The B-Masters Cabal

Devils of Darkness
Count Sinistre is the menacing vampire leader of the Satanic cult in Devils of Darkness, a previously forgotten horror film in the vein of AIP’s Poe films or Hammer fare like The Devil Rides Out. Devils of Darkness pits our sinister Sinistre against — well, basically, it pits him against a dad from some early 60s sitcom in a veritable whirlwind of opera capes and devil cloaks versus cardigan sweaters and well-pressed slacks. This is the sort of movie where square-jawed everymen sit on couches with their legs crossed and stare intently at their cigarettes while saying things like, “Vampires? But this is the 20th century!” and everyone seems to know a guy who happens to be a professor of the occult. You know, I went to college, and all I learned about was physics and John Adams and whatever the hell it was I didn’t pay attention to in that macroeconomics class everyone was required to take to get into the school of journalism. As far as I know, there were no professors whose entire tenure at the university involved them sitting around giving speeches about Pazuzu and magick circles, but maybe I just didn’t take the proper classes.

Jabootu commands: Buy this DVD! (Reading the review is optional.)

 Zombi 2 (1979)

In which Lucio Fulci succeeds in simultaneously resurrecting the Italian horror cinema, his own career and the dead – not necessarily in that order – and Lyz makes a somewhat less successful effort to overcome her horror of eye trauma. Yes, it’s still more MONTH OF THE LIVING DEAD!

We continue our look at Victorian vampires in the funky 70s, and conclude our long series on Hammer’s Dracula films, with The Satanic Rites of Dracula. Having failed to die over and over and over, even Dracula has finally gotten tired of the shtick and hatches a plan to destroy all life on earth, thereby completing his journey from biological mutant to satanic demon and finally to Fu Manchu. Peter Cushing shows up to intently smoke cigarettes.

Two more entries:

 Flight of the Living Dead (2007) — There are zombies.  They’re on a plane.  That’s bad.  But it’s good.

Land of the Dead (2005) — Remember:  Suits = Republicans, and Republicans = evil!!!

Forgive me this bit of shameless self promotion, but…

I am launching (relaunching, actually) a Teleport City side project called Jet Set Cinema. It’s a combination of Teleport City material and new, shorter material all concerning swanky, swingin’ cinema with groovy pop art sensibilities (Diabolik, Barbarella, Gerry Anderson’s UFO, Avengers, etc). So if you are bored and want to see me repost Teleport City stuff and call it new, then here you go.

Also, I’m looking for anyone who’d be interested in joining up to write for the site. If you are down with the challenge, put on your best smart suit (or cocktail dress) and leave your message in a hollow rock next to the gnarled oak by the pond in Hyde Park.

Reviewing Dracula AD 1972 made me wonder about the high quality of other films that were released in the year I was born. Sure, we all know the big ones — The Godfather, for instance. But what movies defined 1972 by Teleport City standards?

Where were you in ’72?

It was a pretty good year, apparently.

Dracula A.D. 1972
“The pre-credit opening sees us joining the finale of a film that was never made, but looks like it was pretty good. Dracula (Lee) and Van Helsing (Cushing) are locked in mortal combat atop a carriage that is careening out of control across London’s Hyde Park. Remember that Cushing and Lee hadn’t been paired together as Van Helsing and Dracula since the very first film back in the late 1950s, so seeing them together again should have been a big deal, at least bigger than a pre-credit sequence that feels like, ‘We now join our regularly scheduled vampire fight already in progress.'”

Part IV of my look at the horror films of Carlos Enrique Taboada: Más negro que la noche (Blacker than the Night, 1975).

Four young women are trapped in a haunted house with the murderous spirit of an old woman. Only this time, the movie is 100% on the side of the ghost (and so am I).

The moral of the story is one I can wholeheartedly endorse: be kind to kitties (or else)!