Chad

Well, there used to be. But the Disney corporation would show more respect for a classic like that, wouldn't they? Wouldn't they?! Yeah, that's wishful thinking on my part. The 25-minute running time has probably been dwindled down to around the 21/22 minute mark as if it were in syndication. That's the #1 reason I don't watch much network TV these days and just wait for the DVD season sets. Guess I should do the same here.

I'm still kicking myself for not picking that up - had the chance to obtain it for $25 and passed because Beast was in fullscreen. Especially considering it was limited to only 5,000! Of course that could have easily been remedied by picking up the inexpensive R1 Dark Sky disc separately and replacing it. Would have looked great next to the Coffin Joe and Blind Dead coffins.

Agreed. But, again, nobody will have a cow if you decide to do otherwise.

Sorry to hear that. It's especially frustrating when you put so much time much time and effort into something and it vanishes into thin air. That's precisely the reason I backup all my challenge posts in a text document.

NoirFan

Have you seen Volume II? A friend of mine directed one of the films, "Means to an End". A few thoughts on my recent viewings:

Crawlspace (1972) - a strange, unsettling little gem, from an era when made-for-TV movies were occasionally worthwhile.

Satanis - sporadically entertaining documentary on Anton Lavay and the Church of Satan. The most amusing sequence is the final one, in which prospective disciples of Lavay offer up their mundane wishes for Satan to grant: one guy wants the cute male bank clerk to notice him, and the other wants a more powerful wang.

Sinthia - on a double bill with Satanis. Unwatchable late 60's sleaze-porn. It must be fun working for Something Weird, tracking down all of these obscure fringe flicks.

Axe - a bit different from the usual exploitation fare, with a decent amount of oddball atmosphere, but the performances are borderline catatonic, and even at 62 minutes the film is padded.

Tarantula - predictably dull piece of 50s drive-in sci fi, though leading lady Mara Corday is a dead ringer for Gina Gershon.

Grotesque - Wow. Words cannot describe how horrible this film is. Possibly the worst non-MST3k movie I have ever seen. Bookended by a pointless intro and a ridiculous, unfunny conclusion, this had even an unabashed Linda Blair aficianado checking the clock every few minutes.

shadokitty

I didn't even know there -was- a volume II, I'll have to look for it sometime.

Chad

Don't forget TCM is finally starting to show some signs of life:


First time I've gone this far in the challenge without catching any of their programming.

clckworang

I really wish Halloween was on a Saturday! Seeing that TCM Halloween lineup makes me wish I didn't have to work.

RobCA

I just trudged through the 10 films that comprise the Sons of Kong set I got free from Oldies.com six months ago. 10 films that I've never seen before, and with one notable exception, that I hope to never see again. I knew these would be bad movies, but I was hoping they'd be bad in a campy, so-bad-it's-good kind of way. Instead, they were just bad in a so-bad-it's-awful kind of way. The picture and sound quality on these films is terrible, ranging from merely bad to just plain horrible. But I don't blame Alpha Video for not spending a penny on remastering; these movies don't deserve it. Seriously, they're awful!! I watched them as part of the Horror Challenge, and even though the first five films aren't really horror movies, I'm counting 'em anyway, because sitting through them was indeed a horror. Many of these movies are barely over an hour long, but they felt sooooo much longer.

As I mentioned, there was one notable exception. One film, somehow entertaining and enjoyable in spite of itself, that stood so far above the rest of this pile of cinematic crap that I feel compelled to single it out with, God help me, a glowing review. Believe it or not, I'm talking about Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla. It's the last movie on the set, and all I knew about it was that it had gotten some VERY bad reviews. So had the other nine films, of course, but this one seemed universally regarded as the worst film on the set. But to my utter astonishment, I actually enjoyed it. A lot. First of all, the picture and sound quality are fantastic, easily the best on this set. As for the film itself, it's exactly what I was hoping this set would be. A bad movie that's loads of fun in a campy, so-bad-it's-good kind of way.

Make no mistake. This is NOT a good movie. But fortunately, a movie doesn't have to be good to be entertaining. It certainly helps, of course, but it's not mandatory. Directed by William "One-Shot" Beaudine, the film stars Duke Mitchell and Sammy Petrillo, apparently playing themselves, as a couple of Martin and Lewis impersonators entertainers who wind up stranded on an island in the jungle, with primitive tribesmen, the chief's sarong-clad daughter Nona and of course, Bela Lugosi, as a mad scientist (what else?) performing experiments in evolution. Apparently, Martin Landau watched this film three times, while preparing for his role of Bela Lugosi in Ed Wood, and was stunned by how awful it was, saying it was so bad, it made Ed Wood's movies look like Gone with the Wind. Personally, I'm glad he's an actor, and not a movie critic, because I thought GWTW was boring as hell.

I don't think I could force myself to sit through those first nine films on Sons of Kong again, but I'll definitely be watching this one again next year. I'm actually looking forward to it.

Mondo Kane

It finally happened.

After watching (Literally) hundreds of horror movies in these past 3½ marathons, I finally saw something that has made me reconsider on continuing this challenge.
What I just saw was so horrorfying.
So repulsive.
So traumatizing.
And just downright WRONG!

I give you, Night Train To Terror:
<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/BGT5d8nv0kc&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/BGT5d8nv0kc&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

How the hell can I recover from this?

Chad

^I'm so adding that to my Netflix queue!

Netflix has added 6 to their Instant Viewing:

The Devil's Wedding Night
Count Dracula's Great Love
Legacy of Blood
The Doomsday Machine
Werewolf of London
Frankenstein's Castle of Freaks


About to catch one before I go to bed.

Trevor

I always take a personal/vacation day on Halloween, ask for it nine months in advance each year.

edwardnortonfan

I'm behind the times, I know, but I just discovered Hulu (http://www.hulu.com) and found out that you can watch "Night of the Hunter" on there, which is one of my favorite old movies. I don't know how "horror" it is, but I count it (Stephen King mentioned it in his overview of the horror genre "Danse Macabre" as one of the scariest movies ever made, so that's good enough for me). You can also watch "Amityville 2: The Possession" for free on Hulu, and I've wanted to see that movie for years, so I'm kind of excited about it.

Trevor

Interesting history of Sammy Petrillo, follow the link there to the interview if you want more.

I agree, completely fun film, and a good transfer.

But I disagree that the rest of the set is horrible. Still haven't seen about 6 of them, but I also really enjoyed Bride of the Gorilla. Sure it's a fairly bad script, and some mediocre acting in parts, but for some reason, I like it. Maybe it's just the kitsch of seeing Lon Chaney and a pretty young Raymond Burr together.

Just those two films make the $2.99 shipping charge (or was it totally free?) worthwhile to me. But based on your comments, I'm now not looking forward to watching those other 6 films.

poster mayhem

I'm another that's a fan of Bride of the Gorilla. It certainly has a lot in common story wise with the classic The Wolf Man, and it shouldn't come as any real surprise, they're both written by Curt Siodmak. And yes, it's cool to see Chaney and Burr, but I'm also a big fan of Tom Conway, George Sanders' brother, who never seems to get enough credit. His roles in many of the Val Lewton films are real treats.

RobCA

Thanks for the Sammy Petrillo link! I'd never even heard of him, or Duke Mitchell, until I watched the movie, so I enjoyed reading more about him, including the interview.

I really wanted to like Bride of the Gorilla, mostly because of Raymond Burr, but while it didn't suck nearly as bad as some of the other films on the set, I just didn't care for it. Pretty much for the reasons you mentioned, although the crappy transfer may have had something to do with it too.

I got free shipping on my Oldies.com order, so fortunately, Sons of Kong was totally free for me. I don't know which 6 films you have yet to watch, but another one that I didn't think was quite as bad as the others was Law of the Jungle, thanks to Mantan Moreland. It's still pretty bad, don't get me wrong, but IMO, he saved it from being a complete waste of time.

Rob

RobCA

BTW, I watched The Picture of Dorian Gray last night for the first time, and LOVED it. While anything would have seemed like a masterpiece after Sons of Kong, this truly is an outstanding film. I'm already looking forward to watching it again in a few months, during the Oscar challenge.

Rob

Giles

I watched Hellrasier IV last night and noted the film's was directed by Alan Smithee, in reality Kevin Yagher, why did he have his name removed, what's the story behind that? The film was so much better than III, but I thought a couple of the kills were really badly edited (possible mandates from the MPAA to secure R-rating). VI ('Hellseeker') though - wow! that really surprised me, in a very positive way.

Trevor

Totally agree, a fantastic film. If I do the Oscar challenge I think I'll watch it with the commentary, listened to a bit of it so far and it seems quite good.

NoirFan

I agree, he is quite underrated. The first time I saw the Lewton films, I was unaware Conway was Sanders' brother. I remember thinking "This guy is like a B-movie George Sanders!"

clckworang

I wondered about the Alan Smithee thing as well, but haven't bothered to do any research on it yet.

I think my opinion on Hellseeker has gone up a bit since my initial mini-review, but I think I maybe had too high expectation for it. I don't really know why. But I was tired and grouchy when I watched it, which maybe affected how I felt about it. It probably also had a bit to do with the fact that I still had the taste of 3 and 4 still in mouth.

The Man with the Golden Doujinshi

Was it you that I mentioned this movie to earlier?

A word of warning to all: The original version (1973) of Forced Entry isn't a good family movie. I started to watch it in the bedroom, wife was gone at the time, and a couple minutes in I got the feeling this wouldn't be one to watch with her. I ended up swapping it out for Claw of Terror, which she sat through,

Saturday night I went back to Forced Entry and discovered my instincts were indeed correct. It ended up being a horror porn. If she couldn't make it through the first few minutes of Ilsa, she wouldn't like this.

Giles

yes, I believe it was.

Giles

now what of the multitude 'Children of the Corn' sequels does anyone recommend I watch. The first one was okay, sans the cheesey FX at the end. I was disappointed though, I had read that there was decapitation with meat slicer, I think that was overhyped, the massacre of the adults could have been more horrific IMO.

edwardnortonfan

I liked the third one and the sixth one. They're bad, but the sixth one is hilarious and I think the third one is as good as the original, cheesy fun.

NoirFan

Night of the Bloody Apes - There is actually only one titular ape, but he is a bloody one. This Spanish turd was unfortunately (and poorly) dubbed, as I would have preferred subtitles: I've always wanted to know how to say "Help me drag the dead ape into the incinerator" in Spanish. For some reason, there are brief flashes of a Pollock-esque abstract canvas between in each scene. The masked female wrestling sequences are a mild diversion from the general on-screen ineptitude and terrible makeup.

Night of the Comet - A surprisingly effective mix of goofball humor and horror, I enjoyed this one a lot. Like Night of the Creeps, with which it shares certain stylistic traits, I'm not surprised it has a bit of a cult following.

Alice, Sweet Alice - Not bad at all, as far as slashers go. The mask was genuinely creepy, and the raincoat clad murderer reminded me a bit of the similarly attired killer dwarf in Don't Look Now.

One Dark Night - A good cure for insomnia. Elizabeth Daily (Dottie in Pee-Wee's Big Adventure) really has no business being in films. Short, pudgy, and untalented, she was an 80's version of Pia Zadora. Her reaction shot when one of the other "Sisters" mentions giving Meg Tily a Demerol is one Tor Johnson would have been proud of. I was hoping the appearance of Adam West would amp up the camp factor, but his character is underwritten and basically unnecessary.

Alligator - This is one of my favorite guilty pleasures. A well crafted B-movie, with a witty John Sayles script and a solid performance from the always dependable Robert Forster. Highly recommended.

The Man with the Golden Doujinshi

Glad it wasn't a horrible experience

shadokitty

Ok, another question. I was wondering about the remake of The Cat People from the 80s. I had planned to watch it as I own the DVD, but seeing as I had not seen it on anyone's list, especially this far into the Challenge, was curious as to if it would be considered horror. The main reason I ask is a friend of mine once told me she thought of it more erotic thriller than horror.