MILL CREEK MAD SCIENTIST THEATER MONTH: Venus Flytrap (1967)
It’s been said that this movie is based on a 1950s screenplay by Edward D. Wood Jr., but he isn’t credited. He probably should be — this has his weird hands all over it. Even stranger, the first American video release credited a completely different movie: the 1969 Filipino film The Mad Doctor of Blood […]
MILL CREEK MAD SCIENTIST THEATER MONTH: The Lucifer Complex (1978)
There are bad movies, there are lazy movies, and then there are movies that actively test the bounds of human patience by forcing you to watch an unkempt man stare at a cave computer for twenty minutes before a frame of actual plot occurs. Welcome to The Lucifer Complex—a cinematic car wreck that somehow makes […]
MILL CREEK MAD SCIENTIST THEATER MONTH: Nightmare Castle (1965)
A couple of months ago, I was doing my usual weekend of looking at used DVD stores when I noticed an older man staring at the stacks of used movies. He stopped and asked, “Do you mind if I ask you what movies I should get?” It turns out that his wife had recently died, […]
MILL CREEK MAD SCIENTIST THEATER MONTH: The Killer Shrews (1959)
During World War II, Ray Kellogg served as a U.S. Navy lieutenant in the O.S.S. Field Photographing Branch. There, he met John Ford, and when Kellogg returned to the U.S., he headed to 20th Century Fox, where he eventually became head of the special effects division and helped invent CinemaScope. He directed four films: The […]
MILL CREEK MAD SCIENTIST THEATER MONTH: The Brain That Wouldn’t Die (1962)
I really dislike anyone who makes fun of this movie. It’s been riffed and goofed on for years, but it’s way better made than it has any right to be, and it’s filled with big ideas that other movies from its genre and time never would dare include. Shot independently around Tarrytown, New York, in […]
MILL CREEK MAD SCIENTIST THEATER MONTH: House of the Living Dead (1974)
Also known as Shadows over Bridge Farm (Skaduwees Oor Brugplaas), Curse of the Dead, Doctor Maniac and even retitled as Kill, Baby, Kill — what, that isn’t taken? — for video releases, this 1974 release is a South African/British co-production that attempts to mix gothic melodrama, science fiction and horror. Yes, distributors did just straight-up […]
MILL CREEK MAD SCIENTIST THEATER MONTH:The Amazing Transparent Man (1960)
Directed by “King of Poverty Row” Edgar G. Ulmer, this was shot back-to-back with Beyond the Time Barrier over two weeks in Dallas, Texas. The cost? Around $100,000 or so. The story kicks off when disgraced former Army officer Major Paul Krenner (James Griffith) orchestrates the prison breakout of master burglar Joey Faust (Douglas Kennedy). […]
MILL CREEK MAD SCIENTIST THEATER MONTH: The Wasp Woman (1959)
Produced and directed by Roger Corman, this movie was originally a double feature with Beast from Haunted Cave. When it aired on TV two years later, director Jack Hill added a new prologue to extend its runtime. The film’s musical score may seem familiar because it’s the same music from Corman’s A Bucket of Blood. […]
MILL CREEK MAD SCIENTIST THEATER MONTH: Crimson, the Color of Blood (1973)
Las ratas no duermen de noche (Rats Don’t Sleep at Night) was released in the U.S. as Crimson, the Color of Blood and The Man With the Severed Head. After a jewel heist, Jack Surnett (Paul Naschy) is shot in the head. His gang is smart enough to know that there’s a scientist named Professor Teets (Ricardo Palmerola) who […]
MILL CREEK MAD SCIENTIST THEATER MONTH: The Manster (1959)
The Manster— also released as Soto no Satsujinki (The Two-Headed Killer) — stands as one of the most delightfully bizarre entries in mid-century creature-feature history. Foreign correspondent Larry Stanford (Peter Dyneley) is nearing the end of his assignment in Tokyo, eager to return home to his increasingly impatient wife, Linda (Jane Hylton). His final assignment […]
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