13 Nights of Shocktober: The Haunted Palace

by A.J.

Night 9: Roger Corman Memorial Night/Vincent Price Night

“This isn’t a house. It’s a madman’s palace.”

The Haunted Palace

It’s not Shocktober without Vincent Price and here Price and legendary producer-director Roger Corman, who passed away earlier this year at the age of 98, take on the unfilmable eldritch horrors of H.P Lovecraft in The Haunted Palace. If you’re thinking that The Haunted Palace is an Edgar Allen Poe poem and not a Lovecraft story, you are correct. By 1963 Corman and Price had made several Poe adaptations, with varying degrees of success, including House of Usher, The Pit and the Pendulum, three Poe stories in the anthology Tales of Terror, The Raven and Corman wanted to tackle new material. Corman’s investors were hesitant for him to stop making Poe adaptations, so the compromise was that he would adapt another American horror author, H.P. Lovecraft, but the title would be taken from an Edgar Allen Poe poem, which Price recites excerpts of to justify the title. So, the title was taken from Poe’s The Haunted Palace and the plot was taken from H.P. Lovecraft’s The Case of Charles Dexter Ward. The result is a Roger Corman/Vincent Price movie that checks all the right boxes, yet in some ways is darker than their previous collaborations.

The story opens in colonial New England with villagers capturing and burning Joseph Curwen, a warlock attempting to summon dark, evil forces. Before Curwen is burned, he puts a curse on the village of Arkham (a frequent setting for Lovecraft). 110 years later, presumably some non-specific decade of the 19th century, Charles Dexter Ward, a descendant of Curwen, and his wife Ann arrive in Arkham after Charles inherits the old Curwen castle. They do not receive a warm welcome from the villagers and are told either to avoid the castle or leave Arkham altogether. Of course, the castle comes with a creepy caretaker (Lon Chaney, Jr), as spooky castles often do. Charles becomes possessed by the spirit of his evil ancestor and once in control of Charles’s body, Curwen returns to his work of using the Necronomicon to summon the dark Elder Gods.

Unlike in The Pit and the Pendulum there is no young hero to duel with Price. Instead, Price gets to duel with himself as Charles and Curwen fight for control of his body. Price goes from sinister to sympathetic easily and believably. When he’s Curwen his skin takes on a greenish-yellow hue that no one seems to notice, but even without the makeup it would be easy to tell when he is Charles and when he is Curwen. It is great to see Price play both the villain and the hero in the same role. Curwen is a dark and evil character with a horrendous plan—Price’s darkest role would  come a few years later as the real-life “witch hunter” Matthew Hopkins in Witchfinder General.

The setting may be Arkham and the source material may be Lovecraft but The Haunted Palace has all the hallmarks of a Corman-Poe adaptation: period setting, vibrant period costumes, low cut gowns for the women, foggy exteriors, lightening, characters with torches, and a spacious gothic location with secret chambers and passageways. The main difference with this movie is that it is more sinister than you might expect. The curse Curwen puts on the village manifests itself as deformities (like being born with no eyes) in the village children. Also, Curwen’s plan to summon the Elder Gods involves mating humans with the monstrous, otherworldly beings.

My friend and podcast co-host Bryan Connolly and I had an in-depth review and discussion of The Haunted Palace as part of our series on Francis Ford Coppola (episode 20, Coppola Cast #2), who at the time in 1963 was Roger Corman’s “ace assistant." Like all the better Corman-Price movies, this is a spooky but not scary movie that still has great entertainment value. Nearly everything looks fake and artificial but that is part of the charm and atmosphere of the movie. Corman is presenting a tale of the fantastic so any noticeable artifice, even stiff acting or over acting, only enhances its storybook/campfire tone. 

The Haunted Palace is streaming for free on Tubi.

13 Nights of Shocktober: Tales of Terror

by A.J. 

This is my favorite time of year, second only to Christmas. Autumn has arrived, the weather is cooling down, and October becomes the month-long celebration of scary movies called Shocktober. So, for the days leading up Halloween I’ll be posting some horror movie recommendations to help you celebrate Shocktober.

Night 11: Vincent Price & Roger Corman Night

“And it is with death and dying that we concern ourselves. What happens at the point of death? What happens afterwards? What happens after death to someone who does not choose to stay dead…”

Tales of Terror

Here are two of my favorite Shocktober subgenres in one movie: a Vincent Price-Roger Corman movie and a horror anthology. It gets even better. Tales of Terror is made up of three short films, each starring the great Vincent Price and each based on the works of Edgar Allan Poe. I’m not sure it gets more Shocktober than this. Legendary B-movie producer-director Roger Corman made so many films of such wildly differing quality that you never know if you’re going to watch a quality entertaining picture or fodder for Mystery Science Theater 3000 or Rifftrax. Corman hit his stride in the early 1960’s with a cycle of Edgar Allan Poe adaptations starring Vincent Price. The best of these is The Masque of the Red Death (1964), probably the worst is The Raven (1963). Tales of Terror (1962) leans more toward The Masque of the Red Death on the Corman-Price spectrum. 

Each of the three stories is prefaced with a narration by Price and red silhouettes on a black screen hinting at the story to come. The first story, based on Morella, has a young woman, Lenora (Maggie Pierce), arriving at the dilapidated mansion of her long-estranged father, Locke (Price). Her mother, Locke’s beloved Morella, died in childbirth and he blamed and resented his daughter so much for “killing” Morella that he sent her away. He begins to open up to her but mysterious apparitions and Lenora’s own sickness intervene. It is a weird, creepy story that maintains a tone very much in keeping with Poe’s more melancholy, macabre stories. 

The second story is the standout of the anthology. In an impressive feat, it successfully combines Poe’s The Black Cat, The Cask of Amontillado, and even touches upon the Tell-Tale Heart. Of course, an adaptation of any Poe short story necessitates expanding the characters and plot. In a brilliant stroke, screenwriter Richard Matheson (writer of several The Twilight Zone episodes and author of I Am Legend) combines two stories with the same plot device (hiding a body behind a wall) and allows the expansion to come from Poe’s stories. The Black Cat is about a man who murders his wife and then must dispose of her body. In this short film, he murders her is because she was having an affair with his rival. The choice to make the man Montresor (Peter Lorre) and his rival Fortunato (Vincent Price) is such a smart one that it seems obvious. This is the comedic entry in the anthology and it blends comedy and the macabre well. The comedy doesn’t really kick in until Price makes his entrance and starts hamming it up as the vain and ridiculous Fortunato, a famous professional wine taster. Peter Lorre is great as Montresor, a down on his luck wine taster. They have a wine tasting duel which is pretty silly and very entertaining. Montresor is a mean drunk always in search of money but Lorre plays him as a buffoon. This doesn’t make him sympathetic but makes him a tolerable character, especially since you know he is headed for a comeuppance. 

The final installment is an adaptation of The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar, not exactly a horror story but a macabre one. It involves a dying man, Valdemar (Price), hypnotized at the moment of death to allow for a more peaceful crossing into the afterlife. However, the hypnotist, Carmichael (Basil Rathbone), is a cruel and sinister man with designs on Valdemar’s soon to be widow, Helene (Debra Paget). Rathbone is most famous for playing Sherlock Holmes in a series of films in the 1940’s, but he is also great at playing a dastardly villain. This short departs the most drastically from Poe’s original work, involving a zombie of sorts, but the additions work and it provides a nice conclusion. 

Each of these tales plays like a daytime friendly Tales From the Crypt episode. They involve unsavory or cruel characters but the short length makes them easy watch. As with Corman’s other Poe adaptations, the period costumes and sets go a long way to creating atmosphere. Each of the characters Vincent Price plays are very different from each other, allowing him to show off his range and skill as an actor. In Morella he is a cruel, cold person haunted by heartbreak. In The Black Cat he is an immoral but ridiculous character. In the last story he is a kind, innocent old man, who, in a macabre way, ends up being a hero. Price is easily convincing in all three roles. One of the great things about Tales of Terror is it also has great roles for Peter Lorre and Basil Rathbone to show off and have fun. The special effects are dated but that is part of the atmosphere and appeal. These Vincent Price-Roger Corman movies are not scary, but they are spooky great fun to watch on any Shocktober night.

Tales of Terror is streaming on Amazon Prime Video and Paramount Plus.

13 Nights of Shocktober: The Pit and the Pendulum (1961)

by A.J.

This is my favorite time of year, second only to Christmas. Autumn has arrived, the weather is cooling down, and October becomes the month-long celebration of scary movies called Shocktober. So, in the days leading up Halloween I’ll be posting some horror movie recommendations to help you celebrate Shocktober.

Night 12: Vincent Price Night

“The razor edge of destiny.” The Pit and the Pendulum (1961)

I may seem like I’m repeating myself but I cannot emphasize enough how with a Roger Corman movie, more so than with any other filmmaker, you never know what you’re going to get: B-movie dreck, campy fun, or something genuinely good, even great. The Pit and the Pendulum is definitely in the top tier of Roger Corman/Vincent Price movies. Like all of Roger Corman’s Edgar Allen Poe adaptations, you’ll find period costumes and sets, a spooky castle, occasionally stiff acting, low budget charm, and a great performance from Vincent Price. 

Unsurprisingly, the screenplay by Richard Matheson adds quite a bit to Poe’s very short story, which is mainly an elaborate description of the titular torture devices and light on plot. Set in Spain during the 1500’s, Francis Barnard (John Kerr) arrives at the castle of Don Nicolas Medina (Price) to investigate the sudden death of his sister Elizabeth (Barbara Steele), the Don’s beloved wife. Don Medina is still in mourning and heartbroken over Elizabeth’s death, but the lack of details about her death raises Barnard’s suspicions. As Don Medina, his sister Catherine (Luana Anders), and the doctor who treated Elizabeth each fill in the details, the cause of Elizabeth’s death only becomes more mysterious. We also learn that Don Medina’s father was involved with the Spanish Inquisition and the dungeon of the castle still has the torture devices. In a blue tinted flashback, the young Nicolas witnesses his father torture and kill his mother and uncle for their adultery. 

If your plan involves driving Vincent Price insane, it’s not going to work out for anyone. Usually, though not always, Price played the villain or ended up becoming the villain through spirit possession or madness. Don Medina begins as a seemingly sympathetic character, but there is also an air of suspicion around him. As the plot unfolds it becomes clear that Don Medina was not involved in Elizabeth’s death but his paranoia and misplaced guilt threaten to drive him to a nervous breakdown. This gives Price some great scenes to show off. He gets to play a heartbroken widower, a doting husband in flashbacks, a man losing his sanity, and, finally, an all-out mad villain. 

The opening titles play over a swirl of psychedelic colors and ominous music. The costumes and sets create the atmosphere but the performances and story provide the tension and excitement. The titular pendulum, the swinging blade slowly lowering itself closer and closer to a bound victim, is genuinely intimidating. The clank of the gears that lower the blade and the whoosh as it swings through the air make the whole scene very tense. 

The Roger Corman/Vincent Price films are great to watch anytime, but they are especially fun to watch around Halloween. The additions to the original story are in keeping with Poe’s themes like a lost love, fear of premature burial, and madness. So, the connection back to Poe feels merited (unlike like Roger Corman’s The Raven). This may not be exactly scary, but it is a great old fashioned gothic horror story, thoroughly entertaining and thrilling.

13 Nights of Shocktober: Extraordinary Tales

by A.J.

This is my favorite time of year, second only to Christmas. Autumn has arrived, the weather is cooling down, and October becomes the month-long celebration of scary movies called Shocktober.  So, in the days leading up Halloween I’ll be posting some horror movie recommendations to help you celebrate Shocktober.

Night 12: Horror Anthology Night

Poe: “I want to be sure my words will survive me, that they will never be lost in time.”

Death: “That, my friend, Nevermore.”

Extraordinary Tales 

Adapting Edgar Allan Poe’s most famous and beloved works, his short stories and poems, to a feature length film is tricky and difficult. The short stories get padded out and, in some cases, only vaguely resemble their source material. Some of these are good but barely resemble the original story: The Black Cat (1934) has a black cat in one shot and a completely made up plot. Some are utter dreck: The Raven features a raven briefly and a plot about wizards and magic. And a few actually capture the events and the essence of the story, adding plot and characters that feel like an extension of the story, not extraneous additions: The Masque of the Red Death (1964), directed by Roger Corman and starring Vincent Price, which I’ve written about for a previous Shocktober and highly recommend. To adapt Poe’s stories without added plot or characters could only be done with short films, or an anthology.

The stories of Poe and the anthology film format are such a perfect combination I’m surprised there aren’t more Poe based anthology films, or at least more noteworthy ones. The animated anthology Extraordinary Tales, written and directed by Raul Garcia, is indeed noteworthy, not just for its approach to Poe’s stories, but also its superb execution and unexpected, haunting pathos.

Each vignette has a distinct animation style with great imagery and notable narrator. The Fall of the House of Usher, narrated by Christopher Lee, is the first and longest of the short films, and it is an excellent start to this moody and atmospheric collection. It captures wonderfully the melancholy and dread that looms over the house of Rodrick Usher as he fears his sister has been buried alive. The Tell-Tale Heart is animated in stark black and white. This short segment is narrated by Bela Lugosi, whose voice comes through the distant hiss and crackle of an old phonograph. The third segment, The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar, animated to resemble a comic book, is probably the least known story in the film. This story, narrated by Julian Sands, tells of a mesmerist who hypnotizes an ill friend at the moment of death in an attempt to stop death and learn about the great beyond. 

The Pit and the Pendulum, about a prisoner facing torture at the hands of the Spanish Inquisition, is told by Guillermo Del Toro and done in a realistic computer animation. The final segment is the silent The Masque of the Red Death. This story shows us the gruesome effects of a plague and the decadence of people celebrating in the castle of Prince Prospero, believing themselves safe from the plague. There is only one line of dialogue in this film, when the Prince (voiced by Roger Corman) questions the identity of the strange guest that dares to wear a mask resembling the effects of the plague.

The stories are all tied together with a peculiar and clever device: a raven visits a cemetery and has a conversation with a stone statue of a woman. The Raven is the soul of Poe, and the female voice of the motionless statue is Death. Their conversation is a gateway to Poe’s stories. The Raven is melancholy and proud and anxious and defiant of death and time. “My work is eternal,” it says, “I want that eternity.” The soft sweet voice of death is gentle, beguiling, and alluring, but also content and peaceful and inviting. The scenes of the Raven and Death are haunting and give us glimpses into Poe’s life and thoughts.

Extraordinary Tales is a wonderful and fitting tribute to Edgar Allan Poe, a love letter to his work and influence. It is a great way to enjoy some of his most famous stories or introduce someone to them. It’s also great to watch with someone that isn’t really into horror and makes for a perfect moody Shocktober night.

13 Nights of Shocktober: Masque of the Red Death (1964)

by A. J.

This is my favorite time of year, second only to Christmas. Autumn has arrived, the weather is cooling down, and October becomes the month-long celebration of scary movies called Shocktober. There are a lot of horror movies out there, but as a genre, horror is still looked down upon by some mainstream critics and moviegoers. It doesn’t help that, admittedly, there are so few quality horror movies made but, like comedy, it’s a very difficult and subjective genre. So, in the days leading up Halloween I’ll be posting some recommendations for scary movies to help you celebrate Shocktober.

Night 12: Vincent Price Night

The Red Death held illimitable dominion over all.

Masque of the Red Death (1964)

You never know what you’re going to get from a Roger Corman movie. He has produced an incredible number of movies of wildly varying degrees of quality. This includes the films he directed himself, such as this one. You may get absolute dreck (prime fodder for Mystery Science Theater 3000), an enjoyable but campy B-movie, or you may get a genuinely good film. Masque of the Red Death falls into the third, and smallest, category.

Vincent Price stars as the villainous Prince Prospero, a tyrannical medieval lord that worships the devil. He is passing through a village when he is confronted by two of the angry and poor villagers. Prospero sentences them to death but Francesca (Jane Asher) begs for their lives because they are her father, Lodovico, and her lover, Gino. Prospero takes them all to his castle and orders the village burned to the ground when the plague known as the Red Death is discovered there.

Lavish, decadent parties are the order of the day at Prospero’s castle. At these gatherings Prospero humiliates his guests by commanding them to act like animals and even kills people without a second thought. While Francesca is taught etiquette by Prospero’s consort, Juliana, Gino and Lodovico are forced to train to fight each other to the death. Prospero gives Francesca a tour of his palace and its different colored rooms. One room is solid yellow, another is solid purple, another white, and so on. Everything in each room is the same shade of color making the rooms look unnatural and surreal. The colors of the sets and costumes are rich and bold and easily capture the eye. The sets look artificial but this only adds to the surreal, gothic atmosphere of the film.

Vincent Price is excellent as the evil Prince Prospero. He plays his villains as characters that know they are bad and enjoy being bad, or he plays them as sympathetic, tragic figures forced to do villainous deeds. Prince Prospero is firmly in the former group. Price is the rare kind of actor that always knows exactly what kind of film he is in and attunes his performance accordingly. Because Price allows himself to have fun with his performance it allows the audience to enjoy the villain and the film completely. 

Masque of the Red Death is based on the Edgar Allen Poe story of the same name, and also has a subplot based on Hop-Frog. It also includes references to other Poe stories like The Raven and The Pit and the Pendulum. The screenplay was co-written by Charles Beaumont, who also wrote many of the best episodes of The Twilight Zone. As you might imagine, the film greatly expands upon Poe’s short story but the chilling touch of Poe is never lost. This is one of several films based on Poe stories that Roger Corman and Vincent Price made together and it is widely acknowledged as one of, if not the, best. 

13 Nights of Shocktober: Brain Dead (1990)

by A.J.

This is my favorite time of year, second only to Christmas. Autumn has arrived, the weather is cooling down, and October becomes the month-long celebration of scary movies called Shocktober. There are a lot of horror movies out there, but as a genre, horror is still looked down upon by some mainstream critics and moviegoers. It doesn’t help that, admittedly, there are so few quality horror movies made but, like comedy, it’s a very difficult and subjective genre. So, in the days leading up Halloween I’ll be posting some recommendations for scary movies to help you celebrate Shocktober.

Night 8: Bill Paxton Memorial Night II/Psychological Horror Night

"We can’t all do good, but at least do no harm."

Brain Dead (1990) 

Brain Dead is perhaps most famous for being the movie that stars both Bill Pullman and the late Bill Paxton. No one would blame you if the movie’s DVD cover art and producer, Julie Corman (wife of the legendary B-movie producer Roger Corman), made you think that Brain Dead was just B-horror movie schlock. It’s actually a psychological thriller about the mind’s perception of reality, with some B-horror schlock thrown in. The screenplay was written in the 1960’s by Charles Beaumont for Roger Corman, but remained unproduced until Julie Corman rediscovered the script in the late 80’s. Charles Beaumont’s other writing credits include several episodes of The Twilight Zone (including some of my favorites: "Number 12 Looks Just Like You," "The Living Doll", and "Perchance to Dream"). Director Adam Simon updated the story for the 80’s and the film was released in 1990. 

Bill Pullman plays Dr. Rex Martin, a neurosurgeon researching brain functions and mental illnesses. He is asked by an old friend, Jim Reston, played by Bill Paxton, to investigate a mathematician, Halsey, played by Bud Cort, that had a mental breakdown, killed his family, and destroyed the top secret research he was doing for Paxton’s company. Paxton pressures Pullman to perform a risky brain operation that would either cure Halsey’s mind and allow him to remember the sensitive corporate information or would leave him brain dead. Each actor fits nicely into their respective roles. Pullman as Dr. Rex is completely comfortable with his character and great to watch as the reserved, intellectual scientist that loses his mind to paranoia and delusions. Paxton as Reston, with his slicked back hair, is great as a corporate sleaze and potentially dubious friend.You're equally willing to believe that he has a devious secret agenda or that he's a trustworthy friend. It's a role he plays with brilliant ease. The company Paxton’s character works for is a giant conglomerate whose holdings are so ridiculously diverse that a cutting edge neuroscience division seems plausible. The downside is that science is expected to conform to corporate bottom lines, once again proving that real villain of many 80’s and early 90’s movies is, you guessed it, Reaganomics.

While Brian Dead is more than just B-movie schlock, it still does not take itself too seriously. Pullman works in a lab with brains floating in jars and the approach to brain surgery is just a step above The Man With Two Brains. The film really hits its stride when it travels into mind bending territory. The visions Halsey has while being operated on are creative, fascinating, and surreal. Pullman’s character keeps seeing a laughing man in a bloody white suit. At an incredibly awkward dinner he hallucinates that Paxton is kissing his wife while his boss pats him on the back. Pullman reaches for the rafters with his descent into madness and hits every note solidly.

Even as it delves into dreams, delusions, and altered reality Brain Dead still keeps an exciting and very interesting tone. Don’t get caught up in trying to figure out where a mental break happened or a dream began. The fun in Brain Dead is in the twists and turns and not knowing what will happen next. 

Brain Dead is a psychological mind bender with more traditional horror movie effects and scares. Shades of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and The Twilight Zone run throughout the story. It finds a nice balance between serious psychological horror and campy fun horror. You could call it cerebral schlock, but no matter how you categorize it, Brain Dead makes for great Shocktober viewing.

13 Nights of Shocktober: Night of the Creeps

by A.J. 

This is my favorite time of year, second only to Christmas. Autumn has arrived, the weather is cooling down, and October becomes the month long celebration of scary movies called Shocktober. There are a lot of horror movies out there, but as a genre, horror is still looked down upon by some mainstream critics and moviegoers. It doesn’t help that, admittedly, there are so few quality horror movies made but, like comedy, it’s a very difficult and subjective genre. So, in the days leading up Halloween I’ll be posting some recommendations for scary movies to help you celebrate Shocktober.

Night 12: Spooky Fun Night, “The good news is your date is here. The bad news is…he’s dead.”

Night of the Creeps

The first time I saw the cult classic Night of the Creeps was on TCM as part of TCM Underground. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing, on TCM of all channels, but I was very entertained and glad TCM included it in their programming schedule, uncut and commercial free. It is a cheesy 1980’s B-film of a horror movie but it is also a thoroughly entertaining love letter to cheesy 1950’s sci-fi/horror movies. Even a sharp observer will have to hit the rewind button a few times to catch all of the direct and indirect references to other horror movies and horror filmmakers.  

Right away Night of the Creeps lets you know what kind of movie you’re in for. It begins with two aliens with ray-guns on a spaceship chasing after a third alien carrying a cylinder. When the aliens speak, their dialogue is subtitled in both English and, what I assume to be, their alien language. The aliens are so obviously short men in suits and masks that I think that is what director Fred Dekker must have intended since the special effects later in the movie are pretty good. Dekker would go on to direct another cult classic with great effects, The Monster Squad, which is either a terrible or great film depending on what age you were when you first saw it. I think it’s great.

The mysterious alien cylinder is shot into space and lands on Earth in 1959. The first scene on Earth is in black and white and looks like a clichéd scene from 1950’s teen horror movie. The setting is sorority row and not that far away a boy and girl are in a parked car. From the alien cylinder a wormy slug springs into the mouth of the boy who left his date alone in the car. While an alien parasite worm is jumping into his mouth, an axe wielding escaped mental patient is attacks the girl. After this scene you should definitely know that Night of the Creeps is campy, over the top, self-aware fun. The movie then jumps to 1986 during "Pledge Week." We meet Chris and J.C., two college freshmen. Chris talks J.C. into pledging a fraternity with him because he is desperate to impressive the very pretty Cynthia, who he thinks (for no reason at all) is only interested in frat guys. Cynthia’s boyfriend, Brad, is the head of the fraternity and gives them the pledge task of stealing a dead body from the university medical lab. Chris and J.C. accidentally unfreeze the body of the college boy infected with the alien parasite back in the 50’s. They freak out and run away. The infected zombie body walks out of the university, but not before attacking a young scientist played by a young David Paymer. 

The zombie body walks to the sorority house where its head splits open and releases more parasite slugs. The slugs enter into a body then eat at the brain turning a person into essentially a zombie until their head explodes to spread more slugs. The special effects are great old-school practical effects. Some effects, like the slugs and zombie make-up hold up better than others, like the animatronic zombie dog and cat, which still look pretty cool and scary. The effects do get pretty gross, but they are meant to scare and entertain you, not just shock you and make you feel queasy. Night of the Creeps has fun with its effects too. When a bus driver sees the decaying zombie dog in the road, his eyes bulge out of his head, like a cartoon.

Night of the Creeps is a movie you watch for the fun, gross effects, but there are some good characters to go along with the effects too. Chris and J.C. are supposed to be geeks, but there’s nothing much geeky about them other than that they’re not jocks. Chris Romero, our main character, is unfortunately blandly average. His only motivation is to impress the pretty girl because she is pretty. The characters around him, however, are pretty interesting and entertaining. His goofy friend J.C. (James Carpenter) Hooper, is more socially adept and aware and is, overall, a more well-rounded character. The character that steals the movie is the hardened, self-destructive Detective Cameron played by Tom Atkins. He walks into a crime scene and says “thrill me” and constantly refers to Chris and J.C. as Spanky and Alfalfa. When he shoots one zombie in the head he says, “It’s Miller time.” It doesn’t make any sense but it’s great. My favorite scene with him is when he tells Chris a haunting story of revenge from his past. It’s a serious and intense speech in the middle a campy movie and an awkward moment for Chris. Somehow, this character isn’t laughable but is still fun and fits right in with the rest of the movie.

My favorite character is Cynthia Cronenberg, the object of everyone’s affections, played by Jill Whitlow. To say that the female roles in 80’s comedies, especially 80’s teen comedies, are lacking in substance would be a gross understatement. Cynthia, however, is not a trophy or a doll. She’s not impressed with Chris at first since he sent J.C. to talk to her for him. She puts together that the attacks happening around the college are related to the missing body from the medical lab and has to convince Chris and J.C., who are skeptical. At the climax, when a busload of slug infested zombie frat guys descend upon the sorority house, she fights them off along with Chris and Detective Cameron to protect the rest of the sorority. Shooting the zombies stops them, but then the slugs inside just explode out and scatter. The only thing that kills the slugs is fire, so Detective Cameron gets a flamethrower from the police armory (because of course they have a flamethrower). It’s Cynthia who uses that flame thrower while wearing her formal gown to kill off the alien slugs, and she is as badass as she sounds.

This movie is as much a tribute to the whole horror genre as it is a send up of 50’s sci-fi/horror movies. If the characters last names sound familiar it is because many characters are named after horror and science fiction directors like: David Cronenberg (Shivers), James Cameron (Piranha II, Terminator), Sean S. Cunningham (Friday the 13^th), Steve Miner (Friday the 13^th Part II and III), Sam Raimi (Evil Dead), John Carpenter (Halloween), Tobe Hooper (Texas Chainsaw Massacre), John Landis (An American Werewolf in London), and George Romero (Night of the Living Dead). The characters all attend Corman University, named after legendary producer Roger Corman, who made many, many campy films. When the sorority house mother is attacked she is watching Plan 9 from Outer Space on TV, perhaps the campiest film ever made by the man once voted worst director of all time, Ed Wood. 

Night of the Creeps was a flop when it was released in theaters but has since gone on to build a cult following. I can understand why. This movie has everything: horror, comedy, aliens, sorority girls, awesome horror effects, zombie jocks, a zombie cat, a zombie David Paymer, scenes in black and white, a scene with Dick Miller (who appears in several 80's horror movies), a suicidal cop on edge, a montage of college kids getting ready for a dance, and, best of all, a badass sorority girl with a flamethrower. Night of the Creeps is lots of fun and even a little scary. It’s a perfect movie for horror movie fans, people that like campy movies, and people that just want to have a spooky good time. 

13 Nights of Shocktober: Targets

by A.J.  

This is my favorite time of year, second only to Christmas. Autumn has arrived, the weather is cooling down, and October becomes the month long celebration of scary movies called Shocktober. There are a lot of horror movies out there, but as a genre, horror is still looked down upon by some mainstream critics and moviegoers. It doesn’t help that, admittedly, there are so few quality horror movies made but, like comedy, it’s a very difficult and subjective genre. So, in the days leading up Halloween I’ll be posting some recommendations for scary movies to help you celebrate Shocktober.

Night 10: Meta-Horror Night, “You know what they call my films today? Camp! High camp!”

Targets

Targets is a very peculiar film. It is more of a slow burn thriller than a traditional horror movie, but it is partly about horror films and meditates on both horror movies and real life horrors. Targets is director Peter Bogdanovich’s first feature film. He made the film in 1968 for legendary producer Roger Corman, whose only requirements of Bogdanovich was that he use actor Boris Karloff (who owed Corman two days’ work), and use stock footage from Corman’s 1963 film, The Terror (starring Boris Karloff). The story could be about anything. Bogdanovich wrote the screenplay with then wife Polly Platt, who was also the production designer. The result is a dual story, low budget movie that moves slow, but is interesting.

Boris Karloff plays an elderly horror movie legend named Byron Orlok who wants to retire against the wishes of the studio executives and the director of his latest movie, played by Peter Bogdanovich. The movie begins with the stock footage from The Terror (which also stars Jack Nicholson) doubling for footage of Orlok’s latest movie. It is a horror film with a castle, period costumes, and a terrible thunderstorm. It’s the kind of horror movie that Karloff himself made throughout his career, and like the films made by Hammer Films. Orlok is unhappy watching a preview of the film and decides to retire. He says that he feels like an anachronism and says the world belongs to the young. 

The second story is about a seemingly average, normal, clean cut looking young man named Bobby Thompson, played by Tim O'Kelly. He is a veteran and likes to collects guns. We see his home life; he and his wife live with his parents. He starts acting strangely. When out shooting at cans with a friend he lets the sight of his gun linger on the other person while their back is turned. He is distant from his wife and smokes in bed with all of the lights turned out. Then he types a cryptic note in red ink on his typewriter and begins a killing spree. He takes his rifle and some other guns, finds a high place, and starts picking off people.

The stories are not related directly but you know that they will eventually intersect. Bogdanovich works subtly to meld the stories together. The first time we see the Thompson is in a gun shop across the street from where Orlok screened his movie. The young man puts Orlok in his gunsight and lets it linger. It is safe to assume that the two men will have a confrontation at the premiere of Orlok’s movie at the drive-in theater where he will make his final public appearance before retiring. 

You can tell that Bogdanovich really wanted his movie to be 90 minutes long. Scenes play out a bit longer than they should and sometimes that helps the narrative, sometimes it doesn’t. There are several extended scenes of the Bobby Thompson’s average home life as he is becoming slowly and quietly unhinged. These scenes don’t really build character, but when they work, they have you searching for clues for why he’s cracking up. Even then, however, these scenes could still be shorter. The most effective of these lengthy scenes happens when Thompson is up on a refinery tower and unpacks his lunch. It’s an odd, humanizing moment (even psycho killers need to eat too), and it means that he planned ahead enough to pack a lunch, which is unnerving.    

The scenes with Boris Karloff work purely because it is interesting to watch Karloff playing a character loosely based on himself. He spends his scenes either with his assistant contemplating retirement or with Bogdanovich, who is trying to convince him not to retire. I get the distinct feeling that their scenes together exist just because Bogdanovich wanted to hang out with Boris Karloff. I can’t blame him; I would’ve done the same thing. The best scene of Targets by far is of Karloff telling an audience an old ghost story about a man encountering Death.

This movie was made at a time when the country was changing, culture was changing, and all the while the Vietnam War raged in the background. Targets is not explicitly about gun control, mental health, or even Vietnam, though the specter of each looms over every scene. It seems fairly obvious that the young man is based on Charles Whitman, who killed several people from the University of Texas tower in Austin only two years prior. That very year, 1968, would see two American political figures, each a symbol of promise and hope in their own way, gunned down by assassins: Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy. If you read books about film history, Targets will likely be in more than one of those books. It is not a landmark film like Rosemary’s Baby or Night of the Living Dead but it is a notable part of the shift that began to occur in horror films in the late 60s.

Up until this time in film history nearly every horror film was set in the past, in a faraway land, or a large spooky house or castle. The most notable exception to this was a few horror films produced by Val Lewton in the 1940s and 50s. That changed in 1968, the same year Targets was released, with movies like Rosemary’s Baby and George Romero's Night of the Living Dead that set the supernatural in a modern setting subtly and believably. As George Romero continued to make horror films, soon joined by Wes Craven, Tobe Hooper, and David Cronenberg, horror films moved further and further away from costumes and monsters in castles. The most interesting aspects of Targets are its juxtaposition of real and movie horrors, and its awareness of the fading out of fashion of Gothic, fantasy horror movies in the character of Byron Orlok. Karloff as Orlok sees newspaper headlines of shootings and murders and becomes depressed. “Nobody’s afraid of a painted monster,” Orlok says in one scene. His horror movies can’t compare to the horrors in the newspaper and, soon, he feels, the public will feel the same.