Monday, January 30, 2012

GALAXY OF TERROR / New World Pictures - 1981

Welcome to Monster Monday wif' Tabonga, here at The Dungeon!.. Tonite's offering is another ALIEN inspired movie produced by Roger Corman and New World, FORBIDDEN WORLD being the other. Budget estimated at $400,000, stars Edward Albert, Erin Moran and Ray Walston. And, get this, James Cameron only gets unit director credit at the bottom of the credits and Bill Paxton is uncredited for set decoration!

Music for this one is by Barry Schrader, who has only 9 composing credits. I think that music meant sci-fi sounds in 1981. Barry also plays himself in the 2010 documentary, TALES FROM THE LUMBER YARD: THE MAKING OF GALAXY OF TERROR. I actually visited Corman's lumber yard studio in 1984.

Letz bring in our Dungeon helper and button pusher, Ralphie The Tarantula!.. Bueno, Ralphie. The lil' guy is here to start our show, sooo, push the big red 'GO' button there by the pinball machine, now, Ralphie! Here's some spacey noise from... GALAXY OF TERROR!

The story's about a rescue space ship crew that encounters horrors projected by their own imaginations, once they reach their destination in space. The same as in JOURNEY TO THE SEVENTH PLANET.

You'll never be able to travel through interstellar space without your old hyper-jump! Trust me.

And, this is what they thought a hyper-jump looked like in 1981? What morons...

Once they land on the distant planet, well, they see that things ain't goin' so great there.

Eegah!! and I grew up watching the most far out comedy on TV at the time, MY FAVORITE MARTIAN. Ray Walston plays Kore, the Ash character from ALIEN. Edward Albert is Cabren. They must have had some fun choosing names for the characters, here's a few more... Alluma, Baelon, Dameia, Quuhod and Cos.

They're drawn to a mysterious pyramid in the distance, so, explore it...

It just don't get no more Alienish than that there!

Sid Haig is Quuhod. He gets his arm sliced off by a flying star, then, it's a smorgasbord for the maggots at the Arm Pit BBQ Joint! Yeah, the flick gets kinda gross... But, they did stuff like that for SHE BEAST with Barbara Steele in 1966, fifteen years earlier. Those are mealworms, anyway.

One of the worms grows to an enormous size...

And, slimes the living crap out of sexy Taffee O'Connell, who plays Dameia. You can see more of Taffee in NEW YEAR'S EVIL, CAGED FURY, HOT CHILI, DISMEMBERED and SPORK.

Oh my goodness, sakes alive!!!

You know, what the Hell, might as well throw in a bit of THE BLACK HOLE! Wouldn't want the viewers getting the idea that the flick was only ripping off ALIEN!

Zalman King, you're next to face your worst fear.

Robert (Freddy Krueger) Englund, as Ranger, has to face off against his evil twin. Robert recently did the voice of Deerman on my favorite TV cartoon, THE REGULAR SHOW!

Then, Erin Moran gets ripped apart by some creepy cave vines! When will the fun end?!

Cabren confronts Kore, who has been controlling the mayhem all along.

Cabren is a space policeman, and, kills Kore. At my son's wedding, someone told me not to stand with my hands clasped in front, because, that's what you do at a funeral! Hands behind the back was the proper wedding position. By the way, now, Cabren turns into TRON!.. Help, Mr. Wizard!!

For some bizarre reason, I find the artwork for these two Corman weirdies, charming!

Saturday, January 28, 2012

THE HOUSE THAT DRIPPED BLOOD - Michael Dress - "A Vértöl Csöpögö Ház" (1971)

Just got back from a couple of days in Computer Hell, and you know that's never any F'n fun! Now on the other hand, what IS fun are compilation films! "The House That Dripped Blood" is a right fine example! "A Vértöl Csöpögö Ház" is the title in Hungarian!

How many times have you said, "that would have been a pretty good movie if it would have only been about 20 minutes long?" This film is just that, and is more like four short stories, three of them having been written by one of THE top writers ever, Robert Bloch! IF you don't know who Robert Bloch is, I only have one word to say to you,"PSYCHO !"

The good thing about movies like this is that there's no time to waste!

An author of horror stories and his wife are the first victims to move into the "House That Dripped Blood."

The author's sketches of his character have come to life, and come to get him!

Everybody has a skull, it's just that most people choose to keep them inside their head!

For a guy with crappy makeup and a bad haircut, this dude really creeps me out!

Michael Dress is the composer of the music for tonight's feature, and is a mystery unto himself! Do a search for Michael Dress, and all you're going to find are sites about Michael Jackson dress up dolls! In fact, we've never had a reason to write about Michael before tonight either! Michael died at the early age of 39, but still, in that time, he managed to chalk up 9 credits that included "The Mind Of Mr. Soames" and "Quackser Fortune Has A Cousin In The Bronx!"

The second story features Peter Cushing, and was written by Russ Jones. Out of gazillions of pics, this might be the best portrait of Peter Cushing ever!

The second tale revolves around Jackie's Museum of Horror, the wax vampire is in the image of who else but Christopher Lee?

Peter is mesmerized, and falls in love with this wax figure. I don't really get it, she looks like Ozzy Osbourne to me!

The madness ensues! There were too many great shots, I probably should have done this film in four separate posts!

After teasing you with a wax version, the third story stars Christopher Lee! It doesn't hardly seem possible, but Chris Lee has more than twice as many credits, at 274 and counting, than Peter Cushing, who still had a massive amount at 131.

Chris is having some problems with his kid, he's not really that great of a parent!

Chloe Franks was twelve when this film was made! Chloe came down with rheumatoid arthritis in the 90's and is now the Director of Leadership Programmes for The Disability Partnership, an organiztion that helps out folks with disabilities!

If your kids get into drugs, it can be pretty bad, but if they get into witchcraft, it can be even worse!

The last story is about an aging actor played by Jon "Worzel Gummidge" Pertwee and his co-star, the comely Ingrid "Marcilla-Carmilla-Mircalla Karnstein" Pitt!

Jon is not happy about all the cheapness involved in his latest film, including this guy's makeup, so he goes out and buys himself an authentic looking Dracula cape! Speaking of, in the picture up there of Forry Ackerman, you see that he has on a Dracula cape! That was one of THE original capes that Bela wore in his role as Drac! I don't know who owns it now!

I glanced at this the other day, and because of that funny hammer shaped R, my mind read this as Curse of the Buttsuckers!

As it turns out, this cape is just a little too authentic, and turns Jon into a vampire!

If you didn't guess, this last tale is pretty much a comedy! I love the title of this book, "The Vampire: His Kith and Kin!"

You used to be able to rent "The House That Dripped Blood" on Netflix, but for some reason, it's no longer available! Another one bites the dust!

Monster Music

Monster Music
AAARRGGHHH!!!! Ya'll Come On Back Now, Y'Hear??