Natas The Reflection

Since I was young, I've always enjoyed horror films. As a kid in the 80's I loved going to the old Mom & Pop video stores and just staring at the VHS covers in the horror section. My older brothers & sister would rent them and we'd spent weeknights watching all sorts of cheesy, rare and obscure titles. As an adult I've amassed a nice collection of old flicks on DVD. About a year ago I noticed that some of these flicks were being uploaded to YouTube. I've spent a few weekend nights watching some rare and obscure flicks I'd never heard of. The last one I watched was Natas The Reflection from 1983. It was right up my alley, featuring a silly story, bad acting and script, cool monsters and a decent amount of blood and good, funny kills.

The story is about a reporter who searches for the truth behind an old Indian legend about a spirit that guards the entranceway to heaven and hell. His co-workers and girlfriend think he's wasting his time, until he happens upon an elderly Indian man who points him in the direction of this place, located somewhere in the desert. He sets out on a solo hike to find it.

He stumbles onto an old ghost town full of talking ghosts and zombies. They capture him but he escapes and finds an odd mirror. When he gets back to town and tells his girl his wild tale and shows her the mirror, she suddenly believes him (despite her earlier insistence that the legend of Natas was all hogwash). So she and three of their friends load up their truck and head back out to that mysterious town, determined to prove once and for all that this place exists.

What follows is a series of predictable horror tropes. The friends (including one dude who looks like a 70's porn star with his mustache, cowboy hat and parading around shirtless) all eventually stumble upon some ghoul, zombie or booby trap that attack and slaughter them until only the main character and his girlfriend are left. The zombies look cheap but cool, the deaths are all fun and bloody (throat slash, decapition), and the actors all emote the expected delivery of stupidity and histrionics to make it laughable.

It doesn't take a brain surgeon to figure out that Natas is Satan spelled backwards, and the reporter must duke it out with him in order to prevail and save the day. The devil reminded me of the creatures from the 1972 film Gargoyles, and the "big" climactic battle was so cheesy and bad, with cheap special effects. In other words, quite enjoyable if you're a lover of bad cinema. It kept me entertained, and I had several laughs throughout its runtime, so I enjoyed it. Check it out if you like bad b-movies.

Comments

Ultraman Omega finale

Episode 25, the series finale of Ultraman Omega aired this Friday. From the very first episode I was hooked, and the series continued to maintain a high quality until the surprisingly emotional end. Sorato (Omega) regained all his memories, learning that he was one of many Space Gazers, who's job is to watch a planet and not interfere with any wars between the species (in Earth's case, humans and kaiju). A space Gazer's job is to observe, study and take notes, to learn from a planet's successes and mistakes, in the hopes of finding the right formula to achieve universal peace. Having returned to his previous role as simply a watcher, Kosei, Ayumu and Sayuki were forced to rely on themselves and their team to defeat the powerful kaiju Zomera. As he continued to watch the battle, Sorato/Omega found himself wrestling with the inactive role he was meant to do and his memories of the friendships he had forged with the others, as well as the examples of human kindness he had ...

S.H. Figuarts Father of Ultra

Last week I received the latest SHF Showa Ultra figure, the one and only Father of Ultra, who made his debut in the series Ultraman Ace. He’s the 1st of the two Ultra related August releases I had pre-ordered (the other being Ace Killer). Father of Ultra is easily recognized by the huge horns on his head. The rest of his body is the standard red and silver color scheme that the other original Ultra brothers have (different colors wouldn’t be introduced until Ultraman Tiga decades later). Bandai did a fine job in capturing his look, much more accurate than the highly stylized Ultra Act version, which made him quite muscular. For his accessories, he comes with 6 pairs of hands (fists, two sets of holding, 2 sets of flat/karate chop, and grappling). He has an extra right flat hand that shoots out his signature beam, called the Father Shot. What makes this different from other releases is that the beam and hand are 2 separate pieces, with a clear plastic peg on the side of the fingers that...

S.H. Figuarts Ultraman Arc

With the release of Tsuburaya's new Ultra series that premiered some weeks ago, we now have a figure of the its from Bandai's S.H. Figuarts line. Upon seeing the promos for the series, I initially thought it would be rather silly and I wasn't expecting much. To my surprise, I'm really enjoying this show. I find it well written, the characters are likable, and Arc has a lot of personality. I haven't enjoyed a new Ultra series this much since Z. So I went ahead and purchased the figure of Arc. It was pretty cheap, and was delivered from AmiAmi earlier this last week. I opted for the plain figure. They also have two other versions of him wearing his armor up for pre-order. The orange Solis Armor version, which is due in October, and the blue Luna Armor, which is due in November. Anyway, Arc resembles Ultraman Orb, especially the shape of his head. He's primarily red and silver, with black on his shoulders, upper chest and neck. He sports a blue crystal in the middl...

Musings of an Inkd Geek

Search This Blog