltan (Karloff), they try to make their escape, but not before a final confrontation with Maletroit in the dungeon's crushing deathtrap.

My rating: 7/10

Will I watch it again?  Yes.

Karloff fans will be disappointed to know that he's not in the picture much.  But then it's got lots of Charles Laughton having a ball playing a deliciously nasty cad.  The production design is wonderful as is the black and white photography.  The story is quite, good, too.  The one problem I have with this picture, and it's a doosey, is the wooden, near-monotoned acting from the hero lead, Richard Wyler.  He's bad.  I'd love to know how he got the role because it certainly wasn't on his ability.  It doesn't help that he's surrounded by much better actors.  He brings down the picture quite a bit but he doesn't come close to ruining it.  There's a lot to like with this film, with or without Wyler's contribution. The final ten or so minutes have minimal dialogue, no music and a good deal of suspense.  This is one of five films in The Boris Karloff Collection box set from Universal.  There are no extras for this film.

Count Dracula (1970)

Original title: Nachts, Wenn Dracula Eerwacht

Director: Jesus Franco

Writers: Erich Krohnke, Augusto Finocchi, Jesus Franco, Dietmar Behnke, Milo G. Cuccia, Carlo Fadda, Harry Alan Towers, Bram Stoker

Composer: Bruno Nicolai

Starring: Christopher Lee, Klaus Kinski, Herbert Lom, Maria Rohm, Fred Williams, Soledad Miranda, Paul Muller, Jack Taylor

More info: IMDb


Plot:  A film version of Bram Stoker's classic novel.

My rating:  5.5/10

Will I watch it again? No.

I've had this for a few years and I've been meaning to give it a spin. Now that I have I wish I'd gotten it over with long ago.  It's not all that good.  I hoped that Lee was finally given a decent Dracula role where he could stretch his acting chops and give the character some much needed life instead of largely playing the monster seen in his Hammer pictures.  I was wrong.  He's got some dialogue in the beginning when he welcomes Harker into his castle but little else in the rest of the picture.  Franco has made some decent Gothic horror pictures but you can't tell from this film.  The camera gets crazy sometimes with more than a few quick zoom ins and outs.  A few scenes even have visible shadows from the crew.  It's lazy film making.  I don't know how closely this follows Stoker's book but I hear it's more faithful than most Dracula pictures.  Nicolai's score has some nice moments but the music he wrote for the "opera" is just awful.  The cast is good.  Hell, it's great having Kinski as Renfield but he doesn't really add much to the role enough to where you're glad he's in it.  He's OK and that goes for pretty much everyone.  No one stands out.  Nothing in this picture stands out. I can't say watch it but you will if you're like me and you won't listen to folks who try to steer you away from early 70s EuroHorror.  The Dark Sky DVD presents the film in its original 1:37 ration (fullscreen...why wasn't this shot wide?).  The  extras you get are a 26 minute featurette on the making of the film with Jess Franco (which is a great watch), Christopher Lee reading Stoker's novel (an hour and 24 minutes of audio with moving images of poster art for this picture as well as music and sound effects - it's quite good), a text essay on Miranda and a still gallery.  Considering you can pick this up for under 8 bucks, it's almost worth it just for the extras. 

The Blood Beast Terror (1968)

Director: Vernon Sewell

Writer: Peter Bryan

Composer: Paul Ferris

Starring: Peter Cushing, Robert Flemyng, Wanda Ventham, Vanessa Howard, David Griffin, Glynn Edwards, William Wilde, Keven Stoney, John Paul

More info: IMDb

Tagline: The Blood Lust of a FRENZIED VAMPIRE!

Plot: A scientist, working with genetics, creates a creature that is capable of transforming back and forth between a giant Death Head moth and a beautiful woman. The creature masquerades as his daughter when she is in her human incarnation and feeds on the blood of her victims when she is in the moth form.

My rating: 6/10

Will I watch it again? No.

A giant moth as the monster in a pseudo-Hammer horror?  Sign me up.  Oh, wait, don't.  It's not nearly as much fun as it seems like it 'could' be. The acting, led by the amazing Peter Cushing is great as you'd expect with a British cast in the 60s.  The Gothic setting, clothes, locations et al do a great job of setting the look and tone of the picture.  What hurts it in a big way is the pacing.  They really try to make it seem like there's a lot in the span of about 90 minutes but I'm certain a second viewing will uncover several moments and perhaps entire scenes that could be trimmed or excised altogether.  It's not a bad film but it's shy enough from being a good one that it almost begs you to watch and compare it to most any of the Gothic Hammer horror pictures of the era.  It was made by Tigon British Film Productions, their first, who would go on to make the excellent WITCHFINDER GENERAL (1968) and outstanding THE BLOOD ON SATAN'S CLAW (1971), among others.  It's on Netflix streaming at the moment and it's one of the sadly few 60s horror movies they have.  Is it worth watching?  For Peter Cushing fans it's a no-brainer (rumor has it he's said it's his worst picture on several occasions).  There is a neat Burke & Hare-esque stage play in the film that would be neat to have seen back then (as in the 1800s).  It takes up an extraordinary amount of running time and it barely adds anything to the story but it's also one of the most entertaining parts of it. 

Orloff and the Invisible Man (1970)

Original title: La vie Amoureuse de l'homme Invisible

AKA: Dr. Orloff's Invisible Monster

Director: Pierre Chevalier

Writers: Pierre Chevalier, Juan Fortuny

Composers: Camille Sauvage, Claude Sauvage

Starring: Howard Vernon, Brigitte Carva, Fernando Sancho, Paco Valladares, Isabel del Rio, Evane Hanska, Arlette Balkis, May Chartrette, Christian Forges, Eugene Berhier

More info: IMDb

Tagline: God Help Us ... If They Rise Again!

Plot: Newcomer Dr. Garondet is summoned by professor Orloff but people in his village is afraid to go to his castle. The insistent Dr. Garondet reaches the castle and the servants send him to talk to Cécile Orloff, who is the daughter of the professor and is worried about the mental health of her father. Dr. Garondet meets professor Orloff and he tells what happened to Cécile sometime ago and his experiment with an invisible man, and he explains that his daughter is deranged due to the reported incident. Dr. Garondet has to spend the night in the castle and soon he learns who is the insane.

My rating: 6/10

Will I watch it again? Nope.

This French/Spanish co-production looks all Gothic-y great the story is run of the mill (making the monster invisible is both inexpensive, sometimes effective (the rape scene was strange and kind of hot al at the same time), the dubbing isn't all that bad and it's not nearly as slow as you'd think it would be (from a guy who's seen a shitload of Euro horror from this era).  And?  There's more Bush than the White House!

 What's not to like?  Well, it does drag a little here and there...say, did I mention the Eurobush?

If I didn't, here it is again...

There are only a couple of scenes with nudity but they are most welcome.  Gore?  None.  I can't even remember if there are any kills.  Maybe one.  What's left is you wanting to see a good Hammer Gothic horror as soon as this is over.  It's not a bad way to spend your time but it's not really a good one, either.  But fuck it, I'm a sucker for these 60s/70s Gothic horror pictures.  It's on Netflix streaming right now so catch it while you can...or dare.

The Fall of the House of Usher (1960)

Director: Roger Corman

Writers: Edgar Allan Poe, Richard Matheson

Composer: Les Baxter

Starring: Vincent Price, Mark Damon, Myrna Fahey, Harry Ellerbe, David Andar, Bill Borzage, Mike Jordan, Eleanor LeFaber, Nadajan, Ruth Oklander, George Paul, Geraldine Paulette, Phil Sulvestre, John Zimeas

More info: IMDb

Tagline: Edgar Allan Poe's overwhelming tale of EVIL & TORMENT

Plot: A man, upon entering his fiance's family mansion, discovers a savage family curse and fears that his future brother-in-law has entombed her prematurely.

My rating: 6.5/10

Will I watch it again? Maybe.

I absolutely LOVE the atmosphere in this picture.  The sets are warm and inviting, Les Baxter's score and everything else.  The cast is fine, too.  The only thing that bugs me is the pacing.  This is an incredibly slow film.  Even at an hour and 19 minutes, it's too long.  It feels like it should be about an hour but that's not necessarily a deal killer.  In some ways, the drawn out pacing feels rather comfortable, like something you'd find yourself quietly watching on a lazy, rainy Sunday afternoon and fall asleep in your recliner.  It's one of those kinds of film.  I dig it more than the last time I saw it probably twenty years ago so I think I'll give it another chance someday. 

Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles (1994)

Director: Neil Jordan

Starring: Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, Christian Slater, Thandie Newton, Kirsten Dunst, Stephen Rea, Antonio Bandaras

More info: IMDb

Tagline: Drink From Me And Live Forever

Plot: In 1791, plantation owner Louis De Pointe Du Lac is unhappy with the life he has, until Lestat De Lioncourt comes into his life. Lestat, a vampire, allows Louis to make the decision of either death or life as a vampire forever. And not until his decision is already made, does Louis realize what he has become. He refuses to take human life and is about to leave when Lestat, being the clever being that he is, turns a little orphan girl into a vampire to make Louis stay. The story is told by Louis in 1991 to an interviewer about the lives of himself, Lestat and Claudia through trouble, death, curse and love over the past 200 years.

My rating: 7.5/10

Will I watch it again? Nah.

Many moons ago I was enticed by this particular lass to watch this.  An hour into it (about when they reach Paris) I was bored so we moved onto other things.  Being a man who couldn't stand Tom Cruise (he has since gotten better in the last few years and I'm liking what he's done recently) I've avoided seeing this like a vampire avoids sunlight.  Today it finally happened. I was ready to finally put this one behind me.  I'm shocked.  It's actually quite good.  The bad: casting Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt and, to a lesser extent, Antonio Banderas.  The good: everything else.  The three male leads were horribly wrong for this film.  Pitt was especially bad.  Most of their dialogue was whispered.  Ugh.  Oh, the other thing is the cliche'd dialogue from those three.  I guess if you had different and better actors in those roles there's a chance that some of those words wouldn't sound so damned silly.  Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee use to pull it off effortlessly.  Neil Jordan crafted a fine movie with a great, somber score by Elliot Goldenthal (with a theme reminiscent of Max Steiner's for KING KONG (1933)).  I'll never revisit it because of Pitt and Cruise.  And fuck that vampire open-mouth HAAAAAA shit just before they take a drink from someone's neck.  I hate that shit.

An American Haunting (2005)

Director: Courtney Solomon

Starring: Donald Sutherland, Sissy Spacek, James D'Arcy, Rachel Hurd-Wood, Matthew Marsh, Thom Fell, Zoe Thorne

More info: IMDb

Tagline: Possession Knows No Bounds

Plot: In 1818, the family began to experience disturbances on their property. The spirit began to grow, becoming aggressive and singling out the father, John, and his only daughter Betsy. The family desperately searched for the cause of the spirit in the hope of finding a way of defeating it. It developed voices and began speaking to the family. Then, finally it pronounced a death sentence on John.

 

My rating: 4.5/10

Will I watch it again?  Jesus, no.

This picture looks good.  It's got name actors, a decent score and bleak, cloudy, moody atmosphere.  What it doesn't have is anything to keep my attention.  It's unnecessarily slow and repetitive.  By the time I got to the end where the big 'reveal' is, I had stopped caring an hour earlier.  Seriously, when it felt like it had run its course and the end was near I checked the time and still had 45 minutes to go (half way through the picture).  That's not a good sign.  It's a dimly lit film.  I don't think the sun came out more than twice if that.  There is one thing, however, that takes the cake.  It's the best carriage flip I've EVER seen.  Fuck me sideways, this few seconds is amazing.

I know, right?  WOW!  Too bad the picture that contained it couldn't muster up anything close to that exciting for the 91 minutes that surrounds it.

Cry of the Banshee (1970)

Director: Gordon Hessler

Starring: Vincent Price, Elisabeth Bergner, Essy Persson, Hugh Griffith, Sally Geeson, Robert Hulton, Patrick Mower, Stephen Rea

More info: IMDb

Tagline: Edgar Allan Poe probes new depths of terror!

Plot: In Elizabethan England, a wicked lord massacres nearly all the members of a coven of witches, earning the enmity of their leader, Oona. Oona calls up a magical servant, a "banshee", to destroy the lord's family.

 

My rating: 6/10

Will I watch it again? Maybe.

There's a lot to like about this picture...Vincent Price's character is an asshole (an often over-acting one at that), a lot more nudity than you would expect, the opening twenty minutes or so is a peach, and the ending IS BALLS OUT AWESOME!!!  But then you've got the bad which is the same thing that plagues a good number of AIP films of this era and that's pacing.  There are a number of slow spots that bring the film to a halt.  It's partly due to the restraint of having to hold fast to a 90 minute run time.  The other is the lack of pizazz from the director although there is enough camera movement to try to offset that.  I love Vincent Price, even when he's over doing it as he did in some of his later pictures.  This was his last period horror film.  One neat thing you might notice is how the opening credit animation looks like it was done by Terry Gilliam and that's because it was.  We all got a laugh from seeing his name in the credits after saying aloud that it looked like Gilliam's work.  Les Baxter's score is quite good although there were a couple of scenes without music that could have used his expertise. Overall this picture is a mixed bag but it's not as dreary as some of the other pictures of this type from this studio at that time.  That's not a winning endorsement, I know, but it's worth checking out...just don't run to see it - mosey.

MoH 112: Haeckel's Tale (2006)

Director: John McNaughton

Starring: Steve Bacic, Micki Maunsell, Gerard Plunkett, Derek Cecil, Pablo Coffey, Jon Polito

More info: IMDb

Plot: While on his way to see his sick father, a man takes shelter with an elderly man and his young wife but soon discovers their horrible secret.

My rating: 5/10

Will I watch it again? No.

Oh, boy! A Gothic horror episode! Oh, no. It's boring as fuck all. John McNaughton's HENRY: PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER (1986) is.the.best.serial.killer.movie.EVER! I was so excited with anticipation for this episode that I practically had my dick in my hand. I can handle slow and liesurely-paced movie but I can't handle slow and "I don't give a fuck". It's not just the pacing but I really didn't care for any of the characters, the story or the ho-hum conclusion. Color me flaccid on this one.

The Vampire Happening (1971)

Director: Freddie Francis

Starring: Pia Degermark, Thomas Hunter, Yvor Murillo, Ingrid van Bergen, Joachim Kemmer, Oskar Wegrostek, Lyvia Bauer

More info: IMDb

Tagline: The Adult Vampire Sex Comedy!

Plot: An American actress inherits a castle in Transylvania. What she doesn't know is that her ancestor, the Baroness Catali, was in actuality a vampire countess, and emerges from her tomb to ravage the nearby village and Catholic seminary.

My rating: 3/10

Will I watch it again? Aw, hell no.

#106 on Drive-In Delirium Vol. 2 (part of the TRAILER TRASH PROJECT) 

Damn, this was painful. It doesn't work as a horror, it doesn't work as a comedy and it doesn't work as entertainment. I had higher expectations for director Francis who, the very next year, directed the very good horror anthology, TALES FROM THE CRYPT (1972). He's by no means incompetent but this picture is a mess. It's just really, really not funny. I still haven't seen Polanski's THE FEARLESS VAMPIRE KILLERS (1967) (although I've cringed at the trailer many times) but this looks like it's along that same vein. Ahahahahahaha. It even has the same actor, Ferdy Mayne, as Dracula!

Seriously? They couldn't do something about those fillings for a several hundred year old vampire? Whatever.

Besides not laughing once, this has the trappings of a reasonable Gothic horror flick, the kind that were made every week in Europe in the late 60s and 70s. Most of them are difficult to get through due to pacing problems and shear boredom but there are some that are quite good. The sad thing is, this could've been a decent Gothic vampire flick if they'd left the "jokes" out and fiddled with the script a bit. Slap in a good score and some decent makeup effects and you'd have something that's a damn sight more watchable than this dreck. Great. Now I'm upset.

The Shiver of the Vampire (1971)

Director: Jean Rollin

Starring: Sandra Julien, Jean-Marie Durand, Jacques obiolles, Michel Delahaye, Marie-Pierre Castel

More info: IMDb

Plot: A young honeymooning couple stop for the night at an ancient castle. Unbeknownst to them, the castle is home to a horde of vampires, who have their own plans for the couple.

My rating: 6.5/10

Will I watch it again? Yeah.



#109 on Drive-In Delirium Vol. 2 (part of the TRAILER TRASH PROJECT) 

Great poster, huh? Over the years I've seen so many of these Eurotrash lesbian vampire horror movies it's not even funny. The trouble with them is they're usually boring as fuck-all but every once in a while you get one that you can get to the end without dosing off. Right off the bat (ahahahahaha) you can tell this one is different. The music is groovy as hell with some late 60s, psychedelic, early Pink Floyd-ish music.



It doesn't take long before the nudity begins...



The colors Rollin uses are Bava-esque.



There are many bizarre encounters with the living and the dead.



The movie plays out about how you would expect it to. It's not a complicated story but it doesn't have to be. Rollin gets some good performances (and quirky, too), there are lots of nude French girls, a great color scheme, great use of the castle and the surroundings, nicely paced (although some will find it slow), great psychedelic rock score and a satisfying conclusion. It's a trippy flick that is one of the few of this type that are worth buying and it's likely to get better with each viewing.

Countess Dracula (1971)

Director: Peter Sasdy

Starring: Ingrid Pitt, Nigel Green, Sandor Eles, Maurice Denham, Patience Collier, Peter Jeffrey, Lesley-Anne Down

More info: IMDb

Tagline: Blood. The more she drinks, the prettier she gets. The prettier she gets, the thirstier she gets.

Plot: 17th Century Hungary. Aging Countess Elisabeth rules harshly with the help of lover Captain Dobi. Finding that washing in the blood of young girls makes her young again she gets Dobi to start abducting likely candidates. The Countess - pretending to be her own daughter - starts dallying with a younger man, much to Dobi's annoyance. The disappearances cause mounting terror locally, and when she finds out that only the blood of a virgin does the job, Dobi is sent out again with a more difficult task.

My rating: 7/10

Will I watch it again? Yeah.

#40 on Hammer Horror (1957-1976)

OK, so I expected the usual Hammer Gothic horror flick set in 19th Europe with an actual vampire and stuff. That it was set in 17th Century Hungary and with no vampire as we know them threw me off a bit but I soon got to digging it without a care in the world. I liked the Hungarian setting. Even though it's not radically different from the look of the other Gothic horror films Hammer put out, it is something different, which was based on a story by director Peter Sasdy and producer Alexander Paal (both Hungarian).

FACT: Ingrid Pitt is scrummy and needs to have my babies. That she died in 2010 might complicate matters but modern science could provide a major breakthrough for the two of us.


And let us not forget that badass actor extraordinaire, Nigel Green!


COUNTESS DRACULA is paced well, you don't get claustrophobic sitting the same place (the Countess's castle, for example) and there are more cutaway shots than I can recall in another Hammer picture. It keeps the picture breathing. There's also not a short supply of beauties in all manner of undress, either. Eh? Nudge, nudge. Say no more! Oh, but I must. I must!


Harry Robinson's score has just the right flavor to fulfill the believability of time and place. He did several fine scores for latter-day Hammer horror vampire pictures like THE VAMPIRE LOVERS (1970), LUST FOR A VAMPIRE (1971) and TWINS OF EVIL (1971). It's a shame he didn't do more. Next to James Bernard, his were tops.


The ending is nicely downbeat compared to other Hammer horror outings. That is to say, people you wouldn't expect to snuff it...well...snuff it. This makes for a satisfying film. Like a lot of these types of pictures from Hammer, don't expect a lot of action and you'll have a good time. That's not to say there isn't any but you'll want to sit back, relax and absorb yourself into the atmosphere. You know, escapism.