.

Stop me if you’ve heard this one:

The flight-crew and passengers of a commercial airliner are stricken with food poisoning, and the only hope of a safe landing lies in the hands of a former fighter pilot who hasn’t flown in ten years, after a traumatic war-time experience…

.

ZERO HOUR! (1957)

.

If spending my life bogged down in a morass of Jaws rip-off killer animal films from 1977 is wrong, then I don’t want to be right.

.

ORCA (1977) (revised)

Dino de Laurentiis’ attempt to outdo Jaws succeeds about as well as his earlier attempt to make us forget about Willis O’Brien’s handiwork. This outrageous exploitationer runs the gamut from the indefensible to the indescribable, piling lunacy on top of lunacy in its tale of a thick-headed Irish fisherman being stalked around the wilds of Newfoundland by a crazed and homicidal orca.

.

.

(In bandwidth news, I have mostly shaken off my harassers; although they still seem to be hitting me occasionally despite me taking down all their targets. I guess it’s still a work in progress.)

.

I may say that I am astonished to learn how many people there are in the world who evidently have nothing else to do but watch Zombi…

Hey, remember that house-keeping I kept going on about??

.

I have now re-formatted and added screenshots to:

The Great Gabbo (1929)

The Mysterious Island (1929)

The Unholy Night (1929)

.

.

.

.

.

It’s an AYCYAS! – Braineater joint!

For this Roundtable, I’ve had the pleasure and the honour of tag-teaming with Will Laughlin, as we tackle two versions of the same hominid film: Ishirō Honda’s long-MIA Jūjin Yuki Otoko (Beast-Human Snowman).

Three years after its Japanese release, the film appeared on American screens in the hardly recognisable form of Kenneth G. Crane’s Half Human; which, sadly, has been almost the only way to see this film at all over the past five decades.

.

Braineater reviews Jūjin Yuki Otoko (1955).

And You Call Yourself A Scientist! reviews Half Human (1958).

.

.

.

.

SNOWBEAST (1977)

A Colorado resort is terrorised by a rampaging (if barely glimpsed) killer hominid, which chooses of all times the days prior to the resort’s 50th Anniversary Winter Carnival to start preying on the guests.

However, the local economy depends upon the carnival, so they can’t possibly close the ski resort…

.

.

.

[By the way, I do still hope to get that housekeeping done...]

.

It’s Foot Notes – all throughout the month of May at the B-Masters’ Blog!

.
.

 

SEVEN FOOTPRINTS TO SATAN (1929)

One of the few surviving films of the Danish director Benjamin Christensen, and the only surviving member of the triumverate of old dark house horror-comedies he made in Hollywood at the end of the 1920s.

A young playboy who dreams of having some excitement and adventure before he settles down gets an object lesson in being careful what he prays for when an emerald inherited by his girlfriend becomes the target of a cult of satanists, and the two of them are whisked away to a cavernous mansion that is the scene of orgies and human sacrifice, and that houses mysterious women, disfigured men, Gollum’s little brother, a witch, a dwarf, a werewolf, a gorilla, and Loretta Young.

Oh. And Satan. Let’s not forget Satan.

.

[I hope to have some house-keeping done over the next few days. Watch this space.]

.

.

.

Details are so far sketchy, but Synapse Films has acquired the US rights to three long-MIA Hammer films, TWINS OF EVIL, VAMPIRE CIRCUS, and my personal fave, HANDS OF THE RIPPER. The company has also snabbled the 13 episode TV show HAMMER HOUSE OF HORROR, which will be issued as a box set. At the moment a September release date looks likely, but there’s no definite word yet. The three feature films may be released in Blu-Ray as well as on DVD, and lots of extras are promised. Stay tuned.

.

.

.

.

.

.

This time I’ve recovered and overhauled one of my earliest reviews, that of AROUND THE WORLD UNDER THE SEA (1966); a film so appallingly sexist that not even a giant killer moray eel can save it.

.

[Warning:  screenshot may make film seem far more entertaining than it actually is.]

.

I’ve also re-formatted and added screenshots to ATLANTIS, THE LOST CONTINENT (1961).

.

.