Photogenic Ghost

Driving home with his girlfriend after drinking with some buddies and thinking he’s gonna get some action because he’s all liquored up and in the mood for some lovin’, Tun (that’s really his name) runs over a young gal crossing the road. He thought it was a speed bump and kept going.

Over the next few days, Tun — a photographer — is snapping pics of a high school graduation. He notices white streaks on some of the photos and in one shot, sees the face of the gal he ran over and left to die in the mean streets of Bangkok. Later, examining the pictures closely, he looks at the girl’s face…AND IT TURNS AND LOOKS AT HIM! How can a photograph do that? Is that even legal?

Then more eerie stuff starts to happen to him and his girlfriend, enough to send her on a mission to find out who they turned into roadkill. As it just so happens, the dead gal was a former girlfriend of Tun’s. And his camera? A gift given to him by the previously-living girl as a present of some sort. But something else is happening — all Tun’s drinking buddies are practicing high dives off tall buildings. (Problem is, you can only practice the dive once.)

It’s here he spills the beans about meeting the girl back in his school days, dating her and then moving in together and more than likely touching each other’s private parts. The gal was frightfully shy and mercilessly teased by Tun’s classmates…the same ones that are now thinking they can fly.

He eventually broke up with her and she attempted suicide by cutting her wrist with a knife intended for kitchen use only. But where things really get ugly is when Tun’s current girlfriend finds a bunch of pictures of his ex-girlfriend getting gang sexed by his drunk friends, pictures HE took. Time for the dead girl to turn up the juice on the Haunt-o-Meter™. 

Since hitting the girl with the car, Tun’s neck has been aching — and now it’s hurting even more. But he can’t think about his neck right now as the dead girl is walking on the ceiling…UPSIDE DOWN! He crawls out onto the fire escape in the pouring rain (complete with wind and lightning), only to have his dead ex crawl after him…UPSIDE DOWN! This makes Tun let go and he hits the ground like a wet wonton.

Cracked skull, broken arm, probably a fair amount of poop in his pants, when Tun gets out of the hospital he starts taking pictures around his apartment. But it’s only when Tun takes a picture of himself in the mirror that we find out why his neck hurts so much. While the truth didn’t goon us out, it was pretty neat all the same.

Shutter (The Original) (2004) has several false endings, like when you eat budget Thai food and think you need to make some bathroom tofu, but don’t/can’t. The best stuff, though, happens in the last 15 minutes. Like when making bathroom tofu.

Toasty Horror

Freddy Krueger toast. Okay, it’s official – I’ve now seen everything.

As high camp as this is, A Nightmare on Elm Street toaster ($54.99 at BigBadToyStore.com), which burns Freddy’s image into bread, is still pretty dang cool. Hey, Jesus has been showing up in tortillas and pancakes for years. Time to share in the wealth.

The press release for this product is hilarious…

“He terrorized your dreams while you slept…and now Freddy Krueger haunts your breakfast when you wake up!”

“But don’t worry — while the Springwood Slasher may have felt the burn, your bread and bagels will only endure the perfect amount of heat, toasting the shape of Freddy’s signature bladed glove into each slice.”

“UL-tested and approved, our collectible toaster includes illuminated function buttons for Cancel, Reheat, and Frozen. The Nightmare on Elm Street logo appears on its stylish, glossy black finish. Watch out – it’s the bastard toast of a thousand loafs!”

Bastard toast of a thousand loafs. Man, that’s killer. All of a sudden I feel sorry for people on gluten-restrictive diets. One can only hope Halloween’s Michael Myers will come out with a line of pre-sliced tofu for those who vomit and get diarrhea from eating sandwiches. Ones not made at 7-Eleven™, anyway.

Return of the Giant Monsters

Man, I wish people would pick a lane and drive in it. Case in point: Gamera vs. Gyaos, a raucous 1967 Japanese sci-fi monster mash, has Gamera’s fruit fly foe as being named “Gyaos” and “Gaos” on different marketing materials. Aieeee! And to make matters more convoluted, the U.S. version is titled Return of the Giant Monsters, all of which causes me sleepless nights. I don’t have a clue as to why it bothers me so much, it just does.

Anyway, Gamera Vs. Gyaos is more for kids than someone who may or may not drink a LOT of beer, and has just about everything a fan of giant Japanese monsters could ever want.

Mt. Fuji has erupted again, this time awakening Gyaos, a “special needs” prehistoric vampire reptile bird that eats humans and emits a supersonic frequency that can slice through other giant monsters like a hot knife through tofu. (Excellent run-on sentence!)

This causes hell on Earth for a super freeway project slated to plow through a nearby village of people (village people, heh) who can’t decide if it’s cool to give up their ancestor’s land so everyone can get to the store faster, or sell out and become as rich as Samurais (their words, not mine).

Enter Gamera (giant turtle that flies ‘n farts flames, in case it slipped your mind), even though no one in the movie knows how to correctly pronounce his name. Rescuing a little kid instead of dispensing some super-sized ass smack, Gamera leaks first blood via Gyaos’ lethal frequency. Turns out Gyaos has two throats, which acts like a tuning fork. (Good thing it’s not a female Gyaos – then it would never shut up. OK, that was uncalled for, ladies. I respect your boobs ’n stuff.)

Gamera retreats back to the ocean to heal after his arm is almost cut off by the animated-but-deadly frequency. This forces the humans to take matters into their own hands. And what an ingenious plan they have. Using hundreds of gallons of synthetic human blood, they lure Gyaos to the top of that building that has a spinning roof. While he drinks it, they turn on the spin-y building roof and make Gyaos all dizzy so he can’t fly back to his cave before being burned by the sun when it rises in three f’n minutes.

The scene of Gyaos going around and around like a 33 1/3rpm record album being played on 45rpm is one of giant monster movie’s greatest moments. If that was me on that “turntable,” I’d mega puke big time.

The other scenes of G&G locking it up (Gamera even bites several toes off Gyaos, but they grow back) are the stuff drug dreams are made of. But don’t do drugs as they’re not cool for you. Stick to canned beer or prescription glue and see how giant monsters used to settle their differences back in the ’60s.