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.

CHILLER THEATER MONTH: Terror In the Midnight Sun (1959)

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EDITOR’S NOTE: Terror In the Midnight Sun was on Chiller Theater on Saturday, March 2, 1968 at 11:20 p.m.; Saturday, July 26, 1969 at 1:00 a.m. and Saturday, May 30, 1970 at 11:30 p.m. as Invasion of the Animal People. 

Known internationally as Terror In the Midnight Sun and in its native Sweden as Space Invasion of Lapland, this movie was brought to the U.S. by Jerry Warren, who cut 25 minutes from its running time — including a nude shower scene with lead actress Barbara Wilson — as well as shooting a new beginning featuring narrator John Carradine. Of course, when he sold the film to syndication later, a whole bunch of new material had to be shot to pad out the film’s running time. That new footage features several doctors discussing the mental problems of the lead character. Warren also shot a new UFO abduction scene. Never let it be said that the maker of The Wild World of Batwoman didn’t keep up on trends.

However, in Fred Olen Ray’s book The New Poverty Row, he did reveal “I’d shoot one day on this stuff and throw it together…I was in the business to make money. I never, ever tried in any way to compete, or to make something worthwhile. I only did enough to get by, so they would buy it, so it would play, and so I’d get a few dollars. It’s not very fair to the public, I guess, but that was my attitude…You didn’t have to go all out and make a really good picture.”

Diane Wilson and scientist Erik Engstrom just want to fall in love, but all the mutilated reindeer keep getting in the way. That’s because three humanoid aliens have a gigantic and hairy fanged beast that they’re commanding to tear up houses and eat Santa’s steeds. Yes, this movie is years ahead of modern paranormal theories that place Bigfoot in the employ of grey extraterrestrials.

Virgil W. Vogel, the director of this movie, also was behind The Mole People. He was an editor on Bud Abbott Lou Costello Meet the Invisible Man and Touch of Evil, too. Most of his career was spent directing for television, which he did all the way up to his death in 1996.

WEIRD WEDNESDAY: The Doberman Gang (1972)

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Dillinger, Bonnie, Clyde, Pretty Boy Floyd, Baby Face Nelson and Ma Barker are the Doberman Gang, six Dobermans who join the gang of Eddie Newton (Byron Mabe), Sammy (Simmy Bow), June (Julie Parrish) and former Air Force dog trainer Barney Greer (Hal Reed). Oh yes — there’s also a bulldog named J. Edgar.

Eddie and June have been a couple, but she soon sees that he could throw her away at any time. She starts getting close to Barney, who soon learns that this is a criminal plan to train these dogs. He’s told that he’ll be killed if he tries to get away, so he works with them in the hopes that he can save the dogs and June. But he soon has second thoughts when he learns that the dogs will be killed.

Good boys. J. Edgar gets them to run off with the money. The bad news is that one of the dogs was hit by a car, and I could have done without that part. Except that in the sequel, The Daring Dobermans, that dog is fine. Whew.

There are also two more movies in the series, The Amazing Dobermans and Alex and the Doberman Gang.

I didn’t have to worry so much, as this was the first movie to have the “No Animals Were Harmed” onscreen credit from the American Humane Association.

This was directed by Byron Ross Chudnow and written by Louis Garfinkle, who also wrote I Bury the Living, Face of Fire, The Hellbenders, Little Cigars and The Deer Hunter—yeah, I know, wow—and Frank Ray Perilli, who wrote Mansion of the Doomed, the Michael Pataki adult Cinderella, End of the World, Dracula’s Dog, the adult Fairy Tales, Laserblast, The Best of Sex and Violence and co-wrote Alligator with John Sayles.

Dimension Pictures played this as a double feature with The Twilight People. I love that!

Image from Mike’s Take On the Movies.

THE IMPORTANT CINEMA CLUB’S SUPER SCARY MOVIE CHALLENGE DAY 21: Parents (1989)

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21. A Horror Film About Evil Parents

Directed by Bob Balaban (yes, the guy from Christopher Guest comedies) and written by Christopher Hawthorne. Parents finds the Laemle family — Nick (Randy Quaid), Lily (Mary Beth Hurt) and Michael (Bryan Madorsky) moving into the California suburbs. Between seeing his parents making love and watching his father do an autopsy, Michael is a bit screwed up. His dreams are horrible and he believes his parents are cannibals. But what if he’s right?

But what can you do when your parents want to feed you the meat of your guidance counselor, Millie Dew (Sandy Dennis)?

Siskel and Ebert disagreed on this; a big surprise was that Gene loved it and Roger didn’t. However, Ken Russell compared it to Blue Velvet and claimed that it was better than Lynch’s movie.

I’ve always wanted to see this ever since I saw the Vestron box at my mom and pop video store. It took a long time, but I enjoyed it. Time has made Randy Quaid in strange roles not, “He’s so good,” but instead. “Yes, Randy Quaid is legitimately weird.”

You can watch this on Tubi.

2025 Scarecrow Psychotronic Challenge Day 21: The Boys from Brazil (1978)

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21. TWINNERS CIRCLE: Scientists rejoice! Human cloning has been achieved.

Barry Kohler (Steve Guttenberg) died so that Ezra Lieberman (Laurence Olivier) could learn that Dr. Josef Mengele (Gregory Peck) lives and plans on killing 94 civil servants near retirement. Despite being exhausted by the world, Ezra forms a team with his sister Esther (Lilli Palmer), journalist Sidney Beynon (Denholm Elliot) and vigilante David Bennett (John Rubinstein) to stop the murders.

Directed by Franklin J. Schaffner (Planet of the Apes) and written by Heywood Gould (Rolling Thunder) from the book by Ira Levin, this is about the children — clones! — of Adolf Hitler, who have been placed all over the world.

Two years before this, Olivier would play a Nazi in Marathon Man. Here, he seems way more kindly than the character is in the book that inspired it.

Oddly, this is a movie that my wife’s family watched and quoted all of the time. Maybe they just like watching dogs maul evil German doctors. Who can say? Even today, long after this was made, just saying the title of the movie suggests a vast conspiracy.

Ira Levin had to be the richest man ever. Just look at the movies of his books: A Kiss Before Dying, Critic’s Choice, Rosemary’s Baby, The Stepford Wives, Deathtrap, Sliver and more. Several were filmed more than once and had sequels.