Releases Reviewed:

50 Fright Classics is marketed as a pack of 50 movies which isn't accurate. 25 of these titles are actually episodes of old serials (episodic short films for theaters preceding the feature presentations a lot like the animated shorts like Looney Tunes or The Chubbchubbs except that these are to-be-continued and come off like a TV mini-series). These episodes tend to be roughly the length of a TV episode rather than a movie which is how they can fit 50 titles on so few DVD's.

I'll cover each title in more detail elsewhere and just give you an overview here. These are all obscure and old. For the most part they are also largely forgettable really of interest only to people with an interest in classic cinema or movies that are so bad they are amusing. I would expect to see a lot of these titles in a mystery Science Theater type show.

Even so, there are some potential gems here. I rather like a couple of these movies and found the serials interesting. Not that they are great productions, they are actually rather unimpressive, but they are a part of the history of cinema that I have never explored before. Star Wars was inspired by serials like this, and while I've been aware of that for years I've never made the effort to check any of them out. Here was my chance.

This set contains 2 complete serials: The Lost City and Undersea Kingdom. Each episode is presented individually much like you would have seen them in the theaters. While they are not arranged back to back, nor are the episodes designated as being part of a larger series, they are at least in the proper order.

A set like this is a way to acquire a lot of movies for a cheap price. As long as you recognize that you get what you pay for they can sometimes be an inexpensive boost to a movie library or a more affordable way to snag an elusive title as opposed to an overpriced rare DVD release.

This particular set, though, needs to come with a huge warning label. Some of the films are incomplete. They aren't just inferior edits, there are entire segments missing for no discernible reason. Every single movie that is not a part of one of the serials is available in the Chilling Classics set in their entirety with one exception. The Milpitas Monster is not included in the later versions of the other set although it was in the initial pressing (for some reason Mill Creek sometimes alters the movies included in different versions of their sets).

The Milpitas Monster is missing the ending. I can say for sure that A Bell from Hell and The House of the Dead are missing sizable portions in the middle of each, but it's possible that there are others I didn't catch. The presentations in the other set are not necessarily great, but they are overall marginally stronger than what you'll get here.

It bears mentioning that despite the “Fright” portion of the title not all of these fall into the horror category. The serials in particular would be more along the lines of sci-fi action. There are plenty of monsters, serial killers, and other horrific elements in the other titles.

Questionable content is going to vary a lot. The serial episodes would definitely fall into the G rated category, but some of the others would be R. I would say that most of them are probably more or less kid friendly since they tend to come from a time when sex, nudity, graphic violence, and strong language were rare. There are at least a few titles that include all of the above, though.

50 Fright Classics Collector’s Edition is a 4 DVD set.

Video:

The ratio and quality may vary some, but count on a 1.33 (“full screen”) ratio with a lot of compression. Nothing here is going to look good although without a restoration effort some of these aren't going to look good no matter which set you get. Some are so bad they can be hard to watch, others are more or less tolerable.

Audio:

Count on mono audio out of all of the films. You're going to get low quality with plenty of white noise here.

Packaging:

The original box was cardboard and flimsy with each disc in a paper sleeve. It looks like it has been repackaged in a sturdier plastic case.

The titles are listed on the back. There are virtually no details about them.

The interface is very simple.

Extras:

None of the movies have any extras at all.

Movies:

Here is a list of all the titles, as they are printed in the set, in alphabetical order.

-The Alpha Incident: People at a remote train station are infected by an alien virus. They have to stay awake or die while scientists hunt for a cure. Mostly drama with sci-fi tinges, it's decent but not great.

-Arena of Death: Part of the Undersea Kingdom serial.

-Ascent to the Upper World: Part of the Undersea Kingdom serial.

-Atlantis Destroyed: Part of the Undersea Kingdom serial.

-Bad Taste: Peter Jackson's first production; a low budget, homemade flick. Aliens are wanting to turn humans into the next intergalactic fast food craze, and a makeshift commando group is resisting them. It's mostly just a mindless gore fest with plenty of sick comedy.

-A Bell from Hell: A young man has been released from a mental institution and plots revenge on his aunt and cousins for putting him there. A thriller that goes in unexpected directions this one has promise and good moments but doesn't deliver as a whole.

-Beneath the Ocean Floor: Part of the Undersea Kingdom serial.

-The Blancheville Monster: A girl's family has been told that a curse that plagues them will lift if she dies before her next birthday. Either the monster roaming the grounds or an inexplicable illness will surely get the job done but not if her friends have anything to say about it. It's a decent movie of suspense and mystery.

-The Bloody Brood: A drug dealer peddling to beatniks gets a power trip by watching people die. When he orchestrates a murder the brother of the victim comes looking for the culprit. It's not a bad offering though it is beatnik overload. Peter Falk stars.

-A Bucket of Blood: Dick Miller plays a nobody who wants desperately to fit in with the cool beatnik crowd. He begins turning living beings into sculptures. His work is a hit, but of course no one realizes the secret to his success. How far will he go to stay on top? It's a pretty good flick if you can overlook gaps in the logic.

-The Cold: A group of bored rich folks invite a number of people to take part in a game of fear that will leave the winner rich. But is the game lethal for the losers? Not worth watching, the plot unravels and is unsatisfying.

-Crypt of the Living Dead: A young man unwittingly releases a 700 year old vampire from her prison tomb. As she wreaks havoc on a small island village the man responsible for her release must find a way to stop her and the cult that would serve her to save the woman he loves. It’s a pretty enjoyable but poor quality vampire flick.

-Dagger Rock: Part of the Lost City serial.

-Death in the Air: Part of the Undersea Kingdom serial.

-Death Ray: Part of the Lost City serial.

-The Demons of Ludlow: The spirit of a man mistreated by the town he founded resides in a piano presented to the townsfolk as a gift generations after the founder's death. The spirit begins taking lethal revenge on the descendants of the people that wronged him. Not worth watching.

-Doomed: Part of the Lost City serial.

-The Driller Killer: A struggling artist flips his lid and goes on a killing spree with a power drill. It's a string of pointless scenes intermingled with lots of shots of a performing band that isn't much good.

-Flaming Death: Part of the Undersea Kingdom serial.

-Hands of a Stranger: A pianist loses his hands in an accident and is given those of a dead mystery man. He starts losing his mind leaving people dead in his wake. It's right on the verge of being enjoyable with a weak premise holding it back.

-Haunts: A killer terrorizes a small town, and a lonely farm girl is particularly traumatized. The trauma doesn't end with the cessation of the killings, either; there's more going on here. A fairly decent movie – nothing great but not a complete waste of time.

-Horrors of Spider Island: A plane carrying a group of dancers on the way to a show crashes on a remote island. The manager of the group is bitten by a weird spider and begins mutating into a monster. As the girls are tormented by the murderous man-beast they think they have found rescue in a group of mining researchers, but they might not last long enough to get away. This is a really, really bad movie.

-The House of the Dead: A man lost in the city is brought in by a kindly mortician who shows him 5 coffins and tells him 4 stories about the occupants: a stalked teacher, a videotaping serial killer, a couple of feuding detectives, and a tortured man. Some of the stories are good, but others not so much. Some of the performances here are surprisingly good.

-Human Beasts: Part of the Lost City serial.

-Human Targets: Part of the Lost City serial.

-Into the Metal Tower: Part of the Undersea Kingdom serial.

-The Juggernaut Strikes: Part of the Undersea Kingdom serial.

-Jungle Vengeance: Part of the Lost City serial.

-The Legend of Bigfoot: This is a supposed documentary about a wilderness tracker who becomes convinced of the existence of Bigfoot and tracks the beast across the continent finally capturing footage of the creature in the wild. It's perhaps mildly interesting if you're into Bigfoot legends or wildlife footage (low quality as it may be).

-The Lion Pit: Part of the Lost City serial.

-Living Dead Men: Part of the Lost City serial.

-The Mad Scientist: Part of the Lost City serial.

-Man in the Attic: In the midst of Jack the Ripper attacks in London a strange man takes up residence in a room and board place, only he prefers the attic to his room. Some are suspicious of him while others think he's being unfairly judged just because he's a bit odd. It's an OK flick but with a lack of closure for most of the characters. Jack Palance is the man in the attic.

-Medusa: A brother and sister used to a life of wealth and ease find out they are in danger of losing their inheritance. They set out to save their lifestyle by any means necessary including murder. But who is the victim and who is the culprit? It's a poorly paced nothing of a movie. Don't bother. It's mostly just an hour and a half of George Hamilton on screen.

-The Milpitas Monster: A huge monster that likes garbage runs around stealing garbage cans and leaving giant footprints. This is a movie that's so bad it's amusing. The ending is missing.

-Oasis of the Zombies: Zombie Nazis guard a lost treasure in a remote desert oasis. When a group of treasure hunters sets out to find it they are set after by the undead guardians. It manages to be entertaining just by being extremely campy but is not worth the effort for anyone looking for a serious movie.

-Prisoners of Atlantis: Part of the Undersea Kingdom serial.

-The Revenge of Dr. X: A NASA scientist on vacation creates a plant man that likes to kill people. It's really, really bad.

-Revenge of the Volkites: Part of the Undersea Kingdom serial.

-Sisters of Death: Members of a sorority are lured to a reunion helmed by the father of a girl who died in an initiation of theirs. Is he out for lethal revenge? The living try to figure out what's going on as they one by one drop dead. It's a mildly entertaining flick with a satisfying ending.

-The Snake People: Spanish soldiers and an innocent girl cross paths with a voodoo society. One of Boris Karloff's final films and not his shining moment.

-Spider Men: Part of the Lost City serial.

-The Submarine Trap: Part of the Undersea Kingdom serial.

-Tiger Prey: Part of the Lost City serial.

-Track of the Moon Beast: A man mutates into a lizard monster and kills people. Can his friends find a cure for him before he kills the woman he loves? It's not terrible but is mostly unimpressive.

-Tunnel Of Flame: Part of the Lost City serial.

-The Undersea City: Part of the Undersea Kingdom serial.

-Virus: A doomsday virus has all but wiped out human life on the planet. Only an Antarctic outpost and a a few isolated groups survive. Continued survival is the next challenge especially when automated defense systems set in place by the world's governments threaten to finish the job of annihilation. It's a fair effort with some moderately big name actors, but it suffers from being too broad and slow-paced.

-War of the Robots: A scientist and a girl are kidnapped off a space station by aliens. The fate of the installation and the alien race hang in the balance. Not worth watching.

-The Witch’s Mountain: A photographer and his spur-of-the-moment love interest take a trip to the mountains where they are lured to an ancient village apparently inhabited by witches. It has some creepy moments which give it potential but the plot is too convoluted to be interesting.

Other Editions:

Not counting the repackaging, there are no other versions that I've ever seen.

Final Thoughts:

Unless you are specifically after the serials as they are presented here or get a really good price on it don't bother with this release at all. The Chilling Classics 50 pack is a better buy and offers some other fairly good, though equally obscure, movies. Full details of that set are available on Righteous Recommendations.