Renato Polselli views plot the way Garth Marenghi does subtext. In THE VAMPIRE OF THE OPERA (1964), he gives us no opera, and not much vampire until the wildly incoherent and frenzied last 30 minutes, but he does give us lots of dancing along the way. And in RITES, BLACK MAGIC AND SECRET ORGIES (1973), he delivers exactly what it says on the tin, all the way and all the time. More here: http://davidannandale.com/2022/11/23/renato-polselli-cuts-to-the-chase/
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Recently arrived: the gorgeous print edition of the half-century-in-coming novelization (by the film’s screenwriter) of BLOOD ON SATAN’S CLAW.
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FOUR SIDED TRIANGLE (1953) is Hammer’s first real foray into SF, and also sketches out concerns to come as it also returned to horror (for the first time since 1935). The film is more like a promise of what was to come than a fully successful atttempt, but it is worth seeing. More here: http://davidannandale.com/2022/11/21/four-sided-triangle-1953/
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THE BLACK TORMENT (1964) is nice example of how even very budget-conscious UK firms could still turn out very lush, handsome Gothics. This one is a lot of fun, achieving a delirious intensity at times. Sadly, once one rules out the supernatural explanation for the mystery, the solution is predictable (and nonsensical). Good fun all the same.
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I had never expected to encounter a fusion of Italian neorealism, Italian Gothic, and folk horror, but IL DEMONIO (1963) is just that. It’s as distressing as it is beautiful, almost a documentary in its anthropological examination of rural Southern Italy, and ferocious in its anatomization of the fusion of patriarchy and religion. I blogged about it here: http://davidannandale.com/2022/11/20/il-demonio-1963/
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THE MONSTER MAKER (1944) is hardly the most beloved of Poverty Row horror movies. But it *is* beloved by me. It commits to its dark premise, and gives us everything from a truly nasty Mad Scientist to a gorilla. Can one really ask for more than that in life? I explain my love in more detail here: http://davidannandale.com/2022/11/19/in-praise-of-the-monster-maker-1944/
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Joseph Losey’s 1951 remake of M isn’t a bad film. In fact, it’s pretty good. Given how closely it follow its model, it could hardly turn out otherwise. It is, though, somewhat redundant. In the first two pairs of screenshots here, the first of each pair is from 1931, the second from 1951. I could multiply the examples, but the carbon-copying is pretty striking in these images from the opening scene.
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THE WITCHMAKER (1969) is a new one for me. A team of paranormal investigators run afoul of a swampland coven, whose base of operations is rather more grand and full of pillars than one would expect in the fog-bound swamp. Executive producing is L.Q. Jones, who would, two years later, co-write, co-produce and co-star in the thematically related BROTHERHOOD OF SATAN.

Re-watched NIGHT OF THE BLOOD BEAST (1958). Sure, some of it is a fairly standard-issue retreat of THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD, but with a rather goofy, moss-covered parrot-bear of a monster (proto-owlbear?). But it still knows how to deploy shadows, and I don’t think it gets enough attention for the male pregnancy at the heart of its story, fully two decades before ALIEN, and the way in which that character struggles with questions of identity and free will for the rest of the film.