Tales from the Void, Season One

Maybe the word “void” is a fitting way to refer to a creepypasta subreddit. Evidently, that is how the community sees itself, since all the stories adapted for this anthology series came from r/NoSleep short fiction horror community. Some contributors parlayed their stories into book deals and a handful have even been optioned. Of course, many have been largely ignored. Perhaps fittingly, and certainly not unexpectedly, the quality varies greatly throughout the 6-episode first season of creator Francesco Loschiavo’s Tales from the Void, based on r.NoSleep stories, which releases tomorrow on BluRay.

Shrewdly, the opening episode, “Into the Unknown” is the best of the six (and the only one provided for review when the series debuted on Screambox). The darned thing just shows up one day in the parking lot of a large, somewhat isolated apartment building. It is like a giant square, non-reflective black flat-screen TV that hovers in the air. It also appears invisible to cameras and film, as Harris discovers. He is the only one exhibiting intellectual curiosity about it, but plenty of his neighbors are obsessed.

Harris’s friend Anton has the night-watch, while Bill (who seems to hold some kind of building captain position) and his hired goons guard it by day. Increasingly paranoid, Bill fears the Square must be some kind of government experiment and/or a threat of unknown origin. He is determined to protect the building, especially Harris, from the Square, no matters how much it hurts.

Throughout it all, director Joe Lynch maintains a moody atmosphere and skillfully builds the mounting paranoia.  The adaptation of Matthew Dymerski’s tale lacks the black humor and snappy attitude of many of Lynch’s film, particularly Mayhem and Everly, but it creates a sense of a self-contained community, under extreme stress.

Conveniently, the second episode, also happens to be second best in quality too. “Fixed Frequency” harkens back to 1980s teen horror, following three punky kids who prank their neighbors, by hacking their baby-monitors. Juan does not think it is very funny to terrify young mothers, but he plays along with Kurt and Cedric, because of peer pressure. Then, at their last house of the night, they hear an ominous bogeyman voice talking back to them through their walkie. It seems like he is exactly what they pretended to be—and he is coming for them next.

Helmed by Loschiavo, “Fixed Frequency” perfectly hits the right nostalgic notes. If anything, it feels a little truncated, but that suggests how effective the set-up is. Of all the first season episodes, this one could most easily be fixed-up into a feature length treatment.

Unfortunately, “Starlight,” also helmed by Loschiavo, is by far the most predictable. It follows Whit Barnett, a would-be influencer, who is as abrasive as he is pathetic. Yet, he has been selected for a mysterious new game show, which, of course, is exactly what we think it is. Oh, that crazy dark web.

Earth II: CCP Nuclear Blackmail in Space

This 1971 TV movie feels more realistic today than it did the year it released. When it was produced, Mainland China was still not a UN member, but by the time it aired, the Communist regime had taken Taiwan’s place. In retrospect, that was a huge mistake. In the film (conceived as a TV pilot), the CCP engages in nuclear blackmail, in defiance of the UN. Today, they would do so with UN support. However, the titular international space station is at the greatest risk in Tom Gries’s Earth II, which releases today on BluRay.

Most UN member nations, including the United States, agreed to help finance Earth II and recognize it as a sovereign nation, in the Roddenberry-esque hope that it will develop scientific innovations to solve all our terrestrial problems. The one-world idealists insist Earth II must remain neutral, but hawks like Frank Karger are skeptical. However, the former NASA launch director has the kind of skills Earth II needs, so he immigrates with his family, intending to shape more realistic military and defense policies for the space station.

In contrast, his friend and colleague David Seville strictly advocates for Earth II’s utopian ideals. Unfortunately, reality intrudes when China launches a satellite armed with nuclear warheads, ironically pointed at Moscow (even though the USSR originally supplied the nukes to their socialist brothers). Clearly, screenwriters Allan Balter and William Read Woodfield subscribed to the Sino-Soviet split scenario that was then in vogue.

Rather awkwardly, every rotation Earth II makes round Earth I, they come perilously close to colliding with the CCP satellite. They issue strongly worded diplomatic protests, but the “Red Chinese” (as the film refers to the regime) tells Earth II to go pound sand. Seville is inclined to live with Damocles Sword, but Karger convinces the station through their town meeting-style direct democracy to take active measures to remove the nukes.

Obviously, Gries, Balter, and Woodfield have a greater affinity for Team Seville. Yet, some of the rash, ill-thought-out actions of his fellow peaceniks risk ultimate Armageddon for Earth I. Indeed, the writing is sufficiently smart, to the extent that it greatly muddles the intended message, which actually makes the TV film quite interesting. Earth II also has the distinction of advisory help from both NASA and, believe it or not, Buckminster Fuller, who created the geometric maps displayed in the control room.

Tony Franciosa is surprisingly good as Karger (even though his presence screams “TV movie,” especially since Mariette Hartley portrays his wife, Lisa). However, Gary Lockwood is disappointingly dour and rather unengaged as Seville (especially considering his classic appearance in 2001 and his great guest-shot on Star Trek). On the other hand, Gary Merrill is reliably craggy as veteran operations director Walter Dietrich. It is also worth noting the great James Hong and Soon-tek Oh appear uncredited as the Red Chinese “diplomats.”

Saloum, from Senegal with Fear

Fela Kuti might have said “music is the weapon…of the future,” but for the mercenaries known as “the Hyenas of Bangui,” guns and “voodoo”-like magic are better weapons. Their bwiti practitioner, Papa Minuit, covers their magical six. However, they will be severely out magically-gunned when they take refuge in the notoriously haunted Sine-Saloum delta region in director-screenwriter Jean Luc Herbulot’s Saloum, which releases today on BluRay,

Chaka leads the Hyenas from their base in the Central African Republic, but he originally hails from Senegal’s Sine-Saloum. For their latest gig, the Hyenas must safely escort a Mexican drug-lord out of the chaos of Guinea-Bissau’s 2003 coup. Unfortunately, a bullet nicks the fuel line of their getaway plane, forcing an emergency landing in Sine-Saloum, where Cheika happens to know a “nearby” (eight hour’s walk) artist’s retreat.

Except, their detour was no accident. Cheika engineered it, because he seems to have unfinished business with Omar, the proprietor, who can’t quite remember where or when they met. The family-style meals will be especially awkward, since they must share them with Souley Fale, a cop supposedly on vacation and Awa, a deaf-mute who makes it known to Cheika (through sign language) she knows who they are and she will expose them, unless he agrees to take her with them.

Initially, the Hyenas want nothing to do with the demanding Awa. However, when the local demonic monsters start attacking the guests through their ears, her deafness becomes an unlikely asset. For years, Omar kept them in check through a Faustian bargain, but Cheika’s plans upset the balance.

The swarming entities looking surprisingly cool on-camera, especially considering the film’s extreme budget constraints. They are also quite distinctively different from just about every other supernatural bogeyman horror fans might have seen before.

Yet, Herbulot does not merely overachieve with the special effects. Saloum is uncannily atmospheric and increasingly unnerving. Arguably, this is the most satisfying, relentlessly super-charged African film since Viva Riva! (exclamation point in title).

1982: The Greatest Geek Year Ever

Technically, there was a superhero movie this year, but it takes a while to get to it. As it happens, Clint Eastwood, whose most likely final film was just unceremoniously dumped into theaters, had two films release this year. Genre fans were truly spoiled this year, but we didn’t know how good we had it growing up in the 1980s. Looking back, most viewers will agree with the general enthusiasm of the commentators in Roger Lay Jr.’s 1982: The Greatest Geek Year Ever, which releases Tuesday on DVD in a feature-documentary cut.

It will not take long to convince readers of 1982’s cinematic merits. Just look at the highlights: E.T., Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Rocky III, Creepshow, Poltergeist, and Conan the Barbarian. Amongst the “flops” were universally beloved classics like John Carpenter’s The Thing and Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner. Plus, there were “minor” hits like The Swamp Thing (the lone “superhero” movie) and Tron, which scratched out its profitability for Disney through video game tie-ins.

There were several historic firsts, like Friday the 13^th, Part III, which was the first film in which Jason wore the iconic hockey mask. Sadly, Halloween III: The Season of the Witch became the first and last installment of the Halloween franchise not featuring Michael Myers, but in retrospect, it was one of the best. Filmmakers took risks, which sometimes paid off, as with Jim Henson’s brilliant The Dark Crystal.

All of the above films are covered in considerable detail during Greatest Geek Year Ever—and rightfully so. However, some of the omissions will leave you scratching your head, like Jean-Jacques Annaud’s Quest for Fire and Alan Parker’s Pink Floyd: The Wall, which were shoot-for-the-moon movies if ever there was one. Weirdly, nobody mentions this was the first year Disney faced serious competition for theatrical animation, from Don Bluth’s The Secret of NIMH, and Rankin-Bass’s The Last Unicorn.

They cover some of the “prestige” films as well, while lamenting the Best Picture Oscar for Ghandi over so many other films that have become a part of our lives (yet, it is not as egregious as Kramer vs. Kramer winning in 1979, which stands as another incredibly deep year for movies). Appropriately, Lay and company spend a good deal of time on Eastwood’s Firefox, which arguably represents the very first “techno-thriller,” whereas Eastwood’s much more personal Honkytonk Man is ignored. Perhaps one of the most glaring oversights is An Officer and a Gentleman, which is only mentioned it passing, but still holds up and its military cred ought to buy it more screen discussion.

Frankly, some of the most entertaining segments focus on more idiosyncratic selections, like The Beastmaster, which became a hit on video, and the Roger Corman-produced Forbidden World, mostly because it is always fun to hear the low-budget mogul reminisce. Yet, nobody is more tongue-in-cheek than Barry Bostwick looking back on the goofiness of Hal Needham’s Megaforce.

Before Dawn: ANZACs in the Trenches

It is scandalous it took us so long to dedicate a proper memorial to the American servicemen who served in WWI, but at least when we finally did, we did it right. Arguably, WWI perhaps looms larger in the Australian public consciousness, thanks to Gallipoli (the battle and the film). They were in France too. Farm-raised Jim Collins is one of the Australians fighting a war of inches behind French lines in Jordan Prince-Wright’s Before Dawn, which releases tomorrow on DVD/BluRay.

Collins and his mates want to enlist, because they believe it will be an adventure that will lead to later dividends. He assumes his father opposes because he wants to keep him on the farm. However, when he reaches France, Collins realizes this war is nothing like he imagined—and it will not end anytime soon.

In a baptism of fire, their corporal takes Collins and three mates on a mission into no man’s land on their first night in the trenches. Only Collins returns. He blames himself for at least one of their deaths, because he could not kill a German soldier who looked even younger than himself. Consequently, he takes greater risks to save other Allied soldiers, as the weeks drag into months and even years.

There is a lot that works in Before Dawn, but just as the generals were fighting prior wars with new technology, Prince-Wright is largely hemmed in by the cinematic vocabulary of the various film versions of All Quiet on the Western Front. Few films have successfully broken out of the trench straight-jacket, but it has been done by the likes of 1917, The Blue Max, and, ironically, the animated Sgt. Stubby (which is probably the best of the lot).

Nevertheless, the gritty realism of Before Dawn packs a punch and the warfighting special effects are impressive, in an immersive kind of way. Prince-Wright conveys a visceral sense of how the mud and muck were a constant, demoralizing presence, as well as the sudden randomness of death.

Levi Miller credibly portrays Collins’ harsh maturation, but never in a way that truly surprises the audience. Instead, Myles Pollard somewhat overshadows him as the battle-hardened and also secretly battle-scarred Sgt. Beaufort, who maybe should have been the focal character, as perceived by Collins.

Mobile Suit Gundam: Cucuruz Doan’s Island

Among anime fans, Mobile Suit Gundam is considered the granddaddy of the mecha genre. Yet, during its initial series run, budget shortfalls constantly forced producers to cut corners. Series director Yoshiyuki Tomino believed the economizing was particularly conspicuous throughout the fifteenth episode, so he withheld it from most subsequent distribution packages. However, he still believed the story had potential. Years later, this interlude from the Earth Federation’s battle against Zeon separatists gets a feature-length remake in Yoshikazu Yasuhiko’s Mobile Suit Gundam: Cucuruz Doan’s Island, which releases Tuesday on BluRay.

All you really need to know about the Battle of Jaburo is recent momentum has favored the Federation, but Zeon has a major game-changing counter-offensive planned. According to his orders, Captain Bright Noa dispatched Amuro Ray and his comrades Kai Shiden and Hayato Kobayashi on a “mopping up” operation, targeted suspected sleeper operatives on Alegranza, perilously near their Canary Islands base.

Unfortunately, after the disoriented Ray separates from his unit, he is ambushed by a vintage Zaku, a Zeon mecha suit. Per protocol, Shiden and Kobayashi must leave him behind. However, he will not face the sort of peril they fear. Instead, Cucuruz Doan, the pilot of the Zaku, helps nurse Ray back to help and offers him hospitality in his farm, a refuge for two dozen or so war orphans.

While Ray is eager to rejoin the war, Doan has declared his own separate peace. He bears Ray no ill-will, but he will not do anything that could bring warfighting back to his island. Consequently, Ray wastes days searching for the Gundam Doan hid alongside his Zaku. Yet, as Ray comes to know the orphans, he better appreciates Doan’s desire to protect them and his aversion to the ongoing war.

Of course, war inevitably returns to Alegranza, whether Doan likes it or not. Having lost contact with their sleeper operative, Doan, the sinister Zeon commander M’quve deploys a unit of Zakus to take charge of the doomsday weapon buried in the island’s subterranean caverns. Ray’s friends are also on their way, since Captain Noa conveniently feigned engine trouble, to facilitate the unsanctioned rescue operation he knew they would launch.

The contrasting ways Ray and Doan relate to war gives this film some intriguing philosophical heft. It is easy to see why Tomino considered the original episode lost a lost opportunity. The storyline is also easy to carve out of the overall series narrative. However, much of the business involving the orphans is a way too precious.

Ride, on DVD

The Hawkins are no Ewings. Their ranching and cowboying way of life was under stress, even before they had to face childhood cancer. Having their son Peter behind bars is not much help either. At least his mother Monica stays plenty busy as the sheriff, but the pay cannot cover new uninsured treatments. Of course, Peter knows all about the outlaw way to raise money in Jake Allyn’s Ride, which releases this Tuesday on DVD and BluRay.

Peter Hawkins was originally sentenced to less than two years in prison, but somehow it was extended to a full four. His father John instructed the family to sever all contact, which they mostly did, because they were so preoccupied with his younger preteen sister Virginia’s cancer diagnosis. Just when they thought she was coming home, new cancer cells emerge.

Grandpa is still there for him, ready to coach Peter when he returns to competitive bull-riding. His old cell-mate is also ready and willing, whenever he needs to buy self-medication. However, Hawkins also happens to notice where his dealer stashes all his illicit cash, which could be handy information to know.

Allyn, who directs himself, really understands the small-town western setting and he depicts their family and cowboy values in a respectful manner. Unfortunately, some viewers will be frustrated Allyn refuses to choose either hardscrabble family drama or gritty crime lane, basically straddling the center line instead. However, that makes Ride quite a distinctive film. Indeed, the former creates such high stakes in the latter.

C. Thomas Howell might just deliver the screen performance of his career as vinegary John Hawkins (or it is a close second to his work in The Outsiders). It is an incredibly complex and intense performance. Frankly, he looks even craggier than Forrie J. Smith portraying his father Al, but that just adds further poignancy to his performance.

Although Annabeth Gish has less screentime, she serves up some powerful moments in the third act. Again, Ride deserves some consideration if anyone programs a Gish retrospective. Allyn also does right by himself playing Peter Hawkins. He brings out the full tragedy of his circumstances, without wallowing in fake pity. In fact, in some ways the film is very much about his character learning to take responsibility.

The First Omen, on DVD

Recently, nuns have been like the red-shirted disposable crew-members of horror movies, especially in Immaculate, which wasn’t otherwise special in any way. A new novitiate is duly in for very similar treatment in this film. In fact, it could almost be considered a remake, even though it only opened in theaters a few weeks later, but [badly] retconned into the Omen franchise. One thing is for certain, someone must be getting pregnant eventually in Arkasha Stevenson’s prequel, The First Omen, which releases today on DVD and BluRay.

Ironically, the prologue serves up the film’s scariest scene, featuring a slightly younger Father Brennan (played by Patrick Troughton, the second Doctor [Who] in the original film). Alas, it is mostly downhill from there. Eerily like Sydney Sweeney in Immaculate, naïve prospective “Sister” Margaret has been lured to an ominous Italian convent-orphanage by Cardinal Lawrence, her old trusted priest, who now is part of a shadowy cabal within the Church.

Again, she befriends a comparatively free-spirited fellow novitiate, Luz, in whom Margaret confides her concerns, including the apparent abuse of Carlita, an orphan who suffers from disturbing visions. Sound familiar yet? However, First Omen has Father Brennan to warn Margaret there are sinister things afoot at the convent, if she hadn’t noticed yet.

By far, the best thing going for First Omen is the perfectly cast Ralph Ineson as Father Brennan. He definitely has the right sort of grizzled Peter Cushing-esque intensity for Antichrist-busting priest.

However, the film waters down Fr. Brennan’s backstory, ditching his past sexual transgressions, which allowed the Satanic faction temporarily corrupt him. Stevenson and co-screenwriters Tim Smith and Keith Thomas go further, somewhat de-Satanizing the secret Devil-worshiping cabal, turning them into bizarre uber-Catholic fanatics seeking to hasten the Antichrist’s arrival to “scare” people back to the Church. Right, what could go wrong with that plan?

The Story of G.I. Joe, Restored on BluRay

There was a time when G.I.’s expected war correspondents to be on their side. That was during WWII and maybe sometimes the Korean War. Nobody had more sympathy for the grunts in harm’s way than Pulitzer Prize winner Ernie Pyle. Sadly, Pyle was killed-in-action during the Battle of Okinawa, two months before the film based on his newspaper stories was released. We missed the humanity of his journalism in future wars, while Pyle missed out seeing his words done justice in William Wellman’s The Story of G.I. Joe, which has been freshly restored and released on DVD and BluRay, by Ignite Films.

When Pyle first embeds with Company C (18^th Infantry) in Tunisia, the GIs see an undersized middle-aged pencil-pusher, but they respect him when he proves he is tough enough to keep up with them. Subsequently, they immediately accept as a foxhole-mate when he rejoins them in Italy. Pyle remembers them all well, especially battle-hardened Lt. Bill Walker, who is now Capt. Walker, because he “outlived” the other Lieutenants.

Mired underneath an ancient monastery serving as a German observation post, Pyle serves as a sounding board, counselor, and too often a eulogist for Walker’s men. Sgt. Steve Warnicki constantly fiddles with a victrola, hoping to hear the special pressing his wife sent of his newborn son’s voice. Pvt. Dondaro is a Jersey ladies man, who conveniently speaks Italian. In contrast, Pvt. Robert “Wingless” Murphy will marry his sweetheart, “Red,” a Red Cross nurse (played by Wellman’s uncredited wife, Dorothy Coonan Wellman. However, this is war, so not everyone will live to see the end of the film, just like the real-life Pyle did not survive to cover the end of the war.

The Story of G.I. Joe was added to the National Film Registry and it earned Robert Mitchum’s only Oscar nomination for his portrayal of Capt. Walker, so it is hardly an unheralded film. Nevertheless, if you discover it by watching Ignite’s stunning restoration, you might rightfully wonder why rarely appears on all-time best lists.

Seriously, this is a masterwork. Although Wellman largely maintains an intimate squad-level focus, there are realistic battle scenes that still hold up post-Saving Private Ryan. It presents war with brutal honesty, making it clear every starring or supporting character could very easily fall in battle. The writing is consistently sharp and sometimes even hilarious, as when Pyle humors the men with ribald Hollywood gossip, which the sound of artillery “censors” for viewers.

Burgess Meredith is famous for classic The Twilight Zone episodes, the Rocky franchise, and dozens of other films, but Pyle might be the greatest screen performance of his entire career. He has the perfect look for the 43-year-old journalist, even though he was specially discharged from the Army expressly for this film. When he talks in-character about war, viewers believe he speaks from experience, which indeed was true for Burgess on a personal level.

The Last Stop in Yuma County, on BluRay

If you grew up in the 1970s, you might remember a time when gas stations ran out of gas. With all the talk about reviving various price controls, we might just bring those bad old days back. For one “last chance” gas station, that reality is already here. Their re-supply track is running late, unnerving several dodgy characters who need to get out of town fast in Francis Galluppi’s The Last Stop in Yuma County, which releases today on BluRay.

This is a thriller in the tradition of The Petrified Forest, but the characters probably feel like they are stuck in Sartre play. Vernon’s filling station is out of gas, so his potential customers must wait for the truck to arrive in Charlotte’s diner, where the air-conditioning is on the fritz. The nebbish traveling salesman hawking knock-off Ginsu knives recognizes Travis and Beau match the description of wanted bank-robbers, which is no coincidence.

Essentially, the two fugitives hold them hostage, but they all try to act normal for all the other customers coming into the diner, including Deputy Gavin. Charlotte tries to send a warning through him to the Sheriff, her husband Charlie, but poor Gavin is an exceedingly dim bulb.

Yuma County is a reasonably successful desert noir, mainly due to its colorful characters and the experienced ensemble of genre-friendly thesps portraying them. On the other hand, the execution and pacing are somewhat uneven. After fifty-some-minutes of ever-so deliberately slow-building, Galluppi seems to say the heck with it and unleashes total bedlam.

Regardless, Richard Brake is appropriately sinister as Beau, the brains of the two-armed robber-operation. Sometimes, Jim Cummings takes over-the-top a bit too far, but he finds the right level of twitchiness for the knife salesman. The great Barbara Crampton also gets a lot of laughs in her slightly larger-than-cameo appearances as the Sheriff’s receptionist, Virginia.

One Percent Warrior, Starring Tak Sakaguchi

Do not call Toshiro Takuma “Jackie,” like some of these Yakuza do. He prefers ‘Bruce,” in honor of the Master (who stayed true to Hong Kong). Realism is important to Takuma. That is why he is only now working on his second film. Due to twist of fate, Takuma happens to be scouting a remote location where two rivals Yakuza clans happen to be fighting over a hidden cache of cocaine. Of course, Takuma is way too much for either of them to handle in Yudai Yamaguchi’s One Percent Warrior, which releases tomorrow on BluRay.

Takuma’s skills are so legit, real-life martial arts schools would gladly hire him. (Only one percent of martial artists truly master their discipline, he sneers.) However, his commitment to authenticity is largely lost on the film industry. His first film has become a cult hit, but producers prefer flash and sizzle over his guts and grit. When a possible funding opportunity arises, Takuma heads out on a scouting mission with Akira, his last remaining apprentice.

Instead, the ruthless Takenouchi dragged Maria, the daughter of a recently deceased Yakuza chairman, to the deserted zinc factory, in search of his cocaine stash. Of course, Takuma quickly rescues Maria, leaving her in Akira’s care, as he picks off Takenouchi’s henchmen one by one. Soon, a rival faction led by Shishidou also barges in. They share Takenouchi’s determination to recover the old man’s drugs, but Shishidou’s daughter Ami also seems to have an unhealthy interest in Maria as well.

A Creature was Stirring, on DVD

There are two reasons we have so many Christmas horror movies, one good and one bad. Some filmmakers probably enjoy defiling a Christian holiday, but for others, it is a convenient way to assemble a group of characters and keep them confined inside, sheltering from the cold. Weirdly, nobody seems to have plans for the holiday in this film, not even a pair of sibling Christian missionaries. Of course, they want in from the cold, but what they find is even worse in Damien LeVeck’s A Creature was Stirring, which releases Tuesday on DVD and BluRay.

It is immediate clear to viewers Faith Larsen has a very difficult relationship with her daughter Charm, over and beyond having named her “Charm.” Initially, we assume she has a particularly nasty case of Munchausen-by-proxy, but there soon seems to be good reason to worry if Charm’s temperature falls outside a 102-104-ish range.

Considering Creature has been promoted as a monster movie (see title) and there is a spiky thing on the DVD cover, it should not be too spoilery to mention a monster might come out. That makes it rather awkward when Liz and Kory invite themselves in, mistakenly believing the house is empty. They quickly learn how wrong they were when Larsen whacks Kory’s knee with a bat tricked out like the one Jeffrey Dean Morgan wields on The Walking Dead.

It seems strange two missionaries would not be attending services on Christmas night and yet here they are, apologizing profusely and pleading relief from the cold, as well as medical treatment for Kory. Being a nurse, it is hard for Larsen to refuse. Her medical training also helped her analyze Charm’s weird condition. Unfortunately, Liz will misdiagnosis the situation, suspecting a sinister case of abuse, whereas Kory starts to get the monstrous nature of the danger they face.

This could very well be the least Christmasy Christmas horror movie ever. Maybe the Larsens would not have plans to observe, but surely the missionaries would. Frankly, the title feels more like a marketing gimmick that borders on a bait-and-switch.

LeVeck creates a tensely claustrophobic vibe, but Shannon Wells’ screenplay is too obviously trying to fool the audience. The final twist is more likely to generate groans than gasps—and will definitely leave you questioning the investment of your time in this movie.

Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths—Part One, on BluRay

It was the multiverse story to end all multiverse stories, but it was written before the multiverse was the thing to obsess over. For comic readers in the 1980s, it looked like DC’s attempt to copy the success of Marvel’s Secret Wars, but it promised to simplify their numerous universes. Since then, it has become a significant part of the DC universe lore. It was even adapted in multiple Arrowverse episodes. It now joins the DC Animated Tomorrowverse, when Jeff Wamester’s Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths – Part One [out of three] releases today on BluRay.

The Barry Allen edition of The Flash has become unstuck in time, super-charged on cosmic speed force. As he shifts between the various Earths, The Flash notices an ominous looking wave of anti-matter bearing down on each alternate planet. The ancient Monitor notices it too. Although he has vowed to never interfere in the human matters he scrupulously observes (sort of like Marvel What If’s The Watcher), the Monitor has made an exception, gathering the greatest heroes and scientists from multiple Earths to hatch a plan to stop the anti-matter wave.

Although The Question is skeptical, The Flash can confirm the Monitor’s story, because he has seen it for himself. He has also had to navigate multiple realities, including his wedding on one Earth and the belated formation of the Justice League on another. However, he is not prepared for the shock of the dystopian Earth-3, ruled by a gang of supervillains headed by the evil Superman analog Ultraman (not the Japanese Kyodai hero). It is quite telling how much this Ultraman looks, acts, and sounds like The Boys’ Homelander, but the DC character predates the caped psycho played by Anthony Starr, by about forty years.

DC Animated has regularly been producing better superhero movies than anything Marvel or DC has done recently in live-action. Crisis Part One is not as inventive as Superman: Red Sun or Batman Ninja, but it is still smartly executed film. In fact, the multiverse story is probably particularly suited to animation, because it can more easily depict The Flash careening between worlds.

One of the charms of the original comic was the assembly of so many heroes, both the iconic and the somewhat obscure. James Krieg’s adaptation of the Marv Wolfman/George Perez limited series still does that too, but it is definitely Flash-forward, so to speak. Matt Bomer’s voice-over performance as the Flash is far superior to Ezra Miller’s disastrous film turn. Likewise, Darren Criss and Jensen Ackles nicely differentiate the personalities of the various Supermen and Batmen (but they only voice the “good ones”).

Park Hoon-jung’s The Childe

So-called "Kopinos" are embarrassing phenomenon for South Korea, because the half-Korean half-Filipino orphans are mostly the products of sex tourism to the Philippines, who receive no financial support from their deadbeat dads. Marco Han’s mother might be something of an exception (the nature of his conception is left diplomatically vague), but they lived in similar poverty. When his mother falls sick, Han starts looking for his father, whose employees happen to be looking for him too in director-screenwriter Park Hoon-jung’s The Childe (with its Olde English “e”), which releases Tuesday on BluRay.

As a boxer, Han is used to hard knocks, but his mother’s decline is a bitter pill to swallow. It seems too good to be true when his birth-father’s sleazy lawyer suddenly turns up, offering to take him to Korea—because, of course, it is. Weirdly, a mystery man with a sickly cough seems to be shadowing them, which, indeed, he is.

Things get a bit hectic once he arrives in Korea. For reasons he does not understand. Coughing Man (who refers to himself as “the Expert” or “Gwigongja,” the literal translation being “Nobleman”) is out to get Han, just like his entitled half-brother Han Yi, as well as Yoon-ju, a femme fatale assassin working for a rival family faction. In fact, the first half of the film does not make much sense, because the three villains seem to be squabbling over who gets to kill poor, clueless Marco.

However, Park really flips the switch in the second half. Everyone’s cynical motivation suddenly becomes crystal clear and it all culminates in a massively violent, but extremely crowd-pleasing action showdown.

For the Murakami Fan: Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman

It is sort of like an animated Short Cuts, but weirder. By mixing and matching half a dozen stories (from various collections), American-born, European-based filmmaker Pierre Foldes may have cracked the code when it comes to adapting Haruki Murakami. The world is strange and sad, but also a little magical in Foldes’s Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman, which is now available on DVD (a perfect gift for Murakami fans) from Kino Lorber.

It is a few days after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. Most of Tokyo has gone back to business as usual, but not Komura-san’s wife Kyoko, who obsessively watches the grim news footage in a near-catatonic state—until she suddenly up and leaves him. Komura works with poor beleaguered salaryman Katagiri-san, whose boss is clearly setting him up to be fired. The bank wants Komura out too, but at least they are offering him a package.

While he thinks it over, Komura agrees to deliver a mystery box to a co-worker’s sister up in Hokkaido. Meeanwhile, Katagiri-san gets a strange proposal of his own, from a seven-foot frog. “Frog” as he likes to be called will collect on the bad debt plaguing Katagiri at the bank, if he will help the self-assured amphibian battle the giant subterranean worm that threatens to destroy Tokyo.

Yes, that is right. Makoto Shinkai’s Suzume shares some plot points with a Murakami story. It is also the best of the intertwined narrative strands, because everybody loves giant frogs, right? You would have to be a Communist not to. Regardless, the unlikely relationship that develops between Katagiri and Frog wonderfully surreal and compelling.

He and Frog might be the best things going in Blind Willow, but the rest of the film still works. The way Foldes combined different Murakami stories is quite savvy. As a result, the payoffs for each story amplify each other. They all seam to fit together seamlessly, like Robert Altman’s aforementioned treatment of Raymond Carver’s short stories.

Tribal: Veterans Tell Their Stories

Even if it were easy, a lot of people still wouldn’t care enough to serve their country. These three veterans did—and they still carry the experience (and in many cases, the physical and emotional scars) with them. All three former soldiers tell their stories of valor under fire and difficulties re-acclimating to civilian life in the Borrego Brothers’ documentary Tribal, which releases today on DVD and VOD.

The title comes from Sebastian Jungr, referring to unity of perspective, values, and way of life shared by soldiers serving together. It will confuse many viewers with little connection to the military, possibly even offending a substantial subset, but it is in fact an apt title. The Borregos and producer Mark Kershaw focus on three War on Terror veterans, Army vets SPC John “Michael” Gomez and SFC Omar Hernandez, as well as former Marine CPL Wade Spann. Plus, Kershaw (also formerly Army) appears after about an hour, to directly address his recovery process and his hopes to facilitate more veterans getting the help they need.

In large part, Tribal simply consists of interview segments, relying on the power of its subjects’ own words. In some cases, the Borregos illustrate their harrowing survivor stories with evocatively stylized re-enactments that are not intended to be realistic. In some ways, these sequences are somewhat akin to some scenes in Beyond Glory, the film adaptation of Stephen Lang’s one-man show portraying multiple Medal of Honor recipients.

The primary message that comes through loud and clear throughout Tribal is that society must do a better job easing veterans back into civilian life. Although PTSD once carried a stigma, all three interviewees agree there is a much greater acceptance within military circles today for those who need and seek mental health assistance—but it is still an issue.

A secondary point that emerges is the frustration of military decisions getting made to satisfy political calculations rather than on the basis of sound strategic and tactical grounds. A case in point would be Spann’s ferocious account of his unit’s advance through Fallujah and how they were suddenly ordered to withdraw, for purely political reasons. Unfortunately, the job was left to other units, who suffered needlessly high casualties, since the insurgent forces were allowed to regroup and reinforce. At least that is how he sees it and he certainly had an informed perspective to make a judgment.

The Ghost Station, on DVD

It is hard to say which is more corrupt, the press or the government. A tabloid reporter will learn both institutions covered up some really horrific crimes to build Korea’s most notorious subway stop. Since then, people have quietly died at Oksu Station at a steady rate, but nobody talks about it, because the construction lined the pockets of the usual suspects: politicians, unions, and contractors. However, there is some kind of presence in the station and the more it is ignored, the more widely it lashes out in Jeong Yong-ki’s The Ghost Station, which releases tomorrow on DVD and BluRay.

Kim Na-young is having a hard time generating the clicks demanding by her newspaper, a disreputable, bottom-feeding, sleaze-mongering tabloid, most likely modeled on The New York Times. They are even threatening to throw her to the wolves, when the subject of her “Miss Summer” feature turns out to be transexual and sues for the supposedly unwanted “outing.” Needing a scoop, her friend in the transit authority, Choi Woo-won, alerts her to an unusual accident, in which a speeding service train decapitated a victim along the old tracks no longer in public service, beneath the proper station.

It turns out the conductor of the service train and a witness from maintenance reported seeing a young child on the platform at the time of the accident. It is a pretty good story, but Kim is pressured to retract it when it is reported the conductor had already committed suicide by the time she took his statement. There is definitely something super-angry down there. In fact, the favorite J-horror term “grudge” is used in the English subtitles. Whatever it is, it marks its next victims with scratches on their wrists, like the ones that turn up on Choi.

It is true Ghost Station is a lot like many Korean and Japanese horror films, but that only stands to reason, since it was co-adapted from a Korean webcomic by Japanese screenwriters, Hiroshi Takashi (Ringu 1 & 2) and Koji Shiraishi (Noroi). All the elements are familiar, but Jeong understands how to marshal them to their fullest effect. Indeed, the film borrows considerably from The Ring/u, but since Takashi wrote the original, he is stealing from himself, so who are we to object?

World of Giants: Off Beat

Mel Hunter might be tiny, but his ears are still big. In fact, the miniaturized secret agent’s ability to identify musicians by ear will help him foil another plot in “Off Beat,” the 13^th and final episode of World of Giants. Little seen since it originally aired in 1959, the restored series releases Tuesday on DVD.

The femme fatale wife of a museum curator has smuggled a shipment of contraband antiquities out of Egypt, most likely stashing them in the jazz club Hunter and his full-sized partner, Bill Winters, tracked her to. Naturally, Winters and their Della Street-like assistant, Miss Brown, take Hunter to the club in his special carrying-kennel valise, so he can check out the scene.

While listening to Chick Crescent, Hunter cannot help noticing the jazz pianist just does not sound like himself. He does not swing like he always has and he thinks he recognizes solos and licks from his old records. Hunter cannot say for sure, but he knows someone who can. That would be Crescent’s former mentor from New Orleans, Daddy Dean, whom Hunter used to jam with, before shrinking down to action figure size.

The series might have crashed and burned, but it is cool to see this episode, written by (then) married TV scribes Kay Lenard and Jess Carneol, treating jazz with respect. It is sort of like a fusion of spy-sci-fi (in the tradition of The Invisible Man) with the Downbeat blindfold test. It would be interesting to know who was the uncredited musician dubbing the piano. Presumably, it was someone like Steve Allen, who could imitate various styles, but never really played with much passion.

Sri Asih: A New Indonesian Superhero Rises

She is like Wonder Woman, except she has a red scarf instead of a golden lasso—and her latest film doesn’t stink. Tired of the MCU and DCU movies? Who isn’t? The CGI is terrible, the writing is too woke, and everybody who isn’t a super-fan has to google all the meaningless character cameos. Indonesia is doing a much better job of superhero movies—and they too have two shared universes going. The Legend of Gatotkaca launched the Satria Dewa. Now we get the second film of the Bumilangit universe. However, you do not need to know anything about the first film to enjoy UPI (Avianto)’s Sri Asih: The Warrior, which releases tomorrow on DVD and VOD.

Alana always had a lot of fight in her, even in the orphanage, following her parents rather spectacular volcano-related deaths. Fortuitously, her mother happens to be the wealthy proprietor of an MMA gym. That was a convenient happenstance, but obviously, not really.

As a young woman, Alana is a contender. Unfortunately, that means she attracts the attention of crimelord Prayogo Adinegara’s wastrel son Mateo, who fancies himself a cage-fighter. He pressures Alana to take a dive, to stroke his ego. Reluctantly, she agrees for the sake of the gym, but his jerky behavior ignites her anger.

It turns out Alana has anger issues, straight from the goddess of anger, herself. That is because the sinister deity knows the goddess Asih has invested Alana with her own powers of righteousness. There are people who can help her master her powers, so she can defeat the rival goddess’s earthly host and foil a gruesome sacrifice.

There is a lot going on in Sri Asih, but it all boils down to G vs. E, good versus evil. That is why it works better than any recent American superhero movie. If you were cool with Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman, you will be just as happy with Pevita Pearce as Alana/Sri Asih, if not slightly more so.

Flying Boat, on DVD

They were the original party boats—and they also flew. Back in the day, if you were “flying down to Rio,” or Havana, you were flying on some kind of sea plane. Perhaps no aircraft better symbolized freedom and escape, which is why a small handful of aviation enthusiasts still love and restore them. Viewers can escape the anti-Semitic hatred we are seeing on TV, including on the streets of New York, for at least 77-minutes, through the welcome respite of Dirk Braun’s documentary Flying Boat, which releases today on DVD and VOD.

Flying boats used to be the way to fly, because there were more harbors than runways. Then WWII happened. Their ability to land in remote bodies of water or desert dunes continued to appeal to the adventurous, but commercial air-travel became anchored on dry, solid land. For a while, the Navy and Air Force maintained a few Grumman Albatrosses, because of their flexible landing capabilities. They also enjoyed a brief vogue among drug smugglers, for obvious reasons. In fact, one of the owners Braun interviews nearly unknowingly sold her Albatross to El Chapo. True story.

Today, it is mostly romantic collectors who own and fly the Albatross, like commercial pilot-turned author Tom Casey. He is trying to restore an Albatross that is literally in pieces, with bird nests knotted in its engines. It will be a lucrative gig for his mechanics, but also a labor of love.

Throughout Flying Boat, Braun incorporates some gorgeous aerial cinematography that dramatically captures the Albatross’s grace in the air and its ability to reach stunningly beautiful locations, where no other signs of human life are visible. Without question, this is the best-looking documentary of the year.