The Curse of the Werewolf - Newspaper Ad

San Francisco Examiner - July 4, 1990

Every year we kick off the Christmas season by attending Smuin's Christmas Ballet. So my eyebrows shot up when I saw that Michael Smuin had directed this musical comedy-thriller that I had never heard of, despite my living in San Francisco at the time of its production. Not that I could have afforded a ticket. So it goes.

A little digging uncovered that The Curse of the Werewolf was a revival of 1976 'monster-melodrama' written by Ken Hill. The less than stellar review the Examiner critic gave this production, on June 15th, described Hill as an "English writer who takes public domain stories, redesigns them as spoofs, and sets them to public domain songs from long-forgotten operettas." Okay.

Despite having the same title as a 1961 Hammer Film production starring Oliver Reed and directed by Terence Fisher, The Curse of the Werewolf is not based off any pre-existing material. Hill himself heavily revised his script for this production, which also featured an all-new score.

In an Examiner article that appeared in the Sunday, June 10th Datebook, Smuin described the show as "somewhat reminiscent of Mel Brooks' Young Frankenstein, with a dash of Monty Python." 

As promising as that sounds, and as popular and successful as The Curse of the Werewolf was in Canada and England, it having been produced some 35 times from 1976 through to 1990, it seems this presentation had a struggle getting an audience.

Alien (1979) - Trading Card #64

After Nostromo crew members split into separate groups, Brett finally finds the Alien... or rather, it finds him. Now seven feet tall, the Beast swoops down on its prey like a gigantic bat!

In the theater of a card reader's mind, perhaps. But not in the actual movie, though.

The image used for this card was trimmed from the finished film, but it can be seen in a 'restored' edit that serves as an illustration as to why less is so often a lot more.

As much as I like the confusion, shock, and terror that Stanton expresses in the pause before the attack, where he tries to scream, but can only get out what sounds like a huff and a growl, is a nice touch. But the painful truth is that it just slows the scene down and dilutes the power of the Alien's first appearance.

Also the Alien is shown way too much before the attack in this version. Although it is nice to be able to see the scene the way it played when Jerry Goldsmith wrote the music for it, before the final edit was actually locked.

The Car (1977) - Soundtrack

Leonard Rosenman's score for The Car was one that I had ached to have a soundtrack recording of for almost four decades. It took thirty-eight or so years for it to happen, but Intrada managed to secure a commercial release of Rosenman's atmospheric and kinetic music for The Car in 2015. Better late than never.

The brevity of the score, which runs a few seconds shy of a mere 34 minutes, might be one reason an album version was not released in 1977. Another could be Rosenman's choosing to score, for the most part, only scenes where the Car is either present or its the aftermath of an attack.

The lone exception to that latter reason are a few moments involving the character Luke (Ronny Cox) and his relapse into alcoholism. The remainder of the human drama and character moments are not scored and play out in an almost noticeable silence.

Jeff Bond, in his liner notes for this release, notes how "Rosenman's dissonant, agitated and aggressive soundscapes [were] a natural fit for horror and science-fiction movies." I both agree and doubt that there was a composer better suited for this material than Leonard Rosenman.

Another interesting and appropriate choice on Rosenman's part, in addition to not giving his score any human coloring, is his use of Dies Irae as the score's primary theme. Dies Irae, perhaps best known for its use in Stanley Kubrick's The Shining, becomes an auditory signature for the Car that is every bit as recognizable as its distinctive, and iconic, horn blasts.

Dracula - Newspaper Ad

Oakland Tribune - July 3, 1930

While Universal's film adaptation of Dracula would not start shooting until the very end of September. There is a very real possibility that, at the time this traveling production of the Broadway play performed in Oakland, Bela Lugosi would have known that he had been cast to play Dracula in the film version.  

I'm also surprised to learn that Lugosi and the rest of the Broadway cast performed in Oakland. Go figure.

The Blair Witch Project (1999) - Trading Card #66

The Search

After the three students disappeared, separate search teams combed the Black Hills Forest for over a week. Several volunteers, including a few with their own bloodhounds, aided local, state, and federal law enforcement officials, but to no avail. This lack of success convinced many witchcraft believers and historians that the three missing students were the most recent victims of the Blair Witch's ongoing curse. 

Psycho III (1986) - Newspaper Ad

San Francisco Examiner - July 2, 1986

In addition to the underperforming Big Trouble in Little China, a second sequel to Psycho was also released to theaters and drive-ins across the United States on the fourth of July weekend of 1986.

And, just as was the case with the former, this was another that seemed to come and go from theaters before I returned from an overseas visit to my family. Which seems weird, as I saw Maximum Overdrive on its opening weekend, which was a mere two weeks later, while I was visiting friends in Dallas.

That being said, when I did finally get around to seeing Psycho III I found it to be an atmospheric and interesting close to what I have come to consider an unexpected trilogy of films. I also tend to ignore the contradictory nature of the film's final image, as it smacks of being something mandated by the studio so that a Psycho IV could be (and was) made.

Alien (1979) - Trading Card #63

Dallas and his team devise a plan for disposing of the Alien: with an electrical rod, they will force the monster into an air lock and out of the Nostromo!

Although I have not watched Alien in some time, I have seen it enough times to know that Dallas and his team still believed they were dealing with a quart-sized creature at this time in the film. One they could capture by hand and either shoot out the airlock or freeze for later study.

This is just another example, or reminder, of how this trading card series stream-lined or altered the film's narrative for whatever reason(s).

Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter (1974) - Soundtrack

Although ignored and dismissed by audiences, critics, and even its own production company at time of release, Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter would survive to become a minor cult classic. One that, after I managed to catch up with it, became one of my favorite latter day Hammer Film offerings.

Randall D. Larson's liner notes for this limited edition release offers a detailed history of the film's genesis, production, and release, before focusing on Laurie Johnson's excellent score.

"The title sequence of any film," Johnson explains in the liner notes, "is really furnishing a house for a guest to come in to." No surprise that the film's Main Title serves as an auditory introduction to the film's narrative themes.

First is a rousing motif for trumpet that is countered by an energetic theme for violin. This melody characterizes Kronos's heroic purity and nobility. A second theme is then introduced. This darker and less melodic section represents the vampiric menace Kronos will be battling.

While those three themes serve as the foundation and backbone of the score, with variations on them weaved throughout the film, there is another that is pointed out that is worth mentioning. A low-end bassoon is used to create a rumbling texture that introduces and underplays during vampiric attack scenes.

This is a terrific score for a wonderful "little" movie that tried, but failed, to birth a new heroic horror movie icon. Which is too bad, because the potential displayed in this introduction is just breath-taking.

Big Trouble in Little China (1986) - Newspaper Ad

Oakland Tribune - July 1, 1986

Having recovered from the stinging rebuke of 1982's The Thing, John Carpenter suffered yet another stinging rebuke with the disastrous under performance of Big Trouble in Little China.

As much as I was looking forward to seeing this on the big screen, I was unable to. I believe I might have been overseas at the time, in Hong Kong, visiting family when it opened. By the time I returned to the United States, Big Trouble in Little China, having sunk like a stone at the box office, had vanished from theaters. So it goes.

The Blair Witch Project (1999) - Trading Card #65

Missing

The "missing" poster was first posted in Burkittsville toward the end of October, 1994. Almost exactly a year later, it was redistributed with the discovery of the students' footage. "It's strange that (something) always happens in a fifty-year pattern," commented Bill Barnes, director of the Burkittsville Historical Society. "She (the Blair Witch) always surfaces, or something surfaces that leads to her..." 

At the Earth's Core (1976) - Newspaper Ad

San Francisco Examiner - June 30, 1976

The mid-to-late 1970s saw the release of a handful of science-fantasy adventure movies based on the work of Edgar Rice Burroughs. All of them starred Doug McClure and were directed by Kevin Connor.

Two of the films were produced by Hammer Film rival Amicus Productions. The Land That Time Forgot (1974) and, the subject of today's post, 1976's At the Earth's Core.

Today's subject would also be the last film from Amicus Productions. So it goes.

I don't think I actually watched At the Earth's Core, start to finish, until well into the 21st century. Better late than never, I guess.

Contemporary viewers can snicker and crack jokes about the dated rubber monsters and unapologetic artifice of the film's studio-bound sets, but that is also what gives this movie its ample character and charm.

If watching this film, which even at the time of its original release looked and felt hopelessly out of date, can warm your heart and make you smile, then congratulations. It appears your inner child is alive and well.

Alien (1979) - Trading Card #62

The murderous Alien is loose on the Nostromo! It cannot be blown to bits, as its acid-like blood will eat through the metal of the tug. How, then can the Creature be killed? 

Cat National Parks Travel - A 1000 Piece Puzzle

28 Days Later (2002) - Newspaper Ad

Oakland Tribune - June 27, 2003

2003 was not a good year for me. That having been acknowledged, I can say that the stateside release of 28 Days Later did allow me an appreciated escape into a world of apocalyptic and cathartic terror. What an exhilarating rush seeing it for the first time, on the big screen, was for me.

The Blair Witch Project (1999) - Trading Card #64

Finding the Car

The only piece of evidence found by the police was Joshua Leonard's car, parked on Black Rock Road. "We checked the car over completely. Never found any clues with the vehicle," stated Burkittsville Sheriff Ron Cravens who conducted the original search. Cravens has been criticized, off the record, for his handling of the high-profile case by forces within his own department.

Having reached the end of the movie, the cards return to the deleted backstory elements cut from the finished film and that were used to market the movie instead.

Captain America: Civil War (2016) - Soundtrack

While this score for the third Captain America adventure does have its energetic moments, overall it is a formless, characterless assembly of orchestral background noise.

Filmtracks posted a scathing three star review dismissing the score as "a disloyal mess of scatterbrained ideas." Ouch. 

But I have to agree with their assessment that Jackman's work here is "procedural and businesslike." That it offers little that grabs or holds my interest. 

The little would be a momentary blip in the first minute of Track 12, Civil War. Which underplays, or punctuates, the airport fight and was what motivated me to purchase this album and add it to my collection.

That momentary blip returns and is nicely expanded in both Track 18, Clash - underscoring and punctuating Cap and Iron Man's fight over the fate of Bucky (The Winter Soldier) - and Track 19, Closure - where it serves as something akin to a dirge to lament the end of Steve and Tony's friendship.

Everything else is just generic orchestral soundscape. Musical filler with no thematic center to hold it together. Which is just saddening.

Prime Evil - Edited by Douglas E. Winter - Newspaper Ad

San Francisco Examiner - June 26, 1988

One of the stories in this anthology, which suffers when compared to Kirby McCauley's far larger and more breathtaking opus Dark Forces, stuck in my memory. David Morrell's Orange is for Anguish, Blue for Insanity. That story managed to wallop me good. I loved it.

I also vaguely remember being somewhat baffled and intrigued by Whitley Strieber's story The Pool. It was the first piece of fiction that Strieber wrote after finishing Communion and the thematic connection between the two seemed clear. Beyond that, I remember feeling lost and confused about what I had just read...

1988 was a long time ago and I no longer have the book close at hand. But I was able to track down its table of contents, so I could check to see if anything else in the book might jog a memory. Only two did.

First would be Stephen King's The Night Flier, which contains a bathroom scene that is equal parts gruesome, goofy, and, being Stephen King, pretty darn scary. Have not seen its movie adaptation, yet.

Then there is Peter Straub's The Juniper Tree, which I must admit to having no memory of reading in this anthology, but when I read it in a collection of Straub's fiction, it really knocked me for a loop. Maybe my psyche was ready for just how close to home this story hits.

There is also a Clive Barker story in the anthology, titled Coming to Grief, but I have no recollection of it whatsoever. Perhaps it is time for a refresher?

Alien (1979) - Trading Card #61

A smear of blood blossoms on Kane's chest. Seconds later the fabric of his shirt is ripped open as a small monster head - about the size of a man's fist - bursts through the officer's mangled body!

I read the novelization of Alien before I was able to see the film, so I knew what was about to happen when Kane started coughing and convulsing at the table. Our father, however, did not.

"This thing grabbed onto this guy's face, but then it fell off," I remember him telling mom, after we got home. "And I thought, okay, that must have been the alien and the rest of the movie is going to be about the people on the spaceship. But then the guy starts to get sick at the dinner table and I see Chad's eyes get real wide and he tenses up, so I knew something bad was about to happen."

Alan Dean Foster's description of the event in the novelization was less traumatic than what was shown in the actual movie...

Gigantis The Fire Monster [Godzilla Raids Again (1955)] / Teenagers from Outer Space (1959) - Newspaper Ad

Oakland Tribune - June 25, 1959

It took four years for the quickie sequel to the first Godzilla movie to reach theaters and drive-ins in the United States.

When it arrived its title, storyline, and characterizations were altered, of course, to better suit the questionable attitudes of the day. Not that the original version was all that better, though. Both are talky and feature special effects that, because of an error in film speed, lack the look and feel of the first, and far more serious, film.

Coupled with Gigantis The Fire Monster would be Teenagers from Outer Space, a notorious no-budget cheapie about nefarious aliens attempting to turn Earth into a breeding ground for giant, carnivorous lobster-like creatures.

The Blair Witch Project (1999) - Trading Card #63

Their Fate

Josh's cries for help become more pronounced. "I hear him downstairs!" yelled Mike as he ran through the old house. As he entered what appeared to be the basement, passing walls covered with strange symbols and handprints, Mike's video camera was knocked out of his hands and onto the floor. When Heather entered the room, her 16mm camera recorded the black-and-white image of Mike standing motionless, back to her, facing a wall. Then Heather's camera also hit the ground. 

Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014) - Soundtrack

The score to my favorite Captain America movie takes a far different approach than that for the first film. No surprise, really, considering that The First Avenger was a period piece, while The Winter Soldier is set in a modern era awash with all manner of science fiction infused gizmos and gadgets.

So composer Henry Jackman leaned heavy into electronics and pounding rhythms, rather than instrumentation that invokes a bygone era. Well, save for Track 3, The Smithsonian, when the film called for that very approach.

One flourish I quite like is a processed scream, which sounds something like a bird cry, used as a kind of auditory signature for The Winter Soldier.

When I did a search for information or interviews regarding the score, the former was sparse and the latter rather negative. There was a great deal of grumbling about repeating loops, banging and clanging industrial effects, and groaning electronics.

While I can and do understand the reasoning for those legitimate complaints and criticisms, I do not find listening to this soundtrack to be all that painful of an experience.

Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970) - Newspaper Ad

San Francisco Examiner - June 24, 1970

My introduction to the first sequel to Planet of the Apes came via its truncated edit on The 3:30 Movie. The bleak, nihilistic direction the film took left me shocked, shook, and slack jawed. I also loved it for what it did, of course. 

Alien (1979) - Trading Card #60

Suddenly, without warning... Kane's face screws into a mask of agony! He clutches at his chest, then whirls onto the table as his startled friends watch in horror...

Note that, unlike the previous card, Kane and Dallas are not wearing jackets.

Midnite Spook Show(s) - Newspaper Ad

Oakland Tribune - June 23, 1956

It might not be a Friday the 13th, but that fact will not stop the venues in the Fox West Coast Theaters chain from holding yet another Midnite Spook Show.

If I had to choose between being able to see the classic chestnuts of Frankenstein (1931) and Dracula (1931) or the more contemporary House of Wax (1953) and The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1953) on the big screen, I just might have leaned toward the latter. Because I do love me some giant monster action.

The Blair Witch Project (1999) - Trading Card #62

Ominous Shadows

Aiming their cameras, Mike and Heather entered the crumbling old house and slowly moved from room to room. The place was a hellhole, with peeling plaster and blackened windows and weird markings all over the walls. Then, suddenly, Mike heard Josh's tortured cries coming from somewhere in the decaying building. With Heather not far behind, Mike began to bolt up the stairs...

Is that a noose? 

The Thing (1982) - Newspaper Ad

San Francisco Examiner - June 20, 1982

I would not be able to see The Thing until Saturday, June 26. But, if I had been in San Francisco at the time, I totally would have tried to attend this preview screening at the Royal Theater. 

Alien (1979) - Trading Card #59

With spirits high following the recovery of Kane, the Nostromo crew gathers together for a hardy supper.

Another card, another continuity error. This image is not from the infamous dinner scene. It is from earlier in the film, when Dallas explains to the rest of the crew that the ship has been diverted so they can investigate a signal of unknown origin.

Captain America: The First Avenger (2011) - Soundtrack

The best thing about this score is Silvestri's instantly memorable five-note fanfare for Cap. Yet that fanfare also has an ironic weakness. Its rousing chest-thumping projection of strength, resilience, and nostalgic Americana is ill-suited for subtler or gentler referencing or interpolation within the narrative underscore. While the fanfare is great for a dramatic punctuation whenever Cap does some heroic feat, or makes a dramatic entrance, it is ill-equipped for anything else.

Which is appropriate for Cap, considering how every conflict is rooted in Cap's rigid and inflexible beliefs standing firm against beliefs and forces that oppose him. Making the fanfare's ballsy intractability a perfect auditory representation for how out of step the man is with just about everyone and everything around him. Nice.

Ben (1972) - Newspaper Ad

Oakland Tribune - June 19, 1972

Although the original Willard was a yet another seeming staple of our syndication channels and afternoon movie time slots, I remember its sequel Ben as being a tad more scarce on that front. My memory has it that I might not have seen it until I was able to rent it on home video, although I also recall watching it when it was on The 3:30 Movie.

But does it really matter?

Picking up right where Willard ended, Ben and his army of rats proceed to do nothing all that interesting. The one great thing about this movie is its Academy Award nominated song, performed by the late Michael Jackson.

The Blair Witch Project (1999) - Trading Card #61

The House

In the middle of their final night, Heather and Mike were awakened once again by the distant, anguished cries of what appeared to be Josh. "Somebody! Please!" the muffled voice shouted. "That can't be him," said Mike. "Somebody! C'mon, help me! Heather!" Mike grabbed the video camera while Heather took the 16mm camera and both followed Josh's voice through the woods. They finally came upon an old, abandoned house...

No tale of the supernatural would be complete without a spectral and spooky dilapidated house for the spirit(s) to infest. Right?

When they arrived at the house, I had no idea that it was supposed to be Rustin Parr's. Parr being the fictitious child murderer mentioned during the interviews with the townspeople.

The filming location was a dilapidated place known as Griggs House. After the release of The Blair Witch Project it became something of a tourist attraction and was being picked apart by opportunistic visitors, which only caused further damage and increased danger of injury to those venturing inside.

Although an attempt was made to preserve the house, it was demolished. So it goes.

The Day of the Triffids (1963) - Newspaper Ad

San Francisco Examiner - June 18, 1963

I never really understood just how bungled this film adaptation was until I had the pleasure of reading John Wyndham's source novel. The difference between the two is akin to that between night and day.

That sad fact acknowledged, this 1963 movie does have some stilted b-movie charm to it, if taken on its own terms.

Alien (1979) - Trading Card #59

Only hours after Kane's horrifying experience, he appears to have totally recovered. Some simple investigating reveals the lifeless remains of the once-fearsome monster.

Okay, that is one whopper of a continuity error they got there. I'm guessing no useable, or workable, images of the lifeless Face Hugger were available or allowed, so they used this image from a memorable set piece later on in the film. 

Capricorn One (1978) - Soundtrack

I remember looking forward to seeing Capricorn One, way back in 1978, because I thought it was going to be about a rescue mission to retrieve astronauts that had crashed on Mars. When I learned that the astronauts never got off of terra firma, my interest cratered and I did not see the film until it made its television debut. 

It comes as no surprise that the very first thing I noticed about the movie was its score, which Jeff Bond's liner notes describe as opening with a "vivid, percussive anthem for orchestra."

For far too long I had to make do with the truncated 35 minute re-recorded soundtrack album, which smoothed and softened the score's tough, astringent, and avant-garde touches into a more retail market friendly symphonic sound.

Listening to the actual film music now, I agree with Bond's closing observation that Goldsmith's "score is more complicated, uncompromising and experimental than its re-recorded album indicated."

A fact that also explains why Goldsmith would continue to mine and explore the themes he created for Capricorn One, leading him to craft the memorable 5/8 musical powerhouses for the Rambo films and so many others.

Alien (1979) - Newspaper Ad

Oakland Tribune - June 17, 1979

A month or so after its exclusive San Francisco screenings began unspooling at the Northpoint, Alien finally opened at theaters and drive-ins closer to me. I am pretty sure that we saw it at the Hayward Festival.

The Blair Witch Project (1999) - Trading Card #60

Heather's Confession

"I just want to apologize to Mike's mom, and Josh's mom, and my mom. I am so, so sorry for everything that has happened. Because in spite of what Mike says now it was my fault. Because it was my project and I insisted... I insisted on everything. I insisted that we weren't lost. I insisted that we keep going. I insisted that we walk south...everything had to be my way. And this is where we ended up. And it's all because of me that we're here now... hungry, cold... and hunted." 

And here we have one of the most iconic upshots in horror cinema history. Everybody knows it. No pun intended.

Brain Damage (1988) - Newspaper Ad

While I know I watched this back in the day, I think it might have been a bootleg of the unrated edition. Because the notorious (at the time) fellatio sequence was intact.

I also purchased and read the film's limited small press hardcover novelization, written by former Fangoria edition Robert "Uncle Bob" Martin and signed by both Martin and writer-director Frank Henenlotter. Still have it, too. #81 of 1000.

Alien (1979) - Trading Card #57

The weird alien creature has fastened itself to Kane's face, forcing part of its tail around the officer's throat. Surgery is useless, as this monster appears to be self-sealing!

It's not just self-sealing, though. It also has acid for blood!

The Face Hugger being called 'The Face Grabber' on this card suggests that the preferred, and popular, name for the creature had not been coined, or was not communicated to Topps, at the time of this card series' creation. So it goes.

The Birds on the Beach - A 1000 piece puzzle from Lantern Press

The Island (1980) - Newspaper Ad

Oakland Tribune - June 13, 1980

The film versions of both The Island and The Shining opened on Friday, June 13th in 1980. The very day that the events in the first Friday the 13th movie were supposed to be taking place. How's that for an alignment?

I struggled and waffled over which movie to see on the big screen to celebrate my 13th birthday, The Island or The Shining? Hey, there's that alignment again. Go figure.

Richard D. Zanuck, David Brown, and, most importantly, Peter Benchley were integral parts of the production team responsible for Jaws, which was (and remains) my favorite movie of all time. But The Island was nothing at all like Jaws. There was also the fact that, at that time, I had been unable to finish reading the source novel, despite having made one or two attempts to do so.

I had no problem finishing The Shining, though. That book scared the daylights out of me and I hoped the movie would do the same.

The Shining won, as it never really was all that much of a contest to begin with.

When I did get around to finally seeing The Island, either on home video or HBO, I was even happier with the decision I had made.

The Blair Witch Project (1999) - Trading Card # 59

Sunset

Both Heather and Mike were on the verge of breakdowns as another evening approached. Their stomachs were empty and their nerves were completely shattered. "Tell me you're not eating a dry leaf?" Heather said weakly, observing an out-to-lunch Michael doing exactly that. They watched, almost numbly, as the sun set again, disappearing into the tree-lined distance. They prepared as best they could for yet another night of terror. 

Cape Fear (1991) - Soundtrack

Turns out repurposing Bernard Herrmann's score from the original Cape Fear (1962) for this 1991 remake was a splendid idea.

"The only reason the Herrmann thing worked is, in a curious way - don't ask me why - the score that Bennie wrote is much more appropriate for this film," the late Elmer Bernstein said in an interview quoted in Jeff Bond's liner notes for this release from Quartet Records. "I think he was the best creator on that [earlier] project, and he saw something in the film that wasn't there - but it's there now."

Herrmann favored writing his scores in segments that he could shuffle and piece together as needed. This allowed Bernstein to breakdown Herrmann's compositions and restructure them for the new film. Bernstein only needed to add some six minutes of original material.

Some of that 'original material' is taken from Herrmann's rejected score for Torn Curtain (1966) and is used to underscore a fight scene. "Herrmann's pounding timpani and rising brass cords are used here for almost the same circumstances," Bond explains in his liner notes. "A person being strangled."

The rejected Torn Curtain score is also used to underplay when a houseboat smashes against some rocks and breaks apart. 

For over thirty years I had the original soundtrack album that was released back in 1991, or so. No complaints about it, but I am really happy to have made this particular upgrade. It's nice to have the complete score for this one.

Empire of the Ants (1977) - Newspaper Ad

San Francisco Examiner - June 12, 1977

While I may not have been the most studious of biblical readers, I do know that it is supposed to be the meek who are supposed to inherit the Earth. After everyone else kills each other off, or the Rapture, or... you know what, never mind. Forget about it.

The ad campaign image for Bert I Gordon's The Food of the Gods, which was released the previous year, scared the snot out of me. This one, not so much.

While I would have liked to have been able to see it on the big screen, that was not to be. I did not see either The Food of the Gods or Empire of the Ants until they 'premiered' on Channel 7's The 3:30 Movie program. Something that necessitated the film's being trimmed down to a brisk 75 minutes, so that 15 minutes of commercials could also be broadcast in that 90-minute weekday afternoon time slot.

While I was gobsmacked at how silly they turned out to be, I also have never, ever been bored while watching them. They are tasty slices of the silliest kind of cinematic cheese.

Alien (1979) - Trading Card #56

 

The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958) - Newspaper Ad

Oakland Tribune - June 11, 1975

Wow, I do not remember The 7th Voyage of Sinbad getting a theatrical re-release in June of 1975. The release of Jaws that very same month kind of eclipses everything else from that year, at least as far as how I remember it.

I also remember The 7th Voyage of Sinbad being something of a television viewing staple of my youth. If it was one, I would watch it.

The Blair Witch Project (1999) - Trading Card #58

Blood Offering

Eventually curiosity overtook Heather and she picked up the strange "package" of branches that she had thrown from the tent. She carefully peeled away layers of cloth and twigs but pulled away instantly when a bloody human body part became visible within the tangle. She began to hyperventilate, losing complete control for the first time. Minutes later she managed to calm herself down, washed her hands in the creek, and rejoined Mike without telling him what she discovered.

Trivia Legend has it that Heather Donahue had tossed the bundle without looking to see what it contained, which necessitated her begin instructed to do so.

It was a pretty effective moment in the film. One of the only truly overt 'shocks' it offered, as the rest were implied and left to the individual viewer's imagination.

Candyman (2021) - Soundtrack

This is another digital purchase, one in dire need of being upgraded to an actual physical copy, because this score is fantastic.

Since I cannot access the liner notes for this release, at time of writing this collection entry, I had to do a little digging for information on the score. 

Robert Aiki Aubrey Lane utilizes an aleatoric approach to his composing. What this seems to mean is that an element of chance within the primary work is designed specifically for interpretation by the performers. I have no idea what that is supposed to mean, but I might take it upon myself to learn more about it at some point in the future, near or distant. Maybe. Maybe not. Who knows.

Lane would be on location during filming. When the day's, or the night's, filming was completed, he would then record a variety of ambient or musical sounds at that location. Those sounds were then distorted and woven together with modular electronics and voice work.

The result is a powerful auditory haunting. One drenched in ominous and aching menace. In an interview with motionpictures.org, Lowe explains his desire to have his "score can breathe on its own as more of an organism inside of the film." Which it does.

To make achieving that goal easier, Lowe recorded his variation on Philip Glass's Music Box Theme, from the original Candyman, last. Thus insuring its texture and style did not influence or color his original work.

The Ghost Train - Newspaper Ad

San Francisco Examiner - June 10, 1927

Another one of those comedic and, at the time, innumerable 'Old Dark House' mysteries, where the haunting gets explained away as a cover to scare away any and all potential witnesses. Only this time it's a train, not a house.

My introduction to these tropes came via their being recycled and repurposed for the original Scooby-Doo series, long before the decision was made to turn the make-believe ghosts and whatnot real.

Alien (1979) - Trading Card #55

 

The Giant Spider Invasion (1975) - Newspaper Ad

San Francisco Examiner - June 9, 1976

While I do remember seeing television advertising for The Giant Spider Invasion, back when it opened in theaters and drive-ins throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, I did not get to see it. 

Perhaps it was my feeling the movie looked too scary to endure. Perhaps it was the overt cheesiness of the title and the rank cheapness of the footage in the TV spots that had my parents thinking, "No way are we wasting any money on that, young man."

I also remember talking with an acquaintance at school who had seen it and trying to get as many details about the film from him as I could.

It would be the year 1999 or 2000 when I was able to rent the film on home video and be able to give it a watch. Not really worth the wait, to be honest.

Nothing anywhere as exciting as what the poster art shows actually happens in the movie, which is aimless, slow-paced, and jumbled as hell.

But the movie did help create what might be of my all-time favorite episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000, "PACKERS WIN THE SUPER BOWL!!!"

The Blair Witch Project (1999) - Trading Card #57

The Package

Mike and Heather spent another terrifying night in their tent, this time listening to the anguished screams of their missing companion, Josh. the following morning, an unusual object was left in front of the tent. "What the hell is that?" Heather asked aloud, staring at the strange bundle of twigs and cloth wrappings. "I'm just gonna movie it from the front of the tent, okay? I'm taking it away...I'm just going to throw it." 

The Haunted Mesa by Louis L'Amour - Review

Louis L'Amour's novels and short story collections were a fixture of every bookstore and book section I ever perused as a child, teenager, and 'new' adult. They were everywhere and inescapable.

Although I took notice of them, I did not touch them. This was due to my not being all that great an admirer of the western genre in my youth. For the most part, I preferred stories that had settings and locations that featured electricity, indoor plumbing, and automobiles. Predominant exceptions made were for Poe adaptations and films headlining the likes of Frankenstein, Dracula, the Wolf Man, or the Mummy.

Another exception allows for a segue to The Haunted Mesa, because this particular L'Amour novel belongs to a sub-genre known as the Weird Western. If a western had Billy the Kid fighting Dracula, or Jesse James meeting Frankenstein's daughter, well I could and would watch, or read, that.

I remember being somewhat intrigued by The Haunted Mesa when it was first released, way back in 1987, just not enough to pick it up and give it a read. What 20 year-old me would have thought of The Haunted Mesa will forever be an unknown, but 57 year-old me finished the book thinking it an entertaining and somewhat confused misfire.

The 'Lost Treasures' edition I read features an afterword by Beau L'Amour, the late author's son, detailing the torturous journey The Haunted Mesa took from idea to completed novel.

That backstory explains how L'Amour struggled with plot points and metaphysical concepts. Which explains the almost comical number of times Mike Raglan, L'Amour's two-fisted myth-busting hero, has to yank his wandering mind from a quagmire of navel-gazing thoughts on the nature of reality and force his attention back to the task at hand: finding and rescuing a friend that appears to have fallen, or been abducted into, an alternate reality.

There is a lot of potential in The Haunted Mesa for an adventure that could rival, or invoke, the Pellucidar and Barsoom adventures of Edgar Rice Burroughs. Figures and creatures of myth, such as the Poison Woman and Bigfoot, make fleeting appearances, but ultimately they have no impact or influence on the actual narrative. Outside of Raglan thinking something along the lines of, "Damn! They really are real!"

In his afterward Beau L'Amour argues an opinion that his father started work on The Haunted Mesa too soon. That if he had allowed his ideas to gestate just a tad bit little longer, the book might have turned out stronger than it did.

It's an opinion that is impossible for me to disagree with, as The Haunted Mesa read to me like an author trying to find and understand the story he was writing, rather than telling that story. 

Patrick (1978) - Newspaper Ad

Oakland Tribune - June 6, 1979

The ad line for this release of Patrick seems to suggests the film would be a supernatural thriller with an intriguing concept: a supposedly dead man appears as a patient in a hospital. That is not the plot of the film, though. The titular Patrick is a comatose murderer with telekinetic powers, which he uses to torment and harm those tasked with his care.

This ad's image is also one of a baker's dozen or so newspaper ads that I remember giving me the heebie-jeebies, way back in 1979. This was a period of time when I would look at an ad like this and think, "Damn, this movie looks too scary for me."

Whatever I imagined the movie being like would, for the most part, turn out to be far, far worse than the reality of it, of course. So it goes.