October 2023

There were 17 posts published in October 2023 (this is page 3 of 3).

Shocktober: Ninja III: The Domination

Ninja III: The Domination (1984)

Did you ever see the parody short film Kung Fury? It’s an over-the-top homage to 1980s action movies that has a martial artist detective take on robots, mutants, dinosaurs, and, of course, Hitler, all in the name of revenge. It’s a lot… but also not actually as far from what was really coming out back then as you might think. Ninja III: The Domination, the third and final entry in a anthology series from the legendary low-budget production company Cannon Films, is so relentlessly Eighties you might not actually believe it. Let me tell you about it! And I promise, nothing I write will be an exaggeration, this movie doesn’t need that.

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Shocktober Day 2: The Devil’s Rain

The Devil’s Rain (1975)

This marks my first foray into this year’s Shocktober, and as far as devil or possession-themed movies, this one has about as much as you could ask for. It’s got a creepy Satanic cult, people melting, ritual sacrifice, a shirtless William Shatner screaming, a future real-life cult member (in a young John Travolta), and a technical advisor credit for Church of Satan founder Anton LaVey. It’s absolutely the kind of batshit film you look for if you’re parsing through the weirder corners of ’70s cult films. However, if you were looking to worship at the altar of great story-telling or well-defined characters, well, you came to the wrong church. Continue reading →

Shocktober Day 1: The Devils

The Devils (1971)

Welcome to another year of SHOCKTOBER on Mildly Pleased! This year’s theme is POSSESSION! You know it’s a good one because I’m using all caps! Why possession? Dude, look around you. A new Evil Dead came out this year, Talk to Me became A24’s highest-grossing horror movie, The Pope’s Exorcist is a thing, and so on. So, we got a few weeks of classics, cult classics, and a few movies that would probably be better if they were left buried. But hey, man, this is Shocktober, which means we’re digging ’em up! Because the power of Christ compels us to!

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