Rigor Mortis (2013) (Hong Kong)

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

A supernatural shit-storm is unleashed upon a public housing tenement in Hong Kong shortly after a burnt out actor moves in and attempts suicide. Before death can claim him (and some nefarious entity that has been waiting for a prone vessel) a vampire hunter past him prime in boxers and a robe smashes his door down and slices the noose. Yau successfully saves the life of Chin Siu-Ho and exorcises the entity. Now that Chin Siu-Ho has come close to whatever Hell awaits and pierced the veil but lived, he is now privy to the spooky shit residing in the massive apartment complex. And holy fuck is there a bunch of malicious insanity going down. Spectral tenants, hungry vampires and unrestful dead all call the place home and many of them are not content with sticking to the shadows. The death of an elderly man leads to his desperate wife asking for paranormal help from a magic man who lives in the building, a resurrection ritual is performed but rules are not followed thanks to impatience and a whole big can of worms is opened. Yau takes Chin under his wing to help fight the situation spiraling out of control. Unexpected death, expected death, impressive action sequences, fantastic set pieces (those damn twins) and a whole batch of awesome nightmares make the extended runtime fly on by. Cop out ending aside, it’s a wonderful show of love for the classic hopping vampire cinema that turned many a people into fans of HK horror and starring more than a couple folks from the essential Mr. Vampire series, there’s just a whole lot to love when it comes to this bad boy.

Horror in the High Desert 4: Majesty (2025) (USA)

⭐️⭐️1/2

Dolly Broadbent (Laurie Felix Bass, who is a damn treat), who we were introduced to two films back, grew up on Majesty Ranch (now the owner) where she and her family were plagued by some horrific entities that may have been close but were not quite human. She’s talked about all this awfulness before and in Fire Watch she mentioned that her father documented a lot of it but the box where he kept all of it disappeared a long while back. After a fire destroyed her home, Dolly managed to find her father’s missing box buried in their root cellar. This is enticing to the familiar faces we’ve come to know from the series and it points, not only to Dolly’s father’s mental decline, but the fact that the investigation of the fatal strangeness cursing the area had been looked into decades before the filmmakers of the series had any clue that some sinister shit was going down. A printed timeline, a mysterious contact, old photographs, film and video fill out the pieces as the usual talking heads add some spice to the intrigue. Butchered animals and spooky visitors prove that just because they call it paranoia doesn’t mean nobody is out to get you. Things get tied together, further questions are raised, more high strangeness gets introduced and I’m beginning to think there may not be an endgame for this series. There’s enough spookiness and interesting ideas on display to keep me invested but them returns are diminishing and my patience is going with em. They set up the next entry, so let’s hope it comes to a close because the water treading should not go on forever.

Horror in the High Desert 3: Firewatch (2024) (USA)

⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2

Oscar Mendoza looks into the disappearance of Gary Hinge (the first film) as a wildfire rages on the opposite side of the state. He’s also on a journey of personal discovery as a tough history had lead him down a rough path which he has seemingly managed to find his way out of. As law enforcement focuses on the fires, he uses this chaotic distraction to search for the mysterious cabin which led to Gary’s unfortunate end. Oscar is working on the theory that Gary had some secrets and thanks to his personal ties with the area, he has a heads up on the actual location where Gary vanished. He ends up in the area where misfortune befall the women in the second outing and that’s when the high strangeness begins bubbling up to the surface. Undeterred, it all leads to an old mine and a ghost town by the name of Edna. Of course, Oscar goes missing as well, the footage is found and we get another mockumentary set up around said footage… just with a some footage from the prior outings as well and a little twist when it comes to the fate of our protagonist. Not complaining, it’s pieced together professionally… as usual. A county conspiracy, strange encounters, familiar faces, spooky footage… the usual. Some solid lore building helps move things away from the drab opening act and the climactic hand-held horrors are what one would come to expect and enhanced by taking place in a creepy-ass cave and a spooky-ass ghost town. We’ll need answers soon because the journey only works when the destination is worth a damn, but I’ll give it the benefit of the doubt… for now.

Horror in the High Desert 2: Minerva (2023) (USA)

⭐️⭐️⭐️

Follow up to Marich’s 2021 found footage treat, traces a string of tragedies in Northeastern Nevada that tie into the disappearance of the prior outing’s protagonist. The documentary team behind the original dive into the mysterious murder of a woman in her home and the disappearance of another along the same desolate stretch of Nevada highway. The town of Cypress is the location of the incident and interviews with the EMT on site, a journalist and a few residents paint a picture of the horror that hit. Minerva is a college student partaking in a College geology program in Cypress, working with geologists in an actual mine. When she arrives in the small Nevada town, she finds the dorms full, so the school places her in a single white trailer in the middle of the isolated desert. Minerva’s video diary plumps up the runtime and brings on the chills as talking heads and follow up footage add to the intrigue. There’s more going on than you think, which brings a level of high strangeness into the fold and when Minerva discovers a bag containing an old tape and incredibly bizarre paintings, the solid ground of reality kinda turns into mush. This shit is properly spooky and Dutch Marich is really fucking good at this but unfortunately it also feels a bit undercooked and like it solely exists as a bridge into the next one. There’s too much going on and it doesn’t wrap up anything satisfactory. It’ll probably be a little better off once the inevitable third part drops.

Horror in the High Desert (2021) (USA)

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

In 2017, an experienced outdoors enthusiast named Gary Hinge vanished while on an excursion in Northern Nevada. Three years on, his roommate Simon, his sister Beverly, a journalist who covered his disappearance and a private investigator discuss his fate. Gary kept his location secret, as he was known to do, so they stumbled out of the gate to get their search running. The small town initially treats it as big news but without any updates they eventually lose interest. His truck gets found in a location that really wasn’t a place that Gary would want to explore and the search turns up nothing. Beverly suspects foul play and kind of gets in the way of the investigation, eventually hiring on the private investigator to start digging when it looks like it wasn’t her brother that drove his truck out to the High Desert. Police eventually call off the search but some fans of Gary’s blog think they may know where he is. His final posts point in the direction of something horrifying encountered on his last expedition and responding to pressure from his followers, Gary decides to head back out and prove what he saw. You already know how it goes but it’s a lot worse than you think. Solid fake documentary hits the right notes and succeeds in crafting an unsettling tragedy thanks to fine acting from a minimal cast and the perfect amount of slowly growing unease eventually coming to a crescendo. I’m a sucker for horror-themed mockumentaries, so I may not be the best person to come to for an honest opinion but it freaked my wife out to the point where I had to confess it was just a film, so I guess that’s something.

Werewolf Shadow (1971) (Spain/West Germany)

aka The Werewolf Versus the Vampire Woman/Shadow of the Werewolf/Walpurgis Night/Blood Moon /Satan vs The Wolf Man 

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2 

On the grounds of the estate being rented by Waldemar Daninsky (uh oh) the gravesite of the Satan-worshipping vampire/witch Countess Wandesa (uh oh) can be found. Two sexy college girls (oh no) are searching for said final resting place and, thanks to being lost and low on gas, manage to stumble upon Daninsky’s homestead. He invites them to spend the week (after all, the nearest town is twenty miles away and his handyman will be by on Sunday and can take them into town) and the girls accept. Elvira is a bit wary but Genevieve is all about going with the flow. The girls are ecstatic to discover that their thesis subject is in fact buried on the grounds and upon digging up the Countess, Genevieve not only removes the silver cross lodged in the skeletons chest but manages to bleed on the skull (UH OH!) Before you can say “God damnit Genevieve!” Countess Wandesa is back and doing what them vampires do. Unfortunately she’s not the only issue plaguing the Daninsky residence. There’s an old curse which causes poor Waldemar to transform into a werewolf during the full moon. His slightly insane sister has been managing to chain him up during the transformation but thanks to her recent murder at the teeth of the newly vampirized Genevieve, Waldemar is running around doing what them bloodthirsty hairy beasts do. Of course he and Elvira fall hard for each other which is quite convenient considering he can only be killed by the hands of his true love, thus ending his cursed existence. But before he can be put down for good, he’ll have to take care of that pesky vampire woman who wants Elvira as her slave to keep Daninsky in check. Paul Naschy is at his tortured best and there are plenty of boobs and blood to keep ya occupied. There’s an excellent atmosphere and the Barbara Steele-esque Patty Shepard is a wonderful visual presence as the evil Countess. An unnecessary subplot with Elvira’s police detective boyfriend coming to the rescue doesn’t distract that much but feels a bit tacked on. Nonetheless, this one is justifiably revered and a classic of monster cinema.

Blood Song (1982) (USA)

aka Dream Slayer/Premonitions

⭐️⭐️

Frankie Avalon plays psychopathic killer Paul Foley. Paul escapes from the institution housing him and starts dropping bodies on his path across America leading him to an inevitable confrontation with a young girl who received a blood transfusion from him years back. For some reason this has caused a psychic link with the young lady who is now witnessing his crimes in her mind’s eye. Avalon plays a mournful tune on his flute, something he’s been doing since as a kid he witnessed his papa take a gun to his mama, her lover and then himself. Tough break. High schooler Marion not only has these visions fucking with her head and causing the camera to zoom in on her eyes, she also has to deal with her hardass/abusive papa Richard Jaeckel being a real dick and hating on her seaman boyfriend Joey. I’m guessing it’s misplaced rage at himself because his drunk-ass is the reason his little girl has a leg brace and why a blood transfusion was necessary. Sure hope he’s not supposed to be the hero of this. Anyway, Paul rambles on, murdering anyone that dislikes his skills as a flutist. Eventually Marion stumbles across Paul burying a corpse in the woods and now she’s on his radar. Bad news for her friends or at least it would be if the movie had any interest in entertaining its audience. If non-threatening flute music and extreme close-ups of a girl’s eyeball are your thing, well that’s kind of unsettling but you should probably watch this. “Mild” is probably the best word I could use for this one. The lead is cute but none of the victims-to-be (our hero included) are all that memorable. Luca Brasi is there as a ship captain and that was nice to see. There’s also some hatchet violence to keep things a little interesting as it shambles to the close.