Several scientists are trapped on an isolated island inhabited by giant crabs intent on destroying them.

I remember enjoying this movie when I was a kid, but what surprised me the most when my local creature feature reran it a few years later was how much I enjoyed it the second time. It was then I noticed how scary some of the concepts were, specifically the fact that the crabs absorbed the minds and memories of the humans they ate, and were able to use their voices to lure further people to their doom. I still find it enjoyable many years later, and in particular I noticed this time was how well the movie uses sound to build up suspense; the clicking sound made by the crabs is genuinely unnerving. In fact, I’ve always felt that sound can be a lot more effective than visuals in creating an atmosphere of dread and suspense. It’s these touches and the strong script by Charles B. Griffith that make this movie work; it’s certainly not the lame-looking clumsy creatures themselves. This is one of my favorites of Corman’s early films.

A scientist trying to cure a girl from a crippling illness discovers that human spinal fluid is the key ingredient to the cure. When he kills an escaped gorilla in his home, he uses its hide as a costume to procure the spinal fluid.

I don’t know if this was the first horror movie to use spinal fluid as its secret ingredient, but I haven’t seen an earlier one. This would be Karloff’s only horror movie with Monogram, and it’s interesting to compare this with Lugosi’s Monogram horrors. One thing I notice is that the movie seems more geared to Karloff; the doctor is given a kindly quality that would most likely be absent if Lugosi was playing the role. I really responded to this one as a kid; I recall almost crying at the end of it. Nowadays, I see that it’s pretty silly, but I enjoy it all the same.

Four astronauts take a trip to Mars and encounter strange creatures.

There is something incredibly likeable and positively cuddly about this movie; I just wish it was better. As it is, the first half, which concentrates on the trip to Mars, is a bore; things don’t pick up until they actually land there. This is where the bizarre red-filter process called “Cinemagic” comes into play, and though it’s obviously a gimmick of sorts, it does serve one purpose; it covers up how cheap the special effects were. I mean, the rat-bat-spider looks totally unconvincing in every photo I’ve seen of it; in the movie, it actually looks somewhat real through the red-filter. Needless to say, this monster is one of the silliest creations in SF cinema; how can you not love it? Not a great movie, but an enormously fun one, and sometimes, that can be enough.

A series of grisly murders are being committed on members of a Catholic family.

When Brooke Shields hit it big, this movie was rereleased with her presence in the movie the focus of the advertising. I’m sure her fans were disappointed; she dies ten minutes into it. To call this movie a slasher flick would be selling it short, even though in some ways that is just what it is. However, there is a lot more dimension to this movie than to the usual slasher flick; its fascination with Catholicism and the roles it plays in the lives of the people caught up in this nightmare adds some real substance to the story, though I don’t see this movie being a favorite of the Pope. The murders are pretty strong stuff, and some of the characters are quite disturbing, so I wouldn’t mistake it for light entertainment. It is recommended for horror fans who like a little more than just thrills, however.

Article #1 by Dave Sindelar

Two postal clerks get tangled up with Dracula, the Wolfman and the Frankenstein monster.

This movie served as both a swan song for Universal’s most famous monsters, and as a shot in the arm to the comedy team that had been the studio’s biggest moneymakers in the early forties but had begun to fade away. When I first saw it as a kid, I was somewhat disappointed by it, but I think that was because I had already reached my saturation point with the boys’ monster comedies; watching it again years later, I was able to appreciate just how much care was put into this movie. Unlike their other encounters, this one began as a straightforward horror script, and it shows; it has nowhere near the offhand sloppiness of the other horror comedies of the duo. It brought both Bela Lugosi and Lon Chaney Jr. back to play the roles that made them famous; the monster’s character, however, had degenerated so much over the years that maybe it was just as well Karloff wasn’t on hand for this one.

Unlike the later comedies, it doesn’t rely quite as much on Lou Costello being scared for its laughs. In fact, my favorite scene is one in which Lou is not scared, though he has every right to be. It’s the one where he returns to Larry Talbot’s room to take him his luggage, not knowing that he’s turned into the Wolfman (though it doesn’t say much for the cunning of the Wolfman that Costello gets away from him without a single scratch). This one is definitely a model for the better horror comedies.