Author Archives: Frank Moraes

Frank Moraes is a freelance writer and editor online and in print. He is educated as a scientist with a PhD in Atmospheric Physics. He has worked in climate science, remote sensing, throughout the computer industry, and as a college physics instructor. Find out more at About Frank Moraes.

Anniversary Post: Iron Eyes Cody

03 April 2020

On this day, 3 April, in 1904, actor and stunt artist Iron Eyes Cody was born. I picked him for two reasons.

Italian Indians

Iron Eyes Cody made a career out of playing Indians. But he was Italian. I’m sure you’ve heard how Hollywood used Italians to play Indians in their films for decades. Well, Cody was one of the better-known actors who did this.

I don’t blame him. Everybody’s got to eat. What’s more, his work wasn’t just a reflection of prejudice against Native Americans; it also reflected prejudice against Italians.

But I wouldn’t say that the casting of Italians to play Indians was racist. Rather, it reflected the systemic racism of the country. For example, most Americans take a while to warm up to Japanese films because “everyone looks the same.” That’s just a function of unfamiliarity with Japanese faces.

In America of that time (and let’s face it: mostly today as well) so few faces of non-northern Europeans were seen that pretty much anyone with darker skin could “pass” for any ancestry. And if they weren’t dark enough, well, there was make-up for that. Just look at Sam Jaffe in Gunga Din.

Iron Eyes Cody is most remembered not for his films but for a PSA about pollution. It features a stereotypical Hollywood Indian (appropriately played by an Italian) crying. But it is absurd because ultimately, it comes off more like an anti-litter PSA when it ends with people throwing garbage out a car that lands at the Indian’s feet.

Stunts

Iron Eyes Cody was also a stunt artist. I don’t know how many films he was in because then stunt work was largely not recognized in Hollywood. It was treated as a kind of dirty secret. We don’t want people to know that their favorite stars are a bunch of wimps made to look heroic through movie magic.

But here’s the thing: the same could be said of special effects artists. Naomi Watts and Adrien Brody aren’t really acting atop the Empire State Building in King Kong. Yet no one tries to hide the names of all the techs that made them look heroic when they were really just acting.

I think this is a class thing. People who work in stunts tend to have less social standing than people who work on special effects. So the Oscars have no stunt category. But it isn’t because anyone thinks people don’t know about stunt work. It’s simply that those in power don’t think people who do stunt work deserve the credit.

It won’t surprise me if they start giving out Academy Awards for catering before they do stunts.

Happy Birthday!

Iron Eyes Cody stopped working in 1987. He died of mesothelioma in 1999 at the age of 94.

I can’t leave today without mentioning that Dooley Wilson (Casablanca) was born in 1886, Doris Day (Pillow Talk) was born in 1922, Marlon Brando (One-Eyed Jacks) was born in 1924, and the great comedic director Jonathan Lynn (The Whole Nine Yards) is 77.

Iron Eyes Cody and Roy Rogers via Republic Pictures in the Public Domain.

Recent Additions: Mar 2020

02 April 2020

This post is coming out a bit late because I’ve been so busy doing the Anniversary posts. Those take a lot of work. And as long as I keep them going, I don’t really need to do this monthly post. But I’m not sure how long I’ll keep up with the daily posts. We’ll see.

There weren’t as many films last month and many of them I’d seen long ago. As a result, it’s probably a better selection than usual.

Attack of the Crab Monsters (1957): There is something about Roger Corman. Regardless of the film, he tends to do a better job than other low-budget directors. That’s fully on display here. Also, the 60-minute run makes for an enjoyable experience.
Billy the Kid vs Dracula (1966): As is often the case with such films, I like this one a lot because of the sweet romance. Who would have thought a title like this was a great date film?
Birdemic: Shock and Terror (2010): This film is horrible, but not in the ways people say. I have already started using it to help people see all the things that most low-budget films get right. Filmmaking is vastly more difficult than most people realize. Regardless, there are things that this film does well and Whitney Moore is great.
Born in Flames (1983): This is an iconic feminist/queer film that proves that social justice advocates can be very funny. When I got to the place where a woman is rolling a condom on a man’s erect penis, I had to go back. I thought I imagined it.
Bride of Frankenstein (1935): The film that made 7-year old Frank throw up! After they are done terrifying us, the best horror films inspire us in other ways. For me, the best moment her is when the Monster pats the hand of the Bride. It’s so sweet. And tragic.
Bury Me an Angel (1971): What a strange film this is! Much of it is directed like the Keystone Cops. But its undertones are all dark and the ending is shocking.
The Conqueror (1956): Most universes collapse on to themselves when John Wayne plays Genghis Khan. And face it: it’s been downhill ever since we survived it. I can’t really recommend anyone see this film, despite it being well made. But everyone should watch at least 20 minutes of it just to have the experience of Wayne being so badly cast.
Dark City (1993): Before The Matrix, there was this. It’s shockingly good and repays multiple viewings.
Demon Slayer (2004): This is a fun but forgettable film. It’s mostly just a teen drama with horror laid over it. It would have worked without the horror. But I could have used more.
Easter Bunny, Kill! Kill! (2006): Timothy Muskatell is a real find. He is vile as hell in this film and it’s nice watching him die. The supporting cast is also really good. Excellent film to show on Easter if anyone did anything for the holiday.
Evil Clutch (1988): Sure, it’s a rip-off of Evil Dead. But the plot has more focus and the gore is wonderful.
Frankenstein (1931): Even though it isn’t as good as Bride, there’s a reason it’s a classic. Later monster movies lost sight of the fact that monsters can be both terrifying and sympathetic.
Hell Asylum (2002): Another Timothy Muskatell film where he plays a disgraced TV producer trying to make a come-back with a horror-related reality show. He makes the mistake of staging it in a place that really is haunted. Great, often amusing, horror.
Jesse James Meets Frankenstein’s Daughter (1966): Not as good as Billy the Kid, which was made at the same time. But it’s still fun.
Jim, the World’s Greatest (1975): Don Coscarelli’s first film is about a high school boy who tries to protect his younger brother from the anger of their alcoholic father.
Kenny & Co (1976): Coscarelli’s second film puts the rest of his career into focus. He’s really interested in the world of guys and their culture of cool tricks you learn from The Anarchist Cookbook. I need to write about this some time.
The Long Good Friday (1981): I first saw this at a small movie theater in Los Angeles a few years back. I mostly remember feeling really bad that there were no longer theaters like this near me. The film is great.
The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (2008): This is the only one of the franchise that I’ve seen. It’s okay. It goes at breakneck speed through most of it. But it’s hard to care too much.
Mutant Aliens (2001): This animated feature by Bill Plympton is really good and disturbing. It’s what you expect of him.
Puppet Master II (1990): I know this one as “the Nita Talbot one.” It’s not one of my favorites, but I’ve had a crush on Nita Talbot since I was a kid.
Puppet Master 5: The Final Chapter (1994): I’m always amused when a franchise announces that a film is the final one. The 13th or 14th Puppet Master film will be released this year. And yet, this film was kind of the end of that first series. Of course, the third (and best) one moves out of that timeline altogether. But I like this one more than most.
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974): I didn’t see this film when it first came out. I was too afraid to do so. But when I saw it, I was amazed to find that it wasn’t at all what I was expecting. For one thing, it’s a lot funnier and more political than I ever would have expected. And unlike most horror films, its chilling nature stays with me. In particular, that house is as ghoulish as ever. It may turn me vegan yet.

Summing Up

There’s an incredible diversity of the films here — both in terms of content and budget (and technical abilities, at least when it comes to one of them). And that is what I want to capture, even if my main focus is on low-budget horror.

It gets harder and harder to keep track of all these films. Just for this post, I had to go back to what I had written in Short Takes to remember what some of the films were.

Remembering more distant films is that much harder. Just now I was wondering, “Is the blind man in Frankenstein or Bride of Frankenstein?” (It was Bride.) But I think this says a lot more about me than it does the films. I’ve always been this way.

One funny aspect of this is that I will often start watching a film only to notice that I’ve not only seen it before but written about it. Oh well. I continue watching.

Anniversary Post: Jack Webb

02 April 2020

On this day, 2 April, in 1920, Jack Webb was born. Most people know him as an actor. “Just the facts, ma’am.” He played Sergeant Joe Friday in the original Dragnet movie, 276 episodes of the original TV series, the TV movie Dragnet 1966, and finally 98 episodes of Dragnet 1967-1970.

But it’s more correct to think of Web as a writer and producer. In addition to creating Dragnet, he co-created O’Hara, U.S. Treasury (with long-time collaborator James E Moser) and Adam-12 (with Robert A Cinader).

From Radio to Television

Jack Webb got his start in radio after World War II. It was there that he started Dragnet as a radio series. He continued to work in radio while doing more work in film and television. In fact, Dragnet was still being produced on the radio after the series was airing.

Apart from Dragnet, his acting career never amounted to more than a handful of minor roles (although one of them was as William Holden’s friend in Sunset Boulevard).

Mark VII Limited

Almost all of Webb’s work was done through his production company, Mark VII Limited. It produced another of his big successes, Emergency! When I first revisited this company as an adult, I figured it must be some kind of religious reference.

After all, Webb had created and written a series early in his career called Noah’s Ark. There was just one problem: the show had nothing to do with the Bible story. It’s about a couple of veterinarians. Webb was married 4 times and doesn’t seem to have been religious.

I remember Mark VII Limited primarily because it had one of the coolest production logos I’ve ever seen. I’ll leave you with it (in many forms over the years) as a hat-tip to Jack Webb:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzuDDx3AypM

Also on 2 April

On this day, The Young Lions was released in 1958, Supervixens in 1975, the remake of Cat People in 1982, and The Crush in 1993.

Actor Buddy Ebsen (The Beverly Hillbillies) was born on 1908. He lived to be 95 years old, which just goes to prove some people are too mean to die at a proper age. Alec Guinness (The Bridge on the River Kwai) was born in 1914.

Linda Hunt (The Year of Living Dangerously) is 75, Pamela Reed (Kindergarten Cop) is 71, Clark Gregg (Marvel’s The Avengers) is 58, Ajay Devgn (Singham) is 51, and Michael Fassbender (Prometheus) is 43.

Producer David Frankel (The Devil Wears Prada) is 61 and Zane Lamprey (Drinking Made Easy) is 48.

Screenwriter George MacDonald Fraser (The Three Musketeers) was born in 1925. Gavin Heffernan (The Taking of Deborah Logan) is 40. Director Donald Petrie (Mystic Pizza) is 66.

Jack Webb by NBC Television — in the Public Domain

Anniversary Post: Lon Chaney

01 April 2020

Lon Chaney is an icon of horror film — to a large extent because of his skill with make-up. Sadly, all but one of his films were silent.

In the one film where he spoke, The Unholy Three (1930), he is shown to be as good with his voice as he had always been with his face. In fact, he has almost a “broadcast voice” before there was such a thing.

Had he lived, Chaney would have played the part of Dracula rather than Bela Lugosi. I don’t think it would have been better or worse — just different.

I think about it often. Legosi brings a strong otherness to it but I tend to think it would have been more frightening with Chaney.

But despite his films being silent and thus even less seen that older movies, he was responsible for many of the iconic horror images that people still know today.

Here is probably the most iconic from The Phantom of the Opera:

But don’t get the impression that Lon Chaney was an old-fashioned actor. Check out two shorts scenes from The Unholy Three.

Also on 1 April

Actor Wallace Beery (Treasure Island) was born in 1885, Abner Biberman (His Girl Friday) in 1909, and Toshiro Mifune (Yojimbo) in 1920.

Actor Jonathan Haze (The Little Shop of Horrors) is 91.

Director Peter Collinson (The Italian Job) was born in 1936.

Director Barry Sonnenfeld (The Addams Family) is 67.

Lon Chaney in The Phantom of the Opera from a movie still scan in the Public Domain.

Anniversary Post: Motion Picture Production Code

31 March 2020

On this date, 31 March, in 1930, the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America agreed to abide by the Motion Picture Production Code (MPPC) or “Hays code.” It stayed in effect until 1968, by which time it was often circumvented anyway. This saw the rise of the MPAA rating system.

Censorship

All of these efforts — in the US and abroad — to protect audiences from the contents of films are evil and stupid. They are evil because they stop people from seeing the films they want, which producers are willing to supply in a lawful way.

We aren’t talking about kitty porn here. One of the final straws for the MPPC was its denial of Michelangelo Antonioni’s film Blow-Up. Why? Because it had nudity!

(Now the MPAA effectively has the ability to dictate what can be seen in a theatrical release because of the lack of competition in the theater business. And the MPAA uses this not to stop consumers from seeing love scenes, but rather same-sex love scenes. Think what you will about such things but the MPAA is effectively censoring ideas in these cases.)

Stupid and Evil

But this censorious behavior is also stupid in that it does protect anyone from anything. Take, for example, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. It was banned by the British Board of Film Classification. But in 1999, this ban was reversed. So that’s the difference between a film so dangerous it can’t even be seen and one that can: 25 years. What happened? Did humans become different?

It’s clear that the MPPC and other censors are not working in the interests of film viewers but of themselves. They don’t want to see the films so no one can. But after a bit of time, the censors get used to the films and allow others to see them. No one is made safer as a result of this.

Now, with so many films being released directly to consumers, the MPAA and others don’t have the power they once did. But they continue to have a pernicious effect on film. See Kirby Dick’s This Film Is Not Yet Rated.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTL3XMDwY0c

Also on 31 March

Actor Patrick Magee (A Clockwork Orange) was born on 1922,

William Daniels (A Thousand Clowns) is 93, Richard Chamberlain (The Three Musketeers) and Shirley Jones (The Partridge Family) are 86, Christopher Walken (The Dead Zone) is 77, Gabe Kaplan (Welcome Back, Kotter) is 75, Rhea Perlman (Canadian Bacon) is 72, Paul Mercurio (Dark Planet) is 57, William McNamara (Natural Enemy) is 55, Ewan McGregor (Trainspotting) is 49, and Andrew Bowen (Conjurer) is 48.

Directors Robert Stevenson (The Love Bug) was born in 1905, Ted Post (Beneath the Planet of the Apes) in 1918, and Nagisa Oshima (Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence) in 1932.

Director Adam Green (Hatchet) is 45.

Hays Code image taken from a copy of Bride of Frankenstein under Fair Use.

Anniversary Post: The Long Good Friday

29 March 2020

On this day, 29 March, in 1981, The Long Good Friday was released to the world (at first in London). Over the years, I’ve come to hate films that make gangsters out to be heroes. That’s true of The Godfather, of course, but also of Goodfellas and The Sopranos. The Long Good Friday is not like that.

Story

In it, Harold Shand (Bob Hoskins) is a successful London-based gangster who is trying to expand his operation into real estate with the help of representatives of the American mafia. Shand is clearly older and more thoughtful than he used to be. In fact, he has become part of the establishment and spends much of the film whining about the state of the world that he helped build.

But despite his protestations, he’s still just a thug who rationalizes his own horrible behavior while complaining about that of others. Ultimately, he has little going for him other than his propensity toward violence.

That’s his downfall. The behavior that allowed him to rise to the top of the crime world doesn’t suit him outside of it. He doesn’t do what he should with the IRA and it is clear that he wouldn’t do any better with the real estate deal.

Production

Whenever I read about a film production, I’m amazed that any film ever gets produced. It’s like flipping a coin 50 times and requiring that it come up heads every time. The Long Good Friday was no exception.

It was originally produced as a film, but its funding collapsed. So it was picked up by ITC. But then when it was ready to be broadcast, it was badly cut. So a scramble ensued and Handmade Films (George Harrison’s company) bought it and released it.

If you get a chance, you really should watch it. It’s a great film.

Also on 29 March

Shaun of the Dead had its world premiere in London in 2004.

Actors born on 29 March: Warner Baxter (In Old Arizona) in 1889, Arthur O’Connell (Anatomy of a Murder) and Dennis O’Keefe (Abandoned) both in 1908, Eileen Heckart (Butterflies Are Free) in 1919.

Terence Hill (My Name Is Nobody) is 81, Eric Idle (Monty Python and the Holy Grail) is 77, Bud Cort (Harold and Maude) is 72, Brendan Gleeson (The Guard) and Marina Sirtis (Star Trek: The Next Generation) are 65, Christopher Lambert (Highlander) is 63, Amy Sedaris (Strangers With Candy) is 59, Lucy Lawless (Xena: Warrior Princess) is 52

Directors: Victor Salva (Jeepers Creepers) is 62 and Michael Winterbottom (The Killer Inside Me) is 59.

Image cropped from IMDb under Fair Use.

Anniversary Post: Tom Howard

27 March 2020

On this day, 27 March, in 1910, the special effects artist Tom Howard was born. He worked in the world of practical effects. He received two Academy Awards for his work on Blithe Spirit and Tom Thumb.

Howard was best-known for his use of front projection. In fact, Howard even invented a special process of this.

Front Projection

Let me go over front projection. I think most people are familiar with rear projection. An image is projected on to a screen which allows light through, which can be seen from the front.

I most associate this technique with Alfred Hitchcock and it is thanks to him that I have a low opinion of it. He over-used it and did so poorly. Today, people use this as a reason to hold him up as a hero, “He demanded so much control that he had to use rear projection!” I really think it was more that he didn’t care.

Front projection is the opposite. An image is projected onto a screen via a two-way mirror. The camera is positioned behind the two-way mirror.

The screen behind the actors is highly reflective so that the image is seen as the background to the camera. And the image displayed on the actors in front of the screen is not noticeable because the actors aren’t highly reflective.

Tom Howard was part of the team that worked on 2001: A Space Odyssey (along with titans of the field Douglas Trumbull and Wally Veevers). In particular, the “Dawn of Man” scenes used front projection. Like all the effects in that film, it still looks great:

Tom Howard worked on a ton of other films including The Haunting and Where Eagles Dare.

Also on 27 March

I didn’t find any significant film releases on this day.

Actors born today: Gloria Swanson (Sunset Boulevard) in 1899, Richard Denning (Target Earth) in 1914, David Janssen (The Fugitive) in 1931, Austin Pendleton (My Cousin Vinny) in 1940, Michael York (The Three Musketeers) in 1942, and Nathan Fillion (Serenity) in 1971.

The screenwriter of the classics On the Waterfront and A Face in the Crowd Budd Schulberg was born in 1914

Quentin Tarantino is 57 today. Read more about him, A Pair of Pliers and a Blowtorch.

Image cropped from 2001: A Space Odyssey under Fair Use.

Anniversary Post: Evil Clutch

26 March 2020

On this day, 26 March, in 1988, the Italian horror film Evil Clutch was released. It was writer-director Andreas Marfori’s first feature film. He’s a very interesting guy, which may explain why he’s only made six features. Some of them I’ve never found like Energy!!! The Movie, which features Timothy Leary.

But you can find other films that are worth checking out like Desperate Crimes (featuring Denise Crosby and Traci Lords) and Soviet Zombie Invasion. Evil Clutch sets the stage for Marfori’s idiosyncratic career.

Synopsis

The film starts with a young man going to a remote building where a beautiful woman is sitting. They start to make-out but then a claw appears and she rips off a bunch of flesh from his groin. He slowly dies and she now has white skin and fangs and laughs maniacally.

Not long after… The woman flags down a couple in a jeep. She says she was attacked and they give her a ride to a nearby town where they are vacationing. Once there, the woman sees a motorcyclist with a voice box and runs away.

The motorcyclist then tells the young couple a horror story about the zombies. They don’t like it and run away. But he follows and tells them that it is dangerous. Nonetheless, they stay and camp, disregarding one of the primary rules of horror films: always listen to cryptic warnings offered by people with unusual physical disabilities.

They soon run into the evil woman from before and follow her to the same building she was in at the start of the film. There’s a zombie roaming around (the victim at the beginning). Some goop splashes on the guy and he becomes sick and then homicidal.

Then it gets weird…

Analysis

Really! This is a seriously weird film. It does, however, have a flaw that makes it a bit hard to really submerge yourself into: it’s such a rip-off of Evil Dead II including tons of Sam Raimi’s two-by-four camera work. But if you can get past this, Evil Clutch has much to offer!

Andrea Marfori has a more interesting visual sense than Raimi. And much of the gore is gloriously over-the-top — yes, even more than Evil Dead II.

The film stars Coralina Cataldi-Tassoni (Terror At The Opera), Diego Ribon (Apnea), Luciano Crovato (Family Scandal), and Elena Cantarone.

I loved this film! For me, the Raimi stuff was part of the fun. And it’s not like the filmmakers are being coy. One of the characters refers to the zombie creatures as the “evil dead”!

You can get Evil Clutch on a Troma DVD. You can also find it around the internet, but generally in very bad shape. Much of the film is very dark and it’s hard to see much of anything at times. But knowing Troma, the disc isn’t that much better.

Image via Amazon under Fair Use.

Anniversary Post: In Ghost House Inn

25 March 2020

On this day, 25 March, back in 2010, the Indian comedy-horror film In Ghost House Inn was released. I haven’t seen it. I don’t even know how to see it at the moment. So all I have to go on is Wikipedia and the trailer, which is in Malayalam with no English subtitles.

I’m afraid this is going to be the way it has to be. I’m trying out something new here and just finding films and people to write about will be hard. In this case, my other option was The Outsiders, Francis Coppola’s filmed version of SE Hinton’s beloved book. It had the advantage of my having read the book and seen the film. But it didn’t seem nearly as much fun!

The Narihar Nagar Trilogy

This was the third film in a series and despite the fact the films span 20 years, they all feature the same principal actors.

It started with In Harihar Nagar (1990), a film about four friends who become attracted to a young woman who is trying to figure out why her brother was murdered. Soon they are kidnapped by the bad guy. But it all works out because this is an Indian film.

Next came 2 Harihar Nagar (2009). Now the four friends are older in established in life, married except for one of them who is about to be married. They again get embroiled into a plot but everything turns out fine because this is an Indian film.

In Ghost House Inn

In Ghost House Inn adds horror to the hilarity. The story is pretty much the same as any episode of Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! The guy who got married in the last film buys a house only to find that it is haunted. He finally gives up and sells the house at a loss only to find out that it was all a scam and get his money back because… This is an Indian film! Except…

Since the reviews for In Ghost House Inn were lukewarm and the box office only reasonable, it was the last in the series. Check out this trailer to get an idea of why I want to know more about it:

In Ghost House Inn poster via Wikipedia under Fair Use.

Recent Additions: Feb 2020

02 March 2020

Another month of unique movie watching. I finally got past a bunch of arty “horror” films, which, as much as I liked them made me long for the simple pleasures of straight horror. But I didn’t watch as much stuff as usual because I had guests and lots of work.

There’s a lot that’s been sitting around. I just got a collection of blaxploitation films (one of which is below). I also got a collection of monster movies. I should probably avoid these because most of the films in these low-cost collections are usually available online for free. But I also think I should reward people who go to the trouble of putting worthy films on disk.

The Big Boss (1971): My brother was a huge martial arts film fan. The main thing I remember from those days was the over-the-top sound effects — a punch sounding like two-by-fours colliding. That’s mostly what I notice now.
The Black Gestapo (1975): This film could really use a bit more second-unit coverage. But overall, it’s pretty fun and has something to say. And that’s a pretty awesome title.
Blood of Dracula (1957): Don’t mistake this for the Warhol film. This is a 1950s teen horror film. And it’s quite good! If you’ve seen I Was a Teenage Werewolf, you know the plot.
Clownado (2019): this one was recommended to me by a friend as one of the worst films ever made. I liked it. It’s low budget and campy with some of the most disgusting gore around. The filmmakers seem to think the insides of humans look like a shepherd’s pie.
Curse of the Crimson Altar (1968): This one is a lot of fun in the way those 1960s British horror films usually are. Although they are supposedly the stars, Boris Karloff and Christopher Lee aren’t in the film that much. But that’s okay.
Dead & Rotting (2002): This is the only film David Barton ever directed. And it’s pretty good! Personally, I identified more the “bad guys.” But it still works. It has some decent make-up effects but little gore.
Demolition Man (1993): Films like this are always a problem because at base they push a very reactionary political theory. But the first half of this is incredibly clever and worth checking out. The end is by-the-numbers action.
The Fearless Vampire Killers (1967): Roman Polanski’s vampire film spoof. It’s okay but I didn’t find it amusing at all. I’d love to hear from someone who did. I’m sure some do. It’s really well made regardless.
The Fuzz (2014): A surprisingly good cop comedy with puppets. If you like silly movies with puppets, I don’t see how you can go wrong.
I Am Not a Serial Killer (2015): All my life I’ve believed that Christopher Lloyd was a space alien serial killer and now I have proof! When it comes to arty horror films, you can’t go wrong with this one. And it’s very sweet. This film ages well in the mind.
Jug Face (2013): This film shows how much you can do with a limited budget, but my main takeaway is just, “That was Sean Young?!” It’s a film where you feel sorry for pretty much everyone.
Knights of Badassdom (2013): Here is a silly one. It’s about a group of LARPs (live-action role players) who accidentally unleash an evil creature into the world. It’s my kind of film but I like The Last Lovecraft a lot more.
Let Us Prey (2014): International horror has exploded over the last decade or so. This Irish film (set in Scotland) has echos of about a dozen past horror films. It’s really serious for an hour and then goes completely crazy for a half-hour.
The Mummy (1932): I’ve loved this film for a long time. It’s rare a horror film manages to make the villain just positive enough that you really aren’t sure who you want to win. This is also Karloff at his best.
Night Moves (1975): This is one of those great 1970s paranoia films — as a PI film. The first time I saw this film, the ending lost me. So watch closely, but do watch!
Night of the Demon (1957): They really like their occult films in the UK, don’t they? This one isn’t really scary, but you do care about the main character and the way he gets out of his trap is clever.
A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984): although I have problems with the ending, this is one of the best horror films ever made. You simply must watch it.
Nina Forever (2015): Now that I think about it, this is kind of like the prototype of Her Name Was Christa. The film is a lot of fun even with all the young angst. But if you can’t make it through it, don’t attempt Christa.

Summing Up

Slow month, I suppose. I’ve been disorganized because I know I watched some new films that I didn’t get around to writing about. Unfortunately, I have no memory at all. I had to look up some of the films in this list just to remember what they were.

Films like Blood of Dracula really highlight just how hard it is to even begin to cover all the low-budget films that have been made. And it only gets worse. The number of movies that deserve to be seen is only accelerating.

There are three films that everyone should see if they haven’t already: The Mummy, Night Moves, and A Nightmare on Elm Street. Of the recent films, I think I Am Not a Serial Killer and Let Us Prey deserve attention even though they have a few problems.

But every one of them is worth watching.