Don't Kill The Messenger 48

I've got a Superbowl party to get to, so no time for love Doctor Jones!

Bene Keeps 'em Comin.

Jason Bene is still making with the awesome posts over at Killerfilm. His Late Night Classics segments just keep me coming back for more. Last week, he posted an interview with Jim Isaac, director of an underseen gem from the eighties called The Horror Show starring Lance Henriksen and Brion James. The interview is great stuff, covering Isaac's background as an effects man, coming in as a replacement on The Horror Show shoot and why it is also known as House III in some markets. Here below is a snippet concerning the oft-talked about comparions between The Horror Show and Wes Craven's Shocker.

Jason Bene: Wes Craven and (Horror Show producer) Sean Cunningham are great friends, and both Shocker and The Horror Show deal with serial killers being sent to the electric chair. Do you know which film went into production first and was there any kind of strife between the two?

Jim Isaac: The Horror Show was first. Shocker I believe was released first because Wes had more clout. We tested off the charts. There was some regime change at United Artists right after our test screening. They looked at what they had on their slate and they didn’t want to be known for horror films. They pulled back the release and Sean was fighting saying “Look at these cards, you have a hit on your hand.” Wes asked Sean if he could see a rough cut of The Horror Show and I said to Sean I know you guys are buddies and all but do we really want to do this? I’d rather not show that to anybody yet, especially since he’s doing a movie about the same thing. I was a little bit concerned about it, but Sean didn’t seem to care. I’m not sure what Wes did or didn’t get out of it. I do know The Horror Show was first.

For the rest of the interview, click here. And if you, for some reason have no idea what I'm raving on about, check out The Horror Show trailer below.



Uploading Death.

Drew Daywalt released his newest nightmare online last week. Suicide Girl is a little short about death and consequences that is definitely worth four minutes of your time. I suggest you watch it with the lights out and your headphones on.



Man, this guy is talented, with such a wicked sense of space & sound. I can't wait for his upcoming series Camera Obscura.

Terrors Over Time.

Here's a cool piece I discovered on Digg this week. Dainis from Hongkiat.com maps out the evolution of horror movie posters over nine decades, from Nosferatu to My Bloody Valentine 3D. Click here to check it out.

Indy, Here I Come?

It's funny. I was just talking last week about that long lost original director's cut of Nightbreed and now it looks like it may actually see the light of day. On Thursday, HorrorHound magazine announced that it will be screening it as part of their March 27-29th HorrorHound Weekend festivities. This is groundshakingly awesome! I feel like climbing the nearest building and yelling "ROAD TRIP!!!" Click here for more details on the event. Also, thanks be to Schwartz for giving me the heads up on this.

This Is Why I Don't Ski.

The Horror Section has been around long enough now that I've seen films from inception through to release. Frozen is one such film. I remember when it first got announced. Director Adam Green wanted to squeeze in a little indie before starting work on his sequel to Hatchet. It was to be a simple story about three people that get trapped on a ski mountain chair lift. Well, this weekend this little indie that could got a limited release through Anchor Bay. Furthermore, by some miracle, it actually got a release in Canada! I'd been dodging trailers and early reviews for this because I wanted it to be as fresh as possible. These small character pieces can often be really solid – previous examples being 2003's Open Water and 2007's Black Water – and benefit from knowing as little about them as possible.

I'm happy to say that Frozen is excellent stuff. I think what really sets the film apart is its dialogue. A lot of films of this type tend to rush through the setup and exposition to get to the scenario that got people in the seats in the first place. However, Frozen doesn't do that. It takes its time and it pays off. It feels natural and the three people onscreen (Shawn Ashmore, Kevin Zegers & newcomer Emma Bell) seem like real people, all with their own history, families and for lack of a better word... character. I felt like they could easily exist in this world and not just on a movie screen. That's tough to do, but Green makes it seem easy. Seriously, I have mad respect for the guy. Hatchet was a fun and gory slasher, but Frozen really lets him flex his muscles as a filmmaker. I don't want to heap all the praise on Green though, as the three leads did a fantastic job on what must have been a difficult shoot.

Another thing I appreciated was that the gore in this film was fairly reserved. After a film like Hatchet, it would have been easy for Green to throw buckets of blood at us, but he's smart enough to know that wouldn't suit the story and meters it out accordingly. Frozen also doesn't overstep its bounds. It always remains in the realm of believability, which is tricky when trying to maintain a certain level. In amongst all the tense moments (of which there are quite a few), there is also some humour to be had for genre fans. Adam Green works within a tightly knit group of American filmmakers, all of which are slyly mentioned within the film, the most overt being that Ashmore's character is named Joe Lynch. It's quirky stuff like this that can give you a chuckle and relieve tension without having to be an on-the-nose attempt at such. Green, and his peers bring a raw enthusiasm to the table that is unfortunately in short supply on this side of the pond lately.

If you are a horror fan, you should be supporting this movie. Green has stepped up to the plate and given us something to be proud of, so do your part. If not, I better not see you down the road, bitching on Internet forums that the only horror films that come out have titles followed by a number.

There's A Storm Comin'

This week's intro is Lightning Video.

That was taken from my recently acquired (for $1!) tape of The Wraith. Lightning was a subsidiary of Vestron and pumped out many horror titles in the mid-to-late-eighties. These titles included the likes of Superstition, Chopping Mall, Street Trash - which is screening downtown later this month coincidentally - Crawlspace, Alligator, Terrorvision and an old UK anthology fave of mine (which has still yet to see a DVD release) called Screamtime.

Man, I hope you are enjoying these as much as I am. It's really like having my very own time machine.

This Just In!

I love coming home and seeing a package waiting for me, as was the case last night.

You can be sure I'll be saving this for a special occasion. I can't imagine this little gem - that me and my crew have affectionately dubbed 'Cat On A Cruise Ship' - not living up to expectations, especially when it contains moments like THIS!

It is magical stuff like the above that would make even Tom Servo's head explode.

1000 Corpses Revisited.

As I’ve mentioned before, my friend Serena has regular movie nights. Last Friday was the latest edition and when I heard she was going to spin Rob Zombie's debut House Of 1000 Corpses, I was mildly intrigued. It had been a long time since I’d seen it (since its 2003 release actually) and I wanted to see if it had gotten any better with age. Looking back on my original review, it appears decidedly positive, but you can tell there was apprehension there, like I hadn’t quite worked it out in my head what a mess of a film 1000 Corpses really was. My brain was trying to convince myself that I liked it, just because I’d been waiting to see it for so long – much like my experience with the Star Wars prequels.


So, putting all that aside, I gave 1000 Corpses another watch. Has it gotten better with age? Fuck no. It is still as incomprehensible as it always was. It still flips back and forth from serious to campy at the drop of a cowboy hat. Initially, I thought that it was because Zombie wasn’t sure what he wanted the film to be, but now I suspect he was doing it deliberately to throw off the viewer. Although ‘throw off’ maybe too kind a word; annoy, agitate, or irritate might be better terms. And all these little doc-style, drug trip interludes are as maddening as ever. This isn’t a music video, Rob. I am certain that without those distracting segues, 1000 Corpses might have actually been palatable. You can have musical sequences, hell the opening and final montages in The Devil’s Rejects (Zombie’s only solid work) are great, but have them be necessary.

Still, I can’t help but wonder if there isn’t a good film in here somewhere. The first act with Captain Spaulding – I still maintain Sid Haig and Bill Moseley are the best thing about this movie – at the gas station is actually pretty strong. Too bad it starts to fall apart as soon as Baby ‘please-stick-ice-picks-in-my-ears-if-she-laughs-again’ Firefly, shrilly played by pre-Zombified Sheri Moon, comes into the picture. However, it’s really the last act where this thing fully comes off the rails.

Stop. Just please stop.

Visually, the movie is a grotesque feast, but there’s nothing to back it up. I think the dark imagery presented here is more suited for a medium other than film. In fact, that’s what I’ve come to think of Rob Zombie as an artist. It is my opinion that he has many talents, but filmmaking is not one of them. I consider House of 1000 Corpses a failed experiment. A dry run. He took what he learned on that set and then made The Devil’s Rejects, which as I said, is far superior. It is a real shame that he wasn’t able to take that momentum and channel into something other than an unwanted remake. You can quote the stories about how the suits wouldn’t finance anything other than Halloween, but I’m afraid I don’t buy it. If he really wanted to make something original (an adaptation of he & Steve Niles’ comic The Nail for instance), he could have financed it himself. No money, you say? Go on fucking tour! Join up with a few other like minded individuals and pool your resources!


I usually don’t speak so harshly, but that whole Halloween debacle really bugged me. Mainly, it’s just that I don’t like to see ANYBODY, let alone someone who so clearly loves the genre, fall from grace and have to constantly contradict themselves like Zombie did.

But I’m far from where I started here. My subsequent viewing of House of 1000 Corpses did nothing but unfortunately solidify my suspicions. It is just not very good.

Don't Kill The Messenger 47

Hey everyone! It's been a busy week here, so I'm going to get right to it.

Going Into The Light.

I tweeted about this earlier in the week, but I wanted to take the opportunity to elaborate on it. Actress Zelda Rubinstein passed away last Wednesday in California after a long illness. She was 76. Despite only taking up acting while in her late fourties, she racked up an impressive list of credits. She was obviously most well known for her role as Tangina, the medium who tried to help the Freeling family in the Poltergeist films, but I'll always remember her as Ginny, the speaks-her-mind dispatcher from the show Picket Fences. Also, anyone who hasn't seen the 1987 Spanish horror movie-within-a-horror-movie Anguish, should do so immediately. Rubinstein was also known for early activism in the fight against AIDS. R.I.P. Ms. Rubinstein.

There's A New Blog In Town.

My buddy Mike Schwartz recently started up a new blog called Cartoon and Horror. It's basically an archive of his two favorite things. The site is still in its infancy and amassing posts, but what I wanted to bring attention to was his new MIA on DVD segment. Here he sounds off about old titles that still have not been given the DVD treatment. First up, a movie that we have had many long conversations about. The Video Dead. Click the image below to check it out.

Up All Night Indeed.

This week, Jason Bene over at Killerfilm told me about this great site called Up All Night. This is my new favourite, ladies and gentleman. I've spent the last few days devouring its content. It is basically an archive of covers and trailers - and in some cases, links to full versions - of movies from the VHS era. It is split up into four categories; cheesy teen movies, midnight movies, slasher flicks and teenage sex flicks. My God, I'm in heaven. Blood Beach, The Prowler, Alone In The Dark and Junior are just a few of the flicks on display here. And then there's the ridiculous Oh-my-God-I-can't-believe-this-actually-exists-but-then-again-I-guess-I-shouldn't-be-surprised movie Over-Sexed Rugsuckers From Mars.

Click here to go to the site. I hope you have some free time.

War. What Is It Good For?

I know it’s been a while since I’ve done one of these, but I really haven’t been watching any movies that I felt were appropriate to file here.

That is until I finally caught Ari Folman’s animated documentary Waltz With Bashir last week.


I remember it being at the Toronto Film Festival in 2008, and had it earmarked to watch ever since. Even after all this time, Zip still hadn’t felt inclined to send me the Blu-ray, but fortunately this month, it played on TMN in HD.

This is one powerful movie folks. From the very first scene, it had me.



Its main hook is its incredibly unique animation style, which somehow manages to be interchangably beautiful and unsightly. The tale is simple enough. Folman, who served in the Isreali army during the 1982 Lebanon War, is having trouble remembering anything from that time, so he tracks down others who were there to see if they can fill in the blanks. These conversations are what make up the bulk of the narrative.

Waltz With Bashir has no problem showing us the ugliness of war and the ending is especially affecting when Folman peels back the silk screen he had been using to protect us from the naked truth. There’s not really much more I can say to you, as this is a film that really just needs to be experienced.