2 recent views: japanese vampires & rats!!!

[mr. henry]

ahhh...the horror...2 more recent view "gems"...

Food of the Gods II - Directed by Damian Lee. An experimental growth hormone is administered to a toddler. Due to an interaction, he soon enlarges to a height of about 12 feet. It also makes him mad. While helping his former professor find an antidote, Dr. Neil Hamilton accidentally exposes a herd of lab rats to the growth concoction---oops. All hell breaks loose on campus as dog-sized rats gnaw on people until they ultimately chew up a bunch of synchronized swimming fans. Listed as #60 on the IMDB.com "Bottom 100"---I think it's somewhat of a bad rat...er rap. NOT RECOMMENDED unless you like cheap giant rat flicks---but who doesn't?

Body Snatchers from Hell - 1968 (PG). (VHS) Directed by Hajime Sato. A hijacked Japanese charter plane crash lands in the desert. The hijacker later has a psychodelic experience with a flying saucer that transforms him into a zombie-vampire hybrid. This Japanese flick has the muted colors and dubbing of a Godzilla flick, but for patient viewers it's not as bad as you'd think. There are some Star Trek-on-acid moments with the UFO, brief Cronenberg-like moments with metallic-oozing head wounds, and more than a bit of Night of the Living Dead-like Romero (released the same year). RECOMMENDED period piece for true blue B-fans.

mr. henry

[Chris K.]

I have the U.S version titled BODY SNATCHER FROM HELL and though the English dubbing is quite horrid, I would definately recommend BODY SNATCHER FROM HELL.

Mr. Henry, where did you get a copy of BODY SNATCHER FROM HELL. Mine is from Incredibly Strange Filmworkst that is maraginly letterboxed at 1.66:1 (BODY SNATCHER FROM HELL was filmed in 2.35:1 scope) and from a 16mm source apparently.

[mr. henry]

It's an oversized box with hilarious cover art illustrations and everyone pictured is caucasion (not japanese). it is also titled "body snatcherS from hell" (yes, with an "s")   on the back it says "a new release from VCR." it is not letterboxed to a fault (in the initial cockpit scene there is barely anyone in the frame as both pilots are too far to the left and the right.

i ordered mine used from skinnyguy.com---a great used mailorder business out of chicago...

i was surprised that this film had a lot of the same atmosphere of Night of the Living Dead and that it was apparently released in the same year...i thought for sure Snatchers was influenced by romero...

i was pleasantly surprised by this movie...i got worried with the model airplane effects early on, but i soon forgot about such budget constraints.

on a side note, the movie also reminded me of A Savage Hunger...where the plane crashes in the desert and the survivors have no food or water. both movies do a good job of displaying the tension between survivors.

-mr. henry