PRIMITIVE SCREWHEADS

Friday Night Movies 943

Alien From The Abyss 1989 Written by Tito Carpi and directed by Antonio Margheriti. This film was not released in the US until the new Severin Blu-ray. We watched that and it looked pretty good.

A couple of activists sneak onto an island where a geothermal power company is dumping radioactive waste into a volcano. They get a bit of footage on a VHS tape before getting spotted. The guy hides the tape and runs off one way and the gal runs off another. He gets caught and she meets up with a guy who lives on the island collecting snake venom. 

It slows down for a while and picks up in the last act when the monster starts attacking the plant. It's not an inspiring monster but there's carnage for a while, then the movie is over. It's pretty average and I can't for the life of me figure out why it never got released here until now. It got released other places, mostly it seems on VHS. It's just not as bad as I might joke it is, certainly Anthony has directed worse but it's not inspiring me to buy a copy. I see you can download a copy over at Rarelust where it's under the title Alien From The Deep. Not sure I'd bother, I've got so many movies that need watching for the first time.

Mayhem 2017 Written by Matias Caruso and directed by Joe Lynch. I've only seen a couple of Joe's films, Chillerama, Knights Of Badassdom and the 2019 Creepshow TV series. Joe mostly works in the horror genre.

A lawyer explains the current virus that's attacking the world pop. It takes the victim on an 8 hour trip with hallucinations, violent rage and naughty impulses. A recent court case had a man infected with the virus kill a man in a rage, he walked free because he wasn't in control, the virus was.

The day his co-worker throws him under the bus is the day the virus puts the giant law firm into quarantine. The lawyer is framed, blamed, fired and marched out of the building just a bit too late, the quarantine cops are blocking the doors. It's a quick acting virus, the firm is a mean spirited place to start with, the staff has a good reason for fighting. They aren't very good at physical fighting, they're used to fighting with words.

Soon as the virus gets up to speed there's plenty of mayhem and bloodshed. The lawyer and a client fight their way up the 8th floor in order to get a board member to cancel the client's foreclosure and see about getting the lawyer his job back. Many fall along the way, eventually the tower is conquered and the villain slain.

It was fairly fun but I'm not sure I will buy it. I'll put it on my Wish List for now.

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.

Friday Night Movies 937

King Kong Lives 1986 Screenplay by Ronald Shusett and Steven Pressfield, directed by John Gillermin. It was the last theatrical film for Gillermin, he'd direct a TV movie in 1988. Gillermin directed his first film in 1949, he continued to make a mixed lot of pictures through 1974. He directed The Towering Inferno that year, he followed with King Kong in 1976 and Death On The Nile in 1978. I think that was his peak period, despite King Kong being a box office disappointment. His 80s films were a bit lackluster, Crossover, Sheena and King Kong Lives.

After shooting King Kong in the 1975 movie it turned out he wasn't totally dead yet, some university had taken the body and kept him in a comma for the last ten years. Linda Hamilton plans to replace his damaged heart with an artificial heart. In Borneo Brian Kerwin comes across a giant ape lady. He captures her and brings her to Georgia so she can supply blood for the operation.

That goes well and Kong wakes up. He goes a bit nutty when he can smell a female in the area. He breaks out and frees his new lady friend. They run off into the wilds of Georgia with the military after them bent on murder. Linda and Brian team up together to try to save the giant apes. It doesn't go well for King Kong but Lady Kong survives and bears him a son. Kong get a bit of a look at his son just before he finally dies. Brian arranges a sanctuary for the giant apes in Borneo.

It's a below average film and a lot of critics panned it. At the box office it was a flop in the US and Canada, worldwide it took in $48 million on a $18 million budget, $44 million in ticket sales came from Russia where the film was a big hit. Marketing costs put the film in the red and helped bankrupt the De Laurentiis' Company.

I enjoyed seeing the new Blu-ray but it's still a below average film. There was some laughs, especially when Kong chomped down on a hillbilly. There's plenty of special effects but not all successful. I doubt I'd watch it again. I don't have a copy at home and I'm lacking an interest to buy a copy. I don't even have a copy of the 1975 King Kong.

Darker Than Night 1975 Written and directed by Carlos Enrique Taboada. It's a Mexican film by the same director that directed Poison For The Fairies. It's part of Vinegar Syndrome's 3 film set of Taboada films.

A young woman called Ofelia inherits her aunt's house and fortune. Ofelia is the blond gal and she's supposed to take care of her aunt's cat as part of the deal. Ofelia brings her three roommates along.

One of the gals is a cat hater and that eventually leads to a dead cat. Soon after weird things start happening. The dead aunt starts appearing, that's followed by appearances of a dead cat. One gal is killed and that's followed by a couple of other deaths. At no time do we see the police or any other business that might be associated with dead bodies.

There's not much scary going on and on the whole it's rather pokey. If I was kinder I'd say it was atmospheric. There's a lot of wasted time doing nothing before anything interesting happens. After seeing two film by Carlos I'm not thinking I need to buy this box set. There's a 2014 remake that I have not seen. It looks more promising than the original.

Friday Night Movies 936

Violent Night 2022 Written by Pat Casey and Josh Miller, directed by Tommy Wirkola. Tommy is the director behind the Dead Snow and Dead Snow 2. Pat and Josh are the writers behind the Sonic The Hedgehog series, they also wrote, directed and produced Hey, Stop Stabbing Me!

Santa getting drunk in a bar, he's a bit tired of Christmas and no one believes in him much. Back at work he stops on the mansion of the Lightstone family only to run into a robbery. The caterers are really robbers, they want the $300,000,000 in the vault. They kill the guards and staff and take the family hostage.

Santa stumbles on the gang and it unleashes his ancient warrior. He takes a beating but smashes and bashes his way through the baddies in the end. The little girl who believes in him restores him. Back to work.

It's easily as violent as it is funny. Good script for those that like this sort of thing. Nice cast with David Harbour and John Leguizamo standing out. I'd want to watch it again sometime.

Poison For The Fairies 1986 Story, screenplay and direction by Carlos Enrique Taboada. A Mexican film that's called Veneno para las hadas at home.

Flavia starts at a new school, she makes a friend of Veronica. Sadly Veronica is an evil little girl who thinks she's a witch. Her activities get more and more violent and Flavia has to break off their friendship in the worst way...for Veronica.

We watched the new Vinegar Snydrome Blu-ray set. It looked pretty good and sounded fine. It's a bit dull in the third act but heats up at the end. I don't know that I'd need to see it again. You can try downloading the copy at RareLust but it's a huge file.

Friday Night Movies 911

Buried Alive 1989 Vaguely based on Edgar Allen Poe stories, screenplay by Jake Chesi and Stuart Lee, directed by Gérard Kikoïne, produced by Harry Allan Towers. Filmed in Botswana and Johannesburg. We watched the new Blu-ray from Vinegar Syndrome. The image looks alright, there's are interviews with Ginger Lynn Allen and William Butler for extras.

A young teacher, played by Karen Witter, goes to work for Robert Vaughn at his school for troubled young women. These are some annoying bad girls with Ginger Lynn Allen leading the pack. Some women go missing and Robert says they ran away. He tries to come off as caring but he's really a self involved creep. The audience knows that there's someone in a Ronald Reagan mask killing those women and bricking them up in rooms in the basement of the big school building.

Donald Pleasence might be a doctor at the school, the script is unclear. It's generally a poor script. Donald comes off as creepier than Robert. More people die and the new teacher has some weird hallucinations about the murders. She discover one of the bricked up rooms. Arnold Vosloo is a local policeman. John Carradine plays Robert's deceased dad in the teacher's hallucinations.

There's plenty of running about and screaming, a fair bit of violence, a few scares  and an annoying score. Despite that it's somewhat dull at times. I thought it was below average but watchable. Not something I would need to see again.

Samson And The 7 Miracles Of The World 1961 Story by Oreste Biancoli, screenplay by Oreste Biancoli and Duccio Tessari, directed by Riccardo Freda. An Italian and French production with Gordon Scott and Yoko Tani. The film was released in Italy under the name Maciste alla corte del Gran Khan. The American release is from AIP and they cut the original by nearly 20 mins. We watched the original Italian version from the fairly new Kino Lorber Blu-ray. The disc also has the AIP version. The picture looks very nice. There's a commentary by Tim Lucas and some trailers.

Gordon made a half dozen Tarzan films between 1955 and 1960. You can find a nice 6 DVD set from Warner Archive. The films look good and I find them entertaining but I'm a big Tarzan fan.

Though the film is titled Samson And The 7 Miracles Of The World in the West, it's really one of many Maciste films produced in Italy starting with the 1914 film Cabiria.

In 13th century China with Mongol Warlord Garak leads an invading force that controls part of China. There's a resistance force and Maciste joins them to put an end to the Mongol rule. There's plenty of running about in the countryside on horses with oodles of fist fights and sword play. Maciste provides some Herculean feats of strength. There's a bit of romance between Yoko Tani and the rebel leader.

I thought it was a bit draggy at times. It sure made me less interested in picking up the Blu-ray. I've seen the AIP version, I have a copy in one of those 50 Movie Packs from Mill Creek, but it's been so long since I watched it I've forgotten anything about it.

Friday Night Movies 910

The Iceman Cometh 1989 Written by Johnny Mak and Stephen Shiu, directed by Clarence Fok with Yuen Biao directing the action. 

Yuen Biao is a Ming Guard called Fong Sau-chingin 16th century China and Yuen Wah is a nasty villain called Feng Sen who's known to rape and murder young women. After Feng Sen murders the Princess and steals the Black Jade Buddha the Emperor is mad that Fong did not stop Feng Sen. The Emperor orders Fong executed but relents when Fong begs the Emperor for his life. Fong is given 20 days to catch the crook or he's dead and so are his relatives. 

The Black Jade Buddha is a magical item that transports Feng Sen and Fong into the future. They wind up in 1980s Kowloon. Feng Sen disappears from the movie for a while. We follow Fong as he's befriended by a prostitute called Polly, played by Maggie Chung. Polly draws him into her world but Fong's too naive at first to figure out what's going on. They spend a lot of the 114 min movie working on their relationship. It's way too much and the movie nearly drags to a stop about two thirds of the way through. It was easily one of the best sleeping aids I've encountered.

The action is pretty good when it's happening but there's a lot of deadly wait time between bouts. Feng Sen is a more interesting villain than Fong is a hero but Fong eventually defeats the baddie and returns to his time. There's a dumb "happy" ending.

I'd seen this back in 1996 but failed to comment on my watched movie list. I doubt I'd buy the new Blu-ray, I doubt I'd watch it again.

Mutant Hunt 1987 Written and directed by Tim Kincaid. Tim made a few low-budget SF and horror films in his career but mostly he's made gay porn films.

I saw this back in 2012 and the only comment on my Watched Movie List is "Crappy." I don't know where I watched the movie or what format it was on, today we watched the new Vinegar Syndrome Blu-ray. While it looks nice it's still a crappy movie. Another one I won't be buying for my collection. You can watch a poor pan and scan version on YouTube but why would you.

Basket Case The Trilogy

Basket Case The Trilogy

I ordered the Second Sight Blu-ray in August 2020 and I'm finally getting around to it. Second Sight is a UK company but the set is region free and all 3 films have their own disc. I liked all three films with I first saw them.

Basket Case 1982 Written and directed by Frank Henelotter.

Kevin Van Hentenryck plays Duane Bradley, a young man who had a conjoined twin called Belial. They were separated when they were in their early teens, Belial survived and the twin went to live with their Aunt. She died and the twins set out to kill the doctors that separated them. There's three of them and Duane is successful in his endeavor but he creates a big mess and falls off a building.

There's a lot of mayhem and murder in the film, it's all balanced out by a good dose of humor. There's plenty of odd characters and 42nd Street plays a big part in the film. Not for everybody but I still like it after quite a few viewings.

Basket Case 2 1990 Written and directed by Frank Henelotter.

The story picks up with Duane and Belial in a hospital. They are rescued by a woman called Granny Ruth. She's got a nice big house and it's filled with a large number of deformed people. Belial finds a girlfriend while Duane thinks he should be allowed to go off and lead a normal life. He wants the one woman in the house who seems normal to go with him but Granny Ruth's granddaughter Susan isn't willing to leave the group.

Duane and Belial are wanted by the police for all the murders and things get dicey when a snoopy reporter and her photographer spot Duane in the house. The deformed people fight back and the snoopers come to a gory end. Duane gets nuttier and nuttier, especially when he nearly has sex with Susan. The movie ends with Duane killing Susan and then trying to sew Belial back on his body.

It's somewhat sillier than the first movie while still providing plenty of laughs and gooey content.

Basket Case 3 The Progeny 1991 Written by Frank Henenlotter and Robert Martin, directed by Frank Henenlotter.

Some time has past and Duane has been locked in a padded room in Granny Ruth's house. She finally lets him out as the group are going to take a road trip to visit her ex-husband Hal. Belial has gotten his girlfriend pregnant and she wants some help with the birth. Once they get to Hal's house things go downhill pretty quickly. Duane escapes the house and Belial attacks Hal. Duane gets arrested and the cops want the million dollar reward for for the capture of the brothers. Things go bad for the cops when they get involved, many of them die.

Even more gore and mayhem in this one. More laughs too.

It would be 17 years before Frank made another movie.

Bonus Features A mix of older extras from the US DVD and some new stuff. The commentary and the new docu were the most entertaining extras for me.

What's in the basket? A new 79 min docu with director Frank Henenlotter; actors Kevin VanHentenryck, Beverly Bonner, Annie Ross; producers Edgar Ievans and James Glickenhaus; make-up effects artists John Caglione Jr, Kevin Haney, Gabe Bartalos and writer Uncle Bob Martin.

Interview With Graham Humphreys A new interview with the artist who did the cover to the Second Sight Blu-ray set.

Everything below came from the US DVD:

Video introduction by Frank Henelotter

Audio commentary by director Frank Henenlotter, producer Edgar Ievins, and actress Beverly Bonner

Outtakes / Behind-The-Scenes

In Search Of The Hotel Broslin Frank and a pal wonder around New York looking at the places where they filmed the movie.

Trailers / Radio Spots

Photo Gallery: Behind-The-Scenes, Promotional Material, Stills

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.

Friday Night Movies 896

Thunder Of Gigantic Serpent 1988 Screenplay by Yao Ching-Kang, Wu Wen-Liang and Godfrey Ho, directed by Lung-Hsu Yu, English version directed by Godfrey Ho. TOGS was created with scenes from a 1984 Taiwanese film called  King Of Snakes and new footage directed by Godfrey Ho. He had the film dubbed in English and we watched it tonight.

A secret military lab has developed a growth serum that makes plants grow huge. The creator is reluctant to let it be tested on animals without more research. An impatient General takes charge the day some criminals attack the lab to steal the formula. The scientists are all killed but one, she manages to escape the baddies and intentionally crashes her car after tossing the formula out in a specimen case. She bales out of the car but is knocked out and taken to a hospital before she can retrieve the formula.

An annoying little girl finds the case and inadvertently uses the formula on her pet snake. It grows to gigantic proportions and slithers around the city, destroying property and eating the locals. The little girl can't understand why the military would want to attack her pet. By this time, a few mins into the movie, we've all come to hate the annoying little girl. We're hoping she gets eaten. We're all down with the snake.

The annoying girl gets chased by the baddies, she escapes and then is kidnapped. She doesn't know anything about the formula and despite constant threats she manages to survive the kidnapping. We were disappointed. It's generally a disappointing film with it's cobbled together story, cliched script, bad dubbing and clumsy special effects. Made me laugh though. You can see it on YouTube, link in the title above.

Death On The Nile 2022 Based on the Agatha Christie novel, screenplay by Michael Green, directed by Kenneth Branagh. It's the second Christie film with Branagh as Hercule Poirot and Tom Bateman as Bouc.

A long flashback to WWI shows us the reason for Poirot's mustache, shrapnel scars below his nose. We jump ahead to 1937 and Poirot is watching a singer in a nightclub. Six weeks pass and Poirot encounters his old friend Bouc at the pyramids in Egypt. Bouc's mother is there, played by Annette Bening. Poirot agrees to go on a cruise with Bouc up the Nile.

There's a long good time spent on the ship meeting all the passengers and being filled in on their melodrama. Inevitably someone is murdered and everyone is stuck on the ship while Poirot works his little grey cells. There's the usual tension among the suspects but no matter, Poirot comes through with the goods.

It's a very gorgeous film, there's plenty of scenery filmed at the golden hour. It almost makes me wish I was boating up the Nile. Hopefully I'm not the one getting murdered. Branagh does a good job of playing Poirot. The script was OK but I didn't think much of the WWI backstory and the final scene which ties back to that. I'd still happily recommend it, there's a good murder mystery and a good cast. Branagh and Green are already in development on a third one. I know I'll watch it again sometime and I've got a Blu-ray in the Agatha Christie section of my collection waiting for that day.

Friday Night Movies 894

Scared To Death 1980 Story by William Malone and Robert Short, screenplay and direction by William Malone. Malone started doing makeup and costuming for Don Post Studios. This is his first picture, he'd go on to direct Creature in 1985 and 5 other pictures including the 1999 remake of House On Haunted Hill. He hasn't made a film since 2008.

There's a serial killer stalking the streets of Los Angeles. When we drop into the story about the time of victim number 12's murder. The police aren't getting any good clues from the crime scenes, the mayor and the newspapers are hounding the Chief. Detective Lou Capell gets some pressure from his boss. Lou wants to bring an ex-cop into the mix but the Chief is against it. The ex-cop is a guy called Ted, he had a drinking problem and now writes novels.

In a clumsy, poorly written scene we meet Jennifer, she's Ted's romantic interest. They get involved with each other as the movie progresses, eventually they join Lou in the search for the killer. Sometime along the way we learn that it's some sort of humanoid monster doing the killing. They get a substantial bit of help from one of the scientist's at a bio-lab and it's revealed that the creature is a bio-engineered thing called a Syngenor. It's one of those hard to kill warrior beasts scientist's are always making in movies and it takes a bit to put the creature down.

It would be an OK monster movie except for two big stumbling blocks, the script and the music. The script is poor and the actors can't do much with it. The actors aren't a stellar lot but they get their lines out. The music is annoying and way too loud some of the time. The Syngenor creature is a fairly well made suit. Ten years later another producer used the suit for his picture Syngenor. Like Scared To Death it's kind of a poor film. Both films have a score of 4.2 on the IMDb. I gave Syngenor a 3 some years ago and I gave Scared To Death a 4 last night. I must be getting soft headed in my old age. You can check them both out on YouTube, links above.

Last Night In Soho 2021 Story by Edgar Wright, screenplay by Edgar Wright and Krysty Wilson-Caims, directed by Edgar Wright. It was the last film for Diana Rigg and Margaret Nolan, both of whom passed away in 2020. Margaret played the gold covered woman in the credits to Goldfinger and Diana played Mrs Peel.

Ellie Turner leaves Cornwall for London to attend the London College Of Fashion. She wants to be a clothing designer. She's heavily into 60s style and music. Her roommate is a jerk so she leaves the dorm and takes a small flat on the top of an old house owned by Ms Collins, played by Diana Rigg. Ms Collins is old enough to have lived in the 60s.

Ellie starts having visions of a young woman from the 60s called Sandie who wanted to be a singer but wound up in the clutches of a creep called Jack. Matt Smith plays Jack and he makes a good spiv. In his first scenes Jack seems like a nice guy who likes a bit of fun, soon his darker exploitative side takes control. Next thing you know Sophie is a prostitute working for Jack and his pals.

Ellie follows Sandie's life and finds that she lived int he flat Ellie is in now. She sees Jack murder Sandie there but can't find anything about the murder in the newspapers. She does find there have been a lot of missing men in the Soho area. We'll find out where they've gone soon enough. Ellie's a poor detective, she misreads what's presented to her, at one point she accuses an old bar fly of being Jack but she soon finds out he was a copper who tried to help some of the local gals. If only she had talked to more people about what was going on, she might not have gotten so far off the track.

The story is jazzed up with flashy camera work and musical numbers. I did like the old 60s songs in the soundtrack. I knew most of them from my youth. I didn't care for the noisy music when the movie thought something was happening. It seems overly long, repetitive and kind of self indulgent. There's a decent twisty bit at the end and things work out for Ellie at fashion school.

I still enjoyed it, gave it a 7 on the IMDb and have put the Blu-ray on my Wishlist. It's hard to know if you would like it, it did poorly at the box office, raising $23 mil on a $43 mil budget.