It's International Leggings Day!

There's a day for everything it seems... and today it the day when we are to celebrate and honor girls and women who wear tights! So here's Italian actress Claudia Cardinale showing off hers!

Halloween is coming...

... and Vampirella is getting ready!

Lugosi Stars in a Tale Love and Zombies

White Zombie (1932)
Starring: Bela Lugosi, Madge Bellamy, Robert Frazer, John Harron, and Joseph Cawthorn
Director: Victor Halperin
Rating: Nine of Ten Stars

When Haitian plantation owner Charles Beaumont (Frazer) becomes obsessed with the beautiful Madeleine (Bellamy), he invites her and her husband-to-be (Harron) to have their marriage and spend their honeymoon at his plantation. When he fails to win Madeleine's heart, he turns to his neighbor, 'Murder' Legendre (Lugosi) and asks him to use his powers to make zombies to recreate Madeleine as his love slave. Will Madeleine and the local priest (Cawthorn) unmask Legendre's evil and save Madeleine from a fate worse than death, or will they merely become yet another pair of zombies in Legendre's growing force of mindless slaves?


"White Zombie" has been described as the first zombie movie ever made. I don't know if this is true or not, but it is definately one of the best. It predates the flesh-eating blood-spattered cannibal zombies of George Romero, but instead relies upon traditional zombie myths and tales of dark sorcery to generate its chills. 

This is a stylishly filmed movie that features creepy performances by Lugosi and Bellamy, and scenes that drip with creepiness, as Legendre's mindless slaves work his sugar mills, and as a ghostly, zombie-fied Madeleine glides silently through the vaulted halls of Legendre' house. (The height of creepiness is reached when the depth of Legendre's evil is fully revealed and he gradually starts turning Charles Beaumont into a zombie as well.)

"White Zombie" is a must-see for fans of classic horror movies in general, and fans of zombie movies in particular. It is the one of the roots from which the horror genre sprang. Heck, the film should be required viewing for anyone who is currently making horror movies... if filmmakers chose to emulate a work like this, maybe we'd have more decent horror movies coming out.

But don't just take my word for it. Click on the embedded video below to watch this fabulous movie via The Screening Room that's part of my YouTube Channel!

Musical Monday in the Twilight Zone

As Halloween draws nearer, we bring you a nifty cover from that strange dimension, the Twilight Zone!

"Twilight Zone" by Golden Earring is a favorite in these parts (and this isn't the first cover of that fabulous 1980s tune that's been featured here), and while we can quibble with some of vocal presentations here, the video is just about perfect and John Cunningham & Crew give us an EXCELLENT version!

'Samurai' by Gene Day

"Samurai" is an early work by the great comic book artist Gene Day. It's equal parts elegant and spooky, making it great feature for our month-long Halloween-build up here at Shades of Gray! (Click on the pages for larger, more easily read versions.)

It's a Fanny Friday!

 

When it's Friday the 13th in October...

 

If you want more inspiring quotes and images, check out the InspiroBot!

'Garden of Souls' contains both good and bad

Garden of Souls (2022)
Starring: Betty Roehm Widdoss, Karen Lynn Gorney, Eric Bower, and Jackie Capizzi
Director: Christopher Milewski
Rating: Six of Ten Stars

A grieving young widow (Widdoss) is approached by a strange old woman (Gorney) with a promise to  reunite her with her dead love.

"Garden of Souls" is one of many attempts at emulating the style and content of silent movies from the 1910s and 1920s that you can find while prowling through the depths of YouTube. Although the pacing is a bit slow at times and the story logic is a bit murky, the creators here captured the style of early films with great effectiveness.

One thing that would have improved this film would have been a more effective use of the color tinting. I am not a fan of this, but when I've seen it used in actual vintage films, I could easily and quickly grasp what they were trying to convey, either scenery-wise or character-wise. Here, there didn't seem to be an immediate comprehensible reason for some of the color choices -- or maybe I was just particularly dense on the day I watched the film. Take a moment and watch the film (embedded below for your convenience) and tell me what YOU think the viewer should infer from the various tints.

Another thing that would have made this a much stronger film would have been a stronger attention to detail as far as the costumes go. In one scene, Widdoss character while dressed in an immaculate white gown picks up a shovel and starts digging in a grave. When she's done, her gown is still spotless. This REALLY pulled me out of the film, and I think that even filmmakers in the 1910s would have dirtied her up a bit.

Halloween is Coming...

... and three great artists have had visions of Vampirella, the Queen of Halloween!

A Chilling Tale in Shades of Gray!

The House on the Lake (2019)
Starring: Oriane Gyseling, Jeremy Murrow, and Lenise Buttner

Director: Damien Kazan

Rating: Seven of Ten Stars

A young woman (Gyseling) is watching videos of her childhood when she realizes that she is not alone in the isolated house.

Featuring "The House on the Lake" was originally released as a color film, but writer/director Damien Kazan decided to see what it would look like in black-and-white... and, with digital magic, he bled all color from the films world, making the film darker and spookier than the color version! (You can watch it and compare the two versions by clicking here. Please tell us which version you like best!)

Although some of the scenes seem  underlit (although they may have looked fine before the color was removed), this is a spooky and tense film. Actress Oriane Gyselings has a very expressive face and she does a great job moving from relaxed happiness, to unease, to outright horror. Her performance is made even more impactful by great camerawork and tight editing and story pacing.

Click below to check it out, right here from this post!