A couple ideas for Dune fan videos

I don't know if I'll ever be capable of this, but I keep thinking of a couple of songs that it would be cool to adapt to Dune, in the form of music videos.

The first is Ah Leah, by Donnie Iris. Hmmm, which character from Dune could I possibly think would make a good subject (object?!?) for the that song... you guessed it: Alia. It even sounds like the song could be about her, in parts. It implies a sort of predestination, in the way it talks about the doomed relationship, which is certainly a pretty big theme for Alia. The "here we go again" chorus could be turned into a meditation on reincarnation... I also think you can tell that the song got started as an anti-war song, in some ways, by the way. "It ain't no use, we're heading for disaster," "we're never gonna make it,"... lots of lyrics that would work well with a sad song about tragic predestined doom, or some kind of unholy fate. All perfect for an Alia song. Someone would have to be a little clever with how they would present the images (maybe pictures you would draw??), but I bet they could do it.

I also love the way Donnie Iris fearlessly puts himself in the video, even though he really doesn't look like a rock star.

The other song I'm thinking of is Viva la Vida, by Coldplay. That could make a really cool song about Paul, maybe later in his life... his life could provide a rich montage of images that could make cool illustrations for lines in this song.

any theories about It Follows?

I have gone back and forth on It Follows. For awhile I loved it, and I would even say I became obsessed with it. But, after thinking it over, I have also had times when I really hated it, because of the ending, and also because I suspect that the director didn't even mean anything by the movie, he was just trying to make us all think he was very deep and philosophical by throwing all kinds of images out there that seemed symbolic of something. Lately I have been giving it a chance again.

But anyway, right now I just wanted to ask if anyone thought the blades of grass were supposed to mean anything. In the scene where Hugh is explaining everything he knows about It to Jay and her sister and their friends, Jay picks five blades of grass and lays them out, one next to another, on her leg. I was just thinking, maybe that was a little reference to Freddy Krueger's glove of knives. Just the idea of five "blades" lined up next to each other, I guess... what do you guys think? There were a lot of little references to various classic horror movies throughout the movie, of course, but I haven't seen much discussion of this particular thing.

Also, if anyone has any other theories about the movie that they would like to discuss... I'm game!

2017 Black & White Challenge Progress Thread

Make your spot right here.



Anything else goes here ---------> https://trashepics.com/post/9/118/

I went to see Near Dark at Midnight

So, that was pretty cool. They had a midnight screening of ND at a theater not too far from where I live, so I went. They actually said it was the last 35 millimeter print of the movie left in North America! I have no idea if that's true, but that's what they said. So anyway, here are some of my thoughts.

I told the guy who sold me the ticket that, before the movie started, someone who works at the theater should stand in front of the audience and say "Boy, you people sure stay up late," and I told him if someone did that, I would shout from the crowd "We keep odd hours!" Hey, it was a midnight screening, so, I thought that would be really funny. The ticket dude laughed when I suggested that, but they didn't do it. I applauded loudly and quickly (like 5 or 6 claps, really fast and loud) when Bill P said "We keep odd hours," so maybe that counts for something, right?!?

It was a real, old 35 mm print, as I said, and it contained an old trailer (preview) for Death Wish 4: The Crackdown, starring your friend and mine Charles Bronson. That alone was worth the price of the ticket, just because the audience went apeshit. It was amazing.

During the movie, I kept thinking, it's kind of a shame that they didn't let Tim Thomerson have fun with his character (Caleb's dad) and do some comedy. He is freaking hysterical, as anyone who has seen the Trancers movies can attest. But, I guess maybe they decided that that would change the nature of the movie too much... it's easy for me to think about that now, in 2017, and be like "oh, Tim Thomerson is so funny, they should have let him ham it up a little," but when I think it over I have to admit that if his type of comedy was built into the original ND back in 1987, that would have really affected the tone of the entire movie, and taken things in a pretty campy direction, which is really NOT what Near Dark was supposed to be all about. Bill Paxton brought a lot of comedy to the film, of course, but it was always completely in the character of Severen, it wasn't campy at all. I think you could say that Tim T gave just a hint of a hint of a hint of a hint of his comedy when he had the line "Normal folks don't spit out bullets when you shoot 'em! No sir!" but even then he was mostly just being a freaked out character, without ironic self-awareness or anything like that. Anyway, whatever, it's always good to see him, I'm glad he was in it at all.

Another random thought was that it occurred to me that Bill Paxton could have been a solid additional character in Predator, which was filmed right around that same time. That is pretty funny to imagine. Or, maybe the Predator could have gone up against the "family" of vamps in ND. That could have been an interesting film. Its heat vision wouldn't work on the cold dead skin of vampires, so they would have that advantage on it. Also, they can survive a hell of a lot of damage, so maybe the Predator could assume it had killed one of them, but then the "dead" vamp would come back and beat the shit out of it... Hey, does predatorfan from the IMDB board come here, maybe under a new name? He might get a kick out of that idea.

Also also... I didn't see this at the theater last night, but there was a really excellent collection of interviews with some of the cast members, Kathryn Bigelow, and a producer, included on the DVD back in 2002. I'm sure some people reading this own that... anyway, I remember trying to find those interviews one time when we were all on IMDB, but I had some kind of trouble and couldn't find them/it. Here, it is divided up into four parts, and is a 47 minute feature included on the DVD extras. Here is the first segment, you can easily click to the rest:



By the way, I know Onyx Hades does horror art, (keep it up, please!) and maybe others here try their hand at that as well. Lance H gave a description of his vision of the origin of his character, and I think it's just really mesmerizing to contemplate. The way he talks about it makes it easy to form a compelling mental picture of what he is saying. Here, it's in the second segment of Living in Darkness, from 2:22 to about 3:00, especially from 2:48 to 2:57 (but just listen to all of it, you'll know what I mean when you hear it).



What else, what else... I thought some parts of the soundtrack were similar to To Live and Die in L.A, whcih you might think just means "hey, it was an 80's movie," but there are some very specific sounds that were virtually identical, and maybe borrowed from the TLADILA soundtrack.

Well, that's all for now. I'm glad I went to see it! A great movie, and a great experience in the cinema. Had to share.

Watership Down

This is so hilarious to me. It's not like it's a new movie, so I don't get how people are unaware of it's content. I guess they just think it's about cute little bunnies... For fuck's sake, they even gave a warning at the beginning of the film before it began to air. It's like when parents who took their children to see Pan's Labyrinth were pissed off it wasn't a cutesy fairtale. Do some damn research people! 😄

https://metro.co.uk/2017/04/16/channel-5-showed-watership-down-on-easter-sunday-and-its-scarred-viewers-for-life-6578101/

The Survivor

Anyone seen this? I don't think I ever saw it mentioned on the horror board. I just watched it on Blu-ray and thought it was off-beat and creepy, but the storyline didn't always work.

John Wayne

Here I am watching my first John Wayne movie, "Red River" (1948). That's right. I'm searching for some B&W movies, and there are plenty of westerns. What are your thoughts on this highly revered cowboy?

The Monster FUCK!

From "Comedy Bang Bang", the greatest song of all time! Part 4!

Horrors from Outer Space!

What are your favorite space movies, horror or not?

I'll throw out a few obvious ones:


FAVES:

Dark Star (1974) - John Carpenter's feature length debut is an eerie, spaced out comedy of sorts that capitolizes on a cheesy, yet creepily isolated sci-fi space mood.
Alien (1979) - The sci-fi slasher in space! Creepy story about people getting picked off one-by-one by an alien life force.
Aliens (1986) - James Cameron takes over the reigns to give us a more military/action oriented survival take on these goddamn xenomorphs. It's an equal to the amazing original film.
Total Recall (1990) - Douglas Quaid must fight off an evil agency while getting his memory back... on Mars! The atmospheric ending, the gore, and bizarre effects make this one a must see.

GOOD:

Star Wars (1977) - Obvious choice, generally fun movie with some zany space ship activity and Death Stars and whatnot.
The Empire Strikes Back (1980) - More Star Wars, an obvious choice. Mostly cool in how much of a downer it is.
Return of the Jedi (1983) - More of an adventure on a planet full of ewoks, but it still counts!
Enemy Mine (1985) - Dennis Quaid gets stranded on a weird planet in the 2090s. Generally interesting, weird sci-fi stuff.
Alien: Resurrection (1997) - Ripley is cloned on a new space ship, with more aliens! The cast is solid, and movie is entertaining as hell. I love the ending with the hybrid getting sucked through the glass!
Event Horizon (1997) - A team goes to Neptune and discovers a gateway to hell! One of the few competent space horrors out there, with some cool ideas.
Serenity (2005) - The spin-off to the Firefly series, involving mass planetary cover-ups and conspiracies! A perfect conclusion to the unjustly canceled tv show.
Prometheus (2012) - The prequel to Alien, featuring more awesome sci-fi than you can handle! There are plenty of cool scenes in this one, especially the abortion scene.
Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) - Marvel's adventures in space, plenty funny and plenty action packed. Any movie with a Lloyd Kaufman cameo is gold.
Rogue One (2016) - Possibly the coolest, most bleak Star Wars film to date, all leading up to the original Death Star.

LESSER:

Hellraiser: Bloodline (1996) - Pinhead is in space in the future scenes of this multi-period piece. The future space scenes aren't much, but it's still a cool idea.
Leprechaun 4: In Space (1996) - A stupid sequel with androids and other nonsense. Not terrible, but not memorable either.
Jason X (2001) - Not as terrible after you watch it fifty times, but it's best scene is probably the liquid nitrogen kill. Everything else about this movie is bullshit.
Sunshine (2007) - Danny Boyle's film about a team that has to re-ignite the sun before the earth freezes. Kinda weird, but Chris Evans has that grim underwater scene.
Gravity (2013) - Mostly an effects movie, but it was decent.
The Force Awakens (2015) - A nice reunion, but it misses some opportunities, like a Luke and Han Solo hanging out after all these years. Still pretty cool, albeit a total rehash.

SHIT:

Alien 3 (1992) - A prison planet filled with bald lice-free fucks get killed by a dog-alien hybrid, after killing off all of our beloved characters from part deux.
Interstellar (2014) - Matthew McConoughey has to find a new place for earthlings to live, because food is scarce. It's mostly decent, until the end, when he gets sucked into a black hole and into a book case. Yeah, that happens.
The Phantom Menace (1999) - Jar Jar. Fuck that clown.
Attack of the Clones (2002) - This one is all about Mannequin Skywalker.
Revenge of the Sith (2005) - Sure, it's got Christopher Lee, and nobody wins in the end, but it's still meh.

Fear And Loathing in New York



As many of us know, drugs can be a lot of fun. Not always, given the circumstances, but more often than not, drugs are fun. Weird, 80's Horror movies involving drugs, however, well, those are always fun. And nobody knows this better than weird, 80's Horror director, Frank Henenlotter, who was once known only for a little cult gem called Basket Case https://trashepics.com/post/9/49/. It would be 6 years before Henenlotter would attempt a follow up. Today, we're going to talk about Brain Damage. The first film of several which gives us the idea that when Frank Henenlotter finds a formula he likes, he by God sticks with it. While most of Henenlotter's films may have a bit too much in common with Basket Case, at times, it's a pretty easy thing to overlook, for me. Because the Henenlotter formula always entertains.

In Brain Damage, we find an elderly couple losing their shit due to their pet Parasite-Worm hightailing it. For a while, we're not certain of the significance, but we soon discover this thing is like a walking drug. A walking, talking drug, actually. A silver tongued "Aylmer" who has the ability to inject a psychedelic drug into people's brains, giving them one hell of a trip. Unfortunately, a drug that is highly addictive. That's not even the catch. We'll get to the catch.

In the same apartment building, the Aylmer finds a new friend to share his brain candy with. A guy named Brian, who hasn't quite been himself lately. It's not entirely clear what his problem is, but he seems very bored with life. Definitely depressed. He'll do just fine, says Aylmer. After giving him a couple doses, Aylmer convinces Brian to take him out for a while. Being higher than he's been in his entire life, Brian would agree to pretty much anything. While out, things get a little clearer. For us, the viewer. Not so much for Brian. Aylmer kills a guy and eats his brain. Brian is oblivious for now, but a time will come when these two will need to sit down and have a talk.

Once Brian notices, he's far from cool with Aylmer killing, especially since it's mostly people he comes in contact with. This issue is certainly addressed ASAP, but by now, it's far too late for Brian to be making demands, or to even negotiate. Aylmer's got him. Either Brian keeps on helping him find food, or it's back to boring old sobriety. That's to assume he makes it past the excruciating agony of withdrawals. A far worse cold Turkey than Heroin, it would seem. Brian can't take it, and soon, caves in, as Aylmer always knew he would. The thing about Aylmer is that he's been around for centuries, and is a long sought after legend, who has been kidnapped by many, a lot of which probably lived to regret it. In other words, Aylmer knows how to get what he wants. And without compromise. So, that's about the size of it. Brian's fucked!

It was a smart subject matter to exploit for the times. A time when drugs, even pot, were looked down upon more so, and in some cases, misunderstood. And with the Basket Case similarities present, it all worked incredibly well. Personally, I'm very much on the Basket Case bandwagon, but I can easily see why someone might favor this one. It is a hell of a lot of fun. Speaking of Basket Case, the completely uninspired, yet welcomed cameo by Duane and Belial of course deserves a mention, as little sense as it made. Duane and Belial make everything more fun.

Aylmer seems friendly enough, but don't let his calming demeanor fool you. That thing is a selfish asshole. And I can't help but feel for his victims. Not so much the people who got their brains sucked out and eaten. But the vulnerable Brian, who never stood a chance. But especially the elderly couple from the beginning, who apparently spent decades tripping their asses off and loving life, only for it all to be snatched away in an instant. Doesn't sound worth it to me. Personally, I would have had my fun, and then kick that thing to the curb once it got mouthy. And then smoke some pot, or something. Fuck him!

Brain Damage is quite possibly the perfect Henenlotter movie, as well as the perfect variation of the Henenlotter formula involving an otherwise normal person dealing with a freak of some sort in some very unorthodox ways, which, more often than not, makes him appear crazy. But there is something about this one that is somewhat timeless. A movie which has aged well most likely due to the fact that it's subject matter remains as relevant as it was in the anti-drug 80's. In fact, I'm a little surprised there's never even been talk of a remake. I'd check it out, because I think it would be a hard concept to seriously fuck up. Maybe even a little more depth and character development would be in order. Which is one thing Brain Damage is lacking. A forgiveable flaw considering everything else that goes down. But as we all know, some things can only be duplicated to an extent. And in that case, it probably wouldn't even be worth the effort. Because the wonderful Henenlotter weirdness is truly one of a kind. 7/10



#Review