HumanoidOfFlesh
A group of unsuspecting college coeds move into the house on Totem Hill,a cursed place where four Toltec Sorcerers buried themselves hundreds of years ago-alive and still breathing!On the coming of the Evil Days,the ancient demons arise to feed on the living.Now only one old Ranger with a whip played by western veteran Lash LaRue-fashioned out of materials from the four quarters of the world-stands between the girls and the mystical zombies from the past."The Dark Power" is clearly Phil Smoot's answer to Raimi's "The Evil Dead" with an isolated house,resurrected bloodthirsty demons and lots of POV camera-work in the woods.What surprised me the most are the racist remarks of several characters.The Confederate flag also pops up with alarming frequency.The four Indian monsters are fun to watch and there is a bit of gore including the scene where a man's head is torn apart.Lash LaRue is great with a non-sexual whip action.It's really a shame that the first 45 minutes are so criminally boring.A generous 6 out of 10.
Tikkin
Wow, what a cheesy movie this is! It starts off looking like it's gonna be a backwoods slasher, with the camera following dogs running through the woods. It then gets a bit boring and follows the story of some girls moving into some house haunted by Indian spirits. We then get plenty of shots of one partially clad girl and another naked girl in the bath. It suddenly gets really cheesy when the "Zombie Indians" arise from the earth and start terrorising the girls. We even get a samurai Indian. This movie starts off pretty boring although I did find the story of the four Indians who buried themselves alive quite interesting. Once the Indian zombies (or whatever you want to call them for they aren't technically zombies) start terrorising the girls is when all the fun begins. This is not a special flick and can't be taken seriously, it's just something fun to watch when you're bored or when you're drinking with friends. I can't help thinking though that it would have worked better as a short story because the first half is tediously boring.
Big Squirrel
This film started off really tense when a poor young boy is set upon by a pack of savage dogs. After a tense chase he is saved by said grandpa with magic whip.We are then introduced to a string of annoying house mates, including one tart who is always half dressed. During this stage the film heightens tension with strange "plinky plinky" background noises that had me on the edge of my seat.I stopped paying attention for a while but when I looked back on the screen there where weird creature type things going around grunting and killing. One word of advice if you are ever trapped in your home by some nutter - get some cardboard boxes and a tray.Although we did skip half the film, because it was totally non interesting or memorable, we are now at the stunning conclusion, the last surviving creature thing fights a "Whip Duel" with grandpa and his magic whip. I wont say what happens here, but I can say the whip battle is full of tension, with aerial fights, split level fights and all manner of drama.I am now going to shove this film through the door of a neighbour i don't like.
DBCely
This was my first movie as "Gaffer," or Chief Lighting Technician, and boy does it show. My apologies to all viewers! Director-Producer Phil Smoot, is one of the nicest guys in the film business, however, and he constantly encouraged everyone to do their best on this little film.One of my fondest memories was working with Lash LaRue. Lash was a consummate professional, full of great stories and patient with our inexperienced crew. I'll never forget how one night, waiting what seemed like hours for a shot to be set up, Lash just sat on an applebox, casually flipping his ever-present whip. There was a roll of toilet paper hanging from the handle of the tripod head mounted on the camera dolly. Lash would flick that whip of his, neatly tearing off one sheet of TP at a time. There was a little pile of single toilet paper sheets, steadily growing as time passed by.Funny how little memories stay with you.
AD
