Tag Archives: horror

20 Million Miles to Earth (1957) – Friday Night At The Home Drive-In

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Poster for 20 Million Miles to Earth (1957)20 Million Miles to Earth (1957) by #NathanJuran
w/#WilliamHopper #JoanTaylor
VFX by #RayHarryhausen

“A Satellite Soared Into Space – And Returned With a Cargo of Terror!”

“Space-Monster Runs Amok on Earth!”

“Thousands Flee in Terror Before the Death-Dealing Monster from Outer Space!”

#Horror #SciFi
#NotQuiteClassicCinema
#FridayNightAtTheHomeDriveIn

20 Million Miles to Earth (1957) is a movie I’ve known about for a long time. I’ve read about in books, seen mention of it in articles, perhaps even heard people talk about it from time to time. But until a week and two days ago, I had never actually seen it. A week and two days? What the…? Don’t I usually write about my experiences at the home drive-in exactly one week later?  Continue reading →

Cosmic Monsters (1958) – Friday Night At The Home Drive-In

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Poster for Cosmic Monsters (1958)The Strange World of Planet X /
Cosmic Monsters (1958) by #GilbertGunn
w/#ForrestTucker #GabyAndré

A friendly visitor from outer space warns against conducting experiments with the Earth’s magnetic field, that could mutate insects into giant monsters.

“Shock by incredible shock this ravaging death overruns the earth…menacing mankind with overwhelming chaos!”

#Horror #SciFi
#NotQuiteClassicCinema
#FridayNightAtTheHomeDriveIn

What can I say about Cosmic Monsters (1958) AKA The Strange World of Planet X? I had never heard of it before last week, and probably for good reason. It strikes me as an attempt to recapture the magic of The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) Both movies have (basically) the same premise: an alien comes to Earth to warn us to stop doing something stupid that will lead to our destruction. However, The Day the Earth Stood Still is a stone cold classic directed by Robert Wise, who made fan favourites like The Haunting (1963), Born to Kill (1947) and The Body Snatcher (1945).

Cosmic Monsters, on the other hand, is a mostly forgettable film directed by Gilbert Gunn, who also made, uh… Tyneside Story (1943)… Girls at Sea (1958)… and What a Whopper (1961)..?  Hmmm… not even another SciFi Horror film, I don’t think. Continue reading →

Friday Night At The Home Drive-In: The Magnetic Monster (1953)

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Poster for The Magnetic Monster (1953)The Magnetic Monster (1953) by #CurtSiodmak
w/#RichardCarlson #KingDonovan #JeanByron

A new radioactive element begins to absorb all of the Earth’s energy.

“The astounding story of the “thing” that came alive!”

“It’s hungry! It has to be fed constantly – or it will reach out its magnetic arm and grab at anything within its reach and kill it. It’s monstrous, Stewart, monstrous. It grows bigger and bigger!”

#Horror #SciFi #NotQuiteClassicCinema
#FridayNightAtTheHomeDriveIn

The Magnetic Monster (1953) is the first movie in a trilogy produced by Ivan Tors; the so called “Office of Scientific Investigation” (OSI) trilogy. The other two films in the series are Riders to the Stars (1954) – which I’ve never heard of – and Gog (1954), which I have in my collection (my 3D blu-ray collection!). Continue reading →

Friday Night At The Home Drive-In: The Monster of Piedras Blancas (1959)

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Poster art for The Monster of Piedras Blancas (1959The Monster of Piedras Blancas (1959) by #IrvinBerwick
w/#LesTremayne #ForrestLewis #JeanneCarmen

A doctor, a sheriff and a biologist pursue a creature hanging around a lighthouse.

“The fiend that walks Lovers’ Beach!”

“HE PREYS ON HUMAN FLESH!”

#Horror #SciFi
#NotQuiteClassicCinema
#FridayNightAtTheHomeDriveIn

It’s pretty obvious that The Monster of Piedras Blancas (1959) was influenced by Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954), which I saw on TV when I was quite young. I also had a friend who was obsessed with it, and had a book filled with with pictures from the movie. I knew another guy who, I think, had built of model of The Creature, or Gill-man. I may have even had a picture from that movie in a Famous Monsters magazine. In other words, Creature from the Black Lagoon was a super famous and popular movie. The Monster of Piedras Blancas, however, I had never heard of… Continue reading →

Friday The 13th At The Home Drive-In: Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan (1989)

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Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan (1989) by #RobHedden
w/ #TiffanyPaulsen #KaneHodder

Jason Voorhees stalks a ship full of high school grads heading to New York City.

“The Big Apple’s in BIG trouble!”
“The city that has seen it all ain’t seen nothing yet!.”

#Horror #Slasher #FridayThe13th
#FridayNightAtTheHomeDriveIn
#FridayThe13thAtTheHomeDriveIn

I remember Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan (1989) hitting the big screen. I was working part time in a restaurant, and one of the other cooks went to see it. He told me it was so bad it was hilarious. I didn’t know if that was a compliment or an insult – but I didn’t really care, because I had more or less stopped watching after Friday the 13th Part 5: A New Beginning (1985). I hated that movie when it first came out. And I wasn’t too fond of the idea that Jason had returned in Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives (1986), either. I loved Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (1984) and thought ti was a perfect ending for the series… I’ve probably already said this in my other Friday the 13th posts, so I’ll cut this short. I grew to love ALL of the Friday the 13th movies – some for different reasons than others. And Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan is no exception… Continue reading →

Friday Night At The Home Drive-In: Monster from Green Hell (1957)

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Poster for Monster from Green Hell (1957)Monster from Green Hell (1957) by #KennethGCrane

w/#JimDavis #RobertGriffin #JoelFluellen

“The mammoth monster that terrified the Earth! Too awesome to describe! Too terrifying to escape! Too powerful to stop!”

“Atomic mutations with an appetite for flesh!”

#Horror #SciFi
#NotQuiteClassicCinema
#FridayNightAtTheHomeDriveIn

A lot of the running time of Monster from Green Hell (1957) is taken up by stock footage and scenes taken from Stanley and Livingstone (1939). Even so, Monster from Green Hell is a wonder, and a delight, and a must-see for fans of #NotQuiteClassicCinema – but perhaps I’m getting ahead of myself… Continue reading →

Friday Night At The Home Drive-In: Kronos (1957)

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Poster for Kronos (1957)Kronos (1957) by #KurtNeumann
w/#JeffMorrow #BarbaraLawrence

An alien robot ravages the countryside intent on absorbing Earth’s energy.

“PLANET ROBBER TRAMPLES EARTH…STEALING ENERGY FOR OTHER WORLDS!”

“The Most Incredible MONSTER of All Time!”

#Horror #SciFi
#NotQuiteClassicCinema
#FridayNightAtTheHomeDriveIn

I saw Kronos (1957) on late night TV when I was young – and it’s tempting to believe it was on my favourite weekly showcase of old black and white monster movies, Not Quite Classic Theatre. But by the time I stumbled onto Kronos, Not Quite Classic Theatre had already gone to that great TV show graveyard in the sky… or, rather, off the air. One of my local TV stations decided to try their hand at a similar format, and I believe they called it The Killer B. I don’t think The KIller B lasted more than a few weeks, which is too bad because with Not Quite Classic Theatre gone, I really could have used something to take its place.   Continue reading →

Friday Night At The Home Drive-In: Terror in the Haunted House (1958)

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Poster for Terror in the Haunted House (1958)Terror in the Haunted House /
My World Dies Screaming (1958) by #HaroldDaniels
w/#GeraldMohr #CathyODonnell

A newlywed is terrified when her husband brings her to live in the old house she’s been seeing in her nightmares.

“The first motion picture in… Psycho-Rama! The fourth dimension! Subliminal communication!”

#Horror
#NotQuiteClassicCinema
#FridayNightAtTheHomeDriveIn

I was excited to see Terror in the Haunted House (1958) last week because it appeared to be a haunted house movie which I had never seen before. I noticed that it was also known as My World Dies Screaming (1958), but I didn’t think anything of that (other than that it was kind of a cool sounding alternate title). When the movie began, I was immediately in haunted house heaven as a woman’s voice started speaking overtop of black and white images of an old mansion in the country: Continue reading →

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

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Poster for Terror from the Year 5000 (1958)Terror from the Year 5000 (1958) by #RobertJGurneyJr
w/#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)

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Poster for The Brain Eaters (1958)The Brain Eaters (1958) by #BrunoVeSota
w/#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 →