Santa’s Labyrinth

All collected from The VHS Cowboy's Home Video Round-Up: 2001, Jackson Snow et. al. and not previously presented as part of Santa's Labyrinth.

Call of the Cursed (1963) ★★★

[Produced as Greesh / Broadwood Ltd.]

Olin Tetch stars as a young man who stumbles onto a literal underground community while on a motorcycle tour of the British countryside. The subterranean people, mutated by atomic energy, are compelled to tunnel deeper and deeper into the Earth, "answering the call from our father below". Director Ron Hitchery delivers plenty of spooky atmosphere, a few good scares, and a hero and heroine (Julia Rochello, as a mutant who falls in love with the outsider) that we can actually care about. More thoughtful than you might expect from a drive-in movie about radioactive morlocks and bikers.

A teenage nerd helps his crush pretend to be a musical computer program to win an Internet recording contract. Charming performances from Oscar Mathdaniel and Geena DeColdes, a quaint, pre-millennium approach to the Internet, and a fun upbeat Europop soundtrack don't quite save this update of The Mechanical Marvel (1959). Prominently featured would-be Christmas single "Electric Santa" didn't manage to knock the Spice Girls out of number one that year, either. Despite its flaws, the movie is a fun time capsule for the contemporary viewer.

Psychedelic thriller. A man begins to suspect that he is a robot, programmed to play out a particular scenario again and again, each time in slightly different circumstances. Not quite smart enough to achieve its ambitions, but if you can look past the pretension there are plenty of interesting visual effects and an exciting climactic chase sequence that make this movie worth a look.

British produced, science-fiction themed horror anthology. Individual stories framed by a team of investigators touring a mad scientist's fortress. The stories themselves are a bit uneven but the segment about a computer that falls in love is a high point. Features a brief but effective (and apparently sober) late-career performance from Gavin Greesh as the simultaniously Falstaffian and sinister master of the titular castle.