Friday, February 26, 2016

Black Sunday(1960)


Director: Mario Bava
Rating: Unrated

A woman and her lover are executed for witchcraft, and before she dies she lays a curse on the family of her killers. 200 years later, she comes back for her revenge as promised. 

The movie stars Barbara Steele as Katia and Asia, John Richardson as Andre, and Andrea Checchi as Thomas. 

"Black Sunday" is a beautifully filmed Italian gothic horror movie with a great atmosphere and score to add to the intensity. While it runs dry at times, scenes like the ending make it a very watchable film. The blood and violence were quite brutal for the time, foreshadowing how unrelenting the Italians of the genre have been since. I really liked Barbara Steele in the movie(as I usually do), because she can go from being calm to scary in the blink of an eye. 

"Black Sunday" is an important film of horror history, and it is definitely worth a watch for its style and notability. While it's not one of my all time favorites, it is definitely recommendable.

Grade: 7/10

Sunday, February 21, 2016

The Gore Gore Girls(1972)


Director: Herschell Gordon Lewis
Rating: Unrated

A reporter investigates the mysterious and heinous murders of dancers from a club in his town. Along the way, he is helped by employees of the club, old friends, and new acquaintances. 

The film stars Frank Kress as Abraham, Amy Farrell as Nancy, Hedda Lubin as Marlene, and Russ Badger as Lt. Anderson. 

I have been watching "The Wizard of Gore" for a while now, and while I love the movie, there are many flaws that throw me off. While "The Gore Gore Girls" is not a cinematic masterpiece, all of the problems from the previous film were fixed. While "Wizard of Gore" felt like gore with a plot, "The Gore Gore Girls" felt more like a good movie with some awesome gore. The plot was interesting, the characters had personality and memorability(even though the acting was nothing high class), the gore was out of this world and very creative in the ways it was used, the overall atmosphere was very cool and appropriate to the story, and the mystery and revealing of the murderer both had me very surprised. To top everything off, this movie was both intentionally and unintentionally hilarious to the point that I was laughing my head off 90% of the time. I was extremely impressed by how much this film improved upon "Wizard of Gore," because this was a much more entertaining and lively project in Lewis' catalog. 

Any lovers of B-Horror flicks will go crazy about how awesome "The Gore Gore Girls" is. The genre doesn't get much better than it. It is an outrageous, hilarious, and entertaining movie that kept me occupied the entire time. I highly recommend. 

Grade on a B-Movie Scale: 9.5/10(An excellent low budget horror film). 



Friday, February 19, 2016

Dominique(1979)


Director: Michael Anderson
Rating: PG

A greedy man drives his wife to suicide to acquire money from her will, and the plan comes back at him negatively when her spirit haunts him. 

The movie stars Cliff Robertson as David Ballard, Jean Simmons as Dominique Ballard, Jenny Agutter as Anne Ballard, and Simon Ward as Tony Calvert. 

"Dominique" is a slow burn, but there is a very strong and chilling atmosphere that keeps the viewer interested. The lighting, music, and camera angles all showed technical proficiency, because they were perfect for the moments of terror in the film. While the dialogue, writing, and acting are only mediocre, this doesn't make the film less enjoyable, because it is still interesting and thrilling. The ending was a humongous twist that I hadn't expected, and heightened my opinion of the movie greatly. 

"Dominique" is not a masterpiece in horror, but it is definitely worth a watch for lovers of B-movies. It is thrilling, technically beautiful, and an overall cool movie. 

Grade: 6.5/10(pretty good B-movie).

Fangs of the Living Dead(1969)