Category: Movies

AMC is really pushing it…

Crappy Movie Friday is put on hold again this weekend, in lieu of a Breaking Bad marathon.

But, unlike the Oscar weekend, it’s not TOTALLY absent.

The Puppet Master is airing in the wee hours of Saturday Morning.

After Magic last week, seems AMC is on some kind of doll fetish lately.

I’m rather curious just how AMC is going to edit this thing up to air it…

It’s not often you find even straight to VHS crapola movies having to cut things to keep their rating under “X”…I can’t even post the trailer on here without adjusting the blog settings to adult content.

If you can get by some of that, though, you have a film that inspired 8 sequels. There is a certain charm to the puppets, in that they are as much victim as they are villain. A formula lost on many modern shows, and virtually absent from the slashers this fits in with.

No, this week is for UEN.

UEN is airing Atom Age Vampire.

A little history with me and Italian horror…

There have been 2 movies that have caused a lasting phobia within me. The first being Alien. Oh, how terrified I was of that thing. It’s responsible for the ONLY time in my life I have ran in pure fear, losing all sense. A haunted house at the age of 10, had re-created part of the Alien movie, and when that alien (guy in a costume) popped out of the wall and made that noise, I was GONE.

The second film, was The Beyond. How Zombie movies SHOULD be done. Specifically this scene:

Still gets me. I don’t like anything anywhere near my eyes anymore.

Anyhow, Italian horror films typically have a mood and POV that is something just left-of-center from their American counterparts.

Atomic Age Vampire is no different. Since there are NO vampires at all. This is a mad scientist film in all it’s worst.

Well, as expected, AMC is back at it this week after the apparant Oscar weekend last week.

First up, Return to House on Haunted Hill.

Really, there is only one reason to watch this show. Victor Garcia, the special effects guru behind Hellboy is director. And, the film shows that it’s done by an effects artist, actually. The effects are superb. The rest…well, it’s Crappy Movie Friday for a reason.

Second in the lineup is Magic.

Yet another of the Twilight Zone episodes given the full length feature treatment. A testiment to just how great Twilight Zone really was…

Often overlooked, and while I don’t PERSONALLY get the whole scary dummy thing, I know KYLE does…Certainly going to record this to watch with Kyle. Show him where the idea for those goosebump dummy books he likes comes from.

Finally, in perhaps retribution for last week, AMC is treating us to a triple feature.

The Curse of the Living Corpse.

Film Debut of Roy Schneider…And not a whole heck of a lot more redeeming about the film…

Oooooo. FRIDAY THE 13TH!!!! OOOOOoooOOOOoo….

Ya know. I once worked with this mechanic. He was SO superstitious of Friday the 13th, he’ld actually NEVER work one.

I’ve never really understood the fascination. I remember paying attention to it as a child for a year or two, and nothing odd ever happened. Same with black cats, ladders, mirrors, and etc.

Anyhow. Firgured maybe AMC would pull out all the stops in leiu of it being Friday the 13th and all?

THIS week, AMC is treating us to:

Dracula (1979)

This happens to be the FIRST Dracula I saw as a child. As such, there is this special place in my heart for it. The first Dracula to get the full Hollywood special effects treatment, A very cool black and white set, and Frank Langella as Dracula are the primary draws for this film. But, at the end of the day, it’s not the classic 1931 Bela Lugosi version, nor is it as well done as the 1992 version. Thus, it’s just kind of there.

Still, it’s not every day you get to watch SKELETOR play Dracula. (Just for you Spud…can’t believe you made me sit through THAT film…)

What could possibly follow up Dracula, you ask?

Gorilla At Large.

It’s rare they pull something out of the garbage pile that I haven’t actually seen before. So, this is a rare treat.

I understand it was shot in 3D. Don’t know if AMC is airing it as such or not.

UEN, on the other hand has dug up a gem.

The Evil Mind.

Claude Rains and Fay Wray. What more reason do you really need?

The Evil Mind is a quite pleasant film where Claude Rains plays a con artist clairvoyant whose predictions start coming true. A fact which begins to obsess the poor bloke.

Yes, the story has been imitated many times since. From movies to Twilight Zone episodes.

It’s that time again. Time for another Crappy Movie Friday update.

I’ve been advocating AMC’s Crappy Movie Friday Nights for quite some time now. (Fear Friday, they prefer to call it)

Often, I’ld record such gems as Tarantula to watch with the kids.

There’s just something SPECIAL about giant radioactive bugs.

HOWEVER…

This past week, AMC royally pissed me off.

I get this day and age when we get commercials for Erectile Dysfunction along with our sports broadcasts. And yeah, they are OH so subtle as to show how the guy’s football won’t go through the hole till he takes his pill…

And, along with that, you have to have the Smiling Bob commercials as well. Again, OH so subtle as they are with their campy style and cheesy puns.

I even fully understand that Crappy Movie Friday Night is on LATE, when laws reguarding what’s on are a bit loose, and have put up with the occasional “party” 900 number commercial.

And, I get that, as a Direct TV customer, we get AMC on it’s Eastern Time schedule, not local mountain time, so the 10 PM dropoff allowing ‘late night’ programming is 8 PM our time.

This last Friday, AMC was playing Thunderheart prior to Fear Friday.

I LOVE Thunderheart. Underappreciated show with lots one can reference for Halloween. Figured, may as well let the boys watch. It’s 7 at night, they’ll see the end by 9, get to bed…

Well, ExtenZe has dropped it’s late night porn star infomercial format, and was airing anything-but-subtle commercials every break. This, at 7 PM local, 9 PM ET, prior to the latenight cutoff.

This made a typical commercial break: Enzyte, commercial for some AMC feature, Bowflex “size matters” commercial, ExtenZe, Commercial for AMC Feature.

Didn’t take many of those to make me switch channels.

Just a fair warning to parents out there. AMC might be going down the only watch when the kids are asleep, or the record-and-skip-the-commercials route.

This week, AMC drug up some actual classics for a change. Not a crappy movie night after all.

First, Night of the Living Dead (1990). I’m NOT a remake fan, typically preferring the originals. And, as with Psycho last week, here we have another going shot-for-shot remaking the original. Meh. Just give me the original….(wonder where we put that….)

Then, Bride of Frankenstein. SUPERB film. Not the traditional Crappy movie stuff they feed us. A must see for anyone out there who possibly has not.

Finally, in a rare TRIPLE feature, SON of Frankenstein. Completing the Frankenstein Trilogy is a good, but not quite up to snuff as the prior two, movie. Those of you more familiar with Young Frankenstein will get a lot of good chuckles watching this, as Young Frankenstein borrowed extensively from this film as it’s source to spoof.

UEN on the other hand is so thrilled SciFi Friday is being mentioned over here as part of Crappy Movie Friday Nights, they’re sending us some free gifts!

Ok, ok, you can get some too by clicking over here…

Just let them know how much you like SciFi Friday, and you might get some free stuffs. Let them know you heard it right here, too.

And, perhaps they knew AMC was bringing in good films for a change, because UEN has STEPPED UP IT’S GAME!

The Beast of Yucca Flats!

OH YEAH! That’s more like it!!!

CRAPPY MOVIE FRIDAY NIGHT!!!!!!!

THE reason to watch this film is to listen to the narrator. Nothing else makes any kind of sense whatsoever. And the narrator, just barely.