The Little Shop of Horrors: A 50th Anniversary Celebration of 1960

THE LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS is an eccentric horror-comedy whose very premise almost single-handedly guarantees cult status: it’s  about a goofy guy who becomes a homicidal outlaw after accidentally cross-breeding a carnivorous plant that not only craves humans for food but also talks, demanding in a ridiculously insistent voice: “Feed me! Feed meeeeeeee.”). The concept is …

Black Sunday (1960): The Cinefantastique Horror, Fantasy & Science Fiction Podcast 1:26

No new genre films hit theatres this weekend, but fear not: Dan Persons, Lawrence French, and Steve Biodrowski once again rev of the time machine and take you five decades into the past, for a look at one of the greatest horror films of all time, director Mario Bava’s masterpiece of black-and-white Gothic horror, BLACK …

Son of Samson: A 50th Anniversary Celebration of 1960

The word peplum derives from the Roman word for pleated skirt, and a “peplum movie” is one in which the characters wear such skirts. SON OF SAMSON (originally Maciste nella Valle dei Re [“Maciste in the Valley of the Kings”]) was the second of Mark Forest’s muscleman movies (his first was GOLIATH AND THE DRAGON) …

The Dinosaurs of 1960: A 50th Anniversary Photo Retrospective

1960 was not necessarily the Year of the Dinosaur, but it did feature a pair of science fiction films that clearly delineate two different approaches Hollywood used during this era to portray the ravenous reptiles on screen: DINOSAURUS and THE LOST WORLD. Neither film is a milestone in its presentation of carnivorous carnosaurs, but each has its own goofy …

The Amazing Transparent Man: A 50th Anniversary Celebration of 1960

Originally created to be a co-feature for BEYOND THE TIME BARRIER, THE AMAZING TRANSPARENT MAN is the Rodney Dangerfield of low-budget Invisible Man movies: it gets no respect, even though it’s really not a bad little effort. Like BEYOND THE TIME BARRIER, THE AMAZING TRANSPARENT MAN was produced by Miller Consolidated Pictures, directed by cult director Edgar …

Beyond the Time Barrier: A 50th Anniversary Celebration of 1960

BEYOND THE TIME BARRIER is a low-budget, science fiction epic-adventure-wanna-be ultimately sabotaged by Arthur C. Pierce’s weak screenplay. According to To “B” Or Not to “B” by Robert Clarke & Tom Weaver, the project came about when actor-producer Robert Clarke optioned a script by Arthur C. Pierce, which Clarke planned to produce through a deal withMiller …

Eyes Without a Face: The Cinefantastique Podcast 1:24

With theatres offering no new genre films this weekend, The Cinefantastique Horror, Fantasy, and Science Fiction Podcast turns  its all-seeing gaze back through the mists of time a 50th anniversary ocular examination of EYES WITHOUT A FACE, director George Franju’s moody masterpiece of art house horror. Imagine a beautiful dream of lyrical black-and-white images, of …

The Hypnotic Eye: A 50th Anniversary Celebration of 1960

David Pirie in his excellent book A Heritage of Horror identified a new kind of horror film that developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s, namely the Sadian horror film, so-called because it was suggested that they would appeal to sadists only. The initial titles in this trend were HORRORS OF THE BLACK MUSEUM, …

Goliath and the Dragon: A Celebration of 1960 Retrospective

For those looking for a quality sword & sandal movie, they better look elsewhere than GOLIATH AND THE DRAGON, but for those who take a guilty pleasure in silly dialogue and ratty-looking fantasy monsters, this movie is bad movie gold. After the unexpectedly enormous success of Embassy Pictures’ import of HERCULES, American International Pictures shopped …

Assignment: Outer Space: A Celebration of 1960 Retrospective

For kids growing up in the 1960s, the very idea of space travel was still novel and exciting. It hadn’t become a matter of course, even in the movies and on TV. Films like ASSIGNMENT: OUTER SPACE (aka SPACE MEN) could capture the imaginations of young science fiction fans, without expectations of high budgets or …