Series: Film / TV

Creature With The Atom Brain: It should certainly stimulate YOUR amygdalae

Perhaps no other actor of the late 1940s throughout the ‘50s squared off against as many sci-fi monstrosities on screen as Poughkeepsie, NY-born Richard Denning. In 1948’s Unknown Island, Denning battled a T. rex and other prehistoric nightmares; in Creature From the Black Lagoon (1954), he grappled with the most famous amphibian in cinema history; in Target Earth (also from ’54), his problem was invading aliens and a humongous, lumbering robot; in The Day the World Ended (1955),

The Tingler: This movie really IS a scream!

In 1958, director William Castle delivered to the world a film that has been chilling the collective backbones of horror buffs for over half a century now: House on Haunted Hill. And the following year, in one of the greatest one-two punches in horror history, Castle came up with a film that is certainly every bit as good, and perhaps, arguably, even better. In The Tingler, Castle brought back much of his team from the previous picture — leading man Vincent Price,

The Deadly Mantis: DEW or die

By the time the sci-fi shocker The Deadly Mantis premiered in May 1957, American audiences had already been regaled by a steady stream of giant-monster movies on the big screen, starting with 1953’s classic The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms. In 1954, Them!, with its monstrously large ants, kicked off a subgenre of sorts, the giant-insect movie, and Tarantula would follow in 1955. After The Deadly Mantis, The Beginning of the End (giant grasshoppers),

Jurassic World: Immensely satisfying, with a surprising message

If you are a big fan of the first Jurassic Park film, you’ve probably been waiting on pins and needles for the latest installment in the franchise, Jurassic World. After seeing the trailer, I felt very anxious: would this live up to my lofty dreams, or would it be another Jurassic Park III? I can now say with pleasure that I laughed, and gasped, and oohed and aahed throughout the movie. The chase and fight scenes are intense,

Monster on the Campus: Another winner from Jack Arnold

In the five-year period 1953 – ’57, director Jack Arnold brought forth five sci-fi/horror classics that are still beloved by psychotronic-film fans today: It Came From Outer Space (’53), Creature From the Black Lagoon (’54), Revenge of the Creature (’55), Tarantula (also ’55) and one of the all-time champs, The Incredible Shrinking Man (’57). Following up Arnold’s string of crowd-pleasing entertainments came the lesser-known Monster on the Campus in 1958,