Squirm (1976)

I hate worms. Slimy and gross little things, the way they move gives me the heebie jeebies. Fortunately in my experience, I haven't encountered too many of the little bastards, only the occasional one or two while gardening. One or two I can handle, but hundreds of thousands is another story entirely. If nothing else, Squirm is a very accurate title, cos I was sure squirming in my seat.



The plot is about a boy from New York, who travels down to a small town in Georgia to stay with a lady friend. This is right after a massive lightening storm causes the power lines to fall to the ground, sending electricity through the earth. And sending the worms insane. I guess you could say it's one of the more unusual creature features.

After I watched this flick, I jumped onto imdb to read up more about it. I was a little appalled by the imdb rating of a 4.3. Not only that, but apparently this movie was on Mystery Science Theater 3000. This comes across as a little insulting because Squirm is actually, for all intents and purposes, a really good film. Sure it's a B grade flick and maybe a little tongue and cheek, but I found myself 'squirming' far more than laughing. This movie genuinely unnerved me. There is a scene towards the beginning where the two main characters are eating lunch, and in the background, a worm is seen sliding down the wall. I had to do a double take and rewind to make sure I had seen what I thought I saw. It was a very good scene in establishing atmosphere. Of course probably the most memorable scene was the fishing scene. Considering how this was made in 1976, this type of stuff is impressive. There are no CGI bugs here, it's all legit. And slowly, this movie builds to a pretty terrifying finale.

I remember being shocked and grossed out when I saw Mermaid in a Manhole, and the many thousands of worms in that one. Squirm might just top it, there must be millions of them here. They are everywhere. I was originally watching this movie with the lights off, but had to turn them on when they started falling from the roofs in the dark. The lighting actually becomes quite poor towards the end, but that's not a bad thing. Seeing them wriggle and move in the shadows was even more creepier.

At the beginning it says this movie was based on true events. Not sure how true that could be, I certainly have not ever heard of aggressive worms that bite. But perhaps a town was once infested with them. I don't fancy returning to Georgia anytime soon.



This movie isn't perfect, but it certainly doesn't deserve a 4.3 rating. It might be a bit of a slow build up and it might be a tad unrealistic, but it's creepy as hell and quite unique in its atmosphere. A nice little 70s gem.

8/10

Watch it here.



https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075261/reference

Thankyou

New Feature: Wiki

I got bored yesterday, so I decided to make a wiki for the site. Yes, our very own Trash Encyclopedia! Hopefully, we can all have some fun with this.

Users can now anonymously add and edit pages on the site's wiki. These pages can be about anything us trash addicts might find interesting, and should be presented in a well-structured and informative way.

As of now, these pages can be modified by any user, so be fair. At Trash Epics, we may be weird, but we're still fairly reasonable, and I trust you not to compromise the integrity of anyone else's works. Yes, we're going by the honor system. For now...

Hopefully... someone will actually make a page!

Quick! Pick Something!

Which of these does not belong?

Yes, this is a trick question.

The first user to tell me the secret code gets a prize.



The answer is within this post.

#Puzzle

New Videos?

I'm waiting for a day off to take my next step in making more videos. I'm just getting really antsy to do something beyond what I've been doing. It's been almost 2 years since I made my last video, Terrible Things!

If only I had some acid, I could get that artistic epiphany I've been waiting for that makes my ideas cum alive (the electricity that builds my redneck Frankenstein), but I'm just going to have to trust myself, and start production on my first film: an extremely short, rushed, and dastardly film about cowboys, salesmen, killer dicks, and necrophiliacs in the American south. The shooting script for Gutter Film https://trashepics.com/forum/560/ will commence writing this month, due for a release this October.

Now that I've said it, I can't take it back. I'm obligated!

The Mystery Between Water and Resurrection: Part 2

It's common knowledge that Halloween: Resurrection is worthless. The seventh installment of the Halloween franchise ended beautifully, coming full circle, and saying all there was to say about Halloween, and the character of Michael Myers. An unnecessary sequel was shat out, tainting the validity of a series that had just received proper closure, and demeaned its antagonist, it's protagonist, and the franchise as a whole. It could never be the same, and ultimately became the unwanted epilogue to a series which once had standards.


The Endless Stairway

In a terribly conceived twist to undo the "mistake" of killing off Michael Myers, a paramedic arrives excessively early, to seemingly repair the gate enough to enter the grounds, and checks the pulse of a man with a half dozen stab wounds. Oddly enough, Michael approves of his fashions, only after deciding the man should STFU forever by crushing the man's larynx, and strips this paramedic's attire, as well as his own, re-dresses both himself and the paremedic, and casually leaves Laurie alone for the rest of the night... all of which happens before Laurie can scale down a single flight of stairs.



Furthermore, the paramedics who arrive at the scene at a normal pace don't even unmask the man they so incompetently declare "dead", zip him up, and send on his way. Is this some unfriendly commentary about paramedics from Summer Glen, California? That they break into private schools, loiter in the hopes of catching a victim of foul play, and fail to resuscitate living patients? Ouch. Wouldn't wanna get hurt in Summer Glen, California. Then you'd be as good as dead.


Summer Glen, or Santa Mira?

The mass hysteria experienced acrossed the world known as "Halloween: Resurrection" has a premise that most people who acknowledge said hysteria seem to agree upon. These delusionists believe that they had actually witnessed Laurie Strode decapitate said soliciting paramedic, and that it had in turn caused her to bail out of both her life, and the franchise. Is she at fault? No, for if blatant evidence arguing a case can be rectonned in said "reality", then one's sanity and validity can also be retconned, and this isn't a world she wanted to live in anymore.

---

I remember reading the rumors before H8 came out, trying to explain that H20's killer was a copycat. Of course, that makes no sense, but just try to hearken back to the fact that Halloween 6 does exist. There's an entire disregarded continuity that could explain that a copycat killer is reasonable, given that Michael was afflicted with the curse of Thorn, and had an entire cult of psychos aiding his efforts for some convoluted reason or another.

H6 was essentially giving motivation for Michael Myers to pass on his curse, but he first needed to wipe out his bloodline. In comes the rage he felt in H5 when he realized that something was amiss, and killing his nephew/son wouldn't change anything. Perhaps he sensed that his bloodline continued despite his efforts, and his actions would be in vain regardless of his efforts? That his sister wasn't truly dead? Or perhaps you're not even acknowledging H4-H6 at all? In either scenario, a copycat killer would've been more logical than the explanation we got, despite how lazy and unmotivated the twist would inherently be.


October Fools Day the 31st, Part 7½: A New Beginning

After being defeated by Corey Feldman, Jason realized he needed to get his shit together and turn into a full-blown zombie in order to continue killing people. Similarly to the Gemini killer, it took him a while to get his chosen body working again, only it didn't take him 15 years, but merely just one movie, in which he only appears as a delusion. Friday the 13th Part 5 was in fact the filler sequel Jason used to hibernate with, calling up an inept copycat killer to do his bidding.

Who was the killer in F13 part 5? Well, Roy of course! The paramedic out to avenge the death of his fat, greasy retard of a son who was murdered by an irritable axe-wielding lumberjack, who ironically is one of the only people who doesn't die in the film, proving that Roy clearly didn't have a firm grasp on what he was doing, nor why he was doing it. So we'll assume as with most serial killers, he simply has a few screws loose, since his motive doesn't pertain to his victims, which makes him a pretty lousy killer, enough that he dies at the end of the film and remains overshadowed by Jason, the better killer.


Leroy did it!

With a similarly unrelated motive, Roy's cousin "Leroy" sets out to avenge his death, targeting further irrelevant victims... such as Laurie Strode and her entourage.

Preposterous. This is simply mashing two franchises together for argument's sake, isn't it? Absolutely, and sadly, the concept alone remains better than anything in H8. After all, Roy was a paramedic, so what's to say that with all these incompetent paramedics running around, cousin Leroy and his abundance of mental instability couldn't get a job as a Summer Glen paramedic? The openings in Crystal Lake must have been filled before ol' Leroy could get a chance to apply, so in his anger, he donned the mask of reputable and popular slasher (much like Roy did) and went from Haddonfield or wherever (basically, just a lot closer to Crystal Lake) all the way to California. After all, we already had Ben Tramer wear the same mask in H2, three different dopes wear the mask in H4, the obnoxious twat Spitz wear the mask in H5, and even fan-favorite Freddie Harris wear the mask in H8, so it must be a common mask, right? Little did Leroy know that he faced an uncommon adversary...


Marvin did it, too!

Yes, just like Roy coincidentally quarrelled with someone who had a run-in with a legit serial killer, so did Leroy, targeting Keri Tate, or Laurie Strode unbeknownst to him, who ultimately got the heads up on him. With such a terrible motive behind his method of operations, who does this leave in custody for Laurie's demise in the institution?

Well, if Roy targeted random people for the death of his boy, and Leroy targeted random people for the death of Roy-Roy, then it's only natural that a third cousin be revealed: Marvin. Being that his name doesn't rhyme with "oye", he expresses a natural ability of avoiding the prior tropes of his predecessors (namely dying), and somehow manages to successfully enact his revenge, where he then retreats to the evidence locker of Crystal Lake, 1987, stealing the deceased Joey's neglected candy bar from the evidence locker where it's left to rot for years to come, and savors his reward for a joke well played, albeit one without hook, punchline, and it's definitely not a sinker, because nobody could possibly piece this plot together without realizing the simple fact that the infestation of lifeless drones cannot continue if we don't send more paramedics.

#What

The Mystery Between Water and Resurrection: Part 1

Michael Myers... the 6-year-old boy who killed his sister one Halloween night, and returned 15 years later to haunt the town of Haddonfield, on and off, for 20 years to come. His story has become legendary among locals, who live in fear every time the autumn comes along, for with it, comes the harvest.

The character is a mystery, and the attempts to prescribe an M.O. and rationale to his actions resulted in a cluttered plot of curses, cults, and coincidences. The Thorn storyline was discontinued for a good reason. It was excessive, and demeaning to the mystique of a character that relies on the lack of a motive. The attempt to explain him ultimately results in the demeaning of his effect.

To wipe the slate clean, H20 came along as a reunion and bookend to the series, coming full circle, and providing a new light on the character of Michael Myers through his relationship with his sister. Ignoring the sequels between 2 and 7 is an unfortunate casualty that remains unaccounted for, but it presents us with a theoretical approach into the mindset of Michael, humanizing him more so in one film than any sequel ever could, while keeping us entirely without blatant explanations like H6 failed to convey logically.


Contours of an Empty Shape

Studying the patterns, mannerisms, and routines of Michael, it's likely that he suffers from a mental condition, likely autism, that has him zoned into an objective mode. At the tender age of 6, he heard the "voices", or simply urges in his case, to kill his sister. Though as someone who suffers from a skewed reality, he doesn't understand what death is. To him, one can be trick-or-treated to death, but as Loomis would retort, "you don't know what death is".



To Michael, it's Halloween, and he's only wearing a costume. He's set out to trick-or-treat, and he doesn't want to reveal himself in order to prolong his Halloween prank, and get as much out of it as possible. Only in his condition, he never seems to snap out of it, enough to realize how late it is, and that he needs to hang it up and come back home, or back to reality. It's a mindset he's hypnotized into, and he can't seem to escape it.

We've witnessed his humanity before. He expressed reluctance to kill Jamie Lloyd, as if part of him was briefly able to see part of the innocence he himself once had, but in his condition, he has to finish what he started. It's hard-wired into his ill-advised routine, and it simply must happen in his eyes, like an obsessive compulsive conflict.

Halloween 5 spoke of his rage, and it's an overlooked aspect of his character in the film. He is conflicted, and furious with the way his routine must play out, and even more so with himself in how he must make it play out that way. Curses regardless, he's caught in a trance to carry out his intentions, and in his eyes, it's still Halloween night, 1963, and the night just never seems to go away.


Memoirs of a 20 Year Hangover

H20 runs its course, and in the end, Laurie fights back. As much as the film is a character study of her, it's equally an undermined character study of Michael Myers. Initially, it was upsetting to see the eyes of the shape through the mask. It lessened the impact of his blank, pale, emotionless face by giving him eyes that spoke so much, in such silence.

Also worth noting is the use of three different masks used in the film: the bright white and blank mask gives him dull, annoyed look while hiding his eyes behind a black screen; the CGI mask prompts wtf-responses from viewers; and the primary mask shows too much of his soul. The shape in the original film was depicted as an empty figure, though humanity was hinted by showing his eyes through the mask in a momentary scene, and undeniably through his unmasking.

Only the fifth film shows his face unmasked (and only vaguely), as if symbolically, his human-side was heavily suppressed, though H20 seems to hide his eyes prominently until he begins his direct quarrels with Laurie, who unexpected to him, recognizes his approach and fights back with as much tenacity as he does, which begins to shake him into the realization that his "joke" has gone too far, and the reactions aren't as predictable as they once were, to a man who had previously over-excelled at his one long effort at the ultimate Halloween prank.

In a game of tag, filled with eye games and guilted innocence, the play date culminates with a deck of cards being scattered on the floor. Laurie grabs the winning hand, turns the tables, and beats him at his own game. As he ambiguously expresses no ill-intent following his defeat, others don't see him as the practical joker he believes he is, and Laurie comandeers the van, shakes him from it, and sends him rolling down a hill, where he sees the tumbling van, symbolic of Laurie's wrath, coming down on him. He turns to run, but it's far too late.

In a prone and helpless position, Michael does something we've never seen him do before or since. He panics. No, this isn't the retcon finale where he's actually a body-swapped paramedic with a crushed larynx who can't talk, because he would've gurgled, Motel Hell style, or more imminently: TAKEN OFF THE MASK. He wasn't in shock. To go through a windshield, get hit by a car, fall down a hill, get pinned to a tree by an entire van, and STILL be conscious proves that he's too tough to be in shock, or be an innocent bystander for that matter, proving that he is, in fact, the shape of Halloween.

Trapped and without hope, he has to come face to face with his reckoning, realizing the consequences of his actions, and finally, he is afraid. Afraid to face the death he delivered for so long, because he finally understands it, as if literally having had the sense knocked into him. At this point, he wants mercy, because he's 6-years-old again, awaking from the nightmare of a Halloween night 20 years in the making, only it wasn't a dream, and he has to answer for his crimes.

•shoots 6 bullets•
TO BE CONTINUED

New Feature: Lists (plus a new Zone)

I was talking to @Ballz the other day about what my original intentions were for the media section of the site. It wasn't to rip-off the IMDB forum system with a board for each movie... it was so I could it randomly select a movie for me, so I don't have to sit in front of my dvd shelves and waste 90 minutes trying to figure out which movie to watch. Yes, that shit happens!

Writing a program to do that is so easy, I just decided to build upon it more and more, as everything on this site is just one little experiment after another. If you're reading this, you ought to know by now that you can influence this site and help build the garbage dump that is Trash Epics.

Somehow or another, me and @Ballz got on the subject of lists. I forgot about lists, but apparently, everybody loves lists, so I added lists.

---

A list is just a post, categorized as a "list". You can then access your list through a link provided within your post. Your list will be blank until you go into editing mode with it, where you can add a text title to your list item, and/or link a media title to it. Furthermore, you can set the order/rank of your list items, if you were to do a top-10 list and whatnot. Don't worry, it ain't hard to figure out.

And with linking media titles to your list, I began thinking about how to tie that in with our trash zones, and I got some interesting ideas if anyone ever decides on a making a zone on this site. Of course, without a zone to showcase, nobody will ever get inspired, so I built a demo zone for you, based on the horror franchise that got me into horror movies AND the internet AND all this web design jargon, so many years ago...

https://trashepics.com/zone/halloween/
Each title in the zone is linked to a list, which can double as a control panel, then it's fun for the whole family.

#Zone

Blood Harvest

So I'm watching the Truman Show(1998) and I saw Peter Krause from six feet under and started wondering what else he was in when I came across Blood Harvest(1987). Has anyone seen it?

Mullet Guy

Mullet Guy is my hero. He was in Zombie Bloodbath, a wonderful movie from Todd Sheets, and has the best mullet I've ever laid eyes on. And although he meets a heroic end at the hands of a bunch of zombies surrounding him on a bridge, his soul lives on inside all of us. His death allows for our band of heroes to escape the horde of zombies, so his noble sacrifice was not in vain. Still, his death made me weep like no other movie before. I dream of him every night.

Who else appreciates this majestic diety?

End of the Line (2007)

Do you remember what it was like to be a child? Full of innocence and dreams. It was a simpler time back then. A time where we had no responsibilities and our imaginations ran wild. Santa was real, the Easter Bunny was your best friend and monsters on the tv were evil bastards that had every capability of killing us in our beds. It's no coincidence many horror fans loved the genre as children as well, because everything felt more real when we were kids. How many of you were afraid that Freddy would actually harm us in our dreams? How many of you were petrified to go to a summer camp, cos Jason was a real entity to you? Let's face it, horror movies are so much scarier when we are children. As we grow, sure the odd movie might still unsettle us, it might give us a jump scare every now and then, but we watch them to be entertained because we seldom get scared by them anymore. How many horror movies truly frighten you as adults? I mean really get under your skin and stay with you for days after? There are very few that can effectively do so. End of the Line, is one of those rare movies.

Not excatly a "trash" movie, but I loved this movie so much so I'm gonna post it here. So there!

Okay, so what's it about, you might be wondering? A young nurse boards a train home after work and terrible things happen to her and those around her. I know I know, that wasn't much of a plot, you see, I am reluctant to give you details, this really is a movie best going into blind. I am not trying to sell you on the plot. I actually want you to know as little as possible. Don't look up a trailer, don't even pay mind to the dvd artwork, cos it's terrible. The cover made me think of a cheap Descent/Creep knock off and I was deterred from getting right on it. But this movie is nothing like the Descent or Creep. If anything it's more like Martyrs. Yes, this is a powerful movie, and above all frightening. Not only does it have some very heart racing jumpscares, but it's disturbing on a more psychological level too. This movie is a massive build up until the end and depending on your interpretation, the ending can be mindblowing. Not only that, but it's wonderful for rewatches, you'll pick up on subtle things you missed before, little clues that'll help solidify your experience and make you gain an even bigger appreciation for this amazing flick.

Okay so I'm giving a lot of hype for it, but is this movie perfect? No, the acting isn't always crash hot, it does have some slow scenes and some of the characters are a bit one dimensional, but, it doesn't change the fact that this is a heart stopping story. Within the first two minutes, if you're not feeling a little uneased then you're a braver person than I am. This movie scared the absolute sh!t out of me. That nostalgic feeling of watching a scary movie as a child came right back and the concern for nightmares was a reality. On top of that, not only is it incredibly entertaining, it's unbelievably gruesome. With some incredible gore scenes and shocking displays of violence and hinted sexual violence, this movie surprisingly pushes the envelope, despite its lack of nudity.

Those who have seen this Canadian horror movie might be weary of its messages, but the beauty of this movie is it has many different interpretations. No matter what your stance is, you're sure to find this movie both insightful, horrifying, and entertaining. That's a fantastic combination. Director Maurice Devereaux did a wonderful job on this to the point where I anxiously look forward to anything else he's done. Apparently he was so dedicated to this movie he put a mortgage on his house so he could fund it and have complete control over it. Well done, Mr Devereaux. [clap]

So to wrap this up, if you like atmosphere, tensions, gore and deep messages, this is the movie for you. But for the best effects, watch it alone, at night, in the dark with the volume turned right up.
Enjoy for a memorable horror movie experience.
Thankyou.

Here's a better poster to what's on the dvd cover.



Cheers.