Tag: 1982

Centipede Horror A Movie A Day Journal Entry

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Centipede Horror (1982) – A Movie A Day 2021 #42

Centipede Horror DVD

Today’s movie is one I discovered a while back while part of a movie group on Facebook based on a shared love of gross and trashy movies. One day someone posted an image of a DVD cover for a movie titled Centipede Horror, and the name combined with a crude drawing of centipedes crawling out of someone’s mouth and all over their face had me doing some Google and eBay searches until I found it. It was easy to track down, and since I bought it I’ve watched it a few times. Why? Because I enjoy gross and trashy movies. 

Centipede Horror is a Hong Kong horror movie from 1982 featuring lots and lots of centipedes. The movie starts with close-ups of centipedes skittering around while a voice-over tells us how gross and dangerous they are. The danger is, of course, overblown, but it’s a good and creepy way to start the film. The story follows a man named Kai-Lum Pak as he tries to track down the cause and reasons behind his sister’s death. His sister died after coming down with a mysterious illness after a trip to the ambiguously referred-to location of “Southeast Asia,” and after she died centipedes started crawling out of her body. The focus of the movie is on the mystery behind her death, so I won’t spoil the story any more than that if you by some chance want to watch Centipede Horror, but I will say magic is involved. Lots of great and gross magic. 

Centipede Horror uses loads of live centipedes in a few particularly skin-crawling scenes, so if you’re squeamish about that sort of thing, you’ll maybe want to skip this movie. I have to commend the actors for their dedication. They allow themselves to be covered with live centipedes, and at least one actor has to put some in her mouth (which is the scene the crude DVD cover drawing is based on). There’s also a scene where a shaman performs a kind of exorcism on a young woman which forces her to vomit up blood and live scorpions. The scorpions are revealed in a cutaway, so they weren’t actually in her mouth thankfully. But yeah, I’m sure by now you’re getting the idea about what the main draw of the movie is. Bug stuff. Or, I guess, arthropod stuff, but that doesn’t sound as fun. 

Beyond the bugs, another big draw is the magic. Kai’s investigation meanders a bit, but many different magical guys get involved to try to harm or protect Kai and those around him. At certain points this leads to dueling shamans who are trying to out-magic each other from afar. It’s kind of silly, and it’s great. 

There is a lot of downtime while we’re following Kai, so the movie does drag in places. The backstory is interesting enough and involves a grudge that goes back generations, but when there aren’t any bugs or magic on the screen, I just kind of want to get to the next scene. The final third of the movie is paced well though, so overall it’s well put-together.

I think I’ll skip the recommendations on this one, because if you’ve read this far then you already know if you’re ever going to watch it or not (and fair warning, the trailer below shows a bunch of what I talked about above). Me? I’m sure I’ll watch it again at some point. 

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Forbidden World A Movie A Day Journal Entry

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Forbidden World (1982) – A Movie A Day 2021 #38

Forbidden World poster

Do you remember a few days ago when I wrote about Dead Space and said it’s a remake of a movie from 1982? Well, I said I would see that original movie pretty soon, and soon is now. Today’s movie of the day is Forbidden World, a sci-fi monster movie that borrows more than a little from Alien, yet feels original enough in its presentation and story that I won’t be talking about Alien for the rest of this journal entry (which is something I couldn’t avoid when writing about Dead Space). Forbidden World is a campy sci-fi b-monster-movie with lots of action, tension, blood, gore, and beautiful women. I enjoyed it thoroughly, and I might have a new film to add to my list of favorite movies about groups of people isolated with a murderous monster (yes, that is a list I have in my head).

If you read my journal entry about Dead Space, then you already know the plot of Forbidden World. It’s pretty much the same movie, only Forbidden World is far, far better. The basic plot is that a hot-shot space pilot answers a distress call at an isolated research facility on an alien world. The pilot, Mike Colby, journeys to the facility with his android companion, and they discover that a group of scientists have created something that has grown out of control. The creature they made begins to attack and kill the people at the facility one by one as it gets bigger, grosser, and more dangerous.

So yeah, the basic plot points are the same between Forbidden World and Dead Space, but there’s so much more depth in Forbidden World. Characters’ motivations make tons more sense, the creature is explained way better, and the special effects, though still low-budget and cheesy, look great. I’m glad I saw Dead Space first, because without knowing anything about either movie, I was able to enjoy Dead Space fine for what it is. Comparisons to Forbidden World would have been impossible to avoid had I seen it first, and that would have caused me to enjoy Dead Space less.

One of my favorite aspects of Forbidden World, besides the copious amount of blood and gooey alien monster fluids, is the presentation of the movie. For one, I just love the 70s/80s look and feel. It’s something that can be difficult to describe, but I know it when I see it. The costumes, the sets, the lighting, it all has that classic sci-fi feel of the era. But more than that, the way the movie is edited can be quite unique at times. 

Starting very early in the movie, there are moments when we’ll see flashes of other scenes, often when music is playing. It feels almost like a dream sequence of sorts, but it’s not. They could be flashbacks or flashforwards depending on the scene, and when put together they give the whole movie a very fun vibe. I’m probably not explaining it well, but I suppose I’m just trying to say that the unique editing helped to evoke certain tones while I was watching. I liked it a lot, and it got me interested in the movie right away.

Forbidden World is definitely something that I’ll revisit at some point. I often get cravings for just this type of monster movie, and I’m very happy that I found another to add to my go-to list.

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