Series: Film / TV

Vampire Girl vs. Frankenstein Girl directed by Yoshihiro Nishimura

It was Pittsburgh-born filmmaker Herschell Gordon Lewis who, by dint of a dozen or so splatterific exploitation films that he directed from 1963 – ’72, earned himself the nickname “The Godfather of Gore.” But, I have a feeling, Herschell, who is presently 84, might just bust an artery himself if he ever got a gander at what the Japanese are currently doing in the field of gore FX; specifically, what Yoshihiro Nishimura has accomplished in the last 12 or so years. It was the 2001 film Suicide Club that initially alerted me to the talents of this modern-day goremaster,

The Four Skulls Of Jonathan Drake directed by Edward L. Cahn

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Back in the early 1960s, The Four Skulls of Jonathan Drake (1959) used to be aired quite often on NYC television. But somehow, I managed to miss all those many showings, although my young mind couldn’t help feeling that the film boasted one of the coolest-sounding titles that I’d ever heard. And then, as happened with so many other cheaply made “B” films of the time, it seemed to disappear, and remained virtually impossible to see for many years to come.

I Bury The Living directed by Albert Band

Featuring a story line worthy of inclusion in the soon-to-premiere Twilight Zone TV show on CBS, 1958’s I Bury the Living would seem to be a natural pick for “sleeper” status, and indeed, the reputation of this minor classic has only grown over the years. Deservedly so? Well, having just watched the film for the first time, I would have to say “yes” and “no.” The film is a surprisingly effective thriller for most of its 76-minute length, but unfortunately – for this viewer,

The Crater Lake Monster directed by William R. Stromberg

My bad, and all that, but for some reason, I had long assumed The Crater Lake Monster was a product of the late 1950s – a black-and-white cousin of such other films dealing with thawed-out critters returning to harass modern man as The Monster That Challenged the World (1957) and The Monster of Piedras Blancas (1959). Of course, I was incorrect in that surmise, and the picture in question turns out to be from the year 1977,