13/13/13 (2013)

REVIEW BY: Jeffrey Long

Company: The Asylum

Runtime: 87 mins

Format: Screener

Plot: For millennia, calendars have added an extra day every four years. In doing so, they violated the ancient Mayan calendar. Now we are in the 13th month of the 13th year of the new millennium, and the few who survive will have to battle a world of demons.

Review: The Asylum's been releasing a nice little unconnected trilogy each year for the past few years, of numbered titles. I'm talking about 11/11/11 during the fall of 2011, 12/12/12 during the fall of 2012, and now 13/13/13 during the fall of 2013. For the most part they're unconnected, but they kind of are related, thematically - well, at least the first two, while this one much more loosely.

See, both 11/11/11 and 12/12/12 deal with demon children. In the first it's about a boy that turns 11 on 11/11/11 and he's meant to be the anti-christ. I never did a review of that one, but it was a decent effort – great atmosphere, some creepy Omen-esque scenes, and a great climatic third act. 12/12/12 (again, I never did a review of that one) dealt with a baby being born at 12:12 on 12/12/12 and that baby is, once again, the anti-christ, only in this version it's actually demonic from the start, looking like a demon baby and knowing full well that it's a demon baby and it kills all those around it that tries to get in its way of...well, it's never really made clear. Bringing about the apocalypse? I don't know for sure cause that movie was a total and utter unintelligible mess of characters acting out of character from scene to scene, story jumping around with no logic or proper story structure to it, and a complete lack of any sort of climax or satisfying ending. It was just plain dumb.

Well 13/13/13 (a title that, sadly, took me way longer then I'm proud to admit to realize doesn't really make sense, initially) does indeed once again deal with demons (sort of. We're told they are demons on the cover art and in the synopsis on the back, but that's about all we have to go on for that), but it's not very kid-centric like the first two. Sure, there are some scenes of a kid being involved in the weird going-ons, but it's not exclusive to kids - this thing is just affecting everyone, adult and kid alike, so it kind of breaks the mold there. For good or bad (depending on the entry), I actually kind of like the idea of an annual Asylum-made anthology movie series where the movies themselves aren’t directly related, but they all share the same theme – that being child demons, and they each are titled #/#/# (insert proper year number where applicable), but each with it's own unique story, made by a different director, so it's kind of disappointing that they break away from that mold here, however in the greater scheme of things that honestly doesn't matter much because that was just my own personal pet preference and never anything that was promised.

As it turns out, the title does actually make sense within the context of the movie, for reasons that I'm sure anybody can easily guess, but just in case you can't, it deals with clocks mysteriously changing to 13:13 for no reason, and weird behavior coming over a large percentage of the population, such as squishing and eating bugs off the ground, scratching non-stop at their skin, cutting themselves, random and total uncontrollable anger overtaking everyone, which in turn leads to the hospitals filling right up and essentially the world outside turning to shit, and it doesn't take long at all after that before the world just descends into utter chaos everywhere as everyone starts becoming gleefully overly-violent crazy but almost in a zombie apocalypse kind of setting (if anyone ever saw 2007's The Signal, it's kind of similar to that movie, but without the actual signal transmission part). As it turns out, thanks to the leap years and some other mumbo jumbo they half-explained it away with, our current understanding of the calendar is wrong and we're now supposed to have a 13th month of which this is, as well as the 13th day of  said month, during, obviously, the year 2013, and that has somehow opened everyone up to this plague of rage-violence (which we're never given a why they are opened up to that), with the exception of those born on a rare leap day of which our main leading man was, although reasons why for that are also left pretty vague. Even the brief explanation we do get is delivered to us from some at-the-time random distraught character in the hospital who is also safe from being infected, although once again it's also never once explained how she actually knows all this. As you can see, pretty much nothing at all in the movie ever actually gets explained, except for the fact that we now have a 13th month due to calendar issues. That's about it for explanations. In more capable hands I could see that almost being on purpose, but the things we don't get explanations for here are very obviously just due to lazy writing and nobody that's involved ever really giving a shit.

In addition, the movie's dialog is just downright awful, with terribly-structure conversations and really awkwardly-delivered exposition all over the place, with hardly any spoken words coming across as anything even close to sounding natural. Of course it's not helped by the fact that the actors are atrocious, even by the low standards set by other Asylum titles. Yes, this is indeed a new low in the acting department and honestly it made portions of the movie that were otherwise just fine, very hard to sit through without feeling embarrassed for everyone on-screen. It wasn't helped by the fact that the number 13, whether directly related to the movie's title or not, gets thrown around way too much, being shoehorned and forced into the dialog at least once every single conversation and showing up, visually, in what seemed like every single scene. We get it, the movie's title is 13/13/13. Can we finally move on now? Nope? Ok then...

While all those things really bring the movie down quite a bit, there actually is still a bit here for fellow Asylum-Lovers to enjoy. For instance, with everyone getting angry over every little thing and loosing their minds to utter insanity, in addition to seeing all the people in the hospital that have cut themselves and done other unspeakable things to themselves, or others who have had said unspeakable things done to them (eye gouging scene for the win), there's a great sense of growing unease, especially since at that point (or any point, really) we still have no idea why any of this is happening, so we're just as in the dark as the main character. It's helped along by some truly downright creepyimagery, like our main leads walking down an abandoned hospital hallway with the walls streaked all over with blood, or a crazy person using his own blood from his own gouged stomach to write a giant 13 on the wall of a house, or any shot where we're following our main characters in the front and center focus of the camera but we can see behind them people being ripped into or torn apart or violently attacked in some other fashions, it's pretty much images directly from your nightmares realized right on the screen. Also, during parts of 12/12/12 and the entirety of Rise of the Zombies the folks at Asylum utilized this blue tinting to the screen for whatever stylistic choices, but it had yet to be used to as great effect as it is in this movie. No extra attention is drawn to it, but having this weird blue tinting actually helped add to the unnatural feel of everything, further that troubling sense of unease.

While the events of the movie unfolded around our two main characters, it also kept cutting back to these two best friends holed up inside a house, trying to keep the other crazy insane infected people out, while also totally unraveling themselves, and oddly enough these parts of the movie did not annoy me as much as I expected them to. Sure, there were times I wish the movie hadn't cut to them as it ruined the flow and momentum that had been building with our two leads, but most of their scenes were an even mix of creepy and hilarious, and it was quite interesting that I found myself wondering and worried about when these two crazed best buddies would start turning on one another. It was a side-plot that while not needed, I still actually enjoyed for the most part, although I could have done with a tad less of it.

Also, I would be remissed if I did not mention a little factoid that I found interesting (though I'm pretty sure I'm the only one amused by this) – one half of the main character duo for this, the female character, was played by Erin Coker who also had a role in 11/11/11, and in addition to that Jared Cohn had a cameo role here and he was also the director of 12/12/12, so it's kind of amusing that once again, these three movies indirectly tie together in unexpected ways.

By the time the credits rolled on 13/13/13, I found that I didn't enjoy it quite as much as I did 11/11/11, but despite it's many issues it was still waaayyyy better then 12/12/12. Overall I can't deny it's a troubled movie, and I went back and forth quite a bit as to if I was going to land my score on a 5/10 or a 6/10, but in the end I still kind of enjoyed this nice little addition to the annual Demonic Numbers anthology, as I like to call it (11/11/11, 12/12/12, 13/13/13 and they all deal with demons, of sorts, hence the Demonic Numbers Anthology), and while it may not be the best in the so-far 'trilogy', it is the creepiest and the one that portrays a strong sense of unease and dread the best. It's just a shame that it's weighed down quite heavily by abysmal acting and downright lazy writing.

I hope they find some way to continue this next year with 14/14/14 because I'm interested in seeing where they go next with the demon ideas, but if not then 13/13/13 was still a nice capper to the Demonic Numbers Anthology, starting things a bit low-key and local in 11/11/11, opening the mayhem up a bit and leaving things off on a promise-to-come of total insanity during 12/12/12, and now ending everything in worldwide chaos and the end of the world in 13/13/13. Like I said, none of these three movies are directly related or tie in to one another in any sort of story ways, but thematically they actually play quite well from one to the next and almost fit together like pieces of some sort of awkward puzzle. If they do continue with 14/14/14 next year I have no idea what they can do and where they can take it from here, but I'm still a bit curious to find out.

5/10 rooms in the Psych Ward

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Destination: Outer Space (2010)

REVIEW BY: Jeffrey Long

Company: Saint Euphoria Pictures

Runtime: 95 mins

Format: DVD

Plot: During a test flight of Earth's first faster-than-light-speed rocket, an incident occurs that throws test pilot Captain Jackson halfway across the galaxy! Lost in deep space, Captain Jackson must use all his wits to find a way back to his beloved home world, but first he must deal with mysterious alien planets, robotic lifeforms, beautiful space pirates, and an evil alien Empire hell-bent on galactic domination!

Review: Destination: Outer Space is filmmaker Christpher R. Mihm's black and white throwback to classic 1950s low budget space adventure serials, along the likes of the classic The Space Adventures of Flash Gordon, with a dash of Star Wars and Star Trek tossed in for good flavor (actually, quite much more than a dash – ha!). It's following on the heels of several other similar-style movies by the same filmmaker, titles like The Monster of Phantom Lake, It Came From Another World!, Cave Women on Mars, and Terror From Beneath The Earth. If you're familiar with any of those (be it watching them yourself or just from reading my previous reviews of them), then by now you know the whole spiel here and what to expect from a Mihmiverse movie. 

After having his presence terribly missed in the previous movie, actor Josh Craig thankfully returns to the series to reprise his second character, Captain Jackson, in addition to playing a cameo of his first character and father of Captain Jackson, Professor Jackson. Destination: Outer Space acts almost like a direct sequel to Cave Women on Mars, catching us up with Captain Jackson and what's all gone on with his life since returning from the Mars Mission and the repercussions his actions at the end of that movie have had on his life (spoiler: Nothing good). Looking to redeem himself and his family name, he returns to space (after much persuasion from both his father, as played by himself once again, and his best friend, as played by M. Scott Taulman, one half of the Canoe Cops duo from Monster of Phantom Lake and It Came From Another Wold!, here playing the intelligent son of his Canoe Cop character), in order to test out an experimental spaceship, however something goes terribly wrong and he ends up lost in a far-away uncharted galaxy. With his ship broken and no way to return home, he finds himself in one Star Wars-inspired adventure after another, with some Star Trek and Lost in Space rearing their heads from time to time, along with plenty of other homages and nods, many of which I caught but some I'm sure I missed as well, and will require multiple viewings to catch them all.

 

This movie's runtime returns to the longer runtime that I normally dislike for these kinds of movies for reasons I've stated in the previous reviews. With that said, it did not bother me one iota here, seeing as how the nature of this movie actually kind of called for it. You see, with this being a homage to classic space adventure serials of the days of old, it very much feels like three separate half hour-ish episodic serials just edited together to form a continuous movie. The first chunk reintroduces us to the character of Captain Jackson and eventually gets him out into space where he ends up in a far-flung foreign galaxy and crashing onto a planet after experiencing ship troubles. The second part picks up with him wandering this planet and finding his way into a 'wretched hive of scum and villainy' cantina filled with not just strange new alien lifeforms, but some hilarious returning 'faces' to fans of the Mihmiverse, both in actors as well as monstrous fellows. It's there that Jackson runs afoul of a red-headed tough-as-nails female bounty hunter that ends every sentence with 'Yes?', a character trait I initially found annoying but quickly grew to love (and then miss once the character was gone). Escaping from her ship when it comes under attack from the evil Ominai Empire, Jackson aimlessly floats through space for weeks in the escape pod, surviving off nothing but tasteless packed MRE rations. The third and final, almost double-length, portion picks up as Jackson is rescued from his fate by a box-headed robot named A.D.A.M (quite possibly the most laugh-out-loud funniest character in any of these movies yet) that introduces him to his home planet and then wishes to use Jackson's help in delivering a terrible blow to the Ominai Empire and in return offers to help him get back home to his own galaxy. 

I really don't know how much I can say about this entry in the Mihmiverse series, for the simple fact that everything is perfect. The hammy acting was the best I've seen out of this series to date, the impressive no-budget special effects and set designs did their job perfectly in making me forget they were even special effects and fake sets and that this movie was actually largely filmed in just some guy's basement, the costume designs were inspired and the perfect mix of familiar and alien, and even the larger-then-normal (out of this world, you might say!) scope of the story - just everything is top-notch excellent here and easily Christopher R. Mihm's best effort yet, taking all the things I loved about Cave Women on Mars and amplifying them even more. Sure the runtime was one of the longest yet, however it honestly felt much shorter to me because I was so easily able to get caught up in this story and the fictional world presented here. Of course it also helps that there were plenty of hilariously cheesy fight scenes, all done with great and fun-to-watch choreography, from getting tossed around by the bounty hunter's crew, or dueling with electrified baton weapons against the Ominai footsoldiers, or using a spear against the Tusken Raider-wannabe Ominai soldiers that had giant eyeballs for heads (and ending in a hilarious spear-through-the-eye scene), this movie had no shortage of Captain Kirk-inspired tussles, and they were all a blast to watch.

As with all the other movies in the Mihmiverse, this self-produced DVD is stacked right up with tons of excellent bonus content that while may be a bit less then usual, is still quality stuff all the same: We get only one Blooper Reel instead of the usual two (but it has a really good length to it and is, just like all the others, simply laugh-out-loud hilarious), a trailer for both this movie as well as other movies under the Mihmiverse banner, a Photo Gallery of tons of Behind-the-Scenes photos, an introduction to the film by Horror Host Dr. Ivan Cryptosis, and the usual informative full length Audio Commentary by Christopher R. Mihm and several of the main actors of the movie.

In classic serial nature, Destination: Outer Space ends things off on a promised note of further adventures of Captain Jackson in this 'lost galaxy', yet as the way of things with these movies, I'm willing to bet this is probably the most we'll ever see, since Christopher R. Mihm and the folks over at Saint Euphoria have done eight of these movies so far (with a ninth in the works) and none have really been true sequels to one another other then recurring characters and locations. Also, it's sad to note that to date this is Josh Craig's final appearance in the Mihmiverse series, perhaps truly being lost in another galaxy right along with his character, waiting to be rediscovered in a future movie and adventure! In all seriousness though, despite some misgivings I had in the past with one of the characters he plays, Josh Craig's overall presence in the series will surely be missed in the following movies. However on the positive side of things, I really can't think of a stronger, more bold, movie for him to go out on, then Destination: Outer Space.

Seeing as how most of the advertising for these movies come from simple word of mouth from the fans, then if you do check his stuff out and enjoy it please help get the word out there on these movies and hopefully we can snag in a few other fans that may not even realize these exist. You can order these on DVD (and even BluRay for the latest couple!) over at his official site which is filled with all sorts of other goodies as well (including a monthly newsletter in addition to a very laid back, yet fun and informative, podcast). Hell, there's even an excellent deal on right now – Buy Three Movies, Get One Free, which seeing as how there's currently eight of these titles, if you do that twice then that is the perfect way to catch up with all of them and in the end save some dough – that's how I did it!

10/10 rooms in the Psych Ward

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The Prophecy (1995)

REVIEW BY: Jeffrey Long

Company: Overseas FilmGroup

Runtime: 98 mins

Format: BluRay

Plot: The rebelling angel Gabriel comes to Earth to collect a soul which will end the stalemated Second War in Heaven, and only a former priest, a school teacher, and a little girl can stop him.

Review: I grew up in a pretty religious family setting, so even though I am no longer a religious person I still find myself loving movies (especially thrillers) with dark religious overtones, and out of those movies The Prophecy series (alternately named God's Army in parts of the world) is easily my favorite.

In the first movie of this long-running series, we follow a priest who has lost his Faith and turned cop and a small community school teacher as they get caught up in the middle of a Second War in Heaven, this one caused by the Arch Angel Gabriel who is jealous that God loves humans more then the Angels and he wants to make things 'As they were', and many of the angels have joined him, and a prophecy has been made about a 'dark soul' that will tip the tides of the War, so Simon (one of the good angels) finds this evil soul and hides it in the body of a little girl before he dies, and it's that girl that the main characters have to protect from Gabriel, who is trying to get his hands on that soul.

This is one 'Talky' movie and there's not a whole lot of action to keep the pace going, however I still find myself loving this low budget romp quite a lot, and the reasons for that are many – For instance, I love the way they portray the Angels when on Earth in their human form. They look human, but there's just something...off...about them. The way they talk, the way they act and compose themselves, the way they sit perched like a bird on the edges of objects, it's all slightly off and a bit unnaturally creepy. Anyone who watches the TV show Supernatural will actually have a good idea as to what I'm talking about here, as Supernatural took a page out of this movie's book in terms of their portrayal of the Angels, especially when they were first introduced way back in Season 4. Hell, that show came complete with a group of rebelling angels that are angry that God loves the 'talking monkeys' more then them (as Gabriel refers to them as in these movies as well), and on Supernatural they were portrayed in human form pretty much exactly as they are in this movie, from the way they talk to the way they act to even the various powers they have (teleporting, bringing someone back from the dead (or near-dead in this case), knocking someone unconscious just by tapping their head, creating fire out of nothing, being able to smell humans nearby, plus many more surprises). It really does seem like Supernatural, at least in its earlier days of Seasons 4 and 5, used this movie as inspiration for their portrayal of Angels. But I've gotten a bit off point here, hahaha, bottom line is, I love the way the Angel characters were portrayed while on-screen, adding a slight unnatural air about things.

Of course it's helped by the actors who did great with their material, with Christopher Walken as Gabriel stealing the show and probably being his most memorable role for me. From his anger and frustration at the humans, to his genuine sadness over not being in God's graces anymore, to his confusion at human technology - the guy was on-point every step of the way and if nothing else, these movies are worth watching just for his portrayal of this character alone. Joining him is also a cameo by Lord of the Rings star Viggo Mortensen as Lucifer himself, another shining portrayal that even though he only has about 5 minutes of total screentime, still manages to turn in one very memorable and downright creepy as hell performance. I also loved the twist of the main human characters having to go to Lucifer, the embodiment of all that is Evil, in order to beat the villain of the movie – after all, as Lucifer even says himself, if Gabriel takes over Heaven it'll just become another Hell and that's one Hell too many for the ruler of the One and Only True Hell. There's also Elias Koteas (Casey Jones from the first and third live-action Ninja Turtles movies) as the main priest-turned-cop character and Virginia Madsen (main chick from the first Candyman) as the school teacher that he teams up with to keep the little girl safe from Gabriel who pursues them across the New Mexico desert, and both of them do good enough in their roles, though nothing too stand-outish like Walken and Mortensen, and likewise Eric Stoltz as the Angel Simon does his job well, but his role here required him to be far more lowkey then some of the other roles. The only real sour point when it comes to the acting is that of the main little girl herself, as she was just downright painful to watch, especially during her scenes of being possessed by the Dark Soul that's being hidden inside of her – probably one of the worst child actors I've ever seen and it certainly brings the movie down a bit.

Also raising the movie up fairly high in my eyes is the eerie and perfectly-toned musical score, as well as the excellent background mythology. Many people may find the movie boring, as the action scenes are few and far between, and most of the movie is just talking, however, personally, I loved that talking because it was never pointless talking just to fill space in the movie – almost every scene's dialog did something to help establish the background mythology of this movie's universe in terms of the Angels and the Wars in Heaven, to the point where even now on my ompteenth re-watch, I still pick up on lines of dialog that add something new to the mythology that I never did notice before in any of the times I've watched it. So yes, while I can't fault anyone for finding the movie slow and boring, it didn't personally bother me because I just found myself getting wrapped up in all that mythology and world-building. Plus, like I said above, Walken's excellent performance is worthy of your full attention whenever he's on-screen (which is often), so if nothing else then that should keep your interest.

The parts of the movie however that I felt bogged things down a tad and the more times I re-watch it the more and more I feel like just fast-forward through, are the parts dealing with the Dark Soul itself. Sure, the idea of it is fine and I'm ok with it being the crutch of the movie's plot, but the stuff I hated was once it was put inside the little girl and she starts getting possessed by it and drawing violent pictures, speaking in the soul's voice, getting sick, and the eventual exorcism that the climax of the movie is built around, all of that stuff I could have done without and a large part of that is, as I said above, the performance of the little girl as she was just brutal to watch and sit through during those scenes, but another reason is that it kind of felt out of place with everything else going on in the movie and came across almost like they needed more stuff to pad the movie out with so they took excerpts from some unfinished script sitting in their vault and added them into this movie.

As far as religious-themed thrillers go, The Prophecy series (or the God's Army series, depending on where you live)is one of my favorites, partially because of the excellent better-then-average world-building mythology, partially because of the unique (at the time) portrayal of Angels, and partially because of the excellent and memorable performances from some of the (again, at the time) virtually unknown actors. However the little girl's acting will cause you to cringe every time she speaks, and I really can't argue with anyone who says the movie is slow because it very much is, however like I've said above, that didn't personally bother me at all because I was so into the mythology they were spewing at me during those scenes.

Looking back, it's actually kind of an enigma as to how this low-key drama/thriller movie spawned 4 sequels because it just seems so random when compared to some of the other series' that gave way to large franchises, however I'm glad that it did because the series as a whole is one I enjoy immensely and love revisiting at least once a year.

8/10 rooms in the Psych Ward

 

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Terror From Beneath The Earth (2009)

REVIEW BY: Jeffrey Long

Company: Saint Euphoria Pictures

Runtime: 69 mins

Format: DVD

Plot: Along with the sheriff and small-town farmer Stan Johnson, Dr. Vincent Edwards and his assistant mount a rescue party into the extensive and dangerous Wisawa Caves for a couple of missing children, and they quickly come to the realization that if the caves don't get them, whatever unseen terror lurking in the shadows just might, as after years of underground atomic testing, one of the animals living within the Wisawa cave system has undergone a radical and unimaginably horrible transformation!

Review: Following on from The Monster of Phantom Lake, It Came From Another World!, and Cave Women on Mars, Terror From Beneath The Earth is the fourth movie in the long-lasting low budget Mihmiverse series of fun black and white 1950s Drive-In B-Movie tributes. After jumping into the then-Future of 1987 (from the point of view of how it may have been thought-up as being like from back in the 1950s) in Cave Women on Mars, we return back to the 'present' of the 1950s for this next mostly-stand-alone entry, though sadly lacking any returning characters save for one short cameo.

In this movie, Daniel Sjerven returns from Cave Women on Mars, though obviously playing a brand new character since this movie takes place long before that one does. Here, he plays the grief-stricken single father of two children who went missing while playing around in an unexplored and off-limits underground cave system. He plays the role of worried father well enough, from loosing his temper in the police station over their inability to do their jobs properly, to running off on his own without really thinking about it into the darkness of the caves when he thinks he has a lead on his kids, to taking charge and battling the monster of the movie when doing so means saving the lives of his children, the guy's acting ability is never once in question. Unfortunately, the role is really rather one-note and not nearly as interesting or fun as his campy Bruce Campbell-esque space explorer in the previous movie. Also joining him in returning from some of the previous movies is Mike Cook (one half of the Canoe Cops duo), also playing a brand new character, Dr. Vincent Edwards who, along with his female assistant, is exploring the cave system for research and gets caught up with helping hunt down this creature, despite his objections to do so. Much like with the other characters in this movie, he generally plays it pretty straight for the most part and, in all honesty, the character here is kind of forgettable.

Which is one of my main complaints here – most of the characters in this movie are just bland and boring, especially when compared to the quirky folks that dominated all three of the previous movies. That's not to say any of the actors are specifically bad, but when it comes to how the characters are written, unlike the other movies so far, they're played up to be pretty straight and serious here in comparison, and not quite so campy or quirky, which in turn, looses some of the appeal. Sure, there are still quite a few funny bits scattered around (the scene where Daniel Sjerven comes face to face with the monster for the first time and just stares it down and then tells it that it stinks is one of my favorite parts), but compared to the previous movies this one is played more straight then I'm used to with these. In point of fact (and I know this is a total contradiction to what I've said in the previous reviews), but I actually kind of, sort of, miss the character of Professor Jackson. Sure, I find that character annoying as all hell and I was ready to tear my hair out by the end of the first couple movies, but his unique style of character really could have benefited this movie. I know I've dogged on that character in all previous reviews, but I feel he's kind of like that one ex everyone has that you can't stand and you find so unbelievably annoying that you break up with them...only to end up missing those very things about them when they're not around, that you previously found annoying. Plus Josh Craig, whether playing Professor Jackson, Captain Jackson, or someone entirely new, is always entertaining to watch and his presence here (being the first Mihmiverse movie without him) is sorely missed. Sure, we do get a cameo appearance of his girlfriend (now wife) from It Came From Another World!, now pregnant with their baby who will go on to become Captain Jackson from Cave Women on Mars (lost yet?), and she doesnamedrop Professor Jackson, but I was never really a big fan of her character anyway, and it still feels like something is missing by not having Josh Craig make an appearance himself.

I also wasn't a big fan of the creature design for the mutant killer bat monster either. I know 'bad' is part of the joke with all of these, but after the 'excellent' and ambitious effects for Cave Women on Mars, the lack of something truly terrifying for the mutant bat monster was a bit of a let-down. Actually, in all honesty, I think I actually like the bucket-headed Algae Monster and the bulging-eyed alien body-controller of the first two movies better then this thing here. The idea of the creature is fine, and I loved its ability to paralyze it's victims first, only to drag them back to its bone-covered lair to eat later, but the design of it was where I felt the ball was dropped a bit.

Now don't misunderstand me here, it may sound like I didn't like the movie at all, and while I do honestly feel it's the weakest of the series thus-far, there is still lots to like for fans of the Mihmiverse. For instance, I liked the idea of the movie quite a bit, with it having the entire thing take place in underground cave systems (minus a couple scenes in the police station), and I really enjoyed the actual cave system set itself. It looked like it may have been Paper Mâché or something like that, but it worked great and looked excellent, coming across like almost a real cave system and not just a couple corners of somebody's basement. It also reminded me quite a bit of sets for low budget Egyptian tombs in classic Mummy movies, which then had me kind of longing for a Mihmiverse Mummy movie. Perhaps as a previous adventure of Dr. Vincent Edwards, maybe? He seems like the type that would have gone on an Egyptian Mummy Adventure, though maybe as someone who refuses to believe the 'mumbo jumbo' of the curse and tries to (with difficulty) come up with scientific explanations for the wrapped dead walking again. Just tossing around some ideas here!

The movie's strongest aspect I found though, was that it surprisingly raised some interesting thought-provoking questions of morality and responsibility. We created this monster by man's own doing (admittedly, by accident and without our knowledge via polluting the Earth with excess Atomic testings), however is it really our place to make this new species go extinct? Even knowing that it's killed people and could continue to kill? I liked the questions this movie raised via it's characters and their actions, and it ended up coming across as quite a bit deeper then you would expect a movie like this to get, and if there was one interesting thing that was done with the otherwise forgettable characters of this entry, it was seeing where each of them fell in their opinions on that. In addition, the final climax between Man and Monster and how it was defeated was probably one of the more thrilling climaxes in the series so far and literally had me on the edge of my seat.

Continuing the trend put forth with the releases of the previous three movies, this self-produced DVD is stacked right up with tons of excellent bonus content. For this title we have only one Blooper Reel instead of two (but it has a really good length to it and is, just like all the others, simply laugh-out-loud hilarious), a trailer for the movie, a featurette on the creation and evolution of the bat monster costume, a Photo Gallery of tons of Behind-the-Scenes photos, an introduction to the film by Horror Host Dr. Ivan Cryptosis (making a return after being missing from the previous movie), and the usual informative full length Audio Commentary by Christopher R. Mihm and lead actor Daniel Sjerven.

I wish I liked this one as much as I did the others, especially since it's clear the people behind it put in just as much effort as they always do (that's obvious from just the set design work and excellent acting alone, not to mention the work put into making the actual creature suit, even if it wasn't my favorite of the designs), but overall Terror From Beneath The Earth just didn't jive with me quite like the rest in the Mihmiverse have so far. In the end, it's still well-worth checking out if you're a fan of the series, but if you're looking for a gateway movie to break into the Mihmiverse world, I probably wouldn't recommend this one as your first foray.

Seeing as how most of the advertising for this guy and his movies come from simple word of mouth from the fans, then if you do check his stuff out and enjoy it please help get the word out there on these movies and hopefully we can snag in a few other fans that may not even realize these exist. You can order these on DVD (and even BluRay for the latest couple!) over at his official site which is filled with all sorts of other goodies as well (including a monthly newsletter in addition to a very laid back, yet fun and informative, podcast). Hell, there's even an excellent deal on right now – Buy Three Movies, Get One Free, which seeing as how there's currently eight of these titles, if you do that twice then that is the perfect way to catch up with all of them and in the end save some dough!

6/10 rooms in the Psych Ward

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Ghost Shark (2013)

REVIEW BY: Jeffrey Long

Company: Active Entertainment

Runtime: 84 mins

Format: T.V.

Plot: When reckless rednecks on a fishing trip kill a great white shark, its spirit comes back for revenge, and soon turns its sights on the nearby town of Smallport, where this 'ghost shark' can now hunt wherever there's water - both in the sea as well as on land.

Review: To say that shark movies are a very tired and overdone corner of the B-Movie market would be one of the biggest understatements in the history of mankind. On the surface, Ghost Shark may seem like a new and unique entry in that overcrowded corner, and while that is true to an extent for reasons I'll get to later, when you dig deeper into it, it really isn't a whole lot different from any number of the other low budget shark-themed B-Movies.

Stripping away the whole supernatural angle and taking Ghost Shark to its basics, we've seen this movie before, dozens upon dozens of times. A large killer man-eating shark wanders into a town that is not quite accustomed to such things, on the eve of some big town-wide celebrations, and those that know about the danger (in this case it is a group of cardboard cookie cutter teens that we get in almost all of these movies, with the exact same diverse personalities as in all of these) are running around town like crazy people, being ignored and threatened to remain quiet by the town officials such as the Sheriff, Mayor, ect for fear of causing a panic during one of their popular times of year, and ultimately the teens have to take matters into their own hands if they want to save their town. Seriously, if you've seen one of these shark movies you've literally seen them all.

However, I'd also be lying if I said that the supernatural spin they add to it didn't make me forget about all that, at least for portions of the movie, and didn't result in a decently fun ride. The one main area where this movie sets itself slightly above the pack are the really fun and unique death scenes, which could not have been accomplished had it not been for the fact that the killer animal here is indeed the evil vengeful spirit of a shark as opposed to a flesh and blood creature, and with that comes a whole new set of rules for it – it can move about in any water in the area, not just the ocean. And by any water I mean things such as circling around someone in a bathtub (in a scene that slightly reminded me of a similar scene from the first Nightmare on Elm Street movie), its fin coming up from a paved street where water sprinklers are set, appearing on a slip-and-slide while someone races down it, having an all-you-can-eat buffet of sexy young girls in bikinis at a car wash, being drank through a coffee cup only to rip the person apart from the inside, launching out of a toilet, and even capable of gliding through the sky during a thunderous rainstorm. And that's only a portion of some of the shark attack scenes offered by this movie! With a new attack scene seemingly every few minutes, this movie is full of cheer-worthy cheesy moments of spectral shark goodness and it goes a long way, like I said above, to making you forget just how mundane and paint-by-numbers the actual plot and characters really are. 

The movie also benefits from the fact that the effects seem quite above-average for such an affair as this. With the shark being a simple see-through spirit, I expected the level of detail on that thing to be next to zilch, yet to my surprise, the level of detail (in addition to the quality itself) was some of the best I've ever seen in a made-for-TV B-Movie, beating out (by far) the level of detail on most low budget CGI physical sharks from any other SyFy Channel Original. In addition to that, the bright glistening blue glow and accompanying sound effect of when the shark was around (an almost whistling kind of noise) were both excellent touches that weren’t exactly needed, but I'm really glad they were included.

The one thing I wasn't glad was included though, was the character of the crazy old man that everyone is nervous around but who seems to have all the answers to everything going on in the movie. Seeing as how the Scooby-Doo gang of teens went to the museum and spoke with a local historian (in addition to some other things in the movie), they pretty much found out most of what they needed to know on their own anyway, and mostly all this character did was reiterate stuff that both we as the audience, in addition to the characters, either already knew or would be finding out on their own again shortly after anyway. He also came with a pointless subplot of longing for his dead wife who still roams around the area as a ghost. It leads nowhere at all, adds nothing more to the movie, and if anything it just took time and momentum away from the main meat of the movie. In my opinion, neither him nor his subplot was needed at all. 

Crazy old man subplot aside though, while Ghost Shark retreads overly-familiar ground with the same basic cardboard cut-out characters, it manages to do so in a unique and fresh way that allows you to forget, at least temporarily, that you've seen this exact movie a dozen times before, while adding an extra layer of fun small touches that is not required or often seen in these types of movies, but is very much appreciated when it isdone. 

As far as fun, cheesy, stay-in-and-watch-on-a-rainy-Saturday-night made for SyFy Channel B-Movies go, you can do a hell of a lot worse then Ghost Shark. 

6/10 rooms in the Psych Ward

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