Not my fault, entirely. Visited my grandmother in Tucson for her 80th birthday. Nice lady, great cook!

Right On!!! Y'all are really into some of the stuff that I adore. My truly disturbed father introduced me to scary movies when I was about 5 years old, and I have been warped ever since.

A short list (honestly!) of the ones he introduced me to & that thoroughly creeped me out:

INVADERS FROM MARS (original)
THEM!
THE THING (original)
CARNIVAL OF SOULS
FIVE MILLION YEARS TO EARTH
NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD
HORROR OF DRACULA
DEMENTIA 13 (geez, what a weird one for a kid)
THE INNOCENTS
BLOOD ON SATAN'S CLAW (better than the title would indicate)
HORROR HOTEL (the image of the fella with the knife in his back carrying the cross, while witches burst into flame, STILL haunts me)
CURSE OF THE DEMON
VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED (original)
THE HAUNTING
THE LEGEND OF HELL HOUSE
TALES FROM THE CRYPT (old British theatrical release. Pick your creepy image from this one; I'll go with the hallway of razor blades & the hungry Dobermans being released at the far end)
THE SENTINEL
THE EXORCIST
DON'T LOOK NOW
THE TIME MACHINE (geez, the Morlocks!)

On TV, I'll also agree with the Zanti Misfits (those little faces!). Also from The Outer Limits:

That Venusian THING drifting closer and closer to the terrified (and trapped) astronaut played by William Shatner.

The Martian "sandsharks" coming for Adam West as he struggles to reach solid ground.

Gotta give props to my man Carl Kolchak, too: the episodes "The Zombie", "U.F.O. [aka, They Have Been, They Are, They Will Be...]", "The Spanish Moss Murders", and "Horror in the Heights", from the single season of the NIGHT STALKER series, all scared me witless as a 11-12 year-old....

Joan, your "mousetrap" was a "zinger" insert on NIGHT GALLERY (series), which would require another whole posting......

Rocco and I, among others, have discussed the Scary TV Movie elsewhere. Any other tries at those worth mentioning, or from series such as NIGHT GALLERY, etc.?

Thanks for a GREAT thread, guys!

Here's a question for Howard and Chris and Rocco and whoever else wishes to give some input. I remember a chiller theatre type show (late 60's as I recall) called ZONE 2 that had a ghoulish, Alice Cooper looking host. That's where I saw a lot of these movies. Did any of you ever have that in your areas?

I wish there were more recalls of Night Gallery and Outer Limits in the thread. Those shows always messed with my head when I was a kid.

And to my embarrassment I must admit that any movie that featured a blob type creature spooked me out. That would include the original Blob, Kaltiki:The Immortal Monster, and X The Unknown.

Peter, thanks for trying. I too think that the "kidnapped" scene from The Thing may be the only cut from the original. What makes it confusing is that I've also seen the original Invader From Mars, e.g. on video but with different endings. One is more a restored ending culled from the various versions. You see the scientist, the lady & the boy huddled in a corner and then they look up & see the spaceship explode. I go back to watching this on TV since the early 1960s & I never saw that on any airing.

"Howard L, odds are you have the complete version of THE THING."

No, that silly scene ain't there. Of course, if that's all that's missing then it may as well BE the complete version!

Timmer - The movie I was talking about is called "The Eyes Without A Face". I haven't seen it, since I was a kid; but it was about this doctor, whose daughter's face was disfigured. She wore this creepy, featureless mask, and he father sought out young women to cut off their faces and transplant them onto his daughter. Not graphic, but unsettling. Great black and white images, as I recall. Would love to see it, again. It is a French film. Not available as far as I can tell.

Timmer, The Fiend without A Face terrified me as a child.
I wore turtlenecks for months and wanted to buy a
neck brace to avoid those brain suckers!

I've noticed that of the younger Board members, they tend to mention older fantasy scores too.

Ape Canyon, Washington. Well, we do have bigfoots, you know. If you ever get over here, I'll house you and your crew. Blair Witch can have its spin offs as long as they earn bucks.

Journey to the Center of the Earth was my favorite picture as a child, and the BIG lizards horrified me. I'm sure Herrmann's music added to the horror.

Mark H., so glad you are back with us!!
NP Still Pictures at an Exhibition

Like a few other people at the time, I was an enormous fan of DARK SHADOWS. I would leave school in a rush to get home (or if our TV set was broken, to the local K-Mart) to watch it.

The TV series ended, and HOUSE OF DARK SHADOWS came out. I lobbied to see it with all the fierce enthusiasm that a 12-year-old could muster. So my parents made it a family outing, taking myself and my four younger brothers and sisters.

Of course, HOUSE OF DARK SHADOWS was not the urbane, nigh blood-free afternoon soap that its predecessor was; the movie pulled no punches in its general slaughter. But...heh...that's not the movie I'm here to talk about either.

It happened to be double-featured with Amicus' TALES FROM THE CRYPT. And this film was no Silver/Zemeckis puppet-driven spookhouse! This was psychotic Santas, and Peter Cushing clawing his way out of the grave to rip out beating hearts, corridors lined with razor blades and frothing starved Dobermans.

Let me tell you, it was Mass Trauma in the household that night! Mom and Dad didn't get to sleep in their own bed. And I scarcely slept a wink, shuddering to wakefulness in a cold sweat the instant I dropped off.

Man, I wish they'd release that movie on DVD.

A few things make The Thing an obvious Hawks film---the portrayal of the Margaret Sheridan character as equal to the men, the way Kenneth Tobey acts despite the opposition of those around him (re-watch To Have and Have Not and you'll see Bogart do this more than once), and the way the group works together (watch the scene where they prepare to attack the creature with fire--no other director could have put this together).

John Maher--Eyes Without A Face (Les Yeux Sans Visage) directed by Georges Franju--with a great score by Jarre incidentally--should be available on VHS. At least, I can rent it at my local video store. I think the distributor is Interarama. If it's still in print, a quick internet search should bring it up.

Yes, it is the little things like when he's told to "put that thing out, Lieutenant" after the guy lights up for a smoke with all the gas being spread around. I've always been a big fan of the suspense mileage gotten out of something as simple as Dewey Martin looking at his geiger counter (".2, .5, .8...the needle's hit the top").

Uh...no, Roc.

I just remember Dick Smith saying that creating large, "Playboy Centerfold" style breasts for Katherine Ross in The Stepford Wives was one of his all-time favorite jobs. I can understand why. When the bulk of your commissions involve exploding heads and blood gushing wounds, a change of pace like that would be rather welcome. He also said that Miss Ross was very pleased with the way they looked. Not that she requires any "enhancement", mind you...but it was probably fun for her to "play dress-up" with them.

By the way, that immortal classic Fiend Without A Face will be broadcast this Friday, April 14, at 10:30 PM on American Movie Classics (right after that great program Cinema Secrets).

I'll be watching!

As it applies to a healthy appreciation of the majestic beauty of God's Creation, specifically related to the bosom of a woman, my personal view is that large or small, flat or round, firm or otherwise...God knew what He was doing, because they are ALL Wonderful!

>(Or is that normal men?)

REAL WOMEN are for REAL MEN!

Need I say more?

(I truly PITY Hugh Hefner! What a LOSER!)

I never pretended to be normal. I'm listening to Akira Ifukube's WHALE GOD score, for God's sake. Who ever even heard of that? It's manifest I'm a lunatic.

Christopher, there was just something about your transparently enthusiastic posting of the phrase "DICK SMITH BREASTS!!!!" that made me roar ... I actually hoped you'd come up with your own implications (once I'd written it I couldn't think of any myself. All us dirty young men are merely misbegotten nerds. Your excuse, Kinsinger, I've yet to hear!)

Joan, you've read a particular piece I wrote, so you already know who you're dealing with! (Come on, you owe it to yourself at least to see DESPERATE LIVING.)

I abstain...courteously!

Another, in a small town, everyone has disappeared except three or four people. Big robots roamed the towm blasting the remaining survivors with their eye-beam rays.

Those always gave me nightmares. Nowadays, they're pretty lame. Impressionable youth.

Does anybody remember Terror at 10,000 Feet? Where William Shatner plays a defrocked priest with an alchol problem?

Saw this one again several weeks ago. I'm always surprised (as above) with what scared me as a youngster, but what is now just plain, lame, bad acting, no plot scholck.

NP: Indy II

BTW Greg, when you mentioned catching the low-budgeters after school it reminded me of many an afternoon myself coming home and watching The Big Show on ABC-TV in NYC. I think that was where I saw The Fly the first time, as well as those loony potboilers like Die, Die My Darling. If I also remember correctly, The Big Show replaced "Where The Action Is" with Paul Revere & the Raiders. It may be the other way around. And Chris, Dark Shadows came on around 3:30pm before Big Show, no?

I don't remember ever being actually scared by any Hammer or Universal monster movies. They gave me a great thrill, and I loved them all (still do), but they never really provoked nightmares or anything. William Castle did that. House On Haunted Hill and Homicidal were nearly too scary.

Since my mid-teens, nothing much has truly scared me. The Sentinel had scary bits, like when Cristina Raines' father appears all skinny and dead in his underpants, standing in a dark corner of her room (Fred Stuthman in underpants wasn't a pleasant sight). That was just before she cut off his nose with a big knife. And Polanski's The Tenant had some really unsettling scenes. I remember something about a tooth in a hole in the bedroom wall. Doesn't sound very scary, but it was very unnerving.

Of course in Cincinnati, we also had the Larry Smith puppets with Hattie the Witch and Snarfy R. Dog. Hattie would always concoct plots against the good forest creatures living around her castle. In between, the station would run the old Marvel Comics cartoon serials with Iron Man, the Hulk, Thor and Captain America. The animation was pretty static, with the serials practically lifted from the pages of recent comics. There was also Captain Fathom (with the piece of cardboard behind their lips moving up and down to simulate speech), or Rocket Robin Hood, who lived in the asteroid belt and was constantly going against the Sheriff of Nott.

I can't stop the B-monster train. Now Mr. Bloom, I know you're as big a fan of Mysterious Island as I but there was a 50s one that had giant wasps so huge they made the bees in Island and Food Of The Gods? look like humble bumbles. Without going to IMDB, can you or anyone recall its title? I DID! Can you recall that old B-movie staple that did them in? I REMEMBER!

Hey Rocco, Mr. K's mention of The Cyclops had me trying to remember film images when suddenly the original Chiller Theatre intro hit me like a ton o' bricks! They spliced together clip-after-clip of all these monster scenes. Yes! Two clearly stand out: Vampira coming right at you from Plan 9, and the giant alien (he looked like Mr. Clean) from Attack Of The 50-Foot Woman picking up a Ford station wagon. The latter was so cheesily filmed that he not only picked up the car but the entire background frame of the shot, too. This last clip closed the introduction.

I saw that one a looooong time ago, but I don't remember any wasps! I DO remember a goofy-looking giant puppet insect. And I DO remember Jim Davis ("Jock" on "Dallas")in the lead, saying, "An expedition is putting one foot in front of the other, and then repeating the process."

I have a book that contains an interview with the fellow who did the makeup for that picture, Harry Thomas, and he talks quite a bit about those eyeballs:

"The producer-director W. Lee Wilder wanted to get ping-pong balls and cut them for the eyes of the aliens, because he didn't want to pay the price I asked, which wasn't very much. I made the eyes out of plastic and colored them, gave them a light film for the sclera and put a hole in the middle so the actor could see. . . . The main alien -- did you notice his eyes MOVE? What I did was put another pair of eyes over the first pair and pull them back and forth with strings. That was my own idea. . . I wanted to see those eyes move, and when it worked, that made my heart feel real good because THEN the audience believed it."

Well, maybe. Anyways, although Thomas mostly did low-budget stuff for Corman, Ed Wood and others in the '50s, he got to work on classier stuff later in his career, including "Logan's Run" (1976) and "The Hand" (1981). That last one, with Michael Caine, got pretty awful reviews, but I kind of liked it.

[This message has been edited by PeterD (edited 15 April 2000).]

Now I can get some sleep...