vintage

Special effects may be lacking, but vintage horror films still manage to keep our palms sweating and blood pumping; a look back at retro horror films, stories, books and characters that prove everything is scarier in black and white.

The Raven (1963)
Peter Lorre has a problem. An evil wizard, played by Boris Karloff, has turned him into a sleek, blackbird. Oh, he's still Peter Lorre, but, darn it! Vincent Price, of whom he was counting on having the correct magical formula to change him back into a man, just can't seem to get it right. Oh, his daddy seems to have all the correct magical ingredients hidden in his ancient laboratory, but, something goes wrong, and he just doesn't mix up a big enough batch! Thus, poor Lorre, whose life is tough enough for being a put-upon little fat man, is left walking around with two big black wings, occasionally dropping off feathers and lamenting his sorry luck.
By Tom Baker3 years ago in Horror
Goblin Bites: Scary Stories 3
Many years ago, there was an old woman who lived in a secluded wood. Rumor had it that this woman was a witch, but honestly no one really knew for sure. She did have a very uncanny sense of intuition, however; if someone lost a head of cattle in the night, the old woman knew who had taken them. If a person had gone missing, she would tell their family exactly where they could be found. No one knew how she knew these things, but she was rarely if ever wrong. She brewed tinctures and poltices as well for the locals, to cure everything from rheumatism to the common cold. The legend was that all she asked in payment for her services was a dollar for herself, and a dime for her blind old coon dog.
By Natalie Gray3 years ago in Horror
It Came from Hollywood (1982)
Like Mr. Utterson in The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, I use to love the theater but haven't stepped through the door of one in twenty years. The last movie I saw in an actual theater I think, was Mel Gibson in Signs. And that was probably twenty years ago. Since then, it has become unwise, for various reasons, to congregate too freely in large numbers with our fellow citizens. But there was a time when movie theaters and drive-ins were prime places of entertainment.
By Tom Baker3 years ago in Horror
Goblin Bites: Scary Stories 1
To my knowledge, this story is true... although there will be some who doubt its validity. In the rural Southern town of Grantville, Georgia, long ago, there lived a young woman. She was betrothed to a strapping young man, although he was very poor. In order to raise money to buy a wedding ring for his beloved, the young man took a job with the railroad company. He was gone for many, many weeks at a time, but the young woman's love never faltered. Every time he came back home at the end of the month, he found her waiting for him at the railyard. He knew it was her even at a distance, because she would always bring a lantern with her. Seeing the lantern swinging from afar would fill his heart with joy, knowing that his love was waiting to welcome him home. In response, he would blow the train whistle three times in a row, to let her know he saw her.
By Natalie Gray3 years ago in Horror
Casper the Friendly Ghost
Or, perhaps you might know it better from a still image of the film. Starring Christina Ricci. Also, the first film to feature a CGI character in a lead role.
By J.A. Hernandez3 years ago in Horror
I Spit on Your Grave (1978)
I Spit on Your Grave is one of the most sickening, artless pieces of cinematic excrement ever shat from the bowels of a low-budget exploitation producer. Totally and completely without any real merit, it plays like a cop show recreation of an actual crime--albeit unlikely events, but, in this crazy world, one supposes anything is possible.
By Tom Baker3 years ago in Horror
Dark Shadows: The House of Despair Review
Back in 2006, Big Finish decided to revive another long-running cult property with the same broad appeal as Doctor Who. This time, however, it wasn't to be a British institution that was revived: rather, it was ABC's American daytime soap opera Dark Shadows. Broadcast between 1966 and 1971, this series featured the usual mix of soap elements: family dramas, affairs, murders... only this one also included vampires, werewolves, time travel and the supernatural as well. It was phenomenally successful, and, as such, felt like a natural property for Big Finish to tackle. However, with a large number of the original cast no longer with us, it meant that producer and writer of this story Stuart Manning would have an interesting challenge in order to make the series work. In order to get around this, it was decided to only feature a small handful of the cast from the series, in contained, hour-long stories, and "The House of Despair" was the first of these. It's an ok start to Big Finish's Dark Shadows range, but it doesn't quite sell the series to new listeners quite as much as it needs to, and it doesn't quite fulfil the potential I know this series can reach on audio.
By Joseph A. Morrison3 years ago in Horror
The Masque of the Red Death (1842)
What of the mad Prince Prospero, and his designs to remain alive, even during the "Red Death" of the plague? Outside, the peasantry died a verminous death, covered in sores and heaped, e must assume, into piles of stinking, rotting, cadaverous bodies, heads, "like cordwood," until last rites could be performed, and then the stinking, fly-ridden piles set to the blaze.
By Tom Baker3 years ago in Horror
Horror stories - Myths and Legends Based On Real Events - part 2
The internet is full of all kinds of horror stories, but most of them are just that - simple fantastical concoctions to tell friends around the campfire or in front of the fireplace on frosty winter evenings.
By Viorel Secareanu3 years ago in Horror
The Monster from the Ocean Floor (1954)
1954's Monster from the Ocean Floor, the first film produced by cinematic B-Movie mogul Roger Corman, features its titular monster at the very end o the picture, for all of about four minutes. Once we see the monster, it's a little anti-climatic, since it's essentially an Ed Wood rubber squid with a big, single, glowing Lovecraftian eye.
By Tom Baker3 years ago in Horror
MR.Violence: Dracula The FINALE
DRACULA GETS UP FROM HIS SEAT AND SAYS IF YOU KNEW THIS WAS A TRAP WHY DID YOU COME ANYWAY. RAPHAEL SAYS I AM VERY CURIOUS ABOUT YOU AND I WANT TO KNOW THE TRUTH ARE YOU A VAMPIRE OR ARE YOU JUST A MAN WHO JUST LOVES KILLING WOMEN AND CHILDREN EITHER WAY BROTHER YOU ARE GOING DOWN. DRACULA SAYS ME AND VIKTOR THE MAN THAT WAS HIRED TO COME HERE TO DO THE SAME THING HOW DOES THAT MAKE YOU FEEL THAT YOU WORKING FOR THE SAME MAN WHO THE DOES THE SAME AS ME? RAPHAEL SAYS AFTER I DEAL WITH YOU HE IS NEXT! DRACULA SAYS YOU AREN’T LEAVING THIS ROOM. I AM THE FEAR THAT IS ACCUSTOMED TO AND I AM THE REASON THAT YOU LOCK YOUR DOORS AND WINDOWS.
By Victor Robinson II3 years ago in Horror
The Great Dead Womb
We may now enter the "Great Dead Womb" that is the melancholy House of Usher. There's a marvelous cunt-like crack across the surface of the melancholy House of Usher. Our Narrator (who shall always and forevermore remain nameless), approaches it "on the whole of a dark, dull and soulless evening in the autumn of the year." The leaves are falling, birds do not sing. There is a wicked tarn throwing up a miasmal funk, a vaginal odor of a great dead, stone thing.
By Tom Baker3 years ago in Horror