Midnight Offerings (1981)

Vivian has magic powers. She doesn’t hesitate to save her boyfriend David from failing in school by murdering teachers. However, David has gotten tired of her and is putting his charm on a new girl in school, Robin. Robin discovers that she also has magic powers, and it comes to a mental struggle between the two women over David.

Before there was “The Craft“, before “The Secret Circle” and before “The Raven” (ok, scratch this last one), you might remember a made for TV movie titled “Midnight Offerings“. The film takes the lead from other like films such as “The Spell (1977)” and ” The Initiation of Sarah (1978)”. Since the movie falls way back into the year 1981, it is probably more likely that you remember it as, “that witch movie that starred Melissa Sue Anderson”. The film offered a pretty decent witch against witch premise that I’m assuming inspired many others over the years. Though trying to locate this one is not as easy with it never arriving on DVD and most likely lost in VHS hell somewhere. In fact as of this review, even wikipedia missed the boat on this one. Though a few kind folks have provided various video links to sections, so its not lost entirely. (Side Note: You can find DVD versions created by bootleggers, most likely pulled from the analog data)

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1981, Films, Horror, Reviews,

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For Y'ur Height Only (1981)

Mr. Giant has kidnapped the brilliant Dr. Van Kohler and is planning to use the Doctor's invention, the N-bomb, to hold the world hostage. The only one who can foil Mr. Giant's evil scheme is Agent 00, a 3-foot-tall filipino martial arts master, expert marksman, top-class romancer and all-around superspy. Can Agent 00 rescue Dr. Kohler before it's too late?
This is easily one of the funniest movies I have ever seen. Weng Weng is agent 00, and he's two foot 9". From the opening "montage" of him running around looking cool to the extreme shocker/twist ending, this film had me roaring with laughter and cheering on Weng Weng as he battles the Crime Syndicate and Mr. Giant. There are endless scenes of Weng Weng looking around and then sneaking up on people and then killing them. And he's ruthless. He laughs and smiles after killing bad guys. The bad guys are great, too. "All forces of good are our sworn enemies," one says at one point. There is something about this movie, and I can't really put my finger on it, but its really a magical film. One that should be enjoyed by all.

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1981, Action, Comedy, Philippines,

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Enter the Ninja (1981)

Officially, Chuck Norris' The Octagon is the film that first introduced ninjas to American cinema, but since "Enter the Ninja" is both blunter about their inclusion and provided stardom for the quintessential on-film shadow warrior, Sho Kosugi, I consider it to be at least as important in igniting the "ninja craze" of the 1980s. A production of our dearly departed Cannon Films, the movie initiates its particular subgenre with relatively tactless hammyness: it's pretty cheesy, and far from being a great martial arts film. Nevertheless, Cannon's made movies that are both far worse technically and far less entertaining. This one's worth seeing, if only for giggles.

The story: a world-weary war veteran-turned-ninja (Franco Nero, Django) visits his expatriate brother-in-arms (Alex Courtney, And the Band Played On) in Manila, where he becomes the only thing standing in the way of a greedy businessman (Christopher George, The Rat Patrol) attempting to seize his friend's plantation by force.

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1981, Action, Blu-Ray, DVD,

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