X the Man with X Ray Eyes (1963)

Director: Roger Corman
Starring:Ray Milland, Diana Van der Vlis, Harold J. Stone, John Hoyt, Don Rickles. USA. 1h 19m

This is easily one of my all time favourite sci fi movies, defiantly of the 60’s possibly in my top sci fi films of all time. It has a beautiful on point atmosphere of a retro American comic come to life and condensed into 1 hour and 20 minutes it keeps a busy pace with minimum fluff.

Dr James Xavier (Miland) is obsessed with taking mankind forwards scientifically, always looking for that miracle breakthrough he invents a new chemical, a drug which makes people see with X-Ray vision, excited about the possibilities and under threat of his funding being taken away he administers the drug to himself with dramatic effects. Through a series of unfortunate events he ends up on the run from the police but continues to develop the drug and probe it’s possibilities.

XX (2017)

Director: Jovanka Vuckovic, Annie Clark, Roxanne Benjamin, Karyn Kusama
Starring: A bunch of people.. Canada/USA. 1h 20m

Horror anthologies can be a lot of fun, what could be wrong with a collection of thrilling stories that aim to excite, shock and thrill? Usually there is little to connect the stories apart from a wrap around. But the delight in XX is that it’s a female themed horror anthology, made by women possibly for women..it’s aim is to show that girls can make horror that is just as good if not better than the boys, but instead we have a few short films which seem to revolve around some incredibly boring women and inconsistently moan about motherhood.

Horror is generally seen as a male orientated genre and this hit back was disappointedly weak. Each segment has its moments and there’s absolutely no problem with the direction and production, but if XX is trying to make some kind of statement then it failed to make it clear.

Beginning with some artistic flare from the work of Mexican stop-motion animation artist Sofia Carrillo, who makes the wrap around that consists of a small critter that travels around a run down house slowly putting pieces together to make a child, tits just another peg in the films woman role board, all the characters are mother, caretakers etc.

X the Unknown (1956)

Director: Leslie Norman, Joseph Losey
Starring: Dean Jagger, Edward Chapman. UK. 1h 21m

There are a lot of familiarity about this 50’s Hammer Horror sci fi mystery film. Being from the classic horror company there are quite a few familiar faces especially the young round face of Michael Ripper who masquerades with Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing in a lot of Dracula and other Hammer monster projects.

Sadly Nigel Keale refused to give permission for his beloved character Bernard Quatermass to be used in this pseudo third chapter, but the similarities are there, and this contains the relevant allegorical threads revealing Cold War anxieties.

Hospital Massacre / AKA X-Ray (1981)

Hospital Massacre AKA X-Ray  (Horror, Thriller,  1981) (15) D: Boaz Davidson W: Marc Behm (screenplay), Boaz Davidson (story)  C: Barbi Benton, Charles Lucia, Jon Van Ness, Jimmy Stathis.

Synopsis : While receiving a routine check-up, a beautiful woman is stalked by a maniac out to avenge a childhood Valentine’s Day humiliation.

TAGLINE : There’s no recovery at … Hospital Massacre