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If you like Asian folklore-Horror at all there is a series called "Folklore" on Netflix that we really enjoyed the first entry of. They're like mini-films.
I think this has been recommended to me in the past. I'm seeing one on HBO but not Netflix. Is that the one?

Also, Field Guide to Evil can be found on Hulu, for anyone interested.

(And Spider Baby is on Tubi)



Victim of The Night
There is a book, that I loved when I was young, purchased via Weekly Reader no less, that contained a little poem called "The Goblin".



I still have this book (in fact, I have multiple copies in case it goes back out of print and something happens to one of them) and I still love it.



Victim of The Night
I think this has been recommended to me in the past. I'm seeing one on HBO but not Netflix. Is that the one?

Also, Field Guide to Evil can be found on Hulu, for anyone interested.

(And Spider Baby is on Tubi)
You're right it's HBO. I have too damn many streaming services (though, sadly, not Hulu or Tubi).



Victim of The Night
I never noticed that Crystal Lake is in New Jersey. I tell ya, Jason Takes Manhattan makes a LOT more sense now!


(Spoiler for upcoming write-up, I guess.)



Victim of The Night

Talk about a trifle.
For a Horror fan hoping for a fun Horror-Comedy... disappointment abounds.
However, to be fair, for an Abbott and Costello fan, which I am, the movie ultimately kinda won me over, particularly with its ludicrous climactic scene of an Invisible Man with Lou Costello in a boxing match.
As with The Invisible Man, the effects that are unique to this particular micro-genre of Horror are actually quite good and give a real shot in the arm to the proceedings from the Horror perspective...


... but overall, this movie is a letdown from the perspective of Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, which is where I was coming from.
For those who don't know, that film ends with
WARNING: "big spoilahs" spoilers below
the titular comedians escaping from various monsters in a rowboat... only to discover that the boat was already occupied by The Invisible Man - voiced by none other than Vincent Price!
Which is where I assumed this movie was going. Instead it just sort of borrows the Invisible Man device for a comedy that is, honestly, more a boxing movie than it is a Horror movie.
Still, I had fun enough with it, though it was longer than it needed to be, this is something to have on in the background on a rainy Sunday but probably a disappointment to anyone looking for a Horror Comedy.



I watched that one for the first time in '19, and the 2-star rating I gave it suggests that I wasn't very fond of it. My dirty secret is that I'm not the biggest A&C fan in the first place.

But I agree, Hollywood nailed the invisibility effect very early. The Rains film came out almost 20 years before this and the effects mostly hold up, even today.



Sticking with the classic comedy theme, I re-watched Habeas Corpus for the hundreth time the other day.
A crazy scientist hires L&H to rob a grave for his experiments and hijinks ensue. Black cats, bats, a guy in a sheet. Good times. Not my favorite L&H by a long shot, but a nice October mood-setter nonetheless.






Victim of The Night
I watched that one for the first time in '19, and the 2-star rating I gave it suggests that I wasn't very fond of it. My dirty secret is that I'm not the biggest A&C fan in the first place.

But I agree, Hollywood nailed the invisibility effect very early. The Rains film came out almost 20 years before this and the effects mostly hold up, even today.
I really like Abbott & Costello so, whole I was really frustrated that there was no Vincent Price and that this really wasn't being played even as a Horror-Comedy, I was able to enjoy the movie, particularly since I thought the big boxing piece at the end was well-done and pretty funny.
And yeah, I still can't believe how good the effects were in the Claude Rains original, which I love.



Victim of The Night
Sticking with the classic comedy theme, I re-watched Habeas Corpus for the hundreth time the other day.
A crazy scientist hires L&H to rob a grave for his experiments and hijinks ensue. Black cats, bats, a guy in a sheet. Good times. Not my favorite L&H by a long shot, but a nice October mood-setter nonetheless.



Oh, this looks quite good, is this streaming somewhere? I haven't seen L&H pop up on any of my streaming services, despite having 3 A&B movies in my recent queue.



Oh, this looks quite good, is this streaming somewhere? I haven't seen L&H pop up on any of my streaming services, despite having 3 A&B movies in my recent queue.
I haven't seen a lot of L&H streaming for free now that you mention it.

And just to clarify, it's a two-reeler so that 20-minute youtube link I posted is the full film. Quality wise it looks better than my DVD, so if you can watch YT on your TV it should be fine.



Victim of The Night
I haven't seen a lot of L&H streaming for free now that you mention it.

And just to clarify, it's a two-reeler so that 20-minute youtube link I posted is the full film. Quality wise it looks better than my DVD, so if you can watch YT on your TV it should be fine.
Oh, that's great. Thanks for that.
I don't mind paying for streaming movies, I just haven't seen much L&H anywhere and I have 5 or 6 streaming services.



Oh, that's great. Thanks for that.
I don't mind paying for streaming movies, I just haven't seen much L&H anywhere and I have 5 or 6 streaming services.
Yeah, I own most of their stuff so I haven't really looked but I think you're right. I hardly ever come across them, except for a couple of films that are Public Domain, like Flying Deuces.

Here's another good one that appears to be available on iTunes. This has been a family favorite since before I was born.




The Stooges remade it as If A Body Meets A Body many years later, although it's possible that someone did it even before L&H.



Victim of The Night

Kinda watched this on a strange whim. I thought it was this crazy European violent-thriller thing I had seen late one night but then when I watched the trailer and it was not I decided I should add it for the lulz. I really didn’t know what it was about, which is fun.
It’s about sacrifice and ****.
So this guy and his wife pass by this small Greek island to check on his sister before going on with their honeymoon and the locals are not super-friendly and don't really want them there but they run into James Earl Jones and his young girlfriend who are friends with the sister. Seems she's not only kind of a flake but also a virgin, which is mentioned in the opening scene as being critical to ancient sacrifice, so you kinda know where this is going. Jones is a treasure-hunter searching for old loot in a cave under the island. One thing leads to another and a sea-monster is released, leading to some pretty familiar photography...


Holy ****, this odd little movie fully has two women lightly bonding over being with men with big cocks. Hilarious. And one of them is Ted Knight’s daughter, Sarah, from Too Close For Comfort! And the dude, the protagonist I guess (?), who is apparently hung like a moose, is the Dojo Master, Kreese, from Kobra Kai in The Karate Kid.
I was shocked to see Gloria from Body Double again (she plays Madeline, the sister). I recognized her instantly despite not having seen that film in like 7 years and never having seen her in anything else. I guess she makes an impression.



The combination of her photogenic beauty and James Earl Jones' gravity elevate this somewhat amateur endeavor.
James Earl Jones had incredible presence whenever he was onscreen. He’s also a legitimately excellent actor. Even in a movie like this, it's obvious. It’s funny that this is after he was already doing Vader yet he was really still totally a B-movie dude.


The director was normally a screenwriter, the cinematographer needed either seasoning or schooling or both, and the editor probably needed to go back to public service videos. But that doesn't mean the movie was actually bad.
"An embarrassing picture for all concerned, but fun for devotees of 'bad enough to be good' movies.”
Ok, maybe it was?
It's a strange movie, it's kinda trying to be a late cash-in on Jaws and with shades of The Deep but it's definitely a monster-movie. In that there is a monster. Who is on-screen for like 2 1/2 minutes of the entire film and is woeful. James Earl Jones literally gets his genitals eaten. One wonders if this was supposed to be a sort of callback to the “big dicks” conversation earlier. But he also carries the whole movie.
In the end though, I liked this movie. Lotta weird little movies made in the 70s and early 80s and I feel like, in some way, this movie kinda belongs to the Messiah Of Evil, Lemora: A Child’s Tale Of The Supernatural, Eyes Of Fire Club, though kind of peripheral to and not as good as any of those.
Funny, in some ways I kinda feel like Dead & Buried belongs to that club too.





The House That Screamed (1969)

A 19th century girl's boarding school is fraught with the usual perils found in "women in prison" films: headmistress prone to corporal punishment, predatory lesbians, secret visits from attractive boys, etc. This is all handled in a less-sleazy-than-usual way, I hasten to add. We eventually enter horror territory when girls start getting murdered. The killer's identity was never in question for me, but the motive behind the killings took me by surprise and makes for a memorable ending. Recommended.



One Dark Night (1982)

High schooler Meg Tilly wants to join the popular clique known as "The Sisters" (which consists of three mean girls who all appear to be on the far side of 30). As an initiation she's given the task of spending the night alone in a mortuary. The bad news is that this mortuary is the resting home of a very powerful psychic whose telekinetic powers are still very active despite his recent death. The first 2/3 of the film are not very noteworthy. The acting is dodgy. Tilly is given top billing but in hindsight seems to have very little dialogue, so her character didn't make much of an impression. The head mean girl is mostly one-note.
However, the film redeems itself in the last 20 minutes when all hell quite literally breaks loose. OK, the effects are probably pretty cheap by modern standards, but there's a certain element to the proceedings that allows the effects crew to hide some of the shortcomings. (Staying vague because spoilers) So if you prefer your undead to be of the EC Comics variety than you will no doubt find yourself plenty entertained.