Blog

This film, a clear Mighty Joe Young knock-off (to the EXTREME!) looks awful serious for a flick based on what I recall as a very primitive video game. Looks like they're in Chicago, though.

What a magical year for horror films. Not just another Resident Evil (or Hellraiser or Rings or Jeepers Creepers or Annabelle the Doll or Flatliners or Saw or Chucky or Children of the Corn or....), but another Underworld! That was the best shot I could find and I lightened it as much as possible.…

This one actually looks promising, as everyone who saw it in the theater (a good half dozen people) immediately dubbed it terrible. Ah, but my heart has been broken so many times.

Again, not a great year for monster movies, which audiences by and large seem indifferent too these days Hopefully Warners/Legendary can make the Godzillaverse work for people (I rather liked Skull Island), but other than that 2017 saw failed revivals (Rings), failed kick-offs of purportedly new Universes (Dark Universe), and, we can only hope,…

A Gillman love story? Del Toro, you magnificent bastard. Here's to a great 2018, everyone! See some of you at the end of the month.

In Chicago, independent powerhouse WGN had Creature Features, the late night class monster movie slot showcasing the classic Universals. The far cheaper UHF station, WFLD, had the Saturday afternoon Screaming Yellow Theater. This is where the young Ken was introduced to schlock, like Attack of the Giant Leeches or The Screaming Skull. In 1971--when…

One of the few horror hosts to really break out, partly due to sheer longevity, was Philadelphia's Cool Ghoul Zacherle. (His station was bought out and he soon moved to New York.) His initial show hit the airwaves in 1957, but I remember him hosting horror movie trailer VHS tapes in the '80s. He…

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas! Maila Nurmi, aka Vampira, kind of kicked off the entire bad movie thing with her seminal '50s horror hostess show in Los Angeles. Along the way she co-starred in Plan 9 from Outer Space and had a reportedly torrid affair with James Dean (!). The line…

This is the true mark of how much Fox disdained horror. They finally made a fairly big, opulent horror flick and it made them a TON of money and they *still* didn't start producing more horror movies. Until the '70s, anyway, with The Omen. They did bow enough to as least ink distribution deals…

Man, this film is far more fun than it should be. I mean, it's a piffle, but a rather fun little piffle. It's a borderline horror movie, though, which seems right for Fox.