Ryan Watches 50 Movies

So, you know what's really a horror? Trying to get Blogger to do what I want it to do. As you may have noticed in previous posts, my text sometimes shows up in all different fonts and sizes. This is not an attempt to test your eyesight or a mistake on my part. I just can't get Blogger to get it right, no matter how many times I try to fix it. So... sorry about that, but don't blame me. Blame Blogger, which just might be run by mad scientists. And hey, speaking of mad scientists... First of all, let me make this clear: Harry Dean Stanton is not in this movie. In 1989, NBC aired The Jim Henson Hour , which was sort of a half- Muppet Show , half fantasy anthology affair. One episode was a drama called Monster Maker , and it featured Stanton as a special effects wizard who mentors a teenage boy with aspirations of working in the movies. It was a one-hour show, and it was pretty good. Will the 1944 film The Monster Maker prove to be better? Worse? As good? Let's...

First of all, a note for those of you who aren't familiar with this film: Metropolis is not a film about Superman's city of residence. Second of all, a question: What the hey? Metropolis , the silent German classic directed by Fritz Lang in the 1920s, has fallen into the public domain like the rest of the films on the 50-movie Horror Classics DVD set -- or at least, versions of it have. But there are two reasons I'm surprised to see it included here: 1. It's considered a genuinely classic film, a distinction not traditionally associated with the likes of The Mad Monster and The Invisible Ghost, and 2. It's not a horror film, and anyone who has seen it would know that it fits much more logically into the category of science fiction. Perhaps the folks at Mill Creek Entertainment are reading this right now, and perhaps they'll slap their foreheads and realize, "Of course this isn't a horror movie! What were we thinking! Let's take out an ad in a ...

Please note that the correct title of this film is Invisible Ghost , not The Invisible Ghost . Times were tough in 1941, and articles were hard to come by. Like last week's Black Dragons , Invisible Ghost stars horror veteran Bela Lugosi, which means that Disc 2, Side B of this 50-movie collection is a Lugosi double feature ! Also, they're both very short... the combined running time of both movies is only 130 minutes, or 28 minutes less than There Will Be Blood . Anyway, let's get to talking about the movie... I for one can't wait to see the titular ghost! I hope it's scary... but not too scary! Synopsis Mr. Kessler (Lugosi!) is a nice ol' guy who lives in a big ol' house. As the film opens, his butler Evans is serving dinner for Kessler and... and an empty chair . "You're looking beautiful this evening," Kessler tells the chair, and to be fair, the chair does look ravishing. Kessler's daughter Virginia arrives at the house, followed by ...

Today's movie is Nightmare Castle , which IMDb tells me is also known as Night of the Doomed , Lovers from Beyond the Tomb , The Faceless Monster , and Gli Amanti d'oletretomba . Which title is your favorite? This is another Italian film, but this one is marginally better than Atom Age Vampire . Maybe. This is also Movie #2 of Side B of Disc 1, which means I'm finished with the first disc of the 12-disc set! Wooo! Synopsis Stephen Arrowsmith (cool name!) is a mad scientist who lives in a big, spooky castle (Is there any other kind?) with his hot wife Muriel. She's having an affair with their beefy gardener David, and when Stephen catches them he chains them up and tortures them... whipping, cutting, dripping of acid on the face, that kind of thing. Through all this, Muriel spews venom at him: Boy, do I hate you, she says. You're really a big fat jerk. Go ahead and kill me, jerk... You think you'll get my inheritance? Well, you're wrong, Mr. Jerkface, because...