OHMC

USA / 1973 As I get older, the homegrown horror films of the 70s seem to take firmer root in my heart. They represent a combination of aesthetics that I find endlessly compelling: the ethereal, surreal preoccupations of our European ancestors and the hardscrabble, plucky resourcefulness of our Yankee forefathers. MALATESTA’S CARNIVAL OF BLOOD has both qualities in…

  It’s fascinating to see how prescient some movies were for trends that had yet to fully develop in their time. It’s been commented on before how Robert Siodmak’s THE SPIRAL STAIRCASE (1946), despite the relative lack of urban grittiness and jaded anti-heroes, is a landmark of the film noir genre with its focus on…

  I don’t think it really has any bearing on the film itself, but I find it interesting that the cast and crew of MADMAN (1982) have rather short resumes beyond this point. This was writer and director Joe Giannone’s one and only feature. Gaylen Ross, our plucky final girl, only had a whopping three…

  One of Hammer Studios’ psychological thrillers that was spawned in the wake of that one Alfred Hitchcock movie, PARANOIAC embraces its more horrific nature and comes much closer to chilling the blood than many of the company’s operatic period-pieces ever did. The story is undeniably Gothic in nature despite the presence of fast motor…

  Groove to this funky TV movie’s beat and your evening shall not go unrewarded. A team-up of director Curtis Harrington and author Robert Bloch acting as screenwriter–both previously of the similar boob tube effort THE CAT CREATURE (1973)–results in this putrescent potboiler that time has instilled with some kitsch since its initial broadcast in…

  Generally regarded as the lowest tier in Hammer Studios’ Frankenstein cycle (some would say it’s FRANKENSTEIN AND THE MONSTER FROM HELL [1974] but I just don’t see that), THE EVIL OF FRANKENSTEIN suffers mostly from a lack of any real creative juices, making the whole film feel like a dry husk compared to its…

  Not a prominent member of our cinematic society, the golem is. Despite being a consistent source of early Germanic films, mostly under the creative guidance of Paul Wegener, the stone protector has been generally cast off, perhaps because his identity is couched in a specific cultural background. Frankenstein’s monster is a universal (and Universal)…

  I tend to be an anthology apologist (also known as an anthologist), but with even that slight bias in mind there’s enough to be gained from this shiny-faced portmanteau that is thankfully and generally free of any of the self-referential smarminess that proliferated Gen Y horror in the wake of SCREAM (1996). CAMPFIRE TALES–which…