100 Horror Movies in 92 Days 2022

 THE ANNUAL HALLOWEEN MOVIE CHALLENGE BY SPOOKYSARAHSAYS.  And I was actually successful at it!  The challenge on spookysarahsays is to watch 100 horror movies (new to you) in the 92 days from August 1st until October 31st.  There are 11 rewatches (which don't count towards my total) shown in the snazzy pictures below (which I wanted to picture to keep a record of those horror movies which were rewatches of films I hadn't seen in decades and were basically new to me i.e. the 1999 HAUNTING remake as well as new 4k edition rewatches).  So keep in mind actual total of "new-to-me" horror film watches stands at 115.  And here they are in all their splendour:

  

Wow.  Way to go, me!  And way to go ending the month with a reeeeeeeeeeeeal turd!

BACK FROM THE DEAD {1957}

 "THE DEVIL IS A PROUD SPIRIT AND DOESN'T LIKE TO BE MOCKED!"

  Dick Anthony and his pregnant wife Mandy go to their vacation home along the California coastline accompanied by Mandy's sister Kate.  Things are going fine until Dick insists on playing the wackiest LP ever heard; full of brash orchestration and blaring theremin.  Mandy screams, has an epileptic fit and passes out.  The doctor is called and informs Dick and Kate that Mandy has had a miscarriage.  Mandy wakes up acting strangely; calling herself Felicia.  Who's Felicia?!?!?!  Dick tells Kate that Felicia was his first wife who drowned 6 years ago.  Mandy had no idea Felicia ever existed and knows nothing of Dick's first marriage.  However, she now insists she is Felicia and knows things only Felicia would know.  Mandy has even taken to calling Dick by a nickname Felicia had for him:  Dickon.  Perhaps she read THE SECRET GARDEN???  Anywho, Mandy's faithful dog Copper growls seemingly knowing that Mandy is not Mandy anymore.  The trio go to the home of Felicia's parents the Bradleys and begins playing her favourite tune (the one on the record); Mandy doesn't know how to play the piano.  After telling Mrs. Bradley what only Felicia could know, the old woman is convinced.  So is her father Mr. Bradley; and he's quite afraid.  Felicia's mother turns out to be a member of a satanic cult who purposely brought her daughter Felicia's spirit back to inhabit Mandy's body.  The cult is led by a Maitre Renault who is planning to organize the cult into an occult ceremony to bring Felicia back permanently.  Meanwhile, after Mandy/Felicia turns the gas on in Kate's room in an attempt to asphyxiate her (she fails) and takes a scythe to faithful, fluffy Copper (she apparently succeeds), Kate is determined to thwart Felicia's evil spirit as well as the Satanic cult and bring Mandy back.

Really a low-rent version of Val Lewton's production of THE SEVENTH VICTIM (not an idea original to me), BACK FROM THE DEAD is based on a novel entitled 'THE OTHER ONE' by Catherine Turney; who also writes the screenplay.  By all accounts, the novel is much spookier than this rather thin screen adaptation on a shoestring.  Cinematography by veteran DP Ernest Haller is quite good; wringing every bit of atmosphere from the gloomy, rock-strewn California coast.  One can almost feel the clammy fog creeping in.  Being a 1950's film, the soundtrack is chock full of theremin which also helps to give BACK FROM THE DEAD an eerie, woo-woo feeling.  Charles Marquis Warren directs the outrageous goings-on in a straight-forward manner which manages to almost make things seem reasonable.  Almost.  Warren mostly directed westerns but he also helmed THE UNKNOWN TERROR (which I've talked about on last year's Countdown to Halloween) which formed a double bill with BACK FROM THE DEAD.  Arthur Franz as Dickon is rather more subdued than I'm used to seeing him (particularly in MONSTER ON THE CAMPUS) so I rather like him more here than I usually do.  Peggy Castle as Mandy spends most of the movie possessed by the evil spirit of Felicia and she gives it a steely edge which is quite effective.  Marsha Hunt as Kate gives a performance that is much better than the film deserves and it definitely the heart of the whole movie.  All in all a diverting 79 minutes which manages to zip by without really dragging.  No great shakes but there are just enough positives to make BACK FROM THE DEAD not entirely a waste of time.

Alas poor Copper . . . . 

 

THE LORELEY'S GRASP [1973]

 DID THE MAESTRO OF THE BLIND DEAD GIVE US A FOLK HORROR MOVIE HERE???

  I think so.  THE LORELEY'S GRASP is concerned with German mythology; particularly the Nibelungen saga.  The Lorelei (the spelling I know) is the daughter of Wotan and she's living in a vast stone catacomb underneath the Rhein river.  She's accompanied by another character from the myth:  Alberic the guardian of the Nibelungen treasure who has the strength of 12 men.  These elements alone, by definition, drag this movie into the folk horror milieu.  Young women are being ripped apart by some sort of beast and the German village is living under a pall of terror.  A blind street violinist (Francisco Nieto) plays a haunting theme which he reveals is the song of the Lorelei; one of the monstrous sirens (primarily known from Homer's ODYSSEY and the myth of Ulysses).  The Loreley must be back and she's here to rip out the hearts of her victims in order to prolong her eternal sleep. 

We get views of a clawed green-scaled hand ripping victims to shreds during the attacks as well as some fleeting glimpses of a razor-toothed green reptile face underneath a hood.  All great stuff.  There's a girls school nearby and teacher Elke Ackerman demands the Mayor protect them.  They hire a hunter named Sigurd (Tony Kendall) to stay at the school and patrol the grounds to kill the monster. 

The "girls" at the school all look to be in their early 20's and spend most of their study time prancing around their swimming pool.  Sigurd's early-70's striped, skin-tight pants and open shirt revealing his hairy chest force Elke to ban Sigurd from using the swimming pool since her students are already over-excited there's a man about.  Instead, Sigurd decides to use the nearby swamp for a dip (!). 

There he sees a beautiful, bikini clad woman who flees from him.  We have seen this woman before; she has been glimpsed inside a coach a discreet distance away from the funeral ceremonies of the latest murder victims.  One time, during a game of "catch me catch me", the mysterious woman lets Sigurd catch up to her and she reveals to him that her name is Loreley. 

Sigurd doesn't believe in the legendary monster and, for most of the movie, doesn't even develop the first inkling that the monster Loreley the entire town is hunting and the mystery woman named 'Loreley" could be the same person!!!  Yeah, Sigurd doesn't appear to be the sharpest tool in the shed.  There's a scientist who seems to have figured out in some roundabout way how to make a dagger infused with radioactivity (I think) which will kill the Loreley.  Loreley and her faithful Alberic (Luis Barboo) kill the scientist and burn his notes -- but leave the dagger behind.  Sigur, who earlier had a talk with the scientist, takes the dagger for himself.  At some point, Sigur gets some scuba gear and dives into the river where he finds the underground grotto.  Alberic greets him in the air-filled chamber and gives him a red cape and some 'Robin Hood'-looking duds to put on before he goes to meet the Loreley.  You see, throughout the course of the picture, Sigurd and Loreley have fallen in love.  Dressed in the fancy duds, Sigur goes before Loreley on her throne and she offers him eternal life at her side. 

She dangles a huge jewel to hypnotize him and smooth the process along.  There are assorted hijinks galore culminating in Loreley's wish to rip out Elke's heart as the final victim!

 

Amando de Ossorio is, of course, the director of the 'BLIND DEAD' quadrilogy and here he brings the same sensibility to THE LORELEY'S GRASP.  Copious amounts of blood and gore feature in the kill scenes usually ending in a shot of a blood-spurting heart being ripped out of a chest.  In the underwater cavern, there are also some dessicated corpses that resemble the blind templars.  Combined with this is a weirdly Grimm's fairy tale vibe with echoes of the Harryhausen/Schneer  JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS/SINBAD movies.  The movie is really shot beautifully with lots of nice Spanish scenery (masquerading as Germany) and the entire cast is pretty much all excellent.  Screen goddess Helga Liné is always ethereally beautiful and is perfect casting as the mythical Loreley.  'Other' screen goddess Silvia Tortosa is equally beautiful and perfect as the school teacher Elke.  And both women are excellent actresses in their own right.  Tony Kendall (Komissar X himself) is also quite excellent as our hero Sigurd; despite being saddled with a character who sometimes does dumb things.  At all times, Kendall retains his dignity and authority as well as being the requisite 'horn dog' in the part.  

There are major goofy problems with the script including Sigur's ridiculous attitude of hunting a murderous monster named Loreley and falling in love with a woman named Loreley and not questioning anything.  Other characters make ridiciculously stupid decisions i.e. Elke deciding to take a moonlight stroll in the garden in the midst of a murderous monster rampage!  So these dopey doings prevent this from becoming a classic but it is a really fun monster movie in the stylish hands of Amando de Ossorio and for that alone, it's a keeper. 

          

SUBURBAN SASQUATCH {2004}

 "OK, WELL YOU KNOW MONSTERS DON'T REALLY EXIST.  WHY DON'T YOU GO OUT AND PLAY.  MONSTERS AREN'T REAL; LIKE THE BOOGEYMAN OR YOUR FATHER.  THEY'RE NOT REALLY THERE."

  Q:  What's better than a Bigfoot movie on the Countdown to Halloween?  A:  TWO Bigfoot movies on the Countdown to Halloween!

And here we have a SOV Bigfoot movie (not a found footage movie, thankfully).  The only difference between SUBURBAN SASQUATCH and any late 80's-90's SOV horror movie is the better video/audio quality on this 2004 flick; it looks like it was shot on digital rather than VHS.  The beautiful, slipcovered edition from Visual Vengeance/Wild Eye is something I'm sure the filmmakers never dreamed would come into existence.  But I, for one, am thankful it has.  Unlike many SOV horror movies, there are some bon mots scattered throughout; that quote up above which opens this post, for instance, is what a mother tells her frightened son after he glimpses the killer Sasquatch in the yard.  The glorious special effects of of the BIRDEMIC variety and Sasquatch his or herself (those sculpted nipples leave me guessing) is a full costume with everything except a visible zipper up the back.  The goofiness of the kills is also very much appreciated by this trashy movie fan.  Two fisherman by a stream are accosted by our furry movie star -- the first guy gets his guts ripped out and fed to him by the Sasquatch

. . . then it rips his arm off and whales it at the second fisherman and knocks him into the water.  Brilliant choreography Hermes Pan would've loved.  Sasquatch's roar is a thing of perfection:  RaaaraaaRAAAAR RaaraaRAAAAR!!!  I need it now as my ringtone.  Interestingly, about halfway through the movie, the Sasquatch seems to suddenly gain the ability to teleport or something.  This ain't no ordinary Bigfoot; this is a magical beast!  It can alter reality and walk between the planes of existence.  Don't take MY word for it . . . . Talla says so.    

And I'm not in anyway taking the piss out of this flick.  All this I've mentioned, of course, indicates that SUBURBAN SASQUATCH is certainly a bad movie; and it IS with terrible acting and SPFX that look like they were done on a Commodore 64.  But all this makes for a hell of an entertaining movie.  As long as you go into it with the proper attitude.  Uptight viewers who can't see the charm of such a film and the erstwhile effort involved in creating a zero budget, amateur horror movie need not waste their time.  But this here viewer enjoyed the hell out of this one!  Of course, this is no ordinary Sasquatch; it likes to eat it's victims.  And there are more arms and legs flying through the air than you can count. 

Plus we have a kickass hero in Talla:  a Native American bow-slinging warrior princess (played nicely by Sue Lynn Shanchez) who grandfather sends her on a sacred mission to protect innocent victims from the savage suburban sasquatch.  For an amateur production, this is actually shooting above it's level.  Director Dave Wascavage (who also wrote, edited and photographed the film) shows some talent -- ESPECIALLY with the pacing which doesn't bog down like some other SOV productions.  Wascavage keeps the action occurring with a frequency that prevents boredom from setting in.  The cast of non-actors are also strangely endearing and I kinda loved them all -- even the unnamed Sasquatch fodder.  Points given also for the autumnal atmosphere; the ground is perpetually covered with fallen leaves giving it a September or, dare I say it, OCTOBER atmosphere.  Filmed in the wilds of West Chester, Pennsylvania, SUB SAS features scenes occurring a various fields which really reminded me of similar scenes occurring in the B&W fields of NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD.  Honestly, there's just so much to love about this little flick.  Wascavage and his motley crew have made a movie that is deliberately meant to be a lot of fun and doesn't take itself seriously.  And that is what makes this such a great watch.  Predictably (and perhaps fittingly), there is a Rifftrax version of SUBURBAN SASQUATCH which nicely appears on the blu ray's special features.  I haven't watched that yet but I will sometime in the future.  But yeah . . . . Talla kicks ass!!!  Finally, if I had to choose one word to describe SUBURBAN SASQUATCH is would be:  lovable.   

THE GIANT BEHEMOTH [1959]

 YOU KNOW HOW EVERYONE ALWAYS CLAMOURS ABOUT WANTING SOMETHING NEW AND DIFFERENT; AND THEN WHEN YOU GIVE IT TO THEM, THEY COMPLAIN THAT IT'S NOT LIKE THAT OTHER THING THEY LIKED.

  I think this is the problem with THE GIANT BEHEMOTH, Eugène Lourié's second film in his "Dinosaur on the rampage" trilogy which began with THE BEAST FROM 20,000 FATHOMS (1953) and ended with GORGO (1961).  BEAST, of course, is a fantastic movie with superb Ray Harryhausen stop-motion effects where an atomic explosion wakes up a huge dinosaur that goes on a rampage and stomps New York City.  This is an absolutely great film.  However, in all truthfulness, it's basically a GODZILLA rip-off, isn't it.  Now, that's not a bad thing.  But truth be told, that's what it is; albeit replacing a guy in a monster suit with superb Harryhausen animation.  And Eugène Lourié did a bang-up job directing this seminal 50's monster movie.  Tasked with helming another movie in the same (jugular) vein (sorry, I channeled Forry there), as well as co-writing it with practically no budget, Lourié has two choices here:  either try to do something different than BEAST or carbon copy that sucker straight to the box office.  Oddly, most people seem to think he took the carbon copy route when actually that's not what he did at all.  BEHEMOTH, while still retaining those Godzilla tropes as well as a superficial resemblance to BEAST, instead tries to go a different direction with a mysterious plot filled with eerie question marks that make the first half of the movie play more like a Quatermass flick than a giant monster on the rampage movie.  And this, I think, is what makes most people expecting a dinosaur movie gives THE GIANT BEHEMOTH low marks.  Because, as a Quatermass eerie mystery, BEHEMOTH works phenomenally well and I actually love the film up until the dinosaur first appears.  I know this will be a radical viewpoint but that's how the film actually plays.  The erroneous view that, until the Behemoth appears, the film is a boring slog of talky exposition and that is simply not true.  In fact, the first half of the film is the best featuring an engaging mystery photographed with moody chiaroscuro lighting by ace DP Ken Hodges and anchored by those two terrific actors Gene Evans (Samuel Fuller's masterpiece THE STEEL HELMET) and Andre Morell (Hammer's PLAGUE OF THE ZOMBIES, etc.).

The film opens with a great, creepy set-up of fisherman Mr. Trevethan (Henri Videon) and his daughter Jean (Leigh Madison) bringing their catch to shore on the Cornwall coast.  Jean takes a fish up to their house to start preparing dinner while her father prepares to take the rest of his catch to town for the selling.  He never gets there.  He looks out to sea with a look of astonished terror and a bright light hits his face.  A beautifully constructed scene.  Jean, of course, waits for her father to return to no avail and heads into town to look for him.  A search party discovers the old man near death on the beach with strange burn marks on his face.  Before he dies, Trevethan mutters something about the biblical 'behemoth'.  Next morning, hundreds of dead fish wash up on the beach.  U.S. biologist Steve Karnes (Gene Evans) teams up with the British government's Prof. James Bickford (Andre Morrell) to investigate what killed the fisherman and all those fish.  A nice, quirky turn by Jack MacGowran ("Do you know what she DID?!?!?!!!!!") as dotty paleontologist Dr. Sampson is on display for too short a time but very welcome.  Leigh Madison also sadly disappears from the film after these opening scenes and it's a shame she wasn't kept around for the whole picture.  The trouble is eventually discovered to be an awakened dinosaur that shoots radioactive fire-blasts from his mouth.  Godzilla, anyone??? 

Here, I think, is where the letdown occurs because up till then, this is a cracking, eerie, Quatermassian-type movie and the introduction of the dinosaur is the real mistake.  Unfortunately, the film is called THE GIANT BEHEMOTH so we're all expecting a giant dinosaur before the film even starts due to the film's name, the movie poster and the movie trailers we've seen before actually walking into the theatre (in 1959) to watch the damn thing.  I'm sure the studio wanted a giant dinosaur on the rampage flick but that's not really what Lourié gave them; at least, not fully.   Lourié provided a dinosaur stomping London movie but he added different and (for dinosaur movies) fresh ideas for the film before the monster finally appears.  And this is where we get to the "everybody clamours for something different but when they get it, they don't like it" syndrome.  This is not a carbon copy of THE BEAST FROM 20,000 FATHOMS and that's why fans don't like it even to this day.  I think this would've been a fantastic film if there was no 'giant behemoth' dinosaur at all and it was instead more like a Quatermass movie (which is how the damn thing plays for the better part of an hour).  This is not a Hammer production so the Professor was no a possibility but a Quatermass-like movie is not copyrighted and is very possible.  I mean, Hammer itself did a cracking one called X THE UNKNOWN with no Prof. Quatermass in it.  So Eugène Lourié, if I think given his druthers (and I have no way of knowing this) would probably have liked to make his movie without a dinosaur in it (especially given the terribly low budget the studio was providing him).  The strange deaths could've been caused by some other type of monster or natural/unnatural phenomenon such as the aforementioned X THE UNKNOWN or QUATERMASS 2: ENEMY FROM SPACE etc.  

Stop-motion maestro Willis O'Brien (among a handful of other special effects guys NOT including Ray Harryhausen) provide the perhaps not-so-special effects for BEHEMOTH and the threadbare budget shows -- particularly around the one hour 2 minute mark where we see the Behemoth's feet striding along a London street and the back of the monster's heel (where it's Achilles tendon would be) is completely split!  O'Brien, the father of KING KONG, was at the fag-end of his career, of course, and the dearth of budget did him no favours either.  Things were so bad that the first scene where we see the Behemoth (unless you were in England when that scene was cut out completely!?!?!!) attack the ferry is not stop-motion at all.  The Behemoth was so damaged by the neophyte SPX crew by the time it was filmed that the Behemoth model was actually broken and worked like a toy on a pole without even a working mouth!!!  So at no point was this going to be a classic; it was probably simply put out to scape up some ticket sales with the least expenditure on the studio's part.  So, the fact that the film is, in fact, as enjoyable as it is (and it IS) is all gravy.  

Now, I am not really a fan of "dinosaur" movies that much because I think they're rather uninteresting and all pretty much the same.  I never watched THE GIANT BEHEMOTH for decades because it didn't look like anything but a Godzilla rip-off and it's bad reputation didn't make me anxious to waste an hour and a half on it.  So I went into this movie expecting it to be a dull slog and. . . . truthfully I finally screened it because, after all this time, I guess I figured this horror fan should probably see it.  Imagine my surprise when it wasn't at all.  And by the time we first see the monster, I was actually OK with it being a dinosaur now because the lead-up had been so good to its reveal that even the inevitable let down of Behemoth being a giant dinosaur with not-so-great SFX was forgiven by this particular viewer.  Not a great film by any stretch of the imagination and generally considered the least of  Eugène Lourié's trilogy but still THE GIANT BEHEMOTH is one I'd gladly watch again!  In fact, I'd probably rather watch THIS again than GORGO.  GORGO has the better monster and the better SFX but I think it's duller than BEHEMOTH . . . . oh, and it has that annoying 'cute kid' angle.  The Lord preserve us from precocious children in movies!  BEHEMOTH's beautiful B&W photography is loads better than the washed out and pallid colour of GORGO.  Oh, and I hate circuses.  So knock a half-point off for the circus angle.  The cast of BEHEMOTH -- Gene Evans, Andre Morell, Leigh Madison, Jack MacGowran - - all terrific on screen.  And the cast of GORGO?  Nobody, really.  Plus GORGO has seemingly endless file footage of battleships, jet planes and submarines -- some of which is repeated more than once.  Yawn.  So yeah . . . . I'd rather watch THE GIANT BEHEMOTH.  Just sayin'.

ADDENDUM:  After watching the Ballyhoo documentary on the making of GORGO, it was revealed to Ye Olde Cerptser that indeed my instincts were correct.  THE GIANT BEHEMOTH was originally supposed to be about a strange blob-like creature that caused the burns and radiation poisoning of people and fish.  The studio Allied Artists then balked that they wanted a monster like the one that was in THE BEAST FROM 20,000 FATHOMS which caused the final third of the film to become the 'dinosaur stomping London' movie.  It's nice to know my instincts were right.

10/31 PART III {2022}

 SCREAM TEAM RELEASING RELEASES THE THIRD MOVIE IN ITS 10/31 TRILOGY JUST IN TIME FOR . . . . WELL . . . . 10/31.

  Malvolia, the Queen of Screams offers us another Halloween Monster Marathon.  In my Countdown to Halloween 2020, I talked about 10/31 PART II which I found to be more entertaining than PART I.  So is PART III better than PART II???  Well, I can't rightly say as I don't remember PART II that clearly.  But I'll put it to you this way:  PART III is at least as good.  We start off with another near-half-a-dozen fake horror movie trailers which is always appreciated. 

They were a lot of fun.  Then Malvolia sets us up for a quartet of horror tales starting with "HOUSE OF THE MUMMY".  This first story is definitely my favourite.  It plays very much like an episode of TALES FROM THE DARKSIDE to me for some reason.  A doofus whose wife has left him for another man and is threatening to take his house away in a divorce settlement finds a life-size Mummy figure in a store that's going out of business.  The store owner calls the mummy 'sire' and, after consulting with it, agrees to let the doofus have the mummy for his 'House of Horrors' Home Halloween Haunt.  I'm not sure but I think this mummy must've been part of Lot No. 249, if you get my (Egyptian sand dune) drift.  The next story is probably my third fave:  "THE LOCKSMITH".  This one is, to me, something of a giallo homage.  The killer dude (named 'The Locksmith' for reasons shown in the film) is someone in a long black coat with a black slouch hat and black leather gloves; his face is almost completely covered in a mask with no eye holes -- only a small hole revealing the mouth to be something akin to the Chatterer Cenobite in HELLRAISER.  The soundtrack also features a driving rock 'n' roll score during the chase scenes much like any number of Argento movies scored by Goblin.  This one was entertaining enough to be . . . . er . . . entertaining.  So while nothing particularly new, it's fun. 

The next story, "OLD MAN GROSS", is my least favourite as it seems to me just kinda a TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE retread that goes on much longer than it needs to as it brings nothing new at all to the situation. Some teenagers (pushing 30) decide to go to the house of a weird old man and pull some tricks; of course the weird old man turns out to be a serial killer/maniac.  The end.  Nothing at all interesting going on here.  The final story is my second favourite entitled "HACK IN THE BOX" and, while being quite incoherent is purposely so.  Suffice it to say 4 women find a cursed Jack-in-the-Box and conduct a seancey-type session to open it.  Also suffice it to say bonzo crazy batshit stuff happens.  This one was very good and has good kills and lots of style going for it.  So the entire 10/31 PART III, while again no masterpiece, is probably my favourite of the trilogy with only one outright clunker story in the trick-or-treat bag.  Of all 3, this is probably the one I'd rewatch around Halloweeny time.  Since PART II was better than PART I and PART III is at least slightly better than PART II, I'd say Scream Team Releasing is showing good progress with these films.  So let's hope for a PART IV in a year or two that's even better. 

     

THE COMEBACK [1978]

 "MY POOR BOY, WHAT IS IT?!?  DI'JEH HAVE A NIGHTMARE?!?"

  Oh that Sheila Keith, I love her to bits!  Nick Cooper (Jack Jones)  is a singer who hasn't been in the studio for 6 years and is now attempting a comeback. 

He has divorced his wife Gail (Holly Palance) who, according to Nick's agent Webster (David Doyle) almost destroyed his career by making him quit.  As the film opens, we see Gail enter the apartment she shared with Nick; she calls "Harry!"  Who's Harry?  We'll find out.  After puttering around a few minutes, Gail leaves.  OK, everything's fine . . . . oh wait, she comes back in.  Oh, she forgot her purse.  As she descends the stairs, Gail is attacked by a 'hag' wielding a sickle.  Off goes Gail's hand, slice goes the sickle into her neck and other assorted gouges occur as Gail tumbles bloody to the bottom of the stairs.  The hag (who wore black lace Madonna gloves and has earth shoes under her black dress) takes a powder.  Nobody knows Gail is lying in a bloody pile at the bottom of the stairs throughout most of the movie; which is a ghoulishly nice touch by director Pete Walker. 

Meanwhile, Nick is convinced to go and stay in a rambling English pile that Webster has rented for him in order to continue working on his comeback album.  Nick tools up in his cool 1970's car (no, I don't know what kind of car it is because I'm not really a 'car guy' but I'd love to know) and sees Mr. B the gardener/caretaker (Bill Owen) giving him the stink eye.  Nick rings the bell and who opens the front door but Mrs. B. (Sheila Keith) with a heartwarming Scottish accent and ushers the singer in. Also among the cast are Webster Jone's assistant Linda (Pamela Stephenson), Nick's right-hand-man Harry (Peter Turner) and a psychiatrist (Richard Johnson).

As you can tell, this movie is simply packed with familiar faces and that goes a long way in my book to making me look kindly on Pete Walker's spookfest.  Of course, Pete Walker perennial Sheila Keith (FRIGHTMARE, HOUSE OF WHIPCORD) is a national treasure and raises the level of any film in which she appears!  Not really known for being an actor, smooth easy listening singer Jack Jones (the love boat will be making another run) is actually quite natural and unaffected in front of the camera and gives a credible performance here.  Who knew?  Holly Palance as the unlucky Gail is indeed Jack Palance's daughter and you probably will remember why she looks so familiar when I type the next line:  "Look at me, Damian!  It's all for you!". 

David Doyle, who plays the role of Webster with a sinisterness quite unexpected is, of course, best known as Bosley from CHARLIE'S ANGELS.  And I can't look at Bill Owen's Mr. B character (try as he might to appear sinister as well) without thinking of Compo from LAST OF THE SUMMER WINE.  This is no fault of Owen's performance, mind; it's my hang-up.  Richard Johnson, of course, will forever be Dr. Markway from Robert Wise's THE HAUNTING and the wonderful Pamela Stephenson (also revealing herself to be an accomplished actress here) is well-known for being part of the cast of NOT THE NINE O'CLOCK NEWS as well as being Mrs. Billy Connolly.  Even Peter Turner, who was previously unknown to me, has a place in filmworld notoriety as the author of "Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool"; his book about the 'intimate friendship' he had with Hollywood legend and Oscar winner Gloria Grahame.  The constant postponing of the discovery of Gail's bloody body (whose face slowly becomes covered with maggots) is deliciously naughty on the part of the director.  And speaking of deliciously naughty:  almost every line reading by Sheila Keith is delivered with a wicked little twinkle in her eye.  At the risk of repeating myselt . . . . Boy, I just love her to bits!!!  Penny Irving (ARE YOU BEING SERVED?) and June Chadwick (V) are also among the cast. 

Another interesting little tidbit is the prominent placing of actual books in the frame:  Jack Jones is shown reading Alistair Maclean's CIRCUS in bed, Bill Owen is shown reading the hardcover of Charles Alfred Speed Williams' OUTLINES OF CHINES SYMBOLISM AND ART MOTIVE and David Doyle has a paperback copy of Harold Robbins' THE LONELY LADY on his bedside table while he . . . . ah ah ah that would be telling.  And My God, another cinematic house I'd give my eye teeth to live in!  Some think of THE COMEBACK as maybe less of a Pete Walker picture since it is not as sleazy or batshit as his more famous efforts; this owing to Walker's working with a different writer (Murray Smith) than with his previously OTT, more ferocious scripter David McGillivray.  It is true this film is perhaps more mainstream horror/slasher than the typical Pete Walker joint.  Nevertheless,  I really enjoyed this one and I think it really holds up as an entertaining, interesting low-key Pete Walker horror. 

FLESH FEAST (1970)

 "HI CHRIS!  BOY, AM I GLAD TO SEE YOU.  THINGS ARE STARTING TO GET INTERESTING AROUND HERE!" 

Yeah . . . . not really in THIS movie!  For years and years and years I've wondered at Veronica Lake's final film and what on Earth it could be like.  I know the general opinion is that it's awful.  But I never count my maggots before they're hatched.  Having now finally watched FLESH FEAST at long last I can now report that everybody was correct.  Bizarrely produced by Veronica Lake herself along with her director Brad F. Grinter (who directed and appeared as commentator in the craptacular Grade-Z 'were-turkey' film BLOOD FREAK).  Grinter (in BLOOD FREAK) has got to be one of the sleaziest-looking polecats I've ever seen in a film . . . . and I love him for that! 

Brad F. Grinter - the man himself from BLOOD FREAK

How on Earth (other than "needs must") Veronica Lake got hooked up with Grinter is anyone's guess but since she only had 3 years to live I expect it was "from hunger" as they used to say back in the day.  FLESH FEAST looks Grade Z (especially in the atrocious DVD print I watched

THIS DVD -- which IS the same cover as the VHS tape

which looks like all those obscure kung fu movie videos we used to watch i.e. taken from a multi-generational VHS copy) which was appropriate for the film itself. 

Veronica Lake plays scientist Dr. Elaine Frederick who is experimenting with a bevy of maggots that specialize in eating human flesh specifically.  She's got a great reason for doing this which we have to wait through about an hour of 'nothing-much-happening' before we get the admittedly spectacular finale of the film.  There's really not much else to say about the film other than there couldn't have been any second takes.  The only thing else I could say would be to spoil a half-century old horror flick but I don't think that's really an issue so SPOILER Dr. Frederick is recruited to resurrect a clone of Adolf Hitler and durned if she isn't successful!  Of course, we learn that Dr. Frederick's mother died in a Nazi concentration camp and she only agreed to resurrect the shit in order to strap him down and let her super-maggots eat his face off!  Now, as bad as this film is, it's kinda hard to hate it with a payoff like that!  And it's only slightly longer than an hour so what the hey.  And credit where credit is due:  Veronica Lake, the only one worth watching in the entire film, really goes for it full throttle at the end when she's finally gotten her revenge and can give her best cackling, mad scientist performance.  Brief but delightful.  So if you're a fan of grindhouse horror movies, it's got everything you need:  a faded Hollywood star slumming it, editing that was done with a hatchet, thespians who studied at the Barrel-Bottom School of Acting and that spectacularly great twist ending.  So, there ya go. 

AMERICAN WEREWOLVES (2022)

 SMALL TOWN MONSTERS HOWLS AGAIN.

  I've been a fan of Small Town Monsters and their documentaries for several years now:  a series of documentaries directed by Seth Breedlove focusing on various Cryptids (from Bigfoot and the Mothman to the Boggy Creek Monster and the Bray Road Beast) as well as docs on the Bell Witch and UFO's.  This time around we have a documentary featuring the ever-popular 'Dogman' which is basically a more modern term for something that is identical to the werewolf of old.  This is something of a companion film to last year's SKINWALKER:  HOWL OF THE ROUGAROU (2021) also directed by Breedlove and focusing on our skinwalking wolfy friends (or is that fiends). 

Breedlove has changed his tack this time around, though, by making a documentary which is almost entirely made up of eyewitness testimony.  I've seen some talk of dissatisfaction that the film does not contain more 'documentary research' scenes like historical newspaper articles etc. which most of the other Small Town Monsters docs utilize.  Well, that's obviously not the type of film Breedlove wanted to make here.  Another case of judging a film for what it's not supposed to be instead of what it actually is.  What AMERICAN WEREWOLVES is, in fact, is a documentary consisting of several eyewitness accounts of encounters with these dogman.  But where Breedlove changes things up is by having lengthy accounts by said eyewitnesses instead of soundbytes or clips of accounts.  These are more like sitting down by the fire while somebody spins you a tale and that makes the film kinda spellbinding and totally engrossing.  To me, it doesn't matter if we're shown police reports, TV news items or historical accounts (though all of those are fantastic and feature in the other Small Town Monsters documentaries) because I don't necessarily believe any of the subjects of these documentaries actually exist anyway.  I don't disbelieve and I don't believe.  That's not why I watch these docs.  I watch them because they are cool, entertaining, informative and spooky.  And this movie (as well as the earlier SKINWALKERS:  HOWL OF THE ROUGAROU) deliver all this in spades.  On hand are Small Town Monsters' patented monster recreations (here someone inside a rather terrific wolfman suit that looks like something from THE HOWLING) and, in fact, there are a few newspaper headlines here and there. 

But the best part of the whole movie is the eyewitnesses telling their stories.  They come across, without exception, as totally believable and earnest besides which their stories are spellbinding and actually had me leaning forward in my chair a few times.  This is just such a great, absorbing watch especially in October.  And as usual, Breedlove totally respects his eyewitnesses and presents everything in straight-forward reportage.  There is no tongue-in-cheek here.  Now, I don't get a penny from the Small Town Monsters company nor do I received free movies or screeners but I can honestly say I love what they're doing and encourage everyone interested in spooky stuff to go to their website and pick up some of their dvds/blu rays because they're very reasonable priced and quite well-done.