Monthly Archives: July 2023

CBS LATE MOVIE MONTH: The Horror at 37,000 Feet (1973)

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EDITOR’S NOTE: The Horror At 37,000 Feet was on the CBS Late Movie on October 31, 1975 and October 29, 1976.

Someday, scholars will speak in awe of the post-Star Trek Satanic twosome of Shatner films, which would be this movie and The Devil’s Rain! Until then, maniacs like me will yell into the uncaring silence and tell you that for a shining moment — or literally two — the once and future Kirk would die twice (spoilers be damned, again literally) while facing off with the Lord of the Flies.

Originally airing on CBS on February 13, 1973, I first learned of this movie in a TV Guide Book of Lists that featured Anton LaVey discussing the most Satanic TV moments of the last decade. This movie has it all: Mario Bava lighting, a cursed altar, Shatner drunk and railing against humanity, and finally, a bunch of Old Hollywood actors daring to sacrifice a young child to the Left Hand Path.

Sure, the flight from London to New York is supposed to be mainly cargo — that druid altar I hinted at before — but the plane still has plenty of talent on board. There’s Captain Ernie Slade (Chuck Connors), as well as an architect (Roy Thinnes, who would enter this territory again in The Norliss Tapes) and his wife (Jane Merrow, Hands of the Ripper) who have placed said altar on board. There’s also Paul Kovalik (Shatner), a priest who has lost his way, and super-rich Glenn Farlee (Buddy Ebsen, who makes it extraordinary as it’s basically Jed Clampett and Barnaby Jones against Satan). You also get Tammy Grimes — whose daughter Amanda Plummer looks just like her — as well as Lynn Loring (also in the occultist Black Noon), Paul Winfield, France Nuyen (Code Name: Diamond Head), Will Hutchins, Darleen Carr (she’s in the TV remake of Piranha), Russell Johnson (The Professor!) and H. M. Wynant (Hangar 18).

Some people have the wrong idea that this movie, shot on the sound stages at CBS Studio Center, is one of Shatner’s worst films. They’re wrong. This movie is everything. Near the end, my wife looked at me and said, “This is pretty intense for TV.” I told her that life was cheap in 1973.

Director David Lowell Rich also made Satan’s School for Girls, SST Death Flight and The Concorde … Airport ’79, all movies that some people would make fun of. Not me—this is my bread and butter. It tastes delicious.

You can watch this on YouTube:

CBS LATE MOVIE MONTH: Kolchak: The Night Stalker: Zombie (1974)

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EDITOR’S NOTE: This episode of Kolchak: The Night Stalker was on the CBS Late Movie on June 8, 1979; June 5, 1981; October 9, 1987 and January 15, 1988.

Directed by Alexander Grasshoff (The Last Dinosaur) and written by Zekial Marko and David Chase (the creator of The Sopranos), this episode starts with a gangland slaying committed by a gigantic and unstoppable man and then an even more unbelievable happening. And that’s Vincenzo being friendly to Kolchak, all to ensure that he takes young reporter Monique Marmelstein (Carol Anne Susi) under his wing. She’s important because her uncle is a company bigwig.

Carl saves her from a police shootout with the Russo brothers and then heads to the morgue where his informant, Gordy the Ghoul (John Fiedler), is making bets and selling information. Kolchak learns that all the gang-related deaths have had multiple blunt force traumas to their dead bodies and that one of the other dead people was filled with bullet holes and chicken blood.

It all points to the death of a Haitian named François Edmonds, and the investigation even takes Carl to a voodoo shop owned by Uncle Filemon (Scatman Crothers), which is soon crawling with organized crime figures. He soon meets up with “Mamalois” Marie Juliette Edmonds (Paulene Myers), the mother of the dead man and, as we soon learn, now the undead killer who she can command by writing the names of his victims on tiny coffins. And now Kolchak’s name is on one of them!

This episode has one of my favorite endings. Carl enters a junkyard and has to fill the sleeping zombie’s mouth with salt and sew it shut. It gets wild when the zombie awakens mid-stitch and chases our intrepid reporter through the maze of crushed cars. Sure, Carl stops him, but he does it at the expense of another Rollei 16 film camera.

The zombie is played by defensive lineman Earl “Tree” Faison of the San Diego Chargers, who, at 6′ 5″ and 260 pounds, looks absolutely monstrous next to the much smaller McGavin. Antonio Fargas also appears in this one.

The monsters on Kolchak: The Night Stalker sure do like throwing people through the air, huh?

CBS LATE MOVIE MONTH: The Creeping Flesh (1973)

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EDITOR’S NOTE: The Creeping Flesh was on the CBS Late Movie on November 16, 1973.

Directed by Freddie Francis* for Tigon, this film is a thrilling collaboration that pairs the iconic Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing. It’s a gem from the end of the era of British gothic horror, and despite its occasional silliness, such as Cushing holding a gigantic prehistoric finger that appears as sexualized as it gets, I find every moment of this film utterly captivating.

Cushing is Prof. Emmanuel Hildern, a scientist who discovers a colossal skeleton — Anunnaki alert — that is older than other skeletons in the area yet much more advanced. He hopes that this finding will win him the Richter Prize, but that award looks like it’s going to be won by his brother John (Lee), who has been looking after Emmanuel’s institutionalized wife for years. He plans to use his study of his brother’s wife to win that award and refuses to pay for the professor’s skeleton-finding trips.

Whatever this skeleton is, legend says that it was a monster that feared rain—maybe because the Great Flood wiped out the other Nephilim—and that it could grow skin when it came into contact with water.

Hildern has a theory that if evil itself—the skeleton—can be a living being, then it can be biologically contained and treated like a disease. He created a serum that can stop evil using cells from the skeleton’s fleshy finger. After testing the drug on a monkey with good results, Emmanuel also immunizes his daughter Penelope, who may have inherited her mother’s mental illness.

Of course, the next day, the monkey has gone wild, and now we have Penelope dancing on tables and slashing sailors. Soon, James finds out about the serum, kidnaps his niece and steals the skeleton. The skeleton gets exposed to the rain and becomes, well, a pretty goofy-looking monster that I can’t help but completely fall head over heels for.

The ending of this movie is a masterstroke, leaving the door wide open for interpretation. You can see it as Lee’s character denying that his brother is related to him to save his reputation or that Emmanuel was never a doctor at all but just another patient. If that’s true, then who really took his finger in revenge? Does the monster exist? It’s a thought-provoking conclusion that will keep you pondering long after the credits roll.

You can watch this on Tubi.

*Don Sharp, who also made Psychomania, was the original director before Francis was hired to replace him.

TUBI ORIGINAL: Escaping Paradise (2023)

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Floyd (Deji LaRay) and Zena (Shayla Hale) head to the Phillippines to celebrate their fifth anniversary. While there, they meet one of the few English speakers, Kane (Simon Phillips). In fact, Kane’s lover, Nihla (Kylah Dela Peña), barely speaks a word. One night, when Zena is tired, Kane asks if he can borrow her husband for a guy’s night. Of course, that turns out like something out of The Hangover, but it’s murderous instead of fun hijinks. Are you surprised that Kane is a dangerous fugitive? Well, our protagonists are!

Directed by Paul Tanter (Age of the Living Dead, Stealing Chaplin) and written by LaRay, this ends up with people dead, Zena kidnapped and Floyd looking for help to save his wife and get off the island. I mean, once you watch a guy act like a jerk in a strip club, you know what kind of person he is. I don’t see why the young lovers got mixed up with this guy, but we wouldn’t have a movie otherwise. You expect Kane to kill exotic dancers like Flower (Christies Paglinawan).

Floyd must not get much vacation time because while his wife is being taken by a wanted international fugitive, he’s taking his time eating a traditional Filipino dinner when his wife could very well be getting tortured and killed. I was also kind of confused by the attitude of Ambassador Danilo (Ken Bressers) at the end, who goes from “you’re in trouble” to “you’re heroes” in the exact same scene. There was no drama there, just one weird conversation. And if my wife dealt with all this drama and I wanted to go play basketball before we went home, I’d be going home divorced.

You can watch this on Tubi.

WATCH MOVIES WHILE THE WORLD BURNS ON THE DIA DOUBLE FEATURE!

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This Saturday at 8 PM EST on the Groovy Doom Facebook and YouTube channels, Bill and I will be joined by Peter Podgursky and Bryan Keithley from NPRmageddon.

Up first, there are no wars, there are just RoboJox. You can watch this on Tubi.

Each episode, we share links for you to watch the movies but before and after, we talk about them, show their ad campaigns and have a themed drink. Here’s one for the first movie.

Achilles (based on the Difford’s Guide recipe)

  • 2 oz. vodka
  • .5 oz. Chambord
  • .5 oz. peach schnapps
  • 3 oz. apple juice
  • ,5 oz. lemon juice
  1. Shake all ingredients in a shaker with ice in your rocket fist.
  2. Pour over crushed ice in your glass, then drink up.

The second movie is Warriors of the Wasteland, which I feel is one of the best Mad Max ripoffs ever. You can watch it on Tubi.

Here’s the second drink, which…wow. Yeah, get ready.

Scorpion

  • 3 oz. passion fruit juice
  • 3 oz. pineapple juice
  • 3 oz. orange juice
  • 2 oz. lemon juice
  • .5 oz. dark rum
  • .5 oz. Malibu rum
  • .5 oz. high proof rum (151 or Hurricane Proof)
  • .5 oz. Passoa
  • .5 oz. gin
  • .25 oz. maraschino cherry juice
  • Maraschino cherries
  • Frozen pineapple chunks
  • Orange slices
  1. Pour all the ingredients, other than the fruit, in a large glass filled with crushed ice.
  2. Stir, add in fruit and beware the Templars.

See you Saturday!

Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival wrap up

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I had a blast watching movies as part of the Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival. I really appreciated being invited and can’t wait to do it again next year.

Here’s what I watched:

You can also check out the Letterboxd list of all the movies that played.

Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival: The Blood On Satan’s Claw (1971)

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In his BBC documentary series A History of Horror, Mark Gatiss referred to this film, along with Witchfinder General and The Wicker Man, as the prime example of a short-lived subgenre he called folk horror.

It’s directed by Piers Haggard, who also was behind The Quatermass Conclusion, The Fiendish Plot of Dr. Fu Manchu and Venom. He’s also the great-great-nephew of H. Rider Haggard, the creator of Allan Quartermain.

Robert Wynne-Simmons was hired to write the story, which was inspired by the modern-day Manson Family and Mary Bell child murders.

In the early 18th century, Ralph Gower (Barry Andrews, Dracula Has Risen from His Grave) uncovers a one-eyed skill covered with fur while plowing his fields. He asks the judge (Patrick Wymark, Dr. Syn, Alias the Scarecrow) to look at it, but it’s gone missing, and his fears are ridiculous.

Peter Edmonton brings his fiancee, Rosalind Barton (Tamara Ustinov, Blood from the Mummy’s Tomb), to meet his aunt, Mistress Banham. Banham disapproves of the coupling and demands that Rosalind sleep in an attic room. After screaming throughout the night, she soon gets ill, and the judge commits her. As she’s led away, Peter discovers she has a claw instead of a hand.

Claws show up all over this — hidden in fields to be found by children and attacking Peter inside the cursed room, causing him to sever his hand. The judge leaves behind the town for London but promises to return. He places Squire Middleton (James Hayter, The 39 Steps) in charge.

One of the children who found the claw, Mark, is lured out by his classmates and killed in a ritual game by the leader of a new cult, Angel Blake (Linda Hayden, Madhouse, Queen Kong). She even tries to seduce Fallowfield (Anthony Ainley, the Master from Dr. Who) and tells him that Mark had the devil inside him, which needed to be cut out. Her group also has a Black Mass inside a ruined church where they attack Mark’s sister Cathy (Wendy Padbury, companion Zoe on Dr. Who). They ritualistically assault and murder her before tearing the fur from her skin.

Of course, it’s not long before all hell quite literally breaks loose, with insane children raising Satan himself from the Great Beyond and Ralph growing fur on his leg, marking him for death. This movie is…well, there’s nothing else quite like it. I can see why it had a limited audience for years; it’s so dark and unforgiving.

“It never made much money,” said Haggard. “It wasn’t a hit. From the very beginning, it had a minority appeal. A few people absolutely loved it, but the audiences didn’t turn out for it.”

While Satan’s Skin was the original title, you must give it to American International Pictures’ Samuel Z. Arkoff, who created the film’s title.

I watched this film as part of The Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (BIFAN), along with The Wicker Man and the Folk Horror: Lands of Cruelty, Beliefs of Terror program. It includes films like Valerie and Her Week of Wonders, Eyes of Fire, Kill List, the 2019 French version of La Llorona, Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched, Bldg. N, In My Mother’s Skin and To Fire You Come at Last. You can learn more at their official site.

Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival: Evil Dead Rise (2023)

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It took me literally five watches to get through Evil Dead Rise. In my past hater days, I would have just said something like, “Well, I already saw Demons 2,” but that’s not very productive. Films deserve to be seen, and my mindset did not jibe with what I was watching.

Maybe I’ve finally reached a point where the fifth Evil Dead movie isn’t all that exciting.

The thought filled my heart with dread. What would 16-year-old me, the one who watched Evil Dead 2 every single day, that a few years later would be one of two people in the theater for Army of Darkness, think?

Maybe I don’t want to grow up. It’s just too confusing.

Lee Cronin, who directed and wrote this movie, also made The Hole In the Ground. His Evil Dead movie came to be after a period of great excitement with the reimagining. Fede Álvarez was making a sequel to that movie, Sam and Ivan Raimi were making Evil Dead 4 or Army of Darkness 2 and after all that, the seventh film would bring together Ash Williams and Mia Allen. Then the TV series came along, and when that was canceled by the fourth season, any talk of new movies ended. Until we got this.

And I wasn’t too excited.

But then it kicked off with some teens at the lake, some possessions and a levitating girl decapitating a boy while an incredible title card rose from the bloody water.

Alright, I was in.

Guitar tech Beth (Lily Sullivan) has learned that she’s pregnant and she needs to be near her family, which would be her tattoo artist single mother sister Ellie (Alyssa Sutherland) and her kids Danny (Morgan Davies), Bridget (Gabrielle Echols) and Kassie (Nell Fisher). They live in the Monde Apartments, a nearly condemned building in Los Angeles that was rocked by an earthquake that brought a book and three records to the land of the unpossessed. Of course, Danny is a DJ and throws those records on the turntable — Bruce Campbell voiceover cameo alert — and they reveal that a priest was able to bring the Deadites to our world with the Naturom Demonto.

He gets blood all over the book, which we all know isn’t good, as the aftershocks and power outages continue to assault their home. Ellie is soon possessed and tries to kill everyone, but before she dies, she makes Beth promise to protect her children. And then she’s back from the dead and doing anything but.

What follows is a blood-spraying, gore-filled battle between the Deadite-possessed humans — most of the family becomes an intertwined creature — and the survivors, Beth and Kassie. Is there a shotgun? Is there a chainsaw? And is there a woodchipper, too?

Yet this has the same issue every reimagining has. It has the blood, the book, all those elements, but it forgets the anarchy. What’s missing is the weird mix of goofiness and kids in the woods making something with no archetype or rules. We know what will happen every moment, as if it is predestined, with nothing shocking outside of the things engineered to be as such. Much like how the streaming Hellraiser forgot the sex and the streaming Texas Chainsaw Massacre forgot to be frightening, this has a menu of everything that would be on the model kit of an Evil Dead movie, but it’s missing the intangible. There’s no feeling of getting behind the protagonists. Sure, a cheese grater gets used as a weapon, but this film should have the DNA of a film series that spent forty minutes with a man’s own hand punching himself in the face. It should do something that makes us feel something. The absence of this anarchy is a disappointment that’s hard to ignore.

There’s some to like, but I want to love. I want to revel in the lunacy of what this film could be instead of forcing myself to be satisfied with what it is. This had 1,720 gallons of blood but not as many ounces of magic as I wanted it to have. Honestly, they could have skipped the records and book, which would have been another possession film.

But would anyone have gone to the theater—yes, this even got out of streaming and into the big time—to see that?

I watched this film as part of The Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (BIFAN). You can learn more at their official site.

Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival: Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched: A History of Folk Horror(2021)

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If you have even a passing interest in the world of folk horror, Kier-La Janisse’s exhaustive exploration — which clocks in at 3 hours and 14 minutes and could have been a thousand more if I had my way — is the film of a lifetime. The ‘unholy trinity’ that launched this trend on to screens — Michael Reeves’ Witchfinder General, Piers Haggard’s Blood on Satan’s Claw and Robin Hardy’s The Wicker Man — are not just names, but significant milestones in the history of folk horror. This movie is quite literally the last word in what folk horror is, what it means and how it’s still part of the world of cinema today, perhaps more than ever before.

With more than fifty significant names in the world of horror and horror writing — everyone from Amanda Reyes, Piers Haggard, Adam Scovell, Jeremy Dyson Samm Deighan, Kat Ellinger, Robert Eggars, Ian Oglivy, Kevin Kölsch, Dennis Widmyer and around forty more voices appear with great insights — there’s never been a more well-rounded approach to tackling a movie genre within a genre. This feels like the kind of film that I’ll be coming back to again and again.

Beyond the expected anchors of the genre, I was so excited to see lesser-known films get their due, like Alison’s Birthday (which is on the gigantic All the Haunts Be Ours box set that Severin is releasing), beDevil, Dark August, Eyes of Fire (also being released by Severin), Grim Prarie Tales, Lemora (which seemingly has footage from the mysterious blu ray of the film that never materialized) and Zeder.

This is the kind of material you want to pause, write down, make notes on, and keep updating your Letterboxd while watching it. This isn’t just a movie about films. This is a true celebration of the magical wonder hidden within the flickering image, an exploration of a genre of all the dark old things and a journey through how each country documents the unknown through their media.

There aren’t enough stars in the firmament out of ten to rate this one. You can preorder this film from Severin now or watch it on Shudder. You can also visit the film’s official site.

Thanks to the fantastic Letterboxd list Films mentioned in “Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched: A History of Folk Horror“ by Jon Ursenbach, here’s a list of the films as well as links to reviews of them that we’ve done on our site.

I watched this film as part of The Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (BIFAN). You can learn more at their official site.

Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival: Orgy of the Damned (2023)

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In the sequel to 2021’s 2551.01, director Norbert Pfaffenbichler presents a visually unique world. In it, a man in a monkey mask navigates a strobing and flashing landscape of deviancy and pain. He’s pursued by a plague doctor and his army while attempting to rescue an abandoned child. But this is just the surface of a film that truly comes alive when you immerse yourself in its striking visuals, allowing them to sear into your consciousness.

Following the monkey man’s shooting, a masked woman intervenes, leading to a blossoming romance. Yet, beneath this love story, there’s a pervasive sense of ennui and helplessness. The protagonist is always on the brink of his objective but perpetually ensnared by violence and a sexual frenzy that has seized these future inhabitants. All of this unfolds against a backdrop of electronic soundscapes and classical music, adding depth to the film’s exploration of these themes.

This movie warns you from the start: it has disturbing images, sexualized moments and strobing. It’s either going to be totally something. You vibe to or the exact opposite. I get the feeling there’s really nowhere in between.

I watched this film as part of The Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (BIFAN). You can learn more at their official site.