DREAMCHILD

Dreamchild in VHS videocassette format (© Gavin Millar/PFH Films - reproduced here on a strictly non -commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

On 14 April 2017, I watched Dreamchild on DVD, a classic 1985 British movie directed by Gavin Millar. It provides a fictionalised account of how the original Alice (Alice Liddell, 1852-1934), who inspired Lewis Carroll's immortal children's books Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and Through the Looking-Glass  (1871), visited New York when she was 80 years old to receive an honorary degree from Columbia University in celebration of the 100th anniversary of Carroll's birth.

That did happen, but in the film it is interspersed throughout with flashbacks to when she was a child and also with several fantasy sequences in which Alice both as a girl and as the elderly lady (the latter played superbly by Coral Browne) encounters some of the Wonderland characters. Their creator, the painfully shy, stuttering Lewis Carroll (aka the Reverend Charles Dodgson), is brought to the screen with great aplomb by Ian Holm.

As for his characters, these are played by life-sized human-containing puppets produced by muppet creator Jim Henson's Creatures Workshop, but if you're expecting cute Kermit/Fozzie Bear-type creatures, think again! Instead, they're grotesque, sometimes hideous, monstrous entities that look, speak, and behave as if they've escaped from a Stephen King nightmare, most notably the March Hare and the (very) Mad Hatter.

Disney this ain't, that's for sure! But bearing in mind that the film was written by Dennis Potter, perhaps we shouldn't be too surprised by that.

 

If you'd like to see an official trailer for Dreamchild, click here to view one on YouTube.

And to view a complete listing of all of my Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film reviews and articles (each one instantly accessible via a direct clickable link), please click HERE!

THE DARK (aka THE RELIC aka THE GOD RAT)

Three different video/DVD covers for The Dark – the centre picture is on the cover of the DVD version that I own (© Craig Pryce/Lightshow Communications – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

On 29 November 2019, I watched a long-anticipated cryptozoology-themed movie, The Dark (aka The Relic aka The God Rat – see later), originally released in Italy in 1993. Directed by Craig Pryce, it stars Stephen McHattie as a leather-jacketed, motorbike-riding cryptozoologist (sounds familiar??) named Gary 'Hunter' Henderson. He is seeking a mysterious, scientifically-undescribed subterranean beast akin to a giant carnivorous rodent that excavates huge tunnels underneath a graveyard, feeds upon recently-interred corpses, and secretes a slimy substance that has miraculous, swift-acting healing properties. Filmed in Canada, this unusual movie also stars Neve Campbell, making her big-screen debut, as Hunter's girlfriend Jesse Donovan.

The monster is only seen in brief glimpses, and then only its toothy long-jawed head and long-clawed forepaws for the most part. The plot is fairly pedestrian - a good cryptozoologist seeking to study and preserve the creature for its taxonomic significance as an apparent prehistoric survivor and also for its slime's potentially immense medicinal benefits vs a bad vengeful ex-cop relentlessly seeking to slay it in revenge for its self-defence killing of his police partner when he was still on the force.

However, what has always intrigued me about this movie, which had particularly spurred me on for so long to seek it out on DVD (no easy matter!) and view it, was that its cryptid subject is more than a little reminiscent of a bona fide mystery beast. Reported from Scotland, this latter cryptid is known as the earth hound, and is indeed said to frequent graveyards and devour buried corpses. My book Mysteries of Planet Earth (1999) was the first crypto-book to investigate and document the earth hound, but if you click here you can access a ShukerNature blog article of mine concerning this fascinating mystery beast.

The DVD of The Dark that I own actually has a German-language cover (see centre picture in the trio of photographs opening this present blog post), on which this movie is entitled The Relic (in English) and The God Rat (in German), but the movie that plays on the DVD disc itself is the original English version and is entitled in its opening credits as The Dark.

Incidentally, this present movie should not be confused – but often is – with another cryptozoology-themed film also entitled The Relic. Directed by Peter Hyams and originally released in 1997, its very different plot concerns a monstrous entity inadvertently transported back to the USA from South America, which duly runs amok in Chicago's Field Museum of Natural History. I have this movie on DVD too, but haven't watched it yet – be sure that once I do, however, I shall be duly reviewing here on Shuker In MovieLand!

Last, but by no means least, The Dark is currently available (as of 27 July 2020 anyway) to watch in its entirety free of charge on YouTube (click here to do so). Consequently, if you're a fan of monster movies with a cryptozoology theme like I am, I strongly recommend that you make the most of this golden opportunity to watch this otherwise difficult-to-find movie while you can, in case it is subsequently deleted from YT.

And to view a complete listing of all of my Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film reviews and articles (each one instantly accessible via a direct clickable link), please click HERE! 

Reconstruction of the likely appearance in life of the mysterious earth hound as based upon alleged eyewitness descriptions (© William M. Rebsamen)

WELCOME TO SHUKER IN MOVIELAND - MONSTERS, MINI-REVIEWS, MUSICALS, AND MORE!

One is a black-hearted, totally merciless scourge of the Universe – and the other is the Predator… (© Dr Karl Shuker)

On this spinning speck of cosmic dust that we call Planet Earth, if I'm known for anything it's probably as a zoologist, media consultant, and author specialising in cryptozoology and animal mythology (at least that what it says on my website and on my ShukerNature blog!). In addition, however, I've always had a passionate interest in the movies, watching and enjoying a diverse range of cinematic genres down through the decades that include (but are by no means confined to) monster movies, animation (especially Disney), musicals, science fiction, fantasy, classic comedies, super-hero franchises, and much more too. Such themes also characterise my TV viewing tastes.

During the isolating but very necessary Covid-19 lockdown measures that began in England during March 2020 and which meant spending virtually all of my time indoors at home, I found myself not only watching many more movies than I normally do but also preparing mini-reviews of them that I posted for fun on Facebook and elsewhere. To my surprise but great delight, these have attracted considerable interest, enthusiasm, and countless Likes from social media friends. So much so, in fact, that following a suggestion and kind encouragement gratefully received from longstanding Facebook friend Terry Cooper, I have decided that it might be worthwhile expanding them in fuller reviews, preserving them, and adding others to them in a blog of their own. There they will be permanently and readily accessible for reading by all interested online movie fans, together with expanded versions of various movie (plus a few TV) mini-reviews that I'd written in earlier pre-Covid times, as well as those that I shall be writing in the future in what I hope will be a long-running ongoing series.

So here it is – Shuker In MovieLand. I hope that you will enjoy visiting this brave new world of mine in blog form, and browse through my movie contemplations, commendations, criticisms, witticisms (should you happen to find any!), and other assorted film-related fun and folderol. Also, please do feel free to post any thoughts and comments of your own beneath my mini-reviews, plus any relevant information that you would like to share concerning the movies under consideration. Last of all, but by no means least of all, please don't forget to follow and subscribe to my new blog, because it will feel so lonely out here by itself in this big old bloggerverse if you don't. Thank you kindly!

To launch Shuker In MovieLand, I shall shortly be posting my very first SIML mini-review – one that I wrote a fair while ago about what had previously been for me an extremely elusive film that I'd always wanted to see but had never managed to do so before (regular readers will find that this will be a common, recurrent theme here, as I'm nothing if not tenacious when it comes to identifying and tracking down mysterious movies that had hitherto perplexed or evaded me). Don't miss it!

And to view a complete listing of all of my Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film reviews and articles (each one instantly accessible via a direct clickable link), please click HERE! 

UPDATE: Tuesday 12 January 2021 - Today I was devastated to learn that my above-mentioned good friend Terry Cooper had passed away suddenly from natural causes during last weekend. God speed, Terry, thank you sincerely and very gratefully for your many years of friendship - preserved forever as bright, golden memories that I shall always treasure; and also for planting in my mind the precious seed of an idea that sprouted forth to yield this present blog - it is absolutely true to say that had it not been for you, Shuker In MovieLand would never have existed. God bless you, Terry, rest in peace and know that you will always be remembered and loved by so many friends, of whom I am proud and honoured to be one.

Please click here to read my full tribute to Terry that follows my review of the 2019 BBC TV mini-series of The War of the Worlds - Terry and I shared a love of science fiction and monster movies, and this was the first review posted by me here on Shuker In MovieLand since receiving the extremely sad news of Terry's passing.

 

 

My good friend Terry Cooper – RIP Terry (© Terry Cooper)