Terra Formars (2016) / Scared Stiff (1987)

The cardinal rule of horror and sci-fi filmmaking is easy to remember: Never Be Boring. While art films and Oscar winners can lure you in with emotional pathos and pregnant pauses, genre movies need to keep their foot on the gas more often than not. A filmmaking philosophy which works in favor of Terra Formars (2016), a live-action adaptation of the Japanese manga phenomenon that gave director Takashi Miike (Ichi the Killer) a chance to one-up his favorite Hollywood action pic, Starship Troopers.

Centuries in the future, on an Earth that ironically still models itself after Blade Runner, overpopulation has inspired a terraforming project on Mars that's close to supporting human life. Trouble is, the cockroaches sent along as part of the initial seeding project have rapidly evolved into humanoid pro-wrestlers who have claimed the planet for their own. In response, the government sends an expeditionary force of unwanted criminals to take down the bug army, mixing their DNA with insect superpowers than kick in by chemical injection.

Miike's film doesn't mince words, it gets right to the arachnid action. Before you know it, our ragtag crew is sprouting antennas, claws and stingers to battle wave after wave of muscle-bound bugs who carry around Flintstone-style clubs and scurry across the Martian terrain with super-speed. It's patently ridiculous...but never boring. As each character transformers, the audience is treated to a virtual encyclopedia of insect information, explaining exactly why they can breathe fire, enslave minds or jump hundreds of feet into the air.

This sort of thing is way easier to pull off as anime (a TV series did just that in 2014), but Miike gives it a good try and keeps the mood light enough that its safe to laugh on occasion. Dismissed as a flat-out failure at the time of release (I caught it on an in-flight entertainment screen and spotted a few suspicious glances from folks in the neighboring seats), with a few years distance the experience has definitely improved. Who knows, maybe Terra Formars will eventually earn the same cult classic status as Verhoeven's soap opera sci-fi epic after all?

Arrow Video's Blu-ray give us the first chance to check out all this insanity in hi-def with a feature-length documentary Making Of, extended cast interviews, footage from the Japanese premiere, outtakes trailers and a collector's book by way of extras.

Less successful at holding your attention is Scared Stiff (1987), a neo-psychedelic thriller that feels like a struggling screenwriter's first attempt at horror. No surprise, that's exactly what it is. But the screenwriter just so happens to be Mark Frost, who went on to create both iterations of Twin Peaks with David Lynch. If you're looking for a similar WTF cinematic experience, you have to wait for the final act to enjoy some blissed-out dream sequences. Up until then, the film is a paint-by-numbers take on the familiar Amityville Horror possessed house clichés.

Psychologist David Young (Andrew Stevens) moves in to a historic old home with his former patient, Kate (Mary Page Keller), and her young son, who intuitively knows something creepy is going on in that walled up section of his closet. Turns out the former owner was a slave trader who killed his family and was saddled with an African curse that turns him into a were-monster (it's really not clear what species we're dealing with). When David starts behaving badly, Kate suspects she's having another mental breakdown. But it's actually the past reaching out to wreak havoc on yet another unsuspecting family.

There's nothing particularly wrong with director Richard Friedman's film; it just feels like an extended Tales from the Darkside episode that eats its own tail. There's not enough practical effects work, amateurish acting or corny '80s references to make the whole affair a time capsule of ineptitude (like Friedman's Doom Asylum, also available from Arrow Video). So you end up with a movie that does just enough to qualify as a movie by virtue of its running time...but very little else.

Arrow Video's Blu-ray is a blessing for fans, though, sporting a brand-new 2K restoration from original film elements, a new audio commentary, Making Of, interviews, image gallery, trailer and collector's booklet with new writing on the film.