At The Movies - Halloween Edition

Every October I like to get into the spirit of Halloween with some old fashioned horror movies. I occasionally like the contemporary works, but my favorites are the old classics and "B-Movies." (See the ones I reviewed last year.) This time around I decided to skip my traditional favorites and go for films I hadn't seen before.

THE REVENGE OF FRANKENSTEIN - Produced by the famous Hammer Studios in Britain this is the sequel to the classic CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN. Filmed in 1958 the film stars Peter Cushing, who returns as the evil Dr. Frankenstein. The doctor is up to his usual tricks as he goes "underground" to continue his mad work. The Frankenstein films from Hammer are all on par with the classics from Unviersal...with one glaring difference - the Hammer films focus more on Dr. Frankenstein rather than the monster. Great movie!

HOUSE OF WAX - Over the years I had seen bits and pieces of this movie, but I had never taken the time to watch it from start to end. Made in 1953 the film stars the iconic Vincent Price, who plays Henry Jarrod, a professor who sculpts wax figures for a museum. It turns out Henry Jarrod is also moonlighting as a killer. This movie was one of the first 3D films ever made, and it's considered a classic. Great movie! This is Vincent Price at his finest.


DRACULA HAS RISEN FROM THE GRAVE and TASTE THE BLOOD OF DRACULA- If you ask any film historian or critic what actor they think of when they hear the word Dracula, odds are it would be Bela Lugosi, who played the role in 1931 (still one of the best Dracula movies ever made.) Well...there's only one other actor who could even be considered in the conversation along with Lugosi, and that's the great Christopher Lee. Back in the 50's and 60's Hammer Studios in Britain produced some great Dracula movies starring Christopher Lee, like these two. Lee's Dracula combined Lugosi's gentleman-like menace with rabid madness. The plots in these movies are all the same, but the entertainment is in watching Lee work his magic.

THE DEVIL BAT - This was one I saw recently on Turner Classic Movies. I had never heard of it, but when I saw that it starred Bela Lugosi I had to check it out. Made in 1940 the movie stars Bela Lugosi who stars as not a vampire...but a mad scientist. Betrayed by his former employers for cheating him out of a fortune, Lugosi decides to get his revenge by training giant bats to kill them. This is a classic B-movie in every sense of the word. The bats are laughable as they fly through the air on zip wires that you can clearly see. But you still gotta love it. There's just something about watching Lugosi stumble around a secret laboratory that I just love.

THE MUMMY - Another Hammer Studios production, this 1959 movie stars both Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. That alone is why you should see it. This is a retelling of the Universal movie that starred Boris Karloff in 1932. There are many similarities here, but unlike the Karloff version, the Mummy in this version appears throughout the entire movie. That alone makes this version better than the original. Very good movie.


RETURN OF THE FLY and CURSE OF THE FLY - I'm a BIG fan of THE FLY, the classic from 1958. But I had never checked out its two sequels. In both films, the integration of humans and insects continue, only this time it's not by accident. In both films you'll find plenty of mad scientists bent on pushing the laws of nature. While these films are fun they don't have the charm of the first one.