Dementia 13 (1963)

Genre: Horror, Psychological

Source: My Own Collection

Grade: C

First off before I start this review I would like to explain my long absence from this blog. This whole month I have been off visiting family out of state and didn't really have access to a computer I felt like using for blogging plus I was so busy all the time I didn't have time to write a good quality review. But never the less I am back and I got a whole bunch of reviews lined up for you beginning with today's Francis Ford Coppola movie Dementia 13.

To be honest I think the three reasons this movie is as popular as it is, is because one it was Francis Ford Coppola`s directional debut. Which as you know he`s gone on to be quite popular directing such movies as The Godfather and Bram Stokers Dracula. Second reason it was produced by the great Roger Corman as well as having Jack Hill serve as this movie`s second unit writer and director. Finally third reason this movie`s poster is so bad ass!!

  Which sadly other than that is about all this movie has. The acting is not bad at all in this film, but none of the performances really stood out for me either. The plot also starts to lag a little bit as the movie progresses making it very slow to watch. But I do feel the effort put in by Coppola was a truly very worthy effort, which I will give him credit for. Anyway`s the whole focus of the horror used in the movie is psychological terror aspects and human nature. So no monsters,vampires, or guys with chainsaws no it is all straight forward with a heavy influence towards realism.
  Coppola`s direction I would have to say was pretty well done especially for an amateur. I mean there are some genuine moments of suspense, as well as a couple shocker scares. Also he really did succeed in creating   the right atmosphere. Everyone's mood was really uneasy and sinister. But the set`s they used were not very creepy and kind of ordinary looking which unfortunately took away a bit of the atmosphere of it all. Infact what they did was they used the left over sets from the movie Meet The Halorans. Which is nothing unusually at all for a Corman production. Its not that the sets were bad, but I just didnt feel they were sinister enough to really convey the setting they were hoping for.

   Another thing I did appreciate about this movie was the mystery that was incorporated into it. It`s really what kept me interested in seeing how this movie would finish even during its slow and boring parts. Which when it ended and everything was revealed left me a little surprised. Sadly though all these plus`s didn't redeem this movie for me from its averageness. There just isn`t anything in it that really makes it stand out as some incredible movie, but nor is there anything in it that makes it stand out as some awful movie. Its just sort of stuck there in the middle.

  Bottom line anyway`s is 1963`s Dementia 13 is a worthy effort on the part of a than new director Francis Ford Coppola. Unfortunately though the movie is uable to compensate for its slow pace, and lack of things that were able to engage me as much as i`d like to have been. But other than that it`s  a so-so Physiological horror film that if your interested in  Francis Ford Coppola`s early work is something you will need to check out, but other than that I can`t really reccomend this movie unless your genuinely curious about it.

Happy Birthday To Charles Laughton

Today I would like to make a quick tribute to the birthday of another one of my all time favorte actors this one being the magnificent Charles Laughton. Not really a horror actor but he was the star of a few very influential Horror films of his time such as ISLAND OF THE LOST SOULS, THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME and THE OLD DARK HOUSE. Despite what i`ve heard that he was EXTREMELY hard to work with, I still find him to be one of the greatest actors of all time, but for example such directors/actors have shared an open distaste towards him such as Alfred Hitchcock who basically found him to be over controlling as an actor when he worked with him on JAMAICA INN, then Bela Lugosi himself said he found him to be one of the most arrogant people he ever met when working with him on ISLAND OF THE LOST SOULS. Never the less it doesn`t overshadow the fact that he was a truly amazing actor who`s  roles were extremely vast. Plus in my opinion he is the greatest actor to ever portray Captian Bligh which he did in the 1935 Oscar winning movie MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY, were he was nominated for best actor in but didnt win.Though He did win that Oscar in 1934 for his performance in THE PRIVATE LIFE OF HENRY THE VII. Also like Peter Lorre he got his fair share of parody in Looney Tunes. So once again happy birthday Charles Laughton!

( Bugs Bunny imitating Charles Laughton in the Looney Tunes episode Buccaneer Bunny ) 

The Giant Behemoth (1959)

Genre: Horror, Monster

Source: TV (Channel TCM )

Grade: B

This movie was seriously Great Britain's  answer to Japan's Godzilla! Yeah, both boasted very similar themes such as Atom-Age monsters provoked by a nuclear bomb, both had prehistoric monster designs, and both monsters lay waste to their countries biggest cities (Godzilla`s being Tokyo and The Giant Behemoths being London). Besides all that when you boil down to it 1959s The Giant Behemoth is a cool entertaining monster movie, but by no means at all a masterpiece.

           In a nutshell the movie`s story is about a prehistoric monster that is disturbed by all the dumping of radioactive waste in the ocean, so it rises from the sea and terrorizes the English coast. Oh and did I mention it can shoot electric shocks and radioactive beams from its mouth? Well, as a matter of fact it does! To make that even better the army cant destroy the monster by means of conventional weaponry because that would just cause radioactive contamination to spread across the entire country. Oh yes the plot thickens....anyways as you can probably see on par with other monster movies this one is pretty badass.
One thing though about this movie was it took them way to long to getting around to actually appearing. The movies only about 1hour 20 mins long and good half hour is spent before the monster actually shows up. Instead they fill that gap with boring filler charecter arguments and discussions and other pointless boring things. But when they finally get done screwing around and bring in the monster it is oh so awesome! They did not hold back either, the devastation this monster causes is just awesome, people get crushed under falling bricks, get burned to a crisp by the Behemoths radioactive breath, and are drowned after there boat is capsized by the Behemoth. Despite its setbacks the monsters wake of destruction makes the movie totally worth watching.

            The most notable person who worked on this film was without a doubt special effects wizard Willis O`Brian. The man who provided the ground breaking special effects in such movies as 1933s King Kong, 1957s The Black Scorpion, and 1922s The Lost World. He was also the very person who served as the inspiration for Ray Harryhousen among countless other filmmakers. Anyhow that being said I am sorry to say that this was not one of his best pieces of work. His giant Behemoth just didnt have the same awesomeness factor that his other monsters had like King Kong and The Black Scorpions. Don`t get me wrong now, the monster looked great in comparison to other monster movies of the time but it just wasn`t as good in comparison to O`Brian`s other monsters he`d done. And hey its still way better then any of that CGI crap that pollutes our movies today.
           I would also like to complement the movies Cinematography and Direction. Very good use of shadows, as well as a few cool close ups of the monster. Actor wise I was not very familiar with any of the movies stars but none the less they all put in straight forward, serious performances that helped make the movie even more watchable.

     Alright now so in all 1959s The Giant Behemoth was a fairly decent B grade movie. The storys fairly good, despite its obvious cash off's to previous monster movies of the decade such as Godzilla and The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms. The monster itself is pretty sweet looking, only wish they featured more of it. Then finally the movies ending was just great! I`m not even going to say what it is but trust me its one of those "Oh dang that sucks for them" endings. You`ll just have to see it for your self.

Happy Birthday Peter Lorre

Today Marks the 108th birthday of one of the all time greatest most underrated and imitated actors of all time! The great Peter Lorre born on June 26th in the country of Hungry, Lorre got his big start playing the child murder in the classic Fritz Lang movie M, eventually he went to England were he actually got to work with Alfred Hitchcock in two of his movies the first being the thriller THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH in 1934 were he played the bad guy Abbott, and the second being the spy movie SECRET AGENT in 1936 were he played The General who supposed to be a good guy but was more of a anti hero, you just got to see it to understand what I mean. The two movies were phenomenal both in the sense of Lorres performance and Hitchcock`s directing. A bit of trivia on the first movie, when Lorre did it he hardly knew any English at all and pretty did all his lines phonetically,so had got the role by just nodding and laughing at everything Hictchock said.
      Lorre has also become a icon in the Horror movies. My personal all time favourite of his was the 1935 horror film MAD LOVE, this movie is one the best horror films i`ve ever seen and Lorre is at his all time best in it. Its just simply a crazy one of a kind horror film. Other horror films of his included THE BOOGIE MAN WILL GET YOU a comedy horror film that also stared Boris Karloff, THE BEAST WITH FIVE FINGERS a great psychological horror film, and THE COMEDY OF TERRORS yet another horror comedy that also starred Basil Rathbone, Boris Karloff, and Vincent Price. And thouse are just a few of his many great horror films that he starred in.  
       Peter Lorre didn't just get type-casted in Horror films like his fellow country man Bela Lugosi, his roles branched into many different genres such as Science Fiction in movies such as VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA and 20,000 THOUSAND LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA. Mystery's and Crime movies such as THE MALTESE FALCON, CRIME AND PUNISHMENT and YOU`LL FIND OUT. Not only that he`s had a role in the timeless classic CASABLANCA and he`s even gotten a Looney Tunes character made after him!
         Yes, Peter Lorre is a one of a kind actor, who`s just an incredibly interesting person and who`s filmography is so vast. He worked with some of the greatest minds in Hollywood such as Alfred Hitchcock, Fritz Lang, Boris Karloff, Humphrey Bogart, Vincent Price, Basil Rathbone, and many others. He`s been countlessly imitated from his time to the present. But everyone knows there will always be one Peter Lorre.

                           PETER LORRE BORN JUNE 26th 1904- DIED MARCH 23rd 1964

The Funhouse (1981)

Genre: Horror, Slasher

Source: Netflix (Instant View)

Grade: B


 One thing i`d like to say before I get started is, I for one am not crazy about slashers. I`m some what critical of them and they very rarely make my priority list. That being said my utmost approval of this movie and the fact that i`m reviewing it is actual saying a lot!
   Though true this movie isn't one of the greatest horror movie`s ever, but i`d have to say it was one of the best slashers, but that's mainly having to do with its well made, interesting, creepy story.  

         Yes, the first thing i`d like to talk about is the movie`s awesome story. Which in a nutshell consists of four teenagers who decide it`d be cool to spend the night in a travelling carnivals infamous Funhouse. But after witnessing a murder and stupidly stealing some of his money behind his back, the furious carnie sends his huge son who wears a Frankenstein mask to go and kill them all. Plus to make it better they are locked inside this big old Funhouse with no escape. As for characters they are all your typical teens from a slasher movie, and that's all to be said about that. Now but whats interesting is the masked killer, well actually he`s only masked for about a quarter of the movie, and the main reason he wore a Frankenstein mask is since this movie was distributed by Universal studios they wanted director Tobe Hooper to use one of there "monsters" as the mask. Anyhow when the killer takes off the mask its not exactly what you`d expect, but its definitely Shocking! 
           
           One of the films biggest pluses is its set design! I mean wow, these sets were extremely well put together. They truly added a sense of fear that you'd usually only get in like a Halloween maze at Knott`s Scary Farm. Then the brilliant set design just really added to the movie`s atmosphere, giving it this creepy, run-down, suspenseful atmosphere. Not something you typically find in a slasher movie.

  Well keeping this review brief, its definitely worth checking out, even if your just mildly interested. Its not as bloody as I thought it`d be but instead it was way more suspenseful then I thought it was going to be. Then Tobe Hooper puts in a swell job of with his directing style in all the areas of the movie,(atmosphere,shock value, etc.). Plus with the superb set design that adds so much suspense and atmosphere, it will over shadow the movies semi predictable ending, which i`m not even going to get into. So bottom-line Tobe Hoopers The Funhouse is a movie that's definitely be worth a view 

Tarantula (1955)

Genre: Horror, Monster

Source: TV ( Channel TCM )

Grade: B+

In case you didnt know already I am a HUGE fan of the Giant Insect Genre, especially that of the ones from the 50s. For example 1954s Giant Ant movie "Them!" is my all time favourite from the subgenre, not only that but Them! is one of my favourite movie`s ever made. Another Gem from the the giant insect subgenre would have to be Bert I.Gordons Earth Vs.The Spider from 1958, a terrific and utterly terrifying giant spider movie. Anyway`s back to Tarantula as you can probably imagine i`d been really looking forward to seeing this movie, reason being other then the obvious I love Giant Insect Movies, I heard a great deal of praise regarding this movie from various sources online and from my friend Mike who had a lot of good things to say about this movie and highly recommended it to me.

       So does Tarantula belong with the likes of such movie`s as THEM! and Earth Vs The Spider? Answer is yes and no, yes it is a awesome monster movie that is truly well made, but its just not as good as either Them! or Earth Vs The Spider. Nor is it a horrible 50s monster like the Giant Gilla Monster from 1959. Its just the things that held it back from being better were was the monster isn't in the movie enough! In fact you have to like wait half the movie before it actually does much. Its just to much of the movie was spent trying to figure out what was terrorizing the area, because us the audience obviously knew it was a Giant Spider that was doing all the damage so when the main character finds out it was a giant spider there was really no shock value. Then I felt to much I felt to much focus was spent on the whole love connection between the main character and the leading lady! It`s not that I absolutely hate that sorta stuff, its that I REALLY DONT CARE! I want to see a giant spider eat someone alive not John Agar and hitting on Mara Corday.

      Ok, now despite those flaws this movie still had some very unique, memorable traits. Such as first off the way the monsters created was unique and against the norm, because instead of being created by Atomic Bomb related stuff  or by a Mad scientist bent on world domination, instead its created on accident by a few well meaning scientists only looking towards the progression of medical science. Then the monster looks very realistic, and that would have to do with the fact that its a real live spider! Yes, this is one of those movie`s were they toke a real animal and as in this one a Tarantula and put him on a small scale set were then the director Jack Arnold used Air jets to make the spider move in the desired way over their little miniature landscapes. You know at the end were they naplam the spider and it burns to death, I have no doubt that was a real spider that they just lit on fire.

       The movie also features a great cast such as John Agar who went on to be quite a Sci-Fi Icon with people such as Kevin McCarthy and Peter Graves, The Mara Corday put in a great performance as the leading lady/love interest. She to went on to play in a number of other Sci-Fi / Horror films such as The Black Scorpion and The Giant Claw. But most memorable of all is the little uncredited bit part Clint Eastwood played, yep this one of his first movie`s. You wouldn't see him until the end though were he plays the Jet Pilot who kills the giant spider with Napalm. To me that was just so cool to see one of my idols playing alittle bit part in such a unexpected movie.

  Well all in all Tarantula is a great monster movie that definitely has its place among the monster movie hall of fame. With it`s great cast, awesome monster, and good  direction Tarantula is a movie that I feel I would highly recommend to the average monster movie fan. 

Murders In The Rue Morgue (1932)

Genre: Horror, Mad Scientist

 Source: Rental (Netflix)

 Grade: A-

  Well another day goes by and once again I find myself watching a damn good Bela Lugosi movie based on an Edgar Allan Poe story. Or better put "loosely" based. Though unlike 41`s The Black Cat this one is slightly more faithful to its source material. Never the less though this movie completely strays from the original Poe story about a old detective and a macabre murder case. No instead this movie takes its own path based around a mad scientist, rage, revenge, and obsession. It strays in other aspects as well such as it isn't a mystery story at all like the original book, and Duplin rather then being an old detective is portrayed here as a young scientist.
         Now in defence of this movie it does keep a couple elements from the original book like the psycho gorilla, the two women who are assaulted in their house, and the body that gets stuffed/crammed into the chimney. All these were graciously included into this movie.
Though one thing in this movie i`d like to praise in particular is the style of directing this film took on. The director Robert Florey (who was a contender to direct the original Frankenstein!), definitely was at his best here. He brings in some insanely dark, eerie, creepy atmospheres that with Bela Lugosi work just so well. I also admittadly picked up on the very high influence of German Expressionism through out this movie, particularly that of  The Cabinet Of Doctor Caligari. Just look at the set design and you`ll see what I mean.
           The other thing I wanted to bring to light was the performance of Bela Lugosi in this. Wow, he was truly incredible in this, also it was his first Horror movie role since Dracula (which I think came out a little less then a year before this). Anyway`s  Lugosi brings in a certain amount of madness and obsession into his character that it will make you shiver a little in comfortableness!
              Sadly though upon this movie`s release it was a box office disappointment, which lead to Universal refusing to renew Lugosis oe year contract with them. Not only that but apparently this movie was drastically cut, from 80 mins to the 61 mins that we have today in order to "tone it down'' of all ridiculousness. Fortunately it does not show at all and i`d have never none otherwise unless I hadn`t read it already on IMDB.com. Any how bottom line this movie Rocks. Its dark, its disturbing, and its got Bela Lugosi at his all time best one again. Its a true piece of artwork and an overall amazing horror film.