Friday Night At The Home Drive-In: Terror from the Year 5000 (1958)

Poster for Terror from the Year 5000 (1958)Terror from the Year 5000 (1958) by #RobertJGurneyJr
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#WardCostello #JoyceHolden

A female from the future arrives seeking males to rejuvenate her doomed race.

“From Time Unborn … A Hideous She-Thing!”

”Hey, this thing’s radioactive. It’s hotter than a firecracker.”

#Horror #SciFi
#NotQuiteClassicCinema

Terror from the Year 5000 (1958) is one of the movies I referred to last week, when I noted that it was sometimes paired with The Brain Eaters (1958) as a double bill. I mentioned that I had never seen Terror from the Year 5000, and vowed that I would have to to track it down and watch it. Well… that’s exactly what happened. I should probably also note that I predicted that Terror from the Year 5000 would not be as good as The Brain Eaters. Was I right? Sort of… but it’s a little more complicated than that…  Continue reading

Friday Night At The Home Drive-In: The Brain Eaters (1958)

Poster for The Brain Eaters (1958)The Brain Eaters (1958) by #BrunoVeSota
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#EdNelson #JodyFair #LeonardNimoy

Parasites from the centre of the earth take control of people’s minds.

“Crawling, slimy things terror-bent on destroying the world!”

“What are the parasites, where do they come from, what do they want from us?”

#Horror #SciFi
#NotQuiteClassicCinema
#FridayNightAtTheHomeDriveIn

It’s been a long week, and I’ve barely had enough sleep. I feel like the brain eaters have gotten to me. And what I mean by that, is that I feel like my brain is gone, or mostly gone, or not functioning properly. That’s what I would expect the brain eaters to do to a person; literally eat their brains. The brain eaters in The Brain Eaters (1958), however, don’t seem to do that. No, they seem to take control of the person’s brain, and by doing so, take control of their body. So, shouldn’t the movie be called The Brain Controllers, or The Body Controllers, or… something like that?  Continue reading

Friday Night At The Home Drive-In: I Was a Teenage Frankenstein (1957)

Poster for I Was a Teenage Frankenstein (1957)I Was a Teenage Frankenstein (1957) by #HerbertLStrock
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#WhitBissell #PhyllisCoates

Professor Frankenstein creates a hulking teenager from the body of an accident victim – and it goes on a killing spree.

“Body of a boy! Mind of a monster! Soul of an unearthly thing!”

#Horror #SciFi
#NotQuiteClassicCinema
#FridayNightAtTheHomeDriveIn

As I may have mentioned before, I’m a big fan of Blood of Dracula (1957). Not sure why it appeals to me so much, but it does. Nostalgia plays a big part, I’m sure. But there’s also something about it that just works for me. It was made very shortly after I Was A Teenage Werewolf (1957), and was meant to cash in on the former movies’s success. Well, guess what? I Was a Teenage Frankenstein (1957) was also rushed into production because of I Was A Teenage Werewolf, and both movies were produced by Herman Cohen. They were also sent out together as a double feature. So how is it that I never saw I Was a Teenage Frankenstein before last Friday? Continue reading

Friday Night At The Home Drive-In: The Hideous Sun Demon (1958)

Poster art for The Hideous Sun Demon (1958)The Hideous Sun Demon (1958) by #RobertClarke
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#PatriciaManning #NanPeterson

Due to radiation, a scientist becomes a murderous lizard when he’s exposed to sunlight.

“The Blaze Of The Sun Made Him A Monster!”

“Thermodynamic horror from outer space!”

“Whiskey and soda mix, not whiskey and science.”

#Horror #SciFi
#NotQuiteClassicCinema
#FridayNightAtTheHomeDriveIn

The Hideous Sun Demon (1958) was produced, directed, and cowritten by its star, Robert Clarke. Technically, he co-directed (according to the IMDb) with a guy named Tom Boutross, but it looks like Boutross didn’t ever direct much else (just some TV episodes many years later), so I will assume that Robert Clarke was pretty much in charge on the set. Most of Boutross’ credits were as an editor, and he edited The Hideous Sun Demon, in fact. So perhaps he influenced the finished product so much that Clarke credited him as a co-director. Who knows? Continue reading

Friday Night At The Home Drive-In: The Bride and the Beast (1958)

Poster for The Bride and the Beast (1958)The Bride and the Beast (1958) by #AdrianWeiss
Co-written by
#EdwardDWoodJr
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#CharlotteAustin #LanceFuller

A newlywed in Africa reveals, through hypnosis, a previous link to her husband’s pet gorilla.

“Human prey of a giant gorilla on her wedding night!”

“Please Don’t Tell What Happens To The Bride!”

#Horror #EdWood
#NotQuiteClassicCinema
#FridayNightAtTheHomeDriveIn

I would have liked to work at a video store. I mean back when I was a teenager, or young adult. I got my first job (not counting a paper route) when I was 16, and it was in a restaurant. At first, I mainly washed dishes, cleaned tables, and swept and mopped the floors. Eventually, I worked my way up to operating the cash register and cooking. After two or three years I switched restaurants, and continued cooking. It was while I was working at a third restaurant, that I finally hit the wall. I was tired of getting cut and burned and going home smelling like grease and smoke. I was also tired of the abusive behaviour of my bosses. Nowadays, they would call that third restaurant a “toxic work environment” – and it really was.

By chance, that horrible place was right across the parking lot from a Jumbo Video store. I used to rent movies there all the time. It was great because it was open 24 hours. No matter what time of night you had the urge to watch an obscure slasher film, or cheap action movie, you could be sure to find one there. I may have talked about this place before…

Store front of Jumbo Video at night.

 

One day after work, I was waking home past Jumbo Video when I noticed a sign in the window: Help Wanted. It was like a bolt of lightning hit me. I hated my current job. Why not work at a video store? Continue reading

Friday Night At The Home Drive-In: The Killer Shrews (1959)

Poster for The Killer Shrews (1959)The Killer Shrews (1959) by #RayKellogg
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#JamesBest #IngridGoude

A maniacal scientist transforms tiny shrews into giant, man-killing beasts.

“Ravaging beasts feed on human flesh!”

“They had to eat 3 times their body weight each day… OR STARVE!”

#Horror #SciFi
#NotQuiteClassicCinema
#FridayNightAtTheHomeDriveIn

When I was a kid, I watched The Dukes of Hazzard (1979-1985) every Friday night. I suppose it wasn’t far off from being an early version of a  Friday Night at the Home Drive-in. There’s something about that show that feels like each episode in a mini-drive-in movie. The kind about cool cars and moonshine and corrupt Southern sheriffs. I suppose Macon County Line (1974) and Jackson County Jail (1976) might be examples of a sort. In any case, I loved watching the Dukes outwit Boss Hogg and Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane week after week. I thought the two actors who portrayed those lovable villains – Sorrell Booke and James Best – were a brilliant comedy team, like Abbott and Constello or Bert and Ernie (I was a kid, remember). I enjoyed watching their comedic mishaps as much as Bo and Luke’s victories – maybe more. Continue reading

Friday Night At The Home Drive-In: Ghost of Dragstrip Hollow (1959)

Poster for Ghost of Dragstrip Hollow (1959)Ghost of Dragstrip Hollow (1959) by #WilliamJHoleJr
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#JodyFair #RussBender

Hot rods, monsters and rock’n’roll… a gang of greasers hole up in a haunted mansion after getting evicted from their clubhouse.

“The Hot Rod Gang meets the…GHOST of DRAGSTRIP HOLLOW”

#Horror #DragRacing
#NotQuiteClassicCinema
#FridayNightAtTheHomeDriveIn

I’ve always heard (and read) that Ghost of Dragstrip Hollow (1959) isn’t very good, so I avoided watching it for many years. Last week I decided that I should really give it a go, because you just never know…

Well, it turns out that sometimes you DO know.

I suppose it’s not all THAT bad, but it’s definitely not good. Not a lost classic of late 1950s horror cinema. Not even a super fun so-bad-it’s-good movie. Sure, it has a few moments of entertainment value, but not quite enough to make it very memorable. It’s only been a week and I’m already struggling to recall what exactly happened in it. Let me stretch back in my mind and see what stands out tor me… Continue reading

Friday Night At The Home Drive-In: Return of the Fly (1958)

Return of the Fly (1958) by #EdwardBernds
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#VincentPrice #BrettHalsey #DanielleDeMetz

Philippe Delambre, the now-adult son of “The Fly”, does some transportation experimentation of his own.

“The horror is back!”

“Out of the World of Atomic Mutation It Rises
– With the Dread Curse of the Father Upon It!”

#Horror #SciFi
#TheFly
#NotQuiteClassicCinema

I wrote about The Fly (1958) a while back, and I admitted that I was somewhat unsure if I should be calling it #NotQuiteClassicCinema. I know I’ve struggled with that before. I hate for people to think I’m calling a movie “bad” or implying that I don’t like it. Nothing could be further from the case (in most situations). I’m basically paying homage to the old TV show that introduced me to these old monster movies, Not Quite Classic Theatre. Still, many oil the movies I write about would never get confused for actual classics (The Beast of Yucca Flats, anyone?). The Fly (1958), however, would and should. I think I said something like this: Continue reading

Friday Night At The Home Drive-In: The Devil’s Hand (1961)

Poster for The Devil's Hand (1961)The Devil’s Hand (1961) by #WilliamJHoleJr
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#LindaChristian #RobertAlda

Haunted by visions of a beautiful woman, a man is drawn into a Satanic cult.

“The men she loved lived to love no others!”

“Still alive…the ancient cult of voodoo as it is practised today!”

#Horror #Voodoo #DevilWorship
#NotQuiteClassicCinema
#FridayNightAtTheHomeDriveIn

A few weeks ago I wrote about a movie called The Hand (1960). A week before that my topic was Devil’s Partner (1960). If you put those two movies together, you’d come up with The Devil’s Hand (1961). Well, probably not, really, but it’s an intriguing thought. And The Devil’s Hand (1961) did come out one year after the other two… Continue reading

Friday Night At The Home Drive-In: The Snow Creature (1954)

The Snow Creature (1954) by #WLeeWilder
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#PaulLangton #LeslieDenison

An abominable snowman escapes its cage during transit from the Himalayas to the United States, and stalks the streets of L.A.

“Half man! Half monster!!”

“Terrorizes city, abducts women, annihilates men!”

#Horror #SciFi
#NotQuiteClassicCinema
#FridayNightAtTheHomeDriveIn

The Snow Creature (1954) is one of the first movies ever made about the Abominable Snowman (or the Yeti). Unfortunately, it’s not a very good one. I had apparently watched it some years ago, as I had a DVD in my collection. But I had no memory of it even existing, which perhaps says something about how forgettable a movie it is.  Continue reading