As All Hallow's Eve creeps near, you might be tempted to seek out some classic frights. I know of a place to find them in all their cheesy glory; in a House on Haunted Hill. This haunted mystery follows a whole parade of characters as they're trapped in the titular house overnight. They're the usual suspects from the time, but they're played well, and given enough life as to not be total stereotypes. The major exception is the man at the forefront of this tale; the excellent Vincent Price. He is full of so much macabre charm that it oozes from the screen. He's clearly having fun, but he still carries this film by a mile. He's so charming that you can almost see why the other characters go along with his crazy proposition in this movie. The only drag in this film has got to be the character of Nora Manning. She is the screaming damsel caricature, and nothing more. If you take a shot every time she screams, you will absolutely die of alcohol poisoning. All in all,...

Popcorn is one of those lesser-known genre flicks from my youth that I remember enjoying, but doesn't cross my brain pan very often. And when it does, it's not available on any streaming or rental service, so I'm always left feeling "well, shit!" when I want to watch it. Fortunately, my efforts to find the movie recently paid off, and a fresh copy arrived in my hot little hands earlier this week. Excited to watch it, I sat down and did just that last night. Was the wait worth it? Stick with me!

I have a confession to make: I'm a fan of black and white horror movies.  Why would I, a man born in the heyday of horror films like "Halloween", "Texas Chainsaw Massacre", and others be a fan of primitive black and white ones? Simple, they're fun, and "House on Haunted Hill" is an example of that fun.

Writer/Director Christopher R. Mihm pays tribute to the works of William Castle, the master of classic horror. Rich socialites have a tradition of throwing exclusive dinner parties. This time, they've booked a spiritual medium who promises to open a portal to the great beyond. Can the group survive the night or will ignoring the medium's warning be the last thing they ever do?   Jason: I'd like to say if you've seen on Mihm movie you've seen them all. But you really haven't. Although they do tie in nicely when one sits down and watches them all. In fact, House of Ghosts has a big tie-in to The Monster of Phantom Lake. And I dug the shit out of that! There's also a reference to Terror From Beneath the Earth.  Mihm relies on a lot of stock actors for his work, but its fun seeing them pop up here and there. No Shannon McDonough though. That girl deserves to be in everything he does! Once again, he's captured the 1950s vibe perfectl...

By now Basement Dwellers should be very familiar with the name Christopher R. Mihm. The writer/director's work was featured on two Modern/Retro 50s Night editions of the show last season with Jason and Shawn dissecting Mihm's loving tributes to Basement Cinema of a bygone era. Now the Basement Boys will close out their series of summer specials by turning the executioner's axe on the latest entry in the Mihmiverse -- House of Ghosts. This is Mihm's homage to the works of the late William Castle, whose spirit has paid a visit to The Basement in the past. Suffice to say, Mihm's latest film promises gimmicks that would make the master proud and old-school scares that would be right at home in a 1950s drive-in movie. Rich socialites have a tradition of throwing exclusive dinner parties. This time, they've booked a spiritual medium who promises to open a portal to the great beyond. Can the group survive the night or will ignoring the medium's warning be ...

For a dead guy, William Castle keeps pretty busy. So busy he's beginning to make us living folk look bad . . . and lazy. He's got three books to release this month and a slate of  TV and movie projects in the making, which makes us in The Basement tingle with excitement because the world needs more William Castle! But Castle isn't alone on these projects, his very much alive daughter Terry is on board, having written one of the three books that hits stores this month.  The titles include House on Haunted Hill: A William Castle Annotated Screamplay, which will be published on Halloween, and two young adult horror novels -- From the Grave: The Prayer (which we read and reviewed here ) and FearMaker: Family Matters, which Terry wrote. But the newly formed William Castle Productions (see the logo above. It's beautiful) isn't stopping there. Also on the way is Spine-Tingler: The Musical, which is about William Castle and horror films, as well as a feature adaptation...

This is for our young fans in Los Angeles, New York and the Bay area of California (represent!), as you're all cordially invited to attend a reading from a book written From the Grave . . . and just in time for Halloween. Our good, and very dead, friend William Castle has informed us Basement Dwellers that his new novel From the Grave: The Prayer will be read by his very own flesh-and-blood daughter Terry Castle at Stories Books & Cafe in Los Angeles (Echo Park) on Thursday Oct. 27 at 7:30 p.m. From the Grave: The Prayer was written for young adults, so all ages are welcome to come and enjoy the reading and other Halloween tricks and treats, including a look at how to make fake blood using the Castle secret family recipe Other gigs for From the Grave: The Prayer are scheduled for Books of Wonder's Chills and Thrills for Young Readers in New York City on Oct. 16 at 1 p.m. ( http://www.booksofwonder.com/ events.asp ) and Book Passage in Cortes Madera, CA, on Oct. 21 at ...

Last Halloween we in The Basement had a most unique interview from beyond the grave, and it changed our lives forever. That's when psychic Mike S., Shawn and I shared the spotlight with the late, great filmmaker William Castle and spent about 60 bone-chilling minutes discussing his life, films and legendary promotional gimmicks. Well, the spirit of the movie visionary has been a busy little ghost since then, entertaining thousands of fans on Facebook and overseeing two more editions of Scare It Forward . And he's penned a book about his return from the dead, a tale that is 100 per cent true -- From The Grave: The Prayer. Castle has teamed up with horror magazine Fangoria for a contest that will earn three lucky winners a free copy of the book plus a classic piece of memorabilia from the Castle vaults. All you have to do is scream . . . scream for your lives! So pick up your cellphone, webcam or other video-recording device and film yourself doing your best horror movie ...

What can we say other than we here in The Basement love our monsters. Maybe it's that primal fear left over from when we were children scared of the hairy monster in the closet or the masked bogeyman under the bed, but monsters or fascinating. Monsters are cool. As long as they are on the big screen that is. Tonight we're putting two little-seen but well-regarded horror tales on the chopping block. First up is Cloverfield director Matt Reeves's vampire film Let Me In, which is a remake of the Swedish flick Let The Right One In. The Basement's Matt Bellamy actually likes the remake better, so that has Shawn and I curious. Speaking from my own experience, Let The Right One In is a modern classic. Never mind the horror part. Then we take on Monsters, the low-budget directorial debut of Gareth Edwards that promises big things in terms of giant aliens running amok. We're jazzed to see it, but will Monsters actually be any good? Stick with us! And stick around for o...

It's Halloween, and everyone is entitles to one good scare. For us in The Basement, that scare came Friday night when we interviewed the ghost of deceased movie producer, director and actor William Castle! For those that missed our first ever live chat with the dead, there is the podcast to your right that you can listen to at your leisure. Given that the interview was carried out via live chat in a Facebook discussion page, we've included a link to it here . Feel free to give it a read and catch parts of the interview that didn't make it onto the show. And thanks again to psychic Mike S, who mediated the interview for us. You rock! How could we not broadcast every question and answer? Well, being a movie review show, we did have to talk movies. And Shawn and I just had to share our thoughts on the best underrated horror movies of all time. Being the generous radio hosts that we are, we've included our lists and brief thoughts on each film for you below! And a big sh...

Tonight is a Basement first! With the help of psychic and frequent contributor Mike S., and the marvels of modern Facebook technology, Shawn and I are going to conduct a live online and onair interview with the spirit of famous Hollywood film director, producer and actor William Castle!  We've opened a discussion on our Facebook page and, shortly after 10 p.m., our conversation from beyond the grave will begin! Remember, Castle is a ghost, so he's only regained the ability to type, not to speak. Mike S. will speak for him! Those who want to listen can tune in live at 92.5FM CFBX Kamloops or www.thex.ca . If you want to watch the discussion unfold, or even have a question to ask, stop by our Facebook page . Castle may be best known for his gimmicks. For example, The Tingler (1959) was about a docile creature that lives in the spinal cord, is activated by fright, and can only be destroyed by screaming. In the film's finale, one of the creatures removed fr...

Halloween is our favourite holiday here in The Basement, and we've got something special planned for our Oct. 29 episode to celebrate. With the help of psychic and frequent Basement contributor Mike S., and the marvels of modern Facebook technology, Shawn and I are going to conduct a live online and onair interview with the spirit of famous Hollywood film director, producer and actor William Castle . Yes, Castle is back from beyond the grave and he's willing to take some time out from overseeing the collaborative horror novel Scare It Forward (which yours truly is taking part in) to answer some questions about his life, career and the movies he made. Castle may be best known for his gimmicks. For example, The Tingler (1959) was about a docile creature that lives in the spinal cord, is activated by fright, and can only be destroyed by screaming. In the film's finale, one of the creatures removed from the spine of a mute woman is let loose in a movie theatre. Some...