Prepping the #Podcast for #October: Don't Go in the House

 *Blog post was started on September 29, 2021.

I am doing my best to enjoy these slow times at the bank. With Republicans threatening to let this country default on its debts me technically being a government contractor, it is more important than ever to enjoy every moment. 

That is definitely tricky when your mom has to be COVID-free to head to London this weekend. It is bad enough that I have not heard any news on what the bank will do about the unvaccinated who surround me for nine hours a day. My visit this past weekend had hopes of checking out the Peoria bar scene, but that kind of exposure could ruin my mom's next three weeks. I would never here the end of that.

Which is why I need help from my readers and friends. "NinetyForChill.com - The Podcast" needs guests and I need something to keep me inside. For October, the natural thing to do is to focus on horror movies and I will acknowledge, my experience with many of the slasher franchises is lacking. Almost all the franchises have at least one feature that clocks in between 74 and 99 minutes. If you want to be my expert, send an email to russthebus07@gmail.com and we can set up a time for a Zoom meeting. Each episode needs to be recorded by Sunday before the Tuesday that it is to be released. Thanks.

If you cannot be a guest, I am still in need of suggestions for horror features to watch. Which Jason and Freddy flicks are worth the time. Are there any good "Halloween" sequels beyond "2", "H2O" and "2018"? Are "Child's Play" and "Seed of Chucky" all I need to know where the cool doll-based gore is because last night, I went for a "Video Nasty". Unfortunately, it sure felt like the UK cut of "Don't Go in the House".

Don't Go in the House (1979)

Donny has an obsession with fire. This stems from his father abandoning the family when he was five. Deeming that man as evil, thus anyone spawned from him must be the same, Donny's mother was determined to burn the evil out of her son, literally. The fear instilled into Donny has lead to him never having the nerve to leave her, so he has essentially been her live-in nurse his entire life. His only relief is being mesmerized by the flames at the incinerator he works at.

One night, he returns from work to find that his mother has died. When he is about to call the authorities, voices manifest telling him to celebrate the new found freedom instead. Unfortunately for Donny, these are not the only voices that he hears. His mother is still demanding that he be an obedient and good child. The new found friends suggest that the answer is purifying his mother's corpse with flames.

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Of course, when your only relationship with any women is your mom, you may rationalize that all women are the same as her. With a flamethrower and his newly installed steel-walled room, he will bring purity to this world, one woman at a time.

"Don't Go in the House" lays some great groundwork for eventually banned by Great Britain films like "Maniac" when it comes to the story. Unfortunately, it is all suggestions of imagery instead of actually delivering the brutality. Just because it had been associated with the video nasties, I was kind of disappointed that there is only one scene of genuine terror and no spectacular gore.

The overbearing mother trope obviously dates back to "Psycho", but late 70s' early 80s' horror elevated the psychopathic notions. I think there are well written scenes in this feature that explore how a nutcase would handle living around corpses with a need for interactions. Much of the time, this film comes across as a one-man show. Dan Grimaldi does not quite have the charisma or chops to carry those scenes. Without people to interact with, his performance appears lost.

The lack of an outstanding performance without a large amount of gore results in a lot of real-time research temptations. There are great odes to Italian horror movies with some sequences of the charred corpses coming to life, but it just reminds you that this is not a messed up giallo film. I liked the ending proving that Proud Boys are not hard to make, but it is not enough a reward for the time that has passed.

"Don't Go in the House" has a strong enough script for an interesting movie, but the lack of actual horror holds this feature back. It is not a waste of time because it lays out a nice prototype for what the genre was to become, but this lacks the bells and whistles to be regarded as ready to be released to the public. If you want to see the history that leads up to over the top mayhem, you may get something from this feature. Otherwise, just skip to "Maniac's" uber misogyny.

 

 

 

NinetyForChill - The #Podcast: #Dogs - Sacrifices for Sincere #Cinema

Films Researched for this Podcast: Teenagers from Outer Space (1959), Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior (1981), Flash Dance (1983), Independence Day (1996), and I Am Legend (2007)

NinetyForChill.com: The Podcast

Episode 37: Dogs - Sacrifices for Sincere Cinema
(It's Easy to Keep a Good Dog Down).

A comedy of errors has left us with a brief installment to NinetyForChill. Inspired by George Miller's means to make Mel Gibson feel something in "Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior", Cool Movies Darth addresses how you rarely go wrong by killing a dog on the big screen.

 

With the rushed nature of this episode, I would like to apologize to Stacia Hardin for failing to recognize her influence on the show and all the people who she touched.

 

It turns out that I missed my window for getting Andras from the Ta2squid Podcast on the podcast this month. Serves me right for screwing up the time zones the prior week. It looks like he is keeping up the quality content with a guest from "Ye Olde Crime Podcast". The two episodes prior were fun with his display of nerd culture, a guest from "Wheel of Horror" and an examination of "Poltergeist" with a genuine medium. What I am getting at is, I would like to have him on the show, and with my most recent episode coming in under 10 minutes, you should give his show a listen with the hour twenty I have freed up for you.

My back up plan was to see where Letterboxd stalking my big sister, ThePoeticCritic would take me. With my nephew's soccer game Saturday, I did not get the chance to binge a variety of movies the evening and morning prior to my visit. Thus, the only movie I managed to get in was "Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior". She liked the movie, but action is not her favorite genre, so she did not have much to offer when I brought up the technical aspects of the feature. Pardon me for not referring to "Happy Feet", the only George Miller film the two of us had seen in theaters, to further inspire conversation.

We did have a good conversation about documentaries and plans on what spooky stuff we will be watching for October. Intercourse Freeform's "31 Nights of Halloween" was a consensus. I may drop that conversation as a bonus episode. It does get goofy with discussing inanimate object horror movies, but I decided to see if I could get even goofier about one of my "Road Warrior" bullet points for this week's episode.

Statistically speaking, unless the pooch is the villain, your movie cannot help but benefit from a dog's demise. It gave us the second act of "John Wick". How would "I Am Legend" get to its third act? Were we too involved with Boomer escaping a fireball in "Independence Day", a movie that laid the groundwork for Rifftrax?

Pardon my callous nature, but until cats get better treatment on film, it is tough for me to not want the canine to be the heart string puller. I would have traded the brave ant from "Honey I Shrunk the Kids" for Quark.

With that said, my Twitter account is @catbusruss. This is where I want your hate to be directed if you disapprove of my stance. Otherwise, positive feedback would be best displayed as subscriptions to my podcast and five-star reviews. Lets work that algorithm.

As for this month, I am looking for people who want to chat about horror movies for October. If you think you have a film or franchise that you are an expert on. Send an email to russthebus07@gmail.com. Most franchises have at least on feature that will qualify for NinetyForChill. The runtime just needs to be between 74 and 99 minutes. We have four episodes to fill.

 

I have been asking for weeks for assistance in composing an episode dedicated to vampire features like "The Lost Boys" trilogy, "Near Dark", and the "Underworld" movies. Here is to hoping that this bunch of critiques will stir up some inspiration in my audience to step up and hold off on the garlic. If this is a topic you up for discussing, feel free to send an email to russthebus07@gmail.com. All I need is a half hour on Zoom to get this done.

I hope I am impressing or at the very least amusing you with this podcast and I am open to any and all criticism. My biggest want is more guests and more suggestions on what to chat about (@catbusruss, russthebus07@gmail.com@coolmoviesdarth). If we can get 3 hours out of "Little Nicky", the possibilities are endless. Thanks for visiting.

 

After WrestleMania Backlash, I will tell you that we need to take zombie pro wrestling back. My suggestion is that we finally get my low-budget zombie movie, "Main Event of the Dead" off the ground. The script lacks a lumberjack match, so you know it has got to be better than the "Army of the Dead" advertisement. Ask for a treatment or give me suggestions on how to get it to a crowd-sourcing stage with an email to russthebus07@gmail.com.

 

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Double Feature: It Came from Another World! (2007) and Teenagers from Outer Space (1959)

These movie reviews' first drafts were written in 2010.

It Came from Another World! - Full Stops Should Not Be Part of a Title

Irony is so easily abused. Just because you can make a perfect recreation of a 50s' sci-fi flick, does not mean you should. "It Came from Another World!" forgets that parody and homage are two totally different things.

A meteorite crashes in Northern Wisconsin. Dr. Franklyn Farnsworth is the only man who can investigate this seismic event. Immediately upon arriving on the scene, he is over taken by an alien entity. Now it is up to Professor Danny Jackson, Farnsworth's best friend, and the canoe cops to stop the King of the Cosmos from resurrecting his queen by way of Jackson's true love, Julian St. Marie.

Does one have to appreciate the effort put in to "It Came From Another World!"? It is only as good as Ed Wood features that you would expect Tom Servo and Crow would make a career in mocking.

The costumes are authentic, absurd attitudes are present, and it is probably the best B-movie Z-movie I have seen. My problem with the feature is that despite how great it looks, they do not realize that we can just watch a bad sci-fi movie to have the same experience. Its humor can only be taken in small doses (usually done in Stewie Griffin's voice). If you are sober when watching this, it will become painful to watch.

"It Came from Another World!" is a seemingly endless "Family Guy" cut away with characters who can only be handled if brief stints. This was made to be riffed which I think kind of defeats the point of making a bad movie. If it had its own sense of humor, this could have been brilliant. Instead, I was left pissing about them using the ending of "The Naked Gun" to close this picture...without O.J. Simpson or Ricardo Montalbon being hurled of a balcony.

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Teenagers from Outer Space - A Wasted Porno Concept

Horror/sci-fi guru Lord Blood-Rah asked the crowd to get drunk for the second half of the September 28, 2010 edition of the Drunken Zombie Deadly Double Feature because he claimed "Teenagers from Outer Space" maybe the worst film ever made. I was left pondering if he had ever seen "Manos: The Hands of Fate" or anything from Coleman Francis's filmography.

Looking back at this review 11 years later, I think I must have taken the Lord's advice. This review must have been written at the screening because I have no recollection of this experience.

An alien race is looking for a new planet to raise their food supply, carnivorous giant lobsters called gargons. They decide that Earth would be the ideal spot, but when crew member Derek realizes that the planet is "civilized", he decides he must stop this relocation from happening. When reason fails, he is forced to flee and finds refuge with Earthling Betty and her grandfather. Unbeknownst to Derek, he is the heir to his race's king. The visitors find imperative that he is prevented from rallying the humans to his side.

What is more disappointing about "Teenagers from Outer Space"? Everything about the film or the fact that it would make for a great porn premise. The lead actor is David Love. There are confused teenage girls and nurses and a spaceship that is shaped like a screw. This is in the public domain, so I better start this production I guess.

If that is not a good enough premise for you, I also have a Z-movie , zombie-comedy script called "Main Event of the Dead". For more details like a treatment or to provide me with suggestions on how to get this production out of development hell, email russthebus07@gmail.com.

"Teenagers" did not know how to be camp. No one over acts. No one tries period. It is absolutely pathetic and the giant lobsters could not save it. A giant anything can at least soften the mental beat down of any film (like the giant syringe in "The Amazing Colossal Man").

Effort is necessary to justify any film that being made. It can be bad or creepy. It can have a low or no budget. As long as the audience can see effort, they may hate it, but it at least qualifies as cinema.

"Teenagers form Outer Space" is the "Manos: The Hands of Fate" of sci-fi. The lack of creepiness at least makes it laughable.

Damn Teenagers! 

Teenagers From Outer Space - The League of Dead Films

 

 

90-Minute Netflix: Apologies to Dean Ambrose.

 

Since moving out of my parents house for good, I have yet to deal with trick or treaters. This obviously means that I am working tonight (10/31/18). It looks like all of the getting in before Dad's Day weekend traffic is in. All of the websites have been reviewed (ESPN, IMDb, CNN, NBC, BBC, Pro Wrestling Tees, Huffington Post), so writing is what I am left with.

I suppose I could read some Comixology, but it feels weird on a monitor. They need a narrator like "Watchmen: The Motion Comic." My voice feels to nasally, but Mark Hamill had been written out of Star Wars. He needs work right.

It almost makes me wish that I took night audit over somewhere just so I could keep up on all my portable video games. Thankfully, there is not a worthy Pokemon release this year. If I do get up the nerve to be caught with a 2DS in my hands, it will be a JRPG instead.

There seems to be too many video games and too little time, but that may be due to my movie problem. I think I only have 50 or so unwatched features in my collection (excluding wrestling and TV series of course), but I am still taking any Red Box discount I can find and I am still receiving Netflix DVDs. It shows I am dedicated to this method of storytelling, thus making me deserving of feedback to help me out in finding a way to promote my B-movie pro-wrestling zomcom, Main Event of the Dead, I would happy to send you a treatment if you e-mail me at russthebus07@gmail.com.

If you need a little more support to warrant my claims of expertise, here is a review of the Dean Ambrose starring feature "12 Rounds 3: Lockdown," a flick that flows well and keeps it mind on its gimmick. WWE should focus on this style of film-making. It could lessen the need for my foray into Pro Wrestling Cinema.

First an Apology to Dean Ambrose.

There was a flaw in my logic when I declared the IWGP Heavyweight Championship as the current Real World Heavyweight Championship. Since I flunked logic in college, I considered not updating the "Disgruntled's Real World Heavyweight Championship," but I am too honest a person to do that. The WWE Championship gets a few more reigns, but if I am going to choose between Adam Cole and Dean Ambrose, I will apologize to Dean.

82nd World Heavyweight Champion - WWE's Seth Rollins (2) - 3/29/15 to 11/4/15

If you are going to cash in Money in the Bank, do it at the one place where no one can deny your cunning.

83rd World Heavyweight Champion - ROH's Jay Lethal - 11/4/15 to 8/19/2016

Jay Lethal was defending two titles at this time and managed to hold ROH's most prestigious title over a year. Roman Reigns's first three title reigns all occurred during this time frame.

84th World Heavyweight Champion - ROH's Adam Cole (2) - 8/19/16 to 12/2/16

85th World Heavyweight Champion - WWE's AJ Styles - 12/2/16 to 1/29/2017

Adam Cole swapped the title with Kyle O'Reily, and you kind of sully the history by adding names for the sake of adding names.

86th World Heavyweight Champion - WWE's John Cena (5) - 1/29/17 to 2/12/17

It is tempting to swap Cena with Kevin Owens, but he was an obvious place holder for Goldberg. With the difficulty of getting to see the Universal Championship defended, it may never supersede the WWE Championship.

87th World Heavyweight Champion - WWE's Bray Wyatt - 2/12/17 to 4/2/2017

No one wanted to believe that this supernatural character was going to lose all his momentum to a "when in doubt title holder" like Randy Orton. Deep down, we all knew his World title match was more important than Goldberg vs. Lesnar 3.

88th World Heavyweight Champion - ROH's Christopher Daniels - 4/2/17 to 6/23/17

Best performer when it came down to Lesnar, Mahal and Orton.

89th World Heavyweight Champion - ROH's Cody - 6/23/17 to 12/15/17

90th World Heavyweight Champion - New Japan's Kazuchika Okada - 12/15/17 to 6/9/2018

His victory over Cody could allowed Japanese Wrestling and American Wrestling are shared styles. Once the champion he beat loses the title, it makes sense to put him ahead of AJ Styles.

91st World Heavyweight Champion - New Japan's Kenny Omega - 6/9/18 to 1/4/19

Kind of poetic the list on the side of the blog essentially starts at the Alpha Chris Jericho and end with Kenny Omega.

12 Rounds 3: Lockdown

John Shaw has finally returned to the narcotics department of the metropolitan police after seven months of psychological therapy. Early retirement may have been a wiser decision since his fellow officers hold him responsible for the death of a rookie which resulted in his leave. Too make matters worse, they are all celebrating his ex-partner, Roger Cross, successfully killing one of the top drug lords in town. Having the intuition about Cross that Foster of Super Troopers says all good cops have, Shaw suspects that there is more to meets the eye about the killing. When the medical examiner discovers a flash drive disguised as a credit card on the body of the drug kingpin, he will be the first to investigate it.

On the drive is evidence that proves Cross is the drug overlord of the metro, selling confiscated drugs to dealers and reaping the profits. As Shaw is about to deliver the evidence to the chief, Cross has found out that the information that will bring him down is in his rival's hands. With a few phone calls, this villain has his crew searching the police headquarters for Shaw. With the pull of a fire alarm, the station is on lockdown. Cross has all the surveillance at his beckon call, so Shaw has to survive with only his sidearm and 12 rounds of ammo (paraphrasing theactionelite.com).

"12 Rounds 3: Lockdown" is a "Die Hard" rip off. Dean Ambrose is a child of the 90's and that was probably his preferred Christmas flick. It is not his gimmick's favorite Festivus film, it is everyone boy born in the 80's. If this script was thrown your way, how could you turn it down? As an independent wrestler, I would like to try and out due the John Cena's and Randy Orton's franchise installments. Ambrose at least did as well as any untrained thespian should expect to, so the flick at least meets expectations.

It is not the best "Die Hard" rip off by any means. I would say "Under Siege 2: Dark Territory" is better, but since we do not need more Steven Seagal, I am going to direct you to this title first. A good "Die Hard" knock off needs to remember that a sense of humor is really what makes the original a classic. "12 Rounds 3" expects the action to be ridiculous enough to keep us involved, so three written jokes are all you are going to get.

What keeps you involved is the "not a metaphor" gimmick of this film. "12 Rounds" is not a game, it is literally all our hero can rely on. You are counting the bullets as Ambrose exhausts them, and you are amused trying to figure out how he is going to make it out of the building with so few. This probably would not work for Dirty Harry, keeping us up to date on how many rounds he had left, but everything is interesting once.

Only having 12 rounds to use allows for some ridiculous kills which at least makes the movie fun. This is pro-wrestling on film. You will suspend your disbelief to ignore why the crooked cops actually bring grenades into close quarters being monitored by police on the outside of the building.

Outside of the story, the technical aspects are as good as you can expect when the ceilings are only 10-feet high at best. It is not an effects heavy affair, so the only thing that should have been added would be some gore for the hell of it. The Soska Twins at least gave of glimpses of that to amuse us with their two WWE installments shot under similar circumstances, and one of them was not a horror film. WWE Films can be ECW, so bring on the blood.

"12 Rounds 3: Lockdown" is not the best WWE Studio's productions, but it is fun and more enticing than a three-hour "Raw." That is really all you should want out of this film. Well, maybe one name actor aside from your Superstar. Michael Jai White must have been who they wanted Cross to be portrayed by. If Steve Austin can get him on speed dial, what is WWE's problem?

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/475200198161558667/

Diary of the Dead: Romero's Latest Relevant Zombie Flick

George A Romero has established the need for a gimmick when it comes to zombie flicks, but it is hard to say that he had done a unique one after his first two "Night of the Living Dead" and "Dawn of the Dead". "Day of the Dead" upped the gore and explained what was going on with the apocalypse, but was nothing more than that. "Land of the Dead" was a clever story about the struggles between the have and the have nots (being living or undead), but played out like any other action flick.

Romero realized that he had to close the book on his first set of films, and that he has never had directorial success without them, so in 2007 Romero took a new approach and perhaps even found a new political message with "Diary of the Dead".

Nine Pitt film students and their professor are filming a mummy flick based around all of the old cliches when they first hear reports of the dead coming back to life. Some are skeptical, and who wouldn't be with the mainstream news media and the Internet amateur video telling different stories.

Regardless of what is going on, they have decided that they have to try making it to their homes, so they all reluctantly load up in a Winnebago except for the movie's director who cannot help but document the events that have fallen into his lap. Trying to convince his colleagues that it is the right thing to do is as much of a challenge as surviving the threats of the undead.

Diary of the Dead is the best example of the charm that Romero can offer since Night of the Living Dead. The film has to be done on the cheap because of the necessity to make it look like a student film, but this also forces the director to make every shot worthwhile so that it doesn't end up being as boring as a stereotypical student documentary.

People who find the drama that takes place between the protagonists in other Romero films, namely NotLD, to be boring will be pleased that there is almost a lack of drama. Good documentaries can't script drama, so Romero avoids having too many interactions between the characters. This may leave them as seemingly shallow, but also allows them to be caricatures which are the best things to have in a horror flick. Everything then becomes tongue and cheek, so the audience can sit back, enjoy the ride, and not care whether a person lives or dies as long as the demise is fun.

The demises in Diary are fun, but do not offer the same visceral pleasure they once had. A lot of the effects are dependent on computers and the transition from video game to Savini has yet to be mastered. That is even true in "Zombieland". All the exploding heads are shot from wide angles or are only implied. Fortunately, Romero's violence is still clever enough that we can overlook how we got to the corn syrup, just as long as we get to it.

If there is one thing that did not go over well with Diary of the Dead, it is the need to incorporate footage from outside the main story. It is important to have some, but the overuse of stock footage makes it overly preachy. The message of the confusion created by mass media is easily understood, so the viewer would rather focus on the film-making concept instead of the grand picture.

Diary of the Dead might be the most important zombie flick since "28 Days Later". It understands that zombies are for political messages and graphic violence, and it delivers on both. George A. Romero has finally recaptured what he had accomplished 30 years ago, and hopefully he will continue this with this year's release "Survival of the Dead."

www.imdb.com

Feast III: The One with an "Ironic" Title

It is a good thing they chose not to call this film “Happy Ending” because this felt like a legitimate massage. You go through a lot and give up your time to have it, but if you don’t get a release, buy one of those chairs from Sharper Image instead of a Hooter’s waitress that has moved on.

"Feast III" makes up for Feast II being a low budget film that tried to shoot everything on a soundstage, but blows it on being the "Happy Finish" to what could have been horror series of the decade. It the end, it just handed the title to Danny Boyle’s pet projects.

The rooftop refugees from the attack of the indeterminate beasts must make their escape. With the additions of the redneck survivalist, the short bus riding prophet who seems to have the ability to ward off the monsters, and the karate expert straight out of the Chuck Norris impersonators era, will they stand a chance against not only the horny and hungry demons, but the breed of zombie that their vomit seems to have created.

Why I did not review Feast II? Because they filmed both of the original's sequels simultaneously, I did not want to pass judgment on the individual parts. Feast III, gives the viewers a bigger middle finger than The Sopranos, the second Newhart show, or every other Family Guy episode can offer. This is sad because until that point, the film had made its predecessor worthwhile. If they would have got out the puker angle in this one and the existence of Honey Pie subplot, they could have given us one great movie instead of the par and subpar films Dimension Extreme distributed.

And Jon Gulager could have still had his Sleepaway Camp ending. The ending was done as a laugh, but it feels like the writers just wanted to be done with the franchise. No mariachi number can take the taste of the ending away.

If you purchase the sequels (because Family Video in Morton didn’t carry them), you will initially feel disappointed, then you should realize the fun that can be had with these. I think it is great when a DVD inspires you to listen to a commentary track, and the third film does that. With the right beer or the right cheap vodka (Sobieski isn’t Svedka, but it’ll work), I’m sure a drinking game can be developed thus making it a worthwhile double feature.

Since Feast II: Sloppy Seconds and Feast III: The Happy Finish do work as great B-Movies, fans of that genre will enjoy these sequels for the ridiculous and gratuitous nature they embrace.These two films do not serve as great Indie movies, so it feels that the writers and director may have underestimated the intelligence of their audience. If you aren’t into niche pictures, buy Feast, and try to find the sequels on the Blockbuster shelves if you dare. As I said dare, don’t put these in the Netflix cue, so that they cannot catch you in the mail unaware.

Best Buy: Feast III: The Happy Finish [WS] [DVD] [2008]

NinetyForChill: The #Podcast - From Dreamy "Nocturna" to "A Nightmare on Elm St."

Films Researched for this Podcast: A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), Nocturna (2007), and Teddy Bear (2012).

NinetyForChill.com: The Podcast

Episode 36: The #Podcast - From Dreamy "Nocturna" to "A Nightmare on Elm Street" (And the Art of Letterboxd Stalking).

ThePoeticCritic and Cool Movies Darth take you on a journey ranging from the Criterion Channel's Saturday Matinees for the smart kids to the directors with obsessions of dreamlike environments. The Spanish animated gem "Nocturna" and Wes Craven's "A Nightmare on Elm St" serve as bookends to this narrative that does quite a bit of juxtaposition of features like "The Never Ending Story" and "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas". NinetyForChill tries to capture the motivation behind Terry Gillian's filmography in about 90 minutes.

 

This episode was recorded the day after my chat about "Commando" with Michael Dubois, so I thought it would be nice and brief. My plan was to focus solely on the two titles that I am advertising. But, when you think you have the answers, TPC goes and changes the question. And she says sitting through WrestleMania at Robertson Memorial Field House gained her nothing. I think she maybe bitter that was how her seventh birthday was spent.

It is kind of appropriate for this 90-minute podcast to shape up the way it did. "Nocturna" has been recently added to the Criterion Channel's Matinees series. This inspired her to talk about some of the recent classics she had seen like "Mark of Zorro" and Charlie Chaplin's "Pilgrim". With "Nocturna" being set in a dream world, it would eventually culminate in a transition to the horror aspects. The path just happened to include opportunities to juxtapose the experimental children features like the many adaptations of "The Bluebird" with Terry Gilliam's Kubrickian "dream trilogy".

Of course, we offer more of a breakdown in the concepts that Disney animation "fans" are pushing. I compare those people to the DCEU supporters. It is a fair comparison since I am a man calling for more love to be provided to the Snyder-verse. We also take a stand about features that we gave a pass to being kids of the 1980s, but realize that the reassessments of Rufio are uncalled for. The same goes to the Sanderson sisters.

If anything needs reassessing, we determine it is the works of David Lynch and 1993's "Super Mario Bros".

 

Next week, the plan is to speak to Andras "Ta2squid" Bodolai. The "Ta2suid Podcast" offers great free-form conversations about horror movies, tattoos, metal music, and getting inside the minds of other podcast host. I am kind of worried because there is a sense where it may become "Who is interviewing who?" It should be fun, provided that I do not screw up the time zone differences again.

I would not mind being a couples week ahead when it comes to content, so I would love to hear from you with ideas on what to chat about. Frankly, it would be honor to host you and find out about why you offered your incite. Send an email to russthebus07@gmail.com with a movie, theme, director, or actor. If you promise to center the topic around movies between 74 and 99 minutes, audio gold should be the product.

If you need some suggestions, movies like "Fear of a Black Hat", "UHF" and "Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story" can make for a great theme. ThePoeticCritic knew that Robert Downey Sr.'s satirical masterpiece, "Putney Swope" fits the pod's time restraints. There are also Tim Burton's early classics "Pee Wee's Big Adventure" and "Beetlejuice". Or we could just focus on movies Danny Elfman scored.

 

I have been asking for weeks for assistance in composing an episode dedicated to vampire features like "The Lost Boys" trilogy, "Near Dark", and the "Underworld" movies. Here is to hoping that this bunch of critiques will stir up some inspiration in my audience to step up and hold off on the garlic. If this is a topic you up for discussing, feel free to send an email to russthebus07@gmail.com. All I need is a half hour on Zoom to get this done.

I hope I am impressing or at the very least amusing you with this podcast and I am open to any and all criticism. My biggest want is more guests and more suggestions on what to chat about (@catbusruss, russthebus07@gmail.com@coolmoviesdarth). If we can get 3 hours out of "Little Nicky", the possibilities are endless. Thanks for visiting.

 

After WrestleMania Backlash, I will tell you that we need to take zombie pro wrestling back. My suggestion is that we finally get my low-budget zombie movie, "Main Event of the Dead" off the ground. The script lacks a lumberjack match, so you know it has got to be better than the "Army of the Dead" advertisement. Ask for a treatment or give me suggestions on how to get it to a crowd-sourcing stage with an email to russthebus07@gmail.com.

Pinterest @racaguix

House on Haunted Hill (1959): When They Use To Do Double Features

*This blog post was started on September 14, 2021. The review was written in 2010.

House on Haunted Hill: When They Use To Do Double Features

Why should horror sequels work? There is no need for exposition, so you can cut right to the mayhem. Why do they not work? Because they want to introduce new characters when all you need are stereotypes and archetypes.

In a gimmicky genre like horror, we do not necessarily need to know the torrid affairs of the protagonist(s). All you really need to know is the motive of the antagonist. This is the focus of the original "House on Haunted Hill", a trip into a wicked character's mind portrayed by Vincent Price.

For the amusement of his fourth wife, the eccentric millionaire Frederick Loren allows her to host her birthday party at the house that is supposedly possessed by generation after generation of murder victims. Thanks to his jealous nature, his wife is short on friends, so to make the night interesting, he has invited five individuals who are in need of money. Each will be awarded $10,000 if they successfully spend the night there, cut off from the world. Of course, Loren makes it clear that it is not about spending the night. It is about surviving it.

"House on Haunted Hill" is a wise thriller. Wise in the sense that it skips out on presenting exposition as the story moves forward. It opens like a video game. You view the characters and their two-sentence description, and then the movie goes forward, never looking back.

The story turns out to be anticlimactic, but the devious nature of the characters allow that conclusion to be fitting. The director and performers do a great job of presenting the "haunted" environment, but the mere presence of Price makes the film a classic.

Who would dare think that Geoffry Rush could capture what Price did with the role? Rush may have been destined to be miscast when it came to the 1999 "remake", but that is another conversation.

"House on Haunted Hill" is a prime example of how stories should be quick and to the point. This is especially the case when all you have is a premise and a performer. It shows that a director does not need much to make a classic, as long as they remember not to drag out the material.

3B Theater Poster Archive

 

NinetyForChill: The #Podcast - Commando - #FIRSTIES for Big Budget, So Bad It's Good #Movie

 Films Researched for this Episode: Commando (1985) and Sharknado (2013).

NinetyForChill.com: The Podcast

Episode 35: Commando - #FIRSTIES for Big Budget, So Bad It's Good #Movie (The Austrian Dalton).

Michael Dubois makes his NinetyForChill debut as a contributor and we tackle Mark L. Lester's 1985 action classic, "Commando". This is the feature that was created give some humanity to Arnold Schwarzenegger, but Michael thinks it maybe the Governator as his most wooden. Perhaps he should have been cast as a cooler at a Missourian bar.

 

My hope was with this chat that was to demonstrate how this feature serves as the blue print for all of the action movies from the 1980 and 1990s. I suggested that this was Steven E. de Souza's less racist buddy shoot 'em up. Aside from casting "Clueless" and "Cheers" supporting actor Dan Hedaya as a Latin American dictator (I cannot recall seeing De Niro playing a native Spanish speaker.) and giving up on an interracial relationship between the leads of Arnie and Rae Dawn Chong (Thanks Reagan.), it succeeds???

Michael and I agree that the continuity may be there, regardless of the need to rewind action scenes to verify it. This may be why he feels that "Commando" is a competent, hilariously awesome-bad movie. He places this is the same category as Tommy Wiseau's "The Room". We know movies let grenades act like fiery Action Point tank-propelled tennis balls, but once claymores act like C4, the picture seems to be more of a fantasy film instead of a realistic and gritty warfare feature.

And these are the features that Michael gravitates to. We discuss whether of not bad movies that can only be purchased directly from the auteur can be enjoyable on their own. I think "Birdemic: Shock and Awe" can only be watched with Rifftrax's Michael, Kevin, and Bill. Mr. Dubois loves to relish in the techniques used to try and place the unfilmable to the big screen.

Speaking of what should not be placed on film, we reminisce about the bravery of Jeremy Irons and the features that he did to furnish his castles. One of those features being 2000's "Dungeons & Dragons".

 

 

I will give you a heads up. There ended up being a good 30 to 45 minutes of conversation that ended up being pretty political. The two of both think that I, an anti-gun aspiring communist, and him, a anti-capitalist with dreams of anarchy, spent a little too much time on when and how the revolution should occur. Hence, I do make an effort to limit how much makes it back on the Internet.

Next week, ThePoeticCritic on Letterboxd returns. If you want to see what we movies we analyze (and stay relatively free of bashing the current state of Hollywood), visit her Letterboxd Diary. The video below is a hint.

 

I would not mind being a couples week ahead when it comes to content, so I would love to hear from you with ideas on what to chat about. Frankly, it would be honor to host you and find out about why you offered your incite. Send an email to russthebus07@gmail.com with a movie, theme, director, or actor. If you promise to center the topic around movies between 74 and 99 minutes, audio gold should be the product.

If you need some suggestions, movies like "Fear of a Black Hat", "UHF" and "Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story" can make for a great theme. ThePoeticCritic knew that Robert Downey Sr.'s satirical masterpiece, "Putney Swope" fits the pod's time restraints. There are also Tim Burton's early classics "Pee Wee's Big Adventure" and "Beetlejuice". Or we could just focus on movies Danny Elfman scored.

 

I have been asking for weeks for assistance in composing an episode dedicated to vampire features like "The Lost Boys" trilogy, "Near Dark", and the "Underworld" movies. Here is to hoping that this bunch of critiques will stir up some inspiration in my audience to step up and hold off on the garlic. If this is a topic you up for discussing, feel free to send an email to russthebus07@gmail.com. All I need is a half hour on Zoom to get this done.

I hope I am impressing or at the very least amusing you with this podcast and I am open to any and all criticism. My biggest want is more guests and more suggestions on what to chat about (@catbusruss, russthebus07@gmail.com@coolmoviesdarth). If we can get 3 hours out of "Little Nicky", the possibilities are endless. Thanks for visiting.

 

After WrestleMania Backlash, I will tell you that we need to take zombie pro wrestling back. My suggestion is that we finally get my low-budget zombie movie, "Main Event of the Dead" off the ground. The script lacks a lumberjack match, so you know it has got to be better than the "Army of the Dead" advertisement. Ask for a treatment or give me suggestions on how to get it to a crowd-sourcing stage with an email to russthebus07@gmail.com.

AliExpress.com - John Matrix Inspired Character Art - I Lied - Commando 1985