Deranged (1974) - Newspaper Ad

Oakland Tribune - March 5, 1974

Although there is a great deal to interest me about this fictionalized dramatization of the Ed Gein story, I have yet to see it. Scuttlebutt about the film is that it hews pretty darn close to the facts of the actual case. The same cannot be said of a more recent, and therefore somewhat controversial, one.

Screenwriter and co-director Alan Ormsby, who was coming off of Children Shouldn't Play With Death Things, would go one to have a pretty successful career as a screenwriter. Penning the scripts for Bob Clark's films Dead of Night (also 1974) and Porky's II: The Next Day (1983). In addition to those, he would also write My Bodyguard (1980), the remake of Cat People (1982), and The Substitute (1996).

I know Roberts Blossom, who played the Gein inspired character of Ezra Cobb, best for his brief and quite memorable appearance in John Carpenter's Christine. "And there'll be no bringing her back here, cause I'm sellin' this shit to buy me a condo." Oh, and he was also in some pretentious arthouse flick called Home Alone (1990).

This was also an early project for future special make-up effect legend Tom Savini.

Fright Flicks - Trading Card #42

Day of the Dead (1985)

Dr. Logan (Richard Liberty), having gutted a specimen like a fish, demonstrates to Sarah (Lori Cardille) how the reanimated dead's insatiable desire to consume 'living' human flesh looks to be fueled by primitive neurological instinct, rather than by any kind of hunger or nutritional need.

"It's working on instinct. On deep, dark, primordial instinct!"

The Crawling Eye (1958) / Cosmic Monsters [The Cosmic Monster (1958) - Newspaper Ad

San Francisco Examiner - March 4, 1959

Although Bryan Senn's comprehensive and excellent resource guide and historical recap "Twice the Thrills! Twice the Chills!" Horror and Science Fiction Double Features, 1955 - 1974 gives a July 7, 1958 release date for this monstrous double bill, it did not open in the San Francisco Bay Area until March 4, 1959.

Both were British film adaptations of BBC serials that cast Forrest Tucker in roles for both films, to help sell the movie to audiences in the United States.

Of the two I have only seen The Crawling Eye, which remains a cherished childhood favorite of mine.

Alien 3 (1992) - Trading Card #6

Datalog: Approx. 0:1000 Hours, Day 1

I demanded to see Newt. Medical Officer Clemens led me to the morgue to view her body. He said Newt had drowned in her crytotube when the ship malfunctioned. Her body was intact, but I had to find out for sure exactly how she died. Clemens would have to perform an autopsy on Newt's body.

I was both flabbergasted and, to a point, delighted at just how much Alien 3 rubbed Newt's death in the viewer's face. Performing an on screen autopsy driving home that the kid was truly D-E-A-D dead was a cannonball into the deep end of the dark and dour narrative pool. It just might be my favorite scene in the movie, just because it dared to go there.

Coma (1978) - Soundtrack

While Goldsmith's tense and icy score for Michael Crichton's film adaptation of Robin Cook' best-selling medical thriller Coma may not be one of his most memorable, it does serve as an excellent example of how less can be so much more. Since the first half of the film features no underscore whatsoever.

The liner notes for this Bay Cities Compact Disc note how Goldsmith's "ornate use of harps, bells, and dissonant piano" recalls his famous score for the classic episode of TheTwilight Zone, The Invaders. While other sections feature "dark, somber string passages that give way to explosive percussion effects and distorted violins" that sound "like a dry-run" for ideas Goldsmith would expand upon in his brilliant (and for the most part unused) score for Alien (1979).

Also included on this reissue of the 1978 album are two pieces of period appropriate disco-themed ephemera. One is a disco version of Goldsmith's love theme for the film. The other is Disco Strut, an unrelated chunk of album padding that was composed by Don Peake (The Hills Have Eyes and The People Under the Stairs, more on these scores later).

Hideaway (1995) - Newspaper Ad

Oakland Tribune - March 3, 1995

While I know I saw this on home video the only thing that I remember about it is the weird free association trivia-style game that was played by the protagonist (Jeff Goldblum) and his wife (Christine Lahti). A snippet of which shows up as a post-credit gag.

In an interview with Fangoria, I think, director Brett Leonard shared that Dean Koontz got up and walked out on a private screening of the film when Stephen King was mentioned by one of the characters. Although I had read a prodigious amount of Koontz's work in the late 80s, the source material came out during a fallow period of interest in reading him. So I could not tell how much it did or did not deviate from the novel it claims to be adapted from.

But, considering the deviations made by Leonard for The Lawnmower Man, I think it is a safe bet to say that alterations were made.

Fright Flicks - Trading Card #41

A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddy's Revenge (1985)

Crash! (1976) - Newspaper Ad

San Francisco Examiner - March 2, 1977

I remember watching this on, I think, the CBS Late Movie and wishing it had been better.

Alien 3 (1992) - Trading Card #5

Datalog: Approx. 0:800 Hours, Day 1

Each prisoner at the Weyland-Yutani Prison Facility had a shaved head bearing some kind of prison code. There were only 25 prisoners left on this planet - all men. Apparently, Fiorina 161 was once a 1,000 convict work prison, but now it's a long-forgotten wasteland.

The Private Eyes (1980) - Newspaper Ad

Oakland Tribune - February 27, 1981

Considering its Old Dark House plot trappings and Gothic Mansion setting, I am bewildered that I gave The Private Eyes a pass on the big screen. We'd gone and seen The Prize Fighter (1979), the movie that Conway and Knotts had made prior to this, and really enjoyed it. I also had a raging crush on Trisha Noble, who had a supporting role, thanks in large part to my loving the short-lived cop show Strike Force, on which Noble was member of the primary cast.