Low Budget Trilogy

 

 (imdb)

ENCOUNTER WITH THE UNKNOWN-1973-Very low budget trilogy of tales involving the supernatural much of it narrated by the great Rod Serling. In the first, 3 smart ass college kids set up Johnny, a naive guy with a phony date. When he's accidentally shot and killed, his spooky mom (Fran Franklin) puts a curse on the 3. One of guys tells the story to a priest who gets upset when the curse seems to come true. In the second story, after a kid loses his dog, he and his father discover a mysterious giant hole in the ground. The father is lowered into the hole. When they bring him up, he's gone crazy. What he saw is never revealed. Annabelle Weenick (DON'T LOOK IN THE BASEMENT) is his wife and (Larry Buchanan regular) Billy Thurman is a hillbilly. The third is based on “the legend of the girl on the bridge”. After a car drives off a bridge, a dude picks up a mysterious young woman (Rosie Holotik) who says she wants to go home. In a flashback we find out that the girl Susan had a fight with her father (Gene Ross) over a guy she wanted to marry. Of course, it turns out Susan is dead and her ghost is trying to get home. Holotik and Ross had also been in DON'T LOOK IN THE BASEMENT the same year. 

 (imdb)

Another narrator sums up everything at the end with a kind of condensed version of the movie shown again. Filmed in Little Rock, Arkansas by Harry Thomason who filmed another movie SO SAD ABOUT GLORIA simultaneously with this extremely low budget anthology. Thomason (still alive at the time of this writing) was a close friend of Bill & Hilary Clinton and later worked on the TV show “Designing Woman”.

                                  Rosie Holotik on the cover of Playboy magazine in 1972!

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Lou On His Own

 

 

 (themoviedb.org)

THE 30 FOOT BRIDE OF CANDY ROCK-1959-Small town rubbish collector inventor Artie Pinsetter (Lou Costello), a "world famous scientist who isn't famous yet", is in love with Emmy Lou (Dorothy Provine; THE BONNIE PARKER STORY (1958)) who's uncle the grouchy mayor Raven Rossiter (Gale Gordon) doesn't like Artie and won't allow them to get married until he thinks Emmy is pregnant. 

Unfortunately, Emmy wanders into a strange mist and grows to 30 feet tall! Rossiter is trying to run for governor and is followed around by a TV reporter (Peter Leeds) which helps Artie when he needs Rossiter's help. The mayor is also head of The Boosters, a club Artie would like to join. Other boosters include Charles Lane, Doodles Weaver, Bobby Barber and Joey Faye. Eventually Emmy gets mad and invades the town. Later, a goofy army patrol thinks Emmy is from Mars and orders missiles to destroy her. Artie's computer-like machine Max turns the army into a confederate army and then into cavemen. It also makes Artie airborne. Max cures Emmy's gigantism but then shrinks her out of existence. But in the end, Emmy is cured and Artie becomes a hero. Also with Will Wright and Veola Vonn. 

This was the last role for comedian Lou Costello (and his only starring role without Bud Abbott) and was released about 5 months after his death in 1959. While it's not very good with old gags and some situations that are supposed to be funny but don't succeed, Costello tries hard and shows that if given the right material he probably would have made it as a solo performer. 

Director Sidney Miller (also an actor) didn't really seem to have a grasp as to what was going on. Lead actress Provine was also in RIOT IN JUVENILE HALL the same year and later co-starred in two short lived TV series “The Alaskans” and 'The Roaring 20's”.

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From The Philippines

 

 (imdb)

WOMAN IN THE WOODS-2020-Jason (Brian Sy), a Canadian of Philippine extraction, returns to The Philippines after the death of his father. Getting lost in the jungle, he meets Magayon (Mercedes Cabral), a spirit no one else can see, who's wounded. He gets help from Batibat, a local woman who tells him a legend. Then he starts on a tedious aimless adventure while being pursued by a pack of warriors. 

The giant with the tusks was kind of cool but the rest of this is meandering nonsense. The director Kevin Ang also worked as an animator on several Marvel productions.

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Your Guess Is As Good As Mine

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The Mummy Lives!

 

 (the moviedb.org)

THE MUMMY-1959-Steve Banning (Felix Aylmer), his brother John (Peter Cushing) and their uncle Joseph (Raymond Huntley) are digging around ruins in Egypt. After finding princess Ananka, Steve accidentally calls forth her mummy guardian and goes crazy. Years later, an Egyptian brings the mummy to Steve (now in an asylum) in England. A flashback reveals how it all came about. How when the princess died and high priest Kharis tried to bring her back to life, was caught and buried alive. The now mummified Kharis (Christopher Lee) goes for revenge, killing Steve and Joseph. His killing of John fails when he notices that John's wife Isobel (Yvonne Furneaux) resembles the princess. A disbelieving police inspector (Eddie Byrne) helps set up Kharis in the finale. 

Another great Hammer horror picture directed by Terence Fisher, a remake of the 1933 Boris Karloff film.

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Demon In The Celler

 

 

 (themoviedb.org)

CELLAR DWELLER-1988-A comic artist Colin Childress (Jeffery Coombs), using a Necronomicon like book for inspiration, brings to life one of his creations. (Typical '80's Empire Pictures demon) He destroys it by burning the page but kills himself in the process. 

30 years later, Whitney Taylor (Deborah Mullowney) visits the Throckmorton art Institute run by Mrs. Briggs (Yvonne DeCarlo). Whitney's a horror comic book artist who wants to make a new version of the horror comic Cellar Dweller created by Childress. Others in "the colony" include Amanda (Pamela Bellwood), Phillip (Brian Robbins), Lisa (Cheryl Ann Williams) and Norman (Vince Edwards), an ex-PI/would be writer. When Amanda tries to frame Whitney for plagiarism, the demon kills her. Then when Norman is snooping around, the demon kills him. It seems someone else is also drawing her story. Poor Lisa who didn't do any except walk around nude after taking a shower, is the next victim. Whitney is kind of responsible for the deaths but manages to make up for it before screwing up one final time. 

Filmed in Italy by John Carl Buechler who also worked on the special effects. Charles Band was a co-producer.

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Cool Anime

 

 (imdb))

COCOLORS-2017-Nice looking short Anime about inhabitants of three worlds living underground because of a flesh destroying germ in the air. The lead character Aki doesn't talk, he communicates through whistles. It's very well done but like a lot of Japanese story lines, it has a sad ending. The director Toshihisa Yokoshima was a former recluse.

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