Category Archives: Halloween Season

October 30, 2015 · 8:56 pm

THE MAN WHO LAUGHS (1869): GOTHIC HORROR

If you love Gothic Horror be sure to check out my October 1st review of the obscure Gothic novella Isabella of Egypt (1812) 

THE MAN WHO LAUGHS

Man who laughs book coverI always commit the literary blasphemy of saying that I don’t consider Victor Hugo’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame to be very much of a horror story. I will forever maintain that Hugo’s overlooked novel The Man Who Laughs features all the virtues of Quasimodo’s tale AND presents them all in a superior fashion.

In addition The Man Who Laughs contains many more elements that lend themselves to pure horror than does The Hunchback of Notre Dame. In the past I’ve examined elements of the film adaptations of The Man Who Laughs (including the fact that the physical appearance of Batman’s foe the Joker was inspired by Conrad Veidt’s 1928 portrayal of the title figure.)

Here’s a breakdown of why I prefer TMWL, with Hugo’s tragic monster Gwynplaine to THOND, with his tragic hunchback Quasimodo: Continue reading →

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October 29, 2015 · 10:22 pm

EARL OWENSBY HALLOWEEN TRIPLE FEATURE

Owensby's macabre Grim Reaper/ Fool Killer style monster from A Day of Judgment.

Owensby’s macabre Grim Reaper/ Fool Killer style monster from A Day of Judgment (1981).

What Larry Buchanan was to Texas …

What Bill Rebane was to Wisconsin …

What William Girdler was to Louisville and Andy Milligan was to Staten Island, Earl Owensby was to North Carolina. “The Dixie DeMille” himself is the subject as Halloween Month continues! 

Low-budget filmmaker Earl Owensby occupies a unique niche in American movie making. Like Roger Corman before him, Owensby set out to be absolutely certain that his films made a profit and – again like Corman – a lot of his flicks were unpretentious B-Movies. Owensby notoriously never spent more than a million dollars on a film and never accepted a distribution deal that would net his company less than eight million dollars.

Many of Owensby’s movies are entertaining and boast decent production values, but for the sake of this review I will be looking at three of his lesser efforts that I feel fall into the fun-bad category.  

Wolfman 1WOLFMAN (1979) – With this movie Owensby completed his move from being a budget Joe Don Baker in vigilante movies like Challenge, The Brass Ring and Dark Sunday to being a budget Burt Reynolds in race-car and prison flicks like Death Driver and Seabo to being a regional horror film producer like Bill Rebane.  

In a sprawling southern mansion the aged patriarch of the Glasgow family lies on his death-bed. A minister who is really a Satanist (Ed Grady) is in cahoots with some of Glasgow’s sleazy heirs to pass the family curse of lycanthropy on to the eldest Glasgow male – Colin Glasgow (Earl Owensby). You’d think that would happen naturally if you’re a fan of other werewolf films but Owensby plays by his own rules in this southern-fried wolfman movie. Continue reading →

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October 28, 2015 · 11:14 pm

THE RED GNOME

Another neglected American horror legend from Balladeer’s Blog to help celebrate Halloween Month.

THE RED GNOME

Red GnomeThis red-hued hobgoblin has plagued Detroit for over 300 years. The Red Gnome was one of the supernatural entities created by the Native American deity Glooskap to protect his people. When European  settlers began to populate the area the figure did what he could to protect the native inhabitants but when that proved futile he turned his attention exclusively to tormenting the newcomers. 

The Red Gnome was short in stature and often mistaken for a child when glimpsed from behind. The hobgoblin has rotten teeth and breath that can kill if the creature so chooses. Anyone tricked into kissing the Red Gnome is said to die immediately. In addition this ageless being has ruby-red eyes that can shoot fiery rays. 

In 1701 Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac (yes, as in THAT Cadillac) battled the Red Gnome, which plagued him until he had lost all his fortune. The hobgoblin’s fiery eye-beams would cause frozen ice on the Detroit River to melt under skaters or racers, plunging them to their deaths in the icy waters below. In warmer weather he would cause small boats to capsize and then drown the passengers.  Continue reading →

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October 27, 2015 · 10:34 pm

THE CORPSE-SMITH OF CONNECTICUT

Another neglected American horror legend from Balladeer’s Blog to help celebrate Halloween Month.

THE CORPSE-SMITH OF CONNECTICUT

Corpse SmithConnecticut is known for its lost cemeteries and graveyards. The Stamford area was supposedly the central territory for the macabre figure called the Corpse-Smith of Connecticut. Also known as the Cadaver Master and the Carrion Engineer this ghoulish character was once a mortal man.

Around the late 1770s the Corpse-Smith was a new arrival from Europe but his exact nationality is no longer known. The man was a brilliant scientist and had made extensive studies of the funerary arts of many High Civilizations from the past including Egypt and Sumer.

The Corpse-Smith combined those arts with his own scientific brilliance and had made incredible advances in the preservation and study of corpses. Like so many geniuses this man was far ahead of his time. Continue reading →

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October 26, 2015 · 11:05 pm

THE GREEN STAIN

Another neglected American horror legend from Balladeer’s Blog to help celebrate Halloween Month.

THE GREEN STAIN

Green StainOn Manhattan Island in the early 1800s a druggist named Rigdon ran an apothecary/ drug shoppe. He was a decidedly unfriendly man but the excellence of his concoctions and their rapid effect on his customers ensured him steady business.

The man’s wife and children seemed to fear the man and were a decidedly nervous lot whenever they were found to be helping out at Rigdon’s establishment. It was noticed by the gossips that feline and canine pets of the children never seemed to be around very long, and the children would refuse comment on the disappearances. Continue reading →

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October 26, 2015 · 9:58 pm

THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTED (1980)

Night of the Hunted 1THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTED (1980) – Halloween Month continues with a review of this French horror film. The Night of the Hunted was written and directed by Jean Rollin, who may be the definitive “love him or hate him” auteur.

My own view has long been that Rollin’s films are like projects David Lynch would direct from scripts by Anne Rice. I also believe that the often pedestrian translations of his movies into English accounts for why some viewers think his films are much less complex than they really are.

With The Night of the Hunted our man Jean departs from his usual tales of the undead and explores a different sort of horror. Brigitte Lahaie, the beautiful starlet of so many Rollin films, stars as Elysabeth, who is part of a pair of women on the run through the night-darkened roadways. Continue reading →

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October 25, 2015 · 4:35 am

SIX ZOMBIE FILMS THAT ARE UNIQUE

If you’re like me you’re bored with all of the zombie and pseudo-zombie films that seem to come out every few months. The 21st Century is as mired in tiresome, cookie-cutter zombie flicks as the 1980s were in tiresome, cookie-cutter slasher flicks.

Here is a look at six films which, while technically classified as zombie films at least adopt unique perspectives and don’t follow established formulas.

ShiversSHIVERS (1975) – David Cronenberg directed this overlooked gem that takes his love affair with body-horror and sets it in what would otherwise be a traditional zombie format. In fact my opinion is that George Romero’s Dawn of the Dead from a few years later shows a lot of this Cronenberg film’s influence.

Barbara Steele is the big name for horror fans in Shivers which was also released under the title They Came From Within. Lynn Lowry and Joe Silver are also in the film.

Countless other movies give us zombies that act purely on the animal instinct to kill and feed. Shivers gives us zombies who act first on the animal instinct to fornicate with killing being a secondary – but no less inevitable – consideration. Continue reading →

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October 24, 2015 · 10:52 pm

KILLIAN HEYLIGER’S PORTRAIT

Another neglected American horror legend from Balladeer’s Blog to help celebrate Halloween Month.

KILLIAN HEYLIGER’S PORTRAIT

1600s inBack when New York was still New Amsterdam Killian Heyliger was a vicious figure whose wealth protected him from the consequences of his actions. Today he would be considered a serial killer but back then with law enforcement technology in such a primitive state Heyliger had no problem getting rid of all traces of his victims.

Heyliger had financed an inn as an investment and lorded it over the establishment no matter what the actual management felt about it. Killian took any woman he wanted from the staff and befriended any men he wanted from the guests and would party and gamble with them all night in his private suites upstairs.  Continue reading →

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October 23, 2015 · 10:40 pm

HUGUES THE WEREWOLF (1838): GOTHIC HORROR

If you love Gothic Horror be sure to check out my October 1st review of the obscure Gothic novella Isabella of Egypt (1812)

HUGUES THE WEREWOLF (1838)

Hugues the WerewolfHugues the Wer-Wolf to give it its original spelling, is a very enjoyable 1800s horror story written by Sutherland Menzies. The Wulfric family are from old Norman stock and live between Ashford and Canterbury.

The Wulfrics are largely shunned because of the belief that for several generations lycanthropy has run through their family. Since this is a horror story we know it’s the truth and that the Wulfric werewolves are responsible for bloody deaths of livestock and human beings as well as the digging up of freshly buried corpses when other game is scarce.   Continue reading →

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October 22, 2015 · 11:43 pm

THE DARK WOODSMAN

Another neglected American horror legend from Balladeer’s Blog to help celebrate Halloween Month.

THE DARK WOODSMAN

Dark ForestAround two hundred years ago in the forest outside Brighton, MA stalked the Dark Woodsman. Big and brawny and garbed in the clothing of the era, he was a supernatural figure condemned by Heaven to labor eternally at the cutting down of the seemingly endless woodland of New England. Alone the damned figure would chop down a tree per night, carry it off to some hidden woodmill then whittle and craft the timber.  

All implements made from the trees of the Dark Woodsman were used for evil. From his wood slave ships were made, spears and arrows for Native American tribes at war were crafted, clubs for bludgeoning victims were fashioned and devices for every other possible evil came from the vile figure’s workshop.  Continue reading →

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