Three Films Make A Post: It's coming from another world... TO STAY!

Youkai tengoku: Ghost Hero aka Monster Heaven: Ghost Hero (1990): The titular ghost hero might be the wettest blanket who ever won the reluctant hero contest, and the yokai costumes in this rather confused comedy/horror/fantasy thing are mostly godawful. Macoto Tezuka’s (Osamu Tezuka’s son, if the IMDB info is correct) film also suffers from a bad case of feet-dragging, with little of interest happening in the first forty minutes of this 73 minute film.

The crazy that then arrives is not really enough to turn things around but at least we get a demonic samurai, lots of talk about virginity and the really rather unforgettable scene of a (toy) skyscraper-sized woman crunching on (the toy version of) said samurai. Well, and the rather disturbing info that yokai are now in rock bands.

Rites of Spring (2011): This bit of indie horror by Padraig Reynolds looks rather good, is well paced, well enough acted and still isn’t all that interesting. Its attempt to pair up a well-worn type of crime film with a just as well-worn type of horror movie is probably an attempt at the next best thing to originality but the way the two plot lines connect in the end feels most of all contrived (with another, absolutely needless contrivance added for funsies). There’s just so little there here, except for enough technical ability in front of and behind the camera to make you go “’s okay, I guess” after watching it.

The Dead 2: India (2013): I’m not as happy with the second The Dead film as I was with the first one. The Ford Brothers are still very fine budget directors, and this is a perfectly watchable and entertaining film with half a dozen or so scenes that are more than just that, but as a whole, I found this one much less impressive. The zombies are less creepy, the plot’s attempts at Hinduism and melodrama are somewhat risible, and the acting’s through the bank not very good, with everyone being a bit shriller than necessary or helpful.