"Frozen Sasquatch" - Ape run amok movie with old school flair

"Frozen Sasquatch" has shown up as a suggested movie on my Amazon feed a few times now.  Had I seen the Polonia name attached to it, I may have watched it sooner.  If you're a fan or Mark Polonia I won't need to tell you much.  You'll know what to expect for the most part.  A rubber suited monster and an ambitious plot that far exceeds the movie's budget.

To get a feel for the retro movies this is an homage to, perhaps the best example to seek out would be "Terror in the Midnight Sun".  There's no lab and experiments gone wrong in that movie, but many of the other unusual aspects of the Yeti explored in "Frozen Sasquatch" are explored there.  Also, the F/X are pretty much on par.  What was pretty cool for 1959 has become an oddity in modern cinema.  Men in monster suits are now mostly the domain of specific indie genre directors like Polonia, Thomas Berdinski ( The Giant Rubber Monster Movie 2) and myself ( Onyx Origins, Lumber vs Jack, Jack vs Lanterns ).  I still like this style of effect, although in this movie the suit used seems to be pretty "off the shelf" and the mask is ill fitting. This isn't so much a flaw as part of the charm.  This movie is for the "kid in us".  It's monsters without real scares.

The acting is either hit and miss or occasionally intentionally reminiscent of older "schlock".  I never was quite sure. There is a scene near the beginning with the team of scientists being briefed on what has happened at the facility in the Himalayas.  Most of the dialogue is shot in close up, affecting the pace and giving a it a staccato tempo, and the acting is sort of wooden.  At first I thought we were going to be treated to performances like this throughout the movie.  Sometimes a lack of rehearsal time can lead to acting that seems like characters are reading from a teleprompter.  Sometimes it's because you have a great location, but only have it for 20 minutes.  But as the scene went on I began to suspect that the wooden like acting might also have been part of the retro charm.  I feel like this was confirmed later on in the film as the story line advanced and most of the same cast members started to turn in more solid performances.  There were other moments of acting being a bit more "B" than one would like, but the core cast did a good  job for the most part.  Cast regular for these films, Jeff Kirkendall, makes an appearance and it's solid as always.  I would like to see him and Joel D. Wynkoop in something together.

This movie makes a lot of use of stock footage with breathtaking and hilarious results going hand in hand.  We get vast landscape shots of beautiful snow covered mountains intercut with the characters walking through fields of clover (with flower tops in bloom!) while an overlay of snow flutters across the screen.  Nowhere else in the movie are the budget constraints so at odds with the story.  You have to admire the tenacity it takes to film a movie about the Himalayas in a green wooded area during what appears to be Spring or Summer weather.  And props to the actors for not constantly being covered in sweat while hiking in winter clothes.  In the old days Hammer would have done this on a soundstage covered in fake snow and with painted backdrops of mountains behind the actors.  More convincing? Maybe.  As much fun? No way.

Probably the best part of this movie is that instead of it just being a monster on a rampage, there's a mystery (or several) being unraveled.  And as the story grew ( wink, wink ) I found myself being more and more drawn into it.  By the end I was so surprised at the twists it had taken I wasn't as insulted by the complete lack of actual snow or even corn flakes spray painted white like in the
"Brady Bunch".

Down to the technical.  The picture quality was all fine with true moments of excellence.  The audio was mostly good with occasional "over scrubbing" leading to that tinny quality that so many indie movies suffer from, including my own.  The score was unobtrusive. And the lighting, well it was adequate, but most of the time, pretty boring.  A lot of the movie looks like it was shot with lighting as they found it with the exception of one day for night scene that did a good job of faking firelight ( with post lighting like we did here), but essentially no effort seemed to be made to add drama through lighting.  There was one more instance of what looked like post lighting F/X, but I can't really describe it without giving away a plot point I think you should find out on your own.

If you're willing to really, really suspend your disbelief or just watch a movie and marvel at the risks a filmmaker without a budget will take to tell a story, then you're the audience "Frozen Sasquatch" needs.  It's ambitious, fun, creative and has furry monsters and a bit of blood.  Perfect for switching off the real world for awhile and enjoying a film like you used to as a kid when you stayed up past your bedtime.

Visit us at www.hocusfocusproductions.com for more retro movie monster mayhem.

Blood Redd - Matriarchs and Monsters

At first glance, "Blood Redd" seems like a run of the mill werewolf/red riding hood crossover.  It even follows that path for a good 20 minutes or so, which had me thinking maybe I had made a bad choice, but then the movie hits its stride at about the half hour mark and it evolves into a very interesting look at werewolfism.

This is going to be one of those movies that's tough to review fairly without giving too much away.  It's currently available as part of Prime and well worth the watch.  We're treated to a grotesque autopsy at the film's opening and this is pretty indicative of the gore effects to follow.  The movie is mostly solid, and at times impressive, in the special F/X department. We don't see a whole lot of our monster, but there's some great shadow work and the glimpses we do get are well worth the wait.  As a werewolf fan I was very happy with the resulting beast when I finally saw it.  But I really like practical werewolf F/X, even when they're kind of dated, like in my own "The Lunar Pack", which was all make-up, masks and fun fur.

After the autopsy we start to meet some of our characters.  In the beginning they seem like caricatures of the people populating a lot of other b-horror films, especially the teenage girls and clueless cop, but give it time.  Some of the acting seems very off the shelf, standard for indie cinema, say your lines and move on, as well, but in this movie bad actors don't last.  Not just because their characters don't live long enough, which is how some horror movies deal with the problem of "Bob really wanted to be in a movie and he let us film at his house for a role", but because as their characters developed most of the actors seemed to develop with them.  Stephanie Huller and Torey Widener are the best examples of this.  During the first act both of their characters are pretty two dimensional as the film sets  up the story and their performances reflect this, but by the end of the movie they've turned in some pretty excellent moments on screen, especially playing off of one another.

The movie's look at the werewolf, how the curse works and the way the female characters handle themselves all give it an original flair. This isn't a rollercoaster ride of werewolf attacks or simple reimagining of  "guy gets bitten and now he has to find a cure or risk killing his friends".  Instead, we're led down a path of discovery, new ideas and family bonding that is largely new to the sub genre (at least in my experience).  There are some old gags thrown around such as the wolf's hearing and sense of smell, etc.  But overall this is a very original take on werewolves that makes good use of special F/X, but doesn't rely on them as the only selling point of the movie.

From a technical standpoint the camera work ranges from mediocre to very sharp, well lit and nicely composed. The audio is the same, with only a few lines lost to characters whispering or music interference.  The  score is supportive without being terribly noticeable, which is how it should be.  My own film, "Savaged", had a completely different feel before we replaced the placeholder music with the finished score.  Music can make or break a movie and in a suspense film like this, it often improves the movie without being overtly present.  It was really only during one discussion that I questioned the score at all.

If you're a fan of werewolf movies, like suspense and are willing to watch something without "name talent" in it, then please give this one some of your time.  Do be sure to give it at least 30 minutes to grab hold of you.  I know it's unusual today to wait for a movie to develop, but the slower pace of this movie is because it's more about story telling and character growth than grabbing you by the throat and shaking scares out of you.

It's really everything an independent monster movie should be.  Thought provoking and different from the mainstream stuff a bigger studio would pump out hoping for mass appeal.

Sharkman! -More Monster and Mad Scientist Mating Mayhem

When I saw the title "Sharkman" as a recommended movie on Amazon I didn't realize that I had already seen it over a decade ago under the title "Hammerhead".

I've always been a huge fan of hammerhead sharks, so I was excited way back then to see a movie about a human-hammerhead hybrid.  The idea of mixing Shark and Human DNA to combat cancer will seem like familiar territory for fans of 1999's "Deep Blue Sea", but this movie switches it up by giving the shark a bit of the ability to walk on land.  For those who read the review of "Monsters of Carnage: The Dinobeast", you'll also find the idea of the titular monster trying to mate with human women in this film.  What's up with that?  Is it a fetish I haven't heard of?


Anyway, I started the movie, recognized as something I had seen and decided to watch it again.  Already a good sign that I had good, if not clear, memories of it.  My younger self thought the creature design was pretty great.  And it is.  The man in suit F/X were especially impressive, if never fully shown.  For full on moving shots of the creature, a CG Hammerhead monster is used.  While I applaud the technique of using specific methods for specific F/X shots, the over a decade old CG doesn't hold up well to modern eyes.  It may have even been a bit hokey back then, but for a TV movie (I think this was a "Sci-fi original") it's acceptable.  Practical F/X were used for most of the gore and it was usually done pretty effectively.

This movie is a bit horror, a bit sci-fi and a lot of old school "Jungle Adventure" movie, with our heroes stuck on an island with a mad scientist.  The look for an escape while dealing with a monster, crazy jungle mutations (like killer vines.  I love killer vines- see "Lumber vs Jack" for proof of that.) and the mad scientist's henchman.  Somehow these guys who lose their jobs for breaking ethical ideals always wind up rich enough to hire gun toting henchmen.  As an escape the island jungle adventure, I think it's pretty effective, right down to William Forsythe's character, who we're told is an IT expert, showing great proficiency with a gun, hand to hand combat and basic survival skills.  I don't know if we ever find out about his military background or if we're just supposed to assume all IT workers are secretly jungle badasses.

Technically the movie has very little to complain about it.  It's a professional production with an occasional effect, such as bullet hits, that don't work.  Over all though, a great looking film with good audio and solid acting from an established cast.  A rarity for my reviews, I know, but this movie was on a budget level that most of the filmmakers I review here would have used to make a franchise of 10 movies.

The real problems come with the suspension of disbelief.  Why does being part hammerhead shark make our creature bullet proof.  Bullets seem to annoy it at worst, yet tranquilizer darts can penetrate its thick skin.  Or maybe the people with AK-47s just keep missing?  Also, why are they storing so much gasoline on this island?  I get it, they can't just go to the local station to fill up their two "Jeeps" and helicopter, but they've got tanks and barrels of flammable liquids all over the place.

If you're a fan of old island adventure movies with a bit of monster action thrown in ( I know I am!) then this movie is certainly worth a watch.  Lots of action, a serviceable plot and Jeffrey Combs playing the mad scientist bent on revenge with a pretty solid motivation for his crazy antics.

Expect a few clearly stupid moves on the parts of the characters, a couple of two dimensional throw away people for the shark to eat and a lot more explosions than your run of the mill horror movie.

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Monsters of Carnage aka The Dinobeast!

"Monsters of Carnage" a.k.a. "Monsters of Carnage: The Dinobeast"  is currently available on Amazon Prime and I think is probably a good choice for "watch before you buy", so here's your chance.  This movie is likely gold to its target audience and a best a disturbing curiosity to anyone else.

Most of the plot is pretty straight forward, monster hunters and treasure hunters clash in the woods while being picked off by a legendary beastie.  Fun, right?  Throw in some all knowing townspeople who are hiding something and you have a real 70s drive-in throw back.  But this movie takes a page from the old 1970 movie "Bigfoot", starring John Carradine and Joi Lansing.  In that movie the titular creature is seeking out human women to mate with.  In "The Dinobeast", things get graphic.  If you've ever seen my movie, "Alien Vengeance" and found the initial probe scene to be disturbing, then expect this one to cause you to really squirm in your seat.

Ratings on IMDB are pretty respectable with a 5.2 average, but there is only one actual review and it's pretty short, starting with the phrase, "It's awful!"  A lot of the rest of that review is inaccurate.  The movie is not "dimly-lit".  In fact, most of it takes place outside during the day.  "Overcast" perhaps, but lit by nature most of the time. The same review claims there are "no F/X to speak of."  Amazon reviewers were largely less kind than IMDB raters, so here I am adding my opinion to the pile.  Now that I've reviewed the reviews, back to the movie.

To start, the score was mostly awful, but I'm going to guess that if you're a fan Skullhouse pictures, you'll like the music.  I honestly fast forwarded the opening the credits just to not have to hear it.  The rest of the audio is a mixed bag.  Some is inaudible, but most of the time you can hear what people are saying.  It's not polished audio, but it's there and gets the lines across.

The aforementioned F/X actually do deserve some speaking of.  Some of them are hokey, straight from the Halloween store F/X, but there were one or two inspired bits of gore (accompanied by screeching musical score).  The monster suit was outstandingly cheesy, but menacing.  True to the movie's drive-in vibe.  Lots of teeth, big claws and a sort of "shell" like body that makes you believe bullets might not be all that effective.

Aside from the monster, the rest of the characters are pretty two dimensional.  The mercenaries are cardboard cutouts of movie mercenaries.  One of them even wears a Rambo-esque Bandana. The monster hunters are similar.  The smart girl, the dumb hunk, the sleazy professor who gets them all into trouble in the first place, etc.  And the townsfolk are the keepers of the secrets we've come to expect in movies like this.  I will say this, the cast was huge for an obviously independent movie.  Lots of characters to keep track of and lots of potential food for The Dinobeast.  As for the acting among this huge cast, well, it runs the gamut.  We have some terrible acting with one character saying lines and clearly emphasizing words that seem like they changed the intent of the statement to downright talented people turning in pretty strong performances.   Most of the younger members of the cast who seem uncomfortable with their craft clearly have "something" that can develop into talent with time.  Others appear to have wanted to be in a movie and knew somebody.  The scenes in the bar seemed to have the largest range of emotions and the most actual acting going on.  I know that outdoor scenes can be distracting because you're afraid of being too loud and most of the time a mosquito is buzzing in  your ear.  Heck, on "Lumber vs Jack" we had an orange cat that would constantly visit and waltz through the scene when we were supposed to be deep in the woods.

So, if you can stand the musical score, forgive 2 dimensional characters, deal with large variations in acting ability and aren't scared off by the idea of a monster trying to impregnate human women, give Tommy Brunswick's "Monsters of Carnage: The Dinobeast" a spin.

I couldn't find a trailer on YouTube for Dinobeast, so here's one for my movie "Alien Vengeance". Check it out, back when I made this, I thought music like this was cool.  Maybe it's my age.

InALIENable - Sci-Fi Courtroom Drama

"InALIENable"  is available on Amazon Prime and Midnight Pulp (where it is truly free instead of "Included with Prime").  Midnight Pulp also hosts a few of my movies, including, both "Alien Vengeance" films, my short film starring Joel D. Wynkoop and Nicola Fiore, "Shelter",  my epic man vs monsters movie, "Lumber vs Jack" and the road drama, "Stopped Dead".   (Okay, there's my self-indulgent promotion for this blog.)  There's lots to see there for free if you're willing to sit through an ad or two every ten minutes or so.

Back to the movie at hand, "InAlienable", starring Richard Hatch and written by Walter  Koenig. These two recognizable names of epic sci-fi shows aren't alone.  The cast is a veritable "who's who" of Star Trek players with Koenig playing a villain, Marina Sirtis showing up later in the movie as an attorney and Tim Russ making a cameo as a newscaster, to name a few.  Hatch leads up the cast with Courtney Peldon playing his love interest.

With such a cast you would expect the acting to be top notch, and while everyone turned in a capable performance a lot of the time I felt more like I was watching the rehearsals than the final takes.  This is often the case with lower budget productions.  There isn't a lot of time for actors to get into their roles, rehearse with other cast members or feel out the relationships between characters.  In the case of "Inalienable" things like deep feelings between characters felt forced and rushed at times.

The movie plays more like an extra long episode of "The Other Limits".  In fact, if you've seen the "I, Robot" episodes of that show (either, the classic or updated versions), then you have seen most of the concepts touched on within this movie, with the exception of the genetics involved.

At first I thought the movie was being very clever, using an unseen parasite that we get to view an X-ray of, to play the menacing alien.  I was looking forward to a bit of a Val Lewton "don't show them the monster" type of story, where the characters are the focus and the creature is just the impetus.  Not long after we see the human/alien hybrid and it's pretty outstanding.  Especially for a movie that shied away from using CG in 2007.  The puppet was fantastic.  Later on we get some man in make-up effects that are less convincing, but still on par with the TV sci-fi vibe that the movie had set up by that point.

Eventually the movie turns into a courtroom drama about who or what deserves "human rights".  Again, we enter "I, Robot" territory, but with an organic entity at the center of the debate.  The pace really slows to a drag here, but honestly there was very little action to be had even up to this point.

There is a subplot of Koenig's character hating Hatch's character, but for some reason we don't find out the motivation for that hatred until near the end of the movie.  Perhaps it was hinted at through some of the cryptic dialogue and I missed it. You'll have to watch for yourself in order to know.  Tell me if you figure out their dynamic before it is clearly spelled out toward the end.  I would love to know what clued you in on it.

The ending left me unsatisfied and no more informed on the topic of human alien relationships or what makes a being deserving of protections under the law than I was two hours earlier before I watched the movie.

It was a way to kill a rainy day (which the past week has been for me) while I waited for some guests to arrive.

If you're in the mood for sci-fi action and running from spooky aliens, skip this one. (In fact, maybe try one of my "Alien Vengeance" movies, even though they're more "whodunits" than action movies).  If, on the other hand, you want to do some deep thinking and can stand to watch a few very awkward relationships play out on screen, consider giving this a shot.  I think it would make a better book or maybe an unusual science fiction play.

"Prey: In Cold Blood" - Lots of kills, but nobody you'll miss

"Prey: In Cold Blood" is one of those movies that kind of mixes survivalism with horror and throws in a  bit of relationship drama for good measure.  It's not really a genre I usually enjoy, even though I made two suspense movies that fit the category ("Stopped Dead" and "Indiscretions").  But, someone posted it in the Indie Streams Facebook group, where I actually encourage folks to share movies for review and it's on Prime, so I gave it a watch.

I was surprised.  I actually enjoyed it less than I expected to.  I'm sorry, you guys know I'm usually not hard on indie movies and this one doesn't deserve my wrath more than any other, but it just was not my pint of beer. There wasn't one character who I actually liked.  I sympathized with a couple, but only because they were surrounded by people even more annoying than they were.  It was one of those movies where all of the characters are kind of jerks.  Is that realistic?  Maybe, but it doesn't leave you anyone to really root for in the end.

Heck, the first two characters we meet I just kept hoping one of them would kill the other because I couldn't stand the thought of watching them for 90 minutes.  You know it's a bad sign when the first bit of action occurs, you say to yourself, "Finally!" and then check the run time and realize it's only been five minutes.  I know, I'm guilty of a six minute monologue at the opening of the "Jack vs Lanterns", but there's a reason for that.  I kept forgetting my lines and didn't leave enough edit points to trim it down much.  ( I didn't say it was a good reason.)

I think most of the acting was pretty solid. I don't think we were meant to like most of the characters, I didn't and so the cast did their job there.  Some of the cinematography was excellent and the locations were great.  Some was average.  None really hit me as bad.  The audio, on the other hand, was greatly flawed at the beginning.  Like most movies shot outside, audio was hit and miss when they were near a road or in the car.  Once at the main location, in the house, things get easier to understand, so stick with it if the audio is making  you think of tuning out.


The entire middle third (probably about half the running time) of the movie is mostly our annoying characters talking about why they hate each other.  A bit of the story of stolen gold comes into play here, and then they all start acting like cartoon characters trying to get their hands on "the riches".

Then things go wrong, the movie takes off and we start weeding out the unlikeable cast.  I hate to suggest fast forwarding an indie movie on Prime, because we're paid by the minute, but if you're thinking of tuning in the middle, skip to the end.  Things do pick up and don't stop until the credits roll.  Well, maybe they slow down a bit.

So, if you're up for a bit of "Lifetime" channel style drama with your action-adventure horror in the woods and you can get over the fact that the group of friends are more middle-aged instead of college aged, even though they play spin the bottle and "I've never" as if they're in high school, then  you might enjoy this movie.


If you prefer straight out blood and guts action, you'll enjoy about a third of this movie, so have a snack ready or someone to talk to during the slower bits.

Horror Comedy Movies about People in the Movie Business

Bringing you a review of two movies today.  This is partly because they're very loosely related, partly because I watched them back to back and largely because neither really has enough "meat" to merit it's own review.

I saw these both on Amazon Prime.  The two movies are: "Knock `em Dead" and "Caesar and Otto's Summer Camp Massacre".

A quick disclaimer needs to be stated here.  I am starting a new gig soon and was studying and making notes for it during both of these movies.  I REALLY don't think it affected my ability to follow the very thin plot lines, but I may have missed a visual or two that could have  improved my experience.   I know most people are distracted when watching movies at home now, so I feel distracted watching sometimes gives a more realistic review experience.  I may check my phone or play with the dog or do some other "home chore" that anyone else running a movie as a distraction may do, but I feel like it deserves to be mentioned when I am actively participating in something else.  I know it's not entirely fair to the movie, but I think the thing that really takes you "out" of both of these films is their insider's peak into the film industry.

"Knock 'Em Dead" is a David DeCoteau film with a killer cast, if you're a fan of 80s and 90s T.V.  Rae Dawn Chong, Anne-Marie Johnson and Debra Wilson play out of work, down on their luck actresses, each facing a different major life hurdle.  Rae Dawn Chong turns in the best performance of the bunch, but Anne-Marie Johnson and Debra Wilson do a great job of delivering over the top, tongue in cheek, b-movie dialogue driven performances.  For much of the film their characters are putting up a front, and so the nature of their acting fits that characterization.  You'll recognize other cast members as well, including Jackee Harry and Betsy Russel.  The whole cast does a fine to good job.

The plot is pretty straight forward.  A group of actors and filmmakers, who did a very popular horror movie a decade earlier, are brought back together, on a private island, to take a shot at making a sequel.  They all parted ways on terrible terms all those years ago, but now they're left with no opportunities, except this one.  Once on the island for a weekend of shooting, with no cell phones and no contact with the outside world, things start to go wrong.  (This isn't a surprise.)  As the bodies pile up, a mystery starts to form and a bit of comedy finds its way into the mix, but really, there weren't many big laughs.  It was more of the characters making fun of each other with tired old insults. (Check the trailer below.)  The kills are unique to say the least.  Everything is used from wild animals to explosives.  We're told these are kills following the ones from the original movie, but we've never seen the original movie, so we sort of find this out after the fact and I think that hurts the impact a bit.

By the end there aren't many suspects left, but I was still guessing most of the way through.  Meanwhile, our three stars get to start liking each other again, all the while worrying if they'll make to morning, never mind Monday.  It plays very much like a TV movie from the 80s.


Technically, it's solid, with decent to good lighting throughout, clean enough sound, and special effects ranging from "wow that was bad" to "hey that was better than I expected".

If you're a fan of the core cast, give it a watch, otherwise it's more or less a movie worth having on your radar, but not worth watching over something else.


Now, for "Summer Camp Massacre", Dave Campfield stars, writes and directs this homage to slasher in the woods movies. (A man after my own heart.) I looked up some of his other work and found that Caesar and Otto are recurring characters in several movies like this.  I'm going to guess that if you like Caesar and Otto, you'll like Caesar and Otto in this.  It took me awhile to warm up to the characters and completely off the wall style.  Imagine "Airplane" or "Police Squad" as horror movies and directed by Lloyd Kaufmann while starring a guy doing his best impression of Lloyd acting like a bad actor.


I honestly don't know how else to describe it.


This one did require a bit more of my attention to keep up. Several of the jokes were visuals that were inconsistent with Caesar's account of things.  Again we're treated to jokes about life in L.A. and the film industry, which I really think are only funny to people who are in or know people in the film industry.  I guess that covers a lot more people now than it used to, but still, inside industry jokes always limit your audience.

Another set of jokes and plot devices relies on the audience knowing horror movies.  In a horror comedy, this is a bit more useful, since the viewer is likely to have seen at least a few horror movies.  Felissa Rose turns in a fine performance.


Again, for what appears to be a VERY low budget indie, this movie is technically solid.  Some of the camera work and lighting is extremely uninspired, but none of it is distractingly bad.  The audio is mostly solid and the effects are appropriately and intentionally cheesy.

The only real complaint is that if you don't relate to one of the loser brother characters of Otto of Caesar, you'll have nobody to like or relate to in this movie.  Definitely one for Troma fans or fans of horror who like to laugh at themselves and the genre they love.

If after these flicks you're looking for more monstrous laughs, go buy my DVD set of "Lumber vs Jack" and "Jack vs Lanterns".  (For a limited time that $25 includes shipping in the U.S.)