HAPPY BIRTHDAY, PETER! (CUSHING CURIOSITIES BOX SET)

CONE OF SILENCE (1960) d. Charles Frend (UK)
SUSPECT (1960) d. The Boulting Brothers (UK)
THE MAN WHO FINALLY DIED (1962) d. Quentin Lawrence (UK)
SHERLOCK HOLMES (1968) d. Various (UK)
BLOOD SUCKERS (1971) d. Robert Hartford-Davis (UK)
TENDER DRACULA (1974) d. Pierre Grunstein (France)

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Welcome to Episode #18 of THE STACK!!

Tonight we celebrate Peter Cushing's 111th birthday in style with Severin Films' extraordinary box set of five feature films and the six remaining episodes of the BBC's production of Sherlock Holmes.

EYES OF FIRE (1983) - A FOLK HORROR GEM

EYES OF FIRE (1983) d. Avery Crounse (USA)

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When celebrated photographer Avery Crounse set out to make his feature film debut, he didn’t opt for the simple route of an escaped psycho wielding a butcher knife like so many of his early ‘80s contemporaries. Eyes of Fire (1983) is instead an epic venture into the realm of magical realism, following a pair of families in 1750 on the run from their Puritanical community’s torches and pitchforks. As they escape into the wilds of the American Frontier, they encounter not only justifiably hostile Native Americans defending their territory, but also tree demons and tortured spirits bent on taking their lives, stealing their souls, or worse.

DON'T GO IN THE HOUSE (1980) Blu-ray Review

Don’t Go in the House (1980) d. Joseph Ellison (USA) (92 min)

Lonely misfit city worker Donny Kohler (Dan Grimaldi) suffers the one-two punch of witnessing a co-worker engulfed in flame after an aerosol can explodes in the incinerator and then coming home to discover his overbearing mother has kicked the bucket sitting in her easy chair. This pair of traumatizing events apparently fry the last circuit in Donny’s brain, because he immediately starts hearing disembodied voices, instructing him to remedy the “evil” in the world, which he interprets as “build a steel-plated furnace room in the basement, purchase an asbestos fire suit and flamethrower, and start luring unsuspecting females into your new DIY BBQ palace.”

VIOLENCE IN A WOMEN'S PRISON (1982)

Scare-A-Thon Totals to Date:

Total Movies Watched: 26
Total First Time Views:14
Amount raised for BOXVILLE: $2,140.32

Violence in a Women’s Prison (1982) d. Bruno Mattei (as Vincent Dawn) (Italy) (90 min) (1st viewing)

Convicted sex worker Laura Kendall (Laura Gemser) is sentenced to serve out her time at a remote penitentiary far from the prying eyes of good taste and housekeeping. Packed to the rafters with sadistic jackbooted watchdogs and overseen by the sneering warden (Lorraine De Selle) and her second-in-command Rescaut (Franca Stoppi), both depraved sexual deviants, Laura must create alliances with whomever she can if she is to survive her horrifying ordeal.

QUEEN OF BLOOD (2014) Blu-ray Review

SCARE-A-THON Totals to Date: 

Total Movies Watched: 20 

Total First Time Views: 12 

Amount raised for BOXVILLE: $1,446.40 

Queen of Blood (2014) d. Chris Alexander (USA) (77 min) (1st viewing)

A semi-sequel of sorts to writer/director Alexander’s 2012 offering, Blood for Irina, with our titular undead (Shauna Henry) relocated from her previous urban environs to a mystical wooded glade. Based on the period clothing and rustic setting, one might even consider it a prequel except for the fact that it seems to exist in a no-time world where even speech is out of fashion. Yes, it’s a silent, independent, art-house, vampire flick intended as much a tribute to Werner Herzog and Terence Malick (in terms of pacing and attention to the natural surroundings) as it is to the films of Jean Rollin or Jess Franco.

KNIFE OF ICE (1972) Blu-ray Review

SCARE-A-THON Totals to Date:

Total Movies Watched: 13
Total First Time Views: 7
Amount raised for BOXVILLE: $927.16

Knife of Ice (1972) d. Umberto Lenzi (Italy/Spain) (91 min) (1st viewing)

After her parents are killed in a horrific train accident, young Martha Caldwell is rendered mute from the shock. Decades later, Martha (Carroll Baker) resides with her protective uncle Ralph (George Rigaud) at his Spanish villa, still unable to speak but enjoying a relatively normal if sheltered life. When her cousin Jenny (Evelyn Stewart) shows up for a visit, the family is targeted by a black-gloved sex maniac who may also be a member of a Satanic cult. With the body count rising along with the number of suspects, Martha and the police attempt to uncover the killer’s identity before it’s too late.

HORRORS OF SPIDER ISLAND (1960) Blu-ray Review

SCARE-A-THON Totals to Date:

Total Movies Watched: 10
Total First Time Views: 6
Amount raised for BOXVILLE: $668.20

Horrors of Spider Island (1960) d. Fritz Bottger (West Germany) (84 min) (1st viewing)

Hotshot producer Gary Webster (Alexander D’Arcy) and his assistant Georgia (Helga Franck) assemble a cast of seven dancers to, ahem, flesh out the ensemble of a cabaret act in Singapore. When mechanical mishaps send their plane into the ocean, the hapless band paddles for hours until they come across a seemingly deserted tropical island; upon arrival they discover an abandoned shack – except for the corpse hanging in a gigantic spider’s web, that is! Having cleared away that unsightly mess, the ladies make themselves at home while Gary wanders off and gets himself bit by one of the oversized arachnids, transforming into a hideous three-toothed monster with an insatiable thirst for scantily clad females.

CRUEL JAWS (1995) Blu-ray Review

SCARE-A-THON Totals to Date:

Total Movies Watched: 4
Total First Time Views: 3
Amount raised for BOXVILLE: $232.20

Cruel Jaws (1995) d. Bruno Mattei (as William Snyder) (Italy) (93 min) (1st viewing)

Released in some countries as Jaws 5, this decades-late Italian copycat doesn’t even bother to shoot any original shark menace footage for its action scenes. Instead, it nabs footage from countrymen Joe D’Amato (Deep Blood) and Enzo G. Castellari (The Last Shark), as well as going right to Steven Spielberg’s 1975 classic well itself for underwater swimming and munching footage. But that’s not all director Mattei (Robowar, Night Killer, The Other Hell) “borrows” – there are direct character and plot references to Jaws, Jaws 2, Jaws 3, as well as the regatta race from The Last Shark.

THE BLOOD DRINKERS (1964) Blu-ray Review

SCARE-A-THON Totals to Date:

Total Movies Watched: 3
Total First Time Views: 2
Amount raised for BOXVILLE: $156.33

The Blood Drinkers (1964) d. Gerardo de Leon (Philippines) (88 min) (1st viewing)

After the suave and smooth-pated Dr. Marco (Ronald Remy) shows up under cover of night at a small village with his small entourage in tow, he installs himself at the local crypt on the outside of town. Seems the not-so-good doctor is of the vampiric stripe, and has arrived with his ailing bride Katrina (Amalia Fuentes) and her mother (Mary Walter) in order to procure the heart of Katrina’s twin sister Charita… literally. Yep, following several blood transfusions courtesy of some involuntary donors, Marco plans to perform a straight-up organ transplant and put his lady love to rights. Needless to say, Charita is not wild about this plan, nor is her boyfriend Victor (Eddie Fernandez), and the two of them fall in with an aged priest who possesses knowledge of how to contend with such supernatural surgeons.

 

THE BEAST MUST DIE (1974) Blu-ray Review

The Beast Must Die (1974) d. Paul Annett (UK) (92 min)

Combining elements of Richard Connell's The Most Dangerous Game and Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None, James Blish’s short story “There Shall Be No Darkness” is given an blaxploitation horror twist when eccentric millionaire Tom Newcliffe (Calvin Lockhart) invites eight diverse individuals to his island estate for a weekend of hunting… without telling them that they are the quarry in question. Our intrepid adventurer has it in his head that one of his guests is a lycanthrope and is eager to face the supernatural foe face to snarling face. As the hours click by and the moon waxes full, suspects become victims, the game is afoot, and the question on everyone’s lips is, “Who Is The Werewolf?”

THE ASTROLOGER (1977) Blu-ray Review

The Astrologer (1977) d. James Glickenhaus (USA) (79 min)

The deep Deep DEEP undercover U.S. government organization Interzod, run by Dr. Alexei Abernal (Bob Byrd), specializes in tracking individuals’ life and career paths based upon their astrological birth coordinates. (Aren’t you glad you know where your tax dollars are going?) On the other side of the globe in India, the mystical leader Kajerste (Mark Buntzman) has been captured by the government and placed under arrest, but his captors are unprepared for his overwhelming hypnotic powers and he quickly escapes back to his cadre of devout followers. What do these two have in common? Both are searching for the exact time and location of the Virgin Mary’s birth, hoping that if another person’s zodiacal potential were to coincide, the outcome would be the Second Coming of Christ. Judging by the way Abernal is keeping a close eye on Kate (Monica Tidwell), to the point of wedding her but refusing to consummate the marriage, it’s pretty clear who he’s putting his money on.

KILLER CROCODILE (1989) Blu-ray Review

Killer Crocodile (1989) d. Fabrizio De Angelis (as Larry Ludman) (Italy) (94 min)

When a group of attractive young environmentalists descend upon an idyllic tropical island community looking for evidence of illegal nuclear waste disposal, they find themselves not only at odds with the corrupt local officials but with an enormous toothy behemoth lurking beneath the surface! Operating by the 1950s sci-fi horror playbook, it seems that the titular menace has contracted a nasty case of gigantism from exposure to the radioactive leakage, with an appetite to match. The idealistic outsiders recognize that Nature and Science have created the perfect killing machine, but the debate as to whether it should be captured for posterity or extinguished for the greater public good becomes a moot point after several of their party are munched into extinction themselves. Now they must join forces with island’s resident Great White Hunter Joe (Ennio Girolami) to stop the leathery lunatic in its short, stubby tracks.

SUFFER LITTLE CHILDREN (1983) DVD Review

Scare-A-Thon Totals to Date:

Total Movies Watched: 9
Total First Time Views: 3
Amount raised for AMAZON WATCH: $640.53

Suffer Little Children (1983) d. Alan Briggs (UK) (75 min) (2nd viewing)

A London orphanage run by Jenny (Ginny Rose) and Maurice (Colin Chamberlain) inherits a brand new resident when the mute Elizabeth (Nicola Diana) shows up on their doorstep the very same that rock star Mick Philips (Jon Hollanz) returns to his childhood sanctuary to perform a benefit concert. As the Bad Movie Fates would have it, our new tyke is a bona-fide disciple of The Dark One and soon brings others under her sinister spell. Before you can say “swimming pool incident,” kids and adults are falling down staircases, stabbing themselves and others, and just making a general Satanic nuisance of themselves.

NIGHT KILLER (1990) Blu-ray Review

Night Killer (1990) d. Claudio Fragasso (as Clyde Anderson) (Italy) (93 min)

A rubber-masked serial killer starts working his way through the unsuspecting inhabitants of Virginia Beach, VA – and I do mean THROUGH, as in he punches holes through their torsos using a Freddy Krueger-type taloned glove – until he comes to beautiful, frustrated, and recently separated mother Melanie Beck (Tara Buckman) who he subjects to an hours-long ordeal from which she escapes alive but traumatized to the point of amnesia. Suicidal and emotionally distraught, she is subsequently stalked by a stranger (Peter Hooten) who stops her from killing herself on the beach, but then kidnaps her and forces to play kinky sexual games in a secluded hotel room. Meanwhile the murders continue unabated – are they being committed by the same person holding Melanie captive and will she recover her memory in time to identify the killer?

ROBOWAR (1988) Blu-ray Review

Robowar (1988) d. Bruno Mattei (as Vincent Dawn) (Italy) (92 min)

After a platoon goes missing, Major Murphy Black’s (Reb Brown) elite team of mercenaries is sent into the bush to learn what happened and rescue any survivors, with company man Mascher (Mel Davidson) in tow. What they discover is a slaughterhouse of carnage, carried out by a high-tech android whose mission is to search and destroy all human targets with extreme prejudice. After locating a single survivor (Catherine Hickland) from a humanitarian group, Black’s team is slowly picked off one by one, their every move anticipated by the advanced cyber-warrior. Ultimately, it will be Man vs. Machine in a Mano a Mano of Mayhem!

THE BEAST IN HEAT (1977) Blu-ray Review

The Beast in Heat (aka SS Hell Camp) (1977) d. Luigi Batzella (as Ivan Kathansky) (Italy) (88 min)

Clearly inspired by Don Edmonds’ Ilsa: She-Wolf of the SS, writer/director Batzella (with help from screenwriter Lorenzo Artale) stitches together a gruesome tale of an unscrupulous and uncommonly busty Nazi doctor (Macha Magall) performing rather ill-defined experiments that involve torturing female POWs with electricity, guinea pigs disguised as rats, or, worst of all, having them sexually devoured by a caged, hairy, barely-human monster (played with great enthusiasm by Italian strongman Sal Boris).

DEATH WARMED UP (1984) Blu-ray Review

Death Warmed Up (1984) d. David Blyth (New Zealand) (80 min)

Using experimental mind-controlling drugs, Dr. Archer Howell (Gary Day) diabolically murders his partner (David Weatherly) and his wife (Tina Grenville) by turning their son Michael (Michael Hurst) into a homicidal, shotgun-packing zombie. Arrested and institutionalized for seven years, Michael is finally released back into society, and he’s not the happiest camper on the block. With his unwitting girlfriend Sandy (Margaret Umbers) and pals Lucas and Jeannie (William Upjohn, Norelle Scott) in tow, he plans a weekend getaway as an excuse to track down Howell on Trans Cranial Applications' secluded island hideaway and exact a long-overdue revenge….

THE TORTURE CHAMBER OF DR. SADISM (1967) Blu-ray Review

The Torture Chamber of Dr. Sadism (1967) d. Harald Reinl (Germany) (83 min)

Sumptuously lensed German feature (aka Castle of the Walking Dead, Blood of the Virgins, and The Blood Demon, among others) that elicits favorable comparisons to the work of Mario Bava or Roger Corman’s AIPoe series with its colorful, occasionally avant-garde imagery. Christopher Lee assays the role of the sadistic Count Regula who, found guilty of the ritualized murder of 12 virgins, is condemned to death, swearing vengeance upon his judges before having a spiked gold mask smashed onto his face. (Hello, Black Sunday.) Regula’s prophecy seems to come true 35 years later after Roger Von Marienberg, a descendant of the head magistrate (both played by former Tarzan Lex Barker), arrives in town to claim his inheritance: a neglected castle filled with (wouldn’t you know it?) torture devices.

THE UNCANNY (1977) Blu-ray Review

The Uncanny (1977) d. Denis Heroux (Canada/UK) (89 min)

From the producing team of Milton Subotsky (purveyor of those awesome early ’70s Amicus anthologies) and Claude Heroux (the man behind such Canuck-horror efforts as Visiting Hours and Of Unknown Origin, as well as David Cronenberg’s The Brood, Scanners, and Videodrome) comes a tolerable triptych of terror tales… or should we say tails? Frantic scribbler Wilbur (Peter Cushing) appears at the door of publisher Frank Richard (Ray Milland) with his latest literary effort: a treatise on how the world is secretly ruled by – wait for it – cats. Yup, Wilbur is convinced that the felines are running the show, and proceeds to unspool several yarns (or balls thereof) as “evidence,” all of which are entertaining enough but without exception overstay their welcome.

SKINNER (1993) Blu-ray review

Skinner (1993) d. Ivan Nagy (USA) (88 min)

“He’ll get under your skin!” So goes the tagline for this twisted little slice of serial killer madness, with an Ed Gein-inspired drifter Dennis Skinner (Ted Raimi) moving into the spare room of lonely young housewife Kerry (Ricki Lake) and her boorish truck driver husband Geoff (David Warshofsky). Dennis spends his days stalking the streets of L.A., picking up streetwalkers and separating them from their hides (visualized in graphic fashion by the goremeisters at KNB) and nights endearing himself to the neglected lady of the house. But unbeknownst to anyone except the manager of the sleazy hotel across town (David Schiff), a mysterious, trenchcoat-wearing blonde named Heidi (Traci Lords) has her eye on the freaky bladeslinger, her horribly scarred body a witness to his savagery and the whetstone for her revenge.