Horror Flick of the Week: Madhouse (1974)

I'm on a Vincent Price kick lately. It's a bit nostalgia, and a bit surprise when I watch and re-visit and discover his films/shorts. The man really was a multi-faceted individual. Years ago, I even wrote a post about him. After Danny Kaye, Vincent Price is one of my favorite performers and artists of all time. Looking for camp? He's got a catalog. Looking for dark, twisted horror? He's got some of those too. Melodrama? Film Noir? Radio horror or detective schlock? Poetry? Cookbooks? Art critiques? Yep. All of the above. This intro paragraph was just an excuse to talk about how much I love Vincent Price, but I guess I should get to the meat of the post. My featured horror flick of the week, which I feel is an unappreciated but interesting film. It came out towards the later period of his career, and the plot itself is a bit tragic and camp. He had a lot of films in that particular category, but I feel like this one leaned more tragedy than any of the others. Madhouse.

Typically, if you know the vibe of a crazy/revenge plot with Mr. Price (Theatre of Blood, Doctor Phibes, House of Wax, etc.) you know without a shadow of a doubt that the twist is always that Vincent Price is definitely the serial killing maniac. Not so much in Madhouse, and that's part of why I love it. His performance, and the underlying sadness of the whole story. A man committed for the murder of his partner which he may or may not have been responsible for. A mystery. A melodrama. A horror film that actually kept me guessing until the end, and felt like a truly satisfying twilight film of Mr. Price's wonderful career.

If you love Vincent Price, and if you haven't seen Madhouse, please...PLEASE give this one a watch. You will not regret it. (Then give Dragonywyck a shot too, while you're at it. That one rocks too).

Horror Flick of the Week: Dr. Jekyll and Ms. Hyde (1995)

 

Listen - - okay, so you know when I start a sentence with that word, I'm about to give you a long-winded explanation about why I'm right when it's clear you're right. This movie IS bad. It's bad good - - bad good, in the way only an early to mid 90s movie can be. AND yes, it's not really a horror film, but it plays on tropes of a classic horror story. Plus, Tim Daly needs more love, and I must've watched this film 1000 times growing up. This does perhaps go back to the fact that my parents probably should've screened the stuff I rented more thoroughly, but here we are today. I 'm 35, somewhat well-adjusted, and I still love this wonderfully silly and incredibly problematic 'horror' comedy - - what's more, I'm recommending it to you, if you haven't seen it.

If you love old-fashioned shopping montages, Harvey Fierstein (you remember him, Robin Williams's brother in Mrs. Doubtfire), Sean Young at her most beautiful, and pseudo-science disguising itself as aromatic chemistry, give this one shot. Maybe take a shot or two in the process, but this is my pick for the week. It's just fun. (If you want something with the same plot, but more along the lines of legitimate horror, I do highly recommend Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde too.)

Horror Flick of the Week: Vicious Fun (2020)

 

I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that convincing me to try newer films sometimes can be a bit of a chore. I like older movies more, oftentimes, because I don't like to take risks. I don't like to invest 90 minutes or more of my time in a movie I think might potentially disappoint me. I think I'm mature enough to own up to that now. However, recently I really have been trying to approach newer films more openly. I'm not saying I never watched or was willing to watch a new horror film, it was just never at the top of my list.

Vicious Fun was a movie I threw on when trying to browse for a movie on Shudder that myself and others in the room could at least potentially enjoy together. The plot seemed interesting enough. A magazine horror writer accidentally stumbles into a serial killer self-help group? I mean that could be good. Or bad. It's at least original...

It was fantastic. Beginning to end. I loved everyone in this movie, and what's more, I didn't even realize Julian Richings was part of the cast! Every single one of the killers and heroes in this movie chews the scenery until it's raw around the edges, and I finished this flick hoping for a sequel almost immediately. If you get the chance, do not pass on Vicious Fun.

Vintage Magazine: Famous Monsters of Filmland #154 (Cover - Pg. 20)

 Browsing through archive.org, I was looking for a good October cooking magazine. Maybe something from the 1950-70s - - when in doubt, if you find the right recipe cards, any month in that era could be scary. The horrors wrought on this world by Jell-O are too numerous to count. Then I saw this, and I couldn't resist George Hamilton's grin. Love at First Bite is and always will be one of my favorite iterations of Dracula.

2024 October-Thon (...Working Title)

It has been a little over 3 years since I last put finger to keyboard here, and the same goes for tackling the podcast. I've been doing a lot of little things off and on, but it had become harder to find inspiration to write and chat about all things horror. Rather than expand on that and describe what is essentially a lot of personal career drama and stress, I just want to say I'm back. I'm happy if you're an old reader to see you return, and if you're new - - well, this won't feel like a pause at all. Also, my bad for those broken links on some of the Youtube playlists, bruh. (That word sort of started as a joke, and now I can't stop throwing it into conversations. I need help).

To celebrate my return, I've got my Legacy Universal Monster collection on my desk ready to burn away the daylight and nightly hours. I have no specific plans for what or how many posts I'm going to throw out today or this month -- the blog-a-thon is a lot of pressure, and had gotten to a point it was difficult to keep up with last time around. So I'm just going to start writing and posting, see where it takes us. Maybe I'll post several today, maybe I'll be responsible and schedule them out. Who knows? At any rate, I hope you enjoy the ride.

Just to have a picture thrown up, here's an AI rendering I had no part in drawing of Dracula in a rap battle. Honestly, I think the onlookers in the back are the creepier monsters in the photo. (I'd like to reiterate this  is AI, I did not draw it, I'm just in it for the dumb gag).