You’d think given all the promises ‘Bubba Ho-tep’ makes based on it’s premise alone, that this would be an out and out high ranking big winner for me in terms of it being a film i’d enjoy.

Indeed Bruce Campbell Starring in a Don Coscarelli movie as either a senile Elvis impersonator who thinks he’s the king OR the genuine King of Rock and Roll who one day in the 70s swapped places with a near identical looking Elvis impersonator to escape fame and fortune. Who teams up with a black man claiming to be John F. Kennedy, to fight an ancient egyptian king who’s returned from the dead to feast on the last dregs of life energy to be found around a nursing home. SOUNDS like it could be one of the greatest movies ever committed to celluloid.

But unfortunately, by the time the credits rolled on this thing, all I was really left wondering was ‘That was it?’

I think the biggest problem I have with the movie is that it really fails to find it’s voice and tone in terms of what it wants to be. The trailers would have you believe that this is basically just some kind of goofy horror comedy with Old Elvis and JFK fighting mummies. But the actual film is unevenly paced and frequently shifts between ‘Army of Darkness’ style slapstick comedy and weirdness contrasting with elongated monologues that vary from super long scenes about Elvis’s ‘Growth on his pecker’ (im not kidding most of the first act is basically just Elvis, in bed, watching people zip in and out of room, talking about his penis and really generic points about his family members) Alongside VERY serious and poigniant sequences dealing with elderly abuse, being forgotten, life, death, mortality and legacy.

This wouldnt strictly be a problem if the film transitioned between these various shades carefully and thoughtfully. But it doesnt. We can have an elongated monologue about Elvis wondering about how he’ll be remembered and thinking about his friends in the nursing home who’ve passed on and whether they’ll be remembered. which will then hard cut to an elongated slapstick scene of Elvis fighting giant bugs. Its SO tonally weird.

The tonal inconsistencies absolutely effect the pacing, with the first act largely feeling like a SERIOUSLY painful crawl through monologues and bad comedy, with very little established, the 2nd act spends its first half meandering before it finally gets into a groove in the 2nd half and the 3rd act which *just* about managed to live up to the premise it establishes in the opening moments of the first act.

Im not kidding when I say (in my opinion) you could cut the opening act down by about 25 minutes and you really wouldnt lose a shread of the main plot of this thing. The character structuring is fine enough, its a basic hero arc, nothing really special and I *can* just about understand/believe that the reason these characters have SUCH sluggish and minimal growth is to emphisize the totally hopeless rut they’re trapped in IN a nursing home environment. But that doesnt really help make it a decent viewing experience for the audience unfortunately.

The humour, for me at least? bombed HARD. I had one laugh out loud moment which came in the 3rd act. otherwise this is just bad comedy, awkward Bruce Campbell™ physical comedy and very little else. the more poigniant moments are more interesting, but they undercut those scenes frequently and it just comes across as really half hearted and non comittal. Which is a real shame.

Directions pretty okay. It’s probably the Bruce connection, but I did spend a seriously large chunk of this movie thinking ‘Y’know, this would have been so much better directed by Sam Raimi’ Because, the more serious drama driven sequences largely feel disorienting and flat under Coscarelli’s guidence here, and the more action intense fight sequences come across as a Raimi tribute act, and as such I felt like this really lacked a sense of identity. Having seen a decent chunk of Coscarellis work, I appreciate that post ‘Phantasm 3’ things have taken a bit a dip quality wise. But here, while its definitely stylish. it’s not a style I was particularly happy with.

The cine also struggled to really ‘do it’ for me, the films main colour tone is a kind of sickly orange and the print I saw (Scream Factories Bluray release) looked washed out and lacked any kind of significant detail, compositions and sequencing is fairly basic. theres some really nice moments where they experiment with wipes and quick cuts (usually in flashback sequences) but that kind of experimentation is seriously few and far between. Given this man gave us the ‘Phatasm’ franchise, one of the most experimental and creative mainstream horror franchises to come out of the 70s and 80s. The fact that this is just…SO generic for a horror film in terms of composition, scene structuring, the edit, lighting and colour choices, is ASTOUNDING to me. Im not saying there wasnt any effort, because clealry the film looks fine by contemporary horror movie standards. but thats ALL it is, and given the calibre of the cast and crew involved in this, I absolutely expected better.

Bruce Campbell is really good fun as an elderly Elvis here, he basically brings his ‘Bruce Campbell™’ schtick to proceedings and does a fine enough job, Id really love to see him try the character again in a more consistent production ebcause I think, given the chance to NOT spend 2/3rds of the movie talking about his penis or complaining about the quality of the nursing home food, he could really have a solid character on his hands.

Ossie Davis plays John with a sincerity, warmth and believability that I personally quite got on with. In fact, thats the one thing I cant really complain about with this film, the characters are pretty interesting, well performed and spoken and actually HAVE character…it’s just a shame THIS is the movie they appeared in.

And as for the soundtrack, its easily the best thing about this film. and even saying that, it isnt one i’d actively choose to listen to.

Ultimately; this films caught between a rock and a hard place. Had this been a multi part TV series, they could have maybe worked on the ‘Serious/Comedy’ balance and smoothed things out to achieve a nicer balance and transition. had it been a short film, it could have been an entertaining, tightly packed clobber fest. As it stands as a 90 minute movie, its too short to really let the thing breath and give the characters the space they need to really define themselves, but its too long for the jokes bandwidth in this format, and as such my patience and wellwishes for this thing ran well and truely out before we even hit the midway point.

I could totally see how someone COULD like this, but…it really just wasnt for me. A fantastic pitch (and i’d watch this as a short or a series in a heartbeat) just poorly structured, paced and managed. Not one i’ll be returning to for a while.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/bubba-ho-tep/

A WILD time in EVERY sense of the word. 1989’s ‘Dr. Caligari’ is quite literally everything I could want in a movie and more. What started as an initial attempt at writing a ‘Nightdreams’ sequel quite quickly evolved into a softer and MUCH more melodramatic beast thats as captivating as it is absolutley barmy.

The whole film seems to be some kind of a comment on the pharmacutical industry and mental illness at large. But honestly, the whole thing is just such a thrill of a script, as we follow a desperate husband trying to find a cure for his unstoppably horny wife who ultmatley ends up committing her to the care of ‘Dr. Caligari’ the great grandaughter of the original ‘Caligari’ who it transpires is running an asylum with alterior motives. She’s using the inmates as guinea pigs for her sick and twisted brain experiments.

When I Say that this is everything I could want in a movie and more, I really cant understate that and this is going to be a really short review as a result. The scripts breakneck paced, absolutely all over the place narrativley, but due to the nature of the films subject that fits PERFECTLY, tonally its mad as a box of frogs with demented dialogue thats hamtastic, melodramatic and infinitely quotable. The closest I can describe this film to someone who hasnt seen it is it feels like you’ve been sex starved for a month and then given a concussion and made to watch a porn parody. Its insane. and clocking in at a BEAUTIFUL 78(ish) minutes. I feel my only criticism (that it maybe could have given us just a *tiny* bit more context as to WHAT exactly is going on. Is a futile ask and absolutley against the POINT of this thing. I loved it.

The direction is perfect, with Sayadian bringing that ‘Nightdreams’ surrealist quality and combining it with a heavy German expressionist influence by way of the Pop art movement. almost all of the set spaces are entirely shot within a black void, and almost every aspect of the production is razor focussed on delivering probably one of the clearest cinematic visions i’ve seen in a GOOD while.

Direction of the cast too is absolutely pin point accurate. I FULLY believe that Sayadian got EXACTLY what he wanted from the cast with not ONE concession to his artistic vision. it’s lively, manic, maddening and hyper animated. Back when I used to make ACTUAL movies myself. THIS. was the style and vision I aspired to make. Its just such a delight to sit through.

The cine…my god. the cine. colourful, perfectly framed, totally open to compositional experimentation. a film that challenges methodology and works an act that I can only describe as ‘Movement recycling’ taking the expressionist movement and breathing new life into it with a late 80s aesthetic. it’s gorgeous, probably one of the nicest looking films i’ve seen in a GOOD long time. I had an absolute blast with this thing.

The performances are astounding. as mentioned this is a film that trades in melodrama and campy massively over the top performances are the flavour of the day in this thing from second 1 right up to end credits. THIS. is dedication to the cause on a level I seldom see in cinema, and absolutley everyone involved in this production should be deeply proud of the performances they gave here. as frankly they’re blinking well baffling and brilliant in equal measure, and bloody good fun to boot!

The soundtracks unique jazzy and electronic. It fits the tone of the film perfectly and I really enjoyed the vibe it helped set for the production. I really hope it gets a physical release of its own someday.

All in all, If you havent guessed by now, I REALLY liked this thing. Its art house cult cinema at it’s finest, rarely if ever feeling seedy and genuinely pushing the barriers of taste and creative decency. If you havent seen this film, you need to change that ASAP. Because…I can honestly say, theres nothing quite like it out there. a cinematic revelation and im REALLY hoping the recent 4k rerelease helps reignite interest in Stephen and Jerrys Oeuvre.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/dr-caligari/

Another of Columbias higher budget ‘Creature Features’ collaborating with Ray Harryhausen. And I feel that this is arguably one of the strongest outputs of this collborative period.

A simple enough plot involving astronauts returning from a mission to Venus who end up crashing back on Earth in Sicily carrying SERIOUSLY dangerous cargo, an egg containing a beast of enourmous strengh (and size!) The egg is stolen by a local boy who witnessed the crash and is taken to a local anthropologist who begins studying the creature, until it gets too large and aggressive to hold captive leading to an all out battle between the beast and the army!

Clocking in at just over an hour and 20, the script is light on it’s feet, nippy and decently paced out. Tonally it’s campy goodness, and the three acts are evenly spaced out and decently transitions too and from. With some really solid dialogue to boot. This is a damn fine script that has a LOT of action and thrilling dangers. it’s a fun ride thats seldom dull and held me right the way through to end credits.

The direction too is rock solid, theres maybe a slight overealiance on back projection and stock footage for my taste, but for the most part it’s very effective. With MORE than decent cine to back it up, this is a tight and again decently paced edit that uses a great variety of mixed shot types and B-roll to build something truely lovely.

That of course isnt even mentioning Harryhausens work, which here is absolutely phenominal and up there with some of his best efforts in stop motion. The beast creature in particular is astounding for the time with incredibly naturalistic movements AND the fact it engages with on set props. This really is incredible for the age it was made in and STILL astounds me to this day.

The performances are lively, animate and the cast utilise set space well in order to deliver a more than enjoyable time. they only help ampliphy the action of the script and really sell you on the idea that this beast is a real threat. I thought they were fantastic honstly.

Even the scores unique sounding and really adds monsterous weight to proceeding. A LOT of films from this time had fairly stocky scores, but this thing tries something different with the existing formula and I feel it really surpasses expectations.

All in all? If your gonna show someone just HOW GOOD a western creature feature can be? This would be a DAMN fine contender in my opinion for that title. highly recommended.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/20-million-miles-to-earth/

Columbia really were on a roll in the 50’s when it came to creating some of the best ‘Creature Features’ of that decade. And when paired in a solid working relationship with stop motion maestro Ray Harryhausen. Their films really did go from strengh to strengh.

‘It Came From Beneath The Sea’ may not be the absolute ‘peak’ of the Columbia/Harryhausen pairing, but I still thought it was a pretty fun ride. As we follow members of the army/navy and scientists in trying to hunt down a mysterious Cephalopod thats been attacking ships in the Atlantic.

The script is kind of so-so on this one, there isnt really a tremendous amount that happens until about halfway through the 2nd act when they throw caution to the wind and just decide to let the giant squid attack stuff more often. Up until that point all we get to see is an (admittedly very well animated) set of tenticles rise up from and crash into the ocean a few times.

Theres the usual B-movie tropes present here, but it’s nice to see Faith Domergue get a bit more of a proactive and progressive role in proceedings here as Professor Leslie Joyce (Even if they do at times revert her to the stereotypical ‘screaming woman/eye candy’ role when the script needs to buy 5 minutes or so.

The tone and pace is really solid for this kind of movie and while it IS a little flabby in places (particularly around the end of the 1st act and start of the 2nd) Id really struggle with being able to cut this thing down to a faster/stronger production AND keep it feature length. clocking in at 79 minutes, it somehow feels longer. which is a bit unfortunate.

The direction is solid enough for movies of this type, it honestly feels like someone took that era of poverty row film making and actually put some money behind it. I think this is a fabulous example of the genre to introduce people because it has that veneer of professionalism about it, without losing the charm that those B-movies have. Direction of the cast is tight too with a clearly tight relationship between the cast and crew allowing the cast to really explore their scenes and the crew to experiment in bringing the best out of the crews stage movements.

The cine too is sublime, I watched the colour version for this outing, which does lose a bit of the moodier moments. But for the black and white print at least, im surprised they’ve managed to make this film look as interesting as they have, a lot of the close quarter set spaces really lend themselves to the moodier low light constructions and it’s nice to see them play with shadows to help create a sense of unease. If I had to have a preference though, I think i’d go colour all the way.

Not only were the colour versions approved by Harryhausen, but I think, while underplaying the lighting choices, that loss is easily outweighed by the vibrance and engagement it pays back when we open things out to our location based and airy open set based sequences. they’re rich, colourful and really help take the film to the next level for me.

Throw in some fab melodramatic and campy performances from the cast and your bog standard – all orchestral scoring for movies of this ilk, and I think theres a lot to love with this movie. I dont necessarily think it would be my ‘go to’ as a way to immediatley introduce someone to the ‘Creature feature’ subgenre (I still think maybe the ‘Godzilla’ movies or something like ‘Earth vs the Flying Saucers’ or ‘The Giant Claw’ would do a better job of giving someone a ‘feel’ for what to expect. But this would absolutley be the 2nd film i’d show them as an introduction! and it’s one I can definitely recommend!

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/it-came-from-beneath-the-sea/

Having recently picked up 101 films fantastic bluray set of Bob Clarks Horror offerings, I literally had no idea what I was getting myself into when I checked out ‘Deathdream’, the film he made immediately before ‘Black Christmas’ and whats here is a definite jump in quality over ‘Children Shouldn’t Play With Dead Things’ in terms of scripting and vibe. but it’s a film that isnt without its faults.

The plot revolves around a family who’s son is fighting in Vietnam, when news reaches them that their sons been killed in action, their grief is immeasurable. However, shortly after news of his death reaches them. the son (Andy) miraculously turns up at his parents doorstep! But while physically he’s there, mentally he could not be further gone. And as the film progresses we begin to realise that whoever or whatever is occupying Andys old room, is most definitely NOT Andy.

The first thing that hit me with this movie is just how oppressive and bleak the tone and vibe is. everything is very heavily in ‘pressure cooker’ mode for most of the runtime, and that feeling of distinct discomfort and just…broad oddness is honestly fantastically captivating. In the same way Andrzej Żuławski’s ‘Possession’ or Matthew Holness’ ‘Possum’ deliberately create an environment within their films aimed at totally alienating the viewer on purpose to help better sell the unsettling narratives they’ve created. ‘Deathdream’ manages to be thoroughly unpleasent in it’s ambience but deeply captivating at the same time.

The Scripts really solidly crafted, with a clean and clear 3 act structure thats evenly paced and doesnt give up it’s hand too early in telling you exactly whats going on. Its a psychodrama with supernatural horror elements and, to my mind at least is a solid symbolic piece on PTSD and its effects on soldiers returning from Nam. it’s maybe a little heavy handed in it’s execution, but it paces out little crumbs of information at periodic intervals to create something altogether tonally and narratively interesting.

We have some fantastically written characters, and the scripts decision to introduce us to these people as the ‘all american’ nuclear family style trope, only to see them all slowly turn on each other, lose their minds and break apart over their processing of ‘loss’ (in every sense of the word) I thought was fantasitcally handled and was made all the more impressive by the scriptwriters decision to play things very nuanced in the first instance, before flipping the switch into full melodrama by the third act. it really is some wonderful character writing and the development we see across the runtime is a perfect example of how to develop characters in a modestly paced fashon.

My only criticism in fact is that this sometimes does get a little *too* slow for it’s own good. a well steeped atmospheric picture is one thing, but this does sag a little in the middle while the family are still trying to get a read on what exactly is going on with Andy. It never quite goes slow enough to make me lose interest. But it did get dangerously close in places.

The cine and direction are polished, refined and it’s clear Bob’s honed his skills since his last horror film. This looks and feels a lot tighter in terms of it’s execution. and in particular, the way he utilises lighting has seen an absolute improvement over his last offering which was at times a little overly murky. Here, it’s grainy, it’s dark, but it never quite gets to the point where you struggle to see whats going on. Theres a clear stylized vision on hand, and I found it fascinating to see the early signs of stylised shot compositions and colour usage that will really come into their own when ‘Black Christmas’ debuts later this same year.

In short; visually, it’s maybe a little too brown in colouring for my taste, but this is clearly an offering from a director whos now well underway as a creator and is beginning to work beyond standard functionality. it’s a great offering.

Performance wise, John Marley is ASTOUNDING as Andys dad Charles. Introduced as a loving family man, across the runtime we see the cracks in this familys foundations raise their heads and as Andys return begins to trawl up more and more questions and Charles begins to put together the pieces of this puzzle. we see him breakdown, and John really is utterly astounding in showing the level of devestation and grief that comes with the loss of a family member.

Inversely Lynn Carlin also astounds as Andy’s mum Christine. She shows the other side of grief. the side that basically puts a wall up and pretends it isnt happening. and again, its a master class of a performance because we see this woman slowly realise that their son is doing horrific things, but because of how protective she is of Andy, she cant bring herself to accept it, ultimately also leading to breakdown but in a totally contrasting way to John Marleys performance, and the pair play off each other phenominally.

That is of course not to play down Richard Backus as Andy, who gives a genuinely sinister and unpleasent performance that, while I wouldnt go as far as to say was ‘one of the greats’ almost certainly lent to that sense of unease. The fact that we never *quite* get a full clock on him as a character really helped only further push what performance he DID leave here further into fantastic terratory.

This also marks the start of one of Bob Clarks signature styles as a director, in the use of absence of sound or scoring to help punctuate sequences. There are tons of moments dotted across this where, in other films, they’d use scoring to try and win the audience over. But here, all we hear is the diagetic sounds. the wind outside, the creak of a rocking chair, the sound of cars driving outside. it’s subtle, but goes a long way to helping set that isolated uneasy tone. And while I think it gets used to it’s fullest potential in ‘Black Christmas’ it absolutely has some fantastic moments here.

All in all? I really enjoyed this one and could highly recommend it! It’s a touch on the slow side (even clocking in at 87 minutes) but it’s just a really well crafted and oppressive horror movie that I feel would pair up really well with something like Norman J Warrens ‘Prey’ or Matthew Holness’ “Possum” It’s not Clarks best, but its a DAMN good effort.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/deathdream/

A prequel to ‘How the Grinch Stole Christmas’ made 11 years AFTER that film and despite being known as ‘Halloween is Grinch Night’ there isn’t a single mention of Halloween anywhere in this thing.

Instead we have the story of a young boy named Ucheria who, while on a trip to the bathroom during a sour sweet smelling storm ends up being blown directly into the path of The Grinch! Who’s heading down to Whoville while the storm rages with a ‘Paraphinalia wagon’ to unleash Untold horrors on Whoville. (Apparently he can only do this on storm days)

Honestly? It’s kind of middling. I don’t think it’s objectively bad, and it has that much loved Dr. Seuss style well and truly in tact in terms of visuals ans art direction.

But it’s just kind of a ‘nothing’ story. The Grinch isn’t particularly grumpy here, in fact he’s delighted for the most part, there’s a lot of repetition, the pacings kind of on the slow side…it feels like a book that shouldn’t have been adapted to TV…and that’s because it WAS a book originally that ended up being adapted for ABC.

It’s not interesting enough as a plot to really hold my attention and when the credits rolled I legitimately was like ‘Well…that was 30 minutes’. If it disappeared tomorrow I don’t think I’d be that bothered.

The performances are okay enough, not as good as the first film, they don’t really animate their voices all that much, it sounds ‘off brand’ to me. I think Karloffs absence hits this thing quite hard.

As does the lack of a *spark* behind the soundtrack. It sounds like ‘Grinch who stole christmas’ and that’s the problem, it sounds like a sound alike. Like a score TRYING to capture the success of the original. And as such it all comes across as ‘samey’ and uninspired.

I was surprised that this thing even existed quite honestly, but having seen it, I don’t think I’ve missed out on anything over the years. We have a time killer of a script married up to some colourful and solid cine and direction. But this thing feels wholley unoriginal. It’s nothing more than a vibrant Yawn.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/halloween-is-grinch-night/

I’ve had a soft spot for ‘Monsters Crash the Pajama Party’ ever since I first heard about the film way back in 2009 when I caught James Rolfe discussing it as part of his ‘Monster Madness’ series. This was the first film I ever imported from another country because it’s release from Something Weird Video was something really quite next level. a smogesboard of clips, extracts and hidden gems scattered across half a dozen ‘clickable’ pages all hidden as easter eggs. The combined sum offering a MORE than in depth exploration of the old ‘Spook Shows’ which ran from the late 1920’s through to the late 60s.

This short film is an element of the spook show experience and would have mainly been used to give the performers time behind the scenes to change costumes, prepare props or just generally set up their next live act. It was also designed to help set the tone and vibe for whatever act was coming next.

This is a short but sweet horror comedy piece about some sorority girls spending a night in a *supposedly* haunted house that was formerly home to a mad doctor who used to kidnap teenagers and turn them into animals…Only, it transpires that there actually IS a mad doctor in the basement who HAS turned a teen into a giant Ape and he’s looking to kidnap the girls to continue his experiments. Scooby Doo level hilarity ensues.

And…This absolutely isnt a particularly well made film. Cheap and cheerful is probably the best way I can describe it, the scripts super basic. it’s all melodramatic padding all the way through because the main plot of the film is basically “girls creep around a haunted house while being slowly picked off and taken to a lab by the Ape”. As such all the dialoue is fluff pieces just designed to help set the mood and tone, but nothing thats ACTUALLY said has ANY bearing on the plot.

It’s basically all here just to build to a moment in the closing minutes of the film where, had you been watching this in a theater. The mad doctor would send the Ape out into the audience to cause trouble and kidnap a planted ‘stooge’ who’d then get dragged out of the theater and *seemingly* into the movie. Thats it. Thats the whole point of the film. it’s a build up to a physical happening, and its designed to be filler for the live acts. It’s not ‘The Godfather.’

Directions basic, but functional, it does have a bit of a style about it and pretty much all the elements work together about as well as they could do. Cast directions almost non existent. I believe the director may have told the cast what he wanted, but I dont think it was much more nuanced than ‘Your a mad doctor, be crazy and over the top’ What im saying is, I dont think the director had nuanced conversations about actor placement, prop usage and motivations.

The cine is actually pretty impressive for a low/no budget feature, they’ve dressed the set spaces effectively given their budget and everything is dusty and cobweb ridden, as such they use that musty/dusty quality to their favour by keeping things low lit, moody and as such it gives the film a bit of a smokey quality. they also surprisingly use coloured lighting gels. Im certain the blue lighting used is only to show that it’s nighttime outside and that no more thought was put to it beyond that. But because it absolutely DOESNT look like that, it actually gives the film a bit of a faux arty quality which is pretty decent.

Oranges, Blues and Pinks are the flavour of the day, the whole thing doesnt look amazing. but for low budget cinema, its not terrible.

The performances are hamtastic. this is a big goofy dumb 30 minute schlocky comedy horror movie. and barring our sorority girls and their boyfriends who are considered ‘the foil’ here, the mad doctor, his henchmen and the ape are all full on scene chewing, melodramatic ham machines. they are SO over the top its almost overwhelming and I absolutely loved it when they were on screen. Camp to the nth degree, I found them SO watchable.

The soundtracks weird too, it’s plinky plonky early synth sounds, it doesnt suit the film at all, but weirdly I find it kind of charming. and absolutely a throwback to a much more experimental era.

All in all, this really isnt a great movie. I dont expect anyone to stand up and bat for this thing. But I personally thought it was just big goofy campy fun and a fine enough way to kill 30 minutes. I’d have loved to have seen it played out, as intended, as part of a bigger live production. But even isolated, I thought it was charming and charismatic despite how short it was. If you get 30 minutes and want a kooky, spooky campy 60’s spooky time. Check this one out. its…SO weird.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/monsters-crash-the-pajama-party/

I dont know if I just wasnt in the right headspace for this movie or what, but I just…didnt really get anything out of it. The bulk of the film is around a group rehersing a play for some kind of grand opening, theres a thriller element that comes in late at the end. The films top heavy on Oral and the sex scenes dont really do anything out of the ordinary on the direction or cine standfront. I didnt need to see Ron Jeremy have sex with a blow up doll, while commenting on the aesthetics of the blow up doll.

All in all, This was just a fairly standard erotic flick to me. It isnt the worst the 80s had to offer, in fact i’d say it was maybe a little above average for early 80’s adult features. But the direction is kind of flat and textbook, the cine was a little drab and uninspired, there wasnt much cast direction seemingly and other than a couple of zany moments, this film just kind of came across as a bit ‘mid’ to me.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/liquid-aets/

Another film widely to be considered one of ‘Full Moons’ better offerings ‘Head of the Family’ has two things going for it. It’s practical effects, and our core casts performances. Other than that this is, in my opinion I might add, one of the most mysoginistic movies i’ve sat through in a LONG time.

The basic plot seems to revolve around diner owner ‘Lance’, and his ‘bit on the side’, ‘Loretta’. Loretta is married to a big scary biker feller, but has been having a longstanding affair with Lance for a while. When big scary biker man decides he wants to get into racketeering and basically starts trying to threaten the diner for protection money. Lance realises that by getting rid of said biker, he could not only be free of intimidation, but he could also finally go ‘official’ with Loretta.

Fortune smiles on Lance when, one night while out driving with Loretta, the pair happen upon members of the ‘Stackpool’ family. a reclusive and eccentric family who’re known for their shady dealings in the town. The pair see the stackpools usher an unsuspecting pickup into their swamp based aboad, but think nothing of it…that is until the owner of said pickup turns up missing.

It turns out the Stackpools have been experimenting on random townsfolk and the literak ‘Head’ of the family, a chap byt he name of Myron, is about to recieve a visit from Lance with a blackmail laced offer that the Stackpools literally wont be able to refuse.

‘Throwback’ movies have been popular now for a very long time, the idea of trying to recapture the vibe of 70’s or 80’s exploitation cinema is nothing new. But I figured we’d left the kind of writing thats featured here back in the 1960s honestly.

NON of the female characters in this film are written with a shred of dignity. Literally every single one of them is only there seemingly to get naked, have sex, be ridiculed or put on and tormented/tortured, and thats it. Loretta as a character gets a couple of moments to act smarter than the guys in this film, but she always comes unstuck and always winds up worse off for it.

I dont think 10 minutes goes by in this movie without a scene of Loretta or Ernestina Stackpool getting fully naked or having sex. by the time of the end credits I was pretty convinced that i’d seen some backroom 70’s grimey porn flicks with more dignitiy and respect for women than this film shows across it’s entire runtime.

I mean, non of the guys exactly get off lightly either, but at least there are allusions to them getting the upper hand of a situation, of having respect to lose. The women in this film feel almost commodified and it’s deeply upsetting, awkward and just plain weird to sit through. The fact this came out in 1996 blows my mind quite honestly.

Other than that the scripts adrift. We have a basic plot about a love triangle where one of the parties tries to get rid of the other via nefarious means. Honestly though; that all takes a back seat to the softcore sex scenes, random nudity and abuse of women. it comes to something when you could actually chop the main plot of this movie OUT of this movie, and it would still more or less make sense as a work, theres that little ACTUAL plot in this thing.

Pacing is a little slow going, it’s incredibly repetitious and while a 3 act structure is obeyed in principle, you do have to squint to really see it. The dialogue, for what its *trying* to do, isnt half bad. but I feel a bit like the equivilent would be praising a klansman for his creative use of racism. Like, yeh…I guess you CAN be elequent in hate, but thats nothing to be proud of.

The direction, for Full Moon at this time is about the norm. in broad terms its nothing to write home about, a technically competent work that just about does the job, in Full Moon terms. it’s in the upper middle levels of quality, Not quite as good as their peaks (Puppet Master 1-3, Trancers) but by no means a poor offering.

Cine is much the same. We have a very styalised production that uses the cine effectively to really push the practical effects. composition is solid, this is arguably the “peak” of Full Moons creative ability on the cinematography front, the point where the feeling of care within the company was still very much there, right before CGI really became a prominant force and basically drowned the art of cine from the company entirely.

The performances are literally the films only other redeeming quality Blake Adams as Lance plays a quick talking, snake oil salesman southern type fantastically and really sells the sleaziness effectively. I feel bad for Jaqueline Lovell as Loretta here for giving her absolute best to a performance for a character that was written with only disdane in mind. She honestly deserved better because the one or two times she got to shine on the dialogue front, she REALLY knocked it out of the park. and I’d love to see her have a more meatier role in future.

Credit also has to go to J.W Perra as Myron. The big brained mutant with malicious intent is classically devious and helps pull the film up quality wise by quite a bit. He ooozes gross across the runtime, and easily has some of the most memorable parts within this thing. I’d be more than interested in seeing the character pop up again or at least to see J.W try this style of acting again under different circumstances.

The musics by Richard Band…yadda yadda yadda…seen one full moon features movie, you’ve heard his entire repetoir, yadda yadda yadda. Im not a fan.

I’ve been meaning to get around to this film for a good long while and I can only say that I was left with the feeling that while I out and out didnt hate this thing, I sure as hell didnt love it. it does have some elements going for it, and at least this full moon film actually HAS action happening in it (i’ve sat through WAY too many of these that amount to 90 minutes of 2 people in a room talking intercut with 10 minutes of violence at the beginning and end). Not one I’ll be back to in a hurry. I cant recommend this one in good faith.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/head-of-the-family/

Not a whole lot to say on this one honestly, what we have here is a very fond, nostalgic look at the N64 game ‘Goldeneye’ its influence on the world of FPS games and the company behind it ‘Rare’.

I’m quite fond of these more emotive style documentaries and it was nice to hear both from the creators of the game about some of the decisions that went into making it what it was, while having that nice contrast of affectionate memories from people who grew up playing it. While also explaining what happened to ‘rare’ and how the game influenced its creators in their own endeavours

It’s really decently put together, it feels thorough. The only criticism I have really is, clocking in at just shy of an hour and 45 minutes, it’s a bit long. It’s pacy so the time does fly. But I feel 10 minutes could have easily been taken off this thing and it would have been stronger for it.

Otherwise this is a solid and fun doc and as someone who also grew up with ‘Goldeneye’ I found it a charming retrospective.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/goldenera/