Starring Eva Melander, Eero Milonoff, Jörgen Thorsson, Ann Petrén and Sten Ljunggren. Written by Ali Abbasi, Isabella Eklöf and John Ajvide Lindqvist. Directed by Ali Abbasi. Produced by Nina Bisgaard, Piodor Gustafsson and Petra Jönsson. Meta Film Stockholm/Black Spark Film & TV/Sveriges Television/Kärnfilm/Film i Väst
This indie-style drama, an adaptation of John Ajvide Lindqvist’s short story GRÄNS (he is the author of LET THE RIGHT ONE IN), is about Tina – a troll who thinks she’s a human, living her unexceptional life in modern society, experiencing moments of happiness, excelling in her job as a border control officer (thanks to her troll senses) and, ultimately, finding herself feeling contempt for both what some humans are capable of doing and what awful acts trolls are also willing to perpetrate.
This Swedish release, which manages to romanticise the unromantic, sees Tina reevaluating her place in the world after meeting another of her kind. After frolicking in the lake with her new love, Vore (Eero Milonof), and taking part in some startling troll sex, Tina’s joy at finally meeting a soul mate is erased when she discovers what he is doing to get back at humans for their secret and terrible treatment of trolls back in the 1970s…
BORDER is a strikingly original and nicely understated melding of folklore, believable drama, romance, body horror moments, and crime plotting, incorporating troll-related details including their ability to smell shame and other feelings in humans, their affinity with wild animals, their love of eating bugs, and their susceptibility to being pursued by lightning during storms. The folkloric concept of the changeling is used as a key, very dark plot point.
Above: two shots of the ‘hiisit’ – an unfertilised egg that Vore produces, which he is able to mould into the shape of a human baby to act as a changeling…
Eva Melander’s performance as Tina is mesmerisingly low key and credible, conveying her submerged feelings clearly, even through the layers of prosthetics she wears to give her a Neanderthal-esque troll appearance.
BORDER is a small, perfectly formed movie that sticks in the memory.
Starring Ryan Kuo (Guo Jindong), Shi Zhenlong, Ma Yuan and Liu Yihan. Written by Rocky, Huang Siyuan and Qiu Junyang. Directed by Rocky and Huang Siyuan. Produced by Wu Yu, Kan Lun, Yu Yang and Rocky. Xiamen Gongli Film & television Co. Ltd/United Production Company
A passenger plane comes down in the snowy wastes of Siberia
After a teaser opener showing a hunter falling prey to giant wolves in a cave, we cut to a bunch of characters on a passenger plane, which almost immediately crashes into a Siberian wilderness, and – soon after the crash – a big wolf makes an appearance: the filmmakers are not messing around with slow build-ups here!
Please note that the wolves in the movie are nowhere near as scary or cool as the beast depicted in this promotional artwork!
These canine creatures have long, cat-like tails and lower jaws that can split in two (but this ability to super-widen the wolves’ mouths is soon forgotten and not shown again in the movie). The survivors, including main hero Song Wu, his autistic daughter Jingwen, and Professor Ning, gather together in part of the wrecked plane’s fuselage, making a fire to keep the critters at bay. Professor Ning is working on theories concerning mutant wolves and Song Wu happens to be a wolf expert: well, that’s all quite convenient!
A mega-sized wolf!
With firewood running out, everyone decides to trek across the snowy landscape (with the ropey, unrealistic CGI wolves sensibly kept mainly in the shadows), and the group reaches an area of trees where they’re able to make new fires to scare away the vicious varmints.
It’s a shame the CGI wolves just ain’t that well rendered
Most scenes in THE WOLVES are shot in virtual environments (with some sets included too) that definitely look artificial, but it does all add to the heightened adventure style of the story, as characters negotiate sheer cliffs and narrow mountain ledges.
Again, I must reiterate that the wolves in the film itself are not as impressive as the canine critters featured in the posters!
After a female character, Nana, cuts the rope attaching herself to the others in order to save them from being dragged to their deaths off the high craggy ledge with her (blimey, mainland Chinese films love a bit of self-sacrifice), the survivors encounter a tribal chief. This Siberian wiseman informs them that another expedition had come here years earlier, after which the giant wolves appeared…
Standing near a sheer cliff edge
Once the characters reach the tribal village there are some half-decent attempts at creating suspense, though showing a wolf creeping around a building, putting its paw on a person’s shoulder like a sinister stalker, does edge matters closer to becoming silly rather than scary. But at least a modicum of tension is generated in these sequences, especially when Jingwen attempts to retrieve a walkie-talkie that has fallen outside of the hut.
When Jingwen is taken (in an offscreen incident) by the wolves, Song Wu heads over to the cavernous wolf den to save his daughter. Here he stumbles upon an illegal nuclear dumping site, which is, of course, the reason the wolves have mutated, leading to one of the critters becoming super-massive.
The wolf den is located in a large cave
Song Wu manages to save a village child, but can’t find Jingwen, so, after an overly-melodramatic crying scene triggered by the death of Song Wu’s mate Bao, Song Wu prepares to go on a second mission back into the cave to retrieve Jingwen. As Song Wu smudges camo paint on his face, he muses that the giant wolves, which have become intelligent, must have decided to take Jingwen as a hostage so that they could draw all the humans to the cave-den to be killed. Song Wu marches stoically towards the cave, with his face no longer covered in camo makeup (?!), following a trail of bracelet beads left by his daughter. He moves deeper into the cavern to extract Jingwen, but knows he has only so much time before explosives are detonated to destroy the den. Father and daughter reunite and they succeed in reaching the cave entrance, but here they must take on the humongous boss wolf. Hey, but don’t worry: Song Wu gets his hands on a batch of dynamite!
Song Wu faces-off against the giant wolf pack leader…
Though the filmmakers do attempt to infuse the finale with some heartfelt father-and-daughter bonding, the movie is more likely to be remembered for the poorly-rendered wolf monsters that ultimately sink this project.
All the films featured in Severin Films’ boxset ALL THE HAUNTS BE OURS: A COMPENDIUM OF FOLK HORROR VOLUME 2 are reviewed in this issue – titles including PSYCHOMANIA (1973), BEAUTY AND THE BEAST (1978), BLOOD TEA AND RED STRING (2006), WHO FEARS THE DEVIL aka THE LEGEND OF HILLBILLY JOHN (1972), NOVEMBER (2017) and THE CITY OF THE DEAD (1960)!
Other folk horror films are reviewed – and horror fiction writer, editor and critic Ramsey Campbell provides a guest review too!
This version of BEAUTY AND THE BEAST is extremely enjoyable!
Imaginator #8 has an interview with director Kier-La Janisse, who talks about her film WOODLANDS DARK AND DAYS BEWITCHED: A HISTORY OF FOLK HORROR, which is the definitive, all-encompassing feature-length documentary exploring the folk horror phenomenon from a worldwide perspective!
Director Sean Hogan answers questions about making his marvellous film TO FIRE YOU COME AT LAST.
A shot from TO FIRE YOU COME AT LAST
Creature Designer and comic book artist Guy Davis chats about designing the very, very cool Wendigo creature in ANTLERS (2021).
Such super-cool Wendigo designs!
Actor Russell Shaw, who is one of the main protagonists in WITCH (2024), talks about making this wild, genre-twisting occult-themed movie.
‘Remembering the Ritual’ is a 16-page celebration of one of my favourite fear flicks: THE RITUAL (2017)!
The ‘Remembering the Ritual’ section includes an interview with author Adam Nevill, who speaks about his top-notch folk horror novels, which include THE RITUAL (of course), plus such fine tomes as THE REDDENING, NO ONE GETS OUT ALIVE and CUNNING FOLK.
Also forming part of the ‘Remembering the Ritual’ celebration is a conversation with the super-talented Concept Artist and Creature Designer Keith Thompson: the man who conceptualised the weird, spectacular Jötunn god-monster in THE RITUAL!
I love this critter!
And there’s lots of other great stuff in the magazine too, including a look at the upcoming folk horror graphic novel A VVITCH. Some of artist/writer Russell Fox’s truly awesome illustration work for this exquisite-looking anthology book is displayed for your pleasure!
Wonderful black and white artwork from A VVITCH
All in all, this is a must for all fans of Folk Horror!
Starring Ken Chang, Zhou Xiaochuan, Hu Xueer, He Qiwei and Li Junyao. Written by Lin Jianfeng. Directed by Luo Le. Produced by Michelle Mou. Sunrise Entertainment/Tencent Video
Who will survive this tomb-filled quest?
Aka CANDLE IN THE TOMB: XIANGXI SECRET, this tomb-raiding fantasy adventure, based on Zhang Muye’s novels, has hero Hu Bayi embark upon a search for what lies beyond Mount Pingshan.
What Hu Bayi uncovers includes loads of palace-tombs, toxic centipedes that crawl from funeral jars, booby traps, riddles, and a humungous, six-winged centipede monster.
Swarms of poisonous centipedes surround the adventurers
This production uses the formula that a lot of these Chinese-made adventure films follow: it starts with a full-on action-adventure-fantasy sequence, replete with danger, exotic locales and a monster, then it cuts back in time to a character telling a tale regarding these events.
A dude leaps straight at a giant, winged centipede-monster!
MOJIN: MYSTERIOUS TREASURE is a by the numbers Chinese fantastical adventure that’s merely adequate most of the time. It’s not as consistently entertaining as others of its ilk, but it DOES showcase a massive, flying, multi-winged centipede with a tooth-filled face… so how could I not give this film a go?! Plus, the film includes a rather nicely-done fight scene at the beginning, where the adventurers battle an almost unstoppable mummified warrior that emerges from a stone coffin.
Above: two shots of the reanimated warrior, who sports a rather cool-looking helmA multi-eyed monster centipede with many mouthparts!
The CGI is passable (most of the time), we get the usual digitally-created environments of dark, ancient tomb locales, and the story includes a secondary character who, as is always the way, turns out to be a selfish bad guy willing to murder Hu and his mates so that he can keep what is discovered all to himself. The villain this time is Joe, played well by Zhou Xiaochuan, who finds a legendary sword, which somehow infects him, mutating him into a lumpy-fleshed monster-man who kills the centipede-critter. The mutated/infected Joe then meets his own end when he is impaled on a stone throne. Hey, I admit that this film does have its interesting moments!
Above: three pics of Joe after he becomes a sword-wielding, lumpy-skinned adversary!
Other cinematic romps focusing on the heroic Hu Bayi character include CHRONICLES OF THE GHOSTLY TRIBE (2015), MOJIN: THE WORM VALLEY (2018), THE LEGEND HUNTERS (2021), and MOJIN: THE LOST LEGEND (2015).
This is the Monster Zone blog, so let’s finish with a few more shots of the massive centipede critter…
Starring Bob Mathias, Rosanna Schiaffino, Alberto Lupo, Rik Battaglia, Carlo Tamberlani and Susanne Loret. Written by Gian Paolo Callegari, Sandro Continenza and Daniel Mainwaring. Directed by Silvio Amadio. Produced by Giorgio Agliani, Gino Mordini and Rudolphe Solmesne. Gino Mordini/Giorgio Agliani Cinematografica/Illiria Film
The Cretans like to put on dance numbers before they send their sacrificial victims into the labyrinth…
The kingdom of Crete, ruled by Minos, regularly feeds young maidens to the fearsome Minotaur to keep the gods happy. But Princess Phaedra of Crete is far from happy when her mother’s deathbed confession reveals that she actually has a twin sister. This sister, the dying queen explains, had been given away to strangers in a far-off village because the queen had feared that one of the two sisters might have been given up to the Minotaur as a sacrifice. The king sends men to bring his long-lost daughter home, but Princess Phaedra (Schiaffino) sets plans in motion to have her sister bumped off so that she will have no future rivals for the throne of Crete.
A blonde sacrificial victim is grabbed by the Minotaur’s huge hand during the film’s opening sequence…
The twin sister, Ariadne (also Schiaffino), seems doomed as Phaedra’s goons ravage her village, killing the local men and abducting any women who could be the forgotten princess, but she’s saved by the fortuitous arrival of two heroic warriors: Theseus (Mathias) and Demetrios (Battaglia).
Theseus, the son of Aegeus, king of Athens, has been away on various adventures with his friend Demetrios, who is a Cretan citizen. Demetrios is amazed by Ariadne’s resemblance to his country’s princess, Phaedra, whilst Theseus finds himself falling in love with her.
Above: various lobby cards
As the plot unfolds, we follow events in Athens and Crete, with Princess Phaedra’s ruthless right hand man, Chirone (Lupo), relentlessly trying to deal with Theseus and get rid of Ariadne. He is quite willing to use the threat of torture and a pit of hyenas to achieve his aims, and the story eventually leads, of course, to Theseus venturing into the Minotaur’s lair…
Italian poster
Also known as THE MINOTAUR, THE WILD BEAST OF CRETE in the US and WARLORD OF CRETE in the UK, this is an Italian peplum that is typical of many of this genre’s releases in that the filmmakers focus more on the colourful human conflict and drama, keeping the fantastical elements to a minimum. We do get an interesting sequence, though, where a badly injured Theseus, who’s just fallen off a cliff with an arrow in his back, is saved by Amphitrite, the Goddess of the Sea, who has the hots for him. Theseus’s heart belongs to Ariadne, however, so Amphitrite has to make do with helpfully filling him in on events that’ve happened on the surface world while he was recuperating (including a war between Crete and Athens, which Crete won).
Amphitrite, the Goddess of the sea
Bob Mathias, Rosanna Schiaffino and Alberto Lupo
Though the fight scenes are rather lacklustre, the production has some handsome sets (including a bull-headed entrance to the labyrinth), there are lots of leggy, scantily-clad women, and the film features male leads who are not the muscled bodybuilder-types usually cast in these roles (Bob Mathias was an American decathlete who won gold medals at the 1948 and 1952 Olympic Games). Rosanna Schiaffino is quite striking looking, resembling Sophia Loren in some ways, and her acting skills are decent enough to enable her play the two sisters as quite different characters.
US three sheet poster
But… what about the goddamn Minotaur I hear you ask?! Well, this is where the film becomes increasingly frustrating, because (after an opening shot of the Minotaur’s hand grasping for a nubile victim) the movie keeps you waiting and waiting and waiting for the moment we finally get to see the beast. This eventually occurs at the very end of the film, when Theseus gets around to actually venturing into the labyrinth (which is pretty much a cave system), where he encounters the mythical monster. At last!
The Minotaur has some big, sharp teeth!
The Minotaur in this swords-and-sandals flick is an odd-lookin’ critter. It sports a pair of horns, but the decision was made, it seems, to not give it the visage of a bull. Instead, this Minotaur (created by Carlo Rambaldi) has a bear-like body and a grotesquely large, toothy, almost simian head. I assume the creature’s oversized cranium was made so big to house the mechanisms used to give it a bunch of goofy-but-quite-effective facial expressions.
Rosanna Schiaffino in a publicity shot with the Minotaur
Though Theseus’s skirmish with the monster is rather brief, the Minotaur’s downfall is memorably grisly: Theseus burns out both of its eyes with a fiery torch and then bashes its head with a rock!
Theseus burns out the Minotaur’s left eye……and then he burns out the right eye! Ouch!
The film, as a whole, is certainly watchable, but it really needed more scenes of hyena pits and sea goddesses. And it definitely required more footage of the titular Minotaur!
This issue boasts loads of mouth-wateringly marvellous Godzilla-related contents, plus a massive celebration of the bloody & brilliant cult classic SHOGUN ASSASSIN. There are other goodies too, including reviews of a bunch of entertaining movies, including MONSTER SHARK and RIVER OF BLOOD.
Forming part of this issue’s massive Godzilla movies zone is a series of 12 mini-articles, written by a selection of creative people (artists, actors, directors, publishers, and so on), who each choose their favourite Godzilla film to praise!
In this issue…
A TRIBUTE TO GODZILLA 51 pages are devoted to Godzilla – the King of the Monsters!
The Godzilla-tastic contents include:
JORG’S TOP FIVE GODZILLA MOVIES Director Jörg Buttgereit, famed for his transgressive arthouse-horror movies NEKROMATIK (1988), DER TODESKING (1990), NEKROMATIK 2 (1991) and SCHRAMM (1993), shares with us his top 5 Godzilla movies!
RUSSELL FOX PRAISES… GODZILLA (1954) Russell Fox, the comic book illustrator who has credits that include work for 2000AD and cover art for Dynamite Entertainment’s PURGATORI comics, explains why this Godzilla flick influences his style.
ALLAN BRYCE PRAISES… MOTHRA VS. GODZILLA Allan Bryce, the convivial editor of the very popular magazines THE DARK SIDE and INFINITY, gushes about his fave Godzilla film.
WILLIAM MARTELL PRAISES… GODZILLA MINUS ONE William Martell, who is the writer of films including NINJA BUSTERS, DROID GUNNER and HARD EVIDENCE (and the author of the incredibly helpful how-to book on writing for the movies: THE SECRETS OF ACTION SCREENWRITING), informs us why this Big G film ticks all the boxes!
KEN MILLER PRAISES… DESTROY ALL MONSTERS The editor of IMAGINATOR magazine loves this film – and now he’s going to tell you why.
HANS KAUFMANN PRAISES… GODZILLA (2014) Hans Kaufmann, the director, writer, editor and producer of the social-drama-meets-Taxi-Driver movie THE WORKING MAN (2019), fills us in on why he thinks this US Godzilla release is so good.
DAVID FITZGERALD PRAISES… SHIN GODZILLA David Fitzgerald, the FX artist & actor who helped create the barbaric outfit worn by the god-monster in RAWHEAD REX (1986) and starred in the M.R. James parody horror film SQUEAK AND I’LL RUN TO YOU (2021), reveals that he likes the look of Shin Godzilla’s teeth!
RICKY BAKER PRAISES… GODZILLA MINUS ONE Ricky Baker, editor of the kung-tastic magazine EASTERN HEROES and the co-author of THE NEW ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO HONG KONG MOVIES, highlights what makes this modern Godzilla classic rock!
DIALLO JACKSON PRAISES… KING KONG VS. GODZILLA Diallo Jackson, the writer/creator whose work includes short stories, novels, and the comic book THE PARANORMALS, reveals why this film was appointment viewing for him.
RAIMUND HUBER PRAISES… GODZILLA MINUS ONE Raimund Huber, the director of thrilling, kinetic actioners like BANGKOK ADRENALINE (2009) and KILL ‘EM ALL (2012), divulges why he thinks this Godzilla movie stands out.
JOE CASTRO PRAISES… GODZILLA VS. THE SMOG MONSTER Joe Castro, the special effects artist who has created numerous great-looking practical (often very splattery) FX gems for productions including BLOOD FEAST 2: ALL U CAN EAT (2002), BONEHILL ROAD (2017), THE BEAST COMES AT MIDNIGHT (2023) and TERROR TOONS (2002), reveals how this Showa era Godzilla film inspired him to join the movie business.
RUSSELL SHAW PRAISES… GODZILLA MINUS ONE Russell Shaw, the actor who has starred in WITCH (2024), ADVENTURE BOYZ (2019), THE LOCKDOWN HAUNTINGS (2021), ESCAPE (2023) and many more films, describes why this is, for him, a truly impressive Godzilla movie.
MARK DUFFIELD PRAISES MONSTERS FROM AN UNKNOWN PLANET Mark Duffield, who is the writer, director and cinematographer of the Thai-based supernatural movie GHOST OF MAE NAK (2005), and the writer, director, producer, editor, art director and cinematographer of the fine Victorian-set Gothic horror film DEMON (2012), fondly remembers seeing this Godzilla film in the cinema back in the 70s…
GODZILLA VS. MARVEL Read about GODZILLA VS. AVENGERS, and find out why the one-shot comic GODZILLA VS. THOR is so very, very good!
GODZILLA – KING OF THE KAIJU A 16-page appreciation of EVERY ONE of the city-trashing behemoth’s many, many movies!
THE MISSING MONSTER FROM GODZILLA VS. KONG Hollywood Creature Designer Ken Barthelmey talks about a beast he designed for GODZILLA VS. KONG, which never made it into the movie…
GODZILLA POSTER GALLERY Feast your eyes on a sumptuous selection of stunning Godzilla artworks.
ULTRA HD HAVOC! Johnny Burnett raves about Godzilla movies released on 4K UHD and Blu-ray!
A CELEBRATION OF SHOGUN ASSASSIN
40 pages are given over to honouring SHOGUN ASSASSIN and the LONE WOLF AND CUB films & comics! This includes an overview of the superb, gory samurai flick SHOGUN ASSASSIN, plus a quick lowdown on every LONE WOLF AND CUB movie and TV show, and there’s a dive into the world of the original manga too!
VOICE OF DAIGORŌ! Gibran Evans, who gave Daigorō his voice in SHOGUN ASSASSIN, talks to us!
MASTER POSTER PAINTER! An interview with Jim Evans, painter of the iconic SHOGUN ASSASSIN poster!
Plus – SHOGUN ASSASSIN and LONE WOLF AND CUB Blu-rays & DVDs are reviewed!
RADIOACTIVE REVIEWS
Movies reviewed include THE LAST SACRIFICE and MONSTER ISLAND. Guest reviews from horror novelist Ramsey Campbell and scriptwriter William Martell!
Monster Island
LIGHT AND SHADOW Plunge into the striking b&w world of artist Russell Fox’s fantastical comic book illustrations!
Some of these articles originally appeared in issue 2 of FILM FRENZY, a magazine Ken Miller edited and co-published through Eastern Heroes. Now that he’s running his own publication, Ken decided to share some of those contents, notably the SHOGUN ASSASSIN features, because, well, they’re great, especially the interviews with two key figures connected to the making of the movie: Jim Evans and Gibran Evans. Hopefully more readers will now get the chance to enjoy this material!
Starring Shinichi Fukazawa, Masaaki Kai and Asako Nosaka. Written, directed and produced by Shinichi Fukazawa.
Love this poster!
Naoto (Fukazawa) is asked by his ex- girlfriend, Mika (Nosaka), to take her to the haunted house that Naoto has inherited from his deceased dad. They are accompanied by a psychic (Kai), who is able to pick up on an ominous presence in the building. Later, the face of Naoto’s dead father (also played by Fukazawa) appears on a TV screen to warn his son that the psychic is possessed by the ghost of his murdered lover, who has the power to prevent them from leaving the house… and Naoto is informed that the only way to deal with the psychic is to hack him to bits!
Low budget gory things occur throughout the film
This very low budget film from Japan, also known as THE JAPANESE EVIL DEAD, looks really grainy (it was shot on Super 8) and manages to make Sam Raimi’s 1981 movie look like a big budget IMAX production in comparison! Shinichi Fukazawa filmed most of this flick in 1995, but it wasn’t released on DVD in Japan until 2012. It received an official international release in the UK by Terracotta Distribution in 2017, and since then Visual Vengeance has released the film on Blu-ray in America.
Artwork for the Visual Vengeance release
There are lots of lo-fi FX to keep you watching BLOODY MUSCLE BODY BUILDER IN HELL, such as when the ghost drops a pendant into the psychic’s mouth, after which the pendant slithers from the victim’s mouth via jerky stop-motion effects, then bores through his eye, into his head! We also get to see a knife rammed through a head, skewering an eyeball on the blade’s tip. Some of the visual gore gags are fun, like when Naoto uses his chest expander as a kind of catapult to fire an iron bar through a zombie’s head. These effects are far from realistic, but I guess it’s the willingness of Fukazawa to try and put this stuff onscreen not matter what that counts.
Ouch!
As much as Fukazawa tries to emulate Sam Raimi’s first two EVIL DEAD movies (at one point the lead character even says “Groovy”), there’s a lack of real verve and bravura camera techniques compared to Raimi’s productions. The location lacks atmosphere too, with everything shot in close-up. But perhaps it’s churlish to be too critical about the film’s shortcomings, as there’s an I’m-doing-the-best-I-can determination to the proceedings, with Fukazawa trying to get as much up on screen as his budget (and his skills) will allow. Thus we get a severed head zipping about on a severed hand, more cheap and cheerful stop-motion footage, and a sequence where the dead girl uses body parts and blood to regrow herself à la a bargain basement version of what happens in HELLRAISER (1987).
Above: four shots from the movie
The film ends with shots of a decomposing zombie body, again accomplished by stop-motion and amateur gore effects, that apes the finale of THE EVIL DEAD (1981), though it’s all done in a far less accomplished way, of course.
Lo-fi gore FX!
If you’re partial to do-it-yourself horror productions and you’re happy to ignore the many shortcomings, the non-existent budget, and a lack of professional technique, then this short, inexpertly-made, unpretentious homage to Sam Raimi’s classics just might be your cup of (tarnished) tea.
Jason Statham versus megalodons and other aquatic monsters! Yay!
Starring Jason Statham, Wu Jing, Shuya Sophia Cai, Cliff Curtis, Page Kennedy, Sergio Peris-Mencheta and Skyler Samuels. Written by Jon Hoeber, Erich Hoeber and Dean Georgaris. Directed by Ben Wheatley. Apelles Entertainment/China Media Capital/Flagship Entertainment Group/Gravity Pictures
Jonas and his daughter, Meiying
Jonas Taylor (Statham), when he’s not doing eco-warrior stuff like exposing illegal radioactive waste dumping, is a committed single parent dad, who tells his daughter Meiying (Cai) that she can’t go on the upcoming submersible exploration of the prehistoric world that exists at the bottom of the nearby deep sea trench. Meiying stows away on one of the two mini subs anyway, so Jonas must do his best to keep her alive after their submersibles are put out of action by explosions triggered by an illegal mining operation overseen by a villain called Montes (Peris-Mencheta).
Wu Jing plays Zhang, Jonas’ brother-in-law
Jonas, his brother-in-law Zhang (played in a no-nonsense manner by Wu Jing), Meiying and the other sub survivors must now leave their wrecked craft and trudge across the ocean floor to seek a means of escape within the mining operation’s undersea base. This portion of the film is really enjoyable, with the scriptwriters throwing a lot of obstacles in the way of the characters, forcing them to exit their smashed-up subs after it’s disclosed that their backup rescue sub has been sabotaged by unknown betrayers, leaving them with no option but to don reinforced diving suits and start walking through a bioluminescent zone in the hope that the brightness will hide their helmet beams from the enormous megalodons swimming above them. After encountering a toothy eel/lamprey and other denizens of the deep, they find themselves having to take a risky shortcut through a dark valley as their air runs perilously low.
A megalodon fights a kraken!
It’s then a race against time to get inside the secret base before prehistoric sharks or some equally prehistoric, toothy amphibious beasties get them! Even inside this base the threats continue, as Jonas has to battle the vicious Montes, water starts pouring into the place, and a supposedly friendly workmate at HQ jettisons escape capsules before the protagonists can use them to get to the surface. At one point Jonas even swims outside the base without a suit! One of the characters explains how it is possible for Jonas to do this (he has to expel all the air from his nostrils, etc), but I think the main reason Jonas can survive the powerful pressures at the bottom of the trench is because of one very important factor: he’s played by hardman Jason frickin’ Statham!
At one point Statham kicks a giant shark in the face! Yes!
As the story unfolds, MEG 2: THE TRENCH presents us with giant prehistoric sharks and other critters escaping into the upper ocean after explosions cause a breach in the cold water barrier that usually seals off the undersea lost world. The movie also mixes in armed merc bad guys, a semi-trained captive megalodon, and underhand characters who’re willing to kill their colleagues to cover up the fact they’re running a rare minerals mining set-up in the trench.
Toothsome amphibious salamander-critters are encountered in the trench, and they later reach the surface
Many critics and viewers have mercilessly ripped into this movie, but I think it’s a really enjoyable, fun creature flick! Any movie that begins with a prologue set in the Cretaceous Period, showing a huge Tyrannosaurus Rex getting munched by a megalodon (okay, I know megalodons didn’t exist during the age of the dinosaurs, but so what?) is obviously letting viewers know that they need to sit back and enjoy the monster antics coming up!
The movie starts off in the Cretaceous Period, and why not?
Director Ben Wheatley, better known for off-kilter, sometimes quirky, sometimes psychedelic low budget horror pics like KILL LIST (2011), SIGHTSEERS (2012), A FIELD IN ENGLAND (2013), and IN THE EARTH (2021), here goes into full blockbuster mode, presenting us with a mega-enjoyable third act that sees the tourists at the holiday resort of Fun Island getting attacked by super-sized sharks, a huge octopus, and swarms of smaller amphibious predators! There’s a fun shot seen from the inside of a megalodon’s mouth as it chows down on hapless swimmers, and there’s a gag where a tentacle disrupts a waterside wedding!
Statham on a jet ski, chased by monster sharks!
As the likeable main characters deal with gun-toting killers as well as the berserk beasts, lots are exciting (sometimes verging on silly) incidents are thrown at the screen: Statham hurling homemade spear-bombs at the monsters as he pilots a jet ski! A megalodon-vs-kraken fight! Undulating tentacles assaulting a helicopter! And, best of all, Statham using a broken helicopter rotor blade to skewer a megalodon through its open maw! Sweet!
Jonas lifts up a broken rotor blade…
…and he rams it through a megalodon’s head! Sweet!
Don’t listen to the naysayers: just get a beer (or two), switch off your brain, and enjoy the on-screen antics! Colossal prehistoric sharks, a killer kraken, Statham being Statham, hordes of salamander monsters, and generous doses of action: what’s not to like?!
This film boasts a pretty kinetic nighttime sword sword fight in the rain!
Starring Xie Miao, Hong Jianing, Xiang Hao, Zhang Haosen and Wang Yukai. Written by Yang Bingjia and directed by Liu Wenpu. Beijing Bona Film & Television Culture Co.
The Great Eunuch orders the large-scale hunting of tigers after being informed that the big cats can be used to create Tiger Golden Elixir, which will increase his ‘yang energy’ (this elixir is extracted from tigers after they’ve been scorched with an ancient form of flamethrower!) Liang City, situated near the southwest border, behind Thousand Mile Tiger Ridge, is used as the HQ (referred to as the Eastern Depot) for this tiger-hunting operation. But one of the captive tigers escapes, transmits ‘plague’ to the wild tiger population, and eventually the area is besieged by killer felines! Meanwhile, Zhang (Miao), new to the Imperial Guard, balks at being ordered to kill a rebel’s daughter, and he takes out the other guards instead, in a snazzily-shot sword skirmish during a nighttime downpour. He then heads for the Eastern Depot to look for his brother Liuping, a tiger hunter, and Zhang soon finds himself caught up in the tiger attacks.
Xie Miao is really quite good as the hero, Zhang
In due course Zhang discovers that the Eunuch’s warlock has infected the tigers with a rabies-like distemper to create the Tiger Golden Elixir. These tigers, just like dogs with rabies, fear water, which Zhang intends to use to his advantage, to help save a group of survivors trapped in an inn.
Smirk-faced killer tiger!
The CGI tigers ain’t all that, but the action in general, choreographed by action director Qin Pengfei, is good, and viewers are not shortchanged with regard to the amount of onscreen monster mayhem. Xie Miao, as Zhang, carries the movie with a committed performance, exuding a distinctive Ti Lung vibe throughout. This dude is pretty good.
There’s a full-on tiger attack on the walled settlement of Liang City, with lots of folks falling victim to the scabrous beasts (every tiger in the world must be here, I reckon, based on the sheer number of striped felines shown in these scenes!) Though they’re far from the best CGI critters ever committed to film, an occasional close-up of a tiger does look pretty sweet, with these killer cats possessing a semi-smirking expression on their faces.
Cool poster
MUTANT TIGER, aka MUTANT TIGER CHRONICLES, is a decent period-set creatures-attack adventure romp that does kill off characters I was sure would survive, including three lacy robes-clad fighting femmes. In recent Chinese films you can never be certain if the hero will make it to the end, and here Zhang has a last stand confrontation on a rope bridge, which is a nicely handled sequence, showing him fighting off tigers and one of the imperial villains, who has swallowed the coveted Tiger Golden Elixir pill and has become a zombie-like, white-eyed, black-toothed, rabid dude who can command the cats! A mid-credits scene, however, does offer hope for Zhang’s chances of surviving the tiger invasion…
IMAGINATOR ISSUE 10 boasts loads of new, mouth-watering, marvellous Godzilla-related contents! Plus – there are excellent features that originally appeared in issue 2 of Film Frenzy magazine – so, if you missed that publication, you can enjoy reading some of those awesome articles now in this new issue!
Imaginator #10’s look at the King of the Kaiju is a MASSIVE, MULTI-PAGE TRIBUTE…
DESTROY ALL MONSTERS An adoring look back at the incredibly colourful 1968 creature-fest: this film features SO MANY monsters! It’s Kaiju-fan heaven!
THE MISSING MONSTER FROM GODZILLA VS KONG Hollywood creature designer Ken Barthelmey (Godzilla: King of the Monsters, Godzilla vs Kong, The Tomorrow War) shares the incredible monster designs he did for a truly cool-looking Hollow Earth creature that didn’t make it into GODZILLA VS KONG (2021)!
GODZILLA – KING OF THE KAIJU A huge 16-page overview of ALL of Godzilla’s feature length films!
FAVOURITE ZILLA MOVIES Directors, artists and writers talk about their favourite Big G movies! Find out which Godzilla flicks are liked by folks including: director Raimund Huber (Bangkok Adrenaline, Kill ‘Em All), director Mark Duffield (Demon, Ghost of Mae Nak), director Hans Kaufmann (The Working Man), publisher & writer Ricky Baker (Eastern Heroes, The New Essential Guide to Hong Kong Movies), editor Allan Bryce (The Dark Side), author and scriptwriter William Martell (Steel Sharks, Black Thunder), actor Russell Shaw (Witch, Bone Keeper), special FX artist Joe Castro (Terror Toons, Blood Feast 2), FX expert and actor David Fitzgerald (Squeak and I’ll Run to You), and comic book artist Russell Fox (Angela and the Dark, Vampirella vs Purgatori)!
GODZILLA POSTER GALLERY Check out a bunch of sumptuous-looking Godzilla movie posters!
GODZILLA TOP FIVE! Cult filmmaker Jörg Buttgereit (Nekromatik, Schramm, Nekromantik 2) is a Godzilla super-fan! He selects his top five favourite Big G movies and tells us why they’re so good!
Jörg Buttgereit with Godzilla!
GODZILLA VS AVENGERS A review of the mighty Marvel crossover comic, which includes guest appearances from Jet Jaguar… and Marvel’s very own kaiju: Fin Fang Foom!
GODZILLA BLU-RAY REVIEWS Johnny Burnett, the YouTube reviewer known as the Fanatical Dragon, checks out some Godzilla Blu-ray releases!
GODZILLA VS THOR A look at the awesome Marvel comic that pits the King of the Kaiju against the God of Thunder! It’s a brilliant issue!
ALSO IN THIS ISSUE:
SHOGUN ASSASSIN – A CELEBRATION This is a 40-page celebration of the gory, extremely enjoyable cult classic SHOGUN ASSASSIN!
The magazine’s many SHOGUN ASSASSIN features include:
VOICE OF THE WOLF CUB An interview with Gibran Evans, who provided the voice of Daigorō!
MASTER OF POSTERS A chat with poster artist superstar Jim Evans, who talks about creating the SHOGUN ASSASSIN poster!
CLASSIC MANGA The lowdown on the totally brilliant LONE WOLF AND CUB comics!
SHOGUN ASSASSIN OVERVIEW A look at what makes the film so bloody good!
LIGHTNING DISCS OF DEATH! SHOGUN ASSASSIN and LONE WOLF AND CUB Blu-rays, DVDs and boxsets are reviewed and rated by Johnny Burnett!
OTHER ISSUE 10 CONTENTS INCLUDE:
MOVIE REVIEWS Reviews of films including: RIVER OF BLOOD (2024), THE LAST SACRIFICE (2024), MONSTER ISLAND (2024), LA SOMBRA PROHIBIDA (2010), THUNDERBOLTS* (2025), DEATH OF A UNICORN (2025), and MONSTER SHARK (1984)! Guest reviews from top horror novelist Ramsey Campbell and screenwriter William Martell!
SUPER-COOL COMIC ART A look at some of the superb illustrations created by comic book artist Russell Fox!
Admit it: you know you need this issue!
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 