LITERAL REMAINS

Yes, I went to see the latest in the Twilight saga on Friday, in its first full day of release.  I am not one of the rabid fans, I have not read the books, and I did not think the first movie was all that good (I would marginally suggest a non-fan see it).  Not that I am explaining my actions, but I felt somewhat justified in seeing it since I saw the Halloween remakes on their opening days, and the remade Friday the 13th.  I think my best line of defense in whatever attacks may come my way from fellow horror fans is that I had female accompaniment.  So there.

All that out of the way, let me continue with my review.  I went into New Moon with an open mind, as I do when watching any movie.  As with most films, don’t expect anything particularly deep because it’s about as deep as a Dixie cup.  It’s the kind of movie that is meant to entertain.  Was I entertained?  Yeah.

If you don’t know the story by now (where have you been, and can I join you in that cave?), Bella, the human girl, loves Edward, the vampire.  There’s also Jacob, the wolf shapeshifter, and some evil vampires, and other wolf shapeshifters, and a vampire council.  There’s a lot of things going on this movie, but not a lot happening.

It would be easy to pick this movie apart, especially since the leads look constipated most of the time, but I’m told they look that way because they are tormented by their love.  I’m going to concentrate on some of the positives.  It’s better than its predecessor.  Chris Weitz is a better director than Catherine Hardwicke.  The supporting players steal the show (Jacob, Charlie, Alice–they have personalities).  The Jacob/Bella relationship is far more interesting than the Edward/Bella relationship.  Dakota Fanning looks natural with red eyes.  The Native American monster wolves liven this picture up, and they are more interesting than the damn vampires.

New Moon isn’t the mutha of all movies or a complete mutha load of steaming cow dung.  It is what it is.  Don’t expect much and you might not be let down.

3 out of 5
the_novacula

Franklyn
Four souls bound by fate, romance and tragedy collide in the parallel worlds of London and the futuristic Meanwhile City, where a single bullet will alter the course of their lives forever. A masked detective, a self-destructive art student, a desperate father, and a lovelorn romantic are just a few of the unforgettable characters in this visually stunning fantasy thriller starring Eva Green (Casino Royale), Sam Riley (Control), Ryan Phillippe (Crash), Richard Coyle (Coupling), Bernard Hill (The Lord of the Rings), Art Malik (The Wolf Man), and Susannah York (Superman).

Farscape: The Complete Series
From Jim Henson Productions comes the Sci-Fi cult classic Farscape. Follow John Crichton and the crew of Moya on a journey to places they never dreamed possible. Sizzling with brilliant characters, breathtaking effects, highstakes action, and irreverent humor, Farscape is like no science fiction before! It is a story of good versus evil, obsession, friendship, and even love. The unpredictable twists and turns of this international TV hit will keep you riveted and cheering for more.

Hanger
 From Ryan Nicholson, the acclaimed writer-director of the cult hit Gutterballs, comes this gruesome horror tale in which revenge is sweet and sick and twisted and definitely served cold – a balls-to-the-wall story of vengeance and murder that rises to new heights of perverse action and macabre behavior. Eighteen years ago, nine-months-pregnant Rose (B-Movie Hall of Fame acting legend Debbie Rochon), a wrong-side-of-the-tracks prostitute, was killed when her pimp gave her an abortion with a hanger. Now, the deformed, surviving child (Nathan Dashwood, TV’s Smallville), who was thrown in the dumpster, left for dead and mockingly called Hanger, is about to settle the score – and any street trash, sex degenerate of murderous pimp better beware. Reminiscent of low-budget classics from the like of directors Lloyd Kaufman (who appears here as Melvina the Tranny) and Herschell Gordon Lewis, Hanger carves a brutal and tasty slice of blood and guts in which no one is safe, no matter how fast they can run or how loud they can scream.

I Can See You (2008) / The Viewer (2009 3D Short Film)
Three aspiring ad-men take a weekend in the wilderness to brainstorm their assignment: the re-branding of a once popular cleaning product. Out in the woods, strange technical anomalies begin to plague their equipment. As night falls, the trio encounters temptress Summer Day (Heather Robb) fanning old flames and inflaming old rivalries. A mysterious disappearance sparks a harrowing descent into unreality. (As Everyday Normality Goes Grotesque. – Variety). A spectral visitation from the products former spokesman Mickey Hauser (Larry Fessenden) sets in motion an escalation of frightening visions, careening from (a tour-de-force musical number that grows increasingly horrific – Variety) to a startling climatic (freak-out that wipes all your troubles away, as well as anything else lying around in your head. – Village Voice).

Silent Scream
Young co-ed Scotty (Rebecca Balding – The Boogens) is unable to find housing on the campus. She finds a vacancy at the Engels’ mansion, now a boarding house for college students. Mrs. Engels (Yvonne De Carlo, TV’s The Munsters) and her son seem nice enough, but it becomes clear to Scotty that something is not right at her new residence. When her fellow borders begin dying, two detectives (Cameron Mitchell – Toolbox Murders and comedian Avery Schreiber, in a serious role) must solve the mystery of the Engels’ boarding house before the body count rises.

Star Trek
The future begins in J.J. Abram’s smash hit Star Trek, “a burst of pure filmmaking exhilaration and an irresistible invitation for fun” Scott Mantz, Access Hollywood. When the Romulan Nero comes from the future to take revenge on the Federation, rivals Kirk and Spock must work together to stop him from destroying everything they know. On a thrilling journey filled with incredible action, the new recruits of the U.S.S. Enterprise will voyage through unimaginable danger in one of the biggest and most critically acclaimed movies of the year.

Thirst
From the acclaimed director of the global hit Old Boy comes a shockingly original vampire story with a chilling, erotic style. A blood transfusion saves the life of a priest, but also transforms him into a vampire. He struggles to control his insatiable thirst for blood until a love affair unleashes his darkest desires in deadly new ways. Hailed as “Daring, operatic, and bloody funny!” (Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly), Thirst is a truly wicked love story that takes classic vampire lore to twisted new heights.

Train
Touring Eastern Europe with her college wrestling team, Alex (Thora Birch) attends a debauched late-night party that causes Alex and several teammates to miss their train to Odessa. Her coach is furious, but a mysterious woman offers the coach and wrestlers a ride on an alternative train. The coach agrees, and the athletes, exhausted and hung over, gratefully climb aboard. But the train harbors a deadly secret, and for Alex and her fellow passengers, a blood-soaked nightmare is just beginning.

The Canyon
Honeymooners, Nick and Lori head off to the Grand Canyon for adventure and time alone together. Upon arriving, they hire Henry as their guide, who seems to have his own idea about the outdoor excursion. When tragedy strikes, the newlyweds must fend for themselves. Discovering they are prey being hunted by something or someone, they desperately fight for survival to escape the canyon alive.

Bobby Walker is fresh out of prison, having served time for involuntary manslaughter.  He moves into his mother’s old apartment; she died while he was doing time.  Bobby has no other family, and when he tries to reconnect with some old friends, they blow him off.  Even his old flame, Alyssa, is hesitant to try and rekindle their old romance.  She tells him it’s been so long, things have changed, she’s in school trying to make something of herself.  She is still hurt from him cutting off communication with her while in prison.  Other than a low paying mechanic job, Bobby doesn’t have a lot working in his favor.

His neighbors at the apartment building give him suspicious looks; word has travelled fast that an ex-con is living amongst them now.  One neighbor has twitchy eyes, the other neighbor is a cop who beats his wife and daughter.  The apartment itself is still filled with his mother’s belongings, which is hard enough for Bobby to deal with, but it is also filled with odd sounds which he suspects is bad plumbing.  And he can hear the neighbor cop through the wall yelling at his wife and hitting her.

Cleaning the apartment, Bobby uncovers evidence that his mother went insane.  He finds her medications, and closet is filled with old food cans and wrappers.  The closet door has locks on it on the inside.  He also finds a recorder which contains frantic messages from his mother about the sounds.  It seems his mother barricaded herself in the closet for weeks before finally dying of starvation.

Those sounds haunt Bobby in, and out of, the apartment.  He begins seeing people who are not there.  The same as people who visit the apartment.  Then people begin dying.

The Echo is the American remake of the Filipino film Sigaw.  Yam Laranas, director of the original, helms this one, and has made an interesting little film.  Plodding at times, but interesting.  With the DVD proclaiming it from the executive producers of The Ring, The Grudge, and Dark Water, you know what you’re in for with this one.  I think The Echo is better than The Ring, but not as good as the other two films mentioned.

The best way to enjoy this movie is with a superior sound system, just so you catch all the little noises, moans, voices, pops, and creaks.  The movie is keen on composition, but falters with the story in spots, and runs a little long.  It will try the patience of some, but is worth at least a rental to see a well made horror film with a somewhat different aim.

3.5 out of 5
the_novacula

I received the news Monday that one of my very dear friends, Abby, was in the hospital; she had a stroke on Saturday night.  As of the last news I received from her sister, Lebby, on Wednesday, she is awake and talking, though she does have a some confusion.  All the tests results are not back yet, so I’ll report more when I know it.  She has a long road of recovery ahead of her, but she is a very strong young woman, and can be quite stubborn:)

Please, all of my friends out there who stop by from time to time, keep Abby, and her daughter and the rest of her family, in your thoughts and prayers.  She is in ours, and we send her lots of love.

Blessed Be,

J.
the_novacula

The Echo
Fear and paranoia seep from every wall in this tense and creepy psychological thriller from the producers of The Ring and Dark Water. Jesse Bradford (W., Bring It On) is Bobby Walker, fresh out of prison and living in his dead mother’s apartment as a condition of his parole. Plagued by eerie echoes of the dead trapped in the building, Bobby’s terror mounts as he begins to suspect his neighbors had a sinister hand in his mother’s death…and could come for him next.

Evil Face
Baron Ivan Rassimov, a brilliant doctor, died horribly during a fire burst in his laboratory. Since that day, his daughter Tanja (Katia Christine) retired to a life of reclusion, covering with a dark veil her disfigured face. Professor Nijinski (Klaus Kinski) was once a student of Rassimov; he married Tanja, and he’s trying to restore her lost beauty with a series of skin transplants. However, to reach his goal, professor Nijinski needs beautiful young victims for his transplant experiments.

Graveyard Disturbance
Five teen friends are running from the police after they have robbed a supermarket. After passing through a thick blanket of fog, they end up in very strange inn, populated by a group a spooky people. The deformed inn keeper challenges them to spend the whole night in the underground catacombs located beneath the nearby church: if they succeed they will win a fabulous treasure. The five friends accept the challenge, unaware of the danger they are going to face…

Jigsaw
A college art class tackles a bizarre project — splitting up a mannequin, they each decorate a piece. The end result is an exquisite corpse they call Jigsaw. After a night of drunken confessions, the group burns the lifeless body… But their darkest secrets come back to haunt them when their brainchild rises from the ashes, targeting each of the creators for a brutal death that is in keeping with their design — the shape of their own fears. Jigsaw… put him together and he’ll tear you apart!

 Samurai Princess
Samurai Princess takes place sometime, somewhere in an alternate universe version of a feudal Japan where people live together with highly developed mechanical dolls. These excessively developed mechanical dolls start causing harm to the human society leading to a ghastly bloodshed. It is under these circumstances that Kyoraku, a mad scientist, creates a mechanical female ninja. Equipped with eleven types of built-in weapons, the ninja doll is also infused with the souls of eleven of her fallen sisters. She uses their combined power to take down anyone who stands in her way. Virtually indestructible, the ninja is on a quest to save humanity.

Summer’s Moon
  Eager to find her estranged father, Summer (Twilight’s Ashley Greene) sets out on a cross-country journey of sorts when she encounters a slight run-in with the law. Much to her amazement, a local handyman rescues her. It’s an unusual connection, but she is quickly charmed and accepts his invitation to spend the night. The following morning she is in for a rude awakening when he decides to change the rules of attraction by trapping her in his house. Taken prisoner in the demented strangers basement, her dream has come to a bitter end and her real-life nightmare has only just begun.

UP
From the revolutionary minds of Pixar Animation Studios and the acclaimed director of Monsters, Inc. comes a hilariously uplifting adventure where the sky is no longer the limit. Carl Fredricksen, a retired balloon salesman, is part rascal, part dreamer who is ready for his last chance at high-flying excitement. Tying thousands of balloons to his house, Carl sets off to the lost world of his childhood dreams. Unbeknownst to Carl, Russell, an overeager 8-year-odl Wilderness Explorer who has never ventured beyond his backyard, is in the wrong place at the wrong time – Carl’s front porch! The world’s most unlikely duo reach new heights and meet fantastic friends like Dug, a dog with a special collar that allows him to speak, and Kevin, the rare 13-foot tall flightless bird. Stuck together in the wilds of the jungle, Carl realizes that sometimes life’s biggest adventures aren’t the ones you set out looking for.

I just happened to browse over to Full Moon, Inc. (located in our blogroll over there) and thought I would pass this along to my fellow Tennesseans, and those who travel to town for the Full Moon Tattoo and Horror Festival.

ANNOUNCEMENT !!!!!!  Here are the dates for Next Years Show.  THE 9TH ANNUAL FULL MOON TATTOO & HORROR FESTIVAL  -  April 23rd,24th, & 25th 2010.. Same great place the Nashville Airport Marriott.

Guests this far on the Festival will be BILL MOSELEY – Devils Rejects, House of 1000 Corpses, Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2. JUST ADDED !!! DOUG “PINHEAD” BRADLEY from HELLRAISER Returns to Nashville. ALSO added Scream Queen and co host of FANGORIA Radio DEBBIE ROCHON. also busy genre actor JIM O’REAR, STACEY DIXON, Artist BILLY TACKET, Artist JOEL ROBINSON.

2010 Marks the 30th Anniversary for Friday the 13th. We will have Guests next year, STEVE DASH – Jason Friday the 13th Part 2, as well as ARI LEHMAN – The First Jason Boy in the original Friday the 13th. We are planning on but not confirmed to round out the 13th lineup BETSY PALMER – Jason’s mother, and TOM SAVINI – Makeup effects Master. Plus Many more yet to be Announced.

Doug Bradley.  Bill Moseley.  Tom Savini.  I’m about to break out into Screaming-Teen-Girl-Twilight Mode.

J.
the_novacula

Halloween is over.  It’s been a week now.  Luckily, we can still carry the spirit of the season with us for another year.  How was your Halloween?  What did you do?  Were you able to post bail?

I was hanging out with KatieBella and Obi Ken Kenobi at their Bungalow of Infamy.  We were joined by Chatty Kathy and we talked up the spirits.  Or spirit.  KatieBella had her trusty pendulum, we lit the incense and candles, and conversed, seemingly, with a Native American woman from the other side.  After that we brought out the Tarot cards and an oracle book.  The first card of mine that jumped from the deck was The Devil.  In answer to my question I posed to the oracle book, it said “the tea leaves form a demon” and something about the answer being a big “No”.

Suffice it to say, we had fun.

But that was last week.  And I’ve spent these last few days, other than working my full time job and sleeping, in a state akin to…bluesville, baby, bluesville.  Is it just me, or do any you fine people out there get a little depressed after the holidays, too?

The excitement is over, the decorations come down, the anticipation has dissipated.  The holiday has passed.  Bummer.  It’s like that, for me, with Halloween and Christmas, and Thanksgiving, too (but not as much with Turkey Day).  Granted, I’m in a Halloween state of mind eight days a week, but when October 31st comes and goes, it’s still a little sad every time we say good-bye.  The seasons roll on, that big wheel keeps a-turnin’.

Now Thanksgiving is nearly upon us, and Black Friday, and Christmas is knocking at the door.  Then it’s a New Year, a fresh start, and the forecast is mostly clear and partly cloudy with a chance of rain.  Valentine’s Day, Easter, a hop, a skip, and a jump (it’s the pelvic thrust that really drives you insane) and it’s July 4th.  We’ll be back around to this time of year again before we know it; probably even before we are really ready for it.

Break out the mead, I’ll get the yule log.

J.
the_novacula

The Coleman’s, John and Kate (plus two), are on the road to recovery having suffered through a couple of tragic events.  As told in the opening sequence, their third child was stillborn; it is later revealed that Kate is in therapy, had has a history of alcohol abuse.  It hasn’t been that long since their youngest child, Maxine (who is deaf), fell through the ice on the pond; it was John who saved her, and the incident was the impetus for Kate to sober up.

John and Kate, examining their situation, seeing how far they have come, and having, mostly, overcome in the last year and more, decide they may be ready to adopt.  Kate is a little shaky about the prospect, but she is won over by Esther.  Esther is plucky, mature, artistic, and has suffered through tragedies of her own.  Having come from Russia, the nine year old barely survived a house fire.

Right away, Maxine takes up with Esther.  The Coleman’s oldest son, Daniel, gives her the cold shoulder and views her as an intruder.  Esther settles in as the newest member of the family, and her true nature slowly reveals itself.  She is quite the manipulative little tyke, and quite violent, unafraid and unflinching at putting injured birds out of their misery, pushing classroom enemies off the playground equipment, or threatening Daniel’s family jewels with a box cutter.

Kate has her suspicions, but John is oblivious.  Maxine and Daniel live in fear.  Poor Sister Abigail, from the orphanage, meets the business end of a hammer thanks to evil Esther.  With the kids too scared to share what they know, Kate is alone in her pursuit of the truth about their adopted daughter.

Orphan is filled with some good performances, especially Vera Farmiga and Peter Sarsgaard as the parents, and Isabelle Fuhrman, as Esther, is right chilling.  The movie is predictable and better than average, yet by the end I felt rather cheap and just wanted to watch The Bad Seed as penance.

You can guess the truth about Esther at the half, or earlier if you think on it.  The most frustrating thing is the formula the film follows.  No one believes Kate, the children are put in a lot of danger to exact terror from the audience, and the cops show up way late, even when the action is taking place right outside in the back yard.

If they had changed the last act, who knows…as it is, just frustrating.

3 out of 5
the_novacula

Jake Hatcher is locked up in a military prison as the fall guy for a dirty job that had to be done.  No one else could do it, so it fell to him.  He was a Special Forces brand interrogation expert.  That one particular interrogation got wild, he ended up in the clink.  Lucky for him, his superiors feel bad about the entire him taking the blame thing, so he got a light sentence.

A couple of months shy of his release, Hatcher is released on furlough to attend the funeral of his brother, Garrett.  Hatcheris set free, but witha lot of questions dogging his mind, such as:  Since when did he have a brother?  Upon visiting his mother, after not being in contact with her for something like twelve years, she admits his brother was given up for adoption after their dad shipped out to war.  They tried to get him back when his father returned, but to no avail.  They thought his father came back sterile, but up pops little Jake.  She also tells him that his father, long divorced from his mom, is sick and dying in the hospital.

Jake sets out to learn more about his departed older brother, and to investigate the mysterious circumstances of his death.  He was hit by an ambulance while trying to save a gorgeous woman from a crazed homeless man.  No good deed, for sure, goes unpunished.  Jake’s snooping leads him into run-ins with the police, more dead bodies, more drop dead gorgeous femme fatales, a master villain, demons, crazies, secret cults, and sex and sex and sex/I can’t give it away on 7th Avenue!

I’m all for noir, and Damnable‘s mixture of horror and gritty, back alley, noir is likable.  Hank Schwaeble does a good job of combining the two, but he just misses the mark by that much.  He ain’t no James Ellroy when it comes to the tough guy stuff.  This novel has some familiar ground with Dean Koontz’s Frankenstein, and I like Schwaeble better.

Somewhere near the last pages of the book, Hatcher asks the question, “Are we ever going to get around to that point I was asking about?”  That pretty much sums up Damnable.  People spend a lot of time asking silly questions we already know the answers to; for Hatcher to be so, supposedly, smart, he acts kind of stupid at times.  For a good portion of the book I wanted it to get on with the story, I wanted to fast forward.

Schwaeble can write some good action, and some good, gooey, grotesque, horror, but it’s those in-between parts where he lost my interest, where the story seemed to deflate and drag.  I’m keeping my fingers crossed for his next one.  Despite its flaws, Damnable shows promise.

3 out of 5
the_novacula

Dark Mirror
Lisa Vidal of ER delivers a startling performance as Deborah Martin, a former photographer turned stay-at-home mom who moves her family into a strange old house filled with cut-glass windows and mirrors. But when Deborah begins seeing chilling visions within the reflections, she will become obsessed with trying to capture the truth behind the house’s dark secret. Has Deborah accidentally discovered an alternate reality that unleashes a homicidal evil, or is she trapped within the terrifying recesses of the female mind? David Chisum (One Life To Live), Lupe Onteveros (Desperate Housewives) and Christine Lakin (Valentine) star in this provocative horror thriller with a killer twist that became the most watched film in the history of IFC Films’ Festival Direct Video-on-Demand.

Columbia Pictures Film Noir Classics, Vol. 1
In the 1940s, a new genre – film noir – emerged from the world of “hard – boiled” pulp magazines, paperback thrillers and sensational crime movies. These films – tough and unsentimental – depicted a black-and-white universe at once brutal, erotic and morally ambiguous. Now, Sony Pictures and The Film Foundation have brought five noir classics together in one collection, all restored and remastered, and featuring brilliant performances by Glenn Ford, Lee Marvin, Kim Novak, Eli Wallach and Gloria Grahame, the genre-defining cinematography of Burnett Guffey, Hal Mohr and Lucien Ballard, and focused, taut direction by celebrated directors including Fritz Lang, Don Siegel and Phil Karlson.

G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra
When all else fails… they don’t! They are G.I. Joe, a top-secret elite strike force featuring the best operatives from around the globe. After a high-tech, secret weapon is stolen by the mysterious and evil Cobra organization, the G.I. Joes must race against time to stop Cobra from using the weapon and plunging the world into chaos. Starring Channing Tatum, Marlon Wayans, Sienna Miller and Dennis Quaid, G.I. Joe: The Rise Of Cobra is the ultimate action-thrill ride!

Night Watcher
Following the unexpected suicide of her mother, Angela finds comfort in her new friendship with Brian. One day she receives a terrifying package containing a voyeuristic tape. The tape chronicles her mother’s final days and reveals that someone had been following, watching… stalking her. As the death toll around town rises, it becomes clear that this is no mere coincidence. They thought they were suicides, but the truth was far worse.

North by Northwest (50th Anniversary Edition)
Cary Grant teams with director Alfred Hitchcock for the fourth and final time in this superlative espionage caper judged one of the American Film Institute’s Top-100 American Films and spruced up with a new digital transfer and remixed Dolby Digital Stereo. Grant plays a Manhattan advertising executive plunged into a realm of spy (James Mason) and counterspy (Eva Marie Saint) and variously abducted, framed for murder, chased and in another signature set piece, crop-dusted. He also holds on for dear life from the facial features of the Presidents on Mount Rushmore (backlot sets were used). But don’t expect the Master of Suspense to leave star or audience hanging.

Not Forgotten
Simon Baker of The Mentalist stars as Jack Bishop, a picture-perfect husband and father in a peaceful Texas border town. But when his 11-year old daughter is kidnapped, he’ll hunt her abductors – and unleash his own tortured soul – into a Mexican hell of barrios and bordellos controlled by the mysterious religion of La Santa Muerte. When a man has too much to hide and nothing to lose, should he dare to search for the truth? Paz Vega (Spanglish), Benito Martinez (The Shield) and Claire Forlani (CSI: NY) co-star in this shocking thriller where not everyone is who they seem to be and the darkest secrets of the past are Not Forgotten.

Say Anything (20th Anniversary Edition)
In his directorial debut, Oscar Winner Cameron Crowe (Almost Famous) creates “a warmth, insight, humor and surprising originality” (Los Angeles Times). This “tender, funny love story” (Village View) is one of the best teen romances of all time. It’s graduation and Lloyd Dobler (John Cusack) has only one ambition – to date Diane Court (Ione Skye). She’s beautiful, she’s intelligent and to everyone’s amazement, she actually agrees to go out with Lloyd. At first just “friends with potential,” Lloyd and Diane quickly develop into something more. But when Diane’s overprotective father convinces her to end the relationship, a brokenhearted Lloyd vows to try anything, do anything and say anything to win her back.

The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3
New York City is about to be taken for a ride. It’s just an ordinary day for subway dispatcher Walter Garber (Denzel Washington), until a vicious gang of criminals led by the mysterious Ryder (John Travolta) hijacks one of the city’s train cars. The ransom: ten million dollars. The deadline: one hour. Now Walter is thrust into a race against time to save the lives of all the innocent hostages on board… and stop Ryder from getting away. From director Tony Scott and screenwriter Brian Helgeland (Man On Fire).

Watchmen: The Ultimate Cut
The Watchmen: The Ultimate Cut is a new and final version of the blockbuster film from Zack Snyder. This version weaves Tales of the Black Freighter into the Watchmen Director’s Cut film that makes this the perfect gift for every die hard fan of the graphic novel.

Wings of Desire (The Criterion Collection)
Wings Of Desire (Der Himmel über Berlin) is one of cinema’s loveliest city symphonies. Bruno Ganz is Damiel, an angel perched atop buildings high over Berlin who can hear the thoughts – fears, hopes, and dreams – of all the people living below. But when he falls in love with a beautiful trapeze artist, he is willing to give up his immortality to come back to earth to be with her. Made not long before the fall of the Berlin Wall, this stunning tapestry of sounds and images, shot in black and white and color by the legendary Henri Alekan, is movie poetry. And it forever made the name Wim Wenders synonymous with film art.

TCM Greatest Classic Films Collection: Hitchcock Thrillers
Four classic films from the master of suspense, Alfred Hitchcock!  Suspicion, Strangers On a Train, The Wrong Man, and I Confess!, starring such luminaries as Cary Grant, Joan Fontaine, Robert Walker, Henry Fonda, and Montgomery Clift.

Beast Within
Flocks of toxic birds attack the people of a small town in this German horror film, infecting them with a strange new virus. In a lonely mansion, five young people fight off the birds and human-mutants – and one of them is infected too! It’s The Birds meets Outbreak! From Lionsgate and director Wolf Wolff.

Yes, I’ve already posted the last article in the October Countdown.  I’m taking a little vacation, and I shall return next week (maybe Tuesday, maybe Wednesday–depends on what KatieBella lets me get away with). 

Have a scary Halloween, howl at the moon, drink a little blood, commune with some spirits, the undead, and any other creatures of the night.

J.
the_novacula

For my money, Lady In White is one of the best movies to watch at Halloween.  Yes, it takes place at Halloween.  It has a kid, a ghost, a murder to solve, and a killer on the loose.  It’s nostalgic, suspenseful, sometimes funny, and maybe a tad too sweet for some.  It is also a reminder, in some scenes, at how far society as advanced in the last forty-some odd years, for the good and the bad.

Frankie and his older brother live with their father and grandparents in a picture perfect town that looks nothing short of a Norman Rockwell painting.  Frankie knows the world, that life, is not always kind; his mother’s death is proof of that.  But the world outside his family has a darker current that runs just beneath the surface.

After a Halloween party at school, Frankie is tricked by classmates into going back into the coat closet.  The lock him in.  Unable to get out, Frankie decides he has to wait out the night until someone can free him the next day.  That night he witnesses the ghost of a little girl reenacting her murder.  Scared, he hides, until a dark figure arrives, strangles him, and leaves him for dead.

Frankie survives the attack, and learns that the ghost, Melissa, was one of ten children murdered over the past ten years.  He sets out to help Melissa rest in peace and to set an innocent man free who has been charged with the crimes.  His amateur investigation unearths clues that point to a startling, and unexpected, suspect.

Lady In White does look dated, I give you that one.  The special effects have not held up over the years; this was before CGI, but if you look at T2, it pales next to Transformers.  That aside, this is still a great ghost story, though charming to a fault.  It’s a straight forward, simple, tale about the complexities of life.

the_novacula

I don’t know how it happened, I’m not aware of any childhood trauma (it could be repressed), I don’t know exactly its origin, but scarecrows have always scared the hell out of me.  Now that I think about it, I can remember back when I was very, very, young, maybe three or four, when my grandfather built a haunted house in his backyard.  I can remember a body stuffed with hay.  I remember it scared me.

But I also like scarecrows.  The Scarecrow (of DC) is my favorite comic book villain; pictures of scarecrows are scattered throughout my computer.  I like them, what can I say?  Do I like them because they scare me?  I don’t know.  They can be frightening, when used effectively.  For evidence of how scary these stuffed bastards can be, I suggest you watch the 1988 masterpiece, Scarecrows, as directed and co-written by William Wesley.

There’s been a robbery at Camp Pendleton; five daring thieves have made off with a butt load of money, right around three million dollars.  They escape via hijacked airplane with two hostages, the pilot and his dollar.  Here’s where there’s evidence there is no honor among thieves:  one of the robbers double-crosses the other four, steals the money, and parachutes out of the plane.  He lands at a deserted farmhouse, with only scarecrows hanging about as company.

This double-cross, naturally, pisses off the other four robbers (it’s three mil, I would be a little ticked too).  They force the pilot to land the plane near the farm.  The robbers and their hostages foot it to the farmhouse to find the Benedict Arnold.  They find the dirty double-crossing thief, and a little extra bonus:  the scarecrows come to life and terrorize the trespassers, killing them in right gruesome fashion and stuffing them with straw.

Scarecrows is low budget, but my God what was done with it.  Less is more.  It’s well told, well made, horrifying, and tightly wound.  There are some really great shocks here.  You’ll never look at a scarecrow the same way again.

the_novacula

Captain Kronos is one of my favorite vampire movies.  The thing I really love about it is that it’s a little different in its vampirism, and it mixes mystery with its horror.  The good Captain, shady to a degree himself, is kick butt bad, charms the ladies, has a cool hunchback sidekick, and  he is the only man alive feared by the walking dead!

A sleepy little English hamlet is plagued by some bizarre happenings.  Young women are being victimized:  they are being found with their youth stolen, having become aged, and they have blood on their lips.  Highly suspicious of the cause of the attacks, Dr. Marcus sends word to his old army buddy, Captain Kronos, to come investigate the incidents.  Captain Kronos and his sidekick, Professor Grost.  They be vampire hunters, yo!

Kronos finds a little time on the way to save the day to save a lovely, shapely, woman, Carla, from a stockade.  Freed from imprisonment, Carla travels with the duo to the village, where she quickly lights Kronos’ fire.  It isn’t much longer before Captain Kronos and Professor Grost get an idea of what they are up against.  Evil, baby.  Groovy.

Tavern brawls, vampire killin’, sword fights, an angry mob attack in a cemetery…vampire movies don’t get much better than this.  In fact, this is one of a handful of good movies I wouldn’t mind seeing remade, if done right and were the basis of a new series.  Hammer Films had originally planned for Captain Kronos to be the first of many adventures featuring Kronos and Grost, but, sadly, those plans never saw fruition.  It would be just a mere five years later that Hammer would release its last feature film.

If you are tired of the current state of vampires in film (or just in general), Captain Kronos:  Vampire Hunter is worth  checking out.  From the writing and direction, to the photography and set designs, and the fearless Captain himself (as protrayed by Horst Janson), this movie strikes the bulls-eye dead on. With a stake.

the_novacula