(1971)
Dir - Newt Arnold
Overall: MEH
Filmed on location in the Philippines in 1965 as the second feature from director Newt Arnold, Blood Thirst, (Blood Seekers, The Horror from Beyond), was finally released six years later in the drive-in circuit, double-billing with the British dud Bloodsuckers. Incredibly cheap production values reign supreme here, with a combination of local, Filipino actors and no-name Americans, a guy in an utterly pathetic monster mask who only has about forty-seven seconds of screen time, incessant stock music, tedious pacing, wooden performances, and flat direction by and large. Cinematographer Hermo Santo was occasionally allowed to use some atmospheric lighting, shooting a couple of scenes where characters are silhouetted or have shadows cast upon their faces, but these are infrequent enough to barely be noticeable, plus they hardly enhance the tremendous boredom felt in every other respect. As is all to common for such Z-grade cheapies, nearly all of the running time is made up of uninteresting wide or mid-shots with characters simply exchanging expository dialog ad nauseam. It is so persistently lackluster that by the time that the mystery is solved within the closing minutes, most viewers would have probably forgotten that there was even a mystery at play to begin with.
(1972)
Dir - Daniel Petrie
Overall: WOOF
In the short running for the most colossally boring werewolf film ever made, ABC's Movie of the Week Moon of the Wolf has perfectly adequate performances and a forgivably meager budget, yet it utterly fails as a piece of entertainment. First of all, fans of all things lycanthropian cinema will have much to complain about since A) the wolfman makeup is probably the most pathetic ever brought to the screen and B) said wolfman does not show up until just shy of an hour in. What happens until that hour shows up you may ask? If you guessed just a bunch of local townspeople with southern accents talking and then talking some more, you would be absolutely correct. A fundamental problem with a film like this is that every audience member, (with no exceptions), knows exactly what is going around killing people. The issue then is having almost the entire running time consist of characters trying to figure out what is going around and killing people, which is a guaranteed way to lose all interest from whoever is unfortunate enough to be watching such a snooze-fest in the first place. There is a bit of a whodunit element here where various people are potential suspects, yet even the final reveal is obviously telegraphed several scenes before it officially happens, meaning that the plot could not even accomplish a successful rug-pull.
(1978)
Dir - Sharron Miller
Overall: MEH
The only theatrically released directorial effort from Sharron Miller and ergo a rarity as far as 1970s genre cinema is concerned, The House of the Dead, (Alien Zone), plays exclusively by the anthology horror rules that were established by England's Amicus Productions. It is an independent oddity besides the fact that it has a woman at the helm, shot on location in Oklahoma of all places with the help of college students and featuring a cast made up entirely of unfamiliar faces. Yet the fact that it has lingered in obscurity is also due to the mediocre quality of the movie itself. A framing narrative of a mortician telling a, (clearly), also doomed stranger all about the weird fates of each of his recently embalmed guests might sound familiar to anyone who has seen Tales from the Hood, but none of the performances or stories here have any wacky hooks to be memorable. The opening segment which involves weird kids in Halloween masks terrorizing a crotchety teacher is the only one that comes close to delivering some campy chills, but things remain on the half-baked and/or predictable end of the spectrum from there on out. There is also a terrible, schmaltzy ballad that plays over the opening and closing credits for some bizarre reason, which obviously sets the wrong mood, as one could imagine.
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