#creepshow 2 imagine

[watching-pictures-move]

Put On Your Raincoats | Tigresses and Other Man-eaters (Sarno, 1979)

With most anthologies, the interstitial segments are mere connective tissue, but here, they feature Samantha Fox going to town on a dick while making lots of eye contact with the camera and singing the praises of sexually assertive women. They’re super hot and definitely the best part of the movie. To be honest, the movie probably rips off the same device from Teenage Fantasies, where Rene Bond sets up each segment while sucking on a dick, but it’s a good idea and worth ripping off. Imagine if more anthologies were stitched together in this way. I’m not saying Creepshow would have been improved by Samantha Fox beej, but Creepshow 2? Definitely.

As for the rest of the movie… eh. I fully concede that had I watched this back in the day with the other preverts in the porno theatre going about their business, I might have enjoyed this, but trying to watch it as an actual movie I found it a bit of a challenge. I think the movie miscalculates pretty severely by a) not having any dialogue once the actual sex starts and going instead for heavy breathing and the like, and b) running more than an hour and a half. There is a sense of intimacy to the way the sex is filmed, but when the lack of dialogue dampens the screen presences of the cast, so the style doesn’t provide much of a charge. The calculus seems the most off with the final segment, a group scene centred around Vanessa Del Rio playing a managing director for a company that does business with Latin American countries. The gimmick here is that Del Rio doesn’t understand a word of English and the guys she does business with don’t understand a lick of Spanish, and there is some novelty to Del Rio speaking Spanish with subtitles (along with showing off her dance moves), but the movie totally undermines this tension when it cuts out all the dialogue during the sex. Given how fiery and vocal a performer Del Rio can be, I found this pretty unfortunate. Also, this segment runs almost forty minutes, which is a long time when you don’t have much in the way of plot or screen presences to lean on.

Anyway, the most memorable scene through sheer kink factor is the one featuring Denise and Diane Sloan, who are not great actresses, but happen to be twins, which the scene capitalizes on. Listen, there’s probably some movie magic here in terms of clever blocking and editing, but the two get a little too close for comfort, if you catch my drift. Eventually this turns into a threesome with John Black as one of their boyfriends (I’m not gonna pretend I know which one, which is why I would never take the two of them on a double date), who proposes to solve their fractured sororal bonds through the magic of polyamory. So I guess this perverted but kinda hot tale of twincest has a happy ending.

Also George Payne has a beard in this, and it’s a good look. But yeah, I was kinda hoping Joe Sarno would bring some of that Bergman flavour in terms of characterization from the last movie of his I watched, but such influence is not visible in the end result.

[soyouareandrewdobson]

Some late Halloween recommendation

(Seizure Warning)

Happy happy Halloween,

Halloween,

Halloween,

happy, happy Halloween,

fuck you Dobson!

Well, haven't talked for a long time, haven't I?

Things got busy again the last couple of weeks and with the sort of posts I am working on being rather long + spending my off time from work on other things than somethin Dobson related, I couldn't bring much to the table.

That said, next month something really big is in the making, starting from November 2th. Other than that, I kinda thought I want to do something small, non Dobson related for the holiday..

So in case some of you are looking for some Halloween related fun to spend the next 24 hours with, I thought I recommend some minor movies and other horror related things you may hopefully enjoy.

So let's start

Creepshow (1982) & Crepshow 2

I am a huge fan of horror anthology movies and Tales form the Crypt like stories (comics and tv show), so when I heard that Stephen King wrote a script for a comic like horror movie in the 80s, directed by George Romero, I was kinda hooked up.

Creepshow is something of a hidden gem people are becoming more aware of nowadays thanks to the internet, popculture and the fact, that on Shudder there has been a tv series based on the concept, that currently runs for 4 seasons. And while the quality of some episodes is varying, it is a lot of fun to watch. Particularly the one episode that is literally Bob Ross fighting the Deadites from Evil Dead.

As for the movie that started it all, separated in five little stories, the movie has something from everyone. From a multibillionaire finding himself attacked by cockroaches in his apartment, a zombie wanting cake for father's day, to a henpecked husband exploiting a weird monster to deal with his bickering tramp of a wife. I know the movie was once on completely for free to watch on youtube, but unfortunately I couldn't find it for this entry as quickly. That said, have the still good, though moref flawed sequel here

The Night of the living dull

still one of the funniest jabs at really awful fans, related to my favorite cartoon from the 90s. If you can find more of the Nightmare Ghoulery online, I highly recommend it.

It is still better animated and way funnier than the actual Tiny Toon reboot we got last month. As evident by that opening alone

Franken Fran

Imagine if Frankenstein created a slightly cute teenaged girl who is a masterful surgeon and biologist/genetic engineer, who tries to help other people with her operations. Only for things to go ever so slightly wrong for the people involved in it. Partly because Fran doesn't care for either good or evil, just science, partly because they kinda deserve their ironic fate.

For friends of horror anthology stories and people who want to laugh at Kamen Rider in a certain way, for free to read here

This

considering I am on tumblr, I don't think I have to introduce you to Helluva Boss. So let me just more or less out myself as a fan of it too. I may think it is in part flawed (the people behind it certainly love to overindulge themselves in musical numbers and gay fluff, while I just wished there was a bit more cartoonish killing), but I have quite a bit of respect for the quality of the animation and some of the ideas going into it. Plus, related to the linked episode itself, "2 Minutes Notice" really slaps and it is obvious, that Alex Brightman has a lot of fun here. So alone for that I recommend you watch the episode.

Deadstream

Imagine Evil Dead 2 mixed with your average youtube douchebag prankster getting his comeuppances. One of the best movies I watched last year, Deadstream is about Shawn, a failed youtuber trying to restart his career by spending a night in a haunted house. Only problem, not only is Shawn something of a slightly dumb piss ant who recognizes red flags way too late, the house really is haunted and the ghosts are certainly not friendly or in need of help at all. While "low budget" by certain standards, the movie has some really great practical effects and decent scares, but also some really great black comedy and slapstick mixed in, without ever really going into full on Scary Movie cartoon-esque antics. Also one of the few movies, where the concept of "livestreaming" is actually utilized extremely intelligently for the sake of the movie's style. As far as I know it is watchable on Shudder, so please. go see it

Negaduck

He is the terror, that schemes at the night.

to wrap this post up, a little still ongoing thing in the world of cartoon related comics. Currently published by Dynamite Entertainment in colaboration with Disney, Negaduck is a tie in series to the current Darkwing Duck comics, focused on one of Darkwing's most popular villains. His personal archrival (and I think multiversal evil counterpart, to me they were always a bit vague with that in my opinion) Negaduck. surprisingly well drawn, this comic manages to capture the cartoonishness of the cartoon in vibrant colors and makes Negaduck a lot of fun, when he tries to come up with an ultimate scheme and in his quest ends up going on a treasure hunt for King Midas' gauntled. You can read the first two issues of more hopefully to come here.

Now with that said, I am off to a party with friends and playing some Luigis Mansion 3. HAPPY HALLOWEEN AND HAVE SOME CANDY

[classic80sand90smovieloves2]

Meeting and Dating Andy Cavenaugh

(My shitty gif)(Requested by anonymous)

- Living in the middle of the desert was an interesting experience. You’d lived in the same home since you were born and yet there were still occupants of your town that you’d never seen or met; even though there was only a meager population of under 50.

- It was the sheer size of your state that did it. Everyone lived miles away from each other and any shop that was considered to be “nearby” was still at least a thirty minute drive so you only ever went into town a couple times a month. Which is how you met Andy.

- You’d driven into town with a list of supplies you’d needed and a wallet full of that months savings, ready to get your stuff and go as quickly as you could; hoping to get home before the sun rose all the way and baked you alive.

- Coincidentally, Andy was in town at the same time, loitering around the store you were attempting to shop at. You paid him no mind and went about your business until you were ready to check out.

- Once the shopkeep had rung you up, you found that you didn’t have enough money for all the things on your list and reluctantly told the man to keep something as he helped you pack up what you could afford.

- Andy watched the entire interaction from somewhere behind you as he pocketed whatever he felt like. Once you headed towards the doors of the building, he picked some cheap thing off the shelf and went to the checkout, watching you as you packed up your car.

- While the store clerk was preoccupied with the cash register, the boy snuck whatever you’d left behind into his jacket and waited another few moments for the man to hand him his actual purchase before he made his way outside.

- You were just about to get into your car when he came up to you, greeting you casually before he held out his hand and offered you the thing that you’d left behind. You looked at him in surprise before you thanked him and took it, shifting it to your other hand so that you could offer him yours in a handshake.

- The two of you introduced yourselves and he asked if you’d be interested in going out sometime. Since all you knew about him was that he was attractive and sweet enough to “buy” you the thing you couldn’t afford, you agreed and wrote down your number for him, telling him that it was nice meeting him and saying goodbye before you drove off. 

- He calls you a couple days later while out with his friends, a little liquid courage in his system and a bit of peer pressure from his buddies leading to his wonderful decision making. 

- You’re clueless and he thinks his friends will stick to their word of “heading out before you show”, which obviously doesn’t happen. You arrive and they’re still there, almost immediately inviting themselves to what was supposed to be your first date and making the night rather uncomfortable at times. 

- You can tell that your date is just as uncomfortable as you, but that doesn’t exactly make things any better. By the time the night ends, you’ve already decided that you’re probably just gonna count your losses and find a potential boyfriend elsewhere. 

- But fate seems to be on Andy’s side because the two of you find yourselves face to face a few days later. He gives you an apology, explaining everything before telling you that he’d like to see you again.

- It takes you a minute to decide but you finally agree and tell him that you’ll give it another shot, bringing up your own idea for a date in hopes that you won’t be bothered by his buddies again. He gives you a wide smile, asking when he should pick you up and thanking you genuinely just before he leaves.

- So, for your second date; though you like to consider it your first, the two of you go to whichever place you chose and wind up having a really nice time. He seems to be on his best behavior but his real personality shines through as well; and it’s one that you really enjoy.

- You probably give him a kiss on the cheek as a goodnight but the two of you share your first real kiss on your next date. You’d spent pretty much the entire night together and wound up parking off on the side of the road to stargaze for a while. 

- You were leaning against the hood of his car with him, looking up at the sky before your gaze shifted to the man beside you. He was preoccupied with watching the stars, leaving you to let your mind wander. 

“I’m glad we gave this another shot.” You said and watched as his focus shifted to you instead. 

- He gave you a smile and told you that he was too before he leaned down and pressed his lips to yours. 

- Congratulations, you caught yourself a firebird in the middle of the desert.

- Andy really doesn’t give a shit about how other people feel like 80% of the time, and he’s just a fan of affection in general, so there’s going to be a lot of Pda in your relationship; if you’ll allow it.

- Handholding. He likes keeping you close to him and making sure that you aren’t getting into any dangerous trouble; especially if you’re around his friends. Although he does wear his gloves a lot so; even though he gives you the occasional reassuring squeeze or strokes his thumb across your knuckles, you’ll most likely be feeling leather more than his skin.

- If someone’s kissing a face, it’s you. His lips are for your lips only, he doesn’t bother touching them to anything else; though he does enjoy when you kiss him on the cheek or jaw.

- Deep, slow kisses.

- He calls you honey or baby more than he calls you by your name. And as tough as he likes to pretend he is, he’d love to have you call him by pet names too.

- Cuddling is one of his favorite pastimes; he absolutely loves it. Most of the time, he’ll pull you in, pressing his cheek/jaw to your head and letting you lay right up against him, your head resting against his shoulder or in the crook of his neck.

- A lot of the time, he prefers to be loving in a more reserved way. He tends to show that he cares through his actions and by doing little things to make your life easier. Things like waking up early to put gas in your car or picking up things that you need from the store whenever he’s in town so that you don’t have to go.

- Sometimes, he’ll set up a sentence like he’s about to say something really sweet or you’ll ask him something expecting a cute response and he’ll just say something crude or lewd instead.

“How do I look.” He turns and looks at you, a smile gracing his face.

“Your tits look great.” He replies, barely holding in his laughter.

- He indulges you more than he cares to admit. He might occasionally act like he’s too cool but he’s too in love with you to say no and potentially make you sad.

- Tv dates. There ain’t shit else to do.

- Cruising around in his firebird; and sometimes parking somewhere to makeout.

- Going on road trips or long outings. There isn’t a whole lot to do in your town so you’ll occasionally take the long ride over to the next town in hopes of finding something fun.

- He’ll never tell you that he does but he always dodges potholes and bumpy areas during these trips so that he doesn’t wake you up while he’s driving.

- Driving out to the middle of the desert with a bundle of blankets to watch the sunrise; or stopping on the side of the road during one of your trips.

- Sitting with him while he works on his car.

- Going out into the desert to shoot or smash random junk. Vases, porcelain, tin cans; stuff like that.

- Playing pinball and other convenience store arcade games.

- Every now and again, he’ll get some money from his pops and take you out to a nice dinner; especially if it’s after the two of you are pushed into doing something you dont like and he can see that you’re upset. It’s usually because of Sam but he still feels the need to try and make it up to you and make sure that you aren’t gonna ghost him.

“Hey, why don’t we go and get some dinner,” he’ll say, a hint of nervous desperation in his voice as you walk out to his car. “You can get whatever you want. Dessert too.”

- It isn’t clear exactly how rich Andy actually is but it seems like he’s sort of embarrassed to have wealth in such a poor town. Because of this, I feel like he probably wouldn’t mention it and would try to dodge questions that would lead to him exposing the truth, maybe acting like he’s less wealthy than he is until Sam “outs” him and causes an awkward situation.

- Him stealing things for you. You’d much prefer if he just bought them but at least he doesn’t tell you whether or not he’s stolen it most of the time.

- Likes to fool around a lot; he’s rarely ever fully serious and he’s always trying to make you laugh.

- Can quote just about any western film you can name and does impressions of all the characters. He grew up on those sorts of things so he’s practically an expert by now.

- He likes messing with your stuff: putting on your clothes, using your mirror for random stuff, picking things up off your dresser and toying around with them, etc.

- My god, the change of character he has when he’s with his friends and you, compared to when he’s with his parents gives you whiplash. It’s hilarious seeing him lie and act like an angel during family dinners.

- His dad probably lectures him about manners whenever you’re with them: things like putting his elbows on the table, saying grace, how he treats you, etc. Its pretty amusing to see.

- He seems like a good guy who got mixed in with the wrong people. Sure, he enjoys a little chaos and trouble making like the rest of them but he doesn't like hurting people and you can tell from the way he acts afterward that he isn't proud; especially when you give him a look in the middle of the situation and sober him up.

- You’re dragged along with him and the boys a lot; or he’s forced to ditch you to hang out with them whenever Sam calls.

- Sam flirting with you. You know damn well that he’d make you compliment him or get you to agree with his praise of himself; and Andy would be miffed but unable to do anything besides listen to him while his knuckles whiten on his steering wheel.

- There aren’t a lot of people in your town for him to get jealous of but whenever there is, he does. Most of the time, it’s Sam or some flirtatious traveler but other times it’s your celebrity crushes or old boyfriends. He usually just bites his tongue or makes some kind of sarcastic, passive aggressive comment; it depends on who it is and how you’re reacting to them.

- He’s always looking over at you and making sure you’re alright whenever he can; especially when you’re out with his friends. He knows that getting into the trouble that they do can be dangerous and he doesn’t want anything happening to you just because Sam doesn’t know when to stop.

- The two of you get into a lot of arguments but they’re rarely ever serious. You mostly just bicker before the two of you give up and decide that it’s a pointless fight.

- Whenever you do have an argument, one that he causes and upsets you with, he always feels guilty and finds himself unable to stay mad at you. He might not verbally apologize but he will try to make it up to you in some way and tell you that he’s sorry.

- He’s not big on saying he loves you but he does say it on occasion; and definitely shows it more than he says it.

- The two of you probably get engaged on a whim a bit too early into your relationship but he’s promising to take you out of that desert city and along with him to Hollywood so the ring is a nice symbol of that oath. 

[m-o-o-n-thatspellsblog]

Hi ! First I wanna say I’m glad to see you back here on tumblr and hope you’re doing well :) oh and happy Halloween (season)!

In honor of Halloween, I wanted to ask a spooky themed question:

I’ve seen you talk about favorite SK stories, characters, and adaptations, so in the spirit of the season I wanted to ask you for your favorite SK monsters/villains ?

As a bonus question (if you wanna answer it/if you think these are fun), what are your favorite scary/spooky/creepy moments from SK stories? It can be either from the books or from an adaptation.

And I would love if you elaborate (however in depth you’d like) on your answers, I love to hear people’s thoughts—that would be wonderful 😊👻🎃

Hello! Thanks so much and happy Halloween to you as well! :)

Some of my favorite villains:

The Man in Black/ Randall Flagg- Definitely my number one favorite! Any time he pops up in anything, I get so excited. He's definitely at his best in The Dark Tower series; I particularly enjoy his role in Wind Through the Keyhole as The Covenant Man.

Christine- Honestly, I just think she's neat. A fiercely devoted, over-protective, jealous murder car that communicates through rock n roll music? Awesome

Leland Gaunt-I have to admit, it's been years since the last time I read Needful Things, but I do remember Leland Gaunt. I am a collector of many things, so I can relate to the feeling of coming across the perfect piece for your collection and being desperate to get your hands on it. It's interesting to imagine how someone could use a person's passions/ interests against them. It's cool how he just rolls into town and causes mass chaos without having to do any of the dirty work himself.

As for some spooky/scary/creepy moments, these are a few that have stuck with me (CONTAINS SPOILERS):

Books:

Hank Olson’s death in The Long walk

Jimmy Cody’s death ‘Salem’s Lot

Sandy McDougall’s discovering her son’s death in ‘Salem’s Lot

George Stark’s death in The Dark Half

Adaptations:

The animated adaptation of Survivor Type (I can’t really think of a specific moment that stands out, honestly the entire thing is creepy haha)

Laverne’s death in The Raft adaptation from Creepshow 2

The pharmacy scene in The Mist, especially when the one dude falls down and breaks into bugs

Frank Dodd’s death in the movie adaptation of The Dead Zone

[brokenmusicboxwolfe]

(Yes I have insomnia again. Stupid rambling time)

You know, it occurs to me I have seen just about all the classic horror movies from the silent era up to the 70’s. I’ve also seen a ton past that up to recent stuff. ** I always think I don’t like horror movies, and yet I LOVE so many!

I suppose it boils down to the fact that I don’t need horror movies to churn up fears, but to give me a safer sort of scares. Life is cruel, and as Mom used to say “If someone can imagine doing it, then someone somewhere probably has.” A serial killer might slaughter you tomorrow, but ghosts, vampires, demons, and all the rest can never hurt you. Humans are terrifying but monsters feel like friends.

I adore dark fantasy, sometimes pitch black, but I need it to be fantasy. I don’t want to be submerged in bleakness or be infected with possible terrors to haunt my thoughts. I am perfectly capable of nightmares, anxieties, and jumping at bumps in the night all on my own thanks!

But dang, it’s Halloween! I want something new to watch! I long ago saw all of Hammer, Universal, Vincent Price, Bava, Val Lewton, and every other “cozy” *** type horror I can think of. ****There has to be something good left I’ve missed.

Getting a time machine to hunt up London After Midnight because I am out of classic horror to watch seems a bit drastic! LOL

** My blind spot is the realistic and things the revel in sadism. I can take a lot of gore, but context matters. I prefer the fantastical rather than things that cut too close to reality.

*** Cozy by my standards. Some I enjoy others finds legit scary. Actually, a lot others find scary. Considering others find The Exorcist, an utterly hilarious movie scary, I know my tastes are atypical. It’s all subjective.

**** New stuff to me this year was the completely annoying Conjuring 2, the eye rolling comedy of Survival of the Dead, the abysmal Creepshow 2, the even more awful Satan’s Triangle tv movie, the actually rather cool Baba Yaga (1973) , the “is it horror or not” Svengali (1931), the interesting EC comics like Dead & Buried, and some very pathetic Puppet Master movie I can’t remember the title of that left me wondering “Yes, the baddie is a Nazi, but the film makers expect us to laugh during the hate crimes….so I am not sure they aren’t seeming to endorse the hate”

Yeah, they aren’t all bad movies, but it’s rather underwhelming quality-wise compared to other Halloweens.

[thealmightyemprex]

Miscellanious halloween viewing part 2

More stuff I have watched that is halloween related

Trick or Treat (1952)

REally delightful Donald Duck cartoon

The Mad Doctor (1933)

REally creepy Mickey Mouse cartoon that I imagine scarred many 30's kids

Old Dark House (1932)

Watched with lil sis ,she liked it. One of my faves

Halloween with the Addams Family (!964)

I am very tempted to binge this show cause this episode was SOLID .Don Rickles and Skip Homier as criminals were fun ,and the main cast (John Astin,Carolyn Jones ,Ted Cassidy and Jackie Cooganj ) were all solid

Halloween is Grinch Night (!977)

Mediocre special with one great scene

Courage the Cowardly Dog Season 2 (2000)

WAtched several episodes from season 2 .....Man this show was weirder then I remebered,but I love it .Theres an episode where a giant robot who sounds like Christopher Walken challanges Courage to a breakdancing contest ,but Courage convinces him to pursue his dream of carving wooden reindeer

Dracula (!931)

Again watched with little sis .She thought the ending was lame and the film itself was OK.I also think its just OK

Evil Dead 2(1987)

Not my favorite Evil Dead movie but still a classic I reccomend to anyone .Its good gorey fun

The House of Usher (1960)

REallly loved this movie upon rewatch ,one of Prices best performances .Great gothic horror story

Creepshow (1982)

Well I watched most of it.Its one of my favorite horror movies ,but I CANNOT watch the final segment ,too gross for me

@ariel-seagull-wings @princesssarisa @theancientvaleofsoulmaking @amalthea9 @metropolitan-mutant-of-ark @filmcityworld1

[eirikrjs]

Would definitely recommend Tetsuo if you're into body horror. It's fairly short but very intense. As for Robocop, I think it fits well into cyberpunk alongside movies like Blade Runner and Minority Report. English Wikipedia includes a mention of it on the Cyberpunk article. I wouldn't really call it body horror, outside of maybe the scene where he first takes off his helmet.

Oh, I should make this ask SMT-related, right? Golem, Medusa, and Rabbi in SMT 2 look like a bunch of tachikomas from Ghost in the Shell.

I actually do love body horror and gore (except for broken bones, I think because I broke my arm a couple times as a kid). Tetsuo is currently on Shudder. I will probably re-up my sub once the current Creepshow season completes, if it’s not already finished.

Fair about Robocop, I’m not going to disagree. I just imagine Peter Weller slow walking in the Robocop suit in comparison to the more kinetic cyberpunk works and have a good chuckle.

Tachikoma Rabbis = yes. Honestly, I still view this as a personal blog and don’t care what people send. I would love to talk about other hobbies and interests, but then again those posts tend to go ignored so... I don’t. I’ve got ideas to make it work, though. One of these days!

[betterdaysareatoenailaway]

Random Review #3: Sleepwalkers (1992) and “Sleep Walk” (1959)

I. Sleepwalkers (1992) I couldn’t sleep last night so I started watching a trashy B-movie penned by Stephen King specifically for the screen called Sleepwalkers (1992). Simply put, the film is an unmitigated disaster. A piece of shit. But it didn’t need to be. That’s what’s so annoying about it. By 1992 King was a grizzled veteran of the silver screen, with more adaptations under his belt than any other author of his cohort. Puzo had the Godfather films (1972 and 1974, respectively), sure, but nothing else. Leonard Gardner had Fat City (1972), a movie I love, but Gardner got sucked into the Hollywood scene of cocaine and hot tub parties and never published another novel, focusing instead on screenplays for shitty TV shows like NYPD Blue. After Demon Seed (1977), a movie I have seen and disliked, nobody would touch Dean Koontz’s stuff with a ten foot pole, which is too bad because The Voice of the Night, a 1980 novel about two young pals, one of whom is a psychopath trying to convince the other to help him commit murder, would make a terrific movie. But Koontz’s adaptations have been uniformly awful. The made-for-TV film starring John C McGinley, 1997′s Intensity, is especially bad. There are exceptions, but Stephen King has been lucky enough to avoid the fate of his peers. Big name directors have tackled his work, from Stanley Kubrick to Brian De Palma. King even does a decent job of acting in Pet Semetary (1989), in his own Maximum Overdrive (1986) and in George Romero’s Creepshow (1982), where he plays a yokel named Jordy Verril who gets infected by a meteorite that causes green weeds to grow all over his body. Many have criticized King’s over-the-top performance in that flick, but for me King perfectly nails the campy and comical tone that Romero was going for. The dissolves in Creepshow literally come right off the pages of comics, so people expecting a subtle Ordinary People-style turn from King had clearly walked into the wrong theatre. Undoubtedly Creepshow succeeds at what it set out to do. I’m not sure Sleepwalkers succeeds though, unless the film’s goal was to get me to like cats even more than I already do. But I already love cats a great deal. Here’s my cat Cookie watching me edit this very blog post. 

And here’s one of my other cats, Church, named after the cat that reanimates and creeps out Louis and Ellie in Pet Sematary. Photo by @ScareAlex.

SPOILER ALERT: Do not keep reading if you plan on watching Sleepwalkers and want to find out for yourself what happens.

Stephen King saw many of his novels get adapted in the late 1970s and 80s: Carrie, The Shining, Firestarter, Christine, Cujo, and the movie that spawned the 1950s nostalgia industrial complex, Stand By Me, but Sleepwalkers was the first time he wrote a script specifically for the screen rather than adapting a novel that already existed. Maybe that’s why it’s so fucking bad. Stephen King is a novelist, gifted with a novelist’s rich imagination. He’s prone to giving backstories to even the most peripheral characters - think of Joe Chamber’s alcoholic neighbour Gary Pervier in the novel Cujo, who King follows for an unbelievable number of pages as the man stumbles drunkenly around his house spouting his catch phrase “I don’t give a shit,” drills a hole through his phone book so he can hang it from a string beside his phone, complains about his hemorrhoids getting “as big as golfballs” (I’m not joking), and just generally acts like an asshole until a rabid Cujo bounds over, rips his throat out, and he bleeds to death. In the novel Pervier’s death takes more than a few pages, but it makes for fun reading. You hate the man so fucking much that watching him die feels oddly satisfying. In the movie, though, his death occurs pretty quickly, and in a darkened hallway, so it’s hard to see what’s going on aside from Gary’s foot trembling. And Pervier’s “I don’t give a shit” makes sense when he’s drilling a hole in the phone book, not when he’s about to be savagely attacked by a rabid St Bernard. There’s just less room for back story in movies. In a medium that demands pruning and chiseling and the “less is more” dictum, King’s writing takes a marked turn for the worse. King is a prose maximalist, who freely admits to “writing to outrageous lengths” in his novels, listing It, The Stand, and The Tommyknockers as particularly egregious examples of literary logorrhea. He is not especially equipped to write concisely. This weakness is most apparent in Sleepwalkers’ dialogue, which sounds like it was supposed to be snappy and smart, like something Aaron Sorkin would write, but instead comes off like an even worse Tango & Cash, all bad jokes and shitty puns. More on those bad jokes later. First, the plot.

Sleepwalkers is about a boy named Charles and his mother Mary who travel around the United States killing and feeding off the lifeforce of various unfortunate people (if this sounds a little like The True Knot in Doctor Sleep, you’re not wrong. But self-plagiarism is not a crime). Charles and Mary are shapeshifting werewolf-type creatures called werecats, a species with its very own Wikipedia page. Wikipedia confers legitimacy dont’cha know, so lets assume werecats are real beings. According to said page, a werecat, “also written in a hyphenated form as were-cat) is an analogy to ‘werewolf’ for a feline therianthropic creature.” I’m gonna spell it with the hyphen from now on because “werecats” just looks like a typo. Okay? Okay.

Oddly enough, the were-cats in Sleepwalkers are terrified of cats. Actual cats. For the were-cats, cute kittens = kryptonite. When they see a cat or cats plural, this happens to them:

^ That is literally a scene from the movie. Charles is speeding when a cop pulls alongside him and bellows at him to pull over. Ever the rebel, Charles flips the cop the finger. But the cop has a cat named Clovis in his car, and when the cat pops up to have a look at the kid (see below), Charles shapeshifts first into a younger boy, then into whatever the fuck that is in the above screenshot.

Now, the were-cats aversion to normal cats is confusing because one would assume a were-cat to be a more evolved (or perhaps devolved?) version of the typical house kitty. The fact that these were-cats are bipedal alone suggests an advantage over our furry four-legged friends, no? Kinda like if humans were afraid of fucking gorillas. Wait...we are scared of gorillas. And chimpanzees. And all apes really. Okay, maybe the conceit of the film isn’t so silly after all. The film itself, however, is about as silly as a bad horror movie can get. When the policeman gets back to precinct and describes the incident above (”his face turned into a blur”) he is roundly ridiculed because in movies involving the supernatural nobody believes in the supernatural until it confronts them. It’s the law, sorry. Things don’t end well for the cop. Or for the guy who gets murdered when the mom stabs him with...an ear of corn. Yes, an ear of corn. Somehow, the mother is able to jam corn on the cob through a man’s body, without crushing the vegetable or turning it into yellow mash. It’s pretty amazing. Here is a sample of dialog from that scene: Cop About To Die On The Phone to Precinct: There’s blood everywhere! *STAB* Murderous Mother: No vegetables, no dessert. That is actually a line in the movie. “No vegetables, no dessert.” It’s no “let off some steam, Bennett” but it’s close. Told ya I’d get back to the bad jokes. See, Mary and Charles are new in town and therefore seeking to ingratiate themselves by killing everyone who suspects them of being weird, all while avoiding cats as best they can. At one point Charles yanks a man’s hand off and tells him to "keep [his] hands to [him]self," giving the man back his severed bloody hand. Later on Charles starts dating a girl who will gradually - and I do mean gradually - come to realize her boyfriend is not a real person but in fact a were-cat. Eventually our spunky young protagonist - Madchen Amick, who fans of Twin Peaks will recognize as Shelly - and a team of cats led by the adorable Clovis- kill the were-cat shapeshifting things and the sleepy small town (which is named Travis for some reason) goes back to normal, albeit with a slightly diminished population. For those keeping score, that’s Human/Cat Alliance 1, Shapeshifting Were-cats 0. It is clear triumph for the felis catus/people team! Unless we’re going by kill count, in which case it is closer to Human/Cat Alliance 2, Were-cats 26. I arrived at this figure through my own notes but also through a helpful video that takes a comprehensive and complete “carnage count” of all kills in Sleepwalkers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmt-DroK6uA

II. Santo & Johnny “Sleep Walk” (1959) Because Sleepwalkers is decidedly not known for its good acting or its well-written screenplay, it is perhaps best known for its liberal and sometimes contrapuntal use of Santo & Johnny’s classic steel guitar song “Sleep Walk,” possibly the most famous (and therefore best) instrumental of the 20th century. Some might say “Sleep Walk” is tied for the #1 spot with “Green Onions” by Booker T & the M.G.’s and/or “Wipe Out” by The Surfaris, but I disagree. The Santo & Johnny song is #1 because of its incalculable influence on all subsequent popular music. 

I’m not saying “Wipe Out” didn't inspire a million imitators, both contemporaneously and even decades later…for example here’s a surf rock instrumental from 1999 called “Giant Cow" by a Toronto band called The Urban Surf Kings. The video was one of the first to be animated using Flash (and it shows):

So there are no shortage of surf rock bands, even now, decades after its emergence from the shores of California to the jukeboxes of Middle America. My old band Sleep for the Nightlife used to regularly play Rancho Relaxo with a surf rock band called the Dildonics, who I liked a great deal. There's even a Danish surf rock band called Baby Woodrose, whose debut album is a favourite of mine. They apparently compete for the title of Denmark’s biggest surf pop band with a group called The Setting Son. When a country that has no surfing culture and no beaches has multiple surf rock bands, it is safe to say the genre has attained international reach. As far as I can tell, there aren’t many bands out there playing Booker T & the M.G.’s inspired instrumental rock. Link Wray’s “Rumble” was released four years before “Green Onions.” But the influence of Santo and Johnny’s “Sleep Walk” is so ubiquitous as to be almost immeasurable. The reason for this is the sheer popularity of the song’s chord progression. If Santo and Johnny hadn’t written it first, somebody else would have, simply because the progression is so beautiful and easy on the ears and resolvable in a satisfying way. Have a listen to “Sleep Walk” first and then let’s check out some songs it directly inspired. 

The chords are C, A minor, F and G. Minor variations sometimes reverse the last two chords, but if it begins with C to A minor, you can bet it’s following the “Sleep Walk” formula, almost as if musicians influenced by the song are in the titular trance. When it comes to playing guitar, Tom Waits once said “your hands are like dogs, going to the same places they’ve been. You have to be careful when playing is no longer in the mind but in the fingers, going to happy places. You have to break them of their habits or you don’t explore; you only play what is confident and pleasing.” Not only is it comforting to play and/or hear what we already know, studies have shown that our brains actively resist new music, because it takes work to understand the new information and assimilate it into a pattern we are cogent of. It isn’t until the brain recognizes the pattern that it gives us a dopamine rush. I’m not much for Pitchfork anymore, but a recent article they posted does a fine job of discussing this phenomenon in greater detail.

Led Zeppelin’s “D’Yer Maker” uses the “Sleep Walk” riff prominently, anchored by John Bonham and John Paul Jones’ white-boy reggae beat: 

Here it is again with Del Shannon’s classic “Little Town Flirt.” I love Shannon’s falsetto at the end when he goes “you better run and hide now bo-o-oy.”

The Beatles “Happiness is a Warm Gun” uses the Sleep Walk progression, though not for the whole song. It goes into the progression at the bridge at 1:34: 

Tumblr won’t let me embed any more videos, so you’ll to travel to another tab to hear these songs, but Neil Young gets in on the act with his overlooked classic “Winterlong:” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RV6r66n3TFI On their 1996 EP Interstate 8 Modest Mouse pay direct homage by singing over their own rendition of the original Santo & Johnny version, right down to the weeping steel guitar part: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VT_PwXjCqqs The vocals are typical wispy whispered indie rock vocals, but I think they work, particularly the two different voices. They titled their version “Sleepwalking (Couples Only Dance Prom Night).”

Dwight Yoakam’s “Thousand Miles From Nowhere” makes cinematic use of it. This song plays over the credits of one of my all-time favourite movies, 1993′s Red Rock West feat. Nicolas Cage, Lara Flynn Boyle, Dennis Hopper, and J.T. Walsh https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tu3ypuKq8WE

“39″ is my favourite Queen song. I guess now I know why. It uses my fav chord progression: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kE8kGMfXaFU 

Blink 182 scored their first hit “Dammit” with a minor variation on the Sleep Walk chord progression: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sT0g16_LQaQ

Midwest beer drinkin bar rockers Connections scored a shoulda-been-a-hit with the fist-pumping “Beat the Sky:” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSNRq0n_WYA You’d be hard pressed to find a weaker lead singer than this guy (save for me, natch), but they make it work. This one’s an anthem.

Spoon, who have made a career out of deconstructing rock n’ roll, so that their songs sometimes sound needlessly sparse (especially “The Ghost of You Lingers,” which takes minimalism to its most extreme...just a piano being bashed on staccato-style for four minutes), so it should surprise nobody that they re-arrange the Sleep Walk chords on their classic from Gimme Fiction, “I Summon You:” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teXA8N3aF9M I love that opening line: remember the weight of the world was a sound that we used to buy? I think songwriter Britt Daniel is talking about buying albums from the likes of Pearl Jam or Smashing Pumpkins, any of those grunge bands with pessimistic worldviews. There are a million more examples. I remember seeing some YouTube video where a trio of gross douchebros keep playing the same progression while singing a bunch of hits over it. I don’t like the smarmy way they do it, making it seem like artists are lazy and deliberately stealing. I don’t think it’s plagiarism to use this progression. And furthermore, tempo and production make all the difference. Take “This Magic Moment” for example. There's a version by Jay & the Americans and one by Ben E King & the Drifters. I’ve never been a fan of those shrieking violins or fiddles that open the latter: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bacBKKgc4Uo The Jay & the Americans version puts the guitar riff way in the forefront, which I like a lot more. The guitar plays the entire progression once before the singing starts and the band joins in: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKfASw6qoag

Each version has its own distinctive feel. They are pretty much two different songs. Perhaps the most famous use of the Sleep Walk progression is “Unchained Melody” by the Righteous Brothers, which is one of my favourite songs ever. The guy who chose to let Bobby Hatfield sing this one by himself must have kicked himself afterwards when it became a hit, much bigger than "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling."https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiiyq2xrSI0

What can you say about “Unchained Melody” that hasn’t already been said? God, that miraculously strong vocal, the way the strings (and later on, brass horns) are panned way over to the furthest reaches the left speaker while the drums and guitar are way over in the right, with the singing smack dab in the middle creates a kind of distance and sharp clarity that has never been reproduced in popular music, like seeing the skyscrapers of some distant city after an endless stretch of highway. After listening to “Unchained Melody,” one has to wonder: can that progression ever be improved upon? Can any artist write something more haunting, more beautiful, more uplifting than that? The “need your love” crescendo hits so fucking hard, as both the emotional and the sonic climax of the song, which of course is no accident...the strings descending and crashing like a waterfall of sound, it gets me every fucking time. Legend has it that King George II was so moved by the “Hallelujah” section of Handel’s “Messiah” that he stood up, he couldn't help himself, couldn't believe what he was hearing. I get that feeling with all my favourite songs. "1979." "Unchained Melody." "In The Still of the Night." "Digital Bath." "Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad?" "Interstate." "Liar's Tale." “Gimme Shelter.” The list goes on and on. Music is supposed to move us.

King George II stood because he was moved to do so. Music may be our creation, but it isn't our subordinate. All those sci-fi stories warning about technology growing beyond our control aren’t that far-fetched. Music is our creation but its power lies beyond our control. We are subordinate to music, helpless against its power and might, its urgency and vitality and beauty. There have been many times in my life when I have been so obsessed with a particular song that I pretty much want to live inside of it forever. A house of sound. I remember detoxing from heroin and listening to Grimes “Realiti” on repeat for twelve hours. Detoxing from OxyContin and listening to The Beach Boys “Dont Worry Baby” over and over. Or just being young and listening to “Tonight Tonight” over and over and over, tears streaming from my eyes in that way you cry when you’re a kid because you just feel so much and you don’t know what to do with the intensity of those feelings. It is precisely because we are so moved by music that we keep creating it. And in the act of that creation we are free. There are no limits to that freedom, which is why bands time and time again return to the well-worn Sleep Walk chord progression and try to make something new from it. Back in 2006, soon after buying what was then the new Yeah Yeah Yeahs album, I found myself playing the album’s closing track over and over. I loved the chorus and I loved the way it collapses into a lo-fi demo at the very end, stripping away the studio sheen and...not to be too punny, showing its bones (the album title is Show Your Bones). Later on I would realize that the song, called “Turn Into,” uses the Sleep Walk chord progression. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exqCFoPiwpk

It’s just like, what Waits said, our hands goes to where we are familiar. And so do our ears, which is why jazz often sounds so unpleasant to us upon first listen. Or Captain Beefheart. But it’s worth the effort to discover new stuff, just as it’s worth the effort to try and write it. I recently lamented on this blog that music to me now is more about remembrance than discovery, but I’m still only 35 years old. I’m middle-aged right now (I don’t expect to live past 70, not with the lifestyle I’ve been living). There’s still a whole other half life to find new music and love and leave it for still newer stuff. It’s worth the challenge, that moment of inner resistance we feel when confronted with something new and challenging and strange sounding. The austere demands of adult life, rent and routine, take so much of our time. I still make time for creative pursuits, but I don’t really have much time for discovery, for seeking out new music. But I’ve resolved to start making more time. A few years ago I tried to listen to and like Trout Mask Replica but I couldn’t. I just didn’t get what was going on. It sounded like a bunch of mistakes piled on top of each other. But then a few days ago I was writing while listening to music, as I always do, and YouTube somehow landed on Lick My Decals Off, Baby. I didn’t love what I was hearing but I was intrigued enough to keep going. And now I really like this song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMnd9dvb3sA&pbjreload=101 Another example I’ll give is the rare Robert Pollard gem “Prom Is Coming.” The first time I heard this song, it sounded like someone who can’t play guitar messing around, but the more I heard it the more I realized there’s a song there. It’s weird and strange, but it’s there. The lyrics are classic Pollard: Disregard injury and race madly out of the universe by sundown. Pollard obviously has a special place in his heart for this track. He named one of his many record labels Prom Is Coming Records and he titled the Boston Spaceships best-of collection Out of the Universe By Sundown. I don’t know if I’ll ever become a Captain Beefheart megafan but I can hear that the man was doing something very strange and, at times, beautiful. And anyway, why should everything be easy? Aren’t some challenges worth meeting for the experience waiting on the other side of comprehension or acceptance? I try to remember this now whenever I’m first confronted with new music, instead of vetoing it right away. Most of my favourite bands I was initially resistant to when I first heard them. Queens of the Stone Age, Kyuss, Guided by Voices, Spoon, Heavy Times. All bands I didn’t like at first.  I don’t wanna sleepwalk through life, surrounding myself only with things I have already experienced. I need to stay awake. Because soon enough I’ll be asleep forever. We need to try everything we can before the Big Sleep comes to take us back to the great blankness, the terrible question mark that bookends our lives.

[discovisiondreams]

Top 15 First Watches of 2020

I’ve never been good at staying current on pop culture, and that became especially pronounced in 2020. A year where most of the anticipated theatrical releases were pushed to VOD (and the price nearly tripled) meant that a lot of flicks I was excited for got added to the end of the “Maybe Someday” watchlist. 

But in this strange year, I did manage to watch 245 movies- and 195 of those were first-time watches. Some were new, only available on the (virtual) festival circuit. Some were Criterion mainstays, films I’m horrified to admit I hadn’t seen before. But this year, when movies cemented themself as my biggest joy, I began to really track what I watched- including a “top 5 first watches of the month” roundup for every month. These top 5s weren’t ranked, and weren’t even based on technical ability, strength of dialogue, or critical acclaim. They were just the 5 I loved the best. 

So without further ado, here are my top 15 of the year- one selected from the top 5 of each month, with some bonus entries thrown in as well. As a general rule, I only included features on this list- I was fortunate enough to catch shorts that streamed at Chattanooga Film Fest, Celebration of Fantastic Fest, and more, but to add them to the running would have made writing this listicle absolutely impossible. 

HONORABLE Honorable Mention: The Holiday. Inspired by the fine folks at Super Yaki, I finally watched this Nancy Meyers classic. Why is it two and a half hours long?! Why is that two and a half hours so significantly lacking in Jack Black?! The scenes that Black is in, though, really shine. This one is going to be a Christmas mainstay in the Disco household (and not just because I spent money on the DVD).

15: The Love Witch (Honorable Mention, April). This one came highly recommended to me by friends of all sorts, and like most of my 2020 first watches, I’m deeply embarrassed that it took me this long to get to it. Upon finally watching it, on a rainy Sunday, I described the movie in general (and the color palette, specifically) as “sumptuous,” which is one of the most complimentary visual descriptors I can bestow upon a movie. The plot felt a little convoluted at times, but I still found The Love Witch incredibly enjoyable and am hoping to explore more of writer-director Anna Biller’s filmography in 2021.

14: The Guest (Honorable Mention, October). The Guest is one of the few movies I watched multiple times this year- and the only one I watched twice in one week. From the sultry industrial soundtrack selections to the numerous visual nods to Halloween III: Season of the Witch, The guest was Extremely My Shit. The casting here is truly tremendous- especially Maika Monroe, who was similarly brilliant in It Follows. Also of note: Lance Reddick, one of my current favourite character actors. 

13: The Fast and The Furious (Honorable Mention, May). 2 Fast 2 Furious (and its bespoke theme song, Act A Fool, by Ludacris) came out when I was in the 6th grade. Do you remember the music and movies that entered the world when you were in 6th grade? Do you have an inexplicable zealous love for them? 2F2F was the only film in the Fast Cinematic Universe I had seen for a long, long time. Then I saw Fate of the Furious. Then I bought the series box set, as a joke?? And then, slowly but then also all at once, I genuinely started to love this franchise. Some of them are truly ridiculous. Some of them are genuinely bad. But the first one? The Fast and The Furious (2001)? Timeless. Point Break updated and adapted for the early-aughts, The Fast and the Furious walked so The Italian Job (2003) could run. Without The Fast and The Furious, Paul Walker would just be “the guy from Tammy and The T-Rex” to millions of casual cinemagoers. The cultural impact of The Fast and The Furious simply cannot be denied!! 

12: Come to Daddy (Top 5, July). Honestly, this is the exact flavor of bonkers bullshit I’ve grown to expect from Elijah Wood, and that is not an indictment. Wood’s genuine love for genre film is evident here, in what can only be described as an uncomfortable film of family, reunion, and redemption. The tense and abrasive first half gives way to a surprisingly relieving wave of violence and exposition in this critically-acclaimed flick. 

11: The Stylist (Top 5, September). The feature-length debut of writer-director Jill Gevargizian, based off her short of the same name, is female-led horror that pays homage to genre mainstays like Maniac and Psycho while still being decidedly singular. Not only shot in Kansas City, but set in Kansas City, The Stylist made my midwestern heart happy. This is one that I really, really would have loved to see in a crowded theater auditorium, were this year a different one. 

10: In The Mouth of Madness (Top 5, March). Despite being the beginning of pandemic awareness, March was a slow month for me, movie-wise (even though it’s not like I had anything else going on??). But I finally made time for this Carpenter classic, and I’m so happy I did. I’ve long been fascinated by stories about stories, and the people who find themselves trapped within those stories, and this one is truly, in the most basic sense of the word, horrifying. Sam Neill proves that he belongs in horror here, making his role in Event Horizon seem like a natural fit. Also a highlight: noted character actor David Warner, best known (to me) as “Billy Zane’s bodyguard guy in Titanic,” who never ever fails to be unsettling. 

9: Profondo Rosso (Top 5, April). Before this year, my only Argento exposure was Suspiria (which is phenomenal), but Deep Red goes off the deep end in all the best ways. The score (by frequent Argento collaborators Goblin) is truly groovy. The number of twists and turns the plot takes is kind of mind-boggling, but also delightful. Daria Nicolodi (RIP)  is at the top of her acting game here. This quickly became one of my beloved background movies- if I opened Shudder and Profondo Rosso was playing on one of their live-streaming channels, it stayed on while I was cleaning or cooking or paying bills. Profondo Rosso is a must-watch for those hoping to get into giallo.

8: Crimson Peak (Top 5, November). This one was definitely not what I was expecting, but it was GORGEOUS. I loved the world immediately (a Del Toro trademark, to be honest). As a longtime Pacific Rim stan, it made my heart happy to see Charlie Hunnam and Burn Gorman reunited under Guillermo Del Toro’s vision. 

7: Palm Springs (Top 5, August). I am not typically a time-travel movie enthusiast- but I am a sucker for witty repartee and Andy Samberg. This one made me ugly-cry, which I should probably be a bit more ashamed to admit. August had a lot of really great first watches, but the Hulu exclusive takes the cake due to its novel premise, some truly heart-wrenching reveals, and the amazing casting (is there anything JK Simmons cant do?). 

6: Scare Package (Top 5, May). Is there any format I love more than the horror anthology? While there have been so many over the years (Creepshow, All the Creatures Were Stirring), Scare Package might be my favourite of them all. A variety of fun and inventive stories combined with a genre-lovers dream of an overarching narrative make this one a must-see- in fact, it was the whole reason I bought a pass to this year’s online version of Chattanooga Film Fest. There’s a cameo here that absolutely knocked my socks off (and continued to do so even on repeat viewings). While the scares here are honestly minimal, Scare Package is a great love letter to the genre at large.

5: Do The Right Thing (Top 5, June). Yes, it took me until 2020 to watch Do The Right Thing for the first time. The palpable tension, the interwoven stories of Bed-Stuy’s residents, all seem timeless. Giancarlo Esposito is, as always, a joy to watch. 

4: Knives Out (Top 5, February). “It’s a Rian Johnson whodunnit, duh,” states the SuperYaki! T-shirt famously worn by Jamie Lee Curtis, star of Knives Out (2019). This one has received worlds of critical acclaim, I truly do not know what I could even hope to add to the conversation. I want more old-school murder mystery cinema.

3: The VelociPastor (Top 5, January). It should be testimonial enough that The VelociPastor beat out Miss Americana, Netflix’s Taylor Swift documentary, as the top pick for January- but in case it isn’t, let me end 2020 the way I began it; by evangelizing the HECK out of this movie. Written and directed by up-and-coming triple-threat (Director/songwriter/prolific cat-photo-poster) Brendan Steere, The VelociPastor is a true love letter to genre cinema, complete with a big wink to the criminally underloved Miami Connection. Alyssa Kempinski shines as Carol, a doctor/lawyer/hooker with a heart of gold. The VelociPastor premiered in 2019 but gained tons of attention in 2020 (thanks in part to YouTube sensation Cody Ko)- attention that it truly deserves. A sequel is rumored to be in the works, but mark my words, anything to come from the imagination of Brendan Steere will be worth a watch. 

2: Dinner in America (Top 5, October). I genuinely feel sorry for the other movies I watched in October (there were a lot) (they were all SO GOOD). Dinner in America, which I caught during the Nightstream hybrid festival, was not at all what I was expecting. While the other features were all very solidly genre flicks, this was…. A comedy? A modern love story?? I’mn honestly still not exactly sure, but I do know I loved every second of it. I laughed. I cried. I threw my hands up in the air exuberantly (in front of my laptop, looking like a true fool). I did not shut up about this movie online for weeks. I told anyone and everyone that Kyle Gallner is the most underrated actor of my generation and I still believe it! Dinner in America, the story of a punk band frontman who unwittingly takes refuge from the police in the home of his biggest fan, was an unexpectedly heartwarming tale of family, young love, and arson. Watch it as soon as you can. 

1: Promising Young Woman (Top 5, December). This last-minute debut from Emerald Fennell, originally scheduled to hit theaters in April of this year, finally made its way to the big screen on Christmas Day, and became the 2020 entry on my annual “Christmas Day Trip to the Theater” list.* Carey Mulligan is an icon and deserves all of the awards for this. The soundtrack is sublime. The casting choices are truly incredible. While I have no doubt that the general themes of the movie will be polarizing, I absolutely loved this one- I sat in my car in the theater parking lot for a WHILE, considering just buying a ticket for the next showtime- that’s how badly I felt like I needed to see it again immediately. I look forward to writing its inevitable Criterion essay.

*Nobody else in rural iowa was interested in seeing this movie at noon on Christmas Day. I’m shocked.

[riotatthemovies]

Riot talks with Chris LaMartina

Chris LaMartina is most known for the Vhs freak and Halloween geeks dream flick WNUF Halloween Special.  He is truly a super fan of low budget American backyard horror movies as can easily be seen in all his projects via style and humor. Such films as Call Girl of Cthulhu and his imdb unlisted shot on video slasher he mad as a kid Amerikill. Chris took some time out of editing and crafting new projects and answering questions on the now online conventions to talk to us.

1. Sov horror is REreleasing some of your older works. Amerikill and Dead Teenagers. Now I have seen and own Amerikill and the slasher of that movie is basically killing kids many of which are less than teenagers. So tell me what Dead Taanagers is about, more than just the same thing but killing older kids?

Chris:  "Dead Teenagers" was first, VERY DIY, attempt at making a feature. At 18, I knew I didn't have the attention span or stamina to make a full fledged feature so I tried my hand at an anthology. "Dead Teenagers" is basically a micro-budget ($300 actually) version of "Creepshow"... so goofy little cheap segments about vampires, werewolves, and things that go bump in the night with bare bones resources that would make the Pope weep. 

Riot: 2. What's your all time favorite no budget possibly Shot on video horror movie and what makes it stand out to you?

Chris: I love the JR Bookwalter stuff and I kinda adore "Polymorph" the most. Outside of that, I really think "Redneck Zombies" is fun start-to-finish plus Perciles Lewnes is the NICEST dude. Eric Stanze's "Savage Harvest" was probably one of the ones that inspired me most to start getting serious about making stuff on my own.

RIOT:3. You are arguably most noted for the WNUF Halloween special. Obviously a love note to 70s and 80s American local television from the drugstore era of halloween as I like to call it, (The time when all your Halloween supplies could be bought just from your local drugstore, taffy candy and Ben cooper costumes) but I've always been curious how much the British tv special GhostWatch inspired you if at all? I love double billing both movies back to back before Halloween. 

Chris: . Dude. I get this a BUNCH and I didn't see Ghostwatch til years after WNUF was released and people KEPT comparing us to it. But... to be honest, I watched about 20 minutes before I got bored. It's not a bad movie, it's just not what I was expecting. Very serious, and as you can tell by WNUF, that's not really my bag. I can see why people compare us, though... but to be honest, there's a LOT of horror movies/novels/comics about a reporter doing a report from inside a haunted house. One of the genius stories for WNUF was hearing an old Baltimore story about how an oldies station did a live radio show/seance from the Edgar Allen Poe house and picked up some strange recordings. 

Riot: I totally get it , I just grew up in England when GhostWatch aired first unknowing of the gimmick, so imagining that experience though. Also once the gimmick is done yeah it is kinda dry so I agree, if you cant scare em completely, make em smile 4. Before the world went all topsy turvy this year you were crowdfunding for a sequel. How did that go and where does the project stand? Sov Horror is promoting a project where they are asking filmmakers to send in fake commercials for their film, I smell a mini cross over connection that is begging to happen there.

Chris: So, because of Covid, we lost about 15 days at the most CRUCIAL time of production... all the days with extras and big set-pieces were basically thrown out the window. We've still been doing a bunch of post on footage we have shot and are managing to do some "social distancing" shoots where I set-up lights, mic, and actors arrive in costume, hit their marks, and say their dialogue. It's weird, man... but it's how we have to do it. It's definitely not how imagined making this movie, but such is life. As for SOV Horror connection, nah. I love Tony and what he's doing is really cool... but I'm way too busy with WNUF, work, and other creative projects to toss anything their way right now. Riot :5. Keeping busy is key right now. How's the pandemic world treating you in general, if it caused you to stall on projects and life in general slow down. Luckily I find for no budget backyard film makers it's been seeing some real inspiration and online sales lately so I hope something good is coming for you. Anything to report on "What Happens Next will Scare you?"

Chris: The best part of the pandemic for me is finishing "What Happens Next Will Scare You" which will be totally COMPLETE by end of August (literally just doing the title sequence now). It took forever, but finally the guy who was doing all our screen composites had no excuse not to finish when he was trapped inside his house for months. ;p So yeah... that'll be available somehow in the next few months.

Riot: Thats great news

6.Whats your favorite things about low budget filmmaking and what are the things that get under your skin so much that makes you doubt yourself sometimes? I'm sure any of the self produced folks can relate.

Chris:  I love how accessible it is (cameras and software are CHEAP now). I also love how much imagination you can inject into a project with the right levels of ambition and enthusiasm. When you're too afraid to fail, that's the best. As I got older and made more movies, you have the pressure of expectations... which actually ruins a lot of the fun, but I'm still trying to best to make cool, weird shit that *I* would love and hope there's legions of creeps like me that will welcome these bizarre pieces of storytelling into their homes. As for what gets under my skin... hmmm... I've always distrusted folks who care more about gear and budgets than story. That's way bogus. Furthermore, I think fan culture has gotten a little toxic over the best decade and tape trading has gotten stupid expensive / unfunny. But fuck those dudes. They won't stop me from having a good time and making weird shit. ;p Riot: I love my cheesy vhs tapes but you are so right the tape trader community takes things way too seriously , I just cant anymore myself. 

Thanks for joining us for 6 silly questions with Riot (that's me) and may this Halloween be epic and future projects be awesome.

Chris:  Thank YOU, dude! It was great talking with ya and hit me up anytime. xoxo

Behind the Scenes of Call Girl of Cthulhu

[ramajmedia]

It: 10 Characters Who Are Way Creepier Than Pennywise

The world is in no shortage of scary things. Yet not everyone shares the same fears. Death is a common source of panic for the average person. Then there are those who flinch at spiders or at the idea of public speaking. No matter what leaves you scared witless, know you're not alone.

RELATED: The Best Performances In Stephen King Adaptions, Ranked

With his 1986 novel It, Stephen King changed how we forever view clowns. His Pennywise character made people phobic of these colorful performers. But is Pennywise the creepiest character there is? Possibly so. But for argument's sake, here are ten other characters who are way creepier than Pennywise.

10 Mitsuko in Dark Water

Pennywise terrorized children in It, but in Dark Water, a divorced mother does not realize she's been marked by a child's ghost. It all starts when Yoshimi and her daughter Ikuko find a stray child's bag on the premises. However, there are no other kids living in the apartment building. As Yoshimi's mind unravels, the restless child spirit Mitsuko latches herself onto the struggling mother.

Hideo Nakata captivated the world with Ring; he then brought horror even closer to home with Dark Water. Although Mitsuko is a vengeful onryō type ghost, she is sympathetic. Doesn't make her any less frightful.

9 The Creature in Under the Bed

In Steven C. Miller's little-known horror movie Under the Bed, a boy is reunited with his older teenage brother. The reason for his two-year absence is he nearly burned down their house. Now, the father has remarried, and his wife wants to meet her other stepson. Sharing one room, the brothers must confront their childhood fear. From beneath the beds, an unspeakable evil bides its time until nightfall.

Director Miller uses a nightmare-fueled monster to convey adolescent dread at its purest. The creature in the film is a perfect representation of what we once thought lurked under our beds.

8 The Intruder in The Entity

An unseen intruder targets a single mother in the 1982 paranormal thriller The Entity. She is violated again and again, but there are no physical signs her attacker exists. Because of the woman's past trauma, her therapist believes she is only imagining all of this. Yet after meeting two paranormal researchers, the woman learns her invisible assaulter is actually a ghost.

The Entity is alarming for several reasons. The movie not only communicates a universal fear of being taken without one's consent, but it also shows how victims are not readily believed. The ghost's invisibility only makes the threat even more frightening.

RELATED: It Characters Sorted Into Their Hogwarts Houses

7 Pipes in Ghostwatch

In 1992, BBC1 aired one of the most controversial programs in the nation's history of television. Ghostwatch originally premiered on Halloween night as a real event as opposed to something scripted. In the special, a haunted house in Enfield, London is visited by a field reporter. Meanwhile, the host and a parapsychologist watch remotely from a TV studio. It eventually becomes obvious there really is something eerie happening inside the house.

The Conjuring 2 is based on the same Enfield account as Ghostwatch, but the latter leaves so much more to the imagination. And that's where things get truly terrifying.

6 The Oil Slick in Creepshow 2

In Creepshow 2's segment "The Raft", four college students visit an isolated, empty lake. Or they so think it's empty. As they rest on a swim raft in the middle of the lake, the group becomes prey to a sentient mass of black ooze. The creature eats anything — or anyone — it can snare. And one by one, the characters are picked off by the living oil slick.

Stephen King's story will make you scared of swimming in any lake. It's a tale with no explanation or background. It just exists in a bubble where no one can hear you scream.

5 Alice in Lake Mungo

In the Australian horror mockumentary Lake Mungo, an average family has a less than average problem. Following their daughter Alice's death, the family thinks they are being haunted. By Alice. The fictional filmmakers struggle to understand what is happening here. Is Alice really still with them? Or is this simply a hoax to achieve fifteen minutes worth of fame? It very well seems like the case has been resolved, but viewers are left doubtful.

Alice rattles us not because she's wreaking havoc on the living. It's the notion she's still alive — watching her family and friends — that leaves us white-knuckled.

RELATED: It Chapter 2: 5 Things From The Book We Hope They Include (And 5 We Hope They Don't)

4 The Scarecrows in Scarecrows

In Scarecrows, a gang of thieves steals three million dollars from a military base. During their escape to Mexico via a stolen cargo plane, one of the robbers double-crosses the others and bails. The plane lands in what turns out to be a haunted field inhabited by living scarecrows. These sinister creatures appear harmless at first, but that's certainly not the case when they come alive and attack the interlopers.

The film's namesakes are collectively ferocious, enigmatic demons whose only goal is to maim. There's no appeal to them as they have no shred of humanity much less a soul.

3 Zelda Goldman in Pet Sematary

The character Rachel in Stephen King's novel Pet Sematary once had a sister named Zelda Goldman. Zelda was stricken with a severe case of spinal meningitis, and young Rachel frequently cared for her while their parents were away. Seeing her sister then die under her watch understandably traumatized Rachel.

In the first film adaptation of Pet Sematary, director Mary Lambert brought Zelda to life in the most unforgettable way. Actor Andrew Hubastek's physicality and performance are why the stricken Zelda stays with viewers today. The sight of ghastly and gaunt Zelda also ignites our natural aversion to inescapable, real-world maladies.

RELATED: 10 Deadliest Horror Movie Monsters, Ranked

2 The Entity in It Follows

In It Follows, college student Jay goes on a date with a guy named Noah. After they have sex, Jay is stalked by a malevolent entity at every turn. Said entity can take the form of anyone, and no one other than Jay can see it. It won't stop until Jay is dead, or she passes the curse on to someone else. However, she's not willing to do that. Not yet at least. So, she searches for a way to kill the entity instead.

It Follows's antagonist brilliantly draws on our fear of the unknown without over-explaining its own origin.

1 The Thing in The Thing

American researchers at a base camp in Antarctica are under attack by a hostile alien lifeform. The parasitic creature can assimilate as well as imitate any living organism. It soon becomes clear that the being is among them, hiding in plain sight.

The titular creature in The Thing is similar to Pennywise largely because they're aliens who can essentially glamour themselves. Beyond that, they have different M.O.'s. Pennywise eats children to sustain itself; the Thing's goal is self-preservation. Its capacity to copy us to a T is unnerving. What's worse is The Thing's potentiality to do bigger, more awful things.

NEXT: 10 Creepiest Movie And TV Clowns

source https://screenrant.com/it-creepier-characters/

[killthenaughtyboy]

21 Questions

Tagged by: @themouthking <3

Nickname: Never had one. 

Zodiac: Taurus

Height: 5’2” 

Last movie I saw: Night of the Demons 

Last thing I Googled: Where to find Uyghur restaurants in Los Angeles.

Favorite musician: Ok, impossible to say. Portishead, John Darnielle/The Mountain Goats, Thom Yorke, Jonsi/Sigur Ros, Hozier

Song stuck in my head: Oh, Steady by Nicholas Megalis

Other blogs: my main @thisiscyrene, @championoftheshunt my horror side blog, @tokyoandbeyond side blog for Japan travel stuff I stopped updating like 4 Japan trips ago

Do I get asks? Pretty rarely. 

Following: 870 (I’ve had my main tumblr for a really long time, most of these are inactive)

Followers: 614

Amount of sleep: Depends on night of the week/what point in the semester we’re in. Between 5-7 hours, typically. 

Lucky number: Don’t have

What I’m wearing: Black joggers and a Japanese Creepshow 2 shirt from Rucking Fotten

Dream job: Any job in my field honestly. Field archaeologist or site/dig supervisor (imagine!!!), museum exhibit curator, ceramics conservationist, archivist.

Dream trip: LOTS. Egypt, Turkey, Greece, tour of archaeological sites in Spain/Italy/France/anywhere actually, Patagonia. I want to go anywhere I’ve never been before.

Favorite food: Pho, Lebanese mezze foods, Japanese curry

Play any instruments? I have failed at learning: acoustic guitar, clarinet, flute

Languages: English. Currently learning and am extremely horrible at Attic Greek, Latin, and modern French.  Took Japanese in college for about 4 years, presently forgetting it at an alarming rate.

Favorite song: This is even harder than favorite musician! Some eternal favorites: Brennisteinn by Sigur Ros, Mysterions by Portishead, Cody by Mogwai, 2+2=5 by Radiohead

Random fact: One of my life goals is to have full wall shelves of horror tapes like an old video rental place. So far here’s my baby collection made mostly of thrift shop and swap meet finds:

Tagging: @mythical-michelle, @noctomythiclaw, @jacularmetteld, @kermitthefrogapparentlyrunsablog, @mythicaliz

[therealmrpositive]

Macabre Month 5 Part I: Creepshow 2 (1987)

In today's review, I kick off the spooky month with (count 'em) three tall tales of terror. As I attempt a #positive review of the 1987 horror anthology Creepshow 2 #JoeHill #TomAtkins #TomSavini #LoisChiles #GeorgeKennedy #DorothyLamour

Horror anthologies have been a beloved staple for any fans of the genre, a chance for some classic chillers, in a condensed form, perfect for letting the imagination flow. In 1987, Tom Savini, Stephen King, and George Romero, three names that even the most passing fan of horror would recognise and revere, combined the efforts to tell three more compact collections of spooky goings-on, in…

[sanyu-thewitch05]

I posted 2,527 times in 2021

184 posts created (7%)

2343 posts reblogged (93%)

For every post I created, I reblogged 12.7 posts.

I added 140 tags in 2021

#asexual - 23 posts

#ace - 22 posts

#fate the winx saga - 13 posts

#youtube - 13 posts

#winx club - 12 posts

#fate: the winx saga - 12 posts

#asexuality - 12 posts

#plaggandadrienbondingisthebest - 12 posts

#plaggandadrienbondingisthebest get out of tumblr - 11 posts

#webtoon - 10 posts

Longest Tag: 134 characters

#i usually don’t really care about what hair styles people use considering i’m still a teenager and i’m still trying to make it in life

My Top Posts in 2021

#5

Could you imagine Winx club but, it was Studio Ghibli style. An amazing soundtrack along with the transformation songs and outfits. More moments that make you cry or make you feel nostalgic. Moments that make you so emotional you have butterflies in your stomach.

This is what I wished the live action would be. Studio ghibli but in real life. A show that could make you feel every type of emotion rather than only angry, disgust, and bitterness.

130 notes • Posted 2021-01-04 01:12:57 GMT

#4

Why are you running?!

Why are you running?!

134 notes • Posted 2021-04-11 01:38:28 GMT

#3

Howl’s Moving Castle Headcanons

Howl is a total fashion diva

Literally gets upset and breaks down if even the slightest thing off.

Will not accept mix matched socks

Even makes Calcifer look fashionable even though he’s a fire demon

“You’re the wrong shade of blue! You’ll clash with the stove!” Howl freaking out when Calcifer got put into their new stove.

Sophie makes Howl get rid of all the spiders after almost swallowing one in her sleep

Sophie put labels on all the potions she reorganized to make sure Howl doesn’t dye his hair again.

Howl takes Sophie to Wales to play rugby

Howl teaches his kids how to accessorize at the age of 2

“Howl, why is Morgan crawling out of his room with a purse and sunglasses?”

“he’s cute, right.”

“Yeah..he is.”

Howl is 100% not on diaper change duty

It will always be Sophie if she’s at home

If Sophie isn’t home, then Michael will do it

If Michael isn’t there then Howl will change his babies diapers with magic so he doesn’t have to touch poop

Calcifer still gets the frying pan treatment

Howl uses flowers from his study to give to Sophie

The witch of the waste is in a good retirement home

Playing checkers and knitting sweaters for Sophie’s and Howls kids

Howl is totally the type of guy to shop at all organic stores like Whole Foods

Sophie shops at the local market and the normal grocery store

Howl tries to give Sophie a face mask treatment while she’s asleep

“Howl, what are you doing?”

“Exfoliating your skin and getting rid of your dry skin.”

“Why?”

“Beauty takes work. Not like you weren’t already beautiful. But you’ll be a radiant star after this!”

“Ok sure. Just make sure you don’t eat me.”

145 notes • Posted 2021-05-23 16:33:07 GMT

#2

It’s honestly disgusting the way Shannon’s( Creepshow Art) friends are acting on social media towards Emily. The commentary community in general is just as silent as space itself. But Bowblax, Repzion, Augie, and Nicholas Deorio are frankly acting revolting. Especially Nicholas Deorio, who made fun of Emily and what was happening to her on John Peanuts livestreams. Also, for some reason, the common denominator of not watching either the first or last 30 minutes of Emily’s video is happening. All in all the commentary community better get their act together. Ready to Glare made a reasonable video about this after taking the full time she needed to process this situation. In all honesty, it sounds to me Shannon just treats her friends like the most worthless piece of dirt in the world. Yet somehow expects them to defend her whenever trouble comes her way.

Edit: As of 9:39 pm New York time, I checked Creepshow Arts community post on YouTube and she just incriminated herself.

See the full post

170 notes • Posted 2021-06-14 23:54:42 GMT

#1

So I got bored and played around with the ace and demisexual flag and the moon.

376 notes • Posted 2021-08-24 23:22:26 GMT

Get your Tumblr 2021 Year in Review →

[nedflix-n-chill]

31 Days of Halloween #26 Tales From The Quadead Zone This movie is a holy grail for VHS collectors. Apparently online auctions have sold this VHS for over 2 grand. Which is insane because if you actually watch Tales from the Quadead Zone you'd realize that this movie looks like it didn't even cost 2 grand to make (I watched a moderately priced dvd). Chester Novell Turner, the writer/director/enfant terrible behind Black Devil Doll from Hell is back with some more SOV madness. Now while I joke about the budget (or lack thereof) any die hard of the SOV genre knows that budget doesn't isn't of any actual concern.  Neither is acting, script, cinematography, set design... yadda yadda just imagine the full list of credits at the end of any studio movie. The shit that matters to SOV fans are ingenuity, gore (mind you not the quality but usually quantity and this can be substituted with absurdity or vulgarity), and maybe the most important is passion. Chester Novell Turner certainly isn't lacking in passion even if unfortunately it just manages to miss the mark in the other two areas. This follow up never manages to reach the insane heights achieved with Black Devil Doll from Hell though there is something admirable  about this EC comics/Creepshow inspired anthology, just listen to that incredibly silly theme song which feels like it's trying way too hard to jam as many spooky words into a single line as possible. Even for short anthology segments the stories here feel lacking, the first barely constitutes an idea, maybe it could have been a viral Vine... uhmm Snapchat... what's the hot short video social media thing now? Tik Tok? Yeah that, i'm old, i'm just trying to say it's like 3 seconds worth of an ok idea. The second one has a killer clown so thumbs up I guess. The third segment which is also the wrap around is the most fleshed out and involves a mom reading stories to her ghost child. It's really just ok, definitely lacks the punch of Black Devil Doll from Hell, though some might enjoy the change of pace, this has 100% less puppet rape. Regardless of my feelings on this it's a shame Chester Novell Turner never got the chance to do a proper follow up. https://www.instagram.com/p/CVgPlt1Fv-5/?utm_medium=tumblr

[aion-rsa]

Creepshow: Greg Nicotero Unpacks the Skeletons in His Closet

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For more than 35 years, Greg Nicotero has not only played in a lot of sandboxes within the horror genre, he built the toys that go inside. When he talks about the work of John Carpenter, Don Coscarelli, Sam Raimi, and George Romero, he’s not doing so only as a fan, but as a colleague. As a special makeup effects artist who evolved into a director and executive producer he doesn’t only get to tell the stories he wants to, he can pay homage to the films and filmmakers he admires.

Though that admiration has been on display for years through his work as a director and EP on The Walking Dead — for which he’s still in the process of shooting the eleventh, and final, season — Nicotero seems to be having a grand time crafting love letters to horror as showrunner on Creepshow, the anthology series on the Shudder platform in its third season.

In our recent video interview with him, Nicotero describes Creepshow season 2 stories “Public Television of the Dead,” “Model Kid,” and “Night of the Living Late Show” as very personal because each spoke to a different aspect of his life.

“Whether it was my collaboration with Sam Raimi, my love for monster models, or the game I used to play with the guys in the shop: If you could go back in time and be in any movie, what would it be?”

But the story “Skeletons in the Closet,” in the latest episode of Creepshow has it “all in there,” and might be the peak of Nicotero’s nerd-out. Directed by Nicotero, with a story by him and John Esposito, it is a tale about an obsessive movie prop collector who takes things a bit far by stealing a screen-used skeleton. 

Between the endless stream of movie quotes, the collector’s memorabilia (most of which is the real deal) to a re-creation of the Psycho shower scene and a Ray Harryhausen skeleton fight from The 7th Voyage of Sinbad, this installment of Creepshow is an Easter egg feast for horror fans.

In the following excerpt from our interview, Nicotero breaks down the Creepshow story, and in the accompanying video, we likewise discuss the John Carpenter homage (and practical monster effects) in the “Queen Bee” story, as well as his working relationship with Joe Hill, and the relevance of social commentary within horror.

On the origins of “Skeletons in the Closet”

“‘Skeletons’” came about because it’s based pretty much on a true story,” Nicotero says. “After Dawn of the Dead was filmed, there was a skeleton used in the movie found in a costume shop in Pittsburgh. They called the coroner, and he was like, ‘This is a real skeleton,’ and they gave it a burial. That all really happened. I was always fascinated with the idea you could get, at one point, real skeletons. Where did they come from? Whose skeleton was it? Did some guy go out and kill somebody, and use their skeleton for a movie? No. My first job on Day of the Dead when I got hired by Tom Savini was to call a medical supply place and order skeletons. They came from India or somewhere.”

The real movie props on display

“Most of the stuff in that museum is stuff from my actual collection, up to and including my favorite joke, which I am probably the only who will laugh at it: The decapitated head of David Warner from The Omen,” Nicotero says. “While we were writing that, that head went up for auction, and I won. I actually bought it. We have it and restored it. That was the first movie decapitation I remember seeing that blew me away.”

The Omen isn’t the only prop on display, with a photo of the mysterious sphere from Phantasm also making an appearance.

“I called Don Coscarelli [and] said I was doing a Phantasm homage and wanted permission,” he says. “I wanted him to know we were giving this nod to him. He was super down for it.”

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

On that skeleton fight

“[I had] a Super 8 The 7th Voyage of Sinbad skeleton fight that I probably played forwards, backwards, sideways, upside down a hundred thousand times,” Nicotero says. “I really wanted to do the ultimate homage to Ray Harryhausen. We ended up not doing those stop motion, which I would have preferred. There’s just so many shots that I don’t think we would have been able to do it in the time frame. But the VFX company did an amazing job. I used the same framing and same shots from Jason and the Argonauts and 7th Voyage because I wanted it to feel like a Ray Harryhausen sequence.”

The significance of filming the Psycho shower scene

Nicotero describes recreating the Psycho shower scene as “one of the most unique experiences” of his entire career. 

“You get to a point where you have to deconstruct every shot, and wonder why [Hitchcock] did this, and what piece of equipment he needed to do it,” he says. “The most interesting thing was being in there while we were shooting it, and seeing the red blood against the white tile, and realizing how shocking…to see how gory it was,” he says. 

“If that movie had been shot in color, that scene would have been much more shocking – which is hard to imagine. I really loved deconstructing that, and looking at every single frame. There was only one shot we didn’t end up doing out of the entire sequence. There was an overhead shot looking down where we saw Marion in the shower, and Norman from the top. We weren’t able to do it just because we didn’t have time. I shot that whole scene in three hours.”

The post Creepshow: Greg Nicotero Unpacks the Skeletons in His Closet appeared first on Den of Geek.

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