“The Hearse Song” is a song about burial and human decomposition, of unknown origin.

It was popular as a World War I song, and was popular in the 20th century as an American and British children’s song, continuing to the present.

It has many variant titles, lyrics, and melodies, but generally features the line “the worms crawl in, the worms crawl out”, and thus is also known as “The Worms Crawl In“.

It gained more popularity in present times by being included Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (1981) by Alvin Schwartz, who gives the lyrics as:

“Don’t you ever laugh as the hearse goes by,
For you may be the next one to die.
They wrap you up in big white sheets
and cover you from head to feet.
They put you in a big black box
And cover you with dirt and rocks.
All goes well for about a week,
Until your coffin begins to leak.
The worms crawl in, the worms crawl out,
The worms play pinochle on your snout,
They eat your eyes, they eat your nose,
They eat the jelly between your toes.
A big green worm with rolling eyes
Crawls in your stomach and out your sides.
Your stomach turns a slimy green,
And pus pours out like whipping cream.
You’ll spread it on a slice of bread,
And that’s what you eat when you are dead.”

Popular variations include that performed by Harley Poe on his album Satan, Sex and No Regrets, with major differences occurring in the final chorus:

And the worms crawl in, the worms crawl out,
They crawl all over your dirty snout.
Your chest caves in, your eyes pop out,
And your brain turns to sauerkraut.

They invite their friends and their friends too,
They all come down to chew on you.

And this is what it is to die,
I hope you had a nice goodbye.
Did you ever think as a hearse goes by,
That you may be the next to die?
And your eyes fall out, and your teeth decay,
And that is the end of a perfect day.

Buy: Amazon.com

In the 1960s, Terry Teene released a rock-and-roll novelty recording, “Curse of the Hearse”, loosely based on The Hearse Song lyrics, with a different melody.

This song was included in Finders Keepers, the 2014 horror film starring Jaime Pressly.

Wikipedia

The Devil’s Messenger is a 1961 anthology horror film combining three episodes of the 1959 Swedish television series 13 Demon Street directed by Curt Siodmak (Donovan’s Brain; The Wolf Man) and written by Leo Guild. 

Herbert L. Strock (The Crawling Hand; Blood of Dracula; I Was a Teenage Frankenstein) directed the footage featuring Lon Chaney Jr., Karen Kadler and Michael Hinn.

With the assistance of his reluctant yet seductive subject, Satanya (Karen Kadler), Satan (Lon Chaney Jr.) attempts to recruit new people to join him in Hell.

Satanya targets a sex-obsessed photographer, a scientist who discovers a woman frozen in ice, and the man who drove her to commit suicide. Ultimately, Satan’s plan is to blow up the planet with nuclear bombs…

Buy: Amazon.com

Reviews:

“The emphasis is on the weaknesses that already exist in the victim’s characters, and the inevitability with which those weaknesses lead them to their doom. There are no stunning surprises, but the atmosphere of moral degeneracy, the very dark tone, and Lon Chaney’s outrageous performance make it an entertaining enough way to spend 70 minutes…” Cult Movie Reviews

“All three episodes are brisk and exciting, although somewhat poorly shot […] These stories fall into the familiar Twilight Zone/Tales from the Crypt format, but they work this format skillfully. The unknown actors show vigor and seriousness. The music is fierce. And – best of all – they are thematically linked.” David Elroy Goldweber, Claws & Saucers

Buy: Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com | Amazon.ca

[Spoiler] “The end of the movie is particularly great, as Chaney starts talking to “us” (that is, the presumed audience) and then nukes the entire world for some reason. We see that one house from the nuclear blast stock footage get blown apart for the 80 millionth time, and then the movie just ends. Kind of awesome.” Brian W. Collins, Horror Movie a Day

Buy: Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.ca

“The individual episodes here aren’t bad, but they don’t exactly sparkle, either. The first one is probably the best; it involves a photographer who finds himself haunted by one of his photographs after he commits a rape/murder. The second starts well (a woman is found frozen alive in a block of ice for 5000 years), but ends lamely, and the third (about a man discovering his destiny in a dilapidated old building) is just average.” Dave Sindelar, Fantastic Movie Musings and Ramblings

See pressbook at Zombos’ Closet

Choice dialogue:

Satan: “Love is such a stupid emotion.”

Dr. Ben Seastrom: “What is time but a conception of man?”

Main cast:

Lon Chaney Jr., Karen Kadler, Michael Hinn, Ralph Brown, John Crawford, Bert Johnson, Frank Taylor, Chalmers Goodlin, Gunnel Broström, Sara Harts, Jan Blomberg,  Inga Botorp, Eve Hossner.

Filming locations:

Stockholm, Stockholms län, Sweden

Wikipedia | IMDb

Image credits: The Last Drive-In | Zombos’ Closet

The Long Hair of Death – I lunghi capelli della morte – is a 1964 Italian gothic horror film directed by Antonio Margheriti (Cannibal Apocalypse; Seven Deaths in the Cat’s Eyes; The Virgin of Nuremberg) from a screenplay co-written with Tonino Valerii (director of giallo My Dear Killer), based on a story by Ernesto Gastaldi.

The film stars Barbara Steele, Giorgio Ardisson and Halina Zalewska.

September, 1499. Adele Karnstein is burned at the stake, accused of being a witch who has murdered Count Franz Humboldt.

Lisabeth, the woman’s youngest daughter, lives in the Humboldt castle and when she grows up she is forced to marry the deceased man’s nephew, Kurt Humboldt, whom is the real murderer…

The film is released on Blu-ray in the UK by 88 Films on 24 July 2017.

Buy: Amazon.co.uk

Reviews:

” …wins points for its sexuality, using unnerving couplings and personal submission to add a tinge of unrest to the tale as it gradually finds its way to ghostly occurrences. However, it’s a long, slow ride to death’s door, with simple acts and behaviors gobbling up minutes of screentime, feeling more like padding instead of suspense.” Brian Orndorf, Blu-ray.com

” …connoisseurs of the Italian gothic will definitely want to check it out for its standout sequences, oddly radical political undertones and overall atmosphere – and Barbara Steele fans will certainly appreciate her relatively large amount of screentime – but newcomers to the sub-genre would be well-advised to start elsewhere.” Breakfast in the Ruins

“Margheriti peppers The Long Hair of Death (1964) with interesting characters and situations and although the action slows down a bit during the last half, the suspenseful second half benefits from these interactions. The film is also enhanced by a hauntingly beautiful score…” Cool Ass Cinema

“Margheriti’s direction is slack and unfocused and the cinematography mostly undistinguished. Without the heightened visual dimension there are no zinger moments, those single angles on Steele that elicit chills — like the close-up through the rainy window in The Horrible Dr. Hichcock or every other shot in Black Sunday. Margheriti’s elaborate castle set is too often flat-lit and lacking in atmosphere.” Glenn Erickson, DVD Talk

Buy: Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.ca

[spoilers] “With some editing, this could be a pretty good movie. The revenge/ghost/witch plot is always watchable, and there’s some plague subplotting (it takes place in the 15th century) that is always appreciated. Plus the movie is more or less about a guy who wants to kill his wife so he can be with her sister, so that’s hot. And the weird Wicker Man style thing that the bad guy is burned alive in at the end of the film is pretty awesome.” Brian W. Collins, Horror Movie a Day

Buy: Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.ca

” …there’s an unmistakable hint of that old Italian perverse insanity bubbling just below the surface here, and occasionally bursting through into a few scenes of genuine shock. I doubt the maggot-strewn corpse which crops up here was something audiences were expecting to see at this point. Then there’s a body which ickily rebuilds itself through various stages of decay, and there’s even a little nudity thrown in…” We Are Cursed to Live in Interesting Times

“Aside from a few well-realised set-pieces, and a conspicuously grim case of poetic justice at the climax, the action tends to be rather stiff and somnolent, as if the perpetually busy Margheriti was feeling a bit burned out and couldn’t muster the requisite enthusiasm.” Jonathan Rigby, Euro Gothic 

Buy: Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com | Amazon.ca

“Subtlety and atmosphere are great, but not for 98 minutes! Here, we are treated to many enticing images of the 15th century castle in dim candlelight, but far too much time is consumed by walking one way, walking the next, chit-chatting between important scenes, etc. All punctuated by the same echoing theremin-style organ notes.” David Elroy Goldweber, Claws & Saucers

Buy: Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com | Amazon.ca

“There are some fine shots of a white-robed Zulewska wandering through the medieval castle with shafts of lights falling from high windows, and Steele’s presence alone suffices to life such fantasy well above the average, especially when here role combines eroticism and vengeful menace directed against brutally callous men.” Phil Hardy (editor), The Aurum Film Encyclopedia: Horror

Cast and characters:

• Barbara Steele as Helen Rochefort / Mary + Piranha; Shivers; Castle of Blood; Black Sunday
• Giorgio Ardisson as Kurt Humboldt
• Halina Zalewska as Adele Karnstein / Lisabeth Karnstein
• Giuliano Raffaelli as Count Humboldt
• Laura Nucci as Grumalda
• Umberto Raho as Von Klage
• Nello Pazzafini as the Servant

Buy: Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.ca

Filming locations:

Massimo Castle, Arsoli, Italy

Wikipedia | IMDb | Image credits: The Telltale Mind

Plot keywords:

witch | rats | castle | murder | plague | panic | hysteria | monks | incest | burnt alive

The practice of shrinking a human head is extremely dark. While numerous cultures have participated in the practice of headhunting, the Ecuadorian Amazon and the Peruvian Amazon Jivaro Indian Tribe did more than just headhunt: they shrunk the heads that they collected.

Before we get into the history of the one and only tribe known to shrink human heads, we will first discuss some fascinating information on the more prevalent practice known as “head hunting.”

A genuine shrunken head from Ecuador [between 1890 and 1930]

Following battle, the victor removed the head of their adversary; the severed head serves as his trophy. Believe it or not, head hunting has been practiced throughout much of the world.

Here is an original portrait of a British army officer and artist who lived from 1843-1925. 

Horatio Gordon Robley shows off his extremely creepy collection of real preserved human heads

Mokomokai are the severed heads of the Māori people (the indigenous people of New Zealand). In the 1860s, Robley served in New Zealand during the New Zealand land wars. His collection consisted of 35-40 mokomokai. Despite his failed attempt to sell his collection to the New Zealand Government, he was able to sell most of it to the American Museum of Natural History.

Robley’s fascination with the art of tattooing lead him to write text on the subject of moko, Moko; or Maori Tattooing in 1896. Moko is facial tattoos of a Māori to designate their tribal identity. In pre-European Māori culture, moko was a sign of high social status. Generally it was men who had full facial moko. However, high-ranked women were known for having moko on their chin and lip.

The illustration shows a chief who is looking to trade a severed head for firearms and ammunition [1896]

They would acquire severed heads for trade. In desperation to trade as many mokomokai as possible, tribes tattooed their slaves and prisoners with worthless designs, instead of moko.

During this period, the severed heads were also considered commercial trade items. They were sold in Europe and America for high prices as they were considered curiosities and museum specimens.

The Mokomokai Preservation Process

• The head is severed.
• First, the brain and eyes are removed.
• Orifices are sealed with flax fibre and gum.
• The head is boiled or steamed in an oven.
• The severed head is smoked over an open fire and dried in the hot sun for a few days.
• Shark oil is used to treat the head. It has been used for hundreds of years as a folk remedy to promote the healing of wounds.
• Finally, the severed heads were placed in carved boxes and were brought out solely for sacred ceremonies.

Mokomokai were also considered “trophies of war,” as they were often the severed heads of enemy chiefs who were killed in battle.

Others Who Practiced Headhunting

During the 3rd century B.C.E. (300 B.C.E. to 201 B.C.E.), the Chinese state of Qin’s soldiers collected the heads of their fallen adversaries. The collected heads were tied around the soldier’s waist and used to terrorize enemies during future battles.

Throughout the middle ages, the Celts of Europe also participated in the practice of head hunting. The triumphant Celtic warrior took the heads he collected during battle and nailed them to his walls to serve as a warning to others.

The Marind-anim tribe of New Guinea removed the heads of their opponents so they could control their spirits. They also consumed the flesh of their slain opponent.

This is a digital painting of a priest from Mississippian culture (approximately 800 B.C.E. to 1600 B.C.E.). In addition to his ceremonial flint mace is a severed human head

The Jivaro Indians and Their Gruesome Practice

Despite the various forms of headhunting practiced around the world, The Jivaro Indians are the only documented group of headhunters that practiced the art of reducing the human head to the size of a man’s fist. 

An image comparing the size of a human skull and a shrunken head.

The Jivaroan Indian Tribe

The Jivaroan tribe actually consists of four sub-tribes: Achuar, Aguaruna, Huambisa and Shuar. All of these tribes reside in the Amazon Rainforest: The Peruvian and Ecuadorian Amazon Rainforest, to be exact. The Shuar tribe is notorious for practicing the art of shrinking human heads. Once the head is reduced, it is referred to as a ‘tsantsa.’ Transforming a head into a tsantsa was a deadly insult to the slain warrior as well as his entire tribe.  

The Tsantsa

According to the Shuar, the tsantsa possesses power. Initially, the severed head serves as a trophy indicating that the warrior had fulfilled his obligation to his ancestors by taking blood revenge. The tribe believed that the creation of the tsantsa pleased the spirits of their ancestors, who would bestow the tribe with fortune and a bountiful harvest. Accordingly, if the murders of their ancestors were not properly avenged, misfortune would fall upon the tribe. Interestingly, the tribe was much more concerned about the potential wrath of their ancestors than they were of the vindictive actions of an enemy ghost.

The Jivaro believe that by shrinking the head, the spirit (wakani) attached to it becomes trapped inside. Besides keeping the wakani from seeking revenge upon his/her killer, the wakani is also prevented from continuing on to the afterlife. The wakani’s inability to enter into the afterlife prevents it from harming the dead ancestors of the warrior.

The Jivaroan Tribe Considered a Fierce, War-Like Tribe

The Jivaroan Indian Tribe is the only tribe that was successful in its revolt against the Spanish Empire. The tribe endured the Incas, who were in search of gold, and challenged the audacity of the first conquistadors who attempted to disrupt their freedom. According to early Spanish chronicles, in 1599 all four of the Jivaroan sub-tribes came together and raided two settlements. The tribes apparently massacred 25,000 colonial Europeans.

The Logrono Massacre occurred because the Spanish governor of a colony in Ecuador demanded that the natives pay taxes on profits from their gold-trade.  

The anger of the Jivaro tribe was taken out on the visiting governor. Members of the tribe poured molten gold down his throat. This torture session ended quickly once his bowels burst. Directly thereafter, the Spaniards that remained were killed. However, while older women and children were slain, the younger women were considered useful. Therefore, the tribe captured these women and forced them to join their clan. After gathering the items they wanted to keep, the settlement was torched and burned to the ground.

Their reputation as savages who practiced head-shrinking served them well, discouraging outsiders from encroaching upon their territory, despite the fact that they resided in one of South America’s richest regions for gold deposits.  

Although the four Jivaroan Indian Tribes found great success joining together to oppose the Spanish, they never actually united. The tribes were continuously at war with each other. For the majority of the world, wars are fought to gain and/or control territory, for the Jivaro, wars were fought as a means of vengeance.

Shrinking a Human Head

Typically, decapitation occurred directly following the kill; however, there were occasions when the enemy was decapitated prior to death. The decapitation process involved cutting the head off below the neck. In addition, a section of the skin on the back and chest is removed. The victor then uses his woven head-band or a vine as a means to carry his prize. He passes his headband/vine through the neck and mouth of the head, tying it over his shoulder while making a hasty retreat.

Directly following the battle, the warriors gather at an agreed upon location near a river. It is at this point that the process of shrinking the head begins.

• A slit running from the neck and up to the back of the head is created. This allows the warrior to peel the skin and hair away from the skull.
• After removing the skin and hair, the skull is pulled free. Upon removing the skull, the warrior also removed the brain, tongue, throat, tonsils, eyes and nasal system. All of which were thrown into the river to serve as a gift to Pani, the anaconda.
• The eyelids are sewn shut using a very fine fiber.
• The warrior then closes the lips and skewers them with tiny wooden pegs. Eventually, these pegs are removed and dangling strings applied.
• At this point, the head is placed in a sacred cooking jar or boiling pot to be simmered for approximately two hours. Timing the simmering is essential because if left simmering too long, the hair begins falling out.
• Once the simmering process is complete, the skin is rubbery and dark. The head is now much smaller and is about 1/3 of its initial size.
• The warrior turns the skin inside out.
• He uses a knife to scrape off any remaining flesh.
• The skin is then turned right side out.
• Now, the warrior sews the slit in the back of the head together. Following this step, the feel of the head can be compared to an empty rubber glove.
• Hot stones and sand are used for the final shrinking process. During this process, the interior of the head is seared and shrinks even further.
• The warrior drops these hot stones one at a time through the opening of the neck.
• He continuously rotates the stones inside the head to prevent scorching.
• As the skin shrinks, rotating the stones becomes difficult.
• At this point, hot sand is used in place of the stones.
• This hot sand is able to enter areas that the stones were unable to reach (i.e., the nose and ears).
• Once the head shrinking process is complete, hot stones are applied to areas of the exterior face to shape and seal its features.
• The warrior burns off any excess hair.
• Charcoal ash is rubbed on the face to darken it. The Jivaro also believed that this step insured that the soul of the enemy would remain trapped inside.
• When the shrinking process is complete and the exterior facial features are addressed, the tsantsa is hung above a fire.
• As it hangs above the fire, the tsantsa hardens and turns black.
• The lips are dried by applying a heated machete to them.
• Once the lips are dried, the pegs are removed and three palm shoots (chonta) are placed through them.
• The lips are then fastened together using string.
• The final steps of tsantsa creation are completed in the forest, just a few hours away from the village. The warrior creates a hole in the top of his tsantsa. He inserts a double Kumai through this hole and ties it to the palm shoots inside. Once this step is complete, he can wear his tsantsa around his neck.
• The entire head shrinking process lasted for about a week. The warriors worked on their severed heads every day on the journey back to their village.

Real vs. Fake

If you are interested in purchasing a fake shrunken head, there are plenty online. Stores such as Amazon and eBay sell them for various prices. While some are made cheap, others are a bit more expensive because they are often made of goat skins, as well as other animal skins.

Is It Legal to Own a Genuine Shrunken Head?

Over the years, tsantsas have become a very popular item with collectors of oddities. Various sources on the web claim that it is illegal to import shrunken heads into the United States. However, some sources say that the trade is legal simply because they are considered antiques.

It is safe to say that if you are interested in acquiring a genuine ceremonial/tribal shrunken head, it is recommended you first contact a lawyer.

If you are interested in acquiring a tourist shrunken head, you won’t have to worry about an illegal purchase. The reason tourist heads are legal is because unlike the ceremonial/tribal heads, the person was not killed specifically for their head. Towards the end of the 19th century, tribes would participate in the shrinking process in order to supply tourists.

How To Tell If a Tsantsa is Real

It you look at the image of the real shrunken head in the subheading of this article titled “Shrinking a Human Head,” you can clearly see that it has eyebrows, eyelashes and even nose hairs.

However, before you conclude that the head is real, also check to see if it has pores and wrinkles. Even if you are 100% sure it is real, it is recommended that you first contact a professional. Also, be careful with shrunken heads that are made to look real (such as those with animal skins).

Kirin Johnson, Horrorpedia

This article is based upon Kirin’s previous article at OdditiesBizarre.com, plus additional information.

Related: The Four Skulls of Jonathan Drake | Shrunken Heads

Adam West (September 19, 1928 – June 9, 2017), born as William West Anderson, was an American actor whose career spanned seven decades. He is best known for portraying Batman in the campy 1960s TV series Batman and its theatrical feature film.

From 2000, West made regular appearances on the animated series Family Guy, in which he played ‘Adam West’, the mad mayor of Quahog, Rhode Island. His role gave him a new wave of popularity and lead writer Seth MacFarlane claims to have gone out of his way to avoid typecasting West by deliberately not making any references to the caped crusader.

Beyond his most famous roles, Adam West’s extensive career included roles in a number of sci-fi/horror movies, beginning with an uncredited bit part in the Boris Karloff starrer Voodoo Island (1957) as ‘Weather Station #4 Radio Operator’.

West starred as an astronaut facing-off against a Sand-Beast in ‘The Invisible Enemy’, a 1964 episode of the original The Outer Limits television show. The same year, he was also in Bewitched (as Darrin’s friend Kermit).

Proving once again that light comedy was his forte, in Rod Serling’s Night Gallery TV series, West played Mr. Hyde in the tongue-in-cheek skit ‘With Apologies to Mr. Hyde’.

More TV work followed. The Eyes of Charles Sand is a 1972 TV movie about a young man inherits the ability to see visions beyond the grave. He helps a girl investigate her brother’s alleged murder. West played a doctor.

Poor Devil is a bizarre 1973 TV movie pilot for a comedy series that unsurprisingly remained unsold. Sammy Davis Jr. starred as “Sammy”, a demon from Hell who desires a promotion from working in the furnace room. Lucifer, played by horror veteran Christopher Lee, tells Sammy that he must first convince a San Francisco accountant named Burnett J. Emerson (Jack Klugman) to sell his soul. Adam West was the other star name in the cast.

One Dark Night is a lacklustre PG-rated 1981 supernatural horror film directed by Tom McLaughlin that sat on the shelf for a couple of years.

Zombie Nightmare (1986) is a hilariously awful Canadian heavy metal horror outing for body builder Jon-Mikl Thor. Sporting a moustache, West played an understandably weary police captain. The same year was also a police captain in The Last Precinct, a TV comedy series that attempted to nuance the inexplicably successful inane Police Academy movies. Horror-themed episode ‘Never Cross a Vampire’ featured Richard Lynch as an undead wannabe.

In the Tales from the Crypt 1993 episode ‘As Ye Sow’, West played Chapman, the head of a private investigation agency, hired by Hector Elizondo’s suspicious character to spy on his wife (see below).

He was The Galloping Gazelle in the two-part ‘Attack of the Mutant’, 1996 animated episodes of the R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps TV series.

In 1997, West played the Big Kahuna, a legendary vampire killer, in comedy horror outing American Vampire (aka An American Vampire Story).

In Seance aka Killer in the Dark (2001), West has a brief role at the end as a guardian angel/homeless man. The film concerns a preternatural spirit that haunted Jon (Corey Feldman) as a child and who is summoned by an ill-conceived séance to liven up a party only to unleash a litany of horrors and murders on the participants and anyone in his way.

2004 brought Tales from Beyond, a low-budget anthology horror movie in which West was a bookstore owner introducing the tales. MTV comedy-horror spoof Monster Island, which starred Carmen Electra (previously in the aforementioned American Vampire) provided West a more high-profile role as a mad doctor named Harryhausen.

Meanwhile, voice-overs for Scooby-Doo characters included Aloha, Scooby-Doo! and Scooby-Doo! and the Beach Beastie.

As with many actors whose careers are stymied by being identified with a major key character, Adam West struggled to rid himself of his Bruce Wayne/Batman identifier, yet he managed to land a vast amount of roles and was always willing to work in even the lowest of low budget movies as he simply loved acting. And he was never afraid to be self-deprecating, surely his greatest attribute (just see his The Big Bang Theory appearance). We salute the campest caped crusader and the mad Mayor of Quahog.

Adrian J Smith, Horrorpedia

Wikipedia | IMDb

My name is Bret McCormick. Less than a year ago, at my 58th birthday party, my collaborator E.R. Bills became fascinated by the table conversation – reminiscences of bygone days in the bottom-of-the-barrel film industry of Dallas, Texas. “This needs to be a book!” he exclaimed. “It’s got historical significance!” My other good friend, Glen Coburn (of Bloodsuckers from Outer Space fame) and I laughed it off. But in the following weeks, E.R. persisted in encouraging me to put the history of Texas’ schlock filmmakers into print.

After my crash and burn from the cloudy skies of my schlockdom twenty years before, I wanted nothing to do with the movie biz. Most of my memories seemed to be bad ones. I was disappointed and for years I did not even watch movies. When people brought the subject of cinema up, I excused myself from the conversation as politely as possible. It took me many years to get enough distance from the betrayals of past partners and distributors to take a more philosophical approach.

However, in October of 2017, I plan to release my book, Texas Schlock: B-Movie Sci-Fi and Horror from the Lone Star State. In some ways, writing the book has been cathartic, an exorcism of old demons. Hell, I can even laugh about those days now.

Let’s step back first. I graduated from Brooks Institute in 1980. Always a fanboy, I began contacting the old school B-movie Texan directors I knew of and gathering interviews for a proposed book. This was by way of staying at least peripherally involved in the business while I figured out how to go about making a film of my own. Over the years I became friends with some venerable schlockmeisters; guys like Larry Buchanan, S.F. Brownrigg, Larry Stouffer and Russ Marker.

Larry Buchanan

Larry was an early influence on me. When my best friend Herb Hays and I were shooting 8mm monster flicks on the east side of Fort Worth, we saw his movies on late night TV and reveled in the fact that the guy had been able to secure financing for stuff like It’s Alive! When Herb’s dad told us the guy was from Dallas, we felt encouraged. With a 16mm camera and some actors we believed we could outdo Buchanan. And we fully intended to!

The Naked Witch (1961)
The Eye Creatures (1965)
Curse of the Swamp Creature (1966)
Zontar: The Thing from Venus (1966)
Creature of Destruction (1967)
In the Year 2889 (1967)
It’s Alive! (1969)
The Loch Ness Horror (1982)

S.F. Brownrigg

Brownie was the closest thing to a real mentor that I ever had in the movie business. I spent countless hours drinking with him in Dallas spots like The Wild Turkey, picking his brain, gleaning what I could from his wealth of production experience.

Over the years Brownie gave advice and rented me equipment to use in my own productions. We never seized on the right combination of financing and enthusiasm that would have enabled us to work on a film together, but he was a huge influence on my career.

Don’t Look in the Basement (1972)
Don’t Open the Door (1974)
Keep My Grave Open (1974)
Scum of the Earth aka Poor White Trash II (1974)

Robert A. Burns

One of the first filmmakers I attempted to contact in the early 80s was Robert A. Burns, art director on seminal horror genre flicks such as Texas Chain Saw Massacre, The Hills Have Eyes, The Howling and Re-Animator.

I got onto Bob through Mary Church, the lady who’d been production manager on his 1982 directorial debut Mongrel.

Though I tried many times over the years to establish contact with this very talented man, it just wasn’t in the cards. Sadly, he passed away in the early 2000s. His influence on indie horror lives on in a big way!

Larry Stouffer

I was a big fan of Horror High! When I learned the guy who’d directed that movie was appearing in a play at White Rock Lake, I waylaid him and tried to get him to agree to an interview. As I myself would later become, Larry was very bitter about the disappointments he’d experienced in movie production. In no uncertain terms, he told me to f*ck off.

A few years later, we worked together at Allied Film and Video in Las Colinas. Gradually, Larry warmed up to me and we spent a great deal of time on breaks talking about movies. He was particularly interested in screenwriting and went on to teach that at a school in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Horror High (1973)
Keep My Grave Open (1974) – assistant director

Russ Marker

While I was struggling to get my first project off the ground, a western movie town opened up south of Dallas. Some of my friends visited the place and told me the old guy running it was none other than Russ Marker, director of The Yesterday Machine and scripter of Night Fright (1967). I met Russ and chatted with him on a couple of occasions. His son, Gary Kennamer, wrote the screenplay for my fourth feature film, Highway to Hell.

The book I’ve written provides a lot of information on these guys that has never before appeared in print.

Pot Zombies (2005)

In addition, I have chapters on Justin Powers (Pot Zombies), Jacob Grim and Sal Hernandez (Dreadtime Stories; The Roommate), Jess Sherman and Mike Minton (CreepTales), Harold P. Warren (Manos: The Hands of Fate), Pat Boyette (The Dungeon of Harrow), Glen Coburn (Bloodsuckers from Outer Space) and others.

It’s the sort of book I would have loved to discover as a young fan. Who am I kidding? I’d buy this kind of book now if I happened onto it.

I’m grateful to Adrian J Smith of Horrorpedia and others in the fan community for expressing interest in and showing support for Texas Schlock: B-movie Sci-Fi and Horror from the Lone Star State.

Bret McCormick, Horrorpedia © 2017

Related: 

The Abomination (1986)

Bad Movies = Great Trash – article

B-Movie Baggage: Filmmaker vs. Distributor in a Fight for Survival – article

Ozone: The Attack of the Redneck Mutants (1986)

Repligator (1996)

George Andrew Romero (February 4, 1940 – July 16, 2017) was an American-Canadian (dual citizenship) filmmaker, writer and editor, best known for his gore-filled and satirical horror films.

Peter Grunwald, the director’s longtime producing partner announced that Romero died in his sleep while listening to the soundtrack of one his favourite films, The Quiet Man (1952), having suffered a “brief but aggressive battle with lung cancer.” Romero was attended by his wife, Suzanne Desrocher Romero, and daughter, Tina Romero. Such is Romero’s pop culture influence, even mainstream media such as Sky reported his passing.

Romero was born in the Bronx, New York, in 1940. He studied at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, graduating in 1960. He began his filmmaking career making shorts and adverts.

In 1968, Romero and co-writer John Russo persuaded friends to finance Night of the Living Dead, based on Richard Matheson’s novel I Am Legend (itself filmed several times). Filmed in black and white on a budget of just $114,000, it became one of the most successful independent films of all-time, pulling in $30 million, and a seminal genre-changing horror icon.

A decade later, Romero came up with the equally important consumers-as-zombies sequel, Dawn of the Dead (1978 – partly financed with Italian backing via Dario Argento) and remade by Zack Synder in 2004.

The claustrophobic and intense Day of the Dead (1985) split critics and was not as well received by the public (they thronged to the comedic silliness of the same year’s The Return of the Living Dead instead). However, major studio backing allowed Romero to bounce back with the epic, impressive and financially successful Land of the Dead (1990). The same year, Romero also scripted makeup maestro Tom Savini’s remake of Night of the Living Dead.

Two lower budgeted and more personal movies, Diary of the Dead (2007 – a take on the found footage phenomenon) and Survival of the Dead (2009), rounded out Romero’s vision of the ‘zombie apocalypse’; a horror sub-genre that has spawned countless imitations and offshoots, such as his own son’s project Zombies (2017).

Romero’s final credits are for writing his contribution to the 2017 seconds remake of Day of the Dead (2017 – directed by Hèctor Hernández Vicens) and co-scripting comedy horror Road of the Dead, shooting in 2018. A TV series, based on Romero’s Marvel graphic novels, Empire of the Dead, is also in development.

Away from his zombie universe, Romero also directed There’s Always Vanilla (1971), Season of the Witch (1972) and The Crazies (1973 and remade in 2010), Martin (1978 – a unique take on vampire mythology), Knightriders (1981), Creepshow (1982 – a comedic horror anthology written by Stephen King), Monkey Shines (1988), Two Evil Eyes (1990), Stephen King’s The Dark Half (1993), and Bruiser (2000). Romero also found time to pen the script for Creepshow 2 (1987) and direct a zombie-themed music video for rock band Misfits’ 1999 single ‘Scream’.

Adrian J Smith, Horrorpedia

George A. Romero in the 2013 documentary Birth of the Living Dead.

A personal tribute to George A. Romero

Sifting through the veritable mountain of tributes that have been flooding the internet since the announcement that the film world lost one of its truly great auteurs today, it seems to me that almost all of them miss a vital point : sure, the man, myth, and legend that was George A. Romero is among a small handful of people — Stephen King, John Carpenter, Wes Craven, Bernie Wrightson — who re-defined and frankly revolutionized horror across all media in the late 20th/early 21st centuries; he was beloved by fans for not only his staggering body of work but also his warm and engaging personality and infectious, perpetually-youthful enthusiasm; and there’s no doubt that he will forever be regarded as The King of the Zombie Movie. These are all givens. But what most people fail to remark upon — perhaps because the aforementioned alone are more than enough to cement a legacy that, like his zombies, will never die — is that Romero was also one of the most important, and trailblazing, independent filmmakers of all time.

I’ll tell you who never lost sight of that fact for a second, though — all the celebrated indie directors who followed in his wake. Go on, ask folks like Quentin Tarantino, Kevin Smith or Edgar Wright (read the latter’s personal tribute here) where they’d be without the road map Romero set out for them, they’ll tell you: nowhere. When a guy with a background in commercial and industrial film production hustles up $114,000, heads out to a Pittsburgh-area cemetery in 1968, and makes a flick that not only changes the face of a genre forever but plays both drive-ins and “proper” movie-houses for literally years on end, it fundamentally alters the definition of what is possible, and gives birth to the notion in many eager young minds that, hey, maybe they can do this one day, too.

Simon Pegg, George A. Romero and Shaun of the Dead director Edgar Wright

Here’s the damndest thing of all, though — Romero affected this fundamental shift not just once, but twice. Ten years on from Night of the Living Dead, he doubled-down on his claim to cinematic immortality with Dawn of the Dead, a rising tide that lifted any number of boats along with it. Just ask Tom Savini. Or Ken Foree. Or Goblin. Sure, they’d all done fine work in the past — and would continue to do so — but would any of them have risen to legendary status absent their involvement with Romero’s masterwork?

While we’re at it, let’s try to imagine the contemporary horror landscape had Romero never happened: there’s no 28 Days Later, a film that made its mark by dint of its open flouting of Romero’s unwritten-but-so-effective-everyone-else-followed-them “rules.” There’s no Zombie (or Zombie Flesh Eaters, if you prefer). There’s sure as hell no Walking Dead.

Like any number of artistic standard-setters, then, Romero gave birth to a veritable slew of either outright imitators on the low end or more slick, mass-audience-friendly progeny on the high, and surely others (thanks to an infamous copyright indicia oversight) profited from the fruits of his imagination, either directly or indirectly, more than he ever did himself — but if he let that bother him, he certainly never showed it: George was indie to the core, and while he did some damn fine work for the studios intermittently over the years (The Dark Half, Monkey Shines, Creepshow), after returning to the by-then-an-industry he’d created with Land of the Dead, he couldn’t wait to get back to his low-budget, DIY roots.

Diary of the Dead and Survival of the Dead may not have been as well-received as Night or Dawn or Day of the Dead, but do yourself a favor in the coming days as you program your home-viewing Romero marathons: watch ’em again with an open mind and tell me that they don’t feel like the work of a guy who’s absolutely in his element, making the kinds of movies he wants to make, saying the things he wants to say, with an admirable lack of concern for commercial considerations.

And while you’re perusing through his unjustly-less-celebrated works, don’t forget to give Martin a go and silently weep for what the vampire genre could have become if it had chosen to follow Romero’s lead rather than Anne Rice’s; enjoy the ethereal and intriguing admitted near-miss that is Season of the Witch; frighten the living shit out of yourself with The Crazies, a film every bit as prophetic as his zombie tales; check out Knightriders for proof positive that he could step outside horror altogether and produce a damn-near-sprawling moody character-driven drama tinged with understated melancholy. There’s a lot to choose from, and all of them are “master-class” offerings on how to do a whole lot with very little by way of resources — other than the two most important, vision and will.

Others have commented — and will continue to do so — on the expert analysis Romero offered on subjects ranging from racism to consumerism to sexism to Cold War and post-9/11 “security state” paranoia in his films, and it’s no secret that he proudly wore his “social justice warrior” bona fides on his sleeve well before that term became either a badge of honour or an intellectually lazy, reactionary insult, depending on who’s using it.

Suffice to say, though, that even the most politically conservative viewer would have to admit that what Romero’s perspective revealed was a guy who understood that horror is most effective when it’s rooted in the world we know, and when it both reflects and lays bare certain uncomfortable truths about our society, indeed or reality, that we’d rather not talk about. George understood, intuitively it seems, the words of the late, great Walt Kelly — “we have met the enemy, and he is us.”

This writer would humbly suggest that we lost a whole lot more than the father of the modern zombie movie. We lost a pioneering independent filmmaker, an insightful social and political commentator, and a singular artistic talent. We lost the best there is at what he did, and I don’t think any of us would begrudge him getting back up from the dead for a minute in the least, if only to take a well-deserved victory lap.

Ryan Carey – a version of this personal piece first appeared on Ryan’s blog Trash Film Guru

Related: Birth of the Living Dead (2013) | Doc of the Dead (2014)

Martin Landau (June 20, 1928 – July 15, 2017) was an American film and television actor. His career took off in the 1950s, with appearances that included a supporting role in Alfred Hitchcock’s North by Northwest (1959). Later, he had famous roles in the television series Mission: Impossible and mid-70s British sci-fi series Space: 1999.

Landau was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1928. His family was Jewish; his father, an Austrian-born machinist, scrambled to rescue relatives from the Nazis. Aged seventeen, Landau began to work at the New York Daily News, where he spent the next five years as an editorial cartoonist until his decision to focus on acting. By the 1950s, he was working regularly on TV in series such as The Outer Limits, The Twilight Zone and The Alfred Hitchcock Hour.

Landau’s first appearance in a horror film was in the obscure TV movie The Ghost of Sierra de Cobre (1964), notable mainly for it being scripted and co-directed by Psycho writer Joseph Stefano. Terrified of being buried alive by mistake, a woman puts a phone in her crypt to be able to call home if she needs help. She dies and nothing happens. One day, the phone suddenly rings. Paranormal investigator Nelson Orion (Landau) is brought in to investigate.

In a 1966 episode of The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Landau was up against Robert Vaughn and David McCallum playing Count Zark, a Thrush agent, who operates from Transylvania and has developed a worldwide menace involving bats nicknamed ‘Operation Nightflight’. Evil Zark’s castle even had a moat filled with piranhas! With Landau in full-on heavy accented Lugosi mode, it must be assumed that Tim Burton or one of his associates may have recalled this deliberately OTT performance when casting for Ed Wood (1994), not that they mentioned it publicly.

A 1979 television version of Edgar Allan Poe‘s The Fall of the House of Usher gave Landau the opportunity to ham it up as none other than Roderick Usher himself. As if naturally, this romp led to a slew of early 1980s horror/sci-fi roles in low budget but fun alien invasion movies Without Warning (1980, with Jack Palance), The Return (1980) and The Being (1980 but released 1983), plus slasher Alone in the Dark (1982, alongside Donald Pleasence and Jack Palance, again).

Rounding out the 1980s, Fred Olen Ray cast Landau in his science fiction action movie Cyclone. But it wasn’t all ‘B’ movies, critically acclaimed roles in Tucker: The Man and His Dreams (1988) and Woody Allen’s Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989) led to an upsurge in Landau’s career that culminated in the aforementioned performance as Bela Lugosi in Tim Burton’s Ed Wood. Landau studied Lugosi’s career extensively and excelled as the drug-addled Hungarian horror icon (“This is the most uncomfortable coffin I’ve been in!”).

Five years later, Burton’s Sleepy Hollow provided the actor with an uncredited cameo appearance, as a nod to his earlier lauded performance, and he voiced Mr. Rzykruski in the same director’s animated and exquisite Frankenweenie (2012).

Adrian J Smith, Horrorpedia

Wikipedia | IMDb

‘We dare you to look into’

Doctor Blood’s Coffin is a 1960 British horror film directed by Canadian Sidney J. Furie (The Entity; The Snake Woman) from a screenplay by James Kelly (What the Peeper Saw; The Beast in the Cellar) and Peter Miller, based on an original story and screenplay by Nathan Juran (The Boy Who Cried Werewolf; The Brain from Planet Arous; 20 Million Miles to Earth). Kieron Moore, Hazel Court and Ian Hunter star.

Buxton Orr (Corridors of Blood; Fiend Without a Face; The Haunted Strangler) provided the film’s emphatic soundtrack score; arranged by Hammer regular Peter Martell.

Future director Nicolas Roeg (The Witches; Don’t Look Now) served as a camera operator.

Buy UK DVD: Amazon.co.uk

The Caralan production began shooting on 7 June 1960 and was awarded an ‘X’ certificate by the BBFC, following cuts, on 31 October 1960. Director Sidney J. Furie shot The Snake Woman almost back-to-back.

Having been reprimanded for his unethical medical experiments in Vienna, young doctor Peter Blood (Kieron Moore) reluctantly returns to stay with his father – the local general practitioner – in the Cornish village where he grew up.

However, he continues his nefarious attempts to bring the dead back to life. His early subject is the deceased husband of Linda Parker (Hazel Court), a nurse he is strongly attracted to.

Hidden away in a tin mine, the aptly-named Blood conducts his gruesome experiments using South American poison curare (also used in The Crimes of the Black Cat) to remove living, beating hearts from undeserving people in order to bring the deserving dead back to life…

Buy US MGM DVD: Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

Reviews:

“If you’ve ever wanted to see a half-hearted Frankenstein rehash where the monster is traded in for tepid romance until the very end, Doctor Blood’s Coffin is the movie for you. While it’s handsomely shot and adequately acted, you’re better off sticking with any of the Hammer films that certainly inspired this […] Despite the modest star power attached to it, this one has remained obscure for a reason.” Brett Gallman, Oh, the Horror!

“For the most part, Furie seems content to allow the visuals to unfold onscreen without the need to build tension and, like the victims, the film struggles to overcome an inherent lethargy; there is simply too much talk and not enough action. The few interesting set-pieces which could have pepped things up are allowed to slide into tedium.”John Hamilton, X-Cert: The British Independent Horror Film 1951 – 1970

Buy: Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

“The lush color cinematography is eye-popping but that doesn’t disguise the fact that Doctor Blood’s Coffin is one heck of a dull, lifeless, and boring flick.  The doctor spends most of the movie traipsing around abandoned mine shafts…” Mitch Lovell, The Video Vacuum

“The film’s sub-Frankenstein shenanigans are clearly modelled on Hammer’s success in this area, but carry none of the baroque flamboyance of Hammer’s approach. They also carry none of Hammer’s relative subtlety, with the debate regarding morality and science given to us in crashingly literal terms […] What sinks the film completely is Kieron Moore’s charisma-free performance as Peter Blood.” Jonathan Rigby, English Gothic: A Century of Horror Cinema 

Buy: Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

“It isn’t until the final four minutes of the film that a brown, flaky-skinned man with decaying cheeks (he doesn’t look half bad) rises and attacks the leads. It’s all pretty lame stuff.” Glenn Kay, Zombie Movies: The Ultimate Guide

“The no-nonsense direction, the total nonsense dialogue, the luminous, airy, panoramic vistas and the sharp, bright colour photography make this quite a tonic for horror fans wanting to take a break from an excess of bleak, gritty, unrelentingly downbeat fare – in fact, it’s just what the doctor ordered.” Mike Hodges, The Shrieking Sixties

Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com | Amazon.ca

“The result, though rich in curare, flashing scalpels, decayed flesh and the Cornish, lacks style, suspense and imagination and will scarcely satisfy the most naive necrophiliac” The Monthly Film Bulletin

“Though dated and watery in most respects, this British biomedical horror by Canadian director Furie offers the first glimpse of the modern screen zombie – decayed and violent, rather than simply pale and aloof.” Peter Dendle, The Zombie Movie Encyclopedia

Cast and characters:

• Kieron Moore as Dr. Peter Blood (The Day of the Triffids)
• Hazel Court as Nurse Linda Parker (The Masque of the Red Death; The Raven; The Premature Burial; et al)
• Ian Hunter as Dr. Robert Blood, Peter’s Father (Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde [1941]; Tower of London)
• Kenneth J. Warren as Sergeant Cook (The Creeping Flesh; Demons of the Mind; I, Monster)
• Gerald Lawson as Mr. G. F. Morton (Mystery and Imagination; The Mummy; The Revenge of Frankenstein)
• Fred Johnson as Tregaye (Scream of Fear; The City of the Dead; The Brides of Dracula; The Curse of Frankenstein)
• Paul Hardtmuth as Professor Luckman (The Curse of Frankenstein; The Strange World of Planet X)
• Paul Stockman as Steve Parker, Linda’s Husband (Vampire Academy; The Skull; Konga)
• Andy Alston as George Beale, Tunnel Expert (The City of the Dead)
• Ruth Lee as Girl [uncredited] (The Couch)
• John Ronane as Hanson [uncredited] (The Spiral Staircase [1975]; Journey to the Unknown; Mystery and Imagination)

Filming locations:

Nettlefold [later Walton] Film Studios, Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, England, UK
Zennor and the Carn Galver tin mine near St. Just, Cornwall, UK

Trivia:

The film was initially titled Face of Evil.

Wikipedia | IMDb | Image credits: Just screenshots | Wrong Side of the Art!

‘World panic as UFOs approach Earth…’

The Eye Creatures is a 1965 American science fiction horror film about an invasion by a flying saucer and its silent, shambling alien occupants.

While the military ineptly attempts to stop the invasion, a group of young people, whose reports to the local police are dismissed as pranks or wild imagination, struggle to defend themselves against the menacing monsters.

The film was produced and directed by Larry Buchanan (Zontar: The Thing from Venus; It’s Alive; The Loch Ness Horror) from a screenplay by Paul W. Fairman, Robert J. Gurney Jr. and Al Martin. It is a colour remake of the 1957 black and white AIP film Invasion of the Saucer Men intended to fill out a package of AIP films released to television. It stars John Ashley, Cynthia Hull and Warren Hammack and was edited by future director S.F. Brownrigg.

Buy with Zontar: The Thing from Venus  – Amazon.co.uk

Reviews:

“The costumes are a remarkably varied bunch. To begin with, only a few of them have the multitudinous eyes that we see on the first alien— not a trivial concern in a movie called The Eye Creatures. But worse still, the majority of the extras portraying the monsters are outfitted only with the headpieces of their costumes! From the shoulders down, they’re just wearing black tights and f*cking tennis shoes!!!!” Scott Ashlin, 1000 Misspent Hours and Counting

“It is worth watching for its thorough shoddiness. Like the supposed night-time setting that flickers back and forward between day and night because someone clearly either couldn’t afford day-for-night processing or simply forgot. There is the dismembered hand, which never extends into the shot beyond the wrist and does the remarkable job of tiptoeing (or tip-fingering) up vertical surfaces on two fingernails.” Richard Scheib, Moria

” …the footage of the saucer in space – which looks like a hamburger in a McDonalds’s ad – does not in any way resemble the flying saucer we see on the ground (it has even turned green). It is sporadically amusing, with a few okay bits and the same goofy “headlights” ending as the original film. If you don’t expect a lot more, it’s not too bad.” Mark Cole, Rivets on the Poster

“When Buchanan tries to be serious he is hilarious. But when he tries to be funny he is boring. The bumbling soldiers… the cranky old man… the wisecracking teens… nothing works.” David Elroy Goldweber, Claws & Saucers 

Buy: Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com | Amazon.ca

” …poor attempts at comedy and no innovative Paul Blaisdell monsters to ogle at. The monsters here have white, lumpy heads (much like the Michelin Tire Man in those old TV commercials) with a bunch of little eyes all over, and a large open mouth cavity. Some of the actors playing the aliens didn’t have full body suits, so their black clothes and white sneakers are conspicuously on display in some shots!” George R. Reis, DVD Drive-In

“A big problem is that the entire story takes place at night, and Buchanan uses a thoroughly unconvincing blend of day-for-night, night-for-night, and soundstage photography, with the day-for-night footage looking so especially bad many scattered shots look like mid-day. The performances in The Eye Creatures are mostly terrible, and Buchanan’s sledgehammer approach to comedy is painful.” Stuart Galbraith IV, DVD Talk

” …there’ll be a moment here or there that actually doesn’t seem all that bad, and you start thinking that maybe Buchanan had some talent, but then you’ll see a hopeless muddle of scenes that show either gross incompetence or gross carelessness, and you suspect the good scene was a fluke. The costumes are ugly and incomplete, the sets dull, the day-for-night photography obvious and the acting inconsistent.” Dave Sindelar, Fantastic Movie Musings and Ramblings

” …since this is a remake, it needs to find a way to improve upon the original or offer a fresh take on an established idea and this does no such thing. The acting is terrible, the photography is flat and ugly, the effects suck and the direction is leaden. The only new scenes grafted on (the goofy peeping tom military guys) are horrible. Worst of all, the creatures aren’t even any good.” Justin McKinney, The Bloody Pit of Horror

Main cast and characters:

John Ashley – Stan Kenyon (Beast of Blood; Brides of Blood; Frankenstein’s Daughter; et al)
Cynthia Hull – Susan Rogers
Warren Hammack – Lt. Robertson
Chet Davis – Mike Lawrence
Bill Peck – Carl Fenton
Ethan Allen – General
Charles McLine – Old Man Bailey
Nathan Wyle – Colonel Harrison
Bob Cowan – Corporal Culver
Bill Thurman – Sergeant on Guard (The Evictors; Keep My Grave Open; The Black Cat)
Peter Graves – narrator [voice only] (Killers from Space; Beginning of the End; Scream of the Wolf)

Production:

The movie was shot in 16mm over several weeks in Dallas, on a budget of $40,000. Ashley was imported from Hollywood, but the rest of the cast were locals. Ashley has stated that his salary took up more than half the budget.

Most of the film was shot at the ranch of wealthy businessman Gordon McLendon. Ashley claimed that the film ranks “with some of the worst all-time horror films ever made”, but said it was a professional operation and that Buchanan treated him very well.

The film’s title screen contained a notable error. In keeping with a frequent practice of B-movie re-release retitling, the phrase “Attack of the” was superimposed on top of the original title, which already included “the”, producing the redundant title Attack of the The Eye Creatures.

Further reading:

“The studio suggested (read demanded) John Ashley as the lead. John had wet his feet often in AIP beach party pictures. As we raced through the tight schedule, it became apparent to me that this was no bimbo. Good looker, good voice, no Mickey Mouse beach bum. The worst I gave him merged absolutely believable. He was driven. By the end of the first week, we were ahead of schedule.” Larry Buchanan, It Came from Hunger! Tales of a Cinema Schlockmeister – Buy: Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

The Films of Larry Buchanan by Rob Craig, McFarland, 2007

Trivia:

One of the creature costumes was recycled in Ghost in the Invisible Bikini (1966)

Image thanks: IMCDb.org

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Haruo Nakajima (中島 春雄 Nakajima Haruo) (January 1, 1929 – August 7, 2017) was a Japanese actor, best known for portraying Godzilla in twelve consecutive films, from Godzilla (1954) to Godzilla vs. Gigan (1972).

Nakajima was born in Yamagata, Japan. He was considered by many to be the best suit actor in the long history of the franchise. At the time, Toho’s visual effects director, Eiji Tsuburaya considered him completely invaluable, and he was employed to essay the roles of most of the kaiju (Japanese monsters) during his career as a suit actor.

After twenty-four years, Nakajima retired from suit acting, when the studio cycled him out of their contract actor system, having been split into several subsidiaries in 1970.

He stayed employed by Toho for several years, and was transferred to a job at their bowling alley, located on the studio lot.

Selected filmography:

• 1954 – Godzilla (Godzilla, Newspaper Writer)
• 1954 – Tomei Ningen (Invisible Man)
• 1955 – Godzilla Raids Again (Godzilla)
• 1956 – Rodan (Rodan, Meganulon, JSDF Officer)
• 1957 – The Mysterians (Mogera, JDSF Officer)
• 1958 – Varan the Unbelievable (Varan)
• 1958 – The H-Man (The H-Man, Fishing Boat Crew)
• 1960 – Secret of the Telegian
• 1960 – The Human Vapor
• 1961 – Mothra (larval Mothra)
• 1962 – King Kong vs. Godzilla (Godzilla)
• 1963 – Matango (Matango)
  1963 – Atragon
  1964 – Mothra vs. Godzilla (Godzilla)
  1964 – Dogora, the Space Monster
  1964 – Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster (Godzilla)
  1965 – Frankenstein vs. Baragon (Baragon)
  1965 – Invasion of the Astro-Monster (Godzilla)
  1966 – The War of the Gargantuas (Gaira)
  1966 – Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster (Godzilla)
  1967 – Son of Godzilla (Godzilla; water scenes only)
  1967 – King Kong Escapes (King Kong)
  1968 – Destroy All Monsters (Godzilla, Baragon, Military Adviser)
  1969 – Latitude Zero (Gryphon, Manbat, Giant Rat, Lion)
  1969 – All Monsters Attack (Godzilla)
  1970 – Space Amoeba (Gezora, Ganime)
  1971 – Godzilla vs. Hedorah (Godzilla)
  1972 – Godzilla vs. Gigan (Godzilla, Comic Book Publisher, Defense Forces Officer)

Wikipedia | IMDb

The Castle of the Living Dead – original title: Il Castello dei morti vivi – is a 1964 Gothic horror film, an Italian/French co-production written and directed by American Warren Kiefer.

It stars Christopher Lee as the sinister Count Drago who adds to his collection of embalmed corpses by murdering guests. Donald Sutherland made his film debut, in a triple role as both a police sergeant, a wizened witch and an old man.

The cast also features Philippe Leroy, Gaia Germani, Jacques Stany and horror genre regular Alan Collins (a.k.a. Luciano Pigozzi) as a troupe of travelling players who fall into the count’s clutches.

The film was shot in black-and-white, utilizing the Odescalchi Castle in Bracciano and the “Parco dei Mostri” in Bomarzo as principal locations.

Italian bureaucracy has led to much confusion over the director’s identity. Many sources claim that Warren Kiefer is a pseudonym for Lorenzo Sabatini, but Kiefer was actually an American novelist and aspiring director who moved to Italy in 1962, leaving behind his family and day job in public relations. He joined forces with fellow ex-patriot Paul Maslansky (Sugar Hill; Death Line; The She Beast) so they could take advantage of state subsidies and debut – as director and producer, respectively – on a low budget movie.

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Kiefer later claimed that Lorenzo Sabatini was a pseudonym inspired by a 16th century painter: a necessary expedient because the project needed an Italian director to qualify for funding. Red tape meant that the Italian version eventually ended up with contradictory credits: “a film by Warren Kiefer” and “directed by Herbert Wise”. Herbert Wise is actually the anglicized pseudonym of Luciano Ricci. Kiefer is credited as director on all export prints, and Donald Sutherland named his son after him.

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Future British director Michael Reeves (The She-Beast, The Sorcerers, Witchfinder General) was also part of the crew, but his contribution has apparently been grossly exaggerated over the years. Assistant director Frederick Muller has confirmed that Reeves only provided a handful of pick-up shots: nothing that would make a notable difference to the finished film.

Reviews:

“Castle of the Living Dead has a potentially interesting idea but is hamstrung by a muddled approach and sluggish pacing. Although the film is slow going at times, director Luciano Ricci is still able to build a modicum of atmosphere, especially during the scenes inside the titular castle. While the flick is drawn out a little too much and features more than it’s fair share of padding, Castle of the Living Dead remains worth a look for the performances alone.” Mitch Lovell, The Video Vacuum

Antonio de Martino

“The cast is generally adequate, with Donald Sutherland providing most of the fun in his on-screen debut. He displays a skill for slapstick in his portrayal of the inept policeman, though it is mainly the makeup department that provides an effective characterization of the old woman. Christopher Lee’s typical restraint is refreshing as always.”Lawrence McCallum, Italian Horror Films of the 1960s

Buy: Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com | Amazon.ca

“The scenes with Lee, the basement laboratory littered with the remnants of mummification research, and most of the story for that matter are presented unimaginatively. But from the appearance of Lee’s scythe-wielding servant (Valentin) and the energetic dwarf (de Martino) who protects the threatened heroine (Germani), the film shifts into a different gear, achieving some genuinely disturbing scenes…” Phil Hardy (editor), The Aurum Film Encyclopedia: Horror

“Typical Continental Gothic melodrama, notable only for Lee’s performance and Donald Sutherland’s first screen appearance.” Alan Frank, The Horror Film Handbook

” …as the panda-eyed Drago, Lee is more than his usual frosty self. His delighted laughter and applause during the troupe’s command performance is truly manic, and at the end, when stabbed with his own embalming scalpel by a vengeful witch, he enjoys one of his most memorable screen deaths […] As for Donald Sutherland, his turn as a local policeman is an engaging echo of Kiefer’s original comic intentions…” Jonathan Rigby, Euro Gothic

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” …the premise is pretty cool (albeit kind of a let-down in light of the title), there are a few good performances that cut through the interference of the dubbing, and Castle of the Living Dead looks wonderful overall, despite obviously having been either shot on the shoddiest available film stock or processed by the most woefully inept development lab in Italy. No classic, but well worth a look.” Scott Ashlin, 1000 Misspent Hours and Counting

“The direction is awkward and the pacing choppy. One out of every three scenes is useless. No pretty women, no mysterious music. The count has some personality; he’s a troubled and contemplative man who doesn’t mean (much) harm. But other than him, only the energetic long-haired dwarf is fun to watch.” David Elroy Goldweber, Claws & Saucers

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” …standard Gothic fare, distinguished only by the presence of Christopher Lee as a mad Count.” Monthly Film Bulletin, 1968

Release:

In the UK, the film was released by Tigon Films, playing on a double-bill with Barbara Steele vehicle Terror Creatures from the Grave. Tigon re-released it as a support feature for The Blood Beast Terror.

The film was released in 1965 in the United States where it was distributed by The Woolner Brothers.

Cast and characters:

• Christopher Lee as Count Drago
• Gaia Germani as Laura (Hercules in the Haunted World; Devil in the Brain)
• Philippe Leroy as Eric (Naked Girl Killed in the Park)
• Mirko Valentin as Sandro (The Virgin of Nuremberg)
• Donald Sutherland as Sgt. Paul / The witch / The old man (Buffy the Vampire Slayer; Don’t Look Now; Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors)
• Antonio De Martino as Nick, the dwarf
• Luciano Pigozzi as Dart (Seven Deaths in the Cat’s Eyes; Baron Blood; Lycanthropus)
• Luigi Bonos as Marc (Frankenstein ‘80; The Evil Eye)
• Ennio Antonelli as Gianni
• Jacques Stany as Bruno (The Cat O’ Nine Tails)
• Renato Terra Caizzi as Policeman

Filming locations:

Castello Orsini-Odescalchi and Bomarzo in Italy

Buy Castle of the Living Dead on DVD from Amazon.com

We are grateful to Chilling Scenes of Dreadful Villany for some of the images above.

Posted by Mark Ashworth, with additional images added by Adrian J Smith

Terror-Creatures from the Grave – original title: Cinque tombe per un medium “Five Graves for a Medium” – is a 1965 Italian/American supernatural horror film directed by Massimo Pupillo (Bloody Pit of Horror). The film stars Barbara Steele, Walter Brandi, and Mirella Maravidi. In the UK, it was released as Cemetery of the Living Dead.

Massimo Pupillo was apparently not satisfied with the final result of the film, and allowed the film’s American producer, Ralph Zucker, to take the director’s credit. Zucker also allegedly shot some of the more gruesome scenes that occur in the US version.

A lawyer arrives at Villa Hauff to settle the estate of its recently deceased owner. The owner’s wife and daughter reveal that he was someone who was able to summon the souls of ancient plague victims and, in fact, his spirit was roaming the castle at that very moment. Soon occupants of the castle begin to die off in gruesome, violent ways…

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Reviews:

” …a wonderfully grisly affair thanks to the plague spreaders backstory, the desolate village and Castello Chigi settings, the handsome monochrome cinematography was the work of Woody Allen’s later regular cinematographer Carlo Di Palma, and the special effects work.” Eric Cotenas, DVD Compare

“This movie has some nice moments; in particular, a bizarre shot of plants moving in a tank of water, and a shot of a row of severed hands coming to life stay in the memory. The ending itself is pretty good as well, and some of the murders are memorable. Unfortunately, the middle section of the movie feels protracted and tedious…” Dave Sindelar, Fantastic Movie Musings and Ramblings

” …an atmospheric picture that moves at a fairly languid pace. There are some really impressive shots in here, lots of spooky imagery and of course, the presence of the inimitable Ms. Steele all working in the film’s favor, and those are all very good things indeed. The story itself is a bit clunky…” Ian Jane, Rock! Shock! Pop!

” …the film is far from bad and quite arresting in parts: Dr. Hauff’s voice croaking on a phonograph record; the unsettling image of flowers slowly wilting in glass bowl; and the eerily beautiful children’s lullaby that clues the heroes how to survive the horror. Pupillo undercuts the eerie mood with chattering narration from his dopey hero…” Andrew Pragasam, The Spinning Image

“Five Graves for a Medium is a fairly routine mid-60’s Italian horror film. While it isn’t nearly as goofy as Pupillo’s contemporary Bloody Pit of Horror had led me to anticipate, it certainly isn’t any good either, at least in the sense that normal people use the term. I still found it moderately enjoyable, though. There are a few outbursts of amusingly incontinent overacting, some really choice dialogue…” Scott Ashlin, 1000 Misspent Hours and Counting

Choice dialogue:

Albert Kovac: “There’s an owl caught in the engine.”

Cast and characters:

• Walter Brandi as Albert Kovac (The Slaughter of the Vampires)
• Mirella Maravidi as Corinne Hauff
• Barbara Steele as Cleo Hauff (Shivers; The She Beast; The Pit and the Pendulum; et al)
• Alfredo Rizzo as Dr. Nemek (The Bloodsucker Leads the Dance; Playgirls and the Vampire)
• Riccardo Garrone as Joseph Morgan
• Luciano Pigozzi as Kurt, the servant
• Tilde Till as Louise, the maid
• Ennio Balbo as Oskar Stinner
• Steve Robinson
• René Wolf

Filming locations:

Castel Fusano, Rome, Lazio, Italy (Girl in Room 2a; Cold Blooded Beast)

Wikipedia | IMDb

Image credits: DVD Beaver

Kill, Baby… Kill! – original title: Operazione paura “Operation Fear” – is a 1966 Italian horror film directed by Mario Bava from a screenplay by Romano Migliorini and Roberto Natale. It is known under many titles including Curse of the Dead and Curse of the Living Dead. It stars Giacomo Rossi-Stuart and  Erika Blanc.

The film’s score was attributed to Carlo Rustichelli (Libido; Blood and Black Lace; The Whip and the Body) but in Euro Gothic Jonathan Rigby says that it was “actually cannibalised from familiar themes by Rustichelli, Vlad, Lavagnino, Masi and Trovajoli.”

1907: In Carpathian village a series of murders occur in which the victims are found with silver coins embedded in their hearts. The coins are revealed to be talismans placed on the victims by the town witch (Fabienne Dali), meant to ward off the supernatural powers of the aged Baroness Graps (Giana Vivaldi).

The baroness has been performing these duties for the ghost of her murdered daughter, who wants to claim the villagers’ souls. In order to free the village from the curse, Dali must find the sequestered baroness and destroy her…

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Released on Blu-ray on 11 September 2017 by Arrow Video in the UK with the following extras:

• Restored 2K high definition digital transfer
• High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) and Standard Definition DVD presentations
• Original mono Italian and English soundtracks (lossless on the Blu-ray Disc)
• English subtitles for the Italian soundtrack
• Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing for the English soundtrack
• New audio commentary by Tim Lucas, author of Mario Bava All the Colors of the Dark
• Kill, Bava, Kill!, an interview with assistant director Lamberto Bava
• Yellow, Semih Tareen’s short film homage to the cinema of Mario Bava
• Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Graham Humphreys
• Booklet featuring new writing by critic Travis Crawford

Reviews:

” …occasionally jolts into the realms of free-form delirium and dementia. The spectre of little Melissa Graps, with her white lace dress and bouncing white ball, is perhaps the most influential icon of the Italian horror cinema, having been copied in countless other films, notably Federico Fellini’s Toby Dammit (from Spirits of the Dead, 1968), and the film itself has been an admitted influence on such directors as Martin Scorsese and David Lynch.” Tim Lucas, All the Colors of the Dark

“Embracing the opportunity to shoot in full colour, Bava creates a lurid, entrancing dream-world which clearly informed the work of Argento and Fulci, and indeed any director interested in exploring otherworldly ideas: one scene, where the hero seems to pursue a vision of himself, is an almost shot-for-shot antecedent of David Lynch’s disturbing final episode of Twin Peaks.” Tom Huddleston, Time Out

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“There are several directorial touches that convey a genuine sense of the supernatural. The shot of the girl’s face at a dirt-frosted window, and the appearance of a child’s toy ball, bouncing towards the camera, announce the intrusion of the vengeful ghost with effective eeriness. The scene on the spiral staircase, brilliantly set up and shot, and the sequence where a character appears to chase themselves are virtuoso set pieces, worthy of comparison with Hitchcock.” Image Sound Word

“In an opportunist gesture typical of the Italian film industry, Bava’s most poetic film – complete with surrealist references to, among others, Jean Cocteau and M C Escher – got its name from the preponderance of larkish spy spoofs of the period that included the word ‘operazione’ in their titles.”Jonathan Rigby, Euro Gothic

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“If you love this sort of thing then you’ll easily forgive some of the stilted acting (especially between leads Stuart and Erika Blanc) and a music score from Carlo Rustichelli that plays as if it’s trying to wake the dead all by itself.” John Llewellyn Probert, House of Mortal Cinema

” …the very definition of atmosphere because character and plot are secondary to the mood and feel. The intense visuals, bathed in light yet flowing with fog, are Bava’s return to the Gothic after three years making contemporary giallo films. The whirling score – which occasionally features a theremin – maintains the eerie simmering mood almost from start to finish.” David Elroy Goldweber, Claws & Saucers

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Slant Magazine called the film “arguably Bava’s greatest achievement”.

Allmovie said the film has “an eerie and atmospheric effort that reflects many of the elements that have made the popular Italian director’s films so compelling: excellent cinematography and strong performances from the talented cast.”

“Kill Baby Kill may not be Mario Bava’s best thriller, but the film offers another opportunity to enjoy the director’s bravura cinematics.” Lawrence McCallum, Italian Horror Films of the 1960s

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Cast and characters:

• Giacomo Rossi-Stuart as Doctor Paul Eswai (Death Smiles at Murder; Crimes of the Black Cat; The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave; et al)
• Erika Blanc as Monica Schuftan (The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave; Devil’s Nightmare, Mark of the Devil Part II)
• Fabienne Dali as Ruth, the Sorceress
• Giana Vivaldi as Baroness Graps
• Micaela Esdra as Nadienne
• Piero Lulli as Inspector Kruger
• Luciano Catenacci as Karl the Burgomeister
• Franca Dominici as Martha
• Giuseppe Addobbati as The Innkeeper
• Valerio Valeri as Melissa Graps [uncredited]

Filming locations:

Calcata, Viterbo, Latium, Italy

Trivia:

The film’s shooting title was Le macabre ore della paura (“The Macabre Hour of Fear”)

Offline reading:

Buy: Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.ca

Wikipedia | IMDb | Image credits: House of Mortal Cinema | Wrong Side of the Art!

Mr. Sardonicus is a 1961 American horror film produced, directed and introduced by William Castle (Homicidal; House on Haunted Hill; 13 Ghosts; et al). The screenplay was by Ray Russell (Incubus; The Horror of It All; X; The Premature Burial), based on his short story that first appeared in the January 1961 issue of Playboy magazine.

The film stars Ronald Lewis, Audrey Dalton Guy Rolfe, Oskar Homolka, Vladimir Sokoloff, Erika Peters and Lorna Hanson.

Castle claimed that, at the behest of Columbia Pictures, he shot a second ending for the film in which Sardonicus is cured and survives (although co-star Audrey Dalton claims no such ending was ever shot).

Audiences were given the opportunity to participate in the “Punishment Poll”. Each movie patron was given a glow-in-the-dark card featuring a hand with the thumb out. At the appropriate time they voted by holding up the card with either the thumb up or down as to whether Sardonicus would live or die. Legend has it no audience ever offered mercy so the alternate ending – if in fact one existed – was never screened.

The “poll” scene, as presented in the film, is hosted by Castle himself, and he is shown jovially egging the audience on to choose punishment, and “tallying” the poll results with no break in continuity as the “punishment” ending is pronounced the winner. The “punishment” ending occupies only three minutes of film after the “poll”, and was the ending of the original Ray Russell short story.

Buy with The Brotherhood of Satan: Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

Baron Sardonicus (Guy Rolfe) orders his bride, Maude (Audrey Dalton) to entreat renowned British doctor Sir Robert (Ronald Lewis) to travel to Moldavia to cure him of a peculiar malady.

Arriving at the Baron’s castle, Sir Robert discovers that Sardonicus wears a mask to hide his gruesome face. Meanwhile, the sinister butler Krull (Oscar Homolka) tortures the rmaid with leeches.

With bitterness, the Baron relates how his face came to be so disfigured: years back, he realized that his recently-deceased father was buried with a winning lottery ticket in his coat pocket …

Reviews:

” …it’s a gem in its own right; a preposterously insipid B-movie with the gothic grandeur to match. Taking place in an Old Europe only a comfortably stateside studio set could provide, as well as the sort of cold, isolated estate you’d expect to find in a cheapie Nosferatu remake, the film might very well be confused for an old fashioned morality tale…” Ruthless Reviews 

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“Mr. Sardonicus is a neat little gothic horror film that effectively evokes the memory of the fine Universal horror efforts made 15 to 30 years previously. The story is interesting and compactly told, and benefits from a competent cast anchored by a juicy performance by Oscar Homolka. Unfortunately the film’s atmosphere is marred by cheap theatricals by producer/director William Castle.” Barrie Maxwell, DVD Verdict

“The odd man out of William Castle horrors, Mr. Sardonicus is a somewhat lumpy gothic tale that builds slowly to one scary jolt that colors the whole film. An uneven screenplay and poor production values prevent its good performances from adding up to much, and it finally becomes less than satisfying. But save yourself for that one big scare, and it may be one you’ll never forget.” Glenn Erickson, DVD Savant

” …this Castle concoction is by far the most elegant of his films. Its slow pace and reliance on psychological horror may be offputting at first, but the film has developed a steadfast cult following over the years and remains highly effective for more patient viewers.” Nathaniel Thompson, Mondo Digital

Related: William Castle films on Horrorpedia

Buy Mr. Sardonicus + The Revenge of Frankenstein + The Brotherhood of Satan + The Return of the Vampire on DVD from Amazon.com

Buy The William Castle Film Collection: 13 Frightened Girls + 13 Ghosts + Homicidal + Strait-Jacket + The Old Dark House + Mr. Sardonicus + The Tingler + Zotz! on DVD from Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

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book: Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

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Buy Spine Tingler! The William Castle Story on DVD | Instant Video from Amazon.com

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WH

‘Chicks and chills! The wildest shindig ever!’

The Beach Girls and the Monster is a 1964 [released 1965] American monster movie photographed and directed by Jon Hall from a story and screenplay by Joan Gardner. Additional dialogue was supplied by Robert Silliphant (co-writer of The Creeping Terror) and Don Marquis. It stars Jon Hall, Sue Casey,Walker Edmiston and Arnold Lessing.

The film was reissued as Surf Terror and shown on TV as Monster from the Surf. It has also apparently been released as Invisible Terror.

Unlike most beach party films, it was shot in black and white. On some prints, the Hawaiian surf footage shown on a projector is in colour. The onscreen copyright is 1964, although the film was not released until September 1965.

The theme song, “Dance Baby Dance,” was written by Frank Sinatra, Jr. and Joan Janis

Young Richard Lindsay (Arnold Lessing) has given up his career in science in favor of his newfound passion, surfing – and hanging out and having fun with his surfer friends and girlfriend Jane (Elaine DuPont) on the Santa Monica beachfront near his father and stepmother’s house where he lives.

This is to the great displeasure of his father, the noted oceanographer Dr. Otto Lindsay (Jon Hall), who is married to the somewhat younger Vicky (Sue Casey), who is fast becoming dissatisfied with Otto’s relative lack of devotion to her. Also living with the Lindsays is Richard’s sculptor buddy Mark (Walker Edmiston), who walks with a limp as a result of an auto accident Richard had earlier.

While Vicky hits on her stepson and teases his friend Mark, a loathsome seaweed shrouded monster starts slaughtering the kids on the beach. Dr. Lindsay seems convinced that it is a mutated carnivorous South American “fantigua fish” that has grown large enough to exist out of the ocean…

Reviews [contains spoilers]:

“It’s fantastically stupid and is padded to an almost inexcusable degree with dull surfing footage, but at least it’s filmed well and has good sound quality. For that matter, the acting is halfway decent and the monster suit isn’t all that bad, either— it certainly holds up well in comparison to the creatures Paul Blaisdell built for AIP back in the 50’s…” 1000 Misspent Hours and Counting

The plot has often been compared to an episode of “Scooby Doo” and that’s perfectly understandable once you see the utterly predictable twist ending […] The acting is terrible, the dialogue (“You kids get some clothes on and we’ll go down to the station!”) is a laugh and there are numerous hilarious sequences like the seizure-dance nighttime beach party and whatever the slutty stepmom is up to at any given time.” The Bloody Pit of Horror

“There’s some pretty bloody killings (for the period), the worst rear-projection driving sequences ever witnessed, and that infamous stock shot of an automobile racing off a high cliff–the same one used in hundreds of films since the 1930s!” George R. Reis, DVD Drive-In

“Interesting only for the sight of Jon Hall in his seaweed suit. Otherwise, a mess of bad acting, risible dialogue and an over abundance of surfing scenes.” Alan Frank, The Horror Film Handbook

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“It appears much of the film’s budget was exhausted when obtaining film and music rights, and precious little left for the special effects department. In addition to the miserable looking beastie that gets far too screen time, all of the victims – mauled to death by the shambling, bug-eyed fish man – suffer from more than grazes that barely qualify as skin deep.” Scott Stein, Trashfiend: Disposable Horror Fare of the 1960s & 1970s (Headpress, 2009)

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“There are the requisite moments of bad dialogue – the most hilarious of which is when the police ask a scientist to identify what type of fish left footprints in the sand. There is much bad acting from the entire cast, although Elaine Dupont, cast as a sultry strumpet, struts her stuff with relish. For all that, Monster from the Surf is a film that tries and, like an idiot child, one that proves somewhat lovable in its ineptitude.” Richard Scheib, Moria

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“A cheap laugh riot, lots of bongos, murders and girls in bikinis.” Michael Weldon, The Psychotronic Encyclopedia of Film

“… uneven quickie… there’s not too much to keep up interest.” Variety

“Maintains the philosophical depth and production values of sixties beach bimbo fare… a hybrid horror with acres of flesh.” Videohound’s Golden Movie Retriever

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Filming locations:

Most of the interior shots – specifically all those of the Lindsay home – were shot at the Brentwood residence of Henry and Shirley Rose at 816 Glenmere Way in West Los Angeles. The Roses were friends of the producer, Edward Janis, with Shirley Rose also being the film’s art director.

Wikipedia | IMDb | Image credits: The Bloody Pit of Horror

Related: The Horror of Party Beach | Humanoids from the Deep

‘The murder mystery with a difference: you die laughing!’

The Old Dark House is a 1962 British comedy-horror film directed by William Castle (The Tingler; Mr. Sardonicus; House on Haunted Hill; et al) from a screenplay by Robert Dillon (X: The Man with X-Ray Eyes) for Hammer Films. It is a remake of the 1932 film of the same name directed by James Whale, both loosely based on the novel Benighted by J. B. Priestley.

Tom Penderel, an American car salesman living in London, delivers a car to an old mansion in Dartmoor and discovers that his eccentric former roommate, Casper Femm, is dead.

Tom is invited to stay at the house by members of Casper’s family, including his twin brother Jasper, and his nieces, the demure young Cecily and the seductive Morgana.

Each of the relatives is required to return to the dilapidated mansion before midnight each evening or forfeit his share of the family fortune. During the night, one of the Femm family dies every hour…

Reviews:

” …the house itself seems neither very old nor very dark (and if there’s no shortage of money in the family, why don’t they get the leaky roof fixed?), and far too much of the running time is spent on padding scenes of Tom Penderel being chased around by Uncle Morgan.” And You Call Yourself a Scientist!

“There is very little about his version of The Old Dark House that can be considered horror or even in the vein of macabre comedy any longer – a few jokes about corpses in coffins but mostly some not terribly funny gags with Tom Poston getting his tie in a bowl of acid and the like.” Richard Scheib, Moria

“When compared with the James Whale original upon which it is based, this remake of The Old Dark House is pretty sorry stuff.” Craig Butler, Allmovie

” …the picture looks very nice indeed but fails miserably to frighten or amuse […] the film’s only real touch of distinction is provided by Bernard Robinson’s magnificently dilapidated sets; indeed, bit of them would reappear in The Kiss of the Vampire…” Jonathan Rigby, English Gothic: A Century of Horror Cinema

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“Much like Terence Fisher’s The Horror of It All (1964), this strains to be kooky and strange, but its self-conscious spoofery can’t match the black humour and genuine creepiness Whale brought to the material. What it does have going for it is a great cast of British comedy icons… Andrew Pragasam, The Spinning Image

“The list of successful horror comedies is a short one, and unfortunately, The Old Dark House is not on it. It is not difficult to watch, being just “sick” enough to be occasionally funny but Hammer plus Castle did not add up to much.” Tom Johnson and Deborah Del Vecchio, Hammer Films: An Exhaustive Filmography

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” …a travesty which has nothing to do with the 1932 film and possesses no merit of its own. The cast is left floundering” John Walker (editor), Halliwell’s Film and Video Guide

“So outrageously bad that it becomes enjoyable…” Phil Hardy (editor), The Aurum Film Encyclopedia: Horror

“I expected very little and was pleasantly surprised. The script probably should have taken more chances, more opportunities with Old Dark House conventions. But the old decaying house looks great in color, and the cast is perfectly in sync with gifted comic actor Tom Poston (best known to my generation from the Newhart TV series) and gifted character actor Robert Morley…” David Elroy Goldweber, Claws & Saucers 

” …a laboriously arch and broad blend of humor and the creeps. It still leaves the old J. B. Priestley property as defunct as a doornail. Even a picturesque cast, headed by Tom Poston, Robert Morley, Janette Scott and, especially, Joyce Grenfell, can’t rejuvenate it.’ Bosley Crowther, The New York Times

Buy The William Castle Film Collection DVD: Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

“Thoroughly terrible remake of the 1932 movie completely failing as either a horror movie or a comedy spoof. No chills, no thrills and no laughs.” Alan Frank, The Horror Film Handbook

“Tom Poston, who had previously starred in Castle’s lame comedy Zotz! was unwisely chosen for the lead in The Old Dark House. Even a supporting cast of brilliant British character actors couldn’t overcome Poston’s annoying and unfunny performance.” Gary A. Smith, Uneasy Dreams: The Golden Age of British Horror Films, 1956 – 1976

“Some of the deaths are pretty ingenious but still can’t save the film. Not only does this fail as a horror film and a comedy, but it’s a pretty useless whodunit, too […] The Old Dark House also features possibly the worst animal attack in the history of cinema. An indeterminate, obviously stuffed creature is subjected to endless close-ups, with a faint snarling sound in the background. The special effects team somehow attempted to make the thing salivate.” Ryan Taylor, The Shrieking Sixties: British Horror Films 1960 – 1969

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“Castle is heavy-handed, the script is too far away from the source, and the colour film stock just takes away from any atmosphere. The fact that Bull and Morley used to trade their best lines with each other over smoked salmon for lunch gives you an idea of the sort of film it was…” Andy Boot, Fragments of Fear: An Illustrated History of British Horror Films

Buy: Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com | Amazon.ca

Cast and characters:

• Tom Poston as Tom Penderel – Aaahh!!! Real Monsters TV series
• Robert Morley as Roderick Femm – The Wind; Theatre of Blood; A Study in Terror
• Janette Scott as Cecily Femm – Paranoiac; The Day of the Triffids
• Joyce Grenfell as Agatha Femm
• Mervyn Johns as Potiphar Femm – The Day of the Triffids; Dead of Night
• Fenella Fielding as Morgana Femm – Carry On Screaming!
• Peter Bull as Caspar/Jasper Femm – Footsteps in the Fog
• Danny Green as Morgan Femm
• John Harvey as Club Receptionist
• Amy Dalby as Gambler [uncredited]

Filming locations:

• Bray Studios, Down Place, Oakley Green, Berkshire, England, UK
• Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, London, England, UK
• Oakley Court, Windsor Road, Oakley Green, Windsor, Berkshire, England, UK

Trivia:

• The drawings in the title sequence were by Charles Addams, whose whole career was apparently inspired by the 1932 version of The Old Dark House (1932).
• Filmed from 19th April to 22nd June 1962, the film was released in the US by Columbia in 1963 (in black and white!) and in the UK in 1966, having been cut to secure a BBFC ‘A’ rating.
• William Castle does not even mention The Old Dark House in his autobiography, Step Right Up! I’m Gonna Scare the Pants Off America

Wikipedia | IMDb

‘They’ll scare your pants off… and give you a chill for life!’

Hillbillys in a Haunted House is a 1967 American comedy horror musical film directed by Jean Yarbrough (The Brute Man; King of the Zombies; The Devil Bat; et al) from a screenplay by Duke Yelton. It was produced by Bernard Woolner (Attack of the 50 Foot Woman).

The film is a sequel to The Las Vegas Hillbillys (1966), with Joi Lansing replacing Mamie Van Doren in the role of “Boots Malone”.

Country singers are headed to Nashville. Their car breaks down and they stop overnight at an abandoned house. A ring of international spies (Lon Chaney, Jr., Basil Rathbone and John Carradine) who live in the house are seeking a top-secret formula for rocket fuel.

While it is never revealed for whom they are spying, they carry out their activities under the cover of a supposed haunted house, which comes complete with a gorilla in the basement…

Reviews:

“So there are a few reasons to watch this turkey: (1) if you’re a classic horror buff and want to see these icons one more time (2) if you’re a Country & Western fan and are willing to sit through the bulk of this nonsense to get to the music (3) if you’re into the pneumatic Monroe/Mansfield/Van Doren wannabe Joi Lansing . If you’re not in any one of those three categories, steer clear.” Gary Loggins, Cracked Rear Viewer

“The good news is that the three horror icons, Carradine, Rathbone and Chaney Jr., have a few decent scenes (Carradine, at his absolute hammiest, is especially entertaining), as does George Barrows in his monkey suit […] To be fair, Hillbillys in a Haunted House isn’t nearly as bad as its reputation would lead you to believe…” 2,500 Movies Challenge

“The film rarely concerns itself with the haunted house aspect – certainly, Jean Yarbrough, a director famous for his poverty row career, fails to establish any atmosphere. There is the minor appearance of a ghost and a lurking ape, one of the staples of the Old Dark House genre, but mostly the film seems to centre more around spy capers, which were then in fad thanks to the success of the James Bond films.” Richard Scheib, Moria

“Sure it ain’t Citizen Kane by a longshot, but the combination of Ferlin Husky’s cockeyed charisma, Joi Lansing’s blouse-busting pulchritude, cobwebbed skeletons and rubber bats, sub-vaudeville skits and a pretty decent gorilla suit is oddly appealing. And dang it all if the toe-tappin’ country tunes ain’t too shabby.” Andrew Pragasam, The Spinning Image

With the exception of the performances of Basil Rathbone and John Carradine, Hillbillys in a Haunted House appears to have been cast with amateurs. Ferlin Husky sings well, but can’t act. Unless you love country music, you’ll probably hear way too much of it in this film. Just about everyone except Basil sings a pitiful song.” Marcia Jessen, BasilRathbone.net

“It’s pretty awful, but just how excruciating it is may well depend on two factors: 1) your tolerance for country music, and 2) the degree of your affection for the familiar faces of John Carradine, Lon Chaney Jr., and Basil Rathbone.” Dave Sindelar, Fantastic Movie Musings and Ramblings

The rest of the pressbook is on Zombo’s Closet

Cast and characters:

• Ferlin Husky as Woody Wetherby
• Joi Lansing as Boots Malone
• Don Bowman as Jeepers
• John Carradine as Dr. Himmil
• Lon Chaney Jr. as Maximillian
• Linda Ho as Madame Wong
• Basil Rathbone as Gregor
• Molly Bee as herself
• Merle Haggard as himself
• Sonny James as himself
• Jim Kent as himself
• Marcella Wright as herself
• Richard Webb as Agent Jim Meadows
• Larry Barton as Hillbilly
• George Barrows as Anatole the gorilla
• Pat Patterson as Hillbilly
• Allen Jung as Janitor
• Jay Jasin as Television Announcer
• Marshall Wright as Hillbilly
• Virginia Ann Lee as Agent Ming Toy

Wikipedia | IMDb | Image credits: The Dwrayger Dungeon

‘Suspense shocker of the year!’

The Crawling Hand is a 1963 American science fiction horror film directed by Herbert L. Strock (How to Make a Monster; Blood of Dracula; I Was a Teenage Frankenstein) from a screenplay co-written with Joseph Cranston (co-scripter of The Corpse Grinders), Bill Idelson and Robert M. Young.

The film stars Peter Breck, Kent Taylor, Rod Lauren, and Alan Hale, Jr.

The hand of a dead astronaut washes up on the beach and possesses the college student who takes it home. The student is slowly transformed by the hand and begins killing people in a small town…

Reviews:

“It does have some problems; some of the comic relief is lame, the special effects are somewhat weak (though they were probably the best they could do for the budget), and the ending scene is pretty corny. Nonetheless, I think the script actually does an interesting job with the story, the acting is solid, the direction is efficient, and some of the camerawork is quite clever.” Dave Sindelar, Fantastic Movie Musings and Ramblings

“The film features Alan Hale Jr. The Skipper from Gilligan’s Island as the Sheriff and the always stunning Allison Hayes. Burt Reynolds originally tested for the lead role but lost it because of his wooden performance … Yeah it’s bad but it’s so bad it’s good.” Digital Macabre

Buy The Crawling Hand + The Slime People DVD: Amazon.com

“The film runs about 15 minutes more than it should, but it’s still kinda fun on the trash level. One of the highlights is Paul’s eerily lit attack on the grumpy malt shop owner, slamming him into a jukebox, jolting it to spin “The Bird Is The Word” by The Rivingtons!” George R. Reis, DVD Drive-In

“Opening sequence is still really effective. The acting from the insane astronaut combined with the hellish makeup made for a chilling couple of minutes. Rest of the film is fine, but the Shatner-esque acting does have its moments.” Brett the Weise, Letterboxd

“The story, of course, defies any suggestion of logic, nor does some of the scientific jargon cut much ice, but the horrific value is there in a quite skillfully exploited “live” arm. This latter should certainly intrigue those less sophisticated patrons who accept their entertainment at its face value without question.” Kine Weekly

Cast and characters:

• Peter Breck as Steve Curan – The Unnamable II
• Sirry Steffen as Marta Farnstrom
• Kent Taylor as Dr. Max Weitzberg – The Phantom of Hollywood; Brain of Blood; Brides of Blood; The Mighty Gorga; Blood of Ghastly Horror; The Day Mars Invaded Earth; The Phantom from 10,000 Leagues 
• Rod Lauren as Paul Lawrence – Black Zoo
• Alan Hale Jr. as Sheriff Townsend – The Giant Spider Invasion
• Allison Hayes as Donna – Attack of the 50 Foot Woman; The Disembodied; Zombies of Mora Tau; The Unearthly; The Undead; et al
• Arline Judge as Mrs. Hotchkiss
• Richard Arlen as Lee Barrenger – The Human Duplicators; Island of Lost Souls
• Tristam Coffin as Security Chief Meidel
• Ross Elliott as Deputy Earl Harrison
• G. Stanley Jones as Funeral Director
• Jock Putnam as Ambulance Attendant
• Andy Andrews as Ambulance Attendant
• Syd Saylor as Soda Shop Owner
• Ed Wermer as Prof. Farnstrom
• Ashley Cowan as Mel Lockhart

Filming locations:

Computer Division Center, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, USA

Buy: Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.co.uk

Wikipedia | IMDb

‘Blood-lusting fiend who preys on girls! Vampire-queen who feeds on lifeblood of men!’

The Vampire and the Ballerina – original title: L’amante del vampiro “The Vampire’s Lover” – is a 1960 Italian supernatural horror film directed by Renato Polselli (Mania; Black Magic Rites; Delirium) from a screenplay co-written with Ernesto Gastaldi and Giuseppe Pellegrini. Hélène Rémy, Tina Gloriani and Walter Brandi star.

A troupe of beautiful young dancers find themselves stranded in a sinister, spooky old castle, not knowing that it is home to a group of vampires…

Reviews:

“Coupled with the smooth direction from Polselli is some really fantastic cinematography that uses lighting and shadow effectively to make this film really come alive, as well as some great locales including the waterfall and the spooky castle.  Being an Italian horror film you can also expect a fair amount of eroticism and it is peppered throughout the movie like a trail of candy for you to follow.” The Telltale Mind

“Don’t confuse this one with The Playgirls and the Vampire. That one is an Italian horror film from the early sixties about a troop of ballerinas being terrorized by a vampire in the form of Walter Brandi. This one, on the other hand, is – uh – an Italian horror film from the early sixties about a troop of ballerinas being terrorized by a vampire in the form of Walter Brandi.

“The Italian language being spoken over subtitles helps it keep that kind of shit arty, adding a neorealist edge to go along with a jazzy score. Theremin-goosed passages of the vamp moments contrast with the diverting muzak-style filler when the composer (or library cue DJ) can’t discern the emotional tenor of a particular scene. Ciao bene!” Erich Kuersten, Acidemic

“The movie does have plenty of classical style orchestral music endeavoring to make it scary, but in this scene Polselli opts for a more experimentally stylish approach. When they get to the castle it becomes quiet and seemingly more conventional, but the previous jazzy trip through the woods is just fantastic.” Giovanni Susina, At the Mansion of Madness

“It almost seems here as if antiquity has something of value to impart to a modernity preoccupied with spinning folk wisdom into sleazy entertainment (symbolized by jazz dancing) and the rote formation of interpersonal relationships out of allegiance to conformity and the status quo rather than desire or need.” Arbogast on Film

Main cast:

• Hélène Rémy … Luisa
• Tina Gloriani … Francesca – My Friend, Dr. Jekyll 
• Walter Brandi … Herman – The Devil’s Wedding Night; Bloody Pit of Horror; Slaughter of the Vampires; The Playgirls and the Vampire
• Isarco Ravaioli …Luca – Mania; The Hanging Woman; La verità secondo Satana; Deadly Inheritance
• Gino Turini [as John Turner] … Giorgio
• Pier Ugo Gragnani … as Professor

IMDb | Image thanks/credits: The Telltale Mind