The MacGuffin

Executive Koala is a really bad Japanese film about a Koala (or a guy in a koala suit) that works at a large company. Koala boy puts in crazy hours for his boss (who is a rabbit – that coincidentally sounds like a Japanese Bugs Bunny). Apparently, the Japanese love their furries.

Evilspeak: A Carrie rip-off complete with killer pigs, satanic computers, and Clint Howard. At least you can say it’s different. 4/10

The Wolf Man (1941): A gripping tragedy that is also the best of the classic Universal monster movies. 9/10

The Wolfman (2010): Great werewolf action is hurt by some questionable CGI and a story that moves at too fast a pace to fully develop. 8/10

The Entity (1981): A woman’s life unravels as she becomes the repeated rape victim of an angry ghost. Based on a true story! 8/10

Spencer and John interview cult horror director Frank Henenlotter, discuss some of the most disturbing film moments they have seen, and give their DVD Picks of the Week.

The Calamari Wrestler – As odd as this sounds, the Japanese actually made a film about a giant squid that wrestles people. The movie opens with a wrestler winning the championship belt in a title match in front of thousands of fans. Suddenly, the belt is snatched out of the champs hand by a giant squid, who proceeds to hand out an ass-whoopin’ to a handful of wrestlers, including the recently-crowned champ. Wow. I don’t think I ever imagined I would just write those words.

Kingdom of the Spiders: A tarantula migration causes mass chaos in a small Arizona town. Who will stop them? William Shatner of course. 8/10

Brain Damage: A boy wakes up with a little monster attached to his brain in this alternately harrowing and hilarious anti-drug parable. 8/10

A filmmaker from Southern Illinois University spent some time being a “big brother” to Stevie in the 80’s and feels guilty about not keeping in touch 10 years later. This is the story of him going back to visit Stevie and his family and get caught up. Stevie is kind of a slow nerdy racist redneck with big glasses. He lives with his grandmother because his mother allegedly beat him pretty good. There’s all kinds of threats of killing each other (mother and son) and now he’s living at grandma’s house.