House Of Wax (1953)

Genre: Horror, Revenge, Serial Killer

Source: My Own Collection

Grade: A+



 House of Wax has always been one of my all time favorite Vincent Price movies. It also is also one of the few remakes that has turned out better then the original. In case you didnt know House Of Wax actually a remake of a 1933 movie starring Lionel Atwill (Son Of Frankenstein) and Fay Wray (King Kong). The original that this is based on is very good, infact its my favorite Lionel Atwill movie. But I just really prefer this one over it.

The films story is set in a very early 20th Century New York, a unique setting that I found very fitting for the film. I also must praise the make up artist who designed Vincent Prices characters look, it was incredibly awesome and very creepy to look at. Same goes for the outfit he wore throughout the movie when hes killing people, creepy and looked just ultra awesome!
  
 The films story is masterpiece, the concept is freaky as heck. Its also a very original story that, in my opinion improved on the original story from 1933. like for example the films Intro was spectacular! It admittedly dives into the story and sets a great tone, that carry`s on throughout the movie. Then of course I love films finale, Prices character takes on like ten cops before hes defeated. I must admit though I was hoping he would escape from the detective and all the police. Which is another thing about the movie I`d like to touch upon, Price was such a sympathetic villain.  I truly sympathized  his character and hoped he would get away even though he killed all those people, though I think it was prices performance that made that character that way.

  So overall  this was a great film. The performance of Vincent Price was one of his best and it was also fun to see a young Charles Bronson play the mute assistant Igor. The story was a masterpiece and overall well crafted movie with a perfect setting and stupendous Make Up and Costume Design. I could not recommended this movie highly enough, its that great!
    

Scared To Death (1947)

Genre: Horror, Psychological, Revenge

Source: My Own Collection

Grade: A


     Now this movie provided many unique experiences such as;  being the only color film that stared Bela Lugosi, the film was told through the point of view of the already dead protagonist (you`ll see what I mean when you watch it), and it was one of the only if not only movie to have BOTH George Zucco and Bela Lugosi star in together.

      I remember the first time I read about this movie and how it was filmed in Color and starred Bela. Thinking at first that that was way to good to be true I went on a mission to find it. Which really didn`t take to long since the films in Public Domain I was able to pick it up at "Big Lots" on a budget pack for an extremely cheap price! I believe it was only one dollar for a four pack of Bela Lugosi films, so 25 Cents was all I really paid for to acquire this movie. Which I must say it was completely worth it!
      The films story is a bit unique and gets rather odd at times. Don`t get me wrong now, it was still a a pretty good movie. But I cant understand why they decided to have the entire movie told from the point of view of a dead girl, who wasn`t even a good character. She was a complete bitch in the whole movie and was made completely unsympathetic. The way she dies though was really sweet, shes you guessed it Scared To Death! I won`t say how, but its pretty cool the way the "murderer" does it.
         The only other thing other then this movie being in color, that stands out is the All-Star Cast. Its got the great George Zucco as the mysterious doctor, though the role was supposed to go to Lionel Atwill but he was quite literally dieing, so Zucco was called in to replace him. Which I think worked out rather well because Zucco was perfect for the role and his style of acting is very similar to Lionel Atwills anyways. Next you had good old Bela Lugosi as the mysterious magician, he brought some great sinister traits to that character that only Lugosi would be able to do. You even get  to hear him scold his midget assistant in his native language of Hungarian for about a second.  Now that Midget also has a track record of appearing in many great horror films such as Tod Browings "Freaks" and also starred with Lugosi in two other horror pictures other than this one such as "The Corpse Vanishes" and the very funny Horror Comedy "Spooks Run Wild". To this day he is my all time favorite midget actors.

All around this was a fun movie to watch. I loved seeing all these great actors like Bela Lugosi, George Zucco, and the midget actor Angelo Rossitto all in the same movie. This was a very good "who done it and why is everyone acting so weird" style mystery horror movie. Of course its not Bela Lugosi`s best movie, but it is his only movie that he stared in that has color, that alone should make this movie worth checking out for all the Lugosi fans who have not yet seen it.

Season Of The Witch (2011)

Genre: Horror / Dark Fantasy

Source: Theretical Release

Grade: A+

I have been following and anticipating this movie for over a year now.Infact I remember when it was originally going to premiere back in March of 2010, but was pulled for a variety of reasons like they wanted to add some new scenes and they didn't want to release it the same weekend that "Repo Men" was being released. So it just disappeared and did not announce a new release date until freaken November, I mean seriously their was pretty much no status update on this movie between March and November.But alas my wait was not in vain because this movie was really awesome!

  Anyways the films story in my opinion was really cool and original. I`m not going to go into detail about it, but really the basic plot of the movie is Cage is a conflicted knight who must transport a mysterious (and sexy,I might add) Witch to the Monks of Severack. Though in order to get their they must go through some dark, creepy woods and treacherous terrain . So now the entire middle of the film consist`s of them traveling and all the action that takes place along the way. In fact their are some really great scenes of suspense during this part of the movie like when they have to cross a creaky rotting bridge, while I watched this part I knew in my head that Cages character wasn`t  going to die, but I couldn`t say the same for the rest of the characters. The action scenes in this movie were also really awesome, like for example the intro scene were these monks execute these girls suspected of being "witches" was such a great scary scene, that reminded me of such movies movies as "Witchfinder General" and "Twins of Evil" in terms of awesome religious fanatical witch killings. In fact i`d have to say this seriously one of the best movie intros i`ve seen in a long time.
         Now moving on to the cast, starting with Nicholas Cage, recently i`ve heard a lot of shit talk about him. You know what I have to say about that? ``Shut your goddamn mouths" ! Nicholas has more talent then any of those premadonna actress on any twilight,glee, or jersey shore pieces of crap. Even more hes got more acting ability then pretty boy Michael Cera, that Douchebag Ashton Kutcher, and any one on thous god awful actors in the Tyler Perry movies. I mean have any of you Cage haters seen "Raising Arizona" from 1987? Cages performance is so good, its very real and relatedly. But I highly doubt any of thous Cage haters have ever even heard of that movie.
       Sorry about that rant, but its something thats been on my chest for a long time. Ok moving right along Cages performance in Season Of the Witch was also a great performance. He really gave the character confliction and  depth. In a way I feel many actors could not have done.  On the other hand Ron Pearlman gave his character an appropriate rougueish style, he also provided most if not all the comic relief in the movie. But my favorite scene was Christopher Lees Scene were he plays this dying cardinal who just looks creepy and scary add that to Lees sinister voice you couldn`t have picked a better actor! It`s really good to see Legends like him still acting, in my opinion.
  Along with that the girl who portrayed the witch who was relatively new actress. She put on a very impressive performance, as a quite sexy witch in my eyes. Then the way she went from being completely innocent, to sinister, and then to pure evil was magnificent! This movie was overrall was very well casted.
    
        Altogether Season Of The Witch boasts some great actors and a very cool story that reminded me of a Hammer Horror film in how the atmosphere was so dark and suspenseful. Christopher Lees role as the dying Cardinal alone would make this movie a must see! I cannot recommended seeing this movie enough, its just a great Horror, Fantasy movie that is A+  material in my book.