Review: Blood Creature

A shipwrecked American sailor (Richard Derr) uncovers ghastly scientific experiments being carried out on a tropical island by mad scientist Francis Lederer. Greta Thyssen plays the doctor’s wife who develops feelings for the new island inhabitant and vice versa.

 

Cheap 1959 Filipino mad scientist film from director Gerry de Leon (“Brides of Blood”, “Women in Cages”) and screenwriter Harry Paul Harber (mostly an actor, this was his final feature film) actually isn’t worthless. The basic plot is tried and true – an unofficial adaptation of “The Island of Dr. Moreau”, and it deserves credit for being the first ever Filipino horror film. The director actually offers up some decent creepy atmosphere from time to time, which is commendable for this kind of thing and this kind of budget. There’s also a solid turn by veteran character actor Francis Lederer as the doctor. The other performances are a bit stiff and the material is rather thin, I also had the added debit of watching an absolutely dreadful, dark print. It made it a bit extra hard to really become involved in what I was watching, and what I was watching was already second-rate material. Occasionally wonky editing doesn’t help, either.

 

I can’t really recommend the film, but I will say that it was a bit better than I was expecting from the uber-generic title. In a way, it probably would’ve been more fun if it were actually worse, it’s a C-grade film instead of a Z-grade film. That means it kinda falls into the netherworld of being neither good enough nor bad enough to entirely please anyone. However, for the seriously undemanding you could do a lot worse. It’s a nice try at something eerie, I’ll give it that.  

 

Rating: C+

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Review: Hellraiser (2022)

Recovering junkie Odessa A’zion accompanies scuzzy boyfriend Drew Starkey on a break-in where all they find is a weird puzzle box. A’zion later opens the box and after some weird shit happens, A’zion and Starkey figure it might be a good idea to learn more about this messed up trinket. Goran Visnjic plays a millionaire who possessed the box before our protagonist nicked it.   Is there any point in remaking/rebooting “Hellraiser” when the 1987 adaptation of Clive Barker’s original text was written and directed by Barker himself? And is considered a horror classic? On evidence here, absolutely not. Directed by David Bruckner ( “The Signal” ) and scripted by Ben Collins ( “The Night House” ) and Luke Piotrowski (ditto) this is an entirely tedious affair. I took a long time to get on board with the 1987 “Hellraiser” , I have to admit. It was wildly imaginative and original, like a nightmare transplanted on to film. However, the characters were stone cold and left me similarly chilly t
Read more

Review: Cinderella (1950)

The story of poor young Cinderella (voiced by Ilene Woods), treated as a servant by her nasty stepmother (voiced by Eleanor Audley), and dismissed by her thoroughly rotten, ugly stepsisters. Her only friends are a group of mice, who are forever being menaced by a cat named Lucifer (or as I call him, Grumpy Cheshire Cat). The King (hoping to find a wife for his charming son) is throwing a ball and every available young woman is invited to attend, and Cinderella is most excited to go. However, her stepmother and stepsisters do all they can to prevent this from happening. But with help from the mice and one fairy godmother (voiced by Verna Felton) later, and Cinderella looks set to attend the ball. You know the rest, folks.   Lovely 1950 Disney animated movie from directors Clyde Geronimi ( “Peter Pan” , “Lady and the Tramp” ), Wilfred Jackson ( “Fantasia” , “Alice in Wonderland” , “Peter Pan” ) & Hamilton Luske ( “Pinocchio” , “Fantasia” , “Peter Pan” ), that is a bit too s
Read more

Review: Ninja 2: Shadow of a Tear

Scott Adkins is once again Casey, an American proponent of the martial art of Ninjutsu. When Casey’s pregnant Japanese wife (Mika Hijii) is rubbed out, he’s on a vengeance mission to find her killers. A friendly face, Nakabara (Kane Kosugi) turns up at the funeral, and suggests Casey come to Thailand to deal with his grief in another country. Casey initially declines, but eventually takes Nakabara up on his offer. However, his wife’s murder still haunts Casey, and with intel supplied by Nakabara, the trail eventually leads Casey to a brutal drug baron named Goro (Shun Sugata).   I was extremely disappointed with the first “Ninja” , but had heard that this 2013 sequel from director Isaac Florentine ( “Undisputed II: Last Man Standing” , “Undisputed III: Redemption” , “Ninja” ) was a damn near masterpiece of the martial-arts action movie genre. Having now finally gotten my hot little hands on it, I’d say the hype is a bit much, but this is unquestionably a much better film than the f
Read more