The She-Butterfly - 1973 - Serbia

The She-Butterfly - 1973 - 6/10
AKA - Leptirica

Vule makes the fourth miller that year to be murdered.
Villagers curse their bad luck, wonder if a vampire is among them.
More importantly, who will mill their grain?

 
Wait!  There’s young Strahinja, who desperately wants to marry the village beauty, Radojka.
Radojka’s father refuses, however, as Strahinja is poor.  So, he accepts the perilous miller job.
Like males in general, he fails to see the depths within the girl he desires.

 
Superstition with scattered pratfall comedy.
An hour film that packs several themes, history, village lore.
English subtitles = https://sub-scene.com/subtitle/3356785

The Witches Of Salem: The Horror And The Hope - 1972 - USA

The Witches Of Salem: The Horror And The Hope - 1972 - 6/10

 
Following a fire and brimstone sermon, the young girls seek out … the voodoo lady.
Who describes the Sabbat, the blood, the dancing, the hollering.  Men and women.  
Most listen in rapt attention.  While the guilty and proud reveal the devil’s presence.
Persecution – hysteria – execution.  Of the young girls?  Or the outcasts?
As a video “Cliff notes” of the witch trials, this is a bare bones condensation.
Acting is a bit toppish, but makes for a quick study.

Missing Noir M - 2008 - S Korea

Missing Noir M - 2008 - 8/10  
AKA - Siljongneuwareu M // 실종느와르 M

 
“A history of injustice manipulating justice to kill off justice.”
Exceptional K-drama.  Bleak, true-to-life, set amidst modern realities.
A small team is formed to work on unsettled cold cases.
An ex-FBI agent with too many killings for the Bureau.  A hot-headed cop.  A computer hacker with a past.
The opener is a two-parter, with clues for imminent murders, ala Se7en.
There are other two-parters, as well as stand-alones.
Contrary to the usual clichéd formats, the team don’t exactly bond, but begin to buckle under the stress.
The final episodes are pitch black and, unfortunately, eerily prescient of today’s normal.
For those skeptical of justice in this world, in this life, this is for you.

Riesending - 2022 - Austria

Riesending - 2022 - 6/10

 
Riesending, as in the massive cave labyrinth in Germany, somewhat explored.
Josef is injured in a rockfall, his skull cracked with internal bleeding.
After a 12 hour climb, one of his companions reaches the surface and seeks help.
Officially, the job belongs to Mountain Rescue, only they are inexperienced with caves.
Professional cavers arrive from Austria, from Italy, even further, yet they are sidelined.
The German Ministry does not want to appear incapable.  Delays and excuses go into days.
The caving scenes are accurate and well done (I caved myself for 15 years).
What gets on one’s nerves and drag the film are the surface arguments and doubletalk.
Barely mentioned in one text is the cost to taxpayers of having to rescue an outdoor adventurer once again.
(The rescue ultimately was €1 M, and the “rescuers” left behind 1 ton of garbage inside the cave.)

Odd Girl - 2019 - Canada

Odd Girl - 2019 - 6/10

 
Social misfit Belinda somehow gloms onto the cool crowd, although most scorn her.
There is something repellent about her, yet she is so hungry to blend in.
To make a friend – any friend.  Someone agreeable, and willing.
Warning short about the dangers of embracing the pariah.
English subtitles = https://sub-scene.com/subtitle/3356784

Devil’s Diner - 2025 - Vietnam

Devil’s Diner - 2025 - 7/10  
AKA - Tiem an Cua Quy

 
The dark companion to Midnight Diner, as this is where visitors lose their souls.
This presupposes human nature is inherently evil, and weak.
Sins include greed, anger, delusion, pride, suspicion.
Diners enter, and with a smile, the owner coaxes them toward retribution, and eventual payment.
While cloaked in Horror, this has definite Asian sensibilities.
Revenge, while sweet, carries a cost, a terrible cost.
Acting ranges from adequate to excellent.  Everything else, pretty accomplished.

They Call Her … Cleopatra Wong - 1978 - Philippines

They Call Her … Cleopatra Wong - 1978 - 6/10

Near-perfect counterfeit currency is flooding several Asian countries.
Police and government agencies are stymied.
Interpol contacts their best agent: hard living, hard loving, Cleopatra Wong.
Who, following the trail, zeroes in on the convent.
You got it.  Nuns.  And yes, a new subgenre for me, nuns with guns.

 
For lazy travelers, Cleo scuttles from Singapore to Hong Kong to Manila.
Accompanied by kitschy, action stock music.
Dubbing is a parody of clichéd stereotypes.

 
Lots of martial arts, long chases (one on Singapore’s cable car.
Of course, nuns with guns.  Who’s going to resist that?

Reawakening - 2024 - UK

Reawakening - 2024 - 6/10

14 year old Clare ran away from home.  For a decade, her parents never stopped looking.
Ten years on, she is back on their doorstep.  Or, is it really her?

 
Mother is convinced it is really her, father equally obstinate she is not.
While Clare answers highly detailed questions, offers to do a DNA test, her eyes are evasive.
Chopped chronology serves the confusion and mystery well.
Her presence frays the reserve, the hope, the trust.
Both parents strike me as too old for their roles.
Erin Doherty is matchless, as she was in Chloe (2022), another role within a role.
How plausible is the family cuckoo?  The Imposter (2012).

The Maiden’s Tune - 1973 - Yugoslavia

The Maiden’s Tune - 1973 - 6/10
AKA - Devicanska Svirka

The coachman drops Ivan off in rural oblivion.
No one is willing to carry him further, so Ivan begins to walk.
Until he is transfixed by the castle, the eerie music and haunting song.

 
Circumstances unfold and Countess Sibylle begs his help.
Her enters her coach, enters the castle, and is soon dazed.
Sibylle is seductive, kittenish, fragile, neurotic.

 
While repressed, one gathers she is also sexual and dangerous.
Ivan, the young gallant, is caught between the eyes, the heaving breasts, and desire to help.
Glacial pace, excessive closeups, yet the ending, inside  the music chamber, will linger.
English subtitles = https://sub-scene.com/subtitle/3356533

Horrors Of The Black Museum - 1959 - UK

Horrors Of The Black Museum - 1959 - 6/10

 
Hapless Rick is not exactly caught in the middle, but he does suffer a domineering boss and an overly inquisitive, soon to be controlling girlfriend,
What is boiling underneath?  Murders, violent, gruesome killings.
No motive, no clues, no evidence.
Scotland Yard is baffled, although best-selling crime writer Bancroft has theories.
Good color for a English film of this time, Michael Gough professional as always.
Plotting is OK, although character reactions grow predictable.

Black Moon - 1934 - USA

Black Moon - 1934 - 6/10

 
Juanita, answering the summons of the drums, returns to the family plantation in Haiti.
Where, as a child, she was indoctrinated into the voodoo cult after her parents were massacred.
Steamy tropic film, thick with atmosphere and a backstory of slavery and uprisings.
Fay Wray and Dorothy Burgess solid as loyal secretary and feckless mother.
Pace languishes for modern audiences, and the white master carries a foul taste.
English subtitles = https://subsource.net/subtitle/black-moon-1934/english/10094911

Predators - 2010 - USA

Predators - 2010 - 6/10

 
Not exactly a remake, more a sidespin with a heavy dose of “Fun And Games” from Outer Limits.
Humans, specialized in killing (not hunting), are air-dropped into hostile territory.
Alert to their situation, they realize they ain’t in Kansas, they are not even on planet Earth.
They are in a “hunting ground” – hunters unknown.
While this echoes the original, combat action overload, the cast are mere sketches.
No do they work as a cohesive team, making outcomes pretty foregone.
A disappointment for me, more so because all the elements for a classic actioner are there.
Save for the script, sloppy and unfocused, because of which the film stumbled.

Lost In Translation - 2003 - USA

Lost In Translation - 2003 - 7/10

 
Film star Bob, his career someplace between a valley and on the skids, is in Tokyo.
Purpose: to make some commercials. (At the time, this was frowned upon and considered bad form.  Now, actors will do anything for spare change.)
He bumps in to Charlotte several times, and they form a friendship.
Lonely souls, one questioning his career trajectory, the other wondering about her marriage.
NOT a Hollywood romance.  These are similar people, talking and listening.
A muted film of disconnection, quietly foretelling the nature of life in a few years.
Bill Murray and Scarlet Johansson surprisingly good together.

House Of Frankenstein - 1944 - USA

House Of Frankenstein - 1944 - 6/10

 
After monster cycle peaked, Universal simply piled on the ghouls and stars.
Frankenstein, Wolfman, Dracula, the mad doctor, gypsies, a hunchback.
Plotting madness tries to fit everything together.
The doctor arrives at Castle Frankenstein, revives the “monster” and Larry Talbot.
Things are muffed with an odd romantic triangle, and our doctor is a chronic liar,
One element I noticed as a child, more so now, is how tired several characters are.
Both Dracula and Larry Talbot are weary of living.
A DVD or BluRay could use a remastering, and an audio commentary.