House of Ghosts (2012)

REVIEW BY: Jeffrey Long

Company: Saint Euphoria Pictures

Runtime: 77 mins

Format: DVD

Plot: Rich socialites have a tradition of throwing exclusive dinner parties. This time, while stuck inside during a massive 'snowstorm of the century', they've booked a spiritual medium who promises to open a portal to the great beyond. Can the group survive the night or will ignoring the medium's warning be the last thing they ever do?

Review: House of Ghosts is the 7th movie in the line-up of movies by Christopher R. Mihm, the maestro of new old, good bad movies from what's been dubbed by fans as the Mihmiverse. This micro-budget series also includes such greats as The Monster of Phantom Lake, It Came From Another World!, Cave Women on Mars, Terror From Beneath The Earth, Destination: Outer Space, and Attack of the Moon Zombies, all taking place in the same universe but mostly stand-alone from one another other then recurring side characters and the occasional throw-back to a previous movie. All are done in black and white and as a nifty love-filled throwback to the classic 1950s Drive-In B-Movies of old, so if that kind of stuff is your thing than you really can't go wrong with a Christopher R. Mihm film.

I couldn't sleep last night so I decided to throw on the next Mihmiverse movie, during which I realized it switched over across the midnight mark while in the middle of watching, making House of Ghosts the first movie I officially watched for Halloween 2013 and those circumstances could not have been more fitting. So this review is my Halloween treat to all my readers! Also, this movie totally failed as a cure for not being able to sleep... and as for exactly why, just continue reading!

To start, this entry in the Mihmiverse was done in the style of a classic William Castle horror movie (the original House on Haunted Hill, the original 13 Ghosts, The Tingler, ect), and it also came complete with Alfred Hitchcock-style intro opening with Christopher R. Mihm himself introducing the film in front of a total white background, and in a hilariously campy, yet oddly enthralling, way gave a great foreboding warning to the viewer that what they are about to witness is unnatural. He even offers a bit of a cheesy gimmick item as is par for the case of a William Castle movie. And as if that stuff didn't already set the tone right out of the gate, this intro also had some great creepy subliminal messaging going on during it, which actually continued at various strategically-timed moments throughout the movie for optimum uneasiness.

For this movie, our main cast of quirky characters are all fancy, proper, rich, snobby socialites that have gathered together for a dinner party when they decide to have a bit of fun with contacting spirits on 'the other side' when they get trapped in for the night due to a massive snowstorm outside. Right off the bat, Christopher R. Mihm has set the tone perfectly for this movie as I love horror movies that take place during snowstorms. Snow in general seems to always add an extra level of atmosphere and tension to a horror movie and I'm not really sure why. Even in not-so-good ones it manages to raise the atmosphere up a couple notches, especially if the snow is currently falling in said scene (I'm still waiting for a Friday the 13th movie set at Crystal Lake during the winter – I think that would be pretty damn awesome to see). Atmosphere aside, it was also a great and simple excuse to keep everyone stuck in the house all night, unable to leave during the terrifying events that end up taking place (and the one person who does try it anyway ends up freezing to death out there). I also really loved that once the experiment to open the portal to the Beyond 'failed' (or so they thought, anyway) and everyone starts going their own ways in the house, that's when the mysterious unexplainable events start happening and it kind of turned into a nice Scooby-Doo style mystery of people going missing (or eventually outright dying), and the characters having to band together and figure out if one of the missing people was really behind the events, trying to scare everyone for some sure-to-be-explained evil reason, or is it really supernatural forces that had been let loose? I'm not going to say which one it was, but it certainly had be guessing, second-guessing, and even third-guessing myself right up to the very end.

The entire package here really was genuinely creepy and unnerving at times, and that totally separates this from all the previous Mihmiverse movies that came before, which were mostly all played up for laughs (not to worry though, as there are still a few hilarious moments sprinkled throughout). I'm not really sure if it was due to the fact that I was watching this after the midnight hour when everything seems extra-creepy anyway, or if it was because of the subliminal messaging that kept popping up, or if it was actually just that good at being creepy, or a combination of all those things, but whatever the case was it worked. Despite being able to, at all times, see the purposeful cheapness of the effects (The living skeleton is clearly plastic, the excellently-crafted demon skull is clearly a rubber latex mask, the killer spider horde is clearly rubber spiders on strings) yet the scenes which deal with each of those things (and other creepy goodies I have not yet mentioned) still manage to get your heart racing and leave you about this close to clutching the armrest of your couch. I know all the Mihmiverse movies are made with families kept in mind, and that a lot of people are sharing these movies with their kids, but I honestly would recommend watching this one yourself first to see if your younger kids can handle it. I only give that recommendation because I'm a long-time horror vet and even I was fairly spooked and on-edge for parts of this movie, and found myself damn near in a panic attack come the zombie-infested climax. The fact that this is a B-Movie, on a micro-budget, that's purposefully-campy and cheesy aside...Christopher R. Mihm (and all involved for that matter) did one hell of a great job with the spooky atmosphere with this one, making this the perfect movie for me to be watching as the clocks moved us into the witching hour and having it officially be Halloween.

Oh, and in true William Castle style, there's a nice twist ending as well, which I kind of suspected there would be and spent parts of the movie trying to figure out exactly what it would be, but I'm glad to report that it's totally not something you'll easily be able to see coming and it certainly took me by surprise.

This entry is no different than the previous Mihmiverse movies in that it is filled with tons of familiar actors of the Mihmiverse, however they're all playing brand new characters this go-around. Sadly the one sour point I have with this movie is that none of these new characters were really likeable much, or memorable. That's not a knock against the actors as they all played the rolls perfectly, and I understand the entire point of these characters are that they're rich snobs and by extension unrelatable and unlikable, but I really could have done with something in their character traits to latch onto and find likeable (Mike Cook's character started to get there by the end). As it stands, I was actually looking forward to seeing every single one of these characters get taken out, and unfortunately none of them will really stick out in my memory quite like the majority of previous characters in this universe have.

What I did like with these characters though, were despite being new characters they still had some nice connections to previous characters of the series: The very original movie, The Monster of Phantom Lake, got a really great throw-back in that one of the characters here is actually the mother of the crazy hermit from that movie that ended up becoming the title monster, and you just know that with such a connection in a movie dealing with ghosts and the afterlife that the Algae Monster itself would thus be making a nice little cameo appearance. Michael Kaiser (the man under pretty much every monster suit in this series) also popped in for a cameo as either a relative of his cop character from Terror From Beneath The Earth, or as that exact character. Admittedly, I don't remember his character's name from that movie so I'm a bit fuzzy there as to which one it is, but either way I enjoyed the connection to that movie. Finally, there was a briefcase held by a character that I can't really go into any detail of without going into a bit of spoiler territory, but if you pay close attention there's a great connection with that briefcase to the previous movie, Attack of the Moon Zombies (even with just that little bit, I fear I gave away a bit too much). So despite all the characters being new to the series, and I doubt we'll ever see most (if any) again, there are still some strong connections tying this entry in with the other movies of the series.

As is expected with by this point with all movies in the Mihmiverse, this self-produced DVD is stacked right up with tons of excellent bonus content. There's a Blooper Reel that is admittedly a bit shorter than most of the other ones but is still laugh-out-loud hilarious (seriously, by this point I almost look forward to the side-splittingly funny outtakes almost more then I do the movie itself because they're always a great treat to watch directly after the movie), a pretty funny Alternate Ending that fans of Attack of the Moon Zombies like me are sure to love but I'm personally glad they didn't go that route as it would have ruined the flow of the atmospheric mood that the movie had set so perfectly, a trailer for the movie in addition to trailers for some previous movies in the Mihmiverse, a Photo Gallery of tons of Behind-the-Scenes photos, an introduction to the film by Horror Host Dr. Ivan Cryptosis, a Featurette on the actual real house that they filmed this movie in which was owned by recurring Mihmiverse actress Sid Korpi and her husband, and the usual informative full length Audio Commentaries, one by just Christopher R. Mihm by himself and a second one where he's joined by costume designer and SFX artist Mitch Gonzales and Behind the Scenes extraordinaire Cherie “Rhuby” Gallinati who anyone that listens to the Mihmiverse Bonfire Podcast will instantly recognize the voice of.

I honestly can't think of a more fitting movie to have broken in Halloween 2013 with, nor of a more perfect tribute to William Castle. Even as a long-time horror vet, House of Ghosts had me near full-on having a panic attack by the end and I wouldn't ask it to be any other way! The more serious spooktacular nature of this entry makes it quite unique from all previous Mihmiverse movies, and I think it just might fit in perfectly as the newest entry of my Annual Halloween movie Line-Up each year.

Seeing as how most of the advertising for these movies come from simple word of mouth from the fans, than 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 this movie and the following one!) 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.

Suffice to say, this movie did absolutely nothing to cure my sleep troubles last night, and it pretty much had me on edge to the point where I ended up just staying awake until the sun came up - Happy Halloween everyone!

9/10 rooms in the Psych Ward

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Attack of the Moon Zombies (2011)

REVIEW BY: Jeffrey Long

Company: Saint Euphoria Pictures

Runtime: 100 mins

Format: DVD

Plot: A mysterious plant found on the surface of the moon wreaks havoc on the Jackson Lunar Base when its spores change the base's crew into leafy, undead creatures!

Review: Attack of the Moon Zombies was the Christopher R. Mihm movie that initially grabbed my interest and, by doing some light research into it, alerted me to the entire Mihmiverse Collection. I stumbled upon a thumbnail picture from this movie while looking through Google Pictures for some other B-Movie to use in my review of that one, and as soon as I saw the weirdly cheesy-looking plant-headed Moon Zombie picture I knew I had to find out what movie that was from and thus started my adventure into the Mihmiverse realm. However, once I ordered all the movies, even though this is the one that I was most interested in checking out, I decided to watch them all in release order so that's why it's taken me so long to get to my most anticipated one, first sitting through, and enjoying on various levels, The Monster of Phantom Lake, It Came From Another World!, Cave Women on Mars, Terror From Beneath The Earth, and Destination: Outer Space.

And I'm glad I did, because while (for the most part) the movies are stand-alone and you can watch them in any order that you choose, you get so much more out of them by watching them in release order. I say release order because in terms of chronology they jump around back and forth quite a bit, such as the case with this one, taking place in the future (as it may have been envisioned back in the 1950s – the gimmick of all these movies is that, while made now-ish, they're made with the intent of having them act as if they were made in the black and white 1950s era of B-Movie filmmaking), this one taking place roughly around the timeframe of Cave Women on Mars and Destination: Outer Space, give or take a couple years.

This one is the longest Mihmiverse movie yet, clocking in at an hour and 40 minutes. Now as you may guess from some of my previous reviews, I kind of feel that almost-two hours is way too long for something like this, especially when it takes 40 minutes before we even begin the actual plot of the movie of people getting infected and the Moon Zombies start going around. A bit tighter of a pace in that first half and this movie would be 100% perfect. As it stands it's only 'Just About 100% perfect', which is still really damn good!

For the most part, Attack of the Moon Zombies deals with almost all-new characters. A lot of familiar faces for fans of these movies, but they're playing brand new characters from what they played before. Playing the lead female character is Shannon McDonough, who fellow Mihmivites will recognize as the fiance-and-then-wife of Doctor Jackson from It Came From Another World! and a cameo appearance in Terror From Beneath The Earth. I was a bit harsh on her role in those movies, as I found the character she played a bit drab and boring, but after seeing her here I now know that was solely the way the character was written and it was not indicative of Ms. McDonough's acting abilities because she owns this movie in every scene that she's in. Within five minutes of being introduced to her new scientist character here, I was totally in love with her. Returning alongside her is also Daniel Sjerven from Cave Women on Mars and Terror From Beneath the Earth, this time playing a rude, childish, alcoholic pilot that still manages to retain a certain level of humor and charm about him, despite being the kind of character you probably wouldn't like spending a whole lot of time around in real life. Also with them is Michael Kaiser who has been in all of these movies in small bit parts as well as the man behind the costume of I think almost every monster, creature, and humanoid alien to date, and Sid Korpi who played a minor role in Destination: Outer Space but here plays the person-in-charge on this Moon Base, Administrator Ripley. And yes, that is a very clear (and loved!) nod to the Alien franchise. The one person who does return and actually plays a previous character is Mike Cook reprising his role as Dr. Vincent Edwards from Terror From Beneath the Earth, a role I also previously found a bit dull and uninspired but actually really enjoyed this go-around. Also, he hasn't visually aged a day in the 20+ years between that movie's timeline and this one! Oh, the wonders of Movie Magic, I tells ya!

Actually, old character and new ones, old actors and new ones, out of all the Mihmiverse movies this one I think is the one that had me loving all the characters in record time and it wasn't long into the movie before I started genuinely caring about what might happen to them. Sure, the movie has an overly-long 40 minute lead-up to the actual horrific events that make up the plot of the movie, but it uses that time really well to give us some good characterization on everyone and some nice story beats that pay off later in the movie. For instance, lead character Dr. Hacket (as played by Shannon McDonough) is in a relationship with another of the scientists on board and he keeps trying to propose to her but each and every time he does they keep getting interrupted at the last second before she can give her answer, a continuous and hilariously repetitive story beat that keeps playing out even well into the Moon Zombie infestation. Add to that the continuous complaints by some of the staff that there isn't enough women on-board, Ripley missing the birth of her grandchild due to being on that base, and the sub-plot of Dr. Vincent Edwards' looming retirement and they really give you enough meat to sink your teeth into for each and every one of these characters, no matter how large or small their role is.

The only issue I have in the character department, and it's only a minor nitpick and in no way goes against my final score of the movie, but Daniel Sjerven's perfectly sleazy pilot character drops out of the movie pretty early on to return to Earth, and during the thick of the infestation events of the movie the main cast are trying to survive long enough for him to return so they can leave the base and get the heck outta dodge, so having them constantly make reference to waiting on him, in addition to knowing what a familiar face Daniel Sjerven is to this series, I was fully expecting him to show up at the last minute and save the day, Han Solo style, but sadly we never do see him again, which was slightly disappointing especially since he never got that character redemption moment I was really hoping for. Even though this is a minor nitpick, it also works as a compliment as well because if these characters weren’t so likable and well-written, I wouldn't have cared about wanting him to return at the end for a redemption moment to begin with.

Making us care for these characters this much actually ends up being a bit heartbreaking, seeing as how once the Moon Plant shoots its spoors out and finally turns the first person into a plant-headed Moon Zombie (which then in turn begins turning everyone else), it's only a matter of time before most of the characters you've come to love bite it, and as much as I enjoyed spending time with everyone leading up to this portion of the movie, it's really here till the end that it truly shines. Seeing as how the terror begins during the middle of the night when most of the crew is sleeping, there are some authentically creepy moments that play out here, such as a scene where one guy wakes up in his darkened room with no knowledge of what has started, and begins hearing some unknown thing banging savagely on his door, trying to get in to him. The claustrophobic feel of the base as the characters run around the maze-like hallways and run into various random Moon Zombies, either stand alone or in large groups, only adds to the creepy factor. Of course none of that would have been successful had it not been for the best creature designs we've seen yet in the Mihmiverse series, nor for the best set designs we've seen yet; Never once did I question that this was actually a real Lunar Base and these plant-headed Moon Zombies were a real threat – Within a few minutes of pressing Play I was sucked right in and I was right there alongside all these characters. Micro-Budget as this may be, it did just as good a job loosing me in its imagination as any bigger budget Hollywood movie could, and its this movie that best shows just how far Christopher R. Mihm has come, in addition to everyone who works with him, since the days of The Monster of Phantom Lake, and it shows best just how they've all evolved as filmmakers.

As with all the other movies in the Mihmiverse, this self-produced DVD is stacked right up with tons of excellent bonus content. There's 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 the movie, a Photo Gallery of tons of Behind-the-Scenes photos, an introduction to the film by Horror Host Dr. Ivan Cryptosis, a half hour long featurette on the whole Mihmiverse itself, and the usual informative full length Audio Commentaries, one by just Christopher R. Mihm and a second more Technical Commentary by many of the Behind the Scenes folks.

Attack of the Moon Zombies is easily my favorite film by Christopher R. Mihm to date. Sure, it's a bit longer then I'd like and takes it's sweet time getting anywhere, but it also uses that time to perfectly make us get to know and care about our cast of characters, which is actually a really smart move here since it made it all the more heartbreaking when many of them get ripped away from us during the events of the second half of the movie when the infection has broken out and the Lunar Base is overran with 30+ deadly Moon Zombies shuffling around the dark, empty maze-like corridors. The movie can also double as a fun 'Find The References' game, as it's chock full of references to classic sci-fi/horror flicks like Alien, The Thing From Another World, It! The Terror From Beyond Space, and any number of zombie movies to just point out a few. Plus there's also tons of inside jokes and references to previous Mihmiverse movies (Such as Doctor Jackson-then-Director Jackson is now the President – Nice!), so be sure to keep your eyes and ears open to catch them all.

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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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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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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Cave Women On Mars (2008)

REVIEW BY: Jeffrey Long

Company: Saint Euphoria Pictures

Runtime: 73 mins

Format: DVD

Plot: It is the future: 1987. Humanity has finally left the confines of its home world. When the two-man crew of the MARS-1 spaceship lands on the surface of the red planet, they are astonished to find it strangely Earth-like. After deciding to split up and scout around, Lieutenant Elliott stumbles across an amazing discovery -- primitive, matriarchal warrior women! He is promptly taken prisoner by the Martian beauties and led unwillingly across the alien landscape. While his commanding officer, Captain Jackson, searches for his lost comrade, Lieutenant Elliott encounters unimaginable excitement in the form of fierce monsters, exotic vistas, strange magic, and most unexpectedly... true love!

Review: Cave Women on Mars is the third in the currently-eight-movie collection dubbed the Mihmiverse. What is the Mihmiverse, you ask? Well in short, it's a series of micro-budget black and white B-Movies created by Christopher R. Mihm that are made as both parodies and homages to the classic 1950s-era Drive-In B-Movies and thus replicate that style while also poking a bit of fun at it as well. Cave Women on Mars was preceded by The Monster of Phantom Lake in addition to It Came From Another World! and while both of those were pretty damn good for what they are, it's really this third outing that he really finds his groove and manages to knock the ball out of the park and is, in my opinion, the best attempt yet at replicating/parodying that low budget 1950s style.

The main thing that sets this one apart from the previous two is that while those ones took place in the 1950s, this one takes place in the then-Future of 1987 (remember, even though these movies are being made nowadays, the gimmick of all of these is that they are made as if they were filmed and released in the 1950s). Because this is an alternate 1987 then the one we actually got (one as it may have been envisioned back in the 50s), mankind has begun their travel out to the stars and planets of the universe, complete with ridiculously corny spacesuits, totally unrealistic (and cheap-looking!) technology, a completely off-base vision of what Mars 'could be' like, scantily-clad hot warrior babes, and of course one hilariously annoying computer A.I. System, aka the perfect 1950s futuristic sci-fi/fantasy B-Movie adventure!

One of the main leads here is Captain Jackson, who is the shaved-headed son of Professor Jackson from the previous two movies, and in classic campy fashion he's played by the same actor. Josh Craig really gets to shine here as he finally gets to bring something new and different to the table then what he was able to as the overly-annoying Professor Jackson in the other movies. He gets to actually show off some decent acting chops and his portrayal of this character is so widely different (as is his visual look), that if it hadn't been for his very familiar voice, I wouldn't have even caught on that he was the same actor. Now, I know I dogged on his character from the other movies quite a bit in my review for those, but it was still nice to see that actual character again for an aged cameo here (now the Director-in-Charge of Earth's United Space Program – ha!), and it only added to help show the difference in how Josh Craig can easily slip into two totally different characters and make you believe that they're two different characters.

Also joining Captain Jackson in his space crew is only one man, Lieutenant Elliott, played by Mihmiverse newcomer Daniel Sjerven, but like Josh Craig, he has equal screen time (if not more) and he is also a magnificent actor for material such as this, complete with perfect comedic timing that reminded me, on more then one occasion, of B-Movie legend Bruce Campbell in his interactions with the primitive warrior tribeswomen that occupy Mars.

These two new characters are on a classified space mission to Mars, to be the first men to touchdown on the red planet and explore its surface. Again, this is not Mars as we actually know it to be now, but a potential Mars as it may have been envisioned by low budget sci-fi filmmakers of the 50s – which is to say that while some of the planet may be the barren red rocky wasteland we know it as in actuality, quite a lot of it is also covered in thick, dense, jungle and cold, clear lakes. In addition to that, occupying these jungles are some strange alien wildlife and, of course, the titled Cave Women on Mars, which are actually made up of two warring Amazonian tribes, one an evil brutal slave-driving race and the other a kinder, but still pretty violent and threatening race – in both the women are the dominating gender while men are looked down on as the weak members of the race, and even as outright slaves in some cases. Lieutenant Elliott is the first to come across these Tribes, switching hands from the more evil barbaric Tribe to being a prisoner of the opposite Tribe and being led across the dangerous lands to be brought before their High Priestess. Along the way they face a deadly territorial bear-like monster creature, attacks from two pursing hunters of the enemy tribe, a budding and forbidden love between Elliot and one of his captors, and a prophecy fulfilled that could rock the foundations of history for both planets, Earth and Mars alike.

Captain Jackson has a bit less interesting of a subplot as he merely tries to follow their trail and track his missing crew member down, hoping to eventually save him before anything too drastic happens to him. Ultimately he becomes almost an antagonist himself as, once he manages to catch up to everyone and finds that his subordinate has fallen in love with one of the primitive women and wishes to stay, he tries to force him to return to Earth with him, by almost any means necessary.

One of my main complaints of the two previous movies was that the runtime was a bit too long for the kind of project these movies are, especially since the average movie of that era was just barely an hour in most cases. I was thrilled to see that complaint addressed with this one, as it clocks in at an easy-to-sit through one hour and thirteen minutes, coming in at pretty much the perfect length for this kind of subject matter. There is one scene that goes on just a tad bit too long with tons of extra unneeded exposition, but that's only a very very minor quibble in an otherwise perfect movie. Plus seeing as how in the special features there's an alternate version of that scene that goes on for even longer with even more unneeded exposition, I'm rather happy with the version of the scene we got.

The special effects is another area where this movie surpasses the previous two. Yes, I realize bad special effects are part of the whole schtick here and trust me, they're still hilariously cheesy-bad, but considering what we got for the two other movies (a garbage pale on someone's head and a couple bulging eyeballs), what we got here was mind-blowing in comparison. From the rocket ship and spacesuits, to the matte painting/green-screened Martian surface, even to the cloth vs leather wardrobe of the Cave Women tribes and the large furry suit of the monster-bear thing - out of all three of the Mihmiverse movies I've seen so far, the effort that goes into these has never before been so on-display as it is with this entry (not to dog on the other two, of course, as the high level of effort came across in those as well).

As mentioned in my other two reviews, these self-produced DVD discs are stacked right up with tons of excellent bonus content, which is quite surprising seeing as how these are not only micro-budget, largely fan-funded titles, but the overall price for each DVD is so cheap that it blows my mind we get so much with them. For this title, we have two Blooper Reels (one of which is strictly line flubs and people cracking up in the middle of Takes, and the other encompasses everything else), the above-mentioned alternate version of one of the scenes in the movie (which I'm really happy with the decision made there), a featurette on the special effects of the movie, a Photo Gallery of tons of Behind-the-Scenes photos, a selection of various trailers for both this movie as well as other Mihmiverse titles, and of course the full length Audio Commentary by Christopher R. Mihm and lead actors Josh Craig and Daniel Sjerven. While this go-around is missing the usual introduction to the film by Horror Host Dr. Ivan Cryptosis (which I personally am fine without, but I know there are lots of people out there that love that sort of thing) you certainly still get a good amount of bang for your buck with this.

Before popping the disc in, I really didn't think I'd like this one as much, simply because when it comes to 1950s Drive-In B-Movies I'm much more a fan of the monster movies or the horror ones, and not so much the straight-up sci-fi space adventure kinds, but Cave Women on Mars turned out to not only be the most ambitious of the three Mihmiverse movies that I've seen so far but also, by far, my personal favorite in the series yet, making me even more excited now to check out the continuing adventures of Captain Jackson in a couple movies' time.

Seeing as how a lot of the advertising for this guy and his movies come from simple word of mouth from the fans, if you check any of these titles out and enjoy them then be sure to 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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It Came From Another World! (2007)

REVIEW BY: Jeffrey Long

Company: Saint Euphoria Pictures

Runtime: 93 mins

Format: DVD

Plot: When Professor Jackson's colleague and best friend, Dr. Frasier, doesn't return from a scientific expedition in the deep woods, the Professor is sent to find and retrieve him. While searching, the Professor and Canoe Cops Sven and Gustav stumble upon an enigmatic meteorite that may hold the answer to Dr. Frasier's disappearance — and something far more cataclysmic than they could ever imagine!

Review: I recently watched The Monster of Phantom Lake, the very first movie in the Mihmiverse – a series of micro-budget tongue-in-cheek movies made as parody homages to the classic 1950s era campy Drive-In B-Movies, where the creator Christopher R. Mihm makes a new one of every year. Even though each movie acts as kind of its own separate stand alone movie, there arerecurring characters that pop in and out of them occasionally, with small dialog references to previous movies once in a while, so it's because of that fact that I've decided to watch all of them in the order that they were released, although (from my understanding) that's not a Must and you are able to view them in any order you can manage to get your hands on them in. So the next movie up for me to watch and review in the Mihmiverse is It Came From Another World!

I already discussed at length in my review of The Monster of Phantom Lake just what kind of approach is taken with these movies and what kind of angle Christopher R. Mihm hopes to achieve, so if this is your first foray into that world then I suggest going and reading the first little bit of that review before reading this one, just to get a better understanding of what exactly these movies are trying to accomplish. This time, with It Came From Another World! we move away from the mutant lake monster genre of the first movie and right toward a more Global plight – alien invasion!

Rock And Roll-loving, pipe-smoking, Professor Jackson from The Monster of Phantom Lake returns here, searching for his friend and colleague, Dr. Frank Frasier, who has gone missing while investigating a crashed meteorite in the forest (the same forest as The Monster of Phantom Lake, I believe! Which being back in such a familiar location actually kind of had me longing for a sequel to that movie at some point down the road). Unfortunately his lovestruck student who he ended up in a romantic relationship with by the end of the previous movie is nowhere to be found here, and in her place we have another woman who Professor Jackson is actually set to marry, although it's implied that she's also a student of his so not sure why they didn't just go with the other character from the previous movie that we're already familiar with, since this one is essentially just a far less interesting carbon copy. Even if they couldn't get the actress back, they could have had a different person playing that character - after all, they have the same actors playing multiple characters from movie to movie, so having two actors playing the same character isn't that much of a stretch.

In addition to Professor Jackson, we also have the two hilarious and always-awesome cops return from the previous movie - ya know, the ones that prefer to paddle in a canoe to get around instead of using a squad car? With the excellent Abbott and Costello style chemistry with one another? That totally stole the show in the first movie despite only being in two scenes? Yeah, those fine fellas! Although no explanation is given as to how they survived their apparent deaths in the previous movie, especially since that one ended with the implication that one of them had mutated into a new algae monster, but hey – no complaints here! I love them so much, I'm just glad they're back! In this outing they team up with Professor Jackson to scour the remote woods for the missing Dr. Frasier and together they all end up finding the crashed meteorite as well as a strange-acting Dr. Frasier with some memory loss and, once back in the city and trying to readjust to normal life, occasional blackouts. It's not long after that, that they discover the truth – Dr. Fraiser has been taken over by an extraterrestrial entity that came to Earth in that meteorite and plans to first overtake Dr. Fraiser's body, and then the world! This of course means more screen time for the Canoe Cops then they had in the first movie, which is always a great thing in my books! The more of these two, the better! There's also a hilarious cameo by the surviving nerdy loner teen of the first movie, during one of the scenes of Dr. Fraiser's alien entity-induced blackouts.

While the first movie was already a pretty damn good parody of the campy 1950s Drive-In B-Movies, this one does so even more successfully, right from the in-your-face eye-catchy title all the way to some of the hilarious scenes that could have easily been lifted from any straight-faced movie of that era but done to comedic perfection here, such as when Dr. Frasier is writing in his journal when he witnesses the meteorite crash and insists on writing about it excitably before actually getting up to go investigate, or Professor Jackson's basement laboratory that I'm sure would have looked high-tech for the time but was purposely made to look cheap and bad here, complete with all the dials, nodes, cardboard, tinfoil, and antennas you would expect. Oh, and of course the deep-voiced, Joker-smiling, eye-bulging evil alter ego of Dr. Frasier when the alien entity is in command of his body – you seriously can't get any campier then that, even if you tried! Well, except for maybe the final climatic fight between Professor Jackson, with the help of the Canoe Cops, and Alien Warlord Dr. Fraiser, complete with some awesomely-placed famous Star Trek dialog at the end.

I also felt this movie improved on the first in the area of its runtime. Sure, it's still a tad bit too long for its own good (only a couple minutes shorter then the first and still longer then the average Drive-In B-Movie of the era), but unlike The Monster of Phantom Lake where the algae monster didn't even show up until an hour into it, with very little before that having anything to even do with it, this movie uses each and every scene to intelligently keep moving the main plot forward so there wasn't really any place for unneeded filler scenes that would just drag the movie down, and thus even though the movie is only a couple minutes shorter then the first, it feels like it goes by at a much quicker pace.

Where this movie didn't improve though, is with the character of Doctor Jackson himself and his very grating purposely-bad William Shatner impersonation. I get it was meant to be part of the joke, especially with his jerking head movements factored in, but it only came across as annoying and I was pretty much done with it before the first scene of him was over. Now, it was present in the first movie as well, but it wasn't done nearly to the level that it is here, making what was bearable and even kind of funny when done in moderation there, just annoying and headache-induing when cranked to the max this go-around. Also missing was his hilarious awkward chemistry with his female companion. As mentioned above, the presence of the main female character from Monster of Phantom Lake was greatly missed here, and having her replacement character just be bland and boring only added to the effect of her absence.

As mentioned in my review of the first movie, these self-produced DVD discs are stacked right up with tons of excellent bonus content, which is quite surprising seeing as how these are not only micro-budget, largely fan-funded titles, but the overall price for each DVD is so cheap that it blows my mind we get so much with them! This go-around we have the usual introduction to the film by Horror Host Dr. Ivan Cryptosis (which I personally could do without, but I know there are lots of people out there that love that sort of thing), two Blooper Reels (one of which is just about 15 minutes long and the other, while shorter, deals strictly with just all the issues they had with the props for the bulging eyeballs), two Deleted Scenes, a Photo Gallery of tons of Behind-the-Scenes photos, and of course the full length Audio Commentary by Christopher R. Mihm and lead actor Josh Craig. You certainly get a good amount of bang for your buck with this, although it would have also been nice to have the actor who played Dr. Fraiser on the commentary as well, only because he did such a phenomenal job in this movie with playing duel characters, it would have been great to have some of his input as well. That's of course in noway a detractor to the set though, just a personal wish is all.

There are a few personal quirks in this entry that annoyed me greatly, but the amount that it does right vastly outnumbers those, and it even manages to improve over the first movie in a couple key areas, making this the...logical...next step of evolution for the Mihmiverse movies. If they continue this trend, then the next movie, Cave Women of Mars, should totally blow me away and get a perfect score. Add to that even slightly more bonus features then The Monster of Phantom Lake had, and it's a pretty safe assumption to make that It Came From Another World! was a nice step up for me from the already-good package that was the first movie.

Seeing as how 99% of the advertising for this guy and his movies come from simple word of mouth from the fans, then be sure to 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 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! 

8/10 rooms in the Psych Ward

 

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The Monster of Phantom Lake (2006)

REVIEW BY: Jeffrey Long

Company: Saint Euphoria Pictures

Runtime: 97 mins

Format: DVD

Plot: Proud scientist Professor Jackson, his graduate student, and five swell teenagers out on a camping trip discover the terrifying effects of "Atomic Waste" in the form of a "shell-shocked" World War II soldier that has been horribly mutated into a lake-algae monster.

Review: I've seen many of my B-Movie reviewing peers talk about a micro-budget filmmaker in recent years named Christopher R. Mihm and his series of micro-budget B-movie films (one a year) dubbed the Mihmiverse movies, and I've seen all of them talk pretty damn highly of the guy and his work, so after awhile it became obvious that I was missing out by not having seen any, so I ordered all of them online and chose The Monster of Phantom Lake to review first, mainly because it's also Christopher R. Mihm's very first entry in his 'Mihmiverse' series of films.

Now, a movie like The Monster of Phantom Lake (or really, any movie in the Mihmiverse film line) isn't made to be aimed at the average Joe Schmoe movie watcher off the street. Movies like these are made to appeal to a very niche audience – it has a micro budget (less then $3000, I heard), filmed in black and white, and has no special effects to speak of, with just a super low-budget (intentionally!) crappy monster suit. In other words, The Monster of Phantom Lake is the perfect homage throw back for those who grew up with, or at the very least have love for, classic 1950s-era Drive-In B-Movie monster flicks. Hell, the way the characters dress, the way they talk and act, and even the background musical score – it all goes a long way to making this feel like an authentic campy 1950s B-Movie. The only 'detractor' to this illusion is the filming style itself, which is very modern and slick and looking almost like it was shot in HD – however, while that may take you out of the otherwise-authentic 1950s feel, I still personally loved it because, well, I love being able to get a good look at everything on the screen that I'm watching! I don't need fake 'added-in-post' film grain, screen scratches, and blips to be sold on this kind of gimmick. That was fine for the Grindhouse flicks, but it got annoying really quickly when every other low budget filmmaker tried to get in on that and just copied their style, so it's refreshing that this opted to not follow that trend.

Another trend I'm glad this one decided to buck instead of follow, is the extremely annoying one that micro-budget filmmakers feel the need to almost always follow – since their movie is made on a miniscule budget they try to make up for that by having buckets upon buckets of very cheap and brightly-colored blood and gore. Now, I love gore as much as the next horror hound, but a lot of these micro-budget projects go so far with it that it just makes the movie uncomfortable to watch. That was my one hesitation about checking this out, because that seemed to be the only experience I ever have with watching these kinds of micro-budget projects, but I'm happy to report that Christopher R. Mihm does not go that cheap route and, again, much like you would expect from an authentic 50s B-movie, the movie is quite tame and goreless.

As for the story, which you have probably gathered for yourself by now, it's quite a very basic, simple, and straight forward one. Atomic waste (and we know its as such because it says right on the side of the barrels!) gets illegally dumped in a small town's resident lake, which leads to the creation of a mutant algae monster that stalks the nearby forested area, which of course is also currently occupied by some camping teens as well as a working scientist and one of his university undergrad students.

This scientist is the Rock And Roll-loving Professor Jackson. His awkward chemistry and hilariously oblivious innuendos with his lovestruck female student that's accompanied him on this outing made for quite a few laugh-out-loud moments, and together they were the perfect character pairing. There was also a running gag of a couple small town cops using a canoe to get around as opposed to the usual squad car method, and while they may not have been main characters (they actually were only in two scenes, I believe), they still managed to steal the show every time they were on the screen. They also had great chemistry together, with one being the crude idiot and the other being the older, wiser, more polite persona...but not so polite that he would shy away from telling the other one when he was being an idiot. As for the group of camping teens, they consisted of the nice, normal, girl next door character, her friend the party-pooper loner nerd that was pretty much forced to go on this camping trip, a bitchier, slightly mean, girl, and two horndog guys who are the boyfriends of two of those women. Nothing to really write home about with these teens, but each of them had their own specific personality trait that they embodied pretty well, and they were all likable to some degree and fun to watch (one of them even had me a bit surprised and sad to see them go), but make no mistake – they were essentially all just here to create a body count for the movie...as camping party-loving teens normally are in movies like this.

As mentioned above, there's no blood or guts to be found in this movie, which while that made me quite relieved the one downside to that is that all the death scenes happen off-screen, which kind of make for some dull encounters with the monster. Hopefully in the future movies that I have yet to watch he somehow finds a balance between not showing gore but also still showing some on-screen death scenes as well.

My big issue though is that the runtime does go for a bit too long. Movies of this ilk back in the day used to run about an hour, slightly more in some cases, but this one is just shy of one hour and forty minutes, which is about half an hour too long for such a project. It causes large sections of the movie to drag quite a bit, and it probably could have benefited from a shorter runtime and tighter pace to be fully 100% effective. Hell, the paper mache/man-in-costume monster itself doesn't even show up to start stalking and terrorizing our characters until around the hour mark, with hardly even a mention of it being in the movie at all before that. Also, I know the bad over-acting was done deliberately and that's part of the joke of the movie, and while it didn't bother me the majority of the time, there were scenes and moments that seemed to hammer the joke home just a bit too much and it came across as unnecessary and annoying at points, like a joke that's initially funny as its being told...until the person telling it just keeps going on and on and on with it. It's also possible that it's just that some actors were a lot better at pulling that kind of tongue-in-cheek acting off while others were not, making their moments that much harder to sit through. Again, this could also have been an issue fixed by a tighter pace as it would have made said scenes shorter and thus not quite so grating.

I normally don't talk about DVD special features in my reviews, but I feel this needs to be a rare exception simply because for such a low-budget company (I believe they rely on donations and kickstarter campaigns to fund their movies), they offer quite a decent amount of bonus content for their fans – way more then the average big budget Hollywood theatrical movie does these days, that's for damn sure. We have an introduction to the movie by famous Horror Host Dr. Ivan Cryptosis which continues with the 1950s gimmick of the movie itself, one deleted scene that has Professor Jackson's student bonding with the nerdy loner teen over an embarrassing story that happened to her as a kid, two genuinely hilarious and fun 15-minute long blooper reels of the cast and crew screwing up and just goofing around on set that had me in stiches, and an in-depth informative audio commentary by Christopher R. Mihm and Josh Craig, the actor who portrayed Professor Jackson. Judging by what I've gleamed from looking at the back of each movie, this is the one movie in the catalog with the least amount of features, so be prepared for even more with some of those other titles.

At the end of the day, I do believe the movie could have benefited from a shorter runtime and tighter narrative, for if you're not accustomed to this style of movie then you may find yourself getting bored before anything significant really happens in it, in addition to getting worn out on some of the more annoying bits of over-acting. Despite those things though, The Monster of Phantom Lake was a pretty damn good throwback to the 1950s-era of low budget cheesy Drive-In flicks, and a great start to what seems to have become a long-lasting career of making other similar-themed movies for director/writer/producer/editor/everything else-er Christopher R. Mihm. Add to that the excellent array of features on the DVD, and you really can't go wrong with this if you're a fan of the era and genre that he's going for.

Seeing as how 99% of the advertising for this guy and his movies come from simple word of mouth from the fans, then be sure to 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 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!

7/10 rooms in the Psych Ward

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