Hot mic! The audio is pretty quiet. In the future I'll probably do pre-show work and have the clip isolated. I mean it's not like we wanted this particular clip very loud. 😅
Bluray Tuesday returns! First up this week is Tales From The Darkside: The Movie from Scream Factory, complete with a new scan and bonus material. Deep Blue Sea 3 hits shelves this week after previously being a Walmart exclusive release since July. Epic Picture Group releases Uncle Peckerhead which looks interesting. Rounding out the week is The Flash season six, The King of Staten Island and The Comic from Shout Factory. So what will you buy rent or dkip this weeek? Let us know in the comments. Until next week!
Tales From The Darkside: The Movie:Amazon - $27.99
Three chilling tales with a connecting story. In "Lot 249", a college
student is menaced by a mummy. "Cat From Hell" finds the millionaire
owner of the titular feline hiring a hitman to kill the pet. Finally, in
"Lover's Vow" an artist suffers severe retribution after taking a vow
of silence after witnessing the murder of a friend.
Dr. Emma Collins and her team are spending their third summer on the
island of Little Happy studying the effect of climate change on the
great white sharks who come to the nearby nursery every year to give
birth. Along with the last two inhabitants of this former fishing
village, their peaceful life is disrupted when a "scientific" team led
by her ex-boyfriend and marine biologist Richard show up looking for
three bull sharks who we soon learn aren't just any bull sharks.
The plot revolves around a series of murders taking place in a New
England home - a home which happens to be hiding a particularly gruesome
secret within its basement walls.
A blade-wielding psychopath is on the loose, turning The Big Apple bright red with the blood of
beautiful young women. As NYPD detectives follow the trail of butchery from the decks of the
Staten Island Ferry to the sex shows of Times Square, each brutal murder becomes a sadistic
taunt. In the city that never sleeps, he’s the killer that can’t be stopped!
Horror/thriller about a psychotic mechanic whose history of childhood
abuse at the hands of his mother leads to murderous rage against women.
When he ends up falling for one of his potential victims, the terrified
but resourceful woman manages to manipulate his amorous feelings so she
can escape.
A semi-autobiographical comedy-drama about Pete Davidson growing up in
Staten Island, including losing his father during 9/11 and entering the
world of stand up comedy.
After witnessing his mother's strange murder and his father's wrongful
conviction for the crime, Barry Allen becomes a brilliant but socially
awkward crime scene investigator for the Central City Police Department.
An advanced particle accelerator malfunctions during its public
unveiling, bathing the city center with a previously unknown form of
radiation. Awakening after a nine-month coma, Allen discovers he has the
ability to move at superhuman speeds and vows to use his gifts to
protect Central City from the escalating violence of “metahuman”
criminals.
In 1486, in Sicily, five nuns are crucified in their convent by the
superstitious locals that believe they are evil and worship devil. In
1990, in Toronto, the skeptical archaeologist Professor Paul Evans and
his superstitious colleague Liza Harris explore with their team the
medieval dig where the nuns were killed. Liza has dreadful nightmares
with the nuns while members of the expedition mysteriously die and the
locals are against the research in the archaeological site.
The spirit of a comatose teenage girl possesses the body of a newcomer
to her girls boarding school to enact bloody revenge against the
elitist, lingerie-clad coeds responsible for her condition.
Cecila is raped. She goes home and has sex with her husband. She
confesses to him that she had enjoyed the rape and it had aroused her to
have sex with him after a long period of marital detachment. Hence, she
embarks on different sexual encounters.
Hired to steal a rare painting from one of most enigmatic painters of
all time, an ambitious art dealer becomes consumed by his own greed and
insecurity as the operation spins out of control.
Charlie Steeds’ The Barge People is a strikingly confident movie. The film promises mutant, cannibal fishmen and delivers on that promise in the first five minutes. The Barge People doesn’t fuck around. It’s a campy, 80's inspired slasher where the killers are fishmen, no more, no less. It doesn’t try to be elevated, doesn’t try to do anything fancy, and doesn’t try to be clever. It’s refreshing and delightful.
I won’t beat around the bush, The Barge People was one of my most anticipated movies of 2020. I really like slashers, and I LOVE mutant fishmen. A trailer has been floating around since 2018, so I was delighted to learn it got distribution.
The film follows Kat (Kate Davies-Speak) and Mark (Mark McKirdy), who go on a weekend barge holiday with Kat’s sister and her insufferable fiance. As an ignorant American, I have no idea if barges like these are a thing, but it’s an awesome setting for a horror film, affording The Barge People the opportunity to have contained Evil Dead-esque set pieces, while also travelling between locations.
The film is anchored by an excellent performance by Kate Davies-Speak, who serves as an excellent final girl. Her performance is engaging, convincing, and badass. She even gets to own some of the films most badass kills. She plays well alongside Mark McKirdy, who works as her boyfriend/fiance, and plays the role convincingly.
Other performances are more mixed, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Matt Swales’ debut performance as Ben is patently ridiculous, but it totally works, and helps cement the film as an 80's throwback. As an obnoxious douche, you love to hate him, and his inevitable demise was extremely fun. Makenna Guyler also gives an excellent performance as Jade, an angry local who’s forced to fight alongside Kat in the film’s latter half.
As they make their journey, they run into a cadre of ornery locals, giving them foreboding warnings. While other folks they meet are picked off, unknown to them. A lot of this is, essentially, filler. I don’t mean that in a bad way, mind you, it’s almost a staple of slasher films. Tension with the locals rises, and eventually, the fishmen attack. The movie quickly becomes a The Hills Have Eyes style mutant massacre, and it’s a ton of fun.
The action is intense, if a little goofy. The titular barge people attack with weapons at times, but often shed them in favor of teeth. These blood-drenched mauling scenes are great, as are the retaliations, which are fantastically over-the-top.
Now, let’s talk about fishmen. There are plenty of directions you can go. Classically, you probably think of The Creature From the Black Lagoon style fishmen. These are definitely the most common, and you see them in everything from Humanoids from the Deep to The Shape of Water. These tend to be, for lack of a better term, rapey fishmen. This, of course, is reductive, but there’s plenty of commentary on Black Lagoon and Shape of Water already.
Instead, I’m here to dote on mutant fishmen. Fish creatures who once were men, and have been partially transformed. Yes, other examples may be mutated humans, but I think the amount of human that remains is what makes the difference. These creatures have fangs and gills, but don’t necessarily have scales and fins.. Stuart Gordon’s Dagon is probably the best example. Slimy half-human creatures people a spanish island village. It’s great. Of course, it’s an adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft’s “The Shadow Over Innsmouth,” which describes a town that’s interbred with traditional fishmen. Sergio Martino’s Island of the Fishmen (Screamers in the US) probably also counts.
Between 2017’s Cold Skin and The Barge People, there’s been a resurgence of this style of fishman, and I couldn't be happier. While fishmen that are, well, fishy, are great, nothing tickles me more than a more human creature. Without a doubt, The Barge People does them best. The film’s titular creatures, Razor, Blade, Nail, and (I think) Jackknife look amazing. Each has a different degree of mutation, from fish-forward, to melty, to rat-like. Their motivation is twofold: hunger and sadism, and they tell us outright. Yes, these fishmen can talk.
Ultimately, for fans of old-school slashers and awesome creature effects, The Barge People is an absolute blast. It delivers exactly what it promises in a delightful fashion. If anything I’ve mentioned sounds interesting, I'd highly recommend checking it out.
Earlier this month INFECTION hit YouTube and it's been rippling ever since.
Made on an iPhone8 while in quarantine, INFECTION combines the revealing nature of what we type but don't send - as in Unfriended - with the very necessary POV of a flashlight in the dark - much like Nightlight - and the two fit together effortlessly. It was written and directed by Michael Davis, who collaborated with Michael Lutz, the writer behind the original Creepypasta, and The NoSleep Podcast, who immerse you in their scary stories and keep you up all night.
This isn't Michael's first time working with the in-world camera/found footage genre - he was actually part of the very first year of the Unnamed Footage Festival with his film RECLUSE, which we were excited to screen.
After finding a video camera, a young man recites the events that lead him to be trapped in a room with a ferocious demon waiting just outside the door.
RECLUSE featured a single setting and was made for $250. It's a great example of how much you can accomplish, not with an endless budget, but with a good idea. Michael is one to watch, if you ask me.
So here it is in its entirety, INFECTION. Watch it, enjoy it, share it. And hopefully we'll get more in-world, mid-quarantine movies!
And if you're curious, here's the NoSleep Podcast episode where Smile Dog first appeared.
Thanks for checking out this week's brief show notes. I hope you enjoyed leveled up/6 cups caffeinated Antoine Le! The dude is talented and really knows his shit.
Fantasia is geo-locked and only selling tickets within Canada. Due to the loud mob demands of our audience, Oksana has been doxed/whipped for not locking this down prior to recording.
Bluray Tuesday creeps up on us once again! First up is Shudder exclusive 5 part docu-series, Cursed Films. This was an interesting inside look at five infamous films where weird and crazy things happened on and off set. Next up is another Shudder exclusive hitting Bluray, Prevenge. This one I really enjoyed and am looking forward to owning on Bluray. Anthology horror series The Terror season two hits shelves today subtitled Infamy. I've heard good things about this series and look forward to binging it soon. Rounding out the week is slasher film Open 24 Hours, Flash Gordon 4k from Arrow Video, and Batwoman season one. So what will you buy, rent or skip this week? Let us know in the comments. Until next week!
Cursed Films is a five part documentary series which explores the myths
and legends behind some of Hollywood's notoriously "cursed" horror film
productions.
Set during World War II, "The Terror: Infamy" centers on a series
of bizarre deaths that haunt a Japanese American community, and a young
man's journey to understand and combat the malevolent entity that is
responsible. Chester Nakayama and his friends and family from Terminal
Island, Calif., face persecution from the American
government, and they battle the evil spirit that threatens their future.
A look at the often overlooked time of Japanese American internment
camps and what it truly means to be an American. From 1942 to 1945, more
than 145,000 Japanese Americans and Japanese Canadians were forced from
their homes and into internment camps by their respective governments,
simply because of where they or their ancestors were born. Their story
is one of perseverance in the face of injustice.
Widow Ruth is seven months pregnant when, believing herself to be guided
by her unborn baby, she embarks on a homicidal rampage, dispatching
anyone who stands in her way.
After setting her serial killer boyfriend on fire. A paranoid delusional woman gets a job at an all-night gas station. -------------------------------------
Former special-forces soldier John Gold is given the opportunity to
bring Sean Teague - the man who betrayed his team on their final mission
in Eastern Europe several years ago - to justice. Gold would cheerfully
see Teague dead, but he is convinced to help transport him to a
military prison to pay for his crimes. Along the way, Gold will have to
fight off Teague's team who are attempting to extract him, as well as a
sniper seemingly hell-bent on killing Teague before he can be secured.
David Hart is a wealthy, spoiled Baltimore teen who is left in the care
of Jamaica-born domestic Clara Mayfield. His mother Leona and father
Bill vacation in the tropics after the death of their infant daughter,
and they bring Clara home with them. David first resents Clara but soon
finds comfort in her arms after his parents eventually separate. Dora is
Clara's old nemesis from Jamaica who urges the family to look into her
past.
A small team of U.S. soldiers battle against hundreds of Taliban fighters in Afghanistan.
-------------------------------------
--------------------
------
Frankenstein and The Monster From Hell: Amazon - $25.99
Last of the Hammer Frankenstein films, this one deals with the Baron
hiding out in an insane asylum, so that he may continue his experiments
with reanimating the dead, along with inmate Dr. Helder, who has been
institutionalized for conducting such experiments.
When energy waves pull the moon out of orbit, New York Jets quarterback
Flash Gordon unexpectedly finds himself heading for the planet Mongo,
where, with assistance from the beautiful Dale Arden and the noble
Prince Barin, he will face Emperor Ming the Merciless and rescue
humanity.
Ten years ago, Slade Wilson - aka the super-assassin called Deathstroke -
made a tragic mistake and his wife and son paid a terrible price. Now, a
decade later, Wilson's family is threatened once again by the murderous
Jackal and the terrorists of H.I.V.E. Can Deathstroke atone for the
sins of the past - or will his family pay the ultimate price?
Kate Kane, armed with a passion for social justice and a flair for
speaking her mind, soars onto the streets of Gotham as Batwoman, an out
lesbian and highly trained street fighter primed to snuff out the
failing city's criminal resurgence. But don't call her a hero yet. In a
city desperate for a savior, Kate must overcome her own demons before
embracing the call to be Gotham's symbol of hope.
