Series: Film / TV

In today’s Shocktober Double Feature, we will be flabbergasted by the sight of a creepy castle crypt, a 200-year-old bloodsucker, surfing dudes, and bikini babes! It’s The Playgirls and the Vampire and The Beach Girls and the Monster!

THE PLAYGIRLS AND THE VAMPIRE (1960)

The Playgirls and the Vampire, an odd Italian amalgam of sexploitation and Gothic horror, was originally released in 1960 under the perhaps more fitting title The Last Prey of the Vampire. The five gals who are forced to spend the night at the creepy castle of Count Gabor Kernassy,

In today’s Shocktober Double Feature, we have Nicole Kidman (X2!), a murderous weathergirl, Jersey ghosts, and photosensitive children! It’s To Die For and The Others!

TO DIE FOR (1995)

The phenomenal success of programs such as The Jerry Springer Show and American Idol amply demonstrates that people in this country are more than willing to suffer any number of indignities just to get their kissers up there on the TV screen. But who would be willing to go to the lengths that Suzanne Stone resorts to,

In today’s Shocktober Double Feature, we will be rattled by a jinxed circus, knife throwing, a carnival full of mutants, and a Joni Mitchell look-alike! It’s Circus of Horrors and She Freak!

CIRCUS OF HORRORS (1960)

Potential viewers of the 1960 British thriller Circus of Horrors should not be put off by its cast of relative unknowns; it is a real winner, despite that. This film tells the fascinating story of Dr. Rossiter, who, after performing a botched plastic surgery operation in post-War England,

In today’s Shocktober Double Feature, we will be wowed by a gaggle of geriatric devil devotees, Ahna Capri, a gang of undead bikers, and frog worship! It’s The Brotherhood of Satan and Psychomania!

THE BROTHERHOOD OF SATAN (1971)

If there’s one thing that the middling horror movie The Brotherhood of Satan demonstrates, it is that Old Scratch must have been pretty desperate for worshipping disciples in the early 1970s. In this film, directed by Bernard McEveety, Charles Bateman, his 8-year-old daughter and his hotty gal pal (the yummy Ahna Capri) get stuck in a small town out West that is in the midst of being terrorized by a coven of elderly Satanists.

In today’s very impressive Shocktober Double Feature, we will be regaled by the mariphasa flower, modern-day lycanthropy, Boris Karloff, and the always delectable Vera Day! It’s Werewolf of London and The Haunted Strangler!

WEREWOLF OF LONDON (1935)

A full six years before returning Welshman Lawrence Talbot ever heard the dire prediction that “Even a man who is pure in heart, and says his prayers by night, may become a wolf when the wolfbane blooms, and the autumn moon is bright,” English botanist Wilfred Glendon was having problems of his own,

In today’s Shocktober Double Feature, we will be awestruck by rampaging dinosaurs, the always-scrumptious Hillary Brooke, disintegrating gravity plates, and a pre-Jaws Richard Kiel! It’s Lost Continent and The Phantom Planet!

LOST CONTINENT (1951)

Lost Continent is a film that I used to love as a kid but hadn’t seen in over 40 years. I still remembered parts of it vividly, however, especially the gripping image of a man falling to his doom through a covering of cloud, and wondered if it would hold up all these years later.

In today’s Shocktober Double Feature, we will be stunned by a blind Mia Farrow, a butchering maniac, lovely Hayley Mills, and the always-wonderful music of Bernard Herrmann. It’s See No Evil and Endless Night!

SEE NO EVIL (1971)

The appearance of Brian Clemens’ name in the credits of any film or television production is, for me, kind of like a Seal of Approval. From the hit ’60s TV show The Avengers to such marvelous horror films as Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde (’72) and Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter (’74),

In today’s Shocktober Double Feature, we will have to somehow survive obscene phone calls, a psycho killer, pitchfork murders and Tom Savini FX! It’s Black Christmas and The Prowler!

BLACK CHRISTMAS (1975)

Before I sat down to watch Black Christmas for the first time, director Bob Clark had been two for two with me. I had loved his previous two flicks – the zombie gut-muncher Children Shouldn’t Play With Dead Things and his living-dead Vietnam vet horror comedy Deathdream,

In today’s Shocktober Double Feature, we will be startled by a very hungry crocodile, Robert Englund, a ferocious leopard, and yummy Nancy Kwan! It’s Eaten Alive and Night Creature!

EATEN ALIVE (1976)

Tobe Hooper’s debut film, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974), although not nearly as graphically violent as popularly believed, is nevertheless quite a nightmarish experience to sit through. His sophomore effort, 1977’s comparatively unknown Eaten Alive, is almost as nightmarish and ups the gore quotient considerably.

In today’s Shocktober Double Feature we have two curious stories, courtesy of H. P. Lovecraft and Robert Louis Stevenson. It’s Die, Monster, Die! and I, Monster!

DIE, MONSTER, DIE! (1965)

“The Colour Out of Space” has long been one of my favorite H.P. Lovecraft stories, so I was curious to see how this 1965 film adaptation, directed by Daniel Haller, had turned out. Very well indeed, I’m happy to report. In this solid little AIP chiller, Nick Adams, an American, comes to Arkham, England to visit his college girlfriend.