Arpie (1987) - mind melting Italian freakout

Deepstar Six

You might remember me rambling on recently about how 1989 was a year for undersea mayhem with The Abyss and Leviathan... Well, there's another one. Deepstar Six, directed by Sean Cunningham. You know, the director of Friday the 13th? Well, this one even has a score by Harry Manfredini!

I would have to say for sure that this is the weakest of the bunch. They set this in the "near future" even though there's nothing outlandish about it really. Some undersea exploration team is supposed to build a missile base or something for the navy, but they discover a cave... "Blow it up!" says the boss man, but the other lady says to explore it! They try to get in there before it all goes south, and they unleash some weird crustacean monster who kills everybody.

This one didn't have anything particularly new to offer, so I'll explain some of its merits. The film features Miguel Ferrer, who always seemed to play an asshole, but he did it well. He must have been an asshole in real life to play it so convincingly. It also dealt with de-pressurization and featured a good way of taking advantage of that. Gnarly shit.

The monster was pretty goofy and the characters were bland, so I can't say much else about this one. It came out first though (January), then Leviathan (March), and then The Abyss (August), so they all got better as they went along.

Unfinished Chop Top movie? All American Massacre

With Buckethead as Leatherface???

Well this is a very interesting...has anybody heard about this? I'm surprised I haven't. I would love to see it finished someday.

The Beast Must Die (1974)

This is an Amicus horror mystery about a wealthy dude who collects a group of suspected werewolves into his secluded mansion so he can narrow down which one of them is the real deal.

When the movie begins, it narrates that it is a detective movie and prompts you to make your guess in this whodunnit. Towards the end, it gives a brief intermission to ask you to make your final guess, and I actually narrowed it down, but I didn't pinpoint who until it became blatantly obvious.

The cast is pretty good. Our lead is some black dude with a variety of outfit choices, one of which is an uncomfortable one-piece leather suit that seemed pretty random to me. Then, you have Peter Cushing as the werewolf expert, Charles Gray (Rocky Horror's criminologist), our lead's girlfriend/assistant, a big red herring Paul Foote, a beautiful dame named Davina, and finally... Dumbledore himself Michael Gambon as Jan the man with the stache.

I was a bit disappointed that the werewolf wasn't a special effects deal, but simply a big fucking dog. Either way, it was an okay movie with a seriously dated 70s score. Not too bad. If you saw it... did you guess who it was?

What Movies Did You Watch as a Kid?

I'm talking the first movies you were ever exposed to. What were they, and do you still think of them fondly today?

I was born in 1988, so that'll give you an idea of what movies were available in my youth. When I was young as fuck, it was in the age of VHS tapes. I fondly remember a few titles that I'll ramble on about.

One Christmas, my brother received a double feature of Terminator and Terminator 2. We watched the fuck out of those, and even though they were rated R, our parents didn't care because the movies were so damn good.

Other prominent movies of my youth included The Goonies, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1 and 2, The Adventures of Milo and Otis, The Return of Swamp Thing, Ghostbusters, and Honey I Shrunk the Kids. I just watched that last one with my 4-year-old nephew and he had a blast with it. Very immersed the whole time. I still find it funny that Stuart Gordon co-wrote that movie, may he rest in peace!

Now, these are the earliest movies I remember watching religiously. Shortly after that, I went into a obsessing about other movies, but that's perhaps a discussion for another time. So how about you? What are the first movies you remember watching non-stop as a kid?

2010-2019 TOP 10

I'd like to see your lists if you please. Got some catching up to do.

New Feature: Reactions

A page refresh may be required. Now, this isn't anything innovative. I'm just copying Facebook here, where the 'Like' option is a bit more expansive. However, I've added a "Dislike" option to the rest of their defaults, because as it goes, there is a Like and Love, there should be a Dislike and Hate(Angry).

This isn't a culture where people can only express positive feelings. If you don't like something, you should feel free to express your disinterest.
There were many dependencies I had to change, so I've likely overlooked a few small details, and I haven't updated functionality for the alternate skins yet. If you notice issues, let me know.

In the Shadow of the Moon (2019)

I've heard mixed things about this Netflix original movie back when it came out, so I was hesitant to watch it. It's from a decent director Jim Mickle who did Stake Land (okay at best) and the gritty Cold in July which I thought was a cool movie. Why the hell did I pass up a movie starring Michael C. Hall? Was I retarded or something? You're damn right I was!

So this here is a movie I wont go into too much detail about because the twists are what make it a great experience. The story starts off with Locke (Boyd Holbrooke) as a beat cop in 1988 who gets roped into a series of bizarre coincidental deaths. He investigates this shit with his partner Maddox and mild cooperation of his detective brother-in-law Holt (Michael C. Hall). It gets weird very quick, but the aftermath of this whole investigation lingers for years to come, driving Locke a bit crazy as he obsesses about it for quite some time.

For those who have seen this movie, it bears a strong similarity to two other movies I really loved: The Terminator, and Predestination. Solid, engaging, and an absolute mindfuck.

The Brand Spankin' New "What Are You Currently Listening To?" Thread

Because the other one is all lame and gay and buried somewhere on page...whatever

Sea Monster Movies

Sea-ing how this month's challenge revolves around them, what are some of your recommendations? It didn't take me long to realize that I don't know many movies that fit this criteria, but I'm sure we can figure out a few. Include lake monster movies too, because those count.


My personal favorite is Humanoids from the Deep (1980), which is short and gives you plenty of kills. If you can count kills that weren't from the monsters, you'd have even more deaths. This movie is balls to the wall.

I suppose a big one is Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954) and its two sequels. He was the last of the classic Universal monsters. My personal favorite is the second movie.

I recently watched Leviathan (1989), which was like an underwater version of The Thing. If you want some garbage movies, there's Devil Fish (1984), Creatures from the Abyss (1994), and Creature from the Haunted Sea (1961).


There are literally a million shark movies and an ass-load of alligator/crocodile movies, if those count. They're real creatures, so I'm not sure if they count as "monsters". Do they need to be mutated or genetically modified? Do the piranha movies count, since the remake marks them as prehistoric savages?

What say you? Add to the list.