BERSERK - Herman Cohen -"Your Front Row Seat To Murder!" (1967)

This Saturday Night Special has some extra hot sauce on it, and lives up to it's title because it's..

"BERSERK!"

"BERSERK" is an extra special movie on multiple levels, but I'll just try and hit some of the high points! "BERSERK" was a Herman Cohen production, and without Herman Cohen, we wouldn't have had many of the best 50's and 60's horror and monster movies! Seriously, Herman was responsible for I WAS A TEENAGE WEREWOLF, I WAS A TEENAGE FRANKENSTEIN, BLOOD OF DRACULA, HORRORS OF THE BLACK MUSEUM, KONGA, BLACK ZOO, and HOW TO MAKE A MONSTER, but despite all that, Tabonga will never forgive him for destroying all the original Paul Blaisdell monster masks in the fire in HOW TO MAKE A MONSTER!

"BERSERK" has a super amazing all-star cast that includes Joan Crawford and Michael Gough!

Dwrayger Dungeon 101!

Nice shot of Joan!

Although I must admit, Michael's role is short-lived!!

"BERSERK" is very similar to "Horrors Of The Black Museum," and "Black Zoo," in fact, it probably should have been titled "BLACKSERK!"

Joan spends a lot of time skulking around the circus in that red cape like some kind of bloodsucker!

It's not often you get to see a good old fashioned cat fight anymore! 

This must have completely mortified Joan!

Again, what an amazing array of 60's Pop culture!

Left to right, Judy Geeson, Ty Hardin, Joanie, and The Siren of Swindon, Diana Dors!

 

As expected, this 'saw the woman in half' trick didn't work out that great for Diana!

Right about here was the most WTF!?  moment watching movies I've had lately! You know what, I'll just let you judge for yourself!  Watch it right here, "The Freak Song"  and let me know what you think! Had Herman Cohen been influenced by the musical version of "Jack The Giant Killer?" What a great group, and the chrome dome gentleman on the far right is Dungeon Hero Milton Reid!

I really didn't know that Batman and Robin were in the circus in 1967!

Herman Cohen must have really liked the circus, or it just made for a cheap but interesting stage for his movie, and personally I liked "BERSERK" a lot, but I would have liked it a lot better minus about 25 minutes of real time circus acts!

"BERSERK" is a movie that's just dying to be seen! Watch it as a triple feature with "Black Zoo," and "Horrors Of The Black Museum!!!
Now that's an original 60's power trio!!

DRACULA - "Horror Of Dracula" (1958)

Just like this poster, tonight's Saturday Night Special is a classic! The original title was "Dracula" but most people know it as U. S. title, "Horror Of Dracula!" Sometimes, I don't think "Horror Of Dracula" gets the respect it deserves, because it's a remake, or essentially a cover tune! There were earlier vampire movies, but Bela Lugosi was the first "Dracula" back in 1931. Sure, there were other vampire and Dracula movies after that, and before this, but "Horror Of Dracula" was the first real reincarnation of the character in a completely different sense!

So what in the Hell am I talking about? This Dracula some 27 years after Bela's classic portrayal besides being evil, is really mean-spirited! He's younger and sexier, he's a loner that no longer needs a little buddy like Igor who eats bugs, and changing into a bat is beneath him!

This Dracula is just pissed off all the time!

In 1957, Hammer released "The Curse Of Frankenstein" starring Christopher Lee as the Frankenstein monster, and in 1958, Christopher Lee was starring in "Horror Of Dracula" as Dracula! Somehow Chris had literally taken away the crown worn for a couple of decades by both Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff in the course of just two years, and there was no turning back after that!

Pop Culture of the past 60 years or so has taken quite a hit in the movie and music industries the last couple of years! The world has lost people of an ilk that most likely will never repeat itself, but we've become so numb, and lost, that the talents of people like Christopher Lee, David Bowie, Prince, Leon Russell, Glenn Frey, Paul Kantner and Signe Anderson, Maurice White, Dan Hicks, George Kennedy, George Martin, Frank Sinatra Jr., Patty Duke, Gato Barbieri, Merle Haggard, Lonnie Mack, Muhammad Ali, etc. etc., who we have just lost in the last year alone, will be nothing more than just names in some stupid trivia game in the not too distant future!!

Nice matte painting!

What you want to do, is not go down there!

So, who cleans up after Dracula, and why is this place so clean? It's disturbing!

Not too ominous, drinks are on the house!

And then this guy shows up!

As Reverend Tom Frost would say.........
"I'm gonna gitcha, gitcha, gitcha....."

"Aw Shee..it! This is exactly what I was trying to avoid!!"

And then Dracula gives out a little smirk.........!

The "Gilroy Garlic Festival" happens between July 28th and the 30th, and has been going on for some 38 years now! There have never been any known vampire sightings in the town of Gilroy, California for some reason!

Time for Peter Cushing as Dr. Van Helsing to step in and take control of things! I'm counting five movies that Peter played Val Helsing in, and another 11 TV shows and movies where they used his footage in some archival form! It's gotta get kind of frustrating after you kill Dracula three or four times, and somehow that evil bastard always seems to make it back!

"Horror Of Dracula" has a great cast that includes Melissa (Crucible Of Terror) Stribling and the always intriguing Michael Gough! It looks like this was Michael's first role in a horror movie, but after this, he put it in high gear making dark films like "Horrors Of The Black Museum," "Konga," "Black Zoo," "Dr. Terror's House Of Horrors," "The Skull," "Berserk," etc., etc. Speaking of dark, some 20+ years later Michael would be in four Dark Knight movies as Alfred Pennyworth! What an amazing career!

"Okay, I'll admit I'm a vampire, now would you quit using my forehead as a Crucifix Grill?"

There are some things that never change!

There is only one tried and true way to dispose of vampires, and that's the good olde fashioned wooden stake through the heart!

"You messed up my hair, and now you must die!!"
This is what Jerry Lee Lewis would have looked like if he was a vampire!

"Oh, God Damn, that really hurts!"

The music in "Horror Of Dracula" was written by Hammer workhorse James Bernard, and is just as Gothic and ominous as you would expect, and is the antithesis of why I started doing this blog in the first place, just like all the great Universal horror films, that's the reason it's taken me so long to get around to this fantastic film, but have no fear, because there will be lots more classic blasts from the past as long as there is a future!!

All these Amazing posters are just some of the images you can find at the spectacular Wrong Side Of The Art website! It's a great museum to hang out at if you've got some time to kill!

THE SERPENT AND THE RAINBOW / Universal Pictures - 1988

Here's a nice little flick about voodoo and drugs in Haiti, it stars Bill Pullman in a role that should have at least earned him an Oscar nomination, you really believe this stuff is happening to him. It's a standout horror story that I highly recommend...

I have a wild sound clip for your approval, sooooo, you can push the big red 'GO' button located there by our Dungeon Voodoo Freak, NOW, Ralphie The Tarantula!.. Here's a deadly taste of... THE SERPENT AND THE RAINBOW!

Bill plays Dr. Dennis Alan, he's in Haiti doing research on a powerful drug there and gets a curse put on him by the local witch doctor!

Then, the ground beneath the doctor's feet opens up and hundreds of zombies drag him down to the bottom of the pit. Thing is... It's only in his mind!

With friends like this hanging around, do you really need any enemies?!

In this hallucination, Dennis watches as this blushing bride pulls her jaw down and shoots a viper out of her mouth!.. Will the fun never end?

His tormentor is one sick SOB, here, the madman threatens to light his torch for the thrill.

And, Dungeon Hero Michael Gough has a small part in the movie, looking good as usual..

This girl becomes possessed and tries to bury this butcher knife somewhere in Dennis!

Dennis gets drugged and he is buried alive! They also give him some little playmates to keep him company while he ponders his situation.

The fun doesn't end there though, check out the maniac pulling his head completely off, he then throws it at Dennis, barely missing him!

This is one freaky scene, those long rubbery arms with grabbing hands give me the chills!

Our nemesis gets his just desserts in the end, Dennis has a few tricks up his sleeve as he's learned some spells himself. The maniac gets a steel spike right into his groin before falling through the floor on an elevator trip straight to Hell!! Yes, Dennis makes it through the ordeal and the good guys win... Whew!!