A madman is loose in the lab tonight, with the 1934 pre-code shocker MANIAC. Click below to watch...
Dr. Gangrene's Cinetarium airs Saturday Nights at 9pm central on Nashville NECAT Arts CH9. It is also simulcast on the NECAT Roku channel (search for Necat). Or click to watch below.
Saturday, March 11
Thursday, March 9
Going MAD in the lab this week!
Tuesday, March 7
Rondo Awards!!
Greetings fright fans, it's that time of year again, and I'm honored to announce Dr. Gangrene has been nominated for 2 Rondo awards:
Best website (for this very website)
Favorite Horror Host!
This is the 21st annual Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Awards - it's an annual fan-voted award given to recognize excellence in the horror field in a number of categories. The vote is all done by email - so to vote simply email your choices to taraco@aol.com
To see the entire ballot go to: http://rondoaward.com
And remember to STAY MAD!
This month in the Lab!
Join the Doc in the Cinetarium for March Madness all month long, a celebration of mad science, monsters and madness!
Monday, March 6
The Manster
It's a 2-headed terror this week in the lab, as a mad doctor unknowingly injects a reporter with a test serum that turns him into a... MANSTER!
Friday, February 17
This week's movie - Night Fright
This week's mad movie is another exercise in independent filmmaking, this time in 1968 in Dallas Texas with Night Fright from director James Sullivan. James had worked on low budget indy films before, on several Larry Buchanan films and as an editor on Manos the Hands of Fate (another Texas production). In his directorial debut he makes a good old fashioned creature feature about a government satellite that crash lands and brings back a vicious space monster that begins killing the teens in the small town of Satan's Hollow, TX. It's up to the town sheriff, played by John Agar, to stop it.
There's two main things going for this film: 1, plenty of monster time, and 2. John Agar. You can never go wrong with good ole John Agar. Unfortunately the film suffers from slow pacing, no doubt in an effort to get it to feature length. I still really like this one, and appreciate the independent film gusto to get out and make a monster movie. We need more of those nowadays!
Saturday, February 11
Thursday, February 9
This week's mad movie...
We have a new episode in the Cinetarium this week, fright fans, the 1954 sci fi schlocker Killers from Space.
Friday, February 3
This week in the lab we get a visit from the skies...
This week's dose of horror therapy comes via director Ed Wood Jr. with the 1959 Sci-Fi classic "Plan 9 from Outer Space." Alien invaders resurrect the dead to do their bidding - among the corpses brought back are Bela Lugosi, Vampira, and Tor Johnson.
They're the best part of the film, to be honest, although the Bela scenes make little sense and are shoehorned in just to get a name actor into the film. In fact, it's actually footage of Bela that Wood shot earlier, unrelated to the movie. Bela passed away prior to shooting, so Ed figured he'd find a way to get what footage he had into the movie. It works... sort of.
The entire film is entertaining in its own weird way, despite the cardboard tombstones, hokey sets, wooden acting and juvenile script. Or perhaps because of it. In hindsight those very attributes are the things that draw people to this film almost 65 years after its release. The amateurish touches make it a charming viewing, and the weird cast is oddly compelling. The film has a sincerity in it that is lacking in films that try to be "so bad they're good." You can't set out to make something like that, it never works. Wood and company set out to make the best film they could, and in the process made an enjoyable, if somewhat silly, picture that's still entertaining audiences to this day. Here's to you, Ed!