The Mad Monster (1942)

RELEASED May 15, 1942 RUNTIME 77 mins

DIRECTOR Sam Newfield

WRITER Fred Myton (screenplay)

STARS Johnny Downs, George Zucco, Anne Nagel

COUNTRY United States LANGUAGE English

STUDIO Sigmund Neufeld Productions GENRES Horror

Streaming on: Amazon Prime, Epix, FlixFling, TubiTV, Sling TV, DIRECTV

The plot: A simple-minded handyman (who can only be described as "the obvious inspiration for Torgo") gets turned into a revenge exacting werewolf by a mad scientist.

Random observations:

After watching 1921's Destiny directed by Fritz Lang this morning, it's quite noticeable that the film quality of this movie has degraded greatly since the '40s and could do with a facelift. However, part of the charm of the early 40's b-movies of this budget lies in the imperfections themselves.
If you watch this film on Amazon, please note that there are no closed captions available.
The soundscape of this film is akin to an arctic wolf sanctuary ASMR falling into a foley artist's collection of NYC rush hour traffic sounds and then pooping out John Phillip Sousa.

There's something super unintimidating about a werewolf in overalls, yet here we are. This movie walks a fine line of being too serious to have fun with, yet too amateur to take seriously.

I'm sure there are people in the world who dig this subgenre of horror, but I'm not one of them. I lose focus too easily with the slapdash dialogue and stagnant direction.

0/1 Directing

0/1 Cinematography

0/1 Visual design

0/1 Editing

0/1 Plot

0/1 Dialogue

0/1 Acting

0/1 Soundtrack/Score/Sound

0/1 Originality

0/1 Rewatchability

Total: 0/10 Binge Bones

The verdict: Boooooooooooooooooooooooooo.

Comments

Black Christmas (2006)

Black Christmas (2006) RELEASED December 25, 2006 + 3 more RUNTIME 1 h 35 m DIRECTOR Glen Morgan WRITERS Glen Morgan (screenplay) , Roy Moore (author) COUNTRY United States LANGUAGE English STUDIOS Dimension Films , Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer , 2929 Productions , Corus Entertainment , Movie Central , Hard Eight Pictures GENRES Horror , Thriller , Holiday , Mystery This holiday season, the slay ride begins. An escaped maniac returns to his childhood home on Christmas Eve, which is now a sorority house, and begins to murder the sorority sisters one by one. Streaming on Hulu So I just watched the original Black Christmas for the first time a couple days ago, so it's pretty fresh in my mind. One thing that made Bob Clark's version better is that the low budget aspect of it actually contributed to the creepiness and horror. This version looks better in a lot of ways, but the polish detracts from the gritty horror that helped the 1974 version succeed better at the goal it se

Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse (2018)

Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse (2018) RELEASED December 14, 2018 DVD March 19, 2019 RUNTIME 117 mins DIRECTORS Rodney Rothman, Peter Ramsey, Bob Persichetti WRITERS Stan Lee (characters), Sharon Bridgeman (story artist), Rodney Rothman (screenplay), Phil Lord (screenplay), Steve Ditko (characters), Jane Wu (story artist), John Puglisi (story artist), Heiko Drengenberg (story artist), Denise Koyama (story artist), Mark Ackland (story artist), Miguel Jiron (story artist), Yoriaki Mochizuki (story artist), Riccardo Durante (story artist), Ryan Savas (story artist), Eva Bruschi (story artist), Cody Cameron (story artist), Vi-Dieu Nguyen (story artist), Jihyun Park (story artist), Miles Thompson (story artist) COUNTRY United States LANGUAGE English STARS Shameik Moore, Jake Johnson, Hailee Steinfeld STUDIOS Columbia Pictures, Sony Pictures Animation, Marvel Entertainment, Arad Productions, Lord Miller, Pascal Pictures, Sony Pictures GENRES Action, Adventure, Animation, Science Fiction

Cry of the Werewolf (1944)

Cry of the Werewolf (1944) RELEASED August 17, 1944 RUNTIME 63 mins DIRECTOR Henry Levin WRITERS Charles O'Neal (screenplay), Griffin Jay (screenplay) STARS Nina Foch, Stephen Crane, Osa Massen COUNTRY United States LANGUAGE English STUDIO Columbia Pictures GENRES Horror Streaming on: YouTube The plot: A young Romani woman turns into a wolf because that's the coolest fucking way to destroy your enemies. Random observations: There aren't enough female werewolf movies Come on, Hollywood! (Or Pittsburgh!) The ones that we have are great, but they don't come out often enough. #gimmemoregingersnaps This film marks the first appearance of a female as a werewolf in a talkie! WTG, Nina Foch! (You might remember her from An American in Paris.) The setting is in New Orleans, Louisiana but is very recognizable as a Hollywood backlot. Twice-married-to Lana Turner leading man Stephen Crane is really the only actual terrible thing about this movie. It often feels like he's

Binge Bones

Search This Blog