The X-Files Retrospective: Deep Throat
Season 1, Episode 2—Deep Throat “Let’s just say this case has a distinct smell to it. A certain… paranormal bouquet.” After presenting a new case to Scully (the disappearance of a disturbed military test pilot in Idaho), Mulder is confronted…
The Basement, The Immortalizer, Return to Salem’s Lot
THE BASEMENT (1989) Four people are summoned to a dank basement by the Sentinel, a hooded ghoul who warns them of crimes they will commit in the future. Told in omnibus format, the first story is about an unfaithful housewife…
The X-Files Retrospective: Pilot
With the 33rd anniversary of The X-Files, I’ve decided to rewatch the show in its entirety—for about the 10th time!—and write a perspective/review of each episode. I expect this project will take me well into 2027 since there are 202…
Blood Mania, Devil’s Nightmare, Sweet House of Horrors
BLOOD MANIA (1970) Tight sweater-donning Vicky (Maria de Aragon) is a nympho—a female character trait frequently found in low-budget horror movies of the time period—who’s plotting the murder of her ailing father so she can inherit daddy’s fortune. After attending…
Cellar Dweller, Island of the Fishmen, Mutant
CELLAR DWELLER (1987) Using a Satanic text for inspiration, comic book artist Colin Childress (Jeffrey Combs) accidentally conjures his creation (an eight-foot tall demonic creature) into the real world and the two go up in flames. Years later, Childress’s house…
Breeders, Necropolis, The Stepford Children
BREEDERS (1986) Virginal women in New York City are being maimed and raped by an E.T. that resembles a housefly. When the alien gets the urge to mate, it takes over the body of human man only to messily break…
Heartstopper, Psychos In Love, The Unnamable
HEARTSTOPPER (1989) Interesting if not fully successful vampire yarn in which a surgeon in the American Revolution (Kevin Kindlin) is executed for drinking human blood—whether vampirism was common practice in 1776 is never explained—but reawakens in 1980s Pittsburgh. Kindlin tries…
Angst, Forbidden World, It’s Alive III
ANGST (1983) A mentally deranged man (Irwin Leder) is released from prison ten years after committing cold-blooded murder and immediately sets up shop at an isolated house where he indulges in terrorizing its inhabitants. Since the film is narrated by…
The Black Cat, Equinox, The Ripper
THE BLACK CAT (1989) (AKA: Demons 6: De Profundis) While filming a trashy adaptation of Poe’s The Black Cat, actress Anna (Florence Guérin) is cast by her director husband (Urbano Barberini) to play the witch in an upcoming remake of…