Category Archives: Movie reviews

CHILLER THEATER MONTH: The Hand (1960)

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EDITOR’S NOTE: The Hand was on Chiller Theater on Saturday, March 20, 1965 at 1:00 a.m.

Once in Burma, three captured British soldiers were threatened with torture if they refused to divulge military information. Two refuse and have their hands chopped off. Years later, in London, hands are getting chopped off and the police have no clue.

Directed by Henry Cass and written by Ray Cooney and Tony Hilton, this is kind of all over the place, but you know, it played at 1:00 a.m. on UHF channels usually. It feels like an Edgar Wallace story but even grosser, with hands being shipped in boxes to the cops.

This is more police story than horror movie. Oh well.

You can watch this on Tubi.

THE IMPORTANT CINEMA CLUB’S SUPER SCARY MOVIE CHALLENGE DAY 23: Grim (1985)

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23. An Experimental Horror Film That’s Not In English

Takashi Ito’s father wouldn’t allow him to seer kaiju films like all his friends. But he finally allowed him to see Daimajin and Gamera vs. Barugon; his elation “worried his parents.” He began to draw manga and went on to Kyushu Institute of Design; he almost quit before experimental filmmaker Toshio Matsumoto came to the school.

Grim was made after he graduated and uses long exposure photography and empty spaces to create a sense of fear. Ito said, “With this work, I developed/fleshed out the idea I had when making Ghost of peeling only the skin from various objects in the room, floating the skins in midair and then sticking them on different objects. This film was also shot entirely frame-by-frame with long-exposures. Along with Grim, its meaning is “as if to do forever.””

How frightening is just a hand? How scary is a change in music or color? Ito takes the most basic moments and gets the most horrifying energy from them, making you nearly afraid to watch.

You can watch this on YouTube.

2025 Scarecrow Psychotronic Challenge Day 23: The Langoliers (1995)

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23. SURVIVORS?: If anything walks away from a plane crash, the chances of it being healthy are pretty slim.

Directed and written by Tom Holland and based on the novella by Stephen King, this first aired on May 14 and 15, 1995 on ABC. Richard P. Rubinstein produced through his company Laurel Entertainment and King mainly stayed hands-off.

The effects for The Langoliers were provided by Image Design and you know, when King wrote beach balls with teeth, he may not have been thinking of a movie being made of his story.

On a red-eye flight from Los Angeles to Boston,pilot Brian Engle (David Morse), MI6 agent Nick Hopewell (Mark Lindsay Chapman). schoolteacher Laurel Stevenson (Patricia Wettig), tool and die worker Don Gaffney (Frankie Faison), violinist Albert Kaussner (Christopher Collet), Bethany Sims (Kimber Riddle), mystery author Bob Jenkins (Dean Stockwell), blind Dinah Bellman (Kate Maberly), businessman Rudy Warwick, (Baxter Harris) and bond trader Craig Toomy (Bronson Pinchot) wake up alone no pilots, no crew. Craig has a mental breakdown and Dinah — a telepath because she’s blind, you know how it works, enters his mond.

They land in Bangor and no one is there either. That’s when Craig tells them that the Langoliers are monsters that eat lazy children. Yes, beach balls that snack on kids, how do you do it U of M grad Steve King?

According to IMDB: “The Langoliers themselves were originally going to be portrayed by puppets, but were replaced with CGI instead. Unfortunately, the poorly rendered and animated monsters ended up looking laughably hokey, and are regarded as some of the worst CGI effects ever.”

Oh man are they ever.

Anyways, this was always considered a mess — at least by me — until I saw the remix of the film, Timekeepers of Eternity. Made with cut paper, it really works, remixing this film into something that is exciting and different.

CHILLER THEATER MONTH: The Mole People (1956)

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EDITOR’S NOTE: The Mole People was on Chiller Theater on Saturday, November 24, 1973 at 11;30 p.m.; Saturday, December 1, 1974 at 1:00 a.m.; Saturday, August 2, 1975; Saturday, March 26, 1977 and Saturday, November 5, 1983 at 2:00 a.m.

A hollow earth movie that posits an underground civilization created by Sumerian descendants who worship Ishtar. Never mind that Sumerians and Ishtar have no connection and the true symbol of Ishtar is an eight-pointed star, not to mention that all of the gods in this movie are really Egyptian. But hey — it does have the great flood symbolizing the journey to the underworld and was probably influenced somewhat by the Shaver Mysteries that dominated Amazing Stories from 1945 to 1948 (see Beyond Lemuria and Encounters with the Unknown for more film evidence of the Shavers, the hole to hell and Lemuria itself).

I absolutely love that this movie starts with an introduction from University of Southern California English professor Dr. Frank Baxter, who explains the premise of the film and how it may have some basis in reality. How many movies take the time to discusses the hollow earth theories of John Symmes — whose Hollow Earth theory taught that our world is mae up of five concentric spheres, with the outer earth and its atmosphere as the largest — and Cyrus Teed — a physician and alchemist who became a self-proclaimed messiah, taking on the name Koresh and proposing a new set of scientific and religious ideas he called Koreshanity, which taught that our planet and sky exist inside the surface of a larger sphere.

Archaeologists Dr. Roger Bentley (John Agar) and Dr. Jud Bellamin (Hugh Beaumont, Beaver’s dad) have found the hollow earth and meet the Sumerian albinos and their mutant mole man slaves*, who all eat mushrooms because why not? Whenever they start having too many people, they stop overcrowding by sacrificing women to the Eye of Ishtar. But everyone — other than a girl named Adad — is so sensitive to light that the fact that the scientists have a flashlight must mean that they are gods. Oh yeah — Ellnu, the High Priest, is played by Alan Napier, who would soon enough be Batman’s faithful butler Alfred.

This was Virgil Vogel’s first film, which he would follow up with The Kettles on Old MacDonald’s Farm and Invasion of the Animal People before a career mostly spent in television.

For some reason, Adad is unceremoniously crushed before the end of the movie, just when she gets near the surface and nearly escapes. Supposedly, Universal thought that Bentley’s romance with Adad would promote interracial relationships. Never mind that John Agar and Cynthia Patrick were both white. They reshot the new ending where she gets smashed and that was that.

*Footage of these big eyed guys was used in The Wild World of Batwoman.

UNSUNG HORRORS HORROR GIVES BACK 2025: Guardian of the Abyss from Hammer House of Horror (1980)

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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 works to save the lives of cats and dogs across America, giving pets second chances and providing them with happy homes.

Today’s theme: Series episode!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Adam Hursey is a pharmacist specializing in health informatics by day, but his true passion is cinema. His current favorite films are Back to the Future, Stop Making Sense, and In the Mood for Love. He has written articles for Film East and The Physical Media Advocate, primarily examining older films through the lens of contemporary perspectives. He is usually found on Letterboxd, where he mainly writes about horror and exploitation films. You can follow him on Letterboxd or Instagram at ashursey.

Don’t you know you must never give a black magician bread or wine or salt in your own home?

Say what now? Is this common knowledge? I’ve never heard of such. Of course, I immediately went to Google for answers. Even their AI was no help in determining where this proclamation may have originated.

Perhaps it is just from the mind of David Fisher, a writer on Doctor Who (during the years of the Fourth Doctor Tom Baker), and our scribe here in this installment of Hammer House of Horror.

This anthology series was created by Roy Skeggs, a man who climbed the Hammer Films corporate ladder, eventually becoming chairman. Unfortunately, Hammer had hit upon hard times by the late 1970s, particularly after the departure of Tony Hinds in 1969. The company was unable to keep up with the gore and graphic violence displayed in many of the American films of the 70s, putting their hopes on an increase in sexual content to bring in audiences. As the films of the 70s tried to bring in modern sensibilities to their typical gothic tales, most viewers found the entire Hammer endeavor to border in self-parody rather than interesting storytelling.

When Skeggs took over, he shifted the focus of Hammer Films away from producing films using their stable of familiar monsters and characters, and toward television, creating the 13-episode series Hammer House of Horror. Each installment ran close to an hour in length, featuring different sorts of horror, and typically ending with a plot twist. 

Guardian of the Abyss follows the basic template. Laura (Barbara Ewing) is the winner of an auction for an interesting mirror. When a stranger seems very interested in purchasing the mirror from her, her friend Michael (Ray Lonnen) suggests that she have the mirror appraised to determine its true value. Unbeknownst to Michael and Laura, the mirror is a scrying glass that, if it falls into the wrong (or right) hands, could be used to summon the demon Choronzon. Michael crosses paths with a woman named Allison (Rosalyn Landor, most likely known from her role in Hammer’s The Devil Rides Out), who says she has escaped from a cult. But could she be the key to the entire mystery behind the mirror?

Guardian of the Abyss is the fourth segment I’ve watched so far in this series. They are all very enjoyable for what they are. Nothing terribly deep. Again, you typically get a twist ending that sticks the landing. A nice, quick watch for this time of year. I’m looking forward to watching the rest of these over time. I’m always happy to plug one in this slot every year during this challenge.

CHILLER THEATER MONTH: In the Year 2889 (1967)

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EDITOR’S NOTE: In the Year 2889 was on Chiller Theater on Saturday, October 17, 1970 at 1:00 a.m. and Saturday, January 15, 1972 at 11:30 p.m.

A remake of Roger Corman’s 1956 film Day the World Ended, this started as part of the Larry Buchanon remake series of American-International Pictures films, reshooting them on a low budget in color for TV.

AIP gave Buchanan the original script to use for this film, which ended up being an almost line-for-line, scene-for-scene remake. But why the new name? Well, after AIP made Master of the World, they registered the trademark for a film of the book In the Year 2889, which was written by Jules Verne and his son Michael.

FX artsitPaul Blaisdell, who did the special effects for the original AIP film, saw the movie on a Saturday afternoon and had no idea what it was. In his biography, he said, “I recognized some of the dialogue coming out of the actors’ mouths because it was a direct steal from Day the World Ended. I sat there…staring at it, and i just couldn’t believe it. I was absolutely spellbound. It’s just absolutely unbelievable that they remade) those. I don’t want to know a damn thing about them. I hope I never see them. One was more than enough!”

So yes, this is set in the year 1967. Not 2889. But we have Paul Petersen (The Donna Reed Show) as heroic Steve Morrow; Quinn O’Hara (The Ghost In the Invisible Bikini, Cry of the Banshee) as Jada; Charla Doherty in her final role as Joana Ramsey; Neil Fletcher as Captain John Ramsey; Hugh Feagin as Mickey Brown; Max W. Anderson as Granger Morrow; Bill Thurman as Tim Henderson and Byron Lord, the creature from Creature of Destruction, as a mutant. Lord also wrote Eat, Drink and Make Merrie and played Dean Butts in Co-Ed Fever, a Gary Graver adult film with an all-star cast including Jamie Gillis, Annette Haven, Serene Samantha Fox, Lisa De Leeuw, Vanessa del Rio, John Leslie and Juliet “Aunt Peg” Anderson.

Anyways, this movie is ridiculous and I loved it. The world ends, but only eight people are in it.

You can watch this on Tubi.

THE IMPORTANT CINEMA CLUB’S SUPER SCARY MOVIE CHALLENGE DAY 22: The Agency (1980)

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22. A Horror Film That Can Be Found on a 50-Movie DVD Collection

I’ve worked in advertising for thirty years. So this is more of a horror movie for me than for nearly anyone else.

Based on The Agency by Paul Gottlieb, directed by George Kaczender and written by Noel Hynd, this film follows a burned-out creative director, Philip Morgan (played by Lee Majors), who uncovers a sinister use of subliminal advertising at his ad agency. The agency owner, Ted Queen (played by Robert Mitchum), is the mastermind behind this electoral manipulation. Valerie Perrine plays Brenda Wilcox, the love interest of Philip, and Saul Rubinek is the copywriter, Sam Goldstein.

This follows The Norseman, Steel and Killer Fish in attempts at Majors becoming a movie star; he would soon be back on the small screen, making TV movies and starring in The Fall Guy. He doesn’t look like any ad guy I’ve ever seen, even though he wore a long, fashionable coat at one point. He does seem burned out, and hey, I can relate.

Goldstein thinks that the new Chocolate Planet drink powder ad campaign is all about taking over the hearts and minds of America’s youth, even if this was shot in Canada. Yes, it’s going to make kids make America great forty years early.

But hey — Lee Majors not playing a stuntman or a cyborg, just an ad guy who sleeps with normal women like Valerie Perrine. Plus, the ad for No Sweat deodorant is excellent, like a hellspawn musical dance that would make me buy the product.

Mitchum vs. Majors in Montreal. It happened. I watched it.

You can watch this on YouTube.

2025 Scarecrow Psychotronic Challenge Day 22: The Road Warrior (1981)

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22. WRECK TANGLE: Rubberneck a car crash scene.

Everything Mad Max did right, The Road Warrior does better.

Italy and many other countries remade this over and over.

It changed American pro wrestling thanks to the look of the Road Warriors tag team,. Hawk and Animal.

And it made the end of the world seem awesome.

“Mad Max” Rockatansky (Mel Gibson) lost his family to a biker gang just as the world was ending. Now, he roams the outback and battles even more biker gangs, including Wez (Vernon Wells) and Lord Humongous (Kjell Nilsson), who has perhaps one of the greatest speeches in movie history: “There has been too much violence, too much pain. None here are without sin, but I have an honorable compromise. Just walk away. Leave the pump, the oil, the gasoline, and the whole compound, and I spare your lives. Just walk away. I will give you safe passage in the wasteland. Just walk away and there will be an end to the horror. I await your answer. You have one full day to decide.”

Along with a feral child (Emil Minty) and the gyro captain (Bruce Spence), Max must decide to aid the ragtag people left behind. By the end of the movie, we learn that the child has become Chief of the Great Northern Tribe and has been telling this story all along.

As for Max, he’s the greatest cowboy to not ride a horse. Only George Miller could make a cocktail of Joseph Campbell, Carl Jung and Akira Kurosawa that works this well.

In America, you’d never know this was a sequel. It was sold as a brand new movie and as the first movie aired on cable, people put it together. People loved it; critics too. Roger Ebert said that it was  “one of the most relentlessly aggressive movies ever made.”

I first saw it at the drive-in and was totally shocked when the child kills Wez’s partner with a metal boomerang. Like, it shut me down. I couldn’t believe how non-stop violent this movie was and I’m laughing now, because I totally fell in love with this movie and couldn’t stop drawing it as a kid. So much of what I love — the Bronx Italian films, Fist of the North Star and more — all start here.

UNSUNG HORRORS HORROR GIVES BACK 2025: History of the Occult (2020)

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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 works to save the lives of cats and dogs across America, giving pets second chances and providing them with happy homes.

Today’s theme: South America!

Historia de lo Oculto is the first movie by director and writer Cristian Ponce. It is supposed to be the final episode of the 1980s Argentine television news program 60 Minutos Antes de la Medianoche (60 Minutes Before Midnight) and the story of how a conspiracy connects the government to a mysterious corporation that practices black magic.

In fact, the show has already been canceled after trying to expose President Belasco’s economic policies, corruption and ties to the occult. For the last time, host Alfredo (Germán Baudino) brings together Senator Matías Linares (Hernán Altamirano). Sociologist Daniel Aguilar (Luciano Guglielmino) and Adrián Marcato (Germán Baudino), the vice president and co-founder of Kingdom Corporate, Argentina’s largest corporation. Oh yeah — he’s also a warlock. Two of the three have had their names appear in a notebook found at a ritual murder. The rest of the show’s journalists — Lucio (Iván Ezquerré). Maria (Nadia Lozano), Jorge (Agustín Recondo), and Abel (Casper Uncal) are hiding, waiting for word from Natalia (Lucia Arreche) on when it will be safe to leave and when the rally against Belasco will begin.

But while they wait, they have been sent four doses of hallucinogenic tannis root by Von Merkens labs, Belasco’s competition and the only company that would sponsor the show. Do I need to remind you to never take tannis root? Or be part of a ritual that will expose conspiracies?

The truth? Marcato was cast out of his coven and made a deal with the journalists to expose Belasco in return for an artifact he needs. But when everyone wakes up from a ritual that has them see demonic creatures, Lucio’s missing, Abel’s dead and a crazed Maria claims that he was a warlock who was trying to kill them. And for some reason, when people ask how many children others have, answers don’t match up due to alternate realities. And oh yeah, Kingdom Corporate is a coven of warlocks who made a deal with beings from another world and used that power to take over Argentina.

Obviously, Marcato and tannis root comes from Rosemary’s Baby, while this film also has a modern cell phone as an occult icon and 1987 Argentine politics being explored. It’s really dense, and I say that in a significant way. Nothing ever truly happens, despite setting it up, but it works hard to get there.

You can watch this on Tubi.

CHILLER THEATER MONTH: The Black Torment (1964)

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EDITOR’S NOTE: The Black Torment was on Chiller Theater on Saturday, Novembr 9, 1968 at 1:00 a.m.; Saturday, February 20, 1971 at 1:00 a.m. and Saturday, April 8, 1972 at 11:30 p.m. 

Made by Compton Films, directed by Robert Hartford-Davis and written by Derek and Donald Ford. I watched this because those three men also made one of the wildest British horror movies, Corruption, which we all know is not a woman’s picture.

It feels like British filmmakers trying to make an Italian film, as it starts with Lucy Judd (Edina Ronay) being chased through the woods by a black hooded figure and strangled. We then meet Sir Richard Fordyke (John Turner) and his new bride Elizabeth (Heather Sears) who have come to town so that she may meet her father-in-law Sir Giles Fordyke (Joseph Tomelty). She worries about her first impression, but his father has been weakened by a stroke and can only speak sign language, which can only be understood by his first wife’s sister Diane (Ann Lynn). And oh yeah — Anne killed herself a few years ago when she was told she couldn’t get pregnant. Oh these British upper-crust families and their horrific family trees!

When they finally get there, everyone — from villagers to family — treats them with cold eyes and whispers, because the rumor is that Richard killed Lucy, even if he was far away in London at the time. Witchcraft is in town and the Fordykes are said to be the cause. In fact, there are reports of Richard riding his horse about the village while the dead Anne follows him shouting “Murderer!”

Obviously, someone is trying to destroy Richard. But who? And why?

If you enjoy period dramas with a bit of the supernatural thrown in, well, this is certainly for you. I love that Hartford-Davis would go on to direct a toy tie-in movie, Gonks Go Beat, as well as School for Unclaimed Girls, Incense for the Damned and The Fiend.