#creature feature review

[hannahwatcheshorror]

TERRIFIER (2016)

This movie blatantly plagiarized Hannibal Lecter and SAW. The damage tracking makes NO sense, someone will get stabbed directly in their brain or shot point blank in the face but is still alive to endure the next few blows. Multiple people come close enough to actually kill the clown but they never do and then he kills them. Not one iota common sense for any character and if I could unwatch this movie I would. Unoriginal and uninspired.

(Trigger Warning Suicide)

⭐

[Originally given 0 stars but changed one star for my tumblr rating system]

Two girls get stalked by a clown, and I will hand it to them, he is good and creepy. They get taken by him and then the dumb blonde gets sawed in half like the the old torture maneuver but he saws through her bones SO easily it’s stupid. Then the brunette has the opportunity to kill him and fucking doesn't. She is beating the hell out of him with a plank of wood screaming, "get up motherfucker!" instead of just fucking beating him to death when bang(!) he pulls out a gun! He shoots her in the leg, then the stomach, she is still crawling away when he shoots her in the fucking cheek which (point blank from a handgun) gives her a little hole and she is STILL breathing… enough time for him to go, reload, come back and shoot her like 12 more times in the face. 

Usually psychopathic killers with all the costuming and such have rituals to there kills but this guy who is supposedly already an established killer moves from dissecting to axe murder to medieval torture to guns to blunt force trauma to skinning to suffocation to whipping to cannibalism and finally suicide, I mean it's RANDOM. The clown also sustains a lot of damage over the course of the evening but after a moment of rest he seems no worse for wear. Some bullshit goes down with the wacky homeless lady and the brunette girl's sister but the villain doesn't track for me. He doesn't seem the type to use a fucking gun and his motives are super unclear. Is it important that he scares his victims first? What is it about the killings that gets him off? It all just seems like violence but a gun seems a weird choice for him. Also he has mommy issues? Since fucking WHEN.

[horrorlamb]

Monster Movie Monday - Consumed (2024)

Consumed is written by David Calbert and Directed by Michael Altieri. It stars Devon Sawa, Mark Famiglietti and Courtney Halverson. This has the same plot as almost every other monster movie for the last 10 years. Husband and wife go camping in the woods, strange man turns up. They all get hunted by a big creepy monster. So does Consumed manage to stand out in this crowd? No, of course it…

[zagorudan]

Just put out a video compiling last year's Halloween special. I talk about a lot of crummy monster movies (and one or two fun ones).

[horrorcrawl]

Dracula: Prince of Darkness (1966) 🦇

Director: Terence Fisher (Hammer Films) Genres: Horror, Creature Feature 🧛 Notes: Vampire, Dracula, Sequel, Castle, Blood FX, Practical FX very well done, Christopher Lee, Classics

Review: I've watched the first of Christopher Lee's Dracula (1958) a while ago (Definitely watch that one first) but this is fairly good as sequels go! The main cast of characters is interesting and how they come to meet Dracula is a fun take on his return. I did feel like Dracula compared to the first film was a tad wimpy and a little sad and the film had a rather abrupt strange ending but still enjoyable. Overall I give Dracula: Prince of Darkness (1966): Worth the Watch 🩸

[thewarmestplacetohide]

Dread by the Decade: Cat People

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★★★★½

Plot: A new bride fears she is cursed and will transform into a panther should she consummate her marriage.

Review: Equal parts unsettling and heartbreaking, this early erotic horror expertly builds tension and explores themes of sexual shame.

Year: 1942 Genre: Supernatural Horror, Creature Feature Country: United States Language: English Runtime: 1 hour 13 minutes

Director: Jacques Tourneur Writer: DeWitt Bodeen Cinematographer: Nicholas Musuraca Editor: Mark Robson Composer: Roy Webb Cast: Simone Simon, Kent Smith, Tom Conway, Jane Randolph, Jack Holt

-----

Story: 4.5/5 - Quite shocking for its time and unique in its delivery. It makes the reality of Irena's fears unclear until just the right moment.

Performances: 4/5 - Everyone is great, but Simon is the standout as the terrified and crumbling Irena.

Cinematography: 4.5/5 - Gorgeous. Creative framing, lighting, and camera movements do the work of special effects.

Editing: 4.5/5 - Helps execute what effects could not.

Music: 4/5

Sets: 4/5 - They feel genuinely lived-in, with great bits of foreshadowing laid throughout.

Costumes, Hair, & Make-Up: 4/5

Trigger Warnings:

Very mild violence (largely offscreen)

Dated psychiatric practices and discussions of mental illness

Animal death

Animal neglect and poor husbandry (real)

[thenefilim]

Review - Rippy (2024)

As if Australia didn't have enough critters that can kill you, Rippy gives us a giant zombified roo on a rampage.

https://www.voicesfromthebalcony.com/2024/10/18/rippy-2024-review/

[spook-reviews]

Hell Hole

"Hell Hole hails from the filmmaking family behind Hellbender and centers on an American-led fracking crew that uncovers a living French soldier frozen in time from a Napoleonic campaign, whose body hosts a parasitic monster."

Released 2024

This was not really scary at all, but it was a lot of fun to watch. The use of rock music rather than the usual slow eerie tunes of most horror movies gave it an interesting flavor. There is a bit of gore, but it is comically unrealistic. Most of the people that get killed by the creature just explode like a boneless meat balloon. The concept behind the creature is what I enjoyed the most. I don't want to spoil it, so I'll just say that I thought it was an interesting take on the parasitic monster trope. My overall impression of the movie was that it was a bit corny but, like I said, a lot of fun to watch. If you're a fan of mpreg or The Thing and want a horror-flavored movie with no real horror to it, this is the movie for you!

Spookiness: 1/5

Effects: 1/5

Enjoyability: 4/5

[horrorhodgepodge]

Underwater [31 Days of Horror: Day 20]

🦇Summary Tonight, get ready to plunge into terror with “Underwater”! 🌊😱 When a team of researchers deep in the Mariana Trench faces a catastrophic earthquake, their hopes for survival quickly turn into a fight against monstrous forces lurking in the darkness. 🐙💥 As they navigate the flooding facility, paranoia sets in, and the crew must confront their worst fears—both above and below the…

[leojurand]

—Elizabeth Wein, The Winter Prince

[shewholovestoread]

GYEONGSEONG CREATURE PART 1 - THE OVERVIEW (PART 1 OF 2)

Good news: I finished Gyeongseong Creature Part 1 last night, in one sitting.

Bad news: Now I have to wait till the 5th of January for the remaining episodes.

Plot: Based in Korea in the 1940s while it struggles under the Japanese occupation, a group of people enter a hospital to look for someone only to discover that a missing person is the least of their concerns with a literal monster on the rampage.

Cast: Park Seo-joon, Han So-hee, Wi Ha-joon, Kim Soo-hyun (Claudia Kim), Jo Han-chul, Kim Hae-sook, Ji Woo, Im Chul-soo, Choi Young-joon

The Overview

I went into this show pretty blind outside of the basic gist of the plot, I expected a run-of-the-mill creature feature and the show definitely delivers in that respect but it also gives us characters worth rooting for even if they don't always agree with each other and strong and complex women across the spectrum.

I know there are some who are a little annoyed about the shorter season (10 episodes instead of the usual 16-episode season) and while I understand the frustration, I think the shorter season was the only way to handle a story like this.

Another thing that is a little frustrating is the decision to split the season into 2 parts, so part 1 dropped with 7 episodes and the remaining 3 episodes will drop on the 5th of January. I knew about the split going into part 1 and.... I don't hate it. The way part 1 ends makes it bearable. It's not quite a cliffhanger (on the cliffhanger scale, this was positively kind) And that way I can do a full rewatch and then watch part 2, making it a more complete experience.

There is no respite in this show, once the story gets going and it gets going pretty quickly, there is no break in the tension. There are no filler episodes. The pace is also consistent throughout all 7 episodes, so it feels more like a very long, stressful film instead of a 7-episode show and I think that works in its favour.

The narrative is also very streamlined, we have very clear narrative arcs that we're following. The first episode opening voice over can be a little tedious but this is an original show (as in not based on a webcomic), so I could deal with that. The writer has done a great job balancing the time they spend with the people inside the hospital and those outside, coupled with competing motives even when people are seemingly on the same side. And the fact that all of this easy to follow is no small feat. This is one of the tightest, most cohesive shows I've seen in a while.

Gyeongseong Creature has one of the most visually striking opening credits and it's worth paying attention to. Outside of the visual appeal, there are a lot of clues/foreshadowing to be found there. The credits also add to the unsettling atmosphere of the show. 10/10.

The show takes place in Korea under the brutal Japanese occupation. I suggest paying attention to the language the characters use (Korean vs Japanese) because it can really give you insight about the character or the context of the conversation. When you're watching the show, there are conversations, where if you're not paying attention, you won't understand why the atmosphere is so charged. To live in a place, where the mere act of speaking in your own language could mean getting brutally beaten became an act of rebellion. It adds a whole other level of nuance and I loved that.

The show also doesn't shy away from the cruelty of the Japanese occupation, the sheer callous way that the local population was treated. It also brings in the medical experiments that the Japanese scientists conducted on the local people (both in China and Korea) Their attitude is perhaps the most chilling (I was cheering when the monster got loose)

It also makes you question who the monster actually is, the literal monster (the person who was turned without their consent) or the people facilitating this, the ones conducting these 'experiments'. Everyone from children to old people were fair game in their twisted quest for progress.

More in Part 2.

[swampflix]

Alien: Romulus (2024)

One of the oft-vaunted strengths of the original Alien is that, for most of the film, there’s no clear protagonist. The characters were (also infamously) written gender-blind, and for much of the film’s runtime, everyone gets equal attention, until Ripley is the only character left alive. The sequels that followed that center on Ripley permanently solidified her as the franchise’s final girl, but…

[hannahwatcheshorror]

CHILD'S PLAY 3 (1991)

Chucky is back again and ready to steal another child's soul. “Just think, Chucky’s gonna be a bro.” Yeah, about that. This movie takes place at a military school so be prepared for heavy military influence. Interesting take on a Chucky film but certainly a downgrade from 1 & 2. Less of the good special effects we’ve come to know and laugh at, I mean, love. But really this feels like more of a grab on the name of Chucky than an inspired movie.

⭐⭐.5

Trigger Warning Mild Racism

8 years in the future, Chucky is somehow melted back to life? And he still wants Andy? Even though it was established in the last movie that he is stuck in his doll body, I thought? Okay, even Chucky notices this and picks a new kid (Tyler) to tell his secret to because he thinks he can steal his soul even easier (since this kid doesn’t know Chucky is so fucky, ya know?) But he still wants to go after Andy because he hates that kid (now teen). 

Some Military school bully finds Andy and Chucky fighting and assumes it's just Andy playing with a doll so makes fun of him then steals the doll. Andy sneaks into the bullies room at night so carefully not to wake him but all I can think about is watching out for Chucky who will literally murder everyone without hesitation, seriously, what are you doing, Andy? Chucky catches him by surprise then escapes.

Chucky is able to kill two military dudes (one by heart attack and the other by surprise throat slash, decent enough) before the War Games where he replaces the paint ammo with real bullets! Our bully gets shot through the heart and Chucky is to blame (he gives love a bad name!) and Andy’s roommate bodies a grenade for the group. Rough going all around but then Tyler is able to escape to the carnival for like half a second before Chucky is on his case again.

They go into the haunted house attraction which is also a ride and honestly if I want to watch a stressful romp through a functioning ride against a creepy villain I’ll rewatch The Bob’s Burgers Movie. This was a little too fantastical for my tastes, everything up until this point I bought with a big grain of salt but these kids would have been squashed flat by these ride mechanics

After a lot of fucking around, Chucky dies by turning into (still patent pending) Chucky Chunks again but this time they are much more bloody and don’t get all over Andy. It appears that the kids are safe again as it ends with people cleaning up the absolute MESS the carnival left behind in complete darkness? Like they couldn’t leave a light on for the cleaning crew? This movie tried to be too deep with the military kid sacrificing himself for his friends, I mean, it’s Child’s Play 3 for goodness sake, no need to jump the shark or throw yourself on the grenade but I guess it happened.

[horrorlamb]

Monster Movie Monday - Dawn Of The Beast

[thegayhimbo]

Stranger Things "Creature Feature" and "Summer Special" Reviews

If you haven’t yet, be sure to check out my other Stranger Things reviews, and let me know what your thoughts/theories are about the show or the upcoming season! :)

Stranger Things Six

Stranger Things Halloween Special

Stranger Things The Other Side

Stranger Things Zombie Boys

Stranger Things The Bully

Stranger Things Winter Special

Stranger Things Tomb of Ybwen

Stranger Things Into The Fire

Stranger Things Science Camp

Stranger Things "The Game Master" and "Erica's Quest"

Stranger Things and Dungeons and Dragons

Stranger Things Kamchatka

Stranger Things Erica The Great

Synopsis for Creature Feature: While moving to California, Will, Jonathan, and El make a stop in Denver, Colorado to enjoy a night out at a Drive-In Theater. However, El's visit takes a turn for the worst when certain elements begin triggering PTSD flashbacks......

Synopsis for Summer Special: Join Officers Powell and Callahan during the events of season 3 as they patrol the streets of Hawkins and begin to encounter the Flayed.....

Observations:

Because these comics are short, I am covering both of them in this review. Unlike "Erica's Quest" and "The Game Master," which at least shared the theme of Erica and Mike being isolated and using their love of D&D to reconnect with people, these two short stories don't have much in common other than taking place in the same universe. Because of that, I will be talking about each of their stories separately. This will conclude my reviews of the comics and graphic novels for the time being. When the full versions of Tales from Hawkins, the Stranger Things x TMNT Crossover, and The Voyage are released (which likely won't be until January 2024 at the earliest), I will review them. Until then, I will move on to the tie-in books, beginning with Stranger Things Suspicious Minds.

Let's begin.

Creature Feature:

Out of the two of these, this short comic is the one I like the best. It's an interquel between seasons 3 and 4 that came out on Free Comic Book Day, three weeks before season 4 premiered. As noted in the synopsis, it focuses on an evening that Will, Jonathan, and El have in Denver, Colorado at a Drive-In Theater featuring horror movies. At this point, they're still in the process of moving to Lenora, and the story takes place sometime in October 1985 before Halloween.

The premise of the characters at a Drive-In Theater is fun, and it's nice getting a story exploring the sibling dynamic between El, Will, and Jonathan as El integrates into the Byers family. While we did get scenes like this in season 4, they often felt brief and far in-between. It doesn't help that circumstances like Angela's constant bullying, El ending up in trouble with the law for smashing the brat's face in (not that I blame her for doing so), the three way conflict between Mike, El, and Will at the beginning, and everything to do with Vecna constantly overshadowed attempts to go into more details about El's developing relationship with the Byers. We did get a brief montage with El narrating in her letters to Mike about how she and the Byers are doing, but it isn't as in-depth as it could have been. So any story that explores El, Will, Joyce, and Jonathan together as a family is one I'd be happy to see more of.

There's an interesting parallel between Will's love for the horror movies and atmosphere at the Drive-In vs El's fear of it. Will's enthusiasm for horror movies and Halloween is pretty similar to Max's, with Max even admitting in Runaway Max that she's watched scary movies since she was a kid and Michael Myers from the Halloween series is the one that frightens her the most. Just like there's a psychological component for how Max processes horror movies (especially growing up with an abusive step-dad and step-brother who made her life a living hell), the same goes for Will. When Jonathan asks Will how he can still enjoy horror movies after everything that's happened to him, Will explains it as such:

That is relatable in so many ways. Some of the stuff I've experienced in my life has desensitized me to certain horror/slasher movies, like Saw or Friday The 13th or the Halloween series, to the point the over-the-top blood and gore doesn't elicit a reaction for me. I'm more likely to have fun watching these movies than be scared by them. It's movies, TV shows, and other media that deal with triggering subjects like anxiety, depression, gaslighting, mental illness, rape, and so on that tends to get under my skin.

And considering what El has been through for most of her life, it's also understandable why she has the reaction she does at the Drive-In. Everything from the purple flashing lights to the monster-themed costumes to the loud noises and unfamiliar setting cause her to have a PTSD attack.

It doesn't help that some bullies see what's happening to El and decide to harass her for it.

You know the jackasses on Reddit, Twitter/X, Tumblr, or other social media platforms who mock people for being triggered, accuse people struggling with trauma of wanting to be victims, and are awful to others because they can get away with it? That's who these bullies remind me of. They are the predecessors to Angela, her friends, and the loathsome crowd from Rink-O-Mania who humiliated El. Despite only being in the comic briefly, I despise them.

Thankfully, Will and Jonathan come to her aid, and Jonathan gets a nice big brother moment in telling the bullies to fuck off:

I wish we'd get more scenes on the show of Jonathan getting aggressive with bullies or any other threats to his family.

Getting back to El, there's another reason she's upset: She's in a vulnerable position of having lost her powers at this point, and doesn't know how to deal with it. She's also worried about the threat of the Upside Down returning, which it unfortunately does in season 4. How many times can you face the same horrors over again without feeling like you're losing pieces of yourself and that it's all out of your control?

Except El isn't alone in her fight, no matter how bleak it seems. As Jonathan points out, she still has the support of her friends and family, and all of them will be there for her. They love her regardless of whether or not she has powers. That's a truly beautiful thing to have.

As I've noted before in other reviews (especially Dungeons and Dragons), the final fight between Vecna's forces won't just have El dealing with it all by herself. It's always been a team effort from everyone since season 1, and I do not see that dynamic changing in season 5 without the Duffer Brothers betraying the core themes of friendship and family on the show. Whether or not El will be the one delivering the killing blow to Vecna remains to be seen though.

Overall, I'd recommend this for a read.

Summer Special:

Remember back in my review of The Bully when I talked about how the graphic novel followed the events of season 2 through the eyes of Troy and James? That's pretty much the same formula the Summer Special uses. This time, it takes place in season 3, and it follows Officers Callahan and Powell in the week leading up to the 4th of July.

Like most of the fandom, I never cared for Callahan and Powell. I don't hate them to the extent I hate characters like Billy or Angela, but I still find them obnoxious, and have never been impressed with the "lazy bumbling cop" stereotypes they seem to embody. Unfortunately, this short comic doesn't do much to change that.

The best summary of the plot is that it basically runs on one joke: Callahan and Powell are present during key moments in season 3 (i.e. Billy getting possessed by the Mind Flayer, Doris Driscoll and the other Flayed at Brimborn Steelworks, Alexei's death at the carnival, the Battle of Starcourt, etc), and just when it looks like the two of them might actually find out about the Upside Down and figure out everything that's been going on............they don't. They either miss stuff, dismiss it on sight, or get distracted by trivial crap in their pursuit of trying to be "good cops." It's a joke repeated through-out the comic, and it's one that gets old real fast.

I didn't find this joke funny the first time they did it, and every other time after that made it more annoying.

The comic contains some glaring continuity errors. For example, when Powell and Callahan find Billy's car at Brimborn Steelworks the night he's possessed by the Mind Flayer, the date is July 1st in the comic. However, on the show, the actual date was the evening of June 29th, the same night Billy was set to hook up with Karen.

On top of that, the comic illustrates Billy leaving the steelwork factory different from how he did on the show. Here, he's depicted as quietly sneaking out when Powell and Callahan come to investigate:

But on the show, he is literally running for his life in a panic the moment he gets free of the Mind Flayer, desperately to escape it and not caring about how much of a ruckus he made leaving. If we're taking this comic as canon (which I am not because of all its inconsistencies), it's hard to believe Powell and Callahan wouldn't have heard Billy going back to his car.

There's also other contradictory dates: Doris Driscoll (the old lady Nancy and Jonathan visit in S3 who's later possessed by the Mind Flayer) is established on the show as being taken to the hospital on July 1st. However, the comic depicts this happening on July 2nd. This also apparently happened the same night a possessed Driscoll abducted Powell and took him to the Steelworks factory where the Mind Flayer was, which makes it even more confusing. It also creates a big plot-hole for why the other Flayed never came after Powell later despite Powell witnessing a bunch of them at the factory in the process of attacking his car.

The only moment I semi-liked in this comic was this scene reaffirming how much of a sleazy womanizing piece-of-shit Billy is, and how other people in-universe see him like this as well:

Other than that, and some decent artwork per usual, this comic felt rushed and not well put together as it should have been.

As much as I don't care for Callahan and Powell as characters, I wouldn't mind a comic centered on them provided there was an actual point for it. If they're going to focus on side characters, then actually develop them in a way that's meaningful instead of constantly playing them for laughs. There's an entire story they could have been explored when Powell became the new Chief of Police in Hawkins after Hopper's supposed death in season 3, and how he was forced to adjust to the position and take on new responsibilities. That would have been far more interesting than what they did here. This just came off like a waste.

As you can probably tell, I'm not recommending this comic. The good news is it's not particularly pricey (I got it for $1.99 on Kindle), so if you do want to check it out for yourselves and make your own judgments, there's no harm in doing so. But there are better comics you could spend time and money on.

[horrorcrawl]

Island of Terror (1967) 🥼

Director: Terence Fisher (Planet Film Productions) Genres: Scifi Horror, Creature feature (Science) 🔬 Notes: Laboratory, lab experiment, Cool creature fx, radiation, well paced, medical science, Peter Cushing, "No Bones?"

Review: This is a great Scifi Horror film! If you like Dr. Who and practical creature fx with lots of campy action, good atmosphere and great paced story then this is for you! I loved watching the weird little creatures slide around and whip their tentacles at our heroes. My favorite part being near the beginning when scientists went around saying "No Bones?" over and over and over, made me laugh. I had more fun than I thought going into this which was a nice surprise as I normally don't go for many old Scifi films. Overall I give Island of Terror(1967): Worth the Watch! 🧪

-Warnings for Folks- Gore: Hand get chopped off, liquified people fx

[thewarmestplacetohide]

Dread by the Decade: Son of Ingagi

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½

Plot: A missing link brought back from Africa terrorizes a pair of newlyweds.

Review: While historically significant as the first horror film to feature an all black cast, Son of Ingagi is, otherwise, a terrible, barely coherent slog.

Year: 1940 Genre: Creature Feature, Sci-Fi Horror Country: United States Language: English Runtime: 1 hour 10 minutes

Director: Richard C. Kahn Writer: Spencer Williams Cinematographers: Roland Price, Spencer Williams, Herman Schopp, Laura Bowman Editor: Dan Milner Cast: Alfred Grant, Daisy Bufford, Zack Williams, Laura Bowman, Spencer Williams

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Story: 0.5/5 - A mess of sci-fi and mystery cliches worsened by plot holes and uncompelling characters.

Performances: 2/5 - Range from generic to downright stiff and unnatural.

Cinematography: 2.5/5 - While fairly cheap, there are a few imaginative shots used to imply violence.

Editing: 1.5/5

Sets: 2/5 - Obvious sets, but with some attempted diversity.

Costumes, Hair, & Make-Up: 2.5/5 - N'Gina's make-up is extremely underwhelming. The rest of the costumes and make-up are fine.

Trigger Warnings:

Mild violence

Implied threat of sexual violence