Title: Piranha (1978)

Studio: New World Pictures

Directed by: Joe Dante

Written by: John Sayles

Plot: When flesh-eating piranhas are accidentally released into a summer resort’s rivers, the guests become their next meal.. [IMDB]

Taglines:

• There’s something in the water at Lost River Lake. Something you can’t see…something you can’t feel…until it’s too late!
• Then… you were shocked by the great white shark – Now… you are at the mercy of 1000 jaws!

Ah, the glory of the 70′s! Films like this make me proud to be a Movie Geek. No, seriously! Sure, it’s a cheesy nature vs. man horror flick, but it was actually fairly well done. ‘Piranha’ won the Saturn Award for Best Editing and Best Horror Film in 1979 from the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films, USA. What’s even more interesting to me though, is that it was written by legendary indie filmmaker John Sayles (Matewan, Eight Men Out). During a period of time, Sayles wrote screenplays such as this to sell to “lesser” filmmakers and even occasionally worked as a “script doctor”, hired on to save less than workable screenplays by other writers. ‘Piranha’ spawned a sequel in 1981 called ‘Piranha 2: The Spawning’ and has now procreated a new coming revival with the in development ‘Piranha 3-D’, which hopes to begin production this year. The new higher-tech edition to the franchise will be helmed by Alexandre Aja (Mirrors).

Trivia Tid Bit: Bradford Dillman was originally unhappy with his character’s 2D nature, and asked writer John Sayles why his character was so thin. Sayles responded that Roger Corman regularly did not use good actors in his film, so he deliberately didn’t elaborate on characters. But since Dillman was a “real” actor, he was more than happy to enhance his character’s depth. [IMDB]

Title: The Giant Gila Monster (1959)

Studio: Hollywood Pictures Corporation

Director: Ray Kellogg

Plot: A giant lizard terrorizes a rural Texas community with a heroic teenager attempting to destroy the creature. [IMDB]

Tagline: Only Hell could breed such an enormous beast. Only God could destroy it. [IMDB]

Title: The Brides of Dracula (1960)
AKA: les Maitresses de Dracula
Studio: Hammer Film Productions
Directed by Terence Fisher
Starring Peter Cushing
French Grande Poster, 47 in. X 63 in.
Artist: Marcel Landais

Plot: Vampire hunter Van Helsing returns to Transylvania to destroy handsome bloodsucker Baron Meinster, who has designs on beautiful young schoolteacher Marianne.

Tagline: He Turned Innocent Beauty Into Unspeakable Horror.

Trivia: Contrary to popular belief, Christopher Lee did not refuse to appear in this film, rather he was not asked for fear that the studio would have to pay him more money.

Plot: A teenage couple making out in the woods accidentally runs over an alien creature with their car. The creature’s hand falls off, but it comes alive, and, with an eye growing out of it, begins to stalk the teens. Meanwhile, Joe the town drunk wants to store the body in his refrigerator, but some of the alien’s buddies inject alcohol into his system, and Joe dies of an overdose. — IMDB

Taglines:

They Threatened The World Until Some Hep Youngsters Took Over!

Creeping horror from the depths of time and space!

Title: Invasion of the Saucer Men (1957)
Director: Edward L. Cahn
Dimensions: 41″ x 27″

Title: Indestructible Man (1956)
Director: Jack Pollexfen
Starring: Lon Chaney, Jr.
Dimensions: 41″ x 27″

Plot: It tells the story of Butcher Benton (Chaney), a double-crossed convicted robber and murderer who dies in the gas chamber and is inadvertently revived by a lone-wolf cancer researcher who claims his body from the prison and subjects it to further massive jolts of electricity. Benton’s heart is re-stimulated, and he revives mad, mute, immensely strong and with skin virtually impervious even to bazooka shells. He sets out to avenge himself on the two henchmen who, in collusion with his attorney, betrayed him in order to steal his loot, and also to contact his stripper-girlfriend who has gone straight and begun dating the detective who brought Benton to justice. — Wikipedia

Watch the full-length movie online here.

Title: Bride of the Monster (1955)
Director: Edward D. Wood, Jr.
Dimensions: 41″ x 27″

Plot:

Lugosi’s character, Dr. Eric Vornoff, is experimenting with atomic energy in a primitive laboratory in his mansion. His goal is to create an army of mutated supermen to do his bidding. Newspaper reporter Janet Lawton Dolores starts investigating, as do the local police. Meanwhile, an East German “monster hunter”, Professor Strowksi, is creeping around trying to persuade Dr. Vornoff to return to their homeland. — Wikipedia

Trivia:

• This was Ed Wood’s only financially successful film upon original release.
• The prop octopus was stolen from Republic Studios and was constructed for the John Wayne film Wake of the Red Witch (1948). The motor which controlled the octopus’ tentacles was not stolen with it, as is obvious to the casual viewer. Additionally, one of the tentacles was torn off in the process of stealing it out of the property room. — IMDB

Plot: In the Florida Everglades a pair of larger-than-human-size, intelligent leeches are living in an underwater cave. They begin dragging local people down to their cave where they hold them prisoner and slowly drain them of blood. [from Wikipedia]

Taglines:
Crawling horror… unleashed by the depths of hell to kill and conquer!
Massive Blood Sucking Monsters!

Title: The Giant Leeches (1959)
Alternate Title: Attack of the Giant Leeches
Director: Bernard L. Kowalski
Dimensions: 41″ x 27″

Watch the full-length movie online here.

Plot: On an island community off of California, Tom Stewart is preparing to marry the woman he loves. His plans are threatened by his old girlfriend, Vi, who shows up secretly. During a confrontation at the top of the island’s lighthouse, the railing breaks and Vi falls. Tom has a chance to save her but doesn’t. Tom’s relief at Vi’s accident soon fades when her vengeful spirit begins showing up wherever he goes… (from IMDB)

Taglines:
A ghost-woman owned him body and soul!
The Wedding of the Living And the Dead!
Her lips, cold as a tomb! Her caress, a naked chill!

Title: Tormented (1960)
Director: Bert I. Gordon
Dimensions: 41″ x 27″

Plot: A disparate group are trapped on a remote island by a hurricane. On the island, a doctor works to make humans twice as small as we already are. This, apparently, will help prevent over population. Unfortunately, his experiments have also created some giant shrews. As the shrews run out of smaller animals to eat, they move in on the people in the house. (from IMDB)

• This film and its companion piece, ‘The Giant Gila Monster’ (1959), marked the directorial debut of veteran special effects man Ray Kellogg.
• Dogs wrapped in rugs were used to play the killer shrews.

Title: The Killer Shrews (1959)
Director: Ray Kellogg
Dimensions: 41″ x 27″

Plot: Three beat-nicks are offered one million dollars by a coffee house owner to follow a secret plan and rob an armored car in Chicago, disguised as police and escape to New York. But they’re unaware that he plans to murder them and keep the money for himself. — IMDB

Tagline: B-GUYS! (The Beatnicks) Living and Loving for strange kicks! JET DOLLS! Ready and willing to go into orbit! KING OF BEATSVILLE! Master mind behind a million dollars worth of murder! THE “WEIRDIES”! Nobody knows what makes them tick!

Title: The Rebel Set (1959)
Dimensions: 41″ x 27″
Artist(s): Unknown

Lon Chaney, Jr. stars in this classic sci-fi/horror film about a newly married couple traveling by train when the husband gets an urgent telegram. At the next stop he gets off the train to make a phone call and when the train leaves without him, it ends up being the last time his wife ever sees him. However, the wife refuses to give up and after years of searching finds him at his family’s southern estate and learns that he’s been left disfigured as half-man, half-alligator… the result of a failed medical procedure.

The Alligator People (1959)
Dimensions: 41″ x 27″
Artist(s): X

William Castle was the grandaddy of movie gimmicks, like the “tingler” which was a device placed under the audiences seats to give a “light” vibrating shock during scary moment sin the film. Castle often “borrowed” from Hitchcock and ‘Homicidal’ is one of the more apparent examples, although he made some entertaining films, the quality clearly never matched that of the Hitch. Castle only produced this one, but it still exemplifies his distinct touch.

Homicidal (1961)
Dimensions: 41†³ x 27†³
Artist(s): Unknown

It traditional Hitchcock style, he appears on the margin of this poster self-marketing his new film. Hitchcock had a tendency of being a showman for his films … but, we can’t really complain. His films were always spectacular, even when they weren’t his best work. ‘The Birds’ is certainly at the top of his achievements, this time adding even more technical accomplishments to his list of revolutionary developments in the art and craft of filmmaking.

Any fans out there looking to snag one of these posters may want to start saving up. An original one-sheet poster of this version on auction brings in a range from about $350 in good condition up to $850 for one in near mint condition.

The Birds (1963)
Dimensions: 41†³ x 27†³
Artist(s): Unknown

This week’s poster is in recognition of the fact that I was a complete bonehead and forgot to post the poster for this week … so, I’m posting it nearly a week later because I’m a “jerk” …

The Jerk (1979)
Dimensions: 41†³ x 27†³
Artist(s): Unknown

This one’s truly just an admiration of the artwork, as the film is purely classic 50′s sci-fi/horror schlock. This was the kind of thing that mom and dad went to see at a matinee for a dime. In the poster, the creature appears to be a modified Chinese festival dragon, boasting several eyes, albeit nowhere near a million … and, of course, the scarcely clothed helpless vixen is present as always. As you may have noticed, none of the actors featured on the poster are of much note, except for that one popular thespian that has appeared in numerous films … the BEAST. The film was presented in Wide Screen and something called TERROR-SCOPE … I have no idea what that was?

The Beast With 1,000,000 Eyes (1955)
Dimensions: 41†³ x 27†³
Artist(s): Albert Kallis.

Another classic film from producer-director Roger Corman, and perhaps one of his more enjoyable films. Ray Milland stars as Dr. Xaviers, a scientist experimenting with x-ray vision. He subjects himself to his studies, but things start to go terribly wrong and his newly acquired vision quickly becomes more of a curse than a benefit from science. Comedian Don Rickles also makes an early big screen appearance in this campy sci-fi classic.

X: The Man With the X-Ray Eyes (1963)
Dimensions: 41†³ x 27†³
Artist(s): Unknown.

Warner Bros. and director Gordon Douglas brought us this classic cautionary tale of our lustful drive for atomic technology and how our pursuit of this destructive force is bound to backfire on us. With all its out-dated special FX glory, this movie serves as one of several American precursors for the classic Japanese Godzilla and friends franchise.

The poster is great, resonating both with comic book appeal and a touch of pulp novel artistic flair. Despite the severely poor special effects by today’s standards, I still get a thrill watching this movie. I’ve seen it at least three times now, and it doesn’t get old.

Them! (1954)
Dimensions: 41″ x 27″
Artist(s): Unknown.

This classic science fiction film tells of a young boy who witnesses a spaceship crash land on Earth. The boy’s father goes to check it out but comes back different. Soon, more and more people are returning from the crash site changed. The boy has figured out that aliens have taken control of people’s bodies but he soon learns how vast the invasion is as he attempts to warn others. This classic movie was remade in 1986 by Tobe Hooper.

Invaders From Mars (1953)
Dimensions: 41″ x 27″
Artist(s): Unknown.

This early example of the classic schlock films that we would see dominate the early 70′s was one of many produced by the legendary Roger Corman. Some may be surprised, however, to learn this film was directed by Francis Ford Coppola.

The movie follows the wife of recently deceased John Haloran, who seeks to deceive his family of her husband’s death to ensure she collects her life insurance payout. The story becomes an entangled, twisted tale of greed and murder.

Dementia 13 (1963)
Dimensions: 41″ x 27″
Artist(s): Unknown.

How can I possibly leave out the great green lizard of chaos. This radioactive bi-product of nuclear development sparked not just a movie franchise, but also an entire genre of movies. True, its not the first Godzilla movie, but that original 1954 film gets credit as a far more artistically significant work. This is just one of the many fun and colorful versions of the poster, much like the many different fun and colorful variations and sequels that would be to follow.

Godzilla, King of the Monsters! (1956)
Dimensions: 41″ x 27″
Artist(s): Unknown.