Yesterday evening (May the 4th), TCM aired a double bill of horror films, The Haunting (1963) and Ghost Ship (2002). While this post isn’t an in-depth look at either film I wanted to use the experience of watching both films, one after the other, to illustrate why I don’t watch many modern horror films, and therefore why Exploitica concentrates on older films.

The Haunting is a film adaptation of Shirley Jackson’s 1959 novel The Haunting of Hill House, which tells the tale of a group of paranormal investigators and their stay in Hill House, a sprawling mansion. Jackson uses the mounting tension between the characters and the sense of impending doom mingled with the emotional breakdown of the main character Eleanor Vance. The novel is a masterpiece of suggestion, and the ending is deliberately vague, leaving it up to the reader’s imagination as to whether Eleanor was actually plagued by spirits or simply a sensitive and emotionally disturbed young woman.

While the widely panned 1999 version of The Haunting went for an all out horror film with plenty of CGI ghosts, the 1963 film is more or less faithful to Jackson’s novel. The horror is implied and very little happens for the first hour or so, yet the sense that something terrible is going to happen slowly builds. The play of light and shadows mingled with the sound effects which vary from tiny tinkling bells to wave-like crashes creates the emotional charge needed to set the nerves on edge and add to the growing unease.

Richard Johnson plays Dr. John Markway, a paranormal investigator looking for evidence of supernatural activity. He contacts a number of people who have supernatural experiences and invites them to spend the summer at splendidly gothic Hill House (Ettington Hall which is now the Ettington Park Hotel). The only two to accept the invitations are Eleanor Vance (Julie Harris) , a shy and sensitive young woman who lives with and cares for her elderly and demanding mother, and Theo (Claire Bloom), an artist and possibly lesbian, bohemian. They are joined by Luke Sanderson (Russ Tamblyn), the heir to Hill House, and resident sceptic. As with any classic haunted house, creepy things come out of the woodwork at night, but instead of gibbering demons or headless ghouls the terror is treated with a light but eerie touch, such as bending walls and booming noises.

Performances are solid, Bloom excellent as the cool and vaguely predatory Theo, though Harris seems on the verge of hysteria almost from the outset, as opposed to the creeping psychosis that slowly dawns on Eleanor (her performance actually reminded me a little of Jack Nicholson in The Shining, in that he already seems crazy before he even gets to the Overlook). As with the novel we are left to wonder whether the ghosts are real or not, neatly playing on both the fear of the supernatural and the fear of insanity.

By contrast, more happens in the first ten minutes of Ghost Ship than in the the entire 112 minute running time of The Haunting, though this isn’t necessarily a good thing. The story is fairly simple. An ocean salvage team attempt to recover anything of value from a luxury liner that went missing in 1962 and discover the original inhabitants are still there, in spirit anyway. Cue lashings of the red stuff, a ‘rocking’ soundtrack, some boobs and a sub-plot involving a demonic soul-stealer. Most of the cast spend their time either shouting to be heard over the sound of things exploding or whispering, meaning  just as soon as you get the volume loud enough to hear the dialogue the ‘rocking’ soundtrack kicks in, rendering you deaf while you grope for the remote control.

Despite being a ghost film the ghouls in Ghost Ship seem to enjoy a fairly hands-on approach to dispatching the crew rather than playing on their, and our, fears. The entire movie comes across as rather dull, in spite of the notorious massacre-by-wire scene in the opening few minutes, and while the cast put in energetic performances one feels it’s with a ‘let’s just get this over with’ kind of gusto.

Ok, Ghost Ship is just one of many horror films released post 2000, but it’s also fairly typical of its type. A film that uses cheap shocks and gore rather than creeping terror (and for those who think I’m completely adverse to gore read my review of Zombie Flesh Eaters), inept mixing in regards to sound, CGI effects (though it’s not only the horror industry who’ve resorted to almost entirely computer generated graphics), and seemed to be directed by someone more suited to making music videos. Mostly, and again this could be a gripe against most any genre of film that’s saturated with commercial directors and writers looking to make a quick buck, these films don’t convey any sense that the people who make the films had any love for them, and that’s really horrific.

 

The other day I attempted to watch the horror comedy Frankenhooker. I say attempted to because it was neither horrific, nor comedic, and looked like the sort of thing even Troma would back away from with their hands raised. I’m fairly sure it appeals to the average drunken Friday night college crowd though I switched off after about half an hour or so, just after the ‘hero’ went cruising in his local red light district for prostitutes to carve up, sew onto his girlfriend’s decapitated head and resurrect her as some kind of sex-crazed zombie (which, granted, sounds more fun than it actually is). Even Basket Case was better than this. Luckily I had also recorded the classic 1931 Frankenstein, which soon eased my aching head with its glorious palette of blacks and and whites, and Boris Karloff’s excellently tragic monster. However it was James Whale’s highly acclaimed follow up that I wanted to write about, The Bride of Frankenstein.

Though a separate film from Frankenstein, Bride contains much of the sub-plot from Mary Shelley’s original novel, especially the Creature’s desire to have a companion like himself. Bride brought back much of the original cast and crew, with Valerie Hobson replacing Mae Clarke as Frankenstein’s love interest Elizabeth (Clarke was ill at the time). Phyllis Brooks and Brigitte Helm (of Metropolis fame) were both considered for the part of The Bride, though the role went to Elsa Lanchester, who was uncredited for the part but who also played Mary Shelley in the opening scenes, for which she was credited.

The film opens in classic Gothic Horror fashion with story night, during which Lord George Gordon Byron (Gavin Gordon), Percy Shelley (Douglas Walton) praise Shelley’s wife Mary (Lanchester) for her novel, Frankenstein. Mary then says that it was only part of the story, and goes on to regale the men with the remainder of her tale. The film cuts to the final moments of Frankenstein and The Creature’s and Henry Frankenstein apparent fiery demise. However The Creature (Boris Karloff) is still very much alive and after killing a villager who falls into the flooded pit beneath the ruined mill he escapes into the countryside. Frankenstein’s body is brought to his fiancée Elizabeth (Hobson) who discovers he is still alive and nurses him back to health. Henry denounces his creation and  at that moment they are visited by Doctor Pretorius (Ernest Thesiger) who attempts to persuade Henry to create a woman, a mate for his Creature. Pretorius  shows Henry several tiny homunculi that he himself has made; a queen, archbishop, mermaid, ballerina, devil and a rather lusty Henry VIII clone. Pretorious then offers a toast to a ‘world of gods and monsters’.

Meanwhile The Creature roams the countryside, terrifying all those he encounters with the exception of a blind hermit (O. P. Heggie), who teaches The Creature a few words and gives him a meal. The peace is disturbed however by the arrival of two hunters and in the struggle the hermit’s cabin is set on fire. The Creature flees, still terrified of fire, as the hermit is lead away by the hunters, and hides in a subterranean crypt. He is seen by Pretorius, who tells The Creature that he plans to create a mate for him. Pretorius then visits Henry and Elizabeth again, who are now married, and demands that Henry do his part in creating the female creature. Henry refuses but Elizabeth is kidnapped by The Creature and Pretorius blackmails Henry in working on The Bride in return for Elizabeth’s safety.

Despite his earlier reservations, Henry enjoys working back at his laboratory and exults in bringing The Bride to life, paraphrasing his previous line ‘It’s alive!’ to ‘She’s alive! Alive!’ Pretorius removes the bandages, revealing The Bride’s Nefertiti inspired hair and makeup, and announcing ‘The Bride of Frankenstein!’ The Creature reaches out towards The Bride, asking ‘Friend?’ but she recoils and hisses at him and, saddened and angered, The Creature begins to destroy the lab. Elizabeth and Henry escape but The Creature keeps Pretorius and The Bride with him as he pulls a lever, making the lab explode, and declaring ‘We belong dead.’

The Bride of Frankenstein is a classic horror film for all the right reasons. A good script, well-acted and beautifully shot. The snide and sinister menace of Pretorius with his almost Faustian gloss is a joy to watch, and Lanchester brings a haunting beauty to what is a relatively small, yet central role. The Bride’s appearance is iconic and often imitated in lesser films and television series. If you haven’t seen this I urge you to.

 

In these troubled economic times most folks are looking for a bargain. From the annoying Safestyle window man (you know the one I mean), to Tesco’s BOGOF deals and Martin Clunes highjinks with pickled eggs, we’re frequently being told where and what to buy to save us money. Well, I have my own suggestion. Portmanteau horror films, five or six stories for the price of one!

Amicus Productions of course is the reigning king of portmanteau horror films with titles like Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors, The House That Dripped Blood, Asylum, Tales From the Crypt and Vault of Horror. However it’s one of their lesser known films that has a special place in my heart. From Beyond the Grave is a 1974 Amicus film featuring a sterling cast, strong central plot, good mix of stories and moments of black humour amongst the occult terrors. The film is centred around a London-based antiques shop, called Temptations Ltd, ran by a nameless Proprietor played by Peter Cushing, replete with a Yorkshire accent. Each story involves an item that has been bought, or stolen, from the shop, and the sticky end that comes to those who cheat the Proprietor.

The first story ‘The Gatecrasher’ deals with Edward Charlton (David Warner) who buys an antique mirror cheaply from the Proprietor after apparently conning him into believing it is a reproduction, although it’s fairly obvious that the Proprietor is well aware of the mirror’s true value and chooses to let it go. After a flippant comment from one of Edward’s friends that the mirror looks like something a medium might own Edward decides to hold a séance. During this he falls into a trance and finds himself in another world and faced with an eerie figure in Civil War costume (Marcel Steiner) who stabs him. Coming to his senses Edward later discovers that the figure lives inside the mirror and demands to be fed with human blood. Under the spectre’s command Edward lures people to his flat and kills them, causing the figure to manifest outside the mirror and for Edward to take his place.

The second tale ‘An Act of Kindness’ is probably the best and features Ian Bannen as Christopher Lowe, a disillusioned middle manager married to the bullying Mabel (the fabulous Diana Dors) and father to Stephen (John O’Farrell). After befriending Jim Underwood (Donald Pleasence), an ex-army match seller who peddles outside the train station, Lowe visits Temptations Ltd and steals an army medal to pass off as his own and impress Underwood. This ploy seems to work and Underwood invites Lowe to his home for tea and to meet his daughter, Emily (played by Donald Pleasence’s real daughter Angela). Over time Lowe is seduced by Emily and she begins to work black witchcraft against Mabel, culminating in killing her with a voodoo doll. Lowe and Emily marry but at their wedding tea Emily kills Lowe using her black magic. Underwood and Emily then tell a now orphaned, and happy, Stephen that they always answer children’s prayers.

The third segment, ‘The Elemental’ starts with Reggie Warren (Ian Carmichael) swapping the prices on two silver snuff boxes and thus getting an expensive box for a much cheaper price. Later on his way home Warren is accosted by an eccentric old woman, named Madam Orloff (a wonderfully batty performance by Margaret Leighton) who tells him that he has an elemental on his shoulder and offers to remove it for him. He dismisses her as a crackpot but after his dog runs away from him and his wife Susan (Nyree Dawn Porter) is nearly strangled while they are in bed, he calls Madam Orloff and employs her to get rid of it.  Madam Orloff arrives the following day and proceeds with a violent exorcism but appears to be successful, Warren declaring he feels as if a great weight his been lifted from him. However when Madam Orloff leaves Warren and Susan hear noises coming from upstairs and when Warren goes to investigate he is attacked by something and knocked out. When he wakes up he discovers the elemental has possessed Susan, who kills him.

The final story ‘The Door’ features Ian Ogilvy as William Seaton, a writer who purchases a highly ornate antique door for his stationary cupboard, an act of amusing excess in the eyes of his wife Rosemary (Lesley-Anne Down). Seaton becomes fascinated with the door and discovers the when he opens it sometimes there is a large blue room beyond it, and not his cupboard. In the room he finds notes left by a man named Sir Michael Sinclair (Jack Watson), a seventeenth century occultist who crafted the door to act as a trap for whoever walks through it, enabling him to take their souls and live forever. Seaton flees the room but when he opens the door again it reveals an ordinary cupboard. However Rosemary goes into the room and is captured by Sinclair who beckons Seaton in as well. Seaton attempts to rescue Rosemary but is overcome by Sinclair and bids Rosemary to destroy the door which she does with an axe. Sinclair melts into a skeleton and Seaton and Rosemary escape. Back in Temptations Ltd it is implied that Seaton and Rosemary survive because Seaton paid the Proprietor a fair price for the door and didn’t steal from the open till.

The film is wrapped up with a thief trying to rob and kill the Proprietor by shooting at him with a pair of antique muskets. The guns have no effect on the Proprietor and the thief ends up falling backwards into an iron maiden, leaving the Proprietor to declare that the love of money is the root of all evil. He then addresses the audience asking us to come in and browse his ware, informing us that there’s a big novelty surprise with every purchase.

From Beyond the Grave is a cracking little film, with great performances and lovely little touches of humour, Peter Cushing telling Ian Carmichael that he hopes he enjoys snuffing it for example. It is dated in parts but the pacing is excellent and the emphasis on occult happenings (the spirit in the mirror, Emily the witch, ect) is done with a light touch missing from so many modern ‘witch flicks’, (there is some red stuff, but unlikely to turn stomachs, and no sex). A highly enjoyable and mostly overlooked gem.

 

The Devil is a gentleman, sometimes. At least that’s according to Percy Bysshe Shelley, however it’s also the title of Phil Baker’s biography about Dennis Wheatley, The Devil is a Gentleman: the Life and Times of Dennis Wheatley. Dennis Wheatley was a highly prolific South London author of adventure novels, which were popular in the 1930s and 40s, though he wrote throughout most of his his adult life. However it was his works of occult fiction which he is probably best known for, titles such as To the Devil a Daughter, They Used Dark Forces and The Devil Rides Out.

The Devil Rides Out is one of Wheatley’s earlier works, published in 1934 and part of the Duc de Richleau series of novels. It tells the tale of sorcery and devil worship amongst upper class bon viveurs in 1930s England and was first picked up by Hammer Films in 1963 but due to censorship concerns over portraying satanic rituals filming was put on hold for four years and began in 1967. It stars Christopher Lee as the Duc de Richleau and Leon Greene as Rex van Ryn, two friends who arrange to meet with Simon Aron (Patrick Mower), the son of a third, deceased, friend. Simon however fails to arrive for the appointed meeting and Richleau suggests they visit Simon’s house. When they arrive they discover that Simon had forgotten about their meeting and is holding a private party for an astronomical society. Richleau tells Rex to mingle and listen to the guests and Rex meets a young woman named Tanith Carlisle (Nike Arrighi) who is confused at Richleau and Rex’s arrival making the number of the group more than thirteen. They also meet Mocata (Charles Gray), who appears to be the head of the society.

After a while Simon who has seemed uncomfortable that Rex and Richleau are there, especially when Richleau asks him questions about the occult décor, asks them to leave. Richleau forces his way into the observatory and discovers a pair of chickens locked in a basket. Rounding on Simon he accuses him of using black magic and that the other guests make up a satanic coven. After a struggle Richleau and Rex rescue Simon and return him to Richleau’s house where Richleau hypnotises Simon into going to sleep and puts a  crucifix around his neck. However during the night Simon removes the crucifix and, seemingly in a trance, leaves.

Rex and Richleau return to Simon’s house, which is now deserted, and go into the observatory. Richleau tells Rex that it would be easier to find Simon if they knew the real names of the the assembled occultists. He says that they have been re-baptised citing Tanith’s name as being that of a Carthaginian moon goddess. As Richleau and Rex search for clues as to Simon’s whereabouts they are attacked by a rather buff, shirtless, spirit sent by Mocata to kill them. They escape and as they are returning to Richleau’s house in the car Richleau realises that the following day is April the 30th, the date of the Grand Sabbat and that Mocata will likely baptise Simon the following night.

The following day Richleau locates Tanith staying at a London hotel and proposes that Rex question her under the guise of taking her out to lunch with the Eatons’, Richleau’s relatives, at their country house. On the drive Tanith admits that she is frightened of Mocata and that the Sabbat is to be her re-baptism as well as her birth name is Tanith. However when they arrive at Richard (Paul Eddington) and Marie (Sarah Lawson) Eaton’s home Tanith falls into a trance, seeing Mocata’s eyes reflected in the car’s mirrors, and is urged by his voice to escape them. She steals Rex’s car and is pursued by Rex having taken Richard’s car. Rex loses Tanith after several sorcerous interventions (a mysterious fog, the windscreen of Rex’s car turning white) but eventually tracks her to a large house where he sees Simon and Mocata, was well as the other coven members, getting into cars and driving out into the woods. Rex follows them by hiding in the boot of one of the cars and they arrive at a clearing where Mocata emerges dressed in fancy robes and the coven (suddenly having grown to about fifty members) goes a bit sex orgy, though as this is Britain in the 1960s, they all keep their nice white robes on.

After witnessing the sacrifice of a goat Rex thinks he’s seen enough and calls Richleau from a phone box to come and help. Richleau arrives and they watch as Mocata summons up ‘Old Horny’ himself, in the guise of a very regal-looking Goat of Mendes. Just as Simon is about to be baptised Rex and Richleau drive a car into the midst of the action and throw a crucifix into Satan’s face. In the confusion, and a few punch ups, Simon and Tanith are rescued and taken to Richard and Marie’s home. While there Richelau and Simon explain what has been occurring  to a sceptical Richard and Marie, his niece, who is more accepting of their tale Richleau tells Richard to watch Simon while he is sleeping and likewise for Rex to watch Tanith. However while Richleau is away for the rest of the day Marie is visited by Mocata who tries to hypnotise her into telling him where Simon and Tanith are. Mocata’s spell is broken by Maire and Richard’s daughter, Peggy (Rosalyn Landor) entering the room and Mocata tells Marie that he will not return, but something will.

In the meantime Rex has fallen asleep while watching Tanith and is almost stabbed by a mesmerised Tanith. She comes to her senses and flees but Rex catches up with her and they decide to stay somewhere away from the house so Mocata can’t force Tanith to harm anyone else. As night falls Tanith becomes possessed and Rex ties her hands and feet so she can’t attack him. Back at the house Richleau has gathered the others within a protective circle. Richard is still sceptical and Mocata uses him to try and break the circle however Richleau prevents him.  Mocata then attacks them by various means, sending frightening illusions and implying that Peggy is in danger. Eventually he sends the Angel of Death for Simon’s soul but by the means of a ritual incantation Richelau sends it away. Simon is still alive but Rex arrives carrying a dead Tanith. It is also revealed that Peggy is missing and using Marie as a medium, Richleau attempts to locate Peggy by challenging Tanith’s soul.

They discover that Peggy is being held at Mocata’s house and that Mocata plans to sacrifice the girl. After bursting in on the ritual, Rex and Richard are subdued and Marie begs Richleau to use the incantation again. Just as Mocata is about to cut Peggy’s throat Marie speaks with Tanith’s voice, Richleau assumedly having channelled her spirit again, and urges Peggy to speak the incantation. This causes the chamber to burst into flames and the satanists to writhe about, while a crucifix appears on the wall and Mocata falls down dead. They all then ‘wake up’ in the circle they’d formed earlier and Richelau explains that the incantation has reversed time and that the recent events have been ‘undone’. Tanith is restored to life and the Angel of Death has taken Mocata’s soul instead.

Despite my rather ropey explanation of what is a rather complicated plot, The Devil Rides Out is a very good movie indeed, and one of Christopher Lee’s personal favourites. It is certainly much better than Hammer’s To the Devil a Daughter, another Wheatley adaptation and the studio’s last film. The Devil Rides Out benefits from a good story well acted by a strong cast and backed up by spooky special effects which, while dated, still evoke a sense of occult dread. One of the jewels in Hammer’s bloodied crown.

 

Adrienne Barbeau may not be the first name that comes up when thinking of classic Ladies of Horror but she has a highly prolific career in the horror industry. I first saw Barbeau in Romero and King’s Creepshow where she played the shrewish Wilma ‘Billie’ Northrup, but more of that later.

Adrienne Barbeau was born in 1945 in California and began her show business career in the late 1960s as a go-go girl. She soon became involved with several musicals including Fiddler on the Roof, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas and Grease where she received a Tony Award for her portrayal of Rizzo. In 1972 Barbeau took on the role of Carol Traynor in the sitcom Maude and during the six years the show ran she became close friends with her co-star Bea Arthur. She appeared in various television programs and films such as Fantasy Island, Quincy M.E, and The Love Boat as well as several TV movies, one of which was Someone’s Watching Me! (1978) a tense high-rise thriller directed by John Carpenter. It was to be Barbeau’s first horror-themed picture, but certainly not her last as Carpenter cast her as the lead in his next film, The Fog (1980), Barbeau’s first theatrical movie.

In The Fog Barbeau plays Stevie Wayne, a local radio DJ in the coastal town of Antonio Bay which is about to celebrate its centennial. However Antonio Bay is plagued by a mysterious fog, unbeknownst to the inhabitants is harbouring the spectral figures of a crew of sailors murdered by the town’s founders. The Fog was followed by John Carpenter’s Escape From New York (1981), a dystopian sci-fi film written by Carpenter and Nick Castle, the original Michael Myers, and featuring Donald Pleasance and Jamie Lee Curtis, who had also acted in Carpenter’s Halloween (1978). Curtis’s role was uncredited as she features as the voice of the computer, a part Barbaeu would do herself for Carpenter’s The Thing (1982) and would repeat in Demolition Man (1993).

Both The Fog and Escape From New York featured Tom Aktins who appeared with Barbeau in Creepshow, though not in the same segment. Released in 1982 Creepshow was an homage to the EC horror comics of the 1960s and plays like an Amicus portmanteau film with five stories connected by the tale of young Billy (Stephen King’s son Joe) who has has horror comic taken away by his overly stern father (Aktins). In the fourth segment ‘The Crate’ college professor, Dexter Stanley (Fritz Weaver) discovers a sealed crate hidden away under the stairs of his university. He and the caretaker proceed to pry it open only to find a vicious creature resembling a yeti still alive and somewhat hungry after being imprisoned for over a hundred years. It attacks and eats the caretaker and Stanley flees to his friend Professor Henry Northrup (Hal Holbrook) who sees the monster as the perfect way to dispose of his alcoholic and emotionally abusive wife, Billie, played by Barbeau.

In the same year Barbeau starred in Wes Craven’s Swamp Thing, another comic book style horror film with a beauty and the beast theme. Barbeau naturally plays beauty, or rather Alice Cable, a government agent looking into the experiments being performed by Dr. Alec Holland (Ray Wise) who is attempting to create crops that can survive in extreme environments and therefore goes towards eliminating famine. Unfortunately super villain Dr. Anton Arcane (Louis Jordan) wants the plant formula for himself and attempts to kill Holland by covering him in chemicals and setting him on fire. Holland flees into the swamp where he is mutated into a plant/human hybrid, the titular Swamp Thing, and proceeds to thwart Arcane’s plans and rescue Cable.

Barbeau’s next serious horror film, (the less said about Cannibal Women in the Avocado Jungle of Death (1989) the better) was Due occhi diabolici (1990), better known as Two Evil Eyes. This was another collaboration between Dario Argento and George A. Romero, who had previously worked together on Dawn of the Dead (1978). Two Evil Eyes is a double feature, both stories based loosely on Edgar Allan Poe’s tales’ ‘The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar’ and ‘The Black Cat’. Barbeau featured in the former as Jessica Valdemar, a woman who has married the much older and wealthy Ernest Valdemar (Bingo O’Malley). Mr Valdemar is dying of an unspecified terminal illness and has been winding up his assets for cash, something that causes alarm bells to ring for Valdemar’s solicitor, Steven Pike (E.G. Marshall). However when Pike talks to Valdemar on the phone Valdemar seems more than happy to let Jessica have access to the money. Pike warns Jessica that should Valdemar die within the next three weeks she would be under investigation.

Pike’s suspicions are well-founded as Valdemar’s doctor Robert Hoffman (Ramy Zada) is conspiring with Jessica to wangle the old man out of his fortune by hypnotising him. Unfortunately for them during one such session Valdemar indeed dies and in a panic they store his body in a freezer in the basement, planning to reveal his death after the three weeks have passed. However that night Jessica hears strange moans coming from the basement and begins to fear that Valdemar isn’t quite dead.

Barbeau has worked steadily during the 1990s and 2000s, mainly featuring in TV movies, television series and voice acting for cartoon series and video games. She was the voice of the sultry Selina Kyle, better known as Catwoman in the animated Batman series and of Simone Lenoir in a personal favourite of mine, Scooby Doo on Zombie Island (1998). Barbeau has also featured in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, The Drew Carey Show, Carnivàle and most recently in CSI: NY and General Hospital.  She plays herself in the up and coming release Bring Me the Head of Lance Henriksen and features in the thriller Argo, due for release in October 2012. Her autobiography There are Worse Things I Could Do was released in 2006 and her first novel Vampires of Hollywood was published in 2009. Adrienne Barbeau lives in Los Angeles with her husband and twin sons. Her eldest son lives in Japan.

Visit Adrienne Barbeau’s website.

Without a doubt, Ingrid Pitt was one of horror’s most iconic actresses and writers. She appeared in over twenty five films and had numerous television credits but is perhaps best known for her role as the sapphic vampire Marcilla/Carmilla in Hammer Horror’s The Vampire Lovers.

Pitt was born Ingoushka Petrov in 1937 in Warsaw Poland. She and her family survived in a Nazi concentration camp and in the 1950s Pitt met an American soldier in Berlin and married him. They moved to California but Pitt returned to Europe after her marriage dissolved and landed a bit part in Doctor Zhivago. This was followed by small roles in various pictures, including a part in Where Eagles Dare, however it was her next role in Hammer’s The Vampire Lovers that brought her recognition, at least in the horror community.

In The Vampire Lovers, Pitt plays Carmilla Karnstein, a character created by Irish gothic author Sheridan Le Fanu for his novel Carmilla. The film starts with a beautiful vampire woman being decapitated by Baron Hartog, a vampire hunter out to avenge the death of his sister. Several years later The Countess (Dawn Addams) leaves her daughter Marcilla in the care of General von Spielsdorf (Peter Cushing) and his family. Mircalla becomes especially close to the General’s daughter Laura (Pippa Steel) but soon after Marcilla moves in with them Laura becomes ill and dies, and Marcilla disappears.

Some months later Marcilla, now calling herself Carmilla, is left at the house of Roger Morton (George Cole) and his daughter Emma (Madeline Smith). Carmilla seduces Emma, who also begins to fall ill and have nightmares about a big grey cat that bites her breast. Emma’s fears are dismissed by her governess Mme. Perrodot (Kate O’ Mara) but she too falls under Carmilla’s seductive spell, as does the butler who is ordered by Carmilla to remove the garlic flowers and crucifix he had previously brought into Emma’s room to protect her. Emma’s would-be suitor Karl is turned away from the house while Carmilla kills the butler and Mme. Perrodot. She tells Emma that she is taking her away from the house but is prevented from doing so by Karl and Carmilla flees to her ruined ancestral home. She is pursued by Spielsdorf and the aged Hartog who dispatch her in the usual way, driving a wooden stake through her heart and decapitating her. Carmilla’s portrait hanging on the wall of her crypt ages as she dies, turning from a young woman into a skeleton.

The Vampire Lovers was Pitt’s only portrayal of Carmilla Karnstein, despite Hammer spawning two sequels, Lust for a Vampire and Twins of Evil, yet she was to play another predatory female with designs on feminine blood in Hammer’s Countess Dracula, a historical horror in which Pitt played the 16th Century Hungarian Countess, Erzebeth Bathory. Pitt went on to play another vampire, Carla Lind, in the segment ‘The Cloak’ in Amicus’s The House That Dripped Blood, in which Jon Pertwee plays the reluctant benefactor of a vampire style cloak that bestows vampire-like powers. Pitt also had a smallish role in The Wicker Man as the librarian of the pagan-inhabited Summerisle, as well as roles in Where Eagles Dare, Parker, Hanna’s War and a number of low-budget horror films, as well as some work in television.

Pitt also worked as a writer, her first novel Cuckoo Run being likened to a female James Bond story. In 1984 she also wrote a novelisation of the Peron ruled era of Argentinian history as well as a script for Doctor Who, entitled ‘The Macro Men’. Her autobiography was published in 1999 and detailed her early life in the Nazi concentration camp, her search for her father and her escape from East Berlin. Pitt also wrote under the pen name ‘Dracula Smith’ and produced numerous articles for magazines like Shivers and TV and Film Memorabilia, and several anthologies of horror fiction such as The Bedtime Companion for Vampire Lovers and The Ingrid Pitt Book of Murder, Torture and Depravity.

Ingrid Pitt’s last film was Sea of Dust in 2008, and although she had a small role, her name was influential enough to get her star billing. She died on the 23rd of  November 2010 in a South London hospital after collapsing two days after her 73rd birthday. She completed narration for a short animated film based on her experience of the Holocaust seven months before she died. Ingrid Pitt: Beyond the Forest was released in 2011.

When I was a girl I had a book about vampires. Nothing unusual there, there must scarcely be a single teenage girl in the land who doesn’t own a copy of Twilight or watches True Blood. Unfortunately, I can’t remember the title of said book. It was a hardback with a black and white photo of (I believe) Castle Bran on the front and the font was in a typical gothic blood red. I can’t remember whether it had the word ‘Dracula’ in the title or ‘Vampire’ and Amazon searches aren’t coming up with the goods. This is annoying as I wanted to credit the idea for this post to that book. It had a chapter in it titled ‘The Bloofer Ladies’, which if you didn’t know is a term used by Stoker in Dracula as a child’s description of Lucy Westenra after she becomes a vampire, the ‘bloofer lady’ or ‘beautiful lady’. The chapter covered three ‘bloofer’ ladies; Carol Borland, who played Bela Lugosi’s haunting daughter Luna in Mark of the Vampire, Barbara Shelly, an actress who has appeared in a number of Hammer films such as The Gorgon and Dracula Prince of Darkness, and Barbara Steele, the lovely-eyed star of Black Sunday and other gothic horror films. So, as it’s Women In Horror Month, here are my choice of Bloofer Ladies.

 

Fay Wray
The first ever ‘Scream Queen’ even though she hated the title, Fay Wray is best known for her part as Ann Darrow in the 1933 film King Kong,however Wray featured in a number of other horror pictures during her career.

She was born Vina Fay Wray in Canada in 1907, one of six children to Mormon parents. Her family moved to Utah when she was a child and then to California where Wray attended school and got her first acting job in a historical film which was sponsored by a local newspaper. She appeared in several early silent films, mainly getting parts in westerns  however in 1928 Wray landed a contract with Paramount Pictures and was given the lead female role in The Wedding March. The film was a failure financially but it was Wray’s first leading part and she remained with Paramount to make the transition to talking pictures.

In 1932 Wray appeared in Doctor X, a mystery/horror film with Lionel Atwill and Lee Tracy. In Doctor X Wray plays Joan Xavier, daughter of the titular Doctor Xavier who is accused of a series of bizarre and gruesome murders. She worked with Atwill again on The Mystery of the Wax Museum the following year. Atwill plays Ivan Igor, a waxwork sculptor who loses use of his hands after a fire and instead of crafting new creations chooses to murder and dip his victims into large vats of molten wax. Wray is cast as Charlotte Duncan, a young woman who looks remarkably like Igor’s lost model of Marie Antoinette. She is captured by the mad artist and exposes his secret, a wax mask to cover his deformed features which she was genuinely terrified of;

‘I was in his clutches and I had to hit him in the face. It was necessary for the audience to see his face and be shocked. But when I struck him, and the moment I saw part of him, I just froze! I wanted to run; I just couldn’t go on! So they had to make another mask and do it over when I recovered.’ - From ‘A Pictorial History of Horror Films’, if anyone knows the original source for this quote I’d be certain to add it.

Wray and Atwill also starred together in The Vampire Bat, but after Wray had filmed The Most Dangerous Game with RKO, she was told she would work with the tallest, darkest man in Hollywood. She thought she’d be working with Clarke Gable, instead she got King Kong. The part of Ann Darrow was originally intended for Jean Harlow, yet Harlow had been put under exclusive contract by MGM at the time and was unavailable. Dorothy Jordan and Ginger Rogers were also considered for the role but Wray was approached to play the blonde ‘bride’ of Kong  and had to wear a wig over her naturally dark hair.

Wray plays the would-be actress Ann Darrow, recruited by film-maker Carl Denham (Robert Armstrong) for his picture being filmed on an island in the Indian Ocean. While travelling to the ominously named Skull Island, Ann falls in love with the First Mate Jack Driscoll (Bruce Cabot). Shortly after arriving, Ann is kidnapped by the natives as a sacrifice for Kong, a giant gorilla that lives on the island. Kong claims his little bride and in a sequence that took twenty-three hours to film, examines her, peeling off most of the remains of her clothing which Wray remembered well;

‘They had a huge rubber arm with a steel cable inside large enough to hold me. The fingers were pressed around my waist and, by leverage, they lifted me into the air. All the close-ups were done that way. There was a tiny doll model used for when King Kong was holding me. It was about three inches long. I couldn’t tell the difference when I would go to see the day’s work, it was blended that well. ’ - Also from ‘A Pictorial History of Horror Films’. Again, if anyone knows the original source for this quote I’d like to credit it.

Ann is rescued by Driscoll after braving dinosaurs and the pair flee from Kong who pursues them. Kong destroys the native village before being subdued by gas canisters and is hauled off to New York to be displayed by Denham as the ‘eighth wonder of the world’. Naturally Kong escapes and seeks out Ann, taking her to the top of the Empire State Building. Weakened by machine-gun fire from the army aeroplanes that swarm around him, Kong sets down Ann and falls to his death, prompting Denham’s line ‘It was Beauty killed the Beast.’

King Kong premièred on the 2nd of March 1933 at the Radio City Music Hall and The Roxy in New York simultaneously and despite being released during the Depression made approximately $90’000 on the opening weekend and two million dollars in its initial release. It was to be Wray’s biggest picture and her career slowly declined after appearing in the film. After appearing in a numbe rof low-budget action films in the mid to late 1930s, she retired from acting in 1942 but made a small comeback in 1953, appearing in several television series and movies.

In 2004 Fay Wray was approached by Peter Jackson to make a small cameo in his re-imagining of King Kong. Wray met with Naomi Watts, who played the Ann Darrow role, but declined to appear in the film. She died on the 8th of August 2004 of natural causes, she was 96. Wray was buried at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in California. On the 10th of August 2004, the lights of the Empire State Building were extinguished for fifteen minutes in her memory.

 

This is a guest post by Mr Exploitica

In the 1970s life was very much simpler. In 1971 I had had the great good fortune to leave school aged 16, never to return, and, with what now seems like haste bordering on the indecent, to get a job with a local light engineering company. For this I received the King’s ransom of £550 per annum – just over £10 a week, and after I had paid ‘rent’ to my mum, this left around £7.50 burning a hole in my pocket, whispering, sometimes shouting, always pleading to be spent in a good cause.

And there was the cinema. The best of causes. The only worthy cause. Yes, life was very much simpler then. No bills to pay. No other calls on my time or my albeit fairly meagre resources. Just the Odeon, the ABC, and occasionally the Focus in Crown Hill. Of which more later.

Of course, this wasn’t my first encounter with the Dark Mysteries. I was twelve when my Mum and Dad took me to the Classic in Crystal Palace to see Charlie Drake, Derek Nimmo and John Le Mesurier in Mister Ten Per Cent. I don’t remember anything about the film, but I still remember walking into that place and encountering somewhere bigger, more dark, more quiet (you couldn’t open packets of crisps or fiddle with your wrapped sweets in those days, or an usherette would escort you out), and altogether alien to any place I had ever been before. More trips followed. Goldfinger, Thunderball (together in one bill, those were the days), The Sound of Music (where for me the main attraction was a trailer for Doctor Terror’s House of Horrors) and others. But when I was finally cast adrift with Available Funds in late 1971, it was to the picture palaces and to Horror that I did head.

When I say life was simpler in those days, I refer not only to life in general, but to the world of cinematic offerings. There were two local cinemas, the Odeon (Penge) and the ABC (Beckenham, now perversely an Odeon). Each was single screen – multi-screen cinemas were still a glint in the chains’ eyes at that time. Each chain had a resolutely separatist approach to what films they picked up, so each week there would be two films on view, one per chain. If you were lucky, there was a double bill, a real, live, old-fashioned ‘B’ film. Strangely, though, there seemed to be more to interest than is the case now that we have 14-screen cinemas and nothing to see – the cinematic equivalent of “57 channels and nothing on”, to quote Bruce Springsteen (and even he’s numerically out of date). Less choice, but somehow always more motivation to go.

And go we did. My, how we went. Week in, week out, almost regardless of the film (or films) showing, we went. To the Odeon (Penge) on Tuesdays, to the ABC (Beckenham) on Thursdays, and occasionally, just occasionally, to the brand new, cutting-edge, multi-screen (it had three) Focus Crown Hill in Croydon on a Saturday afternoon or evening. If the Focus was accessible (funds permitting), that was truly a good week. Croydon has changed now, the Focus is long gone (replaced by a discount furniture store), and the town itself resembles nothing more than a 24/7, live action audition for the Jeremy Kyle show, but in those days, it was the height of aspiration for this burgeoning film lover, at least.

I’ve mentioned what seems like a fairly low level of available funds, but please bear in mind, that at that time, just on the cusp of decimalisation in the UK, both local cinemas could be accessed for 30p in the stalls, 40p in the circle (reserved for special occasions), and I-forget-what for the Focus (although it wasn’t much if any more at all).

Of course, none of this would have happened without accomplices. And accomplices I had – real, live, cinema-going friends (recently also exited)from school. I don’t know if you’re out there, but if you are, you know who you are. Four of us, discovering the joys of the moving image, religiously, Tuesdays and Thursdays, no need to discuss any arrangements except the meeting time, as programs tended to start at different times each week. No preamble, no meeting for a drink first, just the cinema. And a strict moral code as well.  You could talk during the trailers if you wanted to. You could whisper during the trailers if you had to. After that – silence. No talk. No whispering. No rustling of sweet papers. Nothing. Certainly no goons sending messages on their mobile phones, since mobile phones didn’t exist. I still think a complete ban on even taking a phone into the cinema, enforced by detector gates and armed guards in the foyer and made a capital offence with summary execution, is the only way to get people back into the cinemas. Much, much more recently we actually witnessed someone taking a call during a film, completely shameless, openly, talking. Maybe execution is too lenient.

Anyway, to the point, which is that among all this cinema-going, week in, week out, it was here that I learned to love Horror. Not the dreadful senseless torture-porn of today, but real, imaginative Horror. Portmanteau Horror (God bless you Amicus), episodic Horror (I’m talking about Theatre of Blood, The Abominable Doctor Phibes and the like), cheap follow-ups to classic Horror I had been too young to catch at the cinema (I’m talking Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell, if you will). Everything a teenage boy could possibly want. I turned 18 in 1973 and the flood-gates opened even wider – although none of us thought twice about blagging our way into 18 certificate films before that, and the cinemas knew we were regular sources of revenue, and anyway, we were nearly 18 weren’t we…..? Week in, week out, it seems, there was something to attract the committed Horror fan. I remember seeing Don’t Look Now in a double bill with The Wicker Man. I think it was at the Odeon in Croydon, quite how I came to be there I don’t know. I do remember it was a long evening though. It was only years later that I learned that projectionists all across the land had apparently been cutting the Donald Sutherland-Julie Christie sex scene out of the reels at the end of the week and taking it home. I remember all the Amicus classics, Tales from The Crypt, Vault of Horror (there’s a  great scene featuring some occult revenge and an industrial guillotine, I’ll let you fill in the blanks), even older ones such as Torture Garden and the much-longed-for (in earlier years) Doctor Terror’s House of Horrors seemed to make comebacks. Was there a shortage of new films? I guess there must have been. Was there a shortage of new Horror films? Well the cinemas certainly seemed to know what would get people queuing outside. I still remember seeing Brian de Palma’s brilliant imagining of Stephen King’s Carrie from high up in the circle of the Odeon Bromley (again I’m not sure how I came to be in a ‘foreign’ cinema). I saw it twice. Straight through. Consecutively. My, they should bring back the days of continuous performances. Although  I can’t actually think of a film after about 1976 I would actually want to sit through twice, straight off.

Those were the films that coloured my youth. That was the lifestyle that I embraced, and the cinemas embraced me, us, all of us, we weren’t the only ones. There’s a generation of us out there somewhere. Horror. We loved it. Yes, we loved the cinemas, all of them, but most of all, it was Horror nights that we went for.

I rarely go to the cinema now. Nasty out of town soulless factories sucking people in, providing them with packets of crisps and smelly hot food with which to distract honest paying customers from their films. Home video and now DVD have taught a whole generation that of course it’s Ok to talk all the way through a film, because, after all, that’s what you do at home. The film as background. Horror as a challenge to good taste rather than as a spur to the imagination. Why would I want to?

I still love those old Horror films, but now, where I can, I have them on DVD. And I still don’t talk through them. Talk through the trailers if you really have to. But please, this is Horror. Please, give it the respect it deserves.

 

As some of you may have noticed it’s taking me much longer than I’d like to finish off the DPP List post. This is mostly due to my really brilliant (completely moronic) idea to include all the video box images from the films as well as a short synopsis. So, while I mournfully languish over Photoshop like a character from Poe I thought I’d write another review to  stop myself form slipping into inertia.

I have a confession to make; this is probably one of my favourite horror films of all time. It is, in my opinion, one of the best Friday night beer-and-a-curry films ever. It’s cheesy in a really fun way, has a great funky jazz score (if you’re under 18 years of age think of it as music by old stoners), lashings of the scarlet stuff but not so grotesque that you’d not eat your curry, and plenty of male and female eye-candy in the shape of Christopher Lee and Christopher Neame for the girls, and Caroline Munroe, Stephanie Beacham and Marsha Hunt for the boys.

The film begins with a pre-credit sequence set in 1872. Dracula (Lee) and Laurence Van Helsing (Cushing) are atop a runaway carriage speeding through Hyde Park, followed by a man on horseback (Neame), who is one of Dracula’s disciples. As they struggle Van Helsing is thrown from the carriage, moments before it crashes into a tree, one of the wooden wheels shattering and impaling Dracula through the heart. Van Helsing lives long enough to see his nemesis turn into his trademark grey ash and then dies. The disciple arrives to nab Dracula’s signet ring and scoop some of the ash into a glass vial. He then attends Van Helsing’s funeral and deposits the ash just outside the cemetery gate. The camera pans to the sky and an aeroplane flies overhead as the opening credits begin, signifying that a hundred years have passed and it is now the present day.

After the credits have rolled we are introduced to a group of ‘teenaged’ (twenty-something) party-goers, amongst them Jessica Van Helsing (Beacham), the great granddaughter of Laurence Van Helsing, and Johnny Alucard, a man who looks suspiciously like Dracula’s disciple in the pre-credit sequence. After nearly being arrested for gatecrashing an upmarket party the group relax in the Cavern coffee bar to plan their next escapade. Over coffees and cokes they are persuaded by Johnny to try out a ‘groovy’ black mass. Jessica is unwilling but is talked into it by her boyfriend Bob (Philip Miller) and friend Laura (Munroe), who has a crush on Johnny.

The gang meet later that night at a de-sanctified church, coincidently the very same church that houses the body of Laurence Van Helsing and Dracula’s ashes. Jessica finds her great-grandfather’s grave with the words ‘Rest in Final Peace’ engraved on the headstone. Bob takes to be one of Johnny’s sick jokes and confronts Johnny about it but is placated by Jessica and Johnny begins the ritual while the kids writhe about a bit in typical movie cult style. He cuts his arm and drains the blood into a cup.

Johnny then claims the spirits want Jessica to help him but Laura demands that she be chosen, presumably hoping it will end in a bit of Dennis Wheatley style satanic shagging on the altar. Instead she is held down while Johnny pours the blood all over her and the others skedaddle. Leaving Laura sobbing on the floor, Johnny goes into the graveyard to find Dracula restored to his former gothic glory and fancying a snack. Luckily as Laura is still in the church Dracula gets his first modern meal. though chides Johnny for not bringing him Jessica.

The following day Johnny returns to the Cavern and tells the others that it was all a prank, that Laura was in on it from the start and that he’d taken her to the train station that morning. He then tries to persuade Jessica to go to a concert with him that evening but Jessica declines and Johnny takes Gaynor (Hunt) with him instead. When Jessica returns home after an evening out with Bob she discovers that Laura’s body has been found dumped at a building site.  The police and her grandfather Lorrimer Van Helsing (Cushing again) question her about the night Laura died and Jessica swears that she was alive when the others left her. Van Helsing realises that Alucard has Dracula’s name and that Dracula must have returned.

Johnny delivers Gaynor to Dracula, who kills her and demands that Johnny bring him Jessica. Johnny counters that it would be easier for him to bring Jessica if he had “the power of immortality”. Dracula turns Johnny into a vampire and Johnny in turn vampirises Bob who then lures Jessica to the abandoned Cavern where he and Johnny capture her to take to Dracula. Meanwhile Van Helsing discovers the location of Johnny’s home from one of Jessica’s friends Anna (Janet Key), and kills Johnny by submerging him in the bath. He then goes to the church to find Bob’s body who died trying to get into a tomb before daybreak, and Jessica who is lying on the altar in a trance. Dracula plans to turn her into a vampire to revenge himself on Van Helsing’s family.

Van Helsing sets a trap for Dracula and waits for nightfall when he prevents Dracula from feeding upon Jessica. Dracula chases Van Helsing who throws a vial of holy water into Dracula’s face, causing him to slip and fall into a pit lined with wooden stakes. Jessica comes out of her trance and Van Helsing leads her out of the graveyard while the words ‘Rest In Final Peace’ appear on the screen.

This was Hammer’s attempt to bring the Count more up to date by taking him out of the Victorian gothic era, which helped to establish Hammer as masters of the horror genre in the 1950s. However, by the early 1970s audiences were becoming tired of plywood Transylvanian villages and pitchfork-wielding peasants, as the relative failure of Scars of Dracula at the box office attested. After Warner Bros has some success with Count Yorga Vampire, starring Robert Quarry, they commissioned Hammer to make two modern day Dracula films. The second of these was The Satanic Rites of Dracula, which I’ll cover in a later post.

Dracula AD 1972 is in the style of a live action episode of Scooby Doo, minus the talking dog. It’s a tremendous amount of fun if you don’t take it too seriously and would make a great Friday night double bill with one of the contemporary Amicus portmanteau films such as From Beyond the Grave. Great stuff.

 

Title: Absurd
AKA: Rosso Sangue, Anthropophagus 2, Horrible, The Grim Reaper 2
Released: 1981
Featuring: George Eastman, Annie Belle, Charles Borromel, Katya Berger, Kasimir Berger, Hanja Kochansky, Ian Danby, Ted Rusoff and Edmund Purdom
Director: Joe D’Amato
Status: Released the UK with 2 and a half minutes of cuts in 1983 but withdrawn and not yet re-submitted. Released uncut as ‘Horrible‘ in the US.

Synopsis: Unofficial sequel to Antropophagus: The Beast and featuring George Eastman as Mikos, a seemingly immortal Greek serial killerwho heals fast, like Wolverine. Unlike Wolverine he is completely bonkers and spends his time killing anyone he meets in increasingly gruesome methods until he is decapitated by an axe from an antique suit of armour.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Title: Antropophagus: The Beast
AKA: Anthropophagus: The Grim Reaper, Zombi 7
Released: 1980
Featuring: George Eastman, Tisa Farrow, Saverio Vallone, Margaret Donnelly, Vanessa Steiger, Mark Bodin, Bob Larsen, Simone Baker, Mark Logan, Rubina Rey and Zora Kerova.
Director: Joe D’Amato
Status: Released in the UK as The Grim Reaper in 2002 with 3 minutes of cuts. Released uncut in the US as Antropophagus: The Grim Reaper

Synopsis
A man shipwrecked years earlier on a remote Greek island is forced (?) to eat his wife and child to survive. This drives him insane and he now stalks the island, killing and eating anyone who crosses his path. Notable for a scene where the killer murders a pregnant woman and devours her unborn child, really a skinned rabbit wrapped in streaky bacon. Also features a display of auto-cannibalism.

 

 

 

 

Title: Axe
AKA: Lisa, Lisa; California Axe Murder; The Axe Murders
Released: 1977
Featuring: Leslie Lee, Jack Cano, Ray Green, Frederick R. Friedel, Douglas Powers, Frank Jones, Carol Miller, George J. Monaghan, Hart Smith and Scott Smith
Director: Frederick R. Friedel
Status: Released in the UK in 1999 with 19 seconds of cuts. Released uncut in 2005.

Synopsis
A typical revenge flick in which a group of three psychopaths seek refuge from the law in an isolated farmhouse and abuse the occupants. They obviously haven’t seen enough horror movies and are rather surprised when young Lisa takes gory revenge with a razor blade and an axe.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Title: The Beast in Heat
AKA: La Bestia in Calore, SS Hell Camp, SS Experiment Part 2, The Beast in Heat and Horrifying Experiments of the S.S. Last Days
Released: 1977
Featuring: Macha Magall, Gino Turini, Edilio Kim, Xiro Papas, Salvatore Baccaro, Giuseppe Castellano, Brad Harris, Benito Pacifico, Alfredo Rizzo, Brigitte Skay
Director: Luigi Batzella
Status: Banned

Synopsis
A beautiful but devious female Nazi doctor tortures the male prisoners in her ‘care’ and tosses the female prisoners to a neanderthal-like dwarf who lives in a cage and is fed super aphrodisiacs which gives him a sex drive to equal that of a teenage chav. Crass exploitation cinema with the rape and torture of bored-looking actresses.

 

 

 

 

Title: Blood Bath
AKA: Reazione a Catena, A Bay of Blood, Twitch of the Death Nerve
Released: 1971
Featuring: Luigi Pistilli, Laura Betti, Chris Avram, Anna Maria Rosati, Isa Miranda, Giovanni Nuvoletti, Robert Bonnani, Brigitte Skay, Guido Boccaccini, Paola Rubens, Claudio Volonté and Claudine Auger
Director: Mario Bava
Status: Released in 1994 with 43 seconds of cuts, released uncut in 2010

Synopsis
A ruthless land developer employs deadly family rivalry to get his hands on a picturesque bay. Gory and thrilling giallo classic with plenty of inventive deaths and a high body count.

 

 

 

 

 

Title: Blood Feast
AKA: Egyptian Blood Feast, Feast of Flesh
Released: 1963
Featuring: William Kerwin, Mal Arnold, Connie Mason, Scott H. Hall, Lyn Bolton, Toni Calvert, Ashlyn Martin, Sandra Sinclair and Astrid Olson
Director: Herschell Godron Lewis
Status: Released with 23 seconds of cuts, released uncut in 2005

Synopsis
An insane Egyptian chef murders beautiful young women and serves up their body parts as part of a ritualistic cannibal meal to awaken the ancient Egyptian goddess Ishtar (in reality a Babylonian and Assyrian goddess but I’m just being picky). Widely regarded to be the first ever splatter film.

 

 

 

 

Title: Blood Rites
AKA: The Ghastly Ones
Released: 1968
Featuring: Veronica Radburn, Maggie Rogers, Hal Borske, Anne Linden, Fib LaBlaque, Carol Vogel, Richard Romanus, Eileen Hayes, Don Williams, Hal Sherwood, Neil Flanagan, Ada McAllister and Robert Adsit
Director: Andy Milligan
Status: Banned

Synopsis
Three sisters are forced to spend three nights in a creepy old mansion to hear the reading of their dead father’s will. All very Scooby Doo until their husbands, a maid and one the sisters herself is murdered. The finger of suspicion is pointed at resident hunchback Colin, but is he the murderer? Predictable and cheap gory murder mystery. Presumably banned for the scene where Colin kills and eats a rabbit raw.

 

 

 

 

Title: Bloody Moon
AKA: The Bloody Moon Murders, The Saw of Death
Released: 1981
Featuring: Olivia Pascal, Christoph Moosbrugger, Nadja Gerganoff, Alexander Waechter, Jasmin Losensky, Corinna Drews, Ann-Beate Engelke, Peter Exacoustos, Antonia García, Beatriz Sancho, María Rubio, Otto Retzer and Jesús Franco
Director: Jesús (Jess) Franco
Status: Released with 1 minute and 20 seconds of cuts in 1993, released uncut in 2008

Synopsis
Typical fare from the prolific Jess Franco in which a masked and hidden killer murders a group of young and nubile women. Could it be Miguel who was recently released from a mental asylum for hacking up a young and nubile girl with a pair of scissors five(!) years earlier? This would probably have never been banned if not for the actual killing of a snake.

 

 

 

 

 

Title: The Burning
AKA: -
Released: 1981
Featuring: Brian Matthews, Leah Ayres, Brian Backer, Larry Joshua, Jason Alexander, Ned Eisenberg, Carrick Glenn, Carolyn Houlihan, Fisher Stevens and Lou David
Director: Tony Maylam
Status: Released with 19 seconds of cuts in 1992, released uncut in 2001

Synopsis
Above average psycho slasher in which a summer camp caretaker is the victim of a misfiring prank which leaves him horribly scarred. After being released from hospital five years later he heads for the nearest summer camp to murder his way through the cast of likeable nubile teens. Notable for having a soundtrack written by Rick Wakeman.

 

 

 

 

 

Title: Cannibal Apocalypse
AKA: Apocalypse Domani, The Cannibals Are in the Streets
Released: 1980
Featuring: John Saxon, John Morghen (Giovanni Lombardo Radice), Elizabeth Turner
Director: Antonio Margheriti
Status: Released with a couple of seconds of cuts in 2005

Synopsis
One John Saxon would rather forget, when a Vietnam veteran goes out for a drink with a former comrade he can’t foresee that a virus that turns people into cannibals is about to be unleashed. Plenty of gut-munching ahoy here in this not-a-zombie zombie film. Saxon apparently signed on the dotted line without reading the script and was contractually obliged to go through the motions.

 

 

 

 

 

Title: Cannibal Ferox
AKA: Make Them Die Slowly
Released: 1981
Featuring: John Morghen (Giovanni Lombardo Radice), Lorraine De Selle, Danilo Mattei, Zora Kerova, Walter Lucchini and Robert Kerman
Director: Umberto Lenzi
Status: Released with 6 minutes of cuts in 2000

Synopsis
Two sisters and their friend journey into the rainforest in Paraguay to prove that cannibalism no longer exists. O’rly? They encounter two junkies who proceed to brutalise the natives until the locals snap and disprove the girls’ theory. Typical cannibal exploitation flick but with scenes animal cruelty that earned it the attention of the censor’s scissors.

 

 

 

 

 

Title: Cannibal Holocaust
AKA: -
Released: 1980
Featuring: Robert Kerman, Carl Gabriel Yorke, Francesca Ciardi, Perry Pirkanen and Luca Barbareschi
Director: Ruggero Deodato
Status: Released in 2001 with over 5 minutes of cuts, re-released in 2010 with 15 seconds of cuts

Synopsis
A mockumentary film within a film in the manner of Blair Witch in which an anthropologist leads a rescue mission to the Amazon Basin to find a missing film crew. After some naked frolicking with the native maidens the rescue team are given several reels of film which divulge the fate of the film crew, and it isn’t pretty. More animal-cruelty in the name of art caused the extensive cuts in this film.

 

 

 

 

Title: The Cannibal Man
AKA: La Semana del asesino, The Apartment on the 13th Floor
Released: 1972
Featuring: Vicente Parra, Emma Cohen
Director: Eloy de la Iglesia
Status: Released in 1999 with 3 seconds of cuts

Synopsis
Possibly a candidate for the Trades Description Act this is a standard little slasher flick with no cannibalism at all in which a butcher accidentally kills a taxi driver and must kill again to cover his crime.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Title: Devil Hunter
AKA: Il cacciatore di uomini
Released: 1980
Featuring: Ursula Buchfellner, Al Cliver, Antonio Mayans, Antonio de Cabo and Bertrand Altmann
Director: Jesús (Jess) Franco
Status: Released uncut in 2008

Synopsis
A model with the habit of losing her clothes is kidnapped by criminals who hold her to ransom in a cannibal infested jungle. Still the cannibals aren’t the main focus as a massive ‘demonic’ native with Cookie Monster eyeballs wants to eat said model as well. Will the ropey heroes rescue her? Do we care? Typical trashy exploitation fare from Franco.

 

 

 

 

 

Title: Don’t Go in the Woods
AKA: - Don’t Go in the Woods… Alone
Released: 1980
Featuring: Jack McClelland, Mary Gail Artz, James P. Hayden, Angie Brown, Ken Carter and David Barth
Director: James Bryan
Status: Released in 2007 uncut

Synopsis
Early US slasher clone featuring backwoods hikers meeting with backwoods hill billy for cheaply gruesome murders.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Title: Driller Killer
AKA: - Don’t Go in the Woods… Alone
Released: 1979
Featuring: Abel Ferrara, Carolyn Marz, Baybi Day, Harry Schultz and Alan Wynroth
Director: Abel Ferrara
Status: Released with cuts in 1999, uncut in 2002

Synopsis
The one that caused all the problems in the first place, though apart from the lurid video cover it’s hard to see why. More of a study in psychological breakdown than a slasher it still features the various Black and Decker inspired murders as a struggling artist goes slowly insane as pressure to produce a new piece mounts up.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Title: Evilspeak
AKA: -
Released: 1981
Featuring: Clint Howard, R. G. Armstrong, Joseph Cortese, Claude Earl Jones, Haywood Nelson, Don Stark, Charles Tyner, Hamilton Camp, Louie Gravance, Jim Greenleaf, Lynn Hancock and Richard Moll
Director: Eric Weston
Status: Released with 3 and a half minutes of cuts in 1987, released uncut in 2004

Synopsis
A young man being bullied at a military academy discovers a book of black magic which possesses his computer (naturally) and plots his revenge on the bullies, which manifests as phantom man-eating pigs (naturally). Fun little shocker that was nonetheless banned for its satanic themes and gore.

 

 

 

 

Title: Exposé
AKA: Trauma, The House on Straw Hill
Released: 1976
Featuring: Udo Kier, Linda Hayden, Fiona Richmond, Patsy Smart, Karl Howman and Vic Armstrong
Director: James Kenelm Clarke
Status: Released with 30 seconds of cuts in 1997

Synopsis
A struggling writer living in a remote Essex farmhouse hires a beautiful but psychologically troubled secretary to help him finish typing his latest novel. Sex and murder follows. A moderate thriller with elements of Straw Dogs but let down by too much emphasis on the softcore gropings and Kier’s ‘acting’ ability.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Title: Faces of Death
AKA: The Original Faces of Death, Face a la Mort
Released: 1978
Featuring: Michael Carr
Director: Conan Le Cilaire
Status: Released with 2 mins 19seconds of cuts in 2003

Synopsis
Infamous pseudo documentary featuring footage  of various animal and human deaths. Some of the human deaths are staged while others come from newsreel footage of bombings and suicides.

 

 

 

 

 

Title: Fight For Your Life
AKA: -
Released: 1977
Featuring: William Sanderson, Robert Judd, Catherine Peppers, Lela Small, Yvonne Ross, Reggie Rock Bythewood and Ramon Saunders
Director: Robert A. Endelson
Status: Banned

Synopsis
A racist redneck criminal has a frank exchange of views with a black minister when he and his cronies hide in the minister’s home after sneaking out of prison. Typical abuse/revenge flick though notable for being the only video nasty to have banned for its racist language.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Title: Flesh for Frankenstein
AKA: Andy Warhol’s Frankenstein
Released: 1973
Featuring: Udo Kier, Monique van Vooren, Dalila Di Lazzaro, Joe Dallesandro and Arno Juerging
Director: Paul Morrissey
Status: Released in 1996 with just under a minute of cuts, released uncut in 2006

Synopsis
Dr. Frankenstein creates a pair of good-looking creatures in order to sire a perfect human race. Unfortunately Mr. Monster has the sex-drive of a plank of wood and so looks for an unwilling organ donor to increase the creature’s libido. Most everyone shags and kills everyone else. Mary Shelley would spin in her grave.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Title: Forest of Fear
AKA: Toxic Zombies, Bloodeaters
Released: 1980
Featuring: Charles McCrann, Beverly Shapiro, Denis Helfend, Kevin Hanlon, Judith Brown, Pat Kellis, Roger Miles and Philip Garfinkel
Director: Charles McCrann
Status: Released uncut in 2006

Synopsis
A group of cannabis-growers have their crop sprayed with an experimental pesticide which turns them into flesh-chewing zombies. Chemical-induced zombie mayhem with a few moderate gore scenes. Return of the Living Dead did the chemical zombie thing much better.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Title: Gestapo’s Last Orgy
AKA: L’ultima orgia del III Reich, Last Orgy of the Third Reich
Released: 1977
Featuring: Adriano Micantoni, Daniela Poggi, Maristella Greco, Fulvio Ricciardi, Antiniska Nemour and Caterina Barbero
Director: Cesare Canevari
Status: Banned

Synopsis
Tawdry Italian entry into the Nazisploitation genre featuring as many obscenities as they could fit into the 81 minute running time. Torture, rape, incest, cannibalism and poo-eating make for heady mixture of sleaze, oh and there’s a plot in there about a concentration camp commandant who falls in love with one of the female prisoners, if you can find it.

 

 

 

 

 

Title: The House by the Cemetery
AKA: Quella villa accanto al cimitero
Released: 1981
Featuring: Catriona MacColl, Paolo Malco, Giovanni Frezza, Silvia Collatina, Dagmar Lassander and Giovanni De Nava
Director: Lucio Fulci
Status: Released with 4 mins of cuts in 1988, released uncut in 2009

Synopsis
Supernatural shocker about a family who move into a house haunted by the undead previous owner. Though disjointed in parts Fulci maintains the sense of menace and the eerie eldritch quality cuts through the visceral goriness. Good stuff.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Title: The House on the Edge of the Park
AKA: La casa sperduta nel parco
Released: 1980
Featuring: David Hess, John Morghen (Giovanni Lombardo Radice), Annie Belle, Christian Borromeo and Marie Claude Joseph
Director: Ruggero Deodato
Status: Released in 2002 with over 11 minutes of cuts, re-released with 42 seconds of cuts in 2011

Synopsis
Reliable rent-a-thug David Hess plays a murdering psychopath who gets himself and his buddy invited to a swanky party and proceeds to go stabbity with a straight-razor. Banned for an excess of sex and violence but now available with most of it back in.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Title: Island of Death
AKA: Ta paidia tou Diavolou
Released: 1977
Featuring: Robert Behling, Jane Lyle, Jessica Dublin, Gerard Gonalons, Jannice McConnell, Nikos Tsachiridis, Marios Tartas and Ray Richardson
Director: Ruggero Deodato
Status: Released with just over 4 mins of cuts in 2002, released uncut in 2010

Synopsis
Despite scenes in which a man rapes a goat, a lesbian is burnt to death with an aerosol spray and a cigarette lighter,  a homosexual couple are tortured and killed, a woman is decapitated with a bulldozer, a ‘neanderthal’ of a man rapes a woman and a man is killed in a pit of quicklime this is a deeply dull ‘morality’ tale with bugger all story. Offensive without being clever, amusing or entertaining.

 

 

 

 

 

Title: I Spit on your Grave
AKA: Day of the Woman
Released: 1978
Featuring: Camille Keaton, Eron Tabor, Anthony Nichols, Gunter Kleemann and Richard Pace
Director: Meir Zarchi
Status: Released with just over 7 mins of cuts in 2001, released with 3 mins of cuts in 2010

Synopsis
Classic ‘rape/revenge’ film starring Buster Keaton’s granddaughter. Originally on the DPP shitlist for the excessive gang rape and subsequent violent revenge, in particular where Keaton’s character castrates Tabor’s character while the pair are in the bath.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Title: Last House on the Left
AKA: -
Released: 1972
Featuring: Sandra Cassel, Lucy Grantham, David Hess, Fred Lincoln, Jeramie Rain and Marc Sheffler
Director: Wes Craven
Status: Released with just over 7 mins of cuts in 2001, released with 3 mins of cuts in 2010

Synopsis
A pair of teenage girls are tortured, mutilated and murdered by a gang of viscious thugs who then unwittingly spend the night at one of the dead girls’ home. The girl’s parents discover their daughter’s fate and proceed to revenge themselves upon said thugs. Inexplicably popular murder/revenge flick that’s far too mean-spirited to be fun.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Title: Love Camp 7
AKA: -
Released: 1969
Featuring: Maria Lease, Kathy Williams, Bob Cresse, Phil Poth, John Alderman, Carolyn Appleby, David F. Friedman, Bruce Kimball and Natasha Steel
Director: Lee Frost
Status: Banned

Synopsis
Two WAC officers go undercover at a Nazi concentration camp as POWs to find and possibly rescue an inmate who has useful information. However the rescue attempt by the French Resistance gets botched and the two women end up suffering lots of mild torture and softcore gropings. Silly Nazisploitation, nothing bloody or too offensive unless you’re a Daily Mail reader.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Title: Madhouse
AKA: There Was a Little Girl, And When She Was Bad, Party des Schreckens
Released: 1981
Featuring: Trish Everly, Dennis Robertson and Allison Biggers
Director: Ovidio G. Assonitis
Status: Released uncut in 2004.

Synopsis
Sibling rivalry becomes deadly when disfigured and demented Mary escapes from an insane asylum to stalk her unblemished sister. The killer? Mary’s outsized pooch. Gory thriller with a few decent atmospheric touches.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Title: Mardi Gras Massacre
AKA: -
Released: 1978
Featuring: Curt Dawson, Gwen Arment, William Metzo and Laura Misch Owens
Director: Jack Weis
Status: Banned

Synopsis
A masked killer mutilates prostitutes during the Mardi Gras festival so he can make an offering of their their hearts to an Aztec goddess. If this sounds a little like the plot of Blood Feast, that’s because it’s a ‘semi remake’.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Title: Night of the Bloody Apes
AKA: La Horripilante bestia humana, Horror y sexo
Released: 1972
Featuring: Armando Silvestre, Norma Lazareno, José Elias Moreno, Carlos Lopez Moctezuma, Noelia Noel and Agustin Martinez
Director: René Cardona
Status: Released with a minute of cuts in 1999, uncut in 2002

Synopsis
A scientist implants the heart of a gorilla into his dying son in order to save his life but inadvertently transforms him into a murderous and horny ape man. Bizarre Mexican wrestling and horror flick.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Title: Night of the Demon
AKA: -
Released: 1980
Featuring: Joy Allen, Bob Collins, Barrett Copper, Michael Cutt, Jody Lazarus and Michael Lang
Director: James C. Wasson
Status: Released in 1994 with 1 minute 40 seconds of cuts.

Synopsis
Silly take on the Sasquatch legend in which Bigfoot isn’t a cuddly vegetarian and instead enjoys killing and raping his way around the woods. Probably wouldn’t have been banned except for a scene where a biker is castrated.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Title: Nightmares in a Damaged Brain
AKA: Nightmare, Blood Splash
Released: 1981
Featuring: Baird Stafford, Sharon Smith, C.J. Cooke and Mik Cribben
Director: Romano Scavolini
Status: Released in 2005 with pre-cuts.

Synopsis
A man with a troubled past is released from an insane asylum after being treated with a wonder drug that is supposed to cure him of his murderous behaviour. It apparently needs more testing as the loony proceeds to hack and slash his way through most of the supporting cast. Very gory shocker.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Title: Snuff
AKA: -
Released: 1976
Featuring:
Director: Michael Findlay, Roberta Findlay and Horacio Fredriksson
Status: Re-submitted and passed in 2003 but not yet re-released

Synopsis
Notorious supposed real-life snuff movie which is obviously a fake, unless people bled tomato soup in the 1970s. Actually a film about a Charlie Manson style cult with an extra and entirely unrelated ‘snuff’ scene tacked onto the end. It caused a big enough hoo-ha to be added to the Video Nasties list.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Title: SS Experiment Camp
AKA: Lager SSadis Kastrat Kommandantur, SS Experiment Love Camp
Released: 1976
Featuring: Mircha Carven, Paola Corazzi and Giorgio Cerioni
Director: Sergio Garrone
Status: Released in 2005 uncut

Synopsis
Weakest of the Nazispliotation flicks with plenty of softcore gropings and a plot that Benny Hill would have considered childish. Best quote? “OK you bastard…what have you done to my balls?” Enough said.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Title: Tenebrae
AKA: Tenebre
Released: 1982
Featuring: Anthony Franciosa, John Saxon, Daria Nicolodi, Giuliano Gemma, Mirella D’Angelo, Veronica Lario, Christian Borromeo and Ania Pieroni
Director: Dario Argento
Status: Released in 1999 with 5 seconds of cuts, released uncut in 2003

Synopsis
An American writer of giallo novels is on a book tour of Italy when he is contacted by a murderer who claims he is ‘inspired’ by the writer’s work and will go on a killing spree. Excellent gory murder mystery with a decent twist.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Title: The Werewolf and the Yeti
AKA: La Maldicion de la Bestia, Hall of the Mountain King, The Werewolf and the Yeti, Horror of the Werewolf, Night of the Howling Beast
Released: 1975
Featuring: Paul Naschy, Mercedes Molina, Silvia Solar, Gil Vidal, Luis Induni and Josep Castillo Escalona
Director: Miguel Iglesias
Status: Banned

Synopsis
A werwolf, a yeti, horny cannibal vampire sorceresses, a buddhist monk, a Fu Manchu-ish villain, it should be fun but just falls short of the mark. Eighth entry in Naschy’s ‘Count Waldemar Daninsky’ saga, too silly to have been banned but they did it anyway.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Title: Zombie Flesh Eaters
AKA: Zombi 2, Zombie, Island of the Living Dead, Zombie Island, Woodoo
Released: 1979
Featuring: Ian McCulloch, Tisa Farrow, Pier Luigi Conti, Auretta Gay, Richard Johnson and Olga Karlatos
Director: Lucio Fulci
Status: Released with 23 seconds of cuts in 1999, released uncut in 2005

Synopsis
I’ve already covered this in a previous review, excellent zombie shocker with the right balance of  visceral nastiness and eldritch spookiness.