#quatermass 2 1957

[horrorme]

Quatermass 2 (1957)

[frankendykes-monster]

Countdown to Halloween 2024 ranked

54. The Willies (1990)

53. Hell High (1987)

52. Face of The Screaming Werewolf (1964)

51. Terrifier (2016)

50. The Last Halloween (1991)

49. Cathy's Curse (1977)

48. The Last Shark (1981)

47. Godzilla × Kong: The New Empire (2024)

46. Creepozoids (1987)

45. The Horror of Frankenstein (1970)

44. Frankenstein's Castle of Freaks (1974)

43. Man Beast (1956)

42. Tourist Trap (1979)

41. Daughter of Dr. Jekyll (1957)

40. Fiend (1980)

39. Vampyros Lesbos (1971)

38. Devil Girl From Mars (1954)

37. Halloween Hall o' Fame (1977)

36. Nightmare (1981)

35. The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra (2001)

34. Peeping Tom (1960)

33. Violent Shit (1989)

32. Invaders From Mars (1986)

31. Eggshells (1969)

30. Night of The Ghouls (1959)

29. Scream, Blacula, Scream (1973)

28. The Strange World of Planet X (1958)

27. The Colossus of New York (1958)

26. The Scooby-Doo Project (1999)

25. Night of The Living Doo (2001)

24. Scooby-Doo! and The Reluctant Werewolf (1988)

23. The Great Bear Scare (1983)

22. The Wasp Woman (1995)

21. The Cyclops (1957)

20. Frankenstein and The Monster from Hell (1974)

19. The Tingler (1959)

18. The Boogey Man (1980)

17. The Dragon Lives Again (1977)

16. Quatermass and The Pit (1967)

15. The Brain That Wouldn't Die (1962)

14. Mad Love (1935)

13. The Alien Factor (1978)

12. The Walking Dead (1935)

11. Dr. Caligari (1989)

10. The Deadly Spawn (1983)

9. Invaders From Mars (1953)

8. Alucarda (1977)

7. Uzumaki (2024)

6. Sole Survivor (1984)

5. Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979)

4. Shock Waves (1977)

3. Frankenhooker (1990)

2. Invasion of The Body Snatchers (1978)

1. Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla (1974)

What a productive year. October lasts all of 30 seconds which is why I have to start watching these in July if I want to make any decent headway (31 films is not enough). I desperately tried to make this a year of "have not seens" after last year's top spots being flooded with films I already loved; we mostly did it, mostly. Another top heavy year with relatively few abysmal entries, let's get started.

The Willies is the grand shitshow for this year. It feels like it's an evolutionary precursor to something like Goosebumps or Are You Afraid of The Dark?, but it mostly plays to gross out rather than scares. I don't normally care for anthology horror films to begin so to start off a film with brief segments like a woman eating a deep fried rat or a little white dog being microwave exploded and then doing extended stories on monsters hiding in the school bathroom does not do it for me. The most minimal points possible for some decent lighting and special effects but they are not enough by any means to make this worth watching. Stay away.

Onto the 1980's horror: Hell High is what happens when a film crew asks "what if we put a woman into a situation and didn't stop". I want to call it misogynistic torture porn, but I don't want to devalue that phrase for when I use it for a film later on here, but suffice to say a woman is tortured. Emotionally. For very little reason. Universal was right to block The Last Shark from US theatrical distribution. Not because it's a very blatant Jaws ripoff and they wanted to protect their copyright, but because it's abysmal and nobody should have to pay money to see this. I think the stock footage of sharks juxtaposed with the unmoving props between shots is funny, and some of the soundtrack elevates the experience, like the high shrill drones when the shark attacks a helicopter. Creepozoids is an odd one because 1987 was a bit late for a Mad Max/Escape from New York/Alien knockoff but also too early for some Full Moon tier/softcore porn adjacent 1990's production, so it loses out on both fronts. Fiend I'm struggling to even recall, I feel like Don Dohler had one movie in him (see: his plethora of alien invasion films) and him trying to branch out did him no favors. Nightmare is one I want to enjoy because it's beautifully shot but I feel like I've seen one too many slasher adjacent films at this point that include plot points like the killer having a troubled relationship with his mother or him moonlighting as a regular guy (still better than Pieces mind you). Same with Violent Shit. I feel like my tastes are pretty attuned to films that are just gore effects showcases but this one doesn't have any zany concepts to justify or compliment it, so it just falls flat.

The Boogey Man belongs to that tirade of Halloween knockoffs that flooded theaters up till about 1984 or so, but it puts in some extra effort like having a ghost be the main antagonist and a symbolic interest in mirrors, which is much more than could be asked of films like Terror Train which came out the same year. Dr. Caligari is the obligatory "this is what Tim Burton thinks he's doing" film of this year; its sets and its performances are perfectly otherworldly to a humorous degree. It's something of a quasi-sequel to the 1920 film but its relationship with logic is attuned to such a frequency that it's not a hindrance. Very hard to objectively quantify, you're either in the target audience or you aren't, so of all films here take its tier placement the least seriously. The Deadly Spawn is such a gloriously gross film. The house it's shot in isn't supposed to be disgusting on purpose, it's just one of those century's old buildings where I feel like I'd revulse if I had to touch any surface, and that's before fleshy alien monsters break in and start shredding people to bits. Sole Survivor is one of those magical "missing link" horror films, we've finally found what comes between Carnival of Souls and Final Destination. The actual scares in this film are incredibly minimal as it prioritizes atmosphere that balances between comfort and unease, something incredibly rare for films of virtually any genre. Don't go in expecting ghosts and you'll be pleasantly surprised.

Taking a brief-ish detour to the 1960's, Face of The Screaming Werewolf is one of those films I'm more angry at than anything because it's one of those films that's just the combined stray footage of multiple previous films. Rare for these to be produced in the western market (most of the examples I think of are from (south)east Asia) but it's infuriating nonetheless to see something only to discover it's a worse version of multiple better things you could be seeing. Peeping Tom is our "most overrated" entry winner, I don't know why so many people applaud this one, I feel like barely anything of substance happens to such a degree that any ounce of suspense you could draw from this just disappears, and what a shame with the concept at play here that feels as if it would take another decade for everyone else to catch up. Eggshells is the directorial debut of Tobe Hooper and while cohesive narrative is virtually nonexistent here, the amount of experimental editing keeps this going throughout the entire runtime, you can definitely see where The Texas Chainsaw Massacre came from down the line. I feel like I'm somewhat disappointed with Quatermass and The Pit (not sure what "The Pit" refers to now that I think of it) mostly becasue the first two Quatermass films are among the best 1950's science fiction films. All three are theatrical remakes of television mini-series and that's most felt here with how so much of the film takes place in the single location of an unearthed Martian ship in the heart of London. I do love that we have a science fiction film positing that humans are partly the genetic ancestors of aliens prior to people taking that seriously with books like Chariot of The Gods. The Brain That Wouldn't Die is magical, sometimes those oft hated 1950's/1960's science fiction films have something to give back to the rest of us. Here it's a man so obsessed with his own work that he sees his wife's death as an opportunity to try and kill other women so that he can use their bodies as grounds to bring her back. Which sounds like something else I watched...

...said film being Frankenhooker, which has largely the same plot but now functions as a dark comedy. God. I hate so much that the capitalist enclosure on the production and distribution of film prevented us from getting so much more from Frank Henenlotter. The man is one of the best to ever direct horror, and anyone who thinks this film or any of his other work are "bad movies" just flat out do not know what they're talking about. I think compared to Basket Case and Brain Damage however, Frankenhooker is the one that "keeps giving". You think you've seen everything the film has to offer and then something like a hotel room full of women combusts as they succumb to the effects of exploding crack or Elizabeth (the titular character) has her head punched back and starts spewing smoke and electricity everywhere. Film is a magical medium of art.

Terrifier is what I held onto "misogynistic torture porn" for. No narrative, no character work, just opportunities to show Art the Clown dismember and murder women in revolting ways. It's one of those films that vindicates everyone that doesn't like this genre and makes me wonder what I'm doing sitting side by side with people that like this shit. I think Art cutting off a woman's breasts and scalp and attaching them to his nude body to disguise himself as another prior female victim of his is when my mouth went agape and audibly asked what the fuck am I watching, cannot stress enough how much it takes to get that reaction out of me. There's an upfront showcase that Terrifier knows that it's trash and revels in it, I mean there's an early scene where we see Art has spelled out his name in his own shit, and I'm not sure how to interpret that other than I feel like I might be landing in a Duchamp's Urinal trap. For reasons that allude even me I am still eyeing the prospect of watching both sequels.

I think my overall reaction to Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire is one of "whatever". A passably bad film is a definite improvement from the abomination that was Godzilla vs. Kong but it's admittedly easy to rise up when you start from the bottom. Adam Wingard more or less sucked all the joy I could muster out of the Monsterverse, I truly do not care anymore. If anything can be gleaned from this film it's that this is a film made to reconfirm people's existing biases of "I hate the boring human scenes, I'm only watching this for the monsters." Kong is the best actor in this film because the special effects team have to have him actually emote in response to a given situation, which is more than could be asked of anyone actually on the set, apparently. It's a miracle that this came out in the shadow of Godzilla Minus One than on its own terms.

The glut of 1950's science fiction films are a perennial staple of the Halloween countdown but they don't have a huge showing this year. Man Beast is one I'm going to confuse with all the other yeti movies of the decade though having a main antagonist that's actually a human hybrid gets it some points for originality. Daughter of Dr. Jekyll infuriates me because women who become monsters in film never get to be "hideous" and "scary" like their male counterparts, I'm throwing tomatoes at this one. Devil Girl From Mars is mostly memorable for having a giant clunky robot a la Gort, but the actual titular antagonist doesn't "serve cunt" enough to warrant interest, she should have taken notes from The Astounding She-Monster. The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra is an honorable mention because it's a feature-length pastiche of the z-grade films of this era. I don't think it's particularly funny and I kind of wish they lampooned a "good" film of this type rather than make something that fits in line with the middling genre efforts. Night of The Ghouls is the last horror film directed by Ed Wood and I feel like I enjoy it slightly more than Plan 9 From Outer Space. It's far more competent in producing that lulling insomniac reaction than Wood's prior efforts but I still don't "get" the attention his work consistently gets. The Strange World of Planet X gets a special pass from me just because the finale has a bunch of giant bugs attacking stuff. Moving on.

The Colossus of New York is an oddball modern Frankenstein of sorts with a guy being transformed into a giant robot and struggling to maintain some attachment to his former life. It doesn't always work but once again giant clunky robots are giant clunky robots. I'm something of a Bert I. Gordon apologist so something like The Cyclops is going to hit harder for me than it does for most people. I just like people wandering around Bronson Cave and poor matte shots of giant animals moving in and out of frame, okay? The Tingler was the oddest revisit I've had in a while. I don't think I fully "get" William Castle's approach to film but what stuck out to me is how this one takes place in largely two locations and how Vincent Price's character is kind of the antagonist, experimenting on animals, himself, and other people (resulting in a murder) to get at the Tingler. Much like in House on Haunted Hill I'm not wholly sure how some of the spooky things in this film actually work and I don't think I'm meant to, adding to the bizarre nature of the entire series of affairs here.

Invaders From Mars...oh yes. One of the absolute best 1950's science fiction films is also the most lyrical and dreamlike. It reads at times like a Soviet parody of an American child's story would be like; a boy sees every institution designed to protect him as a child and as an American turn against him on account of some nefarious foreign invader, so his only course of action is to get the US military involved. It plays out so well because it's a POV piece from a young boy, which eases over any leaps in logic both in terms of form and content of this film. Which is more than can be said of the remake, part of the diminishing returns of Tobe Hooper's then contract with Cannon. The film largely follows the same plot structure but decenters the frame through which we see it unfold giving it a "the military is legit" vibe. It also is just a bit more mean-spirited in ways that are designed to taunt the audience versus the original film's more hardened edge to it. I think a great summation of the difference between the two is that the 1953 film had Martian bodyguards that are clearly guys in fuzzy green pajama suits, but they're more threatening than the ones in the 1986 film which are giant quadruped Stan Winston monsters. I digress. Had this come out 20 years later it would be classified as part of the wave of "why are they remaking everything?"

Speaking of remakes, briefly want to mention the 1995 Wasp Woman. It's The Wasp Woman for the 1990's, now with explosions and softcore sex scenes. I can't wholly defend the original 1959 film despite my affinity for it, so let's just say this one is of comparable quality.

The 1930's are a delightful treasure trove for horror but sadly we only have two up for offer. Mad Love makes me curious as to how other adaptations of The Hands of Orlac handle the material; I was convinced a guy got his head surgically reattached and with artificial hands to boot. Always good to see Colin Clive and Peter Lorre. The Walking Dead feels like a dry run for what Boris Karloff would do later that decade in the much better The Man They Could Not Hang, just with him as the victim here and not the mastermind. Truly some of his best work as an actor as he has to float through the world not being allowed to live or die, that shit sticks with you.

We watched a scant few Halloween specials proper, I always feel like I want to watch every Halloween special possible but sometimes the enthusiasm leaves me. The Last Halloween is trash, but that's on me for thinking something made for very small children would appeal to me as an adult. It crams far too much into its brief 22 minute runtime, so the only thing that manages to escape into the zone of interest is that the CGI aliens are actually very well done for a 1991 television production, had this been all about them (voiced by Hanna Barbara stalwarts such as Frank Welker and Don Messick, along with Paul Williams), this would have been far more tolerable. Halloween Hall o' Fame is the first of apparently several Disney television specials that repackaged their theatrical shorts inside a live-action framing device. It's quaint but this format would live and die by the quality of the shorts included; I'm not intimately familiar with Disney's back catalogue solely because they've barely released anything on home media but I absolutely adore the one where Pluto goes to Hell and is put in a kangaroo court with cats on the jury. I feel like the novelty of The Scooby-Doo Project and Night of The Living Doo have carried them along further than their actual quality have, stray artifacts from when Warner Bros was briefly testing to see if Scooby could be an adult property now, doomed to the same fate as Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law. The latter of these two specials made me come to terms with the fact that David Cross was "a big deal" at some point. The Great Bear Scare is the winner here. How could you not like an animated special where bears have to stand up and be brave against an oncoming horde of Halloween monsters? What makes this an oddity (sort of an obligation for me and Halloween specials) is that this is animated 100% without in-betweens, so every character in every scene cross-dissolves in real time between their keyframes. Depending on who you are it could be ridiculously distracting or make you step back and appreciate how hard animation is.

Clearing out our remaining animated showings, I felt like I would really get back into Scooby-Doo and The Reluctant Werewolf. In the mid-late 2000's when Cartoon Network was desperately trying to excise showing anything from their backlogs, this is one of those films that was on repeat constantly as midday viewings especially over summer. It's just so far removed from what Scooby-Doo "proper" is that it's an enigma, I go to bat to defend each of the "red shirt Shaggy" movies but this is brain melting at times, there is no mystery to solve, monsters are real, Fred/Daphne/Velma are completely absent, half the film is dedicated to a drag race, it goes on and on and on that I feel numb after a bit. Uzumaki...it's good. I feel like the fact that this was in production hell for five years following the first trailer release made me stop caring so all the shenanigans regarding the reaction to the animation dropping off (the production team got screwed over, how the fuck do studios not have the money for FOUR EPISODES, David Zlasv strikes again) brushed off of me. Regardless of that I think the actual pacing would have restricted this given how much sequential material from the manga now has to occur concurrently. It gets by solely because it's Uzumaki and as such it channels such a foreboding sense of dread and despair that is unreal. This more than anything is the true epitome of cosmic horror because there is no "source" or "identity" behind the threat that is warping reality around you, there is nothing to oppose and be defiant against, which was true of the manga and it remains true here. Bravo.

The 1970's prove to be another sporadic decade for horror. Cathy's Curse proves that no matter how good technical effects are, do not watch any Carrie knockoffs. Blah. Frankenstein's Castle of Freaks...you took a movie where a Frankenstein monster fights a caveman and made it boring, congratulations. In the interim between 2021's viewing of Curse of Frankenstein and now, I've made the effort to watch the entirety of the Hammer Frankenstein series. They make for a brilliant reinterpretation of the source material with Frankenstein effectively being antagonist: he kills consistently for his experiments, which often time warp and alter people's identities along with their bodies. The "holy triumvirate" of the series as referred to by me would be The Revenge of Frankenstein, Frankenstein Created Woman, and Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed, all for showcasing new stuff that can be done with the character and any prior influences such as the Universal films being absent. Then comes The Horror of Frankenstein, a soft remake of Curse of Frankenstein, with Terence Fischer and Peter Cushing both absent. It's a dry and tedious affair that just rehashes what Curse already did, just now with a black comedic angle and no real consequences for Frankenstein himself. It's easily the worst of the series and why I'm glad Hammer backtracked for Frankenstein and The Monster From Hell. This is probably the first instance in film history where a sequel has consciously ignored a preceding remake, and while it's not wholly original either, it's comfort food for fans of this series, and now employs a darker more claustrophobic setting in an ~insane asylum~. Not the best ending for the series, but Hammer, along with Toho and Ray Harryhausen's efforts with Columbia, sort of represented the "old" styles of horror that were pretty quickly being replaced as the decade went on. This film specifically came out the same year as the likes of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, it was a transitional period where what horror once was was cast away. Still not sure why the monster in this film looks like a Neanderthal man but that's just me.

Tourist Trap desperately tries to be one part Psycho and one part Texas Chainsaw, and it admittedly starts off with a nice hook of animatronic puppets being the main focus of the film, but it falls through the cracks and just becomes another random 1970's horror film. Vampyros Lesbos makes me realize that my infatuation with Zombi 3 last year did not mean I'm suddenly infatuated with Lucio Fulci's overall filmography, exceptions are not the rule. Come to think I don't think I've seen a single lesbian vampire film that I'm smitten with, how do you make this boring and not sexy at all, fuck you. Scream, Blacula, Scream is the obligatory Blacula cash-in sequel, nothing worthwhile to see here and none of the charm and significance of the first film is carried forward here, sigh. "DEDICATED TO THE MILLIONS THAT LOVE BRUCE LEE," The Dragon Lives Again is one of the plethora of films featuring Lee impersonators following his death, showing Lee in Hell as he has to find a way back to Earth while also fighting off The Godfather, Dracula, The Man with No Name, Emanuele, Zatoichi, and James Bond while allying himself with Popeye and Dr. Who. No I am not making any of this up, yes, this film was made with very little money so it sounds far more interesting than it actually ends up being, but it's a cute film, I can't be mad at a film made for me, nor can a movie showing Popeye eat spinach to fight mummies or Bruce Lee knocking out Dracula with his "third leg" be something you don't go out of your way to watch.

The Alien Factor is Don Dohler's first and best film. I love the fact that a dozen people made a small scale alien invasion/slasher film in their backyards with actually solid special effects for something that was probably made on the weekends. You can't hate this film, it's made from pure love for what was already decades old genre material. Had some of the script and acting been tightened up this could have become one of the more widely recognized independent films of the decade. Oh...Alucarda. I hate when they make a lesbian devil worshiper film between girls coming to terms with theirs sexual orientation and then they aren't the heroes of the story. We've come a long way since then.

Given that the Eggers film is still a few months out, I'd say Nosferatu the Vampyre is my preferred interpretation of the story (not my favorite Dracula adaptation overall mind you). Let me say that I think remaking Nosferatu is ridiculous solely because you're just doing Dracula, again, just with some stylistic details brought on from a specific prior Dracula. But this film goes all out. It's one of those times where I'm reminded of why slowly paced films with shots that last minutes at a time are so great. It relies very little on narrative (the extent/nature of Dracula's power of the geographic barriers between Wismar and Transylvania go unexplained) but you get so thoroughly sucked into the setting and the characters that you can't complain. This has undeniably the best portrayal of Mina in any Dracula film, she's effectively the protagonist by the second half and each of her encounters with Dracula are on her terms, he's effectively powerless against her even if she ensures they both die in the end. Also, rats. So many rats. Everywhere. The plague is in town.

Shock Waves is just great 1970's horror. Shoot on location, hold the camera in hand the entire time, do it cheap, have a dreamy distant narrator, and make it grisly. I do find the concept of Nazis engineering platoons of super soldiers and we only seeing just the one in this film is probably the scariest thing about it, it invites you to think about what else is happening out of sight. My favorite first watch of the year.

1978's Invasion of The Body Snatchers is also a phenomenal remake. This one is difficult for me to talk about because it just pushes all my buttons, I felt like I wanted to cry throughout the duration of this viewing, it is an incredibly mean film. Someone you know just one day turns on you, and then everyone else follows suit. You think you know your surroundings and your city but everything is flipped upside down and you can't even describe why. From the very start when you see the premature pods land on Earth it's made immediately clear that no one is making it out of here, it was too late as soon as it started.

But there can only be one #1, and this year it's Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla. Another instance of "nothing is going to beat this" as soon as I rewatched it. I feel like I'm alone in considering this one of the absolute best in the series, I feel like between the espionage and exploration and blood and laser fights that this is just one of the films that reminds you of why we make and why we watch movies, you get to have some semblance of every possible human emotion watching this. There's not much more you can ask for.

[spacely0]

HORROR MOVIE RECS

♦ top tier ★ all-time fave

slashers: ♦intruder friday the 13th part 2 sleepaway camp 2 stage fright scream ★♦cold prey (Fritt velt) 1 & 2 texas chainsaw massacre 1 & 2 wrong turn halloween 1 & 2 & H2O A Nightmare on Elm Street 3 Dream Warriors 1987 Child's Play 1 & ♦2 ★♦Curse of Chucky Phantom of the paradise Popcorn 1991 Club Dread My Bloody Valentine 1981 ★♦Society 1989 ♦Psychopath AKA Der Poppen Murders The Funhouse 1981 Peeping Tom happy brithday to me 1981 black christmas ★♦Sceance Maniac (the one with elijah wood) hell fest ♦Just before dawn 1981 Maniac Cop

scifi horror: The Curse of Frankenstein 1957 ♦The Revenge of Frankenstein 1958 ★♦Bride of Frankenstein 1935 ★♦the stuff ★♦the fly 1958 ★♦invasion of the body snatchers 1978 ★♦the thing ♦the faculty ★♦from beyond ★♦re-animator 2 ★♦prince of darkness 1987 Quatermass and the Pit 1967 ♦Pandorum Dr jekyll and sister hyde ★♦the brood ★♦its alive 1974 & it lives again 1978 killer klowns from outer space 1988 Quaatermass and the Pit 1967

hauntings/curses: ★♦burnt offerings 1976 haunting in connecticuit conjuring 1 & 2 insidious 1 & 2 & 3 & 5 ★♦ evil dead 1 & 2 & 2013 final destination 1 & 2 & 5 house (hausu) 1977 Kairo (pulse) 2001 the grudge (japanese & american) ♦ dark water Night of the Demon 1957 ♦The changeling 1980 ★♦The Hole in the Ground 2019 Whispering Corridors

folk horror: midsomar ♦ Viy 1967 ♦ impetigore 2019 ★♦ the wickerman 1973 Burn Witch Burn the medium

catholic horror: ♦ The Devil Rides Out 1968 ★♦ the sentinel 1977 nun II ♦ exorcist III

weirdos: ♦basket case 1 & 2 ♦it follows A dark song ★♦The Perfection The Empty Man ★♦The Skull 1965 Beyond the Black Rainbow dead ringers i, madman 1989 messiah of evil 1973 ★♦The People under the Stairs 1991 ★♦The Reflecting Skin 1990 ★♦Carnival of Souls

zombies: ★♦the video dead dawn of the dead 1978 & 2004 dead and buried i walked with a zombie ♦plague of the zombies The Serpent and the Rainbow

monsters: ★♦Sweetheart 2019 The Gate 1987 The invisible Man 1933 ♦Wishmaster 1997 Warlock ♦the mummy's shroud 1967

vampires: Shadow of the Vampire 2000 ★♦ Martin ★♦Captain Kronos -vampire hunter The Brides of Dracula 1960 ★♦the night stalker & the night strangler salems lot 1 & 2 ★♦son of dracula 1943 subspecies 1 & 2 & 4 from dusk til dawn Vampire Hunter D 1985

werewolves: the howling 1981 ginger snaps the beast must die!

death traps: ★♦The Pit and the Pendulum 1961 saw escape room ★♦Theatre of Blood 1973 The Abominable Dr. Phibes 1971 haunt

found footage: ♦Host 2020 Unfriended 1 & 2 Cloverfield Final Prayer Gonjiam: haunted asylum grave encounters hellhouse LLC ★♦Willow Creek ★♦noroi the curse occult ★♦ghostwatch ♦V/H/S 1 & 2 & viral

★♦ ALL the Amicus horror anthologies are worth watching

[downthetubes]

French poster for "Quatermass 2" (1957)

[whitewaterpaper]

24 gott folk. Månadens gott och blandat innehåller 24 filmer för alla konnässörer av budgetfilm från skräphögen att botanisera bland. Vissa av dem är rentutav bra.

Beastmaster 2: Genom tidsbarriären / Beastmaster 2: Through the Portal of Time (1991). Okej, men långt ifrån bra uppföljare på klassikern "Beastmaster". Jag har lite svårt för när man plockar "hem" barbar- och fantasyfilm till "vår" värld.

Bloody Mallory (2002) [👍]. Franskt toppraffel, inte genial men helt klart en trevlig överraskning. Rekommenderas.

Bullet Train (2022) [👎]. Kul koncept. Rörig, småtråkig film med topnotch-SFX. Vad får jag för pengarna egentligen Hollywood?

Campa i klaveret (2012) [👍🔁🎭]. Klassiker från Vallarna. Claes Månsson i toppform!

Code 8 (2016) [👍]. Bra kortfilm som trots sin korta längd lyckas vara bättre än många av superhjältefilmerna från Marvel och DC jag sett.

Code 8 (2019) [👍]. Långfilmsversionen av filmen ovan. Man lyckades kanon med att utöka konceptet till full längd.

Cosmos Conqueror, the / Roboteu King (1981) [👎]. Värdelös animerad film från Sydkorea. Töntig dialog med en tillhörande engelsk dubb där "kobåjsigt" lär ha varit den genomgående regin. Bra signaturmelodi, enerverande musik för övrigt.

Dalton Girls, the (1957). Mjäh. Dålig karaktärsuppbyggad och slätstruken story. Drew Barrymore-filmen "Bad Girls" bygger på den här filmen. Man kan hoppa över bägge med äran i behåll.

Dark Planet (1997) [👍]. På gränsen till bra, och jag friar den hellre än fäller.

Destination Månen / Destination Moon (1950).

Fäkta för livet! / Prince and the Pauper, the (1977).

Headless Ghost, the (1959).

Hon jazzade en sommar (2002) [👍🔁🎭].

Hornet (2018) [👎]. Asylum mockbustern för storfilmen Bumblebee. Och det är det enda positiva som finns att säga om den.

I Dimma Dold (1953) [👍]. Bra svenskt morddrama i Agatha Christie-stil.

Maciste and the Headhunters / Maciste contro i cacciatori di teste (1963). Är den politiskt korrekt idag? Knappast. Men småskoj barbarfilm från Italien tackar man inte nej till.

Merlin: The Return (2000) [👎]. Störtlöjlig. Man vräker dessutom på med vitt ljus i scenerna att det är på gränsen till whitewashing.

Moontrap: Target Earth (2017) [👎]. Har inte sett filmen den är en uppföljare till.

Quatermass 2 (1957).

Star Knight / El caballero del dragón (1985) [👍]. På sina ställen lite udda, men klart en trevlig film i övrigt.

Sumuru (2003) [👍🔁].

Tarzan den orädde / Tarzan the Fearless (1933).

Teleios (2017) [👍]. Ohh. Lågmäld SF med ett budskap men som inte skriver tittaren på näsan.

Thor the Conqueror / Thor il conquistatore (1983) [👎] En sådan där film man måste läsa synopsiet efteråt för att få ihop storyn om vad som pågick.

Väldigt många av månadens filmer är fyndade på Prime Video, ett par på Netflix och en hel hög på tuben som vanligt. SVT Play har två representanter. Håller er undan från Cosmos Conqueror och satsa istället på Bloody Mallory eller om man föredrar engelska Dark Planet eller Teleios. Vill man se superhjältefilm men tröttnat på actionsekvenserna signerade Marvel rekommenderas Code 8.

[jaspers47]

I watched 154 movies in 2022

Five Stars

Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Childhood (2022) Bergman Island (2021) Blonde Crazy (1931) Blow-Up (1966) Cryptozoo (2021) Decision to Leave (2022) Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022) Glass Onion (2022) The Hunger (1983) It Came from Hollywood (1982) Marcel the Shell with Shoes On (2022) Minari (2020) Mona Lisa (1986) Never Let Me Go (2010) Night on Earth (1991) Nope (2022) Pearl (2022) Tár (2022) Turning Red (2022) Wolfwalkers (2020) The Worst Person in the World (2021)

Four Stars

Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn (2021) The Banshees of Inisherin (2022) Black Swan (2010) Blackmail (1929) Bullet Train (2022) Captain Blood (1935) Christmas in Connecticut (1945) CODA (2021) Confess, Fletch (2022) Doctor Sleep (2019) Dune (2021) Encanto (2021) The Fabelmans (2022) The Firemen's Ball (1967) First Blood (1982) Five Came Back (1939) Flee (2021) Gentleman's Agreement (1947) Gilda (1946) The Gospel of Eureka (2018) Guillermo Del Toro's Pinocchio (2022) Harvey (1950) House/Hausu (1977) The Hustler (1961) Hustlers (2019) Kajillionaire (2020) The Killing (1956) Kimi (2022) Kiss of Death (1947) The Menu (2022) Moonwalker (1988) The Mouse That Roared (1959) My Dinner with Andre (1981) The Northman (2022) Parallel Mothers (2021) The Personal History of David Copperfield (2019) Predator (1987) Prey (2022) The Punk Singer (2013) Quatermass II/Enemy From Space (1957) Relaxer (2018) Saint Maud (2019) The Seven-Ups (1973) Thelma (2017) Watcher (2022) We're All Going to the World's Fair (2022) Wristcutters: A Love Story (2006) X (2022)

Three and a Half Stars

The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926) The Bob's Burgers Movie (2022) The Booksellers (2019) Blade II (2002) Gunpowder Milkshake (2021) Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul (2022) Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964) My Name is Julia Ross (1945) Onibaba (1964) The Party (1968) Pygmalion (1938) The Quatermass Xperiment/The Creeping Unknown (1955) The Song Remains the Same (1976) Three Thousand Years of Longing (2022) Wendell & Wild (2022) Yours, Mine and Ours (1968)

Three Stars

Amistad (1997) The Bank Dick (1940) The Batman (2022) Cha Cha Real Smooth (2022) Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954) Cries and Whispers (1972) Crimes of the Future (2022) Drive My Car (2021) The Earrings of Madame de... (1953) Emily the Criminal (2022) The Funhouse (1981) Hannah and Her Sisters (1986) Inland Empire (2006) Jennifer's Body (2009) Jubilee (1978) Ladies and Gentlemen, the Fabulous Stains (1982) Life of Pi (2012) Linda Linda Linda (2005) Love Finds Andy Hardy (1938) Lucy and Desi (2022) Nobody (2021) Opening Night (1977) Pretending I'm a Superman: The Tony Hawk Video Game Story (2020) Repeat Performance (1947) See How They Run (2022) Something Wicked This Way Comes (1983) Strawberry Mansion (2022) Tick, Tick... Boom! (2021) The Tragedy of Macbeth (2021) A Woman is a Woman (1961) Weird: The Al Yankovic Story (2022) Welcome to the Dollhouse (1995) White Zombie (1932) WNUF Halloween Special (2013)

Two and a Half Stars

Babylon (2022) Crock of Gold: A Few Rounds with Shane MacGowan (2020) Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood (2017) Thunderball (1965)

Two Stars

Doctor Mordrid (1992) Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022) Enchanted (2007) Hardcore Henry (2015) The House (2022) My Fair Lady (1964) My Name is Emily (2015) The Princess (2022) Raya and the Last Dragon (2021) Rosaline (2022) Strange World (2022) Thor: Love and Thunder (2022) Treasure of the Amazon (1985) Werewolves Within (2021) Willy's Wonderland (2021) Winnie the Pooh (2011)

One Star

Beyond Atlantis (1973) Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers (2022) Chuck E. Cheese in the Galaxy 5000 (1999) The Crawling Hand (1963) Daddy-O (1958) Demon Squad (1999) Hello Again (1987) Indestructible Man (1956) Munchie (1992) Operation Kid Brother (1967) The Rebel Set (1959) Santo in the Treasure of Dracula (1969) Robot Jox 2: Robot Wars (1993) Shadow in the Cloud (2020) The She-Creature (1956)

[retro-frikianos]

EL RINCÓN DEL DOCTOR COLOSSO 11: 50's SCI-FI B-MOVIES

QUATERMASS 2 (1957)

[docrotten]

X THE UNKNOWN (1956) – Episode 149 – Decades Of Horror: The Classic Era

“I’m going to kick your head in if you don’t get it down! That’s what I’m going to do!” A kick in the head turns out to be an effective management technique for Sgt. Grimsdyke. Join this episode’s Grue-Crew – Chad Hunt, Whitney Collazo, Daphne Monary-Ernsdorff, and Jeff Mohr – as they discover all the known unknowns and the unknown unknowns of Hammer’s X the Unknown (1956).

Decades of Horror: The Classic Era Episode 149 – X the Unknown (1956)

Join the Crew on the Gruesome Magazine YouTube channel! Subscribe today! And click the alert to get notified of new content! https://youtube.com/gruesomemagazine

ANNOUNCEMENT Decades of Horror The Classic Era is partnering with THE CLASSIC SCI-FI MOVIE CHANNEL, THE CLASSIC HORROR MOVIE CHANNEL, and WICKED HORROR TV CHANNEL Which all now include video episodes of The Classic Era! Available on Roku, AppleTV, Amazon FireTV, AndroidTV, Online Website. Across All OTT platforms, as well as mobile, tablet, and desktop. https://classicscifichannel.com/; https://classichorrorchannel.com/; https://wickedhorrortv.com/

A radioactive, mud-like creature terrorizes a Scottish village.

  Directors: Leslie Norman, Joseph Losey (uncredited)

Writer: Jimmy Sangster (story) (screenplay)

Music by: James Bernard

Special Effects: Bowie Margutti Ltd. (Les Bowie, Vic Margutti), Jack Curtis

Make-up and Special Make-up Effects: Philip Leakey

Production Manager: Jimmy Sangster

Selected Cast:

Dean Jagger as Dr. Adam Royston

Leo McKern as “Mac” McGill

Edward Chapman as John Elliott

William Lucas as Peter Elliott

Peter Hammond as Lieutenant Bannerman

Anthony Newley as Lance Corporal “Spider” Webb

Ian MacNaughton as Haggis

Michael Ripper as Sergeant Harry Grimsdyke

Michael Brooke as Willie Harding

Frazer Hines as Ian Osborne

Norman MacOwan as Old Tom

John Harvey as Major Cartwright

Edwin Richfield as Soldier Burned on Back

Jane Aird as Vi Harding

Neil Hallett as Unwin

Kenneth Cope as Private Lansing

Jameson Clark as Jack Harding

Marianne Brauns as Zena, the Nurse

Brown Derby as The Vicar

Anthony Sagar as Security Man (uncredited)

It’s time to explore early Hammer Sci-fi films with X the Unknown (1956). The film is part of a trilogy of Cold War sci-fi features along with The Quatermass Xperiment (1955, aka The Creeping Unknown) and Quatermass 2 (1957, aka Enemy From Space) that firmly transitioned Hammer from B-movie thrillers to solid horror/sci-fi excellence. The only thing missing is Bernard Quatermass himself, but not without Hammer trying – writer Nigel Kneale would not agree to the use of the character in this film. Regardless, X the Unknown is notable and well worth the watch. Hammer fans will appreciate an early appearance of fan-favorite character actor Michael Ripper as Sergeant Grimsdyke. Let’s see what the Grue-Crew make of directors Leslie Norman’s and Joseph Losey’s, and writer Jimmy Sangster’s black-and-white creepy classic. 

With this episode, The Classic Era Grue-Crew say adiós a nuestra querida amiga to Whitney Collazo. She has more opportunities than time to pursue them and will be stepping away from her podcast hosting duties. Whitney has participated in over 100 episodes of Decades of Horror: The Classic Era. Grue Believers and Grue-Crew alike will sorely miss her insightful comments, her unique movie choices, and her loving persona. We love you without reservation, Whitney. You will always be welcome here! And if you find a movie you’d like to discuss with us or have a movie you’d like to hear us discuss, just give us a shout-out. Buena suerte, mi querido amigo!

Gruesome Magazine’s Decades of Horror: The Classic Era records a new episode every two weeks. Up next in their very flexible schedule, the Classic Era Grue-Crew wanted a fitting topic for their 150th episode. They decided on a film often considered one of the best horror films of all time, Rosemary’s Baby (1968), written and directed by Roman Polanski, based on the book by Ira Levin, starring Mia Farrow who is supported by an Oscar-winning performance from Ruth Gordon. You won’t want to miss this one! There is lots of “stuff” to discuss.

Please let them know how they’re doing! They want to hear from you – the coolest, grooviest fans: leave them a message or leave a comment on the Gruesome Magazine YouTube channel, the site, or email the Decades of Horror: The Classic Era podcast hosts at feedback@gruesomemagazine.com

To each of you from each of them, “Thank you so much for watching and listening!”

Check out this episode!

[mossterious]

Halloween Movies Week 2:

The Curse of Frankenstein (1957)

The Abominable Snowman (1957)

Hocus Pocus (1993)

Vampires vs The Bronx (2020)

Wendell & Wild (2022)

Quatermass 2 (1957)

The Revenge of Frankenstein (1958)

The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959)

The Mummy (1959)

The Man Who Could Cheat Death (1959)

The Two Faces of Dr Jekyll (1960)

The Curse of the Werewolf (1961)

The Addams Family (1991)

Addams Family Values (1993)

Goosebumps (2015)

The Shadow of the Cat (1961)

Captain Clegg (1962)

Labyrinth (1986)

Halloweentown II: Kalabar’s Revemge (2001)

Twitches Too (2007)

The Damned (1962)

The Kiss of the Vampire (1963)

The Old Dark House (1963)

The Evil of Frankenstein (1964)

Thanksgiving (2023)

Halloweentown High (2004)

Monster House (2006)

Day Shift (2022)

The Gorgon (1964)

Okay screw it I’ve decided I’m gonna make a post for all the spooky movies I’m watching in October because it’s Halloween season. However. Making that post at the end of October would be SO LONG. So I’m gonna do weekly spooky movie updates instead!

Halloween Movies Week 1:

The Raven (1935)

Mom’s Got A Date with a Vampire (2000)

Don’t Look Under The Bed (1999)

Can of Worms (1999)

Son of Frankenstein (1939)

Tower of London (1939)

The Mummy’s Hand (1940)

Girl vs Monster (2012)

Phantom of the Megaplex (2000)

Twitches (2005)

Scream Team (2002)

Man-Made Monster (1941)

The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942)

The Mummy’s Tomb (1942)

Mr. Boogedy (1986)

Bride of Boogedy (1987)

The Mad Ghoul (1943)

The Invisible Man’s Revenge (1944)

The Mummy’s Ghost (1944)

The Mummy’s Curse (1944)

Invisible Sister (2005)

Halloweentown (1998)

She-Wolf of London (1946)

Abbot and Costello Meet The Mummy (1955)

The Creature Walks Among Us (1956)

Muppets Haunted Mansion (2021)

The Haunted Mansion (2003)

Scars of Dracula (1970)

Countess Dracula (1971)

Shaun of the Dead (2004)

Dracula AD 1972 (1972)

The Satanic Rites of Dracula (1973)

The Curse of Bridge Hollow (2022)

Casper (1995)

The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires (1974)

The Quatermass Experiment (1955)

X The Unknown (1956)

[facesofcinema]

Quatermass 2 (1957)

[oldschoolsciencefiction]

Tonight’s entertainment at Casa Old School Sci Fi is “Quatermass 2″ or, if you prefer the American and Canadian release title “Enemy From Space” (1957).

[sesiondemadrugada]

Quatermass 2 (Val Guest, 1957).

[gurumog]

Quatermass 2 (1957) aka Enemy From Space Hammer Film Productions Dir. Val Guest

Brian Donlevy as Professor Bernard Quatermass

[jabbage]

A comic about my earliest memory, scribbled very quickly on printer paper

Behold! An excerpt from the 1957 film Quatermass 2. I don't know whether the take away here is "Don't watch horror films around your baby, it may become a foundational memory"or "It's ok to watch horror films around your baby, they won't know the black gunk is "human pulp"

[mogwai-movie-house]

The 100 Best Sci-Fi Films Of All Time

1. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) ★★★★★★★★★★ 2. Blade Runner (1982) ★★★★★★★★★★ 3. Alien (1979) ★★★★★★★★★★ 4. The Terminator (1984) ★★★★★★★★★★ 5. Back to the Future (1985) ★★★★★★★★★★ 6. The Invisible Man (1933) ★★★★★★★★★★ 7. Star Wars (1977) ★★★★★★★★★★ 8. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) ★★★★★★★★★★ 9. The Fly (1986) ★★★★★★★★★★ 10. Ghostbusters (1984) ★★★★★★★★★★ 11. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) ★★★★★★★★★★ 12. Being John Malkovich (1999) ★★★★★★★★★★ 13. The Thing (1982) ★★★★★★★★★★ 14. Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) ★★★★★★★★★☆ 15. Videodrome (1983) ★★★★★★★★★☆ 16. Twelve Monkeys (1995) ★★★★★★★★★☆ 17. Timecrimes (2007) ★★★★★★★★★☆ 18. Aliens (1986) ★★★★★★★★★☆ 19. Planet of the Apes (1968) ★★★★★★★★★☆ 20. Frankenstein (1931) ★★★★★★★★★☆ 21. Her (2013) ★★★★★★★★★☆ 22. Starship Troopers (1997) ★★★★★★★★★☆ 23. Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011) ★★★★★★★★★☆ 24. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) ★★★★★★★★★☆ 25. Sleeper (1973) ★★★★★★★★★☆ 26. Time After Time (1979) ★★★★★★★★★☆ 27. The Matrix (1999) ★★★★★★★★★☆ 28. WarGames (1983) ★★★★★★★★★☆ 29. Men in Black (1997) ★★★★★★★★★☆ 30. Cold Souls (2009) ★★★★★★★★★☆ 31. Back to the Future Part III (1990) ★★★★★★★★½☆ 32. The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957) ★★★★★★★★☆☆ 33. Jurassic Park (1993) ★★★★★★★★☆☆ 34. Time Lapse (2014) ★★★★★★★★☆☆ 35. RoboCop (1987) ★★★★★★★★☆☆ 36. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931) ★★★★★★★★☆☆ 37. eXistenZ (1999) ★★★★★★★★☆☆ 38. Bride of Frankenstein (1935) ★★★★★★★★☆☆ 39. Moon (2009) ★★★★★★★★☆☆ 40. Minority Report (2002) ★★★★★★★★☆☆ 41. Galaxy Quest (1999) ★★★★★★★★☆☆ 42. Triangle (2009) ★★★★★★★★☆☆ 43. The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976) ★★★★★★★★☆☆ 44. The Empire Strikes Back (1980) ★★★★★★★★☆☆ 45. Return of the Jedi (1983) ★★★★★★★★☆☆ 46. The Truman Show (1998) ★★★★★★★★★☆ 47. The Survivalist (2015) ★★★★★★★★★☆ 48. Time Bandits (1981) ★★★★★★★★☆☆ 49. Gravity (2013) ★★★★★★★★☆☆ 50. Intacto (2001) ★★★★★★★★☆☆ 51. A Scanner Darkly (2006) ★★★★★★★★☆☆ 52. Alien³ (1992) ★★★★★★★★☆☆ 53. Arrival (2016) ★★★★★★★★☆☆ 54. Serenity (2005) ★★★★★★★★☆☆ 55. Donnie Darko (2001) ★★★★★★★★☆☆ 56. Star Trek II - The Wrath of Khan (1982) ★★★★★★★★☆☆ 57. Limitless (2011) ★★★★★★★★☆☆ 58. A Clockwork Orange (1971) ★★★★★★★★★☆ 59. The Prestige (2006) ★★★★★★★★★☆ 60. The Lobster (2015) ★★★★★★★★★☆ 61. Brazil (1985) ★★★★★★★★½☆ 62. WALL·E (2008) ★★★★★★★★☆☆ 63. Starman (1984) ★★★★★★★★☆☆ 64. Men in Black 3 (2012) ★★★★★★★★☆☆ 65. 2081 (2009) ★★★★★★★★☆☆ 66. Ex Machina (2014) ★★★★★★★★☆☆ 67. Looper (2012) ★★★★★★★½☆☆ 68. Peggy Sue Got Married (1986) ★★★★★★★½☆☆ 69. Code 46 (2003) ★★★★★★★½☆☆ 70. District 9 (2009) ★★★★★★★½☆☆ 71. Alien Resurrection (1997) ★★★★★★★☆☆☆ 72. Back to the Future Part II (1989) ★★★★★★★☆☆☆ 73. The Matrix Reloaded (2003) ★★★★★★★☆☆☆ 74. Escape from the Planet of the Apes (1971) ★★★★★★★☆☆☆ 75. Frequently Asked Questions About Time Travel (2009) ★★★★★★★☆☆☆ 76. Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986) ★★★★★★★☆☆☆ 77. Westworld (1973) ★★★★★★★☆☆☆ 78. Mars Attacks! (1996) ★★★★★★★☆☆☆ 79. Cocoon (1985) ★★★★★★★☆☆☆ 80. Monsters (2010) ★★★★★★★☆☆☆ 81. Stalker (1979) ★★★★★★★☆☆☆ 82. Logan's Run (1976) ★★★★★★★☆☆☆ 83. 1984 (1956) ★★★★★★★☆☆☆ 84. Escape from New York (1981) ★★★★★★★☆☆☆ 85. The Martian (2015) ★★★★★★★☆☆☆ 86. Midnight Special (2016) ★★★★★★★☆☆☆ 87. Vanilla Sky (2001) ★★★★★★★☆☆☆ 88. Passengers (2016) ★★★★★★★☆☆☆ 89. Under the Skin (2013) ★★★★★★★☆☆☆ 90. They Live (1988) ★★★★★★★☆☆☆ 91. Source Code (2011) ★★★★★★★☆☆☆ 92. A Trip to the Moon (1902) ★★★★★★★☆☆☆ 93. Metropolis (1927) ★★★★★★★☆☆☆ 94. Quatermass and the Pit (1967) ★★★★★★★☆☆☆ 95. Equals (2015) ★★★★★★★☆☆☆ 96. Inception (2010) ★★★★★★☆☆☆☆ 97. Flash Gordon (1980) ★★★★★★☆☆☆☆ 98. TRON (1982) ★★★★★★☆☆☆☆ 99. Things to Come (1936) ★★★★★★☆☆☆☆ 100. Until the End of the World (1991) ★★★★★★☆☆☆☆

[chaptertwo-thepacnw]