Bigfoot: Man or Beast? (1972)

Time for another bit of seventies fun with this Bigfoot documentary. This is an earlier entry into that unique cryptid fascination that caught me up when I was a kid, I’ve never actually watched Bigfoot: Man or Beast before. Thanks to a good friend who hooked me up with a copy on VHS I get to fill in that gap.

There isn’t a narrative, well sort of maybe, I guess. After starting off with about half an hour of people talking about their experiences and encounters with the legendary Sasquatch, we then spend the remaining hour or so with a researcher named Robert W. Morgan. He serves as both the host and narrator. He is leading a team into the woods doing some research. This leads to a lot of him talking about theories and where they may look. There is some drama with a forest fire that forces them to abandon all their hard work, but it is mostly stock footage of nature and trees burning.

This second bit seemed awfully familiar, but I know that I hadn’t seen this before. Then after a bit of poking around I found that a lot of the Morgan stuff had been edited into the In Search of Bigfoot a few years after this came out. Even the release date for Bigfoot: Man or Beast? is a mystery. It seems to have gotten a very limited release in seventy-two but got a wider release in seventy-five, which explains the copyright mark from that year. That means it was only a year before being reused for In Search of Bigfoot.  These drive-in guys knew how to hustle and get the most out of what they paid for, that is sure.

Now that I’ve given you a bit of background and explanation, I suppose I should hop into reviewing the movie. You should know that I’m a huge nerd for this sort of flick, having been caught up in the excitement of it all when I was a kid growing up in the seventies. I’m one of the few people you will meet that sings the praises of Ivan Marx’s The Legend of Bigfoot, which is honestly a nature documentary with a guy talking about Bigfoot as they go along. Not a thrilling movie for sure, but I dig it.

Robert Morgan

Maybe it is the lack of nostalgia since I’ve only just seen this one, but it was really boring. The pacing is terrible with long stretches of a narrator droning along with seemingly unreleated footage rolling in the background. The encounters are basically people sitting on couches talking about what happened to them instead of the cheesy fun reenactments from something like The Mysterious Monsters or Legend of Boggy Creek. I’ve heard all of these stories before and some of them are very creepy, but they manage to suck all the energy out of them with how the filmmakers present the tales here.

We get all the classic tropes of the Bigfoot documentary like tracks, the Patterson Gimlin film, and the crippled foot proving that no one could fake a particular set of tracks. If that sounds familiar it is because many of the same faces that are in this movie as experts also appear using the same basic material in the much superior The Mysterious Monsters. Guys like John Green, Robert Morgan, and Grover Krantz all show up in both. Watching this movie made me want to watch that one instead. Not a great sign.

I’m glad that I’ve finally watched Bigfoot: Man or Beast? and am able to scratch it off my list. But I won’t be going back to this one as there are much better options. If you haven’t seen any of them, please pick one of the other movies I’ve mentioned in this review. On the other hand, if you are a veteran of Sasquatch documentaries then maybe you will get something out of checking this one out. Just keep expectations low.

 

© Copyright 2022 John Shatzer

Fiend without a Face (1958)

A man is found dead after lurking around an airbase. The military wants to investigate what killed him, but the locals refuse to let them. They even stop any attempts at an autopsy. They just assume that he died because of the nuclear reactor in the nearby base. They also blame the issues with their dairy cows on this as well. They are rather angry at the military. This is only made worse when more bodies are found. Eventually the doctor’s figure out that the brain and spinal cord of each victim is gone!

Is this an alien invasion? I mean it is a creepy fifties science fiction movie so that would make sense. But in a clever twist it turns out that it isn’t the military but instead a retired professor who has been using their nuclear powered radar to fuel his own experiments. The result is a bunch of creepy looking invisible monsters that he has lost control over! The best part is when the reactor gets out of control and the monsters become visible though. Then it gets good… really good.

This is one of those fifties movies that people don’t talk about, but the creatures show up everywhere. Trust me if you have seen a documentary or special about science fiction movies then the brain monsters from Fiend without a Face have been shown. I know that normally I talk about the plot and characters first but I’m making an exception here since the creatures are the reason to watch. Initially you don’t see them only hear something moving around the scene with some occasional hay or grass sliding out of the way. The kills are sold by the actor grabbing at their neck and falling to the ground.

But when the power is amped up from the nuclear plant running out of control, they get so supercharged that we get to see them in all their glory. A brain with eyestalks that movie around by pushing themselves on spinal cords. See where all the spare parts from the victims went? This is brought to the screen with some well executed stop motion work as well as latex puppets that get wrapped around the cast when there is an attack. The best part is when they are shot, they sort of pop and spit out what I suppose is blood or maybe monster ooze. Pretty gruesome for a fifties flick and I love it.

The cast is okay with the only highlight being Marshall Thompson as Major Cummings. He is the army officer trying to sort out the killings and is who we follow as the story unfolds. It was interesting to see him here as in the same year he also appeared in It! The Terror from Beyond Space, which is another favorite of mine. He had a good year. His love interest is played by an actress who had a rather short career. Kim Parker is Barbara and does a rather risqué bit, at least for the time, involving her in the shower. I think that she retired to have a family. What was interesting about her though is that she was a refugee who survived a Concentration Camp. After the war she traveled to and settled in England (where this movie was made). Nothing to do with her acting, she is pretty good, but that sort of real life horror put this silliness in the proper perspective.

This is an excellent flick that I highly recommend to everyone. It gets right to the good stuff and never stops being creepy and fun for a second. I’m not sure where it is currently available but for this review I watched the Criterion release.

 

© Copyright 2022 John Shatzer

The Blob (1988)

There aren’t many remakes that are worthy successors to the originals, but this is one of them. We meet the inhabitants of a small town including our main characters of the bad boy, Brian Flagg, and the pretty cheerleader, Meg Penny. We get to watch them go about their lives with Meg cheering on the high school football team and going on a date with Paul. Brian gets hassled by the cops and rides his motorcycle around. Meg even has a preteen little brother who sneaks out to see a movie he shouldn’t. When a homeless man pokes an asteroid, it sets off a chain of events that leads to the military descending on the town and quarantining them.

See it wasn’t actually an asteroid that crashed in the woods. It was a biological warfare experiment and is now getting out of hand. The Blob is basically an eating machine consuming anything living, including the locals, and growing bigger after each meal. At first no one believes Meg, including Brian, but soon enough it is impossible to ignore. How do you stop a monster like this? Well, I’m not going to ruin it for you. But then I would expect that you have either seen this or the original, so you probably already know.

This is how you do a proper remake. You take inspiration from the original and respect it but don’t do a shot for shot clone like the Psycho remake. Nor do you ignore what made the original such a good flick and wreck it like Rob Zombie’s Halloween remake. Instead, you remind folks of what was cool and then lean into what you can do that it couldn’t. Here we get to see familiar takes on the diner, the theater, and the old guy kicking things off with some foolish poking it with a stick action. There was something familiar about this that put a smile on my face.

The magnificent '80s mullet

Overall the pacing is solid with not a slow moment in the ninety or so minute runtime. They establish what is happening with a bit of humor. Meg’s dad being the pharmacist was a goofy but cool laugh before the horror starts. But once they get to the creature it is one kill after the other with just enough plot development to make you care about the soon to be blob victims. Not only is this a remake done right but this is a perfectly executed creature feature. The cast is great including Kevin Dillon as Brian. He has the most luxurious of mullets. A pre Saw Shawnee Smith is Meg and does a good job in the role. Young actor Michael Kenworthy is the little brother and plays basically the same role in another movie also made in eighty eight, Return of the Living Dead II.

But here is where they up the ante with The Blob remake. We get a ton of cool creature effects and some nasty kills. The blob oozes around the town eating anyone it finds in some gruesome ways. People get melted on screen with their bones exposed and flesh dripping off. Someone gets yanked down a sink drain headfirst, an annoying theater goer is yanked by the face up to the ceiling, there are collapsing boobs, and a meat sack sheriff too. Though my favorite kill has to be the bent backwards deputy. That one has always stuck with me.

The effects and kills are a blast!

I also dug that they doubled down on switching it up and surprising the audience with some of the plot choices. First up they killed off the character that looked to be the love interest in the most horrific of ways. Yeah, he has an arm off! Hell, they even kill a damn kid including his half empty skull popping up out at the audience. These are very eighties things that were available to the filmmakers and almost expected from that gooiest of decades that simply couldn’t have happened in the fifties.

I loved this movie when I first rented it back in the day and while there are a couple greenscreen shots that don’t hold up the practical effects work and kills are top notch. The cast is fun, and the story perfectly executed. I highly recommend everyone give this one a watch.

 

© Copyright 2022 John Shatzer

Rocktober Blood (1984)

Just when I think I’ve run out of slasher movies from the eighties I stumble over another one. Rocktober Blood is another example of that. The movie kicks off with a singer/songwriter named Billy laying down his newest track. It is quickly apparent that he is a jerk as he treats everyone like shit. That includes a beautiful young singer named Lynn. After leaving for a bit Billy comes back and murders both engineers that were working with him in rather gruesome ways before chasing Lynn around.

Then the movie jumps forward two years. Thru some exposition we find out that Lynn testified at his trial and that he was sentenced to death. He is already dead and buried since in this world I guess that can happen in a couple of years. Though he insisted he was innocent during the entire trial Lynn saw him. Or did she? Now Lynn is the lead singer of Billy’s band and is about to release a record of his songs. But it looks like that isn’t sitting well with his ghost since someone who looks just like him is killing folks and taunting Lynn trying to make her crazy. Is this Billy returned from the grave? Well… can I spoil a movie that is approaching forty years old? Would that even be considered a spoiler?

Before I go any further, I will warn you that I’m going to give away the big plot twist. If you don’t want that to happen, then I’d suggest skipping to the last paragraph. The movie’s pacing is incredibly uneven. I was excited when we got some stellar kills in the first fifteen minutes. There is some stalking and some nudity as well. I thought that I had found one of those hidden gems that was going to follow the formula and be a good time. The acting from the killer is over the top and cheesy which is mixed in with some decent rock and roll music. But once the movie jumps ahead, we get a lot of inane dialogue about what happened. Sure, there are some sweet eighties style up close aerobics, but that can only take you so far.

Things do pick up again as we find out Billy had a twin brother John who did all the killing but that somehow no one ever knew about. He framed his more famous sibling and sat back to watch him get killed. But now he thinks that Lynn is screwing up the music and must also die. Though not right away apparently as he picks off a bunch of her friends first. I mean he could kill her anytime because he keeps showing up and taunting her with “rainbow eyes” which is the song that was written for her.

The kills are solid. There is a decent throat slash, and another person is pinned to a wall with some metal spikes. The real highlights are when the killer slaughters some backup dancers by gutting them and lopping off one of their heads. We get a couple great gags, but they all are either in the opening or the big finale. What happens in between is very slow and boring. I also liked the killer in his skull mask, but once the mask is off he looks like a bootleg Sean Astin which isn’t scary at all.

In conclusion Rocktober Blood is a weird low budget slasher flick that has a few fun kills but that is about it. I can’t imagine wasting another ninety minutes on this one so I can’t recommend spending money on it. Maybe if you find it streaming or you can rent it then give it a shot.

 

© Copyright 2022 John Shatzer

Raven’s Hollow (2022)

A young lady is walking in the woods when creepy stuff starts to happen. She makes it back home before something, leaves or insects, swarms her and she disappears. After that there are some men on horseback. As they ride along, they discover a man strung up with his insides on the outside (never a good thing) who whispers “Raven” before dying. One of them, Cadet Poe, decides that they take the body to the nearest town. That town is named Raven’s Hollow. Uh oh…

The locals are a mixture of mysterious and hostile. Regardless they clearly aren’t welcome in town but decide to stay one night. That night one of their number comes up missing. This leads the rest of them to try and figure out what the hell is going on. Why do the townsfolk refuse to acknowledge the identity of the body, who clearly was known to them? What is this raven creature that they seem to fear and perhaps worship? And finally, what is up with the beautiful Charlotte who has caught Poe’s eye? There are a lot of questions and before the end they will be answered. Sort of, I think.

I’d consider Raven’s Hollow a mystery with horror elements. At it’s core the movie is about who or what is responsible for the killings, along with how it connects to the locals. Our main character is Edgar Allan Poe, a fictional version of the real life author. I had no idea that Poe attended West Point, but he was briefly in eighteen twenty nine. That is when this movie is supposed to take place. It is what I’d consider a very slow burn as it spends a great deal of time trying to create an atmosphere while unraveling the goings on that lead to the murders. While that might not be everyone’s cup of tea I thought the filmmakers did a great job and was interested in what was on screen.

When we finally do get to the supernatural elements of the story I was satisfied as well. The creature is eventually revealed and while CGI it has such an otherworldly look to it that this was probably the only way to bring it to the screen. The kills aren’t too elaborate or plentiful but serve the story perfectly. Folks get gutted, throats cut, one unfortunate cadet gets skewered, and a heart gets torn out and tossed down to Poe. Not terribly bloody but it was gruesome enough to sell the rest of the proceedings.

The sets and locations are amazing for a low budget movie. This feels like a creepy old town from the early eighteen hundreds. At least in that over stylized creepy horror movie way. I know that this movie was shot in Latvia and I’m not sure if those were standing sets or something they built but it looks awesome. Toss in some clever references to Poe’s later work insinuating that these events made him who he was, and you have a well made movie that is worth checking out. I recommend that you track this one down. Currently it is streaming on Shudder, which itself is worth your time and money.

 

© Copyright 2022 John Shatzer

Flesheater (1988)

This is another Pittsburgh shot zombie movie. Though it has a solid Romero connection being that the director, star, and writer is Bill Hinzman. For those not in the know he played the cemetery zombie in Night of the Living Dead and while not implicitly stated his zombie character in Flesheater is suspiciously familiar. But even with that connection is this movie worth a watch?

Some “kids” go off into the woods for a Halloween party. They are getting there on a hay wagon pulled by a tractor so if you grew up like I did nothing quite says fall like scratchy hay and the smell of diesel fuel. While headed to their campsite the tractor passes a fella trying to pull a stump out of the ground. This is important because after some partying we go back to that guy and see him accidentally unearth a coffin and then break the seal. Inside is Hinzman’s flesh eating zombie who gets right down to business munching on his neck!

The rest of the movie consists of the zombies, anyone killed by the Flesheater rises as a zombie to spread the love, as they chow down on the locals. Some highlights are a family getting ready to go trick or treating and a barn party. There is also an abbreviated siege with the original group of kids holding up in a farmhouse. It all ends exactly how you would think. Which brings me to my final thought… God Damn it Vince you did it again! If you are a zombie movie fan you will get where I’m coming from.

This isn’t a great movie and most certainly not a classic of the living dead genre. What it is though is fun. The story, while predictable, moves along quickly getting from one attack and gag to the next without ever getting bogged down with silly stuff like character development or story. The Flesheater is on the loose and killing which is all that matters. Hinzman gets the fact that occasionally you can be entertaining without trying to make art. Before anyone tries to tell me that I’m not being fair or reading too much into it I had the chance to sit in a ballroom and listen to him interact with the crowd while the movie was playing. He knew exactly what he was making and had fun with it. That translates from the screen to the viewer which is why the movie works as well as it does.

Gotta have some gutmunching!

Since this is a zombie movie we need to talk about the creatures and the kills. First up these undead are your typical blue/grey faced ghouls without much in the way of makeup tricks. Other than zombie Harv they are basic. That is okay though because they make up for it with over twenty kills in the movie. Some are offscreen and again basic, but we do get some highlights. There is a pitchfork to the gut, some throats get torn out, a leg gets hooked, a nose is bitten off, and many zombies are shot in the noggin’. Though my favorite kill of the movie is a hand thru the chest. This is a sticky and gooey watch and I have always and continue to have a blast with it.

Again, not everything has to be art or try and make important points about society. You can also just make a dumb horror flick with zombies doing zombie things in an attempt to entertain an audience. That is Flesheater in a nutshell. It is a fun way to kill an hour and a half, which is all you need to do sometimes. So, kick back, turn your brain off, and enjoy the show.

 

© Copyright 2022 John Shatzer

Old People (2022)

I always am looking for newer horror movies that are interesting and bring something new to the game. When this German production showed up on Netflix, I decided to check it out. While the results are mixed, I’m glad that I did. 

The movie begins with a young woman arriving at a large apartment complex during a rainstorm. She is talking to her boyfriend/husband on the phone and lets him know she has arrived and needs to get to her job. From the outside markings on her car, she is involved in elder care. The apartment door is open, so she lets herself in and after some creeping around the old man who lives there smashes her head in with his oxygen tank. Okay… you have my attention. 

A voiceover lets us know that what we are about to watch, the main story, happened earlier or at least the same night as what we just saw. A woman is taking her children, a teen girl and her younger brother, home for a wedding. When she arrives, she has to pick her father up from a rest home, which is complicated by her ex-husbands new wife or girlfriend working there. Then the wedding happens but at the same time the elderly get a homicidal rage in them that is directed towards the young. I suppose they are feeling abandoned by a world that has moved on and decided to house them in awful conditions. They never explain if this is a biological or some supernatural affliction, it just happens. The remainder of the proceedings are the survivors trying to escape the violence. 

I don’t want to go into the plot any further as that might spoil things. There are some surprises as to who lives and who dies. Be warned that this is the kind of movie that is trying to kick your ass and make you feel things and at times it is successful in doing that. There are characters that are very likeable that have terrible things happen to them. This includes some of the elderly who are the killers. One of the most disturbing parts of the movie happen before the violence kicks in when we get a look at the home where they are forced to live. Woefully understaffed the residents are strapped to beds to protect them from wandering. They lie there in their own filth waiting for someone to take care of them. There is also a heartbreaking bit with a resident who thinks that our main character is his daughter, which is revisited in a soul crushing bit later on. If you notice closely many of them are just confused and not necessarily violent, but you never know who is and who isn’t. 

Old People got under my skin. But here is where I felt a bit let down. They sort of hint at an underlying motivation of them being abandoned by their families as a reason for what happens. Whether that is a supernatural force, or a virus doesn’t matter. This is a powerful message about aging that I wish the filmmakers had spent more time developing. Instead at some point it feels like our killers just become a stand in for zombies or infected turning this into a by the numbers horror flick. I think it lost something of what made it interesting when that happens. 

The above comment doesn’t mean that the horror elements don’t work. They do. The kills are mostly offscreen but in a very old school way that is fine. They are staged in a manner that lets your mind fill in what is happening, which is far worse than what they could have shot. This is further reinforced with some sound effects and after the fact shots of the bodies. There are stabbings, the oxygen bottle to the face, and some heads getting bashed in. Also, the violence is done in a realistic disturbing manner. People don’t get stabbed and die, they scream, gurgle, and beg/fight for their lives. I did mention already that this movie is disturbing, didn’t I? 

Old People isn’t a fun horror movie and might not be for everyone. I also must restate that I think they missed out not going more into the motivation or at least the social commentary on how society treats the elderly. But the movie is still a very effective kick in the butt horror experience and that makes it worth checking out. 

© Copyright 2022 John Shatzer