Dinner and a Movie with Moxie

  Mortuary (2005) Have you ever picked up a film, and based on its reviews expected it to be absolute garbage, but then ended absolutely loving that film?  That was the case with Mortuary, a 2005 film directed by horror film legend Tobe Hooper.   From the reviews and the film's online critical rating I expected it to be really bad, maybe one of the worst films ever, but as I watched the film, is soon became apparent that this film was absolutely amazing!  Mortuary is a comedic gory zombie horror film about a family who moves across the country to start a new life.  The mother Leslie moved her family into the old dilapidated Fowler Mortuary, where she is beginning her new career as a mortician.  Along with her came her children, teenager Jonathan, and his young sister Jamie.  Jonathan gets a job at a local diner working for Rita, and with her niece Liz, who becomes his love interest, he also befriends her best friend Grady.  However there are ...

  The Nameless (Los Sin Nombre) (1999) I didn't know what to expect with this next film, I think that this is the first time that I have seen it, it is called The Nameless, or in its original Spanish language Los Sin Nombre, and was released in 1999.  I was very impressed by this Spanish horror film, though there was one thing that I didn't like about the film, which I will discuss more in a bit.   The Nameless is a Spanish horror film about a mother whose child was abducted, and she believes her to be dead, until she receives a phone call from a young girl who claims to be her daughter, Angela, asking her mother to save her.   The mother, Claudia. reaches out to retired police detective Massara who had originally been on the case of her missing daughter.  Together they investigate and search for Claudia's daughter Angela, but what they discover in their investigation leads them to a dark cult named the Nameless, this is a cult of ultimate evil.  ...

  Six Degrees Of Helter Skelter (2009) This next film is a documentary, and in the case of Six Degrees Of Helter Skelter, a documentary can definitely qualify as a horror film.  Charlie Manson and his "family"  have fascinated and horrified the public since they were committed in 1969.  Some say that the murders committed by the Manson Family were the death to the hippies, and in many ways a death to American innocence.   Before their home invasions and murders of Tate and Labianca families America was a place where people regularly left their doors unlocked at night, and lived with an element of ignorance to the evil that lived within their own communities.  This documentary takes a look at not only the brutal murders, but also at the locations, the people, the connections, and the forensic evidence of the cases, and also takes a deep look at the Manson Family, and some of their other crimes.   The film debunks some commonly held beliefs abo...

  The Hole (2001) I think it is a real tragedy that the 2001 dark psychological horror film The Hole never received a theatrical release in the United States, as it did in the UK where it was made.  The film stars a talented and sexy cast featuring Thora Birch and Keira Knightley.  The film was based on the Guy Bert novel After The Hole, and it tells the story of four college students who are trapped in a bunker in the ground near their school.  They went there to party for three days, but things went horribly wrong, and the film starts with Thora Birch's character Liz, escaping the whole, and getting to a phone at her school where she dials the 999 and just screams into the phone.  The story is told through the voice of Liz, as she tells the story of what happened to a police psychiatrist named Dr Phillipa Horwood who works with Liz to discover what happened to the young adults in the hole.  However we are just taking her word for it, and there is more tha...

  Dead Men Walk (1943) Director Sam Newfield, and his brother Sigmund Neufeld again worked with George Zucco on another great poverty row horror film for P.R.C. in 1943, called Dead Men Walk.  Dead Men Walk features George Zucco playing two characters, that of Dr. Lloyd Clayton, and his brother Dr. Elwyn Clayton.  Lloyd kills his brother because of his brother's involvement in a Satanic cult, but not realizing that his brother would come back from the grave as a vampire. Dr. Elwyn Clayton then preys on his brother's daughter, Gayle, slowly draining her of her blood.  However her lover Dr. David Bentley doesn't believe that it could be a vampire and suspects Dr. Lloyd Clayton of slowly killing his own daughter.  The film also features Dwight Frye as Dr. Elwyn Clayton's assistant Zolarr.  The town's people start a witch hunt against Dr. Lloyd Clayton thinking that he is behind the murders, but a superstitious woman named Kate believes him, and aids him, but t...

Atom Age Vampire (AKA Seddok, L'erede di Satana) (1960) The English translation of the title of this next film is quite misleading, Atom Age Vampire, because the film doesn't feature any vampires, just a mad scientist who kills people in the pursuit of research.  Though the scientist becomes a deformed monster, and he steals his victims glands through holes in their necks, he doesn't drain them of their blood, and the film really has nothing to do with vampires, or really the atom age at all.   The original Italian title Seddok, L'erede di Satana, which translates to Seddock, The Heir Of Satan, is a little closer, just because of how evil the mad scientist is, making him worthy of the throne of hell.   The film is about a sexy young performer (ok a polite way of saying stripper) named Jeannette is in a bad car accident which disfigures her face, after her and her boyfriend have a fight and he says he will leave her unless she stops dancing.   She is ap...

  Scared To Death (1947) This next film is a rare treat, getting to see the legendary Bela Lugosi in colour!  Scared To Death is a poverty row b-horror film that is based on the play Murder On The The Operating Table, which was inspired by the 1933 murder case which involved Dr. Wynekoop who was accused of murdering her daughter-in-law on her operating table in her basement.  The film chronicles the events leading up to Laura Van Ee's mysterious death.  The film starts with her lying on a operating table in the morgue, and is told through the voice of the dead Laura Van Ee, and is told in scenes or acts, and each scene or act is starts with her introducing it, and then an odd liquid dissolve from her dead body in to the scene.   The film is a whodunit style horror film, where Laura is being stalked by a person in a green mask, and slowly we uncover why that is significant, until finally we learn who it is that as the title implies scared her to death. ...

  Tormented (1960) Bert I. Gordon, or "Mr. B.I.G.", is a director most noted for his big monster films.  With a career that spans from 1954-2014, he has mad a mark in the horror genre.  He was born  and raised in Wisconsin, and was living in Minnesota when his daughter Susan Gordon was born, she would go on to co-star as a child in a few of his films.  One of those films that his daughter had a starring role in was the 1960's Tormented.  Tormented unlike many of his films did not feature giant monsters, but instead was a ghost story.  The film follows Tom Stewart who is a jazz pianist living on a small island off the coast of Cape Cod.  Tom is engaged to marry Meg, the daughter of wealthy family, however his ex Vi tries to blackmail and manipulate Tom into being with her, threatening if she can't have him then no one will.  But when the railing on the lighthouse breaks, he doesn't attempt to save her, as she is dashed upon the rocks in the oc...

  Secret Window (2004) Before I actually get into this review, I need to get something off my chest about this film.  First of all Lake Tashmore is a fictional place, second to anyone who reads Stephen King you know that the fictional Lake Tashmore is near the border of Maine and New Hampshire in Western New Hampshire, according to the Stephen King Fandom website it is about 10 miles north of Mechanic Falls Maine.  This film however sets Lake Tashmore in upstate New York, however on page 235 of Four Past Midnight, the collection of novellas that the story is in, states clearly that Mort's summer home is in fact in Maine, and not New York, making this in fact a Maine Movie.  The same will be true next Monday when I discuss Stand By Me, they might have set the film in Oregon, but Stand By Me will be fun because I know the area that that book was written about, and have been able to come really close to actually tracing their footsteps, but we will talk about that next ...

 Alita: Battle Angel (2019) Where do we draw the line where a film stops being live action and becomes an animated film?  What are the criteria for what constitutes an animated film?  The next film I am looking at for Animated Film Saturdays, is one that I feel explores the border between live action and animated film, which is Alita: Battle Angel from 2019.  Mixing live action an animation is nothing new, including films like Who Framed Roger Rabbit, and Cool World, and then there was rotoscoping animation, which required live action shots or photos that would then be animated over, a great example of that is Ralph Bakshi's Lord Of The Rings, and also Taarna from the animated film Heavy Metal.   But then in 2009 James Cameron blurred the lines of animated film and live action to the point that they were indistinguishable, with his film Avatar.   I am not talking live action films that take place in CG worlds, or even like the Star Wars prequels w...