What is B-Movie inspirations? It is one part movie review and one part RPG game master idea seeds. Many of my ideas have come from cheesy movies that I somehow find time to watch. I decided to start writing theses ideas down in reviews geared towards RPG game masters like myself. In some ways, this is me watching these horrible movies and drawing the ideas from them, so you don’t have to.
- B-Movie Inspirations: Escape to Athena (1979)What do you get when you smash Roger “James Bond” Moore, David “Guns of Navarone” Niven, Telly “Kojak” Savalas, Sonny “Cher’s Ex” Bono, Richard “Shaft” Roundtree, and Elliot Gould into a World War II movie that is one part heist, one part espionage and one part Greek Isle vacation? Throw in Nazis, POW camp in…
- B-Movie Inspirations: The Undefeated (1969) & The Lair (2022)I watched two completely unrelated movies today and got an idea from them. I wanted to write it down before I forgot. First there was The Undefeated, one of the early team-ups of John Wayne and Rock Hudson. It is a western-action flick from 1969. It is set primarily 4 years after the Civil War,…
- B-Movie Inspirations: The Endless (2017)While browsing Youtube, I found this movie in a list of under-rated sci-fi gems on Prime. It was described as a low-budget modern Lovecraftian tale and they had me at that. Overall, it is a slow brooding movie, with very subtle and weird events that don’t go entirely explained. Warning, spoilers ahead. You are initially…
- B-Movie Inspirations: Castle of Evil (1966)I have been really focused 1960s lately and I think because there was pretty decent writing back then, even though the budgets and effects could not be as good. Castle of Evil, although very tropey, it was well written and at least I felt a cool idea for an adventure one shot. Castle of Evil…
- B-Movie Inspirations: Dimension 5 (1966)A rare opportunity to see Jeffrey Hunter outside of his usual cowboy roles, this movie interested me for it’s sci-fi and espionage aspects. Watching the trailer, it has be at “.. action, adventure and electronic espionage!” At first you are introduced to Justin Power (played by Jeffrey Hunter of Star Trek The Cage) in a…
- B-Movie Inspirations: Cyborg 2087 (1966)One part Terminator and one part Terminator 2, this movie has a simple story with some very subtle and inspiring plot aspects that I found interesting enough to write about. In 2087, a mysterious group of people using time travel technology they apparently broke into, sends what we later learn is a cyborg – Garth…
- B-Movie Inspirations: Captain Clegg (1962) & Crescendo (1970)I have started watching a lot of old Hammer films lately – a collection of psychological horror as well as gothic horror films because I have always liked that style of movie. I did not realize that Hammer did so many outside of just the standard goth horror movies I remember. What I have learned…
- 80s Cartoon Inspirations: Hi-Jackers, Slavers and GladiatorsThis is a straight forward Space Ghost episode where the kids get themselves captured by alien Lizard people. These Lizard people raid and hijack passenger ships to enslave the occupants for their own purposes. There is another episode that is similar called Hi-jackers where raiders lead by a helmeted bad guy Tansut on a flying…
- 80s Cartoon Inspirations: Herculoids “Mutoids”The Premier episode of the Herculoids, we have some aliens – Mutoids – that use their shapeshifting ability to infiltrate the Herculoid’s world – Amzot – to set up a missile launching platform. Considering the era this show came out, I can understand the inspiration (Cuban missile crisis). What is weird is how they infiltrate…
- 80s Cartoon Inspirations: IntroI am planning on doing another article series based on three main 80s cartoons – Herculoids, Thundarr the Barbarian and Space Ghost – and draw adventure idea out of these episodes. Unlike my B-Movie series however, I am going to take an entire episode and expand it into a full adventure. Partially inspired by the…
- B-Movie Inspirations: The Eagle (2011) & Centurion (2010)There is this new trend on the various social media outlets that says men think about the Roman Empire almost on a daily basis. I probably represent this because I watch a lot of movies or shows set in that time period. One of my favorite shows of all time is Spartacus (2010). Sometime back,…
- B-Movie Inspirations: At the Earth’s Core (1976)Actor Doug McClure and director Kevin Connor worked together in the 70s for some of my favorite B-Movies as a kid – The Land That Time Forgot (1974), At the Earth’s Core (1976), and The People That Time Forgot (1977) and Warlords of Atlantis (1978). A decided to re-watch At the Earth’s Core on TubiTV…
- B-Movie Inspirations: World War 2 moviesSince I have been getting into Masters of the Air, I have also been watching some older WW2 movies. Here is a list of the movies I have watched so far. I am all over the place with the eras of these movies and I got a little out of each of them, so I…
- B-Movie Inspirations: Warlords of Atlantis (1978)Actor Doug McClure and director Kevin Connor worked together in the 70s for some of my favorite B-Movies as a kid – The Land That Time Forgot (1974), At the Earth’s Core (1976), and The People That Time Forgot (1977). I come to find out – there was one I missed! Warlords of Atlantis. You…
- B-Movie Inspiration: Alien Invasion: S.U.M.1Alien Invasion: S.U.M.1 is a 2017 science fiction film written and directed by Christian Pasquariello and starring primarily Iwan Rheon, from Game of Thrones fame. He plays Private S.U.M.1 – a soldier living in a post-apocalyptic Earth after a (supposed) invasion by an alien weirdly called the Nonsuch. He like many soldiers before him, is…
- B-Movie Inspirations: Dustwalker (2019)I found this movie on Tubi TV and the poster for it had me with tentacles. I watched the subsequent trailer and I got even more interested despite the fact that it looks like a bad-SyFy movie made by Gravitas Ventures (just as much a red flag as Asylum Productions). The movie takes place in…
- B-Movie Inspirations: Mother/Android (2021)Mother/Android is a 2021 American post-apocalyptic science fiction film, written and directed by Mattson Tomlin. It stars’ Chloë Grace Moretz (who also did a similar post-apoc film, The Fifth Wave), and a bunch of other actors I have never heard of. The movie takes place in a world where AI androids – literal human looking androids – have somehow revolted and…
- B-Movie Inspirations: Def Con 4 (1985)Def-Con 4 is a 1985 post-apocalyptic film, portraying three astronauts who survive World War III aboard a space station and return to Earth to find greatly changed circumstances. The astronauts – Howe (Time Choate), Walker (John Walsch) and Jordan (Kate Lynch) – are aboard a secret weapons platform satellite orbiting earth, armed with several nuclear missile. WWIII starts and they…
- B-Movie Inspirations: The Blackout – Invasion Earth (2019)I found this movie on Tubi and watched the trailer. Despite it being a Russian movie, it did intrigue me. The Blackout is a 2019 Russian science fiction action thriller film. The film is about an event that suddenly plunges the entire world into darkness, rapidly destroying life on Earth except for a small area in Eastern…
- B-Movie Inspirations: The Rift (1990)The Rift, also known as Endless Descent, is a 1990 film starring the venerable R. Lee Ermey (Full Metal Jacket). The story involves a submarine rescue that goes awry. It is one of many underwater-themed movies released around 1990, including The Abyss, Leviathan, DeepStar Six, The Evil Below, Hunt for Red October and Lords of the Deep. I found this going down…
- B-Movie Inspirations: Deus, The Dark Sphere (2022)Stumbled on this movie on Tubi. Saw that Claudia Black was in it (big fan!) and watched the trailer. It intrigued me. The style of the movie had a strong Alien crossed with 2001: Space Odyssey and I liked the dark tone. So I sat and watched it, not really thinking I would write about…
- B-Movie Inspirations: Parasite (1982)There are certain movies I watch for this series that are not half bad, while others are truly terrible. Parasite is more the latter than the former only because it was so poorly executed and acted. It has a decent premise but lacked imagination and production in the execution of that premise. Parasite is a 1982…
- B-Movie Inspirations: Legion (1998)B-Movie Inspirations is a series of articles I write where I watch really bad movies and draw RPG inspiration from them. Yet another little gem I found while browsing Youtube, this one caught my eye because of who was in it – Parker Stevenson, Terry Farrell, Corey Feldman, and Rick Springfield. Another notable is once…
- B-Movie Inspirations: The Bamboo Saucer (1968)B-Movie Inspirations is a series of articles I write where I watch really bad movies and draw RPG inspiration from them. I found this little gem while browsing Youtube. I love the fact that Youtube is posting a ton of old B movies. By the title, it sounded stupid but they had me at Saucer….
- B-Movie Inspirations: Journey to the Far Side of the Sun (1969)B-Movie Inspirations is a series of articles I write where I watch really bad movies and draw RPG inspiration from them. “The European Space Exploration Council sends two astronauts to explore a planet similar to the Earth but located on the opposite side of the sun.” IMDB I found this movie on my various quasi-legal…