Recent viewings: Demons, Zombies, Ninjas

[Andrew]

As always, I am diligently watching movies.   Working on reviews and an interview too, but  those are coming in the next month or so.

I watched "Night of the Demon" (1957) yesterday before Katie got home.  Memory told me that, while it is a grand old film, it is also very talky.  I remembered correctly.  However, the acting is good throughout, especially that of Niall MacGinnis as Karswell, the demon's summoner.  Before long the urge to grab and shake Dr. Holden (Dana Andrews), yelling, "The demon is real!  You are going to get et, unless you start believing!" was nearly overwhelming.  The character is just that dense about what is going on.  Despite his limited screen time, the demon is one of my favorite movie monsters.

On Monday night (or somewhere thereabouts) we watched "Zombie Holocaust," aka "Dr. Butcher M.D."  Some of the gore distressed my wife, though she is pretty hard of stomach by now.  I will admit, the movie has a black heart and goes out of its way several times to horrify the audience.  However, without that element it would probably be extremely boring.

Last, but not least, a guest picked "Life of a Ninja" for viewing last night.  The beginning of the film is plain classic, with numerous scenes of ninja in training:  acrobats doing their thing, women mud wrestling (!), women being dunked in ice water (they are only wearing thin, white clothing), and birds being killed in midair by throwing knives.  The meat of the movie has some good parts too, with some decent weapon fights and priceless dialog.

"Why don't you have less girlfriends and save some for your wife!?"
(Or something close to this.)

[Gerry]

Andrew wrote:
>
> I watched "Night of the Demon" (1957) yesterday

This is one of my all time favorites.  The seance scene is a classic.  "It's in the trees!  It's coming!"

[Haze]

Does Night of the Demon have any relation to the movie Curse of the Demon? They are from around the same time but I'm not sure if they are the same or not.

[Andrew]

"Night of the Demon" is the full, original version of "Curse of the Demon."

[K-Sonic]

I've been watching a lot of zombie movies lately.

ZOMBIE HOLOCAUST is pretty good. Yes, a little slow at times but has enough blood and guts to satisfy. And the Doctor is an evil son-of-a-b***h.

I really liked Dario Argento's edit of DAWN OF THE DEAD. It definately moved faster than Romero's version. And the Goblin soundtrack adds to the mood real well.

ZOMBIE by Fulchi was good too. Specially the scenes in NYC.

CANNIBAL APOCOLYPSE (not really a zombie movie) is great on DVD. My friends enjoyed that one.

THE NIGHTS OF TERROR (Burial Ground) is a real fun one. There really isn't much down time in this movie and the zombies are real fun to look at. Well, maybe not the ones with worms hanging out their eyes  but seeing the Mummy mask on one guy was a chuckle.

[Andrew]

I have been in the middle of zombie movies galore.  We watched "Garden of the Dead" the other night.  Inmates at a work camp (south US, I think) sniff formaldehyde when they can.  They all attempt to escape, but are shot in the process.  For some reason, the formaldehyde habit makes them come back as zombies.

Why are biology classes, the world over, not overrun with zombie frogs?

[StatCat]

Burial Ground is classic Italaian cheese. Amazining that that freaky "kid" was really 25. Andrew you need to see this movie if you haven't already!