Bava

 

 (the moviedb.org)

BLACK SABBATH-1963-Three tales of terror are hosted by Boris Karloff in this Italian American co-production presented by AIP. 

The Drop of Water-A woman (Jacqueline Pierreux) is terrorized in her apartment after stealing a ring off a dead woman. Dripping water, weird lights and the dead woman seemingly back for revenge all help in the thief's demise. Credited as based on a story by Anton Chekov but he never wrote such a story.

The Telephone-A woman named Rosie (Michele Mercier) receives threatening phone calls from a man she thought was dead. Credited as a story by Tolstoy but not Leo, the author of “War and Peace” but a minor author Aleksei.

The Wurdaluk-A man (Mark Damon) stays with a family and awaits the return of their grandfather (Boris Karloff) who may now be a vampire. Based on a story by Guy de Maupassant. Usually said to be the only time King Karloff played a vampire.

Mario Bava directed this using lots of style and clever camera work. The original Italian version has a different story order, different music and alternate narration by Karloff. Plus an unusual ending for the vampire story. Bava made THE WHIP AND THE BODY the same year.

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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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Amicus Anthology

 

 (imdb)

ASYLUM-1972-A young Dr. Martin (Robert Powell) has a job interview in an insane asylum where the head doctor Rutherford has gone insane and is now a patient. Or so says his replacement (Patrick Magee). He says if Martin can identify the loony doc from the other patients, he gets a position.

The first story, “Frozen Fear” is related by Bonnie (Barbara Parkins) and how her lover Walter (Richard Todd) murdered his wife with an ax, chopped up her body and put it in a freezer. The pieces come back to life and kill hubby. Bonnie has to fight the pieces too and winds up insane and disfigured.

Then comes the tale “The Weird Tailor”. Bruno (Barry Morse), a tailor who can't pay his rent, is visited by a Mr. Smith (Peter Cushing) who wants the tailor to make a special suit for his son. He needs the suit to bring his son back to life. After he accidentally kills Smith, Bruno wants to burn the suit. His wife (Ann Firbank) wants to call the police. Fortunately, she puts the suit on Otto the dummy. An episode of TV's "Thriller" is based on the same story.

In the third story “Lucy Comes to Stay”, a woman named Barbara (Charlotte Rampling) comes to live with her stuffy brother George (James Villiers) after a mental breakdown. She has an annoyingly cheerful nurse called Higgins (Megs Jenkins). After Barbara takes some pills, her mysterious friend Lucy (Britt Eklund) shows up and convinces her that George is trying to kill her. But Lucy is just an illusion.

Last up is “Manikins of Horror”. Dr. Byron (Herbert Lom) makes little dolls that he says he can bring to life through thought control, which he does in the finale but there's a fatal twist ending for poor Dr. Martin. 

This is a cool horror anthology from Amicus with all the stories written by Robert Bloch who had performed a similar duty the year before on THE HOUSE THAT DRIPPED BLOOD. Director Roy Ward Baker's previous horror movie had been DR. JEYKLL AND SISTER HYDE (1971).

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Deadtime

 (IMDB)

 DEADTIME STORIES-1986-A reluctant babysitting uncle (Michael Mesmer) tells his nephew 3 bedtime stories. In the first 2 old hag sisters Hagnathol & Florinda search for a third sister with the help of a servant boy Peter (Scott Valentine). They kill a priest and use his severed hand to find the corpse. They plan to resurrect her using her heart and sacrificing Miranda, a local maiden (Kathy Fleig) but Peter turns against them and saves her. They are then briefly terrorized by the reanimated sister but Peter pulls her heart out. They seem saved but there's a sort of twist ending. 

Then uncle then tells his own version of Little Red Riding Hood. A stupid druggist mixes up the prescriptions of a woman named Rachel (Nicole Picard) and a pill popping loser named Willie (Matt Mitler). While Rachel and her boyfriend have sex in a shack Willie turns into a werewolf and attacks Rachel's grandmother (the prescription had been for her). Then he kills the boyfriend. Rachel kills the wolf with a silver cake knife. At the hospital grandma turns into a wolf. 

Then comes the tale of Goldilocks which takes place at the "Home For The Hopelessly Insane". A woman helps her husband and idiot son escape. Meanwhile Goldi Lox, an escaped serial killer who can kill with her psychic powers lives in their old house. This is by far the worst story with a lot of characters acting like morons. At the end a kid is attacked by a fake looking monster. Terrible music. 

Filmed in New York City by director/co-writer Jeffrey Delman.\

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Good Things Come In Threes

 

TALES OF TERROR-1962-This trilogy from AIP is based on stories by who else but Edgar Allen Poe. All three star Vincent Price (He also made THE RAVEN with Corman (and Lorre) the same year).

Morella-Daughter Lenora (Maggie Pierce) gets a disturbing unwelcome from her estranged dad Locke (Vincent Price), a recluse in a gloomy cobwebbed mansion where he mourns the death of his wife Morella (Leona Gage). He seems to blame Lenora for her death since she died in child birth. When Lenora finds the mummified body of her mom in bed Dad confesses that excessive partying actually killed her. After it seems Lenora dies, Morella possesses her body and kills Locke but Lenora really did the deed. Morella smiles...

The Black Cat-Drunken Montresor (Peter Lorre) mistreats his wife Annabel (Joyce Jameson) and her black cat. At a wine tasting he meets pompous wine expert Luchresi (Vincent Price). When Montresor gets very drunk, Luchresi takes him home and meets Annabel. They fall in love. Montresor finds out about their affair and walls them up in the basement. After a drunken dream where the clandestine lovers play catch with Montresor's head, the police arrive looking for his wife. Of course the hated cat was walled up with the couple. Uses parts from “The Tell Tale Heart” and “The Cask of Amontillado”.

The Facts in The Case of M. Valdemar-Carmichael (Basil Rathbone), a hypnotist helps relieve the pain of the dying Ernest Valdemar (Vincent again). His young assistant James (David Frankham) smells treachery. Valdemar agrees to be hypnotized on his death bed as part of Carmichael's weird experiment. James was right of course. The hypnotist will not let Valdemar die unless his wife Helene (Debra Paget), agrees to marry him. When Carmichael tries to molest her, Valdemar rises from his un-dead death bed and kills his tormentor.

Roger Corman (director) and Richard Matheson (screenplay) score again with this great anthology. The acting, direction and SFX are top notch and the middle story inspired Corman and Matheson to make A COMEDY OF TERRORS.

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AAA: Another Amicus Anthology

 

 

THE HOUSE THAT DRIPPED BLOOD-An obnoxious police detective (John Bennett) investigates the disappearance of film star Paul Henderson. A real estate agent (John Bryans) tells him strange things go on in the house where a woman has also vanished. He gives the detective the reports on the last few tenants for him to read. They comprise the stories.

In the first “A Method For Murder”, a horror writer (Denholm Elliot) creates a sinister character called Dominic (Tom Adams). It seems the character comes to life and the writer wonders if he's going insane. The twist ending makes no sense.

In the second “Waxworks”, Peter Cushing plays Phillip, a loner who listens to classical music and mourns the death of his lover. He and his friend Neville (Joss Ackland) become obsessed with a wax figure that resembles the dead woman. The museum's mad owner figures into the climax.

 

In the third “Sweets To The Sweet” (related by the real estate agent), Christopher Lee plays a stuck up businessman who treats his seemingly cute and innocent daughter in an overly strict manner. It turns out she's not exactly what she appears to be. Nyree Dawn Porter plays a teacher who tries to help.

In the final story “The Cloak”, Jon Pertwee plays pompous horror star Paul Henderson. When speaking of a film with Dracula in it he says “The one with Bela Lugosi. Not that new fella”. (This was an Amicus production) Henderson buys a mysterious cloak for his latest vampire role and it seems to turn him into a blood sucker. His co-star/lover Korla (Ingrid Pitt) turns out to be the real thing!

In the ridiculous finale Henderson and Korla attack the detective when he goes to investigate.

This is an ok anthology from Hammer Studios' chief English competition at the time and the script by writer Robert Bloch is clever in spots but I thought the stories could have been better. I wasn't really satisfied with the conclusion to most of them and the direction by Peter Duffell seems rushed in parts but it's always good to see a nice old fashioned anthology like this especially with a great cast.

Around this time Bloch was a busy writer doing more stuff for Amicus like ASYLUM and THE TORTURE GARDEN plus TV movies like THE CAT CREATURE and TV show episodes. It's also said that Vincent Price was first offered the role of Paul Henderson but his contract with AIP prevented him from accepting it.

 

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Another Anthology

 

 

BARRIO TALES-2012-In this anthology two morons go to a place in Mexico called Barrio to meet a drug dealer named Pedro. There they meet an old man who they insult. He tells them some stories.

The first tale is called “Maria”. A spoiled rich asshole and his equally asshole friends smoke dope, shoot pool and insult the live-in Mexican maid. The only one who gives her any slack of course is the one of Mexican descent who speaks Spanish. Later the dorks have a sex, booze and drug party. They throw the maid in the pool and she dies (hits her head?). They cover it up but but grandfather in Mexico gets bloody revenge.

In “Uncle Tio's Taco Bar”, some slackers discover the secret ingredient in the title taco stand. Parts of
his predictable story aren't bad especially when Tio (who acts like Fuad Ramses at times) goes on a rampage.

In “El Monstruo”, white trash kidnap some poor illegal immigrants and torture them. Fortunately one escapes and brings his brother and some amigos to the rescue (they are as screwed up as the white guys).

Back in the framing sequence the old man's crazy friend kills the two guys. He's not really a drug dealer. He lures Americans to be killed and eaten by poor Mexicans.

Contrary to this movies' theme not all white Americans are slacker racists who do drugs (well at least around here; I don't know how it is in LA where this was filmed).

 Director Jarret Tarnol will probably not go away.

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VHS Tape? What's that?

V/H/S-2012-A bunch of losers who post “Jackass” like videos online are hired to go to a house and steal one certain VHS tape. In the house they find a dead old man in front of a wall of TVs. The group goes in search of the tape and leaves one guy in the room with the old man. The guy watches some VHS tapes and the following stories are shown.

“Amateur Night”-Some assholes doing drugs and drinking encounter a weird woman at a club. They take her to a hotel only to find out she's a castrating, cannibal succubus who can fly. Directed by David Brucker.

“Second Honeymoon”-A husband and wife on a road trip are kind of terrorized by a woman who breaks into their motel room and films them while they are asleep. She also steals some money and puts the husband's toothbrush in the toilet. It seems women are lovers out to kill the guy. Directed by Ti West.

“Tuesday the 17th”-Some dorks go to a lake front where one girl has been before. She jokingly says “You are all going to die up here”. They are menaced by a hooded killer who only appears as a glitch on the tape. The girl wants to catch him because he killed her friends and she is using her new friends as “bait” to trap him but it doesn't work out like she plans. Directed by Glenn McQuaid.

“The Sick Thing That Happened To Emily When She Was Younger”-A guy and a girl talk via an online chat room. It seems her apartment is haunted and she has a mysterious cut on her arm. They seem to be far apart but he's actually nearby helping aliens breed with humans. At the end he has a new victim set up. Directed by Joe Swanberg.

“10/31/98”-Some yuppies go to a costume party but the house they go to is devoid of people. There's only a lot of empty rooms and a little girl apparition. In the attic they interrupt an exorcism and run away but have second thoughts when the hear the screams of the girl being exorcised. They go back and rescue her but she eventually leads the group to their doom on some railroad tracks. This is the only segment that features any tolerable characters you would care about! Directed by Radio Silence.

In between some of the segments (the wraparound story was directed by Adam Wingard) the old man's body disappears and reappears (though no one notices) and before the final segment the old man (maybe some kind of creature ) kills the leader of the gang.

V/H/S kind of represents a new trend in the horror anthology that was much more popular in the '60's and '70)'s with Hammer and AIP. Personally more “horror directors” should be involved in making them since 9 out of 10 modern horror movies are way too long. The trouble with this “found footage” production as with most found footage stories is it's all a cheat. Nothing needs to be explained, there's no beginning and sometimes no conclusion. The stories seem like idea never fully thought out. It's just there. You make what you want of it. That's ok once in while but it gets tedious after a while. But then again this has already generated 2 sequels so what do I know. I rather watch David Hewitt's GALLERY OF HORRORS. At least Lon Chaney and John Carradine are in it!

Accept no substitutes!

 

 

 

 

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