Requiem from the Darkness - 2003

I was scrolling through random animes on Tubi and ended up starting this one. Last night, I finished up the two-part finale. 

Momosuke is an author trying to write a book of 100 ghost stories. As he travels around Japan, he encounters a strange group of three individuals who also seem to gravitate toward the supernatural. They are the Ongyou, and they seek out and punish sinners. Momosuke pops in constantly and basically gets in the way.

A bit of background on this - the show is based on the stories of Natsuhiko Kyogoku called The Wicked and the Damned. I saw seven of those in English, and the titles matched up to episodes in the show. 

I don't know what drew me into this anime. The animation was pretty bad, and the music was worse. Momosuke annoyed me a lot of the time, because he would ask to go along with the Ongyou, but then he would get in the way purposely or accidentally. I think my favorite character was Mataichi. He was a trickster-ish man who posed as a monk and sent people to the afterlife.

Overall, I'm not sure what I think of this anime. I was entertained enough to make it through the whole thing, but it wasn't very long. Thirteen episodes isn't that much of a commitment. Most of the show was pretty disjointed until the end, and that's when a story came together to finish it out. I think that was the part I enjoyed the most. This anime will probably fade from my memory pretty quickly, but Mataichi will be one of those characters I'll remember.

The Ghoul - 1933

I've found a different list of horror movies, and I'm keeping it a secret, hoping it won't disappear like the last one. The pick for this past week was this Egyptian-influenced horror starring none other than the Grinch, Boris Karloff.

In this movie, a man is on the verge of death (it takes him a while to actually kick the bucket), and he wants to be buried in a wholly un-Christian way! He believes that the great god of the underworld, Anubis, will resurrect him since he has possession of the "Eternal Light." Little does he realize others are working against him. He will come back to exact his revenge for the betrayal!

This movie was strange in a number of ways. First, the Grinch needed some of that cream they sell for crepey skin. Even before he died, he was struggling with that and a wicked unibrow. Also, there were so many plot holes, I'm not sure how to even start describing them. The only one I will mention is Davis. He was my hero, and I imagine that after he made his phone call, he headed out for a cheeseburger and milkshake. He deserved it.

The end of the movie also didn't really resolve that much. What happened to the cousins? Or club foot man? Or even the parson man that knew how to blow stuff up? And there was a considerable lack of murdering in this movie. It took forever for any ghouling to happen, and then he wasn't killing anyone I wanted dead. I was super excited when I thought he was going to kill the super irritating woman, Miss Kaney, but no. And she really deserved it!

Overall, this one was pretty bad. I didn't like the statue of Anubis. For some reason, it seemed bustier than I remembered. I didn't like the way the Grinch wasn't really a ghoul, and the explanation was pretty stupid. Even the heirs were irritating. Pass!