Frank Langella's Dracula (1979)

If you were to ask me what was the very first horror movie that I ever watched, I would have to say that Frank Langella's Dracula would be it--I saw it on late night television when I was a kid.  Since then, I've always been scared of looking out my window at night.  I recently watched it again and I was impressed by the first-class acting and lavish production.  I think it certainly rates much higher than it's IMDB 6.0 rating.  I rate it a 10, hands down.

Other fims of note:

Dracula (1931) 9/10 - Although I originally rated this a 6 a few months back, I've watched this again but with the new Philip glass musical score.  Some have said that the new music is too distracting but I think that it saves the film, in my opinion.  The music breathes new life into a familiar classic and gives it the power of a silent film (director Tod Browning's directorial sensibilities come from the pre-talkie era).  I still cannot rate this a 10 because of certain plot holes regarding Lucy's character.

Monstroid (1979) 5/10 - recently watched a recorded TV broadcast version of this hosted by Elvira

Walking Nightmare (1942) 4/10 - This one is from the "Tales of Terror" 50 movie mega pack.  Another boring detective mystery disguised as a 'horror' film.  I'm really starting to hate these kinds of movies being used as filler for cheapie horror boxed sets.  Thankfully, it was only about 60 minutes long or so.

Return of the Living Dead (1985) 9/10 - Great 1980s B classic that almost rewrote zombie canon (IE: "Brains!").

Basket Case (1982) 8/10 - a movie that is so bad that it's good.  I watched this as a kid and didn't think much of it back then.  Looking at it recently a second time, I was able to understand the more tongue-in-cheek aspects of it.

Countess Dracula (1970) 6/10 - Not a bad Hammer Horror movie, but a bit boring.  Although it seems more like a "masterpiece theater" piece about Elizabethan political power play, there is some gore as well.

RIP: FORREST J ACKERMAN 1916-2008

I should update my blog more often

Although I haven't updated my blog in some time, I have been watching more movies than ever.  Here's a list of the movies that I've watched since the last update (to the best of my recollection):

Bride of Frankenstein - 10/10
Son of Frankenstein - 9/10
Sweeney Todd - 8/10
Frankenstein (1910 silent version) - 7/10
Bloodbath at the House of Death - 8/10
The Raven (1935) - 9/10
Black Sunday - 8/10
Phantom of Soho - 7/10
Dracula w/Philip Glass score - 9/10
Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein - 7/10
Dr Terror's House of Horrors - 7/10
Dracula Prince of Darkness - 7/10
Scars of Dracula - 9/10
Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell = 9/10
Return of the Fly - 9/10
Tomb of Ligeia - 8/10
Cry of the Banshee - 6/10
Bloodbath at the House of Death - 7/10
Fright Night - 9/10
Return of the Living Dead - 8/10
Night Evelyn Came out of the Grave - 8/10
The Head - 8/10
Devil Monster - 3/10
Crypt of the Living Dead - 6/10
Chloe, Love is Calling You - 3/10
Saw V - 6/10
House that Dripped Blood - 7/10
The Haunted Palace - 9/10
The Monster Club - 7/10
House of Dark Shadows - 7/10
Dr. Black & Mr. Hyde - 6/10
Blue Sunshine - 7/10

Dr. Phibes Rises Again! and other stuff

The great thing about cheap DVDs is that I get to watch movies that I've read about but never had the chance to do so (until recently).

Dr. Phibes Rises Again! (1973) - 10/10
The Dr. Phibes series was a comeback of sorts for Vincent Price. A brilliant musician and theologian, Phibes was horribly disfigured in a car accident and whose wife died in the emergency room at the hospital. This is the sequel to the first film which takes place three years after the events in it. In this chapter, Phibes seeks to kill those who are responsible (even indirectly responsible) for stealing a papyrus which contains information on the river of life.

The Abominable Mr. Phibes (1972) - 9/10
While many prefer the first film in the series over the second one, I found this one to be slow moving at times. But still, it is very entertaining and we get to see Vincent Price at his best -- in a very hammy performance (this was by design) which makes you cheer for the clever ways in which he kills the team of surgeons who were 'responsible' for letting Dr. Phibes' die at the operating room table. Modern horror fans will even recognize that the traps laid by Phibes inspired those used in the Saw movies as well. The Dr. Phibes series are highly stylized and take place in the 1920s.

Condemned to Live (1935) - 7/10
I will state up front that I am not a big fan of horror films that were made before the 1950s. While I can overlook the technological limitations, the social mores of the time didn't allow for much gore or scares. In spite of this, this film was actually fairly entertaining considering the time in which it was made and it's obviously low budget. The story is about a Professor who gets into a murderous trance at night time by tearing his victims' throats. He is sort of a combination between Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde and Dracula. I must commend the filmmakers here for creating a nice Gothic atmosphere and avoiding turning the film into a detective story, which was a trademark of horror during that time. This is the third movie that appears in Mill Creek's Tales of Terror 50 movie mega pack. This was 65 minutes of time well spent watching this.

A chockful of movie reviews

Here's a list of movies that I've watched lately. These are just quick reviews giving my impressions and this is the manner in which I will review a lot of the movies here on this blog. If I come across a movie that really makes an impression or if it is a fairly unknown classic (such as Werewolf Woman), then I will provide a more detailed review along with some photograph stills of the movie.

Dracula (1931) - 6/10
Though considered a classic, I always thought that this was flawed and a bit boring. That being said, I really like the first 20 minutes or so. I first saw this 13 years ago and decided to give it another chance. However, Bela Lugosi did provide the world with the blueprint of a cinematic Dracula which survives to this day.

The Pit and the Pendulum (1961) - 8/10
Another entry into the Corman/Price Poe series. Although it's a fairly good movie, it deviates quite a bit from the short story of the same name. And when we get to the part with the actual pendulum, it is only 5 minutes of story time--they cut out all of the good parts from the actual story. Starring Vincent Price and Barbara Steele.

Creepshow (1982) - 9/10
A very good horror anthology presented by George Romero and Stephen King. Quite a few big name actors are in here: Ted Danson, Leslie Nielsen, Ed Harris, Adrienne Barbeau and even King himself gives an entertaining performance.

Witchfinder General (1968) - 6/10
An OK Vincent Price movie about a 'witchfinder' who goes from village to village accusing everyone of witchcraft so he can get his kicks for torturing and executing people. Originally released in the US as "Edgar Allan Poe's The Conqueror Worm" to capitalize on the popularity of the Poe series, but the film has no resemblance to the original poem of the same name.

Double Feature with Vincent Price

My earliest memory of Vincent Price was watching Hilarious House of Frightenstein when I was a kid in the early 1980s (syndicated in that time, the original series was filmed in 1971). This was a Saturday morning children's variety TV show that aired mostly in Canada. He appears in the opening and closing credits and short vignettes in between the major segments. The program is actually being re-run right now on the Space channel in Canada at 4:00 AM (on a daily basis). Sometimes, if I'm up that early, I'll make sure to catch his closing monologue (recited by Price, in front of the 'Frightenstein' monster while holding a candle) that is played at the end of every episode:

It would not be years later until I got to see an actual Vincent Price movie. I believe that it was the "Tales of Terror" Roger Corman production where three Edgar Allan Poe short stories are presented (Black Cat, Amontillado, M. Valdemar). The circumstances that I got to see this are interesting. It was during my first year of college and I was staying at the dormitory for a few days of the Christmas Holidays because of certain circumstances. Being unable to sleep at 2:00 AM, I crept to the common TV area and there was a VHS tape with "Tales of Terror". It was so quiet that one could hear a pin drop, so the darkness and time of night certainly added to the atmosphere as I watched this movie.

As I watch more and more of Vincent Price (The Bat, House on Haunted Hill, Last Man on Earth, Oblong Box, Wax Museum, etc), I notice that whether the film is good or bad overall, I am thoroughly entertained. Some have said that his performances are hammy and over-acted, but I consider these to be complimentary rather than defective. If film narrative was realistic, then the stories would be boring. Every actor that is considered "great" are hammy in their performances--Jack Nicholson, Robert De Niro, Al Pacino play pretty much the same character in every single one of their films and we can recognize their trademarks from miles away--but that doesn't stop people to pay to see them and be entertained.

I would have liked to have been born earlier so I could have seen his films during their original theatrical runs and other great B-movies as well. I think my favorite era for horror film is definitely the 1950s and 1960s (an honorable mention to the 1970s as well). I also really like Gothic Horror and you don't see too many of these being made today. Even if they started to make these again, I'm not sure they would be as good, even with superior CGI. I like the type of lighting and colors that were used back then--an aesthetic that could probably only be achieved with the film equipment of that era.

And Vincent Price, being the most noteworthy actor of those times, is the definite representative of this 'golden' age of horror movies.

I was very fortunate and grateful to receive the Vincent Price MGM Scream Legends Collection as a gift, recently. I have just finished watching the first two films of the collection:

Tales of Terror (1962)- 10/10
These re-interpretations of 3 classic Edgar Allan Poe stories are simply a delight to watch, and I was very happy to see this movie again 17 years later.

The highlight is The Black Cat co-starring Peter Lorre book-ended with Morella at the beginning and followed by The Case of M. Valdemar (w/Basil Bathbone). As with most theatrical adaptations of Poe, the writers take some creative liberty to enhance the narrative of the story. But most Poe fans will forgive this in this case because the spirit and essence of these stories are preserved. For example, "Cat" is really a composite of The Cask of Amontillado and the title's namesake combined together.

Twice Told Tales (1963) - 9/10
This is quite a lavish and top notch production for an anthology horror film. While I am not familiar with Nathaniel Hawthorne's works (for which this movie uses 3 of his stories), I was highly entertained by these ghost stories.

More Quick Movie Reviews + Photo Stills

Here are more reviews of movies that I've watched recently, along with some still photographs that I took myself.

The White Gorilla (1945) - 3/10
This film is included in the Tales of Terror 50 Movie Mega Pack. It is more of an adventure film (set in Africa) rather than a horror movie. A very low-budget affair that splices in footage from a silent movie from the 1920s. The results are comical and atrocious at the same time. There are nice shots of elephants, lions and hippos, however.

House of Usher (1960) - 7/10
I love Edgar Allan Poe and Vincent Price, so I was really looking forward to watching this as this was the first in the American International Pictures foray of the Poe films directed by the legendary B-movie director, Roger Corman. In all honesty, I felt that the movie dragged on a little bit too long for it's 80 minutes, although the last 20 are really worth waiting for. I suppose that because the short story is only a few pages long, they had to inject a romantic angle. Although it deviates from the source material, I really love the sense of gothic atmosphere. I recently got a Vincent Price boxed set as a birthday gift and I will be reviewing more movies like this in the future.

Elvira & Movie Macabre 1

One of my fondest midnight viewing memories was to watch Elvira's Movie Macabre on Friday and Saturday Nights in the early 1990s.  These were obviously reruns from the 1980s.  While watching movies that are so bad they are good is a lot of fun, Elvira makes it even better.  I wish I had recorded these shows back in the day, but there are ways to acquire these episodes if you try hard enough.  This week, I watched 2 movies, both hosted by her.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) - 8/10
I had heard so many things about this movie when I was a kid, and I finally got to watch it. The version that I watched was hosted by Elvira on Hallowe'en Night in 1997--a copy which I obtained through tape trading on the internet. I thought that the movie was corny at first, but the last 30 minutes were very effective at conveying the sheer terror that the final protagonist was going through.

Maneater of Hydra (1967) - 4/10
I bought this on a special Elvira "Double Feature" DVD.  I am fairly generous when watching and judging old horror movies, but this one was not very good.  The dubbing was terrible and it looked like they transferred this movie from a worn-out VHS tape to DVD.  But it was fun to anticipate when Elvira was going to cut in and say some clever puns and corny jokes.  This a spanish horror movie involving a mad botanist who has created a vampiric tree that terrorizes travelers to his islands.