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You have to give Bruno Mattei credit for sheer force of will. At a time when most filmmakers retire — he was 76 when making it and died the very same year — he was hitting. the Philippines and making a zombie movie on digital video when the rest of his Italian exploitation filmmaking contemporaries were dead, retired or no longer relevant.

Dr. Sharon Dimao (Yvette Yzon, who was also put through the Mattei ringer in the first film in Mattei’s zombie saga, Island of the Living Dead, as well as The Jail: The Women’s Hell; she’ll return to play this role again in Dustin Ferguson’s Hell of the Screaming Undead) has already survived one zombie attack and spent years recuperating in Buddhist temple, hiding from the bosses that fired her from the Tyler Corporation.

Oh, you didn’t realize that Mattei was going to turn a zombie movie into Aliens? Let me remind you that this is the very same man who turned an Aliens movie into Terminator 2 with Shocking Dark.

Somehow, a member of the company named Paul Barker convinces her to head back to the island, along with a team of mercenaries who get to use Goldberg’s entrance music when they fight the walking undead. Somehow, there are also zombie little people, which thrilled me to no end, along with a plot stolen from Resident Evil and actual footage lifted from Crimson Tide. As if that wasn’t enough, the poster is an exact Xerox of Fulci’s City of the Living Dead.

Sadly, this was Bruno’s last movie. Everyone has to die some time, but if anyone could have lived forever, making scumtastic movies that cashed in on the latest trend, I wish that it could have been Vincent Dawn.

Many people have been credited with saying “Talent borrows, genius steals.”

They were talking about Bruno.

This movie — the sixth film in the series and a prequel — has no right to be as good as it is.

Yet here we are.

It starts with Father Brennan (Ralph Ineson, so great in The Witch) learning that the Catholic Church is planning to bring the Antichrist to our world to encourage people to come back to the church. An older priest — Father Harris (Charles Dance) — tells him all of this, gives him a photo of a baby with the name Scianna and is then killed when a pipe graphically lands in his head and down his spine — this scene seems so much like how Brennan dies in the first movie — as stained glass rains down.

I was already sold.

As Margaret Daino (Nell Tiger Free) arrives from America to study at the Tanz Akademie — err, I mean, to become a nun at the Vizzardeli Orphanage — in the middle of the Days of Lead. As protests swell around her, she meets Cardinal Lawrence (Bill Nighy), who has been in her life since her birth, along with Father Gabriel (Tawfeek Barhom), Sister Silva (Sônia Braga), a strange nun named Anjelica (Ishtar Currie-Wilson) and her roommate and fellow student Olga — err, again, I mean Luz (Maria Caballero).

Margaret and Luz bond, deciding to go to a disco where the inexperienced American girl dances with Paolo (Andrea Arcangeli). As the rooms begins to spin, she passes out and wakes up back at the orphanage.

She soon becomes concerned about a girl named Carlita (Nicole Sorace) who has been confined by the nuns as she is said to have evil thoughts. At one point, Carlita shows Anjelica a drawing that disturbs her so much that she sets herself on fire, jumps off a ledge, hangs herself and falls through a window.

Brennan (yes, the same character played by Patrick Troughton in the original film, even if he’s said to be a Satanist in that movie) and Margaret believe that Carlita has been picked to be the mother of the Antichrist. When she sees Paolo one night, he tells her to look for the mark just seconds before a truck pins him to a wall. When she tries to hold him, Margaret walks away holding half of his body in an astounding moment.

Soon, she learns that she was impregnated by a demonic jackal — unlike the female one in The Omen — and is rushed to an abortion by two Catholic priests, which is as sacrilegious as it gets. Another car slams into them and she emerges from the car and suddenly she becomes Isabelle Adjani from Possession, seemingly now ready to give birth as she writhes in the filthy street.

Cardinal Lawrence watches over the birth of two children, a girl and a boy — the moment state his sex, the Jerry Goldsmith theme takes over — but Margaret is able to stab the priest and nearly kills her male child, but can’t. Luz stabs her and the conspiracy leaves, sending the entire place up in flames, the jackal burning and screaming. Carlita saves her and we see the two living in the mountains, just as Brennan finds them and says that she will be hunted down and that her son is named Damien and that he has been adopted by Robert Thorn and his wife Katherine.

Directed by Arkasha Stevenson, who wrote the script with Tim Smith and Keith Thomas, this film feels like it takes parts of Rosemary’s Baby, Suspiria and the aforementioned Possession while being its own unique film. Stevenson directed the “Butcher’s Block” season of Channel Zero, which is a neglected series that more people need to see. I’m so excited that more people are getting to see her work with this film.

Stevenson understands that the real horror — more and more these days — is that women’s bodies are being taken from them. She told SciFiNow, “Do you remember that scene where Gregory Peck is holding Lee Remick in bed and she says “I think I need you to call me a doctor because I think I’m going crazy.” That is what I remember more than anything. Even as a kid, that terrified me because it first introduced the concept of people dislocating from reality and not knowing what’s real and what’s not real. That scared me as a kid but continues to scare me even now. Especially as a woman. I think a lot of our life is deciphering what’s a threat, and what’s not a threat.”

From the paintings in the orphanage resembling the ones that Bugenhagen finds at Yigael’s Wall to a young Father Spiletto running from the fire, foreshadowing his death in The Omen, this film has something for the fans that love the original but new viewers don’t have the need to see every film in this cycle of movies.

This is such a unique moment, as it’s not just a sequel but a prequel that feels like it adds to the original while being able to have the quality to be judged on its own. I’m still just shocked by it and how much I loved every moment.

Directed by Jimmy Drain, who also appears in this movie and co-wrote it with Robert Bieber and Lewis Leslie, Realm of Shadows is an anthology horror film that boasts appearances by two pretty famous talents in Tony Todd and Vernon Wells, as well as Richard Tyson (Kindgergarten Cop) and Harley Whalen (Ash and Bone).

The connecting story — all horror anthologies need them! — is about a group of priests — Bishop Lucian (Mel Novak) and Brother Charles (Michael S. Rodriguez) — battling a coven of witches led by Nalum (Erika Monet Butters) — there’s even a Ouija board! — over a dagger that was used to stab Jesus in the side. Their battle brings the stories to life, several of which are based on tales that have actually happened.

The stories are:

Mallick’s Dreamlady: A man named Mallick (Drain) is able to pick up his dream girl (Leah Saxon) after help from a bartender (Mike Apple) who may not exist. This story was originally a short film directed by Drain and written by Tim Keller that was made in 2009.

Hike: The same man (Drain) keeps waiting to propose so long than his girlfriend (Morgan Weaver) leaves, which makes him loses his sanity. This is another short that Drain directed and Keller wrote in 20111.

Abashed: Jane and Thomas (Cassie Kelso, Mark Mook) have a bad break-up but when black magic gets involved, it turns out that true love may be the only enemy of evil. This is the short Abashed that was made in 2020.

The Initiation of Professor Kimmer: A new professor named Daniel Kimmer (Drain) is seduced by a student named Starr (Luba Bocian) and could lose his happy world with Jamie (Emily Absher). Starr wants more than just lovemaking. She may want his soul. But perhaps that soul is already owned by Jamie and her coven. This is taken from the 2011 short of the same name, directed by Drain and written by Lewis Leslie.

Cadaver: Peggy (played by Jodi Lynn Thomas, voiced by Ashe Medina) finds one of those witchcraft dancing schools we’ve all seen in movies, this one owned by Beedham (Caustic Scifidelic, who also did the score). It may cost so much more than money.

Meet Michael: Gaylen (Mara Davala) is a five-year-old girl so afraid of monsters that her parents hire an exorcist. This is from the 2017 short of the same name, directed by Brian McCulley and written by Drain.

Finally,Fate Upside Down  has the witches and priests fight it out for the dagger, which brings in Father Dudley (Todd) and his son Robby (Drain). This has animation and werewolves, as well as the characters from the first two stories, plus a last second appearance by Wells soon follows.

Realm of Shadows is a lot better than most streaming anthologies. It seems to have a central idea about love and evil, as well as moments of experimentation, even silent movie elements. It definitely looks way better than its budget would suggest and I’d love to see where Drain takes this in the sequel that is built by the ending.

You can watch this on Tubi.

O.J. Simpson died on April 10 of this year and it made me reflect. This movie asks the viewer to remember where you were when you saw the Bronco being chased by the police. I was in a raucous bar in Beaver, PA which was usually so overwhelming loud and it was super quiet. People suddenly had to realize that they were watching history and one of the first major moments of the 24 hour news cycle. It’s difficult to explain what it was like to live through the years of O.J. being arrested, the trial and what came after to someone who wasn’t alive for it. It was a TV show that we all lived through every night.

In this documentary, we hear from Kato Kaelin, Alan Dershowitz and Christopher Darden — as well as many others — as they talk about what it was like to be in the middle of this trial and the surrounding fervor. Even though we are so many years removed from this time, it still feels so real and like it just happened.

The really interesting part is when one of the people interviewed speaks about how O.J. claimed for years that he was above being black or white and wanted to transcend race, just being known as O.J. Yet when the trial was happening, he quickly embraced his blackness to gather the support of the community. It was also a truly tense time to be in Los Angeles, as after the Rodney King trial and the riots, it felt as if anything could set the whole place on fire.

If you have any interest in this trial and this era, you probably have seen everything there is to see. I mean, we did an entire podcast about the American Crime Story O.J. season. That said, it’s here for you if you need it.

You can watch this on Tubi.

I know nothing about Vanderpump Rules, but just looking at Reddit comments for this made me filled with joy: “People that have not watched all the seasons and all the episodes don’t really know all the layers going on in this scandal. They are looking at just the affair happened. Not that it was going on for a year or more. How Debbie Desperado was preaching at Lala, James, Katie, Oliver, Charlie, us on national television for months.. while she was actually doing Tom at the same time. It was demented.. she really is the most stupid demon.”

Anyways, Vanderpump Rules has been on Bravo for eleven years and I’ve never seen an episode. If you haven’t either, it’s the  first spin-off from The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills and is all about Lisa Vanderpump and the staff of her West Hollywood restaurants SUR (Sexy Unique Restaurant) Restaurant & Lounge — yes, she has restaurant twice in the name — as well as Pump Restaurant and Tom Tom Restaurant & Bar.

According to this documentary, the show was about to be cancelled before cast members Tom Sandoval and Ariana Madix broke up after Madix found out Sandoval had been having an affair with Raquel Leviss, all of which was filmed for the show. On March 7, Leviss filed a temporary restraining order against another member of the cast, Scheana Shay, alleging that she had punched her after learning of the affair. During the show’s reunion, Shay and Leviss had to be kept 100 yards of one other.

Vulture said, “The stakes of this drama feel higher than those of any other reality-TV couple, and these people, whom we’ve followed with hungry, shallow interest, are acting intensely in character.”

Man, these guys had secret Instagram love symbols. What am I missing not watching this? I mean, this would totally cut into my watching of movies no one cares about. It’s good that I can at least watch this and get it all in one place, even if I have to hear TMZ people scream at one another.

You can watch this on Tubi.

It’s yet another TMZ doc on Tubi that I watch and learn all about a celebrity that I had basically no knowledge of. This time, it’s Chris Brown, who Wikipedia reveals is called the King of R&B by some and has even been compared to Michael Jackson.

Brown became the first male artist since 1995 to have his debut be a #1 song — Coolio’s “Gangster’s Paradise” would be the last song to get that debut success — but within a few years, his albums were failures, all due to the fact that he pled guilty to the felony assault of his girlfriend Rihanna.

Brown began dating actress Karrueche Tran and yet Rihanna and Brown released remixes to their singles “Turn Up the Music” and “Birthday Cake” that really made it seem like they were dating. Brown announced that he broke up with Tran and the day after, he released a video “The Real Chris Brown” where he said, “Is there such thing as loving two people? I don’t know if it’s possible, but I feel like that.”  So he started dating Rhianna again, but they broke up a year later and he got back with Tran, who dumped him when another woman gave birth to Brown’s child.

Brown’s life has been filled with controversy, like a fight with Drake in which San Antonio Spur Tony Parker got glass in his eye, a battle with Frank Ocean over a parking spot, a hit and run, a rehab stint and him being kicked out of rehab and having to go to jail. Two years later and he was sued for assault, false imprisonment and battery by his former manager Mike G. Supposedly, Brown took the man who he had hired to fix his image and  locked him in a room where he punched him four times in the face and neck.

Worldwide, he has sold over 217 million records and 94.5 million digital singles, but has had times in his life that he did so many drugs that his security had to check to see if he had overdosed and wasn’t sleeping.

If you want to know more form the TMZ crew, this doc has you covered.

See, I learned something.

You can watch this on Tubi.