Scared (2005)

I'm not sure what to write about Scared, but it's an entertaining piece of thai-cinema with a paper-thin script, all young actors look the same and easily to understand even without subtitles. A school class is celebrating end of school (I guess... maybe it's just summer vacation or something), so they're going out on a bus trip. After crashing with the bus - and the driver gets his face impaled by a big piece of wood - they try to get back to civilization. But something or someone don't want them to leave the countryside, and one by one they died en bizarre and bloody accidents or get hunted down by a very violent killer!

The story isn't much more than that, but except the silly ending, this is a fun and competent splatter movie with a decent budget and actors more cute than good. This project must have been planned to be a summer blockbuster and create poster-stars of most of the cast. I'm not sure that happen, I'm not even sure it became a big success, but still - I like it a lot and I'm surprised that it's not out DVD in the US or Europe. Shot on HD it looks very good without probably costing to much to produce. The actors are all around their twenties and are there to get killed and nothing more. And look cute I guess.

What makes this movie extra special is the generous amount of gore. Most of the killings is very graphic. I think that at least five or six of the victims have their heads impaled, crushed or something else. The head, or at least the top of the head, is sacred in Thailand so I think this makes it even more powerful. But then we have a lot of other nasty killings and the body count is very, very high. But all this is made with a tongue-in-cheek approach and even if I don't understand everything, I realize that the beginning of the movie is a parody of asian ghost-movies. Which is quite funny.

But the big problem is the ending. It's not that bad (like everything is a dream or something stupid like that) and it's possible to accept, but it's also a cheap way to end a very advanced set-up. It's been done before and I hope it will never happen again. But don't that scare you, this is a gory and over-the-top splatter movie which makes the last Final Destination to look like a piece of... crap.

Curse of Snakes Valley (1987)

Holy Batarang, baby! I've seen a lot from Poland, Soviet and the rest of these fantastic ex-communist countries, but I never thought I would see a Indiana Jones-rip off shot in Vietnam starring the manly hero from swedish action-classic The Ninja Mission, Krzysztof Kolberger! The original title is more catchy, Klatwa Doliny Wezy, but I will stick to Klatwa whenever I reference the title in the reviews. So you all know.

Krzysztof Kolberger plays Jan Tarnas, a professor in ancient asian writing. He works and teaches in Paris. One day the old ex-military Tarnas (Roman Wilhelmi) contacts him and shows a very rare document that he found in Vietnam in the fifties. The document hides another document, a treasure map, and together they go to Vietnam (I guess it's Vietnam, but in the end they also mention Thailand... so I have no idea)... followed by the curious female journalist Christine (Ewa Salacka, who died way to early in 2006 by a wasp-sting!), to find the cursed snake valley where the treasure is hidden. The problem is that the ancient document warns them of four dangers that will kill them if they don't do everything right...


This is really an amazing little movie, at least for us that like obscure european genre cinema. It's a almost to perfect combination between classic polish sci-fi and mystery and with a real Indiana Jones-movie. Kolbergers character is part Robert Langdon and part Henry Jones Jr, but most of the most dangerous stuff is left to the character Tarnas. The locations are glorious, and I would love to get some more info where they shot Klatwa. The hidden temple is under an old ancient temple up on a hill, with jungle all around it, which looks beautiful. In Europe the setting of Paris looks very fine, but Vietnam steals everything. The underground temple itself is a lovely set, right from an Indy-movie - with traps and all! One character even throws his hat and sets of a trap! We have laser-shooting statues, a big monster-snake and a cool surprise in the end of the trip.


The twist is actually quite original, though I don't understand everything of it. I can see the danger of this fourth thing... but it can also be a good thing for those that put it there. You'll have to see it yourself. Sure, the budget isn't that big, and some effects looks a bit hokey even by the standard of that time. But the overfall feeling of the story and quality of the production makes this a very nice little adventure-movie. It's also quite violent with some bloody squibs, rotting corpses (of course, this is a Indy-rip off!) and a buddhist monk with lethal throwing stars!

A movie I recommend, but try to get a good version of it. I had to watch a downloaded TV-rip, but I heard there's a DVD-release from Ruscico - but only with russian dub and no subtitles! So Let's all hope it will arrive in better, more english-friendly version soon.

Please, can someone translate Thai titles for me?

These are two movies starring Panna Rittikrai, but the english titles are to bad to be true, and I want to identify them and give them the correct titles. Both phonetical thai and an english translation. Just for the sake of it and that I hate that there's wrong information out here. 

I am grateful for all the help I can get!

Sleepwalkers (1992)

Easily one of the most loathed Stephen King-movies out there, but what can I say? Sleepwalkers is a good movie, with an original build-up and probably a bit to uncommercial for the big audience out there. Brian Krause and Alice Krige plays Charles and Mary, son and mother on the run. They are some kind of creatures called Sleepwalkers. They kill humans and such the energy from them, and the only thing that can hurt them is... cats! After coming to a new little town Charles get interested in Tanya (Mädchen Amick), and feels that she's the best food for him and his mother...

The best part with Sleepwalkers is the (incestuous) relationship between Charles and Mary. They live for each other, and even if we all think that Charles might be interested in Tanya for real... he's not. An plot twist like that would very boring. Charles just want to eat and make his mother stronger. The movie also focuses on this relationship, which makes a movie without a real hero. Sure, Tanya could be a heroine, but she's never that important. Other characters are just killed off quickly, and those we root to is this slightly dysfunctional monster/alien family.

I totally forgot that it was Mick Garris that was the director, and it's a pity that this is one of his most forgotten movies. The script isn't perfect, and a little bit more work on the other characters would have been great. But on the other side, they're only there to be food anyway. There's a lot of cameos and guest roles all over the movie: Mark Hamill, Clive Barker, John Landis, Joe Dante, Tobe Hooper, Ron Perlman and Stephen King himself in his normal hillbilly-part. A nice surprise is the gory killings, which is more graphic than I could remember. The cat-scenes are also very well made, and might not be for those that can't stand getting a lot of cats getting their necks twisted! Digital effects is good, but a bit primitive compared what we can see today. Monster-make up is cool and a bit eerie.

Maybe I'm reading to much into this movie, with it's dark and bizarre incest-twist between mother and son, but I actually think that part is very, very good. It's more arty, with long takes and always with good dialogue - which is strange, because the rest is more of a normal monster-of-the-week feature. Nothing bad with that, I like it, but it's an odd combination.

lookalikes

Yeah, or maybe not? You judge!

The Mutants of Nightmare City - part 7

This is a creepy lady from the famous hospital-sequence. Maybe the only mutant that looks scary in Nightmare City. Or maybe she looks scared, wondering why this brutal and drooling director has forced her to be in his movie?

Typical spanish mutant with Naschy-eyebrows and a ten minute-shadow. If I don't remember it wrong, this is the mutant that pretends to be normal to, so this proofs that acting-talents are everywhere!


When I see this female mutant I always think about Patricia Hearst. It's more the style, the fury, the brutality, not the looks. I love Patricia Hearst by the way, so this is the first time I got her name in any of my blogs!

Why?

I lost most of my hope and happiness since this man started to write again. I don't even delete his postings anymore because there's no idea. He's just coming back. I tried the police, no luck. I traced his IP-adress, but of course that's impossible to because he's not using his own IP. I see no point in it all anymore.

The worst thing is that he's such a coward that he's hiding. I'm not hiding. He's don't dare to. It's both scary, and at the same time makes me the stronger person. Weird, very weird.