Foster on Film

Tarantula (1955)  The Black Scorpion (1957)  The Deadly Mantis (1957)  The ‘50s giant bug craze was part of the larger atomic monster sub-genre which started with The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms and went on full tilt for the next decade. These were B-pictures—or C-pictures—where sparing expense was always a factor. Still, they tended not to

Gamera is just wandering around in outer space, which is something he does now, when he runs into hostile aliens in a collection of beach balls. He destroys the balls after they have radioed home for reinforcements. On Earth, two Kennys, one Japanese and one American, are at some kind of international boy scout camp.

In a teal world, a group of “eco-terrorists” breaks into a Monarch facility, taking Dr. Emma Russell (Vera Farmiga) and her monster communication device, as well as her daughter Madison (Millie Bobby Brown). Their plan is to wake the ancient monsters all over the world and let them remake the planet. Monarch, lead by Dr.

Three respectable gentlemen secretly form their own little hellfire club. Bored with prostitutes and drink, they ask Lord Courtley, a notorious libertine and dabbler in the black arts, to guide them to the next step. That step: To resurrect Dracula from his powdered blood and a few trinkets. When the attempt goes awry, the three

A meteor strike both wakes Godzilla and uncovers Mothra’s egg. It is also the final straw for Battra, who heads toward Japan to wreak havoc. A poor Indiana Jones stand-in, his ex-wife, and a salaryman head to Infant Island to check out the egg, and end up recreating as many Indiana Jones scenes as could

In a bleak Estonian village, the peasants survive with the help of witchcraft and folk magic, which is as much a part of everyday life as the tree bark they eat. The most notable magic takes the form of “kratts,” automatons made from wood, bone, straw, farm implements, and eventually even snow, and animated by

Some guy wearing a cop uniform and speaking in a monotone brings an unknown and reasonably attractive 20ish actress—who isn’t really bothering to pretend to be anyone—into a small dark bathroom and then pretends to kill her and wraps her head with a few strips of gauze. Then he does it again. And then again.

Unpleasant, alcoholic Waldo Trumbull (Vincent Price) runs the funeral business he’s taken over from his wife’s father (Boris Karloff). To dig up business, he and his employee, Felix Gillie (Peter Lorre), murder elderly members of the town. When their landlord (Basil Rathbone) comes for a year’s back rent, Trumbull decides he is next. The major

Years ago, Professor ten Brinker (Erick von Stroheim) artificially inseminated a prostitute with the sperm of a hanged murderer in order to test his theories on heredity. He figured that by using the dregs of society, it would be easier to spot their degenerate traits when they are passed down, and besides, evil people are

Töre (Max von Sydow) is a pious man and master of a medieval farm. His wife Märeta delves into the fanatical, burning herself so she can feel Christ’s pain, but she dotes on their teenage daughter Karin (Birgitta Pettersson). The spoiled Karin is generally good natured, but thinks mainly of herself, and uses her beauty

After a man dies at night from the cry of a woman, Don Fernando (Paco Martínez) tells his nephew Dr. Ricardo de Acuna (Ramón Pereda) of the great danger his child is in. All the first born sons of the family die when they are four years old. He claims this is due to a

Dr. Meirschultz (Horace B. Carpenter) is a mad scientist. Make that a wacky scientist. He yells and leaps around and yells some more. He’s also working on serum for raising the dead. Helping him, due to a combination of debt and blackmail, is Don Maxwell (William Woods), a vaudeville performer with top makeup skills who