From The Philippines

 

 (imdb)

WOMAN IN THE WOODS-2020-Jason (Brian Sy), a Canadian of Philippine extraction, returns to The Philippines after the death of his father. Getting lost in the jungle, he meets Magayon (Mercedes Cabral), a spirit no one else can see, who's wounded. He gets help from Batibat, a local woman who tells him a legend. Then he starts on a tedious aimless adventure while being pursued by a pack of warriors. 

The giant with the tusks was kind of cool but the rest of this is meandering nonsense. The director Kevin Ang also worked as an animator on several Marvel productions.

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Pistola

 

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THE CURSE OF LA PISTOLA-2022-Sleep inducing bullshit about two couples with relationship problems camping out in a South America forest that is haunted by some kind of vampire ghost. It's talky and dark and very annoying. Feature film debut for director AJ Jones. He also acts in it as do several of the film's other producers. It's based on an actually Latin America legend. 

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Aztec Hero

 

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THE PUMAMAN-1980-Jane Dotson (Sydne Rome) discovers that an ancient mask of The Pumaman has alien technology in it. However, two stuck up guys don't want anyone to know so one of them Kobras (Donald Pleasence) hypnotizes her. He then sets his sights on killing The Pumaman, an alien protector with "god like" powers connected to an Aztec legend.

 In England, where several Americans have been killed, an American archaeologist Prof. Tony Farms (Walter George Alton) is a smug wise ass who likes to jog. He's pursued by a big guy Vadinho (Miguel Angel Fuentes; also in FITZCARRALDO (1982)) who throws him out a window. Farms survives and is told he's the Pumaman but doesn't believe it. Later he's invited by Jane to visit her father at the Swedish embassy but it's really a ruse by Kobras to find out if Farms is the P-man. When Farms puts on a gold belt, he becomes The Pumaman, in a superhero costume and cape. He must save the world from Kobras and his conquest scheme and rescue Jane from his clutches. 

This Italian feature directed by Alberto Di Martino (THE BLANCHEVILLE MONSTER 1963)) has very bad sfx.

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Dubious Documentary

 

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A RACE OF GIANTS-2015-This wildly speculative documentary is about the discovery of giant skeleton bones across the Americas. It sites many examples (some proven hoaxes) and says The Smithsonian Institute was created specifically to gather and destroy giant skeletal bones to create a cover-up that would undermine Charles Darwin's theories. It speculates there once was a war between Native Americans and a race of man eating giants. It also mentions that St. Christopher was a giant who encountered dog headed man eating giants. 

It also discusses mound builders, gigantism, the Nephilim,Stonehenge and ancient Indian legends. Director J. Michael Long has done a lot of videos on UFOs, aliens, etc.

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How Scary?

 

 (TMDB)

LET'S SCARE JESSICA TO DEATH-1971-Jessica (Zohra Lampert) and her husband Duncan (Barton Heyman) leave NYC to live in an old farmhouse after Jessica has been released from a mental institution. Accompanying them is their hippie friend Woody (Kevin O'Connor). The nearby town is occupied by unfriendly men who all seem to have bandages on some part of their bodies. Jessica has strange visions and hears voices but says nothing fearing her Duncan will think her illness is returning. When they get to the house, they are surprised to find Emily (Gretchen Corbett), a kind of hippie squatter living there. Jessica invites her to stay for a while. An antique dealer tells the couple about a woman who drowned right before her wedding. Local legend says she still exists and roams the island as a vampire. Are Jessica's suspicions and visions real or only in her head? 

This film has garnered some accolades recently even touted as one of the scariest movies ever! It's interesting to a point but the actors sometimes seem as though they are making up their dialogue as they go along. The strange open-ended finale doesn't really explain things. 2 years later, director John Hancock made BANG THE DRUM SLOWLY.

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Russia Legend

 

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THE SWORD AND THE DRAGON-1956-This tale is based on a legend. Ivan (Boris Andreyev), a man crippled since birth watches helplessly as the Tugars, a barbarian horde rape, pillage and burn. Some travelers give Ivan a magic elixir that restores him and he becomes a mighty warrior dedicating his life to defending his homeland and defeating the Tugars. After battling and capturing a wind demon and assembling a group of fighting friends, his pregnant wife is kidnapped. Tugar leader Kalin (Shukur Burkhanov) wants to make her his bride but she rebuffs him. 

Instead, he takes her son Little Falcon and raises him as a Tugar. Later Ivan and his son meet on the battlefield and Ivan shows his son what's going down. They join forces and have to battle a three headed dragon in the finale. 

The Russian color fantasy is based on poems about the knight Iiya Muromets. Roger Corman got a hold of it a few years after it was made and had it re-edited, changing some names and having news journalist Mike Wallace do some new narration and Paul Frees dub some voices. The director Aleksandr Ptushko also made another fantasy adventure around this time, THE DAY THE EARTH FROZE.

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Pulgasari

PULGASARI-1985-In feudal Korea, a cruel governor makes all his subjects give up their iron so he can make weapons. An old metal worker is imprisoned and beaten for not cooperating. His future son in law Inde and his group of bandits fight back but are also imprisoned. Before he dies the old man creates a small statue of a creature and prays to the gods. After his death, his daughter Ami takes the figure home. While sewing she pricks her finger and some blood drops on the creature which immediately comes to life! It likes to eat metal and grows bigger as it does. It saves Inde from getting his head chopped off. Later after Inde’s mom and little bro are killed, he and bandits attack the governor's fortress. They win so the king orders General Fuan to crush them. 

The farmers flee to the hills for their last big encounter but Ami brings Pulgasari to help. The farmers give all their iron to it and it starts growing to Godzilla size. But Fuah has Ami captured and forces Pulgasari into a cage that's set a fire (it seems like an elaborate set up that they put together in no time). Pulgasari seems to die but reappears as a red hot monster that sends the army fleeing in terror. Later the farmers decide to attack first. The general comes up with another plan. Lure the monster into a giant hole (which the army dug again in no time!) and have an old priestess exorcise the monster (because the blacksmith’s spirit is in it). The exorcism features some colorfully dressed women dancers. Pulgasari falls into the hole and is buried under a hail of rocks. Inde is captured and hanged. However you can't keep a good monster down and Pulgasari escapes its rock prison to lead the farmers in an attack on the capital city. Despite making new weapons, Pulgasari destroys the enemy stronghold and crushes the king. Literally! 

With that out of the way, it turns its hunger for iron toward the farmers. “Our savior has become our enemy”. Ami seems to sacrifice her life to destroy the giant but in the end the spirit of the mini Pulgasari enters her body, though she doesn't appear to be alive. Fun giant monster film from Korea.

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Early American Haunting

AN AMERICAN HAUNTING-2005-A teenage girl has recurring nightmares. Her mom reads a letter written by her ancestor in 1817. It tells the story of John Bell (Donald Sutherland) who is admonished by his church in a land dispute with a woman said to be a witch. Believing she has been treated unfairly she puts a curse on John and his family. Later his daughter Betsey (Rachel Hurd-Wood) is terrorized by an unseen force. She's thrown around, suspended in mid-air and slapped. She gets very mean and aggressive and seems possessed. A disbelieving school teacher (James D'Arcy, also in EXORCIST: THE BEGINNING around the same time) tries to help and soon is a believer.

This was the second feature made by director Courtney Solomon. He later served as producer on movies like the execrable CAPTIVITY and the forgettable UNIVERSAL SOLDIER: REGENERATION. But unlike most horror movies these days, he uses a minimum of gory effects relying more on lighting, mood, fast paced scenes, competent acting and a non-supernatural ending.

Though AN AMERICAN HAUNTING is based on a novel by Brent Monahan, there is also an incident purported to have happened in the 19^th century and chronicled in a book called “An Authentic History of The Bell Witch” published in 1891 by someone named Martin Van Buren Ingram. However historians today believe it is more legend than fact.

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Boggy Creek

THE LEGEND OF BOGGY CREEK-1972-This pseudo-documentary (very popular in the '70's) is about a legendary Bigfoot like monster prowling around the swamps in Arkansas. It's mostly staged scenes but the dialogue and narration are funny. 

The narrator (an adult who encountered the monster as a little boy) sets up the other “encounters” by giving background on the characters and their situations before they are terrorized. The songs “The Legend of Boggy Creek” and “Nobody Sees The Sun But Me” are occasionally heard. The narrator says things like “The creeks. He always follows the creeks” and partially blames the creature's attacks on “lonely frustration”.The barely seen hairy beast only attacks one person and mostly kills chickens, dogs and cats plus frightening humans. Since some actors (like Smokey Crabtree and his son Travis) are playing themselves so I guess there is a sort of real story to the whole thing. But it's all reenactments including the footage of the “the legend”.

TLOBC was shot and directed by Charles B. Pierce in his film debut. He went on to make other regional films including THE TOWN THAT DREADED SUNDOWN, THE NORSEMEN and the semi-sequel BOGGY CREEK ll: THE LEGEND CONTINUES in 1984 which despite the title is actually the second sequel. The first sequel RETURN TO BOGGY CREEK is really a children's movie. Pierce was also a set designer for bigger budgeted films and wrote the story for the Dirty Harry installment SUDDEN DEATH in which the catch phrase “Make my day” was first used. 

Music was composed by Bolivian born Jaime Mendoza-Nava, who wrote tons of low budget soundtracks.

Excellent shot of the Bigfoot from THE LEGEND OF BOGGY CREEK:

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Der Golem!

THE GOLEM-1920-This famous German film, based on a legend is very dark and very fascinating. When the stars foretell an astrologer Rabbi Loew that there is danger in store for the Jews of Prague (as it turns out the King wants to expel them) he creates The Golem (director George Wegener), a clay statue brought to life by an ancient spell. It's power lies in the Star of David (with a name on it) attached to it's chest. He's very strong and sometimes child-like but mostly he seems bored. He's first used mainly as a servant chopping wood, carrying water and even going to market with a basket!

At The Rose Festival The Golem saves the king's life (who then rescinds his decree) while the Rabbi's daughter Miriam and the knight Florian have an affair. With the danger passed Loew decides The Golem isn't needed anymore (the clay fella seems to be getting a little to independent anyway) and plans to destroy him but a celebration delays the destruction. The Rabbi's assistant (who is sweet on Miriam) revives the creature to get jealous revenge on her secret lover. Things get out of control: Florian is thrown to his death, the astrologer's house burns down and Herr Golem hits the streets while dragging Miriam by her hair!). Some little children spell his doom at the end.

This was the third time actor/director Paul Wegener made a film based on the Golem legend but unfortunately the first two films are lost. This version was photographed by the great Karl Freund who later shot METROPOLIS. He later brought his talents to America (and directed THE MUMMY with Karloff and MAD LOVE with Peter Lorre). It must have had an impact on James Whale as there are many FRANKENSTEIN parallels.

Strangely, despite their involvement with mysticism the Jews of Prague themselves and their devotion to God are shown sympathetically yet Wegener stayed in Germany after the rise of Hitler and made propaganda films for the Nazis! He died in 1948.

This film by the way is in the public domain. Thanks again to Tony for getting me this!

For another review of Wegener:http://moviemeltdown.blogspot.com/2011/03/silent-magic.html

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Different Stuff

IKINAI-1998-11 men agree to commit group suicide by staging a bus accident so the insurance money can go to their families. Aragaki (Screenwriter Dankan from GETTING ANY?) is their unsmiling leader. A young girl accidentally winds up on the doomed bus and complicates things. This is an unusual black comedy from Japan that’s serious, funny and poignant. Director Hiroshi Shimizu was an assistant director to Beat Takeshi on several films.



GOLIATH AND THE DRAGON-1960-Strongman Goliath (American Mark Forest) fights a variety of creatures (a giant bat, 3 headed fire breathing dragon, etc) in his quest to rid his land of the evil King Eurystheus (Academy Award Winner Broderick Crawford with dubbed voice). There’s a lot of sub-plot in this mostly involving Goliath’s younger brother who’s in love with a woman who Goliath thinks killed his parents (or something like that). The dialogue is very funny and the effects very cheesy but the Alpha Video DVD letterboxed print I saw looked terrific. Laughable but great for “the sword & isandal “ fans!

(Thanks to my friend Mike for lending me this)



THE CHINESE GODS-1980-Very strange animated fantasy from Hong Kong. Ancient gods of legend battle evil demons. When the going gets tough they enlist Bruce Lee (with a third eye) to help! He turns into a dinosaur at one point and makes a lot of Bruce Lee like noises when he fights but sounds more like Curly Howard! It’s goofy but kind of entertaining. Strangely the animation itself seems geared toward kids yet it features much violence and a little nudity.

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