Three new films, one from last year, and one oldie sits in the queue for us today.
We’ll start off with the recent-ish “Ziam,” then look at “Bloat.” We’ve got some big stars in “The Ritual.” We’ll then finish up with the comedic “We Are Zombies” and the kaiju-fest, “Godzilla Vs. SpaceGodzilla.”
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Mainstream Films:
2025 Ziam
Directed by: Kulp Kaljareuk
Written by: Vathanyu Ingkawiwat, Kulp Kaljareuk, Nut Nualpang
Stars: Mark Prin Suparat, Nuttanicha Dungwattanawanich, Vayla Wanvayla Boonnithipaisit
Run Time: 1 Hour, 35 Minutes
Trailer:
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
It’s a fast zombie movie, well made and set in Thailand, slightly in the future. The main character is a trained and experienced fighter, so he participates in a lot of combat both before and during the outbreak. It was fairly entertaining, but didn’t feel like much we haven’t already seen before.
Spoilery Synopsis
We hear about the collapse of the environment and possibly the end of humanity. The Thai government has been on lockdown for the past ten years, so they still have their resources, or at least that’s what the propaganda on the radio says.
Singh is quitting his job and daydreams about his girlfriend, Rin. He might go back to kickboxing, which he’s good at. The two drive into the food-insect farm in the apocalyptic wasteland. As they park the truck, bandits approach, but Singh fights them off. The bandits don’t stand a chance.
There are riots and fighting all over Bangkok. Singh’s friend is elated to find that they’ve been carrying a load of dried fish in the truck. We cut to Mr. Vasu, who runs the company and kept the people from starving. We see that Vasu has invented a new kind of “safe” fish, and this is what Singh’s friend got. All the businessmen and investors get a sample, but then the convulsions start.
At home, Rin nags at Singh about his dangerous job. She realizes that right now, there aren’t many options. Rin’s a doctor who works at the nearby hospital. She gets called by the hospital administrator for an important case: Mr. Vasu’s wife. Vasu thinks fish liver can improve his wife’s condition, but Rin isn’t sure the fish is even healthy. Meanwhile, Vasu’s partner, Purich, dies bloodily on the operating table, a victim of the fish.
Purich then wakes back up, now a zombie. Rin gets a firsthand experience with him in the hallway.
Singh hears that there’s an emergency at the hospital. He arrives just in time to watch some people fall off the roof– and keep moving afterward. It’s a fast-spreading outbreak of a fast-zombie virus. Soon, the whole hospital is crawling with zombies, and Rin is pretty much on her own.
Singh gets inside and immediately has to start fighting zombies. Rin’s young friend, Buddy, also has to hide from the monsters until Singh shows up to help him.
The government decides to blow up the hospital; it’s better than losing the whole city then the country. Demolition level explosives with a nice long timer are placed.
Ren and Buddy search for Rin and Buddy’s mom, but there are a lot of zombies to avoid on the way. They find Buddy’s mother, but she’s been bitten and knows how that’s going to go, so she sends the boy with Singh. Singh fights off a bunch of zombies, using just his feet, while carrying Buddy on his back.
Rin comes to Mr. Vasu’s room, and he lets her in. He lets her in and says she’ll be safe here. The government sends men to rescue Vasu. They arrive by helicopter and set the bombs for thirty minutes.
Singh and Rin are eventually reunited, and he’s shot almost immediately after. Vasu’s men grab Rin and drag her off to care for Vasu’s wife. Singh gets right back up and attacks the soldiers. It’s quite a battle, but never doubt who’s going to win. By the time he wakes up, Rin has him all patched up.
Meanwhile, some of the zombies downstairs are getting really messed up. Singh runs into Vasu, who watches his wife turning into one of the creatures. She bites him as many more flood into the ward.
Rin and Buddy run as Singh tries to hold off the zombies. Rin and Buddy make it to the helicopter on the roof and work to convince the men there that she’s not infected. Singh makes it up to the roof and staggers toward the helicopter, but the copter takes off and leaves him there.
The explosives go off, the whole hospital collapses. Rin and Buddy fly off to safety. Later, back in her small village, Rin is safe.
Somehow, we see that Singh has survived the zombies and the collapse of the hospital and is still kicking zombie ass in the city…
Brian’s Commentary
It’s well made, and being from Thailand makes it interesting, but it’s nothing new. The acting looks fine, but we saw a dubbed version, and the voices were less than stellar.
Nothing new here to see.
Kevin’s Commentary
Like Brian said, it’s Thai, which makes it a novelty for us, and it’s put together well. But it’s just another fast zombie movie.
Singh’s combat abilities and endurance after damage weren’t too realistic, but then it’s not a realistic movie. I was going to say they might as well have just had Singh show up at the end. Then they did. Which is completely ridiculous after he was on the roof of a building that was demolished by explosives.
I was fairly entertained through most of it, but it wasn’t that memorable.
2025 Bloat
Directed by: Pablo Absento
Written by: Pablo Absento, Buddy Giovinazzo
Stars: Ben McKenzie, Bojana Novakovic, Malcolm Fuller
Run Time: 1 Hour, 26 Minutes
Trailer:
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
This is another “screenlife” subgenre of horror, a film that’s entirely made up of videos, web pages, emails, video chat, etc. And it was brought to us by Apple. A father has to deal remotely with a son in Japan, along with another son and his wife, who are struggling with the supernatural. Bloat is a perfect title - it’s not a bad little story but it’s bloated out into a full length movie that didn’t impress either of us very much.
Spoilery Synopsis
We watch a phone video of a woman giving birth; there’s something wrong with the baby. He reads a text “It’s time to move on. Jack, we’ve lost our child. It’s time to move on.” Jack and Hannah then decide to move to Tokyo. We watch a “Trip planning montage” which looks a lot like an ad for Apple. There’s suddenly an attack in the middle east, and Jack’s leave gets cancelled.
Hannah and her two sons end up going to Tokyo without Jack. We watch Jack and Hannah talking through Facetime. Suddenly, Hannah drops the phone and runs away, leaving Jack hanging. We then see headlines that four boys drowned that day at the park, and Jack’s son Kyle was one of them, but he miraculously survived.
Jack tries to get more information, but it’s hard since Hannah lost her phone and the other son, Steve, can’t use his phone in the hospital. Jack watches news footage over and over. What is that green stuff coming out of Kyle’s mouth?
Afterward, Kyle is different. He bites his brother, but Jack is too busy managing drone strikes to pay full attention.
Jack talks to a psychologist about Kyle’s weird behavior. We see a video of Kyle discussing his drowning experience with the doctor. He then goes on to research PTSD and a website for “PARENTS OF POSSESSED KIDS.”
Kyle wants a drone for Christmas, and he’s also interested in bugs now. Kyle starts texting Jack in Japanese, but he doesn’t speak Japanese. Steve complains that Kyle is different; he eats rotten cucumbers now.
Jack watches an old video of Hannah dumping the dead baby’s ashes in the lake and gets depressed. He then watches some clearly fake YouTube videos of supernatural stuff. We then get a long montage of conspiracy videos and blogs.
Hannah calls Jack and says that Steve has disappeared. Jack gets a video of what Steve did last night; he followed Kyle out to the woods. Turns out, Steve thinks he’s been hanging out with some kind of little monsters. Steve also thinks his mother is back on drugs.
Jack calls his friend Ryan, who’s still in Tokyo, to check on the family. Jack also orders a bunch of “trail cams” for Steve to set up out in the woods. Hannah seems to be in denial about all the weirdness.
Ryan goes to see a Buddhist monk, and he says there’s a “Kappa” in one of Steve’s videos. They usually kill children, not possess them. There was another case about 15 years ago, but the old monk doesn’t know much about that time. “The kappa will swallow the boy’s soul. Then it will be impossible to save him.” It can be killed with fire. Jack researches the previous case, but that boy ended up dying. He then calls the father of the dead boy, who is now in prison for murder.
There’s a typhoon coming in, so there’s no way for Jack to get to Japan. Ryan has night-vision goggles and wants to go watch the kappa in the forest. Jack calls Hannah, who seems to be out of her mind and likely possessed as well.
Ryan sees the kappa in the woods and shoots it, but then his gun jams. Jack watches as the kappa swallows Ryan.
Jack deserts his post and flies to Japan. He finds Hannah dead with her face half-eaten. Jack then burns down the house with Kyle inside. Jack runs back into the burning house but still holds his iphone camera up for us all to see. Apparently it was the sweet spot of killing the kappa with fire while saving Kyle.
In the morning, Jack is arrested for the murder of his wife and military desertion. There’s a court-martial, and he faces a 45-year sentence. Steve and Kyle both testify at the trial.
Brian’s Commentary
TIL what “Screenlife” is. I hate it. It made sense back in the days of COVID when two actors couldn’t be in the same room with each other, but why do it now?
The whole thing is told through Facetime, Skype, texts, Instagram, Google searches, and other computer communications apps. It’s got more screen recordings than one of those Apple Keynote events. Half the time, these people’s WiFi is on the fritz, so we often only get bits and pieces of the conversation.
The hardest thing to believe in this film is that he watched all those online videos without a single annoying ad.
I don’t care for the way it was filmed, but the acting is decent. The main problem is that it’s such a weak story– it felt like a 20 minute short film with far too much padding. And there’s not a real ending, which makes it all worse.
Kevin’s Commentary
I find the “screenlife” genre kind of tiresome and exhausting to watch. They play up glitchy video, bad connections, and so forth when it’s useful. Though it lends to Jack’s frustration and tension in this case. And they could show some things and angles they wouldn’t normally be able to. So I have mixed feelings on this one but it leans toward dislike. The dislike grew as the movie progressed without a lot of progression and remained a pretty weak story.
2025 The Ritual
Directed by: David Midell
Written by: David Midell, Enrico Natala
Stars: Al Pacino, Dan Stevens, Ashley Greene
Run Time: 1 Hour, 38 Minutes
Trailer:
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
It’s a movie based on the 1928 exorcism of a young woman named Emma Schmidt. The cast is very good. As far as films go, it’s well made though kind of slow at times. Overall, it didn’t feel like anything we hadn’t seen before. It didn’t do much for either of us.
Spoilery Synopsis
We see a very frightened priest praying as credits roll.
Nine days earlier, in 1928 Iowa, the priest, Father Joseph Steiger, gives his sermon and mentions that his brother just recently died. The bishop shows up unexpectedly and hands him the psychiatric report on a very troubled woman. The woman’s parish wants to do an exorcism. Father Riesinger has been assigned to do that, but they want to do it here, at Steiger’s church.
Steiger sets up a private train car for Emma Schmidt, and he suggests to the train people that she’s a little crazy and a little dangerous, so they need to stay away from her. Father Theophilus arrives, and he’s a little strange. He explains what he needs to do the ritual. Riesinger and Steiger don’t agree that it’s a supernatural problem; the old man is sure that it is, but Steiger is more rational about it all, suspecting mental illness.
They get everything set up and start the first ritual. The religious people all say a blessing, and Emma goes into convulsions. That’s pretty much it for the first day.
On the second day, it’s much the same, but Emma tries to get all sexy with Steiger and attacks Sister Rose, yanking out a bunch of her hair. Riesinger says that’s why he wanted her restrained, so Steiger has to agree.
On the third ritual, they tie Emma down, and the convulsions get excessive. This time, furniture in the room starts to fall over and move.
One the fourth day, Emma asks about Stieger’s dead brother, and Riesinger burns her with a cross. By the next day, she’s all covered in sores and blisters. One of the nuns gets her hand crushed.
Steiger learns that Riesinger knew Emma when she was a little girl and thinks there’s something wrong with that. The two priests debate the whole project. The Mother Superior wants this whole thing to be done; she gives them one more week. She also wants Emma moved to the basement.
Stieger starts getting more and more distracted and obsessed with the whole thing, and so are the parishioners. The bishop shows up for an inspection, and he’s not pleased either, but insists that they continue. Steiger admits to Sister Rose that he doesn’t know what he’s doing.
There are more rituals, and they get more and more upsetting for Steiger. Weird things start happening all through the convent. Riesinger gives him a pep talk.
Riesinger says this is the final battle, they can’t stop or let up any more. Emma escapes into the catacombs (in Iowa?) and they all go looking for her. They find her, and it all gets very loud and dramatic. Finally, everyone works together, and the evil is sucked right out of Emma.
Brian’s Commentary
Yep, it’s another exorcism movie with two priests and an excess of angst.
Al Pacino plays “doddering old man” really well, but he’s not very interesting. I have no idea what was up with that accent. Dan Stevens is great as always. The acting overall is good, with the exception of Pacino who’s clearly playing a stereotype.
There are numerous “jump scares” that are simply loud noises covering something pretty mundane. The special effects, what there are of them, are really minimal. The shaky camerawork is overdone to the point where it gets annoying. Maybe the worst part is that we’ve seen it all before and this movie adds nothing new to the genre.
Kevin’s Commentary
They lost me right at the beginning when they said it’s based on true events from the most documented case of demonic possession in history. Information about the real case is kind of interesting https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Ecklund. Apparently it was successful in 1928 and Ecklund (a pseudonym given to her to protect her identity) only exhibited “milder” and “quite manageable” possessions after that.
Did they elevate my opinion as the movie went along? Well, it had a powerhouse duet of actors in the two lead roles and Abigail Cowen does a fine job as Emma, as does the other cast. And as a movie it’s decently put together, if a little slow at times. But it’s an hour and a half of “possession” symptoms and priests showing that God is all powerful as long as you say the right combination of magic words with rituals. They do have plenty of shaky cameras, loud music, and the occasional jump scare to spice things up.
I’d say I wasn’t impressed, and I was barely entertained.
2024 We Are Zombies
Directed by: Francois Simard, Anouk Whissell, Yoann-Karl Whissell
Written by: Jerry Frissen, Francois Simard, Anouk Whissell
Stars: Alexandre Nachi, Derek Johns, Megan Peta Hill
Run Time: 1 Hour, 20 Minutes
Trailer:
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
Set in a world where the dead come back to life, as non-cannibal zombies who are in various states of functionality and have rights. We join an eccentric trio as they make their way through a world of strangeness, trying to make money and keep their grandmother safe. With greed and big money playing a role, things get violent. It’s weird and funny, with a good cast and excellent effects. We really enjoyed it.
Spoilery Synopsis
We open on a zombie walking through an alley downtown. It sneaks up on a guy getting takeout. The zombie is annoying and begs for change. Credits roll.
Freddy complains about the beggar-zombie to Karl and then goes back to rip off the dead man’s jaw for a gold tooth. Maggie calls, and she’s got another pickup for them. We watch a news report: zombies are here, but they aren’t eating brains, so we have to just live with them. Zombies are taking all the jobs. The undead want equal rights.
Freddy and Karl go to a man’s apartment. They’ve been called to remove the family’s grandfather, who has become living-impaired. It goes badly, and they pull the man’s head off, which only slows him down a little. Turns out, Freddy and Karl don’t really work for the Coleman company; they’re crooks. They take the old man to Don, who doesn’t want to pay full price for this one, since he’s damaged.
We then cut to a commercial from Bob Coleman. They’re busy studying the zombies and the secrets of the mind. They keep the zombies in cages and run experiments on them.
Karl, Freddy, and Maggie go out for lunch, and Freddy gets an ear in his fries. Stanley and Rocco, the guys from the actual Coleman company get chewed out for having their clients stolen.
Karl and Freddy go out on another call, and this time, they’re Tased and tied to chairs. It’s now-undead-Rocco and Stanley, and they’re both really stupid. After Rocco shoots himself, Stanley sends them home and kidnaps Karl’s grandma instead.
Karl goes to see Don, who likes him in an uncomfortable way. Don’s got a high-profile pickup for them. But first, they watch an “art show” that involves the zombies. Otto is the artist, and he’s also the client. He wants them to kidnap Zelvirella, a dead porn star. The only problem is that she’s being held by Coleman.
Meanwhile, at Coleman, they have a new project in the works that makes zombies’ heads explode. That goes badly for Hannity, the security chief.
Freddy and Stanley break into the Coleman cemetery and start digging. They dig up Zelvirella, who is not much more than a skeleton now. Just then, the security guys start shooting at them.
Coleman dies in an accident and then becomes living-and-brain-impaired. Hannity is now taking over the company.
Stanley and Rocco are even dumber than Karl and Freddy, and old Granny gets shot.
Maggie admits that Stanley is her ex, and they all know each other. Karl knows a webcam girl that looks like Zelvirella, and maybe they can kidnap her to take to Don and Otto? She’s a ZILF. Karl goes to see the girl and convinces her to go off with them.
Hannity tests the special gas again, and this makes peaceful old zombie Coleman into a regular, aggressive flesh-eating zombie.
There’s a big celebration at Otto’s place, and the press is there in force to report. Mother Teresa and all the famous living-impaired show up. Hannity releases his special gas into the air vents, which starts to affect the zombies– and they all get hungry for living flesh.
Otto sees Zelvirella and he approves. Karl gets jealous and spills the beans about her not being the real thing. Just then, Mother Teresa breaks in and eats Otto. Don tries to make an exit and gets torn apart.
Karl, Freddy, and Maggie are on the news as terrorists who attacked the club. They all apologize to each other for all their arguing. They all decide to fight their way out of the zombie-filled club, and many things go wrong. Turns out, they are good at fighting the undead.
Hannity comes in and plans to expose the four heroes as terrorists. Out of the blue, Stanley takes off his mask and turns against his boss. Undead Hannity then shoots Freddy. Undead Freddy then sits up– no, he’s still alive; Hannity only shot the ring box in his pocket. Stanley has run off with the money, but he gets bitten on the way out.
Two weeks later, Granny and Rocco are living together. The zombie infection spread like crazy, and it’s now the real zombie apocalypse...
Brian’s Commentary
It’s a very unusual take on the usual zombie tropes, all played for laughs. The gore effects and zombies are well done, but not excessive; well, OK, one of them is a bit excessive.
It’s pretty good!
Kevin’s Commentary
I liked the unique path that this one takes. It isn’t a typical zombie apocalypse - some of them are brain damaged and some of them are highly functional - at least until the evil corporation gets involved. I liked this one a lot.
1994 Godzilla vs SpaceGodzilla
Directed by: Kensho Yamashita, Takao Okawara, Kazuki Omori
Written by: Kanji Kashiwa, Hiroshi Kashiwabara, Shinichiro Kobayashi
Stars: Jun Hashizume, Megumi Odaka, Zenkichi Yoneyama
Run Time: 1 Hour, 46 Minutes
Trailer:
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
This was the 40th anniversary Godzilla film. Mothra is back as well as the big G, plus the humans have a new giant robot Moguera. But most of all, there’s Space Godzilla who formed from some of Godzilla’s cells and wants to destroy Earth for some reason. There’s battles galore and lots of stuff that the people do in this one as well in this outing that leans into science fiction. It was entertaining.
Spoilery Synopsis
We see a spiky glowing thing flying through space, eventually crashing on an island on Earth. We then hear Godzilla roar.
We cut to a huge underground where Moguera is being built; it’s another giant kaiju-fighting machine. Star Falcon is there as well; it all looks very modular.
We cut to the telepathic institute, where they plan to mentally control Godzilla. Miki and the telepathic children from previous films are learning to do all this. She remembers back when Mothra flew off into space and released many little baby “moths.”
Two men land on an island and start climbing the mountain. They’re Shinjo and Sato. When they get to the top, they run into Yuki, another guy they weren’t expecting. They all run into Baby Godzilla from the previous film and set up camp.
The scientists and military talk to NASA, who explains that a kaiju has attacked and destroyed the space station.
Miki’s magic earrings glow, and one of the mini-Mothras appears. It brings the two fairies, who warn that Earth is facing a terrible crisis. There’s a space monster coming to kill Godzilla and conquer the Earth. She decides to help the institute with their telepathic weapon thing.
The three men on the island are digging holes. They’re planting tear gas mines for Godzilla. Yuki has a special coagulant-filled bullet that he thinks could kill Godzilla. The two newcomers are here for Project T, the telepathy project, and they don’t want to kill Big G.
Miki, Dr. Okubo, and Gondo arrive at the island to prepare for Godzilla’s return. He comes back every so often to tend to the baby. Meanwhile, the military launches Moguera to prepare to fight the space invader. When the Baby steps on a tear gas landmine, Miki senses that the big Godzilla is on the move.
He soon arrives. Koji shoots him with a bazooka that implants a device that will amplify Miki’s telepathy and allow her to control him. Yuki still has his poison bullet, but he just can’t get the right shot.
Moguera and the thing in space have a battle among the asteroids. We soon see that the alien creature looks an awful lot like Godzilla. Moguera flies off, out of control, as the monster proceeds toward Earth.
Something goes wrong with the machinery and feedback nearly kills Miki. When she wakes up, she knows about the space monster.
Just as Yuki is about to kill Godzilla, the big space monster lands on the island. He’s SPACEGODZILLA, and the baby doesn’t like him. SpaceGodzilla looks like the regular version, but with more embedded crystals and shoulder pads.
SpaceGodzilla attacks the baby, and it’s no contest. Godzilla shows up right away, and uses his atomic blast on the alien, who has the ability to fly and shoot as well. SpaceGodzilla knocks down Godzilla and then kidnaps the baby. Afterwards, even Yuki thinks it’s had enough of a bad day.
Godzilla leaves the island, and the humans all pack up. Miki decides to stay behind. Experts analyze the DNA and decide that the space monster is essentially Godzilla, but with bits of Mothra and Biollante’s genetics mixed in with some crystal organisms.
Yuki is assigned to be the new pilot for Moguera.
Baby Mothra tells Miki that she can solve all this if she works hard enough. Shinjo wants to talk about romance, but Miki only has eyes for Godzilla. That night, ninjas kidnap Miki.
Yuki leads Shinko and Sato into a building controlled by the Japanese Mafia to rescue Miki. Dr. Okubo has turned traitor and wants to lure Godzilla to where they are. There’s a gunfight, and they rescue Miki just as SpaceGodzilla attacks Tokyo and destroys the bad guys’ building.
Yuki, Shinjo, and Sato board Moguera. SpaceGodzilla makes big crystal spikes grow out of the ground, destroying the buildings and creating his own Fortress of Solitude. Moguera, under Yuki’s control, goes after Godzilla instead of the space invader, annoying everyone. Shinjo knocks him out and takes over.
Moguera arrives near SpaceGodzilla and starts shooting. It goes pretty well until the guys inside it decide to use the big drill weapon, which requires close contact and goes poorly for Moguera. But they take off, and Godzilla finally makes it there.
The two living monsters start their battle, and before long, SpaceGodzilla lifts up Godzilla using his tractor beams and throws him across town. SpaceGodzilla then shoots ice crystals at Godzilla.
Moguera splits in two; a land-based portion and a flying piece. They need to destroy the power tower that SpaceGodzilla is draining. Miki and Gondo steal a boat to go over to where the battle is taking place.
Yuki and Godzilla destroy the tower, reducing SpaceGodzilla’s powers. The two halves of Moguera then rejoin, and everyone is pleased with Yuki again. Moguera and Godazilla continue to pound on the space monster and blow up his shoulder pads.
Moguera gets knocked out of the sky and Shinjo and Sato abandon ship; Yuki demands to stay behind and use his special bullet on Godzilla as per his original vendetta. That doesn’t work, so Yuki flies the machine into SpaceGodzilla, kamikaze-style. Shinjo rushes to the crash site to rescue Yuki, who explains that SpaceGodzilla is dying and will explode real soon now.
SpaceGodzilla does explode, taking what looks to be half the city with it. Godzilla roars in victory and heads off back to the ocean. Yuki gives up his special bullet. Fairy Mothra tells Miki that she’s saved planet Earth.
Brian’s Commentary
The music is pure 80s superhero stuff; overblown, loud, and very energetic. It’s got a giant robot, two monsters, ninjas, mafiosos, telepathy, a mad scientist, and a vengeance-crazed soldier. What more could a movie want?
Kevin’s Commentary
That presentation the expert gives explaining the scientific origin of Space Godzilla is a short, but pretty impressive, stream of technobabble. It’s really best not to think about the science and science fiction here. But I thought this one was above average for entertainment. It’s lively and fast moving with lots going on.
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