In extraordinarily sad news, the TWP is sad to report the death of a man who made his career with the dead, George A. Romero.
Romero basically created the ‘living dead’ genre with his spectacular film, Night of the Living Dead, in 1968, and gave as several sequels, and probably the greatest zombie film ever, Dawn of the Dead.
He passed away after a brief battle with lung cancer, aged 77.
Rest in Peace, Mr. Romero, and thank you SO very much for your contributions to horror movies.
The latest episode in which I open another toy…
One from the to watch pile…
Torture Garden (1967)
Australian Bluray cover to Torture Garden
It’s amazing how most anthologies are horror movies too, as realistically, good horror is like a good joke: everything works to a payoff that’s over the top or unexpected. Horror films are more a long, well articulated anecdote, whereas a good horror anthology is a bunch of riddles, usually, but not always, strung together by a host of some sort, who acts as a kind of comedian sharing his laughs.
This film, Amicus’s Torture Garden fits cleanly into that category. It’s got some great pedigree too: directed by Freddie Francis, who previously directed the aforementioned Dr Terror’s House of Horrors and Tales from the Crypt, not to mention The Deadly Bees and The Skull! Just to round off that level of pedigree is that it was written by Robert Bloch, writer of The Skull, The House that Dripped Blood, no most importantly, Psycho!
Welcome to the Torture Garden, the most horrible house of horrors at the circus, where Dr. Diabolo (Burgess Meredith) will show you the horrors that mankind has subjected itself to with his display of various torture devices… but for an extra five pound, he’ll show you something even more special.
Burgess Meredith as Dr. Diabolo
Watch the futures of a murderous man, Colin (Michael Bryant) possessed by a cat to commit evil; an aspiring actress, Carla (Beverly Adams) who’ll do ANYTHING to become successful at her craft; pianist Leo (John Standing) who’s relationship with a young lady is threatened by jealousy from an unusual source and finally, Ronald Wyatt (Jack Palance), and Edgar Allen Poe collector desperate to see the secrets of a competitor, Lancelot Canning’s (Peter Cushing), collection.
Living doll Beverly Adams!
It features a solid cast though, with some enjoyable performances and seeing greats like Meredith, Cushing and Palance together is a great treat, but in a world where things like Creepshow and Tales of the Darkside exist, it’s not one of the great anthologies, and this may have something to do with the pacing as the stories are all actually quite interesting.
Score: ***1/2
Torture Garden Bluray menu screen
Score: ****
Extras: No extra for you!
Score: 0
WISIA: If I feel like watching an anthology horror film I’ll probably watch something else before this, but I may watch it again.
Jack Palance and Peter Cushing… acting pedigree!
Hey everyone, here’s a new YouTube video of me unboxing my new Kotobikuya Chucky statue.
Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare Zombies Update
Elvira: more animated than normal!
They’re Coming for You, Barbara!
Dead End Drive In
Now in TECHNICOLOR!
you need big balls to invade the earth!
That’s a big radioactive thing!
The To Watch Pile would like to pass on our condolences to Stan Lee for the passing of his beloved wife Joanie. 
Not many people know that she was part of the inspiration to create the Fantastic Four and Spiderman as Stan was considering not doing it, but she suggested that he wants to quit comics anyway, so he may as well do what he likes, and damn the consequences. As the saying goes, behind every great man is a great woman. Stan has told this tale many times, and I myself am one of those types who owes his successes to his wife.
He, along with Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, birthed the Marvel universe around her trust in Stan’s ideas.
I may criticise Lee on my Facebook page, but it is partially tongue in cheek, and I do believe that he and his gang, along with Julie Schwartz and Carmine Infantino over at DC, rebuilt the superhero comic into what it is today.
Joan, a former British hat model, apparently suffered with a stroke earlier this week. She is survived by Stan and their daughter, J.C.
One from the re watch pile…
Ghoulies (1984)
The bluray cover to Glass Doll Films release of Ghoulies
Little monster movies were a cool fad of my beloved horror period, and this film was one amongst those, along with Gremlins and Troll. Ghoulies was written and directed by Luca Bercovici, who is possibly better known as an actor, judging by his actor credits.
Our story starts with baby Jonathon (played as an adult by Peter Liapis), being spirited away from his cult leader father, Michael Graves (Michael Des Barres) by cult member Wolfgang (Jack Nance) after a his sacrifice is unsuccessful.
25 years later, Jonathon returns to the house, with his girlfriend, Rebecca (Lisa Pelikan) after his father’s death and decides to quit university to restore the old place. In his cleaning of the house though, he discovers an old book which he is drawn to and he seemingly knows how to cast the spells written within instinctively.
Lisa Pelikan and Peter Liapis as the young lovers.
This is 80s cheesy filming at its very cheesiest. All the staples of horror and ‘horror comedies’ of the time are present: the stoners, the awkward guy, the guy who thinks he’s cool but isn’t and a bunch of canon fodder disguised as flirty girls, including an early appearance of SVU’s Mariska Hargitay.
The misstep this film makes is the appearance of the Ghoulies and of Grizzel and Greedigut. This story is actually a pretty cool supernatural tale, but the addition of special effects artist John Carl Buechler’s pretty poorly designed puppets and the little people actors who look more like they should be in Willow than here detract from what could be an amazing movie. I also must say for the period, the lack of nudity is unusual for a film of this low caliber.
They are my only complaints though. The movie is quite short so at no time are you bored, and it is quite imaginatively filmed, so except for those dodgy effects, it does entertain.
Score: ***1/2
Ghoulies Australian Bluray menu screen
Score: ****
Extras: There’s a bunch of cool extras on this disc:
First there is a great commentary featuring Luca Bercovici, hosted by film historian Jason Andreasson which really tells some great behind the scenes stories.
The Mind is a Terrible Thing to Waste – an Interview with Scott Thomson sees Thomson, who played Mike, recall anecdotes and musings on the making of the film.
“Just ‘Cos of the Chick, Man” – with Luca Bercovici sees Bercovici, the writer/ director of Ghoulies, discuss his career in multiple roles in cinema, from dialogue coach to actor to writer.
Editing an Empire – An Interview With Ted Nicolau sees editor of Ghoulies Nicolau reflect on his career.
It’s an interesting collection of interviews which when all watching one after the other, don’t paint the prettiest picture of Charles Band.
There is also in informative booklet about the film by Dave Jay, and the cover is reversible, with the orphan poster on one side, and some cool fresh art on the other.
Score: ****
WISIA: 80s monster movies? Yeah, I’m watching them again!
A Ghoulie.
One from the to watch pile…
Power Rangers (2017)
Australian Bluray Cover to Power Rangers
(Sentai is a Japanese term for a military unit, like Squad or Task Force, but is commonly used to describe Japanese superhero Tv shows when a super team is involved. My favourite Star Wars toys were always the rank and file soldiers too.)
Anyway, when this movie was announced, I decided I needed to rewatch, and what 20 years adds to the human mind is the capacity to see that in MMPR, the originals’ weren’t ‘teens with attitude’ like the opening titles would suggest, but instead were douchebags with superpowers who actually bullied two mildly retarded kids, Bulk and Skull, in between fighting an array of ridiculous beasts thrown at them by the amusingly named Rita Repulsa.
I only watched this first series and didn’t continue on though I understand from friends who are younger than me that this show in all its forms was greatly influential on them, as they were of the age to have all the toys and stuff, and so nostalgia bit them hard. Conceptually I love the idea of all the various series’s that were made, even though I didn’t watch them.
So here we are, and I’ve just finished watching the new Power Rangers movie, and quite liked it.
This Rita (Elizabeth Banks) is definitely not a ‘repulsa’!
We then flash forward to now, where all-star high school football player Jason Scott (Dacre Montgomery) is put on detention for tomfoolery in a cow which resulted in police involvement, and in detention he meets slightly autistic Billy (RJ Cyler) whom he defends against a bully and the two become u easy allies… especially after Jason learns that in return for a favour, Billy can disable his police tracker ankle band.
That night the pair go to a mining facility in their town where Billy blows up a part of a cliff face as he believes his father, who died there, knew there was something in the rock. The explosion brings the attention of fellow detention inhabitant, Kimberly (Naomi Scott), school dodging Zach (Ludi Lin) and outsider Trini (Becky G).
Behind the cliff they find a wall made of crystal with weird coloured coins inside. They each take a coin and the next day find they are now recipients of superpowers. The three meet up back at the mine to try and find out what happened, but what they find is a buried space ship maintained by an annoying robot, Alpha 5 (Bill Hader) and the spirit of the aforementioned Zordon.
Zordon tells them they are now the Power Rangers, and that their powers are a gift to help them defeat Rita as her return is predestined, but will the teens be able to learn how to ‘morph’, which so they can fully realise their true, full powers and defeat her?
It’s great how this film takes the essence of the TV show and distilled it into a proper science fiction film which shakes all the established norms, like the appearance of the kids (no more race-based Ranger colours), and Kimberly’s bullies are now two female characters straight out of Mean Girls. There’s other throwbacks like the appearance of the Zords is straight out of the TV show, with that profiled attack formation, and keep your eyes out for some of the originals popping up here and there.
I think what really makes this film is the teens take it in full seriousness and that makes the film feel real, but it balances off perfectly with Banks’ preposterously overblown badguy performance. That’s not to say the teens don’t have fun with it as there are several occasions where the ‘normal’ antagonists (Kimberly’s bullies and the redhead kid who terrorises Billy) get various come-uppances, but in general their plight is played completely straight, and I guess that will play better with teenaged viewers as all those teenaged problems feel completely real when you are that age.
As far as the story is concerned, it’s a pretty solid origin story delivered well, and most of the special effects are good, though the close-ups of Goldar, one of Rita’s minions, and his ever moving, flowing gold body are average at best.
Red Ranger/ Jason (Dacre Montgomery) kicks some butt!
Krispy Kreme have obviously put their hands up for a bit of promotional claptrappery and product placement as there is one sequence where I believe the phrase ‘Krispy Kreme’ is thrown about by every lead character within about 5 minutes of each other.
If I am to have any real criticism of this film, it’s the two female leads looked a little similar. Not that you get them mixed up, but perhaps a visual cue to separate them a little more could have been beneficial.
This film combines all the angst and teenage pain of alienation and the things people expect of you (like a John Hughes movie might display) and mixes it with a familiar, and yet somewhat unfamiliar science fiction environment, and together they form an entertaining, though occasionally whiny film that’s a load of fun.
Score: ****
Australian bluray Menu Screen
Score: ***
Extras: There’s a decent mount if extras on this disc:
An audio commentary by director Dean Israelite and writer John Gatins which is an thorough and interesting commentary though a lot of stuff from the ‘Making of’ extras are repeated here.
The Power of the Present is a dissection of the history of the Rangers and how this film was made, and features great interviews with all involved, cast, crew and even the producers of the original programme! It’s really interesting and well worth the time. It’s actually a bunch of approximately 15 minute shorts that can be watched as a whole making of piece.
There are some deleted and extended scenes and as usual, they didn’t need to be there and their removal makes sense for the flow of the movie.
Outtakes are amusing I’m sure as recollection for the cast, but in this case aren’t very entertaining at all.
There is also the trailer, with the capacity to watch it with a commentary, which is something cool and unusual.
Score: *****
WISIA: Oh, I’ll watch this again and again!
The new Kimberly (Naomi Scott) is a great as the old Kimberly
LEGENDS: THE COLLECTION
Many of the greatest comics ever written were done in the 80s and part of that reason was the invention of the mini series or limited series. In these takes, even though the character was ongoing, you got a complete tale of that character. A more educated person would suggest these takes were more story driven than character driven, but I’m not, so I won’t suggest that.
DC were particularly good at it as they crafted more deliberate stories, a habit Dark Horse took up later with their Aliens and Predator mini series’s. DC gave such amazing tales as Watchmen and Dark Knight Returns, and of course, the genre and universe re-defining Crisis on Infinite Earths.
The objective of Crisis was to clean up the ‘multiple Earth’ theory that DC had devised so that both their pre-60s relaunch and the earlier stories could exist together, our earth having younger heroes but ‘Earth-2’ having heroes who fought in WW2.
After Crisis occurred, there were many questions left unanswered, and several new series started to re-explain origins of various DC stalwarts, including a brand new Superman title. One of these new titles was a clean-up mini-series called Legends.
Legends was a six issue mini, tied in many other titles, but it still could be read without needing those others, which were more decoration to the core story told in it.
What was Legends about, well, Darkseid makes a bet with the Phantom Stranger that the general populace of Earth would turn on their heroes if opportunity arose, and so, to prove his point, sends his minion Glorious Godfrey, who has to power of coercion, to start creating a scare campaign.
In his nefarious plans he also puts heroes in positions where they seem to cause problems, but Doctor Fate can see what is happening, and bands together a group of heroes to stand up against Godfrey’s ‘Hounds of War’, machines contain humans under his thrall, who are descending upon Washington… can they be stopped?
Many titles came from this series, including a new Wonder Woman, a new Suicide Squad, a new Justice League comic (rebranded as a comedy), a new Flash comic, and fresh minis of both Captain Marvel (Shazam!) and Cosmic Boy.
This collection also has a wonderful introduction by former group editor and director for development for DC, Mike Gold, who talks about how he managed to get the idea together, and how he managed to land John Ostrander, a writer who had a different approach to comics as could be seen by his First Comics published stories of Sargon, Mistress of War and Grimjack.
Story: John Ostrander creates an amazing story that really highlights some heroes that don’t always get much credit, like Robin (even though it’s… bleargh…. Jason Todd), Blue Beetle, Doctor Fate, and his revamped of Task Force X aka The Suicide Squad is a perfect addition. Add to that scripting by Swamp Thing legend Len Wein and you have a winning tale!
Score: *****
Art: The art in this comic is top shelf. My second favourite artist of all time, John Byrne (my first is Jack Kirby) inked by Karl Kesey, the inker who shows off his work best. Sweets for the eyes.
Score: *****
WIRIA: I love this comic and probably drag it out once a year. Finding a collection was a blessing because it meant I didn’t have to touch my individual issues any more.
One from the re watch pile…
Mindhunters (2004)
Mindhunters DVD cover
Criminal Minds is a particular favourite.
This trickles over to films as well, and I am guessing my love of gialli echoes that fandom as well. That whodunnit aspect of the film where you yourself get involved in the policework as you try to outsmart the detective by coming to your conclusion first.
Mindhunters is an interesting choice as it was an attempt by Renny Harlin to do a cinema version of those TV shows that were super popular at that time, but what he did was mix it up with a bunch of well known faces, like Val Kilmer, LL Cool J (who went on to NCIS Los Angeles) and Christian Slater along with several newer faces such as Kathryn Morris (who went into Cold Case), Patricia Velasquez and Clifton Collins Jr.
Val Kilmer eats cake: no one is surprised.
Unfortunately for our crew, there is a real serial killer on the island, one who is slowly picking them off one by one, but has someone snuck on the island to perform these murders, or is Harris a nutbag killer himself, or is it one of the students with some kind of grudge?
Even though it doesn’t really read as a super film, and more a direct to DVD loser, I actually really dig this film, but as I stated earlier, that’s mainly due to my love of police procedural shows. It’s an eclectic cast who shouldn’t work together really, but that adds to the suspicion and mistrust.
Kilmer and Slater are really only here for the cache their names provide, and don’t appear for great periods of time.
L to R: Morris, Velasquez, Collins Jr, LL Cool J and Miller
Mindhunters DVD menu screen
Score: ****
Extras: You would this a DTV film like this would not have many extras, but it does!
Director Renny Harlin gives us a pretty good commentary about the making of the film and various other aspects of this film, including actually FBI procedures. One thing I really like about this commentary is that the dialogue of the film is subtitled during the commentary so you can still follow the script whilst Harlin is making his musings.
Profiling Mindhunters is a collection of interviews with cast and crew about what it rook to create the film.
Stunt Sequence looks at the behind the scenes choreography of the stunts, focusing on one particular scene that had an extensive fight sequence.
A Director’s Walk Through Crimetown sees Harlin look at the mock up town used in the film as the training ground for the young FBI trainees.
There are also trailers on this disc for The Longest Yard, Layer Came, The Marksman and xXx: The Next Level.
Score: ***1/2
WISIA: It’s not the greatest film but it’s compelling, and I give it a regular respin.
Slater’s performance? Smashing!
Digital Retribution 