#oz from the movie star dimension

[personinthepalace]

Oz is from a world exactly like ours. Except everyone there is a movie star. - The Other Ozzie | Odd Squad UK (2024)

[tubapun]

I basically mean any episode where there's a set of equivalent kids that aren't necessarily the kids we know and are out of the main continuity (Trilogy of terror only counts cause they're scary stories)

[taiblogcomics]

We're Off to See the Wizard

Hey there, disqualifications. All right, I'm on the final thing in our stack! And we're gonna end the same way we started: with a FiM alt universe fic.

Here's the cover:

Yeah, remember way back when we did "Little Fillies" #1? And I was wondering if they'd do other Classics Reimagined titles? Well, here's one for you! And at least this time, I'm roughly familiar with The Wizard of Oz. Like, I've never read the original books, but I've at least seen the 1939 film a couple times. I know the basic plot from parody and reference and pop culture. I know enough to know the ruby slippers are movie only, and they were silver in the book! Anyways, a pretty nice cover for this. Same artstyle as the "Little Fillies" story as well. This one might grab a few more eyes, at least~

I think we'll do the same thing I did in the Little Fillies review, where I name the character as the original work, then parenthetically refer to the MLP character playing them. So obviously, our depressed farmgirl is Dorothy Gale (Applejack). She lives with Uncle Henry (Big Macintosh) and Auntie Em (initially Rarity, but when she's way into playing Big Mac's wife, they swap her for Granny Smith. They also change the role from wife to mother). While they're making changes, Dorothy demands to be switched into overalls. So much for the iconic gingham~

So, before long, a tornado comes a-spinnin' into the story. Auntie Em! It's a twister! Starring Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton! She chases her dog, Toto (Winona), into the bedroom. This keeps her from enterting the storm cellar instead. And she's gonna wish she'd been in there, because the tornado doesn't just destroy the house, it lifts the whole thing spinning and spinning into another dimension! One with brighter colours! The main comic so far has been in muted, sepia-like colours (not outright monochrome), but springs to "full" colour at this point.

When everything's stopped spinning, Dorothy (just assume this is followed by "and Toto" every time, unless I specify) takes a peek out into this wide new world. She's greeted, not by munchkins, but by Breezies, which is one of the only times they've ever appeared in comics. They're super-enthused to meet a new princess, Dorothy having crushed the previous one. Dorothy tells them that both these facts are wrong, only to be swiftly corrected with the shot of Nightmare Moon's legs sticking out from under the house, silver horseshoes in the air.

Who should enter now but the Good Princess of the North (Celestia). Dorothy objects to the lazy find-replace of "witch" for "princess", but Glinda or Celestia or whoever plows on ahead anyway. She introduces the concepts of one princess per cardinal direction, two good and two wicked, and the Unicorn of Odd (title drop!) who might be even more powerful. Dorothy is about to make a feminist comment, but is interrupted by Nightmare Moon's dissolving. The silver horseshoes are now relinquished, and Celestia forces them on Dorothy to keep the plot moving.

This version does mention the Deadly Desert surrounding the Land of Odd on all sides, which is why she can't immediately go home to Kansas. It's a bit distressing, but Celestia suggests heading east to the Emerald City where the Unicorn lives. And of course, the easiest way to get there? Follow the yellow brick road, of course. The Breezies agree to accompany her to the edge of their territory, and to Dorothy's relief, only the book is in the public domain. Thus, they don't have the rights to use any of the songs~

Finally, just as Dorothy is beginning to tire of the fawning reverence of the Breezies, they reach the end of their lands and part ways. They soon come all up ons a cornfield, and Toto begins to bark. Dorothy's worried for a minute, but it turns out to be just a scarecrow. To her shock, though, the Scarecrow (Pinkie Pie) begins to talk. She's very glad to have somepony new to talk to, since it's all been birds before now. She's just terrible at scaring the crows, to her utter shame. She's just too good at making friends! See how she's made a new one just today~!

Dorothy uses her farm-found applebucking skills to knock the Scarecrow off her perch, freeing the straw-stuffed mare to move around and travel. And travel she does! She decides to accompany Dorothy on her journey, in the hopes of getting a brain from the Unicorn. She's happy enough with a head stuffed with straw, but what she really wants is to plan parties. Can't do that without a brain! And the comic ends as the pair set off, with Scarecrow also needing to be reminded they don't have the rights to the songs. But it's a comic book, so they won't be able to tell if she hums it instead~

Well, this seems like a lot of fun so far. Let's be honest, The Wizard of Oz is a lot more of an exciting and interesting story than Little Women. I'm sorry, but it's true. It'll appeal to your demographic a lot more, too. The roles seem pretty tailor-made for this, and Applejack is a natural snarker. So the asides and fourth wall breaks (there's a whole page of Celestia and Luna I left out to keep up the flow and to allow you to find the jokes on your own as you read) fit more naturally here. They got better at it here, with "Little Fillies" being their testing ground. I look forward to more of this, but alas, this is the only issue I have so far! Just like last time, we'll have to wait until I get a new shipment to finish the series~

Next week, though... Well, I have a few ideas I wanna explore. They'll tide us over in the meantime~

[ultimate-blorbo-bracket]

Here will be all of the returning characters from the previous tournaments!

Here's the link to the character submissions if you'd like to add more!

The First Tournament

Vash the Stampede - Trigun

Miles “Tails” Prower - Sonic the Hedgehog

Percy Jackson - Percy Jackson series

Oz - Monster Prom

Max - Sam and Max

Happy Chaos - Guilty Gear

Wheatly - Portal 2

Amity Blight - The Owl House

Agent 3 - Splatoon

Riku - Kingdom Hearts

Will Graham - Hannibal

Jigglypuff - Pokemon

Rosencrantz - Rosencrantz And Gildenstern Are Dead

Terra - Kingdom Hearts

Diamond - Pokemon Diamond & Pearl

Kairi - Kingdom Hearts

Wise Elder Vex - Yonderland

MK - Lego Monkie Kid

Vector the Crocodile - Sonic the Hedgehog

Link - Legend of Zelda

Nicelander Gene - Wreck-It Ralph

Gretchen Wieners - Mean Girls

Wes - One Last Stop

N - Pokemon Black & White

Big Man - Splatoon

(the rest are under the cut!)

Aziraphale - Good Omens

Spock - Star Trek

Hawkeye Pierce - MASH

Isabelle - Animal Crossing

Plagg - Miraculous Ladybug

Glory - Wings of Fire

Darcy - Pride and Prejudice

Snatch - A Hat In Time

Virgil - Sanders Sides

Makoto Yuki - Persona 3

Aled Last - Radio Silence

Sho Minamimoto - The World Ends With You

Rose Quartz - Steven Universe

Pico - Pico’s School

Bandana Waddle Dee - Kirby series

Sora - Kingdom Hearts

Alfred - Fire Emblem Engage

Kagami Tsurugi - Miraculous Ladybug

Morpheus - The Sandman

Odo - Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

Alfur Aldric - Hilda

Tintin - Adventures of Tintin

Humphrey Bone - Ghosts

Unikitty - The Lego Movie

Wu Zetian - Iron Widow

Adrien Agreste - Miraculous Ladybug

Razputin Aquato - Psychonauts

Callie - Splatoon

Volo - Pokemon: Legends Arceus

Shadow the Hedgehog- Sonic the Hedgehog

Riolu - Pokemon

Data - Star Trek: The Next Generation

Albedo - Genshin Impact

Celeste - Animal Crossing

Gyro Gearloose - Ducktales

Elfilin - Kirby and the Forgotten Land

Raichu - Pokemon

Carden Greenbrier - The Cruel Prince

Yu Narukami - Persona 4

Van Fanel - Escaflowne

Fenton Cabrera - Ducktales

Horatio - Hamlet

Meta Knight - Kirby series

Pit - Kid Icarus

Peridot - Steven Universe

Anne - Anne With An E

Yusuke Kitagawa - Persona 5

Edric Blight - The Owl House

Zenitsu Agatsuma - Demon Slayer

Josuke Higashikata - Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure

Graystripe - Warrior Cats

Cheng Xiaoshi - Link Click

Hilda - Hilda

Roxas - Kingdom Hearts

Luz Noceda - The Owl House

Koraidon - Pokemon

Leiland - Dimension 20

The Second Tournament

Arven - Pokemon Scarlet & Violet

Revali - Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Tinkaton - Pokemon

Ravio - Legend of Zelda: Link Between Worlds

K_K - Deltarune

Bambi - Disney’s Bambi 

Luxu - Kingdom Hearts

Umbreon - Pokemon 

Aqua - Kingdom Hearts

Asriel Dreemur - Undertale

Launchpad McQuack - Ducktales

Midna - Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

Nikol - Xenoblade Chronicles 3

Sprig Plantar - Amphibia 

Blaze the Cat - Sonic the Hedgehog

Ballister Boldhearts - Nimona

Peppermint Vandelay - Hi-Fi RUSH

Oshawott - Pokemon 

Luke Sullivan - Street Fighter 5

Killua Zoldyck - Hunter X Hunter

Axel - Kingdom Hearts

Bede - Pokemon Sword & Shield 

Chandelure - Pokemon

Scaramouche - Genshin Impact

Simon Snow - Carry On 

Canti - FLCL

Anya Forger - Spy X Family 

Cloud Strife - Final Fantasy 7

Azymondias - The Dragon Prince

Swellow - Pokemon

Jibanyan - Yo-kai Watch

Marluxia - Kingdom Hearts

Iruma Suzuki - Welcome To Demon School Iruma-kun

Basil - Omori

Sypha Belnades - Castlevania

Surge the Tenrec - IDW Sonic

Ai - Puyo Puyo

Dillon - Dillon’s Rolling Western

Mew - Pokemon

Yoshi - Super Mario Bros

Rasmus - Omega Strikers

Daroach - Kirby series

Silvally - Pokemon

Silver - Pokemon Gold & Silver

Undyne - Undertale

Aerith Gainsborough - Final Fantasy 7

Bowser Jr - Super Mario Bros

The Professor - Puppet History

[princess-ibri]

Honestly, I love lore and I love hearing about your DisneyVerse so anything you are willing to share would be great

Awwww thank you so much! I love sharing it :)

Here, I'll share a little about the Multiverse of the DisneyVerse as I've formatted it xD

The best way to think of it is to picture the Realm of Magic as like, a sea full of water, with the magic being the water and each realm an islsnd floating in it. Each realm is it's own universe by right but it's also part of the larger Multiverse (very Woods Between the Worlds-y but with an Ocean)

(So when Sofia in Sofia the First is flying around seeing the Mystic Isles what she's really seeing is portals into different realms/things that can access those realms)

The two main worlds are Our World (the Disney-fied) verision at least) which basicaly follows our rules of reality and history but has some magic that leaks into it from the realms, and the Everrealm, where all of the Disney Princess movies that don't have an explicit Our World setting (ala Mulan, Hercules, PatF, BatB and Brave) take place.

There are places that link the two, where the borders between them have grown thin and things can leak through into one or the other. Maldonia and Arendelle and Belle's provence in France for example. They all sit on the border of both world (in a wibbly wobbly sort of way) and eventually may get pulled into the Everrealm proper as time passes on.

Then there are are several pocket dimensions that sort of float between those two major realms, brushing up against both of them. Places like Elvenhome, The Spirit World(s), the Plane of the Genies, Wonderland, Giantland, Oz, and Neverland to name a few.

Neverland particular is part of a fairly large sort of leak between Our World and the Everrealm that has resulted in the NeverSea, a nebulous place that houses the Neverland Archipelago, of which Neverland itself is the biggest island, and is directly linked to the portal of the Second Star to the Right. One can get to both Our World and the Everrealm from Neverland.

And besides these theres also a couple other worlds, such as the Anthropomorphic world that Robin Hood, Chicken Little and Zootopia all take place in, and the other Anthropomorphic world that Ducktales, GoofTroop and Mickey Mouse take place in xD

(Did a Mickey Mouse ancestor from said world get summoned into the Everrealm to serve as the apprentice to the Sorcerer Yen Sid? Maaayyybeeee?)

(And House of Mouse, Kingdoms Hearts and the Nightmare Before Christmas worlds are all their own delightful things that i'm not going to touch the fictional metaphysics of with a ten foot poll xD )

So yeah, there's some more DisneyVerse stuff for you, probably more then you wanted but what the heck xD

[atplblog]

Price: [price_with_discount] (as of [price_update_date] - Details) [ad_1] Come along backstage and peek inside the spectacular and sometimes scandalous world of musical theatre. See the world's most-loved musical productions come to life in this lavishly illustrated book!This show-stopping reference book includes:- A chronological structure that makes the book work as a history of musicals- Includes a 20-page reference section with key details on over 100 additional musicals- Neat timelines summarise the plot, characters, and songs for 20 top musicalsFrom The Wizard of Oz and The Sound of Music to Mamma Mia and Les Misérables, fall in love all over again with the songs, stories, characters, creators, and legendary stars from every era of musical theatre. Take a journey through the years and immerse yourself in the behind-the-scenes world of musical theatre! From the dance halls and vaudeville to the silver screen and sensational Broadway shows, this go-to musical guide has all the glitter and glamour of the West End. It's Showtime! Delve into profiles of successful creators such as Andrew Lloyd Webber and Lin-Manuel Miranda. Packed with profiles of musical icons and fun infographics that summarise the plot, characters and songs, Musicals: The Definitive Visual Guide is the perfect way to embrace your inner "theatre geek". With a foreword by Elaine Paige, this updated edition gives greater coverage on the smash-hit Hamilton and includes mention of new and popular stage and movie musicals. It's a must-have or the ultimate gift for musical theatre fans. Complete the Series:If you enjoyed this illustrated celebration of musicals, look out for more titles in this series from DK. Uncover the most mesmerising moments in ballet history in Ballet: The Definitive Illustrated Story. Publisher ‏ : ‎ DK; 2nd edition (4 February 2021) Language ‏ : ‎ English Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 360 pages ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0241437539 ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0241437537 Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1 kg 900 g Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 24 x 2.8 x 29 cm Country of Origin ‏ : ‎ United Kingdom [ad_2]

[froppy-butterflyfan2000]

Sequel of these two prompts/fanfics.

The Princess of Life sigh, looking at the cranes she painted on the wall, inside her room. She can make the cranes come back to life and fly away, escaping their cage, leaving her alone in this bird cage. While she isn’t alone as she have her subjects and her spells to keep her company, Lost Princess feels lonely. Her prince keep her accompany, easing her loneliness. It feels like they are two peas in the pods, just two peas in separate pods. The poor princess does not know that the preferring talking to her avatar over the real her.

All she desire is more companionship and performing activities together, such as hanging out at the beach, watching movies late at night, and not being calls The Princess of Life or Lost Princess. She wants to be calls by her actual name. The princess sulking soon got interrupted by a sensational feeling….

FWOOSH

FWOOSH

FWOOSH

She felt the doors to her world is being breached. The princess rush out of her room, and to the balcony as she watch from above, witnessing a shooting star. The shooting star explode, making three shooting stars, shocking the princess. They aren’t like any ordinary shooting stars she seen before. They’re not pass through the orbit. The three beautiful bright stars are actually falling. The first star is a purple light glowing from the moon. The second star is a flaming green phoenix. The third star is an orange, flickering with rune symbols for sparks.

“This is getting interesting, I never seen quite anything likes it. Perhaps, this is a phenomenon. If I discovers the three fallen stars, I be making history in the astronomy field!”

Excitement taken over her at last, she found something to do for the first time since forever! The princess goes back inside, preparing to find out what is going on by sending in a group of knights to be an expendition.

~~

Three groans of pain are heard coming from the crater from nowhere.

“Please tell me we are not in Oz?” Said Lamia, the first voice coming from the crater. The warrior rubbing her head. Crash landing isn’t suppose to be a part of the mission. She get up, and help her comrade and sister from another dimension, Rose get up by lending her a hand.

“This is suppose to take us to this dimension’s Mewni…..” said Umbros-Quinn, dusting her orange dress, then grimaced that it is ruined in the impact. “My dress…..”

To be honest, their clothes are ruined thanks to their crash landing. Luckily, there is a fashion designer among the group. Rose cast a dress repair spell, repairing Umbros-Quinn’s dress and Lamia’s outfits with a few modifications. Umbros-Quinn’s long shoulderless orange dress is now a puffy orange dress with two bows arranged at either side of her skirt, as well as an orange ribbon around her neck, which is tied in a bow in the back with two ceramic phoenix wings decor at the center of the bow. The front of her torso has a pale yellow segment surrounded by white frills with a white placket running down the center, decorated by five red orange buttons. She has two small straps that connect from the front to the back of the dress over her shoulders, and short, puffy sleeves with frilly ends. In between her shoulder blades and just below her neck, there is a heart-shaped hole in the back of her dress. She is still wearing a pair of long orange gloves, however it is now with pink trims around the wrists, white, thigh-high stockings with frills just below the knee, and red orange, heeled boots with ribbons tied behind them. Lamia looks at the clothes Rose modified. Lamia snaps her finger and have her symbiote alter it. There are two white markings with a pink hue, that are in a form of Phoenix wings, that are the “eyes” of her symbiote with a mandarin collar attached to it. The borders of her dress are covered with magenta frill that cover the opening of her red violet dress and the back. She wears white bicep length torned sleeves with black buttoned cuffs. Underneath, she wears a pleated red violet skirt with a phoenix insignia and a black corset with white detailing. She wears tall red violet boots with white triple moon symbols just underneath which match the black thigh-high socks. Rose finally repair her green dress, altering it to a yellow dotted mesh striped frilled neck bubble sleeve green dress. There is a phoenix design embroidered on her dress.

“Rose thanks you for fixing my dress. But… you do not have to do alternations,” Umbros-Quinn asked. Rose twirl her hair shyly, twisting her body back and forth. “Oh well, I was watching Madoka Magica for my research, and I thought I taken that as my advantage to put in my practice in designing clothes in a new perspective, that is not making cosplay. Plus, they can help you two move freely while wielding weapons in case we come across danger. If you don’t like the magical girl get-up, I can changes it back.”

Rose, focusing on the latest fashion line project as a part of the grand opening of Cloudy Design in Townsville from their other interdimensional sister, Hiraya and Janaya’s universe, to showcase as a part of Skylar and Diana’s expansion plan. The theme is magical girls because Townsville have superheroes and superheroines. Hiraya will be collaborating too for superheroines who wants to buy the products suitable for their line of work. Umbros-Quinn shook her head, after hearing her explanation, the reasonings is good as well. That way, she won’t have to change outfits whenever she change her wand into a weapon (melee, long-range, and short-range).

The three got out of the crater to looks at their surroundings. This is definitely in fact Mewni. But something feels off. Umbros-Quinn faces Rose.

“Rose, could you please scan the perimeter?” Umbros-Quinn requested.

“With pleasure,” said Rose, closing her eyes and nod. She inhaled a sharp breath and exhale, calming her mind, manifesting two yellow colored mana scanning grids. The two mana grids scan the perimeter, adventuring out in the new world. Her study and practice in mana manipulation is really paying off. Cassiopeia Butterfly really broaden her horizon in magic and this skill, mana manipulation. The yellow mana grids come back to her, completing the scan. It disappear, sending informations the grids gathered to her head for her and her interdimensional sisters. Rose open her eyes in astonishment, at the same time shock and in disbelief.

“What is it Rose?” Lamia asked.

Rose staring at her sisters. “Well, the area that we are in now, confirm to have magic. Since there is magic and the look exactly where we are in now. An images of Mewni to be exact,”

The two girls looks at Rose, thinking the impact must have mess with her head since the expression in her eyes is showing no lies.

“This may sound crazy. You would believe me. Mewni, the ones we are seeing now are images. The images are able to move because of the certain magic here. PhBe….. PhBe is projecting Mewni in a different form… As if-,”

Umbros-Quinn’s mind clicks, realizing what exactly is Rose is saying.

“We didn’t went to Mewni, we went inside a dream!!!! That came to life on it own!” Said Umbros-Quinn.

“This universe’s PhBe is dream energy magical element!!!” Said Lamia, blowing her own mind by this conclusion and both Rose and Umbros-Quinn’s conclusion. The three princesses decide to look around for clues to lead them to their next objective for their mission - They need to find the person responsible for the dream.

Cassiopeia Butterfly (mentioned) belongs to @storygirl000

Lamia Butterfly Lucitor, Diana Butterfly Wong (mentioned), and Skylar Butterfly Thomas (mentioned) belongs to dreamy_artz (Instagram)

Umbros-Quinn Diana Lucitor and The Princess of Life/Lost Princess belong to @princekaiofstars

Rose Butterfly Lucitor, Janaya A. Bloodworth-Thomason of the Cappyverse, and Hiraya B.C. Bloodworth-Thomason of the Cappyverse belong to me

“Sometimes, I wonder if this is real.” She stroked the beaded crane woven into her shawl. 

Her assistant perked up beside her. “Real, ma’am?”

“I wasn’t born into power.” She sighed. “I wasn’t even raised in this place at all. At times this feels like a dream, like I am going to wake one day to the life I had known before.”

[godzillareturn2014]

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness Review

So I actually saw Doctor Stranger in the Multiverse of Madness which is a sequel to Doctor Strange in IMAX last May and it was great. One of the most exciting and brutal films I had ever seen. It is also one of the darkest Marvel films ever. The story of this film took place after the events of WandaVision and Spider-Man No Way Home. It’s pretty much about Doctor Strange has to protect and save that teenage girl named America Chavez who is capable to traveling the Multiverse world from Scarlett Witch. I find the story of this film to be good even though it has few ridiculous moments. But it also had some intense moments, scary moments, funny moments, and unexpected moments. Also, there is a twist in this film. The special effects are excellent, the makes ups are great, the costume designs are very creative, and the environments are beautiful looking. The action scenes in this film are so brutal, jaw dropping, and surprisingly graphic. Benedict Cumberbatch as always did a magnificent job playing Doctor Strange. Doctor Strange of course is a superhero who used to be a neurosurgeon until his hands was broken by a terrible car accident and later becomes the Master of the Mystic Arts and in this film, has to protect America Chavez from any danger especially Scarlett Witch. Scarlett Witch played by Elizabeth Olsen in this film is a former Avenger who has gone rogue and abused her powers too much that she can harness chaos magic, engage in telepathy and telekinesis, and alter reality. She will stop at nothing to get America Chavez. America Chavez played by Xochitl Gomez is a teenage girl who has the ability to travel between dimensions in the Multiverse by punching open star-shaped doorways. I really like the chemistry between Doctor Strange and America Chavez. Returning from the first Doctor Strange movie are Wong played by Benedict Wong, Karl Mordo played by Chiwetel Ejiofor, Christine Palmer played by Rachel McAdams, and Nicodemus West by Michael Stuhlbarg. Wong is Doctor Strange's close mentor, ally, and friend who wanted to help out. Karl Mordo is a member of the Illuminati who is only in this film for a short time. Christine Palmer is an emergency surgeon who was a colleague and lover of Strange. Nicodemus West is a surgeon and former colleague of Strange. There are some surprising guest and cameo appearances in this film which I will not tell you who they are. Sam Raimi did splendid job directing this movie especially he made this superhero movie a lot more horror mix with action. This is the fifth time Sam Raimi direct a superhero movie since he did made Darkman and the Spider-Man trilogy starring Tobey Maguire. This is also Sam Raimi’s return to direct a movie since the last movie he directed is Oz The Great and Powerful. The music composed by Danny Elfman sounds very super and groundbreaking. Overall, this is a great Marvel movie. While not perfect, it is still a fun enjoyable superhero movie. Not as wonderfully amazing as Matt Reeve’s The Batman, but I like this movie the same way I like the first Doctor Strange film and Sonic the Hedgehog 2. If you’re a fun of Marvel, you will have a wonderful time with this movie. Oh and be sure to stay on the mid and after credits scene. I will not tell you what happened but it is very unexpected and also funny. So I give this movie 4 out of 5 nuclear bombs.            

[dustedmagazine]

Listed: Linda Smith

A pioneer of the home recording movement, Linda Smith has released music on labels such as Harriet, Shrimper, Slumberland, and her own Preference Recordings. Captured Tracks issued Till Another Time: 1988-1996 in March, which collects highlights from the period. Chris Liberato reviewed the compilation for Dusted, calling it “an enchanting introduction to Smith’s world of primitive and expansive indie pop songwriting.” This year also saw the arrival of Untitled 1-10 Plus 1, Smith’s first collection of new music since turning her focus to painting almost two decades ago. Here she shares a list of Ten Firsts (in no order).

First Job, 1973

Ticket and concessions seller at a General Cinema in the local mall. Just out of high school and without any idea of my next move, I thought it would be great to see movies for free whenever I wanted. The job only lasted 4 months, due to the somewhat sleazy management and low pay.

First Punk Idol — Patti Smith

Sitting around watching tv late one night in 1976, I came across a musical revelation unlike anything I’d experienced since I saw the Beatles on Ed Sullivan in 1964. Saturday Night Live’s featured guest was Patti Smith, and though I hadn’t tuned in to see her (in fact, I don't think I’d ever heard of her), my six year disinterest in rock music came to an end. Her performance was at once amusing, inspiring, and brought back memories of the 1960s while moving rock music into “another dimension.”

First Trip Overseas — Italy, 2004

(Linda Smith, 2004) I’d dreamed of going to Italy for quite some time when an opportunity to study art there and earn credits towards my late in life degree presented itself. The country did not disappoint but I wish I'd been able to do less artwork and more exploring.

First 4 Track — Fostex X15, 1986

On my lunch break from the advertising dept at J&R Music World in lower Manhattan, I spied this magic machine in the window of an electronics store on Church St. It was small, easy to use, and offered me a way to arrange and play everything on my songs without having to leave my apartment. At first I imagined I’d make demos for the band I was in but the act of recording quickly became an end in itself.

First Favorite Movie — The Wizard of Oz

Judy Garland was the first big film star I knew of, through yearly broadcasts of the film in black and white. “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” was the first song I’d heard that conveyed a sense of yearning for places beyond what you grow up knowing and living in.

First Apartment, 1981

Located on Maryland Ave. near 25th Street in Baltimore, MD and shared with one of my sisters, it provided freedom and a place to hang out with new city friends, playing records (“Juju” by Siouxsie and the Banshees being a favorite at the time) and eating carryout after having lived a bit too long in the suburbs.

First 45 I Bought — "Ticket to Ride" by The Beatles

I bought this in 1966 from a little variety store near where my grandparents lived. The opening guitar riff, along with the first line, “I think I'm gonna be sad…,” seemed to sum up everything I loved about the possibilities contained within a 3 minute pop song.

First Song I Wrote — “Pretty Part of Town”

The song is based on looking out of bus windows while riding through West Baltimore in the early 1980s. Here is a recording of my first band, The Symptoms, practicing it. With Nancy Sexton on bass and Peggy Bitzer on drums.

First Art Museum Visit — Baltimore Museum of Art, 3rd grade field trip

(Photo by Stephen Spartanasm) I had never seen paintings before except in books. The other kids giggled at Matisse’s Blue Nude while I felt as if a new world had been discovered. For the past 15 years I have worked there in the security dept, an art education in itself.

First Big City — NYC, on yet another school field trip, in high school

We must have come into town across the George Washington Bridge because I will never forget the awe I felt upon seeing skyscrapers for the first time. Much later I would jump at the chance to sublet a friend's apartment in order to live and play music there in a band called The Woods, with Peggy Bitzer, Brian Bendlin, and Steven Cheslik-De Myer.

[alovevigilante]

You ever go back to something in hopes that situation will have changed overtime even though it may not have changed inside you, and the shit hasn’t changed one iota, cause you haven’t? No? If not, you’re lucky. I just went searching illustrations on the internet, and it was great for awhile… but yes, inevitably I ran into some triggers that sent me years back into another miserable thought dimension. Rats… to feed the cat in me.

It’s time I made peace with this energy. It’s not a person, or people, or even past events or experiences that are affecting me. It’s how I felt and now currently feel, about myself, reliving those things. I end up choosing to review and revisit it all over again within myself. I’ll be sitting, half watching a movie like I always do, and the movie in my mind starts up, all the crap, and it’s much scarier than this bear trying to maul this red headed girl in this Disney animation, or not, I don’t know wth to be honest with you, cause once again, I’m only half watching… oh… the bear is her mom… never mind. (Say it like Gilda Radner’s Emily litella character on the old Saturday night live)

I think they may be from Scotland and to be completely honest, I don’t know exactly what they’re saying… in their defense, I am only half listening, and I can’t hear so well after years of ear neglect from blasting my music with my Walkman, and boom box, and blowing my speakers in my family’s cars and sound system in their houses, and in my car, and my sound system, and singing with bands didn’t help the little hairs in my ears meant to protect the ear drum, which my pal in my head John Bonham used to beat on regularly, and loudly too. OR my hearing loss could also be due to a basic, general disinterest in conversations or situations or occurrences depending on the topic, so, it’s probably not their fault.

There. I feel better now. Talking it out, helps. Man, I love music. I’m too old to go to a general admission concert, because this mama’s culo needs an assigned seat of its very own, and I’m not about to fight for a spot up front anymore, but I’m not beyond sneaking stealthy up front if there’s no one around who gives a hoot, cause I’m height challenged, and inevitably some very, very tall people like to stand in front of me, because I’m the size of an ant compared to them, and then I can’t see, cause they make a better opaque form than a transparent one, but also if I can break through the barrier of the wall of bodies and if I can befriend one of the bodyguard/bouncers that know damn well I didn’t pay no $4,700 for front row anything, I just like to look up the band’s schnozzes for awhile til I get bored of standing. Then I create ruckus in the stands with the people who may or may not be inebriated, or just balls out crazy.

One time a guy and I did high kicks together at a Poison concert. Well, I did them towards him, and he was facing the stage. I decided to make it a contest. Truth be told, I’m not sure he knew I was there in front of him challenging him, like that old man kept saying when he wanted mr. Huxtable to have a dance off with him in the Cosby show. That old guy threw down some sand in a box, and he was like, “challlll-onge!!!” He wanted to challenge him, but that’s how he said it, and incidentally, that’s how I always say it now too, so credit to that old guy, cause he was cool. But Heathcliff didn’t know how to tap like that old guy, but man, did he try.

Anyhoo, I was like that to the high kicker at the Poison concert, but he was way too interested in starring at Bret, and all his Michaels, they are the lead singer of the heavy metal band Poison, and high kicking to celebrate them all, Bret, and his Michaels and his vocals, and his Michael’s vocals, and to celebrate the band in general, to give a crap about me, let alone my dance challenge. I was really sore for awhile after that, not because the man high kicking basically ignored me, cause I was more than cool with that, but because I was high kicking for upwards of 20 minutes straight, and that sure can put a damper on your muscles the next day. But I recovered. (I’m pretty sure I already told myself this story online….) Ahhhhhh regardless, good times…

(Bret with all his Michaels)

Well, laughing always helps me smile, and writing does too. When I write, I can go anywhere and do anything, and I’m in control. I’m so glad I did. There are some things about my past I do miss… like having pals, and socializing. Much like a cat, which I started off like, I’ve become anti social, and pretty self sufficient due to past memories of hurt, and cryogenically freezing others in the times of those past hurts. I basically went into Willy wonka lock down and seclusion in my home over the past few years because of it all, and COVID didn’t help. I’m not exactly privy to how others feel about me, cause I’m not them, but I’ve felt like I’m viewed and judged, by some, but not all family, former peers, and the community at large in not always the best light. But I’m slowly choosing to put all of my judgement of myself, and others, and what I don’t know about cause who gives a rip in the long run cause it’s all just thoughts, down now, and become more of myself, as that’s a lot more…. well, like the me, that I want to be. ☺️💌

(the above pic isn’t me. He calls himself Dee snider, but it’s not. It’s D. Schneider, like the Schneider on the 70s show “one day at a time” with the adorable Valerie bertinelli, which means, “Bert intelligent” according to my autocorrect, so Frank Oz and Bert from Sesame Street will be happy to note the support, and the very cool and equally adorable mackenzie phillips…. Head… Screwdriver. I kid, Mackenzie. I finish people’s last names if they leave us hanging. So no offense meant. 💕🥸🙈🤷‍♀️☺️✌️🙌💕💕💕😉)

[personinthepalace]

Oz from the Movie Star Dimension - Odd Squad UK Compilation

[dweemeister]

The Daydreamer (1966)

By the 1960s, Christmas television specials were in vogue in the United States. Yet this recent phenomenon had yet to yield a true cultural touchstone. On December 6, 1964, the first Christmas special mainstay aired on NBC. Produced by a fledgling animation studio, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer put Rankin/Bass, named after co-founders Arthur Rankin, Jr. and Jules Bass, into the public consciousness. Rankin/Bass’ brand of stop-motion animation (“Animagic”) was mostly outsourced to Japanese studio MOM Productions in Tokyo, under the direction of Tadahito Mochinaga. With the windfall of Rudolph, Rankin/Bass and MOM Productions delved into the realm of feature theatrical films. This review concerns their second feature film, The Daydreamer – a stop motion animation/live-action hybrid based on Hans Christian Andersen’s stories. The Daydreamer has starpower in its cast that no Rankin/Bass production had yet matched. But as one might expect from a Rankin/Bass film, there are narrative flaws abound. The Daydreamer, episodic in nature and alternating between live-action and animation scenes, suffers due to the inconsistent quality of the handful of Hans Christian Andersen adaptations it has and the kitschy live-action acting.

The young Hans Christian Andersen (“Chris”; Paul O’Keefe) is the son of a cobbler (Jack Gilford). Papa Andersen often has to face the verbal tirades of frequent customer Mrs. Klopplebobbler (Margaret Hamilton; it is difficult not to think of Hamilton’s portrayal of the Wicked Witch here). His struggling business often means he cannot pay the gangling Pie Man (Ray Bolger; yet another Wizard of Oz star). To take him away from these troubles, Chris will let his imagine run wild while napping. If he can only just find the mythical Garden of Paradise, all these troubles might vanish. One evening, the Sandman (voiced by Cyril Ritchard) promises him to guide him there. Along the way, Chris is subject to dreams that may seem familiar to the viewer. These dreams shift away from live-action into the signature Rankin/Bass animation – adapting “The Little Mermaid”, “The Emperor’s New Clothes”*, “Thumbelina”, and “The Garden of Paradise”. Elements of “The Ugly Duckling” and “Little Claus and Big Claus” also appear.

Among the many voice actors during these animation sequences are Hayley Mills (The Little Mermaid); Burl Ives (Neptune – I have never heard Ives’ voice so devoid of jaunt before); Tallulah Bankhead (the sea witch); Terry-Thomas (the first tailor); Victor Borge (the second tailor); Ed Wynn (the Emperor); Patty Duke (Thumbelina); and Boris Karloff (the Rat).

The film’s adaptations of Andersen’s tales differ in that Andersen himself becomes a character in each of the stories. The Daydreamer approaches the stories as if the ideas are only just forming in the young Chris’ head, to be written and published when he is an adult. Within these dreams-someday-to-be-stories, Chris is largely a passive character. He takes instruction from the central figures of his future tales, never really asserting himself or asking basic questions about the misadventures he goes through. Chris acts as if lost in his own imagination – which fits the conceit of the film. So when he awakens into the real world, the film’s pacing slams the brakes. In the real world, everyone except Chris is a caricature, somehow less realistic than the individuals appearing in the daydreams. The transitions between animation and live-action will take the viewer out of the film because of the unceasing manic acting in the latter, as opposed to the charming puppetry of the former. As such, The Daydreamer’s weaknesses lie almost entirely with the live-action scenes – too consciously playing to the audience and over-the-top in their absurdity.

In an era of American animation defined by Disney on the screen and Hanna-Barbera on television, Rankin/Bass carves out its own niche in how it tells its stories. The meta humor and fourth wall breaking of Hanna-Barbera’s works (a legacy of the duo’s work at MGM) makes no appearances here. Disney’s clean-cut fairytale endings also do not apply. The Daydreamer’s adaptation of “The Little Mermaid” does not have the gruesome premise as Andersen’s original fairytale, but it retains the ending’s heartbreak. There appears to be no alterations to “The Emperor’s New Clothes” – which includes Chris, but he just feels superfluous to the plot and to the tale’s keen comedy. Each of the film’s segments bring Chris closer to the final animated sequence, “The Garden of Paradise”. The adaptation of that tale sanitizes its deathly overtures for a devil-like creature, but keeps the ambiguous, open-ended conclusion. By maintaining the original conclusion, “The Garden of Paradise” is a curious coda for The Daydreamer – a film that ends as abruptly as its several transitions, like a daydream.

The Daydreamer’s live-action sets benefit, however, due to the fact many of its scenes were shot at the 1964 New York World’s Fair. The World’s Fair pavilions used in this film mimic a feel of small-town, nineteenth century Europe more realistically than a Hollywood soundstage might. The production design for the animated dream sequences, too, are mesmerizing. Perhaps this is best exemplified in “The Little Mermaid”. There, the special effects work make it appear as if the whole sequence was shot underwater, rather than a room that contained blue lights streaming into Neptune’s palace. Where are the strings and wires suspending the puppets in mid-air while they “swim”? To the animators’ credit, there are none to be found. Neptune’s palace is one of the grander sets constructed for a Rankin/Bass production; its imposing walls and generous empty spaces reflect a sense of regal grandeur. That royal otherworldliness does not extend to “The Emperor’s New Clothes”, but many of the same production design decisions carry over. Rankin/Bass and MOM Productions are obviously working with more money and manpower for these animated scenes than in the likes of Rudolph or their many holiday television specials. The sense of scale and grandiosity seen here in The Daydreamer and Mad Monster Party? (1967) would rarely, if ever, be replicated for television. And it is also obvious that the filmmakers put the money into the animation and for paying headline-worthy actors, rather than for any writers able to string the animated and live-action halves together.

Seven songs comprise The Daydreamer’s musical soundtrack. Composed by Maury Laws and Jules Bass, most of the songs are forgettable once your viewing is done (including Robert Goulet singing the title song over the opening credits, despite the fact I admire Goulet’s voice). But there are notable exceptions. Sung by Hayley Mills at the end of “The Little Mermaid”, “Wishes and Teardrops” brings the segment to a worthy close. Her loved ignored, the Little Mermaid sings this lament – backed with percussion straight from a ‘60s love ballad and timeless swelling strings – for herself:

Wishes and teardrops Won’t make him love me. He’s gone and he’ll never return. Does he know how teardrops can burn, When they fall for a wish That can never come true?

In the film’s final third, “Luck to Sell” injects a jolt of energy sorely missing from many of the other live-action scenes. The song itself is simple and the singing just avoids being flat, but when paired with the energetic choreography from Paul O’Keefe and company, it elevates itself from the rest of the soundtrack (save “Wishes and Teardrops”).

Not often will a viewer encounter a film with two sets of opening credits. I’m not writing about films that have an overture that transition to opening credits (an entirely different approach that modern filmmakers should utilize more), but two sets of opening credits that list the names of the actors involved. For the first set of credits, caricaturist Al Hirschfeld (uncredited) was hired to draw caricatures of the various actors and actresses appearing in, or lending their voices to, The Daydreamer. The Daydreamer is the second of three films that Hirschfeld was involved in. The first, appearing as himself uncredited, was in Main Street to Broadway (1953); his third and final film was as an artistic consultant on the “Rhapsody in Blue” segment (which was influenced by his caricatures) in Fantasia 2000.

Rankin/Bass’ ventures into feature film animation peaked several months later with Mad Monster Party? After that and the unfortunate production of The Wacky World of Mother Goose (1967; a traditionally animated eyesore), Rankin/Bass almost completely dedicated itself to its animated television specials. The Daydreamer, distributed by the now-defunct Embassy Pictures and currently owned by Sony Pictures Television (the ownership of the rights to Rankin/Bass’ features are exasperatingly scattered), has not been widely seen when compared to Mad Monster Party?, let alone Rankin/Bass’ television specials. If one can find a serviceable print of The Daydreamer, the viewing experience will be a valuable glimpse into the studio’s collaboration with MOM Productions. A Rankin/Bass fan that has only known the studio through its television specials will see their work operating with higher production values; Rankin/Bass novices can experience a dimension of animated filmmaking too often considered an afterthought.

My rating: 6/10

^ Based on my personal imdb rating. Half-points are always rounded down. My interpretation of that ratings system can be found in the “Ratings system” page on my blog (as of July 1, 2020, tumblr is not permitting certain posts with links to appear on tag pages, so I cannot provide the URL).

For more of my reviews tagged “My Movie Odyssey”, check out the tag of the same name on my blog.

* “The Emperor’s New Clothes” was adapted twice by Rankin/Bass. The second adaptation is the heart of the television special The Enchanted World of Danny Kaye (1972), starring Danny Kaye. That adaptation of “The Emperor’s New Clothes” is distinct from the one that appears in The Daydreamer. The Danny Kaye special’s adaptation has a more developed storyline, completely different voice cast, and completely different soundtrack.

[aion-rsa]

The Best Horror Movies to Stream

https://ift.tt/36P7Are

Updated for October 2020

The world of streaming horror movies can be an overwhelming place.

Let’s say you’ve got your Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu and HBO Max subscriptions all set and ready. Now you want to get terrified with the best horror movies you can find in time for Halloween. But there are so many options! What’s a horror addict to do?

Here you’ll find the master list. That’s right, we’ve hand-selected only the absolute best and most terrifying horror movies available on all the major streaming services and combined them here for your streaming (or screaming) pleasure.

Be sure to let us know if you make it through all 31!

Apostle

Available on: Netflix

Apostle comes from acclaimed The Raid director Gareth Evans and it’s his take on the horror genre. Spoiler alert: it’s a good one.

Dan Stevens stars as Thomas Richardson, a British man in the early 1900s who must rescue his sister, Jennifer, from the clutches of a murderous cult. Thomas successfully infiltrates the cult led by the charismatic Malcom Howe (Michael Sheen) and begins to ingratiate himself with the strange folks obsessed with bloodletting. Thomas soon comes to find that the object of the cult’s religious fervor may be more real than he’d prefer.

Apostle is a wild, atmospheric, and very gory good time.

The Blackcoat’s Daughter

Available on: Netflix

Some kids dream about being left overnight or even a week at certain locations to play, like say a mall or a Chuck E. Cheese. One place that no one wants to be left alone in, however, is a Catholic boarding school.

That’s the situation that Rose (Lucy Boynton) and Kat (Kiernan Shipka) find themselves in in the atmospheric and creepy The Blackcoat’s Daughter. When Rose and Kat’s parents are unable to pick them up for winter break, the two are forced to spend the week at their dingy Catholic boarding school. If that weren’t bad enough, Rose fears that she may be pregnant…oh, and the nuns might all be Satanists.

Read more

Movies

A24 Horror Movies Ranked From Worst to Best

By David Crow and 3 others

Movies

Katharine Isabelle on How Ginger Snaps Explored the Horror of Womanhood

By Rosie Fletcher

The Blackcoat’s Daughter is an excellent debut directorial outing from Oz Perkins and another step on the right horror path for scream queens Shipka and Emma Roberts.

The Cabin in the Woods

Available on: Amazon Prime

A remote cabin in the woods is one of the most frequently occurring settings in all of horror. What better location for teenagers to be tormented by monsters, demons, or murderous hillbillies? Writer/Director Joss Whedon takes that tried and true setting and uses it as a jumping off points for one of the most successful metatextual horror movies in recent memory.

Like you would expect, The Cabin in the Woods features five college friends (all representing certain youthful archetypes, of course) renting a….well, a cabin in the woods. Soon things begin to go awry in a very traditional horror movie way. But then The Cabin in the Woods begins doling out some of the many tricks it has up its sleeve. This is a fascinating, very funny, and yet still creepy breakdown of horror tropes that any horror fan can enjoy.

The Changeling (1980)

Available on: Shudder

A classic haunted house ghost story that frequently makes horror best of lists The Changeling sees a bereaved composer move into a creepy mansion that’s been vacant for 12 years. Vacant that is, except for the spirit of a little boy who met an untimely death…

An unravelling mystery with a sense of intrigue and pathos that draws you into the narrative, all the way to the sad and disturbing final act revelation.

City of the Living Dead

Available on: Amazon Prime

Italian horror director Lucio Fulci kicked off his famous “Gates of Hell” trilogy with this gruesome, crude but surreal 1980 gorefest, in which a reporter (Christopher George) and a psychic (Catriona MacColl) struggle to stop those gates from opening and letting a horde of hungry undead into the world.

Read more

Movies

The Horror Movies That May Owe Their Existence To H.P. Lovecraft

By Don Kaye

Movies

How Relic Explores our Most Primal Fears

By Rosie Fletcher

Fulci loosely based the movie on the works of H.P. Lovecraft, vying for the latter’s brooding atmosphere while indulging in his own trademark splatter. The results are somewhat slapdash but a must-see for Italian horror fans. Followed by the much better The Beyond (1980) and House by the Cemetery (1981).

The Dead Zone

Available on: Amazon Prime

The Dead Zone strangely remains both one of Stephen King’s more underrated movie adaptations as well as one of director David Cronenberg’s more unsung efforts. Yet it ends up being among the best from both author and auteur, while also providing star Christopher Walken with one of his most moving, complex performances to date.

Read more

TV

Upcoming Stephen King Movies and TV Shows in Development

By Matthew Byrd and 6 others

Movies

Jason Blum Promises “Faithful” New Adaptation Of Stephen King’s Firestarter

By Don Kaye

Walken’s Johnny Smith awakens from a coma to find out he’s lost five years of his life but gained a frightening talent to touch people and see both their deepest secrets and their future. Whether to use that power to impact the world around him is the choice he must face in this bittersweet, eerie and heartfelt film, which found Cronenberg moving away from his trademark body horror for the first time.

Doctor Sleep

Available on: HBO Max

Let’s be up front about this: Doctor Sleep is not The Shining. For some that fact will make this sequel’s existence unforgivable. Yet there is a stoic beauty and creepy despair just waiting to be experienced by those willing to accept Doctor Sleep on its own terms.

Directed by one of the genre’s modern masters, Mike Flanagan, the movie had the unenviable task of combining one of King’s most disappointing texts with the opposing sensibilities of Stanley Kubrick’s singular The Shining adaptation.

Read more

Movies

Doctor Sleep: Inside the New Overlook Hotel

By John Saavedra

Movies

Doctor Sleep Ending Explained

By John Saavedra

And yet, the result is an effective thriller about lifelong regrets and trauma personified by the ghostly specters of the Overlook Hotel. But they’re far from the only horrors here. Rebecca Ferguson is absolutely chilling as the smiling villain Rose the Hat, and the scene where she and other literal energy vampires descend upon young Jacob Tremblay is the stuff of nightmares. Genuinely, it’s a scene you won’t forget, for better or worse….

The Evil Dead

Available on: Netflix

1981’s The Evil Dead is nothing less than one of the biggest success stories in horror movie history.

Written and directed on a shoestring budget by Sam Raimi, The Evil Dead uses traditional horror tropes to its great advantage, creating a scary, funny, and almost inconceivably bloody story about five college students who encounter a spot of bother in a cabin in the middle of the woods. That spot of bother includes the unwitting release of a legion of demons upon the world.

Read more

Movies

Evil Dead Movies: The Most Soul Sucking Moments

By David Crow

Movies

Living with the Cult Legacy of Evil Dead

By Hannah Bonner

The Evil Dead rightfully made stars of its creator and lead Bruce Campbell. It was also the jumping off point for a successful franchise that includes two sequels, a remake, a TV show, and more.

A Field in England

Available on: Amazon Prime

2013’s A Field in England presents compelling evidence that more horror movies should be shot in black and white.

Directed by British director Ben Wheatley, A Field in England is a kaleidoscope of trippy, cerebral horror. The film takes place in 1648, during the English Civil War. A group of soldiers is taken in by a kindly man, who is soon revealed to be an alchemist. The alchemist takes the soldiers to a vast field of mushrooms where they are subjected to a series of mind-altering, nightmarish visions.

A Field in England is aggressively weird, creative, and best of all clocks in at exactly 90 minutes.

Fright Night

Available on: Amazon Prime

Screenwriter-turned-director Tom Holland lets a jaded, smarmy vampire named Jerry Dandridge loose in suburbia and watches the blood spurt in this beloved ‘80s horror staple.

Chris Sarandon brings a nice combination of amusement and menace to the role of the bloodsucker, while Planet of the Apes veteran Roddy McDowall is endearing as a washed-up horror host recruited into a real-life horror show. Much of Fright Night is teen-oriented and somewhat dated, but it still works as a sort of precursor to later post-modern horror gems like Scream.

Green Room

Available on: Netflix

Green Room is a shockingly conventional horror movie despite not having all of the elements we traditionally associate with them. There are no monsters or the supernatural in Green Room.

Instead all monsters are replaced by vengeful neo-Nazis and the haunted house is replaced by a skinhead punk music club in the middle of nowhere in the Oregon woods. The band The Aint Rights, led by bassist Pat (Anton Yelchin) are locked in the green room of club after witnessing a murder and must fight their way out.

Hellraiser (1987)

Available on: Shudder

Directed by Clive Barker based on his novella The Hellbound Heart, Hellraiser is an infernal body horror featuring S&M demons who’ve found a way out of a dark dimension and want to take you back there.

Read more

Movies

Michael Myers vs Pinhead: The Hellraiser/Halloween Crossover That Never Was

By Jack Beresford

Movies

Ranking the Hellraiser Movies

By Jamie Andrew

This is the movie which introduced chief Cenobite Pinhead (played by Doug Bradley) – who would return for seven more Hellraiser sequels. But the first is of course, remains the edgiest and the best. Hellbound: Hellraiser II is also available.

Hereditary

Available on: Amazon Prime

Between Hereditary and The Haunting of Hill House 2018 was a great year for turning familial trauma into horror.

Written and directed by Ari Aster, Hereditary follows the Graham family as they deal with the death of their secretive grandmother. As Annie Graham (Toni Collette) comes to terms with the loss, she begins to realize that she may have inherited a mental illness from her late mother…or something worse.

Read more

Movies

Hereditary: The Real Story of King Paimon

By Tony Sokol

Movies

Hereditary Ending Explained

By David Crow

Hereditary is terrifying because it asks a deceptively simple but truly creepy question: what do we really inherit from our family?

The Hills Have Eyes (1977)

Available on: Shudder

Wes Craven’s 1977 cult classic sees an extended family become stranded in the desert when their trailer breaks down and they start to get picked off by cannibals living in the hills. It’s brutally violent but it also has things to say about the nature of violence, as the seemingly civilized Carter family turn feral. The film was remade in 2006 but the original is still the best.

Horror of Dracula

Available on: HBO Max

Replacing Bela Lugosi as Dracula was not easily done in 1958. It’s still not easily done now. Which makes the fact that Christopher Lee turned Bram Stoker’s vampire into his own screen legend in Horror of Dracula all the more remarkable. Filmed in vivid color by director Terence Fisher, Horror of Dracula brought gushing bright red to the movie vampire, which up until then had been mostly relegated to black and white shadows.

Read more

Movies

Bram Stoker’s Dracula and the Seduction of Old School Movie Magic

By David Crow

TV

BBC/Netflix Dracula’s Behind-the-Scenes Set Secrets

By Louisa Mellor

With its penchant for gore and heaving bosoms, Horror of Dracula set the template for what became Hammer Film Productions’ singular brand of horror iconography, but it’s also done rather tastefully the first time out here, not least of all because of Lee bring this aggressively cold-blooded version of Stoker’s monster to life. It’s all business with this guy.

Conversely, Abraham Van Helsing was never more dashing than when played by Peter Cushing in this movie. The film turned both into genre stars, and paved the way for a career of doing this dance time and again.

The House of the Devil

Available on: Amazon Prime

Indie horror auteur Ti West’s low-budget creepfest is a homage to 1980s horror yet plays it straight; he sets out to make a movie with the feel of genre films from that era without making self-aware in-jokes and references — and he mostly succeeds.

But The House of the Devil is also the definition of a “slow burn”: very little happens for much of the first hour (save a jolt here and there) and then the third act explodes into a paroxysm of murder, gore and Satanic horror. That makes the film feel a little off-balance, although in the end it all becomes quite unnerving.

House on Haunted Hill

Available on: Amazon Prime

What would you do for $10,000? How about surviving a night in a mansion haunted by murder victims and owned by a psychotic millionaire? Seems like a party trick until people actually start dying.

Vincent Price is the master and mastermind of a house that suddenly makes everyone homicidal—but the real pièce de résistance is what dances out of a vat of flesh-eating acid.

Some vintage horror never dies, and this 1959 classic is immortal.

Hush

Available on: Netflix

In his follow-up to the cult classic Oculus, Mike Flanagan makes one of the cleverer horror movies on this list. Hush is a thrilling game of cat-and-mouse with the typical nightmare of a home invasion occurring, yet it also turns conventions of that familiar terror on its head. For instance, the savvy angle about this movie is Kate Siegel (who co-wrote the movie with Flanagan) plays Maddie, a deaf and mute woman living in the woods alone. Like Audrey Hepburn’s blind woman from the progenitor of home invasion stories, Wait Until Dark (1967), Maddie is completely isolated when she is marked for death by a menacing monster in human flesh.

Further, like the masked villains of so many more generic home invasion movies (we’re looking square at you, Strangers), John Gallagher Jr.’s “Man” wears a mask as he sneaks into her house. However, the functions of this story are laid bare since we actually keep an eye on what the “Man” is doing at all times, and how he is getting or not getting into the house in any given scene. He is not aided by filmmakers who’ve given him faux-supernatural and omnipotent abilities like other versions of these stories, and he’s not an “Other;” he is a man who does take his mask off, and his lust for murder is not so much fetishized as shown for the repulsive behavior that it is. And still, Maddie proves to be both resourceful and painfully ill-equipped to take him on in this tense battle of wills.

The Invitation

Available on: Netflix

Seeing your ex is always uncomfortable, but imagine if your ex-wife invited you to a dinner party with her new husband? That is just about the least creepy thing in this new, taut thriller nestled in the Hollywood Hills. Indeed, in The Invitation Logan Marshall-Green’s Will is invited by his estranged wife (Tammy Blanchard) for dinner with her new hubby David (Michael Huisman of Game of Thrones). David apparently wanted to extend the bread-breaking offer personally since he has something he wants to invite both Will and all his other guests into joining. And it isn’t a game of Scrabble…

Intense, strange, and not what you expect, this is one of the more inventive thrillers of 2016.

Midsommar

Available on: Amazon Prime

It’s hard to categorize Midsommar, Ari Aster’s follow-up to his absolutely terrifying horror debut, Hereditary. Part straight up horror, part The Wicker Man, and part anthropological study, Midsommar seems to occupy many genres all at once. Aster himself called it a “break up” movie. But whatever genre Midsommar is, it is a brilliant, and at times deeply disturbing film.

Florence Pugh stars as Dani, a young woman trying to heal in the wake of an enormous tragedy. Dani follows her boyfriend, Christian, and his annoying friends to an important midsummer festival deep in the heart of Sweden. Christian and company are there partly to get high and have fun and also partly to study the unique, isolated culture for their respective theses. To say that they get more than they bargained for is an understatement. But Dani may just end up getting exactly what she needs.

Night of the Living Dead

Available on: Amazon Prime, HBO Max

George A. Romero’s 1968 zombie classic The Night of the Living Dead messed up the minds of late ’60s moviegoers as much as it messed with every horror movie that followed. Shot on gritty black and white stock, the film captures the desperate urgency of a documentary shot at the end of the world. It is a tale of survival, an allegory for the Vietnam War and racism and suspenseful as hell freezing over.

Read more

TV

The Walking Dead vs. Real-Life Survivalists: How to Prep for The Zombie Apocalypse

By Ron Hogan

Movies

Night of the Living Dead: The Many Sequels, Remakes, and Spinoffs

By Alex Carter

Night of the Living Dead set a new standard for gore, even though you could tell some of the bones the zombies were munching came from a local butcher shop. But what grabs at you are the unexpected shocks. Long before The Walking Dead, Romero caught the terror that could erupt from any character, at any time.

They’re coming to get you. There’s one of them now!

Nosferatu

Available on: Amazon Prime

Nothing beats a classic, and that’s exactly what Nosferatu is. As the unofficial 1922 adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, this German Expressionist masterpiece was almost lost to the ages when the filmmakers lost a copyright lawsuit with Stoker’s widow (who had a point). As a result, most copies were destroyed…but a precious few survived

This definitive horror movie from F.W. Murnau might be a silent picture, but it’s a haunting one where vampirism is used as a metaphor for plague and the Black Death sweeping across Europe. When Count Orlock comes to Berlin, he brings rivers of rats with him and the most repellent visage ever presented by a cinematic bloodsucker.

Read more

TV

13 Essential Dracula Performances in Movies and TV

By Tony Sokol

Culture

The Bleeding Heart of Dracula

By David Crow

The sexy vampires would come later, starting with 1931’s more polished vision of Count Dracula as legendarily played by Bela Lugosi, but Max Schreck is buried under gobs of makeup in Nosferatu making him resemble an emaciated cadaver. Murnau plays with shadow and light to create an intoxicating environment of fever dream repressions. But he also creates the most haunting cinematic image of a vampire yet put on screen.

Pet Sematary (2019)

Available on: Amazon, Hulu

After the classic Stephen King novel of the same name and Mary Lambert’s 1989 movie, what could there possibly be left to say about Pet Sematary? Quite a lot actually! Directors Kevin Kölsch and Dennis Widmyer breathe new life into this old tale…not unlike a certain “sematary” itself.

Read more

Movies

Pet Sematary Ending Explained

By John Saavedra

Movies

On the Set with Pet Sematary’s Producer

By Nick Morgulis

Jason Clarke stars as Louis Creed, an ER doctor from Boston who moves his family to rural Ludlow, Maine to live a quieter life. Shortly into their stay, Louis and his wife Rachel (Amy Semeitz) experience an unthinkable tragedy. That’s ok though as neighbor Jud Crandall (John Lithgow) knows a very peculiar place that can help.

Phantasm

Available on: Amazon Prime

Director and writer Don Coscarelli has said that this 1979 cult classic was inspired by a recurring dream — and we believe him, since Phantasm has the surreal, not-quite-there feel of an inescapable nightmare from start to finish.

With its bizarre plot about a funeral parlor acting as a front to send undead slave labor to another dimension, the iconic image of the Tall Man, killer dwarves and those deadly silver spheres, Phantasm was and is like no other movie of its era.

Poltergeist

Available on: Netflix

Before there was Insidious, The Conjuring, or a myriad of other “suburban family vs. haunted house” movies, there was Poltergeist. Taking ghost stories out of the Gothic setting of ancient castles or decrepit mansions and hotels, Poltergeist moved the spirits into the middle class American heartland of the 1980s. With a smart screenplay by no less than Steven Spielberg (and, according to some, his ghost direction), Poltergeist finds the Freeling family privy to a disquieting fact about their new home: It’s built on top of a cemetery!

You probably know the story, and if you don’t you can guess it after decades of copycats that followed, but this special effects-laden spectacle still holds up, especially as a thriller that can be enjoyed by the whole family. Fair warning though, if your kids have a tree outside their window or a clown doll under their bed, we don’t take responsibility for the years of therapy bills this may inflict!

Ready or Not

Available on: HBO Max

The surprise horror joy of 2019, Ready or Not was a wicked breath of fresh air from the creative team Radio Silence. With a star-making lead turn by Samara Weaving, the movie is essentially a reworking of The Most Dangerous Game where a bride is being hunted by her groom’s entire wedding party on the night of their nuptials.

It’s a nutty premise that has a delicious (and broad) satirical subtext about the indulgences and eccentricities of the rich, as the would-be extended family of Grace (Weaving) is only pursuing her because they’re convinced a grandfather made a deal with the Devil for their wealth–and to keep it they must step on those beneath them every generation. Well step, shoot, stab, and ritualistically sacrifice in this cruelest game of hide and seek ever. Come for the gonzo high-concept and stay for the supremely satisfying ending.

Sweetheart

Available on: Netflix

Don’t let the name fool you, Sweetheart is very much a horror movie. What kind of horror movie, you ask? Well, after a boat sinks during a storm, young Jennifer Remming (Kiersey Clemons) is the only survivor. She washes ashore a small island and gets to work burying her friends, creating shelter, and foraging for food. You know: deserted island stuff.

Read more

Movies

Dog Soldiers: The Wild History of the Most Action Packed Werewolf Movie Ever Made

By Mike Cecchini

Movies

The WNUF Halloween Special: The Making of the Most Fun Found Footage Horror Movie Ever

By Gavin Jasper

Soon, however, Jenn will come to find that the island is not as deserted as she previously thought. There’s something out there – something big, dangerous, and hungry. Sweetheart is like Castaway meets Predator and it’s another indie horror hit for Blumhouse.

The Tenant

Available on: Amazon Prime

Roman Polanski, in addition to being a creep and outright sex criminal, has a grand fascination with apartments, directing an unofficial “Apartment Trilogy” with Repulsion, Rosemary’s Baby, and The Tenant. And it’s not hard to see why. There is something a little strange about dozens if not hundreds of relative strangers all calling the same place “home.”

1976’s The Tenant is the culmination of Polanski’s obsession with communal living and in some ways is the creepiest. Polanski stars as Trelkovsky, a paranoid young file clerk who is on the verge of succumbing to the constant dread he feels. Things are exacerbated when Trelkovsky moves into a Parisian apartment and discovers the previous occupant killed herself. What follows is a tense and trippy exploration of fear itself.

Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)

Available on: Shudder

You’ve probably seen this one already, but this founding father of the slasher genre is a bit of a fairy tale when glimpsed at the right light. Some dumb kids wander into the wilderness, far away from the safety of civilization, on a trip to their grandparents’ home.

Read more

Movies

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: How Low-budget Filmmaking Created a Classic

By Ryan Lambie

Movies

The Real Texas Chainsaw Massacre: How Ed Gein Inspired Classic Horror Movies

By Tony Sokol

But instead of reaching their destination, they wind up on the dinner table for the “Other,” who in this case is a redneck family of cannibals with a crossdressing serial killer who’s weapon of choice has an electric motor that makes a sweet hum as its blades tear into your flesh. When viewed like that, it might be worth seeing all over again, eh?

Under the Shadow

Available on: Netflix

This recent 2016 effort could not possibly be more timely as it sympathizes, and terrorizes, an Iranian single mother and child in 1980s Tehran. Like a draconian travel ban, Shideh (Narges Rashidi) and her son Dorsa (Avin Manshadi) are malevolently targeted by a force of supreme evil.

This occurs after Dorsa’s father, a doctor, is called away to serve the Iranian army in post-revolution and war-torn Iran. In his absence evil seeps in… as does a quality horror movie with heightened emotional weight.

Underworld

Available on: Netflix

No one is going to mistake Underworld for high art. That obvious fact makes the lofty pretensions of these movies all the more endearing. With a cast of high-minded British theatrical actors, many trained in the Royal Shakespeare Company, at least the early movies in this Gothic horror/action mash-up series were overflowing with histrionic self-importance and grandiosity.

Take the first and best in the series. In the margins you have Bill Nighy and Michael Sheen portraying the patriarchs of warring factions of vampires and werewolves, and a love story caught between their violence that’s shamelessly modeled on Romeo and Juliet. It’s ridiculous, especially with Scott Speedman playing one party. But when the other is the oft-underrated Kate Beckinsale it doesn’t matter.

The movie’s bombast becomes its first virtue, and Len Wiseman’s penchant for glossy slick visuals, which would look at home in the sexiest Eurotrash graphic novel at the bookstore, is its other. Combined they make this a guilty good time. Though we recommend not venturing past the second or third movie.

Us

Available on: HBO Max

Jordan Peele’s debut feature Get Out was a near instant horror classic so anticipation was high for his follow-up. Thanks to an excellent script, Peele’s deep appreciation of pop culture, and some stellar performances, Us more than lives up to the hype.

Read more

Movies

Us: How Jeremiah 11:11 Fits in Jordan Peele Movie

By Rosie Fletcher

Movies

Us: Jordan Peele’s References and Influences

By David Crow

Us tells the story of the Wilson family from Santa Cruz. After a seemingly normal trip to a summer home and the beach, Adelaide (Lupita Nyong’o), Gabe (Winston Duke) and their two kids are confronted by their own doppelgangers, are weird, barely verbal, and wearing red. That’s just the beginning of the horror at play for the Wilsons and the world. Fittingly, Us feels like a feature length Twilight Zone concept done right.

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

The post The Best Horror Movies to Stream appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/35N3azd

[turquoisephoenix]

A long time ago, in a wonderful decade known as "the 90's", three mad scientists were working on a shared thesis. This theory, created by NASA astronaut, married man, and father of four Rex the Gecko (his mom was an iguana but his dad was a gecko, you see), theorized that all of the fabric of TV and movies ended up in a separate dimension parallel to ours called The Media Dimension. While these three scientists were working their separate jobs, they were also all working on this in secret, hoping to rock both the world of science and the world of media with their discovery. However, this was tragically cut short when Rex ended up in a space shuttle explosion involving a band-aid and tapioca pudding. Shortly after this accident, his two best friends who were also working on the experiment, Dr. Mutz Von Schweinstein and Dr. Brian Skully, mysteriously vanished without a trace, taking all of their experiment notes with them. I'm sure nothing bad happened. I'm sure Mutz and Brian weren't dragged into the Media Dimension and reconstructed into horrific monsters by the cybernetic remains of their best friend, who was now going to use the Media Dimension to control Earth. That'd be just nutty, and very convenient for a video game plot! The Readmore has some extra headcanons for a video game platformer not many people talk about!

-------- Dr. Mutz Von Schweinstein Species: White Yorkshire pig Dr. Mutz Von Schweinstein is a strict individual who immigrated from Germany who looks scary and tough on the outside but shares a deep friendship with Rex and would defend him to the bitter end if he had to. No one knows how he met Rex, and the story always changes whenever you ask Rex about it. He has minor arthritis in his joints, especially in his legs, so he has minor problems getting around, usually using a cane for assistance walking. Because of this, Mutz has often joked about swapping his legs out for a fresh, new pair.  He seems humorless, but when you catch him laughing, his laugh is said to have an almost maniacal oinky tinge to it. His current status is unknown, but if the rumors are true, he found a new pair of legs in exchange for his sanity, courtesy of his best friend. Favorite movies: Horror movies, especially intense slasher films. Current alias: Mooshoo Pork Dr. Rex the Gecko Species: Iguana Rex is both a wonderful husband and a wonderful father of four kids, but he was closest to his eldest son, Gex. While he was working on the Media Dimension as a side project, he was joking around with his son that, if he ever figured out a way to open a portal between the dimensions and enter the Media Dimension, he would do all he can to make Gex the mascot of the Media Dimension, the very face of this brand new world. These words would later come back to haunt his son. Rex was already experimenting a bit with making contact with The Media Dimension on the side while working at NASA - gotta completely nail the whole portal thing right before making an announcement to the world after all - so when he took a chance and opened up a portal to The Media Dimension to escape the massive spaceship explosion that everyone assumed took his life, he fell in a lot of liquid static along with a bunch of spaceship parts and globs of burning tapioca. Well, that's fine. Rebuilding his body with spaceship parts is fine. Maybe he could fix this somehow, but he needs his son to help him. Maybe he'll start building an empire. Everything's good. Everything's f̨į̼̺n̷̦̱e̠̠.̹̣̹ ́E̱͔͝v̨͍̗er̻̲̯y̫͚̥t̵͈̺hi̸̠̘n̪̫͖g̰̥̲'̩̰͠ṣ̝̪ ̸̞̖s̵̱̙w͓̬͓ȩlḷ̀ͅ.̹ Favorite movies: Star Wars Current alias: Rez Dr. Brian Skully Species: Stump-tailed skink Dr. Brian Skully is a fun-loving little lizard who believes that the 70's never ended and doesn't find joy in any movie or TV show that has the latest special effects. His goofy nature and very fluffy afro (that he refuses to trim down) hides a powerful brain that helped give him his NASA job, and he was a very cherished family friend of the Gecko family. Probably the least evil of the three of them. Probably. His current status is unknown. I'm sure he wouldn't turn himself into a giant floating head that spits fire or anything, that'd be just ridiculous. Favorite movies: Cheesy sci-fi films Current alias: The Lizard of Oz --------- Yeah, this was a thought experiment that went on for way too long, but I had fun creating character designs for these three bosses. Plus if I'm going to go with the "Rez is Gex's father" theory, I might as well have a fun dad design for him and explain where some of his scary-looking bosses came from. I almost made him a gecko, but honestly, iguana seemed like a funner choice and something that can rock the Rez colors a bit better. I know technically this breaks the rule of "but you see Gex's family in a photograph in Gex 1!" but honestly none of this is canon anyway, so I'm bending the rules a bit here with my Gex worldbuilding and saying that maybe he was at work when that photo was taken. Maybe Gex has some siblings that are also iguanas who knows.

[lokomotives]

In dbd Dwight is from a universe where Horror Movies aren’t a Thing. I feel like it comes about when the Stranger Things guys come into it.

Steve: “Why does Freddy look so weird?”

Quentin: “Huh? He’s burnt up dude. The town burned him alive for hurting kids.”

Steve: “Yeah, yeah I know that part. Local town weirdo, kills kids, gets deep-fried, kill teenagers while they sleep, but why is he so...?”

Nancy: “Not Robert Englund?”

Steve: “Yeah!”

*Extremely Confused looks from most of the campfire*

Steve: “Oh shit yea, different timelines and dimensions and stuff. You guys probably don’t have Nightmare on Elm Street in your verses. It came out like a year before we came here.”

Quentin: “Am I in the movie?”

Nancy: “No, also Freddy looked a LOT different.”

Dwight (speaking up): “They were allowed show Freddy in a movie?”

*sitcom laughter ensues*

Dwight: “No I’m serious. Isn’t like depictions of murder in film still banned in your universes?”

*Campfire goes silent*

Meg: “Are horror films like... censored in your world?”

Dwight: “They were all banned in 1970s with the Video Nasties Act. Anyone caught making one gets a big fine.”

Bill: “Oh! You mean like the Hayes Code!”

Laurie: “Is that why you tried teaching my brother how to fix the generators?”

Dwight: “I thought he was wearing a Star Trek cosplay!”

Steve: “So what scary films HAVE you seen?”

Dwight (thinking deeply): “... Wizard of Oz?”

Nancy: “WIZARD OF -”

*everyone bursts out laughing*

Dwight: “The witch was very mean!”

[atplblog]

Price: [price_with_discount] (as of [price_update_date] - Details) [ad_1] (Vocal Collection). Broadway Presents! Teens' Musical Theatre Anthology: Male Edition is a delightful collection of musical theatre songs from a variety of shows that span decades of theatre history. Using the original vocal scores, the songs have been selected and adapted with the ranges and skills of teen singers in mind. Authoritative historical and contextual commentary, audition tips, and 16-bar cut suggestions for each song make this the most useful and relevant collection of its kind. The book includes access to professionally recorded accompaniment tracks online. Includes the songs: All That's Known (from Awakening ) * Chim Chim Cher-ee ( Mary Poppins ) * Corner of the Sky ( Pippin ) * Evenin' Star ( 110 in the Shade ) * Giants in the Sky ( Into the Woods ) * Grow for Me ( Little Shop of Horrors ) * Heart ( Damn Yankees ) * I Can't Be Bothered Now ( Crazy for You ) * I Chose Right ( Baby ) * I Could Write a Book ( Pal Joey ) * I'd Rather Be Sailing ( A New Brain ) * I'm Calm ( A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum ) * I'm Not That Smart ( The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee ) * If I Only Had a Brain ( The Wizard of Oz ) * It's No Problem (Reprise) ( High Fidelity ) * Johanna ( Johanna ) * Ladies' Choice ( Hairspray: the Movie ) * Larger Than Life ( My Favorite Year ) * Left Behind ( Spring Awakening ) * My Unfortunate Erection (Chip's Lament) ( The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee ) * Now I've Seen You ( Honk! ) * On the Street Where You Live ( My Fair Lady ) * Singin' in the Rain ( Singin' in the Rain ) * Slide Some Oil to Me ( The Wiz ) * Some Girls ( Once on This Island ) * The Streets of Dublin ( A Man of No Importance ) * They Can't Take That Away From Me ( Crazy for You ) * They Were You (Solo Version) ( The Fantasticks ) * What Do I Need with Love ( Thoroughly Modern Millie ) * What Would I Do If I Could Feel? ( The Wiz ) * When I'm Not Near the Girl I Love ( Finian's Rainbow ) * Winter's on the Wing ( The Secret Garden ). ASIN ‏ : ‎ 0739057987 Publisher ‏ : ‎ Alfred Pub Co; Pap/Com edition (1 July 2009) Language ‏ : ‎ English Paperback ‏ : ‎ 208 pages ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9780739057988 ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0739057988 Reading age ‏ : ‎ 14 - 17 years Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 703 g Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 22.86 x 1.19 x 30.48 cm [ad_2]