Thursday, January 12th, 2006
John ‘the Cool Ghoul’ Zacherley is still going strong at 88, and updated his site with a message for the holidays:
...
It’s been busy for me. I spent some time digging up old relatives in Transylvania. It’s so difficult putting them back. They just don’t like to stay buried.
Then My Dear and I went on a second honeymoon to tour the pyramids of Egypt . . . from the inside. She wanted to see her mummy again, and, well, I’m too nice to tell her, “No.”
...
I never got to see Zacherley’s show on TV, but he collaborated with Rob Zombie on the Halloween Hootenanny CD—which remains one of my all time favourites.
I think it would crazy fun to host a monster chiller movie show, full of campy costumes and spooky old films. I have an second-hand tuxedo from when I hosted the screenings when I was in film school, and a box full of monster masks and halloween stuff. If I ever decide to try my hand at video podcasting, maybe I’ll do that. A monsterific version of RocketBoom. Until then, in honour of the coolness that is Zacherley, here are 13 spooktacular films you can download for free from archive.org. If you want to get them on DVD, the pictures will take you to Amazon.
Enjoy the show… whatever you are.
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The Brain That Wouldn’t Die (1962)
Starring: Jason Evers, Virginia Leith
Director: Joseph Green
After a car crash, a man keeps his wife’s head alive in his laboratory. As if this weren’t enough, an evil beast pounds and screams from a locked room adjacent to the lab.
More Info
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Bride of the Gorilla (1951)
Starring: Barbara Payton, Lon Chaney Jr.
Director: Curt Siodmak
The owner of a plantation in the jungle marries a beautiful woman. Shortly afterward, he is plagued by a strange voodoo curse which transforms him into a gorilla.
More Info
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The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1921)
Starring: Werner Krauss, Conrad Veidt
Director: Robert Wiene
Dr. Caligari’s somnambulist, Cesare, and his deadly predictions.
More Info
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Carnival of Souls (1962)
Starring: Candace Hilligoss, Frances Feist
Director: Herk Harvey
After a traumatic accident, a woman becomes drawn to a mysterious abandoned carnival.
More Info
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City of the Dead (1960)
Starring: Patricia Jessel, Richard Barlow, Christopher Lee
Director: John Llewellyn Moxey
A young coed uses her winter vacation to research a paper on witchcraft in New England.
More Info
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Creature from the Haunted Sea (1961)
Starring: Antony Carbone, Betsy Jones-Moreland
Director: Roger Corman
American crook Sparks Moran sees a chance to make a bundle when a Caribbean island has a revolution. He plans to help loyalists (and the national treasury) escape on his boat, then kill the men and blame their deaths on a mythical sea monster. Trouble ensues when the real monster shows up!
More Info
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The Mad Monster (1942)
Starring: Johnny Downs, George Zucco
Director: Sam Newfield
Dr. Cameron has succeeded in his expierments with a serum which will turn a man into a wolf-like monster and is ready to avenge himself on the men who caused his professional failure.
More Info
Night of the Living Dead (1968)
Starring: Duane Jones, Judith O’Dea
Director: George A. Romero
A group of people hide from bloodthirsty zombies in a farmhouse.
More Info
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Nightmare Castle (1966)
Starring: Barbara Steele, Paul Muller
Director: Mario Caiano
A woman and her lover are tortured and killed by her sadistic husband. The pair return from the grave to seek vengeance.
More Info
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Nosferatu (1922)
Starring: Max Schreck, Gustav von Wangenheim
Director: F.W. Murnau
Vampire Count Orlok expresses interest in a new residence and real estate agent Hutter’s wife.
More Info
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Prehistoric Women (1950)
Starring: Laurette Luez, Allan Nixon
Director: Gregg C. Tallas
See the invention of fire! See the world’s first swan dive! See the prehistoric beauties battle the giant caveman!
More Info
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Rogue’s Tavern (1936)
Starring: Wallace Ford, Barbara Pepper
Director: Robert F. Hill
The body count rises, the phone lines are dead, and the visitors discover that they are trapped inside the inn with no way to escape.
More Info
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The Wasp Woman (1960)
Starring: Susan Cabot, Anthony Eisley
Director: Roger Corman
A cosmetics queen develops a youth formula from jelly taken from queen wasps. She fails to anticipate the typical hoary side- effects.
More Info
Filmography links and data courtesy of The Internet Movie Database.
Tags: blog, film, spooky, web
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Thursday, July 14th, 2005
I finally got a chance to see The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
last night, and was really impressed. The quirky humour, impressive visual design, and talented ensemble cast made it a very enjoyable film, but I think my favourite part of the was the soundtrack—David Bowie songs played on accoustic guitar and sung in by one of the cast in Portugese.
Tags: film
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Tuesday, May 17th, 2005
After writing yesterday’s piece on Star Wars, I found myself reading some reviews of the new film including a rather scathing review from the New Yorker. I also found an interview with Gary Kurtz, who produced Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back, where he talks about his past work with George Lucas, and his thoughts on the new films.
It’s very interesting (at least to me) to read about the direction the films could have taken. Kurtz says he and Lucas eventually parted ways after Empire because he wanted the stories in the films to be more mature, and Lucas wanted them to be more simplistic. The original outline for Return of the Jedi had Darth Vader show a much greater depth of character as he sought to ally himself with his son in an attempt to undue some of the mistakes he had made. The film would have ended on a much darker note with a hard won victory that saw Han Solo dying, Leia having to leave to become queen of her people, and Luke having to go on without his friends to face the Emperor in future films. It would have been a completely different movie.
The summer I graduated from highschool I had a medical scholarship and was working in a research lab before going to University to study science, and eventually medicine. It sounds like a great opportunity, and it was, but I began to realize I didn’t like hospitals very much, and disection even less. This really worried me about the career path I was on. I was young, and I thought the most important thing was to find a career I really loved—after all, I’d be spending the rest of my life doing it.
I had found a second-hand book at the flea-market about the making of
The Empire Strikes Back. This was before anyone had really heard about new movies or special editions, so it was more a nostalgia thing for me than something that was part of current pop-culture conciousness. The book chronicled the various problems faced during the production, and the frequent disagreements between Gary Kurtz (the producer) and George Lucas (the executive producer) about the way the film was being made. I found it all very interesting, and thought making movies sounded like a lot of fun, especially when there were creative challenges to overcome.
After only a year in science, I decided to change my area of study, and became a film student in Toronto. I directed a few short films, worked on some corporate videos, and learned a lot about digital video and computers. The computer part eventually led to my current job as a web designer. It’s not hollywood, and it certainly doesn’t pay as well as being a Doctor might have, but it’s interesting. The relative newness of the Internet reminds me of the early years of the film industry, and I think that’s a good thing to be involved in. Obviously I couldn’t have planned out my career path back in highschool, as I’d never heard of the internet.
It’s only after reading that interview with Gary Kurtz that I realize Empire was a point where the series could have went in two very different directions. I think it’s a bit ironic that reading a book about the making of Empire was a factor in sending my life in a different direction as well.
Tags: film
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Monday, May 16th, 2005
This week marks the conclusion of George Lucas’ new series of Star Wars films, and while I’m not planning on battling through crowds of costumed fans to see it in the theatre, I figure I’ll eventually end up seeing it on DVD. Early reviews suggest it’s an improvement over the last two films which unarguably fell short of their potential, but the trailers leave me feeling a bit underwhelmed. It looks to be full of spaceships, lightsabres, shooting and shouting – and much darker – but I’m still not that interested. New dads don’t go to the movies as often, and I’ll probably only see one or two films in the theatre over the next six months. Star Wars is unfortunately not my first or second choice. If I want escapist fantasy, the new Harry Potter film seems a better pick. Actually, that franchise has been surprisingly well done, and I imagine it holds the same place in the minds of this generation’s kids as Star Wars did for mine.
Star Wars is one of the first movies I can remember seeing in the theatre. I clearly remember the TV commercials for it, and asking my parents all about it. My dad and I went, and it was a really big deal to me. We went to see all the films together, right up to The Phantom Menace. I somehow managed to get a spot at the front of the line for the first evening screening on opening day at one of the big theatres in Toronto. My mom and dad came in from out of town to see it with me and Catherine who I dragged along as well. My parents were technically the first in line when we went into the theatre. We were all pretty disappointed when we got out, and we didn’t bother seeing the next film in the theatre at all. My dad is gone now, which is another reason I think I’ve lost interest in the series.
Still, it’s fun to see everyone get excited by the end of the Star Wars saga, and the accompanying commentary and fan projects are often more entertaining than the main event. The effort that went into the Star Wars: Revelations fan film really impressed me, DJ Coffman’s Star Wars comics are pretty funny, and the guy writing Darth Vader’s Blog is doing a great job showing a softer side of the dark lord. The reviews of the new Star Wars are fun to read, ranging from the blindly enthusiastic to the bitterly disappointed. Some people, like my brother Kevin, have opted to write a review of the Star Wars they would have liked it to be.
Unlike a lot of people my age who grew up loving Star Wars, I guess I’m not really bothered about whether this movie will or won’t live up to my expectations. I’m content to remember going to see the first movie with my dad—a long time ago, in a country far, far away.
Tags: film
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Stuart Robertson