Deep Blue Sea 3 (2020) –


The sequel to the 2018 Deep Blue Sea 2 that few remember, which itself was a sequel to the 1999 Deep Blue Sea that many remember as being about genetically engineered killer sharks, is out on disc, and it’s time for everyone to quietly scoff at the silliness of the idea just like they have for the last 20 years. Inevitably people will chortle “It’s never going to be as good as Jaws”, because apparently 1975 was when “scary things in the water” films hit their absolute zenith, never to return. And, yes, if you want to compare it to one of the most perfectly crafted thriller movies ever put on the big screen, then it won’t stand up to it. But that’s because this is a slasher film, a totally different beast (as it were), and it’s playing, and winning, by a very different set of rules.
Continue reading

R.O.T.O.R. (1987)


I remember this film from back when I was a nerdy kid, desperate to rent any sci-fi and horror movie I had never heard of and that the local store only had one copy of in. The cover of the box was amazing, simply staggeringly bold and enticing. It promised adventure, horror and shock, beyond belief. It was intimidatingly cool, so I never got around to renting it and stuck with safer options like Brain Dead and Fortress. Turns out that my adolescent brain may have made the right decisions though, as this is an absolute rust bucket of a film.
Continue reading

Wrestlemaniac (2006)


If the idea of a Lucha Libre luchador taking apart the cast and crew of a low-budget soft-core porn movie, like Michael Myers after a visit to Dr V McMahon, sounds like your idea of fun, then watch this movie. If it doesn’t – which I can fully understand many people will have many reasons for it not to – then don’t watch this film. That’s really about all there is to say about this, as the box sells it as a wrestling-centric slasher flick, and the first 15 minutes make it crystal clear that that’s all you are going to get for the remaining hour of run time. This film, written and directed by Jesse Baget, does not mess around and you’re either in, or it’s utterly indifferent to you.
Continue reading

Vietnam War Stories

Since the fall of Saigon in 1975, American cinema has given us a steady stream of stories based on and around the ten-year conflict that saw America’s first significant military defeat. They’ve ranged from classic examples of New Hollywood with Apocalypse Now, to heartfelt action adventures like Rambo, and attempts at re-fighting the war in Missing In Action.
This list presents five of the best movies about Vietnam that you may not have seen or even heard of, obscured from the public’s conscious but still worth giving your time to. Each takes a different viewpoint, and a different narrative style and each is a singular movie in its own right. None are especially “fun” to watch, but then, as Larry Wayne Chaffin’s helmet in the classic photo said, “War is hell”
Continue reading

Wild Zero (1999)

Rock and Roll and horror movies have always been connected at the swaggering hip. From the ’50s onward they have shared an undying bond of heightened emotions, juvenile daydreaming, cheap production values, the mystique of delinquency, and high tempo drama. So, getting Guitar Wolf, arguably the finest garage rock bands to have come out of the 80’s Tokyo punk scene, and putting them in a zombie movie is a bit of a no-brainer. That the movie is this fast, chaotic, and unwilling to slow down for anyone just makes it even more perfect. That Takeuchi Tetsuro, a prominent music video director, directed this 1999 psychotronic rock-&-roll fable is just the cherry on top of the Molo
Continue reading

Werewolves On Wheels (1971)

When you go looking for a werewolf movie and discover there is one called “Werewolves on wheels”, that pitches itself as a cross between Sons of Anarchy, The Devil’s Rain and Easy Rider, there really is no option but to watch it. And, after sitting through these particular 85 minutes of 1971 low-budget horror, I can happily confirm that it’s the finest weird-west satanic-horror biker-gang lycanthrope road moview I’ve ever seen. Then again, writer and director Michel Levesque doesn’t exactly have much competition in those stakes – which makes it a shame that there are a lot of nice ideas without enough solid execution.
Continue reading

The Last Days of American Crime (2020)


There’s been a lot of hype going around Netflix’s latest action-adventure, The Last Days of American Crime; mostly that it’s a terrible movie and that Netflix should be ashamed of themselves for making it. But, having sat through its 148 minutes run time (138, if you discount the solid 10 minutes of credits), I believe that it’s not that bad a movie. It’s just a bit too long, a bit undercooked, and nihilistic in an unfashionable manner.
Continue reading

Doctor X (1932)

When most people think of a 1930s Hollywood Horror, they think of some drawn-out gothic classic like Dracula, Frankenstein, or The Invisible Man. Well, beyond glitzy stages and novel reworks, filled with mortality-play tales of man’s inner struggle, the 1930s brought us the first works of exploitation cinema by plying its trade to a titillated audience (whilst also ushering in the Hayes Code). Tod Browning’s Freaks shocked audiences by showing disabled people, Erle C. Kenton blended sensuality with cruelty in the Island of Lost Souls, and Michael Curtiz gave us this technicolour body-horror nightmare with Doctor X – a film so ground-breaking and debauched that it got a name check in The Rocky Horror Picture Show!

Continue reading

The Cars That Ate Paris (1974)


Titles can be important when building up expectations in movies, so when something is called “The Cars That Ate Paris”, you know it’s not going to be a run-of-the-mill affair. Released in 1974, and mostly funded by the Australian Government, this slice of Ozploitation was directed by Peter Weir, written by Hal and Jim McElroy, and starred Terry Camilleri. Amazingly, all of them went on to have long careers in the industry, rather than forever being known as “those guys that made that film”. Still, George Miller wrote Made Max and Babe, so making the blackest of satires just seems to be a stepping stone to success in that region.
Continue reading

The Uncanny (1977)

This film got picked for review because my wife asked me to find something with cats in it. If you don’t think random “is there a film about X?” challenges are a valid way to select your viewing then you really haven’t lived – or, you are one of the lucky few who’s suggested viewing algorithm isn’t a stream of safe choice variations on the timeless classic “this film will fill an hour and a half of your life.” True, it took about twenty minutes of searching, and rejecting a million variations on Cat People to find The Uncanny was even a thing; but that’s only five minutes more than going all the way through Netflix to bung on what it first shilled at you when you turned it on.
Continue reading