Day 26: The Monster of Phantom Lake

Extra time for things like movies and blogging was a little on the short side today - as it might be for the next few days. I've got school related things planned - as well as working on draft #3 of my clinical project. I'm hoping that things will wind down by the end of the week and I'll be able to enjoy the holiday weekend.

I did find time to fit this movie in today - it's the third in my Halloween series of movies that are a tribute to an era gone by.

This is another film (his first) by Christopher R. Mimh - the director of Terror from Beneath the Earth, which I watched earlier in the month.

As much as I liked Terror, I think I liked The Monster of Phantom Lake a little bit more. I liked the whole 'teenagers and rock-n-roll' aspect of the movie, and I really liked the storyline and chemistry between Professor Jackson (Josh Craig) and his graduate student Stephanie Yates (Leigha Horton). I think if you like any of Mimh's films, you'll like them all. And these two that I've reviewed are both available for rental on Netflix.

Booga,
Mother Firefly

Day 25: Night of the Creeps

I'm so glad this FINALLY made it to DVD.

It's available on Tuesday - but in the meantime,
you can watch it for free!

Go here and watch it and the other fifteen movies that are part of Zombie Fest on Crackle.

I hadn't seen it since its theatrical release in the late 80's.

It's always nice to see something that you remember fondly hold up well through the years.



I can't believe we're almost at the end of the month - and I still don't know what I'm doing on the 31st. A movie marathon? Rocky Horror at midnight? Hmmmm....

Six more days till Halloween,
Mother Firefly

Day 24: Astro Zombies!

I heart the holy hell out of Ted V. Mikels.
I first discovered him at the first Cinema Wasteland convention, when I and my BFF wandered into Ted's Q & A. I had zero idea of who he was, but by the time I left, I had already circled 'The Corpse Grinders' on my list of must - see films that weekend. By the time the weekend was over, I had a signed copy of Corpse Grinders, and a photo of me, my BFF and Ted snuggled in between us.


Ted started making movies in the 60's and is STILL cranking them out. In fact, he's just released the DVD of Demon Haunt, and his website announces a new film for 2010.

And one other thing - Ted just turned EIGHTY this year.
Yeah.

I wanted to do a mini-tribute to Ted, and feature one of his 'classic' films. I really love CG, but since I also love Tura Satana, I decided to go with Astro Zombies -which I think is equally awesome.


Why do I think this movie is so grand?

When your first scene in a movie involves a chick that looks like this:

and a monster that looks like this:

Baby, I'm ALREADY in lurve.

The monsters are the brain-child of Dr. DeMarco (John Carradine) who is making them from spare parts in his lab. Tura Satana :and her henchmen want a piece of the action. The CIA is investigating too.

There's a lot of crazy talk by Carradine about how his machinery works and lots of boop-be-boop-science type noises, and honestly sometimes the plot gets kind of lost. But I still can't help but love this film, especially for its scenes like these:

Want to check it out for yourself? You can watch it online here.

The movie might be a little confusing and silly at times, but for me, it's a feast for the eyes - and there's something about low-budget movies from this time period that just make me all swoony and warm inside.

I know that there are probably a lot of people out there who would check these films out and not be as fond of them as I am. They may not have the funding behind them that the big studios have - but they have tons more HEART than a lot of what you'll find at the cinema today. Ted truly has a passion for his art - and it shows. I think it's amazing that he's been making movies for SIXTY years - and I don't think he gets enough recognition for what he's done - not even from the horror community. (Cinema Wasteland being one of the exceptions).

So I thought I'd dedicate one day of my Halloween blogging to Ted and all the fun I've had meeting him and watching his films.

Thanks, Ted.
I hope I'm still blogging about your new films when you're ninety.

-Mother Firefly

Day 23: Zombieland (FINALLY!)

Yes, I finally saw it.
And no, I wasn't disappointed.
It was right in line with my own personal belief system concerning the potential uprising of the undead:





If we do ever actually find ourselves in the midst of a zombie apocalypse
-or what I like to refer to as 'when the shit comes down' - As in 'When the shit comes down, I'm going to board up the window in the kitchen first' -
we might as well have a GOOD time.

I saw the first trailer a couple months ago and since then, I've managed to avoid seeing even one more minute of footage, pictures, reviews, you name it. Even if means practicing my zen method of blocking out the media - which really just means closing my eyes, covering my ears, and saying la-la-la-la-la-la-I CAN'T HEAR YOU-la-la-la-la extremely loudly.

So in the spirit of that - just in case you haven't seen it yet - I'm not going to say jack about the plot. Go, eat some popcorn, have some fun.

I just have one leetle bone to pick with editing.

It's a zombie movie.
So why not show me some ZOMBIES??
I mean, I saw LOTS of zombies - for about a millisecond at a time.
It made me all nostalgic and weepy eyed for Day of the Dead and Romero's lingering shots of dead peeps. Romero shot Savini's zombie makeups with love.

I was looking for the poster online and came across this screen shot of the movie:

And I was all, that was in the movie? I mean, I remember zombie kids, but I never got to really SEE one. I don't get it. Can't we take a moment and just LOOK at the dang dead people?? Sigh. Maybe I'm just old fashioned.

Boom-boom,
Mother Firefly

We Interrupt Our Regularly Scheduled Programming.....

Check out the All Together Dead blog for Halloween recipes, decorations, and more!

Oh, and there's also this STELLAR contest as well:



She is giving away a set of her very fab, very cool, and very spooooky labels. My head hurts with ideas of all the coolio things I could do with these.

But hurry, Saturday the 24th is the deadline to enter!

-Mother Firefly

Day 22 Part II: 'Vinny the P' Double Feature

What would the month of October be without a little Vincent Price? BORING, I say!

I love almost all Price's films, so it's always hard for me to pick. I try to watch House on Haunted Hill every October, but I blogged about it last year, so I thought I'd go with something else.

And why not a double feature while we're at it? Twice Told Tales and Tales of Terror are Two Tastes that Taste good Together.




These two films are available as a double feature from MGM Midnite Movies.

Twice Told Tales features three short movies based on the stories of Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Tales of Terror features the same except based on the stories of Edgar Allen Poe.


Twice has three stories: (directed by Sidney Salkow)
Dr. Heidegger's Experiment (with Sebastian Cabot - Mr. French!)
Rappaccini's Daughter
The House of the Seven Gables

as does Tales: (directed by Roger Corman)
Morella
The Black Cat (with Peter Lorre)
The Case of M. Valdemar (with Basil Rathbone)

Of the two films, I prefer Tales over Twice - but only slightly. Probably because I have more memories of it - especially The Black Cat.

And the REALLY cool part is - this MGM double feature is part of the 2 for $10 horror movie sale going on at Deep Discount till October 26th. There are other Price double features in the sale as well : Fall of the House of Usher/Pit and the Pendulum, Abominable Dr. Phibes/Dr Phibes Rises Again, Oblong Box/Scream and Scream Again, Masque of the Red Death/Premature Burial (although this is Ray Milland, not Price), and Theater of Blood/Madhouse. That's FOUR Vincent Price films for ten bucks, or what the hell, buy them all, have a film festival.

Link is HERE.

Day 22: Lemora: A Child's Tale of the Supernatural

Heaven knows I'm bogged down with about 30 movies that I haven't watched yet - before graduate school I used to keep up - maybe in the near future -with school almost done (!) I'll be able to catch back up.

But instead of going with something unknown tonight, I wanted to take time to watch one of my Halloween standbys - films I crave every October. And one of them is this relatively unknown little gem:




I don't think this film is as well known as I think it should be - and I really think it should be seen and talked about more. It's just so deliciously creepy and out there - there's really nothing else like it. I had never even heard of it until it was released on DVD a few years ago - and the description of it sounded so wonderful that I bought it without as seeing so much as a trailer. And I wasn't disappointed.




The movie is about a girl named Lila Lee - whose father killed her mother (and her lover) when he found her cheating on him. Since then, Lila has been raised by the local Reverend and has become revered for her heavenly singing voice. When Lila receives a letter from a mysterious Lemora (calling herself a 'fellow Christian'), who says that she has Lila's father and that she must come and see him before he dies - and also to tell no one about what she is doing or where she is going.

Lila takes off for the strange town of Astaroth, and ends up taking a very creepy bus ride that ends up being attacked - and ends with her waking up a prisoner in a little stone house, with this weird old lady calling her 'Mary Jo' (claiming Lila looks just like her) and singing creepy songs to her:

Lila escapes and crawls under the house, where she overhears a conversation between her father and a woman she will soon meet, Lemora. Lemora finds Lila and brings her into the house and gives her a room:

Soon we're introduced to Lemora's five 'adopted' children, none of whom look very healthy. They all pass around a goblet of something that looks very suspicious:

It's soon apparent that Lemora has some kind of plans for Lila - plans which won't come as much of a surprise to horror fans - but the way that the movie is executed is so bizarre, sensual, and creepy - it's really a feast for the eyes.


There's a lot of talk from Lila about what is 'sinful' (drinking wine, vanity) and how Lemora attempts to convince her otherwise. It's also evident that Lemora has tried to recruit other young women (the infamous Mary Jo, whose diary is found by Lila) and has failed in the past.


The rest of the movie is a wonderful gothic mix of vampirism, witchcraft, and some not so subtle overtures from Lemora towards Lila. Will Lila succumb to Lemora's spell? If you're a fan of horror from the 60s or 70s, I really suggest you check this morsel out and find out for yourself.....