Kurt Barlow stands in literary, television, radio, and – soon – cinematic history as one of pop culture’s most famous vampires. Incredibly, the character only appeared in one work, Stephen King’s novel ‘Salem’s Lot, in 1975. The vampiric antique dealer made quite an impression on millions of horror fans through his appearances in different mediums. Those who watched the original …

Why TerrorVision? The 1986 Empire Pictures production caught my eye even after getting dogged by “dog” ratings. Poor reviews didn’t stop me from eventually checking out the old Lightning Video VHS tape one day in 1987 or 1988. The oddball film impressed few back then, but today the low-budget sci-fi/horror/comedy/travesty gets the occasional second look as an understated parody of …

Tombs of the Blind Dead (1972) stands alongside Night of Walpurgis (1970) and The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue (1974) as one of Spain’s most iconic horror films. The depiction of creepy, sightless walking corpses who must find their victims through sound evokes the excellent A Quiet Place (2018), another film relying on visionless creatures to build tension. The optic …

The Sword and the Sorcerer (1982) sometimes appears in horror movie resource books, despite being a “fantasy” film. Maybe including the film is appropriate. Fantasy often serves a mix-and-match genre, with horror creatures finding their way into a sword-and-magic tale. The marketing and distribution team that cut the epic theatrical and TV trailers stressed frightening horror elements – witches, deformed …

Long-time fans of horror films likely can’t shake the shock from seeing “cannibal zombie entertainment” find mainstream acceptance. Decades ago, George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead pulled in well over $5 million during its original 1968 theatrical run, yet few production companies took a change releasing an equally violent copycat. It wasn’t until 1974 that a creepy film …

The opening sequence of Alligator (1980) brings audiences to Florida to watch a man lose a wrestling match – and almost his foot – to an alligator. The spectacle prompts an announcer to say, ”Sometimes the alligators win.” Hardboiled and burned-out police officer David Madison could substitute many words for “alligator” in that statement, and the sentiment wouldn’t change much. …

Cinephile loner Eric Binford is not Cody Jarrett, the iconic cinematic gangster James Cagney portrayed in White Heat (1949), but Binford thinks he’s Jarrett. Binford’s love interest Marilyn O’Connor is not Marilyn Monroe, although she becomes the late star in Binford’s mind. Real-life is not a movie, yet Binford can’t tell the difference. Tragedies result when Binford’s warped fantasies disrupt …

The mysterious maniac in director Bob (Deathdream) Clark’s Black Christmas (1974) has no redeeming values. Unlike so many morality-lesson-driven Yuletide tales, Black Christmas’ madman, Billy the Killer, finds no redemption at the end. He remains a vile and evil murderer whose deranged psychosis drives him to taunt and kill. The ambiguous ending hints the killer receives no just punishment, either. …

The 1976 King King remake often receives harsh criticism, some deserved. Undeniably, the creative team succeeded in delivering an often revisited cult film. Producer Dino De Laurentiis, director John Guillermin, and screenwriter Lorenzo Semple, Jr. delivered a fine reimagining of the 1933 classic, a film that captivated audiences as the holiday movie release of the bicentennial year. The Me Decade’s …

“And where the offense is, let the great axe fall.” –William Shakespeare, Hamlet. Art takes many forms, including performance. If there is no such thing as bad art, as some profess, is there such a thing as a bad theatrical performance? Yes. And the affirmation comes without subjective discourse. When a performance undermines the audience’s suspension of disbelief, it’s not …

The deserved fate of the slasher film cycle seemed ball-and-chained to derivativeness. How many times could audiences sit through the same film with barely different faces? Lack of originality, combined with a lazy approach to filmmaking, won’t lead to decent films. However, an inspired creative team might elevate a conventional into something different. Style and passion count, and a film …

We know zombies once walked the earth as humans, but what of humans who walk among us lacking humanity? Is an inhumane human indeed a human being? Of course, regardless of cruel disposition, a human being is not a supernatural or otherworldly being. Heartless and brutal actions may create perceptions about a human being becoming a monster or a devil, …

The yarn “Werewolf Concerto” doesn’t rank among the top 10 EC Comics’ best horror stories, but the fun story crossed entertainment mediums twice, and the resulting adaptations were, well, entertaining. Nearly 30 years ago, HBO’s Tales from the Crypt featured an excellent live-action adaptation, and it wasn’t the first and final one. 2020 saw an audio drama’s arrival, thanks to …

Doctors rarely become involved with their patients’ personal lives, much less become amateur detectives to solve a mystery surrounding a strange patient. Little prompting turns Dr. Dan Challis into an amateur detective. The doctor puts his personal struggles and demons aside to solve a murder. Maybe the philosopher Victor Frankl was right when he said, “An abnormal reaction to an …

When “Dracula” appeared on Starsky & Hutch, the episode was a prime time television event. No, the villain that guest star John Saxon played wasn’t Dracula, but the episode still ranked as eventful. The series’ one and only Halloween special further contributes to the program’s cult following and remains memorable among fans of 1970s pop culture.