It’s a look at three of the latest movies I’ve added to my collection, including 2 Blu-rays and a 4k UHD.
BABY BLOOD (1990)
If you’re looking for a bloody, sleazy good time, this French evil baby flick puts all other evil baby flicks that came before it to shame. The plot point that triggers the action also reminded me of Peter Jackson’s Dead Alive, which came a few years later.
An African jaguar is sent to a circus, where we meet the abusive owner and his woman, who performs in the show.
Before long, the jaguar explodes! We don’t see it happen, but we see the aftermath in a cage. For unexplained reasons other than the notion that deadly viruses, diseases, and parasites always come from other countries, a black snake thing slithers away and finds its way into the female performer while she’s sleeping.
She discovers she’s pregnant, she flees her abusive man, and soon the baby that’s inside her talks to her and demands that she kill people then drink their blood to feed it.
There’s not much more to it than that. She hides out in the urban jungle, she uses her sex appeal to lure men, and then she kills them and sucks a different fluid from them than the one they were hoping for.
There are some great gory scenes, including a wild dream scene of her giving birth, but the killing does become somewhat repetitive.
The most interesting encounter she has with a man involves him giddily talking about gay and transsexual stuff.
Things pick back up at the end when we’re treated to a journey through her body, and then she finally gives birth to the baby, which looks normal at first, but reveals its real monstrous look when its mother is once again at the mercy of toxic masculinity.
LORDS OF THE DEEP (1989)
Of course Roger Corman got in on the underwater creature craze from the end of the 80s with his special brand of b-movie production. Lords of the Deep is a fairly cookie cutter take on the subgenre, with the bonus of having Priscilla Barnes as the leading lady.
Timely (at the time), this is a story of an underwater facility trying to figure out a way for life to go on following the destruction of the ozone layer.
A research sub goes off the grid, so a rescue sub is sent out to find it. The sub is found empty, but creatures attack and the life form ends up infiltrating the facility.
Thing is that the life form looks like a cute stingray with cartoon eyes. Even so, it escapes its tank where the crew is keeping it captive, and the hunt to find it is on.
Meanwhile, Priscilla seems to have a telepathic connection with the creature.
Bradford Dillman, who plays the leader of the crew, doesn’t want the scientists exposing themselves to the creature and therefore works against them.
The proceeding are entertaining enough and definitely provide that nostalgic feel for those missing this time period, but there’s nothing much in the way of monstrous or horrific here—we definitely needed more underwater alien action.
It is fun to note that there’s one scene in which Priscilla Barnes is kissing a guy she’s involved with and two other guys call the public display of affection disgusting while walking by arm in arm. Gay humor or gay characters? You decide.
THE PSYCHIC (1977)
Considering it begins with close-ups of a woman’s face scrapping against a mountainside as she jumps off a cliff, you wouldn’t expect The Psychic to be a tame Lucio Fulci film, but it is after that satisfying scene. The new 4k release doesn’t do the opening gore any favors…the classic hokey Euro style effects are fully exposed in ultra HD glory.
This being a 1977 film, we are then hit by a cheesy 70s ballad during the opening credits.
Sort of a parapsychology giallo, this is the story of a woman who has premonitions, played by Jennifer O’Neill.
She comes to live with her husband in his new home and is bombarded by visions that lead her to tear down a wall with a pickaxe to discover a skeleton behind it.
Jennifer is soon convinced it was murder and spends the rest of the movie investigating, having more visions, and seeing those visions slowly become reality.
It gets a bit repetitive (a side effect of having visions of things before they happen…), but there’s a good chase scene near the end and a nod to a famous Edgar Allan Poe story.
