Ferdinand "Ferdy" Mayne Movies

The sequel to Warlock, this film features the return of the evil warlock (Julian Sands) who is on a quest to search out and obtain a set of six magical runestones needed to summon the Devil to Earth. However, a group of powerful druids have become aware of the sinister plans afoot, and it is up to them to defeat the warlock and prevent Armageddon. ~ Iotis Erlewine, Rovi

This murder mystery from director Carl Schenkel stars Christopher Lambert (Highlander) as Peter Sanderson, an expert chess champion. When a woman Sanderson has recently slept with is among several women brutally murdered at a chess tournament, he becomes a suspect. But when the murderer contacts Sanderson and informs him that he's set up a maniacal human chess game, he realizes that he'll have to beat the murderer to stop the killings and clear his own name. Diane Lane plays a psychologist who falls for Sanderson, and Tom Skerritt is the local sheriff investigating the case. Knight Moves won the Critics Award at the 1992 Cognac Film Festival. ~ Matthew Tobey, Rovi

This horror spoof boasts pun-filled dialogue by the always off-center Forrest J. Ackerman, who gained genre fame in the 1960s as the editor of "Famous Monsters Of Filmland" and "Spacemen" publications. Ackerman also has a cameo appearance in the film. Knowledgeable fans of early movies and silents from the horror genre will notice numerous visual tributes to such classics as London After Midnight. In the story, a piece of film from that era is burning, and a vampire from one of those films emerges from it. An additional touch is that the vampire can only communicate by miming, as he is from silent films. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

In this adventure a treasure hunter sets off to dangerous Mercury Island in search of a fabulous underwater treasure. The explorer is a free-lance surveyor who goes there with his lovely girl friend. Once upon the island they must earn the trust of an enigmatic fellow, deal with an active volcano, Nazis, and a curse. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Father Joseph Mohr (Steve Bond) comes to stay with the family of Franz Guber (Cyrus Elias) in this romantic costume drama. The region is plagued by the evil Baron Von Seidl (David Warner) who delights in persecuting everyone including his own family. Magdalena (Nastassja Kinski) works at the local inn and falls in love with the unavailable Father Mohr. Janza (Franco Nero) is the insurgent who tries to incite a revolution against the despotic Baron. This drama of unrequited love contains nudity. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

Set in Vienna during the German occupation, this made-for-cable television drama centers on the friendship between a Jewish girl and the young Christian who helps her escape. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

The brother of a slain werewolf newscaster joins the battle against a lycanthropic femme fatale in this sequel to 1981's horror/humor update. Shortly after the events of the original The Howling, Ben White (Reb Brown) attends the funeral of his sister, journalist Karen White (played here by Hana Ludvikova and by Dee Wallace in the original). There, he meets both Jenny Templeton (Annie McEnroe), one of Karen's colleagues, and Stefan Crosscoe (Christopher Lee), a mysterious interloper who claims the slain reporter was a newscaster. Providing videotaped evidence of the transformation -- and turning up to destroy Karen as her undead body rises from the grave -- Crosscoe convinces Ben and Jenny to accompany him to Transylvania to battle Stirba (Sybil Danning), an immortal werewolf queen. Along the way, the do-gooders encounter Mariana (Marsha Hunt), another lusty werewolf babe, and her minion Erle (played by Fearless Vampire Killers veteran Ferdy Mayne). Arriving in the Balkans, Ben and company wander through an ethnic folk festival, unaware that Stirba is off in her castle having sex with other werewolves and plotting their downfall. Eventually, the adventurers do battle with Stirba in an assault that involves disguised dwarves, mutilated priests, supernatural parasites, and surprise revelations. Howling II is variously known as Howling II: Your Sister Is a Werewolf and Stirba the Werewolf Bitch. Director Philippe Mora, who previously helmed The Return of Captain Invincible, would return for Howling III: The Marsupials. ~ Brian J. Dillard, Rovi

This unusual horror anthology mixed edited-down versions of one unreleased feature and two previously released films (Death Wish Club and The Nightmare Never Ends) with newly shot wraparound footage to create a surreal combination of crazed plotting and grindhouse gore. The framing device consists of God and Satan on a train full of breakdancing teenagers telling each other stories about humans. The first story focuses on an institute for the mentally ill that is really a cover for a black market organ-harvesting operation. The second story focuses on a man who falls for a woman who is part of group of people that attempt suicide for fun. The final story tells the tale of a group of mortals who attempt to stop Satan from returning to earth to begin the apocalypse. Each episode combines deranged plot twists with heaping helpinds of sex and violence, resulting in a film that plays like a lysergic and deranged variant on comparatively sedate horror anthologies like Creepshow. Night Train to Terror didn't enjoy a great deal of box-office success, but has gone on to enjoy a lengthy life on home video, where it continues to astound (and confound) viewers with its blood-spattered weirdness. ~ Donald Guarisco, Rovi

Based on a character created by Robert E. Howard, this fast-paced, occasionally humorous sequel to Conan the Barbarian features the hero (Arnold Schwarzenegger) as he is commissioned by the evil queen Taramis (Sarah Douglas) to safely escort a teen princess (Olivia D'Abo) and her powerful bodyguard (Wilt Chamberlain) to a far away castle to retrieve the magic Horn of Dagon. Unknown to Conan, the queen plans to sacrifice the princess when she returns and inherit her kingdom after the bodyguard kills Conan. The queen's plans fail to take into consideration Conan's strength and cunning and the abilities of his sidekicks: the eccentric wizard Akiro (Mako), the wild woman Zula (Grace Jones), and the inept Malak (Tracey Walter). Together the hero and his allies must defeat both mortal and supernatural foes in this voyage to sword-and-sorcery land. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

This uneven attempt at horror parody, direced by Norman Thaddeus Vane, gets off to a fairly promising start with a fun performance from Ferdinand Mayne (the imposing lead vampire in Roman Polanski's Fearless Vampire Killers) as the impossibly flamboyant horror superstar Conrad Radzoff -- whose idea of a memorable promotional stunt for his latest film involves the murder of its director. Though this proves a hard act to follow, Radzoff manages to do so by kicking the bucket himself. Then enter the annoying young members of a horror-film society who decide to steal Radzoff's corpse to use as a macabre centerpiece at their next hootenanny. Big mistake. Mrs. Radzoff is none too pleased and consults a spirit medium to reanimate her husband's body and avenge the desecration of his crypt. Sadly, what began as a clever comic nod to horror films of yore (and their die-hard fans in particular) collapses completely into routine slasher formula as Radzoff floats his coffin around the house in pursuit of his enemies, dispatching them in outrageously gory ways. Distributors released a title on video, shortly after the run of this film, entitled 'Frightmare II.' It was in fact a 1974 Pete Walker film all but unrelated to this one and erroneously advertised as the sequel to Vane's film. ~ Cavett Binion, Rovi

Death of a Centerfold: The Dorothy Stratten Story is a surfacy TV-movie rehash of the same real-life events which inspired the 1980 theatrical feature Star 80. Jamie Lee Curtis stars as Dorothy Stratten, here depicted as an ingenuous, highly vulnerable Canadian girl who aspires to show business stardom. Decked out with a generous toupee, Bruce Weitz co-stars as Paul Snyder, the "fringie" who married Dorothy and managed her career. The girl is discovered by Playboy publisher Hugh Hefner, who features Dorothy in a nude foldout spread. As Dorothy's fame grows, Snyder becomes more obsessive and difficult to control. Dorothy tries to make a clean break from Snyder, which culminates in tragedy. Death of a Centerfold initially aired on November 1, 1981. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

With George C. Scott and Marlon Brando heading the cast, The Formula should have been far better than it is. Adapted by Steve Shagan from his own best-selling novel, the film is predicated on the concept that a formula for synthetic fuel had been developed by the Nazis during WW II. In the intervening 35 years since the war's end, the formula has disappeared and several people connected with it have died under mysterious circumstances. Also during this period, oil magnate Adam Steiffel (Marlon Brando) had commiserated with one of the decedents. Police officer Barney Caine (George C. Scott), a friend of the dead man, hopes to solve the mystery, and in so doing gets mixed up in a wide-ranging conspiracy to manipulate worldwide fuel prices. Reportedly, The Formula underwent a great deal of editing-room surgery before its release. If so, the editors certainly erred in retaining so many of the film's interminable "steadicam" sequences. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi