War Is Crazy

5 GATES TO HELL-1959-Vietnam (French Indo China) 1950 is the setting for this crazy little war film!

More exploitation than propaganda, it tells the tale of a international medical team that's captured by some Asian rebels who want the doctor (Ken Scott) of the group to "heal" their dying leader. Second in command Chen Pamok (Neville Brand speaking pidgin English but not made up to look Asian!) takes a fancy to nurse Athena (Dolores Michaels) while the rest of the women (including THE FLY's Patricia Owens, Nobu McCarthy, future BEVERLY HILLBILLIES co-star Nancy Kulp and nun Shirley Knight) are abused by the army. The group (there's one other "western" male played by John Morley) stages an uprising where it seems Chen is killed but so are the doctors. The women escape but Chen somehow survives and pursues them. The women eventually have to fight it out in the climax.

Benson Fong hangs around as Chen's leering assistant. Irish McCalla (same year as SHE DEMONS) has a small role as a nun who's crucified (basically shown off screen).

5 was written produced and directed by James Clavell who later became much more famous for his novels like SHOGUN. He had written the screenplay to THE FLY and later directed TO SIR WITH LOVE. Some close-ups seem out of place but where else are you going to see TV's Miss Hathaway wearing an army helmet and fooling around with a grenade?

Thanks once again to my pal Tony for getting this to me and thanks to anyone who reads this!

Blackout

BLACKOUT-2007-In this Philippines based drama a landlord named Gil (Robin Padilla) suffers from seemingly alcoholic blackouts, He lives in a dingy apartment with his young son after his wife has left them. One night it seems he has killed his neighbor's young daughter while driving. Reality seems to blur for Gil. This is really not a horror film. It's more like a eerie psychological study on alcoholism directed by Ato Bautista.

Thanks for reading!

What a Town!

A TOWN CALLED PANIC-2009-This is a very crazy and imaginative animation from Belgium. A plastic toy Indian (called Indian) and a plastic toy cowboy (called Cowboy) decide to build a brick barbeque as a birthday present for their friend Horse (a plastic toy horse). This begins their troubles as the stupid duo destroys their house (after having a strange birthday party for Horse). They try to re-build it but someone steals their walls. It turns out some underwater creatures are the culprits and the trio goes after them. Along the way they are nearly burned at the Earth's core and held prisoners by 3 mad scientists with incredible strength who operate a snowball making robot. If you want to see animated horses dance, play the piano and a work a computer this is the movie for you. It's based on an earlier TV version.
T
hanks for reading!

More K-Horror

Wow! I've been busy doing "things" in the real world. But I have watched a lot of movies so here I go again!




DARK FOREST (OF DEATH)-2006-More horror craziness from South Korean. A mother tells her daughter about passing on a curse and then deliberately causes a car accident that kills the mother. A few years later the daughter and some friends go camping in the woods and encounter some evil spirits that kill most of campers and reanimates them to kill who's left alive.

Obviously inspired by THE EVIL DEAD this was the last installment of a series called "4 Horror Tales". It's very gory and drawn out. The finale where the last two survivors are terrorized seems to go on forever!
The director Jeong-min Kim uses split screen, freeze frames, fast cuts and some shots through a camcorder but basically it's still just the "campers getting killed by an unknown killer" premise done to death (no pun intended) by the end of the 1980's!

Thanks for reading!