Dawn of the Beast (2021)

July 30, 2021 Ken Miller Leave a comment

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 legends are real… and they kill’

The Bigfoot is behind you... — The Bigfoot is behind you…

One of the Wendigo's creatures — One of the Wendigo’s creatures

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... — 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'... — 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!

Bigfoot gets covered in the blood of the creatures he's killing — Bigfoot gets covered in the blood of the creatures he’s killing

The protagonist watches the creatures fight

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!

City Under the Sea (1965)

July 27, 2021 Ken Miller Leave a comment

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.

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

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.

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

Jacques 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).

During the undersea chase scene Herbert the chicken sits in Tomlinson's diving helmet! — 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... — 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 Chinese Ghost Story (1987)

July 26, 2021 Ken Miller Leave a comment

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 Wang) 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.

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.

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 Wang and Wu Ma all perfect in the leading roles.

Wu Ma performs a very acrobatic Taoist rap!

Joey Wang 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.

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!

Another shot of the stop-motion corpses — Another shot of the stop-motion zombies

Full-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!

Produced by the legendary Tsui Hark, this film really impressed me 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 for many years!

Wu Ma is especially good as the sword-fighting monk

Awesome stuff!

(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!

The Throne of Fire (1983)

July 24, 2021 Ken Miller Leave a comment

Bad guy Mora, who is the son of the devil (well, he’s actually the son of a messenger of the devil), wants to sit on the Throne of Fire, but he must marry a princess who is a rightful heir first. The princess that Mora sets his sights on is Valkari, who is helped by the very buff Siegfried (Pietro Torrisi), but the muscled hero finds himself dealing with such obstacles as the Well of Madness.

When the villain Mora is born he looks like this... — When the villain Mora is born he looks like this…

It turns out that Mora's soldiers look like this under their helmets... — It turns out that Mora’s soldiers look like this under their helmets

This Italian poster has 'borrowed' from Frazetta it seems... — An Italian poster that has ‘borrowed’ from Frazetta, it seems…

THE THRONE OF FIRE is an Italian sword and sorcery film (it comes across more like a peplum) directed by Franco Prosperi, who reuses the village raid sequence from his previous 1982 movie THE SWORD OF THE BARBARIANS. Princess Valkari is played by Sabrina Siani, who was the mask-wearing, sadistic, topless villainess Ocron in Lucio Fulci’s mist-shrouded fantasy barbarian yarn CONQUEST (1983).

This movie has some interesting elements, including the aforementioned Well of Madness, where the muscular hero is confronted by a panther, a python and fights an empty suit of armour. The villain’s origin is okay (you see brief shots of him as a newborn, slimy monster baby) and the titular throne is a fun concept: it burns alive anyone who is unworthy of sitting on it!

A floating mangled head — …and here’s a floating mangled head

Anyone who is unworthy gets incinerated on the throne!

So it’s a shame that this sword and sorcery film doesn’t do enough with its ideas, coming across as rather dull and meandering, even with a floating ghost head, some fairly decent sets, and the on-screen presence of Sabrina Siani as the blonde-haired warrior princess.

Yep, a shame.

Thirst (2015)

July 23, 2021 Ken Miller 2 Comments

Alien critter alert! — Toothy-faced beastie!

The staff and teenagers at a wilderness boot camp for problem teens are attacked by a vicious bio-mechanical alien. With nobody nearby to help them, they are forced to fight back on their own.

The poster artist doesn't seem to know the movie is set in a desert... — The poster artist doesn’t seem to know the movie is set in a desert…

This is a just-about-okay flick that is better than the stuff produced by the Asylum, for instance (which I know isn’t saying much!)

Directed by Greg Kiefer, THIRST features almost-okay (or at least acceptable) CGI, but some of the cliched characters get pretty irritating, which affects the potential watchability and enjoyment of the movie – and I think it would have been better if the alien’s origin had been gone into.

If you fancy watching a bunch of one dimensional protagonists getting bumped off by a CGI critter that looks its best in the night scenes (but is featured in a lot of bright daylight scenes) this could well be the cliche-ridden flick for you!

Creature concept design by Mauricio Ruiz…

Shame the creature in the movie wasn't as cool as this original design — Shame the creature in the movie wasn’t as cool as this original design

Dracula (1979)

July 23, 2021 Ken Miller 2 Comments

Count Dracula (Frank Langella) arrives in Whitby on the doomed ship Demeter that runs aground during a stormy night. He is discovered by Mina Van Helsing (Jan Francis), who is visiting her friend Lucy Seward (Kate Nelligan). The suave Count visits Mina and her friends at the Seward’s mansion that is also the local asylum.

Dracula starts preying on the women, turning Mina into a ghastly vampire and offering Lucy eternal, undead life as his bride. Jonathan Harker (Trevor Eve), Lucy’s fiancé, joins forces with Mina’s father, Professor Abraham Van Helsing (Laurence Olivier), to combat the charming-but-deadly Count.

Just like Universal’s 1931 production of DRACULA, that starred Bela Lugosi, the screenplay for this version of the Bram Stoker story was based on the 1924 stage adaptation by Hamilton Deane and John L Balderston. Langella starred in the Broadway play and had been nominated for a Tony Award for his performance.
(This version of the tale also changed characters and names around too).

I think this is a very satisfying, enjoyable, Edwardian period-set vampire movie.

I know some horror fans avoid this version because it’s a ‘romantic’ take on the story, but it is a great-looking production that boasts a fine score by John Williams, a memorable central performance by Frank Langella and a good supporting cast, including Donald Pleasence and Tony Haygarth, who is great as Renfield.

With a screenplay by W. D (INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS) Richter, the film has a bunch of well-done horror moments directed by John Badham, such as the underground encounter with a very ghoulish-looking undead Mina, Dracula twisting Renfield’s head 180° to break his neck and the Count crawling vertically down walls in slow motion.

Wonderful stuff.

Oh, and I like the love sequence between Dracula and Lucy (which many people knock), that uses the sumptuous John Williams score really effectively… and features laser effects!

Love scene — Okay, the love scene does go a bit ‘James Bond title sequence’, but that’s probably because Maurice Binder was Visual Consultant on this movie…

A beautiful matte shot by Albert Whitlock

View from a spider's web — View from a spider’s web

About the colour timing…
In 1991 John Badham (who had originally wanted to shoot the film in black and white) tweaked the colour timing for home video with a desaturated look. This remains the most widely available version (it’s the version available on Amazon Prime, for instance).

For their 2-Disc Blu-ray Collector’s Edition, Scream Factory included the desaturated version plus the original version that screened in theatres (which I saw and enjoyed so much).

Mina gif — Thought I’d show Mina one more time!

The Stuff (1985)

July 21, 2021 Ken Miller 4 Comments

David Rutherford (Michael Moriarty) is hired by several dessert manufacturers to find out about a new product called The Stuff that is ruining their businesses.

Art by Graham Humphreys — UK art by Graham Humphreys

Rutherford discovers that The Stuff is actually a living, parasitic, blob-like organism that seeps up out of the ground and is being packaged as a new fast food… that gradually takes over the brains of users, turning them into hollowed-out, zombie-like beings.

Larry Cohen’s low budget yarn about a sentient dessert that sets out to take over mankind is a fun 80s B-movie romp featuring a bunch of rough & ready & enjoyable practical effects scenes (animatronics, miniatures, etc), some satire on fast food culture (colourful logos & catchy jingles sell The Stuff to consumers) and a likeable performance from Michael Moriarty, who was also good in Cohen’s god-monster movie Q (1982).

The Stuff leaves users all hollow inside

The film has hints of INVASION OF THE BODYSNATCHERS in its DNA, plus a bit of INVADERS FROM MARS (a child character’s family is taken over and no one believes anything the kid says), and also, of course, it has visual influences from THE BLOB.

“Are you eating it or is it eating you?”

Ultimately, THE STUFF features some good sequences and has fun with the overall premise, though Larry Cohen isn’t able to make his monster, which basically resembles yogurt with an IQ, very scary!

It's pouring straight at them! — It’s pouring straight at them!

Conquest (1983)

July 21, 2021 Ken Miller Leave a comment

Youthful hero Ilias (Andrea Occhipinti) goes on a quest, helped by a tough outlaw named Mace (Jorge Rivero), in a land terrorised by warriors following the orders of villainess Ocron (Sabrina Siani).

Lucio (ZOMBIE FLESH EATERS) Fulci’s foray into the sword and sorcery genre, hazily lensed with filters and fog that constantly softens the image, boasts his trademark gore moments, 80s Italian synth score and a madcap lack of coherence.

Mace is caught by, er, cobwebby thingies!

There's a reason Ocron wears a mask... — There’s a reason Ocron wears a mask…

Wolf-headed warriors, a magical bow that fires laser arrows, rock-dwelling beings covered in what looks like spider webs, several snakes and a topless, mask-wearing villainess (who is finally revealed to have a hideous ghoul-face) add a lot of colour to this yarn.

Cobweb-covered thingy! — Another cobweb-covered thingy!

Fulci’s sadistic side comes to the fore with a woman getting split in two, bloody head-bashings, a wolf-headed warrior being roasted slowly on a red-hot boulder and lots of close-ups of festering pustules that start to cover a character’s body.

Well-shot footage of sunsets and landscapes, some crude special effects (a deluge of darts fired from foliage seems to have been created by simply scratching lines on the film stock) and odd moments like the part where the hero is saved by dolphins (!) make this a diverting, cheap, cheesy hodgepodge of scenes in search of a plot.

Deadly dart attack... or are they just scratches on the film?! — Deadly dart attack… or are they just scratches on the film?!

This is gonna hurt... — This is gonna hurt…

CONQUEST is certainly no classic. It is rather plodding at times, but this dreamy, dirgy, disjointed fantasy flick has its moments. I especially liked the scene featuring the fight with swamp-dwelling zombies and there’s also a surprising demise of a main character.

Here’s some colourful artwork for the film…

Sacrifice (2020)

July 11, 2021 Ken Miller Leave a comment

Poster crop — Robed figures and tentacles…

Isaac (Ludovic Hughes) and his pregnant wife Emma (Sophie Stevens) visit a Norwegian village to sell the house that he has recently inherited. The couple soon discover that Isaac’s father was murdered many years ago and they also find out that the locals follow an old tradition that worships a tentacled deity.

SACRIFICE is a British-made Scandi-folk horror film in which tentacled toys and artwork appear in local shops, homes and Isaac’s childhood bedroom, which gets you hoping that you will eventually get to see this Lovecraftian god-monster, but this isn’t the case, unfortunately, and there are just a couple of shots of tentacles that feature in Emma’s nightmares.

An artwork depicting The Slumbering One: we needed to see this monster in the movie!

Isaac stares at something horrific (that we never get to see)!

With Barbara Crampton as the local policewoman/cult leader, WICKER MAN-style locals, robed figures with burning torches, references to The Slumbering One and various dream sequences, the film attempts to be a Lovecraft-style horror yarn, but mainly fails. This is because the dialogue and acting lacks subtlety, the plot is rather aimless and the makers are unable to properly convey the feeling of cosmic dread needed for such a story.

Beast From Haunted Cave (1959)

July 11, 2021 Ken Miller Leave a comment

Tough criminal boss Alexander Ward (Frank Wolff) oversees a small heist team intent on stealing gold bars from a bank vault in snowy South Dakota. The plan involves one of the criminals, Marty Jones (Richard Sinatra – cousin of Frank Sinatra), setting off an explosion in a nearby gold mine to act as a diversion as the bank is robbed. The mine is the home of a spider-like monster, however, which pursues Ward’s crew as they head for a remote cabin, led by local guide Gil Jackson (Michael Forest), who is, at first, unaware that he’s helping criminals fleeing the scene of their crime. Gil finds himself falling for Ward’s lover Gypsy (Sheila Noonan), who tells him that the gang intends to kill him…

BEAST FROM HAUNTED CAVE was the directorial debut of Monte (TWO-LANE BLACKTOP) Hellman and is an interesting hybrid of heist flick and monster movie. With tough dialogue and heist plot setup, this low budget film is initially like something you’d read in a pulpy crime paperback, but a cobwebby creature is added to the mix, making this a novel Corman-produced curio.

The film was originally released with THE WASP WOMAN

The lack of budget is obvious when it comes to the creature, which is mainly represented as a long prop arm poked on-screen and a couple of quick shots where it is inserted into location scenes via double exposure (which makes you think it might be a spirit of some kind because it is see-through). The monster is definitely meant to be a physical creature, though, and there’s a decent finale where the various characters encounter the beast in a remote cave.

The creature keeps its victims webbed-up and alive, so that it can take its time feeding on them, which I think is quite a creepy concept for a 50s B-movie. In one effective moment we see the creature’s first victim covered in a cocoon of web, stuck between two trees, and we realise that the monster has pursued the group into the mountains and has brought the initial victim along with it (as an on-the-go snack!)

Cocooned amongst the trees... — Cocooned amongst the trees…

Though the funky-looking, furry-faced, long-armed critter is very lo-fi, I still rather like this cheaply-made creature feature.

Monster Zone