Topps Wacky Packages - Horror Style from 1975

These were the cause of many chuckles in my youth. You can judge what that means as far as the adult I turned out to be.

 

Wild, Wild Podcast - Ranking Donald Pleasence in Italy

 

And now, the end is near, and now we face the final curtain... Yes, just what will Rod and Adrian decide as they rank the eleven films from this season? Will they fall out over Pumaman? And is Warrior Queen really all that bad? Tune in to find out.

This season is dedicated to that great quiet man of British cinema, Donald Pleasence, who spent possibly too much time in Italy during the 1980s. We would love to hear from you about your favorite Donald Pleasence films from this period, or just any favorites in general. What is the most obscure film from his CV that you have seen?

You can get in touch with us, follow us on social media, buy our merch, and all that stuff, through our Linktree.

What I Watched in September 2026

 

Sometimes when watching a film about an historical incident it requires a bit of digging beneath the surface level of the events being depicted to see parallels to contemporary times. Such is not the case with THE UPRISING (2026). The events of the 1381 Peasant’s Revolt are a very clear parallel to the current day inequality that is forcing more and more financially destitute people to realize that direct action is necessary to see improvement in their lives. When the English peasants cannot produce enough to both feed themselves and pay the onerous taxes levied by the government they have no other option – they take up arms and appeal to the King for redress of grievances. The film shows the audience that the ruling class is doing a terrible job of intelligently using the country’s wealth and can only conceive of one choice when new revenue is needed – squeeze the poor. In 2026, watching the top 1% pay mostly zero dollars in taxes while the government burns money on yet another useless war gives me a frightening sense of history repeating itself.

  

As depicted, the differences in attitudes from 1381 farmers and 21st century workers are mostly rooted in the 14th century English population’s belief in the divine right of kings instead of representative democracy. Watching these sad people fight for some relief and respect from their government is both uplifting and depressing in equal measure.  It’s easy to sympathize with oppressed people in general and the film gives us a perfect ‘everyman’ in the form of Andrew Garfield’s Ploughman character. He has lost his entire family to disease and can no longer carve even a basic subsistence existence out of his plot of land. He joins a growing group of other angry and disillusioned people fighting against the tax collectors and together they formulate a plan to take their complaints to the King. They think that surely the monarch placed above them by God himself will understand their plight and set things right. But can an overprivileged, coddled manchild born into wealth act in a way that will benefit those he has been taught to see as servants at best and leaches at worst?

 

Writer/director Paul Greengrass employs his usual style of ground level hand-held camera work here to great effect. It serves to place us inside the events as they transpire as if we were standing in the mud next to the starving peasants trying to find a way out of their impossible living conditions. The actions we witness feel visceral and real with little attempt to present a glossy, high-minded sheen to the goals of the desperate characters the story follows. These folks are on the verge of extinction and without a change in circumstances their government is going to destroy the engine that fuels the country. This is so self-evident to the peasants that surely if the King is made aware of the reality of his minion’s activities, he will correct these depredations. The feeling of being alongside the rebels marching on the King’s home adds to the tension and also makes it clear that we are to understand our modern financial situation as being much the same as these desperate souls.

 

If you know the history of this period of English monarchy the outcome of this tale will not surprise you, but it is instructive to see ourselves and our contemporary plight as painfully similar to the events in 1381. THE UPRISING is a warning and a call to learn from history rather than repeat its mistakes. Our only solace is that we still have a small chance of replacing the people at the top of our governmental hierarchy with individuals from our own ranks. At least until we’re told that royal decrees are the law of the land and that kings have returned to supplant the will of the people, elections be damned. I prefer a plate of well-seasoned ruling class, myself. 

The List

DAUGHTER OF DARKNESS (1990) – 7 (Stuart Gordon TV movie)

THE WIFE KILLER (1974) – 7 (Greek thriller)

THE FIGHTING PRINCE OF DONEAL (1966) – 6 (Disney historical adventure) 

GEORGE A. ROMERO’S RESIDENT EVIL (2025) – 7 (documentary about the failed production)

DARK HARVEST (1992) – 4 (terrible SOV horror attempt)

BLOODMOON (1990) – 4 (weak Australian slasher)

THE BEAST WITH FIVE FINGERS (1946) – 8 (rewatch on Blu)

ABBOTT & COSTELLO MEET CAPTAIN KIDD (1952) – 4 (weak A&C entry)

PRIVATE DETECTIVE 62 (1933) – 6 (solid drama w/William Powell)

THE WOMAN IN CABIN 10 (2025) – 6 (not bad but not great)

ASSIGNMENT SKYBOLT (1968) – 4 (overlong and sloppy Greek made Euro-Spy)

THE FLESH EATERS (1967) – 6 (well-done, low-budget gore film)

BENEATH THE PLANET OF THE APES (1970) – 8 (rewatch on Blu)

ONSLAUGHT (2026) – 6 (sadly, a great build up seems to stall in the third act)

WAR MACHINE (2026) – 8 (excellent army vs alien invaders story)

SINNER: PRIVATE DIARY OF A NYPHOMANIAC (1973) – 6 (fairly standard Franco fare)

COYOTE VS ACME (2026) – 5 (fitfully funny but it lacks a real spark)

THE AMBULANCE (1990) – 7 (rewatch)

THE TORTURE CHAMBER OF DR. SADISM (1967) – 8 (rewatch on Blu)

HOPE (2026) – 8 (South Korean sci-fi action/monster movie)

THE GUILTY (2021) – 7 (engrossing nearly one character thriller)

SUPERNATURAL (1981) – 7 (Spanish horror) 

MEMORIA (1976) – 5 (Spanish sci-fi/horror)

THE UPRISING (2026) – 9 

BONE LAKE (2024) – 6 (isolated couple stalked by killers)

ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN (1976) – 9 (rewatch on Blu)

HOUSE OF HORROR (1946) – 6 (rewatch on Blu)

VOICES FROM BEYOND (1991) – 6 (one of Fulci’s last)

INFINITY BUFFET (2025) – 6 (amusing horror/comedy told mostly through local TV commercials)

THE WEIGHT (2026) – 8 

GESTOPO’S LAST ORGY (1977) – 4 (low-budget, sloppy grind of nastiness) 

NOSFERATU IN VENICE (1988) – 5 (rewatch on Blu)

WHO KILLED DOC ROBBIN (1948) – 4 (murder/comedy with too much Our Gang-style silliness)

EXIT 8 (2025) – 8 (excellent Japanese horror tale based on a game)

RESIDENT EVIL (2026) – 7 (it become less compelling in the final minutes but entertaining)

WINNETOU AND OLD SHATTERHAND IN THE VALLEY OF DEATH (1968) – 7 

THE HOST (2006) – 7 (South Korean monster tale)

HAUNTED TALES (1980) – 6 (two horror tales in one Shaw Bros anthology)

THE LAST SHARK (1981) – 4 (embarrassing shark attack film)

DEADLY LOVE (1987) – 4 (low budget horror effort that is mostly embarrassing) 

BULLITT (1968) – 8 (rewatch on Blu)

BUDDY (2026) – 7 

SWORD OF THE BARBARIANS (Sangaal, the Sword of Fire) (1982) – 3 (poorly mounted Italian peplum)

THE STRANGE VICE OF MRS. WARDH (1971) – 8 (rewatch on Blu)

ENTER THE DEVIL (1972) – 6 (well done low budget regional filmmaking)

DEEP BLOOD (1990) – 3 (silly Italian Jaws rip-off a decade out of time)

THE FACE WITH TWO LEFT FEET (1979) – 5 (silly but inoffensive Italian comedy)

TRICK ‘R TREAT (2009) – 9 (rewatch on Blu)

The Bloody Pit #238 - DAUGHTERS OF DARKNESS (1990)

Our series of shows on the films of Stuart Gordon returns with his first effort for television. DAUGHTER OF DARKNESS (1990) features Mia Sara as a young lady on a trip to Romania in search of her family history. When she meets Anthony Perkins as a glass blower who might know something about her absent father things get interesting. Soon she starts to have odd encounters with the locals who seem curious about her background with questions pointing to dark deeds in the past – the distant past! Her lifelong nightmares begin to intensify, blending flashes of details from her visits to historic buildings around Bucharest. Could those lurking creatures she keeps spotting on the streets be supernatural in nature? Is Perkins actually her father? Well, yeah. That one is pretty obvious. But the film unspools its secrets effectively and it qualifies as an underseen little gem.

 

Troy Guinn joins John Hudson and I to dig into this nearly forgotten movie. We discuss the location shooting and the well-structured narrative. The surprise revelation about the lineage of a sweet taxi driver character is praised with nods toward the classic Van Helsing styled characters in horror fiction. We mourn the decline of Mia Sara’s career and acknowledge that this film marks one of the last horror movies from the great Anthony Perkins. There is some parsing of the one bit of nudity seen in the prints that are available and real doubt that fleeting shot was broadcast on CBS in 1990. And we finish up hoping that some enterprising Blu-Ray company will see the wisdom of getting the rights to this and lavish it with special edition love. Fingers and bizarre tongues crossed!

If you have comments or suggestions thebloodypit@gmail.com is the place to send them. Thank you for listening and have a safe and happy Halloween!

Cover Gallery - 'Boris Karloff's Tales of Mystery' Horror Comic Book

 

Video - DAUGHTER OF DARKNESS (1990)

For those Bloody Pit listeners wanting to get ahead of things, here is the subject of our next in the series of shows focused on the films of Stuart Gordon! Check it out and we'll post the podcast in a few days. 

R.I.P Sanjulián (a.k.a. Manuel Pérez Clemente)

 

Sadly, the Spanish master of fantasy art Sanjulián has left us. Luckily we will always be able to enjoy his work.