Nennius

The poster for the movie. Showing a woman with dark eyeshadow and curly hair looking out from the frame.

While I await the release of the Suzzanna box set, I might as well check out the two recent tribute films. First up: Suzzanna: Kliwon Friday Night (2023). A woman is killed by dark magic and returns as a vengeful spirit. #horrorsky #nowwatching

A mixed bag - some effective moments, but it works best when its budget is kept off the screen. As soon as we see the monster the threat evaporates. Certainly not bad, but at times it feels a bit like a pound shop predator.

the poster for the movie, showing a man lying on his back and a mysterious figure seemingly covered in bandages.

#nowwatching Man Vs. (2015). A survivalist filming a TV show finds himself being stalked in the woods by a mysterious being. After all the Italian junk I've been choking down recently, a bit of stripped-down sci-fi horror is a nice change of pace. #horrorsky

you'd think so!

A friend of mine once asked "do you remember when you came to see me in Liverpool and we went to a Kelly Clarkson concert?", and I said "no, I would never go to a Kelly Clarkson concert", and he proceeded to pull out his phone and show me photographs of myself at a Kelly Clarkson concert.

Happy birthday!

The poster, showing a man flanked by two women facing off against frog mutants.

#nowwatching Hell Comes to Frogtown (1988). Following a nuclear war which has rendered humanity largely sterile, one of the world's last virile and potent men (Rowdy Roddy Piper) is recruited by the government to rescue some highly fecund women from frog-mutants so he can get them up the duff.

Speaking of the blind dead, did you see that Vinegar Syndrome is bringing out a new 4K of The Ghost Galleon?

Ah yes, the nigths of terror.

Extremely unpleasant, but surprisingly atmospheric. I guess thematically it's about being unwilling to let go of objects of desire, but really it has no deeper aspirations than to repulse the audience. Not that there's anything wrong with that!

The poster for the movie, showing a woman's face reflected in a bloody cleaver.

#nowwatching Buio Omega (aka Beyond the Darkness, 1979), a Joe D'Amato film about a young taxidermist who, shall we say, really wants his girlfriend back. Starting things out right with a rocking Goblin track! #horrorsky

Such a grimy film. You need a shower after watching it.

What did you think? Best in the series since Aliens for me!

Oh man, if you haven't seen this, I highly recommend carving out 90 mins for it. It's so silly.

the poster for star crash, showing caroline munro firing a gun, and marjoe gortner holding some kind of light...sword. In the background is a robot holding two guns and a spaceship.

I need a palate cleanse. #nowwatching Starcrash (1978), a Roger Corman-produced Star Wars knock-off in which ex-child preacher Marjoe Gortner and impractical clothes-wearer Caroline Munro are recruited by Chrisopher Plummer and David Hasselhoff to save the universe from evil Joe Spinell.

If you're into cannibal films, it's something different. For everyone else, I'd recommend hopping straight to the director's follow-up Satan's Slave (1980), a much better and significantly less depressing film.

There's a good bit of gore, though the nudity is toned down. I was hoping the animal violence would be limited to inserted nature documentary footage. but we do, unfortunately, get a lot of the real deal towards the end. I wouldn't have watched it if I'd known that going in.

I mean, this is pretty much what you'd imagine: A slightly more amateurish version of the Italian cannibal cycle. It's set in a nondescript 'jungle', and all the actors are Indonesian, so while I have a very strong feeling it's racist, I'm not sure against who exactly...

You know how annoying it is when one of your long-term niche interests suddenly becomes popular? That's sort of how I feel about the Green Party of England and Wales at the moment. As a lifelong contrarian I might have to resign my membership and join a different left-libertarian ecosocialist party.

One of the greatest, Bruce Campbell, announcing he has cancer. Our hearts are with you Bruce, Hail to the King.

The poster for the movie, showing a mouldering head on a stick.

Another foray into Indonesian horror... #nowwatching Primitives (1980), Indonesia's first and only attempt at an Italian-style cannibal film. Very much hoping they resist the urge to do any live animal slaughter, but...well...let's see. #horrorsky

I LOVE this film. Incredible soundtrack too.

Hmm. This looked very beautiful, but it was almost painfully slow. Also, not the first time, these Severin box sets are using a very liberal definition of 'horror' - this was more a dark fantasy drama than anything else. I'm sure there's an audience for this, but that audience isn't me.

The poster for scales, showing a girl lying on a shoreline, with scales on her feet

#nowwatching Scales (2019), a Saudi/UAE/Iraqi co-produced film about a young girl growing up in a village with a dark tradition. #horrorsky

Yeah, I agree. I track it because of fitness stuff, but even then a lot of the recommendations online are crazy. Based on advice from a nephrologist I aim for about 90-100g a day, which is well below the 160-200g that people often recommend online. It can't be good for you to eat that much...

Yeah, the ambition outstripped the budget a bit - it still looked pretty good though, for what they had!

Sometimes they suggest you add an extra dash of lemon juice to help with the flavour, thus adding a slight citrusy twist to your plate of gritty slurry.

I like it when the 'high protein' version of a recipe is just the same recipe but with an added scoop of protein powder, thereby completely ruining both the taste and texture of the dish.

Great fun! I enjoyed the amount of screen time spent boating along the river, and it's always nice to see Tasha Yar/Bing Crosby's granddaughter in stuff.

The poster for eliminators showing an android on treads shooting from an arm mounted cannon, surrounded by other characters holding guns and swords.

#nowwatching Eliminators (1986), a Charles Band produced action/sci-fi film about a 'mandroid' teaming up with several other characters to take down a mad scientist. I was alerted to this one by @reelobscurepod.bsky.social - check out the episode!