MonsterZero NJ wishes a very happy 40th anniversary to one of my all-time favorite horror films and a true horror original… Phantasm! The Don Coscarelli classic was released on March 28th, 1979 and spawned not only a beloved franchise, but added The Tall Man (the late, great Angus Scrimm) to the list of immortal horror icons!
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Giant insect movies were quite popular in the 50s and The Deadly Mantis is among the best. While many of the giant pests were the result of atomic testing, this six legged critter is a prehistoric insect melted out of the polar ice caps by the effects of an erupting volcano. Once free, the hungry beast snacks on military personnel and Eskimo natives on it’s way to warmer climates. The giant insect is pursued by scientists and the military as it stops for snacks in Canada, Maryland, Washington D.C. and even battles the U. S. Air Force over Newark, N.J.! This all leading to a finale confrontation in the Big Apple inside the Lincoln Tunnel (dubbed The Manhattan Tunnel for the film).
Fun flick is directed by Nathan H. Juran, who also directed classics like 20 Million Miles to Earth and The 7th Voyage of Sinbad, from a story and script by William Alland and Martin Berkeley. Juran takes the material very seriously, as does his cast, and it helps make the silly scenario very entertaining. The pace is brisk, with a lot of action, the traditional romantic sub-plot and the usual drama and humor, evenly mixed by Juran. There are some cheesy SPFX and stock footage as the military wages war on the mantis, but there is also a very impressive animatronic mantis puppet that is very effective when mixed with miniatures and given a monstrous roar by the sound FX folks. The acting is decent for this kind of movie and that helps the cheesy dialogue and silly science work well enough to keep us from laughing at the wrong times…though we nostalgically now do anyway.
This is one of the best giant bug movies from this era. A Universal picture, The Deadly Mantis takes it’s silly subject very seriously and is surprisingly well made, probably the result of being a major studio film. The cast take the material as seriously as the director and it maintains the illusion that we should be concerned about a massive prehistoric insect eating it’s way across the United States. A fun and very entertaining 50s science fiction epic. Charming cast includes, William Hopper as the handsome Dr. Ned Jackson, Craig Stevens as smooth military officer Col. Joe Parkman and Alix Talton as sexy journalist/photographer/love interest Marge Blaine.
It seems to be tradition, as of late, that the media picks one horror movie each year and over-hypes it to the point where it could never meet expectations. Last year Hereditary was the “Exorcist of this generation”…uh, not quite. This year it’s Jordan Peele’s intriguingly weird, but slightly underwhelming Us.
Movie starts out in 1986 were young Adelaide (Madison Curry) wanders away from her parents while visiting the Santa Cruz boardwalk and has a traumatic experience in a funhouse. Years later, Adelaide (Lupita Nyong’o) returns to that area with her husband Gabe (Winston Duke), athletic daughter Zora (Shahadi Wright Joseph) and younger son Jason (Evan Alex). Adelaide reveals to her husband that in that funhouse she encountered a doppelgänger of herself and it terrified her. Gabe has a hard time believing her until said doppelgänger (also Nyong’o) shows up at their door one night with her own duplicate family (also Duke, Joseph and Alex). The Wilson duplicates are violent and vicious and lay siege to the house. As the Wilsons must go on the run and fight for their lives, it soon becomes apparent that this event is only the start of something far larger and more horrifying.
Peele writes and directs and he not only has some interesting and unusual ideas, he is also a very sound director with an effective visual style. Yes, the concept behind this initial home invasion is original and quite weird and it gets even stranger once the story opens up in the last act, but it’s just that it simply isn’t that scary. At first, the doppelgänger arrival is chilling, as we are introduced to the anti-Wilsons and their intensions, but it flattens out a bit as it starts to follow the routine home invasion flick formula, which was never thrilling to begin with. Thanks to some conveniences, like a boat that malfunctions and then works exactly when you need it too, the Wilsons escape and go on the run to a neighbor’s house, but even then it remains uneven. The televised footage of what appears to be a doppelgänger invasion is creepy, but it’s effectiveness gets neutered by the Wilsons adapting to this bizarre scenario far too quickly. They no longer seem scared, or even fazed by killing, as they sit surrounded by bloody bodies munching on snacks in their friends’ gore-spattered house. Your friends lay there murdered and you raid their pantry? That and Gabe even remarks that he wants to stay there as if to enjoy the spoils of their dead neighbors’ home. Worse still, moments later they are arguing who should drive their neighbors’ car based on who has the largest kill count after battling their neighbor’s vicious doubles. Really? Not sure what Peele was going for here, a message about society’s desensitization to violence, perhaps? Was it simply supposed to be funny? The Wilsons were portrayed as a nice, fun family up till this point, now they are bragging about body count. It’s just off-putting. The finale in mysterious tunnels beneath the boardwalk returns the film to a more unsettling tone and we get some answers that are weird and original. Thought the film, itself, is still left with a lot of questions. We also get a reveal that is not totally unexpected, but at this point it doesn’t add much. As the credits roll there is a sense that Peele is an inventive filmmaker with some interesting things on his mind, though the film itself is never quite as unnerving as Get Out, which was also ridiculously over-hyped.
The director has a good cast. Performances are not an issue here. Lupita Nyong’o is strong as Adelaide and her sinister yet tragic double “Red”. She’s a woman with some issues, but she rises above her fears to fight for her family. Winston Duke is also fun as the big teddy bear dad, Gabriel. He’s not as strong as his wife, but he seems like a good man. Shahadi Wright Joseph is good as the athlete of the family Zora and is very creepy as her doppelgänger Umbrae. Evan Alex also does good work as Jason and is extremely spooky as his burned faced copy, Pluto (a Hills Have Eyes reference maybe?). Rounding out are Elisabeth Moss and Tim Heidecker as the before mentioned friends and neighbors, the Tylers. They seemed a little too superficial to be the type of people the WIlsons would hang with, but obviously they don’t last too long.
Overall, the film is far from a masterpiece and doesn’t come close to the hype, but is still worth a look for those curious. Peele is a talented filmmaker and has some inventive and clever ideas, but he hasn’t quite locked down a few things yet to make his flicks more than occasionally unnerving or unsettling. Evoking those emotions are not bad, but this film, especially, needed to be more consistent and never really got truly terrifying, though it had potential. There are some weird and unique ideas here that might stick with you, but it’s never quite scary enough to make it really special. Our likable family doing some questionable things that seem uncharacteristic, even in a scenario like this, also held it back. Peele may have a classic flick in him, but just not yet. Carpenter took a few films to get to his Halloween, hopefully Peele’s is on the horizon, too…it’s just not Us.
When Sophie (Jessica Fay) was eight years-old, her mother used to read to her from an ancient book called The Book of Monsters…until one of those monsters dragged her mother under her bed and killed her. No one, including her father (Nicholas Vince), believed her and she was sent to an institution for a year. Ten years later on her eighteenth birthday, Sophie (now Lyndsey Craine) is given the Book of Monsters by her father. Smart move dad! Obviously, the monsters are unleashed during her birthday party and it become a bloodbath, as she and her friends have to fight for their lives.
UK Horror/comedy is directed by Stewart Sparke from a script by Paul Butler and is a fun 84 minutes, if you can get past the blatantly stupid plot device of Sophie’s dad giving her a book for her birthday that traumatized her as a child. The flick looks good enough for a Kickstarter movie made for under $100,000 and the gore is plentiful and it’s low budget monsters are simple yet effective. Sparke does conjure some spooky sequences and mixes the comedy and horror fairly well. The cast are all attractive and do a fine job, with Craine making a cute and endearing heroine. Sure there are plot contrivances and conveniences to move things along and it can be very predictable, but it’s bloody, homage-paying heart is in the right place. Also stars Lizzie Stanton, Rose Muirhead and Michaela Longden as Sophie’s friends Beth, Jess and Mona. Watch through the credits for the traditional sequel set-up.
Available on Amazon Prime and other VOD platforms.
Pretty single mom Sarah (Seána Kerslake) lives in a small, remote Irish village with her son Chris (James Quinn Markey). When Chris encounters a large, mysterious sinkhole in the woods near their home, his behavior starts to change. As her son’s actions become more and more disturbing, Sarah starts to believe that he might not be her son at all and that something else came back from that hole in the ground.
Irish horror is directed by Lee Cronin from his script written along with Stephen Shields. While there are some familiar elements, such as doubts about a strange behaving loved one’s identity and no one believing the doubter, Cronin turns this into a very creepy flick. Seána Kerslake also helps by giving a strong performance as Sarah, a woman who has had her own trauma and who is terrified that her child is no longer her son. Cronin and his actress gives us doubts ourselves about Sarah’s belief until Chris’ increasingly odd behavior starts us believing right along with her…but who or what is he? Again, the story is familiar, but skillful and atmospheric direction from Cronin and good work from lead Kerslake, make this a very spooky and unsettling movie. Not everything is explained, but here the ambiguities work in it’s favor and the movie knows how to get under your skin in subtle but disturbing ways. Recommended!
Been a long time since the last Saturday Night Double Feature, but with a Hellboy reboot on the way and talk of a new Blade film with Wesley Snipes, It’s time to revisit both series with their Guillermo del Toro directed entries…
HELLBOY II: THE GOLDEN ARMY (2008)
Guillermo del Toro cranks things up for the Hellboy sequel which really scores with an amazing visual style and some stunning creature design. Del Toro this time brings a faster and more even pace to this one, as well as, a story that is a bit more Brothers Grimm than Lovecraft and that helps lighten the tone a bit, too. There’s a little more humor (Hellboy and Abe drunkenly singing Barry Manilow is sidesplitting), but the film never gets silly.
The story this time finds Hellboy (Ron Perlman) outing himself to the general public while a noble but vengeful elf prince, Nuada, (Played with dignity and strength by Luke Goss) plans to resurrect the mythic Golden Army to rid the world of mankind, so the creatures of fairy can return to their former glory. His twin sister, Nuala (Anna Walton) tries to thwart his efforts at genocide and allies herself with Hellboy and the team to protect pieces of a golden crown which can resurrect and control the goblin-made mechanical army. Can Hellboy defeat this powerful elven prince in order to protect the very humans who now seem to reject him, despite all he’s done to protect them?
Del Toro stages some absolutely beautiful set pieces with his trademark sumptuous visually style and design. Highlights of the film being The Troll Market scene and the following sequence featuring a giant plant elemental battling our heroes by the Brooklyn Bridge. They alone are worth the price of admission, not to mention the climactic battle against the Golden Army itself. There is an amazing assortment of supporting fantasy creatures that are incredibly designed and rendered and are worth the price of admission as well. Once again the mix of practical and CGI FX is truly breathtaking and elevate an already very entertaining film.
The cast are mostly all back except, Doug Jones now voices Abe himself and Agent Myers is absent. There is also new team member Johann Krauss, an ectoplasmic gas in a diving suit voiced by Seth MacFarlane, who butts heads…or glass bubbles…with the loose cannon, Hellboy.
Not only is Hellboy 2 a bigger and faster paced supernatural action flick, but it is a visual feast for the eyes and just plain loads of fun. A sequel that exceeds and improves on the entertaining original.
-MonsterZero NJ
3 and 1/2 (out of 4) Hellboys!
BLADE II (2002)
In my opinion Blade II is the best of the Blade series and is certainly my personal favorite in the comic book-based trilogy. Second adventure of the half human, half vampire hero Blade (Wesley Snipes) finds him hunting down Whistler (Kris Kristofferson) who has been taken and turned by the vampires. Upon finding him and using his serum to effect a cure, Blade is contacted by the vampire hierarchy…and asked for help. It seems a vampire mutation strain has evolved creating vicious creatures called Reapers, who hunt vampires much like they hunt humans. The vampires’ reasoning is that once the vampires are wiped out by the rapidly multiplying Reapers, they will turn on the humans that Blade protects. Why not work together to destroy a common foe? Now the vampire slayer must join forces with his mortal enemies in order to defeat a threat that makes even vampires afraid of the dark…but can he trust his new allies?
As directed by Guillermo del Toro, Blade II has a great visual style, some fierce, gory action, a cool cast of supporting characters, along with a nasty and very effective foe in the Reapers. Where the first Blade was an action film with horror elements, Blade II is a horror film with lots of action…win, win! Under Del Toro’s guidance, the cast all bring vivid life to their comic book-style characters. Wesley Snipes really takes control of the Blade character at this point, no more evident than in the scene where he first meets ‘The Bloodpack’, a team of vampire commandos who’s sole purpose is to kill him, but now must work with him against the Reapers. “Can you blush?” Luke Goss is fierce and yet noble as the Reaper leader Jared Nomak, a monster with some interesting secrets. Kris Kristofferson is cantankerous, as always, as Blade’s partner, mentor and weapon’s maker, Whistler. Leonor Valera is the beautiful Nyssa, a vampire aristocrat and warrior who steals Blade’s heart, despite being of a species he’s sworn to destroy. And Ron Perlman is effective and entertaining, as usual, as Bloodpack member Reinhard who is not happy with Blade as an ally and would love to take him down first chance he gets.
Blade II is a really fun flick and gives us some great and gory action set pieces, as when Blade and The Bloodpack take on the Reapers in a vampire night club, again in the catacombs underneath the city and finally, the climactic three-way showdown between Blade, Nomak and some double crossing vampires in the vampire stronghold. A really fast paced, delightfully gory and very entertaining action/horror with Blade at his best. Also stars Norman “Daryl Dixon” Reedus as Blade’s new sidekick, Scud and Hong Kong legend, Donnie Yen…who also choreographed the fight action…as Bloodpack member, Snowman. A really good movie and the best of this fun and far too short-lived series.
MONSTERZERO NJ’S 15 IRISH HORRORS TO WATCH ON ST. PATRICK’S DAY!
The celebrating of all that’s Irish is almost upon us! As St. Patrick’s Day approaches, those with horror in our Irish hearts can have plenty to watch with their corned beef and carnage! Here is a list of Irish horror flicks…OK, #15 isn’t an Irish made flick, but you know I couldn’t leave that one out…to send shivers down your shillelagh!
(Click on the titles below to get to our reviews of the titles covered here at the Movie Madhouse!)
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