I’ve run out of title ideas. That or I’m just tired these days. Yet I press on to another Horrorfest even though at some point I’ve got to be getting too old for this sort of thing. Anyways on with the show!
July (Monsters Oh My!):
Creature with the Atom Brain (1955, Edward L. Cahn)-Arrow Films Video Blu-ray Creature Feature
Richard Wenk’s Vamp begins as a cheesy 1980s college comedy and ends with college comedy horror comedy. I gotta admire a man devoted to achieving his goals, I suppose. The young cast is likable enough however one views this movie for Grace Jones, who’s definitely more talented than everyone else involved. This is a major flaw of the movie that never gets corrected.
Plus for a film titled “Vamp” the vampires take quite a while to finally show up. If vampires in a strip club sounds familiar then like myself and others you recognize that From Dusk Till Dawn took that bit from this movie. Yet that’s a much better film than this one, although one can attribute that to the high level of talent involved. I enjoyed Vamp-Chris Makepeace and Dedee Pfeiffer do have some nice chemistry together. Robert Rusler as the friend who drags both Makepeace and literal horror movie stereotype Gedde Watanabe into this whole mess probably should have been the main character instead, though. He’s way cooler.
Sure Billy Drago is in this and yet he’s not a vampire which is a wasted opportunity. The man is great at playing sinister menacing characters yet gets stuck as a random gang member. Lame. The finale does have some quality practical special effects moments and it was clear that Wenk in some ways planned for a sequel which never happened. Either you’ll find this goofy movie very charming or think it is very dumb. As for me, I thought it was merely decent or ok at best which is enough.
So yes I did a double bill of William Grefé, enabled by Tubi. I really need to get my hands on that Arrow Video boxset of his films, even though I’ve now seen two of them. However I liked Sting of Death, too so that bodes well. It’s a little less goofy than the Tartu flick, although it does have another wonderfully cheesy dance scene although this one makes sense. It happens at a pool party, after all.
A giant killer jellyfish man or creature is horribly murdering people in the Everglades. Two scientists try to figure out what is happening, and without saying more this movie ventures into mad scientist territory. While also being a slasher film of sorts, which is note worthy considering this movie was made in the 1960s.
There is a pool attack scene that is parts hilarious and actually neat at the same time. My favorite thing about this movie is that Grefé sticks to his guns and makes a flick born for the drive in movie viewing experience. Sometimes that’s enough as far as cinema is concerned. This movie also has one of the best boat massacres ever, right up there with the one from The Burning, in fact.
This concludes Horrorfest 2021 which featured me watching 66 movies, the most I’ve ever seen in a three month span. I’m not sure I will do that again but you never know. See you all next year for Horrorfest 2022!
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