Well, no more slacking off for your Favorite Catgirl Movie Reviewer… I’m back at it once again, and this time out it’s off to Indonesia for the new DVD release of the first film by Brian Yuzna’s Komodo Films project, “Takut: Faces of Fear“.
Synopsis? It goes something like this: “7 directors, 6 stories, 1 emotion – FEAR!
“Show Unit“: A man investigates an intruder in his house only to become the victim of a deadly game of extortion and murder.
“Titisan Naya” aka “Incarnation of Naya“: During her family’s traditional sacred-kris cleansing-ritual a skeptical teenager discovers that her ancestors are not just an old memory.
“Peeper“: A Peeping Tom finds his comeuppance in the backstage of a Wayang Orang dance theater. An exploration of the other meaning of ‘love blinds’ by Ray Nayoan.
“The List“: Boy meets girl. Boy dumps girl. It’s magic, with a twist. A scorned woman engages a “dukun” to use black magic to satisfy her appetites for revenge.
“The Rescue”: The Rescue is a fast-paced chase through an apocalyptic Jakarta inhabited with cannibalistic “sub-humans”. A patrol of mobile brigadier Gegana Special Forces must lead civilian survivors to safety before they are all infected.
“Dara“: One woman, three men. Let the feast begin… Dara is a story about haute cuisine and the lengths to which a beautiful chef will go to in order to satisfy her customers.”
Seems anthology horror is all the rage in Asia these days with plenty of examples from Thailand, HK, Malaysia, and Indonesia to choose from. So why grab this particular film? Well, Brian Yuzna certainly holds a special place in Neko’s heart for his earlier Lovecraft inspired horror efforts “Reanimator” and it’s sequels as well as “From Beyond” so it’s a given that this one could be a slice above the usual Indonesian effort. Add to that the inclusion of the Mo Brothers short “Dara” which I’d been on the lookout for and there was no way I could pass this up.
So what the heck are you waitin’ for? It’s time to “Read On”, o’ Gentle Visitors!
Sigh….. I know it’s been a while now, and I’ve finally made up with Carolyn over the stupid things I said to her, but I’m still sad and blue by the passing of my lil’ kitty Goober….
Just when I think I’m over it, something new reminds me of him and I’m all teary and upset all over again. Today… for example… I finally got around to going into the spare bedroom I use for storage at the apartment and emptied out his Litterbox where it sat behind the door, for once and for all, taking it down to the dumpster and getting rid of it at last. Carolyn hadn’t said anything…. but I knew she’d been waiting patiently for me to get rid of it and move on.
Yes, yes…… and I know people have been waiting for me to move on here at the ol’ “Litterbox” as well. I’m wanting to get back to reviews, but things keep getting in my way lately…. Don’t worry… I’ve actually got some things ready, but I’m still trying to straighten out a lot of crazy things at work, so it could be a few days till I get the time to spring them on ya…. so keep checking back.
Till then, I’ll say a last lil’ prayer for Goober in “Kitty Heaven” and “Meow, Meow for now!!”
I know it’s been a while… but yes…. I’m still very much alive, Gentle Visitors, and so I guess it’s time to put my sadness behind me and just move forward… and that means it’s also time for another “Nekolishous” review for you all to help shake out the last of my lingering blues.
This time…. it’s all about a movie I’ve been trying hard to find for quite some time. You see…. every once in a while, your Favorite Catgirl manages to snag a long searched for treasure… A film that somehow resists my every effort to track down despite my sometimes obsessive (and some might say crazy) efforts to make it my own. Occasionally it’s simply finding the DVD itself… (maybe forcing me to settle for a VCD or even a brittle old VHS tape just to see it at last) and other times it’s the subtitles which vex and elude me (And we all know how cranky THAT can make me, Hehehehe!!), but then there are those rare and inexplicable times the entire film seems to just drop right off the edge of the planet itself never seeming to come to light despite my best efforts to unearth it. When I finally find one of these, it’s always a thing to celebrate, and, as luck would have it, this time out my ceaseless efforts have brought me a copy of the 2006 Malay horror film “Susuk”. At last!! Just about when I’d about given up hope of ever encountering it….
Synopsis? Well here it goes: “Beauty & Fame has a price. Soraya is a young trainee nurse who is starting to feel dissatisfied by her mediocre and unremarkable life. A chance introduction to the world of glamour piques her earlier ambition to be a star. She does not succeed at first. But then she is told the forbidden practice of Susuk can help. She has to make a choice then whether to remain the way she is or cross the line into forbidden sins to realize her dreams.”
Naturally… as soon as it arrived in my mailbox, I just had to give it a watch and share my impressions with all you here at the ol’ Litterbox, o’ Gentle Visitors. As always, such a find carries with it certain expectations…. and this time is no different. But will I luck out and score a true gem, or be disappointed by a film that just doesn’t reach for those lofty levels of horror goodness?
Only one real way to find out… and that’s right, time to give it a look, so what are you waitin’ for? It’s time to “Read On!”
I know…. I know… I promised you all some more reviews (Quite a while back actually…. D’ohh!!) but it just hasn’t seemed to work out that way.
Sigh…. Ever have one of those days? You all know the ones I mean….. where it seems as if the World itself and everything in it has turned to utter crap and wishes nothing but evil things for you? Ever had one of those days that turns into one of those weeks?…… or even lasts long enough to turn into one of those months?
July has become one of those things for me I’m sorry to say, and it’s not looking like it’s done torturing lil’ ol’ me quite yet. For most of this month work has been hammering me mercilessly with hair pulling stress levels…. more unexpected problems with my Credit card have surfaced yet again to give me grief…. and, most terrible of all….. my beloved kitty Goober made another escape from the apartment last week, turning up dead in the parking lot the next day. Worse… it was Carolyn who let him out the door accidentally that evening and we had the stupidest words over it that in my grief and anger should never have been said…… All I want to do these last few days is curl up and cry.
So…. as all you Gentle Visitors might have noticed, I’ve been pretty darn well absent from the ol’ Litterbox lately. I wish I could come up with a good excuse, but between work and my personal life just beating me about the head and shoulders lately, the truth is I just haven’t had the time or the energy to do much other than feel miserable…..
Still…. even though I’ve missed deadlines both here and at Delirium I wanted to at least post something here to let people know I’m still around…. just not my usual perky, happy self. I’ll be back soon….. but it’ll have to be once I’ve straightened a few things out with my mess of an existence. Till then…..
Ahhh… Another day off, and another chance to share my latest thoughts and experiences with all you wonderful visitors here at the ol’ Litterbox. It’s been quiet here at home these last few weeks, and because I’ve pledged to myself to loosen up a bit and take some chances, I figured it was time to share something of a more personal nature with you all.
Lately as I’ve been surfing about, I’ve noticed that 2010 seems to have every blog I read making those “Top 10″ lists a “must have”. So who is this lil’ Catgirl to argue with such a trend. But…. who wants just another tired old list of “Top 10 News Stories” or “10 Best Films of 2010″ or “10 Celebrity Scandals of the Year”…. Certainly not me.
Nope. There’s just no way I could waste your time repeating any of those… it just wouldn’t have the “personal” touch my Diary posts have come to be known for. I know… I know… you think you all know this wacky, somewhat neurotic lil’ kitten pretty well by now. But there are a few things I haven’t shared…. till now, although I’m mostly toooo boring a lady to have as many as 10 secrets for you….. Anyway…. for those of you with a burning need to complete your “Neko-knowledge” I bring you… “5 Things You’ve Never… Ever… Known About Your Favorite Catgirl Princess”.
Yeah, yeah….. I just know this girl’s gonna have bad dreams for a few nights…. but even so, I still couldn’t resist the siren call of the latest Indonesian horror goodie to reach my mailbox, “Rumah Dara” or as it’s known practically everywhere else, “Macabre”. Well…. Except for Singapore where your Favorite Catgirl finally managed to snag myself a copy… There it’s simply called, “Darah”. Confused yet? Don’t worry… it gets easier.
Our synopsis for it goes like this: “Adjie (Ario Bayu) and Astrid (Sigi Wimala) will leave for Australia the very next day but before that Adjie wants to meet with his rebel sister, Ladya (Julie Estelle). Their meeting does not run smoothly in the beginning as Ladya keeps blaming Adjie for his past mistakes. After persuasion from Astrid, Ladya agrees to send Adjie off in the airport.
The next day on the way to the airport their journey are interrupted when a beautiful woman called Maya (Imelda Therinne) approached them for help as she has just been robbed and she needed their help to bring her home.
After reaching at her home they are introduced by an elegant and mysterious woman called Dara (Shareefa Daanish). And the sincere and good intentions of Dara is only the beginning of a disastrous outcome. Who is Dara actually? And…. will they be able to escape from this “House of Blood” alive?”
This one promised to be a bit more extreme than the usual Indonesian horror effort, and given that I was a little hesitant at first….. You all know what a timid and tender heart lurks inside this lil’ horror movie lovin’ Catgirl, but I told myself: “Awww… C’mon…..It’s Indonesian for goodness sake…. How truly nasty could it really be?”
Ummmm… errrr…. well… pretty darn bloody, nasty and downright mean in a true “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” meets “The Hills Have Eyes” sorta way as it turns out….. So, do ya wanna know if it’s your cup of tea as well? Then all you gotta do is “Read On!!” and find out…..
Oooohhh!! Those naughty, evil, flesh eating Philippine monsters, the Aswang, are back… and so is pretty Cristine Reyes…. but this time there’s no romance or comedy on hand in the latest Philippine Horror DVD to find it’s way to your Favorite Catgirl’s mailbox. This time out it’s full-on horror in the latest Philippine DVD, “Patient X”.
The synopsis goes sorta like this: “Dr. Lukas Esguerra comes home to his rural hometown and finds that one of the suspects in the brutal murder of his brother and his family was caught by the police and was able to sustain multiple gunshot wounds. But then this suspect is still alive, and apparently cannot die. The police locked up this suspect in the basement section of a hospital, because of the suspect’s involvement in the recent massacre that resulted to the deaths of the family of the police chief. On the evening of Dr. Esguerra’s visit, the sinister and mysterious companions of the suspect has come knocking on the hospital doors and is bent on freeing their companion locked up inside, even if it kills everybody on the way.”
Sounds like this particular one certainly isn’t going to be a sweet romantic comedy…. even though Cristine Reyes is again on hand doing her best to be as cute and adorable a cannibal monster girl as she possibly can. But scary can be good too, and so I’m really lookin’ forward to seeing if the Aswang are as creepy and horrible as all the folklore suggests they are. Well…. only one way to find out…. and that’s to get in there, curl up on the couch with the wine coolers and popcorn and give it a watch, right?
But don’t worry… Your Favorite Catgirl will let you in on all the details… all you have to do Gentle Visitor, is “Read On!!”
Well… this time out, your Favorite Catgirl’s back in more familiar territory, with the new DVD for the Indonesian Horror film “Air Terjun Pengantin”. Looks to me at first glance to be sorta “Friday the 13th” meets “Cannibal Apocalypse”…. with a dash of the ol’ Indonesian ghost story goodness thrown in for extra added flavor. I’ve been looking forward to this one for a while now, and finally got my chance to grab a copy…. I’d have watched it long before now, but you all know what a busy, busy lady I’ve been these days…. Thank goodness some free time open up an let me get to it! Mmmmm!! Crazy cannibals…. Carolyn is just gonna soooo freak out when I set up this one for Movie Nite!! Hehehehe!!
Our synopsis goes like this here: “Tiara (Tamara Bleszynski) wants to get over with her traumatic past and is planning to visit Bride’s Waterfall to release her tension. She invites few of her cousins to join her in this trip. Her boyfriend, Lilo (Kieran Sidhu) and the rest seven people are joining this trip.
Upon arrival the group falls in love with its pristine beach and Tiara is delighted and looking forward to have a good time there. However, their joy does not last very long as few strange incidents occurred in the island. Finally, Lilo reveals that the inhabitants of the island have been massacred by a mysterious person.
Then a mysterious masked man starts to terrorize the island. One by one the trip members are killed with their blood being consumed. What is the motive of the murder? Will Tiara escape for safety from the masked man?”
Oh yeah…. sounds like a slasher film alright… but Neko’s hoping that they went a new direction here and at least tried to put their own mark on the genre…. It’s certainly been a good long time since I saw an original take on that old “teens gone wild, teens get dead” story idea. Will they succeed? Or will this one just remind me of the smell of over-ripe bananas gone waaaay bad?
Let’s all find out! Yep… It’s time to “Read On!!”
Well, your Favorite Catgirl is back, and surprise, surprise…. this time out, I’ve got lots more Zombies for you here at the ol’ Litterbox….
Well, actually I’ve got “Mutants”, on the UK Region 2 DVD release of the French horror goodie just chock full of virus infested homicidal cannibal zombies… Errrrr, I mean mutants… I think. Whatever…. they look like zombies… they eat people just like zombies…. so if it quacks like a duck then, well… you know the rest.
Our synopsis goes like this: “In a world devastated by a pandemic virus that horribly transmutes human beings into primitive and bloodthirsty creatures, the last hope for survivors is the military station ‘Noe’ where scientists are researching the cure. Marco (Francis Renaud) and Sonia (Hélène De Fougerolles) set off to find the secret base to escape from the ‘mutants’. When they are attacked, Marco becomes contaminated and little by little begins to undergo the same changes as the other creatures. Sonia, pregnant with their first child, must somehow fight off the hordes and force herself to fight the man she once loved.”
Hmmmm? Sounds like a winner… but do the French know what to do with zombies? I certainly hope so, especially given the immanent arrival of another French zombie film “Le Horde”…. and you know I’m just gonna have to get that one too. (I’m just such a hopeless lil’ zombie loving doofus!!!)
You Gentle Visitors can, of course, can find out all the grisly details for yourselfs by just taking Neko’s subtle hint and continuing to “Read On!”….
The Walking Dead… Flesh-eating Cannibal Corpses….. the “Living Deprived”… or as we all lovingly like to call them, Zombies….
What’s so darn compellingly universal about them? Seems that they manage to lurch their way into the most unexpected places…. this time out it’s the exotic land of Turkey suffering the ravages of the “Zombie Apocalypse” in the new DVD release “Ada Zombilerin Düğünü” or, as I’ve been told it translates: “The Island: Wedding of the Zombies”. This one sorta snuck up on your Favorite Movie Lovin’ Catgirl and I only recently caught wind of it during one of my quests through the Internet in search of yet another Turkish horror delight. That one managed to escape me… but I was rewarded by encountering this bit of Zombie horror goodness. One quick search later found me a copy and now it’s mine to watch and review or all of you here at the ol’ Litterbox.
Synopsis? Well… I can give you this one, translated and cleaned up a bit from the Turkish original: “Erhan, together with five long time friends, is off to the island of Büyükada’ya to attend the wedding of a distant acquaintance. To commemorate the event, he can record their happy moments with a video camera he brought along on the trip. Viewed throughout the entire film, this camera captures the horrors that unfold in a most personal fashion. All seems normal at first, yet later the wedding guests become the victims of an unexpected zombie attack, and the whole scene turns into a horrifying lake of blood.”
Looks to this lil’ Catgirl like some sort of cross between “Cloverfield” and “Blair Witch” with more than a little “Diary of the Dead” thrown in for good measure. Still…. I don’t get many Turkish Zombies in my neck of the woods, so I’m not about to turn down a chance to munch my popcorn, cuddle with my sweetie, and get my zombie movie fix, Turkish style.
Wanna know if it’s worth a look-see for yourself? Then by all means, you’d better “Read On”!