PRIMITIVE SCREWHEADS

Science Fiction Sunday 784

A Trip To Mars 1918 Based on the novel Himmelskibet, adapted by Ole Olsen, directed by Holger-Madsen. A Danish film about a trip to Mars. It's called Himmelskibet which translates to Heaven Ship. Denmark didn't make another SF film until Reptilicus in 1961.

Some scientists build a space ship and fly to Mars. They encounter a pacifistic society and kill a swan. When the crowd gets upset they toss a grenade at the crowd and kill a man.

You really couldn't ask for worse guests. Lucky for the ignorant Danes the Martian leader forgives them and they are humbled. The head Dane takes the leader's daughter back to the Earth to marry.

The story is pretty naive and the accompanying piano was annoying to me. I liked all the sets and locations but the Danes are not very interesting. Not something I would want to watch again.

Woke 2023 Written by Ron Bonk and Bobby Canipe Jr, directed by Bobby Canipe Jr. A very low budget film about an alien invader.

The alien takes over a guy by dribbling black goo into the human's mouth. The human helps him take over other humans. A young woman and her 3 friends fight back.

It's all cliches and jabber. I didn't care that much for it. It scores a 2.4 on the IMDb with 22 votes. Fifteen of those votes are a 1 and two are a 10. I gave it a generous 2. I wouldn't want to watch it again and would tell people not to bother. You can see if you like it, it's on YouTube, link above. I did like the illustration on the poster.

Friday Night Movies 921

Slayer 2006  Written and directed by Kevin VanHook. TV movie that aired on the SciFi Channel.

Casper Van Dien is a soldier, he's just barely survived an encounter with some day walking vampires in South America. The Army downplays the vamps but 6 months later he's back in the jungle looking for those vampires. He's got an additional cliche to deal with, one of many, in that his wife is also down in SA in the same jungle. Linda Carter is his Colonel and his ex's godmother.

In the jungle Casper's best pal Grieves is turned. He starts leading the vampires with his military knowledge. There's some running around the jungle and plenty of vampire fighting. Since it's TV there's not a lot of gore and the fights are just so-so.

The whole movie is way below average. Weak plot, dialog and production. It doesn't get a 3.5 on the IMDb because everyone likes it. Lucky for me one of the other guys got it from Netflix DVD. I hear that service is being phased out next year. It's a wonder it lasted as long as it did.

The Intrigue 1916 Written by Julia Crawford Ivers and directed by Frank Lloyd. The film was photographed by James Van Trees, Julia Crawford Ivers son. The inclusion of a death ray weapon makes this silent film science fiction in some people's eyes. There's so little death ray it hardly counts.

An American inventor creates a ray gun but the US military turns him down when he offers to sell it to them. He heads for Europe and Baron Rogniat offers to buy the weapon. The Baron intends to kill the inventor but he's saved by Countess Sonia.

It's kind of interesting as a spy story with a bit of romance but there's no other SF elements, other than the ray gun, and that doesn't really get used much. You can see it on YouTube, click link above. It's got a bit of historical value in the end.