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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Anime Japan

 

 (imdb)

THE LITTLE PRINCE AND THE EIGHT HEADED DRAGON-1964-A strong, bullying little brat named Sasano beats up a tiger. He's very close to his mom. When she dies, he goes on a crying jag. His mom's spirit comes back briefly and gives him a red medallion. When his father won't give him a boat, he builds his own and sets out across the ocean to find his mother. Only a rabbit will go with him. After beating up a giant fish, the lord of the ocean helps him visit The Land of Night where his brother lives. After fighting and defeating The Fire God, a giant named Akahana joins them and they go to The Land of Light. They make a mess of things there and plunge the land into darkness. After being thrown out, he goes to The Land of The Morning Sun and meets The Little Princess, who Sasano thinks resembles his mom, and her pet mouse. He eventually fights and defeats the dragon, gets a message from mom and lives happily ever after. 

Great early '60's anime that's not only entertaining but influential. Director Yugo Serikawa later made other Anime features including CYBORG 009 and MAZINGER Z. 

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Wood on TV?

 

 (youtube)

FINAL CURTAIN-1957-In an empty theater, the lead actor (Duke Moore) in the play "The Vampire" investigates the spirit world which is supposed to exist after the living have left. He thinks about various spooky things and screams when he hears the cries of a cat. Later he decides to explore. In one room he finds a life like mannequin (Jenny Stevens; also in NIGHT OF THE GHOULS) which seems to come to life. Eventually, he finds what he's looking for. 

This short film (22 minutes) was produced, written and directed by Ed Wood Jr. as a pilot for a planned TV series “Portraits in Terror”. If the scenes with the mannequin seem familiar, most of it (probably Wood's best work) was used in his NIGHT OF THE GHOULS (1959). The bombastic desperate out of control (but typical Wood) narration is by Dudley Manlove.

Once thought to be a lost film, a copy was discovered by the great grand-nephew of Paul (Kelton the Cop) Marco.

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Haunted

 

HAUNTER-2013-A young girl Lisa (Abigail Breslin) experiences the same events with her family over and over. It's the eve of a birthday that never comes, her father endlessly fixes their car, mom prepares the same meals every night and her little brother plays the same video game and talks to an imaginary friend. It turns out she and her family are dead, the victims of a serial killer Edgar Mullins (Stephen McHattie) who once lived in their house. He possessed Lisa's father and killed the family. Now a new family has moved into the house and Lisa tries to prevent Edgar from killing again. 

This starts off promising but goes on too long. Director Vincenzo Natali made another movie I liked better CUBE (1997).

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Silent House

SILENT HOUSE-2011-A father (Adam Trese) and his daughter Sarah (Elizabeth Olsen) try to restore their rundown old family house with the help of Peter (Eric Sheffer Stevens), the man's brother. After nothing much happens the girl starts to hear strange noises. And when her father goes to investigate he disappears. She starts to see visions of a little girl and is pursued by an unseen figure. Despite the real time premise and use of long unedited scenes there's not much going on in the confused plot leading up to an un-supernatural ending. 

Star Olsen was later in the 2014 remake of GODZILLA and plays The Scarlet Witch in several Marvel Comics related movies. This was made by the husband and wife team of Chris Kentis and Laura Lau who did the excellent and much better OPEN WATER and is actually a remake of LA CASA MUDA made in Uruguay in 2010.

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