Seriously, am I the only person who likes The Deadly Bees?  The film has been given the Mystery Science Theater treatment and only manages a 2.6/10 at IMDB, but it has a nice style and is far from the worst of the  “mysterious happenings at quaint English village” movies.  It features striking visuals from director Freddie Francis, good character acting from Guy Doleman, Frank Finlay, and Michael Ripper.  Beautiful women (Suzanna Leigh and Katy Wild) and even a cameo by Ron Wood of the Rolling Stones.

Pop singer Vicki Robbins (Suzanna Leigh), suffering from exhaustion is sent to Seagull Island for a fortnight of rest and relaxation.  On the remote island Vicki encounters dueling beekeepers, a bickering host couple that make George and Martha from Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? look like sappy newlyweds.  Soon, killer bee attacks start up on the island.  Apparently not only is someone raising killer bees, but is also training them to attack specific targets, but who is controlling the deadly bees, the boorish Hargrove or the kindly Manfred?

The Deadly Bees is not a classic by any definition, but it is great fun.  It is a great rainy day flick.   The film looks great and has that easy charm so prevalent in British horror films of the 1960′s.  The film was made by Amicus, who made their name with 4 story horror anthologies like Asylum and Dr Terror’s House of Horrors.  Most Amicus feature length films really would have been better suited to the short format of the anthology as they usually feel a bit padded out at feature length.  Also the longer running times give more time for the holes in the plot to appear.  The Deadly Bees is no exception.  While hardly horrific by the standards of today’s gore fests, the script by horror master Robert Bloch creates some real menace and tension.  Even without blood the bee attacks are fairly gruesome with close-ups of bees stinging human flesh. The attack on Vicki in her bathroom, clad only in a bra and half slip is quite creepy.

The DVD from Legend Films and Paramount could hardly look better.  The film is presented in 1:78 widescreen with luscious colors and strong mono sound.  It is really nice to see the care taken on such a minor film.

Night of the Lepus is easily the greatest giant killer rabbit movie of all time.  Ok I realize that list isn’t too long but I defy you to name a better one!

One nice thing about 1970′s drive-in movies is you would sometimes get fading stars in the movie instead of a parade of no names.   Night Of the Lepus stars Stuart Whitman, Rory Calhoun, DeForest Kelley, and Janet Leigh, none of which were at the high ebb of their career.

The plot about mutated rabbits growing quite large and wreaking havoc in a small southwestern town dates back to the 1950′s with giant bug movies like Them and Tarantula, but made extra scary by having cute little bunny rabbits turned ointo blood thirsty killers.

The whole thing become unintentionally funny by the serious acting mixed with the cute, I mean scary, bunnies.  Things are taken up another notch of absurd as there is a disconnect between the script and the special effects as the characters keep referring to “rabbits as big as wolves” but on screen they are more like the size of Volkswagens

The trailer for the film also makes it seem like a real horror picture, but there just isn’t a way to make the bunnies frightening.

Looking for a fun and funny party movie, then Night of the Lepus would be a great fit.  Surely the RIfftrax guys will record something for this film as it was sadly missed during the heyday of Mystery Science Theater 3000.

Night of the Leups is availabe in a bare bones DVD from Warner Home VIdeo.

I don’t remember when I first saw Let’s Scare Jessica to Death (1971) on the CBS Late Movie. Forget Jessica, this movie scared the be-jabbers out of me! Even thirty plus years later it still delivers the goods and is an inspiration to writers and film makers today. I can sense echoes of this film in the works of Stephen King and M. Night Shyamalan with it’s small town setting and languid pacing with a healthy dose of paranoia. The imagery of the movies ending has been copied multiple time most notably at the end of Friday the 13th (1980)

Jessica (Zohra Lampert), recovering from a nervous breakdown retreats to an old country farm house with her husband and his best friend. The fact that they drive there in an old hearse and she stops along side of the road to do rubbings of headstones in the cemetery is probably not what the doctor prescribed for her R & R.

Shortly after their arrival the trio are confronted by a strange, sexy, girl squatting in their house, strangely unfriendly townies, and all of the old men exhibiting strange marks on their bodies. As more strange events begin to occur Jessica with Jessica and the audience questioning her sanity. Is it vampires? Satanists? Ghosts? Jessica losing her grip on reality, or her husband trying to push her over the edge?

Let’s Scare Jessica to Death is on a lovely, but bare bones DVD from Paramount. I’m thrilled to have this on DVD in a great widescreen transfer, but would have been even happier if the disc had some extras especially a commentary track.

Two new double features have been announced under BCI’s “Exploitation Cinema” series.  NIghtmare in Wax/Blood of Dracula’s Castle and Horror High/The Lurkers both have a street date of 12/30/08.

With a $14.95 price tag these are very affordable and sought after titles.  Blood of Dracula’s Castle is an Al Adamson hoot of a horror movie with an aged John Carradine and could rival Ed Wood’s Plan 9 from Outer Space as one of the worst movies ever made.

I’ve never seen The Lurkers, but since it is a Roberta Findlay film, I am intrigued.  Findlay is one of the lesser known and more notoriuous indie grindhouse film makers of the 1970′s and 80′s, often writing, directing, editing, and acting in her films including Snuff, Shriek of the Mutilated, and Invasion of the Blood Farmers.

There was a famous quote about the Velvet Underground’s that I’m paraphrasing: Only a thousand people bought the Velvet Underground’s first album upon it’s initial release but every one of them started a band. A similar sentiment could be applied to Equinox a.k.a. Equinox…A Journey into the Supernatural. This film originally made in1967 but not released until 1970 has its influence felt in films like Evil Dead and Phantasm as well as inspiring special effects artists. Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead movies come close to being direct rip offs of Equinox. The makers of Equinox, Dennis Muren, David Allen, and Jim Danforth all went on to successful effects careers, with Muren being one of the most celebrated effects men since his idol Ray Harryhausen. Muren’s work can be seen in Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and Terminator films just to name a few of his credits. The special effects are clearly inspired by Harryhausen’s work only a big scarier, and gorier.

The plot, such as it is, concerns a group of teenagers(including WKRP in Cincinnati co-star Frank Bonner) who venture out into the woods to meet up with one of their teachers. While in the woods they encounter a disappearing castle, several monsters, a giant cave man, and when they uncover a mysterious old book, they unleash the devil himself. The plot is just there to hang the special effects sequences on, but it still provides for some creepy moments and the film is so much fun you really don’t care if the plot makes much sense. Everything about Equinox is just a joy, if you really love older, creaky horror films and fairy tales you should be captivated.

The film is out on DVD from Criterion, so you know you are getting it the best it can be presented. On this 2 disc set you get the original 1967 version: Equinox…A Journey into the Supernatural and the 1970 Equinox which was re cut with new footage by producer Jack Harris. Each version of the film comes complete with really involving audio commentaries and a full disc of other supplements.

Equinox truly is a film that has to been seen to be believed. It works both as a low budget horror film, that makes no apologies for it’s naive charms and as a look at the formative years of some great special effects artists. If you are lucky enough to be caught in it’s spell you will not be disappointed.

www.criterionco.com

Quick! Hands up everyone who has not seen George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead. That’s what I thought, but for the uninitiated, NotLD tells the story of a small group of people holed up in a Pennsylvania farmhouse, trying to survive the night while zombies try to get into the house. The zombies are being created by radiation from an exploded space probe that had recently returned from Venus. The film, which is at times slow, builds it’s unease from the opening scenes and continues with healthy doses of claustrophobia and paranoia. The viewer never knows more than the characters on the screen know up until the shock ending.

Night of the Living Dead is the blueprint for most horror and nearly every zombie movie made since 1968 even those films that don’t take some inspiration from the film are intentionally trying to not show the influence. The film has been sequeled, parodied, re-made by rarely bettered. It has also been seen as an allegory for the Civil Rights Movement and/orthe Vietnam War. Of course any film made between 1967 and 1972 could be seen as addressing one of these issues. The racial element is pretty obvious and makes some sense especially in the closing scenes. An allegory for the Vietnam War? I think that’s a stretch by people trying to read something that isn’t there.

Night of the Living Dead has a weird history on DVD. There are countless releases of edited, public domain prints on discs that sell as low as one dollar. Trust me, save your money and get a good quality disc.

The recent DVD from Legend Films would be a good place to start. The disc features a really nice, un-cut, restoration of the film complete with 2.0 mono and 5.1 Dolby Stereo sound. There is also a Rifftrax commentary from former Mystery Science Theater 3000 alum, Mike Nelson. Ok you aren’t going to get a lot of inside information or a film theory lesson, but the tracks is quite funny, and even die hard fans of the film will get some chuckles and some handy Zombie cocktail recipes during the slow spots. The disc also has a colorized version of the film. Without getting into any of the merits of colorization in general, the results on this film look good, far superior to the mid 1980’s attempt, although I always imagined Johnny’s car to be blue, not red. Plus you’ll need to watch it at least once to hear the commentary track. Plus Legend Films have given the purists a great black & white version as well, and all for a very affordable price.

www.legendfilms.net