Upcoming October Events

The one and only true Dracula Bela Lugosi !!

Well its about to be October, Horrors big month! And if you didn't know already October 20th is Bela Lugosi`s birth day. So in celebration and in honor to one of Horrors HUGEST Icons each week I will feature at least one or two reviews of Bela Lugosi movies. If there any in particular that you would really like to get reviewed, please by all means let me know and I will review it.
Also this month I will cover many Vincent Price films as well as Hammer Horror movies. Due to it being the perfect month of the year for it there is absolutely no better time of year then October for me to watch these good movies from Hammer, Universal, Boris Karloff, Vincent Price, Bela Lugosi of course, as well as the many other classic icons of the Golden age of Horror.

Enjoy!

The Last Exorcism (2010)

Genre: Horror, Possession


Source: Theatrical Release


Grade: A


Finally a movie that returns horror to it roots! Were it focuses on making you actually scared with different types of suspense, shock, and just a flat out scary atmospheres. As opposed to relying on gore and how nasty a person can be mutilated styles of horror that seem to dominate the Box Office these days. But the bad thing is, I can`t hate Eli Roth anymore after watching this movie, him being a producer to this movie, proves to me that he isn`t out ruin horror with his horrible Hostel movies like I thought he was.

Boy, this had a very unique and original story. Its about this exorcist who actually doest even believe in possession and thinks that people who are possessed arn`t really possessed they just think they are. So he does  very elaborate "mock" exorcism`s that cure the people, fore they think that he has released them of there daemons and cured them of there possession. Pretty awesome premise if you ask me, definitely rivals even that of this years Shutter Island in  uniqueness if you ask me.But the movie goes on to explain that this pastor will perform his last exorcism, this time bringing a film a film crew along to help capture his theory of possession on film. The only thing is this possession is real, and filled with bone chilling horror, super starling images, and crazy twists in the story.

Now more things that contribute to the movies pure horror quality was that very little to no CGI used at all, so all the crazy twists and bends that girl does were pure authentic! Since she is double jointed, she was able to perform all those crazy stunts. And wow the facial expressions she makes are incredible, there were so many different expressions she makes, it was flat out scary and amazing. Ashely Bell, the actress who played this possessed girl, was an amazing actress overall in this movie who really showed us what REAL acting is!
   This movie featured a really unknown small name actors, which in my opinion really made it even more special. Proving that movies especially horror do not have to rely on having big name actors and actresses to produce good quality movies. This being a perfect example, the main character who was excellently played by Patrick Fabian who other than appearing in a couple popular TV shows like Burn Notice and Boston Legal, hasn`t really been in any major movie, other than this one, Further proving my point even further.

I liked its direction to, it was another documentary point of view type of movie, which seems to have become very popular thanks to movies like "The Blair Witch Project", "Cloverfield", and "District 9". But this was another very successful take on that style of film. It gave it atmoshere that was very dark and believable, as well getting you more engaged in the whole movie.
Then the movies location was great, I loved the setting of the old south.Which was in a small town yet incredibly eerie town, that was full of run down creepy looking buildings. Then sets were just as good, chilling and eerie,just like the house that most of the events in the movie take place in, chilling. Though the only thing about this movie really was the ending, it was a tad predictably, but for some reason it still freaked me out even though I suspected what was already going to happen. Now don`t get me wrong, there are plenty of completely unexpected twists you will not once see coming, that happen thorough out the movie actually.

In conclusion you should definitely watch this movie. It`s the movie that horrors needed to prove, that it doesn't need to rely on blood, guts, CGI, and some guy in a weird mask to produce real fear. Plus this movies packed with amazing scenes, I won`t point out any of them though because it would just be spoiling crucial moments in the movie. So this is just a good horror flick, that I highly recommend to anyone reading this.

Legacy of Blood (1971)

Genre: Horror, Serial Killer, Survival

Source: My Own Collection

Grade: D



Horrible dialogue, a terrible muddy color, unrelatable weird characters, sluggish pace, and a painfully predictable ending. So does this movie have anything good about it? You might ask, well the answers not really. This movie offers and boosts a good basic synopsis, but delivers nothing but bitter disappointment.
Well you might be familiar with this type of premise, a old rich,but not very loved family member dies. So all the ungrateful  relatives come over to collect their inheritance, the only catch is they all have to stay the night in his "creepy" mansion and  stay the whole time without leaving in order to collect their inheritance. Whilst at the same time their staying in the mansion someone is killing them all off in brutal ways I might. So not a bad story, but its completely butchered with terrible writing and sluggish slow pacing that makes the movie not only really bad, but really boring. Then to make it even worse you have a bunch of unrelatable, unsympathetic, weird characters. I`ll start with the fat Elvis impersonator, he was this fat guy who had the exact same hair as Elvis and wore like the same flashy cloths  Elvis would wear, and to top it off he always wore sunglasses and stupid attitude. Then there were two guys how looked so alike I thought they were the same people for about a 3rd of the movie, one of them though was this WW2 veteran who bragged about how he killed Nazis and made them into lamps. A women who was on about ever drug known to earth, Their was this doctor who had this noticeably odd looking face. And finally you had this shrew faced cop who obviously wasn't very bright. But do not fear there is but one likable, cool character and that's the old family member who died, unfortunately most of his scenes are flashbacks, and gets very, very little screen time. But his character is just this warped, psycho path, whose played by the legendary horror icon John Carradine.
Though one good thing this movie was it offered some pretty cool deaths, for example fat Elvis gets his head eaten off by pet piranhas, another guy gets locked in a room of bees were he`s mutilated by their stingers, and a cop`s killed brutally with an axe. Those kills among others are what make the movie just a little more bearable to watch. As for the climatic "twist ending, I put twist in quotations because its the most obvious ending ever, within the first two seconds you already have a clear idea of who the mysterious killer was or at least I did. Was among one of the most predictable endings on the planet, except for the creepy whack soundtrack that plays at the end during the credits that was weird, you`ll see what I mean if you watch it.

Now the cast minus John Carradine were nothing special and put on overall forgettable performances. I read though this was Rodolfo Acosta last movie he appeared in, The only movie other than this one that I remember him in was 1953s "Hondo". In this he played the role of the cop, not such a great final performance sadly. Buts very disappointing that John Carradines character was so small and consists of mostly flashbacks, he was seriously the only good thing about the movie other than some of the cool kills. Next the awful color they used was well...awful! It had this nasty muddy color, it was poor mans Technicolor basically.

So my final thoughts of this movie are basically it stinks. But its not all lost, it has some scenes and parts of enjoyability but thats really it. The rest is a dull and rather stupid affair, that isn't very well worth the watch. And John Carradines small role doesn't help either. Another reason i`m so disappointed in this movie is because I was actually looking forward to watching it, I thought it would be a great horror flick. Sadly I was dead wrong I was greeted with another crappy pointless 70s movie.

Witchville (2010)

Genre: Fantasy, Dark Fantasy

Source: TV ( SyFy Channel)

Grade: B


Knights, Ninjas, and Witches, What more do want from a SyFy channel original movie? Well depending on your taste and preference it doesn't get much better then this. Ah I do remember when I first read about this movie before it came out, and Immediately afterward thinking to myself "well this should kick ass, but probably isn't going to be nominated for any emmy awards.

The story is basically a blend of Harry Potter, Star Wars, and a bunch of other SyFy channel movies combined into one. Though its not a amazing movie and a bit weird, its really not that bad in fact its pretty cool actually. Anyways the movies pretty simple, its about these Witch Queen and her army of witches, laying waste to this kingdom and cause nothing but plague and devastation to the people and the land. So a prince, a witch hunter, and a band of some of the elite kings warriors, plus some ninjas later on, go to bring down the witch queen which will cause her armies to fall, saving the kingdom.
  The film also provided some cool characters to entertain you with, they all were pretty well unique, you had your radical witch hunter, huge fighter dudes, slick ninjas, and a old hoagie witch queen. It had a great pace never got too slow plus it keept me constantly entertained. As for the fights and battles they were all pretty cool a little cheesy sometimes but overall not bad. Except for the end battle it started off being super awesome and epic, but sadly it got drawn out way too long and started to be just flat out lame. All the swords and weapons were pretty authentic looking and really well designed. I was impressed and surprised, though sadly I cant say the same about the costumes. The costumes on a lot of characters like the witch queen`s looked like a bunch of cheap plastic costumes you could pick up at a discount halloween store. Except for the sexy blond witch (who was like the queen witches daughter ) her costume looked pretty cool, and then the regular soldiers in the kings army had awesome costumes, they looked like the Rangers from "Lord of The Rings". And finally the movies ending was alright, but it left it WIDE open for a sequel, and no sooner do I find out that sometime next year a sequel called "Witchville 2: Revenge of Darkness" will be released.

Well you know overall I think its safe to say I enjoyed Witchville for what it was worth and meant to be. It was a dark fantasy movie with some flat out weird add ins but its not at all crap. So if your a fan of SyFy channel movies, Fantasy movies, or just plain weird movies "Witchville" is definitely recommended for you! oh, and not to mention it had a pretty tight soundtrack.

The Killer Shrews (1959)

Genre: Horror, Monster, Mad Scientist

Source: My Own Collection

Grade: A+

When I first picked this movie out to watch I thought it was going to either really suck, or at the most be just OK. I never once suspected this movie would be Freaken Amazing! It was a truly classic monster movie, pretty much everything about it was perfect. I don't regret one minute of watching this truly amazing monster flick. And no I am not at all being sarcastic, I truly do love this movie.

The story is a pretty well known style of 50s monster movie, if you know what I mean. Except its much more thought out and way more well done than many other 50s monster movies, like for example its 10x better in quality than "The Giant Gila Monster" and "Attack of the Giant Leeches". Reason being is this movie has such a great creepy atmosphere and is full of great suspense, it focuses on the horror and the monsters as opposed to a the drama of the characters or other random things, that the two movies I mentioned above made the mistake of doing.
Anyways the films basic synopsis is the main character and his assistant sail out to a remote island (somewhere near Alaska I think based on the terrain) to deliver supplies to the scientist's living and operating there, not knowing that the scientist's have been conducting strange experiments on shrews, that have mutated them and made them extremely hostile and very big. And unfortunately for our main characters a  hurricane blows in stranding everyone on the island with all these mutant shrews, who by the hour keep getting more savage and keep gaining more "ability's" such as being able to see in the daylight which regular shrews aren't able to do and best of all if you just get bit once by these critters your dead, because their bites contain an extreme amount of poison. Plus they are a truly scary looking bunch of creatures. Though an interesting thing I read was, that the way they created  these creatures for the movie was the filmmakers just shaved a bunch of coon dogs.
This movie is also packed with great scenes, like when this one scientist gets bit by a shrew he writes down all the feelings he experiences up until his death, one symptom he wrote was "chilling" and then all scenes were people get devoured by these things were very freaky. And of course all the action used throughout the movie were just plain entertaining. But what`s most entertaining of all might have been the finale, its hard to explain really what they did, you would really have to watch it to understand it. But basically they make this tank/armor thing out of trash cans and fight their way to beach and the safety of the boat through all the killer shrews, I thought it was pretty cool.


The cast was pretty well made up you had James Best as the main character and hero of the movie, fans of "The Dukes of Hazard" will probably recognize that name, as the sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane from the show. Then there was Ingrid Goude as the female protagonist, she was actually 1957s Miss. Universe. As for the rest of the cast they were all good, bringing on some very unique and different characters through there performances.
So in conclusion I would say this is a must see movie, one of my favorite 50s monster flicks. Everything from its creepy atmosphere, awesome terrifying suspense and  flat out scary looking monster shrews make this up as a grade A+ movie.
 

A Bucket of Blood (1959)

Genre: Horror, Comedic, Serial Killer

Source: My own Collection

Grade: A


So last night I decided to dig around through my own DVDs for something to watch and review,and there I found one of my Roger Corman DVDs budget packs that I had bought a few mouths prier,which countained four of his movies on it, so A Bucket of Blood being one of them I  thought well this should be interesting, plus it had a short running time 66 minutes to be exact,the short running time appealed to me only because I was tired that night, and I`d have to say I really felt like watching a good ole Roger Corman movie.

Well The plot was really not too bad, especially for a dark comedy. The film is about a man who kills his landlady's cat by accident . he then covers the cats corpse in clay and passes it off as his own artwork.with fame he begins to kill people and use their body's in various clay sculptures.
I also noted this had a strong influence from 1953s House of Wax, which starred Vincent Price who later became a favorite of Roger Cormans.
The film had many great colorful characters in it such as Walter Miller the crazy "artist" and bus boy who turns homicidal that was played perfectly by Dick Miller, next there was Brock a heavily bearded poet who drew most of his humor from Irony, and then there was Leonard Walters stern artsy boss who was played by Roger Corman regular Antony Carbone ( Last Women on Earth, Creature from Haunted Sea).

So as you may have noticed that this film had a really decent cast. Dick Miller in his only staring role, ever other role hes done has been a supporting role, sadly. Leonard Walters as jerkish, mean art dealer/ coffee house owner, and then was Julian Burton as the bearded poet, who was a pretty funny character and well played by Burton, the only other thing of significance that he was in was Cormans "Masque of The Red Death", sad he was an impressive actor.
Ah and then there was the cheap sets, that were reused a year later in Cormans "Little Shop of Horrors", which should really not come as a surprise to anyone even remotely familiar with Roger Corman and his film making techniques.  And The music soundtrack was completely composed of saxophone music, at first that might sound weird, but it actually was really fitting.

So all in all I`d have to say I thoroughly enjoyed this movie, i`ts defiantly one of my new favorite Corman movies. Everything from its dark humor, gritty murders, and colorful characters Bucket of Blood is a thoroughly enjoyable movie that I would recommend to anyone interested in this type of movie.

Edge Of Sanity (1989)

Genre: Horror, Serial Killer

Source: Netflix (Instant View)

Grade: A



Well ever since the day I found out this movie existed thanks to the blog Horror Movie A Day Blog spot I have been really wanting to watch it. Why?, well for a variety of reasons first being I`m a huge fan of Jack the Ripper and I'm trying to watch all movies based on him, Second I`m a big fan of Anthony Perkins, hes one of my favorite actors, and Third I love movies like this that are set in the the bleak 19th century London/England. Plus I realised this had a unique awesome blend it blended the Dr.Jekyll and Mr.Hyde story with the cases of Jack the Ripper. Well did it meet my expectations? Well kind of, it just came up short so in a nutshell I think it could have been a little better.

Starting with its story, the movie had a excellent plot and story, the blending of the Jekyll/Hyde story with Jack the Ripper was unique. The Introduction was literally crazy and pretty well done a great attention getter. And how he becomes the ripper was... well interesting it was pretty much he got high on stuff that looked just like cocaine. And when he was the ripper the story become extremely dark and sleazy. As he goes around London at night mutilating prostitutes. That was another thing the movie had a excellent atmosphere, incredibly dark and bleak perfect for the awesome setting of a foggy, dark London set horror film. And as for the characters Perkins character jack the ripper was awesome just the epitome of vileness, and then the Henry Jekyll side was mild mannered doctor so just like the book basically. The of the characters were just as colorful the prostitutes, the brothel owner lady, and the Inspector who was a super minor character as one might not have expected.

The cast was pretty good I wasn't very familiar with anyone other than Anthony Perkins who was excellently cast for the character, though it was quite similar to his Norman Bates character in many ways. And Sadly this was one of his last films, for he would die of AIDS very soon. But the rest of the cast werent and made some intresting and very colorful charecters. The direction and production values were off the wall good, the sets were authentic and deatailed, the lighting was beautiful, and of course all the costumes and make up were great and so creepy.

So all together this was a good movie I enjoyed, but I felt it could have been done alittle better, like giving more charecters develpoment and focus because I noticed they really foucused mostly on Perkins charecter. But it really wasnt too bad fans of the Jack the Ripper cases and The Doctor Jekkyl/ Mr.Hyde novel (which by the way I have read) should definatly take a look at this movie.

Merlin and The Book of Beasts (2009)

Genre: Fantasy, Arthurian Legends

Source: Netflix (Instant View)

 Grade: B-

You Know contrary to many peoples opinions on this movie I thought it had a really cool and intellectual story and premise. Those post King Arthur's death movies have some great potential going for them like this one and can be really good or they can really, really suck. Were would I place this one? well I would put it right in between crappy and really good. It was really just OK, kind of mediocre unfortunately. But it has enough edge to just miss a forgettable reputation and ends up being a little memorable.


Well as far as the story goes its pretty straight forward, Mordred's son, has taken over Camelot and placed it under a dark tyranny role of course, so its up to King Arthur's daughter to find Merlin and have him help her regain the kingdom. The whole thing is kind of predictable, but you know what its still kind of enjoyable. But i`ll begin with the pros of the movie first off it did incorporate one knight from the original round table and it was Sir.Galahad, to be exact the rest were apparently dead. Their was a couple good fights throughout the movie, but no full scale battles or anything along those lines, because this movie had a super small cast it had the equivalent of a plays size of a cast, at most i`d say their was only two dozen cast members. And also all the characters in the movie were not bland and boring, they were all pretty cool likable characters.
Now the Cons of the movie, one big thing that bothered me was it had virtually no background story about how, when, and why all the Knights of the Round Table other than Sir. Galahad were dead. I really wanted to know and was really curious and unfortunately it never comes straight out with the answer. Then it didn't stay close enough to traditional Arthurian legends like I would have liked, rather it incorporates randomly Greek mythology creatures like Medusa`s, which just simply didn't fit and ended up being super random. So I really don`t think the story was nearly half as good as it could have been.

As for the cast, James Callis who played Merlin was perfect, their wasn't a better person they could have chosen then him, everything from his voice, and his appearance made him perfect for the role. The rest of the cast was alright Donald Adams who played Sir. Galhad was also well chosen, he gave a great portal of a veteran knight of a once glorious power, which was now in shambles. So overall really well produced/casted movie, especially for a SyFy channel original movie. The movie provided a pretty tight soundtrack, as well as some pretty cool costumes. Then the sets were great, they were dark, and authentic looking. Not some cheap Ed Wood status sets.

Well i`ll finish this up by saying overall I thought it was a well directed movie and with some great artistic value. But it just wasn't as good as it could have been, so I was really disappointed in it. It strayed from the traditional Arthurian legends just a little to much for me and didn't provide a detailed enough background story. Plus the use of Greek mythology was a terrible choice, it just ended up being really random, simply didn't fit. But then on the other hand it had a pretty cool story, good direction, and a couple great fights so I'm a little torn on my decision on the movies quality. But I`ll have to say I overall disappointed in the movie, and believe it could have been much, much better.

The Crazies (1973)

Genre: Horror, Thriller

Source: Netfilx ( Instant View)

Grade: A

Well for starters I have not seen the remake of this movie yet, in fact I made a huge point about not watching it before I somehow got my hands on the original 70s one by George Rommero, he directed this one and wrote it, as well as serving as one of the executive producers of the remake that came out this year. Well first thing I noticed was this movie was strikingly smilier to Night of The Living Dead (which we all know he directed like five years earlier) not story wise, but in a atmospheric way, it had that, just chaotic, raw, and far from happy atmosphere that Night of the Living Dead had, but that's good it made the movie even more better.

So to put it straight this movie is not a zombie movie! Many people like myself admittedly thought at first glance it was going to a zombie. But as a matter a fact its not, its about this military plane that crashes in a Pennsylvania town and leaks all its biological warfare weapons into the water. Resulting in everyone who drinks the water is basically turned crazy. But what makes it unique is the disease has different effects on people, like for example some are madly violent, others are just harmlessly crazy, while others are sinister and the just go off an kill people, oh and not mention the disease is highly contagious. So the army gets involved quarantines the town, but for some reason everyone feels they have to resist, so Therese tons of chaos and violence. And one of the moments that makes this movie truly golden was when the scientist with the cure, gets killed and the cure is destroyed with him, because of a bunch of idiot army guys. So really good and original story with a great dark tone.

The characters were ok, it was played by a bunch of unknown actors, who to this day don't have a lot of screen credit at least that's according to IMDB.com. But for being fairly new, inexperienced actors they were all right, nothing stand outishly bad. Now one thing I really enjoyed was the costumes the army guys wore they were white jump suit with freaky looking gas masks. Those gas masks were awesome, they were just so fitting for the movie, if you know what I mean.

Now I know some people might argue that this movie leans more toward a action/drama type of movie, which may be true in a sense. But its no doubt in my mind a horror movie that just contains a bunch of gun fights, my favorite being the one near the end were the infected guy fights a dozen army people in the forest, it was awesome.But in conclusion id have to say this was a another great Romero horror film with a another great ending kind of like Night Of The Living Deads ending, which is far from happy. So with great direction, and dozens of awesome scenes like when the priest goes crazy and lights himself on fire infront a bunch of people and an army guy just shoots him in the head, a crazy old lady leazurly stabs a army guy to death with a knitting needle and does it so unfazed she doesn't even seem crazy, and then the tragic ending were the guys pregnant wife gets shoot by accident. The Crazies is a grade horror flick that i`d highly recommend for all fans of the genre.

The Incredible Petrified World (1957)

Genre: Science Fiction, Exploration

 Source: My Own Collection

  Grade: D

  Well it was a foggy morning and I was in a real mood to watch a old science fiction movie, and conveniently I had just picked up a 50 pack of horror movies called Legends Of Horror the other day, and for some reason this science fiction movie as well as a couple others like Christopher Lees END OF THE WORLD (which really was a poorly done movie anyways, but that's a topic for another day) was thrown in with all the horror movies. anyways I picked this movie out of the lot saw it starred the legendary John Carradine and it had a super cool theritical poster on its page on Wikipedia. so what could go wrong?

Well everything did, the writing lagged logic and was random, It completely lacked all adventure and the thrill you'd expect from a science fiction movie, the intro was random as heck, and John Carradines role was very minimal. So it was a complete disappointment, and was utterly dull. So starting with the movies Intro it was a random stock footage documentary talking about fish bone structure, which really had nothing to do with the movie at all. And then the interesting thing was this movie had a great plot,"a group of scientists get lost under the sea and end up in a strange world" that was the movies synopsis,and now your probably thinking ''not bad, this guy just doesn't appreciate sci-fi ", but really the great plot is ruined with horrible writing, seriously this movie is completely void of any adventure what so ever. even when there in the "petrified world" all it is a cave and a crazy guy living there. No dinosaurs, no giant squids, no savages, no anything awesome. Just a bunch of bland characters arguing and a annoying girl on her period apparently almost getting raped by the crazy bearded guy who lives there, and his reason for being there lacks logic and completely contradicts the story(they are miles under the ocean,and this guy some how got here from a shipwreck, on a raft?). And John Carradines character is basically a oceanographer who plans everything a the exploration, the equipment, and all the engineering stuff, he just doesn't participate in it, so he lacks a lot of screen time.

The overall cast was so-so other than John Carradine they all seemed a Little bland and uninteresting. I have a feeling though this had something to do to the movies minimal budget, this probably had a budget with the equivalent of a Ed Wood movie. So overall this movie turned out to be a huge disappointment and rather dull affair. I really don't recommend this to anyone unless their a John Carradine enthusiast or a big time 50s sci-fi movie fan, but don't go expecting it to be a 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA or anything remotely as good.

The Ghoul (1933)

Genre: Horror, Psychological, Occult

Source: Netflix ( Instant View)

Grade: B-

   Well this was just one of those movies that sounded really good, had some good things going for it, and had an amazing cast, including Boris Karloff, Cedric Hardwicke, and Ernest Thesiger. But alas it was not nearly as good as it could have been. I was thoroughly disappointed with it, probably because I had made it out to be a really good movie in mind, but when I watched it was not anything like I thought it would be. Funny how that seems to happen to me more often now, were i`m always disappointed with a movie I think is going to be good like this one, and then movies that I think are going to blow I end up really liking like 1959s The Killer Shrews. 

      Well starting with the movies story, it was unbenosed to me actually based on a novel by Frank King, but was extremly loosely based, so more than doing a adaption it kind of just borrowed ideas and turned it into its own thing. I have not read the novel, which you will, see I dont like to watch a movie based on a book or remake of another movie,Without first reading the book or watching the original movie. Anyways having not read the book I went on watching this movie with the expectaion of it being a more superatural or mummyish kind of movie, and honestly that would be freaken awesome. But alas it wasnt, Instead it was a more psycholigical crime drama, murder, and random family problems kinda movie, not what I was expecting at all. So yeah naturally I was dissapointed, it didnt foucus nearly enough on Boris Karloff he was actually a minor character really eventhough he was top billed. But rather it foucused on a group of people mostly made up of dickering rlatives, a treaturious sinister butler, a "seki" or mock vicar really. And what made it annoying that the foucus was on the wrong people was it was bland and really slow making the movie incredibly unepalling. Though there was some good stuff that makes this movie worth watching. Like the climax to the ending saved it from the mediocre status that it was dangerously bordering on already, WARNING: SPOILERS, the whole idea that Karloff wasnt dead and had been buried alive was pretty cool and unexpected. Also Ernest Theasingers charecter was really crazy, him and karloff (when he was on screen) were what made this movie, without them, it would have been forgotten and have faded into obscerity already.

        Now as for the Cast, that was probably the best thing about the whole movie, it was excellently produced and well casted. Starting with Boris Karloff, this was a great role for him. No one could have done it better than him, especially at the beginng were hes geting really mad at his butler while hes moments away from death, just how he looked was crazy it was unnaturally scary, his skin was old looking and his eyes were just crazy looking! so great performance overall from Boris Karloff, its just a shame he didnt have more screen time.
Then there was Ernest Thesiger playing Karloffs butler. Yet another excellent cast, he was a sinster, scary looking, and rather decieveing charecter and thanks to Thesiger it was put to its maxium potential. The other movie I rember Ernest Thesinger from was Bride of Frankenstein, which his role in that movie was just so differnet from his role in this movie. And that just further proves my point that he is a great actor. As for the rest of the cast Cedric Hardwicke, Dorothy Hyson, and Ralph Richardson (in his first ever movie role) etc. they werent bad, just didnt leave as deep a dramatic impact as Thesinger and Karloff did.

Now the films direction was very dark and dim light which at times could be annoying because you couldn't see a damn thing! But the direction really wasn't to bad it basically delivered the right kind of atmosphere. The movies set was also pretty nice, it looked authentic and a bit like a plays set, which was good really. And I was really happy with the movies setting which was a 19th Century London.

So altogether this wasn't a bad movie at all, it was just disappointing for me, I really thought it was going to be better. And the terribly slow pace and lack of screen time for Karloff didn't help either.But fans of Karloff and Classic Horror alike should check this movie out, it may have a slow pace and all but its not a total loss. So good movie just could definitely have been  better.

Welcome To Nightmare Castle Blogspot

Hello and welcome to the Nightmare Castle blog were I review Horror, Science Fiction, and Fantasy movies New and Old. I will also cover a wide variety of articles discussing these types of movies, Such as analyzing contributions made by film directors, writers, and actors alike, and the impacts and significances movies have made to the genre. I will try to keep the blog updated and flowing with fresh posts as much as I can, but due to school and sports, I might lag in my frequency of posts sometimes.

Also to my readers I highly recommend commenting on posts and give your views. And I am open to suggestions for movies to watch and review as long as they pertain to the genres. Questions about the movies are also welcome. And my reviews may contain spoilers, though I do try to avoid it the best I can.

And lastly I`ll point out the format of my reviews at is the movies Title and Date in parentheses. Under that will be the movies Main Genre (ex. Horror, Science Fiction) followed by its Subgenre (ex. Werewolf, Alien Invasion, Dark Fantasy). Then under that will be the movies Source which is how I viewed/watched the movie(ex. Theatrical Release, My Own Collection) And finally under that will be my Grade of the movie. I use the school system of rating movies which is from A+ to a F.
When a movies in the A rating that means its a Awesome movie, that is highly memorable and very recommended. When its in the B range its still a great movie just not a A movie, it could basically use some improvement. When its in the C range the movies just OK. It usually means the movie is mediocre and overall just alright. But at the same time not being a horrible movie just not a great movie, its in the middle. Next there is the D range generally these movies are just bad and most likely boring. They are also generally movies I look forward to seeing and am met with the bitter taste of disappointment. And finally there is the notorious F range these movies are just crap, there is just nothing good about them what so ever. The plot is garbage, the cast is terrible or bland, and/or the overall writing is just pathetic. These movies I will recommend to no one.

So there you have it, the general outline of my blog and all its topics, Enjoy!