6/4 Daimajin (1966)

Here’s another one that’s been on the list for some time now. For what it is, Daimajin is a cool little flick and not like your run-of-the-mill kaiju fare. The storyline is a little wonky, but from what I can piece together, a Great Demon God, both revered and feared by the nearby villagers, is kept at peace with an annual ritual. Well wouldn’t ya know it, there’s a coup. Power shifts. The deposed family is killed except for, wouldn’t ya know it, the two children. They grow up. There’s fighting. There’s intrigue. There’s torture. There’s supernatural stuff. Daimajin doesn’t really have is big moment til the last 20-ish minutes, but those 20-ish minutes are an absolute blast to behold.

6/4 Bog (1979)

More like Slog. For real, on of the longest 90-minute segments of my life. 1979 had quite a range. The year that gave us Alien and Phantasm also gave us Killer Nun (up next) and…this. Dynamite feeshin’ (like ya do) wakes up a swamp critter, the likes of which ya ain’t seen since, I dunno, The Horror Of Party Beach or From Hell It Came. There’s some great tentacle rasslin’ (à la Bride Of The Monster) with tentacles I could probably whip up at home with some nylons, pool noodles, and Mod Podge.

6/7 Killer Nun (1979)

Argento, Bava, Fulci, Mattei. If you like these guys and their style of giallo, check out this little nunsploitation shocker by Giulio Berutti. Not a bad movie at all really. Supposedly it’s loosely based on a real case, so take that with as many grains of salt as you see fit. Sister Gertrude (played Anita Ekberg and marginally more lenient than Nurse Ratched) runs a geriatric hospital. People, of course, start dying, and not just because they’re geriatric. I’d classify this as giallo, so there is, of course, a big (albeit fairly predictable) twist.

6/11 Demon Wind (1990)

How can I have gotten this far in my life without every having seen this? The MST3K-style cover art alone should have sold me on this long before now. And it’s a strong start: crucified body on fire. Sign me up. Sadly, this highwater mark is not to be maintained. Hamfisted effects, terrible acting, one stupid character decision after another, and dialogue so packed with cheese it could cover a flatbed fulla nachos. Still, there’s a good moment here and there, lotsa splattery gore, decent makeup, and some halfway decent Lovecrafty vibes. Fun fun fun fun fun.

6/14 Influencer (2022)

Dang. Nary a redeemable or even remotely likeable character to be found anywhere in or even near this one. Predictable, at times tedious, and a little appearance-based demonization.

6/16 Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets (2023)

It takes quite a bit to get to me these days, but good gravy Marie did I need a shower after this ‘un here. I mean, Rulon and Warren Jeffs and the FLDS, that’s pretty god damn bad, but they weren’t trying to manufacture a nation of righteous soldiers that would go out and attempt to rule aaalll of christendom. Sheesh.

6/23 Class Of 1999 (1990)

Jorge and I watched this for another Tubi Tuesday episode. That’s where we go through Tubi and write down 6 titles we come across that neither of us has seen. We write these on a 6-sided dry erase die, roll it, watch whatever comes up, and review it. Why Tubi? Funny you should ask. A) It’s free. B) Their horror selection is kicking a bunch of other services’ asses right now. As for the movie, first, I love the fact that in 1990 this was someone’s vision of teenagers a mere 9 years later. High schools have become ultraviolent to the point where some exist in freefire zones that the police won’t venture into. Funny enough, news crews will, no problem. Ultimately, we didn’t hate this. It has its fun moments. There’s a drug that gets snorted out of what looks like a AA battery. Things explode for no reason. Everyone looks like a rejected extra from The Lost Boys. Pam Grier is an evil robot (for the record, if an evil Pam Grier robot had rolled up on 1990 me and said menacingly that she wanted to “educate” me, I’d jump in the car).

6/23 Whisper (2007)

Kids are usually creepy, especially super-mature but small kids dressed like adults. So there’s that. Anyway, I watch a few horror reviewers on the YouTubes, and one of my go-to folks is Kainan Becker and his channel Ghost Pirate Entertainment. I’ve probably mentioned him before and no doubt will again since every month at least one movie I’ve watched is something I picked up on his channel. This is one of ’em, but as simpatico as his opinions and mine seem to be, this one for me kinda trips on the goal line. I was with it right up to the final payoff, and that was enough to bring the whole structure crashing down. To be fair, I’m never a fan of the kind of ending Whisper provided, so it may very well just be me. Would I say go ahead and give it a shot? Yes, for sure.

6/24 Black Mirror Season 6 (2023)

I for the most part liked this but find it the weakest season thus far. I’ve always considered Black Mirror to be a kind of high tech Twilight Zone, and it’s that technology edge that made the series so effective and unnerving for me. Everything that happens is predicated on one of the following:
-It uses technology we already have (National Anthem, Shut Up And Dance)
-Technology we already have could plausibly be used this way in the near future (Nosedive)
-Technology we don’t have seems extremely plausible (The Entire History Of You, Playtest, San Junipero)
So one of my major problems with S6 is that three episodes utterly abandon this up grounding in tech we’ve had up til now. Now, on one end, Demon 79 gets a bit of a pass because it just has such a grindhouse look now and then. Mazey Day leaves tech behind in a particularly egregious manner, to the point where I found myself saying out loud, “Seriously? This is where this one’s going? Really?” I won’t say more for those of you what ain’t seen it yet, but don’t get your hopes up. Joan Is Awful was okay enough I suppose, but multiple reality stuff makes my head hurt about as badly as time travel. A high point is Beyond The Sea which, whew, ain’t gonna give ya dancin’ feet.