tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-76434114910878284822024-03-14T01:09:57.605-07:00Squealing Tires on Dirt Taking detours through horror, action, sci-fi, cult, and exploitation films, with pitstops along the way for classics, foreign gems, low budget obscurities, B-movies, and other overlooked and underseen cinematic roadside attractions.Nathan Westhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09914459868603679029noreply@blogger.comBlogger111125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7643411491087828482.post-5216618097213162782017-02-26T14:39:00.000-08:002017-02-27T23:28:43.964-08:00Top 15 Films of 2016<br />
I haven't posted here for almost 10 months. Been busy, kinda not into it, but today is Oscar Sunday and I can't really pass up an excuse to make a list, so as I've done the last three years (<u><a href="http://squealingtiresondirt.blogspot.com/2014/03/top-15-films-of-2013.html">2013</a></u>, <u><a href="http://squealingtiresondirt.blogspot.com/2015/02/top-15-films-of-2014.html">2014</a></u>, <u><a href="http://squealingtiresondirt.blogspot.com/2016/02/top-15-films-of-2015.html">2015</a></u>), here's my personal Favorite Films of the Year, 2016 Edition.<br />
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As always though, even with the extra time to catch up on everything, there are still plenty of 2016 releases I have yet to see, including: <i>Manchester by the Sea</i>, <i>Arrival</i>, <i>Jackie</i>, <i>Nocturnal Animals</i>, <i>Silence</i>, <i>Paterson</i>, <i>Hidden Figures</i>, <i>Fences</i>, <i>20th Century Women</i>, <i>Certain Women</i>, <i>American Honey</i>, <i>Toni Erdmann</i>, <i>Loving</i>, <i>Moana</i>, <i>13th</i>, <i>Cameraperson</i>, <i>Tickled</i>, <i>The Love Witch</i>, <i>The Age of Shadows</i>, <i>Hacksaw Ridge</i>, <i>The Fits</i>, <i>We are the Flesh</i>, <i>Ouija: Origin of Evil</i>, and a whole bunch of other things I am sure.<br />
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Out of the 60+ movies from 2016 I <i>did</i> see, these were my favorites:<br />
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<u><b><span style="font-size: x-large;">TOP 15 FILMS OF 2016</span></b></u></div>
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<b>1.</b></div>
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<b><u><span style="font-size: large;">Green Room</span></u></b></div>
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The next two films on my list are probably technically better movies, but <i>Green Room</i> just blew me away with its intensity and has resonated with me since seeing it months ago. Plus it's just my kind of movie. This is a brutal, tense film about a young punk rock band set up with a gig that turns out to be at a nazi skinhead punk bar, and things only get worse when they witness a horrible act of violence and get trapped in the titular location.<br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-16-ZcTaUJOQ/WLKbI7vTjuI/AAAAAAAADQ8/psVD3huSxWUsVQjUk4rkkGkn7Q6R2ORRACLcB/s1600/OB_GreenRoom_FINALforprint_1024x1024.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-16-ZcTaUJOQ/WLKbI7vTjuI/AAAAAAAADQ8/psVD3huSxWUsVQjUk4rkkGkn7Q6R2ORRACLcB/s200/OB_GreenRoom_FINALforprint_1024x1024.jpg" width="200" /></a>Jeremy Saulnier, who also blew me away with <i>Blue Ruin</i>, crafts an expertly paced and painfully executed thriller, with the grisly palpable fear permeating every sickly green corridor and dark crevice of this claustrophobic horror show. Anton Yelchin (may he RIP) is great, what happens to him in the film is beyond shocking and is downright gnarly (people were gasping in my audience), but the MVP might just be Patrick Stewart, who is fantastic as the chillingly calculated and cold skinhead leader. <br />
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More than just an intense bloodbath and exercise in cruelty, Saulnier has written an intelligent script with moments that force contemplation on the learned nature of hate and how it is developed and employed to incite violence and fuel anger, usually for dogmatic means. There are themes and ideas at work in this film that resonate with the current political climate. It's 2016 and we still have to tell nazi punks to fuck off.<br />
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<b>2.</b></div>
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<u><b><span style="font-size: large;">The Handmaiden</span></b></u></div>
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Exquisite and masterful, Park Chan-wook is at the top of his game here (the editing is superb and the film is beautiful), offering one surprise after another as multiple characters con each other for various reasons. An orgasmic thriller in every sense, with moments of genuine happiness and love occurring amidst all the perverseness, torture, cruelty, and plot twists. Two black gloved thumbs up.<br />
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<b>3.</b></div>
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<u><b><span style="font-size: large;">Moonlight</span></b></u></div>
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A rare thing: a modest, intimate film, a heartbreaking love story, emotional and true, told with solid and precise filmmaking. The small moments of our lives are what make us who we are. Real good stuff, this is a special film, should prob win the Oscar for Best Picture. (edit: IT WON and in MEMORABLE fashion!)<br />
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<b><u>4.</u></b></div>
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<u><b><span style="font-size: large;">Elle</span></b></u></div>
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Masterfully constructed from the perspective of putting the viewer totally within the viewpoint of the protagonist, a woman who contains multitudes of layers and is never quite just one thing, much like the plot and tone of this film which slides effortlessly between erotic thriller, whodunit, family drama, and dark comedy. A tough film with some trigger warnings for sure, but the lead performance by Isabelle Huppert is one of the best of the decade and director Paul Verhoeven (who is 78!) is firing on all his perverted cylinders. <br />
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<b>5.</b></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><u>The Nice Guys</u></b></span></div>
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So damn fun and funny, with a tight script and a compelling central mystery (even if it is the typical "search for a girl" plot), this is basically buddy-cop movie perfection. Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe are a riot, both giving their characters some nice depth and complexity. Action packed, absurd and hilarious, darkly so at times, the crowd I saw it with was gasping almost as much as they were laughing. This is a real crowd pleaser.<br />
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<b>6.</b></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;"><u>The Invitation</u></span></b></div>
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Didn't know much going into this one and that is the perfect way to see it. If you need a logline, this is a paranoid thriller set at a casual dinner gathering, the execution is fantastic and the ensemble is great.<br />
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<b>7.</b></div>
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<b><u><span style="font-size: large;">Hell or High Water</span></u></b></div>
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Bank robbery genre film that downshifts with a bit of melancholy, moral ambiguity, and topical social issues (cycles of poverty). The film looks great, capturing that sparse rural Texas beauty. Jeff Bridges is excellent, Chris Pine continues to do his best work as a character actor, and Ben Foster adds layers to the scumbag brother he plays. Great soundtrack, too.<br />
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<b>8.</b></div>
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<b><u><span style="font-size: large;">The Lobster</span></u></b></div>
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Bizarre and borderline brilliant, strangely insightful in how we relate to one another while looking for meaningful connection and relationships. Low in budget and high in concept, Colin Farrell (who has never been better or pudgier) is taken to The Hotel where he, along with all the other guests, are expected to find love in 45 days or else they will be turned into the animal of their choosing. Like I said, humorously bizarre, but also incredibly sweet, darkly intense, and totally unforgettable.<br />
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"We dance alone. That's why we only play electronic music."<br />
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<b>9.</b></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><u>Swiss Army Man</u></b></span></div>
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A treasure trove of whatthefuck. A funny, weird movie about loneliness, depression, imagination, and escape. It's magic. Pure, farting boner corpse magic.<br />
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<b>10.</b></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;"><u>O.J. - Made in America</u></span></b></div>
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The best work to come out of the <i>ESPN 30 for 30</i> project (which, by the way, I consider a TV series, so I usually don't count episodes as "movies" per se, but since this film debuted in theaters and is nominated for an Oscar, I made an exception), this epic documentary about the O.J. Simpson trial is incredible as it parallels his life with the racial injustices and tragedies of Los Angeles that led to the climate that would foster the trial of the century. Even at almost eight hours long it is still a breezy watch, captivating and disturbing, the graphic nature of the crime scene photos actually made me physically recoil. Damn O.J., why'd you have to do that shit, man?<br />
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<b>11.</b></div>
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<u><b><span style="font-size: large;">Hunt for the Wilderpeople</span></b></u></div>
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Perfect balance of charming and funny, it's sweet without getting overly saccharin. Sam Neill is a goddamn treasure and his pairing with little hoodlum Ricky Baker is fantastic. The New Zealand countryside is lovely and Rhys Darby nearly steals the entire movie in his brief scenes as a mad, paranoid bushman, but that guys practically steals every movie he's in, so that's par. There's a Leonard Cohen song featured here and I saw this film a couple days after he died last year. That was my "shit just got real" moment.<br />
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<b>12.</b></div>
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<b><u><span style="font-size: large;">Kill Zone 2</span></u></b></div>
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A multi-faceted plot involving black market organ thievery, straight-up kidnapping, wrongful imprisonment, a gang boss with a bad heart, a sick little girl with leukemia, a junkie undercover cop, a ruthless prison warden, and a guy whose knife skills would put Danny Trejo to shame, all of it underlined with themes of corruption and loyalty and punctuated with the absolute BEST action scenes and fight choreography of the year. Sure to please anyone looking for great Hong Kong action cinema with clean fight scenes featuring nimble dudes who are fleet of foot kicking and punching each other into oblivion.<br />
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<b>13.</b></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><u>The Autopsy of Jane Doe</u></b></span></div>
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The second genre film on my list that benefits greatly from the less you know as a viewer, so don't watch any trailers or read any spoilery reviews. Brian Cox and Emile Hirsch are both great, imbuing their father/son relationship with a lot of warmth and authenticity, and when the spooky shit hits the fan it is genuinely upsetting because you like these guys so much. A scary good mystery.<br />
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<b>14.</b></div>
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<u><b><span style="font-size: large;">The Witch</span></b></u></div>
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An atmosphere of dread hangs heavy over this Puritanical horror film that explores the dangers of religious conviction, patriarchal failures, witch trials, and the changes of puberty. Also the dangers of goats. Some people were turned off by the fact that the actual witch stuff was limited in the film, but I felt it was very effective when used. The slow burn pace of the film is earned and the payoff is quite excellent, so much so that you want more, the hallmark of a good story. Quick side note: people that spell the title of this "<i>The VVitch</i>" can go straight to hell..<br />
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<b>15.</b></div>
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<u><b><span style="font-size: large;">The Neon Demon</span></b></u></div>
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Gorgeous, gory, hypnotic, horrifying, measured, challenging, meditative, obtuse, everything you expect from a Nicholas Winding Refn joint. Cliff Martinez with the original music score of the year!<br />
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<u><span style="font-size: large;"><b>the next ten</b></span></u>:</div>
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-<u><i>Captain America: Civil War</i></u> - The airport rumble is the most comic booky action scene achieved yet in cinema. These MCU films, particularly the <i>Cap America</i> series, continue to be my favorite modern blockbusters.<br />
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-<i><u>De Palma</u></i> - Basically is just Brian De Palma talking about his career and all his movies for two hours and for a De Palma cinema nerd IT IS FANTASTIC AND THE BEST.<br />
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-<u><i>Sing Street</i></u> - Cute coming of age story set in 1980s Ireland that digs into the creative process, both of song writing and the discovery of self. Great songs (even if they are increasingly anachronistic) and the cast has fantastic chemistry, might be the feel good movie of the year.<br />
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-<i><u>La La Land</u></i> - Charming and very pretty to look at. Could've used more songs, tho.<br />
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-<u><i>The Shallows</i></u> - Starts as a simple, tense survival tale before embracing the exploitation aspects of its story in the third act. The best shark movie since <i>Jaws 2</i>. Also, Best Supporting Actor: Steven Seagull. </div>
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-<i><u>Tower</u></i> - Doc on the 1966 University of Texas mass shooting, done in an artistic rotoscopic animation style, doesn't give voice to the killer or even show an image of him, instead focuses on the victims and survivors of that tragic day.<br />
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-<u><i>Trash Fire</i></u> - Moves fluidly between drama, romance, dark comedy, and horror and isn't afraid to get cruel while exploring themes of relationships, family obligations, and abusiveness. Plus, I love how director Ricky Bates, Jr. knows exactly how and when to end a film.<br />
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-<i><u>10 Cloverfield Lane</u></i> - I wasn't down with the last twist in the finale, but otherwise really liked this tense little thriller. John Goodman is the man.<br />
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-<u><i>Hello, My Name is Doris</i></u> - Sally Field is a legit joy as an eccentric older woman who decides to pursue a younger man in this Michael Showalter comedy, bringing some real depth to what could be a goofy or maudlin character. Plus she's real funny. So is everyone else (Tyne Daley!).<br />
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-<i><u>Hush</u></i> - Effective and simple in execution, with some wonderfully tense moments. The novelty of a deaf heroine makes for some great suspense scenes and she more than proves to be quite the formidable opponent for the psycho killer here. Mike Flanagan is proving to be a modern master of horror.<br />
<br />
<br />
_________________<br />
<u><b>honorable mentions</b></u>: <i>Lo and Behold: Reveries of the Connected World</i>, <i>Into the Inferno</i>, <i>Weiner</i>, <i>Weiner Dog</i>, <i>Kubo and the Two Strings</i>, <i>Everybody Wants Some!!</i>, <i>Southside with You</i>, <i>I am the Pretty Thing that Lives in the House</i>, <i>Blood Father</i><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>_____________________</b><br />
<u><b>Worst Movies of the Year</b></u>:<br />
<br />
Truly a shame what Warner Bros. is doing with its DC Comics properties. It's almost fascinatingly stupid and inept. <i>Man of Steel</i> was terrible and now these two...<br />
<br />
-<i><u>Suicide Squad</u></i> - A big stinking mess, haphazardly edited, boring and clumsy, with more needle drops than a FM station, truly feels like it was made for (and by) stunted 12 year olds. Atrocious. Margot Robbie was nice.<br />
<br />
-<i><u>Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice</u></i> - The piss jar sitting on the shelf amongst the rest of the <i>Bat</i> and '<i>Supe</i> franchises. Atrocious. Ben Affleck was nice.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
---<br />
Well, there you go. What do you think?<br />
Agree? Disagree? What were your favorites of 2016?<br />
---<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Nathan Westhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09914459868603679029noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7643411491087828482.post-19190750723339186392016-04-21T22:38:00.001-07:002016-04-21T22:38:26.310-07:00The Howling: Reborn<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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When I started <u>The Howling Series Retrospective Review</u> project back in 2013 I didn't imagine<br />
a). that it would take this long to complete<br />
and<br />
b). that there was an 8th and more recent <i>Howling</i> film. I thought the series died with the dreadful part 7, <i>New Moon Rising</i>, but turns out that was not the case (and wishful thinking).<br />
<br />
This has not been a good series of movies (only part of the reason why this project has taken so long to complete) but in the very least I can say that all of the films either contain some memorable moments or something strange/weird/interesting. However this modern <i>Howling</i> movie is. . . .something else entirely.<br />
<br />
Read on, but first, links to previous installments:<br />
<u><i><a href="http://squealingtiresondirt.blogspot.com/2013/06/the-howling.html">The Howling</a></i></u><br />
<u><i><a href="http://squealingtiresondirt.blogspot.com/2013/07/howling-ii-your-sister-is-werewolf.html">Howling II...your sister is a werewolf!</a></i></u><br />
<i><u><a href="http://squealingtiresondirt.blogspot.com/2014/04/the-marsupials-howling-iii.html">Marsupials: Howling III</a></u></i><br />
<i><u><a href="http://squealingtiresondirt.blogspot.com/2014/07/howling-iv-original-nightmare.html">Howling IV: The Original Nightmare</a></u></i><br />
<i><u><a href="http://squealingtiresondirt.blogspot.com/2014/11/howling-v-rebirth.html">Howling V: The Rebirth</a></u></i><br />
<i><u><a href="http://squealingtiresondirt.blogspot.com/2015/02/howling-vi-freaks.html">Howling VI: The Freaks</a></u></i><br />
<i><u><a href="http://squealingtiresondirt.blogspot.com/2015/08/the-howling-new-moon-rising.html">The Howling: New Moon Rising</a></u></i><br />
<br />
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I'm not actually sure what to say about <i>The Howling: Reborn</i> (2011). The movie is kind of a blank. It happened, I heard and saw something, but it had no effect. I wasn't appalled by it, or interested. It's the kind of bad and bland that is common with modern DTV low budget horror movies: Visually uninteresting, the camera moves around too much, zero atmosphere, sterile lighting, terrible voiceover narration, weak characterization, crummy CGI, etc. I watched it less than a week ago and I can barely recall what the movie is even about.<br />
<br />
Let's see....<br />
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<br />
There's a pregnant artist lady who is killed by something, some sort of unseen attacker, but the baby survives and 18 years later grows into this sullen dork who meets the rebellious love of his life and also his mom (who never actually died) comes back to make him a badass werewolf, just like she is, and if not she'll kill him. Or something. Like I said, I barely recall.<br />
<br />
It's real basic, generic stuff. The real question is, how are the werewolves?<br />
<br />
Well, they kind of look okay, they're these tall bipedal creatures but it seems as if they come in two styles. One has the regular werewolf snout face and is furrier:<br />
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This is how mom-wolf and eventually (spoiler?) her son and his girlfriend look, and it looks fine! It looks like a werewolf. Mom-wolf also has these minion wolves and these dudes, for some reason, look quite a bit different. I'd say they resemble an orc wearing furry chaps:<br />
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That darker first image is actually the first full werewolf you see in the movie, which is both hilarious and alarming, as he's all slick up top and kinda hairy on his legs and arms. It was a small relief later when mom turns into a regular looking werewolf. Makes me wonder why they didn't just stick with a snout-face similar to mom-wolf? Weird design choice guys.<br />
<br />
You get a real good look at the better werewolf design late in the movie, after a big shaky cam werewolf battle between mom and son, (spoiler) girlfriend-wolf shows up and she looks like this:<br />
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Not too shabby of a monster suit (could be hairier); there's definitely worse in the <i>Howling</i> franchise itself.<br />
<br />
Unfortunately, there's very little blood and not really any gore or cool special effects, although there is one funny kill scene where a kid is thrown/falls down a stairwell shaft. (obvious dummy)<br />
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Jeez, other than that let's see...what else to say about this movie?<br />
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<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
-At one point one of the bro-wolf minions serves our protagonist a finger hot dog. I guess it's in an effort to get him to open up to his werewolf lineage, or whatever. It qualifies as a weird moment but only as a moment that feels like it belongs in a different movie. <br />
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-The music and soundtrack is pretty lame, full of bro-rock songs, but they do manage to squeeze "<u><a href="https://youtu.be/gFHW3_30LIk">Killing Moon</a></u>" by Echo & The Bunnymen in there, so good job there I guess (even if it is a cost-saving non-album version of the track).<br />
<br />
<br />
-In the opening, after mom is "killed," the unborn baby's hand bursts through her stomach. That sounds a lot cooler than it actually is in the movie.<br />
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<br />
-Mom-wolf Ivana Milicevic puts in the best performance here, vamping it up and, seemingly, having some fun. She can also be seen in <i>Casino Royale</i> (2006), <i>Running Scared</i> (2006) and <i>Vanilla Sky</i> (2001) and is also familiar to <i>Buffy the Vampire Slayer</i> fans as Riley Finn's wife, Sam, who showed up in that one episode.<br />
<br />
-In the opening credits the film is said to be based on <i>The Howling II</i> written by Gary Brandner, but the finished movie has no resemblance to his novel.<br />
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<br />
-The girlfriend character is enigmatic and intense for no other reason than to cast suspicion on her for potentially being a werewolf early in the movie (which she's not, at least until the finale). As written, I find her to be equally unbelievable as a wild girl as she is a dream girl.<br />
<br />
-There's a best friend character who knows a lot about werewolves because of movies. That really sums up what kind of movie this is. It goes for the obvious every time.<br />
<br />
<br />
Let's be real: this is the kind of lazy movie designed to fill space on a video store shelf or to fulfill some sort of contractual obligation or maybe retain the rights to the material or something. It was obviously made to try to cash in with the <i>Twilight</i> crowd, which, whatever, good for them, but I'm not sure why they had to drag the good(?) name of <i>The Howling</i> series into all of this... hmmpf, let's end this and just go to the wrap-up.<br />
<br />
First check out the trailer if you want:<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/eLLQoD9thVo" width="560"></iframe><br />
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-------------<u><span style="font-size: large;">The Howling Series Retrospective Review Wrap-Up</span></u>-------------</div>
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Well okay, here we are at the end and it seems like I should have learned a lesson or come to a conclusion or something. Well, if I did, it is that the <i>Howling</i> movies are not very good. They have to be, overall, on the lower end of quality when it comes to horror franchises, somewhere above stuff like <i>Puppet Master</i> and <i>Witchcraft</i> but below, say, the <i>Hellraiser</i> films (which manages at least <u>two</u> great movies). This is not to say that some of the individual movies don't have their merits and/or interesting moments. Some of them offer gore and neat werewolf effects, while others have weird half-baked ideas and odd quirks. <br />
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This is how I would personally rank the films, from most to least watchable:<br />
<br />
-The Howling<br />
-Howling II<br />
-Howling III<br />
-Howling VI<br />
-Howling IV<br />
-Howling New Moon Rising<br />
-Howling V<br />
-Howling Reborn<br />
<br />
So yeah, I find <i>NMR</i> to be more watchable than two other <i>Howling</i> films, even though I think it is quite possibly one of the worst movies ever made. I guess that's why I find it watchable, the uniqueness of such a train wreck.<br />
<br />
While I wouldn't recommend this series of movies to most horror fans, I guess I might say the first two sequels are maybe worth checking out, if just for the weirdness factor of both. Full Disclosure: I actually kinda like <i>part II</i>, I think it's a fun bad movie. In general though, you can just watch the original <i>Howling</i> and leave it at that. I'm still not a big fan of the OG <i>Howling</i>, but I can appreciate it more now, if only because Joe Dante was able to pull off a halfway decent werewolf movie, which seems to be a rarity for the subgenre.<br />
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You can get <i>The Howling</i> and <i>Howling II</i> on Blu-ray from the fine folks at <u><a href="https://www.shoutfactory.com/film/film-horror/howling-ii-your-sister-is-a-werewolf">Scream Factory</a></u> and you can find the rest of the movies on DVD in dollar bins and resale shops nationwide.<br />
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Nathan Westhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09914459868603679029noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7643411491087828482.post-85056293968985972102016-02-28T11:36:00.001-08:002016-02-28T11:36:07.254-08:00Top 15 Films of 2015<br />
In what now seems like a new tradition (see: my <a href="http://squealingtiresondirt.blogspot.com/2014/03/top-15-films-of-2013.html" style="text-decoration: underline;">2013</a> and <a href="http://squealingtiresondirt.blogspot.com/2015/02/top-15-films-of-2014.html" style="text-decoration: underline;">2014</a> lists), I am posting my Top Favorite Films of 2015 List today, on Oscar Sunday. These extra weeks allow me to catch up on 2015 releases, and since I'm not getting paid to write any of this, I say why not wait until I've seen a good amount of them before finishing a list. <br />
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As always though, even with all the extra time, I still haven't seen a boatload of things (especially Oscar nominees), including <i>Carol</i>, <i>The Big Short</i>, <i>Spotlight</i>, <i>Son of Saul</i>, <i>Steve Jobs</i>, <i>Straight Outta Compton</i>, <i>Crimson Peak</i>, <i>Kumiko the Treasure Hunter</i>, <i>The Assassin</i>, <i>Magic Mike XXL</i>, <i>Mustang</i>, <i>Macbeth</i>, <i>Krampus</i>, <i>Goodnight Mommy</i>, <i>The Forbidden Room</i>, <i>45 Years</i>, <i>Brooklyn</i>, <i>Beasts of No Nation</i>, or <i>The Revenant</i>. So keep all that in mind..<br />
<br />
Out of the 50 or so movies I <i>did</i> see from 2015, these were my favorites:<br />
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<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><b><u>TOP 15 FILMS OF 2015</u></b></span></div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>1.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><u>Mad Max: Fury Road</u></b></span></div>
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Like most, I couldn't help but absolutely love this movie. My expectations were high and they were met at every level. The relentless momentum of this film is exhilarating, with a breathlessness that is warranted. It has a great, simple plot structure and some deeper emotional moments and themes running throughout. <br />
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Tom Hardy as Max is amazing, tough and silent, and I love how the movie isn't afraid to have one of his best action moments offscreen. His throwdown his Furiosa is fantastic too, as is Furiosa herself (Charlize Theron has an all-timer character here; she's so badass)... So many great things in this movie: the car designs, the car crashes, the tight editing and framing, the crisp visual action choreography, the set and art design, the eye popping color tones, "I live! I die! I live again!," The Doof Warrior, the guys on poles, Mother's Milk, that freaky tiny guy in the chair, the non-corny nods to the previous films, the spray paint, the religious symbolism of the steering wheel, and of course, Immortan Joe: Darth Vader of the wasteland.<br />
<br />
<i>Fury Road</i> is an action masterpiece and a brilliant piece of pure cinema. If you don't like it you're a crazy smig who eats schlanger!<br />
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<b>2.</b></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><u>The Hateful Eight</u></b></span></div>
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Tarantino takes his "tension filled dialogue that explodes into violence" approach to filmmaking to it's squirm-inducing nihilistic end. Cruel and uncomfortable, this is America at its ugliest and worst, paying for and reliving its sins of slavery and greed, and riding out on a positive ending built around bullshit and subterfuge. The nihilism is so evident in this drawing room mystery that I can't help but think of another nihilistic film made by a filmmaker who was angry at the increasingly frustrating social and political nature of the times. I'm speaking of course of the late Wes Craven's <i>The Last House on the Left</i>, a transgressive scream of a horror film made at a time in American history when things were boiling over with Vietnam, Kent State, racial tension, etc.<br />
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The comparison between Craven's and Tarantino's films is made implicit with the use of a song by David Hess (who starred in and provided the soundtrack for <i>Last House</i>), a track called "Now You're All Alone." In <i>Last House</i> it is used in the lead up to poor Mari's execution and in <i>Hateful Eight</i> it creeps up in the scene where Joe Gage shoots helpless Charly. Both scenes involve the murder of an innocent and invoke the mournful inevitableness of death, the cold approach of forever.<br />
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Tarnatino has never been accused of being a political filmmaker but with his last two films it would seem he has some things on his mind when it comes to the state of pain and divide within our nation.<br />
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<b>3.</b></div>
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<b><u><span style="font-size: large;">Creed</span></u></b></div>
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Something has happened to me over the last few years: I've become a massive fan of the <i>Rocky</i> series! I've always liked the movies, loved the first one as a classic, thought the rest were okay, but my love and interest in these movies has grown rapidly recently. Maybe it's because I'm getting older? Who knows.. What I can say is this: <i>Creed</i> is a worthy continuation of the <i>Rocky</i> mythos and one of the very best in the series. Great cast (Jordan, Thompson, Stallone are all fantastic), great story (it mirrors the OG <i>Rocky</i> but is also its own thing), some of the best boxing action every committed to celluloid (seriously, the single take fight is breathtaking!), some excellent emotional moments (the relationships between Adonis/Bianca and Adonis/Rocky are both played perfectly), some fist pumping YES! moments (when Bill Conti's theme music comes up for the first time: CHILLS!), this is a damn great film and a true winner.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>4.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><u><span style="font-size: large;">Tangerine</span></u></b></div>
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Engaging and very well made, all the more impressive as this was shot entirely on an iPhone5. I love how the film just drops you into this world of these transwomen prostitutes, turning tricks, doing drugs and living life and it's all presented non-judgementally. There's no broad statements or proclamations here either, instead it's just a funny, unique, very human and kinda sweet story that's a bit fucked up. It's also a Christmas movie, so maybe buy Grandma a copy this year for the holidays.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>5.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<u><b><span style="font-size: large;">Bone Tomahawk</span></b></u></div>
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A really good western that descends into intense horror territory. The dialogue and the characters are excellent, with Kurt Russell, Matthew Fox, and Richard Jenkins really breathing life into their roles (Patrick Wilson is okay, but honestly, inmyopinon, he was a bit outshined by the others). The cinematography is excellent and the gore effects are incredible, this is a strong and assured debut film and as far as horror-cannibal-westerns go, it will be hard to beat.<br />
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<b>6.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><u><span style="font-size: large;">Anomalisa</span></u></b></div>
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Incredibly authentic portrait of middle-aged male depression and narcissism colliding in an Ohio hotel room, made all the more remarkable as it is entirely stop-motion animated, quite realistically so (there's full frontal nudity). The film is sweet, sad, uniquely weird, and also very funny (there's a hilariously relatable sequence in the shower).<br />
<br />
Charlie Kaufman proves that no matter the medium he is the master of telling idiosyncratic stories about depression, life, love, existence, etc. He also proves that nothing good ever happens in hotel rooms. Or Cincinnati.<br />
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<b>7.</b></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><u>Phoenix</u></b></span></div>
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Absolutely fantastic, has a pulp premise (a disfigured concentration camp survivor, unrecognizable due to facial reconstruction surgery, returns to post-war Berlin looking for her husband) but everything plays out in subtle nuances and small, little character moments. Strong performances throughout, especially from Nina Hoss, and the final scene in the film is among the very best <u><i>ever</i></u>, a marvelous moment that puts a perfect cap on a great film.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>8.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><u>The Duke of Burgundy</u></b></span></div>
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I didn't ultimately care for director Peter Strickland's previous film, <i>Berberian Sound Studio</i>, but in this film, a wonderful and fascinating story about lesbian love and sexual domination, I found the cinematography, the performances, and what was being said about love, romance, and relationships to all be remarkable, fascinating, stunning, and beautiful. <br />
Pinastri, forever.</div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>9.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><u><span style="font-size: large;">Inside Out</span></u></b></div>
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Smart, unique, clever, fun, touching, rousing, engaging, one of Pixar's best films with some of their very best animation (the abstract thought sequence is fantastic). If I have to sit through a few years of the company making sequels to their hit movies before I get to see something original and amazing like this, well, I guess I'll sit through <i>Finding Dory</i> and just wait then. Wait and dream...<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>10.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><u><span style="font-size: large;">It Follows</span></u></b></div>
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Spooky and well made, a modern horror classic. The atmosphere and tension come from a very simple concept and story (also from the stellar soundtrack by Disasterpiece). One of the things I love about this movie is how the kids all seem to behave in age appropriate ways, from how they interact with one another to the decisions they make when things start getting weird. I've read complaints about how they just run from place to place trying to hide from/deal with this entity, but to me it all makes logical teenager-sense. Even their ill-advised trip to the municipal pool at the end is the kind of half-baked idea that teens would come up with. It all worked for me and I think it works for the world within this movie.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>11.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<u><b><span style="font-size: large;">Room</span></b></u></div>
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This is one of those "the less you know about it" kind of movies, so I'll keep it brief: Brie Larson (who knocks this one out of the park) is a kidnapped young woman who is trapped in a room with her young son (also fantastic) who has never known anything but the inside of the room. Claustrophobic and heartbreaking while also managing to be a tense thriller, the film ultimately finds epiphanies on parenthood, childhood, isolation, adaptation, and love.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>12.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><u><span style="font-size: large;">The Diary of a Teenage Girl</span></u></b></div>
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The exploration of a young girl's sexuality and her coming of age. Set in 70s San Francisco, with all the drugs, hippies, weirdos, big parks, flared pants, and needle drops that that implies, this is the story of a 15 year old girl, an artistic type named Minnie, who is dating her mother's boyfriend.<br />
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Frank and upfront, there's a realism coming through here (even with the moments augmented by animation) that I would imagine would make this a realistic and authentic portrayal of what it is like to grow up as a girl, emotionally speaking of course. I mean, I hope most young girls aren't sleeping with older men, even if they do look like Alexander Skarsgård.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>13.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<u><b><span style="font-size: large;">Bridge of Spies</span></b></u></div>
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Solid, clean, classical American filmmaking. This Spielberg guy knows what he's doing. The contributions from the Coen Bros. in the script can be felt throughout, bubbling up in the plot mechanics, small character moments, and slight bits of humor. Not one of Tom Hanks' funnier movies, but still a great thriller with an amazing (based on a true) story.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>14.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><u><span style="font-size: large;">The Look of Silence</span></u></b></div>
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Follow-up and companion film to <i>The Act of Killing</i>, which was my <a href="http://squealingtiresondirt.blogspot.com/2014/03/top-15-films-of-2013.html">favorite film of 2013</a>. <i>The Look of Silence</i> isn't as artistically daring with recreations or its locations as its predecessor, but the story is every bit as amazing and powerful. Following a military coup in Indonesian in the mid-60s there was a mass genocide of suspected communists and dissenters, most of them innocents. Up to a million people were killed. The men who perpetrated those crimes are still in power to this day. <br />
<br />
While <i>The Act of Killing</i> focused on those men and getting them to discuss what they did, this film instead gives voice to the families of the victims, specifically that of a young optometrist who goes around interviewing some of these guys while giving them eye exams. Their reactions to the realties of what they did is chilling and you start to have grave concerns for this optometrist's safety, as talking about these things in such a way is something that just isn't done. It's quite a brave thing that's done here, the lifting of silence. A remarkable two film series.<br />
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<b>15.</b></div>
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<b><u><span style="font-size: large;">What We Do in the Shadows</span></u></b></div>
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-VdFDmOm-_ac/VtKwn8o7pZI/AAAAAAAADL0/VsCbEIwUpug/s1600/What-We-Do-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-VdFDmOm-_ac/VtKwn8o7pZI/AAAAAAAADL0/VsCbEIwUpug/s640/What-We-Do-1.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
In general I'm not a huge fan of vampire movies, but this New Zealand comedy really takes the piss out of the bloodsuckers and makes good use of the lore, legends, and history of vamps. Not much of a plot but what goings-ons there are here manage to be pretty funny with good gags, jokes, and likable performances (who doesn't like the werewolves?!). One complaint: I would've liked there to be more Petyr.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><u><b>the next ten</b></u>:</span></div>
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-1PTWGrFs5uA/VtKwuT060AI/AAAAAAAADL8/DaCQQ0Bpf_Y/s1600/exmach-1422026632377_1280w.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-1PTWGrFs5uA/VtKwuT060AI/AAAAAAAADL8/DaCQQ0Bpf_Y/s640/exmach-1422026632377_1280w.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
-<i><u>Ex Machina</u></i> - A great small scale/big idea science fiction thriller, with impressive special effects and an interesting and intriguing story; it's like Neil LaBute's <i>The Shape of Things</i> by way of Spielberg's <i>A.I. </i>Also, that Oscar Isaac dance scene is INCREDIBLE!<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
-<u><i>Chi-Raq</i></u> - A hot mess but fascinating and very enjoyable. Will be interesting to see how Spike Lee's encapsulation of our current troubled racial climate ages over time.<br />
<br />
-<u><i>Sicario</i></u> - Doesn't add much new to the drug cartel movie genre, but it does have great cinematography, performances, and a couple superb suspense sequences.<br />
<br />
-<i><u>The Tribe</u></i> - Ukrainian arthouse film, told only in sign language. Mesmerizing and meditative but also unflinchingly brutal and uncomfortable. A difficult film to be sure, but worthwhile.<br />
<br />
-<i><u>Queen of Earth</u></i> - Elizabeth Moss cries her eyes out in Alex Ross Perry's lake house version of <i>Repulsion</i>.<br />
<br />
-<u><i>Love & Mercy</i></u> - Surprisingly solid biopic that avoids becoming run-of-the-mill with its artiness and use of montage. Also, any chance I get to see Brian Wilson (even a fictionalized version) working in the studio recording Beach Boys magic, I'm going to take it.<br />
<br />
-<i><u>Ant-Man</u></i> - Refreshing smaller scale Marvel superhero movie. The Cure "Disintegration" moment might be my favorite joke of the year.<br />
<br />
-<i><u>We Are Still Here</u></i> - Effective and spooky grieving parents/haunted house movie with a great soundtrack.<br />
<br />
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-<i><u>Mistress America</u></i> - </div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>"I think I'm sick, and I don't know if my ailment has a name. It's just me sitting and staring at the internet or television for long periods of time, interspersed by trying to not do that and then lying about what I've been doing. And then I'll get so excited about something that the excitement overwhelms me and I can't sleep or do anything and I just am in love with everything but can't figure out how to make myself work in the world."</i></div>
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<i><br /></i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>"I think I have that too."</i></div>
<br />
-<i><u>The Martian</u></i> - The funniest space movie since <i>Space Jam</i>!<br />
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<br />
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<b><u>Worst Movies I Mistakenly Thought Might Be Worth Watching</u></b>:<br />
<br />
-<i><u>Cooties</u></i> - Very disappointed in this weak zombie children horror comedy. Don't get <i>Cooties</i>.<br />
<br />
-<i><u>Pound of Flesh</u></i> - Van Damme has been making some great movies in recent years. This is not one of them.<br />
<br />
-<i><u>Burying the Ex</u></i> - I hate to rag on a Joe Dante movie, but this is a big *whiff*<br />
<br />
-<i><u>Jurassic World</u></i> - The best part of this was, after the movie finished in the theater, some guy up in the balcony shouted out a displeased "booooo!"<br />
<br />
-<u><i>Slow West</i></u> - The cartoonish "salt in the wound" scene made me fold my arms and shout "oh, c'mon!" at my TV.<br />
<br />
-<i><u>The Gift</u></i> - A lot of people like this. I'm not one of them. It starts off with some promise, but descends into sub-mediocrity, like maybe just a step above "made for cable TV thriller." Jason Bateman leans hard into his natural unlikability, but the other two leads offer me nothing. Who am I supposed to be rooting for in this movie? And the ending, the big reveal, well, no spoilers, but seems to me some <i>tests</i> could alleviate some <i>questions</i> about the <i>gift</i>, am I right?<br />
<br />
<br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Well, there you go. What do you think?</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Agree? Disagree? What were your favorites of 2015?</span><br />
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<br />
<br />Nathan Westhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09914459868603679029noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7643411491087828482.post-13918144273280992852016-01-10T02:52:00.000-08:002016-01-10T02:52:36.663-08:00RIP, Angus ScrimmAnother horror icon gone.<br />
<br />
Angus Scrimm, best known as The Tall Man from the <i>Phantasm</i> films, has passed away. He was 89.<br />
<u><a href="http://www.fangoria.com/new/rip-angus-scrimm-a-true-gentleman-of-horror/">Fangoria has a nice obit.</a></u><br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-On-6jdhsxbw/VpIustQb6LI/AAAAAAAADJs/cKTacyYP3Nk/s1600/AFI%252BFEST%252B2012%252BPresented%252BAudi%252BJohn%252BDies%252BEnd%252BS3Kf1DKrNDLx.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-On-6jdhsxbw/VpIustQb6LI/AAAAAAAADJs/cKTacyYP3Nk/s400/AFI%252BFEST%252B2012%252BPresented%252BAudi%252BJohn%252BDies%252BEnd%252BS3Kf1DKrNDLx.jpg" width="296" /></a></div>
I guess it's not a total shock given his age, and it is comforting to know that, according to <i>Phantasm</i> director Don Coscarelli, he "passed surrounded by friends and loved ones," but still, it's sad he's gone.<br />
<br />
:(<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-L9KWc-Wdolc/VpIsirzeioI/AAAAAAAADJk/5ETk2VqfSsg/s1600/phantasm-angus-scrimm.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-L9KWc-Wdolc/VpIsirzeioI/AAAAAAAADJk/5ETk2VqfSsg/s640/phantasm-angus-scrimm.jpg" width="568" /></a></div>
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Scrimm starred in four <i>Phantasm</i> films (1979/88/94/98), with a fifth film, <i>Phantasm: Ravager</i> set for release later this year. Also, there's a 4K restoration in the works of the first film, which is exciting. Scrimm is a big part of why the original <i>Phantasm</i> works so well. His strong screen presence and booming voice, he's a screen villain like no one else and when combined with the other nightmare imagery of the movie it makes quite the impression.</div>
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Here's a clip from an obscure horror film<i> Scream Bloody Murder</i> (1973), Scrimm's second credited screen role. He's a bit stuffier and his character doesn't last long. Neat movie though, worth the look.</div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-lOwvGEakznI/VpIvHg9rEOI/AAAAAAAADJ4/7I8rVuTzx8g/s1600/angus_cropped_small.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-lOwvGEakznI/VpIvHg9rEOI/AAAAAAAADJ4/7I8rVuTzx8g/s400/angus_cropped_small.png" width="392" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Scrimm as Dr. Lyme in the very strange and weirdly entertaining Nic Cage film <i>Deadfall</i> (1993)</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wnQ6RXsPkMk/VpIvHjhY0sI/AAAAAAAADJ0/0tAluz3jPqk/s1600/doyouknowanysongs.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="360" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wnQ6RXsPkMk/VpIvHjhY0sI/AAAAAAAADJ0/0tAluz3jPqk/s640/doyouknowanysongs.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Incident On and Off a Mountain Road</i> (2005) from the <i>Masters of Horror</i> series. Scrimm gets kooky.</td></tr>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-jjt1v6OZ7P4/VpIvHk_i-SI/AAAAAAAADJ8/VHuly0ctHOA/s1600/Angus%252BScrimm%252BPremiere%252BMutant%252BChronicles%252BHYaU-it6lnsl.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-jjt1v6OZ7P4/VpIvHk_i-SI/AAAAAAAADJ8/VHuly0ctHOA/s640/Angus%252BScrimm%252BPremiere%252BMutant%252BChronicles%252BHYaU-it6lnsl.jpg" width="420" /></a></div>
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An old school class act and forever an icon of the horror genre.<br />
RIP<br />
Angus Scrimm<br />
1926-2016<br />
<br />Nathan Westhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09914459868603679029noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7643411491087828482.post-68514742630396790632016-01-03T13:33:00.000-08:002016-01-03T13:33:03.907-08:00RIP, Vilmos ZsigmondDamn. It's been a rough week for great cinematographers. Back on the 27th of December, the great <a href="http://variety.com/2015/film/news/haskell-wexler-dead-93-cinematographer-1201668018/">Haskell Wexler</a> died (his work on <i>One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest</i>, <i>Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?</i>, and <i>Bound for Glory</i> being real standouts) and now news comes down today that the legendary Vilmos Zsigmond passed away on January 1st. <br />
Zsigmond was 85.<br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-9QLQFwJdydQ/VomDZQSREZI/AAAAAAAADGM/QXOU725chJA/s1600/220px-Vilmos_Zsigmond_KVIFF.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-9QLQFwJdydQ/VomDZQSREZI/AAAAAAAADGM/QXOU725chJA/s400/220px-Vilmos_Zsigmond_KVIFF.jpg" width="325" /></a></div>
Born in 1930 in Hungary, escaping after the 1956 Russian Invasion, Zsigmond came to America where he worked his way through low budget exploitation pictures (such as the excellent <i>The Sadist</i> [1963], which I wrote about <u><a href="http://squealingtiresondirt.blogspot.com/2013/05/the-sadist.html">HERE</a></u>) before getting a break on his first high profile picture, <i>McCabe & Mrs. Miller</i> (1971) for director Robert Altman, which was quickly followed by Peter Fonda's <i>The Hired Hand</i> (also 1971). Both films would announce the arrival of a true master cinematographer, with <i>McCabe</i>'s beautiful gauzy and hazy imagery and the marvelous lighting work and stunning crossfades found in <i>Hired Hand</i>.<br />
<br />
At this point, I'm just going to list some of the great films he's worked on. You might not know the name Vilmos Zsigmond, but you've more than likely seen his work:<br />
<br />
<i>McCabe & Mrs. Miller</i><br />
<i>The Hired Hand</i><br />
<i>Images</i><br />
<i>Deliverance</i><br />
<i>The Long Goodbye</i><br />
<i>The Sugarland Express</i><br />
<i>Obsession</i><br />
<i>Close Encounters of the Third Kind</i><br />
<i>The Deer Hunter</i><br />
<i>The Rose</i><br />
<i>Heaven's Gate</i><br />
<i>Blow Out</i><br />
<i>Real Genius</i><br />
<i>The Witches of Eastwick</i><br />
<i>The Two Jakes</i><br />
<i>Maverick</i><br />
<i>The Crossing Guard</i><br />
<i>The Ghost and the Darkness</i><br />
<i>The Black Dahlia</i><br />
<br />
Zsigmond worked with directors like Atlman, Fonda, Boorman, Spielberg, De Palma, Cimino, Rydell, Miller, Nicholson, Donner, Penn, and Allen. He won an Oscar for his work on <i>Close Encounters</i> and was nominated for <i>Deer Hunter</i>, <i>The River</i>, and <i>Black Dahlia</i>. He received a lifetime achievement award from The American Society of Cinematographers in 1999 and, more recently, one from The Cannes Film Festival in 2014. I'm not overstating things here when I say that Vilmos Zsigmond was one of the greatest cinematographers in the history of cinema. <br />
<br />
He lived a long life and produced some great work. We can all hope to be so lucky.<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ULo-oSHYhXg/VomDnRI_ZcI/AAAAAAAADGU/A3-pS9Fc5RY/s1600/Vilmos1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ULo-oSHYhXg/VomDnRI_ZcI/AAAAAAAADGU/A3-pS9Fc5RY/s400/Vilmos1.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-FY-5eLWxWHw/VomDsvlSvxI/AAAAAAAADGc/69X92fLrarA/s1600/zsigmond_portrait.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="436" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-FY-5eLWxWHw/VomDsvlSvxI/AAAAAAAADGc/69X92fLrarA/s640/zsigmond_portrait.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-XLWJ3ubzmqE/VomENCzzHSI/AAAAAAAADGk/dj9pOrMwUgM/s1600/34-funeral1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="270" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-XLWJ3ubzmqE/VomENCzzHSI/AAAAAAAADGk/dj9pOrMwUgM/s640/34-funeral1.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971)</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-7v4kx8ex9G8/VomEU8EpP0I/AAAAAAAADGs/dsmdWgC2qeY/s1600/xqZofbR.640x360.0.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="360" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-7v4kx8ex9G8/VomEU8EpP0I/AAAAAAAADGs/dsmdWgC2qeY/s640/xqZofbR.640x360.0.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Hired Hand (1971)</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-PyY5NFsK32A/VomEcGWKJYI/AAAAAAAADG0/lIiP7TTL1lA/s1600/Images1-1024x444.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="276" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-PyY5NFsK32A/VomEcGWKJYI/AAAAAAAADG0/lIiP7TTL1lA/s640/Images1-1024x444.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Images (1972)</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-QgBJCu0Z78k/VomEhPveAxI/AAAAAAAADG8/80h19OIcfHs/s1600/deliverance11.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="268" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-QgBJCu0Z78k/VomEhPveAxI/AAAAAAAADG8/80h19OIcfHs/s640/deliverance11.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Deliverance (1972)</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-mRwMopToMPA/VomEwc2kuGI/AAAAAAAADHE/I6O_NknSBOQ/s1600/long-goodbye-cinematography.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="360" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-mRwMopToMPA/VomEwc2kuGI/AAAAAAAADHE/I6O_NknSBOQ/s640/long-goodbye-cinematography.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Long Goodbye (1973), <br />one of my all-time favorite movies, a lot of which has to do with the amazing cinematography work of Zsigmond. I love it so much I posted two photos!</td></tr>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-fZOlZqbkojg/VomEx6b5HqI/AAAAAAAADHM/ChKKWoIWtkM/s1600/Long_Goodbye_-_Cat_Food.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="274" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-fZOlZqbkojg/VomEx6b5HqI/AAAAAAAADHM/ChKKWoIWtkM/s640/Long_Goodbye_-_Cat_Food.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-m1bYrrkS53M/VomFFx540bI/AAAAAAAADHU/Jg_qiwJJYAM/s1600/CloseEncounters176-580x250.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="274" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-m1bYrrkS53M/VomFFx540bI/AAAAAAAADHU/Jg_qiwJJYAM/s640/CloseEncounters176-580x250.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Fu5aTAqYQyk/VomFMXB_6bI/AAAAAAAADHc/BRJOWPm6Ol8/s1600/tumblr_nk03pcmeCZ1qetb0ho1_1280.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="270" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Fu5aTAqYQyk/VomFMXB_6bI/AAAAAAAADHc/BRJOWPm6Ol8/s640/tumblr_nk03pcmeCZ1qetb0ho1_1280.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Deer Hunter (1978)</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eGQqrRZsaJ0/VomFPBpfvyI/AAAAAAAADHk/u-uDHtMSN7w/s1600/Vilmos-Zsigmond-bottom-ri-001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="384" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eGQqrRZsaJ0/VomFPBpfvyI/AAAAAAAADHk/u-uDHtMSN7w/s640/Vilmos-Zsigmond-bottom-ri-001.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Behind the scenes on The Deer Hunter</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-p1b-q1rkAcA/VomFe4PgjbI/AAAAAAAADHs/yhrLlxDeVME/s1600/moc_heavens_gate_12-jpg1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="416" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-p1b-q1rkAcA/VomFe4PgjbI/AAAAAAAADHs/yhrLlxDeVME/s640/moc_heavens_gate_12-jpg1.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Heaven's Gate (1980)</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-SyyQdYZZ4zo/VomFhkfr_4I/AAAAAAAADH0/t9KD4hqt0rs/s1600/Screen-Shot-2014-04-26-at-10.49.09-AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="264" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-SyyQdYZZ4zo/VomFhkfr_4I/AAAAAAAADH0/t9KD4hqt0rs/s640/Screen-Shot-2014-04-26-at-10.49.09-AM.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Blow Out (1981)</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IiNPavnxevg/VomFwFvolLI/AAAAAAAADH8/p7ELGj3UXRE/s1600/twojakes2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="360" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IiNPavnxevg/VomFwFvolLI/AAAAAAAADH8/p7ELGj3UXRE/s640/twojakes2.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Two Jakes (1990)</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-j_bqvu301uc/VomRms5DCKI/AAAAAAAADJI/4-64Sj22Lo8/s1600/5872_5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="358" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-j_bqvu301uc/VomRms5DCKI/AAAAAAAADJI/4-64Sj22Lo8/s640/5872_5.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Crossing Guard (1995) </td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vCWx8713RDA/VomRm6gT1_I/AAAAAAAADJM/PgwUWYSr4z0/s1600/lions%2Bsplit%2Bdiopter.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="312" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vCWx8713RDA/VomRm6gT1_I/AAAAAAAADJM/PgwUWYSr4z0/s640/lions%2Bsplit%2Bdiopter.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Ghost and the Darkness (1996)<br /></td></tr>
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Pictured here is Vilmos with long time friend, fellow Hungarian, and fellow cinematographer László Kovács. The two of them studied film together in Budapest and escaped when the Russians came in. <br />
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They barely made it out with footage they shot of the invasion, footage which later was incorporated in Zsigmond's documentary <i>Hungary Aflame</i>. The footage also appears in a doc detailing the friendship of Kovács and Zsigmond, <i>No Subtitles Necessary: László and Vilmos</i> (2008).<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-DB8r6QvIisg/VomNuMjb8MI/AAAAAAAADIc/qQ4je0F0o4g/s1600/vilmos_zsigmond_1978.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="512" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-DB8r6QvIisg/VomNuMjb8MI/AAAAAAAADIc/qQ4je0F0o4g/s640/vilmos_zsigmond_1978.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-lP5c6pdbAxg/VomOtGIQbCI/AAAAAAAADIs/XkWnRdskm3Q/s1600/VilmosSpots.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="362" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-lP5c6pdbAxg/VomOtGIQbCI/AAAAAAAADIs/XkWnRdskm3Q/s640/VilmosSpots.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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RIP<br />
Vilmos Zsigmond<br />
1930-2016<br />
<br />Nathan Westhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09914459868603679029noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7643411491087828482.post-76807179293916542292015-11-13T08:16:00.000-08:002015-11-13T08:16:18.835-08:00Friday the 13th Part VII - The New Blood<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Released in 1988, <i>Friday the 13th Part VII - The New Blood</i> has a premise that involves a girl with psychic powers going up against the recently returned Voorhees (new blood, indeed). It is often summarized by fans as being "Carrie vs. Jason," but that summary isn't really accurate, as the "VS" part of the movie is relegated to the final 10 minutes or so. The rest of it is standard <i>Friday</i> fare, with a group of young people just looking to have a good time but instead getting murdered in various ways.<br />
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Until this week I had only seen <i>Part VII</i> of the <i>Friday the 13th</i> saga once, back about 20 years ago when I was watching the series for the first time. In general I am much more familiar with the front half of the <i>Friday</i> franchise than with the back half, so this was fun revisiting a movie I hadn't seen since I was a teenager. Unfortunately, this turns out to be my least favorite of the first seven <i>Friday</i> films.<br />
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The movie opens with a recap of Jason's history and a summary of the events of <i>Part VI</i>. Basically it all serves to remind the viewer why Jason is chained to a big rock in the middle of Crystal Lake. Notable in this opening is two things; the voiceover narration is provided by Walt Gorney, better known as Crazy Ralph from <i>Friday Parts 1</i> and <i>2</i>, and the recap montage uses footage from the <i>Friday Part VI</i> teaser trailer, specifically the shot of the graveyard and the tombstone exploding.<br />
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After the refresher and the credits roll, we get a scene set in the past, where a young girl named Tina witnesses her parents having an argument that leads to physical abuse. This probably isn't something new to the family, as little Tina, upset and afraid, runs toward the lake and paddles out in a boat, her father running after her.<br />
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-JzFO8v2hR_Y/VkV_qeLSKrI/AAAAAAAADCA/d6LHEi0w5PI/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2015-11-12%2Bat%2B10.04.40%2BPM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="250" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-JzFO8v2hR_Y/VkV_qeLSKrI/AAAAAAAADCA/d6LHEi0w5PI/s400/Screen%2BShot%2B2015-11-12%2Bat%2B10.04.40%2BPM.png" width="400" /></a><br />
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While on the water, and with her father standing on the dock, Tina's psychic telekinetic powers manifest and cause the dock to collapse into the lake, taking her father with it. Little Tina is very sad and traumatized.<br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-CZstVkECM10/VkV_5XnPleI/AAAAAAAADCI/ui9DOEwS2Co/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2015-11-12%2Bat%2B9.51.41%2BPM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="250" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-CZstVkECM10/VkV_5XnPleI/AAAAAAAADCI/ui9DOEwS2Co/s400/Screen%2BShot%2B2015-11-12%2Bat%2B9.51.41%2BPM.png" width="400" /></a>Flash forward 10 years later, much of which she spent in psychiatric care, and Tina (Lar Park-Lincoln) is now returning to that lake house, along with her mother (Susan Blu) and her psychiatrist Dr. Crews (Terry Kiser) for further treatment.<br />
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Her recovery has come along nicely, but Tina foolishly goes down to the lake and accidentally raises Jason out of his watery prison (she does this psychically, trying to raise her father up for some reason). <br />
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Jason then goes on his mandatory murder spree (as is his wont) before Tina, in the finale, confronts him and does battle with Jason WITH HER MIND!<br />
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<u>Note about the timeline</u>: The events with young Tina happened in 1989, with the rest of the movie taking place 10 years later (1999). So at this point, Jason has been in the lake for a couple years, as the events from <i>Friday Part VI</i> took place in 1997. <br />
<u>Note about the note</u>: I know and realize that the filmmakers behind these films gave little to no thought towards the continuity between films, but I find it really interesting that most of the sequels take place in the future relative to the year each film was released. For example, <i>Friday Part VII</i> was released in 1988 but, when following the timeline established, the events must take place in 1999. Weird, right?<br />
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Anyway, <i>Friday the 13th Part VII - The New Blood</i> is not a great movie, but I do appreciate that it was trying something different with the franchise. I think there should've been more focus on Tina and her abilities and I would've liked to see her do more battle with Jason. The very end of the movie feels rushed and a bit like an anti-climax, which is unfortunate. <br />
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What really sinks this one is the multiple cuts and trimmed scenes that the MPAA ratings board demanded be removed from the film to secure an R rating. These extra gore scenes are available in a really rough form on the DVD/Blu releases and a couple of them are really fantastic and would've really improved the film and made it more exciting and interesting. As it is though, unfortunately, I have to say, even though it has the intrinsic "funness" associated with <i>Friday the 13th</i> movies, <i>Friday the 13th Part VII - The New Blood</i> is one of the weaker entries in the series. However, I don't think I'll wait another 20 years before watching it again.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">It's a birthday bash.</td></tr>
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<u><b>Notes</b></u>: <br />
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Playing Jason for the first of what would be a record four times is stuntman/actor Kane Hodder. This is perfect casting, seeing as how being underwater all those years really made Jason swell up to a Kane Hodder-like size. It works! <br />
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Seriously though, Hodder puts in a solid performance as Jason, giving him a real hulking presence while remaining light on his feet (see: the part where he jumps through a window). He also has this great scene where he's set on fire and at the time it was the longest onscreen burn ever done by an actor. Very impressive.<br />
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Best kill in the movie is easily the sleeping bag kill. In the version that was cut out, Jason gives her about six good wallops against that tree, which is great, but what we see in the final movie is just one good whack that kills her instantly. It's less ridiculously brutal, but in its own way it still packs a punch. It's one of the most iconic kills in the entire franchise.<br />
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As for the other kills in the movie, most of them are pretty standard stuff, which, once again, is a shame because some of the cut footage is really amazing, particularly this spectacular head crushing scene and the death of Dr. Crews, who gets a tree trimmer to the torso and his guts go everywhere. These things are fine and all as they are in the finished movie, but they could've been so much <i>more</i>!<br />
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Also, there is a kill in the lake with a naked girl that is filmed partly beneath the water that is an obvious homage to the opening of <i>Jaws</i>. I got nothing else to say about it; just something I noticed.<br />
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Jason's new look includes him wearing a chain, which is part punk rock, part hip-hop, and very chic.<br />
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During the finale when Tina is using her psychic powers against Jason she picks up a potted plant and throws it at him. By itself this is uninteresting. What <i>does</i> make it interesting/hilarious is that resting in the potted plant is the decapitated head of one of her friends. Ha!<br />
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Tina's mom in this movie, Mrs. Shepard, played by Susan Blu, has some absolutely out of control 80s hair. It's fantastic! There are some really great mullets and things like that throughout the cast, but mom's hair is seriously the greatest thing.<br />
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Speaking of Mrs. Blu, her appearance here in <i>Friday Part VII</i> marks one of her rare onscreen roles, as she is mainly a voiceover actress, providing voices on <i>Transformers</i>, <i>Jem</i>, <i>DuckTales</i> and a slew of other things over the years.<br />
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Director John Carl Buechler is a special effects expert, having provided work for many Charles Band productions, like <i>TerrorVision</i> (1986), <i>Dolls</i> (1987), and <i>Prison</i> (1987), which is where he met Kane Hodder. Buechler got the job because of his work on <i>Troll</i> (1986), which is strange if you've actually seen <i>Troll</i>. <br />
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Buechler also did some effects work on <i>Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master</i>, which came out the same year as his <i>Friday Part VII</i>, a few months later actually, and did more than twice as well at the box office.<br />
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This marks the first time that Harry Manfredini was not the sole composer on a <i>Friday</i> movie. Fred Mollin would provide most of the score and would go on to be the composer for <i>Friday Part VIII</i> and the <i>Friday the 13th</i> television series as well.<br />
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Lar Park -Lincoln was in <i>House II: The Second Story</i> in 1987 and she also had a reoccurring role on <i>Knots Landing</i> starting around the same time. I think she makes for a really interesting final girl and to her credit she does attempt to do something a little different with her portrayal of psychic abilities (she's not just ripping off Sissy Spacek in <i>Carrie</i>).<br />
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Kevin Spirtas (credited as Kevin Blair) is Nick, the secondary protagonist and love interest to Tina. He's likable enough but doesn't really do much in the movie. Spirtas was also in the wonderfully cheap and cheesy <i>The Hills Have Eyes 2</i> (1984) along with Kane Hodder and would go on to star in a couple <i>Subspecies</i> movies and would have a long 10 year stint on <i>Days of our Lives</i>.<br />
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Terry Kiser, who plays the jerk Dr. Crews, would go on to play the titular character in <i>Weekend at Bernie's</i> (1989) and it's 1993 sequel, which is fairly awesome and there is nothing else to say about it.<br />
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<u>Final Thought</u>: Not terrible and not great. I can say this about it though: How many Part VII's of movie franchises are there out there? Not many. And <i>Friday the 13th Part VII</i> is one of them.<br />
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This poster from Ghana is freaking CRAZY!!</div>
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Read the rest of my <i>Friday</i> reviews:<br />
<u><a href="http://squealingtiresondirt.blogspot.com/2013/09/friday-13th.html">Friday the 13th</a></u><br />
<u><a href="http://squealingtiresondirt.blogspot.com/2013/09/friday-13th-part-2.html">Friday Part II</a></u><br />
<u><a href="http://squealingtiresondirt.blogspot.com/2013/12/friday-13th-part-iii.html">Friday Part III</a></u><br />
<u><a href="http://squealingtiresondirt.blogspot.com/2014/06/friday-13th-final-chapter.html">The Final Chapter</a></u><br />
<u><a href="http://squealingtiresondirt.blogspot.com/2015/02/friday-13th-new-beginning.html">A New Beginning</a></u><br />
<u><a href="http://squealingtiresondirt.blogspot.com/2015/03/jason-lives-friday-13th-part-vi.html">Jason Lives</a></u><br />
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Happy Friday the 13th!<br />
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<br />Nathan Westhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09914459868603679029noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7643411491087828482.post-54011577534562197442015-11-10T18:17:00.001-08:002015-11-10T18:17:22.836-08:00Trailer Park Tuesdays - Dangerous Men<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Welcome to the Trailer Park. This month, instead of a collection of four or five movie trailers we have just a single preview to share. When it's a movie like this one though, one trailer is all you need.<br />
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Usually I only share trailers for new films, but this month is a little different, as we have a new trailer for an old film that is just now getting released. This is a movie that took 26 years (!) to complete and, by all accounts, is a crazy piece of low budget action insanity that no true lover of B-movies, cinematic whatthefuckery, and/or outsider art could do without witnessing.<br />
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Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you, <b><i>DANGEROUS MEN</i></b>!<br />
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Holy Smokes! This has WTF written all over it! <br />
This very much looks like something for a specific crowd and that that specific crowd will enjoy it very much! <br />
I bet some tires squeal on dirt in this one!<br />
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<i>Dangerous Men</i> is making its way into select and special theaters courtesy of the fine folks at Drafthouse Films! Check out their website <u><a href="http://drafthousefilms.com/film/dangerous-men">HERE</a></u> for more info and for showtimes NEAR YOU!<br />
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If you live in the Portland, Oregon area (like me!) you can witness <i>Dangerous Men</i> THIS WEEKEND, Nov. 13th and 14th, at the best theater in town, the fantastic <u><a href="http://hollywoodtheatre.org/">Hollywood Theatre</a></u>. See you there!<br />
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Nathan Westhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09914459868603679029noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7643411491087828482.post-79975996302169457342015-11-08T12:52:00.001-08:002015-11-08T20:14:49.306-08:00RIP, Gunnar HansenAnother titan of terror has passed away. <br />
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Sadly, Gunnar Hansen, author and actor best known for his iconic portrayal of Leatherface in <i>The Texas Chain Saw Massacre</i> (1974), died Saturday at his home in Maine. It was pancreatic cancer. He was 68 years old.<br />
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As any horror fan can tell you, Leatherface is one of the absolute best movie villains of all time, a terrifying hulk of a man wielding a chainsaw while wearing a mask of human skin. He would be the grandfather of all masked killers to come. Hansen played Leatherface not as a straight-up murderous psycho, but as this lumbering simpleton who was equally confused and confrontational. It remains a tremendous achievement for the genre.<br />
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Hansen wouldn't return to the role for any of the sequels, but he did cameo in the most recent <i>Chainsaw 3D</i> (2013) as a different character. He would follow the original <i>Chain Saw</i> with a film called <i>The Demon Lover</i> (1977) but shortly after he decided to give up acting and focus on becoming a writer. <br />
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Hansen would intermittently return to acting, starting with 1988's <i>Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers</i>. He would also star in 1995's <i>Mosquito</i> and, honestly, those are the only other two of his films I've seen or heard of. His filmography seems to be full of small films with low profiles, the kinds of things you act in if you believe in the project/filmmakers. <br />
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As author Hansen wrote a travelog, 1993's <i>Islands at the Edge of Time</i> about his time spent at America's Barrier Islands. In 2013 he would publish <i>Chain Saw Confidential</i>, a making-of book covering the (rather grueling) production of <i>Texas Chain Saw Massacre</i>. The book serves as a bit of a memoir and is essential reading for fans of the franchise.<br />
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I just rewatched <i>Texas Chain Saw</i> for about the 100th time a few weeks ago during October and it still maintains this power as a raw, terrifying series of events that just escalates into insanity. By the time Sally is escaping and Leatherface is dancing with his chainsaw I've got chills, as the terror becomes almost unbearable and the madness is palpable. It truly is the greatest horror film ever made, and Hansen is a big part of why it's so indelible.<br />
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If you happen to live in the Portland, Oregon area, there will be a screening of <i>The Texas Chain Saw Massacre</i> at the wonderful <u><a href="http://hollywoodtheatre.org/">Hollywood Theatre</a></u> with stars from the film, Edwin Neal, Teri McMinn, and John Dugan, in attendance on November 14th. It's part of the Living Dead Horror Convention in town Nov. 13-15 (for more info on that, go <u><a href="http://www.livingdeadcon.com/">here</a></u>) and while it was for sure going to be a special screening before, it will most likely now take on a more somber and reverent tone with Hansen's passing. For fans of the film, it might be an event to not miss.<br />
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I never got a chance to meet the man, but from his interview appearances and by accounts of those who knew and worked with him, Gunnar Hansen was a sweet, kind, intelligent, bear of a man, just a wonderful and thoughtful individual. It's terrible that he's gone, and even though he might not have had as many contributions to the horror community and world as others, his singular portrayal of one of the most iconic killers in all of cinema is more than enough to earn his place in the annals of horror history.<br />
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Rest in Peace, Gunnar, and keep dancing.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">drawing by Nathan Thomas Milliner</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hansen behind the scenes on <i>The Demon Lover</i> (1977)</td></tr>
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<br />Nathan Westhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09914459868603679029noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7643411491087828482.post-12483103481738386582015-10-28T22:48:00.001-07:002015-10-28T22:48:35.963-07:0013 Great Horror Titles streaming on Netflix right Now! - October 2015<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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It's Halloween season which means that sometime in the next couple of days you'll be scrolling through Netflix looking for something to watch, which can be tricky because the Netflix horror section has a lot of garbage in it. To be fair, there are some classics mixed in, like <i>Re-Animator</i>, <i>Rosemary's Baby</i>, <i>Day of the Dead</i>, <i>Hellraiser I </i>&<i> II</i>, <i>The Omen</i>, <i>The Monster Squad</i>, and even <i>The Babadook</i> (which you've seen and either you love or hate it).<br />
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But let's say you've seen all those (and good god, if you haven't, then by all means watch them!) and you're looking for something lesser known, new and/or different.<br />
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Well you're in luck! Here's a list of <u><b><span style="font-size: large;">13 Great Horror Gems streaming on Netflix right Now</span></b></u>, some great titles that'll spook, creep, and scare you this Halloween. Check it out!<br />
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<b>13.</b> <b><u><span style="font-size: large;">Let the Right One In</span></u></b></div>
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Maybe you're familiar with the American remake, <i>Let Me In</i>, but let me tell you, the Swedish original is head and shoulders above that perfectly okay version of this story about a weird young boy who becomes obsessed with his neighbor, a young girl, who is a vampire.<br />
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So yeah, this being a foreign film means you have to be willing to read subtitles to enjoy this one, but c'mon, don't be a loser (to be read in Donald Trump voice)! I consider <i>Let the Right One In</i> to be not only one of the best horror movies of the last 10 years, but also one of the greatest vampire movies ever made, and minus a wonky cat sequence, I think it is a flawless film. It's beautifully photographed, it has some wonderful moments of violence, and it perfectly captures that lonely feeling that comes with being an outsider (and a vampire). It's great, so put your reading glasses on and check it out!<br />
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<b>12.</b> <u><b><span style="font-size: large;">The American Scream</span></b></u></div>
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Documentary about "home haunters," people who dress up their homes in haunted house-like attractions during Halloween. Set in Massachusetts, the movie follows three different sets of haunters, each more idiosyncratic than the next. There are some surprisingly touching moments in here, and the final 20 minutes when Halloween finally arrives and the haunts get active is really fantastic stuff. This is a really fun documentary from the director of <i>Best Worst Movie</i> (a doc about the cult following of <i>Troll 2</i>) and a must see for anybody obsessed with the spookiest of holidays. <br />
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<b>11.</b> <b><u><span style="font-size: large;">Black Death</span></u></b></div>
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This is a rare period piece horror film, specifically one dealing with the Black Plague during the 14th Century, which surprisingly is somewhat also rare for a horror movie. A young monk travels with a group of soldiers who are in a quest to find a remote marshland village untouched by the plague and a necromancer rumored to be hiding out there. <br />
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A combination of <i>Game of Thrones</i> and <i>The Wicker Man</i>, with a dash of man-on-a-mission films thrown in there, this is a dark and grim historical horror flick. Stars Sean Bean and Carice von Houten add to the<i> GoT</i> comparison, but the whole ensemble is good, including David Warner and Eddie Redmayne. The story might be a bit predictable, but the action and gore is nice, and I appreciated the rather bleak ending.<br />
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<b>10.</b> <u><b><span style="font-size: large;">Jug Face</span></b></u></div>
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A very good film from first time director Chad Crawford Kinkle, this is a weird backwoods cult film about a strange rural society that worships a hole in the ground, a pit, that seems to house some sort of entity that requires sacrifices. . .yeah, this is a weird one, but I liked a lot of what is here: the isolated rural setting, the way it explores social taboos, the great musical score, the fantastic lead performance by Lauren Ashley Carter, and excellent support by Sean Bridges, Larry Fessenden, and Sean Young(!!). <br />
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<i>Jug Face</i>: silly title; good movie.<br />
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<b>9.</b> <u><b><span style="font-size: large;">Housebound</span></b></u></div>
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Horror/comedy out of New Zealand, a little ridiculous but never goofy. The premise is solid: a troubled woman is ordered into house arrest and must go stay with her mother in the house she grew up in which may (or may not) be haunted. The acting is good and there are some decent scares (and laughs) but . . . .<br />
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Personally I wasn't 100% onboard with every twist and turn this movie takes, but it is a good movie that a lot of people who are not me seem to really really love, so maybe you'll be one of them and really love this movie too. It's good; see it.<br />
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<b>8.</b> <b><u><span style="font-size: large;">Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer</span></u></b></div>
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This is one I consider to be a classic, but it seems general audiences aren't aware of it and new horror fans are ignoring it. Maybe that's because it is totally bleak and brutal and isn't a funtime horror movie for regular people. However, if you like things that get dark (like, really dark), then may I introduce you to Henry. <br />
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Played chillingly by Michael Rooker, <i>Henry</i> follows the story of a psycho cold killer as he weaves his way through various murders and violence, along with his creep, sicko buddy Otis (Tom Towles). Based on real life serial killer Henry Lee Lucas, this is an unpleasant film, with a loose narrative that gives it this unnervingly realistic tone, but I find it to be a really strong, great film. If you're looking to be disturbed by a movie, this is a good choice.<br />
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Also, all <i>Walking Dead</i> and <i>Guardians of the Galaxy</i> fans need to watch this and experience why Michael Rooker is truly someone you do not want to cross paths with.<br />
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<b>7.</b> <u><b><span style="font-size: large;">We Are What We Are</span></b></u></div>
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I thought Jorge Michel Grau's original 2010 film was a very good movie, but I really loved this remake from Jim Mickle, which takes the same basic premise and does something slightly different with it and gives it a different flavor.<br />
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It's all very unpleasant and occasionally nasty, but how could a story about a family of cannibals not be? I enjoyed it very much.<br />
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<u>Bonus mention</u>: Another film from Jim Mickle, the very good vampire film <i>Stakeland</i>, which is like a zombie apocalypse movie if the zombies were vampires, is also available on Netflix.<br />
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<b>6.</b> <b><u><span style="font-size: large;">Ravenous</span></u></b></div>
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Another cannibal movie! Another period piece! I've always felt this one was underseen and under appreciated, which is a shame as it has a great cast with Guy Pearce, Robert Carlye, Jeremy Davies, Jeffrey Jones, and David Arquette, not to mention an excellent soundtrack by Damon Albarn. This isn't as bleak of a film as some others on this list, as it has this wry humorous tone to it, but it does provide plenty of action and bloodshed.<br />
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Plus, "HE WAS LICKING ME!!!"<br />
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<b>5. <u><span style="font-size: large;">Nightbreed (Director's Cut)</span></u></b></div>
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One of my favorites from when I was younger, <i>Nightbreed</i> has seen a resurgence with the recent release of Clive Barker's Director's Cut, which changes the film in many ways while keeping the main focus on a group of monsters who live in a community and how they're threatened by the outside world.<br />
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Still totally great, this movie is a real blast and is a must see for fans of cool monsters, Clive Barker, and David Cronenberg (who plays a major character in the film). <br />
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<b>4.</b> <u><b><span style="font-size: large;">The Taking of Deborah Logan</span></b></u></div>
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Found footage movies are generally tedious and lame, but this one is surprisingly effective and well made. Set up like a documentary film for a medical school thesis project, the subject of the film is Alzheimer's and its affect on the individual afflicted and their family. Deborah Logan is the one affected, but could she be suffering from something MORE than the disease? Well, this is a horror movie. . .<br />
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Very creepy, spooky, and full of atmosphere, this movie keeps upping the tension while also upping the whatthefuckery. The special effects are killer, especially a sequence towards the end that might haunt some viewer's nightmares..<br />
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Jill Larson stars as the title character and she is GREAT! Apparently she never used a body double and did all of her own stunts, which is amazing because she really goes for it, which is fantastic for an actor of her age (or any age, really). I was particularly fascinated with her performance because Larson played Opal on the long running daytime soap opera <i>All My Children</i>, which was my mother's favorite soap and I would see it all the time on sick days or during summer vacation while growing up. I can't wait to recommend this movie to my mom!!<br />
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<b>3.</b> <span style="font-size: large;"> <u><b>I Saw The Devil</b></u></span><br />
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From South Korea (more subtitles!?!), this is a nasty fun revenge movie. The South Koreans are on top of their game when it comes to genre cinema, specifically revenge films, and this one is a game of brutal one-upmanship between a serial killer and the fiancé of one of his victims, a detective who goes to great lengths to get his vengeance.</div>
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Brutal and occasionally insane outbursts of violence and mayhem, stunning photography and inventive camerawork, emotional devastation and transformation underscored by the great music, that pitch black Korean humor, <i>I Saw The Devil</i> is pretty much everything you can and should expect from South Koran genre cinema. It's great!<br />
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<b>2. <u><span style="font-size: large;">Starry Eyes</span></u></b></div>
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One of my <u><a href="http://squealingtiresondirt.blogspot.com/2015/02/top-15-films-of-2014.html">favorite movies from last year</a></u>, a fantastic lead performance by Alex Essoe, a GREAT synth score, a really unique and strong vision for a horror film, pulling from the wells of Cronenberg and Polanski, it is uncomfortable, disturbing, beautiful, and intensely violent, sometimes all within moments of one another. Basically it's everything I look for in a great horror movie.<br />
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<b>1.</b> <u><b><span style="font-size: large;">Maniac</span></b></u></div>
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I am a huge fan of William Lustig's 1980 classic <i>Maniac</i>, so it came as a bit of a surprise to me that the 2012 remake was, not only good, but was excellent! Elijah Wood, at first a seemingly odd choice for the lead role as the titular maniac, is really damn good. He's not sweaty or heavy breathy like Joe Spinell, but he emotes well and fully commits to the role. <br />
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The violence is intense and graphic and might be off-putting to some, but fans of the original should expect that. Unexpected might be that the movie has an interesting framework/gimmick with the entirety of the movie mostly shot in the maniac's POV, an idea that shouldn't' work but succeeds more often than not. It even leads to a couple brilliantly shot sequences. <br />
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In addition, the LA setting makes for a much more clean and neon soaked local as compared to the scuzzy NYC vibe of the original, as the filmmakers seems much more interested in achieving Italian-giallo style visuals (which works for me). The music is FANTASTIC, I've been listening to the soundtrack for months now. It's a great dread soaked synth nightmare, just another great layer to an excellent horror film. Check it out!<br />
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There you have it, 13 scary suggestions for your Halloween viewing pleasure! Glad I could help! <br />
Now go home and enjoy the scares!!<br />
<br />Nathan Westhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09914459868603679029noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7643411491087828482.post-85335341601833776292015-10-13T07:49:00.001-07:002015-10-13T07:49:55.137-07:00Trailer Park Tuesdays - Bone Tomahawk, The Nightmare, Deathgasm, Tales of Halloween<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Hey, welcome to the Trailer Park. We're gonna go smash pumpkins and throw things off the East St. bridge later, but first let's look at some movie trailers for some scary shit that you could maybe check out this month. It's October which means it's Halloween time so get into it!<br />
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First up we have a big one, very exciting. <i>Bone Tomahawk</i> is the rare western-horror hybrid, this one getting rave reviews out of its recent showing at Fantastic Fest. Featuring a great cast, including Kurt Russell, Patrick Wilson, Matthew Fox, and Richard Jenkins, this is the story of a sheriff and some cowboys heading out on a rescue mission to save some folks from some cave-dwelling cannibals. Sounds awesome, right? Well, yeah, based on description alone my ticket was bought!<br />
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Usually I say, here's the trailer, watch it!, but actually <u><a href="http://birthmoviesdeath.com/2015/10/06/maybe-dont-watch-the-first-trailer-for-bone-tomahawk">from what I've read online</a></u> this is a spoilery trailer that might give away too much. So be warned, but do what you like. I can't control you.<br />
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I've seen it and it's a good trailer but yeah, it might give away a thing or two. I dunno, I haven't seen the movie yet.<br />
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The trailer is below, watch it if you still need convincing you want to see a horror-western with Kurt Russell and cave cannibals.<br />
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<i>Bone Tomahawk</i> sees release on Oct. 23rd.<br />
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A freaky documentary (yes a documentary!) is streaming right now on Netflix Instant (and is also available from plenty of other outlets too) called <i>The Nightmare</i>. From the director of documentary <i>Room 237</i> (about the movie <i>The Shining</i>), this film focuses on the real life phenomenon of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_paralysis">sleep paralysis</a>. <br />
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This terrifying condition involves a sleeping/semi-conscious person being unable to move but experiencing frightening hallucinations. These waking nightmares that people experience and the stories that they share in the film are dramatized visually, creating something that is, well, like you're looking at a nightmare.<br />
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I'm looking forward to checking this one out! It looks freaky! I thought <i>Room 237</i> was really interesting and judging from this trailer below, the director, Rodney Ascher, has a keen eye for visuals. If you're looking for something different this Halloween, maybe give <i>The Nightmare</i> a try.<br />
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Okay, on the goofier, weirder, stranger, gorier side of horror we have <i>Deathgasm</i>.<br />
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Yes, <i>Deathgasm</i>. Hailing from the fine folks in New Zealand this is a splatter horror-comedy about some heavy metal dudes releasing an evil demon after they play some cursed music. The film is being called "shamelessly lowbrow" and "very high energy." Sounds like a New Zealand horror film to me. <br />
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Combining horror and heavy metal is a no brainer but it seems like it has been awhile since we've seen a good thrashing fright flick. Will <i>Deathgasm</i> be any good? I dunno, maybe, but it definitely has a great title so that can't be taken away.<br />
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Check out the wacky, gory trailer below and visit the <u><a href="http://deathgasmthemovie.com/">website</a></u> to see if and when <i>Deathgasm</i> is coming to your town.<br />
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Finally this month we have the very holiday appropriate <i>Tales of Halloween</i>. This is an anthology film featuring 10 segments that all have to do with the best holiday of the year (Halloween). <br />
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Participating in the project are directors Neil Marshall, Darren Lynn Bousman, Lucky McKee, Paul Solet, Mike Mendez, Dave Parker, and others, not to mention a really great cast list (watch the trailer, it's all too many people to name). <br />
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Anthologies are always a mixed bag, sort of like what you get trick-r-treating. Hopefully <i>Tales of Halloween</i> offers up more Snickers and Reese's than it does Black Licorice or Wax Lips.<br />
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<i>Tales of Halloween</i> can be seen starting on Oct. 16th.<br />
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There you have it. Thanks for stopping by, have a great horror holiday and be careful around strangers. A lot of weirdos are here in the Trailer Park. . .<br />
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<br />Nathan Westhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09914459868603679029noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7643411491087828482.post-52572932096645124422015-09-15T07:55:00.002-07:002015-09-15T07:55:43.414-07:00Trailer Park Tuesdays - Goodnight Mommy, Hellions, Cooties, The Keeping Room, and Finders Keepers<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Welcome to the September edition of <u>Trailer Park Tuesdays</u>. Summer is pretty much over and children are going back to school. Soon it will be full blown autumn and the season for scary movies will be upon us (yay!). <br />
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Combining these things and in preparation for October, this month we've got movie trailers for a trio of killer kid flicks, as well as two non-horror films, one a period piece home invasion thriller and the other a strange documentary about a severed leg. This is a full month and a nice collection of stuff so let's get started:<br />
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<u><b>Goodnight Mommy</b></u> - In this sure-to-be-disturbing tale, a pair of young brothers turn distrustful of their mother when she returns from surgery and is "different." Things do not go great.<br />
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This one is getting a lot of buzz and looks weird, crazy, and a more than a bit fucked up, which is just how I like 'em! The creep factor on this one looks high! God bless the Austrians. <br />
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A must-see for genre fans, <i>Goodnight Mommy</i> opened in limited release last weekend on Sept. 11th; it will be in Portland at <u><a href="http://www.cinema21.com/">Cinema 21</a></u> starting Oct. 2nd.<br />
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<u><b>Hellions</b></u> - Also in the "killer kids" vein is <i>Hellions</i> from director Bruce McDonald and I have no idea what the hell is going on with this one. McDonald made <i>Pontypool</i> which was more. . .subdued and thoughtful, I guess? Yeah, this doesn't seem to be that...<br />
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<i>Hellions</i> looks a little bonkers and a lot bananas. And honestly, it looks a little cheap. Add all these things together and I'm sold on watching this just to figure out what it's all about and how Robert Patrick fits into it.<br />
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<i>Hellions</i> will be released in theaters/iTunes/VOD starting on September 25th.<br />
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<u><b>Cooties</b></u> - Alright, maybe <i>Goodnight Mommy</i> and <i>Hellions</i> both seem a little too bleak and/or extreme for you. Maybe horror-comedy <i>Cooties</i> is more your speed? It features zombie school children trying to kill the teachers and staff of their school, played by Elijah Wood, Rainn Wilson, Alison Pill, Jack McBrayer, Leigh Wannell, Nasim Pedrad, and Jorge Garcia. <br />
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This one could be goofy fun, but the quality of horror/comedies can be hard to predict, so we will see. At the very least, teachers across America will get a kick out of it. <br />
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Also, it is hard to deny the greatness of the line "Nap time, motherfuckers!"<br />
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<i>Cooties</i> begins to spread in theaters and on demand starting on Sept. 18th.<br />
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Let's switch gears here and get out of the horror genre.<br />
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I love a good western and <u><b>The Keeping Room</b></u> looks to be a winner. Released by the fine folks at <u><a href="http://drafthousefilms.com/film/the-keeping-room">Drafthouse Films</a></u> this is a feminist western genre tale of three young Southern women defending their home against Union soldier intruders during the end of the Civil War. Tense home invasion type stuff, the kind with a slow burn and plenty of dread. I like it!<br />
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<i>The Keeping Room</i> opens on Sept. 25th but won't be in my neighborhood until November 6th when it plays at <u><a href="http://pdx.livingroomtheaters.com/">The Living Room Theater</a></u>. Check the Drafthouse link above for showtimes near you.<br />
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Finally this month we have <u style="font-weight: bold;">Finders Keepers</u>, a documentary from some of the people who made <i>The King of Kong</i> and <i>Undefeated</i>. It's about a severed leg and the battle between two men over the ownership of it.<br />
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As ridiculous as that sounds, it appears this story might also be very moving and emotionally affecting as well. I think it looks great and I can't wait to see it. <br />
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Just watch the trailer and keep an eye out for the film (it opens in theaters starting on Sept. 25th and is available VOD on Oct. 2nd). <br />
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It looks to be a win win win.<br />
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Thanks for visiting the Trailer Park. See you next month for October movie trailer fun!Nathan Westhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09914459868603679029noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7643411491087828482.post-37408637190531257192015-08-30T23:11:00.001-07:002015-08-30T23:11:44.265-07:00RIP, Wes CravenIn a bit of shocking news: Wes Craven passed away today after battling brain cancer. He was 76.<br />
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The news broke today through various outlets and was confirmed by his family members. Craven was an influential figure in the world of horror, directing classics of the genre like <i>The Last House on the Left</i>, <i>A Nightmare on Elm Street</i>, and <i>Scream</i>. He was a true master.<br />
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Craven came from a teaching background and could be described as "professorial" which always seemed to surprise people considering the sometimes transgressive and nightmarish nature of his work.<br />
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In addition to directing and writing feature films, Craven also worked in television, wrote novels, and was a committed bird conservationist, serving as a member of the Audubon California Board of Directors. He is survived by his wife Iya Labunka, children Jonathan and Jessica and three grandchildren.<br />
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RIP, to one of the greats.<br />
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<i>The Last House on the Left</i> (1972) is a brutal horror film, as audacious a debut a filmmaker could make. It's a tough film, but an important one.</div>
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<i>The Hills Have Eyes</i> (1977) is a personal favorite of mine. Craven was inspired by the real life story of the Sawney Bean family when writing this tale of survival against cannibals.</div>
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<i>Deadly Blessing</i> (1981). Read my review <u><a href="http://squealingtiresondirt.blogspot.com/2013/04/deadly-blessing.html">HERE</a></u>.</div>
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<i>Swamp Thing</i> (1982) was an early attempt at a more adult superhero film but it turned out to be a goofy action adventure movie with a guy in a bad monster suit. Due to repeat airings on local TV and the presence of Adrienne Barbeau I saw this frequently growing up.</div>
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<i>The Hills Have Eyes Part 2</i> (1984). </div>
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In financial trouble, Craven found himself directing this crummy sequel. Say what you will, I have a soft spot for this one as it's a personal favorite bad movie of mine. Dog flashbacks!</div>
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<i>A Nightmare on Elm Street</i> (1984) is a straight-up horror classic. It gave us Freddy Kruger and Johnny Depp. There is some incredible imagery in this movie and if Craven had done just this one film he would still be a member of the horror hall of fame.</div>
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Craven and Kristy Swanson on the set of <i>Deadly Friend</i> (1986). Read my review <u><a href="http://squealingtiresondirt.blogspot.com/2013/04/deadly-friend.html">HERE</a></u>.</div>
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Craven would do some television work, including multiple episode of <i>The Twilight Zone</i> (1985-86). He would give Bruce Willis his first leading role in an episode titled "Shatterday."</div>
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<i>The Serpent and the Rainbow</i> (1988), a movie I recall liking but haven't seen since the mid '90s.</div>
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I've been meaning to watch <i>Shocker</i> (1989) and it is now for sure on my October watch list.</div>
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<i>The People Under the Stairs</i> (1991) is a memorable film, but also very problematic and not very good.</div>
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<i>New Nightmare</i> (1994) was the first <i>Nightmare</i> film to be released after I started getting into horror films so I was real excited and totally into it when it came out. I was a big fan, but haven't seen it in years.</div>
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<i>Vampire in Brooklyn</i> (1995) is to Wes Craven as <i>Memoirs of an Invisible Man</i> (1992) is to John Carpenter: a troubled production with a comedic actor who doesn't want to make a comedy.</div>
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<i>Scream</i> (1996) was a full on phenomenon and yet another horror hit for Craven. It started a new franchise with Craven directing all three of the sequels, the last of which, <i>Scream 4</i> (2011), would be his last directorial effort.</div>
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<i>Music of the Heart</i> (1999) was Craven's lone work outside the horror genre. It was nominated for two Oscars, one for star Meryl Streep.</div>
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<i>Cursed</i> (2005) is without a doubt one of the worst movie I have ever seen. Production problems plagued the movie, but sheesh, what a stinker.</div>
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I saw <i>Red Eye</i> (2005) once back when it came out and I was surprised by how much I liked it. The third act was a bit weak, but I remember really liking the set-up and the actors.</div>
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This is a great interview with Wes Craven conducted by Mick Garris. It goes into a lot of Craven's early life and background and into the making of his early films.</div>
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<b>Wes Craven, 1939 -2015</b>Nathan Westhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09914459868603679029noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7643411491087828482.post-19062279402134616422015-08-11T08:07:00.000-07:002015-08-11T08:07:25.598-07:00Trailer Park Tuesdays - Cop Car, Turbo Kid, The Tribe, and The Look of Silence<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Hello everybody. <u>Trailer Park Tuesdays</u> is back! All New! With a slightly New Format! From here on out this will be a monthly column, instead of an attempt at a weekly one. Rejoice!<br />
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For those of you new to the Trailer Park, this is a space where I will share movie trailers for new and upcoming releases that might be flying under people's radars. These are things that I find intriguing and/or things that I consider to be must-sees. I'm usually a sucker for a good movie trailer. Let's see what we got this month:<br />
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<b><u>Cop Car</u></b> - (dir: Jon Watts) - I like a lot of what I see here. Two young runaway kids steal a cop car and have a good time, but bad things happen when they get chased by a dangerously mustached Kevin Bacon.... <br />
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This looks like a lot of fun. I particularly like when movies put very young children in danger and in adult situations. We've all been young and done stupid things, but what if those things had dire consequences?<br />
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Look at the official website <u><a href="http://www.focusfeatures.com/cop_car">HERE</a></u> and steal a look at the trailer below. <br />
<i>Cop Car</i> has already opened in some select cities. It opens August 14th at <u><a href="http://pdx.livingroomtheaters.com/">The Living Room Theater</a></u> in Portland, OR and will also be available VOD the same day.<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/p0abWuHBJRg" width="560"></iframe><br />
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<b><u>The Tribe</u></b> - (dir: Myroslav Slaboshpytskiy) - I've been dying to see this. It's been playing the festival circuit and getting rave reviews all over, winning multiple awards at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival, and just generally sounding like an amazing cinematic experience. This Ukrainian film takes place at a high school for the deaf and features a story that unfolds through sign language and other forms of non-verbal communication from a cast of deaf non-professional actors. There are no subtitles nor any voiceover. The result is an "unprecedented cinematic accomplishment" and something that feels "unmistakably, radically new."<b>*</b><br />
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Not everyone is into Ukrainian art films, but if you're into unique and daring cinematic journeys, this is one to not pass up.<br />
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<i>The Tribe</i> is playing nationwide at cool cinemas in select cities. There will be a single night showing on August 19th at <u><a href="http://hollywoodtheatre.org/">The Hollywood Theatre</a></u> in Portland, OR. Check the <u><a href="http://drafthousefilms.com/film/the-tribe">official website</a></u> for showtimes near you.<br />
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<b>*</b> quotes from Indiewire and Variety, respectively.<br />
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<u><b>The Look of Silence</b></u> - (dir: Joshua Oppenheimer) - This is Oppenheimer's follow-up film to <i>The Act of Killing</i>, which was <u><a href="http://squealingtiresondirt.blogspot.com/2014/03/top-15-films-of-2013.html">my favorite film of 2013</a></u>. This is a further exploration of the 1965 Indonesian genocide, this time focusing on a young optometrist who confronts the men who murdered his brother, breaking the silence of decades. <br />
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I can't wait to see this. If you haven't seen <i>The Act of Killing</i>, I urge you to see it. It is powerful filmmaking. <i>The Look of Silence</i> looks to be a continuation of that brilliance.<br />
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I'm very excited this opens August 21st at The Hollywood Theatre. Check out the <u><a href="http://thelookofsilence.com/">official website</a></u> for additional showtimes, articles and clips.<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/aA_ZHAs4M9k" width="560"></iframe><br />
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<u><b>Turbo Kid</b></u> - (dir: Anouk Whissell, François Simard, Yoann-Karl Whissell) - Of all the movie trailers this month, this is the one movie that I am most unsure of. Could be amazing, could be crap. A movie like this could go either way. It does look crazy, gory, and interestingly weird, not to mention it features Michael Ironside as the villain, so that almost makes it a must-see. <br />
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What gives me caution is that this is one of those movies that is an anachronistic homage to the past, which sometimes turn out feeling disingenuous. If the filmmakers have a story that is engaging (which it appears they might) and characters that we care about and believe in (this is a maybe..I'm not sure about that girl..) then this might be a ridiculously fun film. Take a look at the trailer, what do you think?<br />
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<i>Turbo Kid</i> slides into The Hollywood Theatre on Aug 28th. For non-Portlanders, it will also be available on VOD the same day.<br />
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Thanks for sticking around the Trailer Park. We'll see you next month.<br />
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Nathan Westhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09914459868603679029noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7643411491087828482.post-90883952828823305122015-08-02T16:09:00.001-07:002016-04-17T22:22:15.863-07:00The Howling: New Moon Rising<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Here we are. The seventh entry in the <u><b>Howling Series Retrospective Review</b></u>.<br />
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Here it is. The nadir of the entire <i>Howling</i> series. <br />
Oh boy, this is a rough one.<br />
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Need a refresher? Check out previous installments in the series here:<br />
<u><a href="http://squealingtiresondirt.blogspot.com/2013/06/the-howling.html">The Howling</a></u><br />
<u><a href="http://squealingtiresondirt.blogspot.com/2013/07/howling-ii-your-sister-is-werewolf.html">Howling II</a></u><br />
<u><a href="http://squealingtiresondirt.blogspot.com/2014/04/the-marsupials-howling-iii.html">Howling III</a></u><br />
<u><a href="http://squealingtiresondirt.blogspot.com/2014/07/howling-iv-original-nightmare.html">Howling IV</a></u><br />
<u><a href="http://squealingtiresondirt.blogspot.com/2014/11/howling-v-rebirth.html">Howling V</a></u><br />
<u><a href="http://squealingtiresondirt.blogspot.com/2015/02/howling-vi-freaks.html">Howling VI</a></u><br />
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So, okay. Full disclosure: One of the main reasons I started this project of watching and reviewing all the <i>Howling</i> films was because I wanted to write about this particular sequel. Why? Well, I have fond memories attached to this one, of watching it with friends and laughing at its terribleness, and for a brief time this was one of my favorite bad movies. When I started the <u><b>HSRR</b></u> this was actually the only <i>Howling</i> sequel I had seen and, in a way, this entire project has been leading to this point. . .<br />
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Which is a bummer because <i>The Howling: New Moon Rising</i> (1995) is <u>such a bad movie</u>.<br />
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Like, really bad. So bad that it only barely qualifies as a movie at all. Inept is the word that covers most of the qualities of the filmmaking. This isn't a horror movie, it's more like the local community group made a commercial for a small desert town saloon and a flimsy werewolf story was grafted onto it. The movie is full of local color, and while it is interesting to an extent, there is nothing particularly exciting, oddball, or weird going on here. The only truly interesting thing about <i>The Howling: New Moon Rising</i> is that it exists at all.<br />
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<u>The plot</u>: Basically a redheaded Australian motorcycle cowboy (Clive Turner) rides into this small town somewhere outside of Barstow where the residents like to line dance and hang out at the local bar, Pappy and Harriet's Pioneer Town Palace. There are some werewolf killings, the town gets suspicious of the redheaded stranger, but in reality he is on the trail of the werewolf himself..<br />
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The story, as it is, is augmented by the cast's attempts at jokes and comedy and also with all the line dancing and musical performances (of which there are many). The werewolf stuff in this movie is practically non-existent and that which does exist is mostly footage from previous <i>Howling</i> sequels. . . man this movie is bad...<br />
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Let's just cut to the chase. Here's the <u><b>7 Things You Need to Know about The Howling: New Moon Rising</b></u>:<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">1</span>.</b> The badness of this movie cannot be understated. Not only is this thing not scary and barely a horror <i>anything</i>, not only is it overstuffed with montages and cheap, lame humor and endless line dancing by its non-actor cast, but it is so poorly put together from top to bottom that its cheapness becomes fascinating. It's a slow motion car wreck with a country-western soundtrack.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">2</span>.</b> I'd say close to 30% of this movie is made up of footage from <i>Howling</i>s <i>IV</i>, <i>V</i>, and <i>VI</i>. In the business they call this "padding." This movie is so padded it could fall off a building and be fine. All of this exposition and backstory is told first to a detective by a priest, who partially recounts the events of <i>Part V</i> and <i>VI</i>. <br />
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Then later, Marie (Romy Windsor) from <i>Howling IV</i> returns to the series and tells the priest about the events from that film. They wisely use the footage of Richard's gooey transformation scene, which is the best thing in <i>Part IV</i>.<br />
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The first glimpse of a werewolf in <i>New Moon Rising</i> doesn't come until about 30 minutes into the movie and it's footage from <i>Howling V</i>. In fact, the only original werewolf scenes in this movie are unbelievably terrible.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">3</span>. </b> The CGI transformation. Oh shit. This is just, so damn awful. Up until this point the werewolf in this movie has been represented by red lensed POV camera shots, running around the desert and stalking people. <br />
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During the finale, when it is revealed that. . whoever is the werewolf (Cheryl?), she transforms onscreen but it is done with a sub-shitty '90s morphing CGI effect which is quite simply the worst werewolf transformation of all time.<br />
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After the morph job, the werewolf busts through a door and the entire town shoots the creature down. It immediately cuts to the band playing in the bar as the credits roll. It's an abrupt and yet merciful end to such a movie. It struggled with everything else. Why stick the landing?<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">4</span>. </b> Line Dancing Purgatory. <br />
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I've mentioned all the line dancing. It is often shown in cutaways during bar scenes and montages. What isn't quite clear is exactly where these fun loving people are in relation to the band that is playing. It looks like some dark empty barn but I think it's obviously some sort of country-western purgatory for lost souls.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">5</span>.</b> Most of the humor and jokes in the film are real corny or lowbrow type stuff, but there is one that I do like for some reason: the "dirt in the chili" scene. <br />
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This attempt at humor has Pappy making chili outside in a pot hanging over a fire. One guy looks in and says, "there's dirt in the chili, Pappy." Pappy takes off his apron and replies "I need a drink!"<br />
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Cut to inside and Pappy gets his drink. This is also a running joke, as Pappy is supposed to have quit drinking on the orders of Mrs. Pappy. So when she walks into the bar and Pappy hurriedly hides his whiskey, she instead says to him "Pappy, do you know there's dirt in the chili?" <br />
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"I know it! I know it," he shouts. Classic Pappy!<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">6</span>.</b> Clive Tuner: producer, writer, editor, director, star. I believe it is safe to say that he is the responsible party for what we have here.<br />
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Turner also co-wrote, co-produced, and co-starred in <i>Howling IV</i> and<i> V</i>. He is apparently supposed to be the same character from <i>Part V</i> here in <i>New Moon Rising</i>, even though that guy clearly died during that movie.<br />
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That aside, it could be considered interesting that Turner tried to connect the events of four different <i>Howling</i> sequels, four movies that really have nothing to do with one another. The only other sequel that tries to connect with a previous film is <i>Part II</i>, which, while doing a bad job at that, is an infinitely better and more entertaining film than <i>New Moon Rising</i>. <br />
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Too bad, Turner. Your attempt at a shared universe was an abject failure.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">7</span>.</b> This movie has never been given a proper DVD release in America; it can only be legitimately found on VHS. It can be found on foreign bootlegs and whatnot. . or you can check it out on <u><a href="https://youtu.be/KRsWHIjg6Pc">YouTube</a></u>. I don't normally advocate watching movies on that site, but in this crappy case, and also since there is <u>no movie trailer</u> to be found on the internet, I've made an exception. <br />
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<u>Final Thought</u>: Don't see this movie, but if you do, just don't.<br />
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When I started this project I was unaware that there was an eighth and more recent <i>Howling</i> film. Crap. I got one more of these to do! I'm in <i>Howling</i> purgatory!!<br />
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Nathan Westhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09914459868603679029noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7643411491087828482.post-80738185455296688852015-06-12T07:47:00.001-07:002015-06-12T07:47:06.341-07:00RIP, Christopher Lee<br />
Iconic and veteran British actor Christopher Lee has passed away. He was 93.<br />
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It happened on Sunday morning (June 7th) at a London hospital where Lee was being treated for heart and respiratory problems; his wife, Birgit "Gitte" Kroencke Lee, decided to withhold the information until family and friends could be notified. <br />
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Ugh. What a bummer, but hey, he was 93; he lived a long life and he lived it to the fullest. That's the least most of us should hope for.<br />
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Lee was, quite simply, one of the best. He's from that old school of acting, bringing a theatricality to his film roles throughout his career. And what a career!<br />
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Frankenstein's monster, Dracula, The Mummy, Fu Manchu, Sherlock <i>and</i> Mycroft Holmes, Lord Summerisle, Scaramanga, Saruman, Count Dooku, heavy metal recording artist, Christopher Lee did it all and did it with such style, gravitas, and panache! One of the amazing things is that everyone from teenagers to grandparents know (or at least recognize) who Lee is. He spanned decades which is a rarity in an era of increased specialization and shortened shelf lives. Christopher Lee was truly one of the all-time greats. It is sad that he's gone.<br />
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Thanks for all the movies and for all the scares.<br />
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Before taking up acting, Lee joined the Royal Air Force (RAF) right at the outbreak of World War II. He wouldn't fly any planes due to an eye condition, but he volunteered with RAF Intelligence where he would assist in operations that took place in Egypt, Libya, and Tunisia. Most interestingly, after the war, Lee would help in the tracking down of Nazi war criminals (what a badass!).<br />
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<<< Lee in 1944, Vatican City<br />
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<i>Curse of Frankenstein</i> (1957)</div>
Christopher Lee would work with British film production company Hammer Films many times throughout his career, and he would often work with his good friend Peter Cushing. The first time for both was in this, the first <i>Frankenstein</i> film that Hammer released, kicking off their reainessance of new gothic horror films and kickstarting Lee's career. Also, it's a pretty good movie.<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-KjGAFUp6zE0/VXpOlyfGGvI/AAAAAAAACwU/Jen5Kx-rUVo/s1600/dracula-1958-billboard.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-KjGAFUp6zE0/VXpOlyfGGvI/AAAAAAAACwU/Jen5Kx-rUVo/s400/dracula-1958-billboard.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i>Horror of Dracula</i> (1958)</div>
Lee might be best known for his portrayal of Dracula, in which is brought a lot of sex appeal to go along with the scares. He would play the bloodsucker 8 or 9 times during his career.<br />
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<i>The Mummy</i> (1959)<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-PTlpe2XXYME/VXpO0zuIqGI/AAAAAAAACwk/FIqrWwvcyVc/s1600/sherlock-holmes-and-the-deadly-necklace.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-PTlpe2XXYME/VXpO0zuIqGI/AAAAAAAACwk/FIqrWwvcyVc/s400/sherlock-holmes-and-the-deadly-necklace.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i>Sherlock Holmes and the Deadly Necklace</i> (1962)<br />
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<i>The Whip and the Body</i> (1963)</div>
This Mario Bava film is one I haven't seen, but have always meant to. I guess now would be a good time to finally check it out.<br />
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<i>The Face of Fu Manchu</i> (1965)</div>
Lee would play Fu Manchu a total of five times, including the terrible <i>Castle of Fu Manchu</i> (1969) which is so bad that it is barely watchable in its <i><a href="https://youtu.be/_e9b-wy5pTk">MST3k</a></i> version.<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VEIFbbULCTQ/VXpPGUPHxzI/AAAAAAAACw8/pWh9b23rnaQ/s1600/rasputin%2Bthe%2Bmad%2Bmonk%2B01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="356" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VEIFbbULCTQ/VXpPGUPHxzI/AAAAAAAACw8/pWh9b23rnaQ/s640/rasputin%2Bthe%2Bmad%2Bmonk%2B01.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i>Rasputin: The Mad Monk</i> (1966)<br />
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<i>Raw Meat</i> (1972)</div>
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<i>The Wicker Man</i> (1973)</div>
Lee called his role as Lord Summerisle his best. He ain't wrong.<br />
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<i>The Man with the Golden Gun</i> (1974)<br />
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<i>1941</i> (1979)<br />
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<i>The House of Long Shadows</i> (1983)</div>
clockwise: Lee, Vincent Price, Peter Cushing, John Carradine. Somewhere out there, all of these guys are having a great time.<br />
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<i>The Howling II. . .Your Sister's a Werewolf</i> (1985)</div>
You can read my review of this terribly fun movie <u><a href="http://squealingtiresondirt.blogspot.com/2013/07/howling-ii-your-sister-is-werewolf.html">HERE</a></u>. <br />
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<i>Gremlins 2: The New Batch</i> (1990)</div>
When Christopher Lee first met director Joe Dante he apologized to him for starring in <i>Howling II</i> (Dante had directed the original <i>Howling</i> film).<br />
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<i>Sleepy Hollow</i> (1999)<br />
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<i>The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring</i> (2001) </div>
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Lee is the only person who worked on the <i>LOTR</i> films who had actually met J.R.R Tolkien. He was a mega-fan of the book, reading it annually. He called the chance to participate in bringing the books to the big screen a "dream come true."</div>
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<i>Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones</i> (2002)</div>
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I doubt he ever dreamed of wielding a lightsaber, but hey, he got to do that too.</div>
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<i>Hugo</i> (2011)</div>
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Christopher Lee became Sir Christopher Lee when he was knighted for services in drama and charity in 2009.<br />
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Proving that you're never too old to do new things, late in life, Christopher Lee started a new career as a metal recording artist. He did an album about Charlemagne and also an album of Christmas songs. This track is from his most recent EP, <i>Metal Knight</i>:<br />
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"I try to describe acting as a combination of the three D's and the three I's. Discipline, dedication, devotion. Imagination, instinct, intelligence. Even if all my films haven't pleased everybody, I'd like people to realize that I've always given each film my all. I would like to think that I've shown integrity and dedication in every one of my roles. I always do my best and, you know, I really do love what I do."</div>
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RIP Christopher Lee</div>
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1922-2015</div>
Nathan Westhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09914459868603679029noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7643411491087828482.post-15050465470992310672015-04-28T07:55:00.001-07:002015-04-28T07:55:17.285-07:00Trailer Park Tuesdays - Roar<br />
Welcome to Trailer Park Tuesdays. This week we're looking at the movie trailer for <i style="font-weight: bold;">Roar</i> (1981), not a new movie, but an old movie that is now being released for the first time in the U.S.<br />
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<i>Roar</i> is quite possible the most irresponsible movie ever made. Producer Noel Marshall and his wife Tippi Hedren (star of <i>The Birds</i>) set out to make a film that would bring exposure to big cats and their plight in Africa from game hunters, as well as to the inhumane treatment of big cats in captivity...or something. They would do this by using the hundreds of wild lions, tigers, and other cats and animals that the couple had gathered and used to populate their animal sanctuary located north of Los Angeles. <br />
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This (crazy) idea was first (ill)conceived in 1970 and after the success of <i>The Exorcist</i> (which Marshall produced and made a lot of money from) they started filming in 1974. Things did not go well as the cats proved unpredictable and unable to take direction. This led to as many as 70 members of the cast and crew getting attacked or harmed while making this movie!<br />
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Noel Marshall was bit and clawed multiple times, Tippi fell off an elephant and broke her leg, and their daughter, Melanie Griffith, who was just starting her acting career, suffered facial lacerations and needed reconstructive surgery and 100 stitches. Not to be outdone, director of photography Jan De Bont (future director of <i>Speed</i> and <i>Twister</i>) was SCALPED by a lion and required over 200 stitches!<br />
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Not surprisingly, the film took a total of 11 years to make and when it was finally released in 1981, it was only done so overseas and not here in America. Until now. . . .<br />
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Drafthouse Films has acquired the film and has been releasing it in various cities the past couple weeks. Check out <u><a href="http://drafthousefilms.com/film/roar">HERE</a></u> for full details on where you can see this amazing motion picture. If you're like me and you live in or near Portland, Oregon, you can see <i>Roar</i> this weekend, May 2nd and 3rd, at the great <a href="http://hollywoodtheatre.org/">Hollywood Theatre</a>.<br />
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Here's the amazing and dangerous trailer:<br />
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This movie looks INSANE! I've been looking forward to it greatly. It looks like a visceral and surreal experience, a real jaw-dropper!<br />
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For more info on this crazy story, read <u><a href="http://drafthousefilms.com/blog/entry/utterly-brainsick-roar-starring-tippi-hedren-melanie-griffith-joins-pride-o">THIS</a></u> from Drafthouse Films founder Tim League, <u><a href="https://www.stage32.com/blog/Surviving-Roar-The-Most-Dangerous-Film-Ever-Made">THIS</a></u> blog post from crew member Randolph Sellars, and watch this piece from <u><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MeX4Zveho7k">CBS This Morning</a></u>.<br />
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Nathan Westhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09914459868603679029noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7643411491087828482.post-88574066654614348342015-04-09T23:18:00.001-07:002015-04-09T23:18:39.648-07:00RIP, Tom Towles<br />
Veteran character actor Tom Towles passed away earlier <a href="http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/tom-towles-dead-rob-zombie-786459">this week</a> due to complications from a stroke he suffered while in Florida. He was 65.<br />
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Not known to casual movie fans, Towles should be instantly recognizable to fans of the horror genre. His IMDb bio describes him as often playing "scumbags or obnoxious men," which maybe seems harsh, but that is an accurate description. Towles was real good at playing sons-of-bitches.<br />
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His first big role was in <i>Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer</i> (filmed in 1985, not released until 1990), opposite Michael Rooker. The pair would prove to be electric. Towles' character of Otis was based on real life serial killer Ottis Toole. He's an absolute degenerate and sociopath and Towles is fantastic, displaying those qualities with a scary realism. <br />
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The thing I am most familiar with and am a fan of is Towles' turn as Harry Cooper in Tom Savini's under-appreciated remake of <i>Night of the Living Dead</i> (1990). Good god, is he so hatable in that movie! He shouts and he's stubborn and he's one of the supreme jerks of all time. He's so damn good!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Bunch of <i>yo-yos</i>!"</td></tr>
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Towles would go on to star in smaller movies (like Adam Wingard's directorial debut <i>Home Sick</i> [2007]) and be featured in bigger movies (<i>The Rock</i> [1996]), usually in the horror or action genres. Like any character actor, he also had a string of television appearances in everything from comedies to dramas to science fiction. His gruff and rough demeanor served him well throughout the years.<br />
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It's a shame he's gone. He was a good actor. RIP, Tom Towles.<br />
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Tom Towles would reteam with <i>Henry</i> director John McNaughton on <i>The Borrower</i> (1991). This trailer name drops <i>Hellraiser</i>, <i>Reanimator</i>, and, uh, <i>Warlock</i>, so maybe it's worth checking out:<br />
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Towles would co-star in Stuart Gordon's <i>The Pit and the Pendulum</i> (1991), reminding me once again that I need to see that movie. The very next year he would co-star with Christopher Lambert in Gordon's science fiction action movie, <i>Fortress</i> (1992), reminding me that I once saw that movie.<br />
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In a first season episode of <i>Star Trek: Deep Space Nine</i> (1993) he played a Klingon who dies on the transporter pad. It's a brief appearance but he's a catalyst for the events of the episode.<br />
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In 1997 he would double dip into the <i>Star Trek </i>universe, playing a different bumpy headed alien on a season three episode of <i>Voyager</i>.<br />
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<i>Seinfeld</i> ("The Glasses," 1993). Towles is credited as "Tough Guy."</div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-yl09rQBom1U/VScuEIn4DHI/AAAAAAAACqs/5Uy-G2HHHlQ/s1600/rs_634x1024-150406074543-634.Tom-Towles-JR-4615.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-yl09rQBom1U/VScuEIn4DHI/AAAAAAAACqs/5Uy-G2HHHlQ/s1600/rs_634x1024-150406074543-634.Tom-Towles-JR-4615.jpg" height="400" width="247" /></a></div>
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Inspector Anthony Lastarza on <i>NYPD Blue</i> (1993-94).</div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-UgFIA6uQpOk/VScxJLfEiSI/AAAAAAAACrk/_0vxbM23oNM/s1600/600px-Gridlockd-m1911-01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-UgFIA6uQpOk/VScxJLfEiSI/AAAAAAAACrk/_0vxbM23oNM/s1600/600px-Gridlockd-m1911-01.jpg" height="225" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i>Gridlock'd</i> (1997)</div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-oCa6IHTC-s8/VScubEjLtaI/AAAAAAAACq0/hwBjlGKxVlo/s1600/Ep02.Lund.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-oCa6IHTC-s8/VScubEjLtaI/AAAAAAAACq0/hwBjlGKxVlo/s1600/Ep02.Lund.jpg" height="400" width="366" /></a></div>
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<i>Firefly</i> (2002)</div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-1LMTKk_-Vmc/VScvJ-X17JI/AAAAAAAACrA/Do08TkMHWoY/s1600/original.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-1LMTKk_-Vmc/VScvJ-X17JI/AAAAAAAACrA/Do08TkMHWoY/s1600/original.jpg" height="257" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i>House of 1000 Corpses</i> (2003), as George Wydell. </div>
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He would reprise the role in <i>The Devils's Rejects</i> (2005). I think his performance in <i>Corpses</i> might be better, but <i>Rejects</i> is the superior movie.</div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-4KjboXMuRrc/VScvUe3mJcI/AAAAAAAACrI/Czf_jITNbrI/s1600/fhd006MIV_Tom_Towles_002.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-4KjboXMuRrc/VScvUe3mJcI/AAAAAAAACrI/Czf_jITNbrI/s1600/fhd006MIV_Tom_Towles_002.jpg" height="266" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i>Miami Vice</i> (2006)</div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-jUIpujPudTU/VScvbTtHPPI/AAAAAAAACrQ/TDccU-5RS0g/s1600/601px-Grindhouse_werewolf_women_of_the_ss_rifles_walther_ppk.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-jUIpujPudTU/VScvbTtHPPI/AAAAAAAACrQ/TDccU-5RS0g/s1600/601px-Grindhouse_werewolf_women_of_the_ss_rifles_walther_ppk.jpg" height="270" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i>Werewolf Women of the S.S.</i> (fake trailer from <i>Grindhouse</i> [2007]).</div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-9lre2nwDOg4/VScyZ6lXxHI/AAAAAAAACrw/ENhyaOix-iE/s1600/CB7HK2SUsAAzqtK.jpg-large.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-9lre2nwDOg4/VScyZ6lXxHI/AAAAAAAACrw/ENhyaOix-iE/s1600/CB7HK2SUsAAzqtK.jpg-large.jpeg" height="420" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-N3kr0DFfHt8/VScvpu4OF8I/AAAAAAAACrY/E6XKiWnGAFM/s1600/maxresdefault.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-N3kr0DFfHt8/VScvpu4OF8I/AAAAAAAACrY/E6XKiWnGAFM/s1600/maxresdefault.jpg" height="360" width="640" /></a></div>
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Tom Towles</div>
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1950-2015</div>
<br />Nathan Westhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09914459868603679029noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7643411491087828482.post-66403809211898645572015-04-07T20:21:00.001-07:002015-04-07T20:21:17.720-07:00Trailer Park Tuesdays - Spring<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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It's Trailer Park Tuesday and spring has sprung so we're gonna look at the trailer for <i><b>Spring</b></i>!<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-KCs6aF7ncBc/VSSWYKvJRWI/AAAAAAAACos/yycwmwWmhrk/s1600/spring-movie-poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-KCs6aF7ncBc/VSSWYKvJRWI/AAAAAAAACos/yycwmwWmhrk/s1600/spring-movie-poster.jpg" height="640" width="432" /></a><br />
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Ah yes! Springtime! When a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love...<br />
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The classic setup: boy meets girl. Attraction and emotions run high, love is fallen into. Then girl reveals deep dark truths and secrets. Terrible things happen. Seem about right? That's the basic set-up for <i>Spring</i>, although it comes with a bit of monstrousness..<br />
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I've been jazzed on seeing this one, it's been getting <a href="http://badassdigest.com/2014/09/21/fantastic-fest-review-spring-moves-as-much-if-not-more-than-it-scares/">good</a> reviews and word of mouth is <a href="http://www.avclub.com/review/unclassifiable-spring-makes-moon-eyes-monsters-216760">positive</a>. The film stars Lou Taylor Pucci, who I liked a lot in <i>Thumbsucker</i> (he was also in the <i>Evil Dead</i> remake), and Nadia Hilker, a German actress and relative newcomer.<br />
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The pull quote at the top of the poster describes <i>Spring</i> as a "hybrid of Richard Linklater and H.P. Lovecraft," and it seems as if directors Justin Benson and Aaron Moorehead have crafted a lovely romantic horror film.<br />
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I'm going to share two trailers for the film. This first one from Drafthouse Films (who are distributing the movie) plays up the romantic angle while hiding most of the twists and turns. Check it:<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/9zpThOBiPxM" width="560"></iframe><br />
Not sold? Want to see more? This second trailer (the "official" trailer) has a bit more plot details and, while not exactly spoilery, it gives a more revealing look at the genre elements at work within the film. So keep that in mind:<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/668ZdEbXlPY" width="560"></iframe><br />
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<i>Spring</i> is playing right now in limited release in select cities and is also available online at iTunes, Googe Play, Amazon Instant, and a whole bunch of other places. Check <u><a href="http://drafthousefilms.com/film/spring">HERE</a></u> for all that info.<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2ah1a004cXE/VSSb8EZwyBI/AAAAAAAACpE/o7n2H8eEvx8/s1600/Fantastic-Fest-Spring-Movie.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2ah1a004cXE/VSSb8EZwyBI/AAAAAAAACpE/o7n2H8eEvx8/s1600/Fantastic-Fest-Spring-Movie.jpg" height="358" width="640" /></a></div>
Nathan Westhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09914459868603679029noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7643411491087828482.post-27882686032040639042015-04-02T07:44:00.001-07:002015-04-02T07:44:59.116-07:00RIP, Robert Z'Dar<br />
On March 30th, cult movie actor Robert Z'Dar passed away. He was in <a href="http://www.pnj.com/story/entertainment/events/pensacon/2015/03/31/cult-actor-robert-zdar-dies-pensacola/70745990/">Pensacola</a>, Florida, where earlier this month he was hospitalized with chest pains, before suffering cardiac arrest Monday night.<br />
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He was 64 years old.<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-gQE3UvwS12Q/VRyud0tUjcI/AAAAAAAAClI/CEgSm74HqNE/s1600/robertzdar.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-gQE3UvwS12Q/VRyud0tUjcI/AAAAAAAAClI/CEgSm74HqNE/s1600/robertzdar.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a></div>
Z'Dar was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1950 and he attended college at Arizona State University where he played football while studying acting. Returning to Chicago he played keyboards and sang in a rock band called Nova Express, their name taken from the William S. Burroughs novel. After that, he held jobs that ranged from police officer to Chippendale's dancer before finally taking off for Los Angeles to become an actor.<br />
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Z'Dar was known for his unique facial size and features, caused by <u><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherubism">cherubim</a></u>, and he was able to parlay that into a career playing bad guys and heavies. He was in B-movies mostly, but his face is not one you forget. I'm pretty sure the first thing I saw him in was either <i>Tango & Cash</i> (one of the few non-B-movies he was in) or <i>Beastmaster 2: Through the Portal of Time</i>. <br />
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The <i>Maniac Cop</i> movies might be what Robert Z'Dar was most known for, but he did gain a lot of fans after two of his movies, <i>Soultaker</i> and <i>Future War</i>, were featured on cult favorite TV show <i>Mystery Science Theater 3000</i>. In addition to that, in recently years there has been a resurgence of interest in his cult classic action movie <i>Samurai Cop</i>. <br />
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-87PdvUe9shY/VRyuynyR0LI/AAAAAAAAClY/n8Cd8JKrKu4/s1600/robert-zdar.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-87PdvUe9shY/VRyuynyR0LI/AAAAAAAAClY/n8Cd8JKrKu4/s1600/robert-zdar.jpg" height="400" width="267" /></a><br />
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Always working, Z'Dar amassed 121 film and television credits during his career (although a couple of those are in "pre-production"), including the upcoming sequel <i>Samurai Cop 2: Deadly Vengeance</i>, although I'm not sure if he started work on that or not, I've read conflicting things.<br />
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His longtime friend and manager, Jim Decker, had this to say: <i>"We've been together through thick and thin. He was the first actor I took on in my career as an agent. We spent many weekends on the road together and a lot of time enjoying each other's company. I miss him dearly."</i><br />
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RIP, Z'Dar.<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-yz4CRERCR2g/VRyxK3W0g5I/AAAAAAAAClk/3tOCkWLP1oo/s1600/tve18909-1664-19851008-0.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-yz4CRERCR2g/VRyxK3W0g5I/AAAAAAAAClk/3tOCkWLP1oo/s1600/tve18909-1664-19851008-0.jpg" /></a></div>
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An early role of his was on the hit television show <i>Moonlighting</i> (1985). He was a security guard.</div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-CIJL9zKQCmc/VRzS817kfxI/AAAAAAAACl0/m9s22sIcU5k/s1600/robert-ZDar-maniac-cop.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-CIJL9zKQCmc/VRzS817kfxI/AAAAAAAACl0/m9s22sIcU5k/s1600/robert-ZDar-maniac-cop.jpg" height="213" width="400" /></a></div>
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If I were to recommend a single Z'Dar movie, it would be <i>Maniac Cop</i> (1988). That movie and it's two sequels were mainstays of video store shelves in the '90s.</div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-vfcK-u0UE-4/VRzUOF34pFI/AAAAAAAACmM/caXMusUPcb8/s1600/ManiacCop3-Academy1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-vfcK-u0UE-4/VRzUOF34pFI/AAAAAAAACmM/caXMusUPcb8/s1600/ManiacCop3-Academy1.jpg" height="400" width="271" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">(1993)</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-4oRFn4UJXVE/VRzUN0_04zI/AAAAAAAACmI/zXGGsUitaGg/s1600/MANIAC_COP_2_Theatrical_Poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-4oRFn4UJXVE/VRzUN0_04zI/AAAAAAAACmI/zXGGsUitaGg/s1600/MANIAC_COP_2_Theatrical_Poster.jpg" height="400" width="275" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">(1990)</td></tr>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-RA0J_oumOhU/VRzn93o_lJI/AAAAAAAACoE/1eEaMhaGzrg/s1600/robert-z-dar-Tango_Cash.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-RA0J_oumOhU/VRzn93o_lJI/AAAAAAAACoE/1eEaMhaGzrg/s1600/robert-z-dar-Tango_Cash.jpg" height="268" width="640" /></a></div>
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In <i>Tango & Cash</i> (1989) his character's name is Face. True story.</div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-fdVqAP4LAbw/VRzVBhvWQSI/AAAAAAAACmc/WvbAQ_Ji_So/s1600/soultaker6.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-fdVqAP4LAbw/VRzVBhvWQSI/AAAAAAAACmc/WvbAQ_Ji_So/s1600/soultaker6.jpg" height="290" width="400" /></a></div>
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Gathering souls with Joe Estevez in <i>Soultaker</i> (1990).<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-t8KwxrRBMeI/VRzVBv_eMTI/AAAAAAAACmY/j3sziH-Gdno/s1600/killingamericanstyle.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-t8KwxrRBMeI/VRzVBv_eMTI/AAAAAAAACmY/j3sziH-Gdno/s1600/killingamericanstyle.jpg" height="225" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i>Killing American Style</i> (1990). This is the first of four movies Z'Dar would do with Iranian director Amir Shervan, including <i>Samurai Cop</i>, <i>Gypsy</i> (1991), and <i>Young Rebels</i> (1992).<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-IANO8bs2k0o/VRzhTyyjHSI/AAAAAAAACn0/0NCsYBIuwsg/s1600/robert_zdar_as_zavic.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-IANO8bs2k0o/VRzhTyyjHSI/AAAAAAAACn0/0NCsYBIuwsg/s1600/robert_zdar_as_zavic.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
<i>Beastmaster 2: Through the Portal of Time</i> (1991)</div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hqxtD8twJvE/VRzWixDhumI/AAAAAAAACms/w1pz6oaQhZU/s1600/600px-Mobsters-luger1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hqxtD8twJvE/VRzWixDhumI/AAAAAAAACms/w1pz6oaQhZU/s1600/600px-Mobsters-luger1.jpg" height="215" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i>Mobsters</i> (1991), in which Z'Dar co-stars with Christian Slater, Patrick Dempsey, and Richard Grieco, proving that the early '90s were a special time.</div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-_MG0bfEBNnY/VRzWjXCcSNI/AAAAAAAACm0/j1uwWzcrcXg/s1600/samurai-7.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-_MG0bfEBNnY/VRzWjXCcSNI/AAAAAAAACm0/j1uwWzcrcXg/s1600/samurai-7.png" height="361" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i>Samurai Cop</i> (1991): pure cinema gold.</div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-J_IlMkCYIOk/VRzXWYQEmRI/AAAAAAAACm8/ea_Li5PU18E/s1600/FrogtownSamHell.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-J_IlMkCYIOk/VRzXWYQEmRI/AAAAAAAACm8/ea_Li5PU18E/s1600/FrogtownSamHell.jpg" height="304" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i>Frogtown II</i> (1992). I haven't seen this movie. I just liked his mustache. It's the sequel to <i>Hell Comes to Frogtown</i> (1988), which starred Roddy Piper in the lead role. That's another movie I haven't seen, but at least I've heard of it. Anyway, the character is named Sam Hell, which is cool. </div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Gw5OxF0iQUQ/VRzXWfNvcwI/AAAAAAAACnA/JQ3j5u6HWcE/s1600/Robert_Z-Dar_Future_War.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Gw5OxF0iQUQ/VRzXWfNvcwI/AAAAAAAACnA/JQ3j5u6HWcE/s1600/Robert_Z-Dar_Future_War.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i>Future War</i> (1997), "the movie that delivers more HUH?s per second."</div>
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Robert Z'Dar - 1950-2015<br />
<br />Nathan Westhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09914459868603679029noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7643411491087828482.post-74201272701399488932015-03-17T18:47:00.001-07:002015-03-17T18:47:04.863-07:00Trailer Park Tuesdays - It Follows<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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After and extended and unplanned absence, I'd like to welcome you back to TRAILER PARK TUESDAYS, a place where I like to share movie trailers for upcoming releases, usually something that might not be well known or is maybe flying under your radar.<br />
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This week: indie horror creeper <i>It Follows</i>!<br />
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<i>It Follows</i> has been getting a lot of positive buzz since premiering at Cannes in May of last year and the positive reviews continued at the Toronto International Film Fest and Fantastic Fest in Austin, where it won New Wave Best Film and Screenplay.<br />
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-- Read some reviews <a href="http://bloody-disgusting.com/news/3312272/tiff-14-review-follows-creepy-mesmerizing-exercise-minimalist-horror/">HERE</a>, <a href="http://badassdigest.com/2014/05/18/cannes-review-it-follows-is-a-horror-film-about-stds/">HERE</a>, and <a href="http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/it-follows-2015">HERE</a> --<br />
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The film is, quite simply, about a sexually transmitted curse. When someone who is cursed has sex with you, the curse passes to you. You keep the curse until you have sex with someone else. What exactly is the curse? Well, it's being endlessly pursued by a silent, expressionless entity that can take on the appearance of anyone and who can only be seen by the cursed individual. If it catches you, you're dead. If it kills you, it will next pursue the previous person who had the curse.<br />
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Watch the trailer, get creeped!<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/HkZYbOH0ujw" width="560"></iframe><br />
I've been sold on this one for awhile. I'm ready to see it. I love a good, scary movie that also works as metaphor (in this case the metaphor is for STDs, but maybe also for the <a href="http://badassdigest.com/2015/03/17/on-nostalgia-and-growing-in-older-in-it-follows/">angst of adulthood</a>?). I'm into it!<br />
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Star Maika Monroe was in last year's excellent action-horror-thriller <i>The Guest </i>and between the two movies she's positioning herself to be a new Scream Queen, something I'm can't complain about at all (I thought she was great in <i>The Guest</i>).<br />
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<i>It Follows </i>opened up in major markets last weekend and is expanding into more cities over the next couple weeks, including my town of Portland, Oregon on March 27th, so if you're in Stumptown, head out to the wonderful <a href="http://hollywoodtheatre.org/">Hollywood Theatre</a> or the also really good <a href="http://www.cinema21.com/">Cinema21</a> and check it out. <br />
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If you live anywhere that is showing <i>It Follows</i>, go see it. Smart, cool, good horror films need to be supported in theaters. If you live somewhere lame that doesn't have good theaters that show cool movies, keep an eye out for it when it hits VOD or whatever streaming services you use later this year. <br />
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Nathan Westhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09914459868603679029noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7643411491087828482.post-45219993118747676892015-03-14T16:58:00.001-07:002015-03-14T16:58:23.790-07:00Jason Lives: Friday the 13th Part VI<br />
Yesterday was Friday the 13th and, even though I tried, I failed to finish my new <i>Friday the 13th</i> review on time. But hey, I like to think it's always Friday the 13th somewhere...<br />
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-Check out previous <i>Friday</i>s:<br />
<u><a href="http://squealingtiresondirt.blogspot.com/2013/09/friday-13th.html">Original Flavor</a></u><br />
<u><a href="http://squealingtiresondirt.blogspot.com/2013/09/friday-13th-part-2.html">Part 2</a></u><br />
<u><a href="http://squealingtiresondirt.blogspot.com/2013/12/friday-13th-part-iii.html">Three-Dee</a></u><br />
<u><a href="http://squealingtiresondirt.blogspot.com/2014/06/friday-13th-final-chapter.html">The Final One!</a></u><br />
<u><a href="http://squealingtiresondirt.blogspot.com/2015/02/friday-13th-new-beginning.html">JK, here's A New Beginning</a></u><br />
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<i>Jason Lives: Friday the 13th Part VI</i> (1986) is, as the title implies, the one where Jason comes back. His absence from <i>Friday the 13th: A New Beginning</i> (1985) was not appreciated by fans (and critics, as usual, <u><a href="https://youtu.be/LcClPrnNVqg">hated the film</a></u>), so the producers decided to course correct, bringing Jason back and making him near indestructible, just for fun. <br />
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Fun is the key word with <i>Jason Lives</i>, as this is considered the "fun" <i>Friday</i> of the series. The humor is of the meta variety, with plenty of winks and nods to the audience, and this gives the movie a lighter tone, which pairs nicely against Jason racking up an absurd body count (18, the largest for a <i>Friday</i> up to this point).<br />
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The movie opens with Tommy Jarvis (now played by Thom Mathews) speeding down the highway with his friend Hawes (Ron Palillo, Horshack from <i>Welcome Back, Kotter</i>) on their way to destroy Jason's body. It seems Tommy is still having nightmare visions of Jason (as established in <i>Part V</i>), so he feels the only way to free himself from torture is to dig up Jason's body and burn it.<br />
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Once they are at the cemetery and start digging (in a scene that is reminiscent of Tommy's dream from the opening of <i>Part V</i>), Tommy and Hawes unearth Jason's coffin and find him rotting inside. <br />
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Having some sort of anger flashback, Tommy flips out and grabs a metal fence pole and stabs Jason through the chest. Tommy calms down but his relief is only temporary, as a pair of lightning bolts strike the metal pole and reanimate Jason's maggot-ridden corpse.<br />
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Jason's first order of business? Kill Hawes by punching his heart out.<br />
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Tommy speeds off in his truck and heads directly to Crystal Lake, which is now called Forest Green, to warn the sheriff about Jason. Of course Sheriff Garris (David Kagen) thinks Tommy is crazy and promptly locks him up for attempting to steal a gun.<br />
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-HFrgY_Lh9KM/VQSmcLkxmcI/AAAAAAAACeA/Js8vlEW8QI0/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2015-03-14%2Bat%2B1.21.19%2BPM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-HFrgY_Lh9KM/VQSmcLkxmcI/AAAAAAAACeA/Js8vlEW8QI0/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2015-03-14%2Bat%2B1.21.19%2BPM.png" height="250" width="400" /></a>Meanwhile, Jason finds his next two victims, Lizbeth (Nancy McLoughlin, the director's wife) and Darren (Tony Goldwyn), a couple lost on some backwoods road in their VW bug. When they see Jason standing in the road, Lizbeth quips "I've seen enough horror movies to know any weirdo wearing a mask is never friendly." This sort of self-referential humor is the hallmark of <i>Jason Lives</i>, commenting on the absurdity of slasher movies and of the <i>Friday</i> movies in particular.<br />
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The next bit of humor comes just a few short minutes later when, right before Jason impales and drowns Lizbeth in a puddle, she offers him her wallet and money. He doesn't take it and there's a close-up of her American Express card floating away from her lifeless hand, a "never leave home without it" heckle-ready moment if there ever was one.<br />
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The next morning, the sheriff's daughter Megan (Jennifer Cooke) shows up at the station with few of her friends, looking for Darren and Lizbeth. They're all working together at a newly opened summer camp for kids that is (of course) at the old location of Camp Crystal Lake. <br />
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Tommy warns them that something bad might have happened to them and Megan takes this as an invitation to flirt her ass off with Tommy (who is behinds bars, mind you. Makes you wonder how often Megan gets all flirty with the prisoners..). <br />
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From this point on, Jason slaughters his way through everybody, the counselors, some paintball players, the cemetery caretaker, a handful of police officers, and a bunch of other random people, while Tommy, with the help of Megan, tries to put a stop to Jason once and for all by using a giant chain tied to a large rock.<br />
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That seems ridiculous out of context, but Tommy's idea is that maybe he can lure Jason to Crystal Lake, his original resting place, with the intent of wrapping the chain around his neck and drowning/defeating/trapping him under the water. It works, but as we find out in the subsequent sequels, this is a short-term solution to a long-term problem.<br />
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<i>Jason Lives</i> is one of my favorite of the <i>Friday</i> movies (it's third or fourth on the list), as it's a fun and fast paced film with plenty of kills and jokes and a couple action scenes thrown in for good measure. Amongst fans, it is generally well regarded and it even garnered a few positive reviews from critics. Financially however the movie failed to gross $20 million at the box office and it didn't even nab the number one spot on it's opening weekend (<i>Aliens</i> was on it's third week and was killing it), making <i>Jason Lives</i> the first <i>Friday</i> film to not accomplish either of those things.<br />
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This decline for the <i>Friday</i> series was due to a few reasons:<br />
1). There was a lot of competition at the box office that summer and <i>Jason Lives</i> couldn't survive against <i>Aliens</i>, <i>The Fly</i>, <i>Karate Kid II</i>, <i>Stand By Me</i>, and <i>Top Gun</i>. <br />
2). Audience fatigue had set in regarding slasher movies and by 1986 the genre was basically dead, even if the kids were still going to see. . .<br />
3). Freddy Kruger. By 1986, two <i>Nightmare on Elm Street</i> movies had been released and Freddy's ascension in popularity parallels with the decline in Jason's.<br />
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Not that any of that could deter a large, unstoppable zombie mass murderer from stalking, slashing, and wrecking his way through two more movies before the 1980s were done (and four more after that!). Jason was back and he wasn't going anywhere (except New York. . .and hell. . .and outer space. .).<br />
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<u><b>Random Notes</b></u>:<br />
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It isn't made clear how much time has passed since<i> Friday the 13th: A New Beginning</i>, which takes place in 1992 according to the series timeline, but it must be less than five years, since the next film in the series takes place in 1997. Enough time has passed since Jason died in <i>The Final Chapter</i> (back in 1984) that Crystal Lake has changed their name to Forest Green and, interestingly, Megan and her friends refer to Jason as a legend and not something that really happened. Since they would've been children back in 1984, I guess it is possible that they could've been raised to believe that Jason was only an urban legend as the townsfolk suppressed the true history of the town... Believe me, I've put too much thought into this, I'm just going to move on..<br />
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In a strange way, this movie shares similarities to the classic Universal monster movies, specifically the <i>Frankenstein</i> films. Jason is reanimated by bolts of lightning, a dead creature brought to life, and he gains extraordinary strength and becomes virtually unstoppable. Tommy takes on the role of the creator and feels responsible for Jason's destruction, a task he sees to personally. On the technical side, the lighting and the use of fog during the night forest scenes adds to the gothic atmosphere.<br />
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After Jason's resurrection the opening credits start and, instead of having an exploding title screen like they have in the previous few movies (which I always think are great), there is a parody of the James Bond opening with a tiny Jason slashing from within his own eyeball. This establishes the goofier tone of <i>Jason Lives</i>.<br />
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Another goofy moment: when the caretaker looks directly at the camera and says "some folks have a strange idea of entertainment."<br />
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The special effects in the film are adequate but they aren't exactly spectacular. Many scenes are the obvious victim of the censors demanding they be trimmed. The two best kills in the movie, the triple decapitation of the paintball players and the death of Sheriff Garris, both work fairly well as they are in the movie, but they work even better when you see what was cut out (the deleted material is available on the most recent DVD and Blu-ray collections and can also be seen <u><a href="https://youtu.be/kxmk6XB94VQ">here</a></u>).<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-biv4Qek8bds/VQSqif5TmqI/AAAAAAAACfs/8wuK__TQg4A/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2015-03-14%2Bat%2B1.26.47%2BPM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-biv4Qek8bds/VQSqif5TmqI/AAAAAAAACfs/8wuK__TQg4A/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2015-03-14%2Bat%2B1.26.47%2BPM.png" height="250" width="400" /></a></div>
<u>Fun Fact</u>: This is the only <i>Friday</i> movie to have no nudity! There <i>is</i> a sex scene but Cort (Tom Fridley) and Nikki (Darcy DeMoss) both leave their clothes on. <br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-FXOc6x7zd0o/VQSq1BSnTNI/AAAAAAAACf0/U702glz301U/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2015-03-14%2Bat%2B1.29.33%2BPM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-FXOc6x7zd0o/VQSq1BSnTNI/AAAAAAAACf0/U702glz301U/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2015-03-14%2Bat%2B1.29.33%2BPM.png" height="250" width="400" /></a></div>
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-XJIEicfZ9xY/VQSq82G-BiI/AAAAAAAACf8/G4EPslq1Vx8/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2015-03-14%2Bat%2B1.32.14%2BPM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-XJIEicfZ9xY/VQSq82G-BiI/AAAAAAAACf8/G4EPslq1Vx8/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2015-03-14%2Bat%2B1.32.14%2BPM.png" height="200" width="320" /></a>They do it in a camper van and after getting spooked when the power goes out, they peel out of there which is cool because it totally leads to some SQUEALING TIRES ON DIRT!<br />
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Also, it leads to one of my favorite scenes in the movie, when Jason, having snuck onto the camper, kills both Nikki (face smash through the side of the van) and Cort (head stab), which causes the camper to flip over and crash spectacularly. Then, in what is one of the best shots in the movie, Jason crawls out of the wreckage and looks completely unfazed.<br />
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Another thing I love in this movie: there are actual little kids at the summer camp. For a small portion of the movie, the kids are actually in danger, but honestly they aren't in danger enough for my tastes. Hell, the kids aren't even really in the movie that much at all, especially the boys, as young Nancy, who sees Jason a couple times, is pretty much the main kid in the movie.<br />
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Also, what kind of summer camp is being run here? There is apparently a staff of six counselors, and only four of them show up ('cause two were murdered) before two of them take off (Cort to have sex, Megan to help out Tommy), leaving only Sissy (Renee Jones) and Paula (Kerry Noonan) to look after the kids. Is there no additional staff at this summer camp? Who's making meals for all these children? The conditions of this Forest Green Summer Camp are suspect at best.<br />
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Classic <i>Friday</i> move: Jason smashes through a door:</div>
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Oh! Another thing I love! During the climax, Tommy taunts Jason when he's luring him out to the lake! He calls Jason a "meathead," "chickenshit," "asshole," and a "pussy." It's so great!<br />
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Tommy is played by Thom Mathews, who had just scored a horror hit with <i>Return of the Living Dead</i> (1985). He's maybe the best of all the Tommys. This movie is definitely his story and since he's the one who has the final confrontation with Jason, this slasher movie lacks a true <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Final_girl">final girl</a> character. <br />
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Megan is the closest thing we have, and even though she does give Jason a bit of motorboat propellor to the face, she never has a one-on-one throwdown with Jason and her main function in the movie really seems to be helping Tommy out.<br />
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Jennifer Cooke was also on the sci-fi TV series <i>V</i> and she quit acting not long after <i>Jason Lives</i>. Her husband is one of the founders of the <a href="http://www.celestialseasonings.com/">Celestial Seasonings Tea Company</a> and she is now involved in the tea business.<br />
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David Kagen is considered one of the best and most sought after acting coaches in Hollywood and owns and operates the <a href="http://www.davidkagen.com/los-angeles-acting-teachers.html">David Kagen School of Film Acting</a>. So he knows what he's doing playing Sheriff Garris, who could just be a generic small town cop character, but Kagen gives him plenty of levels and some interior life. Plus, he basically becomes the secondary protagonist towards the end of the movie, taking Jason on himself, and making a good go at it, before getting folded in half. I wonder how often that comes up with his acting students?<br />
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Renée Jones would go on to star in over 1,000 episodes of <i>Days of our Lives</i> as Lexie Carver. That doesn't mean anything to me, but maybe it does to you.<br />
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Tony Goldwyn can currently be seen on your wife or girlfriend's favorite TV show <i>Scandal</i>. He plays the president.<br />
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Director Tom McLoughlin also wrote the screenplay for <i>Jason Lives</i>. One of his original ideas was to introduce Jason's father, Elias, late in the movie, implying that he knows he's been resurrected and that he's looking for Jason. This idea would be incorporated into the novelization of <i>Part VI</i>. McLoughlin got the gig on <i>Friday</i> because of his work on <i>One Dark Night</i> (1982) with Meg Tilly and after <i>Friday</i> he would direct <i>Date with an Angel</i> (1987) with Phoebe Cates and <i>Sometimes They Come Back</i> (1991) with Tim Matheson and Brooke Adams.<br />
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The original score is once again provided by Harry Manfredini with additional songs provided by Alice Cooper. "Teenage Frankenstein" and "Hard Rock Summer" appear, but the single and closing credits track is "He's Back (The Man Behind the Mask)," which even had a music video:<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/qglpDlSlPzE" width="420"></iframe><br />
<u><b>Final Thoughts</b></u>: <i>Jason Lives: Friday the 13th Part VI</i> is the last really good <i>Friday</i> movie. After this we get six more films, the total of which don't really stack up against the first six, even if parts of them are intermittently fun. 2015 has a third Friday the 13th this year (in November), so when that rolls around we'll check out <i>The New Blood</i>. I'll try to have that review done on time. See you then.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4IDR_DwdakM/VQS90WIjYrI/AAAAAAAACiw/CjvKk3zQFcU/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2015-03-14%2Bat%2B1.59.47%2BPM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4IDR_DwdakM/VQS90WIjYrI/AAAAAAAACiw/CjvKk3zQFcU/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2015-03-14%2Bat%2B1.59.47%2BPM.png" height="400" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">?Speeding? </td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-DtuVUHiZntY/VQS96nU_QeI/AAAAAAAACjA/nx4YRVip52A/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2015-03-14%2Bat%2B2.03.46%2BPM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-DtuVUHiZntY/VQS96nU_QeI/AAAAAAAACjA/nx4YRVip52A/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2015-03-14%2Bat%2B2.03.46%2BPM.png" height="400" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"<i>So...what were you gonna be when you grew up?</i>"</td></tr>
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Nathan Westhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09914459868603679029noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7643411491087828482.post-59794309256668773092015-02-28T15:30:00.001-08:002015-02-28T15:30:16.449-08:00RIP, Leonard Nimoy<br />
Beloved <i>Star Trek</i> actor Leonard Nimoy died yesterday. He was 83.<br />
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Nimoy succumbed to his bout with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, which was attributed to his years of smoking, a habit he quit thirty years ago.<br />
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The son of Ukrainian immigrants, Nimoy would develop a love of stage and screen acting and also pursued other artistic endeavors like poetry, photography, directing, and making music, but it was his signature role as Mr. Spock on the sci-fi favorite <i>Star Trek</i> that would endear him to legions of fans.<br />
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Nimoy had a significant amount of input into the development of Spock (<a href="http://youtu.be/xKNF8mjDgrM">the Vulcan salute</a>, the nerve pinch, the phrase "live long and prosper," all Nimoy), bringing a lot of himself to the character. Mr. Spock, and by extension Nimoy, was the first cool dork in pop culture. If there is a center of the current massive explosion in Nerd Culture, that center would be Mr. Spock, and by extension, Mr. Nimoy.<br />
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Leonard Nimoy, by all accounts, was a thoughtful, compassionate human being (he fought to get co-star Nichelle Nichols equal pay to her male counterparts on <i>Star Trek</i>), who was always kind and gracious towards his fans and supportive of other artists. It's sad he's gone, but he lived long and he prospered, and I'm glad he shared it with us. <br />
Rest in Peace, Leonard.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-63kLFPnv0fQ/VPJFlFcam1I/AAAAAAAACZw/fvGHaJAX5ok/s1600/dcc-leonard-nimoy-zombies-of-the-stratosphere-1952.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-63kLFPnv0fQ/VPJFlFcam1I/AAAAAAAACZw/fvGHaJAX5ok/s1600/dcc-leonard-nimoy-zombies-of-the-stratosphere-1952.jpg" height="470" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Zombies of the Stratosphere</i> (1952)</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-YG6Wls7jQwg/VPJFx1Pj97I/AAAAAAAACZ4/Fckq93qLj9s/s1600/Leonard-in-Them-leonard-nimoy-17327869-720-576.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-YG6Wls7jQwg/VPJFx1Pj97I/AAAAAAAACZ4/Fckq93qLj9s/s1600/Leonard-in-Them-leonard-nimoy-17327869-720-576.jpg" height="320" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Them!</i> (1954)</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Star Trek</i> (1966-69)</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-KT0l4LvFvL4/VPJGyhdFA-I/AAAAAAAACao/q1iygqXHj-4/s1600/the_great_paris.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-KT0l4LvFvL4/VPJGyhdFA-I/AAAAAAAACao/q1iygqXHj-4/s1600/the_great_paris.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Mission: Impossible</i> (1969-71)</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8D3yklRd0Kk/VPJHF4EECbI/AAAAAAAACa8/GDkzuN4St44/s1600/InvasionOTBodySnat_102Pyxurz.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8D3yklRd0Kk/VPJHF4EECbI/AAAAAAAACa8/GDkzuN4St44/s1600/InvasionOTBodySnat_102Pyxurz.jpg" height="282" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Invasion of the Body Snatchers</i> (1978)</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-69WWBqG_xNE/VPJIqvAaDPI/AAAAAAAACbg/_Oxoe5XCLpE/s1600/star-trekii-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-69WWBqG_xNE/VPJIqvAaDPI/AAAAAAAACbg/_Oxoe5XCLpE/s1600/star-trekii-1.jpg" height="294" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan</i> (1982)</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-gwc0CYeF43U/VPJI1wy98iI/AAAAAAAACbo/56eHqmZ4q00/s1600/mr-spock_73707_1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-gwc0CYeF43U/VPJI1wy98iI/AAAAAAAACbo/56eHqmZ4q00/s1600/mr-spock_73707_1.jpg" height="268" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home</i> (1986)</td></tr>
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Some Nimoy quotes: "<i>I believe in goodness, mercy, and charity. I believe in casting bread upon the waters.</i>"</div>
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"<i>I think it's my adventure, my trip, my journey, and I guess my attitude is, let the chips fall where they may.</i>"</div>
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Nimoy's final tweet:</div>
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Nathan Westhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09914459868603679029noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7643411491087828482.post-47425857342995969862015-02-22T16:04:00.002-08:002015-02-22T21:19:08.959-08:00Top 15 Films of 2014<br />
As I did with <u><a href="http://squealingtiresondirt.blogspot.com/2014/03/top-15-films-of-2013.html">last year's Top Films List</a></u>, I'm posting my personal favorite films from 2014 list today on Oscar Sunday. I don't feel the need to rush and finish a Best of the Year List at the end of said year, especially when there are more films I need to see and consider. The extra time to catch up is quite nice, but even with six extra weeks there are things I still haven't seen, including <i>Nightcrawler</i>, <i>Selma</i>, <i>Interstellar</i>, <i>Force Majeure</i>, <i>Ida</i>, <i>The Overnighters</i>, <i>Citizenfour</i>, <i>Enemy</i>, <i>Foxcatcher</i>, <i>American Sniper</i>, <i>Wetlands</i>, <i>The One I Love</i>, <i>Listen Up Philip</i>, <i>We are the Best</i>, and others.<br />
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2014 was a good year for movies. These were my favorites.<br />
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<b><u><span style="font-size: x-large;">TOP 15 FILMS OF 2014</span></u></b></div>
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<b>1.</b></div>
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<b><u><span style="font-size: large;">The Grand Budapest Hotel</span></u></b></div>
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Picking a favorite film of the year is sometimes difficult. This year there were a lot of contenders, and I struggled a little bit with this, but in the end I feel that <i>The Grand Budapest Hotel</i> was one of the most entertaining and well crafted films of the year and has potential to be an all-timer. This may very well be Wes Anderson's best film, as everything in it is running at peak-Anderson levels; the characters, the cast, the humor, the darkness, the violence, the cinematography, the turns of events, the layered story structure, everything just hums with excellence. This one is a real treat.<br />
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<b>2.</b></div>
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<u><b><span style="font-size: large;">Under the Skin</span></b></u></div>
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Ostensibly a difficult film (it took me two viewings to fully fall under its spell), viewers who give themselves over to the very specific rhythms of its images will be rewarded, as there are some rather stunning visuals and special effects work, as well as a particularly unnerving film score, contained within this art-house/science fiction hybrid. Starring a perfectly cast Scarlett Johansson, director Jonathan Glazer has delivered a thoughtful, challenging, and beautiful sci-fi film, one worthy of further dissection and admiration for years to come.<br />
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<b>3.</b></div>
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<u><b><span style="font-size: large;">The Guest</span></b></u></div>
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From the filmmakers of last year's home invasion thriller <i>You're Next</i> comes this immensely enjoyable film, one that I watched with a big, stupid grin on my face. This movie delivers on so many levels; the action, the mystery, the dread, the music (that Mike Simonetti song that plays in the bar scene is <u><a href="http://youtu.be/wtO0EunG0IQ">KILLER</a></u>!), the humor, the visuals, the acting, everything just pops and is spot-on. Dan Stevens is magnetic in the lead role of David, somehow pulling off the impossible task of playing a character that is the hero of an action movie and also the villain in a horror film. The rest of the cast is also great, I particularly loved the younger brother, Luke, and all of his perfect reactions to the stuff David tells him. <i>The Guest</i> definitely has its influences, namely the early films of John Carpenter, <i>The Terminator</i>, and <i>Halloween III: Season of the Witch</i>, but it manages to wholly be its own thing, and that thing is a completely engaging and entertaining action-thriller-horror film!<br />
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<b>4.</b></div>
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<u><b><span style="font-size: large;">Blue Ruin</span></b></u></div>
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A wonderfully staged and executed revenge thriller, one of the best I've seen in quite some time. It's tense, bleak, and brutal, but also finds time for moments of quiet heartbreak, thanks to an excellent lead performance by Macon Blair. Don't sleep on this one.<br />
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<b>5.</b></div>
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<u><b><span style="font-size: large;">Snowpiercer</span></b></u></div>
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This is one of those big idea science fiction films that uses its silly premise (in the future, the last remnants of humanity reside on a super fast train that travels around the ice-covered, uninhabitable world) to comment on and work as an allegory for things that are happening in society and in the modern world around us. In addition to that, it's a kickass action film with some great visuals. Director Bong Joon-Ho delivers all of the style and personal flair found in his South Korean films (this was his first English language picture), and Chris Evans delivers a great lead performance, subverting and using his Captain America charm to great effect. <br />
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<b>6.</b></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><u>Boyhood</u></b></span></div>
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Everything you've heard is true; Richard Linklater's <i>Boyhood</i> is excellent. The gimmick of filming over the course of 12 years works, imbuing the characters with extra depth, and the way the film breathes and moves makes for a breezy almost-three hour watch. Patricia Arquette gives a great performance, brave and raw in its honesty, and she absolute deserves the Academy Award.<br />
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<b>7.</b></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><u>Starry Eyes</u></b></span></div>
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2014 was a good year for genre films, and when it came to straight-up horror films, <i>Starry Eyes</i> was without a doubt my favorite. Alex Essoe gives a strong lead performance as a young actress trying to make it in Hollywood, willing to do whatever necessary. This movie works very much as a metaphor for the perils of ambition and for the terrible, horrible things that await Young Hollywood. Invoking thoughts of early Polanski and Cronenberg, this film is disturbing, uncomfortable, and brutal in its violence, while handling its imagery beautifully with plenty of doses of whatthefuckery, and, not to mention, it has a GREAT synth score. Basically, it has everything I look for in a great horror film.<br />
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<b>8.</b></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><u>Whiplash</u></b></span></div>
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Intense and gripping, this is a must-see for all the drummers and jazz musicians out there. This is a fantastic study of the competitive spirit that is within an individual as they pursue personal perfection and how that competitiveness must smash through roadblocks like self doubt and the challenges of being mentored by an egomaniac and borderline sadistic teacher. J.K. Simmons and Miles Teller are both excellent, this one grabs you and doesn't let up! Oh yeah, and all movies should end with an epic drum solo like this one.<br />
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<b>9.</b></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><u><b>The Babadook</b></u></span></div>
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Here's a creepy good one out of Australia. This is a smart film, working on many metaphoric levels, basically dealing with the damaging psychological effects of repressed resentment and guilt and with suppressing that dark parental urge to sometimes want to murder your annoying child. Essie Davis gives a standout performance as the tormented mother, bringing a weary sympathy to her character that helps later during darker moments in the film when the evil entity enters her house. <br />
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<b>10.</b></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><u>Inherent Vice</u></b></span></div>
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While I may not be 100% sure what was going on at all times in this movie, I still enjoyed the ride. This is a difficult film to get a narrative grasp on, which might be due to its faithfulness to the source material (I've not read Pynchon's novel), as characters mumble and speak endlessly at one another about things that happened offscreen in scenes that are long, single takes (actually, those scenes are mostly great). I loved the look of the film, the fuzzy/grainy texture to it. It's very authentically '70s, in look, style, design, and in those long takes. Joaquin Phoenix nails his role as Doc Sportello, he's great. Josh Brolin is great too. The way he eats a banana is hilarious!<br />
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<b>11.</b></div>
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<b><u><span style="font-size: large;">Guardians of the Galaxy</span></u></b></div>
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The best of the summer blockbusters! Funny, action packed, big weird science fiction stuff, cool comic book nerd stuff, some nice emotional moments, and a thumping soundtrack. Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, and Dave Bautista are all great, and that talking tree and raccoon are pretty cool, too. Great popcorn movie fun and further proof that Marvel Studios knows what they're doing.<br />
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<b>12.</b></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><u>John Wick</u></b></span></div>
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<i>John Wick</i> is a B movie with A+ action choreography. Keanu is in full badass mode and shoots a ton of people in the head while on his path of vengeance. The nightclub scene is a highlight, as is the cast, mostly in small but crucial roles (Dafoe, McShane, Leguizamo). My only major complaint with the film is some of the musical choices, as parts of the score and soundtrack are decidedly not cool '90s guitar rock. The Marilyn Manson song that is used, not once, but twice(?!), is incredibly distracting in what is otherwise a tight revenge-action movie.<br />
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<b>13. </b></div>
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<b><u><span style="font-size: large;">Gone Girl</span></u></b></div>
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A horror film for married dudes. This is a good, pulpy thriller, even if some of the third act shenanigans don't hold up to narrative scrutiny. David Fincher doesn't fool around when it comes to filmcraft, so you can count on the movie looking great and moving like clockwork. The score is really good, as are some of the performances (particularly the sister). Rosamund Pike plays one of the best villains of the year.<br />
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<b>14.</b></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;"><u>Locke</u></span></b></div>
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The entirety of this movie is Tom Hardy driving in his car and talking on a speaker phone, dealing with work and life problems for 90 minutes, AND IT IS ABSOLUTELY RIVETING!!<br />
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<b>15. </b></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><u>The Raid 2</u></b></span></div>
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Narratively this is more dense than the first one (honestly, I got lost a little in what was going on) but the action scenarios are top notch. The prison yard rumble! Prakoso! Baseball Bat Man! Hammer Girl! Yes, Yes, and YES!!<br />
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<u><b>the next ten</b></u>:</div>
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-<i><u>Captain America: The Winter Soldier</u></i> - This spy adventure action thriller is one of Marvel's best!<br />
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-<i><u>Joe</u></i> - Nicolas Cage gives a wonderfully understated performance in this great David Gordon Green film.<br />
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-<i><u>Obvious Child</u></i> - A very funny romantic comedy about abortion.<br />
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-<i><u>Only Lovers Left Alive</u></i> - Light on the vampire stuff but heavy on the Jarmusch. I liked it.<br />
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-<i><u>Dawn of the Planet of the Apes</u></i> - I am very pleased with the way these new ape movies are turning out.<br />
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-<i><u>Coherence</u></i> - A low budget sci-fi head trip, full of general unease and tension that slowly ramps up.<br />
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-<i><u>Edge of Tomorrow</u></i> - Watch Tom Cruise die a bunch of times! I just wish the aliens weren't so generic.<br />
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-<i><u>Finding Vivian Maier</u></i> - A solid documentary about an undiscovered, eccentric street photographer.<br />
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-<i><u>Noah</u></i> - I admire the boldness of such a film; the "<u><a href="http://youtu.be/FFCXHr8aKDk">creation sequence</a></u>" is one of the best scenes of the year.<br />
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-<i><u>Jodorowsky's Dune</u></i> - The amazing story of the greatest movie never made.<br />
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and. . . . .<br />
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<u><b>_______________________________</b></u></div>
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<u><b>The Most Overrated Film of the Year</b></u>: </div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;"><u>Birdman</u></span></b></div>
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Okay, here's the thing...sure, we all love Michael Keaton, we can all agree on that, but <i>Birdman</i>, on a whole, isn't that gripping or compelling or interesting of a story (and honestly, Keaton is merely only okay in the role). I actually found parts of it to be a slog. This is the kind of movie that actors and Hollywood types and entertainment people love to fawn over because it speaks to and strokes their egos. However, the script has no subtext as everything is pure surface level, delivered in literal and obvious manners (lots of characters proclaiming and exclaiming who they are and what they mean) that rob the film of any true depth or emotion. The themes of this movie are very easy to extract, which might be another reason for its popularity: it's a dumbly written movie that convinces people it is smart because of how it was made, because how it was made is what is truly impressing (and fooling) people about this movie.<br />
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<i>Birdman</i> is filmed in such a way that it appears to be a single, fluid, continuous shot. While this is impressive and the cinematography should be congratulated, it is just a gimmick. This movie is all gimmick, and I realize I used that term while talking about <i>Boyhood</i> up above, but in <i>Boyhood</i>'s case, the story is served by the gimmick, it enriches the narrative. In <i>Birdman</i>, the gimmick is the story, it's what people talk about, it's what impresses them, but strip away that artifice and you're left with something a lot less interesting.<br />
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<i>Birdman</i> isn't a bad movie, I don't want to totally trash on it, but it is nothing more than average and it definitely might not be deserving of all the high praise it is getting or a potential Best Picture Oscar tonight, even if it is the kind of movie, in the tradition of <i>Argo</i> and <i>The Artist</i>, that Hollywood likes to congratulate itself on making.<br />
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**UPDATE** So of course <i>Birdman</i> won Best Picture. Ha.<br />
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<u><b>The Worst Movies I Made the Mistake of Watching in 2014</b></u>:<br />
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-<u><i>The Amazing Spider-Man 2</i></u> - An amazing spider-mess. This movie spider-blew. And so on. . .<br />
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-<i><u>Need for Speed</u></i> - Ugh. I appreciate the real car stunts and driving, but jeez, this movie is terrible.<br />
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-<i><u>Robocop</u></i> - The only interesting thing in this unnecessary remake is the fact that there is an action sequence set to <u><a href="http://youtu.be/g4ouPGGLI6Q">Hocus Pocus by Focus</a></u>.<br />
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-<u><i>Bad Words</i></u> - This is so bad it makes me wish I watched <i>Teen Wolf Too</i> instead. Serious question: is Jason Bateman actually funny?<br />
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-<u><i>The </i></u><i><u>Monuments Men</u></i> - Monumentally weak!<br />
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-<u><i>The Interview</i></u> - Notable for the controversy surrounding it, but not worthy of it.<br />
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<b>*</b>One other note: I've noticed Ben Wheatley's <i>A Field in England</i> pop up on a few people's Best Of 2014 Lists, but I can't agree with that. Not that it isn't a great movie (it is spectacular) but because, even though it saw American release in 2014, it actually was released domestically in England in 2013, and I like to abide by domestic release dates when dealing with foreign films. Otherwise it would be in my Top 5 (it really is spectacular).<br />
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--<br />
Well, there you go. What do you think?<br />
Agree? Disagree? What were your favorites of 2014?<br />
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<br />Nathan Westhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09914459868603679029noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7643411491087828482.post-28574382256671655882015-02-13T20:34:00.004-08:002015-02-13T20:40:57.590-08:00Friday the 13th: A New Beginning<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Yzp70K448gg/VN6ztTh6MLI/AAAAAAAACRw/JadKai7F8H8/s1600/Friday_the_13th_part_V_a_new_beginning.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Yzp70K448gg/VN6ztTh6MLI/AAAAAAAACRw/JadKai7F8H8/s1600/Friday_the_13th_part_V_a_new_beginning.jpg" height="400" width="250" /></a><br />
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Check your calendars! It's Friday the 13th and that means it's time for another <i>Friday the 13th</i> movie review! Try to stay alive, we're looking at <i>Friday Part 5</i>!<br />
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When <i>Friday the 13th:</i> <i>The Final Chapter</i> was released in 1984 it was meant to be, well, the final chapter in the Jason Voorhees slasher saga. Of course it ended up being the most successful film in the series (at the time) and since it made a ton of money there was no way that the producers wouldn't want to make another <i>Friday</i> movie. The only problem was, Jason was dead. So what do you do?<br />
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You make <i>A New Beginning</i>.<br />
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<i>Friday the 13th: A New Beginning</i> (1985) opens with a dream sequence featuring a cameo by Corey Feldman (as young Tommy Jarvis) watching two wild teens dig up Jason's grave, only to get killed. When Older Tommy (John Shepherd) wakes up in the van of an institutional hospital, we learn that it is eight years after the events of <i>The Final Chapter</i> and that Tommy is on his way to Pinehurst Halfway House, an outpatient group home for troubled youth, to hopefully aid in his recovery.<br />
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All the patients and staff at this halfway house are your basic <i>Friday</i> camp counselor types; you got the horny couple, the dork, the hunk, the punk, the final girl, you know the types. However, right after Tommy arrives, there is a murder, as crazy Vic (Mark Venturini) kills his housemate Joey (Dominick Brascia) for being an annoying fuck.<br />
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Soon after, more dead bodies start piling up around the group home, and since Tommy is haunted by visions of Jason, it seems like he might be the killer. But is he? Or is it one of the many <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_herring">red herrings</a> introduced? Or is Jason somehow back from the grave? <br />
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To answer that last one, no, Jason is not back from the grave. In fact, the Jason that does the killing in this one is often referred to as "fake Jason." You can tell he's a fake because his mask has blue marks on it, not red.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fake Jason</td></tr>
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So who <u><b>is</b></u> doing the killing? SPOILER WARNING: at the end of the movie, when Jason is killed, his mask falls off and it's revealed to be. . . some guy. Actually at first you're really not sure who it is, so the filmmakers wisely add a scene of the sheriff explaining who the killer was and why he did it, which by the way was Roy (Dick Weiand) the weird paramedic and he did it because Joey, the murdered patient at Pinhurst from the start of the movie, was his secret son. Seeing him dead, and blaming those around (?), he snapped and later donned the identity of Jason to start killing people. It's kind of dumb, in fact, it's really dumb, but I give credit for trying something different, even if it doesn't totally succeed. Either way, I'm glad real Jason comes back in the next movie.<br />
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<u>Random Notes</u>:<br />
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The opening credits have the <i>Friday the 13th</i> logo EXPLODING with Jason's hockey mask, revealing the subtitle <i>A New Beginning</i>. I've said it before, but exploding credits are the best.<br />
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<i>A New Beginning</i> takes place eight years after <i>The Final Chapter</i>, which was set in 1984 (as were <i>parts 2</i> and <i>3</i>, for that matter). That means <i>A New Beginning</i>, released in 1985, takes place in 1992. It's a future movie!<br />
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When Tommy arrives at Pinehurst, he's met by Pam (Melanie Kinnaman), the director of the program. By the end, she would become the film's <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Final_girl">final girl</a>, which, even though she's maybe a little bit older than previous <i>Friday</i> final girls, totally works because she brings this maturity and responsibility to the role that really freshens up the character type. Plus, later she gives Jason a good run for his money, attacking him with a chainsaw in the barn. <br />
Totally badass.<br />
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When Tommy's unpacking in his room he meets this kid who tries to scare him with a fake spider. This practical joker goes by Reggie the Reckless (Shavar Ross), although I think everybody just calls him Reggie the whole movie. Nobody humors him with that Reckless shit.<br />
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Reggie doesn't live at the Halfway House, he's just there visiting and staying with his granddad George who works in the kitchen. Sometimes kids in movies can be really annoying, but Reggie has a lot of charm that goes well with his attitude. Plus his all-red sweatsuit is a pretty cool look. <br />
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Being so young, Reggie does have an embarrassing moment though, when he screams like a little boy when encountering Jason out in the rain:<br />
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(this video has stupid Mario Bros. sound fx at the end, but the scream is intact, that's the important part).<br />
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Despite being so young, Reggie does become the secondary protagonist, facing off against Jason alongside Pam, and even getting a big action moment when he drives a tractor through the barn door and hits Jason square in the stomach. Tractor Punch! <br />
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While Tommy is the main character in the movie, he's actually a suspect in the killings most of the time, and the audience isn't sure if he is or not. He conveniently disappears sometimes, casting further suspicion, but when he shows up at the end to help Pam and Reggie fight Jason in the barn, you know what's up.<br />
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However, even after his heroic moments, in the last scene of the movie, Tommy wakes up in the hospital from another Jason dream and then slowly walks to his dresser and pulls out a hockey mask (how did he get that?), puts it on, grabs a knife (and that too!?), and sneaks up on Pam a seemingly stabs her. I say seemingly because the camera goes into a slow zoom-in on his eye as the film fades to black and credits roll. So it's implied that Tommy killed her and will probably pick up Jason's mantle, but thank god that doesn't actually happen, as heroic Tommy shows up for <i>Friday part 6</i> (although played by a different actor).<br />
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Note: Tommy still makes his masks like he did as a kid, but that skill doesn't come into play during the movie (except for a couple cheap scares).<br />
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There are a lot of kills in this <i>Friday</i> movie, 22 I think, which is one of the highest for a <i>Friday</i> film. Since there are so many, some are only okay-ish (your basic throat slashes or stabs to the stomach or head) and there are quite a few offscreen kills. My favorite kills in this one are the flare to the face, the skull crushed against the tree using the leather strap, and the decapitation while riding a motorcycle.<br />
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Overall, while I find the special effects perfectly serviceable, I am left wanting a bit more. I feel quantity outweighed the quality here. Also, it seems as if some of the scenes were cut or edited down (which happens with these <i>Friday</i> movies), and I've read that some parts (like Violet's death) were reshot to be less graphic.<br />
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Speaking of Violet (Tiffany Helm), she's the punk girl in the house. She's got a goth attitude and colored hair, pale skin, you know the type. There's a scene later, right before she gets killed, where she's dancing in her room. . .it's hilarious. She's doing this strange interpretive robot dance. . . it's great, definitely one of the highlights of the movie:<br />
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Let's talk cast and crew:<br />
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Director Danny Steinmann had previously directed <i>Savage Streets</i> (1984) starring Linda Blair before getting the <i>Friday</i> gig. Going back even further, Steinmann's first movie job was writing and directing a hardcore porno called <i>High Rise</i> (1973), on which he used the name Danny Stone. This porno background is interesting because Steinmann wanted to push the sex in <i>A New Beginning</i>, particularly in the sex scene with Tina (Deborah Voorhees [!]) and Eddie (John Robert Dixon). Apparently they shot a pretty hot and heavy sex scene, but it was later cut down and the peeping tom weirdo Raymond was added in (and killed) to cut the scene down.<br />
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Co-screenwriter Martin Kitrosser, who also worked on <i>Friday part III</i> (1982), would write and direct <i>Silent Night, Deadly Night 5: The Toymaker</i> (1991), but has since become a successful script supervisor in Hollywood, most notably working on all of Quentin Tarantino's films.<br />
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Harry Manfredini once again provides the score, although this is his first original score since <i>Part 2</i> (<i>parts III</i> and <i>The Final Chapter</i> just recycled music cues from the first two). There's some slight variation to some of the themes and, all in all, it's a good score.<br />
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Other than being Reckless, Shavar Ross also played Gary Coleman's best friend on TV's <i>Diff'rent Strokes</i>, not to mention similar "friend" roles on <i>Growing Pains</i> and <i>Family Matters</i>. As an adult he has become a born again Christian and has started his own production company, Tri-7 Entertainment, that specializes in films and whatnot aimed toward that market.<br />
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In the movie, Reggie goes with Pam and Tommy to visit his brother Demon (Miguel A. Núñez) at a trailer park. Demon is a real cool dude, smoking weed and hanging out with his lady in his super cool van (he doesn't live at this trailer park, I think he might just be passing through or something, I'm not sure. Maybe he lives in the van...), but of course he does get killed, in an embarrassing way no less: while trapped in an outhouse bathroom he gets stabbed with a metal pole. <br />
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"<b><i>Them damn enchiladas!</i></b>"</div>
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This is one of Núñez's first roles and, along with <i>Return of the Living Dead</i> (also 1985), he would establish himself a nice little genre following. He would go on to be a prolific character actor, appearing in tons of movies and TV shows, including <i>Tour of Duty</i> (series that ran from '87-90), <i>Lethal Weapon 3</i> (1992), <i>Street Fighter</i> (1994), <i>Scooby-Doo</i> (2002), and <i>Black Dynamite</i> (2009). He also had the lead role in <i><a href="http://youtu.be/LITIyNwO_HA">Juwanna Mann</a> </i>(2002).<br />
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After Vic slaughters Joey, he is carted off to jail and not seen again in the movie. I guess the idea is that once more killings start, he would be a suspect or something, but really, at the end, I'm left wondering why Roy didn't go after Vic and why he murdered everybody else instead?<br />
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Putting his talents of meat-headed dickishness to more use, Mark Venturini would also star in <i>Return of the Living Dead</i>, in which he played lead punk, Suicide.<br />
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Carol Locatell played the crazy neighbor lady Ethel who rides around on a small motorcycle with her not-bright adult son Junior (Ron Sloan). She owns the property next to the Halfway Home and is mad that Eddie and Tina keep sneaking over to her land to have sex. <br />
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A lot of comedy mileage is gotten out of Ethel swearing and verbally berating her son. At one point she calls him a "big dildo."<br />
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Locatell is a very prolific television actress, but I noticed she also starred with Pam Grier in <a href="http://squealingtiresondirt.blogspot.com/2013/02/coffy.html"><i>Coffy</i> (1973)</a>, which is pretty cool.<br />
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<u>Final Thoughts</u>:<br />
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<i>Friday the 13th: A New Beginning</i> is just that, a new beginning for the <i>Friday</i> films. They tried to do something a little different in trying to work around Jason being dead from the previous movie, and while only half successful, I do appreciate the mystery element that hasn't been seen since the first film (who is the killer?), even if the payoff is weak. <br />
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This movie gets a lot of flack for the fake Jason, and I guess for also being the start of the decline in the series, but I found it more fun this time around than I have in the past. This is definitely a second-tier <i>Friday</i> movie, but for the second-tier it's not too bad, and for not having Jason in it, it could be a whole lot worse.<br />
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Luckily we never find out, as Jason returns in <i>Jason Lives: Friday the 13th Part VI</i>. Look for a review next month. It'll be on a Friday.<br />
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Hey, <i>Friday the 13th: A New Beginning</i> is 30 years old this year! Happy Birthday, Roy!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Real" Jason</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fake Jason</td></tr>
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Check out the previous <u><i>Fridays</i></u>: <br />
<u><a href="http://squealingtiresondirt.blogspot.com/2013/09/friday-13th.html">Friday the 13th</a></u><br />
<u><a href="http://squealingtiresondirt.blogspot.com/2013/09/friday-13th-part-2.html">Friday Part 2</a></u><br />
<u><a href="http://squealingtiresondirt.blogspot.com/2013/12/friday-13th-part-iii.html">Friday Part III</a></u><br />
<u><a href="http://squealingtiresondirt.blogspot.com/2014/06/friday-13th-final-chapter.html">The Final Chapter</a></u><br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/LcClPrnNVqg" width="420"></iframe>Nathan Westhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09914459868603679029noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7643411491087828482.post-27319480320233637942015-02-09T19:27:00.002-08:002016-04-17T22:22:31.899-07:00Howling VI: The Freaks<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Step right up, folks! It's the sixth installment of my ongoing and important <u><b>Howling Series Retrospective Review</b></u>! That of course means we're looking at <i>Howling VI: The Freaks</i>, so let's get right to it!<br />
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<i>Howling VI: The Freaks</i> (1991) is very much in the tradition of all the <i>Howling</i> sequels, being that it isn't very good and is only intermittently interesting, the latter of which really hinges on your personal tolerance for crummy direct-to-video werewolf movies. I will say that <i>part</i> <i>VI</i> is an upswing in quality over the previous two installments, but only slightly. <br />
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The plot is still fairly generic, as is some of the acting, which ranges from serviceable to questionable. The special effects are the main attraction and are the best they've been since <i>part III</i>. There is even a transformation scene! Sure, the quality of the final product may be debatable, but after the near-non-existent amount of werewolf action in <i>part V</i>, the makers of <i>part VI</i> at least had the good sense to bring some monsters into their monster movie.<br />
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The story beats of <i>Howling VI</i> basically involve a weird loner drifting into a small town, getting hooked up with a job, a place to live, and a love interest (all in one stop, mind you), before it's revealed that he's got the curse of the werewolf which leads to him being captured and put on display by Mr. Harker at his traveling freakshow, Harker's World of Wonders. Mr. Harker, of course, is hiding his own monstrous secret...<br />
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It might seem like some of the finer points are being glossed over, but no, that's really about the gist of it. Besides, it's the little details that are interesting, not the movie's run-of-the-mill plot lines.<br />
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Ian Richards (Brendan Hughes, <i>Return to Horror High</i> [1987]) is our drifter hero who is very concerned about the upcoming full moon. In the classic tradition he is a sympathetic werewolf character, the kind that worries about his change cycle and is aware of the dangers it brings. He keeps his distance from others and I would imagine this is part of why he's a drifter. Also, he's British. <br />
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When he arrives in town he's harassed by the local sheriff (Gary Carlos Cervantes), told to move along (standard issue movie stuff), before he gets a job offer to help restore a local church with this guy Dewey (Jered Barclay). There is a longer-than-necessary montage scene of them restoring the church and they do a ton of work. The way it's cut together makes it seem like it's all in one day, but it was most likely a week or something. <br />
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When they're done some of the locals admire and compliment their work, including the sheriff, who tells Ian he did a good job. So that's a good tip: if you drift into a small town and you want to endear yourself to the local law enforcement, do some refurbishing work on a church, possibly during a montage.<br />
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The movie really takes its time getting to the werewolves and freaks, but once it does things really start to pick up. The first highlight in the film is Ian's transformation scene. It starts with Ian waking up in a hilarious fashion and screaming "OH, CHRIST!"<br />
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After that you got the standard stretching and changing of the hands, feet, back, and face transformation special effects stuff, they're all fairly decent. However, once fully transformed, Ian the werewolf looks like this:<br />
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Definitely more of a man-wolf. Watch the whole thing here:<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">President Obama welcomes you!</td></tr>
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I said that the transformation scene was the first highlight of the movie, but actually before that happens Harker's World of Wonders rolls into town.<br />
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Harker's is one of those traveling carnival freakshow things, which has a vibe that is sort of a cross between <i>Something Wicked This Way Comes</i> (1983) and <i>The Funhouse</i> (1981). It has all the standard carnival stuff, games, jugglers, snake charmers, clowns, and mimes, but the main attraction is the World of Wonders (aka: the freakshow).<br />
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When Ian takes Elizabeth (Michele Matheson), Dewey's daughter, on a date to Harker's, they get a personal tour of the freakshow by Mr. Harker (Bruce Payne) himself, who seems to have an interest in Ian (it is implied that the two of them share some sort of history).<br />
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Mr. Toones (Deep Roy) is one of the first stops on the tour. He's a little person who sits at a table playing cards. Not a big deal really, but then it is revealed that he has a third arm underneath his right armpit.<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-pyJm4N1ze1g/VNafLHhtJBI/AAAAAAAACOE/j_DahA2141o/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2015-01-30%2Bat%2B11.36.21%2BPM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-pyJm4N1ze1g/VNafLHhtJBI/AAAAAAAACOE/j_DahA2141o/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2015-01-30%2Bat%2B11.36.21%2BPM.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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The bummer thing about this third arm gag is that it never comes into play the rest of the movie, as it's a weird little detail that is forgotten. I would've loved it if Mr. Toones fired a gun with his hidden third arm or something, but alas, this movie delivers no such thing.<br />
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After Mr. Toones plays a few hands, the next attraction is the half man, half woman Carl/Carlotta (Christopher Morley), who sings a song. This is really the tamest of all the freaks but Morley really gives Carl(otta) some layers, playing the character as kind of a jerk with a bad attitude, not to mention a possible relationship with Mr. Toones.<br />
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Apparently Morley was an actor and female impersonator known for cross-dressing roles, most famously the transvestite who gets roughed-up in <i>Freebie and the Bean</i> (1974). Morley also had a reoccurring role on <i>General Hospital</i>, was She-Tim in <i>Bachelor Party</i> (1984), and played a drag queen Marilyn Monroe in <i>Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead</i> (1991). A very kind YouTube user has complied all of Morley's scenes from <i>Howling VI</i> into this clip:<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/8vpf1D5SimE" width="420"></iframe><br />
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-iuDNvc-YNFY/VNafvwkOI-I/AAAAAAAACOU/ErHyeu9wjck/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2015-01-30%2Bat%2B11.38.56%2BPM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="250" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-iuDNvc-YNFY/VNafvwkOI-I/AAAAAAAACOU/ErHyeu9wjck/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2015-01-30%2Bat%2B11.38.56%2BPM.png" width="400" /></a><br />
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Another one of the acts is Mr. Bellamey (Antonio Fargas) and he's a weird clown-jester who bites the head off a chicken.<br />
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Not much of a freak per-se, but uh, okay, whatever.<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-nwHPO7Ilo8g/VNagOnB5qoI/AAAAAAAACOk/licmpalczEU/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2015-01-30%2Bat%2B11.39.24%2BPM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="250" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-nwHPO7Ilo8g/VNagOnB5qoI/AAAAAAAACOk/licmpalczEU/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2015-01-30%2Bat%2B11.39.24%2BPM.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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Antonio Fargas is one of the bigger names in the cast. He of course played Huggy Bear on TV's <i>Starsky and Hutch</i> and was also in a ton of movies, including <i>Across 110th Street</i> (1972), <i>Cleopatra Jones</i> (1973), <i>Foxy Brown</i> (1974),<i> Car Wash</i> (1975), and a bunch of other stuff (he's still working to this day). So it is really weird to see him bite the head off a chicken.<br />
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Alligator Boy (Sean Sullivan) is a real-deal freak, the kind with scaly skin and all that stuff, and while he acts ferocious he is actually a big softie. His name is Winston and even better, he has a pet cat that is named Winston II. Alligator Boy gets a little bit of a subplot and even helps Ian out later in the film. He's basically the secondary protagonist.<br />
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After Ian is captured by Harker and put on display at the freakshow, Harker throws werewolf-Ian Winston II and wants him to eat it for a gathered crowd.<br />
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That cat is not happy during this scene. And no, Ian doesn't eat the cat, much to the crowd's disappointment. <br />
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Also, this scene has an appearance by actress Elizabeth Shé in a non-speaking cameo as her character Mary Lou from the previous sequel, <i>Howling V: The Rebirth</i> (1989). I guess she shows up in the next film as well, which I've seen (years ago) but don't remember her specifically. I think they try to tie these films together, but I'm not sure. I'll talk more about that when I watch and review <i>Howling: New Moon Rising</i> (1995).<br />
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Harker is the kind of villain with an aristocratic aloofness to him, practically sneering all of his lines. He also has that vague European threatening quality about him which serves the character well (similar to Philip Davis' character Count Istvan in the previous <i>Howling</i> movie).<br />
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I've read this in more than one review, so this isn't an original thought, but Harker (and actor Bruce Payne) definitely gives off a vibe that is comparable to actor Julian Sands. So if you know Sands' work, than you know what kind of villain this movie is giving you.<br />
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Now time for the SLIGHT SPOILER: Late in the movie it is revealed that Harker is a vampire. This happens in a scene where he pops out of his coffin which is disguised as a couch in his RV and biting and throwing a guy (the snooping mayor) through the roof of his trailer:<br />
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Monster Harker is a Nosferatu-style vampire that sort of resembles a purple version of the <i>Salem's Lot</i> (1979) creature, although with a rufflier shirt:<br />
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In the end when (AGAIN SPOILER) Harker is killed by staking and by sunlight, there is a disintegration scene that looks like it was accomplished by using time-lapse and an air cannon. It reminds me of a combination of the finales to <i>The Evil Dead</i> (1981) and <i>Gremlins</i> (1984).<br />
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One more thing I have to bring up about this movie: Boom mics. They're all over the place! For those of you who don't know, boom microphones are used to record sound during movies and they are these microphones on long poles that are supposed to hover above the actors during filming. Sometimes (especially in low budget movies) it will dip into frame. It happens at least three times during <i>Howling VI</i>. <br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Il2QJ0sNG14/VNaipg8zHRI/AAAAAAAACPk/CmWMG4L_JOw/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2015-01-31%2Bat%2B11.30.23%2BPM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Il2QJ0sNG14/VNaipg8zHRI/AAAAAAAACPk/CmWMG4L_JOw/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2015-01-31%2Bat%2B11.30.23%2BPM.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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They shoulda hired a boom operator with greater arm strength. <br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-SFcefm5LtTI/VNaooVTEhlI/AAAAAAAACQg/oaI_IX1LK6o/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2015-01-30%2Bat%2B11.29.30%2BPM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-SFcefm5LtTI/VNaooVTEhlI/AAAAAAAACQg/oaI_IX1LK6o/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2015-01-30%2Bat%2B11.29.30%2BPM.png" width="320" /></a><br />
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Let's talk cast & crew:<br />
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Director Hope Perello worked as a production coordinator on some Cannon Films, most notably Stuart Gordon's <i>From Beyond</i> (1986) and <i>Dolls</i> (1987), and also as a producer on <i>Catacombs</i> (1988) and <i>Puppetmaster</i> (1989). She would go on to direct Piper Laurie in comedy/drama <i>St. Patrick's Day</i> (1997), which was her last film credit. She is now the director of the Pasadena <a href="http://spaceartscenter.com/">Space Arts Center</a>.<br />
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Novelist Gary Brandner once again gets "based on" credit for his books, even though nothing (once again) was used from his series.<br />
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Screenwriter Kevin Rock also wrote the sequels <i>Warlock: The Armageddon</i> (1993) and <i>The Philadelphia Experiment II</i> (1993). His real claim to fame is writing the screenplay for the ill-fated <i>Fantastic Four</i> (1994) film, a Roger Corman production of legendary terribleness, never intended for release (it has still to this day never seen a legit release).<br />
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Michele Matheson played Rebecca, Randy Quaid's Amish girlfriend in <i>Kingpin</i> (1996).<br />
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Sean Sullivan was Phil, the guy trying not to spew in <i>Wayne's World</i> (1992) and he was also a member of Buford Tannen's gang in <i>Back to the Future III</i> (1990).<br />
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Deep Roy is of course a famous little person actor, appearing in <i>Flash Gordon</i> (1980), <i>The NeverEnding Story</i> (1984), seven episodes of <i>Doctor Who</i>, and more recently he was all the Oompa Loompas in <i>Charlie and the Chocolate Factory</i> (2005) and he has a small (haha) reoccurring character in the new <i>Star Trek</i> films.<br />
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I mentioned Bruce Payne earlier being a Julian Sands-type. This is now confirmed since I look at his filmography and see that he took over for Sands in the titular role in the <i>Warlock</i> series with the third film, <i>Warlock III: The End of Innocence</i> (1999). Payne also gets some good roulette advice from Wesley Snipes in <i>Passenger 57 </i>(1992):<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/FTDeOPFr9e4" width="420"></iframe><br />
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<u>Closing Thoughts</u>: <br />
<i>Howling VI: The Freaks</i> isn't so bad that you want to claw your eyes out; it's watchable. That's my pull quote, but I'll go on to say that it is not a very good movie, as its low budget, direct-to-video qualities are too readily apparent, but it does offer some monster action and somewhat enjoyable special effects, so it at least does that right. Also, there are some well staged and shot scenes in the film, with some good uses of lighting, which are the kinds of things that keep this from being unwatchably bad. <br />
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This is a unique entry in the <i>Howling</i> series, as it gives the werewolf another monster to fight against, and there's more action in this one than parts <i>IV</i> and <i>V</i> combined. All in all, I'd say if you picked a random <i>Howling</i> sequel to watch, without having watched any of the others, this actually wouldn't be a bad one to choose. It's still a bad movie, but you could have fun and enjoy it. If interested, it's available on Netflix Instant <u><a href="http://www.netflix.com/">NOW</a></u>.<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/PeTkCIgl4jw" width="560"></iframe><br />
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<b>Previous installments in <u>The Howling Series Retrospective Review</u></b>:<br />
<u><a href="http://squealingtiresondirt.blogspot.com/2013/06/the-howling.html">The Howling</a></u><br />
<u><a href="http://squealingtiresondirt.blogspot.com/2013/07/howling-ii-your-sister-is-werewolf.html">Howling II. . .your sister is a werewolf</a></u><br />
<u><a href="http://squealingtiresondirt.blogspot.com/2014/04/the-marsupials-howling-iii.html">The Marsupials: Howling III</a></u><br />
<u><a href="http://squealingtiresondirt.blogspot.com/2014/07/howling-iv-original-nightmare.html">Howling IV: The Original Nightmare</a></u><br />
<u><a href="http://squealingtiresondirt.blogspot.com/2014/11/howling-v-rebirth.html">Howling V: The Rebirth</a></u><br />
<br />Nathan Westhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09914459868603679029noreply@blogger.com0