The Werewolf (1956) / The Vulture (1966)

The first flick in tonight’s double feature was this 50’s monster flick.

A man is wandering in a small town at night. He seems to have lost his memory, not even able to recall his name. After leaving a bar, he gets into a fight with a guy who tries to steal his money, and transforms into a werewolf and kills him. A woman sees the entire thing and screams, attracting the attention of the people in the bar. The sheriff is called, and he and the townspeople set about to try and capture this mysterious man before he kills again. They seek the help of the town doctor and his nurse daughter.

Despite the film playing things mostly straightforward, it still manages to be slightly cheesy and fun. The werewolf makeup is goofy, and the explanation for how he becomes a monster is kinda far-fetched (some paranoid doctor injects him with an experimental serum in an effort to save himself and a few others from an apocalypse that he is sure is coming). Ultimately, it’s a fun and decent old werewolf film.

The next film was a 60’s mystery called The Vulture, about a scientist who investigates the sighting of a mysterious monster.

One night in Cornwall, a woman becomes hysterical when she sees what she describes as a giant bird with a human face flying out of an open grave. The grave belonged to Francis Real, an 18th century seaman who was buried alive with his pet vulture. Before dying, Real had swore vengeance on the Stroud family, who were responsible for his death. An American scientist named Eric is married to Trudy, the niece of Brian Stroud, the descendants of the family who killed Real. After finding feathers and evidence that a giant bird is in the area, Eric becomes convinced that the curse of Real is real, and tries to find answers to protect his wife and her uncles from the curse. Eventually, a giant bird starts stalking the Strouds, and Eric races against time to solve the mystery before they’re all killed.

The movie is cheesy as hell, and the reveal of the bird monster is laughable (it’s a giant vulture with a human head). The explanation for its existence is rooted in ridiculous science (created by means of nuclear transmutation). The monster attacks are fun, the plot goes all over the place, with one mysterious character that seems important, and then his storyline ends up going nowhere. The cast play it seriously, reciting a lot of absurd dialogue. The end result is an entertaining b-movie. I streamed both of these flicks on YouTube. Check them out if you enjoy retro monster movies.

Comments

Help Me… I’m Possessed (1974) / #Missingcouple (2024)

I've watched some weird, obscure horror movies throughout my life. I can now add this lurid 1974 schlockfest to that growing list. In a castle in the desert, Dr. Arthur Blackwood runs a sanitarium filled with mentally disturbed patients (as well as staff). He claims to be working on finding a way to cure people of any violent tendencies they have, and brags about his younger sister, innocent, child-like Melanie, as evidence that his treatment works. When she was a child, their parents had to keep her locked up and chained in the basement, to control her violent fits. Now that he's cured her, Arthur has his wife Diane come to the castle to meet Melanie, so that they can be one big, happy family. Diane begins to grow suspicious that something is amiss after a Sheriff shows up investigating the murder of 2 local teens, and sets about on her own investigation, hoping to uncover the sinister secrets that she feels her husband is hiding. Help Me... I'm Possessed is an outrageous,...

Titanic Creations Yongary 1967

This figure was released in late December, and I got it about 2 days before the New Year, so I'm counting it as a 2025 release. It is the Titanic Creations version of the Korean kaiju Yongary, Monster From The Deep. The film was released in 1967 as a Godzilla ripoff, with several ideas copied from the Gamera series, such as his tusks, his ability to fire a stream of flames from his mouth, and even firing a laser beam from his horn, similar to the slicing one used by Gyaos. The film is pretty goofy, but Yongary, like most of those Asian monsters, was pretty cool (to me, at least), so I was psyched that someone finally made a figure of this lesser known kaiju. When Titanic Creations put it up for pre-order, they announced a series of tiers, where they would add accessories when a certain number of orders were met. Enough fans ordered him, so that Yongary ended up with a shit ton of stuff, making him absolutely worth the price. In addition to the kaiju, you get a flame breath effect, ...

RicSan Custom Toys Kyōrū Kaiju (Titanosaurus)

My latest kaiju figure purchase is the Titanosaurus made by Ricsan Custom Toys. I own and love the Varan & Gabara, so of course I had to preorder this one when it was available. He was delivered earlier this week. This kaiju hails from the last Godzilla film of the Showa era, 1975's Terror of Mechagodzilla. The Black Hole aliens are back, rebuilding their robot in another effort to take over the planet. They enlist the help of an ostracized Earth scientist named Mafune and his daughter Katsura, who are able to control an aquatic dinosaur named Titanosaurus. They plan to use both kaiju and mecha to attack Japan. Titano was a cool monster, with his tail that opened into a fish fin, and he would use it to create whirlpools in the sea, and high winds on land. I'm hoping that S.H. Monsterarts makes one for the 50th anniversary of the film, but when I saw this Ricsan Custom version, I couldn't pass it up. Titanosaurus (called the Kyōrū Kaiju), comes in a white box, with its n...

Musings of an Inkd Geek

Search This Blog