The Futility of Action in Science Horror
I recently rewatched a 1967 Christopher Lee film called Night of the Big Heat (aka Island of the Burning Damned), and its ending got me thinking of the connection between nature and the futility of human action in science fiction movies with a horror bent. This one is going to get spoilery about films, so if that bothers you here’s your chance to bail.
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C.H.U.D. II: Bud the Chud – a Mite-y Movie Mention
Movie
C.H.U.D. II: Bud the Chud (1989)
Genres
Comedy, Horror, Science Fiction
Elevator Pitch
High school students wake up a zombie that the army had hidden in their small town.
Reasons to Watch
- Gerrit Graham is delightful as Bud
- Robert Vaughn knows exactly what kind of movie he’s in and just has fun with it
- So many ridiculous cameos (watch Rich Hall get a haircut!)
- Zombie rampage on Halloween
Random Observation
This feels like a zombie spoof that got picked up by someone who happened to have the rights to use the C.H.U.D. title. It has nothing to do with movie to which it is a purported sequel.
The Bees (1978): A Mite-y Movie Mention
Movie
The Bees (1978)
Genres
Horror, Science Fiction, Thriller
Elevator Pitch
Scientists attempt to make killer bees infertile and wind up making them intelligent.
Reasons to Watch
- John Saxon negotiating with bees
- John Carradine buzzing happily to himself
- So many bees
- Unintentionally hilarious deaths
Random Observation
This is a totally sincere attempt to make a plea to save the environment. Sort of the Birdemic: Shock and Terror of its day.
Zinda Laash (1967)
aka Dracula in Pakistan
Directed by Khwaja Sarfraz
Written by Naseem Rizwani
Based on Dracula by Bram Stoker
Starring Rehan, Habibur Rehman, Deeba Begum, Allauddin, Yasmeen Shaukat, Sheela, Baby Najmi, Asad Bukhari, and Nasreen
I can’t seem to escape vampires this year. Ganja & Hess, Kiss of the Damned, Near Dark, Da Sweet Blood of Jesus, Trouble Every Day, and arguably Veerana — nearly a quarter of the films I’ve covered this HubrisWeen have been blood-suckers. So it’s perhaps fitting that I close out the event with one more. Known hereabouts as Dracula in Pakistan, it’s the boundary-pushing Zinda Laash (literally “The Living Corpse”).
Yeogo Geodam (1998)
aka Whispering Corridors
Directed by Ki-hyeong Park
Written by Jung-Ok In and Ki-hyeong Park
Starring Kang-hee Choi, Gyu-ri Kim, Min-jung Kim, Roe-ha Kim, Yu-Sook Kim, Mi-yeon Lee, Jin-hee Park, and Ji-hye Yun
A teacher is strangled and strung up to look like she committed suicide. There’s a long history of vengeful spirits in books and movies, but what we get in the Korean film Yeogo Goedam is something rather different. The ghost that haunts the girls’ school has anger issues, but mostly it wants to be a normal student. Murder is just something unpleasant that she engages in from time to time.
Xtinction: Predator X (2014)
aka Alligator X
Directed by Amir Valinia
Written by George Michael Kostuch, Cameron Larson, Caleb Michaelson, and Claire Sanchez
Starring Lochlyn Munro, Mark Sheppard, Elena Lyons, Paul Wall, Caleb Michaelson, Ricky Wayne, and Scott L. Schwartz
It used to be that prehistoric critters would turn up in lost worlds, places that were isolated and difficult to access. Sometimes a natural disaster, like an earthquake or hurricane, would release them on an unsuspecting modern world. After Jurassic Park, of course, those pesky scientists kept bringing them back to life. Xtinction: Predator X mixes and matches a few of the prehistoric origins to create something remarkably uninteresting.
Wild Zero (1999)
Directed by Tetsuro Takeuchi
Written by Satoshi Takagi
Starring Masashi Endô, Kwancharu Shitichai, Yôko Asada, Guitar Wolf, Drum Wolf, Bass Wolf, Mikoto Inamiya, Naruka Hakajo, Taneko, and Yoshiyuki Morishita
Sometimes a movie is so overstuffed that it transcends petty issues like coherent narrative and physical laws. The enthusiasm of the production is enough to propel the audience past any concerns about logic or story structure. Such a movie was Wyrmwood: Road of the Dead, a gleefully gory zombie romp from Australia. Wild Zero is another such film, also about zombies — this time from Japan.
Urban Legends: Bloody Mary (2005)
Directed by Mary Lambert
Written by Michael Dougherty and Dan Harris
Starring Kate Mara, Robert Vito, Tina Lifford, Ed Marinaro, Michael Coe, and Rooney Mara
Urban legends were all the rage in the late 1990s and early 2000s, in no small part due to the exhaustive series of books about them by Jan Harold Brunvand. These took the stories out of the realm of academic journals and presented them for enjoyment to a larger audience. It was inevitable that we’d get a slasher film using these modern folk tales as a gimmick. It was also probable that the sequels would wind up being released direct to video, as was the case with the third installment Urban Legends: Bloody Mary.
Da Sweet Blood of Jesus (2014)
Directed by Spike Lee
Written by Spike Lee and Bill Gunn
Starring Stephen Tyrone Williams, Zaarah Abrahams, Rami Malek, Elvis Nolasco, Felicia Pearson, Katherine Borowitz, Joie Lee, and Naté Bova
For a long time, it wasn’t easy to see Ganja & Hess, especially not as originally released. The distributors pulled it from theaters, recut it (removing around a half an hour from its run time), and re-released it as Blood Couple. A complete print was donated to MoMA and has had a few releases, most recently though Kino Lorber. I mention this because because by doing a remake of the film as Da Sweet Blood of Jesus, Spike Lee essentially brought Bill Gunn’s version to a wider audience.
Web of the Big Damn Spider 
