Monster of the Day #3290

Updated on October 17, 2022 By Ken Begg 27 Comments

Let’s look at some of the old movies that are a bit more obscure this week. The Universals eat up most of the oxygen this time of year for classic movie fans, but these movies are well worth another look.

This is Doctor X, a fun mystery / horror flick in very early two-strip Technicolor. Lionel Atwill is in it.

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  • 🐻 bgbear_rnh

    and the lovely Fay Wray IIRC.

  • Synthetic flesh!

  • You do indeed!

  • zombiewhacker

    And contrary to misinformation peddled by some riffraff, Dr. X did not build a creature.

  • Mystery of the Wax Museum is an in spirit sequel, except with the great Glenda Farrell (later to play Torchy Blaine) in the Lee Tracy role with the romantic lead for Ms. Wray spun off into a secondary character.

  • Both films recently got outstanding Blu-Ray restorations. The previous restoration of ‘Museum’ over was over color-corrected into the blue end of the spectrum, which was about as wrong as could be, and the old print of Dr. X was just plain lousy.

    Now I know what I’m going to pull out of my collection this week.

  • Gamera977

    Yeah, good idea! I’ve got it and ‘The Return of Doctor X’ on DVD. I’ll have to pull those out and watch them too.

  • Gamera977

    BTW I’m got a weird craving for a good old ’80s slasher film. I’ve got ‘Halloween’ on DVD but is there anything else out there on Amazon Prime or YouTube worth watching? I’m not a big fan of slasher films so other than ‘Halloween’ I’m pretty ignorant on the whole genre. I’d prefer ’80s but other eras are fine, the more blood and boobs and the less brains the better…

  • Eric Hinkle

    My Bloody Valentine often gets mentioned as one of the better 80’s slashers.

    On a somewhat related note, rather weirdly I’ve seen Jaws mentioned as a ‘slasher’.

  • Go to YouTube. Look up a playlist called 80s Slasher Movies by Heizmeister. If you can’t find a movie there to fulfill that craving, I don’t know what will. Recommended are Curtains, about a casting session that goes oh so wrong and The Prowler, probably one of the best non-series Slashers.

    There’s also Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2. Don’t worry about not seeing the first one; watch this one and you literally won’t have to. Seriously, it’s like two movies in one. The first part (again, the first part) is a decent Slasher. The second part is nut-bar entertaining,

    Mixed with the Horror is a bunch of trailers that might give ideas for next Halloween.

  • Beckoning Chasm

    “The Burning” wasn’t bad, it had some style to it.

  • The Rev.

    I’ll echo the recommendations for The Burning and My Bloody Valentine, both of which feature some good acting and locations to prop up the mayhem, and The Prowler which is fairly standard but has some of Savini’s nastiest effects ever. I’ll throw in Just Before Dawn, which is pretty good and features the most outrageous Final Girl act I’ve seen to date, and Michael Soavi’s Stage Fright (I think there are at least two other slasher films with that name so be sure it’s this one), which clips along and has some nifty (if not particularly realistic) kills. Also, the killer’s costume is a hoot.

  • Gamera977

    Thanks a bundle guys! Will check those out and the YouTube channel by Heizmeister!

    I’d figured this would be like my Sasquatch movie binge from a month ago- I’d watch about 4-5 and I’d be sated. But gee, all of these sound cool!

  • I’ll third The Burning. It’s pretty good as I recall.

  • Eric Hinkle

    Okay, Gamera977 asked about the best 80’s slashers. What are the worst films in the field?

  • Gamera977

    As I’ve said I’m no expert but I’ll nominee Jason X or whatever the one where people from a space station in the future find a frozen Jason and resurrect him.

    Personally I found it a riot, it’s friggin’ absolutely insane from beginning to end. But it seems a lot of people who like slasher flicks were really honked off by it’s parody of the genre.

  • Gamera977

    I watched ‘Curtains’ since there’s a good high quality copy on YouTube that Heizmeister linked to. Slick, high-quality slasher flick. And John Vernon playing a giant jerk which is always fun.

    ‘My Bloody Valentine’ wasn’t on Amazon Prime and only a low-quality copy on YouTube. But the 2009 remake was on Prime so I watched it. Not at all bad for a remake. Lots of blood and sleaze in the first half but it turned into a nicely done who-dun-it in the second half. Only big gripes I have is I didn’t really like any of the characters and some horrendous CGI. I’ll swear some of the CGI gore looked more like a Loony Toons cartoon that anything real. Still I liked it and am going to rent the original next week.

    BIG THANKS guys!!!

  • Beckoning Chasm

    I think people dislike “Jason goes to Hell” more than “Jason X.” That’s the one where Jason is actually a slug monster, a la “The Hidden.”

  • Eric Hinkle

    I remember thinking that one was incredibly weird, especially after they turn Jason into the Terminator with nanotech.

  • Eric Hinkle

    I mostly recall that one for having not one single likable character in it. By halfway through I was cheering for Jason to kill all these people.

  • Gamera977

    Still haven’t seen that one. In fact X may be the only Jason movie I’ve seen. It ran on the Sci-Fi Channel way back when it didn’t suck.

  • Gamera977

    Yeah, weird is the word for it. I loved when the guy lured Jason into the holodeck VR type room and created a simulation of the camp. Then he created two young co-eds who giggled ‘WE LOVE HAVING PRE-MARITAL SEX’ and Jason looks up like ‘OH YEAH!!!!!’

  • The Rev.

    A few of the Friday the 13th ones are pretty dire, namely Manhattan and X, which admittedly aren’t ’80s movies. III and V are also bad. I have mixed feelings on Jason Goes to Hell, but honestly it’s more of a remake of The Hidden than a slasher movie. Outside of that, Don’t Go Into the Woods, The Prey, and Humongous are rather bad. Although the latter does have a memorably nasty opening, where a woman is raped and the rapist is then torn apart by her father’s dogs. Why do I bring it up? The rapist is played by Page Fletcher, aka The Hitchhiker, in his first role.

  • The Rev.

    Curtains is one of the few ’80s slasher films I haven’t seen yet, so I may have to look into that one fairly soon.

  • Eric Hinkle

    I remember that he tried to beat one of the VR co-eds to death with the other.

  • Eric Hinkle

    Uggh. Thanks for the warnings, especially for Humongous.

  • As I recall it, it’s pretty good.