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It is a powerful testimonial to this BBC TV film that I have never forgotten it after seeing it only once back in 1980. I have forgotten which new cable network carried it, the long gone CBS Cable or the then new Arts & Entertainment network. Doesn’t really matter. What’s important is the impression itContinue reading “SCHALKEN THE PAINTER: It Took Me Over 30 Years To See This Again”

Words cannot do justice to Robert Fuest’s adaptation of Michael Moorcock’s FINAL PROGRAMME. At the time several people, especially the author, were highly displeased with the film. Having not read the book, I had nothing to compare it to but as a corrective to Stanley Kubrick’s impossibly bleak A CLOCKWORK ORANGE it was most welcome.Continue reading “THE FINAL PROGRAMME Just Gets Better With Age”

This is my favorite Jack the Ripper film which is not to say that’s it’s the best one, far from it, but it is an extremely well made low budget effort that benefits from strong performances and atmospheric cinematography. 1959 was a watershed year for British horror. The economic impact of Hammer Films was dulyContinue reading “JACK THE RIPPER (1959): Original British Version Available Only On An Italian DVD”

Although much maligned and virtually forgotten, this 1972 offering is my favorite cinematic telling of the Jekyll/Hyde saga. I have the U.K. Region 2 release rather than the Region 1 Image Entertainment DVD. The print quality is glorious and it’s a lot cheaper too. I like this version because it is the most faithful renderingContinue reading “I, MONSTER (1972): My Favorite Take On DR JEKYLL & MR HYDE”

I remember seeing this back in 1970 (it was made in 1968) on a double bill with HORROR HOUSE (THE HAUNTED HOUSE OF HORROR) which featured Frankie Avalon. Both were released by American International in America but were made by Tony Tenser’s Tigon Films, the company responsible for WITCHFINDER GENERAL. The movie was billed asContinue reading “CURSE OF THE CRIMSON ALTAR: Dated But Still Entertaining Old School Horror Film”

…that this well produced rubbish from the director of the notorious MARK OF THE DEVIL would still be entertaining 40 years after the fact? In fact HAUNTED HOUSE OF HORROR (U.S. title: HORROR HOUSE) is more enjoyable now than when I saw it back in 1970 on a double bill with THE CURSE OF THEContinue reading “HAUNTED HOUSE OF HORROR (1969): Who would have guessed…”

CASTLE OF THE LIVING DEAD was the first of Christopher Lee’s “European vacation” movies that I had ever come across. I saw it in a drive-in back in the late 1960s along with several other “dubbed horrors” as we called them. I remembered it because unlike most of the other movies that were featured, thisContinue reading “CASTLE OF THE LIVING DEAD Is Genuinely Odd & Grotesque”

. As someone who teaches courses on silent films at the local university and someone who has been interested in silent films for half a century now, I have seen quite a few silent movies over the years including several of this vintage but I have never seen one this old that is as accomplishedContinue reading “ATLANTIS: TITANIC Like Storyline Is A Remarkable Film From 1913”

DEATH LINE is a first class low budget British horror opus. The director, Gary Sherman, is an American and surprisingly this was his first film (he would later do the cult films DEAD & BURIED and LISA as well as helm POLTERGEIST 3). I first saw it as part of a double or triple featureContinue reading “DEATH LINE / RAW MEAT: Original & Influential”

Whenever you remake a classic film especially one with the Hitchcock name attached to it, there are bound to be a number of unfair comparisons which is what happened when this film was originally released in 1980 (the same fate befell Don Sharp’s 1978 remake of another Hitchcock film, THE 39 STEPS). Cybill Shepherd hadContinue reading “THE LADY VANISHES (1979): Ill-Fated Remake Is Better Than Its Reputation”