‘You’ll never know what bit you!’

CobraGator is a 2015 American action horror film directed by Jim Wynorski (Chopping Mall; Piranhaconda; Gila!) and executive produced by Roger Corman.

The internet is oddly devoid of any forthcoming release details, let alone a trailer or even a teaser…

Cast:

Jesse Bernstein (Death Tunnel; 13 Days), Bryan Clark, Savannah Goldsmith, Aaron Groben (Nightcomer; Attack of the Killer Donuts), Lauren Parksinson, Paul Logan (Curse of the Komodo; Cannibal Taboo; Vampire in Vegas), Michael Madsen (Species; BloodRayne; Scary Movie 4), Jack Teague, Grace West.

Filming locations:

Tallahassee, Florida

IMDb | Image thanks: The Journey

The Mummy is a 2017 American action adventure horror film co-produced and directed by Alex Kurtzman (Cowboys & Aliens; Sleepy Hollow; Venom) from a screenplay written by Jon Spaihts for Universal Pictures. The film is co-produced by Chris Morgan and Sean Daniel.

The cast announced so far includes Tom Cruise and Sofia Boutella (above) as the titular mummy.

The film, which was originally slated for March 24, 2017, will be released on June 9, 2017, pitting it against World War z 2 at the box office.

The Mummy is the first of their Universal classic monsters to be rebooted with rumours that Bride of Frankenstein will star Angelina Jolie. The classic monsters are expected to appear in each other’s movies before culminating in an Avengers-style all-star film.

IMDb | Source: Variety

Related: The Shuffling Saga of the Mummy on Screen – article by Daz Lawrence | The Mummy on Horrorpedia

The Ghost Train Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore is a 2016 British portmanteau horror play, bringing to the theatre the flavour of vintage Amicus film anthologies such as Tales from the Crypt and Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors. The Bad Bat production, produced by Ellen Gallagher and Steve Jordan, is presented from 7 – 19 March at the Tristan Bates Theatre, London.

The play features segments written by authors Christopher Fowler, Stephen Gallagher, Kim Newman, Robert Shearman, Lynda E. Rucker and Lisa Tuttle, alongside a wraparound story by director Sean Hogan.

Plot:

Five people are invited to a fancy dress party on a vintage steam train. The guests are told to come in costume as their favourite monster… and every monster has a story to tell…

The hostess is Jenny Runacre. The monsters are: Claire Louise Amias as the Vampire, Jamie Birkett as the Broken Doll, Billy Clarke as the Frankenstein Monster, Jonathan Rigby as the Devil andJames Swanton as the Ghost, with Grace Ker as the Ticket Inspector.

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Creatureplica is an American company that produces action figures based on cryptozoological creatures.

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They have issued four figures to date: Himalayan Yeti, HorrorHound, Louisiana Rougarou and North American Sasquatch (click on images to enlarge).

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Press blurb:

“True dedication to native folklore, witness reports and historical record is the basis for the genesis of Creatureplica and the creation of our sculptural depictions. Our initial wave is in scale with 6” and 7” action figure lines, fully articulated with environmental bases.

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Until now, serious crypto toy lines were as rare as the creatures themselves. Prepare to enter the primordial woods and frozen wastes of the world and explore it’s darkest corners. There are things undescribed by science on the fringes, stomping through the forest, chittering in the shadows. Join us in our quest. And Beware.”

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‘It’s all downhill from here’

Attack of the Lederhosenzombies is a 2016 Austrian science fiction comedy splatter horror film directed by Dominik Hartl from a screenplay co-written with Armin Prediger. Also known as Attack of the Lederhosen Zombies and its original title Angriff der Lederhosen Zombies.

Main cast:

Laurie Calvert, Gabriela Marcinková, Margarete Tiesel, Karl Fischer, Patricia Aulitzky, Julia Stipsits.

Plot:

Steve, a young professional snowboarder, ruins a high-paying photoshoot with a silly prank, causing him, his girlfriend Branka and fellow snowboarder Josh to be left behind on the mountain. They seek shelter in a garish, loud aprés-ski tavern that is hosting an all-night party for the last night of the season.

Things go from bad to worse when a scientific experiment conducted by a local entrepreneur unleashes an epidemic of zombies and mutant wildlife, but this is mostly lost on the local drunkards as they themselves are not always so easy to distinguish from zombies…

Short teaser:

Long teaser:

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Transformations – aka Alien Transformations – is a 1988 American sci-fi horror film directed by Jay Kamen from a screenplay by Mitch Brian (Night Screams; Presence of Mind).

On March 1, 2016, Kino Lorber release the film on Blu-ray in the US. Extras include:

• Audio Commentary by Director Jay Kamen
• Interview with Star Lisa Langlois
• Interview with Director Jay Kamen

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Main cast:

Rex Smith
Lisa Langlois – Deadly Eyes; The Nest)
Patrick Macnee – Incense for the Damned; The Howling; Lobster Man from Mars
Christopher Neame – Lust for a Vampire; Dracula A.D. 1972; Species III
Michael Hennessy
Cec Verrell
Benito Stefanelli
Donald Hodson
Pamela Prati
Ann Margaret Hughes
Loredana Romito

Plot:

In the furthest reaches of the galaxy, a lone transport pilot, Wolfgang Wolf Shadduck (Rex Smith), locks in his destination, switches onto automatic pilot and retires for the night. Little does he know that events will soon steer him onto a collision course with gruesome horrors of Transformations where a horrifying evil lurks behind seductive facades.

When Wolf awakens from a nightmarish slumber, he finds himself in the hospital ward of a prison colony; his ship has crashed with its cargo intact. Soon, he finds himself gripped with a grotesque and mysterious disease that transforms him into a horrendous beast and only the purity of the beautiful Miranda (Lisa Langlois) stands between the deadly disease and the rest of mankind…

Reviews:

“Unfortunately, the whole prison planet thing doesn’t really get explored much. Transformations is a low-budget affair, so while we get a look at a few hallways and some prisoners, there is a definite lack of scale … The love angle doesn’t work well at all, but it does lead to some fantastic moments of B-movie hilarity.” Will Kouf, Silver Emulsion

” … Transformations holds off on the gooey, gory goods for much of its running time, making you wish Empire had recruited Stuart Gordon to overhaul the script. By the time a man’s spine is ripped out in the last 10 minutes, it all feels like too little, too late. Patrick Macnee also tries his best as a priest fearing a plague, but even he can’t save this failure.” Alan Dorich, Letterboxd.com

“Ultimately, Transformations is way up there with Empire’s earlier Vicious Lips and Necropolis as an immediate requirement for all lovers of Z-flick endurance tests. Those without such masochistic tendencies should duck and cover , well away from this bomb.” Empire of the ‘B’s: The Mad Movie World of Charles Band

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Lisa Langlois chase scene:

IMDb | Image thanks: Video Museum

‘ You’ll eat your heart out!’

The Lorely’s Grasp is a 1974 Spanish horror film written and directed by Amando de Ossorio (Tombs of the Blind Dead; Demon Witch Child; The Ghost Galleon). The film’s Spanish title is Las Garras de Lorelei and it was released in the US as When the Screaming Stops.

Main cast:

Tony Kendall (Return of the Blind Dead)
Helga Liné (The Dracula Saga, Horror Rises from the Tomb, The Vampire’s Night Orgy)
Silvia Tortosa (Horror Express)
Josefina Jartin
Loreta Tovar (Curse of the Vampire),
José Thelman (Tombs of the Blind Dead)
Luis Induni (The Horrible Sexy Vampire; Dr. Jekyll vs. the Werewolf; The Werewolf and the Yeti)
Javier de Rivera (The Awful Dr. Orloff; Night of the Seagulls, A Dragonfly for Each Corpse)
Antonio Orengo (Frankenstein’s Bloody Terror, Tombs of the Blind Dead)
Betsabe Ruiz (Werewolf Shadow, Horror Rises from the Tomb, Autopsy).

Plot:

The legendary shape-shifting Loreley has been living for centuries in a grotto beneath the river Rhein in Germany. Every night when the moon is full, she turns into a reptile-like creature that rips the hearts from its victims. After young women from a local boarding school are sacrificed, and then a blind violinist, a hunter named Sirgurd (Tony Kendall) is engaged to kill the beast…

Release:

As was the practice, certain scenes were filmed a clothed and unclothed for different export markets.

In the US, the film was initially released in 1976 as When the Screaming Stops, with the addition of red warning flashes preceding each gory murder.

This US-edit was subsequently released to movie theaters in the early 1980s with artwork that implied it was a slasher film, rather than a monster movie, and then on VHS by Lightning Video. Patrons were issued with vomit bags.

The film is available uncut, with a 16:9 – 1.77:1 aspect ratio, on a Unbekannt Blu-ray with English, German, and Spanish audio options, an image gallery and trailers.

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Reviews:

“Shot primarily in shaky POV, the Loreley’s killings are erratic and unexpected, as if to mimic the attack of a wild animal. Initially only the creatures encroaching hand is shown, but as more of the legend of Loreley is revealed, so is her lunar form, that of a green scaled reptilian, shrouded in a black cape.” Jason McElreath, DVD Drive-In

“There are some really nice de Ossorio touches in the film – particularly, a scientist who is testing a moonlight machine and a radioactive knife to use against Lorelei (and the subsequent trashing of his his laboratory is awesome, too), and Lorelei’s underwater castle, complete with skull-adorned bikini servants.” The Brooklyn Cult of Mystic Horrors

“What an extraordinary film. It’s not bad actually if you like 1970s Euro-horror: the acting’s passable (though the dubbing is risible) and the direction … is competent. The storyline is enjoyably daft and at least it’s original, rather than being yet another damn vampire / werewolf / mummy / horde of zombies. The monster is monstrous, the deaths are violent and bloody, and the pseudo-scientific explanation is complete hogwash of the highest order. Top stuff.” MJ Simpson

” … this is a lost fucking classic that is severely underrated and I think any horror fan worth his (or her) salt will find it an enjoyable ride. It’s fun, it’s bloody, it’s ridiculously easy on the eyes.” Jocelyn, The Church of Splatter-Day Saints

“As with the Blind Dead films, Loreley offers a series of moody interludes between the gore scenes and exposition scenes. We see the seductive redhead  striding across marshlands on cloudy afternoons, siren song playing softy in the background. These scenes – heightened by earnest acting, creative direction, and tight editing – help make the picture very good for its kind.” David Elroy Goldweber, Claws & Saucers

“The amphibious green slime monster with big teeth is more comical than frightening, and an eye-filling parade of curvaceous cuties in bikinis and other skimpy costumes will please males. But these facts don’t necessarily make a good movie…” John Stanley, Creature Features

Trailer:

IMDb

Destination Inner Space is a 1966 science fiction monster film directed by Francis D. Lyon (Castle of Evil) from a screenplay by Arthur C. Pierce (The Cosmic Man; Mutiny in Outer Space; The Navy vs. the Night Monsters).

The film is infamous for its aquatic monster, which looks like a cross between a piranha and the Creature from the Black Lagoon. Its alternate title is the more suitable Terror of the Deep.

The film’s strident score is by Paul Dunlap, the composer for several horror and sci-fi films, such as I Was a Teenage Werewolf and The Angry Red Planet.

Main cast:

Scott Brady (Castle of Evil; Gremlins), Gary Merrill (The Mysterious Island), Sheree North, Wende Wagner, Mike Road, John Howard, William Thourbly and Biff Elliot. The film also includes an early appearance by James Hong (The Vineyard) as a chef.

Plot:

A group of researchers working in an underwater laboratory encounter with an Unidentified Submerged Object (USO – an undersea flying saucer), the base is attacked by a monster that may be the vanguard for invading aliens. The researchers and the base’s military staff must deal with the creature and destroy the USO…

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Reviews:

“The great mass of warmed-over leftovers in the script never comes anywhere close to developing its own identity, and anybody who has seen The Thing, The Atomic Submarine, or Revenge of the Creature is likely to spend most of the mental energy he or she devotes to Destination Inner Space on ticking off the elements stolen from each. Most of what entertainment value it has can be traced to its deficiency in two major areas: acting and special effects.” 1000 Misspent Hours and Counting

“The underwater models of the sealab are ridiculously small, and look exactly the size they are. The producers could at least have studied the TV series Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea a little closer, for tips. Speaking of TV, this looks like an early TV movie, mostly a TV cast, TV-friendly aspect ratio, and tame on the violence…” Black Hole

“Low budget and average performances do not prevent director Francis Lyon from providing a first-rate entertainment. Nothing profound; just fun.” Jeff Rovin, A Pictorial History of Science Fiction Films

“The picture is unpretentious, quick paced, and admirably unworried about putting the saucer and the monster on screen as often as possible. The monster looks like an exaggerated Creech with harsh accents and bright red fins.” David Elroy Goldweber, Claws & Saucers

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Cast and characters:

• Scott Brady as Cmdr. Wayne
• Sheree North as Dr. Rene Peron
• Gary Merrill as Dr. LaSatier
• Wende Wagner as Sandra Welles
• Mike Road as Hugh Maddox
• John Howard as Dr. James
• William Thourlby as Tex
• Biff Elliot as Dr. Wilson
• Glenn Sipes as Mike
• Richard Niles as Ellis
• Roy Barcroft as Skipper
• Ed Charles Sweeny as Bos’un
• Ken Delo as Radio Man
• Ron Burke as The Thing
• James Hong as Ho Lee

Trailer:

Wikipedia | IMDb | Image thanks: Zombo’s Closet

Arachnicide is a 2014 Italian action horror film directed by Paolo Bertola (Virtually Dead; The Witch of Malbacco). It is also known as L9 Commando.

The film is unleashed on DVD in the US on May 10, 2016 via Midnight Releasing.

Main cast:

Riccardo Serventi Longhi, Crisula Stafida, Gabriel Cash, Filippo Galati, and Marco Conte.

Official synopsis:

“After years of experimenting, a researcher succeeds in creating an incubator that accelerates plant and animal growth. This technology is controlled by a powerful criminal organisation and is being used to accelerate the growth of plants needed for the manufacture of narcotics and illegal drugs. To destroy the laboratories they operate, the United Nations put together an elite team of operatives.

The L9 Commando is a task force composed of six of the best soldiers from different Special Forces Units. After successfully taking down the drug operation, the L9 Commandos are called on for an important mission that brings them to Albania, where they discover a sinister plan that could destroy everything. Arachnicide or die!”

Trailer:

IMDb | Artwork by Gary Marta Design

‘Evil lies beneath the surface. It has risen for revenge.’

Swamp Devil is a 2008 Canadian supernatural horror film directed by David Winning (Are You Afraid of the Dark? [TV series]; Black Swarm; Mutant World) from a screenplay by Gary Dauberman (Blood Monkey; Annabelle and sequel; It) and Ethlie Ann Vare. It is the thirteenth film in the Maneater Series.

Actor Bruce Dern broke his leg on camera running in the woods, one week into the shoot. He finished the film on crutches with various photo doubles and camera tricks employed to complete production.

Main cast: 

Bruce Dern (The Incredible 2-Headed Transplant; Twixt; Coffin Baby), Cindy Sampson (High Plains Invaders; The Shrine; Supernatural), Nicolas Wright and Robert Higden.

Plot:

Melanie Blaine returns to her small backwoods country hometown of Gibbington to check on her estranged ex-sheriff father Howard, who’s the primary suspect in a series of grisly murders. Nice guy local Jimmy Fuller helps Melanie out and she eventually finds her dad and discovers that something not human and much more sinister than a mere mortal man is responsible for the killings…

Reviews:

“… despite a silly concept and even sillier-looking villain, the content is treated with a straight face that’s oddly admirable. The cast commits fully, and Bruce Dern’s veteran presence anchors the film. The pace is thankfully brisk, elevating it to the level of benign background filler rather than irritating, change-the-channel garbage.” Mark H. Harris, About.com

” … the strength of David Winning’s work is evidenced whenever it relies on mood, mystery, and evolving character back stories as opposed to when we see the initially Harry and the Hendersons meets Bigfoot meets The Incredible Hulk-like CGI Swamp Devil… ” Jen Johans, Film Intuition

“The first third of Swamp Devil is rather anemic. A lot of talk and little action is all that greets the viewer. The last hour or so, however, is much more fun as the swamp devil starts to terrorize characters on screen in the woods. It’s all fairly routine, but if you’re into this cheap monster genre, then you should be reasonably diverted by this low budget runaround.” Justin Felix, DVD Talk

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” … what makes this one work is an emphasis on characters (there’s only like 10 people in the movie) and an actual motive for the monster. Usually these things are unleashed and just kill whoever they come across; not that there’s anything wrong with that, but they all start to blur together after awhile.” Horror Movie a Day

Cast and characters:

• Bruce Dern as Howard Blame
• Cindy Sampson as Melanie Blame
• Nicolas Wright as Jimmy Fuller
• Robert Higden as Jones
• Allison Graham as Deputy Jolene Harris
• James Kidnie as Sheriff Nelson Bois
• Bronwen Mantel as Shelly
• Kwasi Songui as Bigg
• Mari-Pier Gaudet as Lisa Jones
• Jenna Wheeler-Hughes as Young Dream Girl
• Marc V. Denis as Young Howard

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Filming locations:

Montréal, Québec, Canada

Trailer:

Wikipedia | IMDb | Related: Man Thing

Jaani Dushman (“Beloved Enemy”) is a 1979 Indian Bollywood supernatural horror film produced and directed by Rajkumar Kohli from a screenplay by Inder Raj Anand. The soundtrack music was composed by Laxmikant-Pyarelal. It should not be confused with the 2002 film of the same title.

The film stars Sunil Dutt, Sanjeev Kumar, Jeetendra, Shatrughan Sinha, Vinod Mehra, Rekha, Reena Roy Neetu Singh in lead roles.

Buy soundtrack: Amazon.co.uk

Review:

For a film that’s two and a half hours in length, Jaani Dushman is one of the most frantically, manically edited films I’ve ever seen. We jump from scene to scene, location to location at a breakneck pace. The film only ever comes to a grinding halt in its sometimes shockingly lengthy musical numbers. There’s also a handful of torturous comedy sketches revolving around goofy, cross-eyed characters who seemed to have little to no connection to the movie. It’s disjointed, regularly confusing, packed to the brim with a pile of characters who are hard to keep track of, and it’s also kind of great. Why? Well, mostly because it features a hairy wife-murdering monster.

The film opens with a loony and speedy intro. We meet a young married couple whose car breaks down in the middle of nowhere. Their driver attempts to fix the car, while the couple try for help at a nearby big, imposing house. From the moment they enter the creepy abode, it becomes clear that it’s haunted as fuck. A ghostly face of an angry ghost appears and tells them his story. This furious spirit is Thakur Jwala Prasad (Raza Murad). In a flashback we discover that Jwala was poisoned by his red-clad wife (Sheetal) on his wedding night. She married him for his money and ran off, cashed up, with her lover. Prasad’s angry soul lives on, killing any bride in red he comes across.

The spirit of Prasad chases the married couple out of his haunted house then WHAM! We cut to what appears to be a totally unrelated scene of a creepy guy (played by the face that haunted my childhood — Amrish Puri of Temple of Doom!) who has kidnapped a bride. He’s forcing himself upon the bride when suddenly he becomes possessed by Prasad’s evil spirit, which I guess just makes him extra evil? He was, after all, already a rapist. He turns into a hairy, long-armed monster and kills the bride by crushing her neck with his giant, hairy foot.

The terrified married couple see this go down and run away. The monster chases them, but they manage to escape. Hurray! Uh, but yeah… then they get on a train and the monster kills them. The murder scenes in Jaani Dushman are utterly insane and genuinely unsettling. The camera becomes a wild mess of wild angle lenses and fast cuts, and, while they’re not gory scenes, they’re pretty brutal and unpleasant.

So anyway, the bride’s dead, so is the creepy guy that Prasad possessed. Problem solved, right? NO! We’re only five minutes into the film! We then flash forward some kind of small amount of time. We’re thrown into the middle of some village drama where a local bride has just been kidnapped. No one knows what happened, but we do! It was the hairy bride-killing monster! We begin to meet all the important people in the village. There’s Thakur (Sanjeev Kumar), the benevolent dictator of the village who is considered a literal god by the idiotic villagers. There’s Thakur’s shit son, Shera (Shatrughan Sinha), who likes to molest women, and is confusingly presented as something of an anti-hero. There’s the very fun Reshma (Reena Roy), a sexy lady who cross dresses as a moustachioed man for reasons I didn’t understand. And, best of all, there’s Lakhan (Sunil Dutt), the village’s favourite cool guy and king of horse flips.

A whole bunch of brides start getting murdered left, right and centre, and a romantic tug-of-war between Lakhan and Shera with Reshma in the middle ensues. In-between all this nonsense we get goofy sketches with characters who I think we’re supposed to be blind acting stupid. There were long sequences in this where I honestly had no clue what was supposed to be going on. The film also breaks the fourth wall regularly.

Jaani Dushman acts like the identity of the killer is a mystery, but it flat out tells us very early on that Thakur, the village leader, is possessed with the evil Prasad. It shows him having a sweaty, mental breakdown seeing a bride in red, and we may even hear his inner thoughts clarifying that he is in fact possessed (I could be totally making that up… I can’t be bothered scanning through the two and a half hour running time to re-watch this bit). But nope, we get red herring after red herring, despite knowing full well who the killer is.

According to Wikipedia, Jaani Dushman ‘recorded as Super Hit at the box office.’ I don’t know what that means, but I guess it was a successful film. As messy as it is, it’s not hard to see why it might have been popular. It features a crazy big cast of Bollywood stars, the music is mostly great, the locations are lavish, and the horror is completely wild. There’s some wonderfully melodramatic moments (Reshma distracting Shera with a song and then holding him up at gunpoint), and a few twists that took me by surprise (even though they were largely irrelevant to the plot). And there’s a man wearing a silly monster suit and fangs strangling ladies to death. What more could you want?

Dave Jackson, Mondo Exploito

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Further review:

“Compared to today’s Bollywood standards the film may seem technically outdated and jaded but keeping the late 70s in mind it was quite suitably placed in terms of technique: special effects (B. Gupta), make-up, costumes (Bhanu Athaiya, although men’s dresses were rather outlandish, sound (Mangesh Desai), editing (Shyam maintains continuity and ensures that the number of diversions from the main screenplay are kept minimum), stunts (Abdul Ghani) and cinematography. At times, art direction (Sant Singh) is tacky and patchy for scenes shot indoors. The dialogues by Inder Raj Anand add spice and flavour to the proceedings.” Aps Malhotra, TheHindu.com

Wikipedia | IMDb | Thanks to Dave Jackson at the highly-recommended website Mondo Exploito for allowing us to reproduce his review

Indian horror on Horrorpedia: 1920 | 1920: Evil Returns | Aatank | Aatma (2006) | Agyaat | Alone | Bandh Darwaza | Bach ke Zara | Bees Saal Baad | Bhoot Returns | Cape Karma |Dahshat | Darling | Darwaza (1978) | Dracula 2012 | Ek Thi Daayan | Horror Story | Khooni Panja | Ludo | Mahakaal |  Mallika | | Miruthan | Mumbai 125KM | Nagin | O Sthree Repu Raa! | The Other Side of the Door | Phoonk | Pizza | Purana Mandir | Purani Haveli | Pyasa Shaitan |  Qatil Chudail | Ragini MMS | Tahkhana | Vaastu Shastra | Veerana (1988)

‘Terror vision…’

The Killer Eye is a 1998 American science fiction comedy horror film directed by David DeCoteau (Creepozoids; Ancient Evil: Scream of the Mummy; Evil Exhumed) using the pseudonym Richard Chasen. The screenplay was by Benjamin Carr, Matthew Jason Walsh and Rolfe Kanefsky. Mark Williams designed and created the eye monster.

Buy: Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com

The film was released on 18 January 1999 via Charles Band’s Full Moon Features and was belatedly followed up with a 2011 sequel, Killer Eye: Halloween Haunt. The film’s poster re-used Wizard Video’s  artwork for The Headless Eyes (1971).

Main cast:

Jacqueline Lovell, Jonathan Norman, Nanette Bianchi, Costas Koromilas, Dave Oren Ward, Blake Bailey.

Plot:

A mad scientist attempts to enter the eighth dimension, and in one failed experiment, his assistant loses an eye and the eye quickly expands into a lustful gigantic monster…

Reviews:

” … for all of The Killer Eye‘s faults, hardly anyone other than Full Moon Features, the studio behind the Puppet Master and Subspecies series, knows how to churn out cut-rate monster movies these days. And if that’s your pleasure, excessively creepy sex scenes aside, you might enjoy The Killer Eye.” Keith Phipps, A.V. Club

” … it’s an unsexy softcore porn flick, an unscary horror film, and an unfunny comedy. Nothing works in this picture, from the poorly structured story, to the sparsely decorated sets. Even the actors suck in comparison to the performances they gave in Head of the Family and Hideous!” Steve Miller, 150 Movies You Should Die Before You See

Buy: Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com

“The Killer Eye isn’t nearly as killer as it is horny, as it spends the majority of its time molesting its entranced victims with its slimy tentacles. Things pick up in the final act, when bad science is replaced with bad jokes and a number of ridiculous gags. This one is best left to the B-movie fans with eyeball fetishes.” I Like Horror Movies

Choice dialogue:

Rita: “You better tell your new buddy the eyeball here it’s gonna be awful hard for him to take over the world with one of my three-inch stiletto heels sticking outta his yucky fucking face!”

Cast and characters:

• Jacqueline Lovell as Rita Grady
• Jonathan Norman as Dr. Jordan Grady
• Nanette Bianchi as Jane
• Costas Koromilas as Morton
• Blake Adams as Creepy Bill (as Blake Bailey)
• Ryan Van Steenis as Street Kid
• Dave Oren Ward as Tom
• Roland Martinez as Joe

Buy: Amazon.co.uk

Wikipedia | IMDb

The Prey is a 2016 American horror monster movie produced and directed by The Hensman Brothers, i.e. Cire Hensman [as Eric Hensman] and Matthew Hensman. It was scripted by the latter based on a story by Gustavo Sainz de la Peña. The original title was The Lost Patrol.

The film stars Danny Trejo (Dead in Tombstone; The Burning Dead; 3 Headed Shark Attack), Nick Chinlund (Hallowed Ground; The Chronicles of Riddick; Below), Kevin Grevioux (Underworld: Rise of the Lycans; screenwriter of I, Frankenstein), Aria London, Fahim Fazli, Cleo Anthony, Reka Rene, Ryan McIntyre, Justin Arnold, John David Gregory.

Plot:

U.S. soldiers in the Middle East become trapped in a cave that is inhabited by a deadly creature…

Filming Locations:

Santa Clarita, California, USA

IMDb  | Facebook |

‘There is one birth announcement the world could do without.’

Little Devils: The Birth is a 1993 Canadian comedy horror film directed by George Pavlou (Rawhead Rex; Underworld) from a screenplay by producer Elliott Stein.

The film stars Russ Tamblyn, Marc Price, Nancy Valen, Wayne McNamara, Stella Stevens (The Manitou), Donald Saunders, Jerry Levitan, David Campbell, Henry Roth and Tania Leil.

Review:

There is only one thing in this world I like more than a Jaws rip-off: a Gremlins rip-off! From the cream of the crop (Critters) to the bottom of the barrel (Munchies), no matter how garbage a Gremlins rip is, I can’t help but have a good time. The needlessly lengthily titled Little Devils: The Birth is Canada’s contribution to the sub-genre.

Ed Reid (Marc Price) makes his living writing porno tales for some filthy rag — a filthy rag that everybody in this universe reads because everybody knows (and seemingly loves) his stories. Ed’s life is pretty okay. He has a pal called Doc (Russ Tamblyn). Doc hangs out with weird homeless people and can no longer get it up since his time as a med student cutting up cadavers. Despite his lack of sex drive, Doc still hangs out in strip clubs.

Through Doc, Ed meets Lynn (Nancy Valen), a super hot stripper lady who doesn’t take off her clothes when she strips. I can only assume Doc came to know Lynn through his sad strip club addiction, and her lack of nudity appealed to his sexless leanings. Ed’s existence isn’t all fun times with strip clubs, porno mags and weird homeless people. His vacuum-obsessed dominatrix landlady (Stella Stevens) is desperate to fuck him. Oh, and his upstairs neighbour, Lionel (Wayne McNamara), is moulding little devils out of living mud.

Lionel’s world is very much not peachy. It is, in fact, a total nightmare. His apartment is chaos. He’s addicted to lemon soda. A couple of scenery-chewing gangsters want to chop his fingers off because of a debt he owes them. At first, it’s unclear if Lionel is insane or an evil vengeance-fuelled geek. But once the tiny mud devils he’s made begin their murderous rampage, we learn who’s really in charge.

Even before the monster madness kicks in, I was quite taken with the cast and characters of Little Devils. No-one is necessarily good here, but everyone puts in a stellar effort. Marc Price hams it up something fierce. Even when he’s dancing, very much out of time, like a goof in his apartment or pretending to orgasm as Lynn shakes his hand, he is quite likeable in the leading role.

Wayne McNamara is equally fun as the sobbing, demented Lionel and gets the chance to turn into an unlikely protagonist in the film’s finale. Russ Tamblyn (The Haunting; Twin Peaks) is as cheesy and lovable as ever, and Nancy Valen brings a rebellious 90s charm to the proceedings.

However, it’s the final half an hour where the goo and goofs are pummelled onto the screen. The little devils themselves are stiff and awkward with limited facial expressions, but they’re adorable as fuck. They each carry a different tiny weapon, which is a great touch. Though they lack the personality of a gremlin or even a munchie, their design is commendable and, more importantly, gooey.

Director George Pavlou, best known for Clive Barker-scribed Rawhead Rex (1986), keeps the action coming thick and fast. As the battle between humans and tiny monsters ensues, the music pounds out pulsating synth beats that would be more at home in an 80s film and blaring electronic guitars. People get set on fire. Monsters melt. All the action is captured competently and slickly.

I guess my tastes really don’t align to the users of IMDb. At this point in time, Little Devils: The Birth sits at a shockingly low 2.3 — a rating it is utterly, utterly undeserving of.

While this is no Gremlins, Little Devils is a blast from start to finish. I went in expecting dull garbage, instead I found scratching my head about its poor reputation. I would take Little Devils over Munchies or even Ghoulies (1984) any day. I would, however, not take it over Ghoulies III: Ghoulies Go to College (1991), but who would? That’s the Citizen Kane of Gremlins cash-ins.

Dave Jackson, Guest reviewer via Mondo Exploito

Availability:

Sadly, Little Devils does not appear to be available on DVD outside of an obscure Brazilian release under the title of O Aniversário Do Demônio. Unless you can find a copy of this DVD, it’s VHS or nothing.

IMDb

‘An island. A bride. A monster.’

Frankenstein: Day of the Beast is a 2011 American science fiction horror film written, photographed, edited, produced and directed by Ricardo Islas, loosely based on Mary Shelley’s novel.

Production began in the Orland Park, Illinois area in January 2011 and was funded by indie fundraising website IndieGoGo. The film premiered with a limited theatrical release in the United States on November 27, 2011.

In June 2016, SGL Entertainment announced that they just have signed a deal with 88 Films for the release of Frankenstein: Day of the Beast on both Blu-ray and DVD in the United Kingdom and Ireland towards the end of the year, and will be available in the USA and Canada on July 12th, 2016.

Buy: Amazon.com

Main cast: 

Michelle Shields, Tim Krueger and Adam Stephenson.

Plot:

On a foggy winter morning, a raft brings a priest to an isolated island. He is getting paid to perform a wedding ritual under very mysterious conditions. The groom is Victor Frankenstein, and the young and beautiful bride is his cousin Elizabeth.

Seven armed and dangerous mercenary soldiers have been hired to protect her against something huge that hides in the woods, awaiting for that wedding night to be consummated. Victor is the only one who knows the truth about their enemy. His secret will be paid with the life of his private army, whose men will die one by one, as the creature gets closer to his target: the bride…

Reviews:

“It has all the familiar Frankenstein monster elements, but also delivers a certain style and authority that allows it to make its own mark. The acting, setting, costumes and dialogue screams drive-in movie fare, but the production gamely reaches out to retell the myth with a little sex, a lot of gore and an interesting take on the reanimation portion of the monster.” Patrick McDonald, Hollywood Chicago

” … definitely not the most conventional telling of the Frankenstein story, but its diversions from that story made me look past the rough edges that go along with low budget and amateur acting. Shelley-freaks will want to seek it out, but those who don’t have an appreciation toward low fi scares may not be impressed.” Ain’t It Cool News

” … pretty much follows the look and style of a Hammer film. It stays true to the source while creating a much less sympathetic creature and showing us just how brutal he can be. The story is easy to fall in to and the end has a nice little twist.” Corey Danna, HorrorNews.net

Cast and characters:

• Michelle Shields as Elizabeth Frankenstein
• Adam Stephenson as Victor Frankenstein
• Tim Krueger as The Monster
• Paul Barile as Mr. Rowley
• Jay Disney as Henry
• Suzy Brack as Justine
• Wesley Saint Louis as Bartul
• John Vitiritti as Schiffer

Wikipedia | IMDb | Official site

Red Billabong is a 2016 Australian action horror creature feature film written and directed by Luke Sparke.

The film stars Dan Ewing, Tim Pocock, Jessica Green, Sophie Don, Ben Chisholm, Felix Williamson, John Reynolds, Yutaka Izumihara, Bruce R. Carter, Emily Joy, Philippe Deseck, Gregory J. Fryer, Col Elliott and Selina Kadell.

A release in Australian theatres is set for August 25, 2016.

Plot:

In the Australian Outback, two estranged brothers discover old secrets and family lies. As their friends start to go missing they fear they are being stalked by someone or something from their worst fears…

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Kong: Skull Island is a 2017 American action adventure 3D monster movie directed Jordan Vogt-Roberts from a screenplay by Max Borenstein, Derek Connolly, John Gatins and Dan Gilroy, loosely based on King Kong (1933) by Merian C. Cooper and Edgar Wallace. The film is a reboot of the King Kong franchise and will serve as the second instalment in Legendary’s Godzilla–Kong film series.

The film is being produced for Legendary Pictures by Debbi Bossi, Jennifer Conroy, Alex Garcia, Jon Jashni, Eric McLeod, Mary Parent, Nicholas Simon and Thomas Tull. It was formerly known as Skull Island.

Principal photography began on October 19, 2015 in Hawaii. Kong: Skull Island is scheduled to be released by Warner Bros. in the United States on March 10, 2017.

Main cast:

Tom Hiddleston, Brie Larson, Samuel L. Jackson, John Goodman, Terry Notary, J.K. Simmons, Michael Keaton, John C. Reilly, Jason Speer, Tom Wilkinson, Toby Kebbell, Shea Whigham, Russell Crowe, Raj K. Bose, Jerald M.S. Pang, David James Sikkink, Paul S.W. Lee, John Huser, John Ortiz, Thomas Mann, Marc Evan Jackson, James Edward Flynn, John A Weaver, Corey Hawkins, Michael C Hollandsworth, Eugene Cordero, John West Jr., Jason Mitchell, Tian Jing, Will Brittain.

Plot:

In the 1970s, a diverse team of explorers is brought together to venture deep into an uncharted island in the Pacific—as beautiful as it is treacherous—unaware that they’re crossing into the domain of the mythic Kong…

Wikipedia | IMDb | Twitter

‘This legend is real.’

Chupacabra: Dark Seas – released on DVD as Chupacabra Terror – is a 2005 American horror film directed by John Shepphird (Jersey Shore Shark Attack) from a screenplay co-written with Steve Jankowski (who also plays Admiral Williams). The film is a Regent Entertainment production for the Syfy television channel.

Main cast:

John Rhys-Davies (Beasts; Anacondas: Trail of Blood; The Half Dead), Giancarlo Esposito (Bones), Dylan Neal (Vampire Bats; Locusts; Ice Road Terror), Chelan Simmons (It; Monster Island; Snakehead Terror), Paula Shaw (The Centerfold Girls; Freddy vs. Jason; iZombie) and David Millbern (The Slumber Party Massacre;  Ice Spiders; The Nurse).

Plot:

Dr. Peña (Esposito), a cryptozoologist, manages to capture El Chupacabra on a remote Caribbean island and smuggles it aboard the cruise ship Regent Queen, commanded by Captain Randolph (Rhys-Davies) with the assistance of his young daughter, and ship fitness instructor, Jenny (Simmons). The Regent Queen has been experiencing a rash of burglaries, and Federal Marshal Lance Thompson (Neal) is brought on board to investigate.

Unfortunately, crew members sneak into the cargo hold on their break; their curiosity getting the better of them, they accidentally unlock the contained holding the creature. It kills them and escapes into the ship…

Reviews:

“First, it was actually paced pretty well. I watch a lot of bad movies where I can’t wait for the credits to roll, but despite its subject matter and dialogue, I remained relatively interested in the film. Maybe it’s just because I think cryptozoology and cryptids in general are pretty cool, but seeing someone talk about it somewhat intelligently, despite being in a film called Chupacabra Terror, was surprising.” The Wolfman Cometh

“Where drive-in horror movies of the 1950s were either moderately creepy or sublimely ridiculous, this schlocker misses out by relying on cheap thrills and parodistic laughs … The gore may satisfy die-hard monster mashers, but the cheesy-looking creature isn’t fit to touch the gills of the Creature from the Black Lagoon.” Robert Pardi, TV Guide

Cast and characters:

• John Rhys-Davies as Captain Randolph
• Dylan Neal as Lance Thompson
• Chelan Simmons as Jenny Randolph
• Giancarlo Esposito as Dr. Peña
• Paula Shaw as Millie Hartman
• David Millbern as Rick McGraw
• Luke Darnell as Ensign Peters
• Mark Viniello as El Chupacabra

Buy: Amazon.com

Filming locations:

The Turks and Caicos Islands

Release:

In the US, the film was released on DVD by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment on May 3, 2005.

Wikipedia | IMDb | Image thanks: The Wolfman Cometh

Loch Ness Terror, titled Beyond Loch Ness on the Syfy Channel, is a 2008 Canadian horror television film directed by Paul Ziller (Pledge Night) from a screenplay co-written with Jason Bourque. It was produced by Lindsay MacAdam and Kirk Shaw for Insight Film Studios

Main cast:

Brian Krause (Camel Spiders; Poseidon Rex; Plan 9), Niall Matter, Amber Borycki, Carrie Genzel, Don S. Davis.

Plot:

James Murphy (Brian Krause) is a rugged cryptozoologist, who thirty years earlier, during a trip to Loch Ness, Scotland, had a fatal encounter with the fabled “Nessie” creature that killed his father, research assistants, and left James with a deep facial scar.

Thirty years later, James is hunting for Nessie, when his search leads him to the sleepy town of Pike Island, Ashburn, on Lake Superior. He encounters Josh Riley (Niall Matter), owner of a bait shop. Josh’s ex-girlfriend, Zoe, is going camping along with Brody and two others on a small deserted island on the lake. Josh’s uncle, Sean, attempts to prove Nessie’s existence but is eaten instead. James hires Josh as a guide while his mother, Sheriff Karen Riley, eventually finds Sean’s remains. She begins to suspect that an underwater predator is on the loose…

Buy: Amazon.co.uk

Reviews:

“The Case Against: Nothing, unless you count bad acting, silly death scenes, jingoism, rampant product placement, and awful pseudo-science. But if you did that everyone in the movie industry would be out of a job.” Eileen “Raptor Red” Stahl, Something Awful

“This is a surprisingly gory affair with Nessie and her kids chomping down on every human they meet right from the ropy opening at Loch Ness. The main cast are reasonably good but some of the acting for the smaller parts is terrible. The film employs a lot of CG and sometimes it works reasonably well but for the most part it looks terribly fake. It is more fun than your average made for TV feature and if you like monster movies you might enjoy this.” Eat Horror

“Looking at the movie “beyond” the logic of that underwater passage from Loch Ness to a lake in the USA, I enjoyed it on a different level. It got high marks for the intelligence of the cryptozoologist. I am fascinated by how characters can stroll into films nowadays and declare themselves, “I’m a cryptozoologist,” over and over again … Beyond Loch Ness is a fun ninety minutes of escapism, especially for the cryptozoologically-minded.” Loren Coleman, Crypto Mundo

Buy: Amazon.com

“I hate to admit this but Loch Ness Terror was a pretty fun, entertaining ride which certainly blasted the rest of the Sci-Fi Channel’s movies out of the water. It’s got plenty of Nessie action, has a decent pace and above all didn’t suck in all of the major departments.” Popcorn Pictures

Buy: Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com

Cast and characters:

• Brian Krause as James Murphy
  Niall Matter as Josh Riley: Owner of a baitshop, and Zoe’s former boyfriend.
• Amber Borycki as Zoe: Josh’s ex-girlfriend and Brody’s girlfriend.
• Carrie Genzel as Sheriff Karen Riley: The local sheriff, and Josh’s mother.
• Don S. Davis as Neil Chapman: Sheriff Karen’s deputy.
• Sebastian Gacki as Brody: Zoe’s boyfriend, and Josh’ nemesis.
• Neil Denis as Chad: One of the campers, later killed by Nessie.
• Serinda Swan as Caroleena: One of the campers, later killed by Nessie.
• Donnelly Rhodes as Uncle Sean: Josh’s uncle. Later killed by Nessie
• Paul McGillion as Michael Murphy: James’ father, who is killed by Nessie.
• Alan Longair as Thomas Chapman
• Suzanne Ristic as Marge
• Rob Morton as Bill Maxwell
• David Lewis as Scientist #1
• Bart Anderson as Scientist #2
• R. Nelson Brown as Fisherman
  Sam Laird as Young James Murphy

Filming Locations:

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Wikipedia | IMDb | Related: The Loch Ness Monster (article)

Under the Bed – aka Scary: Under the Bed – is a 2012 Canadian-American horror film directed by Steven C. Miller (Automaton Transfusion; Scream of the Banshee; Silent Night) from a screenplay by Eric Stolze (Late Phases).

The film stars Jonny Weston (John Dies at the End), Gattlin Griffith, Peter Holden (Child of Darkness, Child of Light; Alien Abduction), Musetta Vander (Monster Night; Transylmania; Mansquito), Kelcie Stranahan, Bryan Rasmussen, Nikki Griffin, Tyler Steelman, Sam Kindseth.

Plot:

Neal has been living with his aunt following the death of his mother, and it is implied that he attempted to burn their house down. He has just returned to live with his father and new stepmother Angela, and younger brother Paulie; although everyone seems to welcome him back, his father is very hostile, and the neighborhood kids believe that Neal is crazy.

Neal speaks to Paulie about the true cause of their mother’s death, revealed to be a monster that lives under their bed and is only repelled by light. The monster has begun to torment Paulie as it did to Neal, and the brothers must formulate a plan to destroy it once and for all…

Reviews:

“The film-makers call the film a “suburban nightmare” and that is an succinctly accurate description. Unfortunately, it’s a little too heavy on the “suburban” without enough “nightmare” until it is almost too late. The beginning two-thirds plays entirely too close to Saturday afternoon movie-of-week fare … Thankfully, Jonny Weston and Gattlin Griffith as the two leads are extraordinary and make for realistic, believable siblings.” Doc Rotten, HorrorNews.net

“With some more care at the script stage, this could have been an instant classic. As it stands, though, Under the Bed is just too loosely put together to be truly great; and the tonal (and content) shift will likely leave many scratching their heads — but monster movie aficionados, especially those who grew up with the kind of fare which Miller’s film idolises, will eat it up.” Gareth Jones, Dread Central

“Under the Bed isn’t effective enough for any kind of hidden greatness, but it works well enough to be a surprise. Its greatest asset is a fun and interesting sibling team, exasperated by a refreshing lack of angst. But there’s a lot of goofiness to get over, as well as a firm DTV aura the film never quite overcomes.” Evan Saathoff, Birth. Movies. Death.

“The more the movie progresses, the more the demons are revealed. At first, they seem sort of cheesy and could have been done better, but once they begin to truly attack, an entertaining finale ensues with brief, yet unexpected, gore from a movie that you thought was going to be based on scares alone.” Simon Rother, Horror-Movies.ca

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