Category Archives: Reviews: Movies

Movie Review: Blood & Flesh – The Reel Life & Ghastly Death of Al Adamson

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Blood & Flesh: The Reel Life & Ghastly Death of Al Adamson (2019)
Directed by David Gregory
Starring Al Adamson, Stevee Ashlock, John Bloom, Bud Cardos, Robert Dix, Tim Ferrante, Marilyn Joi, Gary Kent, Fred Olen Ray, Sam Sherman, Russ Tamblyn, Vilmos Zsigmond

Al Adamson’s films are really the epitome of what I consider a Turkey. It might not be well made, but it is usually entertaining. At the end of the day, that is all you can hope for in a movie. The more I had read and learned about Adamson, the more of his titles that I saw, like a few other low budget filmmakers, like Larry Buchanan, I discovered that I admired them more than their movies. Don’t get me wrong, I still enjoyed the wacky titles they would put out, but knowing a little history behind the production and the people that made it, it made me appreciate it for what it was, and not what it wasn’t. That is one of the reasons that I think this new documentary is just fantastic. It gives newer fans a better perspective of this man and his work, showing a method to the madness, as the saying goes. And even for older fans that maybe wrote Adamson and his work off, it will give them a little more insight that might change the way they see them now. Continue reading →

Movie Review: Curse of the Living Corpse

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The Curse of the Living Corpse (1964)
Directed by Del Tenney
Starring Helen Warren, Roy Scheider, Margot Hartman, Robert Milli, Hugh Franklin, Candace Hilligoss, Dino Narizzano

It’s funny sometimes how we discover different films that have either been hidden over the years, ones that you might not have heard of, or ones that simply come out with little or no fanfare and seem to slip away into obscurity. This film is a perfect example of this. Back in 2006, Dark Sky Films released Del Tenney’s more famous title The Horror of Party Beach on DVD. One of the special features was the inclusion of this title, which was originally released on a double bill with Horror back in 1964. The film stars Roy Scheider in his first feature film appearance so you’d think it would get more attention, but not so much. To say that Curse is a better film than Horror is really comparing apples to oranges. Or maybe hot dogs to steak. But I will say that it one that needs to be seen. Continue reading →

Movie Review: The Descent (2005)

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The Descent (2005)
Directed by Neil Marshall
Starring Shauna MacDonald, Natalie Mendoza, Alex Reid, Saskia Mulder, MyAnna Buring, Nora-Jane Noone

Early in his career, director Marshall broke not one, but two well documented theories. The first one was that if a film premiered the Sci-Fi Channel before hitting theaters or video, it meant that it wasn’t going to be that good. Such as Cherry Falls (2000) or Beyond Re-Animator (2003). So when I heard that this new werewolf movie called Dog Soldiers was going to make its debut on there, I never bothered with it. But once it hit DVD, and quite a few people were giving it quite a bit of praise, I decided to take that risky chance and give it a rent. I went out and bought the DVD the next day. That’s how impress I was with it. Continue reading →

Movie Review: Magic (1978)

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Magic (1978)
Directed by Richard Attenborough
Starring Anthony Hopkins, Ann-Margret, Burgess Meredith, Ed Lauter

While most of American learned who Anthony Hopkins was from his Oscar winning performance in Silence of the Lambs (1991), it was with this film that I became of aware of not only the actor, but just how talented he was. In fact, when this movie came out, the first night the trailer showed up on television, the networks had a ton of complaints from people that were terrified by it. As the poster states, this is a “terrifying love story”, and this just what it is, but brought to life by talented actors. Continue reading →

Movie Review: War of the Colossal Beast (1958)

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War of the Colossal Beast (1958)
Directed by Bert I. Gordon
Starring Sally Fraser, Roger Pace, Duncan Parkin, Russ Bender, Rico Alaniz, George Becwar

For me, this is a perfect example where the sequel is better than the original. I know it might be hard to believe, but in this case it is more than true for me. Honestly, I was never a big fan of the first film, The Amazing Colossal Man (1957). It just seemed a little cheesy and the effects weren’t the greatest, or more than likely I grew tired of some half naked guy running around yelling “I DON’T WANT TO GROW ANYMORE!” Of course, you have to love the death by giant syringe scene, but besides that, not much going for it. Continue reading →

Movie Review: Antrum (2018)

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antrum posterAntrum: The Deadliest Film Ever Made (2018)
Directed by David Amito & Michael Laicini
Starring Nicole Tompkins, Rowan Smyth, Dan Istrate, Circus-Szalewski

I had recently watched what I thought was a real documentary called Fury of the Demon (2016), written and directed by Fabien Delage, which was about a lost silent film that was reported to make people go crazy. It is played completely straight as if it was a real, talking about a real curse film. But when they started talking about a screening in France in 2012, I kept thinking “Wait… I would have remembered that!” That is when I really started to question the legitimacy of it. But, I will say that it worked.

The legend of the curse film has been around for a while, with even John Carpenter tackling the subject in his Masters of Horror episode Cigarette Burns (2005). But two years after Fury, another film comes out that seems to have the same shtick, this time it was a film from the early ’70s that no one seems to know where it was made, or who added some extra frames here and there, or scratched the markings or sigils that appear every so often. But what is different here is that after the opening where they are talking about this supposedly cursed film, it seems a print had been discovered and are now going to screen it! It is called Antrum: The Deadliest Film Ever Made. Continue reading →

Movie Review: Deranged (1974)

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Deranged (1974)
Directed by Jeff Gillen and Alan Ormsby.
Starring Roberts Blossom, Cosette Lee, Micki Moore, Robert Warner, Pat Orr

Of all the films based on the real life story of Ed Gein, I would say this one is the most accurate. Since I grew up in a small town in Michigan, I’ve always found this film to be very creepy, since there were a few people in my town that could easily have been another Ed Gein. In case you’re not aware of the facts, Gein was from Plainfield, Wisconsin that murdered at least 2 people, but also had dug up several people from the local graveyard, using their body parts for nefarious things, before he was caught in 1954. How something like that could have be going on, and nobody would have ever know, boggles the mind. According to author Robert Bloch, that is the one thing that he took from the whole Ed Gein affair for his book Psycho, that a small town America could be housing a terror that nobody was aware of. Tobe Hooper also took a lot of ideas from Gein for his film The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974), including the fact that Gein had face masks made from human skin. Continue reading →

Movie Review: Dead & Buried (1981)

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Dead & Buried (1981)
Directed by Gary Sherman
Starring James Farentino, Melody Anderson, Jack Albertson, Lisa Blount, Robert Englund, Bill Quinn, Barry Corbin, Michael Pataki, Macon McCalman

I recently re-watched this film for the umpteenth time and realized that not I didn’t have a review up, but it is one that I think is highly underrated. A really good and original story, an incredible cast, and some simply amazing special effects work by Stan Winston, a few years before he would change the future with Terminator (1984). Continue reading →

Movie Review: The Black Scorpion (1957)

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The Black Scorpion (1957)
Directed by Edward Ludwig
Starring Richard Denning, Mara Corday, Carlos Rivas, Mario Navarro

1957 really was one of the best year’s when it came to fun sci-fi/horror pictures, with plenty of giant monsters running around causing havoc. And this film is a prime example of that. What would make this giant monster flick even better? How about when it includes stop-animation work from the one and only Willis O’Brien, the one responsible for bringing the original King Kong to life in 1933 (and never even got a screen credit for it!?!?!). So the creature effects in here are everything to make a monster fan out a young kid, or bring back the kid in an old monster fan. Continue reading →

Movie Review: The Alligator People (1959)

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The Alligator People (1959)
Directed by Roy Del Ruth
Starring Beverly Garland, Bruce Bennett, Lon Chaney Jr., George Macready, Frieda Inescort, Richard Crane, Douglas Kennedy.

As a young movie fan, we would get used to the fact that sometimes, just sometimes, the movie title didn’t exactly live up to what actually took place in the film. Yes, I know it’s hard to believe, but it did happen every now and then. Still does today, to be completely honest. But not with The Alligator People! So for that fact alone, you have to give the makers of this one credit! An alligator head on a human body now may get a snicker or laugh, but as a kid, it was just awesome. Even excluding that, there are many things about this film that still make it enjoyable today. Continue reading →