I've now watched the first three of his movies - THE MONSTER
OF PHANTOM LAKE (2006), IT CAME FROM ANOTHER WORLD! (2007) and CAVE WOMEN ON
MARS (2008) and I thoroughly enjoyed each of them. They show just what an
inventive and very creative team of people can do with a little money and a
strictly defined goal in sight. The films are set in the 1950's or - in the case of CAVE WOMEN ON MARS - as if they
were made in that decade while imaging a distant future (1987!) as seen from that time.
They are filmed in black & white to emulate the look of the classic 1950's
movies they are striving to reproduce with an eye toward mimicking the style
and quirks of those movies. But, happily, Mihm's pictures do a good job of getting
the most important thing right by not taking the idea too seriously. The
attitude seems to be one of doing the best possible job while keeping a
slightly winking tone but never insulting the wonderful science fiction films
they are imitating. There are genre in-jokes from both the 1940's and 1950's
with a sprinkling of smart dialog lifts from some very recognizable hits from
the 1980's as well. The scripts are slightly silly, very cheesy but also just
serious enough to make fellow fans of this type of cinema glad to take the
ride. Or amble, to be more accurate to the pacing of these movies.
The feel is similar to the excellent comedic productions of
Larry Blamire such as THE LOST SKELETON OF CADAVERA (2001) and DARK AND STORMY
NIGHT (2009). Mihm's movies are operating on much more limited budgets and use
a small cast of rotating actors most of whom double up by working on the
productions as camera assistants, makeup people or special effects techs. This
group effort seems to rub off on the films giving the entire thing a 'let's put
on a show' air that makes even the occasional failed or clumsy moments all the
more forgivable. These folks really are putting their hearts into these movies!
Even the choice of using old library music tracks to score the films shows a
cleverness. What could be seen as a cost cutting measure also evokes a sense of
warm nostalgia from fans familiar with these repurposed tracks playing under
new, tweaked variations on older stories.
Having now seeing some of Mihm's films I can honestly say
that they are quite enjoyable. Quite. In fact I can say without any doubt that I
wish I had already watched most if not all of them. They are most entertaining. Indeed!
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