Friday

Last night's October Movie after Midnight was Hammer Film's Night Creatures (1962).* Peter Cushing plays the nimble parish priest in a small English seaside village notorious for its position along international liquor-smuggling routes. Near the beginning of the movie, the His Majesty's Navy sneaks into town, marching through the surrounding bog to surprise the townies. Their mission is to investigate for illicit barrels of French brandy. If only they'd seen the pre-credit sequence: Captain Clegg was once a ruthless pirate who'd just as soon slit your ears and tongue than let you attack his wife. We see him condemning a recently crippled shipmate in the movie's first moments. Shortly after, we discover that the bad Captain has finally come to rest six feet below Cushing's parish church, leaving the nearby swamps haunted by ghostly skeletal pirate, um, horsemen. Those who poke their noses into town secrets can expect a fatal visit from these devilish wraiths. The movie plays as a melodramatic version of a keystone skit: the scurvy band of smugglers dodge in and out of the town's subterranean tunnel system with coffins full of liquor, all the king's men in hapless hot pursuit. Oh, a detail: the naval contingent in the town has brought along that pirate cripple from the movie's first minutes, rescued from his marooning to act as booze-sniffing hound for British customs. He also serves as company entertainment, since the sailors make him sing tonguelessly for his meals. Even though the movie's leaden foreshadowing gives the secrets of the plot away too soon, the majority of the movie is a fun romp, with a great performance by Cushing and creepy Halloween visuals whenever the glow-in-the-dark ghost riders make an appearance. Ultimately, the movie is unsatisfying, though, playing fast and loose with its own facts. [Cavin]