THE GORGON Production: UK, 1964 Director: Terence Fisher Category: Horror Having covered every traditional monster angle, Hammer in 1964 turned to Greek mythology and came up with The Gorgon. Translating the action to Transylvania, the story tells of villagers being literally petrified by the Gorgon Medusa, a monstrous female with hissing, Continue Reading
Horror
SCREAM AND SCREAM AGAIN
SCREAM AND SCREAM AGAIN Production: UK, 1969-70 Director: Gordon Hessler Category: Horror/Science Fiction/Crime The best of an interesting series of horror films directed by Hessler in the late ’60s/early ’70s, Scream And Scream Again was scripted by Christopher Wicking, author of Hammer’s stand-out Demons Of The Mind amongst others, from the Peter Saxon Continue Reading
LA CAMPANA DEL INFIERNO
LA CAMPANA DEL INFIERNO (“Hell’s Bell”) Production: Spain, 1973 Director: Claudio Guerín & Juan Antonio Bardem (post-production) Category: Horror One of the very best of the first wave of Spanish horror movies 1967-75, a gothic arthouse nightmare of insanity, perversion, and murder that revolves around the question of whether the protagonist, recently Continue Reading
L’ULTIMA PREDA DEL VAMPIRO
L’ULTIMA PREDA DEL VAMPIRO (“The Vampire’s Last Victim”) Production: Italy, 1960 Director: Piero Regnoli US release title: The Playgirls And The Vampire Category: Horror/Vampire Five gorgeous showgirls take shelter from a storm in an old castle, only to find out that the master of the place is a vampire (played by Walter Continue Reading
LA TUMBA DE LA ISLA MALDITA
LA TUMBA DE LA ISLA MALDITA (“The Tomb On Accursed Island”) Production: Spain/USA, 1973 Director: Julio Salvador & Ray Danton English-language release titles: Hannah, Queen Of The Vampires; Crypt Of The Living Dead Category: Horror/Vampire Posted by Moonchild Zero
THE DUNWICH HORROR
THE DUNWICH HORROR Production: USA, 1969 Director: Daniel Haller Category: Horror/H.P. Lovecraft One of the first screen adaptations of Lovecraft, directed by former Corman art director Haller with an eye towards psychedelic ritual sequences (including nudity and bird-masks) as much as horror. Attempting to transpose the ambience of their successful Poe films Continue Reading
LES DÉMONIAQUES
LES DÉMONIAQUES (“The Demonic Ones”) Production: France/Belgium, 1974 Director: Jean Rollin Category: Sex-Violence When two girls are raped by modern-day pirates, they call upon Satan to avenge them. With some nudity and esoteric flourishes, this was Rollin’s tribute to the pirate films and Gaston Leroux horror stories he enjoyed as Continue Reading
BRAIN OF BLOOD + 1
BRAIN OF BLOOD Production: USA, 1971 Director: Al Adamson Category: Horror/Science Fiction WASP WOMAN Production: USA, 1959 Director: Roger Corman Category: Science Fiction Probably produced by Corman to cash in on the then-recent success of The Fly, Wasp Woman is a cheap, inferior effort, lacking the flashes of pulp brilliance that elevated some Continue Reading
BLOOD FEAST
BLOOD FEAST Production: USA, 1963 Director: Herschell Gordon Lewis Category: Gore Lewis invents the splatter movie with this outrageous, milestone offering; girls’ limbs are cut off, tongues pulled out by the roots, eyeballs gouged out, brains removed, bodies flayed, etc etc, in lurid color and loving detail. A primitive masterpiece, which Continue Reading
TUTTI I COLORI DEL BUIO
TUTTI I COLORI DEL BUIO (“All The Colors Of The Dark”)Production: Italy, 1972 Director: Sergio Martino Category: Giallo/Horror A bizarre, trippy giallo, set in London and infested with elements of sex, Satanism and psychedelia, filled with hallucinatory sequences as well as bloody murders and ample female nudity. The film opens Continue Reading