Horror Movie Maven

Lover of all things that slash, gash, bleed, and otherwise terrify.

Category: Watch the Book (page 4 of 8)

The Awful Dr. Orlaf (1962)

My take: It took me several tries to get all the way through this movie without dozing off. It was boring, derivative and the characters were all annoying.

Rating: 0 out of 4 stars

The title of The Awful Dr. Orloff could be shortened to just awful. That’s exactly what it was: awful.

In my mission to watch even movie in Studies in Terror, this is the fourth film to feature a mad doctor/scientist on a mission to save the woman he loves by killing other women. As you may recall, I didn’t like Mill of the Stone Women when it seemed to copy its predecessors in this now-cliché plot line. This one was even worse.

In this movie, we follow an inept police inspector who is trying to find a killer. Unbeknownst to the inspector, there are actually two murderers: Dr. Orloff and his creepy zombie assistant Morfo (à la Humphrey Bogart in The Return of Doctor X). Dr. Orloff has been killing women in an attempt to graft the skin onto his daughter’s damaged face (Eyes Without a Face, anyone?).

the awful dr. orloff

Dr. Orloff is in the foreground on the right, while Morfo and a passed-out girl are in the background.

The inspector’s girlfriend ends up conducting a better investigation than her boyfriend, by dolling herself up, hitting the town and waiting for the killer to come to her. It works but she puts herself in serious danger in the process.

According to Studies in Terror, this movie was the first real horror film out of Spain. Apparently, the director had to take his sponsors to see Brides of Dracula at a theater in Nice, France, in order to convince them to fund this film.

While that is a good set-up for a first horror film, it fails to make up for all of the film’s shortcomings in my mind. The movie felt like a cheap ripoff of films I have seen before. The poor dubbing in the version I watched did not help either.

I watched it on Netflix’s streaming service. Here’s the trailer on youtube, which is better than the film:

 

Brides of Dracula (1960)

My take: There aren’t as many brides as I was expecting, given the title, but it is still a good follow-up to the Horror of Dracula.

Rating: 2.5 out of 4 stars

The same year that Hitchcock was releasing his movie Psycho, Hammer Films released Brides of Dracula. It’s a natural followup to the success of their version of Dracula from two years earlier.

This movie follows a young woman named Marianne, who is traveling through the countryside on her way to a new job. Her driver ditches her in a small village, where the townsfolk are all spooked and scared for her. Before they can convince her to leave, the Baroness from the nearby castle whisks her way into the scene and invites naive Marianne to stay with her until morning.

Cushing as Van Helsing

I am starting to believe that Peter Cushing is utterly badass. He makes a good Van Helsing.

Of course, Marianne does not know what horrors lie at the castle. The baroness has her vampire locked up in his rooms and she brings young, unsuspecting girls so he can feed. But what happens when Marianne releases the captive vampire? Trouble. Lots of trouble.

 

From the title, I had expected many busty young brides all over the film drinking the blood of men. The film went an entirely different direction, however. And it was not an entirely bad direction.

Peter Cushing ties this movie to it’s predecessor by reprising his role as Van Helsing.  Coupled with the unique story and lush gothic set design, the film is a fun followup to Hammer’s Dracula. I would recommend this to people who enjoy a solid, old-school vampire film, Hammer films and classic horror.

I ordered a copy of the movie from Amazon on DVD. Here is the original trailer:

Mill of the Stone Women (1960)

My take: This film is full of strange elements that fail to come together to make an even remotely scary whole.

Rating: 1 out of 4 stars

I’m starting to see a theme in late 1950s – early 1960s cinema: all doctors and professors are obsessed with their work. And they all must use that work in their attempts to save some young female. I’ve seen this in Eyes Without a Face, where the doctor killed to replace his daughter’s damaged face. The same plot exists in the Brain That Wouldn’t Die, where a doctor was trying to find a replacement body for his disembodied head of a fiancé.

It would really have sucked to be a doctor or professor in 1960. Apparently, everyone thought you were a psycho-killer out to steal their body parts.

Such is the same in Mill of the Stone Women, but this time it is a professor who is trying to save his sex-pot daughter from a rare blood disease. The plot revolves around a young art student named Hans. He goes to the “Mill of the Stone Women” to interview the mill’s owner, the professor. The mill has an utterly creeping rotating display of life-size figurines depicting the deaths of famous women.

poster for mill of the stone women

Poster for Mill of the Stone Women, which was released as il mulino delle donne di pietra in Italy.

While at the mill, Hans spots the professor’s voluptuous young daughter. He becomes enamored with her, but quickly learns that she has a rare disease where any sudden fright could result in her instant death. (Is this a real thing? I doubt it.) It also becomes clear that the professor has been going to tremendous, devious lengths to keep her alive.

The movie has a few creepy elements in it, but they fail to come together to make the whole interesting. I find this to be an utterly forgettable film. Instead of watching this, I would recommend that you watch Eyes Without a Face and the Mystery of the Wax Museum. This film is just a hodge-podge of those plots.

I got the movie on a disc via Netflix. Here’s the trailer for your edification. Warning: it makes the film sound a lot more interesting than it actually is.

Psycho (1960)

My take: This is a masterpiece of suspense and horror. If you have not seen it, I am utterly jealous of you because I would pay good money to watch it again for the first time.

Rating: 4 out of 4 stars

I remember the first time I saw this movie. I was in high school and my mom did a terrific job setting it up. She didn’t tell me anything about it other than to say, “You have to remember that Janet Leigh was a star. Everyone was going to the film to see her.”

With that in mind, I hit play and was utterly floored at how quickly things progressed. Just in case there are those of you who have not seen it, I do not want to ruin the fun too much.

The story basically involves a young woman (played by that infamous Janet Leigh) who is in love with a man who cannot afford to marry her. When $40,000 in cash falls into her lap at work, she grabs the opportunity and takes it. She drives quickly toward her beau, fearful of the police coming after her.

Psycho poster

Poster for Psycho

But the drive is long, and when she becomes lost in a storm she is forced to spend the night at a motel run by Norman Bates…

I’ll leave it at that. But I can tell you that the movie is good enough to have spawned 4 sequels, one remake, and a television show (Bates Motel). I would recommend this movie to darn near anyone. I don’t think you even have to be a fan of horror to appreciate Hitchcock’s mastery of suspense.

Even this trailer for Psycho is excellent and shows the man himself giving you a private tour of the set:

The Brain That Wouldn’t Die (1962)

My take: Just a terrible film. I recommend only watching the MST3K version of this movie.

Rating: 1 out of 4 stars

Was schlock a word that was commonly used in the early sixties? Regardless, I am attributing that word to this film: it was pure schlock.

The film is about a doctor who is driven to experiment with transplants, even if he must experiment on patients and with discarded limbs from the hospital where he works. When driving to check on one of his “experiments” with his doting fiancé, he careens off the road and his girl is severely injured.

So what does he do? He somehow chops off her head and carries it back to his countryside laboratory. He hooks some wires to it and places it in pan of liquid, and lo and behold! Her head lives and somehow speaks despite the lack of lungs.

brain that wouldn't die

It’s not just a brain that won’t die, it’s a whole head. I guess that wasn’t as good of a title.

The young doctor then must go out in search of a body, which is truthfully my favorite part of the film. Cheesy, porn-style music plays as he goes to questionable establishments as he looks for a replacement body for his fiancé. It so bad and so over-the-top, it is downright funny.

This film is bad enough, in fact, that it has its own Mystery Science Theater 3000 (MST3K) episode. I recommend watching the MST3K episode instead of watching the Brain That Wouldn’t Die without the witty commentary.

If you insist on watching it, I found it on Amazon Prime’s instant video service. Also, here is the trailer so you can see how terrible it really is:

 

Eyes Without a Face (1960)

My take: Those French know how to build suspense. It may start slow but it builds wonderfully.

Rating: 3 out of 4 stars

Eyes Without a Face (aka Les yeux sans visage in French) is the story of doctor and a father who will go to any lengths to save his daughter’s face. The daughter, Christiane lost her face in a terrible accident (not quite sure how that happens without losing other major body parts, but it did).

eyes without a face

Since she has no face, Christiane must wear this utterly creepy mask. Bummer for her.

Luckily, her dad is a preeminent professor who specializes in facial transplants and skin grafting. He has not yet perfected his work, however. As a result, there are a few corpses on his path to fixing his daughter’s visage.

The plot is a bit unlikely. But what it lacks in logic, it makes up for in suspense. This film does a great job building the terror throughout the story. And the payoff is definitely worth it.

If you like Diabolique or medical horror stories, then this is for you.

I got it on disc from Netflix. Here’s a good English trailer I found for it on youtube:

Eyes Without a Face also inspired a Billy Idol song of the same name:

Don’t worry. The song has no spoilers that give away the movie plot.

Horror of Dracula (1958)

My take: This is a classic. If it seems riddled with cliches, that is because it was a groundbreaker that everyone copied.

Rating: 3 out of 4 stars

The 1958 version of Dracula, which was released as Horror of Dracula in the United States, is Hammer Horror at its best. This is when the studio was fresh off the heels of Curse of Frankenstein, which was a huge success.

Capitalizing on the success of Frankenstein, this movie has a lot of the same elements. It’s got Peter Cushing playing the erudite  Dr.  Van Helsing (similar to Baron Frankenstein). Christopher Lee as Count Dracula, another classic monster. It’s even got the hot maid from Curse of Frankenstein as a busty bride of Dracula.

Dracula poster

Poster for the 1958 version of Dracula, which was called House of Dracula in the U.S.

But don’t think that this impedes the film. It does not. Instead, the film takes a fresh look at the classic tale and has enough twists throughout to keep you interested. Additionally, Christopher Lee’s Dracula is strikingly different than Bela Lugosi’s monster. Lee is violent and visceral, where Lugosi was aloof and calculated.

I recommend this movie to anyone who likes classic horror, vampire films of the non-sparkly variety, and Hammer Horror films.

I got the movie from Netflix on DVD. Here is the trailer so you can get a sense of it (though the 50’s style voice-over kind of overshadows the trailer a bit):

Macabre (1958)

My take: It’s got an interesting premise but it is drowned out by cheese and confusing twists.

Rating: 1 out of 4 stars

Macabre begins with a voiceover showing a clock and stating this warning:

“Ladies and gentlemen, for the next hour and fifteen minutes, you will be shown things so terrifying that the management of this theater is deeply concerned for your welfare. Therefore,  we request that each of you assume the responsibility of taking care of your neighbor. If anyone near you becomes uncontrollably frightened, will you please notify the management so that medical attention can be rushed to their aid.”

That’s quite the warning. And at first, I was right on board with it because the premise is downright terrifying. The story is about a doctor who returns home to take his three-year-old daughter and secretary out to dinner. But when the secretary , the nanny, and the doctor start looking around the house, they find the girl is missing.

While the doctor is out looking for his girl, the secretary answers the phone where a voice informs her that the girl’s funeral has already taken place, she is in the place of the dead, and there is very little time. The doctor and the secretary immediately fear that the girl has been buried alive.

Macabre

The doctor and his secretary, Polly, searching for a fresh grave where the girl may be buried alive.

It’s a pretty scary start to the movie. But, unfortunately, the story becomes more and more muddled as time passes. It tries to hard to set up a Clue-style mystery where too many suspects could be guilty. It even has an Agatha Christie-style reveal where the culprit is named. Maybe it is just because I have read too many mysteries and watched too much Poirot, but I found this too be utterly cheesy.

I would only recommend this to people who want to watch a corny mystery from the 50s.

I rented it online via Amazon. Here’s a trailer I found on YouTube, that shows what the opening warning was like at the beginning:

The Curse of Frankenstein (1957)

My take: Top-of-the-line Frankenstein story that is now going to be part of my regular rotation of horror films to watch.

Rating: 4 out of 4 stars

I’d heard of Hammer Horror over the years. When you watch a lot of horror movies, you simply can’t avoid it. It crops up in magazines, in documentaries and all over the Internet. But until recently, I had not actually watched a Hammer Horror picture. I knew that Christopher Lee was in them, and I had heard the name Peter Cushing. But I didn’t get it. Now I feel like I do, and I am pissed off at myself for waiting so long to watch one of these.

Curse of Frankenstein

Frankenstein (right) and Paul Krempe (left), his tutor/partner, creating life in The Curse of Frankenstein.

The Curse of Frankenstein is, obviously, about Baron Victor Frankenstein and his creation of a monster. We all know the story. It’s entrenched in our popular culture. As a result, it is very difficult to tell the story and do anything new or interesting with it. Hammer Film Productions made something new and they did it well.

What makes it different? Frankenstein is portrayed as a driven, obsessed man who will go to any lengths to create a human life from nothing. This includes grave robbing, purchasing of black market body parts and even murder. The monster, played by Christopher Lee is realistically grotesque and utterly different from the classic Boris Karloff version of the creature. The story is rich, complex and thought provoking from beginning to end.

If you have not seen this version of the classic monster story of Frankenstein, I recommend that you do. I would recommend this to anyone who like classic horror, monster movies, mad scientist stories and just plain good horror.

I got a copy of the Curse of Frankenstein from Netflix’s DVD service, and it is also available on DVD. Here’s the trailer from when it was released in the late 50s:

Curse of the Demon (1956)

My take: An interesting tale of witchcraft and demon summoning.

Rating: 2 out of 4 stars

Curse of the Demon, also known as Night of the Demon in the UK, is a pretty basic, run-of-the-mill demonology movie. There’s a cult, a skeptic and a curse.  It’s got a creepy cult leader who reminds me of Charles Laughton in Island of Lost Souls and a bit of Otho in Beetlejuice. There’s a seance and an ancient book that holds evil spells to invoke demons. The story as a whole reminded me of Drag Me to Hell, The Ninth Gate and other demon-summoning stories.

curse of the demon

Demonic cult leader Karswell and his familiar (aka his kitty).

The movie is about an American psychologist/skeptic named John Holdin. Holdin is brought to the UK by Professor Harrington to investigate a new demonic cult. But when Holdin gets to England, he finds Harrington died under mysterious circumstances. As he looks into Harrington’s death, with Harrington’s pretty blonde daughter by his side, he finds that Harrington had been cursed by the cult leader. Now,  the leader of the cult is after Holdin, and Holdin discovers a similar curse has been placed on him.

I would recommend this to anyone who likes a good demonology or satanic cult movie. I rented a copy online via Amazon and it is available from other similar sources. Here’s the trailer:

Don’t be put off by the cheesy looking demon in the trailer. The movie does a good job building suspense in spite of the limits of 1950s effects.

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