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Paul Blaisdell (artist/actor)

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Paul Blaisdell was an American artist, sculptor and actor, best known for his creations for some of the early Science Fiction creature features made by Roger Corman. Despite the meagre budgets he was confined to, he is responsible for some of the most recognisable monsters of the late 50′s.

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Blaisdell, born in 1927, began his career in Newport, Rhode Island as an enthusiastic artist with little recognition, making his way financially by repairing typewriters. His fascination for drawing monsters in particular did not lead to offers that prevented a stint in the army, though on his return to civilian life, he began to get his work published in the many lurid pulp magazines of the time, including the likes of Spaceways and Other WorldsThese paintings found at least one admirer of note, the redoubtable horror enthusiast and publisher, Forrest J. Ackerman, who offered to become his agent. This meeting of great minds was to lead to his true calling.

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Elsewhere in America, prolific film-maker, Roger Corman had stretched himself to the limit whilst making the film, The Beast With A Million Eyesrunning out of funds at the somewhat critical point of constructing the ocular-heavy monster. Approaching Ackerman for inspiration, he was first offered Ray Harryhausen as a port of call but his remaining $200 was nowhere near the going rate. Last chance saloon came in the form of Blaisdell whose acceptably low fees and imaginative creations appealed to Corman’s outlandish ideals.

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Whilst only possessing two eyes (Corman superimposed eyes over the top) the resulting beast, nicknamed “Little Hercules”, is an 18 inch marionette, designed to be a slave of the actual many-eyed threat. Complete with tiny raygun and shackles, despite him being largely obscured by Corman’s whirling effects, it was enough to convince Corman that Blaisdell had the talent and necessarily low cost of being his comrade-in-arms.

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The film that followed, The Day The World Ended, required rather more input, necessitating Blaisdell to not only design the creature but to bring it to life onscreen. Requiring a hideous, radioactive mutant from the dizzy far-off year of 1970 (this time christened Marty), Blaisdell constructed a monster from foam rubber and cast his own body so that the suit could be built around himself., a pair of long-johns donned accordingly. Two obvious issues arose from this; the first, that Blaisdell was only 5’7″, not the towering mutant imagined – fortunately, the head added a significant lift. Secondly, the nature of the foam rubber meant that during the rain-filled climax of the film, the suit’s interior swelled up enormously, coming close to drowning the actor inside; pre-velcro, he was literally glued in. Regardless, the film is one of the better efforts of the era and the innovation of the artist encasing himself in his own creation was deemed a huge success.

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It Conquered The World is undoubtedly one of Corman’s most enjoyable sci-fi romps and features an iconic if ludicrous invader from beyond. Suffering the usual significant issues on-set due to money and time (as well as forgetting to bring the required lights!), Corman had ditched the intended glimpses of the cave-dwelling monster and dragged it kicking and screaming — perhaps not kicking, thinking about it — into the bring Los Angeles sunshine. Hidden within the rubber teepee-like alien, “Beulah”, the good Mrs Blaisdell insisted her husband don an army helmet to protect during a scene where is is charged by a bayonet-wielding army character. Just as well as the foam rubber provided little defense and would most likely have killed him in the most ignominious of circumstances had he not taken her advice. Ingeniously, Blaisdell had created a bicycle-chain/air pump system to operate Beulah’s limbs from inside but an onset ‘incident’ snapped the cables, leaving a slightly foppish-looking triangular imp thrashing around onscreen, Corman disallowing time for the appropriate repairs.

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“Cuddles”, the She-Creature of Corman’s 1956 effort, broke new ground, seeing Blaisdell make a whole plaster cast of his own body and sculpting his design on top, only assisted by his wife in their garage. Not stinting on the scaly breasts, the creature is comfortably the most interesting and memorable aspect of the film and has become iconic even among monster/sci-fi fans who haven’t seen the film. The suit reappears in the last film Blaisdell worked on, Ghost of Dragstrip Hollow.

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Further designs appeared in Attack of the Crab Monsters (just the one crab, this was Corman, after all) and Not of This Earthbut it his effects for the films It! The Terror From Beyond Space and Invasion of the Saucer Men, for which Blaisdell is best known. The stomping lizard-man of It! was designed to fit the diminutive artist but was actually intended for the large-chinned actor, Ray Corrigan, who was not at all happy with his lot. The mask’s mouth had to be opened so that he could breathe and his more importantly get his chin to fit.  Disguising the chin by painting it red and adapting it as the monster’s tongue, teeth were added to obscure the bodge job; lit-up eyes abandoned so he could see where he was stomping. Some scenes even see the actor adjusting the head so he could cope.

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The huge latex and styrofoam heads of the invaders of Saucer Men fame, appeared comedic even by this standard of Corman’s career. The horror and drama rather ended up as a teen movie, though the creatures are now instantly evocative of everything that is science fiction from the 50′s.

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Though his designs were also used in films such as War of the Colossal BeastAttack of the Puppet PeopleEarth vs. the Spider (a.k.a., The Spider) and How to Make a MonsterBlaisdell fell out of fashion as quickly as he’d arrived, the rise of Hammer and sleazier American films putting an end to the quaint, otherworldly monsters of the 50′s. His influence however can be seen in the likes of Stan Winston and Rick Baker, who paid tribute to him with the work on the film Invaders From Mars.

Daz Lawrence, Horrorpedia

Excellent in-depth analysis and pics here: www.tor.com

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Donald Pleasence (actor)

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Donald Pleasence (5 October 1919 – 2 February 1995) was an iconic English film, television, and stage actor. His most notable film roles include Michael Myers-obsessed psychiatrist Dr. Sam Loomis in the Halloween series and the villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld, usually stroking a white pussycat, in the James Bond film You Only Live Twice

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Pleasence was born in Worksop, Nottinghamshire and raised in the small village of Grimoldby, Lincolnshire. In 1939, Pleasence started working in repertory theatre, making his acting debut with the company as Hareton in Jane Eyre’s Wuthering Heights. During the Second World War, he was taken prisoner and placed in a German prisoner-of-war camp, where he produced and acted in plays.  He would later play Flight Lieutenant Colin Blythe in The Great Escape.

In 1954 he received critical acclaim in a BBC TV version of George Orwell’s sci-fi nightmare novel 1984. The adaptation was by Nigel Kneale (Quatermass) and also starred Peter Cushing. In 1960, He received good notices as the tramp in Harold Pinter’s enigmatic play The Caretaker, a part he would again play in a 1990 revival (as seen by the author of this bio).

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Pleasence provided the voice-over for the British Public Information FilmThe Spirit of Dark and Lonely Water in 1973. Intended to warn children of the dangers of playing near water, the film attained notoriety for allegedly giving children nightmares.

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Pleasence’s first appearance in America was in 1962 in an episode of The Twilight Zone, playing an aging and suicidal teacher at a boys’ school in the episode The Changing of the Guard. In 1963, he appeared in an episode of The Outer Limits entitled The Man With the Power. He hosted the 1981 Halloween episode of Saturday Night Live with punk rock band Fear.

Horror fans best know the actor as the obsessed Dr. Loomis in the Halloween slasher series but he appeared and later starred in many horror films, beginning with a memorable role as notorious grave robber William Hare in The Flesh and the Fiends.

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Horror filmography:

The Flesh and the Fiends / Mania (UK, 1960)

Circus of Horrors (UK, 1960)

The Hands of Orlac (1960)

What a Carve Up! / No Place Like Homicide (UK, 1961)

Dr. Crippen (1963)

Eye of the Devil (1966)

Death Line / Raw Meat (UK, 1972)

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Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1973, TV movie)

Tales That Witness Madness (UK, 1973)

The Mutations / The Freakmaker (UK, 1973)

From Beyond the Grave (UK, 1974)

House of the Damned (Spain, 1974)

Barry McKenzie Holds His Own (Australia, 1975. Sex comedy with Pleasence as vampire Count Von Plasma)

I Don’t Want to be Born / The Monster (UK, 1975)

The Devil’s Men / Land of the Minotaur (Greece, 1976)

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The Uncanny (UK, 1977)

The Dark Secret of Harvest Home (USA, 1978, TV movie. Narrator)

Night Creature / Out of the Darkness (1978)

Halloween (USA, 1978)

Dracula (UK, 1979)

The Ghost Sontana (UK, 1980, BBC TV)

The Monster Club (UK, 1981)

Halloween II (USA, 1981)

Alone in the Dark (USA, 1982)

The Devonsville Terror (USA, 1983)

Frankenstein’s Great Aunt Tillie (USA, 1984)

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Phenomena / Creepers (Italy, 1985)

Nothing Underneath (Italy, 1985)

Into the Darkness (UK, 1986)

Specters (Italy, 1987)

Prince of Darkness / John Carpenter’s Prince of Darkness (USA, 1987)

Off Balance (Italy, 1988)

Vampire in Venice (Italy, 1988)

Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (USA, 1988)

The House of Usher (filmed in South Africa, 1989)

Paganini Horror (Italy, 1989)

Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers (USA, 1989)

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Buried Alive (filmed in South Africa, 1990)

Shadows and Fog (USA, 1991)

Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers (USA, 1995)

Fatal Frames (Italy, 1996)

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Buy The Films of Donald Pleasence from Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com


Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1994 film)

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Frankenstein (also known as Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein) is a 1994 American horror film directed by Kenneth Branagh and starring Robert De Niro and Branagh himself. It also stars Tom HulceHelena Bonham CarterIan HolmJohn Cleese (Monty Python), Aidan Quinn and Richard Briers. The film was produced on a budget of $45 million and is considered the most faithful film adaptation of Mary Shelley‘s novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. The film opens with a few words by Mary Shelley:

“I busied myself to think of a story which would speak to the mysterious fears of our nature and awaken thrilling horror; one to make the reader dread to look around, to curdle the blood, and quicken the beatings of the heart.”

The story begins in the year 1794. Captain Walton is leading a daring expedition to reach the North Pole. While their ship is trapped in the ice of the Arctic Sea, Walton and his crew discover a man traveling across the Arctic on his own. In the distance, a loud moaning can be heard. When the man sees how obsessed Walton is with reaching the North Pole, he asks, “Do you share my madness?” The man then reveals that his name is Victor Frankenstein and begins his tale…

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“The monster has always been the true subject of the Frankenstein story, and Kenneth Branagh’s new retelling understands that. “Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein” has all of the usual props of the Frankenstein films, brought to a fever pitch: The dark and stormy nights, the lightning bolts, the charnel houses of spare body parts, the laboratory where Victor Frankenstein stirs his steaming cauldron of life. But the center of the film, quieter and more thoughtful, contains the real story…” Roger Ebert, full review here

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“…Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is a work of lavish dedication and skill, yet as soon as the creature is let loose the film becomes rather listless. Branagh, for all his craftsmanship, hasn’t succeeded in tapping the morbid core of the material, the feeling that Victor Frankenstein’s experiment in creating ”life” is really a mask for his obsession with death (indeed, he can no longer tell the difference). The key problem, I dare say, is the director’s performance. He plays Frankenstein with all the spirit he can muster, yet he’s too conventionally engaging — his Victor is a kind of fervid yuppie workaholic who never seems truly possessed of a dark side…” Owen Gleiberman, here

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein was a worthy attempt to give the story a big-budget makeover but ultimately it collapsed under the weight of its own pretentiousness, and it was further hampered by a lack of frights.” Bruce G Hallenbeck, The Hammer Frankenstein (Hemlock Film Books, 2013)

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Buy The Hammer Frankenstein (includes other Frankenstein films) from Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

Frankenstein and Frankenstein’s Monster on Horrorpedia: Assignment Terror (Dracula vs. Frankenstein | Aurora Model Kits | BlackensteinBride of FrankensteinDrak Pack | Flesh for Frankenstein | Frankenstein 1970Frankenstein’s ArmyFrankenstein’s Daughter | Frankenstein’s Monster (Marvel Comics) | Frankie Stein | Howl of the Devil | I Was a Teenage FrankensteinJack P. Pierce (makeup artist)Mad Monster Party? | Mego Mad MonstersMonster Cereals | Monster BrawlShock Theatre Hammer Horror Trading CardsPeter Tremayne (author) | The Spirit of the BeehiveYoung Frankenstein

Wikipedia | IMDb


The Apparition

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The Apparition is a 2012 American horror film written and directed by Todd Lincoln and starring Ashley GreeneSebastian StanTom FeltonJulianna Guill and Luke Pasqualino.

On May 21, 1973, six people conduct The Charles Experiment, a parapsychological exercise, in which they stare at a drawing of a deceased man, Charles Reamer, hoping to summon his spirit. Years later, four college students, Patrick (Tom Felton), Lydia (Julianna Guill), Greg (Luke Pasqualino), and Ben (Sebastian Stan) attempt to recreate the Charles Experiment on a larger scale by using modern technology. During the experiment, something attacks the students and pulls Lydia into the wall. Some time later, Ben and his girlfriend Kelly (Ashley Greene) are living together. After countless strange occurrences around their home, Ben gets 36 “urgent” emails from Patrick that first inform him of a new attempt at the Charles Experiment, followed by a warning that “containment failed” and finally “you are in danger”…

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“Yeah, it’s pretty unsurprising – but on the other hand, the characters aren’t written as laughable cardboard cutouts who can’t hope to pull off a believable person. The characters here are likeable and genuine, and even though the ending wasn’t what I was looking for, the rest of the movie to a lesser degree was sort of what I wanted to see. It doesn’t rely on cheap scares or gore to pretend to frighten us – it relies on PG-13, if not cliched, images and suspense tactics that are decent, if not “seen before”.” Metacritic.com

“The Apparition’s something-crossing-over-into-our-world plot might not break new ground, but it’s far from the worst idea for a movie I’ve ever heard. In fact, there are quite a few details about the film that really work. The camera angles are frequently interesting. The visual effects are clean and well put-together, especially for the smaller budget. There’s a great usage of mold, easily the creepiest of all household annoyances, and the setting, a starter community filled with mostly empty houses, is clever, topical and the right level of creepy. Unfortunately, none of this matters at all because the main characters are completely unlikable, and the momentum is consistently ruined by poor decision-making. The film waits too long to give viewers the backstory, adding confusion instead of suspense. It lets its male protagonist loudly swear while his girlfriend is on the phone with her parents, making him seem more oblivious and douchey than endearing and funny. It seemingly throws us in the middle of the action but then allows it to drag on for a few days, sacrificing both real time excitement and longterm character changes. And perhaps worst of all, it chooses to vaguely explain itself.’ Mack Rawden, CinemaBlend.com

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“Clocking in at 74 minutes (not including end credits), the only thing scary about The Apparition is that any studio would think to charge you to watch it. This supposed supernatural thriller is a hollowed out shell of creaky noises, shadows and utter nonsense. There is little doubt as to why this film sat on a shelf for over a year, waiting for an empty weekend to con unsuspecting moviegoers out of their money, but if you end up paying to see this don’t be ashamed to ask for your money back. I get the feeling writer/director Todd Lincoln was going for something ambiguous, believing what we don’t understand is scarier, and in most cases that’s true, but when all you give the audience are shadows, a few crazy visions and killer bed sheets you haven’t done anything to scare anyone. The highest praise goes to the Warner Bros. marketing department who somehow came up with the tagline “Once you believe, you die.” Even this makes no sense, unless I missed a seriously important piece of the plot, considering dying in this case has nothing to do with believing, unless you believe every shitty movie brings cinema one step closer to dying… In that case, the marketing is true.” , RopeofSilicon.com

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Buy The Apparition on DVD | Blu-ray from Amazon.co.uk | Blu-ray + DVD + Ultra-Violet | Instant Video from Amazon.com

Posted by Anushka


Lynn Lowry (actress)

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Lynn Lowry is an American actress, best known for her appearances in cult horror and exploitation films during the 1970s.

Born Linda Kay Lowry on October 15th, 1947, she made her first film appearance in 1970 as part of the cast of ultra-gory shocker I Drink Your Blood, a tale of satanist hippies who become crazed after being infected with rabies. Although she only had a small part (and wasn’t even credited), she did appear in what has since become one of the film’s most iconic moment, brandishing a severed hand.

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I Drink Your Blood was the first of three ‘infection’ films that Lowry made over the next few years, and these movies remain her best known and best loved work. After I Drink Your Blood, she had a pivotal role in George Romero’s The Crazies in 1973. This film rejigged the concept of Night of the Living Dead into a more plausible concept – a plane carrying a government bio weapon crashes, infecting the water supply in a small town and causing an outbreak of madness in the local population.

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Lowry followed this with David Cronenberg’s Shivers (aka They Came from Within / The Parasite Murders), which again saw an infection – in this case a phallic sex parasite – running rampant, spreading through the self-contained residents of a soulless tower block. In this film, Lowry was effectively the female lead.

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In all three of these films, Lowry proved to be an effective presence. Her unusual beauty and hippy chick style helped to create a certain unease, as the viewer was unsure if she was infected or not. In The Crazies, she featured in a controversial incest rape scene, while in Shivers, her character helps show how emotionally dead the characters are before infection (she memorably strips in from of her boss, who shows no reaction) and how sexually liberated they are by the infection.

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In each of these films, Lowry has arguably the most memorable scenes – her startling death in The Crazies is an iconic moment, and her “even dying is an act of eroticism” speech in Shivers, along with her appearance at the climax, both erotic and unnerving, remain both unforgettable sequences and the point where the film’s controversial philosophy of liberation through sexual disease is made most clear.

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Between these films, she appeared in Lloyd Kaufman’s directorial debut, the sex comedy Battle of Love’s Return, alongside cult movie queen Mary Woronov in Theodore Gershuny’s arthouse sexploitation drama Sugar Cookies, and Radley Metzger’s impressive erotic film Score. These films all took advantage of her willingness to undress and perform softcore sex scenes, and usually featured her as a naïve hippy type who gets caught up in a world of decadence and deviation. But she often turns out to be less the victim than she initially appears.

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She also appeared in short-lived TV show How to Survive a Marriage in 1974.

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In 1976, she appeared in the vengeance thriller Fighting Mad, and in 1982 had a role in the remake of Cat People. There were a handful of small part TV appearances in the 1980s and 1990s, but for the most part, her screen career was replaced with theatre and a singing work, with Lowry performing with a band playing show tunes, jazz and folk music.

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However, in the last decade, she has made a screen comeback, starting in 2005. Her cult status has seen her called upon by a number of horror film makers, keen to have her appear in their movies. The highest profile of these is The Theatre Bizarre, where she appeared in David Gregory’s segment Sweets.

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Other films of the last few years include Splatter Disco, Beyond the Dunwich Horror, Schism, Psychosomatika, I Spill Your Guts, The Legend of Six Fingers, Torture Chamber, Cannibals, Night of the Sea Monkey: A Disturbing Tale and several more. She also made a cameo appearance in the 2010 remake of The Crazies.

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IMDb | Official website

Bio by David Flint


Dave Allen (comedian)

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David Tynan O’Mahony (6 July 1936 – 10 March 2005), better known as Dave Allen, was an Irish comedian and actor, perhaps best known for his 1970s BBC TV series, which saw him sitting in a studio – cigarette in hand, glass of whiskey by his side – telling humorous, observational, sometimes acerbic stories, interspersed with sketches. He was famous – or infamous, depending on your viewpoint – for his mockery of religion, the Catholic church in particular. Many of his skits would probably not be done today in our times of heightened sensitivity towards / fear of religious offence.

So why is he here on Horrorpedia? Well, quite simply, Allen’s work often included horror movie pastiches. It’s clear that this was a man with an affection for and appreciation of horror cinema. While other comedians may have donned the cape and fangs and camped about as comedy Draculas, Allen’s sketches were more nuanced. Often, the humour didn’t become apparent until the  punchline, and until that point, many of his skits – based around Hammer style gothic horror usually, sometimes involving a Death figure straight from The Seventh Seal and once mocking The Exorcist – were straight-faced, atmospheric and often creepier than many a genuine horror film.

Most of these sketches are (at best) gathering dust in the BBC vaults, but a few have been reshown over the years. Here are a couple.


Allen also told a couple of horror stories to his studio audience – again with comedy punchlines. These show that he could have easily been a narrator for traditional horror stories, his sense of the dramatic and his strong voice being perfect for the telling of spooky stories. The man was a natural storyteller.

Posted by DF


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Vincent Price: Witchcraft – Magic: An Adventure in Demonology (album)

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Witchcraft – Magic: An Adventure in Demonology is a 1969 spoken word album, featuring the florid tones of horror legend Vincent Price as he discusses the world of witchcraft and the occult in all forms across four sides of vinyl, clocking in at an impressive (and exhaustive) 105 minutes.

While Price would crop up as narrator on albums by Alice Cooper and Michael Jackson (Thriller) in later years, this is his magnum opus – a book length study of witchcraft, produced by Roger Karshner and released by Capitol Records. Terry d’Oberoff is credited as both composer and director, while the impressive stereo sound effects were supplied by Douglas Leedy, a pioneer of late Sixties electronic experimentalism. There is no credit for the text, though it seems likely that this too is d’Oberoff.

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The LP consists of Price telling tales of witchcraft and devil worship – not fictional horror stories, but factual (well, factual-ish) accounts of historical events and aspects of the occult, helpfully split into various chapters on the sleeve – ‘Hitler and Witchcraft’, ‘Women as Witches’, ‘The World of Spirits and Demons’ and so on. Price seems to have fun with the more lurid descriptions, his voice and (most likely) tongue in cheek attitude giving a gleefully macabre and somewhat leering tone to lines like “fornication with the Devil, child sacrifice, feasts of rotting human flesh” and “the tearing of her flesh with pincers, her body broken on the wheel, her fingernails ripped off, her feet thrust into a fire, whatever horrors the twisted mind of the hangman could devise” in the two part section entitled ‘Witch Tortures’.

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A surprising amount of the album actually seems to be a ‘how to’ guide to witchcraft, with handy chapters on ‘How to invoke spirits, demons, unseen forces’, ‘how to make a pact with the Devil’ and ”Curses, Spells, Charms’. “Of course you should never resort to this… except in the case of the most dire necessity” says Price of selling your soul to Satan, giving a little chuckle as he does so, before going on to give full and frank instructions nevertheless. Oh those Satanic Sixties!

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Price’s narration is occasionally interspersed with Macbeth-like witches cackling away in heavily treated manner. These are possibly the most over the top moments of the album, but they work as dramatic interludes.

The music by d’Oberoff is impressively creepy and discordant, as are the sound effects, which float from speaker to speaker in the way that only records from the early days of stereo did – even Price’s voice moves from left to right and back, adding a sense of displacement to the narration.

This is not easy listening, and neither is it the most approachable of audio books. But fans of Price and anyone interested in the occult will probably enjoy it. If nothing else, it’s a curious artefact from a time when public fascination with witchcraft, Satanism and black magic was at its peak.

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Originally released as a double album with accompanying booklet, the album has been issued on a CD of dubious legality and can also be found online if you look hard enough.

Review by David Flint


Tales of Mystery and Horror (audiobook)

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Tales of Horror and Tales of Mystery and Horror are audio books released on cassette in the UK. They feature stories by Edgar Allan Poe, read by Christopher lee.

Tales of Horror was first released in 1979 on the Listen for Pleasure label, which specialised in audio books at the time. Supplied on two cassette tapes, the packaging was an oversized, thick card cover with artwork based on The Pit and the Pendulum. The other stories included were The Fall of the House of Usher, The Cask of Amontillado and The Black Cat.

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Lee was the perfect choice for these stories, given them both a gravitas and a sense of the dramatic. For many younger British people, these tapes provided their first introduction to Poe’s writing.

This collection was popular enough to ensure a follow-up in 1985 – Tales of Mystery and Horror featured Lee reading Hop Frog, The Raven, Masque of the Red Death, The Tell-Tale Heart and Murders in the Rue Morgue (the latter story split into two parts).

While these and other audio books in the Listen for Pleasure series were hugely popular at the time, they have never been re-released on CD or MP3.

DF



Evelyn Ankers (actress, “The Queen of the Screamers”)

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Evelyn Ankers (17 August 1918 – 29 August 1985) was a British actress born in Chile.

She often played variations on the role of the cultured young leading lady in many American horror films during the 1940s, most notably The Wolf Man (1941) aged 23 opposite Lon Chaney Jr., a frequent screen partner.

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Known as “The Queen of the Screamers”, she began her stint as a screamer at Universal Pictures with Hold That Ghost (with Bud Abbott and Lou Costello, 1941). Her other films include The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942, with Lon Chaney Jr. and Bela Lugosi), Captive Wild Woman (1943), Son of Dracula (1943), The Mad Ghoul (1943), Jungle Woman (1944, with J. Carrol Naish), Weird Woman (an Inner Sanctum Mystery, 1944), The Invisible Man’s Revenge (with John Carradine, 1944) and The Frozen Ghost (Inner Sanctum Mysterywith Lon Chaney Jr., 1945).

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She also appeared in Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror (1942, with Basil Rathbone), The Pearl of Death (1944, another Sherlock Holmes mystery), and fantasy adventure Tarzan’s Magic Fountain (1949).

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Ankers made over fifty films between 1936 and 1950, then retired from movies at the age of 32 to be a housewife, having married leading actor Richard Denning, with whom she had starred in Hold That Ghost). Denning was himself no stranger to monster movies, appearing in Unknown IslandCreature from the Black Lagoon and The Black Scorpion amongst others. Ankers died of ovarian cancer at the age of 67 on 29 August 1985 in Maui, Hawaii.

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Buy all six Inner Sanctum Mysteries on DVD from Amazon.com

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Buy Women in Horror Films, 1940s book from Amazon.com

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Buy Universal Classic Monsters on Blu-ray from Amazon.com

Wikipedia | IMDb


Horrorpedia Facebook Group (social media)

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Open up your mind for everyone’s dissection and delectation!

There is now a Facebook Group for Horrorpedia users/followers. Sign up and have your say about all things horror related!

Post anything and everything about horror, sci-fi, cult and exploitation movies and culture. Write about movies, TV series, books, magazines, comics, theatre, computer games, theme rides, haunted houses, true crime, novels, rock bands, cartoons, artwork, toys and games, iconic directors, actors, writers, producers, composers… it’s all wide open for discussion, your opinions, celebration, rants and whines!

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1433353243589747/

And don’t forget you can also follow all Horrorpedia posts by signing up to our standard Facebook ‘like’ page

Plus, we’re on Tumblr - 8,000+ more images, many of them more disturbing than on our main site!

Twitter - for instant updates of our posts)

And we have a growing presence on Pinterest - lots of great images, many of them not on the main site!






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