Happy New Year!

AREA 407-Another BLAIR WITCH PROJECT inspired movie has the story of some plane crash survivors told through the POV camera of one of the young passengers. The bloodied and battered survivors are menaced by some kind of dinosaur. After a small group find a cabin to hide in, a car pulls up and asks some questions but then drives away. After much terror and an adventure in a car only two sisters remain but they are killed by a driver who picks them up. It's never explained but it's obvious it's some kind of experimental base created by our "evil" government. There's also a government warning leader at the start.

Great finale scene!

I liked this better than CLOVERFIELD! It had two directors.  A Part 2 was recently made...

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Green Dragon

THE GREEN DRAGON INN-1977-This is another crazy period piece Kung-Fu movie (from Taiwan). It's full of fights, several characters that are hard to distinguish from each other, a confused story and bad dubbing. The son of a local warlord kills a family. 2 swordsmen, Silent Tracker (Lieh Lo from FIVE FINGERS OF DEATH) and Bold Dragon (Yueh Hua) hunt him separately. They clash several times. The son is taken into custody and some incompletent assassins try to free him. It's kept at the title place which is rigged with different deadly trap. This also features a "white ninja" woman (Polly Shang Kuan).

The director was an actor and stuntman too.

Also known as BRUCE IS LOOSE...for some reason...

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Beneath....

BENEATH THE DARK-2011-A horny couples' hotel sex is foiled by the guy's inability to perform. There's a weird hotel manager and a strange security guard. The guy named Paul (Josh Stewart) meets a black man  (Afemo Omilami) who says "I'm the son of god". The security guard is caught on camera doing something with woman's underwear and is fired. Meanwhile Paul's wife (Jamie-Lynn Sigler) changes her clothes and cheats on him. A lurid video of Paul's college initiation plays into the crappy story. The whole thing turns into a CARNIVAL OF SOULS rip-off with a little of THE SHINING (and MANOS, HANDS OF FATE!) thrown in. The director Chad Feehan must have hit his head hard before making this....

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One Man, One Alien, One Horrible Movie

HUNTER PREY-2010-This movie really sucks. Some "hunters" in armored suits are tracking a creature ("the last of it's kind") on a desert world. They carry guns and shields but seem to be no match for their prey. Much of their dialogue was hard for me to understand. The two remaining hunters are weird looking aliens but at least when the take off their helmets they are easier to understand. There is also lots of walking and talking in this movie. Of course their prey turns out to be a human being. They want information but eventually the human turns the tables on the stupid aliens. It's almost like a live action anime except it's not cool....

 The director Sandy Collora, a protege' of Stan Winston will hopefully forget directing and stick to doing what he does best, SFX.

Overage Teenagers

UNTAMED YOUTH-1957-Two hitch-hiking sisters Jane (Mamie Van Doren) and Penny (Lori Nelson; THE DAY THE WORLD ENDED) are arrested for skinny dipping by a local sheriff (Robert Foulk). A corrupted judge (Lurene Tuttle; MA BARKER'S KILLER BROOD) sends them to an "agricultural" work farm to pick cotton. It's just a front to provide cheap labor for the mean owner Mr. Tropp (TV actor John Russell). Almost immediately upon arriving Penny breaks into song when in her under-wear! Then Jane gets into a cat fight with the owner's former mistress (Jeanne Carmen; THE MONSTER OF PIEDRAS BLANCAS). The judge's son Bob (Don Burnett) goes to work there and early rock and roll legend Eddie Cochran leads the male prisoners and sings "Cotton Picker". There's a wild dance number where Jane sings and the old cook calls their dancing "African antics"!  

Tropp gives Penny an "audition" at his house but when he puts the moves on her Bob helps her escape. He sics his dogs on her but once again Bob saves her. When Bob complains to his mom about a female prisoner dying and the conditions at the farm, mom reveals her secret: she and Tropp are secretly married. "Man oh man, this is wild ain't it?". To complecate things Bob and Penny fall in love. In the end Penny gets to do a Calypso number on TV!

Rock and Roll, illegal immigration, corruption and teenage (?) rebellion are combined in this far fetched but entertaining musical drama or drama with music maybe??

Director Howard W. Koch had already made BOP GIRL GOES CALYPSO the same year as UNTAMED YOUTH, and would also directed Van Doren again in THE GIRL IN BLACK STOCKINGS. The next year he'd directed Karloff in FRANKENSTEIN 1970.

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Hong Kong Craziness

FATAL FLYING GUILLOTINE-1979-Shen Mo Chao (Chan Sing) has spent years in solitude (after he "got sick through too much exercise"!) perfecting his "lightening strike". He also has a strange weapon, "the flying guillotine". Some guys with swords try to take it away and he kills them. After the credits his son Shen (Carter Wong) fights a bunch of monks. To get medicine for his sick mom he must face three trials. The third is to fight the master of the Shaolin monastary. Unfortunately he fails. The monks want Shen Sr. and his weapon on their side and send out a group of fighters (to No Return Valley) to find him. They don't fare too well. All but one is killed by Shen's crazy weapon. The son tries the 3rd trial again and wins (but he kind of cheated). They give him a book that will help mom, however on his way back he's attacked and thrown off a cliff into the water. He survives but a rainstorm also impedes his progress. Fortunately he makes it back in time to give mom the elixir that cures her but only for a few minutes. She dies anyway but not before telling Shen all about his evil father. After several other twists, plot holes and more characters entering the action, father and son battle it out in a crazy finale that ends very abruptly.

This has nothing to do with the better known MASTER OF THE FLYING GUILLOTINE from 1975 (or it's sequel). Director Raymond Lui was also an actor and stuntman.

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Korea

THE HOUSEMAID-2010-A young girl becomes the new maid/nanny for a rich decedent couple with a small daughter. Along with having to put up with the stone faced Mrs. Cho, she has to watch the daughter, cook meals and even wash the hair of the pregnent wife. The wine drinking husband sort of seduces the maid and they have an affair. She winds up pregent herself. Mrs. Cho finds out and tells the wife's mother. She tries to kill the maid and make it look like an accident but the maid is only slightly hurt. When the husband goes on a business trip the wife and Mrs. Cho decide to punish her. They poison her but she survives although she loses her baby. The maid vows revenge but in the end she hangs herself (and sets herself on fire) in front of the whole family. Much has been made about the ambiguous final scene which to me seems to signify insanity.

Director Sang-soo Im puts together a lot of excellent scenes in this Korean thriller/mystery but the story could have been better. It's a remake of a 1960 film.

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