I enjoy movies that subtly include social issues in the story, and use social fears as the basis for the plot.  " The Wasp Woman " by Roger Corman does this. Janice Starlin is desperate to save her cosmetic company, whose sales have dropped since customers have noticed that she's aging.  How far would she go to regain her youthful appearance... and at what cost? Roger Corman's " The Wasp Woman " is not one of his better films.  There is the obvious influence of the classic movie, " The Fly ", which only came out two years before.  While the concept isn't original, the story takes a different route, and offers up a lot of potential to include social commentary on the cosmetics industry, and humanity's fear of aging as well as its need to be beautiful.  While those are touched on (the fear of aging more so than the others), this movie misses some nice opportunities to bring even more depth to the story- and the characters at the same ti...

I'm back after a small hiatus due to being sick with the third of my " Terrorpolooza 2012 " movie reviews.  One thing I learned is that while horror and comedy often work together, sometimes, it doesn't work as well as it could've. A group of gangsters have helped a South American dictator to escape a revolution with a strong box full of gold.  They hope to gain possession of it by using a legend of a local sea monster to scare off the dictator and his guards.  All goes according to plan until an American spy... and the real sea monster take an interest in the group . " Creature From the Haunted Sea " is a Roger Corman horror comedy that- as was typical of Corman films, shot in about five days.  To be perfectly honest, you can tell that it was a rushed production. The story is certainly enough to provide a decent amount of comedic fodder to go with the horror, though the humour far outweighs the horror.  Unfortunately, due to a few of the charact...

  After all the black and white films I've watched over the past month or so as I worked my way through horror films from the 1920 to the present, I finally hit 1968- and a colour film.  It was a welcome change of pace- as was the story. Seperated from his regiment in 1806, Andre Duvalier stumbles across the castle of Baron von Leppe, and a mysterious woman whom the Baron claims has been dead for the past 20 years- because he killed her and her lover.  Determined to discover the truth behind the dark past of the castle, Duvalier soon finds himself confronting a deadly mix of guilt, revenge, and madness... " The Terror " was filmed on sets used in two other Roger Corman films- " The Raven ," and " The Haunted Palace ".  The tree in the final scene is from " The Haunted Palace " where it was the sight of Vincent Price being tied up and burnt.  In addition to re-using sets, this movie is notable for the number of directors it had: Roger Corma...

Today- May 27, 2011 marks the 100th birthday of that master of horror- Vincent Leonard Price, Jr. Born in St. Louis, Missouri, Price had a father who was the President of the National Candy Company, and a grandfather that invented, "Dr. Price's Baking Powder"- the first cream of tartar baking powder, which secured the family's financial security. During the 1930's Vincent Price became interested in the theater, and started performing on stage in 1935.  Soon, in 1938, Price made his film debut in the film, " Service de Luxe ", but didn't start gaining recognition until 1944 when he starred in the Otto Preminger film, " Laura ". His first horror film was the Boris Karloff feature, " Tower of London " in 1939, which he followed up as the title character in " The Invisible Man Returns ".  he would reprise this role vocally at the end of 1948's " Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein ". Price was often ...

I'm going to go back in time for my first movie... all the way back to when Francis Ford Coppola was just starting out... back to 1963... Producer Roger Corman hired Coppola to direct "Dementia 13" right after shooting the movie "The Young Racers," with a budget of $22,000.00, and his friends acting in it for about $600.00.  The script was written in about three days, and shows in the slight stiffness of the dialogue.  When it was released in theatres, Corman insisted on having a William Castle-like "prologue", where a "professional psychiatrist" discusses the D-13 test handed out to the audience... in order to see if they were mentally fit to watch the movie. For me, this is one of my favorite horror movies.  True, the dialogue is stiff and awkward, and the storyline is a little confusing and disjointed, but under that roughness created by the short span of time used to write and film the movie, you can see the potential sparkle of a tru...