Showing posts with label Horror Films. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Horror Films. Show all posts

Sunday, September 29, 2019

I FOUND GARAGE BAND HITS FROM 1966 IN A RECENT HORROR FILM


In trying to get some authenticity for my novel I've been writing, which takes place in the Spring of 1966, I've been looking at old radio hit survey's on line to find what was being played on Top 40 at that time. Top 40 radio figures into the story, because the main character lands his first job at the only Top 40 radio station in the small college town, that is the setting for the story. Also the fact that Top 40 radio was inexpensive entertainment, as well as being about all there was at the time.

Garage bands were popular at the time, as suburban kids decided to try to emulate The Beatles & the Rolling Stones, after playing folk music. Trying to find some of these bands the pop up on these surveys on I-Tunes or Amazon can be impossible. Same with some soul artist on independent record labels.

Click to Enlarge
So I was surprised, when I looked up a band I found on a radio survey from Lansing, Michigan. The band was called The Plagues. The song I was looking for turned up on a garage band compilation, but I noticed a band called The Plagues came up on the soundtracks to some recent horror films ( Parasomnia & Fear Dot Com)came up. I figured this was a Pantera/GWAR sounding death metal bands on these soundtracks, but I previewed the songs anyway. It was 1966 garage band music on these soundtracks, which was a pleasant surprise. This would require some Googling to find out how songs by an obscure 60s garage band turned up in a recent horror film.

The answer turns out to be pretty simple. The director of Parasomnia & Fear Dot Com is William Malone. When he was in high school in Lansing, Michigan, he was the lead singer of a garage band called (You guest it) The Plagues. I checked You Tube, to see if there was an interview with him, talking about The Plagues. I didn't find any interviews where he mentioned that, but did find that I knew who William Malone was before this. One of the videos that turned up was part of a documentary I used to have on VHS about Famous Monsters magazine. Malone was in that video, showing off a large collection of memorabilia that included Robby the Robot and the Robin costume from the Batman TV series. Amazing how all of this is connected.

So I will be downloading these songs. I'm also interested in watching William Malone's movies. 

Saturday, October 27, 2018

HORROR MOVIE MUSIC IPOD PLAYLIST


I'm going to start off this post by telling you something that the snobby "timeless love song/Great American Songbook" crowd doesn't want you to know. One of their favorite "standard" songs, that was a favorite of our grandparents and parents, was introduced in a HORROR FILM.

The song, "Stella By Starlight," first appeared in the 1944 film The Uninvited, about a woman named Stella, who is possessed by a ghost. In the movie, Ray Milland plays a composer, who tries to woo Stella by composing the song for her on a piano, while she stands by an open window.  The song has been recorded by many artist since it was first introduced, but most of those familiar with the song would probably never guess it was from a horror film. The Uninvited was also groundbreaking in that it portray ghost and the paranormal as serious, instead of a criminal gimmick or for comedy purposes.

I brought up ghost and comedy, because one of the biggest songs of the 80s, was from a comedy about ghost and demons. Of course, that was Ghostbusters. That song dominated radio in the summer of 1984, but some would say Ghostbusters is a comedy not a horror film.

That is why this is a Ipod playlist, because 1)) doing a really educational "countdown-of-the-greatest-ever" post would lead to hairsplitting and Internet bickering about what I should consider a "real" horror film or horror comedy or a mystery thriller or science fiction movie or an original composition for a horror film or using a previously recorded song. So, I'll just give a playlist with the movie the song was featured in and you can decide for yourself what category it belongs in, 2) I haven't done one in a while, and 3) it's quick and easy.

I have left out orchestral scores, in favor of pop & rock songs, featured in the film. Some were hits before the film came out or "oldies" used to memorable effect in the film. I tried to give the name of the original version or version in the film, if I use a substitute, I'll mention why.

Stella By Starlight - Andre Previn (This is a piano instrumental, as in the movie) - The Uninvited - 1944
The Blob - The Five Blobs - The Blob 1958
The Web - Abie Baker - The Brain That Wouldn't Die 1959
Bird Is the Word - The Rivingtons - The Crawling Hand 1963
Look For a Star - Gary Miles - Circus of Horror 1960
Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte - Al Martino - Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte 1964
My Son, The Vampire - Alan Sherman - Vampire Over London 1952/My Son The Vampire 1964
That's The Way It's Got To Be - The Poets - Frankenstein Meets the Space Monster 1966
That's All That I Need You For - The Birds - The Deadly Bees 1966
Shadows - The Electric Prunes - The Name of the Game Is Kill 1968
Green Slime - The Green Slime - The Green Slime 1968 (The title of the song, movie and the band are all Green Slime)
The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face - Roberta Flack - Play Misty For Me 1971
Season of the Witch - Donovan - Season of the Witch 1972/Dark Shadows 2012
Ben - Michael Jackson - Ben 1972
Tubular Bells  - Mike Oldfield - The Exorcist 1973
Popcorn - Hot Butter - Shriek of the Mutilated 1974
Daybreak - Harry Nilsson - Son of Dracula 1974
Science Fiction/Double Feature - Richard O'Brien - Rocky Horror Picture Show - 1975
Time Warp - Richard O'Brien, Patricia Quinn & Cast - Rocky Horror Picture Show - 1975
Sweet Transvestite - Tim Curry - Rocky Horror Picture Show - 1975
Don't Fear The Reaper - Blue Oyster Cult - Halloween 1978
I Love The Nightlife - Alicia Bridges - Love At First Bite - 1979
Bad Moon Rising - Creedence Clearwater Revival - American Werewolf in London -1981
Moondance - Van Morrison - American Werewolf in London - 1981
Blue Moon - The Marcels - American Werewolf in London - 1981
Cat People (Putting Out the Fire) - David Bowie - Cat People - 1982
Bela Lugosi's Dead - Bauhaus - The Hunger - 1983
Ghostbusters - Ray Parker Junior - Ghostbusters - 1984
Weird Science - Oingo Boingo - Weird Science - 1985
Wanted Man - Ratt - Weird Science - 1985
Tesla Girls - Orchestral Maneuvers in the Dark - Weird Science - 1985
Pretty Woman - Van Halen - Weird Science - 1985
Blue Kiss - Jane Wiedlin - Night of the Creeps - 1986
The Stroll - The Diamonds - Night of the Creeps - 1986
Teen Beat - Sandy Nelson - Night of the Creeps - 1986
Good Times - Inxs with Jimmy Barnes - Lost Boys - 1987
People Are Strange - Echo & The Bunnymen - Lost Boys - 1987
Who Made Who - AC/DC - Maximum Overdrive -1986
For Those About To Rock - AC/DC - Maximum Overdrive - 1986
Dream Warriors - Dokken - Nightmare On Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors - 1987
Into the Fire - Dokken - Nightmare On Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors - 1987
Youth of America - Birdbrain - Scream - 1996
Red Right Hand - Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds - Scream - 1996
Who's Gonna Mow Your Grass? - Buck Owens - House of 1000 Corpses - 2003
Turn Around, Look At Me - The Lettermen - Final Destination 3 - 2006
Nights In White Satin - Moody Blues - Dark Shadows - 2012
I'm Sick of You - Iggy & the Stooges - Dark Shadows - 2012
Ballad of Dwight Frye - Alice Cooper - Dark Shadows - 2012



Saturday, December 24, 2016

CHRISTMAS MOVIE CONNECTIONS TO HORROR MOVIES


In an earlier post, I listed how many of our favorite Christmas movies were connected. Since I love to watch horror films at Halloween, I decided to show how many of the Christmas films have a connection to some famous horror films watched at Halloween.

Henry Travers, who played Clarence in It's a Wonderful Life and Horace Bogardus in Bells of St. Mary, also played Dr. Cranley in The Invisible Man.

Lionel Barrymore, who played Old Man Potter in It's a Wonderful Life, was in the Mark of the Vampire and The Devil Doll, which takes place at Christmas time.

Una O'Conner, who played Mrs. Breen in Bells of St. Mary and Norah in Christmas In Connecticut, in most famous for her roles in The Invisible Man and Bride of Frankenstein.

Ernest Thesiger, best known at Dr. Pretorius in Bride of Frankenstein, Horace Femm in Old Dark House and Laing in The Ghoul, plays the undertaker in the future sequence in the 1951 movie Scrooge.


Edmund Gwenn, who played Kris Kringle in Miracle of 34th Street, was in the horror films The Walking Dead (1936) with Boris Karloff and Them! (1954), which also starred James Whitmore (above with Gwenn), James Arness, Fess Parker and Leonard Nimoy.

Ramsey Mostoller designed the costumes for Santa Claus Conquers the Martians. He designed the costumers for Dark Shadows, as well as the movies House of Dark Shadows and Night of Dark Shadows.


Jose Elias Moreno, who played Santa Claus in the 1959 Mexican film by the same title, played Dr. Krallman in Night of the Bloody Apes.



Bob Clark, who directed The Christmas Story, also directed Black Christmas and Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things.


And last but not least, Roberts Blossom (that's how he spelled it), who played spooky Old Man Marley in Home Alone, played the Ed Gein-like Ezra Cobb (above) in the 1974 horror classic Deranged. Maybe that is why Kevin was afraid of him.

Sunday, October 30, 2016

R.I.P JOHN ZACHERLE

I would like to say that many of these photos came from the GreGGory's SHOCK THEATER tumblr.










And, of course, a tribute to Zacherle would not be complete without this ditty. Also, check out these post from previous Countdown to Halloweens, here and here.


Sunday, October 2, 2016

COUNTDOWN TO HALLOWEEN 2016


It is time again for the Countdown to Halloween. I enjoy this because I get a great amount of traffic to this blog, but also because I get to write about monster movies and horror related music. Enjoy and leave a comment to let me know you visited.

I found this cool horror movie collage on Tumblr. If I found out whop posted it, I'll give them credit. I'll have to go back and look.

Thursday, October 29, 2015

SCARY RANDOM HORROR TRIVIA



Stuntman Alex Stevens was the werewolf (top photo) on Dark Shadows. He also was the clumsy baker (bottom photo) at the end of the counting sequences on Sesame Street. On Dark Shadows, they used a sound effects for the growl (sometimes badly slip cued). On Sesame Street, they overdubbed the voice of Jim Henson, announcing the number of fancy pastries he was going to drop on the way down the stairs.

Speaking of baking, Vincent Price's grandfather invented baking powder.

At the time he was making Night of the Living Dead, George Romero and his Image Ten production company was also making the "Picture Picture" sequences for Mister Rogers Neighborhood.

The mid-60s British horror film The Deadly Bees, features an uncredited appearance by the British band The Birds (referred to on MST3K as "The Skinnys") which featured guitarist Ron Wood, later of the Jeff Beck Group, The Faces and the Rolling Stones.

Actor/director Paul Naschy wrote several paperback Western's under the name Jack Mills.

Donnie Dunagan, who played Basil Rathbone's son in Son of Frankenstein, was also the voice of Bambi.


At the time she made The Brain That Wouldn't Die, actress Virginia Leith (above), who played "Jan in the Pan," was married to actor Donald Harron, best known as KORN newscaster Charlie Farquharson on Hee Haw.

Actor David Hess, who played Krugg in the original Last House On the Left, wrote Pat Boone's hit song, "Speedy Gonzales."

Lon Chaney Sr. made more than 150 movies in his lifetime, but only 40 of them survive intact. One of the lost films is London After Midnight, which was remade as Mark of the Vampire.

The 70s Ghost Busters

The 70s Monster Squad

Besides being cult horror comedies of the 80s, Ghost Busters and The Monster Squad both share their names with live action Saturday morning TV shows of the 70s.

Wes Craven named Freddy Kruger after a kid that used to beat him up in school.

The term "horror" as a movie genre was not used until 1934.

To make his face appear sunken, Boris Karloff took out his bridge work, while playing the Frankenstein monster.

Valarie Hobson, who was in Werewolf of London and Bride of Frankenstein, was later married to British politician John Profumo, who was involved in the sex scandal that was the subject of the 1989 film Scandal.

Mexican actor German Robles was the first movie vampire to have fangs. This was in the 1957 film The Vampire. The second was Christopher Lee in 1958's Horror of Dracula.

Fredric March was the first actor to win an Oscar for a horror movie for the 1931 version of Dr. Jeckyll & Mr. Hyde.

Speaking of Fredric March: A play by Alberto Casella, "La Morte in vacanza," was filmed twice. First as Death Takes a Holiday (1934) with Fredric March and Meet Joe Black (1998) with Brad Pitt. Brad Pitt also lived in a mansion March had built while he was making Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde.

The 1932 film The Mummy was not based on a fictional work but an original idea from Universal Pictures. Much of the film was parallel to the 1931 movie Dracula. The ankh was used a substitute for the crucifix. Edward Van Sloan's character, Dr. Muller, is similar to Dr. Van Helsing, which he also played in Dracula. Both use Swan Lake as their opening theme song.


The original design of the Creature from the Black Lagoon was based on the Oscar statue. The final design was created by a woman named Millicent Patrick (above), who was also an artist for Disney. She was not given credit for the design.


In an interview, actress Lenore Aubert (left) said making Abbott & Costello Meets Frankenstein was stressful because she was suffering from stomach flu and most of her wardrobe for the film consisted of white dresses.

The human characters from Scooby Doo were originally designed for a cartoon based on the TV series The Many Loves of Dobbie Gillis, to cash in on the success of the Archie cartoon series.

Bette Davis was unavailable to overdub some of her dialog in the made for TV horror film, The Dark Secret of Harvest Home. She asked for it to be overdubbed by actor/comedian Michael Greer, who stared in the horror film The Messiah of Evil. She had seen his imitation of her on the Tonight Show.



Artist Gene Colan based the look of the Marvel Comics Dracula on actor Jack Palance. One year later, in 1973, Palance played Dracula in a made for TV movie. 







 
  


Tuesday, October 27, 2015

Sunday, October 25, 2015

MOVIE REVIEW: THE UNDERTAKER & HIS PALS

The original posters make this look much scarier than it is.

Here is a question for you: What kind of movie do you get when you mix the funeral home jokes of The Loved One, the bikers of The Wild Angels, the blood, gore and cannibalism of Blood Feast, with the campy melodrama of Batman? You get The Undertaker and His Pals.

This movie was promoted as a dark and gruesome horror film from the moment of its release in 1966. Watching it now, it has both lost its shock value and comes across as an attempt to be trendy. With that said, this is definitely one of those "so bad, it's good" movies.

The movie opens with a biker gang invading the home of a beautiful blond named Sally Lamb, who sits around the house in a long sleeved, pull over, sweater and a pair of panties. They murder her. I should point out this upsets her sailor boyfriend's photo. Yes, he is not there, but his photo gets very upset at his sexy girlfriend's death (see photo below).


Next, we see Sally Lamb's funeral, presided over by the bald and creepy Mort the mortician (Ray Dannis). Mort has made up Sally with makeup like a clown and charges her parents extra for a pair of artificial legs he attached, because her legs had been removed by her killers. He also has a sign out front that he gives trading stamps.

From there were meet Harry Glass, a private eye with an attractive secretary name Ann Poultry. He takes her to lunch a greasy spoon called The Greasy Spoon, that is run by the bikers. The special of the day is "Leg of Lamb." The bikers are delighted to find out that Ann's last name is Poultry ("Like chicken"). You can figure out where this is going. The next special of the day is "Breast of chicken" after Ann is impaled on a fence in her yard.

Mort directs Ann's funeral, which is so cheap that Ann is placed in a wooden packing crate. Harry begins to look into whether Ann's death was connected to some other deaths, while trying to find a new secretary.

I'm too cute to be in this stupid movie.
A beautiful woman named Friday (Warrene Ott) applies for the job. She gets the job but makes the mistake of eating at The Greasy Spoon. She winds up in a meat grinder and is sold as "hambur-ger."

My question, being a native Ozarker is that odd spelling on the Greasy Spoon chalk board a tip of the hat to Springfield, Missouri's Route 66 icon Red's Giant Hamburg sign (below). One wonders.


Harry is worried about Friday, but then is surprised when her twin sister, Thursday (also Warrene Ott) shows up. I'll not go into the rest of the film because it would spoil it, other than to say that Mort and Thursday engage in a goofy chase scene. When we see Thursday running away, we hear silent movie chase music. Then we see Mort creeping after her, accompanied by a funeral organ.

I will tell you that the film's end credits are goofy. Everyone makes a sort of curtain call, even those that are dead, while a New Orleans style rock & roll song, called "A Devil Like Me", plays. Sally Lamb rises from her coffin with her legs intact and Mort's bad makeup gone. Ann pops out of her packing crate wearing only a fur coat. Friday is sitting in front of the Greasy Spoon slate, which reads "Hambur-ger Get it" eating a hamburger and winking at the audience.


This is the only film ever directed by Tom Swicegood. Legend has it that the film, originally, contained scenes of actual operations and autopsies, but those were cut out (excuse the pun) by independent movie maker Ted. V. Mikels, who distributed it as a second feature to his horror films. Those edits left this movie with a running time of just over an hour. Still, The Undertaker and His Pals is at number seven on "The Goriest Films Ever Made" in the The Signet Book of Movie List by Jeff Rovin. Of course, this book was written in 1979 and Rovin's description sounds like he may have watched a different film. He says there was a "cleaving in two of a delivery boy's skull." This scene is not as bad as he makes it sound, besides the delivery boy is laughing in the end credits (with a band aid on his head). I'm not saying there is some gore, but nothing compared to what we would see in the 70s and 80s.

If you read many on-line reviews of this film, you realize that the people who hate this movie the most are people who want more gore and less humor in their horror films. They also don't understand that this is, as the saying goes, a product of its times. I mentioned that it is a mish mash of hot movie and TV properties of the day at the beginning of this review.

If you are looking for a fun "bad" horror movie for Halloween. This is a fun choice.     
 






 

Thursday, October 1, 2015

COUNTDOWN TO HALLOWEEN 2015 - WHAT TO DO THIS YEAR


It is that time of year again...the Countdown to Halloween.  I love participating in this blogging event, because I get to unleash to monster kid in me. The only draw back is that all year long I have great ideas for blog post and then I think, "I'll save that for the Countdown to Halloween." Of course, now that the Countdown to Halloween has come around, I've forgotten those ideas.

One thing for sure, I will have a podcast involving Halloween music. I'm debating whether it will feature full length songs or a mix or maybe TWO podcast this month.

Last year, I had a great idea for a post. It also took up quite a bit of time with some extra research and film viewing (not that I'm complaining). That tongue in cheek and incredibly tacky post, entitled "Horror Film Damsels Who Probably Had Accidents," over the past year, became one of the most popular post from last year's the Countdown To Halloween. I've actually found some more examples that could be used in a second post on this subject.

The most fun I had last year was making Monster Photo Fun post, which were inspired by the old Cracked magazine "For Monsters Only" issues. I made six post of these wacky creations. Unfortunately, it seems those didn't receive very many hits. That isn't going to stop me from creating some more. So apparently, people are not interested in corny captions on horror movie stills, but they like reading theories about the bodily functions of women in horror films.

I found it is easy to pull interesting photos from Pinterest and Tumblr. Of course, video and audio from YouTube is always good too.

I hope you have as much fun reading this years post as I do putting them together.



       

Friday, October 31, 2014

THE OTHERS - LESSER KNOWN HORROR FILM STARS

Let's face it there are iconic of horror film actors that people of any age can name and recognize. Karloff, Lugosi, Chaney, Price, Lorre, Christopher Lee, and Peter Cushing. You might even add Jack Nicholson into the mix.

And then there are some horror film actors, who were utility players or the farm team. They may not have worked for the big studios, may have labored in the shadow of the big stars, worked in other countries or their lives were tragically cut short, however, no self-respecting monster kid would say they don't know who they are. Even casual fans see them and go "Oh yeah, THAT GUY!" So, I decided to pay homage to those individual who were the stars of some lesser know films, but defiantly should be remembered.

LIONEL ATWILL

Lionel Atwill worked both in horror films for Warner Brother and Universal. Usually played a mad scientist.


LESLIE BANKS
Stared in CHAMBER OF HORRORS and THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME.

JOHN CARRADINE
I really don't have room to list every horror film John Carradine was in, but I also don't have room to list every Western John Carradine was in. Second to Christopher Lee for playing Dracula the most times.

TOD SLAUGHTER
I wrote about his turn as Sweeney Todd in another post. He also was in the overlooked werewolf film, THE FACE AT THE WINDOW, as well as HORROR MANIACS, THE MURDER IN THE RED BARN, and THE CRIMES AT THE DARK HOUSE.

J. CARROLL NASH
Among his horror credits include DRACULA VS FRANKENSTEIN, THE BEAST WITH FIVE FINGERS, THE MONSTER MAKER, HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN, and DR. RENAULT'S SECRET.

GEORGE ZUCCO
Appeared in THE MUMMY'S HAND, THE MONSTER & THE GIRL,THE MAD MONSTER, DR. RENAULT'S SECRET, THE MUMMY'S TOMB, DEAD MEN WALK, THE MAD GHOUL, VOODOO MAN, FOG ISLAND, and RETURN OF THE APE MAN, and several others.

LARID CREGAR
Stared in the sound version of THE LODGER and HANGOVER SQUARE. Died from excessive weight loss on a crash diet.
ANTON DIFFRING
The perfect Aryan villain. Appeared in THE MAN WHO COULD CHEAT DEATH, CIRCUS OF HORRORS, FAHRENHEIT 451, THE BEAST MUST DIE, and played Dr. Frankenstein in a famous Hammer/Universal TV pilot, The Tales of Frankenstein.

MICHAEL GOUGH
Appeared in THE HORRORS OF THE BLACK MUSEUM, THE SKULL, KONGA, BLACK ZOO, DR. TERROR'S HOUSE OF HORRORS, CURSE OF THE CRIMSON ALTAR, and many others. Also played Alfred the Butler in the Batman movie series.

GERMAN ROBLES
Starred in THE VAMPIRE, THE VAMPIRE'S COFFIN, THE CURSE OF NOSTRADAMUS, THE CASTLE OF MONSTERS, THE BLOOD OF NOSTRADAMUS, NOSTRADAMUS AND THE DESTROYER OF MONSTER, and THE BRAINIAC. He also dubbed the Spanish voices of Dr. Tom Horton on Days of Our Lives, KITT on Knight Rider and both Col. Henry Blake & Col. Sherman Potter on M*A*S*H.
PAUL NASCHY
The King of Spanish horror films. Best known as the cursed werewolf, Waldermar Daninsky. Here is his IMDB listing.
ROBERT QUARY
He was Count Yorga. Nuff said.

DAVID HESS
Best known as Krug in THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT, he also appeared in HOUSE ON THE EDGE OF THE PARK, SWAMP THING, BODY COUNT, and ZOMBIE NATION. Also wrote the songs "Start Movin" for Sal Mineo, "I Got Stung" for Elvis and "Speedy Gonzales" for Pat Boone.

Thursday, October 30, 2014

#THROWBACK THURSDAY - SUPER 8 MONSTER MOVIES


I always wanted a movie projector, so I could get these Super 8 monster movies and watch them. They were sold locally at K-Mart and in the back of Famous Monsters, Creepy, Vampirella and Eerie magazines. They were severely edited versions of the original and even had different titles. Here is a photo of some boxes I found on Pinterest.
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