History of Horror 2018
Week 5: Zombies

My second Rollin of the year. Here we see a Rollin film that functions almost like a movie. Not that a Rollin feature is ever a bad time - at least, not yet in my exploration - but they always feel less film and more hallucination.

Toxic waste awakens a zombie. Many deaths, lots of blood. The entirety of the film spoiled in the artwork. Violence used as sex much in the same…

Week #1 of History of Horror: Silent Horror Films; essay

The Unknown is an early Tod Browning film, featuring Lon Chaney in the role of Alonzo the Armless, a criminal who hides his distinctive double-thumb deformity by working in a traveling circus as an armless knife thrower. Throughout the film, the illusion that Chaney is using his legs to open doors, smoke cigarettes, and throw knifes is accomplished by having Paul Desmuke, armless in real-life, play the role of Chaney's…

Week #2 of History of Horror: Universal Monsters; essay

Son of Frankenstein is the third film within Universal's 1930s series, the last to star Karloff as the monster and the first without James Whale in the directors seat. It is also the first to star Bela Lugosi in the Ygor role, a role he would reprise in The Ghost of Frankenstein before moving up to playing the monster in Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman.

It's important to point out Lugosi's role…