The Soul Eater, Ghostbusters Frozen Empire, Frankie Freako, The Stranglers of Bombay, and Godzilla vs. Hedorah

We have an interesting collection this week! We’ll start off with the fairly recent “The Soul Eater” and “Frankie Freako.” We actually forgot that there was a new Ghostbusters movie last year, so we picked that one up as well. Then we’ll look at a couple of oldies, “The Stranglers of Bombay” from Hammer films and “Godzilla vs. Hedorah” (aka “The Smog Monster”).

And, of course, we have more excellent short films for you!

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Mainstream Films:

2024 The Soul Eater

· Directed by Alexandre Bustillo, Julien Maury

· Written by Annelyse Batrel, Ludovic Lefebvre, Alexis Laipsket

· Stars Virginie Ledoyan, Paul Hamy, Sandrine Bonnair

· Run Time: 1 Hour, 48 Minutes

· Trailer:

Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone

This was very much a police procedural, with a pair of officers looking into the disappearance of children in a small area. There seems to be a supernatural slant to things, and the case gets weirder and darker the further they go along. It’s slow-moving but very entertaining. We both liked it a lot.

Spoilery Synopsis

A policeman interrupts Franck’s run with news. Later, he takes a bus out to the country. At a roadblock, he catches a ride with a woman he doesn’t know. He’s here to investigate alarming disappearances. Credits roll.

When the pair arrives at his destination, there are already flashing police cars there. It turns out, the woman in the car is Elizabeth Guardiano, the police commander in charge of the scene. Inside the house, there are two dead people, and it’s not pretty. The cop there thinks the couple got into a fight and killed each other very violently. They have a 12-year-old, but no one can find him. We cut back and forth between Franck and Elizabeth as they search different parts of the house.

Elizabeth finds Evan, the son, hiding in the basement. He says “The Soul Eater” came for them. Franck finds a weird little statuette outside in a van, and he pockets it. We see a shadowy figure on a motorcycle watching all of this.

Later, Franck shows Elizabeth photos of all the missing kids he’s looking for. The white van at the murder scene was involved in some of the disappearances. She’s only interested in the murders, but agrees to work together.

Franck takes a shower, but then sees someone in his room. Elizabeth goes to talk to the mayor of the little town. She chews out the local cops for not finding the hiding boy earlier. She’s arrogant, and the locals don’t like it; their town has had some hard times in recent years. The mayor wants to say the couple killed each other and there’s no murderer in their small town, but Elizabeth disagrees.

The doctor won’t let Franck talk to Evan, the boy, so he sneaks in on his own. He shows Evan the children’s photos, and he recognizes them. Evan says they’re all dead; the Soul Eater killed them. Evan sees the monster standing behind Franck, but Franck looks, and there’s nothing there.

Elizabeth talks to the coroner, and the bodies are excessively damaged, but they did this to each other. It makes no sense. Also, they had orgasms as they killed each other.

Franck and Elizabeth talk about each other’s obsession over the case. They go back to the Vasseur house and search some more. They find that Evan has been sleeping in a dirty corner of the basement, not in the nice bedroom upstairs. They find the neighbor’s missing dog wrapped in plastic and poorly covered up in the backyard.

The pair gets a call. The man who runs the local lumber mill has been killed, with his head well sliced by a saw. The question of accident, suicide, or murder seems to be answered when Elizabeth finds another of those little carved statues right next to him. They ask Marcelin, the police chief, about the Soul Eater. He’s a sort of local legend, a boogeyman. Marcelin warns Franck that Elizabeth is just out of the hospital after a suicide attempt. Franck notices that both the lumber mill and the murder house had computers that have gone missing.

A man runs out of the building, and Franck chases him across the lumberyard. The man gets away, but he drops his backpack. The computer was inside, but the thing fell in the river and got soaked. Franck does get the hard drive out. Elizabeth goes to the church to read up on the Soul Eater. We hear various reports of a pilot who crashed a plane nearby two weeks ago; we’ve heard about this event several times already.

Elizabeth and Franck talk about their lives. Her daughter had been bullied at school and then killed herself.

Henri Maublanc, the man who found the body at the lumber mill, lied to the police about his story. We cut to him hanging out at home. When Elizabeth and Franck arrive outside, they hear screaming coming from inside. Maublanc has killed his wife and tries to kill Franck with an ax before Elizabeth shoots him. We see the mysterious motorcycle man outside again. Afterward, Elizabeth looks for Maublanc’s daughter, but we see that she’s hiding outside. In the girl’s closet, they find more stuff about the Soul Eater.

At the hospital, the Soul Eater comes for Evan, and they walk out, hand in hand.

Elizabeth tells Franck that Jeanne Maublanc, the daughter, probably knows the perpetrator, as she’s obsessed with the Soul Eater. Evan’s doctor comes in and explains his history of abuse. She wanted Evan institutionalized, but his parents wouldn’t hear of it. Evan and Jeanne went to school together.

On the road, Elizabeth and Franck get shot at by the motorcyclist and wreck her car when she stops and backs into him. The shooter is injured but tries running for it, and Franck follows him through the woods. Franck catches the guy, who says he has nothing to do with the children. He says the plane that crashed was special, full of drugs, and he’s here to collect it. He says if you take a little, you get nice and high, but if you take too much, well, “You saw the results.” Where did the drugs end up?

The hard drive Franck found shows that the adult victims all knew each other from a chatroom on the dark web. There’s also a location that Franck and Elizabeth need to check out. It’s the location of the old sanitarium.

Splitting up to search the sanitarium, Elizabeth comes across one of the local cops, Gonnet, who claims to be looking for the missing children. She’s soon attacked by him wearing a mask. She shoots him repeatedly. Gonnet has a key that opens a door that Franck found. There’s all kinds of weird costumes in the room along with the missing computers. Then they find other rooms, themed and decorated, where child porn and torture has been filmed. They find Evan and Jeanne locked in a room.

Jeanne explains that they knew their parents were bad people - clearly alluding to them using Jeanne and Evan in kiddie porn, but then the Soul Eater came and possessed them. They weren’t satisfied and needed more children, so they abducted other kids. She tells the story of finding a package of the missing drugs in the forest. She thought it was magic salt, part of the Soul Eater lore, and then she and Evan tried it on the neighbor’s dog, who went crazy and died. Both kids then fed the drug to Evan’s parents, who promptly went crazy, killed each other excessively, and had a great time doing it. The sawmill guy was next. Then her dad who killed her mom, who wasn’t an active participant but knew what the others were doing.

Suddenly, the lights go out. “He comes for you,” says Evan. We see someone outside putting on the Soul Eater’s mask. Mercelin calls Elizabeth and alerts her that Franck isn’t a detective or even who he claims to be. Franck locks them all in the room and goes out looking for the kidnapper. They soon get out, and everyone convenes in the room with the Soul Eater.

Franck admits that he’s the father of one of the missing kids. Franck attacks the masked criminal, pulls the mask off, and we see that it’s the mayor who has been behind all this. She even shows him footage of his son’s death, smirking that he didn’t last a week. “People pay a lot of money for that sort of thing.” Franck puts down his gun, but the two children attack her and make her eat the drug. Franck sees this and leaves his knife within easy reach of her. He leaves her locked alone in the room as the drug takes effect…

Franck stands outside, pours alcohol all over one of the rooms used for filming and smokes as the screaming starts from the mayor. He then burns everything. Franck passes Elizabeth and the kids outside and hands her his gun and fake id before walking off into the darkness. “Who are you, Franck?” she asks. He replies, “A ghost.”

Brian’s Commentary

It’s long and slow-moving, but we never got bored with it. It’s mostly a mystery/police procedural, but there’s something supernatural going on all throughout. Actually, it turns out to be even darker than that. In the end, everything is explained and makes perfect sense, but it’s all a very nasty explanation, and no one leaves happy.

It’s good!

Kevin’s Commentary

I thought this was pretty great. It is on the long side, but it keeps pulling us along as they find more clues and more details of what’s going on. The mystery is well written, making it seem like there’s supernatural forces that may be at work, and hiding things well. The truth is even more awful when we find out what some of the ordinary people, not literal monsters, have been up to. I’d recommend it.

2024 Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire

· Directed by Gil Kenan

· Written by Gil Kenan, Jason Reitman, Ivan Reitman

· Stars Paul Rudd, Carrie Coon, Finn Wolfhard

· Run Time: 1 Hour, 55 Minutes

· Trailer:

Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone

This is a direct continuation of the previous movie, “Ghostbusters: Afterlife” with the same characters continuing their work. Three out of four of the classic Ghostbusters make an appearance, as well as characters and ghosts from the original films. The new big bad is powerful, but once again, teamwork saves the day. The effects are excellent. But it feels like a lot more of the same, the humor is a little stale, and the pacing is a little off. It was just okay.

Spoilery Synopsis

We open in 1904, as the firefighters get called to the Manhattan Adventure Society. There are screams inside, but there’s no fire; it’s freezing. Everyone inside is frozen solid. When the firemen disturb the strange person sitting in the corner, all the bodies shatter. Credits roll.

Today, the Ghostbusters, Gary Grooberman and Callie Spengler, race through town in the famous Hearse. Trevor and Phoebe are in the back seat, feeling exploited. Outside, manhole covers are exploding into the sky all around them. It’s the Hell’s Kitchen Sewer Dragon! They use all kinds of gadgets, including a drone-mounted trap, to catch the thing. There’s collateral damage, and that makes the news. The news reminds us who the Ghostbusters were/are.

The Mayor, an unfortunately familiar face, chews out the team. He points out that Phoebe is only fifteen, too young to be doing what she’s doing. He wants to shut them down– still. At home, there is whiny family drama as Phoebe complains about her forced retirement. They seem to be having issues with the old containment unit.

We cut to Ray Stantz, doing a podcast about the supernatural with Podcast, the character from the previous film. It’s a very weird show. Podcast has miniature Marshmallow men in the basement, and they reproduce like Tribbles. When a man comes in to sell some creepy stuff, the little men run and hide. Nadeen brings in the ball that the weird character in the pre-credit sequence was holding. Ray says there may be an evil spirit trapped inside. When Ray scans the egg, things go haywire at the Ghostbuster’s headquarters.

Upstairs, Trevor finds a bunch of trash in the attic; Slimer’s been eating. The group gets a call, but they leave Phoebe behind, so she plays chess with a ghost instead. She’s Melody, and she died in a tenement fire many years ago.

Gary asks Janine if anyone has ever dumped that containment unit, and she says no, not since 1984. They call Winston, who brings in an engineer who says it's full. He says the firehouse is holding back a flood of bad things, but he’s been building a new and improved Ghostbuster’s headquarters. Winston has founded The Paranormal Research Center is looking for answers to all the mystical questions.

Ray is there as well, and he’s brought his little ball of hate that Nadeem sold him. Ray explains some of the ghosts that they’ve kept around to study.

While the others are out on a call, Phoebe answers the phone and goes off on a mission along with Podcast. The ghost she got called for is Melody; Phoebe can’t bring herself to capture her ghostly friend.

That evening, Lucky and Lars at the Paranormal Research Center put the evil egg into their ghost-extraction machine. Instead, they accidentally manage to open it. The ghosts almost manage to escape, but the power comes on in time to keep them in place. Except the orb freezes Lars’s hand.

Melody visits Phoebe at the headquarters, and they hang out. Melody gets the full tour, but she’s suspiciously interested in the ancient containment unit. She talks about her inability to move on. We see later that she’s serving someone else.

Lars tells the assembled group that whatever’s inside the orb is doing mind control on other ghosts. Trevor, Lucky, and Lars go to see Nadeem about the orb. Turns out, he’s got a whole brass-lined room full of antique weirdness. Nadeem himself sets off the supernatural detector. They call Peter Venkman to check him out, and he’s definitely got something going on.

Ray, Phoebe, and Podcast go to see Dr. Wartzki at the library about the words coming out of the orb. He explains that a phantom god named Garraka is said to be trapped inside. His plan was to raise an army of the undead and start a war against humanity. He has the power to kill by fear itself. He was defeated by the Firemasters, beings who trapped Garraka inside the orb. He plays a recording made by the old Adventurer’s Society before they all froze to death. Podcast records the audio. As the recording literally bounces away, Ray runs into an old ghost-nemesis from the past.

The mayor condemns the firehouse and arrests Phoebe. Winston yells at Ray for putting the kids in danger. Gary talks Callie into fighting for the firehouse. Nadeem comes to the firehouse, and Lars blames himfor all the damage. Ray comes in and says that Nadeem is the new Firemaster, and it’s up to him to protect the world against Garraka.

Phoebe and Melody hang out together. Phoebe wants to try out being a ghost for a while, so she goes to the Research Center and pulls out her own spirit. It works! As soon as Phoebe becomes a ghost, Garraka possessed her. He can’t control humans, but he can control ghosts. The orb falls to pieces. After two minutes, Phoebe returns to her body, but Garraka is still free– and escapes.

Garraka goes to the Firemaster Cigarette store and freezes the proprietor. He then goes to Nadeem’s house and breaks in. He takes his own horns off the wall and puts them on.

People at the beach, in summer, are attacked by ice and snow, which quickly expands into the city. Ray talks to the others, saying that Garraka is coming for the containment unit, which holds a potential army. Nedeem barely uses his fire powers at all, so how much help could he be? Ray, Winston, and even Peter suit up for battle with new and improved proton-packs.

A possessor spirit takes over the Ghostbusters car and wrecks the place. It then possesses a pizza and is eaten by Slimer. Phoebe confronts Melody as Garraka arrives outside. Everyone else blasts their proton packs at Garraka, but they don’t work. Nadeem shows up in his grandmother’s armor and tries to talk to the huge horned beast. That doesn’t work, and Garraka opens up the containment unit, freeing uncountable spirits and freezing everyone but Phoebe.

Phoebe zaps the distracted Garraka with her gun, but he’s so powerful that he just freezes her stream– and her. Melody, however, lights a match, who powers up Nadeem, who really blasts the monster. Everyone works together to trap the old god.

Ray rejiggers the old containment until it sucks in Garraka; it’s big enough to hold him. He’s beaten. Melody moves on into the light. All the ice melts. The mayor shows up and threatens to have them all arrested until the news shows up, and he has to praise them instead. Everyone cheers, even though the city is now overrun with spirits, probably including Zuul and Vigo from the first two films.

Brian’s Commentary

What happened to all the ghosts that got out of the firehouse? Forty years of captures? Looks like NYC is going to be uninhabitable for a long time with all that activity.

It’s a continuation of “Ghostbusters: Afterlife,” but there are a lot of connections, actors, characters, and even ghosts, to the original films. The CGI and creatures are exceptional. The humor is… predictable at best.

It’s good. If you liked the previous film, this is more of the same.

Kevin’s Commentary

Of all the Ghostbusters movies, this was one. I’d put it as my least favorite. There wasn’t enough new, the pacing was a little off, the humor was a little stale, and the heavy emphasis on Phoebe didn’t interest me much. I didn’t quite hate it, but it was just okay. Hopefully they can bring things back up if they make another.

2024 Frankie Freako

· Directed by Steven Kostanski

· Written by Steven Kostanski

· Stars Conor Sweeney, Kristy Wordsworth, Adam Brooks

· Run Time: 1 Hour, 25 Minutes

· Trailer:

Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone

This is more crazy comedic science fiction than horror. After a little bit of a slow start and setup, things get wild with the appearance of Frankie and his pals. The creature puppets are awesome, the script is silly, and it’s very fun. We both enjoyed it a lot.

Spoilery Synopsis

Conor’s boss, Mr. Buechler, says his planned presentation is bland and boring; he needs to “spice it up.” Conor is bland and boring, but he also takes the comment personally.

Conor goes home to Kristina, who wants to have some sexy time. She’s a little too sexy, and he doesn’t even make it to the undressing stage. She calls him bland too as well as “square.” He doesn’t listen to her, since the antiques roadshow is on the TV. Conor gets upset when someone on the show swears. Yeah, he’s pretty uncool. Then he sees a 1-900-number that promises to spice up his life. Something in the ad appeals to Conor, who keeps telling himself, “I am not a square.”

The next day at the meeting, Conor hands out party hats for his very boring presentation. The meeting goes badly, and he hallucinates the people in the meeting becoming ugly little trolls. Afterward, the boss wants Conor to come in on Saturday to shred some evidence for him– on camera. Kristina is going on a trip for the weekend; she jokes, “Have a freaky weekend.”

As Conor cleans the house, not being square at all, he keeps seeing ads for Frankie Freako. He gives in and calls the number, as thunder and lightning appear from nowhere. The kitchen suddenly gets all windy, but Conor shouts, “I’m ready to party!”

Conor wakes up in the morning, and there’s caffeinated soda cans all over the house. Did he do that? The house has graffiti all over it. He goes into the kitchen and sees Frankie Freako and his friends in there making a mess. They have polaroids of Conor freaking out with them last night. One of them shoots Conor in the neck, and he gets all bloody. The three ugly little puppets then smash one of Kristina’s prized statues, and then Conor knows he’s in trouble.

Conor beats up Boink, one of the creatures, who dies. Conor apologizes. It’s all another prank, Boink isn’t dead, and Kristina loses more statues. He tells them all to leave, but they ignore him, so he pulls out a cross, as if they were vampires. Frankie turns into a horrible demonic thing and knocks Conor out.

Mr. Buechler calls and guilt-trips Conor into coming into work right now. Buechler hides behind a desk and tells Conor what to do. Before Conor can shred the documents, Frankie calls him on the phone. Buechler goes home with Conor to see what the commotion is all about. He thinks Conor did it all to himself. They search the house, and Conor’s guns and bear trap have gone missing.

Buechler soon finds the bear trap the hard way. Conor finds other booby traps, the even-harder way. Buechler then gets doused in glue and stuck to the floor. Kristina calls and says Conor sounds stressed. He takes the gun and finds the Freakos in bed asleep; he can’t bring himself to execute them.

Frankie turns on the TV, and there’s a little narrated documentary about Freakworld and the inhabitants. President Munch enslaved the Freakos, all except for the three Freaks that Conor knows. Conor gives in and gets freaky with the Freakos.

The phone rings, and Conor answers it, even though Frankie warns him not to. The whole house glows red and a portal opens. “They found us!” Robotic Freako-killers come through the portal and shoot everywhere. Conor finds that he can’t leave the house. They take everyone into custody and drag them through the portal.

Connor finds himself on Freakworld, a place of stop-motion people and puppets. They dress Conor up as President Munch’s new concubine and take him to the big man’s office. The president plans to torture Dottie to get at Freddy. Munch tells Crunch to bring the Dial of Doom and demonstrate it. The machine melts Munch. When it’s Conor’s turn, he’s too square and bland to make the machine work.

Meanwhile, Boink hotwires one of the robots to shoot the others. Frankie, Boink, and Conor use the distraction to run outside, but Dottie has been brainwashed to work against them. Frankie convinces her to fight with him again. Back in his office, President Munch mutates into something new…

The Freaks and Conor break back into Conor’s living room, causing more damage along the way. Munch follows them and he’s got a chainsaw. Conor seduces the president and leads him away. Conor leads him to the basement and into the booby trap array that is still there. It doesn’t work as well as expected. Boink pulls out a cross, and Freddie’s demonic side makes Munch burst into flame and die.

Conor learns to like Fart Cola. Kristina calls to say she’ll be home early, in just under an hour. The foursome get to work with a cleaning montage, but it’s a hopeless mess. Kristina comes inside, and the Freaks hide. She asks what happened, and he plays dumb until the Freaks reveal themselves. She says it’s all “totally fine.” She used to be Dottie’s roommate back in gun college. She’s good friends with the Freaks, and she’s the one who brought them into all this in the first place.

It’s all good. Then we cut to Buechler, still stuck to the floor in the basement.

Brian’s Commentary

I want to know where I can buy some Fart Cola.

This is from the same director as “Psycho Goreman,” so there shouldn’t be many surprises that this is a comedy.

The puppets are really well done and all have distinctive personalities. The storyline is just insane, but it all actually kinda makes sense in the end. I’m not convinced that this is “horror” in any way, but it’s definitely funny and weird.

Kevin’s Commentary

This was a lot of fun. Definitely more science fiction than horror, but it’s got some horror elements. The puppets are very obviously puppets, but they work for this really well. I liked it.

1959 The Stranglers of Bombay

· Directed by Terence Fisher

· Written by David Zelag Goodman

· Stars Guy Rolfe, Allan Cuthbertson, Andrew Cruickshank

· Run Time: 1 Hour, 20 Minutes

· Trailer:

Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone

This is roughly based on historical events. It’s also a movie made in a time in history when brownwashing (and other colors of washing) was the way things were done - almost all of the named Indian characters are played by white people, as well as many extras. It was well made and interesting, and fairly entertaining, but really pushing it to call it horror.

Spoilery Synopsis

We open on a bunch of Indian men playing drums. The leader tells a story about an old-time monster. Only Kali would dare battle that monster, and she won, but the drops of blood became new monsters. She learned to kill without spilling blood. She taught her followers to strangle their victims. Three new boys are joining the Kali Cult, and this is all an initiation rite. Credits roll, and then we get a text scroll telling us about the Kali cult that existed for hundreds of years, until 1829…

Colonel Henderson sits in court and listens to Mr. Patel Shari, who “used to be” important. Outside, Captain Harry Lewis is late for the meeting, where the business owners complain about people, horses, and whole carriages that have disappeared. Mr. Burns and Mr. Patel complain about Henderson’s men not solving the problem, and Harry Lewis agrees with them. When the businessmen leave, Harry explains to his boss about 1119 people going missing last year. Harry wants to be put in charge of solving the problem, and Harry rushes home to tell his wife, Mary, about it.

Henderson then assigns Harry to escort a carriage, which is promptly robbed. Captain Connaught-Smith reports to Harry; he’s just arrived. As they return to town, their two prisoners, the thieves, escape. Connaught-Smith is assigned to investigate the missing people, much to Harry’s displeasure.

We see that Mr. Patel knows the two thieves, and he wants that behavior stopped. He’s got both escaped prisoners, and he punishes them. Yes, both men then get their eyes poked out with flaming skewers.

Harry’s servant Ram Das, reports that he saw his brother in the crowd earlier, and his brother went missing ten years ago. Harry gives him food and money to follow the caravan with his brother.

Back at the Kali camp, the two eyeless men are in a cage. Ram Das’s brother, Gopali, is there. The high priest teaches him how to act to white people before robbing them. Bundar reports that Ram Das has been seen approaching camp, and the Das works for Harry, who took the sacred cloth from the captured men.

Harry reports to Connaught-Smith, who clearly doesn’t care at all about his opinion or research. Harry is mugged on the way out, and the men steal the sacred strangling cloth back. He goes back to report it to Connaught-Smith, and they argue.

Harry and Mary have some friends over for dinner, and someone throws a bundle through the window. It’s Ram Das’s hand! He goes straight to Henderson, who calls him “insolent and disrespectful.” Harry resigns his commission.

Harry goes around questioning people about Ram Das, but the local merchants avoid answering anything. It’s almost as if they all don’t care. Harry and his friend go tiger hunting, and they dig up a body instead. They find thirty bodies, all strangled.

Harry tells all this to Patel, who doesn’t seem at all interested. He tells Harry to stay out of it. A man is accused of the murders, and he smiles on the gallows, happy to die. He puts on his own noose and jumps to his death; a fanatic– or martyr. Harry follows smiling members of the audience out of town to the Kali camp.

Harry watches the group convene, but is captured and tied to stakes in the ground. The high priest gives the order, and a man lures a deadly cobra to kill Harry, who can’t move. The priest cuts Harry, and the killer snake homes in on the smell of blood (I know that’s not how it works). The snake is about to strike, but is interrupted when Ram Das’s pet mongoose gets free and kills it. The high priest orders Bundar to cut Henry free; it’s a sign from Kali.

Harry goes back to Henderson and Connaught-Smith about the cult. They laugh at him.

Back in the Thugee camp, the three young recruits are ordered to kill the three prisoners. Gopari recognizes Ram Das, his own brother, is one of the prisoners, but kills him anyway.

The cultists plan to rob the biggest caravan yet, but before that, they hatch a plan to kill both Harry and his neighbor, Sidney. They kill Sidney, but Harry is alerted and saves himself. Lt. Silver and Patel conspire to kill Connaught-Smith and take the whole caravan.

That night, the caravan stops and makes camp. The three young cultists have joined the group, and they say nothing as the stranglers sneak into camp. It’s a silent mass-slaughter. Connaught-Smith leaves his tent and wonders why nobody will wake up. He’s soon killed and all the bodies are carted away to mass graves.

In the morning, Harry and Lt. Silver arrive at the campsite and Harry knows what happened. Harry suspects Silver is a Thugee and shoots him. Night falls, and he watches a Kali ceremony. He shoots exactly one guy before getting captured. The high priest orders that he be killed. Gopari sees Ram Das’s necklace around Harry’s neck and cuts him loose. Harry runs up on the stage and throws the high priest into the fire before running away.

Harry and Gopali interrupt Henderson and Patel at dinner. Patel is arrested, and Henderson puts Harry in for a promotion. Harry tells Mary that “this is only the beginning. Murdering Kali is still out there.”

Brian’s Commentary

Looking at the credits, I don’t think there was a single actual Indian credited for the film. The British censors hated the film for its excessive violence, and it’s been hard to find in the UK ever since. It’s a stretch to call this “horror” today, but it was considered excessively brutal at the time.

This Hammer film was intended to star Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee, who were both otherwise occupied. Some of the sets were built for “Horror of Dracula” (1958). It’s at least partially historical, based on the life of Henry Sleeman, who wiped out the Thugee Cult in the mid-1800s. The basic story was reused as the basis of a remake a few years later, “The Terror of the Tongs” (1961).

Kevin’s Commentary

This was kind of interesting. And bemusing on all the white people playing Indians. It was well made with good production values and some familiar faces. I enjoyed it as a historical action drama. It does have a murder cult and a body count, but I wouldn’t really consider it horror.

1971 Godzilla vs. Hedorah

· AKA “Godzilla v. The Smog Monster”

· Directed by Yoshimatsu Banno, Ishiro Honda

· Written by Yoshimatsu Banno, Takeshi Kimura

· Stars Akira Yamanouchi, Toshie Kimura, Hiroyuki Kawase

· Run Time: 1 Hour, 25 Minutes

· Trailer:

Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone

This one beats us over the head with the message that pollution is bad, and we should do better or else. The overbearing message takes a little of the fun away, but it’s got plenty of the Godzilla vs. a big bad creature action. Plus humans doing science and military stuff. We thought it was okay, not the best of them.

Spoilery Synopsis

We open on shots of various industries and also a bubbling lake, where something rears its ugly head as credits roll. The song involves pollution and the end of the world, and we watch many scenes of floating trash and sludge.

We cut to a little boy, Ken, playing with his Godzilla toys. Mr. Gohai brings Ken’s father, Dr. Toru Yano, a marine biologist, an odd fish to examine. The old man whines that he hasn’t caught a single shrimp recently, and it’s getting worse. News reports talk about a new giant creature that’s been attacking ships in the harbor. Ken points out that it looks a lot like the big tadpole that Mr. Gohai brought them, and Dr. Yano agrees.

Yano then goes scuba diving to see what he can learn about the missing shrimp. He sees lots of submerged trash. Ken stays on the beach and soon encounters the giant creature, but it turns around and ignores him. It goes after Yano instead, who is injured.

The news reporters come to interview the family, and Ken has named the tadpole-creature “Hedorah.” Yano checks out one of the little tadpoles and learns that it’s a mineral, not biological at all. He puts a few grains of the creature-powder in water, and it comes to life. “It was born of sludge!” He watches two separate pieces join together to make a bigger creature.

Meanwhile, Godzilla encounters floating sewage and fallout. He doesn’t like it and shoots it with his atomic breath.

We cut to a Japanese hippie-disco, where everyone shows us that this was the 70s in the most 70s way possible– we get another musical number (same as the opening theme song) about extinct species and poisonous metals. As she sings, we watch Hedorah crawl around on dry land and sucking the smog out of a smokestack. Godzilla reaches land too, and he seems to want to find whoever’s been making all the mess.

Unsurprisingly, the two creatures meet and fight. Back at the disco, everyone puts on fish-head masks as the song finishes. They’re all having fun– until a Hedorah tentacle slides down the steps and leaves goop all over their cat. A young couple, Yukio and Miki run out of the disco and watch from their car as the two monsters go at it some more. Godzilla seems to win, but far too easily. Both creatures go back out to sea.

We get more news reports about Hedorah’s terrible rampage. Dr. Yano examines the powder that Hedorah leaves behind. It is the same as the little tadpole. He comes to the conclusion that Hedorah is not from Earth and must have come here on a meteorite.

Yukio and Miki take Ken to the amusement park and the little boy sees Godzilla nearby. Hedorah flies over a yoga class, and everyone passes out from the smell. Yano says Hedorah will just continue to get bigger and bigger. “Mankind could beat it if we could all join forces.”

Hedorah has changed forms a few times, so experts predict what form it will come in next time. The monster seems to be creating more pollution as well as just eating it.

We have another impromptu dance party on the beach, and between the bonfire and the noise-pollution, you-know-who shows up, and Godzilla is not far behind. All the revelers throw torches at Hedorah once it knocks out Godzila. It shoots acid on some of them and just plows over and melts others.

The creatures stand in front of each other and stare at each other. We soon learn that Hedorah can shoot lightning out of his eye. It releases smoke that makes Godzilla pass out. Hedorah then grabs the unconscious Godzilla, picks him up, and flies away with him. It soon drops Godzilla into a pit that it starts filling with sludge.

Dr. Yano has come up with a plan to make two giant electrodes that, when Hedorah goes between them, will shoot him with electricity and “desiccate him.” Except the monsters have just knocked out the power lines!

The men hurry to repair the power lines, but it takes time. A helicopter distracts the monster for a while, but eventually, he continues moving. The power comes on just in time and zaps Hedorah at the same time Godzilla does. Godzilla reaches into Hedorah’s body and pulls out his two eyes that he destroys; those were the center of Hedorah’s power.

Hedorah’s still not dead yet after all, and it flies away. Godzilla then uses his own atomic breath to fly away after him. The two fight one more time, even though Hedorah is blind now. Godzilla flies the other monster back to the electrical weapon and drops him back inside. Godzilla pulls out all his organs this time and throws them all across the film. Soon, Hedorah is nothing but multiple puddles of muck, and then he cooks them all again.

Godzilla looks at Yano and the soldiers, and he thinks about it, but then turns and walks away. We end with Godzilla looking at the pollution as he walks back to the sea. Little Ken watches his favorite monster head home.

Brian’s Commentary

Those opening credits– were they going for James Bond-thing for Godzilla?

Subtle. It’s a word these filmmakers never learned. There were even little animated segments between scenes showing some of the stuff that Hedorah does. Did we really need a song about mercury pollution? Pollution is bad, mmmmkay?

Hedorah is still just a guy in a suit, but it’s an interesting design with the one red glowing eye and “seaweed” tentacles.

I dunno what I dislike about this one, but it absolutely didn’t grab me. Maybe it was the over-the-top “message” since all the other usual Godzilla tropes and ideas were good. This is the only film where Godzilla flies, and it’s a very silly scene.

Kevin’s Commentary

It was only an hour and 25 minutes, but I thought it managed to feel longer. The environmental messages were a little bit too heavy-handed. It wasn’t bad. Another example of Godzilla fighting a big bad with a predictable outcome.

Short Films:

2023 Short Film: Toad Boy

· Directed by Phillip J. McLaughlin

· Written by Phillip J. McLaughlin

· Stars Clif Chamberlain, James Hoelzel, Tamir Tucker

· Run Time: 12:36

· Watch it:

What Happens

Someone wrote “Toad Boy” on Todd’s locker, and when the school janitor goes to wash it off, he finds something strange inside. This leads to the principal calling Todd’s parents– there have been some bullying incidents in the past, and Todd hasn’t come to school recently because of that. The principal eventually decides he needs to do a home visit, and things get even weirder from there.

Commentary

As Charlotte talks to the principal in the basement, the audio was muffled badly enough I had to turn the subtitles on. Other than that, it’s really good. It looks like a tale of planned retribution, but it turns out to be much more than that. It looks good, the makeup effects are excellent, and the whole plot is just… messed up.

2021 Short Film: The Mechanical Dancer

· Directed by Jenna Jaillet

· Written by Jenna Jaillet, Josh Jaillet

· Stars Animated

· Run Time: 13 Minutes

· Watch it:

What Happens

A mad scientist and his faithful assistant show a dancing robot to a theater audience. It doesn’t work so well, so they look for an alternative. The young assistant, however, isn’t fully on board with the old man’s plot. Will there be a happy ending?

Commentary

These filmmakers must have asked themselves, “What if Tim Burton animated the Cabinet of Dr. Caligari?” Or at least that’s what the character design makes me think.

The film is silent and uses all the Dutch angles and German impressionism of “Caligari” and other films of that age. It’s not strictly black and white; it’s tinted, as were many silent films. The animation is beautifully done, and all the characters show emotion and some nuance.

If you like the old silent classics, you’ll like this!

Contact Info:

Email:

· mailto:email@horrorguys.com

Websites:

· https://www.horrorguys.com

· https://www.horrormonthly.com