The Slasher

I just saw this today. Priceless!

100 Per Cent Rad!

I just wanted to throw a shoutout to the guys at The Totally Rad Show.

Congratulations on one-hundred fantastic episodes! The all-things-rad podcast featuring Diggnation's Alex Albrecht, Jeff Cannata and Dan Trachtenberg (and soon-to-be-leaving-man-with-the-plan Steve Koncelik) first hit the web on March 27, 2007. My friend Phil & I look forward to each weekly episode as much as anything on traditional television.

Keep up the great work guys. Here's to one-hundred more!

Trash Revisited

A trip out to Trash Palace was in order last Friday. They were playing a print of an old 1976 British thriller called Schizo. The last time they showed this was in 2007, the same week I first heard about Stacey Case’s cinema shrine and I’d been waiting for almost two years for him to play it again. Coming through the door, a few familiar faces met me, as a friend’s birthday party was happening there that night. Facebook had alerted me earlier in the day that it was her birthday, but I had no idea that Trash Palace was the location she had decided to celebrate it. That was a nice added bonus because having people to talk with during reel changes is always nice. There was even cake!

It’s the camera flash reflecting off the icing that caused that weird negative effect in the picture. Stacey, the curator of Trash Palace, introduced the movie and served up some vintage Roger Ramjet cartoons before the main feature spooled onto the screen.

When ex-con William Haskin (Jack Watson) reads in the paper that famous ice skater Samantha (Lynne Frederick) is getting married, he packs up his belongings – which include a very large knife – and travels south to intercept at her wedding.

I’ve heard Schizo referred to as a slasher, but that’s not accurate. Considering the slasher genre really hadn’t been established yet in 1976 (slasher mold-maker Halloween was still two years away) it maybe jumping the gun a bit on giving it that label. I would rather tag Schizo as the Brit’s ‘stab’ at the Italian giallo genre, which is basically what the modern slasher evolved from. All the ingredients of the giallo are there, the gruesome set pieces, the black-gloved killer, a smattering of nudity and a mystery that is revealed in the last reel.

As far as giallos go, Schizo isn’t a particularly good example of the genre. It is clumsy in parts and I had a pretty good handle on where it was going fairly early on. That’s not to say that I didn’t have a great time watching it though. The assembled Palace crowd (about fifty strong) was hooting and hollering during the movie in true MST3K fashion. However, we were laughing with the movie, not at it. Or at least I think we were. Leading lady Lynne Frederick is quite striking (that should be no surprise to anyone who watches giallos on a regular basis) and is surrounded by an eclectic bunch of characters. Her womanizing friend/psychiatrist Leonard seems strangely effeminate, her female psychic bears an unfortunate resemblance to Ozzy Osbourne and the antagonist, the lumbering old codger Haskin, looks like a pissed off James Cromwell. You throw in some inspired death sequences and you have yourself a rip-roaring time. And this time I actually remembered to take some decent pictures of this old space.

I don’t spend nearly enough time at Trash Place, but fortunately next month I hope to be there twice more, for screenings of the killer-ant flick Phase IV (coincidentally also featuring Frederick) and a second helping of Canadian giant rat opus Deadly Eyes. That, my friends, is a big butter-soaked tub of awesome!

Don't Kill The Messenger V

News From Berlin

Last week was the European Film Market, where all sorts of goodies come out of the shadows. The most exciting of which is the new French zombie flick The Horde. This sounds like balls-out action-oriented horror involving cops, gangsters and flesheaters in a ménage à trois of gore. For more info, click here.

Laid To Rest

In a recent interview with AV Club, Bruce Campbell finally gave a final answer on the subject of Evil Dead 4. And that answer was NO. Here is what he had to say on the subject.

"No. I think there should be an end to everything. I mean, did anyone really want Indiana Jones 4? The answer is no. I’ve taken a poll in about seven theaters now. Of 300 people, three hands go up. You are bound to disappoint. I would rather disappoint with a brand new original movie. People worship Army Of Darkness,and God bless them for it. It’s a beautiful thing. The movie bombed when it came out, and not many people are aware of that. Twenty years later, the thing has picked up speed, and it’s on American Movie Classics now. That was a long time ago, and whatever we do next will always be compared to Army Of Darkness, and I don’t see how we can win. You make that movie, and I can tell you the quote right now, “Oh, it’s not quite as good as Army Of Darkness.” Then we would have gone through immense physical pain and anguish to bring something out that ultimately disappointed. That’s really not what I’m into these days."

The man makes some excellent points. I am extremely happy that he has finally decided to speak out on it definitively, if only for the fact that I don't have to hear someone ask about it when I see him at Q&A's. If we were still in the nineties, a fourth Evil Dead would be an entertainable idea, but those days are long gone. Let the Evil Dead series lie and be remembered as it should be, one of the greatest movie trilogies ever put to film.

More Voorhees

Here's a couple of cool fan-created Jason pickies. I found the first one online this week and the second (by Danomight) I've had on my hard drive for quite some time. Pretty cool stuff! For an enlarged version of the second pic, click here.

Valentine's - Firth Style.

He's such a romantic.

His Name Was Jason.

Since I won’t be doing a review for Platinum Dunes’ new incarnation of Friday the 13th, I figured I’d sound off on the OTHER new Friday the 13th release.

I had an absolute blast watching this DVD. What a nostalgic trip down memory lane! This disc is PACKED with great stuff, first and foremost being the main documentary His Name Was Jason: 30 Years Of Friday The 13th. The wraparound vignettes – which feature Tom Savini spewing out groaners while walking around Universal Studio’s Camp Blood attraction – are pretty hokey, but can be forgiven in the face of the overwhelming amount of people they got onboard for this project. Seriously, the parade of actors and crew that appear in this documentary is incredible. It was like looking through an old high school yearbook. I wouldn’t be able to name off all the lovely ladies from the series that appear, but some notables for me were Amy Steel, Elizabeth Kaitan, Lar Park Lincoln and Judie Aronson. Those interviewed cover the stories we’ve all heard before, like the story behind the scare at the end of the original and the origin of Jason’s iconic hockey mask, but there’s also a lot of new stuff covered like Aronson’s bout with hypothermia, and Tiffany Helm’s (Violet from Part 5) reshot death scene. I have to say that I’m okay with the latter because I remember having a real soft spot for Vi and her original exit may have blown my eleven-year-old mind. In addition to the cast and crew, many others chime in with their thoughts. Web journalists Ryan Rotten and Brad Miska (from Shocktillyoudrop & Bloody Disgusting, respectively) appear, as well as upcoming horror filmmakers like Adam Green & Joe Lynch. I think the only glaring omissions to the line-up of talking heads would be Corey Feldman, Crispin Glover and of course, Kevin Bacon. A lot of time is spent showing how pervasive the character of Jason has become in pop culture, covering the copious amounts of merchandising and references in other media. Probably the best thing about the doc, is that they have assembled every single person who ever played Jason Voorhees. The Men Behind The Mask featurette has extended interviews with all eleven men, including the newest, Derek Mears. He seems very sincere in wanting to do a good job. Seeing him speak so passionately about it reminded me of talking to Andrew Bryniarski about playing Leatherface in 2003. I had a good hour of his time at the ‘04 Festival Of Fear and was really struck by his commitment. It didn’t make me like the remake anymore, but I did respect him a great deal for how seriously he took the role. Aside from the main documentary, there is so much stuff on this two-disc set that it actually took me three sittings to get through it all. The Final Cuts feature has extended interviews with each part’s director. There are some great stories to be told here, including Joseph Zito talking about how his earlier work on The Prowler got him the job on Part 4 and Rob Hedden showing off the actual guitar that caved in J.J.’s head in Part 8. I’m still not buying Sean Cunningham’s assertion that Bay of Blood had no influence on Friday the 13th Part 2 though. The featurette From Script to Screen speaks with the many screenwriters that have worked on Friday and Dragged From The Lake showcases about a dozen random stories from within the productions. Also included on the disc are a bunch of fan films, the funniest of which is the Angry Video Game Nerd reviewing the vintage Nintendo game Friday The 13th. There are also a few location visits as well as tons of other stuff I will let you discover for yourself.

So, while the wraparound stuff in the doc is on the cheesy side, there is no denying the sheer volume of interesting info in this set. His Name Was Jason is a must-watch for any Friday the 13th fan.

The Big F!

So, Jason? What are your thoughts on Platinum Dunes' back catalogue?

Yeah, me too. Happy Friday The 13th everyone!