31 Days of Horror 2025 Day 06 Croczilla

 

TITLE-Croczilla

SOURCE-Echo Bridge DVD

The four bonus movies promised on the cover and PD horror films you already got on other sets. This is one you buy for CROCZILLA and CROCZILLA only.

A croc farmer sells his giant croc to a shady resturant owner. The owner plans on cooking it and selling it. But Croczilla escapes before this can happen. She is ready to lay eggs.

On her path she eats a lady's purse that has 1 million Euros in it. Which is why in China this film is known as The Million Dollar Crocodile. Oh yea this is China's first big budget creature feature. Costing 4.5 million US.

So word gets out about the purse with the money in it in Croczilla,and we get the lady after it. The resturant owner and a cop. Plus Croczilla's original owner. Tagging along is a kid that became friends with Croczilla,yea like Gamera.

Only really one on screen kill,and it isn't that bloody. The CGI Croc looks good. For 2012 this looks better than most of those SYFY Saturday night creature features. You know stuff like Mega Shark vs Crocasaurus and Meth Gator.

The acting appears to be good,the dubbing is not great. Lots of bad accents and all that. I could see  some people finding the dubbing to be a bit offensive.

Nothing amazing but still a decent way to pass an hour and a half. 

Now the drawback to this release. Got 5 movies on one DVD. Croczilla is majorly compressed. The picture always looked a tad out of focus. Like when you first wake up in the morning and everything is a bit foggy. Nothing major. The sound was simple 2 channel stereo.

Now I want to find a decent Blu Ray of this. I can see myself going back and watching this again.

Croczilla gets a B-

31 Days of Horror 2024 Day 01 Ninja Vampire Busters

 

TITLE-Ninja Vampire Busters aka Vampire Busters

SOURCE-Video Asia DVD

Yes that is stolen Eerie Publications artwork on that DVD cover. Those covers are why I grabbed a pile of those Video Asia double features. Most  which have sat on my shelf unwatched. Wanted something I had never seen today and the title Ninja Vampire Busters caught my eye.

Made in 1989 this is a Hong Kong horror/fantasy/comedy. We  see a bunch of rebels attacking a place. The fat owner only wants to make sure they do not disturb a urn. Seems an EVIL SPIRIT is in that urn. The urn ends up going off a cliff and into the ocean.

500 years later the son of a rich man bids on this urn as a joke. The urn is won and ends up in the rich man's lavish apartment. Now yea I get that in a crowded place like Hong  Kong lavish means a place bigger than normal,but this apartment appears to be half the size of my home and my home is not that big.

The son's asshole friends are around and one of them uses the urn as an ashtray. Which releases the spirit. Who possesses various members of the family.

Leading up to a long fight at the end between someone who is possessed and what looks like the fat guy from the prologue but now with a shit stache.

No vampires in the film,mostly demon looking  things after someone becomes possessed by the evil spirit. And really no ninjas. Thinking this was retitled in the states to tap into that Ninja and Vampire trend in the 80s.

Way way more comedy than horror. And very broad comedy. But I have come to expect that with Hong Kong movies. 

This being from Video Asia I am sure they just toook some old ex rental VHS they found and did a straight dupe from that to a dvd-r. It looks like that was the case. The picture has that blurry look old cheap vhs had. The sound for the last 10 minutes goes up and down. And the film cuts off before thhe credits finish.

Ninja Vampire Busters gets a D+

31 Days of Horror Day 07 Robo Vampire

Title-Robo Vampire
Source-Video Asia DVD

I had heard about this Robocop vs hopping vampires movie since the mid 90s. Been wanting to see it for years,but never could find a copy for sale. Then earlier this year I had stopped to get gas at a local bodega. While waiting in line I saw a bin of cheap DVDs. Saw a cover that said Kick Ass Heroes. And saw the above image of Robo Vampire on the cover. It was only 3 bucks so grabbed it.

Found out while watching the film that this is just 2 films mashed together. One is a typical kidnapped film. The other  has a guy who gets badly hurt and rebuilt as a bootleg Robocop. And he is the one that fights the hopping vampires. The vampires are being used by a huge drug cartel as protection.

Made by Godfrey Ho,best known for all the cut and paste ninja movies of his that got VHS releases in the early to mid 80s,Robo Vampire is a cheap hack job. The Robocop ripoff looks like a guy walking around wearing those shiny silver covers you put up in your car window during hot days. The vampires are mostly people in cheap masks. Hell the guns you see in the film usually have some kind of fireworks in the muzzle to make it look like they actually work.

At 3 bucks for 4 films I paid like 75 cents per film. And Robo Vampire is more than worth that 75 cents. Sure it is cheesy. And it looks like someone just took a VHS and ripped it to DVD. And it appears to be a VHS that was played a bunch of times. This is a great film to just sit back with some friends,have a few drinks and laugh at it.

Robo Vampire gets a C.

31 Days of Horror 2015 030 MGM Midnite movies quadruple feature

Yep 4 films in one day. Last year around October I found 13 or so of these MGM Midnite Movie double feature DVD sets for cheap. $3 new IIRC. The plan was to watch some of them for last years 31 days of Horror. But that didn't happen.

Konga
Source-MGM Midnite Movie DVD

From 1961,this giant ape movie was a low budget ripoff of King Kong. And honestly this movie sucks ass. Bad acting and FX work.

Really the only good thing to come out of this was Charlton's Konga comic series.A series that has some very nice Steve Dikto artwork.

Konga gets a D-.

Yongary
Source-MGM Midnite Movies DVD

Made in South Korea this mid 60s giant monster on the loose film was sent straight to TV by AIP. And while it is much much better than Konga. It still isn't good.

Well that means this double feature DVD is now worth the $3 I dropped. Oh well,win some lose some.

Yongary gets a C.

Mephisto Waltz
Source-MGM Midnite Movies DVD

This turned out to be a interesting Satanic horror film from 1971. Alan Alda is a failed musician who know is a music journalist. And after interviewing a reclusive pianist,Alda becomes possessed by the pianist's spirit.

There is plenty of Satanic horror films from the 70s,and this one is pretty damn good. I never see anyone talking about it. Which makes me wonder how many people have actually seen it.

The cast is nice,besides Alan Alda you also got  Jacqueline Bissett. 

Mephisto Waltz gets a B.

The House on Skull Mountain
Source-MGM Midnite Movies DVD

This is one the earliest 70s Blaxploitation horror films. A woman is dying and sends for 4 family members. They all show up to her home,which of course is on Skull  Mountain. And find out all kinds of crazy stuff. While being chased by a hooded skull monster.

The only cast I knew was the guy that played Lamont on the Jeffersons. And Michael Landon's best friend on Little House on the Prairie. But the other members I didn't know did a good job.

Seeing the film was rated PG I was expecting something kind of tame and boring. I was wrong. If this had come out in the 80s it would easy get a PG 13.

The House on Skull Mountain gets a B+.

2015 Reading Challenge Book 047 Asia Shock

TITLE-Asia Shock
AUTHOR-Patrick Galloway
FORMAT-Trade Paperback
FIRST TIME READING-Nope
COST-$13.85

Back in 2008 I was ordering the first Cinema Sewer book off Amazon. I wanted to add something to the order so I would get free shipping. Saw this book and took a chance.

Before reading this collection of 47 reviews I had seen maybe 10 Asian films Since reading this book I have watched many many more.

The author does a good job of not only describing the films. But putting them in the proper cultural context. Which is very helpful when dealing with cinema from countries you don't know much about.

Most of what is covered is horror,dark fantasy and black comedies. And I am a fan of two of those genres. With fantasy films just being a genre that while I don't hate it,I am not a huge fan  of.

Mr Galloway also gives lots of background info on stuff like the infamous Hong Kong Category III rating,directors like Takashi Miike,and all kinds of great bits of history on the film industries in the various Asian countries.

The only real flaw with the book is something that couldn't be avoided. When this book came out the Asian horror explosion hadn't yet happened in the States. So finding some of the movies mentioned wasn't that easy. So Patrick gives a list of websites where you can buy or find out more info on the various films he covers. Of course with this book being from years back lots of these websites do not exist anymore.But as I said this couldn't be avoided.

Asia Shock gets a 2.98 outta 5

31 Days of Horror Movie 27

Three Extremes
2004
Lionsgate DVD

This is a film that I had lots of friends recommend to me. But it never played any theater near me. Then I forgot about it for years. When Movie Gallery was closing it is one of the films I got extremely cheap.

The film is made up of 3 short films. Each made by an Asian director from a different country.

We start off with Dumplings by Fruit Chan. Fruit Chan is a Hong Kong director. This is the first and so far only film I have seen from him. A still extremely pretty older lady is worried that her aging is causing her husband to lose interest in her. So she goes to this woman, Who is played by the always gorgeous Bai Ling. Bai makes these special dumplings. That are suppose to prevent aging and make you look young. But there is a nasty secret ingredient. I have a pretty strong stomach. But when I found out what the secret was and saw Bai preparing the dumplings my stomach did a few flips.

Up next is Cut by South Korean director Park Chan Wook. Again this is the first film I have seen by Park Chan Wook. It is about a film director who comes home to find out an extra from his films is holding his wife hostage. She is stuck in a very elaborate trap. To me at least this is the worst of the shorts. It isn't horrible. But it isn't amazing either.

The final short is Box by Takashi Miike. This one is very surreal and hard to explain. From what I gather there was two young girls. Who did acrobatic performances. Their manager who might also be their father shows favoritism to one of them. The other gets jealous and burns down the tent they perform in. I had seen some Miike stuff before this. And this doesn't have the same feel as the rest of his films. But I do really enjoy it.

The DVD has some decent extra features.Miike does a commentary on his short. Plus we get an extra DVD which has a feature length version of Dumplings. I need to sit down and watch that one day.

Three Extremes gets a B+.

31 Days of Horror Movie 12

Visitor Q
2001
Media Blasters DVD

Originally saw this many years ago. And since one of my co hosts on Asshat is wanting to cover Asian Cinema we talked about watching it again,

We start off with a reporter hooking up with a very young looking hooker. We find out that this is his daughter. It seems Dad has an issue with finishing too fast. So the daughter doubles her fee. The next scene is the father waiting on the train and some strange guy clubs him in the head with a rock. For an unknown reason the father brings this man home. Where we discover the entire family is 10 shades of fucked up. The mother is covered with scars and walks with a limp. But she also has a heroin habit and works as a hooker to afford her smack. The young teen son is being bullied and takes this out on the mom. He has a closet full of rug beaters that he uses to beat his mother. What is strange is how dysfunctional this family is. But an event near the end brings them all together. With the daughter finally coming home.

Out of all the Takashi Miike films I have seen this is the best. Some of his films have a very slow pace. But Visitor Q moves quickly. Now a quick warning this is a somewhat disturbing film. So if you can't handle shocking stuff skip it.

Visitor Q gets a A-.

31 Days of Horror Movie 08

Ichi the Killer
2001
Media Blasters DVD

I had heard of this film for years. And thought I had seen it. Well one of the co hosts of my podcast  wanted to cover it on the next episode. So I sat down to watch it. After watching it I realized I had not seen it before.

The basic plot is the boss of a Yakuza gang disappears. His second in command starts looking for him. We find out that a brutal killer known as Ichi has killed this boss. The rest of the film is Karkihana looking for his missing boss. And Ichi killing people. The kills are all very bloody and gory. Now while I did enjoy this film, the pacing of it was kind of slow. There was plenty of scenes that had nothing really to do with the plot and could have been cut out. For every 5 minutes of entertaining stuff we get 10 minutes of slow stuff. There is plenty of pretty outrageous scenes. Kakihana cuts off the tip of his tongue. Ichi splits a guy in half top to bottom. We find out that the guy who is Ichi's boss has brainwashed him and been lying to him for a long time now. We never find out why this boss, named Jirii, wants this one Yakuza gang killed.Finally after almost 2 hours we get the confrontation we have been waiting on. Ichi vs Kakihana, which is the highlight of the film.

Ichi the killer gets a C+.