Frankenstein Unbound

Oh my dear God. Where do I even start?

Well first things first thank you James from Cinemassacre for showcasing this on a Monster Madness and bringing it to my attention, second thank you Roger for going out on the most spectacularly batshit story possible for your final directing credit, so let's just do this. I wish, oh how I wish a movie would be made like this today. You know how fucking uppity people get in their tightwad asses about staying true to a book's source material these days? Their heads would explode in Lovecraftian insanity if they watched this movie, literal brains turn to soup and their heads would explode Scanners style, no question. I'm not even sure where to begin here but we'll try. So the year is 2031 (boy I can't wait to see that) with John Hurt as a scientist named Joe who developed a machine to implode matter however the experiments cause timeslips to occur and before you can say "I may have gone too far in a few places" he finds himself in 19th century Geneva. And that's only the start of the weirdness. So he meets Victor Frankenstein, then meets the fabled monster, then meets Mary Shelley and her entourage at the Villa Diodati (no Cyberman this time sadly), then somehow gets looped in the section of the novel where Victor creates a mate for the monster, as he tries to get, say it with me now, back to the future. Now Roger co-wrote, co-produced, and directed so to say he had his hand in this would be an understatement. I'm just completely speechless guys. I will give thanks and appreciation for the fact that despite the fish out of water trope Joe honestly rolls with this shit pretty quick and being an educated man knows the history of these famous literary people and the story of Frankenstein, no need for any floundering about for 30 minutes wondering what is going on. That's for after the movie ends. And to follow the more understandable concepts, the prodiction is honestly pretty friggin' good! It's practically a period piece with lots of costumes, real life settings and architecture filmed judging from the crew credits in Italy, and the special effects range from pure cheese to pretty decent when it comes to gore. Now when I heard Raul was going to play Victor I was psyched even knowing this was a film made during the very late stages of his life unfortunately, and sadly we only get bits and pieces of him until roughly the last 30 minutes where he becomes prominent yet the acting even in that case is stellar. He's already off the deep end at this point when we meet him and seeing this morally bankrupt, deranged, anything for science attitude does still give him a lot to play with and regardless is a highlight. John Hurt love that guy to death probably plays the most laidback and dare I say disruptful scientist not just in terms of creation but just slapping the space-time continuum like it owes him money, yet again it's kind of a testament to these guys acting ability facing this frankly preposterous off the wall material with a straight face that must be admired. Joe doesn't come alone either, getting sucked away into the bleeding time vortex with a car that I can only accurately describe as if the DeLorean and KITT from Knight Rider had a daughter, and he is the most blasè son of a bitch I have ever seen showing it off to anybody, uses it to prove Mary Shelley he is indeed from the future, also shows Victor just for yucks I guess, and is the reason he gets back to....some period of time I don't know which. That whole non-intervention thing you see in every time travel story practically gets taken out back and sodomized with a double barrel shotgun, personified perfectly with Joe flat out banging Mary Shelley. Oh yeah that happens. Do you see what I mean with my opening remark? This might be the biggest fuck you movie to anybody who pays attention to source material, and I kinda love it for that. I don't think anyone has the balls to make a movie on a book and pay barely any heed to it at all in this day and age, but not in a we decided to take a few liberties kind of way and more like I did four lines of cocaine and I just wrote unicorns conquered the moon kind of way. Hell the only slight I genuinely have against the movie is the editing, it's kinda off and feels slapdash in a good few instances and maybe some less than believable ADR work. But other than that, this is fine by me! What did you expect from the asshole who reviewed Frankenhooker? This is a special kind of nuts movie but it's entertaining, I see the craftsmanship to it production wise, I'd rather see something like this than just another plain jane adaptation of the book personally speaking. It has no reservations, it wholeheartedly does it's own thing consequences be damned, and I feel that's very telling of me who I am as a person so simply take it for what it is. Watch it, just give it a go, and make judgements later. 3 stars, 7/10 from me, I need to decompress from this so I will see y'all next week.

The Man With X-Ray Eyes

Not as existential as I thought it would be but still pretty good.

This was one of Roger's more ambitious films with a budget around $300,000 dollars with a large emphasis on optical effects and experimental cinematography, following the experiment of a Dr. Xavier who develops a drug to enhance the human eye. Of course nobody would test it but himself as we watch his spiral downwards from skilled doctor, to carnival attraction, to card shark with an appropriately eerie ending. For a film at about 80 minutes long it doesn't take long for the experiment to occur and it certainly kept me guessing until the absolute end where it would go, and I feel in my bones this is a plot that could be expanded upon in a much more existential and horrific way but the touches we do get while understated are still unsettling. Imagine never having the respite of closing your eyes, imagine light being unbearably painful, imagine seeking peace when none will come to escape the far reaching gaze that pierces cloud, shadow, earth, and flesh. That's a different kind of horror, not quite body horror, not quite cosmic horror, but something people would not want to experience. The movie is carried exceptionally well on the back of Ray Milland as James Xavier, it's almost a performance based on his voice alone which is fantastic by the by, because it's hard to express the scope of such an unnatural power in the eye of the beholder but you can hear the pain and desperation he has. The experimental liquid is akin to a narcotic with him taking more and more culminating in a broken and dazed monologue at the end. I heard he wasn't keen on this movie but he performs very admirably! Diana Van der Vlis plays Diane another doctor brought in to explore the validity of the experiment and I have to give credit that no romance was written in, she's a colleague and a friend to this doomed man who tries to talk reason into him, though not a prominent part she plays it nicely. A surprise appearance by the great comedian and ball buster extraordinaire Don Rickles appears as the carnival manager Crane and my God is he great at playing this money grubbing scoundrel, again not around for very long but adds a unique element to the story and I gotta admit was great to see. The early 60s production gives a nice flair from time to time with set design, costuming, and dance moves but the beauty of the story is it really could be set during any time but the time capsule element is cool. The special effects are really damn interesting, seen entirely from the point of view of James with muddled colors, cross dissolves to see the interior working of man and machine, the choice of contact lenses for Ray, it comes together very dang well for my money. And for a person who has a substantial fear of unearthly eyes I'm happy it didn't freak me out too much but that doesn't mean eyes can't be a fair bit scary still. It's pretty impressive what Roger and the crew accomplished with such a budget during shooting and in post production, but Roger was a wild card in the deck of filmmakers that really did stuff his own way and was cost effective at doing so. It's not one of his most well known movies but it's a neat story that people can enjoy. 3 stars, 7.5/10 from me, and we got one more directorial effort from the great man himself before the week is out so stay tuned.

It Conquered The World

Damn I miss you Roger.

No way I couldn't have a little week dedicated to Roger Corman and no better place to start than a good old fashioned B-movie! Shot in a whopping 5 days this classic staple of goofy monster movie history follows a crashed alien craft with it's pilot slowly conquering...a town and not so much the Earth (hey man they had to get butts in seats somehow) with the help of a resident scientist leading to the military and the scientist's friend to stop the menace. It bears some similarities to Invasion Of The Body Snatchers which coincidentally came out the same year of 1956, and though it's far from air tight in terms of plot and it's absolutely one of those movies where you don't fully see the monster until pretty much the end I gotta admit I didn't hate it! I got involved in the story with the humans and can kinda applaud it for taking some dark cold moments from time to time. The acting is solid across the board, a lot of love was heaped upon Beverly Garland as the evil scientist's wife Claire who is far from a fainting worthless woman, in fact though it would have made the movie only about an hour she has the balls to go charging into the alien's lair with a rifle to take care of business and that is fucking awesome. Best known from shows like Mission Impossible and the host of A&E Biography along with movies such as Airplane, Peter Graves is a pretty solid yet basic lead as Paul. I'm not expecting deep writing in a monster movie but he gets the job done and has a real strong voice that I like listening to. Lee Van Cleef the legend himself plays the baddie Tom and he probably has the best written material viewing the invader as a benefactor and cure to all man's problems even fully knowing it takes over people's minds and has less than altruistic motives leading to many conversations about it. Also shoutout to Dick Miller as one of the army officers, it's always kick ass to see him in any movie whether in a major or minor role! A line that struck me hard in this movie is from Paul during one of the discussions of the wrongs the alien would put to right, "I'd have to take a long hard look at anything that was gonna change the world and me so completely." and man! That needs to circulate majorly in this day and age! Some may point to it as just a cheesy sci-fi movie but I think there's more to it, and it's not an incompetently made film either! The dialogue is good, the setting is basic but has logic, the production values of the sets are believable, and even the alien himself though slightly funny is without doubt a memorable design. Hailing from the planet Venus this red crab-like monster was laughed at even on set with particular shade being thrown from Beverly Garland, and yeah it's not that major a threat or anything but it has charm to it like any rubber suit monster has. Is it a forgotten classic? No. Is it atypical of the 50s B-movie? Yeah. But for a small budget and a run time of barely over an hour it isn't a waste. It's a sure fire recommendation if you're having a 50s monster movie night and you like them on the cheaper side. I give it 2.5 stars, 6.5/10!

The Masque Of The Red Death

What a pick for Friday the 13th. Sometimes my genius it's...it's almost frightening.

A fairly strong point to end the week on as well, I greatly enjoyed this movie. And huzzah, I've actually read the source material on this and while admittedly it is a loose adaptation it gets the gist well enough. Set during the dark ages a cruel and heinous prince named Prospero holds a lengthy and degenerate feast and masque, while the countryside is being plagued by a terrible disease where he takes a young woman named Francesca, her lover Gino, and her father Ludivico for the purposes of "entertainment". They make some big changes though, originally the prince set up the ball to distract from thr horrors of pestilence and disease sealing himself and his court in the castle while here the prince is a straight up satanist and revels in the showing of such impure and fiendish behaviors to the innocent Francesca. Vincent Price is a bastard in this movie, he plays it really well but Prospero is beyond horrible and makes a great villain who essentially is our main character to the end. Jane Asher as Francesca is just a poor girl who gets whisked away and has to keep her faith while Prospero either tries to convert her or sacrifice her, it can be read either way, and you want to see her get the hell out of this damned castle. There's a fairly bigger cast than previous Corman films but I want to give some major love to John Westbrook who plays the eponymous Red Death, the look alone is incredibly simplistic and yet so classic and striking but his voice is outstanding, understanding the value that truly powerful and menacing figures need not even raise their voice. Speaking of striking, the color is unreal in this movie, I'm not sure what the technicals were but they used a good deal of saturation and had no issue using a wide palette. They used the imagery of rooms with various hues, why? Color. They use candles of green and blue, why? Colour. You see many personifications of death in a kaleidoscopic fashion, why? Couleur. It's a spectacle practically of seeing so many extras in various regalia merrymaking, but it doesn't lose it's horror basis. Just seeing acts of cruelty being brushed off as a good or acceptable thing is disturbing enough, throw in devil worship, another weird dream scene bathed in blue, the literal specter of a gruesome and hellish death sweeping across the castle, even if you want to get all philospohical and see the juxtaposition of faith in God against Prospero's belief that war, plague, famine, and death rule the world with no good things to be found and that the belief in God is nothing short of a farce is pretty screwed up man. I almost fully believe this is a tale that could be remade today in all seriousness, maybe not with the backdrop of recent world events but...I'm not saying. I'm just saying. Look at this movie, look at today. Onwards we trek, so production values are surprisingly expansive, acting is solid, story is a classic, and I feel like a complete utter fool for not reviewing these way waaaaay earlier. I give it 4 stars, 9/10! Next week we're getting foreign, ooooh yeah!

The Raven

Not a traditional horror film per se, but this has been a favorite of mine and damn it I want to talk about it.

For the longest time this was the only Roger Corman Poe film I saw and I love it so, this ain't no objective film review so hunker down y'all as I spout off some opinions. This is also the loosest adaptation of any work of fiction I have ever seen, how do you make a feature film off of a short poem? The short answer, you don't. The long answer, you center the movie on magic wielding wizards consisting of Vincent Price as Erasmus who aids Peter Lorre as Dr. Bedlo who has been transformed into a raven by Boris Karloff as Dr. Scarabus, but Lorre wants revenge real bad so Vincent accompanies him to Karloff's castle where duels are challenged, dead wives return to life, and humor is peppered throughout. It is a really funny movie to me, that may throw people for a loop when most of the Corman movies of this time period are played straight and serious, but this was an intentional choice of the writers and works nicely. Now you don't get three of the biggest names in horror together in a film and say the acting is bad, Vincent is on a roll in this film from reciting the world famous poem, to the humor, to the magic wielding that would put Doctor Stephen Strange to shame, he's a 20/10. Boris Karloff nearing the end of his career has lost none of his ability, showing a lot of class and charisma while still being a good antagonist, and I'll level with you man the first lines he speaks do nothing but send shivers down my spine in a most eerie way. Peter Lorre while in actuality not as prolific in horror movie history as one might think is a welcome addition, delivering his rapid fire burning insults and wise ass remarks and while he is the lesser of the powers that be in this wizard triumvirate the movie would not be the same without him. For those in the know about Roger Corman's history, to see a very young Jack Nicholson before he got to super stardom is really neat to see even if he doesn't have that big of a role, and you see interviews of him being humbled to the point of tears in thanking Roger giving him a chance to act when no one else would and I have to express a lot of love and gratitude to him as well for getting so many people into movie making. I'm not a book critic by even a microscopic capacity but I recommend you read Corman's book, How I Made A Hundred Movies In Hollywood And Never Lost A Dime. Once again the sets and costuming are most impressive, and the effects while not exactly seamless have a strong charm all of it's own. And now comes the part where I say without a shred of irony or exaggeration, these wizard duels are better than anything Harry Potter ever gave us. No, I'm not kidding. No, I'm not taking it back. Don't @ me bitches! I adore it, there is creativity, humor, and ambition in how they did everything. I'll even push that envelope further and say 4 stars, 10/10! Watch it, buy it, love it. But we got one more to go before the week is out, until next time.

The Fall Of The House Of Usher

This has actually been on the list since it all began.

Several of the Roger Croman movies based on Edgar Allen Poe's works in fact, and this was the first and a pretty damn good one to start with. Now I haven't read the story, in fact it's a goal of mine to read all of Poe's work before the end, but it's an interesting story. A young man named Philip is visiting the estate of the Usher family to wed his fiancee Madeline and quickly is shut down by her brother Roderick, who claims the bloodline of the Usher family is wrought with terrible things and ailments, as Philip tries to escape the crumbling house with his lady friend. Once upon a time while I was still in high school we watched this film for our english class, but being as classes were barely an hour long I never fully saw the film until today and I was immediately loving it from the setting alone. For a film with not that large of a budget, the sets look incredible, the costumes are ornate, the atmosphere is simply to die for, and the use of color was not only a big step up for AIP but incredibly striking. Roger Corman had to convince the studio to give a bigger budget for a color film at that time, and he was an avid reader of the Poe stories since he was a kid so it was as much a passion project as well as a gamble but surprise surprise! This was the first of many movies Roger made from the stories of Poe and it was an immense success! And it's hard not to see why, you have a god tier level horror actor like Vincent Price delivering a very memorable performance, the moody sets and slow burn pace add a foreboding mood to an already foreboding story, the direction is effective, and it was made still during that special time when horror movies could be classic or modern. I don't really know why we don't see more movies like this today in the horror genre, everything has to be modern times or if they do go back it's primarily to the 80s, you never see a horror movie get victorian on your ass anymore and I feel that's a shame. How the movie just shows the house of Usher and the decrepit grounds is just beauty to my eyes, a lot of credit has to go to the set builders and cinematographer on this movie. I need not tell you Vincent Price is excellent in this role, it's a given, but how the character of Roderick genuinely believes there is nothing short of a curse on the family lineage can be felt quite easily and it is a striking performance. Mark Damon is a more conventional leading man but works nicely, Myrna Fahey has a bit more to work with and gets a moment to shine near the end, and Harry Ellerbe is a good ally character to Philip playing the manservant of the house. It's so difficult to describe, but when you watch the movie and you let the ambience and mood just wash over you, you absolutely buy it. Cause you know from the start something is off about the house and the people who live there, but even if you are a horror movie veteran you can't quite pin down what. And what's interesting is you could see this movie from two different angles, through science in terms of psychology as to why Roderick and Madeline are the way they are, or through a sheer supernatural lens and simply chalk it up to a haunted house or curse or whatever. It's an almost baffilingly effective film and it's a giant recommendation from me. It's almost a film that must be seen to be believed. 4 stars, I think I'm gonna give it a 9/10, and we got more Corman goodies to come.

Nightmares In Red White And Blue

What a day. What a lovely day!

YES!!! It's here, the most wonderful time of year! And what better occasion to actually talk about one of my favorite documentaries of all time, no joke I really do sit down and watch this at least once every single year. And I've seen really good documentaries on Friday The 13th, Nightmare On Elm Street, and I can't truly put my finger on why this one is such a instant classic for me. It follows the basic history of the horror genre from 1910 to 2009, seeing how the genre shaped and formed throughout each decade. I think the biggest reason I always come back to this is because of the guests, they really pulled all the stops cause you get John Carpenter, Joe Dante, friggin' Lance Henriksen narrates, Roger Corman the king himself, and good ol' Mr. Romero all are there among other dignified and quite intelligent guests. It's just so interesting to hear their stances on specific films and what horror meant to them as time went on. And in true horror style they don't shy away from anything, oh sure you see the blood and the nipples and the hoopblah, but it brings up real world shit and they show real world shit whereas other documentaries might not even bring it up. The collection of clips did elicit reactions from me whether from film or life, and it's a practical feast to the eyes seeing so many advertisments for horror movies and clips galore. But the film is not terribly in-depth and the production values while still good are on the lower end of the spectrum, and that honestly doesn't hurt it for me personally, credits and all it's about an hour and forty minutes so you certainly get ample time. To be honest the thought never once occured to me until I watched this for the first time, is the fact that horror movies are the most reflective and product of their times pieces of media ever. You get a real strong grasp on that time and place in the world and more importantly what scared it by watching a certain horror movie, Invasion Of The Body Snatchers sums up the 1950s, The Exorcist sums up the 70s, and so on. I was just watching a scary movie before but if you stop and think about it, pieces of the jigsaw start popping into place. It's just a wonderful documentary and you can watch it on Amazon Prime right now, it gets nothing but recommendations from me and I hope you have a real good time with it as well. 4 stars, 8/10! And I might just say screw it and give you a fun and family friendly movie to check out this Saturday, I mean this year is off enough as is so if you can't beat it join it.