Reviews (2)

Master of the Unknown!!!!!!!!
Two begins from another dimension; two sorcerers with immeasurable powers. One has sworn to destroy the Earth; the other has vowed to protect it. Their timeless battle has crossed over from the fourth dimension and only one man will reign in the end...
Doctor Mordrid (JEFFREY COMBS) is the chosen guardian who can protect the Earth from eternal darkness; Kabal (BRIAN THOMPSON) is his vengeful enemy whose implacable wrath has escalated with time. Kabal has arrived on Earth and is planning to use his infinite powers to unleash a horde of hellish demons to devour and destroy humankind.
Bound by hate and a mystical amulet that holds the powers of life and death, the immortal wizards will meet for the last time. Their centuries-old rivalry has matured into the ancient struggle of good versus evil. Now, their battle takes on majestic proportions as Mordrid and Kabal give life to prehistoric skeletons and begin their final conflict...

A pleasant, goofy little movie
This is a movie, not a book. Doctor Anton Mordrid is a wizard protecting Earth while moonlighting as an apartment building owner and lecturer on the Occult. Jeffrey Combs plays Mordrid with obvious enthusiam. Combs is a terrific actor who deserves some mainstream success. He can currently be seen on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine as Weyoun. This film has good acting, a female lead who is NOT a mindless bimbo, only one scene with nudity, and decent special effects. Give it try. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

They're the World's Oldest Party Animals!
I first saw "Prehysteria" on "The Disney Channel" in the early nineties. Since then, it's become one of my favorite movies of all time. The plot evolves around a greedy mueseum curator named Rico Sarno (Stephen Lee) who steals five sacred pygmy dinosour eggs from a tribe in South America. Hoping to make history, he brings them back to North America. But his plans are ruined when the eggs accidentally drop into the hands of Frank Taylor (Brett Cullen) and his kids pre-teen Jerry (Austin O'Brien) and teen Monica (Samantha Mills).

Frank is an archeologist who just barely makes a living by finding fossils and selling them to the mueseum Rico is in charge of. When the eggs are hatched by the Taylor's lonely dog they all try to keep the kind, cute and curious pygmy dinosaurs a secret. But Frank is falling in love with Vicki (Colleen Morris) an innocent young woman who works for Rico, and finds his life complicated when the dinos begin trashing his house and Rico finds out that they are in the Taylor's hands and he attempts to get them back.

"Prehysteria" is an all time favorite of mine because of the plot, the acting and the humor but especially because of the adorable pygmy dinosaurs. They look so life like and they make you wish they were your own. A big hand to the creator of them!

Though "Prehysteria" was a huge hit when it had it's direct-to-video release in 1993, it has been given thumbs down reviews by a bunch of critics. I don't see how that could possibly happen as it is a completely refreshing, cute and smart nineties family movie. I highly reccomend it to all!

Prehysteria is hysterical
This video is excellent for kids. There is no violence, though there are some uses of words of doubtful taste. There is an explanation of how the movie was made, how the dinosaurs were designed and created. Very creative and a cute vision of those violent animals that is not scary for the young children. ... Read more

Reviews (5)

The best
This is a very good movie I recomend it for sci-fi lovers of all ages.The only bad part is at the begining when your sitting through the credits,of course you can always fast-forward through that.The movie is 106 minutes long,and is rated pg.

First There Was ROBOT JOX...and then came ROBOT WARS!
Metal against metal. Blow upon blow. Powerful arms reach out to grab and choke, electrifying lasers light up the sky as they ricochet off solid plates of steel.
The ultimate battle between metallic giants begins when a malicious foreign dignitary hijacks the last mega-robot on Earth, the MRAS-2, and threatens to unleash its crushing powers against the people of the Eastern Alliance. There's only one force magnificent enough to stop the MRAS-2, a MEGA-1 robot hidden under the city. It's up to renegade pilot (Don Michael Paul), his engineer (James Staley) and a brilliant archaeologist (Barbara Crampton) to revive the MEGA-1 and re-establish world peace.
Will the MEGA-1 be able to survive the onslaught of the new robot and its superior technology? A phenomenal battle lies ahead...

David Arkenstone soundtrack..
The David Arkenstone soundtrack is really the best thing about this movie. The acting is passable, and the effects, while certainly better than BBC "Dr. Who" quality, could be better. If you like the "giant robot" genre, you'll probably like this.

Robot Wars a must not see
This movie is not very well written in my opinion and is probably a good thing that it is priced so high. Most of it is uninportant dailog that seems to have little or no piont with no story or structure. There is alittle action at the end, but of poor qualaty. To make a long review short, it is basically like a bad episode of G.I Jeo.

Okay.
Not as good as Robot Jox which is the first movie. Not as much action but is a hard find and would be nice in a collection of big fighting sci fi robots like Transformers. Not really worth it. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

A fun filled romp that the whole family can enjoy.
When I first watched Prehysteria 2 I wasn't sure I would enjoy it as much as I did the original. But to my surprise it lived up to the original and was in some cases better.

The five adorable mini dinosaurs that thrilled children across the country in Prehysteria are back. And they're looking for mischief when they enter the life of Brendan Wellington (Kevin R. Conners).

Brendan is a lonely rich boy whose workaholic father (Dean Scofield) is too busy to spend time with him. But with the help of the delightful dinosaurs, Brendan and a his new friend Naomi (Jennifer Harte) outsmart his evil governess, Mrs. Winters (Bettye Ackerman) who is trying to convince Brendan's father to send him to military school.

Prehysteria 2 has superb acting (especially from Kevin R. Conners and Jennifer Harte), great special effects, and a interesting plot that will keep the kids glued to the TV. As unfortunate as it may be, Prehysteria 2 is no longer available but it isn't too hard to find it used. All in all recommended!

Prehysteria 2
What a great movie! Touching and caring. This is one of the cutest and touching movies I have seen for a long time - it is old but very good for children. The little dinosaurs and the little boy who befriends them is an excellent lesson for our youth today. A lesson also for parents to put their children before their careers. We need more of this type of movie made. I rate it very good!!! ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Succeeds as a traditional western
Traditional western fans will appreciate this european-adapted tale of a father and band of brothers toting a coffin around the desert full of yankee cash, with the intended goal of restoring the financial fortunes of the civil war South, post-defeat. Even though the plot is incredibly thin and contrived the film works well and traditional western fans will appreciate this story but of course spaghetti western fans will love this 1967 Sergio Corbucci creation even more! This film is a Spanish-Italian co-production and some of the ideas were evidently borrowed by Sergio Leone for 'The Good, Bad, and the Ugly' which was produced the same year. While it is tempting to think of this cross-pollination of ideas as plagiarism, it is clear that tremendous creativity was pandemic in Cinecita and it's associations during a 60's explosion of ideas, when Fellini was contemplating 'Never Bet your Head with the Devil' and 'Satyricon'. Any chance the media corporations and Big Bux producers can step aside and allow a period of creativity to return in the year 2003? Ziiinggg or as 'cheyenne' might say, 'rap 'em on a stone and they go -- "diiiiiinggg"' guess that says it all about today's movies! Be sure to watch this one: 'Hellbenders' -- you won't regret it!

Superb Spaghetti Western!!
This movie is a superb spaghetti western about an ex-confederate soldier using stolen money to revive the confederacy.It's a must see!! ... Read more

Amazon.com

Newly appointed cemetery chairman Robert Craft (Richard Boone) noticessome odd things about his new post: a creepy sense of déjà vu, aninability to get heat in the caretaker's shack, and Andy the caretaker'sScottish accent, one of the thickest in all cinematic history. Craft soondiscovers to his horror that sticking pins into his map of the cemetery seems tomake people die. As if this weren't bad enough, no one believes him. As Craftgrows more and more distraught, his forehead covered in some of the mostbrightly glistening sweat you've ever seen, people keep trying to prove it's alla coincidence by getting him to stick more and more pins in the map. Thoughhilariously overwrought, I Bury the Living does take a couple of nicecreepy twists at the end. Never before has a movie so eloquently made the casefor keeping cemetery records in a text-only database. --Ali Davis ... Read more

Reviews (21)

A Cult Classic, Not to Be Missed!
This one is a real puzzler, and I was caught off-guard at the end. It's surprisingly good for a low budget horror film, going for the brain rather than the jugular.

The film is a horror/psychological thriller. Richard Boone plays a man who is part of a trustee group. Part of the duties of the members is to take turns overseeing a private cemetery.

Boone finds a map in the cemetery office that shows the occupied and unoccupied plots marked with white or black pins.

Boone discovers that when he places a black pin in a plot that is unoccupied, the owner dies. Is Boone going mad, or does he really have the power to bury the living?

This is an entertaining film, very creative and stylized. Boone often said it was his personal favorite, and he was proud to have worked on the film.

A well-mounted, underated chunk of entertainment
So, I suppose you've never heard of this film, RIGHT? Well, I guess it's one of those films that have a brief cult status until everyone suddenly stops thinking about it for some unknown reason. Get what I mean?

Richard Boone gives a strong performance as a cemetary owner who has a map in his office of all the tombstones. If the tombstone has a white pin in it, it means that it's reserved; if it has a black pin in it, it means that a dead person already lies beneath the stone. Boone discovers that if he replaces the white pin with a black pin, whoever reserves it automaticly snuffs it. So the map is like one, big voodoo doll.

I BURY THE LIVING is very original for it's time (which is probably why not many people pay attention to it). It's a throughly enjoyable film which has a couple of effective moments.

I Bury the Living
Although you'll find it listed under "Horror/Thriller," about the only claim I BURY THE LIVING has to the genre is its provocative title and lurid tagline: 'A creature to freeze your blood! A story to chill your soul!'
The creature referred to must be Robert Kraft (Richard Boone), president of Kraft's Department Stores and newly selected committee chairman of Immortal Hills Cemetery. The cemetery's caretaker is Andy McKee, played in not very convincing aged makeup and with a Scottish brogue by veteran character actor Theodore Bikel. McKee introduces Kraft to The Map. The Map displays all the plots in the graveyard and their owners - a white pin in the map means that person is still alive, a black pin means they're dead. On his first day on the job Kraft mistakenly puts a pair of black pins where white ones ought to be and the owners of the plots die. When he replaces a third white pin with a black and THAT owner dies, all sorts of mayhem ensues.
Richard Boone is effective in what is nothing much more than a longish Twilight Zone episode. Rather than a slime creature carting off the living to their final rest I BURY THE LIVING sprays a mist of sweat on Boone's forehead and follows his descent into madness. Well, that may be overstating it a bit, but he does have to wrestle with an inner demon that seemingly gives him the power of life and death over people. At least he believes it's so, long after the audience has cast skeptical eyes at more likely suspects.
You'll have to stretch credibility to the breaking point to accept the premise of this movie and stretch it again some more to accept its resolution. I BURY THE LIVING doesn't deliver many shocks or thrills, but it does offer some fine performances, especially by Boone.

An Unacknowledged Classic
This film is terrifying. I expected some hoky fun when I rented it (judging from the cover), but then recalled that Stephen King had listed it (in "Danse Macabre") as one of the ten most frightening films he'd ever seen. All the same, I figured his memory must have gone foggy.

I was wrong. The plot, when laid out bare, sounds ridiculous. A rather ordinary, boring caretaker of a cemetery (accompanied by a hilarious 'Scottsman') happens to gain power over the fundamentals of life and death with a board that lays out the structure of the cemetery--where people are buried, have been buried, and will be buried. All this sounds absurd and very 1950's, yes, but it turns out well. You actually start believing it yourself and can feel the protagonist's anguish. The end is disappointing, but the buildup is more than worth it. Black pin, white pin, black pin, white pin.....

Pretty darn clever!
The title conjurs up images of violence, grossness, etc. Nothing could be further from the truth. Made in 1957, the movie has the tone and production values of an episode of ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS...not a cheap horror flick. It moves slowly, and when Richard Boone keeps testing his theory (if I try THIS pin, will someone die?) it gets a bit wearying.

But the movie, obviously shot on a low budget, is pretty nifty all the same. The protagonist as a classic man of the '50s...a well dressed (in gray tones) department store owner...a minor pillar of the community. A sane, rational man with a nice "American dream" sort of life ahead of him. But when the shock of what he may or may not have done by putting the wrong colored pins on the cemetary map begins to sink in, we get to see him slowly unravel. The music gets hokey, and the camera-work is either very static or goes totally off into "la-la land." But behind it all, we've got a fairly solid script, with enough twists to keep things interesting, and a solid performance by Richard Boone. Never a huge star, this is one of the best performances I've seen him in. I recommened the movie for that alone.

Theodore Bikel (who later played Teyve in FIDDLER ON THE ROOF) plays Angus, the cemetary jack-of-all trades caretaker. His makeup is as thick and phony as his accent, and this does distract from the power of the ending, no question. But all in all, this is a movie worth taking a look at. It can be obtained quite inexpensively on many of the horror movie compilations out there now...you know the ones...10 movies on 2 DVDs for $6. Well, this movie is certainly worth $3 of that investment!! ... Read more

Reviews (7)

TOILET MONSTERS HOSTAGE A CARNIVAL
GHOULIES 2 is better than parts 1 and 4 it has the toilet monsters taking revenge on Larry and Ned's carnival,but spending time in a haunted house making the costumers laugh at what the monsters do,but at the end the action begins.Rated PG-13 or R.

Ghouliemania!!!
Ghoulies,Ghoulies,Ghoulies! I love those little toilet goblins. This movie was fantastic! The best is hearing the crowd's reaction to the kid's description of the rat-bat ghoulie; "Man, I love that stuff!" "Ya, that's terrific!". Other precious moments arise in every scene where the rebelious teen frolics and head-bangs to his "tunes". A classic. A sheer treasure. Fun for the whole family. Rent to Own!

betters up.
It's get better in the second "Ghoulie" movie but still not good.
The efects is still very shape,but better than the first one.

DON'T SIT ON THE TOILET!
Yes,they are back and better than ever.Ghoulies was a big hit but this is ten times better.The little Gremlin dudes envade a Fun House called the "DEVIL'S DEN".Some people don't even make it out alive but when the cratures leave the ride and explore the carnival terror waits when someone gets eaten when sitting on the tiolet,on a ride a Ghoulie drives a Bumper Car causing injuries to kids and adults.When Ghoulies came out fans wanted more so here it is Ghoulies2.Will the Ghoulies be defeated or cause more deaths?FIND OUT! Rated R for language and violence.For more fiendish fun see Ghoulies 3 and Ghoulies 4.

Funnier than the original, that's for sure
As a carnival must think hard which attractions are gonna get the boot, the flailing haunted house gets another chance when the guests become attracted to the little monsters inside. The creatures then escape, causing murder and mayhem throughout the park. Better than the original and still pretty wild but, like the original as well, too violent and premature for a PG-13 rating. Pretty entertaining although. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Succeeds as a traditional western
Traditional western fans will appreciate this european-adapted tale of a father and band of brothers toting a coffin around the desert full of yankee cash, with the intended goal of restoring the financial fortunes of the civil war South, post-defeat. Even though the plot is incredibly thin and contrived the film works well and traditional western fans will appreciate this story but of course spaghetti western fans will love this 1967 Sergio Corbucci creation even more! This film is a Spanish-Italian co-production and some of the ideas were evidently borrowed by Sergio Leone for 'The Good, Bad, and the Ugly' which was produced the same year. While it is tempting to think of this cross-pollination of ideas as plagiarism, it is clear that tremendous creativity was pandemic in Cinecita and it's associations during a 60's explosion of ideas, when Fellini was contemplating 'Never Bet your Head with the Devil' and 'Satyricon'. Any chance the media corporations and Big Bux producers can step aside and allow a period of creativity to return in the year 2003? Ziiinggg or as 'cheyenne' might say, 'rap 'em on a stone and they go -- "diiiiiinggg"' guess that says it all about today's movies! Be sure to watch this one: 'Hellbenders' -- you won't regret it!

Superb Spaghetti Western!!
This movie is a superb spaghetti western about an ex-confederate soldier using stolen money to revive the confederacy.It's a must see!! ... Read more

Reviews (8)

Who let the vampire dogs out?
Ah, those Communists; it's all their fault, you know. In Zoltan, Hound of Dracula, the forces of Communism unleash a mean, lean, killing machine in the form of a huge, fanged vampire dog on the good old USA. Sure, the film makes it look like it was accidental, but I have to ask: why was the Red Army going around blowing up holes all over Romania? There can be only one explanation: they were trying to find an ancient vampire tomb so they could bring a vampire back to life and enlist him in their cause. And that comrade who sacrificed his life for the cause? Clearly a ringer. Let's say I'm guarding a newly discovered Dracula family tomb when the earth starts quaking and a coffin slides out of the mausoleum onto the floor? Do I open the coffin? Do I then, seeing a stake projecting from the innards of the shrouded corpse inside, reach right in and pull the stake out just for the heck of it? No. Nobody would do that - unless they were acting under orders (or were just born stupid). What soon emerges from the coffin is a huge black dog (code name: Zoltan) who sates hundreds of years of blood hunger on his benefactor. The vampire canine quickly frees his old buddy, one of Dracula's servants, from another coffin, and the two reunited friends scurry off into the night. The servant is only a partial vampire; the sun doesn't bother him and he has no craving for blood; all he has is a fervent need to serve a master and a really silly expression on his face whenever he supposedly concentrates. Inspector Blanco, played by Jose Ferrer, knows all about the Dracula family, and he knows that the risen servant will go looking for a new master - and there is only one surviving member of the ancestral Dracula bloodline remaining (which is strange when you realize the guy has a son and daughter of his own), a perfectly normal human fellow named Drake living in California.

Drake and his family have just begun a two-week camping vacation - it's not one they will soon forget. The family keeps being bothered by and eventually attacked by great big dogs, losing their own dogs in the process. Dracula's servant's master plan is to use his ever-growing number of vampire dogs to get the family out of the way and then take Drake's blood, thereby turning him into the Dracula heir and master he is seeking. The film completely goes to the dogs by the time Inspector Blanco finally finds Drake to warn him about the whole vampire thing. If you think your neighbor's dog barks loudly in the middle of the night, wait until you hear a constant cacophony of huge dogs whooping it up for a full half hour. This isn't a bad thing, though; I rather liked the way the dogs were used in this film, doing all of the dirty work for the weird undead servant. The ending of the film gets a little bit hokey, and then it gets even a little hokier, but I actually enjoyed this film a great deal.

I must warn fellow animal lovers out there that some dog characters meet with an unhappy fate in this film. Worst of all, a litter of cute little adorable puppies gets dragged into the whole mess. Personally, I don't care what happens to human characters in horror films - the more gruesome the death, the more I like it. But to bring pain and misery to poor little puppy characters is hard for an animal lover like me to watch.

You know, a number of really talented canine actors and actresses basically carried this movie on their backs; they acted their hearts out, looked more like fanged vampire killers than most humans ever do, and for what? For no credits whatsoever, that's what. Sure, the trainer gets his name listed; even the person who supplied the dogs gets to see his name up in lights; yet not one canine actor was given any credit in the making of this movie. You name the movie after a canine vampire, but you won't even list the dog's real name? Where is the justice in this? This is a good horror movie, and credit should be given where credit is due.

Pretty scary dog!
I've watched this movie several times and never found it boring. To think of meeting a dog like that on a dark lonely street. Heck, I'd be scared in broard day light. Any horror fan would love this movie. Just don't watch it alone!

Creature Of The Night
plain bore with no redeeming values at all unless you enjoy listening to demonic barks or watching dog attack training techniques for fun

Badder than Cujo!
I just discovered this gem, it is now a favorite horror movie of mine. If you like that 70's type of campy horror like I do, you'll love this one. The action is good and the dog is totally cool. The characters are pretty good considering the type of movie it is also. This a different look at Dracula movies that is not very well known.

Zoltan, Hound of Dracula
An interesting entry in the vampire legend, I think any horror fan should see this film. This movie has some genuine chills, and it makes you want to think twice before you leave the family pooch out at night. Reggie Nalder's performance as the undead slave and the eerie atmosphere of the film make it worthwhile to checkout. ... Read more

Reviews (21)

A Cult Classic, Not to Be Missed!
This one is a real puzzler, and I was caught off-guard at the end. It's surprisingly good for a low budget horror film, going for the brain rather than the jugular.

The film is a horror/psychological thriller. Richard Boone plays a man who is part of a trustee group. Part of the duties of the members is to take turns overseeing a private cemetery.

Boone finds a map in the cemetery office that shows the occupied and unoccupied plots marked with white or black pins.

Boone discovers that when he places a black pin in a plot that is unoccupied, the owner dies. Is Boone going mad, or does he really have the power to bury the living?

This is an entertaining film, very creative and stylized. Boone often said it was his personal favorite, and he was proud to have worked on the film.

A well-mounted, underated chunk of entertainment
So, I suppose you've never heard of this film, RIGHT? Well, I guess it's one of those films that have a brief cult status until everyone suddenly stops thinking about it for some unknown reason. Get what I mean?

Richard Boone gives a strong performance as a cemetary owner who has a map in his office of all the tombstones. If the tombstone has a white pin in it, it means that it's reserved; if it has a black pin in it, it means that a dead person already lies beneath the stone. Boone discovers that if he replaces the white pin with a black pin, whoever reserves it automaticly snuffs it. So the map is like one, big voodoo doll.

I BURY THE LIVING is very original for it's time (which is probably why not many people pay attention to it). It's a throughly enjoyable film which has a couple of effective moments.

I Bury the Living
Although you'll find it listed under "Horror/Thriller," about the only claim I BURY THE LIVING has to the genre is its provocative title and lurid tagline: 'A creature to freeze your blood! A story to chill your soul!'
The creature referred to must be Robert Kraft (Richard Boone), president of Kraft's Department Stores and newly selected committee chairman of Immortal Hills Cemetery. The cemetery's caretaker is Andy McKee, played in not very convincing aged makeup and with a Scottish brogue by veteran character actor Theodore Bikel. McKee introduces Kraft to The Map. The Map displays all the plots in the graveyard and their owners - a white pin in the map means that person is still alive, a black pin means they're dead. On his first day on the job Kraft mistakenly puts a pair of black pins where white ones ought to be and the owners of the plots die. When he replaces a third white pin with a black and THAT owner dies, all sorts of mayhem ensues.
Richard Boone is effective in what is nothing much more than a longish Twilight Zone episode. Rather than a slime creature carting off the living to their final rest I BURY THE LIVING sprays a mist of sweat on Boone's forehead and follows his descent into madness. Well, that may be overstating it a bit, but he does have to wrestle with an inner demon that seemingly gives him the power of life and death over people. At least he believes it's so, long after the audience has cast skeptical eyes at more likely suspects.
You'll have to stretch credibility to the breaking point to accept the premise of this movie and stretch it again some more to accept its resolution. I BURY THE LIVING doesn't deliver many shocks or thrills, but it does offer some fine performances, especially by Boone.

An Unacknowledged Classic
This film is terrifying. I expected some hoky fun when I rented it (judging from the cover), but then recalled that Stephen King had listed it (in "Danse Macabre") as one of the ten most frightening films he'd ever seen. All the same, I figured his memory must have gone foggy.

I was wrong. The plot, when laid out bare, sounds ridiculous. A rather ordinary, boring caretaker of a cemetery (accompanied by a hilarious 'Scottsman') happens to gain power over the fundamentals of life and death with a board that lays out the structure of the cemetery--where people are buried, have been buried, and will be buried. All this sounds absurd and very 1950's, yes, but it turns out well. You actually start believing it yourself and can feel the protagonist's anguish. The end is disappointing, but the buildup is more than worth it. Black pin, white pin, black pin, white pin.....

Pretty darn clever!
The title conjurs up images of violence, grossness, etc. Nothing could be further from the truth. Made in 1957, the movie has the tone and production values of an episode of ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS...not a cheap horror flick. It moves slowly, and when Richard Boone keeps testing his theory (if I try THIS pin, will someone die?) it gets a bit wearying.

But the movie, obviously shot on a low budget, is pretty nifty all the same. The protagonist as a classic man of the '50s...a well dressed (in gray tones) department store owner...a minor pillar of the community. A sane, rational man with a nice "American dream" sort of life ahead of him. But when the shock of what he may or may not have done by putting the wrong colored pins on the cemetary map begins to sink in, we get to see him slowly unravel. The music gets hokey, and the camera-work is either very static or goes totally off into "la-la land." But behind it all, we've got a fairly solid script, with enough twists to keep things interesting, and a solid performance by Richard Boone. Never a huge star, this is one of the best performances I've seen him in. I recommened the movie for that alone.

Theodore Bikel (who later played Teyve in FIDDLER ON THE ROOF) plays Angus, the cemetary jack-of-all trades caretaker. His makeup is as thick and phony as his accent, and this does distract from the power of the ending, no question. But all in all, this is a movie worth taking a look at. It can be obtained quite inexpensively on many of the horror movie compilations out there now...you know the ones...10 movies on 2 DVDs for $6. Well, this movie is certainly worth $3 of that investment!! ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Succeeds as a traditional western
Traditional western fans will appreciate this european-adapted tale of a father and band of brothers toting a coffin around the desert full of yankee cash, with the intended goal of restoring the financial fortunes of the civil war South, post-defeat. Even though the plot is incredibly thin and contrived the film works well and traditional western fans will appreciate this story but of course spaghetti western fans will love this 1967 Sergio Corbucci creation even more! This film is a Spanish-Italian co-production and some of the ideas were evidently borrowed by Sergio Leone for 'The Good, Bad, and the Ugly' which was produced the same year. While it is tempting to think of this cross-pollination of ideas as plagiarism, it is clear that tremendous creativity was pandemic in Cinecita and it's associations during a 60's explosion of ideas, when Fellini was contemplating 'Never Bet your Head with the Devil' and 'Satyricon'. Any chance the media corporations and Big Bux producers can step aside and allow a period of creativity to return in the year 2003? Ziiinggg or as 'cheyenne' might say, 'rap 'em on a stone and they go -- "diiiiiinggg"' guess that says it all about today's movies! Be sure to watch this one: 'Hellbenders' -- you won't regret it!

Superb Spaghetti Western!!
This movie is a superb spaghetti western about an ex-confederate soldier using stolen money to revive the confederacy.It's a must see!! ... Read more

Reviews (21)

A Cult Classic, Not to Be Missed!
This one is a real puzzler, and I was caught off-guard at the end. It's surprisingly good for a low budget horror film, going for the brain rather than the jugular.

The film is a horror/psychological thriller. Richard Boone plays a man who is part of a trustee group. Part of the duties of the members is to take turns overseeing a private cemetery.

Boone finds a map in the cemetery office that shows the occupied and unoccupied plots marked with white or black pins.

Boone discovers that when he places a black pin in a plot that is unoccupied, the owner dies. Is Boone going mad, or does he really have the power to bury the living?

This is an entertaining film, very creative and stylized. Boone often said it was his personal favorite, and he was proud to have worked on the film.

A well-mounted, underated chunk of entertainment
So, I suppose you've never heard of this film, RIGHT? Well, I guess it's one of those films that have a brief cult status until everyone suddenly stops thinking about it for some unknown reason. Get what I mean?

Richard Boone gives a strong performance as a cemetary owner who has a map in his office of all the tombstones. If the tombstone has a white pin in it, it means that it's reserved; if it has a black pin in it, it means that a dead person already lies beneath the stone. Boone discovers that if he replaces the white pin with a black pin, whoever reserves it automaticly snuffs it. So the map is like one, big voodoo doll.

I BURY THE LIVING is very original for it's time (which is probably why not many people pay attention to it). It's a throughly enjoyable film which has a couple of effective moments.

I Bury the Living
Although you'll find it listed under "Horror/Thriller," about the only claim I BURY THE LIVING has to the genre is its provocative title and lurid tagline: 'A creature to freeze your blood! A story to chill your soul!'
The creature referred to must be Robert Kraft (Richard Boone), president of Kraft's Department Stores and newly selected committee chairman of Immortal Hills Cemetery. The cemetery's caretaker is Andy McKee, played in not very convincing aged makeup and with a Scottish brogue by veteran character actor Theodore Bikel. McKee introduces Kraft to The Map. The Map displays all the plots in the graveyard and their owners - a white pin in the map means that person is still alive, a black pin means they're dead. On his first day on the job Kraft mistakenly puts a pair of black pins where white ones ought to be and the owners of the plots die. When he replaces a third white pin with a black and THAT owner dies, all sorts of mayhem ensues.
Richard Boone is effective in what is nothing much more than a longish Twilight Zone episode. Rather than a slime creature carting off the living to their final rest I BURY THE LIVING sprays a mist of sweat on Boone's forehead and follows his descent into madness. Well, that may be overstating it a bit, but he does have to wrestle with an inner demon that seemingly gives him the power of life and death over people. At least he believes it's so, long after the audience has cast skeptical eyes at more likely suspects.
You'll have to stretch credibility to the breaking point to accept the premise of this movie and stretch it again some more to accept its resolution. I BURY THE LIVING doesn't deliver many shocks or thrills, but it does offer some fine performances, especially by Boone.

An Unacknowledged Classic
This film is terrifying. I expected some hoky fun when I rented it (judging from the cover), but then recalled that Stephen King had listed it (in "Danse Macabre") as one of the ten most frightening films he'd ever seen. All the same, I figured his memory must have gone foggy.

I was wrong. The plot, when laid out bare, sounds ridiculous. A rather ordinary, boring caretaker of a cemetery (accompanied by a hilarious 'Scottsman') happens to gain power over the fundamentals of life and death with a board that lays out the structure of the cemetery--where people are buried, have been buried, and will be buried. All this sounds absurd and very 1950's, yes, but it turns out well. You actually start believing it yourself and can feel the protagonist's anguish. The end is disappointing, but the buildup is more than worth it. Black pin, white pin, black pin, white pin.....

Pretty darn clever!
The title conjurs up images of violence, grossness, etc. Nothing could be further from the truth. Made in 1957, the movie has the tone and production values of an episode of ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS...not a cheap horror flick. It moves slowly, and when Richard Boone keeps testing his theory (if I try THIS pin, will someone die?) it gets a bit wearying.

But the movie, obviously shot on a low budget, is pretty nifty all the same. The protagonist as a classic man of the '50s...a well dressed (in gray tones) department store owner...a minor pillar of the community. A sane, rational man with a nice "American dream" sort of life ahead of him. But when the shock of what he may or may not have done by putting the wrong colored pins on the cemetary map begins to sink in, we get to see him slowly unravel. The music gets hokey, and the camera-work is either very static or goes totally off into "la-la land." But behind it all, we've got a fairly solid script, with enough twists to keep things interesting, and a solid performance by Richard Boone. Never a huge star, this is one of the best performances I've seen him in. I recommened the movie for that alone.

Theodore Bikel (who later played Teyve in FIDDLER ON THE ROOF) plays Angus, the cemetary jack-of-all trades caretaker. His makeup is as thick and phony as his accent, and this does distract from the power of the ending, no question. But all in all, this is a movie worth taking a look at. It can be obtained quite inexpensively on many of the horror movie compilations out there now...you know the ones...10 movies on 2 DVDs for $6. Well, this movie is certainly worth $3 of that investment!! ... Read more

Reviews (8)

Who let the vampire dogs out?
Ah, those Communists; it's all their fault, you know. In Zoltan, Hound of Dracula, the forces of Communism unleash a mean, lean, killing machine in the form of a huge, fanged vampire dog on the good old USA. Sure, the film makes it look like it was accidental, but I have to ask: why was the Red Army going around blowing up holes all over Romania? There can be only one explanation: they were trying to find an ancient vampire tomb so they could bring a vampire back to life and enlist him in their cause. And that comrade who sacrificed his life for the cause? Clearly a ringer. Let's say I'm guarding a newly discovered Dracula family tomb when the earth starts quaking and a coffin slides out of the mausoleum onto the floor? Do I open the coffin? Do I then, seeing a stake projecting from the innards of the shrouded corpse inside, reach right in and pull the stake out just for the heck of it? No. Nobody would do that - unless they were acting under orders (or were just born stupid). What soon emerges from the coffin is a huge black dog (code name: Zoltan) who sates hundreds of years of blood hunger on his benefactor. The vampire canine quickly frees his old buddy, one of Dracula's servants, from another coffin, and the two reunited friends scurry off into the night. The servant is only a partial vampire; the sun doesn't bother him and he has no craving for blood; all he has is a fervent need to serve a master and a really silly expression on his face whenever he supposedly concentrates. Inspector Blanco, played by Jose Ferrer, knows all about the Dracula family, and he knows that the risen servant will go looking for a new master - and there is only one surviving member of the ancestral Dracula bloodline remaining (which is strange when you realize the guy has a son and daughter of his own), a perfectly normal human fellow named Drake living in California.

Drake and his family have just begun a two-week camping vacation - it's not one they will soon forget. The family keeps being bothered by and eventually attacked by great big dogs, losing their own dogs in the process. Dracula's servant's master plan is to use his ever-growing number of vampire dogs to get the family out of the way and then take Drake's blood, thereby turning him into the Dracula heir and master he is seeking. The film completely goes to the dogs by the time Inspector Blanco finally finds Drake to warn him about the whole vampire thing. If you think your neighbor's dog barks loudly in the middle of the night, wait until you hear a constant cacophony of huge dogs whooping it up for a full half hour. This isn't a bad thing, though; I rather liked the way the dogs were used in this film, doing all of the dirty work for the weird undead servant. The ending of the film gets a little bit hokey, and then it gets even a little hokier, but I actually enjoyed this film a great deal.

I must warn fellow animal lovers out there that some dog characters meet with an unhappy fate in this film. Worst of all, a litter of cute little adorable puppies gets dragged into the whole mess. Personally, I don't care what happens to human characters in horror films - the more gruesome the death, the more I like it. But to bring pain and misery to poor little puppy characters is hard for an animal lover like me to watch.

You know, a number of really talented canine actors and actresses basically carried this movie on their backs; they acted their hearts out, looked more like fanged vampire killers than most humans ever do, and for what? For no credits whatsoever, that's what. Sure, the trainer gets his name listed; even the person who supplied the dogs gets to see his name up in lights; yet not one canine actor was given any credit in the making of this movie. You name the movie after a canine vampire, but you won't even list the dog's real name? Where is the justice in this? This is a good horror movie, and credit should be given where credit is due.

Pretty scary dog!
I've watched this movie several times and never found it boring. To think of meeting a dog like that on a dark lonely street. Heck, I'd be scared in broard day light. Any horror fan would love this movie. Just don't watch it alone!

Creature Of The Night
plain bore with no redeeming values at all unless you enjoy listening to demonic barks or watching dog attack training techniques for fun

Badder than Cujo!
I just discovered this gem, it is now a favorite horror movie of mine. If you like that 70's type of campy horror like I do, you'll love this one. The action is good and the dog is totally cool. The characters are pretty good considering the type of movie it is also. This a different look at Dracula movies that is not very well known.

Zoltan, Hound of Dracula
An interesting entry in the vampire legend, I think any horror fan should see this film. This movie has some genuine chills, and it makes you want to think twice before you leave the family pooch out at night. Reggie Nalder's performance as the undead slave and the eerie atmosphere of the film make it worthwhile to checkout. ... Read more

Reviews (8)

Who let the vampire dogs out?
Ah, those Communists; it's all their fault, you know. In Zoltan, Hound of Dracula, the forces of Communism unleash a mean, lean, killing machine in the form of a huge, fanged vampire dog on the good old USA. Sure, the film makes it look like it was accidental, but I have to ask: why was the Red Army going around blowing up holes all over Romania? There can be only one explanation: they were trying to find an ancient vampire tomb so they could bring a vampire back to life and enlist him in their cause. And that comrade who sacrificed his life for the cause? Clearly a ringer. Let's say I'm guarding a newly discovered Dracula family tomb when the earth starts quaking and a coffin slides out of the mausoleum onto the floor? Do I open the coffin? Do I then, seeing a stake projecting from the innards of the shrouded corpse inside, reach right in and pull the stake out just for the heck of it? No. Nobody would do that - unless they were acting under orders (or were just born stupid). What soon emerges from the coffin is a huge black dog (code name: Zoltan) who sates hundreds of years of blood hunger on his benefactor. The vampire canine quickly frees his old buddy, one of Dracula's servants, from another coffin, and the two reunited friends scurry off into the night. The servant is only a partial vampire; the sun doesn't bother him and he has no craving for blood; all he has is a fervent need to serve a master and a really silly expression on his face whenever he supposedly concentrates. Inspector Blanco, played by Jose Ferrer, knows all about the Dracula family, and he knows that the risen servant will go looking for a new master - and there is only one surviving member of the ancestral Dracula bloodline remaining (which is strange when you realize the guy has a son and daughter of his own), a perfectly normal human fellow named Drake living in California.

Drake and his family have just begun a two-week camping vacation - it's not one they will soon forget. The family keeps being bothered by and eventually attacked by great big dogs, losing their own dogs in the process. Dracula's servant's master plan is to use his ever-growing number of vampire dogs to get the family out of the way and then take Drake's blood, thereby turning him into the Dracula heir and master he is seeking. The film completely goes to the dogs by the time Inspector Blanco finally finds Drake to warn him about the whole vampire thing. If you think your neighbor's dog barks loudly in the middle of the night, wait until you hear a constant cacophony of huge dogs whooping it up for a full half hour. This isn't a bad thing, though; I rather liked the way the dogs were used in this film, doing all of the dirty work for the weird undead servant. The ending of the film gets a little bit hokey, and then it gets even a little hokier, but I actually enjoyed this film a great deal.

I must warn fellow animal lovers out there that some dog characters meet with an unhappy fate in this film. Worst of all, a litter of cute little adorable puppies gets dragged into the whole mess. Personally, I don't care what happens to human characters in horror films - the more gruesome the death, the more I like it. But to bring pain and misery to poor little puppy characters is hard for an animal lover like me to watch.

You know, a number of really talented canine actors and actresses basically carried this movie on their backs; they acted their hearts out, looked more like fanged vampire killers than most humans ever do, and for what? For no credits whatsoever, that's what. Sure, the trainer gets his name listed; even the person who supplied the dogs gets to see his name up in lights; yet not one canine actor was given any credit in the making of this movie. You name the movie after a canine vampire, but you won't even list the dog's real name? Where is the justice in this? This is a good horror movie, and credit should be given where credit is due.

Pretty scary dog!
I've watched this movie several times and never found it boring. To think of meeting a dog like that on a dark lonely street. Heck, I'd be scared in broard day light. Any horror fan would love this movie. Just don't watch it alone!

Creature Of The Night
plain bore with no redeeming values at all unless you enjoy listening to demonic barks or watching dog attack training techniques for fun

Badder than Cujo!
I just discovered this gem, it is now a favorite horror movie of mine. If you like that 70's type of campy horror like I do, you'll love this one. The action is good and the dog is totally cool. The characters are pretty good considering the type of movie it is also. This a different look at Dracula movies that is not very well known.

Zoltan, Hound of Dracula
An interesting entry in the vampire legend, I think any horror fan should see this film. This movie has some genuine chills, and it makes you want to think twice before you leave the family pooch out at night. Reggie Nalder's performance as the undead slave and the eerie atmosphere of the film make it worthwhile to checkout. ... Read more