Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017)

I'm off today, so I figured I'd make it worthwhile and see a movie. I definitely wasn't going to see Justice League, so I picked this movie, knowing nothing about it really, except that it has a great cast. Frances McDormand is always wonderful, and this is a ballsy role for her.

It's an aftermath movie, in which she plays a mother, whose daughter was raped and murdered nearly a year ago, and she gets fed up when the police haven't done anything about it. It's almost like a Coen brothers movie with this cast, but it's not as awkward, if that makes any sense. I like this movie because it's bleak, and not afraid to get its hands dirty. It's not a violent spectacle, but a well-crafted drama about the pursuit of justice, even in unlikely situations.

Frances plays a tough as nails mom, on a mission to put up these signs as a means of keeping the case public, as her way of making a stand, to be heard, in hopes that the case gets more investigation. She's always in Coen movies, because she's married to Joel, so that may also be why I'm drawing that comparison.

Woody Harrelson plays the sheriff of this redneck Missouri town, and he's great. Of course, Woody Harrelson is always great. Not only is he fun to watch, but he's picked a lot of great crime movies like this to be in. Movies like "Out of the Furnace" and shows like "True Detective" season 1... That's Woody at his best. War for the Planet of the Apes was also cool though.

Then, the last main star is Sam Rockwell, who's always been a great actor, I think. He plays a dimwitted police officer, and his mom is played by Sandy Martin, basically playing the same character of Mac's mom in "It's Always Sunny", only a little more lively. Sam is kind of oblivious, and we laugh at his expense a lot, but he's one hell of a character.

Then, you have Peter Dinklage as the designated town midget, and Samara Weaving as McDormand's character's ex-husband's 19-year-old ditz, and this lady is hot. I looked her up after, and yes. She's McG's "The Babysitter" (and in some episodes of Ash vs Evil Dead).

I like a gritty, bleak, crime-drama, and this didn't disappoint me one bit. Engaging story, great cast, dark subject material, and surprisingly, a great sense of humor to it. If you like good movies, give it a watch.

Zombi 2

Shark Fights
Undead Conquistadors
Excellent Special Effects
Fantastic Score
Blending of Romero Zombies and Traditional Voodoo Zombies

What more do you want?

Not Stephen King Sequels

One of the turkeys I watched recently was Sometimes They Come Back... Again (1996), a "sequel" to the Stephen King story Sometimes They Come Back (1991). However, none of the characters return, so it's mostly a thematic sequel, and Stephen King seems to have nothing to do with it. Shameless cash grab, perhaps? Perhaps not?

The movie itself is okay. To be honest, I don't really remember much from the first one, except that Tim Matheson was haunted by some trauma with some bullies when he was a kid (the head bully is Grady from Elm Street 2), and he begins seeing those characters in the present.

This DTV sequel is kind of similar, in that Michael Gross plays a guy who saw his sister get killed in a cult, led by Alex Arquette, who's supposed to be the bad boy of the film. Something about him fails to give that vibe though. Then, Arquette is trying to toy with Michael Gross's daughter, Hilary Swank. There are a few interesting deaths (like the lawnmower, and the tarot cards), but the story is pretty uninspired. 2/5

---

So what about some other sequels to Stephen King movies that he had no part in? Personally, I think Pet Sematary 2 (1992) is great. It has a lot of the same moods (mostly because it was the same director as the first) and some gnarly scenes in it, but most people know the movie really shines because of Clancy Brown. The dude is menacing. 4/5

Perhaps the most obvious of these not-King sequels would be the entire Children of the Corn franchise. The first film was only based on a short story of his, yet they made EIGHT more of these movies after it. This series is mostly a huge dud, but some of the sequels are bearable, but never even close to the level of the first film, which isn't even great to begin with (I still have a soft spot for it though). Funny enough, Alex Arquette is in one of these sequels too, part V: Fields of Terror, with David Carradine and Fred Williamson. Most of these sequels couldn't get big stars, but part 4: The Gathering did have Naomi Watts, before she was anybody. However, none of these sequels even try to feel like a Stephen King story though.

So what's the word on the other sequels to Stephen King written works, in which he had no part of? The Rage: Carrie 2 (1999)? Firestarter 2: Rekindled (2002), starring Marguerite Moreau (Wet Hot American Summer), Malcolm McDowall, and Dennis Hopper?! A Return to Salem's Lot (1987)? I'm pretty sure everybody hates Creepshow III (2006)

Dagon Short Kickstarter

I just got a contact email from someone trying to spread the word of a Dagon short-film project. The message is pretty straight-forward, so I figure I'll post it, if anyone is interested.

Hello, TrashEpics!

We're currently producing a 30 minute film adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft's short cosmic horror story 'Dagon'. Our aim is to write a new little chapter into the Lovecraft mythos with the ultimate goal of taking the film to play at Horror festivals worldwide!

To complete the project we're raising money via kickstarter and would like to reach out to get people excited about what we're doing. With only 7 days to meet our crowdfunding deadline, we need some help from the community now more than ever!

If you like the look of our project (I've included a link below), I wondered if you may be able to support us with with some exposure in our critical final week of fundraising? Please do let me know - we would be more than happy share further details with you!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1113979883/hp-lovecrafts-dagon-0?ref=discovery

You can also find us on twitter, at the link below!

https://twitter.com/h_dagon

Regards,
The Dagon Team

This team probably found us through twitter. I'm pretty poor, so I usually don't donate to kickstarters, but I know this is a great platform for this shit to happen. Did you know that Jim Van Bebber's "Gator Green" kickstarter actually produced a short film? I want to see it.

Haven't read the story, but Dagon was a decent film. Food for thought for any HP Lovecraft fans...

Most-Used Horror Title

So I was updating the Horror Challenge Spreadsheet (which I hope to have done before the end of the month), and I noticed there are a lot of different horror movies with the exact same title.
For example, there are 4 films title "Crawlspace" (72, 86, 12, 13), 7 titled "Dracula" (31, 31, 66, 79, 92, 02, 07), "Out of the Dark" has 3 (88, 95, 14). Those are some examples from what I have on the spreadsheet.
Dracula would probably be the king (or Prince, as the case may be).
What other ones can you think of? Note: "Dracula 2000" wouldn't count, as it is a title variation. Just exact title matches.

Blood Freak: A Fowlsploitation Abomination

https://scontent-atl3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/22730163_1599524333432023_2074247384425010904_n.jpg?oh=dc5d82fc6174241bdb25776c69a8d8af&oe=5A65D6A2

I've been wanting to write about this one for a long time. But the more I love a movie, and the more fascinating I find it to be, the more of a perfectionist I become. And nothing I've ever come up with before never seemed to do this film justice. Blood Freak is a bad movie. But it's not just any bad movie. Unlike many countless others made before and after, Blood Freak has something going for it that would ensure that it would someday gain a fanbase. And that would be the very obvious WTF qualities. There's quite few of them. Manos, Troll 2, Birdemic. There's something about all of them that make you wonder. Was the director crazy? Stupid? Or was it all simply on purpose? These extra weird "so bad they're good" films have been known to be one big practical joke on its audience. However, in the era of the gore film, such a thing was unheard of. Blood Freak is for realz that bad and that weird. It just has to be!

What makes Blood Freak so weird, you ask? Unlike with most WTF cinema, that's a very easy question to answer. Blood Freak is a Herschell Gordon Lewis-style gore film from the earily 70's, which is about a European biker/bodybuilder Elvis look-a-like who's head turns into that of a giant turkey's after eating some chemically enhanced turkey meat and smoking whatis believed to be heroin-laced pot. A pissed off turkey-monster who craves the blood of "dope addicts". And to add to the WTF factor, this movie has a very strong Christian message, as well as anti-drug. So, basically, Blood Freak is an anti-drug, Christian gore movie. A really, really bad one!

We begin with co-director, Brad Grinter, acting as nararator, who shows up and adds his two cents between every other scene. The chain smoking maker of bad movies offers his thoughts on fate and stuff, leading up to his introduction of the cleverly named Herschell, as we see the big guy heading down the Florida Turnpike on his motorcycle. The "pretty girl with a problem", as our narrarator just pointed out, is having car trouble. And the good Samaritan quickly pulls on over to help out. We hear not one bit of dialogue during whatever exchange they may have had, but we're led to believe they hit it off nicely. After fixing her car, Herschell is invited back to Angel's house, which she refers to as a mad house due to the 5 or 6 of her drugged-out, trampy sister's friends who are quietly sitting around chatting and getting stoned.

The drugged-out trampy Ann already seems like alot more fun than Angel, who has now admitted to being a straight-laced Jesus freak, and is already nagging her sister about being high on the pot as well as requesting Herschell to not partake in the fun while he hangs with them. Herschell has no problem with that. But isn't overly fond of Ann's flirtatious nature due to being a gentleman. We then cut to a scene which I'm guessing is later that day where Herschell is sitting around with Angel and some old man, discussing their faith, all leading up to Herschell getting offered a job at a poultry farm.. The God stuff doesn't seem to make much sense to Herschell. But he seems open to it all. But that's not all he's open to, as we find out later. We cut to a scene which may be anywhere from a day later to a week later, where Herschell is cleaning Ann's And Angel's pool, and Ann comes over and offers him some of her joint, and gets turned down flat. She tries convincing him and gets turned down flat. She calls him a coward, and seconds later, the man is high as a kite, laughing his ass off at nothing. This of course leads to Ann easily leading the big guy into her bedroom for a hot fuck session on the dope.

After a long, hard first day at the poultry farm, Herschell returns home to Ann already experiencing cold turkey. Due to the heroin that the pot was laced wth, Herschell is now a raging addict, as he proves so by almost beating the shit out of Ann's dealer. At first, Herschell has him pinned down, and as he backs away, you can actually hear co-director Grinter say as clear as day "Get up slow", as the dealer gets up slow, looking grateful that Herschell didn't beat the shit out of him.

At this point, the movie seems to be going in a certain direction. But the next day, we're thrown a bit of a curve ball as the scientists Herschell is working with use him as a guinea pig and gives him some chemically enhanced, experimental turkey to try out. After inhaling the entire turkey no problem, the big guy passes out, and wakes up later that night a changed man. As he creeps back in Ann's bedroom, she freaks out and screams at the sight of his face and head which resembles a paper mache' turkey. As the now mute Herschell grabs a pen and paper and explains best he can, Ann seems to immediately get it and calms down. Damn, that was easy. And in an odd twist, Ann shows a massive amount of loyalty to this guy whom she just recently met, and lets him know that she'll stick with him forever, while expressing concern over what their children may look like.

Ann's love isn't enough to stop Herschell from going on nightly bloody rampages. Searching for dope addicts, this is a thirst which cannot be quenched. One of the many funny things about these killings is that most of the victims give off the same scream/yell. We go back and forth between WTF killings and scenes involving Ann confiding in her friends about Herschell. Scenes which almost seem like their from another movie, at times. When discussing Herschell, it seems as if they're discussing someone who merely gets high too much, as opposed to a bloodthirsty turkey-monster. At one point, one of Ann's stoner pals makes a comment that "He's not Herschell anymore. He's changing". First of all, No shit! Secondly, Ann has known the big guy for a week, tops. How is it that her friend knows Herschell well enough to make such a comment. They couldn't have had any more than a couple conversations. A minor detail, but one of many which make Blood Freak the enigma that it is. Can Herschell overcome his drug addiction? Or does this new dope-blood addiction cancel that out? Either way, Herschell needs help. But from who? You know who! Time to get on your knees and pray, big guy!

If there was ever a movie meant to be a part of the Something Weird label, this here's it, friends. I would highly recommend the special edition dvd which is packed with extras, yet with not nearly enough information for my taste. I'm not even sure how much info about Blood Freak there even is, to be honest. But I do hope for a blu-ray release someday which includes a commentary track. This Miami-shot abomination fits in nicely with the other gore films made in the same period and area. It is a little light on the gore, but far more entertaining than anything H.G ever did. whether it was meant to be or not. Possibly the most inept pre-80's Horror film in existence. It's hard to imagine what exactly Brad Grinter was going for, here. Or who this film was targeted at for that matter. Possibly a good natured attempt to help set the youth of the day on the right track, using their own language.

It's been said that this film was a dead project until Steve Hawkes stepped up as co-director to help Grinter get her done. Steve Hawkes' puts on an extremely wooden performance, and comes off unfriendly and super serious at all times. Even when high. Maybe it's just taking all his concentration to hide his obvious European accent that he forgot to put any effort at all into his performance. Or maybe he's just like that. Last I heard, Steve Hawkes aka Steve Sipek was alive and well, and still living in Florida, and has been running his own animal sanctuary. The man claims a Tiger saved his life once during a fire that broke out on the set of one of his Tarzan movies shortly before Blood Freak was made. And he's dedicated his life to taking care of Tigers and other deadly cats. Putting every bit of his trust in them, treating them as house cats. A lifestyle he has yet to regret. But to many of us, he will always be known as Herschell, the big, serious biker with far less will power than he lets on. The man who entertained us in the greatest WTF bad movie of all time. And as for Brad Grinter, well, he'd dead. 10/10



#Review

The Punisher - Season 1



Looks pretty good. My hopes are a bit lower than usual, since Marvel/Netflix's last 3 shows have been lackluster, but this is a chance to get back on track, and be as violent as possible about it.

What movies did you buy or watch this week (11-20)

Nightkill (Blu-ray)
A Stranger is Watching

It has begun.

November 16th, 39 days before Christmas, and the Christmas music at work has started. 39 more days. I don't know if I'm going to make it this year. If I disappear soon, it's probably because I killed myself.

2017 Trash Epics October Challenge Results



To some it's a challenge. To others, a competition. But to some of us, the October Challenge is a journey. A journey through the good, the bad, the old and the new of the Horror genre. This was my seventh one, and it shows, as I was very hard up for quality FTVs, especially since I was completely unprepared. But I won't make the same mistake next year.

So, a big thank you to everyone who supported the inaugural October Challenge here on Trash Epics! by far the biggest challenge we've had here, so far.

Goddamn! Always a bridesmaid, but never a bride! At least these days. I actually thought I had this one in the bag for most of the month. But congratulations to Gymnopedie for earning the top spot.


1. Gymnopedie - 106 Films - 90 FTVs

2. Messiah_Of_Doom - 100 Films - 62 FTVs

3. Corpus_Vile - 94 Films - 51 FTVs

4. Johan_WoW - 72 Films - 50 FTVs

5. Ballz - 72 Films - 37 FTVs

6. Ebossert - 60 Films - 31 FTVs

7. Foz - 58 Films - 45 FTVs

8. Triggerhappy6 - 55 Films - 43 FTVs

9. ConditionedResponse - 54 Films - 22 FTVs

10. Shroudoftheimmortal - 53 Films - 41 FTVs

11. Smerd - 42 Films - 32 FTVs

12. BarkingBaphomet - 42 Movies - 16 FTVs

13. Psychotronicbeatnik - 41 Films - 26 FTVs

14. Box_a_Hair - 41 Films - 20 FTVs

15. NoseOfNicko - 35 Films - 18 FTVs

16. Damn_Cyborg - 35 Films - 17 FTVs

17. ZombieCPA - 34 Films - 28 FTVs

18. Tommix - 34 Films - 17 FTVs

19. Onyx_Hades - 33 Films - 23 FTVs

20. Jimb14red & Amon_101 - 31 Films - 28 FTVs

21 BaseBallZombies - 31 Films - 19 FTVs


iceflamez - 25 Films - 18 FTVs

Zombee - 24 Films - 19 FTVs

Brett_Lives - 24 Films - 12 FTVs

Deadandburied81 - 18 Films - 5 FTVs

BloodWank - 16 Films 14 FTVs

Prolelol - 16 Films - 14 FTVs

Markus_San - 12 Films - 11 FTVs

Hazelrigg - 8 Films - 7 FTVs

Klownz - ? - ?


So, now that that's out of the way, let's talk about it. What were your favorite first time viewings of the month? what were your least favorites? Anything at all you have to say about the 2017 October challenge, let's hear it!


My Top 10 favorites

Blood Of The Tribades (2016)
The Appointment (1981)
Blood And Lace (1971)
1922 (2017)
It Stains The Sands Red (2016)
The Babysitter (2017)
Cult Of Chucky (2017)
Easter Bunny Bloodbath (2010)
All The Kind Strangers (1974)
Dark Angel: The Ascent (1994)

10 Least Favorites

Thankskilling 3 (2012)
Gingerdead Man 3 (2011)
Gingerdead Man 2 (2008)
The Gingerdead Man (2005)
C.H.U.D. (1984)
Chopper Chicks In Zombie Town (1989)
Rings (2017)
Can't Take It Back (2017)
Jack Frost (1997)
Uncle Was A Vampire (1959)