Zombie Brains

Science Friday talks with a researcher who has studied (harrumph, harrumph) the zombie brain. Listen to the story or read the transcript at that link.

The picture above can be found here and is not connected in any way to the NPR story.

Bloodletting (The Vampire Song)

Bloodletting (from the album with the same name) by Concrete Blonde:



HT: Newscoma

Shaun of the Dead

The Younger Son and I wanted to watch a horror movie we hadn't already seen but needed something The Husband (who eschews violent movies) could sit through. We were at Target buying Halloween candy and saw Shaun of the Dead, a 2004 comedy/horror film starring Simon Pegg, and thought it might do. The Husband did manage to sit through it, but he had to hide his face during parts of it. We could tell he didn't at all understand why we kept laughing, but we did think this film was funny.

trailer:


Moria says, "The entire exercise is made with a good deal of good-natured humour." Roger Ebert says the movie "has its pleasures, which are mild but real." The Ny Times has a review.

Shock Waves

Shock Waves is a 1977 horror movie starring Peter Cushing and John Carradine with music by Richard Einhorn. Oooo... Nazi Zombies! It begins with a voice-over narration and a photograph of WW2 troops:

Shortly before the start of World War 2, the German high command began a secret investigation into the powers of the supernatural. Ancient legend told of a race of warriors who used neither weapons nor shields and whose super-human power came from within the Earth itself. As Germany prepared for war, the SS secretly enlisted a group of scientists to create an invincible soldier. It is known that the bodies of soldiers killed in battle were returned to a secret laboratory near Koblenz, where they were used in a variety of scientific experiments. It was rumored that, toward the end of the war, Allied forces met German squads that fought without weapons, killing only with their bare hands. No one knows who they were or what became of them, but one thing is certain. Of all the SS units, there was only one that the Allies never captured a single member of.

The opening credits begin at this point. It's interesting how many horror films feature Nazi Zombies.

trailer:

Moria calls it "an impressive little low budget film" and says the zombies are "vivid screen monsters". 1000 Misspent Hours says it's "an extremely good film, in ways you'd never dare expect on the basis of its subject matter."

Dragonwyck

Dragonwyck is a 1946 film directed by Joseph Mankiewicz and starring Gene Tierney, Vincent Price, Walter Huston, Spring Byington, Anne Revere, Harry Morgan and Jessica Tandy. It's more gothic romance than horror, but it shows up in some of the horror film lists I've seen.

via Youtube:

The New York Times gives it a negative review and closes by saying, "The settings and costumes are intriguing. Not as much can be said for "Dragonwyck."" Variety describes it as a "lucid, often-compelling" film version of the book on which it's based. DVDTalk reviews it as part of a 4-film set. TCM has an overview.

Daughters of Darkness

Daughters of Darkness is a 1971 horror film based on the 1872 short novel Carmilla by Le Fanu. The story can be read online here.

via DailyMotion:

Moria says, "Daughters of Darkness is a considered classic" and "the most elegantly sophisticated of these [lesbian vampire films] and has become a cult classic." 1000 Misspent Hours closes with this:

I wouldn’t go as far as the overheated blurbs on the cover of the old VEC videotape (“One of the most elegant horror pictures ever made,” my ass!), but Daughters of Darkness undoubtedly is worthy of more measured praise.

The New York Times praises it, calling it "a fascinating vampire movie" and "Subtle, stately, stunningly colored and exquisitely directed". Images Journal describes it as "a stylish, cold, and sinister meditation on sex, compliancy, and vampirism."

"Sci Fi As We Knew It": Dead?

The Book View Cafe Blog knows what killed it:

... bad voice – bad, bad, bad, bad, bad voice. There’s a peculiar sort of tonedeaf sci fi voice sung with chalkboard scratch “wrong” notes, and then there’s a separate, cheap tonedeaf knockoff of noir film narration that I think got its start during the “cyberpunk” years. That one won’t die, and I think over time, it has been a very big nail in adult-oriented written science fiction with that label on it.

...

the people who were charged with buying and offering the material to the public ... promoted “the voice” as good, gave awards to it, and through the combination of low pay, poor treatment and social cooties-by-association drove off anybody with any sense of storytelling, talent or gift.

and concludes that "there is no appreciable new adult sci fi right now"

So far, there are 3 comments offering examples of current science fiction without the "bad voice".

10/28/2009: The Crotchety Old Fan has a take on the subject. The Book View Cafe Blog post author takes his post personally and calls him names in his comment thread.

The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires

The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires (1974) is a Hammer/Shaw production and stars Peter Cushing, which surely must be enough to make it worth watching, right? A kung fu vampire movie with a Chinese Dracula. I learn something new every day.

Moria gives it 2 stars and says,

The plot never settles into being much more than its collection of influences – the various players are brought together, there is a journey, some martial arts battles, Dracula appears at the end and that is about all there is to the film.

Images Journal calls it "one of Hammer's most underrated movies, with several truly macabre sequences."

Moon of the Wolf

Moon of the Wolf is a 1972 horror movie. It was made for tv and stars David Janssen and Barbara Rush.

Reviews are scarce, but AMC has an overview. io9 describes the movie as "a lovely slice of Southern Gothic".

Vincent Price

Today is the anniversary of the death in 1993 of Vincent Price. FilmReference.com has an overview of his career and a list of resources. He has a Facebook fan page. He is a particular favorite of The Daughter.

I have blog posts on the following of his films, many of which can be viewed online:

Shock (1946)
Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948)
Mad Magician (1954)
The Fly (1958)
House on Haunted Hill (1959)
The Raven (1963)
The Last Man on Earth (1964)
Witchfinder General (1968)
The Oblong Box (1969)
The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971)
Dr. Phibes Rises Again (1972)
Theatre of Blood (1973)
Edward Scissorhands (1990)

I've seen Laura, The Keys of the Kingdom, The Ten Commandments and The Song of Bernadette, but apparently not since I started this blog.

Sepsis

This is a 10-minute short post-apocalyptic film:

Sepsis from Esteve Boix on Vimeo.

HT: Quiet Earth

The Astro-Zombies

The Astro-Zombies is a 1969 mad scientist monster movie, with a sort of Frankenstein idea to it. John Carradine is in the film.

1000 Misspent Hours says, "It is almost totally incoherent and frequently dull" and goes on to say,

The real trouble with The Astro-Zombies is that Mikels’s inattentive, scattershot approach to storytelling robs the movie of most of its interest by fixing it so that we never have any idea what we’re seeing until well after it’s already happened. Characters are routinely introduced after they’ve been killed. Motives and agendas remain shrouded in mystery until after the schemes predicated upon them have failed. Whole subplots are simply forgotten about without ever reaching any sort of fruition. And through it all, the movie drags and drags and drags.

Stomp Tokyo describes it as "landfill".

Caltiki, The Immortal Monster

Caltiki, The Immortal Monster is a 1959 horror film I chose having been inspired by the Italian Horror Blogathon.

1000 Misspent Hours describes it as "a tacky, stereotypically 50’s monster movie, compete with half-baked science, stuff that gives off ionizing radiation for absolutely no reason, and a running time not much in excess of 75 minutes" and gives it negative 3 stars. DVDTalk says it

is a taut, 73-minute thriller, and looks nothing like the visually flat, so-called semi-documentary style look of most American sci-fi films of the period. Rather, visually it's more of a bridge between film noir in the (cinematographer) John Alton mode, and the limitless imagination and ingenuity Bava would soon be applying to his own, "official" movies.

Bedlam

Bedlam is a 1946 Val Lewton production directed by Mark Robson and starring Boris Karloff.

You can watch it online here. Here is a trailer:

Moria says, "With a complex blend of literary metaphors and historical analysis, this is arguably one of the finest written and most overlooked of the Lewton films." 1000 Misspent Hours closes its negative review by saying, "All in all, Bedlam is a well-made but gutless film, and it’s hardly surprising that it marked the end of the road for RKO horror in the 40’s." The New York Times says it is "several cuts above the average run of so-called horror films."

Bloody Pit of Horror

Bloody Pit of Horror is a 1965 horror film chosen because of the Italian Horror Blogathon.

1000 Misspent Hours says, "This is one of those movies that will have you staring into your glass looking for the residue of an acid blotter." Images Journal says it "isn't one of the better Italian horror films, but it's certainly one of the strangest."

Horrors of Spider Island

Horrors of Spider Island (1960) has a checkered past, which the linked Wikipedia article sums up.

1000 Misspent Hours gives it negative 3 1/2 stars and says that "nothing else he [the director] made can match Horrors of Spider Island and its companion-piece, The Head, for sheer weirdness."

The Chronicles of Corum

The Chronicles of Corum, the 1970's epic fantasy by Michael Moorcock, is the trilogy sequel to the original (book 1, book 2, book 3). This trilogy continues the story of Corum along the same lines as the first. This isn't the kind of book that I favor, but it was a fun enough read. I picked it up because The Younger Son was reading Moorcock's Elric books.

from the back of the book:

A great winter fell across the Earth. Corum of the Silver Hand had slain the gods so that Man might rule: the last of the Vadhagh, he had saved the race that had betrayed his own, and he had earned his rest. But it was not to be ... for new gods, and fiercer ones, strode the land. Corum took up the moon-coloured sword with sorrow. For to him fell the task of defeating the Fhoi Myore, the Cold Gods - who yearned for death but could not be slain!

A tale of exceptional and mythic power, The Chronicles of Corum follows The Swords Trilogy and completes the saga of Corum Jhaelen Irsei, who was not a god and yet was not a man.

The Cremator

The Cremator is a 1969 horror/black comedy from Czechoslovakia.

Youtube has this one in pieces which should autoplay from here:


Senses of Cinema reports that the director "has described The Cremator as an “expressionistic” horror film, which echoes The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari ... in its subjective visualising of the mind of a madman." DVDTalk says, "The Cremator sustains its eccentric, difficult-to-describe mood: an Eastern European fear of helplessness against self-assured authority figures in an unequal power situation."

Black Sunday

Black Sunday is a 1960 horror film directed by Mario Bava in his feature directorial debut as a credited director. It stars Barbara Steele in her first major role and John Richardson.

Moria declares it "a genre classic". The New York Times closes its review by saying, "As a setting for unadulterated horror, it will leave its audiences yearning for that quiet, sunny little motel in "Psycho."" Images Journal discusses how this film shows the "expressive power of [Bava's] directoral style". 1000 Misspent Hours says,

Whatever you think of Bava’s work as a whole (and he’s one of those directors whom people seem either to love or to hate), I just can’t imagine anyone finding much to complain about in this movie.

Senses of Cinema says,

Beginning in the late 1960s, Bava's The Mask of Satan/Black Sunday has often been cited by film critics and historians as an example of an influential and effective horror film of lasting artistic value.

10/31/2009: Barbara Steele's scream in this film is examined by Arbogast on film.

The Bear Wit Project

The Muppets remake Blair Witch:


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