This is another one of those “stinky Americans destroyed Earth with their hubris” movies. Well, excuuuuuse us! Can we help it if our super secret defense programs sometimes interfere with the very fabric of the universe? You certainly can’t think that we would have foreseen that trying to draw energy to refuel our planes from some grid that encircles the planet would have resulted in everyone but three ugly New Zealanders vanishing! Continue reading “The Quiet Earth (1985)”
Category: Mystery
Night Corridor (2003)
Written and directed by Chi-Chiu Lee and based on his novel (no matter how this one turns out, Chi-Chiu has only himself to blame), Night Corridor poses the age old question of what happens when your twin brother is murdered by monkeys after having assumed the identity of the surviving twin who was off in London working on his career as a photographer. Continue reading “Night Corridor (2003)”
Teen-Age Strangler (1964)
Someone is stalking the distinctly inbred-looking ladies of Huntington, West Virginia leaving them laying in a heap, choked out with a stocking, and a big red “X” tattooed on their forehead with lipstick. What demented freak could possibly be behind this mildly interesting crime spree? Continue reading “Teen-Age Strangler (1964)”
Dangerous Crossing (1953)
All aboard for terror! Drop anchor on suspense! Prepare to walk the plank of total madness! Man the lifeboats…for mystery! It’s the most dangerous freaking crossing ever! Because the ship’s doctor is not adverse to slapping the taste out of unruly female passengers’ mouths! Continue reading “Dangerous Crossing (1953)”
The Strange Monster of Strawberry Cove (1971)
I suppose that when a TV show runs something like 35 years, you’re bound to run into some episodes that feel like they were just thrown on the air to fulfill whatever commitment the production company had to the network for original programming. Disneyland, after all, couldn’t exactly run Pinocchio, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea or Pollyanna once a month. Sometimes you had to rely on that tried and true variation of kids getting mixed up in small time crime that could be resolved in two one hour long episodes. Continue reading “The Strange Monster of Strawberry Cove (1971)”
Deep Red (1975)
Deep Red echoes Daro Argento’s earlier (and not as good) The Bird With The Crystal Plumage with its tale of a foreigner in Rome witnessing and getting himself mixed up in a murder (and getting everyone around him killed along the way). Don’t let the fact that this feels like an instance of a director remaking his own movie deter you from checking it out because Argento is able to play up his strengths (kinetic camera work, sudden vicious violence, a sense of isolation) and jettison all the barnacles that slow his other pictures down (pointless red herrings, lazy plotting, all the self-referential crap that helped to sink Tenebre). Continue reading “Deep Red (1975)”
Gaslight (1944)
Young Paula is hustled out of London after the death of her famous singer aunt. As is the case with most survivors of violent crime, Paula is eligible for an all expense paid trip to beautiful Italy! While there, you will try and follow in the melodic footsteps of your aunt, but be sidetracked by the smooth-talking Charles Boyer who is after a bunch of really sweet jewels that your dead aunt got from some shadowy royal figure. Or you can pass and bid on Showcase #2! Continue reading “Gaslight (1944)”