‘Astounding adventure from the center of the moon’

Mutiny in Outer Space is a 1965 science fiction film directed by Hugo Grimaldi (The Human Duplicators) and [uncredited] Arthur C. Pierce (The Cosmic Man; Women of the Prehistoric Planet). It was executive produced and distributed in the US by the Woolner Brothers.

The film stars William Leslie, Dolores Faith (The Phantom Planet), Pamela Curran, Richard Garland and Harold Lloyd Jr.

Plot:

Two astronauts, Webber and Towers, return to their orbiting space station after an exploratory mission to the moon, but one of them dies of a fungus infection.

Meanwhile, the station doctor, Hoffman, also contracts the infection and joins Towers in recommending that Earth be notified. Afraid of being recalled, Colonel Cromwell, overrules the suggestion.

A collision with meteors tears a hole in the outer wall of the station, and fungus from the laboratory escapes and surrounds the station. Realizing that the fungus thrives on heat, Hoffman puts himself in a refrigerated tube while Towers leads a mutiny…

Reviews:

“Mutiny seems to recreate its set by shuffling around props. I am not a big fan of plant monsters in general but I have seen worse. At least this space plant was mobile … it has similarities to, and may have even influenced, 1968’s Japanese-American production The Green Slime.” The Uranium Cafe

” … the execution is dismal; the low-tech FX aren’t the problem so much as the complete absence of directorial flair or even interest, and there is none of the compelling tension of such films as It! The Terror from Beyond Space or Killer Shrews, which despite their flaws are fast-paced and adroitly put together.” Great Old Movies

“Lively ‘B’ feature strip cartoon, a decade out of its natural period but conceived and executed with straight-faced zest.” Alan Frank, The Science Fiction Film Handbook

“About the only good thing I can say about Mutiny is that it inspired The Green Slime … The plot and effects would seem trite and cheap even a decade earlier. It’s the same silly meteor showers, space walks and pseudo tech talk from the 1950s, but worse.” David Elroy Goldweber, Claws & Saucers

Cast and characters:

• William Leslie … Maj. Gordon Towers
• Dolores Faith … Faith Montaine
• Pamela Curran … Lt. Connie Engstrom
• Richard Garland … Col. Frank Cromwell
• Harold Lloyd Jr. … Sgt. Andrews
• James Dobson … Dr. Hoffman
• Ron Stokes … Sgt. Sloan
• Boyd Holister … Maj. Olsen (as Robert Palmer)
• Gabriel Curtiz … Dr. Stoddard
• Glenn Langan … Gen. Knowland (as Glen Langan)

Choice dialogue:

Connie: “Is there fungus, or not?”

Wikipedia | IMDb | AFI | Image thanks: Zombo’s Closet

The act of slaying one or more of your fellow human beings in a ritual, usually as a token to a God or spiritual ancestors, extends back to the first glimmers of the dawn of Man – the stranger fact is that it is still practiced today. Taking many forms and seen in a myriad of cultures, these ceremonies, though now far rarer than once they were, still hold a fascination for the creative arts, and human sacrifice is one of the go-to platforms for the construction of horror film and literature, from Greek myth to Hammer Films and H.P. Lovecraft to Children of the Corn.

Human sacrifice almost always revolves around appeasing a supernatural denizen of a perceived afterlife – the greatest gift seen to offer an apparently vengeful deity being a living (soon to be dead) offering.  The earliest evidence of human sacrifice found thus far has been in the Sudan, where an excavated Neolithic site uncovered evidence of three apparently high-ranking individuals being killed in a ritualistic manner, surrounded by high value ceramics and two slaughtered dogs.

Dating back 5,500 years, this was in the period that Man made the transition from hunter-gatherers to more ‘civilised’ farmers and cultivators. Elsewhere in Africa and seemingly having developed completely separately to this example, bodies have been unearthed in Southern Egypt, dating back to approximately 3000 B.C. which have identifiable marks of having their throats cut prior to decapitation.  Carved tablets from a similar period depict a kneeling person in front of another holding what resembles a sword, a bowl on the ground in front of the former, presumably to catch the spilled blood. A monarch or God in the image strongly indicates that this is a ritualistic killing as opposed to an execution for a crime. Egyptian discoveries feature two of the most common reasons given for killing a human – to appease a God or to ward off potentially disastrous natural events, and to give a deceased elder or leader suitable accompaniment to the afterlife, often buried alive with the less active corpse inside a pyramid or other sealed tomb.

In Asia, similar examples of human sacrifice took place to pay tribute to dead slave owners and high ranking dignitaries – in China, slaves accompanied their masters to the afterlife in both small numbers and mass slayings of up to nearly 200 men, women and children. Across the border in Tibet, pre-Buddhism, the execution of innocent men and women, as well as instances of cannibalism, a practice which rather goes hand-in-hand with human sacrifice, were commonplace – even centuries later, there are a few examples of renegade sects killing people as part of secret tantric rituals.

In India, the South Pacific, many parts of Africa and most famously, South America, sacrificial human offerings are well documented from ancient and not so ancient times. These range from the use of a sharp implement to cut the neck (or remove the head entirely), the resulting blood or body parts often drunk/eaten or used to make potions and body decoration; the impaling of the victim through whatever orifice was seen most suitable, thus allowing the offering to be on display to the relevant God as a totem; poisonings, flayings, live burials and even more inventive methods.

Mayan and Incan sacrificial ceremonies are amongst the best-understood, largely due to the clear documentation left in the form of ornate daggers, beautiful illustrations, mass grave sites and almost impossibly preserved mummies. Particularly prevalent was the sacrifice of children, a recurring Aztec  ritual requiring the ‘tears of children’ to appease their rain God. South and Central American offerings were on scale significantly larger than many other cultures – confirmed examples have ranged from several hundred at a time to several thousand. An estimate from one historian suggests up to 250,000 Aztecs could have met their end in this way in just one year.

In ancient Hawaii, ritual killings were largely centred on demonstrating military strength, the capture of an opposing tribal chief being cause for especially brutal torture, with the victim strapped upside down on a wooden rack and pulverised with blunt instruments to tenderise the flesh. The triumphant chief would rub his capture’s sweat upon his body and then gut the unfortunate enemy, naturally not wasting anything and partaking of their innards as a reward.

Though the establishment of the major religions we now see around the world, these practices were either outlawed or were rejected by evolving societies. However, sacrifice of a human (and certainly animals) still occurs throughout the world, largely in secret ceremonies still dedicated to the pleasing of a deity. Killings are found in remote areas of India and Sub-Saharan Africa, as part of religious rites, witchcraft and for personal financial gain and well-being.

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Though rarer, the specific practice of Vodun or Vodou /Voodoo is rumoured to occasionally utilise human rather than animal offerings, even in the present day. Other cults, even in Western Europe, still offer sacrifice as part of ceremonies from self-proclaimed messiahs to devil worship – indeed, some  serial killers could well be said to do the same, although in a far more ‘lone-wolf’ scenario.

Human sacrifice in Britain was certainly rumoured to have taken place in the Iron Age, though the tendency was for the offering of a slaughtered animal, usually a horse or dog in exchange for forgiveness or good fortune. Druidic rituals did, allegedly, see humans killed, though it is thought these were more often prisoners of war or criminals. Methods of dispatch have been well documented due to the discovery of several incredibly well-preserved corpses found in peat bogs throughout the 20th Century (a phenomenon also seen throughout Scandinavia).

The most famous British example has been dubbed Lindow Man (due to the location of the discovery) and his method of dispatch seen to consist of a mistletoe-spiked drink and several blows to the head, whilst in Denmark, a similarly well-preserved corpse, Tollund Man, displayed evidence of having been hanged, though it has not been able to ascertain whether this was sacrificial or pure punishment for a crime.

Roman texts, penned by the likes of Julius Caesar, Tacitus and Pliny the Elder, reveal outright disgust at the practice of human sacrifice and cannibalism by the Celts. This, it has to be said, is a tad eyebrow-raising, given the Roman’s penchant for impromptu mass-murder and massacre for sport. However, much of this rhetoric has been disregarded as propaganda, an attempt by the Romans to portray the Celts as inhuman savages. Ironically, the most iconic image of human sacrifice in Britain around this time, the looming wicker man, was almost certainly an animal only offering, with no evidence found to suggest that humans were also encased within and set on fire.

The disturbing and often perplexing history of human sacrifice has lent itself to all areas of art for centuries. The Mexicans and inhabitants of pre-Columbian America celebrated the act in wildly elaborate statuary and paintings. The ever-inventive Aztecs’ actions did rather lend themselves to artistic documentation – the removal of vital organs from living victims, starvation, immolation, drowning and cannibalism were all used to give thanks to one god or another. These have appeared rendered on ceramics and codices, whilst often ornate daggers reveal the planning and importance the sacrifices had in their societies.

The Mayans could at least match these feats, sometimes even trumping them with absurd-sounding ceremonies involving live burial, the bow and arrow equivalent of a firing squad and, most intriguingly, the strange entwining of sacrifice and an Mesoamerican ballgame, in which losing teams would often find themselves beheaded, their skulls becoming ‘bats’ for future games.

There is even pictorial evidence of people being bound up with twine until they resemble the large rubber-type balls usually used, the unfortunates batted and kicked around mercilessly until death or victory. As with the Aztecs, many vessels, paintings and carvings have been unearthed featuring these acts, as well, of course, as the sacred pyramids they were usually centred around, including the dedicated altars.

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Human Sacrifice in Horror Films

The Mummy (1932 and many times thereafter)

A reanimated Imhotep seeks to reanimate his long-dead lover by mummifying the unlucky Helen

The Mask of Fu Manchu (1932)

Boris Karloff, as the diabolical Fu, attempts to masquerade as a resurrected Genghis Khan in order to stir up an Asian uprising into conquering the West. Pre-code, so heady stuff.

King Kong (1933/1977)

Poor old Fay is welcomed to Skull Island to meet their gigantic God for dinner.

The Black Cat (1934)

Satan. Rites. Damsel. Karloff. Lugosi.

The Mole People (1956)

Subterraneran Sumerian crackpots sacrificing elders after mistaking daylight for a mystical oracle

The Devil’s Hand (1959)

Likeable Satanic cult shenanigans, headed by Neil Hamilton (Commissioner Gordon from the Batman TV series)

The City of the Dead (1960)

Atmospheric, if a little threadbare Christopher Lee vehicle

She (1934/1965)

Immortal jungle queen demands an equally long-living companion by immolation in a mystical blue flame

Blood Feast (1963)

Food catering meets Egyptian rites as Fuad Ramses dispatches local girls to please the God Ishtar.

Eye of the Devil (1966)

The title offers more than a nod in the direction this hugely atmospheric though undervalued film takes. Almost certainly the only film starring David Niven, Sharon Tate, Donald Pleasence and John Le Mesurier.

Brides of Blood (1968)

Mutations on a remote island require virginal sacrifices to a local monster.

The Devil Rides Out (1968)

Dennis Wheatley, the go-to for Devil-satiating texts, is brought to film in one of Hammer’s greatest offerings. Those sacrificing are seen to be ‘normal’, respected members of society, as opposed to the popular view of dancing, mostly naked hippies.

The Blood on Satan’s Claw (1970)

Standard English village fare – the resurrection of the cloven one through skin growing and sacrificial rituals.

The Shiver of the Vampires aka Le Frisson des Vampires (1971)

Jean Rollin’s dreamy look at sacrifice in a chateau.

Tombs of the Blind Dead (1971) and sequels…

Though the slowly shuffling zombies are the star of the show, their origins as blood-drinking, Satan worshipping Templar knights at the beginning of this three-film saga are shown in flashback

Enter the Devil (1972)

A grimy entry into the 70’s obsession with Satanic cults

Blood Orgy of the She-Devils (1972)

Ted V. Mikel’s uber-schlocky blood-thirsty witches on the hunt for male blood to offer to the Devil.

The Mummy’s Revenge aka La Venganza de la Momia (1973)

Dazzling, if not entirely gripping entry into Paul Naschy’s attempt to play every famous horror monster

The Wicker Man (1973)

Poor Sergeant Howie gets closer to some frightened goats than he’d like, all for the sake of some apples.

Craze (1974)

Psychotic London-based antique dealer Neal Mottram (Palance) sacrifices women to the statue of African god Chuku in the belief that it will help his ailing finances…

Race With the Devil (1975)

This well-oiled set-up of the inadvertent observation of a human sacrifice leading to a cult in pursuit has rarely been matched.

The Devil’s Men aka Land of the Minotaur (1976)

Tourists visiting a Greek archeological site are being abducted by a strange cult, intent on providing their God – the Minotaur – with a sacrifice!

Mardi Gras Massacre (1978)

Part of the notorious ‘video nasty‘ list, this slaughter for Aztec Gods romp is still unavailable in the UK.

Demonoid (1981)

300 years ago, a Mexican Satanic cult cuts of the hands of their victims to please the Devil. Years later a hand causes mischief.

Midnight aka The Backwoods Massacre (1982)

Backwoods ‘cops’ and their demented siblings sacrifice young women in a psychotic attempt to resurrect their mother’s decomposed corpse…

Q: The Winged Serpent (1982)

Larry Cohen’s hugely entertaining modern day tale of sacrifice in New York, seeing the follower of an Aztec cult sacrificing locals in a bid to appease a huge flying Quetzalcoatl living atop a skyscraper (ironically, a God whom the Aztecs didn’t actually deem as requiring human sacrifice, actually being gifted slain hummingbirds and butterflies)

Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982)

An ingenious plot sees now iconic masks lulling innocent wearers to their fate at the expense of Old Gods.

Children of the Corn (1984-2011)

Preposterously long-running franchise in which a town’s over-18’s are sacrificed to a cornfield-based deity

Blood Cult (1985)

A local sheriff investigates a spate of sorority slayings that are found to be the work of a satanic cult. One of the earliest shot-on-video releases, it’s a self -sacrifice to sit through!

A Return to Salem’s Lot (1987)

Larry Cohen’s almost universally derided follow-up to the much (and, I would suggest, unjustly) revered Tobe Hopper mini-series see the town farming blood from a supply of non-vampiric folk.

Evil Altar (1988)

In the small town of Red Rock, a devil-worshipping cult led by Reed Weller (William Smith), is in league with the local sheriff (Robert Z’Dar). Weller’s servant is The Collector (Pepper Martin) who kidnaps boys and girls for sacrifice…

The Lair of the White Worm (1988)

Ken Russell’s slightly rude, slightly berserk and slightly entertaining snake god romp

The Guardian (1990)

William Friedkin’s unfairly overlooked, if rather daft tree-worshipping drama with ancient druids needing blood to satiate their idols

Borderland (2007)

With a Mexican backdrop, a refreshing change to the norm with drug runners and cartels mixing with the more traditional religious cults

The Shrine (2010)

A remote Polish village harbours a terrible secret (it’s human sacrifice)

Rites of Spring (2011)

A man known only as the Stranger kidnaps and sacrifices young women as part of a pagan death ritual…

The Cabin in the Woods (2012)

One of the most divisive horror films of recent years offers up a novel depiction of sacrifice, which audiences either loved or hated

House of the Witchdoctor (2013)

Surprisingly competent teens in peril horror.

House of Salem (2016)

When kidnapping goes wrong…

Sacrifice (2016)

An ancient pagan religion requires the sacrifice of young women in the Shetlands

Daz Lawrence, Horrorpedia.com

‘This is the climax in mind-chilling terror!’

Eye of the Devil is a 1966 British horror film with occult and supernatural themes directed by J. Lee Thompson (Happy Birthday to Me) from a screenplay by Robin Estridge and Dennis Murphy. Noted script doctor Terry Southern was brought in to do an uncredited “tightening and brightening” of the screenplay.

The original director was Sidney J. Furie (Doctor Blood’s Coffin; The Snake Woman; The Entity) who had signed a three-picture deal with co-producer Martin Ransohoff  In August 1965, shortly before filming was to begin, Furie was replaced by Michael Anderson (Magic). When Anderson fell ill, he was replaced in turn by J. Lee Thompson. Kim Novak (Tales That Witness Madness; Satan’s Triangle) was the original lead but suffered a riding accident and was replaced by Deborah Kerr.

The film is set in rural France and was filmed at the Château de Hautefort and in England. Eye of the Devil is based on the novel Day of the Arrow by Robin Estridge and was initially titled and marketed as 13.

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Main cast:

David Niven (Vampira), Deborah Kerr (The Innocents), Donald Pleasence, Flora Robson (The Beast in the Cellar), Emlyn Williams, Sharon Tate (The Fearless Vampire Killers), David Hemmings (Deep Red; Harlequin; Thirst), John Le Mesurier, Edward Mulhare.

Plot:

David Niven plays the owner of a vineyard, who is called back to the estate when it falls on hard times. Accompanied by his wife (Deborah Kerr), the couple are confronted by a beautiful witch (Sharon Tate), who also lives on the estate with her brother (David Hemmings). As time passes it becomes clear that a blood sacrifice is expected to return the vineyard to its former glory…

Reviews:

“The plot is certainly intriguing, complicated and has an interesting premise; relying on metaphysical fantasy, using mesmerizing candlelight to illustrate the subject matter. Though the writing can be patchy at times due to the cramming in of story, it all becomes a little muddy and you occasionally need a moment to work out what’s just happened; perhaps too much plot interweaving does not benefit a film of this genre.” Nia Jones, The Spooky Isles

“It is a moody and atmospheric film, photographed exquisitely in black and white by Erwin Hillier …  From lush, countryside vistas to the caverns of the family home, the film is crisp and clean, accentuating and lending to the horror presented within. Though the performances are great and the music by Gary McFarland compliments the picture perfectly, it is the cinematography that really takes your breath away more than anything.” The Telltale Mind

“This leisurely paced occult thriller wants to unsettle you as well as enchant you and it manages to do just that in its first few minutes. Most horror films will take their time building suspense or they’ll bludgeon you over the head with a few shocks to get your heart racing but Eye of the Devil takes an entirely different approach to terror…” Kimberly Lindbergs, Movie Morlocks

“There are a couple of good bits: Catherine is chased through a forest by a gang of cowled figures at one point and later suffers a nightmare in which she relives this and any other vaguely scary bit from the film, with a few new scenes chucked in for good measure. Hemmings and Tate also wander around with a bow and arrow trying to get kids to jump off ramparts and turning toads into doves…” Chris Wood, The Shrieking Sixties: British Horror Films 1960 – 1969

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“Viewers new to Eye of the Devilmay compare it unfavorably with the later The Wicker Man, a much more elaborate chiller about a resurgence of paganism into the modern world. Eye may have been an inspiration for the later film’s source novel. For many people Eye of the Devil is an engaging thriller with an impressive cast of favorites.” Glenn Erickson, DVD Savant

“The occult brotherhood – 12 hooded figures parading through the grounds – does produce some picturesque images, but the awkward attempts to evoke echoes of The Innocents (1961), with Kerr looking mystified and two youngsters (Tate and Hemmings) behaving ever so oddly, fail miserably.” The Aurum Film Encyclopedia: Horror

Cast and characters:

• Deborah Kerr as Catherine
• David Niven as Philippe
• Flora Robson as Countess Estel
• Donald Pleasence as Pere Dominic
• David Hemmings as Christian de Caray
• Sharon Tate as Odile de Caray
• Edward Mulhare as Jean-Claude
• Emlyn Williams as Alain

Wikipedia | IMDb | Image credits: Monsters Forever

Related: The Vineyard

Martin Kosleck (March 24, 1904 – January 15, 1994) was a German film actor, born Nicolaie Yoshkin in Barkotzen in Pomerania. He soon gained a foothold in German cinema and landed a role in Alraune, the noted science fiction horror film directed by Richard Oswald in 1930.

However, like many other German actors, he fled when the Nazis came to power, travelling first to England and then New York, before settling in Hollywood.

Inspired by his deep hatred of Adolf Hitler and his henchmen, Kosleck would make a career in Hollywood playing villainous Nazis. He went on to appear in more than eighty films and television shows in a 46-year span. Initially, his icy demeanour and piercing stare on screen made him a popular choice to play Nazi villains.

With the end of the Second World War, Nazi roles declined. Having already appeared in Paramount’s 1941 proto-horror Basil Rathbone vehicle, The Mad Doctor, Kosleck then moved into B horror films with aplomb, with roles in Universal’s The Frozen Ghost and The Mummy’s Curse (both starring Lon Chaney Jr., whom Kosleck disliked intensely), House of Horrors and She-Wolf of London.

House of Horrors gave Kosleck his best-remembered role beyond playing Goebbels, as an insane sculptor, Marcel De Lange, who saves a disfigured man (Rondo Hatton) from drowning. Marcel takes the unfortunate man into his care, making him the subject of his next sculpture and declaring it his best creation. But as negative reviews begin to break Marcel’s last nerve, he has the Creeper (as he’s known) start killing the critics…

With fewer film opportunities presenting themselves, Kosleck returned to New York City and appeared in Broadway plays. He would also appear on television as guests in episodes of numerous shows such as Boris Karloff’s Thriller, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, The Outer Limits, Batman, and The Man from U.N.C.L.E.

However, it is as the mad scientist Professor Peter Bartell in the stylish, gory, and ahead-of-its-time Long Island-lensed The Flesh Eaters (1962) that Kosleck will best be remembered by horror aficionados.

Wikipedia | IMDb

Grim’s Dyke is the name of a mock Tudor house and estate in Old Redding, Harrow Weald, in north-west London, England. The house was built from 1870 to 1872 by Richard Norman Shaw for painter Frederick Goodall and named after the nearby prehistoric earthwork known as Grim’s Ditch.

The house is best known as the home of the dramatist W.S. Gilbert of Gilbert and Sullivan, who lived there for the last two decades of his life. He died while attempting to save a girl from drowning in his huge lake. Lady Gilbert lived there until her death in 1936. The house was then used as a rehabilitation centre until 1963.

From 1963, the house was used mainly as a location for films and television. It was converted into Grim’s Dyke Hotel in 1970, but continues to be occasionally used as a film location.

Horror and thriller films shot in the house and its grounds were mainly Tigon productions such as  The Blood Beast Terror (1967), Curse of the Crimson Altar (1968), The Haunted House of Horrors (1969) and Cry of the Banshee (1970). Others include Naked Evil (1966, re-worked as Exorcism at Midnight in 1973) and Agatha Christie adaptation Endless Night (1971).

Curse of the Crimson Altar (1968)

Cult television series filmed at Grim’s Dyke include: Doctor Who: “The Evil of the Daleks” (1967), The Avengers, The Saint, The Champions, Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) and Department S.

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‘Even Van Gogh would lend an ear’

Color Me Blood Red is a 1964 – released 1965 – American splatter horror film written and directed by Herschell Gordon Lewis about a deranged painter who murders victims to use their blood as red paint. It is an uncredited take on themes from Charles B. Griffith and Roger Corman’s A Bucket of Blood (1959).

The film is the third part of what has been termed “The Blood Trilogy”, having been preceded by Blood Feast (1963) and Two Thousand Maniacs! (1964). David F. Friedman was again the producer.

Lensed in the early months of 1964, it was not released until October 1965 due to the Lewis and Freidman production split-up as well as legal issues over copyright. Prior to the film’s release, a novelization by Lewis was published.

Plot:

On the opening night of his one-man show at the Farnsworth Galleries, obsessive artist Adam Sorg is panned by a well-known art critic for having no sense of good colour. Sorg is initially incensed but also haughtily and defiantly amused.

Next day, when his live-in girlfriend model accidentally cuts herself he finds the new colour he has been seeking: blood red! He tries using his own blood to paint but is soon weak. Sorg begins to kill local teenagers for their blood so he can continue his new found artistic passion…

Reviews:

“Color Me Blood Red is tamer than most of Lewis’s other splatter films (relatively speaking) – not as many killings and everything taking place within the constraints of a plot. The downside of this is that the film’s relatively short 74 minute running time is padded out with numerous filler scenes with the teens running around the beach. There is also a frenetic lounge bar muzak score run over everything.” Richard Scheib, Moria

“The actors are sub-competent, but not on the excessive, hammy, stagebound level of their predecessors. In fact, very little distinguishes Color Me Blood Red from its parent productions except a lack of enthusiasm, brashness, and irreverence, something that can’t be said for the remainder of Lewis’ oeuvre.” Fred Beldin, AllMovie.com

“It’ll leave you aghast! cried the one sheet ad for Color Me blood Red, and maybe in 1965 it did. But, by today’s and Herschell Gordon Lewis’ standards, this film (my favorite among the Lewis titles) is really very tame. Producing only one truly sickening gore sequence, it was obvious that Lewis needed a new niche.” Christopher Wayne Curry, A Taste of Blood: The Films of Herschell Gordon Lewis

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“Color Me Blood Red features a manic lead performance from Gordon Oas-Heim and a beach setting that is somehow incredibly depressing. A strange film in that there’s nothing particularly good about it, yet it completely engrosses me with each viewing. This one isn’t especially praised by fans, so maybe save it for later.” Dave Jackson, Mondo Exploito

“The acting of course is horrible, almost on par with the acting found in most porno. Some of the FX are also laughable by today’s standards, but to fully respect a movie like this you have to go back to the 60’s this was new and fresh. Without directors like Herschell Gordon Lewis there certainly wouldn’t be an Eli Roth (sorry new school fans) or a Sam Raimi. Color Me Blood Red is a fun trip to the past though and it comes highly recommended…” Killion, HorrorNews.net

“… the funniest and least gory of the Blood Trilogy (there are a few gore scenes but only one is extreme). Overall, Color Me Blood Red is inferior to its predecessors on every level except humor, but I really liked it. It has an exuberant (if canned)60s jazz soundtrack. Other 60s camp comes from the copious shots of big cars, puffy hairdos and slang-speaking teens having fun in the sun. There’s even an element of the Beach Party movie here…” David Elroy Goldweber, Claws & Saucers

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Arrow Video presents fourteen of the Godfather of Gore’s most essential films (including nine Blu-ray world debuts), collected together in a Limited Edition set (only 2,500 in the U.S.) that’s packed full of eye-popping bonus content. So put your feet up, pour yourself a glass of good ol moonshine, and prepare yourself for a feast H.G. Lewis style!

• Fourteen of the Godfather of Gore’s finest attractions, newly restored from original and best surviving vault materials: Blood Feast, Scum of the Earth, Two Thousand Maniacs!, Moonshine Mountain, Color Me Blood Red, Something Weird, The Gruesome Twosome, A Taste of Blood, She-Devils on Wheels, Just for the Hell of It, How to Make a Doll, The Wizard of Gore, The Gore Gore Girls, This Stuff ‘ll Kill Ya!
• High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) and Standard Definition DVD presentation of the features and extras on 7 Blu-ray and 7 DVD discs
• Brand new introductions to the films by Lewis
• Hours of extras including newly-produced interviews and featurettes, commentaries, short films and much more
• Additional 2 bonus Blu-rays featuring 1.33:1 versions of Blood Feast, Scum of the Earth, Color Me Blood Red, A Taste of Blood and The Wizard of Gore [limited editions exclusive]
• Additional bonus DVD: Herschell Gordon Lewis: The Godfather of Gore documentary [limited editions exclusive]
• 28-page H.G. Lewis annual stuffed full with Lewis-themed activities plus archive promotional material [limited editions exclusive]
• Newly illustrated packaging by The Twins of Evil [Feast edition exclusive]

Choice dialogue:

Gigi: “You know if we get married, the first thing I’d do is… get a divorce!”

Adam Sorg: “F stands for… Farnsworth!”

Female teenager: “Like, I dig. Dig!”

Art critic: “I think, I would not like to be that man’s psychoanalyst.”

Jack: “Holy bananas! It’s a girl’s leg!”

Rolf: “Listen, pal, you’d be rude, too, if you saw your girl tied up, and a man with an axe in one hand and a bloody mess in the other. And a corpse outside there on the beach!”

Cast and characters:

• Gordon Oas-Heim as Adam Sorg
• Candi Conder as April Carter
• Elyn Warner as Gigi
• Pat Finn-Lee as Patricia Lee
• Jerome Eden as Rolf
• Scott H. Hall as Farnsworth
• Jim Jaekel as Jack
• Iris Marshall as Mrs. Carter

Filming locations:

Sarasota, Florida, USA

Wikipedia | IMDb

‘Warning: to every creature of flesh and blood! Beware the beat of the cloth-wrapped feet!’

The Mummy’s Shroud is a 1967 British supernatural horror film directed by John Gilling (The Night Caller; The Reptile; The Plague of the Zombies) from a screenplay co-written with Anthony Hinds. It was a Seven Arts -Hammer Film production.

It was the final Hammer production to be made at Bray Studios. It opened as part of a double-bill on the ABC cinema circuit with Terence Fisher’s Frankenstein Created Woman on 18 June 1967

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Main cast:

André Morell, David Buck, John Phillips, Maggie Kimberly, Elizabeth Sellars and Michael Ripper. Stuntman Eddie Powell (Christopher Lee’s regular stunt double) played the Mummy.

Plot:

Ancient Egypt: Prem (Dickie Owen), a manservant of Kah-To-Bey, spirited away the boy when his father (Bruno Barnabe) was killed in a palace coup and took him into the desert for protection. Unfortunately, the boy dies and is buried…

1920: An expedition led by scientist Sir Basil Walden (Andre Morell) and businessman Stanley Preston (John Phillips) is intent on finding the tomb. They ignore the dire warning issued to them by Hasmid (Roger Delgado), a local Bedouin about the consequences for those that violate the tombs of Ancient Egypt and remove the bodies and the sacred shroud. Sir Basil is bitten by a snake just after finding the tomb. He recovers, but has a relapse after arriving back in Cairo…

Reviews:

Gilling’s style surfaces most effectively in the murder sequences, using unusual angles to denote threat, high contrast between light and dark or a single primary colour, focus and wide angle lenses to skew perception … Unfortunately, there isn’t enough of his visual stamp on the film and a string of very wordy scenes are only intermittently punctuated by these exotic visuals and the pace of the film suffers. However, Gilling’s film is also blessed by some sensational performances.” Frank Collins, Cathode Ray Tube

” … Gilling understands this is basically pulp, and he treats it as such. The mummy attack scenes are a highlight: Gilling uses canted angles, dynamic compositions, and vivid colors to accompany the surprisingly brutal murders, lending the film an E.C. Comics vibe.” Jeff Kuykendall, Midnight Only

“Director John Gilling … brings the delightfully creepy atmosphere from his Cornish films and a competent sense of tension, despite the film’s predictability. Fortunately, The Mummy’s Shroud ends on a very high note, with one of the best conclusions in any of their Mummy films, which sort of makes up for its unnecessary prologue.” Sam Delghan, Diabolique magazine

Cast and characters:

• André Morell as Sir Basil Walden (as Andre Morell)
• John Phillips as Stanley Preston
• David Buck as Paul Preston
• Elizabeth Sellars as Barbara Preston
• Maggie Kimberly as Claire (as Maggie Kimberley)
• Michael Ripper as Longbarrow
• Tim Barrett as Harry
• Richard Warner as Inspector Barrani
• Roger Delgado as Hasmid
• Catherine Lacey as Haiti
• Dickie Owen as Prem
• Bruno Barnabe as Pharaoh
• Toni Gilpin as Pharaoh’s Wife
• Toolsie Persaud as Kah-to-Bey
• Eddie Powell as The Mummy

Comic strip adaptation:

The film was adapted into a 12-page comic strip for the December 1977 issue of the magazine House of Hammer (volume 2, #15, published by Top Sellers Limited). It was drawn by David Jackson from a script by Donne Avenell. The cover of the issue featured a painting by Brian Lewis, depicting a scene from the movie.

Filming locations:

Bray Film Studios
Wapsey’s Wood quarry at Gerrard’s Cross

Wikipedia | IMDb | Related: The Shuffling Saga of the Mummy on Screen – article by Daz Lawrence

Robert Albert Bloch (April 5, 1917 – September 23, 1994) was an American fiction writer, primarily of crime, horror, fantasy and science fiction, from Milwaukee,Wisconsin.

Bloch is best known as the writer of the 1959 novel Psycho, the basis for the 1960 film of the same name directed by Alfred Hitchcock. His work has been extensively adapted for the movies and television, comics and audio books.

His fondness for a pun is evident in the titles of his story collections such as Tales in a Jugular Vein, Such Stuff as Screams Are Made Of and Out of the Mouths of Graves.

Bloch wrote hundreds of short stories and over thirty novels. He was one of the youngest members of the Lovecraft Circle. H. P. Lovecraft was the young writer’s mentor and one of the first to seriously encourage his talent. However, while Bloch started his career by emulating Lovecraft and his brand of “cosmic horror”, he later specialized in crime and horror stories dealing with a more psychological approach.

Bloch was born in Chicago, the son of Raphael “Ray” Bloch (1884–1952), a bank cashier, and his wife Stella Loeb (1880–1944), a social worker, both of German Jewish descent. Bloch’s family moved to Maywood, a Chicago suburb, when he was five.

Formative Years and Early Career

At ten years of age, he attended a screening of The Phantom of the Opera (1925). The scene of Chaney removing his mask terrified the young Bloch and sparked his interest in horror.

In 1929, the Bloch family moved to Milwaukee. Robert attended Lincoln High School, where he met lifelong friend Harold Gauer. Gauer was editor of The Quill, and accepted Bloch’s first published work, a horror story titled “The Thing” (the “thing” of the title was Death).

Bloch’s first professional sales, at the age of 17 (July 1934), to Weird Tales, were the short stories “The Feast in the Abbey” and “The Secret in the Tomb”. “Feast…” appeared first, in the January 1935 issues which actually went on sale November 1, 1934; “Secret in the Tomb” appeared in the May 1935 Weird Tales.

Bloch’s early stories were strongly influenced by Lovecraft. Indeed, a number of his stories were set in, and extended, the world of Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos. These include “The Dark Demon”, in which the character Gordon is a figuration of Lovecraft, and which features Nyarlathotep; “The Faceless God”; “The Grinning Ghoul” and “The Unspeakable Betrothal”. It was Bloch who invented, for example, the oft-cited Mythos texts De Vermis Mysteriis and Cultes des Goules. Many other stories influenced by Lovecraft were later collected in Bloch’s volume Mysteries of the Worm.

After Lovecraft’s death in 1937, which affected Bloch deeply, Bloch broadened the scope of his fiction. His horror themes included voodoo (“Mother of Serpents”), the conte cruel (“The Mandarin’s Canaries”), demonic possession (“Fiddler’s Fee”), and black magic (“Return to the Sabbat”). Bloch visited Henry Kuttner in California in 1937. Bloch’s first science fiction story, “The Secret of the Observatory”, was published in Amazing Stories (August 1938).

In an Amazing Stories profile in 1938, accompanying his first published science fiction story, Bloch described himself as “tall, dark, unhandsome” with “all the charm and personality of a swamp adder”. He noted that “I hate everything”, but reserved particular dislike for “bean soup, red nail polish, house-cleaning, and optimists”

In 1944 Bloch was asked to write 39 15-minute episodes of a radio horror show called Stay Tuned for Terror. Many of the programs were adaptations of his own pulp stories. A year later, August Derleth’s Arkham House, published Bloch’s first collection of short stories, The Opener of the Way. At the same time, one of the first distinctly “Blochian” stories was “Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper”, which was published in Weird Tales in 1943.

The story was Bloch’s take on the Jack the Ripper legend, and was filled out with more genuine factual details of the case than many other fictional treatments. It cast the Ripper as an eternal being who must make human sacrifices to extend his immortality. It was adapted for both radio (in Stay Tuned for Terror) and television (as an episode of Thriller in 1961 adapted by Barré Lyndon).

Bloch followed up this story with a number of others in a similar vein dealing with half-historic, half-legendary figures such as the the Marquis de Sade (“The Skull of the Marquis de Sade”, 1945) and Lizzie Borden (“Lizzie Borden Took an Axe…”, 1946).

Bloch’s first novel was the thriller The Scarf (1947). (He later issued a revised edition in 1966). It tells the story of a writer, Daniel Morley, who uses real women as models for his characters. But as soon as he is done writing the story, he is compelled to murder them, and always the same way: with the maroon scarf he has had since childhood.

With the demise of Weird Tales, Bloch continued to have his fiction published in Amazing, Fantastic, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, and Fantastic Universe; he was a particularly frequent contributor to Imagination and Imaginative Tales. His output of thrillers increased and he began to appear regularly in such suspense and horror-fiction magazine projects as Shock.

Jack the Ripper

Bloch continued to revisit the Jack the Ripper theme. His contribution to Harlan Ellison’s 1967 science fiction anthology Dangerous Visions was a story, “A Toy for Juliette”, which evoked both Jack the Ripper and the Marquis de Sade in a time-travel story. His earlier idea of the Ripper as an immortal being resurfaced in Bloch’s contribution to the original Star Trek series episode “Wolf in the Fold”.

His 1984 novel Night of the Ripper is set during the reign of Queen Victoria and follows the investigation of Inspector Frederick Abberline in attempting to apprehend the Ripper, and includes some famous Victorians such as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle within the storyline.

Psycho (1959 novel)

Norman Bates, the main character in Psycho, was very loosely based on two people. First was the real-life serial killer Ed Gein, about whom Bloch later wrote a fictionalized account, “The Shambles of Ed Gein”. Second, it has been indicated by several people, as well as allegedly by Bloch himself, that Norman Bates was partly based on Calvin Beck, publisher of Castle of Frankenstein.

Bloch has also, however, commented that it was the situation itself – a mass murderer living undetected and unsuspected in a typical small town in middle America – rather than Gein himself who sparked Bloch’s storyline. He writes: “Thus the real-life murderer was not the role model for my character Norman Bates. Ed Gein didn’t own or operate a motel. Ed Gein didn’t kill anyone in the shower. Ed Gein wasn’t into taxidermy. Ed Gein didn’t stuff his mother, keep her body in the house, dress in a drag outfit, or adopt an alternative personality. These were the functions and characteristics of Norman Bates, and Norman Bates didn’t exist until I made him up. Out of my own imagination, I add, which is probably the reason so few offer to take showers with me.”

The novel is one of the first examples at full length of Bloch’s use of modern urban horror relying on the horrors of interior psychology rather than the supernatural. “By the mid-1940s, I had pretty well mined the vein of ordinary supernatural themes until it had become varicose,” Bloch explained to Douglas E. Winter in an interview. “I realized, as a result of what went on during World War II and of reading the more widely disseminated work in psychology, that the real horror is not in the shadows, but in that twisted little world inside our own skulls.” While Bloch was not the first horror writer to utilise a psychological approach (that honour belongs to Edgar Allan Poe), Bloch’s psychological approach in modern times was comparatively unique.

Bloch’s agent, Harry Altshuler, received a “blind bid” for the novel – the buyer’s name wasn’t mentioned – of $7,500 for screen rights to the book. The bid eventually went to $9,500, which Bloch accepted. Bloch had never sold a book to Hollywood before. His contract with Simon & Schuster included no bonus for a film sale. The publisher took 15 percent according to contract, while the agent took his 10%; Bloch wound up with about $6,750 before taxes. Despite the enormous profits generated by Hitchcock’s film, Bloch received no further direct compensation.

Only Hitchcock’s film was based on Bloch’s novel. The later films in the Psycho series bear no relation to either of Bloch’s sequel novels. Indeed, Bloch’s proposed script for the film Psycho II was rejected by the studio, and it was this that he subsequently adapted for his own sequel novel.

The 1960s: Hollywood and screenwriting

TV work included ten episodes of Thriller (1960–62, several based on his own stories), and ten episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1960–62). In 1962, he wrote the screenplay for The Cabinet of Caligari (1962), an unhappy experience.

In 1962, Bloch penned the story and teleplay “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” for Alfred Hitchcock Presents. The episode was shelved when the NBC Television Network and sponsor Revlon called its ending “too gruesome” for airing. Bloch was pleased later when the episode was included in the program’s syndication package to affiliate stations where not one complaint was registered. Today, due to its public domain status, the episode is readily available in home media formats from numerous distributors and free video on demand.

Bloch wrote original screenplays for two movies produced and directed by showman William Castle, Strait-Jacket (1963) and The Night Walker (1964).

Freddie Francis directed British production The Skull (1965) was based on his short story “The Skull of the Marquis de Sade” but penned by Milton Subotsky. Bloch went on to write five feature movies for Amicus Productions: The Psychopath, The Deadly Bees, Torture Garden, The House That Dripped Blood and Asylum. The last two films featured stories written by Bloch that were printed first in anthologies he wrote in the 1940s and early 1950s.

In 1968 Bloch contributed two episodes for the Hammer Films series Journey to the Unknown for Twentieth Century Fox. One of the episodes, “The Indian Spirit Guide”, was included in the TV movie Journey to Midnight (1968).

The 1970s and ’80s

During the 1970s Bloch wrote two TV movies for director Curtis Harrington – The Cat Creature and The Dead Don’t Die. The Cat Creature was an unhappy production experience for Bloch. Producer Doug Cramer wanted to do an update of Cat People (1942), the Val Lewton classic. Bloch says: “Instead I suggested a blending of the elements of several well-remembered films, and came up with a storyline which dealt with the Egyptian cat-goddess (Bast), reincarnation and the first bypass operation ever performed on an artichoke heart.” A detailed account of the troubled production of the film is described in Bloch’s autobiography, Once Around the Bloch.

Buy: Amazon.co.uk

Meanwhile, (interspersed between his screenplays for Amicus Productions), Bloch penned single episodes for TV series Night Gallery (1971), Ghost Story (1972) and Gemini Man (1976).

His numerous novels of this two decade include horror novels such as the Lovecraftian Strange Eons (1978); the non-supernatural mystery There is a Serpent in Eden (1979); his two sequels to the original Psycho (Psycho II and Psycho House), and late novels such as the thriller Lori (1989) and The Jekyll Legacy with Andre Norton (1991). Omnibus editions of hard-to-acquire early novels appeared as Unholy Trinity (1986) and Screams (1989).

Bloch’s screenplay-writing career continued active through the 1980s, with teleplays for Tales of the Unexpected (one episode, 1980), Darkroom (two episodes, 1981), Alfred Hitchcock Presents (one episode, 1986), Tales from the Darkside (three episodes, 1984–87) and Monsters (three episodes, 1988–1989 – “Beetles”, “A Case of the Stubborns” and “Everybody needs a Little Love”). No further screen work appeared in the last five years before his death, although an adaptation of his “collaboration” with Edgar Allan Poe, “The Lighthouse”, was filmed as an episode of The Hunger in 1998.

In 1994, Bloch died of cancer at the age of 77 in Los Angeles after a writing career lasting 60 years, including more than 30 years in television and film.

Wikipedia | Image credits: Too Much Horror Fiction

Modern Monsters is a 1966 American magazine that ran for for four issues in 1966 (the first issue was named Modern Monster). It was published by Prestige Publications and edited by Jim Matthews, with Gunther Collins and Don Glut as assistant editors.

Cover art was by Larry Byrd or Jerry Kay and contents of each issue included the usual mix of profiles of new releases (such as The Beast of Yucca Flats), interviews with stars such as Nick Adams and Glenn Strange, retrospective pieces on classic horror movies (such as King Kong, Murders in the Rue Morgue), plus lots of images.

Each issue included a colour fold-out poster. Ads included items such as a two disc album of Christopher Lee reading Dracula, monster masks, hands and feet, a Shrunken Head and I-Scream Spoons.

Buy: Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

Image credits: Monster Magazines

Daughter of the Mind is a made-for-television American horror suspense film directed by Walter Grauman (Are You in the House Alone?; Crowhaven Farm) from a screenplay by Luther Davis (Arsenic and Old Lace; Lady in a Cage).

The film was first broadcast on ABC on December 9, 1969 as the ABC Movie of the Week. It has never been released officially on VHS or DVD, although a number of pirate versions have circulated over the years.

Main cast:

Don Murray (The Stepford Children; Conquest of the Planet of the Apes), Ray Milland, Gene Tierney, Edward Asner and Pamelyn Ferdin (The Toolbox Murders).

Plot:

At the request of a colleague (George Macready), psychologist and ESP researcher Alex Lauder (Don Murray) investigates leading cybernetic expert Dr. Samuel Constable’s report that he has seen and spoken with his young daughter, Mary (Pamelyn Ferdin) — who died thirteen weeks previously. Keeping an open mind, Lauder decides to take the case and see wherever it may lead…

Review:

Daughter of the Mind, based on Paul Gallico’s 1964 novel, The Hand of Mary Constable, is not only one of the earliest offerings from the classic ABC Movie of the Week program, but it’s also one of the earliest made-for-TV examples of what has become a pop-culture stalwart: the “scientific” paranormal investigator. ABC was beaten to that conceptual punch, though, when NBC aired only ten months before, in March of 1969, Fear No Evil, starring Louis Jourdan as Dr. David Sorell, a psychiatrist turned occult researcher.

However, where the Jourdan vehicle spawned a sequel, Daughter of the Mind did not; but, unlike Fear No Evil, this ABC production became part of a more enduring TV legacy by prepping the network’s viewers for a more abiding supernatural detective legacy.

Ray Milland guest stars as Samuel Constable, the cyber expert whose work is being syphoned off by the military for use in weapons development; only weeks before, his daughter, Mary (Pamelyn Ferdin), died in a car accident, leaving Samuel distraught, confused, and easily manipulated. Looking for answers, Dr. Frank Ferguson (George Macready), a friend of Constable’s, asks for the assistance of his colleague in paranormal investigation, Dr. Alex Lauder (Don Murray), who occupies virtually the same fictional space as Dr., Sorell from Fear No Evil. Lauder arrives at Constable’s house asking questions of the occupants and gently probing for possible material explanations of the supernatural events while engaging in tempered debate over the origin and legitimacy of paranormal experiences.

Though relatively open-minded on the subject, Dr. Lauder comes off as a more determined skeptic than other occult researches of the time; his focus is objectivity, his goal is the truth, regardless of where that leads, and he won’t stop his line of materialist inquiry until a detached conclusion has been reached, all of which gives him a slightly more scrupulous persona than his later heirs tend to have.

His skepticism becomes bruised, however, when he hears Mary’s voice and sees her ghostly image for himself while staying at Constable’s house for investigative purposes. After Constable is awakened in the middle of the night by Mary’s plaintive calls, Constable arouses Lauder via radio, telling him that his daughter is back and calling for him again; in the deeply shadowed hallway, they hear her voice, but this time it’s coming from the room Constable’s wife, Lenore (Gene Tierney), used for sculpting before her hands became too arthritic for such work. Once inside, they watch Mary’s floating image as she tells Constable that an unnamed “they” on the other side say that his “war work” is wrong, and “they” won’t let her come back to visit him if he doesn’t stop. Both Constable and Lauder are speechless as she gives them this oddly pacifist warning before vanishing.

It’s at this point that the viewer begins to feel a twinge of the inauthentic; are we being played? Is all this being staged, perhaps by Lenore who may want Constable to end his work and pay more attention to her? Later on, more encounters follow, sprinkled in between scenes involving cold war machinations associated with near nervous breakdowns, Lauder’s race to discover what’s really going on, and more claims from an apparitional Mary that the mysterious “they” on the other side desperately want her daddy to stop all this “war work”.

Cinematographer, Jack Woolf, expertly keeps the visuals murky and the shadows ubiquitous, and, at times, even partially shades the actor’s faces; this reinforces the mysterious tone of the film, causing the viewer to subconsciously wonder whether all of this ghost talk is legit or not while simultaneously experiencing a distinct chill factor.

Director Walter Grauman, no slouch when it comes to high-quality TV production, turns in a fine directorial effort once again, pulling out a nice, even pacing and competent performances from the cast, especially the two leads, Don Murray, who’s character exudes soft edges but an uncompromising mind, and Ray Milland, who brings his lifetime of solid acting experience into a role that could have easily been clunky; Milland’s sincere delivery of lines about an alligator, a teddy bear, a turkey, and a stuffed squirrel are emotionally real and earnest without being cloying and silly. Pamelyn Ferdin’s turn as Mary Constable is natural and heart-felt, expressing a longing and sadness one would expect from a forlorn ghost, although Milland does seem to be a bit too old to be her father.

Luther Davis, another highly capable and long-standing hand in the entertainment business, contributes a thoroughly solid script based on Gallico’s book. While the plot from the novel is necessarily truncated, Davis gives the characters enough room to breathe while keeping the uncertainty prominent, the tension building, and the unease prevalent.

The one let-down of the film is the ending; while satisfying for some who don’t buy into the creep-factor and like their ghost stories nicely cleaned-up and put to bed at the end, it winds up being a major disappointment for those who prefer their paranormal investigations with a little more shivery bite. Fortunately, it’s worth it to ignore the finale as if it never happened, and enjoy the rest of the movie for the top-notch genre entertainment that it is.

Ben Spurling, Horrorpedia.com

Other reviews:

“On its somewhat flat made-for-TV surface, Daughter of the Mind is simply a cold war mystery with a paranormal twist but Ray Milland’s sensitive portrayal of a grieving parent gives it an unexpected poignancy. At one point Tierney’s character describes her husband as a man who “wants so badly for the dead not to be dead” and over the course of the film you become keenly aware that she quietly shares his pain. At its core, this a movie about the complex ways in which we mourn and our inability to abandon the ones we love, even after death.” Kimberly Lindbergs, Movie Morlocks

“It makes sense to me that many of those who saw this flick in their youth have zero recollection of the whole “world peace hangs in the balance” espionage sub-plot that makes off with the movie like a thief in the night. The supposed supernatural elements, the seances, the visions of that little girl lost in an unexplainable other world are truly haunting and linger long after the scientific explanations fade away.” Kindertrauma

“The ending is not what it should have been, but I remember getting the shivers when first watching it.” Michael Karol, The ABC Movie of the Week Companion

Buy: Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

Cast and characters:

• Don Murray as Alex Lauder
• Ray Milland as Professor Samuel Constable
• Gene Tierney as Lenore Constable
• Barbara Dana as Tina Cryder
• Edward Asner as Wiener
• Pamelyn Ferdin as Mary
• Ivor Barry as Dr. Cryder
• Virginia Christine as Helga
• George Macready as Dr. Frank Ferguson
• William Beckley as Bessemer
• John Carradine as Bosch
• Cecil Ozorio as Devi Bessimer
• Frank Maxwell as Augstadt
• Bill Hickman as Enemy Agent

Wikipedia | IMDb | Image credits: Movie Morlocks

The Hands of Orlac – aka Les Mains d’Orlac – is a 1960 French-British horror film directed by Edmond T. Gréville from a screenplay co-written with Donald Taylor and John V. Baines, based on Maurice Renard’s novel. In the US, the film was reissued as Hands of the Strangler.

Renard’s novel had been adapted previously for cinema. There is a 1924 Austrian version directed by Robert Weine and starring Conrad Veidt, and, Mad Love, the 1935 American version, directed by Karl Freund and starring Peter Lorre. Both are better regarded than this interpretation.

Main cast: 

Mel Ferrer (Nightmare City; Blood and Roses), Christopher Lee, Dany Carrel (Mill of the Stone Women), Lucile Saint-Simon, Felix Aylmer, Donald Wolfit (Blood of the Vampire), Donald Pleasence. David Peel, who plays the airline pilot, starred in The Brides of Dracula the same year.

Plot:

Lauded concert pianist Stephen Orlac  insists on flying from London back to Paris to marry beautiful Louise Cochrane. However, the small aircraft he has hired crashes in fog. Next day, newspapers run two headlines next to each other: the ruin of his hands, as well as the execution of the strangler Louis Vasseur. Orlac’s mind begins to crack.

Henceforth, Nero, a magician and conman, attempts to blackmail Orlac and drive him insane…

Reviews:

“Despite the datedness of the filmmakers’ approach, there are some moments when The Hands of Orlac is inadvertently modern almost despite itself, such as the frequent use of mirror-based compositions and the strangler’s fetishistic gloves, both of which seem to foreshadow 1970s gialli. One place where the filmmakers make a more conscious effort to be contemporary is in their choice of a jazz-based score.” Keith Brown, Cinefantastique

” … the highly professional finish Greville brings to the proceedings, and the fact that it works on technical and artistic levels, prevents it from being called a bad film, and therefore, it certainly wouldn’t qualify on a ‘worst of British’ list … but its mediocrity, and inability to make usage of all the ‘right ingredients’, is in some ways worse.” Drewe Shimon, BritMovie.co.uk

“Slightly dull remake of 1924 classic, Hands of Orlac has great cast but fails on most levels. Watch other remake Mad Love (1935) instead.” The Spooky Isles

“The whole idea is more than a little silly and never rings true in a psychological sense, either … Claude Bolling’s jazzy score is more enjoyable.” Mike Mayo, The Horror Show Guide

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

Cast and characters:

• Mel Ferrer … Stephen Orlac
• Christopher Lee … Nero the magician
• Dany Carrel … Régina / Li-Lang
• Lucile Saint-Simon … Louise Cochrane Orlac
• Felix Aylmer … Dr. Francis Cochrane
• Peter Reynolds … Mr. Felix
• Basil Sydney … Maurice Seidelman
• Campbell Singer … Inspector Henderson
• Donald Wolfit … Professor Volchett
• Donald Pleasence … Graham Coates
• Peter Bennett … 1st Member
• George Merritt … 2nd Member
• Arnold Diamond … Dresser
• Janina Faye … Child
• Gertan Klauber … Fairground attendant
• Mireille Perrey … Madame Aliberti
• David Peel … Airplane’s pilot
• Walter Randall … Waiter
• Anita Sharp-Bolster … Volchett’s Assistant
• Manning Wilson … Inspector Jagger
• Yanilou … Emilie
• Edouard Hemme … Auge
• Charles Lamb … Guard

Wikipedia | IMDb

Tore Johansson (19 October 1903 – 12 May 1971), better known by the stage name Tor Johnson, was a Swedish professional wrestler (billed as The Super Swedish Angel) and actor. He appeared in many B-movies, including three Edward D. Wood, Jr. films.

Johnson weighed 181 kilograms (400 pounds) at his heaviest. He had a full head of black hair, but shaved it to maintain an imposing and villainous appearance in his wrestling and acting work.

Terrorising Loretta King in Bride of the Monster (1955)

Tor began getting bit parts in films upon moving to California, usually as the strongman or weightlifter, as early as 1934.

During his career as an actor, Johnson befriended director Edward D. Wood, Jr., who directed him in a number of films, including Bride of the Monster and Plan 9 from Outer Space. He was apparently very friendly to work with, actress Valda Hansen described him as “like a big sugar bun.” 

Lon Chaney Jr., Tor Johnson and Bela Lugosi enjoy lunch during The Black Sleep (1956)

His film career ended in the early 1960s, after he appeared in a string of poverty row films, with The Beast of Yucca Flats being the nadir as his role required no dialogue. However, Johnson continued to make occasional appearances on television and made a number of commercials.

During this period, Johnson appeared as a guest contestant on the quiz show You Bet Your Life, during which he showed the show’s host, Groucho Marx, his “scariest face.” Marx ran off the stage in mock terror, then returned and pleaded: “Don’t make that face again!”

In 1971, Johnson died from heart failure at the San Fernando Valley Hospital in San Fernando, California.

In Mad Max (1979), Mel Gibson wears a Tor Johnson mask to cheer up his wife!

Johnson was portrayed by wrestler George “The Animal” Steele in Tim Burton’s film Ed Wood (1994).

Johnson was featured extensively in the early work of cartoonist Drew Friedman. The comics supposedly follow Johnson as he becomes involved in various seedy adventures.

The Unearthly

Selected filmography:

1944:
Ghost Catchers – Mug
The Canterville Ghost – Bold Sir Guy

1955:
Bride of the Monster – Lobo

1956:
The Black Sleep – Mr. Curry

1957:

Plan 9 from Outer Space (released 1959) – Inspector Daniel Clay
The Unearthly – Lobo

1958:
Night of the Ghouls (released 1959) – Lobo

1961:
The Beast of Yucca Flats – Joseph Javorsky / The Beast

‘An experiment of terror! A result of horror!’

Creature of the Walking Dead is a 1965 American film adapted by Jerry Warren (Face of the Screaming Werewolf; Curse of the Stone Hand; Teenage Zombies) from a 1961 Mexican horror film La Marca del Muerto (“The Mark of Death”) directed by Fernando Cortés.

The screenplay for the 1961 Mexican original was by José María Fernández Unsáin (Madness from Terror; Museum of Horror; The Ship of Monsters).

Jerry Warren’s direct contributions to the film were extensive editing, minimalist dubbing of the Mexican players in select scenes, voice-over narration of the majority of Mexican footage, and the filming and inclusion of several brief scenes and shots made by Warren in the United States with American actors.

Plot:

Dr. Malthus, a 19th-century mad scientist, discovers the secret of eternal youth by means of draining the blood of young women into his subjects. He is hung for his crimes, but his grandson inherits his home and revives him. Malthus then resumes his rejuvenation activities, enabled by the grandson…

Reviews:

“The scenes that were cut in by Jerry Warren were unnecessary and throwaway, not really adding anything to the film, though not really taking anything away either (except the scenes that were literally cut away). The only thing that saves this movie is what little brilliance from director Fernando Cortés’ original vision remains.” The Telltale Mind

“But, hell, it is boring. Long drawn out scenes and a story that just seems to drag along (even though the film is relatively short at under 70 minutes). The voiceover fills the viewer with dread and there is little to recommend this cut. How the proper Mexican version would fair is another question.” Taliesin Meets the Vampires

“Cortes’ customary pedestrian direction … fails to endow the banal story with the sense of patriarchal perversion it so badly needs.”The Aurum Film Encyclopedia: Horror

Cast and characters:

• Fernando Casanova as Dr. Malthus (both)
• Aurora Alvarado
• Rosa María Gallardo

and (in added sequences or advertising):

• Rock Madison (a fictional actor’s name used for advertising purposes only)
• Ann Wells as Girl on telephone
• George Todd
• Willard Gross
• Bruno VeSota
• Lloyd Nelson
• Robert Christopher
• Chuck Niles
• Katherine Victor as Mrs. Roger Verno
• Fred Hoffman
• Lloyd Nelson

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

Herschell Gordon Lewis (June 15, 1929 – September 26, 2016) was an American filmmaker, best known for creating the “splatter” subgenre of horror films.

He is often referred to as the “Godfather of Gore”, though his film career has included works in a range of exploitation film genres including juvenile delinquent films, nudie-cuties, two children’s films and at least one rural comedy.

Herschell Gordon Lewis was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1929. His father died when he was six years old. His mother never remarried; and his family then moved to Chicago.

After graduating from high school, Lewis received a master’s degree in Journalism at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. A few years later, he became a professor of English literature at Mississippi State University.

In 1953, Lewis began working for a friend’s advertising agency in Chicago while teaching graduate advertising courses at night at Roosevelt University. He began directing TV commercial advertisements.

Lewis served as producer on his first film venture, The Prime Time (1959). He would assume directing duties on nearly all of his films from then on. His first in a lengthy series of collaborations with exploitation producer David F. Friedman, Living Venus (1961), was a fictitious account based on the story of Hugh Hefner and the beginnings of Playboy.

The two continued with a series of erotic films in the early 1960s. Typical of these nudies were the comedies Boin-n-g! (1963) and The Adventures of Lucky Pierre (1961).

With the nudie market beginning to wane, Lewis and Friedman entered into uncharted territory with 1963’s seminal Blood Feast, considered by most critics to be the first “gore” film.

Incredibly cheap and cheesy, the film nonetheless stunning audiences with the jaw-dropping gore on display. They formed queues at drive-ins to see it. The splatter sub-genre was born!

The far superior Two Thousand Maniacs! (1964) followed, with a whole town getting in on the mayhem. And this one included great singalong ditty ‘The South’s Gonna Rise Again’

Color Me Blood Red (1965) followed the same formula but was about a deranged artist and more low key. Still, the full-color gore on display in these films caused a sensation, with horror film-makers throughout the world gradually saturating their productions with similarly shocking visual effects.

Outside the gore sub-genre, Lewis pursued a wide gamut of other exploitation avenues. Some of the subjects he explored include juvenile delinquency (Just for the Hell of It, 1968), wife swapping (Suburban Roulette, 1968), the corruption of the music industry (Blast-Off Girls, 1967), and birth control (The Girl, the Body, and the Pill, 1967).

He was also not above tapping the children’s market, as with Jimmy the Boy Wonder (1966) and The Magic Land of Mother Goose (1967), which were padded out to feature film length by incorporating long foreign-made cartoons.

Lewis financed and produced nearly all of his own movies with funds he made from his successful advertising firm based in Chicago. Always resourceful despite the low budgets he worked with, Lewis purchased the rights to an unfinished Bill Rebane film and completed it himself, re-titling the film Monster a Go-Go (1965). This approach demonstrated Lewis’s business savvy; by owning the rights to both features, he knew he would not get fleeced by theaters juggling the box office returns, a common practice at that time.

Lewis’s third gore phase served to push the genre into even more outrageous shock territory. Starting with The Gruesome Twosome (1967), he went onto The Wizard of Gore (1968, released 1970) featured a stage magician who would mutilate his volunteers severely through a series of merciless routines.

By The Gore Gore Girls (1972) he had begun to lampoon himself and this last dark comedy would mark his semi-retirement from film altogether. He decided to leave the filmmaking industry to work in copywriting and direct marketing, a subject on which he published several books in the 1980s.

Meanwhile, throughout the 1980s and 1990s, interest in his splatter movies continued to grow as more and more horror fans began to appreciate the naive charm of his outlandish oeuvre. Sequels to Two Thousand Maniacs! and a remake of The Wizard of Gore proved that Lewis’ lasting influence on the horror genre had been firmly established.

In 2002, Lewis himself was finally drawn back into the film world, released his first film in thirty years, Blood Feast 2: All U Can Eat, a sequel to the first film. It featured a cameo appearance by John Waters, a devotee of Lewis’ work.

In 2016, he proved to still be a draw as Canadian anthology movie Herschell Gordon Lewis’ BloodMania was filmed with his name as part of the title. The same year, Blood Feast was remade in France with a small cameo role for Lewis. He was still enjoying being the Godfather of Gore!

Wikipedia | IMdb | Official website

Posted in tribute to Herschell Gordon Lewis, who died today.

Pic by Ralph Fountain

Ted V. Mikels (born Theodore Mikacevich; April 29, 1929 – October 16, 2016) was an American independent filmmaker primarily known for his horror movies such as The Astro-Zombies and The Corpse Grinders, although he also directed cult action-exploitation movies such as Girl in Gold Boots (1968) and The Doll Squad (1973).

During his grade school years, he was an amateur photographer who developed his own film in his bathtub. By the age of 15, he was a regular stage performer and developed an interest in filmmaking when he attempted to shoot his performances.

In the 1950s, Mikels moved to Bend, Oregon and founded his own film production company. Soon, he began producing both educational documentaries, and short dramatic features. Additionally, as horseman, archery expert, Indian and stuntman, he contributed to the production of several Hollywood films made in the area.

Although his late ’60s and early ’70s horror output was decidedly low-budget, the movies he created had an undeniable quirkiness and charm that gave them a cinematic lifespan that eventually led to cult status, belated sequels and, in the case of The Corpse Eaters, a remake.

In 1993, Mikels began running run TVM Studios, a film and video production studio based in Las Vegas, Nevada.

In 2010, he released the third installment in his Astro-Zombies franchise, Astro-Zombies M3: Cloned, followed two years later by Astro-Zombies M4: Invaders from Cyberspace.

Select filmography:

1963: Strike Me Deadly

1964: Dr. Sex

1965: One Shocking Moment

1968: Girl in Gold Boots

1968: The Astro-Zombies

1971: The Corpse Grinders

1973: Blood Orgy of the She-Devils

1973: Children Shouldn’t Play with Dead Things (co-executive producer)

1973: The Doll Squad

1977: The Worm Eaters (producer)

1982: The Aftermath

1982: 10 Violent Women

1998: Dimensions in Fear

2002: The Corpse Grinders 2

2003: Chimera (short)

2004: Cauldron: Baptism of Blood

2004: Mark of the Astro-Zombies

2008: The Wild World of Ted V. Mikels (documentary)

2009: Demon Haunt

2010: Astro-Zombies M3: Cloned

2012: Astro-Zombies M4: Invaders from Cyberspace

2015: Paranormal Extremes: Text Messages from the Dead

2016: The Corpse Grinders (executive producer and cameo role)

Wikipedia | IMDb

The Witching Hour was an American comic book horror anthology published by DC Comics from 1969 to 1978.

The series was published for eighty-five issues from February–March 1969 to October 1978. The comic’s initial tagline was “It’s 12 o’clock… The Witching Hour!” until it was changed to “It’s midnight…” from issue #14 onwards.

The series was originally edited by Dick Giordano, who was replaced by Murray Boltinoff with issue #14. Stories in the comic were “hosted” and introduced by three witches, based on Macbeth‘s Weird Sisters: Morded, Mildred, and Cynthia. The witches defined the archetypal Maiden/Mother/Crone—in reverse order—triumvirate of womanhood.

Writers who worked on the comic included Alex Toth, Dennis O’Neil, Gerry Conway, Steve Skeates, Marv Wolfman, George Kashdan and Carl Wessler. Nick Cardy was a key inker/penciller.

After The Witching Hour’s cancellation in 1978, the title was merged with The Unexpected, until issue #209.

Wikipedia | Image thanks: Comic Vine (visit to see the full selection of covers)

‘Beware the stare that will paralyze the will of the world’

Village of the Damned is a 1960 British science fiction horror film by German director Wolf Rilla. The film is adapted from the novel The Midwich Cuckoos (1957) by John Wyndham (Web). 

A sequel, Children of the Damned (1963), followed, as did a remake by John Carpenter, also titled Village of the Damned (1995).

The film was originally a 1957 American project, to be filmed at the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios in Culver City, California. Ronald Colman was contracted for the leading role, but MGM shelved the project, bowing to pressure from religious groups that objected to the apparently sinister depiction of virgin birth.

Ronald Colman died in May 1958—by coincidence, his widow, actress Benita Hume, married actor George Sanders in 1959, and the latter was cast in the role that Colman was originally due to play. The film was transferred to the MGM British Studios.

The blonde wigs that the children wore were padded to give the impression that they had abnormally large heads. The children were lit in such a way as to cause the irises and pupils of their eyes to merge into a large black disc against the whites of their eyes, to give them an eerie look. The American release includes shots where the children’s eyes actually glow.

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Main cast:

George Sanders (Psychomania; The Lodger), Barbara Shelley, (The Gorgon; Blood of the Vampire; Cat Girl) Martin Stephens, Michael Gwynn (Scars of Dracula; What a Carve Up), Laurence Naismith, Richard Warner.

Opening plot:

The inhabitants of the British village of Midwich suddenly fall unconscious, as does anyone entering the village. The military establishes a cordon around Midwich and sends in a man wearing a gas mask, but he, too, falls unconscious and is pulled back with rope. The man awakens and reports experiencing a cold sensation just before passing out. The pilot of a military reconnaissance plane is contacted and asked to investigate. When he flies below 5,000 feet, he loses consciousness and the plane crashes. A five-mile exclusion zone around the village is established for all aircraft. The villagers regain consciousness and apparently are unaffected.

Two months later, all women and girls of childbearing age in the affected area are discovered to be pregnant, sparking many accusations of infidelity and extramarital sex. The accusations fade as the extraordinary nature of the pregnancies is discovered, with seven-month fetuses appearing after only five months.

All the women give birth on the same day. Their children have an unusual appearance, including “arresting” eyes, odd scalp hair construction and colour (platinum blond), and unusually narrow fingernails. As they grow and develop at a rapid rate, it becomes clear they also have a powerful telepathic bond with one another. They can communicate with each other over great distances, and as one learns something, so do the others…

Contemporary reviews:

“As a horror film with a difference it’ll give you the creeps for 77 minutes.” Dilys Powell, The Sunday Times, 20 June 1960

” …as a quietly civilized exercise in the fear and power of the unknown this picture is one of the trimmest, most original and serenely unnerving little chillers in a long time” Howard Thompson, New York Times, 8 Dec 1960

Other reviews:

“This is a horror milestone, not just for its unique concept, but also for the director’s willingness to push the standards of the day at the conclusion of film, which was (and remains) anything but formulaic … Any true horror fan must take a trip back through time once in awhile to remind himself/herself how the genre progressed through the ages and appreciate the particulars of a bygone era.” John Strand, Horror Freak News

“With a chilling performance from Martin Stephens as David, the outspoken leader of the children, Village of the Damned is an incredibly effective thriller. It helps that the film is focused on a group of mind controlling children, always a great choice to sends shivers up someone’s spine” The Film Reel

“Besides a strong cast, who play their parts without a hint of campiness, Village of the Damned also possesses powerful direction from Wolf Rilla. The scenes are crisp and subtle. There is very little onscreen violence, but suspense and suggestion are used competently. Even without a lot of action, we never lose interest in the story.” Exclamation Mark

“The film is remarkably faithful to the novel, but Rilla’s direction is surprisingly pedestrian, failing to make enough of the enigmatic world Wyndham creates.” The Aurum Film Encyclopedia: Science Fiction

Cast and characters:

• George Sanders as Gordon Zellaby
• Barbara Shelley as Anthea Zellaby
• Martin Stephens as David Zellaby
• Michael Gwynn as Alan Bernard
• Laurence Naismith as Doctor Willers
• Richard Warner as Harrington
• Jenny Laird as Mrs. Harrington
• Sarah Long as Evelyn Harrington
• Thomas Heathcote as James Pawle
• Charlotte Mitchell as Janet Pawle
• Pamela Buck as Milly Hughes
• Rosamund Greenwood as Miss Ogle
• Susan Richards as Mrs. Plumpton
• Bernard Archard as Vicar
• Peter Vaughan as P.C. Gobby
• John Phillips as General Leighton
• Richard Vernon as Sir Edgar Hargraves
• John Stuart as Professor Smith
• Keith Pyott as Dr. Carlisle

Filming locations:

The village of Letchmore Heath, near Watford. Local buildings, such as The Three Horseshoes Pub and Aldenham School, were used during filming.

Influence:

• The climactic scene in which the children break down Zellaby’s mental brick wall is #92 on the Bravo miniseries 100 Scariest Movie Moments.
• The film is parodied in “Wild Barts Can’t Be Broken,” the eleventh episode of the tenth season of American animated series The Simpsons, as a horror movie titled The Bloodening.

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

Robert Francis Vaughn (November 22, 1932 – November 11, 2016) was an American actor. His best-known TV roles include suave spy Napoleon Solo in the 1960s series The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and wealthy detective Harry Rule in the 1970s series The Protectors.

In more recent times, as grifter and card sharp Albert Stroller, Vaughn appeared in all but one of the 48 episodes of the British television drama series Hustle (2004–2012).

In film, he portrayed skittish gunman Lee in The Magnificent Seven, the voice of Proteus IV, the computer villain of Demon Seed, racist Walter Chalmers in Bullitt, and Ross Webster in Superman III.

After initial appearances in a swathe of TV series, one of Vaughn’s first notable movie roles was as a very verbal “questioning” and “wondering” post-apocalypse caveman in Roger Corman’s 1958 production Teenage Cave Man, a film that clearly ponders conformity and religious repression.

Originally titled Prehistoric World, distributors AIP changed the film’s moniker to reflect the 50s vogue for youth orientated drive-in fare. Clearly, Vaughn was no teen. And his clean cut image and slicked back hair was hardly the look of a cave dweller. Yet, his sardonic performance in this low-budget prehistoric philosophical romp already showed that this was an assertive actor destined for many notable roles to follow.

Horror and sci-fi fans may recall the ever-busy actor in the following roles:

Selected filmography:

Starship Invaders (1978)

Doctor Franken (TV movie, 1980)

Battle Beyond the Stars (1980)

Killing Birds (1987)

C.H.U.D. II: Bud the Chud (1988)

Transylvania Twist (1989)

Buried Alive (1990)

Witch Academy (1995)

The Sender (1998)

Wikipedia | IMDb

At Midnight I’ll Take Your Soul (Portuguese: À Meia-Noite Levarei Sua Alma) is a 1964 Brazilian horror film directed by José Mojica Marins.

It marks the first appearance of Marins’ character Zé do Caixão (Coffin Joe) and the first entry in the “Coffin Joe trilogy”. It followed by This Night I’ll Possess Your Corpse (1967), and, belatedly, Embodiment of Evil (2008).

On January 31, 2017, the film is released on DVD by Synapse Films with the following special features:

• 35mm negative scan supervised by director José Mojica Marins
• The Making of At Midnight I’ll Take Your Soul (10 minutes)
• José Mojica Marins discusses his short film, Reino Sangrento (1952) (9 minutes)
• Interview with José Mojica Marins (6 minutes)
• New scene filmed in 2002
• Introduction to the film by Coffin Joe
• Original theatrical trailer and rare promotional trailer

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Plot:

An unnamed Brazilian small town: Zé do Caixão (Coffin Joe) is the local undertaker who disdains religion and emotion and believes the only thing that matters is the “continuity of the blood”. He is therefore seeks the “perfect woman” to bear him a superior child who will be immortal. Since his wife Lenita has been found to be unable to bear children, Coffin Joe begins to make advances with Terezinha, the fiancée of Joe’s friend Antonio. Terezinha scolds him by telling him that Antonio is the only man in her life. During a Catholic holiday, Joe kills his wife Lenita by tying her up and allowing a venomous spider bite her.

Days later, Coffin Joe is invited by Antonio to visit a local gypsy, who fortells that Antonio’s marriage with Terezinha is going to be a tragic disaster. Joe, in response, calls her a fraud and states that the supernatural is a hoax. However, fulfilling the witch’s prophecy, Joe brutally bludgeons and then drowns Antonio in a bathtub.

The police can find no evidence to implicate Joe with the crime. Terezinha tries to resist his advances, but Coffin Joe savagely beats her into a helpless state and rapes her. Finally able to speak, Terezinha curses him for his brutality, saying she will kill herself, then return to take his soul to Hell. Joe laughs at her, but the next day she is found hanging in her home. To his surprise, she doesn’t blame him in her suicide note.

Meanwhile, the village’s Dr. Rudolfo begins to suspect Joe for the recent outbreak of violent deaths that has occurred. When Joe becomes aware of the doctor’s suspicions, Coffin Joe appears at Dr. Rudolfo’s home, gouges his eyes with his long fingernails and sets him on fire.

Time passes, and Coffin Joe remains unpunished for his crimes. On the Day of the Dead he meets Marta, a young woman who is visiting her relatives, and decides to choose her as his next perfect woman. Joe escorts Marta home late at night, only to be confronted by the gypsy who predicted the doom of Antonio and Terezinha. She informs Joe that his soul shall be claimed by the ghosts of those he murdered and Satan at midnight. Joe threatens the gypsy, but he is soon visited by ghostly apparitions that test his courage. Joe runs away, and coincidentally arrives at the mausoleum where Antonio and Terezinha were buried.

Finally, at the edge of his sanity, Joe opens the coffins to prove to himself his victims are really dead, but instead sees that their eyes are open, as if they are still alive, faces crawling with maggots. Some time later, the villagers find him lying on his back, horribly disfigured, his eyes bulging open similar to the eyes of the two corpses. At that same time, the bells of the local church ring, announcing the stroke of midnight.

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Reviews:

“The film was very violent, but what shocked Brazilian audiences was Zé’s blasphemy … Visually, the film seems taken directly from comic books. The black and white photography is highly contrasted, and the lighting totally Expressionistic, with rays of light cutting through the pitch black scenery. Despite his financial problems, Marins was able to put together a very talented crew, which included a number of professionals who worked at big studios in Brazil.” André Barcinski, Fear Without Frontiers: Horror Cinema Across the Globe

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

“The film is really a work of art; the ghosts who attack Joe near the end of the film have to be seen to be believed. The effect was achieved by Marins actually gluing glitter down on the actual print of the movie. The gore effects are also very top notch for a film that was made during the 1960’s. Marins definitely had a vision that was well before its time…” Killion, HorrorNews.net

“Not only is it the beginning of the story, it is also among the most conventionally constructed, and thus most accessible, entries in the series. Visually, At Midnight I’ll Take Your Soulbears a close resemblance to Hollywood horror films of the early 30’s, the Universal gothics especially. (What’s below that surface, however, is something else altogether.)” Scott Ashlin, 1000 Misspent Hours and Counting

Choice dialogue:

Coffin Joe: “I’ll eat meat today, even if it’s human flesh!”

Cast and characters:

• José Mojica Marins as Zé do Caixão
• Magda Mei as Terezinha
• Nivaldo Lima as Antônio
• Valéria Vasquez as Lenita
• Ilídio Martins Simões as Dr.Rodolfo
• Eucaris Moraes as Velha Bruxa

Wikipedia | IMDb

The Hunchback of Soho – original title: Der Bucklige von Soho – is a 1966 West German krimi horror thriller directed by Alfred Vohrer (Creature with the Blue Hand; The College Girl Murders; Dead Eyes of London) from a screenplay by Herbert Reinecker (The Monster of Blackwood Castle; The Mysterious Magician), based on a novel by British author Edgar Wallace.

The kitschy soundtrack was provided by Peter Thomas (Castle of the Walking Dead).

Buy: Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com

Main cast:

Günther Stoll, Pinkas Braun, Monika Peitsch, Siegfried Schürenberg, Agnes Windeck, Gisela Uhlen, Hubert von Meyerinck, Uta Levka, Suzanne Roquette, Joachim Teege, Hilde Sessak, Susanne Hsiao, Kurt Waitzmann, Ilse Pagé, Albert Bessler, Richard Haller, Eddi Arent.

Plot:

When Wanda Merville inherits a million pounds, she’s promptly kidnapped, replaced by a fake “Wanda,” and spirited away to a school for delinquent girls.

Sponsored by crazy General Perkins (who’s still fighting the Battle of Tobruck in his basement) and the General’s dotty wife Lady Marjorie (“Give me some whiskey… Straight!”), the school is actually run by evil, reptilian-faced Alan Oavis, the Reverend Dave (who sings church choirs in German), and a masculine matron with a riding crop who force the girls to work in a laundry sweat-shop that resembles something out of White Zombie.

The more attractive young gals are sent to work as “hostesses” in Mrs. Tindle’s Mekka gambling club while the more rebellious are strangled by Harry the hunchback and his hilariously huge hump…

Review:

“Another terrific Edgar Wallace shocker where almost no one is whom they appear to be (even Harry has an ersatz hump). Fast paced and stylish with rich, atmospheric color and a great swinging 60’s score.” Frank Henenlotter, Something Weird Video

” …this particularly zesty offering is directed by the highly skilful Alfred Vohrer who, as always, keeps the pace at delirious speeds. Plot is standard Wallace fare: a bizarre individual is killing young women and a considerable inheritance is involved. But the real kicker here is the truly astonishing and uber funky burlesque score by Peter Thomas.” Lurid Screams of Death

” …once you get through the confusing first half of the movie, the plot finally gains momentum and it turns out not half bad. The hunchback strangler is the horror element of this one, which isn’t a giveaway – it’s established before the opening credits … it was starting to be obvious at this point that the series was starting to go downhill.” Dave Sindelar, Fantastic Movie Musings and Ramblings

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IMDb | Plot synopsis courtesy of Something Weird Video | Image credits: Kino-50er.de