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AWESOME-tober-fest 2013: Peter Jackson’s Dead Alive (1992)

Posted in monsters, movies, nostalgia, pop culture, zombies with tags AWESOME-tober-fest, AWESOME-tober-fest 2013, Halloween, holiday, monsters, movies, nostalgia, pop culture, reviews, zombies on October 18, 2013 by Paxton

Today I’m going to take a look at Peter Jackson’s 1992 cult zombie film, Dead Alive.

Suprisingly, I’d never seen this movie before. I used to be a big gore hound in the late 80s. I’d heard of it at the time, but never had a chance to watch it. I like Peter Jackson’s films for the most part. The first Peter Jackson movie I ever watched was probably The Frighteners with Michael J Fox and I loved it. I even saw his ultra-cult hit Meet the Feebles. So I’m a little behind the curve on this particular movie. But with my zombie Halloween theme this year I thought this would be the perfect time to rectify this situation. So I watched it.

And I didn’t just love it. Don’t get me wrong, there were some funny and weird moments that I enjoyed. I probably would have enjoyed this even more if I had watched it with a bunch of buddies and beer or had I watched it back in the 90s. But, let’s not dwell on what I didn’t like, I’ll talk about some of the stuff I enjoyed.

I liked the leads well enough. Timothy Balme as Lionel was suitably awkward and Diana Peñalver was adorable and cute as Paquita. The crux of the story is an interesting origin for the zombie plague. It all starts with a rare mutant animal called a Sumatran Rat-Monkey that is created by plague rats raping tree monkeys. Yes, you read that right. One of these disgusting looking Rat-Monkeys is, mistakenly, I think, shipped to a zoo in New Zealand.

ratmonkey

In New Zealand, awkward and nebish Lionel meets Paquita who fall in love, but Lionel’s overbearing mother disapproves. While spying on the couple at the zoo, Lionel’s mother is bitten by the Rat-Monkey and turns into a flesh eating undead monster. Everyone else thinks she dies, but Lionel secretly keeps her in his basement along with a live-in nurse who the mother also turned into a monster. Soon, other victims become monsters and are put in the basement. Eventually it gets out of hand when Lionel’s shady uncle shows up looking to get a share of Lionel’s inheritance.

That’s only like half the plot. So much goes on that’s weird and nearly indescribable. You really have to see it.

At one point, Lionel is attacked by a group of punks in the graveyard. His mom attacks them, turns them into monsters and then a priest shows up and famously shouts, “I kick ass for the Lord” and uses karate to kick the monsters’ collective asses. It’s a pretty great scene.

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AWESOME-tober-fest 2013: The Re-animator (1985)

Posted in 80s, Halloween, holiday, monsters, movies, pop culture, zombies with tags AWESOME-tober-fest, AWESOME-tober-fest 2013, Halloween, HP Lovecraft, monsters, movies, pop culture, reviews, zombies on October 11, 2013 by Paxton

Today I’m going to talk about the 1985 cult horror film classic, Re-animator starring Jeffrey Combs and Barbara Crampton.

I have seen this movie previously. I watched it numerous times during my Fangoria “horror” phase. In the late 80s-early 90s I was a “gore hound”. I loved splatter films. Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street, Evil Dead. All of them. Fangoria was my favorite magazine and it clued me in on many other awesome horror movies that were out for me to rent on the burgeoning VHS rental market. This was one I discovered in the pages of that awesome magazine.

Re-animator is based on the original Lovecraft short story, Herbert West – Reanimator. It’s not a direct adaptation, though. The movie takes many of the characters and some of the situations and re-imagines them a bit. While the Lovecraft story is sort of an homage to the original Shelley Frankenstein, the movie is a parody of both the Lovecraft and Shelley stories. It takes the elements of horror and the macabre from Lovecraft’s story and infuses much dark humor into the situations.

Some might think that this movie doesn’t fit into the traditional “zombie” genre. Herbert West is re-animating the dead, so his creations are, in effect, zombies. Though maybe not the mindless brain-eating zombies popularized by Night of the Living Dead and Return of the Living Dead. You could probably also throw this movie into the “mad scientist” genre.

The plot revolves around Herbert West. Newly arrived at the Miskatonic University medical school. He rents a room from Dan Cain, student and boyfriend to Megan, the daughter of the medical school dean. Things start going awry when Dan discovers that Herbert is performing medical experiments with a brand new serum he’s invented for bringing the dead back to life. Dan and Megan are drawn into Herbert’s deadly machinations as the bodies not only begin to fall, but continue to rise up again.

I can see the elements of Lovecraft’s story that were re-imagined as I watch this movie. Herbert constantly wanting fresher dead bodies, Dean Halsey becoming a zombie and being institutionalized and reanimating a head separate from the body. Now that I’ve read the story it’s cool to see this in the movie I know so well. The story in this movie covers roughly the first two parts of Lovecraft’s story.

As the movie started, I was sort of surprised at how blatantly the score rips off Herrmann’s Psycho score with the violins. And, for what is essentially a B-grade horror movie, the effects hold up fairly well. And while the acting is understandably, not great, the performance of Jeffrey Combs as Herbert West is nothing short of awesome. He plays the role with such earnest seriousness it makes the craziness all around him seem that much more crazy.

This film is sort of famous for the “head” scene later in the movie (you should know what I mean). And it’s every bit as awesomely weird and crazy as I remembered. So, yes, this film still holds up pretty well for me. I enjoyed watching it again. The film did well enough that it got like three sequels. I haven’t watched any of them.

However, the title of the first sequel should clue you into how much of a Frankenstein parody this series really is; Bride of Re-animator.

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

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AWESOME-tober-fest 2013: Return of the Living Dead movie novelization (1985)

Posted in books, monsters, movies, zombies with tags AWESOME-tober-fest, AWESOME-tober-fest 2013, Book Report, books, Halloween, holiday, monsters, Movie Novelizations, movies, zombies on October 10, 2013 by Paxton

Today I’m going to talk about one of my favorite things to do on this blog, movie novelizations. If you read this blog, you know I love movie novelizations. Especially movies from the 70s and 80s. Today, I’m going to discuss the novelization of the zombie classic, Return of the Living Dead.

The history of this movie and its novelization is interesting in and of itself. I discussed it a bit when I reviewed the actual Return of the Living Dead movie. Essentially, John Russo who helped Romero write the original Night of the Living Dead movie, also wrote the novelization AND in 1977 a direct sequel book, Return of the Living Dead. When Romero and Russo parted ways, they split the rights. Romero went on to create his “of the Dead” movies and Russo went on to adapt his Living Dead sequel novel. However, when the book was optioned, the studio had Dan O’Bannon rewrite the book as a script with a heavy comedic undertones to the horror. That was how the movie was made. John Russo would go on to write the novelization of O’Bannon’s script.

Like I said, interesting. I’ve always enjoyed this movie so I thought I’d track down the novelization to review. Because of the convoluted back story, it’s tough to actually track this down. Many times the original Russo 1971 Return of the Living Dead book is mistaken for the 1985 movie novelization. You have to make sure you are getting the right book.

But I got it, and I’ve read it. How does it stack up to the movie? By the way, in the below review I’m assuming you’ve seen the movie.

As a novelization, it’s not that bad. Most of the scenes of the movie are there. The character names are a little different in so far as the punker group of Freddy’s friends are concerned. The major story details are the same, however, there are a few changes for the book. It’s a lot more clear in the book that Freddy used to be a major punker. He and his girlfriend Tina had walked in on their friend Sunshine after he overdosed on dope and the sight, in effect, scared them straight. Freddy got a job and was determined not to end up the same as Sunshine. This event is referenced throughout the book, but is only quickly mentioned in the movie.

The major difference in the novelization is a subplot of Russian spies who worked for the government back in the late 60s during the original events of Night of the Living Dead. They are the reason the barrels of Trioxin are mistakenly sent to the Uneeda Medical Supply warehouse. The spies sent some of the barrels there to hide them away from the government so the chemical could be released again later. The spies then leave the country and head back to Russia. We have several scenes of them in this book drinking and discussing their actions spying for the government and talking about the missing Trioxin barrels.

More differences involve the character Legs (aka Trash), played by Linnea Quigley in the movie. During her graveyard striptease (which exists in the movie), in the book it turns into actual sex with her boyfriend, Suicide. And even though, in the movie, Trash returns as a zombie for a short appearance at the end, Legs, in the book, stays dead and we don’t see her again.

We get a bit more fleshing out of certain characters like the mortuary owner, Ernie. A little bit more with the paramedics that come to pick up Freddy and Frank, and even some back story to a few of the zombies that go on the rampage. Two of which were being “dressed” by Ernie in the beginning. They were a couple who died in a car wreck. As a matter of fact, the zombie that is interrogated at the end of the movie, in the book, is actually the female side of this dead couple from the beginning.

All in all, this was actually a pretty good novelization. I enjoyed reading it and seeing a little bit more than what we get out of the movie.

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

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AWESOME-tober-fest 2013: Herbert West – Reanimator by HP Lovecraft (1922)

Posted in books, Halloween, movies, pop culture with tags AWESOME-tober-fest, AWESOME-tober-fest 2013, Book Report, books, Halloween, holiday, HP Lovecraft, monsters, movies, pop culture, zombies on October 7, 2013 by Paxton

Today I’m going to look at a short story by one of horror’s most celebrated writers, HP Lovecraft. I’ve not really read any of his stuff before, so I thought this would be as good a chance as any to rectify the situation. I found a collection of his stories on Paperbackswap.com last year. That collection is called The Road to Madness: The Transition of HP Lovecraft.

The collection includes Lovecraft’s novella At the Mountains of Madness which Guillermo Del Toro has been trying to set up as a film adaptation for many years. But the story I was actually looking for was Herbert West – Reanimator. It was this short story on which the classic 1985 horror film The Re-animator starring Jeffrey Combs is based.

I, for one, love that cheesy horror film from 1985. So, I thought that since I was doing zombies for my Halloween theme, I’d not only revisit the awesome Re-animator movie but I’d also read and review the original Lovecraft short story.

And now I’ve read it. To be honest, the story isn’t the best. It’s not terrible, it’s just sort of fast paced and feels more like an outline of a larger story. The short story is broken up into 4 parts. While reading, it really felt like Lovecraft was repeating himself across the four parts as he continually describes Herbert West’s looks (slight in build, glasses, blond hair) and the events of the previous part of the story. In action that only takes place in about 50 pages, it gets a little annoying. I assumed while reading that this must have been originally serialized in a magazine and Lovecraft was just “refreshing” the reader’s memory from last time. And after some research I see that I’m right. The story was originally published in four parts in the amateur magazine Home Brew in 1922.

homebrew_v1-1

The story is very clearly based on Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. A brilliant but single-minded and unorthodox scientist, Herbert West, conducts arcane and taboo experiments on human bodies trying to reanimate dead tissue. The story is told by a narrator who has been Herbert West’s assistant/apprentice for many years. It starts off with experiments while the youths are in medical school and each part tells a different time in their lives when they begin their experiments anew. The story is told by the assistant from some unknown time in the future as he’s looking back on the events which led to Dr Herbert West’s disappearance.

Don’t get me wrong, I liked the story, I guess. There is potential there and this story is much more serious in tone and dark in nature than the movie which infuses lots of humor into the story. I guess, for better or for worse, that I just know the Re-Animator movie so well that the original story just seems odd to me.

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

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AWESOME-tober-fest 2013: Return of the Living Dead (1985)

Posted in 80s, monsters, movies, pop culture, zombies with tags AWESOME-tober-fest, AWESOME-tober-fest 2013, Halloween, holiday, monsters, movies, pop culture, reviews, zombies on October 4, 2013 by Paxton

Today I return to what I remember as one of my favorite zombie movies, The Return of the Living Dead. I saw it a few times back in the day and loved it. I even had the poster on my bedroom wall for years. I personally don’t think zombies are that interesting of a monster (have I said that a few times this month?) so I like it when a movie plays with the genre and gives you something you don’t expect. Like humor. This is a funny zombie movie.

Anywho, back in the day, I was unaware of the interesting history behind this particular movie and it’s origins with the godfather of zombie movies, Night of the Living Dead.

After the success and controversy over Night of the Living Dead, director George Romero and writer John Russo parted ways. Romero left with the rights to make his “of the Dead” sequels and Russo received the rights to any “living dead” movies.

After Russo’s split with Romero, in 1978 he wrote a serious Night of the Living Dead sequel called Return of the Living Dead. Russo shopped this around to studios as a script. It was bought by producer Tom Fox. Tom Fox gave the book to Dan O’Bannon who re-wrote the script to be more humorous and further differentiate it from Romero’s movies. This new humorous and irreverent zombie movie bears little resemblance to Russo’s original story. The movie was originally supposed to be in 3-D and directed by Tobe Hooper. However, Hooper dropped out and O’Bannon went ahead as director.

The movie was finally released in 1985.

The movie is sort of a humorous side-quel to Romero’s Night of the Living Dead. As explained in the beginning of the movie, the zombie ghouls in Romero’s movie were caused by a chemical called Trioxin. When the army was cleaning up the bodies and contaminated soil, some of their trucks mistakenly delivered their cargo to the Uneeda Medical Supply warehouse where they sat for like 20 years until two warehouse workers mistakenly crack open one of the drums, release the chemical and cause corpses to start rising from the grave again. And all hell breaks loose.

The zombies in this movie are a little different than the usual zombies you are used to. They can speak. There is a scene in which our heroes actually interrogate a zombie to find out why they eat humans. Several times zombies use a CB radio to call more paramedics and cops so they’ll have more brains to eat. Oh, and this movie was the genesis of the idea that zombies eat brains. Romero made his zombies cannibals who ate human flesh. These zombies can eat flesh, but they NEED brains and many walk around screaming “BRAINS!” You even see a few zombies using tools like hammers and clubs. They can also open doors and set up elaborate traps like using a pulley to pry open locker doors where people are hiding. It’s a little odd to see that now because most zombies these days can’t speak and shamble along just grunting. But I kinda liked it.

Linnea Quigley

If nothing else, this movie is fun. Low rent and cheesy, but fun. The main teens are a bunch of punkers, suitably dressed and named things like Suicide, Meat, Trash, etc. Of course, Linnea Quigley plays the slutty Trash and spends the middle part of the movie mostly naked running from zombies. Then running around as a zombie. The character of Freddy is played by Thom Matthews who the very next year would go on to play Tommy in Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives. Then, in 1988 he’d appear in the sequel, The Return of the Living Dead Part II, but as a completely different character. Not sure how that works as I haven’t seen any of the FOUR sequels they made to this movie. But I plan on giving them a chance.

And if you haven’t seen this movie, and you like cheesy 80s horror, then give this movie a chance. It’s still pretty entertaining.

And I can’t say enough how good the original soundtrack is with punk and hard rock and roll tracks all over it with bands like The Cramps, 45 Grave, TSOL and SSQ.