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Horror Fuel

Blu-ray Review: The Daimajin Trilogy (1966)

A giant samurai statue goes a-rompin’ and a-stompin’ in The Daimajin Trilogy, a new box-set release covering Daiei’s classic kaiju creation courtesy of the sexy devils over at Arrow Video (along with MVD Entertainment)! First up comes 1966’s Daimajin: In medieval Japan, peasants cower in fear as the Earth trembles. These rustic folk believe that this is the result of a giant imprisoned within a nearby mountain attempting to make a jailbreak somewhere in this town (they are right btw)… As that is going on, the samurai lord of the village falls victim to samurai treachery, which causes his children to flee deep into the wicked woods that surround the village. They soon find themselves at the shrine of that aforementioned giant, the god Daimajin (played to perfection by Chikara “Riki” Hashimoto who would essay the role for the entire series); a huge-ass solid stone samurai that proves that in this particular village a hard man is indeed good to

Continue reading →
DanXIII
Aug 22, 2021
Horror Fuel

Blu-ray Review: Ultra Seven (1967 – 1968)

Continuing on with their presentation of the original Ultraman television episodes (the first two volumes of which I reviewed here), Mill Creek Entertainment brings us 1967’s Ultra Seven (which coincidentally is the Ultra series I’ve seen the most of thanks to TNT broadcasting dubbed episodes of the series in the mid-’90s). The long and the short of UltraSeven goes as follows: like a hot second from now, Earth finds itself balls deep in alien monsters… monsters that are hell bent on rippin’ our home turf a brand-new asshole. Not one to just sit on their collective asses, the Terrestrial Defense Force establishes the Ultra Garrison, a gaggle of folks that use the ultimate in technology to mix things up with those space bastards right quick! Now that’s all well and good, but the real ace-in-the-hole of the Garrison is the addition of Dan Moroboshi, a mystery man that isn’t really a “man” at all, but is in truth an alien

Continue reading →
DanXIII
Dec 21, 2019
Horror Fuel

Blu-ray Review: Ultra Q (1965)/Ultraman (1966)

As a kid, I was absolutely obsessed with Japanese creature features (still am, actually!) but there was only so much of that material available in my small mountain hometown. Occasionally my friends and I would trek to the nearest “big” city where there was a store that had all manner of import toys and magazines, and here is where my mania became even more intense as I wanted so badly to see some of the Far East flicks and shows mentioned in those petulant pages… and nowhere seemed to be kaiju ground zero more than the Ultra shows produced by Tsuburaya Productions, headed by man-in-suit wizard Eiji Tsuburaya! Anyway fast forward to like last week sometime, and those sexy devils at Mill Creek Entertainment have sent yours cruelly Blu-ray sets of the first two series set in the Ultra universe; 1965’s Ultra Q and 1966’s Ultraman! Let’s get balls deep in the Q to kick things off, shall we? Now

Continue reading →
DanXIII
Nov 7, 2019
Horror Fuel

GODZILLA VS. CYNEMA

Cynema or Not Cynema I started this blog not to review movies, but to examine the effects of cynicism on filmmaking. If you go through these posts you’ll find they aren’t reviews but rather how we view our entertainment and often take it for granted while lowering our acceptance standards. SPOILERS AHEAD! GOT IT? SPOILERS AHEAD! TURN BACK! You can read why I qualify the 1998 Matthew Broderick Godzilla in a previous post HERE. Warners and Legendary really hyped the marketing on Godzilla King of the Monsters and I gotta give props to the campaign. From the very first trailer, the strategy was to show this was a major departure from the Gareth Edwards 2014 film. Many will concur that a major shortfall of that film was there just wasn’t enough Godzilla. There wasn’t enough Bryan Cranston and a little too much Kick Ass but not the monster kick ass action we hoped for. What Edwards did achieve was dispelling

Continue reading →
Capt McNeely
Jun 1, 2019
Horror Fuel

New Threats Emerge In Latest ‘Pacific Rim Aftermath’ Comic

The fourth issue of the six-part comic series Pacific Rim Aftermath by Legendary Comics is now available online and in stores. The comic series takes place after the events of the first Pacific Rim film and is the official prequel to the movie’s sequel starring John Boyega. The series focuses on the criminal underworld born out of the rubble of Santa Monica after the first Kaiju war where the giant fighting robots known as Jaegers are used as mob muscle. The series follows a former Jaeger pilot turned mob enforcer, Griffin, and Jake Pentecost (John Boyega’s character). In the latest issue, Griffin learns more about a cult of Kaiju worshipers as new threats are beginning to make their presence known in the slums of Santa Monica. The gritty adventure continues as the series’ end approaches who will come out on top?

Continue reading →
Capt McNeely
Apr 26, 2018
Horror Fuel

Comic Book ‘Pacific Rim Aftermath’ Issue 3 Now Available

Legendary Comics has released the third issue of the six-part prequel series Pacific Rim Aftermath that takes place nine years after the events of the first film and one year before the second film. In this comic series, the giant monster-fighting robots known as Jaegers are being used by crime lords to gain control of Santa Monica’s criminal underworld. A former Jaeger pilot, Griffin, works as an enforcer for the Mech Czar who needs Griffin’s skills as a Jaeger pilot to help him rule the criminal underworld. In the middle of this chaos is Jake Pentecost, who will be played by John Boyega in the film, who’s looking for answers to what happened to his father, Kaiju War hero Stacker Pentecost. As Jake continues going through the process of Drifting (a process where Jaeger pilots sync with the Jager robot itself) he will learn more about his father’s life that will reopen old wounds for Jake as well as making

Continue reading →
Capt McNeely
Mar 23, 2018
Horror Fuel

‘Pacific Rim: Amara’ Webtoon Launches Today

Set in the same universe as the films, Pacific Rim: Amara is the prequel to the upcoming film Pacific Rim Uprising. Legendary Comics and LINE Webtoon teamed up to distribute the prequel that’s co-written by Cavan Scott of the UK and Zhang Ran of China, the webtoon is illustrated by Chinese artist BigN. The story is about Amara, who will be played by Cailee Spaeny in the film, showcasing her struggles in post-Kaiju Santa Monaca after the invasion of the large monsters called Kaiju that come from the sea. Kaiju is Japanese for “strange beast” and is also the name of the popular film genre in Japanese cinema that depicts large monsters destroying large cities or fighting one another with humanity caught in the middle, the most famous Kaiju is Godzilla. The webtoon will showcase Amara’s adventures to making her own Jaeger, a large mechanical fighter capable of fighting the Kaiju in which a human is inside piloting the machine.

Continue reading →
Capt McNeely
Mar 9, 2018

More from Kaiju

Horror Fuel

Blu-ray Review: The Daimajin Trilogy (1966)

A giant samurai statue goes a-rompin’ and a-stompin’ in The Daimajin Trilogy, a new box-set release covering Daiei’s classic kaiju creation courtesy of the sexy devils over at Arrow Video (along with MVD Entertainment)! First up comes 1966’s Daimajin: In medieval Japan, peasants cower in fear as the Earth trembles. These rustic folk believe that this is the result of a giant imprisoned within a nearby mountain attempting to make a jailbreak somewhere in this town (they are right btw)… As that is going on, the samurai lord of the village falls victim to samurai treachery, which causes his children to flee deep into the wicked woods that surround the village. They soon find themselves at the shrine of that aforementioned giant, the god Daimajin (played to perfection by Chikara “Riki” Hashimoto who would essay the role for the entire series); a huge-ass solid stone samurai that proves that in this particular village a hard man is indeed good to

Continue reading →
DanXIII
Aug 22, 2021
Horror Fuel

Blu-ray Review: Ultra Seven (1967 – 1968)

Continuing on with their presentation of the original Ultraman television episodes (the first two volumes of which I reviewed here), Mill Creek Entertainment brings us 1967’s Ultra Seven (which coincidentally is the Ultra series I’ve seen the most of thanks to TNT broadcasting dubbed episodes of the series in the mid-’90s). The long and the short of UltraSeven goes as follows: like a hot second from now, Earth finds itself balls deep in alien monsters… monsters that are hell bent on rippin’ our home turf a brand-new asshole. Not one to just sit on their collective asses, the Terrestrial Defense Force establishes the Ultra Garrison, a gaggle of folks that use the ultimate in technology to mix things up with those space bastards right quick! Now that’s all well and good, but the real ace-in-the-hole of the Garrison is the addition of Dan Moroboshi, a mystery man that isn’t really a “man” at all, but is in truth an alien

Continue reading →
DanXIII
Dec 21, 2019
Horror Fuel

Blu-ray Review: Ultra Q (1965)/Ultraman (1966)

As a kid, I was absolutely obsessed with Japanese creature features (still am, actually!) but there was only so much of that material available in my small mountain hometown. Occasionally my friends and I would trek to the nearest “big” city where there was a store that had all manner of import toys and magazines, and here is where my mania became even more intense as I wanted so badly to see some of the Far East flicks and shows mentioned in those petulant pages… and nowhere seemed to be kaiju ground zero more than the Ultra shows produced by Tsuburaya Productions, headed by man-in-suit wizard Eiji Tsuburaya! Anyway fast forward to like last week sometime, and those sexy devils at Mill Creek Entertainment have sent yours cruelly Blu-ray sets of the first two series set in the Ultra universe; 1965’s Ultra Q and 1966’s Ultraman! Let’s get balls deep in the Q to kick things off, shall we? Now

Continue reading →
DanXIII
Nov 7, 2019
Horror Fuel

GODZILLA VS. CYNEMA

Cynema or Not Cynema I started this blog not to review movies, but to examine the effects of cynicism on filmmaking. If you go through these posts you’ll find they aren’t reviews but rather how we view our entertainment and often take it for granted while lowering our acceptance standards. SPOILERS AHEAD! GOT IT? SPOILERS AHEAD! TURN BACK! You can read why I qualify the 1998 Matthew Broderick Godzilla in a previous post HERE. Warners and Legendary really hyped the marketing on Godzilla King of the Monsters and I gotta give props to the campaign. From the very first trailer, the strategy was to show this was a major departure from the Gareth Edwards 2014 film. Many will concur that a major shortfall of that film was there just wasn’t enough Godzilla. There wasn’t enough Bryan Cranston and a little too much Kick Ass but not the monster kick ass action we hoped for. What Edwards did achieve was dispelling

Continue reading →
Capt McNeely
Jun 1, 2019
Horror Fuel

New Threats Emerge In Latest ‘Pacific Rim Aftermath’ Comic

The fourth issue of the six-part comic series Pacific Rim Aftermath by Legendary Comics is now available online and in stores. The comic series takes place after the events of the first Pacific Rim film and is the official prequel to the movie’s sequel starring John Boyega. The series focuses on the criminal underworld born out of the rubble of Santa Monica after the first Kaiju war where the giant fighting robots known as Jaegers are used as mob muscle. The series follows a former Jaeger pilot turned mob enforcer, Griffin, and Jake Pentecost (John Boyega’s character). In the latest issue, Griffin learns more about a cult of Kaiju worshipers as new threats are beginning to make their presence known in the slums of Santa Monica. The gritty adventure continues as the series’ end approaches who will come out on top?

Continue reading →
Capt McNeely
Apr 26, 2018
Horror Fuel

Comic Book ‘Pacific Rim Aftermath’ Issue 3 Now Available

Legendary Comics has released the third issue of the six-part prequel series Pacific Rim Aftermath that takes place nine years after the events of the first film and one year before the second film. In this comic series, the giant monster-fighting robots known as Jaegers are being used by crime lords to gain control of Santa Monica’s criminal underworld. A former Jaeger pilot, Griffin, works as an enforcer for the Mech Czar who needs Griffin’s skills as a Jaeger pilot to help him rule the criminal underworld. In the middle of this chaos is Jake Pentecost, who will be played by John Boyega in the film, who’s looking for answers to what happened to his father, Kaiju War hero Stacker Pentecost. As Jake continues going through the process of Drifting (a process where Jaeger pilots sync with the Jager robot itself) he will learn more about his father’s life that will reopen old wounds for Jake as well as making

Continue reading →
Capt McNeely
Mar 23, 2018
Horror Fuel

‘Pacific Rim: Amara’ Webtoon Launches Today

Set in the same universe as the films, Pacific Rim: Amara is the prequel to the upcoming film Pacific Rim Uprising. Legendary Comics and LINE Webtoon teamed up to distribute the prequel that’s co-written by Cavan Scott of the UK and Zhang Ran of China, the webtoon is illustrated by Chinese artist BigN. The story is about Amara, who will be played by Cailee Spaeny in the film, showcasing her struggles in post-Kaiju Santa Monaca after the invasion of the large monsters called Kaiju that come from the sea. Kaiju is Japanese for “strange beast” and is also the name of the popular film genre in Japanese cinema that depicts large monsters destroying large cities or fighting one another with humanity caught in the middle, the most famous Kaiju is Godzilla. The webtoon will showcase Amara’s adventures to making her own Jaeger, a large mechanical fighter capable of fighting the Kaiju in which a human is inside piloting the machine.

Continue reading →
Capt McNeely
Mar 9, 2018