This will be the last Tomb article for a while. I’ve got to give myself more time to work on horror projects of my own. Thanks for reading. – John
A monster suit can make or break a horror film. With the right makeup effects and performer, something special can be done with a creature that’s been seen dozens of times. A mediocre film can even be partially redeemed by good monster effects. But even the best suit can’t overcome shots and lighting that reveal its deficiencies. If the performer bringing the creature to life doesn’t understand how to move and hide the reality of a rubber suit, this can also destroy the illusion. 1972’s made-for-TV film Gargoyles is well known in horror circles, mainly for its effects. It features the first ever makeup effects from the legendary Stan Winston (The Terminator, Aliens, Predator, Jurassic Park). His gargoyle suits not only terrified a generation of viewers, they also won him an Emmy. Nearly 40 years later, how well do these nightmare-inducing monsters hold up?
The Harry Potter series finally comes to a close. Some of us may know what will transpire in this film because we’ve read the book. But this is something different. After 
I hate spiders. I’d rather be mugged than see a large spider in the same room as me. They are awful, alien-looking things that need to be stopped. “What’s the big deal?” You ask. “They kill insects for us…and the circle of life…blah, blah, blah.” I don’t care. Did you know that in Africa there are spiders the size of dinner plates? Fuck that. I think that the various nations of the world need to stop fighting amongst themselves and rally against the real enemy, the spider. Tonight’s film, Arachnophobia, shows just what can happen if we are to allow these terrible creatures to live. I don’t know about you, but I’d feel pretty bad knowing that a swarm of spiders attacked Jeff Daniels, all because we didn’t man up and wipe them out. Destroy the ecosystem, you say? You’re damn right I would.
There is a universal relatability at the core of 
Gaston Leroux’s 1910 novel The Phantom of the Opera is a piece of horror literature history. It sits alongside Bram Stoker’s Dracula from 1897 and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein from 1818. All have been adapted many times on film and hold places as members of the Universal monsters stable. What sets The Phantom apart is that it was the first of the three novels to be adapted into a feature length film, and it has never become a long-running franchise. Both Universal and Hammer Studios sequelized Dracula and Frankenstein to death, while Phantom has just been seen onscreen in over a dozen remakes. I’m a big fan of the Universal monsters and have seen nearly all of the films included in that unofficial series, but for some reason never got around to watching the two famous Phantom adaptations that the studio produced. I’ve read Leroux’s novel and enjoyed it very much, but as far as The Phantom on film goes, I’m way behind. In fact, the two versions I’ve seen are very different in style from all the others. I saw Joel Schumacher’s musical adaptation and quickly realized that I was not the right audience for it. Tonight I’ll be covering the slasher take on The Phantom that was released in 1989 and stars Freddy Krueger himself, Robert Englund.
Last week, in my review of 
I love werewolves. They are my favorite movie monsters, beating out the more popular faves, vampires and zombies. Maybe it’s because there haven’t been a ton of werewolf films. Vampires and zombies are easy for no-budget films to pull off, so we see A LOT of films about them. It’s a little harder to turn a person into a giant wolf, so we don’t have to worry about quite as many terrible werewolf films being out there. In 1981, we got no fewer than three big werewolf releases, all of them bringing something different to the subgenre and bringing the monsters into the modern day. The first out of the gate was Joe Dante’s The Howling. This low budget effort featured the first use of prosthetic effects to turn a man into a werewolf and show the beast with more than just gluing hair to an actor’s face. A short four months later, these effects would be outdone by the amazing work done by Rick Baker in An American Werewolf in London. That seems to be the fate of The Howling—always the werewolf bridesmaid, never the bride. In a world where American Werewolf is widely regarded as the best werewolf film, does The Howling earn its second place reputation, or is it the underrated king of the werewolf pile?
Death is scary. When you get right down to the basics of it, that’s what makes a horror film work. People don’t want to die. They are afraid of death. So when a character is put in a life-threatening situation in a film, you are afraid for them. Usually, a couple of characters fighting for their lives is enough for a horror film. Tonight’s film, 1984’s Night of the Comet, isn’t content with putting a couple of characters in peril. Instead, the film concerns the end of the world and wipes out the entire human race. For me, the end of the world is a much more horrifying concept than just my own death. So, an apocalyptic horror film should be a very depressing thing. What Night of the Comet manages to do is turn the apocalypse into a fun 80s party where bad fashion goes hand in hand with Uzis. The fact that it manages to end humanity and still be a fun ride is very impressive, but it also manages to do it on a low-budget. And while the film isn’t perfect, you have to respect writer/director Thom Eberhardt (Captain Ron) for aiming for the fences and not being content with the same old, same old of low-budget horror filmmaking.
At one time, John Landis was on one of the best rolls of any comedy director. Following the cult success of Kentucky Fried Movie in 1977, he made the comedy classics National Lampoon’s Animal House, The Blues Brothers, Trading Places, and my vote for best horror film of all time, An American Werewolf in London. Then Twilight Zone: The Movie happened. We’ve all heard the story. Vic Morrow and two illegally-hired child actors were killed when a special effect went bad and caused a helicopter to fall from the sky. Even though Landis was acquitted of all charges related to the incident, it has haunted him his entire career since. He still managed a couple of hits after this incident, including the iconic music video for Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” and the Eddie Murphy vehicle Coming to America. Unfortunately, his 90s output mainly consisted of failure (Beverly Hills Cop III) after failure (The Stupids) after failure (Blues Brothers 2000). Burke and Hare, which is playing as part of the 2011 Seattle International Film Festival, is his first narrative feature in twelve years and is also his best in nearly twenty.
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