Svengali (1931)

Svengali (1931)

Svengali (John Barrymore) is a talented musician living in an artists community that include his follower Gecko (Luis Alberni), and painters The Laird (Donald Crisp), Taffy (Lumsden Hare), and Billee (Bramwell Fletcher). He’s also a cad, who uses his charisma and hypnotic powers to gain what he wants, and in one case, to cause a

The Hound of the Baskervilles {Der Hund von Baskerville} (1937)

The Hound of the Baskervilles {Der Hund von Baskerville} (1937)

The Baskerville family lives under the curse of a ghostly hound due to the actions of a cruel ancestor. Fear of this has made Lord Charles Baskerville (Friedrich Kayssler) a nervous wreck. He lives alone in the large, dark manner, except for his servants, Barrymore and Frau Barrymore (Fritz Rasp, Lilli Schönborn). He is treated

Murders in the Zoo (1933)

Murders in the Zoo (1933)

While Hunter Eric Gorman (Lionel Atwill) is on an expedition to bring back animals for a zoo, he tortures and murders a man who made a pass (or more) at his wife, Evelyn (Kathleen Burke). She seems to get a lot of attention from men, though it is not clear how much of that she

Murder by Television (1935)

Murder by Television (1935)

Prof. James Houghland (Charles Hill Mailes) has invented a new technology for that newest of new products: the television. Multiple companies want his invention, and secretive people threaten him. During his demonstration, he is murdered. Nelson, the chief of police (Henry Mowbray) has many suspects, including Houghland’s assistant Dr. Arthur Perry (Bela Lugosi), medical experimentalist

The Phantom Light (1935)

The Phantom Light (1935)

Sam Higgins (Gordon Harker) arrives at an isolated Welsh village to take over running the local lighthouse. The villagers are a strange and superstitious lot, believing the lighthouse to be haunted, a belief that is buttressed by the disappearance of the previous lighthouse keeper as well as Tom Evans (Reginald Tate) having just gone mad

Bluebeard’s Castle {Herzog Blaubarts Burg} (1963)

Bluebeard’s Castle {Herzog Blaubarts Burg} (1963)

Judith (Ana Raquel Satre) has abandoned her family and fiancé to run off with the powerful and disreputable Bluebeard (Norman Foster) to his imposing castle. Rumors abound of his foul deeds, and he gruffly tries to warn her off, but she insists that she wants him and will stay. As he softens a bit, she

Son of Dracula (1943)

Son of Dracula (1943)

Occultist Kay Caldwell (Louise Allbritton) brings Count Dracula (Lon Chaney Jr.)—not his son no matter what the film’s title might be—using the name Alucard, to her Louisiana plantation. This vexes her conventional sister (Evelyn Ankers), her unstable boyfriend Frank (Robert Paige), and the pushy Dr. Brewster (Frank Craven). Her plan is to marry Dracula, gain

The Jungle Captive (1945)

The Jungle Captive (1945)

Mad-scientist Mr. Stendahl (Otto Kruger), with the help of two excessively dim, young assistants, and the film’s love interests, Don (Phil Brown) & Anne (Amelita Ward), has brought a rabbit back to life, and now wants to try and something more complex: Paula/The Ape Woman (Vicky Lane). His hulking henchman Moloch (Rondo Hatton) steals the

A Ghost Story (2017)

A Ghost Story (2017)

A man (Casey Affleck) dies and rises as a ghost, returning to his home. He watches over his widow (Rooney Mara) for a time, but she leaves the house and he stays on. He watches, occasionally acting  but mostly watching as people come and go. If you haven’t heard about A Ghost Story, it’s the

Transformers: The Last Knight (2017)

Transformers: The Last Knight (2017)

Optimus Prime (voice: Peter Cullen) has left Earth to return to Cybertron where he meets an evil mother robot who turns him evil and sends him back to Earth to swipe Merlin’s staff so the planet of Cybertron can suck the life out of the Earth. Really. But forget about that as we won’t hear

Rampage (2018)

Rampage (2018)

He-man Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson (Dwayne Jonson)—for some reason using the name Davis Okoye, but he’s just The Rock—pretends to be a special forces trained killing machine, who loves animals. He’s also a primatologist, which in this film does not require any scholarly training; it just means you hang out with apes and joke around,

Phantasm IV: Oblivion (1998)

Phantasm IV: Oblivion (1998)

Mike, having found out that he is going to become an alien, or is already an alien, or is carrying an alien in his head (it’s not clear, and is never made clear) goes off on his own, chased, often in his dreams, by The Tall Man. Reggie tries to either rescue Mike or kill