Tubi Thursday: Squirm (1976)

 As a fan of Mystery Science Theater 3000, I've seen lots of bad Movies.

I've never watched this one on its own and it's gotten a reputation as a Film that's actually not bad.
Is it?

Let's find out...

In the small Town of Fly Creek, a storm creates a flood and the flood creates a power outage when the lines go down.

This apparently makes the worms go crazy...which is what the opening narration tells us.

A young guy is visiting his girlfriend to be there.

The worms are scary...in extreme macro close-ups with added in roar sounds.

They start killing some folks, though they need you to lay really still on the dirt, so...how did this happen?

They can't get the Police (all one of them) to help for dumb reasons.

The guy who clearly wants to date our Final Girl ends up being left alone with him.
Worms crawl all over his face and...ew.

Our Heroes- joined by the younger Sister and her Mother- go home, but a tree wrecks one side of the house.

In spite of that, the Sister goes to take a Shower...which is a bad idea.

Mom is going full Glass Menagerie downstairs before the worms fall all over (off-camera).

Oh and the creepy guy is now a creepy worm-face guy who wants to, um, be with our Lead.

Good thing she has no peripheral vision!

Our Hero bravely sacrifices...his shirt to make a torch and get home.

He can't save Mom from the worms, but he can toss creepy worm-face guy into them.
They hide out in a tree until the sun comes up...oh yeah, the Sister hid in a chest off-screen and she's alive too.

So is this over or...
THE END!

A pretty enjoyable, if methodically-paced creature feature from the 1970s.

Ironically, for a Decade defined by people doing uppers, Films moved notoriously slow back then.

Are the worms really scary, I hear you ask.
Technically, no.

If they don't do the macro stuff, they are just a big pile of uncoiled rubber bands on the ground.  They're a step above the killer rabbits from Night of the Lepus, but I suppose a step below the killer bears from Films like Grizzly and Prophecy.

This is also one of those Films that goes 'Um, Science' to explain why the creatures are mad.  Kind of like how a hole in the Ozone Layer made everything in a nature park PISSED in Day of the Animals.

With all of the corners cut (only one Cop, for instance) and southern fried feel, it's easy to see why the folks picked it for MST3K.

That said, it's not terrible.

Now who is THIS lady from the VHS Box Art?!? 

Do her and The Evil Dead Poster lady hang out?

A Film that was better than I expected, to be honest.  That said, it is still a bit slow and all kinds of silly at times.

Shudder Day: Sea Fever (2019)

 In spite of living on a peninsula, I'm not much of a 'go on a boat' guy.

That said, Films like this remind me that maybe it is for the best.

This is...

Siobhan is a Marine Biologist who is studying for her Education.

As part of that, she must work on a boat to get firsthand experience.

Things are awkward enough- a tightknit crew welcoming in a stranger- but she's also a redhead.

They go out to Sea, but there's clearly some tension already.  Money is tight and they need this haul to go well.

This leads the Captain- almost Wolverine once Dougray Scott- to go into an area that's off-limits, hoping to catch more.

Instead, they are caught by...something!

They send Siobhan down to check the water around the ship, thinking that it is barnacles.

As you can tell, she's thrilled about this.

It turns out to be the tendril of some sort of strange creature, like a jellyfish or a squid.

She spots a ship nearby and goes to it with two of the crew.

In case you didn't know, we are in full The Thing territory, so the nearby group are all dead.

Things get bad on the ship as one of the crew gets infected and acts strange.

He dies and the risk of infection is now clear.

Siobhan wants them to wait 36 hours to make sure that nobody is infected.

The trip back to the mainland is slowed down and now we go full The Thing with the group testing the others.

Who is infected?
Who will die?

To find out, stream it now.

A slow burn Horror Film, which is ironic given how much water is always on screen.

The Film does a nice job of setting up the 'world' of the Film with its characters, setting and intrigue.
You get why people make the choices that they do.

Things happen really organically, as well.  It is nice to see.

The creature of the Film (teased on every other Poster than the one I picked) is an interesting one.  This is another case of an animal as the 'villain' by way of it just doing what it does naturally (pun fully intended).

There's no evil monologue or big reveal- it is just a creature.

The conflict comes from how the people react to it, the situation and each other.
And yes, it does somewhat borrow that from The Thing as well.

All of that said, this one is a recommendation for those looking for a more nuanced and less visceral Film.
And no, it's not about this thing...

Seriously, who made this?!?

A Film about what happens when everyone starts to make bad choices.  Nature is not always there to help you out either.

Shudder Day: The Mortuary Collection (2019)

 As a connoisseur of Horror Anthology Films, I'm actually surprised that I've missed this one.

Let's make up for lost time with my Review of...

Clancy Brown runs a Mortuary- naturally- and he has a Help Wanted sign out front.

After a kid's funeral, a young lady is hanging around and asks for a job.

He tells her that he has a Library full of stories about how people ended up in his care...

In the first Segment, a thieving woman gathers her ill gotten wares in the bathroom.

However, there's a danger hiding behind the mirror!

The young lady is less than impressed with this tale.

As such, he tells her another- 'Unprotected.'

A dirty young man- Jacob Elordi- is part of a Fraternity that focuses on hooking up with chicks.
So, a normal Fraternity.

After he hooks up with a young lady without protection, he starts to feel...different.

After a brief bit in the Mortuary, we get the third segment- Till Death.

A man marries a woman and she goes into a seemingly irreversible vegetative state.

A Doctor- the same one who saw Elordi- gives him a way out.

Taking it, however, won't be as easy as he hoped.

Another bit at the Mortuary sheds more light on the new hire before she tells a story of her own- The Babysitter Murders.

A young woman battles a stranger in the House after hearing about a breakout at the Asylum.

Of course, there are twists and turns galore.

The finale is the end of our Framing Device.

The truth about all parties comes out and fate changes for them all.

To find out more, stream it now.

A very different kind of Anthology Film- and that's not necessarily a bad thing.

A typical one of these has disparate Stories with a Theme throughout.  A more modern approach is making up the Film out of Segments by many different Directors.

This one is more like the former, having one single Director and a general Theme.
It's also the 2nd one of these I've watched about a Mortician telling tales to someone.

In fact, the last Story is just a Short Film made a few years earlier by the same Director.

With one Director, you get little throughlines and connections, which I like.

The Doctor in every Segment (save the Bathroom one) is one of the guys from the 'Progressive Helps You From Turning Into Your Parents' Ads, so that was a nice refrain.

The Segments were a bit varied in both story and setting, but not direction.  If that's alright with you, great.

As a group of segments, I've seen better.
As a singular Film, it looked pretty good.

Will this face help me with the algorithm?

An Anthology Film that is more of a sampler of a Director's work than anything.  It's still quite fun overall, especially with Clancy Brown in it.

Forgotten Sequels: The Fly II

 A Film I covered in the very early days of the Site.  It was lost talked about in the FIRST Obama Administration, so it is due for a revisit.

This is the least forgotten, but most maligned of the Sequels to The Fly- The Fly II.

Made in 1989 and without Cronenberg's involvement, the Film is considered by many to be a cheap cash grab.  Is it though?

The Plot is in fact a direct Sequel and it involves the birth of Seth Brundle's spawn.  It grows up and is special...but is it also a monster.

There are some overlaps between this and Return of the Fly, but it's not a one-to-one situation.

To find out if this is as bad as everyone says or not, read on...

In a rehash from the last Film (since Geena Davis turned down a Cameo), we see the woman give birth to a strange insect baby.

She dies Padme-style, but the creature is soon revealed to be an infant (in a cocoon of some sort).

A few years later, the kid grows up really fast- like impossibly-so.

Martin's a Science Genius Boy and basically Young Sheldon, if he lived in a lab.
He can already outsmart most of the folks around him.

His 'childhood' is only marred by constant monitoring and seeing his pet dog turned into a monster in a failed Teleporter Test.

At Age 5, he's now Eric Stoltz.
Well, he was the original Marty McFly, so that tracks.

He doesn't sleep- due to his constant growth- and grows lonely.

He falls for Daphne Zuniga (cast by uncredited Producer Mel Brooks after she was in Spaceballs) and they work on the device some more.

He has a freakout when he learns that the dog was actually kept alive (in a matter of speaking) and he mercy-kills it.

Martin also hooks up with Zuniga...only for her to be moved away from him.
It is soon revealed- by Garry Chalk's Goresby- that they filmed it.

Eric does not take this well!

He's also beginning to mutate and soon learns that this was the plan all along.

The tests- a show.
The medicine- placebo.

Stoltz goes through a series of masks (fitting!) as his condition worsens.

We get a brief Cameo from John Getz, who was a co-worker of Goldblum's in the last Film who got maimed.

Him and his clearly fake beard help the duo keep away from the bad guys for a little bit.

Martin transforms so much that he can't escape and he cocoons up at the bad guys' lair.

He emerges as a monstrous Brundle Fly and starts killing people in his way.

This guy gets a face full of acid in an effect that only the '80s could give us.

Who wants cherry syrup?

He kills all of the bad guys, save for the guy who raised him to be an experiment.

Earlier, Martin learned that he can go in the Pod with someone and give them all of his bad genes (just go with it).

He does it to the boss, leaving him as a monster and Martin normal.
To be continued...in a 2015 Comic.

The End.

A better Film than it gets credit for.  That said, it is definitely a Film of two halves.

The first half is an interesting tale of innocence, deceit and corporate corruption.  Martin is led around and used for all that he can be.

The second half is when he becomes a full-on Monster and starts killing folks- bad ones, at least!  There's a bit of a disconnect- to say the least.

That said, they hired a guy (Chris Walas) who did Special Effects for Return of the Jedi, Piranha and Humanoids from the Deep.  Oh, and the original...Remake.
He'd only go on to Direct one other Film, an Episode of Tales from the Crypt and a Documentary...about himself.

Having said all that, I did enjoy the two disparate halves of the Film.  It scratches that gooey and gross Practical F/X itch for me.

Also, is that a young John Fitzgerald Byers from The X-Files?!?

Next up, my detour is over and my return to Bond is nigh.  I hope this one holds up as well as the last one did!  Stay tuned...

Shudder Day: The Last Video Store (2023)

 A stupid cold won't keep me from Reviewing Films!

Since literally nobody has posted a Review for this on Shudder's site yet, I might as well be the first to talk about...

We see an unknown man putting some tapes in a bag at his home.

Later, we see a woman returning said tapes to a Video Store run and operated by a single guy.

In spite of her apathy, he shows her the Films she returned...

...but why the strange look?

Because she also brought back this strange tape and the tape player starts freaking out...

The tape in his machine has the strange effect of bringing one of the creatures from a tape to life!

This can't end well!

The duo survive the first challenge.

The Owner insists that they can only get by with the power of friendship!

He might be right.

Is this legally distinct parody going to be the end of them?

To find out, stream it now.

A Film that was clearly made with passion, but certainly not without its issues.

This Film is the culmination of a few ideas and previous projects- a 2019 Short, a 2016 Short and a 2015 Show- and it shows.

The idea- a cursed tape brings Movie Characters to life- is good.  You can do plenty with that one!

For better or worse, this one feels like a Low-Budget Horror Comedy.  All of the good parts- like the quirky charm- and bad parts- singular location- are on display here.

If they aren't for you, this one won't change your mind.

I did also appreciate all of the Poster cameos, from Manborg to The Visitor to Psycho Goreman.

I think that there was enough good here to make it worth a watch for me personally.  It had some misdirection and Plot twists that I didn't necessarily see coming.

If you're the right guy for this one, give it a look.  Don't be nervous.

A Film that makes the most of its small Budget with some good moments.  This one is definitely still too quirky for many people though.

Shudder Day: Bodycam (2025)

 After a busy weekend of work, I didn't watch a Shudder Film until the middle of the week.

As such, here's a Saturday Review before a proper one.

This one is from a Director whose last Film I really enjoyed.
Will this one be as good?

Two Cops are called in on a Domestic Disturbance.

The whole Film will be shot from the POV of their bodycams...and car cameras.

(There may be a few cheats).

The duo split up and their radios suddenly don't work.

That's odd.

The veteran Cop is confronted by a strange man in front of a hole dug into the floor (almost a well) and makes the split second decision to kill him.

He wants to get his partner on the same page.

They will cover this up.

The younger guy- Jackson- reluctantly agrees, but weird stuff starts to happen when they film a symbol found outside.

One of the drug addicts they ran across outside talks about The Under Man.

They ignore him.

As they try to leave the Scene, more of them form a barrier and threaten our duo.

They took something from 'him' and it must be repaid.

No, it's not Bill Oberst Jr.  I checked.

They try to deal with the footage, but that doesn't work out.

They try to get Jackson's Mom to help, but that's a no go.

They soon find out that the Under Man is more real than they could have imagined!

Is the truth to hard to handle?

What is the reality behind this strange force/being?

To find out, stream it.

A Film that has a tough gimmick to nail, but it kind of works.

Having a Film that is (almost entirely) Filmed by stationary, mounted cameras is sure hard to do.  You really need your Actors to almost act as Cinematographers.

The Film really forces you to live in the shared experience of these two men.  It is quite immersive.

That said, the Film's attempt at doing a slow burn effect doesn't quite work.  They give you a crazy setup and slowly explain it all.

It has a few good tricks- like the possessed people or the words on walls messing with the cameras- and really makes the most of them.  At a certain point, however, you've seen them all a few times.

I just wish that were more tricks on display here.  It gets a bit repetitive.

The end game here generally worked for me, even if it was a bit expected.

It's not the best Movie I've seen by this Director, but it is worth a look...

A Film that has a gimmick and fully commits to this.  My only gripe is that the Film only has a few tricks and repeats them many times over.