I really miss Dick Miller. When we first meet door-to-door vacuum cleaner salesman John Henry (Tavis L. Baker) trying to sell to a reluctant customer, I found myself thinking of Dick’s brief little part in Not of this Earth, as a far too eager salesman who bothers the wrong customer. Which, I suppose, is no […]
Read more "They Came from the Ether (2014)"You’ll note that this one is not entitled “Alien: Covenant“. At least, you’ll notice it if you don’t grab it off the shelf at the video store in too big a hurry and miss the big-budget film you actually wanted. This one is yet another Asylum Mockbuster. It doesn’t bear much resemblance to the film […]
Read more "Alien Convergence (2017)"(aka Lea, an Angel in the House) “Science sans conscience n’est que ruine de l’ame” (Science without conscience is the death of the soul.) — François Rabelais During the few odd moments when we have an Amazon Prime free trial, I like to explore the free SF and fantasy films they offer. Here and there, among […]
Read more "Lea: Light Engineering Android [Léa, un ange dans ma maison] (2014)"Right. You’ve just made Superman: The Motion Picture, and you are looking over DC comics’ many, many superheroes, trying to decide which one you want to turn into your next big movie. So of course you’re going to pick Swamp Thing, a broody, dark and somewhat grim sort of a story, about a hero, who, […]
Read more "Swamp Thing (1982)"Shane Abbess first came to my attention with his film Infini, a deep space film backed by a dense universe and some fairly clever ideas: despite a confusing third act, and a very dubious piece of science, I found it quite impressive for the most part, if not entirely successful. When I heard he had […]
Read more "The Osiris Child [Science Fiction Volume One: The Osiris Child] (2016)"I feel guilty. Director William Malone mortgaged his house, and sold his car and almost everything he owned to make this film. Which doesn’t change the fact that I still think this one is dull. Dull, dull, dull. We get random, bloody killings piling up, mostly pretty girls in their underwear, with lots of blood. […]
Read more "Scared to Death (1980)"Among the most loved of all those Japanese Chanbara (Samurai and sword fighting) films is the series about a blind master swordsman and masseur named Zatoichi. He was played with a great deal of humor and human warmth– not to mention incredible swordsmanship — by the great Shintaro Katsu. And I must say, it is […]
Read more "ZVP (2017)"I first encountered Battle of Memories‘ director, Leste Chen, in his complex and tricky thriller, The Great Hypnotist, which, while not a great film, was twisty enough to be entertaining. Apparently, he is better known for his comedies, but that hasn’t stopped him from venturing into the darker and more sinister world of the psychological […]
Read more "Battle of Memories [Ji yi da shi] (2017)"(Warning: Spoilers ahead!) The Fifties managed to produce some rather odd SF/horror hybrids. One thinks of such strange efforts as From Hell It Came, which ties radioactive mutants in with magic and curses, or Creature with the Atom Brain and its mix of police procedural and zombies, or Voodoo Woman with its tangle of mad science, voodoo and the heist […]
Read more "The Unknown Terror (1957)"(aka Gufors) If you are wondering, it is pronounced “Goofers.” It is, in fact, the name of a small store in a tiny community in the middle of the desert, and stands for Global Unidentified Flying Object Research and Services. Although the sign on the store actually says “gUFOrs.” Three friends from L.A. came here to […]
Read more "Aliens & Gufors (2017)"
rivets on the poster 