Queen of Blood (1966)

I saw this on Tubi (I think), the other day.

I am pretty sure, although not certain, that it was one of the inspirations for Lifeforce (1985). It's about people in the future (which was still 1990, in 1966), finding signals from an alien civilization that was trying to reach us. The aliens seemed to be having some kind of technological problems, but they managed to get a spaceship to Mars. It crashed there...

Probably half or two thirds of the movie is full of logistical stuff about getting our rocket ships to Mars and back, and whether they have enough fuel for certain maneuvers, etc. It's a lot like watching a 1966 version of The Martian, in that way. I had to keep reminding myself that, obviously, rockets and space travel were still very exciting and new at that time. It was sufficiently compelling drama, for many viewers, to just talk about the basics of what space travel would involve, in a (mostly) scientific way.

Anyway, somewhere along the line the astronauts pick up an alien survivor of the alien spaceship crash. She had gotten herself to the Martian moon Phobos, somehow... some kind of lifeboat or rescue craft from another alien spaceship got her there, I think.

For the next twenty minutes or so, we see the astronauts trying to maintain an objective, detached, scientific, perhaps somewhat benevolent interest in the female alien, while it become more and more obvious to us in the audience that she is nothing but a vampiric killing machine who will kill off the entire crew if she is not stopped. Soooooo that's fun.

You can guess more or less how things go. There aren't too many huge surprises, although right at the end they find a way to go out on a cliffhanger. So that was cool.

The female alien vampire is never seen naked, by the way. I probably should have stated that immediately after I compared the film to Life Force. She is kind of sexy, in a dark, hypnotic way, but she is always demurely clothed.

One interesting thing about this movie is the cast. It has Dennis Hopper, John Saxon, and the famous Basil Rathbone, from many decades in the past. That alone is interesting. If you watch this movie, you are seeing actors who have been in movies in practically every decade from the past ninety years.

Basil Rathbone's character is named Farraday. I found myself wondering if the Fallada character in Lifeforce might have been inspired by him. Their names are roughly similar, and both characters are sort of the Voice Of Science in each film, and both are played by more senior actors. Not sure about this, but it did feel that way to me.

Some of the art toward the very beginning of the film is really cool. Just art of aliens and their space stations and spaceships. It is in the style of the time of course, but I still enjoyed it.

There is a female Earth astronaut. She is cute, and her role is interesting to watch. She does have some responsibility, and gets some respect, but in other ways... well, this is just a Mad Men era space story. She does get treated a bit like a secretary at times.

So, anyway, you could do worse, if you felt like watching a sixties space/horror movie. I would say it's worth a watch. Kirk out.

1st 5 films you saw as a kid at the cinemas/theater?

I'm talking live action. I remember going to a double feature on a nursery/pre school trip to see Bambi/101 Dalmatians. I'm not counting that...I hated Disney back then as much as I do now. Fuck that rat, that duck...Goofy was alright I guess. I always preferred Looney Toons or Woody Woodpecker as a child. So here are my 1st 5...

Star Wars (1977)
Superman (1978)
Jaws 2 (1978)
The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
Superman II (1980)

...so do you remember yours? If so list them...no judgments cause you were a child and taken to see them probably by a family member.

I bought Flash on blu-ray

Because it's a good movie. I think people are stupid when it comes to the "Snyder-verse". They want and petition for his canon to continue, but they scoff at the thought of watching the final films in that series and let them become box office bombs. Had the returns been greater, the likelihood of continuing the Synderverse would have been far greater. Money talks. Fans can't be that stupid though. Something strange is going on here. I don't know who to blame.

Best and Worst of 2023

I've mostly seen the mainstream stuff, so I'm no connoisseur.

Faves: The Flash (shut up, Vince!), and perhaps a flick I saw a few days ago, Charlie Day's Fool's Paradise, a satire on Hollywood. Plenty of okay movies this year, but nothing really great. Amityville Death Toilet was a good piece of garbage, though.

Worst: Evil Dead Rise, Blue Beetle, The Boogeyman, Knock at the Cabin.


...and for TV...


Poker Face was pretty good, and I enjoyed Gen V. FUBAR wasn't as good as I wanted it to be, and I ejected from The Last of Us early on. Fuck that show.


So what are your favorites of 2023?

Pearl

In this period-piece psychodrama, Mia Goth plays Pearl, an overworked farmgirl who dreams of being famous. Her mom is a strict bitch and her dad is a vegetable, so she's desperate to get away from the lifestyle. Who wouldn't be? Set in the backdrop of WW1, everyone is worried about the pandemic and catching the sickness, so there's a bit of social commentary on masks. Being related to the movie 'X', the plot also includes some film/porn stuff to tie that whole theme together. Plus an alligator.

To explain any further would do it injustice. Other than it being a prequel, I had no idea what I was getting into, so go in blindly and enjoy the experience and mystery of what the hell this movie may be about. Enjoy it for the novelty of an early 1900s-set horror flick. The era and setting have parallels to Wizard of Oz, and Pearl struck me as reminiscent of the Wicked Witch... of the south?

Mia churns out a good performance, and seems to have had a fair behind-the-scenes role as a co-writer/producer. It makes me happy to see Ti West spitting out some entertaining horror flicks. I've liked him ever since House of the Devil. He's influenced by the classics and is artsy, but not fartsy. It may already be part of a franchise, but it could stand on its own. I do, however, wish to give 'X' another go now that I've gotten to know this character more.

If "MaXXXine" is indeed the part 3 of the series, I have no idea what the hell that one will be about.

#Review

Jeff Anderson

I was just thinking recently, I feel like we should hear this guy's name more often. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Anderson Maybe you already do, if you follow the View Askew universe stuff closely.

All I mean is, I'm not sure that Kevin Smith would have been a success, if not for this guy. He (Jeff A) was the funniest part of Clerks, IMHO. He had great comic timing, and just a really good presence that defined his character.

Looking at his wikipedia page, I see that he has stayed involved with View Askew stuff, over the years.
So, good for him. I just hope he gets credit for doing more than his share, in keeping the first Clerks movie moving along.

It is totally different from what I'm about to say, but it does remind me of it. Michael Biehn should get more credit than he does, for the success of The Terminator. Both Arnold and James Cameron would have become successful anyway, of course, but Michael Biehn's performance in The Terminator helped them both a LOT. He had to communicate the entire backstory of the situation to Sarah Connor, and to us, the audience. Without his intensity, and his whole "tough love" approach to Sarah in the early part of the movie, people wouldn't have fully comprehended the significance of Arnold's terminator.

So. Yah. Nothing to do with Jeff Anderson, but, they remind of each other in that way.

Franchises in which the Good Guy is the Icon?

That was hard to state clearly in the title field... I was just thinking about the collages and montages of horror icons, and how almost all of the icons are the villains. Some of the only exceptions that occur to me are Ash (from Evil Dead (obv)), and arguably Herbert West from Re-Animator. If you can think of any other horror franchises in which the person who fights againts the main villain becomes the most iconic figure in the franchise, please share.

Bob Iger on why The Marvels failed

To paraphrase some recent news, the Disney CEO believes the movie failed because there was...

...Not enough studio and executive interference.

😄😄😄😄😄😄😄😄😄😄😄😄😄😄😄

That is all.

Furiosa Timeline

There's a new Mad Max spin-off coming out. A prequel to Fury Road about Furiosa when she was younger, but here's what I don't get...

The trailer has the text, "45 YEARS AFTER THE COLLAPSE". What exactly are they talking about? Society was still around in the first movie when Max was a cop. I guess he'd be about 23 in the first movie, so if society collapses shortly after that, say at age 25... 45 years after that places him at age 70 at the time of this movie? So if Fury Road is set after this... is Max supposed to be like 90 years old in Fury Road?
Am I overthinking this, or did George Miller underthink it? As much as I want to believe that Gibson/Hardy play the same character, I'm leaning more toward separate continuities.

Unbreakable Split Glass

I like what M. Night did there, with those titles. This is a pretty interesting trilogy in a weird sequel/spin-off/tie-in kind of way.

Unbreakable came out in 2000. Apparently, nobody knows about this movie. I've come across a lot of movie-goers who expressed interest in seeing 'Glass', and upon my questioning them, "Have you seen 'Unbreakable'?", they often say no. I feel that we have too many people going into this without knowing the original film in the trilogy, and that bothers me. Ignorance.

Well, Unbreakable was a cool fuckin' movie. I watched it back in the day when it came to video and I quite enjoyed it. I'd easily say it's my favorite M. Night movie. He had a trilogy planned, but things didn't work out, and boom. A great thing never was... until a newfound interest in 2017, when Split came out!

Now mind you, I had no interest in M. Night's new movie. Plot didn't intrigue me much, but a co-worker came out of it enthused, and told me the twist, and then I had to watch it. That twist got me very excited for something I'd been waiting so many years for, because seriously... It's been almost TWENTY FUCKING YEARS for this thing to happen, and how is it going to turn out?

So what happens with Glass? Obviously, M. Night is all about the twists, so you can't really say anything about this movie, other than whether you like it or you don't. Me? I feel satisfied with the final product.

Despite the title, Sam Jackson isn't in that much of the movie. He definitely plays an integral part, but don't expect him to be in it much. He isn't even the first credited cast member. McAvoy is, because he plays a lot of different characters in this movie. 😉

Personally, I was more big on Unbreakable than I was on Split, which was still good. McAvoy definitely put a lot of effort into the role(s), but I was more into the Bruce Willis storyline. I wish there was more of it in the movie, but either way, the pacing is pretty sly. What I definitely liked was the cut scenes from Unbreakable, as well as some alternate angled scenes.

The movie handled all the characters really well, and I can't complain. It made my inner-nerd really happy. Good stuff.