The Legend of Boggy Creek (1972) - Newspaper Ad

Oakland Tribune - July 31, 1973

The Legend of Boggy Creek was a fixture of our syndicated broadcast stations, back in the mid-to-late 1970s and early 1980s. Whenever it aired, I would watch it.

There were a plethora of movies, books, magazines, comics, television specials, and, as is the case with today's subject, purported documentaries about Bigfoot and its many cryptozoological brethren that saturated the pop culture landscape of the mid-to-late 1970s and early 1980s. It got to the point where it seemed if one were to throw a rock between any two random trees, there was no way you would NOT hit a Sasquatch with it.

Although I was raised and have spent most of my life in California, I was born in Arkansas. My parents would take my brother and I back to visit friends and family in Arkansas every few years. Which proved and provided interesting and informative experiences in cultural difference to me.

During one trip I asked if it were at all possible to visit Fouke, just to see where the infamous (to me, at least) Boggy Creek creature was supposed to reside. My dad rolled his eyes and told me we were not going to waste a day driving to and from Fouke because, well, "That damn fool made the whole thing up."

While making a visit (or pilgrimage) to Fouke, Arkansas still tickles my monster kid fancy, I think that doing so may have been a ship which has already set sail, struck a reality iceberg, and sunk. So it goes.

But I can still dream, right...?

Fright Flicks - Trading Card #90

Alien (1979)

 

Meteor (1979) - Newspaper Ad

San Francisco Examiner - July 30, 1978

Turns out that Meteor did NOT strike leading theaters nationwide in June of 1979. No, production delays brought upon by repeated failures to create usable special effects from an ever dwindling budget pushed the release out of the summer and into the autumn of 1979. Where it landed with a resounding thud. The reverberations of which weakened the financial foundation of American International Pictures to the point a buyout proved necessary.

Those delays also led to the promised John Williams score not happening. Composer Laurence Rosenthal, who I know best for his score for 1981's Clash of the Titans, would score the film. I read the novelization, which had been published in June of 1979, I think, months before the film managed to drop into theaters and drive-ins near me. But I would not see the film until it was either on home video or HBO. I remember watching it on TV, being unimpressed, and thinking the novelization had told the story far better than the finished film. So it goes.

Alien 3 (1992) - Trading Card #54

Behind the Scenes: Camera Setup

A new technology called low-motion control had to be developed to make direct David Fincher's visions become reality. Essentially, it involves a 65mm, high-speed, motion-control, robotic camera mounted on a boom system for quick set-up and maneuverability.
 

The Philadelphia Experiment (1984) - Newspaper Ad

Oakland Tribune - July 29, 1984

I think John Carpenter's Executive Producer credit on this is an honorary one, as he spent some time developing the project before throwing up his hands and walking away. He just could not come up with third act that satisfied him.

This was one of the films I missed out on seeing on the big screen because I was living overseas at that time. Still have yet to catch up with it. So it goes.

Fright Flicks - Trading Card #89

Ghostbusters (1984)

 

Body Parts (1991) - Newspaper Ad

San Francisco Examiner - July 28, 1991

Six days prior to the publication of this ad, the infamous serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer was arrested. Shocking and lurid details of his heinous crimes were splashed across newspapers, news broadcasts, and tabloids and any and all potential interest in a horror movie titled Body Parts, and the drew inspiration for a novel titled Choice Cuts, evaporated.

Very few, if any, of the general public were the slightest bit interested in the film. If they knew of its existence, that is. I think Paramount Pictures had already yanked the television and radio spots for the film, both out of respect for Dahmer's victims and the not at all unexpected, and easy to understand, complaints from upset viewers.

Body Parts both arrived and departed from the theaters and drive-ins in under a month, tops. I think it might have been available on home video by the end of September, 1991. That is where I saw it.

I remember liking Loek Dikker's odd sounding score, but also thinking the film felt a tad too lean. It felt both perfunctory in its storytelling and character development. Yet there are a few lively moments, including a truly bonkers and logic defying action sequence involving a passenger in one car that gets handcuffed to the driver of another.

It is an entertaining oddball of a movie, and something of a minor cult classic due to that fact, but it is also easy to see the missed opportunity to make something a bit, um, meatier with the concept.
 

Alien 3 (1992) - Trading Card #53

 

Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948) - Newspaper Ad

Oakland Tribune - July 27, 1948

As baffling in retrospect as it might seem, star Lou Costello was adamant in NOT wanting to do this film. It took a hefty increase in salary and the hiring of a trusted director to get him on board. Good thing, as Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein went on to become on of their most popular, and famous, films.

Come on, they even brought Bela Lugosi back to play Dracula! Although the studio evidently had to be talked into that bit of casting.

Fright Flicks - Trading Card #88

Predator (1987)

 

Alien 3 (1992) - Trading Card #52

Behind the Scenes: Alien Torso 1

This Alien torso, built from fiberglass, plastic, and foam rubber, was used for only one particular part in the movie - the final Lead Works scene. This scene calls for the Alien's head to crack and explode in full view of the audience.
 

Fright Flicks - Trading Card #87

Ghostbusters (1984)

 

The Lost World (1960) - Newspaper Ad

San Francisco Examiner - July 24, 1960

Producer-director Irwin Allen glued some plastic fins onto some live, and no doubt disgruntled, lizards, shot them with macro lens, and christened them DINOSAURS for this loose adaptation of Arthur Conan Doyle's classic adventure tale.

This might be on par with the colorful and campy television productions (i.e. Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea and Lost in Space) that made Irwin Allen something of a household name in the sixties, before he became the legendary Master of Disaster in the seventies. I have yet to see it, but my experiences watching reruns of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea and Lost in Space, and Allen's lackluster and characterless direction of the both The Swarm and Beyond the Poseidon Adventure, do not fill me with hope.
 

Alien 3 (1992) - Trading Card #51

Behind the Scenes: Laser Disc Composite System

A special Laser Disc Composite System was invented for work on Alien 3. The system creates temporary video composites during the shooting of the miniature Alien, allowing crew members to immediately see how the Alien's actions will look on the real background.

Wolfen (1981) - Newspaper Ad

Oakland Tribune - July 23, 1981

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

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

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

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

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

Fright Flicks - Trading Card #86

Alien (1979)

 

Dressed to Kill (1980) - Newspaper Ad

San Francisco Examiner - July 22, 1980

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

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

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

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

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

 

Alien 3 (1992) - Trading Card #50

Behind the Scenes: Finishing Touches

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

The Leopard Man (1943) - Newspaper Ad

Oakland Tribune - July 21, 1943

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

Fright Flicks - Trading Card #85

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

 

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

 

San Francisco Examiner - July 20, 1975

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

Alien 3 (1992) - Trading Card #49

Behind the Scenes - Under Construction

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

The Intruders by Pat Montandon - Newspaper Ad

Oakland Tribune - July 15, 1975

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

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

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

Fright Flicks - Trading Card #84

Vengeance The Demon (1988)

Another card utilizing the discarded alternate title for Pumpkinhead.
 

The Frighteners (1996) - Newspaper Ad

San Francisco Examiner - July 14, 1996

As much as I would have loved to have gone and seen The Frighteners on the big screen, it was released at a time when such luxuries were out of reach.

When I finally was able to catch up to the film when it hit home video, I thought it was a tad unfocused and all over the place. The organizational threads of story and character seemed to have gotten tangled with the distractions of the massive amounts of special effects.

While Jackson was aiming for a PG-13 rating, it became clear that the MPAA, for whatever reason, did not want the film to have that rating. No matter the amount of cuts and alterations made. So Jackson amped up the gore for one character's death, just so the R rating felt earned rather than arbitrary.

This one movie I need to revisit sooner, rather than later.

Alien 3 (1992) - Trading Card #48

Behind the Scenes - Lead Works Set

Here, the enormous Lead Works and Blast Furnace set undergo construction on the "007 Stage," the world's largest sound stage located at Pinewood Studios, London.
 

The Swarm (1978) - Newspaper Ad

Oakland Tribune - July 13, 1978

Irwin Allen's production of The Swarm is one of the crown jewels of my childhood. The pre-release hype and ballyhoo was impressive, causing the "killer bee" fear mongering of the late-seventies to reach a fever pitch. I had the movie-tie edition of the Arthur Herzog novel and examined each and every black and white photo, wondering if this movie would do for bees was Jaws had done for sharks.

Then the movie opened and, well, the rancid stench of flop sweat and fresh turkey manure filled empty theaters across the nation. Ineptly made and poorly written, The Swarm is a bombastic mess of a movie that was woefully out of touch with the era in which it was made and set. The meandering plot wanders and drifts at a pace that makes a glacial seem like a speed run.

Allen seems to have spent most of his big budget on wrangling an all star cast that, despite all having done solid to great work elsewhere, give performances here that range from wooden to operatically over the top. I think Michael Caine and Richard Widmark, who spend a majority of the film arguing with each other, made bet as to who could chew the most scenery and boy do the splinters fly when they  go at each other.

One of the many joys this film has given is the gleeful delight whenever I take the Warner Bros Studio tour. Being able to see and walk around the raw material with which "Marysville, Texas" was created on the Burbank backlot is an intoxicating joy that will forever have me wanting to take just one more tour and just a few more pictures.
 

Fright Flicks - Trading Card #83

Alien (1979)

 

The Fly (1958) - Newspaper Ad

San Francisco Examiner - July 10, 1958

A rather impressive roster of 'Hollywood Ghouls' will be attending tomorrow night's Studio Sneak Preview of The Fly. I have a suspicion that the Invisible Man was the subject of a "no show" joke of some kind. Unless they had some dude wrapped in bandages milling about.

Although The Fly would be released as part of a double-bill with the killer space fungus flick Spacemaster X-7, this sneak preview substitutes for Beautiful But Dangerous. Which was the co-hit for the Gregory peck starring western The Bravados, which would could watch before or after The Fly.

 

Alien (1992) - Trading Card #47

Behind the Scenes - Sound Stage

The sets - Lead Works, Toxic Waste Disposal, Morgue, Infirmary - were housed on this huge sound stage in London, England. Norman Reynolds, famed British production designer, gave the sets of Alien 3 continuity with the other Alien movies. Dirty, rough, crude, and eerie.
 

Humongous (1982) - Newspaper Ad

Oakland Tribune - July 9, 1982

Having struck a modest vein of box office gold with the 1980 Halloween cash-in Prom Night, director Paul Lynch made a somewhat quick return to the same exploitation well for this 1982 monster-themed slasher.

While not a 'bad' film, in that it looks like a film made an actual filmmaker, it is hampered by a paint-by-the-numbers body count script that mashes together Friday the 13th Part II with The Grim Reaper. The only things missing here are some gnarly and inventive deaths and an impressive looking visage for the titular Humongous. Which leaves little to nothing of interest left to hold the viewer.

Between Prom Night and Humongous, Lynch directed four segments for the short-lived Night Gallery styled anthology series Darkroom, which was hosted by James Coburn and ran on ABC. Those segments were Stay Tuned, We'll Be Right Back, Needlepoint, Daises, and Who's There?

Lynch would move between theatrical features, such as the 1986 drama Bullies, and episodic television. Of interest to me would be the six segments he directed for the mid-80s return of The Twilight Zone - Examination Day, A Message from Charity, Wong's Lost and Found Emporium, Need to Know, Shadow Play, The Storyteller, and The World Next Door. As well as the three half hour episodes he directed for the syndication package - The Crossing, The Hunters, and Crazy as a Soup Sandwich.

I also need to seek out the two episodes he directed for The Ray Bradbury Theater - Marionettes, Inc. and The Long Years. There were also two episodes of the short lived return of Dark Shadows in 1991. Five episodes of Star Trek The Next Generation - The Naked Now, 11001001, Unnatural Selection, A Matter of Time, and The First Duty. Five episodes of RoboCop - The Future of Law Enforcement, Parts 1 and 2, Trouble in Delta City, Officer Missing, and Faces of Eve. Two episodes of the 90s reboot of The Outer Limits - The Second Soul and Dark Matters. Eight episodes of F/X; The Series, four episodes Poltergeist: The Legacy, two episodes of Xena: Warrior Princess, and three episodes of Sliders - Net Worth, Please Press One, and Requiem.

An incomplete list of some of the films and television work that screenwriter William Gray is credited with include the classic 1980 ghost story The Changeling, the aforementioned Prom Night, the Chuck Norris action flick An Eye for an Eye, The Philadelphia Experiment, and Black Moon Rising. Two episodes of The Hitchhiker - Joker and Fashion Exchange. Two episodes of that 90s relaunch of Dark Shadows and three episodes apiece for RoboCop and BeastMaster.

At the Roxie, Humongous was on a triple-bill with The Seduction and Beyond the Fog [which was retitled reissuing of 1972's Tower of Evil, aka Horror of Snape Island]. The Parkway had it paired with Escape from New York. Humongous rampaged solo at both the Festival Cinemas in Hayward and the Regency Cinema in Pleasant Hill.

Fright Flicks - Trading Card #82

Fright Night (1985)

 

Dracula (1979) - Newspaper Ad

San Francisco Examiner - July 8, 1979

Thanks in very large part to the massive success of the Edward Gorey designed revival of the Dean/Balderston penned play, both on Broadway and as a national tour, Universal dusted off the gothic horror property that launched its famous monster line-up and released this "all-new" cinematic version of the classic story in 1979.

There were also three or four Dracula movies that came out during the summer of 1979, depending on whether or not you count (heh, "count") Werner Herzog's Noserfatu the Vampyre. Love at First Bite, a rom-com take on Dracula that starred George Hamilton as the Count, preceded this film's release by 3 or so months. The 7 Brothers Meet Dracula, a delayed by five or so years retitled release of Hammer Film's Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires, would open the Wednesday before this film's release.

Because the movie looked "old" to me, in that it was set in the 19th century and 12 year-old me preferred movies and stories set in time periods with electricity, indoor plumbing, and motor cars, I was disinterested in seeing this on the big screen. Too bad for younger me.

I did catch up on during a Halloween night sleepover with a whole bunch of friends. An independent pay TV outlet had an awesome marathon lined up. What I remember being shown that night was the animated film Wizards (1977), followed by The Amityville Horror (1979), Halloween (1978), The Fog (1980) and Dracula (1979). There may come a time when I might be able to fact check this, by checking the Oakland Tribune's TV listings, but who knows if, or when, that will ever occur.
 

Alien 3 (1992) - Trading Card #46

Behind the Scenes - Alien Puppet 2

An Alien rod puppet is used to film the fast-moving chase scenes. Here, two crew members control the Alien to give it a character of its own. The Alien puppet scenes were done in a California studio and matched up with the live action scenes done in London.
 

Phantasm II (1988) - Newspaper Ad

Oakland Tribune - July 7, 1988

One of several 1988 summer horror films that underperformed at that box office.

As fun and atmospheric as Phantasm II is, general audiences were just not all that interested in seeing a spooky carnival ride of a movie in July. Maybe, just maybe, if the film had been pushed to late September or early October? Maybe. But who knows, really? I don't.

But what I do know is that this movie is fun. The higher budget, an estimated 3 million, not only allowed for better special effects and production design, but may have given writer-producer-director Don Coscarelli a tad more of the old shooting schedule.

And it shows, because the movie also looks great. I was able to see this opening weekend and had a blast. The friend I was with, however, did not. He hated the movie. So it goes.

The one downside is that Universal wanted a more established actor to play the lead character of Mike. So A. Michael Baldwin was switched out for James Le Gros. The one and only time Baldwin did not play Mike.

 

Fright Flicks - Trading Card #81

The Fly (1986)

 

Bug (1975) - Newspaper Ad

San Francisco Examiner - July 6, 1975

William Castle's production of Bug did not ping my pop culture radar until 1976, when I saw it at the Alameda three on a double-bill with Godzilla vs. Megalon.

The order in which the two were screened is a memory long buried under the inexorable sands of time. What I do remember is being both freaked out and grossed out by Bug, while being off-put by the broad cartoonish-ness of Godzilla vs. Megalon.

For a time the theatrical one-sheet for Bug hung in my bedroom. There are even some polaroids of my sitting at my desk and play acting as a working writer with the poster behind me. Where those polaroids are, and if they even still exist, I have no idea. If I do find them, I will share them. Why not?

In mid-to-late 1980s I managed to get my hands on a paperback of Thomas Page's source novel, The Hephaestus Plague and read it. While my admittedly fuzzy memory of the book remembers there being a tad larger scope to the firebug invasion, the core story beats of the novel seemed to have survived and been retained for this film adaptation.
 

Alien 3 (1992) - Trading Card #45

Behind the Scenes - Alien Puppet 1

Close-ups of the Alien "puppet" are filmed separately on a plain blue screen. Later, in the editing room, the real background will be added to give the illusion that the creature is quickly moving through the prison's narrow air ducts.
 

Watch Out, We're Mad [...altrimenti ci arrabbiamo! (1974)] - Soundtrack

New addition to the collection.

Although the English language title of this energetic and delightful action comedy, starring the popular duo of Terence Hill and Bud Spencer, is Watch Out, We're Mad. Its original Italian title is ...altrimenti ci arrabbiamo! [Otherwise we'll get mad]. Which means that this disc will be filed under A, rather than W, and, since I am currently on the letter C of my collection, this oddity gets to cut in line. Because A has already been done and, well, alphabetical order.

Watch Out, We're Mad is the kind of film that Burt Reynolds, Dom DeLuise, and Hal Needham thought they were (and should have been) making. Hill and Spencer are two affable and intensely competitive racers that have tied for first place. Which means they have to share the grand prize, a red and yellow dune buggy.

Yeah, right. Their playful games to decide who will win the dune buggy are interrupted when the car is stolen and destroyed by a local crime boss. Irritated and determined to get a replacement red and yellow dune buggy, so they can continue their challenges to see who will win said buggy, the duo confront the crime boss...

What follows are well choreographed fight scenes and car chases. There is also a comedically hammy performance from Donald Pleasance that needs to be seen to be believed.

Underplaying it all is this quirky score from the pop duo of Guido & Maurizio De Angelis, who I know best for their score for Great White [aka The Last Shark, L'ultimo Squalo (1981)]. Be forewarned though, you will be hearing and humming their song "Dune Buggy" incessantly afterward, as it is both a pesky earworm and underplays just about each and every action sequence. Of which there are a sizable amount.
 

Men in Black II (2002) - Newspaper Ad

Oakland Tribune - July 3, 2002

Sequels, like all creative endeavors, exist on a spectrum. One that has three distinct points on its gradient.

First, and considered best, are the sequels that continue or evolve the pre-existing story in new and unique ways. This is where you will find the likes of The Bride of Frankenstein, The Godfather Part II, and The Empire Strikes Back.

Second, and where today's subject rests, is the most common and recognizable type of sequel. Which is to just replicate the first film's structure or story beats, albeit with some cosmetic changes that will make it appear 'all-new' and therefore different, and dial up all the stuff people loved or remember from the first. Think Jaws 2 or Die Hard 2, etc.

Third, and last, would be the anthology or in-name-only sequels. These are your James Bond, Dirty Harry, and Blind Dead films, which feature a reoccurring character, or characters, but do not continue a fixed storyline. Also folded into this example are the plethora of direct-to-video sequels that would just slap a franchise name on an unrelated film and call it a sequel. The Howling and Witchcraft 'sequels' are good examples of this. Also, Hellraiser.

Now let me get out of these weeds and back to today's ad, which is for Men in Black 2. While the first film was something of a delightful unicorn, this sequel... was not. The first Men in Black ended with the now seasoned Agent Jay (Will Smith) with a new partner, protecting the planet from the scum of the universe.

While there were two tie-in novels that attempted to deliver on the promise of that ending, The Green Saliva Blues, published in 1999, and The Grazer Conspiracy, published in 2000, this sequel presses the dreaded reset button.

Jay's partner washed out and Kay's retirement was a bust. The 'all-new' cosmetic change here being that it is Jay who has to break in the amnesiac Kay. Also new, the alien threat disguising itself as an underwear clad female model. Yay, I guess?

Fright Flicks - Trading Card #80

Poltergeist (1982)

One of the more irritating paranormal-themed urban legends regards the usage of actual human skeletons (aka human remains) in Poltergeist. While that may add an additional layer of ghoulishness to both the film and the gruesome reason for why the haunting is occurring. The truth is that actual human skeletons were used with great frequency throughout countless productions.

That skeleton hanging in the background of the doctor's office? Most likely real. Real skeletons were cheaper to rent than fake ones. So... if you see a skeleton in any and every thing from 1930s up through the 1980s, chances are it is a real skeleton.

Also, ignoring the real world horrors of domestic violence and blaming an innocuous prop is in very poor taste, in my humble opinion.

Scary Movie (2000) - Newspaper Ad

San Francisco Examiner - July 2, 2000

I have yet to see any of the Scary Movie films, or any of the genre parody films their box success unleashed into theaters, so I have little to nothing to say about them.

However, I do have some interesting trivia that will be pointed out whenever the appropriate film title gets a posting. So... here goes.

In 1982 writer-director Robert Benton (Kramer vs. Kramer, Places in the Heart) made a film called Stab, which starred Roy Scheider and Meryl Streep. Prior to release, the title was changed to the less visceral sounding Still of the Night.

In 1996 directer Wes Craven helmed a film called Scream, which had the working title of Scary Movie. A movie within the movie, as it was a very meta commentary on slasher films, was a fictional film titled... Stab.

In the year 2000 the Wayan brothers used the title Scary Movie for an outright parody of horror films that combined raunch comedy with the ham-fisted self-awareness of the Airplane and Naked Gun franchises.

Oh, and Wes Craven directed Meryl Streep in the inspirational drama Music of the Heart.

Connected, they're all connected...

Alien 3 (1992) - Trading Card #44

Behind the Scenes - Foam Rubber Casting

Only one Alien haunts the prisoners planet of Fiorina 161, but dozens of foam rubber castings were produced in order to construct the three rod puppets used in filming based on designs by creature effects designers Tom Woodruff, Jr., and Alec Gillis. 

Lone Women by Victor LaValle - Review

From the very start of Lone Women by Victor LaValle, it is made quite clear that whatever is locked inside Adelaide Henry’s steamer trunk is both alive and very dangerous. It tore her parents to pieces, after all. An act that forces Adelaide to burn the family home, with the remains of her parents inside, and flee with whatever she can carry and whatever is locked inside that steamer trunk.

Being a lifelong addict of any and every thing to do with monsters. I was predisposed to wondering and guessing that when the locked steamer trunk would be opened, either by accident or on purpose, what style of entity would be revealed. 

While it could be something akin to Fluffy, the insatiable carnivorous beast that was locked inside The Crate in the first Creepshow movie, and in the source material story of the same name. I had serious doubts that that would be the case. No, my biggest suspicion as to what was inside that steamer trunk was that it was not all that different something akin to Belial, the deformed twin brother of Duane Bradly in Frank Henenlotter’s cult classic Basket Case.

Adelaide’s journey to Montana is not all that easy, but it is also not all that dangerous, either. She is going east from a homestead in California, after all. But while the frontier has been settled, it is also far from being toiled and tamed.

The real dangers and life-threatening challenges Adelaide must face and do battle with as she attempts to settle and build an all new life, in a region where no one knows her, begin manifesting when she arrives in the Montana town of Big Sandy, the city closest to her claim.

This is another homestead claim, which means that Adelaide needs to live there for three years, during which she is required to make it habitable and cultivate crops. If she succeeds in doing so, she gets to keep the land. If she fails or gives up, the land reverts back to the government. Failure is not an option for her. Neither is discovery, or so she thinks when she first arrives in Big Sandy.

While this is Adelaide’s first experience living in an area with few people of color, there was a refreshing absence of overt (i.e. dramatically performative) racism in the narrative. Oh, there is racism. But it is more a humming undercurrent of white noise (pun kind of intended) than anything of the kind that would found if this tale were set in the Jim Crow south.

As long as Adelaide is 'good' (in that she meets with the community standards in an area starved for people to populate it) she will be accepted. But if those arbitrary community standards are altered, or challenged, in any way… Adelaide may no longer be considered one of the ‘good' ones. While this is never explicitly stated outright by any character, it is something that Adelaide knows and is aware of.

There is a lot more to the story than Adelaide and the contents of her steamer trunk. There is also a traveling family or ruthless, murderous criminals that Adelaide gets on the bad side of. A ghost town that may or may not have actual ghosts residing within it. Then there is Mrs. Reed, Big Sandy's wealthy matron, who is supportive of the suffrage movement and the bringing of industry for women to work to the town. But she is also the author and the enforcer of the community standards. She and her husband, Mr. Reed,  are where that humming undercurrent of menace vibrates loudest. Make them happy and, well, everybody is happy. As long as the community standards are met and abided by.

Lone Women is my kind of book. It is exciting, it is touching, it is suspenseful, and, best of all, it continually surprised and subverted my expectations. I give it a hearty recommendation to any all Weird Western fans.

Until next time, happy trails… 

Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003) - Newspaper Ad

Oakland Tribune - July 1, 2003

While the much ballyhooed "all practical" car chase in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines was both exciting and entertaining, I think christening the film itself "The MOST exciting movie of the year" was a tad much. Then again, 2003 was not a good year for me and my son. The only other films I can recall seeing on the big screen that year were Ang Lee's Hulk, Eli Roth's Cabin Fever, and an all-new live action version of Peter Pan released during the Christmas season.

This was the first Terminator film made without the creative input of James Cameron and, despite the admirable effort of director Jonathan Mostow to maintain the tone of and style of the first two films, it shows.

Rise of the Machines is to the first two Terminator films what Jaws 2 was to Jaws. A competent enough piece of entertainment that, nonetheless, fails to retain the creative energy that made the previous movies pop.

Fright Flicks - Trading Card #79

A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 3 Dream Warriors (1987)

"Welcome to prime time, BITCH!"