Recent Viewings, Part 2

[indianasmith]

AGAINST THE NIGHT (2017) - This was a GRAVE ENCOUNTERS-style found footage film, except instead of being in a haunted asylum or a hospital, this time our fearless filmmakers are trespassing in an abandoned prison complex.  After the usual bit of horseplay and spying on the girls, suddenly things turn serious when people start disappearing.  Is it vengeful ghosts?  Psychotic homeless people?  A serial killer?  Or something worse?  I'll admit, this one was pretty well done and the end contained a twist I absolutely did not see coming!  4/5 if you like found footage, maybe 3/5 if you don't.  Lester, I'd like your thoughts on this one.

[lester1/2jr]

I have to watch japanese nazi toilet zombies or something first but okay

[Rev. Powell]

ALMA & THE WOLF (2025): A deputy sheriff investigates a wolf attack after his high school crush, Alma, claims her dog was killed by the beast; things get strange quick. Often confusing and tonally uneven but still interesting, largely thanks to Ethan Embry giving it his all as a middle aged former pitcher living his life vicariously through his baseball prodigy son; the effects (including wolf costume) can be cheesy, and be advised that the rug-pulling twist ending turned off a lot of viewers (I was fine with it, though it could have been foreshadowed better). 3/5.

[Trevor]

I have to watch japanese nazi toilet zombies or something first but okay

😳😃😄😆😀😂🤣

[indianasmith]

I have to watch japanese nazi toilet zombies or something first but okay

😳😃😄😆😀😂🤣

I think I have actually seen that one - I remember a bizarre Japanese zombie toilet film called ZOMBIE A$$ or something like that.

[Trevor]

I have to watch japanese nazi toilet zombies or something first but okay

😳😃😄😆😀😂🤣

I think I have actually seen that one - I remember a bizarre Japanese zombie toilet film called ZOMBIE A$$ or something like that.

I shall search until I find it 😆😉🐢

[Rev. Powell]

I have to watch japanese nazi toilet zombies or something first but okay

😳😃😄😆😀😂🤣

I think I have actually seen that one - I remember a bizarre Japanese zombie toilet film called ZOMBIE A$$ or something like that.

I shall search until I find it 😆😉🐢

[Trevor]

I have to watch japanese nazi toilet zombies or something first but okay

😳😃😄😆😀😂🤣

I think I have actually seen that one - I remember a bizarre Japanese zombie toilet film called ZOMBIE A$$ or something like that.

I shall search until I find it 😆😉🐢

Thanks Rev 😀😃😄

I just read the Wikipedia synopsis 😳😳😄😃😀😂🤣🐢

[indianasmith]

It was. . . memorable.

[lester1/2jr]

Zombie Ass: Toilet of the Dead (2011) - Again and again I thought "I can't believe people agreed to be in this movie". Don't get me wrong: I liked it and it's hilarious. I just can't see American actors, no matter how desperate they are, signing on to walk backwards on all 4's as butt zombies with parasite things shooting out of their butt. How would you explain it to your family? Off the top of my head, the unrated Not Another Teen Movie might have some similar gross out humor, but that's like Annie compared to this.


The first half is mostly low level comedy. Clearly, they have a limited budget and are saving it for the special effects. That's not to say the effects are especially great, but the budget outside of that is very shoestring. It looks like they're at a campground or something and they never leave this area. I don't want to give too much away but it's just to say: 

it's not phoned in. Someone really cared about this idea and carried it out as best as they could.

I would guess it ended up on tubi in part because it's initially so cheap looking and the first half appears like it's not really going to amount to much. It does, though. In fact, it's really everything you would want/ expect of such a title

4.75 /5

I'd had a horrible day and Zombie Ass didn't make me feel better, but it was appropriate.  It's really...I don't know... a window into another culture.

[indianasmith]

Zombie Ass: Toilet of the Dead (2011) - Again and again I thought "I can't believe people agreed to be in this movie". Don't get me wrong: I liked it and it's hilarious. I just can't see American actors, no matter how desperate they are, signing on to walk backwards on all 4's as butt zombies with parasite things shooting out of their butt. How would you explain it to your family? It would be on your IMBD page forever. Off the top of my head, the unrated Not Another Teen Movie might have some similar gross out humor, but that's like Annie compared to this.


The first half is mostly low level comedy. Clearly, they have a limited budget and are saving it for special effects. That's not to say they effects are especially great, but the budget outside of that is very shoestring. It looks like they are at campground or something and they never leave this area. I don't want to give too much away but it's just to say it's not phoned it. Someone really cared about this idea and carried it out as best as they could.

I would guess it ended up on tubi in part because it's initially so cheap looking and the first half appears like it's not really going to amount to much. In fact, it's everything you would want/ expect of such a title

4.75 /5

I'd had a horrible day and it didn't make me feel better, but was appropriate.  It's really...I don't know... a window into another culture.

Good review of a memorably awful film - so awful it was great!  Around 2015 I went through a spell of watching a bunch of those crazy Japanese films, FRANKENSTEIN GIRL and this one and one that was so bizarre I couldn't wrap my head around it - HELLDRIVER, I think it was called.  But ZOMBIE ASS is right up there in the WTF department!

[lester1/2jr]

I saw a Japanese movie called "Ninjas vs Aliens" a while ago. Zombie Ass was was better than that, but they were similar particularly in the campground sort of setting and the proliferation of weird parasite things.

[M.10rda]

I'm glad to hear it's on Tubi - ZOMBIE-ASS was one of those that was tough to rent when it was released... Netflix wasn't carrying it, iirc... and who has the $$$ to buy something potentially unwatchable on DVD or Blu-Ray, sight unseen?! I finally DL'd it from the interwebs and... wasn't disappointed, I guess! Still glad I didn't drop thirty bucks or something for it.

[Rev. Powell]

BATMAN NINJA VS. YAKUZA LEAGUE (2025): Japan disappears from the world map and reappears over the sky in Gotham City; when Batman investigates, he finds the country is ruled by Japanese yakuza bands led by evil Asian doppelgangers of the Justice League. The animation isn't quite as elaborate as the original BATMAN NINJA, but the sequel's script leans into the gleeful craziness even more, with karaoke interludes and yakuza shot from a Gatling gun in order to create a yakuza tornado. 3.5/5.

[M.10rda]

Yakuza tornado!!! Sounds awesome! 

TERROR IN THE MIDNIGHT SUN (1959):
I've been having a (pleasantly) stressful month and can only seem to tolerate movies that require just about 0% brainpower. This "restored" and beautifully remastered Swedish/American co-production (much of it shot in snowy Lappland!) provided a welcome mental break. When the opening card announces that it's restored and uncut, I presume they're mostly boasting about the semi-discreet yet still completely gratuitous nude shower scene courtesy of gorgeous female lead Barbara Wilson - still taboo in the States in '59 but hey, this was made in Sweden, after all!   

I knew this was a 50s UFO/monster movie but had as much idea as Wilson's character did that the UFO monster is in fact a Bigfoot       until he shows up at the door of Wilson's cabin. Okay, he's Bigfoot with really poor orthodonture, but still he's Bigfoot. From then on, this competent but dull (nude Wilson notwithstanding) sci-fi flick really picks up! Unlike the Bigfoot in THE SNOW CREATURE, this Bigfoot strolls leisurely through daylit wide-shots, causing havoc or just minding his own business. I appreciate the production team's serious attention to scale when it comes to portraying this giant apeman...  ...with BF appearing an impressive 20-feet tall when destroying houses and tents, but only about 6.5-feet tall when carrying a petite ingenue, but then again appearing 30-feet tall (and carrying a 10-foot ingenue) when being attacked by angry Laplanders.     

Oh yeah, and about those angry Laplanders... sure you've seen endless "angry villager" scenes where the villagers march on the monster w/ torches and pitchforks... but have you ever seen those angry villagers on skis? I know I haven't!  One of them also shoots at Bigfoot w/ a handgun, and in later close-ups the weathered latex Bigfoot mask reveals a very clear tear in its cheek. Am I wrong for attempting to rationalize that this was a result of a bullet-hole?!   

Bigfoot's alien masters look like Bengt Ekerot in THE SEVENTH SEAL. At the end of TERRROR IN THE MIDNIGHT SUN, they reboard their UFO and it precisely reverses its landing footage in order to escape the marauding Lapps (similar to how the Bigfoot from THE SNOW CREATURE would advance and reverse repeatedly in the same 24 frames of celluloid...). Wilson's scientist uncle asks "I wonder if they learned what they wanted to know?" I'll tell you one thing they learned: Don't f**k with the Swedes!

3/5 A very good time.