HIRUKO THE GOBLIN (1991)

Hiruko the Goblin
Dig up this hidden gem about digging up a monster!

by "Doc" Hunter Bush - contributor, host, and podcast czar

Hiruko the Goblin is a SpookyJawn-friendly ghost story combining monster-hunting elements, a dash of teenage melodrama, a hint of ominous prophecy, and some really fantastic and varied practical effects. Based on a manga by Daijirô Morohoshi, and directed by Shin'ya Tsukamoto (director of Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1989)), the movie was originally released in 1991. It was remastered in 2021 for its 30th anniversary for a brief return to theaters and a blu-ray release from Mondo Macabro, which was where I was lucky enough to finally lay eyes on it.

I had heard of it in some circles, almost always being positively compared to (one of my favorite films) The Evil Dead (1981), alongside a film with the incredibly memorable title Bloody Muscle Body Builder in Hell (1995). These films - their titles at least - were some of my first in-roads to Japanese horror. Over the years they, as well as Nobuhiko Ôbayashi's House (a.k.a. Hausu) (1977) were the titles that I kept hearing about but never seemed to catch on in popular culture. Oldboy, Ichi the Killer, and etc. would become popular, or something like The Ring (a.k.a. Ringu) or Ju-On: The Grudge would get U.S. remakes, and eventually the originals could be found on the shelf of the video store, but it took for-ev-er to finally track down Hiruko, House (thanks, Criterion!), and Bloody Muscle Body Builder in Hell (thanks, Visual Vengeance!). Just a casual reminder to support physical media!

If, like me, you watched The Last Drive-In Nightmareathon on Shudder at the end of August, you might have also seen BMBBiH. While I think that film totally earns its sobriquet as "the Japanese Evil Dead", it does so by lovingly copying the original. Hiruko the Goblin on the other hand, more accurately captures the feeling, energy, and humor of Evil Dead while being playing in a totally different space for the most part.

I mean, it's a haunted location movie. I should get that out of the way. The title Hiruko the Goblin can be a little misleading. There are monsters, but for the first big chunk of the film they act largely more like ghosts than something like the Gremlins or Critters from their respective franchises. Hiruko is a yōkai, a catch-all term for Japanese spirit that, in practical usage, is highly contextual. There are legions of yōkai, some being mean-spirited, some benevolent, and some almost neutral. The translation to "goblin" seems to designate Hiruko as either small or more animalistic (one character consciously corrects himself from calling it a "demon") but still troublesome and dangerous. I bring this up so that we're all on the same page: Hiruko is not what you might think of as a "traditional" goblin.

But, oh man, this is a fun movie.

After a cold open involving an archaeologist and one of his students being beset by some unseen force, we're introduced to Masao (Masaki Kudou) and his friends, sneaking onto school grounds in the off-season to retrieve a hidden stash of beers and looking to spend the day by the lake. They're driven off by the scythe-wielding groundskeeper / janitor Watanabe (Hideo Murota) and split up. Just as Masao is about to be pounced upon by the unseen evil (the camera seeing through its eyes, à la Evil Dead), he is rescued by his uncle Hieda Reijirou (Kenji Sawada), a paranormal investigator.

Turns out, the archaeologist from the cold open is one of the school's teachers, AND is Masao's father, AND is missing, which is what brought Hieda to town. He had been corresponding with Masao's father and they both believed the dig site was potentially supernatural. Now they're smack dab in the middle of things.

The first chunk of the movie is all dramatic irony. We the audience know the movie is called Hiruko the Goblin, but Masao, his friends, and uncle Hieda all seem to think the occasional decapitated bodies they've been coming across are the work of Watanabe and his scythe. Even when things begin to really push the envelope with regards to believability, the film never becomes frustrating or tiresome. Everything moves at such a brisk pace that it's almost impossible to be mad at anything. There's also Hieda.

Hieda is a bit scattered. He gives off an Egon Spengler type of energy what with his DIY spirit detector gear. Added to that, he and Masao spend a lot of time fleeing danger through the halls and across the grounds of the school precariously balanced on a single bicycle. It's really charming and he would be easy to see as purely a comic relief character, but he has a tragic backstory that also means Masao is hesitant to trust him completely. The character is written well, with information fed to us piecemeal enough to remain interesting, but actor Kenji Sawada makes it all land just perfectly.

Eventually, Masao and Hieda witness enough that they can no longer pretend this is a slasher flick. It is officially goblin time!

The supernatural elements are initially depicted as the severed heads of Masao's classmates, moving via unnatural means, occasionally with long gnarly tentacle tongues. That's all well and good, and plenty scary, until the creature Pokévolves six huge, gross crab-like legs and starts scuttling up walls and across ceilings (sometimes realized via puppetry, sometimes via stop motion; always perfectly janky)! It's so unsettling! The sound effects develop clicky-clacky noise as the legs move that's just skin-crawling!

Something about the variety of the effects really feels like the Evil Dead films to me. Just that by-any-means, kitchen sink approach to getting an idea in front of an audience. In addition to the creature effects I mentioned, the effects team use some chromakey, great prosthetics, and even (maybe) some animatronics for sequences where the crab legs have to be moving while an actor has to deliver dialogue (although, it's likely that was achieved via more puppetry). It's just so impressive to me as a staunch proponent for practical effects. It warms my haunted heart.

The back half of the film is full of twists and reveals that you couldn't even anticipate: there's Indiana Jones-style tomb raiding, magic, prophecy, the janitor gets actual character development, tons of cool set pieces and effects, and *checks notes* a ghost that looks like the aliens from The Abyss but made out of... let's say "spunk". Hiruko the Goblin never quite gets to the acid-trip gonzo levels of visuals that something like House achieves (but really, what does?) and it's not quite the Evil Dead palette swap that Bloody Muscle Body Builder in Hell is, but what it is has enough familiar qualities to appeal to a large swath of mainstream horror viewers while also having enough uniqueness to stand out.

I hope you seek this movie out (and honestly any of the ones I've mentioned here) and I hope you like them! Remember to support physical media and champion practical effects wherever you can. Have a safe and happy Spookyjawn, and Long Live the Movies!

CALIGULA: THE ULTIMATE CUT (Unobstructed View)

Caligula: The Ultimate Cut
Directed by Tinto Brass 
Written by Gore Vidal
Starring Malcolm McDowell, Helen Mirren, Teresa Ann Savoy, Peter O'Toole
Running time 2 hours and 58 minutes
Currently unrated but contains adult language, drinking, some violence, copious nudity, and other sexual situations.

On DVD & Blu-ray now, coming to digital on Oct. 18th, and as a 4K Box Set on Oct. 22nd, from Unobstructed View

by “Doc” Hunter Bush, contributor, host and Podcast Czar

Synopsis:

Stop me if you've heard this one before: In 1976, Bob Guccione the founder of Penthouse Magazine, renowned novelist and essayist Gore Vidal, and Italian arthouse director Tinto Brass all joined forces to create one of the most hotly-contested and divisive films, arguably of all time. With a classically-trained cast of British stage actors, decadent costumes, and elaborate sets and props - including a full-scale Roman boat that was one of the largest props ever constructed at that time - Caligula was destined to be talked about.

Telling the story of the rise and fall of the infamous emperor (Caesar) of Rome whose four-year reign began with good faith and increasingly slid into corruption, indulgence and perversion. Director Tinto Brass was hired under the auspices of making a film satirizing man's lust for power, and allegedly Gore Vidal's original screenplay was more historically accurate with regards to Caligula's sexuality - early promotional ads for the film even included a quote from the screenplay of Caligula saying "What better proof that I am God. I have a husband. And a wife. I am all that is and shall ever be". However, Bob Guccione had other ideas.

With more dicks than a private eye convention, more boobs than a three stooges marathon, Caligula wouldn't appeal to more puritanical audiences already, but apparently Guccione wanted his production to fully blur the lines between art-house film and hardcore pornography. He shot his own fully pornographic b-roll on the side and at one point decided that Tinto Brass had done enough work on the film's final edit, locking the director out of the editing suite so Guccione could cut in all the full penetration his lens could hold. Still he excised all mentions of Caligula's bisexuality so as to not alienate potential audiences.

The original Caligula is still one of the most notorious disasters in film history. Almost no one is happy with their association with it, some even having their names removed from the credits, and few accounts of what movie anyone thought they were making align. Ironically, Caligula's tagline and purportedly its ultimate lesson is "Absolute Power Corrupts" and about the one thing anyone can agree on is that Bob Guccione didn't take that lesson to heart.

What Features Make it Special:

On the 4-disc Collection (*) includes:

• Disc 1: The Ultimate Cut
• Caligula: The Ultimate Cut
• Cannes 2023 Teaser
• English Closed Captions
• French Canadian Subtitles
• Audio Commentary with editor Aaron Shaps and producer and reconstructionist Thomas Negovan
• Audio Commentary with author Grant Morrison and producer and reconstructionist Thomas Negovan
  
  
• Disc 2: 1980 Theatrical Version
• Caligula: Restored Original 1980 Theatrical Version
• Restored Original Theatrical Trailer
• English Closed Captions
  
  
• Disc 3: Caligula: The Bonus Materials
• "The Orgy of Power" interview with Tinto Brass
• The Making of Caligula
• The Guccione Scandal
  
  
• Disc 4: Audio Soundtrack [CD]
• Caligula: The Ultimate Cut Soundtrack

(*) The 2-Disc Blu-Ray and DVD releases have the same features as Discs 1 and 2, with the addition of "The Guccione Scandal" from Disc 3

 

Why You Need to Add it to Your Media Library:

Malcolm McDowell's Caligula performance is electric, full of energy, and sadistic tomfoolery. Ultimately, he is the whole damn show here, but that's not to undermine the contributions of everyone else in the cast. Comparatively brief appearances from legendary actors Peter O'Toole and John Guilgud, and larger supporting performances from Teresa Ann Savoy and (one of the most beautiful women to ever exist) Helen Mirren all light up the screen and match (or counter) McDowell's mania to tremendous effect.

The four-disc collection also includes an all-new score for The Ultimate Cut by Troy Sterling Nies. It's an interesting score, with lots of droning tones and slight distortion that slightly reminded me of Neil Young's (much more heavily-distorted) guitar tones from his score to Jim Jarmusch's Dead Man. The minimalism of it contrasted well with the decadence onscreen.

On a lot of levels, this is a fascinating artifact, if nothing else. Not only is it a version of Caligula that was thought to no longer exist, BUT it allegedly contains NO FOOTAGE used in the previously released, 1979 theatrical version! Supposedly, The Ultimate Cut is built entirely from alternate takes and non-explicit b-roll and that's ...just an incredible thing. Huge if true, as they say.

On top of that, all available versions also include the original theatrical release, so you can go through and double check that previous assertion, if you're so inclined. And even if not, you'll be able to watch the original, which is hard to track down on its own. So you're getting two films: one whose content and controversy makes it nearly impossible to find on streaming, and the second which, up until a few years ago, was thought to be as likely to exist as your average bigfoot! 

Caligula: The Ultimate Cut is available on DVD & Blu-ray now, coming to digital on Oct. 18th, and as a 4K Box Set on Oct. 22nd from Unobstructed View.

THE RADLEYS (2024)

 The Radleys

Directed by Euros Lyn
Written by Talitha Stevenson, Jo Brand, based on a novel by Matt Haig
Starring Harry Baxendale, Damian Lewis, Kelly Macdonald, Bo Bragason
Running time 1 hour and 55 minutes
Rated R by the MPA

by "Doc" Hunter Bush, contributor, host and podcast czar

Based on the 2011 novel by Matt Haig, The Radleys is about a normal-seeming family - doctor dad Peter (Damian Lewis), active housewife mom Helen (Kelly Macdonald), gay photographer son Rowan (Harry Baxendale), and vegan, sorta bitchy (*) sister Clara (Bo Bragason) - with a big secret. When Clara accidentally kills an attempted rapist in the woods, the parents find themselves forced into at least three tough spots. Not only do they have to come clean to their kids about the "family disease", but they have to dispose of the body to keep Clara out of jail and keep their vampirism a secret. To accomplish this, they have to call Peter's twin brother Will (also Damian Lewis) who rolls up in an RV full of absolute chaos.

(*) I am willing to attribute Clara's turn to being just The Worst hormonal and attitudinal teenage stereotype to her beginning to drink blood.

I've been watching a LOT of vampire films this year, gearing up for Vamp-tober on the Hate Watch/Great Watch Podcast, and one thing that's dawned on me is that playing with "the rules" of vampires is as much of a staple of vampire fiction as anything else. The TV Tropes page for Our Vampires Are Different is chock-a-block with examples great and small. In The Radleys, vampires find sunlight irritating but not deadly, and are able to choose to abstain from drinking blood at the cost of most of the usual vampire abilities.

Blood is treated somewhat like alcohol and/or drugs within the world of The Radleys. Clara's attitude after starting to imbibe - which is so shitty and petulant that she can't even keep her cool long enough to avoid tipping the cops off that she was involved in the murder - supports this read, as does Rowan's sneaking little airplane-size bottles of blood from Uncle Will's fridge to work up the courage to talk to the boy he likes. Obviously, Helen & Peter's abstaining and keeping the vampirism from the kids parallels hard partiers giving up the life to raise a family.

All of this is called into very high contrast by the presence of Uncle Will. His hair is longer than Peter's, he wears lots of open shirts, and generally "doesn't see what the big deal is" about everything. But there's a sinister edge to him. He encourages the kids' more negative instincts and almost immediately brings up some past relationship between he and Helen, which doesn't totally make Helen uneasy. Pretty shortly, Peter starts on his journey, straight out of American Beauty: sneaking blood in the garage, seeking (or at least being open to) extramarital relationships, all while being kind of oblivious to all the tumult in his family unit.

The Radleys is an odd duck, but not a bad time. Four of the five family members are pretty well-developed. The exception, weirdly, is Clara who is mostly a walking inciting incident and has less development than some supporting characters, like the boy Rowan likes (Jay Lycurgo) and his ex-cop dad (Shaun Parkes) who fully believes The Radleys are vampires and blames then for his wife's disappearance years ago! They're not exactly well-rounded, but they are given enough screen time to develop their characters via performance, and as a result you're pulling for Rowan's relationship to work out, and the ex-cop dad feels like a real threat.

Tonally, The Radleys touches on a lot of vampire films. The teen romance of Twilight (2008) mixed with The Lost Boys' (1987) male bonding; the grounded suburban setting of Fright Night (1985) and the metaphorical lens of The Addition (1995). It's darkly funny at times, and steamy in parts, but since each family member has their own Vampire Movie going on, it can't quite commit to being any one thing. Nevertheless, the cheap and nasty thrills have an almost Lifetime Movie vibe at times, which is nothing if not crowd-pleasing.

The variety of tones and plot lines gives The Radleys a good chance to appeal to a wide segment of audiences, but also means most of those characters don't get a ton of time in the spotlight. When the closing credits rolled, I'd had a good time, but felt ever so slightly unsatisfied.

The Radleys will be in Theaters, On Digital and On Demand October 4, 2024.

LATE NIGHT WITH THE DEVIL steelbook (IFC Films & Shudder)

Late Night with the Devil
Directed and written by Colin Cairnes and Cameron Cairnes
Starring David Dastmalchian, Laura Gordon, Ian Bliss, Fayssal Bazzi, Ingrid Torelli
Running time 1 hour and 33 minutes
Rated R by the MPA for violent content, some gore, and language including a sexual reference.

On Limited Edition Steelbook Blu-Ray and DVD, available now from IFC Films and Shudder

by “Doc” Hunter Bush, contributor, host and Podcast Czar

Synopsis:

Late Night with the Devil is presented as a recording of a live broadcast of the talk show Night Owls from Halloween of 1977 that goes off the rails, exposing viewers across the country to the unobscured supernatural. (...or does it?) In some preamble presented in a documentary style, we learn that Night Owls host Jack Dorsey (David Dastmalchian) has recently dealt with the death of his wife and is dedicating his Halloween broadcast to exploring his supernatural interests.

Jack's guests on this historic, doomed (...or is it?) broadcast include a dubious psychic named Christou (Fayssal Bazzi), magician-turned-professional debunker Carmichael Haig (Ian Bliss), author and parapsychologist June Ross-Mitchell (Laura Gordon), and 13 year-old Lilly (Ingrid Torelli), who may or may not be possessed by some kind of entity and is the subject of June's latest book Conversations with the Devil.

As the film goes on, things on the show come to a boiling point, drawing on Jack's personal tumult as much as the guests' until everything crescendos in a truly shocking manner. (...or does it?)

What Features Make it Special:

• Commentary with David Dastmalchian & Good Fiend Films' Leah Kilpatrick
  
  
• Q&A with Directors Colin and Cameron Cairnes
  
  
• Behind the Scenes of Late Night with the Devil
  
  
• Monster Shock Theater live with David Dastmalchian

Why You Need to Add it to Your Library:

If you're anything like me, this hits right in the sweet spot. Maybe several sweet spots. Classic talk shows, "lost" media, Halloween, the supernatural, the occult, James Randi (on whom Carmichael Haig is clearly based); each of these things on their own would catch my interest, but when combined into a finished product that's this enjoyable? I'm there. To put it in the parlance of the film: I'm tuning in.

On top of that, David Dastmalchian is an actor that I'm just drawn to. The guy is clearly a horror fan, and I've enjoyed his work as a character and supporting actor, so finally getting to see him as the lead in something is a treat. He's great here also. That certainly doesn't hurt. I dig creativity and Late Night with the Devil has it in spades.

The special features on the discs are good. The BTS segment is only a few minutes long, mostly consisting of the effects crews trying out various gags, and then watching unfinished footage of the gag in action. That's great and all, but I'm always hoping for a taste of what it was actually like to be on the set. The feature length commentary and the Q&A are decently informative and very enjoyable.

The stand out feature, though, is the episode of Monster Shock Theater (presumably the show which aired immediately before the ill-fated episode of Night Owls, and also features Jack Dorsey as a guest. My only complaint is that it has commercial breaks but no commercials! I'm a sucker for classic commercials, so I'd have loved it if they'd included either legitimate era-appropriate ones or made some of their own! How fun would that be? From the sense I got, of everyone involved, I imagine they probably at least considered doing so.

The steelbook also comes with the Night Owls Audience Welcome Pack from October 31st 1977 which includes:

• Night Owls air freshener

• Signed Jack Dorsey headshot

• Christou performance flyer

• Conversations with the Devil by Dr. June Ross-Mitchell bookmark

Late Night with the Devil is on limited edition steelbook Blu-ray and DVD, available now from IFC Films and Shudder.