The Monster of Blackwood Castle

The Monster of Blackwood Castle (Der Hund Von Blackwood Castle) (1968)

Runtime: 92 minutes

Directed by: Alfred Vohrer

Starring: Heinz Drache, Karin Baal, Horst Tappert, Siegfried Schurenberg, Agnes Windeck

From: Rialto Film

I’ve reviewed the West German krimi movies before, whether or not they were during past Spooky Seasons; however, one wasn’t seen last fall so now seemed like a swell time for the first one I’ve ever seen from the late 60’s… and one where it was based on an Edgar Wallace short story (as most of them were) along with The Hound of the Baskervilles.

What an opening: in a forest enveloped w/ a choking fog, a random man is walking when he hears a howling dog then is chased by a Doberman, whom then attacks. Then, a hilarious opening credits song (in English) sung by someone apparently doing a Screamin’ Jay Hawkins impression. Hopefully he didn’t sire a few dozen children like Hawkins did! The score was thankfully groovy throughout. The estranged daughter of a rich dude inherits the nominal castle. It’s the appropriate creepy affair; during her first night, Jane carries around a candelabra and witnessed macabre events during a dark & stormy night. This includes snakes, an unexpected theme this Spooky Season.

The Hound of Blackwood Castle (replace “Hound” w/ “Monster,” “Strangler,” “Horror,” and probably a few other words… and that’s just the film’s English titles) presents a huge panoply of characters-they’re all juggled successfully and the viewer should pay attention-not that the movie is overly complex or impenetrable. There is a simple explanation for why many people arrive at Blackwood Castle; even with no shortage of plot twists, the movie is not difficult to comprehend. A little improbable, perhaps… but not difficult, and a lot of fun. To be frank, that describes most krimi movies.

There’s humor, which usually lands; that blends well with the mystery aspect-that’s stronger than the horror vibes, despite the spooky elements. The forests, the Gothic sets, the macabre moments, wacky characters (especially the proprietors of the inn and the regulars at the attached pub)… nice for this time of year. Whatever you call this motion picture, it was pretty good.

Matango

Matango (1963)

Runtime: 89 minutes

Directed by: Ishiro Honda

Starring: Many people who were in various Godzilla films

From: Toho

By now I’ve witnessed plenty of movies from Ishiro Honda-either Godzilla and other kaiju pictures or science fiction adventures involving aliens. Matango was something I’ve known of for years as being a different sort of picture from him, one in the horror genre yet the specific details I thankfully had little foreknowledge of beforehand.

A group of people (both rich & poor, not always getting along w/ each other from the jump) are on a yacht, when they foolishly stayed out too long, a massive storm hits, they’re left adrift, they wash up on a tropical island, they find a shipwreck-which looked stunning, inside & out-covered in mold, they don’t have much food, the dissention intensifies, then deep in the third act, the body horror begins…

Matango is a darker, moodier, and more psychological film than you’d expect from the director if you only know him for the Gojira pictures. I won’t reveal much more for those wishing to go in relatively blind; the film says plenty about humanity and their attempts to survive a crisis. Even I thought the pacing was methodical; be that as it may, I was still interested as the plot slowly unfurled in an atmosphere thick w/ growing tension and desperation.

IMO, the final act and the creepy scenes (effective both aurally & visually) made the journey worthwhile. Me, it was a gas seeing many familiar faces-each made multiple appearances in Godzilla movies-in a serious film w/ a haunting ending. It will be one of the more interesting films I watch during Spooky Season 2025. If my endorsement isn’t enough and you discount the similarities w/ a certain game franchise turned TV show, none other than Nic Cage, Carpenter and Soderbergh are fans.

28 Weeks Later

28 Weeks Later (2007)

Runtime: 100 minutes

Directed by: Juan Carlos Fresnadillo

Starring: Robert Carlyle, Rose Byrne, Jeremy Renner, Imogen Poots, Mackintosh Middleton

From: Fox Atomic

A movie I still liked, despite its flaws. Late August I finally viewed 28 Days Later, 22 years later than I should have. Late in October will be a review of 28 Years Later, which at least is better reviewed on Letterboxd than Weeks. Of course, this is filmed conventionally rather than the Canon XL-1 cameras that gave a fuzzy aesthetic to Days.

As most have likely tackled the film before I did, a breakdown of the plot and how NATO attempts to rebuild the UK after the rage virus is believed to be eradicated is not necessary. As there’s the sequel released a few months ago & the trailers were viewed often at the cinema, I knew the virus wasn’t gone so things turned sour. Turns out, the United States military were painted as the villains—insert your own comments if you wish.

There are some major plot contrivances, stupid character motivations and a plot simpler than the original, filmed w/ too much shaky-cam. Despite those demerits, I can’t be too upset w/ 28 Weeks Later merely being “fine”; it’s not “catastrophe” or “calamity.” It was nice seeing future famous faces Rose Byrne, Jeremy Renner, Imogen Poots, and Idris Elba; it was also nice seeing Danny Boyle collaborator Robert Carlyle. There’s also some decent scares after the opening along w/ memorable moments… iffy CG aside. As I carp about often, to its credit, Weeks wasn’t simply a Xerox copy of Days.

As everyone has noted, the opening scene is the highlight of the film-the rest of the picture couldn’t match the introduction. It introduced arguably the two most important characters & presented action which doesn’t return for a long while due to the introduction then presentation of the plot. The opening + the John Murphy score were the highlights of the picture. Those elements plus lowered expectations from 18 years of middling or worse reviews made me not dislike 28 Weeks Later.

My hopes were that they fixed the flaws of Weeks for Years—I’ll soon find out for myself.

Cyber City Oedo 808

This is a 1990 OVA (Original Video Animation) I viewed on Arrow's streaming site: 

Viewing an OVA during Spooky Season is new to me; heck, I’d never seen an OVA period until last night. Adult anime is still a blind spot for me, despite viewing such work as Akira, Ghost in the Shell, Perfect Blue, Vampire Hunter D, and Wicked City. Recently, Arrow’s streaming site added some anime, including OVA’s. Note that they’re the original Japanese versions and NOT any dubs. Other reviews inform me that the English dub for Oedo was incredibly vulgar-the original language thankfully isn’t.

A Google search told me this was likely up my alley—and it was. Of course, I laugh that the setting of its universe is 2808 Tokyo… excuse me, “Oedo” yet the vehicles and tech are futuristic versions of 1980’s products. But that’s part of the tech noir charm it has. Yes, tech noir is a generally accepted term for films like Blade Runner. That and the cyberpunk vibes are strong w/ Cyber City.

Through three episodes, we see a trio of criminals become anti-heroes as they are freed from prison to work for law enforcement… w/ explosive collars around their necks. No, I don’t know if Suicide Squad stole that idea from here or it’s the other way around. They catch criminals & solve crimes to reduce their sentences. As each are jailed for hundreds of years—they might as well be Sisyphus. However, it’s more fun than prison in space. Songoku is a standard cool 80’s dude in a red leather jacket, Gogul looks from the neck-up like Vernon Wells in The Road Warrior, and Benten resembles an 80’s rocker chick… albeit androgynous.

There are three episodes, each a little more than 40 minutes in length-one character is spotlighted per episode. While the first and more so the third have horror plot points rather than have a strong focus on the genre, I was happy to have viewed an OVA w/ awesome animation (the various hues of blues representing Oedo at night alone was stunning), a quality 80’s score, the vibes, the AI and other tech that assist our antiheroes, the aesthetic, the City Pop songs… viewing anime more often might not ever become a thing for me, but those I do seek out, I prefer to be like this. It is a disappointment that there weren’t further adventures of this wild trio, at least not on screen.

Concerning director Yoshiaki Kawajiri, I enjoyed both this and Wicked City. In October the plan is to see at least one horror anime-more specifically, one from Kawajiri.

The People Under the Stairs

The People Under the Stairs (1991)

Runtime: 103 minutes

Directed by: Wes Craven

Starring: Brandon Adams, Everett McGill, Wendy Robie, A.J. Langer, Ving Rhames

From: Universal 

I had an unintended Ving Rhames doubleheader. Shortly after viewing Piranha 3D on Prime Friday night, this played on the Universal Monsters streaming channel-I hadn’t tackled People before so it featuring Rhames in a prominent role was a surprise. Besides the opportunity to see a Wes Craven joint new to me, I’m always down for seeing a Black-centered horror film. After viewing, I really missed out on not giving this bizarre picture a chance much sooner. My apologies to Wes Craven—not everything I’ve seen has been loved but most ranged from OK to very good.

This horror-comedy is also a satire; gentrification and capitalism is skewered as a couple (Everett McGill & Wendy Robie, cast as a REALLY weird couple as they were a couple-presumably weird-in Twin Peaks) are A-hole white landlords who attempt to price out poor Black-dominated apartments so they can be bulldozed for white businesses. Our lead is a 13-year-old Black male nicknamed Fool. As his mom has cancer, Leroy (Rhames) brings pal Spenser and Fool along to burglarize the house of a large stash of coins. It goes awry…

Production design deserves credit; what dingy, macabre digs our villains have—dirty, retro furniture, yet containing then-modern tech to keep the titular people under the stairs. Of course I won’t spoil who those people are except that I was with this film despite its most outlandish moments or plot twists. McGill and Robie were unforgettable as the villains-what an unusual dynamic they had w/ each other. Brandon Adams as Fool did a swell job as a teen who was believable in such a scenario and was easy to root for. So was A.J. Langer as Alice, the most normal person in that house of horrors—a key theme is not knowing what lies behind closed doors.

Stairs was a wild ride which delivered a not-so-subtle message but did so in a fun manner while delivering satirical barbs against its targets-a message that sadly hasn’t diminished in importance. Apparently, Jordan Peele noted it as an influence; others reminded me it had to influence Don’t Breathe. Even I noticed the parallels to Barbarian. If it has not been made clear already, many genre fans should give this a shot if they love the director, appreciate social commentary in their horror, like horror-comedies, and/or want to see teenage leads that aren’t unbearable. As I say often, this sort of genre exercise is preferable to much of what we get in modern times.

Piranha 3D, Revisited

I was finally able to revisit this film and give it a proper Letterboxd review. Frankly, I’m not as fond of a film as I was in the past, especially w/ the theatrical 3D experience fifteen years (!) ago. The luxury yacht in the room is the pastiche of Girls Gone Wild that’s the main plot thread. In hindsight, it is unfortunate in American culture that for a few years in the early 21st century, some asswipe would film girls at Spring Break and convince them to flash their breasts, engage in wet t-shirt contests, and worse then release the footage to the public. Jerry O’Connell as Not Joe Francis at least did a swell job in portraying a loathsome sexist jerk who encourages debauchery at the Arizona Spring Break location, the fictional Lake Victoria.

For better or for worse this is entirely different from the original Piranha from Joe Dante. Various characters are followed as an earthquake released an ancient breed of the title creature from a fissure. Some of this undoubtedly hasn’t aged well & I’m not just referring to the CG. The depravity shown w/ the intoxicated college kids will never sit well with some, nor will the gratuitous moments of female nudity. This certainly was a movie where Eli Roth plays the host of a wet t-shirt contest & there is plenty of pulsating dancing music.

Those moments noted, I was still entertained by Piranha 3D. This has an over-qualified cast for this B-movie nonsense and lead guy Jake was likable as a local doofus who somehow was lucky enough to be friends w/ Jessica Szohr and befriended Kelly Brook… both have aged gracefully in the preceding 15 years, as I just discovered. The movie is a horror-comedy which does have some laughs and for those that love graphic, gory carnage… there’s an unforgettable stretch where the film delivers, aided by practical Greg Nicotero effects. How extreme that carnage was, it’s the dominant memory I had of Piranha since the theatrical viewing 15 years ago.

The other two memories of that viewing… at the time, a friend was a teacher in Lake Havasu, Arizona (where this was filmed) and at least some of her students were in this as extras! In addition, while the screening I was at was far from sold out, several CHILDREN were present. Previous viewers should be AGHAST this happened. Anyhow, Piranha 3D has an over-qualified cast for this B-movie nonsense… a BTTF reunion w/ Elisabeth Shue and Christopher Lloyd, Ving Rhames, Adam Scott, Paul Scheer, Dina Meyer, and… Richard Dreyfuss.

It required a big paycheck from… Harvey Weinstein’s brother Bob (regrettably, The Weinstein Company released the film) but at least Dreyfuss donated it to charity as he dressed like Matt Hooper and if the viewer didn’t catch on, he sang Show Me the Way to Go Home. It’s incredible Dreyfuss spoofed one of his most famous characters and (spoiler) had him killed off in the opening scene. Arguably, it’s the best moment in the film.

No, the sequel-Piranha 3DD-hasn’t been tackled nor do I ever plan on doing so. Enough reviews have been read that it’d be a film for me to avoid.

I Revisited All the President's Men

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