I didn't think I would actively participate in this thread, as I'm not much of a horror guy, but since I see that even horror-adjacent films like the excellent Love at First Bite are being discussed here, I guess I'll throw my hat into the ring with a few entries. First, I'll cross-post this one from the :

Finally got around to seeing the apparently much-reviled remade Ghostbusters from 2016...



I had pretty low expectations going into it, just because of all of the (overwrought, in hindsight) negative responses it received back then, and ended up being pleasantly surprised. It's a pretty funny movie - although I think the main cast, i.e., the excellent Melissa McCarthy, Leslie Jones, Kristen Wiig and Kate McKinnon, can be thanked for that, as they really elevated a pretty middling script.
Is it as good as the 1984 original? Certainly not (although I'd venture to say it's better than the 1989 sequel, which I really didn't like). But like I said, it's a perfectly enjoyable movie.

Count Dracula (Jesse Franco, 1970)

I was expecting this to be trashier since it's a Franco film, but it was a relatively straightforward adaption of Stoker's novel. The only problem is that it's deathly boring. Not even Christopher Lee as Dracula or Klaus Kinski as Renfield can inject any sort of life into the picture. It's been a long time since I've seen a Christopher Lee Dracula film, so I didn't have anything to compare his performance to. Worse yet, there's very little in the way of quality cinematography. The film had a meagre budget, but Franco could have done more with the lighting. There were some decent shots, but nothing remotely memorable. To be honest, I kind of wish it had been trashy. Perhaps I should've watched Franco's Dracula Contra Frankenstein instead. 

I’m not sure I can even imagine Love At First Bite without “I Love the Night Life.”

It was as bad as watching the commercial WKRP 1st season dvd, when Les goes to an awards banquet with Jennifer and buys a toupee.  In the dvd, Foreigner's "Hot Blooded" was replaced by some generic music and the original scene was pretty much synched to "Hot Blooded."  It's that jarring, though the disco song here is at least an actual song, not an instrumental and it at least fits the theme.  hout Factory also restored a lot of the music in WKRP, when they put out the complete series dvd set.  They seem to have the magic touch, compared to the studios.  That, or they are willing to sacrifice a bit of profit on individual units to sell more overall, by paying for the music.

I thought I’d revisit Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man. Had this on VHS and DVD.

I like this, but I’m not really sure it quite lived up to my expectations. I was probably expecting some WWF-style “bout” lasting 10 or 15 minutes, but I’d be surprised if the battle between the Monster and Wolf Man lasted 4 minutes. I also felt that Wolf Man manhandled Frankenstein’s Monster a bit too easily; surely the Monster could have given Wolf Man a run for his money. Still, the spectacle is worth it, and the build up is well executed.

Boris Karloff is my definitive Monster, but Bela Lugosi does a very commendable job here - and that’s not a back-handed compliment. He did a pretty solid job, and while I would have loved to have seen Karloff here, I feel Lugosi’s performance deserves a lot of respect here.

I’d love to know how they safely did that stunt where Wolf Man pulls the Monster down some steps. It doesn’t look safe (I say that as someone who once fell down some steps in a shopping mall and was left with a few bruises). Movie magic, eh?

Revisit the clip here (after the usual crappy ads, of course):

Tonight was a double feature. First, the Hammer version of The Phantom of the Opera, starring Herbert Lom in the title role and Michael Gough as the sleazy Lord D'Arcy. I've seen it once before and I must say, it is rather underwhelming and dull. Hammer pretty much dumped most of Gaston LeRoux's classic mystery/horror novel and replaced it with a rather tepid tale of revenge for theft of one's art. The setting is transported from the Paris Opera House to a theater in London, where Lord D'arcy's new opera, Saint Joan, is to debut. The production has been beset by calamities and pranks, with the conductor's music going missing, a kettle drum punctured, sets torn, costumes damaged, etc. Then, the opening aria, by the star, is interrupted by the sudden appearance of a hanged stagehand. The star departs and a new singer must be found, which brings in Christine Charles, who soon hears a voice offering to teach her to play the role and develop her voice.

Gone from the story is Christine's romance with Raoul de Chagny, replaced by one with producer Harry Hunter, played by Edward De Souza. The original diva is not murdered, but scared away. The Phantom is no longer the tragic Erik and there is no Persian. Instead, The Phantom is a Professor Petrie, who composed the opera of Saint Joan and sold it to Lord D'arcy to have it published. he removed Petrie's name and put his own. petrie learns of the theft and tries to destroy the printings of it, at the print shop, but starts a fire and grabs nitric acid, instead of water, to put it out, scarring his face and hands with the fire and acid. He is found in the storm sewer by a dwarf, who rescues him and tends to him, and who aids him throughout.

The film really lacks the compelling mystery of the original story and the simple art theft, compared to the tragedy of birth defects in Erik, falls flat. Moving the setting to London removes some of the exotic appeal and the theater setting lacks the grandeur described in LeRoux's novel, of the Paris Opera House, inspired by the real Palais Garnier. The crashing chandelier is transposed to the climax, rather than the opening act and is one of the few elements from the original used, though with a far different result. Lom is fine and so are the other actors, but it pales compared to the silent version, with Lon Chaney, even in the make-up department, for Lom.

One upside is a character performance, as a rat catcher, by future Doctor Who Patrick Troughton, who turns in a memorable small performance.

The film was commissioned by Universal, through Hammer and the budget was low, but the script is what holds it back. Terence Fisher directs and uses techniques like Dutch angles, when depicting the past, with Professor Petrie and Lord D'arcy. It's just that none of that really aids the story. Not one of Hammer's classics.

On the plus side was the other feature: the ABC telemovie Trilogy of Terror, based on three Richard Matheson stories and directed by Dan Curtis, creator of the gothic horror soap opera, Dark Shadows. The film stars Karen Black in 4 roles, within three stories. In the first, Julie, she plays a college literature professor, who becomes the object of obsession by a student, who wonder what she looks like, under her conservative and drab clothes. She dresses plainly, with little make up, hair in a bun, and is shy and mousy. Despite prohibitions, she gives in to the student's proposition of a date, to go see a French vampire movie, at a drive-in. The student drugs her, takes her to a motel room, and takes explicit photos of her. He then uses them to blackmail her into engaging in sex and other acts.

In the second segment, Millicent and Therese, Black plays sisters, who live in their family house, after the death of their father. Millicent is prim and proper and a spinster, who abhors her sister and her affairs and claims she seduced their father into incest. Therese is a blond party girl, very aggressive with men, who dresses provocatively, smokes and drinks heavily, and treats people with contempt. Millicent consults the family doctor and is persuaded to come speak to Millicent, but finds Therese, who taunts him with lewd and insulting suggestions and questions. Millicent decides that Therese must die and creates a voodoo doll of Therese. we then see the doctor return to the house and find Therese dead.

The final segment, Amelia, is the most famous, as a woman buys a Zuni fetish doll, from a curio shop, which comes with a scroll, warning not to remove the chain around the doll. It accidentally breaks off and Amelia soon finds herself attacked by the original Chucky doll, the knife-wielding fetish. The segment is pretty damn creepy, though it is hard to take it seriously after the Simpsons lampooned it, on Treehouse of Horror, with a murderous Krusty dol. "Here's your problem; someone set this thing to evil!"

All of the segments have twist endings, as one would expect from a contributor to the Twilight Zone and one of the masters of horror and suspense. The first two segments are adapted by William F Nolan, who also wrote for television and co-wrote the original novel of Logan's Run and its sequels. Matheson adapts his own story, "Prey," for the Amelia segment, which was an inspiration for the Child's Play horror franchise, with the killer doll Chucky.

Karen Black is great in the multiple roles and the rest of the cast includes John Karlen, of Dark Shadows and Tyne Daily's husband Harv, on Cagney and Lacy, as well as George Gaynes, of Tootsie, Punky Brewster and Police Academy fame, as Commandant Lassard. There is a small role by a very young Gregory Harrison, who appears at the end of the Juile segment, which might have helped put him on the radar for the tv adaptation of Logan's Run.

Curtis and Matheson would work together again for the telemovie The Night Stalker, which introduced Carl Kolchak, played by Darren McGavin, as a reporter who investigates several killings, which suggests a vampire. That led to a sequel, The Night Strangler, and the short-lived series, Kolchak, The Night Stalker, which influenced The X-Files and McGavin was enticed to play a retired FBI agent, who started the X-Files, after turning down offers to play Kolchak, again, on the show, as well as Mulder's father.

Curtis and Nolan collaborated on a second trilogy of Terror, with Krull actress Lysette Anthony starring, in 1996. Like Black, Anthony played characters in each of three segments.