Mass media musings and pop culture nonsense filtered through the brainpan of yours truly, with a special focus on the line of dialogue most used in film!
As has become obvious - I let the blog go dark since mid-November - I've been ill and just had my office invaded by an overnight guest for almost a week. It's made it easy to stop posting - and then my good blog buddy Maynard also put his incredible Horror Movie Diary blog on hiatus until next summer at least.
It sounded good. So I'm taking a few months off. Right now I plan to come back in Spring 2016. If you're a recent follower I apologize - but there are more than 1000 posts you can work your way through. And here's an offer - if someone wants to go back through every post and comment each and every one - my hiatus will end as soon as you finish commenting Saturday Night at the Movies 11/14/15.
Barring that - I'll see you all in a few months here - and probably sooner on your blog if you're still posting.
Regardless of when there's another post - you still Can Poke Me With A Fork, Cause I Am Outta Here!
We've reached the end of another October - and it's Halloween again! I have spent the day with some family and horror movies - rounding out a solid month of scary viewing. We'll get to a list of what I watched soon -but Saturdays are a regular department here - so here is...
Saturday Night at the Movies 10/31/15!
Who cares what picture we see?
I do, dammit, and although it's been featured on this blog many times - it is the go to choice for tonight's viewing...
Here's everything horror related I watched from October 1st through today:
* = rewatched
The Veil: "Summer Heat" (Boris Karloff) (DVD)
The Norliss Tapes (DVD) *
Scream - The Series: "Pilot" (DVR - recorded from MTV)
When a Stranger Calls (1979) (Blu-Ray) *
American Horror Story Asylum: "Welcome to Briarwood" (Streaming - Netflix)
Supernatural: "Scarecrow" (Streaming - Netflix)
Tales from the Crypt: "Loved to Death" (DVD)
Patrick (1978) (DVD)
Scream - The Series: "Hello, Emma" (DVR - recorded from MTV)
Calling Dr. Death (DVD) *
Thriller: "The Prediction" (DVD)
Among Friends (DVD)
Scream - The Series: "Want to Play a Game?" (DVR - recorded from MTV)
Stake Land (Streaming - Netflix)
Tales from the Crypt: "Carrion Death" (DVD) *
Horrific (DVD)
Scream - The Series: "Aftermath" (DVR - recorded from MTV)
American Horror Story Asylum: "Tricks and Treats" (Streaming - Netflix)
Zombie (1979) (Blu-Ray) *
Scream Queens: "Haunted House" (DVR - recorded from Fox)
Supernatural: "Faith" (Streaming - Netflix)
The Walking Dead: "First Time Again" (Live on AMC)
Severed (DVD)
Thriller: "The Fatal Impulse" (DVD)
The Hearse (DVD) *
Scream - The Series: "Exposed" (DVR - recorded from MTV)
Hausu (DVR - recorded from TCM)
Scream - The Series: "Betrayed" (DVR - recorded from MTV)
Thirst (1979) (DVD)
Scream - The Series: "In the Trenches" (DVR - recorded from MTV)
Cropsey (Streaming - Netflix)
Scream - The Series: "Ghosts" (DVR - recorded from MTV)
Visiting Hours (Blu-Ray) *
Scream - The Series: "The Dance" (DVR - recorded from MTV)
Curse of the Devil (DVD)
Scream - The Series: "Revelations" (DVR - recorded from MTV)
Halloween 6: The Curse of Michael Myers (Producer's Cut) (Blu-Ray) *
The Walking Dead: "JSS" (DVR - recorded from AMC)
The Beast Within (Blu-Ray) *
The Walking Dead: "Thank You" (DVR - recorded from AMC)
Frankenstein (1931) (Blu-Ray) *
Supernatural: "Route 666" (Streaming - Netflix)
Chromeskull: Laid to Rest 2 (DVD)
American Horror Story Asylum: "Nor'easter" (Streaming - Netflix)
Survival of the Dead (Blu-Ray)
Scream Queens: "Pumpkin Patch" (DVR - recorded from Fox)
Splinter (DVD) *
Scream Queens: "Seven Minutes in Hell" (DVR - recorded from Fox)
Lovers' Lane (VHS)
The Hills Have Eyes (1977) (Blu-Ray) *
The Hills Have Eyes 2 (1985) (Blu-Ray) *
Dead Silence (Streaming - Netflix) *
Would You Rather (Streaming - Netflix) *
Hellraiser (1987) (Blu-Ray) *
Don't Look in the Basement (Elvira's Movie Macabre) (DVD) *
I Spit on Your Grave (2010) (DVD)
Tales from the Crypt: "The Trap" (DVD)
Curse of Chucky (Streaming - Netflix)
Untraceable (DVD)
Strange Behavior (DVD) *
ABCs of Death (Streaming - Netflix)
The Midnight Meat Train (Blu-Ray)
House of Wax (1953) (DVD) *
Frankenstein 1970 (DVD) *
Cabin Fever: Patient Zero (Streaming - Netflix)
Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (DVD) *
Black Christmas (2006) (DVD)
Hope you had a great Halloween!
Until next post, you Can Poke Me With A Fork, Cause I Am Outta Here!
John Russo and George Romero wrote it - one of the most iconic horror movies of all time. It opened up a whole new sub genre in the horror arena and took a formerly low level cinema creature and made it a Top Ten Movie Monster.
The movie is Night of the Living Dead.
Since then John Russo has written more - books and movies - including Midnight, The Majorettes, and the novel Return of the Living Dead - that prompted its own spinoff film franchise.
John Russo
One other thing about John Russo - he may not know the exact name of the convention he's at - but he totally knows good blogging when he sees it.
Wow. One of the co- creators of Night of the Living Dead just endorsed my blog. Wow.
Thank you Mr. Russo!
Until next post, you Can Poke Me With A Fork, Cause I Am Outta Here!
Shea Wigham probably wouldn't - but regardless this will be tonight's choice...
A really solid creature feature - with a parasitic critter that takes over a body so it can keep spreading itself. A foursome that just met up stressfully end up at a gas station where the creature has already made its presence known.
Good stuff, and residing under the skin of my video vault on a fine DVD - and we could be giving it a watch at any time - even this very evening - if you'd like to come by!
Until next post, you Can Poke Me With A Fork, Cause I Am Outta Here!
My screenwriting gig has popped up again - draft five is underway - so three posters as usual but no other words from me today. Enjoy the cool posters though!
Until next post, you Can Poke Me With A Fork, Cause I Am Outta Here!
Frank Ferguson would - if you don't yell his character name in his face every time you meet up with him...consequently we will be making this the pick for this evening...
My favorite horror comedy of all time. Some bemoan it as the sad end of the Universal Studios Monsters - and it was their last cinematic hurrah - but I think it does two incredibly important things exactly right - it puts Chaney and Lugosi back in to their most famous roles - Chaney for the fifth time and amazingly Lugosi only for the second - and it gives Glenn Strange his third outing as ol' Square Dome. The second thing - it treats the monsters with respect. Other than one quick gag that has the Frankenstein monster frightened by Lou - they play it totally straight - being just as scary as they were in the previous pile of movies.
I love this movie and will absolutely watch it at any time with any one - and it's standing by in the video vault on a couple of DVDs - so come on by if you're so inclined - and let's give it a spin!
Until next post - you Can Poke Me With A Fork, Cause I Am Outta Here!
Blood of the Vampire (Universal-International, 1958)
Here's a rip off of Hammer's Horror of Dracula made by Universal the same year. They got Donald Wolfit to star, since he's all British like Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. They made Wolfit up to look like Bela Lugosi too - as can best be seen in the last poster, which is the British Quad.
My favorite is the American one sheet in the middle - just for really drawing the comparison - "He begins where DRACULA left off!"
Until next poster, you Can Poke Me With A Fork, Cause I Am Outta Here!
Donald Pleasance would have - he always cared - so we will pick this one for tonight...
Seventeen years after the first movie - the sixth film in the series rolled into theaters. Between the film's production wrap and release the news of Donald Pleasance's passing had come out, so this was his last performance. And from what showed on movie screens - they hadn't managed to finish his role in the film - because Dr. Loomis says he's going to go do something, then a moment later they cut outside to a shot of the building and a dubbed in scream provides a terribly lackluster last moment for the character.
I really didn't like this movie at all in its theatrical presentation - and I slammed it in my review in Encore Magazine. (Favorite line I wrote: "The movie doesn't even end - it just stops; and we're left with the true curse of Michael Myers - that he'll be back in a part 7." That there was a part 7 and it was actually a very entertaining sequel was not something I could have predicted.)
But back at this sixth movie - in a very weird turn of events there was a "Producer's Cut" of the movie - which provided a very different experience from the director's version that played theaters. I saw a bootleg VHS of it a friend loaned me - and while it still wasn't exactly a GOOD movie, it was MUCH better than the theatrical cut.
It appeared that the Producer's Cut would remain something passed around in these bootleg editions - but then it was announced that a big Blu-Ray set of the entire series would actually include a remastered and cleaned up edition of the Producer's Cut along with the theatrical edition - and I started saving my pennies.
I do have that ultimate set in the video vault, and this movie is going to kick off Crazy Movie Weekend: Halloween Horrorfest 5 in less than two weeks! Please come check it out - or any of the other dozen plus scarepics we're going to watch over that weekend! If you can't make it then - come on and check out this flick with me sooner - even this very evening!
Until next post, you Can Poke Me With A Fork, Cause I Am Outta Here!
Not really a theme week, but when two of the random choices have the same subject, why not switch out the third to make it a hat trick of zombie love?
Zombie Hunter (Well Go USA Entertainment, 2013)
I haven't seen this one - and the reviews I've seen don't trip over themselves with praise, to say the least - but sometimes you're just in the mood for some Danny Trejo, and you just have to hope this is one he's really in and not making a split second cameo...
Dance of the Dead (Ghosthouse Underground, 2008)
Yet another zombie movie riding on the coattails of Shaun of the Dead - but this one has some positive reviews - and I'd give it a watch if I didn't have to work too hard for it.
The Living Dead (First Division Pictures, 1935)
This was made the previous year in Great Britain as The Scotland Yard Mystery, then got this more provocative title when it came to the USA a year later. I haven't seen it, but I'd take a look given the chance.
Until next post, you Can Poke Me With A Fork, Cause I Am Outta Here!
Claude Akins might, or he might not. It's his choice. As for our choice, it's this one tonight...
October is here and I've switched over to all horror viewing in my solo watching - and okay, this is a TV movie and not a theatrical release (at least in the United States - it might have played on the The Big Screen overseas). So that's somebody's YouTube clip of a sort of trailer - and the "poster" looks like the front of a VHS release maybe.
A couple of years after the original Night Stalker TV movie - but before the Night Stalker TV series - producer/director Dan Curtis tried to replicate its success with a pilot for NBC about another intrepid writer (Roy Thinnes of The Invaders) investigating the supernatural. But this one had a gimmick - which predated shows like Supernatural - that the reporter had disappeared but had left a pile of audio tapes which would be played - then showing the adventure from his narration.
I guess eventually the mystery of where David Norliss was would have been answered - but NBC didn't pick up the series - so we only have the pilot movie.
It's nowhere near as good as The Night Stalker (to me, anyway - not having Darren McGavin and Simon Oakland makes for a lesser movie) but it has a terrific supporting cast - like both Night Stalker movies - and is worth a watch. I have it on a swell DVD from Anchor Bay and we could be giving it a spin any time - including this very evening, if you're so inclined.
Until next post - you Can Poke Me With A Fork, Cause I Am Outta Here!
Just wanted to pop in and let it be known that for this, the sixth October since the blog launched in 2010 - I am not doing a full month of 31 posts. I did it for five straight years - but I'm just not able to do it right now - I will be posting the regular department posts all month, and I will get up to some Halloweeny goodness with some other posts. I will also post a list of all the horror I watch starting today.
In the meantime, if this news upsets you - feel free to check out the 155 posts from the previous Octobers - and please leave a comment on each one you visit!
Back Saturday with a poster/trailer combo!
Until next post, you Can Poke Me With A Fork, Cause I Am Outta Here!
We're less that 90 days away from the release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens so let's take 12 minutes and look at my favorite Star Wars spoof of all time:
Back when my family first got Showtime - the cable channel followed the traditions of television up to that time - every movie started on the hour or half hour. Of course, some movies have run times that don't fit that prerequisite. Nowadays, they end one movie, identify the channel, tell you what's on that night, and basically start the next movie.
Back in the day, if a movie ran, say, 126 minutes - like the theatrical release of Battlestar Galactica - Showtime would start it at 1:00pm, and when it ended at 3:06pm - they would then show short subjects to fill the time so that the next movie could start at 3:30pm.
And, as a matter of fact, when Battlestar Galactica aired on Showtime, they licensed Hardware Wars to fill half of that 24 minutes - and showed another short and some previews for the channel every time Galactica aired. I watched BG several times that month - but I think I watched Hardware Wars every single time BG was on. I LOVED it.
I still think it's hilarious. I do miss the version that originally aired on Showtime - as the one above is an edited version. Yes, filmmaker Ernie Fosselius pulled a George Lucas on his movie. Originally, in the briefing sequence, it ran longer, and at one point the picture on the screen he points to showed a naked woman. It was very brief and from the distance hard to see any real detail - but the director has taken that out to make the short more family friendly. That bit has been chopped out and the remaining two bits seamlessly blended together.
I memorized EVERY WORD of that briefing scene and still remember it to this day - and the missing chunk in the short now totally throws me off. In order for it to cut back together cleanly - they cut out "Follow that baby down to the spherical decombustion atmospheric helio servo tubes" and then it came back to "and the pneumatic centrifugal antigravity shield deflectors" and went on.
(If we're ever in the same space and you ask, I will recite the whole scene for you.)
Until next post, you Can Poke Me With A Fork, Cause I Am Outta Here!
One of those British flicks starring an American that they made throughout the 50's. I haven't seen this one, but I imagine it would be a slightly slow drama with some charming special effects. I'd watch it, certainly.
The Astrologer (December 1975)
Before The Exterminator, here was James Glickenhaus's first movie - with Exterminator II's director Mark Buntzman along for the ride. I don't know much else about it - but I was intrigued there was another completely different movie the same year called The Astrologer. Hmmm.
Juggernaught (Grand National Pictures, 1937)
Not a horror movie per se - but more a crime drama as a couple works to poison someone slowly to death. It was made during Boris's brief return to England after his first round of Universal Horror Movies before he moved back to Hollywood for most of the rest of his career.
Until next post, you Can Poke Me With A Fork, Cause I Am Outta Here!
Howard Platt would - if he can stop remembering when he was Connie Sellecca's boyfriend before she moved on to Gil Gerard and then John Tesh - so we will be making this tonight's choice...
Man here's a good one! Three big time action stars! Fun villainy from Jay Robinson (Dr. Shrinker himself)! A supporting cast that includes Howard Platt, Sheila Frazier, Alex Rocco, and a young Corbin Bernsen! Scads of action and stunts!
When crazed white supremacists cook up a plan to use genetically modified poisons to wipe out the African American populations of three major US cities - it's going to take "The Big Three" to put a stop to it. Sit back and enjoy watching Jim Brown, Fred "The Hammer" Williamson, and Jim Kelly decimate an army of racist crackers.
This one is wonderfully non-PC - starting with an opening scene of pallets of dead African American men stored in a basement and with enough N-bombs spewed out to make Quentin Tarantino blush - and almost non stop action - produced by Harry Bernsen (Corbin's dad - explaining his presence) and directed by Gordon Parks Jr. (Shaft).
It just joined the video vault in a four movie Jim Kelly set - so we could be watching it - and any or all of the other three movies - at any time - if you want to come over to my place and get your kicks along with me - even this very night.
Until next post, you Can Poke Me With A Fork, Cause I Am Outta Here!
Here's three posters from a 12 chapter serial starring the one and only Bela Lugosi. I think I have this in the video vault - but I haven't watched it if I do. I would have loved going to the movies each week and seeing a chapter of this across three months. I still really enjoy watching serials.
Until next post, you Can Poke Me With A Fork, Cause I Am Outta Here!
Hoyt Axton might - if you presented it with white cheddar popcorn - and while we pop that up and get to sprinkling - here's tonight's choice...
The incredible and short career of DIY filmmaker H.B. Halicki never fails to fascinate me. Halicki was an auto parts and junk car entrepreneur who decided to make a movie - which resulted in the original Gone in 60 Seconds in 1974. That movie was successful, but Halicki didn't make another movie for eight years - but finally he did - and here it is - another explosion of automotive bedlam - with a couple of real actors added in this time.
I haven't seen it yet - but I did just add it to the video vault on DVD - and you could drive like a bat of hell over to my house to watch it with me at any time - even this very evening!
Until next post, you Can Poke Me With A Fork, Cause I Am Outta Here!
This was the kind of movie that Universal-International generally knocked out of the park. Sadly, this wasn't U-I - so it's not all that great. Nice poster, though.
Drive Me Crazy (Twentieth Century Fox, 1999)
Not a movie you'd generally expect to see here - but I did see it in the theater (I was a reviewer for a local entertainment guide) and just because it's not expected to be here - here it is.
The Tattoo Connection (World Northal, 1979)
Here's a movie made overseas in 1978 - and somewhere along the way it was given the title Black Belt Jones 2. Whether or not it was ever an actual sequel to Jim Kelly's 1974 hit - I'd like to see it.
Until next post, you Can Poke Me With A Fork, Cause I Am Outta Here!
George Romero does - because he's a hell of a guy - and since he's just been the first guest announced for "my" horror convention in March - let's celebrate that with this one...
Truly one of the greatest movies ever made - notice I did not feel the need to include the word "horror" there - this is a Gold Standard movie that holds up completely to this day.
To read my full review of the movie - please go HERE.
For this post - I have several editions of the movie ready to go - and we can go with a less pristine version hosted by Elvira or a remastered edition that looks crisp and clean - I'm good with either - and we could be doing that this very night - if you want to congregate outside my house to watch it with me!
Until next post, you Can Poke Me With A Fork, Cause I Am Outta Here!
All in the
Family - which has had more spin offs than any other TV show.
All in the Family - Archie, Edith, daughter Gloria, and her hubby Mike.
The Jeffersons - the Bunkers' neighbors spun off to their
own show when they moved on up to a swanky apartment
in their show.
Maude - Edith's liberal cousin got her own show after sparring with
Archie a few times on the original show.
Gloria - Archie and Edith's daughter left Mike and
moved West - working for crusty vet Burgess
Meredith while raising son Joey - in a one season
flop.
The original series spun off into a sequel series that centered
around Archie buying his favorite bar and running it.
704 Hauser - In the strangest spin off - twenty years after the original
show premiered, they tried a new show set in the house Archie and Edith
had lived in, now with an African American family moving in - and father
John Amos was nearly as short sighted as Archie was. This one didn't last long.
The Mary Tyler
Moore Show
The Mary Tyler Moore Show - Mary and her friends and co-workers
and her life in Minneapolis.
Rhoda - Mary's best friend moved away to her own show that ran for years.
Phyllis - Mary's other pal also moved into a show of her own - but
this one did not last very long.
Lou Grant - in the strangest spin off here, Mary's boss graduated from the
original sitcom into an hour long drama series that had him running a news
bureau in a different city. This one also did very well, running for several
seasons.
Happy Days
Happy Days - an early cast shot.
Laverne and Shirley - the girls dated Fonzie and
Richie a couple of times, then got their own show
that ran eight seasons.
Mork and Mindy - a weird spinoff in that Happy Days introduced an alien
character who then time traveled to the then modern day for the series.
They broke the young lovers off to their own show
but it didn't last long and they hightailed it back to Happy Days and finished out the run.
Out of the Blue - Here's the winner for weirdest
spinoff for this show - another fantasy concept
started on the otherwise sorta realistic Happy Days
about an angel - who then also showed up in the then
modern day for a brief run on his own series.
M*A*S*H*
M*A*S*H* - not the original cast, but the longest running lineup in the
Korean War series.
AfterM*A*S*H* - Three characters spun off to a two season run working
in a veteran's hospital after the war.
W*A*L*T*E*R* - A few years later, they tried to get a show out of Radar
becoming a police officer back home. They only got the pilot made, but that
still counts...
Cheers
Cheers - where everybody knows your name.
The Tortellis - Carla's ex-husband and his new family got their own show for a little while.
Frasier - when Cheers ended, the crew continued working on a spinoff about Frasier and his life in Seattle with his friends and family. The two shows ran a total of twenty years (!).
Three’s
Company
Three's Company - the roommates and their landlords.
The Ropers - the landlords spun off to their own short lived show.
Three's a Crowd - after the original series ended, Jack and his girlfriend spun off to another series with the great Robert Mandan.
The Andy
Griffith Show
The Andy Griffith Show - there were more cast members, but here you get four.
Gomer Pyle USMC - they sent goofy Gomer off to the Marines where he annoyed Sergeant Carter for several seasons.
Mayberry RFD - When Andy Griffith was ready to pack it in - they decided to continue the show - spinning off with the supporting characters of the last couple of seasons carrying on for a few more.
The Dukes of
Hazzard
The Dukes of Hazzard - All of the stars and the car.
Enos - they sent the deputy off to his own show as he went to work as a big city detective. It didn't last and Enos returned to the original show for the rest of the run.
The Dukes - they got two Saturday morning seasons out of a worldwide car race between the Dukes and Boss Hogg and Rosco - with all of the original voices.
Dragnet
The detectives on the case, and looking for "just the facts."
Adam-12 - the spinoff followed the adventures of uniform officers Malloy and Reed - with the late great Martin Milner and Kent McCord starring.
Emergency! - and the other spinoff focused on the paramedic side of things.
The Golden
Girls
The Golden Girls - the ladies looking their best.
Empty Nest - the ladies' neighbor got his own show and they crossed over occasionally.
The Golden Palace - After the original show ended on NBC, three of the ladies moved to CBS for another season as they ran a hotel with Cheech Marin as the hotel's chef.
Until next post, you Can Poke Me With A Fork, Cause I Am Outta Here!
