I started watching another of those 12 disc 50 Movie Packs from Mill Creek entertainment. The lure of movies for pennies is strong and I live in hope of finding that rare gem amongst all the muck. Pure Terror is all horror movies, some I've seen before, some I've not. Most aren't at the top of their game but you can still watch them and get a laugh or two. If you're lucky there's a bit of nudity or something weird going on. I usually watch them with my finger on the fast forward button when something gets boring. Each single sided disc has 4 movies except for the last two discs which have 5 movies each.
Crucible Of Horror was a movie I hadn't seen before. It's a 1970 British film, also called The Corpse, and it wouldn't have mattered much if I had missed it. Michael Gough is the father in a house with 2 children. The son is around 20 and works, the daughter is 16 and in school. He treats his wife and daughter with an iron hand, tormenting them with mental and physical cruelty. The wife and daughter kill him and his dead body disappears and reappears. The women go about their life and the last scene has Michael come sit at the head of a the table. Seems the ladies didn't do that good a job of killing old Michael off, now their stuck with him. It's all pretty crappy. It won't be one I'll be needing to run again.
It's directed by Viktors Ritelis who directed a lot of British TV, of which I've only seen one or two of the shows he directed. I did like the screen writers name, Olaf Pooley, turns out he had an interesting career. Here's a bit about it from the Wikipedia.
He wrote and appeared in the film The Corpse (released in the United States as Crucible of Horror), starring Michael Gough, and wrote, directed and appeared in The Johnstown Monster. He also wrote the screenplay for a film version of Bernard Taylor's novel The Godsend (1980). Beaumont directed the film. Pooley's other writing credits include the television film Falcon's Gold (1982) and being an uncredited writer on the sci-fi horror film Lifeforce (1985).
Pooley's TV guest appearances from the 1950s onwards include Dixon of Dock Green, Paul Temple, Jason King, MacGyver and Star Trek: Voyager. He played Professor Stahlman and his parallel Earth counterpart Director Stahlmann in the Doctor Who serial Inferno (1970). He also played Lars Torvik in the first episode of The Sandbaggers ("First Principles", 1978). His other appearances include the BBC Radio play Ambrose In Paris (1958) and Sebastian in a BBC Television Sunday Night Theater production of Shakespeare's The Tempest (1956). Pooley had a major career in West End theatre appearing in such notable productions as Noël Coward's Peace In Our Time and revivals of The Tempest and Othello. Pooley is one of 28 actors to appear in both the Star Trek and Doctor Who franchises.
In 1946 Pooley married actress Irlin Hall and together they had a daughter, the actress Kirstie Pooley (born 1954) and a son, comedian Seyton Pooley. In 1982 he married director Gabrielle Beaumont, although they later separated. Pooley emigrated to the United States in 1986 and lived in Southern California, with an art studio in Santa Monica where he devoted his time to painting. He turned 100 in March 2014 and became the oldest surviving Doctor Who actor with the death of Zohra Sehgal on 10 July 2014. Pooley became the oldest surviving Star Trek actor with the death of Ellen Albertini Dow on 4 May 2015. He died on 14 July 2015, aged 101. Pooley was survived by his two children, Seyton and Kirstie, and four grandchildren.
Double Exposure is from 1983 and it's written and directed by William Byron Hillman. I never heard of him before but I see he's written 8 movies, and directed 7, in the last 42 years. I haven't seen any of them and wouldn't bother from eying the list on the IMDb. Michael Callan plays a photographer who dreams he's killing his models. Trouble is the models are turning up dead just like his dreams. He thinks he's going crazy so he sees a shrink. He isn't crazy, the real killer tells him so near the end of the movie. Not awful, just kind of slightly below average. No reason to see it again.
Horror Rises From The Tomb is a 1973 Spanish film written and starring Paul Naschy. It's directed by Carlos Aured. Alaric de Marnac is a medieval sorcerer who gets beheaded at the start of the movie. His wife is tortured and executed by the same men who killed Alaric. Now it's modern day and the owner, and descendent, of Alaric goes on a search for the head and body of his ancestor. They find the head and it starts giving orders. People start dying and zombies are created. It's not much better than I expected, what with having Paul's hands on it. He's made some poor movies, ones I feel that I've wasted my time on, and I've often been disappointed to remember he's dead. Cuts down the chances of meeting him and popping him one in the nuts for that werewolf movie he made.
The Dungeon Of Harrow is a 1962 film that was directed by Pat Boyette. He co-wrote the script with Henry Garcia. I knew Pat had written and drawn many comic books stories for Charlton Comics in the 1960s and 1970s. I didn't know he had a career in TV and movies before the comics before this movie came along. The movie is about a guy who survives a shipwreck only to wind up in the hands of a crazy count who likes torture and other nasty activities. It's pretty low budget and I wanted to like it better but I agree with the IMDb where it gets a 3.1, so it goes. You can see it at the link above and see if you like it.
Not a very good bunch of films here and on top of that I have half of them on DVD already. Mill Creek sure likes to put movies in multiple set to screw you out of your quarters.
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