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Showing posts with label Bloodthirsty Butchers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bloodthirsty Butchers. Show all posts

Sunday, June 7, 2026

Our favorite films: Doug Gibson, Rob Craig and Steve D. Stones



Hi Cult Film Fans! We at Plan9Crunch are nerding out a little as summer gets into swing. This week we'll be at Monster Bash, by the way. Anyway, myself, Doug Gibson, acclaimed cult films author Rob Craig, and artist and co-blogger, Steve D. Stones, have named our all-time favorite films, for now. Read on and see how many films you agree should be on the list. And check out the films you've never seen. Believe it or not these films are accessible!


DOUG GIBSON’S FAVORITE FILMS

 

My favorite 3

Night of the Hunter (1950s)

Dracula (1930s)

The Black Cat (1930s)

--

Silent

The Cabinet of Dr Caligari

Nosferatu 

Haxan

The Golem

Three's a Crowd (Harry Langdon)

The General ( Keaton)

The 1930s

The Bride of Frankenstein 

The Old Dark House 

The Dark Horse (Guy Kibbee)

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington 

You Can't Take It With You

Peach O'Reno (Wheeler and Woolsey)

Duck Soup

The Raven 

1940s

Devil Bat

The Corpse Vanishes

Detour

The Grapes of Wrath 

Stranger of the Swamp

Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein 

The Time of Their Lives

1950s

Plan 9 From Outer Space

Bride of the Monster 

Night of the Ghouls

Shane

 

1960s

Wait Until Dark

The Haunting

Spider Baby

The Human Duplicators

The Sadist

The Thrill Killers

Support Your Local Sheriff

Night of the Living Dead 

1970s

Fat City

Rocky

The Godfather Part 2

Torture Dungeon

Halloween 

Dog Day Afternoon 

Meatballs 

The Outlaw Josey Wales

The Legend of Hell House 

1980s

Tootsie 

Planes Trains and Automobiles 

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

Crocodile Dundee

They Live

1990s

Can't think of a great film

2000 on

Return of the King

The Others

Sinners

The Grand Budapest Hotel

Mr. Jones

Nosferatu

 


 

ROB CRAIG’S FAVORITE FILMS

 

Top “50” Horror/Sci-Fi Movies 1953-1984

The Angry Red Planet (1960)

The Asphyx (1972)

The Astounding She Monster (1958)

The Atomic Brain (1964)

Attack of the Mushroom People (1965)

The Baby (1973)

Bloodthirsty Butchers (1970)

The Brain that Wouldn't Die (1962)

Brides of Blood (1968)

The Brood (1979)

A Candle for the Devil (1973)

Carnival of Souls (1962)

The Children (1980)

Creation of the Humanoids (1962)

The Crawling Eye (1958)

The Creeping Terror (1964)

The Cremators (1972)

Day the World Ended (1956)

Death Race 2000 (1975)

Demon Witch Child (1974)

Destroy All Monsters (1970)

Dungeon of Harrow (ca 1964)

Evil Brain From Outer Space (1965)

Eyeball (1975)

Face of the Screaming Werewolf (1965)

Fantastic Planet (1973)

First Spaceship on Venus (1962)

Frozen Scream (1975)

Godzilla vs the Smog Monster (1972)

The Ghastly Ones (1968)

Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982)

The Horror of Party Beach (1964)

Horror of the Blood Monsters (1970)

The Human Duplicators (1964)

The Incredible 2-Headed Transplant (1971)

Invasion of the Blood Farmers (1972)

It Conquered The World (1956)

“It's Alive!” (1969)

Journey to the Center of Time (1967)

Killers from Space (1954)

The Killer Shrews (1959)

The Lathe of Heaven (1980)

The Little Shop of Horrors (1961)

The Lost Continent (1968)

Manos, the Hands of Fate (1966)

The Manster (1962)

The Man With Two Heads (1972)

Mars Needs Women (1967)

Monster Zero (1970)

The Mutations (1973)

Night of the Bloody Apes (1974)

Night of the Ghouls (ca 1960)

Night of the Living Dead (1968)

1984 (1984)

Not of This Earth (1957)

Parts: The Clonus Horror (1979)

Phase IV (1974)

Pieces (1982)

Plan Nine from Outer Space (1959)

Planet of the Vampires (1965)

The Pyx (1973)

Robot Monster (1953)

Shriek of the Mutilated (1974)

The Terror (1963)

Terror From the Year 5000 (1958)

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)

Torture Dungeon (1970)

The Undead (1957)

Vampire's Night Orgy (1975)

Videodrome (1983)

Voyage the the Planet of Prehistoric Women (1967)

Warning From Space (1964)

War of the Gargantuas (1970)

When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth (1970)

The Wild World of Batwoman (1966)

The Wizard of Mars (1965)

Womaneater (1960)

Z.P.G.: Zero Population Growth (1971)

 


STEVE D. STONES’ FAVORITE FILMS

 

1). The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1919). 2). Dawn of The Dead (1978). 3). Carnival of Souls (1962). 4). Things To Come (1936). 5). The Crawling Eye (aka The Trollenberg Terror) (1958). 6). The Beast of Yucca Flats (1961). 7). Plan 9 From Outer Space (1958). 8). Torture Dungeon (1970). 9). Star Wars - Episode IV - A New Hope (1977). 10). Nosferatu (1922). 11). Killers From Space (1954). 12). Night of The Living Dead (1968). 13). Faster Pussycat, Kill, Kill (1965). 14). A Bucket of Blood (1959). 15). Black Sunday (1960). 16. Rubin & Ed (1991). 17). Creepshow (1982). 18). Forbidden Planet (1956). 19). The Day The Earth Stood Still (1951). 20). The Thing (From Another World) 1951. 21). Godzilla vs. Megalon (1974). 22). Raiders of The Lost Ark (1981). 23). Die Hard (1988). 24). Predator (1987). 25). Dracula (1931). 26). Two Thousand Maniacs (1964). 27). The Phantom of The Opera (1925). 28). For A Few Dollars More (1967) 29). Pink Flamingos (1972). 30). Multiple Maniacs (1970). 31). Once Upon A Time In The West (1968). 32). Jaws (1975). 33). Dirty Harry (1971). 34). Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things (1972). 35). The Screaming Skull (1958). 36). Jackie Brown (1997). 37). Hellraiser (1987). 38). Time Bandits (1981). 39). Blade Runner (1981). 40). The Hideous Sun Demon (1959). 41). Curse of The Swamp Creature (1968). 42). The Corpse Grinders (1972). 43). Where Eagles Dare (1968). 44). Shock Waves (1977). 45). The Road Warrior (1981). 46). Murder Mansion (1972). 47). Suspira (1977). 48). Star Wars - Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980). 49). The Good, The Bad & The Ugly (1968). 50). Quatermass II: Enemy From Space (1956).   

Saturday, February 27, 2010

BLOODTHIRSTY BUTCHERS: How do you like your meat pies?

By Steve D. Stones

Bloodthirsty Butchers is director Andy Milligan’s treatment of Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. The story of Sweeney Todd has been filmed many times, including the 1936 film starring Tod Slaughter, and more recently the 2008 Tim Burton film starring Johnny Depp in the role of Sweeney Todd.

Bloodthirsty Butchers wastes no time in immediately assaulting the viewer with graphic violence. A young man from Dublin, Ireland comes to London and visits Todd’s barbershop for a shave and haircut. Todd comments on the young man’s valuable ring. He quickly wraps his head in a towel and slits his throat multiple times with a shaving razor. Then, he chops off the young man’s hand with a meat cleaver and removes the ring from his finger. Viewing this scene, I’m reminded of the infamous thumb-chopping scene in Hershell Gordon Lewis’ cult masterpiece Two Thousand Maniacs.

Although the scene is graphically violent, there is also a level of unintentional humor about it. As Todd chops off the hand, the camera shows a close-up, which is obviously a fake rubber hand.

Todd’s wife Becky runs a meat pie shop. Todd and Becky are murdering prostitutes, vagabonds and drunks in London and using their bodies as fresh meat for their meat pie business. A customer comes by the meat shop one day to complain about finding human hair in a meat pie she bought from the shop. This scene is unintentionally humorous because the lock of hair she shows to Becky looks as if it was freshly cut from someone’s head.

Todd also has a sidekick, played by actor Berwick Kaler, who is billed in the opening credits as “The Head Butcher.” His real name in the film is Tobias. Kaler is one of Milligan’s stock actors who appeared in many of his films, including The Man With Two Heads, The Rats Are Coming! The Werewolves Are Here, and The Body Beneath. Kaler has a very distinctive, unforgettable face that adds to the uniqueness of Milligan’s films.

Although Bloodthirsty Butchers does not use Milligan’s trademark “swirl camera” technique, the film still employs many of Milligan’s distinctive characteristics. He shows the viewer many bizarre, cockeyed camera angels and extreme close-ups of actor’s faces as they exchange dialogue with each other. The film also has a very gritty and grainy appearance to it from being shot as a 16 mm film and blown up to fit larger movie and television screens. I could not imagine a Milligan film without these unique characteristics, even though his 1980s films use none of them. The 80s Milligan films have a bigger budget, so they lack some of the raw, gritty charm of the 60s and 70s films.

A big thank you goes out to Video Kart, Ltd in New York for releasing Bloodthirsty Butchers on DVD in 2003 with The Rats Are Coming! The Werewolves Are Here! Midnight Video had released a VHS tape of both films in the 1980s, but both films were unavailable in the 1990s until Video Kart released them on DVD in 2003. Midnight Video also had a VHS tape of Torture Dungeon in release in the 1980s, but that title is also unavailable. Occasionally copies of it appear for sale on e-bay. I’m happy to report that I own a Midnight Video copy of Torture Dungeon after much hard work in trying to track it down.