Really Awful Movies: Ep 172 – Train to Busan

March 31, 2017March 31, 2017 ~ reallyawfulmovies

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Train to Busan is a 2016 South Korean zombie apocalypse action thriller that has achieved considerable acclaim. It’s directed by Yeon Sang-ho and stars Gong Yoo, Jung Yu-mi, and Ma Dong-seok.

Train to Busan takes place on a passenger train to the large South Korean city of Busan, just as a zombie apocalypse is afoot. As if a daily commute wasn’t bad enough?

A young dad is accompanying his daughter to Busan, to visit her mother. He’s a fund trader, and absentee father so we know he’s supposed to meet with something redemptive, but that’s neither here nor there. Anyway, along for the ride, a baseball, and assorted other commuters on this train, who have to cope with a viral outbreak that’s turning the populate into frothing, mutant undead. You know how it goes.

So, is Train to Busan all that and a bag of chips? Or is the Asian zombie film a small cup of guacamole on the side? Check out the Really Awful Movies Podcast every Friday!

Really Awful Movies: Ep 168 – Plan 9 from Outer Space

March 3, 2017March 31, 2017 ~ reallyawfulmovies

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Its reputation precedes it. But does Plan 9 from Outer Space (original title Grave Robbers from Outer Space) deserve all the derogation? Some say it is the worst film ever made. This is patently false. We’d go to our graves (speaking of robbing them), saying Dana Carvey’s The Master of Disguise is worse.

Plan 9 is a 1959 independently made American black-and-white science fiction-horror film that was only released theatrically in 1959 by Distributors Corporation of America (as Valiant Pictures). The film is the product of an auteur. It was written, produced, directed, and edited by Ed Wood and stars Gregory Walcott, Mona McKinnon, legendary Scandinavian wrestler Tor Johnson, and hostess with the mostess, Vampira.

And most people know that Hollywood icon Bela Lugosi died mid-production, only to be replaced by a larger gentleman covering his visage with a cape.

The plot concerns extraterrestrials who are seeking to stop humanity from creating a doomsday weapon that could destroy the universe. The aliens implement “Plan 9”, a scheme to resurrect the Earth’s dead, referred to in the movie as “ghouls”. By causing bedlam, the aliens hope the crisis will force humanity to listen to them. If not, the aliens will then destroy mankind with armies of zombies. Or something. It’s a tad confusing.

And there are continuity errors aplenty. Viewers will have a blast noting day for night issues, the number of times the narrator says “my friends,” and of course, the infamous string allowing the flying saucers to…not so much fly, as hover in the frame.

Really Awful Movies: Ep 150 – Night of the Demons

October 28, 2016March 31, 2017 ~ reallyawfulmovies

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Angela is having a party…

Night of the Demons is a 1988 American supernatural horror film. Now, ordinarily we’ve made no bones of the fact we’re not necessarily the biggest fans of the supernatural genre, at least how it’s manifested itself now.

However, in Night of the Demons, written and produced by Joe Augustyn and directed by Kevin S. Tenney, there’s a certain charming effortless that’s pretty captivating.

The film stars William Gallo, Hal Havins, Amelia Kinkade, Cathy Podewell, and the ever–wonderful Linnea Quigley as high school seniors partying inside an isolated mortuary called Hull House.

Jeez, when will these kids ever learn? NEVER investigated a nearly abandoned mortuary under ANY circumstances.

When the kids decide to play a séance, things go haywire…one of them unknowingly unlocks a demon that was locked in the crematorium. The evil, demonic spirit begins to possess some of the partying teenagers and the remaining victims try to survive the night.

Filming took place in South Central Los Angeles for two months, and Night of the Demons was released on October 14, 1988. During its theatrical run, the film grossed $3 million against its $1 million budget.

It’s since achieved cult status. And like most movies of its type, it spawned sequels.