The Whip And The Body (1963)

When a film communicates two emotions happening across a character’s face, all in the one shot, the magic trick of that. In the Mario Bava directed film, The Whip and The Body (1963), there’s a tremendous close-up of the character of Nevenka (Dahlia Lavi), walking down a darkened castle hallway, approaching a door where she […]

The City Of The Dead (1960)

It’s a simple but effective trick. Works for rock shows, and it certainly works for old, black-and-white horror movies. If you don’t have the budget for set design, just pump in the smoke machine! The City Of The Dead (1960; aka Horror Hotel) gets a lot of atmospheric effect through its one major street set […]

Death Line (1972)

The concept of this British 1970s horror movie, Death Line (1972) sounds better, more horrifying, than its execution, and is less lurid than some of its posters make it look like (particularly the ones under the alternative title Raw Meat). Set in the London underground rail system, the opening follows a posh English gentleman doing […]

Dr. Terror’s House Of Horrors (1965)

I’m a fan of Halloween and spending October watching horror movies, and Dr. Terror’s House Of Horrors (1965) was a great place to start – what a title! This British horror anthology film comes from Amicus Studios and naturally stars both Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. Dr. Terror’s House Of Horrors starts in a train […]

The Devil Rides Out (1968)

Exploring the world of Hammer Horror, which I only know through the doco compilation series that was on SBS growing up, I haven’t seen many of the British studio’s horror films. The Devil Rides Out (1968) was a good place to start (and shout out to Joe Kapiteyn’s band whose name I presume is taken […]