Another masterpiece by the late Frank Frazetta (1928-2010), and a classic example of how Hollywood studio thinking  – a misguided attempt to reach the widest demographic possible — destroyed the potential of a great property.  Frazetta’s cover painting illustrates and was inspired by John A. Keel’s 1975 non-fiction book, The Mothman Prophecies, about a cluster of paranormal ... read more »

When you believe in things you don’t understand, you suffer. –Stevie Wonder
In 1949 Walt Disney Studios produced the last, and arguably the best, of their “package” films – barely-feature length vignette collections made on reduced budgets during World War II for theatrical distribution – though the dyad of animated novellas included are improved little ... read more »

It’s a shame that Ed Wood’s last non-skin film, NIGHT OF THE GHOULS (1959), had to go unseen all through the prime time of Wade Williams’ TV horror package. It was also never released theatrically, so there’s no original movie poster, just video cover art. Williams coughed up the lab fee Wood could never ... read more »

Thank you, Spirit of Ed Wood Blogathon, for giving me an excuse to write about José Mojica Marins, the Brazilian screenwriter, director, and star of films every bit as quirky and original as those of the incomparable Wood.
To be fair, Marins combines Wood with equal parts William Castle and Luis Buñuel, even – in the ... read more »

Patrick Goldstein of the L.A. Times has some interesting observations to make concerning the Drag Me to Hell poster (top). As he notes, the actress’s wide open mouth seems to express orgasmic ecstasy rather than the horror of being dragged down to hell: “If this is a horror film where she’s supposed to be scared, ... read more »

The first is a supernatural horror film. The second is a horror story without any trace of the supernatural. Otherwise, they are remarkably similar. Both apply the horror film’s fundamental “return of the repressed” formula to the current economic malaise. Both films feature pretty but not-so-sympathetic heroines whose independence as career women is visually defined ... read more »

Bright Lights After Dark pauses to remember Ray Dennis Steckler, denizen of Hollywood and Las Vegas, a truly independent filmmaker who was anathema to the studios, but who nonetheless managed to produce, direct, and often star in a series of mostly self-financed and self-distributed horror/noir/comedy/rock ‘n roll films with titles like Wild Guitar, The Thrill ... read more »

I just learned by way of CINEBEATS that Forrest J Ackerman, a man who inspired so many of us – as film fan and friend to film fans, as a writer, as the editor of Famous Monsters of Filmland, as a literary agent, and one of the world’s leading collectors of all things science fiction ... read more »

The latest issue of Tales From the Crypt (inspired by the 1950s EC Comic of the same name) features Vice Presidential Candidate Sarah Palin wielding a hockey stick at the Crypt’s storytelling inhabitants.
The publisher assures us that his intentions were completely non-partisan: “[A]ny White House candidate who even entertains a conversation about book banning is ... read more »

Conventional wisdom tells us that the first “true” film noirs were made in the early 1940s, with 1941’s The Maltese Falcon generally considered “the unofficial beginning of the noir cycle” (Alain Silver). Conventional wisdom is sometimes wrong.
Take a look at these frames from John Brahm’s Let Us Live (1939), and ask yourself if there is ... read more »