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An error has ocurred. Please try againNorman Bates (actor Anthony Perkins) Psycho (1960)
”The Three Mothers rule the world with sorrow, tears and darkness. Mater Suspiriorum, the Mother of Sighs, and the oldest of the three, lives in Freiburg. Mater Lachrymarum, the Mother of Tears, and the most beautiful of the sisters, holds rule in Rome. Mater Tenebrarum, the Mother of Darkness, who is the youngest and cruelest of the three, controls New York.”
Narrator Inferno (1980)
“He who has wisdom, wonders not of the beast, for nothing in hell lives without Man's consent. Woe unto you that gives the beast form. To contemplate evil, is to ask evil home.”
Colin Childress (actor Jeffrey Combs) Cellar Dweller (1987)
“The people in the cellar need help! Let them out!”
The Dead Pit (1989)
“Woe be unto him who opens one of the seven gateways to Hell, because through that gateway, evil will invade the world.”
Director Lucio Fulci’s The Beyond (1981)
Also includes sewer horror movies.
I created this list because I could not find any suggestions on “basement horror” movies. It is a very interesting type of movie and deserves more attention.
Enjoy.
Reviews
Somewhere Quiet (2023)
Somewhere Very Boring
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
*Plot and ending analyzed*
After twenty minutes of absolutely nothing happening, I was wondering if the movie would improve or not. Well, of course not. I did not read any synopsis so I went in without knowing what the movie was about.
An overtly delicate Asian woman seems to have mental problems. Should we care? There is no reason to at all. The director just plays around with inconsistent images. Did I say it was boring yet?
She has an Anglo boyfriend, and he's also tedious. Then throw in his equally tedious cousin, who likes to play tennis. And they all are found in the family cabin out in the woods.
Yes, very exciting.
Amelia's Children (2023)
Suspiria's Children
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
*Plot and ending analyzed*
Sinister Inheritance
Herencia Siniestra (2023)
It starts out with some mystery, and definitely has some director Dario Argento Suspiria (1977) vibes running through it. Some babies are kidnapped from a woman's house, and we see her eyes turn white.
Then a young man connects with his lost family that is from Portugal. He goes there with his annoying girlfriend, who doesn't think everything is up to par. She has nightmares, hears weird things and talks to a woman whose daughter disappeared when she was dating the father of her boyfriend.
The movie loses its steam entirely when the skinny girlfriend suddenly becomes the super heroine and defeats the much stronger twin brother of her boyfriend. It is unfortunate because I was really enjoying the outlandishness of the movie until that point. Had the writers and director continued with the slow intrigue, it could have been a lot better.
Then the end is the mother, who is young again, with the twin brother, dancing to a ridiculous song. We are led to believe that they are still alive, or something else. It is unclear. So the whole movie seemed pointless.
Almost a waste of time. But just enough interesting things to put it at the high end of average.
Grade: C +
Nocebo (2022)
Placebo
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
*Plot and ending analyzed*
Forty minutes into this stinker and you will be wondering if anything of importance is going to occur. I mean absolutely nothing pertinent to any storyline has thus happened, and the more reasonable of the audience members will probably have long abandoned this empty-headed movie at the onset of fifteen minutes.
A dog with ticks, some mysterious Filipino lady who may be a shamanka (a female shaman), an annoying family, a baby chick (a ridiculous computer animation) that jumps from the mouth of a dying old woman into a young girl's mouth, some straw and bubble cleansing. Not much there that we should care about. Nothing at all. It just kept going. And the nonsense is so bloody ridiculous and silly, not to mention self righteous. At 45 minutes left, nothing has happened yet. And this is a movie that clocks in at one hour and thirty six minutes.
Then with fifteen minutes left, the movie shifts entirely to being a treatise against sweatshop capitalism. Then the ridiculous and sanctimonious ending.
So according to the fatuous writers of the movie, witches are good and everyone else is a selfish louse. Okay.
I don't know why they make lousy movies like this that get such high ratings. Maybe to sell crystals and incense burning kits.
Kaidan zankoku monogatari (1968)
The Blood of the Cursed
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
*Plot and ending analyzed*
Cruel Ghost Legend (1968)
Well, interesting and mysterious things happen when a samurai who is in debt to a blind acupuncturist, decides to kill him to steal a few gold pieces he has. The samurai's wife and son are also involved. She gets killed by the samurai when he thinks he sees the ghost of the blind acupuncturist, and he also gets a piece of his sword jabbed into his neck while fighting the ghost.
The next segment concentrates on the son of the samurai, who has become a despicable rogue, swindler and bandit.
Then it goes to the half brother of the samurai's son, at least I think it does. They are all cursed because of the blind acupuncturist.
The movie isn't greatly profound, but it does hover just barely above average for the most part, and it has some interesting artistry in the shots. The scenes are shot in a nice Japanese style of the era. It does get tiresome at times, especially when the scenes concentrate on a repressed sexuality so much, but it all pulls through to a more than fascinating ending.
Interestingly there are some strange gore scenes of sword cuts, a beheading, cut-off fingers, and grotesque scarring on a face after a woman's hair was pulled out.
Surprisingly the subtitles are actually readable and large, but they are annoyingly translated. They call women "broads" and use some modern language that doesn't fit the period of the time.
An intriguing movie nonetheless.
Grade: B -
La vuelta del Mexicano (1967)
The Return of the Mexican
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
*Plot and ending analyzed*
The Return of the Mexican
La vuelta del Mexicano (1967)
La vuelta del Mexicano (1967) was directed both by Rene Cardona and his son Rene Cardona Jr. Rene Cardona Sr. Was a director in the Golden Age of Mexican cinema. Rene Cardona Sr, who was an in-house Mexican Director, along with his son, did some 1970's Exploitation films that played the world theater circuits. Together they produced, directed and distributed numerous low-budget Exploitation films that weren't very good, but are noted for having burnt out Hollywood actors and exotic themes (Guyana: Crime of the Century (1979), Carlos the Terrorist (1979), Cyclone (1978), The Bermuda Triangle (1978), ¡Tintorera! Tiger Shark (1977)).
It is pretty average and it looks like Rene Cardona and his son Rene Cardona Jr. Also shot Siete Pistolas para Siete cadáveres (1967) using the same sets, actors, and costuming. Either that or they just shot additional scenes and changed the characters' names, etc and released this in European markets as a Spaghetti Western. The movie title is not a typical Mexican Western title.
This is a Mexican Western, but it is completely stylized like an American Western. The towns, the hats, the clothing, all copy the American television and movie Western fashions of the 1960s.
Jorge Rivero plays twins in this movie. Jacinto and Carlos, one of which gets shot. His brother comes back to town to get even with the group that shot his brother.
Jorge Rivero was a Mexican actor who appeared in a few American movies (The Last Hard Men (1976), Rio Lobo (1970), Soldier Blue (1970)). He was a weightlifter and starred in a few "El Santo" movies and plenty of low budget films like Manaos (1979), Pistoleros de la frontera (1967), Manaos (1979) and Evil Eye (1975). El Santo was a masked Mexican wrestler.
In Spanish with no subtitles.
The Desert Rats (1953)
The Rats of the Desert
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
*Plot and ending analyzed*
Well, it starts out good, but then routinely delves into pure British glorification. I don't mind a little boasting, but listening to British blokes going on about how great the English army is can be a tad too much.
Richard Burton is a curmudgeon officer who is put in charge of a bunch of Aussie green horns in Africa.
The Deutsches Afrikakorps is once again made to look like inept idiots, with pre-WW2 helmets, and it makes it seem like they are incapable of guard duties or basic attack strategies. They were actually a highly effective desert army unit.
So don't expect anything other than an Englishman's view on the war in North Africa.
Cuando acecha la maldad (2023)
The Ranch That Dreaded Sundown
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
*Plot and ending analyzed*
When the Evil Stalks
Cuando acecha la maldad (2023)
Another perfect example of a horror movie with an interesting premise and provocative location, ruined by an inept director and incompetent writers. It seems that the director was more interested in getting the ridiculous "gore scenes" started than actually concentrating on a reliable story.
A couple of dimwitted brothers stumble on a neighbor whose son is possessed by a demon, or something. Instead of being frightening, the possessed man is wrapped up in a fat suit and looks inherently ridiculous. He is dripping with soggy, wet grease. Add to the mix the most foul mouth, bad-tempered rancher, who curses his way through some outlandish scenes before getting a hatchet to his skull by his deranged wife, all because of a devil goat. Or some nonsense.
The movie is constantly filled with idiotic scenes, one perfect example is when they haul the possessed man in the back of a truck and he "mysteriously" disappears because the bad-tempered rancher almost ran over a kid on a bicycle and he swerved. Supposedly he fell out, but the three geniuses are too stupid to go look for him. Great writing there.
More nonsense is added in the killer dog scene along with the typical "Spaniards arguing" incessantly scenes. It gets annoying and nearly unwatchable with one hour left to go. They are being chased by a terrible evil, and yet they stop at a convenience store to get an apple flavored ice cream and to think about getting money. The lousy writing really ruins the tension.
Then they add the cliched "demon expert" that knows everything that there is to know about possessions. She also has some nautical instruments that are purportedly demon killing devices, or some other rubbish, since they never actually use them. Useless facts include not using electrical lights around the evil people, or shooting them with bullets. Very profound writing.
There are no likable characters in the movie either, and the acting consists of a lot of yelling and making arrogant demands. It gets tedious, and with thirty minutes left, you wish it would all be over.
The ending was entirely meaningless, you can be assured that one of the dimwitted brothers unleashed the demon because he could not follow instructions. We could see that coming from a mile away. And then the autistic son starts coughing out pieces of flesh, to signify that he ate his grandmother. Okay, whatever.
A thoroughly pointless movie like the recent The Exorcist: Believer (2023). Although this one is more tolerable.
Grade: D -
The Devil Comes at Night (2023)
The Devil Snacks at Night
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
*Plot and ending analyzed*
For a no-budget horror movie, it started out interesting with a sense of claustrophobia and dread. What helped also is that it is filmed at night. The acting is not too bad at this level. Up until about the fifteen minute mark the movie was running at a good solid average grade. Then the writers ruin it all, and it drops to below average at the conclusion.
Here is another example of an interesting horror movie being obliterated by a lousy "twist ending". The director makes a mess of it, a really stupid mess. The demon is portrayed as a powerful and manipulate thing and yet it gets fooled by some shoddy hustler. Yeah right. And then both he and the woman survive the demon cult attack. Terrible writing.
So if you enjoy no-budget horror movies, turn it off when it gets to the fifteen minute mark. Otherwise it will be a supreme disappointment.
Grade: D -
A Noite Amarela (2019)
The Yellow Night Is Dull
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
*Plot and ending analyzed*
The Yellow Night
La noche amarilla (2019)
Insufferable and dull is a perfect way to describe this movie. Some annoying teenagers arrive at some island to stay at a friend's house. The director wastes forty minutes on absolutely nothing. At the beginning they sit around checking their cell phones and take turns at mumbling to each other. It goes nowhere at all.
There is a little bit of atmosphere in the title sequence and in the darkness of the night that they are stuck in. Also in some shots of holes or dreams that the girl experiences. But the tediousness continues.
The writers throw in some rubbish about quantum mechanics and how the grandfather built the house on the island to study strange phenomena. Or some other nonsense. But instead we get more boring teenager behavior such as hanging around a petrol station and turning up the volume of the car stereo to annoy other teenagers. And we are also treated to long stretches of them walking in the darkness.
It gets boring really quick.
The entire movie is overlong, tedious, meaningless, and incoherent.
The Walker (2007)
The Lifeless Walker
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
*Plot and ending analyzed*
Tedious film that portrays insufferably dull, comfortable well-to-do snobs in their opulent surroundings. Woody Harrelson is annoying as an insufferably dull, comfortable well-to-do "walker", who accompanies crones to festivities in Washington, D. C.. There's a murder and he's implicated.
The film is not sure whether it wants to be a comedy, thriller, gay rights exposition or a critique of double-dealings in Washington.
The dialogue is stale, flat and lifeless, it doesn't help that Woody Harrelson speaks in an irritating southern drawl.
By the conclusion, I couldn't make out what I had just seen.
P.I. Private Investigations (1987)
Investigations of the Private - drab and lackluster
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
*Plot and ending analyzed*
Well, what could have been a really decent movie just completely loses all the momentum along the way. It kept getting worse and worse. One thing is the ludicrous writing. It is flimsy and not believable at all.
Some 'rat narc' wants to sell his story to a newspaperman to escape the corrupt cops who are selling cocaine out of the police vaults. The newspaperman's son gets caught in it up to his head by some fortuitous act of coincidence. A psychotic cop, played horribly by Ray Sharkey, tries to kill him numerous times, but fails. It gets tired after the third time.
The newspaperman's son is played by Clayton Rohner, and he is imminently dull. His action consists of moping around like some disinterested buffoon. All of the actors seem to be asleep or lifeless. The direction is drab and wholly lackluster. They should have shot some night scenes and added some thrilling music. It seems like a television movie at times, but without the cohesion.
As it stands, the movie is not very engaging because of the aforementioned reasons, but it does have some scenes or ideas which could have been interesting if directed by a capable director.
You want to at least give the movie a low average rating, but then you analyze the entirety and it really does not hold up to scrutiny. The cops are so dumb that it ruins the whole thing.
In the end, I think it is suitably fair to give this movie a low rating.
Grade: D +
Hu hao shuang xing (1976)
Fists of the Tiger & Crane Style
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
*Plot and ending analyzed*
The Savage Killers (1976)
For a kung fu movie, there sure is a lot of posturing about which style is the best. And I mean a lot. Some old master that teaches the Tiger style is attacked by a half bald fighter with claw hands on chains. He's beaten severely, but his student (Jimmy Wang Yu Taiwanese martial artist and actor) saves him, and they fall over a waterfall and get to an abandoned temple and hide under a giant bell. Half bald fighter hits the giant bell with a stick to give the two escaping men a ring-a-ding-ding. Then he gets distracted by birds, and the two guys get away.
They meet up at the Crane school, where the old Tiger style master reunites with his old friend. They got into fights about which style was better years ago, and the new students do as well. Old Tiger style master dies, but hopes that the two students can unite the styles.
Meanwhile, half bald fighter is visiting the fighting schools because he is secretly working with the Japanese and wants to destroy all the schools. It's complete nonsense, and the "Japanese traitor" theme always ruins these kung fu movies.
In all, it is nothing outstanding, but it is watchable and there are a few familiar faces in the movie.
Arriva Sabata! (1970)
Sabata the Bumbling Bank Robber
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
*Plot and ending analyzed*
Sabata Arrives!
Arriva Sabata! (1970)
Well, you know from watching the first five minutes of the movie that it is going to be one of those dreadful Italian comedy Westerns.
They have two bumbling bank robbers in an early model automobile. They visit a bank where the bank clerk (the eminently uninteresting German actor Peter Lee Lawrence) pockets away the money in the bank till because he recognizes the Mexican (who doesn't look like a Mexican and has a horrible wig) on a wanted poster. Another man he owes money to, is also in line and he probably wants to pull a "fast one" on him. So if the bank robbers take all the money, the bank clerk (the eminently uninteresting German actor Peter Lee Lawrence) can say that it was not himself that pocketed the bank money, but it was the bank robbers. So he is basically ripping off the bank and he gets an alibi in the process.
The bumbling bank robbers then drive through the town causing a lot of willful destruction, and the townsfolk shoot everything, but can not seem to kill them. Unfortunately, we still have another one hour and twenty minutes to go in the movie.
The movie is not good at all, and you are probably better watching the Trinity movies (Terence Hill and Bud Spencer as half-brothers Trinity and Bambino).
Tales from Apocalypse (2022)
Apocalypse Tomorrow in Space
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
*Plot and ending analyzed*
Tales from the Apocalypse (2022)
For a lower budget science fiction movie, the special effects are quite reasonable. There are some nice colors in space and on the planets resembling electrical storm clouds.
The interiors of the ships are also adequate. They seem well worn and used, but there are some advanced computer systems in a few stories.
The stories themselves are claustrophobic and shot in a limited expanse because of the lack of budgetary resources. The themes are the common topics that have been covered numerous times before.
The acting is nothing to write home about. But it is interesting to see the chronicles covered here. It won't hurt to watch this anthology.
Grade: C +
984: Prisoner of the Future (1982)
Prisoner 1239: Crimes of the Future
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
*Plot and ending analyzed*
I found this VHS tape in an abandoned factory sometime in the 80s. I recently found it in my storage and watched it again. This is an interesting little production, it has elements from many different sources. The totalitarian episodes of The Twilight Zone (TV Series 1959-1964), The Trial by Franz Kafka, The Trial (1962 film), Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell, The Prisoner (TV Series 1967-1968) and American writer Harlan Ellison.
This is a no-budget production, but they attempt to do some interesting things with the angles of the prison building and cell. They also have some cyborgian robots with red eyes on skates. Unfortunately it gets very repetitive because there is about 30 minutes worth of story, and yet they made it to the one hour and sixteen minute mark. The "evil man" leader is also not even slightly interesting.
Basically a man is being persecuted for some unknown crime. It feels more like a tele-play than an actual movie, so there is overabundance of dialogue. That may give the production a mundane feel. Still, it is a somewhat interesting story and presentation. But eventually it is overlong, tedious, and meaningless.
And there also is a lot of cigarette smoking in the production. I thought I was going to get lung cancer just by watching this.
Grade: C -
Fatevi vivi, la polizia non interverrà (1974)
Fear in the City
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
*Plot and ending analyzed*
Show up, the Police Won't Intervene
Fatevi vivi, la polizia non interverrà (1974)
After one of the most plain beginnings, the movie starts off pretty quickly with the kidnapping of some wealthy capitalist's daughter. A few witnesses see a few things, and then copper Lieutenant Henry Silva comes in to work out the details of the case. He is a cynical wisecracking cop, which is funny. The kidnappers are basically creeps, with a drug addict and child killer filling in the ranks.
The movie is fundamentally very plain and has some corny dubbing that pretty much ruins the suspense. It is more of a police drama than an action movie. Strangely, the cops are not the ones who solve the case at the end. Some head mafioso and his goons take care of the last kidnapper, because the rest were double-crossed.
It does not stand out in any way, but it is an easy watch.
Grade: C
What to look out for:
The semi-hilarious ending which has the last kidnapper trying to outrun the bigger boat of the mafia guys, while on a foggy lake. It looked like they blurred up the camera and used a smoke machine. For the entire chase, it feels like you have cataracts.
Beasts of the Field (2019)
The Field Has No Beasts
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
*Plot and ending analyzed*
The first two minutes of this movie are enough to tell you that you are going to endure tortuous boredom. The absolutely horrible actors give that away. Plain and clear. The producers use a digital camera, so it looks like a lousy video phone movie. Except it doesn't resemble a movie at all. Right off it looks very plain. Sit the dumb actors here, and film them giving hackneyed dialogue that they don't understand. This is definitely a 'bottom of the barrel' no-budget movie, probably where the muddy muck and slime accumulates.
Some nonsense about a forest and some supernatural creature roaming around in it. It was a tedious challenge to watch this.
Most preposterous scene:
Well, definitely the entire movie. But there is a ridiculous sex scene that comes from nowhere in the first ten minutes.
Blindside (1987)
The Side of the Blind
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
*Plot and ending analyzed*
An interesting movie, with its many thematic layers, and subplots. It at times can get confusing, but if you wade through the murkier aspects, then this is a good semi-thriller.
Harvey Keitel is Grubbs, a former behavioral academic or scientist who now owns a little motel. He has a spacious office where he also has cameras and a computer. Some shady bloke checks in to one of the rooms, and Harvey Keitel is later visited by some man and his strong-armer. They make a deal with him to spy on the new guest, after roughing him up a bit. Turns out that Harvey Keitel is thoroughly familiar with snooping devices, and he "bugs" a few phone lines and rooms.
He also seems to be dealing with the death of his wife, which is never implicitly stated, but he reviews some tape where a woman took a bunch of pills and he found her body.
He uncovers quite a lot between two rooms, including the planning 'hit' of some man's wife. And also a group of psychopathic crooks who are ripping off some drug dealer.
There is some nice music and interesting characters. Some of it gets goofy at times, especially the ham acting from the psychopathic crooks. Harvey Keitel is pretty bland, and we don't know what he is thinking. At times he is angry and others, he seems uninspiringly dead-like.
The ending could have been done a lot better, basically Harvey Keitel snitches out the woman whose husband was going to kill her, as "he" is the drug dealer that the psychopathic crooks were going to kill. He also had a tryst with her, and she told him that she loved him and that they would go away together. But that was a big lie from her, as she was only going to double cross him. He learned about everything from the various surveillance "bugs" in the rooms.
I would definitely think that Harvey Keitel could not trust such a man as the drug dealer, and he'd probably be killed later. So it left a lot in the air. But sometimes these muddled conclusions are clearly more interesting than an obvious ending.
In all, I really enjoyed the movie, even with its various faults, and thought it was unique enough to warrant another look in a few months.
Grade: B -
Further:
Rear Window (1954), Eyewitness (1981), Blow-Up (1966), The Conversation (1974), Blow Out (1981), Hit and Run (1982).
Crisantemi per un branco di carogne (1968)
A Flock of Carrion - only average
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
*Plot and ending analyzed*
Chrysanthemums for a Flock of Carrion
Crisantemi per un branco di carogne (1968)
I remember when I was in Spain and Italy seeking work as a stunt man in the 1960s, that I came across many Italian movie directors. And they were really nice and friendly and would eventually invite you to dinner. Sergio Pastore I met when he was filming Sette scialli di seta gialla (The Crimes of the Black Cat 1972).
Later, I visited Italy in the 1980s and would try to find out about any Italian movie directors that I had met, or at least heard about. I was able to see Crisantemi per un branco di carogne (1968), courtesy of the director's children.
The plot is about an old gunfighter, who has long given up his pistols. He is now a priest at the local church. Some bandits attack the town and kidnap a beautiful woman. They first want to get a ransom from her wealthy father, but then, after a night of drinking tequila, one of them mentions that the head bandit should marry her instead. They all laugh, not taking it very seriously, but the head bandit actually likes the idea. So they all go to the church and the priest. The priest is reluctant and denies them a request. So the bandits beat him up.
Later, after he tries to regain his gunfighter skills and also his health, he tracks the bandits down so he can kill them.
English actor Edmund Purdom plays the priest. He went to Italy because they needed American and English actors for many of their movies.
A few other movies that I have seen are similar to this one. Heaven with a Gun (1969), in which actor Glenn Ford plays a gunslinger-turned-preacher. A Mexican Western, El cuatro dedos (1978), in which a priest hunts down some murderers. Robert Mitchum as a swindler masquerading as a Catholic priest in The Wrath of God (1972).
The movie itself is only average, but it is interesting for the unusual theme.
The movie title came from, in Italy, chrysanthemums symbolize death and are used specifically for funerals, or on tombstones or graves. Quite an apt title, but one that probably would confuse the general audiences of the world.
So if you can watch it, go ahead, but it hardly stands out in the movie pack of European Westerns.
Si wang tiao zhan (1974)
A Game of Boredom in Thailand
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
*Plot and ending analyzed*
Bloody Ring (1974)
Not much happens in this movie. Some old martial arts teacher meets up with his former student, and they are forced off the road by some hoodlums called 'the black tiger gang'. They initiate a fight and the old martial arts teacher and his former student beat them off, but the old martial arts teacher gets knifed in the groin.
Apparently the old martial arts teacher and his students won some tournament against the Japanese and they hired the gang to get revenge. They also send some letter for another challenge. In Bangkok Thailand of all places. (?)
The movie has the usual assortment of scenes of boring training and some domestic nonsense added, plus a few fights. Not very exciting in this case.
Most preposterous scene:
The skinny daughter of the old martial arts teacher taking out a few hooligans.
Maligno (2016)
A Malignant Terror in the Hospital
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
*Plot and ending analyzed*
Malignant
Maligno (2016)
If anything, the producers really dragged this movie along for much too lengthy a time. At an hour and twenty six minutes, it seems like it would never end. It is a no-budget telenovela type Spanish language television horror show, so it looks like it was shot on a lousy digital video camera, so right off it looks very plain.
Some haughty hospital director dismisses numerous rumors about a walled off portion of the hospital. He has some workers attempt to bust down the wall, but one of them has an accident, and is nearly pulled in by some unseen force. A female hospital worker thinks that evil has escaped and she tries to help, but gets dismissed from her job by the haughty hospital director.
A woman doctor and her daughter get stuck into the aforementioned mess when the daughter's boyfriend gets knocked out at some party and is sent to the hospital. It is there that the daughter gets possessed by some evil demon. Some shaman is called in later by the female hospital worker who was dismissed, and they attempt to battle the evil.
The movie gets very tiresome at about the halfway point, and then it becomes an endurance test. And then they throw in the cliched "the demon is not gone" ending, after all the shamanic nonsense had cleared the demon away.
There is a little musical theme that sounds like an annoying whistle whenever the demon is around, and they use it to an unwarranted degree.
The movie was very difficult to hear because it seems that the recorded audio in Spanish was not picked up well enough. So what you hear is like a muttering. There are English subtitles, with many mistakes.
Grade: D +
In Spanish with English subtitles.
El Supremo Manuscrito (2019)
The Lost Manuscript
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
*Plot and ending analyzed*
The Supreme Manuscript
El Supremo Manuscrito (2019)
An extremely no-budget telenovela type Spanish language television show about some lost manuscript that real-life Paraguayan writer Augusto Roa Bastos had written, but was taken by the dictatorship of the time. The beginning of the movie is set in the 1970s, and some secretary is visited by security agents and kidnapped. We see a typed-out manuscript taken by them.
Cut to the modern time, and they are selling the manuscript at an auction sale. But it gets stolen (say the English subtitles). In Spanish, the auctioneer said it was not the real manuscript. (?) Some woman had bought it, but is at a loss financially. So is the owner. So they go about to try to recover it.
Well, it was very difficult to follow the conversations because it seems that the recorded audio in Spanish was not picked up well enough, and then they are speaking fast. So what you hear is like a mumbling. There are English subtitles, but they were so small and difficult to read. But I had to use both just to watch the movie.
The movie story is fictional I believe, and the manuscript was never really stolen. It was published in exile if I remember correctly.
In Spanish with English subtitles.
The Loner (2016)
The Lost Connection of the Persians
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
*Plot and ending analyzed*
The Persian Connection (2016)
Some man, who as a child was a soldier in the Iran-Iraq War, runs afoul of some Iranian boss. There are numerous flashbacks to his time on a hill in the war. These images are used as dream sequences, because the man is a hashish addict, and a habituated gambler. Apparently as a child soldier in the Iran-Iraq War he picked up the habit of smoking opium and being a pro at cards. (?) Now he can even beat the Iranian boss and win all the money. Evidently he is also a homosexual, and one of the Iranian boss's goons was his lover at some point, and he is jealous that he is with women. In the movie you can see that they both paint their fingernails. (?)
The man, who was a child soldier in the Iran-Iraq War, also has a Russian girlfriend, and is also is sleeping with the Iranian boss's wife, who seems to be American. As you can tell, the ridiculous story keeps getting more unbelievable. About at the halfway point, I was becoming quite affected by the tediousness of the movie, and had to take a one hour break.
There is some nice cinematography and colors in the movie. But the nihilism just keeps getting worse as the movie goes on. There is absolutely no one to care about, all the characters are immoral, conscienceless, and depraved lost souls.
The man, who was a child soldier in the Iran-Iraq War, is so annoying. He looks like a cross between David Byrne (new wave band Talking Heads) and Lux Interior (rockabilly punk rock band the Cramps). He also has an annoying new wave haircut, and fails to make it as a "tough guy" in the movie.
The story you've seen hundreds of times before in American crime movies, except that they do it better.
Realm of the Damned: Tenebris Deos (2020)
As Below, So Above . . . Initium
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
*Plot and ending analyzed*
Realm of the Damned: Tenebris Deos (2020)
A fairly short animated piece resembling a comic book. The animated images are static, except for a few movements. They are not that bad. The voice acting is a little grating and annoying at times. Or probably all of the time.
The premise has some man who is a demon hunter, or something. He also kills vampires and uses their blood to inject into his body. The bloke's name is Alberic Van Helsing. (laughter). Some evil demon manifests itself to some guys in Norway and wants revenge against his own sister, who is a vampire and controls a vampire league. Sounds corny already.
Whoever wrote it has been reading up on contemporary horror novels and horror music, since they add quite a few things from those topics of subject matter. They also added ridiculous profanity, blood and violence, gratuitous nudity, and unlistenable heavy metal. And then they add too much information in such a little time, so that it becomes an irritating nuisance.
It all gets very wearisome by the end.
Devil's Void (2022)
The Devil Rode Far Away
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
*Plot and ending analyzed*
Devil's Void (2022)
This is a 'bottom of the barrel' no-budget movie, probably where the muddy muck and slime accumulates. The producers use a digital camera, so it looks like a lousy video phone movie. Except it doesn't resemble a movie at all.
The acting is awful and tedious. And so are the characters. It deals with some radio show that does ghost stories, and they get some dumb tip from a fishy lady in a bar about some haunted cottage. What a suggestion, eh?
Having to sit through the "filler", and the actors who can not act, is unbearable. You will be excusing yourself about twenty times just to get away from the "movie". Bathroom breaks, water refill breaks, eating dinner break, and stretching out breaks.
If you can watch it all in one sitting, you should definitely get a gold endurance medal.
As for me, it took about four days.