An insatiable creature who loves the dead: Lady Frankenstein (1972)

“Could you love me?”

“Yes. If you looked like Thomas.”

Every now and again you come across a film that you love and can’t wait to share with the rest of the world, and when you do, nobody has heard of it. Such a film is Lady Frankenstein.

The film opens with a couple of “Burke and Hare” like grave robbers digging up a body and delivering it to Dr. Frankenstein and his old and crippled assistant, Charles Marshall. With all the pieces in place, the Dr. begins to prepare to reanimate the corpse. Enter the Lady of title; Tania Frankenstein. 

Tania has been studying at the University and is returning home after graduation. She is just as ambitious as he is and dabbles in human experimentation herself, and that’s not the only experimenting she’s into. She also enjoys teasing the local simpleton Thomas, if only he was smarter…

Knives, Knickers and Knockers: The Flesh and Blood Show (1972)

  "you're wasting time."

  "I should keep something on..."

You really can’t enjoy 70’s cinema without talking about Peter Walker. I always felt he was a strange hybrid of Russ Meyer and Gordon Hessler, but more talented than either of them. My first introduction to his odd mind was “The Flesh and Blood Show”. I was referred to this film after noticing (upon multiple viewings) that the drop dead gorgeous Luan Peters was in two of the three Hammer Karnstien films. Completely infatuated with her I began to seek out more and the rest is a memory.  

Boy was I in for a treat. The film opens with Luan’s character Carol naked in bed with another woman, Jane (Judy Matheson, also of hammer’s Karnstein films) being awakened by a banging at the door. Carol doesn’t even stop to put clothes on, as she answers the door in the buff…(and I do mean buff). She opens the door to find her friend John (David Howley), with a knife sticking out of his stomach. He stumbles in and dies, but only for a moment. Yes, I know what you are thinking. Peter Walker’s mind is a priceless place to visit, but would you really want to live there? Food for thought.

Anyways, they learn that they are all working on the same production, a horror film called…you guessed it. Soon they arrive at the sea side theater, which has been abandoned for years due to mysterious and unfortunate incidents. Here they meet the rest of the wildly free bunch of swingers…I mean actors who are participating in this Avant Garde production.

Fetishes under the Big Top: Terror Circus aka Barn Of The Naked Dead (1974)

“Now where am I gonna put the three of you”

Sometimes you’re just in the mood for exploitative circus romps or maybe it’s just me. Circus horror is more the stuff of video games and Halloween mazes than films.

One of the few is Terror Circus aka Nightmare Circus. Released in 1974 by CMC Pictures, it is something of an oddity. 

The film starts with three girls on their way to Vegas for a showgirls gig, Simone, Sheri, and Corrine. They stop at a last chance gas station and are given directions to a short cut. This does not bode well for our sexy trio as they break down at sunset and are forced to spend the night in the car.

The next morning they are awaken by a guy knocking on the window. Enter Andrew Prine as Andre, our hero? He offers to take the girls to a phone to call for help and drives to his place. He runs inside to “grab something” and the girls explore the front yard. They find a caged mountain lion and are a bit weirded out by it but shrug it off. They see a circus sign and decide to see what is behind door number two. Bad choice.

The circus is located in a barn and the attraction…chained half-crazy women! They turn to escape but too late! Andre has found them, and they aren’t going anywhere! The girls are interned into Andre’s menagerie of captive animals consisting of all women. What follows is a decent into psychological torture and depravity.

Andrew Prine is excellent as always as Andre, the looney head of this circus of the deranged. He gives it his all and his performance is top notch. He is subtle most of the time but there is a real sense of menace and  insanity as he watches the girls shower and clean each other. 

The girls are all fine as well, especially Manuella Thiess. She is the lynch pin of the film and whose eyes we view the pain and captivity. She is kinda kin to Nancy Hendrickson or Marilyn Burns, a final girl as capable as any other. I say that with a grain of salt though, as her fate is a surprise.

This film is more about esthetics than plot. It has some nice set pieces and scenes but not a strong enough story to tie them together.  It has the kind of things you might find there; a severed head in a bird cage, a monster escaping a locked room, a barn for of mutilated victims and a deranged ringmaster. 

Is it good? Not particularly. But it isn’t horrible either. It falls into that category of films that aren’t bad enough to be good and not bad enough to be entirely despised either. It would be best to watch before heading out to a Halloween maze at your local them park, maybe coupled with the memory of a spooky circus themed maze will make it all worth your while.

Though I usually  include a trailer with my reviews, there is not one to be found. Here is an odd song inspired by the film to fill the gap. Never let it be said that I don't try...

The Zombie King: the continuous rise of Rob Zombie

In 1990 I witnessed a zombie epidemic like none before it spread from the graveyard on to America In force. It was at the Cathouse on Highland Ave. in Hollywood. The band was White Zombie.

Rob Zombie was a force to be reckoned with. He did not dress like a rotting corpse like so many of his peers; he simply was an unstoppable force of undeath. 

As the years went by, the zombie redefined himself again and again. Out growing his mates in 1998 he was reborn as an undead Barker from a carnival infused Grindhouse of horror.

His first solo album, “Hellbilly Deluxe: 13 Tales Of Cadaverous Cavorting Inside The Spookshow International)”, introduced us to his singular view and his girlfriend Sherri Moon. The album was a huge hit and produced three hit singles: Superbeast, Living Dead Girl and Dragula. He toured for years also releasing the fleshtastic remix album “American Made Music To Strip By”  I have to say that living dead Girl was my favorite out of the gate and still wears the crown for that album.

We all know how we're gonna die: Werewolves On Wheels (1971)

“We all know how we’re gonna die baby, we’re gonna crash and burn!”

There was a time when Biker movies and satanic horror filled the screen in abundance; I love this era because everything was in excess.  There were plenty of satanic cults, vampires, werewolves, and hot naked chicks to go around, and that was per movie!

Out of the madness came Werewolves on Wheels.

W.O.W will leave you saying…wow, while blinking your eyes. The Devil’s Advocates are a biker gang that you might find sharing an uneasy alliance with Psychomania’s “Living Dead” biker gang.  After a violent opening where they beat a man half to death, the group heads inside for some leisure time lead by the gang leader, Adam and his girl Helen.

Here, they take over the service station and party hard. The group spiritualist “Tarot” is reading his cards when he makes an ominous prediction: they are all heading towards death. Forsaking his prediction, or perhaps because of it, they head towards a monastery where they are greeted by a group of hooded monks.  The gang throws down on generous portions of bread and wine until they pass out.

Enter “The One”. The only monk who is allowed to speak. He introduces himself to the group and leaves, presumably to prepare. After the group is asleep, the fun begins. After sacrificing a cat, Helen is summoned by The One to the Black Mass where she strips nude and performs a snake and skull dance! As far a naked snake dancing goes, she ties Selma Hayek for sure (why don’t we have more naked snake dancing?).

Not so virginal viewing : Virgin Witch (1972)

She's The Girl With The Power... To Turn You On! To Turn You Off!

Two girls, Christine and her sister Betty, are running away to London to try their hand at modeling. They are picked up by a guy that has “scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours” written all over him. During the drive, we learn that Christine is the more mature of the two and possesses some powers. They stay at his place that night. The next day, Christine zeros in on an ad for a famous agency. She goes in for an interview and strips nude for the owner, Sybil Waite. After taking her measurements, she takes a call from a photographer that needs a model for the following day. Christine uses her powers of persuasion to get the assignment.

She goes back to the sleaze ball’s flat to find him all over Betty. Christine is disgusted but has no time to stew because she has job to get ready for. She and Betty travel to a castle in the country for a photo shoot with Peter, the photographer.

After a tour, she gets to work, nude modeling all over the lush landscape. After one of the greatest lines of all time,  “I’m trying to get an angle, take your jeans off”, Peter and Christine are doing the old “in and out”. Meanwhile, Betty is having a game of hide and seek with a strange young man. While hiding from him, she finds a dark room with demonic gold sculptures. Sybil soon becomes suspicious of Betty and sets out to rein her in.

Betty passes out from fright and awakens in a bed with an older gentleman hovering over her. He introduces himself as Gerald Amberly, the owner of the castle.  After getting Betty under control, Sybil looks for Christine and is angry to find that Peter is all up in her “fruit bowl”! Sybil threatens Peter but he doesn’t care, he has his eyes on the prize.   

At dinner that evening, Amberly tells the girls that he is a witch and this is his private coven.  He wants to bring Christine in and have her at the upcoming sabbath.  Christine gives herself to Amberly for kicks, only to learn that they want more, they want a Virgin Witch!

A lot of people feel that this film has too much sex and not enough horror.  First of all, you can never have too much sex, unless the people in the movie are ugly (not the case) or if it is a movie about abstinence (I wouldn’t watch it). Secondly, I feel that the sex is a plot point in this film and the horror is a buildup, much like The Wickerman, Horror Hotel or the Stepford Wives. Christine’s goal is power and we see that at various early points in the film before it takes center stage in her battle of wills with Sybil.

Also, she is not the “Virgin Witch” but the discovery of a possible candidate is what leads to the final confrontation between Christine and Sybil. This is not a tale of good and evil, but a tale of dabblers and those of pure intent. Christine doesn’t wear a sign over her head that says “powerful bitch”, as the coven seems to need to proclaim themselves witches for shock value.  This is one of the underlined themes of the film just as Betty doesn’t need to be plastic and prudish to embody innocence.

Ann Michelle of Psychomania fame is fantastic as Christine, sexy and playful, but also evil and manipulative. Once again she shows her worth in spades.

Vicki Michelle reminds me of a 1970’s version of Katherine Isabelle and is quite good here as she is later in her career. She never seems like the tag along sister that she might have turned into in other productions.

The film is by no means a masterpiece, but a fun Sunday afternoon venture into horror or perhaps a late night aphrodisiac for the right woman or man. Not to mention that Rob Zombie wrote a pretty awesome tune inspired by this film for his Hellbilly Deluxe 2. Either way, if you are a fan of horror or exploitation, you might want to have this one on hand.

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