Decades before George Romero would turn the zombie film into a horror genre unto itself, Hollywood was still trying to figure out how to utilize this particular shuffling dead menace. The 1932 Bela Lugosi film White Zombie was the closest representation at the time but with Universal Pictures’ The Mad Ghoul we get a mindless…
Author: Mike Brooks
Film grad who spends most his time trying to catch up on his "To Watch" pile of movies.
I Walked with a Zombie (1943) – Review
The type of zombies found in modern media are a far cry from their early cinematic depictions as you will find no brains being eaten in these early outings and it was more supernatural affliction rather than viral. Thus films like 1932’s White Zombie, which dealt with the voodoo aspect of the affliction, and so…
Night Monster (1942) – Review
If you are invited by a bitter invalid to an old dark house, one that is located near a foggy swamp, don’t go as it’s not going to end well for anybody. But without such examples of Darwinism in action we wouldn’t get such fun classic horror films like Universal’s Night Monster.
Horror Island (1941) – Review
A haunted castle, buried treasure, hidden passages and a phantom killer all add up to a fun little “And then there were none” mystery that reveals in the “Old Dark House” subgenre, in fact, fans of Scooby-Doo should get a lot out of this mystery as the setting and the comedic hijinks have a very…
The Black Cat (1941) – Review
The 1930s and 1940s were a Golden Age of “Old Dark House” stories with such offerings as The Cat and the Canary and Horror Island populating theatres, but when you blend that “Old Dark House” setting with one of the works by the greatest Gothic writers of all time, Edgar Allan Poe, you are pretty…