
Greetings, all. Ambush Bug here with another AICN HORROR: ZOMBIES & SHARKS column. Make way for a bunch of fun films for those with a taste for terror!
On with the horror reviews!
(Click title to go directly to the feature)
Retro-review: FROGS (1972)
Retro-review: ISLAND OF DEATH (1976)
Retro-review: ENTER THE NINJA (1981)
Retro-review: THE TOXIC AVENGER PART II (1989)
Retro-review: BLOODSTONE: SUBSPECIES II (1993)
SAMURAI AVENGER: THE BLIND WOLF (2009)
BLOOD SLAUGHTER MASSACRE (2013)
KRUEL (2014)
NIGHTLIGHT (2015)
THE SISTERHOOD OF NIGHT (2014)
DA SWEET BLOOD OF JESUS (2015)
LET US PREY (2014)
And finally…James Busche’s PREDATOR: DARK AGES Fan Film!


FROGS (1972)
Directed by George McCowanWritten by Robert Hutchison, Robert Blees, Starring Ray Milland, Sam Elliott, Joan Van Ark and Lynn Borden
Retro-reviewed by Ambush Bug
Horror films aren’t afraid to be redundant, especially when it came to the Sixties and Seventies when there was an inundation of nature gone wild films or films with the theme I like to call “Don’t fuck with Mother Nature!” In these films, usually some kind of pollution or intervention of man overturns the delicate applecart of nature and nature bites back. A veritable zoo of animals had films dedicated to this phenomenon, but you’re not likely to find one more outrageous than the 1972 film FROGS. In this film, nature is hoppin’ mad as hell and it isn’t going to take it anymore!

FROGS is an often redundant snoozer for most of the film because of the lack of ferocity of the title monsters. Scenes of frogs slowly descending on the giant mansion follow more scenes of hopping frogs. Occasionally snakes, lizards, and alligators are injected to liven up the stew, but ultimately, scenes of animals swimming through water or walking through grass aren’t really that scary.

The aforementioned final sequence as the frogs break into the house Milland resides in is by far the highlight of the film. Fisheye lenses and forced camera angles amp up the uneasiness as the frogs break through the windows and climb all over Milland, who falls out of his wheelchair. This harrowing scene almost makes up for the tedious and laughable scenes prior of frogs hopping closer and closer to the house. Director George McGowan seemed to have a lot of fun with the frog motif, tossing everything from frog paintings to frog statues all over the island. In the end, I had a lot of fun rediscovering FROGS. Though it takes patience to sit through some outrageous death scenes and an overly clunky message of animals rising up due to pollution of the swamp, the climax of FROGS proved to be worth the wait.
Next week, call PETA. I’ll be reviewing the flipside of this double feature, FOOD OF THE GODS!


ISLAND OF DEATH (1976)
DEVILS IN MYKONOS, CRUEL DESTINATION, ISLAND OF PERVERSION, A CRAVING FOR LUST, PSYCHIC KILLER 2, KILLING DAYLIGHT, DEVIL’S ISLANDDirected by Nico Mastorakis
Written by Nico Mastorakis
Starring Robert Behling, Jane Lyle, Jessica Dublin, Gerard Gonalons, Jannice McConnell, Ray Richardson, Marios Tartas, Efi Bani, Clay Half, Jeremy Rousseau, Elizabeth Spader, Nikos Tsachiridis
Find out more about this film here
Retro-reviewed by Ambush Bug
Whoo, this was one fucked UP movie! Understandably on the UK’s Video Nasty list, ISLAND OF DEATH seems to go out of its way to offend everyone it possibly can think of and then just in case it didn’t, it’ll double down on the seedy sickness.

The film opens in a misleading fashion. A seemingly loving couple (Christopher, played by Robert Behling and Celia played by Jane Lyle) arrive at the Greek island of Mykonos on holiday. The affectionate couple paw at each other, giggle, and snap photos like a set of tourists as they take in the sights. Things seem pretty idyllic until Christopher calls his mother and mentions that he is making love to Celia as he talks to her over the phone. The elderly woman, of course, is shocked at the act, but we are only teased with the true perversity at play in this scene. Things start to go sideways when Christopher notices a man watching Celia in a bar and decides to mislead the man into thinking Celia is his cousin, opening the opportunity for the man to openly flirt with her. But it isn’t until Christopher wakes the next day and is turned down for sex by Celia that we really see that this idyllic couple is not what they seem. While Christopher is the first to show his perverse hand by having morning sex with a nearby goat, it isn’t until Celia makes love to the man from the bar later in the film and then takes part in crucifying him in front of a church that you realize that this is a story focusing on a pair of serial killers on vacation. The levels of depravity and just plain wrongness continue to escalate until soon, the crimes the couple commit are just too much for them to escape from.


This Arrow rerelease is pretty amazing and I’m glad the company is releasing this forgotten little monster of a film. The extras include a making of featurette, “Return to the Island of Death”, following Mastorakis returning to the places the movie was filmed, an interview with Mastorakis, an alternate opening sequence, a soundtrack to the film (filled with some groovy yet hauntings songs), a featurette looking at the rest of Mastorakis’ films, and an illustrated collector’s booklet.
BEWARE: This trailer contains many, many wrong things that will definitely keep you from getting that raise you want at work!


ENTER THE NINJA (1981)
aka NINJA IDirected by Menahem Golan
Written by Dick Desmond (screenplay), based on the story story by Mike Stone
Starring Franco Nero, Susan George, Shô Kosugi, Christopher George, Alex Courtney, Will Hare, Zachi Noy, Constantine Gregory, Dale Ishimoto, Joonee Gamboa, Leo Martinez, Ken Metcalfe, Subas Herrero
Retro-reviewed by Ambush Bug
Trip down memory lane time: when my brother and I were kids, we watched ENTER THE NINJA, RETURN OF THE NINJA, and NINJA III: THE DOMINATION over and over and over again. Every time it was on, my brother and I were glued to the TV and afterwards we would leap from one couch to the next, attempting ninja flips, kicks, punches, lunges, and all sorts of chop-sockery. We avidly read NINJA MAGAZINE, which had awesome painted fold-out posters and ordered shurikens, tonfa sticks, and shuko climbing claws (though they were too big to fit our hands) out of the backs of the magazines. We had our own ninja outfits and would attempt to sneak up on our dogs using our own finely honed ninja invisibility skills (though they always managed to see us). We loved ninjas and we loved ENTER THE NINJA. So when I found out Kino Lorber was releasing Blurays of ENTER THE NINJA and REVENGE OF THE NINJA (Shout Factory released NINJA III: THE DOMINATION and I reviewed it a few months ago here), I had to check them out.

So yes, this is an action movie first. But then again, it’s about a man lurking around in the dark and killing multiple people with all sorts of weapons. That description screams horror to me in the broadest sense, in that the film exists to introduce new and creative ways to kill people when looked at through horror-colored glasses, and highlighting weaponry in action is what this film does best as evidenced right from the opening credits where a ninja is featured brandishing one weapon after another and exhibiting both skill in wielding the weapon and how deadly it actually is.

So maybe this isn’t a film full of horrifying sights and terrifying sequences of tension, but there’s a beheading in the first few minutes and though it is a product of its time, the simple action movie setup and showcasing of the amazing weaponry doesn’t get old. ENTER THE NINJA is a lot of fun. It’s not really scary, but you’re bound to have a good time with it.
If I’m not entering the traction after watching ENTER THE NINJA and jumping around on my couch like a ten year old, I’ll be back next week with a review for its sequel, REVENGE OF THE NINJA (also released this week)!


THE TOXIC AVENGER PART II (1989)
Directed by Michael Herz, Lloyd KaufmanWritten by Lloyd Kaufman (story), Gay Partington Terry (screenplay)
Starring Ron Fazio, John Altamura, Phoebe Legere, Rikiya Yasuoka, Tsutomu Sekine, Mayako Katsuragi, Shinoburyû, Lisa Gaye, Jessica Dublin, Jack Cooper, Erika Schickel, Paul Borghese, Michael Jai White, Lloyd Kaufman
Retro-reviewed by Ambush Bug
The pride and joy of Tromaville is back in this occasionally entertaining, undeniably racist, and truly tasteless sequel to Troma’s most famous film.

THE TOXIC AVENGER PART II continues almost right where we were left with the first film with Melvin Junko (alternating between Ron Fazio and John Altamura, but who can really tell under all of that lumpy makeup) transformed into a walking mass of muscle and toxicity in love with his blind girlfriend Claire (the sizzling hot Phoebe Legere, who replaces his other blind girlfriend named Sara played by Andree Maranda in the original film). When the dastardly Apocalypse Inc. destroys a home for blind people, they unleash the wrath of Toxie. But even though he wipes the floor with the lot of them (including future SPAWN Michael Jai White), Toxie can’t get over his failure and goes on a quest to find his real father, rumored to be hanging out in Japan somewhere. Once in Japan, Toxie finds that there is just as much evil there as there is in the great town of Tromaville.

Once Toxie takes his trip to Tokyo, things get cartoony almost immediately as Toxie sailboards across the ocean and then arrives in the harbor like Godzilla. Seeing the Japanese folks running from Toxie in mock fear is only the first of many somewhat mean-spirited jibes on Japanese culture in the latter half of the film. While there are evil people doing bad things, for the most part, the latter half of the film is a sort of travelogue with Toxie basically being filmed interacting with Japanese people and checking out the sites. It’s a cheap way of filming things, just following your main character walking around the street with a camera, but it’s the type of low budget ingenuity that I have come to expect from Troma. The thing is, the cartoony and stereotypical way the Japanese bad guys are dealt with is definitely going to offend folks in this ultra-sensitive day and age. Seeing one mobster being turned into a human won ton soup in a sauna and another made into a fish cake isn’t honoring the culture as much as it’s lampooning it and for some reason, it just didn’t sit right with me as I watched it. And just for good measure, the film manages to work in some homophobic riffs in a well.

With curiosities like the creative kills, the smoking hot performance by artist Phoebe Legere as Toxie’s blind GF, and the fun in seeing Michael Jai White treat his role as black karate thug #2 as if he's going for the Oscar, THE TOXIC AVENGER PART II is definitely something worth seeking out if you haven’t experienced it. Just be prepared for some insensitive treatment of others here as this film is bound to offend. Still, Toxie retains his likability and at least for this sequel, the concept still feels pretty fresh--fresher than some of the sequels turned out to be, that is.


BLOODSTONE: SUBSPECIES II (1993)
Directed by Ted NicolaouWritten by Charles Band (original idea), Ted Nicolaou (script)
Starring Anders Hove, Denice Duff, Kevin Spirtas, Melanie Shatner, Michael Denish, Pamela Gordon, Ion Haiduc, Tudorel Filimon, Viorel Comanici, Viorel Sergovici
Retro-reviewed by Ambush Bug
The SUBSPECIES movies reflect a time when Full Moon really was cookin’ with gas. While many of the Full Moon flicks are steeped in camp, the SUBSPECIES films seemed to actually try to be both scary and taken seriously. While BLOODSTONE: SUBSPECIES II aka SUBSPECIES II: BLOODSTONE isn’t as good as the first installment, it still is better than most of the campy product Full Moon represents these days.

While there is a lot of musing by Michelle trying to cope with her newfound hunger for blood and trying to protect her sister from her pangs, this film really is one long chase scene, which makes it pretty fun to watch all the way through. While the level of intensity wavers from time to time, I admire the simplicity of the plot and had a lot of fun watching vampires chase vampires, humans chase vamps, and vamps chase humans. Using the titular Bloodstone as the grand prize for all, while it might not be the most complex of plots, the clarity of this quest makes this film straightforward and fun to watch. What is frustrating is that despite all of the running around in this film, things end pretty much where they began with the only change being Michelle’s acceptance of being a vampire. This inches the plot along a skosh, but really only serves as a thruway for another sequel.

But it’s not just the copious amount of blood and the look of the vampire that makes the vamp in SUBSPECIES II effective, it’s the attention to shadow director Ted Nicolaou uses throughout. Scenes of Radu’s shadow creeping across walls and through windows with light and shadow, shows that Nicolaou was at least trying to be scary and creative with the scares, though much of it was done before in NOSFERATU and Coppola’s DRACULA. Little stop motion animated demons and the witches’ spell effects add to the fun. And BLOODSTONE: SUBSPECIES II is a lot of fun, in a low budget, 80’s retro kind of way. It really feels like those behind this film did their homework and wanted to make a legit horror film and they ended up succeeding, at least with this action-packed sequel.

SAMURAI AVENGER: THE BLIND WOLF (2009)
aka LONE WOLF: SAMURAI AVENGERDirected by Kurando Mitsutake
Written by John Migdal, Kurando Mitsutake
Starring Kurando Mitsutake, Jeffrey James Lippold, Domiziano Arcangeli, Megan Hallin, Kyle O. Ingleman, Lorne Leutcher, Mariko Denda, Aki Hiro, Tegan Ashton Cohan, Masami Kosaka, Noriaki Kamata, Gregory Blair, Amy Bloom, Curtis Buck, Hidetoshi Imura, Amanda Plummer
Find out more about this film here and on Facebook here
Reviewed by Ambush Bug
Made to look like it is a forgotten film from the Grindhouse era, SAMURAI AVENGER: THE BLIND WOLF is something that once seen will definitely not be forgotten.

While some might find the over granulated and scratchy filters used to make this film feel like a grindhouse feature annoying, that never bothered me and it doesn’t bother me here. As long as the material is entertaining, seeing all of the scrapes and random hairs in the camera lens just adds to the fun, but I know that annoys some folks and if that’s you, this movie will definitely give you something to complain about. The thing is, the film has done its homework, not only knowing the template with which old samurai/kung fu movies are made, but also samurai culture as the film stops occasionally for a narrator to explain some key terms you might have not known about the way of the samurai, such as hitting an opponent with the blunt end of the sword and key moments in a character’s origin at just the right moment in the story. While this may skid a film to a halt in other instances, here it adds to the fun as overlapping graphics and the professorial tone of the narrator had every little derivation cause a smile to form on my face.

The over the top gore and the overly serious tone had me entertained from beginning to end. Though clichés are used, the film celebrates, rather than makes fun of, a subgenre of filmmaking that is often too serious for its own good. Still, it manages to have a genuine heart to it as the Blind Wolf is never made the butt of the joke and his feelings of vengeance are real and palpable. Here’s hoping there will be a sequel as the end titles suggest. I’d love to see me some more Blind Wolf. For those who like to laugh along with their gore and swords, I present to you SAMURAI AVENGER: THE BLIND WOLF. I loved this film and I think most of you will too.

BLOOD SLAUGHTER MASSACRE (2013)
Directed by Manny SerranoWritten by Louie Cortes, Manny Serrano
Starring Matt W. Cody, Mike Roche, Byron M. Howard, Carmela Hayslett, Melissa Roth, Darlene Heller, Danielle Lenore, Bradley Creanzo, David Garelik
Find out more about this film here
Reviewed by Ambush Bug
What makes something a throwback sort of film is the ability of the filmmaker to look back to a time when that specific type of film was en vogue or popular and capture something unique about it. To me, a throwback is often a statement encapsulating an entire subgenre, but having the hindsight enough to recognize the positive and negative aspects of that particular niche and showcase them in a clever way. Otherwise, without original ideas, why make the movie in the first place? I don’t know if making a throwback was the intent of filmmaker Manny Serrano and his co-writer Louie Cortes, as many of the same mistakes made in the slasher genre of old show up seemingly unintentionally in BLOOD SLAUGHTER MASSACRE.


There’s an impressive body count here, though the effects are pretty cheap. The fact that every woman in the film is required to take their top off might be a plus for those who are looking for blatant titillation, but if you’re looking for a solid slasher throwback, this isn’t going to impress any horror fans I know. BLOOD SLAUGHTER MASSACRE doesn’t seem to want to be anything but a run of the mill film that blends into the rest of the slasher herd we saw in the 80s. There’s definitely a love for the genre, but the final product just doesn’t have a clear picture of what it wants to be.

KRUEL (2014)
Directed by Robert HendersonWritten by Robert Henderson
Starring Kierney Nelson, Dakota Morrissiey, Adam Vernier, J.T. Chinn, Elizabeth Brewster, Ansley Gordon, Cooper Henderson, Keegan Henderson, Rita Manyette, Tom Riska, Tom Siedle, Matthew Weidle, Nicholas Williamson, Ericka Winterrowd, Colleen Yorke
Find out more about this film here and on Facebook here
Reviewed by Ambush Bug
I’m a fan of evil clown films. My most recent comic PIROUETTE (which will be out soon…I just am not sure when, sadly) is chock full of them, and I’ve made a habit of watching clown horror films just to try to delve into the reasons why so many people find clowns to be so damn scary. I wish KRUEL had that much interest in it, but instead of getting to the root of clourophobia or any scares at all, there are other areas the film prefers to focus on and sadly, that makes for one boring and by the numbers movie.

The main problem with this film is that the focus is on the wrong thing. In trying so hard to make the viewer invested in the characters in peril (namely Jo and Ben) by focusing on their relationship problems, this film forgets to add in any scary or tense moments. Apart from the opening scene, which hints that the clown is outside of the car as Jo finds out about Ben’s unfaithful behavior, the entire first forty or so minutes are comprised of Jo arguing with Ben, Ben pleading with Jo to take him back, and Jo taking time to sulk on her own. Tossing the two characters together time and time again, I quickly grew wary of the repeated attempts by Ben to rekindle the relationship paired with Jo’s reluctance to do so. Toss in a random useless scene where a friend is trying to set Jo up with a new boy and you’ve got a whole lot of drama that has nothing to do with clowns abducting kids in their ice cream trucks.

Absolutely misguided, the film can’t even decide on who the hero is going to be or what Jo’s role is going to be during the climax. She switches from trapped victim to aggressor and back again, and the film flip flops between Ben and Jo’s father as the role of her rescuer. It doesn’t help that everyone is stretching their acting chops way beyond their retention length and going for the gold in every overacted scene. Somewhere in KRUEL is a solid little story about a scary clown, an ice cream truck, and a little boy. It’s just too preoccupied with talking endlessly about a teenage relationship to know it.

NIGHTLIGHT (2015)
Directed by Scott Beck, Bryan WoodsWritten by Scott Beck, Bryan Woods
Starring Shelby Young, Chloe Bridges, Carter Jenkins, Mitch Hewer, Taylor Murphy, Kyle Fain
Find out more about this film on Facebook here
Reviewed by Ambush Bug
I know folks are getting almost as sick of my found footage spiel as they are of the found footage films itself, but I do feel that there are those who will just tune out once the concept of found footage is mentioned. This review is for people like me who still get engrossed with the first person POV technique despite the shaky lens and all of the other confinements of the found footage genre. Sure I have to review these films because they are sent to me, but with a film like NIGHTLIGHT, I think I’d seek it out anyway to watch if given the chance, as it tries something new and does a compelling job of doing things we might have seen before.

The thing that differentiates this film from the found footage herd is that the camera isn’t a camera at all. In NIGHTLIGHT, the camera is actually the flashlight one of the kids uses in all of their games. There’s still the motif of dropping the camera, forced POV, and the camera shutting on and off, but instead of having to worry about how a camera can take this type of beating or when the tape will run out or when the battery dies, this film at least alleviates this fallback by not acknowledging it’s a camera at all. So technically, this isn’t found footage, per se; it’s just a story told from the POV of a flashlight. It sort of reminds me of the V/H/S/2 segment where the story is told through Adam Wingard’s artificial eyeball instead of an actual camera.

Writers/directors Scott Beck & Bryan Woods handle the first person POV well, with some solid scares and some situations that actually are quite effective at ratcheting up the tension such as mad run through some caves and a path lined with motion sensitive lights that light up as you walk along it and then turn off, only to be illuminated by an unseen force as it approaches the kids. These sequences prove that it really does take some talent to make these types of films effectively, even though the found footage subgenre is often scoffed at as lowbrow filmmaking. And while a lot of the moves are the same, there’s enough effort and ingenuity added to NIGHTLIGHT to differentiate it from the rest of the found footagers you all usually roll your eyes at.

THE SISTERHOOD OF NIGHT (2014)
Directed by Caryn WaechterWritten by Marilyn Fu (screenplay), Steven Millhauser (short story)
Starring Georgie Henley, Kara Hayward, Willa Cuthrell, Olivia DeJonge, Kal Penn, Laura Fraser, Gary Wilmes, Neal Huff, Hudson Yang, Morgan Turner, Louis Ozawa Changchien, Juliana Sass, Evan Kuzma, Orlagh Cassidy, Deema Aitken
Find out more about this film here and on Facebook here
Reviewed by Ambush Bug
In many ways, THE SISTERHOOD OF NIGHT is a teen afterschool special about the dangers of online bullying, and I’m sure there are those who would shy away from calling this film a horror film at all. But those people will have missed the point of this film which has its roots buried deep in some of the oldest horrors imaginable and does so with an ingenious, modern twist.

The power of this film is twofold. The first is the cast, with Hayward acting her butt off as the outcast among the outcasts who wants desperately to be in this girls club. That spunky hard-headedness that she had in spades in MOONRISE KINDGOM is front and center here, but in this film, she is determined to be a part of something she can’t have and it turns sour fast. By manipulating the entire town, Emily gets exactly what she longs for, acceptance, attention, and popularity, but getting these things only brings out the worst in her and, in turn, brings out the worst in the town. The flipside to Hayward’s Emily is the fascinating Georgie Henley (CHRONICLES OF NARNIA) who plays Mary. Mark my words, Henley is a superstar in the making. Bold, ballsy, confident. She commands every scene she’s in much like Angelina Jolie did in her younger years. As the leader of the Sisterhood, she evokes some of the dangerous charisma Faruza Balk did in THE CRAFT, but in a much more refined and less batshit manner. The strength of her performance is crucial to this story, as it is more about what is unsaid and the power of keeping a secret than what she says and does.

The film ends on a high note that will make the more jaded of the audience roll their eyes for sure. The ending almost ruined it for me, to tell you the truth, as it becomes more of a story about healing and growth, moving forward and making the best of things, rather than the dark retribution and foreboding evils we are used to seeing here in AICN HORROR. I’m willing to bet that those who watch this film expecting something like THE CRAFT are going to be pretty disappointed at the more meaningful and poignant way things are wrapped up. But the horror here is that this is film deftly lays out how after all of these years since people were burned at the stake, we really haven’t learned much at all. Utilizing this common and awful trait of humanity in ways I felt were downright genius, THE SISTERHOOD OF NIGHT is a film depicting real life horrors using what we expect against us and then shoving our faces in these common rush decisions in this media/technology-obsessed society we live in. This is a fantastic film, low on gore or scares but high on intriguing ideas and performances from a young cast who are destined for greatness.

DA SWEET BLOOD OF JESUS (2015)
A Joint Rolled by Spike LeeWritten by Spike Lee & Bill Gunn
Starring Stephen Tyrone Williams, Zaraah Abrahams, Rami Malek, Elvis Nolasco, Thomas Jefferson Byrd, Joie Lee, Felicia Pearson, Jeni Perillo, Katherine Borowitz, Donna Dixon, Chiz Schultz, Lauren Macklin, Steven Hauck, Stephen Henderson, Rafael Osorio, Cinqué Lee
Find out more about this film on Facebook here
Reviewed by Ambush Bug
Spike Lee’s remake of GANJA & HESS, Bill Gunn’s faux-blaxploitation film about African American culture, religion, and vampires, is ambitious and textured, though if you’re looking for pointy-toothed scares, this is not going to be the film for you.
Hess is a well-to-do African American scholar living in Martha’s Vinyard surrounded by African artifacts he has collected through the years. In the opening moments, Hess’ associate Lafayette joins Hess at the university where he attains an ancient African dagger used in blood rituals. When Hess returns home, he begins to realize Lafayette is unhinged, first trying to kill himself and then stabbing Hess with the ancient dagger through his heart. Wracked with guilt and with no one there to stop him from suicide, Lafayette murders himself just as Hess returns to life with a powerful thirst for blood. When Lafayette’s wife Ganja (Zaraah Abrahams) arrives at Hess’ home looking for her missing husband, she is enamored with Hess and finds herself wrapped up in Hess’ struggle to maintain his dignity along with his thirst for blood.

Lee’s film does well by the original in theme as it delves deeply into African American identity without pointing the finger at “the man” or “the establishment.” There are only a few white people in the film. Most of the time the film takes place with only Hess and Ganja, with the rest mostly spent with an African American cast. This is refreshing to see, as it is not accusing others of the problem as often seen in movies about race (even in previous Lee films). Instead the film goes intdepth on the way African Americans often are their own undoing. Hess is a historian and while he is fascinated with African culture, he lives in a posh palace in Martha’s Vinyard, drives a Rolls Royce, hob nobs with socialites and is as distanced from the typical street life as they come. When he is stabbed by the African knife, he is overcome with desires and urges that bring him to dark clubs and slums searching for his victims. Yet when he is at his lowest, Hess is drawn to a church, a place a vampire would be compelled to avoid, but in Hess’ case, it seems to be the only place of solace he has. I don’t want to assume what Lee is saying here, but it feels almost like Hess represents the modern African American man, torn between his roots in Africa (rich in culture, yet primitive in spirit) and a modernized world where modern society has delegated many African Americans into impoverished slums (which are rich in spirit as represented by the various lively church scenes, yet downtrodden as a culture). Hess’ conflict between man and vampire is but a metaphor Lee plays with as the various directions a modern day African American man is torn on a daily basis.

But as a horror film? Not so much. Lee has made an art house film on the black experience in America today. He uses vampirism as a metaphor and doesn’t resort to crosses, coffins, bats, or fangs. Yes, there are scenes of vampires lapping up blood spilled frrm their victims off of the floor, but those of a literal mind need not take a chance with this film. If you’re the type of filmgoer who likes to think a bit and take in multiple meanings to the story playing in front of you, DA SWEET BLOOD OF JESUS might be up your alley. As a filmmaker, I think it’s a bold move to tell a story talking about race without using cartoon versions of the opposite race to prove your point. Lee did that already with DO THE RIGHT THING and some of his other early films. With DA SWEET BLOOD OF JESUS Lee uses a much more reflective storytelling, looking not only at race relations to other races, but at how races relate to themselves and how, no matter what the race, we often make our own beds and fashion our own situations. Sure, he does this reflection in metaphor, but still it makes for a fascinating, albeit scare-free, vampire film.

LET US PREY (2014)
Directed by Brian O'MalleyWritten by David Cairns & Fiona Watson
Starring Liam Cunningham, Pollyanna McIntosh, Bryan Larkin, Hanna Stanbridge, Douglas Russell, Niall Greig Fulton, Jonathan Watson, Brian Vernel, James McCreadie, Sophie Stephanie Farmer, Andrew Parker
Find out more about this film here and on Facebook here
Reviewed by Ambush Bug
While you can probably match each scene of this film with another movie, the way all of these puzzle pieces fit together make one exhilarating little movie in LET US PREY.


Yet it’s an exciting one. Part of that goes to Liam Cunningham’s fantastic performance as the enigmatic Six. His calm yet dangerous demeanor and his dignified line delivery makes every word uttered sharp and wicked. I was first made privy to Pollyanna McIntosh after seeing her mesmerizing performance as the title character in THE WOMAN; here she offers up a dignified yet highly physical performance, and I think McIntosh is one noticeable film away from breaking through and becoming a major star. She commands every scene she is in, yet here she plays a complex character who is hard because she is covering up a very damaged and soft center. The actress is able to pull off both ends of the spectrum with ease. She’s starred in quite a few genre films, and the horror genre would be better with McIntosh in more of them.

And if you like the movie and are the gaming sort, there’s also a related game - Let Us Prey: Surrender to Hell - based on the movie that’s available for free in iTunes and Google Play that you can check out by clicking this link!
And finally…James Busche is one mega-fan of the PREDATOR movies, so much that he made his own fan film about the hunters from space. Here’s the description of the film: Set during the Crusades, the faith & fighting skills of a group of Templar Knights is put to the test when they encounter the Predator. Their battle is the thing Myths and Legends are born from.
Starring Adrian Bouchet, Amed Hashimi, Sabine Crossen, Ben loyd-Holmes, Jon Campling, Joe Egan and Philip Lane, here’s James Busche’s PREDATOR: DARK AGES! And you can find out more about Busche’s work here!
See ya next week, folks!


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