As Halloween Month rolls along, I will take a movie-by-movie look at the opening season of Elvira’s show Movie Macabre (1981-1986). Her massive success kicked off an even greater proliferation of Movie Hosts and Hostesses in the 1980s. I covered Elvira herself back in 2012, so this time I’m taking a look at her debut season.
GRAVE OF THE VAMPIRE (1972) – Psychotronic icons Michael Pataki and William Smith starred in this twisted flick about a vampire (Pataki) who rapes a woman (Lyn Peters) who subsequently gives birth to an abnormal infant. The baby will drink only blood and grows up to be James Eastman (Smith). James goes on a quest to kill his father for the pain he brought into his mother’s life. Ultimately he does, but becomes a full vampire himself. (Just go with it.) Aired Sep 26th, 1981.
SILENT NIGHT, BLOODY NIGHT (1972) – One of the pre-Halloween examples of a slasher film. A young man inherits the family mansion which years earlier was turned into an insane asylum. He starts the process of selling the place, but on Christmas Eve a former inmate of the asylum goes on a killing spree. THE John Carradine, Mary Woronov and Patrick O’Neal star along with many Andy Warhol fringies like Candy Darling. Also with Philip Bruns of Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman. Aired Oct 3rd. Continue reading
THE ROOM IN THE TOWER (1912) – This story was written by E.F. Benson. The British narrator has a recurring nightmare in which he visits his friend John Clinton at his family manor. The other family members, including his mother Mrs. Stone, are cold and grim toward him. 
STRANGE HARVEST (2025) – Halloween Month continues with this review of a movie which got previewed in 2024 before its official release in August 2025. Because Balladeer’s Blog covers everything from mild Silent-Era horror films to extreme horror from recent decades I will post my courtesy warning for Strange Harvest:
However, his murders seemed unrelated until detective work recently found the obscure link connecting them. I will go into details about the grotesque murders below. Oddly, despite the grisly nature of the slayings, Strange Harvest otherwise starts out with a slow burn approach reminiscent of Rosemary’s Baby, The Exorcist and other films. 
Anne Coleman was a feared witch in Lanesboro, MA in the 1780s. She was suspected of causing storms that sank ships, bringing on diseases that killed cattle, making food go bad and other malevolent deeds. 
PETER RUGG, THE MISSING MAN (1824) – This short story was written by author William Austin. A ghostly post-chaise horsedrawn carriage is often sighted and/or encountered up and down the East Coast. The carriage is pursued by a supernatural storm and is driven by a man named Peter Rugg with his daughter Jenny as his passenger. 
BLACK NOON (1971) – Roy Thinnes stars as an old west preacher who falls in with a coven of witches in the town of Melas (Salem spelled backwards of course). 
October 1st kicks off Balladeer’s Blog’s usual mixing of horror items in with my usual topics. I review horror films from the silent movie era onward as well as 
BLACK ROSES (1988) – This legendarily laughable attempt at a horror film belongs to quite a few niche sub-genres. It’s a Canadian horror movie, it’s one of the wonderfully campy Heavy Metal Horror productions of the 1980s and most importantly for trivia lovers Black Roses is one of the Big Three Canadian turkeys to feature Frank Dietz in a supporting role. (The other two are Rock’N’Roll Nightmare and Zombie Nightmare. ) 
THE MAN AND THE MONSTER – Written by Henry M. Milner, this stage adaptation of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein differs significantly from her novel and was first performed on July 3rd, 1826 at the Royal Cobourg Theatre. 
SCHALCKEN THE PAINTER (1979) – The British Film Institute has released a terrific video edition of this 69-minute Gothic Horror telefilm which originally aired on December 23rd, 1979 as part of the Omnibus program. 
Jeremy Clyde of Chad & Jeremy fame stars as the Dutch artist Schalcken with Maurice Denham as his already famous teacher Garrett Dou and Cheryl Kennedy as Rose, Dou’s niece and Schalcken’s desire.
