It always saddens me just a bit when I discover something only a few people have even heard of, let alone seen but which deserves a bigger audience. I’ll admit that does happen to me quite a bit because I have put a bit of effort into finding little seen movies, but it seems particularly […]
Read more "Ginga tansa 2100-nen: Bôdâ puranetto [Galaxy Investigation 2100: Border Planet] (1986)"(aka, Turkish Flash Gordon. Literal translation: Baytekin: Disaster Collisions) The problem with many of these weird and rare films — particularly the older films, and those from countries where no one has made much of an effort at preserving them — is that all too often you can only find badly worn or damaged prints. […]
Read more "Baytekin — fezada çarpisanlar [Flash Gordon’s Battle in Space] (1967)"The most difficult problem with zombie movies is figuring out which ones are actually zombie movies. There is a major divide among the faithful over the traditional, lumbering classic Romero zombies, and the far more aggressive fast zombies, or rage zombies, popularized by 28 Days Later because so many fans refuse to accept these rage-filled […]
Read more "Warning Sign (1985)"(aka, Fractals) The opening shot is memorable. It’s like waves flowing backwards and uphill away from us. But then the camera shifts just a little and we see we have actually been watching the reflections of tree branches on the windshield of a moving car. Don’t expect that you’ll ever see that level of artistry […]
Read more "Brain Twisters (1991)"Why do these things keep happening? I was in the mood for a terrible, Grade Z movie — you know, the sort of thing Wild Eye Releasing puts out? — and watched one of their more recent offerings because their product description sounded like it might at least be entertaining: “In a distant future, an […]
Read more "Future Fear (Stellanomicon: Future Fear) (2021)"You learn what you are up against in the first few minutes of Mercano the Martian. Mercano — a little, green, squiggily-animated Martian — has just stolen a computer and run away from the police. They follow him down into the subway, only one of the cops — who is afraid of heights — slides […]
Read more "Mercano, el marciano [Mercano the Martian] (2002)"If there is one thing in this world which is guaranteed, it is that, if you watch enough Eighties Science Fiction films, you are going to see an Alien rip-off. And, apparently, this was also true when it comes to Japanese Anime. After all, we have this OVA from 1987, about a spaceship responding to […]
Read more "Hell Target [Heru Tageto] (1987)"I know, I know, we’ve all said it: Why can’t we have nice things anymore? But I suppose it wouldn’t be so bad if we weren’t reminded what we are missing every once in a while. Take Godzilla, for example. It has been six years since Toho released Shin Godzilla, and we haven’t seen a live […]
Read more "Gojira buiesu Gaigan Rekusu [Godzilla vs. Gigan Rex] (2022)"Honorable Mention This is an odd one. I struggle with finding some way to classify this one, but it just refuses to cooperate. I suppose you might label it a Giallo mystery — many have — but it doesn’t have any of the usual trappings of that Italian subgenre: we have no secret killer with […]
Read more "Circuito chiuso [Closed Circuit] (1978)"(aka, The Unnamable Returns) I have to confess that I enjoyed The Unnamable (1988). Yeah, I know, it doesn’t have much to do the original Lovecraft story which it is supposedly based upon, and it doesn’t exactly enjoy particularly high ratings from either the critics or the audience. But it is a fun little monster […]
Read more "The Unnamable II: The Statement of Randolph Carter (1992)"
rivets on the poster 