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.
Imaginator magazine’s FOLK HORROR SPECIAL EDITION will be available everywhere (UK, US, Europe, Japan, etc) from mid-April, via Amazon and other fine retailers!
If you live in the UK or the EU, you can preorder the issue from the Imaginator store – and the first 30 copies ordered will come with TWO A5 LIMITED EDITION PRINTS, numbered and signed by Imaginator’s cover artist, Zilla Man!
Every film featured in Severin Films’ awesome boxset ALL THE HAUNTS BE OURS: A COMPENDIUM OF FOLK HORROR VOLUME 2 is reviewed! Plus other fine folk horror flicks are reviewed too!
There’s an interview with director KIER-LA JANISSE, who talks about her definitive, all-encompassing feature-length documentary WOODLANDS DARK AND DAYS BEWITCHED: A HISTORY OF FOLK HORROR!
Author Adam Nevill speaks about his top-notch, scrumptiously sinister folk horror novels, which include THE RITUAL, THE REDDENING, NO ONE GETS OUT ALIVE and CUNNING FOLK!
Writer, director and producer Sean Hogan chats about his menacing, brooding, brilliant film TO FIRE YOU COME AT LAST.
Creature Designer, Concept Artist and Illustrator Guy Davis divulges how the fantastic Wendigo folk-creature from ANTLERS (2021) was conceived!
Actor Russell Shaw, who plays the demon-hunting, bewhiskered, time-travelling protagonist in WITCH (2024), talks about making this wild, genre-twisting occult-themed movie!
A conversation with the super-talented Concept Artist and Creature Designer Keith Thompson: the man who conceptualised the spectacular Jötunn god-monster in THE RITUAL (2017)!
A look at the upcoming Folk Horror graphic novel A VVITCH: many of artist/writer Russell Fox’s awesome illustrations are displayed within these pages for your viewing pleasure!
A deep dive into the adaptations and homages inspired by M.R. James’s classic ghost story OH, WHISTLE, AND I’LL COME TO YOU, MY LAD.
Horror fiction writer, editor and critic Ramsey Campbell provides a special guest film review, and top scriptwriting guru and author William Martell also shares a special guest film review with us!
And there’s much more inside this issue!
BEAUTY AND THE BEAST (1978)
A giant, ugly bird attacks in WHO FEARS THE DEVIL (1972)
A sneak peek at a host of film zombies that are being created the old school way, which is just the way I like it!
A retro, practical-effects zombie! Woot!
THE TREADWELL BOTHERS is a low budget film that is in its preproduction stage and, hopefully, once finished it will find its way onto Amazon Prime. Maybe the movie will raise its rotting head on YouTube: I guess we’ll just have to wait and see. The two filmmakers behind this project, brothers David and Philip Fitzgerald, are currently trying out zombie makeup designs, doing lighting tests, and becoming accustomed to using their new camera – a Cannon Eos C300 mark II. Philip will be operating the camera and David will be making the zombies. Both brothers will be starring in the film, and Philip will be directing. David is the co-director and, though he is credited as David Fitzgerald for his makeup effects work, he will be using his stage name, William Fitzgerald, as his acting credit. Got all that? Cool, let’s move on…
The Fitzgerald brothers will play the titular TREADWELL BROTHERS
The plot will focus on characters dealing with a world that has just about managed to contain a zombie apocalypse. Society has fragmented, with pockets of survivors living in disparate communities. The protagonists are the Treadwell Brothers (played by the Fitzgerald brothers), who were ‘Cleaners’ during the war with the zombies. These Cleaners were operatives set up by the military, and they persevered even after the military’s capabilities had been degraded. Now, in this post-war world, the Treadwell Brothers continue to ply their trade, being paid in kind to keep stray zombies out of towns and other human settlements.
A shot from test footage taken of a zombie lurking near a disused railway
But there are other Cleaner teams out there, and one gang in particular has its own agenda. There’s also a twisted professor trying to create the perfect anti-zombie zombie, which he aims to use to destroy the other undead corpses… but the prof has begun tinkering with humans to perfect his super-zombie.
As the story progresses, the Brothers continue their debate regarding the origin of the zombie outbreak: one believes it’s some kind of biblical punishment, and the other says that it’s a man-made phenomena. Eventually, though, they will discover the outbreak’s true source…
But let’s focus on the zombie designs now, which are still in their preproduction stage…
There will be various ‘character’ zombies, including: Oiler Zombie, Mother Zombie, Baghead Zombie, Soldier Zombie, Hoodie Zombie, and Black Eyes Zombie.
This is the Oiler Zombie prior to painting. The finished version will be burnt on one side
David, who created the ghostly, bandaged demon-dog creature in the short film SQUEAK AND I’LL RUN TO YOU (2021), is building the zombies using various old school, retro techniques, including the direct-build method. He has taken inspiration from such makeup effects legends as Roy (TALES FROM THE CRYPT, THE PLAGUE OF THE ZOMBIES) Ashton and Jack (DRACULA, FRANKENSTEIN, WHITE ZOMBIE) Pierce, using materials like cotton batting (absorbent cotton pressed into pads or layers) that is impregnated with liquid latex to create dead skin. David says that one of his movie touchstones for this project is Fulci’s ZOMBIE FLESH EATERS (1979), and his Hoodie Zombie is inspired by Amando de Ossorio’s BLIND DEAD movies. He hopes the practical zombie effects will imbue THE TREADWELL BROTHERS with an Amicus vibe too.
CGI zombies, like the ones in WORLD WAR Z (2013), can be okay, but I prefer guys in zombie makeup/latex masks/prosthetics, just like the undead dude above!
So let’s feast our eyes on some zombie-tastic designs now! (note: these are shots of in-progress creations, so the costumes haven’t been distressed and broken down yet, etc)
Early-stage Hoodie Zombie, when David was considering giving it a very distinct hanging jaw
Then David decided to make the detached jaw effect more subtle and less grisly
Above: two shots of the later version of the Hoodie Zombie
Chest and ribs detail of a zombie, prior to painting
Cotton batting, impregnated with liquid latex, is used to create the zombies’ dead skin
The Soldier Zombie’s skull-head was made from Carte Lana wool paper, then covered in rubber and cotton batting
Carte Lana wool paper can be made to look very skull-like. Note that these teeth haven’t been given aged detailing yet
Skin texture is sculpted into the cotton batting before it completely dries…
This is a rough, early-stage ‘clay sketch’ for a background zombie
Sculpt of the Soldier Zombie’s gnarly hand
This very effective-looking zombie hand was created by gluing the latex moulding onto a glove!
A look at the liquid latex & cotton ‘skin’ used for the zombies
Above: two more shots of the Hoodie Zombie
So here’s hoping that the Fitzgerald brothers start filming their undead opus, so we’ll get a chance to watch their wonderfully old school zombies shambling across the screen!
A zombie on the loose: this looks like a job for THE TREADWELL BROTHERS!
Starring Seo In-guk, Jang Dong-yoon, Choi Gwi-hwa, Sung Dong-il, Park Ho-san, Jung Moon-sung and Jung So-min. Written by Kim Hong-sun, directed by Kim Hong-sun, and produced by Gu Seong-mok. Cheum Film/Contents G
Guns!More guns!
Wow! This is a really visceral, cool & bloody action-horror-sci-fi flick!
Lots of blood!
A group of South Korean prisoners are transported from the Philippines in the cargo ship Frontier Titan, overseen by a large team of Korean police officers, led by Seok-woo (Ho-san). The surly cons are kept in line by the cops, but it all gets very bloody as a murderous team takes over the vessel, the prisoners are freed, and then an unstoppable being escapes from his restraints in the bowels of the ship…
Poster
There’s a lot of stabbing in this flick
Just to reiterate: this ultra-violent flick is fond of knifings (and shootings, bludgeonings, etc)!
The start of PROJECT WOLF HUNTING is paced nicely, showing us around the ship and introducing the cops, the cons and the ship’s crew members. But soon the killings start and we’re left in no doubt that director Kim Hong-sun intends to deliver a non-stop, blood-drenched, action-filled movie where the visceral, violent aspects of the story take precedence over the plotting and characterisations. This approach has been criticised by some reviewers, but I appreciate Hong-sun’s commitment to making such a no-holds-barred production where the brutal carnage and action is the whole point of the movie. And, anyway, this isn’t to say that the characters are blandly sketched, because the director still manages to imbue many of the bad guys with a warped, sick charisma, especially the tattooed psycho Jong-du (In-guk) and the ruthless, machine gun-toting inside man Kim Gyu-tae (Moon-sung).
Kim is a cold-blooded killer, like many of the other characters!
When the superhuman killing machine Alpha (Gwi-hwa) begins his murder spree at the midpoint, the carnage intensifies. Alpha, who has swollen flesh around his eyes that are sewn shut with outsized staples, stomps loudly about the ship like a part-zombie terminator. This monstrous dude cannot be reasoned with and is revealed to be a lobotomised human weapon test subject for the Kemono Project, a Japanese-run experiment dating back to the Second World War. We’re even treated to a flashback that shows Alpha bludgeoning a team of Japanese soldiers to death with a human skull!
Alpha is initially in storage below deck……but once the zombie-like Alpha awakens he really goes on a killing spree!
An extra layer of complication is added for the surviving cops (and several ‘nice’ cons) when it’s divulged that the pharma company Aeon Genetics is behind the presence of Alpha on the ship: they’d been bringing Alpha to South Korea to find out why he doesn’t age. With chaos reigning on the cargo vessel, Aeon flies in a helicopter full of mercs, but these all end up dying in grisly ways too, just like most of the cast.
This isn’t merely ‘a super soldier extravaganza’, it is an ‘extraordinarily gory super soldier extravaganza’!
In a film where various characters are revealed to be the super-powered results of experimentation, arterial blood-jets go off like lawn sprinklers, and heads get caved-in on a regular basis, this well-shot, ultra-violent sci-fi-horror-actioner keeps you constantly guessing as to which characters might stand a chance of surviving until the end of a movie that’s awash with puddles, squirts, rivulets and torrents of blood. In case you didn’t know already: I think this flick is bloody ace!
This scene doesn’t end well for all the Japanese characters!
Alright then, one more shot from the movie…
Seo In-guk, as a tattooed psycho-killer, knifes yet another victim!
Starring Anita Mui, Maggie Cheung, Michelle Yeoh, Anthony Wong, and Yen Shi-Kwan. Directed by Johnny To, with action by Ching Siu-Tung. China Entertainment Films Production/Paka Hill Productions.
Criterion Collection cover
A villainous Evil Master (Shi-Kwan) dwelling in the sewers below a city sends an invisible assailant out to kidnap children, one of whom may be the preordained ‘King’ of China’…
The Evil Master……and here’s what he turns into later!
THE HEROIC TRIO is the gold standard Hong Kong sci-fi/comic book-style super-femmes movie (okay, I know that there were not exactly loads of this specific kind of movie back in the early 90s!)
Fighting and twirling!
Though directed by Johnny To, the film has action director Ching Siu-Tung’s stylistic fingerprints all over it. This is a prestige, sumptuous genre production dripping with lush lighting, large sets and audacious, over the top action moments, spiced up with humour, violence and lashings of manga aesthetics.
It’s the Heroic Trio!
Anita Mui, Michelle Yeoh and Maggie Cheung play heroines Wonder Woman, Invisible Woman and Thief Catcher, in a preposterous yarn about an Evil Master (Yen Shi-Kwan) forcing the Invisible Woman to steal babies in the hope that one will turn out to be the next Emperor of China. Invisible Woman switches sides, after some face-offs with the other two super-babes, and the trio clash with the Master and his roaring, bird-eating super-minion Chan Gau (a fit, agile Anthony Wong).
Anthony Wong plays Chan Gau
All right then, I know that in today’s world one shouldn’t objectify women… but, boy, these three actresses were at their beautiful best here. The late Anita Mui demands the viewer’s attention whenever she’s onscreen, playing the most empathetic of the three and looking great in her silver mask. Michelle Yeoh is always a good reason to watch a movie, and here she gets to play both a (blackmailed) associate of the bad guy and also a hero. Maggie Cheung, as Thief Catcher, wearing kneepads, small black shorts and stockings, gives her character an irreverent, mouthy attitude at first, but she begins to add more gravitas to her role after being poisoned by needles and suffering from guilt after the death of a baby.
Anita Mui is Wonder Woman
Maggie Cheung is Thief Catcher
When I saw this on its release, when Hong Kong films were still at their zenith, it was perhaps easy to take THE HEROIC TRIO slightly for granted, but now I appreciate much more the full-on commitment the filmmakers’ had to producing a colourful, outrageous entertainment, using all the techniques and skills at their disposal, piling on tons of wirework stunts and practical effects.
A fight in the Evil Master’s underground lair
The film features some great sets, including the Evil Master’s subterranean lair beneath the city, where babies lie in numerous bird cages suspended from crisscrossing lengths of chain. There’s also a big train station set, which is rigged so that a full-scale train can be slammed through a wall in a standout set piece action scene!
Battlin’ babes at their best!
The film is full of incident and fun visuals: the Master looks evilly resplendent in a grand costume, Chan Gau goes on a killing spree with a flying guillotine, and Wonder Woman’s cop husband gets to stoically put his life on the line several times. But the main focus is always on the three heroines, who are willing and able to use throwing weapons, dynamite, swords and machine guns to beat their enemies!
Another shot of the Evil Master
With on-the-nose sentimental scenes that work within the heightened, pulpy world of the story, and a mad finale in which the skeletal corpse of the Evil Master latches onto Invisible Woman by entwining around her with his limbs & ribcage so that he can use her like a human puppet to battle her friends, THE HEROIC TRIO may occasional contain action shots in which you can see the wires, and maybe the Invisible Woman is not invisible very often in the story, but who really cares? This is the kind of production that was made by Hong Kong creatives operating at their peak, something you’ll never see again.
The Evil Master becomes a raw-fleshed, skeletal monster!Close-up of one of the living skeletal corpse’s legs!Invisible Woman (Michelle Yeoh) gets grabbed!
If you haven’t seen this film before, track it down and give it a watch!
Starring Bruce Liang (aka Bruce Leung), Shen Ie-Lung, Tang Ching, Alexander Grand, Nick Cheung Lik, Eric Tsang, Lily Foo Lai, Jenny, Bobby Canavarro, Fang Yeh, Wong Mei, Cheung Hei and Yuen Siu-Tin. Written by Chi Lo, and Liang Wei. Directed by Lo Chi and produced by Hendrick Gozali for Goldig Film Company.
Poster!
Bruce Lee dies and wakes up in the underworld, makes friends with some of the nicer folks there, including Popeye and the One-Armed Swordsman, and clashes with other characters, such as James Bond, the King of the Underworld, The Godfather, Clint Eastwood, Dracula, Emmanuelle and Zatoichi!
James Bond!
Emmanuelle!
Dracula!
Aka DEADLY HANDS OF KUNG FU, this is a movie that has to be seen to be believed!
Another poster!
After a caption that reads ‘This film is dedicated to millions who love Bruce Lee’, ENTER THE DRAGON music kicks-in and then the Bond theme takes over, as James Bond faces-off against Bruce Lee! Awesomeness! This film is immensely enjoyable from the get-go, as characters we’ll be meeting in the movie strut their stuff during the extended shot-against-red credit sequence.
We’re then shown Bruce Lee’s body lying in the cavern/throne room of the King of the Underworld (Ching)… and it looks as if Bruce died with a massive erection… but this impressive stiffness turns out to be his nunchucks!
Bruce and his nunchucks…
Lee is played by Bruce Liang (aka Bruce Leung) who, let’s be brutally honest, is probably the Bruceploitation star who looked least like Bruce Lee, and the filmmakers obviously know this, so they have a character comment that, “It so happens when a person dies their face and their body undergo a change.” This explanation must also be the reason why Clint Eastwood, Popeye and Dracula are all asian in this film!
The good guys!
Eric (INFERNAL AFFAIRS) Tsang as Popeye!
Bruce soon comes to terms with the fact he’s dead and that he’s in hell, which pretty much resembles a Chinese town with a small casino and restaurants. There are also some cavern dwellings and a quarry. The underworld’s residents defer to the King, mainly because he has the power to cause earthquakes by shaking a pillar, though a shady cabal led by The Godfather have plans to take over the territory.
Don’t mess with Bruce Lee!
Bruce visits the main town restaurant and encounters Popeye (a youthful Eric Tsang), while elsewhere in the establishment Zatoichi the blind masseur/swordsman catches flies and puts them in his food, so that he can get out of paying his bill. Then Zatoichi, along with James Bond, Clint Eastwood (dressed as the Man With No Name), and a bunch of dudes in skeleton costumes confront Bruce in the restaurant, and Bruce starts to feel sweaty and dizzy, making it easy for Clint to beat him up. Fortunately for Bruce, he’s cared for afterwards by Wa To (Siu-Tin), the doctor to the King of the Underworld, who’s such a good doctor he even helps skeletons! Bruce admits during his convalescence that his Achilles heel when he was alive was that he played around too much and says aloud that he’s sorry to Linda, his wife.
Zatoichi, Clint Eastwood, James Bond and their zombie henchmen (wearing skeleton costumes) confront Bruce Lee!I want my mummy!
What makes this production so enjoyable are all the famous characters added to the mix, with some of them depicting real-life people like Bruce Lee and Clint Eastwood and others representing fictional characters like Popeye, the One-Armed Swordsman, Zatoichi and Kwai Chang Caine from the KUNG FU television show. So it’s great fun when the film cuts to Clint Eastwood, The Exorcist, Emmanuelle, Zatoichi and James Bond hanging out together in The Godfather’s cavern HQ. There’s no rhyme or reason to why some characters, like Bond and Emmanuelle, are played by western actors, and why Clint Eastwood, The Exorcist, etc, are played by asian actors. I guess we just have to remember that ‘when a person dies their face and their body undergo a change’, even when they’re fictional characters like The Godfather!
Clint Eastwood! Honest!
Zatoichi!
The Godfather and The Exorcist! Honest!
Bruce does a little gambling at a casino, but he then tells everyone they should stop gambling because that is probably the reason they ended up in the underworld. He meets the One-Armed Swordsman here and strikes up a friendship with him.
We also get to see some of the naked underworld concubines in a large bath, chatting about Bruce Lee, discussing the Hollywood actors he trained, and musing about how they’d like to go out with him.
Bath time in the Underworld
The movie jumps from obvious sets to obviously real-world locations without attempting to disguise the transitions, mainly when Bruce and other characters dash from the town studio set and end up immediately in a bright exterior quarry location. I think this editing just adds to the hey-we-don’t-give-a-f**k-what-you-think mindset of the filmmakers!
Bruce, dressed as Kato, in the Underworld quarry location
At the quarry Bruce duels with Zatoichi, and each fighter takes turns to use different styles against the other, with the name of each technique superimposed on-screen. Zatoichi uses these styles: ‘Blind Man Finds Way’, ‘Blind Chicken Peaks’, ‘Blind Man Kills Mosquito’, ‘Blind Snake Climbs’, ‘Blind Fool Massages’ and ‘Blind Dog Pisses’! Bruce, meanwhile, uses these special techniques, inspired by movie titles: ‘The Big Boss’, ‘Enter the Dragon’, ‘Way of the Dragon’, ‘Fist of Fury’ and ‘Game of Death’!
Bruce’s ‘Fist of Fury’ technique basically means that he bites his opponent’s leg!?
For a while the movie shifts into sex farce territory, with the King of the Underworld cavorting and playing blind man’s buff in the hot tub with nude women, for no particular reason, plot-wise, other than to show off some attractive nekkid ladies. We also get one of the underworld concubines and the Queen of the Underworld planning to seduce Bruce, which involves them trying to give him a potion to ‘stiffen his resolve’. The foxy Queen even tells Bruce, “Beat me hard with that terrible weapon”! The concubine and the Queen end up forcing each other to drink the potion, however, and they both become scabby-faced hags. Meanwhile, sexpot Emmanuelle meets-up with the King of the Underworld. “You can spank my botty,” she informs him, and she promises to become the King’s wife.
The Queen of the Underworld and a concubine fight over who should have Bruce Lee!
Dracula (Hei) shows up now with his skeleton henchmen (referred to as zombies) and Bruce arrives to take them all on dressed as Kato from THE GREEN HORNET! Bruce gets pinned to the ground by the henchmen, who hold onto his arms and legs, so that Dracula can bend down, ready to bite him… and, suddenly, a third leg shoots up from Bruce’s groin area, booting Dracula in the face, as an on-screen title informs us this style is called ‘The Third Leg of Bruce’! Insane stuff!
Dracula’s skeleton henchmen run rings around Bruce!The henchmen pin Bruce to the floor and Dracula approaches…
Back with Emmanuelle and the King, they have sex in his pink-lit bed. There’s lots of moaning and groaning and Bruce has to intervene to warn the King that Emmanuelle was trying to give him a heart attack through pleasure, and the King muses that, “Her pussy’s in this plot too, she was using it to murder me.”
Bruce is made the new captain of the King’s bodyguards, triggering reprisals from The Godfather’s team, resulting in Bruce killing James Bond and then Clint Eastwood. The Exorcist and The Godfather decide to try and kill the King, who defends himself by creating an earthquake by shaking the pillar, so they then decide to attack Bruce. This fight between Bruce, The Exorcist and The Godfather is very nicely done, in fact it’s thrilling and totally ace, as Bruce finishes off The Godfather (played by a very cool-looking Shen Ie-Lung) by utilising his ‘Fingers of Fury’ technique!
The Godfather puts up a good fight against Bruce!
Knowing that Bruce is angry with him for causing an earthquake that hurt innocent people, the King implores General Cheung Fei to help him rid himself of Lee… so Cheung Fei leads a mob of bandaged mummies to attack Bruce! Popeye, the One-Armed Swordsman and Kwai Chang Caine come to Bruce’s aid and a madcap final martial arts skirmish takes place in the underworld quarry. Popeye gets kicked about… so he eats a can of spinach and the ‘I’m Popeye the Sailor Man’ tune plays as he beats-up the mummies! The One-Armed Swordsman slashes the mummies with his sword and Bruce battles General Cheung Fei with nunchucks! This is excellent stuff, with Bruce finally being granted permission to leave the underworld.
General Cheung Fei, the King of the Underworld, and a bunch of mummies surround Bruce!
Here’s another pic of Eric (THE LAST BLOOD) Tsang as Popeye!
THE DRAGON LIVES AGAIN is a priceless, peculiar pantomime of preposterous proportions. The movie would have been a stand-out Bruceploitation flick solely because of its totally unhinged storyline, but what makes it even better, what provides the exciting icing on the crazy cake, is the fact that the action is really, really good. Bruce Liang may not resemble Bruce Lee, but in real life Liang was a very skilled (and tough) martial artist – and he looks extremely good on-screen in the many fight scenes that were choreographed by him.
Bruce Lee faces-off against Clint Eastwood in that same bloody quarry!
Starring Don Scardino, Patricia Pearcy, R.A. Dow, Jean Sullivan and Peter MacLean. Written and directed by Jeff Lieberman. Produced by Samuel Z. Arkoff, Joseph Beruh, Edgar Lansbury and George Manasse.
Lobby card
Downed power lines in Georgia turn bloodworms into killer critters that begin to chow down on the local rednecks!
He’s full of worms!
US one sheet
Japanese VHS sleeve
SQUIRM is a cool example of the 70s trend for eco-horror/animal attack movies. The two young leads (Scardino & Pearcy) are likeable and, between the worm scenes, they try to figure out the identity of a missing skeleton in a SCOOBY-DOO-style mystery-solving fashion.
Worm-alanche!
There are lots of shots of real bloodworms, which look gross when filmed close-up: they really do resemble mini-monsters! In this movie these worms scream too! Yes! Screaming worms! And they like to dangle from the shower as well!
They’re in the shower!
There’s some fine early makeup work by Rick Baker to look out for (and Rob Bottin was an uncredited assistant makeup artist on this production too). The ‘worm-face’ scene is great, revelling in shots of a character who has bloodworms crawling beneath the skin of his face! He yanks at the worms, trying to pull them out! These are really neat-looking practical effects! Rick Baker really shows here that he was a makeup effects expert worth keeping an eye on.
Bloodworms beneath his skin!Wigglin’ worms!
The ending is a nice merging of creepy house thriller & critter attack genres. It’s during this finale that the film comes up with its most impactful image; a man becoming submerged in a sea of worms that fill the room! If you don’t like worms you will not like this scene (or the movie)!
Lobby card
This is an enjoyable, wriggly, writhing, creepy-crawly, low budget, well-handled creatures-run-amok B movie that keeps you entertained throughout: it’s squirm-tastic!
Here are some posters…
UK quad poster. Art by John Stockle
Australian daybill poster
US half sheet poster
Italian poster
German one sheet poster
A proposed design for a UK poster by artist Vic Fair
A second proposed design for a UK poster by artist Vic Fair. The actual UK SQUIRM poster was finally drawn by John Stockle
Japanese poster
French poster
Let’s finish with a close-up shot of one of the bloodworms…
Yuck!
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 