An enthusiastic cast populates the comedy Billie, and their energy almost makes up for the fact that the script they are working with isn’t all that funny.
I duke it out with Duke
Jun 17
THIS IS A PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT:
In what’s got to be the most frustrating piece of B-movie news in a long time, it’s been announced that the new (if a movie that’s been sitting on the shelf since late 2014 can be called “new”) Amityville movie has been pulled from release yet again. It was originally scheduled to be released at the end of June, but is now on indefinite hold.
My guess is we’ll be able to see this movie’s eventual remake long before we get to see the actual movie.
Will Laughlin is the Braineater.The real mafia
Jun 7
A downbeat but compelling look into society’s criminal underbelly, The Nickel Ride is a drama that is ripe for rediscovery.
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Before we get started, I would just like to say that INTERNATIONAL SHIPPING SUCKS.
And now, our feature presentation—
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…finds Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee playing half-brothers, both scientists: the latter the head of a mental hospital, who finds in his patients an excellent source of experimental subjects; the former a biologist and anthropologist who discovers a skeleton which he believes could be the key to freeing the world of evil.
You may be surprised to learn who the villain is…
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Liz Kingsley is the insane genius behind And You Call Yourself a Scientist!An “A” list B movie
May 28
Everybody in front of and behind the camera in Red Sun Rising obviously worked very hard, and the result is a solid actioner.
Full house
May 18
You are probably asking: If House Of The Long Shadows has in its cast John Carradine, Peter Cushing, Vincent Price, and Christopher Lee, why is it so obscure? Well, the four stars are in fine shape, but the rest of the movie…
The abominable human beings
May 14
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Some serious science fiction from Hammer about a scientist who joins an expedition searching for the legendary Yeti, and ends up finding a lot more than he expected…
Scripted by Nigel Kneale, this low-key, thoughtful drama has much to say about Mankind’s place in the world and his claim to be the dominant species—finally concluding (as if we ever doubted it) that Home sapiens really, really sucks…
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Liz Kingsley is the insane genius behind And You Call Yourself a Scientist!
While Cocaine: One Man’s Seduction has both some unintended laughs and some effective serious moments, the movie doesn’t work overall either as an exercise in camp or as an effective portrayal of the dangers of drugs.
Although I did revert to form a little at the last minute by reviewing a Jesus Franco film:
The Belko Experiment (2017), in which unseen puppetmasters incite an epidemic of mass murder in a corporate office building…
Europa Report (2013), in which astronauts searching for life on Jupiter’s coolest moon find what they’re looking for…
Get Out (2017), in which meeting the parents is an even bigger nightmare than our hero was expecting…
Iron Doors (2010), in which not everything screwy that befalls one on April Fool’s Day is a prank…
Kong: Skull Island (2017), in which yet another “shared universe” meta-franchise sputters into life…
Mansion of the Living Dead (1982), in which Franco hears someone call Horror of the Zombies the worst of the Blind Dead movies and says, “Agarra mi cerveza“…
Night of the Tentacles (2012), in which the world’s most embarrassing heart attack leads to a pact with Satan even less carefully thought out than usual…
The Vampire’s Coffin (1958), in which Count Laszlo Lavud sees how city living suits him…
and…
Zombie A-Hole (2012), which commendably bears absolutely no resemblance to the movie you just imagined upon reading that title.
The gentle face of horror
Apr 30
Born in 1913, Peter Wilton Cushing graduated from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and began his acting career doing repertory theatre. He was in his mid-twenties when he made his first foray into Hollywood, making his film debut in 1939’s The Man With The Iron Mask—playing the back of Louis Hayward’s head. Several small roles followed, but this was a false start of sorts to his career. The war intervened, and its aftermath found Peter Cushing back in England. He had his most significant film role in Olivier’s Hamlet, in 1948—but it would be television in which he would make a name for himself during the 1950s. Working almost non-stop, Cushing won both popularity and critical praise for roles as diverse as Mr Darcy in Pride And Prejudice, Richard II in an adaptation of the play, Richard Of Bordeaux, and Winston Smith in 1984. His work won him a BAFTA in 1956, a year that also saw the founding of The Peter Cushing Appreciation Society (which is still going strong).
Then, in 1957, a group of producers began looking for a reliable, talented – and not too expensive – actor to play a mad scientist. They got much more than they had bargained for when they cast Peter Cushing as Victor Frankenstein: his brilliant, iconoclastic performance in the lead of The Curse Of Frankenstein was significantly responsible both for the success of the film, and for the birth of what came to be known as “Hammer Horror”.
And, like others before him, Peter Cushing subsequently found himself “typed”: his career from that point onwards was dominated by horror, science fiction and fantasy films, all of which were the better for his presence. One of the great “horror actors”, Cushing had the ability (often much needed) to elevate almost any production, never giving any sign of considering himself superior to his material. On his own and in partnership with his close friend, Christopher Lee, with whom he co-starred in twenty-two films, Peter Cushing would build one of the genre film’s great bodies of work.
So join us this month as we celebrate the work of one of horror’s true gentlemen:
All through May at the B-Masters’ Blog!