31 DAYS OF HALLOWEEN DAY 31: VALLEY OF THE ZOMBIES 1947 (KINO) BLU-RAY

This is a very fun movie.

The story revolves around a cloaked killer named Ormand Murks (Ian Keith). It seems he was sent to an asylum by Dr. Rufus Maynard (Charles Trowbridge) and died there.

He has come back to life and needs a lot of blood to survive. He claims he learned this in the "Valley Of The Zombies" where voodoo rites are practiced.

Keith chews up every scene he is in. This is probably the most interesting villian ever to appear n a Republic production. Murks kills Maynard and frames Maynards assistant, Dr. Terry Evans (Robert Livingston) and his girlfriend Susan Drake (Lorna Gray) for the crime.

Terry and Susan must try to prove their innocence. This is a very short film running only 56 minutes, and once it starts it never has time to slow down and neither does the viewer.

The presentation from Kino is simply beautiful for a movie this age and I hope there are more of these low budget horrors coming to Blu-ray.

The rest of the cast for this highly recommended movie includes Thomas Jackson, LeRoy Mason, Wilton Graff and Charles Kane. See this movie!! After all you have sexy Lorna Gray and a villian named Ormand Murks...what's not to like?

31 DAYS OF HALLOWEEN DAY 30: THE BAT WHISPERS 1930 (VCI)

Creaky but somewhat entertaining "old dark house" thriller from 1930.

I heard a lot about this movie and decided to finally check it out. Chester Morris stars as Detective Anderson, a man called to investigate a murder at an old mansion that may have been committed by criminal mastermind "The Bat".

This is a standard thriller from the day with a bit of comedy thrown in. The maid, named Lizzie who screams and carries on so much gets very annoying and it way too over the top.

The story plods along and there are some very obvious minitures shown here, but I can forgive that. The ending is a good twist for the time the movie came out.

Morris is very good in this early role and it's always good to see him in anything. This is also the movie that, according to legend, gave Bob Kane the inspiration for "Batman".

If you get the chance you might want to check this out. Director Roland west does the best he can with the material he has.

31 DAYS OF HALLOWEEN DAY 29: TRAGIC CEREMONY 1972 (DARK SKY)

I found this to be a very well made film from director Riccardo Freda.

The film centers around 4 young people who run out of gas while driving their dune buggy in a downpour. They stop at a mysterious little gas station and the owner refuses to give them gas without money or ID.

He sets his eyes on the lovely Jane (Camille Keaton) and decides to give them just enough to get to town. However this only gives them enough to get to a mansion.

At this mansion they meet Lord Alexander (Luigi Pistilli) and his wife lady Alexander (Luciana Paluzzi). They welcome the strangers and make them feel at home. Soon Jane wanders into a black mass ritual while in a trance. She is rescued by the three men and a bloodbath ensues.

Over the next few days they all meet violent deaths until the final outcome is revealed. I liked the twist at the end and Keaton, along with Paluzzi steal the show.

I am surprised this film isn't better known because it's a great little film with some mild gore, beautiful women and a damned good story.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

Gabrielle Union is 52, Kate Jackson is 76, and Ana Foxx is 36.

31 DAYS OF HALLOWEEN DAY 28: LEMORA: A CHILDS TALE OF THE SUPERNATURAL 1973 (SYNAPSE)

A great movie that still to this day, seems highly ignored.

Cheryl Smith stars as Lila Lee a young woman whose father is a gangster. In the opening scene we see him killing both his wife and her lover with a machine gun and then driving off into a mysterious place where he is attacked by ghouls.

Lila is adopted by a minister and his church. We never learn his name but we certainly know he has an unhealthy desire for Lila. One day she receives a mysterious note from a woman named Lemora (Leslie Taplin) saying that her father is dying and wants to see her one last time before he passes away.

Lila leaves in the middle of the night and takes a strange little bus toa weird place where the first thing she sees are monsters running thru the woods, and those same monsters kill the driver played by Hy Pyke.

Lila meets Lemora and things get really weird as the young woman wants nothing to do with Lemora and her minions.

The ending of the film is a nice, but unexpected surprise in whcih the minister also gets his cumuppance. The entire vibe of this film is different from anything I have seen before.

Director Richard Blackburn has made a very unique and bizarre horror tale told from the prospective of a young girl who really has no purpose in life until the very end of the movie.

If you haven't seen this movie you should. I really recommend this and it goes perfectly with the Halloween season.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

Christy Hemme is 44.

31 DAYS OF HALLOWEEN DAY 27: REC 4: APOCALYPSE 2014 (SONY) BLU-RAY

The final film in the series, and it's not too bad.

This picks up where the second film ended and the invading SWAT team that is going to explode the entire apartment complex manage to rescue Angela Vidal (Manuela Valasco), who of course, was the young reporter trapped in the film in the first film and dragged to a supposed death.

She is taken aboard a huge ship in the middle of the ocean and a team of scientists run tests on her to see if she is infected. They find she isn't and Vidal is introduced to several people on the ship including a smart nerdy guy named Nic (Ismael Fritschi) who has her TV camera and is trying to get the data off of it.

We discover that Vidal was infected by the creature in the cellar of the building. It transferred a huge parasite into her body, but the tests prove it is no ,onger in her.

Soon all hell breaks loose on the ship as a contaminated monkey is set loose by unknown person or people and it starts the cycle over again.

Vidal and Nic soon find themselves fighting for their lives on a ship full of zombies. There are several twists and turns which I found very interesting, and this is probably the goriest one of the series.

The series comes to an end with this one although it is an open ending. If you like the others in the series you'll like this one as well.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

Jayne Kennedy is 73.

31 DAYS OF HALLOWEEN DAY 26: DOOR TO DOOR MANIAC 1961 (FILM MASTERS) BLU-RAY

This movie is also known as "Five Minutes To Live" and I have talked about it before, but it has been a while.

This film has finally been remastered by Film Masters, and it looks very, very good. They have included both the TV version and the theater version which contain a small amount of extra footage.

This is a very underrated film and has a lot of negative reviews, but hey, I enjoyed it. Johnny Cash is an insane criminal named Johnny Cabot.

Cabot is hired by Fred Dorella (Vic Tayback) to be a part of his small town bank robbery. Cabot is orderd to hold the wife of the bank vice president hostage in order to get him to allow a $70,000 robbery to take place.

The woman, Nancy Wilson (Cay Forester) is basically unhappy in her marriage, but she discovers from the sadistic acts of Cabot, that her life really isn't too bad.

Her husband Ken (Donald Woods) is forced to give into the robbers' demands. However things do not work out well for Dorella at the bank after he is recognised by an employee.

Everything falls apart and things turn out badly for Cabot after he attempts to kidnap the Wilsons' son played by a very young Ron Howard. The child manages to pull a fast one on Cabot and bring about his demise.

The performances all are very good, and I just don't understand all the tearing apart of this movie, but I guess it isn't for everyone.

The Blu-ray presentation is very good nd I'm glad this film finally got an improvment. Recommended!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

Jaclyn Smith is 79.

31 DAYS OF HALLOWEEN DAY 25: REC 3: GENESIS 2012 (SONY)

Not too bad of a film.

The first two films in this series knocked my socks off and now I finally got to see the third installment.

This film centers around a wedding ceremony between Koldo (Diego Martin) and his gorgeous bride Clara (Leticia Dolera). During the party after the wedding one of the members of Koldo's family, who was bitten by a dog that he thought was dead, starts killing off the party gores by biting them.

In no time flat, the party is turned into a bloodbath as people start becoming zombies faster than you can say "George Romero".

Everything descends into chaos as Koldo and Clara fight for survival against a horde of demonic zombies who cannot stand the word of God.

This movie answers several questions never answered in the first two movies, and the dog referred to is the animal from the first film that was put in quarantine.

The ending leaves it open for another film, which there was, and I will be talking about that one very soon. This is a great and fast moving film that never stops once it starts. The opening title appears on the screen 22 minutes into the movie!!

As a horror fan I can easily recommend this to others. Have at it.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

Ciara is 39.

31 DAYS OF HALLOWEEN DAY 24: THE CHILD 1977 (SOMETHING WEIRD)

It has been many years since I first saw this bizarre little film.

I believe movie takes place in the 1930's or 40's but I can't be sure. It's a twisted tale about a young housekeeper named Alicianne (Laurel Barnett) who comes to a rural home to take care of a child named Rosalie (Rosalie Cole).

Right away we discover that Rosalie is a problem child who seeks revenge on those that she believes are responsible for the death of her mother.

How does she do this? Well she has some special friends that are walking corpses. By the end of the movie Alicianne and a farmhand find themselves very outnumbered in a final showdown with the walking dead.

Now, I have a ton of questions that the film never answers such as how is Rosalie able to raise the dead, what has her life really been like and how many people has she killed with her friends?

I don't like or dislike this movie. It's what I call a guilty pleasure, because it makes no sense and never really comes together. The leading lady is Laurel Bennett and her acting career lasted only 3 years.

She is an attractive woman, but she cannot this movie on her own. If you get the chance and have never seen this, you may want to check it out. The ending is wild and leaves the viewer wondering what has happened.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

Caprice Bourett is 53.

RIP RON ELY 1938-2024

The actor who made Tarzan famous on TV during the 60's has passed away.

Ely's screen career began in 1958 with his role in the movie "South Pacific" and then he was also in "Fiend Who Walked The West" the same year.

His career hit it's stride when he won the role of Tarzan in the TV series that ran for two years 1966-1968. He was the TV Tarzan I grew up with.

He appeard in many other tv shows after Tarzan including "Wonder Woman", "Marcus Welby", "Matt Helm" and "Sheena" just to name a few. Ron Ely passed away on September 29, 2024 at the age of 86.