Horror: The Final Chapter

[1SO]

Not to get my hopes up, but The Diabolical Dr. Z (1966) is 6.8 on IMDB and 3.48 on Letterboxd, so maybe in 20 films. My next 5 includes one by William Castle and I usually enjoy his work.
It looks like the best stuff is being saved for Shocktober.

[1SO]

What do you anticipate being your first 3 star movie of this new batch? Anything look promising?

I guess I should mention I gave 3-stars to the first film I watched from this batch.

And the next film on my list will get the same rating.

[Junior]

I knew I was gonna miss one. Still, I admire your dedication to the cause. And I'm glad you found another one!

[Dave the Necrobumper]

Earth vs. the Flying Saucers (1956)
aka. Invasion of the Flying Saucers
★ ★
This film’s claim to immortality are the special effects by Ray Harryhausen, in particular the climax where a bunch of saucers crash into all the famous Washington D.C. landmarks. (The thought of this plays a lot less distressing today.) The rest of the film is too simple to be interesting. They come after us, we shoot back at them and finally everything explodes.

This film has always been a favourite of mine. The films budget was so low they did not have money for high speed cameras, so Ray Harryhausen had to stop motion the building explosions, something he vowed never to do again. Just checked up and yes my memory was correct, he did stop motion the explosions of the Washington DC buildings at the end of the film. I also read (in Ray Harryhausen: An Animated Life) "I have to say that I am not enamoured with Earth Vs the Flying Saucers, it remains for me the least favourite of all our pictures".

Forbidden Planet came out the same year and had a big budget (over $1M), however EvtFS made $1,250,000 while FP made $1,600,000. So EvtFS made a sizeable profit, while FP made little or none.

P.S. It is lovely when my past habit of buying books comes in handy.

[1SO]

I like learning the trivia with these movies, which sometimes explains their appearing on the updated list. I agree there's better Ray Harryhausen work from this era. The stories in The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms and It Came from Beneath the Sea are just as bad but the effects imagery is more memorable.

Thanks for sharing.

[1SO]

I knew I was gonna miss one. Still, I admire your dedication to the cause. And I'm glad you found another one!

A peek behind the curtain...

My usual lifestyle of breakfast movie, lunch movie, nighttime movie has been disrupted by some pretty exciting job opportunities ($) that include a lot of traveling. (I'm writing this at an airport terminal headed to Louisiana.) Most of my down time is in flight or at the end of the day, where I'm usually pretty wiped and wouldn't be able to engross myself in something complex. My other Marathon stopped at Éric Rohmer and it would be unfair to try and fit in his films under these conditions. A perfect opportunity for 60-75 minute genre pulp. So, I don't see it as dedication to the cause - though there's a benefit to being so thoroughly knowledgeable about a specific genre - so much as doing my version of watching a TV Series.

[1SO]

X: The Unknown (1956)
★ ★ ★ – Okay 
Early Hammer Horror very much in the mold of their intelligent and unpredictable Quatermass films. (This was set up to be a Quatermass, but the creator of the character wouldn’t approve a script he didn’t work on, so they renamed the character.) The film opens with the first creepy, tense scene of this new batch and I like how events unfold like a mystery, but the plot definitely loses its way as it nears the finish. The creature is an origin story of a much more famous 1958 monster, The Blob, though there’s nothing connecting the two films.


I Was a Teenage Frankenstein (1957)
★
”Speak. I know you have a civil tongue in your head because I sewed it back myself.”
I descendent of THE Dr. Frankenstein tells his friend out of the clear blue that he wants to build a person out of dead parts. At that precise moment, there’s a horrific car crash outside his house where a boy is thrown far enough from the wreckage that Dr. F and his friend are able to cart the teen undetected back into the house. This constant stupidity is more amusing than any serious points the film wishes to make.


It! The Terror from Beyond Space (1958)
aka. It! The Vampire from Beyond Space
★ ★
Rip-off of The Thing from Another World with a co-ed space crew heading home menaced by a stowaway creature from Mars. There’s also plenty of evidence that Alien was influenced by this, which shows what a difference Ridley Scott’s class and atmosphere brings to such a B-movie premise. This crew could not be less interesting, and the hulking rubber creature is just as bland as it snarls around the ship.


Macabre (1958)
★ ★ ½
Directed by William Castle, who is so much better than his legacy of gimmicks led me to believe. A great high concept plot with a small town’s despised doctor learning that someone his kidnapped his daughter and buried her alive. The clock ticks and everyone is an obvious suspect. This could’ve been one of Castle’s best, but the pacing is interrupted by a couple of lengthy flashbacks, one of the lead performances is really weak and the ending doesn’t make much sense. That’s balanced by a couple of scary moments more intense than you expect to find pre-Psycho. Looking forward to showing this to Mrs. 1SO for Shocktober


The Return of Dracula (1958)
aka. Curse of Dracula
aka. The Fantastic Disappearing Man
★ ★ ★ – Okay 
Another film that rethinks mythology by moving it to a modern setting, and the most successful example yet. This time it's Dracula fleeing his homeland and winding up in small town America. Similar to Shadow of a Doubt, with curly-haired Francis Lederer looking nothing like one's idea of a vampire. The real discovery is Norma Eberhardt as kind-hearted Rachel, who falls under the vampire's spell. Without ever hitting the nail on the head, she plays the relationship as a sexual awakening and a loss of innocence. Perhaps too character focused for Horror fans - the low IMDB rating is inexplicable, especially when most of the reviews are full of praise - there's still a brutality bubbling just below Dracula's seductive surface.

[1SO]

Gorgo (1961)
★ ½
Kaiju from Ireland? Actually London gets the worst of it and there are brief good moments when Gorgo destroys Tower Bridge and the Clock Tower. There are no interesting human characters, except for maybe the annoying tyke that reminds me of Gamera. There’s way too much stock footage for this to be a good bad movie, and I would love to know the thought process that led to giving the rubber suit some realism by having the ears move.


The Mask (1961)
aka. Face of Fire
aka. Eyes of Hell
aka. The Spooky Movie Show
★ ★
A mask is unearthed that causes the wearer to have highly-addictive nightmares. The highlight is the wild imagery – originally shot in 3D – every time the mask is put on. What I don’t get is why someone would be drawn like an addict to repeat the experience, but I guess idyllic images wouldn’t sell tickets. Everything surrounding the mask sequences is relentlessly uninteresting.


Brainiac (1962)
aka. Baron of Terror
★
Simply terrible revenge flick involving a comet that turns into a reincarnated warlock baron who can transform into a brain-sucking rubber-masked creature with an absurdly long tongue. The baron can also hypnotize people by staring blankly at them. Sometimes the victim bugs their eyes out, but sometimes they just scream in terror. None of this makes any sense, including the police who show up just in time with flamethrowers strapped on.


The Phantom of the Opera (1962)
★ ★ ½
I loved seeing Hammer’s attention to sets and costumes applied to this story and Michael Gough is a terrific slimeball, but this version of Phantom completely blows the big moment by avoiding it in the obvious scene. Instead, later on the Phantom removes the mask himself, which is missing the point. There also isn’t good reason for it to be done at that moment, and making thigs worse, the makeup is horrible. The ending is also rushed – typical of Hammer – with a lot of climax crammed into the last two minutes. This was close to being my 2nd favorite Phantom (after Paradise), but that final stretch undoes a lot of goodness.


Diary of a Madman (1963)
aka. The Horla
★ ★
You gotta love Vincent Price and he really is the whole show here, but with the script giving him too little to do he's simply going through the motions. Supernatural tale of possession and revenge has one really good shock - caught me off guard because there's no logic to what happens - but most of the horror moments are more effects than chills, like the green light across a person's face when under the control of the ghost demon.

[smirnoff]

When it's all said and done I'd love to hear your favourite poster. I always love looking at them.

[1SO]

Before I post my favorites...

You already commented on my least favorite, the cheap-looking House That Dripped Blood. The recent one for Brainiac would be my 2nd least favorite because who thought that long snake tongue was a good idea, let alone something to advertise. There's a film coming up called Island of Death whose poster is equally off-putting. I'm already not looking forward to that one.

The poster for The Return of Dracula is interesting because Norma Eberhardt's character is all about purity and innocence. The camera only focuses on her beautiful face, so it's startling to see a cheesecake pose on the poster.


My favorite posters from TSZDT 1000:
I'm going to overlook the classics because their images are so iconic. A true Top 10 posters would include Alien, The Shining, Jaws, The Thing, Rosemary's Baby, Dawn of the Dead and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. My favorite of this batch would be the pumpkin becoming the slasher for Halloween.

I've seen a number of posters for Suspiria that focus on the bold colors. I think this minimalist approach is one of the best. I'm also including a similar idea to the poster for Inside

Another good minimalist poster.

Many posters feature evil people looking sinister.

I think this one is creepier because it's clear nerdy scientist doesn't have good social skills. He's either going to kill her in the name of science or he's going to accidentally kill her because he's lived a solitary existence.

I wish this film actually had a fraction of the terror on the woman's face.

This poster set me up for Giant mummies that had a particular reaction to light. Too bad the actual film isn't as creative.

This one, on the other hand, captures the tone of the film quite well.

I love everything about this poster: the font, the expressions, the glossy look. Nothing like the movie at all.

The missing eyes and purple skin makes for a colorfully disturbing poster.

The use of color also enhances this NSFW poster for Amer

I like the waves of fire look to the font for this one.