The Fighter (2010) - Drama

The Fighter (2010) - Only the third of the Oscar nominated films this blog has reviewed this year (Inception and True Grit are the others). It is a worthy entry in what seems to be a weak year for film awareds season. Since the big change a couple years ago where ten pictures get nominated instead of five, it is almost impossible to see them all. So being picky about which one gets reviewed is half the battle. Whose idea was it anyway to dilute the pool so much? How can we be expected to dish out $11 or more a pop to see all these entries (Not counting popcorn $$ ).

The fighter is the story of brothers, boxer Mickey Ward (Mark Wahlberg) a journeyman fighter, struggling against family and economic circumstances in Lowell MA to rise to champion. Its Rocky motif except based on a true story. So naturally there are a lot of structural similarities. Rocky focused on the down and out fighter developing in the story that everyone saw him as a bum. In fact he fought just for the money, early in the movie we see him as out of shape and going through the motions. In The Fighter Mickey is shown early as a "stepping stone" fighter, on a three fight losing streak and the first fight we see him in he takes on a guy 20 pound heavier for the money. We get to see him also not fully in shape and trained up. Rocky (Sylvester Stallone) has a love interest in the shy Adrien(Talia Shire), we get to experience their early relationship developing and the arc where she is there at the end of his fight with Apollo Creed. Mickey meets Charlene (Amy Adams) a strong but flawed bartender and we get to see their relationship develop from dating until she is there with him when he wins the title. In Rocky the younger of the two corner men has a drug problem, Paulie (Burt Young) an alcoholic has a story arc where he has to fight his addictions to be able to train Rocky. He is family, the brother of Adrien so that dynamic is there to push his inclusion. Dicky Ekland (Christian Bale) Mickey's brother, former fighter and younger of the two corner men is fighting a crack addiction and has to beat it before he is part of the group for Mickey. Both movies take the fighter to a low place, early in Rocky he is nobody without a chance at anything. In the fighter after that fourth straight loss something has to change. Then the change comes, Dicky heads to prison and Mickey gets some much needed time to change the direction of his profession life recommitting to boxing. Rocky gets his title chance and recommits to the training that will give him a chance to be something other than a bum.

The movies are not the same though, although it is hard to make a boxing movie without similarities to the classic Rocky, it is not impossible as this film shows.

The Fighter creates a dual storyline, one of a fighter striving to make it in a tough profession, and second a man struggling with his place in his family and with the expectations that family can put on you. Dicky Ekland is a crack addicted former fighter, the pride of Lowell Massachusetts who once fought Sugar Ray Leonard. He has always trained his brother and is intricate to the development of the fighter. When we join the story we get to see that a camera crew is following Dicky around, for what Dicky says is an HBO film on his comeback. It strikes the viewer as odd because we know Mickey is in his early thirties so a comeback by an older brother with ten years on him seems not really possible. The contrast between the two men are very nicely managed, Mickey the quiet younger brother who looks up to his brother and is cognizant of the help he has gotten from him. Dicky who is so obviously spiraling out of control getting high and being irresponsible still is the pride of Lowell in his mothers eyes. Added to this was the incredible family dynamic, Mother Alice Ward (Melissa Leo) an overbearing matriarch who managed the fighting careers of both Dicky and now Mickey a guilt throwing poison pill for the family. Her personality is so strong that the six adult daughters and the two sons orbit her as she talks about family and dictates what behavior is allowed or not tolerated. So set in her ways that the potential break between her and Mickey is a live wire from the beginning of the film. The fact that this group of adults are so codependent is a master stroke by the writing Team Scott Silver, Paul Tamasy, Eric Johnson and Keith Dorrington, it creates a profound need for change that is also the hardest to do, that is to break from family. The family in this case is the strongest thing in Mickey's life and so the break is all the more profound. Now the story could have been lazy here leaving that turn as a black and white need to change but instead like in family relationships. The break takes place but some reconciliation also needed to take place as it did in the movie. As much as Mickey needed the break from the structure of the family in he needed new management to train and fight, he also needed his family to still be in his corner. When Dicky comes out of prison and surprisingly makes amends with Charlene, for the first time putting his brother first it is an important turning point.

I also appreciated the complete story arc for the relationship between Charlene and Mickey. They do not just meet fall in love and she helps him break from his family. It is a more complex and complete relationship with problem and challenges between them like in real life. It is a nicely drawn coupling of distinct separate personalities and did not feel like a devise.

You can get on Christian Bale for appearing to be a bit of a prick and full of himself, at least from some of the stuff that has come from our hyper entertainment media, but he really does pull of the role of Dicky. He needed to be the loudmouth crack head and pulls it off exceptionally well. Since I have yet to see the other films with nominees for Best Supporting actor I can not compare his performance but certainly the nomination seems fair. The Amy Adams character though as Best Supporting Actress, I don't know certainly she was a strong character who had to be forceful enough to hold her own against the dynamic of the films family powerhouse. I think since Melissa Leo is also nominated in the category she is who I would go with. She was a powerhouse as Alice Ward and commanded every scene she was in.

Director David O.Russell has create a fine film here with great interplay between characters. A film that is a hero journey for a fighter and now local hero himself. Actors, writers and directors get credit when a film is this good and I understand the acclaim this film is receiving. I think it will be interesting to see if The Fighter gets the Original Screenplay Oscar, it is a really well done film.

Rating (7.9) 5.0 and up are recommended.

Satan's Blood (1978) Horror Cult

Satan's Blood (1978) - "Escalofrio" The opening scene of Satan's Blood has little to do with the film's main story other than to establish the precedent that Satanic cults have rituals and that those rituals involve sex and murder. It has no bearing on the plot at all. The woman is forced onto the alter and the old horny priest kneads her breasts like dough and then mounts and fucks her until he stabs her in the chest. This really is an artifact of the type of film it is. When horror films became popular in the 1970's in Spain where this film was made, many were co-produced with other countries, particularly Italy. Strict Spanish censorship kept many from being screened in Spain at all or the versions were chopped up to make them clean. When the dictator General Franco died in 1975 within two years censorship was abolished and a new class of movie was developed the "Clasificada S". It meant that the film contained strong sex scene violence and horror. "Satan's Blood" is one of those movies, lots of sex, bursts of bloodshed but placed in a way that could be edited out for markets that did not allow such scenes, and yet the story could somewhat hold together. Produced and Directed by Juan Piquer Simon who is famous for the slasher "Pieces", this earlier work has some very promising parts to it. -- paraphrased from Peter Tomb's description in the Mondo Macabro DVD extras.

The story concerns a couple, "The As" Andy (Jose Maria Guillen) and Annie (Mariana Karr) in the dubbed version I have. The film makes a point to let us know Annie is pregnant and later that they have had a miscarriage in the past. So one would think that this was important information. They are looking for something to do for the weekend and while out are flagged down in there car by another couple, Bruno (Angel Aranda) and Mary (Sandra Alberti). Bruno seems to know Andy from school but Andy can't remember him. They are invited to come out for drinks at Bruno's house and agree to follow them there. At the house there seems to be inconsistencies in Bruno's story but Andy is still taken with the couples friendly attention. Strange that Andy and Annie's current address is on the back of the school photograph. the hosts are a bit off but not startling so. What is even weirder?

1. There is a guy other than the gate keeper roaming about the house trying not to be seen.

2. Mary has an amazing gaze that can mind control the dog Blackie.

3. When Annie comes into the kitchen she finds Mary bent over the counter her head in a bowl eating what appears to be raw meat without her hands. That's weird, and making dog noises. It leaves you thinking that she may be a werewolf or something.

They start talking about talking to the beyond with the Ouija board. Everyone is open to the idea as it seems like it might be fun. At this point pregnant Annie has been drinking wine and smoking, I guess it was not the same approach to pregnancy then as it is now.

By the dreadful day of judgement.

By the four beasts before the thrown.

Having eyes before and behind.

By the fire which is about the thrown.

I command thee to grace us with your presence, to enrich our poor souls, to take us into your heart.

Talk to us O powerful one...

The seance brings out some personal information about both Bruno and Annie and ends with Annie fainting. When she comes to they are going to leave but the storm outside they will have to stay the night. Another nudity scene is interjected and then we get to Andy thinking about the photograph. Going over the points in Bruno's story that don't make sense. They hear Blackie their dog and then we see that the thing is dead and being dragged by someone outside. Strangely though that night Annie is awake late and hears the dog again, she gets up and goes downstairs only to run into the stranger, who promptly tries to rape her. Since all she has over her lovely thin body is a bathrobe he comes damn close before being kneed in the balls. This is it for our couple so they dress to leave. When they get to the living room they see the couple in the middle of a ritual, nude in a pentagram. They somehow get enchanted and there starts a long night of foursome sex. You can see the magic in the air as they are all rubbing oil on each other and doing satanic rituals. It doesn't seem to go completely right, Mary after having Bruno blood smeared on her abdomen screams a frightful scream.

Seeming to have forgotten all of the nakedness Annie the nurse by trade tends to Mary only going off with Bruno to look for something to give her. Mary back in the bedroom with Andy makes her move so that Annie will walk in as she is passionately kissing him. Create conflict in your duped couple, this is a smart idea. Divide and conquer to keep them from leaving together. When Andy goes after his pissed wife Bruno and Mary go at it making animal noises. The strange rapist wanna be watches Bruno from outside but the gatekeeper comes up behind him and kills him.

Insert a dream scene where a creepy doll walks into the room and Mary in a shear black nightie tries to seduce Annie and you have the makings of a freaky night.

Everything conspires to keep the A's at the house including Bruno and Mary taking their car and going to town to drop there own car at the shop. They arrive back to find the slightly pissed of A's who have been snooping around. They made it up to an upper room where they found a picture of themselves. Something is definitely not right and they are getting out of there. They do not even remember the photo being taken. Bruno of course pulls a wire in the car so they are going no where. Where the hell is that dog too?

There are some really freaky scares and it gets really out in the open after the moment where Mary's shadow scares the shit out of Annie and then they see Blackie hanging dead in the pantry. Annie has had it and a lot of the veneer goes off the other couple. They are in the other room when we hear a gunshot. Bruno is injured in the head. They watch him die. Mary goes off on a moped before they know it and returns with a doctor who accuses Andy of killing Bruno. He orders the As to stay and await the authorities and leaves. They are not sure what to do next but when they realize they have not seen Mary in a while they find her slit wrists in the tub. Putting her in a bed she suddenly pops upright and in a demon voice says she is not dead yet, kill me kill me. Andy stressed at this point does just that???

We move toward a climax and a as Andy and Annie go to leave. Mary is there dead and standing with a gun, the struggle for the gun and Andy kills the woman again. They stage it like she is still in the tub, why? Who the fuck knows at this point. Again they go to leave except now we see Bruno's body is no longer on the couch. They get to the car but have to go back for Annie's purse. Bruno is there back from the dead, Annie shoots his ass. Then the freak doll... bang, then a scream from beyond the grave and the doors of the house start slamming shut. They find the body parts of the wannabe rapist and then get out of the place.

When they arrive home there is one more climax scene which leaves you thinking that maybe they we dead all along. Nothing ever came of the baby in the oven thing and the film does a twilight zone final shot that leaves you perplexed. Overall for what it is it is a reasonable confusing film but one that it not terrible. If only it made just a bit more sense. Maybe Andy and Annie were already dead and this is some sort of private hell. Suicide played a part in the personal stories of both Bruno and Mary, so maybe they were ghosts playing a part in that hell. Certainly the violent ending scene and then the one to follow could support such a hypotenuse. The nudity scenes are plentiful and the people are attractive to look at. If you like that then you are in luck, at least with the cut I am reviewing here. This is really a borderline recommendation because I can see a lot of you really hating this. There era though produced so many more horrible films than this.

Rating (5.5) 5.0 and up are recommended.

The Devil's Plaything (1973) - Horror Vampire

The Devil's Plaything (1973) - "Der Fluch der schwarzen Schwestern" Also known as Veil of Blood or Vampires Ecstasy. A rather sleazy erotic horror film that tells an at least semi interesting story between its scenes of swaying topless acolytes and lesbian suggestive interactions. 1970's erotic film master Joseph Sarno gives us not a great film, hell maybe not a good film but a film that is competent and complete but is really for those with a taste for this kind of thing. There is lots of nudity mostly in the form of swaying cultist as they do their spells.
The story is that at a castle in Germany there is a cult that wants to bring a vampire Countess back into the world by allowing her soul to posses one of the two beautiful young descendants that have been lured to the castle. Helga (Marie Forsa) and Monika (Ulrike Butz). Monika is accompanied by her cross dressing companion (Flavia Keyt), they are surprised when they learn they can not share a room. It was really thrown into the script so I threw it in here too. The fact that they are lesbians only serves the purpose that later on the character played by Flavia joins the cult to support her companion. Shortly after those three arrive a storm picks up and Dr. Julia Malenkow (Anke Syring) and her brother Peter (Nico Wolferstetter) arrive, saying their car has broken down. There is a look that passes between the housekeeper Wanda (Nadia Henkowa) and the superstition studying Julia. Did they really break down?

That night the drums of a ritual are heard in the depths of the castle. They are really African drums which is strange for this German castle. A bunch of women including Wanda dance and cast a spell apparently on Peter who tosses and turns in his sleep. Sister Julia comes upon him and touches her own breast watching as he appears to have a wet dream. When he wakes she makes sure he has his cross of garlic on and says he should never remove it. It is protection against the magic she suspects is afoot.

We learn the superstition of the baroness who was supposed to have drank the blood of her subjects. She did black magic and well, was a vampire, but was burned at the stake some three hundred years ago. The priestess, Wanda and the swaying nude woman cult are working towards bringing her back into the world. Thank you Julia for the expository story about the baroness.

Helga finds herself drawn to Peter and very soon they are in the horse barn doing the nasty. There is some weird editing in this scene that makes you think it was cut drastically. They read the will of the aunt and we learn they(Hilga and Monika) have to stay in the castle for a year to inherit the place. Helga is enchanted by the cult of priestesses, they surround her and stare intently, then the event is culminated with fingering her. She is now initiated. So to strengthen that we get more swaying cultist scenes and Helga and Monika staring at the portrait of the baroness.

Julia is onto Wanda and lets her know it. The garlic protects Julia in her battle of wills but Wanda is no fool even when her intense staring fails she has options. She does the divide and conquer by putting spells on different characters to weaken Julia. They suck in the Flavia character as they try to get closer to Monika. She is initiated into the cult. We learn that Julia and Peter are descendants of the people who burned the baroness at the stake and there is some vengeance to be had here.

Meanwhile those damn sexy drums are really driving Helga crazy, and she needs to pleasure herself with a candle giving the audience a facial expression of satisfaction.

Julia is really worried that things are coming to a head but she doesn't know what it is. Now Peter wants Helga and expresses his love. Wanda uses that relationship by making Helga super horny and saying it won't stop until she gets Peter's cross off him. She is driven to this end and we here the distant sounds of bees buzzing during this scene.

On the night of the Vampire which occurs once every nine years, Wanda is gloating to Julia that she can not be stopped and the spirit of baroness Vaga will be back soon. Peter and Helga talk and he has given her his cross and she is no longer driven crazy.

So much is happening, Peter and Helga are part of the ceremony to bring back the baroness. To keep Julia out of the way she has spells cast on her to confuse her on the grounds. She ends up in a barn and the most ridiculous bats pull her clothes off. The bats are really black gloves with wings on them. Hilarious!

Peter and Julia try to get Helga to leave. Julia believes the vampire is back but Helga does not feel she needs to leave her inheritance. Peter is frightened by a sound in the woods and they have to return. Monika is the baroness and now things are moving along. She comes to the gathering of them all and says "Our winged cousins of the night they call me, they call." wonderful. A reference to Dracula, the film of course not the book.

They use Peter to go to his sister and come on to her. Julia likes it, the incest feelings are strong in her, and he tries to get her to take off the cross, dirty trick. She does and now they will get to her too. She realizes it and they struggle until she gets her hand on it again and saves herself by getting the cross back on.

This convoluted plot has Peter making love to Monika and her biting him. Then she drinks from Helga who is in the corner being felt up by some cultists. Julia tries to get in and has to fight off a couple cultists herself. They his like cats but the garlic cross keeps them at bay. Peter somehow makes it to her in the room she has locked herself in and she sees the weakened man has been bitten. She gives her cross to him.

The cult is chanting up a storm now not in the cellar but in the main room of the house. They believe they have won. Julia falls under this spell and proceeds to touch herself. Out on the woods Helga is on a hanging platform, Julia will take Helga's place and Monika will have her blood. In a slick move Julia gets into position near the platform and is able to pull a piece of wood free and use it to stake Monika as she comes in for the kill. Suddenly the spell is broken and people are stumbling about and wandering off. The cults power is gone and the cultists are all free from the power of the baroness.Although the plot is interesting in this there is so much strange shit that I will not recommend this. The pace is pretty slow and really the nudity although abundant is not the sexiest you can see.

Rating (4.4) 5.0 and up are recommended

Daybreakers (2009) Horror Vampire

Daybreakers (2009) - Another film missed in the year it came out but thanks to Netflix it is easily accessible. In the year 2019 the world is ruled by vampires but because of over population the human blood supply is running out. Dr. Edward Dalton (Ethan Hawke) a vampire hematologist is working to solve the problem by creating a blood substitute. Problem is every time they try the product out the subject reacts violently and then his head explodes. The special effect in this are over the top gruesome at times. Dalton is the feel good vampire character who wants to solve the problem so humans do not have to become extinct. He was turned by his brother Frankie (Michael Dorman) against his will and doesn't see the power of his condition but more the curse of it.
A chance encounter one night on the dark roads on his way home then leads him in a totally new direction. What are the odds that the main guy in charge of solving the vampire blood supply problem would run into the humans who have the solution? Pretty fucking slim if you ask me but that is exactly what happens. He helps the humans including Audrey (Claudia Karvan) keeping them from being captured and in return they hook him up with Lionel 'Elvis' Cormac (Willem Dafoe) who knows how to change vampires back to humans. Amazing, really fucking amazing, but in this world that is how things are.
There is a time pressure too, you see when the vampires are not properly fed they change from the human creatures of the classical vampire image to the monster creatures more recently seen in such films as John Carpenter's Vampires . These monster will feed on anything including other Vampires so the pressure is on for a solution to the problem.
Even with this problem growing by the day and Vamp creature attacks on the rise, Dalton's boss Charles Bromley (Sam Neill) is looking for a way to profit from the blood shortages and the, he hopes, blood substitute. Written as a corporate asshole he is just that. He still stings from his daughter refusing to be turned and instead running away. Now what are the odds are that with the human population down to a mere 5% of the current beings that she would still be out there alive somewhere? Pretty fucking slim let me tell you that, but sure enough she is eventually captured and brought to her father. Alison Bromley (Isabel Lucas) can only see her father as the monster he is and still refuses to become a vampire. Not to be put off Charles has soldier Frankie do her so that problem is solved, except is there is this thing where she can feed off herself and become one of the creature vamps. Of course this is what will happen, power struggles in families never work out. So why have the character at all, I think the writers want a bit of sympathetic back story for the Bromley character but really he is such a dick who cares about his back story.
What are the odds that Elvis and Dalton can have the equipment needed and duplicate the conditions that changed Elvis back to human on the first try, before the Vampires capture them? Pretty fucking slim, but that is exactly what happens. The solution is so simple it is foolish to think it was not stumbled upon. Not only that but it makes so little sense that the viewer is left scratching his head. Then the convenience of how it will spread further stupefies as we quickly move towards the climax of the film. When all is said and done our heroes get to ride off into the sunrise even though we have not seen a satisfactory outcome to the plot. As a fully formed film I would actually pass on this but still the gore, bits of action made me hang in there. It is a real tossup whether to recommend this film.
Rating (4.9) 5.0 and up are recommended, Renting may be the answer.

Castle of Blood (1964) - Horror Ghost

Castle of Blood (1964) - Danza Macabra is the Italian name for this very enjoyable ghost story. It is a simple enough story but well executed even though the version I have is a bit of a mess technically. It goes from dubbed to French, go figure?, with English subtitles and dubbing throughout. Some of the early scenes look like a poor quality print was used and the sound is only okay. Still it is very viewable and worth the time.
The basic story is of a reporter, Alan Foster (Georges Riviere) who meets Edgar Allen Poe (Silvano Tranquilli) and his friend Lord Thomas Blackwood (Umberto Raho) in a London pub for an interview. In the conversation Poe expresses his belief in the supernatural, an idea the reporter does not agree with. He takes a bet to stay that very night Nov. 1-2, the Day of the dead in the haunted castle of Lord Blackwood. If he makes it until morning in the castle then he wins. If tragedy strikes him in the night as it has others who have taken this bet in the past then the Lord wins.
So we see the reporter head into the castle on his own, a bit jumpy but showing courage as he creeps through the dark corridors. This is classic horror with strange portraits and a clock that rings but appears to be broken on closer examination. Lit only by a candelabra Foster explores some of the house before being startled by Lord Blackwood's sister Elisabeth (Barbara Steele). They make a quick acquaintance and very soon are a bit taken with each other. They are interrupted by Julia (Margarete Robsahm) and some words pass between she and Elisabeth. Elisabeth is already very possessive of the reporter and tries to warn Julia away while Julia hints at a inevitable unknown (to the audience) fate for him.
When an event happens to confirm to Foster that all the interactions he has had are with ghosts. He is then visited by Dr. Carmus (Arturo Dominici), the ghost of victims past, who explains that on this night he will see the last five minutes of each of the lives of the ghosts. A good part of the movie is then seeing them as they die. No details on this because renting or buying this film is recommended. Let me say though I was surprised a couple times, once with the quite serious lesbian love undertone (overtone) in a 1964 film this was very surprising. Then again with the brief nudity by the incredibly sexy Sylvia Sorrente was not expected.
When the different victim scenes have concluded Foster learns that in order to return the following year the ghost need his blood! So the climax is Foster's fight to get out of the house before the ghosts kill him. The ending is great and is one of the earliest of this type I have seen in my vast horror watching.
This is a very good film, well acted and stylish. The sets have a great sense of depth that is often lacking in horror movies kudos to Cinematographer Riccardo Pallottini. The music is wonderfully done by Riz Ortolani that is clear but not too over the top settling a dramatic scene all by itself. The script is tight and well formed by Sergio Corbucci and Giovanni Grimaldi. I do really recommend this for all lover of horror but particularly for those who have not explored classic foreign horror This is a very fine example of classic horror storytelling executed well

Rating (7.5) 5.0 and up are recommended.

Candy Stripers (2006) - Horror Sci-Fi Aliens

Candy Stripers (2006) - [weird connection] There is a loosely connection to this film, where Writer/Director Kate Robbins connects to an obscure Latina singer (Ana Sidel) I am a fan of. Here is how the connection works, Kate was executive producer on a movie called Desert of Blood, that movie featured the biggest hit from the singer's, only CD "A Solas..." the song being "Chinga Like a Loca", and those of you who know Spanish are giggling right now. Considering how the Candy Stripers behave in this film it also somehow connects. I only mention it because the singer is not known at all and only has the one CD but I is still listened to by me.[end weird connection]

There are a vast number of alien invasion flicks that come out every year, from the classics like Invasion of the Body Snatchers, where humans are replaced, living among us as in They Live or controlling humans like in The Puppet Masters, Slither or this film Candy Stripers.
The story is simple enough, a couple of girls (One, the very hottest of blind girls Tammy (Sarah McGuire) ( with white eyes, at least until Jessica Alba made The Eye two years later.) who come across a car wreck are infected by aliens, they end up at a hospital where they start spreading to all the hot candy stripers. The bread sized maggot like beings enter the mouth and gestate a new maggot passing it on to other humans mouth to mouth. Our white eyed beauty is dying after being brought into the hospital and so she asks the amazingly sexy candy striper Janine (Deanna Brooks, Playmate of the month May 1998) who is sitting with her, for a dying wish kiss. How could she be refused? She is of course infected by the aliens and then goes about doing two things. One feeding on men by covering them with a web like substance, like a spider would. Letting them ripen, and also going out and finding hot women to infect.
The secondary story brings our group of basketball players into the hospital with various injuries. They and their visitors are the group trying to survive and escape while the alien infection spreads. This gives us a good group of five who will fight against the ever increasing number of sexy nurses and candy stripers as the lay waste to the patients and employees of the hospital.
Writers Kate Robbins and Jill Garson keep the story simple with there being a could relationship subtext stories within the group of potential survivors. The basketball team captain, Matt (Brian Lloyd) has a broken leg from a fight that broke out prior to getting to the hospital. His teammate and roommate is Joey (William Edwards Jr.) who is primarily there as the dork and because his character's sister Cheri (Tori White)who has the dynamic of a crush on Matt even though he already has a girlfriend. His less than attentive girlfriend is Krystal (Nicole Rayburn) is also there with Teammate and rival Brian (Kevin Thomas Fee). They notice a bit too late that things are going haywire, these scenes are inter cut with ones of the Candy stripers almost having sex with various doctors and paramedics, cocooning them for later feeding, and scenes of the candy stripers growing clan sugar jonesing women. When they finally try to make a break for it the hospital is in chaos, quarantined and there is no longer the closeted conversion and feeding but an out in the open frenzy of feeding.
The alien woman start openly attacking with new super claws, they take damage but keep on coming. Our group hits the elevators hoping to get to the basement in an up elevator, and there is a great close call scene with some very good practical effects, the heart grab and the line "Men are so heartless." Joey by this time is infected as one of the stripers started cocooning him the night before. He has that same sugar craving and is deteriorating quickly. Forced to take the stairs they run into a bunch of cocooned bodies. After almost slipping past some aliens they are stuck in the basement. Brian hearing something in a bin gets pulled in head first by some big wiggly thing. Its the maternity ward for the alien babies.
Things get worse when they split up and soon the only ones alive are Matt and Tammy. The sugar thing is a give away that the insulin that she uses for her diabetes will naturally kill the aliens. So then the plan becomes to kill them all. Using air injectors and a good supply of insulin they head out hunting. Considering how tough the aliens have been to this point in the movie is is somewhat unrealistic that they do so well with the killing. In the end the hospital is blown up and Matt and Tammy are out alive, then... go ahead guess.

Rating (3.1) 5.0 and up are recommended.

After.Life (2009) Horror Psychlogical

After.Life (2009) -After Life is a psychological thriller, well thriller may be a strong word. It appears more as a meditative procedural on the supposed transition from life to death. It is a tricky movie that does a decent job with it's tricks. In the film Paul (Justin Long) and Anna (Christina Ricci) are a couple in crisis. Anna is a school teacher in an unhappy relationship and on medication for depression. Paul in line for a promotion and a move to Chicago is desiring to make a proposal to take the next step in their relationship. Seldom do these things work out well, its usually if there is fighting before a long term commitment it become a commitment to long term fighting.

At a fancy dinner we see the couple come so close to the engagement ring but Anna is fucking retahded (that is a Boston word, no offense to the mentally challenged, it is slang for acting in a stupid manner.) and blows the mood by getting all, "Fuck You-ish". Of course Paul shares some of the blame here too, who starts a evening together saying, "Hey, Lets not try to fight tonight okay." Those are words itching for a fight and she obliges. She runs out of the restaurant and goes crying and popping depression pills as she drives too fast through a rain storm. Unfortunately for Anna her ticket is punched and the car crashes. Was it an accident? Why was that white van flashing his lights and tailgating?

Eliot Deacon (Liam Neeson) is a mortician with a gift. He talks to the recently dead and helps them transition to the afterlife. We see his meticulous procedures as he preps one body. Then oddly he takes a Polaroid of the face staring back at the camera. We see this in the first scene before the credits and thing nothing of it. In fact I am sure the filmmaker wanted us to think nothing of it so later their could be a callback. This is a movie you have to pay attention to, this is an obvious strange thing so it gets you guessing there will be other clues about the nature of this character.

Again in the earlier scene the if you were paying attention to Anna when she went to the funeral home for the wake of her piano teacher you would have noticed the strange interest Eliot took in her. When Anna wakes up in the same funeral home she is confused and asks WTF is going on. Eliot tells her that she is dead and that she like others before her some take time to realize it. Anna is having none of that and insists this can not be true. At this point Eliot is believable, he is doing normal prep of the body. He is convincing but soon, if you pay attention there are obvious clues that something is not right.

He gives her a shot of something telling her that it is something that relaxes the muscles so he can work. Problem is, how would a shot in the neck of a dead person circulate though the body to the muscles. It is also very convenient in paralyzing her so she can not move or talk while her mother comes in to see the body.
Now I do not normally use really harsh terms for people but the Mother, Beatrice Taylor (Celia Weston) is a really selfish asshole. Not only does she break the news of Anna's death to Paul in the cruelest way possible, but she also does not allow him to see the body while it is at the funeral home. He will have to wait until the funeral like everyone else. She also while viewing Anna herself spouts off about how selfish it is of Anna to die, leaving wealthy Mom to care for herself. The writer put her in a wheelchair I think to create some sympathy for what is a really mean character, it did not work.
So this game of am I dead or not goes on for quite awhile and at the halfway point in the story there is a turning point with a mirror that takes all the mystery away. Even if earlier clues did not give it away this definitely does. So now I expected this to turn into a thriller where realization on Anna's part just a bit away and Paul not letting go and finding some way to see her. This does not happen though. Still more am I dead or not, sure Anna seems to think she is gone and we already know one way or the other but still the procedure of getting her ready continues.
Having never written a screenplay I would have tried to leave the audience reveal for the same time that Anna gets her own revelatory reveal. That way audience expectation are not crushed by a script where nothing really happens. This is a point for her where she then just goes with the flow and wonders about what her life has meant. The thrilling part of the film is half way and the air is let out and we all then want it to be over.

Moving to the end because the climax was not so climactic we see a future mortician in Jack and we see that Justin finally gets to see Anna, we learn the significance of the Polaroids and are left feeling a bit empty. It is no wonder this was seen on only 41 screens its opening weekend and totally flopped making only $100,000. Maybe they were going for dread but that never materialized, they were certainly not trying for a thriller. The only real valuable thing the film accomplished was to expose Christina Ricci's Callipygian form in the last half of the film. At least there something was going on if not in the movie in the male viewer.
Rating (4.5) 5.0 and up are recommended

Ants (1977) - horror ants

Ants (1977) - This made for Television movie was originally titled "It Happened at Lakewood Manor" which by the name would leave you unsure of what genre the film fit into. Is it a murder mystery, a coming of age story, no it is a sort of horror story about ants. At the old lakeside hotel there is a story line of the old handicapped owner and her daughter who are still pushing forward with their family business. But the old lady Ethel Adams (Myrna Loy) is thinking about selling the place. Her daughter Valerie ( The lovely Lynda Day George) and her boyfriend contractor Mike Carr (Robert Foxworth) think it may be best. Unfortunately for everyone Mike has a crew next to the hotel to do construction of some type and doesn't know it early in the film but he has disrupted a nest of very poisonous ants.
A couple of property investors Gloria Henderson (Suzanne Somers) and Tony Fleming (Gerald Gordon) are visiting and hoping to be able to make an offer on the place before they leave. When the trouble starts it starts slow but very soon everyone knows there is a pest problem and it can kill you. There is this really nice touch, something you get in a lot of 70's movies where social commentary is built into the script. In this one I liked the kid who is collecting bottles, and says to his Mother that they can use the money now that Dad is gone. Mom just reassures him they will be fine, with a "maybe" kind of look on her face. Certainly single parent households and divorce were being talked about a lot when this film was being made. I don't know if this was their case but maybe.
Then after the problem has been identified there is all this dialog about how we have been poisoning the earth and it was eventually going to come back and bite us in the ass. Not the Callipygian ass of sexy but whiny Linda Howard (Karen Lamm), the drifter who hooks up with lifeguard Richard (Barry Van Dyke, yes he is related, his son), but our fat of us chemical using fools. You see the Ants took the poison and made it their own and now can use it to attack. They would only attack though if disturbed, oh wait, Mike is digging up there nest doing his construction, oh and after he learns it is ants he goes nuts with a back hoe further riling up the little insects with the big sting. In fact this action created a giant crisis and soon most of them are trapped in the hotel with ants swarming everywhere.
The worlds dumbest fire dept can't seem to save them with a ladder, all you have to do is drive it up close to the house, but for some weird reason they leave the end of the ladder a few feet short. Panicked Linda jumps for it and is left dangling over the ants. Then the strangest decision I have seen the Fire chief make, instead of just reeling in the extend able ladder, grumpy chief Brian Dennehy watches as the just lift it higher and higher moving the petrified girl further from the ground. I was sure they were setting up a giant fall but no she and the ladder become vertical and she is saved.

Of course that is not the only error this bozo makes, calling in a helicopter to rescued the people trapped in the house blows ants all over the crowds of onlookers at the site. There is this surreal scene where Vince (Bernie Casey), the only black man in the film, turns a firehose on the crowd of white onlookers.

When we are close to the end and only three people remain in the hotel, Mike, Valerie and Tony they are told by the expert to stay perfectly still and the ants won't bite them. They do their meditation but Tony can't take it anymore and right before the guys come in in hasmat suits to rescue them he makes an ill fated dive from the third floor for the swimming pool below.
Fire pits are dug and set ablaze, the people get rescued one by one and in the end you wasted a good hour and a half on a slow made for tv 1970's era movie.

Rating (3.1) 5.0 and up are recommended, in the Zombiegrrlz system Skip It!

Splice (2009) - Horror Sci-Fi Monster

Splice (2009) - Putting off seeing films can be a good thing, with time their is also a certain perspective gained. Early reviews of Splice were decent with but not great, and unfortunately it was impossible not to hear the details before seeing this film. Still the movie is 74% fresh at Rotten Tomatoes. I was interested in seeing it in theaters but you know, sometimes you just can't get out to see everything you want to see. Recently picking it off of On Demand on comcast gave me a chance to see if the film was worth some of the very positives reviews it got or was it was the horrid piece of crap that audiences seemed to be saying. To qualify I read a bunch of early reviews where the author of the review talked about how darkly disturbing the film is, how he or she was enthralled while the audience they were seeing it with were hooting and hollering at the rediculousness of the film. I saw several reviews with this same theme, and then reading reviews written months after it was release, more talk about how audiences trashed the film. So is it a piece of genre art that only true fans can like, but general audience think is bad? Time to find out.

First the description of the film, two hot shot genetic scientist do the unthinkable, they create lifeforms from gene splicing. Giant maggots that produce a certain protein to be more precise. They want to more forward capitalizing on this new technology, but the corporate bosses want to go cautiously. Its not that the corporation has ethical reasons, its just they want to monetize what has already been created. In fact ethics never really enters the film although it is referenced by characters. This is the mad scientist as in, Frankenstien movie, so we sort of know what will happen at this point. Of course they need to have an "Its Alive!" moment. Also with mad scientists the ethics of "could we" versus "should we" is firmly planted in moving forward. So using her own DNA, Elsa Kast (Sarah Polley) creates Dren (Delphine Chaeac), a creature not entirely human. It is important to note that at this point, anyone who has any kind of love or even like of science will be pulled out of the film. For us this film becomes just another gimmic and soret of B-movie science wanna be. The problem is that if you are a brilliant scientist as or team is with Kast and Clive Nicoli (Adrien Brody) then you just don't throw genes together and wait to see what you are going to get. It is not a mix and match and then see if you being is mostly or partly human. you will want to know, and not move forward until you know exactly what the expected outcome will be. Just throwing in frog dna sequences might be good enough for an action adventure film like Jurrasic Park but for a science fiction film, not so much. This may be the reason it was heavily advertized as a horror film, because they knew the science film premise would not hold together. So the deed is done and a creature starts growing, we get to see the development and be as amazed as our science team is on what develops, again they should already know what is going to come but seem amazed when it has funny legs and likes candy. Oh and what fucking scientist would just give the damn creature candies? What if it died from them?

When Dren grows into a semi female-ish being with funny legs the couple begin to see that working right under the noses of their company can only lead to trouble so they need a new place for Dren. Luckily the script writer/director (Vincenzo Natali) rescues them with a farm nobody ever mentioned and the Brody character never knew Kast had inherited even though they appear to be intimately involved in a long term relationship. The self concious reference makes it okay I guess? Really?

Off to the location where things can go horribly wrong, since the psuedoscience is done now the the script veers into personal motivation and we learn about Elsa's need for a child and how her damaging childhood fed into the creation of Dren. It is done as a reveal after we see her play Mom with the creature and loose all perspective as a scientist. She is the mother figure and it is her child, while all along the way Clive is like, "What the fuck we have to end this shit, this is crazy." and Elsa is like "Oh look at the little cutie, can't we keep her for just a bit longer, she's soooo cute." Okay I might be paraphrasing there but hey its close.

When Clive heads out to the barn to deal with Dren by himself things go horribly wrong. Maybe all father figures in movies are evil. Maybe because Dren is adult looking, with breasts but for some reason the Father figure, Clive thinks fucking the creature may be a way to deal with his troubles in his relationship with Elsa. Isn't this what all adopting Fathers do? So Brody goes full tilt on little Dren climaxing just prior to Elsa walking in the door. Yes it is what it looked like and things just spiral from there. Now I am no expert but I would say it is pretty messed up to screw the creature you brought into the world through genetic manipulation. I think Clive had that same feeling and probably felt really off the hook when they find Dren apparently dead in the water tub in the barn. He didn't get to say it to Elsa but I am sure he was thinking. "Okay, I know that was really fucked up but no one else needs to know about that right Elsa, baby." So they bury their problem but not their problems. Only one thing wrong with this, just like they introduced earlier in the film with the maggots, they both turned male and got aggressive. Dren sort of turns to Dan changing from a female to a male. Again let me state that there is no way this could have happened without scientist knowing the possibility was there. How can you combine genes without a basic understanding of chromosomes?

Male creature does what I guess all guys do and rapes Elsa and then comes to a very untimely death. Enough plot, what the fuck kind of fucked up head thought to make the males in this such fucking dickwads? Clive had sex with his non human child and then when that creature, probably out of shame changed into a male then raped its Mother? Hello what kind of freaking psychosis does this writer have? Elsa is no prize either, letting her personal life drive her experimentation but so afraid of intimacy that she can't have a baby, she has to create it. This bit of melodrama was metered out for us in such a soap opera way.

Now it is seeming like I hated this movie, which is not true. I hated alot about this film and wished it was better constructed. As a B-Movie it is decent entertainment, meant to be ridiculed as it is being viewed. As a serious attempt as a science fiction film it is not my cup of tea.

Rating (4.6) 5.0 and up are recommended In the Zombiegrrlz system, Rent it if you need to see it.

I Sell the Dead (2008) Horror Comedy

I Sell the Dead (2008) - Writer director Glenn McQuaid gives us a cute little film made for a TV audience, what? it wasn't a made for TV movie? Really? Well it could have been it is short and cute with a tame story not designed to scare as much as it is to amuse. In the Story Arthur Blake (Dominic Monaghan) is visited in the gallows as he awaits the guillotine, by Father Duffy (Ron Perlman). Duffy is there to record his story prior to death. Arthur tells him and we see through the film how her became a grave robber and then how he ended up in the gallows.
Certainly the story has more to it than that because Arthur and his partner Willie Grimes (Larry Fessenden) are no ordinary grave robbers, sure they start out that way but then they start stealing more supernatural bodies. The vampire scene is very amusing with Willie playfully removing and restaking the vamp. The bodies generally supply doctor Vernon Quint, the wonderful Angus Scrimm of Phantasm fame although just a cameo I just love that he was in the film at all.
The counter to the story of the two men is a rival grave robbing gang the Murphy family who are bad ass. I will not give away too much plot here because I will recommend this and do not want to spoil it for you. Willie and Arthur have a bunch of funny bits running into different undead creatures and crossing paths with the Murphys. When they get a third person into their team, Fanny Bryers (Brenda Cooney) things get a bit more complicated. She is more inexperience and yet more aggressive than the boys and convinces them to do a job they should have stayed away from. When things go wrong it sets up the opening scene where Arthur is waiting to have his head chopped off.
There are a couple of surprises in the end of the film, well I am not sure you can call them surprises, if you were paying attention like I was you saw them coming. They do make the end fun and in general that is the feeling I had throughout. It was entertaining and fun to watch.



Rating (5.8) 5.0 and up are recommended, in the Zombiegrrlz system I say Rent It!

Psycho Ward (2007) - Horror Slasher

Psycho Ward (2007) - Exploring a abandon prison was just another day at the office for Dr. Magellan (Liam Card) the criminal psychologist. He and his team are out at Black Creek Mental Prison doing a video on the crimes Megellan thinks the doctors of the corrections institute committed. He believes it had something to do with a military program called project Pandora in which they were experimenting to try to remove fear from the patients. Then hopefully creating super soldier or some such stupid shit. They are going to camp since supposedly the lights are out in the place so lets set the cast of characters, We have already met Richard Megellan our leader, then there is his sister and final girl Lisa (Jacqueline Betts), Studds the urban explorer (Bobby Horvath), Tino the Internet guy (Tim Clarke) who got directions from Monica (Nicole Bonin) who let him see her titties and Sarah (Sandy Lai) the somewhat snarky assistant. This is a really bad movie with some awful dialog, players who are not the best of actors and a storyline that is totally void of anything resembling an original idea. You and I really need a reason to watch this movie, who out there has a reason for us. Okay so the opening scene where the first couple gets killed in two really horrible minutes of film give us two reasons for staying. After the setup we have the group camping and just when we are thinking okay lets turn this piece of shit off we get to see Monica take her shirt off and we forget for a couple minutes that it sucks so bad.

Problem is that all the movie is and ever will be is a serial killer picking off our cast one by one. We know it is going to happen and so we have to wait a few more minutes for the group to split up in small enough groups for this to happen.
First even though all the tents are right next to each other everyone is gone while Tino gets his show from Monica. They hear a door open on the prison and guess what the two of them do without telling anyone. No really guess... that's right they just decide to head right on into the scary place. Now I understand this particular leaving, Monica is being really flirtatious and Tino is thinking he will get to tap it if he just plays his cards right and does not act like too much of a pussy. So when they are standing at that all important open door and she is saying Let's go in, what is a horny guy supposed to do? We still are not sure as an audience whether Monica is on the up and up so there is a part of my brain thinking is she luring him into the killer? Is she the accomplice of this sick fuck we saw in the opening scenes. At this point the movie is bad but there is room for redemption. There certainly have been plenty of blog entries here at Soresport Movies tin which the acting and writing were poor but I still recommended the film. Unfortunately this film goes from poor to pathetic really fast. After the group goes back and Tino and lovely Monica are gone there is some lame excuse to split them into two pairs and to get each pair on the inside of that open door. Well guess what happens after they are all inside? No really again, guess... That's right they are all locked in. Naturally they need to find Tino because he has the keys to the van. Richard talks to them when they get inside and gets shouted to by Studds. They split up because the girls want to stay by the door, which they do for about a minute, as long as it takes the guys to lock themselves in a cell. Lisa thinks she hears something so her natural life saving instinct is to run fast by herself deep into the prison. Still this scene is only there to get the group back together after the reveal of the bloody room and then they head back to camp. That is only so they can try the door and see it is locked and then try their cell phones and rule them out from being used in the film. There is still the killer going about doing some killing, including a couple who just happened to drive out to the prison this, the definitely wrong night. He heads into the tent to check it out, because that is what any of us would do when we find some one's camp in the middle of the night. He is in the tent and the woman is putting on lip gloss so not watching as the killer goes into the tent and kills the guy. Then come out and comes all the way to the car, and gets her too before she has stopped looking at herself in the mirror. Now granted the actress was quite comely but damn bitch stop looking at yo'self there's a killer coming. I am going to stop about here since this film is so far from getting a recommendation on this blog. The plot is the group going abut the prison trying to find a way out, while the killer stalks them and waits for the fools to split up to pick them off one at a time and kill them for no reason at all. Everyone dies and we are no better for having inserted this DVD into the player boo at writer Christopher Lee Thompson and Director Patrick McBrearty and the horrible cast.

Rating (1.4) 5.0 and up are recommended In the Zombiegrrlz system SKIP IT! in the Monty Python rating system, RUN AWAY!

P (2005) Horror Witch

P (2005) - "Ghost" Thia movie that mixes magic and social commentary into a satisfying film. Dau (Suangporn Jaturaphut) is a Khmer orphan growing up in rural Thailand with her Grandmother (Pisamai Pakdeevijit). We see her as a young girl in school being picked on by schoolmates because her Grandmother is the village witch.
Flash forward to her teen years and she is initiated by her grandmother into the magics but with warnings, for when doing the magic.
1. Do not cross under a clothesline.
2. Do not eat uncooked meat and
3. If you teach the magic never take payment.
Unfortunately Dau's Granny gets sick and when Dau tries to get her medicine she does not have the money necessary. The shop owner says she can get Dau work in the city, but she will have to leave that night. So to earn the money she gets on a bus to Bangkok with nothing.
Arriving in the city she is met at the bus stop by Pookie. who is going to show her the ropes at a local bar for foreigners. The night she arrives introduced to the world of prostitution and how foreigners come to Thailand for sex with too young girls. She is bought buy a man who initiates her first sexual experiences and naturally she feels dirty after with only a little comfort by her roommate Pookie. The scenes although tense and sexually charged are tame in what is shown but not what is suggested. In fact all the scenes of the prostitution industry are very tame, even cleaned up from the reality. The film does draw a bit of a spotlight on an industry that still thrives as a tourist attraction but it makes it look like it is not so bad and cruel as it really is.
Then to get noticed, with flashbacks to her Grandmother teaching her glamour spells we see Dau using magic and it works for her as she gets more deeply into the go-go bar scene. There is quite a bit of slow hip shaking dancing to show her growing sensuality. May (Narisara Sairatanee) an older dancer at the club does not like losing customers to Dau and threatens her. Dau more interested in revenge with the first customer, the one who took her virginity and then spurned her next time he was in. She does a spell that does the poor bastard in in a bloody mess. Two things happen in one storyline Pookie and Dau have a bit of a relationship. It starts as Pookie teaching her the best ways to take advantage of the business. It becomes a caring friendship with some playful foreplay where without noticing they break the first rule of magic use rolling under the clothesline in their room. When she learns her audition was sabotaged by May she goes deeper into the magic to pay her back for that. May will have a horrible accident setting off the dual storyline of the rest of the film, really the second half. The first half is Pookie and Dau working out that the magic may have been to much or gone wrong. Before long all three rules of magic have been broken without Dau realizing it. The darkness makes her crave more raw meat. It is in her and she is losing control. At night the demon spirit of Dau travels out and she sleeps with Johns and then literally eats them. The other story is the friends of May the rival dancer who was hurt by the Dau's spell seek a witchdoctor to deal with Dau. Dau gets worse and worse scaring Pookie as she feeds and feeds. She senses something is amiss with the friends of May and starts to hunt them as well. Pookie wants to help Dau beat the demon inside her. They try by binding Dau in handcuffs to a bathroom wall and trying to starve the ghost out of her. At the same time the witchdoctor is trying to work his magic to counter. Dau tricks Pookie into releasing the demon and then she is killed, Dau goes after the witchdoctor. literally diving into his stomach. She then devours May's friend only to be confronted by the injured May. May takes the demon into herself and kills herself to end the demons reign of terror.

This is not a horrible movie but I am not convinced it is more than average as a horror flick. Certainly it explores the consequences of magic. Does a nice job of putting them in a real world setting. It does lack a bit though on the execution. I wish it was a bigger budget movie because I think as a story it works.

Rating (5.2) 5.0 and up are recommended in the Zombiegrrlz system Rent IT!

Orloff's Invisible Monster (1971) - Horror Mad Scientist

Orloff's Invisible Monster (1971) - The problem with buying films in the discount bin is a lot of the films really are just poor, this strange and pointless film falls perfectly into that category. This 70's french film that I think may be trying to copy the Hammer style movies is a ridiculous story with really no other point than to allow semi pretty untrimmed ladies to be naked on screen for short periods of time.

There is a story, it is so strange but it does exist. Dr. Garondet (Paco Valladares) is called to the castle of Professor Orloff (Howard Vernon) without much information besides that someone is ill. He has trouble getting a carriage, as the local folks are afraid to go near the place. Finally he finds a guy but part way there the carriage gets stuck in the mud and the driver refuses to go the rest of the way. He tells Garondet to continue down the road and you will get to the castle. Somehow though whether the wind confused him or his understanding of "the road" was different than the drivers, he ends up wandering through the woods. Finding a house he tries to get help but when he mentions Orloff the door is closed on his face. Flustered the incompetent Doctor finally finds the giant castle but the butler servant is not going to let him in. He has to force his way in.

Things do not get any easier for Garondet, the servants a man and woman maid (Evane Hanska who you will see naked later) don't know anything about there being a medical emergency. They insist neither of them sent for him. He is pissy being called out and wandering about in the rain and insists to see the Professor.

In a room he is taken to he meets Cecile Orloff (Brigette Carva who you will see naked later) the professor's daughter. She called him because the house is a strange place? I am not really sure why she sent for him. Anyway, she is a strange cookie and not all together in tune. I guess that is what happens when you come back from the dead. What? Oh not there yet, lets get there.

When the doctor finally gets to meet Orloff he very quickly learns there is an invisible man the Mad Scientist has created. The special effects are special as in short bus special. He says the being he created is smarter and stronger than a man. He tells a story of his daughter appearing to die. He has her put in a coffin and then puts all these beautiful jewels on her. The watching servants are obviously going to steal those jewels, particularly Marie (Isabel del Rio) we get to see her naked as she strips as a way to get a male servant to come with her to the tomb to get the jewels from Cecile.

All of this is just a way to get the servants to hurt Cecile while trying to get the ring off and thus the pain waking her from her apparent really deep sleep. It also gets Orloff pissed and he can lock up the servant in the dungeon. Why am I going on with this...

SO bad...

Pushing through, Orloff explains all about the invisible creature. The creature gets to rape the maid as punishment for calling for Dr. Gardonet, Orloff said he wanted to see how he would handle a women. What you really see is Evane Hanska moving about on a bed of straw hating and loving the invisible sex. The doctor is appalled by Orloff and want to now save his daughter from this place and the invisible monster.

Later somehow I actually for get how it happened Cecile walks around naked too. Using flour we get to see the monster, a guy in a gorilla suit and the castle burns to the ground. Writer/Director Pierre Chevalier does such a poor job I can't care enough to continue. Who lives? who Dies? What happens to Maria, adn the Monster? Well you can choose to watch this because I am done here.

Rating (2.7) 5.0 and up are recommended, Zombiegrrlz rating system, SKIP IT!