The sixth Expanse novel is the last of the series that was adapted for the show. The biggest problem with the story is that the main adversary, Marco Inaros, is not a terribly interesting villain. The ring and the potential of alien civilizations beyond it are put on the backburner while humanity keeps getting caught up in never-ending in-fighting.
Technically this is just an expansion pack for Ion Fury, but this is a full-game’s worth on content. The most notable additions are the new weapons, monster types, and a “rotorcycle” vehicle. The vehicle levels were the weakest part of the game for me. I’m just not a fan of the racing style combat. But everything else is pure 90s shooter fun that fits in nicely with this already excellent game.
On a quick nostalgia kick I went back and replayed this, the first Sega Genesis game I ever played. I think this was the pack-in game for the Genesis and it seems an odd choice. At the time it was technologically impressive but the game itself is not terribly exciting. It’s a side-scrolling fighting game in which the main challenge is figuring out the best attacks (kick or punch, that’s it) against the various enemies. The game really comes down to rote memorization.
The most exciting part is collecting the metamorphosis powerups that transform your character into a werewolf, dragon, werebear, or tigerman. Furries, rejoice! Once you transform you’ll become fairly invulnerable and you soon face a stage boss. Most of these bosses can be beaten with attacks that feel like cheap exploits. For example, move in close and spam the electric-shock button and the eyeball thing dies is seconds.
As flawed as the game is, I still enjoy playing it if only to experience the joy of kicking things while wearing jockey shorts.
Jess Franco was such a gifted director. Too bad he wasted much of his talents on softcore trash like this. There’s an interesting setup: a woman is released from a psych ward to her palatial estate with a basement full of paralyzed/zombified women. Her pervy husband and her initiate a quest to seduce an ambassador’s daughter. That’s the first ten minutes of the movie, the rest is devoted to sleazy, extended scenes of naked women writhing for whatever reasons. It’s all shot beautifully, unfortunately there is no substance.
I’ve run out of engraving blocks, so the the last few prints of mine have been made using whatever scrap materials I have hanging around my studio. This is a small chiaroscuro woodcut made using two blocks. On block has the black lines and another has gray tones.
My ability to correctly register the blocks is limited. I had to throw away about a third of the prints because they were severely misaligned or other glitches. The final result is this small edition.
Cat prints seem to sell well, so here’s another cat print, but I couldn’t resist adding a little gore.
The story sets the puzzle up in an interesting way. Eight guests are invited to a dinner party. Four are slueth-y types the other four are thought by the host to have committed murders in the past. The host is killed and the mystery feels like a game in which all the clues are “on the table.” Went pretty well until the ending which just confused me. There was no “ah-ha” moment at the reveal. Not what you want in a murder mystery.
Gene Kelly dances and sings in an attempt to woo a teenager. Mostly a mediocre musical with a visually stunning final number.
This has all the look and feel of a typical spaghetti western except this takes place in 19th century Spain. Franco Nero plays what looks like a Union soldier but is actually a Spanish colonel. He gets hoodwinked by a pretty Gypsy girl and then it’s all downhill from there as he make mistake after mistake in order to please her. Klaus Kinski shows up, is predictably deranged, and further screws up his plans. The story is not nearly as action-packed as one would expect, but I enjoyed it and the characters.
After watching the famous version from a few years later, I wanted to see this, the first adaptation of Gaslight. It feels roughly the same but this version’s casting of the female lead is not as good. I appreciated that there was more emphasis on the relationship between the husband and the maidservant. Made him even more sleazy.
The Devil’s Nightmare would pair nicely in a double feature with Bava’s Lisa and the Devil. Both films tell the story of a group of doomed travelers who have to spend the night in a castle as their souls are collected by the devil one by one. Devil’s Nightmare isn’t quite up to the caliber of Bava but it has it’s share of haunting imagery especially through the performance of the demon white-faced Erika Blanc’s succubus. A little more budget and a little more visual atmosphere would have helped, but this gothic horror surely punches above its weight.
