My latest streaming marathon of indies was quite entertaining, so let’s get right into them.
IT CAME FROM BELOW (2021)
Just check this one out if you need a creature feature fix and are a fan of The Descent.
There’s nothing new here—a group of friends goes exploring underground tunnels, one of them is vulnerable following a personal loss, and then a creature starts tearing them apart. Yay!
It’s astounding to me that whiners on Prime say this is the worst movie ever, no one in it can act, it shouldn’t have been funded, no one should have agreed to work on it, they want their money back, blah, blah, blah. Everyone just wants to hear the sound of their own hatred for everything these days.
This movie may be a bit cliché, but there’s nothing bad about it beyond the lighting being a bit dark at times and the dialogue being too low to hear if you don’t crank up the volume. I found it to be a tight film with some good suspense and a wicked cool creature design.
Plus, there’s a little more going on here than just the creature…which, unfortunately also means we get less creature.
FRANKENSTEIN vs. THE MUMMY (2015)
I wasn’t aware that Damien Leone directed a film between All Hallows’ Eve and its spin-off Terrifier, so I was psyched to stumble upon Frankenstein vs. The Mummy. I wasn’t crazy about it being 2 hours long, and I stand by that after watching it, even though I enjoyed it.
A clever way to bring these two classic monsters together, this film has a male professor piecing together the monster with the help of a sleazy dude who brings him body parts, while a female professor, who happens to be his girlfriend, scores the university a mummy that needs human sacrifices to come back to life.
Both monsters are pretty damn freaky. Frankenstein reminds me of the vampire from Subspecies, and he even has a hot ass and, eventually, a nasty sense of humor.
Plus the kills are violent and gory.
Now here’s the problem. It’s not until after 50 minutes in that both monsters come to life, they don’t meet until 102 minutes in, and their fight is less than five minutes long!
My opinion…the movie should have been trimmed by 30 minutes, and 30 minutes of the remaining 90 minutes should have focused on Frankenstein and The Mummy beating the shit out of each other…
BAPHOMET (2021)
It’s about time someone made a movie named after the classic satanic symbol, it just doesn’t come into play in the film. Even so, this is one hell of a satanic cult film right from the opening sacrifice of a naked young woman.
Running only about 70 minutes long, it’s an odd little indie with absolutely no filler, and I give it props for that. A family is celebrating their daughter’s pregnancy when a man comes to offer them a load of money for their land.
The father refuses, and the family is immediately subjected to an onslaught of tragic events at the hands of the cult.
A pretty damn good shark attack scene is the last thing I expected in a satanic cult movie, but it’s the catalyst for the rest of the film, which involves a witch, a resurrection, a home invasion, and finally, a visit from a damn cool looking devil.
I’d say this one is worth giving a watch if you’re a fan of satanic cult movies and can appreciate indie films.
