Movies – Page 4 – An Unorthodox Halloween

Return of the Crappy Movie Friday! And other news

AMC has been all over the place lately with Crappy Movie Friday Nights.

But, looks like they’re getting back into the swing of things this weekend.

First up we have Psycho.

No, not THAT one. The REMAKE (1998).

Look, if you’re going to go remaking a CLASSIC, and you’re going to do it shot for shot, and do your best to make everything exactly the same….MAAAYBE it’s best so just leave the original alone, eh?

The cast is a bit off, and color actually detracts from the feel of the original. Could have been great…but, it’s certainly a Crappy Movie.

Then, their double feature for the evening is The Fly II.

Alec first saw the OLD school The Fly about 2 years ago. And was horrror-stricken in watching the fly creature come into being. Something amazing about that film, even with the horrendous effects.

The Remake of The Fly doesn’t quite capture that magic at any single point. Yet, the sheer horror of Jeff Goldblum’s marvelous transformation into Brundle-fly more than makes up for it, and creates a spot dear to our hearts all it’s own.

However, The Fly II…well, there is very little redeeming in this film. Just more of the same, without the acting and chemistry of the first.

For those of us here in Utah, UEN is showing….drumroll…

Mars Attacks the World!

That’s right, FLASH GORDON.

Basically the entire serial crammed into a movie. Makes it fast and fun…and oh so campy.

So, pop that corn, and join me Friday night in a crappy movie marathon.

In other news…

Got a pleasant little surprise this week.

Pumpkinrot.

I first stumbled on Pumpkinrot back in ’06 while trying to make my own couple of scarecrows to disply old masks. And was amazed at Pumpkinrot’s scarecrows.

And, his story of entering the scarecrow contest each year, only to lose to some cutesy poo creation of much lesser (imo) quality each and every year struck a chord with me. Recalling ye olde Pumpkin Carving and costume contests at school. (I’m sorry, that spider pumpkin we made, 8 legs, web, and all, was much better than the humpty dumpty that won…and those kids in the storebought boring crap were never quite as creative…)

So, I’ve made it a point to see how that contest goes for him each year, and am consistantly inspired by the fact, he’s still entering, knowing full well some cutesy thing’s going to win.

Well, a friend of mine was bumping around pumpkinrot’s blog, and apparantly he took notice of our own little setup from ’07.

Had to delay the firing of the Witch skulls.

They were a bit damp in one spot still last night. Looked good this morning, so we’ll shoot for this evening if everything goes according to plan.

I’m sure Jen will be posting over on her page about the new furniture coming today as well…

Time to clean out the garage, and get ready to build a prototype of a victim soon…

Also considering a super secret project that will work for both witches and witch doctors, doable this year…

Zuvembie!!!

What is a Zuvembie, you ask?

I’ll get to that a bit later…

Voodoo Moon.

This made for TV movie has been airing on both the Chiller Network and SciFi constantly lately.

You know it was bound to be horrible. But, I’ve made a point of sitting back and watching anything remotely voodoo oriented, because you never know when a crappy movie might have something we can incorporate.

This film does have some nice cemetery shots all over. But, otherwise becomes that flashy “voodoo” one comes to expect from a hollywood film. Well, it really depicts a hollywoodized form of Santeria more than voudoun, but, the layman wouldn’t know the difference.

The sole saving grace in the film comes by the fact it’s one of the few, especially in modern times, that portrays Zuvembie.

What is a Zuvembie?

Well, now, that is a tale…

As a child, one of our favorite activities was visiting the comic book store. My older brother was an avid collector, and he hit all the big titles of the day. X-Men, Wolverine, Spider-Man. Etc.

Typically, the store only had one copy of a particular issue, so it was counter-productive for me to try and get any of those. So, I initially would read GI Joe, and various oddball miniseries. Well, GI Joe got REALLY WIERD about 20 issues in, and I started looking at other things.

With my older brother reading all the big names, and my younger one picking up the “b list” of Daredevil and Ghost Rider, I was wondering in some of the oldies when I stumbled on Moon Knight. Specifically, Issue 29.

From An UnOrthOdOx Halloween

It was, simply, the most intriguing cover I had ever seen. And, it featured a hero fighting off a werewolf!

THIS was the kind of thing I LOVED at the time. So, many more Moon Knight comics were sought out. And, many times, he would be fighting off horror-inspired foes. Including Voudoun.

From An UnOrthOdOx Halloween

Well, being smarter than the typical hollywood fare, Marvel knew enough to know that true zombies are not the mindless living dead made by some silly virus or radiation that all hollywood movies tend to portray, but rather the dead being brought back to life by a Bokor.

However, Marvel had a slight problem. The word “zombie” was forbidden from use in Comics by the Comics Code Authority. Quite frankly, the whole TOPIC was technically forbidden. Along with werewolfs, ghouls, cannibalism, vampires, and torture.

And, as Moon Knight tread on that edge, flapping in the face of the CCA, probing it, pushing it’s limits, and sometimes even outright BREAKING it. (you’ll notice issue 29 does not carry the CCA seal of approval, because it has a werewolf!)

A relative unknown, able to get away with such things so Marvel knew how far they could push their A-list heroes, the word “Zombie” still drew the axe down.

Thus, they created Zuvembie: Differentiated from the typical zombie by the fact Zuvembie are under the control of a Bokor.

Dare 2 Direct.

Just a short little PSA.

Chiller TV’s 2nd (annual?) Dare 2 Direct contest is now up and running.

Lots of short films to go see, and kill some time with. Head on over and vote for your favorites.

More crappy movies!

AMC is bringing the heat this “Fear Friday” (known to yours truly as “Extremely Crappy Movie Firday Nights”).

A QUADRUPLE FEATURE.

Kicking things off is Halloween 4. Not the best of the series, but far from the worst. It’s followed swiftly by Halloween 5, a wonderfully horrid movie.

THEN, AMC kicks it up a notch.

Pinata: Survival Island. THIS Movie is SOOOOO aweful, SOOOOO completely terrible, it ranks ALONE in being the ONLY MOVIE I have NOT BEEN ABLE TO MAKE IT THROUGH!

I have tried. 5 TIMES! Each has resulted with me snoozing on the couch. I even recorded the thing and tried to watch it in the daytime to stay awake. No help.

However, for all of that, it has one of the BEST opening 5 minutes of any crappy movie, EVER. Explaining how the Pinata Maker was some holy man for each town, and attempting to convince you pinata’s actually have some religious purpose. THEN it describes this town cursed by an evil, and with the last of the towns water supply, they pleaded for the pinata-holy-man-priest-dude to save them. So, he takes the LAST of the town’s water, and makes this clay ‘pinata’, and takes the evil from everyone’s heart and puts it into this evil pinata, where it is buried and sealed away. (presumably till the teens release it, I’ve never made it that far) Then a ‘good pinata’ is made, they break it, and everything is made better.

Listening to the narrator SO SERIOUSLY go over all the details without once breaking into a chuckle….he better have got an award for that…

Anyway, watch those first five minutes for the most ludicrous backstory ever made. Then shut it off, there’s nothing worthwhile to follow.

Somehow, AMC then pulls a classic to follow.

House of Frankenstein.

Alright, the classic Universal Monster movies are all classics for a reason. Then you started getting the sub-par sequels. THEN you started getting the B rate “Insert name here meets insert name here” films. FINALLY, you got left with the “House of” crapolla’s.

Here, you get Fankenstein, Frankenstein’s Monster, the Hunchback, Dracula, AND the Wolfman all tossed together onto the screen at once in a contrived plot only meant to get them all together.

Even so, it’s good classic fun.

And, for those of you in Utah, UEN is airing Unknown World.

Apparantly a 1950’s version of “The Core”. Don’t know much about it, myself.

The Beastmaster!!!

I don’t know what triggered my thinking on it yesterday.

But, I got going on The Beastmaster. As I have mentioned many times before, I find inspiration in some REALLY ODD places. Movies, books, documentaries, etc. Most people don’t see them as “Halloween”, and yet, when looked at under the right light, they really fit.

The Beastmaster is another in that line of movies that one could make some REALLY COOL haunt assets and areas from. And, it’s a movie plays so often, most adults will remember it, even if the kids don’t.

Now, there’s human sacrifice, cool skulls, evil costumes galore to choose from, but there is that ONE SCENE that sticks out in my mind when thinking of a Halloween haunt. And, in broaching the subject with Jen last night, conversation went roughly…

“I had this evil thought today…”

“What kind of evil thought?”

“You remember the Beastmaster?”

“Kinda…”

“How much do you remember about it?”

“I remember it disturbed me…”

“Remember the bat people?”

“EWWWWW!!!!!! NO! NO! NOOOO!!!! You are NOT making those, I won’t sleep with them around!”

Oh….YES, I am…

Not this year, not enough time, so we’ll file this away with the ‘to be used eventually’ file. And, I might even just make them and sell them. But, the bat people must have their place in Halloween. Such GREAT source material. I found this clip of them, it’s missing some of the great atmosphere shots before and after this bit, all the wierdo things hanging from the tree and all…

Bunch of bat people statues, arms folded, standing around…

Anyhow. Was in the store last night, picking up our copy of Nightmare Before Christmas.

GREAT DVD, btw. The second disk contains Frankenweenie, and Vincent. Both excellent on their own. I’ve added a widget for Nightmare before Christmas to the sidebar.

But, while at the store, I just HAD to swing by the cd section. And there…calling me…was this…

Can’t pass on something like that…