UNK SEZ:: Pets are great but Jodie the demonic invisible pig sure is a handful! Jodie has gone and switched 10 things in Kathy Lutz's kitchen. Can you identify what they are? Click on the image below to jump to the playing board!
Author: unkle lancifer
Scream of Fear (aka Taste of Fear, 1961)
I don't get it. 1961's SCREAM OF FEAR (TASTE OF FEAR in the UK) was apparently both a critical and commercial hit upon release, so why does it so frequently get overlooked? How is it that this film, still gripping and creeptastic today, is not mentioned alongside the usual classics? I'm serious, I don't get it. It's s-o-o-o-o good. It's the title isn't it? Folks you have to give your movies memorable titles! I can't stress that enough. Just because my advice is half a century too late is no reason not to heed it.
SUSAN STRASBERG is wheelchair bound Penny Appleby. She travels to France to visit her estranged father and get a load of the stepmother she's never met. Once there she is informed that her pop is away on business, which is believable enough until she starts coming across his wide-eyed corpse in every other room in the house. The set up is familiar indeed. Is Peggy a fruitcake or is somebody effing with her head? The large inheritance that hangs in the balance seems to suggest the latter. I guess I'm a mental slowpoke because as much as I thought I knew what was going on, I didn't. This movie has more twists than a…think of something twisty for me….that!
What I find so exceptional about S.O.F. is the fact that even though it is a grounded in reality thriller, it huffs and puffs like a supernatural yarn and is just altogether haunting. The incredible black and white photography is partially to blame but the story itself leaves giant spaces for you to come to your own conclusions at times and you won't be blamed for suspecting something otherworldly is going down. One scene in particular that involves Dad's corpse being spied in a swimming pool is just a blaring punch of full-on horror. That scene should track down the scene from NIGHT OF THE HUNTER with SHELLEY WINTERS at the bottom of a lake and then propose marriage to it. They are the perfect couple because they both flip me out equally.
SCREAM OF FEAR is directed by SETH HOLT (THE NANNY 1965) and written by HAMMER regular JIMMY SANGSTER who deserves to be a household name in the world of horror. (Please just take a moment to gawk at his credits HERE.) STRASBERG is marvelous as brittle screamer Penny; ANN TODD, as the stepmom, is cool as a cucumber where most would have camped it up; RONALD LEWIS is top notch as the ever so helpful chauffer and guess who else shows up? CHRISTOPHER LEE. Man, I love seeing LEE in his earlier roles. Here he plays a French doctor who has the nerve to suggest that Penny's wheelchair routine is all in her head. Yeah, tell that to the horse who fell on her and broke her spine in three places Doc! LEE is in this about as much as he's in HORROR HOTEL (where he played an American) but as per usual, he's all you can look at when he's on screen.
This is a must-see thriller on par with the best and if you are a LEE groupie like I now realize I am or an appreciator of the glory of black and white, double that must-see. I tell you this because if you should happen to have the FEARNET Channel it's on twice today both at noon and at 10 PM. See, I caught it a couple days ago and I saved this review just for today. How do you like that? I've always thinking of you. If you don't have FEARNET you can find SCREAM OF FEAR shamefully hidden in a HAMMER DVD boxset. Why it does not have a special edition of its own, again, I have no frickin' clue. It's exemplary and I'm not just saying that because I love wheelchair movies.
Final Destination 5
The world does not need another FINAL DESTINATION 5 review but look how it's happening anyway. I'd have reason number one million to hate myself if I neglected to express how impressed I was with it. It's not every day that a horror franchise lives up to its full potential and the accomplishment seems even more miraculous considering this is a fifth installment of a series whose fourth was its worst. I was prepared for a decent enough time but not prepared for one of the most satisfying endings I've ever encountered. Maybe it's best that FD 5 is currently doing lackluster business and making a future installment less likely because a better cap off to the series would be nearly impossible to achieve. I mean it as a compliment when I say stick a fork in it.
I understand that not everybody is a fan and that makes perfect sense. One need only witness a real catastrophe to know they are far from entertaining. As for myself, the Chicken Little, Cassandra complex, there by the grace of God go I, step on a crack and break your mother's back, bad omen paranoia that imbues the series speaks loudly to me. Sure, the films can be easily accused of repetition, the franchise has built its own signature structure it adheres to steadily, but the presence of death in the best installments trumps that of most standard horror fare in that it plays by its own rules and fairness be damned. The fantasy of morality and virtue offering a flashlight through the tunnel is nonexistent. When your number is up, your number is up and to quote my dentist, "It may hurt a little."
FD5's opening suspension bridge disaster is as extravagant and convincing as a bad dream. There are plenty of 3-D naysayers out there, so allow me my soapbox for dissent. I don't know if my eyes are extra responsive due to extensive training from MAGIC EYE books or the intake of a multitude of questionable substances but 3-D works for me big time and when done right it still blows my mind. FD5's director STEPHEN QUALE is fresh off an apprenticeship with JAMES CAMERON and he clearly knows a thing or two about pushing the 3-D limits. I flinched and I may have ducked a tad too. Be that as it may, what makes this addition to the series truly work has little to do with the accomplished special effects. More importantly, I think, is the return to form on the storytelling front and a willingness to leave the door open for real darkness to seep back in.
I should be careful not to oversell, FD5 is refreshingly gratifying and superiorly creative but not so much a masterpiece as simply way better than you'd think. The characters are older and less annoying and seem to have interests outside of being blown up and I was happy to be able to tell them apart from each other. TONY TODD returns as the mysterious coroner and the effect of his creepy presence I wouldn't underestimate. For long time fans of the series, there are dozens of fun nods to the previous films and the delicious ending I mentioned earlier is far more than the standard cheap rug pull. It will have you backtracking through the rest of the film in your head and realizing just how well earned it is. The wheel is not reinvented but it's certainly a pleasure seeing it spinning so smoothly and taking turns you wouldn't anticipate. The series trademark deaths are kicked up a few notches too. In fact one left me seriously disturbed well after the fact. Wow, I can still find myself squeamishly grossed out by witnessing a horrible death. Who knew? Perhaps the best evidence of the film's success is the way I walked home from the theater: cautiously.
Streaming Alert :: Horror Hotel (aka City of the Dead)
Did you know that you can watch full length movies for free on YouYube? You don't even have to feel like a mooch when you do it because these movies are in the public domain and are therefore owned by YOU! Some of these movies stink but some are incredibly excellent like the one I'm going to talk about today, 1960's HORROR HOTEL. I know the title makes it sound dopey but that's just because it has been dumbed down for American audiences and it's really called CITY OF THE DEAD. This spooky gem is one of the better horror movies, one of the better witch movies and one of the better black and white films. If you watch it on your computer, fog will seep out of your keyboard. I swear.
HORROR HOTEL is about a young college student named Nan who travels to a small New England town to research a paper on witchcraft on the advice of her professor. The excursion seems sensible enough until the moment she arrives at the town and finds it to be the creepiest place on Earth. Nan grabs a room at the suspiciously named Raven's Inn and slowly discovers that the town is sitting in Satan's paw and that the Inn's owner looks a hell of a lot like a notorious witch that was burned at the stake a couple hundred years ago. Spooky unpredictable things ensue.
Some movies just vibrate with a supernatural power all their own and this is one of them. Calling this movie atmospheric is like calling the ocean damp or a tornado breezy. If you've ever enjoyed a stay in Dunwich, Hobb's End or Potter's Bluff you need to book a stay in the HORROR HOTEL's thankfully fictional Whitewood, Massachusetts. Besides accomplishing a pitch-perfect, eerie mood, this a move that knows no fear on a storytelling level. The good guys need to be more than just good to survive. Another major selling point is the presence of CHRISTOPHER LEE as Nana's bad advice giving teacher. You'll see exactly why LEE is an icon as he is consistently mesmerizing throughout. Cobras should use CHRISTOPHER LEE movies to train their offspring.
The full movie is below but if ya' need to see it bigger, just click on the corner and transport yourself over to the YouTube. HORROR HOTEL is directed by JOHN MOXEY (CIRCUS OF FEAR) and written by MILTON SUBOTSKY (THE VAULT OF HORROR) & GEORGE BAXT (The equally exceptional BURN, WITCH, BURN!) Enjoy your stay!
Final Destination Funhouse!
UNK SEZ: FINAL DESTINATION 5 opens today and thus we have an all FINAL DESTINATION Funhouse! Only eight images today, two from each of the previous four films. Can you identify them? By trying to do so you may win a free DVD called BIKINI GIRLS ON ICE (Trailer HERE)! That can't be bad can it? I have not seen BGOI yet but I do know that somebody somewhere likes it. Plus, like I said it's FREE! If you don't hear much from me today it's because I'm at the theater and I tend to sneak into other movies so I could be a while! Good luck Kiddies!
Blood Shack (1971)
I have not watched BLOOD SHACK since I was about 15 and the reason for that is because I have always regarded it as the worst film I had ever seen in my life. Remarkably, not even 2009's THE UNBORN could alter that opinion. The other night though while perusing free viewing opportunities on CRACKLE I noticed it there, staring at me like an orphaned injured kitten and I had to see it again. Could it really be as wretched as my brain recalled? After all, my brain usually doesn't know what it's talking about. Well, it turns out it is as bad as my brain said but not nearly as painful. I've either lowered my standards considerably or developed a sense of humor. It's a terrible movie no doubt, but watching it fully prepared for the awfulness makes a big difference. What once filled me with rage now elicits only sympathy. It may be the worst movie ever made but that doesn't mean it's the least entertaining.
BLOOD SHACK is hardly a movie. It's more like a swept together pile of footage. When it first snuck its way into my life, it was wearing a nifty VHS box that made it look like a current eighties slasher flick even though the old coot had been lingering about for more than a decade. Strangely, it seems less dated now than it did back then. For instance, the weird seventies wardrobes which were so alien to my then neon MTV eyes look like standard hipster-wear now. The overall dusty drab feel of the film has benefited with age too. Back then it just read as ratty but now that gritty dustbowl esthetic is pretty much au currant. I hate to admit it but I kind of now dig the near constant horizon line and the off-putting minimalism. Really, the sun flare happy playing field here is not so far off from THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE. Of course that movie had an actual story to tell and didn't pad its running time with rodeo footage. Yes, rodeo footage.
So my problem with this film is no longer that it is scrap heap cheap and alarmingly barebones, my issue is with the fact that it is an unstructured blob of random pointlessness. It's pretty clear that there was no script involved and that the director allowed the actors to wing it and wing it poorly. One character wants to buy the shack and that's all he talks about, one character doesn't want to sell the shack and that's all she talks about and one character warns folks to stay away from the shack ad nauseam. The only break from that pattern is provided by a our wispy narrator who sounds like she is breaking out of an eleven-year coma and offers little worthwhile information, unless you felt the need to know that the pony's name at the rodeo was "Peanuts." Truth told Peanuts the pony is the lone convincing presence in the movie and I was happy to see that her or his name found its way into the end credits.(Peanuts' IMDb page HERE.)
The theoretical scares of BLOOD SHACK are provided by "The Chooper" an Indian spirit who protects the title shack with a sword and black pajamas. Chooper tends to yell as if he's stubbed his toe and is partial to flamboyant arm flailing daytime attacks. My horror starved teenage self found "The Chooper" to be unbearably lame but now I see he's pretty hilarious. In the same vein, the movie itself is not the whirlpool of depressive ineptness I once thought; it's actually somewhat lovably maladroit. It made me laugh out loud which is more than I can say for DINNER FOR SCHMUCKS.
BLOOD SHACK was directed by RAY DENNIS STECKLER who has acquired a cult following thanks to B-grade goofs like THE INCREDIBLY STRANGE CREATURES (who stopped living and became mixed up zombies) but even his most devoted followers can be forgiven for drawing a line in the sand against Chooper's lackadaisical exploits. As lousy as this movie is though, I think STECKLER should be given some credit for stumbling early upon a few elements that would later prove to be highly effective in future better films by other people.
The good news is that I finally after all these years found out what was going on with all that pesky rodeo footage. STECKLER's original cut of the film was only a merciful 60 minutes long and he was required to add ten minutes more to play the film in drive-ins and theaters. I guess I can forgive that. This is a hyper low budget movie that just barely scrambled itself into existence so no harm, no foul. It's terribly done in every possible way but somewhat endearingly so and at least it did not cost millions of dollars to make this mess. (What's your excuse THE UNBORN?).
There's no way I could recommend BLOOD SHACK and realistically expect anyone to ever take my advise again, so I won't but I will say that there are tiny sparkles of pure quaintness to behold amongst the sub par, brain numbing wreckage. It's an annoying fiasco mostly but it doesn't have a cynical bone in its body and now I find I've grown slightly and embarrassingly fond of this crappy movie that I once hated with a passion. I was warned that "The Chooper" would get me and I guess the bastard eventually did. Really, I blame Peanuts.
Traumafessions :: Reader Francisco on Living Dolls, Killer Pigs and a Mummy Found in the Sea
Hey I'm Francisco from Spain! I hope you excuse my poor English, I have recently discovered your site and it is the most interesting and amusing site I have read in a time. I've got not so much film or TV kindertraumas from my childhood because I was a very sensitive boy and tried to avoid those issues but reading about WHY ME? or PIGMON on your site are traumatizing enough. As a child and even as a teenager I've had fear of gore, sea monsters or shark films, other films with disfigurations or people burning…and rats.
Ok, some videos from YouTube I think could be interesting for your web page…
I'm afraid of seeing it every time I try.
It's from a Mexican film by RENE CARDONA JR. called THE BERMUDA TRIANGLE with JOHN HO\USTON and some European beauties and Mexican actors, I saw it as a child in a summer exhibition but it impresses me even more as an adult, an excellent film of psychological horror covering issues like the Bermuda Triangle, Atlantis, UFO, sea monsters and living dolls.
In the post about RAZORBACK you talk about killer pigs, take a look at minute 2.00 aprox… it's EL CARNAVAL DE LAS BESTIAS from spanish actor and filmmaker JACINTO MOLINA aka PAUL NASCHY, this horror thriller was coproduced with Japan in 1980.
More things, TV movies from the '70s and '80s, have you written about DON'T GO TO SLEEP, on the site? and do you remember, I have seen it more or less recently, but don't remember the title, a TV movie from 1978 with a passenger ship in the Caribbean that found an Egyptian mummy in the bottom of the sea?
Again a very interesting site, keep on it!
Greetings from Spain,
— Francisco
UNK SEZ: Thanks Francisco for your supportive words and for the cool and very creepy videos! To answer your questions, we are big fans of 1982's DON"T GO TO SLEEP and talked about it HERE and HERE and the movie about the mummy on the passenger ship from 1978 is called CRUISE INTO TERROR. That one sure has an amazing cast including DIRK BENEDICT, CHRISTOPHER and LYNDA DAY GEORGE, JO ANN HARRIS of THE BEGUILED, LEE MERIWETHER, JOHN FORSYTHE, STELLA STEVENS and even my favorite human RAY MILAND! You can read a bit more on that one at our pal Amanda's MADE FOR TV MAYHEM over HERE! Que tenga un buen dia!
Streaming Alert:: Black Noon (1971)
Today's selection is not so much streaming as hiding out on YouTube like a gangster. As always, when it comes to YouTube, I suggest watching it as soon as possible for fear that it might disappear. BLACK NOON (1971) delivered your Unk some genuine willies, so it's my duty to pass the possibility of similar willies on to you. Fans of seventies T.V. movies, especially those that fret about Old Scratch coming to call, need to see BLACK NOON. Truly, it deserves to be spoken of alongside other celebrated, post-ROSEMARY'S BABY Satanic cult films of its time period. I'm thinking that the only reason it's not more notorious is because it wears the cloak of a western. As far as delivering the horror goes though, I assure you the film has a sneakily wicked scorpion tail.
A young reverend and his wife lose their way in the desert en route to their new home. Luckily before they die of thirst, they are discovered by some townspeople who take them in and as the wife recoups, the preacher finds his services much in need as the isolated town is suffering various hardships. His presence and his preaching seem to have a positive effect. A new vein of gold is found in the local mine, a crippled boy begins to walk and a bullying bandit is disposed of. Everybody is doing the happy Bible boogie except the preacher's wife who is getting sicker and sicker. As the wife begs to scram, the preacher finds himself more and more enthralled by the residents, particularly a beautiful mute named Deliverance. In fact, reverend's ego is so stroked by the townspeople that he is willing to ignore a sudden rash of vivid panic dreams and waking hallucinations of a bloody anguished man. Clearly things are not quit as they appear in the town of Nilbog San Melas. Something fishy and witchy is going on…
If that doesn't pique your interest (and really why should it?) allow me to sell you on the cast. ROY THINNES (THE NORLISS TAPES, SATAN'S SCHOOL FOR GIRLS) plays the passionate, sometimes wild-eyed reverend, mac daddy super pimp RAY MILLAND (THE UNINVITED, THE LOST WEEKEND & THE ATTIC) is the town's head honcho, and the enticingly beautiful mute cat wrangler Deliverance who scares rattlesnakes with her stare is played by a bewitching YVETTE MIMIEUX (she of THE BLACK HOLE.) We also got ourselves some porn-stached HENRY SILVA (BUCK ROGERS, TRAPPED!), some twitchy GLORIA GRAHAME (BLOOD AND LACE, MANSION OF THE DOOMED) and even a dash of DEVIL TIMES FIVE's LIEF GARRETT. If you need more than that you are crazy and should be put down like a rabid raccoon. To be honest, GRAHAME doesn't have nearly enough to do, but it's always good to see her showing up anyway.
Now you have to be a little patient with this one; it was made in 1971 which means it does not tap dance, wave sparklers and shoot gold coins and bubble gum balls out of its mouth every five minutes to keep your attention. It uncoils slowly with a subtle foreboding but when it goes in for the kill, it's remarkably vicious. There's actually still a ringing reverberation in my psyche from the sound of its bear trap snapping shut. Furthermore, some of the visual nails that are hammered home during the finale are remarkably ahead of their time. I'll put the links in the comments section. The picture and sound (maybe use headphones?) aren't the best, but I think it's worth the extra effort. That's it. I'm saying no more. The less known the better. Hope you enjoy this grade-A 74-minute cut of lean mean Beelzebub marinated T.V. beef and do let me know what you think!
