Ten Thoughts on “Goke, Body Snatcher from Hell” – 1968

So Hulu has all these Criterion releases, most of which I have zero interest in watching, but with a title like “Goke, Body Snatcher from Hell”, how could I resist!

1. This is my kind of movie. Low budget and schlocky, with a twisted black heart. What will shock you is how nihilistic it is, while at the same time being really corny. It’s like Guernica done in Crayola.

2. The location is brutal. The characters are in a downed passenger jet in the middle of a barren desert. It looks like a Mad Max wasteland, but with lots of Styrofoam rock slides. People are being baked in this metal tube and every time they step outside a rock falls on them or a space vampire tries to give them a hickey. Rough times.

3. The alien is parked in the desert in this plastic UFO, and that’s pretty great...

 ...but the way it turns people into vampires is marvelous and will make you want to throw up. A very convincing special effect goes down that wasn’t just good for the time period, but good for the ages. It’s so effective and cool and weird. It’s one of those great culty moments that give iffy movies big reputations. I'm not going to show it here, you're just going to have to watch the movie. Don't google it. Don't!

4. The aliens seem to base their technology on lava lamps and psychedelic light shows. The inside of the UFO looks like a 1980's Steak Restaurant. I kept wondering if my table was ready.

I should have called ahead.

When the aliens rob you of your humanity you do this tortured agony dance that had to be an inspiration for the Tetsuo Iron Man Boogie.

Same as it ever was.

5. The film stock adds to the retro shag carpet appeal. 1960s Fujicolor. Maybe a cinematographer could let me in on why movies of the period look so fantastic. Nowadays cheap schlock looks like garbage, but back then cheap schlock looked like real movies.

Oh! The colors!

"Mind if I borrow that?" - Kill Bill

6. Similar to Night of the Living Dead where trapped characters spend the whole movie bickering with each other. Civility is gone the moment they are thrown into crisis. Both movies came out the same year, but this wasn’t released state side until ’77 to ‘79 depending where you look it up. I would say the biggest difference would be that instead of an army of zombies, you get one split faced creepy guy. He’s still pretty menacing.

7. My favorite character moment is the sadistic glee that the psychiatrist takes in watching people fall apart. People just don’t have these moments in American movies.

Very constructive, thank you.

8. The movie has a cool James Bond influence with the lead bad guy, who looks like he should work for Specter. He does have a split face most of the run time, but besides that… you know.

Sayonara, Mr. Bond.

9. Interesting that political and domestic terrorists figure into the plot so strongly. Da more things change… badda badda boom!

10. If you were going to watch this as a double feature, I would say match it with either Lifeforce or The Blob (‘58 version). Both big amoebas and space vampires show up in Goke, so take your pick. However, Goke vampires tend to be less naked than the Lifeforce variety. Just saying.

You can get with this...

... or you can get with that.

One final thing. You should compare the ending shots of this with the opening credits of Mars Attacks. It will give you that “Planet of the Vampires” feeling.

Same as it ever was.

Same as it ever was.

FIGHT EVIL
Sam Drog

Clown Versus Monkey! Check It Out Here!

Buy Satanic Killer Chicken Here!

Watch Short Films Here!

Ten Thoughts on Star Wars: The Force Awakens

I’ll try not to spoil anything, but you should run go see the movie before reading this. It’s great. That’s my short review. It’s great. Go see it. See it lots. Below is just some rambling. I don’t remember people’s names. Sorry in advance.

1.  Harrison Ford. Oh man Harrison Ford is so good in this, brings his chops, brings Han Solo awesomeness, brings it. It was everything that the return of  Indiana Jones wasn’t. In fact, maybe my favorite scene is him telling his stance on the Jedi and the force and all that mumbo jumbo. Loved that scene and it also serves as a fix for the Chrystal Skull where you needed to see how life changed and bent him over the years.

2.  Speaking of acting, no one sucks. Everyone is in the spirit, looking alive and having fun. It was joyful. Living breathing people that you wanted to hang around for 2 hours. No Space C-SPAN in this one.

3. Funny! Remember when Star Wars movies had a sense of humor? Well they do again!

4. Very nostalgic. This movie is a big sloppy kiss to the first movie. The plot hits the same notes with little spins. JJ is the first Star Wars director to have grown up watching Star Wars, probably wanted to make movies because of Star Wars, and his twiterpation locks this movie in to the exuberant fanboy geekery zone. That keeps it from breaking new ground or going places the movies haven’t gone before, but it is a solid iteration of all that we love about those first three movies.

5. I loved the struggles of conscience the evil characters have. The Darth Vader 2.0 Guy has a great quiet scene in his chamber, kind of a “to be or not to be” moment, that I really dug. Same with the shell shocked storm trooper. It’s a very optimistic view of the world that the antagonists are just as unsure of themselves as the heros. The dark side here is played as some sort of creepy cult that will steel your babies away. I liked that angle.

6.  The female lead in this is great. Liked the mummy costume. A good guy in a Star Wars movie with a British accent? That’s not right! I’m going to let it slide. 

7. Deathstar 3.0 is a gas guzzler.

8. Big planet blows up, my kid cries and asks “Is Jar Jar okay?”  Look, you raise your kids the best you can, but you have to let them be their own people at some point. Generation gap is a go.

9. So the scene on the bridge. I was a Teenage Darth Vader. Sure, I got verklempt. Held it together but not going to lie. I have wanted to see Harrison Ford be in scenes like this for a long time. After Cowboys and Aliens and The Chrystal Skull, I thought he’d lost it. He is back and the bridge scene, man that gave me the feels pretty hardcore. Wow. See number 1.

10. But the last scene, I couldn’t even talk afterwards. I would have liked one more little thing, a moment, but that is nitpicking. I won’t nitpick, because the moment we’re given is wonderful, we see so much pathos and regret and uncertainty in the eyes…  it’s a great moment. I rambled about it in the car trip home and my throat kept catching. Phew.

Bonus: Loved the Space Nazi Rally scene with the crazy Hitler speech. Who hasn’t wanted to see that in a Star Wars movie?

Nutshell: Fury Road, Jurassic World, and this prove that your awesome childhood wasn’t a complete hallucination.

FIGHT EVIL
Sam Drog

Clown Versus Monkey! Check It Out Here!

Buy Satanic Killer Chicken Here!

Watch Short Films Here!