PRIMITIVE SCREWHEADS

Friday Night Movies 1042

Trapped Ashes 2006 Written by Dennis Bartok, directed by Sean S Cunningham, Joe Dante, Ken Russell, Monte Hellman and John Gaeta.

Several people are taking the studio tour with driver and host Henry Gibson. He lets them into the haunted mansion where they get trapped in a big room. Henry tells them they might get out if they tell their most terrifying stories. Joe Dante directs this bit of the film.

Ken Russell directs The Girl With Golden Breasts, a story about a woman gets a breast augmentation to further her acting career and winds up with with blood sucking breast implants.

Sean S Cunningham directs Jibaku, a story about a couple that find a man who's hung himself in a wood, the wife gets seduced by a demon. The husband has to go to Hell to rescue here.

Monte Hellman directs Stanley's Girlfriend, a story about a blood sucking witch.

John Gaeta directs My Twin, The Worm, a story about a parasite that affects a woman's pregnancy.

Once the stories are told Henry drops a bit of bad news on the group. No one's going home. Sad, huh. Henry was the best character in the movie. He plays a delightfully demonic guy.

I wasn't sure if I had seen this, the opening tour ride seemed familiar. Turns out I had back in September of 2011. My comment on My Watched Movie List was "trapped people/tits". That's mostly what the stories were about: sex and breasts. It was OK but I'm not tempted to buy a copy now I've seen it again. I'd prefer watching Dr Terror's House of Horrors, The Vault Of Horror or Tales From The Crypt, a few of Amicus Productions anthology films.

The Boy And The Heron 2023 Written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki.

Mihito is ten during WW2, his mother dies when the hospital is bombed. His father builds parts for planes, they move the factory into the countryside to escape the fire bombings. The father has married his dead wife's sister Natsuko and they have moved into her family estate. Mohito is rather cold to his step mother. He discovers the tower building designed by Natsuko's grand uncle who disappeared 30 years ago. Mohito has encounters with a grey heron who talks and has another being living inside of his body. The heron claims he could find Mohito's mother.

Natsuko wonders off into the forest and everyone searches for her. Mihito and Kiriko, one of the granny maids living in the house, enter the collapsing tower which turns out to be the gateway to the oceanic world. They have some adventures, meet Mohito's mother, rescue Natsuko and return home. Mohito has gotten to like his step mother better.

I enjoyed some of the movie but it felt it was less entertaining than some of my favorites, I've seen My Neighbor Totoro at least a couple of dozen times over the years and still enjoy it. Same with The Castle Of Cagliostro. I liked most of the other films he did through Howl's Moving Castle but haven't watched them anywhere near as often. Laputa and Kiki's Delivery Service are the most watched of that lot. I bought a DVD of Ponyo in 2010 but still haven't watched it. I don't have a copy of The Wind Rises. I just put one in my cart on Amazon.

Despite having a copy of TBATH I don't know that I'll return to it anytime soon. It seemed like a greatest hits of Miyazaki scenes.  Some of the later movies are in the 2 hour range but they move the story along quicker and seem less draggy. No matter, there's still the earlier lot of films to watch again. I've also got Miyazaki's Sherlock Hound to watch. He directed the first 6 episodes before trouble with the Doyle estate put a hold on production. Miyazaki moved on and someone else finished the series of 26 episodes. 

Friday Night Movies 1030

Hellboy: The Crooked Man 2024 Based on The Crooked Man by Mike Mignola, screenplay by Christopher Golden, Mike Mignola and Brian Taylor, directed by Brian Taylor. The comic was written by Mignola and illustrated by Richard Corben. It's an entertaining story and Richard's art is great.

Hellboy, Bobbie Jo Song and another agent are guarding a box in a box car. Inside the box is a size changing supernatural spider. It gets agitated and busts out of the box, Hellboy gives it a beating and the car bounces off the track. The spider escapes and Hellboy and Bobbie Jo give chase. The other agent didn't make it. They find themselves in a small community in the Appalachian Mountains and get involved with the locals. Turns out the place is filled with witches and pals of the devil. Things don't go so well after that.

Hellboy and Bobbie Jo pal up with a young man called Tom Ferrell and a witch called Cora Fisher, they hang out in Cora's house. A bad witch called Effie Kolb comes by with Tom's father, she'd turned him into a horse and ridden him around for years. Transformed back into a man, the father soon dies. Tom wants to bury him in consecrated ground at a nearby church. The trouble that area is home to The Crooked Man, an agent of the Devil. Hellboy battles the evil man and that's quite enjoyable.

I found the whole film entertaining and one of the best adaptions of the Mignola comics. More than any of the live action films that preceded this. We watched the 4K from Australia which some say is the better transfer. The film had a budget of $20 mill but only made $2 mill at the box office. Critics dumped on the film and the public didn't watch it. Too bad for them. I was happy to watch it and I'll want to watch it again so I'll order the Blu-ray.

Blood Suckers 1971 Based on the novel Doctors Wear Scarlet by Simon Raven, screenplay by Julian More, directed by Robert Hartford-Davis. The film has had a lot of titles over it's life, it's a mess of trickery. I've seen three other Hartford-Davis films: The Sandwich Man, Gonks Go Beat and The Black Torment. I thought they were better than this one. I have another, Corruption with Peter Cushing. I should remind myself to watch that some time soon. The film is part of the Cushing Curiosities box set from Severin.

Richard is a young don at a fictional Oxford college. He'd gone to Greece to study, he's late in returning and no one's heard from him. His friends travel to Greece, among them his possible fiancee Penelope. They find he's fallen in with a bad crowd who have wild parties, take drugs and have sex orgies. During the 10 min long psychedelic sex orgy a woman is stabbed repeatedly and dumped in some bushes.

Chriseis is the head of the bad crowd, she's the worst sort of person, her hobbies include wild dancing and murdering. She's got some hold over Richard. We also find out Richard is impotent, he can't participate in the orgy. Sad. Richard had come to Greece hoping to find his manhood. He didn't get his end away, he got turned into a vampire instead.

Chriseis has taken Richard to a castle where she plans to kill another woman. Richard's friends chase after and rescue him from Chriseis. They return him to the UK where he's supposed to marry Penelope and graduate. He botches both of those plans when he calls Penelope's father a thief who's come to steal your souls at the graduation ceremony, a bit later he kills Penelope by chomping on her neck. The friends chase Richard over the college roofs until he falls off the building. Lucky for Richard he impales himself on the big iron spike of a convenient fence. Richard's pals return to Greece to stake Chriseis.

It's a mess of a film, apparently it ran out of money and many things weren't filmed. This version has the most material of any past version and it's only 87 mins. The commentary by Jonathan Rigby and Kevin Lyons fills in a lot of detail behind the scenes. They speculate that the 10 min orgy is edited for maximum length to pad out the film. I sort of enjoyed the film but can't believe I'll get back to it soon. There's plenty of nice scenery when they are in Greece. Saturday morning I'm listening to the commentary and mostly enjoying that. There are some info filled interviews that I liked.

Friday Night Movies 1017

Alienoid 2022 Written and directed by Choi Dong-hoon. A Korean science fiction action film.

Aliens have been punishing their criminals by implanting them in humans. The prisoners can't do anything to control the humans, when the human dies so do they. The aliens have been doing it for hundreds of years. The story takes place in modern times and 600 years in the past. A couple of robots act as caretakers for the prisoners. They don't have much to do, pop some prisoners in bodies once in a while. The rest of the time they appear as a guy called Guard and his car which was nicknamed Thunder.

Occasionally a prisoner escapes. They have to hunt them down and put them back in the human. During a bit of trouble in 1380 AD Thunder winds up bringing a human baby with them to the modern age. The story jumps around between the modern day and the past. They arrived from the past with the baby in 2012 and in 2022 the baby has grown into a 12 year old girl. The robots jump back to 1391 AD to capture the alien called The Controller.

There's plenty of action and the CGI is mostly pretty good. It's a long movie, 142 mins, and it movies along fairly well. I enjoyed it, there's usually something going on. I would watch it again. There's a sequel. I'd watch that.

Supernatural 1933 Story by Garnett Weston, screenplay by Brian Marlow and Harvey Thew, directed by Victor Halperin. I can't say I've seen many of Victor's films in the past. I have seen White Zombie and Revolt Of The Zombies. Both were fine.

An evil woman called Ruth Rogen goes to the electric chair for strangling three men, all lovers. Ruth was betrayed to the police by her 4th lover Paul Bavian, a psychic who preys on women. After Ruth was executed Dr Houston asks the state to loan him her body for experimentation. The Doctor is a friend of Paul's next victim Roma Courtney. Paul tells Roma that her recently deceased twin brother wants to communicate with her. Paul's land lady learns of the plot and tries her hand at blackmail. It didn't work out so well for her. Paul gives her a prick with his poison ring and she's out of the picture.

Eventually Roma gets possessed by Ruth. She starts acting odd, lucky for her Roma's pals help fight the evil psychic. Things mostly work out for the best. Things didn't go so well for Paul, Ruth's parting gift leaves him hanging.

It was slightly better than average, I enjoyed the story, and I might watch it again someday. I might pick up the Kino Lorber Blu-ray if I find it on sale.

Friday Night Movies 1002

Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny 2023 Screenplay by Jez Butterworth, John-Henry Butterworth, David Koepp and James Mangold, directed by James Mangold.

The movie opens with Indy trying to steal treasures looted by the Nazis. Indy and his pal Basil are after the Lance of Longinus. The pair sneak about but are ultimately captured by the Nazi scum. Hitler wants the Lance but Indy and Nazi astrophysicist Voller say it's a fake. Voller has half of the Archimedes Dial, he thinks it will be more valuable to the Reich than the Lance. There's plenty of mayhem as Indy and Basil escape.

In 1969 New York Indy is retiring from teaching at a college. Basil's daughter Helena shows up to see Indy, she believes he's still got the Dial. She claims she wants to study it. Indy reveals he still has the device. Voller and his Nazi pals show up to steal the Dial. They kill a lot of people but Helena steals the Dial and leaves. Voller blows off a meeting with the President to chase after Indy who's gone to Tangier. Indy and the Nazis interrupt Helena's plan to sell the Dial at a stolen antiquity auction. There's a long chase through the city and the Nazis get the Dial. The story moves on eventually leading to the past and a chat with Archimedes.

The fifth Indiana Jones movie sure doesn't live up to level of the previous films. The film was considered a flop, not making it's nut back at the box office. There's a good bit of action with plenty of yelling, gunfire and explosions but it doesn't make up with the weak film. Crabby old Indy isn't that much fun to be around. It's a long film that seems longer, it could have been tightened up to it's benefit.

Lucky for him Indy manages to get through the fights and survive getting shot. Conversely I was disappointed Helena survived. I really disliked her, she's truly a scumbag. Trying to redeem her character in the last minutes of the film is positively weak. I doubt I'll wind up watching this film as much as I would the fourth film and I know it's going to be way less than the first three.

The Catman Of Paris 1946 Screenplay by Sherman L Lowe, directed by Lesley Selander. Lesley directed over 100 westerns in his 32 year career. Occasionally he'd direct a horror film, we watched The Vampire's Ghost at movie night back in 2017. He also directed the 1951 SF film Flight To Mars and the first two Lone Ranger films in the 50s. This is also on the Repubic Picture Horror Collection. Not a stellar package so far but watchable films.

In the late 1800s a Paris novelist called Charles has penned a controversial book,  he claims the book has made him enemies among the public. Charles tells his friend Henry his troubles. Soon after a man who had damning documents detrimental to Charles is found dead, strangled and slashed. Charles former sweetheart is killed in a similar way. Charles is suspected of being the so called Catman.

The rest of this low throttle thriller is a tad lack luster. There's a bit of action but it's spread thin. There's not much suspense and the ending isn't much of a surprise. It was made to be the second half of Republics first horror double bill with Valley Of The Zombies. I still enjoyed it but couldn't give it more than a 5 on the IMDb. I'd  watch it again sometime and I plan to listen to the commentary on the Blu-ray.

Friday Night Movies 1001

The Guyver 1991 Based on Bio Booster Armor Guyver, screenplay by Jon Purdy, directed by Screaming Mad George and Steve Wang. A joint US and Japan production that was produced by Brian Yuzna.

David Gale runs an evil corporation that makes bio weapons for money. They've got an alien artifact that they can't figure out how to turn on. A researcher steals it with the intention of giving it to an FBI guy played by Mark Hamill. The researcher is killed on delivery night by minions from the evil corporation. Michael Barryman plays the leader of that gang of minions. He can change into a monster at will, he kills the researcher and brings the alien artifact to Gale. It turns out the researcher had exchanged the alien artifact for a toaster. You'd think they would be happy, they know how to work a toaster and they'd have some toast, but Gale is steaming and promises certain death if Barryman doesn't get it back.

Mark has been to see the researcher's daughter at the dojo where her boyfriend trains, the boyfriend follows Mark and his girlfriend to the location where he finds the alien artifact. On the way home the boyfriend is attacked by some thugs, he accidentally activates the alien artifact and becomes the Guyver. After the fight the armor retreats back into his body.

The rest of the movie is the two sides battling it out for the Guyver unit. The boyfriend is killed and the girlfriend kidnapped. Mark gets experimented on and the boyfriend is revived in the form of a clone. He fights some more monster mutants and eventually things work out in the end. Except for the dead people, they're all still dead.

I'd first seen this in 1993 but hadn't seen it in a long while. I could not remember anything about the movie so it was like new to me. I seemed to recall enjoying the initial watching but  this time I didn't think it was as entertaining as the impression in my head. The acting is way over the top and some the actors aren't too good at their jobs as others. It's like the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers with more violence and gore. I don't know that I'd need to see it again.

The Old Ones 2024 Based on Lovecraft, screenplay and direction by Chad Ferrin.

A sea captain was kidnapped and possessed by a great Old One. Ninety three years later he's freed, now he wants to travel back in time to change the past and stop himself from being possessed. The old ones send a gang after him. The sea captain gets help from a father and son, they pulled his body from the water and saved him. The father is killed but the sea captain is sure if he gets back in time and changes things the father wouldn't be killed. The sea captain leads the son on an adventure to achieve his goal.

It's a fairly decently made film on a small budget. Even the acting was better on average than the previous film. For the most part I enjoyed the movie but I'm not drawn to wanting a copy. I doubt I would watch this one again either.

Friday Night Movies 1000

Godzilla x Kong - The New Empire 2023 Story by Terry Rossio, Adam Wingard and Simon Barrett, screenplay by Terry Rossio, Simon Barrett and Jeremy Slatter, directed by Adam Wingard. A sequel to Godzilla vs Kong from 2021.

Kong is adapting to life in the Hollow Earth and Godzilla is still bashing monsters on the surface. Kong finds an enslaved camp of giant gorillas under the thumb of Skar King. Kong gets Godzilla to help battle Skar King and free his people. Some humans get tossed in the battle blender and eventually find a colony of humans who live in the hollow Earth. Their descendants lived on the surface but were all killed off in the first film, except for one telepathic girl who calls up Mothra.

There's plenty of battles and big blasts, there's lots of noise and oodles of collateral damage. Mixed in is a lot of personal baggage. The monster fights were good but I'm not getting much out of the humans. It was OK but not as entertaining as Godzilla Minus One.

The Valley Of The Zombies 1946 Story by Royal K Cole and Sherman H Lowe, screenplay by Dorrell McGowan and Stuart E McGowan, directed by Philip Ford. Another film from the Republic Pictures Horror Collection.

A dead man called Murks returns to life with the help of voodoo and blood. Murk's  seeks revenge on the men who locked him up in an asylum and the doctor who killed him on the operating table. Murks had faked his death and his body was revived by his brother. A doctor and his fiance help defeat the insane man. There's some police help.

Sadly it's rather slow despite being 56 mins. I'd seen it before and since I bought the Blu-ray collection I'll watch it some more when I get around to the commentaries on the four films.

Godzilla Minus One 2023

Godzilla Minus One 2023 Written, directed and visual effects by Takashi Yamazaki. It did well in the box office, more than a 1000% return on it's $10-12 million cost.

A kamikaze pilot called Kōichi fails in his mission, he claims plane trouble and lands at a repair base on Odo Island. The ground crew of mechanics can't seem to find anything wrong with his plane. Later that night Kōichi and the ground crew have an encounter with Godzilla. He's small in 1945, only 3 or 4 times the height of a man. The pilot fails to fire on Godzilla and all the ground crew are killed except the lead mechanic Tachibana. They return to Tokyo with Tachibana hating him.

Back in Tokyo Kōichi find his parents have died in the bombing of the city. There's not much left in his old neighborhood. He takes in a young woman called Noriko, she comes with a baby called Akiko, the dying parents asked Noriko to take care of their dying baby. Kōichi gets a job and so does Noriko. Things seem to get better over the next couple of years. Kōichi struggles with survivor guilt. Deep in the ocean Godzilla has been caught in the nuclear radiation from a test on Bikini Atoll. He gets much bigger and starts attacking ships. He eventually winds up in Tokyo and the real action begins.

Godzilla destroys a lot of the city with his new heat ray. Noriko disappears in blast area and Kōichi vows to get revenge. The government is unhelpful and the military has been defanged. A local man funds a plan to attack Godzilla, Kenji, a friend and co-worker of Kōichi, has a plan to use freon to sink Godzilla in a deep bay, he's hoping that the pressure will kill the beast. Kōichi is involved with an alternate plan to kill Godzilla.

There's a lot of good CGI and plenty of explosions and heat blasts. All incredibly good considering the small budget. The cast is fine and Godzilla looks pretty good. The story is complex and you can take a lot of things out of it. The pilot is angry, the lead mechanic is angry, Godzilla is angry. No good comes of that. At least it has a happy ending and it leaves a big ass door, wide open, for a second movie. One of my takeaways from the movie: I thought that the Emperor and the government leaders got off lightly after the war, they needed some more punishment, more ritual suicide. I'll definitely want the Blu-ray so I can watch it again.

Friday Night Movies 998

Mad Heidi 2022 Written by Sandro Klopfstein, Johannes Hartman and Gregory D Widmer, directed by Johannes Hartman and Sandro Klopfstein.

For the last 20 years Switzerland has been under the control of a dictator who makes cheese. It's against the law for anyone to make their own cheese, it's against the law to be lactose intolerant. Heidi's boyfriend gets caught making goat cheese and Heidi gets arrested for complaining about Kommandant Knorr killing her boyfriend. In jail Heidi is bullied by the other women, she breaks out and a gaggle of nuns take her in and train her to fight the fascists. It's all revenge to the end.

I thought it was a lot of fun. One of the viewers here said it was the best exploding head movie he'd ever seen. There's plenty of goopy bits and violent action. The sets and scenery are fun. I enjoyed the heck out of it and would want to watch it again.

The Cat Creeps 1946 Story by Gerald Geraghty, screenplay by Edward Dein, Jerry Warner and Gertrude Walker, directed b Erle C Kenton.

The last of the Universal horror titles to be shot. It was released on a double bill with She-Wolf Of London. Horror was failing to draw the patrons, The Brute Man was shot just before The Cat Creeps, it was sold to PRC to release.

The movie is an old dark house sort of story with a group of people on an island without a way to get home after their boat is burnt. An old lady in the house is attacked as the visitors arrive at the door. They are there to search for $200,000 in cash that was stolen in a robbery 15 years ago. Someone finishes off the old lady and another guy has a bad fall down the basement stairs. Now the rest of the visitors have to try to keep alive until they can be rescued.

There's a cast of decent character actors, Noah Beery Jr, Frederick Brady, Douglass Dumbrille, Jonathan Hale, Paul Kelly are the few I knew. The story is pretty standard stuff, it gives the cast something to do most of the time.  It's not great but it's got some jokes. I enjoyed it and I'd watch it again.

Friday Night Movies 984

The Great Yokai War Guardians 2021 Screenplay by Yûsuke Watanabe, directed by Takashi Miike. A Japanese kids film about Yokai monsters. Miike made a Yokai film back in 2005 that's set in the same sort of world.

A pair of young brothers join up with some Yokai to stop a giant rolling Yokai from trashing Tokyo and releasing a dangerous Yokai buried beneath the city. There's plenty of monsters and yelling. I like the mythology of the Yokai and there's a nice assortment of them on screen much of the time.

I thought it was entertaining and enjoyed the movie. There's plenty of destruction and noise. It's main flaw is it's way too long at 118 mins. I'd stillwatch it again but I'm doubting I'd buy the Blu-ray from SRS.

The Whale God 1962 Based on the novel The Whale God by Koichiro Uno, screenplay by Kaneto Shindo, directed by Tokuzo Tanaka. Music by Akira Ifukube. Another Blu-ray from SRS.

A Japanese fishing village is visited by a giant whale each year. The local name for it is the god whale. It's a big one and hard to kill. Many fisherman have been killed by the god whale. The village is obsessed by the god whale and Shaki is really obsessed. Ei, a whale widow, offers to sleep with the man who kills the god whale. The head man in the village makes an even better offer, his title, and and daughter are up for grabs for killing the god whale. Takashi Shimura plays the headman.

A visiting man wants a chance at the prize. Katsu Shintaro (Zatoichi) plays the visitor and he's a bad guy. He rapes the Ei and she has a baby before the god whale returns for his annual visit to the area. Shanti helps Ei with the birth, he tells the village the baby is his and marries Ei. The head man and his daughter are unhappy. Things get worse when the god whale returns.

I enjoyed it despite it's rather slow pace. It's also an SRS Blu-ray. You can test drive the movie at the Internet Archive. See link above.

Science Fiction Sunday 783

Clay's Redemption 2020 Written by Ivo Alexander and Carlos Boellinger, directed by Carlos Boellinger. It's the first feature for Carlos, he's directed a number of shorts before that. It's a UK production.

I didn't care much for the film. It's way too dark, the fights are poor, and there's a confusing vague story with little going on. Mostly characters walk around in the dark. I'm sorry I saw it. You can see it on YouTube. I don't recommend it to anyone.

Sputnik 2020 Written by Oleg Malovichko and Andrei Zolotarev, directed by Egor Abramenko. A Russian movie set in 1983.

A pair of astronauts are coming back to Earth when something happens. The capsule lands with one astronaut still alive. They lock him up in a secret isolated building and announce to the world he's in isolation for debriefing. They bring in Dr Tatyana Klimova to help them figure out what happened to the astronaut but the head guy is slow to tell her what they know already. It's pretty bad. Dr Klimova finds out what's happening on her own, the head guy gets her to help him but things get out of hand and lots of people die.

It's way to slow for me at 111 mins but the story is fairly decent. I'd probably watch this one over again sometime. You can see it on YouTube too.