CineSavant Column

Tuesday October 29, 2024

 

Hello!

What — where are the monsters?  More Halloween-themed movies will arrive in November. Some simply haven’t gotten here yet and a couple that have — Film Masters’  Creature with the Blue Hand and Powerhouse Indicator’s  El Vampiro: Two Bloodsucking Tales from Mexico — got caught up in the review log jam.

I’m hearing from friends that are dead serious about having new fun titles to watch on and before Halloween. Some write me to talk about their changed reactions to old favorites, as when a rediscovered ’50s picture suddenly plays better for them. If you really get stuck for ideas, the CineSavant Review Index overflows with critical discerning shamelessly enthusiastic coverage of just about every worthy horror / Sci-fi / fantasy picture from years gone by. Co-reviewer Charlie Largent has contributed a ton of these, being a like-minded major booster of good horror. Not only that, Charlie properly proofreads his articles.

In the meantime, we direct readers back to earlier CineSavant articles about the joys we remember from spooky matinees — yes, mostly as kids. Our  Hypnotic Chill!  Monster Thrill!  piece takes in a triple bill of memories, as does  How Much Shock Can You Stand?, Charlie Largent’s personal take on his perfect horror triple bill.

Now maybe we’ve really lost track of what is and what isn’t an interesting link. If you really want to go spelunking in the lost past of CineSavant, you can have a look at what was current in past Octobers at this page…

I’ve indexed CineSavant and DVD Savant back to 2012, so here are some quick links to what we were covering as hot ‘new’ horror and fantasy pix:

2017,   2018,   2019,   2020,   2021,   2022,   2023

 



 

And we’re grateful for John McElwee’s Greenbriar Picture Shows for posting something we couldn’t provide this week, a great link for disc collectors interested in 100-year-old silent horror pictures.

Just a few days ago, our Charlie Largent reviewed a new Blu-ray for the 1926 haunted house thriller  The Bat. John’s GB post talks about the ins and outs of that whole subgenre of part-horror part-comedies set in haunted houses, where the supernatural business usually boils down to some con game, money scam or inheritance ruse. The films were once just vague titles that collectors like McElwee thought they’d never see, but individual items (Seven Footprints to Satan, perhaps) keep showing up. You never know, the lost London After Midnight could suddenly pop up somewhere, too.

Anyway, if you’re into a good discussion of vintage horror from a collector’s viewpoint, we don’t have it but Greenbriar does:

Honey of a Horror for Halloween

Happy Halloween! — Glenn Erickson