The Time Machine (1960) Directed by George Pal

 

George Pal made a few iconic science fiction films and this is up there with version of War of the Worlds which also was from a book by HG Wells. It is the story of a man obsessed with time who arrives late for a dinner with friends at his own house in a terrible state. He is cut and exhausted but insists he tell the story of what happened to him. He has discovered a way to move through time, but not space, using a very cool looking victorian machine that is worth watching the movie just to see it. 

With this device he has travelled to the distant future where humans have been divided into two distinct species. One docile and dependent on the other aggressive and living underground. Our traveller meets a beautiful girl, don’t they always, and finds himself trapped in that time period when the aggressive race, the Morloks, drag his time machine into his layer behind doors he can’t get through. 

There is plenty of of adventure that follows but before all that we a treated to a few great moments of him moving through time, stopping a few decades later when he meets his best friend’ s adult son, who wasn’t born when he got into the device and then decades later still when a nuclear bomb goes off forcing him to jump into the far future. The passing of time is demonstrated by a women’s dress shop window at first and with stop motion, it shows time by the animation of the changes of the dresses in the window display. 

I don’t want to spoil the movie, old as it is, because its old enough that younger people might never even heard of it and its worth saving it surprises for them. The costumes and make up is great and the special effects have a few weak points but mostly still work today and have that look that War of the Worlds and his other Sci fi film When Worlds Collide have. Its distinctive and wonderful. The players are all good, I like the maid a lot and Rod Taylor is perfect as the scientist. 

A hit when released, it stands up by keeping the exposition to a minimum and the story moving always forward… well when it isn’t moving backward in time. 

Away (2019) animated silent film, written and animated by Gints Zilbalodis

 

This Latvian silent animated fill length feature was animated using the computer program Maya by one person over 4 years. I only heard of it because I saw a trailer for his new film “Flow" another silent feature about a cat whose survives after an unexplained disaster has destroyed human civilization.  This film is on the festival circuit at the moment and I am looking to seeing it. It was made in the free program Blender. The trailer intriguing enough for me to research anything else he hade made and I discovered "Away". 

The film follows a boy who parachutes to mysterious land from a crashing plane, where he finds a motorbike and an injured bird. With these, he sets off to reach an initially unknown goal, pursued by a shadowy giant monster, which drains life from every living being that crosses its path. The film is divided into different chapters, each individually named. The backgrounds have a Studio Ghibli feel in atmosphere but are more simple. The path the boy takes reminds me of the game Myst in many mays, its a mysterious land with a path leading him from the start to the end of the film. The character looks very simple, you can usually only make out his eyes and nose, the monster is partially transparent with glowing white eyes. The music is moody and the pace is fairly slow but maybe measured is a better description. 

NO spoilers as this film is not new but I can guess that even anyone reading this 2 decades from now won't have heard of it and there isn't much to spoil except to say there is a lot of ambiguity going on throughout that pulls the viewer through the film. It's always intriguing over frustrating and, like the game Myst. offers puzzles to solve but in this case you have to make your own answers. 

Poster project: War of the Worlds (1953)

 

I decided on a look I thought fit the film and it's style. The stars are a photo I took in Colorado years ago with my brother and the earth is a 3D render I made in Cinema 4D years ago. I had a Mars 3D render and the martian probe ready for the poster but that was way too crowded and counter to my ideas  on what I wanted it to look like. The title is remade from the original post and I used Paramount logo from the 50s. The Martian war machine and hand were drawn in Affinity Designer. 

Poster Project: The Day the Earth Stood Still

 

After about 35 hours of work this poster is done. I thought I was done earlier but I rewatched the film and noticed some robot details I missed. After drawing the elements in Affinity Designer I moved them to Affinity Publisher and composed the poster, added the title and other information. I made a 1940's- 50's style earth that was to go under the hand of Klaatu but it didn't look right and didn't really add to poster for me. Gort, the robot, was a bigger challenge than I thought as he is smooth, reflective the costume lacks some details, his superman undies always look a little goofy to me but I knw why they are there from a practical costume making viewpoint. 

I would like to make a "war of the Worlds" poster from the George Pal movie but I have come up with a decent way to pull it off. I might have to make a 3D model of the spaceship, the creature, the martian probe... maybe all of that and work out my composition when I see what looks good or not. 

Island of Lost Souls (1932) directed by Erle C. Kenton

 

Ok enough of bad horror films this year. I had seen Island of Lost Souls, a film not easy to see for years in the 80s. Not sure how or where, there video release so maybe that was it. I had not seen it since and after watching the Criterion restoration it felt like the first time. The quality is excellent and my vague memories of the films were nothing to how it affected me this time. 

This film is horrifying in the best ways, the look, the makeup, the acting of Charles Laughton as one of the creepiest and evil villains you might ever see on screen. All of this done with no gore but with enough hints of what is happening to freak you out. It's hard to believe they got away with some of the elements in this movie - and they didn't after the Hates Codes came into effect a couple years later and the film was banned. Laughton's Dr Moreau, as in the book Island of Dr Moreau it's adapted from, is the epitome of inhumane. His plan to turn animals into humans under the guise of scientific advancement but really done under the perversion of sadistic cruelty is shocking even today. He creates a woman and tries to get a shipwrecked guy to knock her up just to see if she can be. That falls apart when the man's finance shows up to rescue him, and he decides maybe one of the less successful beast men he created should rape her and see she can carry that baby to term. His plan seems to be create in "lower animals" the one thing he will never have - humanity. 

The great performances don't end there. Bela Lugosi knocks it out of the park as the "giver of the law". He is barely recognizable under all the makeup but his intense eyes give him away. A small role that he runs away with, his final scenes as the animals turn on Moreau, led by him truly is scary as he traps the Doctor in own "house of pain. 

The panther woman (Lota) played by Kathleen Burke is not over the top and you feel for her as a person. She doesn't over play "cat" stereotypes, she isn't Catwoman in the Batman TV show, she sells her role completely to the audience. 

The rest of the cast is fine, not really standing out and to be honest there isn't room for more standouts with the previous three actors mentioned on the set. 

Makeup of the creatures on the island is really disturbing and believable. If you were not familiar with the book you would be confused and put off by what they might represent until what they actually are is revealed. At 70 minutes, you don't wait too long for answers and the pace of the film might be slow by today's standards but certainly isn't boring. 

One negative is the odd choice to not name Kathleen Burke in the opening titles but instead credit "The Panther Woman". She is only one of 2 women in the piece and the only one the island at first so her reveal as being one of Moreau's tortured creations is not a surprise. Moreau also talks about her in a way that takes any surprise out the castaway getting a kiss from her and coming to realization of what she really is. For me, this robbed the actress of some of the power in her performance. 

In summary... this is a fantastic, disturbing film that makes you think and will unnerve you in ways you didn't think an early 30s still could. I wish I could see it in a theatre! 

The Wild Robot (2024) directed by Chris Sanders

 

The Wild Robot tells the story of a robot programmed to be of service shipwrecked on an island inhabited only by animals. It learns to communicate with them and after accidentally killing a bird in a fall discovers the bird was a mother and finds itself taking the place of mother and has to raise the chick on its own, developing real emotional feelings as it does so. 

As this is brand new movie, I will try not to spoil too much. The film is lovely to look at the animation has a storybook/ studio Ghibli style to it that really works. Its very well made, the voice acting was great but I saw it in French so I can’t speak to the all star English cast version which I would guess is at least as good. 

The film’s biggest faults might have more to do with my expectations than anything else. I saw the first trailer and thought the animals would not talk… but they do. If you had had asked me to guess ho the story would progress before I saw it, I would pretty much have nailed it. The trailer, like far too many trailers, basically takes you through the entire film and to honest the scenario is a typical by the numbers story. No real surprises, though it is well told. 

This is well worth seeing but it falls short of being great because it plays it too safe. 

The Blood Beast Terror ( 1968) directed by Vernon Sewell

 

I hope Peter Cushing was a paid a lot of money to be in this Hammer Horror wannabe production. Good looking young men are being found dead all over the countryside and inspector Cushing in on the case! 

Cutting to the chase, an entomologist has a sext daughter who is a were moth... yes you read that right. They also have male were moth ready to mature but it needs blood... virgin blood of course. 

This film is a mess! The giant moth stuff is not as bas you might think other being stupid and looking 100% like a rubber suit. They kill the were moth daughter by lighting a fire which she immediately dives into! There are a few day for night shots, I think, it's hard ot tell since they are no different from the day shots except you see more trees and less blue sky? 

None of this works. Peter Cushing is never bad but I only felt sorry he was in this. 

Horror Hospital (1973) directed by Antony Balch

A not so good hippy songwriter decided to spend time at a health farm and meets a young girl on the train going to the same place and they become a couple, of course. The health farm is anything but and they discover mad doctor Michael Gough, who really is too good for this role, is turning hippies (mostly muscular young men  - the guy who is recruiting for the centre is portrayed as gay and preatory) in zombie save with a new lobotomy technique helped by the girl's aunt and what seems to be a legion of faceless helmet wearing motorcyclists and a fancy car with decapitation device and a handy head catching net attached for good measure. There is also a dwarf assistant. The actor playing him tried his best to be the break out star of the film and while he could be a worse actor he isn't given anything really work with to make his part even campy fun. 

This film meanders and makes little sense, the doctor was in a fire and is now bound to a wheelchair and Aunty the assistant seems to have no reason to be helping him at all except maybe she has a sadist side to her? Other characters come and get lobotomized and no one seems to care, not their friends, lovers family... the characters are less connected with the others characters then we are! 

Not much happens, the leads try to eascape several times and fail, almost get lobotomized and we discover the doctor is wearing a mask that hide his burnt face but there is no way on earth that would work or that mask would fit over the burnt face makeup which looks like the "pink slur" we often see as what chicken nuggets are made from. Also, he seems to have no trouble walking around nude when he is out of his disguise. 

All but 3 of the cast are dead by the end and they joyfully put on the doctor's face mask and have a laugh at the expense of their dead friends. Apparently there was a sequel but I am NOT  even looking for that! 

Festival Win! The hound at the Dunwich Horror Festival!

 

My film, The Hound, won an award at the Dunwich Horror fest for September! 

Dracula Rising (1993) Directed by Fred Gallo

Somehow, this guy is NOT Dracula in this movie! 

 

What a mess this movie is! Christopher Atkins of Blue lagoon fame is Dracula? Sure, though his monk "buddy" is more Dracula like and is the actual bad guy in this film. 

Not sure I can describe the "plot" most of the movie takes place in flashbacks, like 80% of it. This gives the excuse to show Atkins as the young hot Dracula with his soon to be burnt alive love having sex and swimming naked at some waterfall with full frontal. I guess they had to reference Blue Lagoon somehow. He has a monk pal who is also sexy and whips him when he is bad or immoral or something... it's VERY homoerotic. 

Anyway they both become vampires and to be honest I couldn't follow the path to that with all the flashbacks and the friend coming across more as Dracula than Dracula as they carry their feud/relationship? into modern day with the obligatory reincarnation of Vlad's old flame. She ends up in a flaming car by Dracula saves her and... I can't even remember. No one is good in their roles though they all look hot which I think is the point, maybe the only point to make this in the first place.