we'll be starting off the Chiller Drive-In opening weekend with 1967's suspenseful stinker, Devil Doll. You'll never look at the toys in the doll aisle the same way again. Or maybe you will. Who are we to judge?
If you thought the biggest thing to ever come out of Ireland was Riverdance, then you’re in for a surprise. In this 1961 stinkeroo, a giant monster is captured and taken to London to be put on display. But the creature’s mother is not happy about it.
When a giant robot Kong can't dig up enough radioactive Element X, the evil Dr. Who (No relation to the famous Timelord) decides to kidnap the real thing! However King Kong's current gal pal and her commanding officers have something to say about that. It's monkey shenanigans and kaiju smackdown - thanks to the folks at Rankin/Bass.
A nuclear explosion awakens a fire-breathing monster from hibernation. No, not Godzilla. We're talking about Gammera (with 2 M's - that's how you know he means business)! Gammera, who's clearly not a morning person, opens a can of whoop-booty on Tokyo. Meanwhile, teenyboppers dance to the Gammera theme song... at least until Big G crashes the party.
Actually, this movie spends more time dedicated to the sport of mountain climbing than it does on any dinosaurs. It stars Cesar Romero (best known as The Joker from the 60’s Batman TV series), Hugh Beaumont (Leave it To Beaver) and Acquanetta (AKA The Venezuelan Volcano) in a role she was born to play. Everything goes bad when an experimental nuclear rocket veers off course and crashes someplace in the South Pacific. Major Joe Nolan gathers a crew to go hunt it down, and crash land on an island with big lizards, some dinosaurs and a smoking hot native girl. Oh yeah, and don’t adjust your sets – it’s supposed to be green. Yeah, this one’s a stinker, so to ease/add to your suffering, Wolfman Mac, Boney Bob and Professor M Balmer take a ride in a submarine to rescue Morgus Gravesly from the clutches of a monster menace at the bottom of the Detroit River. Wait, what? It’s more action than should be allowed by law all packed in to 90 minutes!
This week we have the 1972 bunny blowout, Night of The Lepus. Yeah, this week’s monster is a horde of rabbits that are just dynamite. These rabbits will do more than just nibble your bum. They’ve got a vicious streak a mile wide. This one stars Janet Leigh (best known for her role as Marion Crane in Psycho) and DeForest Kelley (Dr. McCoy on Star Trek).
A mysterious murderer known only as The Bat terrorizes a couple of old ladies, meanwhile $1 million goes missing from the local bank. You'll be beating your head against the wall as you try to figure out which of the 2-dimensional characters is The Bat. The Bat also stars Agnes Moorehead, who played Endora on the Bewitched TV series, and Darla Hood; best known for her role in the Our Gang (Little Rascals) shorts of the 1930s and 1940's.
We have the 1958 psycho-thriller, I Bury The Living! This one doesn’t have a monster or blood and guts or anything like that. Instead it has a big ugly map on a wall! Wait. What? The newly appointed chairman of a large cemetery seems to be able to determine who will die by simply placing black pins in the unoccupied-but-sold graves indicated on the aforementioned wall hanging. People start croaking all over town and chairman Robert Kraft (Richard Boone – best known as the star of Have Gun Will Travel) begins to lose what little mind he already had in the first place! If you liked Carnival of Souls (and who doesn’t), then you’ll dig (get it?) I Bury The Living. And if that isn’t scary enough, back at the projection booth, Wolfman Mac goes out on a double date! AAAAAHHHHHH!
Produced and directed by Roger Corman, and starring the late Susan Cabot in her final role before retiring from B-Movies. She probably thought that she didn’t need to work in Corman movies when her own life was crazier than anything he could come up with. And if the movie’s not odd enough, back at the Chiller Drive-In, Morbid Melvin and Boney Bob decide to tie the knot...
It’s superhero sci-fi action with a dash of kung-fu and a hint of ballet this week on Wolfman Mac’s Chiller Drive-In. Saturday night at 12:30 (a half hour later than usual) you’ll be smacked upside the head by Evil Brain From Outer Space! Starring Japan’s first modern superhero, Starman! Since this nonsensical film is an amalgamation of three other nonsensical films, you can rest assured that your mind will be completely ruined by the time we get to the second commercial break. In fact, if your brain hasn’t turned to tapioca by 2 am, you’re taking way too much ginko biloba. And if the movie isn’t bad enough, Boney Bob has his own superhero adventure back in the projection booth! Join StarBob as he battles with The Milkman®™© and his udderly evil henchmen.
The only real horror about this film is that fact that it got made in the first place. It stars a bevy of babes that get stranded on a deserted island with their manager after their plane crashes. The manager gets bitten by a huge spider and turns into a fuzzy spider monster. But don’t worry about that. Most of this film is spent on the girls and their fights, snarky comments and skimpy outfits. It's a terrible movie that's easy on the eye. And if that’s not enough cheesecake to ruin your diet, back at the Chiller Drive-In, Boney Bob gets the brilliant idea to make a Chiller Cheesecake Calendar. And all the hot babes from the show to drop by to strike a pose.
From 1965, this film dedicates a great deal of screen time to teenagers (who appear to be in their 30's) and their jiggling booties. But once they’re out of the way (thanks to an army of floating plastic sandwich bags painted blue and purple), the Jellyfish Man can get his revenge on all the folks that done him wrong and wrap his tentacles around girl of his dreams.
This week we have the gloomy Italian horror/mystery film, “Werewolf In A Girl’s Dormitory”. Yeah, it’s got some bad dubbing, and the dialog is awful, and the werewolf is pretty lame, but it does star drop-dead-gorgeous Barbara Lass. And plenty of folks get mauled by werewolves. So it’s not all bad. Back at the projection booth, Wolfman Mac pulls some strings to get Morbid Melvin admitted to Lucy Furr’s infernally exclusive school. You won’t want to miss this one.
Even though Barbara Steele is barely in this film, she managed to get top billing. It’s really the screwball antics of the Romanian Police that steal the show. This film combines horror and Keystone Cops capers in a complete mess that only Chiller Drive-In would dare show. Meanwhile, Wolfman Mac has his paws full dealing with Professor M Balmer’s new assistant and trying to stay on her good side.
This sci-fi stinker is your typical man-meets-aliens fare, with desperate attempts at realism, cheeseball special effects (come to think of it, the asteroids kinda look like cheeseballs) and sub plots galore. It stars Dean Fredericks who appeared in dozens of films and TV shows in 50s and 60s. But is perhaps best known as "Steve Canyon" from the short lived TV series of the same name. Stealing the show with her raven hair and scorching hot bod is Dolores Faith as Zetha. It's even better that she's mute through most of the film. You'll also see Richard Kiel (best known as Jaws in several Bond films) paying his dues as the Solarite alien.
A beach full of dancing teenyboppers, greasers and old-people-pretending-to-be-teenagers is terrorized by a radioactive monster that looks like it’s eaten way too many hot dogs at once and forgotten how to chew. This film has it all! Monsters, music, bikini babes, summer fun, mayhem, drunks and radioactive explosions!
When a woman and her lover murder her invalid husband, they dream of taking his fortune and living happily ever after. But when strange things begin to happen, they suspect that the dead man's ghost has returned to take revenge on them! Starring Barbara Steele in all her Scream Queen glory.
A crazy scientist makes contact with the planet Venus using his killer quadraphonic stereo system. He chats with a creature named Zontar, who claims that he’s going to come to Earth and solve all our problems. Well, it turns out that Zontar has other plans and instead causes mass power outages, car breakdowns and controls the minds of Earthlings! This movie is so bad, it’ll actually make your TV smell like wet garbage.
A man is haunted by visions of a hot blond, so he dumps his frumpy brunette girlfriend and joins a Satanic cult... Yeah, who hasn’t had this happen to them? It stars Neil Hamilton who is probably best remembered for playing Commissioner Gordon on the 1960’s Batman TV show.
Radiation once again plays the role of monster maker and turns some happy little swamp leeches into monstrous beasts that feed on humans - and make basketball sized hickeys on their victims. It stars Yvette Vickers, who was probably best known as Playboy's Miss July 1959 - Because this film sure wasn't going to make her a household name.
This week we have a touching love story about a man who “accidentally” kills his ex girlfriend by throwing her off a lighthouse (points for originality), and is then haunted by her ghost. Richard Carlson plays a Jazz pianist that can’t seem to stop killing people to keep his crimes quiet. The scorching hot Juli Reding stars as Vi, the ghost with the 40-23-35 curves. Dig up a date, light a few candles and get a bottle of your favorite bubbly. It’s about the closest we’re ever going to get to showing a chick-flick.
It's the 1922 silent classic that needs no introduction, Nosferatu! And because this is a 4-star film, you’ll get points with all your snooty, arts-fartsy friends, and get some "culture" while being entertained by fart jokes! Win-win, baby!
Arguably, the greatest horror film ever made, Night of The Living Dead is the iconic, all-you-can-eat zombie munch-fest that all that followed wish they could measure up to. Just remember, the cellar is not always the safest place.
This 1963 Psycho-wanna-be is loaded with senseless killing and a plot that makes even less sense. It's hard to believe that Francis Ford Coppola directed this movie, but easy to believe Roger Corman produced it.
Also known as "Giant Beast Gappa" and "Gappa the Triphibian Monsters" and "The Monster Movie What Bankrupted The Movie Studio." The monster beat down begins when some nosy humans decide to take a giant baby bird-reptile away from it’s home. The very large and dangerous mommy and daddy go looking for their missing offspring and decide to start the search by destroying one Japanese city after another. Will they get their little twerp back or will they destroy the planet?
Nutty Dr. Markoff has developed a formula that spreads a hideous disease called acromegaly (go ahead look it up – it’s a thing) and uses it on a concert pianist. To get the antidote the pianist must give Dr. Markoff the hand of his daughter in marriage. Directed by Sam Newfield, who churned out over 250 B-movies during the course of his career!
Avert your eyes, but don't lose focus! Necking teenagers, perverted military voyeurs, incompetent cops, bizarre pajamas and light-sensitive monsters with big zippers make this film a spectacle to behold.
This is one those films where the title pretty much tells you all you need to know. An oversized reptile develops a taste for human flesh and attacks a barn dance full of teenagers. Can a teenage musician/hot rod mechanic stop the monster from eating everyone in town? Can he put down that stupid ukulele first?
Happy newlyweds Eric and Jenni Whitlock retire to his desolate mansion, where Eric's first wife Marianne died in a "mysterious accident" (yeah, right). Jenni, who has a history of mental illness, begins to see strange things. Is she going bonkers again, or is there something more sinister going on? This film could possibly scare you to death! If it does, the filmmakers will pay for your funeral. And Boney Bob schemes to cash in on this promise!
Having trouble sleeping? Well, there’s no need to go to the medicine cabinet looking for sleeping pills. Just turn on 1976’s "The Legend of Bigfoot" and you’ll be sawing logs in no time! Will you be a believer in the Bigfoot myth by the end of the film? This film answers that question with a resounding "Maybe".
When a hot blond is horribly disfigured in an accident, a wacky scientist develops a treatment that restores her beauty and falls in love with her. To preserve her appearance the doctor must give her additional treatments using glands taken from murdered women. His odd ability to turn into a monster helps with this problem but does nothing to win her love. It only goes further downhill from there.
A wealthy man and his conniving wife invite 5 complete strangers to spend a night in a haunted house - with the promise of $10,000 to anyone that can survive till morning! The doors are locked, there’s no way out and not everyone will live through the night!
The kooky Dr. Cortner and his beautiful fiancée Jan, take a trip to his weekend retreat. But a horrible car accident decapitates Jan and the doc collects her severed head and rushes it to his laboratory, where he revives it and manages to keep it alive in a cookie sheet. Now the doc needs a new body so he can make Jan whole again!
Gamera, the giant flying turtle, returns to Chiller Drive-In for another rubber suit monster mash! This time, Gamera takes on the rainbow spewing monster Barugon... who seems to get an awful lot of screen time (he must have been related to the director). The disrespect doesn’t stop there, but surprisingly Gamera even takes the mispronouncing of his name all in stride. What a turtle.
A creepy doctor catches his wife fooling around with another man, so he does what any normal guy would do: he tortures and shocks them and removes their hearts. Then he marries his ex’s mentally disturbed sister – who is plagued by nightmares after moving in with the doctor. Barbara Steele digs deep to play a dual role of a blond AND a brunette in this gothic horror great.
It’s the classic black comedy about Seymour, a doofus that somehow breeds a meat eating plant. As the plant grows it demands bigger meals, so Seymour has to resort to murder to keep it fed. Don’t miss Jack Nicholson in one of his earliest roles.
Madeleine is a hottie and every guy in this film seems to fall for her. And the only way to get a babe like her is to have a Haitian witch doctor turn her into a zombie. Starring Bela Lugosi in one of his best performances. Who will end up getting the girl? Watch it and find out!
We're getting buff and oiling up our beefy bods with Alan Steel in "Hercules Against The Moon Men." Hercules comes to the city of Samar to oppose the evil Queen Samara, who has allied herself with moon aliens! She's so rotten, she even sacrifices her own people to help the moon men awaken their goddess. Odd how the women wear more clothes than the men do in this flick...
Oh yeah, you're thinking, "Aw, it's just a rehash from last year." Come on! Would we do that to you? There are new gags in the movie and an old enemy has returned to the Chiller Drive-In to ruin everyone's holiday! And we think you'll agree that NOTLD is one flick that we can show every year and not feel guilty about it.
Also called "Gamera vs. Guiron" Boney Bob has taken over the show and he’s showing movies he wants to see! Gamera the Flying Turtle feels the need to protect a couple of annoying kids on an alien planet, and battles Guiron – the ginsu-steak knife monster! Will Gamera save the kids and get back to Earth? Tune in and find out!