SHADOW STALKERS - 10 Terrifying Features (DVD Review)

SHADOW STALKERS
10 Terrifying Features (3-Disc Set)

Label: Mill Creek Entertainment

Region Code: 1 NTSC

Duration: 934 Minutes

Audio: English Dolby Digital 

Video: Anamorphic Widescreen, Fullscreen 

Directors: Michael Schroeder, J.Lee Thompson, Irvin Kirshner, Robert Hammer, Bud Townsend, Massimo Pupillo, Stu Segall, Edmund Purdon, William Fruett, Theodore Gershuny  

Cast: Glenn Ford, Karen Black, Faye Dunaway, Tommy Lee Jones, Brad Dourif, Cameron Mitchell, Tracey Walters, Caroline Munroe, Geoffrey Lewis 

Mill Creek Entertainment are back with another budget sampler of slasher goodies that can be had on the cheap on DVD, this one cramming ten movies onto a three disc set containing several of the public domain and Crown International libraries that have been on numerous versions of their budget collections, plus we get two Columbia Pictures licensed slashers, and one late 80's slasher licensed from CineTelFfilms that to my knowledge has only been available from Sony as part of the Sony Screen Classics by Request MOD service, so glad to see it get a semi-proper pressed release. as part of this set.   

OUT OF THE DARK(1988)

Rating: R

Duration: 98 Minutes

Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 

Director:  Michael Schroeder

Cast: Karen Black, Bud Cort, Geoffrey Lewis, Tracey Walters

Late 80's slasher Out of the Dark (1988) is pretty cheesy, coming across as a semi-erotic Red Shoe Diaries version of an 80s  slasher with a story that revolves around a group of girls who work as phone-sex operators, the all work together in an office, and soon they start dying off one by one, victims of a deranged clown-masked culprit who likes to hit girls over the head with a bat when he's not strangling them top death. The phone sex company is operated by Karen Black (Burnt Offerings) who is certainly slumming it in the late-period cameo. The movie's soft-core bent come mainly from the inclusion of a photographer named Kevin Silvers (Cameron Dye, The Last Starfighter) who is dating one of the girls. Sexy models throw themselves at the guy, a late sex scene goes on forever, looking like a late-night Skinemax softcore flick. 

The cops suspect Kevin as the killer but the movie is not shy about throwing multiple red-herrings at us, including a creepy office guy named Doug (Bud Cort, Invaders from Mars) with an S/M fetish and an angry rival photographer played by Geoffrey Lewis (Salem's Lot). Even the cops are creepy in this one, the main detective played by Tracey Walters (Repo Man) and another played by Divine (Pink Flamingos) with some crazy eyebrows. 

As an 80's slasher this is near the bottom third of the barrel, but that doesn't mean I didn't enjoy it for the trashy slice of flesh-baring slasher-ness that it is, perfectly watchable, totally cheesy. To my knowledge this has only been available on DVD as an MOD disc from Sony Pictures, so it's nice to see it a pressed disc release, even if it is crammed onto a DVD with three other films. 

HAPPY BITHDAY TO ME(1981)
Rating: R

Duration: 111 Minutes 

Audio: Dolby Digital 

Video: Anamorphic Widescreen
Director: J. Lee Thompson
Cast: Melissa Sue Anderson, Glenn Ford, Lawrence Dane, Sharon Acker, Frances Hyland, Lenore Zann, Lisa Langlois, Michel Rene Labelle, Lesleh Donaldson

In this early 80's slasher directed by J. Lee Thompson (Cape Fear) we have a setting a the elite Crawford Academy's high school, a group of popular teens form a click known asd the Top Ten, but someone is killing them off in fun and ingenious ways. This is one I caught on TV back in the 80's and it stuck with me, unavailable on digital home video fro far too long, and even then it was initially released with the wrong score, which has subsequently been fixed on the releases that followed. 

Our focus here is top ten member Virginia (Melissa Sue Anderson, Little House on the Prairie) who had some weird experimental brain surgery some years back, which figures into the story.  The kills are very elaborate, despite having been trimmed heavily by the MPAA, the identity of the killer is kept in the dark, it has a giallo flavor to the kill set pieces which I think is awesome. Director J.Lee Thompson was a great director, he would later go onto be saddled by Canon Films and relegated to some rote action-adventure film (Death Wish 4, King Solomon's Mines) but here he shows some great direction and the movie is lensed quite nicely. The kills are fantastic, featuring teens killed by a running rear tire of a motorbike, skewered by a shishkabob, and having a weight dropped on his balls while lifting weights! It's all great stuff, the bloody payoff has been heavily edited but the climax of this movie is so deliciously overwrought and WTF! The kalways of the culprit's identity always leaves me reeling, and while I do think the movie is a bit too convoluted I always count this is one of my favorite slashers, it's just a fun time all around.

The movie is also available from Mill Creek on Blu-ray as a double-feature with  When a Stranger Calls, and there's a region-free version available from UK distributor Indicator that has some extras, including an audio commentary from the crew at The Hysteria Lives! podcast. 

EYE OF LAURA MARS (1978)
Rating: R

Duration: 104 Minutes 

Audio: Dolby Digital
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen (1.85:1)
Director: Irvin Kershner
Cast: Faye Dunaway, Tommy Lee Jones, Brad Dourif, René Auberjonois, Raúl Juliá

Directed by Irvin Kershner (The Empire Strikes Back) from an scripted by John Carpenter (Halloween), the disco-era American giallo Eyes Of Laura Mars (1978) is a psychic-thriller whodunit set in the high-fashion mecca of New York City, we have titular fashion photographer Laura Mars (Faye Dunaway, Bonnie and Clyde) has been experiencing visions of real-life murder through the eyes of a killer, the horrifying voyeuristic visions literally bleed through into her photographic work, a mix of sexed-up violence, nude women and blood. The graphic images cause quite a controversy, the press often implying that the images are detrimental to society and demeaning to women.

Eyes of Laura Mars is a movie I first sought out because of the contribution of John Carpenter who wrote the initial script, but it went through many changes before making it's way to the big screen, including the love angle and making it a more of a whodunit than a psychic-slasher. I think it's a hot mess of a movie but it is star-studded and strangely weird in a way that makes it interesting. Adding to the fun is an overwrought performance from Dunaway (just a few years before Mommie Dearest), and an over-the-top turn from Raul Julia as her ex husband, plus a suitably creepy role from a very shaggy (and young) Brad Dourif (The Exorcist III). Tommy Lee Jones seems pretty aloof and subdued for most of the film, but his weirdness does come through at the end and the aforementioned scene at the park with Dunaway. 

The original Columbia Pictures DVD release of this one has long been out-of-print in the US, but there is a great region-free Blu-ray from UK distributor Indicator, here in the US this budget set is you're best bet on home video.  

DON'T ANSWER THE PHONE (1980)
Rated R
Duration: 95 Minutes
Audio: English Dolby Digital
Video: Fullscreen (1.33:1)
Director: Robert Hammer
Cast: James Westmoreland, Nicholas Worth, Ben Frank, Flo Gerrish, Denise Galik, Stan Haze

A deeply disturbed photographer and 'Nam vet named Kirk Smith terrorizes Los Angeles by going around strangling lingerie-clad young women in their homes while taunting Lindsay Gale, a young psychologist, by calling her on a radio call-in show to describe his sexual hang-ups and misogynistic ways, while a local police detective, Lt. McCable, is always two steps behind in trying to catch the psycho. Now here's an exploitation gem. Don't Answer the Phone stars Nicholas Worth as Kirk, our deranged serial killer and boy is he ever a character, totally unpredictable, he's making some oddball acting choices here and I love it! My second favorite character is the film is a wisecracking coroner who always says the most inappropriate things, good stuff. This one received a great looking special edition Blu-ray from Vinegar Syndrome in 2017 and is also available in widescreen DVD from Scorpion Releasing.

NIGHTMARE IN WAX (1696)
Rating: R 

Duration: 94 Minutes
Audio: English Dolby Digital

Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 

Director: Bud Townsend
Cast: Cameron Mitchell, Anne Helm, Scott Brady

Fallen Hollywood star Cameron Mitchel (Blood and Black Lace) stars in this schlocky House of Wax knock-off as the demented proprietor of a wax museum named Vince Renaud, a former movie studio make-up man horribly scarred in an accident. Now running the wax museum he has his revenge on his enemies by dipping them in wax for fun, and that's about the gist of the story, not a whole lot to it. Mitchell is super cheesy in the role, the man is dripping more camp than wax in this one, lovers of bad z-grade cinema should relish this one. 
BLOODY PIT OF HORROR (1965)
Rating: R
Duration: 73 Minutes 

Audio: English Dolby Digital 

Video: Anamorphic Widescreen
Director: Massimo Pupillo
Cast: Mickey Hargitay, Walter Brandi, Ralph Zucker

A photographer and his sexy models go to an old, Gothic castle to shoot some sexy covers for horror novels. Unbeknownst to them, the castle is inhabited by a demented actor/lunatic who believes himself to be the reincarnated spirit of a 17th-century executioner. He calls himself the Crimson Executioner. It's not an original idea my any stretch of the imagination, but it'll do in a pinch when you're craving some 60's Italian exploitation. This film is a bit odd but a lot of fun with some great torture scenes with lots of gimmicks and gorgeous ladies in minimal clothing, what's not to love?.

SILENT NIGHT. BLOODY NIGHT (197)
Rated R
Duration: 82 Minutes
Audio: English Dolby Digital
Video: Fullscreen (1.33:1)
Director: Theodore Gershuny
Cast: Patrick O’Neal, John Carradine, Walter Abel

When a man inherits a country mansion that was the former site of an asylum the bodies start piling up, it stars Mary Woronov (House of the Devil) and the print is just awful, which makes it difficult to enjoy what's happening onscreen, certainly this is a case of if we had a decent transfer it would be so much more enjoyable but as it stands if you have the patience to sit through it there's a really decent slasher at the asylum story here with some decent atmosphere and gory kills, it's a bit of a slow-burn but the creepy tension and decent payoff kept me hanging in there.

FUNERAL HOME (1980)
Rating: R

Duration: 92 Minutes

Audio: English Dolby Digital

Video: Fullscreen (1.33:1)

Director: William Fruett
Cast: Kay Hawtrey, Lesleh Donaldson, Barry Morse

From the director of Killer Party (1986) comes the lesser Funeral Home (1980), wherein  young woman named Heather (Lesleh Donaldson, Happy Birthday to Me) arrives at her grandmother’s (Kay Hawtry) place to help convert it over to a bed and breakfast inn, it was formerly a funeral home which was operated by her recently departed grandfather. After completing the change and guests begin to arrive, the granddaughter hears strange noises from the basement and finds some of the guests have disappeared. Getting nowhere with the police, the granddaughter decides to get to the bottom of the mystery by going down to the locked cellar to see what’s inside.

This one is a semi-campy but entertaining ax-murder slasher film, the setting at the former mortuary has loads of atmosphere and the Psycho-esque echoes of the story are fun, but it fails to stick the landing at the end, but still very entertaining, would love to see this get the Blu-ray treatment from Vinegar Syndrome or Scorpion Releasing at some point. 

DON'T OPEN TILL CHRISTMAS (1984)
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 86 Minutes
Video: Fullscreen (1.33:1)
Audio: English Dolby Digital
Director: Edmund Purdom
Cast: Edmund Purdon, Alan Lake, Belinda Mayne, Gerry Sundquist, Kelly Baker, Caroline Munro

Don't Open Till Christmas (1984) is a sleazy Santa-slasher with just enough of a threadbare plot to string along a series of grisly murders and nude scenes, and that's just fine by me honestly. This London-set slasher features a masked killer on a spree slashing anyone dressed-up as Santa leading to a fun array of deaths as various St. Nick are pistol-shot in the mouth, burned, razor-slashed, eye-traumatized, wiener-mutilated, speared through the skull, strangulated and machete whacked to death - the kills are pretty fantastic and varied with some fun set pieces including a sleazy strip joint, the London Dungeon, a carnival and even the infamous urinal slashing, and a strange musical cameo from scream queen Caroline Munro (Slaughter High).

While the deaths are gruesome fun what constitutes the story line is pretty silly even for an 80's slasher. Scotland Yard, Chief Inspector Ian Harris (Edmund Purdom, Pieces) and Detective Sergeant Powell (Mark Jones) are called in to sleuth the gristly murder spree. They interview the daughter of the victim speared through the head at a holiday party, Kate (Belinda Mayne, Alien 2 on Earth) and her jerky boyfriend Cliff (Gerry Sundquist) who were present during the crime. Cliff is an insensitive type and when he's present at the murder of yet another victim (a porn model) he's the prime suspect but let me just say you will never have any doubt who the culprit is, the red-herrings here are a complete failure. It's a nice conceit, instead of a Santa-suited slasher on a murder spree we have a grinning masked killer murdering Santas, it's a nice twist on the surface, but the script just doesn't go anywhere with it.

On the plus-side you can just shut off your brain on this one and enjoy it for the scuzzy Santa-slasher that it is, which is plenty entertaining even if not a very good movie, in fact it's pretty terrible! As awful as it might be this is mandatory viewing at my house during the Christmas season right after Black Christmas (1974) and Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984).

The presentation here looks like a murky VHS rip, fullscreen and dark as sin, if you dig this sort of psycho-santa sleaze I strongly encourage you to seek out the widescreen DVD from distributor Mondo Macabro. 
DRIVE-IN MASSACRE (1976) 

Rating: R

Duration: 74 Minutes

Audio: English Dolby Digital

Video: Fullscreen (1.33:1) 

Director: Stu Segall
Cast: John F. Goff, Steve Vincent, Douglas Gudbye 

Love this drive-in cheapie but sweet Lord is it an awful film, a sword-wielding psychopath is terrorizing the drive and two inept detectives are on the case, they even go undercover with one of 'em dressed in drag which smacks of The Town That Dreaded Sundown but is nowhere near as good. Points for the drive-in gimmick which ties into the finale but it's a dud, though I have yet to seek out the deluxe special edition Blu-ray from Severin Films, who went all out to restore this public domain cheapie. 

Audio/Video: The Shadow Stalkers 10-movie set comes spread out over three discs, so there's plenty of compression issues to be had. Aside from Out of the Dark (1988), Happy Birthday To Me (1981) and Eyes of Laura Mars (1978) these are the same public domain VHS-rip looking transfers we've seen from Mill Creek before. All of them full frame with the exception of The Bloody Pit of Horror (1965) and Nightmare In Wax (1969), Happy Birthday To Me (1981), Eyes of Laura Mars (1978) and Out of the Dark (1988), and the latter three look the best, having been licensed from Columbia Pictures and CineTelFilms, all of which are featured on disc one, and it makes for a fun triple-feature! Of note the package and third disc erroneously list the last feature as Abel Ferara's Driller Killer (1979), but that is not the case - it is actually the drive-in slasher Drive-In Massacre that is included.  

While most of these are available on previous sets from Mill Creek this one has some appeal by way of including the previously out-of-print Eyes of Laura Mars (1978) and including Out of the Dark (1988), a slasher I've been waiting years to checkout, glad to see it get a pressed disc release - even if it is a bit of a stinker.  

I do love to watch special restored Blu-ray version of b-movie schlock and cult-cinema, I have to give it up to companies like Vinegar Syndrome, Code Red, Scorpion Releasing and Severin Films who have been doing a great work for years breathing new life into some dusty old drive-in flicks from the AIP and Crown International Pictures library, but long before I started collecting movies from those very fine distributors I was snatching up budget collections from Mill Creek Entertainment. It was these cheap-o collections that fueled my fire and love for 60's and 70's b-movie cheese, and I hope that there's still young cult-cinema fans snatching these up for the same reason. If I had my druthers I would have hoped for a stand alone Blu-ray release of Out of the Dark (1988), I think that would have had a broader slasher-fan appeal for collector's, and while I'm getting my druthers on might I suggest that Mill Creek go through their archives looking for some decent theatrical widescreen prints or original film elements for their AIP and Crown International titles and do a new scan and slap them on Blu-ray as part of new series of HD budget collections - they've got some good stuff, some of it of the so bad it's good variety, in their library in dire need of HD upgrades and I would be very happy to slap down a few bucks for an upgrade. 

AT DEATH'S DOOR - 13 FRIGHT-FILLED FILMS (3-DISC COLLECTION)

AT DEATH'S DOOR - 13 FRIGHT-FILLED FILMS (3-Disc Set) 

Label: Mill Creek Entertainment
Duration: 1105 Minutes

Rating: R

Region Code: 1

Directors:  Andy Milligan, Eddy Matalon, Eddy Matalon, William Fruett, Roberta Findlay,  S.F. Brownrigg, Riccardo Freda, Carl Monson, Roger Corman, Francis Ford Coppola, Monte Hellman, Jack Hill, Jack Nicholson, Massimo Pupillo, Alex Nicol, William Castle, Bert I. Gordon
Cast: Vincent Price, John Carradine, Barbara Steele, Jack Nicholson, Boris Karloff, Rosie Holotik, Christine Moore, Richard Carlson, Lesleh Donaldson

A brand new year means new budget-minded cult-classic movie sets from Mill Creek and the first one is the 3-disc set AT DEATH'S DOOR - 13 FRIGHT-FILLED FILMS. This one features a pretty great assortment of fright films based around creepy old house and their eerie inhabitants. Mostly recycled from previous collection  with the exception of the haunted schlocker CARNAGE (1983) from director Andy Milligan, a man who made quite a few awful movies during his tenure as a filmmaker before his AIDS related death in 1991. 

The 3-disc set is padded out with a few standard public domain classics like the classic William Castle spine tingler HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL with Vincent Price and the Roger Corman produced THE TERROR but they do cram some quality b-movie slices of cinema in here. I highly recommend the whodunit mystery MURDER MANSION and the fun PSYCHO homage FUNERAL HOME starring Lesleh Donaldson who would go on to star in the Canadian slashers HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME and CURTAINS plus the ravenous rat shocker DEADLY EYES! The inclusion of these two make it an easy buy for just six bucks - that's a no-brainer. 

While I do love it when distributors like Scream Factory, Vinegar Syndrome and Severin who rescue films like these trashy cult-classic a new 2K restoration I do give Mill Creek quite a bit of credit for turning me onto many of these films with their cheap DVD collections long before they received the deluxe treatment. While I still cannot afford the Code Red DVD of the killer kids classic DEVIL TIMES FIVE I still have the CHILLING CLASSIC 50 MOVIE PACK on my shelf that I can enjoy anytime. 

Most of the films are are presented in sub par fullscreen digitized VHS transfers but you get a some serious bang for your buck with this one. If you already own a ton of the Mill Creek cult and horror collections you may not need this one, but just maybe you like myself just need to watch Andy Milligan's CARNAGE because you can never get enough bad cinema. 

Here's what's on the three-disc set...

DISC 1

CARNAGE (1983)
Director: Andy Milligan 

Cast: Leslie Den Dooven, Michael Chiodo, Deeann Veeder
Color 92 Minutes Rated R

Synopsis: A newlywed couple moves into their new home and are ready to settle into their new life together. After settling in, the couple begins experiencing some strange occurrences in the home and discovers, to their horror, the truth behind them. It seems the former owners of the home were a newlywed couple that committed suicide years before and are now haunting the place.

CATHY'S CURSE (1977)
Director: Eddy Matalon

Cast: Alan Scarfe, Beverly Murray, Randi Allen
Color 82 Minutes Rated R

Synopsis: After a terrible car accident twenty years ago killed his father and sister, a man returns to his family home with his wife and daughter. The daughter takes up residence in her deceased aunt’s room and, after finding some of her possessions, becomes possessed by her spirit. Soon strange happenings and mysterious deaths begin to occur in the household as the possessed girl lashes out at those around her. 

Review: Cathy is a young woman whom endured a truly nightmarish childhood and is haunted by visions of the dead, including her murderous mother. She sees "lurkers", damned souls warning her of danger, telling her not to go back to her childhood home. The film has a bit of a low-rent THE BEYOND or THE SENTINEL feel to it, but it's a bit too meandering and overly long to keep my attention.

FUNERAL HOME (1980)
Director: William Fruett

Cast: Kay Hawtrey, Lesleh Donaldson, Barry Morse
Color 93 Minutes Rated R

Synopsis: A young woman arrives at her grandmother’s place to help convert it over to a bed and breakfast inn from the funeral home which was operated by her recently departed grandfather. After completing the change and guests begin to arrive, the granddaughter hears strange noises from the basement and finds some of the guests have disappeared. Getting nowhere with the police, the granddaughter decides to get to the bottom of the mystery by going down to the locked cellar to see what’s inside.

LURKERS (1988)
Director: Roberta Findlay

Cast: Christine Moore, Gary Warner, Marina Taylor
Color 94 Minutes Rated R

Synopsis: A woman who had a nightmarish childhood due to her abusive mother has become engaged to a caring photographer. As her wedding date grows near, some mysterious occurrences cause the woman to fear her families’ legacy. The story her mother told her about ‘lurkers’ coming to get her may be more than an old wife’s tale. 

Review: Director Roberta Findlay, and husband Michael Findlay were pretty famous for a series of grindhouse-style sexploitation films, after her husbands death in ’77 she went on to direct hardcore pornos and again returned to the horror genre in the mid-80’s. Interestingly, Michael Findlay was killed in a helicopter accident on the roof of the Pan Am Building in NYC, slashed to death by the helicopters spinning rotor-blades during a botched landing.

DISC 2

DON'T LOOK IN THE BASEMENT (1973)
Director: S.F. Brownrigg

Cast: Rosie Holotik, Camilla Carr, Bill McGhee
Color 90 Minutes Rated R

Synopsis: A new nurse arrives to begin work at a mental hospital only to discover that the head doctor has been murdered by one of the patients and a new doctor is in charge. Faced with ever increasing harassment from the patients, the nurse fears she may have made a mistake in taking the job. The nurse soon discovers that the new head doctor is not whom they appear to be and that she is in terrible danger.

Review: A decent low budget drive-in asylum shocker from cult director S.F. Browning (DON'T OPEN THE DOOR) with some fun grisly gore, it's one of those inmates are running the asylum pics and starts off strong with a bloody ax murder and then a pretty young nurse named Charlotte Beale (Rosie Holotik) shows up for her first day at the asylum and of course things pretty strange and only get weirder from their, we get a nice dose of 70's sleaze with this one, fun stuff.

THE GHOST (1963)
Director: Riccardo Freda

Cast: Barbara Steele, Peter Baldwin, Elio Jotta
Color 96 Minutes Not Rated

Synopsis: A woman and her lover murder her invalid physician husband in order to take his fortune and live their lives together. Watched by the physician’s faithful housekeeper, the two lovers begin searching for the money they believe is hidden upon the grounds of the estate. When mysterious occurrences begin to happen to the couple, they suspect that the physician’s ghost has appeared to seek revenge for their crime.

LEGACY OF BLOOD (1971)
Director: Carl Monson 

Cast: John Carradine, Rodolfo Acosta, Merry Anders
Color 83 Minutes Rated R

Synopsis: An aged millionaire passes on and leaves his four children his large fortune. According to his will, the four heirs must spend one week at his estate in order to split up the fortune. If any of the heirs leave or die before the week is out, the remaining children will receive the money and if all the heirs are gone, the servants will gain the inheritance. Once everyone has arrived at the estate and settled in, strange things begin to happen and the heirs begin to turn up dead. Who is killing them and can the remaining heirs find out before it’s too late?

THE MURDER MANSION (1972)
Director: Francisco Lara Polop

Cast: Evelyn Stewart, Analia Gade, Anna Lisa Nardi
Color 84 Minutes Not Rated

Synopsis: A young couple joins a group of travelers stranded at a fog-bound mansion to wait out the bad weather. While everyone tries to deal with each other, they must also contend with the creepy surroundings of the ancient manor and its adjoining cemetery. When the guests are beset upon by the unliving residents from the graveyard, they must try to band together in order to survive the nightmare.
DISC 3

TORMENTED (1960)
Director: Bert I. Gordon

Cast: Richard Carlson, Susan Gordon, Lugene Sanders
BW 75 Minutes Not Rated

Synopsis: A pianist dumps his singer girlfriend and becomes engaged to a young socialite from an affluent island community, which infuriates the singer. A confrontation, between the pianist and the singer at the top of a lighthouse, results in her falling to her death to the rocks below. The pianist tries to keep the death quiet while proceeding with the wedding plans but finds it impossible when the deceased singer begins to haunt him.

THE SCREAMING SKULL (1959)
Director: Alex Nicol

Cast: John Hudson, Peggy Webber, Russ Conway
BW 68 Minutes Not Rated

Synopsis: A newlywed couple returns from their honeymoon to the estate of the man’s late wife. The bride, a wealthy but extremely neurotic woman, uneasily settles into the home, walking the gardens of the estate that are meticulously kept by a strange gardener following the wishes of the deceased woman. The new lady of the house is tormented by the sudden appearance of skulls throughout the house and grounds. Is it the deceased woman coming back to drive her away or are there more sinister motives behind the skulls?
HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL (1959)
Director: William Castle

Cast: Vincent Price, Carol Ohmart, Richard Long
BW 75 Minutes Not Rated

Synopsis: Eccentric Frederick Loren (Vincent Price) and his wife have invited 5 guests to a “house” party at the mysterious mansion on Haunted Hill, which is reported to be inhabited by evil spirits. Each guest is given a small coffin holding a gun and is informed that those who remain in the house until sunrise will receive $10,000. Frights and thrills fill the night as nerves are put on edge and the guest’s secrets start coming to light.

THE TERROR (1963)
Director: Roger Corman, Francis Ford Coppola, Monte Hellman, Jack Hill, Jack Nicholson

Cast: Jack Nicholson, Boris Karloff, Sandra Knight
Color 80 Minutes Not Rated

Synopsis: In an early career appearance, Jack Nicholson stars as Lieutenant Duvalier, a nineteenth century military officer whose dreams are haunted by a mysterious beauty (Sandra Knight). Those same dreams draw him to the sinister castle of Baron Von Leppe (Boris Karloff), but is it really the Baron or an imposter? Before he knows it, he finds himself a prisoner and frantically tries to solve the mysteries that surround him. Director Roger Corman collaborated with other directors, including Francis Ford Coppola, in the filming of this horror classic.

Review:Roger Corman's The Terror is set in France in 1806. Lt. Andre Duvalier (Jack Nicholson) is a soldier in Napoleon's army who's become separated from his regiment, he awakens on a beach where he encounters a hauntingly beautiful woman named Helena (Sandra Knight) whom walks into the surf and disappears. Thinking she must have been overcome by the waves Duvalier follows her in and nearly drowns himself all the while being dive bombed from above by a vicious hawk. Losing consciousness he awakens (again) inside the villa of Katrina (Dorothy Neumann), an old witchy woman. He inquires if she knows of the young woman and she replies that he must have imagined her during his near fatal drowning.

Undeterred Andre further searches for the woman through the forest until he comes to the castle of Baron Von Leppe (Boris Karloff, Frankenstein) who reluctantly allows Andre to enter after he flashes his Napoleonic credentials. As if Nicholson and Karloff weren't enough for a ticket to this film legendary b-movie character actor Dick Miller (Bucket of Blood, Gremlins) also appears as the Baron's major domo. Inside the castle Andre happen upon a portrait of a woman whom bares an uncanny resemblance to the mysterious woman he seeks. The Baron informs him that he is mistaken as the woman in the portrait, his wife, died twenty years prior. Andre is obsessed with the young woman and continues to search for the woman's identity despite everyone's insistence that she is merely a figment of his distressed mind. He continues to encounter her but starts to wonder if he has gone mad, is she an apparition, a restless spirit, who is she really? And how does the witch Katrina figure into the story?

The acting is suitably melodramatic with pre-New Hollywood Nicholson giving a decent performance, he's definitely charming but not nearly French, fun stuff. Karloff seems a bit lost at times, he gives it a good go though but it's obvious this is just another paying gig. While the film is uneven, it's a wonder that the film is as watchable as it is given it's strange production, the sets are fantastic stuff. The towering Gothic castle, a macabre cemetery steeped in fog, creepy crypts and eerie red, green and blue lighting really go a long way towards creating an entertaining and atmosphere spookfest. It's a bit slow at times but the film's final 15 minutes are wonderfully twisted and memorable.

The legend of this film holds that once wrapping on The Raven, which starred Boris Karloff as Dr. Scarabus, Corman immediately went into production on The Terror utilizing sets from The Raven and A Haunted Place. He tossed Karloff a few extra bucks to remain on for four additional days of shooting. While Corman shot the bulk of the film with Karloff in four days the film's production went on for nine more months, making it one of the longest Corman shoots ever I would imagine. In those nine months Corman left it to a handful of aspiring directors on staff to shoot second unit, and they're notable names, too. They included star Jack Nicholson who would go onto direct the Going South among others, Francis Ford Coppola (The Godfather)who that same year would direct Dementia 13 and reportedly shot for 11 days only get 10 minutes of footage in this film, Jack Hill (Spider Baby, Coffy) and Monte Hellman (Two Lane Blacktop). Not too shabby. 

TERROR CREATURES FROM THE GRAVE (1965)
Director: Massimo Pupillo
Cast: Walter Brandi, Marilyn Mitchell, Barbara Steele
BW 82 Minutes Not Rated

Synopsis: An attorney travels to his client’s castle to conduct some business when he learns upon arriving for the meeting the client died almost a year ago. The client’s widow and daughter then tell the attorney an incredible tale of how the owner was able to revive the spirits of long-deceased plague victims and how his spirit roams the halls of the castle. Doubting their story, the attorney begins to reconsider when a rash of mysterious deaths occur at the castle. 

Review: An attorney arrives at a castle to settle the estate of its recently deceased owner. The owner's wife and daughter reveal that the man had dabblings in the occult and was able to summon the spirits of ancient plague spreaders and that his spirit is also roaming the castle and is out for revenge on those who killed him. Italian beauty Barbara Steele features in this revenge from the grave thriller. The film has a promising starts as a man is stomped to death by a horse and it does features some okay deaths by plague, burnings with acid and a bit of gore as well. The major failings of the film are that it never shows the zombie plague spreaders other than there hands. The scares come from the victims shock and reactions and it's just not very effective.