PRIMITIVE SCREWHEADS

Friday Night Movies 982

Santet 2 1988 Written by Naryono Prayitno and directed by Sisworo Gautama Putra. An Indonesian sequel to Santet. It's part of a double film Blu-ray by Vinegar Syndrome. 

Having killed off the baddie in the first movie Katemi tries to give up the black magic life and settle back into village life. She's forced back into the black magic lifestyle by Nyi Loreng, the ghost of the long dead master of Katemi's recently dead master Nyi Angker. Nyi Loreng puts a curse on Katemi which turns her into a tiger. At night she terrorizes the village as a tiger. Nyi Loreng wants revenge for the murder of her pupil but Katemi doesn't want to kill anyone.

The son of the baddie in the first movie is a drug smuggler in Jakarta. The same actor plays father and son. The son moves to the seaside village to run his business. The local police are rather dim but the Jakarta police are there to wreck the son's drug smuggling operation. Luckily the local Muslim teacher helps Katemi fight the bad influences. Eventually things are sorted out and Katemi gets to marry the local Muslim teacher.

It wasn't as much fun as the first but I did get a few laughs. There's not as much black magic stuff going on in this one. It's more a comedy with a large bit of on screen time devoted to the local comic relief machine constable and his wife. It's pretty lowbrow and only marginally funny. I was laughing at the film making more than the jokes. The effects are fair to poor with the tiger suit getting plenty of laughs.

Infinity Pool 2023 Written and directed by Brandon Cronenberg. A science fiction movie that's heavy on the drama.

The movie is set in the fictional country of Li Tolqa. Tourists have to stay in the resort as the locals are a bad lot. A writer and his rich wife are befriended by a couple who convince them to take a trip to a beach outside the resort. On the way back the writer is driving the car, he hits a local who dies. They leave the body there and run away after the husband of the other couple convinces the writer that the police are corrupt and it will go bad for them once they fall into the police's hands. It's astonishing to me that people would pick that country for a vacation.

The next morning the police come and arrest the writer and his wife. They know everything and the writer is given the dead penalty. He's also given a tourist out option, for a large pile of cash the police will provide a clone for the dead man's family's eldest son to kill. It's a pretty old school, an eye for an eye, sort of country so you know there's plenty of opportunity for corruption. He takes the option and pays for the clone. They have sit and watch the son of the dead man kill the clone.  His rich wife is horrified and really wants to leave.

It's just the start of a downhill slide for the writer. He becomes a complete piece of shit joining some other tourists who have been cloned before in beating a local police man. More badness follows. Eventually he finds out his new pals are just fucking with him, trying to turn him into another murder tourist like them. They break his brain and he winds up sitting in the monsoon rain staring out to sea across the infinity pool. 

I certainly didn't care for the pieces of shit that the writer got involved with and for the man the writer became. I can't see spending time with that sort. The movie is a good reminder to distrust the rich and powerful. It's not hard to imagine many of them turning into murder tourists and killing for fun. I didn't care much for the movie despite it being well made and the cast doing a great job. I wouldn't need to watch it again.

Friday Night Movies 981

Zerograd 1988 written by Karen Shakhnazarov and Alexander Borodyansky, directed by Karen Shakhnazarov. A Russian film that's also known as Zero City. We watched a nice Blu-ray from Deaf Crocodile..

A man goes to a town to visit a manufacturer who makes back covers for the air conditioners that his company sells. He has a very surreal time and meets some odd characters, including his father. The father kills himself because the man doesn't eat some of the father's cake. Now the man is involved with a death and the police are suspecting that it was murder. They won't let him leave the area. He wanders around interacting with the locals. Much of what happens pokes fun at Russian life.

Vinegar Syndrome sells the movie and their marketing material says it's a mix of Kafka, Agatha Christie and Monty Python. I could see why they say that. Parts of it are fascinating to look at, parts are confusing and parts are rather funny. I enjoyed it for the most part, there's a bit too much staring off into the distance for my liking, but I did have some laughs. It reminds me that I was lucky not to be born in Russia. I might want to watch the movie over but I'm not planning to buy the Blu-ray.

Weird: The Al Yankovic Story 2022 Screenplay by Al Yankovic and Eric Appel, directed by Eric Appel.

A highly fictional version of Al's life. I thought some of it was hilarious, other parts less so. It started off strong but I though the last third was sort of weak. I liked Daniel Radcliffe as Al and I liked seeing Toby Huss as Al's father. Some might remember Toby from The Adventures Of Pete & Pete where he played Artie: The Strongest Man In The World.

Mostly it was fun and I got a few laughs out of it. Someone gave me the DVD and I plan to listen to the commentary on that at some point.

Friday Night Movies 980

The Spider Labyrinth 1988 Story by Tonino Cervi, screenplay by Riccardo Aragno, Cesare Frugoni and Gianfranco Manfredi, directed by Gianfranco Giagni. An Italian picture that's mostly shot in Budapest. We watched the Severin Blu-ray, it looked very nice.

Alan, an American history researcher from Dallas, is sent to Budapest to check up Professor Roth. In the opening sequence we see Alan as a boy being scared of a large spider. From the title you can guess that the film is filled with spider imagery. Alan is part of a large group of researchers working on an international project. Roth has stopped reporting in and Alan is sent to Budapest to see what's up with the Prof. As soon as Alan gets to the city strange things start happening involving spiders.

Poor Alan doesn't know the extent of the evil he's blundered into and he doesn't learn too fast. Even when he's warned he doesn't try to leave until it's too late. It has a very Giallo like look and feel. People on the IMDb compare it to work by Dario Argento. It's a bit slow to get going but once things start moving it's bad for Alan. Sadly, he does survive. He's part of the gang now.

There's plenty of interesting scenery, Budapest is an attractive city, very colorful. There's a good bit of gore and blood splashed about. It's more garish than realistic. The special effects are fairly good but but most of them are in the last half of the movie. There are some nice stop motion spiders. I enjoyed it and would watch it again sometime. Doubt if I'd buy a copy myself. You can download a copy of it on Rarelust.

Santet 1 1988 Directed by Sisworo Gautama Putra. There's no writer credited on the IMDb. An Indonesian film about murder and revenge and magic.

The head gangster owns the bar and brothel in a small town. He's an ugly fellow, his face is raved by drink. He decides to poison his wife as she's sick all the time. He blames the death on the village cleric. The gangster incites his men to beat the cleric and burn him alive. The cleric's wife Katemi runs off into the swamp where she encounters a witch who's half woman and half alligator. The witch gives Katimi some powers to get her revenge on and Katimi does the baddies up royally.

The effects are rather poorish but the enthusiasm of the movie more than makes up for it. I was entertained and would watch it again some time. We watched the new Vinegar Syndrome Blu-ray and I laughed a lot. There's a sequel on the same disc.

Friday Night Movies 972

The Rare Blue Apes Of Cannibal Isle 1975 Written by Donn Greer and Peter Scriven, directed by Donn Greer. It's part of the new 10 film box set Lost Picture Show from Vinegar Syndrome. Donn Greer was better known for some of his exploitation films. This was his 11th film. I've only seen one of his other works, the 1969 film Alice In Acidland.

A movie that seems heavily inspired by Sid and Marty Kroff's puppet shows. A kid chases after his duck and the kid's boat washes up on Cannibal Isle. The place is home to two types of creatures, a race of alligator pirates and a race of blue apes. The boy get caught by the pirates and escapes with their blue ape captive. They get chased to the ape half the island.

 

It's also a musical and they are some of the worst songs I've heard. They're rather lack luster and hardly anyone can sing. The boy has his adventure, the boss pirate gets blown up a bit, eventually the boy returns home with his duck. The boy's sister proceeds to step on the poor duck during the welcome home, the duck runs off, stage left.

They tout the film up on the VS promo material but its just a mild diversion that I might not ever watch again. I'm not that likely to order the set. I was the first person to vote for the movie on the IMDb. I gave it a 5 for sheer ludicrousness. It's not that good.

Bikini Drive-In 1995 Written and directed by Fred Olen Ray.

A young woman inherits a drive-in movie theater from her late uncle. Her boyfriend won't help her fix it up so she dumps him. Her best gal pal lends a hand and ropes in her boyfriend. The crew at the drive-in pitch in too. Joining that lot is the son of a local developer who's not that happy with his father. His old man, David F Friedman, wants to turn the drive-in into a big mall and apartment complex.

It's pretty dumb and not every well written. There's plenty of boobs to see but most of them are silicon. Everything works out well enough for the young woman, she even hooks up with the developer's son.

Like some of Fred's movies there's a stack of old stars on offer: Ross Hagen, Peter Spellos, David F Friedman, Conrad Brooks, Gordon Mitchell and Hoke Howell.

Another one that I wouldn't need to pick up.

Friday Night Movies 970

Rabid Grannies 1988 Written and directed by Emmanuel Kervyn. A Belgium film shot in English for the international market. The film was released by Troma in the US. I saw it years ago but had no memory of any of it. The Troma release is cut by a few minutes. The new Vinegar Syndrome is uncut and nice looking.

 

A couple of rich aunties are having their family over for dinner. The ladies are celebrating their birthdays. The family members are only there to keep on the aunt's good side so they might inherit their wealth when they die. The family are a mixed lot, hardly any of them likable.

 

After dinner the sister's open their presents, one of the which is from an estranged relative who wasn't invited. The present is a small wooden box, it appears to be empty but it really contains some sort of spell, or curse, and a smokey mist floats out and changes the two sisters into demons. That's the second lie in the title, not grannies and no rabies.

The demons are really aggressive, they attack the family and servants, chasing them around the old mansion, picking them off one by one. A few of the guests fight back but hardly anyone survives. There's a good bit of gore and action once the possession takes place.

I enjoyed it and thought it had a nice sense of humor. I doubt I'm going to get the VS Blu-ray. I might want watch it over again someday but it would be pretty far down the re-watch list if I had one.

The Troma VHS and DVD were cut by a few minutes, mostly gore, that footage was made available as an extra on the DVD. The trimmed footage was added back into the Troma Blu-ray in 2015. You can see a decent copy of the untrimmed film on YouTube.

Attack Of The 60 Foot Centerfold 1995 Written by Steve Armogida and directed by Fred Olen Ray. I saw this back in 1997 but had forgotten everything about it.

Three magazine centerfolds are visiting the Hugh Hefner like publisher at his Plaything mansion. They are in the running for Centerfold of the Year. J J North, Tammy Parks and Raelyn Saalman play the gals. There's plenty of nudity from the ladies and plenty of sleaze from the men. J J has been taking a rejuvenating formula, feeling a bit run down before the visit to the mansion she stops into see her doctor for a pick me up. He warns her, one vial a day, no more.J J takes a vial when she gets home. A bit later the doctor's lab has an issue, a couple of their mice have grown to human size, one of them has escaped.

Out at the mansion the gals have a bit of a convo with the publisher and settle into their rooms. This movie. like the previous movie. has a gag involving a person carrying in all the guest's luggage to their bedrooms. Rather than sensibly making two or three trips they gather up all the bags and stumble about. Neither gag is very natural or funny. Most of the humor in RG works better than that joke and most of the gags in AOT60FC aren't funny at all.

After a bit of drinking the night before J J wakes in need of a bit of rejuvenation. Of course she takes 3 vials and that perks her right up. It also makes her grow. Soon she's 60 feet high. Rather than help her the publisher and his photo taking guy are planning to exploit her and dump her in the hands of the government to study. The photographer doesn't call J J's doctor.

J J spends the last half the movie big. Lucky for her, she's got a pal in the photographer's assistant. He's in love with J J, he calls the doctor who luckily has a machine that can reduce her. Before the doc can get to the mansion, Tammy finds J J's stash of rejuvenation juice and gulps down 4 vials. She turns big and the giants have a bit of a dust up on the beach. The fight takes them to LA where the doctor reduces them to normal with the help of a machine. In the lab the reduction ray machine caused one of the giant mice to explode after reduction. The ray works on both gals, shortly after Tammy blows up, killing the sleazy photographer, and leaving J J's fate unknown.

The cast is littered with old timers, John LaZar, George Stover, Michelle Bauer, Ross Hagen, Stanley Livingston, Forrest J Ackerman, Jim Wynorski and Tommy Kirk. Sadly most of them don't have much to do and what the poor script gives them is kind of lame. You can see a poor copy on YouTube, link in the title. I wouldn't recommend it. There's a better copy on Rarelust.

Friday Night Movies 968

Tokyo: The Last Megalopolis 1987 Based on the 1985 Hiroshi Aramata novel called Teito Monogatari, screenplay by Kaizo Hayashi, directed by Akio Jissoji. The novel was written in 10 parts over two years, two more parts were added in the following two years, the movie adapts the first third of the novel.

The movie is a retelling of Tokyo's history from 1912 to just after the 1923 earthquake but with the premise that the occult and demons are real. Tokyo is supposed to be one of the most haunted cities in Japan. Living far below the city is the spirit Taira no Masakado. Supposedly it's a powerful being capable of destroying the city.

Kato wants to release Masakado and destroy Tokyo. He kidnaps a medium to communicate with the spirit. Other folks oppose him and try to stop waking up Masakado. They battle for a while, eventually the 1923 quake happens and the story ends around 1927.

I got most of that from the Wikipedia, the movie isn't very forthcoming with a lot of details. It's a complicated story with plenty of characters coming and going. I thought it a good looking movie but I thought the film makers valued style over story telling. They did a good job bringing the 1920s to life. I still enjoyed it for the most part but I doubt I'd rush to see it again. You can see it on YouTube.

Demon Of Paradise 1987 Written by Frederick Bailey and C J Santiago, directed by Cirio H Santiago. A New Horizon Pictures film that's set in Hawaii but filmed in the Philippines.

Some jerks are dynamite fishing, the explosions awaken an ancient monster that lives in the lake. The jerks are tossing lit sticks of dynamite into the lake when the monster attacks, he causes them to drop a lite bundle of dynamite sricks into the boat. The result blows the boat to smithereens killing at least a couple of the jerks. That was a decent explosion and the first warning against using dynamite in this nearly 90 min PSA on the dangers of mixing liquor, stupidity and explosives.

The local resort owner wants to exploit the monster, the local sheriff wants to evacuate the area, the local scientist wants to find the creature and capture it. The latter team up to try to fight the beast. The sheriff and the scientist have to fight another beast when they want to close the resort for the safety of the tourists. The resort owner goes full on asshole to stay open. It's very Jaws meets The Creature From The Black Lagoon but without the charm of either of those films. More people get killed, two more boats get blown up and the tourists run away. The police fight the monster with bullets and dynamite and barely survive.

There is some nice scenery but many other parts of the film don't rise to the same level. The script is poor as are the actors. The cinematography is fairly good and so is the monster makeup. The music was a bit of a mixed bag, some bits better than others. I enjoyed it somewhat but it's still below average. I'm not likely to watch it again. There's a decent copy of the movie on YouTube that you can watch if you want.

Friday Night Movies 966

Visitors From The Arkana Galaxy 1981 Written by Miloš Macourek and Dušan Vukotić, directed by Dušan Vukotić. A Yugoslav-Czechoslovak comedic SF production.

That's Andra, Robert and Bibi, Andra is an alien, Robert is a hotel clerk and budding SF writer, Bibi is his girlfriend. Robert neglects Bibi to work on his book. From what we can see he's a poor writer and Bibi's frustrated with him. Unbeknownst to Robert he has the power to create stuff with his mind. The act of writing his book brings the aliens  to life and they come to visit him. Things get worse when Andra and her two children turn up.

 

The alien visit causes havoc in Robert's life, especially when the local citizens learn about them. Things get better when Robert mans up a bit. Weird things happen through out the movie. There's even a monster that kills people. There's some special effects that were about average for the time and place.

I enjoyed it and would watch it again sometime. Not sure I would buy the Blu-ray.

Babylon 5: The Road Home 2023 Screenplay by J Michael Straczynski and directed by Matt Peters. An animated film set in the Babylon 5 universe.

John Sheridan has become the President of the Interstellar Alliance and has moved to Minbar. The opening of a new power station that uses tachyons sends him on a journey through time and space. He visits with various people in his life and some in alternate universes. Some of them help him figure out what's going on and how to get back to his time and place.

I would have preferred more of a story. I thought it was a bit like an intro for people who hadn't seen the series before, it could be used as the pilot for an animated series. I wasn't that keen on the character design but I got used to it. I'd like to see new B5 material.

The Blu-ray has a commentary with J Michael and Bruce Boxleitner and a featurette. I hope to get to those soon.

Friday Night Movies 959

Mojin: The Worm Valley 2018 Screenplay by Muye Zhang and directed by Xing Fei. A Chinese film that is a sort of sequel to Mojin: The Lost Legend.

Some cursed people set out to find the Mu Chen Orb. It's supposed to break the curse and cure the afflicted. They have some adventures on the way to the mountain they have to travel under. There's plenty of giant critters once they get below the surface. There's also a lot of talking and slow patches. The giant sets are nice and the action scenes are exciting.

I'm thinking it might play better if it was trimmed a bit. It also ends with a gaping open door for the sequel that never materialized. I enjoyed it but no where near as much as the first film. I bought the Blu-ray and I'll keep it but when I get around to watching it again I'll have my finger on the speed control.

Grotesque 1988 Story by Joe Tornatore, screenplay by Mikel Angel, directed by Joe Tornatore. Joe's been an actor and stuntman since he appeared as a gorilla in the the 1968 Planet Of The Apes. Except for a short film in 2012 he hasn't been acting since 1994. He wrote 8 films and directed 14 films. I don't recognize any of his work and none of his films gets more than a 4.9 on the IMDb.

Linda Blair and her best pal go visit her mother and father in a house in the mountains in California. Her father is an effect makeup guy who works on horror movies. In the middle of the night some punks break into the place and demand the money, jewels or drugs they mistakenly think are there. Hardly anyone survives the night. The movie switches from horror comedy to slasher to monster film to police procedural to revenge flick.

I watched this film on YouTube a couple of weeks ago and it made me laugh a good bit. Not from being funny but from being ludicrous. It's generally just a below average low budget film with a poor script, a poor director and a cast with limited talents. Some of the older actors, Guy Stockwell, Tab Hunter and Charles Dierkop are a bit better than some of the other cast. Despite all that I ordered the Shout Factory DVD with 3 other films.

There's a slightly better copy on TubiTV and I've linked to it in the title above. From what I can gather the movie was released to the theaters at 79 mins, you can watch that version on YouTube. The movie was padded out for TV and about 14 mins was added. You can check out both versions and see what you think. I'm thinking it might be a while before I get back to it.

Friday Night Movies 954

Gore From Outer Space 2001 Directed by Hirohisa Sasaki.

I though I hadn't see the movie before but when I looked it up on the IMDb I had voted for it on 6-17-14. I looked it up on my watched movie list and sure enough it's listed as being seen on 6/6/14. It was an earlier FNM night. I gave the movie a score of 7 on the IMDb which means I liked it more that time than this time. I'll try not to watch it again.

The Return Of Captain Invincible 1983 Written by Steven E de Souza and Andrew Gaty, directed by Philippe Mora. I don't recall seeing this but it was out at a time I used to go to the theater more often.

It's an Australian superhero musical comedy with Alan Arkin and Christopher Lee. There's a new Blu-ray out from Severin, that's what we watched.  The original poster is on top and the cover to the Severin release is below, conveniently labeled. I don't care for the Severin cover much at all. The movie I have mixed feelings about, I enjoyed the parts with Christopher Lee as the villain but many of the scenes with Captain Invincible weren't as entertaining. I'm not that happy with the songs for the most part and many of the jokes fall flat. It did poorly at the Australian box office, grossing $55K on a $7mil cost. Another one that I was happy to see but I doubt I'd watch it again.

Friday Night Movies 940

Curse Of The Blue Lights 1988 Story by Bryan Sisson, screenplay, cinematography and direction by John Henry Johnson. Released in overseas markets as Blue Lights. Filmed in Pueblo Colorado. It's John's only fictional film, in 1981 he directed a documentary called Damon Runyan's Pueblo and in 1984 he directed the documentary Zebulon Pike and the Blue Mountain.

The IMDb says the movie is 1 hr and 44 mins long, the Code Red DVD says 88 mins on the box but the movie is 93 mins, the new Vinegar Syndrome Blu-ray we watched lists the time at 93 mins, the YouTube video linked in the title above is 93 mins.

A pack of high school students head out for the local make out area. They find something peculiar in the ground. While going for a truck someone steals the item and drags it off. It leads the kids to a cemetery and some underground dwelling ghouls.

Despite it's low budget and amateur production the movie has something going for it. John does try to tell a good story and he does well for having little money. The actors aren't that great but they do alright. The scripts a bit weak and the last quarter fight drags on a bit. It's not overly vicious or gory, the ghouls are almost cartoon character like. They remind me of the baddies in those 70s and 80s Japanese action shows like Kagaku Sentai Dynaman. It made me laugh a bit and I'd probably watch it again sometime. You can try it out on YouTube, you might get a laugh or two.

Dr Caligari 1989 Written by Jerry Stahl and Stephen Sayadian, directed by Stephen Sayadian. Stephen, under the name Rinse Dream, is the director of several porn films including the cult fav Café Flesh. He also directed the Do It Again video for Wall of Voodoo.

In this vague sort of sequel to 1920 film The Cabinet Of Caligari, Dr Caligari, the granddaughter of the original Dr Caligari, runs a mental health clinic and experiments on her patients with glandular brain fluid swaps. The victims patients take on the characteristics of the other swapee. Things fall apart at the clinic as the movie progresses.

It's all very surreal and colorful but lacking a good story. It's 80 mins pokes along at times. I'd seen it in 1990 but had forgotten what the movie was about in the interim, now I know. Don't think I'll need to see it again anytime soon. It's got some value as a novelty piece.