Harvesting the best of fall in a blog
Today, November 23, is Boris Karloff's birthday. Boris Karloff, you may know, appeared in dozens of classic horror films, as well as providing the narration for the original Grinch in Dr. Seuss' The Grinch Who Stole Christmas. Boris Karloff is famous for starring in Universal Picture's Frankenstein (1931) and The Bride of Frankenstein (1935) as... Continue Reading →
Happy Halloween! Get out your candles, Tarot cards and crystal ball! In the spooky spirit of the day, let's watch a movie about a very wicked witch! But in this case, the witch happens to be a man. You may or may not have heard of it, but Night of the Demon (1957) is a... Continue Reading →
Cat People is one of the most successful films produced by Val Lewton and director Jacques Tourneur for RKO in the 1940s. Working with a small budget and just a movie title, Lewton, Tourneur and screenwriter DeWitt Bodean created a hybrid horror/film noir movie that suggested rather than depicted the lead's transformation into a ferocious... Continue Reading →
This month, we have been looking at the strange and evocative movies produced by Ukranian-born movie writer and producer Val Lewton for RKO in the 1940s. Today, I am suggesting you watch The Seventh Victim, a 1943 film that has been thought to have inspired Roman Polanski's Rosemary's Baby. The Seventh Victim is not a... Continue Reading →
This month, I am presenting the wonderful 1940s film noir/horror B-movies of Val Lewton. I Walked With A Zombie was produced by Val Lewton for RKO in the 1940s and directed by Jacques Tourneur. Like all his horror films, it has a moody, sinister and mysterious plot with multi-layered meanings and dream-like film noir devices... Continue Reading →
Every week this Halloween season, I am featuring a different classic movie produced by the renowned Val Lewton. I am delighted to discover these psychological thrillers from the Golden Age of Hollywood this fall. Today, I suggest you watch The Leopard Man, a movie that is a part horror and part film noir, but completely... Continue Reading →
The Sanderson sisters are back for Halloween hijinks in the sequel to the 1993 film, Hocus Pocus. Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker and Kathy Najimy will reprise their roles as three witches up to no good in Hocus Pocus 2. Doug Jones will also return as your favorite zombie, Billy Butcherson. The sequel airs on... Continue Reading →
The first movie in this fall's round-up of Val Lewton horror films is Isle of the Dead (1945), starring Boris Karloff. It was produced by Val Lewton and directed by Mark Robson, who had previously directed The Ghost Ship and The Seventh Victim and had edited Cat People, I Walked With A Zombie and The... Continue Reading →
In this blog, I've always featured lots of horror movies because I love them and they are associated with Halloween. And you know, there are all kinds of horror movies. There are Universal monsters we all know and the lurid Hammer vampires. There are 1950s sci fi drive-in flicks and 1970s supernatural films. All wonderful... Continue Reading →
Yes, today is the day we celebrate those blood-sucking, garlic-hatting, undead, fiends. There are many good vampire stories and books, but Mark of the Vampire (1935) is not one of them. Of course, Bela Lugosi is wonderful in the few scenes in which he appears. But the movie plot is not wonderful and Lionel Barrymore... Continue Reading →
Autumn in Virginia 