Ragged Good Looks

I mentioned earlier today that I was going to watch this movie and then review it either tonight or tomorrow. To be honest, I’m not sure how I can give this one much critique. Not only is it short, the plot is virtually non-existent. The acting is mixed. The dialogue is riddled with the snappy one-liners that wise guys in movies from the thirties used. Bela Lugosi received top billing but isn’t…

With the way that my morning went and with my holiday plans for the rest of the day, I don’t know that I’ll get to a review of a horror movie for the day. To be honest, with doing this writing exercise I’ve put pressure on myself to watch something important or highly regarded on Halloween itself. At the same time, I have to be honest with myself and if I do get to watch a movie at all today,…

Ordinarily when I’ve watched two movies in one day for Horror Month I’ll pick just one for that day’s mini-review. However, I just came back from a double feature that a local theater was having and those two films compliment each other so well, I decided to jot down some thoughts of the two together. Again, one of the main selling points of these movies for me is Donald Pleasence as Dr. Loomis.…

The action in Terrifier 2 picks up right where Terrifier leaves off. As such, I feel that it’s important to recap the events of the previous film. With so many plot twists and loose ends that are being picked up right away, I need to spend a little bit of time making sure that we’re all on the same page when examining the aspects of the story of the sequel. In the original Terrifier, an evil…

I looked back on my review of the original Halloween that I wrote last year. I have warmed a lot to that movie since. I made multiple remarks about how bad the dialogue was (while it’s endearing, I still stand by that assessment). I also mentioned that the suspense wears thin (I’ve changed my mind on that one). The fact that the bodies weren’t dropping every few minutes during the first…

When I was a kid in the eighties my first experience with the Ghostbusters franchise was the cartoon series The Real Ghostbusters. When I finally watched the first movie as a kid I got confused. Why didn’t the characters look the same? Why was Slimer a bad guy? Why does this seem like a movie for adults? It wasn’t until years later when I started getting the humor did I realize why this movie was…

A scientist who turns himself into a monster in order to commit murders with anonymity is an idea that lends itself to the type of comedy of errors that these Abbott and Costello movies thrive upon. Yet why is it I found myself bored throughout most of this one? All of the ingredients are there. We have the madcap zaniness of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello. We have a loose adaptation of a classic…

I know that Part VI is considered a fan favorite of the Friday the 13th franchise, but I have to admit that I think my personal favorite is A New Beginning. I know that this would put me in the minority, as this film is not widely well-received. I can tell why–with it’s raunchy humor and high death count, a major masterpiece of American cinema it is not. However, it’s precisely the brainless fun…

I know some people have been enjoying my reviews during Horror Month, and I plan on continuing them throughout the month. However, if you are a regular reader you may have noticed that I’ve been quiet for a few days. I’ve been rather busy and haven’t been able to both watch a movie and review it. I’m on vacation this week, so I had figured that I would be able to resume regular blog posts…

Of all of the 1970’s horror movies staring Vincent Price, this one feels the least inspired yet somehow still quite enjoyable. In typical fashion of the time, bodies are dropping everywhere only the twist is that this time the audience isn’t sure if Price’s character is the actual culprit or if he’s being framed. As such there is an Agatha Christie-like air to this one, as it tends to lean more…

I was going to go on about how this movie resonated with me as I myself was often bullied growing up, being the “nerd” in my class at school. But Killer Nerd is such an exaggeration of reality that I couldn’t make that emotional attachment, so no such diatribe today. That’s not to say that I didn’t enjoy this film–in fact, the corny dialogue, poor acting and super cheap production values combined…

If you overlook the convoluted writing and janky production values, Nightmare Castle makes up for its faults in style. Director Mario Caiano made this film partly in tribute to the lead Barbara Steele, giving her dual roles as stepsisters Muriel and Jenny. They each have distinct personalities (and wigs) with Muriel as vindictive and adulterous, while Jenny is more kind-hearted and…

You didn’t think I was going to let Horror Month go by with out covering at least one John Carpenter film, did you? This time I decided to do something a little different. I don’t normally cover television shows but as each episode of Masters of Horror is a standalone story, I’m going to consider them short movies and therefore applicable to this challenge. Besides, I covered the Addams Family…

Waxwork is intended to be a horror comedy film, though as a comedy it’s rather weak. Much of the intended humor derives from the goofy college kids that are most of the main characters in the film, though many of the jokes and actors’ attempts at delivering them fall flat. Yet compare that to the top-tier performances from the likes of David Warner and Patrick Macnee, and you have the lopsided…

This is one of those days in which I don’t post a full review. It’s not that I didn’t have time to write one, but I did only have time to watch a couple of movies and to be honest, they were both pretty crap. Murders in the Rue Morgue was from the same Bela Lugosi-themed collection that contained The Black Cat, which I reviewed a couple of days ago, so I wasn’t going to bother anyway… but wow, it…

Minor spoilers ahead. “Believe me now?”“Yeah, but who’s gonna believe me?” That dialogue describes one of the key plot devices from this movie which also happens to me one of my least favorite kinds, and that is dramatic irony. I don’t have any intellectual dislike of dramatic irony, but it does frustrate me to know something that somebody else doesn’t. There are plenty of exceptions and it can…

Horror legends Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff face off against each other in this early psychological horror film that takes its name from a story by Edgar Allan Poe. Lugosi plays Dr. Vitus Werdegast, a psychiatrist tortured by his past seeking revenge against his former friend Hjalmar Poelzig (Karloff). Caught in the conflict between these two men are Peter and Joan Alison, a newly married couple…