CEMETERY OF TERROR (1985) – HALLOWEEN MONTH CONTINUES! Released in Mexico as Cementerio del terror, this overlooked movie makes for some nice Halloween season viewing and is even set on October 31st. Cemetery of Terror is not as campy as Mexican Wrestling Horror flicks or notorious works like The Brainiac, The Curse of the Crying Woman, The Man and the Monster, etc. Instead, its many flaws work to its benefit for that 1980s VHS feel.
Psychotronic Hall of Fame figures like Hugo Stiglitz, Ruben Galindo Jr. and Rene Cardona III were in the creative team of this laughably bad but grim and downbeat movie. Cemetery of Terror is ideal for Bad Movie Fans with strong stomachs because some of the gore reaches Lucio Fulci levels.
Sure, you’ve seen everything in this flick before, but you’ve rarely seen it done with such élan. The energetic camera work overcomes the poor acting, idiotic character decisions and frequent repetition. Let’s dive into the smorgasbord of horror elements jam-packed into this project and ask ourselves “Just how much money did the makers of Pepsi Free pay for the wall-to-wall product placements they got?” Continue reading
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 obscure stories from the 1800s and earlier, like they’re Halloween counterparts to my Ancient Science Fiction reviews. 
THE MONSTER-MAKER (1897) – Set in San Francisco, this W.C. Morrow tale was praised by the one and only Ambrose Bierce. A truly unique monster gets cobbled together by a mad scientist but instead of a castle in Europe the action takes place in Frisco. Experimenting on a suicidal young man, our insane Dr. X turns the lad’s body into a globe-headed, lobster-limbed abomination. The scientist’s courageous wife and a police detective work to bring down the madman. 
PAGANINI HORROR (1989) – Directed by Luigi Cozzi, better known to us fans of psychotronic movies as the Italian Ed Wood. Three women and one man constitute a heavy metal band desperate for a hit song. They strike a Faustian bargain with the mysterious Mr. Pickett, played by Donald Pleasence. 
Playing the piece while filming at the mansion causes Paganini to rise from the dead and lets loose other forces of Hell. Those characters not butchered by the masked, undead maestro via a knife that pops out of his violin are slaughtered by the supernatural forces now at large in the house. 
Before MST3K there was … The Texas 27 Film Vault! In the middle 1980s, way down on Level 31 Randy and Richard, machine-gun toting Film Vault Technicians First Class hosted this neglected cult show. Balladeer’s Blog continues its celebration of the program’s 40th anniversary year.
OGROFF aka The Mad Mutilator (1983) – This thoroughly bizarre French movie whose maker somehow conned horror icon Howard Vernon into appearing is easily one of the worst films ever made. Norbert G. Moutier owned a video store in France and published a horror fanzine. 
SCREAMBOOK (1984) – Ever see a feature length horror film written, produced and directed by a 13-year-old? And with nearly all the roles – of all ages – played by fellow teenagers? Obviously, I’ll be grading this flick on a curve in this review. 
THE DEATHMASTER (1972) – In between his pair of movies as the vampire named Count Yorga the one and only Robert Quarry starred as a vampiric Charles Manson wannabe in this film. The Deathmaster starts out with a great bit that wouldn’t look out of place in a Jean Rollin horror flick from France: the huge, hulking Barbado (Le Sesne Hilton) plays eerie flute music, seemingly luring ashore a sea-tossed coffin. This casket holds our “Deathmaster” – a vampire called Khorda. 
THE TELEVISION GHOST (1931-1933) – As astonishing at it may seem, there were actually some regularly televised programs on pioneering channels like W2XAB beginning in 1931. Comparatively few people actually had the mechanical television sets of that period when the whole enterprise was highly experimental. Newspaper listings offer most of what little information survives about the broadcasts.
The Television Ghost ran 15 minutes and starred George Kelting as the Ghost with Bill Schudt as an announcer and narrator. The show’s Halloween Episode of 1931 was nicely hyped with a reference to some primitive television special effects magic. 
Where does the time go? It was 2020 when Balladeer’s Blog first covered the ongoing 
If you’re new to the whole Local 58TV Analog Horror series the YT Channel is 
Balladeer’s Blog’s love of quality horror ARGs (Alternate Reality Games) has been well established. In the past I’ve examined productions like Local 58, Claridryl and Jack Torrance (NOT the character from The Shining.) 
The eerie storyline revolves around the disappearance of a beautiful young Polish woman named Ania Slowinska and the dark, seemingly supernatural forces behind it. As the tale unfolds it becomes apparent other women have fallen victim to the same forces, with one having had all her teeth removed after being murdered. 
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