Samhain Project 5: The Young Ones: Nasty

"Excuse me, do you dig graves?"

"Yeah, yeah, they're all right."

It was sometime in 1984.  I was only about 12 or so the first time I encountered BBC's The Young Ones.  As I watched on MTV, it was a sitcom about British angry college youth, living in their dorm (or flat) and shouting at each other.  But like many of my contemporaries, I loved it.  It aired from my perspective anyways, Sunday Nights, right after Monty Python's Flying Circus, and before another British piece of television, which escapes me at the moment.  And then 120 Minutes.  

I loved the show so much that I eventually passed it on to Aidan decades later. The memories of it were so strong for the two of us, that it led to amazing text conversations like this one.

Anyways, I watched every episode, but the one that really stuck with me was Season 2's Nasty.  It wasn't intended as a Halloween special, as it aired originally in May, but it certainly fits the aesthetic.  From the opening credit's Horror styled graphics to its vampire-related plot. See, the 4 young protagonists have got a video, (Yes, they've got a VIDEO!) that is being used on loan from Harry the Bastard.  Sadly, none of these fuckers know how to work a VCR. 

They're trying to watch a video nasty of course.  For those not in the know, a "video nasty" is a banned videotape in the UK, a case of horrendous censorship pushed upon Britain by the British Film Commission.  Some titles took decades to be freed up.  The whole thing was bollocks.  Anyways, do they get the VCR to work?

It doesn't matter.  A vampire shows up, the boys run, and the first time I saw the episode, it was my first taste of The Damned.  And of course, they perform Nasty, one of their more memorable tracks.  And, natch, it's a song about video nasties.  Perfect.  I fell in love with the band at this point.  They looked bizarre, they were loud, their music was extremely varied, and unlike many of their contemporaries, they could play. 

As a 12 year old, I overthought the shit out of everything.  And as far as things I overthought, The Young Ones was no different.  First of all, they were edgy as fuck.  Way more than any of the sitcoms I was watching that were produced stateside.  Angry British youth in the era of Margaret Thatcher?  Should one be surprised?  But every once in a while I'd see a flicker.  Being an inquisitive young lad, I recorded this episode, found the flicker and guess what?

It was a still image of an outdoor spigot.  Pretty Benign.

But part of me thought that something sinister may be going on, because it didn't seem to make any fucking sense.  Was this some sort of weird attempt at a subliminal imprint?  Who knows, but it weirded me out.  Not enough to stop watching the show, of course.  It was too funny to do that.  If I was going to keep listening to AC/DC despite Night Prowler's presence on Highway to Hell, why interrupt this?

Years later, I'm still throwing my Young Ones DVD in for that 80's flashback.  And I miss the shit out of Rik Mayall despite his lack of American appearances,  

With MTV shuttering this week, it's an end of an era, one that actually ended a long time ago when the channel stopped being Music Television.  But when I remember back to my earliest days of watching cable's musical stalwart, The Young Ones is a healthy chunk of it. 

 

Samhain Project 5: Starsky & Hutch: S2 E7: Vampire

I have an extremely early childhood memory that takes place in my first homestead, 12th Street in Somers, Wisconsin.  Sort of an old Burb, but "out in the county" of Kenosha, Wisconsin.  A bit of a rurality.  I love that little burg.  Its own post office.  Its own "crick" behind it where the weed happened.  A scary Boo Radley residence that resided right in the middle of it all (and according to Google Earth, it's still there), and train tracks on the town's edge adjacent to the hair styling joint. 

And there was the Somer Superette.  That deserves detail, and I have it here: Superette. 

That memory I speak of entails me watching an episode of Starsky & Hutch that aired around Halloween.  I remember sneaking into my parents room to turn it on, and watchng it on their little Admiral black & white television.  (If you're interested, a picture of that sucker is part of the graphic for my blog segment Movies I stayed up late for.). And I remember running from the room as a vampire ran across a parking garage to accost an unsuspecting victim.

What was this shit?  At that age, I loved Starsky & Hutch!  I wasn't supposed to be frightened by it. 

You know, in a weird way, the show still holds up a bit.  Despite the corny disco-styled music and clothes (it was the 70's!) it works fairly well as a detective procedural with plenty of action.  Also Paul Michael Glaser and David Soul had a fair amount of chemistry as they solved crimes in the big city.  Driving around in that badass Ford Gran Torino. 

But a vampire?  Seems women in our intrepid detectives town are being killed and drained of their blood.  One being the sister of a very young Suzanne Somers. (Somers?).  Colleen Camp as well as MASH and Police Academy vet G.W. Bailey (Rizzo to those in the know) appear in this episode too. I think Colleen Camp did a spin in a Police Academy movie as well, now that I think of it.  It's fun to watch people doing early work as their careers are just starting to get off the ground. 

Guess who the vampire is, though?

John Fucking Saxon, that's who! Yes, THE John Saxon.  One of the busiest actors for decades in television, and big and low budget features alike.  John Saxon, Bruce Lee's sidekick in Enter the Dragon!  John Saxon of the 1974 TV movie Planet Earth.  John Saxon, Nancy's dad in A Nightmare on Elm Street!  John Saxon of Mitchell fame!  The dude was a Golden Globe nominee for The Apaloosa!

A vampire in Starsky & Hutch. 

Hollywood is a weird ass place man. 

Good Trouble

I've been hearing all week about the "radical left" and their extremist violence and hatred for America.  News reports that the speaker of the house was calling the No Kings rallies "Hate America" rallies. 

Sheer calumny. 

Today my wife and I attended a No Kings rally in a red district, in a red county, in a red state. It exceeded my expectations. 

There were 3,000 plus of us there.  Mostly it seemed the protestors were well informed, whether it be what was dictated in their signs, or their conversations.

They were upset by the out of control ICE activity, and lack of empathy. The monstrous intent of future LGBTQ legislation, and treatment of those people.  The Epstein files.  The personal usage of the DOJ as a weapon.  The financial struggles being created when promises were made to reverse them.  The abusive, racist, misogynistic language used in their speeches.  The tariffs.  

The hypocrisy.  

Ad Infinitum. 

What did I see today at the "No Kings" rally?

I saw educated and patriotic protest signs. 

I saw veterans of multiple wars walking about with signs of disgust at the current state of affairs of the military they fought for and with.

I saw people in inflatable T-Rex, purple dinosaur, dachsund, teddy bear, shark, and unicorn costumes. I saw a hilarious dancing chicken, and a Trump baby.  I saw an ornate Godzilla costume that was either top flight construction, or very pricy. 

There was a man walking about with an acoustic guitar that had a sign taped to it that said "This Machine Destroys Facism", playing beautifully rendered tunes. 

Another man was playing the bongos.

There was a person with a powerful machine shooting thousands of bubbles into the air as they stood on the opposite side of the street, a pretty good crowd of their own there.  The bubbles caught the steady breeze and danced across Parker Road creating a soft flicker of reflective light and iridescence.

People of all ages were gathering with their children, their dogs, friends and family.  Friendly conversations covering their beliefs and their sadness.  I saw the smiles that grew from being with people who believed that this is supposed to be a place where we all love one another.  They were all showing the ample traffic their signs, their smiles, and their shouts for some change. 

What was the reacton?

It was 99 percent positive.

There were honking horns,  some folks with signs of their own.  Shouts of "No Kings!", as well as thanks, cheers, and many other words of support.  One woman was crying and mouthing “thank you” as her car drove by.  A little girl was making a thumb and forefinger heart sign to us as a woman shouted from the crowd "We're doing this for you, sweetheart!"

Multiple cars drove by playing "FDT",  and one was blasting Bob Dylan's Times They are a changin'.

Some people drove back around to honk and shout support 3 and 4 times.  Repeat supporters, as it were. 

There were peace signs being thrown up, and fists being raised through sun roofs.

That was the reaction.

There was no violence here.   There was no extremism here.  There was no hate here.

This is what the first amendment of this country is all about, and we showed out to use it. To get our message across, to hold a mirror up to those in charge that are not representing most of us in any form or fashion.  

So call it whatever you want.  Call it whatever they want you to believe it is.

It was peaceful protest.

Samhain Project 5: The 1982 Friday the 13th marathon on Lichter Road

 

My first exposure to the Friday the 13th franchise was thanks to Spectrum.  It was August 13, 1982 and Linda, Don, and some friends were dropping by to babysit. The folks were out and Linda, as readers know, was and is a horror buff.  This night, Spectrum aired not just the first two Friday the 13th films, but the incredibly stupid Richard Benjamin comedy Saturday the 14th.  It was horrible.  And people pick on me for liking Transylvania 6-5000.  Sheesh. 

Anyhoo, my best friend at the time and I were running around out in the dark with the front porch light on full blast.  I don't remember what we were doing.  It was probably stupid.  My friend, Bill, really wanted to go in the house and check out the movies.  I was scared to.  Not because I didn't like horror films.  I mean, I was still somewhat apprehensive about them at the time, but no rookie.  I feared the gore that these two movies were legendary for.  But Bill finally talked me into going in.  And I was able to handle it!  Why? 

Because it didn't look real. 

As good as Tom Savini is at what he does, the shit just wasn't convincing enough yet to make me do what I was afraid I was going to do. Vomit.  I felt brave and empowered by the lack of true realism at this point (let's be honest, Tom hadn't done Day of the Dead yet.  That shite would get to anyone.) and sat through Part II quite reasonably.  

Yeah, I watched through fingers, I wasn't that hardcore yet. 

But these memories of Lichter Road horror are incredibly vivid in my mind.  I know Bill enjoyed it, as there is no way his parents would let him watch the shit, and I took a major step forward in being able to enjoy a good horror film going into the future. 

Nothing like a balmy Wisconsin August evening, your sisters stopping by with a crew of friends to watch the newest trend in filmdom, the slasher, your best friend crashing at your place, and just beginning to hit that point where you will be counting the last remaining days of summer before heading back to school. 

All thanks to Spectrum, folks, the film school of my childhood. 

Samhain Project 5: Nightmares

Nightmares is a glorious fucking mess.  It was one of those movies that I recorded on an old TDK VHS tape back in the mid-1980's because I thought it was so badass.  Watching it now, some 40 years later I see it for what it was.  

Kind of cinematic garbage. 

But it's a guilty pleasure to me, because it has so many little nuggets of greatness.  First of all, it's a 4 part anthology film that was rumored for a very long time to have been a trashed television project that became a reclamation idea for cinematic release.  Apparently, those in the know, (whoever they may be) have debunked this line of questioning.  Look, it was released in the summer of 1983, clearly shot in fall of 1982, as First Blood is on a cinema marquee across the street from where a very young Emilio Estevez is shooting some footage.  So timewise, that kind of kills the story that the sequences were meant to be used in a 1981 television show.  As far as a 1983-84 television show, that will remain up in the air. 

But who cares, really.  The producer claims is was straight up intended to be what it is.  

Now, to the nuggets. 

Part one:  Clearly a play on an ancient urban legend.  The killer in the back seat trope.  And really, this sequence works.  Our lead is a young Christina Raines, who is effective as an incredibly dumb woman who gives in to her cigarette craving and heads out at eleven at night for smokes despite the widely reported existence of a serial killer in her local area.  We have a young William Sanderson appear, who's almost unrecognizable to the untrained eye.  Good ol' E.B. Fuckin' Farnum himself from Deadwood.  And Larry, who always showed up with his brother, Daryl, and his other brother Daryl in the 80's classic Newhart.  

And a quick splash of Lee Ving, before his band kicks off the next sequence with their killer punk number, I Don't Care About You.  It's clearly a demo, as it sounds way off from the track on FEAR's debut album, The Record.

 Part Two:  Emilio Estevez, who looks about 16, plays a complete asshole who goes into a really racist take on a Latino neighborhood video arcade to hustle money to feed his need for a game he wants to take to the 13th level, The Bishop of Battle.  Continuing on from the first sequence, the acting is solid here.  The writing, not so much.  The computer graphics used here, obviously dated, aren't as embarrassing as they could have been.  The sequence is bumped up with music from FEAR, Negative Trend, and Black Flag. A little early 80's L.A. punk never killed anyone. 

Part Three:  Lance Henriksen (getting to be a trend here in '25, as this is his third appearance in this years Samhain Project) is once again better than the material as a priest who loses his faith, and ends up in a battle with old Scratch himself, who decides to take the form of a Chevrolet pickup truck.  I would have preferred a Ford-F150, because I associate that vehicle with evil at the moment, but I digress.  Tony Plana (who I always hear his voice trying to placate El Duapo in Three Amigos) also does nice work here as a friend of Lance's.  (I use his first name, we go way back, even chatted briefly on social media once.)

Part Four: For some reason, I feel this one is the weakest.  And if you love cats as much as I do, you'll understand.  Veronica Cartwright and Richard Masur are a well-to-do couple, who along with their daughter face the wrath of a rat, but this isn't just any rat, this is the Teufel Nagetier.  Masur plays an asshole here, but as he engages with the rat (not quite like Peter Weller in Of Unknown Origin) but in a way that slightly redeems the character, he becomes more like the characters you're used to seeing him play. 

Nightmares was released (of course) by Anchor Bay on DVD before disappearing, and as usual driving the price of the film through the ceiling.  That is until Scream Factory released it in 2015. 

Speaking of which: 

Samhain Project 5: Barney Miller S3E5: Werewolf

 

This aired on October 30th of 1976, so I more than likely didn't watch this when it first aired.  But I damn sure caught it on multiple reruns over the years that I watched, as they aired all over early evening and late night television in the Milwaukee and Chicago market, which we had full access to back in the day. 

This episode may have slapped me with a litte Mandela Effect too. I'll explain shortly. 

It's a tough go for the guys in the 12th precinct, as they have to pull 24 hour shifts due to a swine flu epidemic.  The Wonderful Ron Glass tries to point out the irony in that fact without insulting his fellow detectives, but he can't bring himself to do so. 

Fish takes a call from a dude claiming to be on the verge of entering into a full moon phase of his lycanthropy and claiming he will start to murder people.  Wojo and Harris go to pick him up. They have to lock him up due to his freaking out, and in the midst of all this Woj has to deal with his fear of needles as a City Health Office nurse is en route with vaccines.  (Today that would get her murdered).  Then Harris takes a liking to her, which induces much of his suave debonairness. 

Our Werewolf begins to lose his proverbial shit in the cage, freaking out both Yemana and Wojo before, as is his nature, Barney shows up and gets him to calm his ass down. 

All around a great episode.  But here's what weirds me out. 

I swear, that multiple times over years of rerun watching, there was a scene where our werewolf is making growling noises making Yemana and Fish turn toward the cage.  And the werewolf  is literally upside down in the cell, suspended by god-knows-what with a hideous face, drawing hordes of laughter from the studio audience or the laugh track. 

It's not there now.  Mandela Effect?

All that aside, this is a great performance from character acting legend, Kenneth Tigar.  All over television for decades, genre fans will know him for his appearance in Phantasm II, and very recently as a priest in the Omen TV spinoff, Damien.  You genuinely feel empathy for a guy suffering from a mental illness issue, but he plays it for laughs in a gentle way, until during his "transformation", he gets a little bit genuinely out there.

A great Halloween series-based episode.  And for the great Kenneth Tigar, there's this:

Samhain Project 5: Pick Up A Book, John Did

 

If there's anyone out there that reads this, at least with any regularity, they know John Carpenter is an artistic heroic figure in my life.  Not only have I seen (and own) all of his films, but I love to see him interviewed.  He's an intelligent, humorous, political, and empathic figure.  His insight is pretty slick.   It's not a secret that his biggest influence on his career in the arts (besides his accomplished musician Dad) was director/producer Howard Hawks.  Hawks was responsible for many western classics (Rio Bravo influenced Carpenter's Assault on Precinct 13) and The Thing from Another World, which John remade and everyone hated until 20 years later. 

But there's others.  The epiphany moment of his childhood that made him want to become a filmmaker was the opening of the film It Came From Outer Space.  In one interview, one that doesn't seem to get intertwinted in documentary packages at least, he mentions a book.  An old Random House compendium of short literature entitled Tales of Terror and the Supernatural.  I managed to stumble upon a copy of this book, published circa 1944.  It even says on the copyright page that it's a wartime book, and every effort has been made to "conserve materials".   A product of its time.

A little info on where it fits for John here:  

The book is full of Poe, Pierce, Woolcott, Faulkner, Hemingway, and Lovecraft, among many others. My copy has been through the wringer but I can certainly see why a mind like Carpenters was drawn to it, as my mind has to several different texts over the years.  It's no secret that John is a major influence on the horror filmmakers of today. He should be, being a member of the group of young guns that gave us "The New Horror" films of the second golden age of Hollywood, the 1970's.  

It's no secret that roots go deep.  What works now had seeds sown a long time ago that were watered and tended to 40 years ago.  And I'm thankful for that, because the Halloween season wouldn't be the same in large part without John Carpenter.  It's not just the 1978 masterpiece, kids.  It's the vibes created by its sequel (which he only wrote and produced and has no real love for), and Halloween III: Season of the Witch, a great spooker, unfairly maligned and incorrectly listed as a failure.  

The television horror-fests that run all the way through October are littered with his films.  As I write this, sitting in an illness-induced haze created by either a sinus infection or internal skull tissue swelling, Buddy Repperton is being chased down by Stephen King's killing machine herself in John's underrated adaptation, Christine.  Yep, it's time for AMC's Fear Fest.

John's still there now, even today, recording albums deep in eerie atmosephere, scoring David Gordon Green's reboot/sequels of his 1978 classic, other's work including Firestarter.   His agreement to do the music for Bong Joon Ho's next film made Bong raise his arms in victory on the stage at a roundtable attended by fans.

   

John is a legend to me.  His visuals, his eerie tone of music in many films and albums, and the memories associated with all of it.  From the films' many viewings to seeing the TV Guide ads for their first time on network television runs.  It's all mixed with memories of the 5th grade October skies, trick or treating, burning orange and piercing red leaves in the trees, and the smell of Autumn Wisconsin air. 

Thanks, John.  And thank you Howard Hawks, and Random House for giving him what he needed. 

Samhain Project 5: The Surfer

Disclaimer:  Have been a Nicolas Cage Wonk for 43 years.  Bias should be accepted. 

The Surfer got a 5 minute standing ovation at Cannes.

In The Surfer, Nic plays a gent (the title role) taking his son on a quick surf on a break in Luna Bay, Australia, where he grew up.  The plan is to float in the water and gaze off into the distance at his childhood home, which he now repurchased for the good of the family. 

That's rudely interrupted in a gruff fashion by some beach thugs led by the recently deceased Julian McMahon (shame, hell of an actor), and Cage and son are ridden off the beach for not being locals. After Nic's kid is deposited safely at home, the surfer spends the rest of the film getting deeper and deeper involved and obsessed with these thugs, who prove to be a cult on the beach.  The whole film takes place in a car park and the Luna Bay sandscape.  As the surfer’s anger and need to get this beach situation straightened out, it grows conspiratorial.

   

Who here in Luna Bay isn't working to destroy The Surfer's life, as he begins to degrade along with all aspects of his life due to the actions of these alpha-male cult members?  These freaks have real jobs and relationships away from the bay, but become cro-magnon thugs corrupting all those around them once back on the beach.   Their desire to get back to the aggressive nature of "real man" functioning is their only goal.  They'd be incels, if they didn't have women in their lives. 

You, as well as The Surfer begin to question the reality of it all, as this cult begins to pick The Surfer's life apart. 

There are shades of Eden Lake, mixed with Wake in Fright, as Lorcan Finnegan's masterful shooting creates a shock-bright background to the very dark happenings.  Much like 1982's The Prey, long-lasting shots of the local wildlife bring beauty and a tad of humor into the events. 

Similar to Cage's Pig, The Surfer avoids going the easy route by becoming a revenge-fueled action thriller and instead becomes about a man's journey.  In Pig, Cage was in total control as he searched for his prize pig, not by leaving his woodsy surroundings and tearing apart the city like James Brolin in Night of the Juggler, but by using his connections, his intellect, and inner peace, cultivated from years of isolation.  In the Surfer, you join a man, on screen for almost the entire film; this is a Cage tour de force. He's stripped of all he thought he was, connects with his past, and has to face some dark decisions, before another outside force pushes decision making into its final phase. 

Not an outright horror film, this is more about what makes mankind tick, and how close to the edge we are at all times with our dependence on technology, and thinking that monetary quality of life has all the answers.  Is this beach cult right in getting back to "the animal" in all of us?   Or can you hang onto your humanity in the face of monsters trying to reduce you to your lizard brain?  

Does it matter?  

Samhain Project 5: Millenium: The Curse of Frank Black

Millenium is amongst the most underrated television series of the 90's.  A Cris Carter concoction that is a quasi-spin off of his X Files, its an FBI procedural with more than a healthy dose of creepy supernatural undercurrent. 

Many episodes operate as FBI procedurals with the lead character, Frank Black, (Lance Henriksen, in a role he was born to play) despite his broken past, investigating dark and murderous situations.  His "gift" is the ability to see what the killer sees, which help his case solve rate reach astronomical proportions.  Frank is recruited by a shady organization that uses ex-law enforcement operatives to reach their goals.  They are called the Millennium group, and their purpose is not to bring about the apocalypse as the Millennium approaches, but as Frank puts it, "Conrol it". 

However, Millennium had a knack for tossing in the occasional off-beat episode laced with humor that would be a light lift from the grim proceedings it otherwise espoused.  Included in this was the classic Jose Chungs's Doomsday Defense, among others. (Charles Nelson Reilly saw awards nominations for his brilliance in that episode). 

There's one episode that fits in the middle of the creeps and the chuckles, and that's the Halloween episode of the second season, The Curse of Frank Black.  It's a smooth-running and tension building affair as Frank goes about Halloween with his daughter and other pleasant fatherhood operations, mixed in with flashbacks to his youth in the 40's where he runs across a neighbor on Halloween night, (played with panache by Dean Winters, who now regales us with chilling chuckles in insurance commercials as the embodiment of bad luck, Mayhem. Winters is a hell of a character.  Find out why: here) who explains Samhain, (even if he pronounces it wrong) and its dark interludes.  His visage appears later in the present day, giving Frank positive advice, some of which he will obey. 

Some of which he will not.

Frank tumbles through the episode, dealing with his failed Bobby Darin CDs (who wouldn't see that as a negative omen.  Damn it, if I expect to hear If I Was a Carpenter, I want to hear it!) the repeated occurrences of numbers that have sinister meanings, demonic apparitions, ghost story telling teenage twats in the basement of his home, (Who he dispatches Sam Loomis style. I almost expected him to say "Lonnie, get your ass away from there!") and sundry situations that may or may not be real. 

Regarded in this day and age as amongst the best and most thought-provoking of series-based Halloween Television, The Curse of Frank Black would be a wonderful trick for those that have never seen the show, and a hell of a fucking treat for regular viewers, guys like me. Rack this one up with the Great Pumpkin, folks, because it's a laid-back and chilling hoot, perfect for the season. 

Samhain Project 5 : Tales From the Crypt: Demon Knight

Back in the late 80's HBO slapped us upside the head with the anthology series Tales From the Crypt, and it was really a popular and celebrated affair.  So much so, that in the mid 90's they decided to take it to the big screen with a pair of films, beginning with Demon Knight. Is it a great film, or even scary?  No, but it definitely takes from its source well, with solid acting, great production design and juicy practical effects. 

Demon Knight is a strange story involving seven keys required by some hellion, that when brought together, will return the universe to its original black nothingness.  This whole thing reminded me of that 80's metal band Helloween and their weird album The Keeper of the Seven Keys.  

Thankfully, Helloween was not involved in the film.  What we have is the fact there is only one key remaining out of the hands of our villain, played by Billy Zane.  Our hero, played by ridiculously underrated actor William Sadler, is holding onto this key, which contains the blood of Christ. 

Yeah.  Read that again. 

What makes Demon Knight work is our two leads.  Billy Zane, despite being an ancient being of supreme evil, is absolutely hilarious and full of wackadoo non-sequitirs.  Try this one on for size:  "You ho-dunk, po-dunk, well, then-there, MOTHERFUCKERS!"

Genius.

Sadler's character is the supreme foil, as he plays it as straight as Robert Redford or Clint Eastwood ever did, which creates a fantastic cinematic dichotomy that really brings this film to life. These two guys really make this thing work and sell the shit out of it. 

What Sadler's goal consists of is holding onto this key, and protecting the sad-sack characters around him from Zane and his minions from some kind of gelatinous hell.  A great supporting cast is here, including a young Jada Pinkett, Thomas Haden Church, John Shuck, CCH Pounder, Brenda Bakke, and the voice of fuckin' Roger Rabbit himself, Charles Fleischer. 

Fleischer was also the famous recurring street hood/jacket dealer Carvelli, with his partner Murray in Welcome Back Kotter.  I used to watch the re-runs as an Elementary School Lad, hoping for Carvelli's appearances. Dude was flat out hilarious. 

And Dick Miller.  The Great One.  In a scene where Billy Zane's Satanic Shitface uses the Miller character's alcoholism against him to try to claim his soul is made absolutely heartbreaking.   An amazing moment performed by the cinema legend that the legendary Joe Dante gave a second leg of a career to, and thank God for that.  You've all seen him.  It's Murray Futterman from Gremlins!

Demon Knight is a lot of fun.  It swings the same stick as its parent series, and works well for it.  A great choice for Halloween. 

Samhain Project 5: Pumpkinhead

Aidan and I were huge fans of the Misfits album Famous Monsters, even if it was about 5 years after it was released.  There are many great punk/metal tunes on this record regardless of what Danzig devotees will say.  It's a fact that I'm no real fan of either Glenn Danzig or Michale Graves' personalities, so I've no skin in this game.  One of the album's more memorable tunes is Pumpkinhead, inspired by the Stan Winston film of the same name, with lyrics pulled straight from the legendary poem that was the spark for the film itself.   

Aidan and I would frequent an exchange, Vanguard Video, a nostalgia store that specialized in used DVDs, for sale and rental.  This was back in the mid oughts, and sitting on one of the shelves was the disc  pictured up top.  Being that myself and Aidan (who still shops there, it's still standing.) were also fans of the star of the film, legendary actor Lance Henriksen, we picked up the disc without thinking.  And we never regretted it. 

It became a favorite of both of ours, and it was a movie we pulled out every September and usually watched at least once throughout Spooky Season.  Pumpkinhead, for Aidan and I, felt every bit as much like Halloween as candy corn, creepy masks, the fall bite in the air, scarecrows and corn mazes. 

Pumpkinhead was unique unto itself, a fairy-tale styled legend of loss, retribution, witchery and demons.  It's directed by Stan Winston, special effects wizard that we lost way too soon who was responsible for masterful effects like those in Jurassic Park, The Terminator films, and Edward Scissorhands, among many others. 

This may be the only film Winston directed (leaving the bulk of the effects work to his proteges, Alec Gillis and Tom Woodruff, Jr.) but you wouldn't know it.  There are some beautiful shots, excellent pacing, and reasonable acting, besides that of Henriksen whose brilliant performance can be both frightening and heartbreaking in this film.  Much like George Clooney and Michael Caine, he possesses the ability to show dramatic emotional shifts using only his eyes.  If you think that's easy, stand in front of a mirror and give that shit a shot. 

It may be telling a simple story, adorned with top flight monster effects and really good production design, but it has long since become a Halloween staple.  A low budget, monster-kid flight of fancy, I highly recommend Pumpkinhead to any and all looking for a movie that grabs you at the outset and keeps you locked in until the end. 

Oh, and watch out for frequent John Carpenter collaborator Buck Flowers, who plays a wizened hillbilly.  One who seems like king of the rednecks at the outset, but shows of all involved in Pumpkinhead's tornado of violence, he was the one that knew what was up. 

Check out Pumpkinhead. You'll see in short order how its become a cult classic and Halloween rite of passage. 

Samhain Project 5: Werewolves

Frank Grillo is not suffering from a shortage of work these days.  This is mostly a good thing.  Steven C. Miller's low budget Werewolves, which saw a limited theatrical run,  is an example of the good side of that fact.  This is the second werewolf movie I've written about in a short time period, and if you have complaints, you'll have to take it up with grievance department of the Samhain Project.  But they're busy this time of year.  Keep that in mind. 

This is actually a sci-fi sorta werewolf movie however.  Some sort of lunar issue has developed, so that whenever there's a supermoon, all exposed to the moonlight become werewolves.  Now the world has some other global shit to worry about.  This species just can't win.

In what could have been a positive light, can you think of anything else that's uniting us?  Well, actually, the gun-nut neighbor to Grillo's character, who lives with his widowed sister-in-law and her daughter, is a major problem in and out of human form, so I guess that we remain divided.  But I digress. 

Doomsday prepping on a Purge-style scale takes place as the supermoon approaches, and Grillo is a CDC pandemic expert who looks like the Punisher, so much like Jimmy in Mi Familia, he's "got shit to do".  The shared home is a fortress, priority one.  His other priority, under the supervision of Lou Diamond Phillips, Grillo and crew are working on an answer to this freakish biological-lunar problem. 

There is some nice character development as Grillo's character and sister-in-law are still united in grief over his firefighter brother, her husband, who died during the first supermoon event.  She has an adorable daughter she has to protect, while her brother-in-law is off saving the world, and Ifenesh Hadera makes a hell of an action mom when it comes down to the blows being exchanged. 

I am definitely not a big spoiler guy, but you didn't expect the lab work to come off without a hitch, did ya?  Katrina Law makes a good foil to Grillo who has to help ol' Frank battle across a werewolf infested city to get home to his unconventional family.  It's a solid pairing, well illustrated, as the whole low budget affair actually is, in its short run time. 

There's just a little bit of non-irritating CGI used during the transformation sequences, but otherwise the creature work is accomplished by monster wunderkinds Alec Gillis and Tom Woodruff Jr.  These dudes have won awards and did yeoman's work here. 

Werewolves has some excellent creepy shots, keeps the intensity rolling, and for its limited scope, gives you a lot of bang for its buck. 

Samhain Project 5: Rust Creek

Rust Creek is a backwoods survival thriller, but not one that truly fits in the horror movie category like Wrong Turn or even Deliverance. What it is is very intense and well acted for a low budget affair from IFC Midnight.

A lot of terrible shit goes down, brought on by the male gaze perpetrated by your basic white redneck shitheads. Unnecessary evil.  Our heroine, Sawyer, heads from her college confines to attend a job interview in Washington, D.C. over the Thanksgiving week and ends up sidetracked by a less than helpful GPS in the fall Kentucky forested netherworld.  Once lost, (of course) she's accosted by a pair of dipshits who should be named Bubba and Cletus, and whose intentions are less than gentlemanly.  

Sawyer is an unassuming hardass, and a convincing one thanks to a grounded performance from Hermione Corfield. Blessed with martial arts skills, she separates herself from these goons, and heads off into the forest, but not before being wounded.  The local police are well, the local police.  And hence, corruption rears its ugly head. 

While Sawyer may have black belt defense ability, she's not a survivalist, and Kentucky in November is not friendly.  The elements are not able to get to her before salvation and protection come from an unexpected place, and a heck of a quiet and haunted performance from Jay Paulson.  An unexpected and believable partnership develops, and along the way you learn more than you want to know about meth.

Written and directed by females, two gifted ones in Jen McGowan and Julie Lipson, respectively, Rust Creek is a tight, intense and fast moving little thriller that deserves a lot more credit than the streaming burial it seems to have received.  It's highly recommended, and available from AMC+ and Tubi

 

Samhain Project: Late Phases

Nick Damici is one of my favorite people involved in film. He frequently partners up with Jim Mickle to make some wonderful films including the incredible Joe Lansdale based piece, Cold in July among others. He also worked with Mickle to produce the top-flight Hap & Leonard, the series for Sundance. 

He’s fairly well known for his role as Mister in Stakeland and its follow up. But in Late Phases: Night of the Lone Wolf,  he stretches in a role that is absolutely fucking hard to believe. He plays a 70+ year old war veteran who has a strained relationship with his son played by an equally effective and heartbreaking Ethan Embry. 

Damici’s character moves into a different old folks home, one that seems to have a problem with local murders every 30 days or so. He is not stupid and decides that his final battle is going to be against the obvious; The Full Moon Killer.  Late Phases is extremely underrated and overlooked, and in a way that kind of pisses me off.

It’s that fucking good, folks.  Kudos to the Spanish director of the nightmarish Here Comes the Devil, Adrian Garcia Bogliano.  I think his film ranks up there with Joe Dante's The Howling, and An American Werewolf in London as top-tier werewolf films.  I dig my lycanthrope cinema and Late Phases is a good one, kids.

Fantastic performances, scary practical effects, and dry twisted humor make this a Halloween must. Particularly for those who dig their monster movies with a little fur and a lot of teeth. The bites aren’t just bloody, they go for the heart, as folks who have unfinished business in their relationships can really relate.

Plus you got Tom Noonan and Larry Fessenden and Dana Ashbrook, he of Return of the Living Dead Part II and Twin Peaks.  I'd like to thank Rue Morgue's John W. Bowen, penman of the It Came From Bowen's Basement segment of the George Romero issue from last year, for reminding me of the gloriousness of this film.

Samhain Project 5: Being Scared of "Eight is Enough"

Now, I'm no stranger to being frightened by what would normally be saccharine television.  Check this shit out:  A Very Brady Nightmare.  

But!  I wasn't alone!  Observe: Kindertrauma.

Always nice to have corroboration.  

Anyfrigginway, when I was a young tyke,  Eight is Enough, as cornball as it was, was adored by the female members of my family, and thusly I remember catching more than my fair share of episodes, so I got an Eight is Enough contact buzz. Thanks, Linda.

One January in 1979, ABC aired an episode of the program entitled Horror Story.  Seems all kinds of creepy shit happens to the Bradford family, just scattered about town instead of all of them being sequestered in Tom & Abby's house to face these dangers.  The crux of what spooked me was that one of the daughters, I believe Nancy, has a blind date arrive who strikingly looks like Tony Perkins. 

Now I guess I wasn't ready for horror quite yet, as my dip into Stephen King filmwork began with Salem's Lot, which was 11 months down the road.  I guess in that stretch, I somehow developed the gearwork for scary programming.  

But here there was horror imagery, meant to be an homage, I guess in a comic sense.  However, it was as George A. Romero said of Frankenstein, "bothering me a little bit, there".

Not a lot sticks out in my mind in terms of details, other than a pair of sisters walking down the stairs with a candle in the dark, as there is a storm-induced power outage.  The coup de grace, the silhouette of a massive butcher knife highlighted against kitchen curtains from outside by a flash of lightning, was the money shot that stuck with my poor little eight-year-old brain for quite some time. 

It's slightly less stupid to be frightened by an episode of Eight is Enough than The Brady Bunch, but kids are kids and their minds operate a certain way.  You can't blame them for the way their brains process things.  I just remember this particular episode of family TV scaring the shit out of me. 

They should have aired this in October. I've believed that for years.  Check out this fuckin' promo.  It's like the trailer for a Friday the 13th movie for chrissakes.  Maybe that planted the seed, so that I had no choice but to be scared once it ran. 

The episode is available on Tubi.  IF YOU DARE!!

The Samhain Project 5th Anniversary: The Monkey

In the summer of 1988, whilst living in Wausau, Wisconsin, the setting of the SYFY channel's engaging Revival, (oddly enough, also Stephen King novel title) my sister Pee-Wee and I hit a bookstore much like Kenosha's long-gone but core memory, The Paperback Exchange.  I waxed nostalgic about that joint here. 

I bought a hardcover copy of Steve's Skeleton Crew, a short story collection. I decided my beat-to-shit paperback wasn't holding its water anymore, so I bought a beat-to-shit hardcover.  

                                     

I know, it sounds stupid, but there's a logic there. A ROB logic. Anyways, when I opened it up, a leaflet fell out, which was one of the short stories from the book, The Monkey.  

It was from one of those magazines that you wouldn't want your mom to know you look at.  I didn't know what to make of it, but I held on to the leaflet for a while.  Eventually it got beat-to-shit in nature, (tired of that hackneyed terminology yet?) and had to be tossed, and I didn't really think much of it.  Now, the damned thing is selling online for an ungodly amount.  (I'm not of a mind to discuss specifics).   It draws up negative emotions not unlike the time that I gave a box of basketball cards to my adored nephew, a box that just happened to contain that legendary Fleer Michael Jordan rookie card...

I'm gonna change the fucking subject now.   Ahem.

So, Frani and I watched Osgood Perkins' recent The Monkey.  As you well know, the entertainment world is engaged in Phase Two of the Stephen King filmic explosion.  A renaissance of the highest order. for the last eight years or so, the man (and I literally mean THE MAN) has had a cinematic and small-screen renaissance.  I really hit that hard in last year's Samhain Project.  The Monkey is brilliant.  It is not a mimeograph of the short story, but contains enough of the original's creepiness to own up to its pedigree.  

Perkins is the son of legendary Anthony Perkins, and the talent for the eerie has definitely been passed down. His brief appearance here is also a chucklefest. (Way back in the Anchor Bay days, his supporting turn in the zom-com Dead & Breakfast was pretty amusing, too.) Filmography wise, he's responsible for the chilling The Blackcoat's Daughter, and the absolutely menacing Longlegs.  He tells a great story in general, but here he mixes in a generous sprinkling of jet-black humor that makes you laugh while (at least, if you're like me, feeling slightly guilty) looking around the room to see if anyone else is. 

The concept of two brothers and their connection to a wind-up stuffed monkey that bangs his cymbals together with results from hell is retained here, but given modern sentiment, and severely twisted characters, and a comic glue that holds it all together.  I loved The Monkey, while Frani was hoping for less goof, more oof, she still enjoyed it.  As it is wrapped in uniqueness, I thought it would be a great start for this year's Samhain Project, which I'm sure you'll notice if you pay any attention to this thing of mine, I'm starting a tad early this year. 

Why?  Because I love it, and the longer what's now become known as Spooky Season lasts, the happier I am.  

Looking Back

 

I lost my Dad 45 years ago today.

For decades I thought the fact that it still hurt so much after all these years meant that there must be something wrong with me. 

Then, not too long ago,  I had a therapist say to me that thought was wrong.  I was entitled to my pain.  Especially from a burn that took place at age 8.  It left its mark, and there was nothing wrong with trying to make it less awful. 

You don't get over some things. 

But you can get past them. 

So it still hurts as it haunts. 

I still fucking miss my Dad.  And it's because I still love him deeply even though he's been gone this long.  Sometimes it feels like he passed away a thousand years ago, and it often feels like yesterday.  

One of my greatest regrets is not saying goodbye to him as Mom begged me to the day he aspirated.  The day my Mom said through tears, "He's dying..", as she fiercely pecked 9-1-1 onto the phone's keypad. 

I couldn't say goodbye.  It was too final.  It would mean he wasn't coming back. 

What I should have said was "I love you", before that ambulance vanished down Lichter road into eternity. 

Independence Day Traditions

 

Every July 3, I try to watch Dan O'Bannon's Return of the Living Dead.  I was up until 12:40 last night watching the 1985 zombie classic for the reason stated above.  Now Twister and Jaws are recognized as the ultimate in summer entertainment, but this one has its moments.  If you have the stomach. 

I distinctly remember Hemdale films pushing the crap out of this movie in the summer of 1985 while I was staying at my sister's house in Marshfield, Wisconsin.  That trailer got to me, even at the ripened old age of 13.  There was something disturbing about it, even though its in-your-face nature told you it was elbowing you in the gut.  Nudge, nudge, wink, wink, brudda.   

But it bugged me. 

I didn't really see it until the summer of 1986 after myself and some friends of mine in Waco, Texas ran from vandalism trouble, broke my key off in the door upon returning home, and hid in the dark making sure pursuers didn't follow us to the point that they knew where we were.  They didn't. 

After my co-horts went home, I went up to my room to watch the film.  By myself, as was often the case on Friday nights, my folks weren't home.  The movie had the same affect on me that I thought it would, watching the trailer the summer before.  Return is one of the few movies that can, with perfect balance, combine a disturbing underlying grim dread with laugh out loud dialogue and slapstick humor.  Not an easy tightrope to walk, but Dan O'Bannon manages to pull it off.   I mean, because this film is one of, if not the first zombie movie to feature the oft-hated "running zombies", our characters really seem like they're in a situation devoid of all hope as panic and numbers seem to be against them at every turn.  And then the military handles it just like one would think they would.  ]

The movie's opening feels akin to Zack Snyder's Dawn of the Dead remake in the sense that something feels off at the start.  You're uncomfortable in your settings.  And for good reason. 

Despite it's oft-comic nature and yuks, the film is really some grim shit. Yet, you're laughing. 

But that trailer in 1985, man.  It really freaked me out.  The looks of desperation on the faces of Clu Gulager and James Karen, the completely convincing utterance of Don Calfa as he chokes out "Things are getting out of hand here, Burt."  Meanwhile, punk legends 45 Grave's Partytime is blasting in the background as a complete antithesis to this grim and hopeless vibe rolling above it.  It may have captured the tone of the film it was selling, at least in my case, as well as any marketing conglomerate has in the history of filmdom. 

So, happy July 3rd, folks, and I am sorry if you can't make it to Burt's Sunday Barbecue because "the movie lied."

The Spectrum Files: Vice Squad

 

As a kid, it's no secret that I was impressionable.  Back then at 9 years old, even though I knew movies were an art form, they still struck me as probably more real than they should have in terms of emotional affect.  To this day, I get a feeling from them, an electrical arc that may be positive or negative, despite my being more up to date with the fact that it's fiction. 

As Frani reminds me, "It's not real".  I get that.  But art still has the power to disturb.  Sometimes, as Rob Zombie said, "It's not safe."  Especially in my case.  Even at 53, I have films on my AVOID, or at least PUT ON HOLD list, because I know some of the events that may take place in the film.  Despite knowing it's a performance, I don't feel psychically prepared for what I know will unfold on screen.  So I wait. 

Anyhoo, while watching Spectrum (my film school at age 9-10), I caught a trailer for Gary Sherman's Vice Squad.  There was a character in there that the trailer did such a great job of making him the personification of evil, that I had to see the film to make sure he got his just desserts.  Mind you, he wasn't a monster, not a creature, not a demon, not even a masked serial killer, per se. 

He was a pimp.  A pimp named Ramrod. 

The trailer gave you just enough of his pure unrefined evil to make you shudder.  An evil magnified by the performance of one Wings Hauser, father of Cole. The offspring known to many as Rip on the overblown television county fair known as Yellowstone. (Rest in peace, sir, we lost Wings recently.  He did leave an interesting body of work.)

Ramrod's path of destruction leads the Hollywood Vice Unit, lead by one Gary Swanson.  This is a role where he displays degrees of empathy, and a vicious prioritization of job over humanity that when put together lead to a good illustration of his dichotomy.  Ramrod becomes his night's agenda, as he brutally beats to death future MTV Veejay Nina Blackwood at the film's outset.  Ramrod's a wily one, escaping incarceration at one point to continue his murderous trail of mayhem through the night.  He ends up attempting to seduce and take into his pimpdom a prostitute named "Princess", a single mother trying make some sort of life.  Little does he know Princess is wired up. That leads to the beginning of the manhunt.

The role of Princess is played by the former Mrs. Kurt Russell and she's incredible.  People talk about what kind of hell Stanley Kubrick put Shelley Duvall through, a sort of psychological torture.  Well, Sherman puts Mrs. Hubley through a physical nightmare and her performance is hard to forget.  It's a shame low-budget sleaze faire like Vice Squad suffers from poor dialogue and even worse acting from supporting characters, because Season Hubley's performance is sad, tortured, angry, rebellious, strong and sympathetic; deserving of acknowledgement, if not hardware. 

The Neon 80's is beautifully shot by one John Alcott, veteran of many Stanely Kubrick films, and with that pedigree, a few others one would be surprised he did.  This is some great nighttime shooting,  like low budget Michael Mann.  The action sequences pack intensity and speed, the stuntwork looks like people engaging in dangerous activity instead of stunts.  Pretty convincing stuff; the film works. 

As a kid, I probably shouldn't have been watching this sex and violence riddled affair, but it wasn't the first, and certainly wouldn't be the last. Outside of a few uncomfortable scenes, not a lot stuck with me other than the anticipation of seeing it.  But the payoff is still locked in my mind. 

And yes, it is worth it.