Extraordinary Tales (2015) – movie review

Extraordinary Tales (2015)

Directed by Raul Garcia

Stories by Edgar Allan Poe screenplay by Raul Garcia

Starring:
Christopher Lee
Bela Lugosi
Guillermo del Toro
Roger Corman

This is an animated collection of five Poe stories. For the most part modern animation styles take a back seat and the styles of more intrinsic art are brought to life for the tales. They each carry their own distinct visual flair applied to Poe’s source material. We have the squared-off and skewed shapes in The House of Usher, the stark black & white imagery and cutting lines for The Tell-Tale Heart (in artist, Alberto Breccia’s style), and the graphic novel/Creepy magazine style of The Masque of Red Death. Voice overs and narration are done by Christopher Lee, Bela Lugosi, Guillermo del Toro, Roger Corman and Julian Sands, amongst others, who each provide their unique expression to the benefit of the atmosphere. Lugosi is here courtesy of an old recording/reading remastered for the Tell Tale Heart segment. The wrap around concerns a crow in a graveyard talking to Death. The conversation between them leads us into the stories. Everything is backed by classic musical compositions by Sergio de la Puente with additional music from Javier López de Guereña. I’m surprised this has such a low rating, but with its gothic origins and gloomy mood, I guess that should be expected.  The stories are edited into shorter form than Poe’s original works but they work well with the animation. Also included are The Facts in the Case of Mr. Valdemar and The Pit and the Pendulum to round out the best tales from the gothic master. For someone who grew up reading horror illustrated comics such as Creepy, Eerie, Vampirella, and Heavy Metal Magazine, this is a pleasant throwback to a similar storytelling and visual style. Revisit Poe’s most popular tales with animation worthy of artistic merit in this fine collection.

This gothic animated film heralding the work of Edgar Allan Poe provides gloomy, yet interesting entertainment.

I give it 3.9 cringe inducing, caterwauling, death wails out of 5 on the gothic haunting horror scale.

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parlor of horror – horror movie reviews

Creature Features revisited – More Giant Monsters

A look back at the golden age of sci-fi, the 1950‘s. Our subject today… More giant monsters!

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Attack of the Crab Monsters, The Giant Gila Monster, Tarantula, Earth vs the Spider…

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Attack of the Crab Monsters (1957)

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A group of scientists investigate the effects of radiation on a Pacific Island near the Bikini Island Nuclear experiments. They are attacked by a couple of giant crabs that also have gained intelligence and psychic powers. They have telepathy and they absorb the knowledge of the victims they eat. One by one the group are killed in horrible attacks which leave them headless. The last three scientists communicate with the female crab and learn of her plan to reach the mainland, have her babies and devour all of mankind.

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Roger Corman told writer, Charles B. Griffith, that he wanted this film to be experimental and have every scene to have action or suspense. The film was quite successful, costing only 70k but making over one million dollars. While it doesn’t have the best Giant creature effects to stand up to other films of the time, it makes up for it by using close-up shots and movement of the camera. This keeps the flaws of the creature design obscured. If you had talked to teens that saw this in the theatres, they would have told you this film was frightening. I think the main reason for that was the beheaded victims and discovering that the crabs were eating the heads. That was very gruesome for the 1950s

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Trivia:

Russell Johnson as, Hank, spends his time while stuck on the island trying to fix the radio so they can call for help. Many years later he plays the Professor on Gilligan’s Island who, while stuck on the island, spends his time fixing the radio so they can call for help.

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The Giant Gila Monster (1959)

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I enjoyed the 50’s/60’s hot-rod and rock-and-bop feel of The Giant Gila Monster. Typical plot of 1950’s sci-fi without the budget of better known films of the era. Young couples in their cars go missing as the Gila Monster stomps some vehicles early in the film. The monster also causes a train wreck. It isn’t until the big dance party that the monster really makes itself known, coming out of hiding because of that crazy loud rock music. The town is saved by a guy named ‘Chase’ and his hot-rod! It’s budget film fun with a couple of good Gila Monster scenes, but it won’t win any awards for special FX. Watch for nostalgic entertainment on a day you have nothing else to do. Directed by Ray Kellogg. There’s a colorized version which doesn’t look too bad. And there’s a remake that looks SyFy style terrible.

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Trivia:
Actress Lisa Simone was a contestant for Miss Universe in 1957.

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Texas Drive-in theater owner, Gordon McLendon produced this film and The Killer Shrews as second features to the main attractions he had at his theaters.

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Danzig used the font from the movie posters for his album logos.

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Tarantula (1955)

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The film stars John Aagar, Mara Corday and Leo G. Carroll. A scientist secretly experimenting with a nutrient that effects the pituitary gland looses one of his specimens, a tarantula the size of a dog. The next time they see this tarantula it has grown significantly. Another scientist (John Agar) investigating the death of a biologist who had stumbled in from the desert with deformed features meets with his lovely assistant, (Mara Corday).  They discover the Giant mutant spider and work to get the situation under control before it can reach town. There’s a tense scene where the tarantula is looking through the window at Stephanie and attacks the house looking for a meal. The film has a better than average plot, story and acting, making it one of the more respected giant bug films of the time. My only dissappiontment as a kid was the Tarantula never makes it to town to cause destruction. Directed by Jack Arnold (Creature from the Black Lagoon).

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Trivia:
Clint Eastwood has a bit part as a pilot for the jet fighters that shoot at the tarantula at the film’s end.

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The tarantula is the same spider that performed in The Incredible Shriking Man.

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Earth vs. The Spider (1958)

 

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(aka: The Spider – not to get confused with Tarantula – 1955)

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A girl in high school is worried about her dad, who hasn’t come home from a road trip the night before. She convinces her boyfriend to go looking for him. These two teenage kids, Mike and Carol, they ain’t no Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys, that’s for sure. They find Carol’s Dad’s car crashed off the highway and search the area. Carol sees a cave and figures her injured Dad may have crawled into there for shelter. They fall into a big web and are nearly killed by the humongous spider. Ironically, the spider’s growl sounds pretty close to Carol’s scream with effects on it.

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Naturally they tell the authorities, the authorities go into the cave, find Carol’s dead Dad and kill the spider. A professor of takes the spider to the university and has it on display for study. The staging area is in the auditorium. At night the band comes to play a gig and all the teens come to dance to the rocking sounds. And I’ll be damned, that crazy rock-n-roll music revives that damn spider! (told you that rock n roll music was bad for ya’). Screams, gasps, running… we got ourselves a monster movie! The monster terrorizes a suburban town, threatens a mom and her baby, and follows our hero‘s car back into the woods. The Authorities follow the spider back to its cave and kill it once and for all. There’s some not-so-great matt compositing for FX and in some scenes it looks like they may have used miniature buildings. It didn’t look like the real spider they used wanted to co-operate much. The film was produced, directed and written by Bert I. Gordon, who was an avid B-horror film producer of the time.

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Trivia:
In a scene with a movie theater where Mike works at, you can see a poster for The Amazing Colossal Man in the Coming Soon display case and the Marque shows Attack of the Puppet People as now showing. Both are by Bert I. Gordon films.

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photo galleries:

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parlor of horror – classic sci-fi/horror movie reviews

Body Bags (1993) – Movie review

Body Bags (1993)

Directed by John Carpenter & Tobe Hooper

Starring:
Stacy Keach
David Warner
Sheena Easton
Debbie Harry
Mark Hamill
Twiggy
Robert Carradine

BB is a great little horror anthology by John Carpenter where he plays the host, a corpse in the morgue that finds different bodies of interest, and introduces the stories through their misfortunes. It was made for Showtime as a TV series jump off thus it had budget restrictions that limited effects to blood and violence. It first aired in 1993. The series never got the green light but the film still lives on.

A woman, Anne, comes in for the midnight shift at a self serve gas station. All she has to do is take money, charge credit cards, turn on pumps and…survive the night. Her first customer creeps up to the window slow and zombie-like while her back is turned, then scares the crap out of her by banging on the glass. Well, that customer is none other than, Wes Craven, in a surprise cameo. The next customer (David Naughton, American Werewolf…) uses his credit card then leaves without it. When Anne runs out to catch him, she accidentally locks herself out. The solitude and isolation of the lonely station begins to unnerve her. We have a homeless man come by for a bathroom key, (George Buck Flower, a familiar player in Carpenter films) then another car with yet another Carpenter regular, Peter Jason. After he leaves the woman retrieves the Men’s Room key only to discover there’s someone in the garage bay. She enters the garage and finds the homeless man murdered. A maniacal killer attacks her and she fights back in classic Carpenter cat and mouse suspense style.

In the next story, Richard (Stacey Keach), is going bald and feels bad about it despite his girlfriend, Megan (Sheena Easton – she was a famous 80s singer) saying it‘s alright. He’s doing the Trump sweep over and spray, and trying a hundred products that don’t work. He sees an add on TV and calls the company about hair implants that carry a strange caveat. David Warner is the company CEO and we have the lovely Debbie Harry playing a Nurse in this episode. His grows hair like you wouldn’t believe. But the hair doesn’t stop growing. Turns out it’s a living organism. There’s a really disgusting part where he finds some growing in his throat. This segment is an ugly lesson in vanity.

The last one has Mark Hamill, (yes the Star Wars Luke Skywalker guy) as a minor league baseball player, who gets an eye transplant and takes on the characteristics of the organ doner. Turns out the organ donor was a sadistic serial killer. He begins getting migraine headaches and having terrible visions. There are some shocking visions of the dead victims crawling out of the dirt in his yard. He starts treating his wife badly and acting violent. This epi has a great gruesome ending.

This is a great addition to the horror anthology legacy. The stories are simple but effective making it a good watch. The fact that it had a lower budget and two of the segments were based on urban legends makes it more gritty than Creepshow or the HBO Tales From the Crypt series. For that reason it feels more relevant to modern horror tastes. An added enjoyment was picking up on the cameos as they appeared in the film

Gritty, realistic style lets it stand up well to today’s horror flicks.
I give it 3.7 psycho slashers out of 5 on the blood soaked anthology of horror scale.

 

Fun Facts:

There’s also cameos in the film by Sam Raimi, Greg Nicotero, Roger Corman, Tom Arnold, Tobe Hooper, and John Agar.

In “The Gas Station” segment, look for the news report that tells of a dead body turning up in Haddonfield.

Clive Barker was asked to do a cameo but couldn’t make the shoot due to a conflicting schedule.

Galaxy of Terror (1981) – Movie review

Galaxy of Terror (1981)

Produced by Roger Corman
Directed by Bruce D. Clark

Edward Albert
Erin Moran
Ray Walston
Taaffe O’Connell
Robert Englund
Sid Haig
Grace Zabriskie

Being an artist, I often enjoy visual splendor in films. That is why I can enjoy an effects heavy film even when the story is lacking. Being a writer and author, I often enjoy original concepts and ideas in films. New ideas spark my imagination and I like to take mental note of aspects I can use or expand upon in my own work. So yes, I am making excuses for why I like this film so much. The story is lacking. The dialogue is mediocre at best.

Several characters investigate an abandoned spaceship on a distant lifeless planet. The film follows each as they meet their demise. They all die by a method they would fear most. For example, one gets killed by his own crystal bladed weapon that took him years to master. Another by her own fear of claustrophobia.

The film stars Erin Moran (yes, Joanie from Happy Days) in her first movie role since the end of her short lived spin off series. A very young, pre-Freddy Kruger, Robert England stars in the film. In fact you will most likely recognize all the actors in the cast but one or two. Naturally, being a Roger Corman film there’s lots of blood, guts and gore.

The most disturbing and talked about scene in the film is of the woman being raped and killed by a giant worm. This is a shocking scene even for a Roger Corman gore-fest. The bizarre shots in the sequence had to be trimmed to avoid an X-rating but still reveal enough to disgust you on a visceral level. (The disturbing aspect is that while I know it is vile, I find it hard to look away – something I call the “road kill syndrome). The death-by-worm-sex scene is probably the reason this film has such a strong cult status. It went as far as any scene of this nature will ever go in a horror/sci-fi film.

The film borrows some ideas from Forbidden Planet, especially the idea of the characters being attacked by their own worst fears. Event Horizon some years later has similarities to Galaxy in finding an abandoned ship and entering it only to be psychologically attacked by an evil entity. For a low budget space movie, the effects and sets are surprisingly good. It feels big and the film isn’t held back by its budget. They need a crash landing on the surface of an alien planet? They do it. A gigantic ancient pyramid, they show it. Nothing is trimmed from the script because of budget. I believe the reason for that was having James Cameron as production designer.

As I had mentioned, the film is more about shocking gore and FX than story. It might not be for everyone but having been there when these types of films came out in theaters, and having watched each film try to one up each other in the gore factor, was a fun experience. This would probably have taken the gore award for 1981 if it weren’t for Evil Dead! Good times!

A Corman space movie with horror, blood, nudity and gore, for a harsh R-rating. This ain’t no Star Wars!

I give it 3.9 severed limbs on the death by nookie-nookie scale of freaky maggot infested gore flicks!

Fun facts:

James Cameron was the 2nd unit director and production designer on this film. I tend to think that much of the huge scope of this film had a lot to do with Cameron. This film most likely prepared him for directing Aliens a few years later. He had worked on several Roger Corman films.

The worm sex scene was trimmed down to get its original X-rating changed to R. Despite the editing, the film was still banned in many countries. It was released in some countries with the scene completely removed.

like earth, isn’t earth

one-tenth of the budget for Star Wars, take that!

Well maybe Potsy did it, or Ralph Mouth…

Mr. Hand hasn’t aged since the 1960’s – I do believe he is a martian

looks like a teenager here, lol

I wouldn’t go in there

sucker tentacles

that’s not how you use this weapon

look out, giant slimy slug maggot worm…

disgusting!

Yuck!

gross!

dog face demon, woof!

a little more sunscreen would’ve helped

This shot foreshadows his next job! can you say Kruger?

 

 

Beavers! by Joseph F. Parda – Book review

Beavers! by Joseph F. Parda
Midnight Bookshop

I began reading Beavers! with some enthusiasm, enjoying the B-horror flick style of the cover artwork. Let me say, I was pleased that the story contained within the pages perfectly matched the mood of the cover art. Too many times I have picked up a novel because of the cover and discovered something quite different inside.

This is the first novel by Joseph F. Parda but seems to be written by an experienced novelist. The story cruises along at a break-neck pace that keeps the reader turning pages, wanting to devour all the gory details. What many of you may find interesting is that Joe Parda is an experienced writer, having produced and directed indie horror films for over 20 years. With titles such as ‘5 Dead on a Crimson Canvas’, Guilty Pleasures, and the horror anthology, Evil Streets (which included a segment written by me), he had paid his dues honing his craft of story telling. His films were very art-house in style and avant-garde, in such a way that I’ll admit, for most of them I didn’t even understand the plot. So I was shocked and delighted to discover Beavers! to be mainstream story-telling. It oozes Roger Corman, has a simple premise and is pure, fun horror entertainment. It is loaded with comedic ironies, well-defined characters, and plenty of violent endings at the hands, and buck teeth, of our furry little friends.

There are plenty of innuendos to keep a smirk on the reader’s face including a whole chapter on a singing sensation and teen heart-throb star, Justin Beaver, whose punky-gangsta attitude leads to an untimely demise by the chomping, chattering teeth of his namesake. If you just read that one chapter alone, it would be worth the price of the book, enjoyably funny! The tale has a true hero in Gary, a single father who lost his wife on an expedition to Mount Everest. Taking some time off to spend with his son, camping at Beaver Falls, the two are thrown into extraordinary circumstances as a new aggressive species of beaver stakes its claim to the land of its forefathers. Shades of The Birds, Food of the Gods, and Night of the Lepus are woven through the story-line, but are counterbalanced with innuendos and campy horror fun.

If you’re looking for a fast paced, fun and entertaining horror novel to sink your teeth into, look no further. Beavers! is a Damn good read!

Purchase it now for: Amazon Kindle

For other formats visit the website: The Midnight Bookshop 

Joseph F Parda

Creature Features revisited – Alien Creatures

Creature Features revisited

A look back at the golden age of sci-fi, the 1950‘s. Our subject today…

Alien Creatures:

The Thing From Another World (1951) –
Invasion of the Saucer Men (1957) –
It! Conquered the World (1956) –

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The Thing From Another World (1951)

One of the creepiest openings of any 1950s sci-fi films, ‘The Thing’ logo, burns into existence on screen with powerful, ominous music bolstering the mood. Naturally, this opening sequence was repeated in the 1982 John Carpenter remake. A reporter, Ned Scott (Douglas Spencer), arrives at an Alaskan Air-base to talk to his Air force buddies. A group of scientists and government military have gathered near the north pole where they claim a craft has fallen from the sky. So the small group heads to the outpost site to investigate what Dr Carrington, the scientist, has discovered. Most of you have probably seen the Carpenter remake from 1982 so I am going to make several comparisons to that version. While the effects in this version can’t compare with the remake, this is a version worth seeing if you haven’t. It is very well-written, with some great characters, wonderful acting and a nicely paced plot. What’s more, the ‘science’ is more ‘scientific’ than most of the pseudo-science of convenience in other 1950’s Science Fiction films.

The crew finds a figure trapped in the ice, and bring it back to the outpost camp, frozen in the ice block. Captain Patrick Hendry (Kenneth Tobey), forbids any further investigation or studies until he gets word from his superiors on how to proceed. A storm moving over the area cuts communications off from the world. There’s a definitive love story between Hendry and field scientist, Nikki Nicholson (Margaret Sheridan) which adds a fun, flirty dimension to the story. From the storeroom, the Thing begins to wield its menacing power. A soldier on watch brings an electric blanket into the storage room and accidentally melts the ice with it, waking the creature. It breaks from the storage room and is attacked by the sled dogs in a creepy scene. The creature disappears and the men go on a hunt. They turn up nothing, but soon the Thing is hunting them instead.

This film doesn’t have the paranoia associated with the remake. It has a conflict between the scientists who want to save and study the life force and the military who wants to kill it before it kills anyone else. It attacks several times. The scene where they throw kerosene on it and set it aflame is intense. It bursts out of the room and into the snowstorm, on fire, flames lighting the blizzard swept night. The Thing is not a shape-shifter or assimilator as it is in the remake. It’s a large Frankenstein-like creature, an unstoppable beast that needs human blood to survive. I enjoy this film on a nostalgic level but also think it has a likable quality that can still be watched today. If you have never seen it, it would be worth watching on a Sunday afternoon.

The end delivers the ominous warning from reporter Ned ‘Scotty’ Scott:

Watch the skies everywhere, keep looking. Keep watching the skies!

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The film was based on the story, Who Goes There? By John W. Campbell, Jr. which first appeared in Astounding Science Fiction magazine. (Campbell wrote under the pseudonym Don. A. Stuart at the time)

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Invasion of the Saucer Men (1957)

This film starts with a purposeful campy style, a comedic narration and cartoon-ish credits, which lowered my expectations for what would follow. So it’s no wonder that I found this film amusing and fun. What’s more I think the big-head designed aliens are fantastic, kooky imagination brought to life for the film.

Johnny and his date leave the local lovers lane in the dark only to run over an alien. They think they’ve killed it but the hand separates from the body, grows an eye and punctures the car tire keeping them from leaving. They go look for help. While they’re gone Joe Groden finds that car with the giant mashed head under the bumper. He’s aware of the aliens because he saw the flying saucer land. It’s a nice looking craft that looks like the front of a 55 Chevy Bel Air. Everyone looking for help winds up at the old man farmer’s cabin. He hates teenagers (the hoodlums) but loves his cow and chases them away. They all call the police but who’s gonna believe a bunch of teenagers? Meanwhile, the military has seen the UFO and are winding around the same back woods as our fearless teens. Joe gets attacked by an alien who jabs him with long needles protruding from its long deformed papier-mâché fingers. The military attempts to communicate with the flying saucer, ala Close Encounters, only when it doesn’t answer to, who are you? They pump it full of lead. When the local police finally show up at lovers lane, they make the teens blow into a balloon (sobriety test). They find Joe’s body and arrest Johnny for running him down, ignoring their claims of little green men.

An alien attacks Elsie the cow which infuriates the farmer. The military tries to open the UFO with a blow torch and the thing blows up. So they bury it in the ground. That explains why there’s no evidence of UFO’s. It gets pretty intense as Johnny and Mary are chased through the woods by these aliens. They discover the creatures are injured by light but their car headlights die and they’re on the run again. The police are frustratingly ignorant as this cat and mouse game continues.

Saucer men is an enjoyable nostalgic snapshot of the 1950’s, with cool classic cars and unique Martian creature creations. My DVD version included an old time popcorn stand commercial and a dozen trailers from lesser known horror films. It’s certainly one of the better Samuel Z. Arkoff productions DVD releases out there.

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It! Conquered the World (1956)

This early Roger Corman directed sci-fi thriller, starred Peter Graves, Lee Van Cleef, Beverly Garland and Sally Fraser and was distributed by AIP.

A scientist, Dr. Anderson (Lee Van Cleef) is contacted through short wave radio by an alien from Venus named Zontar. The creature from Venus follows a US spacecraft back to earth where it disperses bat-like winged creatures who bite people in the back of their neck’s. All electric and power fails, leaving the small town and surrounding areas with no way to call for help. Those who are bitten do the aliens bidding. It becomes a showdown between Lee, thinking the aliens presence is a great thing for mankind and the future of earth, and Dr. Nelson (Peter Graves) who knows freedom is more important than all the scientific advancements imagined.

Despite the strong conflict, the film often falls flat in the acting department, except for a few good scenes with Graves and a commanding scene by Anderson‘s wife (Beverly Garland). The real charm of the film comes at the late hour, when Zontar comes into full view, a creature that seems hard to conceive, a huge face, a cone shaped head, large claw-like arms, and glowing eyes. Although joked about by the actors and critics at the time, Sci-fi fans have come to love the Paul Blaisdell designed creature. Paul earned a good reputation by putting things together in his garage to create rudimentary monsters for low-budget films. Through the movie, a line from a Bugs Bunny cartoon repeated in my head, “The Masked-Carrot!” Seriously, a couple of rabbits would have dispensed with this creature nicely.

When Zontar kills Anderson’s wife, the Dr. is finally convinced to team up with Dr. Nelson to destroy the thing. Nelson goes on a shooting rampage cutting down all the mind controlled citizens in his path. He really kills a lot of people in this film, including his own wife, it‘s bizarre. An army platoon that has not been effected by the space bats finds the cave that Zontar hides in. But it’s Dr. Anderson who puts the final kill on the beast. Dr. Nelson, (Peter Graves) delivers the 1950’s sci-fi requisite speech finale about man finding his own way through the universe.

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The Thing From Another World (1951)

Ring around the rosey, pocket full of…

err! I think we have a problem

flirty!

it’s getting hot in here!

feeling a little burnt out…

Electrified!

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Invasion of the Saucer Men (1957)

The Riddler

looks like a chrysler…

Must be a ford…

needle-hands, scary stuff!

a meeting of the minds

Martians looking for some earth girl action!

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It! Conquered the World (1956)

Graves as Dr. Nelson – kills more people than the alien…

He kills his wife…

Guys always clawing at her…

bat wing!

kills that guy too!

Here he goes!

The Masked CARROT!

My Top 5 Gothic Vincent Price Movies

Check out my guest post at Vic’s Movie Den,

My Top 5 Gothic Vincent Price Movies

In the 1960’s, Vincent Price was the master of gothic horror suspense. With the help of Roger Corman, AIP, and writer’s like Richard Matheson, Edgar Allan Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne, the gothic horror film was in it’s prime. Check out my top VP picks for the era.

Also Thanks to Vic’s Movie Den for the guest post spot. While you’re there check out some of Vic’s other awesome movie posts.

 

Humanoids From the Deep (1980) – movie review

Humanoids From the Deep (1980) aka: Monster

Directed by Barbara Peeters
Produced by Roger Corman

Doug McClure
Ann Turkel
Vic Morrow

This is one of the better post-gothic Roger Corman films. He had a formula for his films of the 80s that harkened back to his early films, a simple plot, show some skin, reveal a terrible creature or monster, and mimic successful horror films on a low-budget. It’s a formula that allowed him to be the most prolific b-movie director and producer for many decades.

A fishing company’s attempts to cultivate bigger/better fish leads to a mutant species of man-fish hybrid living in watery caves by a seaside town. While the town plans to celebrate the new plant opening, the creatures have their own agenda, to propagate their species. They attack and rape young women at the beaches while dispensing with their boyfriends with a swipe of their nasty claws. The night of the big celebration is the night the humanoids attack to overtake the town. Pandemonium ensues!

I have to mention that the creature effects in this film were done by Rob Bottin, who within the next couple of years did both, The Howling (1981) and The Thing (1982).

It’s a fun flick with some jump scares, great monster design and plenty of gory action. It’s not to be taken too seriously but it’s played straight (not comedic) making it a favorite Corman film of the 1980’s.

 

Creature Features Revisited- Beach Blanket Terror – Summer edition

Creature Features Revisited- Beach Blanket Terror – Summer edition

Usually in my Creature Feature posts, I like to pick out the top films in the subject matter – one’s worth watching today, whether for their historical impact, monster designs or nostalgic value. The following picks have laughable monsters, bad acting, and hokey plots. I’ve selected these films solely for their seaside locations and bathing beauties. Hey it’s summer, enjoy!

The Horror of Party Beach (1964)

A Del Tenney directed, surf rock-n-roll beach party flick, featuring dancing bikinis, sea monsters and the rockin’ sounds of the Del-Aires.  Bad acting, a hokey creature design, and some gnarly old time rock-n-roll dancing can’t deter this film’s innocent charm. In daylight the creatures look like something a child would draw with crayons, the film’s low-budget was obvious thin in the costume design department. The monster looks like it has as dozen frankfurters stuck in its mouth. My guess is they were supposed to be multiple tongues. Okay, so a disposal company dumps drums of radioactive waste in the NY waters. That causes some dead bodies in the sea to regenerate using fish and sea-life parts. Hank has a fight with his girl and after a sexy cat dance, she goes for a swim. She’s the first victim. The scene is just like Jaws (and by ‘just like’ I mean ‘nothing like‘) with people running, screaming, and the Del-Aires singing, “Zombie Stomp“. Other sunken bodies regenerate (off the coast of NJ, figure it out) and soon there’s a dozen of these fish zombie things. Hank, working with a reputable scientist discovers they can be killed with sodium…sodium? Isn’t that salt? These things came out of salt water, didn’t they? Anyway, they throw some salt bombs (sodium snow-balls) and the creatures flame up and disappear (like in Blade). Awesome dialog like, “smells like dead fish” (isn’t that a Nirvana song?) – “He’s cute. Fill me up, hon?” (talking to a gas station attendant with dreamy eyes), and “I hate drunks!” (from a drunk guy that just crashed his car.) The best scene is the pajama party, pillow fight, that turns into a fish-fry massacre. I have to mention the sound, the fish-monsters roar is awesome and the background music during monster attacks have that old school sci-fi/horror weirdness.

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Beach Girls and the Monster (1965) Aka: Monster from the Surf

A young dude Richard quits his science studies to become a surfer. He spends his time at the beach with dancing beauties, radical waves, and rockin’ surf tunes. However, his science knowledge is called upon to discover what is killing young girls at the Santa Monica beach. What indeed, seems to be a parade float wrapped around an actor, plastic strips flapping in the surf and wind, with plastic ping-pong ball eyes with paper-mache tooths. The film often cuts to four young ladies gyrating to the rockin’ surf music on the beach who are credited as dancers from the Whisky-a-go-go. The music was put together specifically for the film, sung by Frank Sinatra Jr. and Arnold Lessing (who plays Richard), and performed by members of the surf band, The Hustlers. Songs titled “Dance Baby Dance,” and “There’s a Monster in the Surf” fuel the dancers booty-shaking. Surfing footage is shot by Dale Davis, who is famous for shooting surf footage, and also stars in the film as one of Richard’s friends. The plot gets a little hazy with all this dancing and music, but it has something to do with Richard’s step-mom hitting on both him and his friends. Richard’s dad is not too happy, his son left his career to hang ten with the surf crowd, and his much younger wife seems to be more interested in the young people than being a wife. If you need a good guess at the film’s conclusion, there’s this picture:

But it takes an awful long haul to get there. Unless you’re into surf music, 60’s dancing, and nostalgia for vintage no-budget films, I would steer clear. But I happen to like all three, so I was bemused with the floppy flick.

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Creature From the Haunted Sea (1961)

This early 60’s Corman flick takes a comedic parody pot-shot at both spy films and horror films. A gangster, Renzo, looking to take advantage of unrest in Cuba plans to steal the nations fortunes. He attempts to kill the Cuban loyalists and blame a legendary Sea Monster. When his plans fall apart he sinks the ship with plans to retrieve the treasure later. Secret Agent, ‘Sparks Moran’ (what a name) infiltrates the gang to discover Renzo’s plan. When Renzo’s gang attempts to retrieve the treasure, they discover a real sea monster and are picked off, one-by-one. Its hard to believe this monster can pick-off anything, except maybe turds at the bottom of your toilet. The monster was made from amongst other things, brillo pads, Tennis balls (eyes) and pipe cleaners (claws). Reportedly the crew had a hard time not laughing when they were shooting scenes with the thing. The film was shot on location in Puerto Rico in 5 days, back-to-back with, The Last Woman on Earth and Battle of Blood Island. Agent Sparks also narrates the action with great lines like, “The sun was beginning to set. I could tell because it was getting dark.” In one scene there’s a Spanish subtitle for no apparent reason. The film is painfully slow-moving and the comedy is ultra b-campy, but some people are fans of everything Corman put out. It’s a definite WTF? when you see the monster and you can get a chuckle out of that for sure. Perhaps with a six-pack and a couple of friends you could have some fun goofing on this super cheesy flick. However, it’s definitely one of the least impressive in Corman’s catalogue.

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Photo Galleries – beach babes, monster waves, and monster raves!

The Horror of Party Beach (1964)

the zombie stomp! dance

a face only a mother could love

hot dog mouth

the del aires

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Beach Girls and the Monster (1965)

monster doesn’t like their dancing…

I’m a big mean fish-man!

Groovey baby!

hey! it’s Flo from Progressive Insurance

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Creature From the Haunted Sea (1961)

here on gilligan’s island

brillo pad, here to scrub your goggles

you want cookie, hmmm

now there’s some good acting

had to put ‘The End’ or we wouldn’t know it ended

No matter how many ways you do the poster art, it isn’t gonna make it a better film:

 

 

Nightmares in Red, White, and Blue – movie review – Documentary (2009)

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A chronological history of horror from the beginning of film to today, John Carpenter, Larry Cohen, Joe Dante, Brian Yuzna, and Mick Harris, among others, attempt to explain America’s fascination with Horror. The Documentary delves into the mindset of each decade, the internal fears of the population brought about by external sociopolitical forces, and the films that were successful at these points in time. It touches upon all the iconic horror films from each era – the earliest silent films, the Universal Monster films, the 50s sci-fi horror, the politically charged films of the 60s and 70s, and the overblown excess of the 80s. Each director also relays personal stories about the first horror film they had seen and how it had affected them. Highlights include comments by George Romero about his Living Dead films and Roger Corman about working with Vincent Price and his early gothic films. One of the fun sequences is a montage of every sex scene from every Friday the 13th film, set to a hard rock song, in music video style. The song concludes with the horrific kill scenes of all the characters we’ve just gotten intimately familiar with.

Lance Henriksen narrates the film. It is based on a book of the same name by Joseph Maddrey. Well made, nicely paced, and interestingly told, a fine tribute to American Horror. Worth a watch for every horror fan.

George Romero
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related articles:

Lovecraft – Fear of the Unknown – documentary

Boogeymen – the Killer Compilation