DON’T GO NEAR THE PARK [1979] Review

 DON’T GO NEAR THE PARK [1979]

 

“Don’t Go Near The Park” is a terrible, low budget movie, that wasn’t available to watch anywhere online. Legally. Thankfully, I was able to watch the movie anyway, thanks to some Russian websites. I accidentally came across the movie on imdb, and only tried to watch it simply because it wasn’t available on any streaming site.

Bootlegged or not,  “Don’t Go Near The Park” is a very low quality film, whose plot was hard to understand. Watching the movie alone, I had a hard time trying to follow the dialogue to many scenes, because the audio quality was terrible. 

The plot still barely made sense to me, even after reading about it online.  The idea was that two siblings were condemned for being cannibals, 12,000 years ago. They were to age 10 years for ever year that passed, the only way to gain any youth back was to eat people though. Reading about it online, the whole idea was that they had to eventually sacrifice a virgin of their own blood, I think, to gain immortality. Youth immortality. It seems that they were already immortal, but immortally old? The more you think about it, the less sense it makes. 

Of course, in modern day, the location is set in Los Angeles, where the siblings eat people in a local park. They disembowel victims and nearly immediately lose their gray hair and wrinkles. 

The film starts off with the male sibling, Mark, getting a telepathic message to get a girl pregnant, as part of the plan to gain immortal youth. He follows a woman home, who had a room for rent sign outside her home. The woman goes into the shower, and he bursts into the bathroom, like a freak. He immediately convinces her to let him rent the extra room, and she agrees. Despite being a thousands year old human cannibal, Mark acts more like an alien in a human skin.

Interestingly, the woman that Mark rents the room from, is portrayed by actress Linnea Quigley, who is probably most famously known for playing the character “Trash” in the movie “Return of The Living Dead”. Somehow, Mark convinces Quigley’s character to get naked nearly immediately after he moves in. They quickly get married and have a baby, a daughter they name Bondi. Mark raises his daughter, who loves him dearly, but Quigley’s character quickly becomes jealous of the attention that Mark gives their daughter, and not her. 

I thought that the idea of Linnea’s character being jealous of her daughter was interesting, because it showed how immature the character was, mad that her child was receiving attention, and not her. This could be a separate plot line on it’s own.

On Bondi’s 16th birthday, her father gives her an amulet, with gold, which makes her mother extremely upset; as Mark never gave her gold. This tension causes the family to implode, and in the blink of an eye, Bondi leaves the house to be picked up in a van full of dudes. The men in the van try to rape her, and she calls on her father to help her, by clutching the amulet. It starts glowing, and I swear, in another blink of the eye, the van they’re in explodes, though Bondi escapes or teleports into some bushes safely. 
Bondi  walks to an old saloon looking building, and falls asleep. She’s woken up by a young boy, who tried feeling her chest. She tells him to stop, and they quickly become friendly. The boy, Nick, is an 8 year old orphan who lives with another teenage runaway named Cowboy. The two share their place with a weird old woman, who actually, unknown to Bondi, is her aunt. The prehistoric sister that was condemned with her father 12,000 years ago. 

Eventually, Bondi’s aunt tries to trick her into being sacrificed, but not before her father tries to assault her! The sexual themes in the movie were so gross to me, I didn’t understand why they had to be there! The more movies I watch from the 70’s, there seemed to be this trope of being raped in the back of a van, or some theme of incest! Especially after watching “Satan’s Children”, where Bobby’s step sister was being really weird with him, I wanted to gag at the weird sexual themes in this movie too. 

Before being sacrificed, a fire breaks out in the cave that Bondi is in with her father and aunt, her aunt convinces her to swallow the amulet, which she does, and this nearly instantly ages her. You see the makeup effects here, which were interesting, though silly, in my opinion. She ended up looking like the ancient ancestor that originally condemned her father thousands of years ago, being possessed by the spirit, and reanimating the corpses that her father and aunt ate. The corpses then eat Bondi’s father and aunt, and the spirit leaves Bondi’s body.

Bondi escapes with the other two youths in the movie, and eventually end up wandering to a park. Nick, the youngest, is about to go down a slide with Bondi right behind him, when Bondi puts her hands around Nick’s torso acting like she’s about to eat him like her father and aunt would do to their victims. Then, the movie ends. 

I assume from the way the movie ended, that the cycle just continued, though it doesn’t make sense to me. Why would Bondi need to eat people? She wasn’t condemned to old immortality. 

In general, the entire movie makes little sense. First of all, why is it, in any movie that deals with cannibals, the people are depicted eating the human flesh raw? Why can’t they cook the meat first? I know that it makes the movie look more gruesome, but let’s be serious here; if you’re going to be a cannibal, it’d make more sense to cook the meat in order to get away with it. What also makes little sense to me, is how they only ate peoples’ stomachs or just a few things from the abdomen. Why would that prevent old age, but not eating the brain? What is it about the abdomen that thwarts off wrinkles and grey hair? 

I feel like the movie is supposed to be more tongue in cheek, but it falls short in many ways. It raises too many questions that expose how flimsy the writing is. For example, Bondi’s mother basically breaks up with her father on Bondi’s birthday. She doesn’t die or anything. But after Bondi’s father is killed by the corpses, Bondi acts like she has no where to go. What happened to her mother? Isn’t she still alive too? She wasn’t eaten. And that’s another point, why wouldn’t Mark, Bondi’s father, just eat Bondi’s mother? If he aged 10 years for every year that passed, 16 years would be more like 160 years! So how many people did he eat while Bondi was growing up? If he was having relationship troubles with his baby mama, why didn’t he just eat her? 

What I also don’t understand, is why eating just a small part of a human would reverse the aging process. First of all, isn’t that sort of vampiric, in a way? Second, isn’t it wasteful to just eat a little bit, then throw the rest of the body into the family cave? Would eating the entire body reverse the aging process even more? That way, he could potentially eat less people? 

Thoughts like this make the whole idea fall apart. The weak storyline, plus the bad audio, made this a hard movie to follow. I can’t recommend this one, it’s just bad. Not really funny bad, just…bad. I wouldn’t waste my time watching it, because you probably can’t hear all of what the characters are saying anyway. 

I could only find one review for the movie, which of course, was negative. It seems that I wasn’t the only person who found the plot hard to follow, and just weird at times. 

1 star
2 slimes 


My video: https://youtu.be/RJy94oti2QI

SATAN’S CHILDREN [1975] Review

 SATAN’S CHILDREN [1975]

Satan’s Children is a low budget movie from 1975 that is really low budget. It starts out with this cool looking opening credit scene, which seems to be the only cool scene in the entire movie. The film looks like it was recorded using really old cameras, probably some of the earlier versions of color film, or at least very cheap color cameras.

The movie starts out with the main character Bobby mowing the lawn, and it seems to arouse his step sister. There’s this gross incestual dynamic from her in the movie, which seems like a thinly disguised fetish. I don’t know why they had to include that in the movie, they could have just made the step sister bratty, catty, and annoying, without making romantic gestures to him. 

Bobby is seemingly not really liked by his step dad or step sister that much, and after dinner one day, his step sister tries to get him in trouble. She asks what the “brown bag in his closet” is, which to me, I immediately thought that Bobby had a bag of shit in his room. But when he left the table to go get the bag, it was in the nightstand next to his bed, and instead of being a bag of shit, it was a bag of marijuana. Bobby leaves the house instead of revealing to his step dad that he had weed, and we see small montage of him walking around the city alone at night. 

Bobby ends up at a diner, and is hit on by an older man, who is told to leave by a younger greaser looking type of guy. The greaser guy makes fun of the dude for being gay, and then…he and Bobby take a ride on the guy’s motorcycle. This struck me as odd, because the idea of a man riding “bitch” on a bike was thought of as gay for the longest time. The greaser guy, whose name was Jack, I believe, takes Bobby back to his place, and offers him a beer. Then, he undresses, puts on a robe, then takes a knife to Bobby’s neck. Bobby is then stripped, tied up, and then thrown in a car with Jack and his friends, where they proceed to assault Bobby. After, they throw his body somewhere outside.

The next day, a group of hippie looking types are seen playing some sort of bad version of volleyball outside. A woman named Sherry is running away from another woman, where we see that the latter had made a move on Sherry. Sherry, not being a lesbian, did not take kindly to the advance, and slaps the other girl, telling her to figure out “how to like guys”. 

The hippies playing ball stop for a moment to see Bobby unconscious near their fence, where he’s taken inside their compound. Sherry takes an interest in Bobby, finding him attractive for some reason. One of the other cult members dislikes this, saying that Bobby was “Queer”. 

In general, the movie has this ridiculous homophobic tone, especially considering what the main idea of the movie was about. Sherry and the others that “save” Bobby are actually a group of Satanists, but somehow, they were against gay people. This struck me as odd, considering how most Abrahamic Religions are anti-gay. If Satanists are supposed to be the antithesis of Christians and the like, wouldn’t it make sense to accept Gay people? I suppose that this idea destroys any plot the movie has. 

The Satanic idea is more of a hint, as opposed to a main theme. It’s like a small sprinkling of salt to a meal, than a delicious seasoning. The few scenes where the cult members are dressed in robes and praying to Satan, were laughably bad. The costumes looked so cheap and horrible, like they barely figured out how to use a sewing machine. I wonder if the creators of the movie read anything from the Satanic Bible by Anton Lavey, because I did see some black candles lit in the background, and a few other pieces that might have been nods towards the Church of Satan. To me, if they did do a little research into Lavey, it wasn’t very much. They likely only skimmed through the book if they did.

The idea of a Satanic hippie cult also seemed to be a nod towards the Manson family, who had committed the Tate-LaBianca murders only 6 years prior the movie’s release. It seemed that it was a crappy generalization of what the news press originally said about the Manson family, where people like Susan Atkins and such were “slaves of Satan”. This movie, “Satan’s Children” felt like it was written by children. The plot didn’t really go anywhere, and barely anything was explained at all. 

There was a lot of emphasis on the Gay parts, and how being gay was “bad”. In a way, the movie appeared nearly Christian with how homophobic it was. I think that it was holding onto the idea that gay = sex offender, an unfortunate idea that bigots would carry in the past. Ironically, wouldn’t Bobby’s step sister have been considered a sex offender? She was molesting him in the beginning of the movie. 

I was in shock with how bad this movie was. It was funny to me, because of how low quality, low budget, and low skill it was. The head honcho, Simon, wasn’t anywhere near as intimidating as you’re supposed to think of him. Sherry and Bobby “fall in love”, after meeting for one day, and for some reason, Bobby is supposed to be considered attractive! Most of the cast members looked smelly, and likely needed a shower. 

Bobby eventually runs away from the compound, and two henchmen that were chasing him end up in quicksand. Of course, the quicksand trope. Bobby, only in his underwear, falls a million times, turning his tighty whities into what looked like shit stained underwear. After the henchmen presumably die in the quicksand, Bobby takes their jeep back home, and starts to eat out of the fridge. His step dad starts yelling at him again, and he cracks a bottle over his head. Bobby then ties up his step sister and throws her in the back of the truck. 

Somehow, he makes it to the apartment of the guy that raped him in the beginning of the movie, and kills all the men there. He then chops their heads off with saws, and takes them back to the Satanic cult, as an offering, I guess. I assume that Bobby is then allowed to join the cult? The movie ends with him making love to Sherry, while Bobby’s step sister is crucified. 

Once again, I was appalled when I watched this movie. I think that, as time went on, the people involved must have realized how bad it was, and likely never pursued anything else in film. Most of the cast only seemed to have been in this movie. The film seemed to be a project for what were film students. Unfortunately, this movie would not have earned them a good grade. The story was lacking, it was barely satanic, and really, we didn’t have a reason to like the main character at all. What happened to him was terrible, but nothing else is really divulged about the character after he ends up at the Satanic cult. In fact, none of the characters had any background story at all. It was incredibly weak. 

Looking through the newspaper archives, there were some interesting snippets. In 1975, “Satan’s Children” first debuted in Illinois, so some of the advertisements marketed the movie as something that fans of the “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” would like. This is hilarious, considering that these movies are nothing alike. TCM is actually scary, while Satan’s Children is an unintentional comedy film. 

Another ad claimed that the movie was “The most gory and frightening film of 1975”, which came from the director himself. This was nowhere near true, as there’s barely any blood in the movie at all. It had the tagline, “Do Satanic cults really exist?”, like as if the movie would have delved into this further, but upon watching, the question wasn’t explored at all. Bobby encounters a Satanic cult, but it’s not because he was trying to find one. He just so happened to end up at their compound. 

I couldn’t find any reviews on the movie from that time period. I think that goes to show how many people really saw it, let alone watched the whole thing to even think of reviewing it. 

I don’t recommend watching this film, not even once. It’s just bad. I laughed with how bad it was, but it didn’t really add any more enjoyment to my life. I have to give this movie 1 star, and 2 slimes. 

Slimey, bad movie.

 

My video:  https://youtu.be/3ET3S9zfI78

THE DEVIL’S RAIN 1975 Review

 THE DEVIL’S RAIN 1975 

The Devil’s Rain is an interesting movie that I had read about in books concerning Anton LaVey. I know that he had some technical input with the Satanic aspects of the movie, but I had no idea what the movie itself was about. I was able to watch it for free, starting on Tubi, but finished it on Pluto, also for free. I prefer the way the subtitles are on Pluto, as Tubi makes them too large. 

The movie starts nearly immediately, which I actually like. You’re thrown into the action almost at once, which was a nice change of pace from the typical slow moving plot wagons other films during this time period would pull. We start out with a huge rain pouring over the house of William Shatner and his mother, who is waiting for Shatner’s father to come home. When he shows up, Mr. Preston is a disgusting, waxy looking freak that tells his family to bring Corbis “The book”. 

Shatner plays the character Mark Preston, who goes out to the abandoned town of Redstone to confront Corbis, taking a mega sized cross necklace given to him by his mother. When Mark gets to the town, he’s immediately greeted by Corbis, and they go into the church, which turns out to be a Satanic Place of Worship. Immediately, I could see how much Anton Lavey was consulted for the making of the film. It’s clear to me, from all of the decorations and designs, the things that they asked Anton, what would have made it authentic. Though it’s not blatantly said, you see things that have been written about in Anton’s book and various pieces of Church of Satan literature, such as the trapezoid, which Anton was so fond of. When William Shatner is being sacrificed, you see the pentagram marked on his chest in blood, inside of a trapezoid. There are various other nods towards the beliefs of the Church of Satan, such as the altar where Tom’s wife reads the banner, incorrectly, as “reggae satanas”. Surely, it’s “Regge Satanas”. When Mark Preston first enters the Satanic Church, you see a pentagram inside of a trapezoid.

When Mark Preston enters the church, there’s a shot of an organ from a bird’s eye view. I never saw anything about this, but I wonder if Anton was the one that played it. In life, Anton LaVey actually played the instrument. Anton is seen later in the film, with one line only, during the time that Shatner’s character is being sacrificed. He also shows up in the background near the end of the film. Apparently, his wife of the time, Diane, was also in the film, though I didn’t catch it when I watched. You also see characters like Corbis wearing a sigil of Baphomet around their neck. It’s clear that they listened to Anton, and The Satanic Bible, which states that members must wear all black during a ritual. You can even hear parts of the Satanic Bible being recited during the movie. For me, I find that-that makes this movie actually, really good. 

No matter if you care about Anton LaVey or not, I think the fact that he was consulted, listened to, and employed for the movie, really makes the Satanic Cult…Satanic. In comparison to other movies that stereotype the Satanic villain, I have to give credit to Robert Fuest for actually employing the techniques that an actual Satanic group would abide by. 

Interestingly, this movie was John Travolta’s first film, where he was given the book ‘Dianetics’, and later got into Scientology. Talk about cult, right? 

I’m surprised that the reception to the film was bad. I guess to the average person, “The Devil’s Rain” isn’t a good movie, potentially too Satanic. It’s stated in one of the opening film credits that they consulted Anton LaVey, so it might have rubbed many people the wrong way, from that point alone. I do think that there are legitimate reasons to not like the film, or at least parts of it. 

Though I couldn’t find too many reviews about the movie in the newspaper archives, the couple I did see commented about how gross the melting parts were at the end of the movie. Which, I totally agree. Coming from 2026, I didn’t know how the movie was advertised, until looking at the news archives. Apparently, it was marketed as having an “incredible ending”, which, if you saw that in the news, then watched the movie, you might be understandably disappointed. The ending to the movie isn’t incredible, in fact, it doesn’t really explain much. 

The story itself isn’t bad in my opinion, I found it intriguing, and entertainingly esoteric. I saw in other reviews that some people didn’t understand the Colonial flashback, which to me, was pretty clear. I took it as Mark Preston was Martin Fife in a past life, and the original person who betrayed Corbis. It’s the same reason that Corbis would call Mark, Martin. I love storylines like this, granted, I grew up watching supernatural type shows and movies, so the idea of past lives isn’t a far off concept for me. 

To me, I found it interesting that Tom’s wife, Mark’s sister in law, was some sort of psychic. She could foresee what was going to happen later in the movie. As interesting as this was, I was a little bummed at first that they spoiled parts of the movie, right? Well, they got me. Even though you see her freaking out in the rain in a vision, it doesn’t happen the way you think. I don’t want to spoil that part, but I think the way they show this was very clever. If that was the incredible ending, then I can see why they’d say that. But, that’s a very short blip in comparison to what happens right before.

Now, for the ending itself, I didn’t hate it, but it didn’t explain anything. Corbis had a book of souls he was to deliver to the devil, but he already had the souls in this fancy vase. The logistics behind it aren’t explained. I don’t understand why the book would be needed, if he already had the souls in the vase. Further, the souls were “freed” when the vase was broken, which could have been done by anyone. I don’t think the ending was really worked out that well, it was potentially rushed. The writing falls apart at the end. With the vase broken, a torrential storm rains down…The Devil’s Rain, I suppose. But the concept of “The Devil’s Rain” is never really explained. We see that it’s actually an object, the vase, but still, what is it? This is something that I wish was discussed more. This may be one of the legit reasons why people dragged the movie in reviews. 

I thought it was funny, how the person Tom ended up hugging at the end, ended up being Corbis instead. I took that as the cycle starting all over again, him gaining more souls to deliver to the devil. 

Overall, I really enjoyed the film. Which may be a surprise. I absolutely recommend this movie to anyone that enjoys horror films, especially the creepy Satanic evil ones. Even with the plot holes, and things that don’t make sense, I give this a 5/5. I can watch this movie over and over. 

My video: https://youtu.be/IoAmayDAntw

VIY 1967 Review

  VIY 1967

“Viy” is a Soviet Union made film from 1967. It’s said to be the Soviet Union horror film. I watched it for free on Fawesome, on January 12th, 2026. 

I went in blind watching the film, only hearing that it was pretty scary. I knew nothing else about it. Upon first look, I was immediately enamored with the creepy opening shots of the spiderwebs and stone. It can be immediately said that “Viy” is a beautiful movie. I was really taken back by the various shots that were legitimately taken outdoors. The countryside shots were beautiful to see, and so well captured. In general, the captures in the movie are so well done and artistic. I was legitimately shocked that the movie originally came out in 1967, because the camerawork was ahead of its time, nearly seeming like something from the 1980’s. There’s a lot that doesn’t seem to be known about the film’s background; production trivia is scant. 

The plot of “Viy” is based off of the story of the same name. Originally a story written by Nikolai Gogol, the movie follows the story faithfully. This was interesting to watch after seeing “Black Sunday”, which was released 7 years prior in 1960, and was also inspired by the story. The difference though is that “Black Sunday” is much more inspired than a faithful recreation. “Viy” is essentially the story made into movie form, from what I understand. 
To quickly sum up the plot, three Seminary students get lost after being released for break. They come across a farm, and the old woman only allows them to stay if they agree to sleep in separate rooms. Our main character, Khoma, goes into the barn to sleep, when the old lady comes in trying to seduce him. She climbs on his shoulders and they run outside, where they start flying. Khoma realizes that she’s a witch, he calls on Christ, and they land, where he proceeds to beat the witch to death. Before she dies, she transforms into a beautiful woman. Khoma then runs away, back to the Seminary, where he’s told that he’s to say prayers over a Sotnik’s dying daughter; the daughter asked for him specifically. Despite not wanting to go, he’s forced to anyway. Right before arriving, the daughter dies. When Khoma goes in to see the woman, she turns out to be the beautiful woman he killed. Khoma is then to say prayers over her for 3 nights while locked in the church. After the 3 days, he’s supposed to get 1000 gold. To spoil the ending, this doesn’t happen, and Khoma is scared to death. 

The movie isn’t very long, only about 1 hour and 16 minutes. It builds up in the first half, just to get to the church. I think that this build up is necessary, to understand how much of a coward Khoma was, because he couldn’t admit he hurt that girl. I don’t think he ever admits to anyone in the movie that he killed her. Eventually, it’s made clear that this is all part of an ancient folktale, that the other people are aware of. So, it might have been possible that people knew he killed her. Either way, it seems that others knew he was being haunted by the witch’s spirit. 

Even though this is considered the first Soviet Horror Film, I don’t find the movie scary, honestly. But, I don’t think the Soviet Union would have allowed to it be any creepier than it is. The “horror” aspect is much more in the Scooby Doo spooky realm, than something like “Texas Chainsaw Massacre”. But I think that this is fitting, considering that it’s a folktale, and not a slasher film. 

I found the practical effects absolutely amazing in the movie. There was obviously a lot of work put into all of the sets and props. This is most strongly seen at the end of the movie, where the monsters all come out of the Church crevices. The biggest one of all, being Viy. I found the Goblin Viy himself to be an interesting creature, though lackluster in the sense that he wasn’t really worth the movie being named after. Viy was a creature entirely different from the witch, though I know that this is how the original story goes. It’s still a shame though, that Viy is only in the movie for a very short period of time, before it ends. 

The effects used in the movie really show during this final scene, all of the detail that went into making it. The use of green screen magic really added to the magical sense of the movie. Though the modern eye can easily tell that it’s green screen, I think that this looks really well considering the folklore theme. The end part with the hands surrounding Khoma looked really cool and haunted. The wooden Church used for the set adds to this creepy folklore story, and Scooby Doo vibe. I know that Scooby came out 2 years after the movie was made, but I can’t think of anything else that comes close to the feeling that “Viy” conjures.  The campy creepy feeling, that’s a lot more silly in the end, but in a good way. 

The movie has this more classic “scary” feeling, using hand gestures with the girl, in ways that remind me of how theater shows will use hands a lot to create even the smallest of effects during a play. 

I also loved the use of the green screen for the drunk effect, when the men were in the tavern, before reaching the dying woman. I’ve never seen a movie use the screen before in such a way, and I thought that it was very clever. 

Overall, I think that this is a great movie, and actually, really funny. I loved how the camera showed the expression on Khoma’s face when the other women started telling the tale of the witch, which is what ended up happening to him. I don’t know what you’d call this type of cinematography in general, but I love this style so much. It’s definitely one of the earliest examples of “modern” movie making, or rather, an early film that takes a step away from the standard “Old Hollywood”, “Golden Era” film. It uses shots and set making that are similar to movies seen in the 70’s, and that era of horror movies. One that comes to mind, is “Magic” with Anthony Hopkins. That film style is what I thought of, when I saw “Viy”, and ironically, those films are 12 years apart! I’m unsure what the film influences to “Viy” are, but they had to have been different from the standard Hollywood hits of the time. 

Not much info is out there about the movie in general. It seems to have come to America around 2001, judging by a DVD version being released that year, according to Wikipedia. I didn’t see anything about it in the newspaper archives. IMDB doesn’t have much more info either, just some of the same things that are on wikipedia. Interestingly, the wooden church used in the film burned down, but was rebuilt in 2006.

 One of the interesting things about the movie was how it so beautifully captured people who were born a very long time ago. It’s interesting watching this film in 2026, 59 years later. Many of the actors have since passed away, and any of the living young people are old now. Some of the characters, such as the man who plays the old version of the witch, and a few of the men that go with Khoma to the dying woman, were born in the 1800’s! It’s mind blowing, to see actors so well depicted, yet having been born so far away from the time we are in now. I think that goes to show, that with a high enough quality camera, decades in the past can seem nearly modern day, or a few years ago. 

Overall, I think that the movie is worth watching, though you’ll have to read the subtitles. I have no problem with that, though some people do. I found this movie funny, interesting, and artistically beautiful. If you’re into underground horror, weird, cult movies, this is something you should at least watch once. I can actually see myself watching this again. If anything, you should watch the movie for the silly little pufferfish ghoul that they glued crab legs onto. I have no idea what that thing was, but it was so silly and cute. 

4/5 Stars

 

My video: https://youtu.be/Y1Z4SAz6LAQ 

BLACK SUNDAY 1960 Review

 BLACK SUNDAY 1960

I watched “Black Sunday” for free on youtube, January 11th, 2026, for the first time ever. I had heard of the movie in the past from other people, and it wasn’t until it randomly popped up in my youtube recommended, that I decided to watch it. 

I was drawn in from the get go, the beginnning of the movie starting out dark and spooky, with the men in the hoods getting the fire stoked, and the iron ready for branding. I imagine this was probably very  creepy for audiences at the time, when the movie was initially released in the early 60’s. 

For reference, “Black Sunday”, also known as “The Mask of Satan” (La Maschera Del Demonio), is an Italian horror film released on August 11th, 1960. The film wasn’t released in America until 1961, and because of censorship, it was banned in the UK until July of 1968; released under the name “Revenge of The Vampire”. 

The movie is inspired by the story “Viy” by Russian author Nikolai Gogol. The plot of the film is that Princess Asa Vajda is supposed to be burned at the stake in the 1630’s, for being a Satanic Vampiric Witch, for committing “too many evil deeds to satisfy her monstrous love for the Serf of The Devil: Igor Javutich”. Condemned by her own brother, he orders for the Mask of Satan to be nailed down onto her face. This is done so by a big scary executioner, but not before Asa cursed her brother’s bloodline. The mask is then hammered on to her face in what was surely a completely gruesome and unseen show of violence, likely not seen in movies before. 

The opening credits reveal that this was a Galatea film, and it made me curious if this was ever seen by Anton LaVey. I wonder if Anton named his daughter Zeena Galatea as a partial nod to the film company, among other things. From what I’ve read, Anton was a rather avid horror/creepy movie fan. 

The beginning part of the film reminds me “Dracula” by Bram Stoker, though the original story “Viy” actually predates it by about 60 years! 

Even though Princess Asa was to be burned at the stake, she is saved from the rain that pours down. Still dead though, her body is buried in the family crypt, where the movie moves forward 2 centuries. In the 1800’s, we see a carriage with 2 doctors traveling the area of Moldavia, when one of the wheels breaks off. The driver starts to fix it, when the 2 doctors, Andrej Gorobec, and Chroma Kruvajan, come across an ancient crypt. Andrej is supposed to be the younger, handsome doctor, with Kruvajan being the older experienced one. The two investigate the burial tomb of Asa, creeped out, but curious.

In the crypt, you really start to see the beautiful filmograpgy that the movie has to offer. The scenes in the crypt show beautiful angles of black and white, with the lighting perfectly accentuating the characters’ expressions. I loved how the simplicity of it really helped emphasize what we, as the audience, were supposed to look at. 

The crypt was quite open and bare, not a cluttered set, but the surrounding effects of cobwebs, stone ruins, and trinkets so easily conjured the creepy Halloween type of vibe, the movie was going for. Though the budget of the movie was never revealed, from what I understand, I think it might have been on the lower budget side, as some of the set seems to have cheaper effects used in clever, if not silly, ways. 

One of the examples of this was the bat Dr. Kruvajan fights at the beginning of the film. While in the crypt, him and Andrej look at Asa’s tomb, to see a window displaying the Mask of Satan over her face. The cross on her tomb was positioned in front of the window so it would keep her in place, if she awoke. The beginning of the “Cross That Scares Demons” trope, in movies. Dr. Andrej leaves to hang out with the scared coachman, and Dr. Kruvajan stays alone in the crypt when the bat appears. 

The film shot right before shows a human skull and bones, and I wondered if the remains were real or not. It wouldn’t be the only time real human remains would be used in a movie, if this were the case. I’m unsure if the crypt was part of the studios at Scalera Film, or possibly shot at Castle Massimo, where other scenes were filmed at.

The bat attacks Dr. Kruvajan, and we never fully see it, the audience simply seeing a typical bat shaped shadow, and then shots of Dr. Kruvajan beating into the air. I think that you can see some of the strings to the bat, thought I might be mistaking that with the spiderwebs. 

Dr. Kruvajan eventually just shoots the bat, and beats the shit out of it on Asa’s crypt, breaking the cross on it in the process. This breaks the window, exposing the mask, and Dr. Andrej runs back in. They look through the grave, partially robbing it of some sort of tablet, that’s written in Ancient Cyrillic. Once again, this was inspired by a Russian folktale, so I suppose this was a small nod towards that. Initially, I thought that the tablet would have had more weight in the movie, but it was nearly useless. I originally thought that the Asa or Javutich would have chased the main characters to get it back, but it’s mostly forgotten about, barely seen. Near the end of the film, Dr. Andrej gives the tablet, or icon, to the main priest, who takes it to be translated, but it’s not until another scene that the Father says in passing what the icon was for. 

It happens to fast, that I easily missed it, especially with the strange dubbed dialogue. Apparently, it had said that you had to put a stake through the Satanic Vampire’s eye in order to kill them. This isn’t really made clear, we just see the priest do this later in the movie, while mentioning the icon, as he drives a stake through the “evil” Dr. Kruvajan. The actual vampireyness isn’t as strong or emphasized as a theme, as it might seem. There’s vampire elements to the movie, but what we think of in modern day, isn’t seen so much in this film. There are neck bites, and a few other vampiric things, but “Black Sunday” doesn’t seem to truly explain what made the antagonists vampiric, witchy, or Satanic. I supposed part of it might have been a way to interchange the words, as many people have considered “Witch” and “Satanic” as the same thing, And off the top of my head, I believe the general lore of vampires is that people sold their souls to the Devil for immortality, or eternal youth. The movie doesn’t really say why Asa and Javutich were evil, it just says that they were.

Dr. Kruvajan cuts himself on the broken glass to the window of Asa’s tomb. This small bit of blood, plus the destruction of the cross, starts to awken her. And thus, she starts the process to gain her corporeal form, it being implied that she’ll take over the body of Princess Katia, her current living descendant, that just so happens to look exactly like her. Because of the blood spilled by Kruvajan, Asa summons Javutich back to to life, and he rises from the grave.

Javutich comes back to life, with the Mask of Satan on his face, in a clear, and amazing shot. I appreciate the detail that went into the mask, plus the dragon emblem on the costume. It looked really good, and technically well done. It reminded me of the Dragon Priest Masks from Skyrim, and I wondered if there was any possible influence of that movie on the game. Granted, when Javutich took the mask off, he looked like a slimy member of Jethro Tull, and not all that scary.

I found the pace of the movie to be slow at times, and would sometimes lull. I understand that the film was dubbed for the English speaking audience, but sometimes the dialogue would look so off and unbelievable from what the actors were saying, that some scenes were just silly. In general, I don’t take the film that seriously, but I find it to be an essential piece to gothic movie horror. I understand though, that the film was recorded in English, but because of some of the actors’ thick Italian accents, it had to be dubbed. I’m assuming Barbara Steele dubbed her own lines, but even hers looked off when watching the movie. Whoever dubbed her character made me laugh at times, with the way they would put so much emphasis on “Mirgorod”. It would make the dialogue sound out of place at times, messing up the flow of a scene. 

The romantic sub-plot was superfluous and shoehorned in. I laughed at the notion that Dr. Andrej would have serious feelings for Princess Katia, after only meeting her less than 2 days before. Surely, something forced into the plot. It had no bearing on the movie at all, and could have not existed. The movie wouldn’t have suffered if the romantic plot didn’t exist. 

“Black Sunday” was recorded and released in 1960, still very much in the “Old Hollywood” or “Golden Era” style of film. It follows much of the 1950’s type of movies, where the big bad guy loses, the handsome young man gets the girl, and everything is happy at the end. Asa ends up being burned at last, and Andrej gets to kiss Princess Katia. There’s no discussion as to what would happen next, which I think would be interesting to think about. During the course of the movie, Katia’s remaining family dies, so I suppose we can assume that she finally leaves the castle with Andrej. 

From a historical type of  perspective, I think that this movie is necessary in some ways. If you’re into the Horror genre, this surely opened up some avenues for later films. I wonder if the creators of the movie “Viy”, which came out in 1967, saw this movie first, and decided to do a more faithful rendition. The effects used to make Katia look younger and older were very clever, where apparently they used red and green lights that would show or hide the makeup. Because they recorded in black and white, the viewer can’t see this, we just see the “aging process”. I think that the overall Dark theme to the film definitely inspired the generations that came after this. 

Looking through the Newspaper archives, I didn’t see too many reviews about the movie when it came out, though the few that popped up were short, but recommended it. I think what really got people to watch the movie was the art for majority of the ads seen in newspapers. The freaky woman’s face is eye capturing, and surely entices people in.

I wouldn’t recommend the film to the general person, but if you’re interested in older creepy films, I think it’s worth watching at least once. It’s not the type that I’d purposely choose to watch over and over, though it’s perfect for a Halloween marathon. 

My video: https://youtu.be/UT0tGSlIdw4 

DISCHARGE BY DEATH Review

 DISCHARGE BY DEATH

“Discharge By Death” is the name of a band, and their only album, which was released on December 13th, 2010. I originally came across this album after being recommended the song “Necrosis” on youtube, and then decided to listen to the entire thing on Spotify. 

Normally, it wouldn’t be considered odd for a band to have their album on Spotify, but in this case, it is perplexing. 

Discharge By Death was a band formed entirely by prison inmates in the New Mexico Corrections system. 

I will be honest, even though the album is musically good, I could not listen to it more than once. The crime committed by Jason Desnoyers, is the main reason for this. 

In 1998, 18 year old college student Carly Martinez went missing after going out for the night. She was taken by Jason Desnoyers and Jesse Avalos, who took her to a remote part of the desert in New Mexico, where the two brutally raped and beat her. Various news articles couldn’t seem to figure out what tools were used exactly, but it was generally agreed that she was stabbed in the head, and suffered some sort of blunt force trauma. An article from the Alamogordo Daily News, dated July 14th, 1999, stated that Carly was stabbed more than a dozen times in the head, chest, abdomen, back, thighs, and buttocks. A single edged knife was identified as one of the weapons, while the second weapon could have been anywhere from a screwdriver, to potentially no other weapon at all, according to one of the Defense Attorneys. Carly stood no chance against her murderers, as she was a small woman, only about 5 feet tall, or 5’1, and barely over 100 pounds. In comparison, Desnoyers and Avalos are 5’10” and 5’8”, and according to current prison info, weight around 200 pounds each. Just from height alone, the two had a large advantage over her.

When Carly went missing, her family placed numerous ads in the papers asking for help in trying to find her. It wasn’t until the end of March, 1998, two months after her disappearance, that her body was identified. It turned out that her remains were burned, as her murderers had tried to destroy evidence. Around this point, Desnoyers left the state of New Mexico and fled to San Diego, California, though he was eventually caught and extradited back to New Mexico. 

Both Avalos and Desnoyers tried to deny responsibility, and blame the other for killing Carly. From the way it read in news articles though, it appeared that Desnoyers was more the mastermind behind the murder, though Avalos still participated and helped. Both families for the defendants tried to claim that their children were innocent. 

Thankfully, both were found guilty and sent to prison for life. It seems that not long after being sent to prison, is when Desnoyers started the process in creating this band, with other inmates, of which one of the other members was also a convicted murderer, in for life. I just want to point out, that Avalos is not in this band. 

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I found that the talent used on this album, was such a waste. The guitars, the drums, the bass, were all good. If things were different, and these people came together on the outside, they could have been a pretty good band. But the darkness on this album permeates through each song. It’s hard not to feel the true Evil, and dark energy which created this. 

I am unsure of what the musical influences were for Desnoyers and the people involved, though I felt like early Cannibal Corpse (Barnes era), may have been a major influence. I could also hear, instrumentally, similarities between other bands like Ripping Corpse. 

Any enjoyment that I could have had with this album, was squashed, mostly due to the lyrics. 

For the first time in my life, I was disgusted by the lyrics to any band. Never before, have I ever  been genuinely shocked by what someone has written for their music. Typically, Metal lyrics are dark, edgy, and shocking to those that don’t understand the genre. But even the more risque, gorey, or sinister lyrics, do not compare to what is on this album. 

I know that this might only promote the band even further, but I feel like it has to be said. At the end of the day, I know that people are going to do what they want to, no matter what. But it’s very clear to me, that the lyrics on this album are serious. Especially, when you consider that every person involved here, is a convicted felon, two of which, are murderers. 

If this was any other band, certain songs could have been taken as simply Anti-Christian, anti-religious, and a general disdain for society. This isn’t out of the ordinary for Metal bands. Many bands write about their dislike for societal norms, their dislike of religion, and rebelling in general. Deicide is a great example of Anti-Religious lyrics. Cannibal Corpse is another example of shocking, horror movie type lyrics. Burn The Priest, early Lamb of God, is another example of Anti-Christian music. 

Even if we were to look at bands that were commonly talked about during the Satanic Panic, Slayer, Megadeth, Iron Maiden, these bands had lyrics that were commonly considered “bad” by people who knew next to nothing about Metal. Yet, there’s a difference here, between all of the bands mentioned, and Discharge by Death.

The obvious being, that DBD consists of convicted murderers; and the person who wrote the lyrics, actually did some of the things he wrote about in his lyrics. That is so disgusting to me. To me, this is like Desnoyers’ way of gloating about his crime, and passing it off as a way to “release creative tension”. 

Before the song “Butcher Jesus”, there is a recorded quote from someone, I assume Tex Watson, saying, “I am the Devil and I am here to do the Devil's work”. I don’t know where the recording comes from exactly, it didn’t appear in the 1976 movie “Helter Skelter”, or in any of the other Manson movies I’ve seen so far. I do find it strange how they used a quote from another murderer in their own music. 

I cannot repeat the lyrics to the song “Fetal Snatch Thief”. It’s absolutely horrible. This is clearly not “theater”. It’s a disgusting fantasy fetish by a disgusting being. The song starts off with a recording, whose origin I don’t know. But someone is asked, “What would be your intention if you were forced to live in prison?” They reply, “Do everything I can to escape, and if necessary kill prison guards on the way out, and I'll go right back to doing what I did before as soon as I hit the streets.” The first person asks, “Which is what?”. And the second person says, “Kill”. To which “Kill” is then repeated, and the song starts. 

It’s strange to me that the album was allowed to be created at all, and I wonder if it was under the guise that it would help release tension and anger for the inmates. The are prisons that allow their inmates to create music, use instruments, paint, and more, though you don’t typically see stuff in the realm of this. Typically, inmates are not allowed to make money off of their creative endeavors. That’s one of the reasons why Charles Manson’s album “Lie” had all profits go towards Voytek Frykowski’s son, for example. My question with this album is, “Where is the money going?”. Who receives the money that is made from this album? Yes, you can buy it digitally online. You can listen to it on youtube and spotify. But the person who benefits from this is not clear. Do the families of any of the victims even know that this album exists?

I know that there are people who will likely enjoy this album no matter what. There are some people who are just like that. Just like how there are people who collect John Wayne Gacy’s art, people that marry serial killers, and people that will forgive and even try to have friendships with the murderer that killed their family members, there will always be a group of people that seem to support what feels unforgivable. 

Personally, this album is not for me. 

[Sources]

https://www.metal-archives.com/albums/Discharge_by_Death/Discharge_by_Death/292398

https://www.metal-archives.com/artists/Jason_Desnoyers/212099

https://open.spotify.com/album/1lKraPlzhxgQXojKT5R0TK

https://bruteprods.bandcamp.com/album/d-b-d

https://youtu.be/P5TpwNqY9UM?si=LUppY80AgT0iDz0J

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/214721424/carly-raquel-martinez

RITUAL KILLER EXTERMINANCE Review

 RITUAL KILLER EXTERMINANCE 2015

“Exterminance” is the second album released by Black Metal band Ritual Killer, which were based out of New Orleans, Louisiana. The album was released on September 18th, 2015, on the Season of Mist label. This album is available for purchase, digitally, on the band’s bandcamp, where you can still buy shirts from too. 

The album is a lot more polished and studio sounding from their first release, which in many ways, was more like a demo. I don’t know where the band members went to record this album at. For this release, the band had Jordan Barlow on vocals, Sammy Duet on guitar, Zak Nolan on drums, and James Harvey on Bass. Jordan also made the album art, which I find to be great, of course. Jordan Barlow is a true artist to me, creating beautiful pieces of literature, art, and music. He is also a tattoo artist, and has done great work which you can look through on his instagram pages. 

Truly, I don’t know why the album was called “Exterminance”, though I imagine it might have to do with something mentioned in the bible. Considering that this is a Black Metal band, it wouldn’t be surprising if this was the case. 

In the Catholic version of the bible, the Douay-Rheims version, “Exterminans” is mentioned in the section “Apocalypse”, or what is commonly known as “Revelation” in the protestant versions. The verse stems from Apocalypse 9:10-11 and goes:

“And they had tails like to scorpions: and there were stings in their
tails. And their power was to hurt men, five months. And they had over
them [10] A king, the angel of the bottomless pit (whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon and in Greek Apollyon, in Latin Exterminans). [11]”.

While Jordan Barlow’s lyrics to this album aren’t available anywhere, I do think there are some mystical and esoteric themes to the songs, even if you can’t make out every word said. There are a lot of esoteric themes to Jordan’s art too, as seen on the album art to this album, and others that he’s worked on. For the art to “Exterminance”, you can see some symbols that are beautifully linked together. I feel like the art can be interpreted in many ways, especially once you start to read into the meaning of these symbols, but one that sticks out to me the most is what looks like the symbol for “Saturn”, near the far end of the picture. What I focus the most on the art, is the man whose hand is not far from his head. It’s like he’s telling the viewer, that using his mind over matter, will help him achieve anything. And I think that that’s true. On the other hand, I also think that there also seems to be a penis hidden in the art, though I don’t know if that’s intentional. 

The album itself isn’t very long, it’s only 27 minutes and 40 seconds. Not even 30 minutes. But I’ve found that I really enjoy it! 

1.] Bury The Earth, Bury The Sky: The intro song to the album, we are greeted by some type of verse or text that appears to be reversed. I don’t know what is being said exactly, but it already sets the mood of what’s to come. There’s one part that almost sounds like Jordan, or who I assume to be Jordan, saying “Manifest the Earth”. I wonder if that was intentional, and it reminds me of what is going on in the album art. Two colors that come to mind are “black” and “white”; the absence of everything, while also only being allowed to see certain things. I love Sam’s opening riff to the song, which is like a bat out of hell ready to attack, which only seems to be complimented by his vocals. I truly enjoy how punky and evil this song sounds, and it’s a fantastic opening to the album, while also being great to listen to on its own. The duet between Sam and Jordan is really great, I truly believe they have a chemistry which works great together on every song. 

2.] As The Vulture Feeds: The song starts off almost “piggybacking” in a way, from the first one. This isn’t a bad thing, it’s more like a continuation of the first song. I love how as it goes on, Sam plays his guitar like its a sea shanty song. The 2nd half speeds up, and the drummer, Zak, does this thing that I call “traveling”. This song has an evil bend to it, as heard near the end. I absolutely love how Sam plays his strings, and his style on this album in general. In many ways, I feel like Ritual Killer was the natural continuation of Sam’s talent and career. It’s clear, that with songs like these, it comes from the heart. I think that Zak Nolan is an underrated drummer, which for Black Metal, is good thing, right?

3.] Through Feral Eyes: By far, the shortest and fastest song on the album, it’s not even 2 minutes! Ironically, it’s my favorite off of this whole album! I love, love, love, the way Sammy bends his guitar strings, and his guitar solo in this song is pretty insane, considering how short the song is. James Harvey really shines on this song, his bass having this groove which cradles back and forth. He played like how waves will crash at the beach, or how a woman’s hips sashay back and forth. I like how Sammy pulled back a bit on this song, to showcase James, in a way. This song shows great harmony and unification between the band members. It’s clear they were all on the same page. It seems like they all had fun when making this song, and it shows. Even though it’s heavy and evil, it’s got this fun, punky, even silly sound to it. I don’t know what the lyrics to the song are, but I’ve found the part that sounds like “Bee-bop-boop-bop-bop-bay” to be silly and cute. I think that Sammy’s punk influences really show off here. It’s such a great song! :)

4.] Dogs, Wolves, and Carrion Fowl: This song goes for a more “blunt force” type approach in the beginning of the song. It has this “Rain Storm”, in the middle of the ocean type sound to it. I imagined a boat being ruthlessly pulled by the heavy tide. Sam starts doing those bends again, which reminds me of what he would do in Crowbar, especially on the album “Sonic Excess”. You would also hear some of these bends on the Goatwhore album “A Haunting Curse”, especially on the song “Silence Marked By The Breaking of Bone”, which is one of my favorites by them. I don’t know why Sam didn’t do these bends more with Goatwhore, but I suppose that might not have been part of that band’s vision. Even still, I think that this song is great showcase of his talent, that you wouldn’t hear in other bands. 

5.] Cuntius: When looking this song up on the metal archives, it has two “u’s” for some reason. Surely just a keyboard error. The first time I ever heard this song, I was startled by the woman screaming “No” at the start. I’ve since gotten used to it, though I wonder where the scream comes from. I assume it’s from some sort of horror movie, though I have yet to watch it, if so. The song has this slow build up, especially with Jordan’s voice, then goes into this short segment of riffs that nearly sound like a dog barking. I actually enjoy this, and it makes for a fun ending, that’s brutal and high energy.

6.] Pale Corpse Incantations: This song sounds very evil at times, nearly like Jordan Barlow is summoning something. I love the duet again with Jordan and Sammy, where the rhythm is like “1-2 and 1-2-3! 1-2 and 1-2-3!”. I don’t know what they’re saying, but’s once again very fun and punky. The song will build up, then slow down, like the lava in a volcano rising higher and higher, before finally erupting. 

7.] Crippling Beast: A song that starts out on a mission, it was like the beginning of a quest to an epic journey. I likely thought this because Zak does his “traveling” thing again, which I envision as the soundtrack to such journey. I feel like Zak takes more of a lead in this song, which is really nice for a change. Though I’d consider Sammy the “band leader” in Jazz terms, the others seem to play more in unison with Zak’s style on this song. 

8.] Passing of Creation: The final song on the album, I think this was a perfect closer for the release. It has that sound like as if they’re conjuring something, while keeping that fast rhythm going. I love the outro, it’s very groovy, and reminds me of “sashaying” again. I found this song to be very fun, and high energy! 

Overall, I really enjoyed this album, and found it to be a surprise favorite of mine. I know that it’s been 11 years since Ritual Killer ever released anything else, and they’ve split up since, but I think that if the opportunity were to arise, they could, and should, make music again. I really believe that this album is a great example of Black Metal, that doesn’t fall into the stereotype of being “grim, kvlt, and frostbitten”. Many people seem to think that Black Metal has to sound like Mayhem’s “De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas”, and if you aren’t creating a “Freezing Moon” knockoff, then you should just stop altogether. 

To me, you can hear the vast influences that conglomerate between all the members. That Celtic Frost influence. The Plasmastics influence. Even the inspiration from various Horror movies they watch. If you know what influenced these people, you can definitely hear it in their music, and I think they did a really good job with that. 

In the years since this album came out, James Harvey has since passed away. I am grateful for the music that he gave us while he was still on this Earth. I think that this album was a great example of his talents. If you listen to Ritual Killer’s first album, then listen to this one, you can hear the difference and level of expertise that James Harvey brought to the music. In many ways, he changed the game. 

Honestly, overall, I give this album a 5/5. It’s just that good to me. If you like Black Metal, I think that this is worth checking out. I think this is more in the realm of people who enjoy bands like Celtic Frost, Triptykon, Behemoth, and the first Goatwhore album. 


https://www.metal-archives.com/albums/Ritual_Killer/Exterminance/524085


My video: https://youtu.be/mbai-AVTPrU

WHICH VERSION OF “PROCREATION OF THE WICKED” IS THE BEST?

 WHICH VERSION OF “PROCREATION OF THE WICKED” IS THE BEST?

Sepultura [Roots Era]: Slower, fatter, heavier, sludgy and more underground sounding. Max Cavalera has the best vocals for a cover like this. The song sounds like it belongs in a smelly basement. This cover was something I’d imagine Suicide and Trash from “Return of The Living Dead” listening to . I wish this cover was more evil, and heavier. 4/5.

Noothgrush [Live For Nothing]: A lower quality sounding cover, but it brings the heavy. I think that it’s great in its own way, being slow and heavy, with Death Metal elements, instead of the original’s black metal sound. The quality of the vocals isn’t that great, but I did enjoy the cover. 3/5.

[Uncovered Failures] An okay cover, slow and heavy in that Doom/Death Metal way. Kind of a mixture of stoner metal, and what I imagine to be an orc singing on the mic. I prefer the “Live For Nothing” version better, strangely. 2/5.

A Band Of Orcs [Warchiefs of The Apocalypse]: It has this early 2000’s metal sound, especially vocally. Kind of fun and silly. Definitely heavy, very likely something Shrek would listen to. Not bad, could just be a little more evil. I imagine a group of orce would hang out and BBQ, drinking beer and listen to this song. Sort of like an orc BBW evil lair song. 3.5/5.

Nightsurf: I came across this band on youtube, and I was pleasantly surprised. I think that this cover is great. It’s heavy, evil, a little silly, and stays true to the original. It’s a shame that the channel/band doesn’t seem to do much anymore, because I found this to be a fantastic voer, and would totally listen to an LP or EP if they had one. 5/5.

Order [Lex Amentiae]: A slow and heavy cover, I give it credit for being high quality. I think it’s good, and has an element of evilness to it, though I wouldn’t find myself listening to this version of the song leisurely. It reminds me more of something you’d hear in the background of a horror movie. 3.5/5

Enslaved [In Memory of Celtic Frost]: TBH, not the biggest fan of this cover. I takes the slow pace of the original, and somehow makes the song boring. I listened to the song on Spotify, so I’m not sure if it might have something to do with the quality, but, the vocals were hard to hear. I find that this cover isn’t very evil, and yet somehow doesn’t add anything from the band either. 1.99/5.

Afterblood: I came across the cover on youtube, and found it to be okay. While I sort of like the vocals, I found that they fall into that same caveat many female vocalists fall into, where they have this “cookie monster” voice, as opposed to something more authentic. It’s strange to me, as Tom G. Warrior’s voice in the original is more “clean”, if you want to call it that way. In my opinion, a female vocalist would have more opportunities to play with Warrior’s singing style, and this is something that you even hear in Triptykon’s music. I don’t know if Afterblood is still around anymore, they haven’t uploaded to their youtube channel in over 5 years. The instrumentation is boring also. 2/5.

Ultra-violence: [2011] Another cool cover from the band, which I did like. In comparison to their “Circle of The Tyrants” cover, I prefer the Tyrants cover. The instrumentation to here is good, but I feel like there is  something missing from the original. The cover just isn’t as groovy. 2/5.

[2017] Another cover, that I found to be better, and more true to the original. The pulls and bends from the original are heard here, which I find to be essential to this song. I really like this cover, and found it to be fun to listen to. 3.5/5

Mortician [House By The Cemetery]: By far one of the most heavy covers, and fits the band’s slow and heavy style. I’m not the biggest fan of the vocals, as the singer sounds like he has heartburn. 2/5

Southern Terror [2021 Demo]: A very heavy and slow cover, with a high quality sound. The vocals are very guttural, and remind me of a more sophisticated way/sound of the Mortician cover. I don’t have much else to say, other than it’s a good cover. 3/5.

My video: https://youtu.be/znV8u1unm_k

Links:

Original: https://youtu.be/hjuVI6xkNAI?si=4CfRD2_jCrLqNhqo

Sepultura: https://youtu.be/6LlR-LLIbqo?si=_HpIudVSC9Oka7hS

Enslaved: https://youtu.be/2A2cAZfIv_A?si=s5mKBNtLfmckYN2V

Afterblood: https://youtu.be/temEDDzVdH8?si=wDUEr3-ErW9CxFST

Ultra-Violence: https://youtu.be/foK0pIQ_qYU?si=_4chT1hwxj5a6Sc_

https://youtu.be/Y7qSVQ8xN9w?si=acB4TYSFtFv4emw-

NightSurf: https://youtu.be/CxSsgWUcTK0?si=VfsYgqcA8dkZvOHQ

Order: https://youtu.be/EuEda0koz8U?si=lzsbcVdE349S-OWl

Mortician: https://youtu.be/3ljM1Ztfynw?si=hkW1juiwkPx2x-Kw 

Southern Terror: https://youtu.be/ty5QetjScNY?si=jcflwfcQiq5Ot3Dq

House of Manson 2014 Review

 House of Manson 2014

 

“House of Manson” is a film that came out in 2014, and is supposed to be some sort of biographical film about Charles Manson, and the Tate-LaBianca murders. 

There are so many things wrong with this film, it’s almost hard knowing where to start. As strange as it might seem, one of my biggest gripes about the film is that they didn’t bother to cast anyone to play The Manson Family members, that even looked remotely like their real life counter-parts. The only exception would be the actress who played Susan Atkins. Of course, there is so much emphasis on Charles Manson,  that yes, the actor who played him looked quite similar to the real Charlie. 

It was frustrating seeing the murder scenes in the film, and knowing that the actresses who were supposed to be Patricia Krenwinkel, Linda Kasabian, and Leslie Van Houten, looked not even remotely like the real versions. This is also true for the actor who was supposed to be Tex Watson. For whatever reason, they cast a dude that looked like a Jeremy Renner knock off, and didn’t even bother have him grow out his hair. When Tex was with the Manson family, he was quite shaggy. Other characters that looked nothing like their real life counterparts were Squeaky Fromme, Ronald Hughes, Jay Sebring, Steven Parent, Sharon Tate, and Leno LaBianca. Nearly the whole cast were playing characters that were unrecognizable from real life.

The movie was hard to watch, not because it was supposed to be talking about real life events, but because it was executed so badly. The interrogation scene at the end with Susan Atkins was terrible, where apparently a female detective was questioning Susan. This is odd, because I don’t recall a person like that in real life, and this actress’ acting was over the top and embarrassing. 

There are scenes near the end where Charlie is being questioned by a lawyer who is supposed to be Ronald Hughes. For some reason, the writers to this film made Ronald Hughes out to be some long time lawyer that had seen other cases. This is not true. In fact, Hughes did end up representing Manson for a small bit of time before going on to represent Leslie Van Houten. Hughes’ first trial ever was the Tate-LaBianca trial, of which he mysteriously died before it ended. 

The creators to this movie don’t point this out, yet had the audacity to mention at the end of the film that Leslie Van Houten was granted a retrial in 1977 “on the grounds that her original counsel had not adequately represented her”. Yet, they don’t mention that the counsel was Ronald Hughes! Of course not, because then they’d have to admit that they made up shit for this film.  They mention some of the things that happened to various members after the trials, even mentioning how Leslie Van Houten was paroled in 2023, so obviously there was an update at some point to this film. What was odd to me, was how they didn’t point out that Charlie himself died in 2017. Instead, they just said how he skipped his 2011 parole hearing, spent most of his life behind bars, and Helter Skelter never came. 

The movie puts a lot of emphasis on the murders happening none other for the sole reason than Charlie being duped/lied/cheated by Terry Melcher. This is among one of the many theories as to why the murders happened, even in Bugliosi’s book. But Bugliosi first of all has no appearance or character in this film, strangely; and his book of course puts more emphasis on ‘Helter Skelter’, the race war theory. It was odd to me that this movie was obviously supposed to be a ‘fuck you’ to Charles Manson, while not even representing the people, various theories that explained the crime, while also using some of the real facts that can be read in many of the books. 

It was clear the the writers to this movie had read multiple pieces of Manson based literature. They seemed to have read “Will You Die For Me” by Tex Watson for sure, as the line itself is repeated through the film. The creators made it seem like The Manson Family went out to kill because they were brainwashed into obeying the every word from Charlie. The end scene where Ronald Hughes yells at Charlie that “those kids believed your every word and were deceived by you” seems to prove that. This bothers me greatly, as the film seems to act like Tex Watson, Patricia Krenwinkel, Susan Atkins, Leslie Van Houten, and even Linda Kasabian, weren’t culpable for their participation in the crimes. They paint this picture that it was only ever Charlie’s fault. A common theme repeated by the convicted in the decades since. 

As much as the film follows the basic timeline of events, it also just makes up stuff too. For example, when they show Gary Hinman being murdered, Charlie is seen taking a katana off the wall to slice Gary. This isn’t how it happened in real life; Charlie was driven to The Spiral Staircase by Bruce Davis, already having the sword with him. On top of that, they strangely point out that Gary was being murdered for giving Bobby Beausoleil bad drugs, which is something that has been disputed in the decades since his murder. Sometimes, Gary is made out to have never sold drugs, other times, he did, and sold a bad batch to Bobby. At the same time, it’s also shown that The Manson Family took Gary’s cars, and even pointed out that Bobby was arrested, caught driving Gary’s Fiat. This is true. It’s strange how they would get certain details like right, while also managing to pronounce Bobby Beausoleil’s name wrong. 

Strange attention to detail, while ignoring others is a common theme in this film. Another example would be when Abigail Folger was being murdered. Here, they only show Patricia killing her, without any help from Tex. In real life, Patricia ended up calling over to Tex for help, and he apparently gave some of the final blows to Abigail. The movie doesn’t show this, but they do put in the effort to have had the actress who was playing her wear a white dress (which Abigail was wearing in real life), and she does say “I’m already dead.”. 

Then strangely, the movie shows the actress who was supposed to be Sharon Tate, wearing full makeup for some reason. There is an awkward scene where she is seen in the bed talking to Jay Sebring’s character, who is made out to be some sort of loser still in love with her. The film obviously ignored the fact that Roman Polanski wasn’t the best husband to Sharon Tate, and Jay was there obviously protecting her, while Roman was overseas still. The movie ignores Jay’s final words though, where he said, “Can’t you see she’s pregnant?”. Instead, he is later seen being shot. The film seems to only show people being shot or stabbed, not both. I don’t recall them showing Susan stabbing Voytek in the legs, and I know they didn’t show Steven Parent being stabbed either. They strangely show Voytek being hit in the head with the gun by Tex Watson though, for some reason. I don’t understand why they included some details, yet excluded others, while making up other things entirely. 

On top of that, they couldn’t pronounce Voytek’s name properly, much like they were unable to with Bobby Beausoleil. 

I give credit to the actor that played Manson, because it seemed like he really listened to Charlie’s album “Lie”. The cadence he spoke seems to be a pretty good imitation of Charlie’s voice on the record, as you can hear the real Charlie speak inbetween songs, and the digital version has extra tracks such as an interview. Even through this pretty good portrayal of Charlie, I think that much of the dialogue sucked. They made Charlie seem like a cuck that didn’t get a record deal, while completely ignoring various other parts to the real story. The movie does not mention The Straight Satans, Danny DeCarlo, how Terry Melcher, Gregg Jakobson, and Dennis Wilson would sleep with many of Charlie’s women, including the minors, or anything about Harold True. 

Simply put, the whole story isn’t depicted here. And truthfully, telling the entire story is impossible for a movie; but it appears that the director wanted to do that? In my opinion, it would take a TV show to depict the various aspects as to what led The Manson Family to being created, and the eventual points that led to the Tate-LaBianca murders. A movie that is a little short of 2 hours isn’t enough time. 

In my opinion, I think that the movie would have benefited from focusing more on the 2 years before the murders, instead of trying to make a bio pic of Manson’s early life. In context with the rest of the film, showing small bits of Charlie’s childhood did little for the movie, other than pad out the time. Not much of the interesting points about Charlie’s childhood were talked about, and in fact, one of the reform schools was made to look more like an expensive academy! 

Overall, I can’t recommend this film to anyone. I gave it half a star on letterboxd, the lowest you can rate a film. It’s not even worth watching to the people who are deep in the Manson rabbit hole. It’s a waste of time. 




My video: https://youtu.be/ihb82RIvQ54

Megadeth 2026 Review

 MEGADETH 2026

 

“Megadeth” is supposed to be Megadeth’s final album, which was released on January 23rd, 2026. I hadn’t paid much attention to Megadeth in a while, as I really disliked their 2022 release. I didn’t have high hopes for this final album, when I heard that it was coming out. 

Upon listening to “Megadeth”, the album, I realized early on that my expectations were right to be low. While not technically bad, the instrumental parts to the album aren’t bad, they’re completely boring and uninteresting. It’s so glaringly obvious that this album is just “The Dave Mustaine Project”, and no-one has any say in the music but Dave. The originality is low, and the entire album sounds formulaic. It’s clear that very little of this, if anything, comes from the heart. This album just sounds like another paycheck.

The lyrics are laughably bad, and are reminiscent of poetry written by a middle schooler. For example, that beginning lyrics to the song “Another Bad Day” are:

Woke up on the floor again
No idea just where I've been
My phone is dead, and the rent is due
I lost my job, and I lost a tooth 

Ironically, this song is one of the few that are musically more interesting than the rest. 

I wonder who this album is made for. Who is the intended audience? The way the lyrics read, I assume that this final Megadeth album is to appeal to middle schoolers that are just learning to rebel at the dentist office. 

It feels like Mustaine long ran out of ideas on what to write, but refused to allow any fresh ideas to come in, so he decided to rip off some of his old ideas. The song “Made To Kill” is lyrically in theme to something you’d hear on “The System Has Failed” or “Dystopia”, but is watered down. It’s almost like as if Dave Mustaine became afraid of offending anybody. 

“Obey The Call” is mildly interesting instrumentally, but quickly becomes boring and forgetful background music. “I Am War”? More like, “I Am Bored”. 

The album ends with a cover of “Ride The Lightning” by Metallica. This was hard to listen to, because Dave Mustaine somehow made a Thrash Metal song into a Hard Rock one. I felt like Mustaine’s voice was going out during the recording. It sounded pretty bad. I wondered if this was truly the best vocals he could do. It was almost embarrassing listening to this cover, the original is so much better. For the album to end this way feels lackluster. After the song, the album just…ends. 

Even though it’s over 40 minutes long, I found myself thinking, “That’s it?”. It seems like a disappointing way to end an over 40 year long career. 

I guess time will tell if this will truly be Megadeth’s last album. There have been other albums in the past that were supposed to their last album. If “Megadeth” really is the last one, then I suppose that Dave Mustaine will truly be dancing for the crowd in a puppet parade.

If I were to give this album a letter grade, it would be a D. 

 

Video: https://youtu.be/hGj9kQX2z5M 

Torture Killer "Swarm!" review

 TORTURE KILLER SWARM!

I want to thank Oni64 for recommending this album to me!

Torture Killer is a band from Finland. Not to be mistaken for the Louisiana band Ritual Killer. Torture Killer seems to be named after the Six Feet Under song of the name name. They released their second album, “Swarm!” on February 20th, 2006. 

I will say, from the beginning, I was shocked. I didn’t expect this album to be this good. Yes, you hear Chris Barnes as he went towards his more zombified sound that was popularized with Six Feet Under, but there are parts where he does some gutturals like that you’d hear from his Cannibal Corpse days. In many ways, I feel like this album is what Six Feet Under was supposed  to sound like. A band that is musically, so great and talented, that you can forgive any silliness that may arise from Chris Barnes’ antics. I guess that I shouldn’t have been surprised though, as the band itself is from Finland, as stated before. Some really great Death Metal bands have come from the area, Demigod and Rippikoulu were two that immediately came to mind. I will say though, that those two bands don’t sound like Torture Killer. 

On the metal archives, it states that Chris Barnes wrote the lyrics for songs 2-4, 6, and 8; while Jari Laine did the songwriting for virtually all of the songs except #8. This track is the titled, “I Killed You”, and it appears to have been solely written by Chris, at least, lyric wise from what I understand. 

This seems to be the band’s only release on Metal Blade, I suppose that this is likely because of Chris Barnes’ appearance on the album. 

On the Metal Blade website it says: 

Chris Barnes contacted Torture Killer last October (2004) with a very supportive and friendly note. The name Torture Killer caught his attention and he was intrigued enough to check the band out. This is when Barnes found out about the difficult situation they were at with the line up and offered to step in as the new Torture Killer vocalist and that he would handle the vocals on Swarm! – The renamed 2nd album. Here’s what he has to say about it:

“I’m very happy to announce that I have joined the band Torture Killer full time. These guys are some of the best musicians I have ever been involved with, and I am 100% intent on using all my resources and energy to help propel this band to the top of the death metal food chain. I am extremely pleased with the songs we’ve put together for the CD ‘Swarm!’, and I can’t wait to get out on tour with the band and kill every one of you sick fuckers!!! See you soon.” – Barnes

With a back catalogue including death metal classics such as Butchered at Birth, Tomb of the Mutilated, Haunted and Maximum Violence it is obvious that the eyes of death metal fans will be on Torture Killer – in good and bad.

The basic tracks for Swarm! were recorded back in January 2005, Chris did his vocals at The Hit Factory, Florida in May/June with Chris Carroll and the album was mixed and mastered by Chris and Erik Rutan in October. Cover artwork was done by infamous artist Wes Benscoter (who has done covers for such bands as Mortician, Cattle Decapitation, and Vehemence) who gave the album the visual impact it needed. “

[ https://www.metalblade.com/us/artists/torture-killer/ ]


There doesn’t seem to be any info about what eventually caused Torture Killer to leave Metal Blade, and even though the label’s website still has a page on Torture Killer, when you click on the link to buy the album, it leads to a 404 on the metal blade website. Even though the band has a bandcamp, this album is not on it. So…it seems that this album is not available for purchase, anywhere officially. Nor can you legally download it anywhere, which is a real shame, because this is an album I would actually buy! HEY METAL BLADE, LET US BUY THIS!!    !

Swarm! - The album starts off with the eponymous track, an amazing show of talent from the band. Barnes just simply states “Swarm”, which is probably the easiest lyric in his entire career. The guitars are so good in this, the tingling thing they do reminds me of a literal hornet. A yellow jacket maybe? This was a great way to introduce an album. 

Forever Dead - The first song that consists of Barnes’ full vocals. He does that Six Feet Under zombie thing, where I can see how some people might be turned off by it; but, I can forgive this, because the band is so damn good. There is the interesting lyric, “No escape from this fate”, which I’m sure is a nod towards the Cannibal Corpse song “Fucked With A Knife” from the album “The Bleeding”. In that song, Chris wrote “No escape from your fate, destined to be mine”. I think it makes sense that he’d do this, considering that “The Bleeding” had came out only a little over a decade before this. There’s a part in the song, where Chris does those deep gutturals also similar to his Cannibal Corpse days, which proves to me that he had the capability to do it still. For the most part though, you hear Barnes’ hollow zombie voice though. 

A Funeral For The Masses - The song starts out with a really awesome and heavy guitar riff, like they were on a mission. I wasn’t a fan of Chris’ vocals on this too much, as his hollowed out voice didn’t seem heavy enough for the band’s instrumentation. I feel like Chris should have been more guttural, opposed to what I suppose you’d call the “decayed” voice he had. At times, it’d almost seem like his voice would “crack” or something. Other times, he’d nearly hit the nail on the head with the lyrics. Overall, I like the song a lot though.

Multiple Counts of Murder - The song immediately starts off, fast and the drums do what I like to call “Traveling”. It feels like they’re a moving set of wheels, on the go. The drums and guitars flow effortlessly, you can tell that the band was really unified together. The solo is really good, and almost prog-like. It’s a bit reminiscent of it’s time period, 2006, but not outdated. It reminds me of some of the better music of that time. I’ll be honest though, as much as I like the band on this track, I don’t really care for Barnes’ vocals on this so much. I would have preferred for the harder, deeper, more guttural sounds from him, once again. I do like how he ends the song though, like a horror movie killer getting ready to kill again, in the sequel of a movie. 

Obsessed With Homicide - I liked how this song starts out, and I felt like Chris’ vocals did well on this one, fitting in with the band rather naturally. I do wish that when Chris chanted “kill” multiple times, that he did it more in time. He seemed a little off from the band when he did this. I know that he recorded his vocals separately from the band, who recorded in Finland, but I still don’t understand why the post production didn’t time this together correctly. Even still, I actually like this song!

Sadistic - Definitely one of the more “sick” songs Chris has written lyrically, and akin to what you’d see on his older albums such as “Tomb of The Mutilated”. The lyrics to this song, and majority of the album really, are very much like a horror movie. I feel like that’s Chris’ writing style in general, where he emulates the Horror movies that he watches. This song’s lyrics remind me of something from the “Texas Chainsaw Massacre”, the 2003 remake. I like the band’s playing on this song more than I enjoyed Chris’s vocals, though, he closes out the song well, in my opinion. 


Cannibal Gluttony - Another song that starts out immediately, and I love it. The guitars are like a swarm, if you will. A cloud of hornets that would engulf someone and sting them to death. Now that I think about it, I don’t know why none of the lyrics to any of the songs ever included this. It would have been pretty cool and Super Metal to have Death Metal song about killer bees or something. 

What I really enjoyed about this song, was how the band “wrapped around” from beginning to end with their riffs. It’s like they were really drilling the point in. Driller killer?

I Killed You - Chris’ vocals are okay here, he sounds a little too zombified for me in the beginning. I think that this song would have benefited from Chris’ deep gutturals, though he sort of achieves that a little bit here. The band has more time to do their thing in this song, and I appreciate the moments where we can just hear them play. Sometimes, it sounds like Chris Barnes has a sock shoved down his throat, and I’m curious how he even achieved that type of sound. The band sounds bad ass though. 

Heading Towards The Butchery - Another great song that starts off bad ass. The band is on point, and just really jams. Chris’ vocals sound more hollowed out by this point on the album, a little too tired. He has parts where he’d be in time with the band though, so it’s interesting how sometimes he’d be off, and others he’d be right on point. I can ignore his vocals though, for the rest of the band’s impressive playing.

A Violent Scene of Death - The final song on the album, and a really bad ass way to end it too. It really grooves, and to me, I feel like Chris must have really enjoyed the music too, as he was a lot more in time in this track than some of the others. He sometimes does those gutturals like you’d hear on the “The Bleeding”, which I love. He’ll still have that hollowed out sound, but once again, I can forgive it, because of how good the band is. And I know that I keep saying that, but this band is really good! I feel like everyone must have had fun while playing this song, because it’s so high energy! The way it ends, it makes me want more!

Overall, I really enjoyed this album. I wish that we could buy it online somewhere! There are parts to Chris’ vocals that I don’t really like, but, I feel like the rest of the band’s talent is so good, that you can easily ignore him. Much like how people can’t stand Dave Mustaine’s vocals in Megadeth, I feel like the overwhelming majority of this band makes this album worth listening to. Listening to more of Torture Killer’s discography on Spotify, they seem to be a talented set of people. 

Video: https://youtu.be/aCDa4lpij70