[6] You’ll find immense, beautifully dressed sets and breathtaking oceanside locations in the 1979 Dracula. You’ll also hear a richly romantic John Williams score. These elements go a long way in creating a mood and atmosphere that are more lush than any Dracula movie has ever had before — and are enough to warrant a recommendation. But I think the superlatives end there. Frank Langella …
[5] Dean Stockwell and Sandra Dee headline this so-so adaptation of an H.P. Lovecraft story. I gotta say, I’ve yet to see a Lovecraft adaptation I really like. The internalized dread and abstract horror just don’t translate to film very well. Anyway, Stockwell plays an agent of the Old Ones here, Lovecraft’s big squid Gods from another dimension. He’s trying to get his hands on …
[4] American International Pictures uses Edgar Allan Poe’s story as a backdrop for what is really an original mystery story about actors in a turn-of-the-century Grand Guignol theater who are being murdered one by one. Jason Robards headlines as one of the troup, someone who may not be who he appears to be. Christine Kaufmann plays his wife and fellow thespian. She’s having dreams and premonitions …
[6] A witch casts a spell on a nasty lord’s family after he slaughters several members of her coven. Cry of the Banshee then becomes a “ten little indians” scenario as the witch’s otherworldly servant of evil dispatches of the lord and his family. Vincent Price headlines as the wicked patriarch and Elisabeth Bergner plays Oona the witch. No one really gets a chance to …
[5] Nick Nolte and Jacqueline Bisset play deep sea divers who stumble upon a sunken supply of morphine and Spanish treasure. They enlist the help of Robert Shaw (in one of his final performances) to excavate their findings, all while fighting off a giant moray eel and a voodoo drug lord played by Louis Gossett, Jr. The Deep, written by Peter Benchley, is an obvious …
[4] Inspired by conspiracy theories that the moon landing was a hoax, Capricorn One depicts a fictitious manned trip to Mars. Hal Holbrook gives a face to the evil government who forces astronauts James Brolin, Sam Waterston, and O.J. Simpson to play along, and then seeks to destroy them when the conspiracy is threatened to be uncovered, thanks to a probing journalist played by Elliott …
[3] A young housekeeper learns that her boss’s daughter is instructing zombies from a nearby graveyard to kill at her command. There are some neat moments and ideas in this mess of a movie, scenes where the housekeeper dreams she is dancing with a scarecrow, and the climactic zombie siege for example. But the film falls victim to a horde of B-movie ailments, including wooden …
[4] Based on a story by Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Land That Time Forgot is about the crew of a German submarine and the survivors of a ship they torpedoed banding together on a mysterious island full of dinosaurs and cave people. The British production takes a long while to get to the island, so much so that it feels like an entirely different movie …
[5] This Australian TV movie from Peter Weir is a subdued psychological thriller about a woman who grows increasingly frustrated and fearful of an eccentric plumber. Weir (Witness, Dead Poets Society) throws in a little commentary on the issue of class prejudice and does a good job building some suspense, but the stakes aren’t high enough, nor the motivations dire enough, for the movie to …
[4] This ‘bad in a good way’ sci-fi/horror flick features a melting astronaut who must feed on human flesh to keep from becoming a puddle of goo. I’m all for melting people, but The Incredible Melting Man is too narrow in scope. The script strings together one ‘stalk n’ kill’ scene after another, with little attention to the naturally sympathetic plight of its title character. …
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