A small group of archeologists and filmmakers become trapped in a newly discovered underground three-sided Egyptian pyramid. One of them gets injured by falling debris, then the situation becomes worse when scrawny feline things are encountered and then a larger god-creature joins in on the action…
Ignore the poster: there are no mummies in the flick
The found footage format is used well sometimes in the movie (the night vision views), though the director sometimes forgets it’s found footage and we see stuff not from the camera POV.
The night vision shots work well
The story features the usual found footage-style bickering dialogue that always becomes tiresome, though James Buckley from THE INBETWEENERS adds some humour.
There’s rather too much time spent trudging and crawling around tunnels and chambers, and there are no mummies featured in the movie (despite what’s indicated on the poster), but the rat-like cat creatures are interesting critters and the reveal that the one and only, actual jackal-headed god Anubis is imprisoned in the pyramid, eager to rip out hearts to judge souls, is pretty good.
One of the little feline-critters before we get to see its face
Anubis looks pretty coolA victim gets a clawed monster-fist right through his chest!
Alexandre (PIRANHA 3D, CRAWL) Aja produced the movie, but it’s a shame he didn’t direct it too, as he knows how to make really satisfying creature features. First-time director Grégory Levasseur, who is usually a producer and screenwriter, helmed this project instead and he doesn’t really manage to imbue THE PYRAMID with a decently creepy atmosphere or provide the kind of tension Aja would’ve easily brought to the film. But the movie does get much better in the latter portion of the movie, the CGI for the most part is just about acceptable, and there are some well-handled scenes, such as when a character gets skewered on floor spikes and is picked at by the rat-cat-things.
Trapped on spikes and nibbled by nasties!
Finally, I think Anubis is a pretty good creation: its jackal face looks like it’s been flayed of skin and the god-being’s preoccupation with judging victims by weighing their hearts is an interesting plot angle.
Its face looks good in close-up, and this is probably because a full-size model of Anubis’ head was built (see end of blog for photos), which I assume was used as photogrammetry reference for the computer FX department for details and colour, etc.
He’s behind you!
Anubis’ raw-looking foot
The introduction of the monstrous god-creature definitely helped nudge the movie up a few rungs of the enjoyment ladder for me, that’s for sure.
Anubis wants to judge everyone!
Here’s some of the concept art produced for the film…
Anubis concept
Cat-creature concept illo
Another concept illo of a cat-critter
Here are a couple of behind the scenes shots of a cool model of Anubis’ head…
A space capsule lands in the New Mexico desert and Dr. Linda Murphy (Arianna Scott) identifies it as a secret US-Soviet deep space probe that was launched years ago: it was a joint mission to try and make alien contact.
The Asylum definitely knows how to sell its movies
Now this capsule has landed back on Earth it is discovered that the chimp inside it is still alive after all these years… and now it is starting to grow in size! Alien green fluid that causes the ape to enlarge is then ingested by a local gila monster and it too begins to grow. Linda, along with her estranged father Noah and Russian astrophysicist Eva Kuleshov (Katie Sereika), find out that a spaceship from the Andromeda Galaxy is controlling the creatures and, presumably, wants to cause a collapse in the US government by sending the monsters to wreck havoc in Washington.
The movie endlessly cuts back to aerial shots of the Langley Research Centre
Abraham, the giant-size chimpanzee, becomes free of all alien control and finally fights the lizard monster in Washington and, after it wins the fight, the authorities decide not to kill the ape, allowing it to live in a base outside of Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Abraham is captured for a while
APE VS MONSTER is a mockbuster from The Asylum, obviously intended to cash-in on the release of GODZILLA VS KONG.
This scene ain’t too bad, but it’s far too brief
The special effects are not totally bad for a release from The Asylum, which isn’t saying much, that must be admitted! The lizard monster and the spaceship are acceptably rendered, though Abraham the huge chimp looks, for the most part, rather poor.
The lizard-monster looks kind of okay…
…and the briefly-seen alien vessel is acceptable-looking too…
…but the giant chimp always looks kinda ropey
For some reason Abraham just grows larger but still looks like a chimp, but the gila monster evolves into a kind of bipedal dino-monster when it enlarges, even though characters continue to refer to it just as a gila monster.
Monstrous gila monster
The biggest let-down with the movie is the fact that there’s very little interaction between the monsters, despite the title, with a very brief battle between the creatures occurring at the very end of the movie.
The lizard critter reaches Washington…
…and we finally get the monster battle the movie title promisedFight!
Eric Roberts looks pretty careworn as National Security Advisor Ethan Marcos and he has to deal with some pretty clunky dialogue, much of the movie’s running time is padded out with talky scenes, and disappointment cannot really be avoided, thanks to the fact there are not that many monster scenes interspersed throughout the movie.
Eric RobertsLong shot of the monsters in Washington
So, pretty much what you’d expect from a film made by The Asylum. If you like these cheesy SyFy Channel-type mockbusters, this is definitely the movie for you.
In Lab 707 scientists are working on the Thunder Project, experimenting with a formula that can make plants and animals grow to large proportions. This formula is never really shown, though: it seems to depend more on using a see-through box and electricity, rather than vials and fluids.
Terrorists attack the army-run lab facility to acquire the formula, there’s a bloody shootout, but several scientists run into the countryside with the special case, which gets lost after a car crash, and is discovered by a young girl called Ting Ting. She decides to put her pet snake Mosler in the see-through box, switches on the case’s ‘lights’, and the serpent is electrified… and then it begins to grow!
Ting Ting and her (big) pet snake Mosler!
THUNDER OF GIGANTIC SERPENT is a cut-and-paste IFD Film Arts movie that uses lots of footage from the earlier Taiwanese monster movie KING OF SNAKE (1984) with added film material featuring martial arts actor Pierre Kirby.
Now that’s what I call a poster!
Mosler on the loose!
We get a cool scene early on where we see the scientists experimenting on a frog, making the amphibian grow much larger. The model used here is pretty decent.
Frog experiment…
For several scenes we see Ting Ting having fun with the semi-large Mosler: they play hide and seek, play catch with a ball and the snake also helps Ting Ting win a rollerblade race against a couple of other kids. Mosler, it is revealed, can understand what Ting Ting says and reacts to her by nodding or shaking its head. It also makes a sound like a parrot (or maybe it sounds like a screeching chimp?)
Meanwhile, we are introduced to military agent Ted Fast (Pierre Kirby). Ted Fast: now there’s a heroic name! Tough Ted is sent on a mission to hunt down the terrorist group’s leader Solomon (Edowan Bersmea).
Don’t mess with Ted Fast!
Some cops and army dudes in red berets also feature in the story, so we get various cops/Ted Fast/gangsters/army confrontations.
The army wears bright red berets
There is a bunch of shootouts, then we get a scene where the terrorists try to capture the snake, but their electrified trap makes Mosler grow much larger. Now the huge serpent makes a deep, roaring sound like a lion!
We get a couple of scenes where the terrorists (who come across more like gangsters) threaten Ting Ting’s family and they eventually kidnap the girl. Then we get some monster action with a plane-vs-snake sequence that ends when Mosler smashes the plane with its tale.
Mosler vs plane
The film does get rather preoccupied with terrorists and cops shooting it out with each other, but then we get some more monster snake action! Yay! First Mosler attacks a road bridge and then destroys a train bridge, including the train crossing it. Yikes! The formerly nice and playful Mosler is now a large-scale killer!
The army watches as Mosler approaches a bridge
The snake proceeds to break a dam, causing mass flooding and more deaths. Jeez, Mosler is a real psycho-killer now!
After some Ted Fast martial arts action we cut back to Ting Ting, who is being held captive by a bad guy in a tall building, and then Mosler returns once more, to attack the west district of a large city.
Crowds and the Mosler puppet are featured together in some simple but acceptable matte shots. The populace run in panic! Flames and screaming! Mosler wipes out a disco! In an earlier scene with the military we are told that the west district has been evacuated, but there are civilians everywhere in these shots!
Mosler starts wrapping itself around the skyscraper where Ting Ting is being held prisoner and jets finally arrive, shooting at the snake, which glows around the edges of its body each time it is hit (maybe because electricity had been used to enlarge it?)
I like it when monsters coil around buildings, don’t you?
Here come the fighter planes
Neon-glow around the snake when it gets shot
After one of the jets crashes into Mosler’s face, the huge snake falls to the street below and dies. Ting Ting cries. Oh, that poor, mass-murdering snake!
Poor Mosler…
There’s a final showdown between terrorist leader Solomon and Ted Fast: “Go ahead, shoot, make my day, punk!” And then the movie finishes!
THUNDER OF GIGANTIC SERPENT, as with GAMERA: THE GIANT MONSTER, features a kid who continually pleads for her ‘pet’ monster to be left alone, even after it causes untold destruction and death! Mosler, it must be said, does start off as a rather nice critter, but after it goes on its binge of dam-busting and train-wrecking it becomes rather difficult to regard the great serpent as anything but a menace.
The effects are not of Toho quality, that’s for sure, but I enjoyed Mosler’s rampage through the city, ending with the model military jets attacking the puppet snake whilst it is coiled around the skyscraper.
Sheriff Franklin Hunt (Kurt Russell) leads a small posse into a desolate region to rescue some people who have been abducted by a cannibalistic clan of troglodytes.
Poster
I like horror westerns, such as DEAD BIRDS, RAVENOUS and THE BURROWERS, and this one is a really good example of the sub-genre.
First of all, this film stars Kurt Russell, who is always worth watching, and it has good characterisations, with Patrick Wilson, Richard Jenkins and Matthew Fox shining in their roles. Fox’s character, for instance, could’ve come across as quite unlikeable, but much of what he does and says is practical and is actually the right thing to do.
Kurt Russell with epic moustacheMatthew FoxA closer look at Russell’s very manly facial hair
Skulls…
The troglodyte burial ground (inspired more by a Native American medicine wheel, rather than a burial ground)
A large chunk of the running time focuses on the leads trekking across the desert, and I think these scenes work well, driving home how dangerous and arduous such an undertaking like that would actually be.
Dutch artwork
The action is brutal
With Sid (SPIDER BABY) Haig in a cameo role, well-written dialogue throughout and Kurt Russell sporting a truly awesome moustache, this film also boasts some very disturbing, monstrous antagonists…
Sid Haig
A nice lookin’ poster
The cave-dwelling tribe of cannibals featured in this movie are a truly nasty group of cinematic bad guys: they are covered in dry mud, have weird throat pipes that produce an eerie wail and they are utterly pitiless. The violent action at the end of this movie is jaw-droppingly savage, especially the scene where they scalp and upend a character, then start hacking him between the legs, bisecting him! This is something you don’t easily forget! My eyes are watering as I write about this moment!
Scalped
Cutting around the bone throat pipes…
…and pulling them out of a troglodyte’s neck to inspect
These guys are nasty!Sheriff Hunt has his belly sliced open……and then one of the savages rams a red-hot metal hip flask into his wound. Ouch!
BONE TOMAHAWK was S. Craig Zahler’s directorial debut and he’s gone on to write and direct two other gritty, violent movies I like a lot: BRAWL IN CELL BLOCK 99 and DRAGGED ACROSS CONCRETE.
Savage headgear
Off with his head!
BONE TOMAHAWK is a well-made, brutal film that is really worth hunting down if you’ve not seen it yet.
Skirmish!Things get barbaric in the third actA cannibal inspects a rifle
Region 2 DVD cover
Cool poster!
Here’s Mauricio Ruiz’s concept design for the look of the troglodytes…
The troglodytes were eventually portrayed in the film with a different look compared to this design
In a recent post I wrote about Hong Kong director Godfrey Ho, who created a bunch of films for IFD Film Arts that utilised his cut-and-paste technique: splicing footage from different (already existing) movies together, then adding additional recently shot scenes to act as ‘plot glue’ for the new story. Of all these patchwork films my favourite is undoubtedly SCORPION THUNDERBOLT.
Richard Harrison wields his golden sword
As I have not watched this mad movie in many years, I felt that it was my duty to feast my eyes once more upon this unhinged, incident-filled IFD gem.
But did I still like it? Read on…
The enjoyability of Godfrey Ho’s cut-and-paste movies can depend a lot on how interesting the older source movies were that he cut into his new productions. With SCORPION THUNDERBOLT he utilised a lot of footage from the Taiwan-set Korean horror film GRUDGE OF THE SLEEPWALKING WOMAN (1983). Also known as SNAKE WOMAN, this Korean film featured lots of fun cop and monster scenes that greatly enhance the watchability of Godfrey Ho’s movie.
Poster for the original Korean movie
SCORPION THUNDERBOLT begins as it means to go on by using music from STAR WARS, then quickly cuts between shots of a spiky-fingered witch, Richard Harrison playing a character called, well, Richard, and a blind flute player.
Richard plays… Richard
We then move on to a night-time scene where a woman is pursued by a madman and we assume he is intending to attack her… but no, he leaves her alone, and a snake monster kills her instead! The local cops start to investigate the murder and a couple of them try to figure out what the creature might look like by constructing a papier-mâché model of a snake-tadpole critter wearing lipstick. Yeah, that’ll be a great help, guys!
The snake-tadpole model… with lipstick?
As the film progresses it becomes evident that the partly naked young witch (often seen slapping a drum with her spiky hands) and the blind flute player are the people who cause someone to transform into the rubbery snake-beast.
After the cops seek out the madman featured in the earlier scene, who is now shown swinging around a disembowelled dog at what is presumably the garden of the local asylum, we get shots of the always hyperactive witch, wriggling eels, and a flashing crystal ball. We now find out that the underdressed witch wants Richard’s magic ring.
Screaming victim
The witch’s first attempt to get the ring and kill off Richard involves using… a sexy hitchhiker! Richard stops and gives the hitchhiker a lift after she flashes her breasts at him. She tells him she’s an actress and invites him to a screening room where she shows him her latest film, which involves body painting and sex. Soft core posturing soon begins in the mini cinema as she tries to seduce Richard and, as Jean-Michel Jarre’s Oxygene plays on the soundtrack, Richard succumbs to temptation and has sex with her, intercut with the screening room’s projected sex footage and a red-lit shot of frogs in a bowl(!) The actress/hitchhiker tries to kill Richard with a blade hidden in her lipstick (cue music from CARRIE) and, when he overpowers her, the woman dies as orange foam appears on her lips.
Don’t pick up that hitchhiker!
Fight during the act of coitus!
We now cut back to two of the cop characters (from the GRUDGE OF THE SLEEPWALKING WOMAN footage), who are off-duty and spending time at (male cop) Jackie’s apartment. An escaped criminal wearing sunglasses, who has a grudge against Jackie, invades his home and ties-up the female cop (Lee), then rips and cuts off her clothes. After the criminal bites Lee and injects her with some kind of aphrodisiac, Jackie manages to get loose and a long fight ensues between him and the bad guy. This skirmish soon moves from inside the apartment to the street outside.
The fight is watched by three young women in a nearby apartment (that seems to be fitted out with its own home disco equipment). As one of the women goes off to have a shower and another partakes in some solo disco dancing, the snake monster enters their home and slaughters two of them!
Glistening-skinned monster hands grab a victim in the shower
Another shot from the shower scene
One of the main characters, a woman journalist called Helen (Juliet Chan), is featured in a scene where she and an admirer run in slow motion along a beach in swimwear as an easy listening tune plays. I’m not sure why this occurs, other than the fact it’s mentioned that it is Helen’s birthday!
More not-particularly-pertinent scenes ensue, including a cop-related moment where they break into the apartment of an angry, drunk guy who is potting billiard balls between his tied-up wife’s legs, plus a sequence in a nightclub with lots of tinsel decorations hanging from the ceiling.
We now switch back to Richard working out at home. His home has lots of wall mirrors. Here he is attacked by a plumber with a big wrench… who is under the control of that pesky witch!
Meanwhile, a relationship blossoms between cop Jackie and Helen the journo. They have a romantic day out in some woods… using a shotgun to try and shoot rabbits (so romantic!) They then do a bit of fishing and both accidentally fall into the lake (as so often happens when you go fishing). Later, as they drive home, loads of snakes crawl out of the car seats (as music from CARRIE plays) and the serpents are soon slithering all over the outside of the car and inside it! Jackie loses control of the car and it crashes, but he and Helen are okay, though Jackie does have one remaining snake poking its head out of his shirt.
Snakes on the windscreen!
French VHS cover
Whilst staying at a hotel, Helen and Jackie have their TV switched on in their room – and we see the blind flute player being interviewed (why?!) by a reporter, who informs his audience that this guy is a night-watchman (but he’s blind!) who has overcome gout and arthritis and can play the flute. (Oh, the madness of it all!) Helen, who is actually the snake monster, transforms into the beast when the flute player performs his music on TV, resulting in the deaths of a clumsy waiter and two hotel guests in a bath.
We cut back to Richard and witness his fight with a blade-wielding assailant who wants his special ring. Richard uses a yellow towel and his fists to beat the guy.
Richard finally decides to find out why various people are trying to kill him, so he heads up into the hills to chat with a fortune-teller. After fighting and breaking the neck of another attacker as he ascends some steps, Richard eventually reaches the fortune-teller. Here Richard is informed that there is a witch who lives in a red castle: she is thoroughly evil and only Richard’s magic ring can destroy her powers. Richard is given a golden sword and a mystical mirror and is told that, on the 15th day of this month, he must go to the gates of the castle, place the ring on the mystic mirror, chop it with the sword, then throw it into a fire. As he is given this information some EXORCIST 2 music is played briefly.
Underdressed witch!
Back with the serpent-beast story, Helen confesses to Jackie that she’s the killer: she’s not human, she’s a snake demon! Cue a backstory flashback (utilising music from CARRIE) that reveals how a family of snake-killers living in a forest are visited by the ‘Prince of Snakes’. After some slo-mo romantic running through the trees, the daughter of the snake-killer makes love with the Prince, who turns into a big snake coiled around her. The daughter becomes pregnant and has a baby, that turns into a mini snake-monster as it suckles on her breast! This baby, of course, is revealed to be Helen.
After this confession in Jackie’s home, Helen starts her transformation, so she leaps through a window and becomes the rubbery snake monster as she runs down a street. The monster attacks Jackie’s female cop partner Lee, who has to dive into a parked car. The creature tries to get into the vehicle to kill Lee, but she improvises a home-made flamethrower with an aerosol can, forcing the creature to retreat. This is an effective, gripping scene!
Monster outside the car
Home-made flamethrower!
Straight after this we get a homage to the Harry Dean Stanton scene in ALIEN, where a guy is pulled up out of shot by the monster whilst a dog (rather than Jones the cat) looks on.
Over at the witch’s castle we see her perform an expressive, modern dance routine with a couple of minion guys wearing face paint. She spikes them with her metal nails, as you do.
We now get a showdown between the cops and the monster in a forest. To save Lee, who has been captured by the snake-beast (which can fly about the place now), Jackie cuts his own chest, attracting the monster, which starts licking his blood. The creature becomes Helen once more, but that flute player (he gets everywhere!) is in the area and his music turns Helen back into the serpent-beast. After gliding about on wires, it is shot by the police team and the main theme tune from ALIEN plays as the critter dies, transforming back into Helen. Jackie, utterly distraught, carries her body away.
Okay, let’s zip back to Richard for a final time!
He heads for the red castle and fights a face-paint dude, shouting: “Get out of my fucking way!” He battles a staff-wielding assailant next and finally reaches the gates of the castle. He breaks the ring on the mirror with the golden sword and the witch’s home bursts into flames, she dies, and music from RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK starts to play!
Richard in action
The film ends with a freeze-frame of Richard Harrison smiling at us, victoriously holding up the golden sword. Classic!
SCORPION THUNDERBOLT’s bizarre amalgamation of intercut scenes somehow, at times, transcends its cut-and-paste origins to become a thing of jaw-dropping wonder. As an example: the screening room sequence (shots of a manic, spike-fingered witch, Richard Harrison performing some soft core sex, a red-lit shot of frogs in a bowl, projected body-painting footage) comes across more like an avant-garde art short featuring unrelated imagery, rather than what it is: Godfrey Ho splicing together footage to concoct yet another one of his patchwork flicks!
What can I say? You’ve just read about all the insane stuff that occurs in this madcap gem of a movie. You will either end up being someone who thinks this is a film that must be loved and cherished, or you will be someone who is wrong!
Another poster
German VHS cover
French VHS cover
A bit about the snake monster… The creature attack scenes certainly work better when we see only its wet-looking, black, rubbery tail or clawed hands assault the victims. When we see the full monster suit it initially looks effective due to the way it is shot, with it either being backlit, slightly out of focus or seen in quick cuts. During its final showdown with the police in the forest, where we get to clearly see rather too much of the monster, as it is swings about on wires, the suit is not shown to its best advantage. Still, I like this beast!
The original Korean movie was sometimes called Snake Woman (the monster never looks like a half-snake, half-woman creature, by the way)
Amateur astronomer John Putnam (Richard Carlson) and his fiancée Ellen Fields (Barbara Rush) stargaze in the desert and witness a large, burning object crashing earthwards near the small town of Sand Rock. John finds an alien spaceship at the crash site but it gets buried by a landslide – and when he tells people what he saw he is not believed. But soon odd things occur and it is eventually discovered that cyclopean aliens, that can make themselves look like humans, are trying to fix their craft before the restless, gun-happy locals get to them.
Amazing thrills!The buried spacecraft
With a screenplay by Harry (CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON) Essex, based on an original screen treatment by Ray Bradbury, IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE is one of director Jack (TARANTULA) Arnold’s iconic B&W sci-fi flicks from the 50s. The way certain things are shot, like the landing helicopter coming right down at you, hints that this movie was originally a 3D film. But even viewed today without the 3D gimmick, the film remains atmospheric, with a nice touch of paranoia and a classic creepy sci-fi score.
This owl does a great 360° flip when the alien approaches at the start of the movie!Don’t drive into the alien!Strange goings-on
I like the classic desert landscape backdrop, the cool-looking peaceful aliens that leave glittery trails behind them, the scene with the laser-wand that cuts into the rock wall as Richard Carlson dodges it, and the one-eyed POV shots as aliens loom over various characters.
From the alien’s POV!A glittery trail left by an extraterrestrialOne of the aliens
And, of course, I always love a film score that uses a Theremin!
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…”
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 