This time around, we’ll watch three new releases and two oldies. We’ll start off with the better-than-expected “Clown in a Cornfield,” then move on to the godawful “Bogieville.” “Silent Zone” was pretty good, while “Feed the Gods” (2014) was pretty mediocre. For an eye-popping experience, we’ll finish off with “Killers from Space” from way back in 1954.
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Mainstream Films:
2025 Clown in a Cornfield
Directed by: Eli Craig
Written by: Carter Blanchard, Eli Craig, Adam Cesare
Stars: Katie Douglas, Aaron Abrams, Carson MacCormac
Run Time: 1 Hour, 36 Minutes
Trailer:
Buy it: https://amzn.to/3ZT7nhJ
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
This was a very well made entry into the slasher genre, done more seriously than we expected. There are some laughs, but it’s mostly done straight with a bit of satire. The acting, effects, story, direction, all the elements were very well put together. It moves well and doesn’t drag. Brian liked it quite a bit, but Kevin was left feeling kind of meh.
Spoilery Synopsis
It’s 1991 at a barn party. A girl plays with a jack-in-the-box with a clown and then goes off into the cornfield to get naked with her boyfriend. They are soon chased and killed by… a clown in the cornfield! Credits roll.
In the present day, Quinn and her father, Dr. Glenn Maybrook, move to a very large house in a very small town. He’s the new town doctor. He bought the house unseen, and it has some issues. They see a big old farm factory across the cornfield. There’s no cell service or even wifi in this old house.
Quinn meets Rust, the neighbor, who walks Quinn to school. He gives her some tips about the area and the school. The entire class picks on Mr. Vern, the teacher, and he’s a jerk about it. She gets detention right away, and she meets all the cool kids there. They talk about how Kettle Springs is stuck in the 90s, and Founder’s Day is this weekend. Baypen Corn Syrup is the main industry in town, and the clown is their logo. The kids have made videos about that clown being a serial killer, just for fun.
After school, Sheriff Dunne says hello to the new doctor. He recommends that Quinn stay away from a group of kids, who just happen to be her new friends. The group easily manages to steal alcohol from the convenience store but they pay for it as well. Cole and his friends were blamed for setting the Baypen factory on fire, but they say they didn’t do it.
Suddenly, the group is attacked by a clown! No, it’s a prank video as the teens make another “serial killer clown” video. Quinn tells Cole that her mother overdosed last summer, and her father needed a change, so here they are.
Later that night, Tucker, the guy who wore the clown costume in the video, is home alone and sees a clown on the Ring camera. He finds the same jack-in-the-box we saw earlier. Then the clown comes out of nowhere and kills him.
Cole gets in trouble with his parents; his father is the town mayor, and he’s running the Founder’s Day celebration. Janet and Ronnie tell Cole and Quinn that they want to do another video since the last one got so many views.
The parade goes… badly, and the teens get blamed and arrested for it. The old harbinger in their jail cell says, “You are dead. Never fuck with Frendo.” What? Who?
Matt, another of the teens, finds the jack-in-the-box on his weight bench. When he gets back to lifting, the clown beheads him.
Quinn’s father overreacts and grounds Quinn, so she sneaks out for the big party tonight. Cole shows her a jack-in-the-box with branding from the Baypen company and then they nearly run over Rust, who’s been hunting. Cole and Rust used to be friends until the factory burned down.
The party is at the same barn as from 1991. Tucker and Matt haven’t shown up, so the remaining teens think they’re planning a new prank. It’s quite an elaborate party, and it leads to Quinn and Cole making out in the barn until he rejects her.
Ginger comes out of the woods and “dies” in front of everyone, who assume it’s another prank video until someone throws Matt’s severed head at them. They all assume that’s fake as well until Frendo the clown comes in and kills more teens with his crossbow. Rust ends up shooting the clown; he says everyone’s tires have been slashed. Suddenly, more clowns appear. It’s a whole posse of insane clowns. Of course, there’s no 911 signal.
With all the teens locked in the barn, Rust and Cole reveal that they used to be involved, which explains why Cole rejected Quinn.
In town, the clowns demand that Quinn’s father, the doctor, patch up an injured clown.
Rust leads the others out through a sewer pipe from the barn, and he also manages to blow up some of the clowns. The sheriff runs into the four teens on the road and arrests Cole again before driving off. “Why did they only arrest Cole?” asks Quinn.
Quinn, Janet, and Ronnie run through the cornfield, again pursued by clowns with chainsaws, hammers, axes, and so forth. Ronnie soon learns the ways of the chainsaw clown.
The two final girls then come to a farmhouse and find a dead clown inside. They get to a phone but can’t figure it out; it’s a dial phone. They find a crazy wall with clown photos and a jack-in-the-box. “This was a trap,” Quinn points out. The “dead” clown from before kills Janet with a pitchfork.
Back at the office, Dr. Glenn stabs the clown with the knife. He hears over the radio that Quinn is the only teen left.
Quinn gets in a truck to drive away, but can’t figure out a stick shift; the clowns catch her. The clowns surround her and take off their masks; the leader is the sheriff, and we see all the other adults that we’ve seen previously. The mayor explains it all to her. First, it was hobos, then hippies, and burnouts; they’ve always kept the town clean of troublemakers. Now it’s the worthless teens they need to purge.
The mayor has Cole, his own son, hanging from a noose; he blames Cole for everything. The doctor drives through the wall, disrupting the plans, killing a couple of the clowns in the process
Cole, Glenn, and Quinn run and hide in the old factory as the clowns close in on them. Quinn kills the sheriff with a cattle prod. Cole and the mayor discuss who really burned down the factory. Rust shows up to save Cole, and they have a happy reunion with manly smooches. Quinn says it’s been a very confusing night. The mayor drives away.
The four survivors drive off in the stick-shift clown car. On the way out, Quinn runs over Mr. Vern, the evil teacher.
Some time passes, and we see that Glenn is now running for mayor. Quinn is leaving town, and Rust and Cole stop by to see her off. She can drive a stick now (dunno about the rotary phone). She finds a jack-in-the-box on the seat and throws it out the window as she leaves town.
Brian’s Commentary
I find it hard to believe that a bunch of high school teenagers could put together a party like the one in the barn, as they show here. That was a barn, not a party venue. So many lights, elaborate decorations, alcohol, and they didn’t even have permission to use the barn– they snuck all that in there earlier in the day? Where did all those teens from the barn go after the clowns attacked? That’s probably not the least believable thing this movie offers, but it was worth noting.
It’s got a couple of laughs, but it’s nowhere near as funny as you’d expect with all the clowns.
It all looks good, it’s paced well, the characters, although all stereotypes, are distinctive and necessary, and overall, has good production values. It’s a standard kill-the-teens movie, but if you like those, this is pretty well done overall.
I liked it.
Kevin’s Commentary
This was solid in every way, and I can’t voice any real complaints. But somehow the whole package didn’t really grab me. Perhaps that it didn’t seem unique enough from other things in the slasher genre. At a couple points, the killer clown was doing some acts of phenomenal strength, so I was a little surprised to see that it (they) were just ordinary people. I neither loved it nor hated it. It was okay.
2025 Bogieville
Directed by: Sean Cronin
Written by: Henry P. Gravelle
Stars: Arifin Putra, Eloise Lovell Anderson, Sean Cronin
Run Time: 1 Hour, 48 Minutes
Trailer:
Watch it: https://amzn.to/4jPwZTs
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
A young couple go from the frying pan to the fire when they’re running from trouble and find something much worse. It’s a complicated situation of entrapment, loyalties, and family ties revolving around a nest of vampires. The effects and makeup were excellent, both horror guys are in agreement there. Brian didn’t care for this one at all. Kevin was disappointed but thought it was at least okay overall.
Spoilery Synopsis
A car drives up to the gas station; gas is $1.51, so we know this is in the distant past. The woman’s monthly bleeding has started, and she goes into her restroom to clean up. A vampire tears the door off and goes straight for the bloodiest part of the woman. Credits roll.
Ham, a mechanic, loses his job. He tells his girlfriend, Jody, at the bar where she works, and she’s not happy. Everyone talks like Europeans doing a pretend-Texas accent. This all leads to a very contrived barfight, and then Jody’s fired too.
That evening, the vampires attack the gas station and the people from the bar.
Ham and Jody go for a drive in his beat-up old truck. They talk about getting married in the new life they’re going to start. They hit something on the road and are knocked out in the accident.
The police investigate the massacre at the gas station. Doctor Mills examines the body, and the sheriff points out that there’s not a single drop of blood anywhere on the site. The vamps eat a pair of campers in the woods.
In the morning, Ham and Jody wake up on the outskirts of an old mobile home park. Rather than actual mobile homes, there’s just a big circle of little trailers (I don’t think they have actual mobile homes in the UK). A man with a shotgun comes out and tells them to skedaddle. He’s Crawford, and he runs what’s left of the park; he hires them for maintenance. He tells them they need to stay there, especially at night. Crawford’s got a lot of rules.
Crawford’s brother-in-law, Madison, owns the place, and he named the whole place “Bogieville.” We cut to Madison and his wife, who are trying too hard at acting in this scene, standing in a bright, sunny kitchen.
Crawford explains that the residents of the park are “resting” during the day, and he never puts down his shotgun. Ham thinks that’s ridiculous. They look at a dusty skeleton; it was a kid whose name was Terry. Crawford shows Ham what’s inside the trailers; it’s vampires.
“You can’t leave. They have your scent,” warns Crawford as Ham decides to leave. The old man explains that Madison and the others are all vampires, but Ham is unbelieving. They let Crawford live because he watches over them during the daytime. Ham goes inside and tells Jody everything.
Crawford’s got a little girl living in the attic upstairs. He warns Lily not to eat the two guests, as he might want them to stick around to take care of her.
We cut to the sheriff and Dr. Mills, talking about the most recent “animal” attack last night. She’s got some idea of what’s going on, but that’s crazy, right? An informant talks to the sheriff and suggests that Ham might be behind some of the recent murders.
Back at the farmhouse, Ham hears growling on the other side of the door. Ham wants to see what’s in the basement, and Crawford reluctantly lets them in. Madison, Lily, and some others are down there, and they’re clearly really vampires, which convinces the newcomers.
Crawford explains how this all came about, and we get a flashback. Madison got bit by a vampire and soon turned, as did Lily and Tess; they all soon turned. Those three went into town and killed a bunch of people who also became vampires, and that was twenty years ago. Crawford’s the only one in Bogieville who ages.
That night, everyone goes outside to see all the vampires. There’s an argument, and a group of vampires is sent away, including Billy Cupps, a rival to Madison.
The doctor tells the whole police force her vampire theory, and this time, the sheriff backs her up. Ham goes back to town and learns that the sheriff is looking for him. He’s immediately arrested, but then Madison shows up and kills both deputies.
Ham calls the State Police, but his call goes to voicemail (what?). He drives back to Bogieville, where Crawford shoots out his tires.
The vampires wake up and kill Crawford. Ham and Jody bury him in the morning. The sheriff and doctor figure out that Ham is in the middle of all this, but don’t know where to find him.
Back at Bogieville, Ham repairs an old car to make his escape but has to leave Jody behind because she smells like blood. Ham finally catches up with the sheriff, and they arm themselves for war against the undead. They all load up a bus and head for Bogieville.
The cops arrive at the trailer park and start killing vampires. Most of the vamps are killed, but Madison and Lily disappear. Madison shows up just in time to bite Jody, but she turns quickly.
Three months pass, and the sheriff comes to Bogieville to see how Ham is doing. Ham runs it now. The sheriff wonders where Jody is, and Ham says she’s having a snack…
Brian’s Commentary
Man, this was seriously BAD. This movie might have been good if it had been filmed in America. The vampire makeup is quite good, but that’s the only positive thing I’ve got to say about this film.
All the main actors needed dialogue coaches for all their atrocious accents, especially the two main characters. The written dialogue is pretty bad in the first place, but wherever they got these actors from– yeeesh. This is clearly supposed to be the American South, but these people barely speak English, much less American. The sheriff is the only character in the film who sounds even remotely realistic.
Clearly, the UK filmmakers don’t think much of American southerners, and they’ve never seen a trailer park before either.
This is another of those films that we watched so you don’t have to. You guys owe us big-time now.
Kevin’s Commentary
We previously saw and reviewed the vampire movie Drained which Sean Cronin was involved with as c0-director and actor, and I really liked that one. This one didn’t do it for me nearly as much. I liked the emotional content and struggles of family and loyalty. Like Brian said, the makeup was great. The accents were distracting, and I thought it went on a bit too long. But I’m going to rate it as okay, not hating on it to the degree that Brian did.
2025 Silent Zone
Directed by Peter Deak
Written by Victor Csak, Krisztian Illes
Stars Matt Devere, Luca Papp, Nikolett Barabas
Run Time: 1 Hour, 59 Minutes
Trailer:
Get it: https://amzn.to/4n4JdKS
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
It’s a tale of survival in the apocalypse, with survivors struggling against the zombie infected. That sounds like a familiar formula, but they do a nice job with it here and they spice it up enough with some unique elements. We thought the middle drags a bit, but overall it’s an entertaining piece of work.
Spoilery Synopsis
We watch news reports about a new pandemic that spreads over the Earth very quickly; it turns people into raging, uncontrollable beasts. It soon turns into a full-blown zombie apocalypse. We watch as the news stations go off the air, one by one. We watch as a pilot calls his wife and kids, telling them to get out of the city. They go outside, and Abby, the little girl, watches as her mother and little brother are eaten. Then the two get back up and come for Abby. A man shoots them dead and offers to help little Abby. Credits roll.
Ten years pass, and the city is an overgrown wasteland of empty buildings. Abigail is still with Cassius, and they’re out in the woods hunting. They look like they’d done this a lot. That night, they find a scout, so the pack must be closing in on them. They get on their horses and move away from the zombie horde.
They run into a couple more “ferals” who are attacking a man, and Abigail shoots the man by accident. Cassius does a mercy killing on the guy as Abigail loots the man’s car. A bunch of guys in dune buggies soon show up to investigate. They all hold each other off at gunpoint until a thousand ferals come over the hills and attack. There’s a big battle as the two good guys and two others, a pregnant couple, make a quick escape. They are David and Megan.
The four go to an abandoned building to set up camp for the night. Cassius tells the newcomers that they’re on their own after tonight. David and Megan talk about “the colony,” and Abigail wonders if that’s a good place.
By morning, the ferals have arrived, and Abigail, on watch, has to deal with them. Abigail recognizes that they’re in the place where her father used to store his airplane. As they walk, we see that one of the largest members of the dune-buggy party has turned into a monster and is chasing them now. The group soon comes upon Abigail’s father’s airplane, intact, in a hangar, and David thinks he can get it running.
The horde attacks just as Abigail gets the plane started. She was eight when the apocalypse started, but somehow she knows how to fly. They do, in fact, take off, but then they just as quickly crash. We see that David's got a wound on his leg, and he knows what's coming, but no one else suspects.
We all stop for the night and get a crazy load of character exposition dumps. By morning, it becomes clear to Cassius that David’s been bitten. The foursome comes upon a farmhouse that’s occupied.
The man inside, Norton, allows them in after disarming them. He’s almost too friendly. They have electricity and a laptop, so Cassius looks at his old photos on a flash drive he carries. He knows about the colony but doesn’t want to join them; we soon see that he’s more than a little crazy– he thinks humanity deserves this punishment. He’s got something nefarious in mind. Meanwhile, David’s in the bathroom not looking his best, so what happens next, we can guess.
Norton puts on a high-tech glove that calls the infected, and David reacts to it. So does the horde, elsewhere. Turns out, Norton’s gone full mad-scientist, and he has everyone drugged and tied up now. He’s also got his long-dead wife in a cage, and she’s not happy about it. She and not-yet-a-monster David fight. The group gets out, grabs their stuff, and on the way out, Megan’s water breaks.
The group steals Norton’s car and makes their way toward the colony, but the ferals are close behind. David buys the others some time, since he’s mostly a monster himself now, but he doesn’t last long.
Cassius, Abigail, and Megan make it to the colony, a collection of old barges and boats, and Megan gives birth. The people there are suspicious of the newcomers. George pretends to be happy when he talks to Cassius.
Abigail likes the new place, but Cassius wants to move on. The midwife tells Cassius that the baby’s going to be fine, but Megan is dying. Megan wants Cassius to take care of her new daughter the way he did Abigail.
In the morning, Norton looks at all the bodies outside. He uses his power glove to gather and control the ferals.
One of the local boys invites Abigail to their version of a dance club. Roderick explains to her about the boats’ self-destruct bombs and the emergency escape tunnel.
In the morning, Norton and the ferals attack en masse, and they take the boat people by surprise. Abigail and Cassius help out as they can, but there are a lot of infected people. Cassius destroys Norton’s glove, and the ferals eat him.
On the way out, Abigail sees that one of the main ferals is her own father. Everyone runs down and out through the “Plan B” tunnels. Roderick presses the button, and all the boats explode, taking most of the ferals with them.
Cassius fights against the Alpha zombie, and they’re both big, tough guys. Abigail hesitates but eventually shoots the baddie.
Cassius eventually leads the large group of survivors off to a safe island somewhere.
Brian’s Commentary
This looks like it was filmed at the same place as “Chernobyl Diaries” from 2012. I’d recognize those ruins anywhere. It starts off looking very low-budget, but the characters are good, the situations are believable, and overall, it was pretty entertaining. It did drag a bit in the middle, but overall, we liked it.
Kevin’s Commentary
The ruins worked well, even if they did look familiar. All the locations were good. I agree the middle could have been tightened up a little, but it was entertaining overall. The power glove was an interesting idea that worked for me. Young Luca Papp as Abby is a badass, as is Matt Devere as Cassius. They made a good team. All things considered, I give it a thumbs up.
2014 Feed the Gods
Directed by Braden Croft
Written by Braden Croft
Stars Shawn Roberts, Tyler Johnston, Emily Tennant
Run Time: 1 Hour, 24 Minutes
Watch it: https://amzn.to/4jROBOH
Trailer:
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
It takes quite a while to get to the horror elements, but it’s well written with interesting characters in the meantime. A lot of the action is too dark for good visibility, but overall it’s a decent film.
Spoilery Synopsis
A man stops two women, a baby, and a child on the side of the road; he’s got a gun and wants their tickets. A woman takes little William and Baby Kris away from Janet. The woman and man take the two children, leaving Janet alone on the road, where something comes out of the woods and “gets” her. Credits roll.
We cut to a funeral. Brit comes to see Will, and they talk about Kris. The two brothers have obviously grown up. Olivia, their foster mother, died of a stroke and left a bunch of stuff in a box for the two boys. There’s a videotape, and they watch it that night.
Will talks about Googling Tendale, a town ten hours away, where the two boys’ parents are supposed to live. Kris thinks this is a joke. Brit says a road trip might be fun. They argue about it, but eventually, the road trip happens.
They head to the wooded community, and Kris buys a book about Bigfoot. They run into Emma, who owns the bed & breakfast they’re staying at. They talk to some of the other guests, Shanna and Wyatt, about bears and Bigfoot.
In the morning, their truck is dead and the videotape is missing. Emma points out that there are only about sixty people left in town, and there’s a good chance that at least one of them is related to the boys. Will tells Emma all about Kris and Brit.
Meanwhile, Kris and Brit knock on many doors and put up “Wanted Posters” with a picture of their parents. The townspeople are not cooperative. Will talks to Hank the barber, who has many questions about Will’s family. They also talk about wild men in the woods who wanted human sacrifices from the old-time natives.
That conversation leads to the three tourists buying hiking supplies and wandering off into the woods. Meanwhile, Emma talks to a man named Pete on the radio who seems to be involved in something secretive. They don’t find anything, and the two brothers start fighting again. This leads to Brit learning that Kris is hooked on Adderall.
In the middle of the night, Brit hears something knocking on the trees out in the woods. She wakes up Kris, but Will is nowhere to be seen. They find Will when he shoots something in the woods; it turns out to be Emma, who had followed them for some reason. Brit drives Emma back to town to find a hospital, leaving the brothers out in the woods. Emma says not to do that; “They kill me. They’ll kill you. There is no hospital.” They’re stopped by men who aren’t very helpful.
Will finds rocks with names painted on them, and one set of rocks has his parents’ names. He also finds the skull of something not human. He catches up to Kris, and the two then find Emma’s radio and talk to Pete by accident.
We cut to Pete, who has Wyatt, one of the tourists, chained to a tree in the woods. A monster comes out of the trees and kills him as Pete watches on closed-circuit TV.
Will and Kris find Brit’s deserted car, but not her or Emma. Meanwhile, Brit is chained to a tree in the woods just like Wyatt was. Pete talks to her about green tickets and people who bring more people to their town for sacrifice. The people who are sent to the town are usually allowed out, but this time, Emma got shot and screwed up. Only chosen people are usually sacrificed. Pete, Hank, and Curtis discuss the situation; they thought that Kris and Will were sent to them. Apparently, the gods offer tickets out of town with enough human sacrifices.
Will accidentally kills Hank and Curtis as well. Pete grabs Kris. Emma warns Will about the situation. Pete isn’t so easy, and soon Kris, Will, and Brit are all chained up together. Pete calls the monsters, but then they hear Emma talking to 911, calling them to the town.
The three victims release their chains from the tree and head to the truck, but run into Pete first. They grab Emma and some of the videotapes of the sacrifices as evidence. For some reason, the monsters then eat Pete.
Will runs into Bigfoot on the way out. Will sacrifices himself so that Kris and Brit can get away.
Kris talks to the police, and he shows them the skull. The sheriff says that Emma died. He also doesn’t believe any of their story since they came back without the videotapes. There’s a deputy on the scene, and that goes badly for him.
Brian’s Commentary
The characters are interesting and well-written, the acting is decent, but it takes a very long time to get to weirdness. Worse yet, most of the film takes place at night, in the dark woods, and we can’t really see what’s going on.
There was a lot of this story that I couldn’t understand or see, such as why it was filmed in the dark? Maybe we got a bad DVD, but I’m not convinced of that.
Kevin’s Commentary
This was my second viewing, and I don’t remember this being so dark for so much of it. Other than that, I thought it’s pretty cool and liked it. The basic idea, a group of people offering sacrifices to monsters to keep them appeased and get some blessings (or at least immunity) in return, isn’t a new idea, but they do it well here.
1954 Killers from Space
Directed by W. Lee Wilder
Written by William Raynor, Myles Wilder
Stars Peter Graves, James Seay, Steve Pendleton
Run Time: 1 Hour, 11 Minutes
Watch it:
Get it from Amazon: https://amzn.to/3SIkG08
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
This one is pretty slow moving and tame. Heavy use of stock footage, use of real locations instead of sets, and aliens wearing egg carton cups over their eyes shows some low budget work. It’s apparent why Peter Graves went on to do lots of other things, he does a nice job in the lead. It’s short with an ending that was a little abrupt and easily wrapped up. Brian was pretty bored, Kevin found it moderately interesting and entertaining.
Spoilery Synopsis
We’re told about an atomic test and what goes on with one of those. There’s a great deal of old military stock footage as they drop the bomb. “This is the beginning,” we are told as the credits roll.
Dr. Doug Martin reads off the radiation readings as he flies his jet fighter over the bomb zone. The pilot sees something shiny beneath them, and then the plane crashes.
Colonel Banks calls Dr. Kruger to talk to Mrs. Ellen Martin; they can’t find a body in the wreckage but there’s no way he could have survived that crash.
A bit later, Doug Martin staggers into camp, more or less healthy, but very disoriented. He can’t remember anything, even how he got that big surgical scar on his chest. He’s never had an operation, so how did that get there?
Mr. Briggs with the FBI comes to check things out. Could the man they have in the infirmary be an impostor? Fingerprints show that he’s the right man after all. They decide to send Martin home, but he starts having weird nightmares about eyes. He wants to get right back to work, but Ellen and the doctors want him to relax at home.
Martin reads about the next atomic test in the newspaper; he wasn’t invited, and he’s angry about it. The government men say he’s not a good security risk after his disappearance. They’re probably not wrong, because he starts sneaking around copying files from Dr. Kruger’s office.
Briggs comes to discuss the files with Kruger, but he says the safe was locked and nothing is missing. He suggests that it was Dr. Martin. Briggs then questions Ellen about whether her husband has any new friends. The police put out an APB on Martin.
Briggs catches Martin putting a note under a rock, but Martin attacks him and drives off. He keeps getting visions of eyes and crashes his car.
Martin wakes up in the hospital with Briggs, Kruger, Banks and doctors. He rants about killers from space who want to wipe us all out. They give him some truth serum, and we flash back to what really happened during the crash as he tells everything.
The plane was crashing, and the next thing he knew, he was surrounded by strange aliens with weird eyes. He was probed and examined in the alien lab. They have been hiding in caves in the desert since the atomic testing began.
The leader of the aliens says that Martin was dead, and they fixed his heart. They’re from Astron Delta, a world with a dying sun. They’ve taken over several neighboring star systems, but they need to move here.
Martin is dropped in a cage with giant spiders, insects, and lizards, but he runs away from those. The leader explains that those carnivorous insects and animals are their armies, ready to wipe out humanity. They are drawing energy from the bomb tests, but they are also using electricity from the grid to keep the energy controlled. Martin was then hypnotized by the aliens to bring them atomic test schedules and to forget everything he’s seen.
Back in the hospital, Martin tells the others his story. They all think he’s crazy. The doctor says the stories couldn’t have been fabricated due to the truth serum.
Martin tries to break loose from the hospital, but the doctor and Ellen stop him. He asks for some paper and gets to work. Kruger and Ellen still won’t listen, so Martin runs out to the car; he wants to cut off the power supply to the aliens, which he thinks will overload their systems and blow them up.
There’s lots of running around in the power plant as everyone searches and Martin hides. Martin forces a technician to cut the power; there’s a massive explosion. He was right about his method for getting rid of the alien base.
Brian’s Commentary
So much smoking! Was this sponsored by one of the big cigarette companies? There was even a cigarette machine in the hospital.
According to IMDB, forty percent of the film is stock footage.
The aliens here are very distinctive; they used the bottoms of egg cartons for the eyes, which looks ridiculous, but otherwise, it’s all played pretty seriously.
It takes a long time to get to the weirdness, and even then it’s all very tame. I found this one pretty boring.
Kevin’s Commentary
It was strange seeing such a young Peter Graves here. Like Brian said, it’s very tame and does take a long time to get to anything really strange. There’s a lot of 1950s technology shown, which I always enjoy. The aliens do make you want to snicker at first sight, but they play it straight enough that they pull it off. I think a lot of that can be credited to the job that the actor did in the role of the main alien. I wasn’t bored, it’s short enough to get over with soon enough, and I wouldn’t rate it super high for entertainment value. But it was okay.
Short Films:
2011 Short Film Spoiler
Directed by: Daniel Thron
Written by: Daniel Thron
Stars: Luke Albright, Margaret Bright-Ryan, David C. Bryant
Run Time: 18 Minutes
Watch it:
What Happens
An alarm goes off, and the sirens go off. Everyone in the apartment building is on lockdown. Everyone is either annoyed or terrified.
There are three “possibles” in containment as the experts walk to the holding area. They look at the death certificates, but they aren’t dead yet. The doctor refuses to sign them. He goes in to talk to one of “them.” He’s not just a doctor, he’s the coroner. Are we sure these people aren’t dead?
If they aren’t now, they soon will be…
Commentary
It’s a well-organized zombie apocalypse where everyone obeys the rules and doesn’t make any exceptions. It’s a short-lived zombie non-apocalypse. They’ve all seen this before, and they all know how it goes.
It’s a tense situation shown from the coroner’s point of view, and he only knows what he sees, which is also only what we see.
It’s really well done.
2023 Short Film Home
Directed by: Jae-hee Jeong
Written by: Jae-hee Jeong
Stars: Young-ji Jo, Yang Mal-bok
Run Time: 13 Minutes
Watch it:
What Happens
A young woman watches as her mother dies on the floor and screams at her own inability to save her.
Later, as she goes through her mother’s belongings, she starts to experience odd things; memories of her mother calling for help with a buzzer. That damned buzzer, over and over. “It will kill me someday,” she says in terror. Her mother had dementia or something and was always imagining a monster. “You will kill me,” she adds.
What really happened here? Why does mother’s buzzer keep going off long after the woman is dead?
Commentary
It’s a very weird ghost story that we don’t understand until the end.
It’s very dark, even in rooms that are supposed to be lit. Actually, it was dark enough that I had trouble seeing what was going on, even when I was supposed to know what was happening. On a second viewing, I think I figured out what was going on, but it wasn’t super clear at first.
2025 Short Film Over the River and Through the Woods
Directed by: Graham Burrell
Written by: Graham Burrell
Stars: R.J. Pennington, Daphne Dennis, Camille Ladendorf
Run Time: 15 Minutes
Watch it: (Not Yet- Still on the festival circuit!)
What Happens
Young Dee wakes up and sees something nasty coming into her room one night. Credits roll.
Cut to years later, and Dee is visiting again having dinner. Grandma drinks a toast to her grandfather and introduces grown-up Dee to her new boyfriend, Harold. He’s a lot younger than Dee’s grandfather, which weirds her out. Actually, he’s Dee’s age.
He’s… weird. How weird is he?
Commentary
Do. Not. Grow. Old!!!
This is every awkward dinner with family; it’s easy to relate to Dee and her discomfort with Grandma’s sex life.
This is well shot and really looks good; the acting is perfect for the situation as well. Is Harold a gold-digger, or is there something more going on here? You know, there is more to it than that. We both really liked this one.
2023 Short Film Callus
Directed by: Ciaran Hickey
Written by: Ciaran Hickey
Stars: Michael Patric, Grainne Good, Claire J. Loy
Run Time: 18 Minutes
Watch it:
What Happens
A baby is born, but there’s something wrong with it. The mother dies in childbirth, so now Fergus has to raise the child alone.
Time passes, and little Íonait has grown up. Her face looks good, but we see something's wrong with her arm– it crackles. It’s her eighteenth birthday. Neighbor Louisa wants Fergus to bring his daughter to the pub, but he really overprotects her. It’s just a funky arm, says Louisa. Her neighbor, Ardal, a farmer, has been having trouble keeping his herd alive. “This land seems poisoned somehow.”
Fergus remembers the midwife talking about a bad prophecy when Íonait was born. Still, he does take her to the pub for her birthday drink. Ardal’s dead wife was the midwife, and she was well steeped in the old ways. They all know that story in town, and they might just remember it…
Commentary
That is quite the birth defect. Nice that it comes in handy once in a while.
“The clawed child. Sent to test our faith!” What is it with quaint little towns and their prophecies of doom? On the other hand, sometimes they’re right.
This is really well done and couldn’t be more Irish if it tried. Excellent!
2023 Short Film Trial 22
Directed by: John Ferrer
Written by: John Ferrer, Harry Metcalfe
Stars: Corinna Brown, Graham O’Connor, Isabella Lake
Run Time: 9 Minutes
Watch it:
What Happens
Two women fight, and they’re not pulling their punches. The winner runs to the next room, where there are more people and a voice mentions “Next round.” They’re in room 22, so it’s almost at the end of the strange game.
The lights come on, and the people in the room see a strange monster in an open cage. There’s a five-minute timer. What do they do? They take their shoes off because it seems to only react to sound.
What is going on?
Commentary
The concept seems to be something like a cross between “Saw” and “Cube” with maybe a little “Hellraiser” thrown in. Either way, there are rules to this game that the players don’t know. We don’t know why this is happening or who these people are, but we’ve all seen enough to know how this sort of thing goes.
It’s fun!
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