It's a Fanny Friday!

It's International Godzilla Day!

 There's a new Godzilla film premiering today (the 30th from Japanese production company Toho), and people are rejoicing and partying around the world!

It's Fanny Friday

 

Silent horror comedy ala the 1970s

Grave Danger (1973)
Starring: Dan Formento, Leslie Donahue, Janice Shaw, and Mary Perry

Director: Craig Highberger

Rating: Seven of Ten Stars

A vampire (Formento) on the hunt for young women to drain of blood encounters a mortal (Donahue) who reminds him of a love he thought lost long ago. But is the world ready for a human/vampire love romance?

 

Fifty years ago, Craig Highberger rounded up a bunch of high school friends and their siblings and made "Grave Danger". For a film made entirely by teenagers, it is surprisingly good. In fact, it puts any number of low-budget horror films that came both before and after it, and which were usually made by vastly more experienced people than Highberger and his pals. Heck, the sequence where the vampire and the leading lady meet for the first time rivals stuff you might see from top-of-the-line directors. 

Half-assed research into what the various people involved with this film indicated that only Highberger went onto having any sort of career in media--and his appears to be a minor one at that. (This is too bad, because there was a lot of raw talent on display in this film.)

--

And now, a joke inspired by an event in "Grave Danger"...

Touch the Tits of Dracula!

(The chilling sequel to Taste the Blood of Dracula!)

Halloween is coming...

... and even Vampirella is starting to get a little unnerved by the dark energy that's gathering all around us!

Some Fanny on World Opera Day...

Let's see what's in the Culture Corner

Shades of Gray resident Queer Old Coot brings us another tip on how to behave to span the gaps between the bickering generations! (Click on the cartoon to see larger, more easily read version.)

Sarah did some scribbling...

 

In addition to the always-amusing Sarah's Scriibles, Sarah Andersen has brought us the excellent Halloweenish strip "Fangs". It's the story of true love between a vampire and a werewolf, and here's my review of a book collecting most (if not all) of them.

Fanny Friday!

Bullies get what they deserve in "Full Circle"

Full Circle (2016)
Starring: Michelle Shampton, Abby Main, David Schwering, Morgan Nash, and Cameron Gall

Director: Abby Main

Rating: Six of Ten Stars

Three bullies (Gall, Nash, and Schwering) are set upon by a mysterious, blood-thirsty avenger (Main) after they pick on the wrong girl (Shampton).

"Full Circle" is another of those obscure student films that I've uncovered in the dark and dusty abandoned corners of YouTube. The story is structured like the original "there's a killer on campus"-type films where teens and twenty-somethings are brutally murdered... but you, as the viewer, can't help but feel like cheering the killer on because the victims are so reprehensible. There are a couple twists, however, that lifts this film above so many others of this type. 

There are some negatives here, though, and they mostly focus on lead actress Michelle Shampton. For about half of the film's running time, you'll think that she might be suffering from some mental disability because she seems abnormally cheerful. Eventually, we learn the real reason for her behavior and the issue is that Shampton was just going a bit over-the-top with her performance. In the scene where this becomes obvious, we actually get a look at proof that she actually is a pretty good actress. It's a shame that this appears to be the only film she was in. (This is true of all the cast members, actually.)

Another (nitpicky and personal) complaint is the artificial film "aging" artifacts that have been added to "Full Circle". Based on the overall look of the footage, I am guessing that it was originally shot with a digital camera and the desaturated to achieve the black-and-white look. It's done better here than in many other student efforts I've watched over the years, but adding streaks and other fake "old movie" flaws to the film is taking this a step too far. In my opinion, such effects should only be added to a film that its creators are trying to make look like it's from the "olden days" (which is not the case here), or the damage is so extreme that a claim can be made that it was "restored from footage recovered under desperate circumstances after it was nearly destroyed". The light "damage/wear-and-tear" touches to a film that's clearly set in the 1990s or 2000s are more distracting than anything else. Or at least it is to me.

Despite those two paragraphs of negativity, I feel this is a film that's well worth you time, if you like works of the "disgusting people get their due" variety. The fact that it has a couple plot twists that put it a little outside the norm makes it even better. So, take a few minutes out of your busy day and check out "Full Circle". (You might even be able to get away with watching it at work, since it's a silent movie and you just turn down the volume on the music!)