Son of Ingagi - 1940

After watching Black Friday, Mom and I decided we should keep checking out those old horror movies we'd never heard of. It might be a decision we end up regretting...next up on the list was Son of Ingagi.

A woman is attending a wedding and then goes home and lets a monster out of her basement. Actually, it looks like a tall dude in a ski mask, but we'll gloss over that for now. She's perfected the most wonderful invention known to mankind (we never find out what that is), but then she leaves it downstairs with N'Gina. He immediately drinks the whole thing and goes berserk, killing the doctor.

The newlywed couple are suspected of the murder of the doctor, but I guess that gets sorted out, because they're just living there now. N'Gina is still hanging out in the basement and makes food disappear. The lawyer comes by and ends up dead when he plays with the gong that summons the beast. The husband is suspected again, and a detective is posted at the house to keep an eye on things. In the end, the house burns down, the beast dies, and the detective pops out of a bush with bags of gold.

It sounds like this would be a fun hour, but it isn't. The newly married couple are ambushed at their house on their wedding night by all their friends and have to listen to The Toppers for hours. The monster was just strange, and the detective was supposed to be funny, but that made the tone of the film confusing. Was it supposed to be funny or scary? And who the heck is Ingagi? I mean, if the doctor just found him in the jungles of Africa, how did she know his dad's name?

John Wayne "triple feature" - Rio Bravo (1959), The Sons of Katie Elder (1965) & Donovan's Reef (1963)

The past couple of days can bring back some bad memories. To counteract the passing of my dad, I watch John Wayne movies. Growing up, even after I was out of the house, it was a good bet if there was a John Wayne movie on TV, it was on his TV. This year, I put on two new ones and an old favorite.

First up was Rio Bravo. John Wayne plays a Sheriff who is holding a criminal in the jail. He is part of a wealthy family and normally gets away with everything. This time, though, he's under strict guard of a trigger-happy old coot and a smart man. I liked this one for the most part, but it had the one thing I hate in certain John Wayne movies. A shoehorned woman. There was a woman in this, and there was zero reason for her to be there. The only thing she did was break a window, and Carlos (the hotel owner) could've done that. It's okay, but definitely not a favorite.

Next up was The Sons of Katie Elder. I'd heard Dad talk about this one a few times. And this one was much better than the other one. Wayne is a gunfighter trying to stay out of trouble. He's just trying to come back home for his mother's funeral. Unfortunately, trouble has followed him. A man named Hastings is wanting to take over the town and has already taken over the Elder's old home. He's determined to hang on to what he's got. No matter what. Big shoutout to the music during the funeral. It really struck me. Good Movie!

Finally, an old classic. Donovan's Reef is one of my favorites. It makes me laugh and has one of our inside family jokes in it. My dad used to greet me on the phone with "Daughter! D-O-T-T-E-R!" In this movie, John Wayne plays an old Navy man who is running a saloon on a South Pacific island. When his friend's stuffy daughter from Boston shows up, he's part of the plot to make sure she's not out to cause trouble for him. One of the best John Wayne movies for sure. Great Movie!

Sky Sharks - 2020

While the boyfriend was scrolling through the shark movies for his pick (see Shark Huntress), this movie caught my eye. The preview that played on the screen was hilarious. Flying sharks ridden by Nazi zombies?! What the heck?!

So, I guess some researchers found this ship, which awakened these beasts. They take down a passenger plane for no real reason (and they take an unnecessary long time to do that), so the skies are no longer safe.

I have so many regrets for picking this movie. The nudity and sex was unnecessary, and the gore was way too much for our group. Yes, I know it was a horror movie. If it was just the gore, maybe I could've dealt with it.

One thing I'll say is that at least there were sharks. I loved the sharks and their little landing pads in the ship. And those parts of the movie looked surprisingly good. I will give the movie a lot of credit for that. Unfortunately, the story was a mess. Why were the zombies attacking passenger planes? Who was telling them the planes were in the air? Who's the one behind the scenes pulling the strings? And why couldn't they just give the one lady the antidote if they knew she was already infected!?

The ending of this was super weird. When we saw the credits were so long, my daughter fast-forwarded and found the end credit scene. And that just raised more questions. Was I supposed to know who that lady was? Was she trying to give a rousing speech to an army of zombies? Is she trying to create a new Reich for herself and her assistant? I'm sorry to my group of watchers. It was a bad pick.

Shark Huntress - 2021

We let my daughter's boyfriend pick the movie, so the pressure was on. I'm not sure why he gravitated toward the shark movies, but he spent a lot of time in the category.

A woman's mother goes missing, and she heads off to search for her. Her mother was an environmental activist who was researching an alternative to plastic. The mother's crew comes together to join the search. We have Guru the conspiracy guy, the British dude, another guy and the social media chick.

There's a considerable lack of shark in this movie. Honestly, the amount of people killed by the shark is equal to the number of people killed by the guy who wanted to sell the super seaweed recipe. I'm still kinda hazy on the plastic people. I thought they were part of Guru's conspiracies, but then the group blamed Guru's death on them, so I guess they were real after all?

This movie was pretty boring. Some of the dialogue was hilarious, but nothing happened. We didn't see the shark, and they never defeated it. The "huntress" tried to kill the shark once (and that's a generous evaluation of what she was doing), and she missed anyway.

My daughter's boyfriend apologized. But we've all been there. Picking movies blind is a crap shoot, and it seems like half the time we lose. No apology necessary! :D  (But the movie was really bad...)

 

Kamen Rider - 1971 TV series

Mom and I started watching this a while back. We haven't missed an episode, and it's been an addiction for us. I've also gotten my kids to watch multiple episodes. They've enjoyed seeing Hongo and Ichimonji take on Shocker and keep the world safe.

The show revolves around Kamen Rider, a cyborg, taking on the evil organization called Shocker. He has good friends helping him along the way. My favorite was Tachibana, and my daughter really liked Taki, the FBI agent. Shocker is made up of former Nazis, which becomes obvious really early on. They create monsters to try and take over Japan, and then...THE WORLD!

I loved this show. There was maybe one episode I didn't like and that was only because they drove around for most of it. I loved the way Kamen Rider transformed. By the way, there are two Kamen Riders. One comes in from South America for a while. He has a pretty epic transformation, but Hongo was definitely the favorite around here.

Shoutout to the Ees. These little minions were inexhaustible. I preferred the OG black outfits versus the purple Gel-Shocker ones, but they seemed more acrobatic in the purple ones, so it's a bit of a wash. We call them Ees because that's the noise they make most of the time. Every once in a while, they'd actually talk, and then we were disappointed.

The generals were interesting, but my favorite had to be Dr. Death. Sometimes he was getting wheeled around and other times he was spry and walking about. His hair seemed to have a mind of its own. He just cracked me up.

I could go on and on about this show. It was amazing, and I loved it. There were 98 episodes. The actor for Kamen Rider #1, Hiroshi Fukioka, actually sang the theme song for the first 13 episodes. I thought that was great, and it's still my favorite version of the theme. If you love campy, sometimes ridiculous superhero action, maybe look this up. Great Show!

Black Friday - 1940

We finished up with the list I had with the classic monsters, but the site I was getting the movies from still had oodles of old horror flicks from the 40s I'd never heard of, so my daughter decided we should watch some of those. The first one on the list that we hadn't seen was Black Friday.

An absent-minded professor is crossing the street when he gets hit by a car and dies. In the car was a gangster by the name of Red Cannon. He's paralyzed and begs the doctor, the professor's friend, for help. The doctor's genius plan is to transplant part of the gangster's brain into his friend's head. And since the gangster hid $500, 000, the doctor figures the money can fund his experiments.

The plot immediately goes off the rails. George (professor) starts to act weird. At first, they just tell us he had a brain transplant, so I thought he had a full transplant. They only mentioned later it was partial, so for a while I didn't understand how George had memories of two people. Then George had some skull fractures. What did we do about those? We'll skim over that for now.

The movie made no sense. Ernest (doctor) convinces George to go to New York to try and jog loose the memories of Red Cannon to locate the stashed loot. When they get to the hideout (a swanky hotel), they get adjoining rooms (which George magically remembers as his hideout) and tells the bellhop the secret knock. Then he sneaks out and starts murdering the other members of the gang. Ernest was the worst babysitter ever.

The end/beginning was a bit confusing for me. They're taking the Grinch to the electric chair, but they're not saying why. He did murder a person, but it was to save his daughter, so does that really warrant the electric chair? I don't think he owned up to the experiments, because he handed off his notes to a reporter on the way to the chair. That was a bit confusing.

I was pleasantly surprised to see the Grinch (Boris Karloff) in this one. Bela was also in it, but we didn't see him as much. I'm going to give a shout-out to Stanley Ridges. He would switch between George and Red in such a way I wasn't 100% sure if it was the same person. Other than that, I'm not sure how hearing a siren magically made him switch. Putting that aside, this was pretty hilarious. If you have some friends and like this kind of thing, it's not a bad way to spend an hour.

The Creature Walks Among Us - 1956

This is it. The last film on our list of Universal Monster movies. It's been a long, and sometimes rough, journey.

We wrap up with the third installment in the Creature from the Black Lagoon series. This time, they grab him and somehow make him an air breather (?). First though, they use some weird tech to track him down, get into a fight, and wound him. I guess the creature doesn't understand gasoline, because he dumps a bunch of it all over himself and then gets set on fire. The "scientists" manhandle him onto the boat and mummify him into bandages.

Apparently, the burns he sustained removed the scales from his body, and he has a layer of skin underneath. Now he just looks weird. They make him some clothes, take him back home, and stick him in a boring enclosure with some goats and sheep. They don't even give him any enrichment toys! Anyway, he has a sad view of the water, but he breathes air now, so he'll drown if he tries to go back to the water.

The rich guy who is really possessive of his wife decides he's going to frame the creature for murder, but the creature is NOT having it. He goes on a rampage and heads off to the ocean. I mean, it's not fresh water, and we never see him enter the water, but I wish him the best.

Dang, this was weird. Every time I think they can't get stranger with these movies, they surprise me. What was up with the underwater ballet thing the woman did? It was weird, and I hated it. She was so unnecessary. The creature didn't even want anything to do with her. The soundtrack was still leaning into the BER BER BEERRRRR noise, so there's that. I did like the over-the-head body slam the creature would do. 

I'm still going to praise the hero of this franchise, Ricou Browning. My favorite part of these movies was watching the creature underwater (I'll admit to some joy watching him rage at the end of this one, but it's a different type of enjoyment). Ricou played the creature during the underwater scenes in all three movies, and he deserves major props for the great work. I didn't see his name in the credits, and I think he should have more of the spotlight. Forget the stupid women who swim in the water while hunting dangerous creatures. Team Ricou!! The movie...hmm. With the fate of the creature unknown, it's hard to give it a good rating. 

The journey gave us a lot of laughs. Ricou has a new fan, and I imagine the creature has reverted back to his original form and is living happily with his creature wife and children back in the lagoon.

Ricou Browning is the best!

Monster (anime series) - 2004-2005

This came on my radar a while back when it was on a list of the best anime. It sounded interesting, so I started trying to hunt it down.

I'm not saying much about the plot. There are 74 chapters, and they run about 20 minutes a piece. The most I'm going to say is what you'll find in a general search. Dr. Kenzo Tenma puts his career on the line to save a little boy. The consequences result in the mayor dying, and Dr. Tenma growing to realize he's saved a serial killer.

This is the type of show I haven't got the chance to watch in a long time. It sucked me in, and I had trouble keeping away from it. I recommended it to my kids, and now they're invested in it. They've been trying to ask me questions, but I don't want to spoil anything. When I was watching, I kept wondering how the story could spread out to 74 chapters, but when it ended, I wanted more. It was wrapping up all nicely, then ZING!

I'm not sure what the deal is with the English translations of Monster, but I couldn't find a DVD of it. I was able to get the complete set of manga, and I'm reading through it at the moment. So far, it's a very faithful adaptation, and I like that. Sometimes things move quickly, and it's nice to be able to slow down and process what's happening. Beyond that, I found a follow-up novel called Another Monster, but they didn't translate it into English. I found a PDF of it, so I'll get to it after I read through the manga. It's such a great, in-depth story, I was bummed to find it wasn't translated into more languages.

If you can find it, and you are interested in psychological crime stories, I think you'd enjoy this one. I was invested from Chapter 1, and I just really enjoyed this one. Great Anime!

My Santa, My Dad - 1998

My oldest daughter and I were a little braindead last night, so we wanted to watch something weird. The little blurb that popped up on Tubi showed a guy getting zapped, so we were instantly on board.

Gordon is terrible. He's a terrible dad, husband, used car salesman, and just a terrible person in general. He's constantly breaking promises to his family, especially Teddy, his son. This year, he's promised to take Teddy to have a white Christmas, but Gordon's boss is dangling the CEO position in front of him. So Teddy is pushed aside.

Lillith the elf pops up and tells Gordon he's been chosen as a Secret Santa. She gives him some electric shocks to show him she's serious, and then he grows the iconic gray beard and long hair. He gives a bell ringer $40 for his suit, and Gordon is ready to con people out of their money on the car lot. Or something.

Honestly, this movie has so many things going on, it's ridiculous. There's the plot of Gordon and his terrible personality. Then he has the shady boss. The Secret Santa thing is a whole other thing. When Gordon is in the North Pole, there's real animals mixed with fake ones. Gordon is confronted with the fakest looking owl I've ever seen (Barney Hooter) and called a mook. Then, Gordon delivers presents in a weird way (throwing the wrapped puppy over the side of the sled was disturbing), takes his kid to confront his boss, and talks to Santa, who in his underwear and boots.

In the end, Gordon rushes to stop his family from leaving for Phoenix while getting chased by the most uncaring policeman ever. They have a moment, and the movie ends. The credits are awkward and hilarious. My daughter told me this came out after The Santa Clause. It surprised me a bit, but after thinking about it a bit, I guess I can see it.

This movie was really weird. It made us laugh at the ridiculousness, but we were in a weird state of mind. It's not something I would recommend, but for people that like certain bad movies, they might be able to get some laughs out of it. I'm not giving it a positive review. If I'd been watching it alone, I don't think I would've made it to the end. I probably wouldn't have even started it. It's one of those movies that I'd only enjoy in certain company and in a certain state of mind.

Doc Savage - 1975

I've been wanting to watch this one ever since I saw the trailer on YouTube. I had to spend some money on this one, so I was a bit nervous. Also, we were all watching it together, so the pressure was on. I read the book a while ago and enjoyed it.

Doc Savage is something of an indestructible man. Other than exercising two hours a day, I'm not sure how he's able to do the superhuman things. He's super strong, super smart, and super bulletproof. He has branded vehicles made of bronze and his own theme song. Thank you, John Philip Sousa!

Savage returns from his Fortress of Solitude when he feels the upset thoughts of his friends. His father is dead, and they've gathered to tell Doc the news. Things escalate when an assassin tries to kill Doc, and the Amazing Five (plus Habeas Corpus) head off to South America to solve the mystery.

I really liked this movie. It was campy and fun. We had a lot of laughs, but there were a lot of weird things in there as well. One of the villains sleeps in an oversized rocking cradle. It was weird and distracting. I loved how Doc Savage went through this whole story about why he couldn't fall in love with the lady because of his past, and then he just chucks her on the chin and says, "You're a brick." Amazing.

At the end, they tease a sequel, but it never happened. I read they thought it was too silly and ridiculous, but I loved this one and mourn what never was. Good Movie!

Revenge of the Creature - 1955

We're almost done with the list I had printed off. This penultimate title was expected. The creature was definitely not dead at the end of the last movie, so I knew he'd be back. What I didn't know was that he was going to get dynamited out of his lagoon and taken to discount Sea World in Florida.

That's where our "heroes" decide to make some really stupid decisions. They have the press all over the place when the creature wakes up from his "coma," so there's lots of civilians there to witness the stupidity. They end up getting the creature under control and chaining him into an aquarium. Now they want to train him like a seal or a dolphin. And by the way Flippy the dolphin half-heartedly performs for the crowd, it's a probably a good thing the creature fights back.

I was Team Creature for most of the movie. There was the moment when he killed the dog, but I blame the humans for that one. I was hoping they wouldn't show the dog, and I could just imagine he'd run off to find a better owner. I mean, the woman looked for him for half a minute before Clete (seriously, who picked this character's name?) convinced her to go for a smooch fest. The next day, they went for a swim and more smooching. Never mind that the day before their friend died, and the dog disappeared. The people in this movie were the worst.

A few little tidbits I learned about the movie. My man, Ricou Browning, was again the creature under water. I suspected it might be him at one point when I watched him kind of mirror-swim under someone. It's hard to describe, but I know what I mean. Also, I kept wondering why the creature kept running into the camera. Well...this was originally a 3D movie! Now it makes sense. My last tidbit revolves around a scene that was pointless. In the lab with the animals, there was a guy with a mouse in his pocket. It was Clint Eastwood! I didn't recognize him, but when I read that, I went back and saw the resemblance. This was his film debut! 

This movie was infuriating. The people were terrible, and all the ones that deserved to die made it through. I was wondering about the BER BER BERRRRR noise, and they really leaned into it in this one. My favorite part of this movie was when some random youths stopped to try and help the extended faint woman. The creature ninjas up on them and magic-throws one over to a tree. I can't give a description that will accurately convey the beauty of the moment. If you can find just that moment, it's worth it. Other than that, the creature's just going back and forth into the water so he doesn't dry out or whatever. He should've just accidentally taken the chick in the water. Maybe she would've accidentally drowned, so we wouldn't have had to watch her just sit on the sand and scream endlessly. At the end, they just shot the creature, and he floated down into the "fade to black." No wonder we're going to see him again next time. They never learn. 

Creature from the Black Lagoon - 1954

We're getting close to the end of our Universal Monster list, and we're onto the Creature!

A guy finds a hand sticking out of a rock wall in the Amazon and just rips it out. Great archaeology technique, but it gets better. He brings back a couple more guys and some girl (for the monster), and they just attack the rocks with pickaxes. Anyway, there's nothing in the rock, so they conclude the rest of the skeleton has broken off in the past and washed into the lagoon. Let's put on our suits and go swimming!

Eventually, they come across the creature and make him mad. Mark shoots it, and now the creature's understandably out for blood. And he wants the woman with the great hair. I don't care how long she's been trapped on this scow, her hair looks great! And she also brought oodles of outfits. The creature gets himself captured eventually, and that's when the creepiest part of the movie happens. When he's just in the water and staring out of the little window in the cage.

If I put that aside, this movie was something of a slog at the beginning. There was a lot of random swimming/fish shots. Then, every time the creature appeared on the screen, the music would go BER BER BEERRRRR! Even if the creature was just chilling in the kelp, the music acted like he was murdering someone.

I want to give a shoutout to the men who played the creature. There were two of them. One for the land shots and one for the water. The land shots required the actor, Ben Chapman, to stand for 14 hours a day, since he couldn't sit in the suit. He also couldn't see, so the pretty lady got her head bopped on the grotto wall. For the underwater shots, Ricou Browning held his breath for up to four minutes at a time (when the creature wasn't moving) to get the movie classic we have today. Good job, guys!

Overall, the people in this movie were stupid. They had the doctor wrapped up like a mummy, next to an open porthole where the creature could just reach in there. Security wasn't something they cared about very much, and they paralyzed a bunch of fish for nothing. Our "hero" was a doofus, and Colonel Sanders was the worst archaeologist ever. Even taking all of this into consideration, this movie was much more enjoyable than most of the ones we've seen lately. It might just be the trash we've been subjected to, but I'm giving this one a Good Movie! review. If for no other reason than the pain the creature actors went through.

To Hell and Back - 1955

I've wanted to watch this one for a long time, and I finally found it on a combo DVD with a bunch of other movies. I can't say the title in my head without singing the Sabaton song, but it really helps to remember this movie is based on Audie Murphy's autobiography of the same name. I'm going to try not to focus too much on the man himself, but it won't be easy.

The movie has some narration to introduce it. We talk about Audie's childhood and how he ended up in the Army. Then we get to see the events that led to him earning every combat valor medal available including the Medal of Honor. The act that earned him the MoH seems like a work of fiction, but most acts of heroism do.

The movie itself was okay. I found myself being more impressed and sad that Audie Murphy was playing himself than focusing on the action itself. Knowing Murphy struggled with PTSD and the drugs he was given, and watching him reliving it all for the movie was hard. Afterward, I read he was reluctant to even do the movie, and that made it worse.

When I went into this movie, I wasn't sure what I would think at the end of it. Audie Murphy went through a lot in his life, and if you're not familiar with him, I recommend reading a bit about his life - both wartime and beyond. Listen to the Sabaton song. Read his poem about Anzio. He was a complex person, as all people are, and I wonder what would have happened if he'd been able to get the funding for the movie he wanted to make about life after the war.

So, I wasn't going to focus on Murphy, but I failed. It's just hard to disconnect them when the movie is literally based on his autobiography, and he's starring as himself! The action was decent, and the movie didn't drag. It's probably not going to rank up there as one of my favorite WWII movies, but it wasn't bad. Good Movie!