Alien (1979) - Sticker #16

 

Chato's Land (1972) - Slideshow

I think I am becoming quite adept at making this slideshow trifles and really enjoy making them.

Carrie (2013) - Newspaper Ad

San Francisco Examiner - October 9, 2013

When I first saw the teaser for this version of Carrie, my hopes spiked that it would contain the section of the book deleted from the 1976 (and subsequent) version(s) due to budgetary limitations.

In the book, after Carrie White sets the gymnasium aflame and kills everybody at that the prom, she walks home and destroys everything and everyone in her path.

Yet, it was not to be. They just did the same thing again, it seems.

At least I can imagine a film adaptation of the maligned musical wherein Carrie walks home singing a song titled "You Know My Name" or something similar, while setting off a torrent of orgiastic destruction and retribution.

Lady Death: Dark Alliance - Trading Card #30

Evil?

Is Ernie truly evil, or just hopelessly misunderstood? It depends on who you talk to. To those he's helped over the years, he's a saint. To his victims, he's the epitome of evil.

Chato's Land (1972) - Soundtrack

Jerry Fielding's score for Chato's Land, the first pairing (of six) of star Charles Bronson with director Michael Winner, is as dark and difficult as the film itself. The composer's creative affinity toward dissonance and atonality allows for the perfect underscore as the anger and tension seething onscreen builds to outbursts of brutal violence (a Winner trademark).

This score came during one of Fielding's most blistering creative streaks, which occurred in 1971 and '72. During this period he composed the scores for eight feature films, two made-for-television movies, a whopping ten television pilots, and multiple episodes of regular television. It seems that the scarring left by being blacklisted instilled in Fielding a terror of not being able to work, making him incapable of turning down any and all job offers.

The late Nick Redman, in his reprinted liner notes for this Intrada reissue, singles out Fielding's Main Title for praise, pointing out how it moves from a forceful melody into strange and worrying percussion that is indicative of the merciless brutality that is to come.

Redman describes Fielding's overall work here as "rough-hewn, pitiless, without mercy" and I agree. It is a dark and brooding listening experience that unsettles every bit as much as it impresses.

Halloween 5 (1989) - Newspaper Ad

Oakland Tribune - October 8, 1989

Halloween 5 would be the last film in the franchise I would see on the big screen until 2018's Halloween. I found it odd that The Revenge of Michael Myers subtitle only appeared in the marketing materials for the film and not in the actual film.

This yet another sequel the undoes the plot twists of a previous entry, just as Psycho III and Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth had done. I remember enjoying it well enough, but have not seen it from start to finish in decades, at least.

Alien (1979) - Sticker #15

 

Emergence (Dave vs. The Monsters #1) by John Birmingham - Review

Dave Hooper's hangover from Hell is compounded by a disaster at his workplace, an on off-shore oil rig located in the Gulf of Mexico. It seems that monsters have scurried up from the ocean depths and have begun snacking on the crew.

Well, okay then...

Acting without thinking, Hooper grabs a deceased crew member's abandoned splitting maul and slams it into the cranium of what appears to be the Boss Monster of the creatures infesting the rig and ingesting the remains of its crew.

What happens next changes Dave Hooper for good and puts the future of the human species in the gravest of peril...

Being the first of a trilogy, there is a lot plot machinations, character introductions, and world building in need of being done. Author John Birmingham kept the pace brisk enough, and gave the clueless Dave Hooper enough intellectual inertia to insure that his navigation of the hairpin learning curves of what his new found 'super powers' can and can not allow him to do, to hold my interest right through to the climatic battle of New Orleans.

There are also some developments and complications that insure the action and monster mashing bloodshed are only going to bet more and more intense.

I am looking forward to finding out what happens next. 

Our Trail Cam - Vol. 30

Another collection of videos of all manner of wildlife that strolls past our open space adjacent backyard. This week we had Wilbur (feral pig), Rocket (all those raccoons), and Tom (turkey) milling about.

Frankenstein 3D [Flesh for Frankenstein (1973)] - Newspaper Ad

San Francisco Examiner - October 7, 1982

Paul Morrissey's over-the-top and pitch black comedic take on the Frankenstein story got a re-release when 3D made a brief comeback in the early 1980s. I have only seen it on video, but if the opportunity to see it in all of its 3D grisly glory on the big screen, I would take it.

"To know death, Otto, you have to fuck life... in the gall bladder!"