No, not an official entry in Month Of The Living Dead; just a scheduling coincidence!
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In which a mad scientist encourages a bunch of natives to become cannibals, so that he can turn them into zombies.
Featuring a lot of blood, a few boobs, one bare butt and a scattering of maggots. So, yeah – NSFW.
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EDITED TO ADD: Association of ideas. I have also re-formatted and added screenshots to my review of Zombie Lake….and you better BELIEVE it’s NSFW!!!!
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That many were skeptical of the degree to which these stories –- one of which was The Shuttered Room –- could actually be considered Lovecraft’s work is understandable. Not only had Lovecraft been dead for over twenty years at the time of their writing, but those examples of his notes included in the same volume clearly demonstrate that many of his story ideas consisted of little more than single sentences that had a lot more to do with suggestions of tone than any kind of specific plot details. As a result, these particular efforts on Derleth’s part came to be seen by many as nothing more than a distasteful bit of coattail-riding.
Now I have to confess to not having actually read The Shuttered Room, but if the 1967 movie adaptation of the story is any indication (which, admittedly, it very well may not be), it’s thematic relationship to Lovecraft’s work is –- on a superficial level, at least –- pretty explicit. Or, at least, I should say, it’s relationship to one specific piece of Lovecraft’s work, because the movie seems to rely pretty heavily upon The Dunwich Horror for many of it key elements. The setting is an island off the New England coast (which is actually parts of Norfolk, in the old England, standing in for New England) called Dunwich, which, to the scant extent that it is inhabited at all, is populated mostly by descendents of the Whateley family, that clan who figured so prominently in the action of the original Dunwich. There is talk of a “Whateley Curse” and, most importantly, some kind of unspeakable horror locked away in an attic room in an old house belonging to the family.
Oct 21
In keeping with the impromptu themes that I’ve discovered with every two reviews I’ve posted in this year’s Month of the Living Dead, here are the commonalities that bind together this week’s entries:
a) They were both sent to me as screeners for review.
b) They’re both kind of underwhelming.
Oct 17
Time for a little more SCIENCE IN THE REEL WORLD:
Yellow Jack (1938) – set in Cuba at the conclusion of the Spanish-American War, the true(ish) story of Major Walter Reed and his team, and their search for the truth about the transmission of yellow fever
Without Love (1945) – which offers the somewhat unlikely sight of Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy falling in love over the development of an experimental oxygen delivery system for high altitude aviation
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It’s been a long time since I’ve practically begged you readers to check out movies made by PM Entertainment. It’s that time again. Instead of screaming in your face (which hasn’t worked), I’ll start off with a history lesson. PM Entertainment went through so many transformations during its lifetime that it’s hard to believe many of its films were made by the same company when you compare them to each other. Take a look at the company’s history, starting back in the latter part of the ’80s when Richard Pepin and Joseph Merhi first got together and founded the company that was originally called City Lights. In those first few years they made a name for themselves with ultra cheap movies like Mayhem, The Newlydeads, and Dance Or Die. As bad and cheap as those movies were, they must have made a profit, because in the first part of the ’90s they were not only still around, they were making somewhat higher-budgeted movies like Chance, The Art Of Dying, and Street Crimes, which, while not all good, were a definite improvement on what they made previously. (They had changed their name to PM Entertainment at this point, possibly in a ploy to distance themselves from those awful movies they made in their first years.) A few years from that point, the budgets increased slightly again, and they made movies like Cybertracker, Ice, and Direct Hit. Then around 1996 PM hit its peak, raising significantly large budgets for their movies which included Rage, The Sweeper, and Executive Target. The PM movie I’m reviewing here, Firepower, comes from that third stage. Read the review, be informed, and watch PM movies – at least the good ones.
Oct 14
Is there an inadvertent theme visible in the two offerings this week in Month of the Living Dead 9? There is indeed: Titles.
The independent zombie film Contagium bit off more than it could chew when it was retitled Day of the Dead 2: Contagium (2005) before release…
…whereas the mediocre horror film Zombies (1964) got a new lease on life when it was later retitled I Eat Your Skin for the drive-in circuit, and derives what notoriety it has from that title alone.
…and I’m not afraid to say so – AGAIN – even though the last time I used that line, it provoked snickering from some immature types who apparently didn’t understand that the operative word in that sentence isn’t “lady”, it’s “snake” Hmmph!
Anyway…
In which some stalwart Brits set out to prove they can make a film as bad and stupid as anything produced in Hollywood, and succeed.
In a small village in the north of England, at the turn of the last century, a mad scientist injects his wife with cobra-venom, in order to treat her mental illness. Unfortunately, besides being insane, she is also pregnant. The child, a girl, is born with cold blood and strange, staring eyes. She survives an attack upon her father’s house by a torch-carrying mob, and almost twenty years later, a wave of deaths from snakebite strikes the residents of the village…
Then Scotland Yard feels compelled to investigate. Interfering bastards!
(In other news, I have also re-formatted Cobra Woman, and re-formatted and added screenshots to Cult Of The Cobra. Ohhh, yeah!)
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BEYOND THE WALL OF SLEEP
If my review of The Dunwich Horror proved anything, it was that neither H.P. Lovecraft or the gothic horror films of American International Pictures are areas in which I am particularly expert. It’s for that reason that, when word came down that October was going to be yet another month O’ Lovecraft here at Teleport City, I eschewed making the obvious choice of tackling Dunwich director Daniel Haller’s earlier Die, Monster, Die! I just didn’t think I had that much more to add to what I’d already said on the subject.
But that left me at a bit of a loss as to what film I would cover. Keith helpfully reeled off a list of yet-to-be-claimed titles (I won’t call them the dregs, exactly), one of which, Beyond the Wall of Sleep, I had never heard of. I darted over to the IMDB and perused the user reviews for Sleep, of which subject lines like “Quite possibly the worst film I’ve ever seen”, “Avoid at all costs”, and (emphasis mine) “The single worst movie I’ve ever seen” were fairly representative. “Yes,” I thought to myself. “That just might be the one.”
That’s right, Month of the Living Dead has come to Cold Fusion Video Reviews again — the ninth annual Month of the Living Dead, in fact. And the first two movies make me wonder why I started doing this in the first place, because they are in fact utter kaka:
The first sequel to Gojira (1954) was a rushed affair intended to cash in on its predecessor’s success, and it shows; the film is an altogether smaller, less powerful, and ultimately less important piece of film-making. However, with the introduction of Anguirus, and the staging of the newcomer’s vicious battle with Godzilla, Godzilla’s Counterattack bestowed upon subsequent kaiju eiga a most blessed gift: the concept of the monster smackdown.
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We also take a look at the tortuous journey by which Godzilla’s Counterattack became Gigantis, The Fire Monster.
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