STEVEN SPIELBERG'S DUEL (1971): STILL ALIVE AND DRIVING AT 55!!

DUEL (1971) d. Steven Spielberg (USA)

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Before Steven Spielberg became STEVEN SPIELBERG, he was a young television director searching for an opportunity to prove what he could do behind the camera. That opportunity arrived in November 1971 with Duel, a lean, nerve-shredding thriller produced for ABC’s Movie of the Week. Made on a modest budget and shot in just under two weeks, Duel remains one of the most astonishing directorial debuts in American cinema—not just because of its spectacle or scale, but also how masterfully it transforms an ordinary situation into sustained terror.

TRILOGY OF TERROR (1975) Turns 50: The Legacy of a TV Horror Classic!!

TRILOGY OF TERROR (1975) d. Dan Curtis (USA)

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Trilogy of Terror, the beloved horror anthology movie from producer/director Dan Curtis starring Karen Black, premiered on ABC television March 4, 1975. Curtis was already a household name, having created the legendary vampire soap opera Dark Shadows, as well as The Night Stalker, the highest-rated made-for-television movie released at the time, alongside well-received adaptations of Dracula and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (both starring Jack Palance). So when he hired the legendary Richard Matheson to adapt three of his short stories, it seemed like a can’t-miss proposition.

HOUSE OF USHER (1960): CORMAN + PRICE + POE = GOTHIC HORROR GOLD

HOUSE OF USHER (1960) d. Roger Corman (USA)
PIT AND THE PENDULUM (1961) d. Roger Corman (USA)

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Journey into the heart of gothic horror with House of Usher, Roger Corman’s moody and mesmerizing film version of Edgar Allan Poe’s short story. Released in 1960, Usher marks the beginning of Corman’s AIPoe series, his celebrated octet of Poe-inspired works, and it’s an atmospheric triumph of mood and style.

THE SIXTH SENSE & STIR OF ECHOES: GHOST SUMMER OF 1999

THE SIXTH SENSE (1999) d. M. Night Shyamalan (USA)
STIR OF ECHOES (1999) d. David Koepp (USA)

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With scores of classic ghost movies populating the silver screen, video shelves, and streaming queues, it's still a pleasant surprise to have two noteworthy examples arriving the same year. That’s exactly what happened in 1999 when M. Night Shyamalan's The Sixth Sense and David Koepp's Stir of Echoes hit theaters within a month of each other.

TWILIGHT ZONE: THE MOVIE (1983) TURNS 40!!!

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Tonight we’re going to be entering a dimension of sight, of sound, of mind, as we cross over into The Twilight Zone. From 1959 to 1964, Rod Serling’s groundbreaking anthology television series held sway over the airwaves, dazzling viewers with an array of supernatural morality tales, often served up with a wingding twist ending.

TRILOGY OF TERROR (1975) Blu-ray Review

Scare-A-Thon Totals to Date:

Total Movies Watched: 31
Total First Time Views: 16
Amount raised for AMAZON WATCH: $2,565.56

Trilogy of Terror (1975) d. Dan Curtis (USA) (72 min) (2nd viewing)

Producer/director Dan Curtis was already a legend in 1975, having created the legendary vampire soap opera Dark Shadows, as well as The Night Stalker, the highest-rated made-for-television movie released at the time, and well-received adaptations of Dracula and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (both starring Jack Palance). So when he hired Richard Matheson, already a well-regarded entity in both television and film, with numerous Twilight Zone credits to his name, among others, to adapt three stories, it seemed like a can’t-miss proposition. (William F. Nolan was eventually recruited to adapt the first two tales, while Matheson handled the concluding chapter, “Amelia,” based on the short story “Prey.”)

THE DEVIL RIDES OUT (1968) Blu-ray Review

Scare-A-Thon Totals to Date:

Total Movies Watched: 20
Total First Time Views: 9
Amount raised for AMAZON WATCH: $1,595.20

The Devil Rides Out (aka The Devil's Bride) (1968) d. Terence Fisher (UK) (95 min) (3rd viewing)

The debonair Duc de Richleau (Christopher Lee) has been entrusted with the care of his deceased friend's son, Simon Aron (Patrick Mower). The Duc discovers that the young man has been seduced into joining a satanic cult headed by the diabolic Mocata (Charles Gray), who is intent on making Simon and the lovely Tanith Carlisle (Nike Arrighi) card-carrying disciples of the Devil. Having rescued Simon from a bloodied ritual with the aid of his friend Rex (Leon Greene), de Richleau is pursued by Mocata, who will stop at nothing to destroy the Duc and his friends, even summoning the Angel of Death itself.

THE COMEDY OF TERRORS (1963) Blu-ray review

The Comedy of Terrors (1963) d. Jacques Tourneur (USA)

After the success of The Raven, AIP attempted to tap the comic vein a second time but with decidedly diminished returns, both artistically and financially. The premise of a funeral home recycling its one coffin and occasionally helping the town’s populace into them is an amusingly dark one, but despite its terrific veteran cast, the comedy feels much more forced and mean-spirited, with Price’s tyrannical drunken lout snarking at underling Lorre and wife Joyce Jameson (who had memorably appeared opposite the two stars in “The Black Cat” episode of that year’s Tales of Terror).

THE LAST MAN ON EARTH (1964) Blu-ray review

The Last Man on Earth (1964) d. Ubaldo Ragona / Sidney Salkow (Italy/USA)

“Another day to live through. Better get started.” From its opening shots of barren city landscapes littered with lifeless corpses to its bleak conclusion, the first screen version of Richard Matheson’s novel I am Legend is a downer all the way. But considering the subject matter, this is no surprise, and director Ragona (with additional material inserted by Salkow for its U.S. run) is to be lauded for remaining true to Matheson’s apocalyptic spirit.

THE LEGEND OF HELL HOUSE (1973) Blu-ray Review

Legend of Hell House, The (1973) d. John Hough (UK)

In the pantheon of top-notch haunted house movies, this fine, moody offering ranks just below Robert Wise’s outstanding The Haunting, to which it owes a great debt. The familiar premise concerns a team of spiritual sleuths – a scientist, his wife, and two mediums – assigned to investigate Belasco House (aka “Hell House”) to prove (or disprove) the notion of life after death. However, unlike the ambiguity of Shirley Jackson’s story or the subsequent 1963 film version, Richard Matheson’s screenplay (adapted from his 1971 novel Hell House) elects to make the existence of the malevolent presence within the so-called “Mount Everest of haunted houses” undeniably explicit. According to Matheson, his personal dictate was “I’m going to do a haunted house story where you damn well know it’s haunted and there’s no question in your mind.”

BURN WITCH BURN (1962) movie review

Burn, Witch, Burn (aka Night of the Eagle) (1962) d. Sidney Hayers (UK)

Terrific screen version of Fritz Lieber’s novel Conjure Wife (first seen as the 1944 Lon Chaney vehicle Weird Woman and then remade in 1980 as the little-seen Witches’ Brew), adapted with verve by the dream team of Richard Matheson and Charles Beaumont. Peter Wyngarde stars as a professor who seems to lead a charmed life, only to find out that he does . . . literally. Seems his beautiful bride (Janet Blair) does a little dabbling in the magical arts, and when practical hubby finds out and demands she dispense with her tools of hoodoo, his luck changes and not for the good.

TRILOGY OF TERROR II (1996) movie review

Trilogy of Terror II (1996) d. Dan Curtis (USA)

After terrorizing a generation in the 70s with his spooky television output, producer/director Curtis revisited his roots first via a reboot of his cult soap opera Dark Shadows in 1991, followed by this sequel to the celebrated 1975 anthology TV-movie starring Karen Black. In the original version, Black played the lead character in all three segments; here, Lysette Anthony (who had played Shadows’ Angelique for Curtis) takes up the mantle, switching up hairstyles and accents for a trio of enjoyable horror yarns that very nearly match the entertainment value of its predecessor.