A Blade in the Dark (1983)

Ascot Films
Directed by Lamberto Bava
My rating: 2 stars out of 4
IMDb Wikipedia
(DVD, Anchor Bay)

A composer is hired by a female director to record the soundtrack for her horror film. He rents a villa in which to work. Pretty girls start showing up unannounced and are murdered by a knife-wielding maniac. His  jealous girfriend isn't too happy either. When the identity of the killer is finally revealed, there are no surprises. By the early 80s, the giallo genre was becoming dated, and this film fails to inject anything new. 

The Black Cat (1966)

Hemisphere Pictures
Directed by Harold Hoffman
My rating: BOMB
IMDb 
(Blu-ray, Severin)

Low budget adaptation of the Poe story. Man receives a black cat from his wife, then proceeds to mutilate and kill it. His alcoholism drives him further into insanity and he turns his violence towards his wife. He hides the body behind a brick wall in the basement, and when the police come looking... well, you know the Poe story. The narrative is occasionally interrupted by scenes of a dated rock group performing in a bar for no apparent reason. 

The Name of the Game Is Kill! (1968)

Fanfare Films
Directed by Gunnar Hellstrom
My rating: 2 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, VCI Entertainment)

Jack Lord plays a Hungarian drifter in the California desert. He stumbles on an isolated gas station run by Susan Strasberg and her sisters and mother. Lord accepts an invitation to dinner and is gradually pulled into the dysfunctional family. There is a big plot twist towards the end that you will spot a mile away. The Electric Prunes play on the soundtrack. Jack Lord's accent is incredibly phony and distracting. Disappointing.

Don't Go Near the Park (1979)

Cardinal IV Film Distributors
Directed by Larence D. Foldes
My rating: BOMB
IMDb Wikipedia
(DVD, Dark Sky Films)

Cursed caveman brother and sister are adults living in modern day Los Angeles. They have survived the centuiries by cannibalistic murders which prevent them from aging. The brother hopes to break the curse by sacrificing a virgin, which he plans on conceiving with unsuspecting new bride Linnea Quigley. However, she ends up a teenage runaway living in some abandoned shack with a foul-mouthed street kid, another teenager who calls himself Cowboy and an old woman who may or may not be her aunt. Aldo Ray shows up as a creepy writer who provides some background history. She eventually confronts her father in a cave in Griffith Park. Cheap, sleazy, poorly acted "video nasty" that only completists need to see.

Bloodsuckers (1970)

Titan Film Distribution (UK)
Directed by Robert Hartford-Davis
My rating: 2 stars out of 4
IMDb Wikipedia
(DVD, Redemption)

A rebellious college student travels to Greece supposedly to research a book. His friends follow and try to find him. They find him in a catatonic state involved with a strange woman and ritualistic sacrifices. All signs point to vampirism, or maybe just some kinky sex involving blood sucking. They  manage to get their friend back to England, but he soon reverts to the same perversions. Interesting attempt to redefine vampires as nothing more than a "sexual perversion", but it is really more fun to think of them as vampires as far as movies are concerned. Peter Cushing's role is barely more than a cameo.

Man-Thing (2005)

Lions Gate Films
Directed by Brett Leonard
My rating: 2 stars out of 4
IMDb Wikipedia
(DVD, Lions Gate)

A new sheriff arrives at a backwater southern town. He is immediately confronted by a series of grisly murders which have been written off as alligator attacks by the former sheriff, now missing. His investigation leads to the local swamp where he finds the former sheriff's body. His major suspect is a mysterious character who lives in the swamp and seems to have supernatural powers. He hires some local thugs to find him, but they end up being killed by a monster known as man-thing. With the help of a local schoolteacher beauty, the sheriff goes into the swamp to find the monster once and for all. Early Marvel production before they struck gold with superheroes starts out ok, but quickly succumbs to formulaic, over-the-top violence. 

Monster (1953)

Azteca Films Inc
Directed by Chano Urueta
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb Wikipedia
(DVD, One 7 Movies)

A newspaper reporter desperate for a story answers a "lonely hearts" ad. She meets a disfigured plastic surgeon looking for love. She leads him on, to disastrous results. The rejected doctor rejuvenates a dead beast in the basement to extract revenge on her, and the entire medical community who scorned him. Mexican adaptation of Frankenstein has occasional atmospheric touches, but hampered by low budget and nonsensical plot.

Gozu (2003)

Pathifnder Pictures
Directed by Takashi Miike
My rating: 2 stars out of 4
IMDb Wikipedia
(DVD, Pathfinder)

A Japanese yakuza (gangster) is going slightly made, and his boss orders that he be killed by his very own partner. The reluctant younger gangster isn't really up to killing his friend, but ends up doing it anyway in a car accident. Then, the body disappears while he is visiting a nearby restaurant. He spends the rest of the movie trying to find it and figure out what happened. It is a strange, surreal journey, virtually without plot. Unlike Lynch, to whom Miike is often compared, this comes off as pretentious and random. Weird just to be weird. Still, if you swing often enough you will occasionally get some hits, and Miike does deliver some awfully unsettling and strange moments. Then again, there is the breast milk. And the dog. And the cow's head. 

The Bloodsucker Leads the Dance (1975)

P.A.B. Film
Directed by Alfredo Rizzo
My rating: BOMB
IMDb Wikipedia
(DVD, Redemption)

Acting troupe is invited to a mansion on an isolated island and get stranded. Soon, bodies start showing up without heads. More of a mid 70s Italian sex comedy than horror, with the flimsly plot mostly just an excuse for a string of softcore sex scenes. 

Neither the Sea Nor the Sand (1972)

Tigon (UK)
Directed by Fred Burnley
My rating: 2 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Redemption)

Vacationing Susan Hampshire falls in love with lighthouse keeper Frank Finlay. Their storybook romance causes her to decide to stay with him instead of returning to her husband. After a few weeks of giddiness, he unexpectedly dies on a rocky, windswept beach. However, he shows up the next day at their love nest, albeit in not quite the some condition. He has taken on a zombie-like demeanor, complete with rotting flesh, which she intially tries but cannot ignore. More doomed romance than horror, with a good performance by Hampshire and location photography on Jersey in the Channel Islands. 

The Boogey Man (1980)

Jerry Gross Organization
Directed by Ulli Lommel
My rating: 1.5 stars out of 4
IMDb Wikipedia
(DVD, Anchor Bay)

After a childhood trauma in which a young boy kills his mother's boyfriend, he grows up to be a mute living on a farm with his sister. She suffers from nightmares of the same night. Her husband convinces her to visit her childhood house in the hopes of curing her. Instead, she is attacked by unseen forces and possessed by the spirit of the dead boyfriend through a haunted mirror. A priest is called in to help and they must find and destroy all the pieces of the mirror. Ruined by poor special effects and a derivative plot. The first of many collaborations between the director and his then-wife, star Suzanna Love. 

The Corpse Vanishes (1942)

Monogram Pictures
Directed by Wallace Fox
My rating: 1.5 stars out of 4
IMDb Wikipedia
(DVD, Roan Group)

Bela Lugosi is a mad scientist who uses the scent of a rare orchid to fake the sudden deaths of new brides. He then steals their bodies and drains them of a fluid to rejuvenate his old and spiteful wife. Reporter Patricia Hunter follows up on the orchids, leading her to Lugosi. She stays at his mansion and discovers the strange goings on in the basement. With the help from a young doctor, they contrive a plan to capture Lugosi, but it won't be easy. Entertaining low budget nonsense. 

Pin (1988)

New World Pictures
Directed by Sandor Stern
My rating: 1.5 stars out of 4
IMDb Wikipedia
(DVD, Anchor Bay)

Strange story of a brother and sister left orphans after their parents are killed in a suspicious car wreck. The boy is mentally unstable and has an increasingly bizarre fixation with his father's medical dummy. Using ventriloquism, he converses with the dummy, who eventually becomes the center of their life. Meanwhile the girl falls in love, sending her brother over the edge to insanity and murder. Very uncomfortable and unsettling, but not in a good way.