I Bury the Living

 

This is a 1958 horror thriller directed by Albert Band and stars Richard Boone, Theodore Bikel and Peggy Maurer.

Robert Kraft is a newly appointed director of the cemetery, who visits the caretaker and shown a map of the graves. Black pins on the map show the dead, and white pins reveal plot reservations. By something curious, Kraft notices that he's been causing deaths of people with plots on the map, convinced that he's unwillingly dooming them by switching pins on the board. He becomes sure that he is cursed by the map, a Voodoo like object with dark powers.

This was a gothic and atmospheric flick, although it changed storyline during the filming. It became a crime investigation seeking rational answers to explain supernatural horrors. This hints at a lot more potential and some weirdness. The phone number when calling the police was 666. The cemetery office containing the map was made for the film, although the cemetery itself is real, and is called Angelus-Rosedale Cemetery in Los Angeles. The map itself changes appearance as Kraft becomes more paranoid. I rate this a tense 6/10

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Fear Chamber (1968)

 This is a 1968 sci-fi horror directed by Jack Hill and Juan Ibanez, written by Jack Hill and Luis Enrique Vergara. The stars includes Boris Karloff, Julissa and Carlos East. 

A team of scientists discover a living rock deep in a volcanic tunnel. This rock is kept in a lab, where it's able to eat and also communicate. However, young women are offered promise of work and living accommodation but they're sacrificial victims to the growing greedy monster in the secret lab. A bunch of weird characters support the chamber of horrors of are nightmarish to the unwilling frightened women. 

This is the last film Boris Karloff made, but other films he appeared in were released at a similar time. Many of the voices are dubbed in English. The paintings shown in the bedroom come from artist Francisco Goya. This was a very strange creepy film that gave confusing messages, from Satanic to scientific, with horrible nightmarish scenes, including torture and a woman being trapped in a room with snakes and spiders. No ratings from the time but I give this a 4/10.

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The Uninvited (1996)

 

This is a tv horror film made in 1996, and it was directed by Larry Shaw. The stars includes Sharon Lawrence, Beau Bridges, Shirley Knight and Emily Bridges. 

A family move into a new house, where tragic history happened on the site early in the 20th century. Unaware of the grim past, the family begin to notice strange lights in the house, followed with unpleasant visions and objects moving by themselves. Things become intense with the paranormal when one of the children discovers a necklace in the orchard near an old tree that was hit by lightning. None of the neighbours know anything at all and everyone is warning the family to stay away from a local psychic.

Emily Bridges is the daughter of Beau Bridges. The film goes by other names "The Haunting of Patricia Johnson" and "Victim of the Haunt." This film was inspired by true events of Ron and Doretta Johnson in Marion, Indiana whose story appeared also in "Sightings" and "A Haunting". The film is a nice contemporary suburban ghost story of a haunted house that was built on a graveyard. It was located in a real place with a lemon orchard that is no longer there today.

I rate this lemony ghost film a 7/10

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Witchville

 

This is a 2010 TV fantasy film directed by Pearry Reginald Teo. The stars includes Luke Goss, Ed Speleers, Simon Thorp and Sarah Douglas. 

Malachy returns home and discovers that his father the king has died, making him the new ruler. There are many sinister forces at work so he has to leave his people to put a stop to the Red Queen and her evil powers. However, the people are starving now that there crops were ruined by something horrible. He finds a strange book with an owner who could help. It turns out that the book holds powerful secrets.

This is set in the Middle Ages although it seems entirely like a fantasy world. The film was made in Yixian in China. While it was a very nicely made film with a tense storyline, it was directed by Pearry Reginald Teo, also the writer, who passed away last year at the age of 44. He was from Singapore, who didn't do so well in school but he went onto make a string of excellent films. 

I rate this an awesome 9/10

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Forbidden Empire

"Forbidden Empire" is a 2014 Russian/Ukranian fantasy film also called "Viy". It was directed by Oleg Stepchenko, and the stars include Jason Flemyng, Andrey Smolyakov and Aleksey Chadov.

An English cartographer named Jonathon Green departs from his girlfriend who lives with her strict dad (played by Charles Dance, who was Tywin Lannister in "Game of Thrones"), to work in an unchartered forest in East Europe. He comes to a formidable region full of monsters, shadow wolves and legends of the horrible Viy, a horned beast responsible for taking the lives of innocent girls. Only there he has to discover where the answer is when he comes to a remote village full of superstition.

This is based on a story "Viy" by Ukrainian novelist Nikolai Gogol. The film was very popular in Russia and other countries in Europe, then made a sequel released in 2019 called "Viy 2: Journey to China". However the film wasn't released in cinemas in UK or USA but went straight to DVD. The making of the film was gradual and started in 2006. One of the film's locations at Sychrov Castle is actually haunted by a legendary ghost named the "black widow". 

A very entertaining and monstrous film with some laughs too. I could watch it again and again, so I give this a full 10/10 score.

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