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AWESOME-tober-fest 2015: Hammer’s Curse of the Werewolf (1961)

Posted in Genres, horror, monsters, movies, nostalgia, pop culture, werewolf with tags AWESOME-tober-fest, AWESOME-tober-fest 2015, Halloween, Hammer Studios, holiday, monsters, movies, reviews, werewolf, werewolves on October 28, 2015 by Paxton

Today I’m journeying back to the heady days of October 2010 when I covered werewolves for Halloween. My intention that year was to actually watch and review Hammer’s 1961 werewolf film, Curse of the Werewolf. It was supposed to go right there during that last week after I covered Universal’s Wolf Man movies. However, plans got away from me and I was not able to cover it that year.

Now, I have that chance back. Plus, I haven’t had a Hammer movie review on AWESOME-tober-fest since 2013’s review of The Plague of the Zombies. So, let’s do this.

Hammer’s Curse of the Werewolf starred Oliver Reed and Catherine Feller. It was the only werewolf movie Hammer ever made. It’s very gothic and tragic, lots of sexual subtext and, kind of all over the place.

Let’s take a look, shall we?

Hammer Films card COTW card
Title cards for this movie. Not quite as cool as the Horror of Dracula cards.

Marques and wife
This is the Marques Siniestro and his new bride. In this opening scene the movie goes out of its way to show you how mean and cruel this Marques can be. Even his wife is looking at him like, “You’re such an asshole.”

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The chef brings out some roasted goose for the newlyweds. The Marquesa says she doesn’t like goose, so the Marques actually gets up out of his chair, yells at the chef for not knowing the Marquesa doesn’t like goose and throws the entire tray of goose on the floor. Then while the chef cleans up the mess the Marques pushes the chef down into the mess.
ASS. HOLE.

Beggar 01 Beggar 02
After the chef debacle, a lowly beggar comes to the Marques’ table to beg for food and drink. The Marques offers him a handful of gold to be the Marquesa’s pet. Then, he completely humiliates the beggar by making him dance in front of everyone for some food and wine. Then the beggar is sent to the dungeons anyway.

Here’s the Marques leering at his wife before sending the beggar to the dungeons. He just informed her it’s time for them to “retire”. Ugh, shivers went up my spine the way he said it. She’s clearly re-thinking her life choices at this point.

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AWESOME-tober-fest 2015: What Was It? A Mystery (1859) by Fitz-James O’brien

Posted in books, Classic literature, Genres, Halloween, holiday, horror, monsters, pop culture with tags AWESOME-tober-fest, AWESOME-tober-fest 2015, Book Report, books, Halloween, holiday, Invisible Man on September 30, 2015 by Paxton

And we are off! So, I had planned on beginning AWESOME-tober-fest 2015 on October 1, but I got excited and I’ve decided to start one day early. Today. So, enjoy everyone, my discussion of all things invisible man begins NOW.

Usually with any discussion of invisible men, ground zero is assumed to be HG Wells’ 1897 story, The Invisible Man. And yes, that is probably the most important work on invisibility to date. And yes, I am going to review that book (check back tomorrow). However, Wells’ story wasn’t the first to feature invisibility, or an invisible man.

harpers-weekly

In 1859 Harper’s Weekly published a short story by Fitz-James O’Brien titled What Was It? A Mystery. O’Brien is considered to be one of the forerunners of science fiction. And this particular short story is considered one of the earliest known uses of invisibility. It predated HG Wells’ story by nearly 40 years.

I was doing research on invisibility for this month and discovered an anthology from the 70s that included stories about invisibility. It was called Invisible Men and it’s edited by Basil Davenport.

invisible-men-anthology

I looked through the list of stories included. There is one from Wells himself, but not the titular Invisible Man. It’s another story entitled The New Accelerator. O’Brien’s short story was also included. Doing a little more research I discovered the history behind O’Brien and this particular story and decided that I should give it a read.

It’s a very interesting and atmospheric story. It’s based in an old apartment building and features several of the renters. One of them is attacked by an unseen force one evening. The unseen force is captured and tied to the bed. The renters try to figure out what it is and even take a plaster cast of it. But the invisible being dies before they can discover what it is. That’s the long and short of it.

It’s structure is very similar to a lot of Lovecraft’s early stuff. The story is told by a narrator from the present who is relating events that happened in the past. The events are never really fully explained and it leaves you with an uneasy, creepy feeling. Another similar story that comes to mind is Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s short and creepy The Ring of Thoth as well as Lovecraft’s Out of the Aeons.

And that is What Was It? A Mystery, one of the first uses of invisibility in literary fiction. It was a fun and interesting read. Especially to set the table for the movies and books to come this month.

Also, check out the blog Countdown to Halloween for more Halloween-y, bloggy AWESOMEness.

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Movie Man-a-thon: Dracula, secret agents and a time traveling Ethan Hawke

Posted in Dracula, Genres, horror, monsters, time travel with tags Dracula, monsters, Movie Manathon, movies, reviews, time travel, vampires on March 19, 2015 by Paxton

Steph took the kids to her parents for the week so I was left to my own bachelor devices. So, as usual, I programmed a viewing schedule of movies and TV shows that Steph would not ever want to watch. I’ve done this before, time to do it again.

Dracula Untold (2014) – The Universal monster rally movies can now begin! I didn’t hear a lot about this movie beforehand but I look forward to any movie utilizing the classic monsters, especially Universal who says they want to plan a “monsterverse” set of movies. This actually wasn’t that bad and a pretty good re-interpretation of the legend of Vlad the Impaler. It makes him a more sympathetic character and places the inhuman bloodthirsty killer on another character from which Vlad will get his vampiric status. The cast is great and the effects are pretty awesome. Recommend. However, to be honest, I was a bit disappointed we didn’t get a glimpse or hint of another monster in a post credit sequence. But that’s a relatively small gripe.

Kingsman: The Secret Service (2015) – Until very recently I had no idea this was based on a Mark Millar comic. Honestly, I think Millar had the screenplay written, no one bought it, and so he made it into a comic. Then when the comic did pretty well, he was able to sell it to Matthew Vaughn. And this is a pretty spectacular movie. I love Colin Firth and he’s brilliant in this. On one hand he plays directly into your expectations of him while simultaneously doing something completely different that you would never expect him to be doing. Michael Caine is also great. The new kid is pretty good. My only gripe would be Sam Jackson as the villain. We’re to the point now where Sam Jackson will immediately take me out of a movie. He’s no longer Sam Jackson the actor, he’s Sam Jackson the character. He transcends whatever he’s trying to do. And I appreciate he’s trying to do something a little different with the lisp, but I never saw anything other than SAM JACKSON playing the villain. That being said, he’s remarkably entertaining to watch in this movie. I highly recommend it. I hope there are more Kingsman movies to come.

Predestination (2015) – On the surface, it looks to take the same basic idea of agents policing the time stream as Time Cop. But quickly you find out it’s a completely different movie. It’s a more intimate story involving one time agent on one mission that seems to have some huge importance to history, but also some very personal importance as well. It’s not really what I wanted out of the movie but I’m not going to lie, the way the story wraps up has a few surprising reveals that I didn’t see coming. I saw one of them coming pretty early, but not the other. It’s mostly well acted and interesting, but definitely quirky and a bit weird. The story focuses more on Ethan Hawke and Sarah Snook’s characters and their interactions with each other more than the actual time travel or the agency that is policing the time stream and how it works. But it’s still a good movie. I’d give it a soft recommend.

Game of Thrones: Season 2 – My wife and I started watching Season 2 a few weeks ago but she bowed out after two episodes. By contrast, I was hooked after the same two episodes. I went ahead and finished the season while Steph was away. THIS SHOW IS SO GOOD. Great characters, great drama. Everything in this world is so f**king filthy. Dirt and mud is EVERYWHERE. And I feel sorry for the actor who plays Joffrey. He plays the most despicable person in a TV show EVER. I want to punch him in the face. With a crowbar. SO GOOD. But far and above everyone else is Peter Dinklage kicking so much f**king ass as Tyrion Lannister. He gets better every episode. I’m two seasons behind right now so I’m trying to stay as spoiler free as possible, but I’m already aware that there is this thing called a “Red Wedding” and it happens at the end of season 3. But that’s all I know. SO SHUT UP ABOUT IT ALREADY.

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AWESOME-tober-fest 2014: Cheerleader Camp (1988) movie review

Posted in Genres, Halloween, holiday, horror, movies, pop culture with tags AWESOME-tober-fest, AWESOME-tober-fest 2014, Fangoria, Fangoria Movie Friday, Halloween, holiday, horror, magazines, monsters, movies, pop culture, reviews, zombies on October 31, 2014 by Paxton

Happy Halloween, everyone!

Okay, this is it. The final Fangoria Movie Friday Review and the final post for this year’s AWESOME-tober-fest. Like I mentioned yesterday, I had serious issues deciding what movie to review today. There were so many awesome 80s slasher movies to choose from. But one movie stood out just a little from the rest. Sort of “the little movie that could”. So, I went with my gut (and other parts a little further south of my gut) and chose Cheerleader Camp from 1988 starring a metric ton of 80s cult movie stars.

This poster is balls-out amazing. I love it. FYI, the alternate title for this movie was Bloody Pom Poms. And I’m not even kidding.

bloody pom poms

So you see why I picked this movie. BECAUSE IT LOOKS F**KING AWESOME. Plus, there’s like five hot, known 80s actresses all over this movie. The premise consists of a cheerleading competition that takes place at some remote “camp” (read: isolated cabin) in the middle of the woods. Suddenly cheerleader campers start showing up dead and everyone wonders just who is the killer. We get several red herrings that are almost immediately proved to be untrue. The eventual culprit was a surprise to me up until a few minutes before the big reveal. But I wasn’t really sitting there trying to figure it out. We get lots of angsty female teen melodrama and pent up horny boys drama like in a typical Porky’s but less skin. The ensemble 80s female cast is pretty epic and you get several bikini/underwear scenes with all of them. This is a fun watch. I’d watch it again if only for the great visuals and not for the amusing story or dialogue. All in all, a great 80s sexy horror romp.

Here are some of the visuals because they are GREAT.

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Awesome, colorful title card.

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There’s going to be LOTS of pictures of the chicks in this movie because the vast majority of them are really hot and many of them are awesome 80s cult stars. You will probably recognize the chick in the middle here. That’s Lucinda Dickey. One of my personal favorite 80s actresses most famous for both Breakin’ and Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo but she also awesomely starred in the phenomenal Ninja III: The Domination. The blonde on the left is Lorie Griffin who is most famous for playing, Pamela, Scott Howard’s crush in Teen Wolf. On the right is Betsy Russell. This brunette hottie is probably most known for her star turn as Angel in the movie Avenging Angel as well as the 80s sex comedies Tomboy and Private School and most recently playing Jill in the last five Saw movies. There are two more ladies in the back I’ll get to next in a better screenshot.

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In the middle of this pic is Lorie Griffin again. She plays a dumb blonde in this movie which is weird compared to her sultry turn as Pamela in Teen Wolf. On the left is Rebecca Ferratti. She was Playboy’s Playmate of the Month in June 1986. She had a small roles in Three Amigos and Beverly Hills Cop II but I know her most from her small but memorable appearance at the very beginning of Ace Ventura: Pet Detective. And, on the right, we have Teri Weigel. Teri has been in a TON of movie and TV appearances such as Predator 2, Embrace of the Vampire, Return of the Killer Tomatoes and Married With Children. However, she is also most recently known for being a porn star. And these are the five ladies that awesomely headline this movie. But, wait, there’s more!

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AWESOME-tober-fest 2014: Fangoria’s Video Eye of Dr Cyclops VHS reviews

Posted in Fangoria, Genres, Halloween, holiday, horror, magazine, movies, nostalgia, pop culture with tags AWESOME-tober-fest, AWESOME-tober-fest 2014, Elvira, Fangoria, Halloween, magazines, movies, nostalgia on October 30, 2014 by Paxton

Today I’m going to take a look at a couple of examples from Fangoria‘s video review column, The Video Eye of Dr Cyclops. Dr Cyclops was a VHS video review column and it was a fixture in the magazine for years. It was one of my favorite places to check because I’d see movies covered in the column that I’d never heard of or that I’d never seen because they’d never showed up in my local video store.

At first, like most of the magazine content, the column was in black and white. Below is an example of the column from Fangoria #67 (1987). It’s still in black and white and you get reviews of two of my favorites; Troma’s The Toxic Avenger and Hammer’s Curse of the Werewolf. Also check out reviews for the bizarre Italian horror flick The Horrible Dr Hitchcock as well as the awesomely named And Now the Screaming Starts.

Next up is a color version of the article from Fangoria #81 (1989). In this column you can see reviews for the Lyle Alzado serial killer epic, Destroyer, the fourth Jaws film, Return of the Killer Tomatoes, Cheerleader Camp and Joan Collins in The Devil Within Her.

Now, let’s take a closer look at the movies in this particular article. I actually have chosen tomorrow’s Fangoria Movie Friday review from here. Like my other Fangoria Movie Friday choices, I have been fascinated by the movies in this article for years. That Destroyer cover with an oiled up Alzado and a jackhammer looks amazingly bad, but I’m in LOVE with the Cheerleader Camp cover. And the Devil Within Her cover looks like it could be a porno film. Plus, I’ve never watched any of the Killer Tomatoes movies. So they’re all fair game. HOW DO I CHOOSE?! I’ll give you a hint, I’ve already seen Jaws the Revenge.

More hints. for much of the time I was having trouble deciding, I was going back and forth between Cheerleader Camp and Destroyer. The latter stars football all-star Lyle Alzado as a serial killer who comes back from being electrocuted as a “half dead” monster who stalks the crew of a horror movie that is filming in his old prison. Oh, and it also stars Anthony Perkins. Sounds awesome, right? The former stars Leif Garrett and Lucinda f**king Dickey, my friends. Yeah, Cheerleader Camp has Lucinda Dickey three years after she starred in the most awesome ninja movie in the world. That alone would be enough to choose Cheerleader Camp, but if you look at the cast list, you’ll also see other cult 80s names like Betsy Russell, Lorie Griffin, Teri Weigel and Rebecca Ferratti. It’s a veritable cornucopia of 80s ladies awesomeness. So, after days of deciding, I actually wound up picking the no brainer and decided finally to review Cheerleader Camp. But it was close.

As you saw, the cast of this movie was too good to pass up. Plus it’s a slasher movie at a camp for cheerleaders. Oh, and mascots. Lucinda Dickey is actually the mascot. *shakes head* Yeah, I need to see this insanity.

Catch you tomorrow, friends.

Also, check out the blog Countdown to Halloween for more Halloween-y, bloggy AWESOMEness.