Sinister Cinema

Jesse Matthews, John Stuart, Beatrix Lehmann. A tad long-winded, but overall this is a fairly enjoyable, sometimes creepy British mystery thriller. Much of the action is centered about a spooky estate where a singer is forced to spend the night in order to claim her inheritance. The film's highlight is Lehman, who turns in one of the best-ever performances as a sinister housekeeper, even better than Harriet White in the Dr. Hichcock films. Matthew's last starring role. Plays like a horror film...

Harry Andrews, Yutte Stensgaard, Glyn Edwards, Kerry Nesbitt, Derrin Nesbitt. Wow! This terrific body-snatching thriller is a grisly horror film, yet also a marvelous, sexy black comedy. The best Burke and Hare film? Could be. Unashamed. Yutte is gorgeous, clothed or disrobed. Rated R for nudity and violence. Aka "Horrors of Burke & Hare." Color, 35mm.

Nadja Tiller, Jean Claude Brialy, Edith Scob. A strange film that deals with a number of weird subjects, including occultism, possession, family curses, etc. There's even a disappearing, reappearing body. An unusual, and very interesting foreign horror opus, dubbed int English. Based on a story by John D. Carr. 16mm. Upgraded 11-95.

Lurene Tuttle, Tris Coffin, Myrna Dell, Nelson Leigh, Don Grady. Tuttle plays the sadistic, killer "mommy" who leads her murdering pack of bestial sons through a series of robberies and murders. The gang's activities are chronicled from the dusty Midwest, to their last days hiding out in Florida. Perfect drive-in fare. From 35mm.

(Also released as, DRACULA VS. FRANKENSTEIN) Michael Rennie, Karin Dor, Paul Naschy. Rennie is an alien mad scientist whose race is out to conquer Earth. From a castle in Transylvania he revives legendary monsters to help him carry out this insane scheme. Frankenstein, Dracula, the Wolfman, and the Mummy all star. Don't confuse this with the Sam Sherman/Al Adamson drive-in classic of the same name!

Eddie Constantine, Richard Attenborough, Eva Bartok, Pier Angeli. Forget Alphaville, this IS the best Constantine film. Eddie's a tough sailor who's being flown back to the mainland for trial. Also on board is the sleazy snake who turned him in, played to the hilt by Attenborough. The plane is filled with many colorful characters: stuffy socialites, sexy playgirls, etc. During the flight, a fire erupts, injuring the pilot. Eddie is forced to land the plane near a remote island. After a hard...

It's not often that we just go bonkers over an actor's portrayal in a film, but Patrick Magee's performance in What Big Eyes in our humble opinion is one of the finest acting jobs by an actor in a horror film that we've ever seen in the more than three-and-a-half decades of Sinister Cinema. He is AMAZING. An RSPCA officer is horrified when he discovers that pet shop owner Magee has been receiving and conducting bizarre experiments on wolves, searching for proof of lycanthropy in humans. His...

An excellent B&W made-for-TV Brit feature. The Earth has blown up! No one knows why or how it just happened. One lonely Earth survivor (Morgan) is a nomadic tinker on Mars. He spurns the love of a Martian woman in favor of shipping out to a colony on Venus, hoping to build a better life. But things are not what he expected on the misty planet. This terrific film has much thoughtful dialogue and many fine scenes with spaceships, far-off planets, alien races, etc... You'll remember Pastell as...

This two-disc edition features 35mm transfers of both the sound edition and the silent edition (with music score) of this forgotten sci-fi classic. An incident at the border of two futuristic countries leads the world to the brink of World War. Will the "Peace League" be able to stop it from escalating into a full-scale conflict? There's lots of intrigue between pro-war interests and peace proponents, the latter of whom, interestingly, are willing to fight to the death for peace. This film is...

In the middle of a world ecological disaster and the start of a new ice-age, the world is told that the space race and the cold war between the U.S. and Russia are fake. Both countries are secretly planning the assembly of a Mars colony. It also seems the Apollo moon landings were only a cloak shielding what's really happening on the moon the construction of a launch platform for Martian voyages. Hardcore investigative reporters strive to expose this fantastic conspiracy. An amazing little...

This British obscurity has been a much sought-after horror film by fans for decades. It offers a fairly engaging rendition of the classic Poe story. The acting at times is a bit crude and stilted, but what shines is the use of close-ups to amplify the feelings of brooding horror. There are some great shots throughout the film, especially in the final minutes when it becomes apparent that madness is overwhelming Dryden, who does his melodramatic best as the killer. Kelt, as the old man, sports...

Gaynor is a treasure hunter who finds the haul of a lifetime a sunken galleon off the coast of an island in the Philippines. Imagine his surprise, though, when he finds the ship is guarded by the vengeful spirit of an ancient princess (who's depicted accurately in the film's posters). She stalks totally naked around the beaches and possesses Gaynor's partner's soul, sending him on murdering rampages. Not bad for such a cheapie. Norman Foster directed. Several bikini-clad babes flaunt their...