FROZEN ALIVE ** UK / West Germany 1964 Dir: Bernard Knowles. 81 mins Sometimes you just view a film that is just there. Many of the ‘slow burn’ pictures of today with their build-up followed by rapid-fire scares and effects-laden conclusions that set up a sequel are this way. Frozen Alive (1964) just simply exists with a simple story overshadowed by domestic troubles. Strikingly like Curse Of The Fly (1965) with an American star, in this case, star Mark Stevens as a scientist, Frank Overton, working with his associate Helen Wieland (Marianne Koch) to perfect suspended animation. In this case,…
Author: Terry Sherwood
Terry Sherwood
Terry Sherwood Born in Ottawa Ontario, Canada; Terry is a "Monster kid ', film fan and popular culture person. Once worked in television as a commercial writer/ Director. Writer of the SKELETONS IN THE CLOSET site covering aspects of the Horror Genre from Books, Comics, to Film old and new. He has previously written for WE BELONG DEAD and MONSTERMANIA magazines, The Spooky Isle UK website, Horror hound and Turner Classic Movies. Published Book of own writings titled SCREEN AND SCREEN AGAIN: ESSAYS ON THE HORROR FILM on amazon world wide plus contributed to other genre books. Chaired numerous convention panel discussions on Horror and Comics Terry is member of The Horror Writers Association and Dracula Society in U.K.
THE YELLOW WALLPAPER *** USA / Ireland 2021 Dir: Kevin Pontuti. 100 mins Horror genre at its best tackles (sometimes literally) themes and the society in which it was made. James Whale’s Frankenstein (1931) worked as a ‘self-made in articulate man’ in an era where The Great Depression and impending war clouds in Europe were gathering. Heady stuff to compare that film and the now classic Bride Of Frankenstein (1935) with The Yellow Wallpaper (2021). This film and James Whale’s Frankenstein films of the thirties have a common thread that influences the way the world and the story is told.…
BUNKER 717 (aka Deep Fear) *** Belgium / France 2022 Dir: Grégory Beghin. 80 mins I have said before that often in genres there are no new concepts. Reinventing the wheel is not necessary however healthy execution of ideas is. Director Grégory Beghin and writer Nicolas Tackian have fashioned a competent if not unremarkable horror picture called Bunker 717 (aka Deep Fear) (2022). Competent in that it has its moments bogged down by tropes we have seen before. Firstly, taking a page out of all those cave or enclosure horror films like the now classic The Decent (2005), The Keep…
THE HAUNTED PALACE *** USA 1963 Dir: Roger Corman. 87 mins Roger Corman has reportedly never made a film that didn’t make money. Not really so as a young William Shatner starred in The Intruder (1962) for Corman which turned out to be one of his failures to make money. I mention this since most legends even if they are “legends in their own minds” tend to have weak spots. This Corman produced and Directed film The Haunted Palace (1963) comes from that time period from the masterfully funny The Raven (1963) and the necrophiliac ballet The Masque Of The…
EVERYONE WILL BURN **** Spain 2021 Dir: David Hebrero. 125 mins Spain, the country that gave us those heady, twisted days of Jess Franco beginning with The Awful Dr. Orloff (1962) and Amando de Ossorio’s The Tombs Of The Blind Dead (1972) brings us an Art house film of devilry, destruction and dubious morals. Everyone Will Burn (2021) or to give it its Spanish title Y Todos Arderán is such a picture that it often wears many heads as to what it is supposed to be. Written by its director David Hebrero and Javier Kiran have fashioned a story similar…