Stan Lee was the coolest

The dude invented Marvel Comics, and these characters are ingrained onto the minds of every youth in America. Probably even the world. Back in the 60s, he drew a pictures, wrote a few storylines, and a major empire became of it. Granted, it didn't take off as quickly as all that, because comics were still considered child's play for many years, until it started to invade motion pictures and the world of television.

They made a few pieces of shit back in the 70s to 90s, and nobody could take them seriously. At least 3 Captain America movies (one starring Christopher Lee), Punisher '89 with Dolph, some version of Fantastic Four, and even Doctor Strange. I've seen at least one or two of these movies, but they're god awful.

Of course, I need to throw a shout out to a great Marvel tv show during this era: The Incredible Hulk (1978-1982). What an era, huh? Everyone loves the 70s and its bleedover into the 80s. Things were nigh perfect back then, and so was this show. David Banner (not Bruce Banner) was a nice regular scientist who turned into a green Lou Ferrigno and helped out various folk in distress. I've seen a season or two, and it was a solid show. In fact, I don't know why I quit watching, but I always liked it. It was some fun, old school tv heroism.

I remain rather oblivious to the resulting storyline as I drifted away from it, but I know they made a few tv movies, and they went for it. They had their own sense of a Marvel TV Universe before the MCU thought of it, and that was a big deal. They had DareDevil and Thor on that show, and it wasn't half bad from the clips I've seen. Bill Bixby and Lou Ferrigno were onto something, but for many years later, no one would take the hint.

It wasn't until '98 that people began to see some promise in the Marvel world on film with the first good movie based on a Marvel character. And no, I'm not talking about David Hasselhoff's portrayal of "Nick Fury: Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.", which -- fun fact -- was written by David Goyer, who would go on to do many other good comic movies, like Blade, The Crow 2, and the Dark Knight Trilogy.

So Stan "the man" Lee had to wait a few decades for his shit to get cinematic recognition, but it happened, and now, it's taking over the world. The R-rated blade kicked it off, but that kid-friendly audience demanded nicer movies, so we got Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy instead. Of course, they were still unsure of the best format at the time, so they also made Tom Jane's Punisher, which was fucking great, IMO. Then, they went back and forth between family-friendly and serious movies, until we got the cinematic universe. Hell, it's still a struggle, since the friendly FOX went into a darker direction with R-rated glories like Deadpool and Logan, but the MCU also spit out some fantastic tv shows like DareDevil and Punisher.

So basically, everyone knows that superhero movies are taking over the world. This has been happening ever since Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy won a few oscars, and gave some well-needed respect to our superhero icons. Personally, I'm a bit burned out on superhero movies at this point, due to an oversaturation in the market, but every now and then, one of these fuckers has the right idea. Put me in camp Netflix any day of the week. I'm fucking loving DareDevil season 3. Vincent D'Onofrio is awesome as the Kingpin, and the fight scenes are cool as shit.

So there you have a brief and underwhelming history of Marvel movies and shows. Again, it took decades for it to get the momentum it has now, but it ain't stopping. Even if the quality fades, Hollywood will reboot it with different tones to appeal to different audiences, and it'll outlast us all. One man is responsible for this, and by the time this shit became pop culture, all he had to do was ride the wave.

What bothers me most about his death is, like many other bad-asses, he didn't make it to 100. How cool would that be? Ernest Borgnine didn't make it, James Karen didn't make, but hell. At least Spartacus made it. Kirk Douglas is (currently alive at 101 years of age. Go him!


Back in the mid 90s (no, I haven't seen the movie "Mid90s" yet, but I want to), I was less than 10 years old. I was into comics back then, because I had this gnarly comic store within walking distance. I'd scrape up any change I could find to buy the Spider-Man fleer-ultra set, which was 25 cents per card. It was a great time to be a kid. That's when I'd learn about the Marvel universe more than anything. I collected a bunch of those cards until the damn place had to move to another location, and I was fucked. I collected a bunch of comics, but my dumb ass sold my entire stack for $5 one time, because I needed to make room for other shit. I've been kicking myself ever since, because I should have sold them later, and on eBay, where I would have made some real money!

The 90s was the best time for Marvel, I think. That's when Mallrats came out, and Stan Lee was a rather prominent part of that movie, by presence and influence. Ever since them, he'd been cameo'ing in most Marvel movies, and he's always seemed like he was in good spirits. Even in that whole scandal where his manager was using the shit out of him, Stan Lee didn't care. He was just happy to be alive, and probably still rich as fuck either way.

Funny story... a few years ago, @der and my sister were at a baseball game and surprise... Stan Lee was there. He even got to throw the first pitch. Of course, his old ass fucked it up with a wimpy toss and apologized, but it's still cool as hell either way.

Rest in Peace, Stan. You've had an impact on this whole fucking planet.

Death Wish VI

Last month, "Death Kiss" became available for viewing, starring Robert Bronzi Kovacs as Charles Bronson. Yeah, that's right. The guy is basically playing Paul Kersey from the Death Wish movies, and since we're never given a name for this character, it works all the way.

The movie strives to recreate the settings and feels of the original movies, but I'll be damned... this movie is shot in some decent high-definition video. I don't imagine this movie had a great big budget, but they had nice cameras. Maybe I was really high and focusing on that for some reason, but maybe it's true. It just stuck out to me, is all.

So the plot is pretty basic. What you'd expect from an homage type of movie. He has a bit of attachment toward some hottie and her wheelchair-bound little girl, and sends them money he gets from all the thugs he has to take down. All of this while Daniel Baldwin does a radio show hating on the cops and encouraging acts of vigilantism. In the right light, he does look like Alec Baldwin, doesn't he?

There is a vague overall villain, played by Richard Tyson, who I know as the villain in Kindergarten Cop. He's basically just there so the movie can have a primary antagonist for our hero to defeat. Otherwise, he's just running around fighting random gang members, which honestly would also suffice.

The guy does a good job playing Charles Bronson playing Paul Kersey. He's got the mannerisms down, which mostly means that, besides looking identical, he also doesn't say much. When I met Bronzi, he admitted he doesn't speak English well, and his lack of dialogue makes him all the more perfect for the role. I think his lines were dubbed.

The action is alright. A decent amount of violence, gun fights, and even a few of those somewhat cheesy but also pretty awesome one-liners. I always loved the soccer ball kill in Death Wish V, where he remote controls a soccer ball to Robert Joy, telling him how to solve his dandruff problem, and then detonating the ball. It's stupid/awesome.

If this guy plays Charles Bronson more often, I'll watch his movies. He has this gnarly looking prison movie coming out called "Escape from Death Block 13". The poster art looks like something MGM would have on one of their dvds. Plus, the merging of Assault on Precinct 13 and Brawl in Cell Block 99 just sounds right. (Also, I just rewatched Brawl, and that's a great fucking movie, for anyone who hasn't seen it).

If you like the Death Wish movies, go ahead and check out Death Kiss. There are some good titties in it.

Swamp Thing

I've always liked Swamp Thing. Ever since I was a kid, I watched the absolute hell out of my "The Return of Swamp Thing" vhs, and I had action figures and everything. In retrospect, I kind of like the Wes Craven original more, but while the Manfredini score of the original is great, you just can't beat the start of the second movie, which plays "Born on the Bayou".

So yeah, I like both movies, even though part 2 is super cheesy. I think a lot of my love for that movie is from nostalgia, and all those feels I had as a kid watching it. I'm pretty sure it sucks though, but I really can't tell.

Both movies had Dick Durock playing Swamp Thing, and he even came back for the tv series in the early 90s. Sadly, I'm a pretty shitty fan, because I've seen next to nothing of that tv show. I might binge it some year, but speaking of tv shows...

There he is again! After a quarter of a century, Swamp Thing will be crawling out of the muck once again for another live-action movie. How has it taken the powers that be this long to jump on the Swamp Thing bandwagon again?

The show might actually be alright. They have Derek Mears playing Swamp Thing, and he's been in some cool things. Even if the F13 remake sucks, he was awesome in it.

I'm feeling somewhat optimistic with this news.


Any thoughts on DC's ugly monster and his movies/shows/comics?

I Got Something to Say

I killed a baby today. And it doesn't matter much to me, as long as it's dead.

Angst (1983) - major spoilers

Bit overrated, no?

Been seeing this 'un pimped out for a good 10 years now all the way back to that ancient place they call "imdb." Well, I finally caught up with it....

Pretty good, but not the masterpiece I expected and genuinely much funnier than I anticipated as well. I get that this was based on a true story or whatever (is it really?) and it's intended to be "realistic" and stuff, but did the killer have to be so pathetic? Jesus Christ he's lucky he stumbled into the house he did and not one occupied by, well, anyone else. Fucker woulda got his ass handed to him. In fact, the elderly woman actually put up a good fight.

I like that they made him SO damn crazy that he lost all rationale and was sloppy, made many mistakes and had these wildly exaggerated ideas about how his continuing murder spree would go. Anyone with even the slightest bit of sanity left would've realized he'd get caught immediately after leaving the house.

I dunno. I liked the film. The direction was amazing, music good. It definitely didn't feel like your average horror film from the early 80s, and I appreciated that it was a bit off the beaten path. I think I just felt things sorta dragged a bit when he was in the house and had so much trouble killing its occupants.

I remember peeptoad and maybe sepsism (I think) being big fans. Would love to see them vouch for it a bit.

Whatcha all think? 'Lost' classic or victim of the overhype machine?

2018 October Challenge Results

Well, that was the lousiest October Challenge I've ever experienced. Wasn't in to it at all. I had planned on watching a bunch of TV movies and some Hammer films but got stuck on micro-budget 2010's Slashers I found on Amazon Prime. Nothing else was doing it for me for some reason. I hope everyone else was able to get into the October spirit. Nice turn out this year. And congratulations to Ballz on gaining the top spot.


Ballz - 97 Films - 97 FTVs

Johan_WOW - 78 Films - 73 FTVs

shroudoftheimmortal - 78 Films - 49 FTVs

ConditionedResponse - 75 Films - 20 FTVs

ZombieCPA - 65 Films - 55 FTVs

Tromafreak - 59 Films - 43 FTVs

Triggerhappy6 - 50 Films - 50 FTVs

Foz - 45 Films - 26 FTVs

Gymnopedie - 43 Films - 36 FTVs

OnyxHades - 42 Films - 16 FTVs

BloodWank - 36 Films - 31 FTVs

Ebossert - 36 Films - 22 FTVs

BaseBallZombies - 34 Films - 19 FTVs

Jimb14red - 33 Films - 28 FTVs

Brett_Lives - 33 Films - 20 FTVs

Box_a_Hair - 32 Films - 16 FTVs


NoseOfNicko - 23 Films - 14 FTVs

Markus-san - 22 Films - 17 FTVs

Morrison-Dylan-Fan - 15 Films - 12 FTVs

iceflamez - 5 Films - 5 FTVs

Zed - 2 Films - 2 FTVs?

Der Tables - 0 Films - 0 FTVs

What is wrong with The Shoutbox?

It can't be viewed unless you go through the forum tab, and it won't allow me to type anything on there either? It has been acting up the past few days from my end.

The Amazing Bulk! 2012 disasterpiece

Holy hell, what a hilarious piece of trash! A true turkey, if there ever was one!



The Amazing Bulk is an "Incredible Hulk" '08 rip-off filmed entirely in front of a green screen, featuring animated sets and crude models, used redundantly. The actors keep a straight face while they're doing this drivel, and that's always a huge plus. It's awful to see actors who are intentionally bad, because they know they're in a piece of shit. It's wonderful when an actor knows he/she is in a god awful movie, yet they still put forth a decent effort.

I haven't laughed this hard in a long time. There were a good 2 minutes that I had a hard time breathing because I was laughing so hard.

The movie is currently on Amazon Prime, for anyone who wants easy points from this 1.7 rated turkey.

2018 October Challenge Progress Thread



**Here we go! Another October Challenge. Second one for Trash Epics, so, we must be doing something right.

So, the rules are: 31 Horror films must be watched during the 31 days of October. 16 of which must be first time viewings. Watch all you want. I sure as hell am, but to count in the end, it's gotta at least be 31 and 16.

This challenge will begin as soon as October begins, and will end at 6 AM November 1st.

No documentaries, no tv shows, just movies to keep things simple. Speaking of keeping things simple, I figure we should just go by IMDb if there is any question as to whether the film is Horror (or part Horror). Just leave me the hell out of it.

And we're going with a 45 minute minimum.

Remember to list the number of movies/FTVs at the bottom, or it will not be counted in the results thread.

Want ideas for recs? Here's last year's thread. https://trashepics.com/post/9/160/

The discussion thread will be up soon.

So, make your spot!**

Interview with Sandy Johnson (the original Judith Myers)

I know some people here must have seen this already, but for anyone who hasn't... check it out! Someone tracked down Sandy Johnson. She sounds like a really nice lady. Also, it sounds like things have worked out for her pretty well, after a rocky start. I'm sorry about all the @#$$%^&^$#@!ing pop up ads... #$%$%^&%$#@!ing Dread Central.

https://www.dreadcentral.com/news/280507/exclusive-judith-myers-speaks-halloweens-sandy-johnson-gives-first-interview-in-forty-years/