For You My Friend, They Are The Angels of Death…

 

WHITE ZOMBIE-1932-In Haiti, a couple, Neil (John Harron) and Madeline (Madge Bellamy) are to be married in the home of Mr. Beaumont (Robert Frazer), a weird guy who's obviously obsessed with Madeline. They meet the friendly eccentric Dr. Bruner (Joseph Cawthorn) who is to marry them. While being driven to Beaumont’s plantation, they run into a bunch of guys their driver (Clarence Muse) says are zombies. Beaumont visits 'Murder” Legendre and his mill of zombie workers. He wants Madeline all to himself. Legendre suggests turning her into a zombie. Beaumont doesn't go for the idea. But Legendre has his own agenda. He casts a spell that seems to make her die. 

Poor Neil takes to drink and hallucinates. Legendre and Beaumont visit Madeline's tomb and his zombie servants (all former enemies) remove her coffin. Neil discovers the empty tomb and freaks out. Dr. Bruner explains that the zombies aren't really dead. They are just under a spell. Soon Madeline is up and about and playing the piano for Beaumont but now she's just an empty shell. Beaumont realizes his mistake and begs Legendre to return her to her living state. Instead, Legendre turns Beaumont into a zombie because he “has other plans” for Madeline. Beaumont's sneaky butler Silver (Brandon Hurst) is thrown in the water to drown (he holds his nose before being dunked). Neil & Bruner get help from witch doctor Pierre (Dan Crimmins). Neil gets to the castle but collapses. Legendre finds him and commands Madeline to stab him. 

This is a low budget but eerie independent horror film with a nice climax and Lugosi great as the smirking evil power mad villain. Makeup by Jack Pierce. Director Victor Halperin later made REVOLT OF THE ZOMBIES (1936). His brother Edward was the producer.

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7 For One

 

RAGE WAR-(aka THE DUNGEON-MASTER)-1984-In this low budget anthology from Empire Pictures, a running guy Paul (Jeffery Byron) is obsessed with his talking computer Cal. His fiance Gwen (Leslie Wing) doesn't like it. After a weird dream, Paul is transported to some kind of cave where Gwen is chained to a rock with fire all around. A strange wizard/sorcerer Mestema (Richard Moll) likes Paul's "magic" (his computer is on his watch) and says he will make a worthy opponent. 

Later Paul and Gwen find a cave full of frozen people from the past including Einstein and Bloody Mary. They are attacked by Jack the Ripper, a mummy, a wolf man & some other creatures but an ice crystal destroys the bad guys. After Gwen disappears Paul meets the troll Ratspit (John Carl Buechler) then some cartoon dragons fight. When Mestema plays some of his music Paul counters with his own (the movie's theme). Paul is then transported to a heavy metal concert where a comical Ozzy clone sings. Gwen is a victim of their S & M show but Cal destroys them.

 In another land some dwarfs steal his computer watch. Then a giant stone statue comes to life and shoots a laser from its head. Paul destroys it and winds up in an alley with a dead woman, victim of a serial killer. Gwen is his next victim and Paul has to save her. Two dumb cops arrest him but he escapes. They elude the killer and are then menaced by a flaming devil head. Next in another cave a monster throws exploding rocks at Paul. Before it dies it turns into an angel like woman. In a graveyard of airplanes the pair are threatened by some hooded soldiers and a little guy who talks like Cousin Itt. At the end Paul and Mestema fight it out and somehow Paul wins. They are freed. 

Like most Empire junk it's imaginative but makes no sense, the acting (especially by Byron as Paul) is bad, the sfx so so and the script is dumb. It's in seven parts with each directed by a different person (including Buechler, David Allen, Charles Band, Peter Manoogian, Ted Nicolaou).

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Whatever Happened to Emby Mellay?

Halloween seems to have passed me by!

TOUCH OF SATAN-1971-In a pre-credit sequence a deformed old lady (Jeanne Gerson) kills a rural police officer. Later a guy named Jodie (Michael Berry) is traveling to California when he turns into a road and stops to eat his lunch by a lake. There he meets Melissa (Emby Mellay in her only movie). She talks about her father's walnut farm and then invites Jodie for dinner. Her parents don't exactly seem enthused to see him and talk mysteriously about what Melissa can and can't do. When Jodie agrees to stay the night he meets grandma Lucinda, the same disfigured old lady from before who clutches a doll and mumbles a lot. When Jodie and Melissa go to town for groceries and get a cold reception from some fellow shoppers, Melissa says it's because she's a witch!

Flashbacks (featuring perennial hillbilly Robert Easton) reveal the truth. In the 1870's Melissa made a pact with the devil to save her sister (the deformed old hag Lucinda) from being burned at the stake. When Lucinda kills another cop things kind of get weird for Jodie who refuses to believe the story. He finds out the truth in the twist finale.

This is a pretty low budget outing but I kind of liked it. It's full of unanswered questions and strange dialogue (like Melissa suddenly saying "This is where the fish lives" while looking at the lake) and although it's mostly talk it doesn't really drag as the running time is fairly short.

Director Don Henderson also made THE BABYSITTER and WEEKEND WITH THE BABYSITTER. The old age make-up was provided by Joe Blasco who later did early Cronenberg and ILSA movies.

I'm not sure if it's available on DVD but Mystery Science Theater has used it, where a lot of people learned about it. I first saw it on late night TV in the early '80's.

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