TASTE OF FEAR (aka SCREAM OF FEAR) (1961) Movie Review

Taste of Fear (aka Scream of Fear) (1961) d. Seth Holt (UK) (81 min)

Following the recent death (by drowning) of her boarding school friend Maggie, wheelchair-bound Penny Appleby (Susan Strasberg) is beckoned to her estranged father’s seaside home in the south of France. After being literally picked up by the family chauffeur Robert (Ronald Lewis), she is informed by her stepmother Jane (Ann Todd) that despite the fact that her father has been suddenly called away on business, Penny is invited to consider this her new home. That night, Penny investigates a mysterious light in the summer house and sees what she believes to be her father’s corpse; in her hasty retreat, she falls into the adjoining swimming pool and is rescued by Robert. The cordial but stern Dr. Gerrard (Christopher Lee) quells her fears, telling her it must simply have been “a case of nerves,” but this marks only the first of Penny’s encounters with her pater’s inanimate form popping up in the most unlikely of places. It’s the kind of thing that could drive a person mad… and out of her inheritance.

THE MANITOU (1978) Blu-ray review

The Manitou (1978) d. William Girdler (USA) (85 min)

What medical experts originally believe to be a tumor on the neck of patient Karen Tandy (Susan Strasberg) proves to be a fetus growing at an abnormally accelerated rate. She reaches out to former lover and phony psychic Harry Erskine (Tony Curtis) for help, but when attempts at conventional surgery go horribly awry, it is revealed that Karen’s nervous system is now possessed by the spirit of a 400-year-old Native American demon named Misquamacus who is ready to be reborn!

BLOODY BIRTHDAY (1981) Blu-ray Review

Bloody Birthday (1981) d. Ed Hunt (USA)

Gun-for-hire Hunt, who scripted alongside Barry Pearson, whipped up this fanciful tale of three children born during a solar eclipse on June 9, 1970, in the sleepy burg of Meadowvale, CA. Trouble is, at least according to our astrology-loving heroine Joyce (Lori Lethin), the sun and moon were also in the path of Saturn (which governs human emotions), leaving our diminutive trio devoid of any sense of morality. Now, just before their shared 10th birthday, they’ve begun strangling, shooting, and shoveling amorous teens in vans and cemeteries and bumping off town elders one by one. (Wait, why’d they wait until now to exhibit murderous tendencies? Oh, never mind.)