Just Watched Movies (2014)

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Deep in the Darkness-After moving to a small town, a doctor and his family learn the truth about the series of sacrifices the townspeople do to appease the mysterious race of savages living in the area and must keep them safe after accidentally angering the creatures. This turned out to be quite the disappointing effort and really becomes a huge missed opportunity. The fact that there's just a huge and rather egregious amount of plot-holes in this is the biggest culprit really dooming this one, since that leaves so much about the film as a huge opportunity gone. Leaving the revelation about the move there of all places makes for a long period of time with no reason why the family has to stay there as the whole thing becomes quite frustrating as to why they're there to begin with, and the whole revelation seems forced once it's revealed. As well, there's next to nothing learned about the creatures, where they came from and why they hold this level of intimidation over the people there that allows them to both live in fear of them while never being able to do anything to stop the cycle of violence they leave, since it seems quite obvious that they're easily derailed and not that hard to stop, so his actions against them make the townspeople look all the weaker for being unable to do anything to them in all this time. Beyond the plot-holes, there's just a whole slew of messy filmmaking that really takes this one down a notch as the build-up with the concerned, secretive regulations and behavior of the townspeople toward the family doesn't provide any suspense but become rather infuriating with them due to how route and cliche they are towards them while not actually doing anything to levy the suspicions raised. It's a slew of different scenes that supposedly build to a creepy resolution by their desired-hidden motives but do nothing to deflect that once it's become obvious something is up, and the running around with the different townspeople trying to figure this out leaves so much wasted screentime that it really doesn't become creepy or suspenseful at all but rather annoyed. It does get some thing right, as the creatures themselves look amazingly creepy and quite chilling, perfectly appearing to be the kind of creatures that would instill that kind of fear in people. They're behavior and viciousness makes for a truly well-rounded villain and they're quite adept at being a horror-film creature. As well, once the whole thing's loose and the creatures are allowed to roam free, it's actually quite entertaining with a strong encounter at the house during an escape attempt and the finale in the caves is quite chilling, almost as much for the darkened location than the actions taking place within. It raises this up somewhat, but there's still a lot more wrong here that holds it back.

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Chastity Bites-When their school is invaded by a foreign woman, a student and her friend uncover the true meaning of her push for chastity in the local population when she turns out to be an immortal bloodsucker intending to use the students in a special, diabolic ceremony. This is actually quite a profound and problematic entry that seems to have a lot going for it both ways. One of the biggest issues against it is the fact that there's just no end to the rather lame comedy that runs through this, since it tends to think that the humor derives from the social about-face many of the women portray themselves to be, being in a club intended to push virginity and chasteness among the local kids but being the biggest sluts on campus when no one's looking, and that humor tends to get old very quickly since it's not a funny joke to begin with. That it thinks otherwise means that the large majority of time here is spent doing this without offering a lot of humor on other topics while the film's other topic of concern, how her rampant bloodlust is mistaken for the eccentricities of European society is nowhere near original or clever and makes them out to be even more clueless than they really need to be. It all makes for rather enjoyable teen-comedy tropes that work well with the influx of the burgeoning horror found in the true identity angle that slowly works its way into the later half, but that doesn't mean the rest of the time is all that enjoyable. It's only when it starts being a little more serious with the house raid to uncover the secret ceremony does it all work out in the end with a strong assault that includes numerous encounters with her protectors and the final battle itself, which does make for a rather enjoyable enough time even if there's a lot of problems with it.

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Crawlspace-Moving into a new house, a family's unusual encounters within the house are soon discovered to be the disgruntled former owner looking for revenge against the occupants and must try to survive his vicious attacks. This was a huge disappointment and really didn't have a whole lot here that's really enjoyable. The main thing hurting this movie is the fact that the main villain here is one of the weakest and lamest villains in horror-film history. The central premise of why he's haunting the family, being so grief-stricken over losing his house that he moves into the attic and lives there undetected for as long as he does here makes for a pretty lazy story, especially with the multitude of murders committed on the property before anyone realizes he's there. Then comes the fact that the film tries to make him some sympathetic hero with the reasoning for the family's loss of the house and what they did to his psyche is pure fluff and has no regard in the rest of the story when the seemingly sympathetic hero embarks on such a rampage as what occurs here when he finally starts dishing out the violence. Even before he starts off, the fact that the majority of the film is spent on areas outside the stalking and killing that really drags this one down, as there's so much going on with him observing the family but not actually doing anything that there's such a long time in this before it actually starts getting interesting. Simply watching them in the attic has a creepy feel at first but does little to hold the viewer's attention as it goes along since that's the only tactic employed here throughout the whole first hour, and the fact that he undertakes this while they have no idea of how long he's been doing things around them is so lazy and lame that it makes them look all the stupider for failing to realize what's going on. Even the few times it seems like he should be found out are written off like they're nothing, and that makes even less sense in keeping the ruse alive. All told, this makes the main villain uniformly weak and uninteresting in such a boring film. The only thing that really holds up here is the final half, which has some rather fun confrontations and stalking to go along with some pretty nasty and bloody kills, but otherwise there's little to like here.

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Bled-After coming into contact with a rare herb, an artist's continued usage of the plant causes her friends to try to stop her from unleashing a horrific vampire demon from a separate dimension before it's too late. This turned out to be quite an exciting and enjoyable effort. One of the biggest things about this is the fact that it overcomes an incredibly rocky start for a rather enjoyable outing, as the beginning of this one is incredibly rough-going. It's a seemingly endless series of pretentious blathering from the art-crowd about how their work is so advanced and above what people are comfortable with that they've managed to create, it really takes a while to get comfortable with what's going on with them. They're not that enjoyable to where it really shows off some incredibly entertaining pieces to get this one going, it stays back and lets these pretentious-sound morons continually blather on so that it finally manages to seem all the better by comparison once the film gets going. Indeed, as once the film gets going this is certainly rather fun with an endless series of hypnotic, erotic dream-like sequences while under the influence of the drug which creates a deep, haunting atmosphere which is quite fascinating and entertaining, not to mention chilling once it's found out that the dream-world is the property of the vampire demon. That switch is not handled in the best way possible, making it pretty confusing through the on-screen actions that's what happened, which in turn leads to the finale loosing some steam because it has to piece together a reasonable-enough conclusion but the action that happens is quite entertaining as the horrific creature being loosened among the friends is where it really scores quite well with some fantastic kills and bloody kills. The creature looks great as well and perfectly fits into the nightmarish world quite well, making for a pretty seemless transition between the two. It's a little flawed, sure, but again the areas where it works are quite a lot of fun and really generate a lot to get this one going.

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Added uncut copies of Seconds Apart and Prince of Darkness to the collection.

Nothing But the Night-When a strange series of deaths leads to a particular orphanage, a group of doctors realize the cause of the deaths is through a cult aimed at seeking revenge on the orphanage's board of directors and try to protect the children from the same fate. This one was a rather heavily-flawed and problematic crime/drama that masquerades as a horror film. The main issue with this one is the fact that this one wanders around for so long on plot-points that are simply not interesting due to the facts not being centered around horror. There's nearly the whole first half devoted to this seeming series of mysteries that aren't all too thrilling, being some absolutely banal police procedural sequences about the search for the girls' mother on the way to the island and how she's getting past the different stops along the way or the tepid romance between the doctor and the reporter that becomes tired to watch as the overblown manner in which they try to get them together really does take up so much time in the film that the whole first half is spent on these issues and makes for thoroughly uninteresting watching as it becomes quite challenging getting through this part of the film. By starting so troubling with these flaws in the story, there's little for this one to get excited over as the tone is so boring and useless that there's little hope of getting back in the good graces when it becomes more of a horror film in the later stages even though some of these areas do work pretty well. There's the revelatory sequence in the woods while the party's undergoing which culminates the whole mystery in a rather chilling manner. This is helped along by the fact that the central mystery, when it gets fully fleshed-out in these later scenes, is a truly chilling and creepy premise that does make for a rather darker arc to the action than otherwise given here and really allows the action some great moments. These elements together hold the film's only real value as they give off the potentially chilling plot to string events along while the action that comes in the final half feels quite enjoyable. Otherwise, there's not a lot to like here.

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Mardi Gras for the Devil-When a slew of bodies starts piling up on Mardi Gras, a detective realizes the killer's an immortal Satan-possessed madman who's targeting him and his loved ones during his spree and must find a way to stop him before it's too late. This turned out to be quite the enjoyable pseudo-slasher with a lot of great points. The main thing here is the fact that this one tends to have more of an Action film feel throughout, which is quite enjoyable since it provides a pace and tone early on that keeps this entertaining and enjoyable enough while featuring enough to keep it interesting. With a large section of time devoted to stopping his different rampages, including a chase through a slew of back-alleys and apartment buildings, a car chase through a deserted train-yard and a multi-car chase through the city streets to save another victim at the end, this has more than enough to stay interesting throughout with plenty of fine action scenes within even before getting into all the shootings and explosions that pop up within this. All-told, it makes for quite an exciting and enjoyable series of scenes before getting into the far-more-suspenseful than expected stalking scenes here as the immortality makes it quite obvious what's going to happen to the potential victims. That makes the sequences stand out a little more than usual because there's far more at stake than just a typical slasher villain and throws the sequences such as the assault on the voodoo queen or the encounter in the strip club into more suspenseful areas due to the rather creepy vibe that goes along with such a character interacting with someone unaware of that condition, and that both are among the film's highlights is a good sign of that. After that, though, this one does tend to fall off slightly with the fact that the film does tend to solve absolutely nothing about the killer. We get so little about his intent as well as his backstory, which makes the rampage far more confusing than anything due to the incessant and rather unnecessary lack of knowledge we get here since there's even a plot-point in the second half about the killer being in the area once before and how it relates to the situation at the time, but yet nothing is done with it and none of what's revealed there gets any closer to solving the mystery of what's going on. The finale comes off as an after-thought as well, being so ho-hum about it's resolution that there's not a lot to like about it, and the fact that there's just such a strong Action-film feel here that it does tend to supersede the Horror enough to make it feel a lot less creepy than it could've been since it does work when it tries at doing so. All told, this is a fine if slightly uneven effort.

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Fast and Furious 6-When he is unable to corral a vicious gang of thieves, a determined agent rounds up an old group of friends and asks them for help in stopping the gang once and for all. This is a really wild affair that I'm having some problems getting a handle on. Part of me wants to look at set-pieces like the hideout car chase, the brawls through the subway and the freeway chase with the tanks and say this was a highly, highly enjoyable piece that generates a lot of fantastic moments that carry on the kind of action legacy the franchise has provided so far in absolutely remarkable scenes that are so much fun to sit through. Those all provide the kind of frenetic, high-impact action that really appeals to me and generates a ton of good qualities about them as they are sheer spectacle and provide enough of a cross-section of action scenes so it doesn't have to rely on one formulaic scene over and over again. However, there's a part of me that wants to look at the story and rip it to pieces. The reasoning why he has to bring them in is quite ridiculous and feels utterly, unbelievably silly to begin with for it really feels like an excuse to get the gang together without offering a coherent reason for doing so realistically, and that's coupled with the utterly stupid reason for bringing the supposedly dead participant back into the fold is handled with true stupidity and lack of common sense and logic. Then comes the finale, which is just filled with so much to dislike about it that there's no way any sane person would get wowed over by what happens and it really just stinks of sheer stupidity for the sake of spectacle without doing anything about it. These two arguments are making it hard for me to come down on a definitive side here, so since there's a lot of things blowing up I'll lean towards positive, but not by much.

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Curandero: Dawn of the Demon-Brought in by the Mexican police, a local healer is thrust into a battle by the police against a Satanic-led cult of black magic and its powerful leader which forces him to use all his powers to stop him. There's a lot to like with this one that manages to get in some plentiful enjoyable elements. The fact that this one centers so much around the concept of black magic and demonic powers that there's some utterly demented and disturbing visuals here. Flashes of dismembered and desecrated bodies bleeding profusely from sacrificial wounds, covered with bugs and insects or scenes of people covered in blood or massive wounds in just his point-of-view start getting more and frequent as time goes on in here and this truly starts getting all the more chilling when it slowly starts getting play in the storyline about what they all mean. It really feels quite cohesive to the story about the mystical cult leader who is actively given a lot of time to strut his powers by appearing only to torment the hero in numerous opportunities, forcing strange and violent visionary day-dreams upon him and using his demonic powers to keep himself alive in the face of his enemies so we have a ton of reasons to fear him and what he can do, so the connection with those deranged visions feels so logical they become immeasurably chilling and creepy. When added with a lot of action scenes including several shoot-outs and a chilling chase through a crowded marketplace, this really sets a chilling tone that works quite well for the film. About the only thing that really doesn't work in this one is a bit bigger than expected, which is the plot-line involving his father. It makes a lot of sense to include such a thread in a story like this, but the fact that it really just feels so shoe-horned into the action that it strangely manages to slow down the plot so that it can not only introduce a storyline to help the hero but fix a problem that was never noticed until then. It makes the film sort of drag into the finale rather than sprint into it, but this isn't all too damaging and still keeps it quite enjoyable throughout.

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Entity-Attempting to uncover a grisly mystery, a documentary team searching for the cause of a mass grave in Russia finds the connection to an abandoned psychiatric institute and tries to get away before the inhabitants point out the same fate. This is a really enjoyable and quite chilling ghost story that has a lot of good points about it. The setting in the abandoned factory gives off an incredibly tense and eerie feeling which works rather well as a setting for such films by generally looking exactly like the type of place where bad things can happen quite easily and certainly looks like the kind of place that would be wholly unnerving when encountered in real life as the cold, lifeless cement and steel structures, endless dimly-or-barely lit corridors and deathly silence that surrounds the entire location is endlessly terrifying before the ghostly actions even start. those are certainly enjoyable enough in their own right as they continually come at such intervals that it never feels like it's dragging on or even all that boring as it stays on course sure enough through the story. Several of these are pretty terrifying as well, with standout encounters in the shock-treatment chamber and into the sleeping chambers which are the biggest ones here but there's enough encounters and interactions so that it's not all that slow-going at all and even feels quite exciting at times. However, it does have a couple of big flaws in that it really doesn't do a lot to help get the most out of it's scares by generally making everything so hard and nearly impossible to see. From shifting camera angles to rapid quick-cut editing and the utterly irritating feature of shooting through a video camera which in-effect resembles the found-footage type of films, there's an endless array about it that really serves to irritate and aggravate about this one which is certainly not the desired effect here when it simply cannot make what goes on that discernible. Without any real sort of violence in here, there's very little in that department to lure anyone in and the film's convoluted storyline in the second half hardly makes any sense at all by throwing in several countless plot-twists that aren't that clever. These drag the film down but it's still good enough when it counts.

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The Burrowers-Hoping to find his loved ones, a man joins a group of settlers in the Wild West to look for them and stumble upon their abduction at the hands of a vicious race of creatures and must get away before they suffer the same fate. This turned out to be quite enjoyable and entertaining for what it was, a simple creature feature. By being set in the Old-West, it takes the suspense to a rather interesting scenario by utilizing the time-frame constraints in terms of weaponry and knowledge about the titular creatures and really making it about the journey of discovery going on about the creatures and what's going on, which is a lot of fun. The setting is used to fine effect with the time-line war with the Indians that was going on at the time and manages to get a lot of mileage out of that storyline with several big action scenes against the tribes in the area making for a rather cohesive feel about the time and place here being somewhat underused in the genre. This gives it a refreshing taste of originality that comes rather nicely with the impressively utilized creatures, simply by being an original creature in terms of behavior, appearance and general feel in the first place but also settling in with the time-frame issues already mentioned to generate an incredibly chilling and suspense air about it, for the gradual dawning on the men that rogue Indians aren't to blame for the disappearances but rather these strange, fearsome creatures makes this quite suspenseful as all that becomes known about them comes from the interactions between the victims and the survivors and it all feels really fresh and unique. The finale itself is a lot of fun and certainly gets a lot to like about it as well with lots of action and plenty of gore wrapped up in the general dispatching of the creatures, resulting in a fine finish to this. There's some problems, though, as the film is just not all that fun in terms of pace, as this tends to wander around for so much time dealing with the Indian side-plot that it really only leaves the creatures to be present for two or three scenes altogether, really making it tough to get into this as the pace is just so sluggish and weak that there's not a lot of time to dwell on the action to keep things exciting. With the lack of engaging subplots to hang off of, since those as well are sidetracked by the war against the tribe and the inherent stupidity of the cavalry to deal with the issue, this is quite a difficult film to get into and really takes a while to get going. For a final disappointment, the fact that the creatures are difficult, blurry blobs of CGI mess during their scenes really takes the sting out of them a little when it's hard to make out what they are exactly, but all told this is still a fairly fun effort.

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She Freak-Running away from her dead-end job, a woman's new job as a waitress for a traveling carnival allows her to meet her husband, though the remaining members of the show aren't impressed with the events and try to bring out her real personality. Actually, this turned out to be quite the disaster of a film that serves as a real remake of the earlier classic that has the same overall plot. That really makes this quite distracting when it's so unoriginal that there's no point in hiding where it got it's influences from and showcases them so readily without the slightest remorse or even attempts to change it at all. By focusing on being so close to the source material, it doesn't develop anything of interest or surprise throughout this as nearly everything that plays out, her mistreatment that causes her to join the troupe to begin with, the budding romance and even how she continually cheats on him during the course of their romance and eventual marriage as well as the rather tired way this is discovered, as all of this is just given such a lame feel overall that there's hardly any suspense driven from this overt story and never gives off anything close to suspense. That the majority of the other screen-time is generating on overlong and exceptionally tedious sequences involving the crew for the circus putting up the festivities themselves, taking down and setting up shops, supports and rides throughout the film that these become the most featured type of scene in the whole movie such is their over-use throughout. All of this makes what should be the film's biggest shock scene, the revenge by the deformed performers for their mistreatment and cruelty, seem like an afterthought in here with the ho-hum manner in which it's dealt out with hardly any effort to build up to this sequence, to deliver it in any way that showcases any suspense at what they're going to do or even any sense of righteousness from it because it's all based on such lame motives it's not worth caring about. About the only thing saving this one is the one female support constantly stripping for her show or shown in states of undress, but not even that can save this one.

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The Ghostmaker-After acquiring the coffin of a 15th-century mathematician who cheated death, a group of friends' slowly find the drawbacks to it's continued usage when they start crossing the line far more frequently and violently. There's not a whole lot to this one that really works, and it tends to get off-track quite often. The biggest problem with this one is the fact that the whole film is dependent on the idea of using this strange device being something that's terrifying or creepy, but instead none of what goes on here is really all that creepy or scary. Being astral projected into the area and witnessing events as a spectral being is not in the slightest bit scary a concept, and these scenes doing this are some of the blandest, more arduous scenes in the film with absolutely nothing going on that's in any way interesting to watch. It's so difficult to get through these since none of them are played off with the intent of being creepy or scary, just more of a curiosity by the discoverers which is so far removed from the intent of a horror film that it ends up becoming quite painful to sit through these with almost nothing of any value going on here and being so long into the film that when it finally gets going it's almost the final act which is quite a bit of time to get things going. There's a big difference in the way the action of what goes on in these scenes being far more enjoyable and entertaining overall since something's actually going on for once, as the endless chasing being done trying to get back his girlfriend makes for some rather chilling moments with the house battle, making effective use of the poltergeist stage for a chilling moment before settling back into action with the encounter in the gym which works quite well in putting his ghostly state to full-effect while forcing his smarts to come into play in finally being able to confront the menace. While not the greatest ploy, the tactic of putting the ghostly guardian of the coffin along for the ride does make for a fine sense of chilling atmosphere by having something to be scared of during the more boring sequences and it gets a lot of play in the finale which helps that as well, and helps this out quite well even with the slew of problems on display within.

The New Daughter-After moving to a new house, a man slowly starts to accept his young daughter's change-in-behavior in the cause of a curse connecting the strange Indian burial mound in the area and tries to free her of the danger. This is a rather enjoyable offering though it tends to fall more in line with a thriller than an actual horror film. The fact that the entire premise is unraveled so slowly due to none of the actions taken resulting in generating any actual scares but rather just the fact that something weird is happening in the first place, there's not a lot going on here that actively makes what goes on here creepy. Rather, these early scenes are all based on the general concept on her slowly getting possessed and in general just acting off from her usual behavior but never actually doing anything remotely scary or chilling while doing so, resulting in the majority of these scenes having her run away upset over the justified questioning of what's happening as if doing so is the greatest threat to her privacy she's ever faced. The slow integration with the history and presence of the Indian mound and it's influences shift this back somewhat into a more horror-filled storyline with the true nature of the possession finally coming into focus and taking the scenes from then on in the story into a more chilling phase which really highlights the rest of the movie quite well. The assault on the house, full of barricades, blocked furniture and more, makes for a great action scene and the final journey into the deepest parts of the mound do serve as some immeasurably chilling works that truly feel as though the entire purpose was to creep out from the start such is the effectiveness of these scenes. The central premise about the father's quest to protect is quite well-handled moreso as an after-thought once the full effect of what's going on is handled here since it really doesn't work when playing through but serves quite well when combined with the later information gleamed which really makes it quite enjoyable and furthers this one quite nicely. The main influence being a thriller more than horror film does hurt this one somewhat, but it's still an enjoyable and watchable effort.

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Snakehead Swamp-Trying to get over his ex, a woman invites her friend on a rafting trip into the nearby bayou only to run across released snakehead fish prowling the area and must find a way to survive the onslaught from the creatures. There's a lot to like with this one as it generates plenty of positive remarks. One of the best elements at play here is the rather innovative story, which manages to do a lot more than the typical cheesy schlockfest might do, and most of that is centered on the somewhat arduous connection of the creatures' appearance and the culmination of a voodoo curse on the town. Far-fetched in origin, but certainly one that has a rather creepy undertone to what transpires in this, with the voodoo ceremonies taking place, the strange flashes of the local witch who ushered it years ago continuing throughout the entire movie and the strange way the creatures always seem to show up at just the right opportunity to follow-through on the promise of the curse's truth, as if there's a supernatural force motivating them to carry through with their mission of vengeance, and all of these elements make this a lot creepier than just a normal creature feature. As well, the continuous presence of the fish means that there's a large amount of action at play, bringing about some rather fine moments including the initial attack on the boat that strands the friends, the chase through the woods which leads into the assault on the house and finally the charge down the river taking on the swarms of creatures head-on which really sells this nicely as an action-packed offering when combined with the one-shot attacks throughout the bayou. This provides enough gore to really work nicely, even though it does bring about some problems. Even though there's a ton of action in this, the majority of the special effects are handled with the same cheap-looking CGI that usually permeates these films. There's no sense of realism or believability in the special effects here, as the fish themselves look woeful despite a rather cool-looking and imposing design, nearly all the blood and gore is done through CGI which really takes out the effectiveness of their use and the main action scenes are all handled in this manner as well so there's a lot of disappointment here through the special effects. While the central premise of the film is rather cool, from a logic stand-point it really doesn't make a lot of sense so there's some head-scratching moments to come from that as well, and from a believable standpoint it really fails as well. Otherwise, there's a whole lot to like with this one.

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The Occupants-After moving into a new house, a woman and her husband find the place haunted by the violent tragedy of the former occupants of the house and try to stop those actions from happening to them and her new baby. This here is a really weak and overall bland thriller disguised as a horror film. The biggest issue with this one is the fact that the central premise is nothing to really get worked up over, and it shows in the reactions of the characters. The primary focus is one the shots of the woman losing her mind over the events that transpire, yet none of what happens early on in this is enough to warrant such actions to take place and even worse off, doing so with the rather bland happenings that this goes through being just so unnecessary and uninviting that the reactions to them are completely unrelated to the events portrayed. That these in turn lead into the film's main segment being a series of investigations into whatever happened to the previous owners is so boring and lifeless that after such a troubling opening it sucks the energy out of the movie from there with endless scenes of her going over documents and papers that fill up time so that it's just so hard to stay invested in the movie as a whole from there on. The main subplot about these scenes is the film's second biggest issue, the constant referrals to the counselor friend she thinks is taking advantage of her yet is the first person she goes to whenever there's a bump in the night or a weird flash-vision she has, and despite every attempt to the contrary to make us believe he's some sort of creepy psychopath, he comes off as calm and level-headed about the situation while she rants and raves like a maniac then turns the tables back on him saying he's the one trying to screw her around. This happens a good three or four times after a conversation saying that she'll have nothing to do with him, so this in fact becomes extremely troubling and confusing as to why this goes on. Since the film earlier made mention of the fact that the supernatural haunting actions were unwarranted of the extreme reactions taken, that in turn brings up the fact that the majority of the supernatural going on here is really not that scary and oftentimes just plain dull, with a few somewhat decent scares here including the appearance of a demonic face on the wall hidden behind a poster, the ghostly visions of women running around the house and the ominous threat of violence depicted towards the infant son which does have a hint of believability to it, yet whatever happens is then undone by the absolutely ridiculous finale that makes no sense and undermines the general plot of what came before it. These are really enough problems to lower this one significantly.

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Five Element Ninja-Following the death of his master, a man vows to get back at the nefarious ninja clan responsible by enlisting a fellow master fighter to train him for his quest of retribution. This is one of the finest and most enjoyable kung-fu epics ever. Based around quite a familiar storyline that's been utilized far too often to really spark any sense of originality, instead this scenario gives the film a near non-stop series of fights by first utilizing a kung-fu duel that sparks the ninja appearance which is one of the most jaw-dropping displays of martial arts mayhem put on the screen. Limbs are torn off, entrails ripped out, eyes gouged out, skulls are pounded and much more are ushered before in what must be at least a half-hour of combat as the school is decimated by the ninja attack. The second half, the training sequence to learn the ways of their foes, is handled with the usual sense of class that these films usually required and there's quite a bit of it throughout here with the handling of different weapons and tactics to combat the ninjas' arsenal of tricks, but before too long we're back in the final battle getting all sorts of fun back involved. Taking on each of the five different ninjas in their respective elements means it's a long, arduous duel to get all of them defeating, and the choreography needed to handle some of these battles is some of the most arduous and dynamic created for the genre. This is definitely worth the price of admission even before all the other fighting on display here, and really makes this one so energetic and enjoyable.

Shaolin Mantis-When a government spy is sent to a family's reputed rebel hideout, his feelings for their daughter compromise his mission and eventually unravel his true intentions, forcing his reliance on a new kung-fu style to get out alive. This is a really enjoyable and entertaining effort that really gets a lot going for it. One of the better elements on display is the fact that this one completely redefines the cliched notion of learning a new technique from an elder master in favor of having the hero himself make up the moves himself while watching the creatures. This is highly unique and rather clever to get a new twist on the genre when the plot-point is something that has been done countless times before. That leads to the remarkable series of fights in here where the reliance on hand-to-hand combat based off of the recently acquired techniques and results in some utterly jaw-dropping choreography with the fluidity and rapidity of the movements here resulting in a long, grueling fight that really steals the show and seems highly appropriate considering the remaining parts of the fighting being so good. There's not a whole lot of fighting in this one but it really does get out a lot of good parts when it does, generating a highly rewarding series of encounters to escape the different levels of the hideout and the brilliant brawls to get into the palace at the end that sets up the final fight. These are certainly enjoyable enough and really get the momentum back from what's the only real problem with this one, the lame romance angle. This takes up way too much time in the story and really makes for quite a hard time getting invested in what's going on as the two begin to flirt with each other quite lamely and are far from being believable in how they get close to each other. Furthermore, it tends to make the film longer than it needs to be with the amount of extra running time being related to how much extra time is spent on their romance with each other. Other than this one problem, it's a highly entertaining effort.