Murder by the Clock (1931)

Murder by the Clock (1931)

Cruel, elderly Julia Endicott (Blanche Friderici), matriarch of a dying family, walks through the cemetery, trailed by Philip (Irving Pichel), her feeble-minded, brutish son and Miss Roberts (Martha Mattox), the housekeeper. Julia claims they are going to the family crypt to lay flowers, but really it is to check the moaning alarm horn she’s had

Mystery of Edwin Drood (1935)

Mystery of Edwin Drood (1935)

Depressed, jealous, opium-addicted choirmaster John Jasper (Claude Rains) is obsessed by Rosa Bud (Heather Angel), who is the fiancĂ©e of his nephew, Edwin Drood’s (David Manners). She finds Jasper’s attentions creepy, though she keeps it to herself. Neville Landless (Douglass Montgomery) and his sister Helena (Valerie Hobson), of mixed racial heritage, come to town with Neville falling

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

Scaramouche (1952)

Scaramouche (1952)

Scaramouche is a gasp from a dying genre.  The simplistic moral structure that was so uplifting in the films of the 30s and 40s was beginning to look silly in the post war world.  Add in that most everything that could be done with the genre in that form had been done, and it’s not

The Plague of the Zombies (1966)

The Plague of the Zombies (1966)

Distraught physician Peter Tompson (Brook Williams) writes his mentor, Sir James Forbes (AndrĂ© Morell) a rambling letter about deaths with no natural explanation in a rural village. Forbes’s daughter (Diane Clare), interested in seeing her friend Alice (Jacqueline Pearce) who happens to be Tompson’s wife, convinces her father to take train and coach to visit

Monster X Strikes Back: Attack the G8 Summit (2008)

Monster X Strikes Back: Attack the G8 Summit (2008)

As world leaders meet to discuss—and fail to do anything about—environmental destruction, a spaceship crashes, releasing the giant Guilala on the people of Japan. Realizing this will be great PR, the leaders stick around and come up with one ridiculous (and culturally revealing) scheme after another to defeat the monster. Meanwhile, a cute tabloid reporter

Morgan (2016)

Morgan (2016)

There’s been an “accident” at a secret, isolated lab. They’ve been developing a new form of artificial human, one with emotions. Its name is Morgan (Anya Taylor-Joy), and this five-year-old that looks eighteen just stabbed one of its keepers (Jennifer Jason Leigh) in the eye. The corporate office has sent Lee (Kate Mara), a risk

The Dark Knight Rises (2012)

The Dark Knight Rises (2012)

Eight year’s after Batman took the blame for Harvey Dent’s crimes, Gotham City appears better on the surface, but, if anything, is worse for the 99%. In it, idealistic police officer John Blake (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) tries to make a difference while jewel thief Selina Kyle (Anne Hathaway) just tries to get by in a world

Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014) [MCU Ranking]

Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014) [MCU Ranking]

Captain America teams up with Black Widow to uncover a conspiracy at the highest levels of government while also meeting an old friend who’s become a killing machine. Where Captain America: The First Avenger felt like a 1950s war movie, The Winter Solder feels like a 1970s spy thriller, just with a lot more exploding

Three Chinese Tomb Raiding Adventure Films

Three Chinese Tomb Raiding Adventure Films

An old sub-genre is getting a kick in China now—tomb raiding adventures stories. The newest incarnations are not examples of China just now discovering Indiana Jones, as some have suggested, but are part of a movement set off by an ebook: Ghost Blows Out the Light (2006). The series set records in China and physical

The Aztec Mummy (1957)

The Aztec Mummy (1957)

Dr. Eduardo Almada (RamĂłn Gay) did not take the criticism of his theory of past life regression well. So with the help of his mentor (Jorge MondragĂłn) and his cowardly comic relief (Crox Alvarado), he hypnotizes his fiancĂ©e—who also happens to be his mentor’s daughter—Flor (Rosita Arenas). Luck would have it she used to be