Saccharine: Australian Body Horror

Hana's parasite is more dangerous than a tapeworm, because it is literally a hungry ghost. Ill-advisedly, she deliberately ingested it of her own free-will. Of course, she did not foresee the side effects. On the plus side, her weight loss is dramatic in director-screenwriter Natalie Erika James’ Saccharine, which opens today in New York.

Despite her medical studies, Hana suffers from low self-esteem, exacerbated by family issues. Therefore, she tries one of the diet pills given to her by a formerly obese childhood friend, who now looks unbelievably slim. It works, but the price per pill is prohibitively steep. Applying her training, Hana analyzes the substance, finding it identical to human ash. As “luck” would have it, Hana and her loyal friend Josie are dissecting a human cadaver this semester. Rather enterprisingly, Hana stays behind after class to pack a doggy bag of the remains they left for disposal.

Of course, her bootleg pills similarly work, to a shocking degree. Even her crush, Alanya, the trainer who overseeing her bootcamp-style fitness regimen, is impressed—and eventually concerned. Hana also starts to worry when realizes the cadaver’s ghost has been watching and menacing her. She only comes when Hana’s blood sugar falls below a certain level. Once the med student binges, the terrors subside. However, the pattern quickly grows disruptive and alarming to bystanders.

Larry Van Duynhoven’s prosthetic design work for the “before” Hana is remarkably convincing. However, Midori Francis must still sell Hana’s transformation, which indeed she does. Indeed, she delivers an unusually sensitive and emotionally complex performance, by conventional horror movie standards.

This is Not a Test, on Shudder

This will sort of be like The Breakfast Club for Sloane Price and some of her classmates, except instead of learning to understand each other’s differences, they will simply try to avoid getting bit by zombies. Admittedly, their high school is a good place to set up barricades, but the Gen Z’er’s definitely lack the survival instincts of Gen X’er’s in Adam MacDonald’s This is Not a Test, which premieres tomorrow on Shudder.

Considering how relentlessly Price father abuses her and her older sister Lily, the zombies probably don’t look so bad to her. Seriously, why does every father have to be an abusive pedophile in horror movies? It is like Stphen King’s weird, deep-seated resentments were contagious. Indeed, this is the first example of how This is not a Test looks and feels an awful lot like an awful lot of other movies.

Regardless, one fateful morning, the zombie hordes descend on Price’s street like locusts. Amid the mayhem, she connects with cocky jock Cary Chen, the popular Casper twins (Trace and Grace, seriously), and Rhys Moreno, who always carried a torch for her. Somehow, they manage to reach and secure their high school—but probably not to a sufficiently safe degree. Of course, there is considerable friction in the group, as well as sexual tension, to undermine their concentration and team-work.

Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu

Just like the U.S. Defense Department had their playing cards identifying Saddam’s fellow Socialist Baath Party war criminals in Iraq, the New Republic has their own deck of wanted high-ranking Imperials. Of course, each fugitive comes with a bounty. Needless to say, a resourceful Mandalorian bounty hunter like Din Djarin (a.k.a. “Mando”) would be interested in that business. In fact, they are the only gigs the newly respectable bounty hunter now accepts in Jon Favreau’s Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu, which opens this Friday in theaters.

As the title promises, this is the same Mando and Grogu fans know and love from the streaming series. Mando presents himself as a hardnosed adventurer for hire, he is really a sentimental do-gooder, especially when it comes to his adopted son-apprentice Grogu (a.k.a. “Baby Yoda”), who matures at a much slower rate than mere mortals, but already wields considerable command of the Force.

Despite his innocence and small stature, Grogu’s power makes him handy to have around when Mando collects bounties. Judging from the extended prologue, he and Mando can just barely handle an entire regiment of stormtroopers, between the two of them. Taking down the first Imperial warlord gets messy. Their next assignment gets even messier.

Col. Ward orders/hires/bribes Mando to “rescue” Rotta the Hutt, Jabba’s estranged and reformed son, from a Bladerunner-like world and return him to his not-so loving uncle and aunt, in return for information on the mysterious Janu, the one of the highest-ranking cards left in the deck. Weirdly though, Rotta seems like a heck of a nice whatever he is—and he doesn’t want to leave.

The most frequent complaint leveled at M & G is that it plays like three new episodes of the streaming series, filmed in IMAX with somewhat more elaborate special effects. Basically, that is true, but seriously, isn’t that what fans want? More of the same. This is the same Mando and the same Grogu. Favreau doesn’t need to “put his stamp” on the characters, because he created them in the first place.

In fact, Favreau and co-screenwriters Dave Filoni and Noah Kloor seem to have learned from the franchise’s past mistakes. They never indulge in identity politics or virtue-signaling, but maintain strict character consistency with the series. Essentially, it is all action, all the time. We should all be so lucky to have a quarter for every stormtrooper who gets blasted to his eternal rewards in this film. The alien worlds also look fantastic in IMAX, particularly the mountain vistas of the prologue and the Hutts’ planet, distinguished by its giant toadstool landscape. However, some of the CGI is awkwardly iffy, especially the dragon-snake.

Shrewdly, the subplot involving the Hutts provides an apostolic link to the original trilogy. It deepens and enriches fans understanding of Jabba’s empire, without changing his character one iota. As a considerable bonus, Jeremy Allen White contributes one of the best voiceover performances of the year, making Rotta sound bizarrely soulful.

Reckless, Starring Scott Adkins

Maybe it isn’t such a good idea to double-cross an accomplice, because they will have ample time to work out in the prison gym. Devon clearly spent much of the last five and a half years pumping iron and studying martial arts. He also strenuously insists nothing happened in the showers, to the point of being creepy. Frankly, Devon is a bit slow-witted, so instead of seeking revenge, he simply asks for his cut. However, instead of money, he gets payback, often through sheer dumb luck in Elliott Montello’s Reckless, which releases on digital this Friday.

Everyone can tell Devon’s so-called “mates” set him up, even Kimber and she just met him—under very trying circumstances. She just killed one of the crooks who did him wrong, in self-defense, just as he barged into the lowlife’s office. Having her own reasons to distrust the cops, Kimber invites herself to join Devon as his new fugitive-buddy.

One by one, Devon visits members of the crew, asking for the Warren Zevon trilogy, but instead they try to kill him. The brawling gets brutal, but somehow Kimber usually strikes the fatal blow. Nevertheless, the trail of bodies starts to concern Trent, the big boss, who also happens to be a sitting member of the House of Lords. Eventually, his lieutenant recruits Bishop, the neanderthal prison shower predator, to kill Devon before he works his way up to Trent.

For Scott Adkins fans, Reckless could be described as Avengement-lite. It has similarly relentless fight sequences, but it also strives for an Elmore Leonard-esque comedic tone, somewhat in the tradition of The Debt Collector. Unforutnately, the jokes in this movie do not land with reliable frequency.

Regardless, the action is first-rate. Arguably, there is a greater sense of jeopardy in Reckless, because Devon’s martial arts chops remain a work in progress. Adkins also projects the right likable loser charisma for the lunkheaded Devon. Vinnie Jones strives for Ray Winstone-ish menace as Trent, but his villainy still better suits street level thuggery.

No Man’s Land, Graphic Novel

This investigation will start much like that of the Scandinavian series The Bridge and its American remake, except the span between Aleutian Islands will soon melt. One of them is under American jurisdiction, while the other is dominated by the Soviets. Right smack in the middle of the so-called “Ice Curtain” a young woman was savagely murdered. It will be a difficult case for FBI Special Agent Kevin Collins, because of the physical circumstances and the politics in artist-writer Syzmon Kudranski’s Now Man’s Land, which releases today in a trade-paper bind-up.

In 1963, the Cold War was warming up, but not yet scalding. Collins, a veteran of WWII counter-intelligence assumed he would be retiring. Instead, the director assigns him a highly sensitive case. He doesn’t really have any choice, but his long-neglected wife finally leaves him anyway.

Once he arrives at the remote Diomede Islands, Collins decides the most practical course of action would be to work with KGB agent Sonia Fiodrow, rather than against her. As Collins learns her backstory, he realizes they both probably received this assignment, because they are expendable. He is old and broken down, while she is the daughter of samizdat-publishing dissidents.

Regardless, they will work well together. Siodow is more familiar with the indigenous people, while he better understands the killer’s Biblical allusions. However, their unknown sub is not a fanatical Christian—more like the exact opposite.

No Man’s Land starts slow, but it is loaded with interesting ideas. The nature of the murderer is strange and complex—in ways befitting classic Russian literature. Siodow’s family history also powerfully indicts the oppressive Socialist system, but not in the way you might expect.

World War Bigfoot: It is What it Sounds Like

For the men of the U.S.S. Indianapolis, sharks were deadlier than the Japanese torpedoes. Allied Prisoner of War in the Pacific also faced a similarly non-human threat from malaria-carrying mosquitos. However, in this fictionalized Ardennes, American troops had to contend with sasquatch-like creatures, as well as the Germans. Yes, this is one of those movies. There is plenty of hair, but, sadly, the fun is less plentiful in director-screenwriter Jason Mills’ World War Bigfoot, which releases tomorrow on VOD.

Given the campfire prologue, “Doc” obviously lives to tell his grandchildren this war story, thereby further reducing the potential suspense. Frankly, it is not exactly clear his small detachment was heading into the Ardennes. Regardless, it is a forested area along the front lines. Their objective is also vague. In fact, they have no idea what they mission is, but “Sarge” assures them it is top secret.

Inevitably, they clash with Nazi troops, whose commanding officer came for the same reason. He is equally obsessed with the Bigfoot-like creatures after seeing one first-hand. Apparently, during the late stage of the War, American sergeants and German junior lieutenants could just cut their own orders and requisition men, with no questions asked.

Indeed, their Bigfoot sightings drove both to psychosis. Doc even witnesses Sarge murdering one of his own men, who threatened to expose his madness. So much for the “Greatest Generation.” Mills prefers to depict the men who fought and died to save democracy as sadistic cutthroats—excepting of course, the conscientious objector medic, who quickly forms an alliance with his similarly enlightened German counterpart.

As a minimally-budgeted genre mashup, World War Bigfoot had two promising options. Go all in with outrageous gore and over-the-top comedy, or play it straight while inviting the audience to cheer for the American soldiers, against all enemies, foreign or cryptid. Instead, we get the worst of both options, a slow-moving, agonizingly self-serious film that openly posits a moral equivalency between the American and German Armies.

The best work comes from makeup artist-suit designer Anna Fox and fellow suit designer Robert M. Bravo. Their creatures look surprisingly great, despite the severe budget constraints. Honestly, this film does not deserve their inventiveness.

In Remembrance of Newspaper Strips: Star Wars

For deecades, licensed original Star Wars novels and comic books generated story development work that came fan-tested and fan-approved. Yet, Lucas Films ignored it all. The Mandalorian and Grogu will probably successfully apply a torniquet to the bleeding franchise, but it is ironic how scrupulously the Lucas licensing team maintained quality control and character consistency, only to have Lucas Films blow it all up with a parade of disappointing streaming series. Here is a prediction: the market for out-of-print tie-in novels and comics is going to explode, because fans can trust them not to “reinvent” their beloved franchises. The Star Wars newspaper comic strip is a perfect case in point. If you read them before the Mandalorian movie opens, they will take you back to the era of peak Star Wars fandom.

Indeed, this is the Luke Skywalker you grew up with. It is not the bitter Skywalker of the sequel trilogy. It is not even the Skywalker of Empire Strikes Back. This Luke still has a crush on Princess Leia Organa. Yes, the second film revealed they were siblings, but until it released, everyone assumed there could be romance between them, because of the kiss “for luck” on the Death Star and the wink during the honors ceremony. The newspaper strip takes us back to that more innocent time.

Even after Empire released, the strip remained in the same in-between timeframe. In fact, roughly the final year of storylines chronicled the Rebellion forging an alliance with Mon Calamari (they sound like French squid, but they are the aliens represented by Admiral Akbar), its search for a safer base, and the hasty evacuation of Yavin’s moon, the perilous journey to icy planet Hoth.

Although the main characters remain entirely untouched (just as fans want them to be), the storylines had considerable implications for minor characters. In “Princess Leia, Imperial Servant,” Organa is forced to work incognito as a handmaid on the prison planet administered by the Grand Moff Tarkin’s widow. Since Tarkin was played by Peter Cushing, it is quite appropriate that his wife somewhat resembles Elsa Lanchester’s Bride in Bride of Frankenstein.

Also quite notable is the appearance of Gen. Dodonna (who gave the Death Star briefing when Skywalker says: “that’s not impossible. I used to bullseye womp rats in my T-16 back home”). Unfortunately, Luke discovers Dodonna’s son Vrad is a coward, who might take a treasonous turn to save himself.

Originally, the licensing team approved a separate Sunday storyline, but they requested it feature different characters, so readers wouldn’t be confused. At that point, many consumers might have been unfamiliar with this longstanding convention of continuity strips, so it was not a bad idea. Consequently, several Sundays depict C-3PO (not so reluctantly) supplying oral histories of Skywalker’s exploits to Mistress Mnemos, a giant, multi-story Rebel super-computer. Unfortunately, the Sundays evolved into a weekly recap, which makes them repetitive when read chronologically with the dailies, even though some of the color art is incredibly cool (especially in IDW’s restored collections).

Marshals: The Devil at Home

Usually, Kayce Dutton is the Deputy Marshal most likely to go rogue. This time it will be Miles Kittle. Ironically, he will go “off the reservation,” by going onto the reservation. Learning belatedly of a friend’s fentanyl death, Kittle wants to administer some frontier justice, but Chief Deputy Gifford insists on differing to the DEA. Dutton keeps busy, but he largely gets a week off from his usual angsty brooding in “The Devil at Home,” the latest episode of creator Spencer Hudnut’s Marshals, premiering tonight on CBS.

Having been hyped as a hero after the standoff with the Cleggs, Deputy Cruz’s next assignment will be schmoozing political bigwigs with Gifford. However, she has to admit the “whisper-quiet” combination helicopter-airplane, displayed at the conference by real-life Archer Aviation founder Adam Goldstein (playing himself), is really cool and potentially super useful. Maybe they can take it for a test spin in next week’s season finale.

Chairman Rainwater wants to use Kittle in a similar fashion to stop the adjacent mining project. However, the news of his friend’s death quickly ends his effectiveness schmoozing. Of course, the Marshals are all for taking down fentanyl traffickers, but the DEA claims jurisdiction. Kittle just cannot accept the stand-down order. In fact, his girlfriend Maddie Calvin grows so concerned, she calls her semi-estranged father, Deputy Pete Calvin, for a status check.

The Yeti, Co-Starring William Sadler & Cobin Bernsen

Honestly, it is far better when a film calls that mythical snow-beast a yeti rather than an “abominable snowman.” The former is much quicker to type and easier to pronounce, so this film already has points in its favor. In the late 1940s, Alaska wasn’t even a state yet. Largely seen as a wild and snowy frontier, there could have been anything up there, as far as most Americans were concerned—and in this film, they weren’t wrong. Oil man Merriell Sunday Sr. went there looking for oil, but he found something else instead. Cartographer Ellie Bannister agrees to guide the search party looking for him and her explorer father, Hollis Bannister, in director-screenwriters Gene Gallerano & William Pisciotta’s The Yeti, which releases this coming Tuesday on DVD and BluRay.

Supposedly old man Sunday was scouting for oil, but Bannister knows her eccentric old man wouldn’t waste his time on that, no matter how much money the tycoon offered. Nevertheless, they have been out of contact for far too long, so she agrees to join the rescue operation organized by Merriell Sunday Jr. (who definitely displays deep-seated father issues).

Somehow, they land in the middle of a massive storm that even interferes with Bannister’s compass. Consequntly, they get lost, quickly and badly. Viewers definitely wouldn’t enjoy getting lost with the entitled Junior Sunday or the abrasive good old boy demolition specialist Daniel “Dynamite” Hewitt—and neither does Bannister. However, comms specialist Booker (who was the Enola Gay’s radio man) is a good guy and scarred war hero Leander Coates has her back too, despite his mildly psychotic tendencies. Of course, when the yeti (or yetis) attack, all bets are off.

Gallerano & Pisciotta serve up several hat-tips to the Indiana Jones movies that are rather endearing. However, some of the deliberately retro practical effects are a little too successful, looking more like genuine cheesiness rather than loving homages. Frankly, the film shows symptoms of an identity crisis, because the blood-spurting gore clashes with the nostalgia.

However, the two old pros, William Sadler and Corbin Bernsen, elevate all their scenes as Hollis Bannister and Sunday Senior, respectively. They are both entertainingly flinty and grizzled. Playing against his usual over-the-top type, Jim Cummings is a surprisingly steadying presence as salt-of-the-earth Booker. Plus, Linc Hand delivers truly withering death stares as brooding Coates.

An Enemy Within

This movie wedding could get as bad as Game of Throne’s “Red Wedding,” but viewers don’t have much time to invest in the characters, who generally consist of stereotypical rich jerks. The Foresights might sound like Galsworthy’s literary clan, but they are considerably harder and meaner. Nevertheless, reasonably well-heeled Caleb Wingate expected to continue rising in the Foresight family business, after marrying his boss’s daughter, until a terrorist gives him an ultimatum: kill his new father-in-law by midnight or his newlywed wife dies. It is not exactly a “Sophie’s Choice,” but it is still a super-awkward buzz-kill in director-screenwriter John Michael Kennedy’s An Enemy Within, which releases today on VOD.

Wingate’ father made no secret of his disappointment when his son went to work for the rival Foresights. However, Robert Foresight was more of a shark, especially when it comes to doing natural resources deals in Africa. Unfortunately, he did not live up to his name when he crossed “The Wolf,” a notorious assassin the Foresight company used to employ.

The Wolf delivered the ultimatum, but a mystery client is calling the sniper’s shots. Regardless, Wingate must kill the Foresight patriarch by the mandated deadline and he cannot allow any guests to leave in the meantime. That causes some seemingly erratic behavior, greatly straining his hours-old marriage. However, an old pro like the senior Foresight recognizes trouble. However, as more family members become privy to the standoff, the recriminations really start to fly.

This film definitely exhibits a pronounced degree of class resentment, but there is also a kind of grudging admiration for the elitist characters’ ruthless survival drives. Despite his increasingly dire situation (including a non-fatal gun-shot wound), steely middle-aged Robert Foresight is definitely the sort of fellow you want on your side during a time of crisis.

Wizard of the Kremlin, in Cinema Daily US

Jude Law is chillingly, image-shattringly good as Putin in WIZARD OF THE KREMLIN, Assayas's big, sprawling, more-truth-than-fiction chronicle of Russia's slide back into totalitarianism, as witnessed first hand, by a key Kremlin power-broker. CINEMA DAILY US review up here.

Mobile Suit Gundam Hathaway: The Sorcery of Nymph Circe

The Earth can’t seem to catch a break. The Earth Federation defeated the authoritarian-inclined Principality of Zeon in the Gundam franchise’s Universal Century continuity, but then the victorious Federation became increasingly corrupt and oppressive. Hathaway Noa emerged as an important leader of the MAFTY rebellion. He hopes to launch a major attack on the Federation, but the greatest variable complicating his plan happens to be a self-described “courtesan.” She might also be a spy, but it is unclear which side she favors in Shuko Murase’s anime feature Mobile Suit Gundam Hathaway: The Sorcery of Nymph Circe, which opens tomorrow in theaters.

In the new GQuuuuuux alternate storyline, Zeon won the war, but Nymph Circe returns fans to the more familiar timeline. The Hathaway narrative branch takes place many years after the mothership anime series, but Noa represents an important apostolic link, because he is the son of Amuro Ray’s commanding officer, Bright Noa. With that in mind, you should be able to follow the broad strokes of the new Hathaway feature, but many of the particulars will be baffling.

Regardless, the junior Noa is almost entirely focused on the rebellion. Only Gigi Andalusia has the power to distract him. Inconveniently, her sugar daddy-patron happens to be Col. Kenneth Sleg, the chief of Federation counter-insurgency. It is his job to catch Noa.

So far, Andalusia has mostly aided Sleg. Convinced that her “spider-sense” provided lifesaving forewarning, many of Sleg’s men consider her a good luck charm. Yet, restless Andalusia appears preoccupied with Noa. Regardless, before they can reunite, Noa must survive some spectacular mecha battles.

Indeed, Nymph Circe arguably boasts some of the most striking visuals of all the recent Gundam features. The combination aerial and naval battles really are something. For the teenaged boy market, the film also delivers considerably more “fan service” than its recent predecessors, through its strategically framed shots of Andalusia and Julia Suga, Noa’s torch-carrying Gundam mechanic, who usually works in a pair of overalls and not much else.

Again, this is some of the slickest Gundam animation yet. However, Yasuyuki Muto’s screenplay, based on franchise creator Yoshiyuki Tomino’s original novel, makes no concessions to newcomers. Even viewers casually familiar with the original series and several subsequent features will have some trouble finding their sea legs.

Furthermore, critics who rightly called out the appalling lack of military discipline in Star Trek: Starflight Academy should also be put off by Brinks Wedge, the captain of a MAFTY recon ship, who regularly takes the con shirtless. Frankly, both he and Trek’s Nahla Ake are appallingly unprofessional and uncommanding.

Is God Is: Revenge of the Twins

Movie twins tend to be creepy, like in The Shining and Dead Ringers. That wasn’t previously true for Racine, “the Rough One,” and Anaia, “the Quiet One.” However, their new unyielding sense purpose is a little unnerving. The twins’ long-absent mother wants them to kill their father, who also happens to be the same “Man” responsible for the disfiguring burns all three women suffered—and they aim to oblige in Aleshea Harris’s Is God Is, adapted from her own play, which opens Friday in theaters.

Racine’s burns are largely confined to her arms, but the fire cruelly left its scars across Anaia’s face. Whether in schools or foster homes, Racine has always been quick to pick a fight, to defend her sister from mockery or bullying. Even in adulthood, her behavior pattern remains the same. They always assumed their mother had abandoned them, but when Ruby, (whom they jokingly refer to as “God,” since she “created” them), summons them to her death bed, they reluctantly comply.

Since she also clearly suffered greatly, the twins essentially forgive Ruby, especially after she explains how they were all torched by their father. She demands vengeance in blood, so she can die in peace. Racine immediately agrees, but Alaia is not so sure. Nevertheless, they start following the trail back to Ruby’s former “Man,” inevitably leaving bodies in their wake.

Based on Harris’s Obie Award winning play, Is God Is has been generally pitched as a prestige film, but it plays more like a payback grindhouse release, which is frankly good news for viewers. Indeed, Alaia explores themes of inherited trauma and family dysfunction with a sweaty, feverish Old Testament sensibility, while staging bloody mayhem with a deft touch.

Big Apple 26: Treasure of the Lost Reel

It is hard to tell whether Boffo is a mouse or a cat, but that probably reflects the fact he was inspired by Mickey and Felix, in equal measure. However, in the world of this film, he was directly “inspired by,” or ripped off from Biffo, the creation of a pioneering black animator. However, his heir probably can’t prove it without the long-lost short Heck (short for Hector) Burrows tacks down. Keeping it will be even trickier, because the company Boffo built, which bears absolutely no resemblance to Disney, will do anything to make it disappear in Nate Neal’s Treasure of the Lost Reel, premiering tonight at the 2026 Big Apple Film Festival.

Pinnacle so litigiously protects its Boffo trademark, it recently sued a daycare center over an unauthorized screening (fortunately, Disney would never do anything like that, right?). It also has gun-wielding enforcers like Mr. Fix-It on the payroll. He makes the company’s embarrassing past disappear. In two months, early Boffo cartoons will enter the public domain. That is not good for Pinnacle, but the last surviving Biffo print could undermine their fundamental trademark of Biffo.

Burrows’s ex, now a late-night TCM-esque host, hopes to find the Biffo print, to parlay it into a Pinnacle+ streaming show. Of course, she didn’t reveal her true ambitions to Bellamy Barker, the rightful Biffo heir, but Burrows immediately suspects something of the kind. As a result, it will be a mad scramble to find the lost reel and it will be even trickier holding onto it.

The vintage-style animation created by Neal and Erim “Xolo” Cetinel perfectly fuses early Disney with classic Fleischer. Biffo and Boffo look era-appropriate and they both have the appropriate pinched, high-pitched voices. The antique Boffo merch also represents a triumph of great art direction on a budget. Furthermore, filming on old school 16mm stock nicely reinforces Neal’s nostalgic aesthetic.

Hammer: Heroes, Legends and Monsters

Its first IP deals were relatively modest, licensing British radio shows like Dick Barton and The Man in Black for extremely B-level movie treatments. However, it most famously relaunched popular franchises with the very same monsters that made Universal the home for horror in the 1930s and 1940s. Despite periods of decline and dormancy, the Hammer name still means something to fans. Director Benjamin Field and an all-star cast of genre filmmakers chronicle the studio’s history and celebrate its eccentricities in Hammer: Heroes, Legends and Monsters (oddly, no Oxford comma), which releases today on BluRay from UK specialty retailers.

Will Hinds (who performed vaudeville under his stage name, Hammer) and Enriques Carreras founded Hammer Film Productions, but they never really got filmmaking the way their sons, Tony Hinds and Michael Carreras, did. For the record, most of the oddball genre detours were Michael’s doing (fault). However, the elder Carreras definitely understood business, negotiating better American deals than were available for more prestigious British productions.

Hammer’s big opportunity came in licensing a film version of The Quatermass Experiment, which had been a surprise hit for the BBC. They were subsequently pitched a Frankenstein screenplay that probably would have prompted a lawsuit from Universal, but they liked the idea enough to commission The Curse of Frankenstein, which was a huge hit, making stars of Peter Cushing and Chriostopher Lee. They followed it up with Horror of Dracula, featuring the same co-stars, garnering the same box office success.

Unlike many cinema history docs, Heroes, Legends and Monsters focuses more on the behind-the-scenes business trends and the contributions of below-the-line contributors, like makeup artist Phil Leakey and art director Bernard Robinson, who had a thrifty knack for reusing and repurposing old props and sets. Thanks to Robinson, Hammer could really stretch their budget, while maintaining their signature lush, gothic look.

Of course, most of the great stars of Hammer, such as Cushing, Lee, Andre Morrell, Shane Briant, and Oliver Reed are no longer with us. However, Martine Beswick (One Million Years B.C.), Caroline Munro (Dracula AD 1972), and Madeline Smith (The Vampire Lovers) discuss their work at Hammer (and the degree of nudity that was expected of them, during the late period of decline).

Indeed, the collected experts convincingly argue the turn towards cultural permissiveness was Hammer’s undoing, because they had developed such a knack for arguing, negotiating, and generally sneaking in suggestive material, which suddenly appeared tame compared to the genuinely explicit releases from their competitors.

The understanding of the economics of Hammer’s decisions helps differentiate Heroes, Legends and Monsters from its many predecessors. It also features many experts with serious genre cred, including John Carpenter, Tim Burton, John Landis, and Joe Dante (the latter two seem to mostly work as documentary talking heads these days, which is sort of a shame, but their enthusiasm for Hammer sounds genuine).

In Remembrance of Newspaper Strips: Wade Cabot

Newspaper comic strips were like the MCU and The Fast and the Furious of the 1930s and the 1940s. They were hands down the most popular form of mass entertainment. Unlike average contemporary Hollywood tentpoles, they were also refreshingly patriotic. That was particularly true of some of the most successful continuity strips, like Steve Canyon and Buz Sawyer. It was also true of this strip, even though it was obscure in its day. Nevertheless, Bob Robertson & Pat Sammon’s Wade Cabot in the Middle East deserves a reappraisal and a new audience, especially on the date of its 5/11/1953 premiere.

Cabot was a legendary OSS agent, but he returned to the Middle East after the War to pursue his chosen career as an archaeologist. Given his elite background and education, perhaps Robertson and Sammon should have named him Wade Cabot Lodge. Regardless, he has square-jaw and will travel.

Indeed, Cabot is very Indiana Jones like. In the first of his three full story arcs, Cabot must prevent his nemesis, KGB Col. Baranov, from hijacking an excavation site that happens to hold rich uranium deposits. In addition, Baranov also hopes to plunder a rumored artifact that supposedly bestows great power. In all honestly, Wade Cabot has been so long-forgotten, it is unlikely it served as an inspiration for Raiders of the Lost Ark, but if you dig vintage Dr. Jones you will be utterly delighted with Cabot.

Unlike the last Indiana Jones movie, which made CIA officers the bad guys, Wade Cabot and the U.S. military and intelligent services are always fighting the good fight together. The villains are the Soviets and the various terrorist factions doing their bidding. Cabot prefers to act independently and with plausible deniability, but when his country calls, he always answers. That is especially true when his former commanding officer retired Gen. Max “Gunner” Crackin makes a request.

Similarly acting as a pseudo-free agent, Crackin hatches a plan to rescue Dr. Fieldstone, a leading expert in missile jamming technology, being held captive in an island prison-laboratory in the Caspian. Unbeknownst to Cabot and Crackin, the good doctor is a beautiful woman, with a gift for sarcasm, doing her best to annoy her KGB prison matron, Kruda.

The strip makes recurring jokes mocking the super-eligible Cabot for his romantic incompetence. However, he risks a lot to save Zia, a terrorist double-agent, who turns triple-agent under Cabot’s influence. The third story arc also notably features two oilmen, one from Texas and one from England, not as villains, but as Cabot’s primary allies. Honestly, this strip is like a breath of fresh air.

Next to nothing is known about the co-creators, who are assumed to be both co-writers and co-artists. That would track, because some strips feature lighter thinner lines, while others look heavier and darker. However, they clearly shared a compatible visual sensibility.

Marshals: On Thin Ice

It makes good economic sense for CBS and Paramount that Kayce Dutton and his fellow SEALs served in Afghanistan rather than Iraq. That way the Rockies (or their stand-ins) can also double for the Hindu Kush. This will be one of those episodes. Dutton and fellow former SEAL Deputy Marshal Pete Calvin face a fight for survival in the Montana mountains, but the frequent flashbacks take back to their in-country active duty in “On Thin Ice,” tonight’s episode of Marshals on CBS.

Skinner and Cruz limited the damage of the Fugitive-style accident and jailbreak in “Playing with Fire,” but a few still got away. One of them was Neil Lamb, a desperado who once worked on the Dutton ranch for old man John Dutton (a.k.a. Kevin Costner). That means he might know where some of their bodies are buried—literally. The prospect sufficiently concerns Deputy Marshal Dutton that he leaves Garrett Garvey’s hospital bedside, to catch the fugitive, off the clock.

It all seems rather suspicious to his boss, Calvin when he finds the two together. Unfortunately, Calvin is not at his best, for reasons regular viewers will guess. A bit confused and insufficiently outfitted, Calvin is unable to find his transportation, forcing them to arrange makeshift shelter. Of course, that also allows Lamb an opportunity to play on Calvin’s suspicions.

Sleeping Dog, in The Epoch Times

SLEEPING DOG plays like it was made for UAP true believers, by true believers. Journalist-activist Jeremy Corbell's blue collar presence well serves the film, but it lacks the restraintt and perspective of more credible UAP docs. EPOCH TIMES review up here.

JxJ ’26: Raoul Wallenberg Missing Inaction

The United States made him an honorary citizen, after the Soviet Union made him disappear. The Swedish diplomat in question had saved thousands of Hungarian Jews by issuing them Swedish papers and providing shelter in diplomatically protected buildings. He became one of the most prominent men in Hungary (thereby making him a threat to the Soviets’ plans to dominate the nation). Decades later, his fate remains shrouded in secrecy. Filmmakers Brian Mait & Brad Rothschild largely settle that question, but as viewers might expect, it is not an especially uplifting answer that they reveal in their documentary, Raoul Wallenberg: Missing Inaction, which screens during this year’s JxJ Washington Jewish Film and Music Festival.

As viewers ought to know from watching the Richard Chamberlain mini-series and prior documentaries, like Alexander Rodnyaskiy’s The Mission of Raoul Wallenberg, the Swedish humanitarian tried to save as many Hungarian Jews as possible. He even pulled dozens of Jews off a transport bound for Auschwitz, openly defying the Arrow Cross.

The part of the story that isn’t as well publicized involves the rest of the Wallenberg family. Although Wallenberg was adored by his distinguished grandfather Gustav, Wallenberg and his mother (who married into the family) were the poor relations, after his father’s untimely death. His uncles, Jacob and Marcus, who controlled the family banking empire, declined to hire their nephew. Instead, they referred him to Klarman Lauer’s trading company.

Wallenberg became Lauer’s right-hand man, because he could travel more easily than the Jewish Hungarian. Similarly, he became the on-the-ground point-person for the humanitarian mission to Hungary organized by Lauer and Iver C. Olsen of the OSS, who emerges as another admirable figure in Mait & Rothschild’s doc.

However, the activities of Wallenberg’s uncles were not so edifying. In fact, their extensive dealings with the National Socialists earned them Treasury Department sanctions, which continued after the War. Unable to do business with America, they started brokering deals with the Soviets, the other great totalitarian regime of the 20^th Century. However, they cut ties with the USSR, in exchange for their removal from the blacklist.

The filmmakers and their on-camera experts suggest, with good reason, the noble Wallenberg became a pawn in his uncles’ game with the Soviets. Once they cancelled their financial arrangements, Raoul Wallenberg was probably as good as dead. Regardless of their reasons, Wallenberg was most likely executed around this time. That theory is supported, rather candidly, by Sergey Stepashin, the former Russian Prime Minister and director of the FSB (then known as the FSK), under Yeltsin—a sit-down interview even the filmmakers were shocked to score.

Unlike previous Wallenberg films, Missing Inaction (not a great title) also documents how much it emotionally exhausted his branch of the family to fight for the truth. Tragically, some of those closest to him eventually committed suicide.

Silent Friend, in Cinema Daily US

SILENT FRIEND invites viewers to meditate on what it means to be human, through a solitary reesearcher's relationship with plants (perhaps accidentally expressing the post-Covid, post-Hong Kong crackdown zeitgeist). Not all three of its intertwined stories are equally successful, but it still represents assured and refined filmmaking. CINEMA DAILY US review up here.

Unconditional, on Apple TV+

At this point, everyone should be extremely cautious when visiting Russia or China, because they are hostile powers that employ hostage-taking as a tactic to negotiate political and economic concessons. That caution should also apply to layovers. Orna Levy and her daughter Gali learn that the hard way. They were traveling from India to Israel, but Gali was arrested on dubious drug trafficking charges during their Moscow connection. Orna Levy is neither a lawyer or a diplomat, but she is a mother, so she fights tenaciously for her daughter’s freedom in co-creators Adam Bizanski & Dana Idisis’s 8-episode Israeli drama, Unconditional, which premieres today on Apple TV+.

Orna assumes they would simply eat between flights and that would be all they would see of Russia. Instead, the police swarm and arrest Gali, leaving her mother confused and alarmed. The timing is terrible, because the Israeli embassy is closed for a national holiday. Eventually, she learns the charges, but neither Levy or her lawyer can speak to her daughter, because the cops keep transferring her from prison to prison, like a game of three card monte.

Eventually, Gali is “arraigned,” but with one whispered word from the prosecutor, the judge denies bail with no explanation. Viewers had better take note at this point. This could happen to any American traveling to Russia, if Putin and his lackeys feel they need an extra bargaining chip.

Awkwardly, Gali’s case turns out to be a little more complicated. As Levy conducts a media campaign back home to pressure the Israeli government secure her daughter’s release, she starts to pick up hints Gali might have been intertwined with some sort of international intrigue. For starters, she had a bundle of strange passports hidden in some of her possessions that her mother was carrying. Consequently, Levy starts distrusting her own government, even including her sort of former lover, Dori, a not-exactly former member of the Shin Bet.

Regardless, Gali most likely wasn’t precisely the naïve girl her mother presumed. Indeed, her parting advice to her mother—do no eat or drink anything—was quite sage. As her Russian lawyer later explains, Putin’s cops often lace water provided during interrogations with trace amounts of drugs, to produce false positives to present in court.

The early episodes of Unconditional are smart, nerve-wracking, and urgently timely television. Unfortunately, the conclusion is fairly ridiculous and leaves major national security questions unresolved—and not in a cliffhanger kind of way. The writers clearly just didn’t consider it important.

Admittedly, Bizanski & Idisis target fans of Not Without My Daughter rather than Tom Clancy, but given the Russian and Israeli setting, they could have anticipated a crossover techno-thriller market. To be fair, as previously stated, there is a great deal of valid cautionary, ripped-from-true-life sequences.

Nevertheless, the mother-daughter relationship is the engine driving the series and its reason for being. Consequently, it is also a heck of a showcase for Liraz Chamami, whose performance as Mother Levy is both magnificent and harrowing. She is a ferocious mama bear and a poignant everywoman, misunderestimated (as George W. Bush aptly says) at every turn.

Evgenia Dodina is also wonderfully acerbic and flamboyantly sharklike as Rita, the mysterious Israeli spymaster, who might possibly do more good than harm for Levy. Yossi Marshek also deserves credit for his sensitively understated portrayal of Benni, Levy’s husband suffering from acute early Alzheimer’s. Yes, when it rains for Orna Levy, it pours.

Whistle, on Shudder

Honestly, no Gen-X’er would ever put their lips on a macabre pre-Columbian artifact they found in a dead classmate’s locker. As for Millennials and Gen Z? Yeah, maybe they would. That’s why the 1980s generation will outlive them all and save our nation. To prove the point, another batch of high school kids inadvertently summon an ancient evil in Corin Hardy’s Whistle, which premieres this Friday on Shudder.

After rattling in the winning basket, Mason “Horse” Raymore burned to death in the showers. Weird, right? Lucky transfer student Chrys Willet, fresh out of rehab, inherits his locker, which dos not sit well with his jerky friend, Dean Jackson. Awkwardly, Willet’s cousin Rel Taylor has long carried a torch for Jackson’s popular girlfriend, Grace Browning, who is duly embarrassed by her boyfriend’s behavior. Perversely, the incident earns them all a session of Breakfast Club-ish detention, along with Ellie Gains, the would-be mediator, for whom Willet immediately starts carrying her own torch.

She also brings the creepy “death-whistle” thingy she found in her locker. Arrogant Mr. Craven recognizes it is a potentially valuable pre-Columbian artifact, so he confiscates it. He also blows through it. Okay, actor Nick Frost is Gen X, but he only did it to test the condition, for re-sale purposes. Our generation is even more enterprising than cautious. Of course, he dies just the same. By that time, Taylor had already stolen it back and brought it to Browning’s cozy pool soiree, since they are all friends now (except Jackson). And what do you think she does?

The nature of the Aztec death demon is somewhat interesting, but for the most part, Whistle plays out like a bland imitation of Bishal Dutta’s vastly superior It Lives Inside, in which a beleaguered teenager also lugs around a demon-bound knick-knack. Unfortunately, Whistle is not nearly as distinctive or scary.

The Terror: Devil in Silver, on AMC+

Don't call Pepper crazy. He is a New Yorker, he is supposed to be intense. Maybe he can be a little too intense at times, but nothing that warrants institutionalization. Yet, that is where he winds up, because of a few lazy civil servants and an evil presence that wanted him there. It is always trickier to be discharged from a mental institution than to be admitted, or at least you would assume so (even though the crazy guy currently screaming on my street might suggest otherwise). However, it is certainly true of the mental institution controlled by a demonic force in showrunners Chris Cantwll & Victor LaValle’ six-episode The Terror: Devil in Silver (the third season of the anthology series that started out as just plain The Terror), which premieres Thursday on AMC+ and Shudder.

Pepper has more swagger than common sense. He also has a temper that kicks in when his live-in girlfriend’s ex gets a little too belligerent. Unfortunately, his adrenaline keeps him fighting when the cops arrive. They should simply book him for the night, but their shift is ending and the paperwork would be exhausting, so they simply dump him in New Hyde Psychiatric Hospital for a 72-hour observation.

Ominously, the 72-hours quickly stretch into weeks, for ostensively specious reasons, but really because “It” wants Pepper there. Clearly, Dr. Anand, the hospital director, grossly abuses his authority. Yet, Pepper’s roommate “Coffee” (they are a better combination than they sound like) assures him the Devil (perhaps even The Devil) truly calls the shots.

Initially, Pepper hatches several escape plans and incites modest rebellions in the tradition of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, which one of the doctors condescendingly picks as his book club pick. Yet, the involuntary patient soon recognizes the validity of Coffee’s insight. It is also pretty clear where it lurks: in the forbidden room with the silver door, inhabiting the body of an old man with a baffling reputation for brutal violence.

Mental hospitals make highly effective setting for horror movies (like Bedlam starring Boris Karloff and Shock starring Vincent Price), because the unjustly committed and terrorized truly have no recourse. That is true for Pepper too, even though the film slowly starts to admit he maybe could use some counseling—especially after everything he is about to go through. Regardless, as soon as Pepper enters New Hyde, viewers feel sympathetic claustrophobia.

Indeed, the hospital is massively creepy and depressing. It puts the “institutional” in “institutionalized.” Yet, it is exactly the sort of dysfunctional antiquated institution that continue to limp along in New York, because various regulations and collective bargaining agreements make them impossible to close.

Welfare Warriors, on Viaplay

There is no Scandinavian “efficiency” in this Finnish welfare office. However, there is toxic mold and possibly even a ghost. It would be a grim place to spend eternity, but perhaps a fitting one, considering benefits-seekers feel like it takes forever to talk to a live person. Yet, when their numbers are finally called, the case-workers must spend no more than seven-minutes on their consultation, according to government mandate. Eelis Jarvinen tried to explain his frustration to the office manager, Anneli Tiainen, but when she didn’t listen, he took a header off the building. Until things get better, Jarvinen will keep haunting Tiainen and the rest of his former colleagues, thereby making the current situation even worse in director-co-writer Tiina Lymi’s three-episode Welfare Warriors, which premieres Thursday on Viaplay.

Tiainen feels somewhat guilty for blowing off Jarvinen in his darkest hour, but everyone else in the office has more pressing concerns, like “maintaining the dignity of the civil service” and “preserving the welfare state.” The former certainly won’t be happening in Welfare Warriors.

Soon, Tiainen notices weird and inexplicable phenomenon around the office, but she is too tired to even respond. Out of desperation, she creates six fake dummy corporations to sponsor fake worker training for 2,000 of their toughest fake-job-searching cases. Of course, such massive success gets noticed by the bureaucracy, who devise a more ambitious “hyper-enabling” pilot program, for which Tiainen’s office will be the guinea pigs.

Panicked to cover her tracks, Tiainen enlists the help of Seppo Isomaki, who is keenly aware of each and every one of his entitlements as a unionized civil service employee. Jarvinen also does his Grudge-like business, but Lymi and co-writer Juha Lehtola are almost too preoccupied with bureaucratic politics to notice, at least during the first episode.

Admittedly, the supernatural activity picks up somewhat in the next two installments, but it always takes a backseat to social commentary. While there is an oft-repeated plea to protect the welfare state largesse, some of the acerbic dialogue cuts both ways. Indeed, not one single second of Welfare Warriors inspires confidence in the ultra-privileged Finnish civil service.

That Time I Got Reincarrnated as a Slime the Movie: Tears of the Azure Sea, in Cinema Daily US

The new THAT TIME I GOT REINCARNATED AS A SLIME movie, TEARS OF THE AZURE SEA, features the franchise's most cartoony character, but in an appealignly bittersweet underdog story. CINEMA DAILY US review up here.

Marshals: Playing with Fire

Lucky Kayce Dutton finally gets a break from the family angst and guilt this episode. Instead, it is Belle Skinner’s turn and as far as Dutton is concerned, she is welcome to it. Of course, everyone caries their past like an albatross in creator Spencer Hudnut’s Marshals so tonight’s installment,  “Playing with Fire” certainly won’t be an exception.

Things were momentarily great. Dutton’s house guest, former SEAL teammate Garrett Garvey was really taking to ranch life and Deputy Marshal Andrea Cruz, who was just cleared to return to duty after her hostage ordeal in “In Low Places.” Then, in a flash, Garvey suffers serious burns and smoke inhalation while saving the horses from an electrical fire in the barn.

Cruz’s first gig back was supposed to be easy. She and Skinner must ride shotgun on a routine prison transfer. You know what that means. One rock slide later, we have fugitives. There was even a convicted doctor on board, but he was truly guilty and he isn’t one of the ones that got away. Instead, he helps treat an injured inmate, who also happens to be a mystery woman from Skinner’s past.

Okay, so one of the escapees also has a connection to Dutton, but who in Montana doesn’t? That will most likely drive the next episode. This time around, Skinner gets all bad family karma, which probably makes this episode the best feature opportunity yet for Arielle Kebbel. Ash Santos also nicely balances her as Cruz, unaccustomedly providing the voice of reason.

Didn’t Die: “Podcasting” the Zombie Apocalypse

If nobody podcasts it, does it really happen? Vinita would say “no,” so she started the zombie apocalypse survival “podcast.” Many of the people still living tell her she’s actually doing a radio show, since she broadcasts it over the airwaves, but she really never knew radio as a medium of mass communication. Having survived the zombie outbreak, she assumes she’s seen it all, but things are about to get even worse, just in time for her 100^th episode in Meera Menon’s Didn’t Die., which is now available on VOD.

Vinita and her little brother Rish have returned to their hometown hoping to stage a townhall-style 100^th episode. However, that means staying with their older brother Hari and his sequin-bedazzling, show tune-singing wife, Barbara. Vinita likes to think she is an expert when it comes to zombie survival, whose tips genuinely help her listeners. In terms of numbers, she doesn’t have many, but if measured as a percent of population, her market penetration is quite healthy.

Unfortunately, the rules are about to change. Zombies used to only attack at night, reverting to a catatonic state during the day. However, Rish insists he was chased by an alert zombie while putting up posters for Vinita’s show. Nobody believes him though, because of his reputation for being a panicky scaredy-cat.

Vinita is also distracted by an awkward reunion with her ex, Vincent. He’s not exactly the last man on Earth, but he’s pretty close. Vincent also hopes to find a home for the infant he found beneath the bodies of her dead parents, who were surprised by day-walking zombies.

Didn’t Die has intermittently amusing moments, but it feels incredibly small for a zombie movie. The principle cast gamely does its best to sell the material, but Menon (who previously helmed an episode of The Walking Dead and Fear the Walking Dead) and her co-screenwriter husband Paul Gleason constantly recycle the same jokes and the same family arguments. Still, Gleason’s black-and-white cinematography serves as a nice homage to Romero’s original Night of the Living Dead.