How To Make A Monster (1958)
How to Make a Monster is an American International Pictures film about and set on the lot of American International Pictures. The premise is that the studio has been sold, and the new owners are going to make some major…
Angels Die Hard (1970)
Angel, a member of a tough motorcycle gang roaming the Southwest, gets on offer from a major news magazine. In exchange for giving the magazine a big scoop by exposing the inner workings of his gang, the magazine will pay…
Girly (1970)
Fans of British horror and black comedy should definitely track down this Freddie Francis film, which was not imaginatively marketed at the time of its release and was never able to connect with its proper audience. I saw this at…
The Disembodied (1957)
Allison Hayes plays Tonda Metz, a beautiful woman living in the jungle with her much older husband (John Wengraf) who just happens to be a doctor. A group of men are making a movie in the jungles when one is…
Back From The Dead (1957)
Having lost his first wife, “Felicia” (Peggy Castle) in a tragic drowning accident 6 years earlier “Dick Anthony” (Don Haggerty) has recently remarried. However, his new wife, “Mandy Hazelton” (also played by Peggy Castle) suddenly takes ill and after a…
Daddy-O (1958)
An entertaining little potboiler with rock, drag racing, beautiful girls, and a score by John Williams (yes, THAT John Williams, apparently), DADDY-O – if not, like, the most, cats, it’s at least an above-average 1950s exploitation picture. Dick Contino is…
The Alligator People (1959)
The movie is told entirely in flashback, as a woman under the 50s wonder drug sodium pentathol remembers her troubled past for two psychiatrists (Bennett and Kennedy) during an extended hypnosis session. Paul Webster (Crane) disappears suddenly on his honeymoon,…
The Tingler (1959)
The Tingler marks the second teaming for horror’s greatest actor – Vincent Price, and horror’s greatest showman – William Castle. This film was released later in the same year that their first venture – House on Haunted Hill – was…
Attack of the Puppet People (1958)
Bert I. Gordon (BIG) stands out as one of the more successful grade-Z auteurs of 1950’s films, having made within a few short years a slew of monster/scifi ultra low budget films, all of which involve fantastical changes in the…
Monster on the Campus (1958)
In the five-year period 1953-’57, director Jack Arnold brought forth five sci-fi/horror classics that are still beloved by psychotronic-film fans today: “It Came From Outer Space” (’53), “Creature From the Black Lagoon” (’54), “Revenge of the Creature” (’55), “Tarantula” (also…
Legend of the Werewolf (1975)
Legend of the Werewolf was released by the Tyburn production company, who only released a handful of horror films during the mid-seventies. It’s obvious that the studio was trying to imitate the successful Hammer films, and indeed they’ve succeeded in…
The Human Duplicators (1965)
When a film’s best special effect is the casting of a 7 foot tall giant (with a thick, inexpressive voice) as the main villain, the film is in trouble. And when the film’s best actor is Hugh Beaumont, and it…
INDEPENDENTS’ DAY – Review
Aliens invade, this time delivering a clear ultimatum. The fate of humanity hangs in the balance as the U.S. President and citizens decide if these aliens are to be trusted …or feared. In the opening scenes of INDENDENTS’ DAY there’s…
Village of the Giants (1965)
Bert I. Gordon’s “Village of the Giants” is a humorously poor version of the “big thing make boom” movies in which a small group (Maybe 6, hardly a full village) of teens take a formula that makes them grow really…
The Skull (1965)
This was among the first vintage horror films I recall watching, but it took me this long to re-acquaint myself with it (after I had foolishly abandoned the prospect of a second viewing as part of a late-night Italian TV…
One Million B.C. (1940)
Considering how much worse this movie could have been, I’m a bit surprised, what with old Hollywood taking on prehistoric times with the well-scrubbed likes of hunky Victor Mature and nubile Carol Landis. Frankly, both look like they just stepped…
The Curse of the Cat People (1944)
A peculiar film,very much greater than the sum of its parts. It is important to read its plot line as written in wartime . The theme of a child abandoned by parents who are physically present, yet emotionally distant would…
The Spotlight is on James Cullen Bressack
“I consider myself someone who just loves making films and hopes people enjoy watching them.” James Cullen Bressack. When Bressack makes a film, he puts a huge effort into the preparation with the script, sets, locations, equipment, and general production…
Voodoo Woman (1957)
Hearing that there’s gold in them jungles Pittsburg gold digger Marilyn Blanchard, Marla English, and her boyfriend Rick Brady, Lance Fuller,are hot to get their hands on it but need help, a professional jungle guide, to get to it. That…
The Uninvited (1944)
The Uninvited has been right at the top of my must see list for years now and any film with that amount of build up is liable to disappoint; but that is not the case with this film, as The…