Who payed the critics

Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

Good God!! Someone subjected me to this a while back, and it was more than I could take. I like watching bad horror movies, by the way. 'Dracula vs. Frankenstein' and 'Manos: Hands of Fate' are two of my favorites. I enjoy bad movies quite a bit, and love the ones that are funny and weird. I thought I had seen the worst of all of them, too...and then this abomination came along and smacked me square in the face. 'Gallery of Horrors.' Yes, a very appropriate title, for all the wrong reasons. It is very, very close to being impossible to watch. Every moment is painful and slow. Sound like your cup of tea?Certainly, a lot of the film's badness is obviously due to the fact that it was CHEAP. I mean really cheap; 'we can only afford one take' cheap. 'Let's not bother moving the camera if we can help it' cheap. Long, wide master shots you will never escape from...scenes that drain the viewer's soul as he/she watches. Aside from Carradine and Chaney, none of the actors is anyone you're likely to have heard of. And there's a good reason for that. They're terrible! I was wondering what the actors were thinking while they were doing this...their minds seem to be on something else entirely. 'I think they're all hoping that check's gonna cash,' my friend suggested. And really, this is a very plausible assumption. There is a creeping expression of worry in their eyes. They don't just want to go home. They're wondering if they're even going to be paid. Even the actors in "Santa Claus Conquers the Martians" didn't suffer this much.But...ya gotta start somewhere. David L. Hewitt, director and screenwriter, has moved on to much bigger and better things since then.

Okay, there's one thing about the 80's that I miss. At 4AM, one used to be able to see Grade Z gems like this on TV. Now it's nothing but those rotten Infomercials. You could say that Ted Turner killed film culture, but I would argue that it was Anthony Robbins. In fact, during that golden hour of the day/night, one could see many films unleashed by the maverick no-budget director David L. Hewitt. THE MIGHTY GORGA, WIZARD OF MARS and JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF TIME used to tickle many a bad-film lover (or torture an unsuspecting insomniac) who tuned in.This film, which I saw under the title RETURN FROM THE PAST, is a gloriously inept, amazingly miserable cash-in on the then-popular trend of horror anthology movies (in which a few short, separate tales of horrific irony are strung together by an onscreen narrator). All the hallmarks of Hewitt's unmistakable authorship are in abundance here.First, there is the hiring of once-great, "anything for a buck" actors; in this case, John Carradine (naturally) and Lon Chaney Jr, in small roles which nonetheless gave the theater owners a name to put in the marquee. Secondly, Hewitt once again fills the cast with his oddball stock company of dreary, nasal-sounding "actors" (who is this Roger Gentry, anyway?). As well, the director's sterling use of half-finished sets, or plain black backgrounds (when there were none at all!) is such a feat that would even make Ed Wood blush if he worked under such insane conditions. Add to this, the surprisingly ambitious writing (for bargain-basement cinema, anyway) which paradoxes the miserable attempts at mise en scene. For such a bottom-of-the-barrel project as a Dave Hewitt film, one wonders why he bothered with such an adventurous screenplay (like WIZARD OF MARS or JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF TIME, especially), when the insultingly bad production values would work against the ambition of the writing anyway. Thus, therein lies the strange dichotomy of Hewitt's work as a director. With a thrift-store budget, he really tried to make something out of nothing. Who can blame him if he didn't succeed?Add some haphazard dubbing, some great juvenile cartoon blood dripping on the screen, and you have a truly beguiling piece of work. Anyone who insists on making tired, threadbare projects like this has to get a medal for bravery alone.

Look, I'll be brief. If you have ANY taste for the so-bad-they're-great classics (Plan 9, Robot Monster, Brain That Wouldn't Die), hunt down a copy of this, the most overlooked member of the club. Amazingly, this was put out in letterboxed form; but anyway you can find it, WATCH THIS MOVIE. It is fantastic

Made to rip off Hammer Studios "Gallery of Horrors" this film really stinks. Its a series of short films sort of tied together with John Carradine's narration. Of course John Carradine would appear in anyone's film and did not seem to care how stupid or embarrassing he might look (there is something to be said for that I guess). Poor Lon Chaney, Jr. was said to be drinking a lot by the time he made this and he would need to be to get through this stinker! Drinking a lot might also help if you have to watch this movie!The director is also responsible for The Mighty Gorga and Journey to the Center of Time, which are also pretty awful. You can torture people making them watch this film (and there is something to be said for that as well).