Also known as The Hooker Cult Murders, The Pyx is based on the novel by John Buell. The pyx is a container used by Catholics to hold the Eucharist, literally the body and blood of Jesus Christ in the form of blessed unleavened bread.

While directed by Harvey Hart and written by Robert Schlitt, this was a movie that Curtis Harrington had wanted to make for some time.

Elizabeth Lucy (Karen Black) is a barely dressed sex worker who fell out a window, a bloodstream filled with heroin, clutching a crucifix and a pyx. Sergeant Jim Henderson (Christopher Plummer) wants to figure out why she died, which takes us back through the last few months of her life.

As he grows closer to the truth, meeting the people in her life, each of them dies in different ways. That’s because Elizabeth was the victim of a cult who had desecrated a piece of communion and were offering it to her as part of a Black Mass, presided over by a Catholic priest. As she was trying to save her soul, she jumps out a window to her death.

That priest, Keerson (Jean-Louis Roux) claims to be possessed by the devil and only the bullets of Henderson’s gun set him free.

The end of this is strange from a Catholic perspective. Suicide is one of the biggest sins of the church and it keeps the soul in limbo or sends it to Hell, depending on which of the teachers you believe. Would Elizabeth be forgiven for this death as she did it to remain free of Satanic power? I wonder.

You can watch this on Tubi.

Here’s a drink.

Black Mass (thanks to this recipe)

• 1.5 oz. white rum
• .5 oz. Malibu
• .5 oz. blue curacao
• .5 oz. Campari
• 3 oz. pineapple juice
• .25 oz. simple syrup
• .25 oz. lime juice

1. Put all ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice.
2. Pour over crushed ice and drink up.

A few years in the past, Jeff Ashton (David G. Cannon), Doctor Ray Sanders (John Crawford),  “Mad Man” Herman (Marvin Kaplan) and Ted Rogers (Ray Dannis), among others, were caught in a cave-in. With the prospect of survival seeming zero, they agreed — well, everyone except the victim — to cut off Ted’s arm and eat it.

Now, Jeff has just received an arm in the mail and “Mad Man” is killed on the air during his radio show, his arm amputated by a crazy killer. With the help of Ted’s daughter Teddy (Deborah Walley), they look for Ted, who is missing. But ah — she’s been working with her Uncle Roger (Bob Guthrie) to lure Jeff into a trap where he’ll have to eat his own arm to live!

The lesson of this movie: Never trust the mail when it’s delivered by Angus Scrimm.

Directed by Thomas S. Alderman, who wrote the story with Darrel Presnell (from a story by Marc B. Ray and Larry Alexander and additional dialogue by Kelly Estill), this is a grimy thriller that has cannibalism at its heart.

You can watch this on Tubi or get it from Vinegar Syndrome.

Here’s a drink.

Cave In Cannibal

• 1 oz. amaretto
• 1 oz. high proof rum
• 1 oz. peach schnapps
• .5 oz. Southern Comfort
• 2 oz. cranberry juice
• .5 oz. orange juice

1. Add amaretto, rum, schnapps and Southern Comfort to a glass filled with ice.
2. Stir, then add cranberry juice. Stir and add orange juice.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Godzilla vs. Megalon was on Chiller Theater on Saturday, November 10, 1979 at 1:00 a.m., Saturday, October 11, 1980 at 1:00 a.m. and Saturday, August 14, 1982 at 1:00 a.m.

This film came out in the U.S. when I was four years old and for a kid that watched Godzilla films every time they aired, I was so excited to see something new. Yes, Jet Jaguar was accidentally called Robotman and Gigan was Borodan but I didn’t yet super anal retentive about kaiju movies and need to see the originals in Japanese.

On March 15, 1977, this was the first Godzilla movie that aired on American network TV in prime time. It was cut down — nearly in half, come on! — but it was hosted by John Belushi in a Godzilla suit. However, no one saved any of this footage. For decades, I thought I had just had a dream about it.

197X: Humans keep nuclear testing, which ends up causing earthquakes on Monster Island, nearly killing Godzilla and taking out Anguirus. The undersea city of Seatopia has had enough of humanity and unleash their greatest monster, Megalon, cleaning their hands of surface people forever.

Inventor Goro Ibuki (Katsuhiko Sasaki), his brother Rokuro (Hiroyuki Kawase) and Hiroshi Jinkawa (Yutaka Hayashi) have created a robot named Jet Jaguar. Seatopia does not wanted to die off like Atlantis, Mu (justified and ancient) and Lemuria. They steal the robot to guide their monster.

Once the inventor and his friends save Jet Jaguar, they team with Godzilla just in time for the Seatopia army to contact the Space Hunter Nebula M and send Gigan back to our planet. What follows is the monster fight of all monster fights, which ends as all must, with Godzilla shaking hands with his new robot friend. If you think this is goofy, we can never be movie friends.

Jet Jaguar was the result of a contest Toho had for children. Red Arone was a robot sent in by a child who was upset when his drawing became a monster. Toho redesigned him as Jet Jaguar and made him a hero.

This once had the title Insect Monster Megalon vs. Godzilla: Undersea Kingdom’s Annihilation Strategy. Japan forever.

If this is starting to all feel the same, this movie uses footage from Mothra vs. Godzilla, Ghidorah the Three-Headed Monster, The War of the Gargantuas, Ebirah, Horror of the Deep, Destroy All Monsters, Godzilla vs. Hedorah and Godzilla vs. Gigan.

The last fight in this is total pro wrestling. Godzilla even hits a dropkick.

You can watch this on Tubi.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Nightmare Hotel was on Chiller Theater on Saturday, March 24, 1979 at 1:00 a.m., Saturday, August 16, 1980 at 1:00 a.m., Saturday, September 26, 1981 at 1:00 a.m. and Saturday, August 20, 1983 at 3:00 a.m.

Nightmare Hotel is the TV title for A Candle for the Devil which is also known as It Happened at Nightmare Inn. Directed by Eugenio Martín, it begins with sisters Marta (Aurora Bautista) and Verónica (Esperanza Roy) confronting May (Loreta Tovar), one of the guests at their small inn. She’s sunbathing nude outside and in the middle of an argument, she’s shoved down the stairs and dies when she goes through a stained glass window. Just as the sisters start to get rid of the body, the dead girl’s sister Laura (Judy Geeson) shows up, wondering where her sister is. She decides to stay there until she can find her sister.

Things are steamy all over town. One of the guests, Helen Miller (Lone Fleming), is on the make and bringing men back to her room at all hours of the evening. Verónica is sleeping with the much younger Luis (Carlos Piñe) and stealing money to give to him. And every man in the village seems to be swimming nude, which excited and enrages Marta, who soon kills Helen.

An American mother named Norma (Blanca Estrada) comes to stay just as Laura leaves, worried for her safety after Helen disappears. She asks Norma to let her know when she leaves to ensure that she isn’t killed. Soon, the sisters covet the baby and start to believe that Norma is a sex worker and has no idea who the father is. Verónica grabs her baby as Marta stabs the woman. It turns out that she was in the middle of a divorce and this gives Verónica more reasons to doubt her sister; she gives Luis all of her money and says she no longer wants to see him, begging him to leave town.

Laura returns, after not hearing from Norma. She brings a man from town,  Eduardo (Víctor Barrera), who finds a container in the basement with mystery meat floating in red wine. As he finds Norma’s severed head, he’s murdered by Marta. At the same time, a guest gets sick from eating food made from people and her husband goes to the police.

Laura returns to her room and finds Eduardo’s body as the sisters attack her, dragging her to the room with the rotting meat. As she screams against a window, the police save her, but as her face and tears go through the credits, it seems like she will never be the same again.

When this played U.S. theaters as Dread Stop at Nightmare Inn, it got a PG rating. How?!?

I loved every moment, from the Blaise Pascal quote at the start — “There are only two types of men: The righteous who think they are sinners, and the sinners who think they are righteous” — to the final moments.

In 1985, this was remade in Turkey as Vahset Kasirgasi (Brutal Storm). And thanks to my friend Bill Van Ryn, I know that this played double features with Things From The Grave, which is a retitled Children Shouldn’t Play With Dead Things.

You can watch this on Tubi.

EDITOR’S NOTE: The Fury of the Wolfman was on Chiller Theater on Saturday, February 18, 1978 at 11:30 p.m. and Saturday, June 19, 1982 at 1:00 a.m.

La Furia del Hombre Lobo is a 1970 Spanish horror film that is the fourth in the saga of werewolf Count Waldemar Daninsky, played as always by Paul Naschy. It was not theatrically released in Europe until 1975, yet an edited U.S. version played on television as early as 1974 as part of the Avco-Embassy’s “Nightmare Theater” package, along with Naschy’s Horror from the Tomb and The Mummy’s Revenge.

For those that care about these things — like me — the other films were Marta, Death Smiles on a Murderer, Night of the Sorcerers, Hatchet for the Honeymoon, Dear Dead Delilah, Doomwatch, Bell from Hell, Witches Mountain, Maniac Mansion and The Witch.

This time, Daninsky is a professor who travels to Tibet, only to be bitten by a yeti which seems like not the werewolf origin that you’d expect. He then catches his wife cheating on him, so in a fit of passion, he murders them both before being killed himself. But this being a Spanish horror movie, that’s just the start of the trials that El Hombre Lobo must struggle through.

Daninsky is revived by Dr. Ilona Ellmann (Perla Cristal, The Corruption of Chris Miller), who wants to use him for mind control experiments. Soon, however, our hero learns that she has a basement filled with the corpses of her failed experiments. To make matters even worse, she brings back his ex-wife from the dead and turns her into a werewolf too!

There’s a great alternate title to this movie: Wolfman Never Sleeps. How evocative! That’s the Swedish version that has all of the sex that Franco’s Spain would never allow.

Naschy claimed that director José María Zabalza was a drunk, which may explain how this movie wound up padded with repeat footage from Frankenstein’s Bloody Terror and some stunt double continuity antics that nearly derail this furry film.

EDITOR’S NOTE: As the journey through Cannon continues, this week we’re exploring the films of 21st Century Film Corporation, which would be the company that Menahem Golan would take over after Cannon. Formed by Tom Ward and Art Schweitzer in 1971 (or 1976, there are some disputed expert opinions), 21st Century had a great logo and released some wild stuff.

Directed, written and starring Graydon Clark as Vietnam veteran Jim, this has his character run into a black gang in Watts led by Tom or Makimba (Tom Johnigarn) and saved by racist cops Sgt. Berry (Jock Mahoney) and Lt. Stans (Aldo Ray), who have the power of the badge and use it to knock everyone around.

There are also ladies showing up amidst the racial tensions, like Jacqueline Cole as Jim’s lover Nancy (she’s also Clark’s real-life wife) and Bambi Allen as Bobbi. In the short 34 years of her life, Allen was in pretty much the entire Something Weird catalog, including Space Thing, Day of the Nightmare, Sisters In Leather, The Fabulous Bastard from Chicago, The Ice House, The Erotic Adventures of Robin Hood, Miss Nymphet’s Zap-In, Terror At Orgy Castle, Hollywood Babylon, Loce Boccaccio Style and Street of a Thousand Pleasures. Sadly, she’d die a year after this movie — according to Sam Sherman — due to health complications brought about by silicone breast injections.

While Jim tries to pick Nancy or Bobbi, Makimba is blaming him for all of his problems. The fuse has been list and things are about to explode, as they say.

Some people are going to tell you that the topless pool party is gratuitous. I’m going to tell you that it was shot at Severn Darden’s house.

This was released by Dimension Pictures and also used the names Tom, The Brothers and ****** Lover. 21st Century re-released this after buying the Dimension film catalog.

You can watch this on Tubi.

EDITOR’S NOTE: As the journey through Cannon continues, this week we’re exploring the films of 21st Century Film Corporation, which would be the company that Menahem Golan would take over after Cannon. Formed by Tom Ward and Art Schweitzer in 1971 (or 1976, there are some disputed expert opinions), 21st Century had a great logo and released some wild stuff.

Ellen Bennett (Katharine Houghton, who brought Sidney Poitier to a supper in Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner) is a bored, rich white woman living in Puerto Rico. Her husband John (James Congdon) is barely around and even when he is, he’s a drunken lout. She’s always looking for things to do, like gossip with fellow elites like Helena (Rita Gam) and admire the lawns of other people in her caste. When one of them dies, her gardener Carl (Joe Dallesandro) becomes available.

Seriously, every time Carl appears, it’s like a magical woman in a beer commercial. Ladies just lose their minds, unable to speak. Maybe it’s because Carl is able to grow flowers that no one else can and faster than anyone else. It’s also because he never wears a shirt.

The only film directed and written by James H. Kay, this starts as an erotic thriller and becomes something wonderfully insane because — spoiler — Carl is really a tree person. Yes, it’s the best use of Joe Dallesandro there can be, just taking off his clothes and speaking in a — pardon this — wooden tone which for once matches the needs of the role.

Imagine a film where lush music plays as Little Joe leads affluent women to their doom, sometimes even turning them into plants. Sometimes, this is a soap opera. Other times, Carl is planting spy flowers all over the house and making party dresses that have thorns that strike bad husbands. It’s also a sex movie that is incredibly chaste, other than seeing Carl swim nude and then later become a plant himself. It has a mood, though, and for some reason, on a Tuesday late afternoon, I became enraptured by the idea of all these society affairs and champagne breakfasts at noon being ruined by a man who, for some reason, just showed up out of the leaves to manicure their hedges. And then they die.

This also turns into a detective giallo at one point and man, I think I love the idea of what this movie could be in place of what it is. I’m being charitable by saying this is a flawed movie. That doesn’t mean that I wasn’t wildly entertained by my experience with it. This is the kind of film that I’ll think about and try to work into conversation for years to come. It now joins my garden of film delights about killer foliage that contains The Freakmaker, The Woman Eater, From Hell It Came, The Crawlers and The Kirlian Witness.

Someday, Severin will do a boxed set of these movies that will come with seeds appropriate to plant for each movie, a branded pot and one of those 1970s plant biofeedback machines that allows you to communicate with your houseplant. It will cost too much for me to be able to convince my wife that I need it.

Filmed in 1973 and originally released by KKI Films in 1974 as The Gardener and then Seeds of Evil, this had several re-releases, including a 1977 Flora Releasing and 1981 New American films distributed run. It also played as Garden of Death. 21st Century also had this in theaters.