PRIMITIVE SCREWHEADS

Friday Night Movies 1027

Alienoid: Return To The Future 2024 Written and directed by Choi Dong-hoon. A Koreaan SF film that is a sequel to Alienoid. 

Pretty much picks up where the last one left off. The aliens have plans to kill off the human race with poison in the present. A group of humans and robots fight to stop that. It jumps around from the present to the past. It's packed with plenty of battles, there's lots of sword fights, explosions, gun fights, noise, leaping about and death. They do save the world.

It was entertaining. I might be interested in watching the pair of movies again but I've no plans to buy the Blu-rays.

The Hitman's Bodyguard 2017 Written by Tom O'Connor and directed by Patrick Hughes. We'd watched the movie back in December 2018, FNM 715.

Ryan Reynold's has to protect Samuel L Jackson from a Belarusian dictator who's on trail at the International Criminal Court. Samuel is the witness who could put him away. It's packed with action, noise, gun fights and plenty of chases.

I enjoyed it all over again. There's a plan to watch the sequel soon.

Friday Night Movies 1026

The Snow Woman 1968 Based on the stroy Yuki-onna from Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things by Lafcadio Hearn, screenplay by Fuji Yahiro, directed by Tanaka Tokuzō. A Japanese horror fantasy set in feudal times. Tokuzō's first assistant director job was on Rashomon, on his own he directed a good number of movies, including 3 in the Zatoichi series, before working in television in the 1970s and 1980s. The second film in the Radiance Box Set.

A wood carver and his apprentice are traveling through a forest looking for a special tree to use in the carving of a statue. They find one and rejoice. A sudden storm has the two men camp over night in a abandoned house. That night they are visited by the Snow Woman, she freezes the old man and tells the young apprentice she won't kill him if he never tells anyone he saw her. The young apprentice heads home the next day.

The young apprentice gets the commission that was to be his masters. The local temple wants the sculpture, the wood arrives but needs 5 years to cure. A young woman comes into his life, they marry and have a child. Five years pass and the young apprentice starts the carving. A local Lord wants the young apprentice's wife for a bit of rape. The Lord does some underhanded things to ruin the life of the young apprentice. He's not getting his way and the Lord becomes impatient, his attempts to rape the wife go poorly for him when it's revealed she is the Snow Woman. We were all suspecting that. The Lord and his scummy retainers are all frozen to death. The Snow Woman leaves the young apprentice and their son and disappears into the snow storm.

It's a rather sad tale. It usually is in feudal Japan. I'm reminded how awful it was in feudal Japan. The film looks nice. I enjoyed it but it's the weakest of the stories in the Radiance box set. You can see a watchable copy on YouTube in the link above.

Riddick 2013 Written and directed by David Twohey. The third of the Riddick films. We watched a 4K disc. We watched it back in 2014. Back then there was talk of a 4th film, I hoped it wouldn't take 9 years like it did between 2 and 3. I didn't get my wish but I'm told there should be a fourth film next year.

Riddick gets double crossed by the Necromancers and is abandoned on a crappy planet. He uses a distress signal to call in a ride. Two rival teams of bounty hunters show up and Riddick has to kill a bunch of them before he can escape in one of their ships. Hopefully to destroy as much of the Necromancer society as possible.

I enjoyed the movie but not as much as I did The Chronicles of Riddick when we watched it a few weeks back. I'll still want to watch it over again someday.

Friday Night Movies 1025

The Keep 1983 Based on the novel by F Paul Wilson, screenplay and direction by Micheal Mann. We watched the new 4K of the film from Vinegar Syndrome. Both versions are already sold out. It's not been available on DVD or Blu-ray in the US before this.

I had seen the movie on Amazon Prime back in 2016 and maybe on VHS when that was a thing. I linked the 2016 post in the title above. The version on the Blu-ray is the 96 min theatrical version, Mann had delivered a 3.5 hour version but Paramount wanted it cut to 2 hours. That was cut to 96 mins after testing poorly with audiences. The cut parts of the movie weren't available to restore it.

Nazis take over a keep in the Carpathian Mountains. They are warned not to stay there overnight by the locals but Captain Woermann, played by Jurgen Prochnow, doesn't heed the villagers. His men see some T shaped nickel bars embedded in the wall of the keep, they think they're silver. Ignoring their captains orders to leave them alone a couple of the soldiers pry one out and release some evil. They die screaming and others follow. Sturmbannfuhrer Erich Kaempffer shows up with some more men and slaughters a few of the locals. He thinks partisans have been murdering the soldiers but we know it's not. The soldiers struggle with the evil and eventually all the men are wiped out.

There's a couple of subplots, one concerning a Jewish scholar and his daughter and another with the village priest. The evil entity wants the scholar to remove a talisman from the keep, that action will allow the evil entity to escape into the world. Scott Glenn plays a being that put the evil entity into the keep. He returns to keep him there. The scholar and his daughter manage to survive the battle. The remaining villagers help them escape.

I didn't think I needed to see the movie again back in 2016 and I was probably right. The image looks good but the sound is a big weak point. The Tangerine Dream score is way too loud. The film volume is fine for conversation but once the music kicks in it's like a fistful of knives stabbing your brain. In 2016 I thought the TD score was good, now, not so much.

Adult Swim Yule Log 2022 Written and directed by Casper Kelly. I never heard of this or the creator. He did a lot of work on various cartoons and on Adult Swim, most of which I have never watched. There's a sequel that aired December 6 this year.

A couple book a mountain cabin from Air B&B only to have the local sheriff tell them be to on the watch for a killer. Hubby doesn't believe there's a killer in the area but we know he's there, hiding in the cabin, we'd seen him murder the cabin's cleaner. The sheriff also tells them the limb the hubby is burning in the fire place was cut off the local hanging tree. It's supposed to be haunted and it is, in spades.

The arrival of 4 podcasters reveals that the booking company has double booked the place, rather than leave the cabin all of them decide to share the place. The killer makes an appearance again, he's called Pleatherface and he's got his mom with him. Pleatherface is looking for a wife, sadly all the women he's met so far haven't survived the mating. One by one the tourists are picked off, some by Pleatherface, some by the animated burning log that bashes their heads in. It's a good reminder not to rent an Air B&B in the woods.

It gets more and more crazy as aliens pop in for a visit and the fireplace is revealed to be an portal to evil, past and present. No one  survives  the night and we were mostly entertained. I don't plan to pick up a copy but I might want to see it some again someday. Some would get a kick out of it.

Friday Night Movies 1024

The Bride From Hades 1956 Based on a Japanese ghost story called Botan Dōrō, screenplay by Enchô San'yûtei and Yoshikata Yoda, directed by Satsuo Yamamoto. The film is known under several names: Bride from Hell, Haunted Lantern, Ghost Beauty, My Bride is a Ghost or Peony Lanterns. There were 7 film adaptations between 1910 and 1937 but all are gone. Other adaptations have followed making it one of the most adapted folk horror stories. 

A young man called Shinzaburo is estranged from his family. His father wants him to marry a woman to strengthen the family's power. He doesn't love the woman and won't cooperate, choosing to live simply among the poor peasants. On the evening of the Obon Festival Shinzaburo meets a couple of women and helps them when their floating lanterns get stuck in the weeds.

They visit his home after the festival. Shinzaburo becomes infatuated with the younger woman who's called Otsuyu until it's revealed to him she's a ghost. The local villagers try to help him fend off the ghost but they are determined. The ghosts get help from the horrible couple that work for Shinzaburo. The couple think they can bribe the ghosts and they can. Shinzaburo is a rather weak man and things have a rather bittersweet ending for him. I did enjoy the nice and gory ending that befell the horrible couple.

I enjoyed the movie and would be interested in watching it again some day. We watched the new Radiance Blu-ray box set, it's packaged with The Ghost Of Yotsuya and The Snow Women. The Bride Of Hades looks fine and the set is one to consider. I'd recommend the movie to those who like a ghost story and a bit of vengeance.

Sumpah Orang Minyak 1956 Based on the Malaysian folk horror story Curse Of The Oily Man, screenplay by Teuku Djaafar and P Ramlee and S Sudarmadji, directed by P Ramlee, produced by Run Run Shaw and distributed by his production company. P Ramlee also plays the main character Si Bongkok.

Si Bangkok is a hunchbacked man in a small village at the turn of the last century. He's picked on by the local bullies for his deformed face and body. They harass him and beat him without much opposition from the other villagers. Si Bongkok is befriended by local batik cloth seller Selamat. His cloth sales have been poor, the ladies don't want his out of date patterns. Turns out Si Bongkok is a great artist and his patterns are quite nice, they become much desired by the local ladies.

After Si Bongkok's latest vicious beating the gods bring him to heaven and grant him a wish because he's got a good heart. He only gets one wish and no more. Si Bongkok chooses beauty from the list of favors. He's made handsome and falls in love with the pretty lady in the picture. She's a princess in heaven. Sadly he can't stay in heaven, she can't leave with him and he can't change his wish. He also has to keep from killing anyone or he'll be punished severely.

Si Bongkok returns to the same village and reveals who he is to Selamat. He gets back to designing cloth patterns and they do well in the market place. Pride gets the best of him and and he brags to the village he's the old hunchback. He tries to steal a man's fiance, one of the men that beat him in the past, they fight, the bully is killed. Si Bongkok is turned into the oily man as punishment. Our disgraced hero becomes a monster with rape and murder on his mind. The locals have a hard time getting him under control, lucky for them they're helped by the gods.

YouTube has copies of the movie, the better looking ones are sadly deformed by logos and TV crawls reminding you about Covid-19. There's a colorized version that has Covid-19 crawls and some different logos. No matter, I still enjoyed the movie and was happy to see it. It would be nice to see a good version of this out. It would be ideal for an inclusion in a Severin folk horror box set.

Jigoku 1960

Jigoku 1960 Screenplay by Nobuo Nakagawa and Ichirō Miyagawa, directed by Nobuo Nakagawa. A Japanese film about some horrible bunch of people who get thrown in Hell.

Shiro is a student, he's going to marry Yukiko, the daughter of his professor. Fellow student Tamura gives him a ride back to school. On the drive Tamura hits a man in the street with his car. He takes off and blames Shiro for making him drive down the street. Shiro is such a wimp he goes along with his wishes.

The run down man was a local gang leader, his mother saw the accident and she plans to kill the two students. Shiro want to go to the police but Tamura doesn't. A ride to the police station gets Yukiko killed in an accident, along with her unborn baby. Shiro gets involved with the gang leaders old girlfriend. She learns he was one of the people in the car. Things just get worse and worse and Hell gets some more  customers.

The scenes from Hell are pretty entertaining, almost makes me think it would be nice to send some people there. I enjoyed it as much as I could, there's hardly anyone to like, they seem to deserve Hell. The Criterion DVD is one of the poorest that I've ever seen from them. Especially the subtitles, very jagged looking. It was mastered in 2006 and that's pretty early on. I'd still watch it again someday. I do like the Japanese posters quite a bit.

 

Friday Night Movies 1023

Frankie Freako 2024 Written and directed by Steven Kostanski. It's produced by Astron-6. We watched the Shout! Factory Blu-ray.

The movie is set in the 80s. An annoying uptight yuppie called Coner has an encounter with an freaky alien from another dimension after calling a party hotline. Coner wakes up the next morning with the house trashed. Lucky for him his wife is out of the house for a couple of days. She's returning home today and he has to figure how to clean up the place before her return. Unfortunately Frankie Freako and his two pals are still around. On top of that more aliens are coming.

It's a whirlwind of noise and debris. It's got plenty of fun bits and nice special effects and great stop motion. I just found Coner way too annoying to like him. I still didn't warm to him after the surprise ending. It's all made me rather less likely to pick up the Blu-ray, especially at the current $25 price.

I've enjoyed several of Steven's other films and enjoyed them more than this movie. I've put it on my Wish List but I'm thinking it will be on there a long time. I think it'll be a while until I get to needing to see it again. I'd really should watch Manborg, Pyscho Goreman, Leprechaun Returns, The Editor or Father's Day again. I'd be interested in seeing his forthcoming reboot of Deathstalker.

Suitable Flesh 2023 Based on the HP Lovecraft story The Thing On The Doorstep, screenplay by Dennis Paoli, directed by Joe Lynch.

An entity steals people's bodies to remain alive. Heather Graham and Barbara Crampton are psychiatrists who find themselves in the middle of a struggle for their bodies with Bruce Davidson and Judah Lewis. Both the psychiatrists are terrible at their jobs and the story isn't very much like a Lovecraft story. It could be any sort of demon or alien getting it's body stealing going on.

I didn't care that much for it, it's long, slow and frustrating. Hardly anyone watching was on board with all the palaver going on between the characters. It gets less interesting as the movie plays out. I was just glad it was over and I could go home.

Friday Night Movies 1022

Demon Pond 1979 Based on the 1913 play Demon Pond by Izumi Kyōka, screenplay by Haruhiko Mimura and Tsutomu Tamura, directed by Masahiro Shinoda. A Japanese fantasy movie staring Tsutomu Yamazaki, he played Goro in Tampopo. We watched the Criterion Blu-ray. It looks very nice.

The movie is really a vehicle for Tamasaburô Bandô. He's an actor and director, he appeared in a lot of Kabuki plays, often playing a female part. He plays both Yuki and the Dragon Princess.

The movie starts with a man called Gakuen arriving in a small remote village only to find his friend Akira. The two taught at the same school, three years ago Akira had gone on summer vacation and never returned. No contact at all, with anyone, even his mom. Akira is now married to Yuki and they are both bound to the Demon Pond. Akira rings the bell three times a day to keep the Demon Pond from flooding the village and Yuki is some sort of sorceress.

The village is in the middle of a drought and the villagers think that the only way to reverse the drought is human sacrifice. They've got Yuri in mind. Akira and Yuri get helped by Gakuen, Princess Shirayuki and the pond spirits. Things go badly for our heroes, the villagers are a  horrible lot who need drowning. Lucky for us, the villagers suffer a mighty retribution for their nastiness. Don't poke the dragon.

Sadly it's rather slowly paced and not much happens. Lots of people staring into space and wondering lethargically about makes my mind wander. It looks pretty, the sets and costumes are nice and the spirits from the Demon Pond were entertaining. Still, it's not something I'm likely to see again.

Hundra 1983 Written by José Truchado, John F Goff and Matt Cimber, directed by Matt Cimber. An Italian, US and Spanish production with a bit of music by Ennio Morricone.

Hundra is a good hunter for her tribe of Amazons, she's not interested in staying home and having babies like most of the women. She's out on a hunt when the village is attacked by a horde of men. Hundra arrives at the village to find the town in heated battle. The women haven't been doing so well in the fight and Hundra arrived too late to turn the tide. She's the only one to survive in the village. She goes to see the old wise woman in the mountain only to be told to go have a baby. The old wise women is just one of several odd characters that really aren't much help to our rather dim heroine.

Hundra tries it on with some unsuitable suitors but things go poorly. Hundra finally settles on getting up the duff with the local healer in a small town. After the birth the child is kidnapped by the evil cult operating in the temple. They kidnap women to use as prostitutes for their flock. Hundra goes after the baby and gets beaten down by the local cult. Eventually she'll fight back.

It's a decent looking film but it meanders around way to slowly. At 109 mins it could use some editing, speed some bits up and strip some bloated scenes. It isn't something that I'm going to bother picking up.

Friday Night Movies 1021

Future Cops 1993 Written and directed by Wong Jing. A Chinese action comedy that's loosely based on the game Street Fighter II: The World Warrior. It's not an authorized adaptation so they can't use the real character names. Wong had already adapted Street Fighter characters in the Jackie Chan film City Hunter. Wong directed that in 1993 along with 7 other films. He'd officially adapt the game in 1994 with the release of Street Fighter: The Ultimate Battle.

The movie starts in 2043, The General is trying to take over the world, the Future Cops are trying to stop him. The General's plan is to go back in time and kill the judge that's sentencing him in the future. The Future Cops use a time machine to go into the past to stop The General's gang members. Andy Lau, Jacky Cheung and Simon Yam are the Future Cops. Ken Lo plays The General, his minions are played by Ekin Cheng, Billy Chow and William Duen.

Back in 1993 the Future Cops contact Tai-hung, the future judge, and stay at the family house. Dicky Cheung plays Tai-hung, Chingmy Yau plays his sister Chun-may, Kingdom Yuen plays the mother Chun-doi and Richard Ng plays her boyfriend Uncle Richard.

Tai-hung gets picked on at school but the Future Cops help him out. There's a lot of stuff going on at the school and some of the gags are fun. Wong is the king of wacky comedy, often called Makes No Sense Comedy. His jokes aren't always funny, some go over my head because I don't get the gag, other are just plain dumb fart jokes and the like. The last half the movie is packed with action and huge set pieces. The sets take a beating as people smash through walls and ceilings. Eventually the baddies are defeated and things get back to normal.

I thought I might have seen this back in the 90s when there was a lot of Asian Martial Arts cinema happening locally. It turns out it was only 2014 when I saw it. It was Friday Night Movies 504 - 11-29-2014. I enjoyed most of the movie and might watch it again someday. 

The People's Joker 2023 Written by Vera Drew and Brit LeRose, directed by Vera Drew. An unofficial parody of The Joker and Batman comics.

It's a dystopian future and Batman is real, once he retired Gotham City has fallen into the control of the baddies. In Smallville Kansas a young boy wonders about his gender, he asks his mother if he was born in the wrong body. Mom's a high strung woman who shouldn't be raising plants. She sends him to Arkam Asylum for some therapy, Dr Crane prescribes Smylex, a vape that gives the user a forced smile and covers up some of the depression and anxiety.

Fifteen years later our young boy is calling herself Vera. She takes a chance and leaves for Gotham City to try to join the cast of UBC Live. It's a sketch comedy show with a program to create jokemen. She works with her favorite jokeman Ra's Al Ghul. Vera becomes a Jokeman because of her mostly male attributes. Sadly in the comedy world of the future, women are assigned to be nameless Harlequins to serve as dancers for the Jokemen. Vera starts her own anti-comedy troupe and takes the name Joker the Harlequin. She sets up in an abandoned theater. I did enjoy some of the stand up here though it's pretty hit or miss.

It's an interesting looking film with plenty of animation and special effects. The movie gets more and more complicated as more characters and concepts are introduced. I can't say I wholeheartedly enjoyed the movie. There were a few bits that made me laugh but many of jokes fall flat. It's not something I would watch again, not because it's bad, mostly because it's just a drama about someone struggling with life, drugs, gender and dating. I'm not really interested in the drama, something I triage from my viewing when possible. Life's too short to spend it watching miserable people telling me their troubles. I mean, who would want to hang out with the Kramers, not this fuckin' guy, I'll tell you that for free.

Friday Night Movies 1020

Trick Or Treat 1986  Story by Rhet Topham, screenplay by Joel Soisson, Michael S Murphy, Rhet Topham and an uncredited Glen Morgan and James Wong, directed by Charles Martin Smith. We watched the Synapse release.

Eddie gets picked on by the jocks in his high school. He's a metal head with few social skills. One day Eddie wakes to find his favorite rocker Sammi Curr has died in a motel fire. Eddie's devastated. Later that day Eddie's pal Nuke, a DJ at a local radio station, gives him a copy of an unreleased Sammi Curr album. Eddie is happy and takes it home. Unbeknownst to Eddie the album is home to the evil spirit of Sammi Curr. His evil leaks out and the killing starts.

Eddie tries to stop Sammi but several of the locals are slaughtered in various ways. Eddie gets a bit of a hand from his friends Roger and Leslie. It's touch and go with Sammi rampaging about but they manage to survive to the end of the movie. There's some funny bits and some gory bits. They had a fairly decent budget and spent the money wisely. Charles Martin Smith did a nice job at the helm and the actors are OK for the most part. Same with the special effects.

The Wikipedia says the film didn't do to well at the Box Office but has gotten a cult following since it's release. I was entertained and had a laugh or two. I'd watch it again sometime.

In The Moscow Slums 2023 Adapted from The Sign Of Four and the writings of Vladimir Gilyarovsky, screenplay by Ekaterina Kochetkova, Elena Podrez and Karen Shakhnazarov, directed by Karen Shakhnazarov. A Russian film set in 1902.

Theater director Konstantin Stanislavsky is looking for inspiration in acting and directing a new Gorky play set in the slums of Moscow. The slums are called Khitrovka, it's a dangerous place packed with bars filled with prostitutes, thieves and murders. Konstantin's friend introduces him to Vladimir Gilyarovsky, a man who has spent a lot of time in Khitrovka.

Gilyarovsky takes Konstantin around the area introducing him to some of the locals. They go to visit Gilyarovsky's friend The Rajah only to find him dead, poisoned by a blow dart. The local police inspector isn't much good at detecting and it falls to our amateurs to figure out the ID of the killer. They aren't very Holmes and Watson like but they do a good job figuring it all out.

I enjoyed it quite a bit. I will want to see it again so I ordered the Blu-ray today. You can see a nice copy on Mosfilm's YouTube site, link in the title. There are quite a few good films on their YouTube page.

Friday Night Movies 1019

Black Tight Killers 1966 Written by Ryūzō Nakanishi and Michio Tsuzuki, directed by Yasuharu Hasebe. A Japanese spy film spoof. We watched the Radiance Films Blu-ray.

Honda is a war photographer, he's just finished an assignment in Vietnam, on the plane back to Japan he meets a flight attendant called Yuriko. They meet up for a drink after the flight, leaving the club separately a creepy guy attacks Yuriko. She's helped out by three black tight wearing ladies. Honda shows up a bit late only to be beaten by the ladies. They run off.

Soon after someone kidnaps Yuriko, Honda chases after her. He finds out there are a couple of groups competing for a treasure that Yuriko's father left behind when he died. Honda forms a bit of an alliance with the black tight gang, sadly the gals get picked off one by one. Eventually Honda and Yuriko prevail and the movie ends with them heading back to their jobs.

There's plenty of fights and gun play, lots of running about and nice scenery. It's a fun bit of business and I enjoyed it. I'd watch it again. For those too cheap broke to buy all the Blu-rays out there, you can download it at Rarelust.

Bunny The Killer Thing 2015 Written by Joonas Makkonen and Miika J Norvanto, directed by Joonas Makkonen. A Finnish slasher comedy based on the director's previous short film. It's part of a two movie DVD set with Sky Sharks.

A couple arrive at their vacation house only to be attacked by a man with a shotgun, he kills the woman and kidnap the man. The man wakes up in a dirty lab, two men give him a shot of some silvery serum. The man reacts to the shot immediately, he shakes and moans then breaks free with his new found strength. After beating the men the man  runs away. The animation in the opening credits shows the man changing into a man size bunny with an enormous wang.

After the credits we are introduced to some folks going camping. Lucky for them they picked the part of the forest where the bunny man is raping and killing. He's uncontrollably horny, he'll rape anything and everything that looks like a vagina. He continuously whirls his wang as he attacks.

It's plenty gory and very violent, not something for the average viewer, but there are plenty of laughs to be had from some of the gags and situations. Not surprisingly it got poor reviews in Finland but it's since got a bit of following on disc. I enjoyed it well enough, I might even watch it again.