Movie Review: Black Sunday (1960)

As I have said before, and will likely repeat for a long time, I was very late getting into the deep end of the horror genre. Even having dived in head first, there is a lot of ground to cover and I am not likely to ever fully catch up to where I should be had I gotten in at a more logical age. With that said, one of the directors with whom I have had very little experience is Mario Bava. It is a name I here time and again when it comes to quality horror fare with an eye for the artistic. I figured I should probably watch some of his films. To that end, I have dove in and watched Black Sunday, also known as Mask of the Devil.

Movie Review: Targets (1968)

Targets is one of those movies that has been sitting there, languishing in my Netflix queue. It is a movie that interested me enough to want to put it in there, but there it stayed, staring at me. For some reason I never seemed to find the right time to watch it. There it sat. Then, just the other day, the right moment came. I was spurred to action by the fact that an expiration date popped up next to it. There is nothing quite as motivating as the thought of losing that something. I am glad that it did as the movie is really quite good, involving, and unsettling.

Sci Fi Invasion: Mission Stardust

Sometimes I have to wonder what they were thinking with some of the choices for the Sci Fi Invasion box set. I mean, yes, I am expecting a lot of bad movies, but this is getting ridiculous. Of course, I realize they are padding out the movie total with whatever public domain titles they come across that could possibly be watchable. I am also beginning to see why I took such a long break from watching movies in this set. So many bad movies. So many movies that leave me with little to really say about them.

Movie Review: The Black Klansman (1966)

The name Ted V. Mikels probably does not mean all that much to the majority of you. That's fine. In most cases it is not really a name I would expect you to know. Mikels is a writer/director who specialized in low budget, exploitative, B-movies. He is best known for Astro Zombies and The Corpse Grinders. Don't know those either? Again, that's fine. Frankly, I am not sure how I really feel about Mikels output. Still, I think I stumbled across this one at the right time. The Black Klansman (aka I Crossed the Color Barrier) is a daring, for the time, blend of social commentary and blaxploitation (before blaxploitation was a thing) about blacks and whites that live in shades of grey.

Horror-A-Day: Dr. Orlof's Monster

So, I seems that the cool weather is finally here to stay and I already miss my shorts. Yes, I look forward to the seasonally cool Fall weather, but that doesn't mean I can't also miss the comfort of my shorts. I guess it doesn't matter when I spend most of my time inside a climate controlled room. I guess if I want to warm up I can watch a movie with a warm setting, like A Nightmare on Elm Street's boiler room or Tatooine in Return of the Jedi. Conversely I could go for a chill with The Thing. It was none of these this night.

Horror-A-Day: The Awful Dr. Orlof

Well, it's been a few days. My horror a day run got slightly derailed this past weekend. However, on the plus side the weather finally seems to be on the cooling trend. I wonder how long it will take until the snow hits? I kid, I kid. Fortunately, indoors there are still tons of movies waiting to be watched. The movies will never leave me behind and will never leave me with a desire for something new. With that said, I found another first timer to cross my eyes. Also, fortunately, it was actually pretty good.

Horror-A-Day: The Blood Beast Terror

It finally feels like Fall is getting here. Temperatures are not quite at their usual seasonal levels, but colors are starting to change as the leaves slowly begin to die. Fortunately, inside it is still Fall all the time as horror season truly settles in. Keeping the trend of movies I have never seen before going, the latest viewing experience was a movie with a familiar face that is always a welcome sight, wen of it is in a lackluster movie. You know, the bad movies that have that one person that makes it worth it. Sort of.

Sci Fi Invasion: The Creeping Terror

The Sci Fi Invasion box set is starting to pick up steam. Granted, it is just little puffs of barely seen steam, but it is more than it has been able to muster over a two film span yet. You would have to consider it a tough task to follow up the entertaining mash up oddity Future Hunters. Now, to be honest, the follow up feature is entertaining in a completely different fashion. With Future Hunters you have a movie purposefully made to be an weird stew of a movie, this feature, on the other hand, never had a chance.

Sci Fi Invasion: It's Alive (1969)

I think it is a good thing that I stepped away from this Sci Fi Invasion box for awhile. There are just so many stinkers on here. It is something of a chore to sit through some of these movies. Still, I will soldier on and will eventually get through this set. There has to be a least a couple more watchable movies in there, right? This latest outing, a made for television movie from 1969, is not good and I feel bad for the poor souls who stumbled across it in the middle of the night so many years ago.

Movie Review: Invaders from Space

I will not quit on you, Sci-Fi Invasion box set. No matter what kind of lame, bizarre, and boring junk you throw at me, I will keep coming back until the last movie is done. It may take some time, but I will get through. I just have to look at each movie as an opportunity, a new experience, and hopefully I will walk away with something. Good or bad, every movie adds to your experience. This latest experience is pretty unique. I cannot truthfully say I completely disliked it, but I cannot exactly recommend it either.

Movie Review: Night Fright

Something that is becoming more and more apparent is that some of the reviews in this Sci Fi Invasion challenge are going to be pretty short. Some of these things just don't offer all that much to talk about, much less anything to want to talk about. This latest film, for instance, is a dull monster movie that just plods along and is stuck in time never to be shaken loose.

Movie Review: Blood Bath (1966)

I did not set out to watch Blood Bath on purpose. It is one of those movies I had tossed into my Netflix queue to revisit somewhere along the line. Well, that future time came the other day when I was looking for something to watch, preferably short, this happened to come up. It is a title I was rather unfamiliar with but with a word like "blood" in the title, I was more than willing to press play.

DVD Review: The Sorcerers

The Sorcerers is a fascinating film starring the late great Boris Karloff as a disgraced doctor of medical hypnosis. I had never heard of this movie before, but I have to say it was quite the pleasant surprise. What made it even better was learning it was the penultimate film from a fascinating young genre director who died way too young. Michael Reeves legacy was secured with the fantastic Vincent Price film Witchfinder General, however The Sorcerers is another fine example of genre filmmaking that is not to sold short.

DVD Review: Confessions of an Opium Eater

I am not sure where to start with a movie like this. Watching Confessions of an Opium Eater is like entering a drug induced fever dream where logic goes flying out the window. It is a pulpy tale of Chinese women sold into slavery by drug lords, the war to stop these human auctions, and the solitary traveler who finds himself in the middle of the war.

DVD Review: The Face of Fu Manchu

As the tale opens, drums sound and we see soldiers lining a courtyard. A man reads charges from a scroll and a prisoner is led out. A basket is laid beside a block and the executioner readies his blade. The prisoner lays down, face to the sky, as the blade swings down. Decapitated, the basket is removed and the witnesses file away. The prisoner was the notorious criminal Fu Manchu, executed in his homeland of China. So begins the 1965 film The Face of Fu Manchu.

Movie Review: The Premature Burial (1962)

Edgar Allan Poe and Roger Corman were a formidable combination back in the 1960's. It is interesting to think what they could have made had they been contemporaries. With the said, I have found I need to brush up on the adaptations that Corman brought to the big screen. I like to say that I am a fan of both artists, but I also freely admit that I need to see a few more of them. The first one I came across is 1962's The Premature Burial. Surprisingly, one that does not star Vincent Price, this time around it is Ray Milland. Let me tell you, Milland turns in one fantastic performance.

Movie Review: Journey to the Seventh Planet (1962)

As much as I enjoy old B-grade science fiction movies from the 1950's and 1960's, I have realized I have really not seen all that many of them. As a fest step in rectifying that, I stumbled across the 1962 entry Journey to the Seventh Planet. The Sidney Pink (Angry Red Planet, Reptilicus) directed feature stars B-sci fi stalwart (and one time Mr. Shirley Temple) John Agar. With that going for it, the movie turned out to be more than a little dull.