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- Manor of Darkness, Mouse of Horrors, Shiver Me Timbers, Bambi: The Reckoning, and Planet of the VampiresThis time, we’ve got some fun ones. We’ll start of with some time-loop terror in “Manor of Darkness,” then watch some completely unnecessary, but still fairly entertaining rip-offs of old cartoons: “Mouse of Horrors,” “Shiver Me Timbers,” and “Bambi: The Reckoning” are all up this week. Lastly, we’ll squeeze in a classic sci-fi horror film with “Planet of the Vampires” from 1965.Which one is our favorite? Tune in and find out– it may not be what you expect!This as well as the latest issue of “Horror Monthly,” issue #51, are on sale now! Check out all the back issues, as well as our other books, with one easy link: https://horrormonthly.comMainstream Films:2025 Manor of Darkness* Directed by: Blake Ridder* Written by: Blake Ridder* Stars: Kim Spearman, Louis James, Sarah Alexandra Marks* Run Time: 1 Hour, 22 Minutes* Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment ZonePetty thieves meet evil forces when they pretend to be filmmakers and go to a giant manor to rob the place. It went in a direction we didn’t expect and built nicely as they tried to figure a way out. We both really enjoyed it.Spoilery SynopsisA man works in the basement until he hears a strange sound. What he hears finds him. Credits roll.Laura talks to her mother, who needs surgery. Her brother, Chris calls, and he says he’s got something to make everything all right. Laura works at a coffee shop, and she experiences something strange one night. The same night, Chris also experiences some weirdness with Lisa, his girlfriend.Lisa, for some reason, decides to tell Chris about her abusive family and how she ran away from home. Chris tells about what happened with Laura, eleven months ago.Flashback time! Chris and Laura broke into a house. It’s not exactly what Chris told her, so Laura wants to leave. This is the house of Mrs. Wong, one of Chris’s old teachers who gave him a hard time– and she’s still home. When the woman gets up, she finds Laura and grabs a knife. As she recognizes Laura, Chris shoots her.Back in the present, Laura gets a call; she’s lost her job. Chris and Lisa talk about his plan, and how Laura won’t cooperate with him. She goes to the restroom and sees something scary. When she comes out, Chris is talking to Andy, another criminal-type.Some rich man is looking for a film crew to come into his house and film a documentary, and Chris wants to use the job as an excuse to break in and steal a fortune. We then get Andy’s backstory; he’s divorced but wants to be a good father. Later, he gets a scare in the shower. Laura decides at the last minute that she needs the money and will help in the caper.Chris, Andy, Laura, and Lisa arrive at the old manor house and let themselves in, as arranged. They have no cell service there, which even Chris admits is a cliche. They all split up and explore the place.Andy says he feels like he’s been here before. Laura and Lisa check out the basement while Andy and Chris check out the attic. The girls find a tied-up box in the basement that looks too tempting to pass up. They open the box and let out what appears to be the Smoke Monster from “Lost.”In the attic, the guys find a dead body. Suddenly, Lukas, the owner of the house, and the man from the pre-credit sequence, returns home. He talks about “life after death” and his dead wife. He wants the “documentary filmmakers” to capture her spirit on film.When they mention the dead body upstairs, Lukas picks up a knife and kills Chris and Laura. Andy goes next, leaving only Lisa, who is killed as well. There are flashes of another woman being forced to scrub and clean in the past, with religious imagery. No, they’re all fine, and we seem to have jumped back in time a few minutes. They all sense that something weird happened, but they’ve only just arrived at the house. Laura especially seems to feel some deja vu. Chris announces that there’s no cell service here at the old house. They all split up to explore the house (again).The girls find the box in the basement, but it’s already untied and empty. The dead body in the attic is still there. Then Lukas arrives. He asks them if this is “the first time.” He stabs them all again.We again cut to scenes of a man abusing his religious wife, who prays a lot.At the door of the house, Laura knows they’ve all been here before, but the others don’t sense it. “We’re all gonna die… again.” Laura tries to leave, but it’s not that easy. All roads lead back to the manor.She goes into the house and finds that Lukas has killed the other three. She tells him about it, and he knows that she opened the chest. He explains about “The Reset” and that he killed them so that they’d understand the problem. We get a flashback to Lukas and his wife moving into the house. He explains what it is that she released from that box. He has to kill her again to reset the time loop. He does and we see the abusive man and religious woman from the past again. This time, he kills her.Laura, now reset, tells the others not to go into the basement and then hides the knives in a kitchen. She demonstrates her knowledge of the time loop to them. When Lukas comes in, Andy beats him to death. This results in Laura stabbing herself for another reset.She explains the situation, and they mostly believe her, but they still want to remain here to find the money. Lukas arrives, as always, and Laura quickly fills him in. He finally explains what they’re up against, and it’s not good.They all prepare themselves for battle in their own unique ways. Suddenly, the lights go out. Lisa finds herself outside, running from something nasty. Chris is locked in the attic with the body, which gets up and turns into Mrs. Wong, the dead teacher. Andy runs into a sex-crazed version of Laura, who kills him. Laura runs into her mother in the basement, but she knows that’s not real and stabs the woman. Laura dies again, this time at Lisa’s hand, and it all resets again.This time, they all tie up Lukas as night falls outside. Laura goes to stab Lukas, but since her eyes are shut, she somehow stabs Chris instead. The smoke goes back in the box in the basement. We then get a flashback to what happened with Lukas and his wife when they moved in and kept having to stab each other.Laura holds a diamond in her hand, she found the treasure and paid for her mother’s surgery. Andy gets his family back. Lisa is sad.Six months later, a different couple gets invited to the manor and are told to go right on in. They soon find a tied-up box in the basement. Then Chris walks in, he welcomes them to the manor…Brian’s CommentaryWhy were all the characters experiencing bloody scenes of terror before they came to the house? There’s no indication from the trailer that this is a time-loop movie. Still, it’s well done and is paced nicely, which is hard for a time-travel film. The things that happen aren’t really explained at all; we know what happened, we just don’t really know why. It’s pretty good!Kevin’s CommentaryThe manor was a great setting. Cool big place. It seemed low budget with a bit of an indie vibe, but I thought they made the most of it, and it was very effectively done. Their growing frustration with the time loop built nicely.The cast is good, the camera work and music is effective (kept making me think of John Carpenter’s music from the original “Halloween” at times), and the script is clever. I liked it and would recommend it.2025 Mouse of Horrors* Directed by: Brendan Petrizzo* Written by: Harry Boxley, Mac Gottlieb* Stars: Lewis Santer, Stephen Staley, Chris Lines* Run Time: 1 Hour, 24 Minutes* Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment ZoneAn inhuman mouse hybrid is on the prowl for body parts and victims, with much of the action taking place at a carnival - an excellent setting. The pacing is a bit off and so is the sound, but it’s watchable and gory. We thought it was very mid overall, with both of us giving it a dislike.Spoilery SynopsisTwo girls are out at the docks. They’ve gone to the wrong place and gotten lost. They’re here to meet a rich doctor with a boat, and what they find isn’t what they expected. They find the boat, but there’s no one there. Out of nowhere, a giant rat stabs Molly and chases Dana through the shipyards and into a closed-down amusement park. As he kills her and laughs, the credits roll.A man tells his daughter, Chloe, a story about being attacked by flies at the beach. We see the killer is watching them from afar. He’s written a book about “The Mouseboat Massacre” but he doesn’t have an ending for it yet. She goes off with her friend to a bar to meet her other friends, a group of obnoxious teens that the killer can pick off one by one later. They call Dana and Molly, but they don’t answer their phones.Chloe tells the story about the Mouse thing as we see the Mouse killing a jogger with a chain. A mad doctor created a giant mutated mouse that was crossed with a murderous prisoner. His goal was to collect body parts of women for another experiment. The group decides to sneak into the closed-down amusement park for some fun.Meanwhile, at the amusement park, Pooh bear has women in a cage, and it looks like a scene from “Pooh: Blood and Honey” Apparently, Pooh and the Mouse are working together to gather body parts for Dr. Rupert. It’s the crossover nobody expected! The doctor whines about the Mouse bringing him male body parts. How is he supposed to make the perfect bride with the wrong kind of body parts?The Mouse kills a bar owner at about the same time the kids get started at the amusement park. The Mouse shows up and kills the first pair of teens, electrifying one of them with the bumpercars (I don’t think they work like that). He catches and dismembers another girl on the teacup ride. He stabs another on the sidewalk. Another guy falls into a swimming pool full of carnivorous jellyfish (what?).Several of the girls run from the Mouse straight into the workshop of Dr. Rupert, the creator of the Mouse and the Bear. He explains the whole thing with the Mouse’s creation.Chloe’s father goes to her mother’s house to look for her since there’s a killer on the loose. For some reason, the Mouse shows up at their house right there and then. The Mouse and the mother play darts, and that goes badly for only one of them. Dad runs away to the fair while the Mouse drags Kim away. Dad and Chloe meet up.Suddenly, Dr. Rupert shows up, calling for Chloe. His boys really want her, and he threatens to kill her friends if she doesn’t come after them. Chloe insists they go after Kim.Kim is actually still alive in the doctor’s workshop being tormented by Pooh. Everyone plays hide and seek in the lab. Rupert scolds the boys for their incompetence and then sets them against each other, with the bride as a prize. Chloe’s father knocks out Rupert and lets Chloe run off.The Mouse and Pooh fight each other for a very long time, but in the end, the Mouse always wins.Next we see the Mouse eating cheese and dancing on the deck of a steamboat. Pooh shows up, and the battle continues. Suddenly, Pooh is eaten by the worst CGI shark either of us have ever seen.Suddenly, it’s daytime, and the Mouse is chasing Chloe around the amusement park. She stabs him in the mouth and runs to find Kim and Rupert. Chloe shoots Rupert without delay.Chloe and Kim smash the tank holding the rest of “The Bride” ending that threat.Brian’s CommentaryWhy they didn’t call this “Steamboat Willie vs Pooh” I’ll never understand.This one wastes no time; I was bored even before the opening credits.The sound is awful. Some people, I could hear just fine, and others seemed to mumble everything they said. The actress who plays Chloe was so mushmouthed that we needed to turn the subtitles on.There are some very similar plot points to 2024’s “The Mouse Trap,” even beyond just the Steamboat Willie connections. Actually, other than the killer being a well-dressed mouse, there’s no real Disney connection (not that the original Steamboat Willie had any kind of real story either). This Mouse is clearly an Art the Clown wannabe, doing all the mime-y things. I was also reminded of “The Jester” by his character’s mannerisms.It’s got no real plot other than teens being killed one by one. The CGI is some of the worst I’ve ever seen attempted in a released film.It’s pretty bad.Kevin’s CommentaryThe crossover with Pooh and the Frankenstein elements were unexpected.I wasn’t impressed with the pacing or the sound quality, but there were some entertaining moments. The Mouse and his pantomime are great, he reminded me a bit of The Joker with a dash of Art The Clown. That was a bright spot.You know the gore is good when the subtitles have things like “Flesh squelching.”The lack of enough story made it seem long and tedious after a while.Pooh’s death was the most rushed, unexpected awful CGI effect ever - it vaguely looked like a shark attack out of the blue. And then the final CGI scene of smashing the bride’s tank. Ugh.I was going to say I liked it more than disliked it, but by the end I had changed my mind.2025 Shiver Me Timbers* Directed by: Paul Stephen Mann* Written by: Paul Stephen Mann, E.C. Segar* Stars: Amy Mackie, Miami Parrington, Brendan Nelson, Ross Dillon* Run Time: 1 Hour, 13 Minutes* Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment ZoneIt’s 1986 and Halley’s Comet has brought meteors with it, one of which turns Popeye into a big killer. A group of friends camping, along with a few other folks, have a terrible night because of it. We didn’t think it was very funny or particularly scary. It tries, but neither of us thought it was very good.Spoilery SynopsisIn April 1986, a girl finds a severed hand, which leads to a whole crime scene. Credits roll.We heard about the return of Halley’s Comet after 76 years. Earlier that day, Olive Oyl and her family are going on a trip and almost run over a weird-looking man with a pipe. “Well blow me down,” he says. He’s weird and talks about the meteor shower tonight.Castor Oyl, his girlfriend, and sister arrive at the campground, and Olive immediately catches a couple of punks beating up a homeless man who is ranting about “killer meteors” and “the comet is evil!”Castor talks to his friend about how smart Olive is; she’s been admitted to MIT but doesn’t seem too interested in that. There’s a lot of boring talk between the two. Some more of Castor’s friends show up, and they brought the drugs.We cut to the old man with the pipe fishing on the water as the meteors start to pass overhead. A tiny one lands right in his pipe, and he just goes on smoking; it’s full of radiation. The old man falls over and starts to mutate.Popeye has gotten a lot bigger and meaner. He punches a punk in the face and his head explodes.Over at the campfire, Stevie tells a story from another life, which turns out to be a scare prank. The surviving punk shows up raving about a giant sailor but they laugh him off. Trent and Lizzie retire to their tent. Stevie goes off to the outhouse to take a dump as Popeye approaches, now using the punk’s legbone as his new pipe. He crushes Stevie’s head and then literally poops down his neck.The campers talk about movies. “Critters” has just come out, and they’re talking about a potential sequel to “The Terminator” and “Video Nasties.” While Trent and Lizzie have sex in their tent– with Popeye bloodily joining in.Olive and Monique go for a walk and watch the meteors. They soon find one on the ground. Monique gets shot through the head by an evil meteorite. Meanwhile Castor and his girlfriend find what’s left of Stevie. The surviving trio finds Popeye sitting by their campfire. One of them has to go for the car keys in their camp, so Olive creeps on hands and knees hoping Popeye doesn’t notice. It’s suspenseful as she gets into a tent and tries not to make noise. He hears, and yanks her out, but Castor distracts him. Then the chase is on.The girls run to the car, but they find it in flames from an apparent meteor strike. They remember hearing about an abandoned factory nearby and run toward that. Castor is there, but so is Popeye, and soon, she’s the only one left alive. Popeye dunks Castor into a canister of glowing radioactive ooze.Olive makes it to the factory, where she runs into a man with a wheelchair and shotgun. The old man decides it’s time to share an old war story. He goes outside and Popeye gets him.Out of nowhere, the other punk from earlier reappears, grabs the meteorite from Popeye’s pipe, and beats him with it. He doesn’t live long, but it gives Olive time to grab the meteorite from the ground and run off.Unfortunately, it’s really hot and melts her hand completely off. That’s OK, because the crazy old man had built the largest buzz-saw in history and it’s got a handy arm-plug for her to use. She comes out of the barn and buzzes Popeye into a juicy mess. Still, Popeye puts up a big fight before dying.Olive and Castor’s girlfriend survive their order. Soon, the police are there examining everything.A few weeks later, the whole story is on the radio that a cleaned-up Olive is listening to while she works on a prosthetic. We hear that Popeye’s body has gone missing and there are more murders just like his up in New York. We see that Olive is preparing for a rematch with her new turbo hand…Brian’s CommentaryThe film couldn’t quite decide which scenes were happening during the day and which were at night. Sometimes, they alternated between the two in the same scene.This is the lowest-budget and clearly the worst of the three “Popeye” movies that came out this year. “Popeye’s Revenge” and “Popeye The Slayer Man” were both better, although “better” might be a marginally relative term.It’s listed as a horror comedy, but it’s really not very funny at all; it’s just kinda lame throughout. Watch it if you feel you must, but it’s not great.Kevin’s CommentaryHaley’s Comet means meteors too in this universe, and who knew that a meteor shower literally meant meteors showering down to the ground?I yam disappointed by this effort. Like Brian says, it was the weakest of the Popeye trifecta that have recently been spewed from the bowels of public domain. I’m going to go with almost painfully bad on this one.2025 Bambi: The Reckoning* Directed by: Dan Allen* Written by: Felix Salten, Rhys Warrington* Stars: Roxanne McKee, Russell Geoffrey Banks, Samira Mighty* Run Time: 1 Hour 20 Minutes* Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment ZoneBambi is all grown up and mutated, and he’s had enough of the humans. The focus here is on a mother and son who become targets after a vehicle crash, but there are also some other subjects of his rage along the way. It’s short and it moves well. We didn’t expect to be as entertained as we were.Spoilery SynopsisWe open a fairy tale book and get some voiceover narration. We watch an animation of Bambi’s mother getting shot. We get an overview of a very hard life for the local deer population. The factory polluted the waters, and Bambi gets mutated. Credits roll.We open on a trio of hunters in the dark woods. We cut to Xana and her son Benji on a drive to Benji’s dad’s family. The driver is really chatty, and Benji gets carsick. Suddenly, a giant deer charges their car, knocking it off the road and flipping it entirely. The deer then jumps up and down on the car, causing it to crush the driver. Xana and Benji get out and run for safety.Mary stands in the backyard chanting “Bambi” repeatedly. Her family is inside talking about the old woman’s dementia. Xana and Benji come to the door; this is grandma’s house. Harriet and Andrew argue about whether they should go try to help the driver or not, and Joshua decides to go out looking. Meanwhile, the hunters, who work for the evil factory, find the taxi, but the driver is nowhere to be found.As Mary sketches pictures of an angry deer, the three hunters hear something in the woods and pull out their guns. They shoot Joshua by mistake.Back at the house, Bambi smashes in through the window and terrorizes the people inside. Everyone runs out to Andrew’s camper, but Harriet can’t outrun the massive deer, who gores her with his antlers. As they drive away, the deer pursues them. Finally, they break away.The hunters arrive at Grandma’s house and look at the damage. They find Harriet, more or less still alive, ripped in half, and finish her off.The camper comes to a log in the road, and moving it turns out to be a disaster. They end up driving several miles at high speed with Andrew tied to the back of the bumper, bouncing all the way. Harrison hides, but Bambi soon finds him, and he gets what he deserves when he learns that Bambi has friends...Grandma wanders off, and Xana and Benji go after her. The old woman repeats “Death. Death.” and we see just how stupid Benji really is as he lights up a torch. This shows them all the bones of Bambi’s victims. They’re in his nest! The deer reappears, and the three run straight to the hunters and tell them the story. They all drive to the hunters’ place, where they run into Simon, Benji’s father.As Xana and Simon argue, he admits he knows all about the company dumping chemicals. Michael, the leader of the hunters, points his gun at Xana; he has no intention of helping them. Xana finds Joshua and the driver’s bodies, so she knows it as well.Benji watches as the other two hunters carry out a baby deer in a cage to use as bait. Benji releases the baby, and Bambi takes care of the two hunters.Bambi comes face to face with Mary, but suddenly, the whole base explodes when she shoots a pressurized gas canister. Xana, Benji, and Simon come face to face with Michael. Bambi shows up, still burning from the explosion, and takes care of Michael for them.Simon and Xana fight over the satellite phone. She wants to call the police, but he knows he’s going to jail for the illegal dumping if she does. He runs off, leaving his ex-wife and child alone with the monster. They grab the fawn and hand it over to the big deer.Michael returns from somewhere and shoots Bambi repeatedly. Mary comes out of nowhere and shoots him in the back.Simon, making his getaway, sees something moving in the backseat. It’s one of Bambi’s little rabbit friends. This one has seen too much Monty Python and does “the thing.” Simon dies.As Bambi lay dying, the little fawn is sad. Time for a sequel?Brian’s CommentaryThis is based on the 1923 book “Bambi, A Life In The Woods,” not the much more well-known 1942 Disney cartoon.The creature effects are less than stellar, but the overall story moves along nicely and doesn’t slow down or get boring. I haven’t seen a horror movie with a stupid kid putting everyone else in extreme danger in quite a while; I thought it was a trope that had been forgotten.Overall, this was way better than I expected. Not great, but better than expectations.Kevin’s CommentaryThis wasn’t just an angry deer, it was an angry monstrous deer - gigantic, fast, strong, and fanged. Thanks to a chemical being dumped in the woods that mutated him. It was impressive how some of the people managed to damage each other in the process dealing with Bambi.The carnivorous, crafty bunnies were a nice touch too. It wasn’t just Bambi who mutated, it was all the little forest creatures.I was dreading going into it, but I was pleasantly surprised with how entertaining it was. Dumb, but entertaining.1965 Planet of the Vampires* Directed by: Mario Bava* Written by: Renato Pestriniero, Ib Melchior, Alberto Bevilacqua* Stars: Barry Sullivan, Norma Bengell, Angel Aranda* Run Time: 1 Hour, 28 Minutes* Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment ZoneAfter a crash landing on an alien planet, fixing their ship and taking off again is only one of the problems a crew has to deal with. It’s not quite vampirism despite the title, but the dead rise and there are alien issues. There are some horror elements for sure, but it’s mostly science fiction. The retro-futurism is dialed up to 11 and it’s got a decent story. All in all, we’d call it entertaining fun.Spoilery SynopsisWe zoom in on a spaceship and then see what’s inside. The bridge crew is all decked out in high-necked black leather uniforms that are a cross between the X-Men and Leather Daddies. They’re picking up strange signals from a point on a nearby planet. Captain Mark Markary calls the other ship, and Mark’s brother starts to say something when the ship loses contact.Suddenly the gravity goes crazy and everyone experiences 20g as they approach the nearby planet. Somehow, they regain control enough to land on the desolate planet. When they recover, Mark’s crew wakes up and attacks each other.The ship’s doctor staggers outside, and the atmosphere clears his mind. He doesn’t know why he behaved that way. Mark and Wess inspect their ship outside, and everything looks normal; it was an excellent landing, even if they can’t remember doing it. They find the other ship on their sensors, but can’t tell how badly it’s damaged.Mark and several of the men go outside and explore the alien, rocky terrain. They get to the other ship, the Galliott, and immediately find a couple of corpses outside; they fought and killed each other. Mark comes to the conclusion that this was all planned… by someone. When they look in through the windows, it appears that they’re all dead inside.Mark and the others go back to their own ship, the Argos, for tools, and leave Eldon at the other ship to guard the bodies. As soon as they leave he starts hearing voices.When Mark and the others return, all the bodies are gone, as is Eldon. Also, whatever happened to the signal the ship had been receiving for the past two years? The signal is gone now. The Argos’s solar batteries are drained, so they may not even be able to take off again when the time comes.Outside, the dead crawl out of their graves and rip off their plastic shrouds. Mark dictates a “captain’s log” but stops when he sees Wess stagger into the ship. Wess tries to disconnect the meteor rejector, but he doesn’t know why when he comes to his senses again. The meteor rejector on the other ship was destroyed– why?One of their own men, Bert, is killed, and with his dying breath, he accuses Captain Sallis, one of the dead men from the other ship. As everyone discusses the situation, dead Bert opens his eyes and starts to listen. Tiona sees him moving and faints; then the crew buries Bert.The crew finds the wreckage of another ship, and this one’s been here a long time. They find the skeletal remains of some kind of huge alien. Mark and Sanya go inside, and some of the machinery is still active. They start randomly pushing buttons and hear a recording of what the aliens sounded like. Then the doors close, and they’re trapped inside. They eventually figure out how to open the door again, but when they do, the guard outside, Carter, is gone.On their return, Tiona reports seeing more of the dead up and walking around. Mark sees Sallis and Keir, two of the men assumed to be dead from the Galliott. Captain Sallis tells his story, and it’s all believable.Tiona, on the other hand, insists that they are really dead. She insists they open up the graves and check, and they are, in fact, empty.Meanwhile, Sallis and Keir head straight to the meteor rejector and disable it. When Mark and the others catch Sallis, he admits that he’s not Sallis. Sallis is possessed by another being just using the body. They’re the ones who forced the crew to fight and kill each other so they would have bodies to inhabit. They also sent the signal that brought the humans here. Mark calls them a “breed of parasites,” and Sallis doesn’t like that comparison. They want to go to a more inhabited planet, and they’re holding the meteor rejector hostage. The alien inside Sallis says they can willingly let them in while they are still alive, and it would be a symbiotic relationship, but the humans don’t like that idea.Mark decides to blow up the Galliott and take off anyway. He and Sonya go over there and find all the dead working on the ship, getting it ready to blast off. With the meteor rejector, they just might be able to do it. They run into Toby, Marks’s brother, and he’s one of the aliens as well now. Mark shoots him dead again.The living and the possessed have a battle over the Galliot and snatch their meteor rejector while Wess is finishing up repairs on the Argos.Mark and Sonya run back to their ship and take off immediately. They reinstall the meteor rejector. Wess points out that out of eighteen people, only three are left. Not long afterward, Wess notices that Mark is acting strangely and comes to the conclusion that the captain is possessed as well. He tells Sonya, who picks up a gun on the way to confront Mark. Turns out, both Mark and Sonya are possessed. They intend to go back home and infect the whole planet.Wess runs to the control room and smashes the meteor rejector, dying in the process. Mark says they’ll never be able to reach home now, but they can make it to this primitive planet the inhabitants call Earth…The final twist being that the heroes we were rooting for were aliens too.Brian’s CommentaryIt’s no “Forbidden Planet,” but the sets and costumes are on the same par. It’s said to be one of the original influences for “Alien” as well, and several shots and ideas are very similar.The spaceships are miniatures filmed way too close up, and they don’t look good at all. The planet, while colorfully lit like an episode of “Star Trek,” is hazy, smoky, and effectively creepy and alien. The creatures are more possessed-zombies than actual vampires, but they’re still “undead.”It’s dated in a 1960’s sci-fi way, being too colorful and sharp, but otherwise, it’s really very good.Kevin’s CommentaryThe space effects aren’t great, but the retro-futurism of the sets, props, and costumes is awesome. I’d barely call it horror, heavily science fiction. Science fiction done the way it was in the 1960s. The story is decent, the cast does a convincing job, and I can see where it might have planted the seeds of “Alien” and some other films that came after this one.I’m surprised I’ve never seen it before, and I’m glad that I did. I was entertained.Contact Info:Email: mailto:[email protected]:* https://www.horrorguys.com* https://www.horrormonthly.com This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.horrorweekly.com/subscribe--------33:45
- Him, Circus of Horrors, Things Will be Different, Flesh for Frankenstein, and Blood for DraculaWe’ve got an odd assortment for you this week. We’ll watch the new football-horror, “Him” recently released, as well as “Things Will be Different” from just last year. Then we’ll go way back to 1960 and the “Circus of Horrors.” In honor of Udo Keir’s recent death, we’ll watch his two early breakout hits, “Flesh for Frankenstein” and “Blood for Dracula” from the early 70s.This as well as the latest issue of “Horror Monthly,” issue #51, are on sale now! Check out all the back issues, as well as our other books, with one easy link: https://horrormonthly.comMainstream Films:2025 Him* Directed by: Justin Tipping* Written by: Skip Bronkie, Zack Akers, Justin Tipping* Stars: Marlon Wayans, Tyriq Withers, Julia Fox* Run Time: 1 Hour, 36 Minutes* Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment ZoneSet in an alternate reality where the NFL is the USFF, we start out with little Cam who has the perfect combination of football obsession at a young age combined with an athletic physique capable of being a world class athlete. As he is groomed to possibly replace a retiring megastar, things get strange and ominous - or maybe he’s just seeing things from stress and head injuries. We both struggled with this because we give no weight or value to football. They take the obsession, the extremes required to stay at the top, idolatry, and cult level fandom to the extreme. Neither of us fault the acting or production values, but we didn’t enjoy it that much.Spoilery SynopsisWe open on Cam, a little boy, watching football on TV. The whole family gets very excited when their team wins. His hero, Isaiah White, gets injured badly. Credits roll.Fourteen years later, Isaiah is still playing, better than ever, but everyone is talking about when he’ll finally retire - maybe another year at best. Now-adult Cameron Cade is said to be the next star of the game. During an interview with Cam, he says he wants to be the GOAT. One night while practicing, something very strange happens to Cam.We cut to Cam’s brain scans, and something’s not right. He’s had a traumatic brain injury and a stapled wound on his head. On his return to the game, everyone talks about him surviving the attack. Half the family thinks he isn’t ready, and the other half insists there’s nothing wrong with him. He’s not fine.Cam wants to be alone and sullen, so he goes to a big party and ignores everyone. Tom, Cam’s manager, calls and says that Isaiah White himself wants to train Cam for a week. On the way there, we see how cult-like some sports fans are.Cam goes to see Isaiah, who lives in a really cool place. He’s going to put Cam through a special “Boot camp” for football. We then get a training montage. Cam gets a physical exam, and someone steals his underwear. Cam then meets Elise, Isaiah’s wife, who is a power blonde influencer selling jade vaginal eggs and offers Cam one of their anal jades for men before she heads off for travel. Cam talks to Marco, the doctor, about blood transfusions and injections.On the second day, Isaiah and Cam go for a run in the desert, Cam passes out, and he sees something else that’s weird. Now it’s clear that he’s been hallucinating some of the weirdness we’ve seen. Marco gives him another special shot, and he’s suddenly feeling much better. Then things get weird and they torture a man to motivate Cam to play harder. Afterward, he sits in a hyperbaric chamber for several hours, where he hallucinates some more.On the third day, they actually play some football, and one of the players gets hurt pretty badly, which seems to be what Isaiah had in mind. More hallucinations ensue– maybe? Did Isaiah really just kill an overzealous fan? That one seemed more real, as well as the aftermath.The next day, Isaiah and Cam go out to the desert to shoot guns. Cam talks about his father and why he plays the game.Elsie takes Cam to a party in the city. Marco is there, and he says, “Run!” He meets the owners of the team, and they like him. Meanwhile, Isaiah stays home and works out. There’s more hallucinations, and maybe a ritual of some sort. Maybe Marco loses his head. Stuff happens, and maybe some of it’s real.On the next day, Cam starts injecting himself. He confronts Isaiah, who talks about generations of blood, a gift from the gods. The blood of their mentors give them the powers of the chosen one. The trick is, there can be only one, and Isaiah’s contract is nearly up. “You’re gonna have to take it from me.” The two men fight to see who really has the killer spirit. Cam has it and uses it.In a surreal, impossible ceremony, where all the characters gang up on Cam and explain how he’s been groomed all his life for this. Cam instead beats the mascot to death with an ax before killing everyone else with a sword.And then what?Brian’s CommentaryWhat in the hell was that climax???This is one of those is-it-real-or-a-hallucination stories that we’re so sick of. Cam had a head injury, so all the crazy stuff he sees later on is suspect.I suspect the filmmaker is trying to show us everything that’s wrong with the mindset around sports obsession, but maybe I’m being charitable with that.I suppose my problem here is that I have no understanding at all of the screaming, raw, passion and obsession with what is ultimately a pointless game.The ending was cool and over the top, but it made no real sense at all.It’s well made, looks great, and the acting is fine. On the other hand, I couldn’t wait until it was over and was bored half to death with it.Kevin’s CommentaryWell into the movie, I thought there was too much of wondering if things happening are really that strange or if Cam is hallucinating from some combination of stress, obsession, and head injury. Though the effects and visuals are very cool.As a not-at-all football fan who enjoys watching the spectacle of the Superbowl and really nothing else about the sport, it was hard relating to the passion for the game that so much of the movie revolves around.Past the halfway point, I started to suspect that the whole thing, or most of it, was real, staged and arranged by Isaiah who is crazy with a God complex. Right from the beginning with the clonk on the head that Cam got. Isaiah thinks he can do or get away with anything, so he does. And with all the “supplements” and substances being administered to Cam, there could easily be hallucinogens in the mix - augmented by a head injury.I guess in the end, it’s up to the viewer to decide how much of it was real and how much was not. I wouldn’t say I hated the film, but I’d only give it a five or six overall.2024 Things Will Be Different* Directed by: Michael Felker* Written by: Michael Felker* Stars: Adam David Thompson, Riley Dandy, Chloe Skoczen* Run Time: 1 Hour, 42 Minutes* Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment ZoneA pair of siblings go into hiding after a robbery, in a farmhouse that has a time travel feature, which they know about going into. Things get complicated as what they expect to be a short wait turns into a quagmire of overlaps and loops. It’s well made, but too stretched out, and we both thought it would have benefitted from being compacted down. It’s a mystery that unfolds, but neither of us were very satisfied or comprehending of the ending.Spoilery SynopsisAs the credits roll, we hear a phone call between two people planning a hideaway out of town after some kind of robbery; they’re brother and sister, and there are big bags of money involved.We cut to Joseph and Sidney meeting in a diner. When they hear a siren passing by, they clear out quickly. They go to the woods, where Joseph knows of a house they can hide in.They arrive at the house and run off some locals who are there target shooting. The house is trashed inside. They go inside and hear the police approaching. They both know a strange combination trick with the grandfather clocks in the house that unlock a special door. They’ve got a book with instructions along with a phone and some magic-sounding words.When they come out of the closet, it’s winter outside, and the house is all clean and restored. “Now we wait for time to pass in our present, and when we head back, we’ll be clear. Two weeks and counting.”The two talk about their lives and about the bar patron who told Joseph about the magical, time-traveling clocks in this house. It’s noticed that there are no cars, no planes, no signs of other people. When it’s time to go back where they came from, they find “Go to the mill” scratched on a wooden sign.Inside the mill, they find a badly burned corpse. They find another cryptic message that demands their compliance. Sid freaks and runs outside to vomit blood when she crosses the perimeter. The body in the barn was the woman who gave Joseph the book with instructions.They come into a possession of a tape recorder that allows them to have a conversation with… whoever’s behind all this. The man on the tape wants to “wipe” them, painlessly and instantaneously. The man says there’s someone coming to use the time doorway that they can’t see, and he wants Joe and Sid to kill that person. He sends them pistols.They set up outside to watch the perimeter, and nothing happens for a long time. On day 352, Sid has researched that the place has been deserted since around 1955. The “Vice Grip” has since used the place as a sort of time-travelling safehouse. She’s had many theories about all this since they’ve been trapped here.Finally, someone walks across the field toward the house. They get down, loaded with a sniper rifle and aim at Sid. Joe yells, and they both run inside. Joe and the intruder shoot at each other. Sid gets shot in the shoulder as the intruder plays disco music.As Sid talks to the tape recorder, Joe is elsewhere being tied up and tormented. He tells the tape recorder that the intruder is dead– as the intruder controls the recorder for him.The intruder makes a run for the house and gets into a fight with Sid. The intruder is finally unmasked, and it’s Steph (her own daughter, grown up). Joe runs in and shoots Sid by mistake as the intruder runs upstairs to the time closet.Joe goes upstairs to find the time closet has been destroyed. Later, he buries Sid outside. He then meets “The Vice Grips” who want to know about the visitor. Since he failed, they are going to wipe him. They explain that Joe is just a small part in a much bigger project. Joe asks to go back and try again, he can fix the mistakes and get the results they need. “Things will be different.”The Vice opens a door, and Joe sees that it’s the morning they arrived at the house. And there’s a plane flying overhead. He freely crosses the perimeter. He finds his old self, kills him, and takes his place. He grabs the money and heads off to the diner to meet Sid.The Vice discusses whether or not he’ll be the first to break the cycle.Sid arrives at the diner, but it’s not like before. He tells her about how many times he’s tried to fix things (how does she know?). He points her rifle at his head and tells her to end it. We see how old Joe has gotten, his beard is gray.Brian’s CommentaryThe basic plot is interesting with the odd time travel portrayal, but there’s so much waiting and angst that I nodded off at a couple of points. There’s only a cast of two, and they do a fine job; the setting also works well. Still, this feels like a fifteen minute short film with a ton of padding.It’s very strange, and it’s NOT all clear at the end.Kevin’s CommentaryIt was an interesting take, I thought, having them know about the time traveling aspect of the property before they went to it. It was interesting how the time travel seemed to be a mix of retro tech and magic incantations.It’s a beautiful location, perfect setting, and good cast. But it’s way too stretched out, with long periods of not much happening. It could have been improved by cutting the length down.It’s a mystery that only sort of came together at the end. And there were things unexplained. Watching it again would probably make things clearer, but should I really have to do that? I wouldn’t say I disliked it, but I wasn’t very pleased either.1960 Circus of Horrors* Directed by: Sidney Hayers* Written by: George Baxt* Stars: Anton Diffring, Erika Remberg, Yvonne Monlaur* Run Time: 1 Hour, 28 Minutes* Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment ZoneA plastic surgeon on the run after a surgery gone bad changes his own face and goes on the run with a couple sidekicks. When they take over a circus as a hiding place with new identities, we continue to see what a bad guy the surgeon is. The horror elements are low-key, it’s much more of a crime drama thriller, but it’s well made. And we thought it was entertaining.Spoilery SynopsisWe’re in England, 1947, and a woman screams as she smashes the mirrors in her room. Two men in a car talk about one of their fiances has gone missing, probably to the cottage after plastic surgery, which is where they are headed. Dr. Rossiter may have experimented on Evelyn. The men break inside as the woman yells “Rossiter” and giggles insanely over her badly mangled face.Next, we see Dr. Rossiter run down some men on the road who have set up a police blockade and then goes over a cliff. At another cottage, Martin opens the door and badly wounded Rossiter staggers in. He says the operation on Evelyn wasn’t botched, there should have been a sequence of operations, but she panicked and took off her bandages too soon. Still, the law is after him now. He recovers and says he wants to move to France to escape the law. He’s built himself a new face with Martin’s help, and he now calls himself Dr. Bernard Schuler.“Bernard,” along with Angela and Martin (who are brother and sister), move to France and look for a place to hide out. They stop to ask directions at a circus. The little girl he talks to is all scarred up from a bomb. Bernard talks to Vanet, the owner of the circus, and offers to fix the man’s daughter’s face.The operation on Vanet’s daughter Nicole proceeds quickly. Bernard removes the bandages, and she looks great. For his next trick, he wants to buy the circus from Vanet; the circus is worthless, and Bernard just wants to use it as a front. Very drunk Vanet signs the contract and then goes outside to abuse the dancing bear who promptly mauls him to death. Bernard didn’t cause it, but he didn’t help rescue him either.Bernard goes to town and watches as a prostitute stabs and robs a man. She’s got a big scar on her face, and he offers to help her look good again. She’s Elissa, and Angela does not approve of fixing her up. Bernard wants to change criminals’ faces and employ them at the circus. “A circus of criminals? No, a circus of beauty!” he exclaims.Ten years later, the circus has become very successful. Angela and Martin are still Bernard’s tagalong minions helping run things. Little Nicole has grown up to be one of the star performers, as has Elissa. Elissa complains that she deserves top billing, more so than Magda. Magda, on the other hand, plans to leave at the end of the week and let Nicole replace her. Bernard doesn’t want Magda to leave, since he “made” her.Tonight is going to be Magda’s “farewell performance,” and Angela warns Bernard that he has to let her go. She gets involved in a knife-throwing, spinning-wheel act. The knives start flying, and at one point, Martin pulls the plug on the spinning wheel, which messes up the speed at just the wrong place so the knife-thrower’s timing is off; she dies.The police inspector says this place is known as “The Jinx Circus” since there have been so many deaths among the performers. A new woman comes to see the doctor; her face has been burned up with acid. He says she’s going to be his masterpiece.The whole circus packs up and goes back to England. Crime reporter Desmond immediately takes a liking to Nicole. He wants to write a big expose story about the circus and seems surprised that Bernard and his sidekicks aren’t on board with it. He’s done a lot of research on the many deaths, and he’s starting to catch on. He starts making out with Elissa, and she might tell him what he wants to know.Desmond learns that all the dead performers had had plastic surgery at some point. He remembers Rossiter, the criminal plastic surgeon from ten years ago. He then talks to Scotland Yard.Elissa is angry when she sees that Melina, the new girl, has gotten top billing for the show. She threatens to leave if she’s not the star and then she learns about “Rossiter” by eavesdropping on Desmond and Nicole. She threatens Bernard with exposing the secret, which seems like a bad idea when she knows how many “accidents” there have been.Soon after, someone sneaks a snake into Elissa’s room. She screams, but she’s all right. She knows who did it and threatens to talk to Desmond after the show tonight. Bernard tells Martin to take care of it. During Elissa’s act, Martin messes with the rope, and she falls to her death.Desmond and the chief know that Bernard is Rossiter, but they can’t prove it. Desmond suggests bringing in Evelyn from the opening scene.That night, Bernard himself is attacked by a gorilla and gets some deep scratches on his face. He wants Martin and Angela to repair his face like before. He also announces that he’s marrying Melina, which really angers Angela.Evelyn comes to the circus and looks at Bernard, whose face is half covered in a bandage. She recognizes his ring, which we hadn’t seen before. He knows who she is as well, and he knows that she knows. Martin and Angela want out, but he won’t allow that.Tonight is Melina’s big act; she’s his masterpiece, and she’ll be in the lion’s cage. The lions, of course, will be sedated by Martin, who very well might double-cross his boss. As Melina goes into the cage for the act, Martin pulls Angela aside; they’re leaving. The lions are frisky because Martin didn’t sedate them properly, and she quickly figures that out. When she falls down, the lions are all over her.Bernard/Rossiter catches Martin and Angela leaving and fights with them. He stabs Angela, but Martin releases the angry gorilla who hates Bernard. The police nab Martin, and the gorilla nabs Rossiter.Meanwhile, crazy Evelyn steals a car and goes back to the circus. Injured Rossiter attacks Desmond as Nicole watches. As he makes his escape, Evelyn runs over him with her car. He dies.Brian’s CommentaryApparently, plastic surgery could be done on a coffee table in the 60s. The special effects for the various characters’ scars are very good. A lot of the plot itself doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, but it’s entertaining throughout.It’s… alright. Not great.Kevin’s CommentaryI thought the Elissa and Nicole actresses look too much alike. Then they brought in Melina for further confusion.It’s really a suspenseful crime drama and barely horror. The doctor is a bad guy with a giant sized ego that lets him think he can get away with anything, which is his downfall.All that aside, I thought the movie was well put together and entertaining.1973 Flesh For Frankenstein* AKA “Andy Warhol’s Frankenstein” and “Frankenstein 3D”* Directed by: Antonio Margheriti, Paul Morrissey* Written by: Paul Morrisey, Tonino Guerra, Pat Hackett* Stars: Joe Dallesandro, Udo Kier, Dalila De Lazzaro* Run Time: 1 Hour, 35 Minutes* Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment ZoneIt’s a strange and raunchy version of the Frankenstein story with lots of dark humor. The doctor creates a male and female at the same time with the intention of breeding a personal race of beings that will obey only him. The visuals, script, and direction are interesting and the cast is a collection of strange characters. We both thought it was offbeat, weird, and entertaining.Spoilery SynopsisAs the credits roll, we watch a little boy and girl, Erik and Monica, “operate” on a doll and put it in a guillotine. Later, we see the two children in a carriage with their mother, Baroness Katrin Frankenstein. Up at the castle, Baron Frankenstein yells at Otto about not keeping the lab clean.We cut to the lab, where Frankenstein has created a perfect woman to accompany his perfect man. No– the men he’s been working on are all just bits and pieces. He talks to his wife/sister about sending the children away to school, but she doesn’t approve.Two young farmhands talk about Sascha wanting to become a monk. One of them is Nicholas, and Katrin calls him out for messing with all the women. She tells him to report to her at the castle tomorrow morning.Meanwhile, Frankenstein tells Otto that he needs to find the head of a male who loves women a whole bunch. He needs to be the start of a whole new race. He tells a story about his visit to a whorehouse when he was young. What he really needs is… a Serbian!Meanwhile, at the whorehouse in town Sascha and Nicholas arrive and want to play. Sascha’s not really interested in the girls; he only has eyes for Nicholas. The baron and Otto stand outside to see who comes out. They take one look at Sascha and decide that his head is the one they want. They soon take him by surprise and take his head with a big, curved hedge-trimmer.The two villains head back to their lab and connect the head to the already-assembled man’s body they’ve been building.Nicholas reports to the baroness as ordered. She has a job for him… in the bedroom.The scientists work on the woman, and she wakes up– until Frankenstein pulls out her organs and apparently orgasms. He puts her organs back inside and then just has regular sex with her. “Why are you looking at me, you filthy thing? Turn around!” he commands. “To know death is to f**k life– right in the gallbladder!”Frankenstein and Otto turn on the electricity, and both his creatures wake up. The next project will be to reduce the gestation period so their offspring will grow more quickly.We cut to the dining room, where Frankenstein, his wife, and children are served by Nicholas. Otto brings in the two creatures to sit at the table for dinner with the family. It’s awkward and ridiculous.The monster, with Sascha’s head and brain, still has eyes for Nicholas, who clearly recognizes him. Katrin explains that she doesn’t know much about what her husband does, and he wants to check out the laboratory himself.Meanwhile, in the lab, Erik and Monica play with a disembodied hand and watch a beating heart. When their father shows up, they clear right out.The servant, Olga, comes into the lab, looking for the children, and finds the man and woman. Before she can do anything, Otto catches her and chases her into the torture chamber, where he has his way with her. He rips her open and pulls her guts out.It’s finally time to make the two creatures mate. She kisses him, but he doesn’t respond. She looks good, but since he’s playing for the wrong team, he isn’t aroused. Frankenstein takes the failure badly. He blames his wife.Nicholas breaks into the lab and talks to Sascha’s head, which is on a much taller body now. Sascha speaks; he doesn’t really care about his life, he just wants to be dead. Nicholas starts to lead them outside, but Frankenstein and Otto intervene. They knock out Nicholas and plan to use his head on the monster next. Katrin shows up, and she’s fine with all of it.Katrin decides she wants to have sex with the monster, and Frankenstein is willing to let her try. The two go off to her bedroom and get to work. They start making out, but then she tells him to squeeze her tight, and he does– until she can’t breathe and dies.Downstairs, Otto tears open the woman creature as restrained Nicholas is forced to watch. Frankenstein comes in, sees what happened, and kills Otto. The male creature carries Katrin in at this point. The monster then turns on Frankenstein, who loses his hand before getting impaled. He still manages to give a speech before dying.Sascha/The Monster says he’d rather be dead than go on like this. He tears himself open, and all his innards fall out on the floor.The two children come in and find Nicholas still tied up as they look at the pile of dead bodies. They each pick up a scalpel and move in toward Nicholas…Brian’s CommentaryAlthough it’s called “Andy Warhol’s Frankenstein,” Andy Warhol really had nothing to do with any of it other than a few visits to the set. They only used his name for advertising purposes, although there is a great deal of gaudy, tacky artworks on the walls.There are some interesting gore effects, although the color and consistency of the “blood” doesn’t hold up. It took us a long while to put two and two together to see that Frankenstein and Katrin were brother and sister as well as husband and wife; it’s no wonder the kids can’t speak. It was filmed in 3D, and there are some really obvious shots designed to take advantage of that.This one is gory, sexy, funny, and just plain weird. All kinds of weird. It’s not exactly what I’d call good, but it’s definitely unusual.Kevin’s CommentaryI’d seen this before and enjoyed it just as much this time around. Everything about it is just weird and slightly off, with a 70s vibe running through it, and that’s what makes it good. It’s weird, gross, creepy, and funny all at once.1974 Blood for Dracula* AKA “Andy Warhol’s Dracula”* Directed by: Paul Morrissey* Written by: Paul Morrissey, Pat Hackett, Bram Stoker* Stars: Joe Dallesandro, Udo Kier, Vittorio De Sica* Run Time: 1 Hour, 46 Minutes* Trailer:Spoiler-Free Judgment ZoneSickly Dracula must have virgin blood to survive, and Italy is the only place he can find one in these modern times. So he and his faithful servant set off on a road trip to find one. It’s another strange take on a classic horror tale, with plenty of dark humor. It’s a little on the long and slow side, but we still both enjoyed it.Spoilery SynopsisWe watch as Count Dracula puts on his makeup and paints his blonde hair black. Anton, Dracula’s servant, says there’s not much time, and Dracula will need to relocate to Italy, where they have lots of virgins. If he doesn’t get the blood of a virgin within two weeks, both he and his sister will die. Dracula doesn’t want to leave the castle, but he doesn’t have much choice. They put his sickly sister into her coffin; she can’t go along with them.In Italy, a bunch of girls work in their garden, and since it’s hot, Rubunia and Saphiria decide to go topless. Mario, the Italian servant, has a very New York accent.Dracula and Anton stop at a place to rent a room for the night. The landlady remarks on how thin and sickly Dracula looks, and they don’t have any food that Dracula can eat. They talk about one of the Di Fiore family who have four daughters that might be virgins, and this interests Anton a lot.The Marquis Di Fiore and his wife discuss the rich new count who has arrived in town. The family needs money, so maybe they could marry off one of their useless daughters. Anton shows up at the door with a deal. The family offers them rooms at their huge house. The Marquis really liked the name “Dracula” and can barely stop saying it.On the way out, Anton stops at a restaurant and likes a girl he sees there. She gets hit by a car, and Anton soaks up a bunch of her blood in a piece of bread. It’s tasty!At the big house, Saphiria and Rubinia make love to Mario, as a group, so they clearly aren’t virgins. He points out that the family is broke and they’re about to lose everything. He prefers their 14-year-old sister, Esmerelda.Dracula arrives at the house and makes introductions with all the girls. The girls wonder about the count. Anton and Mario clearly hate each other.Saphiria brings Dracula some vegetables to eat in his room, and he talks to her about marriage. And tries to confirm if she’s a virgin or not. When she says that she is, he bites her. And quickly regrets it as he turns green and violently vomits it back up. Meanwhile, Mario makes love to another of the sisters as they discuss aristocracy and the lower classes. Dracula rejects Saphiria for not being a virgin. Mario and Dracula argue over Communism, revolutions, and the aristocracy. Rubinia and Perla talk about Mario, Sex, and married life. Not long after, Dracula tests (and tastes) Rubinia, who also lies about her virginity. Again, he gets sick and it all comes back up.Since neither of the middle daughters are actually virgins, Anton says they’re going back to Romania. He hints that the youngest daughter might be suitable and leaves it hanging at that. A bit later, Dracula comments on how run down and shabby everything is, pointing out the family’s poverty to Esmerelda. They talk and she mentions a long engagement that didn’t work out, so Dracula just assumes she isn’t a virgin.Mario gets nosy and checks out the coffin, which he finds empty. He suddenly knows all about vampires. Rubinia and Saphirira check Perla and decide that she is a virgin; they try to take her to the count. She runs away into Mario, who tells her about vampires. He says she needs to lose her virginity before Dracula gets her, and then he makes it happen. The Marquesa soon learns about the vampire, as does everyone else. Esmerelda comes in, and she’s not feeling well. No one notices the scarf around her neck. Or the smile she gives the Count. Apparently she was a virgin after all.Meanwhile, Dracula and Anton carry the coffin back out to the car, at least until Mario smashes it with an ax. Anton stabs the Marquesa, who shoots him in the back. Mario cuts off both Dracula’s arms and chases him around the house. Then he cuts his legs off. Finally, as he’s about to stake Dracula through the heart, Esmerelda runs out screaming. “No! He belongs to me!” She jumps on the stake as well.Mario and Perla go back inside.Brian’s CommentaryThey don’t have a single virgin in Romania?Just as with the Frankenstein film, Andy Warhol had nothing to do with this other than letting the producers use his name.Dracula here goes out in the daytime and touches the cross, although he’s not happy to do either. He refuses to eat garlic.It’s got plenty of funny bits, but it’s nowhere near as over-the-top as “Flesh for Frankenstein” which shared much of the same cast and crew. The four sisters all look too similar, so it’s a little hard to tell them apart, and the acting, all around, is exaggerated and more than a little hammy.Kevin’s CommentaryI wonder why Dracula bothered using a mirror while putting on makeup in the opening credits. Though it was a good way to let us know right off the bat he’s a vampire. And speaking of bats, this version doesn’t seem to be able to shape shift. Though he’s also not too bothered by crosses or sunlight. And he does seem to have hypnotic power over women he’s bitten.This has a lot of the vibe, and same cast, as “Flesh For Frankenstein,” but it’s more slow moving and not quite the same level of weirdness. It is still strange and pretty funny though.Contact Info:Email: mailto:[email protected]:* https://www.horrorguys.com* https://www.horrormonthly.com This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.horrorweekly.com/subscribe--------37:36
- Shelby Oaks, Compulsion, Operation Undead, Alma and the Wolf, and Godzilla Vs DestoroyahMostly all new films this time around, and they’re all pretty good!We will start off with “Shelby Oaks,” then have no choice but to take a look at “Compulsion.” “Alma and the Wolf” will be stopping by before “Operation Undead” occurs. All of these are new-ish 2025 films. Lastly, we’ll watch the final film of the second Godzilla era, “Godzilla Vs Destoroyah” from 1995.This as well as the latest issue of “Horror Monthly,” issue #50, are on sale now! Check out all the back issues, as well as our other books, with one easy link: https://horrormonthly.comMainstream Films:2025 Shelby Oaks* Directed by: Chris Stuckman* Written by: Sam Liz, Chris Stuckman* Stars: Camille Sullivan, Sarah Durn* Run Time: 1 Hour, 31 Minutes* Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment ZoneIt’s a mix of documentary, found footage, and standard movie format that mixes the three smoothly together. After a quartet of paranormal investigators vanish, the sister of one of them starts an obsessive investigation of her own looking for answers. She finds some, and it’s thoroughly creepy. We both thought the movie improved as it went along, with a stronger second half, and we give it a thumbs up.Spoilery SynopsisWe’re told that Riley, the host of “Paranormal Paranoids,” went missing in 2008. We watch an old video of her talking about being scared. That was the last time anyone saw her alive. In Darke County Ohio, we hear news reports about Riley and her whole team going missing. Could it have been a hoax?Mia, Riley’s sister, has been searching for her for the past twelve years. We cut to people talking about this new thing called YouTube, and how it created a whole new type of paranormal researcher. We watch one old clip that took place in an abandoned prison, and Riley was never the same afterward. They never really got famous until their disappearance.The last evidence of the group was at a place called Shelby Oaks, a modern ghost town. Eventually three of the team were found, dead and mutilated, but Riley’s body was not found. We see that clip again, and this time, we see a creepy figure standing outside the window behind Riley. “Mia, he’s back,” she said. Mia talks about Riley’s visions from when she was little.As the interviewer and Mia finish up, a man comes to the door. “She finally let me go,” he says before shooting himself in the head. Credits roll. In his hand is a tape labelled “Shelby Oaks,” and Mia steals it.Mia watches the tape, which contains missing footage from Riley’s camera. Riley introduces the town of Shelby Oaks, but then gets all serious and wants to leave. She mentions having a dream about the place. They explore the place, but that night, there are weird sounds outside the buildings; howling and whining, like animals. We then see the man who killed himself on their doorstep come into the building and kill some of the crew.Mia sees someone standing outside looking in her window– on the second floor. Riley used to talk about the same thing happening.Detective Burke tells Mia about Wilson Miles, the man who did the killings. Mia still doesn’t tell the police about the tape. She wants to investigate on her own. Miles had been incarcerated in that old haunted prison as well, so that’s all connected. She interviews the former warden of the prison, who talks about how oddly quickly the prison deteriorated after Wilson Miles arrived there. The place literally rotted.Mia tells her husband Robert more of her suspicions, and yes, she’s seen the thing at the window a few times. The thing out there wanted something from Riley, and it’d been stalking her all her life, minus the few years when Miles was in prison. Robert thinks Mia needs psychiatric help.Mia reads about Incubuses and other demons. The pictures look familiar. Later, she sees a demon dog outside on the street. She decides, in the middle of the night, to drive right over to the abandoned CGI prison and break in, alone. Without telling anyone where she’s gone. She tracks down Wilson Miles’s prison cell and it abruptly gets very cold. Suddenly, her flashlight goes out and she sees some surprising things. She wastes no time in leaving the prison.She then drives to the old amusement park and encounters the demon dog again. This time, it leads her into the woods to a house where an old woman lives. She’s Norma. Mia notices that the house is covered in mold and rot, just like the prison. Norma says she lives with her son, who turns out to be Wilson Miles. Mia’s creeped out and sends Robert a text to call the police to her location.She finds photos of Wilson and Riley together, and she doesn’t look happy about it. Oh, and she’s pregnant in the photos. Norma comes out and opens a trap door on the floor and leads the way in. In a cell down there, Mia sees Riley, alive. It also becomes clear that old Norma isn’t human at all, or perhaps is just a human shell.Riley runs upstairs and Mia chases after her. They hear a baby crying and go into the room. Norma is there praying to Tarion, the Incubus of the North. She blesses the baby in his name. There are photos on the wall of Riley, Robert, Mia, and they’re all covered in blood. When the ritual is over, Norma falls to the floor, apparently dead. The baby, on the other hand, looks just fine.Mia takes Riley to the hospital. After twelve years, the news is all over the story. Eventually, they take Riley home, but she’s not adjusting well and is very quiet. “It has to die,” she says about the baby. The two sisters struggle, and Riley gets knocked out a window, where she’s torn apart by devil dogs. We get a good glimpse of Tarion standing behind Mia. Then it puts a hand on her shoulder.Mia then explains that Tarion had been following Riley for decades; this is what it’s always wanted. She screams, and we see that her eyes are glowing now.Brian’s CommentaryA lot of the beginning is found footage, but it moves away from that as Mia starts investigating. After that point, it starts picking up and gets good. I liked the last half quite a bit. The sets, music, lighting, and pacing all lend themselves to a very suspenseful mystery. You see just enough to know what’s going on, but they don’t beat you over the head with monsters and gore.It’s very good!Kevin’s CommentaryHmmm. A found footage documentary movie where a quartet of supernatural investigators have vanished. Will it be good or show us something new? Yes, it was quite good and unique enough to entertain me. I was pleased.The CGI when it’s used is pretty obvious, but the real abandoned locations, the interior of the prison, the town, the amusement park, were perfect.An interesting bit of trivia on IMDB.com says “In one of the posters promoting the movie, there are the names of all people contributing to the movie hidden in the poster. There were over 14,000 people included in (sic) making of the movie (including crowdfunding).”Oof. Sometimes the dragon wins as the saying goes.2025 Compulsion* Directed by: Neil Marshall* Written by: Charlotte Kirk, Neil Marshall* Stars: Charlotte Kirk, Matthew Camilleri, Zach McGowan* Run Time: 1 Hour, 41 Minutes* Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment ZoneThere’s a masked and disguised killer on the loose in Malta who does brutal work. It has a hint of the horror elements, but really it’s a sexy and violent murder mystery. The deaths are very bloody, a contrast to the beautiful people and settings. And the script is clever but flawed. We both thought it was entertaining, but had some issues.Spoilery SynopsisWe open on various shots in and around Malta. Someone in a black outfit climbs the ladder on the side of a building at night. They break in through a balcony and skulk around. The person in black watches as the man who lives in the house gets ready for a shower. Then the intruder slashes the man to death excessively. We pull back and see that the killer is a woman in a full-body BDSM suit.Detective Claudia arrives on the scene. The chief explains the case to her; she’s never done a case like this before, so he assigns her to Detective Crawford as a partner. Also, the chief is her father.Evie is on vacation in Malta, just arrived, and she gets an annoying taxi driver. She’s got a rich father, whose isolated country home she’s going to stay at, and an attitude. She listens to neighbor Diane and her boyfriend, Reese, arguing from quite a ways away.Evie runs into Diane at the local store, and they talk. Meanwhile, the two detectives look at security footage of the bondage-killer; the killer is probably not one of the locals. Diane tells Evie about the murderer on the ride back home. Evie mentions that she just broke up with her girlfriend.Back at the house, neighbor Reese invites Evie out for dinner tomorrow night. Evie notices that she can see through to their windows from her room and really likes what she sees.Later, Diane and Reese talk about Evie’s rich father and how to get his money. Reese planned to seduce Evie, but she’s a lesbian, so that’s not gonna fly. They need to devise a new plan, so the next day, Diane goes to see Evie at her house. We get a flashback to Diane watching Evie’s stepfather, Mason, getting into the safe. She scopes out the lock on the safe as Evie gets dressed. Then Diane works on seducing Evie, which isn’t especially hard.Reese goes to see some baddies about the money he owes, and the boss, Fabio, isn’t nice about it. Final warning. He’s got a week before the boss lets a henchman skin him alive.The two detectives show up to question Evie, since she’s a recent arrival to Malta who fits the demographic of the killer. They tell her not to leave the island. They go to Diana’s house right afterward. The police have found several similar murders in neighboring countries over the past few months.Diane and Evie go out for dinner, and run into the annoying cab driver. The outing does not go well for any of them. When they get home, Diane learns the security code for Evie’s house entrance.We cut to the killer’s point of view as she walks through a house with a big knife. It’s the annoying cab driver’s house, and she stabs him to death with one of Evie’s swords.Diane and Reese argue about who’s seducing whom. Evie overhears Reese talking about needing money badly. When he threatens to mess up everything, she stabs him. That doesn’t do much, but then Evie shows up and they tag team stab him repeatedly in a messy fight. He dies hard.Diane says they could just make Reese disappear and not mention any of this to the police. They wrap up the body and dump it in the ocean. We see someone is watching them from a distance. Then they make out in the hot tub as they wash the blood off each other.In the morning, someone sends a video of them loading the corpse into their car last night. It’s blackmail for $100,000 worth.The two cops get called to Madam Karmelina’s annual masquerade, as there was a report of someone dressed like the murderer showing up there. The two girls are there as well to meet the blackmailer. Everyone there is dressed sexy, so the murderer’s bondage suit doesn’t really stand out. The girls spot their pool boy, who must be the blackmailer.Someone then follows the pool boy into the bathroom, kills him, smashes his phone with the blackmail video on it, and throws it in the toilet before leaving. The police jump into action, and the two girls rush to get away. There are too many deaths connected to Evie and Diana to be a coincidence.The police return with a search warrant and soon find one of Evie’s father’s swords missing - clearly the murder weapon used on the driver. Diana calls Mason, Evie’s stepfather, about the trouble; he needs to come to Malta, which is exactly what Diana needs to get into the biometric locked safe. She also texts Claire, Evie’s former girlfriend and hears Claire’s phone pinging upstairs. Upon investigating further, Diana finds Claire’s head in a suitcase. Diana then decides to leave town– no, on second thought, Mason is arriving, and she can use him to open the safe.Evie gets released under house arrest and goes home, where Diana is waiting for her. When Diana tells Evie that Mason is on the way, she is not happy.After thinking it over, Detective Claudia decides that Diana is the serial killer and heads over there. She soon learns the truth of the matter– Evie is the killer. Diana and Evie play cat and mouse throughout the big house for a while until it all comes down to a– sword fight. Suddenly, Mason and Evie’s mother show up.Evie confronts her parents about her motivations. Then she shoots them both. Evie runs away, leaving Diana alone with the bodies. Diana cuts out Mason’s eye, which allows her to open and rob the safe, full of lots of goodies and cash.Detective Crawford arrives outside the house and finds what’s left. He has his people arrest Evie on the way to the docks. When the chief finds out that Evie killed his daughter, he rushes right over to the hospital where she is, with Crawford not far behind. The chief ends up getting shot, which makes Evie smile.We cut to Diana, now with a new hair color and on an expensive-looking boat, as she leaves Malta for good.Brian’s CommentaryThere are numerous bloody murders, a head in a suitcase, and some extreme fights, but calling this one horror may be a stretch. It’s a sort of whodunnit, but we really don’t get many clues as to the murderer’s identity. In the end, it somewhat makes sense, but there are several plot holes that we both picked up on right away.Still, it was interesting all the way through and was well shot and looked good throughout. Some of the actors’ accents were pretty bad, but that’s just the way some international films are.It’s pretty decent, but not really horror.Kevin’s CommentaryDefinitely low on horror and high on the murder mystery drama. And sex. This one had me guessing right up to the reveal what was really going on.So, they dressed up sexy and revealing and went to a costume party. Upstairs in the bathroom, the fully gimped killer takes out the blackmailing pool boy and destroys his phone with the video of them hauling out Reese’s body. Which only the two main characters knew about, so it had to be one of them? But no, because very soon, they are still dressed revealingly and leaving. Point one, that was way too little time to get in and out of that gimp rubber outfit. And point two, where did Evie have it stashed? Up her butt? I thought it was well made overall, but this and a few other points troubles me.So, I’m going to say it’s very well made, well acted, and well directed. But I had some issues with the script.2025 Alma and the Wolf* Directed by: Michael Patrick Jann* Written by: Abby Miller* Stars: Ethan Embry, Li Jun Li, Jeremie Harris* Run Time: 1 Hour, 29 Minutes* Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment ZoneA police officer with personal issues responds to a wolf attack. And things get more complicated from there when he, and us, start having a hard time telling what’s real and what’s going on. The acting is good, the effects are very cool, it’s short and moves well. Things are strange, but mostly explained in the end. We both liked it very much.Spoilery SynopsisWe’re in the Pacific Northwest for this one. The sheriff’s deputy, Ren, stands on the seashore carrying a red balloon. He gets a call and goes to investigate. On the way, he passes a girl walking on the side of the road, and she’s not looking so well. He recognizes Alma and takes her in for questioning. Ren assumes she was raped, but she calls him a dummy and says her dog was killed. A wolf and a bunch of goats did it, but she was drunk, so who knows. Eventually, he gets the full story out of her, and it’s weird. Ren explains that wolves are protected, and killing one is a felony.Alma and Ren used to be a thing back in high school; neither is looking too successful at the moment. He promises to kill the wolf for her. Ren goes to his son Jack’s game, and it’s clear that none of the townspeople much like him. Jack’s mother Connie is there too, and she hates Ren as well. There’s a whole custody argument.That night, Ren goes off looking for the wolf that killed Alma’s dog. He finds the goats she described, but they aren’t normal goats. He also finds Alma’s dog’s leash. When he sees the wolf, he fires his gun. Then he sees it turn into a wolf-man. “I am the wolf and you are the weasel,” it says before it charges at him. Still, he’s pretty drunk, so who knows?In the morning, the sheriff mentions that the lieutenant position is up between Ren and Murph. Murph brings in banana bread for the boss. Alma comes in, looking much cleaner, and wants to hear about the wolf last night. She guilt-trips him into a date. Jack comes over and talks about a talent scout that saw him at the big game.The date with Alma goes really well. Elsewhere, the wolf-man attacks Jack.In the morning, Ren gets the call about Jack going missing. He didn’t show up to school this morning and his dog was found dead. His meeting with the sheriff and Murph doesn’t go well because Connie keeps attacking Ren. As they all leave, Ashley, the town drunk, pukes all over Ren’s shoes.Ren and Murph go for a drive, and they’re attacked by goats. Ren thinks the goats will lead him to Jack, but Murph isn’t too supportive. Night falls, and they get lost. Murph explains that he’s a pacifist and doesn’t even load his gun. Jack dreams about the wolfman and goatmen, now giant-sized. He sees Alma, “Search the trees.” Then he gets a vision of Jack in the lake.In the morning, Ren gets divers to search the lake, but there’s no one there. The sheriff thinks Ren is losing his mind.When Ren gets home, he finds Alma making scary meatloaf. She believes him about the wolf, which leads to sex. Ren tells her all about his life and feelings about Jack. Then he gets a call from Alma; she wasn’t with him at all last night– it was a flaming goat!Ren runs over to Alma’s house and finds the nasty neighbor, Betty, outside the house. He shoots her. He then runs to the police station, and they say they found old Ashley in the woods with his head bashed in. Jack’s blood was on him. Everyone in town is starting to get sick, including the sheriff’s daughter.Murph and the sheriff arrest Ren for murdering Ashley and Jack. Ren denies it. They have fingerprints, and they aren’t taking his explanation seriously. “He’s coming for all of you,” Pam screams before splitting open and releasing a goatman which attacks Murph.Ren and the sheriff barricade themselves in an interrogation room as the goatmen try to break in. Then, the sheriff changes as well. Ren slips out the air duct while the sheriff holds the baddies off.Ren drives out to the woods and confronts the wolf about Jack. We then get a flashback to what happened to Jack. He ran into Ren on his walk and they argued about Ren’s drinking. Ren wanted to go swimming at the lake, and Jack couldn’t say no. It’s really cold, and Ren wants to play “Wolf and Weasel.” This goes badly, as Ren ends up drowning Jack. Ashley came upon them and Ren ended up killing him too. “You are the wolf,” says the wolf.Ren wakes up in the morning with a terrible hangover, but he now remembers what happened. He finds Jack’s corpse in his back room just as the whole police force comes to the door.Alma, as it turns out, is one of the deputies, and she asks him what happened. We see the opening scenes again how it actually was, with her as the cop finding him walking down the road. Back in the now, he sees the wolf with the cops, and it goads him into grabbing for a gun, which ends the movie. Alma shoots Ren.Brian’s CommentaryIt’s a weird “What’s going on here?” kind of story. Is this all real, or is Ren losing his mind? Or is it something else entirely? It’s a mystery that doesn’t seem at all real, but then again, maybe it is. Ren is damaged goods, and Ethan Embry does really well with the tormented character.The bits with the wolf, wolfman, and goats are really cool-looking. It could probably be debated that this isn’t a horror movie, but I liked it quite a bit.Kevin’s CommentaryDespite the title, there wasn’t all that much Alma. It’s more like Ren and his Angst and the Wolf.I was expecting something like a standard werewolf fare, but this was more strange and complicated than that. The animal/human hybrid prosthetics and effects were very cool. And I thought the cast, led by Ethan Embry, does a nice job.The tragic explanation of things at the end was not what I expected.Overall, I’d give it a thumbs up.2025 Operation Undead* Directed by: Khom Kongkiat Khomsiri* Written by: Khom Kongkiat Khomsiri* Stars: Thawatchanin Darayon, Akkarat Nimitchai, Seigi Ozeki* Run Time: 1 Hour, 50 Minutes* Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment ZoneEarly in WWII, the Japanese bring an experimental biological weapon to their frenemy Thailand. We can’t fault how it’s made, the acting and effects are all great. And there is a complete and kind of poignant story. But it was too long and drawn out, we both thought, and we found ourselves bored for some of it.Spoilery SynopsisWe open in Thailand during World War II. The Junior soldiers all get their photos taken and introduce themselves. They sneak up on a tent where another junior soldier is having sex with a prostitute they pay their fee and go in as well. The captain shows up and catches them all in the act. They all run away, but he catches them and they all have fun at the beach.Mek, one of the soldiers, hears from his girlfriend, Pen, that he’s going to be a father. He asks her to marry him; he’s already got a ring and everything. Suddenly, a man runs up and says he’s seen a bunch of iron ships with guns just over the horizon. The enemy is about to attack.The leadership discusses war strategy and talks about a special weapon they’ve been developing. We see grainy footage of what appears to be a man becoming a zombie. They will use it as a last resort.Mek and his brother Mok are called to duty; their father has already been killed. Mok wants to run away to a friend’s house, but Mek wants to serve his country as a patriot.There’s a pretty major battle. Afterward, we see a crate on the shore with a zombie inside. Mok did go to fight, and now he’s regretting it. After avoiding the zombies, he dies in quicksand– Nope– he’s rescued by the zombies, who eat him.The Japanese soldiers come ashore and survey the area. There sure are a lot of bones in camp. They soon spot some zombies, shoot some, and pursue the rest into the jungle. These are fast zombies, and it doesn’t take long for them to turn the tables.Mek is on patrol and comes into the now-deserted camp. He finds another soldier down in a pit and descends to help. He soon finds that the man’s got no face; it’s been eaten off. He burns up the man and then reports what he saw.Mok wakes up with the other zombies, and we see things from his point of view. At the hospital, another soldier tells Mek that Mok was with his unit. Elsewhere, the scientists involved with the experiment kill themselves for honor. The soldiers are told about the infected man who escaped, but that’s not who Mok saw in the woods, so it must be spreading. Captain Nakamura has been assigned to apprehend them– alive.Elsewhere, Mok remembers eating a child. He puts a pistol to his head, but then gets a flare-up that makes him self-combust. He bursts into flames. “The Fumetsu is flammable, but will it continue to evolve?”Mok wakes up in a cave later; he’s hard to kill. Not far off, Nakamura cuts himself to allow the blood to draw in the zombies. Mok hallucinates a woman who sings to him.The colonel has one of the Fumetsu in a cage and tortures it for the location of the others, which he gets. He then shoots it repeatedly, but it won’t die. They pump him full of cyanide, and Mek objects to that. It still doesn’t die.The “zombies” sit in their cave and complain about what they’ve become. Yes, they can talk and communicate with each other. Mok sings to them, and they’re all very sad.In the village, a shaman is doing a prayer dance but falls down in a seizure. The zombies come out of the woods and attack the villagers. Mok and Mek’s mother prays for her sons, not seeing one of them shambling toward the house. Mek shows up and explains that Mok is still alive, sort of. Mok is hiding in the woods and hears all this.One of the zombies, Sak, runs into his wife and daughter in the woods, and they all recognize each other. He doesn’t hurt them, but the army does, which really gets him angry. This results in a shootout. Mek arrives just in time to see all the non-infected men die.Mek shoots Mok, who falls off a cliff. Another zombie jumps out of nowhere and attacks Mek who also becomes infected.The chief scientist explains that the infected will all eventually self-destruct, and then the ash will help nature renew itself. He doesn’t seem to think the soldiers will be able to beat the Fumatsu.Nakamura and the Japanese plan to kill all the villagers to eliminate all the eyewitnesses.There is much roaring and debate amongst the zombies in the caves. Saks comes in and tells the others of Nakamura’s plan to kill their families. Mek and Mok argue about what to do to save their mother.Soon, the zombies come to the villagers, and they all recognize each other. Nakamura orders them all to be shot. Mek watches as the pregnant Pen dies and raises a counterattack. The undead start to bite Pen and the other dying people so they can “survive.”Mek makes a plan to lure all the Japanese to the cave and kill them all. Nakamura kills the head scientist and reads the part in his notes about how the Fumetsu are flammable. He calls for a flamethrower.Mok gets a vision of his dead family, dissolves into dust, but then re-forms, looking much healthier now.There’s a drawn-out battle in the caves, and most of the soldiers die. Nakamura paints himself with mud, thinking the undead can’t see him. They do see him, and he doesn’t last long after that.Mok stumbles in and picks up the flamethrower. He waits at the cave’s entrance and blasts them all on the way out. The flaming zombies then run back inside to tackle Nakamura’s zombies, and they all burn. Mok runs into the flames as well, so basically, everyone dies and the infection is eradicated.Brian’s CommentaryWe don’t see many views of WWII that aren’t from the viewpoint of one of the major powers, so this Thailand film was interesting for that alone.These are definitely the brain-eating zombie variety, and fast ones at that. Even more important, these zombies can talk and organize, which is pretty unique. It’s got some pretty good gore effects as the zombies eat through people’s heads.On the other hand, it’s very long and drawn-out. I literally caught myself dozing off at a couple of points.Kevin’s CommentaryI’m sure I’ve never seen a Thai WWII film before.This was kind of interesting how the zombified soldiers can still sort of talk and think and remember. But the movie started feeling long after the infection kicked in and things dragged on a bit in the middle. Okay, it drags a lot. The gore is over the top when it happens, and it’s technically well made, but it ended up being on the dull side overall, I thought.1995 Godzilla vs Destoroyah* Directed by: Ishiro Honda, Takao Okawara, Koji Hashimoto* Written by: Kaoru Kamigiku, Koichi Kawakita, Yosuke Nakano* Stars: Takuro Tatsumi, Yoko Ishimo, Yusufumi Hayashi* Run Time: 1 Hour, 43 Minutes* Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment ZoneThis one starts right off the bat with creature action and doesn’t let up. There’s Godzilla, and other creatures, and humans with a new super-duper fighting ship. It was the last movie of the Heisei Era, until the next era started in 1999, and it was a worthy finish. Lots of action and entertainment.Spoilery SynopsisA plane spots Godzilla out in the ocean, and he seems to be on fire. He soon shows up in Tokyo and starts his usual hijinks. Except this time, he’s glowing, all over and making steam. Credits roll.We waste no time getting back to Tokyo’s destruction. Scientists convene and talk about how he looks so different now. The Americans explain that Godzilla’s internal nuclear reactor has gone haywire. Kenichi Yemane came up with the theory, and we soon get to meet him. He’s some kind of misunderstood genius, and the son of a Godzilla expert. He refuses to go work at G-Force until he finds out that Miki is working there, and then he’s all on board.We cut to a man being interviewed about his invention, a device that makes tiny micro-oxygen atoms. It could be used as a weapon, but he just wants to use it to make larger fish. The interviewer is Yukari, Kenichi’s sister. His aunt wants to talk about Serizawa’s work from the very first movie, who invented an oxygen bomb weapon to use against Godzilla. Dr. Ijuin knows his work is similar to Serizawa’s forty years ago.Kenichi and Miki meet, and they theorize about whatever happened to Baby Godzilla– he could be dead. Godzilla is becoming overpowered with his “Reactor” messed up, and he will explode, vaporizing Earth’s entire atmosphere. If they attack and blow up Godzilla, that might even be worse. (Worse than the end of the world?)At the Tokyo Bay undersea tunnel, the workers run into a snag. Their elevator shaft is melting! This was the same site where the first Godzilla was killed forty years ago. Ijuin explains his theories about what’s going on. They find signs of life in the soil sample he took from the tunnel.Kenichi suggests to the military that they need to use a new oxygen-destroyer bomb to kill this Godzilla like they did the original. It’s non-explosive and might do the job. His aunt remembers those terrible days and warns him not to make a new bomb.At the aquarium, the security guard watches as all the fish die and turn to bones in front of his eyes. Yukari, Kenichi, and Ijuni all get called to see the results. Whatever did this has mutated from the soil of the undersea tunnel. This has been evolving ever since the original oxygen-destroyer bomb went off.A bunch of special-forces soldiers arrive at a factory to look for the new mutated creature that killed all the fish. It’s gotten a lot bigger, and it’s got an energy weapon as well. Turns out, there are more than one of them. A really big one shows up outside, and everyone sees it. It looks like the humans win this battle.Meanwhile, Godzilla goes after some nuclear reactors. The general gets the call: the new Super-X 3 is ready to launch. It’s got cadmium bombs and freeze guns. They quickly fly to where Godzilla is and blast him with the freeze gun, which does, in fact, slow him down. When they use their missiles, it appears that Godzilla is finally frozen for the next six hours. Maybe everything is over and will be fine now.Or maybe not. Miki and another psychic talk about her mental powers getting weaker; she might not even be able to contact “The Little One.”Meanwhile, at the beach, Godzilla shows up. No, this is Baby Godzilla, much more grown up and looking like a smaller version of the regular Godzilla. The big one, whose temperature is now around 900 degrees, changes course; he may be chasing Junior. The big one is heading for a dramatic, Earth-destroying meltdown– within the week!Back in Tokyo, the new creatures have been hiding inside the factory, out of sight, as the humans bring in giant freeze-guns to deal with them. The creatures soon show up in force, and the firefight begins. The creatures all seem to merge into one giant kaiju monster. Now it’s a problem! Ijuin says micro-oxygen didn’t cause this– it must be the oxygen-destroyer bomb itself. They call the new one “Destroyer” because of that. “Only that monster can stop the meltdown,” Kenichi suggests.Now they need to figure out how to get the two monsters together to fight. They get Miki and the other psychic to “steer” Baby Godzilla to the proper place.Destorayah takes the bait and zaps Baby Godzilla. They fight, and this results in tons of collateral damage in downtown Tokyo. Suddenly, the Big G shows up in town and heads for the fight. Destorayah sucks energy from Junior, who is not going to survive much longer.Destorayah has mutated, and Godzilla’s temperature continues to rise. They bring the Super-X3 back into the battle; Ijuin wants to use the weapons to freeze Godzilla to prevent the inevitable explosion.Just as the two Godillas meet, the new and improved Destorayah grabs the little one and flies off. He drops him from a great height and then shoots him repeatedly. Miki’s helicopter is shot down, and they all run to where the Baby is dying to cry– even Godzilla.Now it’s time for the two adults to fight. Super-turbocharged Godzilla is not going to mess around with the monster who hurt his son, so he goes all in this time.Miki and her friend encounter smaller versions of Destorayah, and they all gang up on Godzilla. They don’t last long, so he goes over to check out what’s left of Junior. He breathes energy in the little one and moves on.Destorayah shows up again, and there’s more fighting. Godzilla’s getting so hot that his spines are melting, and he’s leaking radiation wildly. All the freeze weapons let loose, and his radiation starts to drop. Godzilla then melts into glitter and blows away.Suddenly, all the radioactivity reduces to zero and everyone looks at the mist over Tokyo. Baby Godzilla has absorbed it all, and now he roars like his father did…Brian’s CommentaryWhat’s worse than Godzilla? Giant, flaming-hot Godzilla!This one ties in with the oxygen-bomb from the first film, which has never been mentioned since. There are also a lot of nods to “Aliens” (1986). The Destorayah creature design is ambitious, but silly looking and not very articulate.At one point, they flat out state that the original Godzilla was killed at the end of the 1954 movie, so this is a different Godzilla.This was intended to be Godzilla’s final fight until the fiftieth anniversary in 2004, the end of an era. Due to the failure of the American version, they brought him back a little earlier than planned for the next film.Kevin’s CommentaryThis one starts right off the bat with a Godzilla attack. The action is pretty steady throughout too. And the stakes are higher this time, a potential end of the world, not just the end of some cities in Japan. So it’s a worthy finish to this era of the Godzilla movies.I like how they tied things back to the first Godzilla movie from decades previous.There is a cool montage of footage from the old movies during the closing credits, showing just how much the creature and model effects improved over the years.I was pleased and entertained.Contact Info:Email: mailto:[email protected]:* https://www.horrorguys.com* https://www.horrormonthly.com This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.horrorweekly.com/subscribe--------28:38
- Bloat, Ziam, The Ritual, We Are Zombies, and Godzilla Vs. SpaceGodzillaThree new films, one from last year, and one oldie sits in the queue for us today.We’ll start off with the recent-ish “Ziam,” then look at “Bloat.” We’ve got some big stars in “The Ritual.” We’ll then finish up with the comedic “We Are Zombies” and the kaiju-fest, “Godzilla Vs. SpaceGodzilla.”“The Horror Guys Guide to the Horror Films of Christmas” is available now wherever you get your books. Seventy-Five holiday-themed films are included— it’s our biggest book yet!This as well as the latest issue of “Horror Monthly,” issue #50, are on sale now! Check out all the back issues, as well as our other books, with one easy link: https://horrormonthly.comMainstream Films:2025 Ziam* Directed by: Kulp Kaljareuk* Written by: Vathanyu Ingkawiwat, Kulp Kaljareuk, Nut Nualpang* Stars: Mark Prin Suparat, Nuttanicha Dungwattanawanich, Vayla Wanvayla Boonnithipaisit* Run Time: 1 Hour, 35 Minutes* Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment ZoneIt’s a fast zombie movie, well made and set in Thailand, slightly in the future. The main character is a trained and experienced fighter, so he participates in a lot of combat both before and during the outbreak. It was fairly entertaining, but didn’t feel like much we haven’t already seen before.Spoilery SynopsisWe hear about the collapse of the environment and possibly the end of humanity. The Thai government has been on lockdown for the past ten years, so they still have their resources, or at least that’s what the propaganda on the radio says.Singh is quitting his job and daydreams about his girlfriend, Rin. He might go back to kickboxing, which he’s good at. The two drive into the food-insect farm in the apocalyptic wasteland. As they park the truck, bandits approach, but Singh fights them off. The bandits don’t stand a chance.There are riots and fighting all over Bangkok. Singh’s friend is elated to find that they’ve been carrying a load of dried fish in the truck. We cut to Mr. Vasu, who runs the company and kept the people from starving. We see that Vasu has invented a new kind of “safe” fish, and this is what Singh’s friend got. All the businessmen and investors get a sample, but then the convulsions start.At home, Rin nags at Singh about his dangerous job. She realizes that right now, there aren’t many options. Rin’s a doctor who works at the nearby hospital. She gets called by the hospital administrator for an important case: Mr. Vasu’s wife. Vasu thinks fish liver can improve his wife’s condition, but Rin isn’t sure the fish is even healthy. Meanwhile, Vasu’s partner, Purich, dies bloodily on the operating table, a victim of the fish.Purich then wakes back up, now a zombie. Rin gets a firsthand experience with him in the hallway.Singh hears that there’s an emergency at the hospital. He arrives just in time to watch some people fall off the roof– and keep moving afterward. It’s a fast-spreading outbreak of a fast-zombie virus. Soon, the whole hospital is crawling with zombies, and Rin is pretty much on her own.Singh gets inside and immediately has to start fighting zombies. Rin’s young friend, Buddy, also has to hide from the monsters until Singh shows up to help him.The government decides to blow up the hospital; it’s better than losing the whole city then the country. Demolition level explosives with a nice long timer are placed.Ren and Buddy search for Rin and Buddy’s mom, but there are a lot of zombies to avoid on the way. They find Buddy’s mother, but she’s been bitten and knows how that’s going to go, so she sends the boy with Singh. Singh fights off a bunch of zombies, using just his feet, while carrying Buddy on his back.Rin comes to Mr. Vasu’s room, and he lets her in. He lets her in and says she’ll be safe here. The government sends men to rescue Vasu. They arrive by helicopter and set the bombs for thirty minutes.Singh and Rin are eventually reunited, and he’s shot almost immediately after. Vasu’s men grab Rin and drag her off to care for Vasu’s wife. Singh gets right back up and attacks the soldiers. It’s quite a battle, but never doubt who’s going to win. By the time he wakes up, Rin has him all patched up.Meanwhile, some of the zombies downstairs are getting really messed up. Singh runs into Vasu, who watches his wife turning into one of the creatures. She bites him as many more flood into the ward.Rin and Buddy run as Singh tries to hold off the zombies. Rin and Buddy make it to the helicopter on the roof and work to convince the men there that she’s not infected. Singh makes it up to the roof and staggers toward the helicopter, but the copter takes off and leaves him there.The explosives go off, the whole hospital collapses. Rin and Buddy fly off to safety. Later, back in her small village, Rin is safe.Somehow, we see that Singh has survived the zombies and the collapse of the hospital and is still kicking zombie ass in the city…Brian’s CommentaryIt’s well made, and being from Thailand makes it interesting, but it’s nothing new. The acting looks fine, but we saw a dubbed version, and the voices were less than stellar.Nothing new here to see.Kevin’s CommentaryLike Brian said, it’s Thai, which makes it a novelty for us, and it’s put together well. But it’s just another fast zombie movie.Singh’s combat abilities and endurance after damage weren’t too realistic, but then it’s not a realistic movie. I was going to say they might as well have just had Singh show up at the end. Then they did. Which is completely ridiculous after he was on the roof of a building that was demolished by explosives.I was fairly entertained through most of it, but it wasn’t that memorable.2025 Bloat* Directed by: Pablo Absento* Written by: Pablo Absento, Buddy Giovinazzo* Stars: Ben McKenzie, Bojana Novakovic, Malcolm Fuller* Run Time: 1 Hour, 26 Minutes* Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment ZoneThis is another “screenlife” subgenre of horror, a film that’s entirely made up of videos, web pages, emails, video chat, etc. And it was brought to us by Apple. A father has to deal remotely with a son in Japan, along with another son and his wife, who are struggling with the supernatural. Bloat is a perfect title - it’s not a bad little story but it’s bloated out into a full length movie that didn’t impress either of us very much.Spoilery SynopsisWe watch a phone video of a woman giving birth; there’s something wrong with the baby. He reads a text “It’s time to move on. Jack, we’ve lost our child. It’s time to move on.” Jack and Hannah then decide to move to Tokyo. We watch a “Trip planning montage” which looks a lot like an ad for Apple. There’s suddenly an attack in the middle east, and Jack’s leave gets cancelled.Hannah and her two sons end up going to Tokyo without Jack. We watch Jack and Hannah talking through Facetime. Suddenly, Hannah drops the phone and runs away, leaving Jack hanging. We then see headlines that four boys drowned that day at the park, and Jack’s son Kyle was one of them, but he miraculously survived.Jack tries to get more information, but it’s hard since Hannah lost her phone and the other son, Steve, can’t use his phone in the hospital. Jack watches news footage over and over. What is that green stuff coming out of Kyle’s mouth?Afterward, Kyle is different. He bites his brother, but Jack is too busy managing drone strikes to pay full attention.Jack talks to a psychologist about Kyle’s weird behavior. We see a video of Kyle discussing his drowning experience with the doctor. He then goes on to research PTSD and a website for “PARENTS OF POSSESSED KIDS.”Kyle wants a drone for Christmas, and he’s also interested in bugs now. Kyle starts texting Jack in Japanese, but he doesn’t speak Japanese. Steve complains that Kyle is different; he eats rotten cucumbers now.Jack watches an old video of Hannah dumping the dead baby’s ashes in the lake and gets depressed. He then watches some clearly fake YouTube videos of supernatural stuff. We then get a long montage of conspiracy videos and blogs.Hannah calls Jack and says that Steve has disappeared. Jack gets a video of what Steve did last night; he followed Kyle out to the woods. Turns out, Steve thinks he’s been hanging out with some kind of little monsters. Steve also thinks his mother is back on drugs.Jack calls his friend Ryan, who’s still in Tokyo, to check on the family. Jack also orders a bunch of “trail cams” for Steve to set up out in the woods. Hannah seems to be in denial about all the weirdness. Ryan goes to see a Buddhist monk, and he says there’s a “Kappa” in one of Steve’s videos. They usually kill children, not possess them. There was another case about 15 years ago, but the old monk doesn’t know much about that time. “The kappa will swallow the boy’s soul. Then it will be impossible to save him.” It can be killed with fire. Jack researches the previous case, but that boy ended up dying. He then calls the father of the dead boy, who is now in prison for murder.There’s a typhoon coming in, so there’s no way for Jack to get to Japan. Ryan has night-vision goggles and wants to go watch the kappa in the forest. Jack calls Hannah, who seems to be out of her mind and likely possessed as well.Ryan sees the kappa in the woods and shoots it, but then his gun jams. Jack watches as the kappa swallows Ryan.Jack deserts his post and flies to Japan. He finds Hannah dead with her face half-eaten. Jack then burns down the house with Kyle inside. Jack runs back into the burning house but still holds his iphone camera up for us all to see. Apparently it was the sweet spot of killing the kappa with fire while saving Kyle.In the morning, Jack is arrested for the murder of his wife and military desertion. There’s a court-martial, and he faces a 45-year sentence. Steve and Kyle both testify at the trial.Brian’s CommentaryTIL what “Screenlife” is. I hate it. It made sense back in the days of COVID when two actors couldn’t be in the same room with each other, but why do it now?The whole thing is told through Facetime, Skype, texts, Instagram, Google searches, and other computer communications apps. It’s got more screen recordings than one of those Apple Keynote events. Half the time, these people’s WiFi is on the fritz, so we often only get bits and pieces of the conversation.The hardest thing to believe in this film is that he watched all those online videos without a single annoying ad.I don’t care for the way it was filmed, but the acting is decent. The main problem is that it’s such a weak story– it felt like a 20 minute short film with far too much padding. And there’s not a real ending, which makes it all worse.Kevin’s CommentaryI find the “screenlife” genre kind of tiresome and exhausting to watch. They play up glitchy video, bad connections, and so forth when it’s useful. Though it lends to Jack’s frustration and tension in this case. And they could show some things and angles they wouldn’t normally be able to. So I have mixed feelings on this one but it leans toward dislike. The dislike grew as the movie progressed without a lot of progression and remained a pretty weak story.2025 The Ritual* Directed by: David Midell* Written by: David Midell, Enrico Natala* Stars: Al Pacino, Dan Stevens, Ashley Greene* Run Time: 1 Hour, 38 Minutes* Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment ZoneIt’s a movie based on the 1928 exorcism of a young woman named Emma Schmidt. The cast is very good. As far as films go, it’s well made though kind of slow at times. Overall, it didn’t feel like anything we hadn’t seen before. It didn’t do much for either of us.Spoilery SynopsisWe see a very frightened priest praying as credits roll.Nine days earlier, in 1928 Iowa, the priest, Father Joseph Steiger, gives his sermon and mentions that his brother just recently died. The bishop shows up unexpectedly and hands him the psychiatric report on a very troubled woman. The woman’s parish wants to do an exorcism. Father Riesinger has been assigned to do that, but they want to do it here, at Steiger’s church.Steiger sets up a private train car for Emma Schmidt, and he suggests to the train people that she’s a little crazy and a little dangerous, so they need to stay away from her. Father Theophilus arrives, and he’s a little strange. He explains what he needs to do the ritual. Riesinger and Steiger don’t agree that it’s a supernatural problem; the old man is sure that it is, but Steiger is more rational about it all, suspecting mental illness.They get everything set up and start the first ritual. The religious people all say a blessing, and Emma goes into convulsions. That’s pretty much it for the first day.On the second day, it’s much the same, but Emma tries to get all sexy with Steiger and attacks Sister Rose, yanking out a bunch of her hair. Riesinger says that’s why he wanted her restrained, so Steiger has to agree.On the third ritual, they tie Emma down, and the convulsions get excessive. This time, furniture in the room starts to fall over and move.One the fourth day, Emma asks about Stieger’s dead brother, and Riesinger burns her with a cross. By the next day, she’s all covered in sores and blisters. One of the nuns gets her hand crushed.Steiger learns that Riesinger knew Emma when she was a little girl and thinks there’s something wrong with that. The two priests debate the whole project. The Mother Superior wants this whole thing to be done; she gives them one more week. She also wants Emma moved to the basement.Stieger starts getting more and more distracted and obsessed with the whole thing, and so are the parishioners. The bishop shows up for an inspection, and he’s not pleased either, but insists that they continue. Steiger admits to Sister Rose that he doesn’t know what he’s doing.There are more rituals, and they get more and more upsetting for Steiger. Weird things start happening all through the convent. Riesinger gives him a pep talk.Riesinger says this is the final battle, they can’t stop or let up any more. Emma escapes into the catacombs (in Iowa?) and they all go looking for her. They find her, and it all gets very loud and dramatic. Finally, everyone works together, and the evil is sucked right out of Emma.Brian’s CommentaryYep, it’s another exorcism movie with two priests and an excess of angst.Al Pacino plays “doddering old man” really well, but he’s not very interesting. I have no idea what was up with that accent. Dan Stevens is great as always. The acting overall is good, with the exception of Pacino who’s clearly playing a stereotype.There are numerous “jump scares” that are simply loud noises covering something pretty mundane. The special effects, what there are of them, are really minimal. The shaky camerawork is overdone to the point where it gets annoying. Maybe the worst part is that we’ve seen it all before and this movie adds nothing new to the genre.Kevin’s CommentaryThey lost me right at the beginning when they said it’s based on true events from the most documented case of demonic possession in history. Information about the real case is kind of interesting https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Ecklund. Apparently it was successful in 1928 and Ecklund (a pseudonym given to her to protect her identity) only exhibited “milder” and “quite manageable” possessions after that.Did they elevate my opinion as the movie went along? Well, it had a powerhouse duet of actors in the two lead roles and Abigail Cowen does a fine job as Emma, as does the other cast. And as a movie it’s decently put together, if a little slow at times. But it’s an hour and a half of “possession” symptoms and priests showing that God is all powerful as long as you say the right combination of magic words with rituals. They do have plenty of shaky cameras, loud music, and the occasional jump scare to spice things up.I’d say I wasn’t impressed, and I was barely entertained.2024 We Are Zombies* Directed by: Francois Simard, Anouk Whissell, Yoann-Karl Whissell* Written by: Jerry Frissen, Francois Simard, Anouk Whissell* Stars: Alexandre Nachi, Derek Johns, Megan Peta Hill* Run Time: 1 Hour, 20 Minutes* Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment ZoneSet in a world where the dead come back to life, as non-cannibal zombies who are in various states of functionality and have rights. We join an eccentric trio as they make their way through a world of strangeness, trying to make money and keep their grandmother safe. With greed and big money playing a role, things get violent. It’s weird and funny, with a good cast and excellent effects. We really enjoyed it.Spoilery SynopsisWe open on a zombie walking through an alley downtown. It sneaks up on a guy getting takeout. The zombie is annoying and begs for change. Credits roll.Freddy complains about the beggar-zombie to Karl and then goes back to rip off the dead man’s jaw for a gold tooth. Maggie calls, and she’s got another pickup for them. We watch a news report: zombies are here, but they aren’t eating brains, so we have to just live with them. Zombies are taking all the jobs. The undead want equal rights.Freddy and Karl go to a man’s apartment. They’ve been called to remove the family’s grandfather, who has become living-impaired. It goes badly, and they pull the man’s head off, which only slows him down a little. Turns out, Freddy and Karl don’t really work for the Coleman company; they’re crooks. They take the old man to Don, who doesn’t want to pay full price for this one, since he’s damaged.We then cut to a commercial from Bob Coleman. They’re busy studying the zombies and the secrets of the mind. They keep the zombies in cages and run experiments on them.Karl, Freddy, and Maggie go out for lunch, and Freddy gets an ear in his fries. Stanley and Rocco, the guys from the actual Coleman company get chewed out for having their clients stolen.Karl and Freddy go out on another call, and this time, they’re Tased and tied to chairs. It’s now-undead-Rocco and Stanley, and they’re both really stupid. After Rocco shoots himself, Stanley sends them home and kidnaps Karl’s grandma instead.Karl goes to see Don, who likes him in an uncomfortable way. Don’s got a high-profile pickup for them. But first, they watch an “art show” that involves the zombies. Otto is the artist, and he’s also the client. He wants them to kidnap Zelvirella, a dead porn star. The only problem is that she’s being held by Coleman.Meanwhile, at Coleman, they have a new project in the works that makes zombies’ heads explode. That goes badly for Hannity, the security chief.Freddy and Stanley break into the Coleman cemetery and start digging. They dig up Zelvirella, who is not much more than a skeleton now. Just then, the security guys start shooting at them.Coleman dies in an accident and then becomes living-and-brain-impaired. Hannity is now taking over the company.Stanley and Rocco are even dumber than Karl and Freddy, and old Granny gets shot.Maggie admits that Stanley is her ex, and they all know each other. Karl knows a webcam girl that looks like Zelvirella, and maybe they can kidnap her to take to Don and Otto? She’s a ZILF. Karl goes to see the girl and convinces her to go off with them.Hannity tests the special gas again, and this makes peaceful old zombie Coleman into a regular, aggressive flesh-eating zombie.There’s a big celebration at Otto’s place, and the press is there in force to report. Mother Teresa and all the famous living-impaired show up. Hannity releases his special gas into the air vents, which starts to affect the zombies– and they all get hungry for living flesh.Otto sees Zelvirella and he approves. Karl gets jealous and spills the beans about her not being the real thing. Just then, Mother Teresa breaks in and eats Otto. Don tries to make an exit and gets torn apart.Karl, Freddy, and Maggie are on the news as terrorists who attacked the club. They all apologize to each other for all their arguing. They all decide to fight their way out of the zombie-filled club, and many things go wrong. Turns out, they are good at fighting the undead.Hannity comes in and plans to expose the four heroes as terrorists. Out of the blue, Stanley takes off his mask and turns against his boss. Undead Hannity then shoots Freddy. Undead Freddy then sits up– no, he’s still alive; Hannity only shot the ring box in his pocket. Stanley has run off with the money, but he gets bitten on the way out.Two weeks later, Granny and Rocco are living together. The zombie infection spread like crazy, and it’s now the real zombie apocalypse...Brian’s CommentaryIt’s a very unusual take on the usual zombie tropes, all played for laughs. The gore effects and zombies are well done, but not excessive; well, OK, one of them is a bit excessive.It’s pretty good!Kevin’s CommentaryI liked the unique path that this one takes. It isn’t a typical zombie apocalypse - some of them are brain damaged and some of them are highly functional - at least until the evil corporation gets involved. I liked this one a lot.1994 Godzilla vs SpaceGodzilla* Directed by: Kensho Yamashita, Takao Okawara, Kazuki Omori* Written by: Kanji Kashiwa, Hiroshi Kashiwabara, Shinichiro Kobayashi* Stars: Jun Hashizume, Megumi Odaka, Zenkichi Yoneyama* Run Time: 1 Hour, 46 Minutes* Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment ZoneThis was the 40th anniversary Godzilla film. Mothra is back as well as the big G, plus the humans have a new giant robot Moguera. But most of all, there’s Space Godzilla who formed from some of Godzilla’s cells and wants to destroy Earth for some reason. There’s battles galore and lots of stuff that the people do in this one as well in this outing that leans into science fiction. It was entertaining.Spoilery SynopsisWe see a spiky glowing thing flying through space, eventually crashing on an island on Earth. We then hear Godzilla roar.We cut to a huge underground where Moguera is being built; it’s another giant kaiju-fighting machine. Star Falcon is there as well; it all looks very modular.We cut to the telepathic institute, where they plan to mentally control Godzilla. Miki and the telepathic children from previous films are learning to do all this. She remembers back when Mothra flew off into space and released many little baby “moths.”Two men land on an island and start climbing the mountain. They’re Shinjo and Sato. When they get to the top, they run into Yuki, another guy they weren’t expecting. They all run into Baby Godzilla from the previous film and set up camp.The scientists and military talk to NASA, who explains that a kaiju has attacked and destroyed the space station.Miki’s magic earrings glow, and one of the mini-Mothras appears. It brings the two fairies, who warn that Earth is facing a terrible crisis. There’s a space monster coming to kill Godzilla and conquer the Earth. She decides to help the institute with their telepathic weapon thing.The three men on the island are digging holes. They’re planting tear gas mines for Godzilla. Yuki has a special coagulant-filled bullet that he thinks could kill Godzilla. The two newcomers are here for Project T, the telepathy project, and they don’t want to kill Big G.Miki, Dr. Okubo, and Gondo arrive at the island to prepare for Godzilla’s return. He comes back every so often to tend to the baby. Meanwhile, the military launches Moguera to prepare to fight the space invader. When the Baby steps on a tear gas landmine, Miki senses that the big Godzilla is on the move.He soon arrives. Koji shoots him with a bazooka that implants a device that will amplify Miki’s telepathy and allow her to control him. Yuki still has his poison bullet, but he just can’t get the right shot.Moguera and the thing in space have a battle among the asteroids. We soon see that the alien creature looks an awful lot like Godzilla. Moguera flies off, out of control, as the monster proceeds toward Earth.Something goes wrong with the machinery and feedback nearly kills Miki. When she wakes up, she knows about the space monster.Just as Yuki is about to kill Godzilla, the big space monster lands on the island. He’s SPACEGODZILLA, and the baby doesn’t like him. SpaceGodzilla looks like the regular version, but with more embedded crystals and shoulder pads.SpaceGodzilla attacks the baby, and it’s no contest. Godzilla shows up right away, and uses his atomic blast on the alien, who has the ability to fly and shoot as well. SpaceGodzilla knocks down Godzilla and then kidnaps the baby. Afterwards, even Yuki thinks it’s had enough of a bad day.Godzilla leaves the island, and the humans all pack up. Miki decides to stay behind. Experts analyze the DNA and decide that the space monster is essentially Godzilla, but with bits of Mothra and Biollante’s genetics mixed in with some crystal organisms.Yuki is assigned to be the new pilot for Moguera.Baby Mothra tells Miki that she can solve all this if she works hard enough. Shinjo wants to talk about romance, but Miki only has eyes for Godzilla. That night, ninjas kidnap Miki.Yuki leads Shinko and Sato into a building controlled by the Japanese Mafia to rescue Miki. Dr. Okubo has turned traitor and wants to lure Godzilla to where they are. There’s a gunfight, and they rescue Miki just as SpaceGodzilla attacks Tokyo and destroys the bad guys’ building.Yuki, Shinjo, and Sato board Moguera. SpaceGodzilla makes big crystal spikes grow out of the ground, destroying the buildings and creating his own Fortress of Solitude. Moguera, under Yuki’s control, goes after Godzilla instead of the space invader, annoying everyone. Shinjo knocks him out and takes over.Moguera arrives near SpaceGodzilla and starts shooting. It goes pretty well until the guys inside it decide to use the big drill weapon, which requires close contact and goes poorly for Moguera. But they take off, and Godzilla finally makes it there.The two living monsters start their battle, and before long, SpaceGodzilla lifts up Godzilla using his tractor beams and throws him across town. SpaceGodzilla then shoots ice crystals at Godzilla.Moguera splits in two; a land-based portion and a flying piece. They need to destroy the power tower that SpaceGodzilla is draining. Miki and Gondo steal a boat to go over to where the battle is taking place.Yuki and Godzilla destroy the tower, reducing SpaceGodzilla’s powers. The two halves of Moguera then rejoin, and everyone is pleased with Yuki again. Moguera and Godazilla continue to pound on the space monster and blow up his shoulder pads.Moguera gets knocked out of the sky and Shinjo and Sato abandon ship; Yuki demands to stay behind and use his special bullet on Godzilla as per his original vendetta. That doesn’t work, so Yuki flies the machine into SpaceGodzilla, kamikaze-style. Shinjo rushes to the crash site to rescue Yuki, who explains that SpaceGodzilla is dying and will explode real soon now.SpaceGodzilla does explode, taking what looks to be half the city with it. Godzilla roars in victory and heads off back to the ocean. Yuki gives up his special bullet. Fairy Mothra tells Miki that she’s saved planet Earth.Brian’s CommentaryThe music is pure 80s superhero stuff; overblown, loud, and very energetic. It’s got a giant robot, two monsters, ninjas, mafiosos, telepathy, a mad scientist, and a vengeance-crazed soldier. What more could a movie want?Kevin’s CommentaryThat presentation the expert gives explaining the scientific origin of Space Godzilla is a short, but pretty impressive, stream of technobabble. It’s really best not to think about the science and science fiction here. But I thought this one was above average for entertainment. It’s lively and fast moving with lots going on.Contact Info:Email: mailto:[email protected]:* https://www.horrorguys.com* https://www.horrormonthly.com This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.horrorweekly.com/subscribe--------33:14
- Frankenstein, Black Phone 2, The Elixir, The Mannequin, and Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla 2This time around, we have four new films and one oldie. We’ll start off with the much-hyped “Frankenstein” which just came out on Netflix. Next, we’ll watch an international film, “The Elixir” and also “The Mannequin,” which are also new releases. Finishing up the new stuff this week, we’ll take a look at “Black Phone 2.” Last, we’ll continue our Godzilla coverage with “Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla II” from 1993.“The Horror Guys Guide to the Horror Films of Christmas” is available now wherever you get your books. Seventy-Five holiday-themed films are included— it’s our biggest book yet!This as well as the latest issue of “Horror Monthly,” issue #50, are on sale now! Check out all the back issues, as well as our other books, with one easy link: https://horrormonthly.comMainstream Films:2025 Frankenstein* Directed by: Guillermo del Toro* Written by: Guillermo del Toro, Mary Shelley* Stars: Oscar Isaac, Jacob Elordi, Christoph Waltz* Run Time: 2 Hours, 29 Minutes* Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment ZoneBasically, Dr. Frankenstein assembles a man out of corpse parts and brings him to life. But it’s not a smooth process and things get complicated. This version follows the original book somewhat closer than the classic Hammer and Universal film versions, and it goes much more into the moral and emotional complications. Beautifully filmed and directed, it’s long but entertaining. We both thought it’s really good.Spoilery SynopsisPreludeIn the farthestmost North, in 1857, we open on a ship frozen in the ice. The men work on the ice with axes. They are on a mission to find the North Pole. The men report an explosion and fire about two miles away, and they go to investigate. They find a wounded man who’s lost a lot of blood. They bring the unconscious man back to the ship, but there’s something else out there on the ice. They shoot it repeatedly, but that has little effect. It clearly wants the injured man, and it threatens to capsize the huge ship all on its own to get to him. The men shoot the ice beneath the monster and it sinks to the bottom of the ocean.The sick man, Victor, says the monster will come back for them, “It can not die. I made him.” As he recovers, he offers to tell the captain his story.Chapter 1: Victor’s StoryVictor’s father was a wealthy baron and a surgeon who was away much of the time, leaving Victor home with his mother. The father was abusive, but also taught Victor all about medicine. Something goes wrong with his mother’s pregnancy, and she dies. The baby, William, survives and soon becomes the father’s favorite. His father explains that “No one can conquer death.” Victor then decided to become the greatest doctor of all time.At the medical school, Victor demonstrates a machine he’s made that animates bits and pieces of a corpse. It’s quite a demonstration. The other doctors call it an unholy abomination.Mr. Harlander comes to visit; he saw the demonstration. Victor’s brother, William, is coming for a visit as he’s planning to be married. Harlander is something of a doctor himself, and he’s got new information about the nervous system that can help Victor– and financing as well. Harlander is making obscene amounts of money from weapons dealing because there’s a war on.Victor meets William and his fiancee Elizabeth, who looks exactly like Victor’s dead mother. Victor and Elizabeth start arguing right away. Harlander rents a scary old castle for Victor to do his work in, and it’s… excessive. They start assembling equipment and looking for bodies– even before they’re hanged.Meanwhile, Victor starts stalking Elizabeth. He pretends to be a priest to take her confession– nope, they’re just playing a game; they’re actually getting closer as William is busy managing the assembly of the lab. It’s a lot of work, and Victor is taking him for granted as he steals his gal away at the same time.Harlander catches on to the affair and tells Victor to hurry up before the funding dries up. The war is having one final battle, and Victor gets his choice of all the good body parts. He gets down to the business of assembling the perfect body with Harlander photographing and documenting everything. Harlander reveals that he’s dying of syphilis and wants to be “included” in the experiment - put his brain in the new healthy body. Victor says there’s nothing left of Harlander that’s not infected, so he won’t do it.It’s finally finished, and just then, a thunderstorm approaches. Victor gets the body into the machine and gets everything set up. Harlander, angry about being rejected, threatens to ruin everything, and Victor kills him accidentally. The lightning rod collector piece is damaged in the struggle, but Victor has no time to fix it.Lightning strikes, and all sorts of things happen– except the body doesn’t live. It failed. Victor goes to bed.When he wakes up, the creature is standing next to the bed, very much alive. He’s tall, gray, and scarred all over. He shows it around the castle, and it all goes pretty well for a while. Then he chains it up like a prisoner; he never considered what to do after the creature came to life.Weeks pass, and the creature learns some things, but he still doesn’t speak other than to say “Victor.” He cuts himself and heals almost instantly. Victor’s a rotten parent and teacher. William and Elizabeth arrive for a surprise visit, and she meets the creature accidentally. She thinks Victor has been abusing and neglecting it, and she’s nice to it.One night, Victor is beating on the creature and sees just how strong it really is. He blames Harlander’s death on the creature, telling William that it’s violent and dangerous. Victor sends William and Elizabeth home and then burns the lab, the castle, and the dungeon. With the creature still chained up inside. The whole castle explodes and collapses, and Victor loses a leg in the blast.Back on the ship, the monster arrives and breaks in. The captain wants to hear his side of the story.Part II The Creature’s TaleWe continue with the fire. He broke out of the chains and got out of the castle through the drain. It’s a rough fall, but he survives and walks away. He finds the pile of corpses and body parts that Victor threw out and takes some clothing from one of them. He’s almost immediately chased by hunters and shot.He goes off and hides in the barn of a farmhouse. The family in the farmhouse talk to the hunters. The creature sees and hears them through the cracks in the wall; he especially likes the old blind man, the grandfather. The creature watched and learned as the old man taught the little girl to speak and read. Each night, he did chores and made things for the family, but they never saw him.There’s a wolf attack on the family’s sheep, and most of them plan to hunt them in the mountains all winter. They leave the old blind man home alone, and the creature eventually reveals himself to the old man. The old man is nice to him, which is a new experience for the creature. They have conversations, the creature reads books and gains a lot of knowledge.The creature makes a return visit to Victor’s castle and learns what he really is. He also learns where Victor lives. When he returns to the old man’s house, the wolves have killed him. Just then, the family returns and stabs and shoots the creature repeatedly. It takes a while, but he gets back up, his wounds healed.Meanwhile, Victor is back at the family home; William’s wedding is fast approaching. The creature has tracked him down and watches the house from the nearby woods. They finally meet, and Victor wants the creature to thank him. The creature, on the other hand, wants Victor to make him a companion. “I cannot die, and I cannot live alone.”Victor, unsurprisingly, refuses to listen. Victor then shoots Elizabeth by mistake and the creature kills William. He carries Elizabeth out of the mansion and into a nearby cave. As she slowly dies, Elizabeth tells the creature that she’s happier dead and that she loves the monster.The monster decides that Victor will regret his decision and the hunt begins. Victor chases the monster through the mountains up to the arctic. The monster finally catches him. The monster simply wants to die at this point, and he holds onto a piece of Victor’s dynamite to see what will happen. He goes boom, but that still doesn’t kill him. He starts healing immediately. This is where the men from the ship came into the story.On the ship, Victor apologizes to the creature. They talk about life and death and unending life. The monster then forgives Victor as his creator dies.The captain then allows the creature to leave without a fight. The creature walks out onto the ice and pushes the ship free from where it’s been trapped. The captain announces he will give up his impossible mission and just go home. The creature, on the other hand, walks off into the sunrise…Brian’s CommentaryThe visuals are amazing here, both colorful and drab at the same time. They change around the family dynamic with Victor and the crew, but it sticks pretty closely with the book for the major plot points.Most of the effects are practical, and when the CGI does appear, such as with the wolf attack, it’s noticeably bad. Otherwise, it looks great, the acting is excellent all around, and even though it’s two and a half hours, it never gets boring and never slows down.The ending is different from the book. It’s not exactly a happy ending, but it’s not like the book, either. I’m not sure why del Toro felt the need to change the ending, but he did.Overall, it’s a very good movie, but it’s still not a perfect adaptation of the original book– but it’s close.Kevin’s CommentaryThe director pushed for practical sets, and they look great. Unfortunately, at least when viewed on a television screen, it makes the CGI use more noticeable. And we also noticed how multiple places - such as the lab, Captain’s cabin, and blind man’s house are all bigger on the inside.It’s a long film, but it moves well, and I was never bored.All in all, I thought it was a grand and satisfying version of the story. I liked it a lot.2025 The Elixir* AKA “Abadi Nan Jaya”* Directed by: Kimmo Stambel* Written by: Agasyah Karim, Khalid Kashogi, Kimo Stamboel* Stars: Mikha Tambayong, Eva Celia Latjuba, Donny Damara* Run Time: 1 Hour, 56 Minutes* Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment ZoneIt’s a frenetic attack of fast zombies that only has a short interval of getting to know some characters before it starts going full tilt. The effects and action sequences are all excellent. There isn’t a lot that’s very new here, but it’s well made and entertaining.Spoilery SynopsisWe open on a big party for a circumcision ceremony. Ningsih and her boyfriend argue over him proposing or not. He’s about to do it when the phone rings. He has to go back to work and promises to return later. Suddenly, a car comes out of nowhere and crashes the party– literally. At first, they think the driver is drunk, but no, he’s a zombie. Credits roll.Five hours earlier, the herbalist company makes some kind of new “medicine” and sends it to the boss by motorcycle courier. The courier drives through the place where they’re setting up the party for later. He arrives at the boss’s house with his sample.Rud, Nes, and Han talk about a business arrangement with her father, Sadimin. Meanwhile, Karina talks to Sadmin, the boss, about his “sample” from the lab. She wants to go on another honeymoon with him. Nes won’t speak with Karina, and hasn’t for the past three years. Little Han complains to his uncle that his parents are always fighting; Rud runs the company for her father, who is retiring. The uncle, Bambang, seems to have a lot of guns in his bedroom.Sadimin looks in the mirror after his sample, and he looks quite a bit younger– it works! As he has sex with his young wife, we see something nasty growing on his back. He then decides he doesn’t want to sell his company, which annoys Rud and Ical, who were hoping for a big payout. This new product, this elixir, changes everything!As the family argues, Sadimin begins to throb and pulse. Soon, he’s screaming and puking all over. Everyone panics that the old man is dead, but then he sits up, fully zombified, and eats one of the servants. No, two of the servants. By the time he attacks Bambang, the rest of the family tries to intervene. The old man ends up getting shot through the head with an arrow.The surviving servant, Aris, gets in the car to go report what happened. He’s covered in blood that Sadiman vomited all over him and looks like he got bit.Back at the house, the dead servant, Pardi, also gets up, and he’s not looking good at all. As Nes and Bambang sit in the car, things spiral out of control behind them. When they go back inside, there’s blood and nastiness everywhere.Meanwhile, Aris is fully infected in the car, leading to what we saw in the opening scene. Soon, the partygoers are all infected.All the characters we know call each other and agree to meet at the chief’s house. Turns out, that’s where the party was, and by now, it’s all gotten way out of hand. Nes and Bang drive up and see what’s happening, but Rud, Karina, and Han are trapped inside the house. Bang drives the car away, leading the group of zombies away from the house– right into town.Meanwhile, Rudi’s been bitten, and Karina and Han try to patch him up while hiding in an old farmhouse. Rudi knows he’s doomed and says goodbye to his son.Bang and Nes arrive at the police station and try to explain what happened. Karina and Han meet Ningsih, who seems to be the only survivor from the party. The four mostly unarmed cops then go outside to investigate and end up joining the herd.Ningsih’s boyfriend, Rahman, is the last remaining cop, and he ends up barricaded inside the police station with Nes and Bang. He calls for reinforcements, but they get wiped out as well. Nes and Karina call each other on the phone and make up for their prior arguments.Rahman remembers that they have tons of fireworks that the police station has confiscated; maybe they can use those as a distraction. They’ve also got plenty of large guns and riot gear inside with them. They make a run for it, but it’s not as easy as it sounds. The only thing that saves them is a thunderstorm; the rain seems to put all the zombies into a trance.Meanwhile, Ningsih, Han, and Karina get out of the barn on a motorcycle, with zombie-Rudi in pursuit. Soon, most of the characters are together, trapped inside a truck. They end up driving right through the police station. Ningsih and Rahman get bitten, and Bang gets pinned by the truck. Rudi shows up and it’s a hand-to-hand battle between him and whoever’s left. Rahman finally proposes to Ningsih as they both die, and then Bang goes out with a… Bang!Kenes, Karina, and Han get out during the explosion. Nes finds that she’s been bit and says she can’t come with the other two. She then walks off into a field and shoots herself.Karina and Han ride the motorbike off into the countryside as the sun rises. We also see that the zombies are still following them.We cut to the city, where Sadmin’s business partner receives the second sample of the new medicine. His wife suddenly looks so much younger…Brian’s CommentaryUntested, unapproved herbal medicine. What could go wrong?This one is Indonesian, and we don’t see much from there. That’s good because they were really able to take their time on the creature effects. It starts off like a soap opera with a family business and quickly goes in a whole new direction with the elixir.It’s a little long, but it never drags. Overall, it’s pretty good!Kevin’s CommentaryOnce a fast zombie outbreak starts, it would be mighty hard to stop. As the folks in this movie find out. And just what the heck was in that herbal concoction they were selling?I appreciated that this one gets to the action quickly and pretty much keeps going steadily with it. It’s very well made and entertaining in that fast zombie kind of way.I’ve noticed that a necessary ingredient for characters’ reactions in this kind of movie is that they live in a universe where zombie movies don’t exist, so they have never seen one. It would be interesting to see a movie like this one where they have all seen movies like this one such as “Train to Basan” and “World War Z.”I’d say that I liked it.2025 The Mannequin* Directed by: John Berardo* Written by: John Berardo* Stars: Isabella Gomez, Jack Sochet, Lindsay LaVanchy* Run Time: 1 Hour, 25 Minutes* Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment ZoneA year after her sister’s death, a woman returns to an old building to set up the artist space that her sister wanted. But it’s complicated by ghosts and stuff. Neither of us thought this was very entertaining. There’s a lot of talk and it’s kind of dull, even in the scary parts.Spoilery SynopsisRuth, an old-timey model, stands for a photo shoot as Jack, the photographer, talks to her about big stars that he’s worked with. He then stops to take her measurements. He talks her into changing into another outfit. When she’s done, he kills her with an ax. He then poses her with her decapitated head on the body of a mannequin. Credits roll.In the present day, two sisters, Sophia and Liana, look at the same building, now empty and ready to move in. Liana goes home and finds her boyfriend Peter, a ghost finder streamer, is finishing his show. They all end up going to Nadine’s big party tonight. Liana breaks up with her boyfriend after the party.The next day, Sophia brings her friends Nadine and Hazel over to see the new workspace, and they all admire the creepy looking mannequin that came with the furniture. The two sisters then argue about their lives.That night, working alone, Sophia gets a shock. So does Liana– her boss fires her. In the morning, Liana goes to the old building to look for Sophia and finds her in a puddle of blood. The police declare it a suicide.One year later, the property manager calls Liana; he’s been storing all Sophia’s stuff. She’s taking over the lease. That night, Liana hallucinates seeing Sophia in the workspace. Nadine and Hazel stop in for a visit, and they aren’t happy that Liana just abandoned them last year. Eventually, they all make up.Hazel spends the night in the workspace with Liana and has a nightmare. When she wakes up, things get worse for her. Liana wakes up and finds Hazel cutting herself.Some time later, Nadine and Liana confront Hazel about her attempted suicide, which Hazel insists didn’t happen. This all ends up in an argument, and they all go to Nadine’s place. That night, Nadine cuts herself and then chases after Hazel with a knife. She then puts her hand in the garbage disposal. She loses fingers.All three girls now realize something is going on. Who they gonna call? The ghost-buster, aka, Peter. He already knows stories about that old factory. It was built as a mannequin factory, but then Jack Bernard started using it as a photographic studio. Over the next few decades, other models died there. Each of the women were missing various body parts. He was eventually caught and killed himself, also in this building.They all go back to the building, and Peter uses his ghost hunting devices to locate an ax. He then gets some loud jump scares and then puts blood on the mannequin, who hasn’t done a darned thing to him. He does a whole exorcism ritual over the mannequin. After, he says they need to chop it up and burn it; he uses the ax he found downstairs. Sure enough, the missing body parts are inside the mannequin.Liana then attacks Peter with the ax, and he loses a hand. Hazel and Nadine pull her out, screaming. We then see that the building manager is Jack’s own grandson, and he knew about everything all along.Liana, Nadine, Hazel, and Peter go to Sophia’s grave. At the building, the manager brings in a new tenant for a photo studio. We see the mannequin, all glued back together, in the corner…Brian’s CommentaryJump scares that involve nothing beyond sudden loud noises are cheap cheats. Loud music is not scary.So they found a mannequin full of old body parts and no one bothered to call the police? Right.It’s really dull. Most of it made no real sense, but the primary sin is not to be boring, and this one didn’t quite pass that mark.Kevin’s CommentaryIt’s a good thing they used loud music to let us know when to be startled and scared.The whole situation was unsettling and disturbing, but I thought it was a story on the thin side that was too stretched out with a lot of time spent on people yakking about stuff. Luckily the main character had an ex who was a ghost-hunter podcaster who could research the building history and show up with his ghost detecting electronics.It’s a bit less than an hour and a half long, but it seemed much longer.1993 Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla II* Directed by: Takao Okawara, Kazuki Omori* Written by: Yutaka Izubuchi, Wataru Mimura, Shinji Nishikawa* Stars: Masahiro Takashima, Ryoko Sano, Megumi Odaka* Run Time: 1 Hour, 45 Minutes* Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lggl4LVqBagSpoiler-Free Judgment ZoneWhile humanity is putting together a mechanical answer to Godzilla, Rodan hatches - as well as a baby relative of the giant lizard. It’s loaded with science fiction science, monster battles, human drama, and collateral damage. The effects keep getting a bit better with each movie too. We both thought it was entertaining fun.Spoilery SynopsisWe open on scientists looking at the severed robotic head of King Ghidorah. It’s 1992, and Japan has recruited a bunch of scientists to build a fighting machine, Garuda, but it was ineffective. They used the head of Mecha-Ghidorah from the future and learned how it worked to build an all-new, much improved fighting machine. They call it Mechagodzilla. Credits roll.Kazuma, one of the scientists, explains things to Yumi about Garuda. He gets reassigned to “G-Force.” There’s lots of training, including martial arts, before he gets to study Godzilla.Meanwhile, some men find dinosaur bones on an island. It’s a Tyrannodon. There’s also an intact egg. And an empty egg shell. Azusa is one of the scientists, and she sees a giant flying reptile on the cliffs above the camp. It makes the egg glow. It must have come from the second egg, gotten irradiated, and mutated just like Godzilla.Suddenly, Godzilla shows up and shoots his laser breath at the flying monster. They fight for a while as the scientists scramble around trying to not be killed. The fight is still ongoing as the humans fly off in their helicopter, along with the egg.Professor Omae studies the egg; will it hatch? Kazuma comes to visit; he’s a fan of Tyrannodons, and Azusa finds him irritating. The egg’s color changes depending on its emotion. Also, it’s listening to the scientists’ voices, and it’s very attached to Azusa.Miki, from the previous few films, arrives with Kazuma. She wants the professor to get her psychic children to identify an object Kazuma took from the egg. It’s encoded with music, and when they play it, the egg gets upset– and hatches.Turns out the egg isn’t one of those flying dinosaurs, it’s a small version of Godzilla! Miki names it a Godzillasaur, and it seems pretty nonviolent. Miki jumps; she senses Godzilla, the big one, is approaching and attacking the city.The Mechagodzilla team runs to the machine, but Kazuma is AWOL. They prep and launch the giant robot, which can fly. They head toward Tokyo, where Godzilla is. They battle on and on as Godzilla searches for the little one, which is moved to a safe room. Godzilla eventually just wanders off empty-handed.Kazuma is reassigned to manage the parking lot. The baby goes to live in a special zoo while the humans repair Mechagodzilla. Kazuma suggests a way to improve his Garuda machine to work with Mechagodzilla.Kazuma shows Azusa his new mechanical flying Teranodon, and they ride it around the zoo. Miki brings the whole class of psychic children to see the baby, and they sing a song for him. The song excites the baby, and far away, Rodan also wakes up.The military wants to use the baby as bait to lure Godzilla to an uninhabited island. They want Miki to go along inside Mechagodzilla to oversee the project. Azusa needs to go along to keep the baby calm.Before they can do much, Rodan attacks the city. When the baby gets upset, Rodan comes to protect him; they’re half-brothers, as the general points out. Rodan grabs the container holding Azusa and the baby.Mechagodzilla is launched again, as is Garuda, a big spaceship-looking flying fighter. Actually, Kazuma has stolen Garuda since he helped design it. Rodan quickly knocks Garuda out of the sky, leaving Mechagodzilla to try alone. The big machine eventually knocks out Rodan. It’s all fine now.No, because Godzilla chooses this moment to show up. Mechagodzilla has taken a lot of damage, and not all the weapons work anymore. The real Godzilla beats the machine easily.Garuda comes back online, and Kazuma gets back in the battle. Garuda lands on Mechagodilla’s back, making it “Super-MechaGodzilla.”The scientists have determined that Godzilla has a second brain deep inside his torso, and they order Miki to blow it up, which she doesn’t want to do. When it goes Godzilla cannot walk.As Godzilla lays dying, the baby gets angry and breaks out of his container. He roars and wakes up Rodan again. Rodan lands on Godzilla and transfers power into Godzilla, reconstituting Godzilla’s brain. Rodan then dissolves.Super-overcharged Godzilla gets up, and he’s not happy. Really not happy. Mechagodzilla’s armor plating starts to melt and soon explodes.Azusa gives Baby Godzilla a tearful goodbye, and all the humans fly off in a helicopter. Azusa tells Miki to telepathically contact Godzilla and convince him to take the baby away. They both march off into the ocean until next time…Brian’s CommentaryThe creature effects in this one have jumped up several levels. There’s a bit of CGI, but nothing looks cartoony. This one has more monster action than any of the previous films, but it’s all entertaining, not just men in suits jumping around.This was a good balance of the fighting monsters and the high-tech weapons. This is one of the better ones.Kevin’s CommentaryThere’s just no defeating Godzilla, at least not permanently. The collateral damage in this one seemed especially heavy - and the model work keeps getting better.It was noticeable with this one that it wasn’t a purely Japanese cast, they added in a few international helpers.It was a very good entry in the series, well put together. I liked this one a lot.2025 Black Phone 2* Directed by: Scott Derrickson* Written by: Joe Hill, Scott Derrickson, C. Robert Cargill* Stars: Ethan Hawke, Mason Thames, Madeline McGraw* Run Time: 1 Hour, 54 Minutes* Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment ZoneFour years later, Finn and Gwen are back and struggling with the trauma of the previous movie. The Grabber is back too, sort of. They, along with a few new friends, all go to a camp where they get snowed in and scary stuff happens. This seemed like a bit of a reach to make a second movie, but here it is. It’s not too bad, but the story is on the weak side, and we weren’t very pleased with it overall.Spoilery SynopsisIt’s 1957 in the Rocky Mountains. Hope stands in a very remote payphone in the mountains. She talks to the person on the other end about a dream; she got the phone number from her dream. The call gets creepy and she walks away. Credits roll as we see action shots of many icy cold places.It’s now 1982, about four years after the first movie, and we watch Finn beat up a kid on the playground. The other kid picked on Finn for the stories about him killing a serial killer. Gwen thinks all the fighting is bad. Ernesto likes Gwen, and he wants her to go see Duran Duran with him.That night, Finn has a flashback to his time with The Grabber; he’s still not completely over it.We cut to what appears to be a children’s camp in the past and then someone brutally killed children in the snow. Gwen has nightmares and sleepwalks; she’s not over it either.In the morning, Ernesto brings Gwen some king of Tarot-like cards. She’s got a “spooky” reputation at school, and he thinks that’s pretty cool.Gwen has another dream, and this time, she answers the Black Phone, and it’s Hope from 1957 that we saw earlier. The dream told her to call here. Gwen knows who that was; it was her mother calling from a youth camp.Later, Gwen does more research. She finds Camp Alpine Lake; it’s a real place, and she wants to go. Their father knows about it, since their mother worked there.Finn, Gwen, and Ernesto get jobs at the camp and drive there. The camp is pretty remote, and it snows all the way there. They are met there by Mando and Mustang; the camp’s been cancelled until the storm passes, and they’re the only ones who have shown up.Finn hears the payphone ringing. “I’m sorry but I can’t help you.” Still, it’s very insistent. It’s the Grabber, Meanwhile, Gwen has dreams of dead people breaking into her cabin. Gwen then talks about her dreams and Finn’s phone calls with Ernesto.In the morning, they talk to Mando about their mother, and he remembers her. Finn gets a call from a little boy who doesn’t remember anything. “We weren’t supposed to be here.”Gwen finds out that Barbara and Kenneth, the people who run the camp, don’t like her. Gwen dreams about her mother getting a similar phone call to the one Finn got. Finney, on the other hand, talks to The Grabber on the phone and talks about what he wants. The Grabber wants revenge for what Finn did to him.Meanwhile, Gwen gets picked up in her dream by The Grabber and thrown around the room. Mando, Mustang, Ernesto, and the others all see this happen.The whole camp group gets together; this isn’t their first experience with weirdness. Gwen tells how the three boys died, and Mando recognizes all of it. The Grabber used to be a worker there when Gwen’s mother was there. Mando has been looking for the dead children’s bodies for decades. The Grabber got his start here at camp; he had his first kills here.Mando is alone later when he gets a call over the radio from The Grabber. Suddenly, the lights go out. He goes to talk to Finn.In the morning, they all go out to the frozen lake to clear the surface and look for the three boys’ bodies. They spend all day and don’t find anything.Gwen dreams of her mother getting kidnapped by The Grabber. And she sees that it wasn’t suicide, The Grabber killed her. He then starts chasing Gwen all over the house and outside as well. He sabotages Mando out on the ice and really messes up Gwen, who is asleep in her cabin.The boys yell for Gwen to fight back, and, in the dream, she does. She takes charge, realizing she’s the powerful one here.Mando says he found Felix, one of the dead boys under the ice. Terrence, Gwen and Finn’s father, shows up in a snowplow to rescue them, but Gwen insists that they stay. She tells Terrence that his wife didn’t kill himself; The Grabber got her. She was onto the killer because of her dreams, and he found out.In the morning, they all go out to the lake and continue to look for bodies. It gets dark with no luck.Gwen falls asleep and sees The Grabber coming at her on ice skates. He gets Kenneth and Barbara, who totally had it coming. He attacks Finn next, who also fights back.Gwen, in the dream, brings back The Grabber’s three victims to fight him. She whacks the killer with his own ac and then tears his mask off. With the bodies found, he’s powerless. They end up dumping him a hole in the lake, and the other ghosts drag him to the bottom.Mando calls the dead boys’ parents for closure. On the way out, the phone rings, and Gwen gets to talk to her mother again. She says Gwen doesn’t have a curse; this is all a good thing.Brian’s CommentarySo The Grabber is basically Freddy now, able to manipulate and attack from within a dream. Gwen could fight back in much the same way. They killed the baddie in the previous film, so they had to do something to bring him back; the “Freddy” stuff didn’t work for me, though.No one got hypothermia from being in the water of a frozen lake? Actually, other than some injuries, no one died in the film at all, at least not in the present day.It’s a very COLD movie. The scenery is dark and atmospheric, with every shot demonstrating just how cold it is in the mountains. The acting is fine, the setting is amazing, and the plot is thin, but workable. It really goes into the PTSD and trauma that the survivors of the first movie feel; the supernatural stuff almost feels like an interruption of the moody stuff.I think it was probably better than the first one, which I found to be pretty forgettable.Kevin’s CommentaryIt pleases me that they brought back the same actors for Finn and Gwen, who were about 13 in the first movie and about 17 here.I guess it would make a kind of sense that The Grabber would be able to exploit the supernatural channels himself that were used against him in the first movie.The first movie was pretty forgettable. I had to look up our previous review for a refresher. I have no doubt I’ll be filing this one away too. I thought it drags and the stakes didn’t engross me much. And like Brian said, the Freddy vs Dream Warriors stuff didn’t work for me either. I’m going to go with liking it a bit less than the first one.Contact Info:Email: mailto:[email protected]:* https://www.horrorguys.com* https://www.horrormonthly.com* https://www.flashfright.com This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.horrorweekly.com/subscribe--------33:08
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About Horror Weekly
Join Kevin and Brian for a weekly podcast episode. Every Friday, the guys release both a video and audio podcast episode that covers everything new in horror, along with a handful of great (and awful) movie reviews! www.horrorweekly.com
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