Category Archives: Spook-A-Thon 2008

The Bat, 1959

This is the movie Vincent Price made right after The House on Haunted Hill, it seems, and you can sort of see why he agreed to be in it. It’s another gimmicky story, set mostly in one location, that seems like it should be having fun bringing the audience in on the joke.
Except that [...]

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, 1920

This is a silent movie (of course, given the year), and as such will be of limited interest to most people. However, it is worth seeing at least once.
The main reason to see it is John Barrymore’s performance as the two titular characters. While saying that he pulls off Hyde without [...]

The Alpha Incident, 1977

Suppose you were in charge of a government operation. The purpose of that operation, for the moment, is to transport some hazardous material cross-country, without drawing attention to it. Suppose further that you don’t have much knowledge of how dangerous (or not) this material might be. And that it came from Mars, [...]

The Spook-a-Thon that just won’t die!

Yeah, I’m something like two weeks behind on the Spook-a-Thon. I’m not quitting, though. I’ve just had to deal with some personal stuff, which was, as per usual, emotionally draining.
I think I’m going to take some time on at least one of the posts. I intend on re-watching and re-reviewing Night of [...]

The Bloody Brood, 1959

I’ll bet you didn’t know that Peter Falk was a badass.
This film was interesting, and would make an excellent companion piece to Roger Corman and Charles B. Griffith’s Bucket of Blood. They were produced the same year, a continent apart (Bucket in Los Angeles, Brood in Toronto), and both examine the beatnik life in [...]

Gammera the Invincible, 1966

Ah, Gamera.
One of the major joys of Mystery Science Theater 3000 was the onslaught of Gamera movies (dubbed courtesy of Mr. Sandy Frank) in the third season. I saw every one they did, and have since seen at least one Gamera film that eluded them (the dubbing of that one provided, somewhat more competently, [...]

The Wasp Woman, 1959

Produced and directed by Roger Corman, but without a script by either Richard Matheson or Charles B. Griffith. That should be enough to tell you, assuming you are a bad movie lover, more or less what level this movie is playing at.
If not, then allow me to clue you in. It means that [...]

Murder Mansion, 1972

A bunch of people get lost in the fog, and somehow all end up at the same dark, mysterious, not very large mansion, which overlooks a graveyard near an abandoned village. They spend most of the time rehashing (or flashing back to) their personal lives, and some of the time getting stalked and killed [...]

Horror Express, 1971

Christopher Lee.
Peter Cushing.
And… Telly Savalas?????
Yes, Telly Savalas. His role is more of a glorified cameo than a full part. It is, however, quite glorious.
Somewhere in remote China, around about 1910, Christopher Lee has dug up something that will set the scientific world back on its heels, a body that he thinks is a [...]

Creature from the Haunted Sea, 1963

This movie kicks ass.
Really, need anything more be said?
OK, I guess I could go on a bit.
Years ago, I had a religious experience when I read Roger Corman’s autobiography, How I Made 100 Movies In Hollywood And Never Lost A Dime. This movie gets heavy mention in it because a critic once [...]

Bride of the Gorilla, 1951

This was one of the movies I had watched a few minutes of, and thought it looked “sort of awesome“. And it is, in a very bad-movie sort of way.
First of all, the cast. It’s one of those casts that could only happen in a 1950s film. Raymond Burr as the lead [...]

I Eat Your Skin, 1964

Well, no.
The title, infamously, was applied to this movie because the producers needed something that could be, by some stretch of the imagination, given a title to go on a double-bill with the movie they had in the can, I Drink Your Blood. So they decided on this title, then went searching for a [...]

Monster from a Prehistoric Planet, 1967

It’s a Japanese Kaiju movie, and not one that anyone really remembers.
And it plays like a Japanese Kaiju movie, one that nobody would really remember.
It’s not really worse than many Kaiju films. It’s certainly not better than a lot of them, either. It’s just kind of there. Mostly entertaining, but with a [...]

The Beast of Yucca Flats, 1961

Wow.
I missed this one when MST3K took it on, and, watching it flat, I’m really, really sorry I did. It almost riffs itself, and I can only imagine the insane joy that Mike and the Bots took in ripping this one to shreds.
A truly incompetent movie can be a thing [...]

Spook-A-Thon Status

Yeah, I stopped posting a bit more than a week ago. I’ve got a number of movies already viewed, though, so I can do a bit of catching up, and since I’m taking a break from the personal drama, I’ll start writing them up in my free time. Only got one or two [...]