Four new releases this week, it must be getting closer to Halloween!
We’ll start off with the much-discussed “Weapons” and then watch some even-newer releases: “Coyotes,” “The Drowned,” and “In Vitro,” which were all fun. Lastly, we’ll continue our ongoing kaiju coverage with 1984’s “The Return of Godzilla.”
A bunch of winners this week!
The latest issue of “Horror Monthly,” issue #48, is on sale now! Check out all the back issues, as well as our other books, with one easy link: https://horrormonthly.com
Mainstream Films:
2025 Weapons
Directed by: Zach Cregger
Written by: Zach Cregger
Stars: Julia Garner, Josh Brolin, Alden Ehrenreich
Run Time: 2 Hours, 8 Minutes
Trailer:
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
We start right out setting the mystery of how a classroom full of kids all ran out of their houses at 2:17 in the morning one night and disappeared. Except for one kid. Then the movie is spent going over the aftermath from different points of view of the people involved, and we get to solve the mystery together. It’s long but we were never bored. Okay, Kevin was a little impatient for the first half hour or so. But overall we liked it a lot and would recommend it. And we also recommend you go into it as blind as you can.
Spoilery Synopsis
We’re told that this is a true story, but there was a coverup to hide the truth. We open on a third-grade and a new teacher, Justine. Not one of her kids has come to school, but all the other classes are perfectly normal. Wait, a boy named Alex did show up. Every other kid woke up the previous night at 2:17 a.m., walked outside, and vanished at a run into the night. They never came back. We watch a flashback as the kids go running outside late at night. Credits roll.
Justine
The police interrogate little Alex and Justine, who know nothing. Eventually, they had to reopen the school after a month. First, they have a big meeting to deal with grief counseling over the seventeen missing children. They want to hear from Justine, who seems to be at the center of all this. What did she do? The crowd gets nasty, and the meeting is soon over. They blame her.
On the way home, Justine starts getting death threats on her phone. She finds her car painted with “Witch” on the side in the morning. The school principal, Mr. Marcus, tells her that she can’t work there anymore. She wants to talk to Alex, but she’s not allowed.
Justine meets policeman Paul at a bar later, and she tells him her problems. He says that she’s always been a little paranoid, and now she’s drinking too much. He is reluctant to drink, but we flash forward to the next morning with him waking up hung over in Justine’s bed. She drives him to his car, still at the bar.
Justine goes to see Alex, which she has been forbidden to do. There are newspapers over all the windows at his house. She peeks in and sees something weird. She’s later attacked by Donna, Paul’s wife, who is justifiably angry. At home that night, she starts seeing things.
She “stakes out” Alex’s house, gets drunk, and passes out. Someone sneaks into the car and snips off some of her hair.
Archer
We cut to Archer, who watches doorbell security video of his son running off into the darkness that night last month. He goes to work, and he’s been messing up lately. He’s been pestering the chief of police to the point of being annoying. He still thinks Justine is behind all this, but the chief doesn’t believe she’s involved. We see that he’s got red paint in the back of his truck, the same color as “WITCH” painted on the side of Justine’s car.
Archer has a dream where he sees Matthew, his son, running off to a house with a giant gun flying overhead. He goes inside and talks to his sleeping son. The light comes on, and the dream gets weird.
In the morning, Archer takes the information from his dream and checks out a nearby radio tower. He gets with some other parents and looks at their video footage. He confronts Justine, but in the middle of their conversation, she’s attacked by Mr. Marcus, the principal, who has gone utterly berserk.
Paul
We cut back a few days, as Paul sees someone suspicious running down the street, this results in a chase. He catches James, whom he knocks out. He realizes the camera is on and lets the guy go so there’s no report. The chief is somewhat supportive, so long as James stays quiet.
This is when he gets a text from Justine and meets her at the bar. He falls right off the wagon. He goes home hung over and runs into Donna, who later attacks Justine in a jealous rage. He later sees James again and chases him.
James
James is an addict who can’t get his pipe to light because he’s run dry. He breaks into a car and steals an iPad. The pawnbroker doesn’t want it. He’s trying to break into a store when Paul spots and beats him the first time.
James walks through the rain to Alex’s house and gets in through an upstairs window. He goes all through the house, looking for things to steal until he finds Alex’s parents, who seem to be frozen or paralyzed. He looks in the basement and sees all the missing children standing around down there. He gets creeped out and runs away when both parents suddenly get up. There is a big reward for the missing kids, that he plans to cash in on.
He walks to the police station to tell them when he’s chased by Paul a second time. He runs into the woods, where he sees a crazy looking clown. He ends up stabbing Paul in the face with needles. He ends up taking Paul to the suspect house.
Paul goes into the house, without calling it in or for any kind of backup, and leaves James in the back of the squad car. He never comes back out until late at night when he drags James inside.
Marcus
Marcus is sick of Justine, but he has to deal with her anyway. He gets a visit from Gladys, a very strange-looking woman. Maybe that wasn’t a clown that James saw in the woods. She says she’s Alex’s aunt, and she’s really weird. He wants to talk to Alex’s parents, not his aunt, so Marcus offers to visit them at home. He wants to avoid involving CPS, and that seems to concern Gladys.
Saturday, Marcus gets a knock on the door, and it’s crazy Gladys, wanting a drink of water - she’s so thirsty. She missed her bus, and pleads for help. He tries to say no, but his husband Terry invites her in. She comes inside for a bowl of water. She cuts herself and then takes some of Terry’s hair. She rings a bell, and suddenly, Marcus freezes and drops the phone he was about to call 911 with. She wraps Terry’s hair around a stick, covers it in blood, and snaps it. Marcus goes berserk and kills Terry. Once that’s over, she does the same thing with Justine’s bit of hair, and he runs off to attack her at the gas station.
As all the stories converge, Archer pulls Marcus off of Justine, This leads to a car chase, and Marcus gets hit by a car, badly. After things settle down a bit, Justine and Archer talk about it. Marcus was doing the “Naruto Run,” exactly the same way all the children ran. He was weaponized, like a heat-seeking missile going for a target. Archer shows her the map he’s made, and she points to Alex’s house.
Alex
Alex is at school, and he’s not happy, being bullied by bigger kids. His father says Aunt Gladys is coming for a visit; she’s sick and doesn’t have anywhere else to go. Late that night, the strange woman with the orange wig comes to stay with them. Alex isn’t happy about the sick old woman, but nobody asked him.
One day Alex doesn’t get picked up from school, and when he does get home, he finds his parents are frozen at the dinner table. Aunt Glady, however, is looking much more lively.
The next morning, the parents haven’t moved. The old lady swears him to secrecy. She makes his parents stab themselves in the face with forks repeatedly until he agrees. She said she can make them do anything, and demands that he tell no one about her. For several days, Alex feeds his parents soup from a can and quietly goes to school without saying anything.
One night, Alex sees that Gladys is very sick and has been for a very long time. Alex’s parents aren’t helping as much as she expected. She tells him to bring her an object from each of his classmates, and she might get better and leave. During the next school day, he pilfers something from each of them.
That night, Gladys does a mega-spell on all the children, who come running to her, all at once at 2:17 am. The next morning, only Alex shows up to school. Gladys is now looking very lively and colorful. She sends all the children away temporarily and cleans up the house for when the police come to inspect the place.
A month later in the story, Archer and Justine come to the house and see Paul’s police car parked in front. They don’t know what to do, but he steps out and waves them inside. They do go in. Justine steps over a line of salt on the floor, and both Paul and James spring to life and attack them. These guys do not give up easily. Upstairs, the same thing happens with Alex and his parents.
Archer finds the missing children in the basement, but he finds Gladys there as well. Gladys uses him to grab Justine. Upstairs, Alex uses one of Gladys’s hairs and repeats the spell himself, making her a target. All the children break out of the house and chase her. After an extended and hysterical chase, the children tear her apart.
Back at the house, Archer releases Justine and goes looking for Matthew again; he soon finds him. Justine goes upstairs for Alex and finds him with his parents, who will never recover. Some of the children are just starting to talk this year…
Brian’s Commentary
The story being broken up into different viewpoints makes the story more interesting as it unfolds. I was expecting aliens or something, not a witch. That said, it was interesting, never slows down, and had a big enough budget that it showed. The gore effects were nice, but there weren’t so many that it became a distraction.
It’s very good!
Kevin’s Commentary
I was very grateful for the different points of view segments. And it was very cool how they weren’t exactly the same word for word, showing us how people can see and remember the same events slightly differently. I did think it took a little too long at the beginning to get things rolling, but once it did it was pretty great. And I loved that over the top ending chase. I give it a big thumbs up.
2025 Coyotes
Directed by: Colin Minihan
Written by: Ted Daggerhart, Daniel Meersand, Nick Simon
Stars: Mila Harris, Brittany Allen, Justin Long
Run Time: 1 Hour, 32 Minutes
Trailer:
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
This starts with something that shouldn’t be a major event but keeps building with one thing after another, part disaster and part comedy of errors. And there is lots of dark humor, along with horror and a body count. It’s an animals-attack movie pumped up with adrenaline and modern effects. We both thought it was really entertaining.
Spoilery Synopsis
A party girl walks her little dog late one night. She takes selfie after selfie as the dog does his business. A coyote eats the dog, and then she gets hit by a car. That doesn’t kill her, but the coyotes come back to finish the job. Credits roll. We hear news reports about how wildfires are pushing coyotes deeper into the Los Angeles city limits.
The pest control guy arrives outside a huge Hollywood house. Scott, the owner, says the house is brand new. But there are rats in the walls. The exterminator, Devon, is more than a little high-strung. Scott decides halfway through that maybe rats aren’t so bad, but Devon convinces him. Chloe and Liv, the rest of the family, arrive in the middle of the consultation. Chloe is a teenager, and she’s hit the annoying stage.
The doorbell rings, and it’s Julie, who’s a prostitute at the wrong house. She’s there for Trip, the next door neighbor. Liv sees that Scott is a workaholic, and she does not approve.
That night, Charlie the dog barks at the doggy door; there’s something out there. She calls Scott, who goes outside in the windstorm to check on the sound. He soon sees a really mean-looking coyote, just as the motion-sensor lights decide to go on and off. As he goes back inside, the power goes off for real. A tree has fallen on their power line– and their car.
The next morning, they assess the damage, and it’s all Scott’s fault for not trimming the tree. Liv goes next door to Trip, who has a generator and a gun; he’s a kind of prepper/survivalist. Trip’s cat may or may not have been eaten. Scott and his friend Tony work on cutting up the fallen tree, and they’re both incompetent.
On the walk home, Tony meets the coyotes, and they tear him apart. Sheila, Tony’s wife, is annoyed that he doesn’t make it home. She finds little bits of him outside, but she also finds the coyotes. This goes badly for Sheila.
Scott, Liv, and Chloe hear lots of coyotes howling in the fields nearby. They’re nearly attacked by one of them. Julie is also nearly attacked, and she interrupts Trip, who is about to shoot himself over the loss of his cat. This all leads to weird sex, but the animals sneak inside through an open door.
Scott and his family hear the gunshots from next door and wonder what’s going on. Chloe admits to feeding the coyotes earlier because they looked hungry. Scott runs to Trip’s house and finds a mess. He runs into Julie and calls Devon on the phone for help. Devon is annoyed and promises to come around in the morning to check the rat traps. Inside Trip’s house, a candle falls over and sets the place on fire.
Liv and Scott talk about their family problems– at least until they notice the house next door is on fire. Which is spreading toward their property. They all argue about what to do until they notice the animals are already inside the house. There’s a great deal of hiding and tip-toeing.
Chloe is bitten, and Scott faints at the sight of the blood. Scott goes out to the garage to build a cage they can hide in, and we get a construction montage.
Devon the exterminator arrives outside and sees the coyotes. He soon realizes that these aren’t rats, but that’s too late to save him. Inside, Scott finds two tiny trapped coyote puppies and figures this is why the coyotes are so fixated on the area. He finishes his “Coyote Cage” and wheels himself outside in it.
Scott offers the lead coyote the two puppies in a trade. The family is reunited in the front yard since the coyotes understand a peace treaty– no, they don’t. They attack Julie. They all climb into Devon’s van and drive away. Meanwhile, the gas-fueled house explodes excessively. Scott laments his now-lost comic book collection.
Devon wakes up and goes out fighting with the animals…
Brian’s Commentary
It’s good! It’s a fairly standard animals-gone-wild story, like from the 70s, but this one has a bunch of modern humor thrown in. It’s also got Justin Long, who seems to have been in half the horror films of the past decade.
There’s not much actually new here, but it takes elements we’ve seen before and jumbles them up nicely. The acting, sets, and creature effects are all quite good, and most importantly, it never slowed down or got boring.
It’s a winner!
Kevin’s Commentary
It’s kind of a silly film, but I thought it was very entertaining. It did remind me of some of the animals gone bad, people fighting nature films of the past, but they dialed it up to ten and a half. There’s still plenty of gore with a body count, but I laughed out loud more than once. I’d recommend it.
2025 The Drowned
Directed by: Samuel Clemens
Written by: Samuel Clemens
Stars: Alan Carlton, Michelangelo Fortuzzi, Corrine Wicks
Run Time: 1 Hour, 24 Minutes
Trailer:
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
When three guys rendezvous at a secluded beach house after a heist, they are missing their fourth partner. Suspicions abound, and the three have a history that we gradually get to learn. Then things get more complicated. The soundtrack was especially effective here, and they had a great setting to use. We both thought it’s well made, with Brian leaning toward it being dull and Kevin not finding it dull at all.
Spoilery Synopsis
We see a man riding a ferry as the credits roll. He drives on the isolated country roads and stares at a red bag on the seat next to him. He eventually comes to a car and switches license plates; Eric’s very prepared for all this.
He walks quite a distance to a house on the shore. He goes through the house room to room with his gun drawn and then goes outside to call for Denice. He finds a map tube with a painting inside next to a bloody patch and a bracelet on the beach.
Matt arrives, also looking for Denice, and Eric says he doesn’t think she’s coming. Matt, Denice’s son, says her car is gone, but Eric knows he parked right next to her. Eric assumes she’s dead, but he doesn’t let on to Matt, his lover. When they get back to the house, Paul is there waiting for them. The painting is worth forty million, and they all wonder why Denice isn’t there for her share.
All three of the men get a weird “flash” trance and then start behaving strangely. They all zombie-walk out to the beach and then “wake up” not sure what just happened. They’re all tired and a little paranoid, so they blame that.
Inside, a bucket of blood calls to Matt. Paul accuses Eric of killing Denice; he’s got video footage. Matt finds Denice’s bracelet in a bucket of blood. They all argue until a woman comes to the door for help. Matt notices on the way out that the bucket is gone. Opal and Noe bring the guys to Pixie, who has nearly drowned. Eric revives her.
The girls talk about their boating accident; the water out there hides things, and their boat sank. Everyone gets introduced. The three girls are all strange, and they suspect something is weird about the three guys.
The group plays “two truths and a lie.” Pixie demonstrates her kung-fu abilities on Eric as everyone gets to know each other.
Suddenly, the lights go out, and everyone pairs off to make out. As Pixie and Eric start having sex, he and the other men go into a trance again. They all go outside to find a trail of blood where Matt and Opal used to be.
Eric and Paul walk down to the water’s edge and find another pile of meat. Paul suggests earplugs to block the hypnotic sound that seems to be causing their troubles. Eric soon loses an earplug and then starts hearing voices.
Something attacks Eric on the beach. Meanwhile, Paul takes the painting, ties himself to a pole, and is also mesmerized – but can’t get away because he’s held in place. Whatever is doing this tries repeatedly to take him, but it can’t break the ropes. We get a flashback showing that Paul has mailed Scotland Yard about Eric, turning him in.
By the morning, Paul has gotten loose and walks to the beach and sees the three girls standing way out in the water. He walks out to them, but they aren’t really there. Yes, they are– they’re mermaids, and they take Paul.
We cut to Denice, who wakes up on the beach after having been possessed as well. She’s got a big bite taken out of her leg, but she’s very much alive. She walks back to the house and looks for her three partners in crime. She sees the painting hanging on the wall; it’s the stolen painting, and it’s a work about mermaids luring men to their doom…
Brian’s Commentary
The soundtrack immediately stands out and gives everything a really mysterious feel. The mystery in the beginning was intriguing, but as soon as the three girls showed up, everything ground to a halt. The girls were weird enough that we assumed they were monsters, but then, when something happened to one of them, that theory changed.
We more or less get an explanation at the end of the film, but I think a little more of a hint early on might have made the story easier to follow as it went along.
It was well made, looked and sounded great, just a little on the dull side for me.
Kevin’s Commentary
It did indeed have a great soundtrack and a great setting. I thought it was pretty obvious what the girls were early on. It’s interesting seeing movies like this, there have been others, where the monster or creatures or vampire is just so overwhelmingly powerful that they are playing with the human characters like toys, and you know there’s no hope for them. There will be no survivors. Not that it’s not still entertaining. I thought it was a well put together piece, nice and short with little wasted time. I didn’t think it was dull and would give it a thumbs up.
2025 In Vitro
Directed by: Will Howarth, Tom McKeith
Written by: Will Howarth, Talia Zucker, Tom McKeith
Stars: Talia Zucker, Ashley Zukerman, Stephanie Arezzi
Run Time: 1 Hour, 29 Minutes
Trailer:
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
This is heavy on the science fiction, tension, and thrills with some horror elements simmering under the pot. A word of warning, don’t look at IMDB.com before you see this, there is a spoiler. But even when we started figuring things out a bit, there were still surprises. It’s very well made. The acting is excellent, and the setting is perfect. We thought it was on the slow side, but it was never boring. A strong thumbs up from both of us.
Spoilery Synopsis
We open in the countryside with a ranch and zoom into a large barn full of what appears to be scientific equipment inside.
Layla and Jack wake up and make coffee with tablets (it’s a horror movie after all). Suddenly, an alarm goes off in the barn, and she runs out to find Jack wrestling with a cow in a liquid filled tank. “The system crashed again, she came out of stasis too early.” Dried off and in a scanner, they see the cow has some serious health issues, and Jack says it has to be put down.
Later, Layla sends an email to her son, Toby, who will be visiting for the holidays. The satellite’s out, so the message doesn’t go through. When she mentions painting Toby’s bedroom, Jack gives her a look; there’s more to all this than we know.
A new cattle driver, Brady, arrives, and he watches a video about how the system can produce market-ready cloned cows in less than two weeks. Animal replication is cheaper, faster, and more consistent than making cows the old fashioned way. And they mostly have it perfected.
Another of the cows gets sick, and Jack has to take care of that one as well. At dinner, they argue about going to see Toby. She finds that Toby’s room used to be the exact shade of blue she’s chosen, and then they painted over it for some reason.
Jack gets injured dealing with some animals and gets a concussion. Layla hears someone rummaging around out in the kitchen, but whoever it is is gone by the time she goes in. She goes outside with a gun and is attacked by… a copy of herself.
Layla goes into the barn and checks out Jack’s special cloning tanks. Sure enough, one that was kind of hidden away shows signs of use. She also leaves a note for the “outside” Layla to come meet her in the greenhouse. When Jack recovers, she doesn’t say anything to him.
The two Laylas meet and talk. The new Layla has signs that she’s not going to last long - she came out too soon like that first cow did. She asks how Toby is, and the real Layla says he’s off at school. The clone has her memories. Layla gets the car to take her clone to the hospital - she says she’ll tell them they are sisters - but the car won’t start for her. Jack fires Brady, who objects and implies that he knows more than we or Layla know about what’s really going on, but Jack threatens him off with a gun.
Jack knows that Layla knows - he found the note Layla left for the other. Jack says he’s not trying to kill the other Layla, but he’s not convincing. “She was never supposed to wake up, she was just a test. There are people out there that would pay a lot of money for this technology.”
The Laylas gang up on Jack with the shotgun. He gets the upper hand, but Brady shows up and whacks him with a tire iron. They all get away in Brady’s pickup truck. Jack shoots at them, and the truck dies not far away. Jack’s had Layla’s wedding ring altered with a tracker and goes after them.
Brady explains that Jack’s business was shut down years ago. Brady isn’t really a trucker, Jack just hired him to make it look like the ranch was still in business. Why doesn’t she know this? Jack finds them and stabs Brady repeatedly. The girls run and hide, but the sickly one just can’t keep up. Copy Layla is left behind. Original Layla is able to escape in Jack’s car and goes to a gas/electric station not too far away. She gets on a pay phone and calls Toby’s school, but the school says Toby left there years ago.
She goes to the college and spots Toby, who is quite a bit older than she remembers. Then she watches a car drive up and another Layla gets out to pick up her son. Who’s the real Layla now? Our Layla follows them home and breaks into their house after that Layla leaves for work. She finds divorce paperwork and also a restraining order against Jack. Apparently after the real Layla left him and took their son, he made a Layla of his own. Toby comes in and doesn’t know the difference, but wonders why she’s back home from work and changed clothes. Layla makes excuses, embraces him, and leaves after Toby does.
Now that she knows what’s going on, she goes back to Jack at the farm. He says there were many attempts before he finally got it right with her. He made another copy because he could tell she was getting restless and heading toward leaving him like before. She says they can pretend none of this happened, and they can go back to the way things were. When he drops his guard, she shoots him in the head. Layla then cuts off Jack’s thumb to use for the security lock on his equipment.
Time passes and we see her selling some cows to a man she thanks who leaves. Toby’s room is painted blue now and fully decorated. The final reveal is when the camera pans around to show her outside, talking to a little Toby of her own…
Brian’s Commentary
The trailer had us both expecting mutant cow-human hybrid monsters. That would have been cool, but what we got was more creative than that.
We both came up with theories about what was going on at about the twenty-minute point, and soon learned that we were both right about what was going on not long after but there was a lot more to it than we anticipated.
It had some twists that I was not expecting, and, although it was a little slow-moving, it never got boring. The acting was good all around, and it all looked great.
I liked it.
Kevin’s Commentary
I saw the IMDB cast list ahead of time that lists “Other Layla,” so I knew that was coming. But that’s hinted at and revealed early in the movie anyway, and there is more to it than that. It’s one that unfolds very nicely. Like Brian said, I was expecting more of a creature feature with monster cows or something, but that’s not what it was about. I think it’s completely realistic to believe that if that technology was available, people like Jack would do things like this if they could. It raises some ethical questions to think about. And I wonder what Layla’s plan for little clone Toby was as he grew up. I’d call this one excellent.
1984 The Return of Godzilla
Directed by: Koji Hashimoto
Written by: Fred Dekker, Akira Murao, Hideichi Nagahara
Stars: Keiju Kobayashi, Ken Tanaka, Yasuko Sawaguchi
Run Time: 1 Hour, 43 Minutes
Trailer:
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
You thought he was gone forever, but spoiler, after 9 years away, Godzilla returns. They left out the silliness this time, and the far out aliens, and they take things seriously in this one. It’s still all practical effects, with a guy in a rubber suit knocking over models, but everything looks much better than those of the 50s, 60s, 70s. There are some slow places, but if you’re a Godzilla fan, this is a decent one to check out.
Spoilery Synopsis
We open with men on a fishing boat dealing with stormy seas; they’re having a rough time. As they approach a rocky island, they see some large creature breaking out of the rocks…
We cut to a man on a small sailboat listening to radio reports of all the missing ships from last night. He comes across a much larger boat that seems to be abandoned. Once aboard, he finds mummified bodies. He also encounters a strange slug-like creature that attacks him; giant sea-lice. It turns out, there’s only one survivor aboard the ship, and he talks about the giant, fire-breathing monster that came from the island.
Later, at home, Goro Maki, the man from the sailboat, calls his story into the newspaper, but they don’t believe him. Okamura, the man from the fishing boat, tells the professor his story as well, but the professor seems to believe him. The professor shows him old photos of Godzilla, and he makes a positive ID. Godzilla must have been disturbed by the recent volcanic activity in the nearby islands.
Maki complains that the editor won’t print his story, but the government has forbidden them from telling the public about Godzilla. Maki then goes to the science institute and talks to Professor Hayashida. The professor lost his parents in Godzilla’s attack thirty years ago. He meets Okamura’s sister, Naoko there.
Meanwhile, a Soviet submarine detects something large approaching. They think it could be a new kind of American sub, and they fire torpedoes at it. Something then tears the submarine in half. Soon after, the Soviets prepare to declare nuclear war. To prevent the war, the Japanese Prime Minister makes the Godzilla sightings public; it wasn’t the Americans.
Maki goes to see Naoko, who blames him for publishing the story. The politicians and military talk about their ability to fight Godzilla. They could use the “Super X” a secret weapon built to defend the capitol. Godzilla is sure to come; Japan has his favorite food: nuclear energy.
Godzilla soon reaches land and starts a rampage. Maki and his film crew rush to witness his attack on a nuclear power station. As he rips out the core of the reactor, we see the tired old lizard recharge himself.
The professor tells Okumura to visit a geologist friend of his, Minami, who reports that they can make a volcano erupt when needed if they can get Godzilla to go there. America and the Soviet Union both want to use nuclear weapons against Godzilla. The Japanese government discusses whether or not that’s a good idea or if it will even work.
Godzilla is moving toward Tokyo now. Everyone panics to get out of town. The professor tells Maki that the plan to use cadmium bullets on Godzilla isn’t going to work, but it’s better than using the nukes. The army all lines up at the coastline, waiting. Soon, they unleash everything they have against the monster, but Godzilla has radiation breath that can bring down fighter planes– and everything else.
A Russian missile boat is severely damaged, and the captain is killed. Something seems to be going wrong with their nuclear weapon controls. A countdown begins.
The professor has been studying bird migrations and thinks the right sound might make Godzilla’s homing instinct kick in and lead him away from Japan. He gets it all set up, but they can’t get out of their building since all the elevators are locked down.
The Super-X weapon takes off, it’s a kind of flying fortress. It fires the cadmium bullets, which do slow down Godzilla a bit.
Meanwhile, the Russian ship fires a nuclear missile from space after the automatic countdown. They have to evacuate the Shinjuku District before it all explodes. Maybe the Americans can shoot down the missile. Nobody knows what to do.
Super X reports that Godzilla is down but not dead. Okamura helps the professor out of the building with a helicopter, but the winds are too strong, so Maki and Naoko are left behind.
The Americans shoot down the Russian missile just over the city. The effect makes the sky turn red and shock waves spread out everywhere. Super-X is forced to land and radioactive lightning strikes Godzilla. Super X is all out of cadmium, and their regular weapons don’t do much against him.
Way out in the Pacific, the professor hooks up his device to a huge antenna and starts broadcasting bird calls toward Japan. An idea he came up with to mesmerize and attract Godzilla.
Godzilla finally shoots down Super-X and then drops a skyscraper on it. He’s just about to step on Naoko and Maki when he hears the call of the birds. He pauses, turns around, and heads the other direction. He hits the ocean and keeps on going, leaving the ruins of Tokyo behind.
On the volcanic island, Godzilla shows up as the professor and Okumura wait for him. He walks right up to the volcano as the men set off the charges that cause the volcano to erupt. They all watch as Godzilla sinks into the lava and, we assume, melts to never be seen again.
Brian’s Commentary
There’s none of the previous childishness or silliness in this one. The mood here is about our characters ominously waiting for Godzilla to do something. It’s very slow and suspenseful as everyone discusses and worries about what to do. It’s all taken very seriously.
The special effects, soundtrack, and even the miniatures are much improved over the older films. It’s still from the pre-CGI days, so everything is still done with miniatures and a man in a rubber suit, but it’s all still somehow visually improved over what came before.
It had been nearly ten years since the previous film in the series, and a lot longer since any of it was taken seriously. Although this one had some slow points, it was overall a really good reboot.
Kevin’s Commentary
Godzilla returns, but after that ending we’ll never see him again. This was an improvement in effects, despite it still just being a guy in a rubber suit. The effects are more realistic, the explosions and models are improved. The story was a little talky in places, but it gets the job done. All in all, this was a decent reboot.
Short Films:
2020 Short Film Waffle
Directed by: Carlyn Hudson
Written by: Kerry Barker, Katie Marovitch
Stars: Kerry Barker, Raphael Chestang, Katie Marovitch
Run Time: 10 Minutes
Watch it:
What Happens
It’s a fun sleepover at Katie’s house. She’s very wealthy due to her grandfather inventing a waffle maker. Her friend Kerry tells a funny story about something they did, but Katie contradicts everything she says. It’s a very awkward evening, and then their time is up…
Commentary
Katie may be just a bit obsessive, and she really wants a sleep-over. That’s not so bad, but then Kerry isn’t the friend she appears to be in the beginning. Which is more important: money or friendship; with enough money, you can have BOTH!
It’s weird. Well made, but weird!
2023 Short Film Midnight Clear
Directed by: Joe Russo
Written by: John Jesensky, Joe Russo
Stars: Jessica Morris, Kurt Kubicek, Caige Coulter, Kue Lawrence
Run Time: 7:31
Watch it:
What Happens
It’s Christmas, and everything is nicely decorated. Dad admires the beautiful tree, and, with a big smile he asks his crying wife what she thinks. The two kids come in, asking if it’s morning, but he says no, it’s Christmas Eve still, but they’re going to be opening their gifts early this year. Mom, on the other hand, isn’t so enthusiastic…
Commentary
Mom and Dad seem to know what’s going on, but we don’t. He seems mean, but no, not really. Or maybe he’s a serial killer. We just don’t know what’s going on until it all becomes “Midnight Clear” in the end.
2023 Short Film Septichexen
Directed by: Anders Elsrud Hultgreen
Written by: Anders Elsrud Hultgreen
Stars: Roskva Yasmin Anderson, Brita Grov, Susann Bugge Kambestad
Run Time: 13:49
Watch it:
What Happens
In the sewers of Bergen, a microbiologist searches for the cause of contamination of the city’s drinking water. There’s some kind of unidentifiable disease, and our man is down there taking samples. He finds more than a simple contaminant…
Commentary
“Down here you no longer belong to the human world.”
It’s all very dark, moody, and creepy. The locations and weird cinematography really help. There’s not really a great deal of story here, but the visuals really sell this one.
Who knew that “Sewer Witches” were a thing?
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