Ray K. Goman Movies

No one can escape from Alcatraz, right? Try telling that to lifer Frank Morris (Clint Eastwood). This Donald Siegel-directed nailbiter is a reenactment of Frank Morris' 1962 attempt to bust himself and two other cons out of The Rock. Eastwood, as Morris, tilts with nasty warden Patrick McGoohan for a while, befriends several fellow prisoners, and picks the guys with whom he'll make his escape. Among his break-out buddies are the Anglin Brothers (Fred Ward and Jack Thibeau), with whom he'd served in other lockups, and several others who've got their own special reasons to despise the sadistic McGoohan. Filmed on location at the newly renovated Alcatraz, Escape From Alcatraz was another box-office winner for the Eastwood/Siegel combo. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

During a horror-film convention in San Francisco, the guests are properly aghast when they discover that one of their favorite film stars, Malakai (Jerry Walter), who plays a vampire onscreen, is the real thing off-camera. Convention guest begin succumbing to him right and left. However, it was probably a bad idea on Malakai's part to come to a horror film convention, because the attendees are unusually well versed in vampire lore, and at least some of what they know turns out to be helpful in ridding the world of the fanged menace. This affectionate spoof of horror films contains many in-jokes which are likely to make sense only to devoted fans of the genre. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

College student Jenny (Laurie Walters) meets aspiring journalist John (Joe Spano), who convinces her to go on a picnic with him. While lost in the countryside, the pair stumble upon a sprawling, rickety estate that years ago had been the Soda Spring Health Spa. A kindly old woman (Edna Macafee) who lives in a restored section of the main house offers them tea and a tour, but Jenny feels strangely dizzy and is sure that she saw a strange apparition in a wedding dress float by in the hall. Though the place gives her the creeps, John talks her into returning a few days later so he can write a feature story about the history of the spa. Jenny arrives early and is shocked to find no sign of the old woman at all, and a kindly hunter who passes by confirms that the decrepit spa has long been abandoned, ever since a sinister cannibalistic episode forced it to close down 50 years before. When John finally shows up, the old woman and her clean, orderly living quarters are suddenly back, and Jenny starts to realize that something evil and supernatural is afoot. A padlocked meat locker holds enough evidence to prove without doubt that Jenny is intended to be the focus of a hideous Satanic rite. ~ Fred Beldin, Rovi