Human servants of vampires

30 Days of Night is on, and it got me thinking about the Ben Foster character. A lot of vampire movies have a human or two who serve as some kind of accomplice or servant to a vampire master. They are almost like a witch's "familiar," in some ways... almost a pet.

Dracula had Renfield. In Salem's Lot, Barlow had Straker. In Fright Night, Jerry had Billy Cole. In The Forsaken (2001) (forgive me for even knowing what The Forsaken is, but I happened to watch it fairly recently, God help me) the Johnathan Schaech character had Pen, the Simon Rex character. In 30 Days of Night, the vamps had the Ben Foster character.

Googling around, I see people seem to use different terms to describe these human servants. They get called drudges, thralls... I thought I was being original in associating them with witch familiars, but Maybe I read that somewhere before, because I see other people saying the same thing online...

Anyone have anything to say about this type of thing?? Any movies I am forgetting, with a character like Renfield, Straker, Billy Cole, etc? Or, any names for them that I haven't come across?

Castle Rock, season 1

The 10-episode Hulu season has come to its end, so was it worth it?


It starts off kinda slow, because it's all setup, but around halfway through the season, you start to get an idea of where you're going with it. It's rather bizarre at times, and the later half of the season is back and forth in its continuity (but continuity itself plays a big part of this season). I started to like all these characters though, and the whole show was weird and moody enough. It does seem like something Stephen King would have written, even though I'm pretty sure he only had a limited producer role, if any involvement.

You got to wonder what King himself thinks of this show. He's gone on record saying he doesn't like certain adaptions of his work (like The Shining 1980), but I don't know...

I'm not all that familiar with King's works, but the biggest connections I can name are the city of Castle Rock itself, former sheriff Alan Pangborn (The Dark Half, Needful Things), and Shawshank prison.

Some characters like Jane Levy's Jackie Torrence seem rather shoe-horned, but it looks like they may be saving that for another season. I hear that each season will revolve around another weird happening in the town, which is probably the best way to go about it. This story is wrapped rather concisely, I feel. Not sure I understand the whole thing, but I liked most of it.

The Purge (new TV show on USA)

Is anyone watching this? I have seen the first two Purge movies, and I liked them, so I'm giving it a shot. I still have to get caught up on the other Purge movies... hopefully this TV show doesn't assume viewers have watched them all.

Anyway, so far I like it. There are at least four major plotlines, as far as I can tell. A young marine recently back from... whatever future war they made up, probably Iran or Venezuela... anyway, he is out, as the Purge rages all around him, sometimes getting him into serious trouble, looking for his little sister. She (the little sister) has become part of a demented cult, led by Brad Dourif's insanely cool daughter Fiona. So, the little sister dealing with the cult is another plot line. I could say more about that, but I'll just not talk about it too much so I don't spoil anything for anyone. Another plot line is a young female executive... probably supposed to be in her late 20's or early 30's. She is dealing with some kind of glass ceiling problem at work I think, and she is contemplating, and perhaps pursuing, certain Purgey ways of dealing with her shithead boss. The last plot line so far is about a young couple who go to a dress up party, at the home of some people who appear to be super super super high up in the political party that started the whole idea of The Purge. The young couple seem to be nice people so far, but we'll have to see where that story goes. They were once involved in a menage a trois with the hot daughter of the politically higher-up people, by the way.

So anyway, so far I like it. It's only two episodes in. I saw an interview with someone that made it seem like there should be at least one other plotline, but if they have started it yet I missed it. Maybe I was making a sandwich or something.

Anyway, so far so good. Anyone have anything they'd like to say about it?? Whoa, I just reminded myself of Tromafreak.

Judy (2014, Italy) - I really enjoyed this one

Just getting into the Necrostorm films. I started with Judy and Taeter City because they were free on Amazon Prime. I have yet to see the others, including Adam Chaplin. Taeter City was pretty interesting, but Judy was really cool.

JUDY (2014) - A team of street performers terrorize a young woman in her house. This low-budget home invasion film is really creepy. The street performers have terrifying facial make-up and masks, and a bizarre "trick" involving a spiked crate with nails sticking out of it. Most surprisingly, there's a fantastic amount of suspense after our protagonist has a confrontation with those nasty looking villains near the very beginning. So much so, that the viewer may question the entire premise of the film, which is impressive. This is a "Necrostorm" film, but there's an astounding amount of patience that is exhibited by the filmmakers to avoid graphic violence for a while (after the opening scene, of course). Our protagonist does make a few bone-headed moves when danger is presented, but I can forgive that because this movie balances suspense, disturbing violence, and demented villains very nicely. The English dub was viewed.

Any thoughts on this one, or the other Necrostorm films?

Hollow Gate: The Death of 80's Horror



It really doesn't get much better than 80's Horror, does it? Maybe it wasn't the all around best era as far as quality goes, but it was the most fun. The genre was also at it's most marketable, as well. In those days, Horror was everywhere, and at one point, that didn't look to be changing any time soon. So, what the hell happened? Long story short, '88 and '89 happened!

Stepfather II happened, Iced happened, Moonstalker happened! I could go on and on. SO many Horror films were being made by now, and SO many people were making them. Some of these people weren't even directors, and some of the actual directors probably shouldn't have been allowed anywhere near the Horror genre. An abundance of bad Horror is a bad thing, now, you ask? No, not exactly. In '88 and '89, there just wasn't a huge difference between mainstream Horror and B-Horror. It was all cheesy, meant to be more fun than scary, but more often than not, late 80's Horror, in general, was completely uninspired and bland. Just going through the motions, waiting to be put out of its misery before it can ultimately be reborn into something better. Today, we're going to talk about one of the last gasps of breath from the peak of the Horror genre. A useless pile of schlock called Hollow Gate. A movie, I, personally, find very entertaining. Although I'm probably in the minority.

Hollow Gate begins on Halloween, but this isn't exactly a Michael Myersesque story, though, as much as it might be trying to get there. At his own Halloween party, some kid, who sucks at apple bobbing, shames himself and his family by making the mistake of taking a crack at it. Seriously, this kid really sucks. His father, who may or may not be drunk, can only take so much of this, and does what any drunken, abusive father would do in his position: He attempts to drown the little fucker!

If only drunk 'ol dad had succeeded. What happened to Mark Walters that night was apparently the beginning of his descent into madness. The next few scenes only confirm this, as a decade older version is lightly picked on by a couple from school, at the gas station he works at. Mark retaliates by blowing up the car ... while the couple was still in it. I guess Mark has a tendency to overreact. And who knows where he gets that from? So, I guess Mark somehow managed to get away with this murder because we now fast forward another two years, and nothing. Mark now has the hots for some girl whom he wants to take out for ice cream. She's not interested, claiming to not like ice cream, but I think she's just not into guys who look like they might be related to Clint Howard. Mark ... does something to her. It doesn't really show us, but I'm sure it was bad, going by his short track record. And in a shocking twist, Mark, later on, kills his own grandmother. Poor grammy never did Mark wrong, which tells us he's finally made it to full-fledged insanity.

It takes forever for all of this to wrap up and for the story to finally begin, but after a good half hour, we're finally there. We are now introduced to some overwhelmingly bland teenagers, none of which stands out in the least as a potential main character. That task is left solely up to Mark. These characters suck hard and are nothing more than a product of this era in horror. The teens are headed to a Halloween party, but are talked into delivering some costumes to a nearby estate on the way. This estate happens to belong to Mark's grammy, who, as I pointed out, is dead, so, for the time being, this is Mark's estate. Once in there, an electric gate is switched on, keeping everyone within the confines of Mark's weird game where he stalks and kills them in various costumes, not unlike the killer from Class Reunion Massacre.

We are never given one reason to give two shits about the victims, so, all we can do is sit back and laugh at these people trying like hell to act like they're scared for their lives. Even for those of us who enjoy bad Horror films, this particular one can be a hard one to tolerate, but it's certainly not devoid of entertainment value. My favorite example being the part where Mark sicked the dogs on the terrified teenagers, and out comes, I shit you not, a couple of Golden Retrievers. Watch as they immediately become the best actors in the movie. Like so many films from this era, Hollow Gate is someone's first and last attempt at filmmaking. Just passing through, seeing if there's anything left to milk out of this dying genre. Perhaps there was for someone. Not for you, Pal. No, not for you. 3/10



#Review

What's a Good Thing and a Shitty Thing You've Done Recently

I know, what a specific topic. Figured it'd be a good way to get people talking more and getting a better glimpse into what we're all really like.

Good thing: Gave away like 75% of my wardrobe to Goodwill last week. Just felt like someone may have needed it more than me. I've only got around 5 t-shirts left in my closet now, but whatever. I pretty much wear the same clothes over and over again anyway.

Shitty thing: My girlfriend and I have been fighting a lot lately and I said some awful things yesterday. I think I'm a pretty nice guy, but when you push my buttons I get vicious. I need to work on that. Feeling guilty today.

Burt Reynolds (1936-2018)

He deserves his own thread. He was a fuckin' cool guy, and he had a great mustache.

Burt started off as a stuntman, and was so sexy, he just worked his way into acting. Not sure if he was any good at acting, but he had enough charisma to keep us all entertained. Everyone will remember him for his laugh, drinking a lot of Coors, and driving a black trans-am.


What are your faves?

I like Cannonball Run, Hooper, Smokey and the Bandit 1 and 2, and Deliverance. I've seen a few others, but those are the ones I thought were the coolest. Oh, and "The End" was fuckin' hilarious. It was surprisingly similar to a story I wrote once about a guy who tries to kill himself and keeps failing, however, Burt Reynolds as the star makes my story look like shit.

I even wrote a song about Burt Reynolds about a year or so ago. I might record it and post it on here some century.

Share your thoughts on this legend.

Idea for Comedy Challenge in February

I don't have too many ideas yet, but generally, I think it would be interesting to have a 28 day (4 weeks exactly) challenge where each week is a different type of comedy.
Maybe
Week 1 (Feb. 1-7) : Sitcoms
Week 2 (Feb. 2-14) : Romantic Comedy (Valentines Week)
Week 3 (Feb. 15-21): Dark/Black Comedies
Week 4 (Feb. 22-28): Horror Comedy


Thoughts and ideas are welcome.

Italian Horror Film Survey

I'm bored, so I thought this up. Let's have a little fun, so participate will ya?

THE ULTIMATE ITALIAN HORROR SURVEY @ TRASH EPICS.

1. What is your favorite Italian horror film?
2. Why?
3. Who is your favorite Italian horror director?
4. Why?
5. What Italian horror film has your favorite music?
6. What do you think is the goriest Italian horror film?
7. What about the sickest?
8. Italian zombies or cannibals: Which do you favor and Why?
9. Gialli. Underrated or overrated?
10. When do you think Italian horror peaked?
11. What was the last really good Italian horror film in your opinion?
12. Favorite Italian exploitation film that isn't horror?
13. Favorite actor or actress that regularly appeared in Italian horror films?
14. What is your least favorite Italian horror film?
15. What was the first Italian horror film you saw, and when?
16. Favorite Italian horror film, say, post-Cemetery Man?
17. What Italian horror film is really underrated in your estimation & should be seen by more people?

Elaborate as much or as little as you'd like. Now get the answerin'!

The Last Drive-In: The Long-Awaited Return of Joe Bob Briggs to a TV Near You

On the night of Friday, July 13th, the marathon of The Last Drive-In with Joe Bob Briggs began airing on Shudder TV, the live stream portion of Shudder's service. Running for a little over 24 hours, it consisted of 13 movies:

Tourist Trap
Sleepaway Camp
Rabid
The Prowler
Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-O-Rama
Daughters of Darkness
Blood Feast
Basket Case
Re-Animator
Demons
The Legend of Boggycreek
Hellraiser
Pieces

I didn't watch live because I'm far past my days of staying awake 24 hours, but I'm watching now that the movies are available to watch individually. With Joe Bob's segments, each movie runs between about 100 and 130 minutes. It's a damn fine feeling to see him again. Everything you'd expect from him is there, including Drive-In Totals and a mail girl.

It's implied that this will be Job Bob's final outing as a movie host. That hasn't stopped people from begging Joe Bob and Shudder to turn this into a weekly show. Considering that it was enough of a success for Shudder that the traffic surge when the marathon began caused technical difficulties, maybe there will be more. If not a weekly show, then maybe another marathon.

Did anyone here watch the marathon? Are you watching or planning to watch the movies individually? Are you interested in watching at all or is the idea of a redneck interrupting your movie every 20 minutes or so for his commentary unappealing?