News

In the fall of 1971, John Lennon and Yoko Ono moved into an apartment on 105 Bank Street in the West Village of Manhattan. It had been two years since Lennon told his Beatles bandmates that he wanted “a divorce,” and the recently married couple craved a fresh start in America away from the oppressive shadow of the group he founded. By this point, Lennon and Ono’s lives were completely intertwined—they were not merely lovers, but also close creative collaborators whose artistry was developing in tandem. Her background in the avant-garde and gallery world intermingled with his experience with pop music and celebrity until their work became inseparable from persona. Together they garnered a more focused political conscience as the Vietnam war continued unabated amidst an increasingly fractured, hostile social environment. They wished to put theory into action, to commit to activist politics, and what better place to do that...

November 10th looks to be an extremely busy day for home media releases, as we have a ton of horror and sci-fi headed home this Tuesday. Two of this writer’s favorite films of 2020 are being released this week—Bill & Ted Face the Music and Spontaneous—and if you’re looking for some classic genre offerings, Scream Factory is keeping busy with a terrifying trifecta of releases: Brides of Dracula: Collector’s Edition, War of the Colossal Beast, and How to Make a Monster.

Giallo fans will want to pick up Cult Epic’s Blu-ray for Death Laid an Egg on Tuesday, and Kino Lorber is showing some love to Play Misty for Me, too. Arrow Video is also doing a few re-releases this week, including American Horror Project: Volume One and The Herschell Gordon Lewis Feast, and if you somehow haven’t had a chance to check it out on Shudder yet,...

Our Halloween episode! The legendary actor and star of Shudder’s The Mortuary Collection talks about his favorite horror movies from his childhood.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

The Mortuary Collection (2020), now streaming on Shudder!

Nightmare Cinema (2019)

We Come In Pieces: The Rebirth of the Horror Anthology Film (2014)

Bad Boys (1983)

Gentle Giant (1967)

Gone In 60 Seconds (1974)

The Green Slime (1969)

Battle Royale (2000)

The Shawshank Redemption (1994)

Tarzan’s Three Challenges (1963)

The Professionals (1966)

Dracula, Prince of Darkness (1966)

Ultraman (1967)

Batman (1966)

The Curse of Frankenstein (1957)

Horror of Dracula (1958)

The Brides of Dracula (1960)

Psycho (1960)

Jack The Ripper (1959)

Dracula A.D. 1972 (1972)

The Satanic Rites of Dracula (1973)

Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1974)

Count Dracula (1977)

Son of Dracula (1943)

Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992)

The Haunting (1963)

The Haunting (1999)

The Others (2001)

The Babysitter Murders (2015)

Halloween (1978)

Frankenstein (1931)

King Kong (1933)

Scanners (1981)

Wisconsin Death Trip (1999)

Bride of Frankenstein (1935)

The Bride (1985)

Young Frankenstein (1974)

The Love Bug (1968)

Son of Frankenstein (1939)

Son of Kong (1933)

The Road Back (1937)

Crimson Peak...

Scream Factory continues to celebrate vintage Hammer horror films with their November 10th release of The Brides of Dracula on a Collector's Edition Blu-ray, and we've been provided with the full list of special features, including a new audio commentary.

We have the official press release with complete details below, and in case you missed it, read Scott Drebit's Drive-In Dust Offs entry on Brides of Dracula!

From the Press Release: This fall, brace yourself for the long-awaited Hammer cult film classic arrives on Blu-ray. On November 10, 2020, Scream Factory is excited to present the highly sought-after classic The Brides Of Dracula Collector’s Edition Blu-ray. Directed by Terence Fisher (The Curse of Frankenstein) and produced by Anthony Hinds (The Phantom of the Opera), this chilling horror classic stars Peter Cushing (Star Wars Episode IV – A New Hope), Freda Jackson (Clash of the Titans), Martita Hunt (Great Expectations), and Yvonne Monlaur...

The cry came forth from a dark corner of my living room as it usually does this time of year, as it does sometimes during other parts of the year too. It was my wife, shrieking from the depths of her soul, articulating a cry of despair and disbelief: “You’re watching this again??!!” As the familiar strains of James Bernard’s magnificent score rose from beneath the blood-red Warner Bros.-Seven Arts insignia and the subsequent and equally scarlet opening credits, my wife didn’t even need to look up from her book to realize what was happening. It was the week before Halloween, and therefore time for my in-the-neighborhood-of-annual dose of Terence Fisher’s masterful, terrifying Hammer classic, Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed (1969), the fifth in a line of gloriously lurid reiterations of the Frankenstein myth, the pinnacle of the series for the studio, and a movie I...

Yvonne Monlaur: Cult horror movie actress & Bond Girl contender was featured in the 1960 British classics 'Circus of Horrors' & 'The Brides of Dracula.' Actress Yvonne Monlaur dead at 77: Best remembered for cult horror classics 'Circus of Horrors' & 'The Brides of Dracula' Actress Yvonne Monlaur, best known for her roles in the 1960 British cult horror classics Circus of Horrors and The Brides of Dracula, died of cardiac arrest on April 18 in the Paris suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine. Monlaur was 77. According to various online sources, she was born Yvonne Thérèse Marie Camille Bédat de Monlaur in the southwestern town of Pau, in France's Pyrénées-Atlantiques department, on Dec. 15, 1939. Her father was poet and librettist Pierre Bédat de Monlaur; her mother was a Russian ballet dancer. The young Yvonne was trained in ballet and while still a teenager became a model for Elle magazine. She was “discovered” by newspaper publisher-turned-director André Hunebelle,...

It’s Hammer Time again! Every once in a while I like to dip back to that golden age, where the revered monsters of yore were dusted off with loving care for a newly appreciative crowd of teenagers at the Drive-In. Building upon the worldwide success of The Curse of Frankenstein (1957), Horror of Dracula (’58), and The Mummy (’59), it was time for another Drac attack. The Brides of Dracula (1960) keeps up the high level horror, as long as you’re okay with a Dracula movie having no Dracula. Looking back on the whole series, Brides stands out (and up) due to this very omission.

Released in the UK in July, with a stateside rollout in September, Brides was another hit for the unstoppable Hammer machine; and why wouldn’t it be? All the staples (by this point, a formula, really) are present: cleavage, gorgeous cinematography, solid performances, and a gloriously elevated Gothic tone.

Yesterday, amid a crush of sweaty people desperate for last-minute props, I visited a local Halloween superstore with my daughter, looking for a Pikachu mask. Well, there wasn’t much to choose from in the Cute Kid Division. But this particular hall of Halloween hell definitely had the adult sensibility covered. Of course there were the usual skimpy or otherwise outrageous costumes for purchase —ladies, you can dress up like a sexy Kim Kardashian-esque vampire out for a night of Hollywood clubbing, and gents, how about impressing all the sexy Kim Kardashian vampires at your party by dressing up like a walking, talking matched set of cock and balls! It’s been a while since I’ve shopped for fake tools of terror, but it seems there’s been a real advance in sophistication in the market for “Leatherface-approved” (I swear) chainsaws with moving parts and authentic revving noises,...

Marc Buxton Oct 17, 2019

Dracula, Frankenstein, The Mummy, The Wolf Man...we're not talking about Universal. These are the best Hammer horror had to offer!

Halloween is here, and if any movie company speaks to that classic Halloween aesthetic, it’s Hammer Films. Back in the day, Hammer Films were the horror movies your parents didn’t want you to watch. With their constant bodice rippings, ample cleavage, vivid crimson blood, and lush atmospheric costumes and sets, Hammer was second only to Universal Pictures when it came to classic monsters and classic scares. Hell, they even briefly got involved in the kung fu craze.

But in addition to their dashingly handsome stars, gorgeous femme fatales, stunning musical scores, and eye popping sets, Hammer was known for its monsters!

So join us this Halloween season as we count down the thirteen greatest Hammer monsters to bite, rend, tear, stalk, pummel, and snarl their way into fans’ nightmares.

The Horror Channel has an Easter treat for fans of Hammer films, as their UK-only Hammer-thon will air March 26th and 27th. Also in this round-up: release details for The Ones Below, a trailer for The Cleansing Hour short film, eight preview pages from Monster World #3, and information on The Last American Horror Show.

UK Horror Channel’s Hammer-Thon: Press Release: “Hammer film fans are in for a treat….Horror Channel is to screen an Easter Hammer-thon with back-to-back Hammer classics.

Some of Hammer’s most popular films, including The Revenge Of Frankenstein, The Devil Rides Out and The Brides Of Dracula will be broadcast across the weekend from 3pm – 10pm on Saturday 26th and Sunday 27th March.

Plus, Horror Channel will be presenting ‘Hammer Thursdays’ from Thurs 7 April for six weeks. This will be a Hammer movie at 9pm followed by a double-bill of Hammer House Of Horror at 10.50pm.

“Y’all take it easy now. This isn’t Dallas, it’s Nashville! They can’t do this to us here in Nashville! Let’s show them what we’re made of. Come on everybody, sing! Somebody, sing!”

Nashville screens one time only Thursday, September 24th at The Tivoli Theater (6350 Delmar Blvd, St. Louis) at 7pm

In a decade of great films, Nashville is one of the greatest. I saw Nashville during its initial theatrical release and have seen it several times since but it has not played on the big screen (at least in St. Louis) in a long time. In 1974 director Robert Altman was directing films for United Artists and wanted them to produce his film Thieves Like Us. They agreed if he would agree to direct a story about country music that they had a script for. He rejected the script and said he would offer them...

The Brides of Dracula

Directed by Terence Fisher

Written by Jimmy Sangster, Peter Bryan & Edward Percy

UK, 1960

After the success of Horror of Dracula (1958), it only made sense to make a sequel. The Brides of Dracula tells the story of a young Marianne who happens to stay the night at a baroness’ castle only to discover her host’s dashing son is locked up in an adjacent wing. Feeling sorry for the Baron Meinster, she releases him from his bonds with no clue that she just unleashed a vampire to wreak havoc on all the ladies of Transylvania. It’s a psycho-sexual scenario peppered with mommy issues that Hitchcock would certainly appreciate – his film Psycho was released the same year as Brides.

David Peel doesn’t have the same animalistic ferocity as Christopher Lee’s Count Dracula, instead he plays Baron Meinster as the Prince Charming-type who is probably slipping...

That a little studio located in the English countryside consistently put out high quality films on a very limited budget is one of the great stories in filmmaking history. Hammer Films was the most successful independent film company ever, producing comedy, drama, mysteries, and war movies before finding their niche in horror. Hammer became a name synonymous with horror, a name that still means something today.

They took their horror stories from English literature set in Europe in the 19th century and their carefully designed and constructed sets created an atmosphere that made the time and place as much a part of the film as the story. After securing remake rights from Universal for their catalog of classics from the 1930s and 1940s, Hammer became the leading producer of horror films. Hammer’s philosophy was straightforward: always be entertaining, have plenty of sex appeal, and lots of violence and blood.

Motion pictures have been in existence for over a century, so it’s quite obvious that there are more than just the ten actors previously mentioned in the last article who have achieved immortality on the strength of one unforgettable film performance. After a bit of extensive research I have managed to find ten more actors who, for various reasons, will always be remembered for their one role. Some of these actors went on to achieve major Hollywood success while others completely disappeared from view leaving their one film as the sole legacy of their work in the industry.

So for the cult movie enthusiasts everywhere, here is another assortment of classic screen villains. I’m glad to say that the following list has not been restricted to those in the horror genre. Villainy exists everywhere in movie land!

10. Carlos Villarias (Dracula, 1930)

As an obligation to the Hispanic community, Universal’s head of foreign production,...

DVD Playhouse—April 2012

By Allen Gardner

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (Warner Bros.) An eleven year-old boy (newcomer Thomas Horn, in an incredible debut) discovers a mysterious key amongst the possessions of his late father (Tom Hanks) who perished in 9/11. Determined to find the lock it matches, the boy embarks on a Picaresque odyssey across New York City. Director Stephen Daldry and screenwriter Eric Roth have fashioned a film both grand and intimate, beautifully-adapted from Jonathan Safran Foer’s novel, thought by most who read it to be unfilmable. Fine support from Jeffrey Wright, Sandra Bullock, John Goodman, Viola Davis and the great Max von Sydow. Also available on Blu-ray disc. Bonuses: Featurettes. Widescreen. Dolby and DTS-hd 5.1 surround.

Battle Royale: The Complete Collection (Anchor Bay) Adapted from Koushun Takami’s polarizing novel (compared by champions and detractors alike as a 21st century version of A Clockwork Orange) and set in a futuristic Japan,...

The documentary, "Strange Fruit: The Beatles' Apple Records", will be available on DVD, April 24, 2012 :

"...in 1968, under a haze of publicity, 'The Beatles' opened their collective door to musicians, writers, artists, film-makers, inventors, designers, freaks and opportunist sharks. But despite a hefty investment, little of substance was forthcoming, except for "Apple Records".

"This is the story of a record label which came to exist under extraordinary circumstances, produced extraordinary records and was operated under extraordinary guidelines..."

"Strange Fruit" offers new interviews with Tony Bramwell, members of 'Badfinger', 'The Iveys', 'Elephant's Memory', Jackie Lomax, 'Brute Force' and David Peel, plus commentator Chris Ingham, author, journalist Mark Paytress and Apple biographer Stefan Granados.

The film also includes Apple music, archive footage of Apple artists, interviews from the vaults, rare images and location films.

Click the images to enlarge and Sneak Peek "Strange Fruit: The Beatles' Apple...

A young teacher on her way to a new job in Transylvania gets stranded at an old castle. There she is persuaded by a young man to help him escape the shackles with which his mother has kept him locked up in for years.

Unknown to her, the man is actually a vampire and a disciple of Count Dracula. Finally freed, he begins to unleash his reign of terror on the local village. That is until Dr. Van Helsing shows up to put an end to the vampire plague once and for all.

When Christopher Lee stated that he wasn’t going to reprise his role as Dracula, Hammer had two options. Either recast the role which could alienate a lot of people and they had to be sure they got the right man in the first place. Or the alternative was to switch the focus of this franchise from...

Horror maestro Tim Sullivan shares with doorQ.com his thoughts on his new Chillerama movie, the I Was A Teenage Werebear short, the Rising Star award for Sean Paul Lockhart (Brent Corrigan) and the best in Queer Fear. -Dqm

With 4th of July fireworks still bursting in the air, how fitting that this week also marks the arrival of Q Fest, Philadelphia’s premiere Lgbt film festival. Having just played San Francisco and Denver to great success, I Was a Teenage Werebear will screen this Friday, July 8th in the City of Freedom.

The response to Teenage Werebear and its playfully subversive message of tolerance and “Room For All” has been quite heartening and encouraging not only for me, but for my Chillerama partners in crime, Adam Green, Joe Lynch and Adam Rifkin. The goal was to make something that particularly spoke to gay audiences, but at the same time...

Titan Books has published Marcus Hearn’s third impressive hardback coffee table book on Hammer Horror and it’s a real dream not just for fans of the great British studio but for connoisseurs of the art of the movie poster. The team which produced “The Hammer Story” and “Hammer Glamor” has now come out with “The Art of Hammer“, a fantastic illustrated collection and history of Hammer film posters. Raquel Welch in her fur bikini against a backdrop of dinosaurs may be the most famous Hammer film poster (at least in the U.S.) but this book showcases over 300 posters from all over the world, all in color, pulled from private collections and the studio’s archives. Hearn has done a fantastic job assembling these sumptuous images. Some get the full-page treatment and some are accompanied by informative notes and trivia (the Danish Brides Of Dracula poster is the...

American Hardcore filmmakers Paul Rachman and Steven Blush have a new project: Lost Rockers, a documentary "about great musicians overlooked by pop culture." From the project's Kickstarter page: Lost Rockers... offers insight into what it takes to “make it,” and why so many of equal talent to famous stars fall through the cracks. The film tells the life stories of these forgotten artists — of different eras, genres, creeds and orientations — from their doomed paths to fame to their ultimate redemption. You’ll experience amazing music you can’t believe you never heard. Lost Rockers has only just begun. We’ve shot our first four interviews (Gloria Jones, Jake Holmes, David Peel and Dr. israel) with many more to come, including famous rock...

When Marianne (Yvonne Monlaur) frees the captive Baron Mienster (David Peel), she unwillingly unleashes all hell…or, just one really bad vampire. One way or the other, village people begin dropping like flies, and the charming Baron Mienster is responsible. Fortunately for our naïve female lead Marianne, the wise Dr. Van Helsing (Peter Cushing) arrives just in the nick of time. After assessing the situation, Van Helsing quickly determines there are vampires to blame for the mysterious deaths; it’s not long after, before the good Doc also realizes the mysterious Baron Mienster is the culprit. After the Baron has recruited a few attractive young ladies to join him in his life of vampirism, Van Helsing cuts all plans short by tracking the Baron down and feeding him a fatal dose of Holy Water.

Cushing is wonderful as the visiting hero Van Helsing, and Yvonne Monlaur is perfectly oblivious in the unsuspecting female lead.