Blood of the Vampires (1966) (Philippines/USA)

aka Curse of the Vampires/Creatures of Evil/Whisper to the Wind

⭐️⭐️⭐️

Visiting their father’s estate in a small Filipino village, two siblings learn that their father has changed his will. Papa suffers a heart attack on the night of a ball being hosted at his home when his daughter bursts into the room to tell him about screams she heard coming from the family crypt. Eduardo and Leonor are confused as to why their dear old dad has ordered them to burn his whole damn castle to the ground at the time of his death, especially since the son was promised the vast estate. Eduardo figures out why when he’s shown a secret passageway by his ailing father and is horrified to see that his dear old mother has become a vampire thanks to a family curse. It’s all too late to do much of anything but harm because mama eventually bites her son (he foolishly believes he’s safe around the monster) and he begins to get up to vampiric shenanigans (poor bastard is still reflecting in mirrors so he can see his fangs show up). The fresh vamp attacks and takes a bride on a late-night stroll. He even puts an end to his papa’s life when the family patriarch kills the woman who started all of this. His sister enlists the help of her boyfriend Daniel (who really doesn’t like Eduardo) to attempt an escape but it doesn’t go all that well. There’s a shockingly heavy focus on generational trauma that I was not expecting at all in a Filipino horror flick from this decade but it adds a nice level of weight to the genre dynamics. We still get ourselves some torch-carrying villagers and pointy fangs to hit the familiar notes and a fucking ghost to add a layer of weirdness. Doomed romance, whips, chains, fog and some lovely gel-cap usage keep it all rolling. It drags in spots and holds a bit too closely to the supernatural storytelling that came before it but it’s still a truly unexpected treat for a low-budget vampire flick.

Brain of Blood

aka Brain Damage/The Brain/The Creature’s Revenge/The Oozing Skull/The Undying Brain

⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2

A dying benevolent Middle Eastern leader has his brain transplanted into the body of a mentally challenged and disfigured (burned with battery acid by some drunk bumpkins) behemoth by the name of Gor (with a name like that, he was doomed to be a hulking monster and of course he’s played by John Bloom) at the hands of a doctor working on the cutting edge (i.e. bullshit) of brain science, Dr. Trenton (Kent Taylor from Brides of Blood). Things go very wrong because that’s just inevitable and eventually a brutish beast with a new but failing brain is causing a problem for more than a few people. You see, what Trenton was keeping to himself and far from the concerned compatriots of the beloved leader from the made up nation of Khalid, is that for the transfer to work the body needs to be very fresh… like, we gonna have to murder somebody fresh. That goes wrong because the corpse of the burglar/probable-rapist Gor tosses from a building is in no condition to be of much use, which gets the doctor thinking Gor is his best option as the clock winds down on his ability to successfully pull off his bs science and laugh in the face of all those fools who doubted him. That’s not all that’s working against things because possible political bullshit, definitely fatal scheming and the malicious sleaziness of Trenton’s dwarf assistant (Angelo Rossitto probably best remembered from Freaks, although I’ve seen him in at least a dozen other things) have further complicated matters, it’s almost like transplanting brains illegally is a business that just calls to untrustworthy lunatics. Her loveliness Regina Carrol (lovely in a 60’s backup lounge singer way, that is) is around as the fiancée of the unfortunate leader (also his top secret agent) who gets called in by her future husband’s personal physician (holy shit, it’s Grant Williams from The Incredible Shrinking Man) after he manages to escape an assassination attempt. Everything goes to Hell because you just can’t trust anyone. Al Adamson unleashes some more drive-in fun with this mad scientist trash classic featuring chained women, an evil dwarf, an unlikely dungeon, a science gun that looks like it belongs in a movie from two decades earlier and Count Dracula himself Zandor Vorkov! That’s a big deal if you’re as big of a fan of Adamson’s Dracula vs. Frankenstein as I am. The drag is felt at various points as dungeon exploring, low-budget spy movie hijinks and plenty of chatter drag things to a halt but we’re always just a few minutes away from Regina Carrol’s humongous hair (Al Adamson’s most impressive special effect), low-rent laboratory tomfoolery and dangerous science.

Eye of the Beast (2007) (Canada)

⭐️⭐️⭐️

A scientist from the National Oceanographic Research Agency (James Van Der Beek) comes to a small fishing village, looking into the depletion of aquatic life in the area. There’s a local monstrous legend supposedly calling the lake home and when a young man is pulled out of the water with a story about a monster attack, the government egghead begins suspecting some weird shit is going down. The fishermen are hiding something and prefer blaming the awfulness on the local Native Americans and are obviously pieces of shit. Van Der Beek teams up with and falls for Officer Kat Thomas, a fishery officer and the only law in town following the sudden death of the sheriff. As the bodies pop up, Kat closes down the lake which has the local fishermen upset. The higher-ups disbelieve Van Der Beek’s conclusion and Kat saw the beast take her daddy when she was little, so most of the town thinks she’s a nut-bar looking for validation. When the main fisherman gets his ass attacked, racism gets put on the back burner and the hunt is on... more death follows. The significant lack of monster action definitely detracts from one’s enjoyment but there’s enough character development to keep ya are interested... if you’re into that sort of thing. The giant tentacles are delightful and mostly all you get to see which is both sensical and practical but still disappointing. James Van Der Beek fights a giant cephalopod... you’re either sold or you’re not.

Pick Me Up (2006) (USA/Canada)

⭐️⭐️⭐️

The under-appreciated Larry Cohen works from a David J. Schow (the man who coined the terms “stalk-and-slash” and “splatterpunk”) script for his serial killer outing in the Masters of Horror series. On a desolate patch of mountain road, a bus breaks down and its passengers make a few dangerous choices. Cautious and tough Stacia (Fairuza fuckin’ Balk) decides to walk the 12 to 14 miles to the nearest hotel, Birdy and Danny decide to hitchhike with a helpful and possibly insane truck driver (Michael fuckin’ Moriarty) and a paranoid wife and her frustrated husband decide it’s safer to stay with the bus driver until help comes. A charming hitchhiker comes across the bus and all the pieces are in place for an unexpected turf war between two serial killers and a handful of strangers who just had some truly terrible luck. Paths are crossed at the tiny motel where Stacia is staying unfortunately sandwiched between a truck driver who is following the trail of bodies and the hitchhiker who needed a place to torture his latest victim. Cohen does what he does best by allowing some interesting and flawed characters to breathe in the hands of some very good character-actors. Schow’s script may be a little scattered and silly but it creates enough space for the antagonists to prosper, unfortunately the protagonist kind of gets the short end of the stick. It’s still a good time. The wonderful Michael Eklund shows up as a rest stop cashier who gets to be the focal point of Moriarty’s acting chops. Lucky.

Abominable (2006) (USA)

⭐️⭐️⭐️

Matt “Serenity Now!” McCoy plays Preston Rogers, a well-known mountain climber who returns to his home near the cliff where a horrible accident left him a paraplegic and claimed his wife’s life. He begins to suspect there is something large lurking around the surrounding woods. His nurse refuses to believe him and he gets more frantic as whatever big and bad forest-dwelling beast begins picking off a bachelorette party being held at a neighboring cabin. Newly confined to his wheelchair, he attempts to save the lovely ladies (including sexy-as-all-hell Tiffany Shepis who makes her exit far too soon) and refuses to sit by and let them die. The cast (luckily) takes the whole thing seriously and is peppered with genre favorites in small roles (Jeffrey Combs, the aforementioned Shepis, Lance Henriksen, Paul Gleason, Phil Morris and Dee Wallace all collect a paycheck). The sasquatch is practical and a bit goofy looking (but who the hell cares) and there are some bursts of gory goodness. This enjoyable indie horror is a decent enough time waster.

Sick Girl (2006) (USA/Canada)

⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2

Lucky McKee reunites with the amazing Angela Bettis (if you haven’t seen May, what are you doing?) to get a little icky in this Masters of Horror addition. Our girl Bettis plays an awkward entomologist named Ida who receives an anonymous package from Brazil containing an unclassified insect. It breaks free and ends up biting Ida’s new gorgeous and odd girlfriend Misty (Erin Brown). Misty begins a slow transformation into something horrifying and when Ida receives a letter from her old professor (also, her new lovely lover’s papa) about the strange insect and its methods of reproduction, she begins to catch on to what her current girlfriend is undergoing and a contagion that is at high risk of spreading. The risks of moving a relationship way too fast are magnified into a ridiculous realm of body horror much to the benefit of any viewer who likes things to get a little weird in their horror. McKee’s consistently fresh spin on genre material continues as he utilizes a strong leading lady and a demented twist on a familiar warning. Big bug horror (but not too big), body horror, intolerance and relationship horror combine into a somehow cute, somewhat disturbing and undoubtedly strange combination. It may push into territory that gets a little too quirky but that’s a minor issue when it comes to this series that started out way too bland for my tastes.

Loner (2025) (UK)

⭐️⭐️

A social media giveaway is won by an aspiring vlogger and Angus Mattock happily makes his way to the wilderness retreat he’s been awarded. Documenting his digital detox in the gorgeous wilds has him following directions deep into the middle of nowhere, where a freshly set up mini cabin awaits him. He attempts to make the most of his time cutoff from modern amenities even if it sure as shit ain’t exactly roughing it. He picks up some unsettling sounds on his equipment and then begins hearing them with his own ears as night falls. The sound of screams has him snuffing out all his light sources and hiding in his tiny cabin. A frantic woman appears at the door and claims that something is after her and she needs to be let inside. Angus refuses and even pushes the woman down when she makes a desperate attempt to get in. She then wanders off into the darkness. The next day Angus walks into the woods in an attempt locate the woman he was no help to the night before. His axe gets stolen from him while he’s taking a dump in the woods and he returns to his cabin to find the place ransacked of anything that would help him in the situation he’s ill-prepared for. He decides it’s time to hike on out of the area and get back to regular life… sure, that’s gonna happen. A quick sojourn into a cave proves to be disturbing and he’s back at the cabin as night falls and something out in the perfect dark terrorizes him. The film stumbles on as our hero shares a recent tragedy and attempts to survive and get help however he can. Some nasty foot violence happens, forcing Angus to put a halt to any hiking out and madness comes knocking along with whatever is hanging about out of the viewer’s eye-line. Self discovery at least feels earned but boredom is still boredom and that boredom is even worse than regular boredom when spending all of your time with a mildly wet blanket of a man.