Horrors of Spider Island (1960)

It was such a dreary day outside today. Fortunately, that gave me a chance to kick back and watch so no budget creature features. The first one up is the 1960 entry Horrors of Spider Island (AKA Body in a Web).

Plot/ Survivors of a plane crash on a remote island find spiders cover it. When bitten, the survivors start turning into spiders!

When I decided that I needed a trip into the classic era of low budget cinema tonight, little did I expect to take a trip into the abyss of the no budget misery? This one is bad; maybe the worst flick in either of these creature feature sets. While the cast was intriguing, there was not a lot of depth for them to work with. The movie features terrible editing, a ton of filler, and many of the effects are below low budget. Sure, the spider man make-up is decent for that era, but that in no way is enough to save this one. The unfortunate part is that the movie had potential and would be an interesting flick to see rehashed by the creativity defunct studios in Hollywood. In the end, this one is nowhere near a good movie; unless you are looking for a schlock-filled way to pass some time, stay away.

Black Sunday (1960)

After watching some Italian horror with A Bay of Blood on Saturday, I remained in that mood on Sunday. This is usually how it works, as once I go down a path, I tend to stay there a little while. With that in my head, I decided to kick back and watch a classic, the 1960 Mario Bava masterwork Black Sunday.

Plot/ A vengeful witch and her fiendish servant return from the grave and begin a bloody campaign to possess the body of the witch's beautiful look-alike descendant. Only the girl's brother and a handsome doctor stand in her way.

I could not help myself after watching some Bava, I needed more. After some thought, I felt that Black Sunday (AKA The Mask of Satan) was perfect for my mood. This film is a masterpiece. Everything about this flick works really well. The cast featuring Barbara Steele is amazing and the performances are solid, the atmosphere is dark, heavy and dreadful, the scenery is tremendous and the cinematography is top notch. More importantly, the effects work well for the period and the storyline is layered and very enjoyable. In the end, this is one of the most influential films of the horror genre and a movie that must be seen. If you are a horror fan and have not seen it, what are you waiting for? See it!

The Amazing Transparent Man (1960)

With the New Jersey Undead Festival kicking off tomorrow night (I will be manning the ticket booth in the evening), I decided to get into mood by checking out some great zombies of a different kind. My selection is the campy 1960 Sci-Fi entry The Amazing Transparent Man from the Pure Terror Collection.  

Plot/ A crazed scientist invents an invisibility formula. He plans to use the formula to create an army of invisible zombies.

Ahhh, there is truly nothing like classic Saturday matinee Sci-Fi and Horror. Really, this was an era all its own, an era when movies were the focal part of entertainment regardless of the budget (and sometimes quality). This one falls directly into that category. Sure, you have to watch it with zero expectations and an open mind, but it remains an entertaining journey into the weird. Running close to an hour, the storyline has everything you could imagine and more, and it is all laughable. Actually, most of the film is laughable. The sets are beyond bad, the acting fluctuates from poor to way However, all those flaws scream classic low-budget camp and add up to some good entertainment for a Saturday Night Horror Host crowd. Not for everyone, but I totally recommend it to low-budget Sci-Fi fans.

13 Ghosts (1960)

After watching The Tingler, I was in the mood for some more classic William Castle. With a few different movies to choose from, I broke down and decided to watch the original 13 Ghosts from 1960.

Plot/ A family inherits what proves to be a haunted house, but a special pair of goggles allows them to see their ghostly tormentors.

To me, this may be the best movie Castle did. This is one of those quieter horror movies that rely on atmosphere vice gore to get the point across. The script, acting and cinematography all worked quite well together and created an extremely entertaining film. Even the gimmick of the Ghost Viewer works within the confines of the film. This movie is true B movie gold and so much better than the remake (on a fraction of the budget). This is an awesome example of filmmaking at its finest, full of family fun and just enough chills to make it work on dark stormy nights.

Atom Age Vampire (1960)

Tonight, after I discovered and mounted a zombie hand for the sideshow, I continued my trek through Undead: The Vampire Collection. Tonight’s entry, Atom Age Vampire. (Seddok, l'erede di Satana), is another in what seems like a long line of non-vampire films in this set.

Plot/ When a singer (Susanne Loret) is horribly disfigured in a car accident, a scientist (Alberto Lupo) develops a treatment which can restore her beauty by injecting her with a special serum. While performing the procedure, however, he falls in love with her. As the treatment begins to fail, he determines to save her appearance, regardless of how many women he must kill for her sake. Dr. Levin studied the effects of radiation on living tissue in post-Hiroshima Japan, and created an imperfect and teratogenic serum, "Derma 25", which he later refined into the miraculous healing agent "Derma 28" which he uses to treat the heroine. When his supply of Derma 28 runs out, he realizes he must kill to obtain more, and injects himself with Derma 25 in order to become monstrous and remorseless, so that he may seek these victims without hesitation. Because many of the murders take place near the docks where shiploads of Japanese refugees are arriving, and leave behind the victims' bodies with holes in the neck where Dr. Levin has extracted the glands, the refugees claim that a vampire (whom they call "Seddok", though this is not a Japanese name) is responsible for the attacks. During a meeting with police, a restored-to-humanity Dr. Levin speculates that the Hiroshima survivors' tales of a mutated killer are due to psychological strain from the radiation damage to their bodies...but also wonders aloud whether the "vampire" these witnesses describe might simply be a disturbed man wishing to be normal again.

While the film offers nothing spectacular and is actually rough, one has to think of what it looked like before the editing and censorship for the US market. According to most site’s the original version was 105 minutes, almost a full half hour longer than the DVD version that sits in the public domain and now procured by Mill Creek (or viewed here). In all, the Italian roots of the film are visible and it does demonstrate some decent cinematography and camera work. However, it goes downhill from there. A good portion of the transfer is very grainy and dim and the acting is not much better. While this is definitely a snoozer, it was much better than The Bachelor or whatever show my wife had on in her office.

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Enjoy Your Stay At The Horror Hotel

After starting my One Step Beyond series and stumbling onto that 1960 British version of The Tell-Tale Heart, I have been in an extreme nostalgic mood with horror this week. Last night, I sat down and watch the 1960 Christopher Lee classic  Horror Hotel (one of Lee’s best non-Hammer performances next to Horror Express (1972) and The Wicker Man (1974)). The premise of the story is about a college student who goes to do research in a small town and promptly runs into strange goings on.

Synopsis: After listening to a lecture by Professor Alan Driscoll (Lee) about the town of Whitewood, Massachusetts set in 1692 where a local witch, Elizabeth Slwyn was burned at the stake, a student, Nan Barlow, decides to do a term paper on the subject. Nan drives to Whitewood to get whatever information she could get on the subject from what’s available in the towns records dating back to the 17th Century about witchcraft in general and the Slwyn case in particular. Getting instructions from a reluctant local living in the area, Nan drives into the town of Whitewood and checks into the Raven Inn where she meets the owner Mrs. Newlis and her mute helper Lottie,. Unknowing to her, she was about to meet a fate reserved only for someone like her, an innocent girl, that was needed for the Witches Holiday of Candlemass Eve (the fabricated Satanic mocking of the Church).  Ironically, Candlemass Eve is actually the celebration of Christ in the Temple (shame on those who thought it was actually a Satanic Holiday).

This early witchcraft and satanic movie predated both Rosemary's Baby and The Exorcist, yet, remains one of the best of the genre despite having a much lower budget to work with. In all, it is an eerie and spooky film about the practice of witchcraft and takes an honest look at the subject by covering some of the 300-years that transpired between the Salem Witch Trials in 1692 to the beginning of the 1960's. The black and white cinematography does a tremendous job at setting the mood throughout the film. At times, Whitewood just cries for a foreboding breath of fresh air and the eeriness permeates through the fabric of the town in an almost Lovecraftian way. Although I have seen this movie several times, I have to say that there are some elements that hit a nerve, with even the soundtrack making my skin crawl a bit. It is definitely a movie worth watching if you haven't yet had the chance.

One thing that must be mentioned is the similarities between Horror Hotel (Also released as The City of the Dead) and Psycho. Change out the characters of Norman and Mother, and the stories are virtually identical. However, I will admit that the idea of witchcraft and Satanic rituals against the creepily dark New England backdrop created a visual backdrop in my mind.

Poe's Tell-Tale Heart (1960)

Being a huge fan of the works of Edgar Allan Poe, it was just natural that when growing up I enjoyed the Poe adaptations starring Vincent Price. So many of those movies left such a lasting impression on me, and I am sure a lot of horror fans. Those are not the only Poe related movies that have crossed my DVD collection though. In fact, I am always on the lookout for different films and show that I have not seen to add to my ever-growing bookcase of horror.

This weekend I stumbled upon an adaptation I had never seen at the flea market, and for a quarter I did not hesitate to grab it. This one was the 1960 British rendition of The Tell-Tale Heart, starring Laurence Payne. To be honest, this melodramatic story is only loosely based on Poe, revolving around a troubled librarian Edgar (Lawrence Payne) who falls in love at first sight with a newly moved-in girl Betty (Adrienne Corri) living across the street. Edgar asks Betty to have a dinner with him, and she accepts, but he later finds that she is really in love with Edgar's friend Carl (Dermot Walsh). Angry and in despair, Edgar does what you know he will do anyway in his desolate house where he lives alone.

While the script is not very original, the acting is good with Lawrence Payne's performance being on par with some of the better movies of the day. The movie also has a great deal of stylish cinematography for its age (although the transfer of the film to DVD could be a better). In all, this moody and at times risqué film is one of the better interpretations of a Poe tale. This interesting movie has somehow survived untouched by the corporate cinemas that are ruining film.