Supaidâman - Episodes One to Four (1978)

Although officially licensed from Marvel, Toei's 1970's live-action Spiderman (not Spider-Man) show, aka Supaidâman, is way more Power Rangers than modern Marvel Spider-Man movies; his powers come with their own transforming robot (Leopardon) and flying car... because Japan!

Beyond his hyperagility, the majority of Spiderman's powers also seem to originate from his alien suit, the Spider Protector (Venom-much?), and include "spider sense", which acts more like a radar, and a variety of vintage powers such as "spring string" (rope-like projectile webbing) and "spider netting" (for capturing bad guys in).

For a Westerner it's weird, earnest, fun, mixing a character we know so well with the established tropes of Japanese super sentai sci-fi to create a truly unique and wonderful show.

And there's something deliciously camp about the way Spiderman likes to bust a move and strike a pose at every opportunity - even when it serves absolutely no purpose.

Each episode is less than 24 minutes long, including a trail for the next instalment, and tears along with the speed and careless abandon for logic that makes certain old children's shows so enjoyable.

Occasional bursts of dialogue border on the nonsensical, but this could simply be a mistranslation in the subtitles, and there's certainly never any doubt what's going on in the very simple storylines.

Beyond the costume, and the odd refrain from the classic Spider-Man theme music, there's very little of Peter Parker's DNA in this iteration of the character.

Even his supporting characters are wildly different. Although, in his secret identity, the protagonist is a bit of a waster and coward, he's also the "man of the house", looking after his younger sister, Shinko (Izumi Oyama), and little brother, Takuji (Yoshiharu Yabuki).

I'm guessing their late parents had good life insurance as no-one in this family appears to have a steady job, yet putting food on the table doesn't appear to be an issue.

These first four episodes establish a simplistic formula and stick to it, while still drip-feeding the audience with more and more information about Spiderman's backstory and powers.

Hopefully, one day, I'll get to reviewing the remaining 37 episodes of this show and learn Professor Monster's fiendish plans and why he's so determined to kill Spiderman.

But in the meantime, here's my summary of these episodes...

EPISODE ONE: The Time Of Revenge Has Come! Attack The Iron Cross Army! The origin story - it's soooo different to that of Peter Parker's Spider-Man.

Shinji Tôdô stars as Takuya, the motorcycle-racing son of space archaeologist Dr Hiroshi Yamashiro, who receives a psychic summons from a stranded alien Garia (sometimes called Galia).

Garia has been on Earth for 400 years, having chased Professor Monster (Mitsuo Andô) and his duck-billed Iron Cross Army here after their conquest of Planet Spider.

Professor Monster

Garia is seeking revenge for the devastation of his homeworld, but has been trapped underground by Professor Monster until Takuya came along.

Not sure what Professor Monster was doing for those four centuries if his plan, as stated, is to conquer the Earth? Perhaps he was waiting for humanity to just wipe itself out?

In a very Yoda-like move, Garia passes on the power of Spiderman to Takuya then appears to die, instantly reincarnating as a spider that spouts motivational commentary to Takuya.

Takuya's father is killed by Professor Monster's forces when Takuya's family are investigating a crashed UFO, which is actually Garia's ship, the Marveller (see what they did there?) and so now he has two reasons to seek revenge on Professor Monster.

EPISODE TWO: My Serious World! The Man Who Lives According To His Destiny: Professor Monster has started to derail trains, using a giant flying brain creature, for reasons...

Takuya wanders into a church and recounts his origin story to a statue of Christ (bit odd), giving us some more information about Garia and Professor Monster's feud and how they both ended up on Earth.

There's a suggestion that after Garia and Professor Monster fought in the samurai era, leaving Garia trapped underground, Professor Monster went into hibernation until recently.

Back in the 1970s, the arachnid Yoda, Garia, decides he's done enough, curls up into a spidery ball and dies - for real.

After this things start to slot into a formula: Spiderman fights some of the duck-billed Iron Cross Army ninjas, the creature-of-the-week appears, the creature grows to kaiju size, Spiderman hops into his flying car and summons Leopardon.

The giant robot and the kaiju fight, then Leopardon throws its sword at the monster - which explodes.

The end.

EPISODE THREE: Phantom Thief 001 vs The Spider: In a plot eerily reminiscent of the 2018 season of Daredevil, Professor Monster uses one of his creatures - a large insect that projects powerful light beams from its bug eyes - to bust Phantom Thief 001 from police custody, then brainwash him into thinking he's Spiderman.

The notorious thief then goes round tagging all his burglaries with Spiderman's name, and ruining our hero's reputation.

This is all a cunning plan to lure the real Spiderman out and, when he confronts the hypnotised Phantom Thief 001, he is ambushed by Iron Cross Army ninjas and the insect creature.

There's a nice touch where the real Spiderman saves the impostor, after the Iron Cross Army decide they have no further need for him, but then the story segues into its formulaic final act.

Ninja fight. Kaiju. Flying car. Giant robot. Power sword. Explosion. The end.

EPISODE FOUR: The Terrifying Merman! Silver String That Brings A Miracle: Takuya Yamashiro wakes from a prophetic nightmare that Professor Monster has written a computer program which has divined - after studying all the available film footage of his fights - the ultimate way to kill Spiderman.

Then, Takuya sees a death announcement for Spiderman in the newspaper, complete with funeral arrangements set for a couple of days' time.

The Spider Bracelet

This is, of course, part of another plan by Professor Monster to lure Spiderman into a trap.

The Professor has created a wicked Merman to attack innocents, and chasing this creature Spiderman falls into a cage... and has his first face-to-face meeting with Professor Monster!

After being severely wounded in his cage fight with the Merman, Spiderman escapes, but is later lured into another trap when the Merman and the Iron Cross Army kidnap freelance photographer Hitomi Sakuma (Rika Miura), Takuya's younger sister's best friend and the closest this Spiderman gets to having his own Mary Jane... but without any overt romance.

In this episode we learn a bit more about Spiderman's powers: with his suit he can see in the dark, but the alien injection that made him Spiderman has also granted him superhearing and a rapid healing ability.

I'm not sure if the prophetic dreams are a new power or simply a plot device for this episode as they're never explained.

It's also amusingly bizarre that Takuya wears a huge bracelet (with Spiderman written on it) - which contains the Spider Protector and has other gadgety uses - on his wrist, but no-one ever notices this!

After rescuing Hitomi, Spiderman heads into the final act and you should know the score by now:

Ninja fight. Kaiju. Flying car. Giant robot. Power sword. Explosion. The end.

The Marveller transforms into Leopardon, which has a spectacular array of anti-kaiju weaponry

HALLOWEEN HORROR: Archive 81 (2022)

A shy video-restoration expert, Dan Turner (Underwater's Mamoudou Athie) is offered a once-in-a-lifetime financial deal to work on a sensitive project for shady businessman Virgil Davenport (Martin Donovan).

The job involves relocating to an isolated compound, where Dan will be restoring and digitising a fragile collection of fire-damaged video tapes.

He soon learns that these tapes, dating from the mid-90s, were part of a doctoral thesis by student Melody Pendras (Altered Carbon's Dina Shihabi) who was compiling an oral history of the eccentric residents of a New York apartment building.

However, as he watches the tapes, not only does Dan discover a personal connection to the unfolding story but he also sees that Melody seemingly stumbled upon a cult operating in the building.

Told over eight, hour-long episodes, Archive 81 is the latest horror offering from Netflix and I have to say upfront it's as creepy as anything.

Based on a podcast (that I was previously unaware of), for my tastes, this is as close to perfection as anything I've seen in a very long time.

I was also quite surprised - going in spoiler-free - how many coincidences there were between elements of Archive 81 and The Last Ritual, an Arkham Horror story by S.A. Sidor, which I read at the end of 2021.

Both involve cults operating in artistic communities, and, as we go deeper down the rabbit hole the backstory of Archive 81 pays a visit to a very Lovecraftian 1920s. 

The whole cult throughline has incredible Lovecraftian overtones, which made me immensely happy as the series felt like a clever modernisation of the writings of this hugely important and influential horror story scribe.

With its inclusion of another of my favourite tropes - the hunt for mysterious or cursed films - I was also reminded of the comic book mini-series, The Lot (from defunct publisher Bad Idea) and, of course, John Carpenter's Cigarette Burns, and Deadwax.

Initially I'd only planned to watch the first episode (I'd offered to check the show for 'gore content' on behalf of an old friend) of Archive 81, but I was hooked from the get-go.

I binged the whole eight-hour show in a day - with some breaks for 'real life', naturally.

Focusing primarily on Dan's investigation, and then Melody's as a story-within-the-story, some might dismiss Archive 81 as a slow-burner, but it's simply being methodical, with the viewer's close attention being rewarded with subtle clues and foreshadowing.

Some clues are there up front, like the references to Dante's Inferno, with the inclusion of an old film serial called The Circle, and our protagonist, Dan T, being led on this descent into Hell by a gentleman called Virgil.

And I'm sure there were plenty of other references and allusions that I failed to pick up on. 

By the end you will come to realise that everything was important. Other properties may boast that "it's all connected" in their rambling franchises, but in Archive 81 it really is.

If I had a small nit to pick it would be the special effects of a certain creature manifestation, but this is a very small quibble and certainly doesn't detract from the incredible, unnerving nature of the show.

HALLOWEEN HORROR: Ghostwatch (1992)

Imagine a cross between Most Haunted and The Amityville Horror, broadcast 'as live' on the world's most reputable TV channel.

Cast genuine TV presenters as 'themselves' for that extra air of authenticity and you can only begin to imagine the controversy that was stirred up when this was originally broadcast on Halloween night, 1992.

Looking at it now the age lines are starting to show, the technology is dated and some of the supporting performances (particularly the in-studio parapsychologist and the mother) leave a lot to be desired, but there is no denying the creeping terror that can still be felt as the show gradually descends into supernatural anarchy.

The Early family claims it is being haunted by a ghost they have nicknamed 'Pipes' and the Beeb have come to investigate in a Crimewatch style.

They even have phone-ins, which now (obviously) come across as staged, but to the original audience must have been very convincing.

Sarah Greene wanders around the haunted council house with her crew and the family; Craig Charles is outside interviewing neighbours; Mike Smith is handling the phones back in the studio and Parky is co-ordinating the whole show.

All very 'reality TV', and establishing the template for the live editions of Most Haunted, Dead Famous, and countless others these days, but with far more impact than those young upstarts ... mainly because things do actually happen! None of this 'oooh, we've just seen an orb' nonsense.

Like The Haunting, Ghostwatch is frightening not for what you do see (because you don't actually see that much) but what is heard and suggested.

However, be warned, with the crispness of the modern image it is much easier to catch elusive glimpse of the evil Pipes - reflected in windows, hiding behind curtains etc

Although only a 12-certificate, Ghostwatch is not for those of a nervous disposition.

Deadwax (2018)

To celebrate the resumption of my Shudder subscription I wanted to remind all you horror fans out there about the streaming service's selection of rare grooves and highlight one of its finest exclusive tracks that I unearthed several years ago: Deadwax.

From Indiana Jones's quest to find the Ark of The Covenant in Raiders of The Lost Ark to Norman Reedus tracking down the sole print of La Fin Absolue du Monde in Cigarette Burns, I have always had a particular penchant for stories about the hunt for cursed artifacts, sources of forbidden knowledge. 

Treading similar ground to the Constantine episode The Devil's Vinyl, Deadwax is an eight-part Shudder serial about Etta Pryce (Hannah Gross), a professional "vinyl hunter", who is tasked by one of her rich clients to track down the only pressing of a legendary record, that is said to drive those who hear it insane... or worse.

Etta doesn't always operate 100 per cent within the law, and so turns to her 'mentor', gadget-builder Ian Ullman (Xena's Ted Raimi), who also has contacts within the vinyl collecting world that can help our heroine.

Initially parallel to the main story, then intertwined, we also meet a police forensics officer, Len Perry (Evan Gamble), who accidently hears part of the 'cursed record' while at the scene of bizarre murder.

The mummified husk of the victim has had all the moisture drained from its body, while apparently listening to this particular record on headphones.

Even just listening for a second, Perry is touched by the effects of the mysterious sounds on the recording and his life quickly spirals out of control.

As each episode is only about quarter of an hour long, I'm not sure why Deadwax wasn't edited into a single movie. Unless the creators were trying to emulate the tracks of an LP, in which case they missed a trick in not naming each chapter a "track" rather than a "part".

That said, the strongest of all the episodes, which is almost a stand-alone horror story in its own right, is Part Four, which is a flashback tale about college radio DJ, Tuck Weston (Chester Rushing), and his encounter with the fabled record the whole series revolves around.

This chapter not only delivers some incredible backstory material for the story, but also amps up the strangeness that undercuts everything in Deadwax.

At the quality end of low-budget, while there's some weak rear projection moments on some of the car journey scenes in Deadwax, necessity definitely proves to be the mother of invention for the more surreal and weird effects that really bring home the Lovecraftian horror later on.

I know I bang on about "Lovecraftian" horror a lot, but while the recent Empty Man played to the cosmic horror of this sub-genre, Deadwax leans way more into Lovecraft's fondness for the dangers of weird science, with this story echoing several of his original stories in its ideas.

Written and directed by Graham Reznick, whose CV includes extensive work as a sound designer for numerous films, the unnerving creepiness factor of Deadwax helps gloss over the few cracks in the narrative.

Rather than resorting to cheap jump scares, this is smart horror that relies heavily on its viewer actually projecting themselves into the story and accepting that this could be happening to them.

All of Us Are Dead (2022)

From Train to Busan to Kingdom, and now the 12-part Netflix serial All of Us Are Dead, it seems Korea is the place to go for the best live-action zombie offerings.

Spiralling out of a grief-stricken father's attempts to protect his son from school bullies, this current iteration of the zombie apocalypse begins in the science lab of Hyosan High School and then spreads rapidly, exponentially, out into the surrounding city.

Although the series checks in on a variety of characters throughout its story, the main focus is on two groups of students trapped within the corridors and classrooms of the school by the sudden appearance of large numbers of flesh-gnawing zombies.

And these are fast, nearly-indestructible, zombies - seemingly without the standard "one blow to the head" weakness of many similar TV or movie undead.

Writer Seong-il Cheon does an amazing job of drawing out the tension of every scenario, with the students methodically coming up with a variety of schemes almost in real time, and not all of them working.

This can also make it feel quite slow on occasion, especially when you're reading sub-titles, but the investment is worth it because it makes the characters more rounded and believable, their grief more personal, and their victories more meaningful. 

In truth, the slowest episode is the first, as it takes almost 50 minutes to get to the meat of the story, taking its time to set up the main personalities whose fates we will be drawn into through the run of the show.

[Just check out the list of students, staff, and other characters on the show's Wikipedia page to fully appreciate the ensemble nature of All of Us Are Dead].

Once your mind adapts to the Korean social mores (such as bowing, an expected reverence for your elders etc), you can really appreciate the poetry of Seong-il Cheon's dialogue, whether dealing with horror or heartache, survivor guilt, or the harsh reality of the apocalyptic situation et al.

Even beyond the fact that everyone calls zombies 'zombies' - and the kid's are clearly terrified and prone to swearing (as you probably would under these circumstances) - there's an air of Truth and verisimilitude to All of Us Are Dead that is often lacking from Western takes on the genre.

I don't want to knock The Walking Dead, because that long-running show has had its high points and appears to be going out with some of its strongest episodes for many years.

However, there's more conviction and impactful emotion in these 12 episodes of All of Us Are Dead than in all the series of that granddaddy of long-form zombie drama, bar, possibly, the legendary The Grove episode (with the whole "look at the flowers" incident).

While obviously many of these characters in All of Us Are Dead lean towards heroic archetypes for narrative purposes, they are also all flawed to some degree or another, slipping and stumbling when they run, getting distracted by their crushes, bearing grudges etc

The story also does a great job of frequently wrong-footing its audience, where characters you are convinced have a degree of plot protection find themselves on the receiving end of an infectious bite.

Gwi-nam (Yoo In-soo), the relentless
hambie that pursues our heroes

All of Us Are Dead introduces us to the idea of "hambies": a certain, small percentage, of the population who, when bitten, become 'asymptomatic', seemingly immortal, half-zombies, retaining their human intelligence, but suffering from the zombie craving for flesh.

Their lives then become a constant struggle against their cannibalistic nature, and whether they can resist it and remain 'human' or give in and become 'zombie'. 

This is not a series for the faint of heart as, as with all the best zombie shockers, there's a lot of gore, but the most disturbing parts come in the early episodes when we see shocking student-on-student bullying, both physical and psychological.

As horrific as this is, it all plays into the overarching storyline, so can't be construed as gratuitous. 

Not only is the zombie virus clearly a metaphor for the Covid-19 pandemic, but also the effects of such mental diseases as Alzheimer's, while the show itself is simultaneously about the conflict - particularly around trust issues - between teenagers and adults.

Beautifully written, stunning well-acted, All of Us Are Dead is an amazing dusting-off of a genre that occasionally creaks under the weight of its own clichés. 

The show's ending was so artistically perfect that, as much as I am emotionally invested in the fates of these characters, I hope that there's no attempt to continue the story in a second season. 

All of Us Are Dead works magnificently as it is, as a standalone piece of horror fiction.

It definitely requires dedication from its audience, but the rewards are well worth it.