skjam

The Raven (1935) dir. Lew Landers

Dr. Richard Vollin (Bela Lugosi) was a brilliant neurological surgeon until his recent retirement to pursue research on the nature of pain. He did very well for himself during his career, allowing him to pursue his hobby of collecting memorabilia of his favorite author Edgar Allen Poe. He's even recreated some of the torture devices from Poe's stories, with the crown piece being the famous Pendulum. But his retirement is rudely interrupted.

Interpretive dancer Jean Thatcher (Irene Ware) was in an automobile accident that has damaged the nerves at the base of her skull. Dr. Jerry Halden (Lester Matthews), a younger and less brilliant surgeon, admits he's not skilled enough to perform this particular operation. He tries calling in Dr. Vollin, but is unable to convince the man. Jean's father, Judge Thatcher (Jerry S. Hinds), goes out to Vollin's house in person to beg for help. Dr. Vollin reluctantly agrees, and the operation is a success.

Jean is grateful to both her doctors, and begins a relationship with Jerry, but also spending a lot of time with Richard. Dr. Vollin had been too focused on his career and research when he was young to have any time for romance, and is surprised by how strongly he's attracted to the beautiful young woman. When he sees her performing to a reading of Poe's The Raven, Vollin becomes utterly smitten with Jean and starts actively courting her.

Judge Thatcher is alarmed by this as there's something like a thirty-year age gap between the two. He approaches Dr. Vollin and makes it clear he want Richard to back the hell off and let her wed the more age-appropriate doctor. Vollin knows that Thatcher has the right to demand this, but is by no means a good sport about it and swears vengeance. Mind you, he finds a way to back out of the courtship while remaining friendly to the young couple. For now.

It's at this point that Edmond Bateman (Boris Karloff) enters the picture. He's a bank robber and murderer who recently escaped prison. His face is distinctive enough that Dr. Vollin recognizes him instantly even though he's wearing a beard. Bateman hates his face because the bad treatment he received because of his ugliness contributed to him going into a life of crime. He's heard that Dr. Vollin is able to change a man's appearance (exactly how the underworld knows this is never explained.) Bateman believes that with a better face, not only could he evade the police search for him, but he could start a life as a good man instead.

Unfortunately for Edmond, Dr. Vollin is most interested in the brutality that Bateman showed in burning a bank teller's face when the man insulted him during a robbery. While Vollin has a morbid interest in torture, he's never actually done it before and needs some muscle. He's willing to do the operation, but only if Bateman assists him in gaining his revenge. Bateman has no interest in doing further harm, but sees no other choice but to agree.

The operation succeeds in changing Bateman's appearance...by hideously disfiguring him. Dr. Vollin did this in order to force Bateman to assist in his upcoming vengeance, as he's the only surgeon who's skilled enough to fix the damage. (The disfigurement is only on one side of Bateman's face, but in-universe it makes him unrecognizable even by Judge Thatcher--it's just that distracting.)

Dr. Vollin invites newlyweds Jean and Jerry, and Judge Thatcher, as well as a few decoy guests, over to his mansion for the weekend. He plays the charming host, but his intentions are evil.

There is some effective imagery in the movie, the most notable being when Dr. Vollin unveils multiple mirrors by remote control to taunt Bateman with his new hideousness. Legosi does a smooth slide from cultured doctor to cackling maniac, and Karloff does a good job as the psychologically tortured Bateman.

At the time, this movie was considered so scary by British authorities who came down on it hard that the local cinemas started just not showing horror movies at all until after World War Two. Nowadays, most audiences are likely to find the scares in this movie fairly mild.

Dr. Vollin could have been a sympathetic figure given how cruelly his romantic feelings are trampled by the judge, but him going immediately to torture and murder as a response loses him any softer evaluations. Bateman is more sympathetic despite his criminal history--he genuinely doesn't want to be a bad person anymore, and he has a point about society's lookism. (Vollin grants this point but ignores it in favor of his revenge scheme.)

Odd moment: There's a clockwork contraption in Dr. Vollin's manor that simulates a horse race that his guests bet on. It doesn't fit his Poe theme at all and I kind of wonder if this was an actual thing rich people could buy in the 1930s.

Teens on up should be okay watching this movie, but younger viewers should have a trusted adult present, especially to talk about prejudice against ugly people. Recommended to Legosi and Karloff fans, and people interested in the history of horror movies.

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) dir. Robert Wiene

The frame story begins with Franciz (Friedrich Feher) having just been told by another man (Hans Lanser-Ludloff) about the supernatural events that drove him from his home. Franciz replies that the events he and his fiancée Jane Olsen (Lil Dagover) experienced were even more chilling. We then flash back to the announcement of a fair in the city where Franciz and Jane then lived. Their friend Alan (Hans Heinrich von Twardowski) sees an ad for the fair and asks Franciz to come with him. Despite their both being in love with Jane, the two are still good friends.

Meanwhile, a mountebank calling himself Doctor Caligari (Werner Krauss) tries to get a license to perform at the fair. The Town Clerk does allow this, but not before he's very rude to the applicant. By what I am sure is a total coincidence, the Town Clerk is murdered that very night.

Alan and Franciz go to the fair and visit Dr. Caligari's concession. The act turns out to be the supposed doctor displaying a "somnambulist" he calls Cesare (Conrad Veidt) who he awakens from deep sleep. Caligari claims that Cesare has supernatural knowledge of the future. When Alan foolishly enquires how long he will live, Cesare tells Alan he will be dead by dawn.

When Alan is murdered that night, Franciz' logical first suspect is Cesare. But is that really the case?

This 1920 silent German film is one of the most famous movies ever made, and even if you haven't seen it, you've probably heard of it if you have an interest in film history, horror, or German Expressionism. The last is most obvious in the nightmarish set design.

Conrad Veidt is chilling as Cesare, the sleepwalking killer, scrambling over the rooftops on his deadly mission. And within context, Dr. Caligari makes a very sinister figure.

There's a couple of nice touches. An unrelated criminal attacks an old woman in hopes that his murder will be mistakenly credited to the mysterious previous ones. And Dr. Caligari has a "lifelike" dummy of Cesare that he puts in the cabinet while the somnambulist is away to create an alibi.

The title card says that this is a retelling of an 11th Century legend, though that legend itself is made up for the movie--and then there's the infamous twist ending that turns most of what we've learned on its head.

It does have to be remembered that this movie is still quite early in the history of films, and silent, so the acting can come off artificial and stiff, and the lighting is sometimes dubious. The set design actually helps by being so weird that the viewer might not feel the need to nitpick details so much.

Content note: Murder, naturally, though the actual deed is suggested by shadow, not directly shown. Some period depiction of mental illness that may come off badly to modern viewers. Older teens should be fine; younger viewers may not be ready for the conventions of silent film.

This is one of those movies that's more important than good, but it's good enough that it's worth seeing for any fan of horror or film history buff.

Ghostbusters 2 (1989) dir. Ivan Reitman

It has been five years since the Ghostbusters saved New York City, and by extension the world, from the threat of Gozer the Gozerian. Due to the massive destruction caused by their struggle, the team was sued by multiple government agencies for the damage. At the same time, a drastic drop in paranormal activity allowed rumors spread by a certain hostile government agent that the Ghostbusters had actually used hallucinogens and special effects to create fake ghosts to defraud the public. Their small company was forced into bankruptcy and they were put under a restraining order preventing them from working as paranormal investigators.

Ray (Dan Ackroyd) runs a small bookshop and appears at children's parties with Winston (Ernie Hudson) (who apparently has no other income) in their old Ghostbuster outfits. But even the children have moved on, preferring He-Man as a cultural reference. Peter (Bill Murray) hosts a cable access show on the paranormal, but due to his reputation can't get the good guests. Egon (Harold Ramis) has done all right for himself, landing a research position at Columbia University studying whether human emotions have an effect on the environment.

Dana (Sigourney Weaver) broke up with Peter over his refusal to commit to the relationship, then married a fellow musician. But when that man got a lucrative job offer in Britain, he divorced Dana and moved, so that she is raising their baby Oscar (William and Henry Deutschendorf) alone. To have more time with her child, she took a temporary jub doing painting restoration at an art museum. Her boss, Dr. Janosz Poha (Peter MacNicol) has been hitting on her when not obsessing over his latest acquisition, a painting of alleged dictator and black magician Vigo the Carpathian (body by Wilhelm von Homburg, voice by Max von Sydow).

Once again, it's Dana who first notices that something eerie is going on when Oscar's baby carriage rolls off by itself and strolls right into the middle of the street. She contacts Egon to check into the matter, and specifically asks that Peter not be told. Peter of course finds out and invites himself along on the investigation to try and rekindle his relationship with Dana. He's still a sleaze so that part doesn't go so well, but he does start to bond with Oscar.

The former Ghostbusters (sans Winston at this point) investigate the street, and accidentally cause a blackout in the process of finding an abandoned tunnel with psychoactive slime running through it. This gets them arrested, but ghosts showing up in the courtroom gets the judge convinced to lift the restraining order.

This and a sudden rise in ghost activity needing busting allows our heroes to be back in action and again the toast of the town. Meanwhile, Janosz has become dominated by the spirit of Vigo, which is using the portrait as a channel to the living world. Vigo needs a human infant to possess at the stroke of midnight New Year's Eve to begin his comeback to rule the world. Janosz has just the baby in mind so that he can compel Dana to be his wife.

Things are about to become very bad indeed, for the slime is supercharged with negative emotions from 1980s New York City, and Vigo draws strength from that.

While the first Ghostbusters movie had been very successful, some of the people who'd be needed to make a sequel had a falling out, and schedule conflicts arose, so it took five years before this movie was made.

Good: Some great jokes, excellent special effects, guest appearance by the Statue of Liberty.

Less good: This movie's plot structure is eerily similar to the first one's, with many repeated story beats. The characters and situations are reset to very near the beginning of the first movie, so in a way this one ends with very little progress. (A notable exception is Dr. Venkman, who no longer hits on any woman that crosses his path. He's solely interested in getting back with Dana, even if he can't quite understand what he did to lose her in the first place. While he has to start at zero in that relationship again, at least we're not seeing him being a horndog to other women.)

Also, poor Winston is underused again.

It's notable that the success of the cartoon spinoff The Real Ghostbusters fed back into this movie. Mascot character Slimer (Ivan Reitman) appears even if he isn't properly explained, and in an effort to be more kid-friendly, the characters have cut way back on smoking and the sex talk.

Content note: baby in peril, Dana is seen in a bra and later in a towel, a bit of rough language, slapstick violence. Janosz is under the delusion that if he forces himself on Dana, she will grow to love him.

My DVD came with two episodes of the cartoon, "Citizen Ghost", which explains why the Ghostbusters let Slimer hang around; and "Brothers in Slime" which references the psychoactive slime from this movie (calling Vigo out by name) even though the events of the second movie could not have happened in nearly the same way in the cartoon.

Overall, it's an okay movie with its major flaw being that it's a little bit too much of a retread. Maybe we didn't need sequels and remakes, but here we are. Consider getting it in a set with the original. And of course, recommended to fans of Eighties comedies.

Doctor X (1932) dir. Michael Curtiz

The Moon Killer has struck again! Each month during the full moon, a victim is found strangled and killed with a wound to the back of the skull, and then large chunks of their flesh removed, presumably to be eaten. After six victims, the police have finally managed to determine that the skull wounds are created by someone with surgical skills, and a particular kind of scalpel. As it happens, this particular scalpel is an imported model only used at the Institute for Surgical Research, conveniently located near all the murders. The police approach Dr. Jerry Xavier (Lionel Atwill), the head of the Institute.

As it happens, the school is in recess, so that narrows the list of suspects to Dr. X and four other faculty members who have remained to pursue their own projects. Dr. Duke (Harry Beresford), Dr. Haines (John Wray), Dr. Rowitz (Arthur Edmund Carewe) and Dr. Wells (Preston Fowler). The four others have reasons why they are a little dodgy. One wrote a book on cannibalism, one was in a ship wreck and when the three man liferaft was found, only two men were still aboard, one is obsessed with the concept of "lunacy", and one is into "French Art" (a then polite euphemism for pornography.) Even Doctor X himself might be a suspect if his theory is correct.

In order to protect the Institute's reputation and attempt to solve the case using some new experiments he wants to try out, Dr. Xavier persuades the police to give him 48 hours before they crack down on the suspects. Unfortunately for him, wisecracking reporter Lee Taylor (Lee Tracy) has been concealed in the building all along. Lee reports what he's found out, resulting in newspaper headlines that will make it impossible to do the experiments at the publicly accessible Institute. Instead, Dr. X invites his fellow surgeons to his creepy mansion on Long Island.

Practical joke-loving and a little cowardly, Lee thinks his job is done, but his editor insists the reporter go out to Long Island, infiltrate, and come back with a complete story. Once there, Lee splits his time between snooping and wooing Dr. Xavier's pretty daughter Joanne Xavier (Fay Wray). But there's still a killer on the loose, and not everyone in the house will survive.

This early color horror film was Warner Brothers' response to the success of Universal's early horror classics. It was adapted from a Grand Guignol-style stage play, which was deemed a little too much strong meat for a movie audience. Thus it was rescripted to be more of a horror-comedy, with the somewhat silly reporter being the protagonist. There's also comic relief servants, skittish housemaid Mamie (Leila Bennett) and creepy butler Otto (George Rosener).

But there are spooky moments throughout, and at the climax the movie goes full horror as we finally get a good look at the Moon Killer (awesome makeup by Max Factor that works well with the film's limited color palette) and the real reason he's been killing people. And that nightmarish moment when Dr. X realizes he's made himself helpless to stop the Moon Killer from murdering Joanne.

Lionel Atwill and the other suspects are excellent, Lee Tracy is typecast but is very good at being typecast, and Fay Wray does the best she can with her limited part.

Content note: This is a pre-Code film, so they could get away with a scene in a bawdyhouse, a reference to "a woman of the streets", "French Art" and what was then a racy swimsuit for Fay Wray in one scene. There's murder, of course--no blood but a bit of body horror. References to cannibalism. Some prejudice towards the physically handicapped. Dubious depiction of and attitudes towards insanity. Younger children should have adult guidance on hand.

This movie hasn't aged as well as Mystery at the Wax Museum from later that same year, but has its charms for comedy-horror fans. Turn the lights down low and have plenty of popcorn on hand!

Beast from Haunted Cave (1959) dir. Monte Hellman

Deadwood, South Dakota may have had a wild reputation back in the day, but in modern times, it's a quiet tourist town. It's the sort of place you might go for a ski vacation if your budget doesn't run to Aspen. And that's why entrepreneur Alexander Ward (Frank Wolff) is here with his business associates Marty Jones (Richard Sinatra) and Byron Smith (Wally Campo) and secretary Gypsy Boulet (Sheila Noonan). They've hired local guide Gil Jackson (Michael Forest) to give them skiing lessons, and then lead a cross-country trip to a remote cabin.

This being a movie, that's not the real reason they're here. The plan is to set off an explosion in a disused mine on Sunday morning, thus drawing the local law enforcement and emergency personnel out of downtown. The three men will then rob the active mine office, stealing bars of gold. They'll then rendezvous with Gil and Gypsy at the top of the ski resort (far enough away from town to not notice the excitement), and go to the cabin. There's a pre-arranged plane set to land there in a few days; Mr. Ward plans to kill Gil and any members of his crew that have become liabilities, and escape into Canada.

The first wild card shows up when Marty gets a little drunk and picks up barmaid Natalie (Linné Ahlstrand), getting her to show him the disused mine in the middle of the night. He plants the explosive while her back is turned, but they're then attacked by a mysterious beast (Chris Robinson). Marty flees, leaving Natalie for dead, but is shaken by this and suffering random attacks of guilt and belief that he's being followed by the beast.

Natalie's disappearance is investigated by the authorities, but they don't make the connection to Marty, and it's noted that some recent animal deaths have been attributed to a loose cougar.

The explosive goes off (killing an unlucky watchman) and the robbery itself goes off just fine. Next wild card is that Gypsy starts being attracted to Gil, and vice versa. (Alexander is not a good boyfriend.)

On the trip to the cabin, the audience sees that the beast is indeed following Marty. At the cabin, Gil learns about the robbery and becomes increasingly suspicious of his clients. Byron finds himself developing a flirtation with native housekeeper Small Dove (Kay Jennings). A heavy snow delays the plane.

Isolated as they are, the small group is menaced by the beast, which has taken up a lair in a nearby cave. Who, if anyone, will survive?

This crime movie interrupted by a monster was shot on location in Deadwood and the surrounding area as producer Gene Corman and his brother Roger had been lured to South Dakota by that state's Chamber of Commerce offering financial incentives to film there and their own desire to get out of California for a while. Roger Corman was preparing his own movie Ski Troop Attack which used some of the same locations, actors and screenwriter Charles B. Griffith. The beast costume was made by Mr. Robinson himself out of his own pocket, as he was working for exposure (it worked, he got a lot of TV roles, and was still doing movies as of 2022!)

As you might expect, the lack of budget really shows. The sets are minimal, the acting is mostly adequate at best, and there's a reason we see very little of the monster until the climax. But it's nice to see the South Dakota locations, and the skiing sequences don't feel overly long or like filler. The scene where some of the beast's victims wake up in Haunted Cave is actually pretty disturbing.

Content note: Alcohol abuse, smoking, extramarital sex is implied. Outdated term for a Native American woman. Younger children should have adult guidance.

Several of the people involved would go on to make much better movies, but with its short run time, this would make a good double feature with another B-Movie--say, The Wasp Woman, its first feature partner.

The Black Cat (1934) dir. Edgar G. Ulmer

Mystery writer Paul Alison (David Manners) and his bride Joan (Julie Bishop) are spending their honeymoon in Hungary, starting with a private compartment on the Orient Express. As so often happens, the railway company accidentally double-booked their compartment with a courtly but somewhat sinister-seeming middle-aged gentleman. This is Dr. Vitus Werdegast (Bela Lugosi), who is returning to Hungary to visit a friend after spending fifteen years in a Russian prisoner of war camp, and then some years traveling. Since it will only be a few hours, the Alisons agree to share their space.

At their stop, it's raining heavily and the Alisons board a bus for the Hotel Hungaria, which Dr. Werdegast is also planning to stay at. The driver explains a bit of the local history. The location they're traveling through was the site of a fierce battle during World War One, during which the fort defending the area was taken and destroyed by the Russians. On the ruins of the fort has been built the modern house of engineer/architect Hjalmar Poelzig (Boris Karloff). In the heavy storm, the bus crashes, killing the driver and wounding Joan.

There's nothing for it but to head to Engineer Poelzig's house, which is convenient for Dr. Werdegast as the architect is the old friend he was coming to visit. The word "friend" is perhaps a bit generous. Hjalmar was in charge of the fort during the battle, and Vitus believes that he sold out to the Russians, resulting in the fall of the stronghold and Vitus' capture. It would explain how Hjalmar escaped unscathed and had plenty of money afterwards. What the architect definitely did do, though, was lie to Vitus' wife Karen that her husband had died. He then bigamously married her and took Karen and her daughter (also named Karen) to America. And then to several other countries before circling back to Hungary, buying the site of the old fort and building his new house there.

Poelzig, despite his own sinister appearance, is not so bad a host that he'd turn away stranded travelers, so the Alisons are allowed to stay while Joan recovers. Also, he finds Joan striking in a way that reminds him of Karen, as did Werdegast. Hjalmar claims to Vitus that both Karens are long dead, but that's not entirely true. Dark deeds are afoot as the new moon and a Satanic Mass approach!

This movie was the first time Karloff and Lugosi had appeared together, and they have good chemistry which explains why they were so often matched in other films. The best parts of the film are them playing the game of being polite and friendly while trying to outmaneuver each other mentally and being charmingly sinister.

The set design is excellent, the modernistic house with its tricks, above the remaining caverns of the old fort with their dark secrets. There's also a nice soundtrack with classical pipe organ music. 

The Alisons are...okay for their roles. They're the ordinary folks who have stumbled into a decades long feud and have no context for what's going on. Joan's actress does get to stretch her acting muscles a bit during a sequence where's she's been drugged and severely out of character.

As expected by the title, there is a cat. However, since the title was chosen first for the Edgar Allen Poe spooky cred, but not any story ideas, it's not a central character. Dr. Werdegast is violently ailurophobic, and attempts to kill Engineer Poelzig's pet cat. (There's a yowl offstage and the cat is claimed to have been killed.) There's some discussion of the possible Satanic connections of black cats and the notion that cats have nine lives, and later the cat shows up alive and well without even a bandage. It plays no part in the climax, and as far as we know survives the ending.

The cultists who show up late in the movie for the Black Mass are a little disappointing; they're extras there to fill up space and remarkably passive. One of them at least gets to play the organ.

There's a couple of actual humor bits to lighten the tone. Two gendarmes with very strong views about which of their home towns are the most tourist friendly, the actual words of the Black Mass (but for that you need to know Latin) and a bit at the end where Mr. Alison reads a review of one of his books that criticizes unbelievable plots.

Content note: Murder, lesser violence, no blood. Poelzig keeps his previous victims on display. Also, he married his stepdaughter and is an overcontrolling husband. Peril to a cat. Younger viewers may need some guidance.

This is a must-see movie for both Karloff and Lugosi fans as they're true co-stars here. It's just over an hour long, so would make a good double feature for family scary movie night.

The Return of Dracula (1958) dir. Paul Landres

It is a known fact that Count Dracula (Francis Lederer) is a real person, a vampire who drains the blood of the living and creates others of his kind. He's been terrorizing central Europe for decades, evading attempts to permanently destroy him. At the beginning of the movie, a well-trained and disciplined squad of government vampire hunters just misses Dracula as he boards a train towards his next destination. As it happens, also aboard the train is one Bellac Gordal, an artist who has been given permission to emigrate to America. Bellac bears a resemblance to the vampire. Dracula seizes the opportunity to kill and replace Bellac to go to a new country where no one will be prepared for him.

Once in America, "Bellac" comes to Carleton, California, a small town where his cousin Cora Mayberry (Greta Granstedt) lives. Cora moved to America as a child, and is fully Americanized down to her Californian accent. A widow, Cora takes in sewing to supplement her income, and lives with her teenage daughter Rachel (Norma Eberhardt) and preteen son Mickey (Jimmy Baird). Rachel and next door neighbor Tim Hansen (Ray Stricklyn) are sweet on each other, and Tim does chauffeuring of the family members as he has a car. Mickey's primary interest is playing with his cat Nugget, which has the bad habit of exploring the local dangerous cave. (Looks like an attempt at mining was made there, but no one ever calls it "the mine.")

Cora barely recognizes her cousin, but it has been decades since she's seen Bellac and no photographs of him as an adult. He was peculiar even as a child, and between being a foreigner and an artist, his eccentricities are easily shrugged off.

Dracula installs his coffin in the nearby cave, and kills Nugget (offscreen) for trespassing. (See, folks, this is why you shouldn't have an outdoor cat.) He soon kills and turns lovely but blind local girl Jennie Blake (Virginia Vincent) into one of the undead, but his true target is Rachel, who he wants to be his eternal companion. This is played almost as creepy as it sounds.

The vampire doesn't have it all his own way. John Merriman (John Wengraf), a representative of the European Police Agency and one of the vampire hunters we saw earlier, has figured out that Dracula was one of the immigration group on the train an unidentified corpse was thrown out of, and is working with the American immigration agency to check up on Bellac. Mack Bryant (Charles Tannen) doesn't seem to catch on that Cora knows more about Bellac's childhood than he does, but does snap a picture of the immigrant with his concealed camera.

Dracula orders Jennie to murder Bryant in case he has second thoughts, but this just tells Merriman he's on the right track. Especially when it turns out that Bellac doesn't show up on film.

The forces of law and the church start closing in on Dracula on Halloween night, but will they be in time to save Rachel?

This is a solid B-movie. Lederer is a sharp presence who knows how to stare creepily--not quite Lugosi level, but well enough. This Dracula has kept up with the times and knows how to not look or act entirely out of place but just enough to be uncanny but explainable. His interest in teenage girls is depicted as predatory rather than romantic. He might speak prettily but that isn't the behavior of someone who wants an actual partner. A nice touch is that while we never see Dracula painting as part of his cover as an artist, we do eventually see that he has been painting, and why we have not seen it before.

Wengraf is also good and understated as the experienced vampire hunter. He doesn't make amateur mistakes like trying to confront Dracula while the monster is awake and able to fight back.

The rest of the cast ranges from adequate to okay. Mickey and his juvenile antics are on screen surprisingly little, so he doesn't overstay his welcome. The teen romance angle is a bit more wearisome, but appropriately awkward and believable. Cora should probably be more suspicious of Bellac than she is, with all the odd hints, but she's juggling a lot of balls.

The one character I would like to have seen more of was Jennie post-vampirism. She can now "see" after years of blindness and being basically bedridden. What's she doing with her nights besides being Dracula's attack dog?

Special effects are kept to a minimum to keep the budget down. No elaborate makeup, dry ice, a couple of camera tricks. There's one special shock moment, but I won't spoil it in this paragraph. This works pretty well.

Political: While it's never directly said, it's implied that the Central European country Bellac and Cora come from is a Communist one (or became one since Cora left) as there's a frequent mention of how Bellac wasn't "free" there. The immigration agent is surprisingly polite and deferential compared to current day portrayals.

Content note: Several deaths, a couple bloody. A cat dies horribly offscreen. That whole thing with Dracula preying on teenage girls. Teenagers on up should be okay, and younger watchers with adult guidance.

Overall: Again, a solid B-movie. The Halloween timing of the story makes it a good choice for a spooky season watch that's not too graphic or likely to cause nightmares.

Weird Woman (1944) dir. Reginald Le Borg

Paula Slayton's (Anne Gwynne) mother passed away when she was quite young. Her father, a professor of archaeology, died when she was in her early teens, and she was thereafter raised by her native nurse Laraua (Hanna Kaapa) and taught the native ways, including (what they believed to be) powerful protective magic. Years later, as an adult, she met one of her father's old students, Norman Reed (Lon Chaney, Jr.) who'd returned to the islands and witnessed a ceremony Paula was part of. One thing led to another, they fell in love and got married, and Norman took Paula Clayton Reed back to the college where he was a professor.

Paula's reception is mixed. Dean of Men Septimus Carr (Harry Hayden) is a bit of a lecher, and appreciates Paula's fresh-faced beauty. His much younger sister, and campus librarian, Ilona Carr (Evelyn Ankers) is frosty. She was under the impression that she was the woman Norman was interested in (he thought of it as a mild flirtation) and is seething at the perceived betrayal. Professor Millard Sawtelle (Ralph Morgan), a colleague of Norman's in the sociology department, is indifferent to Paula. But his wife Evelyn Sawtelle (Elizabeth Russell) is hostile because she sees Professor Reed's successful new book as a threat to her husband's becoming head of the department, and Paula is associated with that. Dean of Women Grace Gunnison (Elisabeth Risdon), who has risen as far as a woman can at the college, and thinks of Norman like a favorite nephew, is kind.

Wanting to support her husband, Paula continues to perform her rituals of protection and good luck. However, Norman believes the supernatural is a bunch of superstitious rubbish, and her odd behavior is causing him embarrassment. Finally, he puts his foot down, demands that she give up magic, and destroys her tools, including the good luck amulet bestowed upon Paula by Laraua.

Immediately thereafter, things start going horribly wrong for our couple, starting with the suicide of Professor Sawtelle, which Mrs. Sawtelle believes Norman is responsible for. Margaret (Lois Collier), a student with a crush on Norman, comes on to him, gets rejected, and her would-be swain David Jennings (Phil Brown) misconstrues what happened with lethal results. Are the Reeds truly cursed?

This Universal Pictures horror movie is loosely based on the novel Conjure Wife by Fritz Leiber Jr. It was done as part of the "Inner Sanctum" series of films, and complete cuts start with a floating head in a crystal ball (David Hoffman) welcoming us to that location.

Unlike the novel, where one of the major plot points is that magic is 100% real, this movie primarily goes with non-supernatural explanations. In the first half of the movie, we see Ilona setting up the disaster dominoes with mundane lies and innuendo. She's clever and evil, but probably not a witch. The seemingly magical events could all be remarkable coincidences and the power of suggestion. Still, the setup and cinematography place this story squarely in the horror category.

Mr. Chaney is fine, but this movie really belongs to the female characters, particularly Ms. Ankers as Ilona, her only "villain" role. She does cold fury and sly manipulation well, and then the mental breakdown as she is led to believe that she herself has been cursed to die.

Conjure Wife has been adapted into movies twice more, of which Night of the Eagle is considered the most faithful.

Content note: Off-screen suicide, someone is lethally shot during a struggle (no blood), we see the shadow of someone being hanged. Harassing phone calls. The depiction of the natives is...dated, but not as bad as in other movies of the time. Older teens should be fine.

This movie is an underrated gem, and well worth searching out. It's just over an hour, so would do well as part of a double feature with another horror or thriller movie.

Atom Age Vampire (1960) dir. Anton Giuilo Majano (original title "Seddok, l'erede di Satana")

Brilliant scientist Professor Alberto Levin (Alberto Lupo) is working on a revolutionary cure for skin cancer and scarring, inspired by his research on radiation survivors. With his faithful assistant Monique Riviere (Franca Parisi) and mute manservant Sacha (Roberto Bertea), he's developed first a serum that causes monstrous cell growth in animals, Derma-25, and now one that reverses the effects, Derma-28. Monique forces him to advance to human testing by injecting herself with Derma-25, and insisting he use the new serum instead of the usual immediate radiation therapy. It works, but now Professor Levin needs a documented experiment that will truly prove that Derma-28 is both effective and safe for humans.

As it happens, Nightclub dancer Jeanette Moreneau (Susanne Loret) has just been dumped by her lover, sailor Pierre Mornet (Sergio Fantoni). It seems he wanted her to give up her job despite it being how they met, but she didn't want to be unemployed while he was off at sea. Upset and driving angry, Jeanette has a car crash and winds up with severe permanent facial scarring. (Pierre hears nothing about this because his ship already sailed.)

On the verge of suicide as she can't live with her (pretty concealable) scarring, Jeanette is secretly contacted by Monique and offered the Derma-28 treatment, on the condition that she tell absolutely no one. Jeanette isn't entirely convinced, but shows up at the Levin mansion anyhow. In the heat of his enthusiasm, Professor Levin fails to get informed consent from Jeanette before subjecting her to the treatment, which uses up the entire existing supply of Derma-28. The process works, and Jeanette is seemingly cured. A combination of her restored beauty and his elation at success causes Professor Levin to become enamored of Jeanette, much to the displeasure of Monique, who thought she was the love interest.

Meanwhile, Pierre arrives back in town and traces Jeanette to the hospital, only to discover that she has vanished with no forwarding address.

Jeanette, while appreciative of Professor Levin's cure, isn't nearly as into him as he is into her. She's pining for Pierre now that she could show herself in front of him. And then the scar tissue starts resurfacing so the doctor slips her a mickey.

Levin realizes that because the scar tissue was so old, it will take multiple Derma-28 treatments to completely eradicate it. But it will take months to synthesize a new supply. He could, however, take glands from healthy beautiful young women and implant them in Jeannette to bolster the Derma-28 in her system and that could also work. Monique immediately realizes that's the plot of a horror movie and vetoes the idea, much to the professor's wrath.

It's not clear if Professor Levin kills her without leaving noticeable marks in the ensuing struggle, or she succumbs to her pre-existing heart condition. But he is able to remove her glands subtly enough so that coroner Dr. Doubré (Tullio Altamura) doesn't suspect a thing. The cursory investigation of Monique's death also introduces Inspector Bouchard (Ivo Garrani). He immediately flags Levin as a person of interest, and a potential expert to consult on cases involving radiation poisoning.

Needing more pretty young woman glands, Levin disguises his appearance with Derma-25 (also boosting his confidence to allow him to kill) and commits more obvious murders. He still hasn't quite taken it in that Jeannette isn't falling in love with him, and that may bring him to his doom...

So, first off, there are no vampires in this movie, so if you're only here for the bloodsuckers, cross it off your list. The newspapers apparently nickname the person going around killing women "Seddok", thus the Italian title, and there's some speculation (which Professor Levin allows to linger) that the murderer is a Hiroshima survivor maddened by radiation-caused deformities. "A vampire of the atomic age, if you will."

The "I've made this woman beautiful/cured, oh no, it's not permanent so I need to kill people for their body parts" plotline is a well-worn one for horror movies, and kudos to Monique for both spotting it and trying not to participate. Otherwise it plays out in a fairly standard manner.

Professor Levin shows signs of being a bit unhinged from the beginning, so it's not too shocking when he goes off the deep end. Monique's a more interesting character, and Professor Levin would have been way better off returning her interest instead of forcing Jeanette into a relationship. Pierre is a dolt, but seems to have learned how much he truly cares for Jeanette by the end. Stefan? Well, he loves both Monique and Professor Levin more than they deserve and gets little joy of it.

Some nice fade effects. It's an Italian movie, so I'm not sure why it's taking place in France. There are multiple cuts, starting with the 105-minute Italian cut, the 87-minute US cut, and the 72-minute video cut, the last of which takes out a racy dancing scene, and much of the first scene of trying to treat Jeanette with Derma-28 which contains important set-up for later plot points. Pretty sure the Italian cut has more racy dancing because it's in the trailer but not the US cut.

Content notes: several murders, no gore in the US version. Jeanette bases her self-worth entirely on her physical appearance. Racy dancing. Body horror. Inspector Bouchard is a recovering tobacco addict with a currently addicted subordinate--he falls off the wagon towards the end. The US cut should be okay for teens--if there's more gore in the Italian version, make that late teens.

Overall: The choppy editing of the US version has done a number on the coherence of the film, and it's going to feel a little creaky to modern viewers. Portions of the plot were already hoary cliches by the time this was made. Mildly recommended to fans of B-movie horror; see if you can find the longer cut.

Creature (1985) dir. William Malone

In the not too distant future, a spaceship named Shenandoah is sent by the multinational corporation NTI to Titan, a moon of Saturn, to lay claim to some alien artifacts found there. There's some trepidation by the crew, since the last expedition has no known survivors, and the last sign of them was one crashing their ship into a space station.

Commanding the follow-up expedition is corporate suit David Perkins (Lyman Ward). He's brought along his own security guard, the taciturn Melanie Bryce (Diane Salinger). The rest of the crew is pilot Mike Davison (Stan Ivar), the sensitive Susan Delambre (Marie Laurin), her lover Jon Fennel (Robert Jaffe), biophysicist Dr. Wendy H. Oliver (Annette McCarthy) who is the team medic, and engineer Beth Sladen (Wendy Schaal). Approaching Titan, they spot a ship from rival corporation Richter Dynamics. It's a fair distance from the site of the discovery, so Perkins orders a more direct landing at the correct coordinates.

This is a mistake, as the surface is unstable there, and the Shenandoah is badly damaged when the landing site collapses. There's little choice but to seek help from the Richter party. But when the crew reaches the Richter ship, they find only corpses, and something that seemingly kills Susan before they can get away.

Back at their own ship, the NTI crew meets Hans Rudy Hofner (Klaus Kinski), the last survivor (so he claims) of the Richter expedition. He's eccentric and his ramblings about a creature that killed his crew are hard to take seriously. But there is definitely something out there, and it's not done killing!

This sci fi/horror flick is a pretty direct descendant of Alien, and some of the same special effect crew would go on to work on Aliens after this movie wrapped. The main differentiator is that this alien monster has the ability to puppet its human prey by inserting control organisms into their brains, eventually replacing the brain altogether. This allows it to lure the survivors into danger.

The special effects are decent for the budget; lots of use of darkness and mist effects to obscure the sets. (And cobwebs in space!)

The acting is so-so but Kinski is mostly fun as Hans, who seems turned on by the fact that Bryce isn't into him and could kick his ass if she wanted to.

Unfortunately, my Echo Bridge copy was a poor quality pan and scan transfer.

Eighties oddity: There's still a "West Germany" in the future. (Also, Bryce's personal hair and makeup style look very "eighties butch." She miight be a lesbian?)

Content note: Violence and gore, mutilated corpses. Female nudity under frankly ludicrous circumstances.

Enough different from Alien to be its own thing, but not good enough to escape the similarities.