A Star is Born, The Sisters Brothers, 2018 Horrorfest, Major School book event, and presentation at Books of Wonder on Monday Morning Diary (October 8)

The Four Skulls of Jonathan Drake (E. L. Cahn… 1959) supernatural/thriller

A low budget chiller from an era in American Horror largely forgotten, this one displays many of the charms nonetheless. One is the total commitment to the story, however potentially ludicrous it appears on paper. Here we have the story of an exploration company that, while securing resources and new land centuries ago in a remote part of the world massacred the entire tribe in the area save one witch doctor who was able to escape. He then put a hex on every male family member of the Drake name, ensuring that they’d all be eventually visited by a descendent of the tribe, murderer, and then have their head lopped off, their skull extracted, and their head made into a shrunken head trophy. It’s happened to the three generations of Drakes, and when the fourth, and last, is targeted and nearly killed, the local authorities get involved even though they all remain thoroughly skeptical about the supernatural events clearly in the case. 

Tales from the Darkside: The Movie (J. Harrison… 1990) anthology horror

A film that has often been called Creepshow 3 due to its involvement of George A. Romero and Stephen King and being episodic Horror, it goes a long way in explaining what this one is like. I’d never seen it, in fact I don’t even recall ever reading much about it either, so I was happy to learn of it and be able to screen it with real ease via amazon prime. Of course the films framing device—an affluent suburban wife played by Deborah Harry plans to cook the local paperboy she’s kidnapped for her nights dinner party only to be distracted by the three ‘stories’ he tells her—explains what you’re in store for as well; an eccentric, mostly funny mix of special effects laden horror of its time. 

The three stories are all successful to various degrees, especially for pure entertainment factor. The first might be the straightaway best, but produced the fewest laughs. In Lot 249 a graduate student (a young, dweebish Steve Buscemi) buys and sells antique artifacts to supplement his poor college existence at a school filled with rich students (amongst them are Christian Slater and a young Julianne Moore!). His most recent buy, a wooden crate labeled ‘Lot 249’ contains an ancient mummy whom he immediately reanimates to do his bidding and exact revenge on a few fellow students who conspired to rob him of an esteemed fellowship. A few gory deaths result, and the costumed mummy lumbers about humorously. The second one, Cat from Hell, was a George A. Romero adaptation of a Stephen King short story of the same name. The story is thin, but thankfully it only needs to stretch about 25 minutes, a feat which it does hilariously—a wealthy old curmudgeon (Uncle Lewis from Christmas Vacation) hires an assassin (the New York Dolls David Johansen, lol) to kill a black cat that he feels has demonic powers (it being a spirit of the thousands of cats he used in lab tests at his drug company). The sum for the kill, $100,000, seems great and killing a cat can’t be hard, but after being thoroughly thwarted, the cat actually climbs into the assassins mouth and down into his bowels, to then exit the next morning, killing all involved. Finally is Lover’s Vow, a symbolic Japanese Kwaidan like story where a struggling artist witnesses a monster massacre a bar owner, but, to keep his life must vow to never speak of it again. Later that night be meets the love of his life, who brings him security and stability and thus eventual artistic success. They marry and have kids, but on their 10th anniversary he feels he must no longer keep any secrets from his family. Upon telling them of the first night together, they all turn into versions of this beast, and massacre him.  

Fans of the Creepshow films will definitely want to seek this one out, though I’d be shocked if they hadn’t already. While it won’t make anyone forget the classic omnibus films of the 60s (Hammer and Amicus specifically) this was a really fun time and a welcome diversion to the list.