Cult Movies

Which is inane as I'm fairly certain she waxes... [Continued ...]

So I sent back the Dillion DBM-012T Red Special for a refund. Kudos to John and Tony for dealing with that and getting me refunded. However, I was left short on the whole affair since I had paid $35 dollars to ship the first guitar in on a warranty claim, plus I had bought a Graph Tech nut for it which cost me another $20 that I no longer have any use for and $7 or so for some extra trem springs. Basically, the first guitar was really poorly crafted, and over time developed issues related to wood swelling because the wood was too dry when it was made. The one I received as a warranty replacement also had some shoddy work done on it, so at that point I just gave up and returned it for a refund, which I received yesterday. I’ve given up on getting a Red Special. I’ve had nothing but bad luck with them. So, instead I called up Musician’s Friend and they gave me a 15% discount on an Ibanez SR800 bass and the matching hard shell case for it. It ended up costing more than the Red Special, but since I’m a bass player and this will be the finest bass I’ve ever owned, it was worth it. I feel settled now, and happy. When things aren’t settled, it really eats at me and consumes far too much of my thought. When I make a mistake, as I did in buying the Red Special, I prefer to get it out of my life and move on. I was hoping so bad the replacement would arrive and be perfect, but sadly, that wasn’t the case. I’m a bass player anyway, and while I do play guitar, I’m not a real guitarist. I play guitar for my own enjoyment, but bass is my main instrument, so this probably worked out for the best. Still, someday down the road, maybe I’ll try another BMG Red Special. Who knows? Only time will tell. For right now though, I have about another two days of anticipation and waiting until my new bass arrives. I just hope it’s clean and perfect. I’ve had good luck with Musician’s Friend in the past. I know if it’s not perfect I can return it for a replacement without any hassles, and without having to pay my own shipping, so at least I’m feeling safe and confident about that. Fortunately, the instruments I’ve bought from them over the years have all arrived in perfect condition, so I’m pretty sure this will be no exception.

So I’m watching this clip this morning of this old lady who survived the Oklahoma tornadoes, and she had lost her dog when her home was destroyed. During the interview, one of the news people happened to look down and see the dog under some rubble alive. They lifted the rubble and it managed to struggle out, likely quite sore and visible very shaken, but alive, and as far as I could tell, unhurt for the most part. So what does this lady do? She starts thanking God and saying that she thought he only answered one of her prayers when she prayed for herself to be all right, but now she sees he answered both of her prayers because her dog was all right too. People commented on the video things like, “Praise God!” and “God does wondrous things!” and “God is amazing!” Now I’m sorry, and I try not to swear here in this blog even though swearing tends to be a frequent part of my speech patterns in my every day life, but are you FUCKING kidding me here??? Seriously, everything around her is leveled for miles around. I don’t mean damaged, I mean LEVELED, and she can honestly look around her and thank “God” that her dog is alive? Thank Lady Luck grandma, because she’s the ONLY reason you and your dog are alive. If there was a “God”, at least one that takes the form of what the brainwashed masses suppose it to be, then he would have to be the most colossally indifferent, evil ass hole in the entire universe. A being of supposedly limitless power who is also supposedly perfect sits idly by as children are killed and people’s lives are utterly destroyed, and has the power to stop it, but doesn’t. Then that dip shit Pat Robertson has the NERVE to say that the Oklahoma devastation was caused because people didn’t pray hard enough. Again…are you kidding me??? I look at this and I can’t help but shake my head in disbelief at the level of brainwashing that takes place in the churches. Nothing is ever God’s fault. In the midst of massive devastation and utter destruction, even the tiniest good thing that happens in the middle of it is because God answered a prayer or God works in mysterious ways and he has a plan and is in control. Yeah, there’s another one. I’ve heard that a lot from religious people. God is in control. So…he was controlling the tornadoes that killed all of those people and caused that massive destruction? Really? Well then…oh, I dunno, maybe he could have steered them clear of populated areas, or gee, here’s a thought, maybe he could have stopped them all together? No really God, just if you’re not too busy. Oh, you’re on the crapper? Oh ok then, we’ll just dig ourselves out. Let us know when you’re done. The sad part is, it’ll never phase these people in the least how ridiculous, limiting and utterly destructive their beliefs are. It’s sad that religion still has that much of a control over people’s thinking, but when people drag their kids to church with them from birth and it’s hammered into their heads from the time they pop out of the mother, I can’t really blame them, because they’ve never known anything else. Still, how can any adult human being look around them after something like that and still believe there’s a god? Many who survived the German death camps in WWII understood that there could be no god that laid any claim of being good, loving and merciful that would allow something like that to happen, and that if there was truly some sort of a god out there, then he was actually vile, arrogant, supremely indifferent and not worth even a second of our lives to worship him. I have really given up trying to deprogram people from their religious indoctrination. It just doesn’t work. It makes them miserable and me miserable and everyone around miserable, so I’ve given up

Sorry for my absence yesterday; Joe Bannerman was visiting, and we spent much of the extended weekend (get ready) watching bad movies…actually, we watched more good movies, so it was weird that way. Back to back (albeit one in the late evening, the next in the following morning) we watched Hausu (aka House) and Umberto Lenzi’s Ghosthouse. Both of which Sandy Petersen introduced me to, so I was just paying it forward as Joe had seen neither. I’m not much for ‘stuff’ movies, where ‘stuff’ just happens with no rhyme or reason. Hausu is the rare movie, though, that always seems to know what it’s about despite the fact that is it continually and utterly nuts. Ghosthouse is the exact opposite, making a very interesting compare and contrast, given that both films are haunted house movies that make not a lick of sense. The difference being that all the characters in Ghosthouse are utterly retarded; indeed, this might be the single most moronic group of people in horror film history. Ghosthouse also seems to have been made by idiots, a vibe you most definitely do NOT get when watching Hausu. On the other hand, both films are wildly entertaining, and turn out to make a dynamite double bill. Hausu is available via a typically wonderful Criterion disc, while Ghosthouse (Sandy had given me a copy, but it doesn’t play on my DVD player) I was able to burn a really quite decent copy off of from YouTube, where the entire film is posted. Related PostsMonster of the Day #682 (May 3, 2013) Monster of the Day #681 (May 2, 2013) Monster of the Day #680 (Apr 23, 2013) Monster of the Day #679 (Apr 22, 2013) Monster of the Day #677 (Apr 18, 2013)

The long and storied history of film marketing and publicity can be summed up in images. On May 16, at the Black Museum's final lecture in its second semester, Andrea Butler discussed the evolution of movie posters in general and horror posters in particular. The purpose of the movie poster hasn't changed much over the years, but how the posters meet that purpose have.Movie posters evolved primarily from the carnival poster. Although "higher" forms of art and entertainment used posters for advertising, film wasn't regarded on the same level as the theatre therefore its marketing campaigns took after the spectacle associated with more plebeian diversions. The first posters merely advertised the fact that movies were being shown and focused on engaging the audience through spectatorship.Over time, as film became less of a novelty, the attention shifted away from the audience and toward film content. Early 20th century movie posters used scenes of violence to titillate and attract viewers--it didn't matter if the movie was violent or not, the lurid images displayed on the film poster brought people to the cinema. Eventually, the violence on display--and the fraudulent use of violent images--caused an uproar and poster art was standardized in 1915.Around this time, the star system was gaining momentum and that had a huge influence on poster art. Film had gained legitimacy and where before stars were disinclined to have their names and likenesses used for film advertising, there were now the focus of marketing and publicity campaigns. This gave birth to the "disembodied floating head" poster design, which is still used today.Throughout the 1930s, the decade in which horror really thrived and came into its own in America, horror movie stars became inextricably linked with their characters. Not the heroes, mind you. But the monsters. Here is where the image became the icon. Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff were recognized for their performance as the villains, and their names, faces, and characters were conflated for the purposes of selling the audience on the movies; the bigger the name and face on the poster, the bigger the star. This same decade also introduced the image of the woman in peril.Poster art changed again in the 1950s. This was the era of the B-movie, when science and technology featured heavily in the story as a force of evil. The star system was in decline and so posters began to shift away from recognizable faces. The monsters themselves became the the focus of poster art, as well as fear. Here, too, advertisers started calling out to the audience through image and text. The only real exception to this rule of monsters was Vincent Price. His face and name appeared on his movie posters, while other actors were simply billed in a cast list.The mid-century gimmick movies involved the audience directly as participants in the cinematic experience, and these movies' posters were equally engaging. Posters dared the audience to see the film and advertised the kind of experience they would have at the movie theatre.With the capture of Ed Gein at the end of the 1950s, serial murder entered the American consciousness and made its way onto the silver screen. Horror movies in the 1960s featured human killers and lots of gore, and their posters were similarly lurid. The Hayes code was still in effect for much of the 60s, so the violent images were relatively small, while most of the posters' real estate was held over for text. Playing opposite the gore films was a more emotional and cerebral horror, and their posters showed equal restraint. Appealing to the audience's imagination, these posters hinted at horror and violence instead of displaying it for all to see.With the 1970s came an end to restraint. Horror movie posters went whole hog with the violence and gore: eviscerated bodies, the insides on the outside, enormous monsters, and women in deadly peril. But the more human the monster became, the more complex his representation

In a nutshell: It's another entry in Cecil's more serious "Exploring" series, as he takes a deeper look into the Chernobyl disaster and how it influenced the horror film Chernobyl Diaries. Six young tourists take an "extreme tour" of Pripyat, Ukraine, the abandoned city near the Chernobyl reactor, and as you might expect, things don't end well for them.

After finally seeing KILMA, QUEEN OF THE JUNGLE (1975) I find myself in a Jungle Girl mood! I might have to seek out more examples of the sub-genre for Summertime viewing. Luckily there are a few I haven't seen although I don't think I'm going to be impressed with a high level of acting. Just sayin'.

Why doesn't anyone give this guy money for a film? Ego aside, he's fucking awesome and while La Danza de la Realidad is nowhere near as surreal as Holy Mountain or El Topo, it looks fantastic nonetheless. [Continued ...]

Usually I get swamped with short horror films, gore-fests and Troma wannabe’s and most recently, Asian erotic thrillers (don’t get me wrong, these are good things and I love stuff like that). Then out of nowhere, I received something a little different: A martial arts film that wasn’t a Godfrey Ho cut and paste movie or a Bruce-sploitation flick. So I got curious and checked out the trailer for a little short indy flick called Sins of the Dragon and let me tell you something… I was not expecting to see the awesomeness that I saw. (Editor’s note: I’m totally surprised to see that awesomeness is a word. That squiggly red line didn’t appear under it when I typed it) Sins of the Dragon isn’t your straight forward martial arts flick. It’s also a fantasy film, so it doesn’t take place at any specific time in history or in the future. Hell, maybe not even this world. But where and when never come into question. Right from the get-go, they explain what you need to know: There are four separate territories and each is ruled by a dragon. Well, the dragon is actually a martial arts master that possesses superhuman abilities. So what do you think if, for example, someone decides they are going to kill the other dragons and gain their powers? They would rule the world, duh! And it just so happens that someone is doing exactly that. He goes by the name Caligo and wears like this half Jason mask on the bottom half of his face. This is where the movie opens up at actually. We see Caligo fighting Master Sozen, who looks kinda like Raiden from Mortal Kombat (well, actually he is wearing the same hat, but to be honest, I forgot what those were called, so I knew you would be able to follow along if I made that reference). Caligo informs the Master Sozen, and the audience, that he has already killed two of the dragons and is about to make it three. Sins of the Dragon does actually build up their characters and makes sympathetic. Cunri lives with an almost uncontrollable rage, due to his village being slaughtered by Caligo during his quest to kill the other dragons. Thus, it orphaned Cunri, but as fate would have it, he is trained by Master Shaw and met Kaia. See, not all bad, right? Lose your family, gain awesome martial arts skills. Even Steven? All of this boils down to the final showdown between Cunri and Caligo, after he and Kaia are attacked and exhausted by a group of ninjas. Cunri must use all of his skill to defeat the now almost invincible Caligo. But what of Kaia? What about her fate? Everything rests on this battle! You’ve probably been seeing the phrase ‘martial arts’ a bit in this review and you must be wondering, “Is there actually any martial arts and is it any good?” To answer it simply: Yes. Oh lord, yes. Sins of the Dragon has more impressive fight choreography than any other big budget movie in the past few years. It’s actually very impressive. The plot itself is also quite impressive. The characters have an anime vibe to them; Cunri being the brooding protagonist with his smart-arse she-sidekick as they encounter a group of buffoonish thieves; one who is the ‘brain’, one who gets lost in his own metaphors and the third is the silent type all on a quest to stop an evil villain. Sins of the Dragon definitely sets up a fantasy world and invites you in without overwhelming you with complicated mythos or an overabundance of unnecessary back story. It also has its share of special effects that are pretty decent considering the budget and type of film it is, but it’s not what it’s about and you won’t be paying any attention to it once they start roundhouse kicking everyone. It’s an easy film to sit down, watch and enjoy some major butt kicking! Running in at just under half an hour, everything is well developed and fleshed out, you’ll feel like you watched an episode of some new anime and you want to see what happens next to these characters and you want to see where they go. In a short amount of time, you do feel attached to these ch

In a nutshell: Solkir reviews the dumb (yet fascinating) Steel, starring Shaquille O'Neal as a weapons designer who grows a conscience and designs a powerful suit of armor so he can be a superhero. In the comics, Steel's origin was tied up in the '90s Death of Superman saga, but there's no sign of Superman here. Instead, we get Judd Nelson, the Not-Oracle, and a brand new dialect created by future sex tape star Ray J.