El Hombre Lobo: Dr. Jekyll vs the Werewolf (1972)

There's nothing cooler than when two monsters go head-to-head. It seems like a no-brainer, but it really isn't something that happens all that often. Sure, we had monster mash is like House of Frankenstein and House of Dracula, both for universal, but those films aren't very good. By the time those films were made Lon Chaney Jr had become a caricature as the Wolf Man, and I never liked John Carradine as Dracula. He always seemed a bit too frail. Universal's reign of terror really ended with the 1930s with the exception of the original Wolfman (1941), and the creature from the black lagoon (1954), arguably, one of the few good things to come out of the 1950s.

Europe, however, learned from these early ventures, and in the 1970s, one man rose to fame restoring classic monsters to their former glory, his name was Paul Naschy. Now she played almost every horror archetype in the book, appearing as Dracula, Frankenstein Monster (briefly), the mummy, hunchback, a zombie, and of course, the werewolf. Though he never played Dr. Jekyll, they did share the screen, in 1972’s Dr. Jekyll versus the werewolf.

Till death do us part: The Night Evelyn Came out of her Grave (1971)

“It's not uncommon for a man to want to do strange things to get his kicks”

Have you ever had a film that you rarely watch, but somehow, it stays at the forefront of your mind? That's my deal with “The Night Evelyn Came out of her Grave”. It's not a film I watched often, but one I'm always excited to read something new about.  I would probably watch the film a lot more if the opening few minutes didn't disappoint me so, let me explain. 

A cycle of life and death: ALIEN (1979)

"In space, no one can hear you scream"

Horror and Sci-Fi are often grouped together as if it was a natural thing. It’s interesting that there are so few space/ horror films. It’s just something that doesn’t happen very often and in 1979 it was all but nonexistent, and then came ALIEN.

ALIEN opens up as a very quiet film. A seven person mining crew awakens from suspended animation after two years under. They assume that they are home but in actuality they are nearing an alien planet. “MOTHER”, the artificial intelligence onboard the ship has detoured to this world after picking up a distress signal. As a commercial starship, the crew argues that basically, this is not their job. It doesn’t make any difference. 

Girls who suck: Caged Virgins (1973)

“You cannot be both virgin and vampire!”


 Click… Click…Bang…Bang and that’s how the film opens up, with a female clown pointing a gun at you. Ok, you’ve got my attention. Two female clowns and a leather clad male driver speed down the highway exchanging gun fire with a second car. The clowns pull a quick maneuver and lose the pursuing car but not before their driver are fatally wounded. Being the professionals that they are, they burn their vehicle (with their poor friend inside) and head out on their merry way.

After a change of clothes, they commit a little more theft before running through a cemetery where one of the girls is almost buried alive. The brunette (Michelle) falls into an open grave and is dazed. Two gravediggers return and begin filling in the hole. Once they leave, the blonde (Marie) runs to her rescue and the finds the brunette, her arm out stretched from the grave like a rising member of the undead. 

The Dance That Never Ends: Barbara Steele in Danse Macabre (1964)

“Your blood will be our life!”

The first film I’d like to look at is 1964’s Danse Macabre aka Castle of Blood, starring Barbara Steele. A striking Italian-French  film directed by Antonio Margheriti.

The film opens in a downstairs pub in London with Edgar Allen Poe and his friend Sir Thomas Blackwood meeting another writer named Alan Foster. Sir Blackwood wagers that Foster won’t be able to survive the November 1st Samhain night at his Castle due to supernatural goings on. Foster, who doesn’t believe in such things, takes the bet and they ride off into the mist. Once there alone, Foster finds a small black kitten that leads him to the decrepit seemingly empty castle. Once he is certain that he is alone, the madness appears in the form of the mysterious Elisabeth Blackwood (Barbara Steele) and Julia (Margarete Robsahm). I don’t want to spoil the fun so let’s just say that the more people that join Alan, the lonelier it gets.