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
Once again, Balladeer’s Blog looks at the fragmentary remains of one of the lesser-known ancient Greek comedy playwrights, in this case Philyllius. This comic poet’s career seems to have spanned approximately from the 410s BC to 390 BC. One of his comedies won 1st prize at a Lenaea festival in the 390s and he won 1st prize at an unknown Dionysia. His fellow comedian Strattis credited him with being the first Attic Old Comic to use real torches on stage.
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. 
THE BOD SQUAD (1974) – Hong Kong Cinema’s Shaw Brothers helped produce this cross-cultural martial arts exploitation flick that plays like an Andy Sidaris film crossed with a WIP movie from the 70s. 
THE GIRL FROM U.N.C.L.E. (1966-1967) – This spinoff series from (What else?) The Man from U.N.C.L.E. starred Stefanie Powers as superspy April Dancer. Like Napoleon Solo and Illya Kuryakin, April worked for the United Network Command for Law & Enforcement. Her series lasted just one season of 29 hour-long episodes. 
THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. – THE MOONGLOW AFFAIR: Airing on February 25th, 1966, this backdoor pilot for The Girl from U.N.C.L.E. had Mary Ann Mobley as new agent April Dancer. She replaced the incapacitated Solo and Kuryakin to stop the establishment of a lunar presence by the evil organization T.H.R.U.S.H. (Technological Hierarchy for the Removal of Undesirables and the Subjugation of Humanity). 
THAT WAS NUMBER FIIIIVE – In the NAIA the 19th ranked MARIAN UNIVERSITY KNIGHTS welcomed the nation’s number 5 team – the INDIANA WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY WILDCATS. By Halftime the Wildcats were on top of Marian U. 21-10 but things turned around after the break. The 3rd Quarter ended with the Knights within 28-24 of Indiana Wesleyan and the 4th in a 52-42 Marian triumph.
DOWN GOES NUMBER EIGHT – Over in NCAA Division 2, the NORTHWEST MISSOURI STATE BEARCATS took the field against the visiting 8th ranked UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL OKLAHOMA BRONCHOS (their spelling). After a 7-7 1st Quarter tie, the Bearcats led 14-7 and 28-10 in the 2nd and 3rd Quarters. Northwest Missouri State won 38-16 in the 4th. 
AND NUMBER NINE COMES TUMBLING AFTER – Staying in D2 for the moment, the number 16 CALIFORNIA (PA) UNIVERSITY VULCANS traveled to face the 9th ranked SLIPPERY ROCK UNIVERSITY ROCK. The Vulcans put Slippery Rock on Upset Alert with their 35-28 advantage at the Half. Each team scored 10 more points from there as Cal (PA) toppled the Rock 45-38. 
DEFENDERS Vol 1 #17 (Nov 1974) 
ONE-POINT WONDER – The ERIE COLLEGE KATS took it on the road against the COLLEGE AT BROCKPORT GOLDEN EAGLES. The Kats converted their 9-0 1st Quarter lead into a 16-2 advantage by Halftime. The 3rd Quarter ended with Erie College on top 23-2 but the 4th saw the Golden Eagles furiously rally only to fall just short as the Kats held on to win the game 23-22. 
For this installment of my examinations of Greek comedies I will focus on one of the ancient Greek comedians whose entire corpus is very, very, VERY fragmentary, touching briefly on all of their known works. For background info on ancient Greek comedy plus my previous reviews click here: 
1. TRAGI-COMEDY – This play gave comedic treatment to the traditional rivalry between comedy and tragedy on the ancient Athenian stage. The comedy had fun with the inherent tensions between the two dramatic forms, including the fact that tragedy took pains to preserve the audience’s suspension of disbelief while comedy reveled in bursting the dramatic illusion via constant meta-theatrical breaking of the fourth wall.
In the middle 1980s/ Way down on Level 31 …
SERIAL: Before showing The Crybaby Killer our members of the Film Vault Corps (“the few, the proud, the sarcastic”) showed an episode of the Mascot Serial The Phantom Empire (1935). 
THE MOVIE:
Balladeer's Blog 