The Film Score Freak recognizes Carnival of Souls 1962 and Jo Gabriel’s ‘Vacant Little Stare’

CARNIVAL OF SOULS 1962

Carnival of Souls (1962): Criterion 60s Eerie Cinema: That Haunting Feeling

Herk Harvey’s one film masterpiece of the macabre, starring Candace Hilligoss.

I’ve taken scenes from the film and edited them together with my song called Vacant Little Stare off the album Fools and Orphans.

This cult classic is so incredibly atmospheric and the imagery so unique for its day, that I couldn’t resist melding it together with my song, of alienation, loneliness, and madness, which compliment Mary Henry’s persona very well I think! Enjoy!-Joey

‘A story so unusual it will burn itself into your mind’

‘A weird tale of the unnatural’

‘She Was A Stranger Among The Living.’

‘She Escaped Death. Now It Wants Her Back!’

MonsterGirl- Jo Gabriel

The Film Score Freak recognizes Mario Bava’s ‘Black Sunday’ and Jo Gabriel’s ‘Waking The Dark’

Black Sunday 1960 ‘La maschera del demonio’ & Jo Gabriel’s ‘Waking the Dark’

Here is a music/film mash-up tribute to Bava and Steele, using edited clips from the classic film and a song off my neo-classical lo-fi album The Last Drive In!

Mario Bava’s masterpiece of Gothic horror starring the legendary Barbara Steele is the vengeful witch Katia Vajda / Princess Asa Vajda who rises from the tomb to possess the body of her descendant!

“STARE INTO THESE EYES… discover deep within them the unspeakable terrifying secret of BLACK SUNDAY… it will paralyze you with fright!”

BRIDES OF HORROR – Scream Queens of the 1960s! – Part 4: The Dark Goddess-This Dark Mirror

MonsterGirl (Jo Gabriel)

A trailer a day keeps the Boogeyman away! The Devil’s Rain (1975)

The Devil’s Rain 1975

Director Robert Fuest creates an atmosphere of nihilism and dread in this classic 70s horror film starring the brawny brow Ernest Borgnine as Jonathon Corbis/Satan, Eddie Albert as Dr. Sam Richards, Ida Lupino as Mrs. Preston, William Shatner as Mark Preston, Keenan Wynn as Sheriff Owens, Tom Skerritt as Tom Preston, Joan Prather as Julie Preston, Woody Chambliss as John and a young John Travolta as Danny.

Set in the American rural landscape a group of Satanists create a legion of eyeless followers who worship a goat-headed devil, and threaten to banish all who disobey to dwell inside a large blown glass bottle, amidst perpetual rain of the woes and tortures of hell upon them. This ‘rain’ has the ability to melt its victims as if they were made out of Play-Doh!

The Preston family has been broken apart by the cult, some of the remaining family members go on a mission to destroy the cult and force their way directly into the pits of this hellish nightmare to wreak revenge upon Mr Goat Head and his legion of empty eye socket devotees.

Perhaps considered laughable at the time, I saw the theatrical release at my local drive-in on Long Island, and am not afraid to admit thatÂ I was scared shitless by the images of the no-eyed victims. Even John Revolta who had just come off the Welcome Back Kotter craze appeared truly terrifying to me at the time. Still does for different reasons not mentioned here…

I just love this film, for its unique, and utterly creepy manifest, with its great cast and an unforgiving campiness that makes it memorable and fun to watch. Borgnine has a streak of sardonic charm in many of his acting roles, so seeing him don the goat horns and the fiendish snout is precious!

“There have been films about earthquakes, airplane disasters, and blazing infernos but there has never been anything like… The Devil’s Rain”

“The 300-year-old search to damn mankind is over…and the towering terror of the devil on earth is now unleashed!”

Happy Trailers-‘come in out of the rain’-MonsterGirl

A trailer a day keeps the Boogeyman away! The Reincarnation of Peter Proud (1975)

The Reincarnation of Peter Proud (1975)

Featuring the Original Music by Composer Jerry Goldsmith

I see this is going to be yet another casualty of the remake syndrome that our film culture suffers from. Due out in 2013. Don’t get me wrong, there are certain films that can be faithfully re-imagined by the right director/screenwriter and it could add an element of tribute with a contemporary twist that feeds the palate nicely. Perhaps this will be one of them…we’ll see. For now, let’s say that it… won’t have Margot Kidder, Michael Sarrazin, or the heavenly Jennifer O’Neill. All three actors, 70s staples and fine performers, are engrossing to watch.

Sarrazin (They Shoot Horses, Don’t They, 1969, Frankenstein, The True Story, 1973, The Gumball Rally, 1976) has always struck me as a quasi-urbane/ feral cat, sophisticated yet wildly sexy and untamed, especially with his deeply fluid eyes. And I do love cats!

Yes, I had a huge crush on Michael Sarrazin…I mean, look at those lips!

College professor Peter Proud starts having flashbacks and recurring dreams from a previous life. He begins to become drawn to a place that he has never been to before, yet is so hauntingly and disturbingly familiar. Leaving his girlfriend Nora, played by the sexy Cornelia Sharpe, behind, he goes on a personal mission to find the truth.

Driven by the cosmic forces surrounding his destiny, Peter meets up with his wife, Marcia Curtis (Margot Kidder), from his past incarnation. Somehow, Marcia recognizes in Peter very unique characteristics that are startling to those of her dead husband, Jeff.

Eerily, at times, even the sound of Peter’s voice seems to be that of Jeff’s. The film adds a twist of irony and a strain of incestuous actuality when Peter becomes romantically drawn to Ann Curtis, played by Jennifer O’Neill, the daughter of Jeff and Marcia. Peter’s daughter from a past life…

Recognizing the implications of the nature of Peter and Ann’s relationship, the anxious and melancholy Mrs. Curtis tries to keep the two young lovers away from each other. But…what is the secret behind the death of Jeff Curtis? And what will happen to Peter in the end?

The film is a soft-core 70s journey into the psycho-sexual and an indulgence into mysticism. The preoccupation of the 70s with reincarnation and past lives emerging. Peter Proud is a truly gripping, haunting film directed seamlessly by J. Lee Thompson (The Guns of Navarone 1961, Cape Fear 1962, Eye of the Devil 1966) and written by Max Ehrlich

One of the superb elements of this fine supernatural suspense/horror film is the musical contribution by legendary composer Jerry Goldsmith.

Goldsmith’s original soundtrack adds a powerfully indelible layer to the film, making it one of the most memorable films of the 1970s.

Not only is Jerry Goldsmith ONE of my all-time favorite composers, but he has also had a profound effect on me in terms of inspiration growing up as a young singer/songwriter.

Here, in this film, his work is perhaps one of THE MOST beautifully poignant and heart-wrenching pieces of music I’ve ever heard. A transcendent solemnity and delicately exquisite introspective journey of the soul through longing, silence, and eventually an eternal unknowing that lingers….

I could not find a proper theatrical trailer of The Reincarnation of Peter Proud 1975 anywhere, but I still felt it significant to highlight the film’s score as it does set the tone for Peter’s self-awareness, his journey back in time, and toward re-encountering his true self.

So here is a little something from the film. I hope you watch this version before you go and see the remake slated for 2013.

Happy Trailers MonsterGirl (JoGabriel)

A special trailer of the day keeps the Boogeyman away! In honor of Mother’s Day- Psycho (1960)

Psycho 1960

Alfred Hitchcock’s seminal Horror/Thriller/Noir masterpiece transformed the meaning of the word ‘Mother‘ in cinema and devoted it to an entirely new significance. Starring Anthony Perkins as the molly-coddled Norman Bates, who couldn’t even hurt a fly. He runs The Bate’s Motel, while caring for his aged, dominating to the point of suffocating and devouring mother.

Janet Leigh plays Marion Crane, a frustrated office worker in Phoenix Arizona, who is tired of meeting her lover Sam Loomis played by the hunky John Gavin, during her lunch breaks to squeeze in quickies, and who can’t afford to marry her, because he is buried under by alimony payments to his ex-wife.

A woman doomed to a horrible fate for her sexual freedom and being in the wrong place at the right time!

In a fevered moment of revolt, she steals $40,000 that is entrusted to her to deposit in the bank and heads out for Sam’s place in California. Caught in a rain storm, she pulls off the main highway and comes upon The Bates Motel and the very dark and looming house that sits atop the hill overlooking the little motel.

Marion starts out wearing black lace undergarments while in the throws of lust and greed but is transformed in one night by a pang of conscience.

Having stopped at the Bate’s Motel for a respite, she meets the lonely and odd Norman who wants to share his cheese sandwich and a glass of milk, or perhaps his love of taxidermy with Marion. He’s definitely aroused by Marion’s kindness and curves, and that makes ‘mother’ VERY unhappy!

Marion decides to put the money back, symbolically she is adorned in virginal white underwear again…unfortunately for Marion, it’s too late for redemption…She winds up stabbed to death by a butcher while in the shower within the first 20 minutes of the film. It’s one of the most iconic scenes in horror film history that set the pace for slasher films to follow!

Though a stunning moment in film history, there is very little blood.

Killing off a major star at the beginning of a film had not been done before. The audience was also asked not to reveal the ending of the picture.

The scene is not only an iconic one but remains branded in the psyche, for its brutal tone of alienation and its savage simplicity.

During Marion’s murder scene, the camera frames the blood-stained water, draining out of the tub, as Marion’s life force is reckoned so insignificant as to be washed down the rusty pipes forever. The focus is on her one lifeless open eye, staring back at us. A death scene that is memorable… shocking… historically transformative.

Life down the drain…

At this point in our culture, I can’t imagine anyone not knowing the story, or not having used a reference to the Bates Motel or Norman. I still have a fear of small motels off the beaten path, somewhat like how I feared swimming in the ocean after having seen the theatrical release of Jaws in the 70s.

The story is based on Robert Bloch’s novel, and penned for the screen by Outer Limits writer, Joseph Stefano and acts as a sort of composite or embodiment of legendary Serial Killer Ed Gein, Norman remains truly one of the most infamous horror characters in film history for his sympathetic yet terrifying derangement.

The film also stars one of my favorite actresses Vera Miles as Marion’s sister Lila, who does not believe that Marion ever left the Bates Motel. She and Sam Loomis elicit the help of Martin Balsam as Detective Milton Arbogast. With appearances by Lurene Tuttle, the spirited Simon Oakland, and John McIntire.

“I think I must have one of those faces you can’t help believing.”-Norman Bates

“We all go a little mad sometimes” -Norman Bates

Happy Mother’s Day – MonsterGirl!

A trailer a day keeps the Boogeyman away! The Brainiac or El barÃ³n del terror 1962

The Brainiac or El barÃ³n del terror 1962

Picture it…1661 Mexico, the Baron Vitelius of Astara has been sentenced to be burned alive at the stake by the Holy Inquisition of Mexico for witchcraft, necromancy, and crimes against nature!

Behold the papery comet!

But as he stands frying in the flames of justice, as in all good revenge/horror films the Baron swears vengeance against the descendants of the Inquisitors.

Now…300 years later, coinciding with a comet that streaks overhead like a fiery paper cut out in all its glory of early special effectiveness, on the night of the Baron’s execution, he is resurrected as a brain-eating fiend that wreaks havoc and brain-sucking retribution on all the descendants of the Inquisitor. Nothing like a steamy pewter serving dish of fresh brains…yum!

Directed by Chano Urueta and starring Abel Salazar (Curse of The Crying Woman 1963, The Vampire 1957)as the Baron Vitelius/Brainiac. Also starring Ariadna Welter and David Silva. A fabulous Mexican Horror film from the 60s that just sort of stays with you…!

“See horrible and insane killings as the Count turns into a monster and seeks his revenge!”

Happy Trailers! MonsterGirl

The Film Score Freak Recognizes Jo Gabriel’s ‘Once’ and Robert Aldrich’s ‘What Ever Happened To Baby Jane'(1962)

Here I’ve taken the last scene of What Ever Happened To Baby Jane (1962) and added my little piece called ‘Once’ which appears on my double album retrospective Hunting Down The Ceremony Vol.1 The Hidden Voice

Here’s to Bette Davis and Joan Crawford and Robert Aldrich for getting these Grand Dames together, to kick the ever loving crap out of each other on and off screen!!!!!!

Lovingly Joey (MonsterGirl)

The Film Score Freak recognizes Jo Gabriel’s ‘Fade To Black’ & the Poe/Corman/Price magic that is ‘The Pit and The Pendulum’ (1961)

Here’s another mash-up using my song Fade To Black which appears on my album The Last Drive In Â

blended lovingly with the brilliance of Corman’s film style and Price’s epic performance!

The Pit and The Pendulum (1961) and Jo Gabriel’s ‘Fade To Black‘

Swing Low Sweet Pendulum!!!!!!! Lovingly Yours, Joey (MonsterGirl)

The Film Score Freak recognizes Jo Gabriel’s “I Shudder For The Clouds Have Tempted Madness”

Here I have utilized various scenes from Jack Clayton’s film The Innocents 1961 starring Deborah Kerr as the terribly repressed Miss Giddens, based on the Gothic novel The Turn of The Screw by Henry James.

I Shudder For The Clouds Have Tempted Madness appears on my album Fools and Orphans!

Sending out Shudders to you all !!!!! Jo Gabriel (MonsterGirl)

The Film Score Freak recognizes Jo Gabriel’s “Sweet Charlotte”

Here is my film mash-up with scenes from Robert Aldrich’s masterpiece of Grand Hag Cinema Hush…Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964) using my songÂ Sweet Charlotte off my lo-fi instrumental album The Last Drive In !

Dedicated to the memory of the immortal Bette Davis! Love Joey (MonsterGirl)