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The Earth Dies Screaming 1964

The Earth Dies Screaming is a 1964 British science fiction film directed by Terence Fisher. The movie is set in a post-apocalyptic world and follows the story of survivors trying to comprehend and combat an enigmatic and deadly extraterrestrial threat.

After a mysterious and devastating series of events, including mass power failures and the sudden death of most of humanity, a small group of survivors finds themselves in a deserted English village. They soon discover that robotic alien invaders are responsible for the destruction.

The survivors, led by Jeff Nolan (played by Willard Parker), must work together to unravel the aliens’ sinister plans and find a way to defeat them. As they explore the eerie and deserted landscape, they must confront not only the mechanical invaders but also their own fears and suspicions.

Equinox 1970

Equinox is a 1970 American independent horror film directed by Jack Woods and Dennis Muren. The movie follows a group of young people who inadvertently unleash supernatural forces during a hike in the woods. A surreal and trippy nightmare you might have if you devoured two pepperoni pizzas all by yourself at 1 am in the morning.

The story begins with a college student named David Fielding (played by Edward Connell) stalked in the woods by something dark and evil who has gone missing while on a picnic near a remote cabin (The Evil Dead) with his friends, his date Susan, Jim, and Jim’s girlfriend Vicki. They went there to meet with Dr. Johanson a geology professor but they found his cabin completely demolished. The foursome then runs into an oddball forest ranger named Asmodeus ( One of the kings of the underworld) who gives them a solemn warning to get out of the woods. They stumble upon a giant castle, then they hear an echoing evil laughter coming from inside a cave. It is a deranged hermit who gives them an ancient book (once again this precedes The Evil Dead) but it is written in Latin and then Dr. Johanson shows up now a deranged lunatic who runs off with the 1,000-year-old book and winds up dead and David retrieves the mysterious book, and soon Asmodeus shows up, tries to kill Susan by her crucifix wards him off. It seems Johanson used the book to summon primeval forces, manifesting an evil he could not control. The gang returns to the interdimensional castle but finds it no longer exists. They are confronted by a giant humanoid ape who tries to steal the book for Asmodeus. Jim gets lost in the other dimension, and David follows him to the netherworld, tricked by the demon, David returns to find Vicki dead, and he and Susan who is injured while doing battle with the winged Asmodeus promises to come back in one year and a day to kill David.

After his friends are killed, he manages to get to the highway but is hit by a car with no driver but survives. One year later, a reporter comes to see him at the asylum where he remains in a catatonic state. David’s doctor fills in the reporter about the background of his disturbed patient’s delusions, after he had related his unbelievable story when he first got to the hospital.

They discover his diary, which details a bizarre and terrifying encounter in the woods. As they delve deeper into David’s story, they read how he and his friends had encountered an ancient book of dark magic and inadvertently released a malevolent and powerful demon and the portal that had inadvertently been opened.

One year and a day later, a possessed Susan tracks David down at the hospital, but only after the reporter leaves, believing he is just insane.

Equinox is known for its low-budget but creative special effects and its cult status in the horror genre. The trippy narrative would be a great companion piece to The Evil Dead with its book of the dead and the unleashing of an infernal supernatural horror.

Due to the similarities in their plots, Equinox is believed to have inspired Evil Dead, though this has not been confirmed. In an article for the Criterion Collection, Brock DeShane quotes Tom Sullivan, special effects and makeup artist for the Evil Dead movies, about seeing the film.

Embryo 1976

Embryo is a 1976 hybrid/science fiction film directed by Ralph Nelson, and one of his final films after having once directed Oscar-winning films like Lillies of the Field 1963.

The movie tells the story of a brilliant scientist, Dr. Paul Holliston (Rock Hudson), who is working on groundbreaking experiments in the field of genetic engineering and human development. Victoria is played by former model Barbara Carrera who also starred in The Island of Dr. Moreau 1977 revising the role that Kathleen Burke played in Erle C. Kenton’s Island of Lost Souls in 1932.

Dr. Holliston’s work takes a shocking turn when he discovers a way to accelerate the growth of a fetus to full maturity within a matter of weeks. He decides to test his revolutionary technique on a human embryo that he names Victoria (Barbara Carrera). As Victoria rapidly grows, she not only develops physical characteristics but also acquires knowledge and intelligence at an accelerated rate.

However, as Victoria matures into a young woman in record time, her accelerated aging process comes with unforeseen consequences and ethical dilemmas. Dr. Holliston must grapple with the moral implications of his experiments and the growing complexity of his relationship with Victoria.

On a stormy night, retired scientist Dr. Paul Holliston (played by Hudson) accidentally hits a Doberman while driving. He rushes the injured dog to his residence and hurries to his long-neglected laboratory which he’s managed to avoid since his beloved wife’s untimely death.

Inside the lab, Paul performs a delicate operation to retrieve two puppy fetuses from the critically wounded Doberman. These fragile specimens are carefully placed in tanks, and Paul embarks on a mission to rescue them. Only one of the fetuses survives, but Paul is determined to help save the first fetus using an intravenous injection of “placental lactogen,” an experimental rapid-growth hormone he and his late wife had been developing.

Astonishingly, this dog fetus rapidly matures into a healthy puppy and ages so quickly that it becomes necessary for Paul to conceal its true identity by claiming it to be the mother dog rather than one of her offspring.

This extraordinary canine, named “Number One,” soon reveals its superintelligence. It requires minimal training to perform complex tasks such as fetching its own food from the refrigerator and closing doors. However, beneath its remarkable abilities, Number One conceals a malevolent streak, which it cunningly keeps hidden from Paul. In a moment when no one is watching, it ruthlessly kills a smaller dog and actually covers it up by hiding the evidence in the nearby bushes.

Believing his experiment with Number One to be a success, Paul asks his friend Jim Winston (portrayed by Jack Colvin) a hospital administrator to help him acquire a fetus and, though he’s morally conflicted about experimenting with a human subject, ultimately agrees to provide Paul with a 12 to 14-week-old fetus, that would not have survived its mother’s suicide.

Paul administers the hormone until the fetus has developed to a full nine months, and like Number One, the child progresses quickly to a toddler, then a little girl, and eventually a fully developed woman with the same superintelligence that Paul embued her with while she was in her life support chamber. After she finished reading the Bible, she unintentionally wisecracks, “An intriguing narrative, but not particularly logical.”

Paul finally manages to figure out a drug that will arrest Victoria’s rapid aging. Then he creates an elaborate backstory for scientific progeny, who becomes Victoria Spencer a recent graduate of the University of Colorado who would be living and working alongside Paul as his new research assistant. Eventually, she is introduced to his sister-in-law Martha (Diane Ladd), his son Gordon (John Elerick), and Gordon’s expectant wife, Helen (Anne Schedeen). The beautiful Victoria charms everyone who meets her, except for the jealous Martha who is secretly in love with Paul and takes an instant dislike to her. Roddy McDowall has a cameo as an egotistical chess master who is outplayed by Victoria at a party. Soon Victoria becomes paranoid that Paul is going to abandon her if the drugs stop working and she starts injecting herself with the drugs without his knowledge, which has horrifying results as she turns to murder, seeking fluid from the pituitary gland of an unborn fetus to keep herself from degenerating into a mummified relic.