WEIRD WEDNESDAY: Dracula vs. Frankenstein (1971)

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Dracula vs. Frankenstein feels like the most Independent-International movie there is. I have no other way to explain why this movie seems like it came from another reality. It has Dr. Durea (J. Carrol Naish, in his last film), the last descendant of Dr. Frankenstein, killing women with his assistant Groton (Lon Chaney Jr., in his next-to-last movie) to try to concoct an elixir that will fix his legs and his henchman’s simple brain. They’re visited by Dracula (Zandor Vorkov, really Raphael Peter Engel, given that name by Forrest J. Ackerman and someone who once ran record stores; according to this interview in Fangoria, he’s wearing a rental cape that was once used by Bela Lugosi) who wants them to finish their cocktail so that it can allow him to walk in the daytime which he feels will make him finally able to take over the world.

The doctor and his assistant decide to set up their lab — using the Kenneth Strickfaden equipment from the Universal films — in a haunted house known as the Creature Emporium. They keep killing women while Dracula is sent after the man who put the doctor in a wheelchair, Beaumont (Forrest J. Ackerman). A biker named Rico (Russ Tamblyn) gets involved, and Dracula gets his blood hot over a showgirl by the name of Judith Fontaine (Regina Carroll).

I nearly forgot! Dracula also has the corpse of the Frankenstein Monster, which he took from Oakmoor Cemetery. He’s played by both John Bloom and Shelley Weiss. The goal is to bring that creature back to life as well. Graydon Clark is in here as The Strange, a hippie leader, and of course, the kids all drop acid.

Judith also learns that the doctor has kept her sister Joanie (Maria Lease) and her friend Samantha (Anne Morrell) nude and trapped between life and death. He’s using a special enzyme in their plasma that comes from the fear before death to create his magical elixir so that he can heal his leg, fix his quiet friend and help Dracula. His hypothesis is that if Judith watches Mike (Anthony Eisley), a hippie who has fallen for her and she for him, die, then the enzyme in her blood will be strong enough to complete his work. He sends Grazbo the dwarf (Angelo Rossitto) and Groton after them, but the little guy falls through a trapdoor and onto an axe, Groton gets shot by the cops, and he himself falls onto a guillotine, which cuts his head off.

But oh, Mike, you aren’t safe. Dracula attempts to take Judith, and when our hero tries to save her, the vampire blasts him with his ring and turns him into ashes. Now, the fanged Frank Zappa lookalike tries to drink her blood in a desecrated church, but the Frankenstein Monster falls in love, too and fights Dracula. This sounds like the kind of story an elementary student would make up in class when they should be studying, and that’s why I love it. Dracula rips off the creature’s arms and head, but gets burned by the sunlight.

Lon Chaney Jr. was in bad shape during this, lying down between takes and barely able to speak, as he could be heard. He would speak to Adamson’s father and say things like, “You and I are the only two left. They’re all gone. I want to die now. There’s nothing left for me; I just want to die.”

What makes me love this even more is the theory that this was a sequel to Satan’s Sadists, with Russ Tamblyn and the other bikers from that film coming back. Sam Sherman decided to turn it into a horror film and much of the biker footage was cut as a result. Not all of the biker footage could be cut, which is why Tamblyn and his biker gang wander in and out of the movie.

This movie has one of my favorite lines of all time, as Dracula hypnotizes Forrest and takes him to his doom. He gives him directions as he speaks, and I wonder, why doesn’t he just have him drive, as he’s already taken over his will? He says, “I am known as the Count of Darkness, the Lord of the Manor of Carpathia. Turn here.”

WEIRD WEDNESDAY: Don’t Go In the House! (1979)

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If any film earned being a video nasty, it would be this one, a movie that has a man who was abused as a child growing up to be a serial killer obsessed with burning people alive. There is no one to root for or cheer for, only mayhem, malice and murder.

In short, the kind of movie that Gene Siskel would have a conniption over.

When Donald (Dan Grimaldi, a math professor who also played Philly and Patsy Parisi on The Sopranos) was a kid, his mother would use a stove to burn the evil out of him. Now fully grown, he seeks out women that remind him of her and kills them with a flamethrower in relentlessly graphic detail.

While the killer tries to confess his sins, he can’t stop. Even a simple double date ends with him smashing a candle over a woman’s head. And get this, it even has an ending very similar to Maniac, another movie that offers no easy answers or way out.

This is also a definite disco slasher. A truly mean spirited blast of sheer degeneracy — and therefore everything wonderful about the slasher form — Don’t Go In the House has songs like “Boogie Lightning,” “Dancin’ Close to You,” “Straight Ahead” and “Late Night Surrender” playing in between moments of women being set ablaze and a mother rotting somewhere in a house that has an impossibly huge torture chamber in the basement.

You can watch this on Tubi or buy the blu ray from Severin.

MILL CREEK LEGENDS OF HORROR: The Satanic Rites of Dracula (1973)

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Man, what a title. Better than the original one, Dracula is Dead…and Well and Living in London, which upset Christoper Lee so much that he was outspoken at the press conference that introduced the movie: “I’m doing it under protest… I think it is fatuous. I can think of twenty adjectives — fatuous, pointless, absurd. It’s not a comedy, but it’s got a comic title. I don’t see the point.”

The eighth Hammer Dracula movie, the seventh and final to star Lee (John Forbes-Robertson played Dracula with David de Keyser as the voice in The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires) and the third and last to put Lee’s vampire against Cushing’s Van Helsing (they would appear in only one more movie together, House of the Long Shadows), this is pretty much the end of an era.

Every time I think of this movie, I remember Bill Van Ryn of Drive-In Asylum excitedly saying to me — after we saw the trailer at a drive-in — “It’s not enough that Dracula is a vampire. Now he has an entire army of Satanists and he wants to rule the world and he has a plague!”

It turns out there’s a government occult conspiracy that only Van Helsing can stop, and he’s bringing along his granddaughter, Patsy Stone, err, Jessica Van Helsing.

As the cabal prepares for the Sabbath of the Undead, their mysterious fifth member is revealed to be, of course, Dracula, using the identity of reclusive property developer D. D. Denham and operating out of the very same churchyard where he died in Dracula A.D. 1972.

Somehow, this is more of an Eurospy science-fiction movie than a traditional horror film, and that’s kind of the beauty of the whole thing.

Somehow, this fell into the public domain in the U.S. That’s why it’s on so many Mill Creek sets under this title and the edited TV version Count Dracula and his Vampire Bride.

You can watch this on Tubi.

Attend Erasing the Lines in the Sand: Child Death in Film and the Taboo That Won’t Die Online!

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Next Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2025, from 2:00 to 4:00 pm EST, Erica Shultz will be drawing from her book The Sweetest Taboo: An Unapologetic Guide to Child Kills in Film to take a sharp-witted, irreverent approach to a subject that has made critics and censors clutch their pearls for decades.

Through film clips, historical context, and a healthy dose of gallows humor, this talk will dissect the genre biases, cultural contexts, and hypocrisies that dictate what is considered too far. Different cultures and historical moments have shaped how filmmakers portray child mortality, from the transgressive violence of Italy’s “Years of Lead”-era cinema to the reactionary moral panics of 1980s America. In Hong Kong cinema, shifting political landscapes before and after the Handover influenced the framing of youthful innocence—and its destruction.

Meanwhile, Hollywood’s unwritten rules dictate when a child’s death serves as tragedy, retribution, or exploitation. Mainstream, critically acclaimed films have long used child mortality as an emotional weapon, while horror films are branded exploitative for doing the same. Violent child deaths in action movies may remain PG-13, while horror films with similar content are punished with an R or NC-17. This conversation will also explore the difference between “Killer Kids” and “Killing Kids,” examining why a murderous child’s death in Pet Sematary, Mikey, or Who Can Kill a Child? is more palatable than the death of an innocent.

Beyond genre and censorship, the internet’s ever-growing influence has reshaped audience reactions, amplifying social media outrage and recontextualizing past films through contemporary lenses. Expect a lively discussion, controversial examples, and an unapologetic look at one of cinema’s most enduring taboos. If you’ve ever laughed, gasped, or cringed at an onscreen child kill, this is the class for you.

Erica Shultz is the co-host of the Unsung Horrors podcast, which focuses on horror films with fewer than 1000 views on Letterboxd. She has contributed booklet essays, visual essays, and commentary tracks for various boutique Blu-ray labels such as Vinegar Syndrome, Severin, Terror Vision, Fun City Editions, and Cinephobia releasing. Her 2024 self-published book The Sweetest Taboo: An Unapologetic Guide to Child Kills in Film categorizes and reviews nearly 1200 films that depict a child death. She is currently working on a second volume, and living blissfully child-free in Austin, Texas.

You can learn more here.

Help fund It Came from Texas!

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It Came From Texas is a feature-length documentary that dives headfirst into this untold story. Through interviews with filmmakers, actors, critics, and fans, plus rare footage and behind-the-scenes treasures, we’ll celebrate the creators who proved that you don’t need Hollywood to make movie magic — just grit, guts, and maybe a bucket of fake blood.

Texas is home to some of the strangest, most unforgettable B-movies ever unleashed on late-night TV, drive-in screens, and straight-to-VHS shelves. From the cult catastrophe of Manos: The Hands of Fate to gems like Blood Suckers From Outer Space, The Nail Gun Massacre, and Don’t Look in the Basement — the Lone Star State has carved its own wild legacy in the world of cult cinema.

To learn more, click here.

Fans of Despiser and Phil Cook films now comes Echoes of Dread

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I just got this in my email and wanted to share it with you!

“We’ve embarked on our latest film adventure — Echoes — a new story that revisits the dark and imaginative world first glimpsed in Despiser. Our modest Kickstarter campaign is now live, and we’d love for you to be part of bringing it to life.

Your support can help us finish the film — and you can even claim a few Despiser props before they’re gone, or see your name appear in the credits!

Echoes of Dread introduces a new heroine, Samantha Rainer, a social media “View-Tuber” with a devoted following. In her quest to explore the macabre, she stumbles into a nightmare world…and accidentally unleashes it. Now, Samantha must find a way to put the genie back in the bottle — with the help (and hindrance) of old and new allies — as she fights for her life.

Our Kickstarter campaign runs for only a few more weeks, so please check it out today and consider joining us on this next cinematic journey.”

Cook says that this film is “peripherally connected to Despiser. It’s not a gonzo car-chase shoot ’em up, but rather a darkly quirky dip into some of Despiser’s themes—and a few of its surviving characters.”

Get on that Kickstarter now, there’s just a few days to go!

MILL CREEK LEGENDS OF HORROR: Maria Marten, or The Murder in the Red Barn (1935)

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This is based on a true story, as The Red Barn Murder refers to an 1827 murder in Polstead, Suffolk, England. There, a young woman named Maria Marten was shot dead by her lover, William Corder, at the Red Barn, which was a local landmark. The two were going to elope, and afterward, Corder sent letters to Marten’s family claiming they were married and living on the Isle of Wight, but that she was not well. Maria’s stepmother had a dream that Maria had been murdered, and soon, her body was discovered in the barn. 

Corder wanted to keep his relationship with Marten a secret, but she gave birth to their child in 1827 and wanted to be his wife. He may have killed the child, but still agreed to the wedding. The murder was investigated by James Lea, who was one of the police officers who tried to find the legendary Spring-Heeled Jack later. 

In this, Tod Slaughter is Corder, who murders the pregnant Maria (Sophie Stewart) and buries her beneath the barn. She had another lover, Carlos (Eric Portman), who found and brought Corder to the law.

Slaughter debuted on screen in this at the age of 49!

The honest Maria Marten already had two children out of wedlock and “was notoriously free with her affections.” Carlos isn’t a real person; as for the stepmother’s dream, research today believes that she was an accomplice to the murder. As for how old Corder is, that’s also made up, as well as his being a rich man.

You can watch this on Tubi.

B & S About Movies podcast special episode 17: Horror Gives Back 2025 part 2

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Each October, the Unsung Horrors podcast does a month of themed movies. This year, this event benefits Best Friends, which is working to save the lives of cats and dogs all across America, giving pets second chances and happy homes.

If you enjoyed reading anything I posted, please consider donating and letting me know.

Here are the movies that I watched. You can also check out the Letterboxd list.

Thanks to Adam Hursey, Parker Simpson and John Connelly for being part of this!

This episode has these movies:

11. 1970s: The Last House on the Left, The Body Beneath
12. Animal Attack: Prophecy, Bugged
13. South Korea: Yongary, I Saw the Devil, Moebius
14. Unsung Horrors Rule (under 1,000 views on Letterboxd): The President Must Die, Dracula’s Widow, Lady Beware
15. J&B: Carnal Circuit, Crimson the Color of Blood
16. 1990s: Arbor Day, Children of the Night, Battle Girl: The Living Dead In Tokyo Bay
17. Birth Year: Lord Shango, The Adult Version of Jekyll & Hyde
18. Hail Satan: The Great Satan at Large, Mind, Body & Soul
19. KNB: Doppleganger, Doppleganger, Night Angel
20. Tobe Hooper: Tobe Hooper’s Night Terrors, Spontaneous Combustion

Listen to this episode on Spotify.

The show is also available on Apple Podcasts, iHeartRadio, Amazon Podcasts, Podchaser and Google Podcasts

Important links:

Theme song: Strip Search by Neal Gardner.

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MILL CREEK LEGENDS OF HORROR: The Face at the Window (1939)

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A series of murders happens with a face appearing at each victim’s window, the image of what people begin to call the Wolf Man. A bank clerk named Lucien Cortier (John Warwick) is blamed, which pleases Chevalier Lucio del Gardo (Tod Slaughter), as he’s the real killer. 

According to Wikipedia, “Slaughter’s blood-and-thunder films were too British in theme, too old-fashioned and broadly played for mainstream audiences, and thus they were not released by any of the major film companies. Instead, they were handled by independent distributors in New York (usually Select Attractions or Arthur Ziehm, Inc.), and they did attract a specialized following among horror fans.”

The fourth time this story had been filmed — it started as a play by F. Brooke Warren and was also made in 1919, 1920 and 1932 — it did play on TV in the U.S. American Broadcasting Company’s short-lived First Nighter Theatre aired it in New York City on November 15, 1950, while it also played Cleveland, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Philadelphia on the Friday TV Thriller. 

There’s also a scientist, Professor LeBlanc (Wallace Evennett), who wants to use electricity to stop the murders and even uses a zap of the juice to bring a dead person back to life! Obviously, none of this movie is based on reality and that’s how I like it.

You can watch this on Tubi.

MILL CREEK LEGENDS OF HORROR: Jamaica Inn (1939)

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Daphne Du Maurier wrote the books that Hitchcock based Rebecca and The Birds, as well as this, his last British movie. Those two are way better, trust me. 

Mary Yellan (Maureen O’Hara), with her Aunt Patience (Marie Ney) and Uncle Joss (Leslie Banks), works at the Jamaica Inn, which kind of does what Antonio Bay did to ships full of lepers: lure them to the rocks, shipwreck them and take whatever they have. Sir Humphrey Pengallan (Charles Laughton) is the one making it happen, and Mary soon learns that her family is involved. Only lawman Jem Trehearne (Robert Newton) can help.

This is an entire movie of Laughton mugging and being out of control. If you like that, good news! Everyone else is in a different film, a more serious one! It looks great, though. The ships are gorgeous and, well, O’Hara is beautiful.

Hitchcock said he felt caught between Laughton and the actor’s business partners; he stated that he didn’t direct this movie as referee, but as a director. Laughton also asked to be filmed only in close-ups, as he had not yet learned how his character should walk. Ten days into filming, he started to waltz.  

You can watch this on Tubi.