Alec Brandon (Barry Atwater) is about to marry his trophy wife Sheila Trent (Susan Strasberg). He’s rich, he owns a mansion in the West Indies and he has guests coming in from all over the world for their wedding. Well, they were getting married. But Raphael (Alejandro Rey), Sheila’s lover of years past, comes in and takes her away from all this. This won’t stand.
Brandon gets his valet Andrew (Jean Durand) to get him a voodoo doll and right in the middle of lovemaking, red hand marks appear on Sheila’s back. She decides to go back and confront her near-husband and finds that he’s already killed Andrew, who tried to get him to stop attacking her, and is given a ring that can end all of this.
“The Doll of Death” was directed by John Badham and written by Jack Guss from a story by Vivian Meik. It’s not the best Night Gallery story. It’s not even the best doll Night Gallery story. That would be “The Doll.” But still, it does have its charms and Strasberg is good in her role.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Night Shift aired on USA Up All Night on February 17, 1995.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Eldon Glen is a horror fanatic/part-time reviewer.
Chuck Lumley (Henry Winkler, “The Fonz”) is a nervous, mild-mannered New Yorker employed by the city morgue. Run by his overbearing health obsessed Girlfriend Charlotte (Gina Hecht, St. Elmo’s Fire) the neighbor’s rottweiler that stalks the hallway of his apartment building and the intimidating sandwich guy (Vincent Schiavelli, Ghost) who always gets his order wrong. Enter Chuck’s exasperating new night assistant Bill Blazejowski (Michael Keaton, Pacific Heights, Batman) an “idea guy” who convinces Chuck by much pleading and begging to turn the morgue into (enter obvious answer here) command central for New York’s disgruntled ladies of the night, including Chuck’s beautiful neighbor Belinda (Shelley Long, Cheers, Troop Beverly Hills), the woman he is falling in love with and the real reason for his foray into crime. Chuck and Bill become the ladies’ “business partners” and in the process enjoy a windfall of riches but not without attracting the attention of the very same pimps their clients were desperate to escape. What ensues is Chuck and Bill’s inevitable run-in with the pimps and the law itself, but all’s well that ends well, as they find out about love, friendship and courage under fire as this mismatched trio comes to realize they are not as different as they may seem.
Each October, the Unsung Horrors podcast does a month of themed movies. This year they will once again be setting up a fundraiser to benefit Best Friends, which is working to save the lives of cats and dogs all across America, giving pets second chances and happy homes.
To be part of this, just donate $1 or more per horror movie you watch in October. You can follow their prompts or your own path, then share picks with #horrorgivesback
I’ll be part of this and I hope you will be too.
Here are the prompts:
October 1: Boris Karloff
October 2: Sequel
October 3: Mexico
October 4: Series episode
October 5: Castle, William or actual
October 6: Witches
October 7: 1950s
October 8: Germany
October 9: Unsung Horrors rule (movies under 1000 views on Letterboxd)
This Saturday, Bill and I are showing two movies with no guests. But you can be part of the show at 8 PM EST on the Groovy Doom Facebook and YouTube channels.
Up first is Corruption which as we all know is not a woman’s picture. You can watch it on YouTube and Tubi.
Each week, we watch two movies, show the ads for each movie and have a drink for each movie.
Surgical Laser
1 oz. Southern Comfort
.5 oz. amaretto
.5 oz. gin
.5 oz. vodka
.5 oz. triple sec
6 oz. orange juice
2 Maraschino cherries
Shake all the ingredients with ice in a shaker.
Kill a hooker and give their skin to your scarred wife, then enjoy.
Two sisters, Celeste (Felice Jankell) and Isa (Erica Midfjäll), tried to change their lives with a self-help record from the 70s that was supposed to stop stress and create a calming sense of self thanks to self-hypnosis. The problem is that it creates a doppelganger of the listener that grows strong enough that it eventually replaces the person who let it into the world. Only one person can save Celeste and Isa: hypnotist Lena Carlsson (Christina Lindberg!), the voice of the album who created it with her father, who worked at the Stockholm Institute for Magnetic Research and who believed that magnetism is the only way for people to reach their full potential.
Directed by Adrian Garcia Bogliano (Here Comes the Devil, Late Phases), Black Circle is a movie that I have been waiting to watch for some time. I loved the look of this movie, one that tries to mess with your senses from the very beginning and continues playing with time and space as the record overtakes minds.
I could have maybe done without the straight-up X-Men expansion of the story with telepathic psychics Victor (Johan Palm) and Selma (Hanna Asp) who have been sent by The Supreme to help destroy the doppelgangers. What I did love was the idea of the darkness that is coming for Celeste and Isa, one of their own making, because when it seems like it’s so simple to fix your life, it may only be the way to make it much worse.
Also: Christina Lindberg needs to be in more movies. I’m so excited to see her in this, a film deserving of the queen of They Call Her One Eye. My time spent counting the days until I could see this were worth it.
The Synapse blu ray release of Black Circle comes with the soundtrack on compact disc, audio commentary with director Adrian Garcia Bogliano, the teaser trailer, a short entitled Don’t Open Your Eyes, an interview with Adrian Garcia Bogliano and Christina Lindberg, a behind the scenes feature and a stills gallery.
Ted Farrell has lived for mysteries and drama his whole life. While a college student he proves to be a sound designer with a knack for audio thrillers – but his life is about to imitate his art. Fate places him at the doorstep of a beautiful young woman who will soon end up murdered and in his car with no explanation. His night and his sanity quickly spiral out of control as he races to avoid becoming the next victim of the killer on the loose. A very rare regional horror thriller from the late 1980s video store era, The Wrong Door enjoys its first time ever on disc and a brand new 2K transfer from the original Super 8 elements.
This Visual Vengeance blu ray has a brand new director-supervised 2K transfer from original Super 8 film elements with extras that include two commentary tracks, one with directors Bill Weiss and Shawn Korby and a second with director James Groetsch and producer John Schonebaum. There’s also a new documentary Men Make Movie, If Not Million$, interviews with Groetsch, Korby, Weiess and actor Matt Felmlee; an interview with Chris Gore; an alternate director’s cut; two Super 8 shorts, Raiders of the Lost Bark and The Pizza Man, an episode of The Gale Whiteman Show; the original unedited Muther Video VHS intros; an image gallery; trailers; storyboards; a limited edition slipcase and door hanger; a reversible sleeve with original VHS art and a “stick your own” VHS sticker set.
Horror star Malicia Tombs (Linnea Quigley) mysteriously dies after leaving the set of her latest, now unfinished, low budget shot-on-video shocker. Soon, an unseen masked killer is chopping and hacking his/ her way through the cast and crew as punishment for Tomb’s death – leaving a bloody trail of revenge. This super obscurity was shot in 1998 by indy horror stalwart Brad Sykes, and finally finished in 2002. Considered a ‘lost’ Linnea Quigley movie, Scream Queen is not only a solid 1990s shot-on-Video slasher that borrows from the Italian Giallo sub-genre, but also takes swift jabs at the U.S. independent horror movie scene of the time.
Available for the first time ever on blu ray, Scream Queen has a new director-approved SD master from original tape elements, as well as commentary with director and writer Brad Sykes, behind the scenes documentary, the producer’s cut of the film, new interview with Linna Quigley and Mark Polonia, imagery galleries, script selects, a trailer, six-page liner notes by Tony Strauss of Weng’s Chop Magazine, a limited edition slipcase by Rick Melton and Series 2 video store rental card, a Linnea Quigley mini-poster, a “stick your own” VHS sticker set and a reversible sleeve with the original art
Prefect Cesare Mori (Giuliano Gemma, A Pistol for Ringo) has been given special legal powers thanks to Mussolini to fight organized crime in Palermo. Working with Officer Francesco Spanò (Stefano Satta Flores), he walks right into the home of boss Antonio Capecelatro (Rik Battaglia) and shoots him in the head before going so far as to cause the suicide of Don Calogero Albanese (Francisco Rabal), a man who escaped the police for four decades.
Based on the true story of Cesare Mori, a man whose attacks on organized crime found it moving to America and back to Sicily after the end of World War II. He arrested and convicted thousands of criminals before he was made a senator. Some say because he went after highly-ranked government officials and they needed him to leave town before they were implicated. Mori spoke up against Mussolini working with Hitler and found himself removed from power afterward.
Directed by Pasquale Squitieri, who wrote this with Arrigo Petacco and Ugo Pirro, this film also boasts an appearance by Claudia Cardinale and a soundtrack by Ennio Morricone. It has the alternate title I Am the Law, which seems like it inspired a certain judge from Mega City One.
The Radiance Films blu ray of The Iron Prefect comes with an archival interview with director Pasquale Squitieri and star Giuliano Gemma, a new interview with the biographer Domenico Monetti, an appreciation of Giuliano Gemma and the film by filmmaker Alex Cox — yes, the director of Repo Man — as well as the original trailer, a reversible sleeve featuring designs based on original posters and a limited edition booklet featuring new writing by Italian cinema expert Guido Bonsaver and an original article on the real-life Cesare Mori and his Mafia raid as depicted within the film.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Summer School aired on USA Up All Night on December 19, 1992; July 9, 1993 and January 14, 1994.
Wondering why Summer School is still funny 33 years later and a lot of these Police Academy-style movies are dated? It was directed by Carl Reiner, who knows funny.
It was written by Jeff Franklin, who was also behind Just One of the Guys and created Full House and its Netflix spin-off Fuller House, which he was removed from after #metoo complaints. Oddly enough, he owned 10050 Cielo Drive, which he demolished and replaced with a new house before listing it for sale in 2019.
Phys Ed teacher Freddy Shoop (Mark Harmon) just wants school to be over so that he can go to Hawaii, but when Mr. Dearadorian (Reiner) retires, he gets stuck teaching summer school.
He’s left with the worst kids in school for the best time of being a teacher, which would be summer vacation. There’s Pam (a pre-Melrose Place Courtney Thorne-Smith), male exotic dancer Larry (Ken Olandt, syndicated series Super Force); Kevin the jock (Patrick Labyorteaux brother to Matthew), pregnant Rhonda (Shawnee Smith, The Blob), Alan the nerd (Richard Steven Horvitz, the voice of Alpha 5 in Power Rangers), Jerome (Duane Davis, who was in A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master), exchange student Anna-Maria (Fabiana Udenio, Alotta Fagina from Austin Powers), Denise (Kelly Jo Minter, Maria from The Lost Boys) and horror film lovers Dave (Gary Riley, Charlie from Stand by Me) and Chainsaw, who is played by Dean Cameron, who this horror-obsessed fan knows was Ralph in Bad Dreams and Ralph the vampire in Rockula.
Will Freddy get Robin the history teacher (Kirstie Alley) to fall for him? Will the kids all graduate? Will there be an extended viewing of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre? Will hijinks, as I always say, ensue?
Of course.
This is the only Danny Elfman soundtrack that has never been released. There’s also E.G. Daily’s “Mind Over Matter,” which was originally a Debbie Harry song that she recorded and had some success with.
Ah man. More people should know about this movie. Here’s hoping that my little write-up convinces you to give it a chance.
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