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Imaginator magazine’s CREATURE FEATURE SPECIAL EDITION!

May 28, 2025 Ken Miller Leave a comment

There is SO MUCH monster-tastic wonderfulness enclosed in this issue!

Imaginator magazine’s CREATURE FEATURE SPECIAL EDITION is available all over the world (UK, US, Netherlands, Japan, Brazil, etc) via Amazon and other fine retailers!

Amazon US:
https://a.co/d/a2xh23D

Amazon UK:
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Amazon Japan:
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Amazon Poland:
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Amazon Ireland:
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Amazon Netherlands:
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Amazon Italy:
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Amazon Belgium:
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Amazon Sweden:
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Amazon Brazil:
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Amazon Singapore:
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INTERNATIONAL BOOK RETAILERS…

Barnes & Noble (USA):
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/imaginator-magazine-ken-miller/1147224598?ean=9781068444609

Blackwell’s (UK)
https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/Imaginator-Magazine-by-Ken-Miller-author-Ramsey-Campbell-contributions-Steve-Wang-contributions/9781068444616

Bokus (Sweden):
https://www.bokus.com/bok/9781068444616/imaginator-magazine/

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Saxo (Denmark):
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Better World Books (UK)
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Walmart (USA):
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Imaginator-Magazine-Creature-Feature-Special-Edition-Paperback-9781068444616/16839322212

Booktopia (Australia)
https://www.booktopia.com.au/imaginator-magazine-ken-miller/book/9781068444616.html

Or, if you’re in the UK, you can order below (at discounted price) direct from the publishers:

Buy Now

Okay… let’s check out the issue’s contents…

PREDATOR
Award-winning creature designer/creator STEVE WANG talks about designing and building one of the most iconic alien characters ever created for the screen… the original PREDATOR!

DRAGONSLAYER
Special effects & make-up effects titan CHRIS WALAS recounts what it was like helping to bring to life the greatest-looking movie dragon: Vermithrax Pejorative!

ALIEN
Actress VERONICA CARTWRIGHT is interviewed about working on the classic genre movies ALIEN, INVASION OF THE BODYSNATCHERS and THE BIRDS! She describes the day they shot the bloody Chestburster scene!

WEREWOLVES
A look at the awesome practical creature FX used in WEREWOLVES (2024)! One of the actor-producers tells us what it was like to work with Frank freakin’ Grillo!

ELDRITCH ENCOUNTERS
Horror fiction author, editor and critic RAMSEY CAMPBELL reviews two films made by the H. P. Lovecraft Historical Society!

CREATURE FEATURE REVIEWS
Noah Kneal, Simon Pritchard and Ramsey Campbell review a bunch of monster movies! Titles include BOGIEVILLE and ALIEN FROM THE ABYSS!

THE DEADLY SPAWN
JOHN DODS chats about making the gorgeously gooey, triple-headed monster star of THE DEADLY SPAWN (1983), plus he covers other pivotal moments in his career, including building creatures for SPOOKIES (1986) and NIGHTBEAST (1982)!

INTO THE DEEP
2025 is the 50th anniversary of the release of JAWS… and it is also the year that Richard (Hooper) Dreyfuss is unleashed upon the world in a brand new shark movie: INTO THE DEEP! Action director CHRISTIAN SESMA tells us all about it!

BEASTS OF BLOOD ISLAND
A dive back into the lurid, tropical, colourful world of Eddie Romero’s Filipino fright flicks!

SQUIRM
Director JEFF LIEBERMAN reminisces about his incredibly enjoyable killer bloodworms opus SQUIRM!

HORROR QUEEN
Exploitation movie star GERETTA GERETTA chats about starring in RATS: NIGHT OF TERROR (1984) and the insanely kinetic DEMONS (1985) – plus she even reveals what the recipe is for making demonic movie drool!

MONSTROUSLY TALENTED
This interview with KEN BARTHELMEY, a mega-gifted concept designer and illustrator who focuses on Creature & Character Design work for big Hollywood movies, includes lots of very impressive concept artworks for such films as THE TOMORROW WAR, GODZILLA: KING OF THE MONSTERS and GODZILLA VS. KONG!

SHE’LL BLEED YOU DRY
MADALINA BELLARIU ION stars as a sultry and sometimes savage vampire in the impressive UK horror movie DRAINED! Here she chats about playing a vampire and playing a werewolf, and also fills us in on what it was like co-starring with Scott Adkins in a recent action flick!

NO ONE GETS OUT ALIVE
The supremely talented Creature Designer KEITH THOMPSON discusses how he conceptualised the surreal and wonderfully macabre god-monster that appears in the memorable finale of NO ONE GETS OUT ALIVE (2021), the movie adaptation of the Adam Nevill novel!

Keith Thompson creature design for No One Gets Out Alive

THE FLY
Oscar-winning creature-creator CHRIS WALAS returns with a second interview this issue! Here he talks about the amazing work he did creating Brundlefly for David Cronenberg’s utterly wonderful THE FLY!

A VVITCH – GRAPHIC NOVEL UPDATE
Artist and writer Russell Fox treats us to another sneak peek at more sumptuous-looking illustrations that’ll be appearing in his upcoming folk horror graphic novel A VVITCH! (More of his work can be viewed in issue 8 of Imaginator)

BONE KEEPER
This is a new movie, which has recently finished principal photography, about a group of friends being hunted by a malevolent monster in a cave. Director HOWARD J. FORD and creature effects VFX supervisor GIORDANO AITA talk about working together on BONE KEEPER, and they share with us some ace images of the development of the cave creature!

THE MAN WHO WAS MOLASAR
Actor Michael Carter is asked what it was like to wear the incredibly distinctive and damn cool Molasar muscle suit in THE KEEP. He also speaks about the makeup application process he underwent to become Bib Fortuna in RETURN OF THE JEDI, and he chats about playing a memorable London subway victim in the all-time 80s horror film classic AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON!

RADIOACTIVE REVIEWS
To finish off this issue there are a couple of non-monster movie reviews, including one for the Italian Mad Max ripoff 2020 TEXAS GLADIATORS!

Wow! So much lovely stuff is jammed inside this single issue!

LIMITED EDITION PRINTS
You can buy two Limited Edition Creature Feature Prints, signed and numbered by Imaginator’s cover artist ZillaMan, via this LINK!

Hellboy: The Crooked Man (2024)

May 25, 2025 Ken Miller 1 Comment

Starring Jack Kesy, Jefferson White, Adeline Rudolph, Leah McNamara, Suzanne Bertish, Joseph Marcell and Martin Bassindale.
Written by Christopher Golden, Mike Mignola and Brian Taylor
Directed by Brian Taylor. Produced by Jeffrey Greenstein, Yariv Lerner, Mike Richardson, Sam Schulte, Les Weldon and Jonathan Yunger.
Campbell Grobman Films/Dark Horse Entertainment/Millennium Media

In 1959 Hellboy, who is accompanied by BPRD agent Bobbie Jo Song, has an occult adventure in the witch-filled woods of the Appalachians, where he teams-up with the stoic hillbilly hero Tom Ferrell and encounters the hellish Crooked Man, whilst also hunting down an escaped funnel-web spider that houses a demonic entity.

A giant, demon-possessed funnel-web spider! Yikes! — The demon-possessed funnel-web spider is capable of growing to giant size! Yikes!

This is an engaging, more compact instalment of the Hellboy saga, underlining the horror aspects of the comic book source material and deftly maintaining a folksy supernatural tone throughout.

This insect is actually a witch's familiar — This insect is actually a witch’s familiar

Jefferson White is particularly good as Tom, a character inspired by Manly Wade Wellman’s pulp horror protagonist Silver John, Adeline Rudolph plays special agent Bobbie Jo Song nicely as someone who views all the supernatural occurrences and practices from a very scientific perspective, and Jack Kesy is actually a really good Hellboy.

The Crooked Man himself (played by Martin Bassindale) is an interesting screen bogieman, though he did look scarier, I think, in the comic book version, as illustrated by the late, great Richard Corben.

A page from the comic book, written by Mike Mignola and drawn by Richard Corben

There’s a lot of cool, interesting content and imagery in the movie: a witch refills her skin-suit by crawling back into it whilst in the form of a raccoon, and a supernatural black snake slithers from between a character’s legs and slides down her throat in a continuous cycle – and there’s other memorable stuff, including the lowdown on how to make witchballs.

HELLBOY: THE CROOKED MAN is not as big scale or glossy as its predecessors, but this works to its advantage, helping the film to come across as more faithful to the vibe (and often more modest scope ) of many of Hellboy creator Mike Mignola’s original yarns.

I really enjoyed this flick, and I would definitely like to see more Hellboy films told in this style!

A gigantic arachnid - woot! — A gigantic arachnid – woot!

Shin Godzilla (2016)

May 5, 2025 Ken Miller Leave a comment

This version of Godzilla is very powerful!

Starring Hiroki Hasegawa, Yutaka Takenouchi, Satomi Ishihara, Ren Ôsugi and Akira Emoto. Written by Hideaki Anno. Directed by Hideaki Anno and Shinji Higuchi. Produced by Minami Ichikawa, Yoshihiro Satô, Masaya Shibusawa, Taichi Ueda and Kazutoshi Wadakura for Toho Pictures.

Toho put its Godzilla movie series on hold for a while after the release of the hugely entertaining Godzilla: Final Wars (2004), which was the final entry of the Millennium era. Toho eventually decided to shoot a new Godzilla flick in 2016, called Shin Godzilla, which was the first Japanese Godzilla movie of the Reiwa era.

This version of Godzilla initially has large, unblinking fish-like eyes! — This iteration of Godzilla initially has large, unblinking, fish-like eyes!

Shin Godzilla was a huge critical and financial smash in Japan. However, some western fans complained about the amount of time that was spent in the film focusing on the politicians and bureaucrats trying to work out what to do as the crisis deepens, but I think that watching how all the many viewpoints, red tape and opinions swamped the decision makers added quite a bit of realism to the story.

I liked all the scenes of the authorities trying to work out what to do!

The movie adds new twists to Godzilla’s lifecycle, with the creature evolving through different forms, which I really liked: you can’t just keep doing the same old schtick every time. In this iteration of Godzilla we see him transform from a low-sprawling aquatic beast to upright god-reptile. We watch him continually adapt, utilising atomic breath and then photon beams. Maybe old school Godzilla fans might not like this updating of his abilities, but I thought the ever-evolving powers and adaptations kept the story intriguing. Even the ending leaves viewers with a mystery: the last shot of Godzilla’s tail hints that an even weirder evolutionary step was underway within the great beast…

Above: two shots showing Godzilla letting loose with photon beams!

The devastation shots of boats & debris being pushed down the river as a wreckage-wave effectively replicated real disaster imagery seen during the 2011 Japanese tsunami, and I liked the many scenes of Godzilla stomping through the city seen in extreme long shot, giving an expansive view of the creature’s progress through Tokyo.

Oh, and I loved the way the Japanese forces not only used tanks and jets and helicopters against Godzilla… they also utilised ‘train bombs’ too – cool!

You could argue that there were some odd design choices, like the early-stage googly fish eyes, for instance, but these strange, unblinking eyes do look quite unsettling!

The earlier-stage Godzilla has grotesquely-wobbling gills and freaky, staring eyes!

Ultimately, there is a lot to enjoy with this version of Big G, who, once in adult form, looks quite different to his typical body shape, with very tiny eyes, a longer neck and jawbones that can detach, allowing his mouth to widen (Godzilla’s mouth can also really extend vertically). Not only is the Godzilla in this film quite a unique design, this great beast looks pretty damn scary and creepy too!

Little beady eyes and a mouth that's full of sharp teeth! — Little beady eyes and a mouth that’s full of sharp teeth!

Shin Godzilla was the first Japanese Godzilla to be rendered primarily through CGI, though he somehow retains a slight suitmation vibe, maybe because actor Mansai Nomura portrayed Godzilla through motion capture.

This is a Godzilla film, so there's lots of devastation! — This is a Godzilla film, so there’s lots of devastation!

Shin Godzilla is a very fine Godzilla movie. ‘Nuff said!

Imaginator magazine’s Creature Feature Special is in the works!

April 26, 2025 Ken Miller Leave a comment

Yes, you read that correctly: issue 9 of Imaginator is going to be a CREATURE FEATURE SPECIAL…

Here’s a taster of some of the interviews that will be in this issue…

Also in this issue…

Steve Wang talks about creating the PREDATOR!

Chris Walas talks about creating his Oscar-winning makeup effects for THE FLY!

Veronica Cartwright talks about confronting the ALIEN!

There’s a chat with Michael Carter, who played Molasar in THE KEEP! The talented actor was also Bib Fortuna in RETURN OF THE JEDI and he was a very memorable victim of AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON!

Plus – actress Geretta Geratta is interviewed about her films DEMONS and RATS: NIGHT OF TERROR!

And there’s going to be so much more, including reviews of a bunch of monster movies, including these beauties…

Stay tuned for more updates!

Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla (1974)

April 17, 2025 Ken Miller Leave a comment

Mechagodzilla gif — I could watch this gif all day…

Starring Masaaki Daimon, Kazuya Aoyama, Reiko Tajima and Akihiko Hirata. Written by Jun Fukuda and Hiroyasu Yamaura. Directed by Jun Fukuda. Produced by Tomoyuki Tanaka.

Also known as GODZILLA VS. BIONIC MONSTER and GODZILLA VS. COSMIC MONSTER, this kaiju flick came out to celebrate Godzilla’s 20th anniversary.

The movie presents us with our massive reptilian hero tackling his mechanical doppelgänger: Mechagodzilla! This marvellous, monstrous machine is controlled by alien ape-beings who come from a planet orbiting a black hole! Failing to beat his robo-twin in combat on his own, Godzilla is assisted by dog-faced Okinawan god-monster King Caesar (aka King Seeser). Godzilla’s beastly buddy Angiurus returns, and is now capable of leaping at his foes, leading to a very physical fight with Mechagodzilla!

Mecha-G is definitely the stand-out element in this film, with the robo-beast firing rockets from its fingers, discharging lightning bolts from its chest, emitting colourful beams from its eyes, and creating whirling forcefields with its spinning metal head! Woot!

The fights in GODZILLA VS. MECHAGODZILLA are really enjoyable, full of multiple explosions and animated power beams. Even Mechagodzilla’s knees are lethal, as they are capable of firing projectiles at Godzilla and King Caesar!

This film is fun, fun, fun! The ape-aliens look goofy, goofy, goofy! And Mechagodzilla is cool, cool, cool! No wonder the titanium terror went on to become one of Godzilla’s most popular foes.

Criterion Collection artwork for the movie

Rawhead Rex (1986)

March 30, 2025 Ken Miller Leave a comment

Yikes! It's Rawhead Rex! — Yikes! It’s Rawhead Rex!

Starring David Dukes, Kelly Piper, Hugh O’Conor, Cora Venus Lunny, Ronan Wilmot, Niall Toibin, Niall O’Brien and Heinrich von Schellendorf. Written by Clive Barker. Directed by George Pavlou. Produced by Kevin Attew, Don Hawkins, David Collins, Al Burgess and Paul Gwynn. Alpine Pictures/Green Man Productions

There's something nasty lurking beneath this standing stone... — There’s something nasty lurking beneath this standing stone…

An American author, Howard Hallenbeck (Dukes), travels around Ireland with his family, doing research for his book focusing on the persistence of sacred sites. The Hallenbecks are staying in a small village, where Howard is checking out the local church’s intriguing stained glass panels, when an enraged, toothsome monster is released from beneath an ancient menhir.

The demonic creature depicted in the stained glass is no mere myth... — The demonic creature depicted in the stained glass is no mere myth…

This beast goes on the rampage, and one of the creature’s victims is Howard’s son, provoking the upset & angry author to seek out a way to destroy the monster, but there are those, including the church’s rector, Declan O’Brien, who regard the critter as a pagan god…

A dentist's nightmare! — A dentist’s nightmare!

RAWHEAD REX started life as a short story included in Volume Three of Clive Barker’s BOOKS OF BLOOD anthology series. The original story is set in Kent, and features a folkloric humanoid monster, a kind of raw-fleshed, ferocious personification of hyper-toxic-masculinity. This berserk, barbaric boogeyman devours innocent children and violates women, though the brutal man-beast has an aversion to pregnant females and those who are menstruating: they cause a sense of fear within the ancient, feral being. Barker wrote the screenplay for the film adaptation, but he was pretty dissatisfied with the way the movie eventually turned out, prompting him to direct the next movie version of one of his stories himself, that film being HELLRAISER (1987), based on Barker’s novella THE HELLBOUND HEART.

Artwork for the Arrow Video Blu-ray release

Okay, I can fully understand why Clive Barker felt let down by the cinematic representation of his original yarn. There was no way George Pavlou’s low budget flick was going to live up to the impactful, visceral tone and atmosphere of Barker’s source material. I really like that original story, it’s one of my favourite Barker tales. And yet…

…I believe that this film is definitely in need of reappraisal!

Maybe this sounds like I’m damning the movie with faint praise when I say that the practical effects monster on show here is better than so much of the cheap CGI dross churned out over the last couple of decades, but I do mean this as a compliment. Sure, Rawhead Rex’s scowling face doesn’t have an awful lot of different facial expressions, but it’s still damn satisfying to see an actual creature suit being used, something that is really there, really in the scenes! I love the fact this beast-man is basically a big, leather-clad humanoid monster with a huge maw full of teeth!

The special effects team had a frantic four week deadline to create the Rawhead Rex creature: a body suit, with an animatronic monster head for close-ups, brought the snarling monster to life in the movie. And, by god, it works just fine!

The film is not as transgressive as the short story, but it is enthusiastically gory, and there is a lot of fun/cool stuff to look out for, like the great shot of Rawhead standing on a hill holding aloft a severed head, his beastly breath illuminated as he exhales. And then there’s the attack on the caravan park: faces are slashed and boobs get revealed as the wild, primal creature runs amok! And let’s not forget the blasphemous baptism scene (taken from the original story), where Rawhead bathes the kneeling Declan O’Brien with its urine!

Rawhead rampages through a caravan park!

O’Brien tells his boss, Reverend Coot, that Rawhead Rex is a god, a deity that was here long before Christ: before civilisation, Rawhead was the king of this place. Later on, O’Brien utters a classic line as he forces Coot to meet the deadly Rawhead: “Get upstairs, fuckface, I can’t keep god waiting!”

The barechested, muscled Rawhead (played by Heinrich von Schellendorf) has glowing red eyes, which have the ability to overwhelm the minds of some victims (the creature doesn’t have this power in the original story). “For you!” Says a burning cop, who has become one of Rawhead’s acolytes, as he immolates his fellow officers!

Salvation is hidden within the church’s altar, in the form of a small, stone earth-goddess-style idol, which a woman must wield, leading to an optical FX-drenched showdown, as Howard’s wife Elaine (Piper) uses the idol to unleash supernatural forces to drive Rawhead back into the ground. This is a colourful, rousing fantasy-horror finale!

Honestly, I don’t believe RAWHEAD REX deserves the derision levelled at it from many critics. It is an unpretentious, cheesy-but-satisfying, 80s-tastic entertainment, a B-movie that makes sure its rampaging, rubbery, rockin’, rampant god-beast is given a lot of time on screen! And for that I respect it!

Drained (2024)

February 14, 2025 Ken Miller 3 Comments

Starring Ruaridh Aldington, Madalina Bellariu Ion, Craig Conway, Angela Dixon, Andrew Lyle-Pinnock, Natasha Patel, Andrew Lee Potts, Timothy Blore, Kenton Lloyd Morgan, Ayvianna Snow, Sean Earl McPherson and Matteo Pasquini.
Written by Peter Stylianou.
Directed by Peter Stylianou and Sean Cronin.
Produced by Sean Cronin, Peter Stylianou and Daniel Patrick Vaughan.
House54/Magnificent Films/RG Films/Red Guerilla Films

A young, jobless artist becomes obsessively attracted to a seductive woman he encounters at a London club, and he finds himself unable to stop seeing the woman, even after he discovers that she’s a vampire intent on feeding from him daily, draining him slowly…

Thomas' time spent with Rhea can be draining... — Thomas’ time spent with Rhea can be very draining…

The filmmakers do wonders with the budget available to them here, crafting a satisfying modern vampire tale. The protagonist’s relationship with his vampire lover effectively shows how romantic entanglements can be very needy and one-sided, ultimately becoming toxic for the obsessed partner. And in the case of this romance, it is literally a draining experience for the boyfriend, as he offers up his blood to keep his girlfriend satiated.

Madalina Bellariu Ion is Rhea the vampire

Ruaridh Aldington is a revelation here as the initially rather pathetic Thomas, an aimless young guy living at home with his mum, who falls head over heels for the sultry vampire Rhea, played nicely in a coldly no-nonsense manner by Romanian actress Madalina Bellariu Ion. The film’s success really depends upon Aldington making his character work, because Thomas is a pretty unprepossessing, ambition-free dude when we first meet him at the start of the film, as he masturbates in his bedroom, takes his mother’s hospitality for granted, and refuses to make any effort to get to know his mother’s new boyfriend. But, thanks to Aldington’s subtly persuasive acting here, we do start to care for Thomas as he navigates as best he can through his problematic relationship with Rhea.

Good actors can convey everything just with their eyes. Ruaridh Aldington is one of those actors

DRAINED has its own specific vampire rules. These include Rhea’s ability to fly and move super-quick when she wants to, she can walk about in the daytime (but she does like the sky to be cloudy, hence why she moved to London), she prefers to not fully drain and kill her victims if she can help it, but she must battle increased predatory urges during the full moon. Rhea needs to be invited into a person’s home, she likes to feed from arms rather than necks, and she is attracted to the blood of certain people – and it turns out that Thomas has just that type of blood, drawing Rhea to him.

This last point helps prevent the central relationship from being totally unequal: Rhea keeps coming back to Thomas because his blood is a little different, so they do share a mutual addiction (Thomas gets some kind of supernatural buzz from being fed upon), but it is definitely Rhea who has the upper hand in the relationship. As Thomas’ health begins to deteriorate, and he tries to break free, matters become more serious, and people die.

Don't get on the wrong side of Rhea... — Don’t get on the wrong side of Rhea…

There are some bloody scenes, but the film isn’t particularly gory. Rather than depending on show-stopping bouts of carnage, DRAINED keeps you watching because Aldington manages to make you care about his character’s plight. The script dodges the pitfall of becoming a typical vampire romance by being more honest about Rhea’s part in the ‘romance’: she never bullshits about being truly in love, and she openly admits to Thomas that it’s his blood that she needs on a very regular basis.

Vampire victims in this film always have puncture marks on their arms

With Thomas becoming a prime murder suspect, then finding himself on meds in a mental institution for a while, you’d be forgiven for assuming DRAINED must be quite dour and depressing, but it isn’t, thanks to the way it is filmed and acted, and because there’s a vein of humour threaded through the movie that lightens the atmosphere, a lot of it stemming from Thomas’ interactions with his mother’s new partner John, a local pest control expert, played by Craig Conway. The film also finds time to show that Rhea does have feelings after all, as she stays connected with her previous lover Andreas (Pasquini), who is severely ill. The inclusion of Andreas, whom Rhea refers to as her Old Man, also helps to drive home to Thomas (and the viewers) that this is what happens to anyone who stays too long with Rhea: they’ll be emotionally and physically sucked dry by her.

Craig Conway is John the exterminator, out to rid Thomas' mother's home of pests (and hopefully Thomas too) — Craig Conway is John the exterminator, out to rid Thomas’ mother’s home of pests (and hopefully Thomas too)

The cinematography by Daniel Patrick Vaughan is top-notch, the music score really enhances the film, and good story choices are made throughout by writer Peter Stylianou. Stylianou also co-directs the movie with Sean Cronin, who gets to play a SWAT captain during the finale!

Go and give this a watch, I’m sure you’ll enjoy it.

Demon of the Lute (1983)

February 8, 2025 Ken Miller Leave a comment

Starring Chin Siu-Ho, Kara Wai, Philip Kwok, Kei Kong-Hung, Jason Pai Piao, Yuen Tak and Lung Tien-Hsiang.
Written and directed by Lung I-Sheng.
Produced by Mona Fong for Shaw Brothers.

Feng Ling (Wai) is sent by her master to locate the special fiery bow and arrows that are the only treasures that can stop a mystery villain from using the lethal Six-Stringed Demonic Lute to wreak havoc everywhere. Along the way she teams-up with her brother Old Naughty (Tak), a likeable thief (Kwok) and his son, a good guy called Yuan Fei (Siu-Ho) and a powerful martial artist known as the Woodcutter (Tien-Hsiang).

This dude's got a huge chopper! — This dude’s got a huge chopper!

DEMON OF THE LUTE’s director, Lung I-Sheng (aka Tang Tak-Cheung), was primarily an actor in the Hong Kong film industry. He was also a martial arts director on many films, and he was the action designer on the very wild BUDDHA’S PALM (1982). This fantasy wuxia, you’ll be pleased to know, is equally over the top! It really is lots of fun, crammed with loads and loads of exotic characters! Let’s look at just some of them: there’s Red Haired Evil, who rides a small chariot drawn by german shepherd dogs and hurls his Thunder Flying Wheel weapon like a frisbee, Eagle Man, who can flap his costume’s wings to fly like a bird, Long Limb Evil, who can super-extend his arm, and Fatty Elf, who can entangle folks in his lengthy beard.

Red Haired Evil, riding his chariot pulled by dogs!

Watch out for Fatty Elf's super-long beard! — Watch out for Fatty Elf’s super-long beard!

One of my favourite fantastical characters in this outlandish fight flick is Skinny Elf, who has a misshapen forehead – he likes to sit on the hero’s shoulders and can’t be shaken off!

Utter strangeness abounds throughout this production, with warriors erupting from a giant silver ball, Feng Ling using her rainbow sword like a guided missile, a horseless wagon whizzing around with the deadly lute inside, some trees momentarily becoming monsters, Old Naughty riding his horse backwards, and a kitschy killer lute that glows with LED strip lights when it’s played.

The lethal magic lute's strings are made from dinosaur ligaments! — The lethal magic lute’s strings are made from dinosaur ligaments!

Though some of the music and on-screen antics become rather too childish (this film dedicates itself to children in the opening credits), DEMON OF THE LUTE has much to offer, including Kei Kong-Hung, who is surprisingly good as the thief’s plucky young son Xiao Ding Dong.

Let’s end this review with another look at Skinny Elf…

A Ballad About Green Wood (1983)

February 7, 2025 Ken Miller Leave a comment

This stop-motion crow ain't nice! — This stop-motion crow ain’t nice!

Written and directed by Jirí Barta. Music by Vladimír Merta. Art direction by Lenka Kerelová. Cinematography by Jan Vycítal. Edited by Helena Lebdusková.
Produced by Krátký Film Praha and Studio Jirího Trnky.

This short film from Czechoslovakia uses a mixture of live action and stop motion.

The movie begins with close-up shots of an axe chopping into logs. One log splits into multiple pieces of wood, some of which have faces. These wooden sticks rush about the landscape, seemingly elated that spring is coming, with the stop-motion footage intermixed with time-lapse photography of seeds germinating and the ice receding.

This stick has a woman's face — This stick has a woman’s face

The wooden stick with a maiden’s face is attacked by a crow, which pecks the stick to pieces and swallows the splinters.

The stop-motion crow now turns into a creepy, skull-faced, winged piece of wood. This weird log-thing flies over the countryside, enters a cavern lit by candles, and roosts upside down like a bat, becoming an icicle. Sunlight enters the cave and the icicle becomes the death-faced stump again, which fights a wooden carving of a knight on a horse. The knight wins!

The winged stick-monster flies over the woods

This heroic piece of wood is shaped like a knight on a horse!

The other sticks carry the winged, skull-headed piece of wood aloft and place it atop a bonfire on a hill. Then, instead of burning the bonfire, a stick with the maiden’s face uses a newly-grown leaf to make the bonfire burst into a flurry of spring growth, with long blades of green grass consuming the monster-branch, transforming it into a normal piece of wood once more.

The crow-stick is engulfed by a 'bonfire' of fresh grass — The crow-stick is engulfed by a ‘bonfire’ of fresh grass

Jirí Barta’s sweet-and-sinister short is inspired by Vesna, a female character from Slavic mythology, who is associated with rituals conducted in rural areas during springtime. Here she is represented as the wooden stick with a maiden’s face that is consumed by the black crow, then returns anew to ignite the return of spring, as symbolised by the bonfire of rapidly-growing grass.

The branch-of-badness is swamped by the blades of grass.,..

...and it becomes a normal piece of wood again, which sprouts fresh leaves — …and it becomes a normal piece of wood again, which sprouts fresh leaves

The yarn, which possesses a typically surreal Eastern European folktale vibe, begins in an upbeat manner, turns darker with the arrival of the crow-stump-creature, then seemingly becomes upbeat again after the (ritualistic-looking) ‘burning’ of the winged branch transforms it into a regular stick again, which starts to grow fresh leaves. This would be the happy ending, right? But Barta chooses to finish the story by showing the sticks being collected by a villager to be used as firewood. The final shot is of smoke issuing from a chimney! The end!

The stop-motion animation of the sticks and the puppet crow was done outside, on location in the Bohemian Forest, the High Tatras, and the Koněprusy Caves.

The animation was filmed on location in the outside environment

Barta’s other short films include THE VANISHED WORLD OF GLOVES (1982), THE PIED PIPER (1986), THE LAST THEFT (1987) and THE CLUB OF THE LAID OFF (1989).

Graveyard Shark (2024)

January 31, 2025 Ken Miller Leave a comment

Stephanie Ward plays Abby the cryptid hunter

Starring Stephanie Ward, Michael John Gilbert, Berndele March, Ryan Santiago, Madisen Zabawa, Olivia Walton and Olga N. Bogdanova. Written and directed by Matthew A. Peters. Produced by Joe Cappelli, Avery Guerra, Ainslee Looman, Anthony Clark Pierce, Brandon Wheeler, Sifundo Nene and Brandon Wheeler.
Mad Angel Films

A toothy humanoid creature known as the Graveyard Shark is said to be responsible for the disappearances of various people in the backwater town of Willsboro Point. Abby Wescott (Ward), a wannabe cryptid hunter, is called in to uncover the bloody truth behind these events. Accompanied by her assistant Greg (Gilbert), Abby eventually teams-up with local oddball Captain Seyburn (March) and members of a Graveyard Shark survivors counselling group. Even though the local shades-wearing sheriff (Santiago) says that the Graveyard Shark is just some local folklore nonsense, the critter proves to be all too real when it bloodily attacks a busty, tattooed female deputy whilst she’s enjoying a sex session with her colleague near the latest crime scene! Abby and her allies finally face-off against the creature (one of the counselling group women actually gets it on with the brute!), and the identity of the person who has been secretly helping the blue-skinned beast is revealed…

Graveyard Shark stalks through the foliage

One of the characters strokes Graveyard Shark's abs... — One of the characters strokes Graveyard Shark’s abs…

GRAVEYARD SHARK is a movie that most definitely doesn’t take itself seriously. The folks behind this knew (I hope) what their limitations were, so they proceeded to deliver a film full of dumb humour, copious amounts of spraying blood, stupid dialogue, boobs and a big beast.

The hammer-headed mutant rips out a human heart!

The film’s lighting and cinematography is on par with the general acting quality, which is to say that it’s all strictly amateur hour level. And yet… the filmmakers are obviously having fun, and this adds to the viewing experience. So, when we get the creature’s origin story, we can be sure that it will be a really stupid, stupid, stupid (but fun) origin story! You see, this muscled monster is the result of a union between eccentric loner Captain Seyburn… and a mermaid of colour that Seyburn encountered in a swamp! The whole backstory is explained to Abby as she sits with Seyburn in a diner. Seyburn describes, with the help of flashbacks, how he met a ‘fine-ass mermaid’ and they had comical intercourse which seemed to consist of Seyburn just grinding his groin against the underside of the mermaid’s tail. As Seyburn climaxes in his flashback, the film cuts to a shot of him in the diner, pouring melted butter all over a cooked lobster. Subtle this ain’t!

Captain Seyburn (Berndele March) talks with Abby... — Captain Seyburn (Berndele March) talks with Abby…

...and he divulges what happened when he met a mermaid in a swamp — …and he divulges what happened when he met a mermaid in a swamp

Abby learns from Captain Seyburn that the mermaid had returned with a love child, asking him for money to raise their lil’ shark-headed nipper, but Seyburn killed the siren with a shovel instead, burying her and the baby in the cemetery. But, somehow, the tiny mutant shark had clung to life and now it dwells in the graveyard…

Don't trust this dude — Don’t trust this dude

This film really is a dumbass nonsense-fest, with such silly scenes as a dream sequence in which Abby gets high and romps in bed with a bigfoot, who is actually Greg in a costume. But I felt compelled to keep watching anyway, in large part because the movie’s titular monster is brought to the screen via the old school method of using a monster suit!

The Graveyard Shark creature has a buff, musclebound humanoid body that is topped with a toothy hammerhead shark face! I’m just a sucker for practical effects creatures, even when it is a cartoony, cheesy-but-cool costume like this one! This hammer-headed fishy freak, designed by Anthony Clark Pierce, is far preferable to the sub-par CGI effects seen in most low-price b-movies of a similar budget, that’s for sure.

This monster looks like he's been down the gym! — This monster looks like he’s been down the gym!

Many of the monster attacks are shot in a very similar fashion, with the suitmation actor (Brandon Wheeler) shoving the costume’s shark head against the current victim’s neck, as blood is pumped everywhere. Though the results are samey, they are bloody, and there’s the occasional disembowelment of a victim added to the mix too.

Counsellor Dr. Jan Lovnik (Olga N. Bogdanova) is disemboweled!

GRAVEYARD SHARK is, without a doubt, a shoddy, cheapo production, which leaps at any chance to include some nekkid flesh and includes a lot of crass ‘humorous’ chat about going down on mermaids. But the film does end with a fight between the rubbery Graveyard Shark and a fuzzy werewolf! Yes, you read that correctly: it turns out that Greg is actually a man-wolf! This monster suit showdown is slapdash and, of course, pretty enjoyable, with the werewolf costume’s yellow-green eyes glowing so brightly they sometimes look like twin torch beams shining in the mist! So I kinda liked this flick anyway – sue me!

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.