Check out Horror Quotes and Rotten Tomatoes Highest Ranked Horror Films by clicking the thumbnail graphics below:

As you can see, Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho takes the top spot. The next grouping of King Kong, Jaws, Nosferatu, and Alien prove the popularity of monster movies (and you can probably throw the “living dead” movies in with this genre too).

A ghoulish monk peers from a cobwebbed doorway, ushering visitors into a nightmare journey of fear. Down dark, winding passageways, you enter a terrifying world where hi-tech special effects, live actors and multiple sound tracks accompany your passage through 23 individual theatrical sets and scenes, creating the ultimate experiance in horror. Beyond panic, beyond the limits of fear, there is Terror on Church Street. For the first time on American soil, this European terror attraction that has thrilled millions is striking fear in the heart of Orlando.

Terror on Church Street was a detailed haunted house operation located downtown at 135 S. Orange Avenue (the historic Woolworth’s Building). According to Haunted House Online, the attraction inspired haunted house operators across the nation:

I’m quite certain it was Terror on Church Street that inspired the multi-billion dollar theme parks to build haunted attractions inside their own parks. This haunt was quite simply the perfect template for how to build a professional indoor haunted house.

Church Street Station was built by the South Florida Railroad back in 1889. (Today, the old Railroad Depot is on the National Register of Historic Places). The entertainment district surrounding the station was started by a man named Bob Snow. Snow created popular clubs/restaurants like Rosie O’ Grady’s and Cheyenne Saloon. At one time, in the mid 80s, Church Street Station pulled in 1.7 million visitors.

Terror on Church Street opened on November 8th 1991. The haunted house was actually based on Pasaje Del Terror, an interactive walk-through horror attraction that still operates today, in 30 different cities around the world. The original Pasaje Del Terror (in Mar del Plata, Argentina) was started by Fernando Quenard. It evolved from a stage production featuring local actors. Soon the stage production turned into a tour show. Quenard took the act to America, and started Terror on Church Street with the help of producers Monsters & Monsters (“Orlando Monster’s Incorporated”), creative consultant Ignacio Brieva, Ed Marzola (he helped setup the venues), Maria de la Roza (daily operations), David Clevinger (creative director), Jack Neiberlein (assistant director), Gerry Chavez (general manager), Stephanie Nelson (marketing), and Alan Ostrander (makeup).

The haunted attraction operated year round. Visitors entered in groups of eight. There were exits for the faint of heart, of course. The place was famous enough to attract popular horror celebrities like Anthony Perkins (who went to Rollins College in nearby Winter Park).

Of course, all good things must come to an end. Universal started City Walk, Disney started Pleasure Island/West Side, and tourists started leaving Church St. Soon, Terror on Church St., Rosie O’ Grady’s, and Cheyenne Saloon were no more. Terror on Church Street closed in 1999; the reasons cited were high rent, high operating costs, and decreasing number of downtown visitors.

Since then, people have tried to revitalize the area. Lou Pearlman (manager of N’Sync/Backstreet Boys) was a majority owner in 2002 but by 2007 his properties went belly up (and he got arrested – you can read all about that here). Developer Cameron Kuhn came in but he ran into financial troubles as well. Perhaps the new Amway Arena will help revitalize Church Street and one day the terror will return.

If you want more details about the history of Terror on Church Street, try The Magic Eye. More photos? Check out the Facebook Group. Hat tip to Glossolalia Black!

There are three hell gardens in Thailand that we are aware of – Wat Phai Rong Wua, Wang Saen Suk, and Wat Thawet.

Wat Phai Rong Wua

Phai Rong Wua is located in Suphanburi, Thailand. Phai Rong Wua has the largest metal-cast Buddha figure in the world, along with many sculptures of people being tortured in the afterlife. It’s popular with families. (Seriously. They come from all over and bring their kids). (source)

Wat Wang Saen Suk

This little torture chamber recreation is located about 90 minutes south of Bangkok, Thailand by car, along Bangsaen Beach. We’ve seen it referred to as the “Thailand Hell Horror Park” but it’s not really a park, it’s more of a Wat garden (“Wat” means “monastery temple”) that depicts what happens in Buddhist Hell. (source)

Wat Thawet

The small Buddhist Hell garden called Wat Thawet, located near Sukhotai, was created in 1976. It’s also referred to as the Buddhist Learning Garden. When you walk through the symbols of torture, you should surely “learn” to behave yourself in this life. Wat Thawet is not as popular as the other, more horrific hell gardens, but it is a bit older. (source)

By the way, Avīci is the lowest level of Naraka, and the worst. You don’t want to go there.

No Star Rating Applicable

NOTE: Due to copyright issues, we unfortunately can no longer print the 1981 article on Manos by Pat Ellis Taylor (aka Pat Littledog). However, I’d like to talk a little bit about this truly bizarre film from 1966. I have decided not to give any rating to Manos: The Hands of Fate, as it’s something that almost defies a rating system. It’s like the time Roger Ebert refused to give a rating to John Waters’ Pink Flamingos, likening it to a geek show where “stars simply seem not to apply. It should be considered not as a film but as a fact, or perhaps as an object.” That’s exactly what Manos is – some kind of object, a horrible-but-fascinating object, looking like a movie, but in reality it’s closer to an anti-movie. Give it any amount of stars you wish, or don’t give any – like Ed Wood’s Plan 9 From Outer Space, they are all accurate.

Strange way to start off the Olympics...

Once upon a time, in 1966, a fertilizer salesman named Harold P. Warren made a bet with screenwriter Stirling Silliphant that he could make a successful horror movie on a very low budget. As Warren had no experience in filmmaking, this was a very bad bet. However, his experience with fertilizer came in handy, since he managed to deliver the cinematic equivalent. Manos: The Hands of Fate is so inept, weird, and surreal, it’s like the movie was made by desert freaks on some kind of weekend bender. If the Manson family filmed a movie at Spahn Ranch, it might look something like Manos.

The movie basically concerns married couple Margaret (Diane Mahree) and Mike (Harold Warren, who also fancied himself a leading man) driving around the desert roads of El Paso, Texas along with their little girl Debbie (Jackey Neyman) and dog Pepe, looking for a place called Valley Lodge. After interminable scenes of driving in their Ford Galaxie, where the camera shows rolling fields scored to a strangely-alluring jazz soundtrack (with flute, piano, and female vocals), the couple get lost and end up at a house (that wasn’t there a few minutes ago!) where Torgo the caretaker (he takes care of the place while the “Master” is away), after an uncomfortably long silence, finally agrees to let the family stay the night (even though it’s never established that this place is a lodge). Torgo himself (played by John Reynolds) is a piece of work – he stutters and stumbles about, carrying a bizarre walking stick with the shape of a hand at the top. His knees bend strangely, causing him to hop around, and he’s accompanied by annoying, repetitive theme music, meant to suggest he’s some sort of threat. (Later, it was discovered that the character of Torgo was intended to be a satyr, with hooves, but this is never seen on camera).

It's all right honey. You're going to live with Torgo for awhile while mommy and daddy go to Vegas.

An ominous painting featuring Torgo’s “Master” and a vicious dog freaks Margaret out, then Pepe the dog is killed by an unseen creature out in the desert. Soon, we find that The Master (played by little Jackey’s dad Tom Neyman) has awakened from his slumber, along with his harem of wives (played by local models), who like to bicker alot. They argue about what to do with the intruding family, mostly at odds with one another about whether to kill little Debbie or turn her into one of the Master’s new wives. By the end of the flick, she is indeed strapped to a pole dressed in white as a new “wife”, but is that better or worse than killing the child? Anyway, the wives have a knockdown/dragout wrestling match, which as Joel Hodgson pointed out, was probably the reason the whole movie was made. Meanwhile, Torgo falls in love with Margaret, makes a clumsy pass at her, and then gets his hand roasted on the fire by the Master, who is dressed in black robes and looks like a cross between Frank Zappa and Freddie Mercury. This is all done to appease “Manos”, who is some kind of pagan god, or something. I really have no idea about how the cult of Manos works, but I must say that Tom Neyman has some choice dialogue. There’s also a scene where he beats up one of his wives for insubordination (this scene is not shown on the MST3K version), which is pretty disturbing to watch even for this ick-fest of a film.

Somebody can't keep their manos to themselves...

Manos: the Hands of Fate is both repellent and fascinating. It feels like it was done by a crazy man, but I think it’s more likely that it was done simply by a guy who had no inkling of what makes motion pictures work or how to make them. If you gave a plumber named Joe a camera and told him to make a movie, you would get something probably as incompetent as this. There is no sense of proper framing (Warren’s head is cut off whenever he talks to the shorter Reynolds on film), proper editing (jarring cuts), or proper dubbing (only a few people dub all characters in post-production). Scenes are out of focus, or are not trimmed properly – characters will stand around doing nothing, then suddenly converse, then stand around doing nothing again. The camera cares not a whit – it just keeps rolling. Remember the joke in the first Austin Powers movie when Dr. Evil started his maniacal laugh, but instead of the movie switching to the next scene it just stayed there until his laugh fizzled out and everyone nervously stood around not knowing what to do? That happens many, many times in the film, and not on purpose. The movie isn’t scary, it isn’t tense, but it’s very funny, and it has a scene of Torgo being killed by the Master’s wives but merely looks like the women are “massaging air” as Pat Littledog once wrote.

You'll need a lot of that to get through Manos: The Hands of Fate.

The reason Manos works at all is because, as Keith Allison from Teleport City paraphrases Pauline Kael, we are too used to the tropes of “good” filmmaking, which has now become predictable and dull. A cult phenomenon like Manos is completely unexpected and is unique as to never be duplicated. It is grainy, unpolished, raw, and not tainted by anyone else’s philosophy. It’s just an insight into the mind of Hal Warren, and that’s pretty damn weird. The movie is also a good candidate for study in a filmmaking class – it goes down the list of everything you should not do while making a movie. But then again, why should that be? Maybe more movie makers should be free to break away from the Hollywood method – it would certainly make the atmosphere more interesting. Another positive thing I will say about Manos is that I sorta like the jet-set soundtrack, which is part bossa nova, part poignant piano numbers, like this ending theme:

In making this movie, Warren paid people in “shares” of the film instead of money. The idea is that they would get paid when it became a hit. Imagine their surprise when it wasn’t. It seemed that every problem that cropped up in production was set to be solved in post, thanks to the magic of editing (also imagine their surprise when it wasn’t). It seemed that everybody in the town of El Paso showed up for the premiere at the Capri Theater. When the movie was over, I bet they wished they’d stayed home. Warren would later write another script called “Wild Desert Bikers.” There were no takers.

Manos: The Hands of Fate fell into obscurity (even Jackey Neyman’s college friends were unable to find a copy anywhere). It probably would have been forgotten forever, if it wasn’t for a little show called Mystery Science Theater 3000, where Frank Conniff came across a copy and decided to use it for episode 424. It was one of the most popular and infamous episodes of MST3K ever, and Manos had now made cult status. I actually have both the MST3K version and the non-Mistied version. But soon there is a new special edition coming out from Shout! Factory that has both, plus a new featurette and a documentary on the making of the film called Hotel Torgo. I’m picking it up for certain.

- Bill Gordon

How 'bout a little show for Torgo?

Articles related to Manos: The Hands of Fate

The Hand That Time Forgot by Richard Brandt
Growing Up Manos by Richard Brandt
Teleport City Review

The Herald-Post review by Betty Pierce, November 16, 1966.

Where Are They Now?

John Reynolds (Torgo) battled depression and drug addiction. He committed suicide on October 16, 1966 (shot himself). He is buried at Fort Bliss National Cemetery in El Paso, Texas.
Harold P. Warren died of a heart attack on December 26, 1985.
Diane Mahree passed away on December 30, 2007.
Jackey Neyman lives in Oregon and is a successful painter. Her father Tom (The Master) also lives in the Pacific Northwest.

When I was living in Sarasota in the 1980s, I tuned in regularly to WTOG 44, a UHF station out of St. Petersburg/Tampa, Florida. On Saturdays, they would air a horror show called Creature Feature, hosted by a tuxedo-wearing ghoul who called himself Dr Paul Bearer. Looking like a greasy undertaker, Dr Paul Bearer would host horror movies, popping in occasionally for commentary on the “horrible movie” that happened to be playing for that day’s Creature Feature. His commentary usually involved intentionally-bad puns. For example, he would break out a bowl of eyeballs and say to the audience: “While I am enjoying my Eyes-Cream, please enjoy more of this horrible movie!” His signature sign-off was: “I’ll be lurking for you!”

Dr Paul Bearer’s real name was Ernest R. “Dick” Bennick Sr. He was born in 1928, and got started in radio in 1949. In the 1960s, Bennick was living in NC and created a character called Count Shockula, for a program called Shock Theater (WGHP, channel 8, High Point,NC).

The character wasn’t very popular, so Bennick created a new personality – Dr. Paul Bearer – and killed Count Shockula off!

Someone once said that you are the sum of all your yesteryears, that is what makes you what you are today. I brought together the fact that I have always had a hobby of magic, I have always loved puns, I always liked to dress up, I’ve always liked horror movies, and I enjoyed acting. You bring all this into play and this is what comes out in Dr. Paul Bearer.

After the good doctor became popular with viewers, he moved to Florida and worked for WTOG, doing two shows – one on Saturday afternoon and one on Saturday night at 11:30pm. The afternoon show – Creature Feature – did not have a host at the time, so Bennick was an obvious fit. The nightly show was called Fright Theater.

To become someone you have to figure out who he is. Once again I turned to things I like and made a composite out of them. I like the Three Stooges, Groucho Marx, Mad magazine, and Charlie Chaplin. You will see elements of all these things in the character. Dr. Paul Bearer’s world is very real to him, it’s everyone else who is out of step and when you stop and think about it, isn’t that how most of us really are? .

Other facts about Dr. Paul Bearer:

• He owned every issue of Famous Monsters of Filmland
• He lost an eye in an auto accident
• His casket was actually a shipping casket, which he had for over 25 years
• He appeared on Hee-Haw, and didn’t even have to wear overalls
• He bought his first hearse from the TV station for only a dollar.
• He had no say in the movies shown; they were usually part of a Shock package

Unfortunately, Dick Bennick passed away after heart surgery on February 18, 1995. At the time of his death, he was still doing the Creature Feature shows. Since 1993, October 30th is “Dr. Paul Bearer Day” in Tampa, FL.

I still miss the good doc and all of his craziness. After his death, there was no horror host good enough to replace him.

- Bill G

Sources: Information has been used from this great interview by Ed Tucker back in 1991. Some photos sourced from Piedmont Triad Nostalgia.

Here’s a snippet of a post from the now defunct Bangkok 1080 website regarding Thai poster art:

…Characteristically, there is an abundance of detail, with the film’s heroes always dominating the painting. A package of smaller images is added around their picture, showing some events of the film to attract film goers.

…The only time a homegrown movie could compete with a Western picture was if it was sensationalized in the poster to the extent that they often took events far further than the actual movie.

Thai horror posters reveal a wide range of talent on behalf of the artists who paint them. Enjoy a few below:

The horror/comedy Ghost Variety comes in two flavors – one a bit more horrific and claustrophobic, the other a bit more playful. Click the thumbnails for larger views:

The Thai horror film Colic (dek hen pee) is about a baby stricken with colic (a condition in which a baby cries frequently for extended periods) which may be caused by something supernatural. The posters verge on the exploitative, but we’re sure it got people’s attention. Click the thumbnails for larger views:

Here’s a cool poster from 13: Game of Death (aka 13 Beloved):

13 Beloved AKA 13: Game of Death

The thriller Alone concerns a woman haunted by her Siamese twin sister, who died years earlier when the two were separated in surgery. The poster below suggests the girl won’t have to worry about being alone:

Alone (2007)

Here are some more eye-catching posters from the Art of the Devil trilogy. Click the thumbnails for larger views:

Art of the Devil

Art of the Devil 2

Art of the Devil 2

Art of the Devil 2

Art of the Devil 3

Art of the Devil 3

Here’s an effective poster for the Thai horror film The Victim, about an actress hired to simulate murders for the police. She soon becomes haunted by one of the dead victims.

The Victim (2006)

Here’s a nice rendition of the American movie I Come in Peace, aka Dark Angel (with Dolph Lundgren). Always loved those killer CDs !!

Dark Angel (I Come In Peace)

Here are two larger-than-life posters for the Thai film Boa (2006). About a giant boa constrictor, the movie was not well received, but we think it would be a perfect fit on SyFy next to all the other Asylum productions. (Click thumbnails for larger views)

Speaking of snakes…how about a whole crapload of them? That’s what the new 2010 film The Intruder serves up (click thumbnails for larger):

That’s it for our Thai Horror Posters segment. We’ll leave off with this humorous poster for The Eye 3 (also called The Eye 10, or The Eye: Infinity) – another entry from the Pang Brothers.

The Eye 3 aka The Eye 10

Io9 recently did a post depicting 80s Thai horror posters – made for the American horror movies that were imported there. For example:

A Nightmare on Elm Street 2

Evil Dead 2

They Live

Thailand is no stranger to horror – they put out some crazy stuff, like the Art of the Devil movies, for instance. They also put out great posters for their films. Here are a few Thai horror posters for you to chew on:

Alone (2007)

Alone (aka “Twin”) is a 2007 Thai horror film directed by Banjong Pisanthanakun and Parkpoom Wongpoom, a duo whose debut film, Shutter, was a box-office smash in Thailand and other Asian countries.

Art of the Devil 2 (2005)

A sequel in name only to the hit 2004 film, Art of the Devil II still involves the usual black magic and nasty torture sequences.

Art of the Devil 3 (2008)

Art of the Devil 3 is actually a prequel to the second film. The poster above works on two levels – the horrific, and the erotic. The poster below emphasizes the kind of physical violation seen a lot in this genre – specifically, the eyes, which are probably the most effective.

Art of the Devil 3 (2008)

Meat Grinder (2009)

The Meat Grinder is a gory Thai horror flick about a woman named Boot who “discovers” a new noodle recipe. (Cue Charlton Heston- “Boot Noodles are made out of people!”)

Meat Grinder (2009)

Body (2007)

Produced by the same people behind Shutter, Body #19 concerns ghosts, dismemberment, and multiple personality disorder. The poster, of course, gives away the “dismemberment” part.

Buppha Rahtree 3.1

Buppha Rahtree was a 2003 Thai horror/comedy that was somewhat an homage to The Exorcist. A girl named Buppah Rahtree, through a series of unfortunate events, ends up bleeding to death and haunting an apartment building full of weirdos. Hilarious, no doubt! There was a sequel made – - and then a third film, which was kind-of-a remake/reboot. They called it Buppha Rahtree 3.1 Rahtree Reborn. In the movie, a demon ghost girl inhabits the spirit of Buppah Rahtree. (As Wise Kawi says, “It’s a ghost inhabiting a ghost”.)

Buppha 3.2 (2009)

Yep, Buppah Rahtree 3.2 is the “sequel” to 3.1 – but technically the 4th movie in the franchise.