Corruption (1968) When a renowned surgeon’s (Peter Cushing) skin grafting experiments fail on his self-centered fiancee’s (Sue Lloyd) burnt face he’s pressured into using “fresher” test subjects by murdering random women and stealing their heads. A surprisingly violent rip-off of the French film, Eyes Without a Face, this is one of many post-Psycho British slashers that arrived in the late ’60s and features some particularly nasty murder set pieces, and a fun, semi-looney performance by Cushing. Only a ridiculously ludicrous ending puts a dent in an otherwise fun movie. B
Night Terror (1977) After witnessing a murder, a housewife (Valerie Harper) is stalked by a psycho while driving through a patch of remote highway in this fun but slight TV movie. Harper (Rhoda) is typically sympathetic and there’s some suspense throughout, but the script gets a little too bogged down with uninteresting side characters and a dated subplot that paints Harper as the “hysterical” wife to her more “reasonable” husband. Worth checking out for the TV horror movie enthusiast. Aka Night Drive. B–
The Thaw (2009) Sort of a remake of the excellent X-Files episode, “Ice”, this places a small group of scientists in the middle of the Arctic and threatened to be exposed to a prehistoric, flesh-eating parasite emanating from a melting glacier. The movie starts slow but builds an effective atmosphere of doom and manages to create some suspenseful situations. Stock characters and predictability keep this from being truly good, but this is still a marginally enjoyable bugfest. B–