Lei Zhen Zi of the Creation Gods

 

This is a Chinese 2023 action fantasy film, directed Chen Feng. The stars includes Norman Chu, Wu Chun-Yi and Yu LI. 

A load of barbarians invade a provincial town and slaughter everyone in the village including the general and his wife. Their child Xiading manages to escape. Years later the boy has grown up and is living in a small mountain town of great myth and legends, believed to be home to a dragon. He finds himself learning of his origins through his foster father the blacksmith, while rescuing the love of his life from an evil witch who works for the cruel barbarians. 

This film uses CGI and it looks impressive, especially the magnificent dragon. There are colourful moments, interesting characters, some humour and lots of fighting. This is based on the 16th century novel "Fengshenyanyi" or "Investiture of the Gods" by Xu Zhonglin of the My Dynasty. The film is high fantasy and part of a trilogy focusing on the divine Feather People who are also dragon slayers. 

I rate this an epic score of 10/10

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The 7th Voyage of Sinbad

"The 7th Voyage of Sinbad" is an epic 1958 fantasy film directed by Nathan Juran. The stars includes Kerwin Mathews, Kathryn Grant and Richard Eyer. 

Sinbad is on his return when his ship turns to an island of mist, when it appears visible they go ashore. Only to discover it's inhabited by an enormous race of cyclops giants. They rescue a wizard, who carries a magic lamp. Things turn dark and complicated when the wizard is invited back to Sinbad's father's palace and evil magic happens. What's even more disturbing for Sinbad is when his beloved princess is turned into as small as a mouse. Then the adventure begins.

The awesome special effects by Ray Harryhausen using stop motion animation never gets old. It makes the monsters appear more frightening. This was the first type of special effects shown in a colour film. 

I rate this excellent fantasy 10/10

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Gappa the Triphibian Monster

 

This 1967 fantasy film was directed by Hiroshi Noguchi. The stars includes Tamio Kawaji, Yoko Yamamoto, Yuji Odaka and Koji Wada. 

Japanese explorers locate an isolated volcanic island called Obelisk, where the native inhabitants believe in a godlike creature named Gappa. There is a secret cave where no one is allowed to go otherwise it makes Gappa angry. The Japanese locate a huge egg near strange stone statues, which they decide to take back with them for study. However, the Gappa has become extremely angry and erupts. 

This film was also released under the title "Monster from a Prehistoric Planet." Despite the monster movies trend being made in Japan, this one was the only one made by Nikkatsu studio, which almost overshadowed by Godzilla and other Kaiju monster films. They quickly went out of business and didn't make anymore films, which was a shame really as this film has good special effects for it's time. The miniature city models were incredible craft works that seems not appreciated by modern audiences. I rate this a 7/10.

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Killer Under the Bed

 

This is a 2018 Lifetime Horror, or supernatural thriller directed by Jeff Hare. The stars includes Kristy Swanson, Brec Bassinger and Madison Lawlor. 

A girl moves into a new house with her mother and big sister, and then she discovers a strange looking doll in the shed with pins stuck in it. Realising she has a voodoo doll with magical powers, she uses it to stop her sister bullying her and it works. She uses the doll's powers again for other sticky situations and to make her handsome teacher like her. While this has been her favourite toy, it has some terrible consequences of using it. 

While the film has some very mild horror theme to it, with a big creepy house in the woods, and eerie books about the occult in a school library. There are some amusing scenes but also ridiculous ones too. One of the most well made and the film's highlight is when the doll pushes itself up through the ground like a zombie. Despite the film's name, there are no deaths, only violence, although the doll is a psychopath who wants to kill someone. I rate this a lukewarm 4/10.

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