Wolfen (1981) - Newspaper Ad

Oakland Tribune - July 23, 1981

After having been beaten to the box office punch by Joe Dante's tongue-in-cheek The Howling and John Landis's only ever so slightly more serious An American Werewolf in London, both of which featured jaw dropping transformation sequences. The former designed by Rob Bottin and the latter created by Rick Baker, who won an Academy Award for his efforts on that film. Wolfen suffered unjustly in comparison. Because the titular creatures are just wolves with some minor optical effect overlays giving them a somewhat otherworldly look and feel.

In all honesty, Wolfen kind of looks and feels what a werewolf movie made by Christopher Nolan might look like. Make of that what you will.

Although the film does retain the setting, structure, and concept of Whitley Strieber's bestselling source material. It also creates all new storylines and characters to populate the setting and navigate the twists and turns of the somewhat underdeveloped narrative.

While some may have been disappointed at the lack of a more monstrous looking pack of creatures hunting the almost post-apocalyptic appearing Bronx neighborhood where most of the film was set. The movie worked for me.

I saw it on a double-bill with Escape from New York at the Parkway, in Oakland, and they paired perfectly. I could even envision them taking place in the same universe.
 

Fright Flicks - Trading Card #86

Alien (1979)

 

Dressed to Kill (1980) - Newspaper Ad

San Francisco Examiner - July 22, 1980

This was one of the more memorable movie going experiences of 1980 for me. Being that the opening sequence was, without a doubt, the most sexually explicit material I had ever seen. In a movie, at least. I had already thumbed through an issue of Playboy or two by that time.

But, like Alien the previous year, Dressed to Kill did provide a memorable post-viewing comment from my dad to my mother, when we got home from the matinee showing. "It starts with this woman masturbating in the shower. It was so explicit I started thinking I had brought the boys to the wrong kind of movie, but it didn't last long and the rest wasn't as bad. But there was a moment, there..."

I think this was the movie that made me a Brian De Palma fan. While I will acknowledge that there are aspects to the plot that are indeed very problematic, in regard to its clear transphobia. The movie is also very tongue in cheek and laced with a heaping helping of blackly comedic irony. Certain scenes are so slathered in comedic irony that the film brushes up against the line of creative self-parody.

John McCarty, in his seminal Splatter Movies: Breaking the Last Taboo of the Screen, said that, "Dressed to Kill may not be Psycho, but it is certainly a very skillfully made and entertaining copy."

I agree. This one really needs to be added to my blu-ray collection.

 

Alien 3 (1992) - Trading Card #50

Behind the Scenes: Finishing Touches

One member of the special effects crew puts the finishing touches on a miniature version of the EEV. This model was used to film shots of the EEV crashing to the planet's surface in the opening scenes of Alien 3.
 

The Leopard Man (1943) - Newspaper Ad

Oakland Tribune - July 21, 1943

The Vaudeville Stage Show surrounding The Leopard Man takes up most this ad, making it a crowded cacophony of appearances. I am also suspect that the quiet thrills and iconic door sequence might have jolted viewers that watched the stage show first. Or did the movie get screened first and then the stage relaxed everybody's jangled nerves? No idea, but there had to have been a little something for everybody to enjoy here.
 

Fright Flicks - Trading Card #85

A Nightmare on Elm Street II Freddy's Revenge (1985)

 

Hauntings: Is Anybody There? by Norah Lofts - Newspaper Ad

 

San Francisco Examiner - July 20, 1975

Although Norah Lofts was best known for her historical and romance fiction, she was also quite enamored with ghost stories. I was unaware of this until I uncovered this advertisement. Now I have several more books added to my shopping wish list.

Alien 3 (1992) - Trading Card #49

Behind the Scenes - Under Construction

An exterior of the Weyland-Yutani prison facility had to be constructed for the movie's wide-angle establishing shots. This model represents the facility's ten square miles of living space and maze-like passageways. The two protruding cones will become vents, for the blast furnace.

The Intruders by Pat Montandon - Newspaper Ad

Oakland Tribune - July 15, 1975

After an irritated Tarot card reader hurls a curse at both her and the house she is living in, socialite Pat Montandon's life begins to unravel. As online review summarized "[Montandon] began to feel unsafe and uneasy in her apartment. She heard noises, felt dread, felt a presence. Mysterious fires broke out, her apartment was robbed, criminals seemed to be lurking about at all times."

Was it real, or was it just a figment of imagination and nervous paranoia brought upon the very real troubled and troubling times occurring in the city of San Francisco in the late 60s and early 70s? I have no idea, but finding this ad buried in the pages of the Oakland Tribune arouses my curiosity. 

Whether real or imagined, this is an interesting foreshadowing of true haunting genre that would arise following the larger commercial and cultural success of Jay Anson's book The Amityville Horror. Which would be published two years later, in 1977.
 

Fright Flicks - Trading Card #84

Vengeance The Demon (1988)

Another card utilizing the discarded alternate title for Pumpkinhead.