Santa Claws (1996)
John Russo nearly hits rock bottom with this disastrous cheapie misleadingly promoted as another killer-dressed-as-Santa-Claus-movie. Raven Quinn (Debbie Rochon) not only has to deal with a cheating husband (John Mowod) but also with trouble from women’s groups and her in-laws…
X: The Unknown (1956)
Hammer Films was known mostly for its horror outings like the Dracula, Frankenstein and Mummy films. It did, however, score well in the science fiction department with such hits as the Quatermass series, “The Lost Continent” and this movie. The…
Ladies and Gentlemen, the Fabulous Stains (1982)
I was fortunate enough to see Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains in 1983 during its VERY limited “art-house” run at Western Washington University. It played along with other punk rock classics such as Lech Kowalski’s D.O.A. and Penelope Spheeris’s…
Dark Star (1974)
“Don’t give me any of that intelligent life stuff, give me something I can blow up!” Doolittle. Lieutenant Doolittle is in charge of ‘Dark Star’, a ship on a lonely mission to destroy unstable planets in systems targeted for colonisation….
Screamers (1995)
In the future the mining planet Sirius 6B has become a war zone with two warring factions. The ground is patrolled by underground robots called Screamers who target anyone not wearing identifying marks. One side receives a plea for peace…
Frankenstein Created Woman (1967)
In a small town in a vaguely defined area of middle Europe, Baron Frankenstein and his muddle headed assistant Dr Hertz (Thorley Walters)succeed in isolating the soul from the human body and transplanting it into another. When Frankenstein’s young assistant…
Plunder Road (1957)
That 10-minute opening is a real grabber. I’m still wondering whether the driving rain was real or not. If so, it must have made filming difficult as heck. The problem with an opening like this is once you’ve hit the…
Manos: The Rise of Torgo
David Roy wrote and directed several shorts including Kacie Wants Her Bike, The Anthropologist, and Kacie’s Got a Gun, and now he’s directed and wrote his first feature film, “Manos” The Rise of Torgo which is the prequel to the…
Invaders from Mars (1986)
Title: Invaders from Mars (1986) Director: Tobe Hooper (the man!) Cast: Karen Black, Hunter Carson, James Karen Review: Tobe Hoopers resume includes many great films (Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Lifeforce, Poltergeist)…and many so-so ones (Spontanious Combustion, The Mangler). Invaders from Mars…
The Revenge of Frankenstein (1958)
Released just a year after “Curse of Frankenstein,” “Revenge of Frankenstein” chronicles the further adventures of Baron Victor Frankenstein (Peter Cushing) as he miraculously escapes the guillotine (his fate at the end of the first movie), relocates to a new…
The Abominable Snowman (1957)
In the fifties, Hammer produced a few highly noted films that were scripted by Nigel Kneale and directed by Val Guest. Among them were QUATERMASS EXPERIMENT and the highly disturbing QUATERMASS II (a.k.a. ENEMY FROM SPACE). Though produced on low…
Enemy from Space (1957)
This was one of the first of its kind; a subtlety scary vision of a secret alien takeover. X-FILES may owe a debt to this low-budget, but nevertheless effective film of the powers-that-be who are conspiring with the invaders, and…
Lifeforce (1985)
I think Lifeforce makes a very strong case for being the best “bad” movie ever made. The film is, after all, ludicrously plotted, but that actually adds to the unique charms this movie has, which actually entertains for all the…
Panic in Year Zero! (1962)
One’s expectations for an early-60s B movie from American International Pictures are never very high. But this movie was a surprisingly well thought out & thought-provoking story. Just as a family has left LA for a vacation in the woods,…
Dracula: Prince of Darkness (1966)
Dracula: Prince of Darkness begins with a recap of the end of Dracula (1958) as Peter Cushing’s Van Helsing defeats Christopher Lee’s Dracula. A spoken narration informs us that “after a reign of terror spanning more than a century the…
Tarantula (1955)
As someone who’ll kill a common house spider on sight, and as a resident of one of the the cooler regions of the United States, I try to watch the fifties sci-fi movie Tarantula whenever it’s on. Maybe I do…
Bloodsucka Jones – Available for Rent and Purchase
David’s new girlfriend turns out to be a vampire so he enlists the help of the 10th best vampire hunter in his zipcode and legendary badass Bloodsucka Jones to fight off an army of evil preppy vampires. https://www.facebook.com/BloodsuckaJonesTheMovie [youtube_sc…
Dead & Buried (1981)
“Dead & Buried” is a classic horror “small town with a secret” film, this time concerning a tiny little seaside town called Potter’s Bluff. The formerly peaceful community has suddenly been plagued by a series of grisly murders for the…
The Day the Earth Caught Fire (1961)
What a pleasure to return, by chance, to an age of cinema when visual trickery, emaciated plot and stereotypical non-characters were not the norm! Scanning the shelves at the local video store recently, I was beginning to get that insidious,…
The B Movie Torchbearer: Celebrating Jim Wynorski
I was walking on a Palm Springs golf course picking lemons with my young son when I first spoke to Jim Wynorski. Nine months later I was producing the Indiana portion of a made for SYFY movie of the week….