From the second half of the 1950s to the mid 1970s, Hammer Films ruled supreme as Britain’s masters of horror. But the company was not unrivalled, as several other producers sought to cash in on the horror boom. Some, like Planet Productions, came and went quickly; others, like Tigon, dabbled with horror as a part of their wider production slate. But one company stayed the course, building a reputation that might not have rivalled Hammer’s, but which ensured them a cult following that survives to this day. That company was Amicus.

Amicus was formed by American producer Milton Subotsky, who moved to the UK in 1959 after distributing films to US television for ten years. His US based partner, Max J. Rosenberg, was the man who would find the money, while Subotsky was in charge of the ‘artistic’ side – getting the films made.

The pair first dabbled in horror in the mid-Fifties, and could claim to have kick-started the Hammer cycle, as they submitted an idea for a new Frankenstein film to Associated Artists Productions, who in turn passed it on to Hammer. While the Subotsky/Rosenberg screenplay, entitled Frankenstein and the Monster, was considered too short and too derivative to be filmed, the pair were paid off and the experience – not to mention the huge success that Hammer subsequently had with The Curse of Frankenstein – set them on the road to fifteen years of horror and fantasy production.

The first Amicus film actually predates the company. The City of the Dead, better known as Horror Hotel, was made before Subotsky settled on the Amicus (meaning “friendly”) name and the film is credited to Vulcan Films. Made just prior to Psycho, this occult thriller is notable for killing off the heroine midway through the story – much as Hitchcock would do later the same year with Janet Leigh.

An effective shocker, City of the Dead holds up surprisingly well today (and thanks to its public domain status, is pretty easy to see). The crisp black and white photography and the almost Wicker Man approach to the subject matter make it stand out as a quality film. It also sees a early non-Hammer British horror appearance from Christopher Lee. Lee, along with Peter Cushing, would become as much regulars for Amicus as they were for Hammer during the 1960s and early 70s.

The next four Amicus films were of a very different strain – It’s Trad, Dad (aka Ring-A-Ding Rhythm – Subotsky’s favourite of his films!), Just for Fun, Girl of the Night and Lad: A Dog (a ‘touching’ tale of a disabled boy and his pet) were mostly forgettable youth and family films. There was little to suggest that City of the Dead had been anything more than a one-off.

Subotsky was a vocal advocate of ‘family entertainment’ throughout his career – something that would have an increasing effect on his approach to horror and fantasy as time went on – and he seemed an unlikely person to create a studio that would rival Hammer, who had eagerly embraced the ‘X’ certificate and were willing to push it as far as they could. But Subotsky was first and foremost a businessman, and he knew that horror would sell.

In 1964, Amicus returned to the genre with a film that set the scene for a decade of horror. Dr Terror’s House of Horrors took its title from an obscure 1940s film and its format from the classic Dead of Night (1945). Consisting of a series of short stories, linked together by Peter Cushing as a sinister tarot card reading doctor who predicts death for all his travelling companions during a train journey. The film set the tone for much of the subsequent Amicus output – over the ensuing years, Subotsky made the portmanteau film his trademark. While Hammer concentrated on the gothic, Subotsky mostly kept his films firmly set in the modern day, and had a particular affinity for the anthology (he was once quoted as saying he liked the format because it didn’t give the audience time to get bored!). It also allowed him to boast surprisingly starry casts, as it was cheap and easy to hire big name actors for a few days work on a short story.

Dr Terror is, in fact, a rather mixed bag – some stories (such as the vampire tale with Donald Sutherland) work well; others just drag or seem silly. But the film was a box office success and set Amicus on the fantastique road. In fact, they rarely made anything outside the genre from that point on. The company never reached the production levels of Hammer (who were making several films a year, across a variety of genres, at their peak) and for the most part stuck with what they knew would sell.

In 1965, for instance, apart from the compilation film The World of Abbott and Costello, all four Amicus productions were horror or science fiction. Best remembered of the films is Dr Who and the Daleks, a popular reinterpretation of the BBC series with Peter Cushing in the title role. The film deviated considerably from the TV series format, but was successful enough to spawn a sequel the next year, Daleks Invasion Earth 2150 AD. This film was less successful (possibly because the audiences flocking to the first film were rather disappointed with the changes made) and plans for a third film were shelved. Interestingly, for contractual reasons, both films were credited to ‘Aaru Films’.

The other 1965 films were the obscure thriller The Psychopath, The Deadly Bees (which is as dull as every other bee film) and The Skull, an ambitious but plodding adaptation of Robert Bloch’s short story The Skull of the Marquis de Sade. Poor as the film was, it did mark the beginning of a long relationship between Bloch and Amicus. This was consolidated in 1966 when he supplied the source material for the second Amicus anthology, Torture Garden.

Torture Garden

Not to be confused with Octave Mirbeau’s erotic classic of the same name (the title is, in fact, nonsensical and has nothing to do with the film), this turned out to be another uneven collection, despite having some excellent short stories as inspiration. Directed by Freddie Francis (who would become a regular for Amicus), only the story The Man Who Collected Poe, with a twitchy Jack Palance, came close to matching the original Bloch story.

Also in 1966 came two science fiction films. The Terrornauts, directed by Montgomery Tully, was a pretty awful children’s film, while Freddie Francis made the slightly better They Came from Beyond Space, a paranoid tale of invading aliens and mind control. Science fiction, it seemed, was not something Amicus excelled at, lacking the budget and the ideas to make it work. However, it did fit with Subotsky’s wish to make family films.

A couple of lean years followed. 1967′s sole Amicus film was forgotten thriller Danger Route while 1968 saw Thank You Very Much, a kitchen sink drama, and an attempt to move upmarket with an adaptation of Harold Pinter’s The Birthday Party. None of these films made much impact. 1969 saw the intellectual science fiction drama The Mind of Mr Soames and, more significantly, Scream and Scream Again.

It perhaps shows how out of touch Subotsky had become by this time with audience – and genre fan – tastes that he had a dislike of the film. Interviewed by Cinefantastique in 1973, he commented “strangely enough, Scream and Scream Again made a lot of money and that was different from any film we’ve ever done. I don’t know why, it wasn’t all that good. It might have been because we used three top horror stars and it had a very good title.”

Or perhaps it’s because it spoke to modern audiences in a way that the increasingly old-fashioned Amicus horror films that followed didn’t. One imagines a company like AIP would have noted the success of the film and reacted accordingly. Amicus, unfortunately, blithely ignored it and went back to their safe formula.

The House That Dripped Blood

1970 saw The House That Dripped Blood, a decent anthology film again based on Bloch stories. It was more successful than Torture Garden, and even the token comedy story (The Cloak, starring Jon Pertwee and Ingrid Pitt) worked. Less successful was I, Monster, directed by Stephen Weeks – a young filmmaker with a unique vision that often made his films hard work. Putting an pseudo-arthouse director in charge of an adaptation of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde for a commercial filmmaker like Subotsky was always going to be problematic. Shooting it in a new, experimental form of 3D was utter madness.

I, Monster

Opinions differ on what exactly went wrong. Subotsky cheerfully blamed it on Weeks’ ‘inexperience’; Weeks says it was non-starter from day one. It was certainly Subotsky who insisted on the 3D format (which turned out to not work) – he had something of a fixation with the format, announcing several 3D movies in the 1970s, none of which were made. Even if the 3D had been successful, it’s hard to see how it would have saved this stilted, talky film.

1971 saw the acclaimed and very un-Amicus psycho thriller What Became of Jack and Jill, an unpleasant tale of granny killing that fits well with other British twisted tales of the era (Mumsy, Nanny, Sonny and Girly, Goodbye Gemini, Straight On Till Morning), as well as the more traditional Amicus anthology Tales from the Crypt.

Tales from the Crypt

Taken from the EDC comic books, this compendium proved to be the biggest Amicus horror hit and might be the best of the series. More or less all the stories work, and while the film doesn’t have the gleeful black humour of the original stories, it is nevertheless ghoulish fun. A sequel was inevitable, and The Vault of Horror, unfortunately not nearly as good, appeared a year later.

The Vault of Horror

Also in 1972 came Asylum, again based on Robert Bloch stories. Two anthologies in one year? I’m afraid so, and Asylum suffered from weak material – presumably, the best (or at least most movie-friendly) Bloch stories had been used up, and this was very uneven.

Asylum

In 1973, Amicus strayed into hammer territory with the period piece And Now the Screaming Starts. It wasn’t the best timing – Hammer themselves were struggling to sell their gothic horrors by this point, and this rather plodding Amicus imitation didn’t do well. The same year saw the final anthology, From Beyond the Grave. Hailed by some as the best of the series, it benefited from above average stories by R. Chetwynd Hayes, a witty linking performance from Peter Cushing and fresh direction by Kevin Connor.

The final Amicus horror film was the eccentric The Beast Must Die in 1974. You have the credit Subotsky for taking a chance on this inadvertently hilarious film, which has Calvin Lockhart as a latex suit-wearing big game hunter who invites a group of people to his country estate, believing one of them to be a werewolf. A mix of murder mystery, horror and The Most Dangerous Game, the film includes the infamous Werewolf Break, where audiences were supposed to shout out who they think the werewolf is. There are no records to show what audiences ACTUALLY shouted…

The Beast Must Die

Curiously, Amicus had their biggest hit at a time when the British film industry in general seemed on its last legs. In 1975, they made the prehistoric romp The Land That Time Forgot, which was a huge box office success. Horror was suddenly out – not only were giant monster films making more money, but they also fitted in with Subotsky’s own wish to make wholesome films for kids to enjoy. It was followed in 1976 with another Edgar Rice Burroughs adaptation, At the Earth’s Core, which proved to be another popular success.

Unfortunately, the relationship between Subotsky and partner Rosenberg was becoming increasingly strained, and in 1977 the business was dissolved. Although The People That Time Forgot was in development at the time, it would eventually be credited to AIP. Rosenberg, never high profile to begin with, continued in distribution and production, often uncredited (among his executive producer credits are The Incredible Melting Man, Bloody Birthday, Cat People and Perdita Durango). Subotsky, not a great money man, was left floundering. He finally teamed up with Andrew Donally to form Sword and Sorcery Productions.

In the mid-Seventies, Subotsky had toyed with the idea of filming Robert E Howard’s Conan stories, but finding them too violent, instead went for Lin carter’s Conan knock-off Thongor. Subotsky planned a major action epic, family friendly of course, with little dialogue, lots of stop motion effects and Dave Prowse in the title role. Harley Cockliss was brought in as director and the search for financing began. AIP showed interest but wanted to make changes. Subotsky declined, fearing that they wanted to turn it into an R-rated movie. Eventually, United Artists agreed to back the film and gave S&S development money. Storyboards and monsters were designed and Thongor in the Valley of the Demons was scheduled for production in 1980. Six weeks after announcing the film, UA dropped the project, possibly because all their money was being gobbled up by Heaven’s Gate.

The Uncanny

Other films that failed to get off the ground included comic book adaptations The Incredible Hulk, Creepy and Eerie and science fiction epic The Micronauts. Then Sword and Sorcery finally did get a film into production, it was a return to what Subotsky knew best – a three story anthology about killer cats called The Uncanny. This was followed by lacklustre psychological thriller Dominique, like its predecessor a Canadian-UK co-production. Neither film was a success.

By 1980, Subotsky was in something of a quandary. Having poured most of his time and money into the now defunct Thongor, he’d also spent his remaining financial resources buying the rights to six of Stephen King’s short stories. He needed to make a film, and soon.

Now, you might wonder why, having bought the rights at a time when the author was at his cinematic hottest (with The Shining and hit mini series Salem’s Lot), Subotsky didn’t make a King movie. Instead, he dusted off an old screenplay and set about making his grandest folly, The Monster Club.

Like From Beyond the Grave, the film was based on short stories by R. Chetwynd Hayes. But unlike that film, The Monster Club became a textbook example of How Not To Make a Horror Film. Again, part of the problem was Subotsky’s fixation on family entertainment. As far back as The House That Dripped Blood, he’d wanted to make a film that kids could see (in Britain; in America, these films were routinely rated PG anyway). He’d complained bitterly that the BBFC had rated that film ‘A’, only to change it to ‘X’ on the insistence of the distributor. Condemning sex scenes as ‘boring’ and expressing a dislike of ‘gratuitous’ violence, he was now determined to make a horror film for all the family. The only problem was that this was 1980. A Fangoria generation was fixated on Dawn of the Dead, Phantasm and Friday the 13th and were just gaining access to those films – and stronger – through home video. Kids didn’t want to see a horror film aimed at them. And if the kids weren’t interested, adults definitely weren’t.

Worse still, the film was incredibly dated and pitifully under-budgeted. I remember sitting in my local cinema watching this film as the audience hooted, howled and yelled abuse at the awful monster masks, the tired direction by Roy Ward Baker and the terrible rock bands that Subotsky though would add youth appeal (B.A. Robertson? The Pretty Things?). In the year that audiences were flocking to violent slasher films, Subotsky was still thinking that Vincent Price and joke shop level werewolf masks were the way to go. Rarely has a film been so spectacularly out of step with reality. The film bombed, failing to even secure US distribution, and plans for a sequel (Monsters and Meanies, would you believe!) were quickly abandoned.

Subotsky’s career was pretty much over. He did co-produce the TV mini series The Martian Chronicles, and in later years had credits on Cat’s Eye and The Lawnmower Man – that shrew investment in Stephen King stories at least paid off to that level. He died in 1991. Rosenberg died in 2004.

Amicus never achieved the popularity or reputation of Hammer, and truth be told, their films rarely equalled those of their great rival. But the company did produce a handful of entertaining, sometimes excellent, sometimes terrible movies and they deserves to be remembered with a mix of affection and frustration.

David Flint, Horrorpedia

Monster Island is a campy 2004 made-for-MTV American horror film directed by Jack Perez (Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus) supposedly in the style of 1950s monster movies. It stars Carmen Electra (2-Headed Shark Attack),ZDaniel Letterle, Scream Queen Mary Elizabeth Winstead (The Thing, Black X-Mas, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter) Adam West (Zombie Nightmare), C. Ernst Harth, and Chelan Simmons.

High school senior Josh (Letterle) is stunned to find that he has unwittingly won an MTV contest to see Carmen Electra, but it was actually his sister, Jen, who won the contest and she invites everyone they know in their school. Josh and his classmates arrive on an isolated island (which is later revealed to be in the Bermuda Triangle) where they have an enormous party.

After catching a quick glimpse of a flying ant, Josh and Jen get backstage passes to see Carmen Electra (who is revealed to be a Ramones fan, although their ‘Psychotherapy’ video was ironically banned by MTV in the 80s). Later on, at a concert featuring Carmen, the flying ant grabs her and Eightball, her bodyguard. Josh watches helplessly as the flying ant takes Carmen to a faraway mountain…

Wikipedia | IMDb

“Sadly, despite the potential for a fun teen-oriented sci-fi movie, Monster Island doesn’t really fall under the category of ‘homage’ or ‘good’, but instead is simply a bad movie that utilizes old tools to accomplish visual effects (and that, apparently, passes as ‘homage’ enough). The script is poor, the acting unbelievably bad, although Emmy worthy when compared to productions chummed out by the Asylum.” Ramblings of a Minnesota Geek

“Monster Island is a dopey genre flick. Low on budget, skill and all-round talent, it makes up for it in honesty, wit and cheesy charm. It’s clearly targeted at MTV viewers who have no idea what some of the in-jokes and homages to the 50s ‘atomic monster’ films are all about but for those of us who do know, there’s a few smiles to be had. Don’t watch if you’re offended by bad films.” Popcorn Pictures

The Deadly Mantis is a 1957 science fiction film produced by William Alland for Universal-International Pictures. It was directed by Nathan Juran from a screenplay by Martin Berkeley, and stars Craig Stevens, William Hopper, Alix Talton, and Pat Conway.

“For every action, there is an equal — and opposite — reaction.” In the South Seas, a volcano explodes, eventually causing North Pole icebergs to shift. Below the melting polar ice caps, a 200-foot-long praying mantis, trapped in the ice for millions of years, begins to stir. Soon after, the military personnel at Red Eagle One, a military station in northern Canada that monitors information gathered from the Distant Early Warning Line, realize that the men at one of their outposts are not responding to calls. Commanding officer Col. Joe Parkman flies there to investigate, and finds the post destroyed, its men disappeared and giant slashes left in the snow outside…

Wikipedia | IMDb 

The Deadly Mantis begins with a paranoid beware-of-the-Commies pseudo documentary look at the good work being done by the obliquely named ‘Red Eagle One’ military base. From there on, it’s almost as if Universal-International were being paid by the CIA to explain the terror of the potential ‘invasion’ (a notion not without plausibility as the Agency did pay for a 1954 British animated adaptation of Orwell’s Animal Farm). “Sound the red alert” has never been so poignant.

Despite the bogus bogeyman fears, the real terror is obviously is a giant praying mantis. Yet, even when the presence of a massive insect is suspected, the flag-waving nuttiness continues; with shots of four “hot phones” connected at the ready to “save millions of Americans”, and scenes of devoted scientists slavishly working for Pentagon generals, thus reinforcing the ‘Uncle Sam knows best’ ethos. Mention of the 400,000 members of the ‘Civilian Ground Observer Corp’ make it clear that The Deadly Mantis is a metaphor for the real deadly menace: “Take no chances, report any unusual flying object”. This Cold War rhetoric is scarier than any giant insect could ever be.

Several references to “skid marks” will doubtlessly induce mild sniggering for some, but the biggest laughs come from the creature’s frenzied attacks (with defending flame throwers and bomber planes a go-go) which are combined with an overly dramatic score by Irving Gertz (The Alligator People) and William Lava. This is a crude creature feature that’s peppered with bombastic militaristic nonsense so quite sad, yet enjoyable for its titular monster, at least.

Adrian J Smith

Buy the 10 movie Classic Sci-Fi Ultimate Collection on DVD from Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

Winterbeast is a low budget 16mm American horror film about an ancient Native American demon that murders partygoers in the Wild Goose Lodge, Massachusetts. Although filmed in 1986, it was never finished and the existing footage remained unreleased until five years later when J.R Bookwalter’s Tempe Video (“The Evil Dead meets Northern Exposure”) issued a tape.

Written and directed by Christopher Thies, this legendarily shoddy and confusing production features stop motion monsters. It was subsequently released on a Special Edition DVD in 2008 with a 20 minute Making of featurette, deleted scenes (!) and audio commentary.

“There’s a lot of weirdness on display in Winterbeast, like gross misuse of plaid flannel clothing of all colors and a creepy stuffed deer head that shows up in multiple locations and always seems to be staring at the audience. Maybe it knows something we don’t.  Perhaps it read the script.  There are lots of monsters, though their purpose is as questionable as the rest of the picture.” Kevin Pyrtle, Wtf-Film

“I’m a sucker for stop-motion animated monsters, and this film boasts an interesting menagerie ranging from a walking totem pole to (loins girded?) a giant demonic chicken. These things are fun to watch, particularly, since they don’t blend well, or even at all, with the live action footage. The aforementioned totem pole attacks a woman in a cabin (the film’s only instance of gratuitous nudity), pulls her out the window and crushes her to death against the cabin wall. At least I think this is what’s going on. The figure the monster kills is so laughably crude that a Barbie doll would have been more believable.” Matt Bradshaw, Moviefone 

Buy Winterbeast Special Edition DVD from Amazon.com

“Love it! Love it!… If you find Winterbeast, watch it. Then, watch it again…The film drips with weirdness – camera angles and frame compositions – the sets. It’s all one big pile of greatness…” Bleeding Skull

“While at times the film can be a little slow it is definitely worth watching to see all the cheesy, stop-motion animation monsters murder their clay prey!” Deathwish Industries

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Zombie Hunter Rika aka Zombie Killer Rika and High School Girl Rika: Zombie Hunter (original title: Saikyô heiki joshikôsei: Rika – zonbi hantâ vs saikyô zonbi Gurorian) is a 2008 Japanese comedy horror splatter movie directed by Ken’ichi Fujiwara and co-written with Takeyuki Morikaku.It stars Lisa Kudô (as Risa Kudô playing Rika), Mina Arai, Lemon Hanazawa, Chris Ryô Kaihara, Kôtarô Kamijô, Ryûnosuke Kawai and Eiichi Kikuchi.

When typical Japanese high school student Rika skips school to visit her grandfather, she fails to take into account the fact that his remote village is infested with the living dead. What happens next isn’t pretty, but fortunately, Grandpa Ryuhei just happens to be the greatest surgeon ever! Picking up what’s left of Rika, he dusts her off and rebuilds her, better than she was, into the ultimate zombie fighter! Now, together with her friends Takashi and Yuji, Rika must take on the monstrous master of carnivorous cadavers: the grand-high lowest of the low, Zombie Boss Glorian.

“Modern Japanese zombie flicks tend to boast cheap budgets, extreme gore, gonzo comedy, illogical plotting, and are sometimes peppered with an unsettling degree of sleaziness in regards to the treatment of women. You get most of that here, too. Although those looking for an abundance of naked Japanese schoolgirl flesh won’t get nearly as much as they’d like, and while the action and gore effects deliver what you’d expect, some viewers accustomed to truly over-the-top Japanese zombie mayhem might be underwhelmed.” Dread Central

” … this film goes for fun over titillation. Sure, there are some great sleazy moments (3 maids arguing over who has the biggest norks but whipping them out and comparing them) but the overriding essence of this movie is just crazy gory nonsense. Oh yes there is some nice gore going on here – loads of rubbery flesh ripping and head decapitation, blood a plenty and some great makeup too (particularly the suspiciously friendly zombie with the disgusting googly eye!)” Devouring the Zombie Films of the Living

“There were a fair few interesting and uncomfortable moments of gore, lots of blood and there’s plenty of flesh-eating, but I’m scrambling for many positive things to say. An amateur script that felt like it was being made up as it went along, dry lacklustre acting performances from people who genuinely looked like they didn’t want to be there, and shot capture and direction that looked cheap and harried as if Ed Wood with his one take what-ever happens approach was in charge; it’s bad film.” Watching the Dead

“There is not much style to the Ken’ichi Fujiwara’s direction, and the film tends to lack a certain snap, but Tak Sakaguchi’s action choreography adds an occasional burst of liveliness (e.g., a zombie fight featuring a guy flopping around, kicking zombies, and bouncing off cars is fun). The HD cinematography definitely looks like video with an image that skews green. As expected, there is plenty of viscera (practical and CG) and nakedness.” Rodney Perkins, Twitch Film

IMDb

At the Earth’s Core is a 1976 fantasy-science fiction film with monsters produced by Britain’s Amicus Productions. It was directed by Kevin Connor (From Beyond the Grave, Motel Hell) and stars Peter Cushing, Doug McClure (Humanoids from the Deep), Caroline Munro (Dracula A.D. 1972) and Philippa Herring. It was based on the fantasy novel At the Earth’s Core, by Edgar Rice Burroughs, the first book of his Pellucidar series.

Dr. Abner Perry, a British Victorian period scientist (Cushing), and his US financier David Innes (McClure) make a test run of their Iron Mole drilling machine in a Welsh mountain, but end up in a strange underground labyrinth ruled by a species of giant telepathic flying reptiles, the Mahars, and full of prehistoric monsters and cave people. They are captured by the Mahars, who keep primitive humans as their slaves through mind control. David falls for the beautiful slave girl Princess Dia (Munro) but when she is chosen as a sacrificial victim in the Mahar city, David and Perry must rally the surviving human slaves to rebel and not only save her but also the freedom of the slaves…

Even bearing in mind that this monster mash was aimed at a youngish audience, Milton Subotsky’s script is painfully simplistic: Peter Cushing’s doddery old Brit inventor (almost a repeat of his 60s performance for Amicus as Doctor Who) refers to Doug McClure’s character ‘David’ so many times it’s laughable (we didn’t count but one website mentions 66 times!). The use of cheap back projection is distracting but the rubbery men-in-suits monsters are actually strangely endearing and the flying (!) reptile Mahars with their controlling eyes actually gave this reviewer the creeps when I saw this in the cinema back in the 70s. And they even explode when they are killed! McClure huffs and puffs (literally, he can’t take a cigar out of his mouth in the opening scenes) and seems bemused by sultry Caroline Munro, who shines in a role that’s sadly underwritten.

Meanwhile, former Manfred Mann guitarist Mike Vickers provides an discordant score that lends the proceedings an unsettling edge it doesn’t really deserve. My nine year-old son just watched this with me and when asked what was the best bits he asserted the battle scenes and the jokey ending when the drilling mole comes out in front of the Whitehouse. Post-Watergate, perhaps this was Subotsky’s canny political subtext, or actually just a crappy way of making this illogical fantasy fare more appealing to a US audience looking for reference points beyond former TV cowboy McClure’s token appearance. Despite its shortcomings, At the Earth’s Core is undemanding, slightly surreal fun. And there’s no harm in that. Adrian J. Smith, Horrorpedia

“Peter Cushing is on (over the) top form brandishing his trusted umbrella whilst uttering such classic lines as: “You can’t mesmerise me – I’m British!” and: “They’re so excitable – like all foreigners”. Doug McClure’s ‘David’ gamely battles various men-in-rubber-suit-monsters; a man-eating plant bearing a remarkable resemblance to the singing plant in Frank Oz’s 1986 remake of Little Shop of Horrors; and gets the somewhat less than arduous task of occasionally kissing the beautiful Dia.” Paul Worts, Contains Moderate Peril

“Still, the sets, colorful lighting, rubber monsters and (actually quite effective) sound design all work together to give the film a strange, otherworldly atmosphere that kind of works in spite of the budgetary shortcomings, resulting in an almost hallucinatory quality; taken on the level of a kind of trippy 70s fever dream, the film remains pretty diverting stuff. It’s goofy fun aimed at 10-year-olds, and if – like me – you still have a ghost of that 10-year-old self hanging around, you might enjoy it too. And, if all else fails, there’s always Caroline Munro.” The Stalking Moon

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Nezulla (Saikyôjû tanjô Nezura; also known as Nezulla: The Rat Monster) is a 2002 direct-to-video horror film B movie, written and directed by Japanese director Kanta Tagawa. It stars Ayumi Tokitou, Yoshiyuki Kubota,and Mika Katsumura.

In Japan, a U.S. co-funded attempt to create a super soldier accidentally creates the Bacillus Virus, which gives people hundreds of black sores on their faces. That these sores look like someone took a laundry marker and just made dots is not really the point.

Their experiments mutates a lab rat into a seven-foot tall lab rat monsterwith baby walrus-sized fangs and a red rubber face frozen in a roller coaster expression of “Aiyeeeeee!” Other distinguishing features include red eyes (to convey aggressive behavior), sharp claws (a way to open cans of rat food in case there’s no rat food opener handy), and a head that looks like sunburnt meatloaf (though it really does go with the whole fangs/claws ensemble). What looks to be a giant brain stuck on its back could indeed be plastic. My research is inconclusive at this time.

The scientists wanted to make a soldier who would be impervious to chemical warfare and germs, but they couldn’t make themselves impervious to Nezulla, the rat monster, who wants to chew the fat with each and every one of them locked in the containment facility.

A double agent is sent in to blow up the place, thereby eliminating any evidence that could link them back to the virus that’s gooning people out. Soldiers, speaking both Japanese and money-in-the-bank English, are systematically made null and void by Sunburnt Meatloaf Head. But Nezain’t got time to mess around – when confronted with one soldier, he pushes him down! (That’ll teach ’em.) Another soldier triggers an explosive device and shoves it deep Nezulla’s mouth, but forgets to extract his arm. Nezulla, doing what mutated rats do, bites the arm off. No time to savour it’s deliciousness as the bomb goes off and Nezulla, alas, is no more.

But this train wreck of a horror/sci-fi movie keeps going even after its star power has been finely minced. So face-scrunchingly bad is Nezulla – The Rat Monster (2002), it train wrecked my evening. OK, not really. But close.

Jeff Gilbert, Drinkin’ & Drive-In

Wikipedia | IMDb | Related: Rat Man

Frankenstein’s Daughter (1958) was the third of four films crafted by producer Marc Frederic and director Richard E. Cunha in the late 1950s. In it, Victor Frankenstein’s grandson repeats his grandfather’s grisly experiments. The script includes the term ‘meddling kids’, later a Scooby-Doo reference point. The cast includes:

• John Ashley as Johnny Bruder
• Sandra Knight as Trudy Morton
• Donald Murphy as Oliver Frankenstein/Frank
• Sally Todd as Suzie Lawler
• Harold Lloyd Jr. as Don
• Felix Locher as Dr. Morton
• Wolfe Barzell as Elsu
• John Zaremba as Lt. Boyle
• Robert Dix as Det. Bill Dillon
• Harry Wilson as the Monster

The grandson of Victor Frankenstein, Oliver (Donald Murphy), is hiding away as a laboratory assistant for the gentle Prof. Morton (Felix Locher). While Dr. Morton pursues a pet project, Dr. Frankenstein secretly works his own experiments on his benefactor’s niece, Trudy Morton (Sandra Knight). Although these experiments temporarily disfigure Trudy’s face and cause her to wander aimlessly at night, they are only a build-up to Oliver’s greater goal of recreating life. With the aid of one of his father’s former assistants, Oliver constructs a female monster from the body parts of various murdered people and begins to deal a horrible fate upon any who dare stand in the way of his desires…

‘Working with a meagre $65,000 budget, a breakneck six-day shooting schedule, and a crackpot script, director Richard Cunha delivered a businesslike, unapologetic grade-z programmer that is perfectly entertaining.’ Frankensteinia: The Frankenstein Blog

‘Nicholson’s lighting throughout Frankenstein’s Daughter is particularly eerie, framing Sandra Knight’s she-monster in bizarre street lighting in the scenes in which Knight prowls the streets of a Los Angeles suburb. Nicholson is also adept at using “shock cuts” that gradually show Knight’s monstrous deterioration and disfigurement. In fact, it’s Nicholson’s camerawork that allows the film to be limned with a patina of grimy dissolution, similar to the look and feel of She Demons. Note, too, the scene in which Murphy advances toward Sally Todd just before he runs her over. Nicholson’s camera focuses strictly on Murphy’s wild, wide eyes, as he repeats to himself: “I need a brain …I need a brain!” Monsters from the Vault

‘Neither as childishly idiotic as Missile to the Moon, nor particularly campy in any fun way, Frankenstein’s Daughter would seem to avoid boredom by simply being what it is – a Frankenstein story pared down to its barest essentials. It really should be called Woman Who Lived in the House Where a Frankenstein Descendant Conducted Secret Experiments, or Grandaddy Made Me Graft a Blonde Bombshell’s Head onto a Rotting Corpse. Well – photographed (in focus, consistently exposed), it nevertheless exhibits the full range of Z-Movie symptoms: illogical plotting, vacant characterisation, performances that don’t mesh.’ Glenn Erickson, DVD Savant

”has craggy, overaged teenagers, a scene dramatising the hazards of going parking with a guy you’ve only just met, and a rock and roll band that even the one in The Ghost of Dragstrip Hollow would look down on, it also comes complete with double the usual allotment of monsters and mad scientists.’ 1000 Misspent Hours… and Counting

Wikipedia | IMDb | Internet Archive (free download) | Images courtesy of Wrong Side of the Art

Flying Monkeys is a 2013 made-for-television film produced by and for the Syfy Channel. The film is the first directed by Robert Grasmere, being better known as a special effects supervisor on films such as Prince of Darkness, Predator 2 and The Mothman Prophecies and stars Electra Avellan (Death Proof/Planet Terror), Vincent Ventresca (Mammoth, Morphman) and Maika Monroe (Bad Blood…The Hunger).

Aboard a small aircraft, exotic-animal smugglers are returning to base with their latest haul of contraband. Unfortunately for them, stowed away is an extremely upset flying monkey, Making short work of two of the smugglers, the pilot manages to land the plane and quickly sells on the feisty beast (which has now returned to standard monkey shape) to a small-town pet shop owner who has no qualms about what he sells or where it comes from. Elsewhere in the town, inevitably situated in Kansas, high school graduate Joan (Monroe) has been left to celebrate alone by her father who has a track record of finding other things to do at his daughter’s expense. In a bid to make amends, he purchases the cute little monkey we met earlier, because nothing says sorry quite like a caged primate. Jealous of the attention the monkey is getting, Joan’s boyfriend indulges in the pleasures of the school prom queen, only for them both to be torn to pieces by the flying monkey little Skippy turns into at nightfall.

Skippy starts making ever-more regular journeys out at night, fuelled by blood-lust and it isn’t long before locals, hunters and know-it-all’s are gathered together to save the town from an embarrassing demise. Sadly for them, shooting the beast only causes the creature to multiply Hydra-like and a mystical weapon is required to slay Skippy and his ever-growing offspring…

Syfy movies tend to veer from better than you’d expect (though still impossible to recommend whole-heartedly) to down-right awful and surprisingly this lands in the first camp. Despite a host of actors who make their living appearing in similar schlock, the story is told with an impressive disregard for sense and reason and doesn’t hang around trying to weave story arcs and tension or other trivial matters. The real saving grace is the extremely passable CGI effects which are made all the more acceptable by virtue of the fact that the monkeys only do their killing at night, hiding a multitude of sins. A nice change from the endless parade of sharks, it’s a harmless excuse to bring to centre-stage some of cinema’s creepiest creatures some 75 years after they first appeared. One word of warning – the line “no more monkey business” is uttered.

Daz Lawrence

Frog-g-g! (released in Japan as Frogman) is a 2004 American science fiction horror comedy film directed by Cody Jarrett. When a small US has its water supply contaminated, a United States Environmental Protection Agency agent must track down the cause and the monstrous frog that it creates. The basic monster plot is borrowed from Humanoids from the Deep. It had one week at the box office, and was then released on DVD.

Dr. Barbara Michaels, (Kristi Russell) from the Environmental Protection Agency arrives in a small US town, determined to prove that the residents are at risk from contaminated water, originating from the town’s biggest employer, Grimes’ chemical plant. After finding mutated fish and hearing tales of ‘tadpoles the size of frisbees’, she confronts Grimes who aggressively refutes the allegations, despite his track record in health and safety issues and warns her not to meddle in his business. Pausing only to conduct a lesbian affair with a local bartender, Michaels takes her findings to the town sheriff, who is similarly displeased that his quiet town is being dragged through the mud by an outsider, not least because his brother-in-law is Grimes. Despite a break-in at her lab destroying all evidence of her findings, lab samples sent back to her base in the city reveal the DNA found to be something frog-like but with an alarmingly close match to humans. So close is the match that the mutated frog has taken to the streets, only being able to reproduce by raping the town’s lady-folk. When Grimes’ own family start being attacked by the creature, the opposing forces finally come to their senses and attempt to track down the beast, who is quickly hopping from the town’s high school football final to an all-girl catholic school…

Taking inspiration from obvious targets such as Creature from the Black Lagoon, Humanoids From the Deep and Alligator but also the raft of 1980′s horror films which took the dumping of chemical and nuclear waste as the spark for monstrous carnage, Frog-g-g! doesn’t attempt to be a serious horror film at any point and at best could be said to lampoon the exploitation fillms which themselves took events to illogical conclusions. Although a step above Syfy channel fodder, we aren’t quite in head-spinning Troma territory – the tiny budget is wasted neither on acting talent (only Mary Woronov from Silent Night, Bloody Night and TerrorVision has a CV worth investigating) nor the frog monster, which resembles a cheap Greedo fancy dress costume.

The monster itself makes only brief appearances, a great shame as although the costume is absolute rubbish, he does deliver some laughs and some energetic, as well as gymnastic, sexual activities. The lesbian lead character makes a nice change and despite one mention of ‘Doctor Dyke’ is vilified for interfering rather than her sexuality, although the final act reveals why this has been shoe-horned into the plot. An utterly harmless 80 minutes of fun with a final shot that will make even the most stony of faces crack out a smile.

Daz Lawrence

The Maze is a 1953, atmospheric horror film in 3-D starring Richard Carlson and actress Hillary Brooke. Directed by William Cameron Menzies (Invaders from Mars), it was distributed by Allied Artists Pictures. This was to be the second 3-D film designed and directed by William Cameron Menzies, who was known as a director with a very “dimensional” style (e.g. many shots are focused in layers). This would be his final film as production designer and director.

[Spoiler warning]: A Scotsman named Gerald MacTeam (Carlson) abruptly breaks off his engagement to pretty Kitty (Veronica Hurst) after receiving word of his uncle’s death. He inherits a mysterious castle in the Scottish highlands and moves there to live with the castle servants. Kitty refuses to accept the broken engagement and travels with her aunt (Katherine Emery) to the castle. When they arrive, they discover that Gerald has suddenly aged and his manner has changed significantly.

After a series of mysterious events occur in both the castle and the hedge maze outside, they invite a group of friends, including a doctor, to the castle in the hopes that they can help Gerald with whatever ails him. Although the friends are equally concerned by Gerald’s behavior, they are at a loss to its cause. One night, Kitty and her aunt steal a key to their bedroom door (which is always locked from the outside) and sneak out into the mysterious maze…

“This isn’t essential viewing for horror fans, but is good for 3-D fans and friends of the fifties. It’s pace is slow-moving compared to today, but I’ve always thought that a slower editing pace and steady tracking shots are the best use of 3D. The slow tracking shots moving slowly around the maze are extremely effective.” Black Hole Reviews

” … a marvelous bit of gothic nonsense that satisfies in spite of the comically absurd punchline. It’s part horror film, part mystery, and part fairytale, and somehow it all combines to make a distinctive, suspenseful film.” B-Movie Madness

“Most commenters observe that the film is let down by the ending, and it’s true that the ultimate revelation is a bit goofy in its low-budget execution and also doesn’t seem to hold together logically, suddenly flipping, as it does, our sense of who the true victim has been all this time. Nonetheless, The Maze succeeds as a model of suspenseful, eerie atmosphere and surprisingly crisp depiction of human relationships. Menzies is a master of staging and meaningful looks, creating a vivid visual scheme for character interactions even in a threadbare scenario.” Randy Byers, Dreamland Cafe

Wikipedia | IMDb

Thanks to Vagebond’s Movie Screen Shots for some of the images above

Horror High (also known as Kiss the Teacher… Goodbye!  and Twisted Brain) is a 1973 (released 1974) American horror film directed by Larry N. Stouffer (assistant director on Keep My Grave Open) from a screenplay by J.D. Feigelson as ‘Jack Fowler’ (Dark Night of the Scarecrow, Cry for the Strangers, Chiller). It stars Pat Cardi, Austin Stoker (Abby, Assault on Precinct 13, Uninvited), Rosie Holotik (Encounter with the Unknown, Don’t Look in the Basement), John Niland, and Jeff Alexander (Zontar: The Thing from Venus, Curse of the Swamp Creature and The House of Seven Corpses). The odd score by Don Hulette is distinctive. Filmed in Texas, it was distributed by Crown International Pictures. Return to Horror High (1987) has no connection and is not a sequel.

‘An obvious take off of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (in fact, Vernon’s English class is watching a film version of the novel), Horror High feels like a 50s monster B-movie that’s been transplanted right to the 70s. Besides the obvious 70s stylings, the movie also shows the influence of the more graphically violent films that preceded it, particularly the works of Herschell Gordon Lewis. Though it’s kind of a monster movie, it really ought to be considered more of a proto-slasher due to the way Vernon dispatches of his victims. Not only is it fairly graphic for the era, but it’s also quite creative in its use of various implements of death, such as paper cutter blades and sulphuric acid (which is housed in a huge barrel right in the middle of a classroom!).’ Oh, the Horror!

‘ …foreshadows Harry Kaufman’s The Toxic Avenger (1984) in many important ways such as: featuring a bullied nerd gets who super powers (like hairy forearms) and then runs murderously amok plus, just like many Troma features, this movie was made on a shoe-string budget but was able to engineer some gory and realistic practical effects such as face melting.’ Sleaze Blender

‘Make no mistake, Horror High is total 70s doom. The music score is an eerie prog-rock sounding thing; it’s more Alice Cooper than Goblin, and it’s not nearly as prevalent as it should have been in the finished product. There’s even a spooky, folky ballad theme song, a hallmark of the 70s Doom genre! And woooo….it even has Vernon’s name in it. I can’t recommend “Horror High” enough to fans of the weird. If you haven’t seen it yet, you absolutely NEED to, or…I dunno, the world will implode or something.’ Groovy Doom

‘The gore is passable if rudimentary, but plentiful and in some instances, brutal and shocking. Fingers and heads are sliced off, faces are melted with acid and chest is crushed into pulp are among the bloody bits. In addition, the film frequently features odd camera angles and unusual lighting for added spooky effect.’ Cool Ass Cinema

‘With more than a splash of crudeness in the production values, a storyline not only inspired by “Jekyll and Hyde” (the lit students are seen watching a film of Stevenson’s horror novel) but by the Herman Cohen teenage monster flicks of the 1950s, and an odd mix of intended camp and borderline disturbing displays, Horror High is practically mesmerising and essential 1970s drive-in horror. The overall acting is pretty bad (it’s fun to watch non-actor Niland as the bullish coach and decipher whether he’s plain awful or naturally brilliant) except for former child-star Cardi (who holds the film up quite well and ads pathos to the character) and the always great Stoker, who was such a recognisable fixture in 1970s cult movies, his presence here pretty much gives this cheapie creepy a sense of authenticity.’ George R. Reis, DVD Drive-In

Buy Horror High on Code Red 35th Anniversary DVD from Amazon.com

‘If not a lost masterpiece, Horror High delivers enough sleaze, violence and sensitive science geek meanderings to make for an enjoyable watch. It probably helps if you’re predisposed to like low budget seventies cheapies, but even looking at it objectively with that factor removed from the equation, it’s hard to imagine anyone not at least appreciating the entertainment factor this quirky dime store production provides in spades.’ DVD Talk

‘The Code Red release of Horror High is way better than the Twisted Brain version that was put out on dvd by Rhino Home Video a few years back. The new version looks sharper and sounds better. Most important though is the fact that this is the uncut PG release. Contrary to the rumors ( including what’s written on the back of the box ) there is no R rated version of this movie. When the movie was originally released in 1974 and even during it’s re-release in the early 80′s, it was the same version that is presented here. And it was rated PG. Yes it’s violent enough to have an R rating, but it was given a PG when it was originally released. In fact I couldn’t find a rating code for this movie, so it’s quite possible that the PG rating on the poster was made up, and Crown International just went ahead and booked the film into theaters without a true rating from the MPAA. I love this movie…’ Lightning Boy, Amazon.com

Buy Regional Horror Films, 1958 – 1990 from Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

Also released as Cérebro Diabólico (Brazil), L’ange merrier (France), Horror gimi (Hungary), Die Teufelsbestie (Germany).

Related: Evilspeak

IMDb

Pulgasari (also known as Bulgasari) is a 1985 North Korean film directed by Shin Sang-ok and Chong Gon Jo. The film, a giant-monster film similar to the Japanese Godzilla series, was produced by the South Korean Shin, who had been kidnapped in 1978 by North Korean intelligence on the orders of Kim Jong-il, son of the then-ruling Kim Il-sung.

Kim was a lifelong admirer of the director and Kaiju-like films, and kidnapped the former and his wife, famous actress Choi Eun-hee, with the specific purpose of making fantasy/propaganda films for the North Korean government. Kim Jong-il also produced Pulgasari and all the films that Sang-ok made before he and Choi fled the country. Pulgasari has gained some popularity over the years because of the shocking story of Shin Sang-ok and Choi Eun-hee’s kidnapping and strange captivity as the director and leading actress – the latter one excluding this film – of a total of seven films, for which the couple was simultaneously commissioned and forced to do by North Korea’s government. Jonathan Ross stated that the film is intended to be a propaganda metaphor for the effects of unchecked capitalism and the power of the collective.

Teruyoshi Nakano and the staff from Japan’s Toho studios, the creators of Godzilla, participated in creating the film’s special effects.Kenpachiro Satsuma – the stunt performer who played Godzilla from 1984 to 1995 – portrayed Pulgasari, and when the Godzilla remake was released in Japan in 1998, he was quoted as saying he preferred Pulgasari to the American Godzilla.

In feudal Korea, during the Goryeo Dynasty, a King controls the land with an iron fist, subjecting the peasantry to misery and starvation. An old blacksmith who was sent to prison creates a tiny figurine of a monster by making a doll of rice. When it comes into contact with the blood of the blacksmith’s daughter, the creature springs to life, becoming a giant metal-eating monster named Pulgasari.

The evil King becomes aware that there is a rebellion being planned in the country, which he intends to crush, but he runs into Pulgasari, who fights with the peasant army to overthrow the corrupt monarchy.

“The Godzilla connection is clear (Toho studios was even involved in the special effects), and the end result is a surprisingly entertaining monster movie. It’s grandiose in that soap operatic way that you’d expect, and even though it feels like it’s from the 1950s, there’s a lot to love about it — particularly the design and execution of the Pulgasari effects and the action.” Scott Beggs, Film School Rejects

“The monster suit (inside which is Kenpachiro Satsuma, the same man who plays Godzilla in the Heisei series) is at least as good as the one from Godzilla 1985, and the miniature work is also very skillfully handled. What doesn’t work too well are the matte shots; they’re not quite as bad as the ones in Yongary, Monster from the Deep, but neither do they indicate that the state of that particular art in Korea had advanced all that much in the intervening twenty years. In the end, Pulgasari is more a curiosity than anything else, and all but the truly obsessed can safely miss it.” 1000 Misspent Hours and Counting

“It’s amazing that after fifty years of monster movies, the technology has not changed. There are a total of three sound effects for the entire production, the monster still looks like a stuntman in a rubber suit, and rear screen projection is replaced by people actually running in front of a drive-in movie screen. Who would have even thought there was a drive-in in North Korea?” Dennis Przywara, Film Threat

“On one hand, Pulgasari is a cautionary tale about what happens when the people leave their fate in the hands of the monster, a capitalist by dint of his insatiable consumption of iron. But it is also tempting to read the monster as a metaphor for Kim Il-sung, hijacking the ‘people’s revolution’ to ultimately serve his purposes. When the movie was delivered to Kim, he saw it as a great victory. Trucks pulled up to Shin Films to unload pheasants, deer and wild geese for the movie crew to feast on.” John Gorenfeld, The Guardian

Wikipedia | IMDb

Poseidon Rex is a 2013 American sci-fi horror film directed by Mark L. Lester (Firestarter), and starring Brian Krause, Anne McDaniels and Steven Helmkamp.

A small, secluded island off the coast of Belize suddenly finds itself terrorized by a deadly predator from the planet’s distant past when deep sea divers accidentally awaken an ancient evil.

Buy Poseidon Rex on DVD from Amazon.co.uk

“I watched this movie expecting total dreck. I was pleasantly surprised. The film is fun, entertaining and the CGI monster is actually not that bad. If you’re a fan of monster movies or dinosaurs then this is a great little low-budget romp.” Amazon reviewer

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WH

Yongary: Monster from the Deep , original title: Yonggary or Yongary (Hangul: 대괴수 용가리; RR: Taekoesu Yongary; lit. Great Monster Yongary) is a 1967 South Korean Kaiju monster film directed by prominent genre-film director Kim Ki-duk. It stars Oh Yeong-il and Nam Jeong-im. It was released in 1969 in the USA by American International Pictures (AIP). The film is now considered to be in the public domain.

In 1999, a reimagining of the film was produced, released in Korea simply as Yonggary and released in the United States as Reptilian.

In the Middle East, a bomb is set off that creates massive earthquakes. Meanwhile in South Korea, a young couple is about to get married and the tension builds when South Korea sends a manned space capsule to investigate the bomb site. The earthquake makes its way to South Korea, caused by a giant monster named Yongary (inspired by a mythical creature in Korean lore). Yongary attacks Seoul and makes his way to the oil refineries where he consumes the oil…

‘What’s surprising about Yongary is how much effort seems to have gone into it, at least technically speaking. The budget was obviously agonizingly low, and the movie features some of the worst matte shots of all time, but there’s an enormous amount of miniature scenery getting smashed, and the monster suit itself is at least as good as what Toho was serving up in the late 1960’s. Such a shame, then, that the people responsible for this film didn’t feel the need to put commensurate effort into the acting, direction, or screenplay.’ 1000 Misspent Hours and Counting

‘Unfortunately, the effects as a whole were one of the weaker points of the movie. Yonggary’s fire breath was produced by a blow torch within one of the heads used for the monster’s effect, and the nozzle could clearly be seen during some of the scenes when he’s blasting fire. The sets were decent and looked realistic enough when it came to Yonggary destroying them, but when it came to actors interacting with the rubble, it wasn’t hard to tell that they were pieces of styrofoam or (in the case of bricks) cardboard boxes.’ Kaiju Classics

‘Yongary was obviously meant as a replay (some MIGHT say “rip-off”) of the Godzilla films. This is most notable in the destruction scenes where Yongary walks through a building VERY similar to Japan’s Diet Building which Godzilla walked though in the 1954 original and which King Kong climbed atop of in King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962). The special effects in Yongary are passable, but are not up to the standard set by Toho’s effects wizard, Eiji Tsuburaya. In particular, the scenes of the monster shooting fire features an obvious metal pipe protruding from the costume’s mouth. Actually, a Japanese cameraman was recruited by the Koreans to help make this film look as much like the Japanese monster films as possible.’ Joe Cascio, DVD Drive-In

Wikipedia | IMDb | We are grateful to Just Screenshots for some of the images above

Dead Sea is a 2014 American horror film written and directed by Brandon Slagle (who also stars). It also features Britt Griffith (Syfy’s Ghosthunters, Ghosthunters International), James Jw Wiseman, Devanny Pinn (The Black Dahlia Haunting, Truth or Dare), James Duval (Donnie Darko), Alexis Iacono (The Penny Dreadful Picture Show), Tawny Amber Young, Chanel Ryan, Candace Kita, K.J. McCormick (Syfy’s Ghosthunters) and Frederic Doss.

The film is set to release on DVD/Blu-ray late Spring 2014.

Synopsis:

‘This globe-spanning story follows a marine biologist who is thrust into the violent paranoia surrounding a town preparing for the return of an impending sacrifice to a legendary serpentine creature, in this case being a giant lamprey, said to have surfaced from Hell during an earthquake.’

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Scintilla is a 2014 British science fiction horror film produced by Liquid Noise Films and directed by Billy O’Brien (Isolation, Ferocious Planet) from a screenplay co-written with Rob Green, G.P. Taylor, Josh Golga, Steve Clark. It stars John Lynch (Isolation, Night Wolf/13Hrs), Craig Conway, Antonia Thomas, Jumayan Hunter, Morjana Alaoui and Beth Winslet. Mongrel Media will distribute in the US whilst Metrodome has secured UK.

An elite team of mercenaries are chosen to carry out a covert operation deep in a former Soviet State. They must first battle the ferocious armed militia at ground level before descending through a maze of tunnels inhabited by dark, menacing creatures. When the team arrives at an underground laboratory they discover the purpose of their mission: A genius scientist has been genetically splicing alien DNA with human and the results of this revolutionary work must be secured. The soldiers must protect and save the specimens whilst avoiding the threats of multiple predators, both human and otherwise…

IMDb

Monsturd is a 2003 American comedy horror film co-written and co-directed by Rick Popko and Dan West. It stars Paul Weiner, Beth West, Dan Burr, Brad Dosland, Dan West, Rick Popko and Hannah Stangel.

Plot:

Butte County: Jack Schmidt, a serial killer, escapes from a maximum security prison. Meanwhile, Dr. Stern of chemical company Dutech is conducting ‘evil experiments’ and covering up his mistakes when colleagues are fatally contaminated. The FBI corner escaped convict Schmidt and gun him down in a sewer tunnel, where he falls into a pool of toxic chemicals dumped by Dr. Stern. The apparently lethal combination of faeces and the dumped chemicals actually transforms him into a half human, half faeces creature, a monsturd, who goes on a killing rampage. Meanwhile, the town’s annual Chilli Cook-Off is impending and a serious blow out is expected…

Reviews:

‘Films like Jack Frost (killer snowman), Killer Tongue (sinful oral appendage), and Killer Condom (‘nuff said) have pushed the envelope of terror ticklishness into the patently absurd, but Monsturd sets a brand new skidmark in fright flick tomfoolery. Showing a sense of style, a commitment to clever cinema and a brand of humour far more developed than your normal labor-of-love videodrome, this is one of the best, more entertainingly satirical monster movie massacres ever created. Like Mulva: Zombie Ass Kicker and some of Troma’s more “toxic” titles, Monsturd gets it all correct: atmosphere, references, and wickedly witty execution. It can occasionally lapse into retarded toilet humour, but what do you expect from a movie with an evil entity of excrement as its lead character?’ Bill Gibron, PopMatters

‘Yes, the plot is dumb. Yes, some of the acting is amateur-ish. Yes, it’s a movie about poop… but there is something really fun about this. It’s a total gross out flick with a ton of legitimately funny, well done dick/fart/poop humor. Reminds me a lot of a Troma flick. Only gripe I have is how similar it is in plot to Jack Frost… you know… but… with POOP.’ Camp Movie Camp

‘You may be shocked to hear this, but despite a concept tailor made for some major league gross-out film Monsturd is not loaded with wall-to-wall gross-out gags or an endless stream of poop jokes. While it definitely has more than its fair share of those, the grossest being the world’s longest vomiting scene, most of the humour is a bit more subtle – and dare I say smarter… ‘ Jon Condit, Dread Central

Buy Monsturd on DVD | Instant Video from Amazon.com

Choice dialogue:

‘How about you sit on my face and make me look like a glazed doughnut?’

‘What on earth would you need a million flies for?’

‘I’d like to get to the bottom of this little mystery…’

‘A giant No.2 killed my daddy!’

‘How do you kill a Shit Man?’

IMDb

Pumpkinhead: Blood Feud  (aka Pumpkinhead 4: Blood Feud) is a 2007 made for television sequel in the Pumpkinhead franchise of horror films. The film was written and directed by Mke Hurst. It directly follows 2006′s Pumpkinhead: Ashes to Ashes. It stars Amy Manson as Jody Hatfield, Bradley Taylor as Ricky McCoy, Claire Lams as Dolly Hatfield, Rob Freeman as Sheriff Dallas Pope, Ovidiu Niculescu as Bobby Joe Hatfield, Peter Barnes as Papa McCoy, Lance Henriksen as Ed Harley and Elvin Dandel as Tristan McCoy. Initially announced as Pumpkinhead 4, it was filmed in Bucharest, Romania back-to-back with another sequel titled Pumpkinhead 3.

Two men on their motorcycles are driving away from Pumpkinhead. One of the men hits a tree branch in their path, falling from his motorcycle and allowing Pumpkinhead to catch up to him. As the man is being killed, a man in a log cabin seems to share the pain inflicted by Pumpkinhead on the fallen man. The surviving man, named Dallas, rides to the log cabin, and the man who conjured Pumpkinhead, begging him to call the demon off. Pumpkinhead smashes through the window and Dallas attempts to fend him off by shooting him with a small pistol with little effect, and is clawed in the chest by the demon. When Dallas realizes that his bullets have no effect on Pumpkinhead, he swears to take the summoner with him, shooting the man and killing him, causing Pumpkinhead to vanish. Ed Harley then appears telling Dallas that Pumpkinhead will return and there will be no place to hide.

Five years later we are shown the family of the Hatfields and McCoys ongoing feud started because of a car in the 30′s. The Hatfields then trash the McCoy wedding. Jody Hatfield sneaks out to see her true love, Ricky McCoy. Ricky brings his sister, Sarah, to look out for him and Jody. The two then start to make out…

The film seems more concerned with a dreary Romeo and Juliet-style tale of forbidden love and an age-old backwoods family feud rather than the essential horror elements. Decent production values aside this inspires little interest despite the impressive creature effects and the requisite gory demises. Adrian J Smith, Horrorpedia

‘I couldn’t help but get the feeling this film was originally intended to be set in the early 1900s until the producers came along and insisted that it be set in the present, and despite being set in present times, the filmmakers still went out of their way to make just about everything look, feel, and sound like it’s from at least a century ago. The way they dress, the way they talk, the way they behave, even the town they live in – it all feels like it’s stuck in a time warp like in M. Night’s The Village, but then we see a few modern touches, some old (but not that old) vehicles, and the opening scene even involved some shiny new dirt bikes. Other than that, the majority of the time I felt I was watching “Little Pumpkinhead on the Prairie”.’ Jon Condit, Dread Central

‘ … we get people from LA providing the worst fake southern accents I have heard in a while, and Lance Henrkison looking like melted candle in his 4 minutes of screen time. The Pumpkinhead monster alternated between looking like a claymation puppet from a 60′ sci fi movie, and a mediocre beast formed out of paper mache. The kills are many and are well done considering how stupid Pumpkinhead looks, and the plot moved at a decent enough pace to keep the viewer interested between Pumpkinhead related maulings.’ Bloodcrypt

Choice dialogue:

‘We are what we do’

Wikipedia | IMDb

Dracano is a 2013 American monster film directed by Kevin O’Neil and starring Gina Holden, Corin Nemec and Troy Evans.

A catastrophic volcanic eruption releases ancient dragon-like creatures on the surrounding areas. Scientists believe this could start a chain reaction of volcanic eruptions giving way to a global Dragon Apocalypse….

“Since the SyFy Channel has seriously scaled back their original movie docket, crap movies like Dracano just don’t have a real home anymore. Now we have to the find them, as opposed to them finding us. This doesn’t please me. Who really wants to look for this stuff? I’ll do it, because I have a sickness, but I liked it better when these crap movies came on TV for free.” Film Critics United

“Wild science, dragons, gruff military personnel, probing news media, not a bad way to spend 90 minutes. The action in Dracano moves along at a decent clip, and the acting is decent. I recommend Dracano, a 7 out of 10.” Dan’s Movie Report

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