Horror Bulletin Monthly May 2022: Horror Bulletin Monthly Issues, #8

By Brian Schell

The EIGHTH issue of the Horror Guys Monthly review digest, Horror Bulletin, includes reviews of thirty full-length films and five horror shorts. There's also a fun word search at the end that contains the titles of the films.

 

Each of the films contains a complete synopsis of the film, including spoilers (so beware!), as well as our commentary on the quality of the story and how well it holds up for viewers today.

 

Full-Length Films:

 

1932 The Mask of Fu Manchu
1933 The Ghoul
1958 Earth Vs. The Spider
1959 A Bucket of Blood
1960 Little Shop of Horrors
1965 Orgy of the Dead
1970 Assignment: Terror
1971 Let's Scare Jessica to Death
1971 The Blood on Satan's Claw
1971 Wake in Fright
1975 Exorcismo
1987 Prince of Darkness
1989 Puppet Master
1991 Puppet Master II
1996 The Frighteners
2005 The Exorcism of Emily Rose
2006 Requiem
2008 Frontiere(s)
2015 Jug Face
2015 Crimson Peak
2017 Pyewacket
2018 Hagazussa
2019 Eat Brains Love
2022 Night's End
2022 The Cellar

 

Short Films: 

 

2022 Pains
2022 This Must Be the Place
2022 The Fisherman
2022 The Mirror
2022 Stuck

• Language: English
• Publisher: Brian Schell
• Release date: May 1, 2022
• ISBN: 9798201830502

Brian Schell

Brian Schell is a College English Instructor who has an extensive background in Buddhism and other world religions. After spending time in Japan, he returned to America where he created the immensely popular website, Daily Buddhism. For the next several years, Schell wrote extensively on applying Buddhism to real-world topics such as War, Drugs, Tattoos, Sex, Relationships, Pet Food and yes, even Horror Movies. Twitter: @BrianSchell Facebook: http://www.Facebook.com/Brian.Schell Web: http://BrianSchell.com

Book preview

Part One

MOVIE REVIEWS

1932 THE MASK OF FU MANCHU

Directed by Charles Brabin

Written by Irene Kuhn, Edgar Allan Woolf, John Willard

Stars Boris Karloff, Lewis Stone, Karen Morley

Run Time: 1 Hour, 8 Minutes

SPOILER-FREE JUDGMENT ZONE

Before there was Flash Gordon, way before there was Big Trouble In Little China, there was Dr. Fu Manchu. If you can look past the white people made up as Asians and the racial stereotypes, you can appreciate it for a pretty entertaining movie that’s a statement of what things were perfectly okay at the time it was made. And it’s an early example of tropes that are still used even today. There’s action, drama, thrills, and romance. Very much a precursor to serial shorts that would come later.

SYNOPSIS

Nayland Smith of Scotland Yard calls in Sir Lionel Barton for an assignment to go to the edge of the Gobi Desert and find the lost tomb of Genghis Khan. It is said that Fu Manchu, insane for power, is looking for the tomb as well. Should Fu Manchu put on Khan’s mask and scimitar, all of Asia would rise up against the British Empire and the world.

As Sir Lionel goes to his meeting of archaeologists, he’s being followed through the museum by shady Asian folks dressed as mummies. He tells the group about Genghis Khan and his lost tomb. They are going to make arrangements on Friday and leave on Monday for China. Sounds easy! On the way out, the mummies grab Sir Lionel.

Terry and Sheila go to see Nayland Smith about Lionel, who has gone missing. Smith explains that her father has been kidnapped by Fu Manchu. Mr. McCleod and Von Berg have decided to continue the mission, and Sheila insists on going along now.

Meanwhile, The evil Dr. Fu Manch drinks a smoky concoction in his lab. He calls for his daughter, Fah Lo See. Sir Lionel comes in, demanding to know the meaning of this. He doesn’t really remember what happened until he arrived there. Fu Manchu brags about his three doctoral titles and says Lionel should call him doctor. Lionel refuses to tell him the location of the lost tomb. He offers Sir Lionel his daughter for the secret. When he still refuses, Manchu subjects Sir Lionel to the torture of the ringing bell.

As the torture continues, Von Berg, McLeod, and the others find the tomb. They descend and find many golden treasures. Naturally, there’s a curse upon all those who enter. They also find Khan’s skeleton, wearing a mask and holding a scimitar. The locals rush in and bow before Khan, worshiping him until the white men run them all off. They clearly can’t let the evil doctor get ahold of them.

Fu Manchu, who has no sons, asks his guests to accept a message from my ugly and insignificant daughter. She says the prophecy is about to be fulfilled: the scimitar and mask are coming to them soon.

The Brits, as the British did back then, bring all the treasures out of the tomb and await the journey home in the morning. McCleod is killed by an assassin that night, and they have a funeral the next morning. Terry wants to stay another day to recover, but Smith insists they leave tonight. We can’t even trust our own Coolies, says Smith. Terry finds a hand outside, and it’s wearing Sir Lionel’s ring.

A messenger arrives from Fu Manchu. He wants the Khan relics for the return of Sheila’s father. Sheila insists that Terry take the items to Manchu. Terry does it; he goes to meet Fu Manchu and takes the relics with him.

Fu Manchu turns on his scientific equipment, and the sparks fly. He draws lightning to the sword, which glows and melts. It’s a fake! Terry swears he didn’t know, but Manchu’s men take him away. Fah Lo See personally and delightedly oversees his torment with the whips.

Sheila tells Smith where Terry went. Sir Lionel’s body is dumped outside their door. Smith admits that he had a fake sword made just for that purpose, but didn’t think it would be detected.

Smith goes to the local opium den and pays the fee. He then looks around and follows a man with a dragon tattoo to Fu Manchu’s hideout. He finds a trapdoor that leads to a system of caves; Fu Manchu is waiting for him there. Smith finds Terry, but Manchu says he plans to inject him with a mind-control serum that will enslave him. After much scientific mumbo-jumbo, Terry gets injected.

Terry shows up at Sheila’s place; she says he looks tired. Von Berg falls for it, but Sheila knows immediately that there’s something wrong with him. Terry gets Von Berg to give him the real mask and sword.

Once again, Fu Manchu puts the sword in his lightning machine, but this time, he is pleased with the results. He promises to kill all the heroes first thing in the morning. Sheila talks to Terry and tries to convince him to wake up and help them. Terry breaks the spell, but Fu Manchu orders, Take them away!

Nayland Smith is tied to a huge seesaw with an hourglass on one end that is running out of sand. When the sand runs out, he’ll be dropped into a pit of alligators. Sheila is to be a human sacrifice. Von Berg is put into a trap with slowly moving spiked walls that will soon kill him.

Fu Manchu puts on the mask and addresses the crowd of his followers. The statue of Genghis Khan hands his scimitar to Fu Manchu. Smith escapes from the alligators and helps free Terry and Von Berg. Terry rushes to save Sheila while the other two start working on the lightning machine. Things go badly for Fu at this point as the lightning machine starts frying the entire audience. Pandemonium ensues.

Later, on the boat back to Britain, Smith decides to throw the scimitar overboard. Von Berg says it wouldn’t surprise him to see Fu Manchu back for it. But no, we’ll never see him again— right?

COMMENTARY

Karloff is brilliantly evil here, but his Asian makeup is atrocious by modern standards. There are only a handful of real Asians in the movie, all in non-speaking roles. Everyone else is a Brit in yellowface. Except for the numerous bald, black men (slaves, I assume) that Manchu has– in the heart of China. There’s all kinds of weird racism going on in this one, some of which doesn’t make much sense.

We both immediately noticed his resemblance to Flash Gordon’s Ming The Merciless character, and we checked; both the Flash Gordon comic strip and the serials began several years after this film. There are many similarities.

That said, it’s got a lot of action and moves quickly. It’s fast-paced and interesting throughout. There’s nothing here you haven’t seen before, but keep in mind that this film originated many of the tropes that we still see today.

1933 THE GHOUL

Directed by T. Hayes Hunter

Written by Frank King, Leonard Hines, Roland Pertwee

Stars Boris Karloff, Cedric Hardwicke, Ernest Thesiger

Run Time: 1 Hour, 17 Minutes

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SZtP0V0L2M

SPOILER-FREE JUDGMENT ZONE

This was a lost film for a while. Then a print was found in Czechoslovakia, then later another in England. It wasn’t available for a while, but people taped it off a 1984 broadcast. Bootleg copies of the muddled Czech version and copies of copies of VHS were in wide circulation. So if the copy you are able to see seems a little grainy, it might be because it’s the third or fourth time around. It doesn’t hold up that well today, quality aside. It’s pretty tame with a low body count, few scares, and nothing really groundbreaking.

SYNOPSIS

Mahmoud, follows another man home. I want the eternal light, he demands. The other man says he no longer has it. The man says he sold it to Professor Morlant, but it’s OK because he believes in the Eternal Light. Morlant is dying, and it may be buried with him.

Elsewhere, Professor Morlant is near death. Mr. Boughton and Laing are there with him. Broughton reads Morlant’s journal from the