Random Film of the Week Quickie: From Hell It Came

Posted on January 18, 2013 by geelw

Oh, I should have done this one a while back as a RFoTW, but I kept hoping SOME smart cable station would show it again because I haven’t seen it in ages. That hasn’t happened, but there was a DVD release back in 2009 from Warner Bros., meaning you too can snap this up and check it out legally at some point. Sure, this 1957 flick has a hilarious looking tree monster (once you see that Tobanga, you’ll have it stuck in your head for a few days), a plot chock full of wormy holes and you can’t say those natives are anything resembling realistic.

Nevertheless, the film works in it’s own weird way as a sort of remake of Universal’s classic The Mummy, only in a quasi-Polynesian setting with an unstoppable wooden fiend as the monster to be feared. As for actual scares, there are a few here and there and as a kid, I think I laughed a lot at/with it only after I saw the film once or twice and realized it just wasn’t that frightening. Of course, most modern folks will be doubled over laughing at all that’s on display, but I guess it’s better than beating oneself on the head with a real tree branch after one too many hits off a pipe full of funny smelling dried leaves, right?

Anyway, I’m not sure if this flick helped inspire the Swamp Thing or Man-Thing at all, but it’s not hard to see that stiff tree thing being accepted into the Parliament of Trees based on his looks and mythology, getting piss drunk off his wooden ass at the bar there and getting kicked out later for peeing in the bushes. Anyway, someone REALLY on the ball needs to start preserving/restoring these old horror and sci-fi gems so they can be aired on a rotating basis. As in on a REAL horror/sci-fi channel run by genre fans, not a corporation that shoves out the same old crap reruns and lousy made for TV movies that are intentionally awful because they “think” they know what fans want.

If only they knew…

Warm Bodies: Undead, Rise Up And Take Back Your Lives! Er, Wait…

Posted on January 13, 2013 by geelw

Yeah, yeah, it’s based on a reeeeaaaaalllly popular book or whatever and yep, it’s geared to that teen crowd who needs their latest faux horror entertainment fix or whatever. But, bleh. Trailer above, first four minutes below. OK, I’m not THAT much of a cranky jerk – I’m just disappointed at what passes for a decent mainstream horror flick these days. I’ll admit it IS funny, but when I see zombies, I usually see ZERO laughs. Or at least laughs that are dark and completely cringe-worthy because you know it’s funny but you shouldn’t be laughing when you look at the big picture. Shaun of the Dead and Zombieland, anyone?

That said, the original 1968 version of Night of the Living Dead? That’s the gold standard for my old ass (and it should be for yours if you’ve never seen it). If it’s on cable and I’m awake and not watching anything important, I’ll catch that flick again and again because it works on a ton of levels these teen films miss entirely. That goes for today’s “vampire” flicks too, which need a SERIOUS revamping (no pun intended) OK, save for a few minutes and that ending, I liked that Fright Night remake a lot because it was actually funny, had a few good scares and an excellent performance from Colin Farrell (who makes a pretty creepy vampire). Let’s not even talk about the curse of Twilight, as billions of dollars in box office or not, those sparkly things aren’t even close to being a Nosferatu, Blacula or even a Count Yorga (yeah, I went there just to get you Googling)…

Random Film of the Week: Fiend Without A Face

Posted on December 2, 2012 by geelw

If you’re old enough and recall camping out in front of the TV on Friday or Saturday nights long after the sun went to sleep (Chiller Theater or Creature Features, anyone?), you probably saw a ton of horror and sci-fi flicks from the 50’s and 60’s. For some reason, Hollywood’s “B” movie makers were brain-obsessed during this period, churning out films good to terrible with titles such as Donovan’s Brain, The Brain From Planet Arous, The Brain That Wouldn’t Die and so forth and so on.

All those brains on screen and yet, in my opinion the best one wasn’t even made in the USA. For years I always thought Fiend Without A Face was a US-made “B” flick, but I just found out recently that it’s British. Oops. Granted, that doesn’t make it any “classier” at all – it’s just yet another reason you should check out this classic 1958 sci-fi/horror gem.

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Random Film of the Week: Race With the Devil

Posted on October 20, 2012 by geelw

Amazingly enough, other than an announcement back in 2005 that seems to have never happened, no one has thought of remaking this rather cool 1975 horror flick that had some really interesting casting and a few genuinely scary bits.

Two couples on a road trip through Texas in their new RV accidentally come across a coven of devil worshipers performing a human sacrifice. They’re seen, but manage to escape with some effort, making their way to a small town where they let the local lawman in on what they’ve seen. Of course, the shady sheriff turns out to be one of the satanists (eek!), and the four end up high-tailing it away, but not before swiping some evidence to present to the police in a larger, more populated city.

This leads to a much longer and more action-packed chase (that camper sure takes a beating here) that may have influenced Mad Max series director George Miller to some extent (at least, to my pointy head). Anyway, I won’t spoil the ending at all here, but let’s just say it’s a nice jolt and in a way, fitting. At a brisk 88 minutes, the solid direction, tight editing and nicely realistic performances from the leads (Peter Fonda, Warren Oates, Loretta Swit and Lara Parker) makes this a memorable popcorn flick, especially if teamed up with a similarly-themed flick such as Steven Speilberg’s influential TV movie, Duel (look for the longer European release for that one).

CARRIE: Hmmm… Well, It Better Be REALLY Good Is All I’ll Say…

Posted on October 16, 2012 by geelw

The original Brian De Palma film is a true 70’s horror classic, but I guess everything gets a remake at some point. Hopefully this will be a LOT better than the truly terrible remake of De Palma’s SISTERS that keeps popping up on cable these days. That waste of time and talent made me want my almost two hours back plus tax. The good news for this one is the casting of the two leads. Julianne Moore is great in anything and young Chloe Grace Moretz is one of those stars who’s made a name for herself in a few cool flicks, so we shall see. That said, there’s something near perfect about the original that’s a grabber right from the start. OK, so the ending sequence is a bit lame (and like a bunch of De Palma’s horror films, the ending is a bit of a fake scare that works until you see too many of his films and know you’re getting suckered into one final fright), but overall, it still holds up for my money. Hopefully fear fans who’ve never seen it will do the right thing and track it down before this remake hits theaters in Spring 2013…

Random Film of the Week: Don’t Look in the Basement

Posted on September 18, 2012 by geelw

This crazy, low budget 1973 indie horror flick was a big part of my childhood because it seemed to always be on WOR here in New York as one of the late-night horror movies they showed on Saturday nights, and for some reason (even despite it freaking me out all the time), I’d sit through it fascinated by the insanity taking place. In fact, the film takes places at a mental institution gone way off the rails thanks to its rather unorthodox means of treatment. You get two murders right off the bat, a pretty but rather dopey new nurse arriving on the scene who’s a bit slow on the uptake as to what’s going on, a bunch of patients with some rather unusual quirks and it all wraps up with a nicely gory finale and probably the most disturbing end credit sequences you’ll see in a genre flick.

Is it a great movie? Nope, and in fact, it hardly scrapes above lousy in every aspect, I’d say. What works in its favor however, is the general tone of unease and creepiness that hits you over the head right from the start. You know something bad is going to happen right away and other than a few boring patches, the film delivers on much of what its opening moments promise. These days it’s a public domain film, so yup, you can watch it in its entirety above. I’d doubt this will ever reach the remake status some cult genre classics have gotten, but even as raw and weird as it is, it still manages to be freaky enough where it counts. OK, then – that’s a really short and simple movie post this for week, as I’m working on a bunch of other stuff. But it’s all good, as now you can go make a big bowl of popcorn, grab a beverage and watch yourself a pretty silly but scary slice of the 70’s…

Addendum: Oops – it looks as if someone may remake this after all at some point Oh well, i still think the original will be better just because it has its crude charms working for it, warts and all…

CREEPY: An Old Friend Makes Another Comeback (Thanks To Dark Horse Comics)

Posted on August 27, 2012 by geelw

Yikes, I’m old. I used to have a HUGE collection of Warren mags back in the day with a few boxes of Creepy, Eerie, Vampirella, Famous Monsters of Filmland and even a handful of Blazing Combat issues taking up room along with my massive comic collection. I sold them all off a few years back as more and more video games started taking over my free space (and time), but every so often it’s good to relive the days of ogling great art (much of it from a wide rage of comic legends) and occasionally being freaked out by a well-written horror tale.

These days, Dark Horse Comics is keeping that frightening little flame alive this fall with a new issue coming up, so keep your eyeballs peeled at your favorite comics emporium, I say. Oh, I was going to make a joke about that monster looking like the headboard from Hell or something, but I probably wouldn’t sleep right later. Nothing like that monster under the bed getting pissed off because you now think it doesn’t exist, right? Hmmmm… now I need a pot of coffee…

Random Film Of The Week: (The) Hideous Sun Demon

Posted on July 24, 2012 by geelw

OK, this week’s selection was relegated to a simpler internet search after my usual “secret” selection method (flipping through a big movie encyclopedia or DVD catalog and randomly pointing at a title on whatever page I stopped on) left me with a few too many controversial choices (Targets, Joe and Badlands came up on the first three pages I dropped a finger on) that, while great movies worth seeing, aren’t exactly films I want to go over at this point. So, I’m substituting a favorite “B” movie that’s awful and hilarious with a nice left hook for you sun worshipers out there who can’t seem to catch enough rays.

Hell, it’s been hot enough these past few weeks that I should have added this flick about a month or so ago. Anyway, the plot about a scientist who ends up turning into quite a crispy-faced creature doing no good things to the general populace after radiation exposure is pretty far out there, but you can say that about most 50’s sci-fi and horror flicks. This one works for me because it tries to play as serious and even gets away with it for a bit, but you’ll be smirking along soon enough…

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Random Film Of The Week (It’s Baaaaaack!): ZOMBI 2

Posted on June 8, 2012 by geelw

It’s been a while since I did this column (again!), but here you go, thanks to Ubisoft’s upcoming Wii U exclusive (which isn’t based on this flick, btw), I’m inspired to scribble a bit about one more of my old horror faves. Here’s the ZOMBI 2 poster I forgot to run in my Zombi U post earlier this week. Seeing that happy, smoochy undead mug once more made me think of being freaked out then amused by the commercial for the film when it ran here way back around 1980, I think.

I recall that I actually didn’t see the film until about 1983 or ’84 thanks to a friend of a friend who worked at some place that cut together TV ads. Everyone who worked there was pirating every movie that came in the door and making themselves huge movie libraries, and I recall his was pretty damn impressive and packed with stuff I’d never seen before but always wanted to. I think I only borrowed two or three tapes from him, as I was SUPER paranoid about some dark sunglasses-wearing agent types kicking my door in and busting me for whatever I was doing that was illegal (was it even illegal to watch a copied movie you borrowed back then? Who knows?).

Anyway, Back to the movie for a sec: It was (and still is) pretty gory, but also a bit funny in spots. Well, HILARIOUS, as a zombie (well, a guy in undead makeup) actually fights a REAL (and drugged, from what I remember reading later) shark in probably the craziest moment in the movie. The scene I remember most vividly was a woman getting her eyeball poked out with a piece of wood (eww!), but there were a few other shocking bits throughout. The beginning and ending made me laugh, so that’s a trade-off I guess. Celebrity sort of alert: Mia Farrow’s sister, Tisa is in the film – but she’s not the one who loses her eyeball. So, yeah, it’s not a family flick at all this time out, but if you can track it down, it’s a funky, chunky scare-fest worth your popcorn time.

If you’re REALLY in the mood for this sort of stuff, I say pair it with Mario Bava’s gore/splatter classic, Bay of Blood (aka Twitch of the Death Nerve, the inspiration, at least in terms of special effects for the first two Friday the 13th movies about a decade later).

D2: WARP’s Last Gasp Makes For A Curious Cure For Holiday Melancholy

Posted on December 30, 2011 by geelw

While the holiday season is usually packed with happy jolly tidings and the usual mass consumer craziness (that’s turned some shopping malls into pepper spray scented war zones), it’s also a time for reflection and a bit of moodiness about current and future events. Winter also brings in a bit of depression, as we humans are also prone to go gloomy when the lack of sun and warmth hits hard, sending some into a depressed state. Kenji Eno and WARP’s final console game, D2 has been my go-to holiday gift for myself ever since it was released on the Sega Dreamcast in Japan back in 1999. I’m not going to do a full review of the game (there’s an older one I wrote posted here), but I will say that the game manages to capture the feeling of being inside a bad winter dream that you can’t wake up from, yet one that you don’t want to simply because you want to see how it plays out. It’s definitely not for all tastes and in fact, can be baffling even when you piece things together into a more sensible narrative than what’s presented. On the other hand, the game also soars into unsuspecting territory a few times and packs an emotional punch where it counts. Continue reading →