Stung is a 2014 comedy horror film directed by Benni Diez. The cast includes Matt O´Leary, Jessica Cook, Peter Stormare and Lance Henriksen. An XYZ Films production, Stung was developed by producer Benjamin Munz at Rat Pack Filmproduktion based on an idea by Adam Aresty, who won RatPack’s 2012 horror-writing contest.

A fancy garden party goes terribly wrong after a local species of wasps mutate into giant predators. It’s up to Paul and Julia, two catering staffers at the high-society event, to stop the killer creatures – an effort that kickstarts a budding romance between the two.

Images courtesy of Twitch and Daily Dead.

Izbavitelj is a 1976 Croatian horror Sci-Fi film directed by Krsto Papić. It was released in 1976, but won Best Film at the 1982 Fantasporto. The film was selected as the Yugoslav entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 49th Academy Awards, but was not accepted as a nominee. In 1999, a poll of Croatian film critics found it to be one of the best Croatian films ever made.

Based on the Russian Alexander Grin’s 1920′s novel Pacolovac (The Ratcatcher), Izbavitelj (literally ‘saviour’ or ‘redeemer’) sees down and out writer, Ivan Gajski (Ivica Vidovic) not only struggling to have his novels published but also being turfed out of his lodgings. Left to sleep on benches in cold Zagreb, he meets pretty local Sonja Boskovic (Mirjana Majurec) selling books on the street. Forming a bond, he takes her number, little realising the circumstances he will use it. Taking to park benches for the night, he bumps into an acquaintance who suggests a boarded-up bank as a better and safer place to bed down. Taking a  use a phone to find out where Sonja lives, he explores the cavernous rat-infested building, stumbling across a huge banquet attended by a strange cabal, whom he overhears plotting to kill Sonja’s father, a Professor.

Accidentally alerting the group to his presence, he escapes and is later rescued by the professor himself who reveals that the group he discovered is a half human/half rat collective who are plotting to take over society. Ivan agrees to help the professor by obtaining the chemicals needed for him to make the formula he believes will rid the world of this vermin. Though the police don’t believe his story when he alerts them (and indeed no sign of the rat people can be found), the pair continue to develop their serum but the professor is mysteriously killed before the experiment can be completed. Led by the looming, shadowy Rat Saviour, the group silently stalk Ivan and Sonja and all looks lost until an unlikely ally, the town mayor, steps forward to help the pair avoid being gnawed to death…but is everything truly as it seems?

Directed by Croatian Krsto Papić, the film was, of course, actually made in the former Yugoslavia, the backdrop of Zagred being both romantically beautiful and exotically strange, the scuttling around the tiny streets evoking the ageless streets of Kinski’s Nosferatu. An intelligent mix of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, They Live and Society, the film is a masterclass of how genuine creepiness and dread can be achieved with a meager budget and some excellent casting. Some enthusiastic zoom lens may give away the 1970′s production but otherwise the film is as fresh as a daisy. Played completely straight, a clumsier production would have made the toothy foes laughable whereas there is something curiously believable about the subtle make-up and underplayed score. Whilst ‘old heads’ may spot where the plot is leading at an early stage, it still does not dilute the spooky atmosphere and thought-provoking social commentary, the latter being a pre-requisite for Euro horror of this ilk. The ragged clothes of the protagonist and the grime of the economically-addled town are a perfect match for the many rats who naturally make an appearance in the film – at least one of whom dies a rather too realistic death. Highly recommended.

Daz Lawrence

Cellar Dweller is a 1988 horror film, about a comic book artist who unleashes a demon after drawing it. It was directed by John Carl Buechler, written by Chucky creator Don Mancini (as Kit Du Bois), and stars Debrah Farentino, Brian Robbins (C.H.U.D. II: Bud the C.H.U.D.), Yvonne De Carlo (The Munsters), Pamela Bellwood, Vince Edwards and Jeffrey Combs (Re-Animator, Would You Rather).

On October 29, 2013, Scream Factory released the film on DVD for the first time, along with Contamination 7, Catacombs and The Dungeonmaster as part of the second volume of their Scream Factory All-Night Horror Marathon series.

Thirty years have passed since the grisly murder/suicide of Colin Childress, creator of the comic book, Cellar Dweller. But, as often happens to those ignorant of it, comic book artist Whitney Taylor is doomed to repeat history in a most grotesque way. Little does she know that her twisted renderings will soon reincarnate the bloody hysteria of Cellar Dweller.

Buy Cellar Dweller on Scream Factory DVD from Amazon.com

‘The film is a little light on gore, though what we do have is wonderful — Cellar Dweller casually gnaws on torn-off limbs and hurls severed heads around like so many volleyballs.  What did take me by surprise was the quantity of high-quality female nudity on display in this film, including a prolonged shower sequence cut short by a grisly Cellar Dweller attack.’ Radiation-Scarred Reviews

‘This is no stunner of a movie it has to be said but like a lot of the Empire movies that came out in the 80′s it has it’s own style that rubs off on me very easily. I did enjoy watching this, though it’s nowhere as good as some of the other titles that came out of the Empire stable.’ Horror Chronicles

‘The movie has little-to-no plot, but it somehow managed to keep me entertained. I suppose it could have had to do with the interesting-looking creature and decent amount of gore. It’s no surprise that a low-budget movie like this pulled off such make-up effects behind the creature since director John Carl Buechler went on to do various other effects for genre movies. Although the movie has an incredibly simple plot and it barely makes it past an hour-15-minute-running-time, it does successfully dish out an interesting little cheesy 80′s horror tale.’ Upcoming Horror Movies

Wikipedia | IMDb

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

I Was a Teenage Werewolf is a 1957 horror film starring Michael Landon as a troubled teenager and Whit Bissell as the primary adult and Yvonne Lime as his girlfriend, Arlene. It was co-written and produced by cult film producer Herman Cohen, directed by Gene Fowler Jr and was one of the most successful films released by American International Pictures (AIP). It was originally released as a double feature with Invasion of the Saucer Men.

Poor Tony Rivers (a rare film role for Michael Landon, best remembered for never-ending TV series like Bonanza, Highway to Heaven and the execrable Little House on the Prairie); it seems the whole world is against him – classmates, his dad, the cops – such is the life of a small town teenager in 50′s America. Kindly, if starchy, Detective Donovan suggests a chat with local shrink, Dr Brandon (Whit Bissell, Creature From the Black Lagoon, Soylent Green) to help tame his anger issues. A thoroughly unconvincing Halloween party at a ‘haunted house’ sees him attacking one of his friends, perfectly understandable given the rendition of his new ‘crazy record’, “Eeny Meany-Miney-Moe” that he has just ‘treated’ his friends to.

Realising himself that he is genuinely out of control, he visits Dr Brandon, who is full of patience and advice but decides hypnotherapy is exactly what will do the trick and if that’s not enough, a serum he has happened upon which will revert Tony to his primal state, stripping away the layers of conditioned control and urban sensibilities. Inevitably, an attack is reported upon one of Tony’s group of friends and the police swoop in to investigate, taking care to take note of the local janitor, Pepe (rent-a-Russian Vladimir Sokoloff, from The Magnificent Seven and countless other films), who rattles on about fanged beasts, wolves and the Devil’s own brood, having originally come from the Carpathian Mountains. Further visits to the doc are similarly unhelpful, indeed Rivers is revealed to be a baseball jacket-wearing werewolf, attacking and killing a teacher in the gym and a police dog. Tony seeks the doc’s help in desperation, though ditching the distinctive jacket might have been a better idea, whilst the police and his daffy girlfriend, Arlene do their best to protect the local citizens whilst saving the tragic jock.

There are few horror titles which are as evocative as I Was a Teenage Werewolf, immediately a klaxon announcing bad make-up, bad acting, drippy 50′s pop culture trappings and throw-away chaff. In actual fact, it is a well-made, well-shot drama which, though having the worst song and accompanying dance routine in the history of cinema, is a more successful commentary on teenage life than many alien invasion/nuclear bug films were at decrying The Bomb. Landon, almost squeaky in his youth (he was actually 21 years-old) plays the role of every-man perfectly well, whilst his generic group of friends and sundry adults prove to be a more believable agitate than a parade of well-known names.

The name of Samuel Z. Arkoff at the beginning of a film should always make your heart swell with excitement and that is indeed the case here, despite the resistance he met bringing to the screen a middle class teenager who was actually a monster, a shocking notion at the time. American International Pictures used the film as a launch pad for several ‘teenage beast’ flicks, including I Was a Teenage Frankenstein and How to Make a Monster but it was Werewolf which made upwards of $2 million from an initial outlay of approximately $82,000.

Whilst the werewolf make-up looks somewhat hokey on stills, it is perfectly serviceable in the film, Landon’s incredibly wide-eyed, twitching alter-ego a real treat and quite sensibly avoids any transformation sequences. The make-up came courtesy of Phillip Scheer. whose work can also be seen in Attack of the Puppet People and Black Zoo.  The surprisingly jazzy title theme is by Paul Dunlap who wrote for scores of 1950′s and 60′s no-budget genre films but always under the veil of being a true ‘artiste’.

The 1950′s attire, lexicon (“This party’s really percolating”!) and more especially the title have ensured that it lives on vicariously through The Cramps song of the same title, copycat ‘I Was a Teenage’ (Mummy/Serial Killer/Zombie ad infinitum) titles and television comedy sketches, often lampooning the absurdity but rather missing the fact it’s a pretty good film.

Daz Lawrence, Horrorpedia

You were warned…

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The Zygons are a fictional extraterrestrial race in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. They first appeared in the Fourth Doctor serial Terror of the Zygons.

The Zygons have shape-shifting abilities, allowing them to replicate the appearance of another being, but they must keep the subject alive in order to use its body print. This skill was vital in their concealment and in their scheme to seize power despite their small numbers. The Zygons were also accompanied by an armoured cyborg creature called the Skarasen, the lactic fluid of which was necessary for them to feed. Broton planned to unleash the Skarasen (or Loch Ness Monster as it was known) on an energy conference in London as part of a bid to conquer the Earth. The plan was foiled and both he and his crew were killed due to the intervention of Doctor Who and the UNIT, which caused the Skarasen to return to Loch Ness. Zygon technology is biological in nature: in essence their ships and equipment are actually alive.

The Zygons return in the The Day of the Doctor 50th Anniversary Special on Novermber 23, 2013, and will appear alongside the Daleks. Tenth Doctor actor David Tennant has stated that they are his favourite monsters from Doctor Who.

Related: Sea Devils | Silurians | The Vampires of Venice | Weeping Angels

Wikipedia | TARDIS Data Core

Frankenstein (also known as Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein) is a 1994 American horror film directed by Kenneth Branagh and starring Robert De Niro and Branagh himself. It also stars Tom Hulce, Helena Bonham Carter, Ian Holm, John Cleese (Monty Python), Aidan Quinn and Richard Briers. The film was produced on a budget of $45 million and is considered the most faithful film adaptation of Mary Shelley‘s novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. The film opens with a few words by Mary Shelley:

“I busied myself to think of a story which would speak to the mysterious fears of our nature and awaken thrilling horror; one to make the reader dread to look around, to curdle the blood, and quicken the beatings of the heart.”

The story begins in the year 1794. Captain Walton is leading a daring expedition to reach the North Pole. While their ship is trapped in the ice of the Arctic Sea, Walton and his crew discover a man traveling across the Arctic on his own. In the distance, a loud moaning can be heard. When the man sees how obsessed Walton is with reaching the North Pole, he asks, “Do you share my madness?” The man then reveals that his name is Victor Frankenstein and begins his tale…

“The monster has always been the true subject of the Frankenstein story, and Kenneth Branagh’s new retelling understands that. “Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein” has all of the usual props of the Frankenstein films, brought to a fever pitch: The dark and stormy nights, the lightning bolts, the charnel houses of spare body parts, the laboratory where Victor Frankenstein stirs his steaming cauldron of life. But the center of the film, quieter and more thoughtful, contains the real story…” Roger Ebert, full review here

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“…Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is a work of lavish dedication and skill, yet as soon as the creature is let loose the film becomes rather listless. Branagh, for all his craftsmanship, hasn’t succeeded in tapping the morbid core of the material, the feeling that Victor Frankenstein’s experiment in creating ”life” is really a mask for his obsession with death (indeed, he can no longer tell the difference). The key problem, I dare say, is the director’s performance. He plays Frankenstein with all the spirit he can muster, yet he’s too conventionally engaging — his Victor is a kind of fervid yuppie workaholic who never seems truly possessed of a dark side…” Owen Gleiberman, here

“Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein was a worthy attempt to give the story a big-budget makeover but ultimately it collapsed under the weight of its own pretentiousness, and it was further hampered by a lack of frights.” Bruce G Hallenbeck, The Hammer Frankenstein (Hemlock Film Books, 2013)

Buy The Hammer Frankenstein (includes other Frankenstein films) from Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

Frankenstein and Frankenstein’s Monster on Horrorpedia: Assignment Terror (Dracula vs. Frankenstein | Aurora Model Kits | Blackenstein | Bride of Frankenstein | Drak Pack | Flesh for Frankenstein | Frankenstein 1970 | Frankenstein’s Army | Frankenstein’s Daughter | Frankenstein’s Monster (Marvel Comics) | Frankie Stein | Howl of the Devil | I Was a Teenage Frankenstein | Jack P. Pierce (makeup artist) | Mad Monster Party? | Mego Mad Monsters | Monster Cereals | Monster Brawl | Shock Theatre Hammer Horror Trading Cards | Peter Tremayne (author) | The Spirit of the Beehive | Young Frankenstein

Wikipedia | IMDb

ThanksKilling is an American independent comedy horror film shot in 2007 and released in 2009, about a cursed turkey killing off college students during the Thanksgiving break. The film was shot over a summer by Kevin Stewart and Jordan Downey on an original budget of just $3,500. It later was given a small investment to help complete the marketing and distribution of the film.

A sequel, mockingly titled ThanksKilling 3 was made in 2012.

‘ … everyone and everything is stupid, so it excuses the typical independent movie failings that crop up, particularly the wooden acting and stilted dialogue. The puppet effect especially reveals the budgetary limitations, but that’s sort of the charm, I suppose. Turkey himself still manages to be a star; sort of a feathered Chucky, he’s stuffed with bad puns and one-liners (“that’s what I call fowl play!”) and a real mean streak that results in some legitimately effective gore work; there’s a cool Alien riff in there in addition to the Leatherface-esque face-peeling, among other fun gags that validate ThanksKilling as a fine, over-the-top splatter film.’ Oh, the Horror!

‘The characters are genre stereotypes, their acting is just as bad, the effects get an A for Effort but are nothing new. The film fits neatly into the genre of new wave B-movie horror comedies that are so self-aware and obviously aim for the so-bad-its-good appeal. It’s a trend that has been going pretty strong this century. ThanksKilling, however, I found to be one of the more enjoyable ones.’ Cosmic Catacombs

‘This Thanksgiving the Geek would like to give thanks to the filmmakers for having the balls to put together a script about such a ridiculous antagonist, gathering the actors and funding, and then actually making this film. There is no reason for this movie to exist, but I’m glad it does. This is what low-budget filmmaking is all about.’ B-Movie Geek

‘ThanksKilling is completely ridiculous, but in a way that does not ruin the enjoyment level. Dumb, but actually funny in an absurd kind of way. Maybe a guilty pleasure sort of way.’ Best Horror Movies

Buy ThanksKilling on DVD from Amazon.com

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The Gorilla is a 1939 Twentieth Century-Fox  American comedy horror film directed by the prolific Allan Dwan from a screenplay by Rian James and Sid Silvers. It stars the Ritz Brothers, Anita Louise, Lionel Atwill, Bela Lugosi, Patsy Kelly, Joseph Calleia and Wally Vernon. It was based on a play of the same name by Ralph Spence - which had already been made into films in 1927 and in 1930 – and is now in the public domain.

When a wealthy man (Lionel Atwill) is threatened by a killer known as The Gorilla, he hires the Ritz Brothers to investigate. A real escaped gorilla shows up at the mansion just as the investigators arrive. Patsy Kelly portrays a newly hired maid who wants to quit because the butler, played by Bela Lugosi, scares her.

“It’s all supposed to be either really funny or shockingly thrilling, depending on how you look at it. We couldn’t see it either way.” The New York Times (May, 1939)

“It’s a damn good thing The Gorilla is just barely more than an hour long. Even ten minutes of the Ritz Brothers is a long, grueling slog, and at full feature length, this movie would be simply unendurable. Indeed, I suspect that even you sick bastards who find the Three Stooges amusing will have a hard time with this one, in that the Ritz Brothers are further hampered by their close mutual resemblance and the much lower level of distinction between their onscreen personas as compared to the Stooges … The other faint lights in the darkness are Lionel Atwill and (surprisingly) Bela Lugosi, both of whom put in tasteful, proportionately understated performances that the rest of The Gorilla comes nowhere close to deserving.” 1000 Misspent Hours… and Counting

“Even though “The Gorilla” is categorized as a comedy/horror,  the horror elements are few and scattered.  The storyline itself is a jumble, and pretty much a thin excuse for one piece of disconnected silliness after another. I will say though, that I did enjoy the musical scoring- which is actually something I seldom pay any attention too. In the final analysis, this isn’t one of those films that I’d watch more than once… even as a Bela Lugosi fan.” HorrorMovies.ca

“There are plenty of strange goings on as the Ritz Brothers bumble around trying to solve the mystery. Hairy gorilla arms reach out from behind hidden panels in the walls, people disappear without trace, contorted faces peer in through windows and bodies fall out of cupboards. I personally found the Ritz Brothers’ fast firing humour to be very lame, but this may have had something to do with it being the last film in their contract with the studio.” Giles Clark, Psychotic Cinema

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Invaders from Mars is a 1986 science fiction horror film, directed by Tobe Hooper (The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Salem’s Lot, Poltergeist, Lifeforce) for the Cannon Group from a screenplay by Dan O’Bannon (Alien) and Don Jakoby (Arachnophobia). It stars Hunter Carson, Timothy Bottoms (The Fantasist, Parasomnia), Laraine Newman, Karen Black (Trilogy of Terror, Burnt Offerings), James Karen (The Return of the Living Dead), Bud Cort (Bates Motel) and Louise Fletcher (Exorcist II: The Heretic, Strange Behavior).

It is a remake of the 1953 science fiction film Invaders from Mars, and is a reworking of that film’s screenplay by Richard Blake from an original story by John Tucker Battle. Its production was instigated by Wade Williams, millionaire exhibitor, science fiction film fan and sometime writer-producer-director, who had reissued the original film in 1978 after purchasing the copyright to the property. Elaborate creature and visual effects for this remake were supplied by Stan Winston (Gargoyles, Pumpkinhead) and John Dykstra, respectively. The film flopped at the box office.

On the night of a meteor shower, young David Gardner sees an alien spacecraft land in a sand quarry behind his house. This is the beginning of an alien invasion that sees David’s parents (George and Ellen Gardner), his teachers and the townspeople slowly assimilated by the alien life forms, returning with less emotions. The only one who believes David is the school nurse, Linda Magnuson. Together, David and Linda enlist the aid of the U.S. Marines to help save the world.

“…whereas the original worked by building up an increasingly black mood, this version relies almost entirely on the special effects; and such limited brooding tension as it has is gratuitously undermined by a string of sequences played purely for laughs.” Time Out

“In the span of his six-decade career, Invaders from Mars falls squarely in the middle of Tobe Hooper’s canon. Far from his best, it’s not nearly as bad as the majority of his output that followed. It’s a feeble attempt at updating a sci-fi classic for a then-fresh audience. Proof that history often can repeat itself, this sucker is every bit as forgettable as many of our modern day rehashes: Slickly done but hollow and trite. Unless, of course, you’ve got fond memories of Louise Fletcher and those frog legs.” Matt Serafini, Dread Central

“What I like about the Hooper is his looseness but yep, that’s his downfall too. The second half of Invaders is as slack as a wet noodle. Plus, I can’t believe I’m saying this about the guy who directed The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, but I think he can be too lenient with his performers. Was he afraid to ask for a second take from this bunch?” Kindertrauma

Buy Strange Invaders + Invaders from Mars on M-G-M DVD from Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

“I think people really have a problem with this movie because of the childish tone of the story. In case nobody noticed, the events are all viewed through the filter of a little boy, of course it plays out halfway like a cartoon. When you are about four feet tall the world is a very different place, think back on that for a second. You can’t drive a car, and adults are already weird to begin with. Everybody needs to drop the logic and get with the program here, this movie is fun period.” Fuckshit! The Home Video Review

Buy Invaders from Mars A3 poster from Amazon.co.uk

Buy Eaten Alive at a Chainsaw Massacre: The Films of Tobe Hooper book from Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com

Wikipedia | IMDb | Some images are courtesy of Wrong Side of the Art

Bog is a 1978 American horror movie directed by Don Keeslar from a screenplay by Carl Kitt. It stars Gloria DeHaven, Aldo Ray, Marshall Thompson (First Man into Space, It! The Terror from Beyond Space) and Leo Gordon (Attack of the Giant Leeches).

The film was shot around Harshaw, Wisconsin. It was given a limited release theatrically in the United States by Marshall Films in 1983 and was subsequently released on VHS by Prism Entertainment Corporation.

When a local is fishing with dynamite in Bog Lake, something larger pops to the surface: a green bug-eyed monster awakened from a long sleep, which promptly begins killing fishermen who stumble across its lair. When biologist Ginny Glenn (Gloria DeHaven) discovers the creature’s evolutionary nature, the local sheriff decides to use various methods to destroy the beast.

“Bill Rebane better watch his back. Despite the endless conversations and padding, Bog is a PG rated, Midwestern delight. Technical competence hits the dirt (butter knife edits, awful compositions) and things drag towards the end, but that’s all right. The regional silliness, library music pilfering, and kaput budget drop the film somewhere between a Monster Kid Home Movies outtake and the earlier Night Fright. Kill scenes are ridiculously dramatic. The monster suit fails on all levels. Frequent bursts of hilarity courtesy Mr. Ray and Chuck detach all strings; even if you fall asleep, you’ll feel pretty good about it.” Bleeding Skull!

“There’s no getting around the fact that Bog is a silly, ineptly made film, and at times it’s an awfully tedious one, too. But because it’s also one of those movies in which virtually everything seems subtly out of whack in ways that ordinary forms of badness can’t explain, I find myself positively disposed toward it nonetheless. The monster suit, of course, is terrible— really, abysmally fucking terrible— but Keeslar does seem to have at least some idea how to cover for such shortcomings. We never do get a long, close, unobstructed look at the Bog Lake Monster under decent lighting conditions, and a lot of movies have wrung substantial dividends from a similar coyness regarding their creatures. Keeslar gets the balance off, though. Instead of tantalisingly little, he shows us irritatingly little of the monster for the first half of the film, then goes too far in the opposite direction later on.’” 1000 Misspent Hours and Counting

We are most grateful to Basement of Ghoulish Decadence and Critical Condition for some images.

Wikipedia | IMDb

The Hatching is a 2014 American horror film directed by Michael Anderson and Greg Davies from a screenplay by Nick Squire. It stars Thomas Turgoose and Sylvia Syms.

Tim Webber, a teenager at boarding school, and his friends Baggy and Nick take a dare to sneak out of the dormitory one night and steal crocodile eggs from a nearby zoo, but the prank ends in tragedy with Nick being killed and Tim taking all responsibility. Fifteen years later, after the death of his father, Tim returns home to Somerset to run the family stone masonry, but there is a sinister undercurrent to the idyllic village setting that seems to harbor a dark secret. People have been disappearing, and it all seems to be centered around the old quarry. Tim meets up again with his old friend Baggy, and to their horror clues mount. It appears that the time has come for both Baggy and Tim to pay for their actions of years ago. Those crocodile eggs that came home with Tim hatched…

Track of the Moon Beast is a 1972 American horror film, directed by Richard Ashe and written by Bill Finger (co-creator of Batman in 1939) and Charles Sinclair (Finger and Sinclair also scripted The Green Slime). It remained unreleased until 1976 and is now in the public domain. The film stars Chase Cordell, Leigh Drake, Gregorio Sala, Patrick Wright, Francine Kessler, Timothy Wayne Brown, Crawford MacCallum and Jeanne Swain. Makeup artist Joe Blasco (Shivers) played the titular Moon Beast. It is one of the few horror movies filmed in New Mexico.

Mineralogist Paul Carlson (Chase Cordell) is struck by a lunar meteorite while observing a meteor shower. Lodged in his brain, the meteorite causes him to transform into a strong and vicious lizard demon whenever the moon comes out. In his lizard form, Paul loses all traces of his human self and goes about killing people at random. While human, Paul is subject to spells of dizziness and nausea, causing his girlfriend Kathy Nolan (Donna Leigh Drake) and friend and former teacher Johnny Longbow (Gregorio Sala) to become concerned.

Eventually it is shown that Paul is the monster, and deduced that the meteorite fragment in his brain is the cause of his transformations. Plans are made to remove it from his skull, but the NASA brain surgeons realize, after another X-ray and Johnny remembering some Native American legends documenting similar phenomena, that the meteorite has disintegrated and will eventually cause Paul to self-combust…

“The acting is universally wooden, the dialogue atrociously written, and the camerawork and other production values are barely competent. In some cases they aren’t even that, such as during the painfully bad time-lapse photography sequence of Paul transforming into the Moon Beast. Or maybe when one changes from a human to a giant, humanoid reptile, an extra set of eyes and a nose appear and disappear as part of the process.” Steve Miller, 150 Movies You Should Die Before You See

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“Incredibly, having your hero be a geologist wasn’t boring enough… they had to add a few supporting radiologists to move the story further along. Approximately 15 minutes or so of Track of the Moon Beast’s runtime is spent in an X-ray exam room… Approximately 2 minutes into that scene, you’re already saying to yourself “Why in the hell are they still in the X-ray Exam room?!?”.  But don’t worry. If you are able to make it through those parts, you’ll be rewarded with terrific action sequences such as digging up ancient pottery…. and engaging dialouge like “His name is Ty. Which is short for Tyrannosaurus.”…. and spectacular scenery such as Albuquerque, N.M.” Cinema Bandits

“Folks, there are horrible guy-in-a-rubber-suit films from the 1970s, and then there’s Track of the Moon Beast (1972). Like its contemporaries Octaman, The Milpitas Monster, and Slithis, the New Mexico-lensed Track rehashes monster movie tropes from the 1950s against a backdrop of the eco-conscious but fashion-challenged 1970s. Only, unlike its contemporaries, Track of the Moon Beast sports an excellent musical interlude and a really long scene about making soup.” Brian Albright, The Dead Next Door

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Wikipedia | IMDb | Interview with Charles Sinclair

Altered Species, also known as Rodentz, is a 2001 horror film written and directed by Miles Feldman [Serge Rodnunsky] (Black Cat, The Dead of Night, Blade of the Vampire). The film stars Allen Lee, Haff Leah Rowan, Guy Veig, Robert Broughton, Richard Peterson, Derek Hofman, Alexandra Townsend and David Bradley.

On a moonlit night, in a remote research laboratory, a major medical breakthrough is about to have deadly results. A chemical compound that was created to “hunt and destroy” deadly cancer cells has leaked from the hazardous waste disposal system into the building’s basement. Now, the rodents involved in the laboratory experiment upstairs are not the only rats in the facility that will become the altered species. Professor Schultz, a leading bio-researcher, has just determined that the addition of a new enzyme now enables his “hunt and destroy” formulation to regenerate for the length of time necessary to neutralize deadly cancer tumors. When three varying degrees of the new mixture are administered to three different rats and the rest poured down the faulty “Waste Hazard” sink, shocking side-effects result in a night of terror…

” … has the dubious distinction of being one of the worst low-budget horror films of the last decade. There’s nothing wrong with the concept of killer rats, but the movie falls flat in just about every area of execution. The acting sucks, the directing sucks, the guy in the big rat suit sucks, the effects suck, the music sucks, even the DVD Case art suck.”Hide the cheese” says the front. “Classic creature feature” says the back”. “This looks bad” says Mike. “I agree. Let’s get it.” says I. And that’s how we stumbled across this rat’s rear end of a film.” Shameface.com

“If only the filmmakers had followed their own tagline, “Hide the cheese…” The cheese is in full view, and it stinks to boot”. Rob Lineberger, DVD Verdict

“Yawnsville story about a gaggle of cookie-cutter college kiddos who decide to get their party started at an abandoned building where a disgraced professor is trying to cure cancer by juicing lab rats full of glowing green goo a la Re-Animator.” Noel Gross, DVD Talk

“It sounds like a set-up for a comedy making fun of bad horror films, but it takes itself rather seriously. For a sub-genre of killer-rat movies such as are usually ultra-stupid, this one is perhaps a half-peg above, competently acted & entertaining, which is not the same as being on any level consequential. It’s beyond trivial.” Wild Realm Reviews

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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

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

The Dungeonmaster, (originally titled Ragewar: The Challenges of Excalibrate and Digital Knights), is a 1984 low-budget science fiction/fantasy film, starring Jeffrey Byron, Richard Moll and Leslie Wing. The film was produced by Charles Band during the early days of his Empire Pictures production company, and in many ways seems to be the epitome of the lightweight, low budget but undeniably entertaining films that the company produced at the time. It is split up into seven distinct story segments, each written and directed by a different person, many of them Empire regulars: Dave Allen, Charles Band, John Carl Buechler, Steven Ford, Peter Manoogian, Ted Nicolaou, and Rosemarie Turko. However, it is not a traditional portmanteau film, as each of the sections – while arguably featuring an individual adventure – are part of an overall narrative.

Paul Bradford (Byron) is a  computer programmer who lives with his girlfriend, Gwen, and has his life run by  “X-CaliBR8,” a  personal computer that he programmed. This is as dated and unconvincing as any computer-themed story of the time (with the home computer market just starting to become mainstream, computer-themed films were big in the early 1980s). Gwen is jealous of Paul’s relationship with X-CaliBR8 and is reluctant to marry him as long as the computer is running his life (his attempt to counter this argument is to get X-CalibBR8 to point out the likely success of their union, suggesting she may have a point).

One night, for no immediately obvious reason, Paul and Gwen are both transported to a another plain of existence by Mestema, an cackling demon / sorcerer who may well be the Devil, and who has spent centuries looking for a worthy opponent. Apparently, he thinks a weedy computer geek is the ideal challenger, which might explain why he’s been disappointed for so long. With Gwen as the prize, he sets Paul and a  portable version of X-CaliBR8 (now in the form of a computerised wrist band) against various opponents across a variety of scenarios – some of them monsters, some post-apocalyptic road warriors and at one point the enemies take the form of ludicrous heavy metal panto act W.A.S.P.

Most of the challenges involve Paul using his X-CaliBR8 wristband to shoot people, monsters, and objects with laser beams, which hardly suggests that the opponents are a major challenge.

Dungeonmaster struggles to create tension, is crudely acted, inconsistently directed and sloppily produced – but it’s still pretty good, disposable fun. With crummy animatronic monsters, crude stop motion and poor opticals, the film certainly seems cheap, but it’s also aware of its own limitations, and seems to be having fun running the gamut of horror and science fiction cliches. And the episodic nature of the story ensures that whatever faults the film has, it never becomes boring.

A sequel to the film – Pulse Pounders – was planned, but Charles Band’s Empire collapsed before it could be produced.

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It’s Alive III: Island of the Alive is a 1986 (released 1987) American horror film written and directed by Larry Cohen (shot back-to-back with A Return to Salem’s Lot). It is the second sequel to Cohen’s 1974 film, It’s Alive. The film stars Michael Moriarty, Karen Black (Invaders from Mars), Laurene Landon, James Dixon, Gerrit Graham (TerrorVision), Macdonald Carey, Neal Israel, Art Lund, Ann Dane and William Watson.

The mutant babies have been placed by court order on a deserted island. Appalled by the cynicism and exploitation of the children by the legal system and the media, the man responsible for them leads an expedition to the island to free them…

‘Though the first film had some black comedy and the second was virtually humor free, this third and final chapter has loads of comedy, much of which actually IS funny. The film maintains the social awareness of the previous entries (commenting on a multitude of then-topical issues) while adding more gore, more action, more babies, more special effects and more laughs to the proceedings. It’s a crazy mix and gets to be a bit much by the end, but the film has an anything-goes quirky energy to it that helps it along.’ The Bloody Pit of Horror

‘Overwrought and narratively awkward, the film’s clumsy attempts at humor only blunt the film’s satiric bite. Most of the blame has to be laid at the feet of Michael Moriarty’s mumbling, sleepily neurotic performance as a father whose life is ruined by his need to protect his child. Yet Cohen also seems at a loss to take his story in any substantially new direction. Island of the Alive feels like a mish-mash of themes already explored far more cogently in the previous two films. This is not to say that the final part of the trilogy is without any merit…’ Josh Vasquez, Slant Magazine

‘The third film even goes further with the themes, and the idea of secluding the creatures only to have them grow rapidly, is quite ingenious. This one is far more graphic than the previous entries, and with Baker not involved, some stop motion effects are employed. When seen full-sized, the unconvincing monsters somewhat resemble those in Humanoids from the Deep. This one also tends to delve into comedy, unlike its dark predecessors, with Moriarity improvising and hamming it up to the max, so fans of the actor will not be disappointed. The film is fast-paced, in a far-fetched, campy sort of way, constantly shifting the action from one place to another.’ George R. Reis, DVD Drive-In

‘Unfortunately, while Moriarty IS great, but the movie itself is kind of lacklustre. The island setting is a great concept (the babies are “quarantined” there), but it hardly factors into the movie. After a brief scene with some hunters early on (complete with a hilariously inadequate model of a helicopter which inexplicably explodes in midair after the pilot is slashed), more time is spent getting Moriarty and assorted others TO the island than is spent actually ON the island.’ Horror Movie a Day

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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

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Ragin’ Cajun Redneck Gators (also known as Alligator Alley) is a 2013 American made-for-TV horror film produced by Active Entertainment and directed by Griff Furst (Wolfsbayne, Lake Placid 3, Swamp Shark, Arachnoquake, Ghost Shark) from a screenplay by Keith Allan (11/11/11) and Delondra Williams (Rise of the Zombies, Zombie Night), based on a story by Rafael Jordan (Frost Giant, Dragon Wasps, Poseidon Rex). It stars Jordan Hinson, Victor Webster, Thomas Francis Murphy (Ghost Shark, Leprechaun’s Revenge) and Christopher Berry.

Louisiana: One of the local clans have been dumping bad moonshine laced with a toxic chemical into the bayou. This has created huge ‘red-necked’ mutant alligators with killer spines on their tails. When the members of a rival clan catch and cook gator meat they begin mutating into monsters too. To complicate matters and in a nod to William Shakespeare, there are two young lovers from each clan who are forbidden to date each other…

‘Barring the ending, there’s a lot of fun to be had with Ragin’ Cajun Redneck Gators.  It’s your typical Syfy flick that has enough silly humor and silly characters to keep you laughing and a surprisingly decent amount of gore in it as well.  You know what you’re gonna get with a title like this. Just sit back and have a laugh.’ Scott Shoyer, Anything Horror

‘As we’ve come to expect from Syfy, the special effects are eyesores, the acting ranges from broad-side-of-a-barn caricature to sheer catatonia, and the dialogue is unspeakable. But Redneck Gators commits the cardinal sin for this type of shlock: It’s incredibly boring. So much time is devoted to the star-crossed romance between Avery and Dathan, you’d almost think we’re supposed to care about it.  Meanwhile, the gator attacks are all very predictable and alike…’ Scott Von Doviak, The A.V. Club

‘I was looking forward to Ragin’ Cajun Redneck Gators for its title alone. But to find a Romeo and Juliet story set in the bayou, along with some funny scripting and gory deaths for most of the characters, I couldn’t have been happier.’ Doug in the Dark

‘The gator effects aren’t original – we’ve seen them in many other Syfy movies – but they do the job. I thought the close-up scenes of the gators, which may have been models in some cases, were well done. Though the Cajun caricatures are a little hard to take, the movie has plenty of gator-eating-man and man-eating-gator action.’ Tony Isabella’s Bloggy Thing

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