The Mummy's Ghost (1944)

 

Kharis the mummy is given a sacred potion that grants him eternal life to search for his lost love, Princess Ananka, despite the unending curse that haunts them.

The Mummy's Ghost is a 1944 American Universal Studios horror film, directed by Reginald Le Borg. It is the second of three sequels to that company's The Mummy's Hand of 1940. The film is the sequel to The Mummy's Tomb (1942). Lon Chaney, Jr. again takes on the role of Kharis the mummy. The story was continued in the 1944 sequel The Mummy's Curse.

"The Mummy's Ghost" is a sequel to "The Mummy's Tomb" (1942). In that film Kharis the Mummy (Lon Chaney) perished in a house fire. Also the old high priest (George Zucco) dies of old age while handing over his powers to a new high priest. In this film we find out that not only did Kharis survive the fucking fire unscathed but the old high priest turns up still alive as shit.  This is the third of four movies in the original "Mummy" franchise.

NO CHAINS Can Hold It! NO TOMB Can Seal It!

I'm not saying The Mummy's Ghost is any worse than the rest, it's just the same god damn thing. The movie features both John Carradine and Lon Chaney Jr. again in the role of the mummy. Chaney invests some character into Kharis this time, allowing him to become visibly angered, frustrated, and even saddened during the course of the movie. The biggest drawback for this chapter is that Robert Lowery and Ramsay Ames are pretty lousy as the two leading lovers.  Chaney's ass was usually drunk by 12 noon.

Among the solid supporting cast are Frank Reicher as the doomed Professor Norman, Harry Shannon as the Sheriff, Lester Sharpe as the helpful Doctor Ayad, and the always welcome Barton MacLane as a clever police inspector who tries to come up with an alternative means of dealing with the mummy on the loose. An adorable little dog named "Peanuts" has his moments, as well. Martha Vickers has a bit as a student in Reichers' class.  Director Reginald Le Borg keeps it moving along adequately, to help it clock in at an appreciably brief running time of 61 minutes.

It is rumored during Kharis' raging attack on the night-porter (Oscar O'Shea) in the Scripp's museum, that Chaney actually slammed the old man into a real pane of glass, smashing it and injuring O'Shea. Alcohol has not been ruled out. 

There's an amusing part where the locals, lead by Barton MacLane's cranky Inspector Walgreen, cunningly fashion a disguised pit in which to topple the Mummy, who doesn't even notice the fucking thing and just walks straight past!  

The ending of the film is most notable - the monster gets the girl! But it's a short lived victory, as the Mummy and his kidnapped bride succumb to a swampy grave, an ancient Egyptian curse is fulfilled - "The fate of those who defy the will of the ancient gods shall be a cruel and violent death".  At least she has been spared a life of married bliss with that jerk off Hervey.

A Hot Chick.  The only thing that makes the Mummy's dead arm come to life.

The plot holes and lack of continuity in the Mummy series are well known and have been pointed out in many knowledgeable sources. Kharis is a killing machine and not a sympathetic creature as some of the other Universal monsters are. His tendency to kill senior citizens is yet another reason not to root for him. Watching The Mummy's Ghost isn't the worst way to spend an hour and is essential if your are following the series.

Now swear by the ancient Egyptian gods, that you will never rest until the Princess Anaka and Kharis have been returned to their rightful resting place, in these tombs...

Trivia: 

In the scene where Kharis trashes the Scripps Museum, Lon Chaney Jr. drove his fist through real glass--it was supposed to be breakaway glass, but the prop man forgot to replace it before shooting started--and a shard of it flew up and cut him through his mummy mask in his chin. In this scene, Kharis can be seen bleeding, and it's real blood.

Although there are rumors that Lon Chaney Jr.'s scenes in the "Mummy" series frequently used doubles for Chaney, director Reginald Le Borg stated that Chaney did his own scenes in this film.

According to director Reginald Le Borg in a 1989 interview, Lon Chaney Jr., as Kharis, went overboard in the scene in which he strangles Frank Reicher, although Chaney blocked the camera from picking up Reicher's reaction. The veteran actor was moaning, and exclaimed, "He nearly killed me!" According to LeBorg, Reicher was a veteran and didn't make a formal complaint, but the next day the director noticed his neck visibly bore the effects.

The opening scene introduced Kharis simply walking out of the woods with no explanation or rationale. Director Reginald Le Borg was able to talk producer Ben Pivar into shooting a prologue set in Egypt with John Carradine and George Zucco in order to give Kharis' introduction a basis in logic.

Acquanetta, who was initially cast as Ananka, slipped and fell in her first scene on the first day of shooting, suffering a slight concussion. She was replaced by Ramsay Ames.

Second of Lon Chaney Jr.'s three "Mummy" features, filmed from August 23-September 1, 1943, but not released until June 30, 1944 (copyrighted 1943) .

Lon Chaney Jnr. often said that being made up as the Mummy character was his least favourite make-up. There is a photo of the actor on set during production of "The Mummy's Ghost" where he is pinching his own nose in disgust.

Part of the original Shock Theater package of 52 Universal titles released to television in 1957, followed a year later with Son of Shock, which added 20 more features.

A Scene with Robert Lowery & the Dog at the 50 minute mark in the movie (50:30 seconds), Robert Lowery picks up the dog & says "Where is She?", puts the dog down & you hear a Sqweeky Dog Toy sound .. and the dog runs across a bridge with Lowery, after the Mummy.

This is one of a very few Universal Horror Classics where the female lead doesn't survive the film.

The Werewolf (1956)

 

Two scientists come across an auto accident and find an unconscious man in the wreck. They take him back to their lab and inject him with a serum they have been working with. Unfortunately, the serum has the effect of turning the man into a murderous werewolf.

The Werewolf is a 1956 American horror science fiction film directed by Fred F. Sears and starring Don Megowan and Joyce Holden.

Set in contemporary times (i.e. the 1950s), the storyline follows an amnesiac man who, after being injected with "irradiated wolf serum" by unscrupulous doctors, transforms into a werewolf when under emotional stress. The film "marks precisely the point in which horror, which had been a dormant genre in the early '50s, began to take over from science fiction", and is the first of only three werewolf films made in the US during that decade, preceding Daughter of Dr. Jekyll and I Was a Teenage Werewolf (both 1957). The Werewolf was released theatrically in the US as the bottom half of a double feature with Earth vs. the Flying Saucers (1956). 

It happens before your horrified eyes!

This little B picture from 1956 grows on you, with repeated viewings. Steven Ritch is superb as the tormented Duncan Marsh, nice guy family man turned into a monster by two unscrupulous scientists. There's something strangely believable and compelling about his plight, as he tries to make sense of his confused memories, while being pursued by a posse, and wondering who he can trust. The supporting players are all fine in sympathetic roles, especially Joyce Holden as the nurse who does her best to help the lost and terrified Marsh. Eleanore Tanin is also very good as Marsh's wife, and Don Megowan plays a macho but caring lawman, who realizes the fugitive is a human being, as well as a monster.

Scientists turn men into beasts!

Good little werewolf movie, packs a bit of an emotional wallop thanks to Ritch's unfortunate situation and it's effects on his family and the paranoid, afraid community of Mountaincrest. The mountainous setting is rich with atmosphere and it's a breath of fresh air from the usual movie lot sets. This film uses dissolves when Ritch turns from human to werewolf and vice versa from the same make-up man behind "The Return of the Vampire."

I must still point out that there is a PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE-like moment late in the film where it goes from pitch black outside to daytime and back again due to lousy editing. It's pretty silly and very noticeable.  I'm not sure what possessed them to release it like that but it looks stupid as shit. 

Shit starts to get emotional.  I'm not crying, you're crying.

Trivia:

When first released, this movie played as the bottom half of a double bill with Earth vs. the Flying Saucers (1956).

The werewolf in this film was the screen's first science-fictional, non-supernatural lycanthrope. While possessed of incredible strength and ferocity, he could be killed by ordinary bullets ( don't need silver bullets ) and didn't require a full moon to cause transformation.

This isn't the first time Clay Campbell created a werewolf makeup. He used the same techniques to create the monster for an earlier film, The Return of the Vampire (1943).

Director Fred F. Sears also served as the narrator in the opening sequence.

Probably to save time and/or money, shots of the werewolf fleeing the posse near the climax, were shot "day-for-night" while the posse shots were filmed during real nighttime.

Asylum (1972)

 

In order to secure a job at a mental institution, a young psychiatrist must interview four patients inside the asylum.

Asylum (also known as House of Crazies in subsequent US releases) is a 1972 British horror film made by Amicus Productions. The film was directed by Roy Ward Baker, produced by Milton Subotsky, and scripted by Robert Bloch (who adapted four of his own short stories for the screenplay)

A young psychiatrist interviews four inmates in a mental asylum to satisfy a requirement for employment. He hears stories about 1) The revenge of a murdered wife, 2) A tailor who makes a suit with some highly unusual qualities, 3) A woman who questions her sanity when it appears that her brother is conspiring against her  4) A man who builds tiny toy robots with lifelike human heads.

The doctor makes his last house call.

Robert Bloch, the man responsible for writing the novel of one of horror's greatest movies, Psycho (1960), writes for us four intriguing and pleasurable short horror pieces bound together wonderfully in the confines of an asylum.  I previously reviewed the film "Torture Garden" which also was all Bloch stories. 

"Frozen Fear": story of a man who attempts to cut himself off from a loveless marriage in order to take up with his mistress by a rather inventive means of murder. Only some things don't seem to want to stay dead.  This story was pretty good.  A nice opening story.  

The hot-blooded beauty in the cold freezer.

"The Weird Tailor": a tailor desperate for money agrees to, at the request of an unusual elderly customer (played by Peter Cushing), to make a special suit out of a very strange type of fabric. Only when he delivers it, he discovers the elderly customer actually has no money to pay and even more shocking is the true purpose of this bizarre suit.  This is my favorite story in the film..  It has Peter Cushing in it so how could it go wrong. 

Don't fuck with Peter Cushing

"Lucy Comes To Stay": a tale of psychosis as Lucy (Charlotte Rampling) returns home from the mental hospital, presumed cured, only it seems the naughty girlfriend who landed Lucy in trouble to begin has started to visit her in secret as well.  This story runs kind of long but it's not that bad.  

You have nothing to lose but your mind.

"Mannikens of Horror" Powell meets a seemingly calm rational doctor, played by Herbert Lom.  Lom has created a series of mechanical figures, including one of himself. He tries persuading those around him that he can bring the figure to life but everyone thinks he's crazy. This one is good as well and has this crazy little mother fucker running around.  

See the little mother fucking metal man and his big knife.

Roy Ward Baker directs the movie and many of his styles are evident here. He makes excellent use of "A Night on Bald Mountain" to score the movie, ensuring it fits with the somewhat Gothic setting. His other choices of music have an orchestral Gothic style that ensure consistency and help build suspense and tension, something particularly evident in the final story. Baker makes excellent use of camera angles to hook the audience with something quirky or sinister, draw them in slowly and then deliver a sudden shock out of nowhere. These styles were also used on many of his other movies but it is here where it works best.

Overall, I was very surprised by this film, as I had very low expectations.  There are lots of great special effects and solid acting across the board. This seems to be a classic which has gone on to influence later "asylum" oriented films. I really enjoyed it.  

A polite warning: This House is Not a Home!

Trivia:

Shot in 24 days.

Vermicelli was used for the robots' insides

Richard Todd has stated in interviews that he regrets making this film.

Herbert Lom was only booked for one day, and ended up shooting his cameo in half a day.

Peter Cushing filmed his part in two days.

The movie started shooting in early April of 1972 and was playing in West End cinemas 15 weeks later.

Arthur Grant was booked as director of photography but three weeks before shooting discovered he was terminally ill and had to reluctantly drop out. Denys N. Coop stepped in at short notice.

Shit Happens

Appropriately enough, the story "The Weird Tailor" had first been published in the magazine "Weird Tales".

"The Weird Tailor" was previously shown on Boris Karloff's Thriller: The Weird Tailor (1961), which aired on October 16, 1961.

Geoffrey Bayldon was cast at the 11th hour to replace Spike Milligan who dropped out before shooting began.

In segment 3, "Lucy Comes to Stay," there is no rearview mirror in the Jaguar XJ6 driven by George when he first brings Barbara home.

Peter Cushing (Smith) and Herbert Lom (Byron) both played Professor Van Helsing in films starring Christopher Lee as Count Dracula: Cushing in "Horror of Dracula (1958)," "Dracula A.D. 1972 (1972)" and "The Satanic Rites of Dracula (1973)" and Lom in "Count Dracula (1970)." Cushing also played the role in "The Brides of Dracula (1960)" and "The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires (1974)," in which Lee did not appear.

Keith Barron, Ralph Bates, Tom Adams, Michael Jayston, and Martin Jarvis were considered for the role of Dr. Martin, which went to Robert Powell.

Torture Garden (1967)

An anthology of four short horror stories about people who visit Dr. Diabolo's fairground haunted-house attraction show.

Torture Garden is a 1967 British horror film directed by Freddie Francis and starring Burgess Meredith, Jack Palance, Michael Ripper, Beverly Adams, Peter Cushing, Maurice Denham, Ursula Howells, Michael Bryant and Barbara Ewing. The score was a collaboration between Hammer horror regulars James Bernard and Don Banks.

A special sideshow torture exhibit has the power, according to showman Dr. Diabolo (Burgess Meredith), to warn people of evil in their futures. One by one, skeptical customers stand before the Fate Atropos to be shown the greed and violence they're hiding behind their respectable façades.

Where Nothing Grows But Fear!

Torture Garden is a very misleading title for this movie because there is no torture and no fucking garden. It's written by Robert Bloch and directed by Freddie Francis. There are four stories plus the linking/wraparound story.  Every story was written by Bloch who was also the author of Psycho. There's nothing here as good as Psycho but a few of the stories aren't bad at all. 

Story 1 is about a dead witch who possesses a cat and causes an inheritor to rue his greediness. It's entertaining. That's what the dude gets for fucking around and opening up a coffin. If you happen to find a coffin in the basement don't open the damn thing.  Also if a live car jumps out of the coffin leave the fucking house. 

Story 2 is more mysterious than horrific but the story about androids is, at least, relatively original.  Beverly Adams is the star and she's incredibly beautiful.  She also starred in "How To Stuff A Wild Bikini" and believe me she can stuff that bikini. 

I Bet You Can Stuff A Wild Bikini

Story 3 is a distinctly silly episode about a piano "with a mind of it's own", who kills it's player's lover. It's not just silly but fucking stupid.  The girl should have been dating a guitarist anyway.  Eveybody knows the guitarist and lead singer get all the chicks. 

Story 4, is about the resurrection of Edgar Allan Poe.  This is easily the best story here and Jack Palance and Peter Cushing are awesome.  I love Peter Cushing in just about every film he's been in. 

This has been called the worst of the Amicus anthologies. That may be true, but it is still enjoyable. "Torture Garden" is entertaining enough for fans of Horror omnibuses, but I'd recommend most other Amicus anthologies (especially the excellent "House That Dripped Blood") over this one. Positive points are a nice atmosphere and look, but overall "Torture Garden" is just OK.

Do You Dare See What Dr. Diabolo Sees?

Trivia:

When this movie was shown in 1967, one of the promos was a pack of torture garden seeds given to patrons as they entered the theater. The seeds were actually grass seeds.

Despite being present from the opening, and also top billed, Jack Palance (Ronald Wyatt) does not speak until one hour and fifteen minutes into this movie.

"Columbia Pictures" financed this movie and insisted that two American actors be cast. Therefore, the initial casting of Peter Cushing (Lancelot Canning) and Sir Christopher Lee was changed to that of Jack Palance (Ronald Wyatt) and Burgess Meredith (Dr. Diabolo).

A scene featuring Burgess Meredith is used at the beginning of the film "See No Evil" (1971) on a TV set in a shop window.

This movie was released in the U.S. as the top half of a double feature with "Trog (1970)," which was Joan Crawford's final movie. Both movies were directed by Freddie Francis.

Barbara Ewing (Dorothy Endicott) received an "introducing" credit.

Robert Hutton (Bruce Benton) and Peter Cushing (Lancelot Canning) died only four days apart: Hutton on August 7, 1994 and Cushing on August 11, 1994.

After The Twilight Zone: Printer's Devil (1963), this was the second time that Burgess Meredith played the Devil.

The Funhouse (1981)

Four teenage friends spend the night in a carnival funhouse and are stalked by a deformed man in a Frankenstein mask.

The Funhouse (also released as Carnival of Terror) is a 1981 American horror film directed by Tobe Hooper, written by Larry Block and starring Elizabeth Berridge, Kevin Conway, William Finley, Cooper Huckabee, Miles Chapin, and Sylvia Miles. The film's plot concerns four teenagers who become trapped in a dark ride at a local carnival and are stalked by a deformed killer inside.

Up until The Funhouse, Tobe Hooper had only come pretty close to recapturing the relentless and ruthlessly nightmarish feel of the classic that catapulted him to fame, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Funhouse goes back to Hooper's roots, trading in the gore for playing with your nerves like Jimmy Page playing guitar. Traveling carnivals have always had a sinister, menacing undertone to them - that's part of what makes them so attractive - and Hooper, with a smart assist from Larry Block's script, takes that queasy unease and turns it up to '11', so that when the true horror is revealed, it's intensified that much more.

Pay to get in. PRAY to get out.

Four friends on a double date and decide to hole up in the Funhouse of a traveling carnival just outside of town way past closing time, just for kicks. It's a weird place that gives off a freaky vibe, but they don't come to realize just how freaky, until they see something that puts all of their lives in danger, and realize to their horror that not all the freaks in the show are fake...or at all "fun".

An endless amount has been written about Tobe Hopper's fall from grace. Much like a soccer player that scored thirty goals in his first season and just one in the next, the downhill slope for the quality of his work was stark and unrelenting. The Spielberg collaboration on Poltergeist was supposed to launch Hooper as a Hollywood suspense maestro that would rival Hitchcock and Kubrick. Unfortunately the movie started a slope to mediocrity from which his career has never recovered. Generally movie fans look back on The Texas Chainsaw Massacre as the only truly outstanding feature in his catalogue. This record is somewhat inaccurate, because despite the inferiority of the majority of his later work, Funhouse is a decent feature that deserves further recognition.

Why Tobe Hooper never became the horror maestro that so many predicted is a mystery. Funhouse proves however that there is more to his catalogue than a Chainsaw Massacre in Texas. By far one of the best of the early eighties slashers, this entry deserves to be highly regarded.

It's an entertaining film. The funhouse robots are pretty rad, and the monster is badass. The kills could have been a little more gory...but the one where they accidentally axe their friend is great! There's a nice amount of tension in that final scene too.

The freak is played by Wayne Doba who is passionate in his portrayal and extremely credible. Plus the make-up is hideous and memorable. I also liked the depiction of the monster's relationship with his dad, the Funhouse Barker played by Kevin Conway. All-around outstanding job on this front.

If he wasn't bullied in school, he should have been.

Hooper also spends far too much time on following Joey as he mooches around the carnival. Since Joey has no particular involvement in the plight of the teens, his inclusion is redundant and best left on the cutting room floor.  Joey is the stupid kid brother and I was hoping the freak would kill his annoying ass. If he wasn't bullied in school he should have been.

Overall, you have to give Tobe Hooper credit for this one. It's stylish, imaginative, and held my attention the whole way through. "The Funhouse" is different, but it's one of the more memorable horror films to come from the '80s decade. It may not be an all-time classic like Hooper's "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" or "Poltergeist", but it's surely one of his better films overall. Definitely recommended if you are a fan of Hooper, or enjoy a good old slasher flick.

Something is alive in the funhouse...something that has the form of a human, but not the face...something that feeds off the flesh and blood of young innocents...

Trivia:
Dean R. Koontz wrote a novelization of the screenplay under the pseudonym Owen West. The book contains a lot of backstory added by Koontz. Because of this, and the fact that the book was released before the movie due to a delay in post production, it is often mistaken that the movie is based on the book, but the book is in fact based on the movie.

Director Tobe Hooper was at one point nearly struck by a flying cog but was saved by an extra who broke their arm in the process.

Steven Spielberg asked Tobe Hooper to direct E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) but he turned it down because he was busy on this movie. However Hooper and Spielberg would work together on Poltergeist (1982).

The girls in the tent were local strippers from Miami, Florida.

Something is alive in the funhouse...something that, tonight, will turn the funhouse into a carnival of terror!

An accident occurred during filming when a carnival ride carrying several passengers was left on for about twenty minutes to half an hour. The ride, one which has several octopus arms that spin around with rotating carriages, normally only runs for about four minutes per joyride. Thrillseekers vomited and yelled out real screams as the ride continued way past its end time. When stopped, the riders could not walk and were somewhat twisted in their musculature. An ambulance was called but no one was seriously injured.

The original plan was to have makeup effects artist Rick Baker play the monster, before director Tobe Hooper caught a performance by mime Wayne Doba, who subsequently landed the role.

Tobe Hooper re-used some of the film's props when he directed the music video for Billy Idol: Dancing with Myself (1983).

Some of the props in Joey's bedroom were owned by Shari Lewis of "Lamb Chop" fame (such as the winking ventriloquist dummy) and were obtainable because co-executive producer Mace Neufeld was a friend of hers.

According to actor Kevin Conway, director Tobe Hooper was a huge "Coke-head" during production of this film. Hooper allegedly consumed a minimum of 12 cans of Coca-Cola a day.

During production, director Tobe Hooper acquired a number of antique, clockwork and mechanical old toys which had been used as props in this movie.

Look....yo mama is sitting up there. 

The monster was played by Wayne Doba, a professional tap dancer and former mime making his film debut. His only other major film role for many years was Octavio the Clown in Scarface (1983), also shot in the Miami area.

Actor Kevin Conway agreed to be in the movie on the condition that he get to play all three barkers.

The title for the film's French release is 'Massacres dans le train fantôme', meaning 'Massacres on the Ghost Train'.

It was director Tobe Hooper's idea to shoot the film in anamorphic Panavision.

Director Tobe Hooper was bitten by a brown recluse spider during filming.

Reshoots of scenes took four days due to lost film footage which had got caught up in a local teamster war. Director Tobe Hooper has said that the filming of this movie in Miami / Florida occurred during the Scarface (1983) era.

The title for the film's Brazilian release is 'Pague para Entrar, Reze para Sair', which translates to the movie's tagline 'Pay to get in, pray to get out'.

The animatronic fat lady laughing at the end of the film is a reference to the phrase "It ain't over till the fat lady sings".

The opening sequence was filmed after principal shooting on the movie had already wrapped.

The industrial crane used for crane shots on this movie could elevate higher than the ferris-wheel seen in the amusement park. The crane was gigantic. It had three sections which could each extend fifty feet. The film's D.O.P. wanted to have one on every movie he worked on.

In a interview on the DVD, director Tobe Hooper said that the mask worn by one of the creatures was a Frankenstein mask. Hooper said that this was selected because the Universal Studios owned the image copyright for it from their Frankenstein (1931) horror film classic

Director Tobe Hooper made this film between his other horror movies Salem's Lot (1979) and Poltergeist (1982).

A two-headed cow and also one with a cleft palate are seen in this movie.

Yeah I'm a cow with a cleft palate.  Fuck you.

According to Tobe Hooper, actress Sylvia Miles jokingly asked "Did I just throw my career away" after filming the sex scene with the film's freak/monster

Cooper Huckabee was 30 years old when he played a teen in this film.

The movie The Last House on Dead End Street (1973) made just a few years earlier had 'The Fun House' as an alternate title.

The film received the cover photo and main story in Fangoria #11

The film was unsuccessfully prosecuted as a video nasty in the UK a few years after its release. Some commentators have questioned its attempted banning, given that the film is fairly tame in comparison to other entries on the list, leading some to suggest it was mistakenly chosen instead of the infamous Last House on Dead End Street, which was released under an alternative title The Fun House and oddly did not appear on the list. It was released uncut on VHS in 1987 and later on DVD in 1999.

Actress Elizabeth Berridge received an 'introducing' credit even though she had previously appeared in Natural Enemies (1979).

The script was purchased by Universal Pictures, who were looking to produce a teen-aimed horror film after the success of Paramount's Friday the 13th (1980).

Frankenstein wants pussy. Ugggggggh

XX (2017)

Four short horror films that are directed and written by women.

XX is a 2017 American anthology horror film directed by Jovanka Vuckovic, Annie Clark, Roxanne Benjamin and Karyn Kusama. It stars Natalie Brown, Melanie Lynskey, Breeda Wool and Christina Kirk. It had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on January 22, 2017.

Four short horror films, no linking narrative. A boy loses his appetite after getting a glimpse of something mysterious; a woman discovers her husband's corpse on the day of her daughter's birthday; four attractive young people discover an Ancient Evil in the wilderness; and a mother deals with the discovery that her nearly adult son is disturbingly violent and yet everybody worships the ground he walks on.

What the fuck you looking at kid?

The first concept 'The Box' started creatively enough with the mystery of a boy seeing "something" in a box and then it went no where. I mean NO FUCKING WHERE. The boy whispers some shit to his sister and then his father so they quit eating too. Is there some message here that I can't figure out? I'd like to kick the person that wrote this right in their box ass.

Next up was 'The Birthday Party'.  It Didn't make much sense and the characters' behavior is not even close to being believable. The lady hiding her dead husband inside a giant panda suit did have big tits though.  But sadly they were not revealed to the audience. 

Don't fall asleep!!!  Look at my beautiful luscious breasts.

The third story was called 'Don't Fall'. This was just a standard monster story and didn't really offer anything new. Four people go camping, one of them turns into a generic looking monster and kills the other three. That about sums that up. She looked pretty cool though when she turned into the monster.

Part 4 is a low budget poor man's Rosemary's Baby:  The teenage years.  This was actually the best story. But overall the ending was bit disappointing. Ironically, the first story is a good metaphor for the movie itself. At first, you really want to know what's in the box. Then, you see what's inside... nothing. Then, you lose your appetite.

To sum it all up:  "All segments helmed by female directors and staring female leads" so goes the tag line. The unfortunate female leads get caught up with female directors who know neither head or tail of film direction.

Four deadly tales by four killer women

Trivia:
The segment "The Box" is the only one of the four segments that is not actually an original story by the women but is instead an adaptation of the Jack Ketchum story.

Danny Elfman's taxidermy cat Frisky makes a cameo in the segment "The Birthday Party" (when he is turned to be adjusted).

Antonia Bird was originally in talks to direct a segment before her passing. The film is dedicated to her memory.

The film was intended to be an experimental project to highlight female filmmakers working in the industry. According to an interview featuring all four of the filmmakers, Jovanka Vuckovic stated that this film was intended to give more opportunities to female directors, especially in the horror genre, due to the lack of female directors working in the film industry.

The title of the film, XX, is a reference to the chromosomes that determine the genetic make up for a woman, a reference to the female dominant crew behind the production of these short films.

Happy Birthday mother fucker!!!

Norman....Is That You? (1976)

A black man is distraught when he discovers his son is gay and is determined to set him right.

Norman... Is That You? is a 1976 American comedy film directed by George Schlatter and starring Redd Foxx and Pearl Bailey. It is based on the play Norman, Is That You? The film version changes the locale from New York City to Los Angeles and substitutes an African American family for a Jewish family in the original play.

Ben Chambers (Foxx) arrives in Los Angeles to seek consolation from his son, Norman. Ben is upset and confused after his wife abandons the family dry-cleaning business in Tucson and runs away to Mexico with her brother-in-law. Ben Chambers discovers his son is gay after he finds Norman's lover, Garson, in the bedroom. While dealing with the abandonment of his wife, Ben tries to understand his son's orientation.

In 1976 this was a pretty risky subject (interracial gay lovers). Redd Foxx is in the central role and has enough pimpy outfits and polyester to carpet the entire 1970s, "Norman" plays like a blaxploitation picture combined with any number of silly sitcom episodes involving comic misunderstandings. Foxx is really fucking funny. 'Madame' who became a TV star on 'Solid Gold' was the foul mouth older temptress and Pearl Bailey in limited screen time was Redd's wife and foil.

It was strangely written by Sam Bobrick earlier of 'The Andy Griffith Show' who then later created 'Save By the Bell'. It involves Foxx's wife (Bailey) leaving. The extreme stereotypes and message-laden dialogue just come off as charmingly outdated, and provide a great deal of grist for discussion on how things have changed for gays in the past 30 years.

According to film lore, this was the first big screen effort to be filmed in videotape, which was then transferred to celluloid for project purposes--and believe me, it shows. The film has the look of a bad 1970s sitcom right down to the painted skyline seen through the windows of Norman and Garson's apartment.

One thing to understand is that this is a period piece. It reflected the attitudes in the mid to early 70s about finding out you have a gay son or daughter in your family. For that reason alone, it's pretty interesting. Oh did I mention Redd Foxx is fucking funny. You big dummy.

Trivia:

To save money, the interior scenes were shot with a multi-camera television setup, then transferred to 35mm film.

This was originally intended as a starring vehicle for George C. Scott.

'Norman... Is That You?' opened at the Lyceum Theater on February 19, 1970.

The original Broadway production starred Maureen Stapleton and Lou Jacobi. The play ran for only 12 performances.