Gargoyles Movie Review

Trailer here.

Gargoyles is a 1972 TV horror movie directed by Bill Norton and starring Cornel Wilde and Jennifer Salt. Scott Glenn also makes an appearance.

Dr. Mercer Boley(Wilde) and his daughter Diana(Salt) are in New Mexico. He is writing a book about demons. They go to visit a man who says that he has an unusual skeleton. His name is Uncle Willie(Woody Chambliss) and he has a desert museum. He shows the doctor his skeleton. Dr. Boley thinks that it is not real. Willie tells him that the place is called Devil's Crossing. He says that the Native Americans used to talk about it. Dr. Boley becomes more interested. Willie talks about a Native American ritual. He gets nervous as the day gets later. Something is outside and it tries to get in. Uncle Willie's museum is set on fire and Willie dies. Boley takes the skeleton's head and leaves. The place is totally destroyed. He and Diana drive off but something jumps on the car. It tries to get at them. They pull into a gas station and there is a motel next door. They go there. Mrs. Parks is the owner and they get a place to stay. A group of bikers, led by James Reeger(Glenn) look around the remains of Uncle Willie's place. The cops find them there and think that they burned the place down. They are arrested. Dr. Boley tries to tell them that the bikers didn't do it, but the cops don't listen.

During the night, Dr. Boley hears noises outside their room. There are gargoyles out there. They are looking for the skeleton head. One of them gets hit by a truck and it dies. Boley brings it into the motel room. Diana goes to the police and she says the the bikers are innocent. She tells Reeger about the gargoyles. He thinks that she is crazy. The gargoyles reappear, looking for their dead pal. Boley and Diana put it into their car. The gargoyles take Diana and they turn the car over. The big daddy gargoyle shows up and he looks at Diana. His minions take the dead gargoyle with them. Diana is brought to their lair. Dr. Boley tells the police about the gargoyles. They think that he is crazy. The biker gang don't and they offer their help to find Diana. They all go to search for her.

Diana is in a cave with the gargoyle gang. She looks around the place. The head gargoyle has her fathers books and he wants her to teach him about what is in them. He can talk too!! The search party comb the area for Diana. The lead gargoyle tells Diana that humans have nothing to fear from them. There are gargoyle eggs in their cave. They are beginning to hatch. The gargoyles are aware that the search party is coming. They emerge from their cave and there is a battle. Some of them get shot. The head gargoyle takes Dr.Boley into his cave and tells him that they are going to destroy humans. Reeger sees the eggs, He douses them with gasoline and sets them on fire. Diana and her father are led to freedom by the female gargoyle. Dr. Boley damages the queens wings so that she can't leave. The lead gargoyle takes her off in his arms and they fly away to start breeding somewhere else.

This film was entertaining in its own way. The cast weren't too bad. The gargoyles were a bit silly but the lead one was decent. It was pretty good for a TV movie. It is obvious that this film is cheap, but it is actually enjoyable. I would certainly recommend it for some fun. I will give it a 5/10.

The Widow Movie Review

Trailer here.

The Widow is a 2020 horror film directed by Ivan Minin and starring Viktotiya Potemina and Anastasiya Gribova.

The movie begins in a wood near St. Petersburg. People have been going missing in the area and the bodies that are found are naked. Kristina(Gribova) is shooting a documentary about a search and rescue team who are training a new recruit, Vika(Potemina). The locals think that there is a witch in the woods. They call her the Limping Widow.  The rescue team have a dog with them also. They find a strange woman in the woods. She is called Zoya. They have been looking for a young boy who went missing in the woods. They take Zoya to their van and keep her warm. She seems very unusual. They pull something out her mouth. The group sees a carving on one of the trees. It is an evil spirit symbol. The group decide to drive out of the woods, but they are stopped, first by falling trees and then by getting stuck in the mud.

Zoya tells them that they won't get out of the forest alive. She tells them a story about a woman who choked her husband. She was caught by locals and they broke her legs. They threw her into a pit and she died. Her spirit is in the woods and she gets revenge by killing anyone who comes there. The dog runs off into the woods and he comes back different. He is snarling and angry. The driver, Andrey, changes. His eyes become black and he seems possessed. He drives the truck with Zoya and Vika in the back. He is going crazy. Vika jumps out before the van is driven into a lake and disappears. Vika sees Andrey coming out of the water. He wanders off into the woods. She follows him to a creepy old shack in the woods and he is turned against the wall. She  calls him but he doesn't reply. The others look for her.

They have found Andrey's body. They also find crazy Zoya. The group ask her questions, but she doesns't say anything.  They head off looking for Vika.

Vika tells all of them what happened to her. Kristina thinks that Zoya is evil. She disappears. Vika tries to find her and she does. Zoya wants to die. She makes Vika kill her. The others show up and see the lady dead. They think that Vika did it. She tells them that Zoya wanted to die and she forced Vika's hand. They wander around some more and an unseen force impales one of the team. The others find clothes hanging from trees. The witch comes and she kills more of the team until Kristina and Vika are the only two left. Vika disappears and Kristina is left alone. She walks around and tries to get out. She finds Vika in the old shack. She is naked and she has become like Zoya. She will stay in the forest to protect others from the witch. Kristina is taken away by ambulance. The movie ends.

This film had some creepy moments. There were just not enough of them. I liked some scenes and this films owes an awful lot to The Blair Witch Project. It is very similar is some ways. The problem is that it is nowhere near as good as that film. It looked promising at the beginning and it went along well, but half way through, it started to drag and the ending didn't have anything exciting to wrap it up, I didn't like the ending. This is a middle of the road Russian horror movie. It is worth a look for some creepy scenes, but don't expect too much. I will give it a 5/10.