Gorgo (1961) - Horror Film Review

I have never really been that fond of Kaiju type monster movies, they never seem to be as exciting as the premise suggests it would be. Still, learning that a newly restored in 4K version of cult 1961 British monster movie; Gorgo (directed by Eugéne Lourié - The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms) was coming to the ARROW streaming subscription service, I jumped at the chance to see it, if only to see a giant monster destroying a city I was more familiar with.

A salvage ship that is resting off the coast of a small Irish island after taking damage from an undersea eruption discovers that the eruption also released an ancient and gigantic prehistoric creature. They offer to capture the beast in exchange for payment and actually manage to do that surprisingly easy. Ignoring the Irish government's request to give the creature to them, they instead decide to sell it to a circus owner who is based in London. With the monster (named Gorgo) contained in an enclosure there, it seems the excitement is mainly over. Despite the creatures large size however, it becomes apparent that it was just a baby, and that its much larger, much stronger, and much more angry parent is on the warpath to London to retrieve its offspring...

Perhaps if the film was a little newer I might have skipped the mid-film reveal of a second larger monster for fear of spoilers. Personally, I am glad there was a second creature. The original 'Gorgo' is still huge, around the size of a house, and the adventure to get it to London made for an entertaining first half, though I was a bit disappointed it wasn't as big as I had expected it to be. That side of things was only part of the overall monster puzzle, with the final half hour of this 90 minute movie dedicated to its much larger parent rampaging through the middle of London. It destroys everything you might expect it to, from Tower Bridge, to Big Ben and Piccadilly Circus, it effortlessly rips all these places apart as if they were made of paper. I was also impressed that it managed to destroy the London Underground. For a film from 1961 the special effects for all this destruction was impressive, in fact, at the time of release it was considered for an Academy Award for special effects. It is a person in a rubber suit rampaging around but the beast looks decent, even if it is obviously a knock-off Godzilla.

With a new restoration, many of the early scenes taking place out of sea don't look the most realistic, with foreground characters obviously not actually at these locations, and this is an entirely bloodless affair with neither the many human victims, or the beast itself showing any sign of damage from the multitude of sorrows thrown at them.

The story was as generic and as basic as you might expect, but it was full of exciting moments. You get battles between Gorgo and the navy, the army, and the air force that were full of explosions and destruction, even if sometimes it seems the exact same shot was being repeated multiple times. The protagonists are the original haulage boat owners and they somehow remain integral to the story throughout, never once showing any type of remorse for their selfish actions, nor ever seeing the monster as anything other than something evil that needs to be killed. The heart of the film comes from the young Sean (Vincent Winter), a stowaway from the Irish island who appears to be the only one to see the creature as an innocent being that should just be left alone.

Due to the age of the movie, this does feel it follows the format of the time. Despite many scenes of action, this still felt like it was longer than it needed to be. By the time the hour mark came around it had already felt like this should have ended. You can't fault many of the special effects, and the sound design for the monsters was just perfect, its shriek being an audio highlight. Gorgo arrived on the ARROW streaming service on September 12th.

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Devil's Knight (2024) - Fantasy Horror Film Review

This review of Devil's Knight was originally meant to go up last Friday but personal events led to me deciding to take some time off away from my blog to have some 'me' time. Having been less than ten minutes away from the film's conclusion, I couldn't really not finishing watching this one at the very least, I may well write another blog post or two this rainy weekend. Devil's Knight is a fantasy horror film directed and co-written by Adam Werth (Bermuda Island) that appears to be set during some type of time period similar to real world Medieval times in which monsters roam the lands. Featuring a huge cast of characters and some mainly good looking creature effects, this was an enjoyable fantasy piece.

This takes place in the realm of Veroka, a place where deadly monsters roam the lands. King Samuel (Kevin Hager - Bloodthirst, Night of the Tommyknockers) has been having particular trouble with a creature known as the Bone Devil (Ben Stobber - Bloodthirst, Bermuda Island), with many of his soldiers having fallen prey to the beast. In desperation, he decides to hire a group of monster hunting mercenaries to take it out. Things seem to be going to plan, but political intrigues and deadly secrets at the King's castle threaten the lives of both the mercenary group and his own people alike.

This features a plot device I always am a fan of. A strange scarred man (John Wells - Arena Wars, Bermuda Island) arrives at a camp in the dead of night. He reveals himself to have been Sigurd - one of the mercenary soldiers, and the film takes the form of a story he is re-telling. Every now and again during the movie events will stop and go back to this camp, before finally heading back for one last time at the end. I thought this would be a more straight forward story than it turned out to be, with the quest to defeat the Bone Devil seemingly dealt with around halfway into the film. The action then moves to the castle where there is a large cast of not very nice people. Monsignor Mustela (Greg Tally - Arena Wars, Craving)  is perhaps the chief dodgy person here, especially when it comes to the fact he has a monster secretly chained up in the castle dungeons. I say secret, but there are many flawed characters at the castle who are also privy to this fact, including twisted jester Culper (Alexander Hauck - Bloodthirst, Macabre Mountain), and even Princess Sabine (Chupacabra Territory), someone who seemed set up to be a protagonist, but is then dragged down due to intense flaws.

The mercenaries become collective protagonists and I did enjoy how tight-knit they all seemed. There were plenty of stereotypes, but also some decent characters to be found among them, chiefly the group leader Mathias (Robert Standley) and the heavily armoured John, who had an interesting backstory for who they really were). My favourite character though had to be Guard Captain Baldur (Kevin Sorbo - Without a Body), I loved this character in every scene he appeared in.

Thankfully the majority of the creature effects were quite impressive. These are people wearing monster suits, but they looked effective for the most part and made for some exciting scenes. I say mostly, as unfortunately, one of the more integral monsters didn't look as good, it gave me vibes of a villain from Might Morphin Power Rangers and stood out in a bad way as a result. Look past that and the other creature designs are cool, as are the scars on the characters that mostly look great. There is lots of action here, both with people battling creatures, as well as people battling each other. Fighting mainly takes the form of sword fighting, always was fun to see, and had some decent sound effects to sell this type of combat.

I enjoyed this fantastical, cast heavy horror film. Plenty of action and a story that is forever moving forward, this was only let down by the occasional less impressive moments. I am also not sure of the abruptly chaotic ending that changed track so fast that it almost came off as amusing. Devil's Knight is now available to watch on Prime Video.

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Mon Mon Mon Monsters (2017) - Comedy Horror Film Review

Mon Mon Mon Monsters (original title Bao gao lao shi! Guai guai guai guai wu) is the second Taiwanese horror film I have ever reviewed on this site (after Zombie 108), I found it on the very start of my Shudder queue, I can't remember adding it but I must have stuck it there for a reason so decided to check it out. Written and directed by Giddens Ko, this school based horror may have elements of comedy to it, but it also is very much a horror film in its own right.

Lin Shu-wei (Yu-Kai Teng) is an awkward loner whose school experience is one of constant bullying, due to him having been designated the runt of the school population. Even his form teacher, Ms. Lei (Carolyn Chen) has no time for the student, and so after trying to exonerate himself from being blamed for stealing money after discovering the school's biggest bully (Kent Tsai as the psychotic Duan Ren-hao) and his gang were the ones responsible, Shu-wei is punished along with the bullies. They are made to do community service at a nearby apartment block for old people. With the aim of stealing the belongings of a senile old man (Ti-men Kan) they encounter there, the gang and Shu-wei return late at night, but end up encountering a young monster (Lin Pei-Hsin) who they decide to capture.
Due to their shared secret, the bullied boy is gradually accepted into Ren-hao's gang, and together they torture the little monster, as well as get revenge on those in school who have offended Ren-hao (after discovering monster blood causes terrible side effects if ingested). Unknown to the bullies, Shu-wei has ulterior motives and plans to free the monster, but initially unknown to all of them, the monster had an older sister (Eugenie Liu) who is now on a path of bloody rampage on a mission to rescue her sister.

Mon Mon Mon Monsters was a film that really improved the longer it went on. There was a feel of Deadgirl to the early parts of this, though thankfully this went down more of a torture route than the sexual assault route that horror chose to follow. The make-up effects for both monsters were really cool looking. They have sharp teeth, and seem able to regenerate whenever they are harmed. This is used to sick effect with the bullies beating it and yanking teeth out of their captured creature, as well as drill a metal face plate over the creature's mouth to stop it screaming. The creature's biggest weakness is natural sunlight, with it having a vampire effect of burning and eventually causing the creature to burst into flames. That was the main way they controlled it. 
While all that is going on there are also scenes of the bigger monster murdering lots and lots of people. This led to some crazy scenes were literal rooms full of people are brutally killed by the rampaging monster. A much higher body count than I ever expected.
With this story there is the obvious parallel between the literal monsters and the bullies, with the question being asked - who are the real monsters? The real ones were shown in the prologue to murder innocents and drink their blood to survive, but the bullies are just as bad, torturing the creature they captured over a series of days, and Ren-hao in particular having an out of control anger issue, at one point beating a fellow student unconscious with a wooden bar, in full sight of his form tutor who is too intimidated by the psycho to do much to try and stop him.

Shu-wei didn't make for the most likeable protagonist, he is made to seem like a pathetic person and there are many parts where it feels like his ruse might actually be legitimate. He appears to have found some solace in finally finding a group of people who in their own way have came to accept him into their fold. Parts where he has joined in the torture it really seems he is getting a similar sense of pleasure that the others are getting. There were funny moments here, but they happened naturally, this felt like a horror first and foremost that just happened to have some humorous scenes dotted in.
It leads to a bit of a strange looking ending, with much of the final ten minutes having a red tint applied to it, not entirely sure why. It leads to a wonderful finish that really brings the question of who is the bigger monster full circle. Throughout there were a bunch of montage sequences of either the bullies messing around, or the older monster killing people. These scenes were always very fun, I particularly loved the scene where the monster rampages through a school bus full of terrified students.

I enjoyed this Taiwanese horror, it was very well made and appeared to have some great performances. While I didn't really like the lead, he still made for an interesting character, with later plot developments being something I found pleasing to see occur. Mon Mon Mon Monsters can currently be streamed on Shudder.

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The Rotting Zombie's News Anthology for Thursday 15th August

There are parts of this year that I really am not enjoying that much, though I guess at least time is going fast. With that out of the way, onwards to three more news tales of terror.

Apparently psychosexual sci-fi thriller Mad Droid was successful enough to warrant a second film in the series. Coming from writer/director Rich Mallery is Mad Droid Origins, in which an android (Katie Kay) hides out at the home of the man who created her (Bryan Brewer) after she murders one of her clients. This leads to increasing jealousy from the creators wife (Cassie Ghersi) who feels threatened by his rekindled love for his creation. Mad Droid Origins is due out this Autumn on digital platforms via Cineridge Classics.

The J. Horton directed A Hard Place raised over $120,000 on Indiegogo and stars horror icons Felissa Rose (Sleepaway Camp) and Lynn Lowry (Wolf Hollow), alongside Rachel Amanda Bryant (Craving), Kevin Caliber (Future Man), Ashley Undercuffler (also Craving), Jenn Stone and Scott Allen Ward. The movie is about a group of criminals who get caught up in a battle between monsters of the day and monsters of the night. Currently in post production, A Hard Place is going to be doing a short festival run towards the end of the year, followed by an early 2025 release via 50 Caliber Productions, Gianetti Films and Zapruderflix.

Finally for today, Blood/Stream is a new horror anthology that currently has an Indiegogo campaign running. There are six segments planned, with four of those currently in various stages of production. The wraparound story 'Eye of the Beholder' is about a man with a particular sordid appetite who watches a strange TV streaming service while waiting to be seen at a special place he has discovered. The streaming service is how the other segments are shown. These include 'An Arm and a Leg' that is set out like a mockumentary, featuring two debt collectors seeking to collect payment, and starring Phillip Bailey (Doctor Who TV show). 'Eating Disorder' stars Barbie Wilde (Hellbound: Hellraiser II), it is about a woman with an eating disorder who gets caught up with a masked killer. Finally for now is, 'Fox and the Hen' which is about some hikers on the way to a hen night who are forced to seek refuge in an old farm shed alongside a stranger. That one stars Spencer Wilding (Star Wars: Rogue One, Guardians of the Galaxy).

Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019) - Fantasy Film Review

2014's Godzilla somehow managed to be as dull as dishwater, the only things I really remember about it was sitting there wondering how you could make a giant monster movie and have so little of the giant monster in it, and noticing a couple bringing in their newborn baby to the cinema, only to leave around fifteen minutes later with the screaming infant, presumably after it's eardrums were ruptured by the loud screeching and wailings in that movie. Still I had heard that Godzilla: King of the Monsters was actually a lot better and so I was prepared to give it another chance. To be truthful I didn't even realise this was a sequel to that first one, but it is, and apparently part of the 'monster-verse' or whatever they are calling it, along with Kong: Skull Island from 2017.

King of the Monsters takes place four years after the events of the first film which left San Francisco a smoking ruin. Giant monsters, or 'Titans' as they are called here are now known to the world, which struggles to decide how to deal with this emergence of super beasts. During that disaster Dr. Emma Russell (Vera Farmiga - The Conjuring films, Bates Motel) and her then husband Mark (Kyle Chandler - Super 8, King Kong) had developed a device that allowed Titans to be pacified. Now in the present day an eco-terrorist organisation led by Jonah Alan (Charles Dance - Game of Thrones, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies) kidnap Emma, as well as her daughter Madison (Millie Bobby Brown - Stranger Things) in order to use her knowledge of the device to wake-up the many Titans in a state of hibernation around the globe.

So if you came to this expecting an intelligent, sensible movie you obviously came to the wrong place. This is a special effects laden disaster movie that thankfully features not only no end of giant monsters fighting each other, but also a whole bucketful of monsters. It's a globe trotting adventure fantasy that takes in such disparate locations such as Antarctica, Mexico, Boston, and even ancient underwater cities. Switch your brain off for the ride and you will be in for a treat. For whatever reason giant monster movies are something I always manage to find dull. With a two hour running time I will admit around twenty minutes before this was over I did start to get kind of bored. That isn't to say this is boring though as there is no end of crazy shenanigans going on. Of the many, many human characters it is the monsters obviously who are the stars of the show. While the cast of characters feature a whole bunch of recognisable faces they for the most part serve no real purpose other than serve as walking talking commentators on the monsters all battling each other. I'm not sure how many actors returned from Godzilla (three apparently), but who did for sure is Ken Watanabe (Godzilla, Inception) who reprises his role as Dr. Ishiro Serizawa. He was the stand out character on the human side, and he is rewarded with what is perhaps my favourite scene of the whole movie. Early on there are twists with good characters becoming bad, that was interesting. Less so is Dance whose bad guy role isn't anything special, so much so that he disappears two thirds through, assumedly returning in a future movie in the franchise.

Tales of Dracula (2015) - Horror Film Review

Obviously one look at the title of Tales of Dracula would tell you this is a vampire film, and one based on Bram Stoker's original blood sucker at that. The most interesting thing about this is that it is filmed in tribute to the classic Universal Studios horror films of the first half of the 20th century, most notably 1931's Dracula in which Bela Lugosi gave what many believe to be his best performance as the titular vampire. Due to being a homage this is filmed in black and white, and is even set out in the same style.

Set up as a sequel to Universal's Dracula this has the count (Wayne W. Johnson from Night of Something Strange and Brackish) fleeing England and heading back to his castle in Transylvania after his defeat at the hands of Von Helsing. Meanwhile in a village nearby to the castle arrives a man named Creighton Reed (Tom Delillo) who is looking to go to the estate of Victor Frankenstein to look for a cure to a dark secret he holds within him. Meanwhile Victor himself is away on a mission of his own, in his stead is his grand daughter; Victoria (Courtney Bennett) who is looking after Frankenstein's monster (Joe DeMuro who also co-wrote and directed this) and sees an opportunity to make him stronger by injecting him with the blood of Dracula, something which the Lord of Darkness is none too happy to discover...

Hermit: Monster Killer (2016) - Horror Film News and Trailer

From the producer of the truly bizarre horror comedy Cannibal Fog comes Hermit: Monster Killer which is the first Swedish monster movie since 1959. It has been made using the old Roger Corman movies as a template. He of course is known for his multitude of B-movie 'classics'.

From the trailer (included below) it seems that after a meteorite crashes in rural Sweden an alien monster arrives with it, it is up to the redneck community to band together to beat the creature. It looks like it is to have a comedic edge to it and features some nice looking effects such as someone getting their face ripped off, the trailer also seemed to indicate children aren't exempt from the beastly being.

Produced by Jonas Wolcher, directed by Ola Paulakoski, and written by Fred Anderson (Kraftverk 3714)  it promises to deliver a 'full action monster movie with great acting and special effects'. It apparently received a huge response at the Weekend of Hell horror festival last year. Hermit: Monster Killer is almost ready for release so if your after a monster movie with a Swedish twist you've been waiting a long time, this should scratch that particular itch.

Goosebumps (2015) - Horror Film Review

I have never actually read any of the Goosebumps books by R.L Stine, they came a bit too late for me, I had moved onto Point Horror that was aimed at teens rather than the child demographic his books aimed for (all heresay of my own making). I do recall watching some of the TV episodes of the show, always seemed a bit cheesy. Any fears that not knowing his work would impact on my enjoyment of this film seem to be ill founded though.

Zach (Dylan Minnette) and his mum have recently moved to a small American town, he soon befriends his next door neighbour; Hannah (Odeya Rush) whose domineering father (Jack Black) makes Zach fear for her safety. Eventually he and his geeky best friend Champ (Ryan Lee) break into the house to check on the girl but in doing so stumble across a strange collection of Goosebumps books. Opening one of the locked books the boys accidentally release a monster, it seems that each of the books has trapped within it a Goosebumps monster. They soon learn Hannah's father is in fact R.L Stine; the author of the books and that his imagination as a child was so strong that he summoned into the world the monsters he writes about. One of the escaped entities is a ventriloquist dummy named Slappy, this twisted creature soon releases all of the monsters in a bid to get revenge on Stine for locking him up for so many years...

Tremors 5: Bloodlines (2015) - Horror Film Review

I have always had a soft spot for the Tremors films and while none have ever matched the Kevin Bacon led first in the series they still have not been bad films. Tremors 4: The Legend Begins came out over ten years ago and was a prequel so I didn't know what to expect from this new entry in the franchise.

Burt Gummer (Michael Gross; the only actor to appear in all five films as well as the short lived TV series) now works as a professional monster hunter who is called to a wildlife preserve in South Africa along with his new cameraman Travis (Jamie Kennedy) by Erich Van Wyck as it is feared the monsters that have plagued Gummer before have appeared in the area. In the Tremors universe the monsters of the piece go through three stages, there are the Graboids (huge worm type creatures), Shriekers (bipedal beasts), and finally the Ass-Blasters (who use their internal gases to fly), it is the Ass-Blasters who are thought to have appeared. With Van Wyck's motivations not being at what they first seemed, and with the South African monsters having evolved differently it is up to Gummer and Travis to save the day.

A Christmas Horror Story (2015) - Horror Film Review

A Christmas Horror Story is a seasonal horror anthology featuring four different tales taking place on Christmas eve, it is kind of similar in style to Trick r' Treat in that while the four stories are unrelated from each other they do intercut at several points and all take place in the same town (mostly).

The four stories are quite different in scope but all have a festive theme to them, they straddle different genres but thematically go together. A group of students researching for a project break into a sealed wing of their school where a year previous two people were found murdered in a ritualistic fashion, but upon going to leave they discover themselves locked in and at the mercy of a ghostly presence. A squabbling family are hunted by the anti-claus Krampus in snowy woodland after a boy maliciously breaks a figurine of the beast (second film in three days I have seen with Krampus in it!). After returning home from a trip to private land to steal a Christmas tree Scott and Kim start to fear something terrible has happened to their son Will, The final story while all this is going on is Santa is at the North Pole battling a zombie outbreak that has turned his elves into bloodthirsty ghouls!

Attack on Titan: Part 1 (2015) - Fantasy Film Review

I did a review of the Anime series of Attack on Titan last year and so after watching the first live action film last night I thought I may as well do one for that too. Since coming out I have heard mostly negative reports about the quality of the movie but I wanted to see for myself, especially as while I like the anime I am not in as much love with it as many fans seem to be.

In the world of the film humans live behind three gigantic circular walls that were built hundreds of years in the past as a means to defend humanity against the might of the Titans. The Titans are huge humanoid monsters who exist only to eat people, have not been seen for a hundred years, and so are almost a myth. Eren (Haruma Miura) and his friends Mikasa and Armin sneak out to the outer wall but while they are there a being known as the colossal Titan appears and destroys a part of the wall. In this gap flood an army of Titans who start killing all they see. In the chaos Eren looses Mikasa and it seems she has died. Two years later and all humans have retreated behind the second wall, Eren and Armin are now part of the military and are part of a task force tasked with travelling though the Titan infested lands in order to find a way to block up the gap in the outer structure...

The Monster Squad (1987) - Horror Film Review

I haven't seen The Monster Squad since I was a kid, I used to make my parents repeatedly rent out the film from the local video rental shop, it appealed to me back then because of the amount of different classic movie monsters it features. I have to say watching it now I had no idea it contained such a high body count, as well as a fair bit of swearing!

Every hundred years at the stroke of midnight a magical amulet is able to open a gateway to Hell that can suck away all evil from the world. Van Helsing fails in his attempt to do this in the nineteenth century and so in modern day (well the 1980's) a band of monsters led by Dracula (Duncan Regehr) arrive in America to prevent the amulet from being used once again. This magical device just so happens to be located in a small town where a group of social outcast kids obsessed with movie monsters live, when they learn of the arrival of these evil beings they formulate a plan to stop them.

Destiny: The Dark Below (2014) and House of Wolves (2015) - Video Game DLC Review (Playstation 4)

This is going to be a bit of a strange review, I am going to combine the reviews for both of the first DLC packs for sci-fi shooter Destiny as I brought them both at the same time and am a bit lost as to what you actually got in each of the two. Destiny is constantly evolving, I had hoped to get this review out once I had experienced everything they had to offer, but with the next add on coming out next Tuesday (15th September) and with sweeping changes already made this is pretty much the very last opportunity I will get before my reviews are totally obsolete.

So starting off with The Dark Below that was released in 2014. Story has inexplicably always been Destiny's worst aspect, it baffles me how this came to be. From the bare bones of what you get it seems that Crota; a being the Hive worship is on its way to Earth, and so the Guardians have to try and stop his arrival. Your missions are provided by Eris Morn whose squad was obliterated when she tried to stop Crota's followers from summoning him. Eris Morn adds a further reputation tree making the total number of different ones around 45,000 (at a modest estimate). I do not know why there are so many, they confuse me so.

HeroQuest (1989) - Fantasy Boardgame Review

Having played and loved Zombicide I decided to revisit a beloved board game from my childhood; HeroQuest. I remember as a kid playing this in my garage with friends, it always seemed so fantastic, especially as I didn't own the game at the time. I have sometimes been criticised for going a bit too far down the geek hole on this blog, this is one of those times!

In HeroQuest you play as either one of four heroes or the evil sorcerer Morcar. The heroes include the strong barbarian, the weak wizard who has access to magical spells, the dwarf who can dismantle traps and the elf who is an average fighter and spell caster. These four are pretty well balanced and give some variation in abilities. Morcar is not actually a character but whoever plays this role gets to basically be the dungeon master; able to control the monsters the heroes fight as well as see the layout of the board.

One Drop - Horror Film News

Canadian director Tricia Lee's next horror film titled One Drop has just began shooting. Lee has previously done psychological horror Clean Break and creature feature Silent Retreat. One Drop is to be another creature feature, this time set in a deserted hospital.

A single mother awakens in the basement of a medical facility with no memory of how she got there, not only does everyone in the place appear to be dead but she discovers she is nine months pregnant. As she tries to escape the facility she comes to realise there is some sort of nightmarish creature stalking the corridors which does not want her to leave.

The cast includes Lara Gilchrist (from Battlestar Galactica and zombie videogame Dead Rising 2) as well as Benjamin Arthur, Torri Higginson, Mark Taylor, and Julian Richings. Currently sets are being built and prosthetic work is on the go but to help with post production a Indiegogo Campaign has been launched. The amount hoped to be raised is $20,000 Canadian dollars, so far $9,371 has been raised with just 37 hours left before it ends. If you fancy donating then there is a host of awards available, check out the Indiegogo page here if you so wish for a bunch more information on what this film is to be.

The Lost Level (2015) by Brian Keene - Fantasy Book Review

As anyone who has ever sent me an eBook for review knows I am terrible at getting around to reading the blasted things, I'm old fashioned in that if a book is not a book then I find it hard to get into. Brian Keene is mainly a horror author, I have read a few of his ace zombie books in the past (The Rising and City of the Dead) and while The Lost Level is not a horror title I felt confident enough I would actually get around to reading it.

Aaron Pace is an occultist whose research leads to him discovering the ability to summon doorways to alternate realities. He goes on many different adventures to these bizarre worlds until one day he discovers the place he has travelled to has got no exit, he has accidentally gone to a realm known as 'the lost level', a place that is said to be impossible to escape from. As he struggles to come to terms with his predicament he sets out in the hope of finding a way back home from this most bizarre world.

Keene wrote The Lost Level as a tribute to the lost world/man out of time genre of pulp fiction fantasy, as such it does read as very simple and without anything resembling depth. Having never read anything from this genre before I can only assume this is a accurate picture of what these books read as but I was at first disappointed before coming to accept it for what it was. The actual premise I found to be quite fascinating, the book itself is set out as a written recollection from an older Pace of his journey that led him up what appears to be a tragic end. 

The realm he finds himself is in perpetual sunlight and features a complete mash up of different genre types with the premise of the lost level being that it is made up of things from every different type of dimension possible. There are dinosaurs battling robots, Nazi UFO's, a dying cowboy who speaks of a horrific zombie plague, monsters of different fantasy types, forbidden temples, alien abductions and reptilian pursuers, really everything but the kitchen sink is included here. These different elements usually end up with a chapter to themselves each which makes it seems like a giant check list of different ideas but also help in keeping you never knowing what is around the corner.

The actual plot is quite simple with Pace befriending a woman named Kasheena after rescuing her from a roving band of evil reptiles. They, along with a Chewbacca type creature they name Bloop go on a journey to get to the woman's village where she suggests the village Shaman might hold the answer to escape the world. There really is not much more to it with the three main characters being under developed but again I assume this is a facet of the genre. Pace has little of the book that explains his past, it is glossed over how he  came to get the weirdly useful skills he has that lets him be the hero of the story (with certain flaws), while the love story that blossoms between him and Kasheena is cheesy and predictable but again I am sure it is a facet of the genre.

While as stated (many times) I do not know the genre what I do know is that Keene is a great writer so based on that knowledge I am confident that any complaints I have are due to the fantasy elements rather than his skill. There are many enthralling moments in The Lost Level, I loved the mash up of different elements, as well as comments relating to real world phenomena such as the Bermuda Triangle and the Philadelphia Experiment., while the initial panic Pace has when he realises he is trapped is tangible.

Overall as a tribute this book works well, for me personally though I just found it all a bit too simple and cliched for it to really keep my attention. Saying that there are a lot of good well written ideas here and with a sequel and prequel also planned I would not be adverse to revisiting this strange world.

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Unseen Evil (2001) - Horror Film Review

The folks at The Movie and Music Network have a whole bunch of films available to watch online for cheap prices, but in a neat move they also have a film available to watch for free each day. Today's free film is Unseen Evil (also known as The Unbelievable apparently) and so I felt a review was in order.

A bunch of hikers including Dr. Peter Jensen (Richard Hatch), Kate an archaeologist, and a couple of men have hired a native guide to take them into the American wilderness in search of an ancient Indian burial mound. Not long in to the trip and it is revealed that the not so good Dr intends to rob the mound of its treasures and that the two men with him are actually also robbers. Finally arriving they indeed find vast treasures but as soon as they remove the loot from the cave system the trouble really begins. An invisible deadly creature starts to hunt the group and one by one they get picked off. The survivors have to find a way to stop the nightmare creature.

This is an amazing film; amazingly terrible that is! Obviously low budget in nature everything about this is pretty awful, but thankfully it fits neatly into the 'so bad it's good' category of film making. First off the props are not the best ever, the gold treasure in particular looks like it is made out of plastic while most the sound effects sound like they have been taken straight out of the public domain library. The creature being invisible is a blessing in literal disguise as it obviously saves on budget a lot, though more pressingly the creature when you do see it is abysmal. It is CGI straight out of the early 1990's and looks very fake and unrealistic.

The characters are one dimensional and while the acting can not be complained about (it is passable) they fall into the common trap of acting unrealistically. The cast spend too much of the film pointing guns at each other and fighting to be 'in control' as they put it, the amount of times this happens is farcical though Kate does mention this at one point. The bad guys are idiots it has to be said. You have the token angry black man who causes more trouble than he's worth, while Jensen does his best to be the films bad guy but is not the least bit threatening. They are not dull characters at least and their plight is fun to watch.

When action does happen it is swift and violent, each of the kills in Unseen Evil is fun to see, the creature has deadly claws and there is plenty of blood and even a decapitation at one point. The moral of the film seems to be if your a good and humble character then you will end up dead sooner rather than later, while the more darker characters mostly fall prey to their own hubris. There are lots of shots of the invisible creature interacting with the environment, such as smashing into a car, while the first person perspective of it as it chases the group reminded me a lot of the evil spirit from The Evil Dead.

The plot is simple, but made sillier by the ridiculous decisions characters make and it is this silliness that saves the film from being boring. This is in no way a good film, but it is not a boring film either, instead I had a lot of fun watching it and shouting at the characters as they go out their way to ruin things. All in all an enjoyable 90 minutes and I must confess...knowing there is a sequel has gotten me pretty excited!

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Gremlins (1984) - Horror Film Review

Happy Christmas 2014 everyone! As it is this special time of year again I thought it was about right to review one of the many traditional Christmas films out there. This year I chose Gremlins for my Wintery cheer.

Randall Peltzer; an amateur inventor is visiting New York when he is led to a strange shop. There he discovers a bizarre furry creature that the owner calls a Mogwai. Randall wants to get the creature as a gift for his son Billy but the shopkeeper refuses to sell. In secret the shopkeepers nephew sells it to the inventor but with a warning; he must follow three important rules. No,1 - Don't expose the Mogwai to bright lights, No.2 - Don't get the Mogwai wet, and the third most important rule is No.3 - never feed the Mogwai after midnight. After Billy gets the pet that Randall has named Gizmo the inevitable happens and all three rules are quickly broken. Contact with water results in the creation of more Mogwais and when rule three is broken with these new and mischievious ones they mutate into gremlins; reptillian monsters who set out into the sleepy town of Kingston Falls to bring chaos and destruction during one night of terror...

There is no doubt that Gremlins is a stone cold classic but it is also a film that has some problems with pacing and with establishing a solid tone. Initially it was to be a much more darker film but the films plot was altered to make it much more child friendly. There are two distinct parts to the film. The first 45 minutes is played more serious (though it never stops being black comedy). The initial creation of the Gremlins takes up this part of the running time and mostly sets up the character of Billy and the small town he lives in. The second half of the film is much more comedic with the insane Gremlins rampaging though the streets. The pacing problems come with the decision to have what are almost skits; unrelated little sequences of the Gremlins causing havoc. You get them bulldozing a house, playing cards in a bar, swarming a Santa Claus impersonator. All these are great sequences but don't seem to flow that well into each other.

The design of both the Mogwais and Gremlins are fantastic, nowadays it would all be CGI but here it is animatronics and puppetry. Gremlins dangling from roofs look quite unrealistic but other scenes they look effective and have a variety of ways they are portrayed. At one point claymation is used (including a great homage to The Evil Dead) while animation and animatronics are also used. The film has some really iconic sequences. Billy's mum sticking one of the creatures in a microwave, the family dog tied up in Christmas lights, the Snow White sing-a-long, and the best scene featuring a woman in a haywire chairlift that goes out of control and flings her out a window! The score is also pretty good though the main tune for the Gremlins is quite short and so gets repeated too often.

Though there is a comedic vibe characters do get some injuries, the creatures intelligence allowing them to use weapons and to operate machinery. The horror is not too strong though as chaos is more their remit, all in all I think the human death toll here (at least on-screen) equals just the one person. The main human characters are all pretty weak, Billy in particular is a wet blanket, but Gizmo is both cute and likeable while the supporting cast is also strong (including Dick Miller as the paranoid neighbour Murray Futterman, and a young Corey Feldman)

Gremlins is a great Christmas horror and has some great monster designs but it feels quite dated in places and maybe should not have been dumbed down from its original incarnation. The sequel is also well worth seeing though goes even further down the comedy route.

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Mutantis (2014) - Horror Film Review

Mutantis is a comedy horror from Dire Wit Films that seeks to parody the B-Movies of old paying homage to the eccentricities of that genre. Obviously an indie film this does not even attempt to take itself or the subject matter it covers seriously. Written by Mark Leake who also wrote for the interesting 7th Day.

Set in the 70's during the age of free love Mutantis follows a scientist called Father Joy who goes on a field trip with his step children in search of the legendary Bigfoot. He believes the creature resides in a wood filled valley that happens to be both near a nuclear power plant and an Indian burial ground. However what is discovered in that cursed place is not a Bigfoot but something altogether more horrific - a sex crazed monster named...Mutantis!

Wow is the first word that comes to mind, this really is something quite different to what I was expecting and something created for a specific mood. The whole style of the film is just wonderful. Grain is used on the camera work and over exposed colours to create the effect of an old film, I cannot fault the camera work and camera effects at all, it is consistently effective.

The acting in Mutantis is utterly terrible but it is meant to so I guess that means it is really good? Pretty much every character is dubbed over and the actors themselves are a bizarre collection where you have males playing female roles while one of the main male characters is played by a female. Pretty much all the characters are blatantly wearing wigs while the facial hair looks like it was sellotaped on. This all works in the films favour and coupled with a script that is near faultless in it's stupidity and po faced nature on the relationship between man and nature makes for a strong sense of the unhinged and works well within the low budget.

Mutantis itself looks like it was created out of paper mache and cardboard but has such freaky eyes and disturbing attention to its bisexual genitalia  that it actually became kinda scary. The special effects are purposely terrible and there is a high body count due to the creatures pincer claws that lops of heads, arms, penises and even someones breasts at some point all with large dashings of spurting bright red blood.

That is kind of where the film fell down for me though, the creature is obsessed with mating to try and create offspring and so there is far too many bad taste rape scenes in which the creature forces itself on people. Sure it is not done serious in the slightest and wasn't that it made me uncomfortable but more that it was icky and disgusting for my tastes. Mutantis is a film made for people to watch while drunk with friends and I can imagine I would have enjoyed it far more if I had done that, but as it was I watched it while tired after a long days work in my day job and so a lot of the appeal was lost on me. Being a homage to B-Movies the plot was wafer thin which I was fine with but there was just too much of random characters running around aimless in woodland which at times reminded me of a Scooby-Doo cartoon.

Peter Joyce did the music for this film and it may be the best film soundtrack I have heard all year. The music is simply perfect for the subject matter, it summoned the right vibe for me, sounds like I imagined the 70's to sound like, This review has been written with the title screen music on repeat, just cannot get enough of it!

Maybe if I had viewed this in the right circumstances I would feel more love for Mutantis but as it is the many gross creature/human sex sequences and nasty characters were not appealing though I could well see this becoming a cult classic. Mutantis is available to purchase from Amazon USA and also from Dire Wit Films website (here).

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Gila! (2012) - Horror Film Review

Gila! is a remake of the 1959 creature feature The Giant Gila Monster, it is directed by B-Movie legend Jim Wynorski (whose first film as director was of course The Lost Empire in 1985). I have never seen the original Gila film but if it is what I think it is then it would have been from the classic time of monster movies in which real animals were used and super imposed onto footage to make them seem like monsters.

Set in the 1950's in a small rural American town Gila! opens with a young couple being attacked by a huge lizard creature as long as tall as a bus. It appears that some small time criminals storing chemical waste in a remote cave for a quick buck may have resulted in the mutation of a lizard living there. Now the monstrous beast is getting ready to hibernate and so is searching out human victims to feed on. Local good guy mechanic Chase Winstead (Brian Gross) ends up being caught up in the mystery of just what is killing people and teams up with the Sheriff in order to stop the beast.

I was dubious when this started, especially as the Gila monster is created using bad CGI that looks terrible. I thought that if a serious film was attempted using this computer generated mess then I would be in for a rough ride. Thankfully and despite this only being made a few years back it is a decent B-Movie and a kind hearted look back at the creature feature genre of the 1950's. I found myself really enjoying this, the characters are all likable and features some pretty attractive females in the lead female roles (Madeline Voges as Chase's girlfriend Lisa, and Christina DeRosa as bad boy Waco Bob's girlfriend). I find having attractive leads always makes watching even the worst move more bearable.

It all follows a predictable format, at first the monster is unseen by the local populace and for the first half a few people try and work out the mystery of what is occurring, then there is the final half where the heroes try and defeat the beast. I will say that I did get slightly bored in the middle with characters travelling to various locations with little plot reason to do so. The CG at times is quite off putting and the amount of shots of the monster booming down roads with dust swirling about gets quite silly as it does not look part of the landscape in the slightest. The bad computer generated effects also are used for the death sequences of characters which while inventive (such as the monster's tail swatting a chemical filled drum which bursts over two men who then have their flesh dissolved off by the substance) always looks kinda silly. This does add to the B-Movie charm. Also a shame was that the creature never shows any damage, even when it has been blasted by thousands of bullets it shows no damage at all which does detract.

The soundtrack is all rock n' roll music, lots of muscle cars are used that are fun to look at, and again those two female leads make for an entertaining yarn that just about doesn't outstay it's welcome. It was a shame to leave the town the film is set in as it seemed such a nice place. In all honesty I would rather watch this over the snooze-fest that was Godzilla (2014) any day of the week, that film may have better creature effects but this is just a more fun film and didn't feel like a waste of my time to see.

Gila! does nothing at all original and has really bad special effects but it is feel good and a great B-Movie, the acting is decent also which is a big plus in my book! Gila! is out now on DVD.

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