"Rants & Ravings About Horror" - Week 15: “The World of Comic Books”

Week 15: “The World of Comic Books”

A friend of mine recently asked me why I dislike most of the Marvel Cinematic Universe films and I responded with the fact that most all of them are based on comic books I stopped reading almost fifteen years ago and the films are geared more towards people who currently read them rather than those who read them at the height of the comic book boom of the ‘90s (and the implosion of the ‘00s).  I still read comics, just not superhero comics and almost nothing from DC or Marvel comics who make their bread and butter from the genre.  Most of what I read will appeal more to this crowd so I decided to dedicate this week’s column to the comics that I read.

I love a good horror story and nothing gets better than George A. Romero’s return to the zombie genre with Empire of the Dead (from Marvel comics) which sees his undead ghouls inhabit the supernatural world of the vampires.  Despite having rarely ever played the video games I also love VIZ Media’s Resident Evil: The Marhawa Desire, which takes place before Resident Evil 6.  This is a guilty pleasure since I’m a huge fan of the films (both live action and animated).  Another great comic based on a previous licensed property is what IDW is doing with the Godzilla franchise.  A lot of limited series have come from the creative minds at IDW by a wide variety of creators and the results are mixed at best but I love a good monster destroying cities story whenever I can get one.  

Mike Mignola is one of the greatest comic book creators out there right now.  In addition to the Hellboy character who’s currently in Hellboy In Hell, there is the ongoing adventures of Abe Sapien, B.P.R.D.: Hell on Earth, Baltimore, Lobster Johnson, and Witchfinder.  He and his talented group of creators have crafted one of the greatest interconnected universes of characters that continue to defy expectations.  These comics meld horror, myth, legend, and the supernatural seamlessly.

Most of what I like to read is creator owned.  Tim Seeley (of Hack/Slash fame) has created one of the most original undead stories in Revival (Image Comics).  Next to Kirkman’s The Walking Dead, Seeley is one of the great creators out there because he writes for us horror fans (much like Mignola) and this is a title everyone should be reading.  Kirkman’s own Outcast (Image Comics) is slow coming but because I enjoy most all of his work I’m willing to stick it out.  Brian Wood’s The Massive (Dark Horse) is also one of my favorites.  It is one of the best reads out there and by far one of the most imaginative stories about a post-apocalyptic world. This goes double for Chuck Dixon’s return to the frozen apocalypse of WInterworld (IDW).  This is a welcomed return for Dixon as I’ve missed his own work away from the comic book majors.

I’ve taken some chances with a few new titles like The Woods (Boom! Studios) and Pretty Deadly (Image) and Black Science (Image) which interested me just by reading the synopsis on the back cover.  The Woods reminds me of The Drifting Classroom manga, which is a great thing since I loved that story and The Woods has a very promising start (I’ve only read the first collected volume so far).   Black Science mixes horror and sci-fi in a very time jumping and action way and it never stops and it’s completely unpredictable which is why I love it.  There is no set up or narration, it just starts from the word go and never stops.  Another great science based story is The Manhattan Projects (Image) which will test your ability to follow one of the most complex and entertaining Lynchian comics out there.  It doesn’t get more weird yet fascinating than this one.  I also love Kevin Eastman’s re-imagined Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (IDW) which is heavy on action and science fiction with less of the fantasy that previous versions became filled with.

That’s pretty much the bulk of what I’m trying to keep up with right now.  There are plenty of other great stories out there in addition to these but I just don’t have time to get around to everything.  Maybe you don’t either which is why I’ve presented you with a few of my favorites but if you don’t read comics then this is has all probably been a waste of time.

"Rants & Ravings About Horror": Week 14: “Tom Holland: The Underappreciated Director”

Week 14: “Tom Holland: The Underappreciated Director”

When you think of great horror directors the name Tom Holland is never at the top of the list and for many his name is completely unknown.  With the exception of his debut feature Fright Night (1985) and the original Child’s Play (1988) most of the rest of his films have been mostly forgotten but I’m here to say that Mr. Holland has crafted some excellent and underappreciated films and if you don’t know his films then maybe you should take a few moments to do so.

Enough has been said about Fright Night and Child’s Play to fill an entire book and I’ve already written a detailed account of my love for Child’s Play and the Chucky franchise but I would like to add that these films are a perfect genesis of childhood trauma.  Child’s Play deals with a young innocent child whose doll is corrupted by a serial killer and Fright Night deals with teen angst and fear in the disguise of a “boy who cried wolf” story.  In ’93 he directed the thriller The Temp, which starred an amazing Lara Flynn Boyle and Timothy Hutton in a suspenseful thriller of a hostile takeover and a temp too good to be true.  Boyle is at her most Sharon Stone ala Basic Instinct in this film and you can’t take your eyes off of her (and why would you want to).  This film did horrible business at the Box Office and was quickly forgotten but it is an early film of Holland’s that shows he knows how to bring the suspense without any supernatural elements.

For Stephen King fans he is known for the TV adaptation of The Langoliers (1995) and Thinner (1996).  I’ve never been a big fan of The Langoliers but I’ve always been under the impression that most King TV adaptations were more miss than hit because of the limitations of what can be shown on TV.  This being said, it is the first film in which I became known of who David Morse was and I’ve always been a huge fan of Dean Stockwell having grown up watching plenty of TV’s Quantum Leap.  Thinner, on the other hand, is one of my favorite King adaptations more for the story than any of the horror elements contained within.  This is not your typical King story as there are no monsters of real supernatural elements – just a Gypsy curse which eats away at the characters.  The film contains one of actor Robert John Burke’s finest starring performances (the other being ‘92’s Dust Devil).  The other great thing about this film is that Joe Mantegna gives one of his most entertaining performances and steals every scene he’s in.

After the dismal returns of Thinner the big screen films disappeared for Mr. Holland which is a shame since I saw this film on opening night in ’96 (like I did pretty much any film based on the works of Stephen King).  It was hard to figure out where the director of such classics (in my opinion) had disappeared off to.  Mr. Holland didn’t really disappear though but went to the small screen.

In ’90 he directed the TV movie The Stranger Within another rural thriller starring Ricky Schroder and his Fright Night pal Chris Sarandon.  I saw the film once a long time ago but have forgotten much about it.   I enjoyed more his contributions to the anthology film Two-Fisted Tales (1992) and HBO’s Tales From the Crypt.  I’m still a huge fan of Tales From the Crypt even to this day and his episode “Four-Sided Triangle” is my favorite of the three he directed.  He also contributed to Amazing Stories but I never saw his episode.   What I did enjoy was his contribution to the beloved anthology series Masters of Horror with the episode “We All Scream for Ice Cream” which starred William Forsythe.  It wasn’t one of the best episodes of the series but it was one of the more entertaining of the second (and final) seasons.  Even though Mr. Holland seems to have more or less disappeared the success of the Masters of Horror series added a renewed lease on life for him and paved the way for his own anthology series Twisted Tales (2013), which can be found on DVD/BD as Tom Holland’s Twisted Tales.  These are hit or miss but it has allowed Mr. Holland to continue to contribute to this genre that we all love.

Many of you who only know Mr. Holland from the films he directed should also know that he got his start writing the screenplays of such cult classics as The Beast Within (1982), Class of 1984 (1982), Psycho II (1983), and The Initiation of Sarah (1978).  He also delved into non-horror by writing Cloak & Dagger (1984) and directing the Whoopi Goldberg favorite Fatal Beauty (1987) but he had his greatest success in the horror and thriller genre.

The greatest thing about Mr. Holland is that he contributed so many great films that were not simple slasher or monster films but all had deeper meaning and subtext which cannot be said of many horror films.  This is one of the reasons why he has always been on my radar and why I continue to eagerly await his next film or television project.  As of right now there are rumors that he is finally working on a new feature called Killing Frank which he wrote and is directing and which stars Freddie Highmore, Melanie Lynskey, Rebecca De Mornay, and Bruce Davison.  If this is true then we all have something to look forward to in the near future.

"Rants & Ravings About Horror" - Week 13: “Dump Bin Invasion!”

Week 13: “Dump Bin Invasion!”

I don’t know about you but I buy a lot of those $5 dump bin movie sets.  You can find them at Walmart, Target, K-Mart and just about every department store and gas station that sells DVDs.  There are horror collections and sci-fi collections and film noir collections and even comedies and musicals but more often than not there are a TON more horror collections than all other genres.  There are two different types of dump bin DVD collections.  The most common are the sets that include all the public domain films that you’ve seen before like Night of the Living Dead (1968), Carnival of Souls (1962), or Little Shop of Horrors (1960), to name a few.  The other sets include films the “common” man has for the most part never heard of before like The Familiar (2009), KillerKiller (2007), or Occupied (2011), to name a small few.  This second set of DVDs is mostly made up of independent films and TV movies no one remembers or sequels to films no one cares about - i.e. Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers (1995), Howling IV: The Original (1988), or Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night 2 (1987), to name a few.

If you’ve purchased one of these then you already know that many times the films are pretty bad and presented in a “full screen” version and has not been digitally mastered.  Some of these are bottom of the barrel presentations (especially films in the public domain).  Knowing this then, why do we bother purchasing these films and better yet why do studios and distributors continue to make them?

The simplest reason is that many of these films have never seen DVD release until now and in this current climate of declining DVD/BD sells presenting a collection of previously unreleased films on DVD for the first time is a major selling point.  The other simple fact is that studios know that not all the films that they own in their library are good or even remembered at all.  This is a low cost way of getting a lot of those films back into the public.    Another reason is that many DVDs have fallen into the OOP (Out of print) phase of their existence which means there is little to no interest in the film except from cult fans (like myself).  I purchased one collection of 8 films just so I could add C.H.U.D. 2: Bud the Chud (1989) to my collection.  I did the same thing with 976-Evil 2 (1991).  Neither film has had an individual release and for good reason as neither is any good but I love the originals of the series and having the sequel just adds to my collection.  I’m sure the studio that holds onto the rights for these films had no idea what to do with them either and was not willing to put any good money into releasing them individually.  This is where the companies of Echo Bridge Home Entertainment and Mill Creek Entertainment come in.

Echo Bridge Home Entertainment and Mill Creek Entertainment and two of the biggest distributors of these bargain bin film collections.  You’ll recognize their logos on most of the collections that you come across (including the boxed sets of most of those old TV series as well).  They’ve made it big business to continually distribute forgotten films to DVD.  You may recognize the titles – Gore House Greats Collection, American Horror Stories, Drive-In Cult Classics, Freakshow Cinema, Big Box of Horror, Midnight Horror or 8 Horror Movies.  The titles for most of these collections are fairly generic.

A lot of the times these collections share some of the same films so if you buy many of them you may have the same film several times.  This is the nature of these collections.  There may be one or two titles that you recognize immediately but then the rest are completely unknown to you.  This is a good and bad thing.  For people looking for good films…well, for the most part you’ve come to the wrong place but for those of you looking for some mindless entertainment then these collections are right up your alley.

I love bad films.  I enjoy bad films trying to be good films just as much as I love bad films that know they’re bad films (these are the most fun).  You’re going to get a bunch of bad films from these collections no matter what.  The great thing about sitting down and watching a film from the Freakshow Cinema collection or Drive-In Cult Classics collection is that the films are short and straight to the point and don’t try to be anything more than they are which means that their stories are pretty derivative but if you’re lucky the performances may be good or the cinematography might stand out or the musical score may be just what you wanted to hear.  For the most part, not everything about each of the films in the collection is horribly bad (although there are the occasional turd you just can’t polish no matter what).  There is the occasion where I envy an independent film because the story may be derivative but the cinematography really held the film together creating a very visually stunning film.  I’ve even come across a couple where the performances from the lead actors were phenomenal despite the crappy script and uninspired direction.  Then there are those that are so bad that they are good because they entertained the hell out of me from beginning to end (whether they meant to or not).  These are the surprises that I look for in these dump bin DVDs.

Now you won’t always come out with a film or two that are actually good (more often than not you won’t) but the true adventure is when you do and then you’ve found a film that you can recommend to others.

As an independent film maker I don’t set out to ever make a bad film but sometimes obstacles get in the way that are just too big to overcome and the film is compromised and doesn’t come out the way you originally envisioned.  Maybe the budget was too small to get the camera equipment you needed for that long dolly shot at the opening of the film or maybe your main actor got sick and had to be replaced just before filming or maybe there just wasn’t enough days in your shooting schedule to get everything done so a few pages had to be cut.  There are numerous ways a film can suddenly become compromised and for the most part it is some of these compromised films that end up on these dump bin DVDs.

Then again it could just be that all these major studios just have too many films in their library and have absolutely no idea what to do with them so they give them to the Mill Creeks and Echo Bridges out there for a small pittance and just hope for the best.  In the long run what does it really matter as long as we horror fans can add those C.H.U.D. 2’s and 976-Evil 2’s to our collections – FINALLY!

Film Review: BLIND WITNESS (1989)

In the tradition of TV movies of the ‘80s and ‘90s that featured a main character missing one of their keen senses, Blind Witness (1989) is one of the better ones.  Victoria Principal stars as Maggie Kemlich a blind woman who has a successful job and an even more successful husband (Stephen Macht).  One night their home is broken into and Maggie narrowly escapes alive when the burglars believe that she will never be able to identify them.  She has little time to mourn the loss of her husband because the police don’t believe that she can identify the killers because they see her as handicapped.  Only Det. Mike Tuthill (Paul Le Mat) sees her as a credible witness and the two go on a search to find her husband’s real killers despite the tremendous odds and the threat to her own life when the killers fear that she may, in fact, be able to single them out. 

The film still plays very well mostly because of Principal’s endearing performance.  A lot of the rest of the film can even be seen as passé and out of date as police procedure now does not summarily dismiss the witness accounts of people with disabilities.  The teleplay was written by Edmond Stevens and Robert Carrington (with story credit to Tom Sullivan) and the film was directed by Richard A. Colla who made a career out of directing TV movies and television shows from the ‘60s to the ‘90s.

This is indeed a film that showcases Principal’s talents but it also allows Le Mat to shine as well.  For most horror fans Le Mat will be most remembered for his role in Puppetmaster (1989) but he was also featured in Lonesome Dove: The Series and Lonesome Dove: The Outlaw Years.  He’s one of those character actors whose face you know but you can’t remember from where.  As TV movies go, this is not a bad one at all.

Film Review: THE FAMILIAR (2009)

Sam (Bryan Massey) has kept to himself ever since his wife passed away but when his wife’s sister Laura (Laura Spencer) unexpectedly shows up on his doorstep strange things start to happen.  This is the premise of writer/director Miles Hanon’s film The Familiar (2009) and indie film that forces the main character Sam to confront his personal demons. 

Sam has shied away from everyone he knows since his wife died finding solace by being alone and dealing with his emotions in his own way.  When his wife’s estranged sister shows up, he takes her in feeling obligated to help the free spirit out.  It’s not long before Laura starts to manipulate Sam but is it Laura or something more sinister as Sam slowly begins to believe that Laura is being possessed by a spirit named Rallo.  Now he must find a way to save Laura as well as save himself.

Hanon’s film is mostly held together by the fine performances of the actors rather than the script itself with is slightly bland and unoriginal.  This is the beauty of most independent films in that they may not always have ground breaking screenplays but they do allow the actors to shine and show their stuff.  The cinematography and musical score are also fine so overall the film is not half bad.

Unfortunately, the bland title may have caused many to overlook the film or worse yet made audiences look at the film as simply derivative which can be the case with many of these types of films but as an indie film there is some smart talent behind the film that rest assured you will see more of in the future if they keep up the fine work.