When you see the names Brian Trenchard-Smith and Nico Mastorakis listed as producers, you know that you’re probably getting into something good. Also known as Demon Island, this film was directed by Richard Jeffries, who is probably better known for the films that he’s written like Scarecrows and Cold Creek Manor. He’s only directed one other film, the 2008 TV movie Living Hell.

It’s funny, when I discussed this movie earlier today with Bill from Groovy Doom, he referred to it as “the monster movie with no monster.” That’s an apt description.

It’s also about a treasure hunter named Frye (James Earl Jones) whose underwater scavenging brings back an ancient sea monster that demands virgin blood.

Meanwhile, Neil and Sherry (Martin Kove and Mary Louise Weller, who appeared in Q The Winged Serpent the same year as this movie) have come to the island looking for his missing sister Madeline (Deborah Shelton, who also sings the song over the end credits with her then-husband Shuki Levy). Plus, Lydia Cornell stops hanging out with Cosmic Cow on Too Close for Comfort and shows up as Jones’ girlfriend.

Inexplicably, Lila Kedrova from Zorba the Greek and Jose Farrar — well, he’s less of a surprise as Jose may have been the first actor to win the National Medal of Arts, but he’s also in spectacular junk like The Sentinel, Bloody Birthday and The Being — both appear.

Arrow’s write-up promised “blood, nudity and beachside aerobics.” This delivered, as well as some great dream sequences and moments where beachfront rituals seem to go on forever. That said, I had a blast with this movie, as any film that has Martin Kove skipping around the waves holding a miniature engine while the ladies go wild and James Earl Jones yells at everyone will hold my attention.

Don’t have the box set? You can watch this on Tubi.

Known in Italy as l Pianeta degli uomini spenti (The Planet of Extinct Men), this was directed by Anthony Dawson, who is better known everywhere other than America as Antonio Margheriti.

Dr. Fred Steele (Umberto Orsini, The Antichrist) and Eve Barnett (Maya Brent in her only acting role) are looking forward to leaving the island that they work on and getting married. However, a rogue planet called The Outsider is on a collision course with our world so no time for love Dr. Steele. However, Professor Benson (Claude Rains in one of his last acting roles) — who lives away from mankind with his dog Gideon — believes that our world is safe. No one else agrees and some, like Commander Robert Cole (Bill Carter, who is also in Larry Buchanan’s fantasy The Trial of Lee Harvey Oswald) and his wife Cathy (Jacqueline Derval) travel to the planet to see how they can stop it.

The Outsider doesn’t hit the Earth but does something even odder. It goes into orbit around the planet. As Earth ships approach, flying saucers attack and The Outsider begins spiraling into the atmosphere causing disasters. A team is sent to investigate the planet and Benson believes that some intelligence is controlling all of these ships and the planet itself.

In the final attack, Cathy is mortally wounded and Benson refuses to leave, as he believes that life without scientific knowledge is not a life at all. He tries to communicate with the computer at the core of all of the planet — the crew is long dead — but it’s too late as nuclear warheads blow out. the planet real good. The movie closes with Benson’s dog Gideon waiting for him. Way to break my heart.

Writer Ennio De Concini also adapted The Four of the Apocalypse for the screen, wrote The Girl Who Knew Too Much and directed Hitler: The Last Ten Days, Daniele e Maria and Gli 11 Moschettieri. He’s listed as Vassilij Petrov in the credits. This film re-teams he and Margheriti after Assignment: Outer Space.

If you don’t have the box set, you can watch this movie on YouTube. You can also download it from the Internet Archive.

Attack of the Monsters is really Gamera vs. Guiron. That’s the name it was given by American International Television. That’s so weird to me as there are a bunch of other Gamera movies and you’d think that this series would have some popularity, you know?

At this stage in the Gamera series, the special effects are starting to not feel so special and there’s even more padding than in past films. But you know, Guiron looks so awesome — he has a giant sword nose and throws shuriken from around his eyes — that I can’t help but love this movie.

Two boys find a flying saucer and are taken on an adventure into space, where Gamera magically appears and rescues them from an asteroid field. But then, they go into hyperspace and a new Gyaos appears to attack their ship. That’s when Guiron shows up and slices that beast — which just gave Gamera so much grief — into small little bits, even beheading it, which seems way too far for what is supposed to be a kiddie film.

It turns out that the Space Gyaos are all over this planet called Terra, which is on the other side of the sun. Somehow, those scientists — some of the dumbest smart people in the world are in the Gamera movies — have never found their planet.

There are also twin alien women named Barbella and Florbella who control Guiron, who eventually gets out of control and cuts their spaceship in half. Florbella then kills the injured Barbella, explaining that useless members of their society are euthanized. What is she, in charge of the stock market?

Finally, Gamera does what you’ve wanted him to do all along: he slices that monster in half. Yes, unlike Godzilla, Gamera straight up eviscerates and annihilates his foes. Godzilla would just heat blast them. Nope. Gamera is like, “You’re not getting up from this one.”

Don’t have the box set? You can watch this on Tubi.

Also known as Monstrosity, this is one of the first movies where decay is given as the reason for the diminished intelligence of zombies. It also features plenty of people better known for other things, like narrator Bradford Dillman, Commerical pitchman Frank Gerstle and Marjorie Eaton, who played the original Emperor in The Empire Strikes Back before the special edition re-imagining.

In just 72 minutes, we learn an old woman who gets her pick of three servants to insert her brain into, thus getting a young body that will extend her lifespan.

This was directed by Jack Pollexfen, who also made Indestructible Man, and Joseph Mascelli, who was the director of photography on The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies!!?, The Thrill Killers and Wild Guitar.

This is the last film of Judy Bamber, who is also in A Bucket of Blood and Dragstrip Girl. The budget was so low that she provided Xerxes the cat, who was her housecat.

Don’t have the box set? You can watch it on Tubi or download it from the Internet Archive.

This movie was made in 1976, released in 1978 in theaters as The Astral Factor but then released on VHS in 1984 as The Invisible Strangler missing the killer’s killer’s dialogue but gaining new music and some new scenes. Why? Who knows!

It’s pretty confusing because in The Invisible Strangler, the killer is invisible for the entire movie. All of these scenes were completely reshot with a different cast. There are a lot of plot holes, as you can imagine, that you can fill in with the full movie.

You can watch The Astral Factor in the Mill Creek Sci-Fi Classics set and on Tubi. You can watch The Invisible Strangler on YouTube.

EDITOR’S NOTE: I’m sorry, I know this already ran during Chiller Theater month, but I was hoping others would be writing. I hope you don’t mind reading this again.

Known as Space-Men in Italy, this was Antonio Margheriti’s first full directorial effort. How magical is it that at the same time that this was being filmed, Mario Bava was filming Black Sunday in the next sound stage over.

This takes place in 2116, as Interplanetary Chronicle of New York reporter Ray Peterson (Rik Van Nutter, Uncle Was a Vampire) is writing a story about the infra-radiation flux in Galaxy M12. The space station commander thinks that he’s in the way, which doesn’t help when they both fall for the station’s botanist Lucy (Gabriella Farinon, Blood and Roses).

Then the out of control Spaceship Alpha Two appears, headed straight to Earth with enough radiation to destroy it. Lives are lost, including Al, who is played by Archie Savage. He’s probably the first black man to play an astronaut on film, first in First Spaceship On Venus and then in this movie.

Peterson becomes a hero and uses Space Taxi B91 to fly out to the death ship and shut down its power. He’s rescued by the commander, gets the girl and all is well in the world of Italian science fiction.

Using the name Anthony Dawson, Margheriti would make more science fiction films, including Battle of the Worlds; Wild, Wild Planet; War of the Planets and, late in his career, Treasure Island In Outer Space.

Don’t have the box set? You can watch this on Tubi.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Craig Edwards is an award-winning blogger as well as a self-proclaimed Media Guy and a consumer of pop culture for a lot of years. He also writes a great blog called Let’s Get Out of Here!  Famed low budget director Edgar G. Ulmer helms this science fiction flick which has apparently fallen into the public domain, which resulted in it being available on countless bargain VHS tapes and now in untold numbers of cheapie DVD sets, much like the very one we’re shining the spotlight on. Former Army guy Krenner (James Griffith), plans to conquer the world with his soon-to-be army of invisible thugs and he is willing to do anything to make that happen. Krenner forces Dr. Ulof (Ivan Trisault) to work to perfect the invisibility machine Ulof invented. He keeps Ulof’s daughter, Maria (Carmel Daniel) as a hostage with the help of his henchman, Julian (Red Morgan). Ulof needs radioactive elements to improve the invisibility machine which are understandably rare and kept under guard in government facilities. Krenner busts Joey Faust (Douglas Kennedy) out of prison to steal the materials he needs. Faust pulls the robberies using the invisibility power – but chaffs working for the dictatorial Krenner. Soon everyone in the house, including Krenner’s girlfriend Laura (Marguerite Chapman) is working some kind of double cross or secret agenda; and it’s readily apparent that no one is particularly likable – so who’s going to be the treacherous victor? While it’s obviously a very low budget talkfest, there’s just SOMETHING about Edgar G. Ulmer’s movies that interest me. Consequently, I like this little dud which is usually touted as one of the worst of all time. Ulmer only made two more movies before retiring; but his touch is still evident all over this. Sure, it’s low-budget; it’s static; it’s talky – but I’ve seen it now like three times, and I still enjoy it. I can’t defend the movie – but to me this works – it’s not an epic of production values and amazing effects – though there are a few sprinkled in – but it works as the little sci-fi talkfest it is. If it sounds at all interesting it is worth a look and it’s certainly not hard to find. Don’t have the set? You can watch it on Tubi.

The first Bill Rebane movie I saw was the berserk Tiny Tim vehicle Blood Harvest. Once I realized that The Alpha Incident— one of his older efforts — is on so many Mill Creek box sets — I jumped on it.

Much like Night of the Living Dead, a space probe has returned, this time from Mars. It’s brought back an organism that can kill all life on Earth. As it’s being transported by train, an employee accidentally releases it and the entire station is quarantined and must wait endless hours for the government to find the cure. There’s only one problem — if they fall asleep, the organism will kill them.

Basically, this is a movie about a bunch of people drinking coffee. doing amphetamines and making horrible decisions. Ralph Meeker (Without Warning) stars here, bringing along several unknowns and George “Buck” Flower (who shows up in nearly every John Carpenter film). It’s basically a movie where people stand around, upset one another and stand around some more.

With a better team of actors, this could be a much better film. That said, it’s enough to keep me interested. My disclaimer is that I’m exactly the kind of person who loves watching horrible movies with bad transfers from a $9 box set with fifty movies on it.

“What year is this from? Is this foreign?” asked Becca. No, this movie is magically made in this country, unless Wisconsin is really a foreign country. “Is this the end of the movie?” she also asked. Yep, that’s the kind of film this is.

Don’t have the set? You can watch it on Tubi.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Thanks to Matthew Hale on Letterboxd, I’ve learned that there are alternate versions of this Mill Creek box set. For the sake of completeness and my obsessive compulsive disorder, here’s this missing movie.

Director Boris Szulzinger is best-known for the Tony Hedra-written science fiction cartoon for adults The Big Bang and Tarzan, Shame of the Jungle, the first foreign animated movie to be rated X in the United States.

A comedic retelling of the myth of Elizabeth Bathory, here known as Mama Dracula and played by Louise Fletcher. This is also written by Hedra, along with Szulzinger, Marc-Henri Wajnberg and Pierre Sterckx. Hedra was probably best known for his work with the National Lampoon, a series of parody magazines (Not the New York Times, Playboy: the Parody, The Irrational Inquirer and Not the Bible), being the editor-in-chief of Spy Magazine and co-creating, co-writing and co-producing Spitting Image. He was also Spinal Tap’s manager Ian Faith. The sad part of his legacy is that he was accused of molestation by his daughter Jessica. That said, the article about it that was published by The New York Times had no proof and was disputed by several people (and supported perhaps by just as many). It’s a stain on his career and life.

Back to the movie.

Professor Van Bloed (Jimmy Schuman) is brought to Transylvania as part of a special conference on blood research hosted by Countess Dracula. She also has twins who run a fashion boutique called Vamp. But the problem that Mama Dracula is having is that there aren’t enough virgin women to keep on bathing in their blood. She wants the scientist to create something to help her. He also falls for a local, Nancy Hawaii, who is played by Maria Schneider, who had survived the PTSD of making Last Tango In Paris, drug abuse and a suicide attempt to finally find some level of happiness by the early 80s, if being in movies with Klaus Kinski can be considered joy.

This movie has a bad reputation, one of it being barely watchable. I can confirm this yet I am amazed that somehow both Fletcher — an Oscar winner! —  and Schneider — a sex symbol on the comeback after walking out of her last big role in Caligula and probably that was the right call — are in it.

You can watch this on Tubi.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Thanks to Matthew Hale on Letterboxd, I’ve learned that there are alternate versions of this Mill Creek box set. For the sake of completeness and my obsessive compulsive disorder, here’s this missing movie.

La Noche de Walpurgis (released in the United States as The Werewolf vs. The Vampire Woman and in the UK as both Shadow of the Werewolf and Werewolf Shadow) was the fifth time that Paul Naschy played the doomed lycanthrope Waldemar Daninsky.

Written by Naschy and directed by Leon Klimovsky (The People Who Own the Dark, The Dracula Saga), this film seems like it came from another planet, perhaps because so much of it is in slow motion. It also kicked off a horror craze in Spain that maniacs like me are still enjoying to this day.

After the last film — The Fury of the Wolf Man — Waldemar Daninsky is brought back to life during his autopsy. After all, you don’t remove silver bullets from a werewolf’s heart and expect him to treat you nicely. He kills both for their trouble and runs into the night.

Meanwhile, Elvira and her friend Genevieve are looking for the tomb of Countess Wandessa de Nadasdy. Coincidentally, as these things happen, her grave is near Daninsky’s castle, so our dashing werewolf friend invites them to stay. Within hours, Elvira has bled all over the corpse of the Countess (Patty Shepard, Hannah, Queen of the Vampires), who soon rises and turns both girls into her slaves.

But what of the werewolf, you ask. Don’t worry — he shows up too, after we get our fill of the ladies slow-motion murdering people in the forest. Also, as these things happen, Waldemar must fight the Countess before the only woman who ever loved him, Elvira (Yelena Samarina, The House of 1,000 Dolls) finally kills him again.

There’s also a scene where our furry friend battles a skeleton wearing the robes of a monk in the graveyard. Some claim that this scene inspired Spanish director Amando de Ossorio to write Tombs of the Blind Dead just a few months later.

Daninsky’s lycanthropy is not explained in this one. Was it the bite of a yeti that made him howl at the moon? Is he a college professor or a count? Who cares!