A Creepy Quartet

I have yet again dipped my toe in the vast sea of old school horror cinema.

The funny thing is, some of these old films can be quite good, even though they really are pretty bad. I know that makes little sense, but some of them have a certain quality to them that comes from a mixture of passion and ingenuity. I don't want to sound all hipstery and “everything used to be better”, but they couldn't rely on cheap digital effects and overly dark scenes, back then. Something many modern films have in abundance. And don't get me started on shaky-cam...

Anyway, first up is The Haunted Palace (1963), by Roger Corman, starring the inimitable Vincent Price. It's essentially The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, by H.P. Lovecraft, but toned down. The film was billed as one of Corman's Poe movies, but the only Poe in it is a poem. It's pretty standard fare for the time, that is gothic, overly dramatic and all shot in a studio.

I saw it back in the 80's and didn't care for it, but now, I found it has a wonderful old charm about it. If you're into 60's velvet and paint style horror, do give it a watch.

Next up is Psychomania a.k.a. The Death Wheelers (1973). Here we have a gang of bored young people, who get their kicks driving their bikes fast and harassing the townsfolk. Their leader Tom, finds a way to come back from the dead and when he actually succeeds, he urges his gang to follow suit. For some reason you are indestructible if you return from the grave like this. Then stuff happens.

What makes this film worth mentioning, is that they aren't zombies or vampires, or anything like that. The movie does it's own thing and I like that. All things considered, I can't recommend this. Sure, there are worse films out there, but also so many that are better.

Dr.Terror's House of Horrors (1965) looks and feels like a Hammer Production, but it is in fact not. It's produced by Amicus Productions, who made several anthology films like this. A group of men share a train carriage, and have their fortunes told, leading into their own segments. It felt like a prototype for better films of it's kind that came later. The stories vary in quality from lousy to passable, but what makes this movie stand out is the cast; Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee, Donald Sutherland are the most famous, but almost everyone is a famous face in British cinema. It's also the only film I can recall where Christopher Lee is terrified. All in all an okay movie, but not that good.

Finally, we get to Terror Train (1980). This is the best film on the list by far. A group of graduating college students partying on a train get killed off, one by one. The killers takes the costumes of his latest victims as he stalks them on the train. It's for the most part pretty standard fare, but a few things need mentioning. First of all, it stars David Copperfield in one of his only movie roles. Second, the mood and the setting is really good. Third, and we are heading into spoiler territory here, the film pretty much tells you who the killer is from the start. Yeah, they try to make you doubt it, but it's super obvious. Finally, again minor spoiler, the main star is none other than Jamie Lee Curtis. She had starred in and survived Halloween only two years earlier, and not once did I get the feeling that she was in real danger. I mean, come on, if Michael Myers couldn't kill her, how is this third rate slasher supposed to?

That's it for this time. If you don't want to watch any of the films mentioned above, there are plenty of others to choose from. So until next time, have a great week!