First Men in the Moon (1964)

March 25, 2023 Ken Miller Leave a comment

A lovely, rocky moon vista — A lovely, rocky moonscape

Directed by Nathan (THE 7TH VOYAGE OF SINBAD) Juran, starring Edward Judd, Lionel Jeffries, Martha Hyer, Miles Malleson and an uncredited cameo by Peter Finch.

When a team of astronauts land on the moon, they discover an old Union Jack flag and a document, which states that the moon has already been claimed… for Queen Victoria!

Back on Earth, an investigation team locates the last of the original Victorian crew, a very old Arnold Bedford (Judd), who tells them the story of how he and his girlfriend Katherine (Hyer) met up with an idiosyncratic inventor called Joseph Cavor (Jeffries).
As the story unfolds, we see that Cavor has invented a gravity-defying substance called Cavorite, which allows them to fly a sphere all the way to the moon. Once there, the intrepid trio discovers a lunar civilisation composed of various types of intelligent, insect-like beings, referred to as selenites…

This light, comedic slice of Victorian-era science fiction, shot in Panavision, features fine performances from Lionel Jeffries and Edward Judd. I think Jeffries is especially good as Cavor, who is the standout character in a script written by Nigel (THE QUATERMASS XPERIMENT) Kneale. The story is, of course, an adaptation of the H.G. Wells novel.

Together with this film, Edward Judd was in several other sci-fi flicks that I like: THE DAY THE EARTH CAUGHT FIRE, INVASION and ISLAND OF TERROR

The Grand Lunar and several higher-status selenites are stop-motion creations courtesy of Ray Harryhausen, while the worker selenites are children in costumes, which I think works okay as they aren’t focused on in detail.

Worker selenites (kids in costumes) dismantle the sphere

The stop-motion Grand Lunar, leader of the selenites — The stop-motion Grand Lunar: leader of the selenites

The giant mooncalf is also created via stop-motion by Ray Harryhausen: its attack on the heroes is my favourite moment in the movie.

The giant, caterpillar-like mooncalf is ace!

The movie boasts some pleasing moonscape sets, subterranean vistas, plus a clever modern day wraparound plot device, which all add to the enjoyment of the viewing experience.

One of Ray Harryhausen's stop-motion selenites — One of Ray Harryhausen’s stop-motion selenites

Some posters for the movie…

Here are some Italian Fotobustas (lobby cards)…

Cover for the Gold Key comic adaptation…

Some colourful art…

Okay, let’s focus on the lovely mooncalf…

The selenites strip the mooncalf of its flesh, leaving a skeleton

The special visual effects for the film were provided by Ray Harryhausen, who worked alongside British special effects expert Les Bowie at his Slough studio to produce the complicated travelling matte sequences that combined live action footage with the miniatures. Ian Scoones, who frequently collaborated with Bowie, drew the concept artwork for the mooncalf skeleton.
Here you can see Scoones’ skeleton drawing on the top right, next to Ray’s initial concepts for the look of the mooncalf stop-motion model’s face and body…

Finally, here’s a publicity shot of Martha Hyer…

Errementari: the Blacksmith and the Devil (2017)

March 25, 2023 Ken Miller Leave a comment

The demon locked up in a cage... — The demon is locked up in a cage…

This Basque-language horror-fantasy movie is directed by Paul Urkijo Alijo, written by Paul Urkijo Alijo and Asier Guerricaechebarría, and stars Kandido Uranga, Uma Bracaglia and Eneko Sagardoy.

ERREMENTARI: THE BLACKSMITH AND THE DEVIL is a re-telling of an old fable, set in the Basque area of Spain, after the First Carlist War. We follow little orphan Usue, who ends up in the home of feared local blacksmith Patxi, who has made the demon Sartael his prisoner…

Don't let Sartael out of his cage! — Don’t let Sartael out of his cage!

This is a great-looking film, with a fine feel for the period, featuring lots of shots of muddy roads, dingy homes and dirty-faced people. The cinematography and lighting is very good.

The demons in the movie are really well-done: they are old-school medieval-style beings, mainly created practically, via make-up, costumes & prosthetics, with nice CGI touches (their pointy tails.)

I like the look of this demon — I like the look of this devil!

The captured demon Sartael is a wonderful, memorable character and the other demons seen later in the story, when the protagonists find themselves heading to the gates of hell, are nicely executed.

A demon's ass with a face on it... — A demon’s ass with a face on it…

Also known simply as ERREMENTARI, this was the first full-length movie by director Paul Urkijo Alijo, and it is a top-notch Spanish horror fable worth seeking out.

Look at the faces on Sartael's knees — Look at the faces on Sartael’s knees

Finally, some artwork for the film…

Na Cha and the Seven Devils (1973)

March 23, 2023 Ken Miller Leave a comment

Starring Yu Lung, Ching Li, Tina Chin Fei, An Ping, Wei Hung and Chen Hung Lieh, directed by Tetsuya Yamanouchi for Shaw Brothers and Jih Mao Film Company.

At one point Na Cha grows multiple arms!

After eating a sacred peach and accidentally knocking the other seven peaches down to the mortal world, young Na Cha must deal with the human-looking devils that have appeared on Earth after various animals have chowed down on the mystical fruit.

This seems like a kids fantasy film to begin with, but soon we’re presented with shots of groping couples making out and scenes of folks being killed by the devils, who have a penchant for turning themselves into the likenesses of loved ones.

A dragon looms up above a village... — A dragon looms up above a village…

...and the beast starts burning the place! — …and the beast starts burning down the place!

There’s a decent kaiju moment when a giant dragon burns down a village, plus a subplot involving the devils attempting to prevent a military fleet from setting sail, and an airborne skirmish between Na Cha, a devil eagle and the dragon. To even the odds in this fight with the puppet predators, Na Cha grows in size and becomes multi-armed for a while!

Na Cha throws a sword into the devil eagle's wing — Na Cha throws a sword into the devil eagle’s wing

NA CHA AND THE SEVEN DEVILS is a watchable Hong Kong-Taiwanese fantasy adventure coproduction that, just like similar mythical tales, continually introduces extra characters as the story progresses, including a snake dude, a bull dude and a goat dude, plus an immortal hero with a third eye called Yang Jian, who is aided by Celestial Dog: a canine companion wearing its own natty yellow costume!

Bio-Cops (2000)

March 21, 2023 Ken Miller Leave a comment

Starring Stephen Fung, Sam Lee, Alice Chan, Chan Wai Ming, Benny Lai, and Frankie Ng Chi-Hung, directed by Steve Cheng.

Dr Harry (Lai) smuggles a sample of weaponised virus from a lab that’s attempting to create ‘painless warriors’, but he is bitten by one of the test subjects (Jude Poyer) and slowly turns into a zombie-like being, triggering an outbreak of the undead at a rural Hong Kong police station.

Green gunk dribbles from Dr Harry's mouth as he has sex... — Green gunk dribbles from Dr Harry’s mouth during sex…

There’s too much extraneous chat and a string of pointless scenes padding out the beginning of this movie, but matters become more interesting once Harry starts drooling green gunk during sex, rips apart the occupants of a police cell and then becomes a super-strong, scabby-faced ‘New Human’, who can bend bars.

Could've been better... — Could’ve been better…

Instead of being a super-soldier thriller, as suggested by the opening sequence, BIO-COPS evolves into a zombie outbreak flick and is really rather silly. Quite a few zombies seem to like to hide in lockers, a cop gets his arse bitten by petty hoodlum Cheap (Lee), who’s just pretending to be a zombie, and Frankie Ng Chi-Hung simply looks embarrassed playing zombified Hung Hing triad gang boss Kow.

For a 'zombie', Harry talks quite a bit — For a ‘zombie’, Harry talks quite a bit

Reminiscent of BIO-ZOMBIE (1998) in some ways, this film is nowhere near as good as that flick, though the diverting latter zombie siege moments, involving submachine guns and pump-action shotguns, do enliven the story, but the finale lacks fizz, turning into a talky confrontation between cop hero Marco (Fung), his girlfriend May (Wai Ming) and Harry, but at least it ends with Harry having a grenade shoved into his mouth. Boom!

She's going to ram a grenade into his mouth! — She’s going to ram a grenade into his mouth!

Evil Cat (1987)

March 19, 2023 Ken Miller 1 Comment

Starring Lau Kar-Leung, Tang Lai-Ying, Mark Cheng, Wong Jing, Hsu Shu-Yuan and Stuart Ong, written by Wong Jing and directed by Dennis Yu.

We see the cat creature in her true form during a prologue, but must wait until the last five minutes to see the cat-woman again — We see the cat creature in her true form during the prologue, but must wait until the last five minutes to see the cat-woman again

An evil cat demon-spirit reappears every 50 years and a descendant of the demon-fighting Cheung family has always been there to combat it, in a cycle of events that spans the past 400 years. Now the final cat spirit has been set free on the Earth and Master Cheung, who is suffering from cancer, enlists the help of young chauffeur Ah Long (Cheng) to destroy the evil once and for all. Armed with a bow and three charmed arrows, Long & Cheung hunt down the energy-absorbing feline entity, which first possesses Long’s boss Mr Fan and then his personal assistant, Tina.

The possessed Mr Fan likes to eat live carp

Evil Cat is standard 80s Hong Kong horror-fantasy fare, with the requisite amounts of humour and suspense, with decent action scenes overseen by master martial arts director Lau Kar-Leung, who also plays spirit-fighter Cheung.

A cop has a hand rammed right through his body

Written by Wong Jing, the film gains momentum once Tina (Shu-Yuan) gets possessed, triggering scenes in which she bites off the tongue of a pop star during sex in a car, rams her hand through a policeman’s body, and withstands multiple gunshot hits when cops blast at her during an energetic police station rampage.

Lots of swirling spectral lights as the evil cat spirit enters Tina's body — Lots of swirling spectral lights as the evil cat spirit enters Tina’s body

The plot’s supernatural lore is patchy at best, with the cat-demon easily jumping from host to host, even when it is stabbed by the supposedly lethal magic arrows, but the movie doesn’t worry itself too much about the fuzziness of its mythology, concentrating instead on supplying incident after incident, intent on reaching its climax, where the evil spirit finally reveals its true form: a pale, white-haired cat-woman.

During the police station rampage the possessed Tina really gets shot-up by the cops…

...and the policemen keep on shooting Tina... and she doesn't die! — …and the policemen keep on shooting Tina… and she doesn’t die!

Evil Cat doesn’t really stick in the memory, but it is never dull and certainly passes the time nicely enough.

We see the evil cat spirit's true form again during the finale — We see the evil cat spirit’s true form again during the finale

She could definitely audition for the Andrew Lloyd Webber show... — She could definitely audition for the Andrew Lloyd Webber show…

The Butterfly Murders (1979)

March 18, 2023 Ken Miller 1 Comment

Starring Lau Siu-Ming, Wong Shu-Tong, Michelle Yim, Chan Chi Chi and Eddy Ko, directed by Tsui Hark for Seasonal Film Corporation.

Tien Fung, leader of the Ten Flags clan, investigates the mystery of killer butterfly attacks in the deserted Shum Castle, accompanied by some of his troops and lone woman warrior Green Shadow. Entering the catacombs beneath the castle, they encounter esteemed scholar Fong (Siu-Ming), Master Shum, his wife and a mute maid named Chee. The butterflies continue to kill, hidden rooms are discovered and renowned fighters known as the Thunders enter the story.

Tien Fung and Green Shadow inspect a dragon carving in Shum Castle

Butterflies munch on a victim's hand — Butterflies munch on a victim’s hand

Tsui Hark’s first film is an assured, thoroughly engrossing Hong Kong new wave wuxia murder mystery with creature feature elements. The empty Shum Castle itself, often shown from the outside, looming above the long grasses, adds immeasurably to the atmosphere of the film, as does the effective use of Jerry Goldsmith’s PLANET OF THE APES score. Wong Shu-Tong is steely, stoic and thoughtful as Tien Fung and Michelle Yim is playful and acrobatic as Green Shadow.

Wong Shu-Tong is a cool dude in this movie

The film offers a realistic reason for characters being able to fly about, by showing them using various line-firing gizmos, but there are still fantastical components to the story, like a fire crow bird that explodes on contact with people and the notion that butterflies can actually kill a person, though these lethal Lepidoptera assaults are actually explained away as being the result of the use of ‘butterfly-controlling medicine’.

Master Shum is assaulted by a swarm of butterflies

Be careful... this bird can blow up! — Be careful… this bird can blow up!

The introduction of a helmeted armoured man becomes the focus of the latter stages of the movie, with the killer butterflies taking a back seat, as fights involving dart-ejecting weapons and explosive projectiles ultimately lead to a nihilistic finale.

The secret plans and rivalries eventually revealed to be the reasons behind the events may fail to be particularly compelling, but THE BUTTERFLY MURDERS remains a very moody, intriguing, enjoyable viewing experience.

Kung Fu From Beyond The Grave (1982)

March 14, 2023 Ken Miller Leave a comment

Starring Billy Chong, Lo Lieh, Sung Gam-Shing and Fang Mien, directed by Lee Chiu for The Eternal Film Company.

During the annual Ghost Festival, bare-chested hero Chun (Chong) is visited by the eyeless, green-faced spectre of his dead dad, who informs his son that he was a victim of murder. Chun decides to go to Yellow Dragon Town to get revenge for pops, but it won’t be easy as the villain controls a bunch of henchmen and is aided by a black magician priest (Gam-Shing). After Chun is pestered by hopping undead corpses in a playful scene, he’s inspired to go back to the location of a book of magic, which he uses to raise a group of mangle-faced undead to do his bidding.

These undead know how to make their own crucifix

This film is a great deal of fun!

Just to illustrate this, let’s look at what happens in a nicely-mounted confrontation between Chun and his ghosts versus the bad priest: the magician uses a magical cape and two long-tongued spirits in pointy hats to fight Chun’s ghosts, but Chun stands his ground and retaliates, using his glowing magic book to turn the black magician’s spirits into puddles… but the movie’s weird factor is suddenly turned up a notch as the priest piles on the pressure… by summoning Count Dracula! Wonderful stuff!

Billy Chong’s fight moves are a joy to watch, plus we get to see a deadly ghost with stretching arms, a long-range flamethrower breath attack, women’s underwear thrown at the wizard to weaken him and a scene where the main villain (Lieh) is chased by the burning scalps of his victims!

These surreal elements, added to fine action courtesy of martial arts directors Alan Hsu and Sung Gam-Shing, make this a very entertaining kung-fu-horror-fantasy yarn.

Chun's eyeless, green-faced dead dad — Chun’s eyeless, green-faced dead dad

Curse of Evil (1982)

March 8, 2023 Ken Miller Leave a comment

It's a toothy bloody frog! — It’s a toothy bloody frog!

Starring Tai Liang-Chun, Ai Fei, Lily Li, Wang Lai, Eric Chan and Yu Tsui-Ling, directed by Kuei Chih-Hung for Shaw Brothers.

The creature from the well assaults its first victim

The story takes place in a mansion in a quiet back alley, where the members of the dysfunctional Shi family and their servants act very superstitiously on the 1st and 15th day of each month, because this is when freaky stuff can happen, due to the fact that thirteen members of the family were killed by bandits and thrown into a dry well many years ago. When a weird, pink, toothy ‘bloody frog’ is encountered, this is seen as a bad omen for sure, as this amphibian always presages ominous events. Terrible things do begin to happen, with a slimy, horned monster crawling out of the well, intent on raping and killing.

A slime-coated victim of the tentacle-monster

Kuei Chih-Hung, director of luridly memorable Hong Kong horror opuses like THE BOXER’S OMEN, CORPSE MANIA, BEWITCHED and THE KILLER SNAKES, clearly decided not to hold back when making this demented, gooey weird-fest, choosing to merge murder mystery plotting with creature feature imagery, adding exploitative sexual abuse scenes to make the movie that bit more sleazy.

Lots of goo dribbles from the tentacled creature onto its victims

Another 'bloody frog' — Another ‘bloody frog’

The story somehow manages to combine a subplot involving certain relatives trying to kill off the Shi family’s wheelchair-bound matriarch (Lai) in order to inherit her house, with footage of a demon-headed well-monster with two tentacles instead of hind legs that sexually assaults its female victims and kills them with its flesh-ripping steel teeth, with shots of a mystery figure secretly feeding offal to a pit full of spiky bloody frogs, with scenes of abusive cousin Jinhua (Fei) hypnotising one of the maids so that he can have sex with her, resulting in an unwanted pregnancy. As you can see: Kuei Chih-Hung obviously believes that enough is never enough!

The well-critter rips chunks of flesh from people with its steel teeth

After seeing this poster you wanna see the movie, right?

We get close-ups of the tentacle-monster’s extendable appendage as it sucks out the eyeballs of elderly manservant Quan and see the critter cover its female victims with pink, gelatine-like slime… and yet… it’s eventually revealed that this beast is actually fake, just a guy in a suit! This is all an elaborate set-up, of course, involving fake identities, obscure secondary characters and the matriarch herself, who is not really disabled and can become an unstoppable maniac… until she is beheaded! The unimaginably preposterous denouement would have us believe that all of the strange happenings were fabricated and nothing supernatural actually occurred, yet the film never provides a real-world explanation for the existence of the flesh-eating bloody frogs, which chow down on several people, including a bound-up maid. Did these amphibians mutate purely because they were fed lots of offal? Does it matter, really? This is a loopy film where logic takes a backseat, so that the director can focus on batshit crazy stuff like a mad granny secretly sewing costumes for a kid’s skeleton in the attic, perverted amateur hypnotism, and outrageously far-fetched murder schemes.

Bloody frogs chew on Quan's face! — Bloody frogs chew on Quan’s face!

A tied-up maid is unable to escape an attack by a bunch of bloody frogs!

The Killer Snakes (1974)

March 7, 2023 Ken Miller Leave a comment

The main character is quite Norman Bates-like sometimes, only he's more disturbed than Norman! — The main character is quite Norman Bates-like sometimes, only he’s more disturbed than Norman!

Starring Kam Kwok-Leung, Li Lin-Lin, Chen Chun, Lin Feng and Ko Ti-Hua, directed by Kuei Chih-Hung for Shaw Brothers.

Zhihong is a poor, gawky, bullied youth living in a shack next to a snake bladder store in a rundown Hong Kong neighbourhood. When an injured cobra slithers through a crack in the store wall, entering Zhihong’s ramshackle home, he decides to stitch up the serpent’s wound and look after it, triggering a set of circumstances that will lead to Zhihong using his killer cobra, plus more reptiles liberated from the store, to avenge himself against those who have treated him badly.

Unlike Willard (1971), however, which this film is obviously inspired by, Zhihong is a far more disturbed protagonist compared to the rat-obsessed main character in the American original. In a scene where Zhihong carries a prostitute who’d tried to mug him back to his shack, The Killer Snakes queasily merges Zhihong’s desire to get back at his tormentors with his disturbed sexual urges, showing him take advantage of the woman by tying her up and licking her. Though Zhihong himself has been a victim of bullying, he does far worse, allowing his snake friends to violate his captive in a sweaty, seedy scene that uses black and white flashbacks to suggest Zhihong’s dark urges stem from childhood memories of abuse and voyeurism.

Zhihong allows his bondage fantasies to get out of hand

Starting with mondo-style footage of live snakes having their gall bladders cut out, this film is sordid and repellent in many ways, but it is well shot and lit, juggling its exploitative components expertly. Bondage fantasies, scenes of Zhihong letting monitor lizards scratch his latest tied-up female victim, a set piece involving an abusive character chopping up snakes for real with a sword before he’s constricted to death by a huge python, plus other grindhouse elements, show how this movie set its sights on offending and disturbing its viewers, a goal it obviously succeeded in achieving with sleazy ease.

Zhihong lets monitor lizards attack one of his captives

The Web of Death (1976)

March 4, 2023 Ken Miller Leave a comment

Lo Lieh opens-up the Spider weapon... — Lo Lieh opens-up the Spider device…

Starring Yueh Hua, Lo Lieh and Ching Li, directed by Chor Yuen, for Shaw Brothers.

Members of various clans hunt for the hiding place of a legendary weapon. One of these warriors is swordsman Fei (Hua), intent on finding this deadly device before it gets into the hands of someone who will use it for evil purposes.

THE WEB OF DEATH, directed by Chor Yuen, is a tangled tale of rival sects, including the 5 Venom Clan, Qingyi Clan and Holy Fire Clan, who are all immersed in a plot featuring such fantastical elements as acid pit traps and characters with the power to unleash energy beams from their hands.

Some of these martial arts masters can fire power beams from their hands

The highlight of the film is undoubtedly the secret weapon at the centre of the tale, known as the Spider. This is a hand-held smoking lantern containing a glowing tarantula that makes roaring sounds, emits deadly poisonous gas and creates massive webs that can trap its victims. The use of this curious device, which causes some casualties to develop blackened faces as they expire, adds a layer of surrealism to the film and helps make the finale very strange, absurd and spectacular.

The tarantula within the lantern is normal-sized

The faces of some victims of the otherworldly arachnid go black as they die — The faces of some victims of this otherworldly arachnid go black as they die

Everyone gets trapped within an electrified web

Although the plot can be overly convoluted at times, the film is entertaining, with colourful costumes and wonderful eye candy sets, the most impressive of which is a voluminous chamber containing stone balconies and a large, red spider sculpture.

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.