The Haunted Palace

Convinced that he is a warlock, the townspeople of Arkham drag Joseph Curwen from his palatial estate and burn him alive. Before he dies, Curwen puts a curse on Arkham and vows to come back from the dead to take his revenge on the descendants of those who killed him. One hundred and ten years later, Charles Dexter Ward, the great-great-grandson of Joseph Curwen, comes to Arkham to claim the property that he has inherited. The people of Arkham are immediately suspicious of Ward, who bears an uncanny resemblance to Curwen. Is it just a coincidence or has Joseph Curwen finally come back to take his revenge? Despite AIP's marketing, The Haunted Palace is primarily based on H. P. Lovecraft's novella The Case of Charles Dexter Ward. Surprisingly, it is the also the very first movie to be based on one of Lovecraft's works. The sets and the performances are all very good, especially Vincent Price's dual/dueling roles. The only thing that isn't great in the film is the makeup design, everything just looks a little off-color. Despite that, The Haunted Palace is easily one of Corman's best "Poe" films.

Rating: 68%

(Image from Wikipedia)

Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed

After another one of his clandestine laboratories is discovered, Baron Frankenstein skips town and holds up in a boarding house under an alias. When he finds out that his young landlady's fiancé is stealing drugs from the nearby insane asylum, he blackmails the couple into helping him kidnap one of the asylum's patients. That patient, a former collaborator who might have information that could help with the Baron's experiments. One thing that I really enjoy about Hammer's Frankenstein films is that Baron Frankenstein is often more villainous than the monsters he creates. However, Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed takes that element just a little bit too far. There is a scene in the film where the Baron rapes his landlady. It's an unpleasant scene that has no real bearing on the plot. Apparently, executives at Hammer at the time felt that the scene was necessary to appease international distributors because of the lack of sex in the movie. Ultimately, the scene was cut from some of the film's original releases but is currently available on the home video version of the movie.

Rating: 61%

(Image from Wikipedia)

The Little Shop of Horrors

In an effort to keep his job at the flower shop on skid row, Seymour Krelboined brings in a strange plant he's been growing at home. The plant, dubbed Audrey Jr., proves to be a big hit, bringing customers into the shop from all over. There's only one problem, the plant feeds on human blood. The Little Shop of Horrors is a morbid little comedy from Roger Corman. It's probably best known today as the inspiration for an off-off Broadway musical and the film adaptation of that musical, directed by Frank Oz. Corman's original version was filmed quickly and cheaply, naturally, which gives it a theatrical vibe. Jack Nicholson briefly appears in the film as a masochistic dental patient. 

Rating: 60%

(Image from Wikipedia)

Fun Fact: Audrey, Seymour's co-worker (not the plant), was played by Jackie Joseph. Not only did Jackie Joseph play Mrs. Futterman in Gremlins and Gremlins 2, she also played Tackleberry's mother in law in Police Academy 2 and 4.

The Terror

A mysterious woman lures a young soldier to the Castle von Leppe. The castle holds many secrets. I'm not sure how else to explain it. The Terror isn't really a plot-heavy movie. Most of the film was shot over a couple of days on the set of The Raven. They didn't have much of a script to work from, so a lot of the movie is just characters walking around the castle. Several directors filmed additional scenes for the movie with Roger Corman tying everything together at the end. Well, I mean, he tried to tie it all together. An attempt was made. We can all agree on that.

Rating: 55%

(Image from Wikipedia)

The Brides of Dracula

Over shots of the Transylvanian countryside, a narrator tells us that "Count Dracula, monarch of all vampires is dead. But his disciples live on..." And so begins The Brides of Dracula. But, you may be asking yourself, why call it The Brides of Dracula if Dracula isn't even in the movie? Is it even, technically, a Dracula movie? Well, if you want to get pedantic about it, there is some validity to that train of thought. However, given that Van Helsing is in the movie, I think we can give them a pass. Especially since they have Peter Cushing once again taking up the mantle of the fearless vampire hunter. The Brides of Dracula is a relatively small movie, there are maybe only two scenes featuring more than five characters on screen at the same time. It's a little slow and fairly chaste compared to some of Hammer's later movies. But The Brides of Dracula has enough going for it to keep it from being a total slog. The opening sequence has similar vibes to the opening of An American Werewolf in London and there's a great scene where the lead vampire sneaks up on a woman while she's looking in a mirror.

Rating: 64%

(Image from Wikipedia)

Blood and Black Lace

A masked killer stalks and slays fashion models while trying to get his black gloved hands on an incriminating diary. Mario Bava's stylish giallo is a proto-slasher that revels in creative kills. The masked killer looks like The Blank from 1990's Dick Tracy movie. And, much like in Mario Bava's A Bay of Blood, almost every character in the movie is a scumbag.

Rating: 65%

(Image from Wikipedia)

The Raven

Instead of trying to adapt Poe's poem, Roger Corman's The Raven is primarily about a trio of squabbling magicians played by Vincent Price, Peter Lorre and Boris Karloff. Much like in Tales of Terror, Price and Lorre have great comedic chemistry together. While Karloff is mostly there to lend gravitas to the picture. Hazel Court is lovely as the devious Lenore and a young Jack Nicholson plays Lorre's son Rexford. Despite indulging in many of the same tricks and tropes, The Raven is much more of a straightforward comedy than any of Roger Corman's prior Poe pictures. There are plenty of jokes throughout the movie but the climactic magician's duel at the end of the film goes for broke with big, Looney Tunes energy.

Rating: 62%

(Image from Wikipedia)

Frankenstein Created Woman

In Frankenstein Created Woman, Baron Frankenstein's efforts to cheat death have taken a new direction. Rather than merely reanimating dead flesh, the Baron attempts to preserve and transfer the human soul. After the Baron's assistant Hans is executed for a murder he did not commit, his soul is transferred into the body of Christina, a young woman who committed suicide after witnessing the execution. Christina, having no memory of her old life, begins to hear the voice of Hans, urging her to seek out and kill the people who framed him for murder. The rest of the movie has some great slasher vibes, with hints of Friday the 13th and Sleepaway Camp. Frankenstein Created Woman is a fun departure from Hammer's other Frankenstein films. There's no attempt to connect it to the previous entries in the series and it even skips over some of the sequences you would expect to see in a Frankenstein film, like the creature's creation.

Rating: 69%

(Image from Wikipedia)

Tales of Terror

Tales of Terror is made up of three short stories by Edgar Allan Poe, with Vincent Price playing a different character in each story. The first story, "Morella," is about a young woman reuniting with her alcoholic father (played by Price) after decades apart. The young woman, Lenora, was blamed for her mother's death and was sent away to be raised in boarding schools. After returning to her father's house, the ghost of Lenora's mother kills everyone and burns the house to the ground. In the second story, "The Black Cat," Peter Lorre plays a miserable alcoholic. After a renowned wine taster (played to the hilt by Price) steals his wife, Lorre's character gets his revenge by entombing the wine taster, his wife and their black cat in the basement "Cask of Amontillado"-style. In the final story, "The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar," Vincent Price plays Valdemar, a dying man who agrees to be put under hypnosis at the moment of death. The devious hypnotist, played by Basil Rathbone, traps Valdemar's soul in limbo and attempts to extort Valdemar's widow. Of the three stories, "The Black Cat" stands out the most because it's the only one of the stories that has any humor in it. Lorre and Price play very well off of each other and their wine tasting duel is easily the most memorable part of the film.

Rating: 63%

(Image from Wikipedia)

The Evil of Frankenstein

The Evil of Frankenstein is a soft reboot of Hammer's Frankenstein series. It rewrites Baron Frankenstein's origins, while totally ignoring the events of The Revenge of Frankenstein. It's essentially the sequel to a movie that never existed. The Evil of Frankenstein opens with the Baron being driven out of town because of his ghoulish experiments. He decides to return to his former home in Karlstaad, hoping to salvage possessions and furniture from his abandoned home that can be used to finance his experiments. It's there, in his ransacked chateau, that the Baron finally tells his assistant of the experiment that lead him to be driven out of Karlstaad. This new origin story, along with the design of the creature, puts The Evil of Frankenstein more in line with Universal's Frankenstein films. The movie becomes a hodgepodge of all of the Frankenstein films that came before it filtered through the bawdy, gothic lens of Hammer in the 1960s. The Baron, though not totally redeemed, is now more of a sympathetic character. A shadow of his former, murderous self. Most of the villainy in the film is carried out by Zoltan, a crooked hypnotist hellbent on revenge. As mentioned, the design of the creature approximates the classic look of Karloff's Frankenstein. Unfortunately, the bulky makeup robs any expressiveness from the creature's performance. And yet, despite all of these criticisms, The Evil of Frankenstein is actually quite entertaining.

Rating: 66%

(Image from Wikipedia)

Peeping Tom

 

A guy with a weird hobby meets and maybe starts to fall in love with his downstairs neighbor, awww! Well, except his weird hobby isn’t Gunpla or Warhammer, it’s filming women as he murders them to death. This movie was so hated when it came out it destroyed the director’s career, but 62 years later it’s rightfully hailed as a beloved classic. Oh well, at least the director got to see some turnaround before he died in abject poverty.

RATING: 88%

The Premature Burial

The first two films in Roger Corman's Poe cycle had been moneymakers for American International Pictures (AIP), but a dispute over the profits prompted Corman to go independent for The Premature Burial. Leaving AIP meant that Corman couldn't use Vincent Price, so Ray Milland was cast in the lead role. As the story goes, the heads of AIP came to set on the first day of shooting to wish Corman well and to let him know that they had bought out his financiers, putting his film back under the AIP umbrella. The Premature Burial is stylistically similar to Corman's previous Poe pictures: lots of fog, a suspenseful score and the expressive use of colors. Ray Milland is quite good in the lead role, it's honestly hard to picture Vincent Price playing the part. The movie has a nice slow build and a great third act.

Rating: 68%

(Image from Wikipedia)

The Pit and the Pendulum

After the success of House of Usher, American International Pictures (AIP) were eager to make another movie based on the works of Edgar Allan Poe. Roger Corman, using many of the same people (and sets), brought The Pit and the Pendulum to theaters a little more than a year after House of Usher was released. With Vincent Price, once again, top billed, The Pit and the Pendulum continued the moody, gothic style of House of Usher. Pendulum tweaked the formula somewhat with psychedelic silent film techniques and slightly more sadistic and shocking violence. It would go on to be even more successful than House of Usher, prompting AIP to double down on Corman's Poe gamble. AIP and Corman would go on to make another six* Poe-inspired films over the next three years.

Rating: 66%

(Image from IMDB)

*seven, if you count 1963's The Terror

House of Usher

aka The Fall of the House of Usher

After a couple of years of making low budget black and white movies for American International Pictures (AIP), Roger Corman was able to convince the distributor to let him make a movie in color with a half-decent budget. AIP was initially confused by his choice of subject matter. "Where's the monster?" they asked. "The house is the monster," he told them. And then they wrote him a check. That man could sell anything. House of Usher ended up becoming the first of eight films made by Corman loosely based on works from Edgar Allan Poe. The movie has a kind of lower-end Hammer vibe going on but it also has some surprisingly stylish elements. And I'd be remiss if I didn't mention Vincent Price's stellar performance.

Rating: 68%

(Image from Wikipedia)

Psycho

I don't really need to tell you anything about Psycho. You probably know the story already or at least a few of the major plot points. Even the slightest mention of the shower sequence probably brings to mind the soundtrack's screeching violins. It's a movie that is impeccably shot, acted, edited and scored. It's a masterpiece. I can't wait to see how terrible the sequels are...

Rating: 95%

(Image from IMDB)

Kuroneko

A couple women are murdered and worse by some samurai so they turn into cat ghosts trying to get revenge on all samurai ever which goes pretty well until the older woman's kidnapped son/younger woman's kidnapped husband (same guy) shows up. It gets real sad!

RATING: 71%  

Creature From The Haunted Sea

As a relic of late 50s pseudo-sleaze this is interesting but as a movie for human consumption?

RATING: 11%

Nightmare Castle

This is a mostly boring (though surprisingly gory) movie but there is one real cool freakout dream sequence a half hour in.

RATING: 31%

Onibaba

An old woman gets mad when her widowed daughter-in-law hooks up with some grifter because it means she might not help her murder travelers anymore. It doesn't get super creepy until the last half hour but it's all shot in a tall grass field that seems almost other worldly, so it gets a buncha points for style.

RATING: 68%

Eyes Without A Face

This old French horror movie is pretty by the numbers at first - a (mad?) doctor chloroforms random women so he can cut off their faces to transplant onto his disfigured daughter, no big deal. But the great Maurice Jarre score and the human face mask the woman wears in addition to the eerie crescendo of a conclusion make it worthwhile. Also they show some pretty heavy gore for an early 60s flick, especially one from Europe!

RATING: 63%