PRIMITIVE SCREWHEADS

Universal Cult Horror Collection

Universal Cult Horror Collection is a 5 movie pack of 1930s and 1940s horror films. They're from TCM and Universal Home Entertainment. Each movie gets a separate single layer DVDr. The files on the first two movies are just under 3 GB each. They could easily have had the set reduced to 3 double layer discs but that might have meant they couldn't charge the nearly 50 smackaroonies the set cost. They're short movies, ranging between 61 and 66 minutes, and they look alright. There isn't anything special by way of extras, some behind-the-scenes stills, posters and lobbycards, TCM Database info, that sort of thing. I didn't really care enough to look at the extras. You can't find these movies anywhere else but Turner Classic Movies on cable. I don't have cable so there you go. My only real complaint is the cover to the DVD case is really poor and uninteresting. The back cover has mostly yellow text on black, the letter's are really small and hard to read. Reminds me that many product designers are below average.

House Of Horrors 1946 Dwight V Babcock wrote the original story, George Bricker wrote the screenplay, Jean Yarbrough did the directing. Dwight wrote the original stories and screenplays to several horror films: The Mummy's Curse, House Of Dracula, She-Wolf Of London, The Devil's Mask and The Brute Man. I've seen a few of the films that George penned: Sh! The Octopus, Mr Moto In Danger Island, The Devil Bat, House OF Dracula, She-Wolf Of London and The Brute Man. Jean started directing shorts in 1936, his first feature was Sauce For The Gander in 1940. He followed that with over 60 films. I've seen a few of them: The Devil Bat, King Of The Zombies, The Gang's All Here, She-Wolf Of London, The Brute Man, The Creeper, Jack And The Beanstalk and Lost In Alaska. You can see they worked together on a few films. That was common under the old studio system. I have a fondness for these old horror films, they're often more entertaining than their modern counterparts.

Martin Kosleck is a sculpture who's belittled by art critic Alan Napier. He looses a much needed sale. Martin finds Rondo Hatton struggling out of the river and brings him to his home.

Rondo is really The Creeper, a big man with a deformed face, who murdered some people, then ran away. He was thought to have died in the river. Martin doesn't realize who Rondo is at first, he just wants to have a grotesque model for his next big, important sculpture. Rondo played The Creeper in two other films, The Pearl Of Death in 1944 and The Brute Man in 1946. The character has nothing to do with the film The Creeper, that's a totally different monster.

Rondo sneaks out one night and kills Alan. Martin doesn't realize it was Rondo at first but once he does, he suggests another critic who needs killing in his eyes. Soon the power goes to Martin's head and that's his downfall.

There's the usual bit of romance between Robert Lowery and Virginia Grey. Bill Goodman plays the cop on the look out for The Creeper. It's a good solid film with a nice quick pace and a good sense of humor. Well worth the look for me.

Murders In The Zoo 1933 Philip Wylie and Seton I Miller wrote the screenplay and A Edward Sutherland was the director. Philip might be best known for his novels When Worlds Collide and After World Collide. I've read them and seen the movie several times. Seton wrote quite a number of films, some stand out a bit, The Sea Hawk, The Black Swan and Here Comes Mr Jordan. Eddie started in the silent era and directed about 50 movies. You might been familiar with Fireman, Save My Child or Tillie's Punctured Romance. I know I've seen The Flying Deuces with Laurel and Hardy, Beyond Tomorrow with C Aubrey Smith, The Invisible Woman with Virginia Bruce, and Having Wonderful Crime with Pat O'Brien, George Murphy and Carole Landis. The later film is based on a Craig Rice novel with her lawyer detective John J Malone. He's renamed Mike J Malone here. Who knows why.

Lionel Atwill is an animal hunter and scientist. He's very jealous of his wife, Kathleen Burke, as the movie opens he's sewn a man's lips together for kissing her. The man is abandoned in the jungle with no weapons or food. Lionel is collecting animals for a zoo, he brings a bunch back for private zoo.

Charles Ruggles is the zoo's new press agent, he's a nervous Nellie of a guy. That's him on the right, the others are Kathleen Scott and John Lodge. Lionel discovers his wife is having an affair with John and kills him with snake venom. Kathleen has the proof but Lionel catches her at the zoo and tosses her in to the alligators. That closes down the zoo and attracts the police.

Randolph Scott plays the zoo's animal doctor and Gail Patrick plays his assistant' They team up and solve the mystery and save the zoo from closing down permanently. The baddie gets his and things end as well as they could.

 

Pretty entertaining, they pack a lot of story in a 66 minute movie. Lionel is as creepy as he can be and Randolph is young and handsome. There are some laughs and some thrills. I thought it was worth seeing. Some nice posters too.

The Mad Doctor Of Market Street 1942 Al Martin wrote the screenplay and Joseph H Lewis directed. Joseph directed a good bit of TV at the end of his career, before that he directed 40 other films. I'd seen a few, The Big Combo, Gun Crazy, The Falcon In San Francisco, Pride Of The Bowery, That Gang Of Mine, Boys Of The City, and The Invisible Ghost. 

Lionel Atwill is a mad scientist, he kills a test subject with his new suspended animation formula, now he's on the run. He sets sail on a ship that sinks and leaves him and a handful of survivors on an island inhabited by some natives.

Lionel saves a tribal matriarch and takes over the tribe. He fails to live up to their expectations by being much too clever. It wasn't as good as the previous two films, more about average. It was nice to see Lionel get his in the end. He was a real dick. I'd watch that again.

The Mad Ghoul 1943 James P Hogan directed this film, Hanns Kräly wrote the original story, Brenda Weisberg and Paul Gangelin wrote the screenplay.

This time George Zucco is the mad scientist. He's cooked up an ancient Mayan formula that will turn men into easily to control zombies. George works at the local university where David Bruce is a medical student. David's pretty girlfriend is Evelyn Ankers, George has his eye on her for his own. He uses his formula on David and controls him while Evelyn is on a musical concert tour.

George has David kill people, the formula needs human hearts to make it, and that sure attracts the attention of the police. Things look pretty bleak for Evelyn but she gets a hand and it all works out as best it can. A little better than the previous film. I'd watch it again.

The Strange Case Of Doctor Rx 1942 William Nigh is the director and Clarence Upton Young wrote the screenplay. I've seen a handful of William's 120 films, The Ghost And The Guest, The Ape, Mr Wong In Chinatown, The Mystery Of Mr Wong and  The Fatal Hour. He started directing in 1914 and hung up his monocle in 1948.

Dr Rx is a murderer, he's been killing criminals that escaped justice. He's got a gorilla. Edmund MacDonald and Shemp Howard are the cops who ask their PI pal Patric Knowles to lend a hand. Mantan Moreland is Patric's butler and assistant. I always think a movie is made better by Mantan's presence. They get on the case and track down the murderous Dr Rx. It was fun and I had a laugh or two. Worth the watch to me, as I thought the whole set was, it's just too pricey at nearly 10 smackaroonies a movie. Too bad more people aren't into classic movies, the DVDs might be cheaper and more common.

Friday Night Movies 785

Trailer Park Shark is a 2017 big ass shark comedy. It's directed by Griff Furst, son of Stephen Furst. Griff wrote the movie with his brother Nathan Furst, Marcy Holland, Matt Muschamp and Xander Wolfe.

The movie is set in a squalled trailer park in Louisiana. A rich scumbag wants the park gone so he hires a stupid scumbag to blow up the levee. It floods the park and most of the trailer park residents are washed away with their trailers. A few survive and to make their day worse, somehow, a big ass hungry shark has come calling. Oh, yeah, he's an electric shark. His electric discharge knocks people out and shorts out electrical systems in boats.

The CGI is fair to middlin', you can see that shark top looks a bit low rez. Generally the physical effects work, the only one that was annoying was the rain effect. They had a physical spray system set up but it was so small you could see where the rain ended on the water. The physical gore is a bit of a step up over the CGI gore. The movie moves along briskly and there's always some new danger and slaughter.

I did like the movies sense of humor. I laughed out loud a couple of times and it was fun to see the scumbags get some chompin' action. Glad to have seen it and would watch it again.

This Is Not A Movie came out in 2011 and the Wikipedia says it's a Mexican experimental SF film. It's written and directed by Olallo Rubio. Edward Furlong plays three different versions of the same character. It's the end of the world and he's in a hotel room in Las Vegas discussing some philosophical stuff with his other selves. It's pretty artsy fartsy but I did get a good laugh out of one part. A physical gag that had little to do with the lack of story. Edward was pretty good as the different personalities. Sadly I wasn't that interested in his internal monologue. I had gotten the DVD cheap and will keep it. I might never watch it again. Who knows.

The Lost Patrol is a 1934 Boris Karloff film. It's adapted from a Philip MacDonald story called Patrol by Garrett Fort, the screenplay is by Dudley Nichols, the director is John Ford. Victor McLaglen, Wallace Ford, Reginald Denny, Billy Bevan, Alan Hale and JM Kerrigan are some of the cast I knew. Merian C Cooper is an executive producer and Max Stein created the music.

It's a WWI film, set in the desert of Mesopotamia, with a troop of lost soldiers. They've been beleaguered by some spirituous Arabs who snipe at them with sad efficiency. The troop find an oasis and camp out, resting themselves and their horses. In the night two men are killed and the horses stolen. The troop are randomly picked off by the hidden enemy. Help arrives in the form of an airplane. The pilot lands and is killed.

As their despair grows Boris goes mad and he becomes a danger to himself and the troop. He's eventually killed by his own delusion. Rescue comes but nearly too late. It's all pretty bleak and horrible. Not much by way of humor going on here. It's very much like a horror movie, the kind with a human monster. It's still better than the other two films. I might even watch it again someday.

Boris Karloff & Bella Lugosi - 4-Movie Horror Collection

Here's a nice package of four older films with Boris Karloff and Bella Lugosi. It's from Universal and there are two discs, each with 2 movies, and it's under 10 bucks on Amazon. Well, worth having in any good horror collection.

The Black Cat is a 1934 horror film and it's the best movie in the set. It's one of my favorite horror movies. You can't get much better characters than Hjalmar Poelzig and Dr Vitus Werdegast.

It's directed by Edgar G Ulmar, Peter Ruric wrote the screenplay, the two of them wrote the story and Tom Kilpatrick is an uncredited writer.

The Raven is a 1935 film with Bella as a surgeon who's a big Edgar Allan Poe fanatic, especially the parts where Poe talks about torture. Bella's got a torture dungeon in his basement. A judge asks him to come out of retirement and operate on his daughter. Bella eventually agrees and operates. Bella falls for the young woman but the judge objects since she's already engaged to a young man. Crazy sets in, Bella straps the judge to a pendulum and puts the young woman and her fiance into a room with walls that move to crush them. Entertaining but not anywhere near as stylish as The Black Cat.

David Boehm is the screenwriter and Lew Landers is the director, using the name Louis Friedlander.

The Invisible Ray is from 1936 and this time we find Boris playing a scientist who's discovered Radium X. It's powerful and deadly, soon he's completely poisoned by the stuff. Boris starts to get all paranoid on us, thinking that other scientists are after his formulas. He slips over into mad scientist territory, starts killing, and enjoys it. Bella is one of the scientists that Boris is after.

It's directed by Lambert Hillyer, the screenplay is by John Colton, with Howard Higgin and Douglas Hodges writing the story.

Black Friday is from 1940 and Boris is a surgeon who transfers part of a gangsters brain into an injured professor's body. The professor wakes up and starts to recover. Soon after the gangster starts to take over the professor's body. That can't be good, huh. Bella turns up as a local gangster boss. He tangles with the gangster. It's OK but the least interesting of the lot. Still, I'd watch it again sometime.

It's directed by Arthur Lubin and Curt Siodmak and Eric Taylor wrote the screenplay.

Friday Night Movies 702

That high pitched whine you hear is either me complaining about our first movie or it's H P Lovecraft spinning in his grave. Howard Lovecraft And The Frozen Kingdom is a 2016 animated movie about an 8 year old H P Lovecraft. It's abysmal. Really, it's so fucking annoying and tedious, all I could do was stare and occasionally swear at the TV screen. The animation is so-so at best, it's pretty low budget, though colorful. Lovecraft's mythos have been so white washed and watered down they're boring. The characters are kind of creepy but not in a Lovecraft kind of way. The screenplay isn't that good, the characters are often annoying when they're talking, then the movie drags along when they aren't. I gave it a 1, out of spite. I see that it scores a 5.6 on the IMDb and about 60% of all the votes are over 5. Unbelievable. If only there were an e-slap app, something to send a resounding slap to the faces of the voters. A physical slap, not a digital slap, the kind of slap that's so hard it makes the slappee shit their pants. Perhaps a series of slaps. Flesh on flesh and their anguished wails are music to my ears.

The Ghoul is a 1933 Boris Karloff movie. It's British and it was filmed at the Lime Grove Studios. Thirty years later that studio became home to the first two seasons of Doctor Who. Built in 1915 Lime Grove went through a major update in 1932, making it one of the best equipped studios of the day. The BBC bought the place in 1949 and by the time Doctor Who moved in, it was out of date and too small.

That's not the only DW connection, one of the writers of the script, Roland Pertwee, is the father of Jon Pertwee, who was the third Doctor. DW had moved out of LG by the time Jon became the Doctor but he shot some links there in 1991 for The Troughton Years video. Three months later the studio closed.

The Ghoul is based on a play by Leonard Hines and Frank King, the adaptation is by Rupert Downing, Roland was joined by John Hastings Turner on the screenplay. T Hayes Hunter is the director. The screenplay is substantially different to the play. They give the mysticism of the play an Egyptian flavor to capitalize on Karloff's recent hit The Mummy.

Boris Karloff plays a man who wants to cheat Death. He's got a fancy magical jewel he's spent most of his fortune on. It's part of an ancient Egyptian secret ritual. His servant steals the jewel and Boris rises from the grave craving his gem. His house  is packed with victims, the lawyer, a couple of relatives, one of their friends, a priest and more are in the dead man's way. There's a bit of a body count even though Boris doesn't return from the dead until about 50 minutes into the 80 minute movie. He shambles around and people are running about. The jewel gets passed along a bit but Boris finds it again.

When Boris tries the ritual with the Sphinx statue he gets tricked and dies. There's a bit of a romance between the two cousins and some of the scumbags get theirs in the end. As a movie it's alright, not great, it gets a 5.9 and I gave it a 6. It's more a 5 than a 6 but it is somewhat entertaining for the cast. Ecxept for that annoying woman, she was like a low rent Zasu Pitts. It's the first film role for Ralph Richardson and Cedric Hardwicke is also in the cast.

We watched a British Blu-ray that was nice. I thought I hadn't seen the movie at first but later a few scenes made me think I had. Turns out I bought a 2004 cheapie DVD from Target, it was in the seasonal stuff for Halloween one year, only a buck. The image is not as nice but it's watchable, it's the whole movie, and I already have it. You can also see the movie on YouTube and that's a watchable version too. I put a link to the movie in one of the title above. There's also an MGM DVD available.

The Black Cat 1934

The first time Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff worked together on a picture for Universal was in 1934. As you can guess by the clues above, the picture was The Black Cat. It's adapted from the title of the Edgar Allan Poe story of the same name. Peter Ruric is the screenwriter and Edgar G Ulmer is the director. The movie was the biggest hit of the year for Universal.

Bella and Boris are old friends. The movie starts with Bella joining a young newly wed couple, David Manning and Julie Bishop, in a train compartment. He's traveling to see Boris, after leaving the train he joins the couple on the bus to the nearby town. The bus crashes and Bella takes the injured wife to Boris's nearby house.

Turns out that Boris and Bella have a lot of bad blood between them. Boris turns out to be a crazy guy who heads a Satanic Cult.

It gets worse and worse for poor Bella, his past love is dead, his daughter is dead, and he's got to play chess for Julie's life. That Boris is as nutty as his haircut.

It's a pretty good movie and they pack a lot in the 65 minute running time. There's some sick twisted love, torture, cat killing, Satanic cults, bad haircuts, drugs, flaying a man, a little something for everyone. The sets are great, lot of shadows and moody settings, mixing modern design with brutalist architecture.

I'd seen this movie several times in the past, I went to watch it again and finally had enough of the copy I taped off of TV in the 90s. The DVD is one of those print on demand type. I'd prefer a real pressed DVD but I'm still happy with the nicer picture.

Warner Brothers Horror/Mystery Double Features

Here's another Warner Brothers Archive Collection, Warner Brothers Horror/Mystery Double Features, featuring horror and mystery titles from the 1930s and 1940s. I'd seen some of them before, on Turner Classic Movies, it's probably what sent me looking for the DVDs. I ordered this set ages ago and it got buried on the To Be Watched shelves. It surfaced recently and got seen. Here's a list of the films, 2 to a disc. All of the films are short, ranging from 54 to 71 minute, they don't waste much time on padding. All of these films were under the First National Pictures banner when they came out. The company started in 1917, under another name, and in 1929 they were absorbed by Warner Brothers. They made films under the First National Pictures heading until 1936.

 

Find The Blackmailer 1943 This is based on a magazine story called Blackmail With Feathers by G T Fleming-Roberts, the screenplay was written by Robert E Kent and the director was D Ross Lederman. Robert E Kent has a good number of writing credits including Rock Around The Clock and Don't Knock The Rock (both of which I just coincidentally picked up on clearance DVD yesterday),  Zombies On Broadway, Charlie Chan In Reno, a couple of the Great Gildersleeve films, a couple of the Dick Tracy films, a Philo Vance, and so on.

Jerome Cowan is a private eye, he gets hired to find a talking raven. He finds the owner of the bird, dead. There's a mix of larceny and comedy going on. Jerome likes to quip and he cam take a punch. There's a politician getting blackmailed, a dead guy, a crooked lawyer, a pretty and sexy actress, some thugs, all the things that make a mystery fun.

The Smiling Ghost 1941 Stuart Palmer wrote the original story and he co-wrote the script with Kenneth Gamet. They had some help from Philip Wylie on the story and Ben Markson and Ralph Spence on the screenplay. Lewis Seiler is the director. Stuart Palmer is the creator of Miss Hildegarde Withers. I've read several of his books and seen many of his movies.

Wayne Morris a goofy guy who's out of work. He's got bills piling up and he puts an ad in the paper looking for any work that's legal. He's offered a $1000 to play the fiance of Alexis Smith for a month. Wayne thinks it's a bit goofy but he's a goofy guy who needs that 1000 samolians. That's a lot of money for a month in 1941. Turns out Alexis has a history of short lived husbands. She's gotten rich on the insurance and been dubbed the Kiss Of Death Girl by the news media. Lucky for Wayne he's got his valet, Willie Best, and spunky reporter Brenda Marshall on his side. They keep him from being victim number four. It's pretty much a comedy with bit of mystery and horror. The New York Times said it was predictable and inane. Sometimes that's what you need in a film. I liked it and I'd already seen it once before. I always like Willie Best, he always delivers on his roles, even if he's just playing a similar character.

Sh! The Octopus 1937 The movie is based on two plays, The Gorilla by Ralph Spence and Sh, The Octopus by Ralph Murphy and Donald Gallaher. George Bricker smashed the two plays together into the screenplay and William McGann directed. If the previous movie was a goofy comedy this is the same but with goofy turned up to 11. It's like George took all the gag scenes out of the two plays but didn't spend any time linking them all up. Still, I got a kick out of it.

That Hugh Herbert, Marcia Ralston and Allen Jenkins above. Hugh and Allen are a couple of bumbling detectives who are after the notorious criminal the Octopus. The script quickly puts everyone in an old lighthouse. The boat disappears and the lot of them are trapped. There's a dead body hanging from the underside of the light and a real octopus keeps attacking. The gags keep coming so you don't have much time to think about the plot holes. No matter. I had a laugh. Someday I'll watch it again.

 

The Hidden Hand 1942 Here's another film that was based on a play. Rufus King wrote the play Invitation to a Murder, Anthony Coldeway and Raymond L Schrock wrote the screenplay, Benjamin Stoloff is the director.

A rich old lady just happens to have a criminally insane brother. She arranges for him to escape prison and dresses him up as her butler. That's them on the left above. The rich old lady has invited her relatives for a reading of her will. Then the killing starts. Willie Best is the scaredy cat chauffeur. There's oodles of gags and plenty of slapstick. I'll certainly want to watch it again.

Mystery House 1938 This time the movie was adapted from a novel, The Mystery Of Hunting's End, by Mignon G Eberhart, Sherman L Lowe and Robertson White wrote the screenplay and Noel M Smith was the director. I don't care much for the poster above, the one below is better but no winner.

Dick Purcell isn't much interesting but Ann Sheridan certainly is. It's a locked room mystery with a dead CEO and a secluded hunting lodge filled with suspects. William Hopper, Paul Drake on the Perry Mason show, is one of them. There will be some more killin's before they get to the end of the movie. Ann plays the nurse of the CEO, she'll play the same character in the next movie, and Aline MacMahon played the same character in a 1935 movie called When The Patient Slept. I haven't seen that. I did enjoy Mystery House and would watch it again.

The Patient In Room 18 1938 Mignon G Eberhart wrote the novel with the same title, Eugene Solow, Robertson White wrote the screenplay and Bobby Connolly and Crane Wilbur directed. Ann Sheridan is a nurse again and this time she's working in a hospital. Patric Knowles is there for rest cure. Someone steals $100,000 worth of radium and kills a patient. Then the head doctor is murdered. Pool Patric has to solve the case and keep him and Ann from getting murdered. Not quite as funny as some of the other films int he lot but still entertaining.

All of them were worth seeing and the set's a nice addition to my pile of movies. I'll be wanting to watch them again.

Forgotten Terrors - 4 Bone-Chilling Movies On One 2-Sided DVD

I'm always game to pick up one of those multi movie DVD sets, especially if I can get them cheap. I paid $3.95 for the Retromedia Forgotten Terrors set at Hamilton Books and their price was less than half of Amazon's $8.79 price. I would normally think $8.79 is a bit steep for 4 old classic movies, and $3.95 is still a buck each. I guess I'm pretty cheap, especially since you can find these on YouTube in as good a state as these prints are in. I'd seen a couple of the four movies but the other two were new to me.

Tangled Destinies is a 1932 murder mystery set in a big old mansion. There's 13 people and a bag filled with $50,000 worth of diamonds. Soon one guy's dead and the hunt it on. Not too bad, some mystery, some romance, some comedy, a nice mix. Edward T Lowe wrote it and Frank Strayer directed.

The Phantom is a 1931 murder mystery about a murderous criminal "The Phantom" who breaks out of jail. He vows revenge on the DA for sending him to prison. The DA's daughter and her boyfriend, a reporter played by Guinn "Big Boy" Williams, join the police in trying to keep the DA alive. It's touch and go. There's some shooting, plenty of sneaking about, some romance and some gags. Most of the action takes place in the DA's big mansion.

Dead Men Walk is a 1943 horror film with George Zucco playing two roles. The good brother was involved in the killing of the evil brother. The evil George's brother was a devote of Satan and he had a henchman who rescues him from the tomb. The evil George has worked some magic and now he's a vampire. The good George battles him to the death. Not as much humor in this one. It's the weakest of the lot but it's watchable and entertaining.

The Intruder is a 1933 murder mystery that starts with a murder on shipboard. There's a storm and the people have to abandon ship. The find themselves on a small island. Misha Auer plays a crazy hairy guy who lives on the island with his pal, a gorilla. He's been there a long time and he doesn't talk much. There's a lot of talking on the beach among the survivors. Eventually they find a cave and there's some more sets to talk in. The murderer is eventually outed after a bit of running about in the jungle. A rescue ship comes along. It was OK but nothing too special.

The nice thing about these old movies is the short running time. They are all about an hour long, so they don't have much time to spend on stuff like padding the story with character development. Not a great addition to my collection but someday I might watch them again. Recommended to the classic movie fan.

The Shadows Collection - Includes 8 Movies

I don't know why I keep buying these cheap movie collections. It's like some sort of mental thing, I guess. The Shadows Collection is a batch of 8 movies on 2 DVDs from Echo Bridge. Five on one disc and 3 on the other. Of the 8 movies I have seen 5 of them before. Luckily the set only cost me a couple of bucks. Here's the batch of films.

The Shadows is a 2011 film about some boaters who crash on an island with an abandoned lighthouse. It's got some sort of supernatural thing inside and it picks them off one by one. It's not so good despite it's 6.5 on the IMDb. It's more a 3 or a 4 on a generous day. It's got 1064 votes and 826 are tied up in the 8-10 ratings range. That can't be right, not for this movie, not with ratings 1 through 7 only getting quantities of votes ranging from 22 to 51. Someone's been playing around. Watch a bit of the movie on YouTube and see if you aren't complaining pretty darn quick.

Backwoods is a 2008 TV movie pitting some folks on corporate retreat against inbred hillbillies. It's got unpleasant corporate types, unpleasant hillbillies and an unpleasant story. The hillbillies are killing the men, and turning the women into baby makin' slaves. It's pretty poor, good for speeding up, not for watching again.

Feeding Grounds is a 2006 alien invasion movie. A van full of 20 somethings are on a camping trip and they stop at an abandoned house. Nearby an alien has landed. Turns out he likes human flesh. The characters were really annoying and I wasn't too sorry when they got chomped. There's plenty of poor acting and we don't ever get to see much of the monster. It's not a movie which succeeds in making me like it. Like so many others.

Netherworld is a 1991 New Moon film about a young man who inherits his father's mansion. I'd seen it back in 1991 and on another multi movie pack more recently. The young man works with a witch to resurrect his father. Good things don't come from that. It's not one of their better films, it struggles just to get to average. The weak script wipes out any gain the decent cast has generated. I didn't need to see it again and rather than watch it for the third time I just skipped through the movie to see what happened at the end. Not much.

Blood Predator is a 2007 horror film that has the survivors of a plane crash take refuge in a mountain cabin. The place is infested with some sort of murderin' spider critters, created with crappy CGI effects, the movie's not so good either.

Nothing but strike outs on this disc, the other disc has better movies, I know, I've seen them all.

The Ghost Walks is a 1934 horror comedy that starts on the dark and stormy night you always hear about. A car with a Broadway producer, his secretary, and a playwright is stopped by a downed tree. They seek shelter in a nearby house. It's all a set up to present a play to the producer. It goes off track when a woman dies. Other strange stuff happens until the mystery is revealed. Not great but a good solid bit of story and film making on a low budget. I'd watch this one again sometime.

The Black Raven I had seen and enjoyed back in 2011. I posted about it here. It was as enjoyable the second time around.

Gothic is the 1986 Ken Russell film that I've also seen before. I blogged about it on 2007 when I watched it as part of a long series on one of those 50 movie packs. It's an OK movie, best one here, but I think I've hit my saturation point with this viewing. I might not need to bother with it again.

Not much of a collection, probably wasted the 2 bucks.

The Midnight Horror Collection: Voodoo Curses

Here's the report on the Echo Bridge Home Entertainment multi movie pack. This one only has 4 movies each on two discs. A lot of their later discs have 5 movies crammed on them. I picked this up at Half Price Books for 40 cents because it had no DVD case. That's about a nickel a movie.

The Devil's Daughter is a 1939 Sack Amusement production. It's a horror movie with an almost all black cast. I never heard of any of the cast but that's not surprising. I've only seen 2 or 3 all black cast films. It's directed by Arthur H Leonard and I never heard of him either. I do see that this was his first film. He directed two more features and 3 shorts until his credits dry up in 1947. In 1978 he was executive producer on Alien Zone. Not something I'd really want to come out of retirement for but who knows. TDD is pretty slow and there's not much by way of scary stuff. Old school zombies and voodoo on a plantation in Haiti. It gets a 3.5 on the IMDb for good reason. You can check it out in the link but really, the only interesting element to the picture is the Jamaican location shooting and the largely black cast.

Ritual is a 2002 horror by director Avi Nesher. Another guy I didn't know. I see he's directed 17 feature films, none of which I've seen. Most don't sound like they'll be on my to watch list anytime soon. The film is loosely based on the 1943 I Walked With A Zombie. Why bother remaking a classic? Failure of ideas in Hollywood? Who knows. Anyway back in the olden days Inez Wallace wrote the story that got turned into the Curt Siodmak and Ardel Wray script for IWWAZ. Rob Cohen and Avi wrote the screenplay for the current version. Rob you might recognize as the director of The Fast And The Furious, xXx, DragonHeart, Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story and 3 episodes of Miami Vice. He produces a lot of stuff too. Ritual just isn't that interesting, other than for seeing Tim Curry and Stephen Tobolowsky. I like both those guys and they are OK here. The movie was the third of the Tales From The Crypt movies, it did poorly at the box office. It didn't come out on DVD until 4 years had past it's theatrical release. There's a watchable copy on YouTube. 

 

Venom is a 2005 horror film about snakes in Louisiana. There's voodoo and murder too. And running around in the dark, screaming your head off, that too. Most of the stuff you'd expect. Sadly, it's well below average. You don't need to see it.

Bleeding Rose is a crappy 2007 film about a demonic serial killer. Kareem Bland is the writer, director, cinematographer, editor and producer. Someone needed some help here. He had an idea, serial killer wizard, with rays that shoot out of his hands, up against the police and the good guys. Sadly, his writing talent was lacking, and he had amateur actors trying to deal with his cliches and bad dialog. The only slightly interesting thing about the movie is the large number of black people in the cast.

The Devil's Hand is a 1962 horror film that has popped up on  other multi movie packs. I've seen it 3 or 4 times in the last several years. It's all about dolls and devil cults. I guy and his girlfriend stumble onto a devil cult and it goes badly from then on. Director William J Hole Jr mostly worked in TV during the 50s and 60s. It's got Robert Alda, Neil Hamilton and Ariadna Welter. I've only heard of the last lady because she was in The Brainiac. That's a 1962 Mexican movie that's one of those that needs to be seen more than any of these films.

Netherworld is a 1992 Full Moon feature. My watched movie list says I watched this on the 11th of November 1991. That was the year before the IMDb says the movie was released. I'm pretty sure it was the same movie. Rotten Tomatoes says the movie came out in 1991. I also know that back then Greg was getting New Moon screeners for the bookstore. I watched this with him and his wife in 1991. Sadly it's not one of Full Moon's better works. I was bored after a while and started fast forwarding. It's directed by David Schmoeller, who also co-wrote the script. He worked on a lot of the Full Moon pictures, mostly the Puppet Master series. It's got Michael Bendetti, Denise Gentile and Anjanette Comer in front of the camera.

Killjoy 2: Deliverance from Evil is a 2002 film that I watched last November. It's not too good so I didn't watch it again.

Witchcraft 13: Blood of the Chosen is a poorly made 2008 horror film. It's hardly worth telling you that. It scores the lowest of the lot, a 2.1 on the IMDb. I voted to keep that number low, don't worry.

Another one down, sadly, no real gems there.

Karloff & Lugosi Horror Classics

Here's a nice two disc set of Karloff and Lugosi films that were released from the 1930s to the 1950s. They have nothing to do with each other than the two stars. The first is a more traditional horror film, the second a mix of horror and science fiction, the third a musical horror comedy and the last a horror comedy. The set is $14.99 on Amazon today and well worth having.

The Walking Dead 1936

The Walking Dead is a 1936 horror film. It's directed by Michael Curtiz and there are a passel of writers attached, Ewart Adamson, Peter Milne, Robert Andrews and Lillie Hayward. The script is fairly good considering there were all those writers. Curtiz is an excellent director and he does a great job here.

Boris is an ex-con who is framed by gang boss Ricardo Cortez. Boris doesn't know who framed him and there are witnesses to his innocence but they hold off coming forward until it's too late. Poor Boris is electrocuted.

He's revived by a scientist, played by Edmund Gwenn, and when Boris wakes he somehow knows who framed him. He goes after the men, asking why they framed him, and they are so freaked out. They have accidents, or in one case a heart attack, and they die. Boris is killed in the last encounter with Ricardo.

Don't worry Ricardo and the last of his gang will get theirs. It's an entertaining film with a mix of science, horror and religion. There's a nice commentary by film historian Greg Mank. He has lots of interesting things to say about the movie and the people who worked on it. He's done several good commentaries for the Universal Horror DVDs.

Frankenstein 1970 1958

Frankenstein 1970 is a 1958 film with Boris Karloff as the last surviving Frankenstein. It's directed by Howard W Koch, the story is by Aubrey Schenck and Charles A Moses, the screenplay is by Richard H Landau.

Frankenstein rents his house out to some TV people to shoot a made for TV movie. He needs funds to buy an atomic reactor so he came bring a cobbled together creature to life. It doesn't go so well for Frankenstein or the creature.

Another entertaining film, not quite as good as the first, but worth seeing. There's an interesting commentary with Charlotte Austin, who was in the film, Bob Burns and film historian Tom Weaver.

You'll Find Out 1940

You'll Find Out is a 1940 Kay Kaiser film. It's mix of horror, comedy and music. Kay is a band leader and him and his orchestra, the Kollege Of Musical Knowledge, appeared regularly on radio in the 30s and 40s. They appeared in several films too. This is one.

You'll Find Out is another film with a pile of writers attached, David Butler, James V Kern, Monte Brice, Andrew Bennison and RTM Scott. Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi and Peter Lorre all star. It's directed by David Butler.

That unholy trio are plotting against a young heiress played by Janis Bellacrest. The orchestra has been hired for a party and seance. They figure out something is going on with laughs and lots of screaming and running about. I enjoyed it a few years ago and all over again. It would only have been better with a nice commentary.

Zombies On Broadway 1945

Zombies On Broadway is a 1945 horror comedy with Bella Lugosi. It's written by Robert Kent and Lawrence Kimble, the director is Gordon M Douglas. Gordon was a long time director and he directed a lot of films I've seen. You might know Them!, Tony Roma, The Great Gildersleeve, Dick Tracy Vs Cueball, In Like Flint, They Call Me Mr Tibbs!, just to mention a few I know.

Some dopey press agents want to get a zombie for the opening of the Zombie Hut, a nightclub owned by a gangster played by Sheldon Leonard. Trouble is, where does a fella find something that doesn't exist.

Lucky for them Bella has a zombie on the Caribbean island of San Sebastian. They plot to get hold of the thing and wind up in a heap of trouble. There's plenty of goofy antics and a bit of singing. Probably the worst of the four movies and it's still entertaining, enough. The two publicity men are played by Wally Brown and Alan Carney, I didn't find them to be that interesting.

I liked the set quite a bit and I'll be happy to watch them all over again. I also like the posters and lobby cards for these old films and glommed onto a number of them from the internet.