Together (2025) - Review

After a cold open that establishes the location of the film's central threat and mystery, via a truly awesome homage to John Carpenter's The Thing, we are introduced to Tim (Dave Franco) and Millie (Allison Brie). A young couple dealing with a myriad of challenges to their longterm and seemingly moribund romantic partnership.

Millie has accepted a rural teaching job that "forces" Tim outside of the comfortable rut he has enjoyed and become complacent in. Not that Tim being forced out of his rut is the lone source of his discomfort, either. A personal tragedy has jolted him to his core, haunting and tormenting him to the point where he is having trouble communicating just how deep the pain he is suffering is. 

Tim's communication issues fast become intimacy issues. Now Millie and Tim have begun to worry that they are staying together not because they are still in love, but because they have forgotten how to be on their own.

But after getting lost in the woods and trapped inside the cave shown at the beginning of the film, separating from one another might now prove to be impossible.

Writer-director Michael Shanks, by taking page a or two from David Cronenberg's The Brood and, to a lesser extent, The Fly, transforms the complex and painful emotional and psychological changes and challenges Tim and Millie struggle with into something capable of changing who and what they are physically.

All those inner thoughts, doubts, and fears of losing an essential part of one's core self, identity, or personality when entering into an intimate relationship with another become manifested by flesh, blood, and bone that insists on fusing together.

Each and every resentment, doubt, and fear about their emotional partnership is yanked out of them and laid bare before them as they struggle against something beyond their control trying to fuse them together as one.

Whether or not a viewer thinks that Together does a commendable job of exploring how Tim and Millie work through the most challenging growing pains their relationship might ever face will subjective, of course. I think Together is a wonderful, frightening, funny, and, just maybe, a tad heartwarming cinematic Rorschach test.

Love it or hate it, Together is certain to fuel a great many interesting, challenging, and revealing conversations about what it may or may not be saying about entering into a truly binding relationship.

The Brood (1979) - Newspaper Ad

Oakland Tribune - July 31, 1979

Earlier this year I posted an ad for The Brood that appeared in the August 1, 1979 edition of the Oakland Tribune and what a memorable piece of kindertrauma that ad was for me.

This was down before I started syncing the edition date with the post date, though. So now we have this blog's first repeat. It will not be its last, obviously. 

Lady Death: Dark Alliance - Trading Card #5

Wicked Trio

Lucifer is joined by the eternal Bad Girls, Demonica and Diabolica, forming a triumvirate of evil unparalleled on any place of reality. Ever treacherous, the sensual ladies are the perfect match for the father of all lies. 

The Curse of Frankenstein (1957) / X the Unknown (1956) - Newspaper Ad

San Francisco Examiner - July 30, 1957

John McCarty, in his seminal book Splatter Movies Breaking the Last Taboo of the Screen, shared how his "young, monster-movie addicted eyes were quick to spot a series of starkly lettered handbills that had been tacked to the trees and telephone poles." [Splatter Movies, Pg. 16]

Those handbills were hyping the imminent release of today's subject du jour, a double-bill of two terrific, top tier Hammer Film productions: The Curse of Frankenstein (1957) and X the Unknown (1956).

Going in order of production, 1956's X the Unknown, the 'B' feature of this double-bill, began as a sequel to The Quatermass Xperiment,  a moneymaker for the company. Only there was one small detail Hammer Film had not factored into the equation. Screenwriter Nigel Kneale, who had created the character of Bernard Quatermass and retained the rights, refused to have his creation appear in anything that he himself had not written. 

Even with any and all marketable connections and/references to The Quatermass Xperiment excised, X the Unknown is able to stand on its own as a cracking good monster movie. 

First-time screenwriter Jimmy Sangster, having penned a sturdy and reliable script for X the Unknown, was then entrusted with scripting Hammer Film's first color film, 1957's The Curse of Frankenstein. 

Curse took a very different approach than the 1931 Universal film and its sequels, for reasons that were both legal and artistic. In this film Baron Victor Frankenstein turns out to be every bit as dangerous and deadly monster as his witless creation.

Audiences ate it up and Hammer Film, seeing that it had struck gold, proceeded to mine the Gothic Horror genre for every penny it could uncover.

Alien (1979) - Trading Card #74

Another Chris Foss production design illustration. 

Hell Motel - Review

Although Hell Motel does not bear the name Slasher, it could very well serve as the sixth season of the masked killer anthology series. It has the same creative team, both in front and behind the camera. It has a masked killer, a convoluted mystery and motivation behind the killings, which are linked to a past tragedy, injustice, or abuse, and a roster of colorful and morally, or ethically, compromised victims, who get ruthlessly whittled down, one by one, until the identity of the killer is revealed.

The whittling down of that roster is the series entire reason for existing. Whenever the narrative turns its focus on a particular character's backstory, the viewer knows that character's head has been placed atop that episode's chopping block. 

What makes it fun, more often than not, is in learning how past and present events will converge at the end of the episode. Until that moment, the viewer has no idea if they will be feeling a joyous frisson of catharsis when said character gets dispatched, of if there will be a pang of regret, because the character, while not all the great of a human being, did not deserve that.

Which makes the meta-commentary in the limited series' next to last episode, titled Cat and Mouse, so delightfully cackle inducing. True Crime academic Andy Lecavalier (Jim Watson), in a character shading flashback, is shown defending his doctoral thesis and it does not go well, at all.

"The movies that you site, which I had to endure in order to adjudicate your thesis defense," the lead panel member sneers at Andy, "are unequivocal trash. Full of two dimensional characters so grotesque and idiotic, one would hazard they deserved to die. Will you be advocating for the real world suffering of Wilie E. Coyote next?" Ouch.

Andy tries to marshal something resembling a counter argument to this brutal dismissal, but gets cut off and stomped all the flatter. If that is even possible.

"No, no, no, no," the panel member continues, with zero patience or mercy. "Turning your gaze to the simplistic and righteous gutter that you pretend to critique does nothing but reveal your inane and very questionable obsession with that very gutter."

Oof. While there is no shortage of gory and torturous killings in Hell Motel, this scene gets my vote for its most brutal murder. I also appreciate how it nods, winks, and nudges its viewers with all the subtly of a hammer being pounded upon a nail.

As was the case with both Slasher: Flesh and Blood, which served as my introduction to the series, and Slasher: Ripper, what I enjoyed most about Hell Motel were the layering of all the over the top plot twists and character revelations. Some were absurd, while others were predictable. Slasher tropes will always be troping, you know?

I thought I had figured out the killer's identity by the time the final episode kicked off, but I was wrong. This time. I did guess right with Slasher: Ripper, but Slasher: Flesh and Blood had me hopelessly flummoxed.

The big downside for Hell Motel is that it fails to stick its landing. There were a few moments and revelations that, in retrospect, did not fit together as well as they should. While that did not keep me from enjoying the show as whole, it also left me thinking Hell Motel was the weakest of the three I have seen to date.

Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948) - Newspaper Ad

Oakland Tribune - July 29, 1948

Having played out their roster of monsters with a cycle of ever increasing silly, albeit entertaining and seldom boring, films in the first, war torn half of the 1940s. Universal Pictures decided to combine them with their equally played out comedic duo of Abbott & Costello.

The result was box office gold, although it seems that it took some convincing on Lou Costello's part to actually make the film. KBHK (Channel 44, Cable Channel 12) had a dedicated Saturday midday time slot for Abbott & Costello films and would cycle through them over and over. 

While I would pass on the stuff like Pardon My Sarong and Buck Privates, I tried not to miss whenever an entry in their own semi-series of monster comedies, or monster comedy adjacent fare such as Hold That Ghost, was broadcast. Fun times, good memories.

Lady Death: Dark Alliance - Trading Card #4

Ghostly Guidance

Aided by the spirit of dead police detective Virgil Solomon, Lady Death traded in her crib in Hell for the streets of New York. Little did she realize that the evil found among men would make anything in Hell's sulfurous depths pale in comparison. 

Chamber of Chills #11 - Review

Vol. 1, #11 - July 1974

Growing up, when it came to comic books, I was more of an occasional dabbler than a regular reader. 

While I knew of Batman and Superman and Spider-Man, I was far more interested in stories about, well, ghoulies, ghosties, and long-leggedy beasties. Lucky for me the 'Bronze Age' of comics saw a significant resurgence in horror and monster-themed books, so there was plenty for me to choose from throughout the mid-to-late 1970s.

I do not remember any of the titles, much less the actual issues, of the various comic books that I would partake of every now and then. There are only flashes of images and a few weird stories that, for one reason or another, got seared into my memory.

Back from the Dead, the second story in this collection of horror comic reprints, is just one such tale. A man escapes from the police and hides out on Easter Island, only to then learn its devastating secrets. Simple and straightforward stuff.

Revisiting it some, maybe, fifty-plus years after reading it, I am amazed by just how vivid my recall of this story was. There were certain panels that looked just how I remember them to have looked. It was uncanny.

The cover illustration, however, did not jog loose any memories of my having seen it, back in the day. The only thought that popped into my head was, "Hey, I remember this story!" Which is why this eleventh issue of Chamber of Chills was one of my final impulse purchases at Monsterpalooza this year.

I feel I should also point out that, while there is a woman on the cover, no woman appears in the actual story. Make of that what you will. 

According to the Marvel Database, this July 1974 issue was placed on shelves, or in spinner racks, on April 16, 1974. At that time I would have been all of six years old and halfway through the first grade. Okay, then.

As vivid as my memory of Back from the Dead, which first appeared in Tales of Suspense issue #18, in June of 1961, no additional memories were jogged loose or stirred up when I read the other three stories reprinted in this issue.

First up is The Ghoul, which first appeared in Adventures Into Weird Worlds #10, in September 1952. An on the lamb murderer is quick to regret taking a short cut through a cemetery, when he is discovered and mistaken for a ghoul that has been defiling the graves.

Torture Room, a concentration camp set tale of retribution, follows Back from the Dead and first appeared in Adventures Into Terror #4, in June 1951. Although it pre-dates both The Twilight Zone episode Deaths-Head Revisited, by ten years, and the Night Gallery segment A Question of Fear, by twenty, it reads and plays like a mash-up of the two. Satisfying, but probably more potent for a reader in 1951 than this reader in 2025.

The issue's closing story is Werewolf, a reprint from Menace #3, from May 1953. Waldo, ruthlessly henpecked by his shrewish wife and mocked by his disbelieving neighbors, is desperate to prove that there is a werewolf prowling the area on the nights of a full moon.

But poor Waldo has forgotten an important rule of thumb. Always be careful of what you wish for, because you just might get it.

This was a fun and nostalgic read for me, if only because one of its stories somehow managed to become photocopied into my memory. Perhaps it was the fact that Jack Kirby illustrated that particular story. Maybe. I have no idea, really.

But I am glad I can now identify it.

Deep Blue Sea (1999) - Newspaper Ad

San Francisco Examiner - July 28, 1999

I think I had the most fun watching Deep Blue Sea on the big screen than any other film released in 1999. No surprise, considering Jaws is my favorite movie of all time and Deep Blue Sea is awash with homages to Jaws, Jaws 2, and even Jaws 3D.

Deep Blue Sea is an unapologetic and energetic pulp-trash thrill-ride of a movie. Jaws meets The Poseidon Adventure.

Have yet to see any of its DTV (DTS?) sequels, though.

Alien (1979) - Trading Card #73

Wonder if the set painter that was captured and immortalized in this behind the scenes candid shot ever found out about it. I'm sure there would be plenty of weirdo fans that would have loved to have had him autograph this card. There is no way I could be alone in thinking that would be a fun thing to have.

Delicious in Dungeon, Vol. 2 by Ryoko Kui - Review

So, what is on the menu in this volume? Well... we have vegetables grown from golems, bread prepared with the help of some orc refugees, treasure insect snacks, some surprise sorbet, and boiled mimic.

Not all at once, of course. Each item is individually prepared and served at the end of its very own chapter. Said chapters also allow of one, perhaps two, of the group members to step forward and take center stage.

First Chef Senshi takes care of his golem gardens. Marcille then engages in a fierce debate with an orc regarding the ethics of plundering and how colonialism can fuel and forge ongoing conflict. It was a pretty lively debate that did not give arbitrary moral high ground to one side over the other, which made reading it all the more satisfying.

The group then discovers the remains of another deceased hunting party and must do battle with poisonous treasure insects. Here is where Laios learns his sword just might have a mind all its own. The group's bug battle aftermath draws the attention of some ghosts looking for fresh bodies to possess. Some quick thinking on Senshi's part leads to his finding a rather unique method of creating sorbet!

Chapters 12 and 13, Court Cuisine and Boiled in Salt Water, respectively, are my favorite of the tasty and zesty dishes offered up in this volume. Cuisine has Laios venturing into living pictures, so that he might return with some food for the group. Something easier dreamed than done.

In Boiled Chilchuck gets trapped in a room with a mimic, alone. Now he has to stay one step ahead of a hungry monster, while also trying to figure how to unlock the trap that is keeping him in the room. It is a really fun romp.

The volume ends with Senshi introducing the group to a kelpie he befriended while he fished from a large underground lake. Reluctant to the point of being hostile to the use of magic to cross the lake, Senshi hopes to the enlist the aid of his kelpie friend and shenanigans ensue.

This was another delicious delight that left me craving to learn what would be served in volume three.

House On Eden (2025) - Review

Once again a small group of cocky paranormal investigators stumble upon, and fall victim to, malevolent supernatural activity in House On Eden. The feature film writing-directing-acting debut of online content creator Kris Collins and her friends/co-creators Celina Myers and Jason-Christopher Mayer.

While the found footage horror high-water marks created by Stephen Cognetti's Hell House LLC (2015) or Joseph and Vanessa Winter's Deadstream (2022) are in no danger of being surpassed, much less approached, House On Eden does manage to deliver some jump scares and several moments of sustained tension. But only after taking its sweet time getting to them.

Despite Collins, Myers, and Mayer having plenty of charisma and chemistry as a performative team onscreen, it could not keep me from feeling that the first ten to twenty minutes of House On Eden were far too unfocused and aimless for its own good. There was at least one moment where I found myself thinking, "Can we just get to the frigging house, please?" Maybe there were even two. Maybe.

Once the trio does reach that old dark house nestled deep in the middle of a forested nowhere (in the dead of night, of course) the film finds its footing and commences to work its way through overly familiar tropes that, nonetheless, can still work, if done right. 

Collins and company managed to do enough of those tropes well enough that I walked out of the theater feeling I had not wasted too much time watching this DIY mash-up of The Blair Witch Project and House of the Devil.

The Legend of Hell House (1973) - Newspaper Ad

Oakland Tribune - July 25, 1973

If Die Hard can qualify as a Christmas movie, then so can 1973's The Legend of Hell House. Hey, the movie ends on Christmas Eve, after all.

The Legend of Hell House was one of a baker's dozen or so movies that were broadcast staples on the local syndicated stations I grew up watching. Whenever The Legend of Hell House aired, I was good as glued to the television until it was over.

I did not crack open the source novel until 1985, or thereabouts. The differences between the far more graphic book and the much subtler film took me by surprise, but made for a zesty and memorable read.

IDW published a four part comic book adaptation of Hell House in 2005. One that hewed closer to the novel than it did to this film version. It was also quite good.

Lady Death: Dark Alliance - Trading Card #3

Cool Confidence

Her foes fear her, while those she calls allies find her confidence on the verge of arrogance. Thing is, Lady Death is not overconfident in her abilities, nor does she make idle threats. She knows what she is capable of, and it shows in her demeanor. 

Gloomy Carnival - A 1000 Piece Puzzle by Ravensburger

Maximum Overdrive (1986) - Newspaper Ad

San Francisco Examiner - July 24, 1986

I was in Dallas, Texas, of all places, visiting a friend. That friend and I went to see Maximum Overdrive on its opening day and we had quite the memorable experience.

Although King had made a promise to scare the hell out of his audience in the film's infamous trailer, Maximum Overdrive plays more like a parody than it does as a sincere attempt at "doing a Stephen King movie right."

King's writing, at times, suffers from his indulging in lowbrow humor. In Maximum Overdrive he did not just indulge in it. He both gorged and wallowed in it, like a pig in slop.

One can both laugh at and laugh with Maximum Overdrive. King himself has gone on record stating that he was coked out of his mind, and no doubt drunk off his gourd, during the production and no idea whatsoever of what he was doing. It shows in every single frame.

But I still love it and have zero problem watching it over and over and over again...

Alien (1979) - Trading Card #72

 

Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972) - Newspaper Ad

Oakland Tribune - July 23, 1972

Conquest of the Planet of the Apes was released a couple of weeks after my fifth birthday. The 'first' time I saw it may or may not have been when it made its network television debut, although I had my doubts about that.

Because memories of my having seen several key scenes in the film on the big screen, such as the interrogation and tragic end of Armando (Ricardo Montalban), came to mind as the movie unfolded. 

These memories went beyond mere déjà vu, though. I could remember sitting in a movie theater and watching the damn thing.

Yet my parents were adamant that they had never taken me to see the movie. That this was the first time any of us had ever watched it.

Perhaps they had not taken me to see the movie, but someone else had? Because I remember sitting in what might have been the Alameda Showcase, before it became the Southshore Twin, and watching this movie.

Lady Death: Dark Alliance - Trading Card #2

Suddenly Human

Her powers gone, Lady Death found herself in human form once again, with all the weaknesses and insecurities that brings. Still awesome in her might and confident of her abilities, the world quickly learned that a human Lady Death was even stronger than before. 

The Amityville Horror (1979) - Newspaper Ad

San Francisco Examiner - July 22, 1979

While I remember the theatrical release of The Amityville Horror film adaptation, I did not see it on the big screen. I did read the paperback, though. Several times, in fact. I also remember the debunking the haunting got on the show That's Incredible!

Perhaps there was a time I believed the story, or just wanted to believe the story was real. But that time has long passed.

Alien (1979) - Trading Card #71

Swiftly the disembodied head of Ash is wired for sound. It speaks: "My orders were to investigate an alien life form, almost certainly hostile, and bring it back for observation..."

I am guessing that using a shot of Ash's decapitated head sitting atop the table was taken off the... uh.... proverbial table. So it goes. 

The Cat O' Nine Tails [Il Gatto A Nove Code (1971)] - Soundtrack

Dario Argento's second film has often been dismissed as one of the writer-director's lesser efforts. Argento himself long considered it to be the worst of his films. However Argento's post-Opera critical and commercial missteps have opened the door for its reevaluation, with opinion of the film and its place in Argento's body of work becoming more favorable over time.

Although Argento and Ennio Morricone were well acquainted with each other on a personal level, neither really understood the other professionally when they first worked together on The Bird with the Crystal Plumage [L'uccello dalle Piume di Cristallo] (1970).

But when they re-teamed for The Cat O' Nine Tails [Il Gatto A Nove Code] Morricone had a much better understanding of what Argento liked and wanted in a film score and thus was able to deliver an impressive piece that was, in Morricone's own words, "bold, dissonant and traumatic."

With the one exception of the title theme, Ninna Nanna in Blu, Morricone eschews melody in favor of a five-note motif for bass guitar accompanied by drums. A motif that is colored and enhanced with strings, woodwinds, piano, tremolo, electronic guitar, and, of course, voices.

Ninna Nanna in Blu is used sparingly in the film, but only for moments that directly involve Lori (Cinzia De Carolis) or her influence. Which accounts for its sounding, again in Morricone's words, "simple [and] nearly childish."

While Morricone's score for The Bird with the Crystal Plumage might get more attention from critics and fans, what he composed for The Cat O' Nine Tails is every bit as good and deserving of an attentive listen.

Creatures World Forgot (1971) - Newspaper Ad

Oakland Tribune - July 21, 1971

Hammer Film's fourth and final prehistoric adventure picture saw the return of director Don Chaffey, who launched the short-lived cycle with 1966's One Million Years B.C.

Although child me might have confused this as being part of a cycle of films that included the like-titled The Land That Time Forgot and The People That Time Forgot, that was very much not the case.

Also there are no 'creatures' in this movie, just a bunch of gibberish grunting men and women in animal pelts. Child me would have felt cheated, as the title would have got my hopes up for there being either lizards made to look like dinosaurs or stop motion dinosaur effects. 

Nope. For that you would have to watch either the aforementioned One Million Years B.C. or 1970's When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth. The first and third films in the cycle, respectively.

Lady Death: Dark Alliance - Trading Card #1

Battle of Ages

Magic meets technology when Lady Death comes to earth to establish herself as a player in the eternal power struggle. Those already holding the power aren't keen on her intrusion, and muster all the forces at their command against her. 

The Dark by Max Franklin - Review

"It's simply coincidence that a hundred years ago there was a killer similar to this one."

Back in May I posted a newspaper clipping of an ad for 1979's The Dark. In that post I shared how director Tobe Hooper was fired during the first week of filming. The reasons cited for his being sacked were his going over budget and falling behind schedule. John "Bud" Cardos was brought in to complete the film on time and on budget, which he appears to have done.

But a change in directors was not the only unexpected switch that befell The Dark. At some point late in filming producers Dick Clark and Edward L. Montoro decided that the film's undead killer should be an alien from outer space instead. 

The end result of that decision was a jumble of nonsensical dialogue scenes interrupted by an occasional and incomprehensible 'monster' attack.

In that post I also theorized the film's novelization might be an adaptation of the story as it had been originally planned. How I hoped it would contain the supernatural elements that were excised from the film and therefore might make a bit more sense. That if I could find an edition for a reasonable price, I just might buy it and give it a try.

Well, after writing that post, I decided to check eBay and found an edition I could afford. So I bought it and read it.

Now, having finished it, I can share that the novelization of The Dark might be a tad more comprehensible with an undead killer decapitating and chowing down on the flesh of his victims rather than an alien killing people by shooting lasers out of its glowing eyeballs. Yet there were still way too many unanswered questions and unexplored theories in whichever draft of Stanford Whitmore's screenplay was being adapted here.

What amazed and amused me about the book was how close the novelization aligned with, yet managed to deviate from, the finished film's narrative. It was easy to see all the narrative and stylistic embellishments and liberties the author made so the book could reach the required word count to qualify as a novel.

The biggest was the changing of the second victim from a randy night watchman that is killed while on the job to a wholesome family man that is slaughtered just as he is about to return home to his loving family. This allows for television reporter Zoe Owens to return later in the book and conduct a heartfelt interview with the grieving and traumatized family, so that pesky word count can be reached.

There were also some plot points and scenes that might have been excised after the monster was changed from undead serial killer to alien from outer space. 

Ray Warner, the grieving and vengeance seeking father of the first victim, does a bit of research at the local library and learns of one Harmon Quade. A merchant seaman turned murderer and cannibal. Quade was killed by an angry mob and buried in a potter's field. Warner's daughter just so happened to have been killed one hundred years and a day after Quade's burial. Coincidence?

Contrivance then allows for Warner and Owen to locate Quade's supposed resting place and engage in some illicit grave digging. All they uncover is dirt and more dirt. The grave is empty.

Which is when my amazement and amusement began to curdle into frustration. While the book implies that the monster 'might be' a 100 years dead cannibalistic murderer that has somehow returned to life, no further information is given. Nor is there ever an explanation, or even a whacky theory, as to how or why these killings are even happening.

Zero expository light was cast upon the incomprehensible blackness that is at the very center of The Dark. While the novelization does offer a tantalizing concept of an explantation, that concept is not developed into something, anything, that approaches satisfying. 

The novelization of The Dark left me as every bit as confused as the film did.

If you want a coherent variation of The Dark where the menace is supernatural, I suggest watching John Carpenter's The Fog. But if you want an alien menace stalking the streets of Los Angeles and slaughtering people, then just watch Predator 2. Both are better than The Dark.

Jurassic Park III (2001) - Newspaper Ad

San Francisco Examiner - July 18, 2001

I saw Jurassic Park III opening weekend and had fun with it. While it might not have been a great, or even all that good, movie, Jurassic Park III nonetheless kept me entertained during its somewhat brisk 92 minute running time.

Two memorable moments occurred during that first viewing. 

First was, after the plane had crashed on the island and the assorted characters were climbing out of the wreckage, I leaned over and whispered to my companion, "Just how long do you think the black guy is going to last here?" Only for a dinosaur to come along and eat the poor guy within seconds of my having spoken. I am ashamed to admit we giggled over that lazy (and offensive) trope being played out with such perfunctory speed. Come on, guys. We can and must do and be better than this!

Second was a funny gag involving a ringing cellphone. The sound mix made it sound as if the ringing were coming from somewhere in the auditorium, which had disgruntled audience members grumbling about some damn fool's phone ruining the movie, only for it to be revealed that the cell phone was inside the film's primary dinosaur antagonist. That gag was set-up and paid-off with plenty of b-movie elan and charm.

Alien (1979) - Trading Card #70

Parker and Lambert rush to Ripley's aid as Ash continues his mad attack. Suddenly, Ash's head is ripped from his body, revealing wires and circuits where tissue should be. "My God" gasps Lambert. "He's... an android!"

"It's a robot! Ash is a goddamn robot!" Is what Parker says, after knocking Ash's block off (literally, not figuratively) with a fire extinguisher. It took some close listening, but I could also suss out a muffled line of dialogue, "It's an android!" Spoken, once again, by Parker, just after Ash's head is knocked off. Lambert doesn't say anything.

I know, I know. If I keep picking at these nits they are going to get infected. So be it.

Here is some more compulsive nitpicking, just to be joyously pedantic, the image in this card occurs just before the image used on card 69.

Pointing out and correcting these trivial matters is how an aging man has fun these days, I guess. LOL.

Hauntress by Minetaro Mochizuki - Review

It begins with a simple inquiry that draws attention. Attention that becomes a baffling obsession. An obsession that spirals into nightmare. A nightmare that becomes the stuff of urban legend.

The simple inquiry is when Hiroshi Mori, a young student, hears a woman ringing the doorbell and knocking on the door of his neighbor, Yamamoto. Since it is the middle of the night and the ringing and knocking is loud enough to disturb Hiroshi, he steps out to see what is going on. Big mistake.

Standing at Yamamoto's door is a towering woman with long black hair. She is wearing an overcoat and is carrying two paper bags and a satchel. Hiroshi's short encounter with her is dreamlike, with the woman pointing at the Yamamoto's door and asking if he goes to the same school as, "The person who lives here."

If this were a video that last comment would get punctuated by a clip of Dustin Poynter running around with a giant red flag.

The strange woman's attention turns to Hiroshi, of course, and his life is fast unraveled and tossed to the wind.

I am hesitant to offer any further explanation or exploration of Hauntress, as doing so would only spoil unnerving revelations and incidents that would best be experienced with a set of fresh and unaware eyes.

The ad copy on the back of the edition I have describes it as a "1993 horror classic...credited with introducing the concept of stalking to Japan." That was enough to sell me on the manga and, now having read it, I more or less concur.

Hauntress creeped me out and left me hesitant to the point of being afraid to see who it is that is knocking on a neighbor's door in the dead of night...

Arachnophobia (1990) - Newspaper Ad

Oakland Tribune - July 17, 1990

Producer Frank Marshall, a longtime collaborator with Steven Spielberg, made his feature film directing debut with this entertaining creepy crawly opus. One that parent company Disney, via its short-lived Hollywood Pictures branch, had a difficult time finding a way to market to the general public. 

I do not know if the term "thrillomedy" was coined for this particular film's release, but the ratio of scares and laughs are very well-balanced. It's a horror-comedy that works because, by and large, the horror aspect is treated dead serious, while the humor comes from how the characters react to said horror.

One thing I do regret is deleting the film's soundtrack album from my collection. That was dumb.

The Blair Witch Project (1999) - Trading Card #72

Checklist

And the first complete set of trading cards in my collection has reached its end, with no newspaper ads, books, soundtracks, or related ephemera crossing its posting path. Nothing else to add. Besides, thank you for visiting.

Talk Story Bookstore - A 500 Piece Puzzle

Basket Case (1982) - Newspaper Ad

San Francisco Examiner - July 16, 1982

While I was unable to see Basket Case on the big screen, I was able to see Basket Case 2 on the very same big screen, it seems. Because the sequel, released in 1990, also had a series of midnight screenings at the very same Roxie theatre. Go figure.

Another 'quick' trip down the rabbit hole of memory lane versus magazine and newspaper archives places my first learning of the existence of Basket Case at either the very end of 1981 or the very beginning of 1982. Whenever it was that I first cracked open the sixteenth issue of Fangoria magazine and studiously examined the plethora of grisly stills from the film.

I did not see the film itself until 1983, when it was released on home video by Media Home Entertainment, and I loved it. So much so that I bought my own VHS of the release, just so I could watch it on the regular. Which I did, with relish.

Alien (1979) - Trading Card #69

Science Officer Ash... a traitor? Ripley suspects he has been sabotaging their attacks on the Alien for some undisclosed reason. Ash finally confirms this belief by turning his murderous rage against Ripley! 

The Devil's Rain (1975) - Newspaper Ad

Oakland Tribune - July 15, 1975

I think I was first made aware of The Devil's Rain by its being mentioned/lambasted in the Medved's notorious tome The Golden Turkey Awards. As I seem to remember it, John Travolta was one of the nominees for the Most Embarrassing Movie Debut award, because The Devil's Rain was his first movie. So it goes.

Whether or not that memory is an accurate one is debatable, though. Because verifying whether or not my memory was correct took me down a rabbit hole of magazine databases and archives, as well as newspaper television listings, that reminded me that the memory of an event and the historical record of said event are two very different things.

I do know that I watched some of The Devil's Rain on late night television. There were several potential dates for when this might have happened. The first would have been on November 2, 1979, when The Devil's Rain aired after a rerun of the Kolchak The Night Stalker episode The Youth Killer on the CBS Late Movie. I also learned that It Came from Beneath the Sea was airing on Creature Features, over on Channel 2, at the same time as The Youth Killer.

The Devil's Rain would wash across the CBS Late Movie two more times in late 1980, maybe. First on August 12, which was a Wednesday, and then again on the more appropriate date of October 24, which was a Friday. That is according to this CBS Late Movie database, at least.

But when I checked the television listings in the Oakland Tribune. The Devil's Rain was only listed for broadcast on August 12. The October 24 time slot says that the 1960 drama Sunrise at Campobello was being aired.

Oh, I also learned that the 1978 Invasion of the Body Snatchers remake was also broadcast on Friday, October 24, 1980. Which might coincide with a memory of my buying the novelization of The Hearse. The reason for this lodging in my memory was that I had to borrow a nickel from my uncle in order to complete the purchase. He actually barged into my bedroom to make sure he got the promised reimbursement. Dude tracked me down to get his fracking nickel back.

My only memory of The Devil's Rain consists of its opening with scene, wherein Ernest Borgnine and William Shatner engage in some theological fisticuffs, and the film's typical for its era downbeat ending and closing credits.

The Blair Witch Project (1999) - Trading Card #71

The Haxan Team

In mid-1997, Angela Donahue, Heather's mother, turned over the controversial footage shot by her missing daughter to a company called Haxan Films. Haxan's editors and directors, already familiar with the curious case, assembled Heather's raw material into what has now become "The Blair Witch Project."

Front (left to right): Haxan's Dan Myrick (co-director), Robin Crowie, Gregg Hale (producer), Michael Monello, Edward Sanchez (co-director). 

The Swarm (1978) - Newspaper Ad

San Francisco Examiner - July 14, 1978

For those that might not be paying all that much attention to the posting pattern of these clippings, I switch back and forth between the San Francisco Examiner and the Oakland Tribune for the sake of variety. If I were to post by the when or the where I lived at the time I first saw a particular movie, then the corresponding clipping should be one taken from the Oakland Tribune.

Irwin Allen's Production of The Swarm, as I love to refer to it, was one of the most anticipated movies of 1978 for me. That its release just so happened to coincide with my 12th birthday was just icing on the cake.

I had skimmed Arthur Herzog's source novel, but would not actually read it from start-to-finish for another year or two, and studied the tie-in edition's collection of black and white stills from the upcoming movie. Some of those stills were from scenes that were ultimately trimmed from the theatrical prints.

While I enjoyed The Swarm's bombastic silliness and over-the-top cartoonish style, my parents did not. At all. This movie lived in infamy within our household.

But I still enjoyed The Swarm enough to see it an additional two times on the big screen that month. I think it only lasted a mere two weeks in general release before being yanked from most theaters by its humiliated distributor, Warner Brothers.

Alien (1979) - Trading Card #68

As I stated with the previous card, these images are out of sequence. The above image is from just before the image of the fight between Ripley and Ash used on card 67. The same same will apply for the two cards that follow this one... 

Orca (1977) - Newspaper Ad

Oakland Tribune - July 13, 1977

Dino De Laurentiis followed his 1976 remake of King Kong with Orca, a blatant attempt at crafting a Jaws-sized hit at the box office.

Although not what one would call a critical or artistic success, Orca did manage to break even at the box office. I know I saw it at least twice on the big screen in the summer of 1977. I just loved the idea of a super smart killer whale crushing the collective asses of those responsible for the death of its mate and child.

The movie also instigated a comical pissing contest with Jaws. Orca kicks off with the titular beast dispatching a great white shark in spectacular fashion. A year later Jaws 2 would feature a scene involving a dead, shark-bit killer whale that has washed ashore. If franchise entries could talk, then Jaws 2 was sneering, "Bitch, please..."

The Blair Witch Project (1999) - Trading Card #70

Private Investigation

In early 1996, frustrated with the official lack of progress on the case, Heather Donahue's family hired private investigator C. D. "Buck" Buchanan, Jr. Involved in full-time law enforcement/investigative service for 32 years, Buchanan probed into all aspects of the unusual disappearance, inevitably exploring the blood-stained history of Burkittsville. On February 8, 1996, Sheriff Ron Cravens informed Buchanan that he believed the student's footage to be a hoax.

Casino Royale (2006) - Soundtrack

Synchronicity strikes again! Just as I was about to reach the soundtrack for Casino Royale in my collection, Patrick (H) Williams just so happened to release a video essay about Daniel Craig's five film run as James Bond. At time of writing it is only available on Nebula, but might have moved over to You Tube by the time somebody discovers and reads this particular entry.

Then again, nobody is reading blogs all that much anymore. Are they?

What was interesting was how the shadow of 1969's On Her Majesty's Secret Service was cast over the Craig era from the very beginning.

Composer David Arnold described his score for Casino Royale as a being serious and dramatically rooted, as the film's grounded and character focused approach did not allow for any tongue-in-cheek frivolity or outright silliness.

Arnold also said his score was something of a close musical cousin to John Barry's music for On Her Majesty's Secret Service, in that the James Bond theme was not used for color or punctuation at any point during the film proper and was used only for the end credits. Which makes for an awesome album closer as well.

There were no liner notes for this Sony Masterworks CD release, but trumpet player Derek Watkins did get a loving shout out congratulating him on performing his 21st Bond movie score. That means Watkins' trumpet can be heard in every single EON Bond from Dr. No right through to Casino Royale. An impressive and charming piece of movie music trivia.

Jaws the Revenge (1987) - Newspaper Ad

San Francisco Examiner - July 12, 1987

Oof. I went to see the very first matinee screening of Jaws the Revenge at the Alhambra Theatre on Friday, July 17th. Why? Because Jaws is my favorite movie of all time and, back then, I had the energy to give just about any movie a try.

There was a small group of people a few rows behind me that, before the movie started, joked about how this movie could not be worse than the previous Sea World set entry. They were wrong, of course. So very, very wrong.

This was also the first time a movie snapped me out of a fog of denial regarding what I was watching. To this day I vividly remember the moment when the film cut to a lackluster shot of the mechanical shark flopping in the water and I thought, "That's right, this a Jaws movie." The shock, dismay, and utter horror that washed over me as I realized that I had forgotten what movie I was supposed to be watching was physically palpable and soul crushing.

I also remember the slack-jawed walk of shame and resentment at being seen leaving the theatre after this comically inept abomination had ended.

At least I got to see the film's original ending on the big screen.

Alien (1979) - Trading Card #67

Again, the image being used is out of sequence with the events of the film's narrative. So it goes.

Jurassic World: Rebirth (2025) - Review

I tapped out on the Jurassic Park franchise after 2015's Jurassic World. While I did not think it all that bad of a movie, it also was not all that good of a movie, either. There was a hollowness to it that left me unsatisfied. So I wound up skipping both Fallen Kingdom (2018) and Dominion (2022). 

Which is both sad and odd, considering my love of giant monster movies and creature features. How is it I can still get giddy about seeing a new Godzilla or King Kong movie, but the thought of a new Jurassic World movie has me disinterested and cold?

Two things, I guess. First there is the lingering memory of that unsatisfying hollowness at the center of the first Jurassic World entry. Second might be the bland sameness to the proceedings. Despite all the lip service promises of dinosaurs escaping and integrating into the world, each movie seems content to just keep recycling endless variations of iconic set-pieces from the first Jurassic Park (1993) and its source material.

Gripes about sameness aside, though, I must and will give The Lost World: Jurassic Park props for its San Diego sequence. That was fun.

Yet there was a thing or two about Rebirth that managed to pierce my cocoon of disinterested lethargy regarding the franchise and intrigue me enough to go and give this entry a shot.

First is that Gareth Edwards had directed the film. I have been a fan of Edwards since Monsters (2010) and thought he did a fine job with Godzilla (2014), a wonderful job on Rogue One (2016), and a superlative job with The Creator (2023). Here was someone I thought well-suited to coax something new and interesting out of this timeworn and threadbare franchise.

Second, and something that connected with the core of my inner monster kid heart, was this film having an actual mutant dinosaur (i.e. an honest-to-goodness giant monster element). I could not pass on that...

Well, shame on me, kind of. While competently directed, with a sense of both scale and fun to the proceedings, Edwards was unable to really bring anything new or all that interesting to this entry. While it starts off strong enough, with a nifty and almost terror inducing introduction to the 'D-Rex' mutant in a cold open, everything that follows is just more of the same perfunctory and repetitive stuff.

David Koepp's script is both overstuffed and underdeveloped, offering a collection of character sketches in dire need of some fleshing out and coloring. This is also one of those movies where it is quite easy to suss out who will live and who will be dinosaur chow.

What Rebirth needed was a serious trim. Either cut the stranded family out of the script - which would allow space for the 'characters' played by Scarlett Johannson, Mahershala Ali, Johnathan Bailey, et al, to develop some much needed interesting textures and interpersonal dynamics - or cut down on the mercenary and scientists stuff and make the stranded family the primary characters and play it as a frightening and dangerous fish-out-of-water style adventure.

Either approach might have worked better than the lifeless and disinteresting mishmash of cliches I wound up sitting through. So it goes.

The 7 Brothers Meet Dracula [The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires (1974)] - Newspaper Ad

Oakland Tribune - July 11, 1979

The 7 Brothers Meet Dracula was the truncated version of The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires, one of the very last gasps of the foundering and failing Hammer Film production company. While the original version ran 89 minutes, The 7 Brothers Meet Dracula, shorn of some 14 minutes, was a brisk and, perhaps, borderline incoherent 75 minutes.

Adding further insult to injury was the film having been shelved, or passed over, for theatrical distribution for a whopping five years before getting a token release. My guess is the distributor wanted a Dracula title to capitalize on the expected box office success of Universal's big budget remake of Dracula, which was opening the following Friday, July 13th.

For snorts and giggles, I thought it would be fun to consult the theatre guide for the co-hits(s) that were paired with The 7 Brothers Meet Dracula.

The LUX co-features were Hot, Cool and Vicious, a 1977 martial arts import, and Caravans, a historical adventure from the director of The Enforcer (1976) and Every Which Way But Loose (1978). 

But if triple-features were not your kind of thing, then the Eastmont Four had The 7 Brothers Meet Dracula paired with Mean Frank and Crazy Tony, which was an Italian buddy film about a small-time criminal (Tony LoBianco) teaming up with a high-profile gangster (Lee Van Cleef) to escape from prison. 

I know Mean Frank and Crazy Tony better as Escape from Death Row and remember being low-key surprised by how light-hearted and delightful the movie turned out to be.

The Blair Witch Project (1999) - Trading Card #69

Heather's Journal

The disturbing tape/film footage and Heather Donahue's equally unnerving journal elicited an array of responses. Some psychologists suggested that the starving, fatigued students may have turned on one another; others feel they were most certainly stalked and murdered by unknown assailants. Still others place the blame squarely on the Blair Witch, feeling that the tragedy is merely the latest in a series of bizarre occurrences dating back to 1786. 

Carrie the musical - Soundtrack

In October of 2013 the revived and revamped version of Carrie the Musical was mounted and performed by the Ray of Light Theatre in San Francisco.

While I remembered reading of the legendary smoking crater the original production made on Broadway, closing after only 16 previews and 5 performances, I never dreamed I would ever be able to see the damn thing.

Which remains true. Because this version had a retooled book, which reshaped the show into a psychological-drama focused on the effects of bullying. Seven songs from the original show had also been dropped and replaced with all-new ones. Not that I knew any of this at the time I took my seat at the Victoria Theatre in San Francisco.

Perhaps it was my diminished expectations for the show going in, but I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. I even bought the revival's Premiere Cast Recording.

It is unlikely this show will ever truly get out from under the shadow of its legendary Broadway failure, but I am still rooting for it to do so. I guess I am a sucker for lost causes.

Moby Dick (1956) - Newspaper Ad

San Francisco Examiner - July 10, 1956

I remember watching Moby Dick on television and being blown away by it. So blown away that I immediately checked the book out from the local library and attempted to give it a read. I made it through one or two chapters, at most, before giving up. Not bad for somebody that was, most likely, in middle school at the time.

Twelve or so years later, maybe, the novel was assigned reading in an American Literature course I was taking at San Francisco State University. Surprise, surprise, surprise, but I made it through the entire, albeit seemingly endless, book this time around.

While I cannot say that I felt it was the transcendent reading experience the professor teaching the class found it to be, I was surprised at just how much the climax of Peter Benchley's novel Jaws seemed to have cribbed from the climax of Moby Dick. Really.

A few years after that I read Ray Bradbury's novel Green Shadows, White Whale, which was a fictionalized version of his experience working with John Huston to craft the script for the movie adaptation of Moby Dick that I had just so happened to watch and love so many years before.

Bradbury incorporated a great many of his Irish stories, which were inspired by the time he spent in Ireland working on Moby Dick, so the resulting book is more a phantasmagoria of sights, sounds, and experiences than it is a structured story. Which is pretty much par for the course for most, if not all, of Bradbury's novel length works. 

Green Shadows, White Whale was the second novel penned by a disgruntled and traumatized screenwriter dramatizing what it was like working with, or for, John Huston. The other was White Hunter, Black Heart by Peter Viertel. While I have seen the Clint Eastwood movie adaptation, I have yet to crack open the actual book it was based on.

I need to do that, some time.