SYNOPSIS: “In the small town of Peckham, California, many men die for excessive effort during sexual intercourse. When a scientist from the Brandt research laboratory is found dead in a motel, the government sends Agent Neil Agar (William Smith) to investigate the mysterious deaths. He suspects that the deaths may be related to some experiments of Doctor Susan Harris (Anitra …
Read More »Film Review: Riders To The Stars (1954)
SYNOPSIS: “In the mid-fifties, American scientists determine that they require metal from meteors if they are to build spacecraft that can withstand the rigors of space travel. To that end they recruit twelve scientists and ask them to undergo a series of tests. The men don’t quite know exactly what they are being tested for but in the end, three …
Read More »Film Review: The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971)
SYNOPSIS: “Doctors are being murdered in a bizarre manner: bats, bees, killer frog masks, etc. which represent the ten Biblical plagues. The crimes are orchestrated by a demented organ player with the help of his mute assistant. The detective is stumped until he finds that all of the doctors being killed assisted a Doctor Vesalius on an unsuccessful operation involving …
Read More »Film Review: Tomb Of Ligeia (1964)
SYNOPSIS: “Erudite recluse Verden Fell is struck by a meeting with lady Rowena, daughter of country lord Trevanion, who reminds him of his late wife Ligeia, both being somehow associated with a black cat and the wild fox the lord loves hunting. They fall in love, marry and resolve he leave the ruined abbey where he buried Ligeia. However Rowena’s …
Read More »Film Review: The Return Of Sherlock Holmes (1929)
SYNOPSIS: “Holmes is attending the wedding of Roger Longmore to Mary Watson, when Roger’s father Captain Longmore is found murdered in his study. Holmes suspects poison after finding a trick cigarette case with a poisoned needle which is brought into play when the opening spring is pressed. Meanwhile Roger disappears and, acting on a few slender clues, Holmes rushes off …
Read More »Film Review: The Ghastly Love Of Johnny X (2012)
SYNOPSIS: “A truly mad concoction, blending fifties juvenile delinquents, sci-fi melodrama, song-and-dance, and a touch of horror, everything in just the right combination to create an engaging big screen spectacle! This curious and curiously entertaining story involves one Jonathan Xavier and his devoted misfit gang who, incidentally, have been exiled to Earth from the far reaches of outer space. Johnny’s …
Read More »Film Review: Céline And Julie Go Boating (1974)
SYNOPSIS: “A mysteriously linked pair of young women find their daily lives pre-empted by a strange boudoir melodrama that plays itself out in a hallucinatory parallel reality.” (courtesy IMDB) REVIEW: Fantasy takes much of its vividness from dualisms, tensions between opposites, often symbolised by the meeting of two different kinds of world. A similar tension to that between modern and …
Read More »Film Review: Vampyr (1932)
SYNOPSIS: “Young traveller Allan Grey arrives in a remote castle and starts seeing weird, inexplicable sights (a man whose shadow has a life of its own, a mysterious scythe-bearing figure tolling a bell, a terrifying dream of his own burial). Things come to a head when one of the daughters of the lord of the castle succumbs to anaemia – …
Read More »Film Review: Weekend (1967)
SYNOPSIS: “A supposedly idyllic weekend trip to the countryside turns into a never-ending nightmare of traffic jams, revolution, cannibalism and murder as French bourgeois society starts to collapse under the weight of its own consumer preoccupations.” (courtesy IMDB) REVIEW: For most of the sixties, genre cinema had been going through a very quiet period and, incidentally, not making any money …
Read More »Film Review: The Fifth Element (1997)
SYNOPSIS: “In the twenty-third century, the universe is threatened by evil. The only hope for mankind is the Fifth Element, who comes to Earth every five thousand years to protect the humans with four stones of the four elements: fire, water, earth and air. A Mondoshawan spacecraft is bringing the fifth element back to Earth but it is destroyed by …
Read More »Film Review: The Thief Of Bagdad (1940)
SYNOPSIS: “Prince Ahmad is the rightful King of Bagdad but he has been blinded and cast out as a beggar. Now a captive of the wicked Grand Vizier Jaffar he is cast into a dungeon where he meets Abu, the best thief in all Bagdad. Together they escape and set about a series of adventures that involve a Djinni in …
Read More »Film Review: Frankenstein’s Daughter (1958)
SYNOPSIS: “The grandson of Victor Frankenstein, Oliver (Donald Murphy), is hiding away as a laboratory assistant for the gentle Professor Morton (Felix Locher). While Doctor Morton pursues a pet project, Doctor Frankenstein secretly works his own experiments on his benefactor’s niece, Trudy Morton (Sandra Knight). Although these experiments temporarily disfigure Trudy’s face and cause her to wander aimlessly at night, …
Read More »Film Review: Je t’aime, Je t’aime (1968)
SYNOPSIS: “Recovering from an attempted suicide, a man is selected to participate in a time travel experiment that has only been tested on mice. A malfunction in the experiment causes the man to experience moments from his past in a random order.” (courtesy IMDB) REVIEW: For most of the sixties, genre cinema had been going through a very quiet period …
Read More »Film Review: The Terminal Man (1974)
SYNOPSIS: “As the result of a head injury, brilliant computer scientist Harry Benson begins to experience violent seizures. In an attempt to control the seizures, Benson undergoes a new surgical procedure in which a microcomputer is inserted into his brain. The procedure is not entirely successful.” (courtesy IMDB) REVIEW: Best-selling author, filmmaker and physician Michael Crichton passed away in 2008, …
Read More »Convention: Con 70 A Retro Sci-Fi Adventure (Melbourne 2015)
Con 70 A Retro Sci-Fi Adventure is an independently run, one-of-a-kind, non-profit science fiction convention that will be held on March 7th to the 9th 2015 in Melbourne, Australia. The aim of the convention is to provide an opportunity for fans to come together and relive the joys of seventies science fiction movies and television shows over a three-day long …
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