The Phantom of the Opera(1962) Movie Review

Trailer here.

The Phantom of the Opera is a 1962 horror movie directed by Terence Fisher and starring Herbert Lom, Heather Sears, Edward de Souza and Michael Gough.

The movie begins with a man at the opera. He frightens an opera singer called Maria. She tells the producer Harry(de Souza) about it. He calms her down. The manager is called Lattimer(Thorley Walters) and he and Lord D'Arcy(Gough) sit together. D'Arcy is unhappy that one box is empty because it is supposed to be haunted. Someone has sabotaged the music. Maria is on stage when a dead body falls down near her. She is terrified and refuses to sing again. Harry has to hold auditions for a replacement. The phantom is watching. A woman called Christine Charles(Sears)is hired. D'Arcy likes her. He invites her to dinner with him. She hears a voice speaking to her. It tells her that she will sing only for him and it warns her about D'Arcy.

D'Arcy comes on to her. Christine doesn't like it. She asks Harry to come with her. D'Arcy loses interest. Christine tells Harry about the voice she heard. They go to the theatre to find out more. The voice speaks again. It warns Harry. He warns him to leave before something happens. Christine sees the phantom. Harry finds out about a Professor Petrie(Lom) who burned to death. Harry is interested in this and he finds out that the Professor didn't actually die. He got burned by acid and he has been missing since. Harry goes to the police and asks about the fire. The police tell him that the man went into the river. Christine gets taken by the phantom who is Professor Petrie. He also has a dwarf working for him. He tells her that he will teach her to sing. He tells her that she will be the greatest. She will sing only for him.

Harry looks around the river and he hears Christine's voice singing. He gets into the water and finds a tunnel. The dwarf hears him coming and attacks him. Harry manages to fight him off and finds the Professor and Christine. Petrie tells him that D'Arcy cheated him out of his music and passed it off as his own. Petrie broke into the printers to stop them from printing his music and caused a fire. He got burned badly by acid. He jumped into the river for relief and he was washed into the sewer where he met the dwarf who looked after him. He is now dying and he wants to hear Christine sing his music before he dies. They agree to help him fulfil his dying wish.

Petrie pays a visit to D'Arcy who is horrified by his face. Petrie goes to the theatre and hears his music being performed by Christine. He is happy. He stands in the haunted box. The dwarf is up in the rafters listening to the music when he gets disturbed by someone. He walks over a chandelier and it begins to fall. Christine is about to be hit but Petrie jumps in front of her and saves her life. He dies in the process. This is a good film. It is of course a classic story and this version is very entertaining. The cast are very good and there are some familiar faces. I definitely recommend this one as it is directed by Terence Fisher who directed some horror classics such as The Curse of Frankenstein and Dracula(1958). It gets a 6/10.

Amityville Apartment(2025) Movie Review

Trailer here.

Amityville Apartment is a 2025 horror movie directed by various directors and starring various actors.

The film begins with a man performing a ritual in his apartment. He calls for Satan. Cut to a priest coming to bless the apartment later. A couple are living in it but strange things are happening at their complex. They feel a presence there. The evil interferes with the priest and he ends up becoming possessed by it.  Next we see a woman called Lavina(Kassandra Escandell) who is searching for zodiac signs to take her back to the 1600's. Zelda(Brinke Stevens) and Luna(Chantal Casutt) are helping . Cut back to 1950's Amityville, A group of friends go to a palm reader. There are weirdos in there and Lavinia is also there. The girls end up being killed.

Next story begins with a guy in one of the apartments who gets a note saying 'beware'. He writes a note saying 'of what?' and slides it under his door. He gets a reply on bloodstained paper. It says 'me'. Something evil drags him off. Next tale begins with a dad and his daughter. They discuss her dead mother's occult collection. They know someone who might take it off their hands. The dad finds a figure and he takes it out. It is a statue of a demon. It freezes people who mess with it. The demon emerges from the statue and the dad hits it. The dad and daughter show it it's own reflection in the mirror and it freezes itself, end of story.

In a new apartment, a girl called Carly(Jacquelyn Stern) gets a present outside her door. It's a jack in the box. She takes a photo of herself and there is a clown behind her. Next, a balloon floats in. She hides in the closet. The clown shows up and ties her up. In the next story, a musician called Jeff(Jared Rivet) gets a call. His boss sends him a video to help with his work. The video is weird. There is some sort of ritual happening and it has music. A weird creature sees him. Jeff tries to recreate the music. He starts to see and hear things. The creature shows up at his apartment. He runs away. He gets a call from his boss. She wants him to have the music written. He has lost a day. The creature pulls him away. It ends with Jeff being inside the video as the creature is going to kill him.

In the final story, a woman called Jody(Nicole Cinaglia) is hearing noises in her apartment. She is on the phone with her sister. The sister tells her to look around and see. There is nothing there. A figure is actually in her apartment. Jody hears voices. A woman called Jackie(Maria Shapley) hears screaming. She and her boyfriend talk about the Amityville story . She is worried . The apartment is built on the same land as the original house. The boyfriend laughs at her. Jackie hears voices telling her to kill the boyfriend. She gets her gun and shoots him and then herself.

I hardly know where to start with this film. It uses the Amityville name but is very loosely connected to that house. The stories are just thrown together and there aren't many scares or tense moments. The only story I really liked was the clown one. That could have made a decent film by itself. There were too many stories and they weren't fleshed out properly. I think they could have cut out a few and made the okay ones better. That's why I am giving this one a 3/10.

Bloody Moon (1981)Movie Review

Trailer here.

Bloody Moon is a 1981 horror movie directed by Jesus Franco and starring Olivia Pascal.

The movie begins with a man called Miguel who is disfigured. He is at a party and he sees others having fun. He puts on a Mickey Mouse mask and pretends to be someone else.He murders a girl. He is put into a psychiatric hospital for a few years. Miguel is finally released into the care of his sister, Manuela(Nadja Geganoff). She is responsible for him. She has a language school in Spain along with Countess Maria Gonzales(Maria Rubio). A professor Alvaro arrives at the school. He is teaching Spanish there. Manuela and the Countess don't like each other. She accuses Manuela of trying to get her money. She gets burned to death in her bed.

A girl called Angela(Pascal) arrives at the school. Miguel sees her and watches her. The tennis coach, Antonio has spotted Angel and he likes her. He is a ladies man. We find out that Miguel and Manuela are in a sexual relationship. Manuela thinks that they could get together if things were different. A friend of Angela's goes to her room to borrow a jumper when she is murdered by a masked man. Angela discovers her friend and runs to tell Antonio. Alvaro shows up and she tells him but he doesn't believe it. Angela searches for her pal but cannot find her.

Angela sees Manuela and Antonio arguing. She asks him about it and he dismisses it. Another girl dies. Angela wants to leave the school. Miguel is creeping around looking at her. She barricades herself into a bungalow. Her friend Laura shows up and gets killed. Angela gets a creepy call from the killer. She finds a severed head in her bed.Her friend's body shows up and Laura's corpse hangs from the ceiling. The killer shows up to get her. Miguel tries to stop him.Angela runs.

Manuela and Alvaro are plotting to set up Miguel for the murders. Alvaro is the real culprit on Manuela's orders. She wanted the family money. Miguel hears this. He tries to kill Angela thinking that she is Manuela. Angela stabs him. Manuela kills Alvaro and saves Angela. She and Angela have an understanding. Somehow Miguel survives and kills his sister. The movie ends with Angela and Antonio together while the police arrive.

This film has so much happening in it that it is confusing at times. There are some good kills in it though. There is a scene with a saw that is gruesome! I liked this and I recommend it for fans of euro slashers. I will give it a 5/10.

Fear Below(2025) Movie Review

Trailer here.

Fear Below is a 2025 Australian thriller movie directed by Matthew Holmes and starring Hermione Corfield, Jake Ryan and Arthur Angel.

A van carrying gold drops its load on the road. A criminal called Bull(Ryan) is the leader of a criminal gang who have stolen it. His lackeys put the gold back into their truck but they end up crashing and the gold ends up in a river. They need divers to retrieve it. They go to a struggling diving company called Sea Dog Diving Company run by Ernie(Angel) and he has two partners-Clara(Corfield) and Jimmy(Jacob Junior Nayinggul). Bull offers them money to get the gold from the bottom of the river. They agree. Bull tells them to ask no questions. The divers meet Bull and his pals at the river. Unfortunately there is something in the river with them.

Clara and Jimmy find the van but can't open the door. Clara gets knocked over by a shark. She passes out when her air supply is cut off. They pull her out and realize it is a bull shark. Ernie tells Bull that he won't send his two divers in there until the shark is dead. Clara wants to leave the job. She doesn't trust Bull. A man called Bob Drummond is called in to get the shark. He goes out in a boat and tries to draw it out. It is too clever. It knocks the boat and Bob gets eaten by the shark.  Ernie tells Bull that he is not going to do the job but Bull threatens him. Ernie and Jimmy decide to go down and get the gold while Clara is on the shore. They lure the shark by putting meat into the water. They find it and try to bring it up but the shark sees them.

It attacks Ernie. Jimmy harpoons it. It goes after Ernie again and he stabs it with a knife. He dies. Jimmy is furious about it. He attacks one of Bull's lackies. Clara is going to go and retrieve the loot. She dives and loads up some of the gold. The shark is lurking. She hides from it and she finds a gun in the sunken van. The shark gets itself stuck inside the van after going to get her. The gold is brought to the surface. A cop shows up and confronts the group.  He shoots one of the gang and this makes Bull shoot him. There is a big fight between Jimmy and one of the gang. Clara ends up shooting him. Bull gets his machine gun out and he tries to kill Jimmy and Clara. They dive into the water. He gets into a boat and he follows them. He shoots into the water. Clara shakes the boat and it knocks him into the water.

Jimmy escapes. Clara pulls Bull down into the water. The shark is approaching. Clara gets into the boat and she gets the gun and shoots at him. The shark does the job for her. Bull becomes shark food. Jimmy and Clara survive. Cut to some time later and Jimmy and Clara are still working at the diving company. Ernie had a will and he left the company to Jimmy. The bank gives them a reward and they intend to buy a boat with it.  This was an unusual shark story. It is a mixture of thriller and monster movie. It was set in the 1940's also which made it different. I liked it though. The shark scenes were not bad and the cast did their job well.There was a familiar face in this. Jake Ryan played Robbo in Home and Away for a few years. I recommend this and give it a 5/10.

Splatter Farm (1987)Movie Review

Splatter Farm is a 1986 horror film directed by John and Mark Polonia and Todd Smith and stars the same three guys.

A guy is dismembering a body. He uses the severed hand to masturbate. Two guys Joseph(John Polonia) and his brother Alan(Mark Polonia) are visiting their Aunt Lacey. She has a farmhand living with her called Jeremy (Smith), who just happens to be a killer. He has dead bodies in the barn. He is a total weirdo. Aunt Lacey is weird too. Jeremy is claiming victims all over the place.

Jeremy dances around with a skin mask on . Aunt Lacey knows all about it and is messing around with her husband's corpse. Of course, Jeremy killed him.Alan and Joseph look around the farm and find a bloody boot. They run to the house to call the police. The phone isn't working. Aunt Lacey drugs and sleeps with Alan. Joseph finds a human skull and tells Alan.They try to leave but the car won't start. Alan goes to sleep and Joseph talks to Jeremy who hits him. He drags him off and ties him up and tortures him.

Joseph is stabbed and buried alive. Next day, Alan looks for his brother. He asks Jeremy, who just smiles. Alan finds Joseph's glasses and fears the worst. Jeremy shoots him. Aunt Lacey tells him that Jeremy is the result of rape by her brother. Jeremy gets angry and kills her too. The movie ends with him dancing around. Let me just say that I have enjoyed many low budget films. I like them, but this is something else. I know it's not a professionally made movie but it is so bad that it stinks. There is nothing about this that I like. The acting is woeful. There is no story. It is just so bad that it was hard to sit through it . The filmmakers might not have had much of a budget but that is no excuse for such a bad movie. 1/10.