PRIMITIVE SCREWHEADS

Science Fiction Sunday 845

Quatermass II 1957 Based on the 1955 TV serial Quatermass II by Nigel Kneale, screenplay by Nigel Kneale and Val Guest, directed by Val Guest. I've seen this several times over the years as well as multiple viewings of the TV serial. I posted about it back in 2015 and included a link to the TV serials for both movies on the Internet Archive. The Quatermass series was produced and released by Hammer Productions.

Aliens are invading Britain, Quatermass finds out about it when he stops to help a couple in a car who have had an accident. The aliens are arriving in small stone meteors, then they burst open near a human they take over that human and turn it into an unwilling slave. The aliens have built a giant facility in Winnerden Flats. Quatermass arranges a trip there and finds out things don't add up. The scene the burnt man made an impression on me when I saw it

The nearby townies get riled up when the guards for the project invade the local pub and kill a newspaper reporter who was calling a story into the paper. The reporter was played by one of my favorite actors, Sid James. The locals rise and attack the plant. There's a ferocious battle as the townies take over a control room. Quatermass figures how to sabotage the system. One of the townies fires a rocket at the big dome and it blows up. Giant creatures are revealed and eventually burnt to a crisp. Quatermass's rocket is launched to destroy the alien's secret base in space.

It's my favorite of the Quatermass films, there's a nice mix of science, investigating and action. I upgraded to the Blu-ray to get all the extras. Now to find time to watch all those too. Also mentioned on that post is a Edward Everett Horton film called The Body Disappears. A comedy invisible man movie that can be found on the Internet Archive. Worth a look. I'm downloading a upgrade to the copy I taped off of TCM.

Quatermass And The Pit 1967 Based on the BBC TV serial by Nigel Kneale, screenplay by Nigel Kneale, directed by Roy Ward Baker. A Hammer film that I've seen several times. I blogged about this film and the first two adaptations in 2010. Here's a blog post about the TV versions of Quatermass II and Quatermass And The Pit from 2010.

Quatermass winds up helping determine what the strange object found while rebuilding the underground station at Hobb's End is all about. Turns out to be another alien invasion. The artifact is from 5,000,000 years ago but it's still active. Over the millions of years it's affected the locals and it was the same at Hobb's End, people have been driven mad by the psychic energy.

They open the artifact and find desiccated bug people, dead for 5 million years. The artifact is their ship and it's what's active. Eventually Quatermass destroys the active bit of the ship and the world is saved once again. Yay.

I also bought the Blu-ray of this film for the extras. Time, yada, yada.

Science Fiction Sunday 844

Mill Of The Stone Women 1960 Story by Remigio Del Grosso, screenplay by Remigio Del Grosso, Ugo Liberatore, Giorgio Stegani and Giorgio Ferroni, directed by Giorgio Ferroni. An Italian horror movie that has a vague SF element.

A writer called Hans travels to Holland to interview an art professor and see the Mill of Stone Women. It's an animated clockwork carousel of grotesque deformed women. The professor has sculpted the stone figures.  It's built in an old windmill and occasionally open to the public. 

Hans gets to stay in the run down mill where he meets the professor's daughter Elfie. The professor explains to Hans that his daughter has an aliment, one that her mother had, one that could kill her quite suddenly. The professor keeps a disbarred doctor around, one who's got a serum that will revive the dead. That's the vague SF element.

Liselotte, Hans' girlfriend, comes to visit Hans, that makes Elfie jealous. She wants Hans for herself, she wants him to take her away from the mill. He's not that keen on that plan and that winds up Elfie to the point where she collapses and dies.

That's not too much of a problem for the professor and his pet doctor. They kidnap a local lady, suck the blood out of her and resurrect Elfie. Things go steadily downhill and fire becomes the cleansing agent. Hans and his girlfriend manages to escape the blaze.

Generally it's about average. There's a Blu-ray out with four versions of the film. I can't see buying that, I don't think I want to spend that much time with the film. I saw it on YouTube. I'd watch it again but it's pretty low down on the rewatch list.

The Substance 2024Written and directed by Coralie Fargeat.

Demi Moore is a 50 year old actor named Elisabeth. She's being tossed out of her TV exercise show and replaced by a younger woman. Dennis Quid is her boss Harvey, he's a greasy pig of a man. Margaret Qualley is Demi's alter ego Sue, she appears out of Elisabeth's body after she takes a doggy medical procedure. That's what caused the big ass scar on her back in the poster. 

The medical procedure starts with an injection of the activator. It causes a younger body to grow inside of her body. The process only takes a short while before it rips through Elisabeth's back leaving that big ass opening. To make the split work there are a series of daily injections. It's a disappointing treatment, Elisabeth doesn't actually become young, she calves a younger version of herself that spends a week awake followed by a week awake for Elisabeth. The sleeping body gets a package of goo feed to it intravenously. Supposedly the two share one conscience and must follow the routine or there will be consequences. 

Sue applies for Elizabeth's job and gets it. She's enjoying her freedom and youth so much she starts being selfish and breaking the rules. First Elisabeth's finger withers. Eventually it gets so bad that Elisabeth turns into a hideous lump of flesh who just wants to be admired by her fans. When she goes to the studio to appear in Sue's TV special the audience reacts in horror. The big goopy ending is rather funny. 

Some commenter on the IMDb compared the movie to The Toxic Avenger. I can see the similarity but TTA was rather more entertaining. I'd rather watch that over than The Substance. In the end I was reminded not to take medical treatments from a dirty alley in a rundown part of town. A good lesson learned from many movies, that trick never works.

Barbarella 1969

Barbarella 1969 Based on the comic book Barbarella by Jean-Claude Forest, screenplay by Terry Southern, Roger Vadim, Claude Brulé, Vittorio Bonicelli, Clement Biddle Wood, Brian Degas, Tudor Gates and Jean-Claude Forest, directed by Roger Vadim. I went to see Barbarella in the theater when it was new. I liked it then and still do.

Jane Fonda plays Barbarella, an agent for the Earth government, who's sent to Tau Ceti to capture Duran Duran and retrieve his new weapon, the positronic ray, that could wipe out humanity. Her ship has trouble and crashes on a planet in the Tau Ceti system. She has a series of adventures trying to find Duran Duran. She's almost killed by murderous dolls but gets rescued by a hairy man who captures runaway children. He introduces her to real physical sex, long gone out of favor on Earth, and send her off to the main city of Sogo.

In Sogo Barbarella meets the blind angel Pygar, Professor Ping, the Black Queen, Dildano and the Concierge. She finds Duran Duran and escapes the clutches of the evil Black Queen with the help of Dildano and Pygar. She shags a few of them along the way.

It's all pretty silly and entertaining, even after numerous viewings over the years. The sets, costumes and characters are fun and there's always something to see as the story plays out. I just picked up the Arrow 2 disc Blu-ray and that was packed with hours of extras, including a commentary by Tim Lucas. Worth picking up for the fans of the movie.

Friday Night Movies 1004

Reptilicus 1961 Written by Ib Melchior and  Sidney W Pink, directed by Poul Bang. We watched the new Blu-ray of the Danish version of Reptilicus. The English and Danish versions of the film were shot at the same time with the same cast and crew. Pink directed the English version for AIP, when he delivered a poor film, Melchior made changes. Pink was so upset he sued AIP but after seeing the finished version he dropped the charges. Pink is not noted for his direction, he's more a producer.

Miners are drilling for copper in Lapland, they find a frozen dinosaur tail and bring that to Denmark's Aquarium in Copenhagen. Scientist put the tail in a big freezer but it accidentally gets thawed out. Poor Peter will pay deadly for falling asleep later in the film. Surprisingly the tail doesn't start to rot, it starts to regrow a whole Reptilicus. That's the name the head scientist gives the creature, he compares it's regrowth to the starfish.

There's not much going on while the creature is regrowing. The head scientist's daughter falls for the tall and moody miner, the head scientist's other daughter falls for the gruff American general. There's a goofy janitor for some comic relief, he sings a song to some kids in a park. The main characters are either at the Aquarium or gallivanting around Denmark. At one point they visit the Trivoli Gardens and hear a song.

When the tail regenerates it becomes a whole creature and breaks out of it's holding cell. During it's rampages around Denmark, many die. They're fighting a creature with the ability to regrown from a single bit of flesh. That makes it dangerous to use explosives to kill it. Eventually they figure out what to do. The beast is knocked out and the head scientist says he'll dispose of it. They leave us with an open door for a sequel. Sadly, there's never been one.

The Danish version hadn't been released in the US before this Vinegar Syndrome release. It's quite a bit longer, 94 mins instead of 81 mins, and Reptilicus flies. The monster is a puppet, he's not the greatest but Denmark isn't famous for it's giant monster movies. A lot of reviews of both versions sure don't care for the monster. At least he doesn't spit green slime in the Danish version, that green slime was so fake looking in the English version. The Danish version is nicely restored, it looks and sounds great. We were all a bit excited to see this version. Most of us have seen this movie more than a couple of times. The Danish version is definitely more of a movie than the English version. It's still not a great film but it's fun to watch. I had fun watching it and would want to get my own copy to rewatch.

Intrepidos Punks 1988 Writers Tomás Fuentes, Roberto Marroquin and Ulises Pérez Aquirre. A Mexican bikers vs cops film.

Bikers break their leader out of jail and start a crime spree. Two cops are on their tail. The cops get a bit of help but they keep getting beat down. When the bikers aren't robbing and raping they're taking drug and having orgies. There's plenty of driving about and fighting. Both would be less dull if they had managed to edit the film better, it drags way more than it should. The car chase is unambitious. The biker gang has it's own theme, a lackluster song at best, sadly it's repeated Ad infinitum. Not one I'm going to pick up for myself. I was glad to have seen it but only in the I've seen another movie way, yay for me.

Science Fiction Sunday 803

2 + 5 Missione Hydra 1966 Written by Pietro Francisci and Fernando Paolo Girolami, directed by Pietro Francisci. A dubbed version was released in the US in 1977 under the title Star Pilot. It has a new script by Ian Danby and additional footage from other movies. I saw the US version some years ago. I picked up the Blu-ray during the current Kino Lorber sale. It has the original film and the US version. I watched both and listened to the commentary on the original version.

The movie opens as a spaceship from the planet Hydra lands on Sardinia and buries itself in the ground. Next we spend some time with a young lady on a movie set. She drives around Rome with her friend and goes to pick up her scientist father. They get involved with an accident and takes an unconscious man to a clinic at the airport. The actress, her friend and her father all take a ride in a helicopter to a remote location. The unconscious man wakes and runs off to join the suspicious guys in a big car.

At the remote camp the scientist and his team do some work, it leads them to a cave where they find and enter the ship. The aliens observe the humans and figure they might be the ones needed to make repairs to their ship. They take the scientist, his daughter and a couple of technicians hostage and make them do the work.

Once the ship is repaired the aliens decide to take the humans with them to Hydra. During the flight the humans rebel. The ship is damaged and a photonic storm sends them to a strange planet the aliens are unfamiliar with, they land and look the place over. There's some time for romance before the ape creatures attack. There's a bit of a battle and the ship leaves. They return to Earth to find the place a mess, cities have been destroyed. There's a montage of destruction and some dramatic music. They leave the Earth behind and travel to another planet where they meet some nice aliens. 

It's much more entertaining to see the Italian version of the film. It's still not a great film but the story holds together a bit better. It comes across as more satirical and camp, similar to films like Barbarella and Wild Wild Planet. The 4K restoration is nice looking with clear images and sound track. There's a spirited audio commentary with David Del Valle and Matteo Molinari. David's a film historian and Matteo works in the film industry. Matteo was born and raised in Italy until he moved to the US as a teenager. They've got a good bit of info to share. Glad I bought the Blu-ray. I'll probably watch it again someday.

Sins Of The Fleshapoids 1966

Sins Of The Fleshapoids 1966 Directed by Mike Kuchar. An underground SF movie set a million years in the future. It's only 43 minutes long.

Future men have created human like androids called Fleshapoids, they treat the androids like slaves and live in comfort. Having had enough, a male androids kills the woman who's his master and runs away with a female android. There's a bit of a revolution. The script is vague on what's going on, it's all a guess on my part. The movie lacks any audible dialog, there are word balloons superimposed on the screen for some of the times someone speaks. It doesn't matter, it's just not that good. I downloaded a copy from the Internet Archive, see link in title. Don't expect anything. Not something I'd rush to get back to at any rate.

Science Fiction Sunday 796

The Day The Earth Caught Fire 1961 Screenplay by Wolf Mankowitz and Val Guest, directed by Val Guest. A British disaster film about the Earth being blown off it's axis by nuclear blasts.

We follow a reporter about just after the US and the Soviets conduct nuclear tests. The weather starts to change over a short period of time. The Earth has gotten hotter, rivers and lakes evaporate. It's found that the blasts have tipped the Earth by 11 degrees and things are awful all over. Shortly after it's revealed that the Earth is closer to the sun. The heat rises and many die. The governments of the world hope to correct that by blasting off 4 more big nukes.

It's a pretty good film. It's B&W except for some yellow tinted bits at the beginning and the end. It's a talky film but the script is good and there's a good cast behind it. I liked the scenes at the newspaper office as the staff deal with the crisis. There's a bit of romance mixed in with all the horrible calamity. It seems a bit bold for 1961. They use a good bit of stock footage to depict the disasters around the world. It's done quite effectively.

There's a rather ambiguous ending. Not sure why people do that sort of ending. Not my favorite story element. I watched a DVD from Kino-Lorber that has the 2014 remastered print. Looks nice. I'd want to watch it again sometime. Definitely worth seeing.

It Came From Somewhere 2022 Written by Steve Hermann and Bryan Parkerson, directed by Ashley Hefnew and Steve Hermann.

The movie is a modern attempt to recreate a low budget picture from the 1950s. It's a mash up of Plan 9 From Outer Space and Teenagers From Space. These parody films rarely work for me. The film makers never seem to understand that Ed Wood wasn't setting out to make a bad film. He thought he had something going on but he had more enthusiasm than talent.

This time the aliens are planning to take over the Earth by enacting Plan 10. The alien's soldier monster gets loose and befriends a little girl. One alien is a killing machine, the locals get blasted one after another, their skeletons pile up as the alien moves on. The other alien falls for an Earth woman. Ultimately the aliens fail in their mission. The Earth is saved until the next alien invasion.

Sadly it's not that good. Lucky for me it was only an hour. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. You can watch it on YouTube but I'm not going to watch it again. It's an insult after the first movie.

Friday Night Movies 948

Space Monster Wangmagwi 1967 Written by Byeon Ha-yeong and directed by Kwon Hyeok-jin. A South Korean movie that's been unseen in the West until SRS Cinema licensed the film in 2022, they released it on media June 13 2023. I bought the DVD that was on Amazon.

SRS ruins the experience by having one of the loudest menu screens I've heard in a while. Another annoying thing, the box lies by claiming the film is 1080p but it's really 720p. It's probably talking about the limited edition Blu-ray which they don't sell through Amazon. They only made 2000 copies and aren't making anymore. I find the limited edition treatment as annoying as any really annoying thing.

Some space aliens invade the Earth, the giant monster guy is their weapon. He stumbles around a bit, scares the locals, knocks over some buildings, and uses a gas spray in it's head to burn some other office blocks. Despite the collateral damage it's hardly exciting stuff. A jet pilot, his wife and a homeless boy fight the monster and win. The aliens leave with their tails between their legs. The subplot with the bride and her mother was funny but it was really mostly padding to get the movie to 90 mins.

There were some funny bits and some odd bits. Different sense of humor. In a crowded space in a building a man really needs to go, he decides to go on a newspaper in a corner, the monster bumps into the building and he's knocked over into his own pooh. Across the room a woman gives birth to a child. There are several scenes with two scared guys, they just aren't that funny for the amount of screen time they get.

I did like the part where the homeless kid pees inside the head of Wangmagwi. That's not something you see very often. All in all it was kind of fun but not great. A lot of people on the IMDb, 19 out of 51 voters, gave the movie a 6 or a 7, I'm struggling to give it a 5.

Notzilla 2020 Written and directed by Mitch Teemley. It's a parody of kaiju films that was made in Cincinnati.

The JSDF kills a monster in Japan. A paleontologist takes her egg and heads for Ohio. Through a silly accident the eggs gets out of his control. An idiot scientist and his more capable assistant find the egg, it hatches and they try to take care of it. The paleontologist finds they and despite his warning not to get the monster beer, the idiot scientist does so. The little kids size monster grows really big and gets out.

There's a struggle between the idiot scientist and the paleontologist, the idiot wants to kill the creature and the paleontologist wants to revert him to his original zine. There's plenty of running about as they put their plans in motion. A romance develops between the paleontologist and the assistant.

There were a lot of jokes but I wasn't finding them that funny. A lot of it fell flat to me. It's almost like they're trying too a little too hard. It's got a good size cast and they all have a quirky personality. A bit tiring. There were so many in jokes and movie references they became rather distracting. Someone gave me a download, I'll keep it but I might not get back to it anytime soon. You can watch it on YouTube.

Planet Of The Vampires 1965

Planet Of The Vampires 1965 Based on One Night Of 121 Hours, by Renato Pestriniero, screenplay by Alberto Bevilacqua, Callisto Cosulich, Mario Bava, Antonio Román and Rafael J Salvia, directed by Mario Bava. The English version of the film was written by Ib Melchior and Louis M Heyward.

Someone gave me the Kino Lorber Blu-ray of the movie. I've seen the movie 2 or 3 times already. It's one of the few Bava films I've seen more than twice. I was interested in the Tim Lucas commentary so I watched the movie with that on. It was interesting for the most part. He's got a lot of info. At some point I'll watch the movie once again.

Friday Night Movies 899

The Seventh Curse 1986 Based on Ni Kuang's Dr Yuen novels, screenplay by Wong Jing and Yuen Gai-chi, directed by Lam Ngai Kai. Chin Siu-ho plays Dr Yuen and Cho Yun-fat plays Wisely, a character featured in Ni's Wisely novels.

Dr Yuen has a blood curse and he asks Wisely about a cure. Dr Yuen goes back to Thailand to find the cure and battles the evil sorcerer Aquala. Maggie Cheung plays Tsui Hung, a rich girl playing reporter who gets them in trouble because she's a selfish and unthinking asshole. We were wishing bad things on her. Dick Wei plays Black Dragon, he helps Dr Yuen and Wisely fight Aquala.

There's plenty of martial arts action, lots of gun shooting, explosions, noise and chaos. There's a good bit of magical jiggery pokery, much gore, and some entertaining ghosts and monsters. Wong Jing might not always write a coherent script but he's not shy of throwing everything he can think of into a film. It's funny and deadly serious on top of that.

We watched the new 88 Films Blu-ray from England. Something one would need an all region Blu-ray player to watch in the US. Sadly, no US release so far. It looks great. I was happy to see it again, the last time was in 1996 and that was on VHS. I'll stick it on my want list and hope the price comes down a bit.

The Flesh Eaters 1964 Written by Arnold Drake and directed by Jack Curtis. The cinematography was done by Curtis using the name Carson Davidson. Arnold was a comic book writer who co-created Deadman and the Doom Patrol for DC and The Guardians Of The Galaxy for Marvel. The film was edited by Radley Metzger.

A group of people are flying to Provincetown, a storm causes them to land the sea plane near a tiny island. They find Martin Kosleck there and shelter with him. He's a marine biologist collecting specimens. So he says. There turns out to be a more sinister reason for his presence on the island.

We watched this film at Friday Night Movies night 31 back in 2005. I think I still feel about the film the same way as I did then. Not a great film but an entertaining film. You can watch it on YouTube, link in title.