Trailer Tuesdays: The Monster Club

This week's trailer, for reasons that will become clear later this week, is Roy Ward Baker's 1981 anthology flick The Monster Club.

I watched this again fairly recently and it's quite fun. I only had vague memories of watching it twenty-some years on Elvira's Movie Macabre, but it was delightful to see so many of the greats (Vincent Price, John Carradine, Donald Pleasance et al) hamming it up. There's some catchy tunes within, as well.

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Hey all. I hope my friends to the south are all enjoying their long weekends. And if you were not one of those people who splurged and watched all the available Twin Peaks episodes last Sunday, enjoy parts three and four! For now, here's what I've got for you.

This Guy Gets It.

I discovered through Lunchmeat that there is this wonderful individual named Jason Champion in Houston, Texas that has converted his basement into a video store. 

In his words he says;

“So, the whole idea behind Champion Video is to give people that same experience, the thrill of discovering a movie they didn’t know existed or forgot that they loved, and just to have fun with it man. Browsing through titles in person and renting videos was THE thing to do on Friday and Saturday nights, and it’s an experience people don’t think about often anymore. But I find as soon as I bring up the subject, you can see people’s minds going into nostalgia overload, and I really dig that.”

I absolutely love that he uses actual membership cards and keeps track of his rentals with a Commodore 64 spreadsheet program. Though not officially open to the public yet, he has plans to do so in the future. My heart swells a thousand sizes for this place. To read the full Lunchmeat interview, click here.

That Darn Cat.

I just found this video of Alien re-cut as a comedy from Mashable Watercooler.

The editing here is spot-on and to be honest, I think I would've rather watched this than Covenant. But that's another story.

The Female of the Species.

And speaking of Ripley, I went to a book launch on Friday for Rue Morgue's newest library release Women With Guts.

Featuring over thirty essays and articles about women of and in horror media, this will keep your fingertips stained red for hours. I just dipped into it yesterday, but I'm very much looking forward to reading the pieces on Ginger Snaps, The Descent, Argento muses Daria Nicolodi & Asia Argento and Scream Queen royalty Jamie Lee Curtis & Linnea Quigley.

To order yours for a mere ten bones, click here.

Trailer Tuesdays: Fire Walk With Me

This week's trailer needs no introduction.



Let's rock.

Return To The Wonderful & Strange

I absorbed four episodes of the new Twin Peaks on Showtime last night, along with mass amounts of donuts and cherry pie. And it was glorious.

After some decidedly fleeting reboots of beloved shows of the past, I was cautiously optimistic about this new chapter. I now realize I had forgotten that even Lynch on his worst day is still more fulfilling and resonant than ninety-five per cent of everything else out in the world.

I feel this new Twin Peaks season is an extension of where he is now as an artist. If the mid-range budgets of Hollywood had not dried up several years ago, Lynch would probably be making movies very much like what I just witnessed. Now completely untethered from compromise, this is everything in his creative arsenal. Last night, I saw visual effects he hadn't used since his university short film days, as well as the continued exploration of the elongated pace of this last two film projects, Mulholland Drive and Inland Empire.

Lynch, Mark Frost and Kyle McLachlan were correct to warn people that this new incarnation of the show would not be an exercise in nostalgia. Though many characters have returned – and boy is it great to see them again – there are new stories to be told as well as the most important query – what happened to Special Agent Dale Cooper?

This new Twin Peaks is also way more like Fire Walk With Me than the original show. The regular Lynchian quirkiness still permeates, but the darkness is front and center, at least for the majority of the first four episodes I saw. Also, in true Lynchian fashion, he doesn't feel the need to give you all the information up front. I've been digesting it since and my brain is doing somersaults and I'm loving every second of it. It happens every time Lynch gives me a new gift and I don't know that there's another filmmaker who I can say that about. Maybe Tarantino, but that's more of a oh-I-need-to-watch-every-movie-and-show-he's-referenced-here kind of thing.

I'm thrilled with what I've seen so far. You really have no idea where the story is going to go at any moment, and man that is so rare in this day and age. I'm going to cherish this revival. I really am.

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Hey everyone. It's here! It's here! It's finally here! Twin Peaks day has finally arrived! It is Happening Tonight.

I've re-watched the show & film, read the accompanying written material and absorbed all the interstitials, so all that's left to do now is watch these newest chapters. Let's Rock!

The Turn of the Century.

Cary Fukunara (of True Detective fame) is bringing Caleb Carr's novel The Alienist to the small screen and here's the trailer.

I loved the novel and it sure looks like TNT has upped their game here. One of the books greatest strengths was how well described late-1890's era New York was and I get that same impression from this trailer. I don't know if it will be as gruesome as it was in the book, but considering what NBC got away with during Hannibal's time on the air, who knows?

His Name Was David.

Montreal-based artist David Arsenau has created the ultimate Friday the 13th exhibit.

Looking at these pictures, it totally reminds me of the stuff I used to draw when I was a horror obsessed kid. Digging around trying to find that above video without the annoying ad embedded into it, I also found Arsenau's video game walkthrough project. This guy is insane!

Back To The Nineties.

It occurred to me that I hadn't done a VHS intro in a while. Digging through my newer acquisitions, I discovered this identifier for A-Pix Entertainment.

The life of A-Pix was isolated almost entirely to the nineties. Much like PM Entertainment, A-Pix distributed mainly b-grade action films and soft core thrillers, though they did produce a few horrors like 1995's The Fear and Bill Lustig's Uncle Sam (which is where I pulled the above intro).

This particular VHS bestowed many gifts with five(!) trailers and this wonderful ad for the now-defunct The Horror Shop.

As far as I can tell, this company was tied to A-Pix and sold their merch in much the way Full Moon Pictures did. I found an earlier vid of theirs that included a toll free number before they'd made the jump to the World Wide Web!

Trailer Tuesdays: Terror on Tour

I'll be re-watching Night Train To Terror at a party this weekend and it got me thinking about horror films where live music is prominently featured. I didn't have to look long before this one came up.

Directed by Don Edmonds (of Ilsa fame), Terror on Tour promises to crank the eighties cheese to eleven. Anyway, I'm hoping to post something later this week that's been a looooong time coming. Until then, be safe!