Joe (Christian Greenway), a bio scientist, becomes trapped in a sealed testing lab when an infectious rage virus gets accidentally released, turning his colleague into a ‘Rager’. Joe forces his way out of the lab, but the whole building is soon overrun by rage-infected, cannibalistic killers.
Poster
This 9 minute horror short, which also stars Harriet Davies and Noel Ross, was shot entirely on a Go-Pro HERO4 Black, telling the story via Joe’s POV. Director Joshua Cleave (who also wrote and produced) had to direct Greenway as an actor and also direct him as a camera operator because the Go-Pro camera was mounted on a paintball mask that Greenway was wearing! (The mask was converted to hold the camera firmly in place just below his eye line so that it could mimic his POV at the correct height.)
Rager danger!
Nom, nom, nom…
THE RAGE is a pacy production that sees Joe slamming a Rager’s fingers in a door, throwing another one down a stairwell and stabbing a bald Rager in the skull with a pen!
Pen in the head!The Ragers are everywhere!
Joe finally reaches the roof (spoiler)… but discovers that he has unfortunately not managed to escape the building unscathed…
Wounded hand! Oh no!
I think Joshua Cleave’s novel idea of doing the whole film via Go-Pro is an inventive creative calling card to the film industry to let them know he’s somebody to definitely keep an eye on.
He is just finishing off a sequel to THE RAGE that will hopefully be out very soon.
POV madness!
Finally, here’s a behind the scenes shot of the Go-Pro camera mounted on the converted paintball mask that the lead actor was wearing!
IFD Film Arts was a Hong Kong film studio originally created by producer Joseph Lai after he split from Asso Asia Films. IFD made some martial arts action classics like THE MAGNIFICENT, DRAGON ON FIRE and THE DRAGON THE HERO, but what I want to chat about now are some of the other, madder, monster-oriented films that are linked to the IFD film catalogue – this is the Monster Zone blog, after all! (Note: a bunch of films mentioned here, that are now part of the IFD catalogue, were made by Filmark international Ltd).
There’s a hopping vampire behind you!
Vampire and the E.T. Kid
IFD made films in many other genres beyond kung fu flicks, including war, horror, dramas, ninja films, romance, psychological thrillers, crime and animation.
Thunder of Gigantic Serpent
One subgenre that IFD is very famous for is the insane series of ninja movies (many directed by Godfrey Ho) from the 1980s. With titles including NINJA WARRIORS FROM BEYOND, NINJA TERMINATOR, ULTIMATE NINJA, NINJA THUNDERBOLT, NINJA DESTROYER and NINJA DRAGON, these films featured ninja characters who were given amusingly dated, anglicized names (like Alfred, Rodney, Harry, Gordon and Bruce) to appeal to western audiences.
Typical IFD ninja movie art
Godfrey Ho was a movie-making machine! He directed over one hundred films, including more than eighty movies from 1980 to 1990, and many of them were IFD ninja flicks. These very unhinged, low-budget, pasted-together, mind-boggling, semi-senseless films sported soundtracks with music ‘borrowed’ from the likes of Jean-Michel Jarre and Pink Floyd, mixed multiple genres into the brew and were, obviously, great fun to watch. Back in the 80s his colourful ninja VHS covers could be found everywhere!
Ho, who was actually trained at the prestigious Shaw Brothers studio, created most of these kung fu opuses with a cut-and-paste technique: splicing footage from different (already existing) movies together, then adding additional recently shot ninja scenes to act as ‘plot glue’ for the new story. An English language track would then be added to help the movie make some form of sense. The preposterous results included such things as the scene where killer crabs crawl out of a cooking pot to go on the offensive and the jaw-dropping moment Ninja Master Harry receives an important message via a small, plastic, talking robot toy!
Clash of the Ninjas
Speaking of Ninja Master Harry: he was played by Richard Harrison, one of the western actors brought in to play the ninjas. Just to be sure audience members knew what his profession was, Harrison often wore headbands with the word ‘ninja’ clearly written on them! As an added bonus, several of these films included scenes of a stern, serious-looking Harrison having deadly, important conversations on a plastic Garfield phone. The madness, the madness!
Don’t mess with Richard Harrison: he rocks!
Richard uses his Garfield phone…
My favourite IFD cut-and-paste ninja flick is SCORPION THUNDERBOLT (1988). This is an unhinged IFD classic of weird plot elements, involving a witch with spiky fingers, soft core sex with a murderous femme, a magic ring and a girl who periodically transforms into a slimy, killer snake monster! The audacious icing on the crazy-cake that is SCORPION THUNDERBOLT is the soundtrack, which includes purloined music from the movies CARRIE, RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK and ALIEN, plus bits from Jean-Michel Jarre’s Oxygene!
UK VHS cover
German VHS cover for Scorpion Thunderbolt
Spike-fingered witch
SCORPION THUNDERBOLT ‘s serpent monster scenes are taken from an earlier Korean film called SNAKE WOMAN and are some of the most enjoyable parts of the film: the glistening-skinned, big, clawed, rubbery reptile-beast-person bloodily attacks a bunch of victims, including one woman in a shower. The pacy movie features a blind flute player (who may be the reason one of the female protagonists periodically turns into the monster), a scene where loads of snakes slither over a car, and an amusing moment involving some characters proudly displaying a papier-mâché tadpole-ish model that they claim resembles the snake-beast!
Characters in the movie show off a model of what they think the terrifying snake monster might look like!
Serpent creature shower attack!
Scorpion Thunderbolt’s snake monster footage was taken from this film: Snake Woman
Beyond their many ninja productions, IFD also released some pretty out-there animated titles, including SOLAR ADVENTURE, a part live action, part anime South Korean movie featuring kids using Transformers-type robots to fight green-faced aliens… who have teamed-up with Kim Il Sung: the then-leader of North Korea!
Solar Adventure
Kim Il Sung!
One of the aliens from Solar Adventure
To cater for those with more esoteric tastes, IFD created/released such bizarro productions as ROBO KICKBOXER (a guy in a silver suit kicks the asses of other kickboxers), THE KILLER ELEPHANTS (featuring, er, killer elephants) and THUNDER OF GIGANTIC SERPENT (a giant puppet snake goes on the rampage). Also part of the catalogue, from Filmark International, is VAMPIRE RAIDERS NINJA QUEEN (which has a scene where a woman accidentally sunbathes on top of a hopping vampire on the beach!)
Cool!
Thunder of Gigantic Serpent
Godfrey Ho used footage from Taiwanese film King of Snake to create his cut-and-paste kaiju flick Thunder of Gigantic Serpent
Yikes!
The Killer Elephants
Evil ninjas and hopping vampires threaten the entire hotel industry!
Robo Kickboxer
Another one of these mad movies, from the Filmark International stable, is the flick ROBO VAMPIRE, which involves a Robocop wannabe dude taking on hopping vampires. Not content with this one film, Filmark also released COUNTER DESTROY… that also boasts scenes of a Robocop wannabe dude fighting hopping vampires!
A movie about a Robocop wannabe dude fighting hopping vampires!
Another movie about a Robocop wannabe dude fighting hopping vampires!
Other films that are part of the current IFD catalogue (the new owners of the catalogue are based the UK) include: DEVIL’S DYNAMITE (a Shadow Warrior battles vampires), NINJA THE FINAL DUEL (which includes shots of a special ninja team riding giant, rubbery, flying aquatic spiders), HUNT FOR DEVIL BOXER (featuring ghouls, zombies and a sacred sword), CROCODILE FURY (there’s an evil witch, croc attacks and vampires in this mash-up), VAMPIRE AND THE E.T. KID (a UFO lands in Taipei and awakens a group of buried vampires), DRAGON AGAINST VAMPIRE (friends rob a grave and evoke the wrath of the evil dark arts villain Black Dragon) and FIREFIST OF INCREDIBLE DRAGON (a period-set kung fu movie that has scenes of a human heart flying about the place, killing people!)
Spider-riding ninjas! (Shame they don’t feature much in the actual film)
Ninja the Final Duel
Devil’s Dynamite
Crocodile Fury
Hunt for Devil Boxer
This movie looks SO low key…
Dragon Against VampireThe flying killer human heart from Firefist of Incredible Dragon!
As mentioned at the start: the IFD catalogue boasts some cool kung fu movies and iconic stars of that genre, including martial arts royalty Wang Yu, Hwang Jang Lee, Bolo, Gordon Liu and even Bruce Lee (footage of Bruce was legally used in FIST OF UNICORN). But it’s hard for me not to keep revelling in the madness of the cut-and-paste flicks, which are so far beyond what is deemed typical movie-making that it’s impossible to use regular judgements like ‘bad’ or ‘good’. And, maybe in this time of glossy, big-budget, franchised, homogenous filmmaking, it’s a relief to sometimes delve into some anarchic cinematic absurdity.
Ninja with a machine gun!
Check out the ninjas on the water spiders!
French VHS cover for Scorpion Thunderbolt
Vampire and the E.T. KidCrocodile FuryVampire and the E.T. Kid
Ninja cut-and-paste flick that features a pesky female ghost
In this flick a ninja plays a special flute to lure a bunch of snakes!
Giant frog experiment from Thunder of Gigantic Serpent
Robo Vampire
Okay, one more gif from Filmark International’s Robo Vampire…
A group of boarding school kids encounter an alien from Venus and team up with the small extraterrestrial, which they name Meba, to catch a bunch of dastardly crooks.
This is a charming, odd, obscure low budget movie from the Children’s Film Foundation, which was a UK non-profit-making organisation that used to make cheap films for kids with pretty simple, straightforward stories. Other sci-fi/fantasy CFF productions include THE GLITTERBALL and THE MONSTER OF HIGHGATE PONDS.
Meba is meant to look cute, honest…
In this movie the alien can transform into a little cartoon flying saucer (with eyes) that zips around the place. When not flying, Meba is a small puppet-creature that is basically a pair of googly eyes wrapped in a white yashmak. This alien is meant to be endearing… but Meba looks bloody creepy!
Meba is so… strange
SUPERSONIC SAUCER features kids who sound so terribly old-school British (even the girl from South America does!), which is par for the course with a Children’s Film Foundation movie, and the plot is nothing special. So the main attraction is, of course, the alien Meba – who remains a bit freaky-looking throughout the movie!
Just don’t look at its creepy stare…
And this is what I want to know: is Meba a sentient flying saucer that can turn into a little creature with big eyes, or is Meba a little creature with big eyes that can turn into a flying saucer?
Meba’s two distinct forms…
With a story by Frank Wells, the son of H.G. Wells, I’ve read some claims that SUPERSONIC SAUCER was an influence on ET, but I’m sure it’s probably too obscure to ever have gotten onto Steven Spielberg’s radar.
Did Meba influence ET?
SUPERSONIC SAUCER was released on DVD by the BFI as part of a triple bill of Children’s Film Foundation movies.
Prem, the mummified manservant of Pharaoh Kah-To-Bey, is brought back to life in the Cairo Museum by the Bedouin Hasmid (Roger Delgado, who’d go on to play ‘The Master’ in many series of DOCTOR WHO), who chants a sacred oath on a shroud. The mummy then goes on a rampage, killing the members of the team of archaeologists who had discovered the lost tomb of Kah-To-Bey.
US one-sheet poster
The third Hammer mummy-out-for-vengeance movie is passable, with regular character actor Michael Ripper given a decent supporting role as the obsequious Longbarrow. This was the last of Hammer’s mummy films to actually feature a bandaged mummy (the next movie would focus on the shapely form of Valerie Leon) – though it’s certainly the least effective mummy costume of the lot, with wicker-like wrappings around its forearms and an especially cheap-looking face mask.
Hair-pulling mummy!
Jeeeez… this close-up model of the mummy opening its eyes ain’t very good!
However, what this mummy lacks in looks it makes up with brutality: murdering victims via strangulation, head-crushing, tossing them from windows, bashing a head into a wall and even throwing photographic acid into a character’s face. Nasty!
André (THE GIANT BEHEMOTH) Morell delivers a decent performance, as he always does, and the finale features the axe-wielding mummy finally crumbling to dust, but this cheap production dwells too long on a lengthy prologue set in Ancient Egypt and fails to reach the stylish heights of Hammer’s original THE MUMMY (1959).
Axe-wielding mummy! I repeat: axe-wielding mummy!
The film has a decent crumbling-to-dust sequence
John Gilling, who directed and co-wrote THE MUMMY’S SHROUD, also made the far better Hammer movies THE REPTILE and THE PLAGUE OF THE ZOMBIES.
Lobby card
French poster
Japanese poster
Another lobby card
The mummy chillin’ in his sarcophagus
“I predict you will become a popular villain on Doctor Who…”
After the mummy of Ra-Antef is discovered in 1900 by three Egyptologists (Ronald Howard, Jack Gwillim and Bernard Rebel), all the mummy’s artefacts are taken to London by the expedition’s backer – brash American showman Alexander King (Fred Clark) – who intends to exploit the discovery as a travelling road show.
US poster
The mummy, of course, comes back to life and starts killing off various members of the expedition. Meanwhile, Annette, the daughter of one of the Egyptologists, finally discovers the mysterious origin of rich arts patron Adam Beauchamp (Terence Morgan)…
Beware the mummy…
…lurking in the sewer
THE CURSE OF THE MUMMY’S TOMB was directed by Michael Carreras, who also wrote it under the pseudonym ‘Henry Younger’, and was originally released in a double bill with THE GORGON. It was the second of Hammer’s four Mummy movies.
You’d have the same expression if a big-boned mummy was looming over you!If only the mummy was as huge as it is depicted in this poster!
This Hammer yarn features a rather chunky mummy (played by stunt man Dickie Owen) that comes back to life fairly late in the movie. I prefer the lithe, mud-caked look of Christopher Lee’s mummy in 1959’s THE MUMMY, but this is a colourful, watchable production with Michael Ripper as Achmed, a cool scene where a bunch of coppers with a net take on the mummy, a plot twist concerning an immortal character and a finale set in the sewers.
A rather stout mummy…
Bobbies versus the mummy! Ra-Antef carries off Annette
The film has a preoccupation with hand-severing, featuring three different scenes of hands getting cut off. At one point there’s a flashback where we see the Egyptian prince (who will become the mummy) getting his hand chopped off. Now, surely this would mean that the roaming mummy in this movie should have a stump? Or was the hand reattached to Ra-Antef when he was mummified, perhaps?
The first hand-severing in the filmThe second hand-lopping seen in the filmYet another hand gets chopped off in the film!
Definitely not a classic Hammer film, this production passes the time, however, and does boast a lively performance by Fred Clark as the showy, profit-obsessed Alexander King.
The groom changed so much after the wedding…Publicity shot
A young wife (Gloria Talbott) starts to worry that her husband (Tom Tyron) is not the man he was before they tied the knot…
Soon she finds out that he’s not the only guy in town that seems to have changed character. Eventually she discovers that her husband is actually an alien… and realises that she has married a monster from outer space!
Poster
Despite its gimmicky title, this is a well-made 50s sci-fi movie, directed by Gene (I WAS A TEENAGE WEREWOLF) Fowler Jr, which was released as a double feature with THE BLOB (now that’s what I call an amazing double bill!)
Yikes! An awesome duo!
I MARRIED A MONSTER FROM OUTER SPACE’s script, written by Louis Vittes (who usually wrote for television), is really quite effective, gradually building a sense of paranoia experienced by the newlywed heroine, with the plot focusing on the stealthy invasion of Earth by human-mimicking, glowing aliens in search of females they can procreate with. Dripping with subtext, the story can be seen as an allegory for how couples can quickly grow apart and become alienated.
The newlyweds become ‘alienated’
Some decent special effects by John P. Fulton, good performances from Tom Tyron and Gloria Talbott, and a finale that involves dogs ripping out the aliens’ breathing tubes all add to the enjoyment of this film.
Dog versus alien!
A glowing, gnarly monster from outer space
Weird smoke effect!
Nice touches include ‘alien smoke’ FX, the grotesque aliens’ true faces being revealed during lightning flashes (creepy!) and the main extraterrestrial character finally developing a knowledge of human feelings.
Exiting their hidden craft
I urge you to seek this out if you’ve not seen it, because it’s a satisfying film that can be relished simply as a B-movie romp or as a sci-fi tale with some crafty subtext.
In a post-apocalyptic world a woman (Brittany Ashworth) crashes her truck, breaks her leg and must survive the night as a creature menacingly lurks outside.
Poster
Okay, whether you like this movie or not will probably depend upon how much you are interested in the many flashbacks that reveal the heroine’s relationship with her lover in pre-apocalypse times.
I actually found the flashbacks concerning the burgeoning romance interesting, though they do take up a great deal of the running time (SPOILER) …and the romance does relate to the plot twist at the end.
Weird being!
The non-flashback section of the film is handled like a contained horror-thriller, with the protagonist stuck in her overturned vehicle for the duration of the movie.
Trapped in her truck…
…in a land where mutants lurk
Creature-wise, I liked the look of the beings that populate the wasteland: hairless, scrawny humanoids with deformed heads.
Students travel into an area of wilderness in search of Bigfoot, but eventually discover there is also a dangerous supernatural spirit known as the Wendigo lurking here… and this antlered, evil presence has the power to turn people into hairless, humanoid creatures.
‘The legends are real… and they kill’
The Bigfoot is behind you…
One of the Wendigo’s creaturesSkewered on a tree
Director Bruce Wemple’s previous film, THE RETREAT (2020), also featured the Wendigo and its hairless minion creatures, but DAWN OF THE BEAST is more entertaining and manages to add more tension to its scenes compared to the previous flick, which shares some of the same actors. (Oh, and Wemple ALSO made the Bigfoot movie MONSTROUS in 2020).
Shadow of the Wendigo…
This film is far from perfect, though, with a fuzziness concerning just how the Wendigo affects its victims: some become glowing-eyed, smooth-skinned creatures, whilst others remain people resembling possessed deadites from the Evil Dead movies. And I didn’t like the early scene where the group come across an old corpse, which they decide to ignore because it would ruin their weekend! When people make such unrealistic, stupid decisions it can really pull you out of the film.
One of the characters goes very ‘Evil Dead’…
But DAWN OF THE BEAST does have a standout moment: a third act scene where we see Bigfoot fight and kill a bunch of the Wendigo’s creatures in the woods, accompanied by a cool synth score! Nice! I do like the fact Bigfoot really kicks these creatures asses! Go Bigfoot!
A creature gets ready to fight BigfootBigfoot gets covered in the blood of the creatures he’s killingThe protagonist watches the creatures fightThe WendigoBigfoot
I was also surprised when the feisty female character Lilly (Anna Shields – also the writer the script), who I thought was going to end up being the movie’s ass-kicking ‘final girl’, gets her arm ripped off and she is killed!
I wasn’t expecting this!
Lilly gets her arm torn off!Creatures caught in the torchlightOne more shot of Bigfoot roaring
Known as WAR-GODS OF THE DEEP in the US, this period fantasy-sci-fi-horror yarn stars Vincent Price, Tab Hunter, Susan Hart, David Tomlinson and John Le Mesurier.
Gill man!
The plot involves Price as the leader of a group of smugglers/seamen living in the sunken remains of a lost city off the coast of Cornwall. This place gets its air via the lost city’s advanced pump machinery that is still working. The race who built the city are now few in number and have devolved into gill men. Price and his men never age so long as they stay in the ruins beneath the waves, but if they venture to the world above they immediately grow old and die.
The sunken city and underwater volcano (in Cornwall!)
Released as WAR-GODS OF THE DEEP in the US
Lobby card
Well, this is a movie that pretends to be a Poe film (a poem of his is recited), but the film is really more of a faux Jules Verne yarn with its steampunk diving suits and general decor.
Vincent Price is The Captain
CITY UNDER THE SEA, directed by Jacques Tourneur, looks great, with good scale model work, gorgeous lighting and detailed, nicely art directed sets, featuring bull-headed statues, a giant stone hand and walls covered in Babylonian-style writing and paintings. We get an earthquake at the end too.
This stone hand is a great piece of decor
The sets are all very impressiveJacques Tourneur gives this movie a great look
However… the plot goes nowhere, with the story becoming simply a series of attempted escapes, involving walking through passages and Price threatening to punish people, even when the local underwater volcano (in Cornwall?!) threatens to destroy everything.
The plot problems can be attributed to the heavy rewriting the script suffered to add humour to it, mainly so that David Tomlinson’s character could be introduced… with his pet chicken (I think the producers wanted to add the chicken because animals had featured in similar movies: there was a duck in JOURNEY TO THE CENTRE OF THE EARTH, a sea lion in 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA and a poodle in the 1960 version of THE LOST WORLD).
David Tomlinson and Herbert the chicken
During the undersea chase scene Herbert the chicken sits in Tomlinson’s diving helmet!
The gill men could have been a big plus for the film, but these aquatic humanoids are not too impressive and seem to have been made from doctored wetsuits. The underwater chase scene at the end is v-e-r-y slow and plodding too.
I’ve got to say I’ve seen better movie gill men…
With a decent script this could have been so much better, even with the inclusion of Herbert the chicken, but the film remains an enjoyable watch anyway.
A giant tongue sprouts a toothy mouth and tentacles!
A tax collector (Leslie Cheung) travels to a rural town and ends up taking shelter in a creepy, deserted temple in the forest. Here he encounters a beautiful young woman (Joey Wong) and falls in love with her. A Taoist priest (Wu Ma), however, informs our hero that this woman is a ghost… and it is soon revealed that she is under the control of an evil Tree Demon.
Poster
Shrivel-faced zombie!
Directed with kinetic panache by Ching Siu-Tung, this film is a horror-romance-martial-arts-comedy-actioner that is crammed with atmosphere, emotion, gravity defying swordplay and some goofball physical comedy.
Leslie Cheung and Joey Wong
Its mix of Asian story elements (beautiful flying ghosts, a Taoist priest-swordsman, etc) and western filming techniques (Sam Raimi-esque roving cameras and some gooey FX) make this Hong Kong production an enormously entertaining watch, with Leslie Cheung, Joey Wong and Wu Ma all perfect in the leading roles.
Wu Ma performs a very acrobatic Taoist rap!
Joey Wong is a standout playing the sexy-yet-vulnerable ghost, flying about the stylishly-lit locations in her flowing silk robes. There is a wonderful moment where she gives Leslie Cheung’s character (who is having to hide from her evil ‘sisters’ underwater) a slow motion kiss that is also providing him with much-needed air. (This is my all-time favourite screen kiss!)
The mysterious ghost-girl
And, of course, we shouldn’t forget the shrivelled stop-motion corpses in the temple. These undead dudes shuffle around the building in the early part of the film, trying to get hold of the hero, but thanks to a series of comedic, lucky mishaps he remains completely unaware that the zombies are there, eventually killing them with sunlight without ever noticing them!
Stop-motion corpses in the attic!Another shot of the stop-motion zombiesFull-scale zombie head used for close-ups
The ancient tree spirit villain is a great antagonist, appearing as a cross-dressing dame or a gigantic human tongue. At one point the tip of the huge tongue splits, becomes a toothed maw with a face at the back of the jaws, with tentacles sprouting everywhere!
The tree demon!
Giant tongue erupts through the floor!
80s Hong Kong madness!
Produced by the legendary Tsui Hark, the film’s plot is loosely based on a tale from writer Pu Songling’s short story collection STRANGE STORIES FROM A CHINESE STUDIO. That ghost yarn was originally adapted for the screen in 1960 as the Shaw Brothers film THE ENCHANTING SHADOW, a movie that was an influence on Hark when he made his own version of the tale in 1987.
I was really impressed with A CHINESE GHOST STORY when I first saw it in the cinema back in 1987. With its effortless merging of genres, a haunting score and a finale featuring the heroes battling it out in the netherworld to save the heroine, the movie turned me into an avid, obsessed Hong Kong movie fan!
Wu Ma is especially good as the sword-fighting monk
Japanese poster
Awesome stuff!
Netherworld finale!
(If you hunt this down to watch, make sure you see the perfectly-formed ’87 version and not the remake)
One more look at the undead corpses in the attic!
Episode 79 of MOVIESTRUCK…
MOVIESTRUCK is a New York-based podcast about movies and the people who watch them – and this episode features me, along with Eastern Heroes magazine publisher Ricky Baker, talking to host Sophia Ricciardi about the utterly amazing A CHINESE GHOST STORY (1987). You can listen to it HERE!
Devoted to every kind of movie and TV monster, from King Kong to Godzilla, from the Blob to Alien. Plus monsters from other media too, including books and comics.
Monster Zone 