Wednesday 26 September 2007

The Abominable Dr. Phibes / Dr. Phibes Rises Again


(1971 /1972) Tongue in cheek art deco horror double bill with Vincent Price as a disfigured doctor seeking revenge on those he holds responsible for his wife's death following a car accident. In the first film Phibes uses Biblical plagues as the basis for his revenge. In the sequel, Phibes attempts to resurrect his wife, stopping those who interfere with Egyptian-themed deathtraps. The first flick is better, but they're both worth seeing.



Abby


(1974) Warner Brothers, the company that produced The Exorcist, successfully sued to have Abby withdrawn from theatres. It's directed by William Girdler, the same guy who did Grizzly, Three on a Meathook, The Manitou and Day of the Animals. Though the movie is relatively rare, the picture and the sound quality of this DVD are pretty poor. Still, it's fun for fans of this sort of thing. Like me.did y poor. Still, it's fun for fans o this sort of thing. Like    m                   

Bloody Terror, C'est Wha?!

I'm obsessed with movies, and the advent of DVD's and Blu-rays have really brought out the beast in me. Suddenly I can see pristine letterboxed prints of movies I've only read about, or movies I haven't been able to track down for years --- giallo, 70's disaster flicks, devil movies, drive-in classics... I'm obsessed. And I don't care.



Bloody Terror takes its name from a horror flick I saw when I was a kid. An avid reader of Famous Monsters of Filmland, The Monster Times, Vampirella, Creepy, Eerie, House of Hammer (Then later Fangoria, Gorezone, and now Rue Morgue), I tried to see as many horror movies as I could. At around the age of 10, I found myself at the now-gone Prince Edward Cinemas, all alone (I think) at a 2pm matinee of Spanish actor/writer Paul Naschy's "Frankenstein's Bloody Terror" ("La Marca del Hombre-lobo"). This was fairly representative of the kind of programming that happened at your local theatre and drive-in in the 70's --- Hammer Horror double bills, Godzilla flicks, and AIP movies. Not that Frankenstein's Bloody Terror was the first horror movie I'd seen (That was a TV-viewing of "The Deadly Mantis"), but, all these years later, the title reference seems appropriate --- Obscure horror in an accessible venue. Foreign, vivid, and bloody. The damage is already done... why not write about?