Italian cinema of the early ’60s had a flair for grand horror melodrama. Still, Mill of the Stone Women (Il mulino delle donne di pietra) might be its most baroquely unhinged example. It’s beautiful, bizarre, and far too committed to its premise to be brushed off as just another knockoff. This is a film that…
The City of the Dead (1960) – Review
If you’ve ever dreamed of taking a scenic New England vacation filled with Satanic cults, human sacrifices, and enough fog to choke a lighthouse keeper, then The City of the Dead (also known as Horror Hotel) is your dream destination. Directed by John Llewellyn Moxey and starring Christopher Lee in full “professor of malevolence” mode,…
The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men (1952) – Review
Walt Disney’s The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men is what happens when a studio famous for singing animals decides to behave like a respectable purveyor of English folklore. The result is earnest, handsomely mounted, and just a little too polite for its own good. It’s Robin Hood scrubbed clean for family viewing,…
The Fearless Vampire Killers (1967) – Review
Roman Polanski’s The Fearless Vampire Killers is a Gothic romp, a parody of Hammer-style horror that plays like a Looney Tunes cartoon trapped inside an old German Expressionist nightmare. It’s silly, stylish, sometimes aimless, and yet oddly charming, like a vampire who insists on wearing a cape to dinner but can’t find his fangs. Uneven…
The Devil Rides Out (1968) – Review
Hammer Films’ The Devil Rides Out is a strange beast: a heady cocktail of stately drawing-room drama, occult chills, and pure pulp lunacy, all handled with a straight face by people who should have known better but somehow pulled it off magnificently. Directed by Hammer’s maestro Terrence Fisher, the film remains one of the studio’s…