Godzilla: Resurgence (2016), in which a new kind of nuclear disaster demands a new kind of kaiju…
Horror of the Zombies (1974), in which the Blind Dead take a subtropical cruise vacation…
The House of Psychotic Women (1974), which never had a hope of living up to that title, let alone living up to the old VHS box art…
and…
Night of Dark Shadows (1971), in which the best aid to comprehension is probably to be not a fan of the TV series.
#1 by Jason Farrell on October 25, 2016 - 2:39 pm
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Oddly enough, HORROR OF THE ZOMBIES was my first attempt at Italian horror (yeah, I know its not Italian but it felt Italian) only mine was in VHS with an obvious handwritten title calling it (wait for it) ZOMBIE FLESH EATERS.
The abrupt, out-of-nowhere rape scene in the middle troubled me greatly and made me realize there was a whole world of horror movies out that were completely different from the monster movies I had been seeing.
#2 by El Santo on October 25, 2016 - 4:22 pm
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Hey! You just solved a minor mystery for me. Some years ago, I encountered a public-domain DVD set that inexplicably paired the title Zombie Flesh Eaters (well known as the most common British title to Lucio Fulci’s Zombi 2) with a plot synopsis that plainly described Horror of the Zombies. I figured it had to be a mistake, and became curious as to which film was actually on the disc. (Not curious enough to buy it, mind you…) Of course, your confirmation that the third Blind Dead film really was shown as Zombie Flesh Eaters at some point raises the larger mystery of how Horror of the Zombies wound up swiping the Fulci movie’s title in the first place.
#3 by Doug Hudson on October 25, 2016 - 5:01 pm
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Ah, Ghost Galleon! On the one hand, it washed away the bad taste left by the end of Return of the Blind Dead (the Blind Dead stop moving at dawn? since when?) On the other hand, dear lord are the human characters hard to take. Which shouldn’t be a problem (everyone is rooting for the Blind Dead, right?), except that the Dead take their fine frickin’ time killing everybody.
But the final scene is pretty cool, though not as horrifying as the ending to Tombs…
#4 by El Santo on October 25, 2016 - 6:09 pm
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I’ve never been quite sure what to make of that, myself. On the one hand, Tombs of the Blind Dead does plainly show the Templars operating during daylight hours. On the other hand, I have a sneaking suspicion that most if not all of those bits were just really atrocious day-for-night (even if the day-for-night, on average, is pretty good in that movie).
#5 by Doug Hudson on October 26, 2016 - 4:59 pm
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Yeah, I considered bad day for night shots, but I just can’t buy that the train scene at the end of Tombs… is intended to be at night. Part of what makes that scene so horrifying, to me, is that it IS full daylight, and the Blind Dead just don’t care.
And in Ghost Galleon, the blind dead are clearly moving in broad daylight at the end.
I think Ossario just didn’t care about continuity between the films. And since the nightmarish, unreal quality of the series is one of its real strengths, I’m okay with that. But having the ending of the second movie directly contradict the ending of the first movie was a bit much.
#6 by Doug Hudson on October 26, 2016 - 5:03 pm
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Also, I’d just to state for the record that, various weaknesses of the movies aside, the Blind Dead themselves are one of my favorite movie monsters of all time. They look creepy as hell, they have amazing theme music, and they are zombie vampire knights riding undead horses.
#7 by El Santo on October 26, 2016 - 7:56 pm
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My favorite moment in Return of the Blind Dead is the confirmation that yes, even the horses are zombies.
#8 by The Rev. on October 26, 2016 - 11:49 pm
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Re: G:S: Since finding out her plight, I’ve got all the sympathy in the world for Satomi Ishihara. That doesn’t make Kayako any easier to take, though. Despite that, I’m looking forward to this being out on DVD so I can re-watch it.
I may have to rewatch Ghost Galleon, because it just bored me for the most part. (Maybe if I hadn’t seen the superlative original a few days prior…) That may also explain my enjoying the second one more than most people seem to, which I saw soon after this one. I find I can ignore the inconsistencies with the Templars since the movies I’ve seen (haven’t seen the last one yet) play like the Millennium Godzilla movies, in that they’re variations on a theme that aren’t really related to each other. I do love the Templars something fierce, though; probably my favorite undead creatures ever.
#9 by The Rev. on October 26, 2016 - 11:50 pm
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Whoops. That should’ve been G: R. Must’ve had “Shin” in my head there when I typed that.
#10 by PCachu on October 28, 2016 - 11:12 am
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…Hideaki Anno.
How is it that I never before noticed that detail in all that I’ve read about Shin Godzilla? That one name explains EVERYTHING.
#11 by El Santo on October 28, 2016 - 2:50 pm
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Care to elaborate? I’m unacquainted with Anno’s work, beyond knowing that he was behind Neon Genesis Evangelion, which I’ve never seen.
#12 by The Rev. on October 29, 2016 - 12:30 am
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That may be all that’s needed. I haven’t seen “NGE” either, but what I’ve read of it (including a few episode breakdowns) would point to it being a weird-ass series. And I mean even for something from Japan.
Apparently he was also in a few sketches in Funky Forest, which means I can never truly trust him.
#13 by RogerBW on November 13, 2016 - 2:01 pm
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One popular anime-fan saying is that making the last few Evangelion episodes, and the film, was clearly cheaper for him than getting therapy for his depression.
After Western anime fans had spent years going down all sorts of tortuous avenues trying to work out the significance of the Christian symbolism in Evangelion, he admitted that he’d just put that stuff in because it was a weird foreign religion that his primary audience wouldn’t be all that familiar with. I rather admire him for that.