The Corpse Vanishes (1942) (USA)

aka The Case of the Missing Brides

⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2

“Shall I telephone for the ambulance?” “No. The undertaker. She’s dead.” Bummer, man. Young brides keep dropping dead on their wedding day and the bodies get scooped up by scumbags claiming to be from the mortuary. These cold ladies end up in the lab of Dr. Lorenz (Bela Lugosi, obviously) so he can extract gland fluid from the nubile corpses to assist in keeping his ancient wife alive. The wonders of science! Journalist Pat Hunter (wonderful Luana Walters) is hanging around because this is one juicy story and she doesn’t really have any decorum. She’s pretty damn excited when it’s revealed another cadaver of a recently departed young woman has been kidnapped… right from the wedding venue no less. The cops have no idea what the hell is going on and Alice Wentworth is determined to get her ass married even with all the nefariousness going down. A police presence is set up all around the wedding venue but it does little good as Alice collapses and is pronounced dead. Wonder if it has anything to do with the unique orchid delivered to the bride right before the ceremony was to begin? The orchid ends up in the hands of the journalist thanks to her shifty cameraman and she notices that after taking a whiff she begins to feel faint. While this is happening, Lugosi and his goon cause a distraction for the police escorting the body and make away with her corpse. Pat begins putting together the orchid connection and starts digging, even if her editor thinks she’s got nothing. It’s that kind of attitude that will allow Lugosi and his gang (thug, old lady, the old lady’s mentally challenged son Angel who is also a lover of the ladies and her other son Angelo Rossitto because every gang needs a dwarf so why not use the most famous one of the time) to go around causing young brides to appear dead so their fluids can be used to de-age his wife (the delightfully dangerous Elizabeth Russell). Pat manages to make her way to the professor’s home (he was once an orchid expert so he seems the best person to speak with about the rare flower she’s found) when she comes across Dr. Foster, who gives her a lift as he heads over to the Lorenz home. He and Lugosi are working together to figure out a cure for Countess Lorenz who has a bad case of “being a bitch” on top of whatever vague disorder is forcing her husband to steal bodies. Pat and Foster are stuck spending the night in the house thanks to a bad storm and Lorenz takes a liking to the reporter. Maybe… he does the same creepy hovering over her sleeping self that he does to Dr. Foster so maybe he’s just a creep. Pat gets stalked by Angel which leads to her not only discovering Lorenz and his wife sleep in coffins but also has her unearthing secret passages and the nefarious business going on in the hidden catacombs under the Lorenz home. She also witnesses Lugosi murder Angel who he and his wife agree has become a liability. Pat faints, wakes up in her bed and is assured she has dreamed up all of the horror from the night before. She knows this is bullshit and makes her way back to the city to keep working on her hunch. She lets Foster know her suspicions before jumping on the train. Her editor still thinks she’s nuts but Foster shows up at the office to add weight to the woman’s story. If only they could prove it. Looks like some scheming is in order and it’s going to involve a phony wedding and a trap. Of course, Lugosi is one clever fiend so he has a trap of his own set and this leaves Pat (newly engaged) in the grips of the mad man and his evil wife. Hypnotism, fast-talk, cameraman comedy, dames and a sinister duo of antagonists keep this one nice and comfortable for anyone who grew up on these public domain creakers. “Are you trying to tell me this Professor Lorenz is a hypnotist as well as a horticulturist?”

Triangle (2009) (UK/Australia)

⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2

A young mother (Melissa George) joins a guy she likes (Michael Dorman, from the criminally underrated series Patriot) and some of his friends for a day at sea on his yacht. A freak electrical storm capsizes the boat and forces them to board an apparently abandoned ocean liner. Jess is experiencing some déjà vu and a sack-masked killer begins picking off the stranded group... and then things get weird. Saying anything else would be a disservice to anyone who has yet to come across this gem of a film. Director Christopher Smith (Creep, Black Death) handles himself well and the cast is up to the task. Maybe not the unheralded classic some folks make it out to be but an interesting ride nonetheless.

Frankenstein’s Bloody Terror (1968) (Spain/West Germany)

aka The Werewolf’s Mark/Hell’s Creatures/The Wolfman of Count Dracula/The Mark of the 

⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Waldemar Daninsky legacy begins (the lost Nights of the Werewolf remains elusive although many people believe it to be unfinished, if it ever existed at all) and Paul Naschy claws his way into the hearts of any monster kid worth his salt. Daninsky wishes to end his horrible hairy curse and reaches out to a German doctor and his smoke-show wife for help. Their expertise in the occult gives the nobleman the only bit of hope he’s felt in a while but the scientific duo are nefarious vampires and have their own plans for the cursed man. A couple Gypsies crashing at an abandoned castle trigger the curse with their grave-robbing greediness and end up torn to pieces for desecrating the graves on site. The locals blame the deaths on wolves and Daninsky joins in on the hunt for the dangerous creatures. He gets bit trying to be the hero and the transformation follows at the next full moon. Naschy falls for a super sexy redhead and his curse is gonna place her in the awkward position of being the standard tragic slice of lycanthropy lore… you know; “only true love can put an end to all the awfulness”. It’s a bit too disjointed for its own good and the Daninsky series would reach greater heights in just a few years but it’s still an essential piece of horror cinema and I could watch Paul Naschy do his thing until the inevitable AI apocalypse finally hits.

The Mummy Returns (2001) (USA)

⭐️⭐️⭐️

What you should never add to your film series: an annoying-ass kid who gets into trouble and gets your heroes into trouble thanks to his idiot hijinks. What you should add to your film series: The Rock as an ancient warlord who is gifted supernatural powers by Anubis and transforms into some weirdo scorpion-man-giant brought to life by shoddy cgi. But you don’t have to listen to me, I’m kind of an asshole. Rick and Evelyn O’Connel are still doing their daredevil archeology thing some eight years after the events of the excellent first film but now they’re married and have an annoying son running around and being a nuisance. Their most recent excursion is deep in a tomb containing some artifacts concerning the mythological Scorpion King who sold his soul to Anubis and lost his humanity. This leads to them discovering the Bracelet of Anubis and the map it contains which points to another “lost” location with a supposed treasure and more monsters. Imhotep is also back courtesy of some bad guys (one of them being the reincarnation of his dead lover) and he wants that damn bracelet so he can gain control of the Army of Anubis and take over the world. Their dopey son puts on the bracelet setting off a chain reaction which will bring the Scorpion King back in less than a week, the bad guys need the damn jewelry so the brat gets kidnapped (I would have just cut off the kid’s stupid arm and discarded his corpse in a London gutter), Evelyn is having vivid flashbacks to ancient Egypt coinciding with the Egyptian new year (never a good thing), Rick has a tattoo from his orphan days which marks him as an ancient protector (did that magically appear between this one and the original?) and Rachel Weisz somehow looks even better than she did in the first outing. Sexy Ardeth is back and smoldering, British Jonathan is also back and even more British somehow. We also get more screen time from Patricia Velasquez who excels at being a femme fatale. It’s cornier this time out but I don’t mind that at all because it fits the movie’s atmosphere anyways. Brendan Fraser is still his charming self and has great chemistry with everyone. Some of the magic is sadly gone (a lack of Kevin J O’Connor will do that), the effects are pretty iffy (outside of the Scorpion King himself who looks like something that you and your buddy Travis would laugh loudly at when it popped up in a Resident Evil knockoff for Sega Dreamcast… Citizen Wicked: Code Betty?) and that goddamn kid is all over the movie. Still, I enjoy it. There’s also little mummy monkeys and I’m not gonna hate anything with pissed off little mummy monkeys. We’d get Yetis in the next one but that’s about all I can remember.

The Widow (2020) (Russia)

⭐️⭐️

In a dense forest north of St. Petersburg, there’s three decades of missing people adding to the natural spooky vibes. Any corpse that has ever shown up has been buck naked, some showing signs of torture. We join a team of volunteers being followed around by a journalist as they train a new recruit. An emergency call comes through about a missing boy and the team enter the eerie woods to search for a missing teenager. There’s a local legend called the Lame Widow... due to a limp not because she’s a wet blanket, that’s supposedly behind the disappearances. While searching for the young boy they discover a bound woman, stripped of her clothes and out cold. They yank some thick mud out of her throat and when she comes to, she warns them that they ain’t getting out of the woods. They manage to make it back to their vehicle as night sets in but find the main road out blocked by fallen trees. Looking for an alternate route brings them deeper into dangerous terrain and an evil begins to envelop our doomed heroes. Shit gets worse and they learn the importance of listening to legends just a little too late to do any good. It’s kind of like a Russian Blair Witch Project that benefits from its breathtaking location filming and enough of a budget to actually show some onscreen gruesomeness but suffers from an air of familiarity and lack of disarming tension. Stick around and you’ll see some Russian butt-cheeks and at least one supernatural impalement but it ain’t really worth it in the end.

Death of a Vlogger (2019) (UK)

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2

Spooky mockumentary follows a vlogger by the name of Graham who catches some paranormal shenanigans during a livestream. His friend Erin convinces him to do some investigating and they bring in a pompous YouTube ghost hunter to assist. Talking head interviews beef up the back story and piece together the factors behind the constant recordings. A debunking journalist sets her sights on proving that Graham and his friends are manipulating their audience. There’s a few well-placed twists along the way and the cast aces it in every role. Some nice jumps hit the sweet spot and the opening credits drop is friggin’ stellar. Great all around. I shan’t spoil anymore.

Godzilla Raids Again (1955) (Japan)

aka The Return of Godzilla/Gigantis the Fire Monster/Godzilla Counter Attack 

⭐️⭐️1/2

So-so follow up to TOHO’s groundbreaking original finds another Godzilla rumbling with an ankylosaur named Anguirus which was awoken by the same H-Bomb tests. Two pilots stumble upon the creatures locked in combat on a deserted island and immediately warn the authorities of the possible danger. Professor Yamane returns to tell everyone how screwed they are but offers a little hope with his idea to distract the big green badass with flares and lead him away from the city. It looks to be working but some fugitives and a police chase leads to a horrific car crash and a big explosion... guess who sees the light. The destruction of Osaka soon follows as Godzilla makes landfall and Anguirus arrives soon after to continue their beef. There’s some fun monster hijinks and a great jet attack finale but so much time is spent on human drama (which can’t hold a candle to the original’s downbeat script) that any forward momentum is sunk like a freighter ship in the vicinity of Godzilla.