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
The Ghoul is a British film starring Boris Karloff that was thought lost for decades until a scratchy, badly aged and damaged, and just all-around wretched copy was found in Prague. Later, in an old film vault earmarked for termination, a copy was found, a pristine copy, behind a door barricaded with lumber. Holy Vault of Horrors, Batman!
By Tom Baker2 years ago in Horror
"Living Room Violence"
Comic book reviews seem pointless, as you'll most likely never get right out to gobble up the issue I'm writing about (graphic novels, on the other hand, are a pretty popular commodity). Regardless, even though my comic book videos get so few views comparatively, I still feel compelled to write about comics. Mainly because they appeal to me, and they are there. (I mean, in abundance.)
By Tom Baker2 years ago in Geeks
Mr. Sardonicus
Mr. Sardonicus is a William Castle picture in which Mr. Castle himself prominently appears, holding forth as the emcee in a hat and cravat, standing on a London bridge, offering insight into the nature of ghouls, who dig up the dead so they can EAT them. That, sadly, does not happen in the film, but a body is dug up, and with astounding results.
By Tom Baker2 years ago in Horror
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
Note: We have elected not to post any stills from the film. They are easily accessible online. Prolog Two men were sitting by a wall when the girl walked by, her eyes ringed by dark shadows of want as one leaned over and said, "The spirits, they are everywhere. Surrounding us. We cannot see them. Do you see that girl? She was once my fiance! Ah yes, I will tell you the story of what I have gone through. But you may not believe it!"
By Tom Baker2 years ago in Horror
Crimes at the Dark House
Crimes at the Dark House is a 1940 British Victorian gothic melodrama starring the aptly named Tod Slaughter, who was one of the first persons, if not the first, to portray Sweeney Todd. It's based loosely on the 1860 novel The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins, who was a contemporary and friend of Sir Charles Dickens. Collins authored The Moonstone, which I read in college, as well as a cute story about a killer canopy bed in a "No-Tell Motel"; or rather, an Inn that would have made Burke and Hare proud.
By Tom Baker2 years ago in Criminal
The Outer Limits: "Don't Open 'Till Doomsday" (Season 1, Episode 17)
Note: I was originally going to title this review, "A Box Full of Turds," but then thought better of it. "The Outer Limits" is a superior science fiction show from the Sixties that, individually, has some long-haul episodes, much in the manner of Boris Karloff's "Thriller," which I also find myself finding tedious as the midway mark of some episodes rolls by. Both of them have roughly the same sort of cinematographic look and feel about them, and both of them are every bit as ding-dangly dong good as that OTHER famous era anthology show--the one with the guy who is always smoking. Smoking. Smoking. (Dude died of a massive coronary, dig? So maybe that much smoking is NOT recommended after all.)
By Tom Baker2 years ago in Futurism
Def-Con 4
The final victory has been won. Mankind can now rest in peace. Def-Con 4 (1985) Def-Con 4 is a relentlessly bad, even somewhat odious 1980s nuclear Cold War Era scare film set in a post-apocalyptic Ontario or thereabouts, and featuring three astronauts aboard an orbital space station cum Reagan Star Wars wet dream. They seemingly survive the thermonuclear mayhem below and rocket back to Earth but then the woman (Kate Lynch) dies or is imprisoned or something (I forget which) and the surviving male space hero (Tim Choate) gets kidnapped by a roly poly Sawney Beane psychopath (Maury Chaykin) keeping a cheerleader (Lenore Zann) hostage in the basement.
By Tom Baker2 years ago in Futurism
The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb
A rather slow-moving mummy picture churned out by Hammer in the Good Year 1964, Curse of the Mummy's Tomb stars Ronald Howard (not Opie, or perhaps the "Un-Opie"), Terrence Morgan, Fred Clark, and Jeanne Roland in a Victorian (turn-of-the-century) macabre melodrama that starts with some noble Sahib losing his hand in Egypt, which abruptly turns into a game of Hot Potato.
By Tom Baker2 years ago in Horror
The Precipice
Do you have a demon? Do you at times find yourself acting in ways completely the opposite of what you might regard as being "in your best interest"?
By Tom Baker2 years ago in Horror
Sewing the Devil's Shroud
Once, there was an old woman much given to boasting and gossip. She sat all day in the market, trying to sell her wares to passersby, for she was a seamstress. She had many takers, too, for she was, indeed, very good at what she did (when she was not busy wagging her tongue).
By Tom Baker2 years ago in Fiction
California is Weeping Tonight
The Harelip was lying on his bunk, dozing in and out when I came into the room. The lights were off, with only the moon illuminating his physical ugliness from a shaft of light penetrating the grimy window. I was carrying my notebook. He suddenly leaned forward on his pillow as I pattered in. “California is weeping tonight,” he mumbled, incoherently, before the words were drowned out by additional snores. California is weeping tonight, I said to myself. CALIFORNIA…is weeping tonight. What, was there a wildfire? His hypnogogic babbling took on wide, eerie, cryptic significance. I sat down, and in the darkness, I wrote: “California is weeping tonight,” in my notebook. And then I wrote: “AND SO AM I."
By Tom Baker2 years ago in Poets
Sh*t I Could Watch Over and Over and Do # 1
A video that turns me on immensely, it's like Santos and Tura Satana got wild together after scarfing some Mexican mushrooms on the set of Robot Vs. the Aztec Mummy. Rob Zombie has always been a near-total badass in everything and every way. How could ANYONE not appreciate the man who brought us a cinematic landmark like House of a Thousand Corpses? I'd have posted this in "Beat" but tthen I'd have to blather on about it for six hundred words. And I think you rather get the point.
By Tom Baker2 years ago in Critique

Tom Baker

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The Ghoul

"Living Room Violence"

Mr. Sardonicus

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari

Crimes at the Dark House

The Outer Limits: "Don't Open 'Till Doomsday" (Season 1, Episode 17)

Def-Con 4

The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb

The Precipice

Sewing the Devil's Shroud

California is Weeping Tonight

Sh*t I Could Watch Over and Over and Do # 1

Stories (855)