BARON BLOOD

Pitiful victim of Baron Blood

BARON BLOOD (aka Gli orrori del castello di Norimberga/1972). Director: Mario Bava. (This review is based on the American print.)

Peter Kleist (Antonio Cantafora) arrives in Austria to be reunited with his Uncle Karl (Massimo Girotti), as well as to investigate the castle of his 16th century ancestor, Baron von Kleist, said to be a monster known popularly as "Baron Blood." When Peter discovers a parchment with an incantation that can raise the baron from the dead, he stupidly reads the words aloud, to the consternation of Eva (Elke Sommer of Ten Little Indians), who is helping to restore the castle. It should be no surprise that they succeed in bringing Baron Blood back from the dead, and then the corpses start piling up.  

Antonio Cantafora and Massimo Girotti

After the hanging by Baron Blood of the man who was going to turn the castle into a hotel, it is auctioned off to the highest bidder, who turns out to be Alfred Becker (Joseph Cotten of The Survivor). The other characters know little about Becker, but the audience will have no problem figuring out who he really is. One has to deal with some leaps of logic, as Becker seems to refurbish the castle in a matter of days. The murder sequences are violent, but nothing over the top, and the best scene probably has to do with the poor caregiver Fritz (Luciano Pigozzi of Naked You Die) being placed in a variation of a sharply-spiked iron maiden. 

Joseph Cotten

The movie was filmed at an actual castle on the outskirts of Vienna, which certainly adds oodles of atmosphere to the production. In addition to the murders, there's a climax in a Chamber of Horrors, although this sequence is too brief to be as effective as intended. The actors, including Sommer, are good enough, and Joseph Cotten, who never chews the scenery but exudes quiet, charming menace, adds a touch of distinction to the proceedings. Umberto Raho (of Terror-Creatures from the Grave) appears briefly as a police inspector. Vincent Price and Ray Milland, both of whom had appeared in Poe adaptations, were considered for the title role but Cotten agreed to play the part when the others couldn't. 

Verdict: Despite some good scenes and eerie moments, the picture is a little disjointed -- perhaps due to post-production tampering -- and just misses being a really good horror film. **3/4.  

TERROR-CREATURES FROM THE GRAVE

Barbara Steele and Mirella Maravidi

TERROR-CREATURES FROM THE GRAVE (aka 5 tombe per un medium/1965). Director: Massimo Pupillo. Colorized.  

Lawyer Albert Kovak (Walter Brandi) pays a call on widow Cleo Hauff (Barbara Steele) and her stepdaughter Corinne (Mirella Maravidi), and learns that although his partner just received a letter from Dr. Geronimus Hauff (Umberto Raho), the man has been dead for nearly a year! For some reason Hauff, who was a student of the occult, has threatened revenge on five people who were present at his death, and three of them have already died in mysterious circumstances. As Albert investigates with Dr. Nemek (Alfredo Rizzo), more deaths occur. Then it develops that the widow Hauff and Albert's partner, Joseph Morgan (Riccardo Garrone), have been having an affair. The Hauff manor had been built over the ruins of a hospital where hundreds of plague victims died in the 15th century. On the one year anniversary of Dr. Hauff's death, their spirits will run wild!

Walter Brandi and Alfredo Rizzo

Terror-Creatures is an atmospheric Italian horror film which promises a lot but delivers very little. There is some suspense as you wait for the climax, which is criminally brief. Although shots of tombs and graves opening are provocative, we never see the actual ghouls which the audience has been impatiently waiting for. Instead some of the characters break out in a disfiguring plague. An interesting touch has a display case of human arms that were severed centuries before from people who spread the plague. Terror-Creatures has a lot of interesting elements to it, but few of them are realized. This is not one of Ms. Steele's better movies, although she's okay in it. 

Verdict: An Italian horror flick with real potential that is frittered away. **. 

THE LODGER (2009)

Simon Baker as mysterious Malcolm

THE LODGER (2009). Writer/director: David Ondaatje. Loosely based on the novel by Marie Belloc Lowndes.

In West Hollywood Ellen Bunting (Hope Davis) and her husband (Donal Logue) rent a room to a handsome writer named Malcolm (Simon Baker), whom Ellen is strongly drawn to. Meanwhile Detective Chandler Manning (Alfred Molina of Spider-Man 2) and rookie detective Street Wilkinson (Shane West) investigate grisly slayings of prostitutes which first remind them of the work of a convicted and executed killer who may have been innocent, and then seem to be copycat killings of Jack the Ripper. Oddly, the same year this was released British television came out with the superior Whitechapel: The Ripper Returns which also had a copycat Jack the Ripper. Another similarity is that both of these stories pair a grizzled veteran with a new, much younger cop, whom the veteran assumes is gay but turns out (supposedly) not to be (Wilkinson lets Manning's dumb homophobic remarks just slide). Since there are gay cops it might have been more refreshing if Wilkinson had really been gay, and it makes little sense that he allows the obnoxious Manning to think he is without correcting him. What The Lodger has going for it is that it delivers a couple of unexpected and clever twists at the end, but unfortunately it never really delivers the much-needed tension or suspense due to directorial slackness, and the characters aren't that well developed; Manning is unsympathetic as well. The performances are good, however. Tasmanian actor Baker starred as The Mentalist on CBS for several years.

Verdict: Worth a look for the ending if nothing else. **1/2.

OBSESSION (2025)

 OBSESSION (2025). Writer/director: Curry Barker.

Bear (Michael Johnston) is an attractive if nerdy young man who is infatuated with the pretty Nikki (Inde Navarrette). She seems to think of him only as a friend, but one day -- in desperation -- he uses a novelty item called the "One Wish Willow" to make her fall in love with him. Bear never expects it to work, so it's not as if he was using a date rape drug. Nevertheless, the results are not what he expected. Nikki does indeed fall in love with Bear but she begins to act very strangely and obsessively. It's definitely a case of "be careful what you wish for."

Obsession is an obvious play on the notion that a sick infatuation can lead to destruction of both yourself and the object of your affection. Proving that there's nothing new under the sun, the basic premise -- a man uses supernatural means to make someone fall in love with him to his regret --was used in numerous horror comic book stories, and there isn't that much that's terribly original in this picture. The movie is slow, the direction generally uninspired, although the acting by the two leads and others is on the money. 

Although the film is comparatively tasteful for a modern-day horror flick -- of course the film is so underlit you really can't see that much of the more gruesome stuff -- it doesn't resist one moment of slasher-type carnage late in the picture. Bear takes much, much too long to suggest -- if he ever really does -- that Nikki may need psychiatric help, but as the characters in this are pretty one-dimensional it probably doesn't matter. The picture takes a long time to really get going, and the build-up isn't worth it. 

Verdict: A low-energy, over-long, and vastly over-rated horror film with excellent performances. **1/4.  

COLD PREY

COLD PREY (aka Fritt Vilt/2006). Director: Roar Uthaug.

Five young people in Norway go off on a ski weekend, but the trouble begins when one of them, Morten (Rolf Kristian Larsen), breaks his leg. The group seeks shelter in what turns out to be an abandoned ski resort, which happens to have one unfortunate, and homicidal, occupant in the basement. It isn't long [actually it's rather long] before the skiers are fighting for their lives against this menacing stranger. The main problem with Cold Prey  -- which might be considered Norway's answer to the Friday the 13th mad slasher franchise  -- is that the first half is staggeringly tedious, showing us these standard horny teens in much too much detail. On the other hand, all that detail does let us distinguish one from the other, which helps you care a bit about [or at least know] who's being fricasseed when the slaughter begins. What saves the movie is a fairly solid second half, which is exciting and well-directed and greatly abetted by the performances of the talented cast, with Larsen and Ingrid Borsal Berdal (as Jannicke) taking top honors. There's a striking and suspenseful climax near a crevasse as well. The movie does feature some by-now very familiar elements, including a lone female survivor taking care of the killer a la all those American slasher films. Gore-geeks will be disappointed as the film doesn't rely too much on sickening graphic details. The movie has had two sequels so far.

Verdict: You've seen it all before, but once it gets going it's quite well done. ***.

THE STRANGE WORLD OF PLANET X

Gaby Andre trapped by a big bug!

THE STRANGE WORLD OF PLANET X (aka The Cosmic Monster/1958). Director: Gilbert Gunn. Colorized.  

In a small British town, the egocentric Dr. Laird (Alec Mango) -- aided by the American Gil Graham (Forrest Tucker of The Crawling Eye) -- is using a machine to transform the properties of elements, a machine that produces a magnetic field that may be expanding far beyond the confines of the laboratory. The beautiful new French assistant, Michelle (Gaby Andre),  seemingly falls in love with the gruff, barely-attractive Gil within five minutes, and vice versa. An outer space visitor who calls himself "Smith" (Martin Benson) warns the both of them that the machine has caused a rift in the ionosphere that has let in cosmic rays that will not only drive some men crazy, but negatively effect the fast breeders, such as insects. On this he is quite correct, as it isn't long before the nearby Briarly Woods is full of giant, hungry, chomping, voracious bugs of all kinds!

Hugh Latimer, Martin Benson, Forrest Tucker

The Strange World of Planet X (Planet X actually turns out to be Earth, as our visitor tells us) is a riot of gruesome close-up bug footage, UFOs, maniacs wandering in the woods, little girls finding huge insect eggs and being told to "boil" them, and a great climax where both Michelle and the new school teacher, Helen (Patricia Sinclair) are trapped in the woods at the same time by huge insects, with Michelle caught in a spider's web and waiting her turn as the arachnid devours a writhing beetle, and Helen caught inside the school house as bugs try to crash through the door and windows. 

Andre and Tucker

At the halfway point, Strange World transforms from a talky if interesting look at a dangerous scientific experiment into, I believe, England's only entry in the big bug sweepstakes that was begun with Them. The actors are all quite professional, spouting the pseudo-scientific talk with utter conviction, and even Tucker sounds as if he has a brain. Others in the cast include Hugh Latimer and Geoffrey Chater as officials who are concerned about Laird's experiments and his lack of concern over what could -- and does -- go wrong. The movie was very loosely based on a novel by Rene Ray (it was also turned into a British TV serial that is now lost) that apparently did not have any giant insects in it. The movie is crude and low-budget, but effective, and the big bugs are even more disgusting in color. You can read about this film and others like it in my tome Creature Features: Nature Turned Nasty in the Movies. 

Verdict: Perhaps the most gruesome of the giant insect movies. ***. 

PHANTOMS

Ben Affleck as the sheriff

PHANTOMS (1998). Director: Joe Chappelle.  

Dr. Jennifer Pailey (Joanna Going) and her younger sister, Lisa (Rose McGowan), arrive in Snowfield where Jennifer has her practice, and discover that the residents are either dead or missing. Sheriff Hammond (Ben Affleck), Deputy Wargle (Liev Schreiber), and others come to investigate, and eventually there are a team of scientists, military personnel, and Timothy Flyte (Peter O'Toole), a writer for a supermarket tabloid who has also penned a tome entitled "The Ancient Enemy." Flyte's theory, which increasingly seems to be true, is that a centuries-old intelligent being that periodically ingests vanished colonies and even civilizations (like the Mayans), has devoured most of the town and is now sadistically playing with those who remain, pretending to be Satan. 

Rose McGowan and Joanna Going

Dean Koontz adapted his own novel, and had to scrap some characters and notions (although the movie could have used another half hour or worked better as a mini-series). Viewers who have never read the chilling novel may like this better, but those familiar with the book will probably be disappointed. Although there are some well-handled scenes, the movie actually becomes a bit boring. The climax lacks the impact of the book, and the movie has even more of a problem than the novel disguising the fact that this is just another variation on The Blob, Caltiki, the Immortal Monster, and -- especially true of the cinematic adaptation -- John Carpenter's version of The Thing. Affleck does okay as the sheriff, while the ladies aren't always convincing trying to react with fear or shock to the variety of horrors. Schreiber probably comes off best as the sleazy deputy who comes back from the dead. O'Toole does what he can with the material. 

Verdict: Has good moments, but the ultimate result is ... meh. **1/2. 

SCREAM 7

Ghostface on the loose!

SCREAM 7 (2026). Co-written and directed by Kevin Williamson. 

Sidney (Neve Campbell) has relocated to the new town of Pine Grove with her sheriff husband Mark (Joel McHale) and teenage daughter, Tatum (Isabel May). Then Sidney begins to get video calls from Stu Macher (Matthew Lillard), one of the killers in the original Scream. But hasn't Stu been dead for years? When the killings start again with a new Ghostface on the loose, Sidney and old pal Gail Weathers (Courteney Cox) team up to investigate if Stu is somehow still alive or if someone else is hiding behind AI-generated deep fakes. 

Victims: Tatum (right) and her pals

Scream 7 is a fast-paced, often thrilling, and quite suspenseful slasher flick with generally good performances. The best sequences are the prologue with a young couple running into trouble in a house that commemorates the murders back in Hillsboro, and a sequence in which a poor victim in a bar is sort of turned into a beer spigot. Usually the Scream movies are comparatively restrained and tasteful, but a gross and sadistic sequence in a theater features a graphic disembowelment that might be more at home in one of those Terrifier movies. The motive for the gruesome murders, as many others have noted, is so lame as to be laughable, but fortunately it doesn't ruin the movie. Although the Scream flicks were originally black comedies with as many jokes as screams, this installment -- aside from the dumb finale -- is basically played more or less straight. As usual the film glosses over the utter misery faced by the loved ones of the victims left in the wake of the maniac. Campbell and Cox also appeared in 2022's Scream. Mason Gooding, one of Gail Weathers' team, was also in the slasher flick Heart Eyes. 

Verdict: Still fun despite its flaws. ***. 

THE SOUL OF A MONSTER

Horror Hair: Rose Hobart as Lilyan

THE SOUL OF A MONSTER (1944). Director:  Will Jason. 

A great doctor and humanitarian, George Winson (George Macready), is dying and no one can save him. His wife, Ann (Jeanne Bates), calls on any power, including the power of darkness, to save him. Along comes a mysterious woman named Lilyan (Rose Hobart) with a severe and hideous hairdo, who somehow manages to save George's life. However, everyone -- including his friends and associates Fred (Erik Rolf) and Dr. Vance (Jim Bannon of The Unknown) -- notice that the good doctor has changed and doesn't especially care about people anymore. Ann is convinced that George is under the control of the evil Lilyan, and the witch even tries to get George to murder Dr. Vance. Then George wakes up ...

Jeanne Bates and George Macready

The ending to the pretty terrible Soul of a Monster will have you groaning. The screenplay by Edward Dein -- who was better known as a director [The Leech Woman] -- is ludicrous, with stilted dialogue that would have been a challenge to any actor. Despite this, Rose Hobart manages to make a minimal impression and Macready is almost always on target in his performances. The best you can say about Will Jason's direction is that it is fortunate he did no more horror movies. Dein did write a few more scripts in the genre, which were better than this. The basic effect of the movie is that of a filmed old comic book with little logic and very haphazard storytelling. A near-murder sequence where Macready stalks his friend (who never mentions it to anyone) with an icepick in hand is so protracted  and slow that it becomes more boring than suspenseful. A scene with a boys' choir singing "Ave Maria" is more interesting. 

Verdict: A waste of an interesting idea. *1/4. 

DEXTER: RESURRECTION

Michael C. Hall as the ever-delightful Dexter

DEXTER: RESURRECTION (2025). 

Dexter Morgan (Michael C. Hall) , the serial killer who generally only murders other serial killers, did not die at the end of his last mini-series. He survived being shot in the chest by his own son, Harrison (Jack Alcott). Dexter continues to have conversations with his dead father (James Remar) -- a device that is a bit tiresome, frankly -- as he makes his way to Manhattan (!) to see if he can be reunited with his son, who's got himself into a bit of trouble due to his lack of impulse control. Meanwhile, a truly evil serial killer is sawing off the heads of unlucky cab drivers; detectives are looking into the brutal death of a hotel guest/rapist; and Angel Batista (David Zayas), who always suspected colleague Dexter was the Bay Harbor Butcher, is determined to bring him to justice. If that weren't enough, Dexter learns that a strange midget billionaire named Leon Prater (Peter Dinklage) has assembled a group of serial killers for his own weird purposes. Will Dexter bond with these people who have some of the same "urges" as he does -- or kill them?

Jack Alcott as Harrison Morgan

I admit when the midget and his gathering of sickos are introduced I feared that Dexter: Resurrection had gone off the rails. But once I accepted that this storyline was even more far-fetched than usual, I found myself mightily enjoying the series. Hall is a terrific actor, and sheer perfection as Dexter. He is matched by Alcott, Zayas, and Dinklage, and there are also fine performances from Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine as Dexter's friend and landlord, Kadia Saraf as the ever-grim Detective Wallace, and many others. Uma Thurman is also effective as Prater's head of security. Although top-billed with Hall, she doesn't really have that much to do. 

Peter Dinklage

You wouldn't imagine that the subject matter would lend itself to it, but Dexter: Resurrection is as much a (very) black comedy as it is a horror story. (Detective Wallace giving in to her adoration of the Bee Gees' "Staying Alive" from Saturday Night Fever is hilarious.) With a variety of twists, bizarre characters, edge-of-your-seat escapes, and major suspense, Dexter: Resurrection is a winner all the way. It has been renewed for season two, airing in October. 

Verdict: Totally absorbing and oddball series with wonderful performances. ***1/2.

THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA (2004)

Gerard Butler as the Phantom

THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA (2004). Director: Joel Schumacher. 

In 1870 A mysterious figure known as the Phantom (Gerard Butler) haunts the Paris Opera, where the lead soprano is the unpleasant diva Carlotta (Minnie Driver). The Phantom, however, much prefers the singing of Christine (Emmy Rossum), a young soprano with whom he is falling in love, and he will do anything to insure that she replaces Carlotta on the stage. Christine has another suitor, a viscount named Raoul (Patrick Wilson), whose presence is an irritation to the Phantom. The Phantom eventually kidnaps Christine and takes her to his vast, watery, underground labyrinth beneath the opera house ... 

Emmy Rossum and Patrick Wilson

The Phantom of the Opera is the film adaptation of  Andrew Lloyd Webber's very popular musical, which blends together various styles such as pop, rock, and operatic pastiche to tell its story. Although other versions of this famous tale have made up new reasons for the Phantom's disfigurement, this version sticks to the original notion that the Phantom -- or Eric -- was deformed since birth, 

The Pairs Opera

Phantom is handsomely produced and well-acted by Rossum, Wilson, and Butler, as well as Driver and a host of excellent character actors. Influenced by everyone from Puccini to Sondheim, Webber's score includes such memorable ditties as "Music of the Night," "Prima Donna," the title tune, "Point of No Return," "Wish You Were Here Again," and others. "Masquerade" is presented as an exciting full-fledged production number. Rossum has a lovely non-operatic voice, and while Butler is hardly a great singer, his voice works very well for the Phantom. 

Phantom of the Opera could have been a campy mess -- there are only occasional touches of camp --  and it will not work for everyone. But I found it absorbing and colorful and often melodious, with outstanding scenic design. A death trap sequence in the underground wherein the Phantom tries to kill Raoul is well-handled as well. 

Verdict: Very good adaptation of a highly successful and macabre musical. ***1/4. 

CHILDREN OF THE DAMNED

Beware Their Stare!

CHILDREN OF THE DAMNED (1964). Director: Anton Leader. Colorized.  

Psychologist Dr. Tom Llewellyn (Ian Hendry) and geneticist Dr. David Neville (Alan Badel) are amazed at the incredible intelligence of a young boy named Paul (Clive Powell). They discover that Paul is only one of a half dozen special and unemotional children from around the world, all of whom have come to London for testing. In each case the mother is unstable and there is no sign of a father. Eventually the telepathic children -- what one knows they all know -- band together, holing up in an abandoned church, and use their mind-control powers to kill anyone they perceive as a threat. Although at first the children are seen as a separate species, it is later theorized that they are about a million years ahead of ordinary humans in development. Tom and David literally come to blows arguing about the children, with David convinced they are a menace that must be destroyed and Tom hoping to fully communicate with them. It is a question who will be decimated first: the children, or the forces who come to kill them. 

Ian Hendry and Alan Badel

Children of the Damned is not really a sequel to Village of the Damned, but a completely different movie that uses some of the same concepts of the original picture while creating many of its own. In Village the children were essentially the vanguard of an alien invasion, but there's absolutely no mention of extraterrestrials in Children. Instead these six urchins are mutants with special powers but apparently no special purpose. However, they are not about to lay down and die, building a weapon utilizing the vibratory power of an organ to destroy the minds of armed invaders in the church in a very unnerving  sequence. Another good sequence is a triple murder by three men who are under mind-control, and the entire climax, a breathlessly edited standoff between the military and the children that ends in utter disaster. 

The kids and Barbara Ferris

Unfortunately, Children of the Damned has perhaps too many ideas percolating in its screenplay by John Briley. There's the carry over from Village with its dichotomy of little monsters with sweet, angelic faces, the need for mankind to protect itself versus the loathsome notion of killing children. The church setting, and especially the resurrection of one of the children after being shot, summons up thoughts of religious martyrdom and the like, even the Second Coming. The children seem to be praying at one point but we don't know to whom. One critic felt that Hendry and Badel are playing a gay couple, and the latter's hostile attitude toward the children is because Hendry seems to be drawing closer to Paul's aunt, Susan (Barbara Ferris), but I think this is a mighty big stretch. 

Clive Powell as Paul

The acting in the film is generally excellent, with especially nice work from Sheila Allen as the neurotic virgin mother of Paul. Alfred Burke is Colin Webster, a government man who decides to insert himself into the situation. Bessie Love is briefly seen as the grandmother of one of the children. Hendry and Badel play with real conviction, and Ferris manages to convey some anguish and confusion as the woman who spends half her time being controlled by her nephew and the others. One has to say that this film, including its predecessor and the novel, "Midwich Cuckoos" upon which it was derived, were highly influential: Stephen King's "Carrie," John Farris' "The Furies," and Stan Lee and Jack Kirby's X-Men all come to mind.

Verdict: Slow in spots, much too obtuse and muddled, but with an undeniably effective and powerful climax. **3/4. 

THE LADY AND THE MONSTER

Donovan's Brain

THE LADY AND THE MONSTER (1944). Director: George Sherman. 

Professor Franz Mueller (Erich von Stroheim) is a weird scientist who lives and works in a big old place called the Castle. He has two assistants: Janice (Vera Hruba Ralston), who is the object of his unwanted affections; and Dr. Patrick Cory (Richard Arlen), who is also in love with Janice. Mueller is obsessed with the idea of keeping a brain alive after death, and he gets his chance when a plane accident victim, wealthy W. H. Donovan, is brought to his estate. Although Cory goes along with it, he has serious misgivings, especially after the brain takes control of his mind and tries to get him to do things Donovan never had a chance to do while alive, such as getting his innocent son (William Henry of New Orleans Uncensored) acquitted of murder, and trying to run a child witness over with a car. 

Ralston and Arlen

Although The Lady and the Monster is not without flaws and has dull stretches, it improves as it goes along and turns out to be the somewhat superior version of the novel Donovan's Brain, which was also filmed under that title almost ten years later. Vera (Hruba) Ralston is billed above the title. Her husband ran Republic studios, which released this film, and was determined to turn her into a star, even though she perhaps lacked that all-important presence. Richard Arlen makes a better impression, although von Stroheim gives a strange, not terribly good performance along the lines of the one he delivered in The Crime of Dr. Crespi almost ten years earlier.

Richard Arlen and Sidney Blackmer

An interesting touch in the film is the way Arlen looks increasingly demonic the further he falls under Donovan's control. Sidney Blackmer acts with his customary authority as a lawyer that isn't sure of Arlen's motives or that he wants to work with him. Mary Nash is also effective as the sympathetic housekeeper, Mrs. Fain. William Henry only gets one scene and is adequate. The movie has an exciting climax involving a car and then a struggle on a cliffside. In the remake the brain begins to grow bigger but that doesn't happen in this version. 

Verdict: Okay brain movie with some suspense. **1/4. 

NIGHT OF THE BLOOD BEAST

The scene with the hanging corpse

NIGHT OF THE BLOOD BEAST (1958). Director: Bernard L. Kowalski. Produced by Gene and Roger Corman. Colorized.

An astronaut named John (Michael Emmet) returns to earth in his capsule and appears to be dead. However, he eventually comes to life and blood tests reveal that certain creatures are gestating inside his body. This is, of course, unnerving to his fiancee, Dr. Julie Benson (Angela Greene), as well as colleagues Steve (John Baer), Donna (Georgianna Carter), Dave (Ed Nelson, of T-Bird Gang), and Dr. Wyman (Tyler McVey of Teenage Thunder). An equally disquieting development is that an extraterrestrial creature somehow managed to make it to Earth, a huge thing with a parrot-like head that invades the lab and causes death and havoc. John is convinced the creature is nevertheless benevolent, but the others aren't so sure. 

Concerned trio: Nelson, Emmet, and Baer

Night of the Blood Beast resembles a gruesome horror comic book. Although we now know that spaceship launchings employ hundreds if not thousands of technicians and scientists, this space trip is handled by just this very small group of people. If you can simply accept that this aspect is a convenience of (very) low-budget filmmaking, you might enjoy this rather creepy movie which grows on me each time I see it. Although the reaction to a dead, mutilated corpse might not be as intense as one would have expected, the acting is generally credible. The influences on the later Alien are obvious. Emmet and McVey appeared together in Attack of the Giant Leeches, which was also directed by Kowalksi. Alexander Laszlo reuses the score for that film for Blood Beast. 

Verdict: Color, as usual, adds a new dimension to the horror. ***. 

CHILD'S PLAY (2019)

Andy and Chucky 

CHILD'S PLAY (2019). Director: Lars Klevburg. 

Karen Barclay (Aubrey Plaza) gives her son Andy (Gabriel Bateman) a technologically sophisticated doll, Buddi, for a present, but she doesn't know that a disgruntled employee of the firm who makes these toys has removed its safety protocols. The "doll." who calls itself Chucky, does everything it can to defend Andy, and gets sinister ideas after Andy and his pals -- along with Chucky-- watch one of the sequels to Texas Chainsaw Massacre. It isn't long before the massacre is on ... 

Child's Play is a pretty bad remake of the original 1988 film, and it gets just about everything wrong. The first mistake is turning Chucky into more of a robot that can already walk and talk on its own. Unlike the 1988 film, Chucky is not possessed by a serial killer, and -- although voiced by Mark Hamill -- has absolutely no personality. (It's like stripping Freddy Krueger of everything that made him interesting.) Andy is much older than in the original film, a teen, so the contrast of innocence with utter evil is minimized if not eliminated altogether. In addition the mother in this film is edgier than Catherine Hicks in the original, but both actress and character are unlikable. 

Andy and his pals

The sequels to the original film became increasingly stupid and gory, and this new version follows in that tradition. The killings in this aren't just grisly, they are sadistic (along the lines of the Saw movies), and even if most of the victims are creeps, I'm not sure they deserve what happens to them. Horror movies are not supposed to be in good taste, but I think the absolute nadir of this film -- if not modern horror films in general -- is when a cute little girl gets splattered and undoubtedly traumatized by a victim's spouting blood. Even the moments of black comedy don't do much to help this waste. 

Verdict: Even Deadly Friend was better than this! *1/2. 

WEAPONS

Not Bette Davis as Baby Jane; Amy Madigan as Aunt Gladys

WEAPONS (2025). Written and directed by Zach Cregger.

Seventeen children who were all in the class of a young female teacher named Justine (Julia Garner of Wolf Man) simply take off in the middle of the night and disappear. Justine becomes the chief suspect. Now you would imagine that FBI agents would be all over this town, but the only people working the case are some small-town cops, including Paul (Alden Ehrenreich) and one of the missing kids' fathers, Archer (Josh Brolin). Most of the people in town think that Justine has something to do with the children's disappearances, and frankly she seems more concerned over that than that her whole classroom has vanished. The only exception is young Alex (Cary Christopher), whose ill Aunt Gladys (Amy Madigan) is staying with him and his parents. Justine wants to talk to Alex herself, but the principal, Marcus (Benedict Wong), is against the idea. Meanwhile Paul pursues a drug-addicted drifter, James (Austin Abrams), who breaks into Alex' house and has reason to regret it ... 

Oscar-winning Amy Madigan

Weapons gets points for being something a little different, not just another slasher film, and (arguably) nothing with clowns. The picture is episodic, told from multiple points of view, and there is a degree of suspense until the villain behind the disappearances is revealed and everything turns into a dark, almost campy comedy. One could argue that the heavy moments of illogic -- nobody wonders about Alex' parents, for instance -- can be attributed not just to dramatic license but to the notion that Weapons is meant to be a kind of sinister fairy tale that no one could possibly take seriously. But that's just the problem. There are several very arresting sequences and some fine performances -- but no, I don't think Madigan's performance was quite worthy of an Oscar! -- but ultimately the whole thing just seems a little ridiculous, a burlesque. Also, for me, watching children being abused, psychologically or physically, is never entertaining. 

Verdict: Too long, too weird, too campy, too incredible, too much. **1/2. 

BONE LAKE

Maddie Hassan and Marco Pigossi

BONE LAKE (2024). Director: Mercedes Bryce Morgan.  

Sage (Maddie Hassen) and Diego (Marco Pigossi) are a young couple who are excited about a weekend retreat in a fabulous house in the country. Unfortunately, they discover the house has been double booked, and Cin (Andra Nechita) and her boyfriend Will (Alex Roe) show up on the doorstep. It is agreed that both couples will share the house, and slowly become friendly. But then things begin to turn a little sinister, with one couple trying to turn the other two against each other. Before long things turn desperate and deadly ... 

Andra Nechita and Alex Roe  

Bone Lake is not the most original of movies -- its earliest antecedent might be The Most Dangerous Game -- but it is quite well-acted and is suspenseful for most of its length. It eventually turns into a gory survival story, but is effective enough on that level. One sequence is almost ruined by a pretty bad (and painfully obvious) song, "Sex and Violence," playing over the action. There is a pretty mediocre cat fight. Overall the film is watchable, but a bit slow and predictable. 

Verdict: A lot of overfamiliar elements to this. **1/2. 

GHOST IN THE MACHINE

GHOST IN THE MACHINE (1993). Director: Rachel Talaley. 

Karl Hoffman (Ted Marcoux), who works in a computer store, is actually a deadly serial killer known as the "Address Book Killer" because he goes after all the people in an individual's address book. His latest would-be victim is Terry Monroe (Karen Allen), who has a young son named Josh (Wil Horneff) and who inadvertently leaves her address book at the aforementioned computer store. An added complication is that Hoffman is in a car accident, and while he is getting an MRI an electrical surge pulls his brain patterns, or soul, into the computer and electrical systems. Hoffman's body may be dead, but his malevolent mind is still very active and as sadistic as ever. Before long Terry's friends and associates are being killed via electronics, with microwaves, dishwashers, and the like going berserk and causing death and destruction. Terry and Josh team up with infamous hacker Bram Walker (Chris Mulkey) to figure out a way to permanently dissipate this frightening and powerful entity. 

Ghost in the Machine is somewhat similar to Wes Craven's Shocker, but it is a better picture. There is an interesting use of graphics such as when the killer invades a virtual reality game being played by Josh and his buddy. The scenes with the electronic death traps are generally well-handled and suspenseful. A standout sequence occurs when Josh is nearly drowned when Hoffman operates the cover over the pool and the boy desperately tries to get out before it completely entraps him. I wish the climax had been a bit more exciting, however, and the score does absolutely nothing for the movie. 

Verdict: Well-acted, interesting, absorbing horror flick. ***. 

THE BEAUTY Season One

Ashton Kutchner

THE BEAUTY (2026 TV series). Season One. Co-produced by Ryan Murphy.  

FBI agents Cooper Madsen (Evan Peters) and Jordan Bennett (Rebecca Hall), who claim they are just "casually" involved with each other, stumble across an incredible conspiracy engineered by billionaire Byron Forst (Vincent D'Onofrio, then Ashton Kutchner). A scientist in the sociopathic Forst's employ has come up with "the Beauty," an all-purpose, essentially instant chemical injection that can turn a person younger and more attractive once they emerge from a kind of plastic cocoon. Unfortunately, after three years or so those who take the Beauty may literally explode, as happens to several crazed fashion models. The Beauty is essentially a plague, and can be sexually transmitted, bypassing the injection, although the results in that case are even more uncertain. Jordan, who has sex with a hot guy who took the treatment, becomes younger and sexier (turning into Jess Alexander), Cooper undergoes a startling transformation, and one poor teenage girl ... Millions of people would hock their souls to get the treatment, but is the cost too high, and what about the horrific side effects undergone by some patients?

Isabella Rossellini

Based on a graphic novel, The Beauty, which has quite a few satiric targets, can be dumb, but it is also fascinating, suspenseful, odd, very gross at times, and I must admit highly enjoyable, a sort of guilty pleasure. Kutchner gives a ferociously mesmerizing performance as the utterly self-centered and evil younger version of Forst, and the other players -- including Anthony Ramos as a hit man employed and then betrayed by Forst -- are on the money. Isabella Rossellini is Forst's sarcastic and uncompromising wife, who seems to completely detest him, and Ben Platt is perhaps overly campy as a guy who gets infected when a model bursts into pieces at a public function. Viewers might see some similarities to The Substance, but the Beauty graphic novel was published several years before the Demi Moore movie.

Verdict: Compelling and slick horror series. Let's hope there's a season two. ***. 

BEASTS

BEASTS. Liam Sykes. Echo Horror. 

Erica Rogers is disturbed by the fact that her horses are acting strangely and can't figure out why. There is also bizarre, inexplicable behavior among the horses in Nevada where a young man named Rory makes his home. Eventually wild mustangs and other horses band together to literally wipe Rory's town off the map in an exciting chapter entitled "Stampede." As for Erica, one of her horses kills a little girl, as well as her mother, while the rest of her formerly docile mounts attack her, her mother, and her cousin. The horses even develop a taste for human flesh! There are more bloody encounters at county fairs and race tracks even as Erica tries to track down the people responsible for this equine outrage. 

This book is a reissue of a vintage "killer animal" paperback from the eighties and it is a lot of fun. Horses may seem unlikely antagonists, but the beasts in this book have been transformed and are extremely nasty and dangerous, and even undergo some physical changes. The author can't quite seem to make up his mind if it's a chemical, a plague, or supernatural influences that are responsible for the attacks -- or all three -- but it doesn't really matter. The paperback is available from Amazon and Barnes and Noble and the ebook is on Barnes and Noble, Kobo, and others. 

Verdict: Be careful whom you give a sugar cube to! ***