The Living Dead at the Manchester Morgue (1974)
No matter what title you watch this movie under — from the original Spanish title, No Profanar el Sueño de los Muertos (Don’t Disturb the Sleep of the Dead) or alternates like Let Sleeping Corpses Lie, The Living Dead, Breakfast at Manchester Morgue and Don’t Open the Window — it’s an intriguing slice of early 70’s shock. At once […]
Exorcism (1974)
Anne (Lina Romay, muse of this film’s director, Jess Franco) is a performance artist who specializes in recreating Satanic rituals and spicing them up for old rich folks to savor. She also writes for a magazine, Garter and Dagger, that appeals to people who like this kind of dreck. Turns out that Mathis, one of the […]
Magdalena, Possessed by the Devil (1974)
What would a German ripoff of The Exorcist look like? That’s an important question to ask. And when I describe ripoffs of said film, I always say, “You know how in The Exorcist, it’s still somewhat of a classy movie. What if it wasn’t? Wouldn’t that be awesome?” Most people, sane people, at that point say, “No. […]
Abby (1974)
Warner Brothers’ lawyers must have had the best holiday season ever in 1974, thanks to all of the work they were getting shutting down ripoffs of The Exorcist. The success of Abby — $4 million in a month for its distributor, American International Pictures — led to the lawsuit that pulled all prints of the film. That’s probably […]
CHRISTMAS CINEMA: Black Christmas (1974)
Based on a series of Canadian murders and the urban legend of calls coming to a babysitter from within the house (also see When a Stranger Calls), Bob Clark and A. Roy Moore created what many feel is one of the precursors to the slasher film genre. Bedford is a small college town, complete with a […]
Beyond the Door (1974)
There are rip-offs of The Exorcist. And then there are rip-offs where copyright infringement lawsuits lead to Warner Brothers getting a cash settlement and a portion of the film’s future revenue. Beyond the Door would be the latter. It’s $40 million worldwide gross meant that this film would a film draw the ire and call of that most Satanic of all […]
Enter the Devil (1974)
This movie is literally the center of the Venn Diagram that would be made of the movies that I love the most. Italian ripoff of a successful film — This movie is obviously trying to be The Exorcist. Satanism — This film has some of the goofiest and most awesome devil tricks of any of I’ve […]
WEEK OF MADE FOR TV MOVIES: Bad Ronald (1974)
The beauty of made for TV movies is that they can be way, way weirder than anything you’ll ever see on the big screen. For a blast of pure insanity — as long as you can get your brain to agree with the major reality bending events you’ll witness — you can’t go wrong with […]
Son of Dracula (1974)
There are lost movies because pieces of them have been lost, such as the original ending of Hammer’s Horror of Dracula, and lost movies because they should remain lost. Such is the case with Son of Dracula. Directed by Freddie Francis, who was at the helm for The Evil of Frankenstein, Dracula has Risen from His Grave, Tales […]
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