Nightmare in Blood
Horror film enthusiasts -- Professor and mystery novelist Winslow Seabrook [Dan Caldwell], fashion coordinator Cindy O'Flaherty [Barrie Youngfellow], and amateur sleuth Phillip "Scotty" Scott [ John C…
Nightmare in Blood
Horror film enthusiasts -- Professor and mystery novelist Winslow Seabrook [Dan Caldwell], fashion coordinator Cindy O'Flaherty [Barrie Youngfellow], and amateur sleuth Phillip "Scotty" Scott [ John Cochran] --have organized the 1st Annual San Francisco Horrorcon to be held at the Palace Theater. In advance of the actual convention, they visit the theater to prepare for the arrival of the guest celebrity, Hollywood's top box-office horror star, Malakai [Jerry Walter], reknown for his roles as the vampire in the immensely-popular "Fangs Over London," "The Zaroff Doom," "Nightmare in Blood," and "The Crypt Ran Red." Malakai is one of those actors who lives his part, sleeping in a coffin during the day and making appearances only at night, but he sure draws in the box-office money, $10 million and counting. Joining the organizers are SCotty's fiancee Barbara Castle [Yvonne Young]; KTVU's host of "Fright Flicks," George Wilson [Morgan Upton], who plans to pitt Professor Seabrook against psychologist Dr Karl Unworth [Justin Bishop], who feels that horror movies and Malachi have contributed to the deterioration of the young mind and who has expounded his theory in a book _Rape of the Young Mind_; Wilson's cameraman, Harry Marsdon [Stan Ritchie]; and Malakai's publicity agents, Harris [Hy Pyke] and Billy "B.B." Boyd [Ray K. Goman], whose job it is to ensure that the strict rules of Malakai's contract are followed to the letter, e.g., making Cindy remove the crucifix she wears around her neck, and to take pictures of the organizers and their friends. A black hearse delivers Malakai's coffin, with him in it. After Malakai has signed autographs for his groupies and viewed his accomodations, Harris and B.B. lead him down to a secret subterranean laboratory where it becomes apparent that the three of them have nefarious intentions. They busy themselves hanging photos of the Con coordinators and their acquaintances. Interestingly, one of the photos they take down is of a Palace employee who was murdered just yesterday by Harris and B.B. [shown in the opening sequences]. Harris tosses a cleaver at the photos, and it lands on Barbara Castle. Later that evening, they go over to Barbara's European Health Spa and slit her neck while she's swimming in the pool [think "Cat People"]. Meanwhile, the Horrorcon organizers -- Seabrook, Cindy, and Scotty -- visit comic store owner Gary Arlington [Drew Eshelman], who has agreed to decorate the theater for the Con. A bit later, Seabrook appears on "Fright Flicks" [the actual set used on "Creature Features"] and, as Wilson planned, spars with Dr Unworth. To everyone's surprise, Malakai suddenly shows up on the set and tonguelashes both Dr Unworth for his views about horror movies and host George Wilson for his tongue-in-cheek or, as Malakai puts it, slap-in-the-face portrayals of the horror genre. Around midnight, Cindy goes to Barbara's spa for a late night swim and finds her dead in the water. Cindy notices a bearded man coming out of the spa, assumes that he is the killer, and runs off screaming. He's not the killer. He is Tobias Ben-Halik [Irving Israel]. Malakai, Harris, and B.B. know him as "The Avenger," and he's been after them for the past 25 years. They intend to kill Ben-Halik, too, but in the meantime they must make another selection (i.e., choose another victim). They need the blood and certain internal organs from six people in order to brew up a potion every two years that makes Harris and B.B. immortal. (Malakai is already immortal, so he just drinks the blood.) They have two victims now (the theater employee and Barbara Castle), so they need four more. Next victim as determined by cleavertoss is going to be Harry Marsdon, George Wilson's cameraman. They kill Marsdon while he's playing a round of golf. Seabrook and Scotty are beginning to suspect that Harris and B.B. aren't just publicity men. First, they are caught paying for a coffee with an 1824 sixpence. Then, Scotty overhears them talking about "Surgeon's Square" and does a bit of research. He discovers that there was a Surgeon's Square in Edinbourough where an anatomist, Dr Robert Knox, received freshly-killed human bodies from bodysnatchers Bill Burke (B.B.?) and Hare (Harris?) in the 1820s. Burke was ultimately executed, but Harris disappeared and was never heard from again. Ben-Halik breaks into the theater and tries to open Malakai's coffin. Seabrook et al catch him and have him carted off to a mental hospital. Cindy sees Ben-Halik being taken away in the ambulance and recognizes him as the man she saw running away after Barbara's murder. Scotty doesn't believe that Ben-Halik is Barbara's murderer and goes to visit him in the hospital. Ben-Halik tells him how, in his work as a nazi hunter, he first came across Malakai, who carried out his experiments among the Jews in Hilter's death camps. However, as evidence mounted (posters from as long ago as the 1800s, all featuring drawings of Malakai using anagrams of his name [think Carmilla or Roman Castevet], Ben-Halik came to realize that Malakai was actually a vampire and had been preying upon humans for the past several hundred years. Scotty helps break Ben-Halik out of the hospital and just in time, too. B.B. and Harris are on Ben-Halik's trail. But first they have to kill George Wilson, and then Dr Unworth. All totalled and including a custodian that Malakai killed, they now have the six bodies they need for Malakai to brew up his immortality formula, which he injects into both B.B. and Harris. Seabrook, Scotty, Cindy, Gary, and Ben-Halik -- united as a vampire hunting team -- go looking for Malakai. No sign of him backstage, no sign in the auditorium, so let's split up and search. Armed with stakes, Seabrook and Cindy look around the backstage area, Scotty and Gary take the basement, and Ben-Halik will check the front part of the building. Seabrook and Cindy encounter B.B. hiding behind a curtain, but when they try to shoot him, he gets back up. "He's immortal, so guns aren't going to work," Seabrook reasons. They decide to electrocute him just like James Arness was cooked in the 1951 version of "The Thing." Luckily, Seabrook remembers an electric cable along the floor. They pick it up and, when B.B. comes after them with a knife, they zap him [think 4th of July sparklers]. Bye bye B.B. In the basement, Scotty and Gary find the laboratory and begin to smash all the equipment. When Harris comes after them with a meat cleaver, they shoot him. Like B.B., Harris gets back up. Scotty runs him through with a pole and dumps sulfuric acid on him. Boo hoo, Harris. Ben-Halik, after having checked the front part of the building, decides to check Malakai's coffin. He lifts the lid to find Unworth's body. Malakai sneaks up from behind and grabs him. Ben-Halik shoots Malakai but it does no good, of course. Malakai bites him in the neck, but Ben-Halik is able to slap a star of David pendant on Malakai's forehead, which burns his skin, while each of the vampire hunters take turns thrusting a stake through his body. The vampire and his ghouls are dead. Unfortunately, so is Ben-Halik. Epilogue: It is opening night of the Horrorcon. Cindy straightens Seabrook's tie, and Seabrook walks out on the stage where he gives a rousing speech about how we all love horror in novels, film, and comics because we know that these creatures do not exist. But they DO exist, he assures the audience, and we must band together to fight them. Beware the monsters. They walk among us. [Original Synopsis by bj_kuehl.]
Nightmare in Blood
Horror
Film Details
Horror film enthusiasts -- Professor and mystery novelist Winslow Seabrook [Dan Caldwell], fashion coordinator Cindy O'Flaherty [Barrie Youngfellow], and amateur sleuth Phillip "Scotty" Scott [ John Cochran] --have organized the 1st Annual San Francisco Horrorcon to be held at the Palace Theater. In advance of the actual convention, they visit the theater to prepare for the arrival of the guest celebrity, Hollywood's top box-office horror star, Malakai [Jerry Walter], reknown for his roles as the vampire in the immensely-popular "Fangs Over London," "The Zaroff Doom," "Nightmare in Blood," and "The Crypt Ran Red." Malakai is one of those actors who lives his part, sleeping in a coffin during the day and making appearances only at night, but he sure draws in the box-office money, $10 million and counting. Joining the organizers are SCotty's fiancee Barbara Castle [Yvonne Young]; KTVU's host of "Fright Flicks," George Wilson [Morgan Upton], who plans to pitt Professor Seabrook against psychologist Dr Karl Unworth [Justin Bishop], who feels that horror movies and Malachi have contributed to the deterioration of the young mind and who has expounded his theory in a book _Rape of the Young Mind_; Wilson's cameraman, Harry Marsdon [Stan Ritchie]; and Malakai's publicity agents, Harris [Hy Pyke] and Billy "B.B." Boyd [Ray K.
Goman], whose job it is to ensure that the strict rules of Malakai's contract are followed to the letter, e.g., making Cindy remove the crucifix she wears around her neck, and to take pictures of the organizers and their friends. A black hearse delivers Malakai's coffin, with him in it. After Malakai has signed autographs for his groupies and viewed his accomodations, Harris and B.B.
lead him down to a secret subterranean laboratory where it becomes apparent that the three of them have nefarious intentions. They busy themselves hanging photos of the Con coordinators and their acquaintances. Interestingly, one of the photos they take down is of a Palace employee who was murdered just yesterday by Harris and B.B.
[shown in the opening sequences]. Harris tosses a cleaver at the photos, and it lands on Barbara Castle. Later that evening, they go over to Barbara's European Health Spa and slit her neck while she's swimming in the pool [think "Cat People"].
Meanwhile, the Horrorcon organizers -- Seabrook, Cindy, and Scotty -- visit comic store owner Gary Arlington [Drew Eshelman], who has agreed to decorate the theater for the Con. A bit later, Seabrook appears on "Fright Flicks" [the actual set used on "Creature Features"] and, as Wilson planned, spars with Dr Unworth. To everyone's surprise, Malakai suddenly shows up on the set and tonguelashes both Dr Unworth for his views about horror movies and host George Wilson for his tongue-in-cheek or, as Malakai puts it, slap-in-the-face portrayals of the horror genre.
Around midnight, Cindy goes to Barbara's spa for a late night swim and finds her dead in the water. Cindy notices a bearded man coming out of the spa, assumes that he is the killer, and runs off screaming. He's not the killer.
He is Tobias Ben-Halik [Irving Israel]. Malakai, Harris, and B.B. know him as "The Avenger," and he's been after them for the past 25 years.
They intend to kill Ben-Halik, too, but in the meantime they must make another selection (i.e., choose another victim). They need the blood and certain internal organs from six people in order to brew up a potion every two years that makes Harris and B.B. immortal.
(Malakai is already immortal, so he just drinks the blood.) They have two victims now (the theater employee and Barbara Castle), so they need four more. Next victim as determined by cleavertoss is going to be Harry Marsdon, George Wilson's cameraman. They kill Marsdon while he's playing a round of golf.
Seabrook and Scotty are beginning to suspect that Harris and B.B. aren't just publicity men. First, they are caught paying for a coffee with an 1824 sixpence.
Then, Scotty overhears them talking about "Surgeon's Square" and does a bit of research. He discovers that there was a Surgeon's Square in Edinbourough where an anatomist, Dr Robert Knox, received freshly-killed human bodies from bodysnatchers Bill Burke (B.B.?) and Hare (Harris?) in the 1820s. Burke was ultimately executed, but Harris disappeared and was never heard from again.
Ben-Halik breaks into the theater and tries to open Malakai's coffin. Seabrook et al catch him and have him carted off to a mental hospital. Cindy sees Ben-Halik being taken away in the ambulance and recognizes him as the man she saw running away after Barbara's murder.
Scotty doesn't believe that Ben-Halik is Barbara's murderer and goes to visit him in the hospital. Ben-Halik tells him how, in his work as a nazi hunter, he first came across Malakai, who carried out his experiments among the Jews in Hilter's death camps. However, as evidence mounted (posters from as long ago as the 1800s, all featuring drawings of Malakai using anagrams of his name [think Carmilla or Roman Castevet], Ben-Halik came to realize that Malakai was actually a vampire and had been preying upon humans for the past several hundred years.
Scotty helps break Ben-Halik out of the hospital and just in time, too. B.B. and Harris are on Ben-Halik's trail.
But first they have to kill George Wilson, and then Dr Unworth. All totalled and including a custodian that Malakai killed, they now have the six bodies they need for Malakai to brew up his immortality formula, which he injects into both B.B. and Harris.
Seabrook, Scotty, Cindy, Gary, and Ben-Halik -- united as a vampire hunting team -- go looking for Malakai. No sign of him backstage, no sign in the auditorium, so let's split up and search. Armed with stakes, Seabrook and Cindy look around the backstage area, Scotty and Gary take the basement, and Ben-Halik will check the front part of the building.
Seabrook and Cindy encounter B.B. hiding behind a curtain, but when they try to shoot him, he gets back up. "He's immortal, so guns aren't going to work," Seabrook reasons.
They decide to electrocute him just like James Arness was cooked in the 1951 version of "The Thing." Luckily, Seabrook remembers an electric cable along the floor. They pick it up and, when B.B. comes after them with a knife, they zap him [think 4th of July sparklers].
Bye bye B.B. In the basement, Scotty and Gary find the laboratory and begin to smash all the equipment. When Harris comes after them with a meat cleaver, they shoot him.
Like B.B., Harris gets back up. Scotty runs him through with a pole and dumps sulfuric acid on him. Boo hoo, Harris.
Ben-Halik, after having checked the front part of the building, decides to check Malakai's coffin. He lifts the lid to find Unworth's body. Malakai sneaks up from behind and grabs him.
Ben-Halik shoots Malakai but it does no good, of course. Malakai bites him in the neck, but Ben-Halik is able to slap a star of David pendant on Malakai's forehead, which burns his skin, while each of the vampire hunters take turns thrusting a stake through his body. The vampire and his ghouls are dead.
Unfortunately, so is Ben-Halik. Epilogue: It is opening night of the Horrorcon. Cindy straightens Seabrook's tie, and Seabrook walks out on the stage where he gives a rousing speech about how we all love horror in novels, film, and comics because we know that these creatures do not exist.
But they DO exist, he assures the audience, and we must band together to fight them. Beware the monsters. They walk among us.
[Original Synopsis by bj_kuehl.].