Topic: My October Horror Marathon

[Jimmy]

Title : Werewolf in a Girl's Dormitory (1962)

Overview
At a school for wayward girls, a series of mysterious attacks have plagued the campus. The victims all appear to have been attacked by a vicious animal, wich leads some to believe that the school is being stalked by a werewolf. As the next full moon approaches, the campus becomes nervous in anticipation on what will happen next, as the authorities struggle to track down the monster.

My Impression

Follow the link

Rating :

Number of film watch : 37

Pete, I think that this is a movie that you could appreciate.

[addicted2dvd]

Thanks Jimmy... will have to put this one on my always growing list. 

[Jimmy]

Title : The Driller Killer (1979)

Overview
A struggling artist is trying to complete his latest painting when he finds himself distracted by a punk rock band that moves into the downstairs apartment and continuously plays its music. He finally finishes his marterpiece despite the noise and shows it to his art dealer but his devastated when the dealer laughs at his work. Driven over the edge by the dealer's criticisms and the band's loud music, the artist snaps and begins killing people using a large power drills as his weapon of choice.

My Impression

Follow the link

Rating :

Number of film watch : 38

[Jimmy]

I know I was supposed to not write any review for this marathon, but only the crazy doesn't change their mind and if I am too boring you will certainly mention it to me. 



Title : Horror Express (1972)

Overview
In 1907, a scientist discovers the figure of a creature imbedded in the ice of Manchuria. Believing it to be the Missing Link, the scientist has the ice block loaded onto a Trans-Siberian train for a trip across the continent with the eventual destination of London and the ununveiling of the discovery. While travelling through a snowstorm in Siberia, the creature is freed from the ice and begins to terrorize the passengers, while the scientist and his rival discover the creature is not what it appears to have been.

My Impression
This one is a really good discovery. The performances of Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing are very good, Telly Savalas had an interesting role (even if it is very minor) and Faith Clift the worst actress of all time is in it as well (yes she doesn't have any emotions and sound unatural as usual). The story is really good and the devellopment with the creature is really surprising and impossible to guess. In fact if you like the movies produced by the Hammer Studio you will like this one (this isn't an Hammer production, but it looks like)

Rating :

Number of film watch : 39

[Jimmy]

Title : Snowbeast (1977)

Overview
A Colorado ski resort is the center of a winter carnival celebration but something threatens to interrupt the festivities. Skiers have been found brutally slain out on the ski runs, torn apart by what appears to have been a wild animal. After eyewhitnesses confirm what appears to be a large human-like creature leaving the scene of the latest attack, it becomes apparent to some that this is something more than a bear attack. While some people wish to warn the public and cancel the festival, there are others with a financial stake who wishes to continue the carnival no matter what the risk to the public.

My Impression
For this one your appreciation depend of if you like tv movie or not. The acting is ok, there are no real blood or gore in it, most of the action happen offscreen and the movie is a little bit slow. All this are usual problems with tv production. Personally, I'm not sure if I like it or not. 

Rating :

Number of film watch : 40

[Najemikon]

I know I was supposed to not write any review for this marathon, but only the crazy doesn't change their mind and if I am too boring you will certainly mention it to me. 

Good! I was going to message you and encourage you to keep going because I enjoy your reviews. Anyway you should be writing for yourself as much as anyone else. I like to write about movies because it helps me put my thoughts into context.

And if no-one had a go at me about writing pages of boring waffle about Alien, I'm pretty sure they aren't going to be bored by you!

[Jimmy]

I was probably too tired yesterday night and I was unable to come with anything relatively good. One night of sleep was the remedy for that...

Anyway that made me add the list of what I've review in the marathon, so I've done something usefull yesterday 

[Jimmy]

Title : Sisters of Death (1977)

Overview
During a sorority initiation ceremony, something horrible goes wrong and one of the new members is accidentally killed. Seven years later, the remaining sorority sisters receive invitations to attend a reunion at an isolated mountain estate. Unberknownst to any of the women, the resort is owned by the father of the deceased sorority member and he is looking for revenge.

My Impression
The synopsis for this one looks really promising. You get all the elements of a good drive-in movie : 5 quite good looking girls trap in a house with a crazy man waiting to kill them one by one. That's almost promise a "The Most Dangerous Game" scenario with nudity and violence. But, since they had always a but... this movie is rated PG. You know what it means : forget the nudity, forget the violence and forget the gory effect 

The acting is just ok and no one except Claudia Jennings really impress me. The father's revenge plan really make me think as the kind of too complicated one that was the trademark of every vilains in the old Batman tv serie. One thing that I've not understand at all is why the seven years waiting time...

But one thing positive about this movie is that it isn't about a lame sorority of ugly black girls that invoke some bad CGI evil spirit to hide the fact that they can't act to save their lives.

More seriously the end save this film, it was a complete surprise to me. So if you watch this wait for the end even if the movie isn't so great.

Rating :

Number of film watch : 41

[Jimmy]

Title : Oasis of the Zombies (1981)

Overview
During World War II, a platoon of German soldiers is transporting a large shipment of gold across the African desert when they're attacked by Allied forces who force them to hide the treasure in a remote desert oasis. Fifty years later, the son of the only surviving Allied attacker decides to lead an expedition to track down the hidden gold. Facing numerous perils along the way, the adventurers find the hidden oasis only to discover it is guarded by horrifying Nazi zombies.

My Impression
Not a good day of movie watching for me today, first the God awfull pieces of shit that is "War of the Robots" and now this one. The first hint that this movie will be boring is the original title : L'Abîme des morts vivants, that means that it's a French horror movie and except for Jean Rollin no French is able to make an horror movie. The second hint is the director name A.M. Frank that are one of the hundred of alias of Jesus Franco, he had made almost 200 movies and most of them are bad. The last hint was at the start of the movie, I've watched this one 15 years ago in its original language and didn't finish it because it was boring... So finally since we can escape our karma I've watch it today without knowing that it was this one.

It was longer than the real running time, I've fallen asleep 4 times watching it... Badly dub, crappy print quality, annoying music, completly illogic (one of the zombie is the dad of the teenager but he didn't died there, the Sheik doesn't age at all in 40 years,...), no characters development, bad script, an end that doesn't make sense, ...

Only good thing in it, the zombie makeup is good but they used the same footage again and again and again...

Really don't watch this, unless you need to sleep and you're unable to.

Rating :

Number of film watch : 42

[Jimmy]

Title : The Witches' Mountain (1972)

Overview
A newspaper photographer and his girlfriend are traveling through the mountains on an assignment to photograph a legendary haunted peak. Stopping at a castle near the mountain to rest for the evening, they discover that not all is as it seems. The castle is the home of a coven of witches that call the peak their own and wish to keep any strangers away from their activities.

My Impression
A little bit better than my previous one, but honestly this is not the harder goal to achieves. The problem with this movie is that its really really really slow... Nothing really happen in the first 70 minutes, if your movie had a length of 5 hours it's ok but if your running time is actually 85 minutes maybe it's a problem. The other thing is that those 15 minutes are really confusing (they were for me  ) : maybe those events happen maybe not, maybe the covent exist maybe not, maybe the covent is at the mountain maybe somewhere else,... The problem is that the print is too dark, it's really hard to see the night scenes and maybe some hints are given there.   

Rating :

Number of film watch : 43

[Najemikon]

What the hell is that thing on the cover?

that means that it's a French horror movie and except for Jean Rollin no French is able to make an horror movie.

Exactly what I've been saying about Alien 4!

[Jimmy]

What the hell is that thing on the cover?

You have to watch the movie to find it 
No really I've no idea  Certainly not something that I've seen in this movie and a red glowing something walking would have been very easy to spot in this snoring festival...

Thinking of it, it's looks like a giant male organ waiting to receive some pleasure from the dead guys... But maybe I'm just a 38 years old pervert 

[Jimmy]

Title : The Revenge of Doctor X (1970)

Overview
A NASA scientist is ordered to take a vacation due to showing signs of stress while working on his latest missile project. Traveling to Japan, the scientist decides to indulge in his botany hobby and begins experimenting on a venus flytrap he brought along on his trip. Using radical techniques and falling into madness, the scientist eventually creates a plant creature that feeds on flesh and blood, wich then sets off to find food in the form of the people of a nearby community.

My Impression
Don't be fool by the cover since it had nothing to do with this movie, this is just a generic VHS cover. If you watch it don't be fool by the openning credit too, they had nothing to do with this movie (in fact those credits are the credit of Mad Doctor of Blood Island). Does it sound really professional to you? Our "hero" here is sure a multi-talented kind of guy : he is responsible for the Apollo program (we know that because of the stock footages), he was a mathematician during the war, he is a botanist and he know how to overact. The other cast members are a Japanese woman who is hard to listen most of the time because of her accent and a Japanese limping hunchback who talk only in japanese. I forget there are a bitch (a female dog not the insult) and her puppy.

This movie is weird, but if you know that the writer of this his Ed Wood it's not a surprise anymore. How to resume it : a Frankenstein ripoff where the creature isn't made with corpse body part but with a venus flytrap and some kind of aquatic plant... By the way this is the result of this experience :



Yes this monster is created in a stormy night since the experience need electricity too and yes we get the "it's alive" quote too, but in a much lamer way. But contrary to the Frankenstein's monster this plant creature need water and blood to really comes alive. To show how this is a demoniac creature we see it killing a puppy and a child who show it a teddy bear for his own reasons. Evidently killing is a big word, since the only hint that we receive is the fact that the screen turns red. The movie will end when the scientist try to catch the Bragan's Monster (it's the scientist name so we can give this name to his plant creature) with a goat as a bait and the two of them fell in a volcano to their death (see the volcano stock footages at the beginning wasn't there for nothing). The movie end on a good note since a child climb down the volcano with the goat.

This film was a weird experience, do I recommand it? You bet I do 
 
Rating :

Number of film watch : 44

[Jimmy]

Title : Funeral Home (1980)

Overview
A young woman arrives at her grandmother's place to help convert it over to a bed and breakfast inn from the funeral home wich was operated by her recently departed grandfather. After completing the change and guests begin to arrive, the granddaughter hears strange noises from the basement and finds some of the guests have disappeared. Getting nowhere with the police, the granddaughter decides to get to the bottom of the mystery by going down to the locked cellar to see what's inside.

My Impression
First my usual rant when I talk about a canadian movie : I hate the fact that those films never get a good release when many of them are in fact better than many american movies made in those years. I can't understand why Evil Death was release something like 50 times on dvd, but Cannibal Girls never was or why Halloween was release a thousand times on dvd, but never Death Weekend... Ok enough with the rant mode.

Time to go on nostalgia mode : remember the time when the movies that we were renting on VHS had 3 or 4 trailers before the movie? Most of the time those films were bad and the best thing on the videotape was the trailers. This movie is one of those trailers that I've seen, but never the movie untill today.

I don't write the overview and a proof of that is the fact that this one is completly wrong, the only correct parts are the one that I've highlighted. This movie is more a suspense than a real horror movie, honestly I've no problem to say that it's as good than Psycho. The acting is really good : Kay Hawtrey (the grandmother) and Lesleh Donaldson (the granddaughter) are particullary good. In fact everyone in the cast act well and as a bonus Barry Morse from Cosmos: 1999 is in it.

Another canadian gem that I strongly recommand. 
 
Rating :

Number of film watch : 45

[Dragonfire]

What the hell is that thing on the cover?

that means that it's a French horror movie and except for Jean Rollin no French is able to make an horror movie.

Exactly what I've been saying about Alien 4!

I don't think I want to know what that thing on the cover is.