The Movies, Films and Flix Podcast #257: Crawl, Hurricane Parties, and Barry Pepper Punching an Alligator
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The MFF podcast is back, and this week David Cross (of the Award Wieners Movie Review Podcast) joined us to talk about the A+ creature feature Crawl. We absolutely love this $13 million budgeted film, and had a great time talking about all the amazing decisions that director Alejandra Aja made. In this episode, we discuss alligator attacks, Barry Pepper punching an alligator, and the inventive production design. Enjoy! Go watch Crawl!
If you are a fan of the podcast make sure to send in some random listener questions so we can do our best to not answer them correctly. We thank you for listening and hope you enjoy the episode!
You can download the pod on Apple Podcasts, Tune In, Podbean,or Spreaker.
If you get a chance please make sure to review, rate and share. You are awesome!
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John’s Horror Corner: Moontrap (1989), a killer robot Sci-Horror rich with gorgeous spacescapes starring Bruce Campbell.
MY CALL: Overall a fun 80s Sci-Horror flick boasting wonderful setting, spaceships and background design. The horror and gore fall quite short of our hopes and the action is laughably boring, but still a good movie for its other great qualities. MORE MOVIES LIKE Moontrap: For more robots behaving badly, maybe try Virus (1999), Screamers (1995), Nemesis (1992), Hardware (1990), Class of 1999 (1990), Deadly Friend (1986), Chopping Mall (1986) and Demon Seed (1977).
During a moon mission, astronauts Grant (Walter Koenig; Star Trek, Babylon 5) and Ray (Bruce Campbell; The Evil Dead, Evil Dead 2, Escape from LA) stumble across a huge alien spacecraft and recover an egg-like object and a 14,000 year-old desiccated human body. Naturally, they bring them back to Earth and examine them with no measures of quarantine.
From the spaceships to the macabre space cadaver, the special effects start out strong. There’s the cute little alien egg-pod-robot which swiftly gets to work scavenging laboratory machinery to assemble a cursory but very dangerous humanoid body that results in a rather boring NASA gunfight with a rather magnificent evil robot centerpiece.
To investigate the origins of this extraterrestrial robot, Grant and Ray are sent back into space where they encounter a stronghold on the dark side of the moon and find a “human” woman (Leigh Lombardi) in some sort of cryo-stasis. Our astronauts find that the “alien woman” speaks an alien language, and there are yet more man-killing robots hunting them down on the moon’s surface.
We see a lot of the robot creatures in many scenes—which is a big plus. But the action (i.e., the robot fights) is really weak, not doing justice to the special effects. Every fight seems the same; and equally uneventful. It’s just… let those actions scenes be 10-15 seconds instead of action movie level 180 seconds (but with nothing happening). I wish this movie worked more on shock value (i.e., horror tactics) than trying to be an action movie.
Despite my strong criticism, this movie’s good qualities struck way above expectations for the best thanks to director Robert Dyke (Moontrap: Target Earth) and crew. Sets, ships, artistic design, story, basic visual concepts… all were either great for the budget, or good for Sci-Horror in general. The moonscapes and structures were especially innovative. Also redeeming the lousy action are all the spaceship interior scenes—they were awesome. A lot of Sci-Fi vision crafted this film, with imagery and plot devices that may remind viewers of Planet of the Vampires (1965), Alien (1979) and Lifeforce (1985).
Overall a fun 80s Sci-Horror flick that finds its greatest success in setting, spaceships and background design. It doesn’t quite hit the desired mark for horror or gore, but it remains a satisfying watch.
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John’s Horror Corner: Rabid (2019), the Soska sisters’ more monstrous remake of David Cronenberg’s 1977 classic.
MY CALL: A perfectly enjoyable and gory remake serving as a monstrous update of Cronenberg’s 1977 original. MORE MOVIES LIKE Rabid: For more movies about women unknowingly slowly becoming monsters, try Contracted (2013) and Bite (2015).
After a serious traffic accident, young fashion designer Rose (Laura Vandervoort; Jigsaw, V, Bitten, Smallville) is left gruesomely disfigured with her jaw wired shut, much of her upper lip torn off, and her lacerated gums and teeth partially bare. Right away I’m pleased with the brazen special effects. Rose looks monstrous, feels unsightly and credibly horrified by herself, and we see her wounds quite a bit.
With her medical leave rendering Rose temporarily jobless and homeless, her childhood foster sister and former co-worker Chelsea (Hanneke Talbot; Ready or Not) moves her in for her long recovery from her injuries. Utilizing an experimental technique in regenerative medicine called stem cell manipulation, Dr. Burroughs (Ted Atherton; Max Payne, The Expanse, V-Wars) treats Rose and literally erases her scars. Additionally she is more beautiful than even before the procedure… and suspiciously no longer needs her glasses. Little does Rose know, her procedure comes with abnormal side effects and leaves her with an infectious condition.
After a night out, Rose’s “infection” spreads like an outbreak virus carried by an Ebola monkey! Among those who came in contact with her, a man goes ballistic and zombie-bites a colleague’s face, tearing chunks of flesh from his cheek. Apparently, those infected by Rose ultimately become blood-craving rage zombies; mindless and rabid. To such end, many scenes play out like 28 Days Later (2002).
Overall, I enjoyed this remake (a lot). But it definitely had its weak points. This film’s weakest suit is the depiction of widespread panic of the rabies’ spread. The editing, the clip montage, the delivery of the imagery… the assembly of the scene felt weak. Similarly unengaging was the chaos at the local hospital as rabid patients convulse tied down to their beds and one gets shot by security growling down the halls. But this criticism is limited to about 5-10 minutes of an otherwise solid movie which finds itself belabored with scenes attempting to capture grand scope. This film otherwise plays well when focusing on Rose and her immediate victims.
REMAKE/REIMAGINING SIDEBAR: For more horror remakes, I strongly favor the following: Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978), An American Werewolf in London (1981), The Thing (1982), The Fly (1986), The Mummy (1999), The Ring (2002), The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003), The Hills Have Eyes (2006), Friday the 13th (2009), Let Me In (2010), Evil Dead (2013), Carrie (2013), The Town That Dreaded Sundown (2014), It (2017), Suspiria (2018) and Child’s Play (2019). Those to avoid include Body Snatchers (1993; the second remake), War of the Worlds (2005), The Invasion (2007; the third remake), Prom Night (2008), Night of the Demons (2009), Sorority Row (2009), Patrick: Evil Awakens (2013), Poltergeist (2015), Cabin Fever (2016), Unhinged (2017) and The Mummy (2017). I’m on the fence about An American Werewolf in Paris (1997), The Grudge (2004), Halloween (2007), It’s Alive (2009), My Bloody Valentine (2009), A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010), Fright Night (2011), The Thing (2011; a prequel/remake), Maniac (2012) and Pet Sematary (2019), which range from bad to so-so (as remakes) but still are entertaining movies on their own.
Rolling into the finale we find some satisfying monstrous creature effects. They seem a bit over-the-top when compared to the 1977 original, but they also seem waaaay more fun! If anything, I expected directors Jen and Sylvia Soska (American Mary, ABCs of Death 2) to have more gore and monstrosity and shock value—strong suits for these filmmakers. But there was plenty to please fans of monstrosities.
The acting, writing, photography, production and effects all served us well. Because this was a remake of Cronenberg’s lower tier 1977 film, I feel it managed to contemporize and even revitalize the story. Whereas a “great film” this is not; a very good horror movie in general it is and a really fun contemporary monster movie! As a fan of remakes (yes, I just said that) and Cronenberg, I enjoyed it.
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The Movies, Films and Flix Podcast #256: King Arthur, Double Decapitations, and Crossbows
You can download the pod on Apple Podcasts, Tune In, Podbean, or Spreaker (or wherever you listen to podcasts…..we’re almost everywhere).
If you get a chance please make sure to review, rate and share. You are awesome!
The MFF podcast is back, and this week we’re talking about the Antoine Fuqua directed King Arthur. Originally filmed as an R-rated film full of violence and decapitations, the movie was dropped down to a PG-13 rating by nervous Touchstone executives (owned by Disney) before it’s release in 2004. The end result is still a lot of fun, because of the massive action scenes, and the cast made up of Clive Owen, Joel Edgerton, Ioan Gruffudd, Mads Mikkelsen, Hugh Dancy, Ray Winstone, Ray Stevenson, Til Schweiger and Stellan Skarsgard. In this episode, we discuss double decapitations, great eyebrows and gigantic movie sets.
If you are a fan of the podcast make sure to send in some random listener questions so we can do our best to not answer them correctly. We thank you for listening and hope you enjoy the episode!
You can download the pod on Apple Podcasts, Tune In, Podbean,or Spreaker.
If you get a chance please make sure to review, rate and share. You are awesome!
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You can download the pod on Apple Podcasts, Tune In, Podbean, or Spreaker (or wherever you listen to podcasts…..we’re almost everywhere).
If you get a chance please make sure to review, rate and share. You are awesome!
We started a new podcast series about epic final fights in movies! The first two episodes are about the final brawls in The Night Comes For us and Commando. The Ito vs. Arian, and John Matrix vs. Bennett fights are things of beauty, and in these episodes we discuss every punch, kick, and impalement via pipe (it’s glorious). Get ready for some fun discussions about random final fights!
If you are a fan of the podcast make sure to send in some random listener questions so we can do our best to not answer them correctly. We thank you for listening and hope you enjoy the episode!
You can download the pod on Apple Podcasts, Tune In, Podbean,or Spreaker.
If you get a chance please make sure to review, rate and share. You are awesome!
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MY CALL: Do you like Lovecraft? Have you been asking when they’ll finally get his work right on film. Well, this is about as close as you’re gonna’ get (this decade). Outstanding film; equal parts weird Sci-Fantasy and Horror. MORE MOVIES LIKE Color Out of Space: If you want more Lovecraftian movies/adaptations, go for The Dunwich Horror (1970), George Romero’s The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill in Creepshow (1982), The Curse (1987), The Unnamable (1988), The Resurrected (1991), The Unnamable 2: The Statement of Randolph Carter (1992), Cthulhu Mansion (1992), Necronomicon: Book of the Dead (1993), Lurking Fear (1994), Dagon (2001), Dreams in the Witch-House (2005) and Cold Skin (2017). And although not specifically of Lovecraftian origins, his influence is most palpable in From Beyond (1986), Prince of Darkness (1987), In the Mouth of Madness (1994), Lord of Illusions (1995), The Shrine (2010), Baskin (2015) and The Void (2016)—all of which are on the more gruesome side to varying degrees.
Gorgeous shots of a darkly mystical forest introduce the seclusion of the Gardner family estate. From minute one, I love the atmosphere captured by this film. It’s one of equally wondrous nature and the wondrous unknown betwixt its shadows.
Having recently departed the city for a quiet and secluded lifestyle, Nathan (Nicolas Cage; Mom and Dad, Mandy) and Theresa Gardner (Joely Richardson; Maggie, The Turning, Red Lights, Event Horizon) have a lovely family with endearingly normal quirks. Together they have survived Theresa’ cancer with their kind-hearted yet cynical good witch-in-training Lavinia (Madeleine Arthur) who communes in hopes of ridding her mother of her illness; a spacy teenage son Benny (Brendan Meyer); and the imaginative youngest son Jack (Julian Hilliard). Among the players is an unwary passerby to their property (Elliot Knight; American Gothic) and the Gardners forest shack squatter (Tommy Chong; Evil Bong).
After a pink glowing meteorite strikes their property, peculiarly mutated nature begins to turn on the Gardners. Having seen what happened in The Curse (1987) and The Blob (1988), I have an idea of the gooiness to come. But it begins innocuously with pink flowers appearing on their lawn, an otherworldly mantis-like creature emerging from their well, and the well itself emitting sounds.
What starts out as chopping vegetables along with fingertips, a boy playing with his invisible friends in the well, manic Cage-typical emotional outbursts and alarming skin rashes eventually develops into bright pink forests, scenes reminiscent of The Thing (1982) and Society (1989), and bloody creature mayhem.
A mixture of CGI and practical effects, the monstrous gore and creature work are quite satisfying. Even if some of the CGI (e.g., the roadkill scene) isn’t so great, it doesn’t harm my enjoyment of the film. But what happens to the mother… that’s the real gem (and a shocker).
Director Richard Stanley (Hardware, The Theater Bizarre) is no stranger to weird films, and he really aced this one with the scintillating admixture of moods. Few films have captured that Lovecraftian feeling of awestruck dread, obsessive mania and unsightly terror. So this came as a most welcome addition to my Lovecraft-adaptation movie collection. There is allure to that which dwells in the purple ectoplasms, and it will have you!
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John’s Horror Corner: Prison (1987), a positively gory, shocking and bonkers rollercoaster of fun thanks to Renny Harlin!
MY CALL: This feels a lot like a Freddy movie (i.e., parts 4-5) in style, execution and choice of death scenes and special effects… and I mean that in a good way. This is really entertaining, boasts a solid cast and features neat kills. MORE MOVIES LIKE Prison: For more vengeful death sentence spirits, all I can think of is Shocker (1989).
The sophomore feature from director Renny Harlin (A Nightmare on Elm Street 4, Deep Blue Sea), this low budget horror was actually produced by Charles Band (Parasite, Meridian, Doctor Mordrid, Head of the Family). And much as the early work of Charles Band and later Full Moon Entertainment, this movie’s opening scene (a dream-like sequence) has the dusky appearance of an episode of Tales from the Crypt (1989).
We open with the ominous last walk of a death row inmate to the electric chair, led by prison guard Sharpe (Lane Smith; V, Red Dawn). As his sentence is carried out and the current courses through his body, the special effects team do their very best—offering brief shots of crackling, burning, pulsating skin.
Now (many years later) appointed to serve as the warden of a new prison, Sharpe must re-appropriate a long-abandoned prison shanty to meet penitentiary holding demands. During some cursory renovations near the old execution chamber, the angry restless spirit of an executed inmate is released upon the prison with Freddy Krueger-like powers to manipulate his lair… and he does so with Krueger-like theatric flair as almost every victim’s body literally ‘erupts’ into a room of on-lookers. This movie was terribly written, but was saved by fun-loving shock factor. It’s exciting, cheesy but fun, well-executed, and probably landed him the director’s seat for A Nightmare on Elm Street 4.
Walls and floors are super-heated to blister inmates, melt the rubber soles of their shoes and burn them alive into charred corpses. Pipes and hoses are animated to trap, strangle and impale and inmate who is later dropped through the ceiling of the commissary raining blood and gore down with his mangled corpse. The very bloody barb wire death scene smacks of subsequent deaths in A Nightmare on Elm Street 4 (1988) and Hellbound: Hellraiser II (1988). It’s quite the show of gore!
As inmates quickly turn up dead, state-appointed Katherine (Chelsea Field; Death Spa, The Dark Half) investigates the strange occurrences at the prison much to the crooked Sharpe’s chagrin. Among the prisoners are Burke (Viggo Mortensen; Leatherface: TCM III, The Prophecy) and Tiny (Tommy ‘Tiny’ Lister; The Fifth Element, Wishmaster 2).
In general, I’ve learned I can trust Renny Harlin to entertain me with whatever movie he makes. But still, I remain very pleasantly surprised at how a movie that somehow flew under my radar for decades (I only just heard of this movie last week from an Instagram post) turned out to be such a decent horror flick. This bonkers movie culminates with a throne-like electric chair erupting from the ground with an electro-zombie of vengeance seated atop who then blasts lightning at his offender. None of it really makes any sense, but I don’t care. This is just plain awesome!
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John’s Horror Corner: Black Sheep (2006), a goretastic New Zealand horror-comedy about killer sheep.
MY CALL: A horror comedy about mutant flesh-eating sheep? Sign me up! Fun, gory and delightfully funny with great practical gore and special effects, this is one every gorehound needs to see. MORE MOVIES LIKE Black Sheep: For more kitschy New Zealand horror comedies try Dead-Alive (1992), Bad Taste (1987), Housebound (2014), Deathgasm (2015) and What We Do in the Shadows (2015). And for yet more gory yet quirky creature features, go for Isolation (2005), Splinter (2008), Blood Glacier (2013), Zombeavers (2014) or Boar (2017).
After some agricultural experiments in genetic engineering go horribly wrong, a flock of sheep mutate into erratic flesh-eating monsters. For the most part, that’s all you should need to know in order to decide if this gory horror-comedy is for you. The humor is every bit as overt as Shaun of the Dead (2004), and a step in the direction of slapstick. However, it wanders nowhere near the extremity of Dead-Alive (1992).
For more HORROR COMEDIES: For more horror comedies try Critters (1986) and sequels, Brain Damage (1988), Blood Diner (1987), Frankenhooker (1990), Bloodsucking Pharaohs in Pittsburgh (1991), Leprechaun (1993) and sequels, Head of the Family (1996), American Psycho (2000), Shaun of the Dead (2004), The Hazing (2004), Dead Snow (2009), Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever (2009), Chaw (2009), Piranha 3D (2010), Tucker and Dale vs Evil (2010), Final Destination 5 (2011), Chillerama (2011), Piranha 3DD (2012), Grabbers (2012), The Cabin in the Woods (2012), Bad Milo (2013), Warm Bodies (2013), The Editor (2014), Burying the Ex (2014), Housebound (2014), Zombeavers (2014), The Voices (2014), Dead Snow 2 (2014), The Voices (2014), Smothered (2014), What We Do in the Shadows (2014), Cooties (2015), Deathgasm (2015), Bloodsucking Bastards (2015), Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse (2015), He Never Died (2015), Ava’s Possessions (2015), The Final Girls (2015), Krampus (2015), Love in the Time of Monsters (2015), The Greasy Strangler (2016), Better Watch Out (2016), Mayhem (2017), Happy Death Day (2017), The Babysitter (2017) and Satanic Panic (2019).
The catalyst for our story comes when a militant vegetarian sabotages a scientist’s work by stealing a lamb fetus in what appears to be a cannister of Ninja Turtle ooze. A laughably slimy rubber monster of a mutant lamb fetus escapes from this incubator, bites the vegetarian animal rights activist, and wanders to a grazing flock of sheep with its umbilical cord in tow. Once infected by this genetically modified mutant fetus, the rest of the flock become ferocious flesh-eating sheep. And when these infected sheep attack, it’s pretty fun to watch!
Meanwhile, the activist’s infected bite manifests much like slowly turning into a zombie. Only the outcome is the slow transformation into a massive weresheep! Like in District 9 (2009), this transformation boasts various transitional phases between human and weresheep form. Those bitten slowly develop hooved feet, horizontal pupiled-eyes, and hulking sheepitaur bodies. I enjoyed the monstrous creature effects, which were all practical.
The gore is very “tearing stretchy latex flesh” in style, and there’s much wound work and blood and guts to be enjoyed. Especially when the protagonists fall into the offal pit! Also watch out for the blood-spraying plane propeller death scene, the stretchy penis bite, and loads of lacerated wound work and dismemberment.
His first feature film, writer and director Jonathan King brought us a cult classic horror comedy that I just love! How has this man not gone on to make 80 more similarly awesome, gory, hilarious films? Delightfully funny with great gore and special effects, this is one every gorehound needs to see.
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The MFF podcast is back, and this week we’re talking about the Paul Verhoeven (Robocop, Starship Troopers, Showgirls) directed Hollow Man. Released in 2000, this horror-thriller tells the story of what happens when an egomaniac scientist is stuck in an invisible form (Hint – he gets super creepy and gross). In this episode, Mark and David Cross (of the Award Wieners Movies Review Podcast) discuss, Nu-metal, The greatness of Kevin Bacon, and Elisabeth “Action Hero” Shue. Enjoy
If you are a fan of the podcast make sure to send in some random listener questions so we can do our best to not answer them correctly. We thank you for listening and hope you enjoy the episode!
You can download the pod on Apple Podcasts, Tune In, Podbean,or Spreaker.
If you get a chance please make sure to review, rate and share. You are awesome!
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The Movies, Films and Flix Podcast #254: Swimfan, Sushi and Soggy Sagas
You can download the pod on Apple Podcasts, Tune In, Podbean, or Spreaker (or wherever you listen to podcasts…..we’re almost everywhere).
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The Soggy Saga continues! Jay Cluitt (Life vs. Film) came back to help us talk about the thriller Swimfan. So far, we’ve talked about the waterlogged Piranha 3D, Lake Placid and Anaconda, so, it felt like a logical move to talk about a movie that features lots of swimming, death and nu-metal. Released in 2002, Swimfan tells the story of a woman stalking a high school swimmer after they have a casual fling in a swimming pool (it’s weird). In this episode, we discuss sushi eating, Detroit Rock City, and ponder if the stalker really is a fan of swimming.
If you are a fan of the podcast make sure to send in some random listener questions so we can do our best to not answer them correctly. We thank you for listening and hope you enjoy the episode!
You can download the pod on Apple Podcasts, Tune In, Podbean,or Spreaker.
If you get a chance please make sure to review, rate and share. You are awesome!
Movies, Films & Flix 