Norliss!

 

 (imdb)

THE NORLISS TAPES-1973-Author David Norliss (Roy Thinnes) is hired by his publisher Sanford Evans (Don Porter) to write a book debunking the supernatural. However, 6 months later Norliss calls Evans to tell him he can't write the book, then disappears. Evans goes to Norliss’ home and finds some cassette tapes (remember them?) which he listens to. 

Norliss gets involved with widow Ellen Court (Angie Dickinson) who encountered some kind of ghoul one night that she claims was her dead husband, Paul. She tells Norliss the story of her husband's debilitating disease and this lead him to the occult, a mysterious ring and some Egyptian gods. After talking to Ellen's sister, Marsha (Michele Carey), he relates the story of a young woman in a car crash who was strangled and had all the blood drained from her body. The local hick sheriff (Claude Akins) wants to cover it up. Norliss tells gallery owner Mr. Langton (Hurd Hatfield) about the ring and that it was placed in the coffin with Mr. Court. When Langton tries to get the ring, he's killed. Then Norliss and Ellen are attacked by her dead husband but the redneck sheriff doesn't believe their story. Next victim is Marsha who's killed in a motel. Madame Jeckiel (Vonetta McGee) appears and tells Ellen how she turned Paul on to the ring that could cure his disease and bring him back to life. He's making a statue of the evil Sargoth, using clay mixed with blood. When the statue is completed Sargoth will be free and Paul gets immortality. She and Ellen go looking for Paul to try and remove the ring. But of course they go like 2 minutes before sundown. Paul kills Jackiel and chases Ellen. After Norliss rescues her they find the completed statue. Paul seems to bring it to life but Norliss uses a fire ring of blood to destroy it. He seems ok at the end of his story (despite Sargoth grabbing his arm for a moment) and Evans puts in another cassette tape. Stanley Adams is a truck driver. 

This pilot for an unsold series was written by William F. Nolan and directed by Dan Curtis, obviously in an attempt to create a new “Kolchak” like series (although it is based on a story by Fred Mustard Smith). Curtis directed “The Night Stalker” sequel, THE NIGHT STRANGLER the same year.

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Un-Sold TV Series

 

 (etsy.com)

SPECTRE-1979-Arrogant supernatural investigator William Sebastian (Robert Culp) asks his ex-partner alcoholic Dr. Hamilton (Gig Young) on a case involving the Cyon family. After killing a succubus, Sebastian and Hamilton go to England on a plane piloted by Mitra Cyon (John Hurt). Inspector Cabell (Gordon Jackson) is there to greet them when they visit the burned-out house of Sebastian's friend. The demon Azmodious was accidentally sent free by Mitra’s stuck-up brother (James Villiers). It seems Mitra's sister Anitra (Ann Bell) is to be sacrificed. Also with Majel Barrett as Sebastian's housekeeper and Jenny Runacre. 

Gene Roddenberry was executive producer and co-writer of this pilot for a TV series that was rejected and shown instead in Europe as a feature film with (it's said) some nude scenes added. This was one of several TV pilots that Roddenberry was involved with in the 1970's that were never picked up. Filmed in England by director Clive Donner (WHAT'S NEW, PUSSYCAT?) whose next theatrical release would be the “Get Smart” movie THE NUDE BOMB in 1980.

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Still Another Sequel

 

 

 (themoviedb.org)

PUMPKINHEAD 4-BLOOD FEUD-2007-Stupid hillbillies, The Hatfields & The McCoys are feuding because of an incident with a car years before. When it turns out Jodie (Amy Manson), a Hatfield girl is having an affair with McCoy boy Ricky (Bradley Taylor), two Hatfield brothers (the Hatfields seem the scummier of the two) decide to break up the romance and wind up killing another McCoy daughter, Sarah (Maria Roman). Ricky visits the witch Haggis (Lynee Verell, reprising her role from Part 3) to have her summon the demon Pumpkinhead to get revenge despite the pleadings of the cursed Ed Harley (returning Lance Henriksen). 

Gory sfx, bad acting. Written and directed by Mike Hurst (HOUSE OF THE DEAD 2).

Another Sequel

 

 (themoviedb.org)

PUMPKINHEAD-ASHES TO ASHES-2006-A crazy mortician (HELLRAISER'S Doug Bradley) steals corpses and dissects them and sells the organs. The remains get dumped in the local swamp. When the town finally finds the dead bodies, a vengeful mother goes to the old witch Haggis (Lynne Verell) to summon Pumpkinhead, who goes on a killing spree. The mortician tries to kill the people responsible. 

Lots of victims spit up blood. Of course, Lance Henriksen pops up once in a while. They should have stopped at #2. Filmed in Romania back-to-back with #4. Directed by Jake West.

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Kirk vs. Incubus

 

 (wikipedia)

INCUBUS-1966-In a coastal village where demons prowl its shores, Kai (Allyson Ames), a very successful succubus leads many to hell. But she feels her powers are being wasted and wants a big score despite the warnings from her sister Amael (Eloise Hardt). Kai sets her sights on Marc (pre-Kirk William Shatner), a soldier recovering from a wound. While he walks with his sister Arndis (Ann Atmar), Kai follows Marc. Once again Amael warns her. Kai pretends to be a lost traveler and meets Marc and Arndis on their farm. During a brief eclipse, Kai seems to enchant Marc. After lovemaking, Kia falls asleep and Marc carries her home. Meanwhile Arndis has gone blind from looking at the eclipse and wanders in the woods. For some reason Marc takes Kia to a church and she freaks out. Amael urges sis to seek revenge for being violated. They unleash the incubus. It rapes and kills Ardnis but in its showdown with Marc, Marc seems to slay it. But it isn't dead. When the incubus confronts Marc and Kia at the church, she renounces the devil and makes the sign of the cross which turns the incubus into a goat. Not exactly sure what to make of the ending. 

INCUBUS was the second feature to be made in the artificial language of Esperanto (the first was a film called ANGOROJ, filmed in 1964). There's a difference of opinion as to why Esperanto was used but director Leslie Stevens (creator of TV's THE OUTER LIMITS, which had been canceled by ABC in 1965) says it was just to give the film “an eerie, other worldly feeling”. One the film's cinematographers, Conrad Hall went on to win 3 Academy Awards for his work. The film is a weird concoction and sometimes feels like a horror movie made Ingmar Bergman (not sure if this is a complement...). 

The film was heavily criticized by speakers of Esperanto because of the actors' pronunciations and accents although this should have been a trivial matter since the film wasn't made to promote the language. Added to that the actor who played the incubus, Milos Milos killed himself and his girlfriend (the estranged wife of Mickey Rooney) shortly after the film was released, the film could not find a distributor in the US. 

Once thought a lost film, a damaged print surfaced in France in 1996 and The Sci-Fi Channel (now called SyFy) sponsored the restoration, an admirable effort but let's face it, if Capt. Bill hadn't been the lead this would have been left to decay....

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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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It's A Bresee

 

 (fangoria.com)

MAUSOLEUM-1983-A woman Susan (Bobbie Bresee) gets possessed by a demon that killed her mother. Her eyes turn green when she wants to cause mischief like making a drunk's car blow up and carving up the gardener after having sex with him. She turns into a full-fledged demon when she kills her aunt. Her husband (former child evangelist Marjoe Gortner) eventually realizes something is wrong and calls psychiatrist Dr. Andrews (Norman Burton). Their housekeeper Elsie (LaWanda Page from TV's “Sanford & Son”) tries to warn hubby and says, "there's some strange shit going on in this house". Although demon Susan kills hubby, Andrews uses a crown of thorns to send the demon back where it came from. The final scene seems to be making fun of the whole premise. 

Bobbie Bresee was known for taking off her clothes in the few movies she made around this time and for being promoted shamelessly by Forrest J. Ackerman in the pages of the magazine he edited after “Famous Monsters of Filmland'. 

Directed by Michael Dugan. Music by Jaime Mendoza-Nava.

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Step Right Up!

 

 (imdb)

STEPS FROM HELL-1990-Some vampire demon Vlad (Bernardo Rosa) is searching for a gateway. The tale seems to be told in flashback by a writer to his would-be research assistant. They both act like they'd rather be someplace else. After his father is killed, a priest (Ron O'Dell) goes looking for Vlad, whose chief henchman is a huge black transvestite. He has a funny fight with a black couple in the woods. Later he and a ghoul girl attack some guys in a van and eat one of them. One guy who escapes beats up the huge guy with terrible martial arts moves but is killed anyway. Then later suddenly the big guy is chasing a woman. She beats him with a stick and stabs him but the undead woman grabs her. Later the priest fights Vlad in a good vs. evil finale in slow motion. Beelzebub shows up at the end too. 

The date on the film is 1990 but it looks like some washed out regional release made in the early '70's with bright lighting that suddenly goes dark, outrageously bad acting (most of the actors seem in a coma), too much talk and all the voices seem to be slowed down somewhat. Writer/director James Adam Tucker was also an actor (He played a cop on John Waters' HAIRSPRAY).

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"Stepping High" by Eddie Murray:

https://youtu.be/gT_VKzw18S8?si=x-DaJoAtd5ZRLZgy

Bram Stoker?

 

 (imdb)

BRAM STOKER'S SHADOWBUILDER-1998-A weird priest with a gun (Michael Rooker) battles a shadow demon who wants a kid in a small town. Bugs sting a deputy to death, an old man axes his wife, dogs turn on their master, fun stuff like that. The town lunatic (Tony Todd) helps out. The script and acting are pretty bad.

 The script is based on the story “The Shadow Builder” by Bram Stoker from a short story collection “Under The Sunset”, published in 1881 and of course it's nothing like this movie. Director Jamie Dixon did visual effects for other movies.

Illustration from Stoker's original story

(classic-literature.com.uk)

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Russia Legend

 

 (imdb)

THE SWORD AND THE DRAGON-1956-This tale is based on a legend. Ivan (Boris Andreyev), a man crippled since birth watches helplessly as the Tugars, a barbarian horde rape, pillage and burn. Some travelers give Ivan a magic elixir that restores him and he becomes a mighty warrior dedicating his life to defending his homeland and defeating the Tugars. After battling and capturing a wind demon and assembling a group of fighting friends, his pregnant wife is kidnapped. Tugar leader Kalin (Shukur Burkhanov) wants to make her his bride but she rebuffs him. 

Instead, he takes her son Little Falcon and raises him as a Tugar. Later Ivan and his son meet on the battlefield and Ivan shows his son what's going down. They join forces and have to battle a three headed dragon in the finale. 

The Russian color fantasy is based on poems about the knight Iiya Muromets. Roger Corman got a hold of it a few years after it was made and had it re-edited, changing some names and having news journalist Mike Wallace do some new narration and Paul Frees dub some voices. The director Aleksandr Ptushko also made another fantasy adventure around this time, THE DAY THE EARTH FROZE.

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Shhhh....

 

 (imdb)

FROM A WHISPER TO A SCREAM-1987-A reporter Beth Chandler (Susan Tyrell) covers the execution of Katherine White (Martine Bestwick) in the town of Oldfield. After her execution Beth visits White's brother Julian (Vincent Price) and 4 tales are related. 

In story one: A nutty psychotic wimp Stanley (Clu Gulager) has a weird relationship with his sister. He's sweet on co-worker Grace. Some-how, they go on a date and he kills her. Later he has sex with her corpse. 9 months later he kills his sister. He seems happy until an undead demon baby (the result of his unholy intercourse) comes to kill him. 

In the second story an idiot (Terry Kiser) escaping from a gangland hit meets the swamp dwelling Felder (Harry Ceaser) who knows the secret of eternal life. 

In the third a glass eater at a carnival has problems when he wants to marry a non-carny woman. They escape but the owner (Rosalind Cash) vows revenge. 

In the last, set during the Civil War, some children take revenge on Northern soldiers (led by Cameron Mitchell) in defense of the insurrectionists who fought to keep slavery legal. 

This is a mixed bag anthology from director Jeff Burr who was later known for his sequels to horror movies (THE STEPFATHER 2, LEATHERFACE: TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE 3, PUMPKINHEAD 2: BLOOD WINGS, ETC.).

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Horror Movie

 

 (imdb)

THE UNHOLY-2021-in this supernatural religious tale a mute young woman (Cricket Brown) begins to talk and is in contact with the Virgin Mary. She heals a cripple boy and a priest, Father Hagen (William Sadler). A disgraced reporter Gerry Fenn (Jeffery Dean Morgan; "The Walking Dead" TV series) investigates and discovers it's not Holy Mary but a witch who was burned at the stake in 1845. She's back posing as Mary. A stupid priest (Cary Elwes) has his own agenda. 

Not bad especially in this day and age for what passes as supernatural horror. Director Evan Spiliotopoulos (in his directing debut) had previously worked for Disney and later wrote THE POPE'S EXORCIST.

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Meat Cleaver Mash Up

 

 (imdb)

THE HOLLYWOOD MEAT CLEAVER MASSACRE-Sir Christopher Lee introduces this tacky low budget gore film. It seems Lee's scenes (he also appears at the end) were for another movie that was never made and the producers of this basement budget atrocity bought the footage, put it in their horror film and even advertised Lee as the star! Lee obviously was a little ticked off but at least for the viewer it's a plus if you have to sit through the whole thing! 

A college teacher talks to his class about an ancient demon. Later he gets flak from some asshole Mace. At night Mace and his stoner mates go cruising Hollywood Blvd., drinking and drugging. At Mace's urging they go to the professor's house. They kill his wife and children and think they killed him but he survives. While in a brain damaged coma he somehow summons a demon called Morek to get revenge on the killers. 

This is bad with most of the scenes way too dark. Needless to say it was the only movie ever made by director Evan Lee (no relation). Shortened recently to MEATCLEAVER MASSACRE.

 (wkipedia)

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Terror

 

THE TERROR OF HALLOW'S EVE-2017-A bullied kid Tim (Caleb Thomas) summons a jester like demon called “The Trickster” to get revenge. A fat guy eats a pie full of worms and is gutted by a demon that eats his intestines. He sounds like Curly when he's screaming. A stoner is stabbed to death by puppets with knives. The main asshole has his throat slit. His girlfriend is next but Tim destroys the demon. She's killed anyway. Tim winds up possessed and getting blamed for all the deaths. Flash ahead many years later and adult Tim is in a mental hospital. It seems like the movie is going to start all over again and The Trickster is still at it...

Eric Roberts has one short scene as an angry father and Juliet Landau (one of the producers) has a brief role as a nurse. The director Tony Tucker did mainly SFX and make up for movies and TV before this... 

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"Let's pay Mr. Tartu a Visit"

 

DEATH CURSE OF TARTU-1966-In a pre-credit scene Dr. Hunter (exploitation film director Brad Grinter) gets trapped in an underground tomb and is killed by an Indian warrior. After a decrepit hand shows us the credits we are now in the Everglades where Dr. Gunter (Frank Weed) and local yokel Billy (Bill Marcus) argue over ancient spirits. Billy leaves the doc to his exploring. He drinks coffee and digs up an artifact. As soon as he does a dead witch doctor Tartu (it reminded me of The Aztec mummy) awakens in his coffin and turns into a snake. Gunter is crushed to death by a giant python. Enter Ed Tison (Fred Pinero) and his wife Julie (Babette Sherffill) and some of his students. They go looking for Gunter but only find the artifact he dug up. After the students have an impromptu dance party, Tartu (Doug Hobart) rises from its tomb once again. It turns into a shark (?) and kills Tommy and Joanne, two of the students. When all they find is one bloody limb they agree something evil is going on. Johnny sets out alone for help. Tartu turns into a snake again and bites Johnny to death. After the remaining student Cindy has a dream Johnny is dead, the trio go looking for Tartu's tomb. There they find Hunter's corpse. Cindy flees in terror and is killed by an alligator. They try to open Tartu's coffin but instead Tartu rises and turns into a scary native warrior. He beats up Tison and chases Julie through the swamp. Tison recovers from his beating and pursues them. While Julie sinks in quicksand, Tison and Tartu scuffle again. This time the ancient warrior falls into quicksand and Tyson saves his wife. 

Despite its low budget restraints and its barely seen monster TARTU director William Grefe' manages to provide a fairly haunting and claustrophobic atmosphere in this technicolor low budget horror film . Grefe' (STING OF DEATH) went on to make THE DEVIL'S SISTERS (with Pinero and Sherrill), THE NAKED ZOO (with Rita Hayworth) and IMPULSE (with William Shatner).

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Recent Horrors

 

THE CURSE OF LA LLORONA-2019-Anna (Linda Cantellini) a child abuse case worker investigates the death of two children under her care. The kids' mother blames La Llorrona, the weeping woman, a Mexican ghost/demon condemned to wander the Earth looking for children to kill. Anna's own children seem to be next on La Llorona's list! When the evil spirit leaves burn marks on her kids' arms she's investigated for child abuse. Eventually the priest from ANNABELLE (Tony Amendola) sends them to a defrocked priest (Raymond Cruz) who performs some weird rituals that seem to work until the daughter breaks the protective barrier. When the mother of the dead kids shows up things get even worse but a well placed cross helps get rid of the evil...I guess...

This stand alone entry into the “Conjuring” universe is an nice thriller that doesn't go overboard and provides some good chills. It was directed by Michael Chaves and produced by James Wan.

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More like The Dulling

THE CULLING-2015-Pot smoking Louisiana slackers on their way to a concert meet a mysterious blond haired little girl (Harley Graham) who they decide to drive home. When they get to her house nobody is there but when the parents return they invite the group to hang out, do dope and drink (apparently the concert wasn't that important...??) while the parents tell the story of how their daycare center burnt down. After the father has to take the mother to the hospital, the group stay to watch the girl. Weird things happen and people are killed. It seems the father is creating an army of evil children for a demon. The lone survivor sets the father on fire and a demon appears. She escapes but the little girl is in the back of her pick up. 

Writer/director Rustam Branaman also acted in a lot of films (hopefully he will continue doing that instead of..well you know....)

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Not An Elvis Remake!

THE CURSE OF EL CHARRO-2005-This typical gory mean spirited horror tale takes place in California where a young college student named Maria (Drew Mia) suffers from nightmares while coping with the suicide of her sister. Her roommate (Heidi Androl) invites her to go along with two other girls to her uncle's remote house in Arizona. Along the way the meet a hick cop who, after oral sex, takes them to a scary dark bar where a weird guy in a wheelchair sings a terrible punk metal like song. Later they meet some guys at a club (run by dwarfs) and return to the house for drinking, drugging and sex but not before Maria has a strange vision done in a super 8 black and white silent film (with title cards) relating the tale of El  Charro (executive producer Andrew Bryniarski with Danny Trejo's voice), a Mexican demon who wanted Maria's ancestor for himself but she rejected him so in retaliation he slaughtered her whole family. Before the townspeople destroyed him El placed a curse on the family bloodline and swore he'd be back. Well he keeps his promise and dismembers, hacks and kills everyone until the archangel David (James Intveld) appears and kills Charro. Unfortunately for Maria she winds up in a padded cell and blamed for all the murders. Motorhead's Lemmy has a brief bit as a priest.

This usual bloodletting nonsense was directed by Rich Ragsdale who since CHARRO has wisely only made film shorts. Much of it is too dark and the script and acting are terrible (but what else is new?). El Charro portrayer Bryniarski was Leatherface in the 2003 remake of THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE (and it's later sequel). He kind of looks like a trick or treat version of pro-wrestler The Undertaker.

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Bad People

THE MACHINE THAT KILLS BAD PEOPLE-1952-In a small seaside village in Italy, Celestino, a portrait photographer (Gennaro Pisano) is given the power to destroy "evil people" by a demon posing as St. Andrew. All he has to do is take a photograph of a photograph of his intended victim and they die. At first he uses it to get rid of the rich people in town who he believes are exploiting the poor residents. Later he even turns his power on them when he realizes no one is perfect. This is an unusual comedy directed by Italian neo-realist Roberto Rossellini. Parts of it are funny and the ending was unexpected. The story seems like a TWILIGHT ZONE episode if it had be written by Jim Thompson! 

 MACHINE was once thought to be lost but was restored a few years ago. Lead actor Pisano seems to have made only 3 movies. One actress Marilyn Buferd, who plays an American tourist some male villages lust after, was a former Miss America who later played John Carradine's up tight assistant in Brooke L. Peter's THE UNEARTHLY.

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