Dinner and a Movie with Moxie

  Wolfwalkers For Animated Films Saturday this week, instead of choosing something from my film collection as usual, I present you with a review of a new release.   The theater that I saw it in was the living room in the house I share with my roommate, under a fuzzy blanket and cuddled with a sweet cat.   My roommate wanted to watch this film with me because they thought it would go well with the fact that I had just reviewed the classic Wolfman films, and this film is rooted in the Celtic folktales of the Wolfwalkers, which were werewolves as they could possess both the for+ms of a human and the form of a wolf.    Wolfwalkers was released in the USA on Apple TV+ on December 11th 2020 (last night).  The film was directed by Tomm Moore and Ross Stewart, and the screenplay was written by Will Collins.   The film was produced by Cartoon Saloon and Melusine, and distributed by Wildcard (Ireland) Apple TV+ (international including USA), and H...

  The Devil's Messenger Lon Chaney Jr, the once star of Universal's The Wolfman, later in his career found work on television, with the Swedish/American television show 13 Demon Street from 1959.  13 Demon Street was aired in Sweden with English dialogue and Swedish subtitles.  In 1961 Herts-Lion International Corp compiled three episodes with a refilmed wraparound scene to create a horror anthology film called The Devil's Messenger.   The Devil's Messenger was directed by Herbert L Strock, and written by Leo Guild, Curt Siodmak, and Dory Previn.     The Devil's Messenger is a horror anthology film with three scenes: The Photograph, The Girl in the Glacier, and Condemned in Crystal.   All three were directed by Curt Siodmak (the man who wrote The Wolfman), and Herbert Strock directed the wraparound framing story that brings the three stories together to create an actual film.   The wraparound framing story tells the story about...

Zombie Women Of Satan Content Warning: Adult Material including nudity and foul language When I say that this film is not for everyone, in the case of Zombie Women Of Satan I mean that very sincerely. Before you consider watching this film, I might encourage you to ask yourself: Do you enjoy the music of bands like The Dwarves? Do you like toilet and wanking humour? Do you like tons of blood and gore? Do you like copious amounts of beautiful women with natural body-types topless? Do you like perverted creepy clowns? Do you like freak show burlesque? Do you enjoy lots of swearing? Do you enjoy breaking taboos and films that go for the intentional gross out? Do you enjoy very low budget films, by a group of folks that look like they are really having fun making? If you answered yes to all of those things, then Zombie Women Of Satan is a film that is made for specifically for you. This is a film that was never meant for prudish or skittish mainstream audiences, and will even ...

  Zombie Strippers Gratuitous nudity, gore, zombies, and a so bad it's funny script, sounds like the perfect recipe for a b-horror film.  That is exactly what we get in the 2008 campy horror film Zombie Strippers, starring porn super-starlet Jenna Jameson and Freddy Krueger himself Robert Englund.   Zombie Strippers is written, directed, shot, and edited by Jay Lee, and is inspired by the play Rhinoceros by Eugene Ionesco .  The film was distributed by Stage 6 Films, Triumph Films, and Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.  Zombie Strippers stars Robert Englund as a strip club owner Ian Essko.  The dancers at his club Rhino are Jenna Jameson as Kat, goth musician Roxy Saint as Lillith, Penny Drake as Sox, Jennifer Holland as Jessy, Shamron Moore as Jeannie, Whitney Anderson as Gaia, Jeannette Sousa as Berenge, and Carmit Levite as Madame Blavatski.  Johnny D Hawkes plays Davis, a friend of Jessy's that has a big crush on her, and wants her to stay pur...

  Xtro The late 1970s and early 1980s were an interesting time in horror films, after Night Of The Living Dead pushed the boundaries of gore in horror films it opened the doors for for a new generation of filmmakers who took chances and pushed horror to new grounds. Strange and dark films were coming out by independent filmmakers, films like Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Last Film On The Left, and films like I Spit On Your Grave, and of course the cult classic Xtro.    I have heard Xtro described as the most unpredictable film ever made, it is a film about alien abduction, alien invasion, family drama, creepy clowns and toys coming alive, a black panther hanging out in an apartment, and one of the best alien rape/impregnation scenes in a film.   The film is also Maryam d'Abo's first film appearance (she would go on to be a "Bond Girl" in the film The Living Daylights).   I think that saying that this film is one of the most unpredictable films ever made, is...

  Video Game Adventure Film Double Feature: The Wizard and Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie For Gen X and early Millennials, we grew up as kids in the late 1980s and early 1990s, during the height of the Nintendo craze, and it would only make sense that our obsession with the Nintendo Entertainment System and video games in general would become a part of all aspects of pop-culture, including films.   From that generation of gamers would come films like The Wizard in 1989, which was really a Nintendo advertisement disguised as a film, and then in 2014 there would come the Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie, which is a film based on the popular online character of the Angry Video Game Nerd, that tortures himself by doing comedic reviews of video games from his youth.   So in this review I am going to "take you back to the past" and take a look at films that were rooted in the video game culture from the youth of generation X and young millenials.  Both of these...

The World's End   It all started in 2004 with Shaun of the Dead with the strawberry flavoured Cornetto and its red wrapper representing the blood and gory elements, then in 2007 there was Hot Fuzz with the original flavoured Cornetto with its blue wrapper representing the police, and then came The World's End in 2013 with the mint flavoured Cornetto and its green wrapper representing the little green men or aliens.   They are the Three Flavours of Cornetto Trilogy, though none of the films are actually connected, they feature many of the same actors and themes from film to film.  The World's End is a comedic social science fiction/horror film that pays homage to classics like Invasion Of The Body Snatchers, Children Of The Damned, and Day Of The Triffids.   The World's End, just as the rest of the films in the Three Flavours of Cornetto Trilogy is directed by Edgar Wright, and written by Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg.  The film is distributed by Universa...

  The Wolfman (2010) In 2010, Universal Pictures released a remake of the classic 1941 film The Wolfman, which should have been a relatively easy film to remake, because the film had a great story, and wonderful sympathetic characters.   But then again we know that no remake made now can just be a true remake to a successful film, there has to be added in over the top effects and action sequences, and complex and twisting story lines.  Let me say this, and I wish that the film companies would listen, there is a reason that the original film was successful, and there is a reason that it has endured for so long, so to go an mess with that, and to expect people to love and praise you for it is a stupidity.  The Wolfman is not an action film, it is not a gory horror film, and it isn't some complicated story about a dramatic family, and the original works, why not take that actual story from the original film, and just update the visuals, with the current technology,...

  She-Wolf Of London In 1946 Universal Pictures released what promised to be the first female werewolf film, taking the werewolf film genre into a new direction with She-Wolf Of London.   However rather than a supernatural horror they released more of a horror/whodunnit film, that is more in the vein of Alfred Hitchcock than Universal Monsters.   She-Wolf of London was directed by Jean Yarborough and produced by Ben Pivar, with a screenplay by George Bricker, based on a story by Dwight V Babcock.   The film was distributed by Universal Pictures, and released in 1946.  Upon release the film received generally negative reviews, and has been referred to as the film that horror fans love to hate.  Though I hold a different viewpoint on this film, and actually really like and appreciate the film for some of the same reason that other critics hated or dismissed it.  She-Wolf Of London stars June Lockhart as Phillis Allenby, Don Porter plays he...

Werewolf In London  Though the Wolfman is the most famous, and most recognizable Universal Pictures werewolf, in 1935, six years before the release of The Wolfman, was released Werewolf Of London, the first mainstream film werewolf film.  Released in 1935, Werewolf of London was directed by Stuart Walker, and produced by Stanley Bergerman.   The film was written by John Colton, Harvey Gates, Edmund Pearson, James Mulhauser, and Aben Kandel; and is based on a story by Robert Harris.   The film was distributed by Universal Pictures, and though the Wilfred Glenden the primary werewolf in Werewolf of London was the first Universal Pictures werewolf, he wasn't included as one of the Universal Monsters, that distinction would instead go to Lon Chaney Jr as Larry Talbot in the Wolfman in 1941.   Werewolf of London stars Henry Hull as Dr. Wilfred Glendon, Warner Orland as Dr. Yogami, Valerie Hobson as Lisa Glendon, Lester Matthews as Paul Ames, Lawrence G...

  Lake Placid So when you hear the name Lake Placid, if you are anything like me it conjures up thoughts of a beautiful idyllic lakeside town in the Adirondack Mountains of northern New York which was home to the to the Winter Olympics in 1932 and again in 1980, however that is not what we are talking about in this film.   Lake Placid is a 1999 comedic b-horror monster film that takes place on the fictional Black Lake in rural Aroostook County Maine (Maine's most northern county, and by far its most remote county).  The name of the film is actually a joke that is used in the film, the lake in the film has a really still placid quality to it, and the joke is that they wanted to name it Lake Placid, but they were told that name was already taken, so called it Black Lake.   In Black Lake Maine, something is seriously wrong when it is discovered that there is a 30' monstrous crocodile living in the waters. Lake Placid was released in 1999, directed by Steve Min...