Land of the Minotaur/The Hearse

horror or boredom?

it's Double review Feature of the day time in SPAM Alternative headquarters.

Land of the Minotaur (1976) & The Hearse (1980)

Welcome to the "Land of the Minotaur" a 1976 Crown International Pictures low budget horror flick. Before talking about the plot I gotta say it was very good to have a regular transfer to DVD from the original movie reels, don't get me wrong the sound and color are pretty good but you see some cracks and spots every once in a while in the movie, and that totally rocks, cause it lets you know you're watching a bygone era movie!

After the promising trailer, let's get busy. The story is about three friends which are into archeology trips, so they decide to go to Greece to a small not named town to check a beautiful castle fortress on top of the mountain near this nameless town. The plot fires up with the disappearance of two of the three young enthusiasts while they slipped off a secret entrance to some sacred bygone cult, so the lonely lady has to go to mister Roche, the priest of the little town to start their search with help of a private investigator named Milo.

While on search they find out more about the town, which by night time is completely abandoned, cause most of the inhabitants belong to the satanic Minotaur cult which seems to be mostly based on trapping strangers and sacrificing them to this giant fire breathing talking minotaur statue (check the trailer)

The cult is somehow similar to the kuklux clan in the way they dress up, with different color robes and for your fortune the leader of this clan is nothing less but mister Peter Kuching (who will become worldwide famous with his next year movie 1977's Star Wars) In the meantime the priest and P.I. have to protect the scary blonde from the constant haunting of these black masked robed twisted cult fans.

Since this movie comes as a part of the 32 movie set "Drive-In Cult Classics" it's a rarity to find so little references to the exploitation genre it somewhat belongs to.

Is it a good movie? yeah! absolutely! it's one of the earliest to add a score designed to scare along with the movie scenes, and the story is also interesting, a little naive but still interesting, give it a try!

Horror with wheels.

The second grindhouse movie it's a jump in time, released in 1980 "The Hearse" comes updated with the writing and directing style we're used to watch from an eighties horror classic.

This movie is a must, well directed, good photography, a spectacular horror score and at last some very good acting (something the 70's grindhouse wasn't too good at) The story is very intriguing. A young woman pissed off with her modern life decides to spend a year in the countryside on a house she inherits from her aunt. What she does't know is that the house is somehow haunted and every person in town is not willing to help the new girl in town at all, cause everyone knows the witchcraftship story that happened years before the unfortunate new neighbour comes to town.

The movie also portraits a mysterious hearse that wanders through the nights. I won't spoil anymore from this movie cause you ought to see it right away!