At The Movies with Bryan, the Wannabe Filmmaker

In 1957, American International Pictures (A.I.P.) released I Was a Teenage Werewolf, starring Michael Landon, and the movie proved to be a huge hit at the box office. Over the course of the year, they would release three similar movies; I Was a Teenage Frankenstein, The Blood of Dracula, and How to Make a Monster. The Blood of Dracula , which should have been titled I Was a Teenage Vampire, is essentially a remake of Teenage Werewolf, with the key difference being that all the main roles are played by women.   The four films have multiple things in common, other than their teen theme: 1)       The true villain in each movie is a well respected authority figure (Whit Bissell’s psychologist, Dr. Brandon, in Teenage Werewolf, Bissell’s Professor Frankenstein in Teenage Frankenstein, Louise Lewis’ chemistry teacher, Miss Branding, in Blood of Dracula, and Robert H. Harris’ make up artist, Pete Drummond, in How to Make a Monster) that manipulates the teenage protagonist int

The best thing that Friday the 13 th , Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan has going for it is that it is not Friday the 13 th : A New Beginning. It is easily one of the worst entries in the series, which is saying quite a lot. The earlier Friday the 13 th movies certainly weren’t masterpieces, but at least they tried to be a genuine horror movies, Jason Takes Manhattan is essentially a Jason’s Greatest Hits reel expanded to 100 minutes.  It has a few interesting moments scattered throughout, but, man, it is one awful movie.  The first time I saw it was my freshman year at high school; my dad and I rented it from a video store, and spent the entire time ripping on it.  When the nerdy character of Wayne first appeared, my dad turned to me and said, “That’s you, Bryan.” Sadly, I did have a close resemblance to that character.  Later on, when Wayne came to a fiery end, my dad once again looked at me and said, “Nice going, Bryan.” He then proceeded to laugh. What can I say? My dad has

If Peter Cushing had starred in more “prestige” movies, he would easily be regarded as one of the finest film actors to ever grace the silver screen. Unfortunately, he spent most of his career starring in horror movies; a genre that is greatly frowned down by most film critics and historians.  look no further than Dracula A.D. 1972 for proof of Cushing’s greatness, because his presence alone elevates it from being absolute garbage to being a passable thriller.  Indeed, whenever Cushing is not onscreen the movie is absolutely dreadful, even laughable at times – check out the scene in which Caroline Munro’s wide eyed hippie, Laura, begs to be sacrificed to Dracula.  In fact, its modern setting (1972) makes the movie far more dated than the previous Dracula movies, which were all set in the Victorian Era.  What is truly amazing is that, despite the silly script, Cushing gives it his all; there is no condescension in his performance nor does he ever resort to histrionics. He gives