Horror Bulletin Monthly July 2022: Horror Bulletin Monthly Issues, #10

By Brian Schell

Contents:

 

The TENTH issue of the Horror Guys Monthly review digest, Horror Bulletin, includes reviews of thirty-five full-length films and horror shorts as well as a pair of books this time around. 

 

Each of the films contains a complete synopsis of the film, including spoilers (so beware!), as well as our commentary on the quality of the story and how well it holds up for viewers today. 

 

The short films reviews all include links to watch them on YouTube. 

Part One: Movie Reviews

1932 White Zombie
1944 Idle Roomers
1949 Bud Abbott and Lou Costello Meet the Killer Boris Karloff
1957 The Saga of the Viking Women and Their Voyage to the Waters of the Great Sea Serpent
1958 She-Gods of Shark Reef
1960 La Casa Del Terror
1960 Last Woman on Earth
1960 The Flesh and the Fiends
1961 Creature From the Haunted Sea
1961 Reptilicus
1963 X: The Man with the X-Ray Eyes
1970 The Dunwich Horror
1970 Witchammer
1972 The Last House on the Left
1980 The Changeling
1985 Vampire Hunter D
1990 Frankenstein Unbound
1992 Dust Devil The Final Cut
1993 Fire in the Sky
1994 In the Mouth of Madness
1995 Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers
2021 Mad God 77 2022 American Werewolves
2022 Death Count
2022 Morbius
2022 The Northman
2022 Torn Hearts
2022 Unhuman
2022 X

 

Part Two: Short Film Reviews
Short Film: Overkill (2019)
Short Film: DRIP (2021)
Short Film: Itsy Bitsy Spider (2022)
Short Film: Terrible Things (2022)

 

Part Three: Books and Comics
Book: Criminal Macabre: The Complete Cal McDonald Stories (Second Edition)
Graphic Novel: Night Cage, Vol. 1

• Language: English
• Publisher: Brian Schell
• Release date: Jul 1, 2022
• ISBN: 9798201879648

Brian Schell

Brian Schell is a College English Instructor who has an extensive background in Buddhism and other world religions. After spending time in Japan, he returned to America where he created the immensely popular website, Daily Buddhism. For the next several years, Schell wrote extensively on applying Buddhism to real-world topics such as War, Drugs, Tattoos, Sex, Relationships, Pet Food and yes, even Horror Movies. Twitter: @BrianSchell Facebook: http://www.Facebook.com/Brian.Schell Web: http://BrianSchell.com

Book preview

INTRODUCTION

Welcome to the fabulous TENTH issue of Horror Bulletin Monthly! We stuck to our regular format this month, with no special themes or anything— just four movies and a short each week, plus two or three bonus films in the weekend newsletter. This month, we had a couple of books to review, something we don’t normally do. Maybe we’ll do more in the future if you let us know you enjoy them.

HIGHLIGHTS AND LOWLIGHTS

Kevin’s top choices this month were X, Dust Devil, and The Changeling, He was most pleasantly surprised by Unhuman, and he actively disliked Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers.

Brian’s top choices were Unhuman, X, and The Changeling. He really wanted to like Mad God, but couldn’t understand a bit of it. His top stinker for the month was also Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers," a film that should never have been made.

Neither of us were particularly impressed Marvel’s foray into horror, Morbius, although we didn’t hate it nearly as much as many other reviewers did.

NEW WEB STORE

You can now pick up ebook editions of all our Horror Guys Guides and Horror Bulletin Monthly issues as well as our fiction stories at https://brianschell.com. For paperback versions of these, you’ll need to turn to Amazon as always.

Note that ALL back issues of Horror Bulletin Monthly are available from either source. Pick them all up!

EMAIL US

As always, we’d love to hear YOUR opinions on these films as well as critique our reviews. Contact us at [e-mail]

And now… Here. We. Go!

PART ONE

MOVIE REVIEWS

1932 WHITE ZOMBIE

Directed by Victor Hugo Halperin

Written by Garnett Weston, William B. Seabrook

Stars Bela Lugosi, Madge Bellamy, Joseph Cawthorn

Run Time: 1 Hour, 7 Minutes

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOzgz1Ddmz8

SPOILER-FREE JUDGMENT ZONE

Classic, slow zombies and a sinister Bela Lugosi are a winning combination. It’s a little slow and tame by today’s standards, but it was groundbreaking at the time. And it’s an interesting watch seeing how things were done 90 years ago.

SYNOPSIS

In the West Indies, a carriage containing a young couple, Neil and Madeline, rides down the road and comes across a bunch of black people digging a grave in the middle of the road. There’s someone stealing corpses, so they bury them in the middle of the road where there’s always people.

They drive on and soon meet Murder Legendre standing in the road, who is creepy. The driver sees zombies coming out of the woods and rides away. Legendre is left holding Madeline’s scarf. He smiles and leads the zombies away. The carriage driver explains zombies to the couple. They’re the walking dead, and they’re following them to the Beaumont house right now.

Dr. Bruner meets up with the couple at the Beaumont house, and he says zombies are a common enough thing in Haiti. Gruner has been sent for to perform a wedding ceremony for Neil and Madeline, but he doesn’t know why. It’s not like old man Beaumont to be so generous.

The butler talks to Beaumont, and we see that he is indeed up to something. He’s working with that man, and the butler is afraid of him. I’d sacrifice everything I have in the world for her, he explains. Does he mean Madeline?

A carriage driven by a zombie comes for Beaumont, and he goes the the driver to the sugar mill, which is staffed by the living dead. Beaumont walks through the operation, and no one speaks until he comes to Legendre, the man in charge. They work faithfully; they do not mind work for long hours, he explains. Legendre shows Beaumont the scarf; he knows what they want. All Beaumont wants is a month to seduce Madeline, but Legendre says he couldn’t do it in a year.

There is a way, but the cost is high, Legendre states. Beaumont says he’ll pay anything. Legendre gives Beaumont a vial of something to feed to Neil, and that’ll solve his problems. Send me word when you use it, he commands.

Back at the big house, everyone is ready for the wedding. Beaumont tries to convince Madeline not to go through with the wedding, but she’s not listening. He gives her a rose, and she sniffs it. Outside, Legendre does a spell with a candle and the scarf. Inside, Madeline drops dead.

They have a funeral, and Neil goes to the bar to drink heavily. He hallucinates seeing Madeline in his drink and then freaks out. Legendre introduces Beaumont to his favorite zombies in the graveyard, all of whom used to be his enemies. What if they regain their souls, he asks. Legendre says that can never be. The zombies pick up Madeline’s coffin and take it home to Beaumont’s place. Outside, they hear a drunken Neil running around screaming her name. He shows up in the tomb and finds it empty.

Dr. Bruner comes clean and tells Neil his suspicions. He thinks that Madeline may actually still be alive. He says that zombies aren’t really dead; they just have no mind or soul. He reads from a book about lethargic comas. Beaumont wouldn’t have been able to do this, so it must have been the natives.

Elsewhere, Madeline plays the piano for Beaumont. She plays pretty well for a dead girl. He puts an expensive-looking necklace on her, and she doesn’t even notice. He sees that she’s just a brain-dead, soulless zombie and regrets what he did. He can’t bear to look at her anymore.

Beaumont wants Legendre to give her back her soul, but Legendre says that’s impossible. Legendre gives his drug to Beaumont so that he can take Madeline from him. The zombies carry away Silver the butler.

Neil and Bruner go looking for Pierre, an old witch doctor. Pierre warns them to turn back before it’s too late. Pierre says he’s the only man who ever came back from being a zombie. The pair head to Legendre’s castle, where, inside, Legendre gloats over his control of Beaumont.

Neil staggers in and sees them, but he passes out before he can say anything. Legendre controls Madeline, who picks up the knife and walks over to Neil. She drops the knife and comes back downstairs as Neil wakes up and embraces her. Legendre calls in his zombie crew, but Dr. Bruner sneaks up and whacks Legendre over the head. The spell broken, one by one, the zombies all jump off the cliff, preferring suicide to following Legendre’s orders.

Neil goes to Madeline, and she wakes up. Legendre wakes up and makes his escape— at least until Beaumont grabs him from behind and they both go off the cliff as well. Legendre’s pet vulture will eat well in the morning...

COMMENTARY

Ah, the real, classic semi-historical Haitian-style zombies, not the plague-ridden, flesh-eating monstrosities of Romero and the Walking Dead. We don’t get enough of those.

Why would Madeline and Neil go to Beaumont’s house, knowing full well that he had a crush on Madeline and would do anything to win her over; what kind of judgment is that?

Bela Lugosi looks suitably evil here, and he glares at the camera a lot. There are some other actors here too, but they aren’t subtle or particularly noteworthy. It’s decent enough, and probably very original at the time, but it’s a little slow-paced for a modern viewer.

1944 IDLE ROOMERS

Directed by Del Lord

Written by Del Lord, Elwood Ullman

Stars Moe Howard, Larry Fine, Curly Howard

Run Time: 17 Minutes

Watch it: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x4xuw3d

SYNOPSIS

The Three Stooges are bellhops at a hotel. Moe brings up Mrs. Leander’s bags while Larry runs the elevator. When they get to the woman’s room, Moe finds Curly in there making himself at home. Moe makes him regret it. When her husband arrives, Moe assaults him by mistake.

After some hijinks involving carrying an oversized trunk, the woman’s husband throws knives at Curly and Moe. The man has a flier The greatest attraction of the age: Lupe The Wolf Man, Alive in person! He’s planning on showing his find at the carnival. He opens the giant trunk and there actually is a wolf man inside. He’s absolutely harmless unless he hears music; then he goes insane!

Mr. and Mrs. Leander have to go out, so they call the Stooges in to clean the room. Curly turns on the radio, which enrages the monster in the cage. Soon, the monster isn’t in the cage any more. He crawls out on the ledge and enters the room of some sleeping women. Curly has