Recent viewings

[lester1/2jr]

Burial ground the nights of terror



This is the kind of movie that would have blown me away when I was 14. I still enjoyed it but it's a very very cheap and basic zombie movie thats more a chance to try out various zombie make up and costumes than anything else. The tension and drama and caring about the characters and so forth is pretty minimal.

The most distinct thing about it is the above pictured kid who may well be like 40. He is weird and small and nebbish in a way you have to admire. Italian so some pretty girls of course

3/5

[Rev. Powell]

WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS (2014): A documentary crew follows the daily routine of four centuries-old vampires sharing in a New Zealand flat as they bicker over chores, spar with a rival gang of werewolves, and try to figure out what to do with the recently vampirized Nick, who just doesn't seem to get the bloodsucker lifestyle. Consistently amusing spoof from the team behind "Flight of the Conchords" that spoofs every bit a cinematic vampire lore from NOSFERATU to TWILIGHT. 4/5.

PORCO ROSSO (1992): A bounty-hunting pig-man (he's the victim of a curse, although the source is never explained) flies his seaplane through the Adriatic between World Wars, battling jealous air pirates an a hotshot American rival. Minor, more cartoonish than usual film from Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli that nonetheless has a typically imaginative fantasy-historical setting. 3/5.

[JaseSF]

Sherlock Holmes in Washington (1943): Sherlock Holmes (Basil Rathbone) and Dr. Watson (Nigel Bruce) are assigned to investigate the mysterious kidnapping of a British agent (Gerald Hamer) who was carrying an important secret document intended to America. They also must try their best not to let said document fall into the hands of enemy agents operating in Washington. D.C.

Clearly this story updates Holmes and brings him into the then modern era. It's an enjoyable adventure/mystery film. Rathbone and Bruce are a delight as usual and this one features a great supporting cast most notably George Zucco as lead villain and Henry Daniell as a top henchman. Marjorie Lord plays a lady in distress simply because she briefly talked with the British agent and the enemy agents believe she knows something about the secret document. This was cleverly written with good performances helping to tie it all together. That said, this is still pretty much an average entry in this series although an enjoyable one nevertheless. ***1/2 out of ***** stars.

Carnival of Souls (1962): Re-watched this classic chiller again. Still as creepy as ever with startling imagery. Candace Hilligoss's performance as Mary Henry is one of the main reason this works so well along with the overall cleverness of the plot. It does suffer a bit in places do to its low budget and lack of name stars although one could also argue it makes the characters look and feel more like real people. **** out of ***** stars.

[Rev. Powell]

THE ELUSIVE CORPORAL (1962): A French corporal repeatedly tries to escape from a Nazi POW camp. OK for war drama fans, but the escape attempts aren't especially suspenseful or exciting, and the rest is like a drab French version of STALAG 17. 2.5/5.

[indianasmith]

EVIL FEED (2013)

This movie has every possible element a bad movie could ask for with the exception of zombies!
Martial arts, cage fighting, cannibalism, rotting human heads, gratuitous nudity, dismemberment, severed penises,
 Asian stereotypes, black stereotypes, eels surgically implanted in the torso, strippers, and Chinese Food!
 (Some of it even made from real Chinese!)

The Long Pig is an exclusive restaurant that offers live entertainment as well as a dining experience to be found
nowhere else!  Customers watch a steel cage death match live on a video feed from the basement, then the loser
is served up as the main course.  The specialty of the house is also the most expensive dish - the "D*ckie Roll!"
(Only one per customer!)  All is well at the Long Pig, until one night when a local martial arts instructor is kidnapped
and sent to the steel cage.  His students and oldest daughter come looking for him, and mayhem ensues, especially
since, on this night, legendary British cannibal restaurateur "the Dragonfly" is paying a visit.  This is one more
fantastically bad movie, I give it 5 of 5 stars and a big old severed thumbs up!!!

[lester1/2jr]

"long pig" is a slang term for human meat that was available in certain Asian markets at one point in history

[indianasmith]

It's been used by multiple cultures to describe human meat.
The taste is actually very similar to pork, especially with the appropriate seasonings.

[Rev. Powell]

It's been used by multiple cultures to describe human meat.
The taste is actually very similar to pork, especially with the appropriate seasonings.

I do not want to know how you know that, Indy.

[lester1/2jr]

human meat

[Newt]

Spam + serving infants to the elderly + long pig = Newt has to post this again:

Paul Theroux wrote in his book The Happy Isles of Oceania:

"It was a theory of mine that former cannibals of Oceania now feasted on Spam because Spam came the nearest to approximating the porky taste of human flesh. 'Long pig' as they called a cooked human in much of Melanesia. It was a fact that the people-eaters of the Pacific had all evolved, or perhaps degenerated, into Spam-eaters. And in the absence of Spam they settle for corned beef, which also had a corpsy flavor."

(That was one of my very first posts here, on another thread May 6, 2002.)

[Rev. Powell]

ONCE BITTEN (1985): A vampire countess (Lauren Hutton) must find a male virgin to feast on to continue her immortality; she targets an ice-cream truck driving high school senior (Jim Carrey) whose steady girlfriend won't give him any. Dumb, limp, shamelessly homophobic comedy exploiting teenage males' sexual anxieties, that doesn't even pay off in sleaze.  1.5/5.

[indianasmith]

Spam + serving infants to the elderly + long pig = Newt has to post this again:

Paul Theroux wrote in his book The Happy Isles of Oceania:

"It was a theory of mine that former cannibals of Oceania now feasted on Spam because Spam came the nearest to approximating the porky taste of human flesh. 'Long pig' as they called a cooked human in much of Melanesia. It was a fact that the people-eaters of the Pacific had all evolved, or perhaps degenerated, into Spam-eaters. And in the absence of Spam they settle for corned beef, which also had a corpsy flavor."

(That was one of my very first posts here, on another thread May 6, 2002.)

You are making me SOOOO hungry right now!

[indianasmith]

Last night I watched BLOOD REUNION and LAZARUS: DAY OF THE LIVING DEAD.

BLOOD REUNION is about a woman returning to the town where she was raised up until the point her mother was
murdered when she was 11 years old.  Turns out Mom was bitten by a vampire, and buried with iron bars over her
grave to keep her down.  Our leading lady orders the bars removed, and Mom goes on a killing spree, and some rather
homely actresses get naked, and the town's vampire killing priest gets bitten . . . pretty lame overall.
LAZARUS is about ah private investigator in Hollywood in 1957, who is hired to investigate why a secret ingredient in
an imported cigarette brand is turning people into zombies.  I'll be honest, it was really late when I put this one in and
I wound up fast forwarding through big chunks of it.

[JaseSF]

The Wasp Woman (1959): Janice Starlin (Susan Cabot), the head of a struggling cosmetics firm who's become obsessed with regaining her youth and beauty, takes a special wasp enzyme designed for rejuvenation but it has the unexpected side effect of turning her into a bloodthirsty monster.

Actually there's a good suspenseful climax to this film that makes it a slight notch above many other similar low budget efforts from the period but only a notch or two. The cast is pretty solid in this with Cabot doing a great job in the lead and Micheal Mark proving quite good as Dr. Zinthrop, the eccentric, slightly kooky scientist/inventor of the youth rejuvenation wasp enzyme formula.. The rest of the cast do seem believable as concerned work colleagues of Ms. Starlin and there's a few familiar faces from the era from other low budget efforts here in bit parts including Bruno VeSota as the night watchman,  Frank Gerstle as the police sergeant, and familiar character actor William Roerick as Dr. Cooper who suspects Zinthrop is a quack. The makeup isn't always fully convincing but there are times when it's lit and shot correctly that it does prove surprisingly effective. There are a few too many extraneous scenes here of people walking around and doing ordinary things which does slow this down a bit and feels a bit like padding here and there. Still, I'd argue this film is a slight notch above other similar films from its era mostly due to its suspenseful climax and its memorable monster. A film that could probably be remade into a more gory, more convincing monster movie today (or perhaps even moreso back in the pre-CGI 80s).  ***1/2 out of ***** stars.

Re-watched this one. Still feel pretty much the same about it but I did notice how the addiction to the wasp enzyme extract could be a metaphor for drug abuse here too.  I enjoyed it. O.K. for something to watch if you're in the mood for a Corman film.

Monster from a Prehistoric Planet (1967): An expedition into the South Pacific Islands looking for rare and exotic animals and birds stumbles across a tropical island where they find a tribe of primitive natives. Eventually the beliefs of said natives leads them to discover a rare prehistoric reptile/bird called a Gappa which they bring back with them to a zoo in Japan. However the baby Gappa's parents eventually come looking for it wrecking giant monster stomping terror down upon Japan.

This movie is basically a rip-off of every other giant monster movie that preceded it, most notably Gorgo (1961) but there's elements here of King Kong, Godzilla, Rodan, and Mothra too. Apparently a lot of this film was meant to be in parody or tongue in cheek but if it was, it gets lost in translation. As it is, this is arguably one of the most racist and sexist kaiju films I've ever seen what with the black-face Asian natives and the references to a woman's place being at home changing diapers. Also the design of the monsters makes them rather look like a turkey combined with a pterodactyl. That said, I didn't mind this too much. It was mostly good fun for me. Certainly not the worst kaiju I've ever seen even if it owes a lot to Gorgo and King Kong in particular. *** out of ***** stars.

[Rev. Powell]

MST3K: STAR FORCE: FUGITIVE ALIEN 2: This is a continuation of the previous "Fugitive Alien," a Japanese television show crunched into a movie. This one actually continues the plot arc from the first movie about a blue-faced alien and a weapon that can destroy the universe, then squeezes the series finale into the last 15 minutes! It's impossible to understand if you didn't see the first one and most of the riffs are recycled ("again?") Good host segments save it, but it's still a down episode. 3/5.