6) Frogs (1972)

"Today, the pond. Tomorrow, the world."

Director
George McCowan

Cast
Sam Elliott - Pickett Smith
Ray Milland - Jason Crockett
Joan Van Ark - Karen Crockett
Adam Roarke - Clint Crocket

(Spoilers ahead)Long before actor Sam Elliott was popping up on internet memes to remind people how dumb their way of thinking is, he was in the movie Frogs.
The absolute best word to describe Frogs is "misleading." The title is "Frogs." There's a frog on the poster with a hand sticking out of its mouth advertising this is a movie about killer frogs. I mean, anyone just seeing that image on the poster, and knowing nothing else, would be absolutely correct to think this movie is about killer frogs.
No frogs in this movie kill anyone. (Spoiler...sorry.) However, a variety of reptiles do. Scenes of "frogs" are littered between other scenes reminding the audience their watching a movie about frogs. There's just one mistake, though. Either the director, George McCowan, didn't know the difference between frogs and toads, or just didn't care enough. Maybe he thought audiences would be too stupid or scared...or stupid...to figure out the difference. To add insult to injury, sounds of croaking frogs are dubbed over in those shots. Like I said - misleading!
George McCowan has worked on some classic television series such as The Mod Squad, The Streets of San Francisco, Fantasy Island, and Hart to Hart. I wish I could go back in time, catch him after the release of Frogs and ask him, "what were you trying to do, George?"
Frogs is another movie among many other deadly nature type movies. Killer sharks. Killer grizzly bears (that's a movie coming up on my blog. Stay tuned for that.) Killer- killer bees. Killer bats. Killer rabbits. Killer trees (sigh, M. Knight Shyamalan.) 
This movie does have a decent cast such as Ray Milland, who won an Academy Award in 1945 for The Lost Weekend and also starred in the Alfred Hitchcock movie Dial 'M' For Murder. He's no stranger to the thriller genre.
Upon its release, it had to be double-billed with Godzilla in Godzilla vs. The Smog Monster just to gain an audience.
Sam Elliott (sans the gorgeous mustache) plays environmental photographer, Pickett Smith.
The beginning of the movie shows Pickett shooting pictures of the wildlife, and the pollution thereof, in a secluded swamp near an island where the mansion of the wealthy Crockett family.
While floating in his canoe with his camera, he gets knocked over by Clint, one of the Crockett family members, who's speeding in his motorboat and chugging beer.
Clint's wife, Karen, feels bad and invites Pickett back to the mansion to dry off, and meet the rest of the family.
There, he meets the wheel chair-bound, cantankerous grandfather, Jason, played by Milland.
The next day is July 4, and Jason's birthday, so he's making sure the festivities are set. Part of the preparations includes Jason sending out someone named Grover to go spray pesticide to get rid of all the frogs that are intruding on the property. However, Grover doesn't come back.
Pickett later discovers his dead body covered in snake bites.
Jason doesn't seem to care enough to cancel the party.
Forty minutes in, and that was our first death scene.
The next is by far the strangest, funniest, and most over-the-top death scene in this flick. Somehow, the phone lines are down. That's as cliche' as it gets. We don't know why they're down. Maybe the frogs cut the lines? It's never explained.
Anyhow, a guest at the house named Michael Martindale goes to check on the phone lines out in the surrounding brush. This is were it gets ridiculous.
He drives out to a telephone pole, turns around and looks at it. It appears to be fine. So, he gets out with a shot gun and starts to walk through the trees and marsh land looking for...I have no idea what.
Then he accidentally shoots himself in the leg, collapses, and can't get back up.
(Oh, it gets better!)
As he's screaming and struggling for help, moss starts falling from the trees and covering him. Yes! Moss is trying to kill him. And on top of that, tarantulas are starting to surround him, and shooting web over his entire body. Now, I understand that this is just a movie. But if we're to believe a man is unable to lift himself up because of a gunshot wound, then make it realistic! This guy, though injured, could have easily gotten back up rather than roll around on the ground screaming as strands and bundles of moss gently cascade down from the trees.

Death by moss!

Still, this is death number two, and frogs were again not involved.
Meanwhile, back at the estate, death number three is about to occur. And though it's not as silly as death-by-moss, it's much more avoidable than that moron's we just saw who brought a shotgun to check on the phone lines.
Jason's sister, Iris, sends her son, Kenneth, to the greenhouse to collect flowers for the July 4 centerpiece. While he's in there looking stupid and confused, lizards start intentionally knocking over jars of chemicals and poisons onto the floor. They shatter and begin letting off fumes in the form of smoke. Rather than leave, or even open doors and windows, Kenneth (I'm not exaggerating) goes over to inspect the visible fumes which waft in his face in there. I mean he stands right over those deadly plumes of gas like a starving student getting in on a bag lunch. The smoke even hides his face. Obviously, this kills him. As he's laying there, lizards (immune from the deadly gasses) start climbing on him. I assume they do this so as to remind the audience that Kenneth didn't really kill himself by sticking his bare face in toxic fumes. Nope! The lizards actually killed him.
After a few more ridiculous death scenes, Jason still wants his party despite the fact that his family members and guests HAVE FRIGGIN' DIED on his property.
People eventually decide to leave despite Jason's anger at the nerve his family would die on his July 4 birthday party extravaganza.
Jason's long time butler and cook, Maybelle and Charles, end up leaving the island, along with Kenneth's fiancé, Bella, and Clint. Clint takes them across the water in a speedboat to a nearby grocery store. As they start walking, a flock of birds suddenly and momentarily appear. The group runs behind the store and...that's it. We have no idea what becomes of them. We do see an open suitcase a little later. That's the only clue we have that, perhaps, someone died. But who knows.
It just gets ridiculous as the last act of the movie plays out. One lady gets stuck in mud and gets killed by a snapping turtle. Yawn.
Karen and Pickett finally decide to leave despite Jason's continuous protests. They take Clint and Jenny's children with them, and they all make it to shore. They find a road where they get picked up by a mom and her son. The mom says they're heading to Jefferson City, noting they haven't seen a single person or car on the road. Meanwhile, her son shows them a toad he captured during summer camp.

We cut back to Jason, all alone in his big house. An army of frogs...er...toads have made their way into the dark room with him. And Jason dies of a heart attack. Just to make sure the movie's namesake makes some remote bit of sense, the toads and whatever else begin climbing and hoping over his dead body as if to indicate they made his heart stop.
All the lights turn out in the mansion. Then, the end. Roll credits!
At the end of the credits, we're treated to an animated image of a frog swallowing a human hand. Why? Is it because the director of this movie completely forgot to film frogs killing people? Who even cares by this point?
I just can't find anything redeemable about this. Ok, I can think of one thing, and that's how unintentionally funny some of the death scenes are. They clearly weren't meant to be funny. But, they were. Otherwise, this flick doesn't even live up to its simple title.
The only thing amphibians actually ruin in this movie is the July 4 cake at the picnic.
The producers had Academy Award winning actor Ray Milland, and that must have worn them out because everything else is sloppy, disappointing, deceitful, and just plain boring.
I wasn't expecting a serious thriller. I was expecting a fun, perhaps over-the-top popcorn movie about killer frogs. I was robbed of even that. What were you thinking, George McCowan?

5) Duel (1971)

"I'd like to report a truck driver who's been endangering my life."

Director
Steven Spielberg

Cast
Dennis Weaver - David Mann
Jacqueline Scott - Mrs. Mann
Eddie Firestone - Café owner


I'm really using the term "obscure" loosely for Steven Spielberg's TV movie, Duel. It's just that I seldom come across someone, even cinema-smart individuals, who haven't heard of this gem of a movie. According to his filmography, this was Spielberg's sixth movie, released after his short film Amblin (surely that title rings a bell). It was also released before Jaws. 
Duel definitely deserves much more attention and recognition. It's sad this movie doesn't seem to reach the pinnacle other Spielberg movies have reached such as E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, Jaws, Jurassic Park etc.  
The two biggest things this film has going for it, other than it being directed by Spielberg and based on a story written by Richard Matheson, is that it's incredibly entertaining and all too real. After that, it's thrilling in the truest meaning of the expression.
Matheson was a prolific horror/thriller writer with titles that have become very well known - I Am Legend, The Legend of Hell House, The Shrinking Man, as well as three short stories that another popular (and personal favorite) made-for-TV movie, Trilogy of Terror, was based on.
The scare lies in the fact that such a scenario could really happen to anyone, and no doubt probably has millions of times.
Dennis Weaver (aka Sam McCloud from the TV series McCloud) plays David Mann, an everyday salesman driving his red Plymouth Valiant across lonely California canyon roads on his way to someplace important for business. When he reaches the Mojave Desert, he passes an old (even by early 1970s standards) beat up Peterbilt tanker truck. The word "flammable" is labeled across the back in large bold letters. The truck ends up passing him on the road, blowing its horn and claiming its dominance over the dusty freeway. This is where it gets good. Not to be out-smarted, Mann is able to pass him up again, and gives him a taste of the road dirt.
Mann, smiling in his road victory, pulls into a gas station. But who should pull in after him? The same truck!

Meanwhile, the gas station attendant tells him he needs a new radiator hose. Mann doesn't have time to wait, and decides to get back on the road without a new hose. Of course, with any movie, any time the word "need" is used in the first act, you know it's important for something later on.
Before he leaves the station, he catches a glimpse of the truck driver's boots.
Back on the road, beads of sweat begin to run on the salesman's forehead as he sees the truck start approaching his tail. It passes his car and blows his horn to antagonize him. Then he purposely slows down, signals for Mann to go ahead and pass, and then swerves to keep the Plymouth behind him. Rather than swallow his pride, and just let the truck go, Mann decides he's going to pass this asshole (pardon my road language) one way or another. And he does by using a gravel turnout next to the freeway.
We don't see the truck driver's reactions at all. However, we do see the truck come right up to Mann's bumper, tailgating him and tapping him hard enough to have Mann nearly lose control of the car. It eventually becomes severe enough were he does lose control, and crashes into a fence by a diner.
We see the truck speed down the road. And a shaken Mann is left to pull himself together. All he can do now is mellow out inside the restaurant.
He orders some food, and decides to use the restroom. When he comes out, he sees the truck parked outside. That means, the unseen driver is there somewhere with him mixed among the line of other truck drivers in their cowboy hats, jeans...and boots, sitting at the lunch counter. He thinks he recognizes the boots, and confronts the wearer.
The events get more and more intense until it all boils down to how far will both drivers allow their rage to take them in their attempts to prove...what? Is it all about the principle of the matter? Either way, this is an entertaining, and captivating movie. Since the bottom line of any movie is fun, this is simply it.
What driver out there hasn't had a run-in with a magnanimous prick while out on the road whether that driver doesn't believe the speed limit is meant for them, or their tailing you because you're not going fast enough to get to the red light. We've all shared the road with these people, wondering where the highway patrol is when you need them.
There's little dialogue in this movie outside of Mann talking to himself as probably every driver on a long road trip does, especially when driving solo.
Above all, the identity of the driver in the truck is anonymous. The audience isn't treated to the displeasure of seeing who's behind the wheel. The anonymity is a touch that makes it much more frightening. 

Normally in films (horror, and otherwise) the audience is given the privilege of being in on what's happening to the protagonist when the protagonist themselves are unaware. We might get an idea of what the monster is going to do. That's not the case here. Like Mann, we know the truck ins't going to leave him alone. We can feel what he's feeling. We only know what he knows. It was the same decision Spielberg made in
The scene in the restaurant has a portion where we can hear Mann's thoughts about what has been going down, and who the driver might be sitting in there with him. And we see him take a close look at everyone's boots. The dialogue there seems awkward to me, but I get it. The process makes complete sense, and those thoughts of his are crucial to the story. Show, don't tell. Since he's alone, he doesn't have anyone to vent to. He's going to talk to himself so he can calm down. I think the scene could play out without having to hear what he's thinking. After dealing with an overly aggressive truck, and crashing into a fence, his body language made his thoughts pretty clear. You can easily imagine what he must be thinking.
In Duel, the sinister looking junked-up rusty truck is the monster, snorting engine and all. Seeing the driver would spoil the fear factor after we just got a look at that truck.
Duel comes down to its suspense, and excitement. That's all it needs, and it pulls it off fantastically. It's a joy ride for sure - entertaining!

Highlights from Crypticon 2018 Horror Convention in St. Joseph, Mo.

 

 

Actress Linda Blair (The Exorcist) takes a   photo with actor Spencer Wilding

4) Bride of the Gorilla (1951)

"White people shouldn't live too long in the jungle. Brings out their bad side, their jealousies and impatience."

Director
Curt Siodmak

Cast
Barbara Payton - Dina VanGelder
Lon Chaney, Jr. - Commissioner Taro
Raymond Burr - Barney Chavez
Tom Conway - Dr. Viet

Who hasn't asked themselves what would happen if a movie stuck horror icon Lon Chaney, Jr., (The Wolfman) and TV's Raymond Burr (Perry Mason himself) in a movie together? If you're a person who's asked themselves that,  the answer is Burr would turn into a gorilla, Chaney wouldn't know what to do about it, and viewers like me would be completely disappointed with all of it.
If you've never asked yourself that, the answer still stands.
That answer can be seen in the 1951 movie Bride of the Gorilla.
Aside from casting two well known actors of Hollywood's golden age, this movie has nothing going for it. Not even the gorilla. (Spoiler warning) We don't see the gorilla... ever... until the very end of the movie. And I mean, the very end! I admit I did doze off for a bit while I watched this so I might have missed a quick gorilla scene, but I'm willing to bet I didn't miss a thing.
Bride of the Gorilla takes place in the South American jungle where rubber plantation owner, Barney Chavez, murders his old employer just so he can be with his gorgeous wife, Dina. I had to Google this plot point because I just couldn't fully grasp the purpose of the murder.
His crime doesn't go unnoticed. An old witch named Al Long, who roams South American jungles, witnesses the murder. She's also mad because her granddaughter (I think she's referring to her granddaughter. That relationship seemed vague to me) is upset Chavez rejected her love. Evidently, Al the witch isn't very reasonable. Rather than report to the police what she witnessed, she has to cast a spell on Chavez that'll turn him into a rampaging gorilla each night. I guess when you're a witch with magical powers, why bother with the police?
Meanwhile, a superstitious police commissioner named Taro (played by Chaney) is investigating the death, along with strange mutilations of animals around the jungle. I can't blame Taro for being superstitious when witches wander around the jungle.
On top of all that, Dina is getting weirded out as Chavez is losing interest in her, and taking a lot more interest in roaming the jungle at night. She finally decides to follow him, and that's when she sees the truth. He turns into a gorilla at night.
This storyline is mixed with a bunch of stalk footage of jungle animals, tons of dialogue, and the rest is left up to the audiences imagination.

The film opens with a shot of a jungle, with Chaney as the narrator telling the audience, "this is jungle." Thanks, Chaney, for trusting the intelligence of the audience. (End sarcasm.) Anyhow, we then see the shattered remains of an abandoned mansion that's barely standing.
The ending is one big hodgepodge of unclarity. It tries to resolve the story, but just fails.
It's worth mentioning this movie supposedly took ten days to shoot.  Also, the name "Barney Chavez" sounds like it should be a side character on the Simpsons.
This flick tries to play up the suspense, but fails because there's no payoff. The main concern among the characters is how they are going to deal with the looming threat of a beast roaming among their part of the jungle. They talk about it too much,
What made me laugh were the scenes with Barbara Peyton firing a gun. She'd hear a noise, and starting firing round after round blondly...I mean, blindly. There's an argument for gun control if there ever was one. She would just start shooting without knowing what made the noise in the first place. And in good ol' 1950s American fashion, no one seemed to care much.
All this movie led up to was disappointment. Raymond Burr looks angry and confused during most of the movie. Lon Chaney, Jr., seems to be the only actor taking the role seriously despite also looking worried and confused. It wouldn't surprise me if he wished he could have been the monster in this film as he would have done a much better performance than Burr, who belongs in an attorney role anyways.

#KeepGunsOutOfBarbaraPaytonsHands

3) Hell Night (1981)

"Pray for day!"

Director
Tom DeSimone

Cast
Linda Blair - Marti
Vincent Van Patten - Seth
Peter Barton - Jeff
Kevin Brophy - Peter
Suki Goodwin - Denise


Hell Night. It's the perfect title. It's the slasher flick anyone would think of when they hear "slasher"; young college kids filled with booze and hormones being hazed by having to spend the night alone in a spooky abandoned house with large beds (wink, wink). This is quintessentially the horror hack and slash flick.
I see a little Friday the 13th in this movie, sprinkled with a few elements from The Shining.
It wouldn't surprise me if this movie helped set some horror stereotypes - useless cops, naïve kids, illicit sex, gore, and the maniac lurking in the shadow that the audience knows is going to kill someone. Just wait for it.
This flick isn't too obscure, but it's obscure enough to make it on this blog. Its biggest claim to fame has to be Linda Blair as its star. She's no stranger to hell and all that goes with it. Blair played the possessed Regan MacNeil in The Exorcist (1973). And she has since received a Razzie Award for worst actress in this movie. Blair certainly was no stranger to bad movies at this time. She previously starred in Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977) - a movie much, much worse than Hell Night. It's a movie that has to be among the top five worst sequels ever made. 
It's safe to say that by 1981, Blair had a lot of hell going for her.
In Hell Night, Blair plays sorority pledge,Marti Gaines who, along with three other Alpha Sigma Rho pledges, takes part in an initiation.
She, along with rich kid Jeff (Peter Barton), gorgeous blonde Denise (Suki Goodwin), and surfer dude Seth (Vincent Van Patten), is prompted to spend the night in a haunted mansion called Garth Manor.
There's an entire caravan of giggling college girls, buff college guys, nerds, and lots of beer taking the new pledges to the house. During this time, Alpha Sigma Rho President, Peter, tells the ever-so-standard tale of how the home's former owner, Raymond Garth, killed his three deformed children and his wife. Garth also ended his own life by hanging. On top of that Shining-esque macabre story, Peter mentions that the youngest of the children, Andrew, was never found. Que the predictability!
So, finally the parade of dorks and other useless people arrive at the house. While the new pledges are settling in, their fellow students are outside rigging up scares and pranks to get them on edge and see how long they'll last.
Little do they know that Seth and Denise hopped into the sack pretty damn quick. And Marti and Jeff are...just getting acquainted. Everyone in the house is aware of the pranks and tricks, so they adjust to it fairly quickly.
All the while, one by one, those outside are getting slaughtered. Heads are getting chopped off. Girls are getting taken. Blood and guts are spilling! And the horror lurks inside as well. Denise gets her head cut off, too. It's hell!
Did I mention, to add to the disorientation going on outside, there's a hedge maze. Where have we seen that before?
We slowly began to see that the murderer is a towering, deformed man.
The pledges inside struggle all they can to get out of the house. And it all comes down to the one 

Linda Blair in Hell Night

pledge that's left.
The ending was suspenseful and played out really well.
Hell Night has its fun moments. It carries out the suspense nicely.
I mean, the audience knows what's going to happen. But when? And how? Let's see it! The intrigue certainly lasts.
It's such the archetypal horror movie. There's just no other way to put it.
One scene (among many) that make it the perfect image of a horror movie is when Seth makes it out of the house, runs to a police station, frantically tells the cops people are getting murdered, and then gets reprimanded by the police as they think he's playing a joke. "As useless as a cop in a horror movie" the old saying goes.
Seth's reaction is fantastic after he leaves the station. He steals a rifle from the police department (quite easily, I'll add), climbs through a window and hi-jacks a car. It's hilarious, though not meant to be.
Hell Night definitely has one thing going for it. It's entertaining, and that's the whole point of a movie like this to begin with.
Being that quintessential 80s horror flick does the trick. It may be predictable. It may be campy at times. But it's exactly the kind of movie to quench that Friday night thirst for a "bad, but good" popcorn movie.
Chuck Russell is the executive producer. He must have learned something during production because he later directed A Nightmare on Elm Street III; The Dream Warriors (1987) - the only best Elm Street sequel hands down!
Blair's rooftop chase in the movie (inspired by Jamie Lee Curtis's chase scene in Terror Train) was a splendid sequence definitely unworthy of the Razzie she won.
And despite its reputation of schlockiness, though still excellent as popcorn entertainment, Hell Night was a career move for Frank Darabont who served as production assistant. Darabont later directed The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile, and The Mist - all based on Stephen King stories.
He was also the executive producer for The Walking Dead season 1 and some of season 2. Oh, and like Chuck Russell, he worked on A Nightmare on Elm Street 3 - Darabont was a screen writer. I could go further into that, but I don't want to digress.

Hell Night needs resurfacing as its been buried deep in the recesses of pop culture.

2) The Wasp Woman (1959)

"Janice Starlin Enterprises is going to bring the most fantastically saleable product ever developed by modern cosmetics to the public."

Director
Roger Corman

Cast
Susan Cabot - Janice Starlin
Fred Eisley - Bill Lane
Michael Mark - Eric Zinthrop
Frank Gerstle - Les Hellman


As far as obscurities go, this flick isn't too obscure. It's a film by the legendary Roger Corman. I've wanted to check it out for a long time. I knew the poster image was deceiving. SPOILER: There is no wasp with the head of a woman in this movie. Quite the disappointing opposite, really. Nevertheless, The Wasp Woman may be well known among horror fans, and not so much among general movie audiences. Film critic Leonard Maltin gave it two and a half out of four stars, so it's half-bad...but not half bad.

The year The Wasp Woman was released, the horror genre was in its silver age. Hollywood was getting passed monsters like Dracula, and Frankenstein's monster, and the Wolfman. It was time for aliens, mutated fluke-of-nature type creatures (like the one from the Black Lagoon), and other science fiction monstrosities. America was on the cusp of the atomic age, and mutations and such were the perfect fear for audiences to overcome of that time.

A whole new line of monsters like Godzilla (from Toho in Japan), and the Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, and the Blob were next in line to scare audiences.

Movies like Them (A monster movie), Earth vs. The Flying Saucers  and The Day the Earth Stood Still (alien movies), and Forbidden Planet (a SciFi flick) were the on-screen attractions at the cinema. No doubt The Wasp Woman just buzzed her precious little self into the hearts of Americans, coughed up a nest, and laid her eggs of nostalgia to sting us...where...she...I don't know where I'm going with this?

She's really more of a female version of the fly. In this movie, Dr. Eric Zinthrop, who has been experimenting with wasps at a honey farm, gets fired from his position. I guess if you can't get wasps to make honey, you serve no purpose at a honey farm. One thing he was able to accomplish was extracting enzymes from the wasp queen's "royal jelly." This royal jelly somehow reverses the aging process.

Meanwhile, over in New York City, Janice Starling, who owns a huge cosmetics company, is seeing her sales decline because her customer base doesn't like the fact she's getting old.

Zinthrop takes his findings to Starling, and she agrees to fund his research so he can carry on with it, and potentially use it to her advantage. So, he has to agree to allow her to be his human subject. What could go wrong?

He agrees, of course. And after a short while, Starling isn't happy how slow the results of the reverse aging process are going. So, she steals his formula, and gives herself a little more than his boring ol' recommended dosage.

The results are amazing...for a while. Little does Starling know that Zinthrop's test subjects are growing violent. When he goes to tell her, he's in a car accident, and winds up at the hospital.

No one at the company knows he's there, and Starling and others at the cosmetics company assume he's missing.

Luckily, they find him and Starling takes over his care. All the while, she's still secretly injecting

herself with extra formula, and maintaining her gorgeous, young look.

Then, as formulas often do, it makes her change into a hideous, angry wasp creature every so often. When this happens, she ends up attacking someone, ultimately killing them.

I have to say, for a movie with tropes that are considered cliche' by today's standers (serums turning people into mutations that kill people) it does have a good story line, and I was intrigued to see where the story was going.

Sure, by today's standards, the effects are laughable, but Roger Corman (often referred to as the "Pope of Pop Cinema") is an American classic. Many, if not all, of his films are the stuff of drive-ins. His movies really focus in on the story, and this is no exception.

I was drawn in from the moment a hive of bees came on the screen while the credits rolled. If there's one thing I'm personally afraid of, it's hornets and wasps, and the idea of getting caught in a wasps nest, and potentially being swarmed. Being squeamish and fearful is the whole point of a movie such as The Wasp Woman.

The actors really seemed to put in great effort in their roles. Susan Cabot for instance has Starling look more and more worried throughout the movie, yet trying to maintain her composure, as she realizes what the formula is doing to her. She's invested in getting sales up, and maintain her youthful appearance despite the horrific knowledge of what the formula is doing to her. The turmoil gradually builds, and you can see it in the character's face and body language. Cabot was fantastic in pulling it off.

This is more of a SciFi movie with guys in lab coats performing experiments, but there is a real element of horror in this, too. It has some blood and such it. And sex appeal! I mean bees, stinging, royal jelly, honey. The euphemisms are there! Oh, 1950s...you weren't really that innocent.

One thing I like is that once she turns into the wasp, there's no hiding it, or any sort of slow reveal. She becomes a wasp, and not only do we see her in all were gross appearance, but we get her coming straight towards the camera.

Slow reveals can certainly help build the suspense and keep an audience scared. Had it been done like that in this movie, it would have really dragged the movie on. The audience already had several minutes of psuedo-scientific terminology. Let's get to the mutated woman!

Despite its being dated, this movie has a solid foundation which I'm willing to bet horror movies that came afterwards had pulled from. If not from this movie, then most definitely from Roger Corman's style of movie making.

Thanks to this movie, I'm quitting royal jelly for good.

1) Horror of the Zombies (1974)

"Two boats of beauties on the Atlantic in a motor cruiser just as snug as a bug in a rug."

Director

Amando de Ossorio

Cast

Maria Perschy - Lillian
Jack Taylor - Howard Tucker
Bárbara Rey - Noemi
Carlos Lemos - Professor Grüber
Manuel de Blas - Sergio
Blanca Estrada - Kathy
Margarita Merino - Lorena Kay

It took me a long time to figure out a viewing plan for this blog. Particularly, I was stuck on what movie should I start with? I wrote out a list of movies to review hoping one would pop out at me. Plus, I came up with all kinds of guidelines for this blog. I don't know why I've done that because chances are I won't follow them. Still, it gives me something to do,
Anyways, after picking several movies from my collection, then putting them back, I decided to just close my eyes and point to something on the DVD shelf.
My finger worked its magic (in a clean way, I mean) and selected a collection of 12-movie "creature features" I purchased from a discount bin about four or five years ago. I have every intention of watching all of them. So, creating a blog to celebrate and show some appreciation to the obscure movies of the horror genre is a creative way to get my $4.99 worth which is what I paid for the set.
And out of these 12, what better title to sit through and endure than "Horror of the Zombies." It's horror...with zombies. That is, the horror is of them! That's a suitable start for a blog of obscure horror.
This movie's original title, by the way, is "El Buque Maldito" which is Spanish for "The Ghost Ship."
The film stars Spanish film actress Bárbara Rey, who's always gorgeous when she's slowly running from crunchy, deceased excommunicated Knights Templar zombies on a 16th Century ship.
For anyone that can't recall who Bárbara Rey is, she's from that delightful film "La Chica Del Molino Rojo" (1973) and the always fit-for-family viewing, "Triangle of Lust" (1978). I haven't seen either one, nor will I. 
In this movie, she plays Noemi [sic]. And if she's not enough beauty for your viewing pleasure, this film also casts Maria Perschy as Lillian, and Jack Taylor as Howard Tucker. 

Noemi, a model, is worried about her roommate, Kathy (Blanca Estrada. Yikes! I failed to mention Blanca Estrada is in this hot mess, too) who's missing. 

Rather than go to the police as any reasonable model would do, she tells her employer Lillian. But, after not first going to the police, she eventually decides to go to the police.

Meanwhile, Lillian tells her that Kathy is "snug as a bug" on a boat somewhere out on the Atlantic. There was no euphemism intended in that phrase, by the way. 

She's doing some kind of publicity stunt out there...at night...with another model...on a boat...snuggly.
While they're out there floating, they spot a ghost ship which turns out to be an old galleon with mist, and creepiness, and the friggin' living-dead corpses of Satan's knights. 

These knights used to be Templars, but Satan can be a real douche canoe when he wants to be and make dead people evil.
These dead knights of the devil are dusty and slow. This is a real change of pace from the opening scene where we see women modeling swimwear - a lesson in just how fast it takes for product placement to become dated.
Of course the models can't make any radio contact for help. So, they decide to board the 16th century ship. 

Meanwhile, the businessman who sent the models out there, Howard Tucker, decides to start his own rescue party. He takes another model with him (for fun, I guess) as well as his secretary and an over-the-top scholar.
Little do they know the two models have been killed. Their deaths are laughable. Watching them scream and walk - literally walk - for safety is pretty hilarious. They just can't seem to escape the clutches of slow moving corpses. Satan may be evil, but he doesn't care much about speed and agility. In this case, why should he? The women on board this ship have no where to go.
Later, the girl who came with Howard is also taken by the knights, dismembered, and eaten. All the rest of them are in some kind of trance or sleep probably for budgetary convenience, I guess.
The producers definitely tried to make this a sexy horror film. But there's really nothing memorable about it. I get the feeling someone had access to a ship, and decided, "Hey, let's shoot a movie on this thing. That would make for a fun weekend!"

A lot of effort went into the scenery and look of the zombies. With people in costumes, the aged look of the skeletal remains is rather well done.
It's good for a Friday night movie, but it's as predictable as the tide and the moon. Or as predictable as a bunch of evil zombie knights coming at you, arms extended, knowing you could run quickly to safety, but why bother?
The scenes and camera work show effort in this project, but much of the acting is bland. Still, that may be a bit of an unfair assessment as the version I watched was dubbed over in English.
One thing I didn't know going into this movie was that it's the third film in director Amando de Ossario's "Blind Dead" series. In fact, this is a sequel to a film called "Return of the Blind Dead" from 1973, and another movie called "Night of the Seagulls" from 1975.

The fun factor is mild. The effort is most apparent in the scenery. 

"Horror of the Zombies" has the pace of a ship out on a windless sea so it may test the patience and attention span of audiences. It's certainly not without its absurdities. But it manages to be eerie with its dream-like atmosphere which will surely appeal to a lot of viewers. It's a treasured oddity of Spanish gothic horror that's still lingering out there like a fog out on the water.