31 Days of Horror 2021 Day 14 Horror Hotel

 

TITLE-Horror Hotel AKA The City of the Dead

SOURCE-Cinema Insomnia on OSI 74 Streaming App

Pretty much every year for the past 10 years I've tried to watch a horror hosted film for 31 Days of Horror. Over the years I have covered the bigger known ones like Elvira and Svengoolie. And the lesser known ones like Kreepy Koffee Movie Time or Count Gore De Vol. One of the better known ones I haven't covered is Mr. Lobo of Cinema Insomnia. Cinema Insomnia started back in late July 2001. And as far as I know is still going on. I hear that Cinema Insomnia airs on various tv stations all over the US. But I have only ever watched it on either Vimeo or the OSI 74 app.

Mr. Lobo starts each episode off promising us a fairly well known horror film.But something always happens were that film can't be shown so we get a lesser known film. For this episode Mr Lobo says he is going to show us Rob Zombie's Lords of Salem. But nope we end up with Horror Hotel Aka City of the Dead.

Horror Hotel is in the public domain here in the States. So shouldn't be hard to find online or on many of the various streaming apps that are loaded up with PD films,tv shows and cartoons. Made back in 1960 this film was made by British filmmakers but is set in the US. With Christopher Lee being the best known member of the cast.

The film starts back in the 1690s. Set in Massachusetts we see a witch being burned at the stake.Before she died this witch and her helper have sold their souls to Lucifer. This way they get eternal life and revenge on the town that killed them. All they have to do is sacrifice two virgins a year. On Candlemas Eve & Witches' Sabbath.

Skip ahead to present day,well present day as of when the film was released. A college prof tells one of his students to goto the town from the prologue. This student goes and ends up being the sacrifice on Candlemas Eve.

A couple of weeks later the student's fiancee and her brother head to the same town. They get there seperately. With Bill the fiancee almost dying in a car wreck. This was caused by him seeing the ghostly image of the witch from the start of the film.

Bill and the brother make it to the town. Find out that a coven lead by the witch have taken control of the town. We find out the prof ,played by Christopher Lee

,is part of this coven. And appears to have been providing the town with the needed virginal scarifices two times a year. Our two heroes manage to stop the coven and break the pact with Lucifer.

The above cover is one I remember seeing many times in video stores back in the 80s. Not sure why I never rented it. Might have been because it was b/w. Back when I was a kid and early teen I wasn't much into b/w horror films.

I had forgotten about this movie.Then earlier this week I was driving to town. Listening to one of the many Misfits CDs I keep in my car. Their song Horror Hotel came on and while singing along with it I thought "Man I really need to see that movie". Looked around online and it was easy to find. With copies being on Youtube,Internet Archive and pretty much every streaming app that has "Free Horror movies". Seeing that it is public domain I figured it would be easy to find a version with a horror host. And I've been wanting to watch more Cinema Insomnia with MR Lobo. Looked on the OSI 74 streaming app and they had the episode with Horror Hotel.

You can tell after watching this movie that Rob Zombie was inspired by this when he made Lords Of Salem. But then Lords of Salem was pretty much Rob taking his favorite parts of various Euro Horror films and making that into a damn good movie.

Horror Hotel is a pretty entertaining film. It might feel a bit slow to people use to modern horror. But it has great atomosphere. And Christopher Lee is great in this.So if you want to watch an older horror flick. And don't want to spend any money go track down a copy of Horror Hotel.

Horror Hotel gets a B-.

2016 Comic Challenge 161 Miracleman #01

TITLE-Miracleman #01
PUBLISHER-Eclipse

Having recently found a second copy of issue #24 of this series I wanted to go back and start reading it again from the beginning. Sure I could read those nice new reprints from Marvel,which while very nice have way to high a cover price.But instead I dug out the old Eclipse run.

Coming out in the summer of 85 I was fairly young when Eclipse started publishing this UK series. Thankfully the comic shop I went to was run by a guy who had lived most of his life right outside Blackpool. So his shop always had copies of 2000 AD and even Warrior. Which back in the mid 80s wasn't that common.Around the time issue 3 hit the stands I was in the comic shop. I had 3 bucks left over after grabbing my normal monthly stack,and the owner handed me issues 1 and 2 of Miracleman. From then until it ended when Eclipse went under I read every issue.

Starting off with a reprinted 60s story of Mike Moran and the rest of the Miracle Family,by chapter 2 we are in 1983 England. Mike is a freelance reporter that is having the same dream over and over. After he is taken hostage by some terrorist at a nuclear plant,Mike remembers the magic word that turns him into Miracleman. And for the first time this world has a legit superhero.

Moore took a character that is basically the bastard grandson of Superman and made him into a much more nuanced and thought out person that Supers has ever been.And even in this first issue there are pieces of what Moore kept doing and brought to the forefront of the comic issues later. The idea that superhero comics are a very childish genre. And in the early 80s and hell even now most of the superhero comics published are written to appeal to kids/middle age man childs. These are reasons I think that some people hate this series. They can't accept that the genre they have loved since they were kids is at it's very core kind of silly and stupid. But being the great writer he is Moore manages to take this childish genre and by injecting a bit of realism make it into something that broke most of the genre rules. And by the end of his run a title that was more science fiction/religious based than just a silly comic with guys in colorful tights punching each other.

Right now is the best time since the early 90s to get into Miracleman. Marvel has reprinted most of the 24 issues Eclipse put out. And what isn't reprinted currently will be out soon. Plus finally Neil Gaiman,he took over the writing of the series after Moore left,will be able to finish his 2 and 3rd stories lines.


Miracleman #01 gets a buy.

2016 Comic Challenge 145 Planet of the Apes & Dracula Lives #90 UK release

TITLE-Planet of the Apes and Dracula Lives #90

PUBLISHER-Marvel Comics

I had heard of various UK b/w weeklies that reprinted and even published new stories featuring all kinds of stuff Marvel had the rights to over the years. But I had never seen or heard of a title that combined Planet of the Apes with Marvel's take on Dracula.

 Under the cover there is this nice pin up on the inside front cover. It is signed in the bottom right corner but I have no idea who it is.

 I am guessing this lead off story is reprinted from the Marvel Planet of the Apes magazine.Doug Moench handles the story chores. And the always great Mike Ploog does the art duties. There is 7 pages of Ploog's gorgeous artwork. And these 7 pages just confirmed that I need to track down more issues of the POTA magazine from Marvel.

 Dracula Lives has been reprinted,but slightly censored,in the Essential Tomb of Dracula trades. I have read the color comic,but never this B/W magazine.This 8 pager has Doctor Sun and even Blade,looking nothing like he does now.The late Gene Colon and Tom Palmer get the art credits. And Marv Wolfman,who also wrote the color comic,gets the writing credit. It is not a bad little story. I wish there was more. But I can understand that with this being a weekly title they gave you short pieces of more stories.

Third is the Man Thing story NIGHT OF THE LAUGHING DEAD!!This was originally in the color Man-Thing series.And was even made into a Power Record read-along record.The late Steve Gerber wrote the story. And Mike Ploog is once again doing the art. IIRC this story was 2 issues of the comic. So getting only 6 pages is kind of a rip. I still can't hate on a comic that got CCA approved,and made into a read along record for young kids,would have this sequence.

Yep a circus clown wanders out into Man-Thing's part of the Everglades. And the clown commits suicide.

Kazar is not only the last comic in the title,but also has the most pages with 10 pages.The final page is on the inside back cover. Never been a Kazar fan. No clue what this is reprinted from.I am guessing made from some of the Kazar stuff in the Astonishing Tales magazine. Gerry Conway is the writer. And John Buscema and Alfredo Alcala are the artists. The art is nice,but the story is blah.

One of the things that really stood out to me in this comic is how few ads there is.In the 33 pages there is 2 ads. Yeah 2 ads.

I remember having a few Corgi diecast cars. But never knew there was a Kojak's Buick model.

I really have no clue what this is. If anyone remembers this product or knows more about it please contact me here on the blog.

Outside of the Kazar story,this was a good read. Good to great artwork. And I like the format of getting a mixture of genres.

Planet of the Apes and Dracula Lives #90 gets a Buy.

31 Days of Horror 2014 Halloween Day Extra Movie 02

Creep
Source-Lionsgate 4 pack

I bought this 4 pack hell 2 or 3 years ago. It was $5 and I had heard good things about Creep. But for some unknown reason I ended up watching the other 3 films on the set but not Creep. 2 of the other three were good,Drive Thru and Tamara. Both of them I reviewed in one of the previous 31 days of Horror.

Set in Modern day UK. Creep is about a German woman,she is at a party and heads off to another because she heard George Clooney is going to be there. She ends up locked in the underground,that is what the subway system is called in the UK. A train comes to the station she is locked in and she quickly jumps onto it. Turns out a coked up asshole is also on the train. She knows him from somewhere. And he gets killed by some unseen killer. Our heroine gets off the train and tries to hide.

While hiding she meets up with a couple of homeless 20 somethings. The male of the group offers to help her out. But he quickly meets his maker. Kate,our lead,ends up down in the sewers where she meets the malformed titular Creep.

Normally I find most UK horror films to be a bit dry and kind of slow paced. This is not one of those films. The pacing is well done. I never once got bored or bothered to check and see how much time the film had left.Franka Pontente is good as our heroine Kate. She seems to really be scared. Which is something I have noticed lots of people in indy horror have trouble conveying.

The FX work looks to be mostly practical effects. If it is CGI it is very well done CGI. As far as the story,it isn't the most original. I kind of remember an early 80s UK horror called something like Raw Meat about killers in the underground system. Then there is the classic short story "Midnight Meat Train" which has been adapted into a pretty good film. Now that I think about it the few killers in the subway movies I have seen are all UK based.

I do wish the DVD version I own had say a behind the scenes featurette or even better a commentary with the director,actors and/or writer.  If you find the pack it is in,which has Drive Thru,Boy Eats Girl,Tamara and Creep grab it. Creep alone is worth the $5 I see it selling for. With Tamara and Drive Thru also being worth watching.Creep gets a B+.

31 Days of Horror Movie 17