Doctor Phibes Rises Again

Title - Doctor Phibes Rises Again
Language - English
Genre - Horror, Slasher

















This is the sequel to ‘The abominable doctor Phibes’ which I've reviewed here and this review may contain some spoilers.
The film starts with a with a flashback to the first film and a voice over tells us that Doctor Phibes had joined his wife but that he was only in a death like state, waiting until the right time to carry out the next part of his plan.  Three years after the end of the first film the sun hits Doctor Phibes’ coffin in the right place and the embalming fluid that Phibes had used is replaced with his blood.
Doctor Phibes awakens and summons his companion, Vulnavia and the couple use the organ lift to go back to his house to get a papyrus out of the vault only to find the house has been demolished and the vault is empty.  Doctor Phibes tracks down the papyrus  which is a map to a tomb in Egypt and he steals it back from Beiderbecke, an archeologist who is also trying to find the tomb.
The Egyptian tomb contains the entrance to the river of life which flows once every 2000 years.  Doctor Phibes plans to go there with Vulnavia and his dead wife to resurrect her and grant them all eternal life.  Beiderbecke has been sustaining his life via a mystical elixir and wants to use the river to grant himself eternal life and end his need for the elixir.
Both Phibes and Beiderbecke race against time and each other to unlock the secrets of the tomb and to be the one who gains use of the river.

I think i mentioned in the review for the first film that  Doctor Phibes is an early example of a modern slasher and the second film carries this on.  The sequel delves into the supernatural more than the first, in the abominable Doctor Phibes, Phibes is a living man who, like Michael Myers or Pamela Voohrees is killing a set of people for his own reasons without any supernatural aid  but when we come to the second film we have a more supernatural flavor leading to our slasher becoming unkillable, if he succeeds.  I also mentioned in the first review that some of Doctor Phibes’ traps and kills   could almost have been inspiration for movies such as the saw franchises the kill’s that springs to mind in this film are

1) the one involving the golden scorpion chair, where the victim is placed in a situation where he has to put himself in danger (or wait until someone finds him) to get out of the trap

2) the final trap where Beiderbecke has has to choose between his goal or his wife.

There are a couple of issues with the flow form the first film to the second.  The voice over at the beginning of the second film says that the police uncovered clues to where Doctor Phibes was hiding and that they caught him unprepared which is why he went into the tomb at the end, this is not true Phibes told them where he was so that the doctor could find his son and try to rescue him, the fact that Phibes went into the tomb with his wife was part of is plan all along making it the 10th death and the representation of the curse of darkness.  The second issue is that at the beginning of ‘Doctor Phibes rises again’ Phibes summons Vulnavia who appears, almost ghost like to aid him but at the end of the first film we see her hit and melted by the acid.  From what I have read  I believe that Vulnavia’s odd resurrection is due to the character originally being written as one of the clockwork toys that Phibes has created this was latter written out of the first film but, if it were still the case then this would explain why she appears in the second film un-injured, she is just a different model.  This is also the reason why the character doesn't speak, the clockwork version would not be able to.

Doctor Phibes Rises Again has a good British cast and has the same type of humor as it’s predecessor, the deaths are interesting and, although not as gruesome as you may expect in a modern movie they still make the film a good slasher. There seems to be more story to the second film as Phibes is not just killing for revenge but to get back what has been stolen from him and to keep his presence secret.

If you like imaginative deaths and a few giggles I recommend both of the Doctor Phibes films and think that is a pity that there were no more made.

The Abominable Doctor Phibes

Title - The Abominable Doctor Phibes
Language - English
Genre - Horror, comedy, slasher

The Abominable doctor Phibes is the first of two Doctor Phibes films starting Vincent Price as the titular doctor.  As we start the film we see figure in a cloak and a woman as they deliver a parcel through a skylight into the room of a sleeping man.  Neither of the speak to each other whilst this is going on and the cloaked man pulls the parcel back out of the room we see that it is a cage with the door open.  The sleeping man wakes up and sees something moving in his room and a number of bats fly at him ripping his face open.

When the police investigate the dead man we find out that he was a doctor and is the second to die an unusual death, the first was stung to death by bees, his face was covered in boils.

The cloaked man and his companion, Vulnvia are then at a masquerade ball where they hand a man (another doctor) an ornate frog mask which constricts, crushing the man’s head.

The man & Vulnvia are next seen at the house of a fourth doctor who they drain all of the blood from his body, whist he is there the man accidently drops an amulet which the police use to get a clue to what is going on.

The only link the police find between the dead doctors is that they all worked one case, the wife of doctor Phibes who died on the operating table.  The amulet that doctor Phibes dropped was one of a set of ten, each representing one of the 10 plagues of Egypt and there were 9 doctors who worked on the operation.  All clues point to the murderer being Doctor Phibes except he died in a car crash the same night as his wife.

The Abominable Doctor Phibes is an early example of a slasher movie with the killer targeting the surgeons who he blames for the death of his wife and his gimmick way using the 10 biblical Egyptian plagues to kill each of the doctors making each kill more inventive than the last.  I can’t help but wonder if the ‘cures of the first born’ influenced the ‘saw’ films in any way, it’s defiantly as twisted.

The film is very ‘British’ set in London in the 1920s it has a cast of well known British actors of the time and has a dark humour to it using similar gags as can be found in some of the carry on or St Trinnians movies such as calling Inspector Trout by different fish.

Part of the horror atmosphere is helped by neither of the leads saying much.  Vulnvia is a mute and one of the injuries Doctor Phibes suffered from during the car crash was damage to his throat meaning that he can only speak when attached a device similar to a gramophone speaker.

If you like inventive kills, a few giggles and over the top acting then give The abominable Doctor Phibes a watch.

Dark Floors – the Lordi movie

 Title -Dark Floors – the Lordi movie
Language - English
Genre - Horror, monster

For those of you who don’t know Lordi is a Finnish hard rock band made up of 5 members, all of whom dress as a different monster.  They also won the Eurovision song contest  The bands line up in dark Floors is:

Mr Lordi

Kita

Amen

Ox

Awa

Dark floors is not a lordi documentary it is a horror film with the band staring as the monsters.

Due to malfunctioning equipment and no progress in treating her, Ben decides to take his daughter out of the hospital she is in; they enter a lift with a few other people and star on their way out of the hospital.  The lift stops between the 7^th and 6^th floor and then drops down the 6^th.  Everyone leaves the lift to find the hospital deserted, assuming that they have somehow missed a fire alarm the party heads to the service stairs, along the way they come across a corps with its eyes ripped out.

As the group move through the hospital they find that the conditions one each floor is worse than the previous floor and they soon find out what has happened to the rest of the staff and patience’s.

Dark floors is an atmospheric film relying more on the mood of the film than the monsters.  There is an appearance of each of the band members (one on each of the hospital floors) but very little explanation as to why they are there.  The film is quite cleaver, it plays with time and leaves you guessing as to what is happening, even without the monsters there is enough happening to make the film enjoyable.

As i said each of the band members makes an appearance,  I feel that it is good that they are all not on screen at the same time as too many monsters at once probably would have made the film feel over crowded, as it is it does seem to have a slight affect on the film as I think it would feel a bit better if it had only one antagonist. Obviously reason there are all the monsters is so that the band can all have some screen time and having one per floor does seem to work ok.

The feel of ‘Dark Floors’ is a bit odd, it has the creepy atmosphere of a horror film  and the feel of something like the Silent hill films, possibly because the nature of the film is similar.  In some places the film feels like a computer game with each floor a new level and each band member a final boss and there is also a feel that it may be a long music video (without the music) although this may influenced by the Lordi videos I had already seen as there are elements carried across from the music to the film, obviously because the bans image is such a prominent one.

Without giving too much away I’m still not completely sure what to make of the ending i think that i may be representing Sarah over coming fear.

There is also a plot thread that doesn’t seem to go anywhere and that is the drug that they have Sarah on, it sometimes looks like it is going to have something to with what is happening but, apart from providing a small bit of motivation for the cast to get move through the floors it doesn’t seem to have much point as the heroes are trying to get out of the hospital anyway.

Dark Floors is a good film, the inclusions of all the band members does not interfere with the flow of the film too much and it does have a good story and is worth a watch.

20th century boy’s pt 3 – our flag

Title - 20^th century boy’s pt 3 – our flag
Language - Japanese
Genre - Sci-fi












 As this is the 3^rd part of the trilogy there may be some spoilers for the first two films the reviews for which are here Part 1 and here Part 2

Part 3 is set in 2017, 2 years after the events in part 2.  Friend has built a wall around Tokyo and has total control of the city.  There are no radios allowed and the only television shows have to be approved by Friend.  At the start of the film we see Otcho (shogun) and his companion scaling the walls to get into Tokyo.  As they get over Otcho is surprised to see that the city has been rebuilt to look the same as it did in the 1970’s but he doesn’t have much time to look around as an alarm goes and the ‘Global defence force’ who are now policing Tokyo come looking for them.  Otcho and his companion separate and Otcho ends up taking refuge in a wheel barrow that is being pushed by two children.  After accompanying the children Otcho learns a number of facts:

1)      Friend is rounding up and killing anyone who disagrees with him.

2)      There a final part of the new book of prophesies which stated that, on August 30^th 2017 there will be an alien invasion which will lead to a 3^rd plague being spread around the world.

3)      Yoshitsune is leading an underground faction to stop Friend

4)      Kanna is calling herself the ‘Ice Queen’ and is leading a second faction that is planning a violent revolt on the 30^th August

5)      There is a chance that Kenji is still alive

Otcho also begins to suspect that Yoshitsune is Friend and his rebellion is a ruse, this comes from the second film where Friend has the badge that was stolen when they were children.  It is suspected that the child who stole the badge is now Friend.  Otcho goes out to find Kanna and worn her that Yoshitsune is looking for her to make an alliance, which Otcho thinks is another ruse so Friend can track her down.

Whilst this is going on Kiriko (Kanna’s mother) is working on a vaccine for the new plague, as she helped to create the original plague that was released at midnight new years eve 1999 hand helped to find the cure for the second one that was released at the end of the second film she believes that she can inoculate people from the third one.

When Otcho finds Kanna he tries to convince her that Kenji may still be alive and that the violent rebellion she has planed will not work.  He finally manages to prove that Kenji is alive when he finds a radio and play her a new song that Kenji is singing, as neither of them have ever hear the song before it stands to reason that it was written after the events of the first film meaning that Kenji could not have been killed when the Robot exploded.

Later Kanna confronts her mother to find out who her farther is, Kiriko confirms that it is Friend but she is uncertain of who he is as the name he used when they were together was fake.

Kanna is arrested for being a terrorist and taken to Friend who attempts to recruit her to his side.  Kanna refuses to join him and Friend lets her go giving her a clue how to survive the next plague.

Kanna changes her plan from the planed revolution to trying to get as many people to the site of the 2015 expo that Friend created in the second film as it is a place of importance to Friend and she believes that he will not spray the area with the plague.  To get the people to the expo site Kanna sets up a concert promising that the singer of the mysterious song that is playing on the radio will be there.  The song is the new one for Kenji.

As Kanna is setting up the concert Kenji approaches the wall of Tokyo.  After getting through the gates he meets a man who used to work with Friend and who helped Friend form his mystique.

As every one gathers a Kanna’s concert Friend launches his UFO’s to spread the new plague and a robot equipped with a neutron bomb.  Kenji and Otcho race to stop them from destroying the city and then the world.

The third part of 20^th century boys brings the trilogy to a nice conclusion, all the characters are reunited and most of the events of the first two films are reviled.  We learn how   Friend built up his cult and gained his power, we learn how he resurrected and, of course we learn that his true identity is…. Well of course I’m not going to give that part away but Friends identity becomes secondary anyway the films are more about why and how Friend was created and what can happen when some one becomes so lonely that they begin to hate humanity and, of course the films are about the power of Rock music.

The films are tight and there are very few loose ends, the only two things that don’t seem to be explained fully are both from part two and they are the esp, does Kanna and Friend have any powers or not.  It is hinted that the spoon bending is another trick of Friend’s but it is not fully clarified.  It is also not totally clear if the Virtual reality time travel used in the ‘Bonus round’ actually affects the present or if it just changes the program.  If the times travel affects the present then it could argued that time had been changed and events of the three films never happened.

The last part of the third film was a good way of explaining some of the finer points.  After the concert has finished Kanna takes Kenji to the remains of Friend land and he uses the Bonus round technology to go back and set things right, as I said we don’t know if the events that happen in Bonus round affect reality but if they did it would change things so that Friend never took over.

The look of the third film keeps in line with the other films; the future technology still has a retro 70’s feeling to it.  The uniforms of the global defense force are reminiscent of the original series of V and the UFO’s are you standard low budget ‘hubcap’ flying saucers.  The mystery of the identity of Friend began to remind me of the hunt for ‘Number one’ in the original series of ‘The Prisoner’

Over all 20^th century boys part 3 is a good ending to a great series and is well worth a watch although I would make sure you plenty of time as the whole series runs at around 7 and half hours. 

20th century boys part 2: The last hope

Title - 20^th century boys part 2: The last hope
Language - Japanese
Genre - Sci- fi, conspiracy

I reviewed the first part of this trilogy a while ago (the review can be found here) and finally decided to watch the next part.  As the films carry on from each other there will be spoilers for part one in this review.

Part two is set 15 years after part one, Kenji and his friends failed to stop the giant robot from spreading the virus and in the aftermath Friend, the cult leader form the first film has risen up to be the new ruler of Japan.  History tells us that Kenji was the person responsible for the robot and virus and he is missing, presumed dead.  The rest of Kenji’s gang are in hiding except for Shogun who is still in Friends prison where he is only known as Number 3.

In the fifteen years since the end of the first film Japan has become slightly futuristic looking city, there are blimps in the air, giant monitors on the sides of buildings and loud speakers in the street all of which are used for advertising and spreading propaganda about how good Friend is.  The scenery is like a more realist, less futuristic blade runner with out the hover cars.  Most of the population seem happy but at the beginning of the film we see that there is a lot of violence as the Chinese mafia is at war with the Thai mafia in the back streets.

The film starts with the sides of the mafia fighting in a number of back streets.  The gunshots are heard in a nearby café.  When one of café regulars mentions where the fighting is happening the waitress runs out into the middle of the gun fight and forces both sides to stop.  We discover that the waitress is Kanna the baby from the first film and she knows the truth about her Uncle Kenji but know one will believe her.

A body is found during the aftermath of the mafia fight which is first assumed to be a victim for the violence but it turns out that is was an assassination by a corrupt police man. 

The customer who first told Kanna where the fighting was taking place than asks her for help, she has a friend who knows why the man was killed and they need Kanna’s help to protect her as it has information on Friend and what he is planning next.  The information leads Kanna to ‘Friend land’ a summer camp used to brain wash people into supporting Friend.  The murdered man was in Friend land and took part in something known as the bonus round.  Kanna decides to get into friend land to see if she can find out what is happening.

At the same time as this is all going on Shogun and a manga artist who has been imprisoned for righting the wrong type of manga make their escape from the prison and meet up with one of the other heroes from the first film.

Kanna and one of her classmates enrol on a stay in Friend land and they meet up with Kanna’s uncle Yoshitsune, one of the heroes from the first film who tells them that only the best students get to go into the Bonus round, but warn against it as it is dangerous.  Kanna ignores the warnings and pass the tests to get into the bonus round, along with her classmate.

The Bonus round uses virtual reality to take two girls back in time to when her uncle and his friends first wrote the book of prophecies, specifically to when ‘Donkey’, the group member who’s death set the current events in motion went into the school and saw the ghost.  Kanna sees two other boys one of whom has hanged himself and the other who is watching him.  The second by has a copy of the new book of prophecies and the first boy comes back to life.  Whilst this is going on Friend enters the room to speak to Kanna and to tell her who her farther is.  While Kanna is talking to the adult Friend her classmate is on the roof looking for the child version of Friend to try to find out who he actually is, she approaches a masked child who takes his mask off.

Yoshitsune pulls the plug on the computer that runs the bonus round and Kanna sets off find out about the new book of Prophecies.

Shogun is now on the trail of Friend during his investigations he is approached by an old lady who recognises him as one of Kenji’s friends and she hands him a copy of the new book of Prophecies.  The book was written but the children Kanna saw in the past and, reading through the book Shogun realises that they are approaching the final chapter in it where Friend is made into a god and the human race is ended.   Shogun, Kanna and Yoshitsune are now in a race against time to work out what the final prophecy means and how they can stop it.

20^th century boys’ part 2 is long which i find unusual for a middle film; it picks up well form the first part and is still as good.  The film keeps things as real as possible but still has a slight feel as being what an anime would be like if it came true. 

The future of 2015 manages to carry the feeling of what a child may imagine which is as it should be being as it is meant to be based on the books of prophecy.

The film also manages to keep the identity of Friend a secret, just when you think you know who it is the plot takes a turn to remove that character as a red herring.

There are a couple things in the film that you are never sure if they are real, there is a bit about Kanna having esp but, like the ray gun and the robot in the first film you can’t tell if it is real or just part of the fantasy set in motion by Friend recreating the books of prophecy.

I enjoyed the second part of 20^th Century Boys and regret not watching it sooner and I’ll be watching part 3 for next weeks blog.   

Chanbara Striptease

Title -

Chanbara Striptease

Language - Japanese

genre -  chanbara, Ninja, time travel BooBs

I came across this film whilst looking for the second Chanbara Beauty film. A lot of sites recommended it or seemed to put it as a third film in the series.  I think it is just because it has a similar title and is stylistically similar but Chanbara Striptease has no connection to the Bikini Zombie Hunter games.  In fact it doesn’t even have zombies in it, it does have Ninjas and boobs.

 Chanbara Striptease starts with Lili, the youngest member of her family as she is about to receive the secrets of ‘Sayama Hashinryu’ a secret way of fighting that is past down to one woman of each generation.  It is a fighting style so dangerous that no one who has ever come across it has lived to tell the tale.

Lili’s grandmother starts the ceremony by checking if Lili is sure she wants the burden of Sayama Hashinryu.  Lili agrees to the burden and is presented with a sword and a box containing the sacred nightgown, which she is told not to open unless she is in dire danger.  Lili is then blindfolded and told to drink a strange potion. 

When Lili takes the blindfold off she finds that she is in a forest and completely naked, next to her is the box with the nightgown and the sword.  Lili goes of to put the nightgown on and emerges just in time to see a young woman being attacked by three ninjas.  Using the skills of the Sayama Hashinryu Lili defeats the ninjas, killing one of them and helps the woman back to her village.  Lili finds out that the Ninjas are lead by Lady Okinu and are demanding protection money from them; she also finds out that she has gone back in time around 300 years, to the period that the Sayama Hashinryu was first used.

Whilst in the village Lili falls in love with a man named Hikochi and vows to protect the village but, in her first fight Lady Okinu uses the Sayama Hashinryu and Lili starts to fade away as she is about to kill her. This makes Lili think that Lady Okinu is the first user of the Sayama Hashinryu and if she kills her then the future will be changed and Lili will not exist.

Whilst deciding what next Lady Okinu goes to the villagers and tells them she will stop the demands for money if they hand over Lili, this leaves Lili little option but continue the fight.

So the plot to Chanbara Striptease is half decent until you realise that to charge up the Sayama Hashinryu Lili (and lady Okinu) have to take off there tops, this some how frees purple energy that comes from their breasts and makes them almost unstoppable.  There is also a hint that having sex before a fight may increases the strength of the attacks but it may have just been that sex feels good.  Needless to say there is a lot of fighting and a small amount of sex.

I did enjoy the film but it was pretty terrible, Lili was not trained in any way in how to use the Sayama Hashinryu, she just appears in the past and knows to ‘drop her top’ when she is attacked.  The affects are not great but are about the same quality as the ‘Chambara Beauty’ films but with added sound effects when the breasts start swinging, again this happens a lot.

Then there are the ninjas, now these are, surprisingly all male, I would have thought that in a film that is set up to get breast on the screen at least some of the ninjas would be female but they are your normal run of the mill, black clad Ninjas.  That is except for two of them and these are almost set up as ‘mid level boss’s’ but with no explanation for why they are different.  One looks like a budget Ryuk for death note.

                                                    The middle ninja

                                                                   Ryuk from Death note

The other has his head covered with bandages.  The latter of the two seems to just disappear after his fight and not in a cool ninja puff of smoke it’s just like they’d finished with him so he was no longer included.

This brings us to the time travel, in part this is covered quite well, in a film where bear breast can enhance fighting prowess I can believe that a potion can send you back in time.  The film seems like it is going to try to tackle paradox theory but then that just seems to fizzle out.  We don’t find out why Lady Okinu know the Sayama Hashinryu and, with out spoiling too much we don’t actually find out how the person who does start the school of Sayama Hashinryu actually leans it or passes in on to anyone.

Then there is the final battle.  It seems that those who possess the Sayama Hashinryu are protected by breasts that cannot be harmed by swords and the fighting style possesses some interesting moves.  I can cope with holding your sword between your breasts, it would be, I imagine an odd weight but your power is in your breasts so I guess it’s ok but can anyone explain how you would fire the sword from between said bosoms.    

So, is Chanbara Striptease a bad film? Yes it’s an obvious attempt to put as breast on the screen as possible and, in some places the acting is flatter then the cast but, it’s a good sort of bad.  There is an attempt of a story.  There is some thought gone into the time travel aspect, there are sword fights and Ninjas and, for those of us with no pretence of culture there are always BOOBS.

I am almost expecting some one to bring out an anime of this possibly along the lines of Samurai Princess.

Chanbara Beauty Vortex

Title -

Chanbara Beauty Vortex

Language - Japanese

genre - Zombie, chanbara













 

This is the second film based on the Oneechanbara/bikini zombie hunter games (I’ve reviewed the first film here) but it’s not a sequel in as much as it doesn’t carry on from the first film.  I’m sure if it could be classed as a reboot either as it is based on one of the later games and so the story comes from that and not the early game the first film follows.

Chanbara Beauty Vortex is (loosely) based on the Oneechanbara: Bikini samurai Squad game released for the Xbox 360, which happens to be the only one I’ve played.  The film is set 20 years after the accidental release of the zombies by the organization who are trying to find a way of making themselves immortal.  This time around Aya and Saki are allies and are trying to stop the zombies.  Both of the sisters have Imchi blood, which means that if they get too much blood on them they will go into a berserk like rage.  A woman called Misery meets them and tells them that Himiko, the leader of the Organization wants to use Saki’s blood to finish off the immortality formula; she also manages to convince Saki that she would be able to resurrect her parents but they will also need the blood for another girl. Saki goes along with Misery’s plan and the trick Aya into helping them capture Kei who lives in a camp with other children and is protected by Reiko & Ryo.  Saki and Misery get away with Kei and Aya and Ryo go after them, Reiko is injured and stays behind to look after the rest of the children in the camp.  The rest of the film is taken up by Aya and Ryo’s journey to find Saki and Saki discovering that Misery is not all that she seems.  The film ends with Aya and Ryo catching up with Misery and fighting her for Kei.

As I’ve said Chanbara Beauty Vortex is loosely based up on the Oneechanbara: Bikini samurai squad game for the Xbox 360 and even starts with a shower scene in the same way the game does.  It has the main characters form the game but Reiko’s part in the film is much shorter than in the game and the character of Himiko is different.  The final battle with Misery see’s her using her long spiked sword and the stronger zombies look like men in black rejects.  I was a bit disappointed by the absence of the killer whale zombie; it could have been an amusing addition to the film.

I think that Vortex is the better of the two films.  The Film seems to flow better, there is more time spent on the journey whereas the first film jumps from scene to scene.  Vortex does not seem to use special effects in quite the same way either; there seems to be less use of any magic or any kind of energy blast that the first film had, concentrating more on the rage that the Imchi blood causes.  There are still the blood splats on the camera but as these are part of the game they do fit.

The zombies and the fight scenes also seem a bit better although there are odd bits of continuity that don’t seem to make sense, for example in one of the first fights Aya cuts a zombie in half and the legs and the head remain in motion until she puts he sword through its head but in all other scenes once a zombie has been ‘killed’ it disintegrates even if it’s not killed with a ‘head shot’.  There is also a scene where Aya is fighting with some of the more advanced zombies we see her lose both swords and she gets one for Ryo but after the fight all the swords are back with their rightful owners..

Over all Chanbara Beauty vortex is an entertaining film that doesn’t need much brain power to follow.