Notizie

Writer/director Robert Eggers just dominated at the box office with Nosferatu, earning over $136 million at the worldwide box office thus far. The movie's eerie Gothic wintry setting was perfect for the holiday season, and it showed a trend towards electrifying new life into old, black-and-white Universal monster movies. Eggers is in good company since director Leigh Whannell, who already had a hit with his remake of The Invisible Man in 2020, is set to explore another Universal monster with Wolf Man.

While these movies have been undeniably successful, there are still many Universal monster movies that have gone unexplored. Time has seemed to have forgotten all about these classic Universal monsters. Almost everyone is familiar with Dracula, Frankenstein, the Phantom of the Opera, and the Creature From the Black Lagoon, but few know these underrated horror icons exist. It's time they got the respect and maybe even the reboot that they deserve.

Why do we like horror and monster movies that routinely get labeled as ‘bad?’ Because many of them have great story ideas and look at the world from odd, warped viewpoints. Back when ‘warped’ wasn’t a prerequisite for All filmed entertainment (my exaggeration) this murderous rejuvenation tale could be appreciated as something unusual, even quirky. Jeez, the characters are even nastier than the people I know! Lovely Coleen Gray takes a chance on a downmarket Universal programmer and proves how well she can carry a movie, even through several dubious horror make-ups.

The Leech Woman

Blu-ray

Scream Factory

1960 / B&w / 1:85 widescreen / 77 min. / Street Date August 27, 2019 / Available from Scream Factory

Starring: Coleen Gray, Grant Williams, Phillip Terry, Gloria Talbott, John Van Dreelen, Estelle Hemsley, Kim Hamilton, Arthur Batanides, Murray Alper, Paul Thompson.

Cinematography: Ellis W. Carter

Film Editor: Milton Carruth

Original Music: Irving Gertz

Written by David Duncan, story by Ben Pivar,...

Though you have to look twice to find the original title, this stunning Danish poster is unmistakeably for Jean-Luc Godard’s Alphaville. With its combination of sci-fi settings and two poster-genic stars, Alphaville may have inspired more great and varied posters than most other films. The most famous of course is Jean Mascii’s greyscale masterpiece. Illustrator of some 1500 posters from the early 50s through to the late 80s, Mascii (1926-2003) was an old school artist who fit right into the new world of the Nouvelle Vague with his photorealist illustration of Eddie Constantine and Anna Karina (you can see the poster in detail at the bottom of this article).

Other fabulous Alphaville posters include the Japanese...

...the Italian, titled Agent Lemmy Caution: Missione Alphaville...

...the German, titled Lemmy Caution against Alpha 60...

...the Bass-influenced American one-sheet...

...and the Belgian poster...

The Danish poster, which we started with, trumpets the film...

With the entire original run of The Twilight Zone available to watch instantly, we’re partnering with Twitch Film to cover all of the show’s 156 episodes. Are you brave enough to watch them all with us? The Twilight Zone (Episode #149): “The Jeopardy Room” (airdate 4/17/64) The Plot: Russian agents check in, but they don’t check out. The Goods: Major Ivan Kuchenko (Martin Landau) sits in a hotel room mere hours from a planned defection to the West, but while he believes he’s alone in his thoughts he’s actually being monitored by two Kgb agents sent to stop him. He discovers the truth when the two men make contact and tell him there’s a bomb in his room. He’ll be dead by dawn unless he can find and disarm the explosive. “I am the last of the imaginative executioners.” The two agents assigned to Kuchenko’s elimination, Commissar...