Author Archives: bandsaboutmovies

WATCH MOVIES WHILE THE WORLD BURNS ON THE DIA DOUBLE FEATURE!

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This Saturday at 8 PM EST on the Groovy Doom Facebook and YouTube channels, Bill and I will be joined by Peter Podgursky and Bryan Keithley from NPRmageddon.

Up first, there are no wars, there are just RoboJox. You can watch this on Tubi.

Each episode, we share links for you to watch the movies but before and after, we talk about them, show their ad campaigns and have a themed drink. Here’s one for the first movie.

Achilles (based on the Difford’s Guide recipe)

  • 2 oz. vodka
  • .5 oz. Chambord
  • .5 oz. peach schnapps
  • 3 oz. apple juice
  • ,5 oz. lemon juice
  1. Shake all ingredients in a shaker with ice in your rocket fist.
  2. Pour over crushed ice in your glass, then drink up.

The second movie is Warriors of the Wasteland, which I feel is one of the best Mad Max ripoffs ever. You can watch it on Tubi.

Here’s the second drink, which…wow. Yeah, get ready.

Scorpion

  • 3 oz. passion fruit juice
  • 3 oz. pineapple juice
  • 3 oz. orange juice
  • 2 oz. lemon juice
  • .5 oz. dark rum
  • .5 oz. Malibu rum
  • .5 oz. high proof rum (151 or Hurricane Proof)
  • .5 oz. Passoa
  • .5 oz. gin
  • .25 oz. maraschino cherry juice
  • Maraschino cherries
  • Frozen pineapple chunks
  • Orange slices
  1. Pour all the ingredients, other than the fruit, in a large glass filled with crushed ice.
  2. Stir, add in fruit and beware the Templars.

See you Saturday!

Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival wrap up

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I had a blast watching movies as part of the Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival. I really appreciated being invited and can’t wait to do it again next year.

Here’s what I watched:

You can also check out the Letterboxd list of all the movies that played.

Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival: The Blood On Satan’s Claw (1971)

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In his BBC documentary series A History of Horror, Mark Gatiss referred to this film, along with Witchfinder General and The Wicker Man, as the prime example of a short-lived subgenre he called folk horror.

It’s directed by Piers Haggard, who also was behind The Quatermass Conclusion, The Fiendish Plot of Dr. Fu Manchu and Venom. He’s also the great-great-nephew of H. Rider Haggard, the creator of Allan Quartermain.

Robert Wynne-Simmons was hired to write the story, which was inspired by the modern-day Manson Family and Mary Bell child murders.

In the early 18th century, Ralph Gower (Barry Andrews, Dracula Has Risen from His Grave) uncovers a one-eyed skill covered with fur while plowing his fields. He asks the judge (Patrick Wymark, Dr. Syn, Alias the Scarecrow) to look at it, but it’s gone missing, and his fears are ridiculous.

Peter Edmonton brings his fiancee, Rosalind Barton (Tamara Ustinov, Blood from the Mummy’s Tomb), to meet his aunt, Mistress Banham. Banham disapproves of the coupling and demands that Rosalind sleep in an attic room. After screaming throughout the night, she soon gets ill, and the judge commits her. As she’s led away, Peter discovers she has a claw instead of a hand.

Claws show up all over this — hidden in fields to be found by children and attacking Peter inside the cursed room, causing him to sever his hand. The judge leaves behind the town for London but promises to return. He places Squire Middleton (James Hayter, The 39 Steps) in charge.

One of the children who found the claw, Mark, is lured out by his classmates and killed in a ritual game by the leader of a new cult, Angel Blake (Linda Hayden, Madhouse, Queen Kong). She even tries to seduce Fallowfield (Anthony Ainley, the Master from Dr. Who) and tells him that Mark had the devil inside him, which needed to be cut out. Her group also has a Black Mass inside a ruined church where they attack Mark’s sister Cathy (Wendy Padbury, companion Zoe on Dr. Who). They ritualistically assault and murder her before tearing the fur from her skin.

Of course, it’s not long before all hell quite literally breaks loose, with insane children raising Satan himself from the Great Beyond and Ralph growing fur on his leg, marking him for death. This movie is…well, there’s nothing else quite like it. I can see why it had a limited audience for years; it’s so dark and unforgiving.

“It never made much money,” said Haggard. “It wasn’t a hit. From the very beginning, it had a minority appeal. A few people absolutely loved it, but the audiences didn’t turn out for it.”

While Satan’s Skin was the original title, you must give it to American International Pictures’ Samuel Z. Arkoff, who created the film’s title.

I watched this film as part of The Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (BIFAN), along with The Wicker Man and the Folk Horror: Lands of Cruelty, Beliefs of Terror program. It includes films like Valerie and Her Week of Wonders, Eyes of Fire, Kill List, the 2019 French version of La Llorona, Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched, Bldg. N, In My Mother’s Skin and To Fire You Come at Last. You can learn more at their official site.

Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival: Evil Dead Rise (2023)

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It took me literally five watches to get through Evil Dead Rise. In my past hater days, I would have just said something like, “Well, I already saw Demons 2,” but that’s not very productive. Films deserve to be seen, and my mindset did not jibe with what I was watching.

Maybe I’ve finally reached a point where the fifth Evil Dead movie isn’t all that exciting.

The thought filled my heart with dread. What would 16-year-old me, the one who watched Evil Dead 2 every single day, that a few years later would be one of two people in the theater for Army of Darkness, think?

Maybe I don’t want to grow up. It’s just too confusing.

Lee Cronin, who directed and wrote this movie, also made The Hole In the Ground. His Evil Dead movie came to be after a period of great excitement with the reimagining. Fede Álvarez was making a sequel to that movie, Sam and Ivan Raimi were making Evil Dead 4 or Army of Darkness 2 and after all that, the seventh film would bring together Ash Williams and Mia Allen. Then the TV series came along, and when that was canceled by the fourth season, any talk of new movies ended. Until we got this.

And I wasn’t too excited.

But then it kicked off with some teens at the lake, some possessions and a levitating girl decapitating a boy while an incredible title card rose from the bloody water.

Alright, I was in.

Guitar tech Beth (Lily Sullivan) has learned that she’s pregnant and she needs to be near her family, which would be her tattoo artist single mother sister Ellie (Alyssa Sutherland) and her kids Danny (Morgan Davies), Bridget (Gabrielle Echols) and Kassie (Nell Fisher). They live in the Monde Apartments, a nearly condemned building in Los Angeles that was rocked by an earthquake that brought a book and three records to the land of the unpossessed. Of course, Danny is a DJ and throws those records on the turntable — Bruce Campbell voiceover cameo alert — and they reveal that a priest was able to bring the Deadites to our world with the Naturom Demonto.

He gets blood all over the book, which we all know isn’t good, as the aftershocks and power outages continue to assault their home. Ellie is soon possessed and tries to kill everyone, but before she dies, she makes Beth promise to protect her children. And then she’s back from the dead and doing anything but.

What follows is a blood-spraying, gore-filled battle between the Deadite-possessed humans — most of the family becomes an intertwined creature — and the survivors, Beth and Kassie. Is there a shotgun? Is there a chainsaw? And is there a woodchipper, too?

Yet this has the same issue every reimagining has. It has the blood, the book, all those elements, but it forgets the anarchy. What’s missing is the weird mix of goofiness and kids in the woods making something with no archetype or rules. We know what will happen every moment, as if it is predestined, with nothing shocking outside of the things engineered to be as such. Much like how the streaming Hellraiser forgot the sex and the streaming Texas Chainsaw Massacre forgot to be frightening, this has a menu of everything that would be on the model kit of an Evil Dead movie, but it’s missing the intangible. There’s no feeling of getting behind the protagonists. Sure, a cheese grater gets used as a weapon, but this film should have the DNA of a film series that spent forty minutes with a man’s own hand punching himself in the face. It should do something that makes us feel something. The absence of this anarchy is a disappointment that’s hard to ignore.

There’s some to like, but I want to love. I want to revel in the lunacy of what this film could be instead of forcing myself to be satisfied with what it is. This had 1,720 gallons of blood but not as many ounces of magic as I wanted it to have. Honestly, they could have skipped the records and book, which would have been another possession film.

But would anyone have gone to the theater—yes, this even got out of streaming and into the big time—to see that?

I watched this film as part of The Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (BIFAN). You can learn more at their official site.

Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival: Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched: A History of Folk Horror(2021)

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If you have even a passing interest in the world of folk horror, Kier-La Janisse’s exhaustive exploration — which clocks in at 3 hours and 14 minutes and could have been a thousand more if I had my way — is the film of a lifetime. The ‘unholy trinity’ that launched this trend on to screens — Michael Reeves’ Witchfinder General, Piers Haggard’s Blood on Satan’s Claw and Robin Hardy’s The Wicker Man — are not just names, but significant milestones in the history of folk horror. This movie is quite literally the last word in what folk horror is, what it means and how it’s still part of the world of cinema today, perhaps more than ever before.

With more than fifty significant names in the world of horror and horror writing — everyone from Amanda Reyes, Piers Haggard, Adam Scovell, Jeremy Dyson Samm Deighan, Kat Ellinger, Robert Eggars, Ian Oglivy, Kevin Kölsch, Dennis Widmyer and around forty more voices appear with great insights — there’s never been a more well-rounded approach to tackling a movie genre within a genre. This feels like the kind of film that I’ll be coming back to again and again.

Beyond the expected anchors of the genre, I was so excited to see lesser-known films get their due, like Alison’s Birthday (which is on the gigantic All the Haunts Be Ours box set that Severin is releasing), beDevil, Dark August, Eyes of Fire (also being released by Severin), Grim Prarie Tales, Lemora (which seemingly has footage from the mysterious blu ray of the film that never materialized) and Zeder.

This is the kind of material you want to pause, write down, make notes on, and keep updating your Letterboxd while watching it. This isn’t just a movie about films. This is a true celebration of the magical wonder hidden within the flickering image, an exploration of a genre of all the dark old things and a journey through how each country documents the unknown through their media.

There aren’t enough stars in the firmament out of ten to rate this one. You can preorder this film from Severin now or watch it on Shudder. You can also visit the film’s official site.

Thanks to the fantastic Letterboxd list Films mentioned in “Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched: A History of Folk Horror“ by Jon Ursenbach, here’s a list of the films as well as links to reviews of them that we’ve done on our site.

I watched this film as part of The Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (BIFAN). You can learn more at their official site.

Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival: Orgy of the Damned (2023)

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In the sequel to 2021’s 2551.01, director Norbert Pfaffenbichler presents a visually unique world. In it, a man in a monkey mask navigates a strobing and flashing landscape of deviancy and pain. He’s pursued by a plague doctor and his army while attempting to rescue an abandoned child. But this is just the surface of a film that truly comes alive when you immerse yourself in its striking visuals, allowing them to sear into your consciousness.

Following the monkey man’s shooting, a masked woman intervenes, leading to a blossoming romance. Yet, beneath this love story, there’s a pervasive sense of ennui and helplessness. The protagonist is always on the brink of his objective but perpetually ensnared by violence and a sexual frenzy that has seized these future inhabitants. All of this unfolds against a backdrop of electronic soundscapes and classical music, adding depth to the film’s exploration of these themes.

This movie warns you from the start: it has disturbing images, sexualized moments and strobing. It’s either going to be totally something. You vibe to or the exact opposite. I get the feeling there’s really nowhere in between.

I watched this film as part of The Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (BIFAN). You can learn more at their official site.

 

Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival: AUXILIO – The Power of Sin (2023)

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AUXILIO (Help) is a captivating film directed by Tamae Garateguy, who is known for her previous acclaimed work on She Wolf. The narrative centers around Emilia, a spirited young woman portrayed by Cumelen Sanz. She finds herself in a challenging situation after her father sends her to a secluded convent. This drastic decision is a reaction to her defiance in rejecting the marriage proposal from a man chosen for her, reflecting the societal pressures she faces and her refusal to conform to traditional gender roles.

Upon arriving at the convent, Emilia encounters a strict and cloistered world governed by the rigid rules of the Sisterhood. Guided by Rebeca, a compassionate nun played by Paula Carruega, Emilia begins to navigate the complexities of her new life. As she attempts to adapt, she gradually becomes aware of a mysterious and deeply buried secret that lies within the convent’s walls—a secret that grants supernatural powers to the nuns. This revelation introduces an enthralling layer of suspense and intrigue, drawing Emilia deeper into the enigmatic world around her.

The film intricately weaves themes of hidden romance and passion, hallmarks of the nunsploitation genre. The interactions between the characters reveal much about their desires and conflicts, emphasizing the tension between their spiritual vows and earthly yearnings. Mother Superior, portrayed by Marcela Benjumea, serves as a formidable figure, adept at hiding the convent’s darker secrets and protecting its inhabitants—often societal outcasts—from the outside world. Her complex character adds depth and a sense of urgency to the plot as she navigates the fine line between authority and compassion.

Throughout its runtime, AUXILIO raises profound questions regarding faith, identity, and the nature of belief. Are the residents of the convent divinely inspired beings, or are they merely ordinary individuals seeking solace and purpose? This exploration invites viewers to reflect on their own definitions of spirituality and the human experience, making the film not just a visual spectacle but an engaging meditation on the struggles and strengths of its characters.

I watched this film as part of The Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (BIFAN). You can learn more at their official site.

CBS LATE MOVIE MONTH: Premature Burial (1962)

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EDITOR’S NOTE: Premature Burial was on the CBS Late Movie on August 2, 1974.

This is the third of Roger Corman’s Poe movies. This time, Corman decided to make his own Poe film outside of his deal with American-International Pictures. He got his financing through Pathé Lab, the company that did the print work for AIP.

While he wanted to use Vincent Price, the actor had an exclusive deal with AIP, so he hired Ray Milland.

Unexpectedly, on the first day of shooting, James H. Nicholson and Samuel Z. Arkoff of AIP made a surprise visit. They informed Corman that they were working together again and were thrilled that they’d convinced Pathé to bring the movie back to them after threatening to pull all their lab work.

Guy Carrell (played by the talented Ray Milland) is a British aristocrat with a unique condition. He suffers from catalepsy, which causes him to fear being buried alive. This fear almost ruins his marriage to Emily (Hazel Court, a familiar face from movies like The Raven and The Masque of the Red Death). Despite his peculiarities, they decide to get married, even though he has constructed an elaborate coffin from which he can escape.

Let me tell you, the dream sequence where he does get buried alive? I saw it before I was ten when forced to visit the home of other children instead of getting to watch movies at home alone, as I have preferred my entire life. They went and played some games. I grabbed the TV Guide and found a horror movie. This is what I saw, and the burial sequence completely destroyed me. I remember walking onto their porch, staring into the sunset and wondering how the adults could be so carefree when death was stalking our every waking moment. I was a weird kid and grew up to be even more odd.

And to add to the surprises, Dick Miller makes a memorable appearance as a grave robber!

CBS LATE MOVIE MONTH: The Spell (1977)

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EDITOR’S NOTE: The Spell was on the CBS Late Movie on November 22, 1978 and May 15, 1979.

This Brian Taggert (Visiting Hours, Poltergeist III and Omen IV: The Awakening) film was originally aired on NBC on February 20, 1977. It was supposedly written before Stephen King’s Carrie. Although it was supposed to be a theatrical film, it was relegated to movie of the week because De Palma’s filmed version got on screen first.

Rita Matchett, a shy, overweight 15-year-old girl, is the central character who, like Carrie, is subjected to bullying. However, her powers manifest much quicker. In a shocking turn of events, as one of the mean girls climbs the rope in gym class, Rita uses her powers to make her fall to her death, setting the stage for a unique and unexpected plot twist.

While Rita comes from a wealthy family, she isn’t close with her sister (Helen Hunt) or her father (James Olson, Father Adamsky from Amityville II: The Possession). Her mother (Lee Grant, who reviewers said deserved better than this movie, but I love this kind of ridiculous TV movie, occult magic, so screw those people) tries to understand her, but once she starts speaking in tongues, all bets are off.

This is the kind of movie where an old woman spontaneously combusts, where the gym teacher (Lelia Goldoni, who, if I was artistic, I’d tell you that she was in Cassavetes’ Shadows, but we all know that she was in the 70’s Invasion of the Body Snatchers and The Unseen) teaches sad teens how to find Satan and the mom ends up having powers too, throwing knives at her daughter in a scene that again has nothing to do with Carrie at all.

Jack Colvin, who plagued David Bruce Banner on the TV version of The Incredible Hulk, and Wright King (Invasion of the Bee Girls) show up. So do some audio cues from the classic Star Trek.

Directed by Lee Phillips, known for his work on The Girl Most Likely to…, this film may be derivative, but it’s a lot of fun.

This is one of the few made-for-TV movies that have come out on DVD. Thank Shout! Factory for that and beg them to release more!

CBS LATE MOVIE MONTH: Kolchak: The Night Stalker: The Ripper (1974)

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EDITOR’S NOTE: This episode of Kolchak: The Night Stalker was on the CBS Late Movie on June 1 and December 7, 1979; May 29, 1981; October 2, 1987 and January 8, 1988.

Carl Kolchak, a character I can’t even explain how important he was to two-year-old me. My parents even bought me a straw hat and toy camera so that I could hunt down the monsters in my small Western Pennsylvania hometown. I may never have found any, but I discovered a love for the supernatural that has lasted my entire life. Kolchak, a Las Vegas reporter with a penchant for getting into trouble, was a hero to me. His relentless pursuit of the truth, even when it led him into danger, was inspiring. And his unorthodox methods, like pretending to be the commissioner, stealing a car, and placing several people under citizen’s arrest, were always entertaining.

The character started in Jeff Rice’s unpublished novel The Kolchak Papers — which told the story of the Las Vegas reporter discovering real-life vampire Janos Skorzeny — which was optioned as a movie by ABC in 1972. The Night Stalker is even today one of the best TV movies ever filmed with a dream team of director John Llewellyn Moxey, writer Richard Matheson, producer Dan Curtis and star Darren McGavin.On its first airing, it had a 33.2 rating and a 54 share, which means that 33% of possible viewers were watching it, and 54% of all TVs turned on were tuned to ABC. Those are the kinds of numbers that we will never see again outside of the Superbowl, and perhaps not even then.

A year later, Curtis directed and wrote The Night Strangler, which was written by Matheson. This time, Kolchak had been run out of Vegas and was working in Seattle when he ran into a serial killer who had stayed alive for nearly a hundred years thanks to the blood of his victims. The movie also did well in the ratings, so well that instead of a third movie in which Kolchak would investigate android duplicates—The Night Killers—ABC ordered a weekly series.

The series cannot live up to the movies, but there are some great episodes.

The show aired in the worst time slot, Friday nights at 10 p.m., and then moved to 8 p.m. Before the last four reruns aired on Saturday at 8 p.m., McGavin worked as an executive producer with no credit or pay to try and keep the show’s quality, which exhausted him. He hated that each week there was a new monster, and finally fed up, he asked for his release with two episodes unfilmed. Despite the challenging time slot, the show developed a dedicated fan base who would stay up late or rearrange their schedules to watch it.

For several years, that was it. No more Kolchak.

Then, on May 25, 1979, The CBS Late Movie resurrected Kolchak!

Sure, they started with episode four, but it was back. And then it was gone! The ratings were so strong that CBS decided to save it until the fall. The series played in 1979, 1981 and from 1987 to 1988, missing only four episodes.

That’s because ABC packaged “Demon In Lace” and “Legacy of Terror” as The Demon and the Mummy and “Firefall” and “The Energy Eater” as Crackle of Death. Until 1990, these episodes were kept from the original rotation. They made their return to the series when SciFi aired the show.

Now, let’s journey back to 11:30 p.m., when the rest of America was asleep or about to fall asleep watching Carson and getting into “The Ripper.”

Directed by Allen Baron (who also made the noir classic Blast of Silence) and written by Rudolph Borchert, the story begins with an exotic dancer (Denise Dillaway, The Cheerleaders) being attacked by a man in a cape with a sword cane who is somehow strong enough to throw human beings through the air.

We cut from this to a scene that will become familiar to show fans: Carl’s boss, Tony Vincenzo (Simon Oakland), is now with him in Chicago, screaming at him yet again for the reporter’s latest screw-up. This time, he pretended to be the commissioner, stole a car and placed several people under citizen’s arrest as he was looking into a robbery. As punishment, Carl must write an advice column as Miss Emily.

That’s not where our reporter friend wants to be. His police scanner alerts him to another attack by the man people are calling The Ripper. There, Carl watches the man shrug off several point-blank gunshots, a four-story leap off a building and fighting multiple police officers. Carl would be fired if it wasn’t for the fact that his fellow reporter Updyke (Jack Grinnage) got sick when he even heard about the crimes.

At a press conference, Captain Warren (Ken Lynch) refuses to answer any of Kolchak’s questions but does reveal that The Ripper has sent a letter to another reporter, Jane Plumm (Beatrice Colen). She and Carl compare their research, and he learns that the letter says, “And now a pretty girl will die, so Jack can have his kidney pie.” As he digs deeper into the case, he discovers that there have been murders like this all over the world for decades.

Another crime, another poem — “Jack is resting. Be reborn. To finish up on Wednesday morn.” — and Carl learns something else the police didn’t. A couple hit a man with their car who just walked away. Kolchak saves a scrap of fabric from the accident. Jane is taking things even further, meeting men who claim to be The Ripper.

The cops want Carl out of the way, but The Ripper attacks the squad car he’s in the back of, and even though he’s caught after being stunned by an electric fence, the serial killer tears a jail cell door off its hinges and escapes. Carl figures out that he’s in a house in Wilton Park. There, he finds Jane’s corpse and barely survives when The Ripper attacks him. Luckily, Carl thought ahead and brought electrical gear to disintegrate the killer. Unfortunately, it also burns the Musnter’s house on the Universal backlot he’s been hiding in down to the ground, destroying all the evidence.

Carl closes, ruminating over how he got here all over again, saying, “And here’s the postscript: when they drained that pond, they found nothing – nothing, but some old clothes. For some reason, the police suddenly decided they wanted those and my head. I don’t know how Vincenzo will handle the charges of arson and malicious mischief lodged against me by Captain Warren, but that fire was a big one – a six-alarmer. A blast furnace couldn’t have done a better job: everything gone. The house. My story. The evidence. Like they say: ashes to ashes. One thing survived the inferno, however. There’s enough of it left to read the maker: “Peel’s Footwear, London, Southwest 1.” They’re still there, of course, but they don’t make this style shoe anymore. It was discontinued over seventy years ago. Seventy. Years. Ago.”

Realizing that no one will believe a word he’s written, he pulls the paper from his typewriter and throws it in the trash.

“The Ripper” is a decent first episode that introduces Carl to anyone who hasn’t seen the first two movies and the show’s theme. I’m excited to revisit these, as they are some of my fondest childhood memories.