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Five Midnight Movies Serve Up Deliciously Frightful Nights

Part modern horror documentary and part old school monster movie, JIMMY TUPPER AND THE GOATMAN OF BOWIE (US-2010; dir. Andrew Bowser) is an innovative and quirky film that challenges the notion of found footage and what it means to be scared in the woods. Jimmy Tupper is a no one, he’s nothing. He spends his days working at a Starbucks in suburban Maryland and spends his nights drinking and playing Rock Band. His friends see him as the resident stoner and waste of space. One night they decide to pull a prank on poor Jimmy, and while he is passed out drunk they leave him in the middle of the woods. The next day Jimmy is nowhere to be found. When he finally emerges from the woods he is beaten and bloodied and making outlandish claims. He claims to have seen a monster, the famed “Goatman” of Bowie. His friends believe this to be the drunken ramblings of an over excited nitwit, but Jimmy knows better. He heads to the woods determined to capture footage of the elusive creature. Was Jimmy only dreaming? Did he really see a monster? Only time, and Jimmy’s video camera, will tell.

What would Another Hole in the Head be without a shameless rip-off of a popular movie? In LADY TERMINATOR (Indonesia – 1988; dir. Jalil Jackson) the spirit of an ancient supernatural siren possesses the body of a young anthropological student, who then goes on a murderous rampage. Her target: Erica, the great-granddaughter of the man who originally bested and killed the sexy siren. Collecting an arsenal of weapons and killing anyone who gets in her way, this supernatural assassin absolutely will not stop until the target is eliminated. Erica’s only hope for survival is her elderly uncle, a shaman with knowledge of the Queen’s magic powers, and Max McNeill, top cop in Jakarta’s “Speshal Sekuriti” Squad who naturally falls in love with her. Countless bullets fly and multiple explosions bloom before the final, ultimate confrontation.

The crime-ridden streets of New York City circa 1980 are alive and well in the cult classic THE EXTERMINATOR (US) by famed schlock-master James Glickenhaus. When John Eastland’s best friend, Michael Jefferson, is mugged and left permanently crippled, he decides to do something about it. Jefferson had saved Eastland’s life in Vietnam and now it’s time for Eastland to get revenge for his friend. Using his old Army gear he sets out on a crusade to clean up the streets of New York using the name “The Exterminator.”

In the absurdly satirical and comedic TUCKER AND DALE VS EVIL (US – 2010; dir. Eli Craig) two hillbillies are suspected of being killers by a group of college kids camping near the duo’s West Virginian cabin. As the body count accidentally climbs so does the fear and confusion as the college kids try to seek revenge against the pair, who believe that the kids are on some sort of suicide pact. Preconceptions and misunderstandings abound as horror and hilarity occupy the screen side by side.

Yojiro Takita’s SEXY TIMETRIP NINJAS is a classic of the Japanese “pink movie” genre. A feudal samurai and ninja fall through a wrinkle in time and are transported from ancient to modern Japan. SEXY TIMETRIP NINJAS puts both the male samurai and his arch enemy, the sex kitten ninja, on public transport. This elegant ‘pink film’ weaves a ribald tale of humor as the two learn the tricks of the trade in dealing with modern day life in Tokyo. Along the way they are exposed to everything from love hotels to brothels and all the sexually hyper active dwellers of modern day Tokyo. SEXY TIMETRIP NINJAS is in a class of it’s own and perfectly weaves erotic scenes that move from arousing to humorous and back again without batting an eye. If only riding MUNI could be so entertaining!

The Return of Takeshi Miike Plus A Full Slate of Japanese Cinema

Prolific director and Another Hole in the Head alum Takeshi Miike (CROWS: EPISODE 0 and DETECTIVE STORY – HoleHead 2009) brings us his newest creation – YATTERMAN (Japan-2009). Based on the popular anime of the same name, the film follows toyshop owner Gan and his cute assistant Ai as they battle the evil Dronbow gang. Led by femme fatale Doronjo and her henchmen, Boyacky and Tonzra, the Dronbow gang is looking for the Skull stone, which is said to grant its owner any wish.

Another Hole in the Head continues to bring the WTF to San Francisco film lovers with the trippy and visually stunning SYMBOL (Japan – 2009). Director Hitoshi Matsumoto stars as the central character, a man who wakes up and mysteriously finds himself trapped in an empty, white rectangular room, wearing clownish bright yellow polka dot pajamas. Where is he? Who did this to him? How did he end up here? Will he manage to make him escape to safety? Meanwhile, in a Mexican dusty town, a green-masked wrestler known as Escargot man prepares for an important match. As the nameless prisoner appears closer to escape and Escargot man steps into the ring, filmmaker Matsumoto amplifies the baffling yet suspenseful atmosphere to a crescendo of ridiculous excess.

Following in the footsteps of MACHINE GIRL is Director Noboru Iguchi’s newest B-movie masterpiece: ROBOGEISHA (Japan-2009). Clumsy Yoshie is forced to work like a slave as an assistant for her big sister Kikue, a beautiful geisha. Hikaru Kageno, who is the scion of a steel company, begins courting Kikue but when he meets Yoshie his attention shifts. The sisters enter into a competition for the young man’s affection, and soon the two are undergoing mechanical engineering to enhance their abilities in an escalating arms race to see who he’ll choose. This continues even after the man kidnaps the pair and begins to train them to be assassins and Yoshie begins to learn the truth behind their assignments. Soon the sisters find themselves heading towards a final confrontation!

Kengo Kaji, writer of TOKYO GORE POLICE (HoleHead 2008), hops into the director’s chair for SAMURAI PRINCESS (Japan-2009), a genre-bending sci-fi/fantasy splatterfest that pits an android assassin against mutant madmen in an alternate universe version of feudal Japan. In this version of history, train yard duels, detachable chainsaw limbs, and breast grenades are commonplace occurrences, while mad scientists twist the laws of nature to create sentient robots that can pass as human and crave souls. Enter an android warrior with a penchant for bloodletting (adult video starlet Aino Kishi) and her human partner (Dai Mizuno), whose eardrum-crushing electric guitar riffs are so loud, they’re literally weapons of mass destruction. When our heroine is infused with the souls of eleven of her fallen sisters, she uses their combined power to take down anyone who stands in the way of her quest for humanity. The result is a nonstop geyser of gore, with skeletons popping out of torsos, every imaginable appendage removed from bodies and one particularly angry man-eating phallus.

Another graduate of TOKYO GORE POLICE, special effects genius and director Yoshihiro Nishimura goes for something decidedly more slapstick with VAMPIRE GIRL VS. FRANKENSTEIN GIRL (Japan-2009). Co-directed with Naoyuki Tomomatsu of STACY, ZOMBIE SELF DEFENSE FORCE and EAT THE SCHOOLGIRL fame and based on a manga by Shungiku Uchida, this delicious drama tells a tale of two schoolgirls who pine for the same man. Young Mizushima is a handsome fellow with floppy locks who cuts a dashing figure in his school uniform. On Valentine’s Day, Mizushima is presented with a single chocolate by new transfer student Monami. However, Monami has added a special ingredient to the chocolate – her blood! And eating it causes Mizushima to experience a hallucinogenic trip. It is at that moment, when Mizushima is freaking out most mightily, that Monami opens her heart: she is a vampire and wants the two of them to live together forever as vampires. But Mizushima already has a girlfriend! Keiko! And she’s pissed! Fortunately she’s got a mad scientist dad, with a secret laboratory on school property, and he turns his daughter into a Franken-Keiko Monster made of bits and pieces chopped from the cooling corpses of her classmates. As we all know, this kind of vampire vs. Frankenstein conflict can only be solved by fighting, beating, stabbing, chewing, clawing and a showdown high atop Tokyo Tower.

Whereas HOSTEL was for kids, GROTESQUE (Japan-2009; dir Kouji Shiraishi) is definitely for adults. This was billed as the “cruelest Japanese splatter movie ever” and it truly lives up to that title in a torture porn genre that has largely taken over the horror field. No CGI effects here, just sadistic violence that rarely flinches away, use of excellent makeup and prosthetics and shot very convincingly. Needless to say, in the finest tradition of Japanese gore cinema, the plot is minimal, with a young couple played by Adult actress Nagasawa Tsugumi and Kawatsure Hiroaki being snatched off the street, only to wake up shackled in a grimy basement. Without even having the decency to explain why, a particularly sadistic madman proceeds to degrade, torture and mutilate them. This film is not for the faint of heart.

Shot in Awesome High-Definition Terror(!), DEATH KAPPA (Japan-2009; dir. Tomoo Haraguchi) pays homage to GODZILLA and other retro monster movies. The story revolves around failed pop star Kanako, who returns to her hometown to live with her beloved grandmother. Yet no sooner does she return home than a couple on a drinking binge run over and kills her beloved grandma! With the old woman gone, Kanako takes to running the family only to have the same drunken killers disturb that structure—which is the keeper of Kappa, one of Japan’s many Yokai creatures. Lucky for Kanako the Kappa is a benevolent, humanlike turtle and is quickly welcomed into town by the villagers. However, unbeknownst to anyone, Yuriko, the granddaughter of a long-dead mad scientist has chosen to continue her ancestor’s twisted experiments and develop a half-human/half-fish supersoldier. All hell breaks loose when Yuriko’s plans are thwarted, and she detonates an atomic weapon that causes both the kappa and one of the gill men to grow to monster-sized proportions. It is at this point that the showdown begins between the enlarged gill man, known now as Hangyoras, and DEATH KAPPA!

In the West Coast Premiere of ALIEN VS NINJA (Japan – 2010) Director Seiji takes us to Chiba, Japan to a band of great Ninja warriors led by Yamata called Iga Ninja. One day they witness a flash in the sky and a roaring giant ball of fire crashes into the distant forest. The warriors rush into the deep woods in an attempt to identify the mysterious fireball. There, instead of finding predictable enemies, they are stunned to face never-seen-before creatures with claws and fangs – aliens! The hungry brutal aliens start to savage and feast on the Ninja warriors, leaving only a few to survive. Yamata and his warriors swear to avenge their comrades’ deaths and risk their lives to challenge the aliens. However, none of the Ninja weapons, neither their swords nor their throwing stars, has any affect on the alien warriors. Now the Japanese greatest Iga Ninja face the biggest challenge ever!

But wait, there’s more. On the next page…