Tag: mysteries
Its title a bit of a misnomer, The Ghost of Saint Aubin doesn’t feature traditional, literal ghosts (depends on how you interpret it) so much as a supernatural storyline that channels the spirits of slavery, social injustice and economic iniquity in a smart, if somewhat jumbled, tale of love,...
Seriously, who holds movie distributors responsible for the misleading nature of their posters and video cover art? I fully expect films to use their artwork to exaggerate how good/exciting/scary they are, but in the case of Apartment 4E, not only does this cover art depict events that don't happen...
This interesting little film is the sort of voiced-over, nostalgic look back at the the '50s that made A Christmas Story and The Wonder Years so popular, but with a ghostly twist. Oh, and a murder. Of a child. Plus a lynching. What a great decade!
The movie's one big...
This Charlie Chan outing (Battle of the racial stereotypes!) isn't really horror, but Mantan Moreland's role is limited -- even in light of the time period -- to being spooked at the mere prospect of there being ghosts...which there weren't. Too bad, because the gag gets old quickly, with...
Like Meeting at Midnight, this is a Charlie Chan mystery that's marginally horrific, with its masked killer plot line (not to mention the Caucasian Asian speaking pidgin English and his bug-eyed, scaredy-cat black manservant). Somehow, I find Mantan's being scared of a tangible killer here more acceptable than his...
This is a fun little film that combines a monster movie with an Agatha Christie-style whodunit. The monster in question is a werewolf, and the whodunit in question is who the hell it is. Calvin Lockhart, who would sadly be relegated to bit parts like Predator 2's King Willie...
This little independent thriller has only one black actor, but he's the featured star -- sort of the cinematic version of Simi Valley electing a black mayor. Jeff Hollins plays Carl, a stereotypically burnt-out ex-cop who's called back for "one last case." He'd quit the homicide beat after accidentally...
This Seven/Silence of the Lambs wannabe proves that it's better to be a big fish in a small pond than a small fish in Hollywood. Initially tabbed for a theatrical run (with the slightly less silly title D-Tox), Eye See You was shelved for three years before it went...
I'm not ashamed to admit that as a kid, I found this film pretty spooky. I mean, what kind of PBS movie has the word "die" in it? As it turns out, Dies Drear is someone's name -- a 19th-century, distinctly John Brown-esque white abolitionist who was killed helping...
If you're going to build a house on a mountain shaped like a skull, you deserve what's coming to you. Thus, you shouldn't feel sorry for the people in The House on Skull Mountain; they really should know better. Although the title sounds like a haunted house movie, it's...
