A Maze To Amaze

In The Maze, a 1953 Goth horror semi-classic, Gerald MacTeam was on the eve of his wedding to the perky Kitty Murray when he gets a poolside telegram that his eccentric uncle who lives in a spooky ass castle with zero amenities in the Scottish Highlands, just kicked the bucket. Guess who just inherited the bucket?

Gerald has to go to the castle to pee on his uncle’s grave and promises Kitty he’ll be back in time for some spoon-fed vows and honeymoon wows. Weeks go by and Gerald hasn’t come back. (Keep running, Gerald!) So Kitty does what any woman would in a situation like this – she and her aunt Edith head to the castle with full suitcases to solve the mystery of the sparse spouse.(Hint to Kitty: he’s not hiding in the groom closet.)

Showing up unannounced and uninvited, Gerald is p*ssed – and he looks like he’s aged 20 years. Mysterious castles with a mysterious secrets will do that to you. He’s mad, irritated, stressed and restless. What – did he get married already? The two butlers aren’t much help, especially when the maid was recently murder killed in some sort of deathly fashion.

Clearly, Gerald is hiding something. And what a something it is – in the backyard is a Shining-sized hedge maze that is verboten to enter, with signs indicating as much. And castle rules also state that all guests must be in their rooms and the door locked from the outside by 9PM. Since there’s no TV or electricity to run it, might as well call it a night – or go snooping around the…MAZE!

Burning curiosity of her former fiancée, those creepy noises outside her door and those very non-human tracks all over the place drive Kitty and her aunt into the maze where they hear splashing sounds. Could it be Gerald switched teams and is having a “boys only” pool party? Or might it be the family curse finally being brought out in the open?

To give away what it is would be me sinking to new lows, which I’m not adverse to. Needless to say it’s funnier that a castle full of butlers. And Gerald’s lengthy explanation at the end even more so as it involves “the secret” and that he and his ancestors were merely its servants. Turns out Gerald was a “butler” as well. Don’t worry, Kitty – he still has the castle. And I hear there’s a pool in the backyard.

Robots Hate You And Your Planet

What if you woke up in a hotel room in a big city, only to discover you’re the only one in the entire city? Besides pulling down your pants and running out into the street screaming, you’re probably go looking for somebody to explain WTF.

No, this isn’t a Twilight Zone episode, though it plays out like one. Rather, it’s the plot for Target Earth, an obscure sci-fi movie from 1954, which predated TZ by five years.

So Nora King, having just woken up from a flubbed suicide attempt (she tried sticking her head in a toaster – just kidding), discovers all of Chicago is bereft of tax-paying citizens. Wandering around and starting to completely lose her beans, she eventually happens across a guy with impeccably combed hair just coming to after being smacked unconscious by criminals. Aha – an excuse is established!

They go wandering and hear a piano being played in a cocktail lounge of all things. It’s here they meet a guy and his gal, both getting drunk as skunks because hey, free booze! Through the haze of sweet alcohol, they tell Nora and her crime statistic guy that the town had been evacuated because of a mysterious invading force, but that they were unable (too drunk) to go with the rest of the group.

Now there are four and… What the flap – they find another person. Now the town is starting to feel crowded. They find a newspaper with a headline warning of impending disaster, so new guy is freaks out and tries to start a car when he gets mad zapped by…an alien robot from Venus! That’ll teach him to try and jack a vehicle.

The group heads into a hotel, finds rooms and try to figure out their next maneuver. If they were of sound mind and body, they’d pry open the mini bar. Before everyone figure out a plan, a criminal shows up with a gun and holds everyone hostage. Um, I think they were doing that to themselves.

Bullets fly and then there were three. But an alien robot, scouting for loose citizens to eye fry, hears the gunfire and crashes into the hotel, eventually clanking its way up the stairs to the room where all the action is.

Heading to the roof, the robot is in slow pursuit. The drunk guy sacrifices himself to save Nora and her bullet perforated boyfriend and is vaporized by some sort of science beam. Before you can say “they’re f’d in the b-hole), the Army shows up, and using a loud speaker broadcasting a disrupt-o signal, disable the robot before it can shine a light on the situation.

You never get to see the alien robot army, just the one tin can. The introduction of the criminal with a gun didn’t make sense. Not staying in the cocktail lounge didn’t make sense either because hey, free booze! And when the “army” shows up, there’s only a couple of jeeps. And too much time is spent talking and not screaming.

Target Earth needed to find a bulls-eye.

Blowing Up The Sky

The sky exploded. You may have heard about it on the Internet. I went outside to check. Sure enough, ka-BOOM! Then I went checked later and it was back. I liked the sky better when it exploded. The movie about it, kinda.

That’s the selling sizzle of the 1958 Italian-French made sci-fi crap classic, The Day The Sky Exploded (aka, La morte viene dallo spazio), Italy’s first science fiction movie. And what caused the sky to explode? An atomic rocket, or as we say in Italian, “razzo atomico.”

It all started when an manned mission to the moon went askew and the astronaut driving the rocket disengages the broken atomic booster and hightails it back to Earth. The booster, though, goes on to crash and explode into an asteroid belt. (Note: Those are the things that hold up asteroid pants.) The resulting ka-BOOM sends asteroid chunks – now ganged together in a giant ball-shaped cluster, straight at where you’re sitting.

As the meatier meteors get closer to where you’re sitting, it triggers wind storms, earthquakes, tidal waves and sharknados (heh). The moon is smeared when part of the rock group slams into it. Unfortunately, there’s still enough left over to smear us as well.

The best part happens when, against the ticking clock, every armed super power on Earth teams up to shoot missiles at the cluster simultaneously. The final scene with hundreds of razzo atomicos heading into space to smack those punk ass pebbles, is one of the movie’s coolest visuals. Unfortunately, the rest of it isn’t as groovy, plodding along with pseudo-science dialogue and arguing about whose to blame. (It was me all along, b*tches!)

But don’t take my sound advice – watch The Day The Sky Exploded for free – it’s on YouTube™, right in front of where you’re sitting.

Bigfoot & Aliens With A Plan

Yep, I’m a sucker for Bigfoot movies, even though I have yet to see one with a creature design better than the Jacks Link’s™ Bigfoot. (Man, those commercials make me LOL all over my Old Navy™ self.) That’s the same argument I have with werewolf movies as well, though I did like the ones in Dog Soldiers (2002). Very challenging to make a realistic suit covered in artificial Yak hair.

Now that I’ve shaved that off my chest, Valley of the Sasquatch is the just released horror indie featuring my favorite cryptid. Or should I says cryptids? Yep – time to go all plural as Valley features a tribe of Sasquatchians. Here’s how they put the Foot down…

“A father and son are forced to move to an old cabin in the woods after a devastating tragedy. The forest unearths a tribe of Sasquatch who are determined to protect their land.”

Sorry you’re going working through a devastating tragedy, but a determined Sasquatch is nothing to screw with.

Releasing February 18, 2016 is Plan 9, a remake of 1959’s Plan 9 From Outer Space, the best worst horror movie of all time. Yep, someone had the artificial balls and vision to reboot this messterpiece, which is classic for all the wrong reasons. Here’s the what what on the movie…

“Nilbog is a small town with a big story – the beginning of an invasion! However, instead of lasers, spaceships, and epic force, these aliens have a different plan for the inhabitants of Earth: to resurrect the dead as their own army set with but one goal…to wipe out all mankind!”

“On this Halloween night only the townsfolk stand in the way of total domination. From the police department to those trapped in a convenience store, and even those trying to stay alive in the streets, this night will decide the fates of all who walk the planet and thought they were the top of the food chain.”

My ONLY misgiving about Plan 9 is that they didn’t ask me to be in the movie. Guess I’ll have to find a different crap sci-fi remake to star in to put on my bucket list. (I’m looking in your direction Santa Claus Conquers the Martians.)

Sun-burned Demon

In 1958’s sci-fi classic The Hideous Sun Demon (aka, Blood on his Lips), prior to that “being exposed to radiation” incident, Dr. Gilbert McKenna was just a normal kind of well-groomed and educated guy. But once an experiment with a new radioactive isotope wrecked his face and skin, Gil is definitely hideous, with the sun’s normally healthy rays transforming him into a scaly reptile fish thingy creature monster. Here’s the rub – he stays in non-beast form while indoors and out of the sun. But once he steps outside, bam! – insta scaly reptile fish thingy creature monster.

This makes him mega upset as there are so many beach bikinis left to ogle. Once given the news by his colleagues that there is no cure, Gil heads to the nearest bar to get fish stinking drunk. Excellent thinking. And it’s here he puts the sore in psoriasis. A non-sober man thinks Trudy, a glamorous gal with two really big talents performing at the club, is a hooker and tries to man date her. Gil steps in and punches the drunk sideways, grabs Trudy and heads down the ocean coast in his sweet convertible.

Gotta give it to Gil – he’s so smooth he talks Trudy into the ocean and out of her wet clothes. Of course, this is all in the dark. After they fall asleep on the beach and the sun comes out, Gil’s inner sun demon rises as well. So much for a second date.

From there it’s a lot of emoting, feeling sorry for oneself, hiding in the shadows, getting in another bar fight (and losing this time), and choking the life out of the neck of that guy who earlier beat him sideways with the help of some thug-like gangstas. No going back indoors for Gil.

Alerted to his monstrous skin condition, the police chase Sunny Jim up stairs surrounding a huge natural gas tank. By my calculations they made it to the top. You might wanna avert your eyes at this point in the movie; the camera follows Gil as he climbs and you can see a big stain on the back and front of his trousers. I found this to be quite hideous.

Mistake #1: Nowhere to go but down. Mistake #2: Firing a gun around a natural gas container. Mistake #3: Not having enough bullets. Mistake #4: Nowhere to go but down.

The cop manages to get the gun nozzle right into Gil’s chest as he’s trying like hell to strangle the hell out of the officer. Now fully air-conditioned, Gil takes the fast way down and makes a splashy exit. Emotingly, this is the end of the Sun Demon. But it still doesn’t explain why one of his shoes having been blown off by the impact, reveals a bare human foot. (Sun Demons don’t wear socks.) I guess radiation only affect oneself from the waist up.

The Gorgon: Python Perm

The Gorgon, a 1964 horror movie from the legendary Hammer Films in Great British England, is the title creature whose gaze can convert you into stone. It worked on me as I’m all rock (heh).

Of course you’ve heard of this mythological monster with snakes for hair and know it as Medusa. And here’s where I blow you away – they’re sisters! There were/are three of ’em: Stheno, Euryale and Medusa. Collectively, they were known by their gangsta name: The Gorgons. Only one G in this movie, and it plagues the German village of Vandorf in 1910, leaving a trail of stone bones in her wake.

The cops won’t investigate the death of a local gal as they believe the legend of the Gorgon to be true. So they pin it on her boyfriend who committed suicide out of grief, not guilt. This makes scapegoat boy’s dad ultra angry, and sets out to clear the family name, which is Goat. (Just kidding, though that would be really funny.)

Turns out one of the villagers is possessed by the spirit of Megaera, sister to Medusa. Red history flag here. She’s a sister alright, but to Alecto and Tisiphone – and this psycho b*tch is the cause of jealousy, envy and, get this, smacks people who do crime things as well as commit marital infidelity. Okay, now the movie is making sense.

The “Gorgon” shows up three times and does nothing more than step out of the shadows, makes THE FACE and turns people into anatomically correct statues. Too bad those snakes weren’t paying attention to that guy bringing up the rear with that swingin’ sword, or “Greek butter knife.”

Taking a little off the top, Megaera’s head rolls around on the floor and reverts back to its human form. So who the stinkin’ heck is it/she? I would tell you, but I’m already in enough trouble with the other two sisters.

Earth-Sucking Robot

A giant robot looking like a giant Lego™ has arrived on Earth to suck it dry of all its energy resources. I didn’t know robots could be Republicans. Such is the premise of Kronos (aka, Kronos, Destroyer of the Universe /1957), a sci-fi classic.

So how did the bolts and nuts sucker get here? Start with an incoming UFO that scientists are monitoring that they think is an asteroid. It’s headed straight towards Earth, so we do what we do best – shoot bombs at it. Direct hit, nothing happens, even thought the warheads were pure USDA-grade atomic boom booms.

The UFO shakes it off and resumes its course. The newscaster tells us not to panic and that it won’t hit New York. Then the UFO hits New York. Just f’n with you – it goes into the ocean just off a Mexican beach. Aiyeeee! 

Two dude scientists and a supermodel chick scientist head there to see what’s what. After much plot stalling, the ocean glows white (not surprising as the movie was filmed in black and white) and out pops Kronos – 100 feet tall and full of Earth-sucking fury. (Note to scientists: Kronos gets bigger as he consumes our Earth juice.)

While Kronos is heading towards all of Earth’s nuclear plants and getting his suck on, the Mexican Air Force moves in to nuke Big K. Incorrecto, amigos – that’s what Kronos eats.

One of the scientists theorizes they need to drop reverse energy particles on Kronos to booger up his sucking power, thereby causing the mecánico monster to explode into particles.

Footnote: Kronos was transported here by an alien race that has sucked all its own natural resources dry, with the plan to have K absorb ours and bring it on home. Sorry alien dick heads – we’re doing that on our own just fine.

Lap-Dancing Vampires

In the soft-core “erotic” indie horror flick Vamps: Deadly Dreamgirls (1995), a strip club is owned and operated by female vampires, who put the bite on their customer’s wallets and necks. Depending on how you like to get your freak on, you may be disappointed to learn the action doesn’t go further south.

Enter a jilted cheerleader type who wants to get back at her boyfriend by taking her clothes off for cash and/or food stamps. The club’s owner takes a licking, uh, liking to this innocent gal and wants to turn her into a denizen of the night. Who could have foreseen that a priest – who just happens to be an old high school friend – would end up in the club?

He re-friends the girl and invites the gal to stay at his house while she “finds herself.” Another staggering coincidence is that he’s a vampire horror movie buff who collects stakes and crosses. Those are lottery odds.

Funny dialogue includes a military guy who hops in the sack with two naked vampires and shouts, “Alright – who gets to blow revelry?” More budget-restrained bloodsucking and gore, and you can see the end coming a lap dance away. The only real complaint is that the main chick never opens her grocery bags. Not cool – even for a stripper vampire.

Baron Von Brain Eater

Baron Vitelius of Astara is about to have a bad day, though you wouldn’t know it by the smug look on his face as he’s being tried by a Spanish Inquisition for witchcraft, necromancy and assorted wrongness in 1661. If convicted – and it’s pretty much a slam dunk by the black hooded tribunal who only speak in sub-titles – Baron Von Smirky Smirk is gonna be the featured attraction at a good old fashioned witch burning.

Before he can do his impression of a S’more, a 300 year cycle comet suddenly appears overhead, and the BBQ Baron swears to the sparky meteor that he will return in 300 years (as when the comet does its round trip) to exact revenge on all his accusers’ descendants. (He’s lucky no one is gay so he can return from the dead and make kill happen to all of the above.) Thus is the gripping beginning of 1962’s Spanish horror camp classic, The Brainiac (aka, Baron of Terror).

Sure as the morning wood rises, 300 years to the day the comet crashes the party and Baron Vitelius is hitching a ride. A fragment breaks off and gently lands on the ground and turns into the Baron, who in turn transforms into a human-sized demon fly-headed creature with a pointy tongue that would make Gene Simmons turn clown white with envy. Time for some tongue-lashing retribution.

Posing as a foreign dignitary, in human form he lures the descendants into flame-y deaths, which are preceded by Baron Von Fly Face sticking his 18-inch tongue out and sucking out the brains of his victims through the back of their necks. Then he sets fire to the surroundings, charring the evidence.

As the Baron he’s smooth, smokes cigarettes like they were medicine, eats those aforementioned unrefrigerated raw brains from an ornate bowl with a dessert spoon, and makes out with chicks – all with sparse dialogue. (Actions speak louder than words when it comes to smooth smooching.) He can also make his face brighten and darken, like an open/close sign on a tavern, which wide-eye hypnotizes his kills into standing still while he changes into the monster and sucks them dry.

Better still is when the Baron, in creature form, breathes – his head expands and contracts like a paint-huffing paper bag. And his fingers turn into two claw-esque tubes that he softly clacks together as if pinching a marshmallow to death.

Two detective are onto the clues and corner Baron Von Suck Suck. His fate, like shampooing and rinsing, repeats itself with the cops showing up with scuba tank sized flame throwers. The Brainiac is loaded with hilariously interpreted dialogue (“You are guilty of clumsy and illegal practices…”) and tension-less drama. But it’s the monster with the expanding and contracting head and that rock star quality tongue that makes this one a classic keeper.

Godzilla’s Back

Came across this picture online the other day of a gigantic earth formation that’s being referred to as an old volcano in the South Pacific. Called Ball’s Pyramid (heh), it allegedly rose out of the sea seven million years ago and is 1,844 feet high off the coast of Australia.

Uh no, geology door knobs – it’s one of those pointy things that fell off Godzilla’s back after he rubbed up against humanity. How can we even take these so-called “experts” seriously when it’s clear from my 13 seconds of research it’s part of Godzilla’s sports outerwear?

The conclusive proof is in the photos, people.