You Should Have Left (2020)

Kevin Bacon reteams with Stir of Echoes director David Koepp for a weird psychological thriller about a family that moves into a country house that quickly starts to drive Kevin Bacon crazy.

With that said, the setup has Kevin Bacon (61) married to Amanda Seyfried (34). They play on the age difference a bit and he gets jealous of her acting career and thinks she's cheating on him with other men her own age. They do have a kid together though, and that's what keeps him sane about the whole thing. Sort of. You see, the little daughter eventually asks her mom why people hate daddy so much, and she's informed of a less than honorable backstory about his first wife, and well... it builds off of that.

It's a pretty decent story. I love when Kevin Bacon ventures into darker material, and he does a great job. However, while the story is pretty interesting, I can't help but think that the author (book written in 2017) was heavily inspired by Stephen King and Joe Hill's "In the Tall Grass" (book written in 2012). I'd watched In the Tall Grass (2019) a few months back and they're very similar.

Ben Drowned

If anyone here has heard of the creepypasta Ben Drowned, there's a YouTuber named Nexpo that just made a movie version of it for the 10th anniversary of the creepypasta. If you haven't heard of it, it's the story of a guy who finds a copy of The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask at a yard sale. As he plays the game, he realizes there is something seriously fucked up with the version he is playing. I think it's the best-haunted gaming creepypasta out there.

The original creator of Ben Drowned goes by the name Jadusable on YouTube. He uses footage from the game and it's pretty creepy and unsettling at times. You can find his playlist on his Youtube channel Jadusable. I highly recommend you check his videos out.

If interested, here's the link to Nexpo's video.

Bill & Ted Face the Music trailer

The world needs this message now more than ever. Be excellent to each other.

June 2020 Slasher Challenge Sign-up/Rules thread!

Okay so I apologize for any confusion in my previous post.

JUNE 2020 SLASHER CHALLENGE!!!!!

This challenge begins June 1st at midnight and will end on July 1st at midnight. ANY SLASHER MOVIE COUNTS. I'm not just limiting it to camp movies.**

There are a few ways to earn points.
2pts if it is a FTV
1pt for each kill. It has to be by the killer!
1pt per slasher watched



•1 pt per slasher watched no matter what. If it is your FTV you still get the point for the per slasher watched.•


BONUS POINTS
1 bonus point if the final girl gets killed (Has to be in the same movie)

Bonus points if you watch an entire series. For example, if you watch all scream movies that's 4 extra points. •You can add it at the last movie of the series•

1 bonus point if it is a camp slasher movie Ex: sleepaway camp...etc

I was going to incorporate trifectas but the way I worded it didn't make any sense, so NO trifectas this challenge. Just based on points!

Again, I apologize for any confusion in my last post. I really hope this sounds better!


Please sign up down below! I hope you are all excited just as I am!

Clouds

Clouds look like little fluffy bunnies, but you can't pet them 😩. Can't shoot the bastards either.

Miracle Mile (1988)

Hey, Miracle Mile is on Demand! I like that movie a lot. I don't see any comments about it here, but I'm sure we've talked about it before.... maybe in the shout box? Anyway, the idea of the movie is that a guy at an all night coffee shop answers a wrong number phone call at a phone booth outside the coffee shop, and is basically told that a nuclear war is about to begin, in a matter of minutes. I'll include a link to that scene, down below... He goes inside and tells the people in the coffee shop what he heard on the phone, and they have to decide what to do. This is all happening at 4:00 AM (in Los Angeles).

One thing I like about it is that it has the guy who played the sergeant from Robocop, the guy who says "Forget it kid. This guy's a serious asshole" in Robocop. The actor's name was Robert DoQui. (He's dead now). He doesn't have a huge part, but he really "brings it," and gets super intense and probably saves a few people's lives.

Possibly the most improbable element of the story is the Denise Crosby character. She is supposed to be some kind of very, very highly educated, bright, quick, self-possessed, organized, well-connected stockbroker or mutual fund manager who happens to be in the coffee shop at 4:00 AM. She has a mobile phone (in 1988, for crying out loud), and happens to be simultaneously speed-reading the Cliff Notes for Gravity's Rainbow, glancing quickly at the Wall Street Journal, and monitoring the Greek stock market (in Greek) on a television when the guy walks in after he takes the nuclear war phone call. I mean, Jesus Christ. It's hard to imagine anyone having their shit more together than her character. The odds of finding somebody like that to bounce ideas off at 4:00 AM in some random coffee shop would have to be, um... rather low. She is able to quickly make a few phone calls that don't ENTIRELY confirm that nuclear war is happening, but give her enough of a sense that it could be that she starts very quickly organizing a jet flight to Antarctica. She mentions that she used to date a guy who worked at the RAND Corporation who had told her some useful info, and she knows the phone numbers of some kind of US Senate staff people and military higher-ups who can verify that SOMETHING very big is going down. I mean, I like Denise Crosby, I like her character, and I like the movie, but Jesus Christ, there is no way in hell you would just happen to bump into someone like that, at a moment like that.

There are other things to like about the movie... such as Kurt Fuller!!! He's pretty hilarious as a pissed-off druggy businessman of some kind, who knows the Denise Crosby character somehow. The main character is Anthony Edwards, and Mare Winningham from the Brat Pack is his love interest. Mykelti Williamson is in it too. He has some pretty funny lines at first, but his role is sad by the end. As are most of the other characters, I suppose.

Anyway, as I said, it's free On Demand right now. Here, this is the scene that gives you the essential idea of what is going on in the movie.

So, anyway. Speaking of racism...



There are a lot of theories on what is racist and what isn't. Or who is the most racist and who might have a right to be. I'm not here to attempt to clear up anything for anybody, as this subject isn't my area of expertise, and not a subject I find all that entertaining. Although when it comes to comedy, all bets are off for me. There are plenty of dark subjects that CAN be funny. Not always, and especially if not timed all that great, but it's a thing, nonetheless. They don't call it dark comedy for nothing, and ultimately, comedy is comedy, which only has one purpose. Today's movie is a comedy, and at times, it may sound like a dark one, but I'm not so sure after watching it. And as you probably gathered, racism plays a big role in making this movie what it is. However, don't let that turn you away because it all comes from a good place in the end. Denzel Washington's first role, in a very unlikely comedy for the times, and one that has been lost to the ages of sorts, but deserving of some love now more than ever. This is Carbon Copy.

Walter Whitney is currently living the good life, as he's been doing for some years, now. In a way, the good life, and in a way, a cold, lonely life without love, laughter or support. Walter walked away from the woman he loved years ago in favor of the family he is supposedly now part of. A wealthy, powerful family that has provided him with a place in the company and in their gated community. And in a way, in their lives, while treating him with just enough respect to keep him around. Walter doesn't ask questions. He just goes to work and enjoys the good life, considering himself lucky that he doesn't have to bust his ass for what he gets. Maybe if Walter actually thought about things, perhaps he'd realize that he doesn't really belong here.

Things are soon about to change drastically for ol' Walter. And when it's all said and done, he just might come out of it a better, wiser man. However, there may be some growing pains along the way. One day, a 17 year old black kid named Roger Porter, drops by the office with some bad news. Roger's mother, the woman Walter left all those years ago, has died. While Walter clearly doesn't care much for the young man, he is noticeably upset by this. Almost as upset as he is by the news that Roger is also HIS son. When Walter left Lorraine, he didn't know it, but he was leaving his own family. His real family. Comfortable with his current surroundings, Walter isn't in the mood to be rocking any boats. He has to figure out something, and fast because this kid seems to think he is owed something. While he's not super close with any of them, Walter knows his wife and her father well enough to get that this simply will not fly.

Roger, who is a total smart ass, by the way, isn't shy about suggesting adoption, but Walter won't hear of it. Instead, he thinks up a plan that might get Roger's foot in the door while he figures out what to do about this. Walter tries convincing the wife that they should partake in this trendy program where rich families take in "colored orphans" for the summer. The plan works, as the wife is cleverly talked into seeing this as an attractive offer. Things go smoothly until the wife and step-daughter make it clear that Walter ultimately has no say in this or anything that goes on in the house. Angered by such arrogance, and eager to make a point, Walter blurts out his secret. The young black kid they're letting sleep in the garage is actually Walter's son. Stupidly thinking this news would increase the level of hospitality, Walter is clued in on a cold, hard truth he probably already suspected: Walter is considered very much expendable by everyone in this family, and if he was to get too out of line, well, he might just find himself homeless... and jobless!

I'll just say it. As nonchalant as they are about it, it's pretty obvious that Walter's family are not only a bunch of racists, but apparently blatant white supremacists. It's almost like they think that by associating with this kid that they're giving the entire race an advantage it doesn't deserve, screwing up the natural order of things. A belief that they supposedly stand by so strongly, they would be willing to cut one of their own loose. However, it would probably take far less for them to send Walter packing, and that's actually what bugs him at first. Not so much the racism, but the principle. Walter is soon informed that his cushy job is no more as his credit cards are confiscated. And if that wasn't enough, Walter eventually learns that every single paycheck he has earned for the last 17 years was put in an account which is in the wife's name, only. Jobless, nearly penniless, his lawyer won't help him, his friends shun him. Apparently, there were entire communities in 80's California that hated black people THIS much. As Roger observes all of this, seemingly clueless, it becomes clear that Walter is screwed.

With poverty ahead of him and a seemingly dependant, smart ass son following him around, Walter has to dig down deep and figure something out quick. After surprisingly no luck finding work, Walter ends up settling for hard labor. This earns him just enough for him and Roger to live like shit while Walter waits for the kid to reach adulthood. Maybe while Walter is rebuilding his life and dignity, he will also learn a thing or two about himself, as well as a lesson in equality. And with a little luck, maybe Walter will find some happiness along the way.

Yeah, I'm not convinced Denzel was the best pick to play half-white but that's neither here nor there, and he was pretty good in this, just the same. You get the idea his character is smarter than he lets on, but you're never sure to what extent. Roger is just pushy enough to make things a little more difficult for Walter, but never without a smile. This is one unique film with an unusual commentary on racism. I have to say, I found it all quite interesting and very much worth talking about. When reading about this movie, I wouldn't have expected all the racism to be expressed so dryly and casually. And George Segal's character of Walter makes the humorous aspect of it all work well. While never treating his own son more than half-civil for obvious reasons, Walter still has the nerve to play the sole victim in this story. A story about a man so stubborn and proud, he will stop at nothing to prove that he can make it without the insecure tyrants who so easily casted him aside. All this for refusing to cast out the blackness from his life. As we the viewer watch Walter continuously fall on his ass, we wait patiently for him to get over himself. To move past his own damaged pride enough to realize exactly how wrong all this really is, and that maybe he's not the only person to ever be treated unfairly. All I can say is this movie doesn't disappoint on any level. 6/10



#Review

Is the Song Tainted Love

About a man getting his gooch licked?

The Devil's Game, by Poul Anderson

Anybody ever read this? There must be a Poul Anderson fan or two in here. Anyone? Anyone? That is the correct spelling of his first name, by the way, P O U L. Notice that O is at the opposite side of the keyboard from A, soooo that's not a typo. I think the name might be Danish.

Anyway, the story is sort of a cross between the movie The Legacy (1978) and the TV show Survivor. The book I'm talking about came out a long time ago, in the late 70s or early 80s. It's about a bunch of people who get called to a remote island in the Caribbean, to take part in a contest overseen by an eccentric millionaire who is friendly with an entity who seems to be some kind of demon.

It's a pretty old book, but I just thought I'd mention it in case anyone here is a particularly huge fan of The Legacy, Survivor, or Poul Anderson.

Confessions of a Serial Killer (1985)

Anyone seen this? It's based on Henry Lee Lucas and was made, as far as I know, shortly before Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer.

Unlike the 1986 John McNaughton film, Confessions changes the names of everyone involved. So instead of Henry, we have Daniel and instead of Otis, we have Moon.

Even for someone familiar with the real life crimes, Confessions has plenty to offer and despite the fact that it pulls from the same source material, it goes in a completely different direction than Henry.

One of the biggest differences I liked in Confessions is that it's the complete opposite of Henry's art house approach. Confessions is just plain ugly, skid row, and miserable. You may be thinking "hmmm, but wasn't Henry those things?" It actually somehow makes Henry seem commercial and slick by comparison.

I found it to be every bit as powerful, disturbing and nightmarish as Henry. Possibly even moreso if you can believe it.