The Green Slime (1968)

The Green Slime (1968) is not a terribly good film, but it has a few interesting elements that make it worthy of watching. The most notable of these features is that the film is a joint production between Toei (Japan) and MGM. Shot in Japan with an American cast. This means it's like watching Battle in Outer Space (1959) but with actors you might see in Fantastic Voyage (1966).

The story begins as we discover an asteroid is on a collision course with Earth. Retiring Commander Rankin (Robert Horton) is sent with a team to detonate it before all life on the planet is destroyed upon impact. That team includes the fiance of Rankin's former girlfriend. The mission is successful, but the team inadvertently brings back a hitchhiking specimen onto the space station with them - The Green Slime.

And that's all in the first act, so this is not a movie that's slow to get started.

Once on the space station though, the story focuses on a race to figure out the evolving Green Slime and keep it from reaching Earth.

Most of the drama in the film comes from the love triangle clashes between the two dueling commanders. And by drama, I mean groan-worthy arguments and snark that amounts to little more than a series of pissing contests while the threat to the space station increases, people die, and the possibility of unleashing the Green Slime on Earth grows larger.

Larger....more numerous, same thing.

Even as the story is solid and the threat is straight-forward, the relationship between the two rival Commanders (and former best friends) is incredibly annoying. The best thing to alleviate this distraction is to focus your attention on the fantastic set work, costuming, and of course, The Green Slime creatures (which all look like something that you might see in an episode of Ultraman).

Recommended if you've never seen The Green Slime (1968), if you're wondering about the predecessors of the Alien franchise, or if you need an easy way to explain how annoying a pissing contest can be.

Deadly Friend (1986)

Deadly Friend is a film directed by Wes Craven and was a follow-up to his iconic Nightmare on Elm Street movie. It's a terrible movie about a young robotics genius who brings his murdered neighbor back to life using his cybernetic skills. She then goes on a murderous revenge spree. I'm going to spoil the whole thing, so you don't have to bother watching it.

(If you do plan to watch - against my advice - then you probably want to stop reading here.)

Don't say you weren't warned.

The movie starts with a single mother moving her son, and her son's robot, to suburbia. The son is basically a young version of the guy from Gremlins.

And the robot exhibits that kid's genius ability to create semi-murderous machines that talk like the Buck Rogers robot (Twiki) mashed-up with Donald Duck's voice.

Once settled in suburbia, the robotics expert kid meets the locals. One is a regular-looking version of Clint Howard who delivers papers around the neighborhood. The other, Kristy Swanson, is abused by her father. When her father's abuse kills her, the robotics expert decides to bring her back to life by implanting one of his circuit boards in her head. Of course, she immediately goes for revenge while the robot-genius kid attempts to hide her existence and keep her killing under control.

The title tells you how well that plan works out.

There are exactly three decent moments in this movie. The last one is pretty spectacular, but the first is when Kristy Swanson kills her abusive father. It's a moment that falls flat when it should have soared (I mean, who doesn't love watching that kind of an asshole get his comeuppance). Instead of a sweet death scene though, we get this.

Pffft.

The second worthwhile moment of this movie is the inexplicable (surprise?) ending. After Kristy Swanson has been killed a second time to end her revenge spree, the body is taken to the morgue. Like the idiot-genius he is, the robotics kid decides he can still help her (despite the fact that his previous "help" caused her to go all murdery) and aims to revive her again. That's when this happens.

So, the chip in her head caused her to internally robotify?

And finally, I've saved the best moment for last. This one is a gem, but needs a little set-up. As per usual in suburbia, there's one nasty neighbor who doesn't want the kids anywhere near her house. In this case, it's Mama Fratelli from The Goonies. At one point in the movie, the kids lose their basketball over Mama's fence. She scoops the ball up and keeps it. Later, Kristy Swanson decides this is appropriate retaliation for that slight.

Boom!

And then her headless body tries to walk it off.

As I mentioned from the start, I've spoiled the three best moments of this film because it's not recommendable. Unless you're a huge Wes Craven fan, I guess? Otherwise, avoid this movie.

Shin Godzilla (2016)

Even though I did a quick review previously, I wanted to sit down and put together a few more in-depth thoughts on this film. So, here goes...

After taking a break from making Godzilla movies, and even participating in the 2014 American production, Toho Studios handed the reigns of this new film to a director best known for his work in anime. And it was definitely the right choice since he's created a fantastic film and a fantastically terrifying version of Godzilla.

When a creature appears in Tokyo Bay, a governmental response must be formulated, coordinated, announced to the public, and then carried out. But Godzilla evolves quickly, and the Japanese government's slow response to what they learn about the creature and how to apply that knowledge to some strategy form the conflict of the story. Slow government vs. fast-moving destruction/tragedy. While the tone of this film calls back to the serious message of the '54 film, this time, Godzilla's destruction is an analogy for the Fukushima Reactor Meltdown.

Including radiation spikes.

There really isn't a "human story" to the movie as there is traditionally with Godzilla movies. Sure, there are human characters, but their personal drama isn't the center of the story. We see them struggle against bureaucracy and bristle against one another, but that's just the backdrop. Their job in this film is to put a human face on all the machinations going on behind what we ephemerally classify as "government."

This might seem like it would be boring. It is not.

This is in stark contrast to previous Godzilla films where a human character would say, "Let's send the X-2 to destroy it!" and immediately the film cuts to the next scene of the spaceship, or whatever, launching. Instead, we get the tension of knowing the disaster is getting worse while meetings are held to decide the course of action and, later, while a small group pours through data trying to figure out a way to destroy, or at least fight, Godzilla.

"Just bomb the crap out of it! Oh wait."

It's an entertaining and intense film. The destruction and repercussions of Godzilla's rampage is not an afterthought. There are real people with real lives in its path. So even without a "human story" built in, there's still a lot of humanity in the movie.

Highly recommended for Godzilla fans and anyone who enjoys a metaphor in their movies.

H-Man (1958)

Another film in the Icons of Sci-Fi Toho Collection, H-Man is directed by Ishiro Honda (the man behind The Mysterians, Battle in Outer Space, and Mothra, among many others).

Legendary.

There are no giant monsters to be found here, so don't expect a large H-Man to run around stomping on miniature models of Tokyo. Instead, this film is a strange mix of police procedural and atomic monster movie. But mostly a police procedural.

In other words, there are lots of interrogations.

The story hinges on a drug dealer who goes missing during an exchange. His body literally vanishes, leaving his clothes behind. The police suspect his girlfriend knows where he might be, and the rival drug dealers believe the same thing. Meanwhile, a scientist gets caught up with the police when he approaches the girlfriend, wanting to speak with her about what she may know about the circumstances of her missing boyfriend. The scientist believes that the drug dealer was attacked and dissolved by an atomic creature.

Science!

This is a rather lame cops and robbers story, but the addition of the atomic creatures (the H-Man from the title) add a twist. The police stubbornly don't believe there's some being in Tokyo that can completely liquefy a human, and the lounge-singer girlfriend of the drug dealer must team up with the scientist to unravel the mystery, all while under the gun of the rival gang boss.

There's no big shootout in the film. And only one chase sequence (which has got to be the least intense one in the history of cinema).

So, the action is sub-par for a police film (despite trying to pull a Third Man in the final act). No, the intriguing part of this movie is the green, atomic H-Man.

With some thrilling special effects that are actually quite gross (especially for the time), the H-Man dissolves his prey as they cry out for help and futilely attempt to shoot it.

Interestingly, this DVD collection includes both the Japanese and the American versions of the film. The changes made in translating a Japanese film about nuclear weapons (released so close to the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki) have interested me for a long time, and comparing the two versions revealed a couple of key changes.

First, there are a couple scenes that were altered or removed from the American version, probably due to their graphic nature.

American Version (including the cut away from the dancer's death)

Japanese Version

More significantly, the Japanese film opens with a shot of a ship at sea. That ship, it's revealed, was accidentally contaminated by a nuclear test and its sailors were turned into the H-Men. They return to haunt Tokyo because some latent part of their brain pushed them to go back home. The key word here being "victim."

On the other hand, the American version of the film states that the H-Men were "produced" by the nuclear test, not created from human victims. This change side-steps the idea of people as casualties of atomic tests and bombings.

While there's no commentary track for this one (unlike Battle in Outer Space), this rarely seen movie looks great and includes both the American and Japanese versions. Anyone who loves old science fiction films will find a lot to enjoy here.

Battle in Outer Space (1959)

In a lot of ways, this is a kaiju film without the giant, rubber-suited monster. It's directed by the same guy who made The Mysterians, and the same special effects guy (Eiji Tsuburaya) worked on both. What works here is that there's a lot of the same, enjoyable special effects stuff on display with a story that sticks to its simple, straightforward charm while taking the action off of the Earth's surface.

True to its name, there is a great battle in outer space in the final act of the film. But to get to that point, the story begins with a space station under attack from aliens.

The world gets together and decides to send two teams into outer space to confront the aliens on their moon base/waystation. First though, the aliens show that they can mind control humans. Not on a mass scale, apparently, but one at a time. At first, they use this special power to get an Iranian ambassador to sabotage the special ray-gun that the scientists have invented to combat the aliens. When that plan doesn't work out so well, the aliens brainwash a member of the outer space team being sent to the moon to attack them.

Apparently, the mind control ray will also steer the car.

The rest of the film plays out with a variety of fantastic special effects. From retro spacesuits and laser rays to model buildings being destroyed by the aliens, there's a lot to appreciate here.

I highly recommend the "Icons of Sci-Fi: Toho Collection" DVD set. The optional audio commentary on this film by Steve Ryfle and Ed Godziszewski really offers some fantastic insight to fans of kaiju films and Japanese Sci-Fi.

Amazon link

Wolf Guy (1975)

There are certain things that cannot, no matter how great, live up to the expectations they bring upon themselves. Sometimes that's because of an errant description (see: Shock Waves). And other times, those expectations are high because of the elements present, and the high bar each part has set.

Case in point, Wolf Guy. It stars Sonny Chiba (from Street Fighter, The Executioner, and Kill Bill)! The movie was directed by the guy who also directed Sister Street Fighter! And it's about the last of a clan of werewolves who uses his special powers to solve crimes!

There's a lot to be hyped about in those pieces and parts.

And the film delivers! Not exactly fulfilling your wildest imagination, but it's absolutely a FANTASTIC mix of mashed-up weirdness, Sonny Chiba at the top of his game, funky music, and a plot that keeps things moving and interesting.

Throughout its running time, Wolf Guy is teeming with strange little moments that are both delightful and unbalanced.

From excessive spurting blood...

Taking out the bad guys with tossed coins...

Re-packaging spilled intestines with the power of moonlight and strength of will...

And a heavy dose of Sonny Chiba being generally badass...

Ultimately, Wolf Guy is more than the sum of its parts. It's that rare film that has nuanced, awesome weirdness in every single scene, in a twisting plot that makes hair-pin turns without hitting the brakes for a second, and a star with a gripping presence on-screen. Highly recommended for anyone interested in a wild, entertaining ride from start to finish.

Available from Arrow Video and Amazon and worth every penny you throw at it.

Night of the Demons (1988)

A handful of teenagers decide to throw a rip-roaring Halloween party at a haunted mansion. But, as it turns out, the stories people tell about the mansion are real. It is haunted, and Halloween is the worst time to hang around that house.

With its straight-forward plot, Night of the Demons is one of those movies that should be an enjoyable horror B-movie. It has all the pieces!

A stalking camera, just like in Evil Dead!

Demon possession!

Even a bit of gore! (though, honestly, it's pretty tame in this department)

But it's all been done before...and way better...in other movies. The film isn't really bad, but it's not good either. And it certainly isn't so bad that it's good. It just kind of flatlines somewhere around the time you realize it's not going to live up to its potential (for me, that was when the first demon possession resulted in some lipstick face-painting).

After that, it just limps across the finish line.

Recommended only for 80s horror completionists. Otherwise, watch Evil Dead 2 and/or Cabin in the Woods for a better combination of campiness and high schoolers battling demons.