“Your Weapons Have No Affect On Me”

 

 (imdb)

THE PRINCE OF SPACE-1959-In Japan, the evil alien Phantom Dictator (Joji Oka) wants the secret formula Dr. Maki (Ushio Akashi) has. The aliens have big fake noses that kind of look like birds. However, a mysterious superhero Prince of Space (Tatsuo Umemiya) shows up to thwart the bad guys. Some little kids get in the way. 

Known as “Planet Prince” in Japan, it's based on TV show and was shown in several installments in Japanese theaters. It's a typical fun outing but those “beaked” aliens are hilarious! It was shown in US theaters in 1965. Eijiro Wakabayshi was the director. 

The character was rebooted in 2021 as PLANET PRINCE 2021.

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Step Right Up!

 

 (imdb)

STEPS FROM HELL-1990-Some vampire demon Vlad (Bernardo Rosa) is searching for a gateway. The tale seems to be told in flashback by a writer to his would-be research assistant. They both act like they'd rather be someplace else. After his father is killed, a priest (Ron O'Dell) goes looking for Vlad, whose chief henchman is a huge black transvestite. He has a funny fight with a black couple in the woods. Later he and a ghoul girl attack some guys in a van and eat one of them. One guy who escapes beats up the huge guy with terrible martial arts moves but is killed anyway. Then later suddenly the big guy is chasing a woman. She beats him with a stick and stabs him but the undead woman grabs her. Later the priest fights Vlad in a good vs. evil finale in slow motion. Beelzebub shows up at the end too. 

The date on the film is 1990 but it looks like some washed out regional release made in the early '70's with bright lighting that suddenly goes dark, outrageously bad acting (most of the actors seem in a coma), too much talk and all the voices seem to be slowed down somewhat. Writer/director James Adam Tucker was also an actor (He played a cop on John Waters' HAIRSPRAY).

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"Stepping High" by Eddie Murray:

https://youtu.be/gT_VKzw18S8?si=x-DaJoAtd5ZRLZgy

Lovecraftian

 

 (themoviedb.org)

FROM BEYOND-1986-Dr. Tillingast (Jeffery Combs) is accused of killing his superior Dr. Pretorius (Ted Sorel) who's found decapitated. He says something bit off Pretorius' head. They were working on a machine dubbed “the Pretorius resonator”) that stimulates the pineal gland. A notorious psychiatrist Katherine McMichaels (Barbra Crampton) doesn't believe Tillingast is insane and takes him back to where they were experimenting. Police Sgt. Brownlee (Ken Foree) accompanies them. They turn on the machine and meet the nude reanimated body of Dr. P. He turns into a whatziz and almost eats them but Tillingast turns the machine off. McMichael becomes obsessed with learning more. After almost being eaten again, she escapes and after doing her famous s & m scene has to fight the bizarrely transformed Pretorius. Later everyone thinks she's insane. A crazed female doctor wants her to have shock therapy. She escapes and Tillingast runs around the hospital killing people. When she returns to destroy the resonator, Tillingast kidnaps her. Pretorius somehow returns and terrorizes her. She defeats him and goes insane. 

A lot of disgusting SFX (by a huge crew) made this a cult film but Crampton helped too. She was later on the TV soap operas “The Guiding Light” and “The Bold and The Beautiful”. Conceptual art by Neal Adams. An Empire Pictures release, filmed in Italy, Charles Band was one of the producers. 

Director Stuart Gordon had already become a cult like director after making RE-ANIMATOR (1985), also with Crampton & Combs. Producer Brian Yuzna co-wrote the screenplay with Dennis Paoli based on the HP Lovecraft short story “From Beyond”. A more recent adaptation of the same story is BANSHEE CHAPTER (2013).

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Terror Stuff

 

 (imdb)

TERROR EYES-1989-A dapper mysterious man (Daniel Roebuck) gives a white trash couple a book titled “The Book of Life”. It seems to foretell their deaths. When the husband tries to destroy the book with acid, he starts to burn up. This turns out to be a dream by a writer (associate producer/co-writer Vivian Schilling). Her husband (also Roebuck) explains that she is an advertising writer who's been hired for some inexplicable reason to write a horror movie. Then she's chased through some winding corridors by an unseen monster. Then the couple go on a camping trip with 2 other couples. A demon seems to kill the husband and pretends to be him, acting like a loony. 

Finally, camper Manny relates his tale (The Alibi). It's the stupid story of a loser being set up by a guy who wants to kill his wife. It really sucks. In another tale (Snake Eyes), a female chess champion is kidnapped by an adult video gamer and put into a game where she confronts the owner.

 Uniformly bad horror anthology with terrible acting,direction,sfx and failed attempts at humor. Three directors are credited. One Michael Rissi directed SOULTAKER the next year (also with Schilling) and another Stephen Sommers went on to make the big scale productions THE MUMMY (1999) and its sequels! As of this writing his name was attached to a remake of “When Worlds Collide”.

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Where No Blog Has Gone Before...Not!

 

 (amazon.com)

WILLIAM SHATNER'S MYSTERIES OF THE GODS-1977-Bill (with a lot of hair) starts to narrate after a model of the Enterprise is shown. He starts in prehistoric times speculating that giants may have shared the Earth with dinosaurs then examining cave drawings made by various ancient peoples across the globe. He asks "who were the ancient astronauts?" Then proceeds to talk about the gods and legends of different tribes across the Earth. His interview with a NASA scientist goes on too long. Dr. Dennis Hauck who's interviewed later wrote an unauthorized bio of Bill titled "Captain Quirk". A woman who owns a crystal skull tells a story about a woman who laughed at the skull and died soon after. Jean Dixon is also interviewed. Erich Von Daniken makes a brief appearance as this was actually a German production based on one of his books. 

This might have been trying to cash in on the fact that Shatner's buddy Leonard Nimoy began hosting the long running TV show “In Search Of” the same year. The ex-TJ Hooker is now the host and executive producer of History Channel's “The UnXplained”.

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Cry Uncle

 

 (themoviedb.org)

MY UNCLE JOHN IS A ZOMBIE-2016-Years after a zombie apocalypse, some of the undead can co-exist with humans, especially a smart ass named Uncle John (John Russo, a co-executive producer who wrote the screenplay and co-directed). He's interviewed by a reporter Mandy. His niece Cy Fi & nephew Oscar take care of him. Detective Smart investigates some murders that may have been committed by John. It's also a takeoff on reality shows. Lloyd Kaufman shows up to promote Troma. Terrible acting. Russell Streiner (from the original) and Debra Rochon have small roles 

This kind of vanity production seems to be washed up writer Russo's last desperate attempt to gain the stardom he's craved since penning NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD in 1968. He also wrote some of the dumb songs.

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One's Enough

 

 (imdb)

SCORPIO ONE-1998-Terrible sf outer space junk about some CIA agents who go into space to investigate a space station where the whole crew has been killed. Robert Carradine (doing a lot of TV around this time), Jeff Speakman (THE PERFECT WEAPON (1991) and Robin Curtis (STAR TREK 3: THE SEARCH FOR SPOCK (1984)) star. 

The director Worth Keeter later worked on several “Power Rangers” series.

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