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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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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There's Something Wrong With This Movie

 

 (imdb)

THERE'S SOMETHING WRONG WITH THE CHILDREN-2023-This terrible talk fest is typical of modern horror, either you get hit over the head with extreme gore or we are subjected to over wrought psychological pretentious direction that goes nowhere. Some kids disappear in the woods but come back the next day and behave strangely. 

Awful supernatural nonsense. The director Roxanne Benjamin produced the first 3 V/H/S movies.

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Lewton/Karloff

 

 (TCM)

ISLE OF THE DEAD-1945-Another great Lewton/Karloff collaboration directed by Mark Robson. 

Hard-nosed and dedicated to his country Gen. Pherides (Karloff; also in THE BODY SNATCHER th same year)) and US reporter Oliver Davis (Mark Cramer) unintentionally visit the home of Swiss doctor Albercht (Jason Robards) who has a strange superstitious housekeeper (Helene Thimig) and some guests: diplomat St. Aubyn (future TV Batman butler Alan Napier), his wife Mary (Katherine Emery; later in THE MAZE (1953)), salesman Andrew Robbins (uncredited Skelton Knaggs) and the enigmatic Thea (Ellen Drew). Everything is ok until Robbins dies, and a doctor (Ernst Duetsch) says he has the plague. Pherides decides everyone must stay. The doctor says it should pass in a few days but Albrecht says it might be a wolf spirit disguised as a human. He and Pherides) make a wager, Albrecht will pray to Hermes for a cure and Pherides can put his faith in science.

 After St. Aubyn dies, his wife confesses to the doctor that she has a morbid obsession with being buried alive. He says he will do everything to make sure this will never happen. But then he dies. Somehow Davis and Thea fall in love. When Mary seems to die, Pherides blames Thea. They put Mary in a crate like coffin and of course she's not dead. Then the general falls ill. Mary escapes her tomb and now mad goes looking for people to kill. Her first victim is the housekeeper. Pherides thinks the killer is Thea. Mary stabs the general, then falls off a cliff. Pherides dies believing the evil spirit has been destroyed. 

Haunting thriller with Karloff leading a good cast. Ellen Drew later starred with Vincent Price in Sam Fuller's THE BARON OF ARIZONA (1950). Jason Robards was in BEDLAM with Karloff the next year.

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Supernatural TV Pilot

 

 (imdb)

THE GHOST OF SIERRA DE COBRE-1964-Architect/psychic investigator Nelson Orlon (Martin Landau) is called in by Vivia Mandore (Diane Baker in Hitchcock's MARNIE and Castle's STRAITJACKET the same year), wife of Henry Mandore (Tim Simcox), a wealthy blind man who's getting strange phone calls from his dead mother. After Paulina sees a horrifying ghost, Orlon investigates. Their new housekeeper, the spooky Paulina (Dame Judith Anderson) hangs around and doesn't like Orlon because he called the ghost of her town a fake. Things are not as they seem. Leonard Stone as Mandore's business partner and Nellie Britt as another housekeeper are skeptical. 

Alternatively spooky and talky, this is a failed TV pilot turned into a full-length movie by writer Joseph Stefano (who did the screenplay for PYSCHO (1960) and many OUTER LIMITS episodes).  He took over directing (his only time as a director) when original director Robert Stevens fell ill. Future Academy Award winner Landau was in an episode of "The Twilight Zone" and "The Outer Limits" the same year. 

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Which Witch?

 

 (imdb)

THE WITCH-1966-Sergio (Richard Johnson; in KHARTOUM the same year) meets old lady Consuelo Lorente (Sarah Ferrati) who wants him to catalogue the manuscripts her dead husband wrote about her. When she has some kind of fainting spell Sergio meets her daughter Aura (Rosanna Schiaffino; MINOTAUR, THE WILD BEAST OF CRETE) who he falls for immediately, but a dead cat spoils their first meeting. Just when it seems like Sergio and Aura are going to get it on, they are interrupted by Fabrizio (Gian Maria Volente; FISTFUL OF DOLLARS, FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE), the guy who Sergio has replaced, who is madly in love with Aura, who then suddenly rebuffs Sergio and tells him to leave. He talks to a female neighbor who tells him Lorente has no daughter. He returns to the apartment and has a fight with Fabrizio who's killed accidentally. 

Sergio must figure out what's going on just like the viewer in this very arty, stylish supernatural tale from a book by Carlos Fuentes. This Italian production was directed and co-written by Damiano Damiani who went on to make AMITTYVILLE ll: THE POSSESSION (1982) and many Italian based crime dramas.

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Friend of the Devil?

 

 (imdb)

THE DEVIL'S PARTNER-1960-An old man is killed when sacrificing a goat in a supernatural ritual. Then Nick Richards (Ed Nelson) comes to a small town looking for his uncle Pete. He's informed by the sheriff (Spencer Carlisle) that his uncle is dead and it could be murder. Local girl Nell (Jean Allison) befriends him. Her boyfriend David (Richard Crane) owns a gas station and her father (Edgar Buchanan) is the town doctor. Later Frank, another local drinks goat's milk and dies. Nick seems nice but he obviously has a sinister ulterior motive. At night Nick, using a pentagram his uncle made, makes David's dog turn on him. He survives by killing the dog and hires Nick to run the station while he recovers. Later Nick kills the plastic surgeon who's coming to check out David's scars by making his car crash. For some reason Nick pays the town drunk Papers (Byron Foulger) to help him in another ritual where Nick transforms into his uncle Pete! Papers runs away and is trampled by a mysterious black horse. Later Nick turns into a snake and tries to kill David but is shot. He turns into the black horse but is shot and killed by the Sheriff. The horse turns into Nick who turns into Uncle Pete. 

There seems to be a few holes in this story or the version I saw was edited. This is only one of two feature length films made by busy TV director Charles Rondeau and both in 1960 (the other was the dreary THE GIRL IN LOVER'S LANE). The screenplay was co-written by ex-Bowery Boys actor Stanley Clements.

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French Horror

 

 (letterboxd.com)

CARNIVAL OF SINNERS-1943-At a Parisian inn full of disgruntled guests, a mysterious man (Pierre Fresnay; THE GRAND ILLUSION) with an artificial hand relates the story of how he bought a cursed hand from the devil to become a famous painter. He spends the rest of the story trying to get rid of it. Previous owners include a musketeer, a thief, a juggler, a magician, a surgeon, a boxer and the chef who sold it to the painter. 

Clever but seldom seen French horror directed by Maurice Tourneur, father of future director Jacques.

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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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7 Dummies

 

(imdb)

7 MUMMIES-2006-Idiotic supernatural western nonsense about a group of convicts who escape their transport truck and head into the desert with a female prison guard hostage. After a crazy local (Danny Trejo) tells them about some hidden gold, they decide to search for it and wind up in an old west town occupied by zombie vampires, led by Drake (Billy Drago). Martin Kove is a bar owner. The director Nick Quested had been a music video director before this.

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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 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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Two Out of the Way At Once

 

 (imdb)

REMNANTS-2013-Nothing new here. A couple (writer/director Brian Coppola & co-writer Stephanie Gershowitz) with a dog and a video camera believe their house is haunted. The next hour is them talking and walking around in the dark. The doggie was cute though......

FRANKENSTEIN-2011-Mary Shelly, James Whale and Boris Karloff must be spinning in their graves. This is a trashy modern low budget version of the horror classic with lots of characters yelling "No!" at the top of their lungs. Bad acting, direction, tons of talk. Really terrible. I hope director Jordan Salkil never heard of the novel “Dracula”....

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Sign The Book

 

 (imdb)

THE UNDEAD-1957-After a sinister intro by The Devil (Richard Devon), a weird guy named Quintas Ratcliff (Val Dufour) returns from Tibet to confront his former teacher with his regression experiments. Quintas regresses hooker Diana (Pamela Duncan) to a past life in some medieval time when persecution of witches was trending. She finds herself a condemned witch named Elaine, locked in a dungeon awaiting execution. She escapes but is accidentally locked in a coffin (with a corpse played by Paul Blaisdell) by feeble gravedigger Smolen (Mel Welles). Meanwhile Pendragon (Richard Garland) searches for proof of Elaine's innocence. A woman named Livia (Allison Hayes) pretends to care but is really a witch with imp companion (Bobby Barty) who's after Pendragon's heart. 

(Metaphorically speaking…).

 After Smolen frees Elaine from the coffin she meets Maud (Dorothy Neumann), a kind of witch who hides Elaine and tells Pendragon. Maud then challenges Livia. Bruno VeSota plays a pub owner who's decapitated. When Quintas realizes he's changed the past he goes back to try and fix things up. Livia convinces Pendragon the only way to help Elaine is to make a pact with the devil but Qunitas now a knight who somehow the devil knows dissuades Pendragon from signing. But if Elaine doesn't die by dawn all her future lives will cease to be. Will she submit to the executioner's axe? And what of Quintas? Will he make it back to the present? Dick Miller appears in one scene as a leper. 

This is a great low budget AIP production directed of course by Roger Corman with a lot of flair and imagination. There's some nice SFX and spooky settings. Screenwriters Charles Griffin and Mark Hanna also collaborated on Corman's best sci-fi/horror film NOT OF THIS EARTH the same year. Corman also made ATTACK OF THE CRAB MONSTERS in '57, written by Griffin and and starring Garland and Duncan.

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Devil?

 

BLACK TORMENT-1964-Sir Richard Fordyke (John Turner) and his new bride Elizabeth (Heather Sears) return to his ancestral home where his first wife committed suicide. He's given a rather cold greeting as a young girl has been raped and murdered and her dying words were Richard's name. His father is wheelchair bound by a stroke and can only communicate in sign language which Richard doesn't know. Fortunately his caregiver Diane (Ann Lynn) knows it. She also happens to be Richard's dead wife's sister. Other suspicious acting friends are his accountant Seymour (Peter Arne) and his footman Harris (Norman Bird). After another girl is killed Col. Wentworth (Raymond Huntley; also in Hammer's THE MUMMY) explains to Richard that although he was 100 miles away villagers swear they saw him riding through the village being chased by his deceased wife who was yelling "murderer". A dead girl's fiancee calls Richard the devil and things happen to Richard, leading many to believe he is some kind of demon. After it seems Elizabeth has killed her husband, the culprits are revealed. Patrick Troughton is a stable master. 

Director Robert Hartford-Davis later made CORRUPTION and INCENSE FOR THE DAMMED. After that he came to the US and made BLACK GUNN and THE TAKE. Heather Sears had co-starred with Herbert Lom in the unsuccessful remake of THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, produced by Hammer in 1962.

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You Decide

 

 (imdb)

RORSCHACH-2015- Critics proclaim "Scariest movie on the internet!" but you can decide for yourself. This is a very low budget found footage investigation by two guys at the house of a woman and her young daughter. Mom believes her grandmother's ghost is haunting the place but there's also doll left by the previous owners. What's going on? Director C.A. Smith presents this in a way to resemble a real life event more than most found footage stuff but it's still kind of slow going. 

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Up On Blood Creek

 

 (imdb)

BLOOD CREEK-2009-In 1936 West Virginia, a conceited Teutonic Nazi Mr. Wirth (Michael Fessbender) visits a German family, looking for rune stones for The Third Reich. When their little daughter's bird dies he brings it back to life. Back in the present EMT worker Evan Marshall (Henry Cavill) takes care of his father (who blames him for his brother Victor's disappearance) and argues with his sister in law about her kids needing hope. One night his brother Victor (Dominic Purcell) shows up ranting and looking like a deranged hillbilly. He takes Evan to the very same shack from 1936 where he's been held prisoner for 2 years. Wirth is now a supernatural creature who can bring back the dead but needs blood. He sends dead horses to attack and puts a spike in his own head. Lots of bloody sfx and as usual not much else. Directed by Joel Schumacher in Romania.

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Evil Cult

 

(imdb)

 

THE DEVIL'S HAND-1961-A man named Rick Turner (Robert Alda) has mysterious reoccurring dreams about a beautiful woman. His fiancee Donna (Ariadna Welter) seems supportive until they visit a doll shop and see a doll that resembles his dream girl. The owner Mr. Lamont (Neil Hamilton) says Turner ordered the doll but he denies it. Then they see a doll that resembles Donna. She gets upset. Lamont seems to be practicing voodoo as he sticks a pin in the Donna doll and she winds up in the hospital. Finding out who it's for, Turner delivers the dream girl doll and meets Bianca Milan (Linda Christian), a breathy beauty who knows all about him. "You're evil but fascinating and beautiful…" he says. She belongs to a cult that worships "Gamba, the devil god of evil". Turner falls under her spell and dumps Donna. Although he's pledged his allegiance to Bianca and Gamba, he sneaks into their basement temple one night and removes the pin from the Donna doll. When Lamont finds out, he and Bianca plan to sacrifice Donna to their god (Bianca really just wants her out of the way) but Turner shows who he really cares about in the fiery finale where he saves Donna and frees himself from Bianca's spell...or does he?

 Little black & white supernatural thriller is like an overlong episode of 'Thriller". Not bad but drawn out. Director William Hole Jr. also made THE GHOST OF DRAGSTRIP HOLLOW (1959) and worked mostly in TV. Bruno VeSota and Jeanne Carmen have small roles. Lead actresses Christian (who was once married to Tyrone Power) and Welter were sisters. Screenwriter Jo Heims later wrote PLAY MISTY FOR ME.

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