The Resonator: Miskatonic U (Part 2)

Fictional Miskatonic University might be highly selective, but once you are in, it takes a lot to get kicked out. For instance, Crawford Tillinghast stole university resources, including plutonium, to conduct unsanctioned experiments that resulted in the death of one friend and the non-fatal impalement injury of his girlfriend Mara Esteban. However, Prof. Wallace is willing to paper-over the entire business if Tillinghast will give him access to his late father’s breakthrough. Of course, the older mad scientist’s motives are highly suspect in the second concluding installment of William Butler’s The Resonator: Miskatonic U, which premieres this Friday on Full Moon Features.

As was the case in Stuart Gordon’s classic From Beyond, the Resonator stimulates the pineal gland, allowing people in our dimension to see creatures from other dimensions. Unfortunately, if you can see them, they can see you—and that is extraordinarily dangerous. After the horror show of the previous episode’s test-drive, Tillinghast reluctantly agrees to shut down his Resonator experiments, until Prof. Wallace comes along to blackmail his old rival’s son into sharing the secrets of the Resonator with him, much to the alarm of the deceased Dr. Tillinghast’s disembodied spirit.

The Resonator is a pretty satisfying riff on Lovecraft and Gordon’s cult-favorite adaptations, but the first somewhat longer episode is probably better than the second, because it devotes more time to the character development and group dynamics of Tillinghast’s friends, particularly Esteban and the meatheaded Bear Johnson. Frankly, the second episode feels like it hurries to bring the story to a close. For what its worth, the ending does not make much sense, but that is not necessarily inappropriate for what it is.

The Resonator: Miskatonic U (Episode 1)

There is no better fictional school to study mad science than H.P. Lovecraft’s Miskatonic University. It also boasts an amazing occult archive, including a copy of the Necronomicon. It is the perfect place for the son of From Beyond anti-hero Crawford Tillinghast to study. Naturally, the son wants to complete his late father’s extra-dimensional work in William Butler’s The Resonator: Miskatonic U, a loose but still fairly faithful sequel to Stuart Gordon’s From Beyond, which debuts its first installment this Friday on Full Moon Features.

When Tillinghast fils discovered Pere’s notes, he just couldn’t resist constructing his own resonator. Of course, it worked only too well, leaving him with a friend’s body to dispose of. As a result, he had been keeping his bizarrely patient girlfriend Mara Esteban at arm’s length. However, he eventually relents and gives a demonstration of the Resonator to her and their friends, perhaps because of the aphrodisiac effects. Regardless, the entities it reveals from other dimensions remain just as evil and dangerous as they were in Gordon’s film.

Meanwhile, the Dean Wormer-like Prof. Wallace is snooping around Tillinghast’s internet activity, which is pretty damning. The first episode definitely leans into the mad science aspect of Miskatonic, enduringly represented by Dr. Herbert West, whose presence in promised in the later episode. However, the dark spirituality professed by Prof. McMichaels suggests there could very well be some metaphysical elder god business waiting in the wings too.

Fists of Fury: Kung Fu Clips of Death

In the 1970s and early 1980s, the Kung Fu movies were almost as deadly as the fashions. You will indeed see feathered hair, particularly during a clip for our hostess with the mostess, marital arts legend Cynthia Rothrock. However, her timing and delivery are clearly better suited to action than comedy. Still, there is nostalgia to be found in Charles Band’s Kung Fu clip compilation film Fists of Fury (trailer here) which is now available on DVD from Full Moon Features.

You can’t even call Fists the That’s Entertainment of Kung Fu, because it doesn’t cherry-pick iconic scenes. It merely stitches together vintage coming attractions, sort of in the tradition of Drafthouse’s Trailer War, but some of these films are no particularly obscure. For one thing, there is a lot of love for Angela Mao Ying, but that is understandable, because we have a lot of love for her too. It also makes us think Nora Miao is way overdue for a retrospective of her own.

Not to sound grouchy, but Full Moon really could have at least digitally removed the grainy European subtitles half-visible in some trailers. Yet, the awesomeness still shines through for a number of these films. Frankly, it is nice to see Kao Pao-shu get her due as a pioneering woman director in the trailer for Bandits, Prostitutes, and Silver, starring Mao. It is also cool to see Pan Pan Yeung get the A Star is Born treatment in the trailer for The Story of Drunken Master, which appears to be the only collected teaser that featured original footage.

Fists will definitely make you want to watch many of the films teased by the trailers. For instance, Hammer’s Shatter, co-starring Peter Cushing and Lily Li looks like it would make a dynamite double feature paired with Stoner (not included, but too good not to plug). It is also know before Debbie Allen was directing episodes of Grey’s Anatomy and A Different World, she appeared in more reputable projects, like Ebony, Ivory, and Jade, a martial arts thriller about Olympic athletes sold into white slavery.

However, many of these trailers are probably already available on YouTube, like the one for Wonder Women, in which Nancy Kwan’s Dr. Tsu tells Ross Hagen: “it is possible for me to transplant any body part.” You can insert your own joke when he replies: “any body part?” In fact, you will have to, because there is no MST3K style running commentary and the comedy bits in between are excruciatingly painful. All you’re really getting with Fists is curation and compilation. Still, some of these films are just a blast no matter how chopped and diced up they are. Fists of Fury is not really recommended per se, but once you start watching, it is hard to stop, sort of like the infomercials for 1980s one-hit-wonder compilations on late night television. It is now available on Amazon, so there you have it.

Ravenwolf Towers: Bonds of Blood

This seedy apartment building is like a roach motel for transients and furtive lovers. They check in . . . Jake, the earnest new assistant manager already starts to question the macabre way things are done in the building, but it is doubtful he can change much during Bonds of Blood, the second episode of Charles Band’s web series Ravenwolf Towers, which premieres today (the first full moon of 2017) on the Full Moon streaming site and Amazon Prime.

Ravenwolf’s first episode, Bad Mary, was hooky and intriguing, making Bonds look like a relative sophomore slump in comparison. Rather oddly, the episode’s big reveal comes rather early in the episode. It turns out Mary, the pretty girl living on the eleventh floor with the rest of her freaky evil family is maybe not so innocent as viewers and Jake previously assumed. The assistant manager will come in direct conflict with her mutant brood when he tries to protect the new tenants: a pair of fan service-providing lesbian lovers.

Frankly, aside from the scoop on Mary, Bonds does not appear to hold a lot of long-term narrative significance. However, it certainly suggests Sonny H. King could very well emerge as the fan favorite for his salty work as Benji, the massively cynical building manager. He is reason enough to come back for more in twenty-nine days. Bonds of Blood streams today, with the DVD release coming January 20^th.

Ravenwolf Towers: Full Moon in Webisode Form

In the lunar cycle, there are 29.53 days between full moons. Those of us whose jobs do not depend on the tides ordinarily do not keep track of such things, but fans of Charles Band and the particular style of his horror movie production company Full Moon Features now have a reason. His new web series will premiere a new episode every full moon, which will make its airings even less predictable than NBC’s NewsRadio in the late 1990s. Yet, if you are a diehard brand fan, you will probably be checking anyway. Casual genre viewers will also be amused by the Full Moon aesthetic applied to the Grand Hotel formula when Bad Mary, the first episode of Ravenwolf Towers premieres today on Full Moon’s Streaming site.

The titular hotel was once an opulent palace, but it has degenerated into a skid row flop, except for the top story. A family of apparently financially secure inbred mutants keeps the 11^th floor all to themselves and they expect management to respect their privacy. As of episode one, this now includes Jake, the new assistant manager. He is a bit of a sad sack, but he perks up when he meets Mary from the top floor clan, who happens to be rather attractive, like Ravenwolf’s Marilyn Munster.

Band helms a surprisingly atmospheric premiere, but thanks to his showman’s instincts, he also has the commercial sense to open with a sex scene, making Ravenwolf totally cable-ready and fanboy-friendly. Right from the start, he doles out some intriguing backstory and the run-down setting is rather evocative. The cast largely plays it straight, including Evan Henderson as the somewhat spaced-out Jake. Cult movie fans will also get a kick out of super-busy horror movie regular Maria Olsen chewing some scenery as Mabel, the duly sinister daughter of the freaky clan’s ailing patriarch.

Based on the thirty-one minute first installment, Ravenwolf definitely has potential, like a riff on the old James Brolin Hotel series, but with body horror, deformity exploitation, nudity, and at least two mad scientists. (We’ll let you know if subsequent episodes are open for review.) Of course, a season one DVD has already been announced, but in the meantime, Band and Olsen fans can keep watching the moon. For Full Moon subscribers, Bad Mary is now available on their streaming platform.