SCREAMFEST LA: Alone Together (2023)

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Screamfest Horror Film Festival stands as a cornerstone of the horror genre, boasting the largest and longest-running festival of its kind in the United States. You can learn more about this year’s festival by checking out the official site. Alone Together played on Friday, October 13. 

Director Will Kresch, who co-wrote this with A.V. Bach, has put together the tale of Nassdja (DeAnna S. Wright) and her boyfriend Luke (Matthew Kresch). They’re staying at his family cabin during COVID-19 and riots that come from a society unable to deal with the pandemic. The isolation only makes their abusive relationship even more horrible. All of the enforced closeness has led to her having visions while his abuse gets worse with each day.

This is the same cabin where Luke watched his father kill himself and where he’s watching the decline of their relationship as he spies on her phone, even finding all the photos she’s taken of the bruises he’s given her. There’s also a militia man outside the house who may be something more. As the movie goes on, Luke becomes possessed and Nassdja finds an inner power she didn’t know that she had.

The team that made this movie hasn’t made all that many movies, yet this works and will definitely be something to build on in the future. Having two people carry the movie is a big task, but both actors more than live up to that trial. I’m looking for some great things from everyone who made this.

CHILLER THEATER MONTH: Gorgo (1961)

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EDITOR’S NOTE: Gorgo was on Chiller Theater eleven times! The first airing was Saturday, April 17, 1965 at 11:20 p.m. It was part of an all night show on October 30, 1965, then aired on April 29, 1967; February 22, 1969; December 4, 1971; April 13, 1974; June 14, 1975; December 18, 1976; November 28, 1978; December 15, 1979 and September 18, 1982.

A co-production of the United Kingdom, the United States and Ireland — all united to rip off a film from Japan — Gorgo is all about a pearl diving crew taking a little monster to London and being gobsmacked when its mother comes to tear up Big Ben.

Originally, this was going to be set in Japan, then France and even Australia, but the filmmakers decided that — and I’m not making this up — no one cared about Australia.

Director Eugène Lourié already had some kaiju experience, making The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms and The Giant Behemoth.

This film also sets up that perhaps kaiju have been with us since the beginning of time and thought of as monsters, as a Viking relic shows an image of a beast called Ogra the sea spirit.

Monarch Books, who seemed ready to release a book for any giant monster movie*, put out a novel version that had way more sex than the movie. Way more meaning any at all.

Charlton Comics also published 23 issues of a comic book with pencils by Steve Ditko. They also did a three issue sequel miniseries called The Return of Gorgo and Ditko included Gorgo and Konga in a Captain Universe backup story in Web of Spider-Man Annual #6.

You can watch Gorgo on Tubi. The original version and Mystery Science Theater 3000 riff are both available.

*They also released books for Reptilicus and Konga.

SCREAMFEST LA: The Deep Dark (2023)

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Screamfest Horror Film Festival stands as a cornerstone of the horror genre, boasting the largest and longest-running festival of its kind in the United States. You can learn more about this year’s festival by checking out the official site. The Deep Dark played on Tuesday, October 17. 

Coal miners in 1950’s France — led by Roland Neville (Samuel Le Bihan), they are Louis (Thomas Solivérès), Miguel (Diego Martín), Polo (Marc Riso), Santini (Bruno Sanches) and Amir (Amir El Kacem), who has just joined the team and sends all of his money home to Morocco — have to take Professor Berthier (Jean-Hugues Anglade) to the deepest, darkest and most dangerous underground locations to get some samples. They get caught underground and if things can get any worse, they do, because they’ve found the resting place of Mok’Nor Roth, known as the Eater of Souls and a servant of Cthulu.

Director and writer Mathieu Turi said, “The Deep Dark (Gueules Noires) will be a mix of horror and adventure, in the best tradition of H.P. Lovecraft stories, but set in a French reality and a strong social context. It’s going to be a character-driven story, confronting the old and the new generations in an exciting and terrifying quest to the unknown.”

Beyond the terror of being trapped so far down in the mines and being in near darkness, lit only by lamps, this movie also has the practical effects puppetry that creates the beast known as Mok’Nor Roth. This comes in France at the end of November and I think that genre lovers here are going to go crazy when they see this.

THE IMPORTANT CINEMA CLUB’S SUPER SCARY MOVIE CHALLENGE DAY 24: The Devil’s Plaything (1973)

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October 24: A Swedish Horror Film

Monica (Ulrike Butz) and Helga (Marie Forså) are the guests at a huge castle where a will is about to be read. The girls will need to stay there for a year to claim the estate of Baroness Varga, who was burned at the stake for being a vampire hundreds of years ago. They’re joined by folklore scholar Dr. Julia Malenkow (Anke Syring) and her brother Peter (Nico Wolf) crash in the woods nearby. They are descendants of the women who killed Varga, which probably won’t go all that great with the castle’s maid, Wanda (Nadia Henkowa), who conducts nightly lesbian rituals devoted to the fallen blood countess.

Also known as Vampire Ecstasy, this feels like it fits right in with Jess Franco and Jean Rollin’s vampire women. I say that as a compliment. Unlike many of his New York City-shot movies, director and writer Joe Sarno shot this in an actual castle owned by the relatives of producer Christian Nebe.

Other titles include The Curse of the Black Sisters, Plaything of the Devil and Veil of Blood.

You can watch this on Tubi.

VISUAL VENGEANCE ON TUBI: Cannibal World (2004)

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EDITOR’S NOTE: Did you know that Visual Vengeance has a ton of movies on Tubi? It’s true. Check out this Letterboxd list and look for reviews as new movies get added. You can find this movie on Tubi.

If there’s something that all cannibal movies seem to have in common — beyond scenes where white people mistreat the native populace, real animal atrocities and copious levels of gore — it’s the idea that mass media is the root of most of the modern world’s issues. Italian exploitation filmmakers were several decades ahead of the mistrust of what many would call fake news today and their human beings devouring human beings offerings often placed documentary filmmakers or network television reporters as the reason why all of this chaos is taking place. The natives were just fine doing their rituals and eating random folks in the jungle. The white people bring cocaine and their modern perversions into the unspoiled green inferno, ruining everything.

Somehow, 24 years after Cannibal Holocaust, a 73-year-old Bruno Mattei — using his Vincent Dawn alter ego — would find himself in the jungle trying to bring back the sick feeling you get in your stomach when mass media goes to places that they should have known better to avoid.

Grace Forsyte (Helena Wagner in the only role of her career) was once a big deal in the world of television journalism, but the fickle whims of fate have cast her into the pile of the also-rans. She decides to reverse her fortunes by heading into the belly of the beast and capturing Amazon cannibals on video along with another once-famous telejournalist named Bob Manson (Claudio Morales, who was also in Mattei’s A Shudder on the Skin and Orient Escape).

The footage that they send back gets big ratings and makes them both stars again, but the TV news industry runs on blood, so they’re forced to get increasingly violent and horrifying images to continue getting those big numbers.

Look, this movie is also called Cannibal Holocaust: The Beginning and Cannibal Holocaust 2: The Beginning, so Mattei wasn’t even trying to hide what he was trying to do here. It’s a shot on digital video cover version of that film, along with a hilarious subtitle typo (some mouths later instead of some months) and a lot less real animal violence.

This was shot at the same time as In the Land of the Cannibals with much of the same crew.

VISUAL VENGEANCE ON TUBI: Island of the Living Dead (2007)

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EDITOR’S NOTE: Did you know that Visual Vengeance has a ton of movies on Tubi? It’s true. Check out this Letterboxd list and look for reviews as new movies get added. You can find this movie on Tubi.

When the rest of the world makes zombie movies that are either boring or sub-Troma winks at the camera filled with humor that breaks the tension, Bruno Mattei remains single-mindedly devoted to making the kind of undead movies that made me love the genre.

In short, in the sad world we find ourselves in where zombies have become boring, Bruno Mattei alone reminds us that these kinds of movies can remain incredibly fun.

After a team of adventurers loses their gold, they go through a fog bank and end up on an island of the living dead. There, nearly everyone dies as they’re pursued by shambling, blood puking monsters that never stop. Oh yeah, there’s also another higher caste of zombies that act like a cross between the Blind Dead and vampires, hypnotizing unwilling victims into becoming their thralls, even if they have to charm them with flutes!

I’ve come away from Mattei’s late period — he made this movie a year before his death — digital video films with great fondness, particularly for Yvette Yzon, who has taken over for Laura Gemser in his movies, starring in this, Zombies: The Beginning, The Jail: Women’s Hell, A Shudder on the Skin and two Segreti di Donna films for Mattei.

Here, she’s Sharon, not only the final girl but the Lara Croft of this story. The rest of her crew is pretty worthless, except for Snoopy, who gets his name by always wearing a Snoopy t-shirt. This is an astonishing choice for a zombie film and one that I applaud. He’s played by Jim Gaines, who has been in plenty of Mattei films like Robowar, Zombie 4, Strike Commando and even shows up in The One-Armed Executioner.

Want an even better name? The leader of the ship is Captain Kirk (Gaetano Russo, The Killer Reserved Nine Seats and Trhauma, which he wrote)!

Screenwriter Antonio Tentori has been there for the dark night of the soul that aging Italian horror filmmakers must endure, being the scribe for everything from Argento’s Dracula 3D to Fulci’s Cat in the Brain and D’Amato’s Frankenstein 2000.

Only Sharon survives, but it appears that she becomes a zombie. No worry — she comes back perfectly healthy in the sequel, Zombies: The Beginning. Yes, only Mattei would name the second movie — or third, if this is in the same universe as Hell of the Living Dead — with a title like Zombies: The Beginning.

What are we to think of a movie that has not only the Necronomicon but also the De Vermis Mysteriis and the Cask of Amontillado? A film willing to rip off The Fog, Night of the Living Dead, Ghost Ship, Fulci’s eyeball scene in Zombi, the Blind Dead movies and even Mattei’s own Hell of the Living Dead? A movie that outright steals footage from The 13th Warrior, Interview with the Vampire, Deep Rising and House of the Dead?

We are to celebrate it. Thank you, Bruno Mattei, for always making it cheap, gross and upsetting, but never ever boring. The spirit and flame of 1980s Italian horror was kept alive by you longer than anyone.

2023 Scarecrow Psychotronic Challenge Day 24: The Mist (2007)

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24. STOP AND CHOP: The supermarket just became a shop of horrors! Cleanup on aisle 24.

It’s been a depressing last few weeks, so I figured I’d watch a movie and why did I watch this? Seriously, has there ever been a movie that has a bigger downer? Spoilers all over this one, because wow, this movie.

Based on the novella by Stephen King, The Mist has a different ending than the one King wrote. Frank Darabont, who directed and wrote this, is one dark person.

David Drayton (Thomas Jane), his wife Stephanie (Kelly Collins Lintz) and their eight-year-old son Billy (Nathan Gamble) have had their home hit by a major storm. David takes Billy to get supplies and brings along his neighbor Brent Norton (Andre Braugher). As they shop for food, Dan Miller (Jeffrey DeMunn) bursts into the storm claiming that there’s something inside the mist. Managers  Ollie Weeks (Toby Jones) and Bud Brown (Robert Treveiler) locked everyone inside the store as it becomes covered by the foggy cloud.

When the generator breaks down, a bag boy (Chris Owen) tries to go outside and is killed by whatever is out there. This scene points out the issues in town between the educated like David and the locals who have lived there their whole lives like Jim Grondin (William Sadler). They bully the young kid until he’s nearly forced to go outside.

David wants to get everyone to fortify the grocery store but Brent wants to go get help. He refuses to believe that there are creatures outside. He also becomes close with Amanda Dunfrey (Laurie Holden) and Irene Reppler (Frances Sternhagen) as they struggle to deal with the religious Mrs. Carmody (Marcia Gay Harden) who has started to preach and gain followers. She thinks that this is the end of the world which is not easy on anyone, particularly when reptilian creatures invade the store and as everyone fights them off, one of them is burned alive and multiple people die, which only strengthens the Carmody’s influence.

Private Wayne Jessup (Sam Witwer) reveals that the local military was opening new dimensions and these creatures emerged. Carmody and her followers beat and stab him, sending him outside to be killed. This finally makes David realize that they have to leave, just as the demand to sacrifice Amanda and Billy is shouted. Ollie shoots Carmody and the group allows them to leave, but in the confusion multiple people are killed by the monsters.

David, Billy, Amanda, Irene and Dan make it to a car and leave, but no one else is alive. David’s house is destroyed and his wife is long dead. Once they run out of gas, everyone decides to use the bullets in the gun to kill themselves. David is the only one left, having shot his own son, when the military arrives with survivors — including a woman who ran away from the grocery store — and starts to restore order and kill the monsters. David realizes that he killed his son and led everyone else to their death for no reason.

King loved the ending: “The ending is such a jolt—wham! It’s frightening. But people who go to see a horror movie don’t necessarily want to be sent out with a Pollyanna ending.”

There’s a lot of Night of the Living Dead in this movie. While Ben is the hero of that movie, the truth is that Harry had the right plan. You’re just supposed to root for the hero and think that they have it all figured out and will survive. David does survive but at a cost much worse than if he died. He must think about what happened for the rest of his life now. That’s darker than almost any other horror film ever.

UNSUNG HORRORS HORROR GIVES BACK 2023: Minotaur (2006)

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Each October, the Unsung Horrors podcast does a month of themed movies. This year they will once again be setting up a fundraiser to benefit Best Friends, which is working to save the lives of cats and dogs all across America, giving pets second chances and happy homes.

Today’s theme: Tony Todd

Directed by Jonathan English and written by Nick Green and Stephen McDool, Minotaur starts in the time of  King Deucalion (Tony Todd). Each year, eight young adults are taken from the village and dropped into an underground labyrinth to be sacrificed to the Minotaur. Theo (Tom Hardy) is still angry that his beloved Fion was sacrificed. When he learns that she’s still alive, he begs his father, the village chief Cyman (Rutger Hauer), to let him be part of the sacrifices along with Danu (Jonathan Readwin), Morna (Maimie McCoy), Tyro (Lex Shrapnel), Didi (Lucy Brown), Vena (Fiona Maclaine), Ziko (James Bradshaw) and Nan (Claire Murphy).

As they are being killed by the beast in the maze, Deucalion’s sister and lover, Queen Raphaella (Michelle Van Der Water) saves them. She also reveals how the monster came to this world. Her mother committed bestiality to create a living god. As the minotaur became stronger, it started killing, starting with Raphaella and Deucalion’s brother. This murder was based on the village that Theo comes from, which is why they have to send sacrifices every year. She sent word that his lover was still alive so that he would come, as she believed that he was the only one who could kill her monstrous half-brother.

And now, the battle has begun.

Beyond Tony Todd, I watched this because Ingrid Pitt is in it.

You can watch this on Tubi.

CHILLER THEATER MONTH: The Snow Creature (1954)

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EDITOR’S NOTE: The Snow Creature was first on Chiller Theater on Saturday, December 22, 1963 at 11:10 p.m. It also aired on June 12, 1965; February 11, 1967 and April 19, 1969.

Dr. Frank Parrish (Paul Langton) is collecting botanical samples in the Himalayas when the wife of his guide Subra (Teru Shimada) is kidnapped. The guide takes over and forces the entire group to find his wife who he claims has been taken by a Yeti. Parrish and photographer Peter Wells (Leslie Denison) plan on working together to stop Subra but they soon learn that the creature is real.

By the end of the story, Parrish and Wells have succeeded in bringing the Yeti back to what we call civilization, only for it to escape into the sewers and get killed by one of the men hunting it. Way to go, humans.

The Yeti is played by Lock Martin, who also played a Martian in the original Invaders from Mars and Gort in The Day the Earth Stood Still.

Director W. Lee Wilder is the brother of Billy and also made The Omegans, Phantom from Space and Killers from Space. His son Myles wrote the story.

You can watch this on Tubi.