Snakes: In this guys column, Diarrhea of a Madman, the Captain Ahab video video for the song from the Snakes on the Brain soundtrack is described by a writer who was on set as well and in fact plays a part in the video.
L.A. news: I found the cheapest place to buy used DVDs in L.A. and it's not Amoeba. Today I picked up Kong Island for three dollars. Lots of three dollar DVDs at this place. Most DVDs from the last few years are between four and seven dollars. Horror shit is generally cheaper, though the selection is totally random. Oh yeah, where? 20/20 Video.
City in Panic: I thought this 1986 slasher about A.I.D.S. in the city was amazing. Sure the shots are a little awkward at times and certain scenes play like fan tributes to classic movies, but Canadian director Robert Bouvier did a lot of stuff right.
I should mention that the movie is allegedly available on a low-priced DVD bundle called Serial Psychos with what looks like five recent shot-on-video full lengths that have never appeared elsewhere. I hope for the fans sake that this movie looks sharp in that package and that they did not chop it up or anything. They probably stuck a new name over the title shot as City in Panic has another name in this bundle. The titles, opening and closing, are particularly silly looking on the Trans World Entertainment tape, appearing as if they were made on the kind of tape-to-tape video editing equipment they had at schools in the pre-digital days. That aside, the picture on the tape looks great so I don't know why they paired it with credits you usually see filling out shot-on-video movies.
The homage's to Fritz Lang's M and Psycho are a little odd, the M one being a major plot element as the killer is inspired by that movie and even goes by the name "M". Bouvier replicates the Psycho shower scene with a man instead of a woman in one of the movies opening scenes. Nearly all of the victims are men. Most are gay men all nearly all of them have A.I.D.S., as the killer's motive has something to do with this. I don't want to give it away completely, but the A.I.D.S. issue here is at the heart of the movie, a movie made when talk about A.I.D.S. was more taboo - though I'm not sure how much more, I was young at the time. I don't know when A.I.D.S. prevention became mainstream. Recently I've heard Reagan criticized for not mobilizing against the disease until it was too late for many gay man who had already become infected. There are gays today who insist that A.I.D.S. is a gay disease and that the public should hold this view, not to blame gays, but to acknowledge that the reason A.I.D.S. became an epidemic right under our noses is because people turned a blind eye to homosexuals during the early days of their plight and still do so today. Next America is gonna be hit hard by Hepatitis C, not exclusive to gays by any means. Not that this puts a whole in the gay theory about A.I.D.S. being under the radar for so long, but I don't hear anybody talking about Hepatitis C these days. See what epidemic.org has to say...
It is suspected that there are, at present, more than 5 million people in the United States that are infected with Hepatitis C, and perhaps as many as 200 million around the world. This makes it one of the greatest public health threats faced in this century, and perhaps one of the greatest threats to be faced in the next century. Without rapid intervention to contain the spread of the disease, the death rate from hepatitis C will surpass that from AIDS by the turn of the century and will only get worse. Ok, there you go, now back to the movie.
Several reviews claim that City in Panic offended and outraged gays when it came out, but I would like to see actually evidence of the outrage. Campblood.org, a horror site for homosexuals, mentions the outrage, but the actually reviewer on the site does not appear to be offended himself. He does refer "this most egregious affront to gays, and pretty much anyone with any taste" when mentioning the movies most brutal scene. A security guard makes his way to a public restroom, enters the stall, and removes the toilet paper holder to reveal a glory hole. Another patron enters the room and then the adjacent stall. Security guard puts his member through the whole, where of course we find that the person on the other side is the slasher who chops off the member. The shots of the security guard writhing in pain are sick and bloody. Certainly it is one of the most grim deaths in a horror film that I have ever seen and it was reserved for a gay man and yes gay men are killed brutally in this picture, but let's not forget that the showing brutal deaths should at least elicit some sympathy for the victims. I don't think that the gays are robbed of their dignity. A handful of the deaths involve stereotypical gay locations and activities, but some of the guys are rather normal. I don't think it is wrong to put a gay character in a gym even if it is fits a stereotype. Look, if every gay killed in the movie was on the way home from the roman baths, well that would be too much, but it is not the case. One cop is extremely homophobic, but he is a shithead in every way and it follows that homophobia is another one of his negative traits.
I'd like my analysis of this film to be somewhat thorough without blowing it for all of you. The final showdown in a mannequin factory - brilliant. A climatic shot shown through the hallucinating killers eyes - one of the best I've seen - the killer sees everyone as a carrier of A.I.D.S. and sees something personally haunting too.
The movie is loaded with talk as the protagonist is a talk radio host. We get lots of psychological musing and stuff that was probably pretty topical in the 80's. Is it society's fault that M is driven to kill? Is M mentally ill? M says that the city will thank him for what he is doing when they find out his motives. Now that is pretty sick shit, don't you think?
I read this article in the LA Times this morning and I'll just paste the whole thing. It's short.
A Whopper Gets Star Billing?
Product placement apparently isn't cutting it in the movie business anymore. Not satisfied, say, with a mere passing shot of a mega-star munching a Whopper, Burger King is developing a film whose main character lives above one of its burger franchises, according to a story in this week's Advertising Age, a trade magazine.
No, it's not a horror film. And it's also not going to be what would seem the natural sequel to 2004's nutty teenage comedy "Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle." Instead, Burger King, along with ad agency Crispin Porter & Bogusky, which is overseeing the script, envision a "character-driven" story along the lines of "Garden State" and "What's Eating Gilbert Grape," according to Advertising Age.
ADVERTISEMENTA spokeswoman for Burger King declined to comment, while officials at Crispin Porter & Bogusky did not return phone calls. Both firms are based in Miami.
If you all think I'm a dumb blogger, how about this guy who wants to see it?
What surprises me even more than the very fact that an advertising agency is producing a feature film is the fact that I actually have a desire to see it! Here’s how I see it. First, I find the Burger King spots quite entertaining and fresh. Couple that with the curiosity of how a group of agency CD’s would handle a feature film (‘cause face it, we CD’s all want to direct a feature film) and you’ve got a recipe for flame-broiled cinema.
Here’s an idea for the DVD release. The viewer should have the ability within the DVD-ROM portion to edit the film however they want so that they can “Have It Your Way™.”
Is Burger King paying this guy? Probably yes, in fries.
not operating at full capacity: My internet is slow, perhaps because of spyware, perhaps not because my roommates computer is slow too. My cell phone in not working 50% of the time. My digital still camera is broken - sand in the shutter - and this is the unfortunate because my new policy is going to be that I bring a camera everywhere to capture the Hollywood action. This morning on my walk to Amoeba, passing the El Capitain, where they are showing the new Pirates of the Caribbean movies, I encounter a protester's large sandwich board propped up on the sidewalk that made me stop dead in my tracks laughing. In fact, the person behind me walked into me. The protesters were all getting ready for a media frenzy with press kits and what not, so I did not see any action, and I'll admit that I don't understand the protest because the sign was completely in Spanish, but the image on it completely blew my mind. It was Mickey doing the sieg heil in a nazi uniform complete with swastika armband, hitler mustache, and hitler haircut. I really should know Spanish, but I don't, what I could grasp from the text was that this was something about Disney being racist. I don't think it was a sweatshop labor thing.
grindhouse this month and next New Beverly Cinema - 7165 Beverly Blvd. Los Angeles: July 18th, two Italian movies. Doctor Butcher M.D. and Joe D'amato's Grim Reaper. Hopefully this is not cut like my Grim Reaper tape, which is just not the same with out the fetus eating scene, the movies most famous moment. A couple months ago when Gates of Hell screened, there were groans of disgust when a bit of the drill killing was cut short. August 15th, Mausoleum and Lamberto Bava's Demons, my favorite film of the 80's.
Why am I hiding this girl's identity. Well she was a friend of mine, a frequent visitor to the apartment, and a photographer herself, but very camera shy. It seems my old roommates got a kick out of this cause there are just tons and tons of photos of her hiding in some old folder on this computer. I blame one kid, who we referred to as "Kyle" in previous Hollywood Memories for most of them, but in his defense, the collection of photos amounts to an interesting body of work.
Hollywood Memories is really about pictures of stuff, not snapshots of my friends, so it is blurred out as I'm sure she would like it to be.
The "Snakes on the Brain" video shoot was today for the Captain Ahab song that is on the Snakes on a Plane soundtrack. Everything is hush hush about it now, but not for long cause Larry says he is gonna edit this in a week. There is some deadline or something.
For now watch this snakes-related video from Rob who was in the shoot today and is doing some post-production work on it as well.
Even better, his Bubble Bobble song.
It was a busy weekend and I did not get to watch any horror tapes. I did make it to a show to see my favorites, The Angry Samoans, sing about big time music industry whore, Rodney Bingenheimer, The Mayor of the Sunset Shit. Openers, Black Fag, surprised me by not being pissed off real gay dudes singing Black Flag songs, but rather being potentialy-non gay performers (or real gays?) who act in a flaming manner, you know, the front man sings the hits with a lisp and stuff. The next big thing I'm sure.
I though I was done with the Hollywood Memories, but no.
This was one of our roommates who slept on the floor. He got bit by a spider and then lost his job because he could no longer brew coffee with all the bandages on his hand. I got bit by the same kind of spider three times of the next few months. My bites were extremely painful, but I never went to the doctor which is for the best because they butchered this kid - I'm surprised they did not chop his finger clean off! At one point he had a hole in this extremely swollen finger that was a centimeter deep.I never saw a spider. Those fuckers got us in the night. I've got scars from my bites to this day. All three are on my right arm.
I know for a fact that there are gonna be big snakes at the Captain Ahab video shoot, 'Snakes on the Brain', their song on the Snakes on A Plane soundtrack. I know the girl who is the keeper of the snakes and they are monster snakes that have appeared on TV before and in the movies. To be a part of the video on Sunday: check this out. Guys are told to dress like it is a Biohazard video and girls dress like it is a C&C Music Factory video. As you can see this is a celebration of a glorious era in recent pop culture.
I submitted my piece to this week's Horror Roundtable Discussion a little late once again, but I'm betting it will up with the rest by the end of the day.
It's too hot to go out in L.A., but I'm gonna make the thrift store rounds looking for a new boombox today. Also, it looks like the gallons of water collecting in my ceiling are not going to bust through and soak everything. Hold on, it has not rained for months and I live on the top floor. Where did the water come from? Well it turns out that their is a water tower on the roof. Who new? Also, I still intend to write reviews of City in Panic and the new Anchor Bay horror release, The Garden.
New street "performer" sighted on Hollywood Boulevard, a Chucky with a bloody knife, played by a real little person or else that is serious child abuse in this heat. Hope he kicks the ass of the Jason and Freddy, who stand around with their masks off by the open doors of the Virgin, where a little bit of the air-conditioning wafts out. They can't hang.
My old roommate, Lawrence Klein, is directing a third Captain Ahab video (see the other two - I've posted about this a million times) for a song from the Snakes on a Plane movie. The defamer.com, one of the most popular and nasty blogs out there, reposted Larry's craigslist post on their site. If you wanna be a "dirty dirty booty girl" this weekend - well you might get your chance if you respond to the ad. Shoot is in Burbank, CA.
Next horror review will be of the brutal A.I.D.S.-releated slasher, City in Panic (1986), from the legendary TransWorld Entertainment tape company.
Last night, I saw Rock 'n' Roll High School projected onto the side of a mausoleum (someone said Marilyn Monroe's body lies inside) at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery last night. It was surreal, Ramones music blasting in the cemetery, the movie playing not a hundred yards from Joey Ramone's grave. I believe Dee Dee is buried there as well. On hand were director Allan Arkush, star P.J. Soles, Sex Pistol Steve Jones, Henry Rollins, and Marky Ramone as well as some wack loudmouth (not Jones) from local corporate rock headquarters - "Indie" 103.1. Fantastic, never before seen, Ramones concert footage (It's Alive) preceded the movie.
I love how the big chain record stores come in dead last in Los Angeles - not just when it comes to being, well cool - but also when it comes to profits. Tower Records on Sunset! The history! The legacy! The Rip-off! They claim that at the New York Dolls in-store (7/28) you will need a to buy the cd to get the limited wrist-band. We shall see.
I used to make a cool $5.50 an hour at the Boston Tower. By now you've all heard my story about how the store manager and regional manager were asleep at the wheel and the landlords leased the building to Virgin on their watch. The big shots got fired and were laughed out of the downtown area. I hear that one killed himself by putting a shotgun up his ass (was it suicide or something kinky gone wrong) and the other got A.I.D.S., but everyone just says that's what they deserve. At least my readers care and well shed a tear for those noble old retail rockers. Right friends?
Over on scenefashion.com, things had been getting slow due to an increase in real life fun which resulted in an equally proportionate decrease in internet fun. Funny how that goes. The people demanded an update and we did not have enough pictures of real kids so I tried to pass off this floppy rubber pig as an acceptable substitute for a profile of a hot new "fashionista".
The pig was a prop from the little boutique I managed. Apparently, before my time, they had been going with an Asian-grocery motive with dead gag chickens and this pig in the window.
Horror messageboards... I've tried to avoid them. Too much stupid shit and when it comes to the myspace ones where you can actually see the people you are dealing with, well then that's even more embarrassing. Horror Crowd is a LARGE group I'm ashamed to be a member of, but once in a while bordom drives me to see what is being discussed.
I gained some respect for the kids (though they ain't kids in age) for tearing this guy Maxwell apart. He posts apparently to brag of his involvement as Art Director/Production Designer of a handful of new movies - Night of the Living Dead 3-D, The Brotherhood of Blood, Somebody Save Me - and links to his resume. Only one reply from the crowd is somewhat neutral. All others, mean.
"Worked on the Night of the Living Dead 3D remake, huh?
Well, I hope you die."
"Don't get pissed on us cuz you felt the need to help piss all over a classic."
...and after the rebuttal...
"He even called in reinforcements to stick up for him...
Creepy
What was it like working with Sid Haig? Did he hurt your feelings too?"
I hope the myspace will allow you to view the thread without logging on. I'd never heard of this Night of the Living Dead 3D myself.
Just a day after I find a Thor CD for three bucks at a Santa Monica record store I get the great news. Thor is on tour and hitting the Key Club July 31st. Not from Los Angeles? Perhaps no need to despair. The rest of the Thor dates listed here. I've also got Thor's latest album, 'Thor Against the World', but this older Thor disc (1998? - the oldest one goes back to the 70's on RCA, never released on CD) I found is even better. What a steal. Whoever priced it was not familiar with the power of Thor and did not know that the CD was actually the most killer piece of metal in their whole store.
By the way, Rock N' Roll Nightmare just came out on DVD. Can Zombie Nightmare be far behind?
Check out the horror round table discussion at The Horror Blog and see my two cents on this week's question. Some good stuff from a bunch of horror blogs including a few cool looking ones that I'd never even heard of. Could it be that those blogs new to me have writers who have never heard of this here 150 Days of Sodom? Well, I'd certainly be shocked if they had not!! We are a household name, right?!?
Thanks to Steven for printing my whole piece. What a good sport. I think mine had the highest word count - though by just a little bit.
Had to wake up early this morning to get to Forever 21 for Cub. The reason? They take the dresses off of the mannequin on Friday mornings and there was this modish black dress, the last one in stock, that Cub had to have. Unfortunately we were the 2nd ones there and almost did not get it, but fortunately it did not work for the girl who had first dibs. Cub scored! The weekend is not ruined!
I sent off a submission to The Horror Blog for their Horror Roundtable, but it was late. I think it's going to get published anyway, so check back with them. I wrote about The Gate II, a pretty disappointing movie for most fans. It comes across as a 90's movie, but it really was made in 1989 - same director, Tibor Takács, and everything. That guy seems to have slipped into obscurity, though he still is making direct-to-DVD and TV movies.
Hey look, the scenefashion.com school bus is on fire. All right, I admit, it never got to really blazing, but it really is burning if you look closely. Notice how I cropped the picture so you can see that puddle of dried splodge in the bottom right hand corner...
1. I've decided an upcoming feature in this blog is gonna be me reviewing recent DVDs that I have not seen. I am such a horror expert that I can review without even watching. Wow.
2. Many of Lawrence Klein's film school shorts are online now on his myspace!
3. "Bad pop on Myspace foretells some bleak days to come" - a column from a local free weekly.
4. Last night's double feature at The Egyptian, Corruption and The Skull, was very entertaining. Corruption (1967) started out as a pretty solid remake of Eyes Without a Face, then transformed into a "so bad I can't believe my eyes" type of mess. One of those that has to be seen to be believed. I'd have liked for the movie to have retained it's dignity, but at the same time must admit that the crazy twists and over acting were pretty spectacular. Before the movie a speaker from the theater mentioned that we would be seeing Peter Cushing as we never had before. I think he must be referring to the Cushing character losing his cool on screen and getting into some very physical fights where he gets tossed about. Then there are the murders as well, where Cushing works himself up into an active violent frenzy. It's all a great deal rougher than what I've seen in the Hammer movies and perhaps borderline disturbing, though quite a bit of silliness (cartoonish thugs, fairly bad FX, canned dialogue) takes away from the impact of it all. Still, the audience was into it. Not on DVD.
The Skull (1965, Freddie Francis) was an Amicus Studios gothic horror I'd never heard of, which is strange since I'd though I'd seen all of them by now. I'll have to say that it is my least favorite Amicus film. It is pretty hard to take seriously a battle between a man and a skull, even if the man is Peter Cushing and the skull once contained the brain of the Marquis de Sade. Don't get me wrong, there are some great scenes and psychedelic stuff, plus appearances by Patrick Magee and Christopher Lee, but on the whole you just have to see this if you are a horror dork like me. I should mention that they are people who think pretty highly of this film so I could have it all wrong. Not on DVD.
A few Amicus movies HAVE recently come out on DVD including the excellent, The Beast Must Die from 1974.
Thursday at The Egyptian, Stuart Gordon's Edmond. I can't make it. The preview looked pretty all right.
In July at The Egyptian and at The Aero, their very popular yearly Mods and Rockers film festival. The Mods and Rockers website does not have the dates posted, but I picked up a paper theater schedule that did have show dates. Oh well, I'm sure they will put them up soon enough. I wanna see the one called Kiss the Girls and Make Them Die, from Italy, 1966.
I swear I do not work for The Egyptian Theater, I just really like to see movies on the big screen... yes, more than on DVD!
coffin cub!
I wrote a bit about Roberta Findlay and her late husband Michael, who was killed in a 1977 tragic helicopter accident, in this review of Roberta's Blood Sisters. Michael directed Shriek of the Mutilated. The Findlays as a pair directed Snuff. Like Blood Sisters, Lurkers was one of Roberta Findlay's last movies, directed more than ten years after her husband's death. I believe she retired soon after and is still living today, having recently been interviewed for extras on the Blood Sisters DVD.
Lurkers is a hell of a lot more fun to watch than the boring Blood Sisters, though Lurkers too is a very flawed film. Still, it's pretty fun to watch a picture that attempts to be a low budget version of some bigger supernatural pictures such as Rosemary's Baby, The Sentinel, and The Omen. The editing, done by Roberta herself, is some of the worst I've seen as is the acting. I got so used to scenes not fitting together, that when I from time to time so a single cut that actually worked well, it would distract me because it felt so out of place. One action sequence (for those who have seen the movie, I'm talking bout the sledgehammer chase) was so messy that I could not figure out what was going on at all. If it was disjointed deliberately in order to bring about a dreamlike feeling, then the attempt failed.
On the other hand, Lurkers has got a pretty fun plot and some bizarre sexual, drug-related, and religious imagery to keep the viewer interested. The movie looks ten years older than it is, perhaps because of all the similarities to the popular 70's and 60's movies I mentioned above. There are a ton of unintentional laughs, many involving the evil ghost child and the good ghost woman. All the scary parts are pretty funny, now that I think about it. Of course the last half hour of the movie is the best, when all the evil is revealed at a swanky New York City artist's party.
Judging by reviews on the imdb, this is one of those movies people either love or hate. The movie is available in Rhino's Horrible Horrors Collection Volume 1, which is a low priced DVD bundle. The VHS tape was from Media.
News: Disc Jockey and male groupie, Rodney Bingenheimer, is getting a star on the Walk of Fame here in Hollywood.
News: Aaron Spelling has died at age 83 from a stroke at his home in Los Angeles.
News: While having coffee this morning I read a very interesting story about a Russian DVD pirate whose office was located just blocks from my house.
Opinion: The latest issue of Fangoria sucks even more the usual.
News: Friends tell me that they predict Al Gore will be the next major Democratic presidential candidate. Will Al Gore tell us to go vegan? Here what the big hypocrite left out of his movie...
Animal Farm from the L.A. Weekly...
Al Gore’s riveting documentary An Inconvenient Truth has focused public attention on the looming disaster of global warming and the associated flooding of coastal communities, extreme weather conditions, and destruction of wildlife habitats [“The Tip of the Melting Iceberg,” May 26–June 1]. Global warming is brought on by emission of greenhouse gases, primarily carbon dioxide and the much more potent methane and nitrous oxide. These gases trap the sun’s heat in our atmosphere, creating a greenhouse effect.
Most of us blame automotive and industrial emissions. But animal agriculture is a major culprit as well. It emits carbon dioxide from the burning of forests to create animal pastures and from combustion of fossil fuels to operate farm machinery, trucks, refrigeration equipment, factory farms, and slaughterhouses. It emits methane from the digestive tracts of cattle and nitrous oxide from animal-waste cesspools.
According to a recent University of Chicago study, a meat-free diet reduces greenhouse-gas emissions by the equivalent of 1.5 tons of carbon dioxide per year — as much as switching from an SUV to a hybrid car. Folks who care about the future of life on Earth would be well advised to consider switching to a meat-free diet even before they switch to a hybrid car.
and this on the internet...
"It's better to green your diet than your car"
17 December 2005
THINKING of helping the planet by buying an eco-friendly car? You could do more by going vegan, say Gidon Eshel and Pamela Martin of the University of Chicago.
They compared the amount of fossil fuel needed to cultivate and process various foods, including running agricultural machinery, providing food for livestock and irrigating crops. They also factored in emissions of methane and nitrous oxide produced by cows, sheep and manure treatment.
The typical US diet, about 28 per cent of which comes from animal sources, generates the equivalent of nearly 1.5 tonnes more carbon dioxide per person per year than a vegan diet with the same number of calories, say the researchers, who presented their results at a meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco last week.
By comparison, the difference in annual emissions between driving a typical saloon car and a hybrid car, which runs off a rechargeable battery and gasoline, is just over 1 tonne. If you don't want to go vegan, choosing less-processed animal products and poultry instead of red meat can help reduce the greenhouse load.
From issue 2530 of New Scientist magazine, 17 December 2005, page 19
One link on the issue. I would have a "Hollywood Memories" for you here, but imageshack.us is not functioning at the moment.
Once again there is a new horror blog out there - The Full Moon Review - yup, all Full Moon movies. They don't link to me in the sidebar, but do have a link to my review of Doll Graveyard. From a quick glance, this person seems to have their Full Moon shit down. He grades hard, a bunch of the late 90's movies got ratings of "1 out of 5 full moons".
I took a look at old posts in the blog. I almost never do that. I'd like to delete a lot of them that I'm embarrassed about, but they will stay. I'm talking about some of the reviews, a weird thing to be embarrassed about, but in a few cases the writing makes me sick. I fix a couple of broken images and found a handful more to fix. Old posts are hard to read because they are in an even smaller font than this one now. Sorry about that.
The blog is still less than two years old.
I have the day off. Wow. This week has been very long with 2 summer school classes at Santa Monica College feeling like the equivalent of a full time job - cause the summer semester is condensed into a period of six weeks I have a quiz every single day! These are both level 1 classes, the equivalent of 100 level classes. Intro classes, so picture me in a room with a bunch of 18 year olds and worse, kids who are still in highschool. The history teacher told me their was no reason to get a job yet because once you enter the working world it is hard to get out. He thinks I'm one of the little kids too! It is because vegans do not show signs of aging.
I've mentioned before that myself and my old roommate had a website called scenefashion.com about Hollywood scene kids with pictures and profiles. It was very exciting for people to look at in a time before myspace and friendster. Our page differed from makeoutclub.com and its imitators in that we chose the people and we took the pictures. No one could submit a picture. We also wrote the comments. The whole site was intended to piss people off, but as for the kids in the actually profiles, we liked them. The site was meant to draw hatemail from bitter and miserable types, who really could not be as bitter and miserable as we were deep down inside.
This here is from the first day I went out and took pictures for the site as The Locust were playing a show across the street from my place. Personally I think The Locust is crap, but I cannot deny their fashion influence on the many chameleons in the hardcore scene. I mingled with crowd outside for a while, hoping to actually see Locust members whose pictures I could take, but either they were backstage with the deli trays or I just did not know what they looked like. I split and then...
comments: After leaving the Locust show I went to kick it with the neighbors who were out in front of the apartment drinking. The guy from across the street said we ought to spook some kids who for some reason or another had snuck down the drive way to his building. We went from our place to the Megadeth Mansion across the way. (where Dave Mustaine formed Megadeth) Down the little drive we found two youths who had fled the Locust show in order to find some quiet time on top of a dumpster. Truly I could not see a thing, as a wall blocked the lights of the street, but once I heard the sounds of a little keyboard, I knew the girl was scenefashion material. Sure, she could not play well, but if she really brings the keypad everywhere she will one day be good. Now that I can see her on my computer screen I'm glad to see she has her own style and is not doing the tired crust punk thing. Don't know what those red marks on her arm are. Like I said, it was pitch black.
Captain Ahab, whose outrageous Lawrence Klein directed videos can be seen here, have won a contest and earned a slot on the Snakes on a Plane soundtrack. Snakes on a Plane is allegedly the most blogged about movie of all time.
Yesterday I was running an errand with a friend, picking some stuff up, and was surprised to find myself in a Studio City office full of animatronic robot horses and goat men. Boy did these things look real, even upon super close inspection. I can't say what movie these were for, it's not out yet and my friend would get in trouble, but I bet they fuck the film up with lots of CGI and we get some wack videogame-type picture. Anyway, as awesome as these prosthetic creatures look, I'll take my flesh and blood bunnies over them any day. The littlest just had an operation yesterday and than God she is back to normal already.
Here is a kind of negative article from the LA Weekly about the British Horror film series playing at The Egyptian that I wrote of last post. It pissed me off at first, but whatever.
This car belonged to Lawrence Klein, director of the Captain Ahab videos. That's not him on the roof, I believe he was taking this picture. This car was banned from the parking garage in my building on North Sycamore because it leaked to much oil. Or it could have been another one of Larry's cars. I'm not sure.
The car was painted with the kind of paint you pain a house with, not spray paint. It had texture.
Not that anyone will go because I told them to, but there are two British horror movies staring Peter Cushing playing on Sunday the 25th at 7:30. The theater? American Cinematheque at the Egyptian Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard. I'm told these double features are affordable. The movies, Corruption and The Skull are quite rare and not on DVD. There have been a few of these obscure pictures playing along with standard fair like Horror Express and The Gorgon.
I have a great idea, since I never throw anything away, in real life or on the hardrive, I think I shall celebrate my return to the old neighborhood with a section called Hollywood Memories where I show you pics of what went down three or four years ago. You know how recently I posted of the street performers outside the Chinese Theater? Well for a time we had a nonpaying roommate who lived on our studio apartment floor between the two of us. One plan he had was to take pictures of all the characters outside the theater and send them to Marvel and DC and Disney and the like to get them busted. Don't think he ever sent the photos, but he sure took a lot. Here is the stormtrooper in the thousand dollar costume along one of several Spidermans who all wear costumes that must have cost considerably less.
ve got a class in Santa Monica tomorrow night so I'll miss the showing of Dolls and Charles Band's Crash. Stuart Gordon and Charles Band are expected to be on hand as is a puppet from one of Charles Band's movies. No shit. I'll try to catch the end of Crash.
Tomorrow night at the New Beverly Cinema.
Here is a vegan blog for the vegans and future vegans - I guess her name is Kiki, I have not read it in depth yet.
There is also the livejournal of the girl who has been prank calling me for about 4 years now - I'll throw you a link soon, but I don't want it to be a click-through link because then should could find this blog (through statcounter) and interact with me that way. The less interaction the better.I will post her myspace and livejournal soon.
Thanks to The Horror Blog for finding a very in-depth article on Victor Salva whose real life exploits are far more shocking than his horror movies except when they mirror each other, as was the case during the making of Clownhouse (1989) when director Salva had oral sex with the then 12-year-old star, Nathan Forrest Winters.
(Incidentally, a google search for Clownhouse images pulled up a page of stills of Nathan Forrest Winters from that movie - I can only hope the webmaster of that page does not know the backstory behind that movie because that would be a very creepy page indeed!)
Victor Salva discovered the story for Way of the Peaceful Warrior (a mainstream sports drama that is only playing in select theaters - I wonder why?) while serving his 15 month prison sentence on the child molesting conviction. "Here was this book that says you must take responsibility for your choices, learn from your mistakes and never live in the regrets of the past or the worries of the future. Its message was the total opposite of what I was feeling when I read it." says Salva. Imdb comments on the movie describe the story as being a lesson for living for the moment.
"How would you like to be defined for the rest of your life for one bad thing you did 20 years ago?" is what Salva tells people who bring up his past.
Some readers of the Los Angeles Times article may think Salva has some nerve to make a movie that reflects the pains he went through after being caught for molesting the boy, but Salva has never shied away from controversy before. How about the high school boys taking a group piss together in Jeepers Creepers 2? How about the age old Creeper pointing to one of the boys and making a licking gesture? It's pretty obvious that Powder is bizarre as well. I have not seen it, but seeing one clip was enough. To be fair, it can also be read as a take on homophobia in the schools. The message is not evil, but coming from Salva it may not be in good taste.
Can I make something of the relationship between the "grizzled" mentor and the young athlete in Peaceful Warrior? I think I can, but I'll wait until I see the movie. It is playing at the Laemmle Sunset 5 and I hopefully will catch it before it is gone.
So it is official, the name of the blog is now 150 Days of Sodom, so next time you update your sidebar, maybe you could change the name on your link to this site - the web address is the same. If not, well that is ok too, the blog always had two names, Bloodbath Horror Blog, and Warrenzone, which I took from a website warrenzone.net where I used to showcase my web design. I no longer pay for that domain name, so that site is dead. 150 Days of Sodom is anything but dead. I will continue to cut through the shit and tell it like it is in the horror scene and I'll keep reviewing those not-on-DVD dusty, obscure, VHS tapes.
Check out this graphic my friend Annie toyrobot made for me! Her artwork here.
sites/blogs to check:
The Horror Blog - updates frequently, move over bloody-disguting!
this Larry Klein directed video - I mentioned it last post!
pictures of Zoey - in her blog Chronicle
mollybrenner.com - would you I beleive I used to do a website for her? Now she made this all by herself!
Fatally*Yours - we like this horror blog from Orange County, but don't really like much else that comes from there.
I've been struggling with the updates, lately, writing stuff and not posting them - this post will be a combination of two cut posts. I write about costumed out of work actors in this post and I should note that I saw a Spiderman with a fanny pack crossing Hollywood Boulevard about an hour ago. It is easy to take a dig at someone in a fanny pack, so I'll just say that I hope the pack was only full of $15 or $20 dollars earned from a days work with the tourists. I also saw more of these guys taking off their costume heads in public. Sure it's hot, but stay in character!
a great new blog discovered: the badly named The Horror Blog has covered some stories I'd like to cover myself and hopefully will with credit to The Horror Blog for finding great topical articles.
From my window you can see a huge Superman Returns advertisement that covers one side of the TV Guide building. As you know this is the new gay Superman movie from X-Men and Apt Pupil director Bryan Singer. The X-men movies featured gay values such as acceptance and tolerance for those who are different, while featuring no red state values like marriage being exclusively between a man and a woman. Singer is really pushing the gayness with his Superman, though he insists Superman is straight. The size of the bulge in Superman's tights tells otherwise, or in my opinion, the fact that he is showing this bulge off, proves that he is a gay. Warner Brothers is covering the bulge with digital effects in the movie. You see, in the red states, men get very upset at the thought of other guys' dicks, let alone other guys' bigger dicks. That is why the urinals there have walls between them that run from the floor to the ceiling, in order to prevent accidental wang gazing.
I gotta say, their is a secret local hate here in Hollywood for the street performers outside of the Chinese Theater and Kodak Theater. I know this is not fair, since they make about $8 every three hours (according to a local article I read about the Storm Trooper "performer"), but they are so hateable. The deal is that they are free agents in unliscensed costumes (quality varies) who will pose with tourists and hopefully get tipped a buck per picture. Some idiots say that they work for the Chinese Theater, but it is obvious to anyone with a brain that no establishment with a reputation to uphold would present such shabby entertainment. What we've got is a band of superheroes in outfits you can buy at the Halloween store. I've seen even worse homemade atrocities and I've seen a Batman in spandex without a codpiece - and I've never been ok since, does this mean I'm a red state guy at heart? The best is when their are two Spidermans out there - I read in the article that tensions can run high between performers.
Horror fans, there is a Freddy and their is a Jason working the street quite regularly. Word is that the Freddy attacked a man who mocked his "costume", which is of course a $15 rubber mask. By the way, in Hollywood and much of Southern California you can buy Halloween costumes all year long at costume stores or the Halloween warehouses, so these costumes are even less impressive as they are extremely easy to acquire.
Anchor Bay is releasing a movie that looks very interesting to me, The Garden, with Lance Henriksen (Aliens, Pumpkinhead) and the beautiful Sean Young (Blade Runner, Stripes). I did not watch the whole trailer because I did not wish to spoil the movie for myself, but the glimpse I had of it showed professional filmaking with good costumes and FX - what I'm saying is that this is not some shot-on-video crap. The synopsis? A little boy has vivid fantastical nightmares that drive him to cut himself. A stay at stranger Herniksen's ranch brings him close to some of the horrors that he has witnessed in his visions. Is this the apocalypse?
a still from The Garden - from Anchor Bay - Street Date: July 11, 2006 - available in 16 x 9, Not Rated, Audio Commentary with Director Don Michael PaulIf you have not watched the Larry Klein video for Captain Ahab's "U Want Me", check out this fast loading version on youtube.
I feel good today, but that title is for most of my readers who I'm sure are not the sunshiny type.
Ok, we are back in Hollywood. I wrote up something already about our triumphant return, but neglected to post it. I've been very busy (Hawaii trip, registration, a huge move, a new rabbit rescued) but we are not living out of quite as many boxes as a week ago - things are getting settled and regular posting will resume soon.
Lots of horror screening in Los Angeles this month. British horror at the Egyptian on Hollywood Boulevard. A Cannibal Ferox / Gates of Hill double bill at The New Beverly Cinema on Friday and Saturday and then this month's Grindhouse (Dolls and Charles Band's Crash) on the 20th at the same theater.
By the way, I'm going to be selling a ton of rare horror tapes, my duplicates, but it will be a Los Angeles only fire sale - I mean to say I'll be outside of horror screenings with a box. Most tapes $1, max price, $3.
Read the Defamer about Superman Returns being gay cinema - they post about it every single day.
Tomorrow is the day of a million coffees and sodas. It is moving day - the worst day ever and the only way to get through it is sugar and caffeine. The 2nd worst day ever was yesterday - Memorial Day - traffic was sooo bad cause we live near the beach - we seriously could not leave the house. I walked down the hill to take in the sights - young alcoholics everywhere. The people looked good in their swimsuits, but I'm not fooled, they will be fat slobs later on down the line. I got rated a 9 out of 10 by some girls on a roof (weekly rentals) with signs drawn up to give each pedestrian walking by a number. Another one of the girls did not like my reaction (unenthusiastic) or just thought I was ugly and gave be a "10 minus 9", but then everything was ok again cause an even drunker girl said I'd always "be a 10 in her book". What rating the tattooed muscle guys (blasting Social Distortion) gave me, I don't know. That because they keep their feeling for other dudes to themselves.Funny, everyone is moving down to the O.C. for fun in the sun at the same time we are moving away. Perfectly timed.
It seems like just yesterday that we moved to Newport Beach. I put up ocean themed horror posters to fit in with our locale. Two Humanoids from the Deep posters, Blood Beach, Pirhana II, and the Italian movie Crocodile. We watched Tentacles (Tentacoli) on our first night in. It's been one year and nine months and we are going back to Hollywood with more crap than ever. The big day has been planned out, but will there be a disaster? It might be awhile before you find out because a move means a little bit of time without internet.
We will be back with news from the streets of Hollywood.
I've seen yesterday's metal pussies become today's yuppie pussies. Well, really I've not seen this at all, but I've seen the shows they are watching on heavy metal Vh1. Some of these band members have been on three different reality shows now! Biggest sellout, Scott Ian, a metal muppet who you might see buying hair dye for his goatee at your local Hot Topic when on the road with.... SuperGroup. This new "band", the subject of a new TV show, also includes Sebastian Bach and Ted Nugent. Here's hoping Nugent goes psycho and blows away his bandmates in an argument, and then takes his own life in order to avoid future prison rape. A shotgun suicide would be the only thing metal on that show.
Do you dig Thin Lizzy and Kiss? Then you will dig the rock performed by The Clowns, the factitious glam band who star in the 1980 slasher, Terror on Tour. The music ain't that bad, and the stage show, with simulated slashings and dismemberment, is pure fun. Too bad someone in Clown get-up is taking it too far, killing girls for real in the arena and back stage area. Is it one of the band members? The roadie who dresses like them in order to get laid? Or someone else? If we can sit through the endless partying, drug use, sex, and violence, then maybe we will find out. It would seem impossible to fuck this up, but director Don Edmonds (Ilsa, She Wolf of the SS) somehow managed to make it all a little boring. Really, the movie is very poorly paced, with dull subplots that go nowhere. The kills are not memorable, though they could have put more money into the FX budget. It's not an amateur movie otherwise, production values are pretty good and the cinematography is impressive, it just is not really a blast, and it should be. I mean... look at the cover!
From Media Home Video, no DVD, a very complete review is here.
Anchor Bay, they were the only DVD company practically endorsed by VideoHound's horror review book and, besides Something Weird Video, the first company I saw to bring long deleted horror vhs titles and foreign horror to DVD or letter-boxed clamshell vhs. They are still going strong today, with the June 13th reissue of Cemetery Man that I got an early copy of yesterday, but this direct-to-video title, It Waits (2005), totally sucks.
The only good thing about the movie is the creature make-up. Imagine a smaller Pumpkinhead. Ok, there are some good dead-body prosthetics as well. CGI is not this movie's friend. Is there a rule that every straight-to-DVD or premiering-on-cable horror flick must contain computer graphics? It looks so stupid. The dialogue here blows as well - it's painful. "I should've changed his oil." All the horror blogs are going to review this title and if any of them give it a positive review they are liars. I'll be watching you guys - don't cave into the pressure.
So Cerina Vincent, hot or not?
She is no Nastassja Kinski or Asia Argento, so I must say that she is not my particular cup of tea when it comes to hotness, however she is a cute girl.
How come the only character we cared about was Hoppy? Hoppy was the best! He deserves all of the credit because he was the only good part of the movie. The movie was pretty awful. What was up with the Jeepers Creepers rip off? Were they attempting to make it Jeepers Creepers 3? Sorry cub. It was a flop (terrible dialogue I must add).
Hey you know, my old roommate Lawrence Klein directed the video for "U Want Me" by Captain Ahab. It can't be played on M2 or probably even youtube - watch it all and see if you don't feel the pain and grief.
link: http://www.captain-ahab.com/larry/%20UWANTME-Final.mov (busted) try this: lawrenceklein.net.
insider fact: Larry subjected himself to certain My Chemical Romance videos in order to study-up on the scene - oh shit.
In the news: you may have read that we are leaving Orange County behind for Hollywood with a big "fuck you OC" for a good-bye. It's true. I finished another semester at OCC today. We had the producer of cable access' Graveyard Shift interviewed in the television studio this afternoon - I worked engineering for this short segment. Host Scarabus could not attend. It was speculated that perhaps he does not come out in the daytime. I will be commuting to Costa Mesa several times a week come next fall, but for the summer we are making a clean break.
I had a long debate on the phone with a certain unnamed individual on the merits of See No Evil. My stance remains that this is the worst movie to hit the horror scene - maybe ever. This time aiming low did not save shit. It is from porno director Gregory Dark (New Wave Hookers - 1985) and produced by WWE films. I can only imagine how Vince McMahon is promoting this on his television shows. I read something about storylines where Kane become upset when the release date of his movie is mention. Way to drill that bit of info into the viewers' heads.
I remember 1989, on Superstars of Wrestling, there being bits telling the fans to get out there and see No Holds Barred one more time. Problem was, they kept running these bits up to three months after No Holds Barred had vanished from the theaters! Then came No Holds Barred on PPV. A pay-per-view movie costs what, $7.50? They tacked on a match with Hogan and Beefcake against Macho Man and Zeus (Tiny Lister from No Holds Barred) and ran the movie for $25! Go Vince!
This bit form Online Onslaught about the financial success of See No Evil. My friend believes this movie can easily make it's money back through DVD sales. It opened Friday.
Many people wrote in trying to revisionist-history their way to calling Kane's movie a success. All of them tried to use the "dollars per screen" heuristic as their lead measurement.
So: in the interest of fairness, I will report that Kane's movie actually *was* the #3 movie of the weekend in terms of dollars-per-screen.
But in the interests of pragmatism, I will also report that it still did pretty sucky. The "dollars-per-screen" measurement really only has usefulness at the very top-end and the very bottom-end of movie distribution. Major blockbusters, you use the "dollars-per-screen" to determine whether you lost any incremental revenue by not booking more screens. Art house/indie flicks, you use "dollars-per-screen" to measure your movie's success in a very limited/regional release.
But "See No Evil" is neither of those cases. It was an attempted Major National Release that wound up on a meager 1300 screens. All the high "dollars-per-screen" number means is that movie theatres all over the country picked EXACTLY RIGHT in terms of deciding how many screens to dedicate to "See No Evil." It does *not* mean that "See No Evil" would somehow have made 3 times as much money if it had opened on the same number (3800) of screens as "The DaVinci Code." That's just dum-dum logic.
If you read my last post you might be interested that there is a Starbucks at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba! Are they selling the sodomy too? Yes, I know that those pictures were from Abu Gharib (pic below is on the way to Guantanamo) and of course I would not want to criticize anything our government is doing cause it might lower prison guard moral.
Ok, I lied, I don't care. I feel for the troops who might get wasted, but Guantanamo Bay is not a danger zone and they have Starbucks!
My review of Escape from Blood Plantation after these words...
I can't believe I forgot to bitch about Thursday nights TV taping. Some wanker director in TV1 class was doing a mini-mystery based on the game Clue - how can wicked short mysteries make sense? They can't, but I was not watching the production, I was working the lights, which is a really easy thing to do, so I only made one mistake that resulted in a scene being re-shot. I think I had my cues out of order. The lights go out (allowing for a murder to happen) and then I brought up the lights that must have been on another set. This was probably pretty funny, but I could not see it because the sets will filling up the whole studio and the computer and myself were parked behind a phony living room wall. These shows are pretty fun to work and if I were getting paid they would be really fun to work thanks to all the unnecessarily delays. I can't wait to get a job in the industry and get paid to sit around. I'm enthusiastic.
Less than two weeks till the big return to Hollywood. We are excited. You may be sad that their have not been any Cub Speaks shorts lately. Well she has written some, but I have not finished my portions of the reviews of these particular movies. I'm usually writing a bunch of things at once.
Escape from Blood Plantation on Marathon Video. I've had this tape for a while. The cover sure looks killer and it's got a sweet title, but I was worried it would not live up to those things and would be, you know, a lame action/adventure tale. Well, my fears were off-base and once again I can tell you that just because there has been no DVD reissue, that does not mean that the movie is forgettable. Actually, an internet search has discovered that a legitimate DVD of this might exist in Eastern Europe, but in the US, it's strictly used video where you can find Die Insel der blutigen Plantage, I mean Escape from Blood Plantation - but if you look below observe how the European DVD rips off Apocalypse Now.
The talented Udo Kier (Andy Warhol's Dracula) stars as the only good Nazi guard on an island (filmed in the Philippines) where the native girls have been enslaved. The native men are no good either, as they pal around with the Nazis and some may or may not have sex with the Nazi who thinks he is the Roman Emperor Tiberius.
The Nazis has lost their way, laments Bloody Olga, the lone female sadist on the island, who is also has the hots for Kier. Kier's plans to free his native girl friend are constantly foiled. He is forced to publicly give her 50 lashes to the delight of the head dictator's private guard of voyeuristic native midgets. The degradation does not end their - a few days later Olga forces Kier to have sex with her at gunpoint when she she interrupts him and his lady during their make-up sex. Yes, the girl has forgiven him for the whipping.
That's about the 1st two thirds of the movie right there, minus twenty or thirty offensive episodes that you should discover for yourself. I don't like to give too much away. At times the movie goes for epic moments (you should hear the score) but for the most part this is a cheaply made movie with a small cast and a lot of extras. The draw is the movie's cruel sleaziness (torture and humiliation) combined with inappropriate vulgar comedy, not the pitifully low-budget final action sequence. Hands down, more tasteless than movies that can be made today.
first, a link: Horror Movie Realism and its Truthfulness - not just on the subject of slasher movies, but blogging on the state of the world today. This is kind of what I like to do... now listen up!
Today I was sitting at a Starbucks in the Gas Lamp District of San Diego reading an article, the cover story of the USA Today, about Starbucks becoming more than a beverage, but also a lifestyle. Yes, they intend to convert their success with coffee beverages into success in the music industry, Hollywood, and entertainment in general. Seriously, because people love the coffee so much, they are gobbling up whatever Starbucks endorses. That is the power of the brand name. Well I do like to get Starbucks drinks, but I don't think their strategy will work with me. Forget about those Stones cds and quirky indie movies they are pushing! Still, I can't deny that the trick works with many others and I should do the same thing with this blog, which I am probably going to change the name of to 150 Days of Sodom since I wrote that randomly on a graphic among other phrases I changed just a little bit to make my own.
Yes, I am going to change the name of the blog, but you may go on calling it what you want, if you prefer the old names. The new branding, however, will have to do with the new name. No I'm not talking about printing T-shirts - though logos and names are important. I want to do a reverse Starbucks. They are looking for a lifestyle to match their coffee. I've got the 150 Days of Sodomy lifestyle to offer you in detail already. Sit around like a grub, watch old horror tapes, get wired for no good reason. Eat a whole box of cereal and take a nap. There you go.
Move to Hollywood and sit and that coffee shop all day watching people walk by like I used to do and am going to do again. Now if only I could be selling you the coffee when you sit their and use wireless internet to view my horror/lifestyle reviews on your laptop computer. That should be my ambition. 150 Days of Sodom brand coffee and snacks.
I see the Killer Workout DVD for America on ebay, but it really looks like a bootleg. I think that this movie is currently available in Europe only.
The alternative title "Aerobicide" is spray painted on a wall in one scene, along with "Death Spa", which presumably has nothing to do with the unrelated Prism Video release Death Spa (with Ken Foree) two years later in 1988. Death Spa is a better movie about a computer-controled health club where the computer becomes possessed. Killer Workout is your more typical slasher fair. Unfortunately the weapon of choice is an oversized novelty safety-pin. Shitloads of kills in this movie, but they are all pretty lame. What is equally lame, but far more watchable, would be the number of sexual aerobics routines that run in short clips at intervals throughout the movie. In one instance the routine shown includes characters who have already been killed in previous scenes. Let me tell you, this stuff is very funny and the music ("Aerocbicide" the song!) and the outfits make for some serious 80's cheese that even 80's fanatics who've seen it all will have to admit is up there with the most ridiculous.
The death toll in this movie is way up there, but the people just won't stop working out until... well, they never stop, the club is still hot when the credits roll. Not a well written movie. There is a little bit more of a story towards the end with a mildly twisted surprise, but on the whole just check this one out as a pop-culture novelty rather than a horror movie. From David A. Prior, action director of the awful war/horror crossover film, The Lost Platoon.
Stacie at Final Girl loves this movie and even put the slasher (who is it? I won't say) on one of her famous top 10 lists, ok, in the Hall of Infamy, but Stacie loves this movie, I swear. She says she could not do it justice in a review, but I think she could, in fact I think she could probably do some great commentary on the DVD if an American version ever comes out. Extras: Slasher expert Stacie Ponder on the significance of Killer Workout in regards to fitness craze that rocked the 80's.
1. No, I did not watch anymore of The Jar, Cub can't stand it and sadly she is not alone - imdb reviews.
2. In the meantime we watched Killer Workout (1986, David A. Prior) which will certainly get a review here. I think this movie is actually still in print overseas as Aerobicide.
3. Cub and I are moving back to Hollywood in two weeks. Blog updates from where the action is? I guess so.
4. Zoey has a new blog - chronicle.
5. One of the only good films of the 90's and from one of the greatest directors...
(press release)
On Tuesday, June 13th, Anchor Bay Entertainment, an IDT Entertainment company, will release the eagerly-awaited U.S. DVD premiere of Cemetery Man , one of the most requested horror titles of the last decade. Revered by consumers and industry critics alike for releasing classic and cult horror films, Anchor Bay continues that tradition for Cemetery Man (aka Dellamorte Dellamore ) with a new anamorphic widescreen transfer, and resurrected with a SRP of $19.98.
Directed by Michele Soavi, Cemetery Man stars Rupert Everett ( My Best Friend's Wedding and the voice of Prince Charming in Shrek 2 ) as Francesco Dellamore, a cemetery caretaker who finds that his seemingly dead-end job has recently become a little harder. Along with his sidekick Gnaghi (Francois Hadji-Lazaro), Francesco spends his days interning corpses and his nights killing “returners” – those who have risen from their grave seven days after burial. Life changes for Francesco when he falls for a beautiful, mysterious widow (Anna Falchi). When fate intervenes, Francesco must choose between Love Eternal and the Living Dead…
I'm part way through The Jar, a weird little film which I'm guessing is a student film that somehow made it on to Magnum Video in the 80's. It's not very linear and is ultra-cheep, yet has got a good look to it and has good music, though I guess it more like beeps and tones than music. I'm pretty sure they shot without audio and added all the dialogue in post-production. Expect a full review of this one when I finish.
Lady Vengeance hit theaters in Southern California this weekend. I caught it at the University Theaters in Irvine where I saw the 1st two parts of the Chan-wook Park trilogy, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, and Oldboy. That means I have lived in Orange County for too long, but that is coming to an end. In fact, during Lady Vengeance I got the phone call (on vibrate - and I stepped out of the theater to take it - obviously) confirming that Cub and I were approved to move into our new apartment in Los Angeles. Good-bye O.C. theaters, there are some good ones, but I won't miss the ad reels known as "The 20" which run for 20 minutes before the previews start in all of the Edwards Cinemas.
Lady Vengeance blew my mind. It was awesome and I've yet to find a single negative review.
Check out Omega Channel for more horror blogging.
We got approved on one apartment, but can I find better for cheaper? I will tear all of my hair out making up my mind. Cub is sick from food poisoning and has been sleeping all day - well when she is lucky she is sleeping - she is miserable.
It's been busy, the semester is ending and I go up to Los Angeles every other day to look at apartments. For L.A. people I recommend Boulevard Nights before the O.C. kids get wind of it and the place is ruined.
I tried to blow the lid of that modeling scam by logging on as this ugly girl from Boston and creating a profile. Wow, this chick is gross and the ruined the d.i.y. hardcore scene by getting gross in the pit. Of course some boys may have a thing for her, but if they are into girls this manly they ought to come out of the closet and move to West Hollywood, be my future neighbor. Actually no, stay away, the hardcore scene causes "gentrification" and that shit will raise my rent.
Anyway, my plan would have been hilarious, this super ugly would be on the modeling site and I'd contact so many people under her name. It would be a massive disgrace, but this did not work cause they wanted my credit card number - I've got to rethink this prank. There will be away to make the beast an agent for Impact Worldwide Talent.
I think that the last VHS tape I watched was Twisted Nightmare, a boring Friday the 13th rip-off. I think it has one racist scene, when the oil explodes on the sheriff's face and he crawls out from under the car and looks at the lazy black guy. Did anyone else pick up on this? I'm not one of those people who makes up some sort of racist injustice everywhere I look. No DVD.
Wow, we are looking for places in West Hollywood all the time now and have just had to downgrade our search drastically due to money issues. We blow.
I am not going to review Model Massacre right now. I'd like to compare and contrast that movie, better known as Color Me Blood Red, with A Bucket of Blood, but I have not watched that one yet.
Now, we all love scams, they are very amusing and scandalous indeed. I've known a couple of people taken for a ride by 'talent' agencies in Los Angeles. I've met the 'scouts' and even been to one of their offices. These organizations disappear after word spreads and then show up again with a new name. Here is a new one - impactww.com and here is their agent who contacting me over myspace via a poorly written spam message. He's probably getting scammed himself, a victim as well as a victimizer. He thinks he has a job as a talent scout - that's a good one!
The real story:
http://www.klaasdevriesjr.nl/k-files/talentrock/impact210.htm
http://www.easybackgroundcheck.com/impact210.html
People should be ashamed - look at this discussion - the scammer posts first, then someone quickly points out that it is a scam with links and evidence. The kids pay no mind and keep saying that they are interested. Egos before brains - it's really funny. I could write about this forever, but that is it for now, till I dig up some more dirt - by contacting the scouts and seeing what bullshit I can get them to try and sell me.
There will be investigative journalism!
"Unrated Edition" does not mean much.
Check out these suckers, duped by the Unrated Edition of Hostel that came out about half a month ago. See the conversation or just read these two quotes below.
Welcome to the world where uncut means jack shit. It just means that the featurettes and maybe two new lines of dialouge werent submitted to the MPAA, hence a new unrated version. Unless it is an extended directors cut dont expect anything new and exciting to be added to the movie.
and
For those disappointed in the dvd, I take it you weren't listening when Roth spoke up and announced that the Unrated cut was only 27 seconds longer? He stressed that the cut we saw in theaters was the cut meant to be seen but the studio knew slapping UNRATED on the cover sells better horror, so they kept in "more eye goo."
new horror blog alert - Fatally*Yours - from a girl in Costa Mesa, read it.
Went to see D.I. about 4 blocks from my house in Costa Mesa the other night. I will only be going to one more punk show in Orange County before movie next month, The Dickies in Huntington Beach. The crowd at these punk bars is pretty tough, a little more menacing than what I was used to in Boston. A random girl ran her hands threw my hair at the show. I bet she regretted that instantly, it has been a few since it was last washed. I had to hide in the corner, hoping not to attract any more attention, perhaps from thugs and gang members - going to shows alone is a bit of a drag - with all that in between band time and other people being there and all.
offensive band alert: The Cliftons. Even though these guys brought lots of friends with them to the show, it looked like the Cliftons were playing to an empty room. I guess there friends know enough not to get too close or already know they don't want to see what goes down on the stage at all when the Cliftons are playing their Meatmen-style anthems. These guys are very hostile, claim to be "fags" and "gays" and whipped their dicks out, sending anyone with 30 ft of the stage running in the opposite direction. They got the lights turned off on them and then smashed all their gear for an audience of like me and two other guys. It seems weird that this crowd of Orange County lowlifes could be offended by anything, but clearly they can be and this was it.
The band is named after Andy Kaufman's asshole alter-ego, Tony Clifton.
horror: So three or so months ago, 2001 Maniacs finally came out on DVD. They really wanted this one to get a theatrical run and had been holding off the release. Cub and I have seen the director and cast speak a number of times, including Robert Englund and Lin Shaye. We have also seen the majority of the gore scenes, as Tim Sullivan screened a reel of them at Fangoria last year. Word is that Sullivan may be getting his own Masters of Horror episode, which seems premature. Still, 2001 Maniacs is pretty damn funny and recommended for almost any horror fan and Herschell Gordon Lewis fans will not be disappointed with the adaptation.
Brian Yuzna's latest since Beyond Re-Animator (2003), is Rottweiler, which came out on DVD about a year ago, but was flying low under my radar at least until I noticed it at the video store a few weeks ago. Why I would pick up a DVD with this junk on the cover? I should be ashamed, but it was like looking at a car wreck that you gotta see. Imagine my amazement when I saw it was a Yuzna movie. I looked it up when I got home and saw that it stars Spanish horror legend Paul Naschy, one of my favorites. I guess this movie qualifies as Euro-horror as it is shot in Spain and may have had a theatrical release there. Naschy can't save this movie, which is total crap (surprise) and besides, he is not on camera that much anyway. What can I say that is good about this movie - well for one the picture is crystal clear - it looked terrific on my TV screen. Also, there is a lot of gore (and not much CGI), but Yuzna's worst film, Return of the Living Dead III, also looked very crisp and had terrific FX, but there are something's about this movie and that one, probably the dialogue and storylines, that just makes you hate the shit out of them.
I praised Yuzna recently in a post about James Gunn's Slither where I wrote about his best and first movie, Society.
Rottweiler has a lame 80's sci-fi type of script where an escaped American prisoner travels through the wastelands of post-apocalyptic Spain, always just a few steps ahead of a robotic Rottweiler. Enough said? Perhaps, but I'll add that the hero, Dante, also rescues a little girl, who is briefly his travel companion. A bunch of sentimental bullshit ensues.
How about the sex scene? I won't say much, but it is the least erotic I've seen, as the female seductionists grunts out her life story to Dante as she bangs him. Painful to watch.
"They call me Riverman." Does anyone else remember a line like that from Return of the Living Dead III? That might as well have brought that guy back, because Dante is visited by a know-it-all black mystic in ghost form as he comes across a graveyard in his travels. As goofy as the moment is, I felt more sympathy for the unfortunate mystic than for Dante himself. You see, Dante is a cocky American asshole, traveling through fascist nations for kicks as some sort of extreme sport. He mocks the real black refugees in an early scene, moments before they are massacred by the Europeans. I suppose we are supposed to see Dante's transformation over time as the film progresses, especially regarding his sexist/jealous behavior (I won't spoil this with an example, it's the most interesting factor...) or - maybe Dante is put before us as an anti-hero, either way, he resembles Kid Rock. You'll hate him and fifty bucks says you are gonna be rooting for the fuckin' robot dog anyway.
I'd like to say that this movie does not belong in Blockbuster horror section, alongside Sci-Fi channel crap like Frankenfish and Spring Break Shark Attack, but it most certainly is at home among the crap.
