30 years ago, comic book artist Colin Childress (Jeffrey Combs) was drawing for Cellar Dweller, a collection of illustrated horror stories in the vein of EC Comics. One of his pieces was inspired by a book of spells he kept handy by his desk. Unfortunately, when he read one ofContinue Reading
Hardly anyone likes going to the dentist for a check-up. There’s something inherently alien about having another person poking around in your mouth. When the possibility of pain is involved, it’s even less appealing. Capitalizing on that dread you experience every six months, 1996’s The Dentist will ensure you neverContinue Reading
Splatter University opens with a mental patient escaping from Bellevue Hospital in New York City. The movie’s headspace is telegraphed in the opening kill: an orderly is stabbed in the crotch. From then on, if you hadn’t been clued in by the performances or the bargain basement quality opening titles,Continue Reading
Director Tobe Hooper has garnered an excellent reputation with horror fans on the strengths of 1974’s The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and 1982’s Poltergeist. Mr. Hooper sadly passed away in 2017. His later films, of which Mortuary is one, were received less enthusiastically by horror audiences. It’s hard to say howContinue Reading
A meteor impacts the Earth somewhere in rural Wisconsin. As it falls, it causes a disruption in the atmosphere that alerts NASA and the Strategic Air Command to its presence. NASA sends Dr. Vance (Steve Brodie) to the area to meet with local astronomer Dr. Langer (Barbara Hale,) who hasContinue Reading
If you’ve ever wanted to know from where the idea for Godzilla originally spawned, look no further than 1953’s The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms. It inspired not just Godzilla but virtually every atomic-age giant monster movie that followed it. In fact, it was the first movie to feature a creatureContinue Reading
Atomic age monster movies are some of my favorite creature features. Logic and science are mashed together with fantastic scenarios to produce some absolutely unbelievable plotlines. In 1957’s The Giant Claw, a gigantic bird begins smashing planes out of the sky for no apparent reason. The highlight of the movieContinue Reading