Burroughs

 

 (imdb)

THE LAND THAT TIME FORGOT-1974-A sailor finds a bottle with a message in it. Thus is related in 1916 a German U-boat torpedoes an English ship. 2 survivors Bowen Tyler (Doug McClure) and Lisa Clayton (Susan Penhaligon) are rescued by some of the crew who survived. The survivors take over the U-boat. Later the Germans retake the sub and going off course they wind up in the south pole, landing in the thought to be legend land of Capuria. They encounter a pterodactyl, sea monsters and a bunch of cavemen. Eventually the German crew revolt but are all killed when a volcano erupts. Only the two survive and Tyler writes his message in a bottle. 

This Amicus co-production was director Kevin Connor's second film and it's not bad with the exception of some cheap looking SFX. It's based on a novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs with the screenplay by fantasy artist James Cawthorn and fantasy writer Michael Moorcock. Connor made a sequel AT THE EARTH'S CORE two years later.

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Larry Ness Horror

 

LOCH NESS HORROR-1981-In a too dark opening scene a guy takes some pictures of the famous sea monster. "4 decades later", 2 losers go looking for "Nessie". One gets killed, the other discovers some dead Nazis and a bomber plane. Two scientists (one is Sandy Kenyon with a Scottish accent) and American Spencer Dean (Barry “son of” Buchanan) use sonar to try and find the monster with the help of local lunatic Jack Stuart (Doc Livingston) and his daughter Kathleen (Miki McKenzie with a high nails on a blackboard voice). She has Nessie's egg. Shoddy low budget nonsense with impossibly dark scenes and a terrible puppet monster. 

Since this movie was directed by Larry Buchanan Lake Tahoe subs for Scotland! And it's just plain boring too!

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Not A Poe Film

WAR GODS OF THE DEEP-1965-After Ben Harris (Tab Hunter) finds the body of Mr. Penrose washed ashore, he's attacked by a scaly creature. Later a sailor talks about an undersea city called Lyonese. Ben meets Penrose's daughter Jill (Susan Hart) and her eccentric friend Harold (David Tomlinson who complains about a sketch he made of Jill having disappeared. Ben thinks it's all connected somehow. At night Jill is captured by the same creature that attacked Ben. Following, Ben and Harold find a secret passage that leads to some caves and they see a man chained to a pole who drowns when the cave fills with water. Later they meet The Captain (Vincent Price) who rules over an underground city threatened by a volcano. He and the rest of the populace are all over 100 years old! They live near the legendary lost city where the sea creatures are the last inhabitants. To top it off The Captain thinks Jill is his late wife. The trio want to leave but aren't allowed. They plan their escape which leads to an unusual and long underwater chase/fight in clunky diving suits. They make it back to the surface but The Captain and his gang follow them. The volcano makes some statues break up and fall trapping them and The Captain. After another encounter with “the gill men”, they get to the surface. So does The Captain who quickly ages and dies. The volcano erupts and destroys both cities. 

These days WAR GODS OF THE DEEP is known CITY IN THE SEA. British writer Charles Bennett, who wrote several films for Alfred Hitchcock, wrote the original screenplay which was heavily rewritten by producer Louis Heyward in England where this was filmed. It seems to try and capitalize on the AIP-Poe films Vincent Price was starring in at the time and uses lines from the poem “City In The Sea” by Poe at the beginning and end. 

This was the last film directed by Jacques Tourneur (CAT PEOPLE, I WALK WITH A ZOMBIE) who had worked previously with Price on THE COMEDY OF TERRORS in 1963.

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Filmed in Louisiana

THE RIG-2010-Talky laughable nonsense about an underwater creature terrorizing an oil rig during a storm. The head of the rig (William Forsthye; who had the good sense to be killed 30 minutes into this) has his daughter (Serah D'Laine) and her bf (Stacey Hinnen) working there too. The rest is the slacker crew being slaughtered. Some directors just can't get out of the ALIEN/THE THING retread. Gory murders don't make a good film. 

Director Peter Atencio later made KEANU which actually played in theaters! 

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I Got Sea Sick

SEA BEAST-2008- The skipper of a fishing boat (Corin Nemec) teams with a female biologist (Camille Sullivan) to battle a strange sea creature that paralyzes its victims then eats them alive. Meanwhile his daughter (Miriam McDonald) and his first mate (Daniel Wisler) are terrorized by the creatures' babies on a nearby island. The obviously CGI created monsters have very long tongues and there's some graphic violence but a mundane and derivative movie like this always poses the question "why was this made at all?".

Director Paul Ziller has been around for a while (BACK IN ACTION, SNAKEHEAD TERROR) so you'd think he's know better!

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Canada

EYE OF THE BEAST-2007-A scientist (James Van Der Beek) goes to an island community to find out why there are hardly any fish in the lake. The white racist residents say it's the work of the local Indians, who aren't so great either. It turns out a giant squid is terrorizing the water. The sheriff (Alexandria Castillo) says it killed her father but none of her colleagues believe her. More JAWS inspired nonsense with a very bad looking monster. This Canadian production, directed by Gary Yates is part of a series of films called MANEATER.

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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.
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Early AIP

THE PHANTOM FROM 10,000 LEAGUES-1955-A weird (man in a suit) sea monster with fins, fangs and big eyes terrorizes some a coastal fishing village. Dr. Stevens (Kent Taylor) investigates when one of the victims has radiation burns. He meets Prof. King (Michael Whalen, later in MISSILE TO THE MOON) who's conducting secretive experiments. Stevens becomes sweet on King's daughter (Cathy Downs) and worries about her safety after a meeting with the monster who is guarding a strange shaft of light.

Meanwhile the Prof.'s secretary (Vivi Janiss) blames King for the death of her son. Phil Pine plays the Prof.'s assistant who's actually working for a spy ring and tries to kill Stevens with a spear gun. This a good low budget horror time waster.

PHANTOM was released by American Releasing Corporation just before they changed their name to American International Pictures. Screenwriter Lou Rusoff wrote many great "B" movies in the '50's including THE DAY THE WORLD ENDED which played on a double bill with PHANTOM.

Director Dan Milner was mostly a film editor but also made FROM HELL IT CAME (with his brother Jack who was PHANTOM's producer) two years later. Music is by the great Roland Stein.

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It's A Start...

MONSTER FROM THE OCEAN FLOOR-1954 This was the first film Roger Corman made as producer. It was a modest hit and made it's money back so as they say "the rest is history"....

Anne Kimball stars as Julie, a vacationing American artist in Mexican who decides to investigate the local legend of a one eyed sea monster. Love blooms when she meets Steve (Stuart Wade; the sheriff in TEENAGE MONSTER) a marine biologist who doesn't believe her when she finally does see the creature. The nerdy looking Dr. Baldwin (Dick Pinner) thinks the monster may be a product of the Bikini Island A-bomb tests.

Future Corman regular Jonathan Haze appears as a local with a bad accent (it's similar to his later role in IT CONQUERED THE WORLD). The monster is kind of a comical stop motion thing and it's demise is pretty silly. 

Still although it's a little talky MONSTER is a short easy to take cheapy....and it was directed by Wyott Ordung, the guy who wrote ROBOT MONSTER!!!!! He also appears as a villager who thinks Julie should be sacrificed to appease the underwater monster! Earlier Ordung had a role in Sam Fuller's FIXED BAYONETS. He directed one other film, WALK THE DARK STREET.

Cinematography is by Floyd Crosby (who'd shot HIGH NOON in '52) who would become a AIP mainstay and collaborate with Corman again in the future. Look quick for Corman himself in the brief role of "Tommy".....

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