The local ferryman meets the personification of death (Peter Voß) one night, and dies on his ferry. The town advertizes for a new ferryman, but there are no local takers as the townspeople fear an evil force roams the other side of the river. Maria (Sybille Schmitz) wanders into town, lacking papers, so is a
On a dark and stormy night, as is normal in these sorts of pictures, theater producer Herman Wood (Richard Carle) and his secretary Homer Erskine (Johnny Arthur) are being driven by playwright Prescott Ames (John Miljan) to his home when a fallen tree forces them to take refuge in a nearby house, owned by psychologist
In a semi-Germanic, semi-British, semi-French Barony somewhere in Europe, the Baroness gives birth to twins, a dark happening as the family prophecy states that the family will end when a younger twin kills the elder in The Black Room (it needs to be pointed out to the rather dim lieutenant that twins don’t pop out
American Tom Poston (Tom Penderel) is asked by his sometimes roommate Casper (Peter Bull) to meet him at his ancestral home. Arriving at the deteriorating mansion, he discovers Casper dead and the house inhabited by Casper’s mother, dotty Agatha Femm (Joyce Grenfell), his twin brother Jasper (also Peter Bull), his uncles, sinister Roderick Femm (Robert
Cruel, elderly Julia Endicott (Blanche Friderici), matriarch of a dying family, walks through the cemetery, trailed by Philip (Irving Pichel), her feeble-minded, brutish son and Miss Roberts (Martha Mattox), the housekeeper. Julia claims they are going to the family crypt to lay flowers, but really it is to check the moaning alarm horn she’s had
Old dear lord… OK, here goes: In some fantasy Deep South straight out of the wet dream of a KKK Grand Dragon, Voodoo practitioner and stereotype Mammy (Georgette Harvey) has returned to the broken down hovel she’d abandoned when her husband Old Sam was killed by Colonel Gordon (Francis Joyner). She brings along her half-White
Distraught physician Peter Tompson (Brook Williams) writes his mentor, Sir James Forbes (André Morell) a rambling letter about deaths with no natural explanation in a rural village. Forbes’s daughter (Diane Clare), interested in seeing her friend Alice (Jacqueline Pearce) who happens to be Tompson’s wife, convinces her father to take train and coach to visit
Miners discover a giant frozen reptilian tail and hunkiest miner sends it to Professor Marteen of the Copenhagen aquarium. Professor Marteen has two, hot, man-hungry daughters. It doesn’t matter for the story, but the film wants you to know just how male-crazed these two chicks are and how lucky any man is who they get
Tarantula (1955) The Black Scorpion (1957) The Deadly Mantis (1957) The ‘50s giant bug craze was part of the larger atomic monster sub-genre which started with The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms and went on full tilt for the next decade. These were B-pictures—or C-pictures—where sparing expense was always a factor. Still, they tended not to
A series of mysterious disappearances in the arctic leads the military to call in paleontologist Ned Jackson (William Hopper). His keen use of a magnifying glass allows him to work out that the culprit is a giant praying mantis, recently released from the ice. Ned teams up with Colonel Joe Parkman (Craig Stevens) and hot
At a Spanish medical school, Bárbara (Macarena Gómez), a beautiful and fashion-conscious student, dreams of a future with a plastic surgeon husband, a lovely house, multiple jobs, and two kids. Med school is for husband-shopping. While there, she goes on a joyous murder spree. Most of her victims are scumballs, but she isn’t out to
A meteor shower brings the Legion to Earth: large insects along with a single true giant. They build nests, that when complete, launch a pod into space to further spread the species—the launch destroying everything in a six kilometer area. Colonel Watarase is on the case, leading soldiers against the bugs. He’s aided by Midori