The Beast of the Yellow Night (1971):  Surprisingly good for a movie made in the Phillippines.  In the 1970s-80s, the big thing for B-movie productions was to film in the Phillippines because it was incredibly cheap.  Unfortunately, most of those films reflect the budget.  They usually get terrible actors, are filmed terrible, and have god-awful special effects.  Most of the time, Phillippines' movies try to do things that are beyond their scope.  This movie is different.  It was written and directed by Eddie Romero.  He worked with the limitations he had, and made a darn good little film out of it.  "The Beast of the Yellow Night" was set in modern-day Phillippines.  It was a simple little horror-action film with simple, yet effective special effects.  They didn't try to overdo the special effects.  The strengths of this movie are its story and its actors.

    John Ashley is always pretty good in his films, and he does well as the lead in this movie.  What really surprises me is how good the Filipino actors were.  This was all done in English, as it is an American film, only filmed in the Phillippines.  A lot of times in foreign-filmed American productions, they get who they can get because they're cheap.  Almost all of the Filipino actors were pretty good and convincing.  This really helps make the movie more watchable.

    The greatest weakness of this film is that, in some parts, the filming is just way too dark and it's hard to see what's going on.  If you can look past that, and take this film for what it is, it's pretty enjoyable.  I don't understand the significance of the title, "The Beast of the Yellow Night", as I don't know how the night is yellow.  Unless they mean by a yellow full moon, but the full moon has nothing to do with the beast's transformation.  He turns into a monster every night.  It's a cool-sounding title, though.

    In 1946, an American traitor who corroborated with the Japanese in WWII is finally hunted down and shot.  On the brink of death, he is approached by the Devil (or Satan, whatever you want to call him).  The Devil, in the form of a fat, little middle-aged Filipino man, offers John Langdon, the traitor, continued life if he does his bidding.  John Langdon (John Ashley) agrees.  24 years later, the Devil puts John Langdon into the body of wealthy American businessman Phillip Rogers.  In reality, Phillip Rogers truly died and went to Hell.  John Langdon, however, possesses all of Rogers' memories and knowledge.  But here's the twist:  Phillip Rogers' appearance changed to that of John Langdon!  It is believed by most that Phillip's accident caused this dramatic physical change.

    John Langdon, now Phillip Rogers, lives a pretty fine life with a beautiful wife and a big business, but grows fastly uncomfortable with what he has to do to serve the Devil.  The Devil (Vic Diaz) wants Langdon to use his influence to turn people evil, so the Devil has more souls to collect.  Although Langdon has done terrible things in the past, he doesn't want to be a part of this incredibly evil scheme.  To punish Langdon for his disobedience, the Devil curses him.  Every night, Langdon turns into a murderous, flesh-eating monster.  He kills people both innocent, and not-so-innocent.

    Langdon, who works hard to fight the beast within him, tries to spare his lovely new wife, Julia.  She finally sees what he becomes, and goes into a deep state of shock.  Meanwhile, Langdon/Rogers gets the aid of a blind man with a shady past who helps hide the troubled soul from those who would hunt him.  The blind man was, a long time ago, a notorious bandit who has since reformed his ways.  Langdon, with the blind man, are ultimately hunted down outside of town.  The blind man is shot.  He asks Langdon to pray for him.  Langdon does as he's asked.  Once he accepts God, the last bullet that strikes him ends his cursed existence.  Langdon dies, and ends up going to Heaven.  The Devil's mad scheme has been thwarted.

    Mary Charlotte Wilcox, who plays Julia Rogers, is also very likable.  She's either naked or half-naked for much of the film.  Wilcox wears some really interesting outfits.  Besides that, her character just seems like a nice person.  It's not a very complicated part, but the movie didn't demand bigger lines or anything too heavy.  Julia is basically a plot device to play on Langdon's conscience.

    This is a rated R film, and rightly so, but it's still very mild.  There's nudity, and minimal gore.  The bad language is pretty mild.  It's really just the subject matter that makes this a solid R movie.

Cast:

John Ashley as John Langdon/Phillip Rogers
Mary Charlotte Wilcox as Julia Rogers [credited as Mary Wilcox]
Ken Metcalfe as Earl Rogers
Vic Diaz as Satan
Andres Centenera as Blind Man
Leopoldo Salcedo as Inspector Santos
Eddie Garcia as Detective Lieutenant Campo

Writer & Director- Eddie Romero

Fun Facts:

• Mary Charlotte Wilcox later became a recurring guest actor on the legendary sketch comedy TV series, "SCTV", as well as a writer.

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The Blue Man (1985)-  The story was great.  Everything ties together pretty well.  The acting is pretty decent.  There is really no gore, although violence does happen throughout the story.  I think the only thing that gave this film its R rating is the language.  My only "beef" with this movie: "Why can't we SEE the blue man?"  We're told that the blue spirit form of Paul Sharpe is going around killing people; why can't we see it at least once?

    A disgruntled producer of TV commercials, and student of astral projection, fears that his spirit form is killing everyone near and dear to him as he sleeps.  What he discovers throughout the course of the film is much more frightening.  Awesome story with a great ending!  A must-see for the "thinking" movie fan.

Cast:

Winston Rekert as Paul Sharpe
Karen Black as Janus
John Novak as Detective Kaufmann
Patty Talbot as Jennifer Sharpe
Andrew Bednarski as Matthew Sharpe
Vlasta Vrana as Scott
Ron Lea as Mick, Kaufmann's Partner
Joanne Cote as Helen
Tom Rack as Dr. Meister
Philip Spensely as Bill Pearson
Lois Maxwell as Monica Duvall
Michael Sinelnikoff as William Duvall

Director- George Mihalka
Writer-Robert Geoffrion

Alternate Titles:

• Eternal Evil [Australia]

Fun Facts:

• On some promotional items, such as movie posters, Karen Black gets first billing over Winston Rekert, the actual star.  Black has had quite a career in horror films.
• Although not as cool of title as "The Blue Man", "Eternal Evil" is also quite appropriate.  However, you have to watch most of the film before the title of "Eternal Evil" really makes sense.

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Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992)-  It was a lot of years before I finally decided to watch this one.  When it came out, I just felt Dracula had been done to death.  It may not be the all-time best vampire movie I've ever seen, but I was surprised with how well it was done.  This turned out to be a huge box office hit and has been referenced a lot in media.  This film had a lot of big names attached to it, which was a major reason for the film's success, but there is also a lot of iconic imagery that connects with people.  The way Oldman looked as "old Dracula" with the white butt hairdo, and the way he looked as "young Dracula" with the top hat and sunglasses is something cool that people hadn't seen before.  This was also the first Dracula movie that had really great special effects.  It's been two decades since this movie was made, and the special effects still look great...like a new movie.

    There are definitely some creative liberties taken from Bram Stoker's novel, but this film follows the basic events of the novel pretty well, and is closer to the book than any other movie version of "Dracula".  I thought Gary Oldman as Dracula was awesome.  Anthony Hopkins also gave a great performance as a rather animated Van Helsing.  The special effects were well done, considering the fact that very little of it was done with computers.  I believe the only computer-generated effect in the film was the blue energy rings seen in the early part.

    There are, however, some things in the film that could have been done better.  I wasn't believing Keanu Reeves or Winona Ryder were truly English.  Just couldn't buy it.  Besides that, they did a good job.  There were also a number of things that I found to be vague; a lot of disconnected thoughts.  Some things, straight up, just weren't explained very well if at all.  They were also trying too hard to make this movie "cerebral".  Instead of just coming out and saying what they meant, there was a lot of faux-subtle side-stepping.  As it is, my favorite character in the film is the cowboy Quincey P. Morris (played by Bill Campbell); he doesn't mince words or pretend to be above his station.

    Dracula's origin in this film is kind of lame and it doesn't really offer much.  He was a true Christian knight; quite a fanatic about God.  Then, as soon as his bride dies, he instantly turns against God?  No contemplation?  Isn't that radical considering the fact he was such an advocate for Christianity?  Then, as punishment, Dracula is turned into a vampire?  Okay...did I miss something here?  Is that a standard punishment for talking smack about God?  God was apparently ticked at Dracula, so he wanted him to spend eternity killing other people and sucking their blood?  Nice frickin' God, eh?  I don't get the significance of turning a man into a vampire.  The whole idea just doesn't tie together well.  I still believe the only film made that really gives a great explanation as to who or what Dracula is was in the film, "Dracula 2000" (2000).

    The prologue at the beginning of this film is a purely original creation.  In the book, Stoker makes no mention that Count Dracula was, centuries before, Vlad III Draculea.  Also, there was never a mention in the book that Mina was the reincarnation of Dracula's bride, Elisabeta.  To the film's credit, that element does seem to bring the story together a bit more.  Who knows, maybe Bram Stoker himself would have used it if he thought about it.  In addition, the book also contained none of the love scenes shown in this film between Dracula and Mina.  One very important detail of the book that does hold true with this movie is the fact that Bram Stoker said vampires CAN walk in daylight.  It's just that daylight is not their usual time, and that their powers are weakened.  The whole idea of vampires being vulnerable to sunlight probably started with the 1922 film, "Nosferatu", and has been copied heavily since.

    On the whole, I recommend this film...especially for its performances and special effects.  Since 1992, I believe better vampire movies have been made, but when this film first came out it was definitely the best of its kind.

Cast:
Gary Oldman as Count Dracula/Vlad III Draculea
Anthony Hopkins as Professor Abraham Van Helsing
Keanu Reeves as Jonathan Harker
Winona Ryder as Mina Murray-Harker/Elisabeta
Richard E. Grant as Dr. Jack Seward
Cary Elwes as Lord Arthur Holmwood
Bill Campbell as Quincey P. Morris
Sadie Frost as Lucy Westenra
Tom Waits as R.M. Renfield
Director- Francis Ford Coppola

Fun Facts:

• Gary Oldman and Winona Ryder did not get along well during the filming of this movie.  No one seems to know why.
• Liam Neeson wanted to play Van Helsing very much, but when Anthony Hopkins expressed interest, Neeson was outed.  Back then, Hopkins was a much bigger name than Neeson.  At the time of this writing (2011), it might go the other way.
• This was originally planned to be a made-for-TV movie until Winona Ryder discovered the script and gave it to director Francis Ford Coppola.

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Cataclysm (1980):  This movie is probably better known by it's alternate title, "The Nightmare Never Ends", from its subsequent video releases in the U.S.  The latter title is better and more appropriate for the film.

    This movie stinks!  There are some good things about it, but on the whole it wasn't a good movie.  It's great to see Richard Moll, who usually plays comedy parts, play a very straight, atheist author.  Despite the fact that his character was atheist, he was still a good man, but he held a definite hatred for what he felt was the God "myth".  Moll certainly had the most interesting character in the film.  The best acting performance, however, is Cameron Mitchell as the gruff, but smart Lt. Sterne, determined to find the truth behind the evil Olivier.  Robert Bristol also gave a strong performance as the creepy, aloof English pretty boy Olivier, in reality an immortal demon servant of Satan.

    I try not to pick on anyone specific in the Den, but Faith Clift as Claire Hanson, wife to Moll's James Hanson, does not give a good or even passable acting performance in this movie.  There's no way of talking about this movie and getting around that fact.  Her delivery is so abbreviated it's like she's having trouble memorizing the lines.

    But Clift isn't responsible for ruining this movie.  What ruins this movie is the story, plain and simple.  The movie starts out very interesting; just long enough to pull you in.  But the movie sidetracks itself, throws in a lot of things that do not make sense and, in a final attempt to keep the "scary" going, kills off everyone but the villain, Olivier.  This movie has a very unsatisfying ending.  What was the point of it all, anyway?

Cast:

Cameron Mitchell as Lt. Sterne
Richard Moll as James Hanson [credited as Charles Moll]
Faith Clift as Claire Hanson
Robert Bristol as Olivier
Maurice Grandmaison as Papini
Marc Lawrence as Abraham Weiss
Klint Stevenson as Jim
Christie Wagner as Ann

Alternate Titles:

• The Nightmare Never Ends [U.S.; video box title]

Fun Facts:

• Most of the actors in this film seemed to follow each other in other low-budget suspense films throughout the 1980s.
• The most famous actor from this cast is, of course, Richard Moll who would later play the lovable court guard Bull Shannon on TV's "Night Court".
• Cameron Mitchell is definitely the second-most famous member of the cast, and has an impressive acting resume from 1945-1995 (a year after his death).  He starred mostly in low-budget sci-fi/horror movies and A-list TV shows.

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Day of the Dead (1985):  This is the third of director George A. Romero's famous zombie trilogy.  I really enjoyed this film.  Lori Cardille plays a great heroine.  But all the actors are great.  This movie was Not Rated by the director's choice.  He would've been funded more money for the production had he agreed to tone it down enough for an R rating.  As it was, the movie got half the budget that it might have had.  This is not to say that it's a "low budget" production.  Far from it.  There's enough action and plenty of realistic special effects.  The movie is practically built on these points.  The gore in this movie has barely been matched by today's movies, and this was long before CGI.  So this was made very well.

    As the story goes, a small group of human survivors are hiding underground from the zombie-infested world.  The "leader" of the group goes power mad, and the heroine and her friends find themselves between a climactic battle between their tyrant oppressors and flesh-eating zombies.

     A word of warning:  This is not for the faint of heart.  The gore in this film goes far beyond an arm or leg being ripped off.  This is quite nasty.  I don't usually like films with this kind of violence, but the story supports this extreme gore.  Still, I think some of it was unnecessary.

    Despite the fact that this was the least-grossing movie of the three, due to its limited run in theaters, this is a fan favorite by many of the viewers that followed the series.

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Dracula 2000 (2000)-  I love this movie!  I think it's the best Dracula film I've ever seen.  For the first and only time, we're given an explanation as to who or what Dracula is.

    Basically, the story continues the original tale of Dracula.  It's written into this movie that real-life author Bram Stoker was inspired to write "Dracula" by stories he heard about.  Stoker added his own fictional touches to the tale to give it flavor.  Revealed to us is that Dracula was real, and that Abraham Van Helsing merely captured the monster; he couldn't kill Dracula.  Dracula was dormant for years, and finally reawakened.  The real Abraham Van Helsing, posing as a great-grandson named Matthew Van Helsing, kept himself immortal so he could always watch over Dracula's casket.  How did Van Helsing keep himself immortal?  Watch the movie to find out.

    Now Dracula has come for Van Helsing's hot, estranged daughter who lives in New Orleans, Louisiana.  Mary Van Helsing does NOT know her father's secret.  Her life is turned upside down when the strange man she learns is Dracula comes for her.  Joining Mary in her fight against Dracula is Van Helsing's young protege Simon Sheppard.  Dracula, in turn, recruits several others as vampires to capture Mary and kill Abraham Van Helsing and Simon Sheppard.  Great story with a neat ending.

    "Dracula 2000" didn't do so well in theaters, otherwise sequels may have been attempted.  I like the fact that this movie didn't spawn sequels, because I like how the story ended right here.  It would have been difficult, and silly, to bring Dracula back after he was killed so definite in this film.

    Gerard Butler did an excellent job as Dracula.  He looked cool but, best of all, he gave Dracula some pathos.  I believe Butler is probably the first Dracula actor to really give the character any sort of personality.  In this film, Dracula likes to have others believe he enjoys himself, but he's really a tortured soul.  Everyone in the cast gave a great performance, but Butler's Dracula was easily the most interesting character.

Cast:

Gerard Butler as Dracula
Christopher Plummer as Abraham Van Helsing
Jonny Lee Miller as Simon Sheppard
Justine Waddell as Mary Heller-Van Helsing
Colleen Fitzpatrick as Lucy Westerman
Jennifer Esposito as Solina
Jeri Ryan as Valerie Sharpe
Omar Epps as Marcus
Danny Masterson as Nightshade
Nathan Fillion as Father David

Fun Facts:

• Danny Masterson and Nathan Fillion both had small parts in this movie.  Danny Masterson was given fairly high billing, however, due to his popularity on "That 70s Show" (1998-2006).  Nathan Fillion is notable because he gained quite a bit of popularity as the decade progressed.
• "Dracula 2000" was made on a budget of $28 million, and grossed $33 million in theaters.  It has made more money since thanks to DVD sales, but it wasn't what you'd call a "huge hit".

Photos:

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Ghost Town (1988):  This is a rather interesting movie because it successfully blends three genres:  horror, western, and action.  It's a cross between a cowboy movie and a ghost movie.  The filming is quite good and usually outside.  "Ghost Town" is set in modern-day and basically follows the adventures of a deputy sheriff who, while lost in the desert looking for a missing woman, is led to a dusty Old West town like no other ever seen.  For over 100 years, the evil ghost of an outlaw in black has kept the inhabitants of this town in purgatory.  We find out the missing woman was kidnapped by the bandit because she is an exact double of a beautiful, but long dead saloon singer who the bandit killed himself.  The only way for the modern-day deputy sheriff to save the girl and end the suffering of the townspeople is to kill the outlaw named Devlin.  This movie was rated R, but could actually pass as PG-13.  There's a lot of shooting, but nothing really grotesque except the ugly-looking decomposing ghosts and such.  There isn't even a whole lot of swearing.  And there is no nudity (although sex is insinuated).

    If you're looking for character development or intricate plot turns you won't find it in "Ghost Town".  This movie is straight action with horror and western themes.  It's basically the hero going into a trouble spot and saving the day with a lot of action and scary moments thrown in for good measure.  The special effects are pretty good and the acting is solid enough, but the movie itself doesn't really call for much acting.  It's just action with a gruesome theme and cast of strange characters.  One strange character worth mention is a blind card player simply called "The Dealer" who is played by Bruce Glover.  I'm a Bruce Glover fan since I first saw him play the creepy Mr. Wint character in the James Bond movie "Diamonds are Forever" (1971).

    Franc Luz plays Deputy Sheriff Langley.  Catherine Hickland plays the kidnapped woman Kate.  Jimmie F. Skaggs is the ghost outlaw Devlin.  Laura Schaefer plays the beautiful ghost girl Etta.  This is a film worth watching.  It's entertaining, and doesn't count on a lot of thinking to understand.  A wild diversion!

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Halloween (1978):  A horror movie from the 70s with a complete lack of gore.  Unusual.  This is not to say that it isn't suspenseful or violent.  By itself, this movie does not make a whole lot of sense.  It isn't until "Halloween II" and especially the later movies that things about Michael Myers and his connection to Laurie Strode are explained more.  The filmmakers left us hanging for three years until they threw us dogs a bone.  Despite that, it still comes off as an intelligent, well-produced film.  You can tell it wasn't made by hacks.  Back in the 1970s, this was about as good as thrillers got.  You've got to take it for what it is.

    "Halloween" and its sequels are crime stories more than horror stories.  The horror element is the fact that serial killer Michael Myers is ambiguously supernatural.  Apparently, nothing can kill this guy.  The movies are otherwise realistic.  Michael has the ability to speak, but for some reason hasn't since he killed his first victim, older sister Judith Myers, when he was 6.  There is no reason given in this movie for the killing of his sister.  After that, he is locked up in a mental institution where he stayed for 15 years until he escaped on October 30, 1978.

    By October 31, 1978 Michael Myers is on a killing spree.  He comes to the town of Haddonfield, Illinois where he killed sister Judith back in 1963.  Why?  Reason not given.  See Halloween II for explanation.  Michael is seeking teenage girls to kill, although he is not above killing two guys and a dog in the process.  He picks off Laurie Strode's two best girl friends, but fails in killing her.

    Michael's fate in this movie?  He is shot by Dr. Sam Loomis and falls to the ground through a second-story window.  However, in less than a minute's time, Michael disappears.  Obviously he is not dead.  The movie ends, leaving a lot of us ticked off.  This is strange, because it's like the movie was unfinished.  They got in the middle of the story then cut us off.  What's up with that?  Apparently they knew what they were going to do with it after this.  Why be so abrupt?

    Like all Halloween movies, it's good except for the fact that it drags a bit when they're trying to build suspense.  It's a 90+ minute movie; could've been 60.  Halloween I and II should've been put together in one film.  Cut out the boring stuff and splice it together, it would've made one complete film about 2 hours long.

    This is a good film, well-written and well-acted.  A horror film with an actual story; an unusual practice in the genre.  On top of that, we're given characters that we actually care about and don't want to see get killed.  Loomis and Strode we want to see live and they do.  As much time is focused on their characters, they better.  Strangely, Donald Pleasance is given top-billing.  He IS an important character and a hero in this movie, but the film definitely follows and builds on the Laurie Strode character of Jamie Lee Curtis.  We see her more than him.  Now in "Halloween II," Donald Pleasance is unquestionably the star, as Curtis' character is out of action for most of the movie.  Watch "Halloween" I and II together, it's like one movie.

If You Like This Movie, Then Watch...

• "Halloween II" (1981)-  Stars: Jamie Lee Curtis.  You really shouldn't watch Halloween 1 without seeing this movie.  "Halloween II" completes the story, where the first film doesn't give you much explanation or closure.

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Halloween II (1981):  The Halloween movies are unusual for horror movies.  For one thing, there is a lot more realism.  There are no dream worlds or weird fantasy crap.  It's not like having a bad acid trip.  Everything that happens happens in the real world.  Michael Myers is a serial killer who just happens to be a bit stranger than most.  For one thing, he has superhuman strength and regenerative properties.  Bullets don't seem to kill him.  Neither does falling.  As the movies progress, we find that more and more things do not kill him.  We start wondering what exactly WILL kill the bast***.

    The only real bad thing about the Halloween movies is that they like to build up suspense for so long that it tends to get boring.  "JUST KILL SOMEONE ALREADY!" you'll find yourself saying.  Another surprise with these movies is that the actual killings are never shown as violent as what they elude to in the suspense-building scenes.

    The saga of "Halloween" is intelligent.  It's really nothing more than a crime story with an extremely bizarre killer.  That's it.  No gross monsters or anything like that.  It's just that Michael Myers is such a bad guy in looks and actions that he's referred to as a "movie monster."

    This movie picks up EXACTLY where Halloween I left off.  Not a year or a day later; RIGHT where it leaves off.  Laurie Strode is taken to the hospital immediately after her ordeal with the killer.  Apparently his fall in the last movie did not kill him (nor the bullets) as he is up and running around.  Laurie does not yet know that Michael Myers is her brother, and that his desire is to kill all his relatives.  Meanwhile, Dr. Sam Loomis and the cops are looking all over the city for the escaped mental patient.  Little do they know that he is at the hospital, picking off people one at a time.

    We barely see Jamie Lee Curtis' character in this movie.  Most of the time we do see her, she is so completely out of it that she doesn't have any real lines.  She just doesn't do anything but scream a little and run around.  Not exactly a real stretch of acting talent.  She's had much better roles in her other Halloween films and other films in general.

    The absolute main player of the whole picture is Donald Pleasance as Dr. Sam Loomis.  Now he's just darn good.  Definitely the hero, and a bit stressed because no one wants to believe him or cooperate with him.  He's the one who puts the pieces together of the case and all the action seems to follow him.  And ultimately, he is the one who "kills" Michael Myers.

    By the way, Michael's fate in this movie is that he is shot in the eyes and lit completely on fire.

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The Hearse (1980)-  This movie actually looks and feels more recent than 1980, but it WAS made in 1980.  It was pretty well done for the time, technically speaking.  The story idea was cool, and Trish Van Devere is attractive.  Van Devere plays Jane Hardy, a woman who moves into the abandoned house of her long-deceased Aunt Jane.  On the outset, Jane seems pretty happy about it; she was now in the quiet country in a nice, big house and had some time and space to pick up the pieces of her broken spirit.  But Jane gets a little concerned about how the townfolk shun her, and everyone is scared of her house.  Even more, Jane starts having "weird" things happen at her house, and she's stalked by an old-fashioned black hearse and its sinister-looking driver.  She sees that there is a great resemblance between her and her Aunt Jane, and there is some significance to her aunt's pendant that she now wears.  What the heck is going on?

    "The Hearse" sets itself up great, but ultimately fails to explain anything, gives us a vague ending, and leaves the viewer unsatisfied.  I wish this movie would have had a sequel just to answer the questions raised by this film.

    Trish Van Devere is the star and, although she acted quite a bit through 1995, is probably best-known as the widow of acting legend George C. Scott.  The most popular member of this movie's cast would be Christopher McDonald as Pete, a local young punk.  His part in this movie is small, but McDonald went on to play jerky bad guys in a string of mostly comedy films.

Cast:

Trish Van Devere as Jane Hardy
David Gautreaux as Tom Sullivan
Perry Lang as Paul Gordon
Joseph Cotten as Walter Pritchard
Dominic Barto as The Driver
Donald Hotten as Reverend Winston
Med Flory as Sheriff Denton
Al Hansen as Bo Rehnquist

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Hellraiser (1987):  This is some overly violent, freak stuff.  Surprisingly, however, it's a very good story.  The overall concept intrigues, although there are some plot holes big enough to drive a truck through.  Especially with the box.  The box is so important to the story, but it's basically used as a prop.  At the end, our heroine Kristie is blasting demons back into Hell with the box, shifting the puzzle-like object in all kinds of ways and pointing it at the creatures.  How does she even know to shift it around and aim it?  But that's just a small matter.  This movie is really more of a visual than it is a deep thinker.  And that's good.  I wouldn't want an excuse to take such an intensely terrifying movie too seriously.  After all, it's escapism.

    Andrew Robinson is good in this movie.  You might know him best for his role as Scorpio, the villain in "Dirty Harry."  For most of the movie he plays good guy Larry Cotton.  Near the end, his brother Frank kills him, steals his skin, and assumes the disguise of Larry.  I really hated to see that happen.  I liked Larry and wish he could've lived.  You don't see Mr. Robinson in too many roles where he plays a completely likeable good guy.

    The rest of the cast is good, too.  My biggest gripe is that Clare Higgins, as Larry's unfaithful wife Julia, is too darned serious ALL the time.  Even before she meets the Frank monster she acts like she has a stick up her fanny.  For crying out loud, she could've loosened up every once in awhile.  But a lot of that might have been out of her hands.  Acting wise, she was very convincing.  Her character WILL get on your nerves, though.

    The character for which this movie is most famous is actually just a bit player in this film.  The lead Cenobite as he is known in this picture was NOT known as "Pinhead."  That was what he was referred to AFTER this first Hellraiser movie came out.  He is simply referred to as "Lead Cenobite" here.

    Larry Cotton and his b**** wife Julia (with an English accent) move into his old house.  It has not been lived in for almost ten years since Larry's first wife died.  Larry's delinquent brother Frank was allowed to stay in it which he did from time to time.  Larry never knew where Frank was or what he was up to; just some criminal mischief.

    An undetermined amount of time before this, Frank bought a mysterious box, an occult object, from an old Chinese man.  Taking it back to the house, he tampers with it which proves to be fatal.  Frank is killed in no uncertain terms.  Everything in the room is cleaned out by his killers, so no one would ever know what happened.  Meanwhile, his soul is being tortured in some kind of evil place (we assume Hell) by a group of evil demons called Cenobites.

    Flash back even further in time.  It's revealed to us that Julia, shortly before her wedding to Larry, had an affair with Frank.  So she actually loves him more than Larry, but doesn't know where he is either for all this time.

    While in the process of moving, Larry cuts his hand deeply on a nail.  Blood spills in the room of Frank's death.  The blood is absorbed into the floor where it resurrects Frank, somewhat.  His body is partially regenerated, but needs the blood and flesh of other people to become whole again.  Frank recruits his old flame Julia into bringing him more people.  Julia uses her trampy ways to lure men into the room.  She kills them with a hammer, and Frank does the rest.  More and more he becomes whole.  His last victim is his own brother Larry.  Frank steals Larry's skin and assumes his identity.

    To avoid too complicated a summary (watch the movie!) let me just say that Larry's daughter Kristie knows what's up.  However, she reluctantly makes a deal with the Cenobites to lead them to Hell fugitive Frank or her own soul would be taken in his place.  Pinhead and the other Cenobites kill Frank (again), but afterwards they STILL want to take Kristie.  The girl, freaked out of her wits, uses the magic box to zap those guys back to Hell.  All in all, everyone dies except Kristie and her boyfriend.

    After the house burns up and the box is thrown in with it, a weird derelict who has been pestering Kristie throughout the whole movie retrieves the box, catching himself on fire!  The hobo turns into a demonic dragon who flies away with the box.  At the movie's closing, we see the box being sold by the old Chinese man to another guy.  So it starts again!

    Obviously, this movie is Rated R.  Watch it only if you're not greatly squeamish with violence.  It was actually toned down a bit in most scenes, but it's grossest where it matters.  Be warned.  Definitely not one for the kiddies.

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Horror High (1974)-  A tad dumb, but watchable.  A high school nerd transforms himself into a monster to exact revenge on his tormentors.

    The whole thing with Vernon's father and his father's girlfriend has NOTHING to do with anything; they should have totally omitted those scenes.  Rosie Holotik, who plays Vernon's would-be girlfriend Robin Jones is a hot little redhead.  Holotik appeared in Playboy Magazine in 1972.  She was in only three B-movies between 1973-1974, and one Perry Mason TV movie in 1991.  It's a shame she didn't do more, because she's pretty enough and charming enough to have a following.  Pat Cardi, however, is one of the homeliest critters I've ever seen.  I mean it in the nicest way, though :)  He's a good, likable actor, and I know they had to "dud him up" to make him like the homeliest nerd in creation; mission accomplished.  Cardi's another actor who could have done more.  This was his last role.  Austin Stoker gives another good performance.  I like him in shows.

    This movie has its own charm, but it's bogged down with problems shared by many 1970s B-movies.  The filming just looks bad.  That alone dates this movie.  This would have looked like an "old movie" by the later 1970s, let alone by today's standards.  The writing is plagued with things that aren't explained, loose ends that are not tied up, and unnecessary scenes altogether.  I'm not happy with the ending.  What's the message supposed to be?  If you're a nice guy that gets picked on, you get killed at the end?  That sucks!  A better ending would have been that he got away with it.  Vernon only killed real terrible people.  Why should he have had to suffer?  This movie also could have used a soundtrack.  The only song is "Vernon's Theme" at the beginning, and the rest of the time we hear canned music.  A part of the movie's budget should have gone for a few more songs.  The producers could have eliminated a few of the actors to pay for the song rights, and done the movie a couple favors.  What most B-movie producers/directors don't realize is that when you're a low-budget movie, you have to have as much "flash" as possible.  Anything helps, and it doesn't have to cost much.  Show some cool cars, throw in some more pretty girls, have some catchy tunes...even a few lines of witty dialogue here and there...anything.

    The acting is alright enough.  Nothing outstanding, but nothing bad.  Everyone pretty much seemed "into" it.  I do believe the cast and crew in its entirety put their effort into it, but they didn't always know what they were doing.  "Horror High" gets an A for effort.  As a movie, though, it's strictly a novelty.  Worth watching once if you have the time.

Cast:

Pat Cardi as Vernon Potts
Rosie Holotik as Robin Jones
Austin Stoker as Lt. Bozeman
Mike McHenry as Roger Davis, the bully
Jeff Alexander as Mr. Griggs, the janitor
Joye Hash as Miss Grindstaff, the English teacher
John Niland as Coach McCall
Nick Felix as Mr. Henshaw, the Science teacher

Director- Larry N. Stouffer
Writer- Jake Fowler

Alternate Titles:

• Twisted Brain

Fun Facts:

• This movie was filmed at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas.  Exact address is 3128 Dyer Street.
• Of all the actors in this film, Austin Stoker is the most accomplished and has played lead and supporting roles since the 1960s.
• John Niland, who plays Coach McCall, actually played Guard for the Dallas Cowboys pro-football team.

If You Like This Movie, Then Watch...

• "Teen Wolf" (1985)-  Stars: Michael J. Fox.  This is definitely a better movie than "Horror High", but it follows the same basic idea.  "Teen Wolf" is a straight comedy; nothing horror to it.  But our hero is a high school nerd who transforms into a werewolf and becomes the star of his basketball team.

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The House That Dripped Blood (1971)-  Corny name, great movie!  This is a very well-done horror movie because it scares the heck out of you without showing any gore.  It's well-filmed, well-acted, and certainly well-written.  I enjoyed it all around.

    Popular film star named Paul Henderson has disappeared after renting a spooky mansion.  Inspector Holloway from Scotland Yard, always the skeptic, refuses to believe the warnings given to him by the mansion's realtor, A.J. Stoker.  Stoker tells him of four incidents that have taken place in the house, all of them ending very badly for the house's owners.

    Each of the four stories in this movie, although seemingly unrelated at first, are all linked together by one thing: the house's horrifying secret!  This film's finale is one you'll not soon forget!

    Ingrid Pitt is HOT!  She certainly knows how to wear a dress!  I also thought she had a very cool part.

Cast:

John Bryans as A.J. Stoker
John Bennett as Det. Inspector Holloway
John Malcolm as Sgt. Martin
"Method for Murder":
Denholm Elliott as Charles Hillyer
Joanna Dunham as Alice Hillyer
Tom Adams as Richard/Dominic
Robert Lang as Dr. Andrews
"Waxworks":
Peter Cushing as Philip Grayson
Joss Ackland as Neville Rogers
Wolfe Morris as Waxworks Proprietor
"Sweets for the Sweet":
Christopher Lee as John Reid
Nyree Dawn Porter as Ann Norton
Chloe Franks as Jane Reid
"The Cloak":
Jon Pertwee as Paul Henderson
Ingrid Pitt as Carla Lynde
Geoffrey Bayldon as Theo von Hartmann

SPECIAL MENTION:
Joanna Lumley as Film Crew Girl [uncredited]

Director- Peter Duffell
Writer- Robert Bloch, Russ Jones (segment, "Waxworks"; uncredited)

Fun Facts:

• This movie was written by Robert Bloch, best known for his novel and subsequent film, "Psycho".
  
• Denholm Elliott is probably best known for playing Marcus Brody, sidekick to iconic movie hero Indiana Jones in "Raiders of the Lost Ark" (1981) and "Indiana Jones & the Last Crusade" (1989).
• There were at least two references to the fact that Christopher Lee, one of the stars in this film, played Dracula in seven films prior to this movie's release (and three films since).
• The first of the Christopher Lee as Dracula references was in the segment "Waxworks", where Peter Cushing is seen passing a wax statue of Lee as Dracula many times.
• The second of the Christopher Lee as Dracula references comes from the character of Paul Henderson in the segment "The Cloak", in which he says he prefers Bela Lugosi as Dracula over "this new fellow".
• Peter Cushing tried to get out of his contract for this film so he could take care of his sick wife, but he had to carry on.
• Joss Ackland became very popular many years later for such roles as the villain in "Lethal Weapon 2" (1989) and Hans in "The Mighty Ducks" (1992).
• Christopher Lee's favorite book is "Lord of the Rings", and he's seen reading the book in this movie, more than three decades prior to starring in the popular films.
• Chloe Franks had a niche as playing "evil little girls" in scary movies.
• Ingrid Pitt was one of the most popular actresses of the often, extremely sexy Hammer Films productions of the 1970s.  She was best known for playing seductive female vampires.
• Vincent Price was originally offered the role of Paul Henderson.  The character of Paul Henderson was definitely fashioned after Vincent Price, who had also starred in "hundreds of films", often playing vampires.  On Price's part, it was probably not such a good decision to refuse this role.  His name attachment to this movie would have helped make it a much bigger hit, plus it was a very good role for him.
• This movie was the first feature film credit for Peter Duffell, the now-popular British TV director.
• Director Peter Duffell originally wanted this film to be titled, "Death and the Maiden".  Producer Milton Subotsky ultimately decided the title would be, "The House That Dripped Blood".  Both titles suck, but the movie is great.

If You Like This Movie, Then Watch...

• "Tales From the Crypt" (1972)- Stars: Sir Ralph Richardson, Joan Collins, Peter Cushing, Richard Greene.  It has the same anthology type set-up as "The House That Dripped Blood", a collection of stories that, although unique from each other, all have one thing in common that we learn at the end.  It also has that same, great British edge.  The British can be fiercely scary using only a minimum of violence.  It's a thrilling horror movie with little violence onscreen.

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Immortal Sins (1992):  This is a smaller-budget, independent film, but much better than a lot of mainstream horror films made around the time or even today.  The filmmakers didn't try to exceed their bounds or tell a story that the budget couldn't allow.  This was tastefully well done, but better than anything else was the cast.  Cliff De Young, Maryam D'abo, Shari Shattuck...any one of these could have been the top-billed star because their characters were all equally important to the story.  But Shari Shattuck definitely has the most interesting character in witch Diana, who preys upon Michael De Alvarez to fuel her centuries-long vendetta against the family bloodline.  The villain she plays is so interesting, that I've given her her very own section in my Film Fatales:  Blair's Bad Girls department.  Check it out!  Also worth mention is Tony Isbert who plays Gustavo, a friend to the family.  He's a likable guy.  I'm glad nothing bad happens to him.  This movie was originally released in Spain as "Besos en la oscuridad".  In the United States it's also known as "Veil of Dreams" (video title) and "Vengeance with a Kiss" (TV title).  By any title, I urge you to see it if you're up for a deliciously sexy and scary thriller.

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Jeepers Creepers (2001)-  Very interesting.  This first film in the series is a thriller more than anything else.  There's some action, but it's not really an action movie.  And it takes awhile before it develops as a horror film, although there are certainly horror elements.  Two college kids driving home on a long, little populated stretch of highway come across what they think is a man stuffing a body down a sewer pipe.  What they actually discover is something far more terrifying.

    The villain-who-never-speaks, simply called "The Creeper", is a man-like bat creature who eats people to regenerate himself.  He's apparently been around for a long, long time.  Every 23rd Spring, for 23 days, he eats.  Then he has to hide back into the ground until another 23 years comes around.

    Darry Jenner (played by Justin Long) gets captured and killed by the Creeper at the end of this film.  What's cool is that his character serves an important function in the next film.  This movie is truly frightening, and very interesting.  Just what is this "Creeper"?

    This movie is written and directed by Victor Salva, the genius behind "Jeepers Creepers".  This is a fine film, but he really outdid himself with "Jeepers Creepers 2".

If You Like This Movie, Then Watch...

• "Jeepers Creepers 2" (2003)- Stars: Ray Wise.  In my opinion, the sequel far outclassed the original.  The first movie is good, but the second movie presents a much bigger story and a clearer picture on just what the Creeper is.

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Jeepers Creepers 2 (2003)-  Easily better than the first movie.  Whereas the first one was more of a thriller, this is definitely action-horror.  It's the 23rd day of The Creeper's feeding time.  This time, he sets his sights on a school bus full of high school football players and cheerleaders.  In the meantime, Creeper is being hunted by Jack Taggart (played perfectly by Ray Wise), whose son Billy was killed by the monster on its 22nd day of feeding.

    Psychic visions come to blonde cheerleader Minxie.  Darry Jenner from the first film, now deceased, warns her to get out of this area and tells her more about the monster.  We know now that Creeper's been around for thousands of years.  There's some significance to the number 23 (it eats every 23rd Spring for 23 days).  It eats people to regenerate its body.  Somehow, Creeper can smell a person's fear, and selects a person through that.  He's selective with who he eats.

    They upped the anty with this movie.  The action is non-stop.  The Creeper is flying around almost all the time.  We do not see his old truck in this movie.  We also do not hear his favorite song "Jeepers Creepers".  We see a lot more of the monster than we did in the last film.  We can see just how bat-like he is.  We can also see that he has very human intelligence.  He makes weapons out of people's body parts.  He also seems to have facial expression, and it looks like he enjoys doing what he's doing.  More than before, The Creeper is an interesting character.

    Taggart has become an archnemesis for Creeper.  This is cool.  Unlike a lot of monster movies, we know that THIS monster has been challenged.  Creeper ain't the baddest dog on the block, anymore!  Taggart is to Creeper what Van Helsing was to Dracula.  The end of this movie fast forwards nearly 23 years into the future.  Taggart is now an old man, wheelchair bound.  He has the body of Creeper pinned to the inside of his barn's wall.  He is anxiously awaiting the reanimation of Creeper, which he expects in about three days, "give or take a day or two".  So we know the next movie will have to be set sometime in the not-to-distant future.

    This movie certainly appears to be on a bigger budget.  And the script is certainly better.  The acting is by far better.  The kids on the schoolbus all have such distinct personalities.  The character of Taggart is just too cool.  This has to be the coolest thing Ray Wise has done.  As a matter of fact, if you haven't seen either of the Jeepers Creepers movies, I'd recommend just seeing this one.  The first movie is fine, but EVERYTHING important from the first movie is recapped in this movie, and you get to see a lot more activity.  You're not missing out on part of the story if you just see this film.

    Victor Salva, the mastermind writer/director behind the "Jeepers Creepers" films, really outdid himself with this movie.  At every given turn, there is something to attract you to this film.  Whether it's the personalities of the people on the bus, the incredible action, jolting horror sequences, Taggart and his makeshift harpoon weapon...there's always something cool to see.  As a matter of fact, I can't wait to be dazzled with another "Jeepers Creepers" movie.

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Lurkers (1988)-  The title is cool.  Christine Moore is pretty.  It's actually a very good story.  Everything is within the extreme realm of possibility.  I don't usually like movies that do not have happy endings, but the story was engaging enough to make it pass.  I do believe that this story could and should have been continued in another film.  I'd like to see Cathy's ghost defeat the hell demons in another chapter.

    The acting was good for a lower-budget film.  Some actors are better than others, but that's true of any movie.  Most of the important questions were answered, so the writing was not aimless.  My only gripe was that it dragged until Cathy returned "home" for the party.  Then it became pretty exciting and stayed that way until the final frame.

    This is definitely rated R material.  It's not overly violent, although it's greatly implied.  There are a couple of bloody scenes, but rather tame by today's standards.  This movie relies more on its plot and psychology to be scary, and it works.  Cathy had a very troubling childhood.  There was something about the apartment building she lived in as a child that scared her to death.  It drove her mother nuts and made her life completely miserable.  Her Mom ended up killing her Dad.  Cathy ended up killing her own mother in self defense.  Cathy's brother, Steve, totally disowned his sister and took up the priesthood as an adult.  Steve never understood that it was the house, not Cathy, that was evil.

    Years later, as a grown woman, Cathy found happiness.  At least she thought she had.  Her music career was budding, she had a charming photographer fiance with his own firm.  Everything seemed to be fine on the outside.  But Cathy's nightmares from childhood resurfaced, and everything starts falling apart.  She soon learns that she's not going mad, that there really is something to her scary visions, and that it all ties to the apartment building she lived in as a child.  You'll have to watch this movie to find out the rest of the story.

Cast:

Christine Moore as Cathy
Gary Warner as Bob
Peter Oliver-Norman as Steve
Marina Taylor as Monica
Nancy Groff as Rita
Carissa Channing as Sally
Eva Baumann as Guardian Angel
Roy MacArthur as Desmond
Tom Billett as Leo, the Hammer [credited as Thomas Billett]
Dana Nardelli as Young Cathy
Lauren Ruane as Ghost Child
C.C. Banks as Agnes, Cathy's Mother
Wayne Burcham as John, Cathy's Father
Ruth Collins as Jane, the Model
Annie Grindlay as Lulu, the Model

Director- Roberta Findlay
Writers- Ed Kelleher, Harriette Vidal.

Alternate Titles:

• Home Sweet Home

Fun Facts:

• This is the only acting credit for Marina Taylor, Peter Oliver-Norman, Dana Nardelli, Eva Baumann.
• Tom Billett is probably the most accomplished actor in this cast, and has worked steady from the 1980s-today.

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The Mad Monster (1942)-  It's a wolfman movie, plain and simple.  The title for this film is pretty lame.  I'm sure they could have come up with something more appropriate.  The movie itself, though, is pretty good for what it is.  The story idea is cool enough.  This movie could be remade today with a more scientifically-grounded story.  Better special effects would serve it well, too.

     A mad scientist named Dr. Cameron transforms his dimwit handyman Petro into a werewolf by night.  Cameron's sole intention is to exact revenge on the four college professors that got him ousted from the university for his "crazy" ideas.  Lenora Cameron, his unknowing daughter, is also the girlfriend of reporter Tom Gregory.  Tom starts putting the pieces together and all evidence points to Dr. Cameron.

    The main players act okay, but a lot of the lesser-known bit players are pretty bad.  Glenn Strange, who plays Petro, gives the best performance.  He's intentionally hilarious!  Petro is a likable character despite the fact that he turns into a wolfman.  I think it's a shame he gets killed at the end.  He deserved a better fate.  Nowadays, I think Petro would be considered retarded.  In this movie, he's just "slow".

    George Zucco, who made a career of playing uppity bad guys, also does a good job.  In the beginning, we see Dr. Cameron talking to people who are not there.  The four professors he hates appear as transparent visions.  This is a cool effect.  It adds a psychological terror to this film, to go with the physical terror of the actual wolfman.

    Like I've said, the basic story is good, but the writing gets kind of lazy.  By the end of the movie, a lightning bolt strikes inside of the house and catches it on fire.  The whole house is up in flames in seconds.  Uh...huh...I see.  Petro kills Dr. Cameron, which is appropriate, but he dies in the housefire.  Petro never learns he is the wolfman.  It seems that the ending of this movie was rushed.  This movie was deserving of a conclusion that was a bit more imaginative and memorable.  Then it just ends with Tom Gregory and Lenora Cameron watching the house burn down.  That's dumb!  I want more of a resolution.

    This is a fun little movie to see, but no masterpiece.  The main actors and the overall story idea makes it worth watching for film buffs, but there have certainly been better movies made since in the mad scientist and/or wolfman vein.

Cast:

Johnny Downs as Tom Gregory, young reporter.
George Zucco as Dr. Lorenzo Cameron, mad scientist.
Anne Nagel as Lenora Cameron, Tom's girlfriend and daughter of Dr. Cameron.
Glenn Strange as Petro, dimwit handyman and werewolf.

Robert Strange as Professor Blaine.
Gordon Demain as Professor Fitzgerald.
Reginald Barlow as Professor Warwick.
John Elliott as Professor Hatfield.
Edward Cassidy as Father.
Eddie Holden as Harper.
Charles Whitaker as Policeman.
Gil Patric as Lieutenant Detective.
Henry Hall as Country Doctor.

Notable bit actors:
Mae Busch as Susan, the hillbilly wife [recurring actress in Laurel & Hardy films].
Sarah Padden as Grandmother [played Loweezy in first Snuffy Smith movie, "Private Snuffy Smith" (1942)].

Writer- Fred Myton
Director- Sam Newfield

Alternate Titles For This Film:

• The Mad Monsters (working title)

Fun Facts:

• At 77 minutes, this is supposed to be the longest movie from a "poverty row" studio in the 1940s.
• Petro, the wolfman, kills five people.  The first is a little girl, the second is Professor Blaine, the third is a hillbilly, the fourth is Professor Fitzgerald, and the last is Dr. Cameron.
• For some reason, this movie was refused a UK cinema certificate when it was first released.  However, it was finally passed, uncut, 10 years later.
• Released on May 15, 1942 in the USA.
  

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Mesa of Lost Women (1953)-  This isn't a great movie, but it isn't terrible.  There are two major detriments to this film.  The first is the loud and all-too-frequent Spanish guitar music.  Sometimes the music is so loud that you can't hear the dialogue.  The second big problem is the narration by Lyle Talbot that is absolutely unnecessary.  I'm a big fan of Lyle Talbot, but what he says in this film does not add anything to the story or help explain anything that isn't seen; it's just pointless.  One remark from critics is the hammy acting.  I don't think the acting is that bad; it's just that the movie doesn't hold up.  There are so many unexplained plotholes it isn't funny; and the movie ends before the story really gets started.  It's all too brief.  The survivors tell their story to others, and they don't go back to kill the giant spider monsters?  There is no absolution to the film.  This would have been great if the movie was followed up by a direct sequel, but that never happened.  It's an unfinished film!

    The movie is meant to be horror, but I think it's more of an adventure film.  There is nothing that scary about it.  A mad doctor creates a race of superwomen that turn into giant spiders.

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Night Fright (1967)-  John Agar stars as the hero, Sheriff Clint Crawford.  This isn't the worst movie I've ever seen, but it certainly isn't very good.  It's only 75 minutes, but it's still too long.  There just isn't that much to the story.  It's filmed bad, the special effects are bad, and the soundtrack is boring.  On top of that, most of the acting is bad.  Some of the delivery is pretty good, but mostly from John Agar.  The others have their moments, and they might have had more ability than this movie shows, but they just didn't have much to work with.

    A rocket crashes outside a small Texas town.  It's later learned that NASA sent animals up into space, some kind of radiation hit it, it crashed down to earth, and a mutated ape now roams the woods killing people like there's no tomorrow!  Ultimately, it doesn't take much to kill the monster, but we have to sit through long, drawn out, searching-through-the-woods scenes.  Cut down to under an hour, this might have made a good episode of a TV show like "Twilight Zone" or "Outer Limits".  As a feature film, it's a drag.

    Why would you want to watch it nowadays?  Well, the 1960s are cool.  And you get to see foxy-looking girls, cool cars, and other neat things from the era.  The basic concept of the movie is good enough.  But you can't really take much more away from it.

Alternate Titles For This Film:

• E.T.N.: The Extraterrestrial Nasty [UK VHS title- This was a play on the name of the much popular (and better) "E.T.: The Extraterrestrial".  The VHS cover was even a mock-up of the more famous movie.  It was released as this title by the Video Nasty company.]
• Fright Night [TV title]

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Out for Blood (2004):  Probably better-known as "Vampires: Out for Blood".  When it came time to release this on DVD, the distributors must have realized that the name change would help sell it as a vampire movie.  "Out for Blood" sounds like a Steven Seagal film!  They might also have been trying to trick people into thinking this was a sequel to the "Vampires" series of films started by John Carpenter in 1998.

    I really, really enjoy "Out for Blood".  I'm surprised this movie has not received far more attention on the DVD circuit.  It should at least have a strong cult following.  This movie really is of mainstream quality.  It has an excellent cast including name actors like Kevin Dillon, Vanessa Angel, Jodi Lyn O'Keefe, and Lance Henriksen.  The writing is outstanding, the story is original, and the acting performances are pretty solid.  In the wide world of vampire movies, "Out for Blood" certainly earns its place.  I like the fact that the filmmakers tried to play this movie as straight as possible.  Too many vampire movies are over-the-top outlandish, where most of this movie is within the extreme realm of possibility.

    Hank, a police detective, discovers something that shakes his sanity.  He has just uncovered a nest of vampires.  What's worse, he has been bitten by their leader and is slowly turning into one of them.  With the help of his estranged wife (Vanessa Angel), Hank goes after the vampires in an attempt to save others, himself, and clear his name.  There are a number of surprise twists and turns in this story that will keep you in suspense through the final frame.

Cast:

Kevin Dillon as Hank Holten
Vanessa Angel as Susan Hastings
Jodi Lyn O'Keefe as Layla Simmons
Lance Henriksen as Captain John Billings
Melissa Rivers as Talk Show Host

Alternate Titles:

• As Good as Dead [U.S.; working title]
• Blood City: L.A. Vampire [Japan; literal English title]
  
• Vampires: Out for Blood

Fun Facts:

• This movie is NOT based on the vampire novel "Out for Blood" by John Peyton Cooke.  It's just a coincidence.

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Prime Evil (1988)-  S'okay.  It's an interesting enough story concept, but it's not the best movie of its kind.  First of all, I never cared for the whole Christianity theme in horror movies.  I'm not concerned about this movie being blasphemous.  I've never believed that movies or anything could be blasphemous, anyway.  I think some people get too uptight about religion in media.  Movies are all about entertainment and keeping an open mind, and this movie does that.  I just find Christianity to be such a dull theme in horror movies.  It's been overdone.  I'm not that fascinated with the idea of secretly evil preachers and devil cults.

    Beyond that, this just wasn't the best-crafted script, or the best-acted production.  Pretty passionless.  Some of the acting is terrible.  Most of the main cast is okay.  This is another film from the low-budget Crown International Pictures.  Their movies are real hit and miss.  Some are really good, some are really bad, and a few of them land in the "so-so" category.  This movie is "so-so".

    "Prime Evil" is okay to see if you have some downtime, but not a must-see.

Cast:

Christine Moore as Alexandra Parkman
William Beckwith as Reverend Thomas Seaton
Max Jacobs as George Parkman
Mavis Harris as Sister Angela
Tim Gail as Bill King
Ruth Collins as Cathy
Amy Brentano as Brett
Jeanne Marie as Judy
Gary Warner as Detective Dan Carr
Roseanna Peterson as Alison Devereaux
Cameron Kell as Frances Parkman

Fun Facts:

• Christine Moore and Gary Warner also starred as fiances in the earlier film, "Lurkers" (1988).
• Ruth Collins was also in "Lurkers" (1988), playing a model.
• In "Lurkers", Christine Moore's character died; in this film she lives.
• In "Lurkers", Gary Warner's character was evil, but lived; in this film he is a good cop and lives.  In this film, unlike "Lurkers", there is absolutely no romantic interest between Moore and Warner's characters.

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Silver Bullet (1985)-  Or rather "Stephen King's Silver Bullet".  I'm not into a whole lot of stuff Stephen King has written, but this is a good movie.  It is set in the year 1976 in a small town in Maine called Tarker's Mills.  Some strange things are going on in Tarker's Mills.  Young, paraplegic Marty Costlaw (Corey Haim) believes it's the workings of a werewolf.  Marty's older sister Jane (Megan Follows) has a very strained relationship with her younger brother, but they soon join forces when they believe the werewolf to be Reverend Lowe (Everett McGill).  The only one who really gives the youngsters any credit is their Uncle Red (Gary Busey), an alcoholic, but nice man who happens to be mechanically-minded.  Red builds a wheelchair motorcycle for Marty that he names the Silver Bullet.  At the end of the movie, Red has an actual silver bullet made to kill the werewolf, which Marty fires.  Once the werewolf is dead, the bond between Marty and his sister is forever strengthened.  The grown-up Jane is actually the narrator for this story.

    This is a pretty optimistic, modern-day werewolf tale.  Gary Busey actually plays a likable character.  I thought the cast, in its entirety, did a great job.  I liked the werewolf creature.  Producer Dino De Laurentiis was publicly unhappy with the werewolf suit, and he also thought the actor's movements inside the suit were badly done.  This was an insult to Everett McGill, of course, because he was also a professional dancer and knew what he was doing.  I actually thought the werewolf creature was pretty well done, and I was happy with McGill's job on the whole.  This is a great movie.

Cast:

Corey Haim as Marty Costlaw
Gary Busey as Uncle Red
Megan Follows as Jane Costlaw
Everett McGill as Reverend Lowe
Terry O'Quinn as Sheriff Joe Haller
James Gammon as Arnie Westrum

Fun Facts:

• Shooting for this film started before they even had the werewolf suit.
• "Silver Bullet" is based on Stephen King's novella, "Cycle of the Werewolf", a short novel published in 1983.  In this book, each of the twelve chapters was a stand-alone story about the same werewolf in Tarker's Mills, and the events were spread out about a year.  The events in this book were adapted/condensed to fit a feature film.

Photos:

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Succubus: Hell Bent (2007):  This movie is much better than the description on the DVD box would have suggested.  I thought this might be some hacky teen horror flick like the "Scream" films, and was surprised to find out this was a pretty decent horror movie for adults.  It was really well-acted and, for a lower-budget movie, I was blown away by the special effects; most notably, the jet sequences and the final moments where Lilith is in her demoness form.  There were some bigger name actors like Gary Busey, Kelly Hu, and Lorenzo Lamas, but all of them had small parts.  Lamas' character was simply known as Flight Instructor.

    I thought the two male leads were good.  They played the kind of a**holes I know so well from my high school and college days.  Natalie Denise Sperl as Lilith was fantastic!  How come we don't hear more about her?

Cast:

Robert L. Mann as Adam
Jayson Blair as Jason
Natalie Denise Sperl as Lilith
David Keith as Wallace, Adam's Dad
Kelly Hu as Detective Pei
Gary Busey as Sentinel
Lorenzo Lamas as Flight Instructor

Fun Facts:

• An Aero Vodochody L-39 jet (registered as N39DF) crashed while filming and killed Terrence Henry "Terry" Fregly and Lt. Col. Skip "Hoss" Robertson.
• Although this was Sperl's first leading lady role, she had done acting work in previous films and TV shows.  She was previously the Coors Light Girl and starred in a commercial with Kid Rock.
  

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Terror House (1972):  I like this film's alternate title, "Terror at the Red Wolf Inn", a lot better than the original title; "Terror House" is vague, while "Terror at the Red Wolf Inn" fits the film.  This is a pretty cool story.  It's filmed well and acted well.  The writing could have been fleshed out a bit more.  There are a LOT of questions left unanswered.  What happened to Baby John's parents?  Why exactly are the innkeepers eating people, anyway?  Do they just eat young girls, or will they eat guys, too?  And how come we don't even know of their dog's existence until the end of the movie?  Things like that should have been touched on.  Overall, it's an interesting movie.  They did a good job in making the Smiths total kooks.  I think it was important that humor was brought to those characters, otherwise they wouldn't have been much fun to watch.  After a while, you'll understand why he's called "Baby" John, and his Grandma and Grandpa are totally nuts.

    Young girls get tricked into "all-expense-paid" vacations to the Red Wolf Inn, a small hotel.  Little do they know that their hosts are cannibals!  Regina McKee, the heroine of this picture, ultimately brings their downfall.

    At the time of this movie's original release, I imagine it freaked out audiences pretty good.  Cannibal movies weren't as common then.  Nowadays, the direction of the story is somewhat predictable.  Still a good movie, and they made it freaky without showing gore.  The worst they do is show heads on a table; everything else is implied.

    I give kudos to the director of this film, who gave it one of the freakiest, most unsettling endings I've seen in a scary movie.  You have to see it; I'm not going to spoil the surprise.  I thought it was amusing how the end credits were presented as a menu.

    Great performances all around and a lot of fun for such a grim subject.

Cast:

Linda Gillen as Regina McKee [credited as Linda Gillin]
John Neilson as Baby John Smith [credited as John Nielson]
Arthur Space as Henry Smith
Mary Jackson as Evelyn Smith
Margaret Avery as Edwina [credited as Margret Avery]
Janet Wood as Pamela
Michael Macready as Jonathan the Deputy
Earl Parker as Paul the Pilot

Alternate Titles:

• Club Dead
• The Folks at Red Wolf Inn
• Secrets Beyond the Door [USA; reissue title]
• Terror at Red Wolf Inn [USA; alternate title]
• Terror at the Red Wolf Inn [USA; alternate title]
• Terror on the Menu

Fun Facts:

• The more famous film, "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" (1974), borrowed several elements from this film.  This included the victim's would-be rescuer being one of the crazy family, body parts in the freezer, the "slow" family member, and the dinner scenes.
• Margaret Avery later became very famous for her role as Shug Avery in "The Color Purple" (1985).
• In real life, the three notorious Smiths all died first.  Arthur Space (Henry Smith) died in 1983, John Neilson (Baby John Smith) died in 2000, Mary Jackson (Evelyn Smith) died in 2005.

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Thralls (2004):  There are some vampire movies that are solid good, and others that are solid bad.  "Thralls" is solid okay.  I still recommend it, but there are better vampire movies.  For one thing, it's not the most clever vampire tale ever written.  I do think that this movie could be categorized as sexploitation, but it isn't that sexy.  Don't get me wrong, the women look awesome.  However, the tiny bit of nudity they show in this movie doesn't overshadow the fact that this is a blood-and-guts picture.  You don't need nudity to make a movie sexy, but the women characters don't do or say anything that's really sexy.

    The acting is good enough, and the effects are alright.  However, the story didn't completely satisfy.  There are too many loose ends and things that aren't explained; too many unfinished thoughts that don't connect.  I do believe this story has a lot of potential.  The idea that our heroines are not necessarily vampires, but thralls, is an interesting angle.  Thralls are supposed to be half-vampire creatures who can't turn people, fly, or shapeshift.  Our girls are attempting a rite of passage that will make them full vampires and able to destroy their hated enemy.  I'm not usually surprised by a movie's turn of events, but I was very surprised when it was revealed that Lean was working with Jones.  That was well done.

    Lorenzo Lamas is looking his coolest here as the bad vampire dude Mr. Jones.  He looks much better with short hair than long hair (i.e. "Renegade" days).  I also thought this was an interesting role for him, as he usually doesn't play villains or any supernatural characters.  Like I said, all the women look great and are pretty decent actresses.  Siri Baruc (Ashley), who plays the wallflower, is probably the hottest one of the bunch when she turns vampiress.  But I think Moneca Delain (Brigitte) and Sonya Salomaa (Lean) have the hottest, most intriguing characters for most of the film.  I also really enjoyed Shawn Roberts as Jim, the love interest to Ashley.  I'm not surprised that he has since become a more popular actor in mainstream films.  Shawn seems to have a cool onscreen personality.

Cast:

Lorenzo Lamas as Mr. Jones
Leah Cairns as Leslie
Siri Baruc as Ashley
Moneca Delain as Brigitte
Fiona Scott as Roxie
Sonya Salomaa as Lean
Lisa Marie Caruk as Buzz
Crystal Lowe as Tanya
Richard Cox as Rennie
Shawn Roberts as Jim
Kevan Ohtsji as Doughboy

Alternate Titles:

• Blood Angels [Canada]

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Tormented (1960):  This horror movie was released in 1960.  It is a lower-budget movie filmed in black-and-white.  The story is actually pretty good, but the production values are somewhat limited.  Special effects were crude back then, and whenever used were expensive.  "Tormented" isn't necessarily filled with any real complicated special effects...just camera tricks for "ghostly images".  I do like the fact that, whenever possible, they used a lot of outside filming of the beach with the lighthouse.  It opens things up quite a bit; makes this story look more like an adventure.  This movie would've been even better had it been filmed in color.

    The acting of the overall cast is good; nothing real bad, but nothing really outstanding.  It's not meant to be a serious thinker.  Richard Carlson, the lead, gives a pretty good performance as a haunted man whose perfect life is falling apart.  The lovely female ghost is played by Juli Reding and man has she got a figure!  At this point in her career her measurements were 40-23-35.  Holy moley!  She's also gives a pretty good performance as the obsessed one-time lover and ghost.  I also liked Susan Gordon who played the little girl Sandy Hubbard.  She was cute.  Joe Turkel as Nick the blackmailer was good because his character was such a jive-talking creep.

    Tom Stewart (Richard Carlson) is a successful jazz pianist staying on an island community off of New England, preparing to marry the woman he loves, Meg Hubbard.  Meg happens to be the socialite daughter of wealthy parents.  That's not why Tom's marrying her, but it makes the story colorful.  In other words, his life is going to be perfect.  That is, until, singer Vi Mason (Juli Reding) comes to the island in secret and meets with Tom in a rundown lighthouse.  At one time Tom and Vi were lovers.  Tom dumped Vi for Meg.  Vi is jealous.  She threatens Tom that if he doesn't choose her over Meg, she will make his life a living hell.  How?  Vi kept a letter that Tom wrote.  She also threatens to use legal action against him. 

    Quite by accident, Vi leans up against the lighthouse railing which breaks.  She's hanging off the railing, reaching for Tom who is about to save her, but pulls back his hand at the last moment.  Vi falls to her death on the rocks below and drifts out to sea.  That ISN'T the last we see of her, however.  Tom feels guilty, but he thinks it's the perfect secret.  No one knew she was coming out there or that she had arrived except Tom.  But strange things happen after Vi's death that drives Tom closer to insanity with each passing day.  At first he finds her body, brings it to shore, only for it to turn into seaweed.  Then he finds her watch with name on it.  He later throws the watch back into the ocean, only for it to reappear in his room once again.  Vi Mason's record plays itself when he's playing piano.  He takes the record off the player, sets it on a table, and only a few seconds later it's on the player...playing again!  Vi's ghost does everything possible to ruin Tom's wedding.  She steals Meg's ring, ruins Meg's wedding gown with seaweed, and much more.  Throughout the movie you'll see visions of Vi's hand moving around, dismembered head, transparent visions, all sorts of weird stuff.

    We feel sorry for Tom for a long time.  His fiance feels distant from him, his fiance's sister (who has a crush on him) can't hold his attention, his soon-to-be in-laws think he's nuts, and just about everybody in the community can tell he's acting screwy.  Vi was an evil person and she deserved to die, but Tom DID pretty much send her to her death when he didn't try to save her.  Then a young guy by the name of Nick shows up to the island.  He's the boat captain who brought Vi to this island.  At first he comes for the money she owed him.  Then Nick stays on the island long enough to learn that Tom Stewart is marrying a wealthy man's daughter.  He figures that Tom probably killed Vi, and blackmails Tom for $5,000.  Either he gets his money or he spills the beans to Meg and her family.  Tom, being pushed even more toward insanity by Vi's ghost, takes Nick to the lighthouse where he kills the blackmailer with a piece of pipe to the skull.  Unfortunately for Tom, his fiance's little sister Sandy (who HAD a crush on him) witnessed the whole thing from a hiding spot.  Sandy's upset and tries to keep everything secret from her family and Tom.  Eventually, Sandy follows Tom to the lighthouse where she confesses.  Tom confesses too, and although he doesn't want to is strongly incensed to kill the little girl for knowing his secret.  This was his friend throughout the movie, and he's going to kill her?  What a freak!  Fortunately for Sandy, Vi's ghost rushes toward Tom.  Tom falls off the lighthouse to the rocks below. 

    Later, the townspeople retrieve Tom's body along with Vi's.  Vi had been in the ocean a week and was brought out first.  Sandy (Tom's little friend) and her big sister Meg look over his dead body.  What's even more disturbing to them is the fact that Meg's wedding ring is on Vi's finger (How did that get there?) and as soon as Tom's body was laid down, Vi's arm somehow wrapped around his chest with a smile on her face.  She got him in the end!  Weird!

    For being made in 1960, one of America's "innocent" years, this movie can be incredibly disturbing sometimes.  Tom is basically a good guy.  He just gets continually punished.  Everything in his life falls apart.  Vi was a b-word when she was alive, and still is after she's dead!  What really bothered me is when the little girl lost her respect for Tom and later sees him dead.  I wish that didn't have to be, but it did make for one scary movie!  Interesting enough, singer Margie Rayburn who had a popular hit song of her own with "I'm Available" in 1957, sang the song "Tormented" which was supposed to be Vi Mason's record.  The song sounds good enough, but we never get to hear the whole thing in the movie.  I'm a Margie Rayburn fan so I thought that tidbit of information was neat to put in here.  All in all, this is an exciting ghost story that could be remade and done even better today with advanced special effects.

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Troll (1986)-  This is a weird movie.  Weird.  But it IS entertaining.  Doesn't make a whole lot of sense, but it IS watchable.  This is one of the many family-oriented horror-comedies to come from the 1980s in the tradition of "Ghostbusters", "Gremlins", and others.  Unlike those films, this isn't as well-known.  "Troll" did well in theaters; it didn't flop.  However, it just didn't catch with audiences like the many other horror-comedies of the day, and it wasn't merchandised.

    The cast is awesome.  The story?  Not so much.  It isn't a terrible story; it's just not that coherent.  Could have explained itself better.  A lot of things happen just for the sake of happening.  "Troll" relies on shock value and special effects.  Basic premise: a troll terrorizes the tenants of an apartment building with ambitions of creating a new, evil universe.

    June Lockhart gives a great performance as Eunice St. Clair, the good witch heroine.  Real-life daughter Anne Lockhart also shines as young Eunice St. Clair, whom we see later in the movie.  Sonny Bono has a neat part as swinger-jerk Peter Dickinson.  I'm also very fond of Phil Fondacaro as midget English Professor Malcolm Mallory (he also played Torok the Troll).  Everyone in the cast did well, but those I've specifically mentioned are the standouts.

     There was a "Troll 2" (1990) and "Troll 3" (1990).  None of the "Troll" movies have anything to do with each other in any way except by name.  The not-sequels were named as such merely to capitalize on the "Troll" film.  As a matter of fact, "Troll 2" and "Troll 3" don't even have trolls in them!  In addition, "Troll 3" was not even for families and was given an R-rating.  I would like to have seen a real sequel to "Troll".

    There has also been a lot of speculation that the much-later "Harry Potter" book series ripped off a lot of ideas from this film.  Check out the Fun Facts below.

Cast:

Noah Hathaway as Harry Potter, Jr.
Jenny Beck as Wendy Anne Potter
June Lockhart as Eunice St. Clair
Anne Lockhart as Young Eunice St. Clair
Phil Fondacaro as Torok the Troll and Malcolm Mallory
Michael Moriarty as Harry Potter, Sr.
Shelley Hack as Anne Potter
Sonny Bono as Peter Dickinson
Gary Sandy as Barry "Duke" Tabor
Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Jeanette Cooper
Brad Hall as William Daniels

Fun Facts:

• There has been a lot of speculation that J.K. Rowling may have ripped off elements of the movie "Troll" (1986) for her mega-successful "Harry Potter" book series.
• For one thing, the main character of this film is a dark-haired young boy named Harry Potter.
• Harry Potter, upon discovering Eunice St. Clair is a witch, aspires to be a wizard.
• "Troll", like the later "Harry Potter" book series, features many similar fantasy elements like trolls, fairies, monsters, witches, wizards, etc.
• Author J.K. Rowling has said that the idea for her Harry Potter just "came to her".  John Carl Buechler, director and co-writer of "Troll", does not think so.
  
• This movie is the film debut of Julia Louis-Dreyfus, fresh from her three-year stint on TVs "Saturday Night Live", and four years before her breakthrough role on TVs "Seinfeld".

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Werewolf Woman (1976)-  Weird, weird movie.  Well, at least they knew how to open it.  Naked blonde woman Daniela (Annik Borel) dances inside a ring of fire.  There is a lot of nudity in this movie, as well as violence, bad language, and other unpleasantness.  Allegedly, this is based on a true story.  What happens in the story is certainly within the realm of possibility.  At the age of 13, Daniela Neseri, the daughter of a wealthy count, was raped.  Traumatized by this tragic event, Daniela becomes engrossed in the old family legend of a female ancestor who became a werewolf every full moon and went on a murderous rampage.  The likeness to Daniela and her ancestor is incredible, and she believes that she is the reincarnation of this woman.  She also believes that she, too, is a werewolf.  Daniela doesn't physically change into a monster, but she does attack like a wolf.  Throughout the entire movie, we are to wonder whether Daniela's illness is purely psychological, a delusion, or if there really is something to the werewolf story.

SPOILERS AHEAD!  DON'T READ IF YOU WANT TO BE SURPRISED!

• Daniela gets fully nude five times in this film.  We see just her vagina only once, and just her breasts only once.
• Elena Neseri, Daniela's sister, gets fully nude once in this film.
• A peasant girl gets fully nude once when alive, then we see her fully nude once after she's dead.
• A woman patient at the hospital bares a breast to the doctor.  This same woman, with lesbian desire for Daniela, unties her.  Daniela stabs this woman with scissors and escapes.
• Daniela kills 7 people in this film:  Fabian (Elena's husband), woman patient, (almost kills) woman doctor, peasant girl, man who gives her a ride, and three rapists.
• Daniela kills two of the tree rapists at the junkyard.  The first one is hit with a giant wrench and put inside a car.  His buddy goes to check him out, only to be picked up, car and all, by a crane and repeatedly dropped to the ground.  Then she smashes them down with the closed claw of the crane.  These two are pretty much crushed into pulp.  Daniela tracks the third rapist down to a barn.  She lights the barn on fire, with him inside.
• Daniela is finally found and captured in the same forest her ancestor was tracked down years ago.  We are told that her sister, Elena, died in a mental hospital on September 23, 1968, and that her father killed himself.

    All in all, this is a watchable, Italian-made, translated-to-English action-thriller.  Daniela acts spooky ALL the time, and that gets kind of old real quick, but I enjoyed seeing how the doctor and Inspector Modica piece together the mystery and the significance of everything Daniela does.  Seeing this movie makes you want to know more about the real story that inspired it.

Cast:

Annik Borel as Daniela Neseri
Frederick Stafford as Inspector Modica
Tino Carraro as Count Neseri, Daniela's father
Dagmar Lassander as Elena Neseri, Daniela's sister
Howard Ross as Luca Mondini, Daniela's stuntman lover
Felicita Fanny as Dr. Salveri, woman doctor in car

Director- Rino Di Silvestro
Writers- Rino Di Silvestro, Anthony La Penna (English dialogue), Howard Ross

If you can help with cast information, please CONTACT ME.

Alternate Titles:

• Daughter of a Werewolf
• La lupa mannara [Italy; true title for this film]
• Legend of the Wolf Woman
• Naked Werewolf Woman
• She-Wolf [video title]
• Terror of the She-Wolf

Fun Facts:

• Released in the USA in June of 1977.  One version of the English release is 79 minutes.  A DVD version is 98 minutes.
• Annik Borel is often credited in this film as Anne Borel.  Anne Borel is her birth name.

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