Saturday, September 5, 2009

Three Films Make A Post As Big As A Battleship

Time Walker (1982): An alien mummy runs amuck on a university campus after an overdose of radiation (damn you, Mister Röntgen!) has woken it up from its death-like sleep. Although it kills quite a few people, it is not an evil alien mummy, but only wants to finally get home. Just like a moldy version of ET.

Well, mildly interesting is what comes to mind here. I have seen films that were much worse in every aspect of the craft of filmmaking (although the script here is exceptionally clunky), but I have also seen films that were a lot more entertaining to watch. As it stands, it's mostly for the hardcore mummy lover crowd or people who have to see everything for themselves (me).

 

The Bride From Hell (1972): A very traditional Chinese ghost story. Man (Yang Fan) unwittingly marries a ghost (Margaret Hsing Hui) and starts to act like an ass when he gets suspicious about her place among the living. Her nightly vengeance expeditions to avenge her family's and her own death and post-mortem rape don't help to lighten the matter.

This is a much more conservative film than your typical Shaw Brothers horror, with only the slightest flourishes of madness. Might be too stuffy for some, but I enjoyed it.

 

Necropolis (1987): 300 years after a botched attempt at gaining immortality, a witch (LeeAnne Baker) is reincarnated and trying for eternal life again. To attain it, she has to kill a few people to "suck their ectoplasm" and feed it through her six breasts to her undead minions. Too bad that the people who were responsible for her earlier defeat are also reborn and trying to stop her.

Apart from the six breasts and ectoplasm business, this is a bog standard 80s variation of ye olde witches' revenge yarn with some choice bad acting and not much else of interest, unless you really like 80s pseudo punk fashion a lot more than I do. On the other hand, it could have been much worse.

 

No comments: