(1956)
Dir - Reginald Le Borg
Overall: GOOD
A bittersweet entry in the filmography of many involved, The Black Sleep has an almost entirely recognizable cast and is the type of horror melodrama common of a few decades prior when Universal in particular was pumping out movies of a similar nature. Basil Rathbone, John Carradine, Lon Chaney Jr., Tor Johnson, and Bela Lugosi in his penultimate film role, (if you count Plan 9 from Outer Space as his official last), are all on board though most of them have far smaller parts than would have been preferable. Johnson and Carradine provide mere cameos and do not show up until the movie has about twenty minutes left of it. Worse is that Chaney and Lugosi are reduced to non-speaking roles, the former as a mindless brute and the latter a mere mute house servant. While the lack of prestigious screen time given to these veterans represent the film's misfortunes, thankfully there is still plenty of campy, be it uneven fun. Rathbone is the typical mad doctor whose intentions are good but whose actions are deplorable and Akim Tamiroff, (in a part originally offered to Peter Lorre), is entertaining as a immoral gypsy/tattoo artist/body supplier for Rathbone's surgeon. The movie maintains its ghastliness and is only over the top in the most beneficial of ways, even if so many horror heavyweights together are still technically wasted.
(1957)
Dir - Dan Milner
Overall: WOOF
Editor-turned-director Dan Milner's last effort from behind the lens was the insultingly dull From Hell It Came which belongs in a small pile of walking tree monster movies from the era and is even more comatose-inducing than the lot of them. Caucasian actors in pathetically disguised brown face act as half-naked natives who sacrifice a guy that vows to come back from the grave for vengeance, only he does so about forty minutes later as a pathetically unconvincing creature that has the lumbering awkwardness of a geriatric patient in a cardboard foliage suite. In the meantime, this is a talky ordeal even by the minimal-effort standards of other drive-in cheapies from the day, with characters prattling on about inconsequential nonsense that is so boring that it is difficult to believe that the doofy Swamp Thing stand-in Tabanga did not just keel over and die from listening to them. Every guy on screen is interchangeable and on that note, the only way to tell Tina Carver and Linda Watkins apart is that one of them puts on a fake British accent as they look like identical twins with matching haircuts, hair color, and wardrobe just to make sure that we only confuse them with each other and not any of the scantily-clad tribal locals. Paul Blaisdell was the go-to guy in creating B-movie monsters of his day, but this is rendered his least memorable creation simply because the film itself is worth no one's time.
(1958)
Dir - William Castle
Overall: MEH
The first of William Castle's gimmick-laden thriller/horror films was Macabre which provided each theater audience member at the time with an insurance policy of a thousand dollars if they "died of fright". The gimmick, premise, and look are all much, much better than the actual movie is itself. Castle always being a fan of the most cockamamie of scripts, the one here by Robb White, (who would end up penning most of Castle's following horror productions, including the good ones), is the most convoluted and flawed to the point of near non-stop aggravation. As a race against the clock, the characters incessantly waste so much time arguing with each other, (which also brings on flashbacks that slow the movie down even further), but far more insultingly, the stakes are so dire that why everyone does not run throughout the whole town pleading for help and following every possible lead is rendered preposterous. The final twist is as illogical as all of the details that come before it and sadly unsatisfying enough to be laughable. There are some technical aspects done right to keep it from being an absolute crud rock, but it is presented seriously enough and acted hammy enough to still come close to being a disaster.
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