Actress Lori Nelson only appeared in a couple of creature features but there were more than memorable to make sure that we mention her recent passing here. In 1955, she appeared in two monster flicks, one with a very low budget and one with a much bigger one. She appeared alongside Richard Denning in Roger Corman’s The Day the World Ended, fighting a mutated survivor of an atomic blast. That same year, she joined John Agar in the sequel Revenge of the Creature, fighting off the GIll-Man who is stalking her! So if you were looking for an excuse to bust out either of those tow movies, then now is your chance.
Nelson passed away on Sunday, Aug. 23rd, at the age of 87. Even though she only did appear in two monster movies, we know that us fans will never let her name and talent be forgotten. Our thoughts out out to her friends and family during this difficult times.
The film industry has lost another true and great talent with the passing of Wilfred Brimley. While he only appeared in a few horror films, if I saw his name in the opening credits, I knew he was going to be interesting to watch. I think I first became aware of him in the Paul Newman film Absence of Malice (1981) because that played at the theater I worked at. So while it wasn’t a film I would normally see, I got to see a lot of it during the working hours, so I remembered his character. And then came John Carpenter’s The Thing (1982). It threw me for a bit with him without his mustache, but his voice is just as recognizable as this facial hair. As well as his incredible performances. In 1985, he appeared in another favorite of mine, Remo Williams, which I was so bummed they never made more of those.
Wow. This one is a bitch to accept. Yes, the Maestro was 91, but for the hours and hours that I, as well as millions of other film lovers, have been entranced by his music, it still hurts. Even if we just talked about the scores he did for horror and giallo genres, from Dario Argento’s first trilogy of films, Fulci’s A Lizard in a Woman’s Skin, Mario Caiano’s Nightmare Castle, Aldo Lado’s Short Night of Glass Dolls, to even John Carpenter’s The Thing, his scores always made an impact. That is not even getting into what he did for the western. Even if people didn’t know Morricone’s name or what movies he scored, if you started to play the opening theme from The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, they would know it.
While this director only worked in the horror genre a couple of times, there are many of this titles that could cross many genres. I know critics were calling his 1990 film Flatliners a medical thriller, but sorry guys, that was a horror film, woven inside a nice morality tale. And a damn fine one too. While I wasn’t that big of fan of his Batman movies, his other “thrillers” like Falling Down (1993) and Phonebooth (2002) were well done and well worth your time.
Yesterday, we lost a incredible talent in the movie world, that of Ian Holm. He passed away at the age of 88, from complications of Parkinson’s. He appeared in so many role over the years, in all genres, that his was a face and name that as soon as you knew he was in the film, you were going to see something special. He could project more in a look than some actors could do in a 10-minute monologue! His genre appearances in films like Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1994) and David Cronenberg’s eXistenZ (1999) showed his range. In fact, in 1968, on a TV series called Mystery and Imagination, he played both the creator and creature in an adaptation of Frankenstein. Of course, how can anyone forget his portrayal of Bilbo in Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy?
Joel M. Reed is the man responsible for the notorious grindhouse flick Bloodsucking Freaks (1976), originally titled as The Incredible Torture Show, before Troma re-titled it and released it once again. He also directed a few other titles, such as Night of the Zombies (1981), probably the second most popular of his titles. Now, while I’m not personally a fan of Bloodsucking Freaks, anybody that is able to make a movie like that, and become an icon because of it, in this huge world of cinema, that is pretty impressive. So like it or not, as horror movie fans, we have to get credit where it is due.
Since the internet has been flooded with notices about this a few days ago, everyone I’m sure has heard of the passing of actor Max von Sydow. Even though he only made less than a dozen films you could consider horror, you couldn’t be a fan of the genre and not know who this man was, because of The Exorcist (1973). Granted, like a lot of us, we always assumed he was already an old man because of the incredible aged makeup he wore in that film, thanks to Dick Smith. But no matter what role he had, like a small part in Conan the Barbarian (1982), the over-the-top role of the Emperor Ming in Flash Gordon (1980), to even the humorous role of Brewmeister Smith in Strange Brew (1983), he always commanded your attention, as well as gave a very memorable performance.
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