Greg got a copy of the Alpha Home Entertainment release Attack Of The Mushroom People for a dollar. Alpha's a low budget dvd company that puts out mostly public domain material. This is a short, 44 minute, horror film made by a 16 year old guy. It's supposed to be a 1950's sf fillm, black and white, cheap effects, bad acting etc. It's set in the future when there is some sort of global warming issue and octopus creatures are taking over people's minds. Most of the actors are teens and they aren't very good. The director, Joshua Kennedy, is also in the movie as the lead character. He's a guy who was supposed to be off at a war and now he's come home. Looking like he's 14 isn't helping the part any. People on the internet seem to like the movie more than any of us watching tonight did. It seemed mostly like the other reviewers were impressed that a 16 year old did a pretty good job of putting together a short movie and
that the story had a lot of references to the horror film genre. He does have a story, music, effects, in jokes, and he puts the movie together in a way that mostly gets you through to the end. It's just not that interesting to watch. There isn't much about the movie that I can recommend. If I wanted to watch badly made movies I want to watch ones made by professionals. More for the horror film fan that feels he really needs to see every horror film. The dvd has a short film called Frankenstein Vs Hitler. It's another parody, presented as a silent film. There are some slight changes to the Frankenstein novel, Dr Frankenstein is a woman, the monster has a radio for a head and he fights Hitler. At 19 minutes it was a bit to long and we were fast forwarding to get it over with. Not a disc I would need to have but I guess it's nearly worth a buck. At least it's short. Greg says he's going to put it out for 3 bucks at his store and see if some unsuspecting soul buys it. I know it's not going to be me.
Greg also brought the BluRay of Twins Of Evil. I know I hadn't seen that, so I was interested. It's a 1971 Hammer film about vampires and witch hunters. These two twin young ladies go live with their uncle after the death of their parents. Peter Cushing plays their strict puritanical uncle who leads a group of men who hunt down and burn witches. They seem to enjoy their work. There's a lot of shouting and meetings. The local count is an idle whore monger and well connected to the Emperor. The local witch hunters back down when they find him having a naughty time with a woman they suspect is a witch. The naughty twin gets hot for the count about the same time as the he gets turned into a vampire. The count turns the naughty twin into a vampire and things don't go so well for them. Peter and the witch hunters grow a back bone and go hunting for the count. They almost kill the good twin but a good guy saves her. The naughty twin and the count get no mercy. The twins are played by Mary and Madeleine Collinson, who were in a Playboy centerfold togther. They are pretty but only the naughty one takes her clothes off. I was wondering what the other sister might look like. Oh wait. I read that the Collinson girls had their voices dubbed which explains why they seemed odd when they were talking. The sets are great, they were also used in the 1972 Hammer film Vampire Circus. The story is pretty good, occasionally it seemed to jump ahead, or veer off to the side without warning. I felt like there were missing details in the narrative. There's a lot of running about and screaming, some fair bit of gore, and a fairly good ending. I don't know that I need the dvd now that I've seen it but it was entertaining to watch.
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