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What?

With the disappearance of hack horror writer Sutter Cane, all Hell is breaking loose…literally! Author Cane, it seems, has a knack for description that really brings his evil creepy-crawlies to life. Insurance investigator John Trent is sent to investigate Cane’s mysterious vanishing act and ends up in the sleepy little East Coast town of Hobb’s End. The fact that this town exists as a figment of Cane’s twisted imagination is only the beginning of Trent’s problems….

Where?

At home.

With?

Alone

Why?

John Carpenter. That’s it really, I will give him a chance every time. Granted, it’s been a long time since he’s made a remotely decent film but if you’re filmographt contains Halloween, Big Trouble in Little China and The Thing, I’m always on board.

Worth It?

Ah, I’m thinking this might have been where things went a bit wrong. First things first, we aren’t in Ghosts of Mars territory, it’s not that bad. On second thoughts, it’s not even a bad film as such, it’s well paced, the tension is maintained throughout, Sam Neill is great and it had some decent scares…

Yet, it just didn’t do anything for me.

I can’t really explain why, all I can say is it just didn’t click with me, I tried real hard but the story just wasn’t my cup of tea no matter how well handled it was. It happens sometimes and it’s a shame because I really did want to like it.

I’d say if you’re a fan of Carpenter (thats John Carpenter, not THE Carpenters) give it a watch, you may really enjoy it, but for me? Well, it left me a bit cold.

5/10

I realize that Thanksgiving has come and gone, so these reviews are a bit late. November, like October, was pretty nutty this year, though, which means I didn’t have a lot of time for writing, but here they are as promised.

October 16, 2009
Return of the Living Dead (1985) Directed by Dan O’Bannon 2/5
I thought I’d enjoy this film because I am all about B horror/sci-fi movies, but this film was pretty terrible. It feels like a bad Scooby Doo episode gone awry. The motley crew of characters are all over-the-top and include a punk girl who likes to disrobe, a prissy girl who’s dating a loser who works at a medical supply warehouse and a random black guy. The idiot who works at the warehouse inadvertently open a canister which releases a zombie gas of some kind and before you know it every dead person in the cemetery across the street is crawling out of their grave and his friends get picked off one by one. If you’re really, really, really bored I say watch it, otherwise don’t bother.

October 18, 2009
Vampires (1998) Directed by John Carpenter, based on the novel by John Steakley 2.5/5
This was not my first viewing of Vampires. I was exposed to this film by Brian a few years back when he was trying to indoctrinate me into the cult of John Carpenter. Vampires is a vampire western of sorts in the vein of the Robert Rodriguez/Quentin Tarantino film From Dusk ‘Til Dawn (1996) which I would give a similar rating. Both films are entertaining, but they’re a bit predictable, hokey and dated and both feature incredibly mediocre casts.

October 20, 2009
La Cite des Enfants Perdus/City of Lost Children (1995) Directed by Marc Caro and Jean-Pierre Jeunet 4/5
I really enjoyed this film. It’s not so much a horror film as it is a surreal thriller for children. The filming style and story telling reminded me a lot of Guillermo del Toro’s El Laberinto del Fauno/Pan’s Labyrinth (2006) and movies like Terry Gilliam’s Brazil (1985). Ron Perlman stars as One, a street preformer who loses his adopted younger sibling to a mad scientist who is kidnapping children in order to steal their dreams to keep himself from aging. With the help of a young girl named Miette, One must rescue his brother and stop the mad scientist before he causes any more harm.

October 21, 2009
Blood: The Last Vampire (2000) Directed by Hiroyuki Kitakubo 3/5
This short anime (48 min) is about a young girl who gets hired by a secret society to kill demons plaguing a military base in Japan during the 1960’s. It was good, but too short. A lot of questions were left unanswered. It’s been made into a full-lenght live action film which I’m looking forward to watching sometime in the near future.

October 23, 2009
Les Yeux sans Visage/Eyes Without a Face (1959) Directed by Georges Franju based on the novel by Jean Redon 4.5/5
This black and white French film is considered a classic and I can see why. Though the film was made in 1959 it is still incredibly creepy. Pierre Bresseur plays Dr. Genessier, a plastic surgeon on the cutting edge (no pun intended) of his field with a daughter whose face is incredibly disfigured thanks to a car accident. Feeling guilty over his daughter’s disfigurement, Dr. Genessier begins kidnapping young women with the help of his assistant in order to remove their faces and attempt to graft them to his daughter’s. The acting in the film is superb and it has quite a satisfying/appropriate ending. If you’re into classic horror, I highly recommend this one.

October 31, 2009
Halloween (1978) Directed by John Carpenter – Always a Halloween tradition

From Beyond (1986) Directed by Stuart Gordon Based on the Short story by H.P. Lovecraft 4/5
Jeffrey Combs who played Dr. Herbert West in Gordon’s The Re-Animator (1985) plays Crawford Tillinghast, a scientist who has built a machine to stimulate the pineal gland and open the door to another dimension. When his partner, Dr. Pretorius is killed by a creature from beyond, Tillinghast is locked up at the local psychiatric hospital where no one believes him. However, a young psychologist decides to get to the bottom of things and takes Tillinghast back to the scene of the crime where all sorts of bizarre things start to happen thanks to the machine and it’s effect on their pineal glands. Like Gordon’s Re-Animator, this film is a bit campy and dated, but these things are what makes his films great.

November 1, 2009
Let’s Scare Jessica to Death (1971) Written and Directed by John D. Hancock 4/5
A creepy vampire story/psychological thriller. Jessica has been recently released from an institution in NY where she was being kept because she was hallucinating/hearing voices. In order to get a new start she and her husband move to an old farmhouse with their friend Woody. However, before they even arrive at their new home Jessica begins having strange encounters/hearing voices again. When they arrive at their new house they find a young hippie woman living there and Jessica asks her to stay, though it soon becomes apparent that this was a mistake as the voices/hallucinations only get worse leading her husband to lose patience with her and fall into the arms of the young hippie girl. I really liked the ambivalent ending of this film and I was thoroughly creeped out by the hippie chick and the weirdos who lived in the local town.

 Text

John Carpenter’s They Live (1988), one of the neglected masterpieces of the Hollywood Left, is a true lesson in critique of ideology. It is the story of John Nada – Spanish for “nothing”! -, a homeless laborer who finds work on a Los Angeles construction site, but has no place to stay. One of the workers, Frank Armitage, takes him to spend the night at a local shantytown. While being shown around that night, he notices some odd behavior at a small church across the street. Investigating it the next day, he accidentally stumbles on several more boxes hidden in a secret compartment in a wall, full of sunglasses. When he later puts on a pair of the glasses for the first time, he notices that a publicity billboard now simply displays the word “OBEY,” while another billboard urges the viewer to “MARRY AND REPRODUCE.” He also sees that paper money bears the words “THIS IS YOUR GOD.” Additionally he soon discovers that many people are actually aliens who, when they realize he can see them for what they are, the police suddenly arrive….

Jag brukar säga att man inte har sett en film ordentligt förrän man sett den två gånger. Det är även ett utmärkt sätt att sortera ut bra från dålig. Håller den för en andra tittning, då är den bra. En film jag sett flertalet gånger är Halloween och trots mina talesätt ovan har jag ändå inte blivit hänförd. Kanske har det att göra med att jag inte är direkt förtjust i skräck, för i mina ögon var Halloween både trist och förutsägbar.

Det var fram till förra helgen. Då stod jag nämligen och stirrade in i dvd-hyllan, som så många gånger förr, och letade efter något att förgylla kvällen med. Jag såg Escape from New York för ett tag sen och kanske var det därför det blev Halloween. Jag var nämligen sugen på bra filmmusik och Carpenters musik är något utöver det vanliga.

Så det blev alltså Halloween och lita på att jag blev förvånad. Det är ju ett mästerverk! Hela första timmen, uppbyggnaden, är helt fantastiskt filmad. Ett utmärkt exempel på hur mycket filmmusik faktiskt betyder. Det tillsammans med ett kameraarbete som likaväl kunde varit tagit från Psycho eller någon annan av Hitchcocks bättre alster. Att referera till Hitchcock när man pratar skräckfilm är lite klyschigt, men i detta fallet är liknelsen helt berättigad.

Jamie Lee Curtis är jag väl egentligen inget större fan av, men det är mest för att många av hennes senare alster har varit rätt trista. Halloween var hennes debut i spelfilmssammanhang och hon är varken bra eller dålig. Hon fyller sin funktion, helt enkelt. Skådespelarinsatser är ju i ärlighetens namn inte speciellt viktigt i den här genren. Slutkampen är inte helt i samma klass som uppbyggnaden, men knyter ihop påsen mer än väl.

Så den ratade Halloween visade sig vara ett litet mästerverk. Jag tycker fortfarande att The Thing är Carpenters bästa, men Halloween är så nära full pott man kan komma.

Betyg: Fyra mycket starka pladd

Lyssna på musiken:

Fantastiskt!

John Carpenter está considerado a día de hoy como uno de los mejores directores de terror y suspense. Su estilo se caracteriza por la importancia que da al desarrollo de sus personajes y al componente crítico hacia la sociedad que se desprende en muchas de sus historias por muy desviadas de la realidad que estén. Es el director de la película de culto La Cosa (1982), a día de hoy considerada como una de las mejores películas de terror de la historia. Junto a la actriz Jamie Lee Curtis creó la conocida saga de terror Halloween, una de las más importantes y que inauguró el género slasher. Con otro de sus actores fetiches, Kurt Russell, dio lugar a uno de los personajes más carismáticos de la historia del cine, el anithéroe Serpiente Plissken en las películas 1997: Rescate en Nueva York (1981) y 2001: Rescate en Los Ángeles. Su última gran obra maestra en el género del terror fue En la Boca del Miedo (1994), prueba de que el buen cine de terror puede fascinar también a los adultos. Abordó otros géneros como el policíaco en Asalto a la Comisaría del Distrito 13 (1976), que era una revisión del mítico western Río Bravo de Howard Hawks, y también la comedia en la divertida Golpe en la Pequeña China (1986), de nuevo junto a Kurt Russell, o incluso el drama en Starman (1984). Actualmente, se encuentra trabajando en la post-producción de su nueva película: The Ward.(extraído de su perfil en Imdb)

Big Trouble in Little China, 1986 – Direção: John Carpenter – Elenco:Kurt Russell,Kim Cattrall,Victor Wong.

O filme mais divertido de todos os tempos (nos meus conceitos, claro) é também uma puta aula de como sacanear qualquer um, do mestre John Carpenter. Aqui o destaque e o objetivo central é iludir a todos os espectadores a um ‘nada’ inexistente, mas que exista no mundo de onde a história do filme se passa.

O sobrenatural é proposital e quase em toda cena você encontrará defeitos mais do que gritantes, mas de tão feios fazem qualquer um cair na risada. Primeira sacanagem de Carpenter. Ele traz defeitos de propósito e os joga de um em um minuto na tela só para incrementar as cenas e torná-las mais divertidas, o que ao meu ver é tão genial quanto o filme inteiro em si.

Um dos meus filmes mais nostálgicos (e não está naquele post porque esse merece um comentário só pra si), que também vi de mais na sessão da tarde. Kurt Russel consegue transformar o seu Jack Burton em uma figura tão engraçada, divertida, humana e natural que é eterno até hoje e é o meu personagem preferido de todos os outros filmes que ele fez com Carpenter.

Mas não é só Kurt que foi premiado com um puta personagem não, o filme é divertido em boa parte pela grande penca de personagens geniais que são desenvolvidos (ou não) durante o decorrer. Temos Egg Shen, que é eternizado pelo nosso querido Victor Wong. Temos o próprio vilão, Lo Pan, um dos vilões mais hilários que já vi. Wang, o super herói indestrutível. Gracie Law que cativa qualquer um e muito mais. Dos lutadores ao menor dos figurantes, todos cativam até o máximo que podem.

A história não tem nexo nem uma linha segura pela qual você deve tirar uma base. Ela é apenas uma história porque conta algo, fora isso tudo é ilógico, exagerado e surpreendente. Cada situação me faz rir e divertir. É incrível o poder desse filme de me deixar contente. É só eu olhar pra qualquer cena e já me sinto melhor, acho que vou começar a assisti-lo quando estiver de mau humor. São personagens tão reais e simples que são bonitos e engraçados de serem visto justamente pela auto-identificação que causam ao publico logo de cara. Jack Burton por, só pra citar um, é um caminhoneiro que não sabe lutar e muito menos atirar e não nasceu pra ser herói, e mesmo assim está ali para ajudar seus amigos, o que já é bonito em sua pré-concepção.

Algumas de minhas cenas preferidas dos filmes do Carpenter, e de todo o cinema, acompanham quase quadro. Desde o sequestro até o “é apenas uma questão de reflexos” não paro de pensar o quão genial o filme consegue ser. Cada cena é mais absurda, cada situação pior, cada personagem mais louco que o anterior, cada luta mais exagerada, cada frases mais genial, cada movimento de câmera inventivo e inteligente, cada efeito clássico, cada som eterno, e a trilha de Carpenter aqui forma uma espécie de base de aventura para acompanhar o filme em sua jornada até o fim, uma das trilhas mais geniais de Carpenter.

Jack Burton e seus amigos já estão inseridos no imaginário popular, boa parte disso, pela longa campanha da sessão da tarde e que deixou fãs mais loucos pelo filme do que eu também. E se disserem que o melhor filme de aventura é e sempre será Indiana Jones, não ligue, o que importa é que esse aqui supera Indiana, pelo menos pra mim, e pra você?

5/5

Ficção científica e religião tem mais em comum do que se imagina. Seria porque ambas lidam com o inacreditável, cada uma a sua maneira ? Só isso ? O sci-fi, de hábito, projeta uma realidade que a lei natural não sanciona. Viagens no tempo e tele-transporte, pra ficar nos exemplos clássicos. Ainda sim realidades. Religião exalta Deus, revelações, profetas cuja única legitimidade é a fé de quem crê. Mas não podemos testar isto em laboratório e, tâo-pouco, fiéis coerentes com suas próprias crenças. Nada existe exceto aquilo que os olhos podem ver. E o que podem ver é, nada mais nada menos, do que o infinito.

John Carpenter é um mediador competente. Talvez o único e o melhor do gênero a concretizar a síntese entre religião e ficção-científica. Certo, “A Cidade dos Amaldiçoados” é uma refilmagem de um filme já genial. Mas incorpora, ainda, elementos originalmente carpentianos.

Qual a diferença entre nascer de um ventre físico e o surgimento da consciência ? Temos duas certidões de nascimento contíguas. Desistir da procura das origens e ficar atento aquilo que a própria inteligência gera é um índice de evolução da humanidade. De repente, somos brindados com um novo salto evolutivo, mas adivinhem … É um filme de terror, uma raça superior é capaz de matar apenas com o olhar, não se deixam enganar pelos sentimentos. É claro que os seres humanos comuns são inimigos em potencial.

É aí que entra a sensibilidade de Carpenter para dar a exata medida de um conflito que não pode acabar em mútua e gratuita destruição.

Assista o trailler:

“Call me Snake.”

When the President of the United States is stranded in what is now a prisoned New York City, there is no one better to turn to than Snake Plissken. Snake, being sent to prison for life, has a chance for freedom if he agrees to rescue the President. Air Force One has gone down over Manhattan Island, which is now one big prison. The rest of the film are Snake Plissken’s adventures tracking down and rescuing the President.

Kurt Russell (Tombstone, Death Proof, Miracle) does a wonderful job playing Snake. An anti-hero much in the same realm as the Clint Eastwood’s “man with no name” character in the spaghetti westerns. In fact the director turns to spaghetti western film star, Lee Van Cleef (The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, High Noon) as Snake’s nemesis who acts as a “warden” for the prison. The film also stars Earnest Borgnine (Best actor Marty), Harry Dean Stanton (Alien), Donald Pleasence (Halloween), and the Chef from South Park…Isaac Hayes.

I can see where Escape from New York may not be for everyone, as it is fairly low-budget, but for me John Carpenter (Halloween, The Fog, The Thing) makes it all work. It is a very entertaining film and has some comedic moments for relief. I would say give this one a chance if you haven’t, it is not that long and is a lot of fun.

CHRISTINE (editura Nemira) este prima (şi deocamdată singura) carte a lui Stephen King pe care am citit-o. La început nu am fost prea convins dacă merită să citesc o carte scrisă de acest autor. Abia după ce am văzut recenzia lui Dan C. Mihăilescu pentru Misery m-am hotărât să încerc şi eu un pic de Stephen King.

Coperta pentru Christine este misterioasă, cu maşina roşie care pare să se îndrepte cu viteză spre tine. Asta m-a şi atras la carte în primul rând. Dintre toate cărţile lui SK pe care le ştiam (Shining, Cimitirul Animalelor, Oraşul BântuIT, etc), Christine mi s-a părut cea mai potrivită.

Pentru a descrie evoluţia personajului Arnie Cunningham, autorul s-a folosit de un alt personaj, Dennis Guilder, care prezintă întâmplările într-un mod obiectiv, povestind totul aşa cum s-a văzut din exterior. Dennis este prietenul cel mai bun al lui Arnie, ceea ce este neaşteptat, având în vedere comportamentul diferit al celor doi: Arnie este un băiat studios, timid şi adesea batjocorit de ceilalţi, iar Dennis este popular, isteţ, prietenos, haios, liceanul ideal.

Apariţia lui Christine în viaţa lui Arnie semnifică începutul sfârşitului. Arnie O iubeşte, O îngrijeşte şi este obsedat de EA. Iar EA nu este deloc ceea ce credeţi că este: Christine este un Plymouth Fury `58, o vechitură de maşină care zace în curtea unui bătrân militar ursuz: Roland D. LeBay.

Totul este ciudat încă de la început, iar pe măsură ce timpul trece, Arnie pare a fi prins într-o cursă, nu  se mai comportă la fel, nu mai este acelaşi băiat de odinioară, îşi neglijează prietenii, iubita şi familia. Tot ceea ce vede în faţa ochilor este Christine, pe care o recondiţionează foarte repede, rezultatul final fiind perfect.

Când crime misterioase încep să se petreacă,  singurul suspect este Arnie, dar nu există nicio dovadă că el ar fi ucis atâţia oameni. Se pare că maşina sa, Christine, este responsabilă. Din acest moment acţiunea prinde un ritm alert, iar cartea abordează şi un stil poliţist.

Am fost captivat de acţiunea acestei cărţi, deşi pe alocuri mi s-a părut că Stephen King ar fi putut să scurteze din descrieri şi să facă un roman ceva mai concentrat. Limbajul folosit este destul de colorat, încercând să redea cât mai bine realitatea. În esenţă, Christine este un roman horror, dar nu asta este singura latură a cărţii. Este şi o carte psihologică, o dramă şi o poveste de dragoste în acelaşi timp. Cu adevărat foarte complexă.

Părerea mea este că partea sumbră a cărţii a fost finalul, care a fost probabil şi motivul principal pentru care specialiştii au încadrat Christine în genul horror.

Stephen King

Deocamdată o să fac o pauză din a citi Stephen King: am impresia că poate creea dependenţă! Nu pot să recomand această carte tututor; cred că pentru a o citi şi a o înţelege trebuie să ai peste 13 ani. Dacă aş citi-o încă o dată, peste cinci ani, ar avea probabil alt impact asupra mea.

Am fost însă convins că autorul îşi merită titlul de rege al horrorului, asta pentru că romanele sale se bazează mult mai mult pe psihic decât majoritatea cărţilor de groază.

Ecranizarea lui John Carpenter lasă însă de dorit, după părerea mea. Aşa că, pentru cei care au văzut filmul şi nu le-a plăcut, ar putea să îi dea o şansă cărţii, pentru că este mult mai complexă şi diferită faţă de film.

I think my 2nd All Freakin Night truly solidified my love for Olympia.  Drinking tepid rum and cokes out of Dasini bottles while leaning forward to throw trash off a 2nd floor balcony, all the time attempting to slur out a quip at a theater screen (as loud as fucking possible), which is playing a movie about space slugs that turn people into zombies; I even turned down taking mushrooms that night.  The funny thing is that there were at least four more movies afterwards.  What I’m trying to expertly transition into is my love for Night of The Creeps.

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This is one of those movies I always saw sitting up on the rack at the local video/liquor store when I was a kid.  I’d go into the stagnant shop once a week with my Dad to rent a NES game and if I’d been good that week I could maybe get a movie too.  When my Dad would browse the “walk-in closet” sized section of ever so fine spirits (always coming out with rum) I could be found gawking at whatever creepy or crazy VHS caught my eyes.  Some of my favorites that I can still remember today are:  Dead Alive, Evil Dead 2, and Nightmare On Elm Street 3. Of course I was never allowed to rent any of these movies and probably didn’t see most of them until I was 18.  My Mom told me about seeing The Exorcist in theaters when my oldest brother Andrew was a toddler (he just turned 40).  The movie fucked with my Mom so bad that she sped home right when the end credits started to roll, convinced my brother was most likely speaking in tongues and telling the babysitter that his/her mother sucks cocks in Hell (he does love Motorhead).  Anyways, it makes sense that I wasn’t priviliged these gems as a child.

Sci-fi horror is the basis of many of my nightmares growing up.  Once Andrew blossomed into the old brother that wished to enlighten/terrify his uncultured sponge of a sibling, I found – very bluntly – the ingredients to being frightened via film.  Let’s all give a hand for John Carpenter at his cinematic raping of the senses: The Thing. Even to this day I can’t think of a movie that hucks bundles of dynamite at the caveman side of human nature as his remake did.  I know at some point in my youth Andrew threw on what would become a film that rests comfortably in my top ten favorites and I couldn’t shit right for a week.  No joke; my Dad had to sit in on all my bathroom endeavors for a bit because I was afraid of Charles Hannahan’s detached spider fuck-me-I-never-ever-wanna-see-that-thing-whether-in-real-or-fucking-Oz head.

Aliens is right there with The Thing when it comes to a movie that caused me to always run and jump on my bed when it was lights out.  How was I to know there wasn’t a facehugger under the box spring;  didn’t fuck about.  It also spawned my HATE for Paul Reiser even though I know Burke was just a character, but I don’t care.  Every time I watched Mad About You (don’t even ask me why, I don’t even know) I would stare at Reiser and think, “You lied to Ripley and so many good people were killed because of it.  I wish I could have punched you to death before that alien got you… prick.”  Guilty by association:  I hate Helen Hunt too.  Whatever, she sucks.

So when my parents would leave me home alone I’d dig through the pile of copied VHS tapes (my favorite had The Great Mouse Detective, Wayne’s World, and Addams Family on it) and usually end up with Aliens because The Thing disappeared once Andrew left for college.  Between the releases of these two sci-fi horror titans I was missing out on the teen/college equivalent:  Night of The Creeps.

Doofy college freshmen – whose best friend has polio – attempts to take out his dream girl for the formal, but of course zombie jocks/bros who are afflicted with space brain slugs derail the evening.  Solution?  A shotgun, flamethrower, revolver, lawnmower, and Tom Atkins.  I know for a fact I would have grown up to be a better person if I had this movie in my possession as a youngster.  I probably would have been nicer to people with disabilities too, but my parents insisted I play t-ball.  Thus it’s not my fault that I love Christopher Reeves jokes, but Mom and Dad’s.

Horror is the genre that I can’t get tired of and am always willing to watch.  If I wanna have trouble sleeping I’ll put on The Changeling (I’m actually a little uneasy right now just thinking about it) and keep thinking I see something just out of my peripherals.  How about bad people getting exactly what they deserve?  Then it’s Sleepaway Camp, just make sure no one spoils the ending for ya.  What keeps horror fresh is the blending of genres.  I’m trying to stay on the subject of sci-fi horror, but what makes a film watchable over and over again for me is the humor.  Re-Animator is a rare title that I could easily watch every day because it’s funny as shit.  A roommate justifies hiding a dead cat in his mini-fridge because he didn’t wish to leave a sticky note that read “cat dead, details later”.  Dr. West is a gentleman and don’t you forget it.

I’ve heard “splatter comedy” tossed around when talking about movies like Creeps, but The Return of The Living Dead was the first movie to be labeled by this sub-genre to my knowledge.  Without going off the deep end about it, they’re films that use gore and violence – not just funny dialogue – to heighten the comedic qualities as the story pans out.  To someone who isn’t big on horror it can sound perverse that laughter can come from someone being blown up, but with the right line delivered, piece of music used, or sometimes even the lack of both, humor can come spilling out in bloody abundance.

The real appeal in Creeps is writer/director Fred Dekker’s stew of a tale that involves so many aspects in cinema.  You got two buddies who are bumbling around a college campus and all they really want is some lady-loving, which leads to partying.  Apparently getting into a frat gets you laid, so just like any “sex comedy” whacky antics need to ensue; a prank.  The prank brings us to a previous flashback of the cliche 50’s that is familiar as Hell because of old throwback black and whites.  An object jettisoned from an alien craft streaks over make-out point and of course it lands nearby; it MUST be investigated.  It’s a perfect catalyst to the ridiculousness that object – a singular space slug – will cause years later.

Once bursting heads start spurting out legions of wiggly-jiggles that dart across tile floors looking for an open orifice (my God that was fun to type) we need a hero and we get one:  Tom “Thrill Me” Atkins.  His character Detective Ray Cameron easily sits alongside dudes like Reggie, Peter, and Ash at the big boy table for bad asses in horror.  He’s full of one-liners, a fucked up past, and finishes every sentence with a shotgun blast (I’m on a God damn roll).  That’s the issue I have with many hero characters these days, is that they can’t be fun and kooky.  The ones that are a little odd-ball are typically very young characters, but rarely are they the old-timers with age in their face and stories to tell.

And don’t let me forget J.C. played by Steve Marshall (he was also on 21 Jump Street, so you know this guy is big time).  Now I always say he had polio in the movie – even though there’s no mention of it – so maybe I’ll just switch to “handicapped”… even though I wanna say “cripple”.  Having a character with a disability for no good God damn reason does add some realism to a film that is so far passed the limits of normality.  I hate when every actor in a film looks like they just got done tanning in the OC and are on their way to getting frap-a-fucking-chinos at some coffee shop before they zoom off to blow each other while watching Friends. The characters in this movie look like normal to partially awkward people, just like every other random you pass on the street.  Dekker threw in a guy who should easily be a shut-in, but J.C. turns out to be one of the better characters in the movie.  He pushes his buddy Chris (the actor Jason Lively was also on 21 Jump Street; P.I.M.P.) to actually talk to a woman and not be such a pussy that bitches about everything wrong in his life, but actually assists him in fixing all the bullshit.

I don’t think I ever wanna have kids.  I’m already too damn selfish as it is and if I have to fork out cash to some free-loader that can’t even walk or talk; don’t think so.  But if I ever become “responsible” and “stop peeing in the sink” which – God forbid – leads me into parenthood, my kid would get a VHS tape (yup, just because I’m an adult doesn’t mean I’m NOT poor) with three titles on it:  The Thing, Aliens, and Night of the Creeps.  Because isn’t the whole point of having kids so as not to be your parents or do I have that backwards?  I really don’t know.  Well I’m off to get a vasectomy; wish me luck.

The Fog (1979) [Blu-ray]
Reviews from Customers

“Excellent Blu-Ray Print”
As most of you know, this is one of the best of the “spooky” movies ever made. The Blu-Ray treatment adds to this thrill ride. Better check and make sure your windows and doors are locked before watching. Of course this may not do any good if ‘YOU ARE ONE OF THE SEVEN’.

See all detials of The Fog (1979) [Blu-ray]

You can accuse John Carpenter of many things, but remaking the same movie certainly isn’t one of them. Unlike the Saw guys who just keep cranking out newer and rustier ways to dismember people, or George Romero who never met a symbol he couldn’t fit the Zombocolypse into, Carpenter genuinely tries to make a different movie every time. Of course, they’re not all good—hit miss-to-hit ratio is pretty high—but you can’t say the guy doesn’t try. From the late ‘80s through, well, today he’s hit a bit of a rough patch. A few of the movies he’s made in the past 20 years have some followers, but few have truly tapped into his talents. 1987s Prince of Darkness is a misfire—albeit one beloved by Carpenter fans—but a somewhat intriguing one. Its central concept has all the potential of a cerebral, psychological horror film. Unfortunately, in the execution we get a lot of lame-brained dialogue, bad acting, and a central notion that posits that Satan lives, and he is a math geek.

So, Prince of Darkness mostly takes place in a run-down church in inner-city L.A. where a priest (Donald Pleasance)—a special investigator for the Vatican or some such nonsense—and his buddy, a physics professor (Victor Wong) have discovered an ancient secret. Seems the last member of a super-secret sect of Catholicism has passed away (that sound you heard is Dan Brown creaming himself), and has been safeguarding a mysterious book filled with equations and a gigantic beaker of viscous, green fluid which is, in fact, liquid Satan. Yes you read that right. So the doc has brought a bunch of his grad students in to camp out in the decrepit church, translate the book, and, do some other stuff.

The primary students is a guy named Brian Marsh (Jameson Parker). Marsh walks around campus in tight polos which prominently display his man-boobs and skinny-guy gut. Sometimes he compensates by hiking up his jeans to nipple-level. Anyway, Marsh macks on a student named Catherine (Lisa Blount), who is chilly…and that’s about it. There’s also a wise-cracking Asian dude (Dennis Dun), an older student who looks like a Thailand sex-tourist who missed his connection at LAX (Dirk Blocker), and a blonde one who has no characteristics beyond getting possessed. There are a bunch of other ones, but they barely make an impact (except for the big black dude, who gets possessed and chases the other characters around in a bid to play upon the audience’s fears of being chased around by a big black dude singing Negro spirituals).

So, the students set up, but even as they do they find hinky things happening. The sun and moon seem out of alignment. Insects are massing for seemingly no reason. Around the church, the local homeless advance like a slow-motion Assault on Precinct 13 (looking, as usual, very little like actual homeless people—where do the homeless in movies get all those long coats? And why do they wear them in Southern California?).  Still, the students hardly notice as they set about translating the equations. Physics is just that interesting to these people.

A lot of atmosphere happens, and a dude gets killed with a bicycle frame (yes, you read that right), and finally we get a translation of the book. It says, essentially, that pretty much alkl of Christianity is scientifically-explainable, but that the Vatican chose to use a theological explanation instead, since it knew that human science wasn’t advanced enough to explain it. Plus it’s easier to control people with God as opposed to a quadtratic equation. It also posits that Satan’s father put him in the jar that’s `in the basement of the church. And that Christ was actually an alien who fell to Earth and cast Satan’s father into…um, I think that big pane of glass from Superman 2. I have to admit, once we got to Satan’s Dad and Alien-Christ, Carpenter kind of lost me.

Unfortunately, the jar is leaking (upward, in a nifty effect), and pretty soon it’s possessing people by, um, leaking on them. The possessed people wander around like zombies and then spew Satan-water on people to turn them into zombies. And so it goes. While this is happening, the doc and the priest contemplate the existence of a mirror-universe, created by an Anti-God, which could have given birth to the Cup’o’Satan in the basement. I’m pretty sure Carpenter was thoroughly baked when he wrote this part.

Well, Satan finally gets spewed into a suitable host—the aforementioned blonde—and he promptly turns her into a scabby, grotesque monster (she still has nice hair, though). So, Satan commands her zombies to kill or convert the surviving members. I’m not really sure why. Boredom, maybe? Give the converts something to do? Well, while they’re doing that, the SatanBlonde is reaching into a mirror to grab the Anti-God by the hand (Anti-God’s paw looks like a bit like a catcher’s mitt) to draw him into this world. At the last minute, Catherine body-slams SatanBlonde into the Superman 2 mirror and then the priest promptly smashes it trapping her inside (maybe she’ll run into Keifer Sutherland). Okay, one and done.

If that synopsis seems at all confusing, you should know that I’ve excised copious amounts of script details. The bad news is they don’t make the movie any more coherent.  It’s still a mishmash of theology and physics that doesn’t  explain why the Cup’o’Satan can possess a corporeal host, exert telekinetic power over humans and animals, turn mirrors into the gateway to the Anti-Universe, but apparently is incapable of opening a locked closet. It also doesn’t explain why a priest’s first reaction to finding a mysterious book and gigantic beaker of Satanic Gatorade is to call a physics professor. It certainly doesn’t explain lines like, “Professor Birack wants philosophers, not scientists” (because who would want a scientist taking a physics class?)

Carpenter hedges his bets by returning to the well of the “motley band” casting from The Thing, but he lacks actors that can engage the viewer’s attention, let alone their sympathies. There nothing wrong with narrative shorthand—most of the characters in The Thing were fairly cardboard—but the actors gave them some personality.  PoD lacks anyone of that caliber. As the ostensible lead, Jamison Parker comes off like a porn-star version of Ned Flanders, but has nothing like a personality. Neither does Catherine—despite the supposedly-blossoming love story between the two which is supposed to provide emotional heft.  Dennis Dun—the wisecracking Asian dude—can barely deliver a line credibly (he’s not helped, it should be said, by his fashion-victim high-waisted slacks with pleats so big they could capture solar currents). Donald Pleasance is good, but has never been a tremendously exciting actor. His counterpart, Wong, is still sporting the “Chinese-crazyman” hair he had in Carpenter’s previous film, Big Trouble in Little China. As a matter of fact, both Dun and Wong appeared in that movie, so maybe Carpenter shot PoD during China’s lunch breaks (but if that was the case, why couldn’t he have gotten Kurt Russell for a scene or two?)

There’s a potentially creepy story peering out from behind the picket fence of clichés of this film. There’s also a lot of interesting themes at work: anti-clericalism, the increasingly secularism of the world, body-horror that taps into the AIDS epidemic. On his site, John Kenneth Muir goes into helacious detail on these topics. The problem is that however intriguing a film’s ideas, if they’re not incorporated into an engaging story they’re stillborn. Take The Happening, for example (or better yet, take my argument with “boogieboo” in the comments section).

There’s a subtle art to applying science to horror. Done right, it deepens the mystery and makes the fear more real and present. Witness The Exorcist. Done wrong, and it over-explains and drains the mystery away. For much of the movie, Carpenter falls on the right side of this equation, and we get some genuinely chilling moments. The dreams from the future everyone is having are suitably eerie (Marilyn Manson even incorporated the soundtrack from those scenes into his cover of Down in the Park). And the final scene has a good bit of suspense to it. But then we get the whole “Jesus-is-an-alien” thing and the movie just devolves into a zombie siege (which, possibly hits its nadir as two characters fight off a slight zombie Asian woman with obviously foam bricks). And, really, I get the whole AIDS symbolism of having people hork fluid on one another to spread the Satan around, but it’s kind of ridiculous on screen. I mean, couldn’t Carpenter have sprung for a mouth-tentacle or two?

So, that’s Prince of Darkness. A failure, but a noble one. Lesson learned: if you come across a big jug of Antichrist, maybe you should just leave well enough alone.

Movie Poster 27x40

 

Creepshow is an American horror-comedy anthology film directed by George A. Romero (of Night of the Living Dead and Dawn of the Dead fame), and written by Stephen King (Carrie, The Shining, Misery, The Stand).

It was considered a sleeper hit at the box office when released in November 1982, earning over $21 million domestically, and remains a popular film to this day among horror genre fans. The film was shot on location in Pittsburgh and the suburb areas. It consists of five short stories referred to as “Jolting Tales of Horror”: “Father’s Day”, “The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill”, “Something to Tide You Over”, “The Crate” and “They’re Creeping Up on You!”. Two of these stories, “The Crate” and “The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill” (originally titled “Weeds”), were adapted from previously published Stephen King’s short horror tales. The segments are tied together with brief animated sequences. The film is bookended by scenes, featuring a young boy named Billy (played by Stephen King’s own son, Joe King), who is punished by his father for reading horror comics. The film is an homage to the E.C. horror comic books of the 1950s such as Tales from the Crypt, The Vault of Horror and The Haunt of Fear.

Buy this Title on Blu-ray

In later years, the international rights of the film would be acquired by Republic Pictures, which today is a subsidiary of the Paramount Motion Pictures Group, itself owned by Viacom. The film’s UK rights are owned by Universal Pictures.

Trivia:

• Stephen King carried a toy figure of the character “Greedo” from Star Wars (1977) on the “Creepshow” set for good luck.
• Cameo: [Joe Hill] (son of Stephen King) The young boy featured in the beginning of the film (avid reader and collector of “Creepshow” comic books).
• Rice Krispies were used as maggots on the corpse’s eyes in the first story, “Father’s Day”. In addition, real maggots were also utilized.
• The marble ashtray (which plays a major role in Creepshow’s first story, “Father’s Day”) is featured in all five of the film’s stories if you look closely.
• The wrestling match Jordy Verrill is watching on TV in the second segment, “The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill”, was being called by Vince McMahon (Chairman of the WWF – now WWE). The wrestlers in the ring were then-current WWF Champion Bob Backlund and The Samoan No. 1.
• A sign leading to “Castle Rock” (Stephen King’s trademark fictitious town) appears at the very end of the segment “The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill”, among other signs.
• Ted Danson, who played Harry Wentworth in “Something to Tide You Over”, said in a T.V. interview that his daughter was on the set during the scene where his character returns from the dead encased in rotting flesh and seaweed. He purposely tried avoiding his young daughter out of fear of scaring her. Finally, despite his best efforts, she went up to him, looked at him and simply said, “Oh, hi Dad.”
• It is rumored that Max von Sydow was originally slated to play Upson Pratt in Creepshow’s final story, “They’re Creeping Up On You!”.
• In a “Creepshow” special feature from the pages of “Cinefantastique” magazine around the time of “Creepshow”’s release, Stephen King (screenwriter) and George A. Romero (director), revealed that if the film’s final story (“They’re Creeping Up On You!”) had proven to be too difficult and ambitious to film, it would have been substituted with the King short story “The Hitch-Hiker”, which ended up being the final story of the film’s sequel, Creepshow 2 (1987), directed by George A. Romero’s cinematographer on the original Creepshow, Michael Gornick.
• Originally, in Stephen King’s first draft 142-page screenplay for the film, the stories “The Crate” and “Something to Tide You Over” switched places. Making “The Crate” story number 3 and “Tide” story number 4. This is also how the Berni Wrightson Creepshow graphic novel adaptation turned out.
• In Stephen King’s original script for the film, the final story, “They’re Creeping Up On You!”, originally took place in a lush, carpeted penthouse apartment. However, because with roaches this would have been unworkable, Romero opted for a more empty almost hospital room-like set for the story.
• Two of the characters featured in the film, Tabitha and Richard (The new professors at the faculty reception at the beginning of the fourth segment, “The Crate”), were named after Tabitha King (Stephen King’s wife) and Richard Bachman (his ghostwriting name), according to the author.
• In the film’s second segment, “The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill”, the film playing on Jordy’s television in the background is A Star Is Born (1937), according to director George Romero’s commentary on the UK special edition DVD.
• The prop 10-cent “CREEPSHOW” comic book featured in the film was drawn and inked by veteran artist ‘Jack Kamen’, one of the artists for the original E.C. crime and horror comics of the 1950’s. Creepshow was a tribute to these comic books. Jack Kamen also created the comic book-style poster for the film, which was also featured on the front of the Plume “Creepshow” comic book adaptation (which Bernie Wrightson, another prolific horror comic artist, drew and inked the interiors for). Originally, (‘Stephen King (I)’ wanted Graham Ingels, another EC artist (famous for his work on the title “The Haunt of Fear”) to do the artwork for the film’s poster, but he refused. It was head of EC comics ‘William M. Gaines’ who then suggested Jack Kamen do the assignment. Kamen accepted.
• A screen capture of the “Creepshow” comic book featured in the film reveals that the letters page has letters from “Brian Hall of Ann Arbor, Mich.” and “David Graves of Spruce, Maryland”, among others. Spruce is the maiden name of King’s wife Tabitha. David Graves is the name of King’s late brother-in-law (married to wife Tabitha’s sister, Catherine). David Graves lived in Maryland (although not “Spruce”, Md), until his death in 2000.
• The on-set nickname for the monster in the crate in Creepshow’s fourth story was “Fluffy”, as named by director George A. Romero. The creature’s creator (and makeup artist on the entire film), Tom Savini, was the shorter garbageman featured near the end of the film.
• Why does Aunt Bedelia’s father come to life after 7 years in the first story “Father’s Day”? Not because of the lucky number it turns out. If you watch closely you will see Bedelia spills whiskey on the grave. In Gaelic, the word for whiskey is translated as Water of Life, and is likely a nod to James Joyce and his book “Finnegan’s Wake”. In the story a builder’s laborer falls from a ladder and breaks his skull, but is revived when someone spills whiskey on his corpse at the wake. The story of Finnegan’s Wake is in turn written based off an old Dublin street ballad.
• At the end of “The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill”, on the signpost is the town of Portland, Maine. This was Stephen King’s home town, and King is the star of this segment of the film.
• Adrienne Barbeau was still married to John Carpenter when Creepshow was released. Carpenter would make the film version of Stephen King’s Christine (1983) the following year. King wrote and makes an appearance in Creepshow.
• The housekeeper in the “Father’s Day” sequence is Mrs.Danvers. The malevolent housekeeper in Alfred Hitchcock’s suspense film Rebecca (1940) is also named Mrs. Danvers.

They Live: Everyone’s favourite Canadian-American pseudo-Scot “Rowdy” Roddy Piper uncovers a conspiracy bigger than his 1980s Hair-do. The idea’s great but everything else seems to have been lost during film-making. The script is forgettable, barring one “bubblegum” line, and the acting & action are underneath below-par. The look, feel and themes aren’t dissimilar to a 1950s anti-Soviet or propaganda film, with a barrage of social commentary and messages being forced upon the viewer. The soundtrack’s atmospheric, but only has one song! There’s an infamous five-minute fight scene that feels so ridiculously out of place, and it takes about 40 minutes for anything substantial to occur. After Carpenter’s string of original and amazing sci-fi / horror films this seems like a major let down and is – to all intents and purposes – a proper “B” movie. Corny socio-political ‘thriller’ with too many messages.

Score: 3/10

Vampires (also known as John Carpenter’s Vampires) is a western-horror film directed by John Carpenter in 1998. Adapted loosely from the novel Vampire$ by John Steakley, the film stars James Woods as Jack Crow, leader of a Catholic Church-sanctioned team of vampire hunters. The plot is centered on Crow’s efforts to prevent a centuries-old cross from falling into the hands of Valek, a master vampire. Vampires also stars Daniel Baldwin as Montoya, Sheryl Lee as Katrina, Thomas Ian Griffith as Valek, Tim Guinee as Father Adam Guiteau and Maximilian Schell as Cardinal Alba. Vampires is characterized by its strong Western overtures and allusions and its unapologetically masculine leads. Two sequels direct to video followed: Vampires: Los Muertos in 2002 and Vampires: The Turning in 2005.

Directed by John Carpenter
Produced by Sandy King
Written by Screenplay:
Don Jakoby
Novel:
John Steakley
Starring James Woods
Daniel Baldwin
Sheryl Lee
Thomas Ian Griffith
Maximilian Schell
Music by John Carpenter
Cinematography Gary B. Kibbe
Editing by Edward A. Warschilka
Distributed by Sony Pictures
Release date(s) United States April 15, 1998
Running time 108 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Budget $20,000,000 (est.)
Gross revenue $20,241,395
Followed by Vampires: Los Muertos

Happy Thanksgiving, internet readers! Hope everyone has plenty of turkey and plenty of gravy. Remember: gravy goes on everything, including cooked carrots.

There is some Thanksgiving-related movie news. Well, it’s not exactly new news, but I’m sure a lot of people out there have not heard it. According to Sci Fi Wire, horror director Eli Roth is planning to make a feature film from the fake trailer he made called Thanksgiving. His fake trailer was used as filler in the Tarantino/Rodriguez Grindhouse collaboration in 2007. The feature film would be in the slasher genre and take place during the November holiday weekend.

“There is hope for Thanksgiving, because that one I retain the rights to, and that I love it,” said Roth. He also expressed an inclination to make “20 Thanksgivings in a row,” and go fast and be less deliberate and expensive than a normal feature film.

There are a couple of fast inexpensive slashers that I love, including the 1978 original John Carpenter classic, Halloween. However, there are also tons of terrible fast inexpensive slashers, and I get the feeling that this would be one of them.

Click here to watch Eli Roth’s fake trailer, Thanksgiving

Beast Within 2008

Directors: Wolf Wolf and Ohmuthi

Writer: Wolf Jahnke

Starring Anna Breuer, Phillip Danne, Marvin Gronen, Thomas Heubeck, Jesse Inman, Nikolas Jurgens, Joost Siedhoff and Birthe Wolter

    This is yet another entry into the ever burgeoning zombie genre with some modern health scare terror in it thanks to the avian flu.  This makes the film seem more potent than it normally would be, combining a zombie outbreak with the bird flu.  It is kind of surprising no one had thought to combine these two disparate devices and make a new kind of horror.  It comes together well in this film and the way the film plays out it has elements of both Night of the Living Dead and John Carpenter’s The Thing.  It works really well.  The bleakness of the film is another great part about this film.  There is never any feeling that anything that happens in the film is going to end well and that is refreshing.  It is nice to see a horror film that is unrepentantly dark and with totally unsympathetic characters that you cannot wait to see die horribly.  I wish we got more American made horror films like this.

    The plot basics are this, a professor discovers a new strain of avian flu that when it infects humans they become ravenous zombies.  He is attacked and killed and not long after a group of twenty something’s looking to have a good time, arrive at his home where his grandson (Danne)  is going to sign some papers to take over the home.  It has been a long time since he has been there and he does not seem very welcome by the local authorities.  Soon, many people get infected with this zombie strain of bird flu and now they are all fighting for their lives.  But, there is infighting between the group and this leads ultimately to their doom and it looks as if this zombie virus will spread worldwide.

    This was a damn good film.  The direction is very good, unlike most modern zombie films it is filmed as a movie and not as some viral video, which seems to be the norm these days.  It is very classic in its style.  The direction really plays well within the style of the classic zombie siege film.  The movement of the zombies and their attack styles are fun and exciting to view.  The script is quite good too, I loved the conceit of a avian flu variation that creates zombies.  The characters were interesting too.  I especially liked Patrick, he was hysterically paranoid and that made him a delight to watch as his psyche unraveled.  The cast was good too, with a special nod to Gronen as Patrick, he really relished his part and was by far the best actor in the film.  The SFX and effects are great too, they never look too fake and always bring out the desired effect in the viewer.  This was definitely one of the better zombie films that I have seen recently and well worth a look for zombie fans.

This one gets 4 out of 5

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Heaven, Under The Arches, London, November 18, 2009…

On first impressions Heaven seemed an unlikely venue for instrumental post/math rockers 65daysofstatic. Host to legendary night G.A.Y. and typically showcasing artists such as Kylie Minogue and Girls Aloud, the venue- emblazoned with posters advertising Porn Idol and the next week’s latest X-Factor reject- seemed a mile away from 65dos’s math rock offerings…

Yet once inside Heaven these initial thoughts were forgotten. Apart from the odd mosaic male torso that adorned the walls here and there, the cool underground vibe of the venue took over and musings of Heaven’s usual musical fare were soon discarded. Completely constructed of red brick, and residing underneath Charing Cross Station, the club’s windowless railway arches and hidden coves made the perfect setting for 65dos’s instrumental shenanigans.

A bit of histoire for those of you unfamiliar with the band… 65daysofstatic, also known as 65dos, 65days or the perfectly simple 65, formed in Sheffield in 2001. The band, who were originally a three-piece, is made up of Joe Shrewsbury (guitar), Paul Wolinski (guitar & programming), Rob Jones (drums) and Simon Wright (bass). Since 2004 the band have released three full-length albums, The Fall of Math (2004), One Time for All Time (2005), and The Destruction of Small Ideas (2007). They have also released the EPs Stumble.Stop.Repeat (2003), Hole (2005) and The Distant And Mechanised Glow Of European Dance Parties (2008) and released a live album in 2008 entitled Escape From New York. Their music is interspersed with heavy, progressive guitars, and mixed with drums, samplers, computer glitches, keyboards and the occasional voiceover. According to legend 65dos’s name originates from the band’s desire to record a soundtrack for John Carpenter’s unreleased fictional film Stealth Bomber, which is said to have been produced over 65 days of static. Other rumours say that the band named themselves after a 1950s CIA coup d’etat in Guatemala who claimed that 65 days was all that was needed to overthrow a country. Whether you want to believe that is up to you…

Heaven, Under The Arches.

Having to get a six o’ clock train out of Cardiff, then getting lost in the labyrinth that it Charing Cross Underground meant that I only arrived at Heaven at nine… and wandered in just as support act Three Trapped Tigers were exiting the stage. I also missed this band at (Sŵn), so I was rather gutted, but not for long as the rather awesome DJ filled the time with his Bloc Party meets Telepathe remixes.

65dos are one of those bands you have to see live to appreciate the full extent of their musical capability. Although whacking up the volume of The Fall of Math in your bedroom creates some pretty amazing sounds, the 65 live experience is one that cannot be replicated. Starting promptly at 9.15, as promised, meant that their hour and 35 minute set did not overrun, and thus cause me to miss either the last train home, or even worse the end of the gig.

Starting with their first single Retreat! Retreat! 65 demonstrated from the onset that their unique instrumental sound can be both brutal and beautiful. Although there are neither vocals nor lyrics, these usual attributes are rendered unnecessary when 65dos take to the stage. From the barrage of drum beats and guitar shreds, the set took a change of pace with the first minute and a half of the next song, Drove Through Ghosts To Get Here. Beginning with the well-known dulcet keyboard melodies, before descending into the drum and bass-like ending of the song proved a huge crowd pleaser.

Despite not playing Betraying Chino, one of my favourite 65 tracks, the band seamlessly blended old favourites, such as The Fall Of Math, Fix The Sky A Little and When We Were Younger And Better with new, yet unnamed material, which Joe explained was taken from their as-yet untitled forthcoming album. Whether playing soft and melodic keyboard solos, or huge Prodigy-esque dance numbers, such as 65 Doesn’t Understand You, the band had the crowd captivated. It was amazing to watch the audience’s reactions; one minute they collectively stood still in admiration, the next they were going crazy and chanting ‘65′ with clamour.

Despite the lack of lyrics, Joe had no trouble talking to the masses in between instrument changes. In one particular lull, when Paul had to run off stage to fix a technical issue, Joe began rambling on, and even said “Looks like heaven really is a place on earth…” before erupting with laughter and continuing his penchant for wild dancing.

Yet jokes and laughter aside, the moment the whole crowd had been anticipating arrived when 65dos returned on stage for their final song of the night. Prolonging the beautiful, yet haunting keyboard introduction to Radio Protector for almost four minutes was anything but tedious, and kept the crowd on edge waiting and craving the moment when the guitars and drums kicked in for what was certainly the best moment of the night. Gradually turning up the volume, then slowly adding more instruments, 65dos had the crowd in the palm of their hand as they finally reached the song’s powerful climax of all four instruments merging together. The song’s break down echoed the same sense of shared euphoria that was visible in the room, and as the band left the stage to huge ovation and thunderous chants of ‘65′ from the whole crowd, the enormity of the 65dos experience hit me. The fact that there was only a one-song encore did not matter, as I don’t think that 65daysofstatic could have ended the gig any better way. If only I could have stayed to savour the moment instead of having to make a dash for the Bakerloo line…

Halloween is a chance to be a kid again.  It’s a chance to be whoever you want to be.  Dress up, play the part, have fun.  A few days before Hollow’s Eve this year, it was a chance for a handful of creative Athenians to put on their directing boots and recreate the classic horror film Halloween.  The result was an hour and a half of amusing, haphazard fun.

A friend and I weren’t sure what we were getting ourselves into when we heard of Halloween: Live!  It was kept pretty low-key around town, so I was particularly stunned when I met my friend outside and saw people pouring in from all directions.  Hipster college kids, townies and everyone in between were coming out of the woodwork to see this production.

We made our way inside, through the swarms of people, and hurried to find a seat in the Lab at Cine.  We were certainly one of the lucky ones, as more than 200 people squeezed into a room with probably 75 chairs (not sure how this event passed fire code regulations; claustrophobics need not participate). People flanked the walls and took shelter on the floor, all ready to watch the live version of Halloween.

As we all got comfortable sitting on top of our neighbors, the idea of Halloween: Live! finally became clear.  John Carpenter’s 1978 classic horror flick, where an indestructible Michael Myers bumbles around a sleepy town offing teenagers on Halloween, was projected in front of the audience with no sound.  A crew of 13 brave souls ambitiously attempted to recreate the entire soundtrack of the film– the score as well as the voices of the characters.

The cast of  seven sat at the front of the room facing a small television playing the film simultaneously with the big screen.  Fortunately, each had a script in front of them and a microphone. Impressively, most cast members dutifully orated more than one character’s voice.  Next to them were the four members of the pit orchestra and the two people handling sound effects.  They were a talented bunch of folks, tackling an enormous affair for the (free!) viewing pleasure of others.
The famous score sounded amazing in the hands of Jeff Tobias, Mat Lewis, Luke Fields and Robert Gunn.  It sounded flawless and perfectly in sync with the movie.  The sound effects were beautifully done as well.  Their detail was really impressive: footsteps on grass, rain on the windshield, birds chirping.  All of it came together brilliantly.  Of course, there were mishaps like a lack of thunder, a missing creak of an opening door or complete silence when someone was moving around.  But overall, the music and sound effects were tremendously orchestrated.

The characters’ voices were less exact than the sound, but considering the feat at hand that was to be expected.  Their mouths and the crew’s voices were mismatched a good amount, and if this were a boys versus girls contest, the girls definitely would have won in terms of accuracy.  A fabulous Amy Whisenhunt, who was barely off cue the entire movie, voiced main character Laurie Strode, and Erin Lovett did an equally stellar job as the voice of Annie Brackett.  Dr. Loomis, voiced by John O’Loughlin, and Sheriff Leigh Brackett, voiced by Ryan Lewis, were less precise.  It was awesome to watch the mouths match up perfectly with the film, but when they were seriously off it was comical.

One of the funniest parts of the reenactment was the voices of the kids in the movie.  The kids in the film were not more than 7 years old, but they were voiced by men and women in their 20s or 30s.  It was hilarious to hear an adult man’s voice in the mouth of a little boy.  The sole sex scene in the film ranked as the funniest moment of all (“I love how fast you are” was an improvised line.)

The climax of the film, when Mike Meyers tries to kill Laurie, was disappointing.  Whisenhunt just didn’t have the vocal chords for this series of attacks; too much quiet whimpering, not enough hysterical screaming.  Another cast member should have leaned over and said, “Someone’s trying to kill you!” Maybe the reminder would have encouraged more passion in the screams.

Halloween: Live! was a roaring trip through the 1978 classic horror movie.  The key to its success was the crew’s ability to take their bold mission seriously without discouraging the comedy of it all.  The night was full of laughs and it was the perfect predecessor to Halloween night.

-Maggie Summers