Been watching a fair amount recently as the evenings get colder and thoughts turn to pumpkins and the like:
King of the Zombies: This came from a Scared Silly DVD that my son found last year and thought I might like. It’s basically a collection of public domain titles, most of which have so far been decidedly average. This one is notable for an appearance by Mantan Moreland, a popular black comedian in the 30s and 40s. Sadly, most of the comedy is of a racially-dubious nature (Jamie Russell examines the film at length in his seminal zombie cinema tome, Book of the Dead), but if (big ask) you can look beyond that, Moreland is actually really funny in this and the film is arguably worth seeing for his performance.
Abbott & Costello Meet The Mummy: Bizarrely, a couple of days after I watched this, Bloody Disgusting ran a feature, ranking A&C’s monster movie appearances: https://bloody-disgusting.com/editorials/3583005/meet-monsters-ranking-monster-movies-unlikely-horror-icons-abbott-costello/ This comes in at #3 (out of 6), and that seems like a fair placing. It’s no classic, but if you’re already a fan of their antics, and like old black and white monster movies, this is worth checking out.
The Blood on Satan’s Claw: Guessing most of you know this one. I hadn’t seen this in many years since I caught it at some FAB Press festival in London back in the day. I loved it then and I love it now. Don’t think it will ever displace The Wicker Man as my personal favourite folk horror, but it does pretty much everything perfectly: atmosphere, music, cast (what a cast!), and sense of place. The story itself is maybe a little disjointed, but overall, this is wonderful stuff. Highly recommended viewing for a chilly September evening.
Spooks Run Wild : This is another title from the Scared Silly DVD and pretty much skippable. This stars the East Side Kids as a gang of reprobates who are forced to spend the night at Bela Lugosi’s old dark house. I’m a patient man, but this really fucking tested me. The kids themselves play significantly older than they’re presumably meant to be and just come across as brash and irritating (oh, and apparently no 1940s comedy-horror flick is complete without at least one black character to be the butt of racist jokes.) If you’re a Bela Lugosi completist, maybe you’ll find something worthwhile here, but everyone else should ignore this.
The Nightingale : Went to the cinema to see this last night, this being Jennifer Kent’s second film after the masterful Babadook. This is a completely different proposition, and arguably not really a horror film at all, although I like to cast the genre net as wide as possible, so let’s say this is horror. This is a very dark rape/revenge movie, that focuses as much on the rape of Australia’s land and original peoples by the British colonists as it does the rape of an individual Irish woman. This is powerful stuff indeed, with everyone involved giving standout performances. It didn’t speak to me as much as The ‘Dook, but this is still extremely impressive film-making.
And that’s pretty much all for now. Would also recommend Rue Morgue’s YouTube channel for some fun watches, particularly The Rewind Zone, where obscure 80s horror on VHS lover, Yasmina Ketita, talks about some of her favourite films: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFRS5VY4VbI
