Killdozer (1974)

More made for T.V. movie mayhem here at the Horror Dude blog. Killdozer was an ABC movie of the week and features a decent cast. The idea is maybe a bit silly, but fun nonetheless. Time to see what happens when heavy equipment gets possessed by an alien and goes on a killing spree!

The movie opens in space where we see a meteor come crashing to Earth. It lands on a small island off the coast of Africa where it sits for an undetermined time. Said rock later gets hit when a bulldozer clearing ground for an oil company tries to move it. The rock glows and hums while it touches the equipment before it explodes, burning and eventually killing one of the workers. After that the bulldozer becomes possessed by some alien intelligence that was living in the meteor and turns into the Killdozer! The rest of the movie is it chasing the survivors around on the island for the sole purpose of murdering them in the most painful ways. Well okay it basically just runs you over, but that has to hurt!

This might be the most unique alien invasion movie that I’ve ever seen. It isn’t even certain that the creature possessing the Killdozer is intelligent. It doesn’t try and communicate and seems to just be homicidal for no reason. The way the opening is set up it seems to be an accident that the meteor arrived on Earth and ends up isolated on the island. I suppose it could just be really irritated to have landed in the middle of nowhere. Then again why would I spend time trying to figure out it’s motivations. I mean its Killdozer.

Maybe get out of the stuck Jeep and walk away?

This is an admittedly silly movie, but I love it! Sure, the victims of the Killdozer pretty much have to stand still for it to catch them and run them over. But hey there isn’t anyone driving it so that could be distracting enough to freeze people in place. Okay the idea and execution is completely cheesy. But it works because they don’t play it as a joke but are deadly serious. No one winks at the camera or nods at the audience. The cast is filled with decent actors with Clint Walker, Robert Urich, and Neville Brand standing out the most. Their performances certainly help to make the movie work.

A couple other observations from watching this one. First if you know the dozer can’t handle a certain grade perhaps you should find somewhere on the island that fits that description. Or better yet maybe a raft? Don’t think the Killdozer is aquatic. Second it is probably not a good idea to leave the bottle of booze with the unstable alcoholic who has spent hours talking about going for a swim. He might just try to do that and get “Killdozed”. 

This movie is full of logic loopholes and goofy situations. Most of the time that would annoy me and make me not like what I was watching. Perhaps it is nostalgia, but I like Killdozer. This was in heavy rotation on the late-night movie shows that I first caught the horror bug from. I suppose what I’m saying is that if you hate Killdozer you suck… but I also understand. It seems to be pretty easy to find so give it a shot and let me know what you think. As with most of the other movies that I’ve covered for the Made for T.V. marathon the link above will take you to the link on YouTube to watch it.

© Copyright 2018 John Shatzer

Scream of the Wolf (1974)

My made for television movie marathon keeps on truckin’. See what I did there? You know since most of these are from the ‘70s. This time around I checked out Scream of the Wolf that was an ABC movie of the week. It stars Peter Graves and Clint Walker of Killdozer infamy! And it was directed by the great Dan Curtis from a script written by Richard Matheson. Looks like it is a werewolf movie. I’m thinking this is going to be fun.

The fun starts with a man running out of gas or maybe having car trouble at night in the middle of nowhere. He starts walking for help but is soon running for his life from something that chases him down and tears him apart. The next morning we are introduced to Peter Graves character, Wetherby, an expert hunter who is brought in by the sheriff to take a look. It seems that whatever is responsible is an animal, but there are things that don’t make sense. Like the tracks changing from four legs to two and then disappearing altogether. Wetherby tries to enlist the help of his friend Byron, but he refuses. In fact, Byron seems pleased that there is a killer on the loose. He thinks a bit of fear makes everyone more alive. He comes across as a very creepy guy. What is killing people? Does Wetherby stop it? Does Byron ever help? I’m not telling!

This has all the hallmarks of a Dan Curtis production. You have an excellent cast, here Peter Graves and Clint Walker, who are taking the material seriously and creating characters that get the audience’s attention. Especially Walker who makes Byron both fascinating and frightening. He has some strange ideas about what makes life worth living and isn’t afraid to share them. There are also a few scenes where the character is creepy as hell. The one in particular that comes to mind is an encounter between Byron and a hippy animal lover when the latter challenges Byron in a local bar about hunting. This might be the best thing that I’ve ever seen Walker do and he was in a lot of great movies.

Every movie needs some arm wrasslin'

The plot has a big twist that I didn’t see coming. It is hard for me to describe it without spoilers. The best I can do is say that I thought I knew what was going on and I was sort of right. But the movie had a few clever things up its sleeve that I never saw coming. This is superbly written and well thought out. Considering the legendary Richard Matheson is responsible for the script that shouldn’t be surprising. Between writer, cast, and director there is a lot of talent behind Scream of the Wolf.

I’m a huge Dan Curtis fan from Kolchak to the Norliss Tapes and everyone’s favorite Trilogy of Terror he never fails to give the audience something new and different to sink its teeth into. Pun intended here.  I’ve never seen Scream of the Wolf until this viewing. I knew it existed, but I never tracked down a copy. Next to Kolchak this might be my personal favorite from him. Really this ending is so interesting and unexpected. I highly recommend it. As with most of the other movies from this marathon the link above will take you to the YouTube link to watch it.

© Copyright 2018 John Shatzer

Tarantulas: The Deadly Cargo (1977)

The made for television madness continues with this gem from 1977. Originally airing on CBS Tarantulas: The Deadly Cargo taps into the fear that most of us have about spiders. I mean they are creepy as hell. It features a great cast and has decent production values. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Things open up with a couple of industrious pilots south of the border. They have an old cargo plane full of coffee that they want to fly to the US. It is worthless down there but apparently fetches a lot on the West Coast. We see that some creepy ass spiders are in the bags of coffee and loaded onto the plane without anyone noticing. They contribute to the plane crashing and while it is being cleaned up the spiders wander off without anyone noticing. When the bodies start to pile up the local country doctor thinks it might be a plague, but soon they catch one and figure out they have a bigger issue. Some drama with the local Orange crop happens and we get an attempted arson. This movie delivers the goods!

Tarantulas doesn’t get nearly the credit that is should. The story is solid and if you accept the fact that for a while no one notices the big hairy spiders crawling out of the plane it is believable. They cleverly keep the first couple victims who survive from being able to tell anyone what happened to them. Either they were knocked out like the pilot or are delirious with a fever. Strangely enough after the first couple attacks anyone who is bitten dies. Speaking of that I need to warn you guys that there is a spoiler coming. Okay if you proceed it is on you! They kill the little brother of the female lead! They never kill the kid, especially when they are related to one of the lead characters. Put them in danger sure, but not off them! This made me sit up and pay attention since no one was safe.

Tom Atkins is the bomb!

Tarantulas has a great cast. The two pilots are Howard Hessman and Tom Atkins! These aren’t even our lead characters and they are both legends! Maybe this is early in both careers but it is still cool. Claude Akins has a major role as the head of the volunteer fire department and is excellent as always. There are many other familiar faces that I won’t spend a ton of time boring you with. I mean who wants to read lists?

The real stars of the movie have eight legs and fangs! We get lots of real spiders crawling around the sets and over the cast. This was the ‘70s so there wasn’t any of that CGI nonsense! There are some fake spiders for the scenes where they smash or drown the immobilized ones, but for the most part you get to see the real thing. I hate spiders so that makes this movie all that much creepier and fun to watch. Seriously spiders creep me out.

This is a solidly written, excellently acted, and generally well-made movie that I can recommend without hesitation. When I was thinking about the different marathons or themes for the reviews here at the blog and I came up with made for television Tarantulas: The Deadly Cargo popped right into my mind. It is one of the better ones. As with most of the other made for television gems that I’ve reviewed this one can also be watched on YouTube. Check out the link above.

© Copyright 2018 John Shatzer

Throwback Thursday - Hell House by Richard Matheson

Digging into the archives again for another book review. I wrote this review for my old website. It doesn’t fit in with my novelization series because Matheson wrote the book and then the screenplay a couple of years later. But I love both the book and movie so much that I had to add this to the Horror Dude Blog.

Let me just start off by saying that I’m a huge fan of Matheson’s work. I think that the guy was a great author and he wrote some great scripts (even adapting some of his own work for the big screen). Hell House was one of the first books of his that I read and I find myself going back to it every few years for another read.

A wealthy dying man hires a scientist to prove or disprove life after death. Since time is of the essence he purchases the legendary Belasco house, which is also known as Hell House. This is known as one of the most haunted places in the world. He then sends a scientist and some psychics to the house to conduct research using both scientific as well as supernatural means. Among them is the only survivor of the last attempt to investigate the house, a man named Fischer.

Things begin to happen almost as soon as they arrive. The scientist, Barrett, ignores much of them, thinking that it is the raw power of the house being influenced by the psychics. He has a machine that he thinks can clear the house of the malignant energy that is trapped within it. All the time Fischer tries to explain that there is some intelligence to the haunting and that they should just let the house alone. To this end he keeps himself shut off from his own psychic abilities. But who is right? Bad things happen and some secrets are revealed before Hell House is done with them.

This is one of the best haunted house novels that I’ve ever read. Heck I’ll go further and say that this is hands down the best that I’ve ever read! The story is quick to get to the good stuff.  There are a couple of twists and turns before you get to the end, which itself is very satisfying. I don’t want to ruin this, so I’m keeping my review as vague as possible. I will say that I love the reveal at the end of the book. Along the way we get to see the house work all of it’s perversions on those unlucky enough to spend their nights behind it’s walls. There is some pretty twisted stuff, including one of the most unpleasant ways for a ghost to possess someone that I’ve ever seen portrayed or read in a book. Don’t let the fact that this is an older novel fool you into thinking that there isn’t some nasty stuff going on. It isn’t as explicit as some newer books, but it is there.

In addition to the plot much of what drives the fun are the characters and how Matheson develops them over the course of the book. Barrett and his wife are interesting as we see their marriage has some issues that the house uses against them. This leads to some pretty nasty emotional and physical consequences. Physically Barrett is the target of much of the abuse handed out by Hell House as if the house is using his wife’s frustration as inspiration. Then again, the Florence character (the other psychic) has some bad things done to her as well. Mostly to take advantage of and corrupt her innocence. But the abuse that these characters take only carries any impact because as a reader I really liked them and wanted things to be okay. This is because they are so well written that I related to and felt like they were real people. Can there be any better sign to the talent of an author then this?

If you haven’t had the pleasure of reading Matheson’s work you should rectify that, and there isn’t a better place to start then Hell House. Thankfully his work is easy to find, and copies of this book are out there to be had. 

© Copyright 2018 John Shatzer