The Disembodied (1957)

Time for yet another bit of fun from the fifties. This one kicks off with a lady putting a noose around the neck of a voodoo doll and giving it a good squeeze. In the room next door a man starts to choke and struggle. Luckily for him she is interrupted and he immediately feels better. The woman is Tonda and the man is her husband Dr. Metz. Being that he is a doctor it isn’t much of a surprise when some men show up with an injured friend. Having been mauled by a lion he isn’t given much of a chance but Metz tries nonetheless. The two uninjured men bed down in a nearby outbuilding.

The rest of the movie is Tonda, who is a voodoo queen, trying to seduce and convince Tom, one of the men, to kill her husband. Why? Because she is evil and has tired of him. When they try to leave she sabotages their Jeep and kills their porter. When that doesn’t stop them she shows her true colors and stabs her husband threatening Tom and the other man with being blamed for the murder. Though he isn’t dead yet it isn’t looking good. There is also a subplot where Tonda kills a local native because he caught her making out with Tom. This is important because in the end that man’s wife gets some revenge and prevents Tonda from getting away with yet another murder to cover her tracks.

This is a decent bit of fifties fun. The story is fast paced and the movie is a speedy sixty-six minutes long so there isn’t much of a commitment here. Unlike many other movies from the decade of nuclear spawned monsters the horror here comes from voodoo. We get dolls, a couple of ceremonies, and men possessed to do Tonda’s bidding. If you are looking for a rubber monster suit this isn’t the movie for you. Honestly the lack of creature probably does hurt this one a bit, but Tonda is a decent villain and is played well by actress Allison Hayes.

The lovely Allison Hayes!

Hayes is best known for her roles in Zombies of Mora Tau, The Undead, and Attack of the 50 ft. Woman. I get a kick out of all these movies and she is excellent in them as well. Here she does a wonderful job playing a manipulative and murderous character. Without her performance I don’t think the movie works at all. Sadly, she retired due to health issues and passed away far too young otherwise I’m sure she would be a bigger name. The rest of the cast is filled with “B” actors and do a decent job in their roles.

While researching this review I found out that The Disembodied was released as the lower half of a double bill with From Hell it Came as the top half. This is one of those times when I think they nailed it. The movies have a similar type of location, has a few natives, and lots of drums beating away in the background. Of course, From Hell it Came does have the big rubber monster, in this case a tree demon, so that makes it slightly more fun. I think I’m going to have to recreate this double feature at some point on my own.

While not a perfect movie The Disembodied was fun. I recommend fans of fifties genre flicks give it a chance. Maybe in the double feature that I mentioned above. Now I’m off to watch another bit of cinematic nonsense.

 

© Copyright 2023 John Shatzer

The Dead Don’t Die (1975)

This made for television movie completely surprised me and was a real find. The story is set in the thirties where we see a man named Don Drake visiting his brother in prison. It is the night before he is to be executed and Don has just made it back in town. His brother convinces him of his innocence and while they can’t stop what is about to happen asks him to prove it. This leads Don to Chicago where his brother lived and where he meets the various characters in his life.

Up until this point The Dead Don’t Die plays very much like a film noir. It is a murder mystery where the cops have already punished the man they think is responsible for the killing. Here is where things get interesting thought. When Don starts to dig he is approached by a mysterious woman named Vera who warns him to leave town. Almost immediately after that he chases a man that looks just like his dead brother into a nearby antique shop and accidentally kills the proprietor in a scuffle. He wakes up in Vera’s apartment and starts to piece together the mystery. Turns out it was his brother, who is now a zombie, and that there is a zombie master plying his craft in the city! Yeah, it went from mystery to horror just like that. All of this leads to a big finale where Don faces the man who framed his brother and has been trying to kill him.

I can’t say much more than I have without spoiling things. I loved this movie, so I really don’t want to do that. The story is quick paced clocking in with a seventy four minute runtime that was typical of made for television projects like this. There isn’t a wasted scene as we start with the brothers in the jail cell and quickly move to Chicago and the zombie plot line. Characters pop in and out of the story but none seem throwaway and all move things along. This is a well written script, which considering it was from the legendary Robert Bloch isn’t that surprising. When you have Psycho and The House that Dripped Blood I guess you know what you are doing.

Creepy zombie

The way that they present the undead is very simple with some old school makeup (dark circles under the eyes) and acting (shuffling with moaning dialogue) but it is effective. This isn’t a gorefest, but instead an old school voodoo inspired take on zombies. Overall I got a very Val Lewton vibe from not only how they were brought to the screen but also with the reliance on camerawork and lighting to set a spooky mood. I’m a huge fan of old school horror like Cat People and I Walked with a Zombie so this movie checked a lot of boxes for me. Damn I really need to cover those for the site.

Finally the cast is excellent. Our main character is the always reliable George Hamilton who we just saw in The Strange Possession of Mrs. Oliver. Here he is solid as the brother trying to unravel the mystery of his brother’s framing for murder. The filmmakers double down with an excellent supporting cast as well. Ray Milland (The Uninvited) is helpful dance hall owner and ally Jim Moss. The always welcome to see Ralph Meeker (The Food of the Gods, Without Warning) is the local policeman. Hollywood legend Joan Blondell and genre favorite Yvette Vickers (Attack of the 50 Foot Woman, Attack of the Giant Leeches) have supporting roles. We even get a pre-Kurt Barlow Reggie Nadler. There is a lot of talent in front of as well as behind the camera.

I could keep gushing but is it necessary? This is why I love these made for television flicks. They allowed creative folks to cast old school actors and because they had to work within limited budgets and under the watchful eye of television censors, they had to lean into quality writing and acting. I highly recommend The Dead Don’t Die.

 

© Copyright 2023 John Shatzer

Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors (1965)

You can’t have an Anthology marathon without tossing in some Amicus goodness. Not all the great British horror from the sixties came from Hammer. Amicus made their mark with some great Anthologies, including this one.

Five men step onto a train and end up in the same coach. Finding their seats, they are soon joined by an old man, Dr. Schreck (portrayed by Peter Cushing), who produces a set of Tarot cards and offers to predict their future. This serves as the wrap around story for the five tales of terror to follow. For this review I thought I’d take them one at a time.

In the first we meet an architect that is summoned back to his ancestral home to make some modifications to the structure in a tale called Werewolf. He gets caught up in a mystery and an old legend about a werewolf and his family’s connection to it. This one follows a predictable and fun pattern with some murders and a twist ending that I’m sure we all saw coming. The setting of the old house is solid, and I thought the cast did okay. Not terribly memorable, but a decent way to kick things off.

The next story is called Creeping Vine. Another of the men returns home from holiday only to find a strange plant clinging to the outside wall of the house. He tries to remove it and the thing fights back. He calls in some help from a couple of scientists and they speculate that it must be some new higher form of plant life. The vine traps them in the house until quite by accident they discover it is afraid of fire. Up until then they hadn’t thought of setting the thing on fire! Things end with one of them going for help. Of the five this is the weakest. The story is silly and doesn’t feel like a good horror tale. It’s a damn plant that can slowly creep along and is afraid of fire. How scary can that be?

Starting with the third, titled Voodoo, things get really good. We follow a musician who returns home from the West Indies with a catchy new tune for his band to play. The only problem is that he stole it from a Voodoo ritual that he was spying on. In spite of being warned by multiple people he still decides to play it at the club. This leads to a visit from the angry and jealous god that was summoned by performing it. I really liked this one as it feels like an old EC comic. Roy Castle is great in the lead and we get just enough of the spooky stuff with doors blowing in and strange sounds to make this one work.

The Honeymoon is over!

Story four is by far my favorite and stars the legendary Christopher Lee. Disembodied Hand tells the tale of Lee’s character, a critic who takes great pleasure in tearing down the work of an artist he hates. That artist is played by another familiar face, Michael Gough, who finally gets his revenge by embarrassing the arrogant critic. This leads to Lee’s character angrily running down the artist on the street resulting in a hand being lost. That hand eventually gets revenge on Lee’s character in a very appropriate way. Much like Voodoo this one feels like one of those creepy EC “getting what is coming to you” stories. Plus, there is a hand crawling around, which is always fun.

The fifth and final segment is a good old vampire story with a twist. Vampire stars a very young Donald Sutherland portraying a doctor who has come home with a new bride. Not long after patients start showing up with strange marks on their necks and low on blood. With the help of his mentor he figures that there must be a vampire in town and it is his new wife! There is nothing else that can be done except waiting for her to return one night after feeding and staking her in the heart! He does this, but not everything goes as planned. The twist is fun and while out of left field fits the tone of Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors.

our cast of characters

There is one final twist to be had. Spoiler warning. The men are all told that the final card off of the deck will reveal to them how they can avoid their fate. They all draw the death card! Arriving at their destination and stepping off of the train they realize they have nothing to worry about… because they all died in a train crash!

All of the Anthologies from Amicus are worth checking out and likely you will see more appear here on at Crappy Movie Reviews in the future. This one does a great job capturing the spooky vibe of the horror comics of the fifties in a way that put a smile on my face. I recommend tracking down a copy of Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors.

© Copyright 2019 John Shatzer

Voodoo Black Exorcist (1974)

This is the result of another deep dive into one of my Mill Creek sets and boy is it a doozy. It starts with a couple in a canoe canoodling with one another. We find out that the man and woman shouldn’t have been doing that because she belongs to another. There is a fight between the men and the husband/king, it isn’t terribly clear, is killed. This leads to the woman losing her head and the man being cursed to live forever in the specially made sarcophagus.

Sounds familiar doesn’t it? Yeah this is the same plot as the Mummy movies. So of course, we have the “mummy” waking up and finding the reincarnation of his long-lost love at hand. He takes some revenge on random people and sort of loses his mind. The fun part is that most of the movie takes place on a cruise ship, which is different. Once on land he eventually kidnaps the woman with the authorities in hot pursuit. They catch up and some bad stuff happens as things end rather abruptly.

Where to start with this one? Well the first thing you will notice is that the woman in the first few scenes is apparently wearing makeup to make her look black. This is confirmed when the movie moves to the present day and the actress is clearly white. I understand that this being a Spanish/Italian flick they might be coming from a different place, but they had to know on some level that was going to be an issue. I’m not overly sensitive to these things but it seems gratuitous. Speaking of gratuitous there is a lot of skin in this movie. As was the tradition of European horror they did not like to give the actresses much in the way of wardrobe. Unlike the previous point I mentioned this was expected and helps to give the movie it’s trashy exploitation vibe.

Effects work is okay.

The dubbing is about what you would expect with the English-speaking voiceover actors being sort of stilted and over the top. I wonder if this was a cold read from a script without being able to see a copy of the scenes they were dubbing. The inflection is all wrong at times and comes off goofy. The copy I watched was transferred from a beat-up print and includes all kinds of scratches and odd syncing issues. It was also really dark and hard to see what was happening at times. Still I don’t mind that so much as it adds to the flavor of a flick like Voodoo Black Exorcist. The makeup is okay but is clearly inspired by the look of Karloff’s Mummy with the wrinkled skin when he is full on creature.

My only real complaint about the movie, and it is a big one, is the pacing. This is one of those movies that has maybe fifteen minutes of content stretched out to a feature length movie. We get a lot of skulking around and flashbacks to the past that do nothing to movie the story along. I found it really difficult to get thru Voodoo Black Exorcist. For this reason, I can’t recommend it unless you are suffering from insomnia. Then this might be helpful.

© Copyright 2019 John Shatzer