YOKAI MONSTERS Spook Warfare / Daiei Motion Picture Company - 1968

Welcome everbloody to Monster Monday with Tabonga, here at The Dungeon!.. Tonite, the word 'Monster' is even in the title of our offering, the movie also known as BIG MONSTER WAR and BIG GHOST WAR!!

The story's about an evil Babylonian vampire that comes to old Japan, and, an army of Japanese demons and ghosts gather to battle him.

The excellent music is by Mr. Sei Ikeno, Sei had 89 composing credits that includes the titles THE BLUE BEAST, BIG SHOTS DIE AT DAWN, THE BLACK TEST CAR, KEN, FOREST OF NO ESCAPE, RED ANGEL, THE WOMAN GAMBLER, THE HOUSE OF THE SLEEPING VIRGINS, THE BRIDE FROM HADES and THE FOX WITH NINE TAILS.

Well then, it must be that time... The time when we bring in our littlest helper, and, all around cool cat, you know the one... Rufus The Gnat!.. Give a big yippee yahoo for Rufus!.. Now that the formalities are fini, hit the 'GO' button, Rufus, an' start our Eariffic Earclip for... YOKAI MONSTERS Spook Warfare!

The crypt of our villian, Daimon, located somewhere in Afrika. He gets woken up by treasure hunters.

He decides he wants to rule Japan, so, he sets out on his long sea journey...

Daimon emerges to start his reign of terror, and, the plan is very simple...

Kill, then possess the body of the good and noble lord. That way, he can have a great deal of authority and power to assist in his twisted plans.

This local Water Demon just happens to catch the action, so now, he knows about Daimon!

And, Daimon doesn't stop there, Hell no!! Every soul he steals gives him the added power to duplicate another copy of himself!

The Water Demon gathers his fellow demons, spooks and ghosts together to spread the word about the evil vampire that is now among them, and, horning in on their territory!

Get this... The monsters in this film look exactly the way they do in old woodblock prints and watercolor paintings that depicted them!

The locals encounter the spooks in the fields. You wonder how many anime series probably steal from the YOKAI MONSTERS imagery! INUYASHA springs to mind.

Three very cool spooks!

The Long-Necked Monster tries it's best to choke the vampire!

Daimon doesn't take kindly to all the spooks' harrassment.

The story is also a hilarious comedy at times, with wild cartoon-like incidents!

Awesome sets and props, wow!!

Hi ho, hi ho, it's off to monster rumble we go...

Daimon puts all his eggs in one basket, so to speak, as he joins his clones together into one giant creature!

The Umbrella Monster distracts Daimon just long enough for a few other spooks to perform the task of sticking stakes into his eye, which is the way to kill this vampire according to a book they read!

Daimon turns the water red with his own blood during his death throes.

After their victory, all the spooks dance and prance back into the countryside. A proud day for Japanese monsters, to be sure!

Ghoulnight Everbloody!!..

TERROR CIRCUS - Tommy Vig - "Barnyard of Death" (1974)

Wow! What the Hell was that all about? It seems like that movie "Nothing Lasts Forever" was actually cursed! I find it kind of ironic that about one or two days after I heard on the radio that Google had lost their place as number one in world sales to Apple, the Google owned Blogger goes down for almost 24 hours after running almost flawlessly for years! Weirdsville! And speaking of weirdsville, I'm all messed up now, so I'm switching from space to spaced-out, which brings us to tonight's feature, if you want to call it that!

"Terror Circus" just might possibly be the worst movie I've seen lately, and it's alternative title, "Barn Of The Naked Dead" I'm pretty sure is the worst title I've ever heard of too! It's a twofer, two pieces of crap for the price of one, and it still ain't no deal, but the music is pretty good!

How many times have you been told about the perils of hitchhiking, and yet it still goes on! Here's the good news, it's not a public service announcement!

Three showgirls on the way to Vegas in a broken down station wagon take a back road shortcut through the desert after they were told by a desert rat gas pumper creep that their car might overheat! The three stooges, I mean girls, are Manuela Thiess as Simone, Gyl Roland as Corrine, and Sherry Alberoni as, who else, but Sheri!

Now the people who made this movie had some money, and a good eye from the looks of these shots, but it's just too bad this isn't a National Geographic film!!

"Terror Circus" is about a scum-suckin' jerkoff jackass who preys on innocent women out in the boondocks of the California-Nevada desert, so be careful when you're heading to Sun City or Sin City! Them weirdos are out to getcha!!

Now the whole reason I wanted to see this movie was to see more of Sherry Alberoni's work, but sometimes I don't get such smart ideas! If you want to go back a couple of weeks and read about Sherry's part in "Cyborg 2087" you'll know why I wanted to! Sherry is a major cartoon voiceover artist among her many talents!

Sir Lancelot from Hell offers the girls some shelter from the elements, but when they get there, what they see is not exactly what they expected, and considering what they are looking at, you would think they would have more concerned looks on their faces! Oh, look, it's women held captive and chained up in a barn, how quaint!

The music for "Terror Circus" also released as "Nightmare Circus" was written by award winning jazz percussionist and vibraphonist Tommy Vig, who has played with everyone from the likes of Rod Stewart to Miles Davis! The theme song, "Evil Eyes" was written by Mr. Vig, Harvey Siders, and Chuck Niles, and was sung by Pamela Miller!

Andrew Prine is Andre, the sick in the head ringmaster of this twisted circus! Andrew Prine has been actively acting since 1957, and is still going strong today, with a feature coming out this year, "Beyond The Farthest Star!"

I don't know why Andre thinks he's such a big shot, it's only a one ring circus, and there's no elephants! P.E.T.A. would be really upset with the way he treats his animals!

Andre is not quite right in the head, and suddenly comes to the conclusion that Simone is his Mother, so he takes her from the other animals, and brings her to his house so they can be together. He loves his Mother, so he lets her sleep in his bed, but he doesn't take the chains off!

Left alone for a few minutes, Simone discovers that Andre is even sicker than she thought!

Although Andre's real Mom is dead, his Father is still very much alive, and lives in this outhouse on the lower forty of Andre's property!

Andre's land is right next to a nuclear test site, and it's had a dismal effect on dear old Dad over the years, and Andre didn't have a side or freak show....

.......so Pops doesn't really respect him that much, and has his own show to put on!

Sheri has the final word!

"Sherry, Sherry baby, Why don't you come out with your red dress on, Mmm you look so fine, Move it nice and easy, girl, You make me lose my mind!" - Bob Gaudio