Tombs Of The Blind Dead

Tombs of the Blind Dead (La Noche Del Terror Ciego) (1972)

Runtime: I saw the full 102 minute version

Directed by: Armando de Ossario

Starring: Lone Fleming, Cesar Burner, Maria Elena Alpon, Jose Thelman, Rufino Ingles

From: Interfilme/Plata Films S.A.

Many moons ago I viewed this movie along with its first sequel Return of the Blind Dead, although they were the edited American versions that took out some material... for this movie it was almost 20 minutes worth of footage. The sequels-all three of them-are leaving Amazon Prime mere hours after I post this, but one day in the future I'll get to them somehow. I stumbled upon the unedited version of Tombs so last night this was viewed for the initial time. It was a revelation that among the moments taken out were a lesbian scene and a sexual assault scene.

In this cult favorite Spanish/Portuguese movie, there is a love triangle between Virginia, Betty, and Roger. Virginia acts rather dramatic & literally jumps off a moving train to get away from the other two. Apparently, as late as the early 70's Portugal still uses steam locomotives as if it was still Wild West times. Anyhow, she spends the night in a village abandoned for what looked to be centuries. The titular Blind Dead rise at night and their backstory: they are Knights Templar from the Middle Ages who became evil and via “Egyptian black magic” become immortal. They are hanged and their eyes plucked out by crows but they still rise at night if someone dares visit the village. Like with the aliens in A Quiet Place, they hunt only by sound, so of course all their victims do plenty of screaming and otherwise make plenty of noise.


Say what you will about aspects of the story, mood and atmosphere do carry the film. It is a chilling tale and the soundtrack plays a critical role in creating this feeling. It is just creepy-especially so when there are brief flourishes of chanting. The abandoned village was perfect aesthetically, especially when the sun set. The undead knights never looked not frightening, but when they are on their undead horses (that's right) and are shown riding in slow motion... that will be something I won't forget in the future. Then again, I say that and the only moment I had recalled beforehand from the first two movies was how this ended... and it's still a striking ending. However, my movie tastes are improved now and as I've written all this down, I shan't forget this pretty good example of Eurohorror.

Flash Gordon (The 1936 Serial)

Flash Gordon (1936)

Runtime: 245 minutes

Directed by: Frederick Stephani/Ray Taylor

Starring: Buster Crabbe, Jean Rogers, Charles Middleton, Priscilla Lawson, Frank Shannon

From: Universal

Flash... AAAAAAAHHH!

Recently I was struck with the realization that sometime in my life, I should finally view one of those serials from a movie era long since passed. For a long while now I have pondered what it would have been like to have gone out for a night at the local cineplex back in the 30's to 50's. It would typically be a double feature (an A movie then a B movie) along with some combination of a newsreel, a cartoon like something from Looney Tunes or Disney, a comedy short like The Three Stooges, and a serial divided into 15 or 20 minute segments that is shown each week. In the case of Flash Gordon, this has 13 chapters so it would take audiences a few months to see the entire story. I picked this out in particular because it was available in full and is among the most famous of its type. As I'll mention later, it inspired several beloved franchises.

Those that have seen the 1980 movie will be familiar with the general plot of Flash and Dale Arden tagging along with Professor Zarkov to the planet Mongo where they have to stop Emperor Ming from ruling the universe & his daughter Princess Aura has taken a shine to Gordon. There is also Vultan and his Hawkmen, Kala, Barin... however, new to me were Shark Men, which were actually humans wearing what appeared to be gold caps and were obviously “inspired” by Egyptian iconography. Lion Men look even less different; the leader of that tribe was an older man with a huge beard. Ming's look here: it was copied exactly for Max von Sydow's appearance as the character a few decades later. The first twelve chapters had a cliffhanger and 2 through 13 began with an opening text crawl which stated what happened in the previous chapter as a reminder or an info dump for those that missed the last installment. It is indeed true that Lucas and Spielberg took the idea of serials like this and updated it to create Star Wars and Indiana Jones.

This was made on the cheap, reusing sets, music, and at times entire scenes from previous Universal productions. Most of the action is not what you'd call spectacular and it is campy as hell. I mean, there is a guy in a gorilla suit who has a unicorn horn, and a giant octopus which is tragically known as an OCTOSAK. Yet, that is a big part of its charm, the silliness of this epic adventure. Olympic medalist in swimming Buster Crabbe at least looked the part as the hero and the cast as a whole was acceptable... although for many of them, I won't be forgetting those who played the roles a few decades later. Prince Barin (Timothy Dalton in 1980) was a chubby middle-aged guy with a mustache who dresses like a gladiator, and most of the time wears a helmet as he's a balding gentleman. For me that made his lust towards the lovely Princess Aura all the more amusing. Personally, Priscilla Lawson as Aura was the most memorable aspect both in performance and how conniving the lady was... “the thirst was real” when it came to her and Flash.

This was released in a 72 minute feature length version in '36 and a 90 minute version for TV back in the 50's; I don't know if those two or a two hour fan edit that some random person uploaded on YouTube are preferable to the whole shebang... viewing it in the span of a little more than 24 hours was a little much as some segments could easily be taken out. Be that as it may, I can still say it was good overall. One day I imagine I'll see the other popular genres of the serial era, such as Western, crime and jungle settings.

City Of The Living Dead

City of the Living Dead (Paura Nella Citta Dei Morti Viventi) (1980)

Runtime: 92 minutes

Directed by: Lucio Fulci

Starring: Christopher George, Catriona MacColl, Carlo De Mejo, Antonella Interlenghi, Giovanni Lombardo Radice

From: Several Italian companies

The realization that I hadn't viewed anything on Shudder in too long made me realize I should actually use it while I am subscribed for the moment, right? With Fulci, I suspected it wouldn't be the most logical of movies yet I would have something to discuss and it would be best to see the first in his Gates of Hell trilogy.

I can say that at least the general idea of the plot is logical. A priest commits suicide in the town of Dunwich (one of several Lovecraft nods) and this opens the Gates of Hell. As several characters in the town deal with everything going bonkers-chiefly a psychiatrist and one of his patients-a psychic sees this in a vision so she and a journalist travel to the New England town. Getting into the details and how one scene moves to the next... it's best if you don't focus on that or such details as the implication that morticians in New York City apparently don't use embalming fluid. Expecting logic in a Fulci movie-or a decent number of other contemporary Italian genre films-is a mistake as that is not what the focus is on and instead its strengths lie elsewhere.


For the director, naturally the highlights are the atmosphere and how graphically visceral it was... and boy was it ever. Dunwich becomes rather windy once the Gates of Hell are opened, for example. Furthermore, such substances as thousands of maggots are seen & if you ever wanted to see someone literally puke up their guts... such things are the highlight rather than the acting on display or how the plot progresses. Even the ending is rather daffy, although again that has been experienced on quite a few occasions in the past while viewing Italian genre pictures. It's easy to see why many will be over the moon with this experience... I will say it was good and a good time for the wacky, peculiar experience it was.

Sting of Death

Sting of Death (1966)

Runtime: 80 minutes

Directed by: William Grefe

Starring: Joe Morrison, Valerie Hawkins, John Vella, Jack Nagle, Deanna Lund

From: Essen Productions Inc.

Last night I decided to view something decidedly unpretentious; this lead me to something I've had on disc for many years: this B-movie, on DVD via Something Weird Video. It was filmed in the southern half of Florida and has a Jellyfish Man. The most infamous aspect is the appearance of the creature but I'll get to that in a bit.

College girl Karen brings some of her gal pals to her dad's private island. He is a marine biologist who has two assistants, one of them mildly deformed and named EGON-no, not Harold Ramis. He apparently is supposed to have a visage like Rocky Dennis with how other characters treat him... the makeup used does not reflect this. Trouble happens when some other college kids show up for a shindig and treat him like dirt. This is when Jellyfish Man really ramps things up.

Note that this costume is: a dirty black SCUBA suit w/ flippers, colored ropes, and what look to be Mardi Gras beads. It is not until the end that the full outfit is revealed, and it is not to the movie's benefit when it is shown that the head is... a giant opaque garbage bag! Striking terror into the hearts of all, it does not. However, it will provide plenty of guffaws. This is an incredibly goofy movie with bad acting and a plot with several illogical moments. Yet my low rating does not reflect the amount of campy charm this has. It is at least an easy watch and it is apparent that director William Grefe does try. Sure, the scene with a school of jellyfish is obviously portrayed by multicolored plastic bags yet the idea of what he was trying to go for in the scene was sound.


The true highlight is that somehow, NEIL SEDAKA provides two songs for the soundtrack. He must have been like many acts in that their careers went down the commode for awhile after The Beatles became a phenomenon. In the early 1960's he had several Top 10 hits on the charts and more often than that you can hear those on the oldies/60's stations. He went from that to working with a random low-budget filmmaker in Florida and creating the earworm of a ditty known as Do the Jellyfish. With its inane lyrics, it is no Breaking Up is Hard to Do. That said, forever seared into my brain is the “dancing” that accompanies Do the Jellyfish; White People Dancing is the best descriptor! Imagine your parents or grandparents back in '66 gesticulating around w/ no rhythm...

The Lighthouse

The Lighthouse (2019)

90% on Rotten Tomatoes (out of 354 reviews)

Runtime: 109 minutes

Directed by: Robert Eggers

Starring: Mostly it's just Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattison

From: A24... and boy is this ever an A24 movie

After a long while, it's the return of Hot Take Blair: 

You know, I should just avoid most of these modern pretentious horror movies.

I realize many on a site like Letterboxd will vehemently disagree but for years I have thought these “heightened horror movies” (a term I'll never understand) were typically either overrated (The Babadook, It Follows, Hereditary) or just plain bad and insufferable (A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, that wretched Suspiria remake) and to be honest I was wary of a 2019 movie shot in black and white & with the old silent movie aspect ratio, as it gave me a sound not-unlike the foghorn you often here in this movie that the director had his head up his own ass. I mean, don't expect me to ever see Midsommar as I've heard more than enough to tell me it would be an awful 2 ½ hours and it'd be better spent revisiting the original The Wicker Man instead.

Thing is, The Witch is a movie I thought was great and am glad I saw theatrically. I didn't even have a problem hearing or deciphering most of the Olde English used. Thus, it being free on Prime meant that I might as well see the next movie from the guy who gave me The Witch. Unfortunately, those specific accents used at the expense of the typical audience member-much to my relief that wasn't too difficult most of the time, although it was still an unnecessary complication & the subtitles were turned on-and hearing that director Eggers wanted scenes done in a hyper-specific way... it scream out PRETENSION. So does the story of two random jerks in early 20th century New England acting like jerks to each other for almost two hours. If only there was a reason for me to care... seeing too many gross moments, Dafoe's constant farts or Pattison wanking off were not reasons why, nor was the story devolving into nonsense and increasingly inexplicable imagery.

It is a shame as the look and sound of the movie was tremendous and I can't fault the performances of Willem Dafoe or Robert Pattison with the material they had. That overall vibe helped me get through the movie despite not enjoying or liking the journey it was taking me on. It is why I can give this an OK rating; as I state too often, it is nice that most people love something and it leaves me despondent the feeling isn't shared by myself.

Take Aim At The Police Van

Take Aim at the Police Van ('Jûsangô taihisen' yori: Sono gosôsha o nerae) (1960)

Runtime: 79 minutes

Directed by: Seijun Suzuki

Starring: Michitaro Mizushima, Misako Watanabe, Shoichi Ozawa, Shinsuke Ashida, Mari Shiraki

From: Nikkatsu

Last night I realized it was a prudent decision to start viewing a few motion pictures from the iconoclastic Japanese director Seijun Suzuki. This is the earliest movie discovered after a cursory search and it seemed only logical to start off with what I heard was subdued compared to the wild pieces of work he would soon create and years later gain fame for in the Internet film fan community.

Plus, the matter of fact title tickled me pink.

This is in the style of a noir and follows a prison guard. He gets suspended for poppycock reasons: somehow it's his fault that as he is on a police van (i.e. bus) transporting prisoners, some nefarious fellows create an accident and via a sniper rifle, start shooting up the bus, resulting in two men being killed. At least he has time to investigate this on his own and the trek takes him to some seedy locations, including strip clubs and escort services. To my surprise, this features topless women, one of whom is shot right in the boob via a bow & arrow.

A plot point or two was perplexing and perhaps I shouldn't scrutinize the story that closely. Any way you slice it, I can look past that and say this was pretty good overall. Our hero Tamon is a badass who does some badass things. The other characters are usually memorable and the action includes shootouts, fights & a memorable bit involving a gas tanker truck. It was a breezy watch shot stylishly and the jazz score was great, so this movie was just cool. The deeper I go into Suzuki's career, the cooler the films will become, or so others have stated. As is, this is a rough example of a noir that genre fans may enjoy.

Wind Across the Everglades

Wind Across the Everglades (1958)

Runtime: 93 minutes

Directed by: Nicholas Ray/Budd Schulberg

Starring: Burl Ives, Christopher Plummer, Chana Eden, Emmett Kelly (yes, the famed circus clown, and out of gimmick) Tony Galento (yes, the old boxer who once fought Joe Louis)

From: Warner Bros.

For a movie I first heard about approximately 24 hours before I post this review, this was worth a last minute watch. This was on in the wee hours of the morning on Turner Classic Movies as part of their Earth Day celebration and for a movie directed by Nicolas Ray (at least in part; without knowing details, I understand the production was troubled and he was fired; screenwriter Budd Schulberg finished it. I've heard differing accounts of the percentages concerning how much of the resultant work was from Ray. With a truly bizarre cast, it is rather surprising I had no knowledge of it beforehand.

The setting is early 20th century southern Florida, both Miami and the nearby Everglades. Christopher Plummer-very early in his career-plays a game warden who has to deal with both bird poachers (led by Burl Ives w/ red beard) and a population that is ambivalent towards protecting wildlife and instead are focused on bird feathers in order to complete their quite frankly ugly outfits. Plenty of time is spent with Ives and his crew; holy Cow do they all look appropriate for the roles of “ruffians who drink moonshine & live in squalor in the swamp.” To my surprise, the movie is styled just like a Western and is more mano y mano between the two leads and philosophical than what I expected.

Note the collection of actors here: Besides Ives and Plummer, there is burlesque dancer Gypsy Rose Lee in a small part as-shock of shocks-the girl who runs a house of ill repute, former boxer Tony Galento-a hardscrabble sort who was a tough as nails brawler and yet was successful enough to fight against Joe Louis for the World Heavyweight Title and actually knocked Louis off his feet... before Joe summarily beat the tar out of him-legendary clown/circus performer Emmett Kelly who was out of his hobo Weary Willie makeup and instead played a Native American when he presumably has no Native American heritage at all and in his movie debut, Peter Falk.


It is rather disjointed at times and it would have been ideal if Ray had been allowed to finish Wind Across the Everglades. Be that as it may, this odd movie with an odd cast and odd premise was for certain not dull and had great atmosphere with its location shooting in South Florida. Of course the Technicolor images of the Everglades were a sight to behold and the ecology message was a nice one, along with being ahead of its time. As stated already, this wasn't quite what I was expecting-there isn't much in terms of action scenes-yet had some very good moments and colorful characters; for the focus being on them, thankfully Ives as Cottonmouth (he often carries around that poisonous reptile around) and Plummer as Walt Murdock are both strong in terms of the role and the performance. It is rather hard to track down online for a viewing, making me glad that apparently TCM plays this once in a blue moon.