We take a step away from the world of horror movies proper, and we are going to spotlight a skateboard that features the Texas Chainsaw Massacre. This is a deck that was released by Heroin Skateboards, and it is a limited edition collaboration, that if you find, you need to pick up. It is a silk screened graphic that is then heat treated, and put on a skateboard with relative ease. If you’re a skateboarder and want to pick up this deck, your time is limited right now.
This is a 8.26 x 32 skateboard deck and it’s one of the coolest collaborations that I’ve seen in a long time. I am not sure how long this is going to last, mind you, so you have a limited scope of time to go and find it. I have found one at skate warehouse online, but other than that, I haven’t seen it in shops, so good luck.
One of the best directors in horror is Dario Argento. He is an Italian horror director that creates lavish set pieces, with amazing colors and commentary that is absolutely grand. I love his work, and have reviewed many of his movies on this website. However, today, we are going to talk about one of my favorite movies of his, and it’s “Deep Red”. This is a movie that features a lot of different elements that you would get from horror, and with the idea of “Gialo” detective movies. The music, the visuals, and the story will definitely stun most.
The movie features a man that looks a lot like Paul McCartney, and he is a piano player. He is working on a piece when something happens during a lecture. A psychic seems to see something evil, and she senses it. When this is all said and done, she goes to her apartment, and out comes a figure in the dark and hatchets her to death! I kid you not. You don’t see the killer, you get a POV version of the events. This also occurs to several other people that have something to do with the music, and our main composer is on the hunt, alongside a journalist. The two have a slight love story, but the bodies keep piling up. Along the way, you get to see POV style death sequences that are over the top, grotesque, and yet charming with the way that Dario Argento works through the color palette and the music of Goblin. Great stuff.
The movie is a bit slow, and my version of the movie didn’t have subtitles at all. It would cut in and out of Italian, and it was a bit difficult to manage. There was dubbing for half of the movie, and the other half had Italian. Now, I speak Spanish and Italian is not too far away from it. I liked that, and it was interesting to listen to the languages. Goblin’s score is great overall, and I loved it.
As for the movie, this is an interesting take on horror, and features a detective subplot, with a little love thrown into the overall elements. However, when the killer is revealed, you feel like air is coming out of a balloon slowly. The buildup is epic, but you’re going to end up laughing at the ludicrous nature, and the overall findings. It’s funny, and not at all what you’d expect. However, the special effects, the visual design, and the movie is quite good overall.
Dario Argento’s “Deep Red” has a lot of creepy moments. Good direction, misdirection, and quality music from Giorgio Gaslini and Goblin. It really is a good horror movie, and it’s paced well, with some great elements of fear, especially considering this was from 1975 of all years.
This is the seventh movie that features the killer doll, and you would think that they would run out of ideas. But nope, here we are with an all new full length feature that is all about Chucky and his killer ways. This time around there are some very nuanced kills, and thrills, with a story that isn’t too bad, but isn’t going to win any awards at any point either. “Cult of Chucky” went straight to DVD and Blu Ray and is now available, but I wasn’t paid so here’s my honest review sans any sponsorship as per usual.
The movie picks up where the previous one ended, this time around with Nica in a wheel chair and trying to figure out why she’s in an asylum after blaming Chucky for burning down her house and family. Of course, that’s the doppelganger because the movie is going to feature a lot of different elements that will tie this to the past, and the future.
In another section of the movie we catch up with Andy, the kid that started it all, and he has Chucky’s head and has been torturing it for a long time. Through the course of the movie, he has been trying to tell the asylum that holds Nica that Chucky is alive and is going to kill again. They don’t believe him. They throw him out, and of course we continue our story.
The movie is a slow moving starter, but it starts to gain steam when Chucky comes alive, and you realize that there’s more than one. Then you start to think that this movie is lazy, with the idea of the existence of Chucky being only in Nica’s mind, but that’s a red herring. The movie switches tones, and starts back into the one liner, comedic elements of Chucky, with him slashing, and dicing his way through the asylum.
There’s a lot to this movie, but at the same time, there’s a limited cast, and it really drives through a convoluted voodoo plot that throws away a few ideas, but at the same time, builds into the ethos of what made “Child’s Play” so good. There’s a lot going for it, and the visual design is the main key factor. The visuals and kills are juxtaposed with a clean, white, and pure asylum in contrast to the redness of the blood.
The movie was good. It had some decent acting, some great pacing, and a body count that rivals the original film. You get a lot of loose ends tied, and eventually, Chucky and Tiffany reunite. Woops, I spoiled it! Hahah!
I recommend checking out “Cult of Chucky” it’s a modern send up to the classic series, and not half bad if you ask me.
A Prisoner Falls In Love With A Realistic Robot? What is Love?
One of my favorite movies from the past few years was “Ex Machina”. But did you know that the Twilight Zone explored this notion long ago? Seriously. On November 13, 1959 the notion of loving machine came into play, and it really shook things up. Rod Serling once again tapped into a very unique circumstance, and gets you thinking about the “What if” factors of what love is. Long before movies started to come into play with this, you are going to think about sex, love, and loneliness when it comes to robots, artificial intelligence, and the realities of loneliness in the seventh episode of the first season of The Twilight Zone.
The plot of this one is simple, as many are. A prisoner is cast off to a planet, alone. He wants to go back to Earth, but the powers that be won’t let him. The same time warp that was in “Interstellar” is described here, as a crew comes to the planet to check in on the prisoner. They say that there is no hope and he is going to stay put. He is given food, and supplies, and the crew leaves. Later a box arrives and in that box is a woman. A woman that is in fact a robot, but has all the elements of humanity, including synthetic skin, and anatomical elements, with an artificial intelligence that feels, cries, and more. It’s essentially a sex robot, come on. The prisoner doesn’t want her at first, but over time, learns to love this robot woman.
The crew comes back. And our prisoner named Corry is allowed to go back to earth! However, they have to leave in 20 minutes, and that’s it. The crew that is there to pick him up only has room for him and a few of his things, and not the robot, whom is named Alicia. Corry screams and runs after the robot, and swears that he loves her, and that she loves him, only to find out that the world is a cold, cold place, with Alicia taking a gunshot to the face and dying.
What is love? Can you love a robot? The story here is fascinating, and it truly is epic in light of “Ex Machina” and the themes presented in that movie. There are only 5 people in this cast, and yet you get full emotion. Jack Warden and Jean Marsh put on a good performance, and you really start to feel for the lonely. But reality sets in and shakes you up. What is love? You’re left thinking as Rod Serling’s narration gives you a jolt.
“On a microscopic piece of sand that floats through space is a fragment of a man's life. Left to rust is the place he lived in and the machines he used. Without use, they will disintegrate from the wind and the sand and the years that act upon them. All of Mr. Corry's machines, including the one made in his image, kept alive by love, but now obsolete.”
And that my friends, makes for one of the best episodes of The Twilight Zone yet. It’s beyond good, seek it out. Buy the box set, holy crap. It’s an intellectual proponent that you can easily study as an academic, or at least enjoy as entertainment.
What if you could be immortal? Would you go for it? That’s the question posed with the sixth episode of the first season of The Twilight Zone. In this case, “The Escape Clause” is the title, and it stars David Wayne, Thomas Gomez, and several others. It was first aired in 1959, and it really does showcase an interesting premise. One that we have explored in horror literature and movies for quite some time. Often, it’s the werewolf or the vampire that lives forever, but what if you didn’t have to be either?
Walter Bedeker is always thinking he is sick; he thinks he’s dying. But out of the blue comes a rogue. The devil shows up and tells him that he can in fact make sure that he lives forever. There is of course an escape clause, and Bedeker can choose to die when he’d like. Simple enough, right?
What would you do? I don’t know what I would do, it’d be insane. Bedeker in this case uses his immortality to try and collect on a lot of money. He throws himself into insane situations, and collects money from accidents. After he gets bored of all of this, he ends up losing his wife to a fall off a roof. He admits he murdered her, hoping to go the electric chair and surviving, but nope. He gets life in prison and that’s where he asks for the escape.
And that’s that. It’s not a huge twist, but one that got me thinking yet again. This is a morality tale at heart, and one that asks what you would do with immortality? I don’t know what I would do. I can’t imagine living forever, unless I had a bit of money. I guess that’s the big deal here. Money. One has to live, right? And forever? What a cost! Oh well. This is just an example of how great Serling’s mind was. There is only one Rod Serling, and this morality play showcases that. I loved it.
Look who is back to writing reviews about random horror tidbits. While I don’t have the time I used to have to write up a lot of different things in regards to horror, I still manage to catch a flick here and there. With that in mind, I went ahead and watched The Purge: Anarchy. This is perhaps one of the most talked about horror movies that I did not see when it came out. People were mixed upon the release, telling me that it either was ok or it was good. What you get here is a continuation of the original story, only this time, you are outside to see the mayhem.
The original Purge movie focused on a home invasion angle, not too unlike “The Collector” or “The Collection”. Those movies had some serious gusto, but it was the same idea that was mentioned in the Purge, with a few twists. Anyways, the marketing changed things up and you were given the notion of anarchy in the streets. This time, it was Downtown Los Angeles that was the framework starting point.
This movie mixes the notion of the original, with the concept of “Hostel”, and it works ok at first glance. But as the movie started to go through the motions, the viewer was introduced to something new, a new character that seemed very familiar. That character, as soon as I saw him, was none other than Frank Castle. That’s right, The Punisher! This movie, for all intents and purposes was nothing more than a Punisher movie to me. Even though the character did NOT have any affiliation with Marvel or the comic book world, that’s what you felt from the “Sergeant” that reuses people from mayhem.
As a horror movie, The Purge: Anarchy is not going to live up to the standards that most people have. If you’re used to slashers, gore, and monsters, this is not for you. This is more of a twisted tale, not too unlike what you’d expect from “The Outer Limits” or “The Twilight Zone”. Simple as that, this is an interesting movie with a lot of heart at times. It’s a frenetic, action movie, with horror movie marketing. So it’s not a horror movie straightway, but it does have horrific ideas.
I don’t recommend The Purge: Anarchy for horror fans. It’s not really that kind of movie. Yes, there are moments in time, but more than that, it’s a thriller or an action movie, as that’s really what you get. You get a lot of gunplay, running from foes, and random acts of evil, rather than that relentless scary element that makes this genre so interesting. It’s good, but not as great as the original, and definitely not going to win you over if you are expecting that home invasion tension that the first one had. It’s good, but not great, and well, it’s worth collecting if you love the first one, before the new one hits theaters later this year.
What do you think? If you liked it, let me know. I you hated it, let me know. If you didn't see it, then by all means pick it up on DVD by clicking here.
Just when you thought I had thrown in the towel, I come up with a new review for you 2 readers left. This time around, I managed to watch an episode of The Twilight Zone from 1959, the first season. This one came to me right after watching Hot Tub Time Machine 2, which can be easily one of the worst sequels ever made. Regardless, this episode of the pivotal television showcase came out on October 23, 1959, and it starred Ida Lupino, Martin Balsam, Jerome Cowan, and Ted de Corsia.
Four Episodes Into The First Season
“The Sixteen Millimeter Shrine” is the fourth episode in the first season of the series, and it hinges on what many Hollywood stars must go through. An aging actress is watching old movies of her performances, and wishes that she could go back to a place where she was wanted, adored, and the likes. As her days go on, she is in the darkness, drinking, and just doesn’t really go out. When an opportunity to star in a new movie comes about, she jumps at the chance, but recoils when they ask her to play someone more her, “age”. She goes home and is depressed. In her depression, she decides it’s better to go into the screen and live with the past. Well, in The Twilight Zone, anything is possible, and that’s what happens. Barbara Jean Trenton jumps into the screen, and that’s where she stays forever.
Do Actors Wish For This?
This television showcase is an interesting one. It reminds me a lot of what many older people go through. I met a lot of aging rock stars in my day, and a lot of them act the way Trenton acts. They want that old glory, but they don’t want to admit they are old. The same goes for action sports. A lot of professional skateboarders are dealing with issues of this type. It’s a sad state, but it’s a true state. It got me thinking. What about me? Will I be there? I’m already there, who am I kidding. I used to own a record label. I used to have a huge record collection. I had a lot going for me, and now, I’m battling anxiety and depression on a regular basis, without any health insurance. The struggles of a writer are real.
Oh, the episode! My bad. Overall, this is an interesting episode. It features that nostalgia of past experience, mixed with the present realities. What if you could escape? That’s the premise. Would you live in your greatness and that’s it? I don’t know. The escapism attached to former glory is incredible, even if you only tasted it for a second. Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to get a second chance at being a record label owner. Then again, I’m a writer. I can dream up a lot of things for myself. But as far as this episode, it’s a good one. It has good acting, clever pacing, and that classic twist you’d expect from Serling and company.
Ida Lupino Is Quite The Actress
Is it my favorite thus far? No. It’s only 4 episodes into the first season. I do like the camera work, scripting, and acting. At one point Ida Lupino behaves drunk, but ever so slightly. You’ll have to watch how she plays it in the agent’s office. There’s a subtly to her movements and it’s stellar acting. Ida Lupino died in 1995, but man did she have a beautiful face in 1959. Such a good actress, and famous too. Anyways, this is a good episode, and I enjoyed it. You may like it too.
I didn’t want to watch Interstellar when it first came out. I thought it would be boring. So I didn’t watch it until it finally came out to streaming. After seeing it, I can definitely say it is one of my favorite science fiction movies. If I had a top 3 for last year, I would say that Ex Machina, Elysium, and Interstellar as my favorites from the past year. Whatever the case may be, this is a movie that deserves your time, even if some may say that it’s too long. Interstellar is one hell of a movie.
The movie has a complex premise. The world, in the future, is getting dusty and farmers are going to have a difficult time feeding the world. NASA needs to send astronauts to other worlds to get data to inhabit another earth, or humanity is doomed. Meanwhile there’s an issue going on at a former pilot’s house. A smart daughter, a dumb son, and their future seems to be pushing forward through life, setting up something grand for the future. Now, there’s a subplot here involving a ghost, and the first lines of the film give away that, but most don’t realize what is going on, so they keep going. The movie then pushes forward with our astronauts heading to a new planet to see what is going on.
In the course of over 3 hours, we meet our astronauts, NASA, and much more. There are surprising elements, including a villain that is cryogenic freeze. A fist fight on another planet, and an incredible tidal wave that looks like a building. Science is explained often, and there’s even a video about all the science issues that are described in the movie done by Cinemasins.
Interstellar is a long movie. It’s a long epic film that nods at Stanley Kubrick’s vision from the past, but gives you something new. There’s a lot of heady material here. It’s perhaps the most science heavy movie that I’ve seen, and really enjoyed the way the movie comes through. The larger picture is a lot more villainous than meets the eye, and it’s done in such an interesting manner. Christopher Nolan pushes the limits here, once again giving you a visual feast. The movie is spotless in a lot of ways, and deserves to be seen in a large format. Imax would’ve been absolutely splendid.
The movie is hard to watch if you’re tired. It’s not action packed. There are no explosions for the sake of it, there’s nothing that you would find in a Michael Bay film. There’s a lot of layers to this movie. From science, cinematography, art, and acting. Even though there are minor gripes, the majority of the movie’s focus on love, loss, distance, time, science, time travel, and visual design is epic in scope. It’s for this reason why we go to the movies. I was more compelled by Interstellar than ANY Star Wars film ever made. There’s a reason why this movie lost so many, and it’s an intelligence factor that wins me over.
There’s fear in this movie, a real fear. You’re going to sense it as you get into the isolation that the astronauts are in. The performances are done well, including the future, past, and present. I am once again completely flabbergasted by Matthew McConaughey’s performance. Anne Hathaway is good, Jessica Chastain, Michael Caine, and Matt Damon put on a showcase. There are some other great performances here, but this movie really does great to showcase the power of acting, and cinema as a whole.
Interstellar is a heady film. It’s on the same par as Primer and Timecrimes. Two of my personal favorite movies. You have to check this one out. It’s a beautiful movie. It’s available right now on Blu RAY and quite a hefty movie. It is more than just a science fiction movie, and you’ll see it when you decide to settle in for the moody dialogue and more.
Check out Cinemasins below to see spoilers, and science notes about the movie.
Back to our regularly scheduled program, we have been discussing The Twilight Zone from start to finish, and here I am with another edition. This time around, we are at episode 3. This episode originally hit the airwaves in 1959. It stars Martin Landau, Jeanne Cooper, and Dan Duryea. It’s well acted, streamlined, and hits you right in the “what if” cycle of life. There are some interesting puns used for this episode, and things really get through to a whole different wavelength then the previous two episodes of the series. This is a serious mind numbing episode, because if you’re like me, you are a bit anxious about your own abilities. The story is interesting, set in the wild west, a drunkard is made to dance and sing for his drink. There is a group of bullies that continually tease and cause him to dance and drink, and he hits rock bottom. Jeanne Cooper here is absolutely beautiful, as she comes out of the saloon to talk to Denton and encourage him for to change. Denton being the drunk.
I’m not going to sit here and type that I’m a revered critic. I’m not. This page is not even on the radar. Even though I did manage to win 2 Golden Popcorn Awards, this page gets less views than an old Vicca VHS tape. The new Star Wars movie is here, and unless you’ve been living under a rock, you don’t know that. I for one am so sick and tired of the marketing. I don’t need Star Wars branded TACO shells! I’m so tired of getting hit with the super marketing push that has nothing to do with the movie, the franchise, or anything at all with cinema. I don’t need “dark side” oranges, or Yoda branded grapes!
Ok, I’ll digress.
There are a LOT of people praising the latest in the Star Wars movies. But I am not so quick to say that this is a great movie. Just like the Dark Knight Returns, I am calling it for what it is, a lackluster, crap shoot of a film. Simply put, this movie sucks.
I’m not that eloquent in writing sometimes, so instead of hashing out a diatribe, I’ll just give you 9 reviews that highlight what I’ve been saying since this movie started and it’s now on our proverbial tables. This movie sucks, and the franchise sucks. It’s overrated, and I’m tired of getting lambasted when I speak my opinion about it.
Here are 9 major reasons or rather reviews that showcase how much Stars Wars The Force Awakens sucks, and how the marketing can go to hell. I’m tired of it.
9 - It's The Same Movie?!
Whether Abrams’ obsessive-compulsive relationship to George Lucas’ 1977 original works for you is a subjective question, of course. You can choose to understand “The Force Awakens” as an embrace of the mythological tradition, in which the same stories recur over and over with minor variations. Or you can see it as the ultimate retreat into formula: “Let’s just make the same damn movie they loved so much the first time!” There are moments when it feels like both of those things, profound and cynical, deeply satisfying and oddly empty. This is the work of a talented mimic or ventriloquist who can just about cover for the fact that he has nothing much to say. He has made an adoring copy of “Star Wars,” seeking to correct its perceived flaws, without understanding that nothing about that movie’s context or meaning or enormous cultural impact can be duplicated.
- Salon.com
8 - JJ Abrams Sucks As An Action Director (DUH!)
As in his other movies (including Super 8 and Star Trek films), Abrams doesn’t seem to know how to frame the action, dramatically or visually, to maximize the good and minimize the bad. The setup for the climactic set piece, which echoes the three friends in The Wizard of Oz sneaking into the witch’s castle to rescue Dorothy, is almost embarrassingly perfunctory, and the security for all First Order facilities appears set at pre-9/11 levels. The film’s strokes of visual panache include the funereal throne room of Supreme Leader Snoke (Andy Serkis), who looks like an enormous version of Edward Munch’s “Scream.” But Abrams can’t pull off a Triumph of the Will extravaganza, whether with his sub–Albert Speer architecture or Domhnall Gleeson’s glazed face and frozen rabble-rousing as General Hax. - Filmcomment.com
7 - It Is Just Paying Fan Service (Nostalgia)
But The Force Awakens is still more or less a fetish object, a film that exists to inspire phrases like “It feels like Star Wars again” ad nauseam from a fanbase that equates the lasting impact of Lucas's prequels as something akin to PTSD. Its analog grain, practical effects work (shrewdly augmented with CGI), and the impression, at least, of a new story in this universe being told, rather than the predetermined one we were subjected to last time, lend Abrams's effort a baseline rejuvenation, one he and returning screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan stoke throughout with the kind of nostalgia this series has been exploiting since it first co-opted John Fordian vistas and plot points from Akira Kurosawa films. - Slantmagazine.com
6 - It's Just The Same Movie (and the same as #9 on this list)
He hasn’t made a terrible picture—just a safe one, where the farthest reaches of fantasy feel merely routine. Every crisis or moment of drama turns out to be a rehash of one that has gone before. Even Luke’s pivotal discovery from The Empire Strikes Back, in which he finds out that his greatest enemy is also his closest relative, is repeated here in a different form, with two characters unexpectedly occupying branches of the same family tree.
5 - People Are Willing To Pay Money No Matter What The Movie Is Like (lame)
Some things are the same but updated, an orphan in the desert with a mysterious heritage, a swashbuckling pilot, a plucky droid. And some things are simply the same: C-3PO and R2-D2, the Millennium Falcon, and oh yes, the Force. The unkind view — the cynical view, the greedminded view — is that there is no need for new ideas when people will line up to pay for old ones. 2015. - Sandiegoreader.com
4 - Either Abrams Doesn't Know How To Pace Himself Or He Doesn't Know The Audience
And yet The Force Awakens adds up to something less than the sum of its parts. The early scenes have a relaxed, assured pace. But as the story moves forward, Abrams becomes more mired in the task of keeping the plot mechanics in gear. There’s the expected climactic battle between X-wing starfighters and TIE fighters, which is mildly exciting and nothing more—the fact that it’s punctuated with dumb dialogue like “General! Their shields are down!” “Prepare to fire!” and even the classic, “It would take a miracle to save us now,” surely doesn’t help. And the movie’s big twist, clearly intended to be a moment of Shakespearean grandeur, is handled clumsily: Instead of allowing a significant figure to have his grand moment, Abrams cuts to other characters expressing shock and dismay, as if he didn’t trust the audience to know what to feel. - Time.com
3 - It's A Boring Rehash of The Same Ideas As The Original, emphasis on BORING.
Pero me fui deshinchando progresivamente, me aburrÃa el más de lo mismo y me resultó francamente pesarosa la segunda parte de la saga. - Cultura.elpais.com
2 - We Have Already Seen The Same Gags and Tricks For 30 Years!
But we have had 30+ years of movies aping A New Hope, with some (Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl) being better than others (Pan, Lucas’s own Willow). So it is a little disheartening to see the former champion playing the same game as would-be pretenders. You can make the case that I was hoping to get “the Star Wars movie,” promised in the grandly mythic trailers but instead got merely “a Star Wars movie.” - Forbes.com
1 - It's Not Well Made, It's Clunky, and Abrams Doesn't Know How To Handle Visual Style
The picture feels a bit clunky, as if on stilts, until the action takes place. Roger Ebert had a cynical observation about whom the Oscars rewards, to paraphrase, “He who acts most acts best.” Though not as acrimonious as Lucas’ prequels, which aren’t even worth consideration if we’re to be serious about any kind of analysis, Abrams feels off balance when he’s not running. I can relate, but I have poor motor coordination because of my cerebral palsy. What’s J.J.’s excuse? THE FORCE AWAKENS also suffers from Abrams’ lack of a visual style. It’s not due to technology. He insisted on real locations and a film medium as opposed to digital cinematography. RAIDERS’ cinematographer Douglas Slocombe, like Peter Suschitzky on EMPIRE, had an easily deconstructed style that was consistent and appropriate for the tone Spielberg wanted for his homage to b-movie serials. - Cinemalogue.com
There you have 9 reasons why Star Wars: The Force Awakens sucks. I used these sites as quotes because they didn't just go for nostalgia and say this was a great opus. It's not. It's another pull to make money, and while I don't care if people make money in a business, I do find that some things aren't worth their salt, and this again is not worthwhile. I'll save my 30 bucks and pay some bills, get a coffee, and go back to whatever it is I do. But if you're honest with yourself, and you read these things, as well as see the movie, you will see that it's nothing grand. Heck, it's about as exciting as a 70 year old man kicking an up and coming WWE superstar. I suck at writing, which is why I linked you to 9 good writers. I'm done. This sucks.
The second episode of the mighty Twilight Zone series was definitely a serious one. It hit me hard as I watched it again for the purpose of a review for this site. This one written by Rod Serling, is a powerful, and moving story of a man that meets up with death. Ed Wynn plays Lou Bookman, and Murray Hamilton plays “death”. When a man is approached by death himself, he starts to panic, and tries to get out of dying, as he wants to continue staying alive. It’s his time though, but Bookman, finds a way to get a little more time, thinking he has outsmarted death this time around, and therefore puts on a showcase, only to find out that if he doesn’t go, someone else just might. It’s there that the morality play starts and ends, in my opinion.
Where Is Everybody? Episode 1 Season 1 of The Twilight Zone
As promised, here we go, talking about all things Twilight Zone. We start with the first episode entitled “Where Is Everybody”. Going back to see this one, my wife and I were guessing as to the plot twist. Knowing full well that Rod Serling twists and turns in his writing, we each had different ideas as to what was going on with the character.
In this episode a man finds himself alone in an empty town. He has a lot of dialogue, and yet he isn’t talking to anyone. He keeps looking for people and eventually gives up. When a phone rings, he figures he has found someone and can call for help. It’s to no avail. As he goes through the empty city, there are signs of life, but he starts to panic. As panic keeps setting in he eventually realizes that he’s alone, and perhaps he may be the last one. The direct symbolism that is shown with the books “The Last Man On Earth” really comes through as our hero runs into mirrors, tries to figure out what is going on, and just can’t seem to figure out what is going on and why he is stuck.
Earl Holliman here does a great job. He plays it straight before going into a deep madness. When he thinks it’s all over, we see a group of men sitting in a room watching. They are from the Air Force, and it’s revealed that our hero was stuck in a sensory deprivation, virtual reality room. It took him 484 hours and 36 minutes to finally panic from the isolation. As the press rushes in they question the Air Force, and it is revealed that they were testing to see how long a person can last alone, traveling in space, and that Mike Ferris was able to go 484 hours, ample time to get to the moon and back without going insane.
With the Twilight Zone’s first season, you really got a sense for the series. Earl Holliman should be praised for his acting skills in this one. He plays it well and then goes insane over the course of a half an hour. The writing is crisp, even though it was originally aired in 1959. Rod Serling has a way of writing very well, with good overall music by Bernard Hermann, and cinematography by Joseph La Shelle.
This episode made me question isolation myself. How long could you go without human interaction? I work solo, as a writer. I haven’t had a coworker since 2009. I wonder how long it will take me to crack? Until then, this is a great episode of this classic series.
The Twilight Zone Complete Season 1 is available here on Blu Ray. You can also see it via streaming media, but if you want to collect this, go for it, and get the box set by clicking here. It’s well worth your time, if I do say so myself.
Turn back the clock to 1943, and you will have a different view of Hollywood. Movies didn’t always rely on explosions and cheap tricks to get you entertained. They featured strong performances from actors, great lighting, camera tricks, and professional writers that knew what they were doing. Of course this is a classic in many people’s views, and it was nominated for an Academy Award because of it. "Shadow of A Doubt" is a movie that was directed by the master of suspense and horror, Alfred Hitchcock. It stars Teresa Wright, Joseph Cotton, Macdonald Carey, and Patricia Collinge.
The plot of this one is simple, Charlotte Newton is stuck in a boring town, and gets the news that her uncle is going to come to town. Set in Santa, Rosa California, this seems like a simplistic plot. A young woman is getting a visit from her uncle and that’s it, right? Nope. Her Uncle is hiding something, but what? It turns out that he is a slasher, and she worries that she may be his next victim. Over the course of the 108 minutes of this movie, she unravels a case against him, and eventually confronts him.
The movie here is going to be boring to many. Remember, this is 1943 in which the film was released and you are not going to get the modern fast paced story telling. There’s a lot of dialogue and push forward to give a sense of suspense. Even though there are some marks of horror, you’re going to find that this is a straightforward thriller, with a slow progression that tightens towards the climax. The final moments carry over into an epilogue that has a sense of finality, but overall, you find a standard suspense film. Is Uncle Charlie a killer? Is Charlotte just worried for nothing? You find it through the sequences that Hitchcock masterfully puts together.
Visually this movie is good, with cinematographer Joseph A. Valentine doing a great deal of work to make this story come to life. I find it refreshing to see Charlotte as a strong female lead, and not just running around screaming for her life as a killer is on the loose. She has resolve, and is a feminist heroine that most people skip over when thinking about horror and suspense.
Overall, this is an instant classic. You have to be in the right frame of mind to enjoy it, however. It’s in black and white, it’s somewhat slow to start, and definitely requires your full attention to get the work that Hitchcock pushes through. You may not like it. However, if you’re a fan of the classics, this is a great one to sit back and enjoy. They remade this one as “Step Down To Terror” in 1958, but this one is better, in my opinion.
As I type this a molar is fighting my gums, and trying to get out of the burial of my jaw. Why are wisdom teeth extractions cosmetic? It hurts, but what hurts more is the fact that “Covered California” should’ve helped me get this taken care of, but instead, nope, they have frozen me out of getting coverage. That’s ok, I’m here with another illuminating post about scary stuff. Here are 5 novels that are scarier than most horror movies, but then again, I’ve read the Bible so that ranks top in my view. What? You don’t like non-fiction? What? It’s fiction too? Allegory maybe, but that’s not for debate here, what is for debate is whether or not these novels are scarier than hell or rather just another sad sack list of horror movies or rather books to ignore.
It was negative 8 degrees in Moscow, Idaho. I mention that because that was during the winter before my divorce in which I read this book. This is a dense historical fiction, and it is one of the toughest books to read when you’re freezing to death. I was so cold my bones hurt, and I didn’t find enough warm clothing to help, which made for a great deal of ambience amidst the 1845 Franklin Expedition that this book talks about. Going to the Arctic Circle 2 ships get stuck, and what they find is that it isn’t just space where no one can hear you scream, it’s here on earth, in the coldest of weather. Great horror fiction and historical fiction done right, but again, this is a dense book full of description up front. If you can pass the slow parts, you are going to get hit with a horrific story that will definitely pair well in cold weather.
For some reason I was thinking of Wanda Jackson, but this is not the same person or the same genre at all. The Haunting of Hill House runs up a grand story of, well, a haunted hose. Better than the movie adaptations, this is a creepy book that peels away your skin slowly. It ramps up the horror in a very nuanced manner, and you are not going to get all the answers as something bad happens at every turn of the page. Jackson’s novel still bears more horror than the latest in cinema, that’s for sure.
To this day, a modern tale of horror has enough gusto to pull your guts out. Forget what you’ve seen in the movies, this novel still gets a lot of people scared. If you’re a religious person, then there are going to be pages that you are going to absolutely be afraid of, but as you progress through this somewhat detective horror story, you are going to definitely enjoy yourself. It’s stronger than the original film, and your imagination can work wonders to scare you during the day and the night.
David Wong has found a way to make absurd horror stories, and yet still pull you into the 1980s splatterpunk genre. Wong’s book was translated into a pretty cool movie, but as you turn the page, it’s incredibly different and dare I say harder hitting than the movie. There’s just so much going on here, as if R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps series grew up and married Barker’s nightmare landscapes. Wong has a way of shoving you into a seriously comedic romp, while still tugging at the gore levels and horror elements that made movies like “Nightmare on Elm Street” famous. This may have a mixed bag, but at the core of the book and Wong’s second book, horror reigns.
Sure, Stephen King may think of himself as the “Big Mac and Fries” of literature, but this is not afternoon picnic. “The Shining” translates well to supernatural horror, madness, and isolation. It speaks volumes through prose that the movie failed to capture. At the same time, it creates enduring characterizations, fights demons, and aspires to be the greatest horror novel ever written, and does so by throwing Bram Stoker and Mary Shelley into a closet and setting them on fire. Not a vampire tale, not a monster lurking, but rather the human mind, spirituality, and a cold snap that will break your fingers as you turn the page. The “King” of horror definitely pulled your eyelids off when this book was released and it still gets praised for it.
Looking for grindhouse, horror, or sci-fi films? Please check out our amazon astore featuring all things horror. Don't trust astore? Check out amazon.com, surprisingly they have more grindhouse,horror,and rare sci-fi than you may not have thought possible.
Rob Zombie burst onto the movie scene with his “House of 1,000 Corpses” and levied that into a career as a director. While some people hated his work on “Halloween”, others thought that the visionary director had something to offer the community as a whole. With the release of “The Lords of Salem” the hype surrounding his directorial work was definitely at an all-time high. Then the movie came out and a lot of people threw in the towel, their hands up in the air and claimed that he had lost it. Even though there are a lot of people that hate this movie, I think that it comes across 100 million times better than “Drag Me To Hell”, which I thought was garbage and terribly made by a veteran director. This movie was not rated Pg-13, it was rated R for a reason, it’s a HORROR MOVIE!
Visually, Zombie found a way to create a compelling, lavish art house film. There is a very beautiful array that comes through every frame of this movie, and it’s atmospheric from the first moments on the screen to the finish line. There’s attention to the colors, the set pieces, and everything works together in a very Kubrick like manner. You are going to swear that you’re watching something older than the past few years because this type of cinematography doesn’t usually hit the screen very often. The rich reds, greens, blacks, reds, and golden rod all hit the screen hard, and I was definitely impressed with the change from the dark and gloomy elements that he worked with in other movies, to this jump into what the foreign horror movies of the 1970s and 1980s were bringing.
Lords of Salem's Striking Use of Color
The movie revolves around a coven that has picked a vessel in modern times to bring forth a reckoning. A child is birthed, although the story is somewhat convoluted, through the sequences of a radio DJ playing a record that has been delivered to her. The movie then progresses and we get a writer trying to figure out a melody that is droning on and on and familiar in a way. The writer recognizes it as a melody for an old coven, and he quickly tries to figure out why it is being played on the radio. Through the narrative we get a slow burn that leaves us with no answers, except for a news reel that plays at the end.
Overall, “The Lords of Salem” is a visual masterpiece. Rob Zombie went for broke on this one, and truly delivers a “unique” vision. It may not make a lot of sense at times, but there’s enough visual direction and art to make this one of the most unique horror movies to come out in a long time. I cannot think of another movie that has the same kind of compelling visualization, and I’ve written this blog for a long time. I’ve read the complaints on this movie and you know what? If you didn’t like this at all, you’re an idiot and perhaps you shouldn’t watch horror movies any longer. This isn’t particularly scary, it’s just visually compelling in a way that few horror movies in the modern scope are.
Visual Design Is The Strong Suit of Zombie's Lords of Salem
Then again, there’s a very distinct disconnect when you see the latex baby…I’ll leave it at that. “Lords of Salem” is best enjoyed on blu ray like I did, and definitely an underrated piece of horror from recent releases. I have seen a lot of recent movies, and most don't have the same kind of visual collateral. Sure, Zombie's storytelling leaves something to be desired, but as far as a movie that isn't a rehash, or a reboot. It's an original picture that deserves far more credit than it gets. Sheri Moon Zombie does well here, and so do the other actors. I liked it.
Looking for grindhouse, horror, or sci-fi films? Please check out our amazon astore featuring all things horror. Don't trust astore? Check out amazon.com, surprisingly they have more grindhouse,horror,and rare sci-fi than you may not have thought possible.
I grew up in the projects of Culver City. My sister’s nanny was Latina and she had a couple of kids my age. That meant that 90% of my time away from school was spent in the hood. In that hood I met a lot of interesting people, some of which are carbon copies in this movie. I hate the other Paranormal Activity movies, I don’t like them at all. I think they suck, quite honestly. But the makers of the series found a way to get to me, and you know what, they did it well. This movie is awesome in my book, and it’s because it hits home to my childhood and the things my people say, do, and well act like. Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones has a healthy mix of fear, and I for one loved it.
The movie tells the story of recent Latino graduates. They live in a small apartment complex, and they have a camera that they are recording everyday life with. As they start to investigate their neighbor, they realize that there’s something going awry. They find out that she’s in “Santa Muerte” and things start to spin out of control when the main character, Jesse, finds what appears to be a bite on his arm. Of course this comes after a black magic, voodoo, black mirror thing ends up happening in an abandoned church. I may be glossing over things, but whatever, it’s coming from memory.
As the movie progresses, things really start to get insane, and we push through to a story that is gut wrenching. I haven’t felt a twist in my stomach until Jesse turns super evil, and his friends have to try and save them. Hector running through a sequence in the Coven and Marisol falling out the sky did it for me, and the movie really pushed my buttons. Perhaps it’s the Latino influence, perhaps I was just lucid, but there were moments in this movie that made me root for the good guys, even though they brought this whole thing on themselves. Scooping fire into their laps turned out to burn them like hell, no pun intended.
Altogether, Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones is a frenetically wound scary movie, and it had me amazed. I liked the found footage story telling here, and appreciated the nod to my culture in a way. There’s a lot to this movie, and something that I will definitely watch again. I haven’t seen a horror movie in a long time that I truly liked, and this is one of them. It’s powerful, and while it’s not perfect, it’s definitely one of my favorites from the past few years. There’s a sick sense of terror that permeates through the actions of this movie, and something that all good horror movies do. There's something for everyone here, and if you're at all familiar with Mexican, Latino culture, you may have a bit of a soft spot for this movie's central characters and themes.
The real dirt here, buy this one on blu ray, wait for nightfall, light some candles and get scared. I loved it. Yeah, I said it. There's more to this than just my attempt at an explanation, so go see it or figure out how to get it (below).
Looking for grindhouse, horror, or sci-fi films? Please check out our amazon astore featuring all things horror. Don't trust astore? Check out amazon.com, surprisingly they have more grindhouse,horror,and rare sci-fi than you may not have thought possible.
One of my personal favorite movies is “Cabin Fever”, and while I say that, I do not mean that the sequels are my favorite. In fact, this is a hard one to watch at times. The beginning of this movie made me want to sleep, and it was just a hard one to start with. The second film in the series at least gave me hope as Rider Strong was in it, and that is something well worth investing time into. However, aside from that cameo, I didn’t find the second film to be grand. This one however, is a far cry from the original with a few exceptions here and there.
Sean Astin is by far the best part of this movie. He plays Porter, a man who is trapped in quarantine because of a medical experiment gone wrong. He drives the main plot of getting the virus that infects the people in the movies. He wants to get out of his quarantine and devises a plan to get out by attacking the nurses and doctors. Meanwhile a bunch of young adults are headed to a remote island for sex, drugs, and sex. The group end up stumbling on the medical facility, and through swimming in the water contract the disease.
The movie itself is filmed with shoulder cams or something because it’s really shaky at times, especially when it shouldn’t be shaky. There’s an obvious lack of depth here, but you kind of let it go to watch what happens. Through the midpoint of the film you’ve either invested in the story enough to watch it to the end or you have given up. I found myself pushing through because I knew I wanted to review it for the site.
The best part is the gore that comes through the infection as it’s far worse than the original film. The latex and gore effects are tremendous here and that’s what really sold me on the movie. The story line is lackluster, but the effects are not all CG, which I really appreciated. There was a lot of blood spilled through the movement in the second and third acts. As Astin’s character escapes and nearly dies thanks to a rogue scientist, we get treated to a cycle of violence on a boat that encapsulates the whole series quite nicely.
At the end of the day, this is not an iconic film. “Cabin Fever Patient Zero” is a laughable sequel, but it’s better than the second to me, at least for the tying up of the backdrop of the virus. That being said, it’s not as good as the original, and it shouldn’t be expected to be as good, right? I wouldn’t recommend this one to everyone, but if you liked the original, you might as well invest in it for your collection to have the trilogy together. If you’re going to buy “Cabin Fever” go blu ray, and get it here. Otherwise, watch it on streaming or at a friend’s house. I don’t know.
I wanted to give a quick shout out to our sponsor The Boneyard. They have some sick movies for you to check out, so click here and do so or click the banner above. Thanks to The Boneyard for helping this site stay afloat. If you want to donate, help the cause, or just get me to write for you, use the sidebar, buy a dvd, and help keep this site going. Thanks.
Looking for grindhouse, horror, or sci-fi films? Please check out our amazon astore featuring all things horror. Don't trust astore? Check out amazon.com, surprisingly they have more grindhouse,horror,and rare sci-fi than you may not have thought possible.
As a horror fan, I've seen many horror movies go unwatched, untouched, and generally panned by critics and so called "fans" alike. These movies are not as bad as people think they are, and they are generally below the radar, and/or mistaken for something else. This is exactly the case with a series of films from the 1980's that rivaled any camp movie out there to date. The series in mind is none other than the infamous: Sleepaway Camp series!
First and foremost, the original film can be a little annoying, with its slow pacing, and its lack of clear cut gore or explanation for some of the dream sequences. The film follows a hard line of boredom, until after the turning point that is marked surprisingly enough by a long winded game of baseball! That's right, in the middle of the film, to mark the turning point, the director decided to have a full three or four innings of baseball! This was a bad idea, but it did make the movie a little longer, and therefore a full length release at the time of showcase. The movie followed along a mysterious plot of killings in the camp grounds, and it all came down to a shocker of an ending that is still talked about to this day. The reason why this film didn't make it to most homes and horror fans is because it was panned as a knockoff of a similar film at the time: Friday the 13th, which also featured a killer in the midst of a camp setting. It also boasted a young Kevin Bacon, and that doesn't seem to hurt.
The second film, had a grown up serial killer that was played by Pamela Springsteen, in another romp through the campgrounds. This time around, more people seemed to take notice, but the comparisons to similar films was rampant at time of release. The vhs cover featured the Freddy glove, and the Jason Mask, so the film makers and distributors saw a potential revival on vhs, and it did quite well in video rental circles.
The third installment of the film featured some cleavage on the cover, and a more distinct artist rendering that took horror fans by surprise, considering that by the time of its release more established brands had already begun to use full character models for their covers. One might make the argument that there was a saturation of horror sequels flooding the market in the late 80's and this one fell by the wayside in the midst of more prominent, household names. The film quality on the third one was surprisingly good, but the story and plot were so thin that the gore made up for any sort of length problems.
Underrated films exist in all genres. This is just one series that seems to be seeing a lot of recent press, but more on the lines of a remake and restructuring of the original story. We have seen this done recently by Rob Zombie and the Halloween franchise, and it's a winning formula in many senses. The most underrated films in my opinion usually revolve around similar stories in the genre. Sleepaway Camp could not get away from the constant comparisons to Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street, even if the series was making a good attempt at breaking ground with a woman as the main killer. It just didn't sit well with the over saturated market. Underrated films usually don't get much attention until years and years after the release.
Looking for grindhouse, horror, or sci-fi films? Please check out our amazon astore featuring all things horror. Don't trust astore? Check out amazon.com, surprisingly they have more grindhouse,horror,and rare sci-fi than you may not have thought possible.
Jim Mickle directs this cannibal movie in a very artistic manner. “We Are What We Are” is based on a Mexican horror movie, and I only saw this one, not the other one. The film is a slow moving drama, until you realize that there is something sinister going on with the Parker family. They seem to be in need of food, and the only thing that will wet their whistle is human flesh. The movie takes a lot of time setting up the full reveal, with a lot of points that just seem unnecessary.
As far as visuals, this movie is interesting. You get a lot of artistic shots across the board, where nothing is left to chance. You will not find a shot that is not meant to reveal something or push the story forward, even if the dialogue is barren. It’s definitely an artistic and imaginative picture, but one that can seem tedious to trudge through. You aren’t given the tension boiling of “Ravenous” or the pay off, but you do get some very creepy moments here and there.
The movie ramps up the gore through the end, and when you finally want to shut it off, the director takes a major turn, leaving you with your jaw on the floor. The turn was definitely out of the blue for me, as I didn’t expect it to grab my attention at the end. I had given it a fair chance, and it most definitely paid off in an absolutely horrific way. I’ve seen a lot of on screen violence and gore, but this one had some components that were just cringe worthy.
Overall, the movie is good, but it’s slow paced. If you like slow moving pictures with artistry in the way they are filmed, check this one out. If you love cannibal movies from the 1970s and 1980s, this is not for you. It’s far too nuanced and dramatic for your tastes. This is not a Troma film, and it shows. “We Are What We Are” is available through streaming, or you can pick up a copy here. It will stay with you, but it takes a lot to stick with it, it’s a bit boring at times, at least in my opinion.
Looking for grindhouse, horror, or sci-fi films? Please check out our amazon astore featuring all things horror. Don't trust astore? Check out amazon.com, surprisingly they have more grindhouse,horror,and rare sci-fi than you may not have thought possible.
In 1979 a movie that would spawn several sequels came out, and it’s still a classic in the world of horror, Phantasm. I see it get a lot of talk on the internet, and I still enjoy it from time to time. It’s another example of what you can do without a lot of fancy computer graphics, or top level stars. The movie did star Michael Baldwin, Bill Thornbury, Ken Jones and was directed by Don Coscarelli. The 1970s were rocking the hell out of the cinema world with horror movies, more so than any other period of time. Sure, the 1980s had a lot, and the 90s were packed with teen scream, but nothing compares to the sheer terror and horror that came out during the 1970s epic movie making time frame.
Phantasm features a creepy tall man and an insane premise, that a silver ball could very well impale you and treat you like a slave forever. When a small town is plagued by something mysterious, a group of friends go and find out what’s up, targeting a mortician and all hell breaks loose as they start to unravel the mystery.
This low budget horror movie can very well be a cult classic on some lists, but it’s one of my personal favorites today. There are a lot of moments that are absurd and don’t really have a lot of benefit to the casual viewer today. The orbs are super cool, and historically, the gore in this film should’ve gotten the movie the dreaded X rating that was getting pushed, but instead, by some miracle it got a hard R rating and many folks got to see it. I wasn’t born yet, but I sure as hell rented this and the sequels from the Korean video store I lived next door to.
Phantasm is creepy, funny, and a welcome view for horror movie fans that are interested in something unique. It strays from the overdone zombie, vampire, and werewolf genres to give you a taste of the unreal. I recommend it highly.
Looking for grindhouse, horror, or sci-fi films? Please check out our amazon astore featuring all things horror. Don't trust astore? Check out amazon.com, surprisingly they have more grindhouse,horror,and rare sci-fi than you may not have thought possible.
