43 (and growing) "Bad" Horror Movies Every Horror Fan Must See

This is a list of horror movies I watch on a semi-constant basis with a few quick notes to remind me what they are when I forget. It is not intended as a detailed synoposis of those movies, and unless you're a dedicated fan of horror these movies probably won't entertain you at all. Note: I made this list in the car between Wausau and Dr. Evermore's Forevertron in North Freedom, Wisconsin. I'm in the early stages of memory loss, and it's just a list, folks. It's meant as a tribute to all the low budget horror films that have meant so much to me all my life, not something to fight about, but I'd enjoy it if others wanted to talk about any of these films or similar ones that have meaning to them. Maybe some of these movies will help you get through some hard times and dark nights with their unpretentious devotion to the genre the way they have for me.

1) Screamtime: Anthology piece shot in Britain, but with introductory segment shot in New York. Has the gnomes story I really enjoy.

2) Nightmares: Anthology piece with Emilio Estevez in the Bishop of Battle segment.

3) Point of Terror: Peter Carpenter vehicle about a small time lounge singer who has aspirations of being a star.

4) Night of Horror: Confederate zombies pursue a rocker and his friends.

5) Werewolves On Wheels: Great soundtrack by Don Gere. Biker werewolves who take on a Satanic cult.

6) Enter the Devil: Wonderful regional B movie shot in Texas and with a unique take on the Satanic cult genre.

7) The Offspring (From a Whisper To a Scream): Awesome Vincent Price anthology piece about Oldfield, a Southern town where the sins of the past always come back to haunt those in the present.

8) Toxic Zombies: Pot growers crop dusted by the DEA transform into zombies and pursue those unlucky enough to be anywhere in the vicinity.

9) No Blade of Grass: Stark, cynical assessment of human nature after an environmental disaster plunges humanity into chaos.

10) Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things: Favorite movie. A theatre troupe of young Hippies land on a small island with a cemetery to perform a Satanic ritual meant to raise the dead. It works.

"So what's with this little thing we're askin'?"

11) Shockwaves: Aquatic Nazi zombies rise from their shipwreck to hunt down members of a shipwrecked crew on an island with an abandoned resort which Peter Cushing lives in.

12) Psychomania: Biker gang punk learns secret of immortality from his psychic mother.

13) Mansion of the Living Dead: Incredibly misogynistic Jess Franco movie starring another island resort and living dead reminiscent of Ossorio's Blind Dead.

14) Revenge of the Dead: French movie mistaken for a zombie movie by those disappointed it's really a mystery with another abandoned spa and only one zombie.

15) City of the Walking Dead: Probably the first fast-moving zombie movie.

16) The Monster Club: Co-favorite movie of all time. Vincent Price in another anthology piece set in a London night club for monsters.

What happens if a Shadmock whistles?

17) Alabama's Ghost: Bizarre piece of nonsense released as a Thriller Video hosted by Elvira directed by a scuplter.

18) The Spookies: A car-wrecked group of goofs happen upon an abandoned house that really isn't bandoned.

19) The Phantom of the Paradise: Paul Williams as Faust.

20) Scream and Scream Again: Price, Lee, Cushing.

21) Dracula 1972 A.D.: Chhristopher Lee as a Dracula in swinging London.

22) Escapes: Quaint but charming low budget anthology piece "hosted" by Vincent Price with the great Cup of Joe segment.

23) Pigs: First saw on Movie Macabre. An on-the-run mental patient meets the only other person crazier than her at a remote diner that serves the meat of pigs that survive on human flesh.

24) Gargoyles: ABC movie of the week in early 70's about the re-awakening of ancient gargoyles in the Southwestern desert.

25) Messiah of Evil (Dead People): Eerie, atmospheric movie about the return of the Red Moon to Point Doom, California. Great scenes at the theatre and Ralphs.

26) Simon, King of theWitches: Written by a real expert on witchcraft, avoids many of the cliche tropes of movies about witches.

27) The Cold: Shot at the now demolished Northernaire Resort in Wisconsin, the tale of three oldsters who invite several strangers to their resort off season every year to play a deadly game. William Rebane directs.

28) Zombiethon: Compiled footage from several zombie movies sliced together with several amusing interstitial shorts.

29) Night of the Comet: Against inconceivable odds, two sisters in different locations survive a meteor cataclysm.

30) Dr. Heckyll and Mr. Hype: Oliver Reed in an unusual retelling of the famous horror story.

31) Class Reunion Massacre: Shot in a Southern military academy, several people gather for a high school reunion. You know the rest.

32) The Beast Must Die: Werewolf mystery. Who is the werewolf? Who isn't the werewolf?

33) House of the Dead (Alien Zone): The original House of the Dead, shot in Omaha. A low budget anthology piece about a pilandering convention goer being shown the wages of sin by an undertaker.

34) Joel M. Reed's Bloodbath: Great anthology piece.

35) Funeral Home: Canadian horror movie about a young woman who goes to stay with her grandmother for the summer at the home where her grandfather was an undertaker.

36) Night Train To Terror: Bizarro anthology piece with the greatest musical intro of all time and Bull from Night Court in two of the segments. 

Everybody's got something to do. Everybody but you. 

37) Ghost Ship: Nazi ghost ship.

38) Hard Rock Zombies: A favorite at Zombie Night

39) A Name For Evil: Robert Culp as an architect who leaves the city to return to his ancestral home, but soon finds an angry ancestor doesn't want him there.

40) Satan's Children: Florida news guys swindles his friends to make this anti-Satan cautionary tale about a young man who leaves his broken home only to be raped by Molly Hatchet and then joins a Satanic cult.

41) The Boneyard: Phyllis Diller, Norman Fell, an offbeat lead character, and a zombie poodle in an oddly effective dark horror movie.

42) The Video Dead: A haunted television mistakenly sent to a California suburb unleashes a David Bowie zombie.

43) Creepshow 2: "Thanks for the ride, lady."

Newly remembered

44) Ghostkeeper: Canadian snowmobilers are stranded at a abandoned resort. First Wendigo movie I am aware of.

45) Humongous: Canadian boaters are shipwrecked on an island where a Big Head Todd monster still lives in an abandoned resort.

46) Warlock Moon: A college girl is lured by a charming stranger to an abandoned resort where cannibals ply their trade.

47) Screams of a Winter Night: At an abandoned resort (getting the idea?) in Louisiana, a group of young college types trades urban legends, then becomes one. 

48) Devil Times Five: At a ski lodge deserted for the season, the owner beckons his daughter, her boyfriend, and Boss Hogg and his alcoholic wife to be murdered by a cross-dressing Leif Garrett and a 15 year old albino the director was banging, because it was the 70's

Devil Times Five

49) Nightmare In Blood: The first horror con ever turns bloody when a movie vampire scheduled to appear turns out to be a vampire. 

50) The Baby: A grown man is treated like a baby by his two sisters and mother. A truly unusual movie. It is horror.

51) Death By Dialogue: Almost forgot this gem, but that's why this list is here. A group of college student visit one of their uncles, who lives near an abandoned film set, and snooping in the basement finds a mysterious script whose contents come to life as they are read. One of the best decapitation by a heavy metal band one stumbles upon performing in the forest scenes ever. 

52) Hellgate: A movie I used to confuse with Death By Dialogue because the settings seem so similar. Ron Palillo (Horshak from Welcome Back Kotter) is in this one about college students who end up in an abandoned Western Ghost Town attraction that comes back to life. Or something like that.

53) Tourist Trap: The Rifleman, Chuck Conners, owns a tourist trap wax museum. 

54) Dead and Buried: For some reason had blocked this one from my memory, perhaps confusing it with something else, until a couple months ago, when I finally watched it, and will again, hopefully. Coastal town full of pyschos murders tourists and... little bit like The Fog or Messiah of Evil.

55) Mark of the Witch. Anitra Walsh as a witch who returns to a college town to seek vengeance on a ersatz Leslie Nielsen type who condemned her death in a previous life. 








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Elvira's Movie Macabre Season 2, Episode 19: Craze, Starring Jack Palance

On the evening of January 29, 1983, exactly one week before The Monster Club, the movie Craze aired as Episode 19 of season 2 of Elvira's Movie Macabre. I do not remember seeing this movie, so I will be watching it and live blogging it tonight after I hear the voices upstairs subside so I can put on the earphones. 

Before I even begin watching Craze I notice the director, Freddie Francis, had directed many horror movies I am quite fond of, including Dr. Terror's House of Horrors, Torture Garden, Tales From the Crypt, Tales That Witness Madness, and The Ghoul. He came up through the ranks working as a clapper boy then making films during his WWII deployment. He got his break directing in 1962 at Hammer, and like many classic horror directors and actors, spent the rest of his career being typecast in the genre. It is sad to hear that story over and over when the movies these people made endure, and have made so many people happy. 

The movie opens with Jack Palance and group of worshippers sacrificing a woman to C3PO. I bet they got a cease and desist letter from George Lucas before the end of shooting this scene.

There's a a lot of nudity in this scene, and Jenny said I should start doing warnings about how much violence or nudity are in these movies, so warning, warning, boobs. And violence.

Jack Palance plays an off-center antique dealer who holds nightly rituals in his basement trying to curry favor from the African demigod Chuku. 

After the first nightly ritual where the Black woman offers her blood, everyone goes upstairs, then this older woman comes down and says "That's my Chuku" and insists the idol is hers and tries to take it back. It goes badly for her. C3PO is apparently pleased, spurring Palance on to even more and more creative and grisly sacrifices (probably, I haven't actually seen the movie yet, but I'll give you a dog biscuit if that's not what happens).

Chuku was a creator deity of the Ibo people of Nigeria.

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Readers of this blog will no doubt remember Julie Ege from The Seven Brothers Meet Dracula and The Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires, which are the same movie. In this scene Palance is no doubt about to sacrifice Ege to Chuku. But first some casual drug use and a romp. This movie was listed in Britain's infamous Video Nasties. 

Dance for Chuku, dammit. Dance.

That's no way to treat Julie Ege.

Let's see what Neal Mottram gets from Chuku for Julie Ege. He got a drawer full of gold coins for the old bat.

A: Ming vases

Then he scares an old lady with this mask and I have to be honest I lost interest and went to bid on a Hot Wheel on Ebay. If Chuku is paying out Ming vases for Julie Ege maybe just a subscription to National Geographic for scaring old ladies with a kook mask? Got about forty minutes to ride out with this one and I have to say I'm not into it. I feel like I've started this movie before in the past and not been able to get through it. Just not my cup of tea, but maybe other horror fans will like it.

There a couple of musical numbers in subterranean English pubs that are reminiscent of The Amen Corner in Scream and Scream Again. 

Not sure what happened with the Diana Dors story arc. I wanted to talk about seeing her in The Alfred Hithcock Hour episode "Run For Doom" and then later in From Beyond the Grave. But now there's only a few minutes left and for some reason he has scheduled an appointment with a massage therapist/dominatrix and I have no idea how any of this fits into the story, but I did admittedly just skip past a half hour of dialogue.

With eight minutes left in the movie Palance schedules a massage with dominatrix Suzy Kendall. Somebody definitely isn't in for a happy ending. Mostly at this point it's me because I just want to go to bed. 

Eventually the movie ends and there are credits. By modern standards the sex, nudity, drug use, and violence are comparatively tame, so I don't know about being a Video Nasty, but maybe a video meh. 







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Elvira's Movie Macabre Season 3 Episode 6: Maneater of Hydra

"That gal on the couch who ain't no slouch."

So began Season 3 Episode 6 of Elvira's Movie Macabre, Island of the Doomed, on the evening of November 20, 1983. Was I watching? I don't think so, because I don't remember seeing this movie, but I'm going to live watch it tonight at ShoutFactory and comment.

If you were asleep in Botany 101, you will learn early in this movie, if you're still awake, that carnivorous plants obtain Nitrogen from their victims, not the soil. 

This is a nerdy Botany professor from the University of Michigan. He seems very curious about the Baron's flora. My guess is he's not going to be in the movie much longer. Yes, the picture quality is this grainy.

"It's like a cucumber, but it tastes like meat." 

During her second segment at twenty minutes, Elvira muses that while she was watching a cucumber that tastes like a steak she was busy coming up with a hamburger that tastes like a banana. But nobody wants to buy them, because "they don't have appeal." 

"Anybody for a little Frisbee? Mine are enormous." After a rather dry segment where the Baron explains about his porcupine plant Elvira returns with her Frisbee. It's a welcome diversion from the poor picture quality of this movie. How about that eye makeup? Looks a little bit like Piston Honda in Mike Tyson's Punch Out when he gets stunned by a punch. 

Alright, everyone is in bed now, so time to eat my Cherry Garcia ice cream and finish this sucker. I read ahead a little bit and am of the understanding there is an intense finish. 

Cameron Mitchell plays the Baron von Weser admirably in this movie. I have seen him in a great many movies and tv shows, including Night Gallery, and he often plays an over the top tough guy type, but here his performance is a little reserved. I'm actually watching this scene as I write. Here he is explaining to a woman who has broken away from the group to come and have sex with him that he is never lonely because he has his plants. I think it's about to go badly for her.

Yep, she was about to touch his giant gardenias, and was rebuffed, only to retreat in frustration.

"In a movie about a man-eating plant, I would keep my eye on a man named Moss."

Two dudes fighting it out with axes underneath a bloodsucking tree? Typical Friday night in Hydra, pronounced Heed-ra. 

Director Mel Welles was known for his killer flora movies, including playing flower shop owner Gravis Mushnick in Little Shop of Horrors, because of course he did. And I see looking at his IMDB credits that he played Dr. Hinkle in Dr. Heckyl and Mr. Hype, another Movie Macabre feature I finished watching earlier today. 

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Elvira's Movie Macabre Season 1 Episode 28: Legacy of Blood

"Tonight's movie is Legacy of Blood. Legacy is an Italian word. Like, this is my leg yacee? And this is my other leg yacee?"

Movie Macabre intro to Legacy of Blood. April 10, 1982

I'm very excited because this is the first time since I saw any of the original episodes in the early 80's as a teenager that I will be watching one of the original broadcasts as it aired then, with Elvira's intro to the movie and pop-up comments (hopefully). So far all of the reviews I have done of Movie Macabre episodes have been of the movies themselves, without the intro or Elvira's segments. I found a handful of the episodes at ShoutFactory. I have never been able to find a complete episode of Elvira's Movie Macabre anywhere else before this. I wonder if they all exist somewhere. 

This movie, Legacy of Blood, also known as Will To Die, aired originally on April 10, 1982, and was episode 28 of season 1. The show had already become a runaway hit by this point. I know Legacy of Blood primarily because it was included in the horror compilation Drive-In Movie Classics. 

Legacy of Blood begins with the most cliche of premises: the children of a wealthy man assemble to hear the reading of the will, which (of course) stipulates they must stay at the estate for at least a week or get nothing, and if one of them dies, the remaining portion of the 136 million dollars shall be divided among the survivors. If all the children dies, his faithful three servants get the dough. I wonder what will happen next.

Reading IMDB reviews as I try to slog through the film one more time, I find that I disagree with most of the reviews. I enjoy this film. true, I watched several times at a time in my life when I had nothing else to watch, but I like it.

This guy is in the movie. His name is Igor. I'd have to say he's an obvious cypher as the killer. Maybe he is. I honestly don't remember. 

This is also something that apparently happens in the movie, but I don't recall this either. I think it happens when they come downstairs late at night to make a roast beef sandwich and this guy's head is in the fancy platter. I think there's also an electrocution and the dog bites it and someone gets poisoned and at the end someone is going to get the money even though they just killed seven people and no one is ever supposed to investigate that. All of that improbability taken into account, I'm a sucker for the house and the estate this is filmed on. They have a really nice pool table, and twenty minutes in Elvira hasn't said anything yet. 

"Sheesh. Just give a guy an inch..." 23:35

At about 1:04:30 mark Elvira says "This is getting a little heavy. Time for a musical interlude," then there is about a sixty second montage synched up to the Elvira theme. Then, unfortunately, more movie.

One more break at 1:12:48 to lament her life as a horror movie host, then back for the gripping finish to Will To Die, err, Legacy of Blood.

At 1:23:00 Elvira is back to read letters from ladies and their bad dating experiences. "I don't trust a man who let's his dog eat cabbage." "I don't trust a man who sleeps with his socks on." "I don't trust a man who likes to sit on his umbrella (triple rim shot)." etc then she ends the segment by being hit with rotten vegetables.  

I think at the end of the movie it even turns out that John Carradine is alive. Maybe. 

Elvira returns one last time for the post mortem to rightfully point out that the movie is both dumb and the ending is one of the biggest cliches in movie history. "I get paid for watching this garbage, but what's your excuse?"

I don't think it's a good idea if I answer that question. 

Unpleasant dreams. 

Executive producer Dick Johnson? Of course he is. 

Only two things could have made this more fun: if I were fourteen again, and if my six year old weren't somewhere behind me the whole time. 

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Elvira's Movie Macabre, Season 1, Episode 3: The House That Screamed

The first three episodes of Elvira's Movie Macabre were a rather radical departure from the later tenor of the series in that they were fairly serious horror movies, complete with sex, gore, and violence, while later episodes became known for the campy movie choices like Attack of the Killer Tomatoes. Cassandra Peterson herself is known to not be a fan of slasher movies, or extreme violence, so the first three movies: Grave of the Vampire, Silent Night, Deadly Night, and The House That Screamed are unusual. A possible explanation for this is that Movie Macabre was a runaway hit right off the bat, and rather than ask for more money Cassandra Peterson asked for more creative control and licensing rights. It turned out to be a genius move for her because getting away from hardcore horror and graduating to lighter, more humorous movies was one factor that made Elvira's Movie Macabre a legendary hit.

So, The House That Screamed.

Typical Spanish macho sexploitation garbage. Didn't like it. Have never actually been able to sit through it, but my New Year's resolution is to watch and blog about every movie in the Movie Macabre series, and this was the third one.

Lilli Palmer owns and runs a school for wayward girls in France. Her absolute discipline has fostered a social order among the girls with rampant sex, lesbianism and torture the norm. Palmer also has an adolescent son (Moulder Brown) she tries to keep isolated from the young women lest he be tainted by sexual relations; She explains that he must wait for a girl "just like his mother". Meanwhile, girls are "running away" (being murdered) one by one, with their corpses and any evidence of their outcome not to be found.

The House That Screamed? More like the House That Screamed typical Catholic rape fantasy misogyny. One of my least favorite episodes of Movie Macabre. 

Episode 2: Silent Night, Bloody Night

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Movie Macabre Season 3 Episode 13 Dr. Heckyll and Mr. Hype, or There's a Monster In My Garbage

Dr. Heckyl and Mr. Hype appeared on Elvira's Movie Macabre March 17th, 1984, exactly one week after Attack of the Killer Tomatoes, and you better believe I was watching. It was season 3 episode 13. At the time I had no awareness of who Oliver Reed was or exactly what it was about this goofy horror comedy that I would still remember 32 years later when I just saw it again for the second time, but there's definitely something about it that is memorable. 

Dr. Heckyl and Mr. Hype is a completely original story never told before about an ugly podiatrist who really like this very attractive blond woman he sees at the bus stop every morning on the way to work. She's not interested because she only dates ears, nose, and throat men. But unbeknownst to Dr. Heckyl, his colleague,  Dr. Vince Hinkle is working on a potion that will turn overweight women into stunning blondes. Does Dr. Heckyl take the serum and transform into a dashing, albeit bloodthirsty ladies' man who becomes homicidal whenever he believes his appearance has been slighted in any way? 

Duh.

Is this a really dumb movie and perhaps one of the most pointless and idiotic adaptations of the Robert Louis Stevenson novel?

Doi.

Don't ever let them convince you that everything exists on the internet, because I'm unable to find a picture of Mr. Hype's first kill, and the scene I remember most vividly from first seeing the movie in 1983, where let's just say he uses a lamp in a very creative way. Foot fetishists will be especially drawn to Dr. Heckyl and Mr. Hype, but what comes to mind for me is the epic bender I read about Oliver Reed going on in Spain before he died. Downing rounds and rounds of drinks with sailors, and ending the night polishing off three bottles of rum. But back to the movie.

It's perfectly stupid and semi-sweet at times, and the violence is mostly comical. There's not much like it. I'll probably even go and finish watching it now.

Update: I decided to finish watching the movie this afternoon, and as I watched my six year old create a very elaborate drawing of the video he was watching it occurred to me that I, too, didn't have to rely o the internet to furnish pictures of these movies I am reviewing, especially of the particular scenes I want to remember and highlight. 

This is the particular scene that emblazened this movie onto my memory.  Dr. Heckyl has just taken the serum his colleague concocted, and discovers he is handsome, His first visit is to his downstairs neighbor. Things are going swimmingly, because he's Oliver Reed, until he feel she has insulted his face. What happens next I must advise you occurs in strobe lights, so the screen grab is insufficient. I guess my whole family was home when we watched this because I remember we laughed and laughed. It just seemed like the funniest thing that ever happened.

"That's no monster, that's my podiatrist."

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Thriller Video: The Silent Scream

Many of the 24 episodes of Thriller Video, hosted by Elvira, were originally episodes of Hammer House Horror, but not all the episodes of Hammer House of Horror were episodes of Elvira's Movie Macabre, as The Silent Scream was. That's why it's probably my favorite of the Thriller Video releases hosted by Elvira, and the first one I bought. If that rundown sounds confusing, try living inside my head. I believe there were 13 episodes of Hammer House of Horror, all dependably good. The Monster Club was shown on Movie Macabre, and is in the Thriller Video collection hosted by Elvira, but was not part of the Hammer House of Horror. Now that I look at the episode list of Movie Macabre, I realize The Silent Scream was never shown on Movie Macabre. Scream, Baby, Scream, Scream and Scream Again, and Now The Screaming Starts were, but not The Silent Scream. and None of the Hammer House of Horror episodes were. That makes sense, considering the Hammer House of Horror episodes were less than an hour long. I think because for 23 years now I have been watching a tape of the Monster Club with Elvira at the end hawking other Thriller Video releases that I conflated The Silent Scream with Movie Macabre, and The Monster Club with Hammer House of Horror. However, what is clear to me at this moment is that I own The Silent Scream in Beta from Thriller Video, and it is spectacular. 

November 21, 2014: Just unboxed this for the first time when I realized the Sanyo Betacord I bought two months ago actually works. In the first five minutes you get the IVE graphic and sound drop, iconic Elvira, Mistress of the Dark intro, and Hammer House of Horror show intro. It's playing smooth as bourbon. 

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John Paragon As The Breather On Elvira's Movie Macabre

John Paragon as The Breather on Elvira's Movie Macabre

Actor John Paragon portrayed a character called The Breather in several early episodes of Elvira's Movie Macabre. He'd call up and say something like "Hello, Elvirus? Do you have anything on tonight?" And she'd say "Ya. And I'm keeping it on." Then he'd exclaim "That's a bummer." Those were the jokes, people. 

Paragon was a member of the LA improvisational group The Groundlings in the 1970's with other members Phil Hartman, Pee Wee Herman, and guess who... Cassandra Peterson. He worked several times with Pee Wee Herman, most memorably as Jambi the Genie and Pterri the Pterodactyl in Pee Wee's Playhouse, and reprised the role of Jambi the Genie in the Broadway show of Pee Wee's Playhouse.  Pin It

Elvira's Movie Macabre, Epoisode 8: The Thing With Two Heads

Rosie Greer and Ray Milland are The Thing With Two Heads

Episode number 8 of Elvira's Movie Macabre aired on November 15, 1981, and The Thing With Two Heads was shown. What happens in The Thing With Two Heads? No idea. I've never seen it. My understanding is that the premise is that racist Ray Milland's head is transplanted onto football player Rosey Greer's body. Merriment, and poignant points about the nature of racism are made. Probably. Like I said, never seen the movie. Ray Milland won the best actor Academy Award in 1945 for The Lost Weekend. Apparently the movie reverts into a keystone cops chase scene all meant for camp effect and cheap laughs. This movie might have been showing in our house on November 15, 1981, or it may not have. 

Was there a call from The Breather (John Paragon) in episode 8 of Elvira's Movie Macabre? Maybe. 

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Elvira's Movie Macabre Season 1, Episode 2: Silent Night, Bloody Night

Although Elvira's Movie Macabre is known for its campy humor, the first two episodes feature rather grim and disturbing movies. Grave of the Vampire, and Silent Night, Deadly Night. One wonders if this was just random, or if the intention of the show was to feature truly scary movies instead of more campy movies like Blacula. 

In Silent Night, Bloody Night, Wilford Butler returns home on Christmas Eve and his house had been turned into a mental institution for the criminally insane. But the day of his return, he is set on fire and dies. The towns people believe his death was an accident, and the institution-house is later closed down. Wilford leaves the house to his grandson Jeffrey. A few years later, Jeffrey finally decides to sell this grandfather's house, but the towns people including the Mayor have mixed feelings on keeping people away from the house, especially when a serial killer escapes from another institution and finds refuge there. The killer makes frightening phone calls and kills anyone coming near the house. But what does the killer have in common with what happened to Wilford Butler years before?

Green Bean Ondine and Candy Darling, Warhol products, make a cameo in one of Silent Night, Bloody Night's most memorable scenes.

Although a restored version of Silent Night, Deadly Night was supposed to have been released in 2012, my recommendation is to watch the original, grainy version on the 50 Chilling Classics movie collection. If you don't have it, order it. 

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Elvira's Movie Macabre, Episode 1: Grave of the Vampire

Elvira's Movie Macabre, Episode 1, Grave of the Vampire

The violent, disturbing Grave of the Vampire, was the first movie shown on Elvira's Movie Macabre. It aired on September 26, 1981, and was not typical of the type of movies shown during the show's five season run. 

This dark, violent British production stars Michael Pataki as a brutish vampire apparently lacking in Dracula's powers of seduction, since he finds it necessary to brutally rape a young woman (Kitty Vallacher) in order to sire a child. The product of this unholy mating is a half-human, half-vampire baby boy, bottle-fed on the blood of his now-insane mother (a truly sickening sight) until her eventual death from anemia. Later as a young man, the son (William Smith) is able to spend short periods in daylight, and his bloodlust is considerably lesser than that of his father. Tormented nevertheless by his evil condition, he curses his bloodline and defies his vampire heritage, tracking his father down to the university where he teaches occult sciences. Aside from Pataki's coarse but imposing performance, this low-budget film is a fairly routine genre entry, but the climactic, bloody duel between father and son vampires is quite gripping.

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