|
"Carnival of Souls" (1962) $9.00 DVD
Or Life after death? Is there death after Life?
Mary Henry is enjoying the day by riding around with two friends but everything goes wrong
when challenged to a drag race and their car gets forced off of a bridge. The car sinks into the murky depths, and all three
women are assumed drowned. Some time later Mary emerges unscathed from the river. She tries to start a new life by becoming
a church organist but Mary finds herself haunted by a ghostly figure that instills fear and dread into her. The ending of
this cult favorite will surprise you!
Director: Herk Harvey
Candace Hilligos....Mary Henry
Audio/Visual: Mono, Black and White
Thriller;
Horror
Dementia 13 $8.00 DVD
Actors: Eithne Dunne, Patrick Magee, Mary Mitchell, Bart Patton, Peter Reed Directors: Francis Ford Coppola Format: Import, Black & White, NTSC Language: English Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1 Filmed 1963
A young Francis Coppola was given the job of directing this moody low-budget chiller after begging producer Roger Corman
for the opportunity to reuse the sets for another film which Corman was shooting in Ireland. The story centers on the dysfunctional
Haloran family, who live in a state of perpetual sorrow in a spooky Irish castle. Still mourning the death of her young daughter
Kathleen -- who drowned in the lake seven years ago -- Lady Haloran (Ethne Dunn) tortures herself regularly by visiting the
girl's grave (when she's not shrieking and collapsing in anguish every five minutes). When daughter-in-law Louise Haloran
(Luana Anders) loses her husband to a heart attack, she manages to conceal the body for fear of being cut out of Lady Haloran's
will. To further complicate matters, a mysterious interloper begins prowling the grounds with an axe to grind... a very big
axe. This enjoyable, quirky psycho-thriller is enlivened by Coppola's inventive camera setups, atmospheric locations and Patrick
Magee's over-the-top performance as the leering family doctor.
Dracula $12.00 DVD 1931 Bram Stoker's vampire novel has been remade dozens of times, but perhaps
the best adaptation is the classic Bela Lugosi version. Fairly faithful to the novel and dripping with gothic atmosphere,
what really makes "Dracula" stand out is the bone-chillingly charming performance by Lugosi.
A solicitor, Renfield (Dwight Frye), is travelling to Count Dracula's castle for a real estate deal, despite the locals
freaking out and crossing themselves whenever Dracula's mentioned. He soon finds out why -- the Count (Lugosi) is a vampire,
who enslaves a mad Renfield to his will. Soon after, a ship with a dead crew (and Renfield and Dracula in the hold) arrives
in England.
Soon Dracula has moved into his new home, Carfax Abbey, and is insinuating himself with the Seward family -- and especially
with pretty Lucy Westenra, who dies of blood loss and is reborn as a vampire. Only the intervention of the mysterious Dr.
Van Helsing (Edward Van Sloan) can stop Dracula's attacks in London
Horror Hotel $10.00 DVD
Also known as City of the Dead, this 1960 horror thriller makes the most of its low-budget, studio-bound limitations
to offer an abundance of eerie atmosphere frequently compared to the chilling horror stories of H.P. Lovecraft. Christopher
Lee stars as the seemingly benevolent Professor Driscoll, who sends his eager student Nan (Venetia Stevenson) to the town
of Whitewood, Massachusetts to research local legends of witchcraft. The young heroine is killed off early in the film when
she is used as a human sacrifice by a present-day coven of witches led by Lee himself. As it turns out, the entire town is
overrun by monklike zombies who perform gruesome nocturnal rituals in the local graveyards. Nan's bereaved boyfriend struggles
to eliminate this monstrous brood--at the cost of his life! Heavy on mood, this is vintage horror for die-hard fans--perfect
as a Halloween perennial
House Of Frankenstein
$10.00 DVD
Actors: Boris Karloff, Lon Chaney Jr., John Carradine, Anne Gwynne, Peter Coe (III) Directors: Erle C. Kenton Format: Black & White, HiFi Sound, NTSC Language: English Run Time: 71 minutes Film 1944
The first of Universal's all-star monster movies, House of Frankenstein boasts Dracula, the Wolf Man, and Frankenstein's
monster, Plus a menacing mad scientist (played with campy glee by Boris Karloff) and his hunchbacked assistant (J. Carroll
Naish). It's really more like two films. Karloff and Naish escape prison and find the skeleton of Dracula, resurrect the dapper
vampire (played by a dignified John Carradine) and unleash him on an unsuspecting town. In the second half, the not-so-good
doctor investigates the ruins of Castle Frankenstein (left over from the doomed conclusion of Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman)
and finds the frozen bodies of the Wolf Man (Lon Chaney) and the Monster (Glenn Strange, picking up creature-feature tips
from former flathead Karloff). He proceeds to revive them, with the expected results: murder, mayhem, and a bad end for all.
House On Haunted Hill $10.00 DVD William Castle's gimmick-laden comic thriller is not so much a horror movie
as a fairground funhouse come to life. Vincent Price stars as a deliciously silky millionaire married to a greedy gold digger
(Carol Ohmart) who refuses to divorce him. When he turns his wife's idea for a haunted-house party into a contest--$10,000
to whoever will spend the night in "the only truly haunted house in the world"--it seems he may have found an alternative
to divorce. Five strangers gather to test their stamina, Price hands each of them delightfully twisted party favors (loaded
handguns, delivered in their own tiny coffins), and the spook show begins. Blood drips from the ceiling, zombielike apparitions
float through rooms, severed heads and skeletons suddenly appear, and then a guest is found hanging in the stairwell. Full
of screams and things that go bump in the night, House on Haunted Hill isn't particularly scary and often makes little
sense, but, like a Halloween haunted house, the spectacle of spook-show clichés is quite entertaining, and Price makes a sardonic
master of ceremonies.
I Bury The Living
$10.00 DVD
Actors: Herbert Anderson, Theodore Bikel, Richard Boone, Cyril Delevanti, Ken Drake Directors: Albert Band Format: Black & White, Dolby, NTSC Language: English Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1 Studio: MGM
Newly appointed cemetery chairman Robert Craft (Richard Boone) notices some odd things about his new post: a creepy sense
of déjà vu, an inability to get heat in the caretaker's shack, and Andy the caretaker's Scottish accent, one of the thickest
in all cinematic history. Craft soon discovers to his horror that sticking pins into his map of the cemetery seems to make
people die. As if this weren't bad enough, no one believes him. As Craft grows more and more distraught, his forehead covered
in some of the most brightly glistening sweat you've ever seen, people keep trying to prove it's all a coincidence by getting
him to stick more and more pins in the map. Though hilariously overwrought, I Bury the Living does take a couple of
nice creepy twists at the end. Never before has a movie so eloquently made the case for keeping cemetery records in a text-only
database.
King Kong, the Original on DVD $12.00 Screaming, Fay Wray is great in this monster classic, one of the greatest adventure
films of all time, which even in an era of computer-generated wizardry remains a marvel of stop-motion animation. Robert Armstrong
stars as famed adventurer Carl Denham, who is leading a "crazy voyage" to a mysterious, uncharted island to photograph "something
monstrous . neither beast nor man." Also aboard is waif Ann Darrow (Fay Wray) and Bruce Cabot as big lug John Driscoll, the
ship's first mate. King Kong's is steady going, with the usual corny dialogue ("Some big, hard-boiled egg
gets a look at a pretty face and bang, he cracks up and goes sappy") and ominous signs that sets the stage for the horror
to come. Once our heroes reach Skull Island, the movie comes to roaring, chest-thumping, T.rex-slamming, snake-throttling,
pterodactyl-tearing, native-stomping life. The newly restored, digitally mastered print of the 1933 version of King Kong
is sharp, well balanced, and given that this film is seventy years old, has very few scratches or blemishes. The restoration
is nothing short of amazing.
King Kong is an all-time classic, and ranks 43rd on the American Film Institute's list of Top-100 American Movies.
Little Shop Of Horrors $12.00
DVD
Perhaps the greatest movie ever shot in two days, originally conceived as a followup to Roger Corman's black comedy A
Bucket of Blood (1959). Jonathan Haze plays Seymour Krelboin, a schlemiel's schlemiel who works at the Skid Row flower shop
of Mr. Mushnick (Mel Welles). Experimenting in his spare time, Seymour develops a new plant species that he hopes will lead
him to fame and fortune. Unfortunately, the mutated plant - named Audrey Junior, in honor of Seymour's girlfriend Audrey (Jackie
Joseph) -- subsists on blood and human flesh. It also talks, or rather, commands: "Feed Me! FEEEEED ME!" Before long, the
luckless Seymour has fed his plant the bodies of a railroad detective, a sadistic dentist, and a flashy trollop. Meanwhile,
Mr. Mushnik, who has stumbled onto Seymour's secret, has inadvertently offered up a burglar as a midnight snack for the voracious,
ever-growing Audrey Junior. (When the plant blooms, the faces of its various victims are reproduced in its flowers.) Little
Shop of Horrors began building up a cult following via repeated TV exposure in the 1960s. By the mid-1970s, it had attained
classic status. Enhancing the original Little Shop's reputation was the brief appearance by star-in-the-making Jack Nicholson
as a masochistic dental patient. Much as we love Nicholson, our vote for the most memorable Little Shop cast member goes to
the ubiquitous Dick Miller ("No thanks, I'll eat it here").
Mask Of Fu Manchu $9.00
DVD
Directed by Charles Brabin
Writing credits Sax Rohmer (story) Irene Kuhn
Complete credited cast:
Boris Karloff ....
Dr. Fu Manchu
Lewis Stone .... Nayland Smith
Karen Morley .... Sheila
Charles Starrett
.... Terrence Granville
Myrna Loy .... Fah Lo See
Jean Hersholt .... Von Berg
Lawrence
Grant .... Sir Lionel Barton
David Torrence .... McLeod
Runtime: 68 min Language: English Country: USA
Color: Black and White 1932
Englishmen race to find the tomb of Ghengis Khan. They have to get there fast, as the evil genius Dr. Fu Manchu is also
searching, and if he gets the mysteriously powerful relics, he and his diabolical daughter will enslave the world, making
him the new Ghengis Khan!
The Mask of Fu Manchu is a real campy outing.A silly adventure movie which in some ways resembles
the Indiana Jones movies.Boris Karloff and Myrna Loy seem to have a great time with their evil characters.It's also surprising
to see Lewis Stone as the hero in this one.Its production values are of high standard,which gives the film a good look for
films of that time period.
Night Of The Living Dead
$10.00 DVD
In director George Romero's NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, seven people secluded in a Pennsylvania farmhouse face relentless
attacks by reanimated corpses seeking to eat their flesh. The film starts with two young siblings who visit their mothers
grave, three hours from their home. The brother,Jonny, starts teasing his sister, Barbara (Judith O'Dea, saying that theman
accross the graveyardis aftr her. She starts apologising to the man when he jumps on her and tries to eat her. Jonny fends
him off as Barbara runs. She ends up in a farmhouse with six other people. The group, which includes a married couple and
their daughter, a pair of young lovers, and an African American man, try to keep their sanity as the living dead try endlessly
to enter the house until they are laid to rest by burning or a severe blow to the head. As they listen to news reports of
the zombie plague taking over the eastern United States, the ever-decreasing band of survivors loses ground in their battle
to both keep peace with one another and stay alive. Romero's low-budget, homegrown classic went from being unable to find
a distributor to becoming one of the most influential horror films of all time. Aside from its impact years before realistic
gore became the fashion, the film is also important for its portrayal of a black man as the good guy during a time when race
relations were an extremely sensitive issue in the United States. Romero's choice for the ending of his film also made a shocking
and bold statement about the issue.
The Mummy $12.00 DVD 1932 You have to hand it to the walking dead. What they lack in speed and agility,
they more than make up for in sheer single-minded determination. Im-Ho-Tep is a case in point. He's an ancient Egyptian priest,
cursed for his terrible crimes against the gods. A team of British archaeologists digs up his sarcophagus, along with a box
inscribed with a warning that opening it will unleash death and destruction. You'll never guess what they do. Once freed,
Im-Ho-Tep takes on the appropriately evil alias Ardath Bey and gets to the task of resurrecting his ancient lover--which will,
of course, require a living human surrogate. While the premise may sound formulaic, The Mummy in fact turns out to
be bracingly weird, relying on atmospheric creepiness rather than on jump-out-and-scare-you effects. Boris Karloff gives a
terrific performance as Im-Ho-Tep. He has all the malevolence the film requires, but also manages subtler touches; the expression
in his eyes as he is wrapped in preparation for being buried alive is absolutely chilling. Instead of forcing him to do all
the tedious shambling around that so many mummies resort to, the filmmakers have wisely given Im-Ho-Tep/Ardath Bey a nearly
living appearance once he's cleaned up and has a few psychic powers to boot, making him a potent adversary
The Raven 1935
$10.00 DVD
Actors: Irene Ware, Bela Lugosi, Lester Matthews, Boris Karloff Directors: Lew Landers Format: Black & White, NISC ( DVD formats.) Number of discs: 1 Studio: Good Life Prod LLC DVD Release Date: 3 Jan 2008 Run Time: 59 minutes
A brilliant but unstable surgeon blackmails a killer into murdering the woman who spurns his love. Following the success
of The Black Cat Karloff and Lugosi teamed up again for another classic slice of horror. Lugosi gives one of his finest performances
as the brilliant but deranged surgeon who becomes obssessed with a beautiful dancer after saving her life. He must have her
but first must deal with her fiance and father and plans to take care of them in his chamber of Edgar Allen Poe-inspired torture
devices. To do the dirty work he enlists the aid of a wanted criminal (Karloff) whom he disfigures with the promise of restoring
his features when the job is do
The Wolf Man $10.00
DVD
Even a man who is pure in heart,
And says his prayers by night,
May become a wolf when the wolfbane blooms
And
the autumn moon is bright. You'll never forget it after seeing The Wolf Man for two
reasons: it's a spooky piece of rhyme and nearly everybody in the picture recites it at one time or another. Set in a fog-bound
studio-built Wales, The Wolf Man tells the doom-laden tale of Lawrence Talbot (Lon Chaney Jr.), who returns to the
estate of his wealthy father (Claude Rains). (Yes, Chaney's American, but the movie explains this, awkwardly.) Bitten by a
werewolf, Talbot suffers the classic fate of the victims of lycanthropy: at the full moon, he turns into a werewolf, a transformation
ingeniously devised by makeup maestro Jack Pierce. Pierce was the man who turned Boris Karloff into the Frankenstein monster,
and his werewolf makeup became equally famous, with its canine snout and bushy hairdo--and, of course, seriously sharp dental
work. The Wolf Man was a smash hit, giving Universal Pictures a new monster for their already crowded stable, and Chaney
found himself following in the footsteps (or paw prints) of his father, who had essayed a monster or two in the silent era.
This is a classy horror outing, with strong atmosphere and a thoughtful script by Curt Siodmak. It's also got Bela Lugosi
(briefly) and Maria Ouspenskaya, the prunelike Russian actress who foretells doom like nobody's business.
|
