“I’m going to kill Aquaman and destroy everything he holds dear.”
One of the most vicious villains in all of DC Comics in my opinion, Black Manta came to life in the first Aquaman film and makes his triumphant return in Aquaman And The Lost Kingdom. Portrayed by Yahya Abdul-Mateen II in both films, Manta also comes to in seven inch figure form thanks to McFarlane Toys.
The figure is a very good representation of Black Manta from the film. His helmet is not removable. The tubes on his helmet are connected to the pack on his back. Unlike the Aquaman figure from the same line, Manta’s movement is hindered at the hips due to his suit. The tubes on the helmet also limit Manta’s head from moving very much. Other than those two issues, the figure is very cool.
Manta’s only accessories are two thruster blasts that can be detached from his pack. He also comes with the customary collector card with somewhat mediocre artwork on it and a display stand that allows Manta to be posed in a swimming or floating fashion.
There isn’t much detail in the suit from the film, but McFarlane does a great job of catching all of the details that are in the suit. I do wish that he had a second set of hands or a trident, but as it always is with McFarlane, accessories are far and few between. Hopefully they will release an unmasked version of this figure and include a trident with it. Overall, though, this is a really cool figure and he looks great with Aquaman in his stealth suit.
At last, Ken’s Alternate Universe has come back to CoastCon!!!
It happens tomorrow! Ken’s Alternate Universe will be in attendance all weekend at CoastCon in beautiful Biloxi, Mississippi! I’ll be there as a representative of Filmsquatch with my co-host, Patrick Bennett. I will arrive at some point on Friday and hope to be set up that evening. Patrick (and a special, very hairy guest) will arrive on Saturday and will hang out with me as long as he can since he has a few other responsibilities to deal with over the weekend. I’ll also be there on Sunday. Be sure to come by and say hi. We’ll have a few prints to give out (and we’ll autograph ’em if ya want), Filmsquatch buttons and stickers, Bigfoot Film Appreciation Circle buttons, Ken’s Alternate Universe stickers and my new business cards, and a few other assorted stickers and freebies.
There will be a ton of awesome guests, panels, artists, authors, and vendors on hand, so be sure to join me and all of the other cool kids at CoastCon THIS WEEKEND! I’ll be sure to write a full review of the event (and my travels to and from Biloxi) on Monday or Tuesday of next week. Instead of reading about it, though, come to the event! I hope to see you there!
Loosely based upon the 2006 Norman Partridge novel of the same name, 2023’s Dark Harvest is a decent little thriller that blends stories such as The Lottery with supernatural horror like Night Of The Scarecrow and Pumpkinhead. It tells the story of a small Midwestern town wherein a sinister creature with a jack-o’-lantern for a head rises from the fields outside of the city limits and makes its way to the local church. Terrible things await the residents of the town if the supernatural beast enters the church, so the teenage boys of the town go on a deadly Halloween run to try and kill the creature before it gets to the church. The boy who slays the beast is given a large check and a fancy car….and the opportunity to leave the town.
In 1963, one year after his brother, Jim, successfully kills the beast called Sawtooth Jack, young Richie Shepherd decides that he wants to make the run himself. The only problem is that once a family member defeats Sawtooth Jack, the rest of the family is exempt from the run. As Richie pushes boundaries, takes abuse from his peers, and falls for the new girl in town, the members of the Harvesters Guild pressure his parents to stop him. When Sawtooth Jack arises to make his way to the church once more, a gory hunt begins. How does it end? Watch Dark Harvest to find out!
I went into this film with low expectations, but was pleasantly surprised with how much I enjoyed it. I wasn’t aware that it was based upon a novel and, as is usually the case, found out that the novel has a very different ending from the film. I actually prefer the film ending and hope that a sequel comes to fruition. I figured out rather quick that something was amiss with the Harvesters Guild Halloween Run, but that didn’t deter me from enjoying this movie.
The film is carried on the shoulders of its impressive young leads, Casey Likes as Richie and E’myri Crutchfield as Kelly, the girl he likes. The rest of the teens in the film don’t have much to do but get murdered by Sawtooth Jack. Despite a small role in the film, Britain Dalton does well as Richie’s brother, Jim. The rest of the cast is rounded out with a number of strong character actors like Elizabeth Reaser (Twilight, Easy), Jeremy Davies (Saving Private Ryan, Helter Skelter), and Luke Kirby (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel), all of whom do outstanding jobs.
The story isn’t perfect by any means, but it’s interesting enough that I could look beyond its shortcomings. The blend of CGI and practical effects that gave life to Sawtooth Jack are done very well. While the film isn’t necessarily scary, it has tons of atmosphere. I also like the fact that there are references to the Misfits, from direct quotes from songs to the masks that some of the boys wear bearing the skull of the Fiend. Of course, if you’re a fan of serials, you know that the Fiend is actually the Crimson Ghost from the serial of the same name.
Is Dark Harvest worth checking out? Yep, if you enjoy Halloween and/or harvest-themed horror. It’s a fun film with some very good acting and decent creepy moments.
“We can’t leave our children in a world without hope.”
While I still haven’t seen Aquaman And The Lost Kingdom, I’ve been enamored with the figures ever since they started hitting pegs. I plan on seeing the film soon enough, but for now I’ll review the Target Exclusive McFarlane Toys DC Multiverse Gold Label Aquaman Stealth Suit With Topo. Yep, it’s a mouthful to say, but this figure is pretty sweet.
The figure looks great. It features Aquaman in his stealth suit from the film. The suit reminds me of the one that he wore in the 1986 Neal Ponzer/Craig Hamilton Aquaman miniseries. It has a ton of textured designs on it that look amazing. It also features Aquaman’s “A” belt. Aquaman’s legs, forearms, and hands feature a graded transparency. They get lighter the lower you go on Aquaman’s body. The figure has a decent looking sculpt of Jason Momoa’s face and even includes the scar over his left eye. Aquaman’s fists are clenched shut, so he can’t hold anything.
The articulation on the figure is some of the best I’ve seen on a McFarlane figure. This is primarily due to the fact that Aquaman doesn’t have any bulky armor, cape, or any type of skirting to hinder his movement. The only weak spot is his head, which is slightly hindered by Momoa’s hair.
Aquaman comes with zero accessories outside of the standard collector card and figure stand. Yep, he comes with Topo, but I don’t consider him to be an accessory. Topo is a sidekick. He has zero articulation. Despite this, he looks awesome. He is rather bendy but does not have any wiring to change his pose. He’ll look great on a display shelf.
This is a really great looking action figure with nearly full-range motion. Topo looks amazing as well. This duo will look good on the shelf with one another. There is another version of this figure that comes with a trident and the full suit, but he doesn’t come with Topo. I highly recommend grabbing the version with Topo if you only one want figure from this…..wave!
Gore god Eli Roth took sixteen years to finally give his fans Thanksgiving. The 2023 film is based upon a trailer that he made for the Robert Rodriguez/Quentin Tarentino Grindhouse double feature (2007). Along with screenwriter Jeff Rendell, Roth developed the story about a vengeful slasher who goes after the people who ruined his life after a terrible Black Friday tragedy in which multiple people met violent ends.
One year after the Black Friday tragedy, a slasher in a John Carver mask begins systematically and violently killing people involved with the event. He also uploads the murders or their aftermath on social media. Sheriff Eric Newlon (Patrick Dempsey) tries to figure out who the killer is before more people die. A group of well-to-do and popular teens who witnessed, videoed, and downloaded the Black Friday tragedy to social media realize that the killer is taking out people associated with the event and do their own investigation in an attempt to stop the murderer. At the center of the chaos is Jessica (Nell Verlaque), whose father had the sale where the deaths occurred. She has a few suspects in mind and eventually teams up with the sheriff to put an end to the slaughter. Does she succeed? Watch Thanksgiving to find out what happens.
If you’re familiar with some of Roth’s other work such as The Green Inferno (2013), the Hostel films (2005, 2007), and Cabin Fever (2002), you already know what you are getting in Thanksgiving. That said, Thanksgiving gives viewers the same ol’ same old that they expect from Roth but on a toned down scale in my opinion. Yes, there are some very gory, exploitative scenes of violence involving everything from turkey thermometers to the traditional axe, but they aren’t as excessive as Roth’s earlier work. There’s almost no nudity, something Roth always manages to unnecessarily throw in his films, in the film as well. There’s only a brief flash of a bare bottom. There isn’t much humor in the film, either.
What it does have is a cast of very unlikeable characters that I had no problem watching meet a violent end. It also has an easily picked out slasher. I knew who the killer was almost immediately despite Roth giving us quite a few suspects.
The acting was okay. Dempsey does his best to hold the audience’s interest, but outside of his performance there is nothing that really stood out to me. Gina Gershon has a very brief role in the film and she and Rick Hoffman are really the only characters worth paying any attention to in my opinion outside of the sheriff. The teens are nothing more than annoying fodder and I honestly couldn’t tell you their names (except for Scuba) without looking them up on IMDb.
Fans of torture porn will probably like this film, but even they will be left wanting. Overall, Thanksgiving is good enough for one viewing. I have no plans to go back for seconds. Eli Roth has never been a favorite of mine and this film certainly didn’t change my opinion of him or his work.
I was completely unaware of 2017’s Wish Upon until I decided to do a random “horror” search on Peacock one night. The film, which stars Joey King, tells the story of Clare Shannon (King) and her use of a sinister Chinese wish box that her father (Ryan Phillippe) unwittingly gives her as an early birthday present. Clare is granted seven wishes, each which comes with a deadly price. For every wish granted, someone that Clare is close to must die. After her final wish, the demon living inside of the box will claim Clare’s soul.
While it was little more than a blip at the box office in July of 2017, I really enjoyed Wish Upon. The film feels a lot like an amalgamation of the classic Wishmaster films (minus the Djinn) and the more recent Final Destination franchise. Like Wishmaster, each wish comes at a cost, and very much like Final Destination, almost all of the deaths feature a strange series of events that lead to the brutal death of a character.
Unlike a lot of modern teenager horror films, the cast of young characters is very likeable. Joey King does a really good job as Clare. She spirals into a sort of mad desperation once she realizes what her wishes are doing to others. Stranger Things alum Shannon Purser co-stars as one of Clare’s best friends, June, and The Walking Dead‘s Sydney Park co-stars as her other bestie, Meredith. Ryan Phillippe has a supporting role as Clare’s father and Twin Peaks star Sherilyn Fenn appears as Clare’s loving and friendly neighbor, Mrs. Deluca. Also appearing in the film are Josephine Langford, Mitchell Slaggert, Elisabeth Rohm, and Kevin Hanchard. Ki Hong Lee has a major supporting role as Ryan, a young man that attends Clare’s school who has a crush on her and helps her decipher the wording on the wish box by introducing her to his cousin, Gina (Alice Lee). Also look for a cameo by Jerry O’Connell.
The film was ill-received by critics, but I believe that is due to the fact that it heavily resembles Final Destination and also suffers in a few spots with bad dialogue. Other than those two misfires, this film is very enjoyable in my opinion. Give it a look if you currently subscribe to Peacock and enjoy films like Final Destination or other teen horror flicks.
I’m not very familiar with ABYstyle, but they appear to have been around for quite some time. Most of the items on their website appear to be anime related, so my readers that are fans of anime might be familiar with this company. What I do know about ABYstyle is that they make a pretty awesome Harley Quinn Acryl Stand Model.
This four inch statue looks amazing! Made of durable acrylic, it comes on a single sheet and is punched out into three pieces. Harley makes up one piece, a harlequin diamond is the second, and the final piece is a DC Comics logo base. The diamond and Harley statue fit into the base.
The sheet that the pieces comes on features a cool backdrop of Gotham City. The artwork is beautiful. Overall, this is a really cool model that is easy to assemble and looks great on a shelf or on a desk. At the moment, there’s the Harley Quinn model and a Batman model as well on the ABYstyle website. The rest of the models are anime characters. Hopefully ABYstyle will add more DC characters to their lineup. I’d love to pick up a few more!
Thanks for checking out my post! See you at a convention real soon!
Director Zoe Lister-Jones guides a whole new group of weirdos in 2020’s sequel/soft reboot of the classic 1996 flick The Craft with The Craft: Legacy. The film’s surprisingly strong cast gives the old college try, but they can’t lift this film above its weak plot. Despite the thin story, however, I enjoyed this movie overall. It gives viewers who love the original film a few winks and nods but adds a new angle to the story that opens the door for big showdowns in later films.
The film feels both like its own story and a loosely connected continuation of the original. What really stands out to me is the fact that the “weirdos” in this film seem much cooler than the weirdos from the first one. These young ladies are much more confident and come across as much stronger individuals than the original coven. They also come off as a lot more powerful than the original coven.
The main witch in the film is Lily “Lilith” Schechner. She is portrayed by Cailee Spaeny. Lily and her mother, Helen (Michelle Monaghan), are moving in with Helen’s new boyfriend, Adam (David Duchovny), and his three sons, Jacob, Isaiah, and Abe (Charles Vandervaart, Donald MacLean, Jr., and Julian Gray). Lily’s story parallels the story of Sarah (Robin Tunney) from the original film. Spaeny reminded me a lot of Tunney, and this might have been purposeful, as we get a surprise cameo at the end of the film. It’s not Tunney, by the way, but I won’t spoil it for you. When Lily arrives at her new school, she quickly becomes an outcast when she has her period in class and bleeds through her pants. Ostracized by her classmates and bullied by Timmy (Nicholas Galitzine), Lily quickly bonds with three other (much cooler than they should be) outsiders named Frankie (Gideon Adlon), Tabby (Lovie Simone), and Lourdes (Zoey Luna). Those three girls also happen to be witches and Lily is the fourth sister that they’ve been needing to reach their full potential.
The newly formed coven decides to have a little fun with Timmy and cast a spell upon him that turns him into an open-minded, deeply understanding individual. This “woke” version of Timmy, as the girls refer to him as, develops an attraction to Lily and she returns his affections. When a tragedy occurs, Lily and her sisters split with one another as they believe that Lily is the cause of the horrible event. This allows the true villain to make their move. Will the sisters reunite to save the day? Watch The Craft: Legacy to find out what happens!
The film really isn’t that bad. It’s just nothing special. The cast, especially Spaeny and Galitzine, doing an amazing job with the flimsy plot. I do like how it opens up the potential of sequels having two covens square off against one another but I highly doubt that a sequel will ever be made. David Duchovny is wasted in this film. The trio of witches that Spaeny joins forces with also give solid performances.
If you’re looking for a bit of nostalgia, the film does give that in small doses to fans of the original film. Overall, though, this is pretty much a standalone flick with a weak plot and strong performances. Give it a look if you’re a fan of witchcraft films.
There really isn’t much of a plot to 1957’s 20 Million Miles To Earth. When a top secret U.S. Air Force spaceship crashes in the Mediterranean Sea, a young boy unwittingly frees a small creature from a protective case and sells it to a local doctor. The creature grows at a quick rate and in no time is larger than an elephant! It goes on a rampage across Rome while the U.S. military and local Italian police officials attempt to capture it. Sure, there’s some mention of studying the creature’s biological makeup in order to create a breathing apparatus for explorers on Venus, but that’s not why we watch a film like this. We watch it to see the creature destroy things and, boy, it definitely destroys things!
The film stars William Hopper as Colonel Robert Calder, the only survivor of the mission to Venus. He is patched up after crash landing by Marisa Leonardo (Joan Taylor), a medical student who is staying with her uncle, Dr. Leonardo (Frank Puglia), who initially purchases the creature from a little boy named Pepe (Bart Braverman, credited as Bart Bradley). Calder, the local commissario (Tito Vuolo), and others team up to catch the beast and do so on a number of occasions, only for the creature to escape and go on yet another rampage. Each rampage is worse than the last as the creature continues to grow.
While the story itself is pretty thin, it’s the special effects work of the legendary Ray Harryhausen that make this film so much better than it really is. Harryhausen lets us watch the creature battle a dog and a farmer. Then we see it have an epic battle in the streets of Rome with an elephant. All of the action reaches a pinnacle as the beast takes out legendary parts of Rome and makes its final stand at the Colosseum. Does the beast win? Watch 20 Million Miles To Earth in order to find out what happens!
Two versions of the film exist. The original released in 1957 was shot in black and white despite Harryhausen hoping for a color film. In 2007, in celebration of the movie’s fiftieth anniversary, Harryhausen teamed up with Legend Films in order to release a colorized version. There are only minor differences in the two films, but both can be purchased together or watched separately on a number of streaming services.
The film really is just okay. The only reason to watch it is to see some of Harryhausen’s best work on the screen. Harryhausen has often cited this film as his personal favorite, and it’s easy to understand why: Ymir is a beautiful creation and it was cool to see how Harryhausen created human, dog, and elephant stop motion creatures as well. The final battle alone is worth watching this film.
Have you seen 20 Million Miles To Earth? Let me know in the comments. As always, thanks for checking out my post. See you at a convention real soon!
January is ending with a bang! I’ve lined up EIGHT appearances at cons so far this year! While nothing official has been released by any of these events just yet, I wanted to let you know which conventions that I’ll be attending either as a guest, panelist, or attendee. If you want to hang out at any of these events, lemme know!
The fun starts in March with two conventions. I’ll be at CoastCon on March 1-3 in beautiful Biloxi, MS. I’ll be there representing Filmsquatch with my bud, Patrick Bennett. Once the good folks over there have ironed out their schedule, I’ll be sure to post any and every activity or panel that I’ll be hosting or working. Be sure to drop by our table and say hello! One week later I’ll be in Lafayette, LA at Louisiana Comic Con. I’ll be representing both Ken’s Alternate Universe and Filmsquatch. Keep an eye out for the schedule coming soon!
April will see me in attendance at CyPhaCon! I’ve submitted a couple of panels to the event and am waiting on confirmation. I’ll also be there as a representative of Filmsquatch! I’ll be flying the Filmsquatch banner once more at the Fouke Monster Festival in Fouke, AR on April 26-27. This will be my third year to attend this event and my second year as a member of Filmsquatch.
On May 25th, I’ll be manning the projector and volunteering at the Calcasieu Parish Short Film Festival! I’ll finally get a breather in June, but I’m open to attending your event if you’d like to have Filmsquatch or Ken’s Alternate Universe to appear! Just message me hear or through Facebook Messenger.
I get back to business in July whenever I’ll be running the projector at Calcasieu Serialfest! I always have a great time at this FREE event and I hope that you’ll join me there. The first event that I’m planning on attending where I’ll just get to hang out and be a fan is none other than the Houston Horror Film Festival! Taking place on August 9-11, HHFF has already announced an amazing lineup of guests and there are still more to come!
Last, but certainly not least, is one of my favorite events to attend. The Lake Charles Film Festival takes place on October 4-5 this year and as the new festival director, I can say that we are planning some amazing things for all of our attendees! Stay tuned for more information as it is released.
So, there ya have it. I’ll be attending eight events this year and I hope that I get to see some of you at these events. I may add more events to this list, but I’ll need your help. Let me know what events you’d like to see me at and/or get in touch with events and tell them that you want me there! I’ll do my best to attend! Thanks for reading!!!
Ken's Alternate Universe! 