My take: It’s got a storyline I was not able to predict. As a result, it’s a solid Spanish horror film.

Rating: 2 out of 4 stars

Called La Residencia in Spain, The House That Screamed is a suspense-driven horror film that I was unable to predict. I’ve noticed this with many foreign horror films. The typical tropes and expectations go out the window. Without the same cultural norms and history, you don’t know where the story will go next. This is how I felt while watching this movie.

The basic plot involves a boarding school for girls. There is a stern headmistress and her lurking son. There’s a sadistic girl who oversees (and punishes) other girls. We follow the new student, Thérèse as she orients herself to these new surroundings. And girls keep running away for some reason…

The lobby card for The House That Screamed.

To tell you more could ruin the fun. While it has a unique plot, I don’t know if I would recommend this film to just anyone. Not only is it difficult to get ahold of, it is also not a stand-out horror film that needs to be watched. As a result, I would recommend this movie to only die-hard fans of horror, including Spanish horror and period pieces.

I got a copy of the movie by ordering a DVD from Amazon. Here is the trailer in Spanish from YouTube:

My take: This continuation of Hammer Film’s Frankenstein is well worth watching. It elevates Frankenstein into the ultimate villain.

Rating: 3 out of 4 stars

This was the fifth Frankenstein film from Hammer Films, but you wouldn’t know it by watching. I was surprised to learn that I had missed three films in between. I say this to note the fact that you don’t need to have seen the previous films to feel right at home watching Frankenstein Must be Destroyed.

Frankenstein and his blackmailed assistant getting to work in Frankenstein Must be Destroyed.

The film jumps right in with Baron Frankenstein, played still by Peter Cushing, up to his old antics. He is determined to reanimate his hodgepodge creations and now needs the help of a fellow scientist to learn the tricks for transplanting a brain.

The problem? That scientist happens to be locked up in an asylum and is no longer able to speak. Frankenstein is determined to get at the information in this poor man’s addled mind, and he will do anything to learn his secrets.

I found this film to be a fun and interesting story from beginning to end. You can’t help but get wrapped up in the story, and you may even find yourself yelling the title of the film at the screen by the end. It’s a fitting title.

I would recommend this movie to fans of Hammer Horror, Frankenstein stories and class horror. I got the movie through Netflix’s DVD service. Here is the trailer on YouTube to whet your whistle:

My take: Roman Polanski’s talent as a director shines through in this tale of a married pregnant woman who fears that her baby will be stolen by witches..

Rating: 4 out of 4 stars

Every time I watch Rosemary’s Baby, I notice something new. On this last viewing, I noticed that the real estate agent blocks Guy Woodhouse at the entrance to every room while showing the apartment at the start of the film. It forces Guy to squeeze past the agent while his wife, Rosemary Woodhouse, breezes into rooms unencumbered. Is this because Guy’s opinion is unimportant? Was this a sign of the times or did the agent want to sell her on the property for a reason?

This type of subtle detail sets Rosemary’s Baby apart from other films from the era, and it showcases the keen eye of the director Roman Polanski.

Rosemary fleeing in fear. Of what? Watch it to find out.

When watching this movie, you have to concentrate and pay attention to the details. I made the mistake once of showing this movie at a horror movie marathon/party with some friends. It does not lend itself well to the side conversations and giggling of a group of marathon movie watchers. Instead, I recommend dimming the lights, grabbing a drink and some popcorn, and settling in alone to watch this movie from beginning to end.

This movie fits right in with the satan-worshipping horror films of the era. But I would also recommend this movie to anyone who likes supernatural horror films and scary movies without a lot of gore.

There was a recent rerelease of the movie on bluray and a mini-series remake of the film for television. Here is the trailer on YouTube:

My take: This movie is essential to the horror cannon and was the genesis of countless zombie films.

Rating: 4 out of 4 stars

Produced for a mere $114,000 in 1967, Night of the Living Dead continues to be one of the greatest zombie films ever created. It was George A. Romero’s first feature-length film, and it still influences zombie stories and films today.

Poster for Night of the Living Dead

What makes it so terrific?

• There are no weird rituals: Unlike the zombie films that came before it like White Zombie or the Plague of the Zombies, Night of the Living Dead cut out all the Haitian mythology and rituals. It cuts right to the core of what makes a good horror film: the stories of the individuals who are facing the horror.
• It’s in black and white: Back when I lived in New York, I used to buy cheap DVD copies of new theatrical releases on the street. One odd thing I discovered: horror movies are scarier when the picture is shoddy and you can’t quite see everything. Likewise, the use of black and white in Night of the Living Dead stands out in its time, when color was taking over the motion picture industry. It gives it an eerie quality that color may have ruined.
• There is no pointless romance: So many horror movies, especially during this era, focus on some romantic interest. This film does away with all of that so you are forced to focus solely on the terror of a zombie attack.
• It’s got the first African-American lead actor in a horror film: George Romero did not plan to hire a black lead actor. According to his preface to The Complete Night of the Living Dead Filmbook, Romero says, “We cast a black man not because he was black, but because we liked Duane’s audition better than others we had seen.” when you watch Duane Jones’ performance, you can see why.

As a result of these elements (and others that would spoil the film for those who haven’t seen it), I would make this required watching for anyone who professes a love of horror films or zombie stories.

It’s available on DVD, through Hulu or on Amazon’s Instant Watch. Here’s the trailer on YouTube:

My take: Horror meets science fiction in this Hammer horror classic.

Rating: 3 out of 4 stars

When science fiction and horror combine, terrifying things can happen. You never know what might happen next when the rules are being broken and boundaries pushed.

For this reason, science fiction horror has always been one of my favorite subgenres. Aliens, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and The Fly are just a few of the frightening tales that come from this combination. The Quatermass Xperiment and Quatermass and the Pit also stand out as an excellent examples of this.

Quatermass and the Pit takes place in London’s present day, present day being 1967. While digging to expand an Underground station, workers discover skulls and bones. The archeologists step in and find something even more interesting, an artifact that the first assume is a bomb. But it turns out to be so much more.

Poster for Quatermass and the Pit.

It’s got aliens, it’s got ancient skulls, and it’s got a theory for the creation of man that is downright scary.

If you like science fiction horror, watch this movie. I would also recommend it to fans of classic science fiction and fans of Hammer horror films.

I watched it online on YouTube. Here’s the trailer:

My take: If you keep in mind that this was one of the the first movies with a creepy child ghost, it makes it a whole lot better.

Rating: 2.5 out of 4 stars

Kill, Baby…Kill!, originally called Operazione paura, is an Italian horror film directed by the same man who created Blood and Black Lace. That man is Mario Bava. After having seen Blood and Black Lace, I expected a whole slew of gory deaths and hot Italian women. But this film was more in line with a Hammer film than his previous work.

It’s a period piece that follows Dr. Paul Eswai, a doctor in town to investigate a series of strange deaths. The individuals all appear to have committed suicide, but each of them seemed young, healthy and completely sane prior to death.

Along with the inspector and a hot young woman named Monica, the doctor discovers that the town is living under a curse. Ever since the death of a young seven-year-old girl named Melissa, townsfolk have been tormented by her ghost. If you see the face of Melissa, you are doomed to die.

The ghost of Melissa amongst her creepy dolls.

The film itself has a pretty straightforward story, but what keeps you interested is how innovative this film was at the time. As Jonathan Rigby points out in Studies in Terror that David Lynch wholesale lifted a scene from this movie for his film Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me.  Additionally, “The image of Melissa herself would be recycles by Frederico Fellini in the “Toby Dammit” episode of Histoires extraordinaires (1967) and by Martin Scorsese in The Last Temptation of Christ (1987). And the whole paraphernalia surrounding her — the bouncing ball, the girlish giggling on the soundtrack — would sink deep into the fabric of the ghost-child subgenre.”

For these reasons, Kill, Baby…Kill! is worth watching. I would recommend this to people who enjoy a good ghost story or classic Italian horror.

I watched it on Netflix’s instant watch. Here’s the trailer on YouTube:

My take: Classic zombie tale from the time when zombies were the result of evil voodoo sorcerers (and before zombies ate brains).

Rating: 3 out of 4 stars

This is yet another example of how Hammer Films stands out from their contemporaries. The sets are lush, the colors bright and the characters fully formed. It’s period horror at its finest, and you can see how Hammer became famous for this type of horror.

The Plague of the Zombies is set in Cornwall, where a small village has been beset be a series of mysterious deaths. The local doctor requests the help of his former professor, whose daughter comes along for the trip. They discover that a dozen people have died with strange symptoms: sluggishness, pasty appearance, slow reflexes. There is no known cause as the superstitious townsfolk have been keeping the doctor from performing autopsies.

The professor suggests that they simply go dig a body up. They discover, however, that the graves are empty. Where are the bodies? And what is going on a the old, abandoned tin mine? Spoiler: it’s zombies.

It’s a zombie!

This is a solid zombie film, that is likely overlooked in its timing. Just a few years from when this film was released, Night of the Living Dead came out. That film would change the face of zombie films, and films like The Plague of the Zombies have been forgotten in the aftermath.

This is a film rich with voodoo myth and legends. It also has the trademark atmosphere of lust and violence that make Hammer films so compelling.

I would recommend this to fans of Hammer horror, classic zombie films, and classic horror in general.

I found the movie on Daily Motion. Here’s the trailer: