Crocodile (1979) [REVIEW] | Thai Croc Jaws #sharksncrocspartdeux

Can’t get more basic than “Crocodile”, not “killer”, not “mutant”, nor “apocalypse”, just your plain old reptilian creature to not be confused with an alligator.

Which is arguably kind of a lie, since this is an obscure Thai monster movie that was made – in unison – “to ride Jaws’ coat-tail”. I don’t even do this on purpose, there’s that big a chance even killer croc movies somehow can be linked back to it, either due to the decade of their release or the basic plot structure and popularized cliches.

Often it’s both, as “Crocodile” was released just years after Jaws rocked the box office, AND the plot it’s virtually identical… or is it?

Not to be confused with a 1978’s Korean movie also with the international title of “Crocodile”, from which this 1979 Thai film is edited from… and by that i’d say it borrows some stock footage from the 1978 one, i don’t know to what extend, since i couldn’t find a copy of the 1978’s film, because i do believe these are two different – yet almost identical sounding – movies, not one and the same.

Continua a leggere “Crocodile (1979) [REVIEW] | Thai Croc Jaws #sharksncrocspartdeux”

The Spooktacular Eight #10: Robo Vampire (1988)

Oh boy. THIS one.

Quite the legendary trash film from Godfrey Ho (credited as Thomas Tang, once again), one that definitely lives up to its status as one of the most bonkers heaps of garbage to ever come out of the 80s never ending cauldron of action-xploitation movies.

It’s definitely quite infamous and rightfully so, because even if you’re acquainted with Godfrey Ho, Joseph Lai, their companies like Filmark International and IFD Arts, this is still absolute hokum of majestic proportions, downright unbelievable and baffling.

I can’t even imagine how much cocaine did Ho and his unnamed writers snort up for this one in particular, because it makes their cut n paste ninja flicks look downright sensible and composed.

The main reason it’s because Ho (or Lai, or whoever supervised the scripts, hard to say when Ho is credited for many films he didn’t even direct) didn’t bother to say no to anything proposed, i refuse to believe anything got cut from the script since it’s all a non-sensical demented mish mash.

Continua a leggere “The Spooktacular Eight #10: Robo Vampire (1988)”

[EXPRESSO] Ghost Lab (2021) | Thai Ghost Of Ruin

Let’s take a dip from Netflix new original content, specifically this thai horror thriller, Ghost Lab.

The premise is novel enough, as we see 2 medical doctors try to scientifically explain ghosts, after their hospital is infested by something they both have witnessed with their very own eyes together, so they venture on this quest of undisputable scientific proof for the literally unfathomable, setting up the titular “ghost laboratory” in a hall of an abandoned building in their hospital.

And as it turns out, it’s quite hard to prove ghosts, as even the odd night events like wheelchairs moving by themselves in fairly open spaces or things flying off the shelves by themselves don’t look more believable than the stuff available online, but while it doesn’t unfold exactly as you would expect (it doesn’t do the “Layton twist”) and it has some good drama, most of the final act seems kinda at odds with what came before, in a last second course correction to make it a more standard horror thriller, maybe afraid it would have less impact if didn’t.

Sure, at least there’s some entertaiment to it, but it’s hard to shake the feeling the script was tooled with to deliver a more palatable, safe conclusion, as if the writer wasn’t confident enough, so it threw all the genre cliches in a final act that – again, for the most part – might as well belong to a completely different movie.

It’s a shame, because it has a decent atmosphere, good characters, convincing performances, but it just doesn’t develop the interesting premise in a potentially interesting way, falling back into the generic, and in a fairly jarring way to boot.

It’s an uneven film, for sure, but i’d say it’s still worth a watch if you dig the premise.

Garuda (2004) [REVIEW] | Harvey Birdmon

Sometimes it’s hard to forget that neither Japan or the United States have an exclusivity on making giant monster movies, even if often we still end up in the vague “asian sphere of influence” one way or another. This one as well, but it’s from Thailand, not a country you immediately associate with giant monsters, but it doesn’t matter, and director/producer/writer Monthon Arayangkoon tapped from thai folklore for the monster, the titular Garuda, originated from Hindu mithology as a legendary bird-like creature aligned with the element of wind, serving as a steed to the god Vishnu, and depicted as either a giant bird with half-open wings or an humanoid with bird features.

He’s usually depicted as a protector figure, always ready to fight the serpent enemies (which means the naga), but in this case he’s depicted as a bloody rampaging monster, but i guess being trapped into the concrete under Bangkok for thousand of years will make anyone snap into a rampage.

Continua a leggere “Garuda (2004) [REVIEW] | Harvey Birdmon”