Edward Theodore “Ed” Gein (August 8, 1906 – July 26, 1984) was an American murderer and body snatcher. His crimes, committed around his hometown of Plainfield, Wisconsin, gathered widespread notoriety after authorities discovered Gein had exhumed corpses from local graveyards and fashioned trophies and keepsakes from their bones and skin. Gein confessed to killing two women – tavern...

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Dark Sense is a 2019 Scottish-British horror thriller feature film about a powerful psychic who is pitted against a relentless psychopath. Directed by Magnus Wake from a screenplay by Geoff Dupuy-Holder and Alistair Rutherford, based on the novel First and Only by Peter Flannery. The Encaptivate-First and Only production stars Shane O’Meara, James Robinson, Jim Sturgeon, Kim Allan...

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The House of Hitchcock Blu-ray collection will be released by Universal Pictures on October 1, 2019. The limited-edition, 17-disc box set comprises fifteen films directed by Alfred Hitchcock – all packaged in a mock-up of the house from Psycho. “Universally recognized as the Master of Suspense, the legendary Alfred Hitchcock directed some of cinema’s most thrilling and unforgettable classics.

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Unhinged is a forthcoming American horror-thriller about a female driver who inadvertently incurs the road rage wrath of a seemingly psychotic man. Directed by Derrick Borte (American Dreamer; London Town; H8RZ) from a screenplay written by Carl Ellsworth (The Last House on the Left 2009; Disturbia; Red Eye), the Solstice Studios production stars Russell Crowe (The Mummy 2017; Man of Steel; L.A.

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Psycho is a 2019 Indian Tamil horror feature film written and directed by Mysskin aka Myshkin (Pisaasu).

The Double Meaning production stars Udhayanidhi Stalin, Aditi Rao Hydari, Nithya Menon, Singampuli and Ram. The soundtrack score was composed by Ilayaraja.

More Tamil movies

Source: Screen Anarchy

The post Psycho – India, 2019 – preview appeared first on MOVIES & MANIA.

‘Your blood runs cold… your heart jumps into your throat.’

Too Scared to Scream is a 1982 American psycho thriller film directed by actor Tony Lo Bianco from a screenplay by Neal F. Barbera, based on a story by Glenn Leopold. Starring Mike Connors (who also produced), Anne Archer and Ian McShane.

The film is known for its cameo line-up that includes actors such as John Heard, Maureen O’Sullivan and Murray Hamilton. The title song “I’ll Be There” was sung by Charles Aznavour.

The police investigate a string of deaths that occur in a high rise apartment building in New York City. The affable night doorman is a strong suspect…

Reviews [click links to read more]:

“Too Scared to Scream comes across like a slightly demented TV movie but with the added benefits of some surprisingly gratuitous nudity, a fair bit of sleaze, a mountain of cheese and even a little gore  thrown in too just to round things off nicely (I really can’t imagine this movie still sits on any of the star’s CVs though). So there’s plenty here to keep you entertained…” Hysteria Lives!

“My only guess as to how people passed this up is that it’s not much of a slasher and the leads aren’t anything like the dead teenagers of the era. Mike Connors was TV’s Mannix and Ian McShane was a nobody at the time (an terrific nobody). It’s also not particularly scary, which—granted—is a problem. But McShane is totally bonkers here…” Miles Lemaire, CHUD.com

“You just have to handle the well-intended yet uninspiring bridges. Minimal blood, Too Scared to Scream brings out some cheese and sleaze anyhow, with the sugar daddies, breasts and rather silly end. Leaving us with shockingly stylish Psycho-similar pieces…” Josh G., Oh, the Horror!

” …director Tony Lo Bianco builds some adequate suspense and throws in some smelly red herrings.” John Stanley, Creature Features

Choice dialogue:

Cynthia Oberman, the cleaner [Victoria Bass]: “You’re a sour-faced, down in the mouth, lowlife motherf*cker. Excuse the expression.”

Vincent Hardwick [Ian McShane]: “I have no friends lieutenant, I take my solace in my books.”

Cast and characters:

• Mike Connors as Lt. Alex Dinardo
• Anne Archer as Kate Bridges
• Ian McShane as Vincent Hardwick (Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides; American Horror Story; The Ballad of Tam Lin)
• John Heard as Sid (Cat People; C.H.U.D.; Would You Rather; Sharknado)
• Leon Isaac Kennedy as Frank
• Maureen O’Sullivan as Inez Hardwick
• Val Avery as Doctor Richards
• Carrie Nye as Graziella (Creepshow; Screaming Skull [1973])
• Murray Hamilton as Jack Oberman (Jaws and 2; The Boston Strangler; Seconds)
• Marty Dudek as Butch
• Sully Boyar as Sydney Blume (The Entity)
• Rony Clanton as Barker
• Beeson Carroll as Barry Moyer
• Victoria Bass as Cynthia Oberman, a cleaner
• Dick Boccelli as Benny
• Harry Madsen as Lyman
• Gaetano Lisi as Guard
• John Ring as Irishman
• Chet Doherty as Edward
• Phyllis Hyman as Herself

Trivia:

The film was originally known as The Doorman.

Wikipedia | IMDb

The post Too Scared to Scream – USA, 1982 – reviews appeared first on MOVIES & MANIA.

78/52 – aka 78/52: Hitchcock’s Shower Scene – is a 2017 American documentary film written and directed by Alexandre O. Philippe (Doc of the Dead). It looks at the iconic shower scene in Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho, the “man behind the curtain”, and the screen murder that profoundly changed the course of world cinema.

Buy DVD: Amazon.co.uk

Fifty years after its initial release shocked an entire generation of unsuspicious moviegoers, Psycho remains one of the most intensely discussed and analyzed movies of all time.

78/52 explores that intangible “cinematic space” between the shots. It delves into Hitchcock’s genius in unprecedented fashion, to become the first feature-length investigation into the art, craft, and influence of a single extraordinary scene – one which forever changed the course of popular cinema, and continues to inspire some of the greatest filmmakers of our time. A 78 shot / 52 cut slice of cinematic heaven: the “shower scene”.

The film features interviews with:

• Peter Bogdanovich
• Jamie Lee Curtis
• Guillermo del Toro
• Danny Elfman
• Bret Easton Ellis
• Mick Garris
• Karyn Kusama
• Neil Marshall
• Bob Murawski
• Walter Murch
• Oz Perkins
• Marli Renfro
• Eli Roth
• Scott Spiegel
• Richard Stanley
• Leigh Whannell
• Elijah Wood

Reviews [click links to read more]:

“It’s the double-edged sword of focusing on a few moments at the neglect of what surrounds those moments. Thankfully, that deep dive is such an enjoyment to watch and a thoughtful approach to Hitchcock’s direction that it’s difficult to complain that the documentary leaves us wanting more.” Matt Goldberg, Collider

” …the preponderance of youngish horror filmmakers and enthusiasts whose often manic and jargon-filled ejaculations of avidity for Psycho suggests that Hitchcock’s achievement lies less in pioneering (however unwittingly) the cultural shift signposted by 1960 and more in cracking open the door to a later generation of filmmakers to make gruesomely unrestrained horror films…” Todd McCarthy, The Hollywood Reporter

“78/52 is powered by captivating stories, like the one about how Hitchcock tested out the death-cut sound of knives slashing through a hundred different varieties of melon (having decided, he finally said “casaba” with matter-of-fact authority, and left the room). Or how, amazingly, when he saw the first rough cut of Psycho, he thought that the movie played so badly that he decided to scrap the entire project…” Owen Gleiberman, Variety

” …78/52 looks at virtually every aspect of the shower scene—including the staging, the production design, the music and sound effects, the camera work, Saul Bass’ storyboards, etc.—and marvels at how brilliantly integrated they were. The word “genius” is heard more than once, and the more the film shows us, the less even hardened skeptics will be likely to demur.” Godfrey Cheshire, RogerEbert.com

Buy Blu-ray: Amazon.com

“It does presume that you have seen Psycho and know the twists and turns that Hitchcock prepared for his viewers, so if you have not seen Psycho beforehand, first, how dare you, and second, get on that. Then watch Philippe’s excellent documentary about one of cinema’s greatest moments, the two minute scene that made the world afraid to go into the shower alone.” Andrew Mack, Screen Anarchy

Offline reading:

Psycho in the Shower: The History of Cinema’s Most Famous Scene by Philip J. Skerry

Buy: Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

Release:

The film was released by Dogwoof on DVD in the UK on 11 December 2017.

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The post 78/52: Hitchcock’s Shower Scene – USA, 2017 – reviews appeared first on MOVIES & MANIA.

Edward Theodore “Ed” Gein (August 8, 1906 – July 26, 1984) was an American murderer and body snatcher. His crimes, committed around his hometown of Plainfield, Wisconsin, gathered widespread notoriety after authorities discovered Gein had exhumed corpses from local graveyards and fashioned trophies and keepsakes from their bones and skin.

Gein confessed to killing two women – tavern owner Mary Hogan on December 8, 1954, and a Plainfield hardware store owner, Bernice Worden, on November 16, 1957. Initially found unfit for trial, he was tried in 1968 for the murder of Worden and sentenced to life imprisonment, which he spent in a mental hospital.

His case influenced the creation of several fictional killers, including Norman Bates of the movie and novel Psycho and its sequels, Leatherface of the movie The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Jame Gumb (Buffalo Bill) of the novel The Silence of the Lambs, Ezra Cobb of the movie Deranged, Bloody Face of the TV series American Horror Story: Asylum and Eddie Gluskin of the video game Outlast.

The 2000 film Ed Gein (also known as In the Light of the Moon) starred Steve Railsback as the serial killer. Ed Gein: The Butcher of Plainfield (2007) cast Kane Hodder (best known for playing Jason Vorhees in four Friday the 13th movies and Victor Crowley in the Hatchet trilogy) as the eponymous murderer.

Buy: Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com

Gein’s father was an alcoholic who died in 1940. His mother died on December 29, 1945, at the age of 67. He was devastated by her death; in the words of author Harold Schechter, he had “lost his only friend and one true love. And he was absolutely alone in the world.” Gein held onto the farm where they lived and earned money from odd jobs. He boarded up rooms used by his mother, including the upstairs, downstairs parlour and living room, leaving them untouched; while the rest of the house became increasingly squalid, these rooms remained pristine. Thereafter, Gein lived in a small room next to the kitchen. It was around this time that he became interested in reading death-cult magazines and adventure stories, particularly those involving cannibals or Third Reich atrocities.

Buy: Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com

On November 16, 1957, Plainfield hardware store owner Bernice Worden disappeared, and police had reason to suspect Gein. Worden’s son told investigators that Gein had been in the store the evening before the disappearance, saying he would return the next morning for a gallon of antifreeze.

Upon searching Gein’s property, investigators discovered Worden’s decapitated body in a shed, hung upside down by ropes at her wrists, with a crossbar at her ankles. The torso was “dressed out like a deer”. She had been shot with a .22-caliber rifle, and the mutilations were made after her death.

Searching the house, authorities found:

• Whole human bones and fragments
• A wastebasket made of human skin
• Human skin covering several chair seats
• Skulls on his bedposts
• Female skulls, some with the tops sawn off
• Bowls made from human skulls
• A corset made from a female torso skinned from shoulders to waist
• Leggings made from human leg skin
• Masks made from the skin from female heads
• Mary Hogan’s face mask in a paper bag
• Mary Hogan’s skull in a box
• Bernice Worden’s entire head in a burlap sack
• Bernice Worden’s heart in a saucepan on the stove
• Nine vulvae in a shoe box
• A young girl’s dress and “the vulvas of two females judged to have been about fifteen years-old”
• A belt made from female human nipples
• Four nose
• A pair of lips on a window shade drawstring
• A lampshade made from the skin of a human face
• Fingernails from female fingers

Buy Ed Gein: Psycho Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

When questioned, Gein told investigators that between 1947 and 1952, he made as many as forty nocturnal visits to three local graveyards to exhume recently buried bodies while he was in a “daze-like” state. On about thirty of those visits, he said he came out of the daze while in the cemetery, left the grave in good order, and returned home empty-handed.

On the other occasions, he dug up the graves of recently buried middle-aged women he thought resembled his mother and took the bodies home, where he tanned their skins to make his paraphernalia.

Gein admitted robbing nine graves, leading investigators to their locations. Because authorities were uncertain as to whether the slight Gein was capable of single-handedly digging up a grave during a single evening, they exhumed two of the graves and found them empty (one had a crowbar in place of the body), thus apparently corroborating Gein’s confession. 

Soon after his mother’s death, Gein apparently decided he wanted a sex change and began to create a “woman suit” so he could pretend to be female. Gein’s practice of donning the tanned skins of women was described as an “insane transvestite ritual.” Gein denied having sex with the bodies he exhumed, explaining: “They smelled too bad.”

Buy Ed Gein on DVD: Amazon.co.uk

Waushara County sheriff Art Schley reportedly assaulted Gein during questioning by banging Gein’s head and face into a brick wall. As a result, Gein’s initial confession was ruled inadmissible. Schley died of heart failure in 1968, at age 43, before Gein’s trial. Many who knew Schley said he was traumatised by the horror of Gein’s crimes and this, along with the fear of having to testify (especially about assaulting Gein), caused his death. One of his friends said: “He was a victim of Ed Gein as surely as if he had butchered him.”

Gein’s house and property were scheduled to be auctioned March 30, 1958, amid rumours the house was to become a tourist attraction. On March 27, the house was destroyed by fire. Arson was suspected, but the cause of the blaze was never officially solved. When Gein learned of the incident while in detention, he shrugged and said, “Just as well.” Gein’s car, which he used to haul the bodies of his victims, was sold at public auction for $760 to carnival sideshow operator Bunny Gibbons. He later charged carnival goers 25¢ admission to see it.

On July 26, 1984, Gein died of respiratory failure due to lung cancer at the age of 77 at the Mendota Mental Health Institute. His grave site in the Plainfield Cemetery was frequently vandalized over the years; souvenir seekers chipped off pieces of his gravestone before the bulk of it was stolen in 2000. It was recovered in June 2001 near Seattle and is now in storage at the Waushara County Sheriff’s Department.

Buy Psycho 50th Anniversary Blu-ray from Amazon.com

Buy: Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

Buy The Texas Chain Saw Massacre: Seriously Ultimate Edition on Blu-ray Disc from Amazon.co.uk

Buy The Texas Chain Saw Massacre: Ultimate Edition Blu-ray Disc from Amazon.com

The post Ed Gein – grave robber and serial killer appeared first on MOVIES & MANIA.

‘… He loved the girls to death.’

Sweet Kill is a 1972 American psycho thriller feature film written and directed by Curtis Hanson. It was Hanson’s directorial debut and was produced by Roger Corman’s former assistant Tamara Asseyev for distribution by New World Pictures.

The film stars 1950s heartthrob Tab Hunter and was actress Isabel Jewell’s last film. Future Phantasm icon Angus Scrimm [billed as Rory Guy] has a minor role.

Curtis Hanson had got to know Roger Corman while doing on set rewrites on The Dunwich Horror (1969). When that film was completed, Hanson said he wanted to direct a film he had written and Corman said he would be interested in a motorcycle movie, a women in prison movie or a nurses movie. Hanson was unenthusiastic, so Corman then said he might also be interested in a modern horror film.

Hanson wrote the script originally with the killer as a female. Corman liked it but asked that the killer be changed to a male. The ensuing production was filmed as A Kiss from Eddie for $110,000. The apartment where Tab Hunter’s character lived in Venice Beach, California, was owned by Hanson’s grandmother. It was submitted to the MPAA in 1971 as Sweetkill (sic).

On release throughout 1972, the film did not do well at the box office, so Corman added two additional sex scenes to try to increase its appeal and the film was re-released as in January 1973 The Arousers with no mention of Tab Hunter on the poster.

Hanson later described the entire experience as a “very unhappy” one. More happily, he went on to direct psychological thrillers The Bedroom Window (1987), The Hand That Rocks the Cradle (1992) and the award-winning film noir L.A. Confidential (1997).

Plot:

Eddie Collins (Tab Hunter) is unable to perform in bed with women because of repressed memories of his mother.

However, after accidentally killing a woman while trying to sleep with her, he finds that he is able to get aroused by her dead body. This leads him into a chain of luring women into situations where he can kill them for carnal gratification…

Reviews [click links to read more]:

“Sweet Kill is essentially another grindhouse riff on the themes made popular in Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960), with Mother problems, impotence, rage and bathroom murder (here near the end) all on the menu. Hunter is excellent as the deeply disturbed teacher, whose good looks are like a honey trap for the ladies – and somewhat bizarrely has a never explained connection to pigeons! He has to be admired for trashing his image quite so fully.” Hysteria Lives!

Buy: Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

” …Hanson’s uncomfortable visual schematic of isolation and insanity, with the dark, oppressive hallways and apartments of Hunter’s spooky apartment building contrasted nicely against the sunny beaches outside. It’s always hard to say why a movie didn’t connect with audiences, but with Sweet Kill, it seems pretty clear that a fuzzy screenplay, a critical mis-cast, and an unexpectedly (and perhaps unwanted) sophisticated mise-en-scene kept Sweet Kill … necessarily obscure.” DVD Talk

“What keeps the film afloat is the quality of the acting, with a bug-eyed Hunter effective in the ‘Norman Bates’ role and Nadyne Turney genuinely touching as the forever lonely next-door neighbour Barbara, who just wants Eddie to notice her (and is knifed in the shower for her trouble, as if the Psycho connection were not already obvious).” Christopher T Koetting, Mind Warp!: The Fantastic True Story of Roger Corman’s New World Pictures

Buy: Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

“With the film’s shoestring budget apparent and the proper quotient of sex and sleaze that New World Pictures required present, director Hanson wisely used a very dreary and rundown looking Venice, California as an ideal downbeat setting. While a number of supporting characters and some of the plot padding seems disposable, there’s an amusing scene involving a young woman reporting her roommate missing …” DVD Drive-In

Cast and characters:

• Tab Hunter … Eddie Collins
• Cherie Latimer … Lauren
• Roberta Collins … Calli
• Isabel Jewell … Mrs Cole
• John Pearce … Mr Howard
• John Aprea … Richard
• Angus Scrimm [as Rory Guy] … Henry

Offline reading:

Crab Monsters, Teenage Cavemen and Candy Stripe Nurses – Roger Corman: King of the B Movie by Chris Nashawaty, Abrams, 2013

Mind Warp!: The Fantastic True Story of Roger Corman’s New World Pictures, by Christopher T Koetting, Hemlock Books. 2009

The Movie World of Roger Corman, Ed. J. Philip di Franco, Chelsea House Publishers, 1979

The post Sweet Kill aka The Arousers – USA, 1972 – overview and reviews appeared first on MOVIES & MANIA.

‘Your blood runs cold… your heart jumps into your throat.’

Too Scared to Scream is a 1982 American psycho thriller feature film directed by actor Tony Lo Bianco from a screenplay written by Neal F. Barbera, based on a story by Glenn Leopold. The movie stars Mike Connors (who also produced), Anne Archer and Ian McShane.

The film is known for its cameo line-up that includes actors such as John Heard, Maureen O’Sullivan and Murray Hamilton. The title song “I’ll Be There” was sung by Charles Aznavour.

Plot:

Police investigate a string of deaths that occur in a high rise apartment building in New York City. The affable night doorman is a strong suspect…

Reviews [click links to read more]:

“Too Scared to Scream comes across like a slightly demented TV movie but with the added benefits of some surprisingly gratuitous nudity, a fair bit of sleaze, a mountain of cheese and even a little gore  thrown in too just to round things off nicely (I really can’t imagine this movie still sits on any of the star’s CVs though). So there’s plenty here to keep you entertained…” Hysteria Lives!

“My only guess as to how people passed this up is that it’s not much of a slasher and the leads aren’t anything like the dead teenagers of the era. Mike Connors was TV’s Mannix and Ian McShane was a nobody at the time (an terrific nobody). It’s also not particularly scary, which—granted—is a problem. But McShane is totally bonkers here…” Miles Lemaire, CHUD.com

“You just have to handle the well-intended yet uninspiring bridges. Minimal blood, Too Scared to Scream brings out some cheese and sleaze anyhow, with the sugar daddies, breasts and rather silly end. Leaving us with shockingly stylish Psycho-similar pieces…” Josh G., Oh, the Horror!

” …director Tony Lo Bianco builds some adequate suspense and throws in some smelly red herrings.” John Stanley, Creature Features

Choice dialogue:

Vincent Hardwick [Ian McShane]: “I have no friends lieutenant, I take my solace in my books.”

Cast and characters:

• Mike Connors as Lt. Alex Dinardo
• Anne Archer as Kate Bridges
• Ian McShane as Vincent Hardwick (Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides; American Horror Story; The Ballad of Tam Lin)
• John Heard as Sid (Cat People; C.H.U.D.; Would You Rather; Sharknado)
• Leon Isaac Kennedy as Frank
• Maureen O’Sullivan as Inez Hardwick
• Val Avery as Doctor Richards
• Carrie Nye as Graziella (Creepshow; Screaming Skull [1973])
• Murray Hamilton as Jack Oberman (Jaws and 2; The Boston Strangler; Seconds)
• Marty Dudek as Butch
• Sully Boyar as Sydney Blume (The Entity)
• Rony Clanton as Barker
• Beeson Carroll as Barry Moyer
• Victoria Bass as Cynthia Oberman, a cleaner
• Dick Boccelli as Benny
• Harry Madsen as Lyman
• Gaetano Lisi as Guard
• John Ring as Irishman
• Chet Doherty as Edward
• Phyllis Hyman as Herself

Trivia:

The film was originally known as The Doorman.

The post Too Scared to Scream – USA, 1982 – reviews appeared first on MOVIES & MANIA.

Edward Theodore “Ed” Gein (August 8, 1906 – July 26, 1984) was an American murderer and body snatcher. His crimes, committed around his hometown of Plainfield, Wisconsin, gathered widespread notoriety after authorities discovered Gein had exhumed corpses from local graveyards and fashioned trophies and keepsakes from their bones and skin.

Gein confessed to killing two women – tavern owner Mary Hogan on December 8, 1954, and a Plainfield hardware store owner, Bernice Worden, on November 16, 1957. Initially found unfit for trial, he was tried in 1968 for the murder of Worden and sentenced to life imprisonment, which he spent in a mental hospital.

His case influenced the creation of several fictional killers, including Norman Bates of the movie and novel Psycho and its sequels, Leatherface of the movie The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Jame Gumb (Buffalo Bill) of the novel The Silence of the Lambs, Ezra Cobb of the movie Deranged, Bloody Face of the TV series American Horror Story: Asylum and Eddie Gluskin of the video game Outlast.

The 2000 film Ed Gein (also known as In the Light of the Moon) starred Steve Railsback as the serial killer. Ed Gein: The Butcher of Plainfield (2007) cast Kane Hodder (best known for playing Jason Vorhees in four Friday the 13th movies and Victor Crowley in the Hatchet trilogy) as the eponymous murderer.

Buy: Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com

Gein’s father was an alcoholic who died in 1940. His mother died on December 29, 1945, at the age of 67. He was devastated by her death; in the words of author Harold Schechter, he had “lost his only friend and one true love. And he was absolutely alone in the world.” Gein held onto the farm where they lived and earned money from odd jobs. He boarded up rooms used by his mother, including the upstairs, downstairs parlour and living room, leaving them untouched; while the rest of the house became increasingly squalid, these rooms remained pristine. Thereafter, Gein lived in a small room next to the kitchen. It was around this time that he became interested in reading death-cult magazines and adventure stories, particularly those involving cannibals or Third Reich atrocities.

Buy: Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com

On November 16, 1957, Plainfield hardware store owner Bernice Worden disappeared, and police had reason to suspect Gein. Worden’s son told investigators that Gein had been in the store the evening before the disappearance, saying he would return the next morning for a gallon of antifreeze.

Upon searching Gein’s property, investigators discovered Worden’s decapitated body in a shed, hung upside down by ropes at her wrists, with a crossbar at her ankles. The torso was “dressed out like a deer”. She had been shot with a .22-caliber rifle, and the mutilations were made after her death.

Searching the house, authorities found:

• Whole human bones and fragments
• A wastebasket made of human skin
• Human skin covering several chair seats
• Skulls on his bedposts
• Female skulls, some with the tops sawn off
• Bowls made from human skulls
• A corset made from a female torso skinned from shoulders to waist
• Leggings made from human leg skin
• Masks made from the skin from female heads
• Mary Hogan’s face mask in a paper bag
• Mary Hogan’s skull in a box
• Bernice Worden’s entire head in a burlap sack
• Bernice Worden’s heart in a saucepan on the stove
• Nine vulvae in a shoe box
• A young girl’s dress and “the vulvas of two females judged to have been about fifteen years-old”
• A belt made from female human nipples
• Four nose
• A pair of lips on a window shade drawstring
• A lampshade made from the skin of a human face
• Fingernails from female fingers

Buy Ed Gein: Psycho Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

When questioned, Gein told investigators that between 1947 and 1952, he made as many as forty nocturnal visits to three local graveyards to exhume recently buried bodies while he was in a “daze-like” state. On about thirty of those visits, he said he came out of the daze while in the cemetery, left the grave in good order, and returned home empty-handed.

On the other occasions, he dug up the graves of recently buried middle-aged women he thought resembled his mother and took the bodies home, where he tanned their skins to make his paraphernalia.

Gein admitted robbing nine graves, leading investigators to their locations. Because authorities were uncertain as to whether the slight Gein was capable of single-handedly digging up a grave during a single evening, they exhumed two of the graves and found them empty (one had a crowbar in place of the body), thus apparently corroborating Gein’s confession. 

Soon after his mother’s death, Gein apparently decided he wanted a sex change and began to create a “woman suit” so he could pretend to be female. Gein’s practice of donning the tanned skins of women was described as an “insane transvestite ritual.” Gein denied having sex with the bodies he exhumed, explaining: “They smelled too bad.”

Buy Ed Gein on DVD: Amazon.co.uk

Waushara County sheriff Art Schley reportedly assaulted Gein during questioning by banging Gein’s head and face into a brick wall. As a result, Gein’s initial confession was ruled inadmissible. Schley died of heart failure in 1968, at age 43, before Gein’s trial. Many who knew Schley said he was traumatised by the horror of Gein’s crimes and this, along with the fear of having to testify (especially about assaulting Gein), caused his death. One of his friends said: “He was a victim of Ed Gein as surely as if he had butchered him.”

Gein’s house and property were scheduled to be auctioned March 30, 1958, amid rumours the house was to become a tourist attraction. On March 27, the house was destroyed by fire. Arson was suspected, but the cause of the blaze was never officially solved. When Gein learned of the incident while in detention, he shrugged and said, “Just as well.” Gein’s car, which he used to haul the bodies of his victims, was sold at public auction for $760 to carnival sideshow operator Bunny Gibbons. He later charged carnival goers 25¢ admission to see it.

On July 26, 1984, Gein died of respiratory failure due to lung cancer at the age of 77 at the Mendota Mental Health Institute. His grave site in the Plainfield Cemetery was frequently vandalized over the years; souvenir seekers chipped off pieces of his gravestone before the bulk of it was stolen in 2000. It was recovered in June 2001 near Seattle and is now in storage at the Waushara County Sheriff’s Department.

Buy Psycho 50th Anniversary Blu-ray from Amazon.com

Buy: Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

Buy The Texas Chain Saw Massacre: Seriously Ultimate Edition on Blu-ray Disc from Amazon.co.uk

Buy The Texas Chain Saw Massacre: Ultimate Edition Blu-ray Disc from Amazon.com

‘Check in. Relax. Take a shower.’

Psycho is a 1998 American horror-thriller feature film about a young female thief who arrives at the Bates Motel, only to be killed shortly afterwards. The movie is a remake of Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 classic of the same name. Both films are loosely adapted from Robert Bloch‘s 1959 novel of the same name which was turned into a screenplay by Joseph Stefano. The remake follows the original script closely, deviating only to update details to 1998 and to make the murders more explicit.

Directed and co-produced by Gus Van Sant (Good Will Hunting; To Die For; My Own Private Idaho), the Imagine Entertainment production stars Vince Vaughn, Anne Heche, Julianne Moore, Viggo Mortensen, William H. Macy, Robert Forster and Philip Baker Hall.

Reviews [click links to read more]:

“The problem with Gus Van Sant’s Psycho is that it’s a dry academic exercise that never feels like anything other than, well, a dry academic exercise. Van Sant’s much-maligned folly ultimately belongs not in a movie theater or a drive-in but in a fancy pants conceptual art museum in a wing devoted to pretentious experiments in pointlessness.” AV Club

“The film had a talented director and an incredibly talented case. They all had the best intentions and yet the end result was nothing short of a mess. It’s a movie that doesn’t need to exist. It serves no purpose other than just to be something that is there. And that’s too bad.” Bloody Disgusting

“It seems that Vaughn struggled to get into the character during his first few scenes with Heche but then gradually steeped himself within Norman’s psyche. Also quite good are James Remar as the dark-shaded patrolman and Robert Forster as Dr Simon, Norman’s psychiatrist. Van Sant’s version of Psycho has some nice things going for it but it can’t hold a candle to the original.” Blu-ray.com

“If Vaughn had been allowed the leeway to go beyond a mere duplication of Perkins’s performance, he’d undoubtedly have found another way to help us believe Norman’s mother fixation.) The result is a slew of studied, tepid performances from actors who can do much more.” Flick Filosopher

” …there’s definitely a lot to be gained from viewing this as an academic exercise. Director Gus Van Sant knows how pointless it is to try and remake such an acclaimed masterpiece, and he makes a great effort to highlight the futility of the exercise. Before you even see one bit of the performances on display, just watching the opening credits is enough to put you off.” For It is Man’s Number

“Slow, stilted, completely pointless scene-for-scene remake of the Hitchcock classic (with a few awkward new touches to taint its claim as an exact replica.) […] an insult, rather than a tribute, to a landmark film…” Leonard Maltin’s Film Guide

Norman Bates (Vaughn) giggles now, which is the extent of Vaughn’s vaunted “making the character my own.” He’s about as terrifying as a tranquillized dachshund. I can’t tell you they had a decent cast, because that’s just like the old one. I can tell you that Lila Crane is a lesbian, according to Julianne Moore. I can also tell you that it’s still good to see her and Macy, even in a farce like this.” Need Coffee

“Think of this return to Bates Motel as more of a fascinating experiment that’s concerned with how art operates rather than creating actual thrills or shocks. After all, when you know what’s coming, it’s hard to be surprised; but you probably are left asking yourself why you’re bothering anyway, which is what I think the film wants you to do.” Oh, the Horror!

“The lure of an exact remake presents a tremendous challenge. Unfortunately, it was undoubtedly a lot more stimulating for Van Sant and his crew to make Psycho than it is for an audience to watch it. As I indicated above, curiosity is going to be one of the primary reasons why people pay money to see this movie; boredom will be the predominant result.” Reel Views

” …an invaluable experiment in the theory of cinema, because it demonstrates that a shot-by-shot remake is pointless; genius apparently resides between or beneath the shots, or in chemistry that cannot be timed or counted.” Roger Ebert

” …it was such a strange project that it resembled someone dreaming of Psycho after watching it immediately before bed, familiar but far from the real deal, its authenticity drained by what looked surreally false. That it was never going to succeed made it all the more bizarre.” The Spinning Image

“While les hasbian Anne Heche (where’d shego?) is acceptable as Marion and the always lovely Moore is equally fine with being Lila, as is Macy as the detective. Herein lies the blandness of it all – they’re all just fine. Nobody’s gonna win anything for tracing a masterpiece and then painting by numbers.” Vegan Voorhees

Cast and characters:

• Vince Vaughn … Norman Bates
• Anne Heche … Marion Crane
• Julianne Moore … Lila Crane
• Viggo Mortensen … Sam Loomis
• William H. Macy … Milton Arbogast
• Robert Forster … Doctor Simon
• Philip Baker Hall … Sheriff Chambers
• Anne Haney … Mrs Chambers
• Chad Everett … Tom Cassidy
• Rance Howard … Mr Lowery
• Rita Wilson … Caroline
• James Remar … Patrolman
• James Le Gros … Car Dealer (as James LeGros)
• Steven Clark Pachosa … Police Guard
• O.B. Babbs … Mechanic
• Flea … Bob Summerfield
• Marjorie Lovett … Woman Customer
• Ryan Cutrona … Chief of Police
• Ken Jenkins … District Attorney
• Roy Brocksmith … Man in Cowboy Hat outside Realty Office (uncredited)
• Rose Marie … Norma Bates (voice) (uncredited)
• Gus Van Sant … Man Talking to Man in Cowboy Hat (uncredited)

Technical details:

• 105 minutes
• Aspect ratio: 1.85: 1
• Audio: Dolby Digital | DTS | SDDS

Release:

December 4th 1998

Box office:

Psycho (1998) took $37,170,655 worldwide on a reported budget of $60 million. The 1960 original cost a mere $806,947 and took $50 million at the box office.

The post Psycho (1998) reviews and overview appeared first on MOVIES and MANIA.

‘Your blood runs cold… your heart jumps into your throat.’ Too Scared to Scream is a 1982 American psycho thriller feature film directed by actor Tony Lo Bianco from a …

The post Too Scared to Scream – USA, 1982 – reviews appeared first on MOVIES and MANIA.

‘Two maniac killers. The woods. Eve.’ Hunted is a 2020 Belgian-French-Irish horror thriller about a young woman pursued by a psycho in the woods until she fights back. Directed by …

The post Hunted (2020) reviews of allegorical psycho-in-the-woods film appeared first on MOVIES and MANIA.

78/52 – aka 78/52: Hitchcock’s Shower Scene – is a 2017 American documentary film written and directed by Alexandre O. Philippe (Doc of the Dead). It looks at the iconic shower scene …

The post 78/52: Hitchcock’s Shower Scene (2017) reviews and overview appeared first on MOVIES and MANIA.

‘Don’t open that door! Albert may be there.’ Poor Albert and Little Annie is a 1972 psychological horror film directed by Paul Leder (APE, Sketches of a Strangler, The Baby Doll Murders, Vultures) from …

Continue reading POOR ALBERT AND LITTLE ANNIE aka I DISMEMBER MAMA (1972) Reviews and overview at MOVIES and MANIA.

Man Bites Dog (French: C’est arrivé près de chez vous, It Happened in Your Neighborhood) is a 1992 Belgian darkly comic crime-mockumentary written, produced and directed by Rémy Belvaux, André Bonzel …

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Skywald Publications was a 1970s American publisher of black-and-white comic magazines, primarily the horror anthologies Nightmare, Psycho, and Scream. Skywald’s first publication was Nightmare #1 (Dec. 1970). The company lasted until early 1975, with …

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‘Demons long locked on the depths of the mind come out to destroy the weak and the believing!’ Point of Terror is a 1971 American psycho thriller directed by actor …

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Continue reading The Slayer – USA, 2016 – overview at MOVIES and MANIA.