Bates Motel - The 80s TV Movie

It was 1987, arguably the pinnacle of the decade. The Psycho series just had its third entry and the series was in a good place at the time... so, for some reason, they pitched an idea for another entry in the saga...

"Hey, what if the sequels never happened and Norman isn't even in it?!"

Who will be the main star then?

"Oh, that's easy! It'll be Norman's protege in the institution!"

So already, we're off to a strange start, but okay. So we have some awkward looking guy inheriting the Bates Motel and we spend about two-thirds of this movie with our new owner Alex West as he fixes up the motel.

Honestly, not much happens in that time as he really is just going through basic procedures on how to reopen the motel and all the hoopla that goes with it. He meets a few people along the way, such as Gregg Henry who gives him a loan, Moses Gunn who helps him design the place, and Lori Petty who helps him run the place. Pretty standard fare, but passable.

At least they use the same sets, so we're still in the classic Psycho house and they try to utilize all the locations, but the movie is pretty lite on the horror. We have a vague idea that the place is haunted, and we deal with a little bit of backstory with Norman's parents and their missing bodies.

Then, the final act goes on a tangent that has almost nothing to do with our protagonist, but rather a slightly supernatural subplot involving a depressed (and sexy) aerobics instructor who joins Jason Bateman for a dance. It's at this point that you start to wonder if you're watching an episode of some anthology series, but it'll come as little suprise that this tv movie was a failed pilot.

Toward the last few minutes, things return to the main premise in what could be considered a real Scooby Doo ending.

Speaking of Scooby Doo, remember one of the endings in Wayne's World when they unmask Benjamin and it turns out to be Old Man Withers, played by Carmen Filpi? Well, Carmen Filpi has a scene with another iconic hobo actor George Buck Flower. To see them both playing bums in the same frame makes this a trash epic in its own right.

So overall, the movie ain't bad, but it's barely barely barely got anything to do with horror. If the series took off, I'm not quite sure where it would go other than in some preposterously random subplots, but I'd give 'em a watch. It's also fun to read the imdb trivia page, which claims that Anthony Perkins watched the film and described it as "just terrible". 😄

Anybody remember The Frighteners?

Once upon a time, Peter Jackson made good movies. It was a long time ago, before he made his boring epic fantasy garbage about elves and midgets who walked places. He used to make horror movies, and The Frighteners was the last good movie he made and seemingly his last venture into the genre itself. Then he sold his soul and became a Hollywood legend. What a dick...

So while this film starts with a lot of atmospheric haunted house imagery, it also starts with some really bad CGI. It probably looked good at the time, but it's kind of painful to watch now. Of course, there's also some good CGI involving the regular ghosts, because yes. This is a ghost movie, but it's a rather comedic take on these traditionally creepy themes.

Michael J. Fox plays Frank Bannister, a paranormal investigator who is also a con-man. He has the profound ability to see and interact with ghosts and he uses this to his advantage to make a living, but as the tagline suggests, "Death is no way to make a living".

The cast is quite wonderful in this. Dee Wallace plays a traumatized shut-in who lives with her overbearing mother after having been involved with a mass murderer played by Jake Busey. Now, if they ever made a good film about Venom and Carnage, Jake Busey demonstrates a perfect rendition of Cleetus Cassidy. He was born to play Carnage, but he seemingly never will.

This film also features horror icon Jeffrey Combs as a peculiar FBI agent butting heads with our protagonist due to Frank's shady backstory. This dude is fidgety and has some serious issues with women. He's always fun to watch.

The side characters are great too, including Chi McBride as the disco afro who helps Frank, R. Lee Ermey as the drill sergeant guardian of the cemetery who naturally wants to protect all those maggot-infested apparitions, Troy Evans as the sheriff who actually believes in Frank's abilities, and then Trini Alvaredo (who I don't know anything else she's been in) does good too.

Spoilers who have seen the movie... Dee Wallace does a fantastic job as a maniacal psychopath. She looks like she had a lot of fun running around blasting holes in the walls with shotguns and stabbing shit with big knives. Too bad you don't see certain actors playing crazy people more often. For instance, I would have loved to see Jack Nicholson play a homicidal maniac in more than just The Shining, and Matthew McConaughey as a psycho in more than just TCM4 and Killer Joe. Some people do too good of a job at having a screw loose and are underutilized in their talents.

The story has some interesting interweaving plotlines going on and some good concepts. Again, some of the CGI is really tacky and the horror elements are more cliche than scary, but Peter Jackson was always more of a horror/comedy guy, and there's no problem with the balance in here. I've always liked this movie.

Bloodline, a Dexter-esque Movie

I wont go on too much about this movie because it's one of those types that it's best to go into blindly and see where it takes you. Seann William Scott plays a social worker at a high school and his wife just gave birth. However, the stories he hears from the students, coupled with the stress of raising a new child have made him a bit unhinged. Or was he always that way?

It's a decent little thriller with a few good bits of gore and torture. I found a lot it comparable to Dexter in many ways. Particularly Dexter season 4, so if you've seen that season, you'll probably know what I'm talking about.

Stay Alive (2006)

So today I watched Stay Alive. Years ago, I saw the trailer and thought this movie looked cool, but I never watched it. I still though the movie looked cool, and the concept seemed very interesting. For the most part it was intriguing. It wasn't the best thing out there, but I didn't hate it. I think I have a soft spot for movies that have this kind of concept. Like final destination, and truth or dare. Mostly I like seeing the different ways people get killed.

Anyways, have y'all seen this movie? I would love to hear your thoughts on it!

Did you hear? We're getting another Chainsaw Massacre...

From the producer of the Evil Dead remake, and guess what? It's going to be... a direct sequel to the original. 😐

And I thought the continuity for the Halloween series was bad! It's like they're not even trying anymore. They're rehashing and rehashing until they're rehashing a rehashed rehash. What's wrong with continuity these days?

Remember when they already did a direct sequel to the original in 2013? It may have lacked grit, but it was still a fun movie and its heart was in the right place. And if you also remember, that movie was supposed to kickstart a deal with Lionsgate to produce a total of six films, but that never happened. Instead, we got another prequel instead. Granted, it was a prequel to neither the original nor remake seeing as how it doesn't share any of the characters, and leatherface wasn't even retarded in it. More of a spin-off than anything.

I predict this next film will have yet again another different family, because Leatherface has thousands of relatives that he stays with. There's no word on the timeline of this one yet, because when we finally brought this film to modern times with the 2013 film, the following film took us straight back not to the 70s, but even earlier! Why does Leatherface need to be stuck in the past? If Michael can make it to modern times, why can't Bubba?

I shouldn't expect anything from the series at this point. Either way, I'm going to end up watching it and I'll probably end up liking it just I have every other movie, but I think their approach is always off. We'll see what happens...

2019 Sci-Fi/Fantasy Challenge Results

Snowy won by a lot. Congratulations to her.

I wanted to watch a lot more than I did. The Outer Limits was going to be my main source of points, but I just couldn't get into it.

Snowy_Owl: 9048

jimb14red: 5913

Der_Tables: 4589

BloodWank: 2477

ZombieCPA: 2139

Box_a_Hair: 1680

markus-san: 860

Ballz: 811

Bambithedeer: 509

Gymnopedie: 319

PickOfDestiny: 142

Serenity (2005)

I just saw this a couple days ago, for the first time in ages. Is anyone here a big fan?? Of either Serenity or the show Firefly? I have never seen Firefly.

I'm asking because it has an intriguing way of presenting some ideas that are probably Libertarian, or... well, at least conservative in a way that I can see the sense in. The Nathan Fillion character has a little soliloquy where he talks about how the people who run society in the world(s) shown in the movie are often coming up with plans and schemes to make people... dramatic pause.... "better." And his character does not hold with such schemes, he doesn't buy them, or, in short, he thinks they're a great big stinking load of Sumatran Rat Monkey shit.

That's actually a pretty interesting point, and the movie makes it in a good way, I think. It is more interesting to watch the movie now then it was when it came out, because all the social media influencers and whatever corporations, hedge fund managers, or countries fund them are all trying to influence us in different ways, all the time. There were similar things happening in the 90s and early 2000s when Serenity was written, God knows, but I think a lot of people would agree that it's far worse now.

Hey, here's the soliloquy I'm talking about:



Also, the idea that the Reavers were sort of a side effect of all the well-meaning social engineering is interesting, too. They probably would have turned out to be more or less normal people, but they had an extreme reaction to one of the schemes the overlords of society were testing, in their attempt to make people better.... It makes me think of mass shooters, people who might not have been THAT crazy if they weren't subjected to the social pressures of today's world, but who ended up very radicalized and dangerous..

The crew of the spaceship Serenity appear to be some kind of smugglers, and at least one or two of them were veterans of some big war that must have happened in Firefly. They are not upstanding members of society, and that's an important element of the show.

So anyway, it's a pretty interesting movie. If you haven't seen it in awhile, I bet you would find that it has more meaning for you in today's world than it did when it came out. That's what I think, God damn it, and I will die on that hill!!!!!! Well, no, hopefully not, but I feel like I'm on to something here. When it came out, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Instagram, and comparable social media venues were all a lot smaller, and some of them probably didn't exist at all. We all have our own theories about who is behind various movements that exist on these platforms, and we don't all agree about which of those influencers are the biggest shitheads, but I think we tend to agree that it generally sucks to be subliminally led to think things you might not have thought on your own.

Aaaaanywho.... thoughts?

The Witching Hour Is Fats Approching and The October Horror Challenge Is About to Commence.

I always get pumper for the OHC. It's usually the highlight of the month, well, second to celebrating Halloween with the little one. How's everyone popping their cherry and when is everyone starting the challenge.

I'll be starting at the midnight with Night of the Living dead. Actually planning on pulling and all nighter and working my way through the Dead trilogy. Beyond that, I haven't planned ahead.

2019 Trash Epics Actor Draft Sign Up Thread

This thread is for sign-ups. Rules and discusion can be found here https://trashepics.com/post/2/41/
Sign-Up's will Close 3/10/2019 at 2399 GMT

Please respond with /in as (drafter/voter)

Drafters
1. Gymnopedie
2. Box a Hair
3. Ballz
4. Foz(willing to vote if drafters fill up)
5.
6.
7.
8.

Voters
1. Marcus-San
2. Bambi
3. Snowy
4.

Terminator and the 12 Monkeys

Isn't it funny how often the year 1997 is used in dystopian cinema? On August 29th, 1997, Skynet launched the nukes that killed 3 billion people. In 1997, a virus wipes out 5 billion people in 12 Monkeys. In 1997, Snake Plissken has to rescue the president in Escape from New York. In 1997, Los Angeles is a ghetto mess in Predator 2. In 1997, Turbo Kid has to fight a tyrant in the wasteland. What a year, huh?

Besides the year, Terminator and 12 Monkeys are almost the same movie. After a massive population loss, a guy from a dreary future travels back in time to take back the future. He is apprehended and doubted by authority figures, he falls in love with a reluctant heroine, and he's caught in a time loop where he dies in the end... or is it the beginning?

And reminiscent to T2, our protagonists end up in a mental institution at one point or another. Also, both movies eventually got tv shows years later. Either way, I think both of these are phenomenal movies.