Tom Baker

Joined June 2018

855 stories

Bio

Author of Haunted Indianapolis, Indiana Ghost Folklore, Midwest Maniacs, Midwest UFOs and Beyond, Scary Urban Legends, 50 Famous Fables and Folk Tales, and Notorious Crimes of the Upper Midwest.: http://tombakerbooks.weebly.com

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The Ghoul and the Grand Vizier
Once, long ago, when the desert winds whispered dusty words to the ears of the foolish and the wise alike, there was a terrible old crone that lived at the edge of a beautiful oasis. Here, she practiced black magic and curses day and night, until she became a matter of ill-repute in the local towns and villages.
By Tom Bakerabout a year ago in Fiction
Return of the Aliens' Deadly Spawn
Return of the Aliens' Deadly Spawn (Also known as Return of the Aliens: Deadly Spawn, with a colon, and simply The Deadly Spawn) is a hellaciously good and gory splatterific sci-fi horror flick with lots of toothsome alien nasties grown huge, and little in the way of actual plot or story to ruin things. It stars no one you've ever heard of or ever will, and was made by nobody on a budget of nothing. It features the world's most dopey bluescreened countrified house landscape shot, and then we proceed to an alien lurking in the basement, making people into bloody rags. A lot of gore, a lot of gruel, a lot of slime, and wiggly Gigeresque tadpole creatures who look as if they might have burst out of John Hurt's chest in 1979.
By Tom Bakerabout a year ago in Horror
The Abominable Dr. Phibes
The Abominable Dr. Phibes is as close to a perfect film as I think cinema in 1971 could possibly aspire to. It features Vincent Price as the Phantom of the Opera-inspired mad comic book supervillain Phibes, who, down below the Earth, holed up in his comic book super villain secret HQ with his clockwork band, his Wurlitzer organ, and the ever-fashionable silent sex kitten Vulnavia (Virginia North), worships at the altar of his long-dead Victoria (Caroline Munro), and plots elaborate deaths for his enemies. And all of his enemies? These were the surgeons who couldn't save Victoria's life.
By Tom Bakerabout a year ago in Horror
Cruel Brünhilde
Cruel Brünhilde walked among the dead --in the crook of her arm, her blood-dripping head! The ghost of a smile played on her teeth,
By Tom Bakerabout a year ago in Poets
The Ghoul Brothers
"Welcome to the disgusting world of...The Ghoul Brothers!" The Ghoul Brothers (1984) I first discovered The Ghoul Brothers in the advertisement section of Fangoria. Or maybe it was Gorezone. It was one of those Eighties newsstand horror and gore magazines.
By Tom Bakerabout a year ago in Beat
2001: A Space Odyssey
2001: A Space Odyssey is a cinematic enigma, a cosmic dive into the primordial pool of dreams and visions of a tomorrow that may never come, but is already here. Are you satisfied yet with the mystery? Have you discovered your monolith? Kubrick called it "the most expensive religious film ever made." (He was rejoicing that MGM had yet to discover they had just financed such a film.)
By Tom Bakerabout a year ago in Futurism
The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension
The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension is a curious film insomuch as, right up front, it has an inconsistency with the title (the opening credits simply read 'Buckaroo Banzai," despite what the film is officially called), and the opening narration veers considerably away from the words on the screen. Weird. At any rate, it's a fun, frolicking, rollicking comic book movie, that, also, curiously, has few highs and lows; actually none. It presents its camp, comic book vision as evenly, as sedately as actor Peter "Naked Lunch, Robocop" Weller. Jeff Goldblum, Dan Hedaya, John Lithgow, Christopher Lloyd, and Ellen Barkin are along for the ride.
By Tom Bakerabout a year ago in Futurism
Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan
Unsurprisingly, the sequel to Star Trek: The Motion Picture was shorter and less of a slog than the top-heavy original, which seemed to drag on entirely too long. This time around, we have a classic "even-numbered" Trek film, one geared toward tackling the big question every science fiction and "Star Trek" buff always ponders: how long will it take for the redoubtable James Tiberius to whoop up on some butt-noggin Klingon ass? In this sequel, nothing flat, although it isn't Klingons here that pose the problem for Admiral Kirk and the merry crew of a reoutfitted Great Bird of the Galaxy starcruiser, it's that damn Ricardo Montalban, who, as Khan Noonien Singh, caused so much trouble in Episode 22, Season 1 of TOS, "Space Seed." Here, Khan and his crew of bad Seventies rock band rejects are holed up on some dismal planet, just licking their space chops over the prospect of getting revenge on one James. T. Kirk.
By Tom Bakerabout a year ago in Futurism
They Who?
Nineteen Eighty-Eight was a damn fine year, but it's generally not conceded, among the conspiracy-minded, to be a year when anyone got "Red Pilled." No, that peculiar, Matrix-derived designation for the time when the Red Pilled finally, finally, finally, see the world (to adapt a line from Mel Lyman) "as it really is," was still in the future. All the pilling, red, blue, or otherwise, would come along in the fullness of time. This was pre-internet, and conspiracy bulletins were still xeroxed and sent through the U.S. Mail.
By Tom Bakerabout a year ago in Futurism
House on Haunted Hill
Not one of sleaze producer/director William Castle's better productions (Castle was infamous for his gimmick pictures wherein audience members' seats might be wired with joy buzzers, or "life insurance" might be sold to anyone in the lobby who happened to die of fright during the picture), this unclassic is a staple on cheap DVD collections from the Dollar Store, so it has its el cheapo charm. So, of course, I had to finally sit down and watch all 117 minutes or so of it. It's pretty much as you would expect. The only saving grace is the presence (no pun) of Vincent Price, and the redoubtable old character actor Elisha Cook Jr., playing Elisha Cook Jr. obsessed with ghosts and wandering around mumbling about how "the spirits are active tonight," and other such tommy-rot as if he were going for cheap laugh-track induced chortles on some bad sitcom from the mid-Eighties, perhaps.
By Tom Bakerabout a year ago in Horror
Falling Angel
Note: this review may contain spoilers. "No one will mourn one less lawyer in the world. There's death everywhere these days. But what gives human life its worth anyway? Because someone loves it or hates it? The flesh is weak, Johnnie. Only the soul is immortal. AND YOURS BELONGS TO ME." Angel Heart (1987)
By Tom Bakerabout a year ago in Horror
The Beyond
Lucio Fulci's The Beyond is an Italian gore and supernatural horror film of incomparably bizarre, surrealistic, and disgusting qualities. Released in 1981 under an unwieldy title (E tu vivrai nel terrore! L'aldilà, in English, rendered, "...And you will live in terror! The afterlife"), and was later released stateside as The Beyond, albeit in an edited version. It was banned in Britain and labeled a "Video Nasty."
By Tom Bakerabout a year ago in Horror

Tom Baker

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The Ghoul and the Grand Vizier

Return of the Aliens' Deadly Spawn

The Abominable Dr. Phibes

Cruel Brünhilde

The Ghoul Brothers

2001: A Space Odyssey

The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension

Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan

They Who?

House on Haunted Hill

Falling Angel

The Beyond

Stories (855)