The Place of Torment: The Pit and the Pendulum (1961)

Do you know where you are, Bartolome? I’ll tell you where you are. You are about to enter Hell, Bartolome, HELL!… The netherworld.The infernal region, The Abode of the Damned… The place of torment. Pandemonium. Abbadon. Tophet. Gehenna. Naraka. THE PIT!… And the pendulum

Do you like Edgar Allan Poe? I do and you know who else would? Catherine Morland. She would be a major fan of his books and the films based off them.

And I’ve decided to choose this EDgar Allen Poe film which also checks off our annual Vincent Price film!

Not only is this a Vincent Price film, but because of its Gothic nature it is also going on my recommendation list, Catherine Morland’s Viewing List Part I & Part II

This is the second of the 8 Poe adaptation films that our director, Roger Corman, made and one of the 7 Vincent Price starred in. I’m 1960, the previous year, The Fall of the House of Usher came out and was a giant hit, catapulting Corman to stardom and making everyone eager to have another Poe film, this the creation of The Pit and the Pendulum

Due to the success of The Fall of the House of Usher, Corman had a larger budget and was able to use CinemaScope for this film instead of black and white. I personally think the film would have been stronger in black and white as I think the color takes away from the dramatic content.

The film is adaption of the Poe story but it doesn’t directly follow it as the short story doesn’t have enough to make a feature full length film. Instead the writers wrote their own script for the first 2/3 of the film (trying to make it as Poe-like as possible), with the last 1/3 of the film to be about the Pit and the Pendulum.

The film is set in 1547 and while most of the actors are fine in the period owned, I have always felt that John Kerr was not suited to this dress. He looks a bit odd. Period costumes are not suited to everyone.

Now this isn’t my favorite of the the eight adaptions, in fact the film moves really slow in the beginning and a lot of the actors do not connect with the scenes. But, I do recommend it for Vincent Price as he gives the best performance out of everyone. Is he evil? Is he murderous? Is he misunderstood? Is he insane? But once we move to the latter third of the film, it really picks up and is grabs your attention never letting go.

We are in 1547 Spain and John Kerr’s character, Francis Barnard, has traveled to see his sister Elizabeth. When he arrives at her home he learns from her husband, Nicholas Medina (Vincent Price), that Elizabeth is dead.

Francis is shocked, angry, and wants answers as to why his sister died when she was so healthy, and why did no one inform him?

Nicholas struggles to talk about it and Francis turns to Nicholas’ sister Catherine (Luana Anders) for answers…and because he has the hots for her. After questioning the two the only answer Francis is given is that Elizabeth had a blood disorder.

Hmm…suspicious

Francis isn’t happy with this as a blood disorder doesn’t run in his family and she was perfectly healthy when she married. He suspects they are hiding something from him and declares he will not leave until he finds out the truth.

One night at dinner when Nicholas’ best friend and doctor, Dr. Leon (Antony Carbone), visits, Francis questions him. He discovers that Elizabeth did not die of a blood disease but that she “died of fright” as she had massive heart failure. Armed with this knowledge he forces Nicholas to tell him the truth of what really happened and show him where Elizabeth died.

Nicholas takes Francis the to “forbidden part” of the castle, a torture chamber that features multiple torture devices along with the titular pit and pendulum. Nicholas shared that Elizabeth had become obsessed with everything in here and started to become “unbalanced”. One day she locked herself in the Iron Maiden. When they took Elizabeth out she said the name Sebastian and died.

From The Wolf Man (1941)

Having grown up with a sister that was the extreme opposite of the type of person described, Francis doesn’t believe Nicholas and starts suspecting that he murdered his sister. Did Nicholas murder Elizabeth? Or is he telling the truth? With a Poe based film you’ll never know for sure until the very end.

Hmmm…

It doesn’t help Nicholas’ case that he acts so guilty and as if he is at fault for the murder. When Francis questions his behavior, Catherine reveals that her brother has a lot of trauma from when he was young. Their father was Sebastian Medina, a notorious agent of the Spanish Inquisition. When Nicholas was young he explored the forbidden room and witnessed his father torturing his mother and his father’s brother (as they were having an affair). Dr. Leon further explains the trauma as he shares that Nicholas also witnessed his father entomb his mother while she was still alive and heard the cries of agony as she was bricked up.

Creepy…

Nicholas is worried that the same fate happened to Elizabeth (which is interesting as it appears he doesn’t fully trust the doctor, and his best friend), and that her vengeful spirit is walking the home and torturing him-trying to make him insane.

The thing I enjoy about this performance is it reminds me a lot of Rebecca, when Joan Fontaine’s character sees Rebecca everywhere and in everything.

But weird unexplained things begin to happen. Loud noises are heard from Elizabeth’s room. At night her harpsichord is heard being played and she is the only one who knew how to play to. Elizabeth’s room is also ransacked and her portrait slashed! Nicholas starts going crazy, but is he really crazy or is that all planned to hide his earlier murder?

Hmm…

Francis thinks the latter and accuses Nicholas, while I don’t think Francis is wrong to be suspicious, as we all know I would be, the way he goes about it is setting himself up for failure. Every time I watch this I’m like you need to take a step back and reevaluate your questioning.

Nicholas insists they exuhume the body and when they do it is revealed from the position that Elizabeth is in, she was alive after she was interned and was in fact buried to death.

Everyone is upset and Nicholas is on the verge of insanity. I have always found it interesting that no one is concerned with the fact that Dr. Leon can’t tell is someone is alive or dead? It makes me think of that Sherlock Holmes scene.

Nicholas is on the precipice and it doesn’t look as if his sanity will win out-he’s hanging by a single thread. Then he hears Elizabeth call to him and follows her down to the tomb, where she rises from her coffin, reanimated and chases Nicholas. Nicholas is frightened and falls down the stairs.

Elizabeth laughs and is joined by her lover and confederate, Dr. Leon. I knew that guy was suspicious-either he helped in the plot or was just an extremely bad doctor.

Dr. Leon and Elizabeth are ecstatic that they drove Nicholas to insanity and plan for do away with him and keep the castle and money (not quite sure how they plan to do that as Elizabeth is still “dead” and they still have Nicholas’ sister Catherine to contend with). But to their surprise Nicholas has lost his mind and believes himself to be Sebastian. Has he truly has a psychotic break? Or has he really been possessed by his dead father’s spirit?

Nicholas siezes Elizabeth and throws her in the Iron Maiden repeating history; along with throwing Dr. Leon in the pit.

Francis hears his sister’s scream of distress and follows them to the the torture chamber. There Nicholas/Sebastian is continuing his craziness and believes Francis to be Sebastian’s brother; grabbing him and placing him under the pendulum.

Catherine arrives just in time to save Francis, but when they try to help Nicholas, he fights them and won’t let them take him, being thrown into the pit as well. Catherine takes Francis out and decides the room is to be locked and sealed, to never ever be opened again. We end on one final shot, Elizabeth trapped in the Iron Maiden, doomed to be buried alive. Serves her right!

I really enjoyed, and if you like Poe, Price, and gothic fiction; you are sure to as well.

For more Vincent Price, go to Ship of Ghouls: The Love Boat (1978)

For more On Edgar Allen Poe, go to Catherine Morland’s Reading List: The Tell-Tale Heart

Ship of Ghouls: The Love Boat (1978)

So you know what that means: Horror TV episodes Tuesday

I know this is a little odd, TV episodes on a Tuesday instead of Friday as I’ve been doing for the past few years? Well this year October 1st started on a Friday and it just doesn’t seem right for Horrorfest to start with a review of a TV episode.

So instead we will be reviewing TV episodes on Tuesdays, TV Tuesdays.

And our next TV episode comes from

So it is also time for our annual Vincent Price film or TV episode.

I love Vincent Price, and it just wouldn’t be Halloween unless I watched something starring him. This year I settled on this Love Boat episode as I was rewatching the show on Pluto and this Halloween/Vincent Price episode came on one day. I thought it would be perfect.

I grew up watching The Love Boat reruns on TV Land and loved this show. Each episode usually contained three different storylines (sometimes they tied together sometimes they didn’t) and all revolved around a theme of learning to “love again”. It mostly was two people falling in love it back into love (as they are divorced, separated, broken up, etc.); although sometimes it centered around familial love, friendship, or learning to love yourself.

Although rewatching this as an adult I’m like these people just meet on a week long cruise, they should not be getting married. That seems like a really bad idea. In fact as an adult I actually enjoy more the episodes where the characters don’t end up together and the ones where it isn’t romantic love but friendship or family love.

But I did enjoy this Halloween episode that stars Vincent Price as illusionist extraordinaire, the Amazing Alonzo. The Amazing Alonzo has been hired to perform at the ship’s Halloween party. It should be a lot of fun as he wants to get his name out there, will perform a few times during the week, he and his fiancé Ramona (Joan Blondell) have an all expenses paid cruise cruise, etc.

Let’s go!

Alonzo even has truly amazing powers, almost supernatural. Could it be real and not an illusion?!

Yes everything is going great, everybody adores Alonzo, everything is just what the two wanted…except Alonzo is enjoying all the attention from the fans and other ladies and not paying any attention to his fiancé.

Besides Alonzo there are two other storylines I don’t really care for. One is a boy lying to get attention as his parents recently separated and are trying to work together again. It is basically “The Boy Who Cried Wolf” as by the end he realizes that he shouldn’t lie or else people won’t believe him.

The other storyline is extremely stupid. A model was in a car accident and has a teeny tiny scar on her face, so light and minuscule and easily covered with makeup, and she wants to hole up in her room because she “isn’t beautiful” anymore. First of all she’s not ugly at all and she could easily afford good makeup or even plastic surgery to fix that teeny tiny scratch. Secondly, if this was the storyline they were going with why not make it huge, or third degree burns, or be made by a traumatic act that makes her not want to stare at herself or be looked at? It just didn’t work for me.

So back to Alonzo. Alonzo had crossed over from loving the attention by others to being addicted to it and downgrading Ramona from fiancé to associate when introducing himself and trying to sound more important.

Later Ramona complains about Alonzo’s lack of attention and Alonzo promises to make it up to her. He apologizes as he’s just so excited that they will be famous again, that’s all he can focus on. Ramona doesn’t care about fame, she just wants to get married. Alonzo again reassures her he will be all hers for the whole evening when a man comes by and insists Alonzo comes to his table to show his friends’ illusions.

Alonzo ends up getting caught up in the other table forgetting all about Ramona. Captain Stubing, Captain of the love boat, sees her and invites her to dinner. Mmhmm, Captain Stubing likes ladies that are taken as he doesn’t want a serious commitment. Those are pretty much the only ones he spends any time with.

The next day Alonzo is trying to do an illusion but he overhears that Ramona telling the Captain she left l her lipstick in the his cabin last night. When he goes to ask her what she meant by that, she tells him she spent all night with the Captain and that she and Alonzo are through. After that, Alonzo can’t focus on anything and messes up every illusions and trick he tries to do.

That evening Captain Stubing is ready for the illusionist show to start but can’t find Alonzo anywhere. It turns out he is sulking in his room as he has realized what a fool he has been and that he has lost Ramona for good. Stubing yells at him telling him Ramona is in love with him and basically calling him an idiot in a professional manner, also letting him know that nothing happened between him and Ramona. Finally Alonzo comes to the Halloween party and does his greatest trick yet, he freezes everybody so he and Ramona can have a word in private.

He apologizes, tells her he loves her, and then he tells her his real name, Wendall Moore-yep he’s finally ready to get married.

The episode ends with them heading home. Happy, in love, and ready to set a date for the wedding. Another successful trip for the Love Boat.

For more Vincent Price, go to The Adventure of the Sinister Scenario: Ellery Queen (1976)

For more adventures on cruise ships, go to A Spy Ring, A Killer Virus, and a Body Double Trying to Steal Carolina’s Life: High Seas Season Three (2020)

For more Halloween episodes, go to Holy Crap, Leonard’s a Zombie: Epidemiology, Community (2010)

The Adventure of the Sinister Scenario: Ellery Queen (1976)

 

So it is time for our annual Vincent Price film or TV episode.

I love Vincent Price and I can’t resist anything he is in. I was trying to decide on a film or TV episode, but this Ellery Queen episode intrigued me as I needed to fill a Friday TV show spot, because this episode looked fun, and I couldn’t resist adding another Sleuth to my “mysterious” year.

Mystery, you say?

So I have never read an Ellery Queen mystery or watched this TV show-but I do know who Ellery Queen is. In the Leverage episode “10 Little Grifters” Nate dresses up as him and the first time I saw that episode I had to look up who Ellery Queen is. Ellery Queen is actually similar to Diagnosis Murder, but backwards. Inspector Richard Queen is a renowned detective and his son a famous crime writer, who helps his father solve the really tough cases. (Like how Steve Sloan is a detective and his doctor father, Dr. Mark Sloan, solves all his tough cases).

So I found this episode on youtube and it was a lot of fun watching it as it had the original commercials that it aired with. So enough about that, let’s get started.

It has an old CREST commercial, I can’t believe these girls are fighting over which toothpaste to use. I wouldn’t care what my friends would want. I don’t think I even know what brand they use.

The episode starts off with them filming a scene from an Ellery Queen murder mystery- like how most end, when the director yells cut. The director is played by Vincent Price, I’d know his voice anywhere. I’d listen to him read a phonebook.

The Vincent Price, director Michael Raynor, isn’t happy and I don’t blame him. The guy playing Ellery Queen stinks, like he’s the literal worst. Meanwhile Ellery Queen and his dad are watching and are not impressed. They changed his story and dialogue. I feel you Ellery, Hollywood has ruined many things I love as well.

Vincent Price yells at everyone and is just at the end of his rope, and I hope he isn’t the one who is murdered. I’ll be disappointed if he’s in it for only a second.

Please, oh please! from Death Comes to Pemberley

OMGosh the guy playing Ellery Queen in the movie, Gilbert Mallory (Troy Donahue), is a serious jerk and diva. He’s going to die. I just know it! Too bad Michael Raynor can’t fire him as he owns part of the film and has a lot of power. It’d be great if he died.

Mallory meets the real Queen and is incredibly rude to him. What a jerk!

Mallory is cruel to the publicist and rewrote his script to steal lines from others-he’s totally going to be murdered.

So both the Queens are extremely disappointed in the experience. Inspector Queen expected glitz and glamour-but the studio is a really low budget one and doesn’t have the perks like the big studios. Ellery is upset that he didn’t get an updated script, all the changes are a surprise and an unwelcome one.

The publicist tries to console him and tells him he never gets the script changes either. How a guy can promote something without fully knowing what he is promoting is beyond me.

A lady interrupts them when she comes driving up to see Mallory-I’m assuming she’s the diva’s wife. She is and she is on set to keep her eyes on her husband, her husband who is involved with one of the actresses, Pamela, on set. Man, Mallory is digging his grave-someone is going to kill him, but who?

So the prop man unlocks the locker and grabs the prop gun, but leaves it open. Hmm…interesting,

Oh, I bet that this will be like that Psych episode Lights, Camera…Homicido where the man was murdered when the prop was switched out with a real knife. Mallory will probably be shot by the prop gun and really be shot as the gun will no longer be filled with blank but real bullets.

Pamela (the actress Mallory is sleeping with) shoots Mallory and closes her eyes when she does it. I don’t think she did that the first time. Almost as if…hmmm.

Hmm…is it her?

So she shoots him and all are happy with how Mallory died, as it finally looks real…but when he doesn’t get up, it turns out that he was…murdered. Shot by real bullets.

Ellery and Inspector are investigating which makes the local cops angry as they can’t stand these guys “butting in”. The Queens try to tell him about Mrs. Mallory-her threat of a final good-bye and that she didn’t leave when she said she did as her purse is still on set. There’s no way she would have left without it.

Hmm…

The head of the investigation, Captain Blake comes and it turns out that he and Inspector Queen are good friends who go way back. He makes the Lt. who was complaining earlier have them be a part. Haha!

They find Mrs. Mallory and she proclaims her innocence. She cries and says she loved her husband and would never kill him, and even if she wanted to she wouldn’t have had access to the prop box. She insists she only came back to talk to him as she no longer was upset. Hmmm…Her husband’s company had half the money in it-she probably could get access to the props. And did she really came back to talk to him? Or kill him?

Hmm…

Inspector Queen leaves to find the home of Dorothy Lamour and Ellery finds a note on his script telling him to talk to Al in special effects. He heads over there and it turns out Al has disappeared.

Ellery shows one of the other SFX guys his note and they find Al, who happens to be a fan and wants Ellery’s help. He insists that he put in six blanks this morning and never touched the gun again to reload it. He thinks someone got to the gun and put the real bullets in. He came in to work that morning and was loading the gun and received a phone call. With the phone being on the other end of the lot he ran over there, and it turned out that there was no one on the line. That’s the only time someone could have planted them.

His reason for hiding and not sharing this with the police? His sister was script girl on one of Mallory’s other pictures and he was afraid it would give him a motive, as Mallory dropped her and as she is “just a kid” it broke her heart. Ellery urges him to talk to the cops and they will treat him right.

In the next scene Al is in handcuffs. Yes, it turns out he had threatened Mallory, a fact he forgot to share with Ellery.

Lt. Smary Jerk Attitude gleefully tells Ellery what they discovered. He really hates Ellery.

The next commercials are pretty boring although one is for the Chicago Fire Festival. What is that?

Anyways, back to the show. The Queens are invited to a scrumptious brunch by Director Raynor. Inspector is mad as he wants to do some touristy things, but hey scrumptious brunch with Vincent Price, I mean Raynor, will have almost all your suspects and the gossip.

The big question in the air is whether or not the picture will go forward. And no one is quite sure. The Publicist for the film wants to get the stuntman Mike to be moved up to the lead, but Raynor isn’t interested in an “unknown”. This seems weird to be as you think the publicist would know better than to suggest that-their relationship seems weird.

The actor playing Inspector Queen in the movie goes to Raynor and tries to get him to reverse some of the changes Mallory made, but Raynor isn’t interested in dealing with it at the moment.

Hmmm…

Pamela isn’t too sad about the possibility of canceling the film as she will be able to get the part she really wanted in another film, a part that came her way after she signed the contracts for this film. Meanwhile, Mrs. Mallory is angry and starts pointing the finger at Raynor- telling Inspector Queen that her husband planned to fire him, but was killed first

Pamela also encourages them to look over Raynor’s gun collection as he’s a hunter and has a ton of guns that range from all types and decades. Ellery is super interested, but his father is done and ready to leave.

With that attitude I’m not surprised Ellery is the famous crimesolver in the family.

The actor playing the Inspector runs after the two and tells them something he just remembered. Originally Mallory had been wearing a real bulletproof vest but it was changed by Al, the prop man. If he had still had it on at the time then he would be alive today.

They go through the prop memos and find that Raynor was the one who asked for a bulletproof vest and that he wanted a simulated one instead. Raynor explains that Mallory hated the vest as he thought it made him look fat. Raynor tried to change his mind, but no dice, and he instead gave in. To some that may seem like a lame excuse, but the way this diva was, I believe it. The change was discussed off set with only Pamela being the one to hear if it.

Hmm…

Ellery is trying to figure it out who the killer is and starts reading over the scripts (the original and changed one)

The guy who plays Inspector Queen is always popping up and pointing fingers. I’m starting to wonder if it is going to be him as he always just “happens” to be there. He reveals that the end shooting scene changed from the original because the director requested it. It would save $200 to have Mallory be on the phone and shot by Pamela than to crash through a window by a stuntman.

But Ellery has discovered something very interesting, in the original writing, if real bullets were placed in the gun it would be harder to kill him on target, but in the new script-with the proximity, no way they could miss killing Mallory.

They ask Raynor about it who changed it and he answers he thought the clear shooting looked better and was cheaper, a win win. They are interrupted when Sonny Miller arrives on set to replace Mallory and everyone seems overjoyed to have him.

They begin shootong the car chase scene and switch Miller out for the stuntman Mike. I can’t help but feel something bad will happen.

Everything is going great until the car won’t stop and Mike goes crashing down the hillside.

We are back from commercials (a really weird Raisin Bran one) and it turns out the brakeline was cut-Mike is dead. So was the killer after Mallory, Sonny Miller, Mike the stuntman, or trying to stop the picture?

Hmm…

So the last one seems the most likely and the Queens start looking at Pamela since she is the only one who wanted to get out of the picture. She insists she has no reason for sabotage as RKO is waiting to do the picture until she is finished here. The Inspector insists that it isn’t a real alibi as she could have done the cutting of the brake line before she got word from RKO. Pamela insists there is no way as she doesn’t know anything about cars.

Ellery points out to his aggravated father that both murders were filmed, so they actually have an advantage as the review them for clues.

Ellery watches them and sees something? What? We can’t find out until he has rounded up the suspects.

Lt. Smarmy Jerk (I can’t remember his name and don’t really care to look it up) thinks Pamela did it as her face is cold blooded in the film of her shooting. Raynor defends her as being an actress and the Lt. says she’s not that good. LOL, I was thinking the same thing. Since he thinks she did it we all know that which means she didn’t.

Scene 231 is the clue. Ellery lists off the suspects:

• Pamela, the actress who wanted out of the picture
• The man playing Inspector Queen who’s lines were stolen by Mallory, maybe with Mallory (and Miller) gone the movie could be about him.
• Mrs. Mallory, her husband was cheating on her and she never liked this picture-wants to pull the plug
• Director Michael Raynor, he hated Mallory and wanted a different actor but Mallory had too much money involved-why he would try and stall the picture is uncertain, maybe it is a smokescreen to get them to look elsewhere
• The Publicist, Mallory was cruel to him and he promoted Mike the stuntman (which is a odd relationship) also trying to kill Mike as a smokescreen?
• Al the SFX guy-he hated Mallory but doesn’t have a reason for Mike.

Ellery gathers everyone up and here we go…

Elleey acts out the original scene from his script, Ellery going to the window and through it. A stunt is involved in the original scene so there would have been a stunt double-the stuntman would have been shot at. Mike was always supposed to be shot, the killer was always after the stuntman.

I KNOW WHO IT IS! You guys remember back at brunch the stuntman kept trying to get the publicist to get him get the part. Their interaction was weird as a good stuntman can have some power, but nothing like what Mike seemed to hold over the publicist. He must have something on him to make him do that. Earlier when Ellery complained about not being made aware of the changes to his story, the publicist complained that he isn’t told anything either. That means that he didn’t know about the scene being changed from the window and set up a murder using the original story.

Another mystery solved!

The last film the publicist worked on the actress had a nervous breakdown and was doing drugs to get through. Her drug dealer was jailed but the publicist needed to keep her going. She died from an overdose and Mike knew he supplied her with the pills and threatened him with the police if he didn’t do what he wanted.

Ellery and his dad exit set to do some conventional Hollywood plans.

That was interesting and enjoyable. Although it did make me think of Diagnosis Murder  (although I think that father and son pair had a better relationship.) I might check out some of the other episodes in the future.

For more Vincent Price, go to To All the Ghouls I’ve Loved Before: The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo (1985)

For more detectives, go to What are you? I’m Batman: Batman (1989)

For more mysteries, go to Why Miss Fisher the Movie Flopped for Me: Miss Fisher and the Crypt of Tears (2020)

For more that feature crime writers, go to The Perfect Murder: Dial “M” for Murder (1954)

For more TV episodes reviews, go to Who Kidnapped the Girls’ Soccer Stars?: North Mammon, Criminal Minds (2006)

Let That Catherine Morland Flag Fly Free

So Horrorfest started I couldn’t tell you exactly when. I’ve always been a fan of horror, thriller, suspense, mystery, film-noir, etc. I would watch them all the time, but every day in October.

When I went to college, I continued and my roommates were thrown into my 31 Days of Horror films celebration.

Who knows?!

So when I started blogging in 2012 I decided to include it and officially create “Horrorfest”-blogging about a film every day. That way it would save my friends/roommates from something they weren’t as interested in.

Yay!!!

Over the years I have established a set of rules and annual films categories. Every year I have enjoyed doing it although sometimes I have fallen behind because of life getting in the way. Usually I have the posts written, like this year I had all 31 done extremely early-the best I have ever been, it is just the editing that slowed me down. If you have someone willing to edit your work-give them a lot of love, because it takes a LOT of time to do.

So last year I received quite a few comments questioning Horrorfest as it has nothing to do with Jane Austen. They felt that there was no reason to do it and didn’t want me to continue.

Hmmm

Well, they are right it does have nothing to do with Jane Austen.

Even though Horrorfest doesn’t really have anything to do with Jane Austen, I have tried to input anything Jane Austen related-I’ve reviewed Death Comes to Pemberley, Death by Persuasion-or things with Austen actors in it like Ruby in the Smoke and Dead Again. I’ve even reviewed some films that while not Jane Austen-are films that Austen fans will love.

But even if I don’t review something Jane Austen, I think its okay to include Horrorfest as there is one character who would love this:

Yep the Regency spooky girl:

So for this year’s review: how I do Horrorfest VIII is that I watch whatever, and review it. I mean I usually plan the first and last film-and of course I planned The Planet of the Apes series review after someone donated the set to the library-yet it always amazes me how many match up themewise.

This year we had gothic films with the Horror of Dracula and Rebecca.

We also had a multicultural Horrorfest VIII as my Jane Austen profile pic was inspired from my Mexican culture, we had Horror of Dracula from England, High Seas AKA Alta Mar from Spain, Spirited Away from Japan, and Strong Woman Bong Soon from Korea.

We had dystopian futures with Planet of the Apes, Beneath the Planet of the Apes, Escape from Planet of the Apes, Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, Battle for Planet of the Apes, Logan’s Run, and The Running Man.

We had Non-Austen Films for Austen Fans with Alta Mar AKA High Seas, “Death By Persuasion” from Midsomer Murders, Rebecca, and Strong Woman Bong Soon.

We had superheroes with Batman, Strong Woman Bong Soon, and Unbreakable. 

Ghosts with The Fog, R.I.P.D., Spirited Away, and 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo.

And apes with the Planet of the Apes series and King Kong.

And of course our Annual films:

• A movie or TV episode from every decade of 1930s-2010s
• Doubledose of Alfred Hitchcock with Alfred Hitchcock Presents and Rebecca
• Animated Film with Spirited Away, 
• Disney with Spirited Away, 
• Doubledose of Lifetime with Death of a Cheerleader and Psycho Mother-in-Law,
• Stephen King with The Running Man
• Tim Burton with Batman
• Vincent Price with 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo

The full list of films, TV episodes, and video game reviewed for Horrorfest VIII:

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920)

King Kong (1933)

Rebecca (1940)

“Lamb to the Slaughter” from Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1958)

Horror of Dracula (1958)

The Notorious Landlady (1962)

Planet of the Apes (1968)

Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970)

Escape from Planet of the Apes (1971)

Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972)

Battle for Planet of the Apes (1973)

Logan’s Run (1976)

The Fog (1980)

Dark Crystal (1982)

“To All the Ghouls I’ve Loved Before” from 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo (1985)

The Running Man (1987)

Batman (1989)

Dead Again (1991)

Leprechaun (1993)

Death of a Cheerleader (1994)

“The Puppet Show” from Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997)

Unbreakable (2000)

Spirited Away (2001)

The Stepfather (2009)

The Last Christmas: Shadow Island Mysteries (2010)

R.I.P.D. (2013)

“Death By Persuasion” from Midsomer Murders (2017)

Strong Woman Bong Soon (2017)

Veil of Secrets (2018)

High Seas (2019)

Psycho Mother-in-Law (2019)

To All the Ghouls I’ve Loved Before: The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo (1985)

It’s time for our annual Vincent Price pick!

I love Vincent Price-that voice, he’s amazing.

And today is the 26th anniversary of his death-I didn’t plan to post this day it just happened.

So this year I was having a hard time trying to pick a film or TV show he was in. Which ones could I get my hands on to view, which one to do…

Hmm…

Then my niece and I went to Redbox, I only ever go when I have my niece as she just loves picking out the movies. It reminds me how excited I used to get over Blockbuster and Hollywood Video.

There we were looking through the movies and I saw Scooby-Doo and the Curse of the 13th Ghost.

We checked it out and it got all my nostalgia going! So that answered the question of what to review this year:

To All the Ghouls I’ve Loved Before

So as I have said before I have always been a gigantic Scooby-Doo fan. I used to watch Scooby-Doo Where Are You?, 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo, A Pup Named Scooby-Doo, The New Scooby-Doo Movies (in which Scooby-Doo meets the Harlarm Globetrotters, Cher, Sonny Bono, Batman, Robin, Josie & the Pussycats, etc.), The New Scooby-Doo, & What’s New Scooby-Doo.

I had four birthday parties be Scooby-Doo themed, a huge collection of Scooby-Doo toys, from my own mystery machine and multiple Scooby-Doos; to a clock, clothes, books, and almost anything else you can think of.

So I loved this show because of Scooby-Doo and Vincent Price. Yes, I was watching classics even back as a little kid. There is one thing I always thought was weird, whatever happened to Fred and Velma? How come they didn’t join the group on their adventures? They never said in the show (that I can remember) although they did answer in the new film.

Hmmm…

Anyways, let’s get started with the first episode: To All the Ghouls I’ve Loved Before.

 

So we start the episode off with Vincent Price as Vincent Van Ghoul, mystic, who narrates. 

I remember this used to get me so jazzed on Saturdays! It has been a long time since I’ve watched this though, especially the first episode-I don’t remember what it is about. Oh well, I will be pleasantly surprised!

So we start off in the Himalayan Mountains and enter an old spooky temple that is haunted by two ghosts. One ghost is taking a bath.

Why do ghosts need to take baths?

So these ghosts aren’t scary, but goofy like the ones in Casper or the Boo Brothers. They have awoken because the 13 ghosts in the chest are awake and have been acting up. The two want to sent them free, but can’t open the chests as it can only be done by the living.The chests glows red which means living people are on their way.

We cut away to the flying Mystery Machine where Shaggy and Scooby are flying Daphne and Scrappy-Doo to Hawaii. They end up over the Himalayas as they were looking at the wrong map.

Well Daphne its your own fault, you should have flown.

Seriously

The ghosts perform some magic to release the fuel and stop the plane. Gee, you think you could have come up with a better plan, ghouls? Like you do want them to be living, right?

They grab parachutes and jump out in comedic ways, you know Scooby and Shaggy. Daphne, however, takes over the plane and tries to land it.

Meanwhile, little boy and conman Flim-Flam has found himself in some serious trouble. He’s  been hocking a “miracle” elixir, and the townspeople want him out of town. He’s a bit of a charmer and tries to calm the crowd down but they aren’t buying it. But right when things get really bad the mystery machine comes through and he hitches a ride on Scooby’s parachute.

But they don’t escape for long as an officer arrests them and they go to court.

Like I don’t remember this first episode at all. They get thrown into court and sentenced to leave by sunset or else-plane or no plane.

When they get finished they can’t find their plane anywhere but tracks that lead to a temple. The ghosts have done it to trick them into opening the chest, but one of the ghosts locked it so they can’t get in after all.

These ghosts

Flim-Flam tells them not to worry as he will take them to his mystic friend who can help them. They go to a pub and find Vincent Van Ghoul.

I fangirled as a kid and still do as a adult watching this.

Vincent pulls out his crystal ball and gazes into it. He finds their plane but warns them the plane is in the temple but they must  under no circumstances go in. The temple holds evil, evil which cursed the town Each night when the moon rises the people turn into werewolves.

The townspeople overhear them, and now that they know-they cannot leave.

The townspeople swarm around them and make them sit and watch have them sit and get comfortable watching Ghoulio the Vampire perform. Daphne is drinking beer? Never mind, freshly squeezed wolfsbane. Scrappy says it turns people into werewolves, but it is supposed to protect you.

Daphne shrugs it off but then they hear a werewolf howl. They try to escape, but can’t and see all the townspeople turn into werewolves, including Daphne.

Shaggy and Scooby go running but find themselves in more trouble-you know those twos. They manage to escape with Flim-Flam and Scrappy down a sewer and Flim-Flam sprays Daphne with one of his magical elixirs and she’s back to normal. Shaggy and Daphne hug for a looooong time…are they together? But what about Daphne and Fred!

Anyways, the ghosts have drilled a hole and Daphne wants to go in the temple and get the plane. Scooby and Shaggy are actually the logical ones, not wanting to go in as they were warned, but the werewolves attack and they head into the temple to protect themselves.

Werewolves break in and chase them, but the ghosts help out Shaggy and Scooby to get them to the chests. Meanwhile, Flim-Flam saves people by spraying them with his bottles.

The Burgermeister shares the story of the 13th ghosts and how they caught them and imprisoned them in a chest , but before they sealed it the ghosts cursed them. This having to catch them all kinda makes me think of Danny Phantom.

Anyways, Scooby and Shaggy are trying to find a way out where they run into the two ghosts from earlier who have set up a fake TV show, Let’s Make ‘Em Squeal. Really guys? Really. How can you believe this? I mean this is a whole ‘nother level for you guys.

Although in their defense they did crash land and were just attacked by werewolves-this isn’t the strangest thing they have had to encounter.

They are given the choice of choosing between the plane or a doggy house.-but then they throw in option three-the box with amazing things inside…

Meanwhile, Flim-Flam, Daphne, and Scrappy are trying to find their plane. They are lost, but call on Vincent Van Ghoul who comes and warms them that a pair of ghosts stole it and are trying to trick them into opening the chest.

Of course when we switch to Scooby and Shaggy, they have been convinced to take the box, oh my gosh you guys.

They rest of the gang com running (minus Velma and Fred-ya still not over that), but are too late. They have released the 13 ghosts.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

The ghosts fly off into the world and now Shaggy ad Scooby must hunt after each ghost and trap the in the box. Vincent gives them a crustal ball, and Flim-Flam joins them as they set off around the world!

I have to say I really like Daphne’s outfit in this. It is very April O’Neil, even her haircut.

So what did I think? Well looking back It wasn’t the best of the episodes, it definitely was missing the fun chase scenes and Shaggy and Scooby dressing up in some ridiculous charade. But it was the pilot and does what is supposed to do. It sets up the series and I remember as a kid being hooked. I could not wait to watch it every Saturday and I remember hoping for the next episode waiting to see what happened. Did they catch them all? I have to admit, even as an adult it does hook you. It makes me want to finish watching the rest of the series.

To start Horrorfest VIII from the beginning, go to Count Dracula the Propagator of This Unspeakable Evil Has Disappeared. He Must Be Found and Destroyed!: Horror of Dracula (1958)

For more Vincent Price, go to Basil of Baker Street: The Great Mouse Detective (1986)

For more Scooby-Doo, go to Nowhere to Hyde: Scooby-Doo Where Are You? (1970)

For more ghosts, go to They Look Like Regular People, So No One Except Us Knows They’re Monsters Inside.: R.I.P.D. (2013)

For more werewolves, go to Women are Like Werewolves