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The killer bunnies are coming!

The killer bunnies are coming!

I was reading a lovely post about B-movies over at houseogroove this morning. And it got me started.

My mother loved to take us to see horror movies. I was ten when she took me to see Asylum, the movie that started me on my love of horror. The real cheese came later, when I was about 14 years old and she took me to see Food of the Gods, an eco-thriller with mutant animals (based on the H.G. Wells novel).

So thinking about that one reminded me of another eco-thriller funfest, Night of the Lepus. You never heard of it, did you? It's a great mutant animal movie, starring giant killer rabbits. No, let's rephrase that. Killer bunnies. They weren't even mean looking rabbits. They were cute and fluffy. The special effects in this movie were horrible, laughable even. There's one part where you can actually see a guy in a bunny suit, and when they are burning bunnies (yes, burning bunnies), you can easily see that one is a stuffed animal.

When I was little, there was a 4:00 movie every weekday on channel 9, before talk tv and court shows took over that time slot. It was there that our family viewing led us to such wonderous films as Empire of the Ants, starring Joan Collins. Many of those 4:00 movies were of the horror nature, and I only wish I could remember them all. Probably the scariest was Devil's Rain, not only because of the face-melting scene at the end, but because it starred Ernest Borgnine, who was scary in his own right. It also featured a very young John Travolta and church of Satan founder Anton Lavey. For those that take pleasure in such things, Travolta meets a horrific fate in the film.

It seemed that most of the films shown on the 4:00 movie involved evil towns. There would always be a stranger moving into the town, and he/she would discover a horrible secret that the townsfolk had kept hidden. The stranger would then be chased, antagonized, stalked and threatened, and ultimately either meet his maker at the hands of the evil townsfolk (the creepy ending) or save the day by brandishing garlic or burning down the town (the heroic ending). There was this one movie about a town full of witches. I can only remember that they were dressed sort of Amish-like and the creepy ending had the nosy stranger laying in a freshly dug hole in the ground, while the witch-like neighbors took turns throwing dirt on top of her/him. I can still see that scene vividly in my mind, yet I can't recall anything else about the movie, including the name.

Then there was Thriller Theater, or Chiller Theater, or Chiller Thriller theater, I cannot for the life of me remember. It was on mostly late at night, but would sometimes appear on a Saturday afternoon. The opening credits had a hand raising out of a grave, and the hand had six fingers.

Keep in mind all of the above was required family viewing. The family that watches horror movies together, grows up weird together, as the saying goes. It's all my mom's fault. I used to get out of school at 3:20 and she would practically throw me in the car and do 90 all the way home because Dark Shadows started at 3:30.

Anyhow, the point of this post (if there was one..I started writing this an hour ago but got distracted with all the horror movie links) was to see if anyone out there can help me remember some of those really cheesy made for tv horror movies from the 70s. Or just tell me what your favorite campy horror movie is. Or anything. Anything to keep from doing all the things I am supposed to be doing but can't seem to bring myself to do.

Comments

Ah, bringing out the classics I see. Night of the Lupus, always a classic. Expecially fun to make fun of. I used to watch Empire of the Ants at my gramma's house on fox when I was a kid. Often dreamed about it. It was a great if cheesy flick. I just can't get enough Cheese, have you seen pearl harbor yet?

excuse me, not fox but USA.

Oh yeah, thought I would let you know what one of my favorites is. The one that used to scare the crap out of me. The black and white version of The Haunting. There was never anything that was really visually scary. Just a banging door but, it never failed to put me on edge. I guess it had the suspense that is missing from todays movies. Don't get me started on that piece of shit re release.

The remake of The Haunting was horrid. I love old horror movies because they had to rely more on psycholigical effect rather than high-tech special effects. Psycho-scary is much better than gore scary.

Back in the days when I had cable, I used to watch Space (Canadian sci-fi station) alot - they would show really bad movies on the weekend, and I think I saw The Incredible Melting Man 3 times. The melting man just...stands around and melts, really. Jonathan Demme has a small part in it. It's sooo bad.

They also showed several Japanese vampire movies. Those rocked!

I loved b&W movies when I was a kid, but I was a wuss when it came to the scarier ones. Still loved watching them, though.

The fact is Gore isn't scary. Its funny, when was the last time you saw a gorry horror flick that wasn't atleast attempting to be funny. It just doesn't happen. The original Night mare on Elm Street would probobly come the closest.

The fact is Gore isn't scary. Its funny, when was the last time you saw a gorry horror flick that wasn't atleast attempting to be funny. It just doesn't happen. The original Night mare on Elm Street would probobly come the closest.

It was "Chiller Theater," on WPIX. :D "Chiller......."

"Thirteen Ghosts" scared me badly when I saw the original as a kid. "The Vulture" made me afraid to walk across the field at night between my uncle's house and my parents'. When I get into my car late at night, I still check the rear-view mirror every time, in case Ida Lupino is sitting in the back seat, which is the fault of "Devil's Rain". I could go on and on.

Hee hee - I live for this stuff!

Night of the Lepus was terrificly horrible! Empire of the Ants was great cheese too! However Ernest Borgnine - in any form - scares the hell out of me.

I have to admit that, while the first version of the Haunting is indeed the best, I did enjoy the new version because I thought the house was neat looking, though not at all scary.

I dunno what station I was watching but I remember that hand coming out of the earth too! I loved the Hammer produced vampire flicks, and anything where monsters destroyed a city. I guess I can't pick a favorite...

I loooove Night of the Lepus. Anything that's got the Skipper in it is aces with me. Like The Crawling Hand, hooboy.

We had Creature Features here in the Bay Area (host Bob Willikins occaisionally shows up to host Thrillville night at the local speakeasy theater), every Friday at 11pm. I would sneak to watch it when I was little. The most memorable of the Features was Baron Blood Man, that's good television.

As far as actually scary movies, Event Horizon ranks right up there on the list of things that actually spooked me.

That and the Pokemon movie.

Event Horizon is the most evil movie. Ever. It will stay with me the rest of my life.

Oh, god... I remember the 4:00 movie on channel 9; I also remember when they had the 8:00 newscast... and when 11 was referred to as "11 Alive." And "Romper Room" with Miss Molly. Every day I'd watch to see if she'd say my name at the end. She never did.

I'm not bitter, really.

I'm looking into my magic mirror and I see....Fredo!

Feel better?

I first saw Nightmare on Elm St. when I was about 5. My dad would fall asleep on the couch watching USA, and I would stand just to the side of it and watch whatever movies came on. No movie I ever watched scared me. Until I was 18 and I watched Phantasm. It was bad, and good. And when I walked out to my car after, I almost ran so the tiny living dead wouldn't eat me.

I had completely forgotten until this moment, but my band geek friends and I actually had a "Gnaw: Food of the Gods II" and "Rabid Grannies" party. We made signs from Print Shop and hung them around the house with little pictures of rats everywhere. There was also this great movie, though the name has escaped me, with Bobo the Killer Clown. He cuts this girl's breats off (or maybe it was just her nipples) and calls the cops and says, "I filed her under N - for no tits!" My friends and I were huge horror buffs, and I must have seen every horror movie from the 80s - My Bloody Valentine, Popcorn (Tagline: Buy a bad, come home in a box!), Sweet Dreams, The Unnamable, Clownhouse (excellent film!), all the Hellraisers (my dad and I love to watch part three togeher, which probably says something about us as a family), Prince of Darkness (liquid Satan!), Pumpkinhead, and who knows what else. You just cannot beat films like those.

I saw that someone mentioned Event Horizon and just had to comment... I will admit that about the first half and the ending were creepy. The rest just made me want to hurl...literally. There was nothing scary, it was just disgusting.

Anyway, anytime EH is mentioned I feel compelled to say something and warn people away from that butchery of a horror film. Great idea, they just went waaaay overboard.

Ok, I do see I'd commented here....
So the info must have been in my brain somewhere...
But I'd forgotten and have had a frightening Linkage Shock...
I have to go rest now.

good movie.

they are a great collection i've got the whole collection.they are brilliant.

Does anyone remember that eerie eerie gory movie on Chiller theater about a woman who thinks her husband is going to kill her and she keeps seeing blood coming out of faucets and radiator pipes and walls--- everywhere she goes?? Especialy in that dark creepy house she finaly gets trapped in? Her hubby thinks she's crazy-- hallucinating-- and makes her take pills. The gore began when he was shaving over the sink making chit-chat with wifey---when, all of a sudden, blood comes gushing out of the faucet (while he's got his back turned to it of course) causing her to have to make him look-----which he does----only to see plain water (of course). This kind of thing keeps up throughout most of the movie, which progressed into whole bathtubs full of blood---one of which she gets INTO---(at the advise of her husband because "you'll never get away") and it finaly ends in a flash-flood of blood out the front door of the house and down a well-sloped street. Easily the goriest bleeding-house movie ever made and it was in color. Creepy zithers and cymbols for background music----like "Amityville Horror" only worse! If anyone knows what the name of this sick peice is please let me know!!

it wasver boring i asked gfor pictures

RE: Bleeding house movie: You're RIGHT,it WAS boring---atleast at first---which was why I had changed the chanel-----at first----but then when I switched it back it had gotten so psychoish with the bleeding tubs/radiators, etc. and the violins and then I just HAD to watch---call me old fashioned. I don't remember the name of it either but if anyone out there knows I'd like to know too!!!It aired in Los Angeles in the late 70s but it was probably made in the early 70s or the 1960s. A Chiller Theater movie that puts Amityville Horror to shame as far as I'm concerned.

OOPz....oh well---there are NO SMALL PARTS ONLY SMALL ACTORS...

Tried to send you the title of that movie Lisa but my email bounced!

Hey Frank, what's the name of that bleeding house movie? I know it's not "The House That Bled To Death" because I SAW that and it was MUCH lower quality Eurotrash than the movie I'M talking about. The one I'm talking about is the greatest bleeding house movie ever made, and it's not "Amityvile" and it's not "The Shining"---post it here or email me. Thnks Frnk!!

If anyone knows the name of that eerie bleeding house movie that Lisa mentioned please let me know---or post it's title here. It's NOT "The House That Bled To Death". I watched that and it's NOT the one, although if you're creeped out by any kind of bleeding house movies at all, this does a partial job. It's also NOT "The Shining", although that qualifies--along with "Amityville Horror"---as a good unatural-bleeding-source movie. But the one I'm looking for goes beond the threshold of anything Herschel Gordon Lewis ever did---when it comes to bleeding walls and pipes and other inorganic sources. It was just as scary as "Alien"----maybe just cuz I saw it at 14 yrs old--I dunno-

If anyone knows the name of that bleeding house movie from the late 60s early 70s that I mentioned above, please email the title to me or post it here. EMAILS WILL NOT BOUNCE THIS TIME I PROMISE!! I set my mail such that you can tell me the title. Thankyou, L.M a.k.a. Constantig99 (and Connie but connie mailbox is closed except for Frank's)

Hello, have fun with easy blogging!

what does THAT have to do with bleeding house movie inquiries on a website???Have mercy....

No one here cares about your "porn reality" or transvestite-porn shock value in 2004 . It is of no relevance to anything on this site and has nothing to do with this site or the blogs that preceeded it. You are probably some ne're do-well fleshaddict in a flophouse who has no idea what movie we're talking about anyway. And your're as boring as boiled rice. You're probably not even a proffessional dragqueen or even slightly amusing to anyone but a dumber exfelon.

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