Road House (1989) – Rowdy Herrington

Patrick Swayze plays Dalton, a lethal but zen bouncer in the cult-favorite, Road House, which also features the famed blind Canadian guitarist Jeff Healey as the bar band of the Double Deuce. Dalton is hired by Tilghman (Kevin Tighe) to help change his bar, the Double Deuce, into something a little more profitable. It has…

Terror Train (1980) – Roger Spottiswoode

In the early 80s, poor Jamie Lee Curtis seemed to be in constant trouble with slashers. I remember seeing the fairly generic poster when I was a kid, and the masked face and the knife really bothered me. As mentioned previously it took me a long time to come around to horror films. So until…

Humanoids From The Deep (1980)- Barbara Peeters

A creature feature is the next title that I dive into for DK Canada’s Monsters in the Movies book. I remember seeing this poster when I was growing up, and was intrigued and troubled by it. And being anxious about horror films at that age, I definitely didn’t get around to seeing it for a…

Dragonslayer (1981) – Matthew Robbins

Vermithax Perjorative. Was there ever a better name for a dragon ever? DK Canada’s Monsters in the Movies book brings me this classic film from ’81 as I continue my exploration of the dark chapter on dragons and dinosaurs. Boasting some fantastic creature effects, Vermitax may be the best looking dragon to ever be presented…

Zombie (1979) – Lucio Fulci

The next zombie movie to be featured in DK Canada’s highly enjoyable (and bloody) Monsters in the Movies book has been on the periphery of my life for a long time, though I had never seen it. I remember seeing the poster for Zombie aka Zombie Flesh Eaters aka Zombi 2 on the theater sheet…

Shivers (1975) – David Cronenberg

David Cronenberg’s first feature film is the next entry in the Mad Scientist chapter of DK Canada’s Monsters in the Movies book. That being said the mad scientist in this film doesn’t survive the opening credits, though his foul plan does. Set in a lone apartment building, the Starliner, which owns the island it is…

Horror Hospital (1973) – Anthony Balch

Micheal Gough, known to a whole generation as Alfred Pennyworth in the Batman films, is the mad scientist who terrorizes in Horror Hospital, where I check in to examine the next film in DK Canada’s Monsters in the Movies books. This one is so bad that it’s actually enjoyable. Gough plays the wheel-chair bound, secret-filled…

Vampire Circus (1972) – Robert Young

Vampire Circus, a Hammer Film (read as blood, fangs and nudity) is the next title from Monsters in the Movies by director John Landis. The book is available from DK Canada, and has been extremely entertaining. I really liked this one, it’s not lengthy, it falls short of an hour and a half, but I…

The Vampire and the Ballerina (1960) – Renato Polselli

The next title I exhume from the grave for DK Canada’s Monsters in the Movies book by director John Landis is an Italian film that got chopped up by North American censors to remove any untoward imagery (like nudity) to make it suitable for what they saw as the viewing audience… the matinee crowd. A…

Fake Blood (2017) – Rob Grant

Whether Canadian film-makers Rob Grant and Mike Kovac movie is fact or fiction isn’t the point of their latest cinematic effort. What is important is the film’s subject matter, and the commentary it makes on film, violence in cinema and the responsibility of the film-makers. Opening Friday at the Carlton here in Toronto, Fake Blood,…