Horror Movie Empire.com Reviews

1960 American International

    Philip Winthrop (Mark Damon) travels to the desolate ancestral home of the Ushers to take his fiance Madeline(Myrna Fahey) back to Boston with him. Roderick (Vincent Price), her brother, stands in Winthrop’s way by speaking of a curse that dooms the entire Usher family. Will our hero be able to escape with his beloved?

    This is the first, and one of the better, Poe story adaptation films that Corman ended of making . It doesn’t feel as cartoonish as some of the others do, and it is probably the closest that American International got to making a Hammer style film. There is a weak psychedelic type dream sequence, and the character of Winthrop is written a little weakly, but besides those things I have no other problems with this film.

    The screenplay for this is written by Richard Matheson, based upon the story by Edgar Allan Poe. I find this to be one of the better written Poe adaptations that he did because it isn’t filled with overtly menacing characters that turn into parodies of themselves. Instead, Roderick (Vincent Price) is a brooding man who dwells so much on his family’s curse that he sort of wills it to happen. He dwells in that house with Madeline waiting for the evil to overcome them instead of trying to escape or change the course of their lives. It’s sort of a self fulfilling prophecy of sorts. The only weak spot is how that character of Winthrop is written. I find him to be a bit ineffectual and not developed quite as much as perhaps he should be. I can understand his love for Madeline but how exactly did they meet and bond so deeply for him to risk his life for her? I love the idea of the house decaying and falling apart as the family itself is going mad and dying. The two, the Usher family and the house, are intertwined and one cannot survive without the other.

    House Of Usher is directed by Roger Cormanand he does a pretty good job accept for the dream sequence that I mentioned above. In justabout every Poe film he includes one or two of these scenes, and they always take me out of the film and seem out of place to me. He makes what could be a purely Gothic style horror film into one in which is cut in half by something that feels like it belongs in some sort of psychedelic fantasy instead. the production itself is really dark and foreboding. From the first few minutes, when we see Winthrop travelling to the house, we are greeted by decay in one form or another. We are witness to the decay happening on the outside and then see the nice Victorian interior decay slowly. I find the creepiest decorations in the house to be of the portraits of the Usher family. They are painted by Burt Shonberg and look as if a mad man has done them, which reflects on the fact that the ancestors themselves are all of an evil disposition. The most disturbing scene, visually, is when Winthrop finds the empty chain festooned coffin of Madeline and it is covered in her technicolor looking blood. You can figure out automatically that something not quite right is happening, that’s for certain.

    Vincent Price plays Roderick quite differently than he plays other characters in the Corman series of Poe films. Gone is his sarcastic demeanor, and in its place is a melancholy figure so dejected by his future that he doesn’t even have the will to find it. I actually find this to be one of Price’s better performances in a movie because he doesn’t really ham it up at all, and instead shows us that he can play dejection and sadness in a very convincing manner. Since the character of Winthrop isn’t quite developed all of the way the performance of Mark Damon isn’t quite up to snuff. He comes across as an atypical hero trying to save the damsel in distress and that’s about it. I get no other personality trait out of him while watching him perform that could add depth to the character. There is nothing much that can be said about Myrna Fahey other than she plays Madeline adequately. The character is a puppet pulled this way and that between Roderick and Winthrop and that’s about all she’s meant to be.

    The House Of Usher has a few faults but it really is one of Corman’s better efforts. Bloofer Lady thinks that if you have never seen a Corman Poe film that this would be an excellent place for you to mend you forgetful ways.

    You can buy The Fall Of The House Of Usher at Horror Movie Empire.

Bloofer Lady
Horror Crypt

2005 Dimension Films

    A group of people are stuck in a bar in the middle of the desert when a band of hungry monsters come for a visit. Will the marooned patrons stand up to fight them or will they be killed off one by one?

    Feast has got to be one of the most blood drenched films I have ever seen in my life. There is a ton of carnage in the first twenty minutes and the last twenty minutes of it. So much so that it can be a little easy to get lost within it all and not know exactly what is going on. In turns it is funny and ghastly, which I think makes it a pretty good horror film. The screenplay is really original, but sometimes ’shaky cam syndrome’ gets in the way of the goriest scenes.

    Marcus Dunstan and Patrick Melton wrote this and I have to say that they did a pretty good job with it. Creatures attacking a bunch of people stuck in a building isn’t an original idea but the monsters and humans are creatively written. Not only do the monsters eat people they are horny as hell and will fuck just about anything. It’s a little disturbing but funny as hell to see one of them screwing a dead animal head. How many times do you see that in a film? Why never of course! There are some stereotypical characters written into the script such as the whiny Beer Guy (Judah Friedlander) who you know aren’t going to meet a happy ending, but then there is Coach (Henry Rollins) who endlessly spews forth motivational speeches. If I was one fo the people in there having to listen to him I would end up killing him and throwing him out to the creatures as fresh meat! We are never told where the creatures came from and I kind of would like to have heard more about their origins. Are they the victims of nuclear testing or did they come to the surface from the depths of an underground cave? All I know is that I hope I never hit anything while I am driving through a desert! Dunstan and Felton also wrote the sequels to this and amazingly a lot of Saw films. I guess this is them at their peak performance.

    This is directed by John Gulager, and he sometimes suffers from what I call the ’shaky cam syndrome’. During the really intense creature attack scenes the camera moves all over the place making it sometimes difficult to see what the hell is going on. I understand that this is done to cover up the effects, or to change the pace of a film, but nevertheless it can be a little annoying. I don’t know who the hell started the trend but it should be stopped! Now, about those effects! Some of scenes in this are just downright disturbing! When Harley Mom (Diane Ayala Goldner) is screwed in the mouth by one of the creatures and the spits out its love juice I almost wanted to puke. You don’t see the creature’s penis going in and out of her mouth or anything but you see the creature doing humping movements which is just as horrific! Sometimes what you don’t see can be just as bad as what you do see, and I like that he filmed those graphic scenes in that manner. then again, perhaps he would have gotten an X rating if he hadn’t?

    I would have to say that my favorite character is Coach played by Henry Rollins. Okay, I have a soft spot for Hank, but he is really sleezy and annoying in this which is funny as hell. Plus seeing him make a motivational speech in a pair of pink sweat bottoms is hysterical! Another actor I like is Tuffy the waitress played by Krista Allen. The character probably has the best transformation in the film and she is in turns sad and angry, making for a really good performance. I can believe that Tuffy watched something horrible happen to her son and that she isn’t a little screaming airhead. I really don’t like the character of Bozo, played by Balthazar Getty. There is just something off about how the actor plays him, like he can’t decide whether he is supposed to be good or bad. That is in part the screenplay’s fault but he isn’t that great of an actor so the situation isn’t helped by him. Everybody else in the cast does a really good job and I can’t really think of anything spectacularly bad about their performances.

    Feast is a very gory film that will have you laughing and grimacing at the same time. Bloofer Lady thinks it’s a fun time and suggsts that you watch it.

You can buy Feast here.

Bloofer Lady
Horror Crypt

Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man takes place 4 years after the events in The Wolf Man. Here we have the perfect example of where movies like Alien vs. Predator and Freddy vs. Jason got their roots. Two well known- movie monsters do battle- but not before they become a pair of unlikely pals. Directed by Roy William Neill and starring our old pals Lon Chaney Jr and Bela Lugosi (who plays Frankenstein) Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man is an interesting glance further into the tortured mind of Larry Talbot.

Our movie opens with a couple of grave robbers breaking into the Talbot family tomb. Once they uncover the lid from Larry’s tomb- a beam of moonlight shines across him- and he reawakens once more. Apparently silver was not a proven method to kill a werewolf after all! Larry is found on the street with a gnarly skull wound- courtesy of his father from the previous movie, and Larry is treated at the hospital. When he tells the doctor who he is however he is met at once with animosity. How on earth could he be Larry Talbot, when Larry Talbot died 4 years earlier? Naturally he is never taken seriously- and flees in hopes to find our favorite Gypsy woman, Maleva. Maleva is surprised and shocked to see Larry alive- but offers her assistance and takes him to find Dr. Frankenstein in the hopes that his unconventional scientific procedures will provide a true cure- to end Larry’s life and suffering. The only problem is Frankenstein is dead- and the villagers are still a bit sore over all that monster business. With the help of Frankstein’s daughter and doctor Mannering- the two monster’s will be completely drained of life- and able to find peace.

Now of course- not everything goes as planned and Dr. Mannering’s curiosity gets the better of him–resulting in complete reanimation of the monster which happens to occur on the full moon. Jealously erupts- and a nice little battle happens between Frankenstein’s monster and the wolf man. Who will win? Well you’ll just have to see for yourself to know the answer.

I must say this movie was pretty damn entertaining. The beginning brings back such lovely memories- especially for me who had just watched The Wolf Man no less than a half hour ago. But seeing the brilliantly laid out Talbot family tomb- as well as the tomb stone of our beloved tragic hero Larry–

was done well enough to give me chills. I loved how we were thrown right back into the swing of things- as Larry tries desperately to find a way out from his nightmare. With silver being a false way of dying- where could he possibly turn?

That problem does seem to be Wolf Man fans’ number one problem however- because it completely undermines everything that happened in the first movie. Silver has long been thought of as the ONLY way to kill a werewolf. By having that method be null in void, we are pretty much doomed. The other thing that I noticed significantly changed was the importance of the full moon. In The Wolf Man- Larry rarely changed when the moon was full- and we at least were never shown it. In fact, I believe the only time we got mention of it was in the town’s famous poetry- detailing the wolfs-bane. Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man however is all about the full moon. And we can see it more times than I can count.

The relationship between Larry and Maleva was pretty heart warming- and I was worried for a second there that she would fall victim to Larry’s bite if she wasn’t careful. Even though it was Larry who killed her son- she is very much into looking out for Larry- and taking him as a sort of temporary replacement son. Even more heart warming than this relationship however- is the relationship between Frankenstein’s monster and Larry. When Larry isn’t transformed into the Wolf Man, it’s as though he sees the monster as a sort of little brother or something. He protects him from the towns people- (apparently still outraged at the time he drowned the little girl by accident) and just seems to all around care for the poor guy. And rightfully so- since they both seem to be creatures with no choice. Neither of them asked to be the way that they are- and they both suffer because of it.

The battle scene- while a bit short- (it doesn’t happen til the last 5 minutes practically), is kind of sad. I really didn’t want either of them to die- because if given the opportunity I think they could have made a really nice sitcom together one day. Regardless, the movie is pretty entertaining- and certainly paved the way for the trend of combining two well known horror icons. Sure Bela Lugosi is nowhere near as menacing as Boris Karloff was- but that doesn’t kill the film’s overall appeal. Longtime fans of both movies will be guaranteed chills when they see Frankenstein’s monster frozen in ice- and the Wolf Man change once again into his trademark teddy bear figure. A must see for classic movie monster enthusiasts!

Buy Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (The Legacy Collection) at Horror Movie Empire!

Andre Dumas

The Horror Digest

I’ve never been a huge fan of Westerns. When my Dad would pop one into the DVD player I’d slowly ease out of the room with forgotten homework on my brain and spend the rest of the evening playing Super Mario Bros (A fair trade in my opinion). Reading the Netflix description for Five Bloody Graves however eased my worries a bit by suggesting that it was more like a horror movie Western- with lots of gore!- and maniacs? Sounded good enough to me. Unfortunately whoever wrote that description must have been watching the long lost director’s X-Rated copy- because the only gore I saw was some poorly done splotchy Indian makeup.

The True winner of Five Bloody Graves comes in the form of the voice over work by Death (Gene Raymond). He comments on the movies happenings from time to time and even utters a brilliant quote at the film’s end. As to what the movie is about well- it seems as though Death isn’t entirely sure either. But as far as I can surmise we are following Ben Thompson(Robert Dix) a “messenger of death” who kills a lot of Indians. He’s still bent out of shape by the death of his sweetheart Mary. The rest of film puts Indians against Ben Thompson and a wagon full of Saloon whores and their pimps. There’s a lot of shooting, bad gun shot wounds, and really offensive derogatory words against Indians (Native Americans whoops!) that you can only find in these delightful B-movie Westerns.

Directed by Al Adamson the unheralded king of B-movie goodness between the 1960’s and 70s, Five Bloody Graves is a testament in man power to see who can stay awake the longest. In fact the only real reason I stuck around till the end was to see what all this Five Bloody Grave nonsense was about- I thought that maybe just maybe the “gore” factor would be there by the films end. Unfortunately the gore factor is less than zero. There is more blood in Bambi! The only real redeeming factor I could find was the overly entertaining Jazz score that accompanied the shooting of Indians. Who doesn’t love snapping their fingers like one cool cat while Indians are being dealt with?

I suppose I did enjoy the “no holds barred” attitude the film took. Women are slapped, and killed with arrows- and although a love story is attempted it’s put to waste by another one of those pesky Indians! No one is safe in a B-movie Western that’s for sure. Death is always there for the ride however- and by the end it seems as though it is only Death who truly has any compassion. A curious idea.

In doing my research on the movie- of which there is very little to find, I did come across perhaps the most interesting unexplored tid bit in movie history. After a few decades of churning out such delightfully awful B movies like Dracula vs. Frankenstein and Naughty Stewardesses, Al Adamson retired from movie making and became a successful real estate agent. Don’t worry it doesn’t stop there! Sometime in the 90s Adamson was reported as missing- only to be found a few years later buried under the foundation of the hot tub in his newly made bathroom! If that isn’t screaming for a true life Hollywood story or even a Horror Movie than I don’t know what is!

Sure the movie is a bit lacking in…well in almost every area that a movie could possibly have. The actors and actresses were like porn stars (probably were with a last name like Dix) the story was off, the direction blah, the “effects” horrible. The scenery however- good job Utah (or wherever this was filmed)! I’m guessing fans of old time classic Westerns will be more open to the film- but overall it’s pretty laughable by anyone’s standards.

Andre Dumas

The Horror Digest

Buy Five Bloody Graves at Horror Movie Empire