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Articles

• The Mad Monster / The Black Raven (NR)

  

  

  MOVIES

  Ken Hanke | 06/19/2012

  Genre: Horror/Mystery

  Director: Sam Newfield

  Starring: George Zucco, Johnny Downs, Anne Nagel, Glenn Strange / George Zucco, Wanda McKay, Glenn Strange

  In Brief: What more does one need to know about The Mad Monster other than the fact that it has a werewolf in bib overalls? Or that the werewolf in question was created "scientifically" for the purpose of fighting the Nazis? This is exactly the sort of thing to expect from the series of "poverty row" horror pictures that British actor George Zucco made for PRC Pictures in the 1940s. This is the first and the most ambitious, which says much. The less elaborate The Black Raven is its almost-as-screwy companion feature.

  0 comments

  411 views

• The Mummy (NR)

  

  

  MOVIES

  Ken Hanke | 06/12/2012

  Genre: Horror

  Director: Karl Freund

  Starring: Boris Karloff, Zita Johann, David Manners, Edward Van Sloan, Arthur Byron

  In Brief: The classic Universal horror about a 3,700-year-old reanimated mummy (played by Boris Karloff in one of his best performances) seeking his reincarnated love (Zita Johann) in modern Cairo. This is an eerie, atmospheric and even poetic horror fantasy that remains unique in the genre.

  0 comments

  491 views

• The Tenant (R)

  

  

  MOVIES

  Ken Hanke | 06/05/2012

  Genre: Psychological Horror

  Director: Roman Polanski

  Starring: Roman Polanski, Isabelle Adjani, Melvyn Douglas, Shelley Winters

  In Brief: Roman Polanski's 1976 psychological horror film about a Polish immigrant (Polanski) losing his own personality to that of the woman who previously lived in his apartment (and who committed suicide by throwing herself out of the window) may well be the director's best film. It is certainly his creepiest -- and made all the more so when you realize its story is both personal and obsessive.

  13 comments

  851 views

• Mad Love / The Black Cat (NR)

  

  

  MOVIES

  Ken Hanke | 05/29/2012

  Genre: Horror

  Director: Karl Freund / Edgar G. Ulmer

  Starring: Peter Lorre, Colin Clive, Frances Drake / Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, David Manners

  In Brief: A double dose of classic horror with Karl Freund's Mad Love (1935), the film that first presented Peter Lorre in a horror picture, and Edgar G. Ulmer's The Black Cat (1934), the first onscreen teaming of Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi. The former -- a remake of the silent The Hands of Orlac (1924) -- is a film with a somewhat exaggerated reputation, but the latter is one of the top horror pictures of all time.

  2 comments

  446 views

• The Man and the Monster (NR)

  

  

  MOVIES

  Ken Hanke | 05/22/2012

  Genre: Horror

  Director: Rafael Baledón

  Starring: Enrique Rambal, Abel Salazar, Martha Roth, Ofelia Guilmáin, Ana Laura Baledon

  In Brief: A pianist sells his soul to the devil in exchange for becoming the greatest pianist in the world. The downside is that he tends to turn into a kind of dopey looking werewolf. Mayhem of that peculiar Mexican kind ensues -- as does a good deal of entertainment.

  0 comments

  396 views

• The Orphanage (R)

  

  

  MOVIES

  Ken Hanke | 05/15/2012

  Genre: Ghost Story Horror

  Director: J.A. Bayona

  Starring: Belén Rueda, Fernando Cayo, Roger Príncep, Mabel Rivera, Montserrat Carulla, Geraldine Chaplin

  In Brief: A couple and their adopted son move into the old orphanage where the wife spent her early childhood, planning to turn it into a school for children with special needs. However, the son disappears at a party -- in a manner that suggests his possibly not-so-imaginary friend was involved -- and things turn into an ever more feverish effort to find the child, revealing a dark secret about the orphanage.

  3 comments

  565 views

• Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (R)

  

  

  MOVIES

  Ken Hanke | 05/08/2012

  Genre: Horror Musical

  Director: Tim Burton

  Starring: Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Alan Rickman, Timothy Spall, Sacha Baron Cohen, Jamie Campbell Bower

  In Brief: Tim Burton's ultra-stylized and stylish -- not to mention bloody -- film version of the Stephen Sondheim musical about the infamous "Demon Barber of Fleet Street" is not likely to please theater purists or Sondheim junkies, but it is undeniably brilliant filmmaking that effectively blends theater, horror and music into a unified whole.

  2 comments

  498 views

• Jason Lives: Friday the 13th Part VI (R)

  

  

  MOVIES

  Ken Hanke | 05/01/2012

  Genre: Horror

  Director: Tom McLoughlin

  Starring: Thom Matthews, Jennifer Cooke, David Kagen, Renée Jones, Kerry Noonan, C.J. Graham, Ron Palillo

  In Brief: The sixth (obviously) in the seemingly unstoppable (for a while anyway) Friday the 13th movies may not be exactly a good movie in the strict sense, but it's easily the best in the series. It delivers the expected slicing and dicing in something of a post-modern vein, but it also spoofs itself, the whole slasher genre and its audience in an enjoyable manner -- albeit one that's never actually condescending. And you get three Alice Cooper songs in the bargain.

  0 comments

  577 views

• Murders in the Rue Morgue / The Raven (NR)

  

  

  MOVIES

  Ken Hanke | 04/24/2012

  Genre: Horror

  Director: Robert Florey / Louis Friedlander

  Starring: Bela Lugosi, Sidney Fox, Leon Waycoff, Bert Roach / Bela Lugosi, Boris Karloff, Irene Ware

  In Brief: A double dose of Bela Lugosi from his classic years at Universal. First in Robert Florey's Murders in the Rue Morgue (1932), and then in Louis Friedlander's The Raven (1935) -- the latter also boasts Boris Karloff in its cast, but it's really Lugosi's show. They may not be Lugosi's absolute best films, but they contain two of his most treasured performances, which is what matters.

  0 comments

  583 views

• Flesh for Frankenstein (X)

  

  

  MOVIES

  Ken Hanke | 04/17/2012

  Genre: Horror

  Director: Paul Morrissey (Blood for Dracula)

  Starring: Joe Dallesandro, Monique van Vooren, Udo Kier, Arno Juerging, Srdjan Zelenovic

  In Brief: Paul Morrissey's famous X-rated take on the Frankenstein story (better known as Andy Warhol's Frankenstein) is of the bathful-of-blood-and-a-bucket-of-entrails school of deliberately schlock horror -- with occasional time-outs for sex. The aim is more laughs than chills, though it may be too gruesome for the timid. It's all about a misguided mad scientist who mistakes a would-be monk as having the perfect head for his male zombie, whom he wishes to mate with his female zombie and breed a master race.

  2 comments

  664 views
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