Also a straggler meant for the last update, which I couldn’t quite finish in time for the deadline.

The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008), in which the Earth may not until the very end, but Keanu Reeves, as usual, stands still throughout the entire picture…

Death Curse of Tartu (1966), in which mummified Seminole medicine men don’t like go-go dancing superannuated teenagers any more than were-jellyfish do…

Friday the 13th (2009), in which one of the two best chances for the current remake madness to improve upon the past is resoundingly blown…

The Hills Have Eyes (2006), which never had a hope in hell in the first place…

and…

Prom Night (2008), which might not eclipse its so-called antecessor, but at least manages not to suck for the most part.
 
 
 

THE MUMMY’S HAND (1940)

Universal’s 1932 Boris Karloff vehicle gets a thorough makeover in this, the first of four 1940s B-movies to feature what is now the popular conception of the mummy. Trading dialogue for screen time, the newly-christened Kharis shuffles silently through the film like a one-handed Nemesis, while around him the human characters make speeches to the gods, dig for treasure, flirt, practice magic tricks and crack bad jokes. Endless, endless bad jokes…

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[Edited to add:  I have added screenshots to Frankenstein and Dracula, and re-formatted and added screenshots to Dracula’s Daughter.]

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I remember watching the first Species movie when it first came out, and I remember being somewhat let down by it. I reluctantly picked up Species II years after it was first released. I was expecting something bad, but I was really surprised by what I watched. This movie was INSANE. It reminded me of one of those exploitive category III Hong Kong movies like Robotrix, but with a much bigger budget. You can bet I was pumped up to see Species III after that. But while I thought its production values were acceptable for a straight-to-video movie, and that it had a number of gory and naked women moments, I thought it was somewhat talky, somewhat slow, and overlong (it ran close to two hours!) It didn’t get me pumped up to see the next entry, Species – The Awakening, when it was first released, and I only decided to see it recently when I was able to rent it for just a buck. Read and see if I wanted my money back afterwards.

I’ve got a stack of “for your consideration” screeners that have come in the last few weeks, so I’ll pull out a few of them that I actually want to watch and review.

The first is District 9 (2009), about alien refugees who arrive in Johannesburg and are relegated to second-class-sentient status in filthy shantytowns. (Psst: It’s an allegory.)