Happy Hallowe’en :: The Most Terrifying Screen Experience of Your Life! (October, 1970)

 

 
Burn, Witch, Burn (1962) Independent Artists :: American International Pictures / EP: Leslie Parkyn, Julian Wintle / P: Samuel Z. Arkoff, Albert Fennell / D: Sidney Hayers / W: Charles Beaumont, Richard Matheson, Fritz Leiber Jr. (novel) / C: Reginald H. Wyer / E: Ralph Sheldon / M: William Alwyn / S: Peter Wyngarde, Janet Blair, Margaret Johnston, Anthony Nicholls, Colin Gordon

Pyro… The Thing Without a Face (1964) Sidney W. Pink Productions :: American International Pictures / P: Richard C. Meyer, Sidney W. Pink / D: Julio Coll / W: Sidney W. Pink, Luis de los Arcos / C: Manuel Berenguer / E: Margarita de Ochoa / M: José Solá / S: Barry Sullivan, Martha Hyer, Sherry Moreland, Luis Prendes, Fernando Hilbeck

The Big Screams are on the Big Screen! (August, 1958)

 

 

 

Other Points of Interest:

Full review of Fiend Without a Face at the Brewery.

Poster campaign for Fiend Without a Face at the Archive.

The Haunted Strangler (1958) Amalgamated Productions :: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) / EP: Richard Gordon, Charles F. Vetter / P: John Croydon / D: Robert Day / W: John Croydon, Jan Read (story) / C: Lionel Banes / E: Peter Mayhew / M: Buxton Orr / S: Boris Karloff, Anthony Dawson, Jean Kent, Elizabeth Allan, Vera Day

Fiend Without a Face (1958) Producers Associates :: Amalgamated Productions :: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) / EP: Richard Gordon, Charles F. Vetter / P: John Croydon, Ronald Kinnoch / D: Arthur Crabtree / W: Herbert J. Leder, Amelia Reynolds Long (story) / C: Lionel Banes / E: Richard Q. McNaughton / M: Buxton Orr / S: Marshall Thompson, Kim Parker, Terry Kilburn, Kynaston Reeves, Stanley Maxted, Terry Kilburn, James Dyrenforth, Robert MacKenzie, Peter Madden

For the Love of Science-Fiction :: He’ll Freeze You to Your Seat! Do You Dare See It Alone? (January, 1958)

 

 

 

 

This post is part of the For the Love of Film: The Film Preservation Blogathon hosted by Ferdy on Films, This Island Rod, and Wonders in the Dark. This year’s theme is science-fiction, and we’ll be leaning hard toward the “mad science” portion of the genre, here’s an exception. Hope you enjoy, and please click on the link above and donate to help restore the silent film, Cupid in Quarantine. The goal is to raise $10,000. Give what you can, won’t you? Thank you!

The Abominable Snowman of the Himalayas (1957) Hammer Films / EP: Michael Carreras / P: Aubrey Baring / AP: Anthony Nelson Keys / D: Val Guest / W: Nigel Kneale / C: Arthur Grant / E: Bill Lenny / M: Humphrey Searle / S: Forrest Tucker, Peter Cushing, Maureen Connell, Richard Wattis, Wolfe Morris

The Ghost Diver (1957) Regal Pictures / EP: E.J. Baumgarten / P: Richard Einfeld / AP: Ralph Slosser/ D: Richard Einfeld / W: Richard Einfeld, Merrill White / C: John Nickolaus Jr. / E: Merrill G. White / M: Paul Sawtell, Bert Shefter/ S: James Craig, Audrey Totter, Lowell Brown, Pira Louis, Nico Minardos

Without It, You are Just Another Mortal. With It, You Enter a Weird New World of Delicious Terrors… (November, 1961)

 

 

 

 
The Mask (1961) Beaver-Champion Attractions :: Taylor Roffman Productions :: Warner Bros. / P: Julian Roffman, Nat Taylor / AP: Sandy Haver, Frank Taubes, Yvonne Taylor / D: Julian Roffman / W: Frank Taubes, Sandy Haver, Franklin Delessert, Slavko Vorkapich / C: Herbert S. Alpert / E: Stephen Timar / M: Louis Applebaum / S: Paul Stevens, Claudette Nevins, Bill Walker, Anne Collings, Martin Lavut

Blast of Silence (1961) Magla Productions :: Universal Pictures / P: Merrill S. Brody / D: Allen Baron / W: Allen Baron, Waldo Salt / C: Merrill S. Brody / E: Merrill S. Brody, Peggy Lawson / M: Meyer Kupferman / S: Molly McCarthy, Allen Baron, Larry Tucker, Peter Clune, Lionel Stander

Multiplex Mash-Up :: Evil Does Not Die, It Waits to Be Reborn! (June, 1978)

 

 

 

 

 
And now, Boils and Ghouls, I give you William Girdler’s completely demented The Manitou, whose plot of an ancient Indian shaman being reborn from a tumorous growth on the back of Susan Strasberg’s neck — that’s more malignant than benign, and the fruitless efforts of her boyfriend, in the form of Tony Curtis, and a modern medicine man, in the from of Michael Ansara, to stop him until the patient manages to channel the inner-spirits of technology to send the massacring midget-man back to hell in a laser-disco light-show finale for the ages will definitely leave you boggling. For more on Girdler, The Manitou, and the rest of his catalog, I strongly suggest you check out this wonderful tribute site.

The Manitou (1978) Mid-America Pictures :: Simon Productions :: Manitou Productions Ltd. :: AVCO Embassy / EP: Melvin G. Gordy, David Sheldon, Melvin Simon, Herman Weist / P: William Girdler / AP: Jon Cedar, Scott M. Siegler, Gilles de Turenne / D: William Girdler / W: William Girdler, Jon Cedar, Thomas Pope, Graham Masterton (novel) / C: Michel Hugo / E: Bub Asman / M: Lalo Schifrin S: Tony Curtis, Susan Strasberg, Michael Ansara, Stella Stevens, Burgess Meredith

Stalk ‘n’ SlashCinema :: If You Don’t Wake Up Screaming You Won’t Wake Up at All! (March, 1985)

 

 

 

 

 
“It was a series of articles in the LA Times; three small articles about men from South East Asia, who were from immigrant families and had died in the middle of nightmares — and the paper never correlated them, never said, ‘Hey, we’ve had another story like this.'”

                                                                  — Wes Craven

 
Those newspaper articles in question were about Cambodian refugees, who had fled from Pol Pot’s bloody and devastating Khmer Rouge, which makes for an oddly fitting double-feature in these ads with A Nightmare on Elm Street being paired with Roland Joffé’s The Killing Fields. According to the stories, several men refused to sleep, citing overwhelming nightmares — and when they finally did, they apparently died in their sleep; the victims of acute heart failure. That’s right: they were literally scared to death by their dreams. Dubbed Asian Death Syndrome, this sudden, unexplained, and lethal phenomena were also attributed to a combination of Post-Traumatic Stress and a genetic disorder known as Brugada Syndrome, the leading cause of SUDS, kinda the adult version of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). Combine that notion with a haunting pop song by Gary Wright and an old high school bully named Fred Krueger, and, well, here ya go.
 

 
A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) Smart Egg Pictures :: Media Home Entertainment :: New Line Cinema / EP: Stanley Dudelson, Joseph Wolf / P: Robert Shaye, Sara Risher / AP: John H. Burrows / D: Wes Craven / W: Wes Craven / C: Jacques Haitkin / E: Pat McMahon, Rick Shaine / M: Charles Bernstein / S: Heather Langenkamp, Johnny Depp, John Saxon, Ronee Blakley, Amanda Wyss, Robert Englund

Stalk ‘n’ SlashCinema :: Friday the 13th Only! (October, 1981)

 

 
Currently efforting to get the new proprietors of the refurbished Grand Theatre to restart this old tradition of a midnight horrorthon whenever a Friday the 13th rolls around.
 

The William Castle Blogathon :: Kiss-Hungry Girl Ghosts Looking for Live Lover in a Haunted House of Mayhem — At No Extra Cost! (June, 1968)

 

 

 

Other Points of Interest:

Full film review of The Spirit is Willing at the Brewery.

Poster campaign for The Spirit is Willing at the Archive.

 
The Spirit is Willing was my personal introduction to the kookie and ghoulish world of William Castle, seen many, many moons ago at the old Rivoli theater during some weekend matinee re-release in the early 1970’s. Before finally seeing it again, all I really remembered about it was a family moving into a haunted house, where a love-triangle-entangled trio of ghosts still lurk and cause all kinds of mischief; but the strongest and most impressionable image to four or five year old me was a slow-motion meat-cleaver massacre that explains the reason for the ghosts — and probably goes a long, long way in explaining my slightly bent taste in film. And for that, Mr. Castle, I am eternally grateful to you for properly corrupting my childhood.
 

 
This post is part of Goregirl’s Dungeon and The Last Drive-In’s The William Castle Blogathan, a week long tribute to the King of Schlock. Follow the linkage, Boils & Ghouls. It’s gonna be a great week. And stick around, as we’ll be showcasing Castle’s film career from its fairly normal beginnings through it psychotronic glory days. Stay tuned!

The Spirit is Willing (1967) William Castle Productions :: Paramount Pictures / P: William Castle / AP: Dona Holloway / D: William Castle / W: Ben Starr, Nathaniel Benchley (Novel) / C: Harold E. Stine / E: Edwin H. Bryant / M: Vic Mizzy / S: Sid Caesar, Vera Miles, Barry Gordon, Jill Townsend, John McGiver, John Astin, Robert Donner, Cass Daley

The William Castle Blogathon :: The Kookiest and Spookiest Ghost Doesn’t Walk in this Family — It Runs Riot! (December, 1963)

 

 

 

 

 

Apparently, the original The Old Dark House (1932) helped inspire artist Charles Addams to untold heights of ghoulishness. And so, he was recruited to design the opening title credits for this Castle / Hammer co-produced remake. Alas, the film is kinda all downhill from there. Now, I like Tom Poston, and found Zotz oddly endearing, but this version of The Old Dark House kinda stinks, locked in a morass where tedious and insipid meet on the graph. All is not lost, however, as its co-feature, Maniac,  is another Hammer Castle cash-in that’s well worth your time.

 

 
This post is part of Goregirl’s Dungeon and The Last Drive-In’s The William Castle Blogathan, a week long tribute to the King of Schlock. Follow the linkage, Boils & Ghouls. It’s gonna be a great week. And stick around, as we’ll be showcasing Castle’s film career from its fairly normal beginnings through it psychotronic glory days. Stay tuned!

The Old Dark House (1963) William Castle Productions :: Hammer Film Productions :: Columbia Pictures / P: William Castle, Anthony Hinds / AP: Dona Holloway / D: William Castle / W: Robert Dillon, J.B. Priestley (novel) / C: Arthur Grant / E: James Needs / S: Tom Poston, Robert Morley, Janette Scott, Joyce Grenfell, Mervyn Johns, Fenella Fielding, Peter Bull

Maniac (1963) Hammer Film Productions :: Columbia Pictures / P: Jimmy Sangster / D: Michael Carreras / W: Jimmy Sangster / C: Wilkie Cooper / E: Tom Simpson / S: Kerwin Mathews, Nadia Gray, Liliane Brousse, Donald Houston, George Pastell

The William Castle Blogathon :: 13 Times the Thrills! 13 Times the Screams! 13 Times the Ectoplasmic Fun! (February, 1961)

 

 

 

 

How about we just let the man speak for himself this round:

Video courtesy of videojaxx.

 

As Rowdy Roddy Piper once said, “Just put on the damned glasses!”

 

 

“I see dead people. AAAAAAUUUGGGGHHHH!”

 

 
This post is part of Goregirl’s Dungeon and The Last Drive-In’s The William Castle Blogathan, a week long tribute to the King of Schlock. Follow the linkage, Boils & Ghouls. It’s gonna be a great week. And stick around, as we’ll be showcasing Castle’s film career from its fairly normal beginnings through it psychotronic glory days. Stay tuned!

13 Ghosts (1960) William Castle Productions :: Columbia Pictures / P: William Castle / D: William Castle / W: Robb White / C: Joseph F. Biroc / E: Edwin H. Bryant / M: Von Dexter / S: Donald Woods, Charles Herbert, Jo Morrow, Martin Milner, Rosemary DeCamp, Margaret Hamilton

Stop! Look! And Laugh! (1960) Harry Romm Productions :: Columbia Pictures / P: Harry A. Romm, Martha Vera Romm / D: Don Appell / W: Saul Ward, Monte Collins / C: William O. Steiner / E: Jerome Thoms / M: Mischa Bakaleinikoff / S: Moe Howard, Larry Fine, Curly Howard, Paul Winchell,