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Post by KAMALARAMBO: BOOMSHAKALAKA!!! on Dec 7, 2018 8:50:22 GMT -5
Watched Zarkorr! The Invader last night. It’s a no budget offering from Full Moon Made in 1996. It’s really more sci fi than horror, but damn it, it’s the closest I’ve seen to a horror movie all month so I’m going to count it.
Anyway, I spotted Les Claypool’s name in the credits as one of the crew. I wonder if the credit guy was a huge Primus fan and just through him in their to pad out the names as some no budget films with small crews sometimes do. I wouldn’t be shocked if Claypool actually worked on it as he’s quirky like that, but it doesn’t show up on his IMDB.
As for the movie it’s about a superior alien race who send a monster named Zarkorr to destroy Earth unless a human exactly in the middle of the most likely, least likely people to stop such a monster can do it. That person turns out to be a post office employee (not a mailman, that’s different) living in New Jersey. Together with female zoologist and a nutty police officer they travel to the West Coast to take on Zarkorr.
It’s pretty fun and at 75 minutes is just short enough not to drag on or make you consider why the hell you’re watching this. It’s no budget so all the scenes of Zarkorr on his rampage are done using models with the filmmakers making no attempt to hide this.
It comes on the Megamonster 3 pack set. I’m going to watch the other film included on that next, Kraa! The Sea Monster.
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Nr1Humanoid
Hank Scorpio
Is the #3 humanoid at best.
Posts: 5,482
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Post by Nr1Humanoid on Dec 7, 2018 16:12:48 GMT -5
Since I have a month's subscription to Netflix (thanks to Dynasty reboot) I decided to try some newer films in horror starting with Most Likely To Die.
Not too bad I must say, derivative of other horror flicks as it may be. It was nice to see the majority of potential victims finding a few victims early on rather than the final girl finds the rest as is usually the norm.
I didn't figure out the killer until right before the reveal which is always a plus in my horror enjoyment column, though it must be said his motivation didn't hold up under closer scrutiny. The actors did a fine job, some characters were nicely fleshed out and the kills weren't too bad, especially the fun Oddjob homage. The token black guy got to nail a girl, which was a cute touch.
Just turn your IQ down 25% and you'll enjoy it.
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Post by KAMALARAMBO: BOOMSHAKALAKA!!! on Dec 8, 2018 10:04:35 GMT -5
I watched Kraa! The Sea Monster yesterday, which is pretty much just Zarkorr! The Invader remade by Full Moon two years later with some variables altered.
This time aliens send Kraa, a 200 foot sea monster to Earth to destroy it. In this one there is a space ship of good guys battling the monster. I think they’re supposed to be aliens too, but they look like regular people except one has psychic abilities. They also send a good alien who speaks with an Italian accent and is tiny to help some fairly average Joes to defeat Kraa.
The average Joes in this one are a fat biker looking dude who is actually a genius/former med student/scientist and a sassy black woman. The two meet at the sassy black woman’s diner and when they get sent the good alien, together, they have to find a way to defeat Kraa and also evade the US government who want to capture the good alien, just like in ET.
There is a little reference to Laserblast in this one. Whereas in Laserblast they show the logo for Star Wars which gets blown away this one has a big advertisement for the late 1990’s Godzilla that is on a building that gets destroyed by Kraa. I love Laserblast and everything, but that has always made me think of the movie I could be watching. With this one since neither movie is particularly good it's just a gag that makes me want to watch Laserblast instead which in turn makes me want to watch Star Wars.
Anyway, I looked for Les Claypool’s name in the credits of this one again since both films were made by the same people. While there was no Les Claypool there instead there was a Mary Claypool. My new theory is that there was a Mary Claypool that worked on both films, but for the first one the credit guy was goofing off and changed Mary to Les since he was a Primus fan. He meant to change it back, but forgot about it.
Anyway, this one is even shorter at 69 minutes, but I like Zarkorr a bit better. Their Joe Schmoe character came off as a better everyman. The monster looks cooler in this one even though both look like the director took the cheapest looking monster from Ultraman and said, “Yeah we can make it cheaper than this.”
The last movie on the Megamonster pack is Monsters Gone Wild! which isn’t really a movie, but a compilation of monster movie scenes from Charles Band projects. I started watching it yesterday and it looks like it’s just 1990s/early 2000s Band stuff so yeah this won’t be that fun.
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andrew8798
FANatic
on 24/7 this month
Posts: 106,084
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Post by andrew8798 on Dec 8, 2018 20:40:11 GMT -5
Next weeks Sven is Revenge of Frankenstein
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Post by DSR on Dec 13, 2018 23:18:25 GMT -5
Last night I watched Ridley Scott's horror/sci-fi classic ALIEN (1979). I'm sure you folks are familiar with the story, but just in case: a small crew on a spaceship headed back to Earth in the far future receives a signal, investigates, brings an alien entity aboard their space ship. Said entity proceeds to pick them off one-by-one until Final Girl (tm) Sigourney Weaver saves the day and her name becomes a household word.
Today I read Roger Luckhurst's book "ALIEN", part of the BFI Film Classics line. The book begins by discussing the film's beginnings and potential for failure: as a script by Dan O'Bannon for a Roger Corman-esque b-monster movie, re-writes, a troubled production with an inexperienced director, and early critical lambasting. It then goes on to discuss what about the film makes it stand out from the likes of QUEEN OF BLOOD and IT! THE TERROR FROM BEYOND SPACE: the artistry of the likes of HR Giger, Chris Foss, and Moebius creating the look and feel of the film, and the interpretations of its influences, from Charles Darwin to Sigmund Freud to HP Lovecraft. The book also situates the film ALIEN within its place in time, the transition from the 70s into the 80s, the end of post-WWII prosperity and the birth of the rust belt. Some themes explored include the ineffectual male leadership and androgynous/asexual reading of the crew of the Nostromo, the unscrupulous Company who hired the crew and their desire to capture the alien "crew expendable", and even Jonesy the cat and humanity's desire to co-habitat with non-human life.
Like I mentioned last month with BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN and its companion BFI book, these are written for those who enjoy this level of analysis (maybe over-analysis). I enjoyed it a great deal. The book is highly recommended if you're fascinated by socio-political themes in film. And ALIEN is recommended even if you aren't, because it's an incredible piece of cinema.
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Ultimo Gallos
Grimlock
Dreams SUCK!Nightmares live FOREVER!
Posts: 14,400
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Post by Ultimo Gallos on Dec 14, 2018 4:46:15 GMT -5
Next weeks Sven is Revenge of Frankenstein Gonna do like I did when Sven aired Creature from the Black Lagoon. In that I watched all of Sven's bits and skipped the movie. Mostly cause I just watched Creature recently. With Revenge of Frankenstein I am skipping the movie cause I am not a Hammer fan. Got my Roku today and spent 4 hours setting it up. Lots of free Horror channels on it. But most of them have the same 30 or so grey market/public domain horror films most horror fans already own on vhs/DVD. Might start watching Castle Rock tomorrow? Any of y'all watch it? I have read most of King's stuff so figure it will be fun catching all the references.
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Ultimo Gallos
Grimlock
Dreams SUCK!Nightmares live FOREVER!
Posts: 14,400
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Post by Ultimo Gallos on Dec 14, 2018 4:48:43 GMT -5
Last night I watched Ridley Scott's horror/sci-fi classic ALIEN (1979). I'm sure you folks are familiar with the story, but just in case: a small crew on a spaceship headed back to Earth in the far future receives a signal, investigates, brings an alien entity aboard their space ship. Said entity proceeds to pick them off one-by-one until Final Girl (tm) Sigourney Weaver saves the day and her name becomes a household word. Today I read Roger Luckhurst's book "ALIEN", part of the BFI Film Classics line. The book begins by discussing the film's beginnings and potential for failure: as a script by Dan O'Bannon for a Roger Corman-esque b-monster movie, re-writes, a troubled production with an inexperienced director, and early critical lambasting. It then goes on to discuss what about the film makes it stand out from the likes of QUEEN OF BLOOD and IT! THE TERROR FROM BEYOND SPACE: the artistry of the likes of HR Giger, Chris Foss, and Moebius creating the look and feel of the film, and the interpretations of its influences, from Charles Darwin to Sigmund Freud to HP Lovecraft. The book also situates the film ALIEN within its place in time, the transition from the 70s into the 80s, the end of post-WWII prosperity and the birth of the rust belt. Some themes explored include the ineffectual male leadership and androgynous/asexual reading of the crew of the Nostromo, the unscrupulous Company who hired the crew and their desire to capture the alien "crew expendable", and even Jonesy the cat and humanity's desire to co-habitat with non-human life. Like I mentioned last month with BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN and its companion BFI book, these are written for those who enjoy this level of analysis (maybe over-analysis). I enjoyed it a great deal. The book is highly recommended if you're fascinated by socio-political themes in film. And ALIEN is recommended even if you aren't, because it's an incredible piece of cinema. Have you read Stephen Thrower's Nightmare USA book? I think it is OOP now. But for anyone interested in non-mainstream horror it is a must read.
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Chainsaw
T
A very BAD man.
It is what it is
Posts: 90,480
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Post by Chainsaw on Dec 14, 2018 14:22:40 GMT -5
Last night I watched Ridley Scott's horror/sci-fi classic ALIEN (1979). I'm sure you folks are familiar with the story, but just in case: a small crew on a spaceship headed back to Earth in the far future receives a signal, investigates, brings an alien entity aboard their space ship. Said entity proceeds to pick them off one-by-one until Final Girl (tm) Sigourney Weaver saves the day and her name becomes a household word. Today I read Roger Luckhurst's book "ALIEN", part of the BFI Film Classics line. The book begins by discussing the film's beginnings and potential for failure: as a script by Dan O'Bannon for a Roger Corman-esque b-monster movie, re-writes, a troubled production with an inexperienced director, and early critical lambasting. It then goes on to discuss what about the film makes it stand out from the likes of QUEEN OF BLOOD and IT! THE TERROR FROM BEYOND SPACE: the artistry of the likes of HR Giger, Chris Foss, and Moebius creating the look and feel of the film, and the interpretations of its influences, from Charles Darwin to Sigmund Freud to HP Lovecraft. The book also situates the film ALIEN within its place in time, the transition from the 70s into the 80s, the end of post-WWII prosperity and the birth of the rust belt. Some themes explored include the ineffectual male leadership and androgynous/asexual reading of the crew of the Nostromo, the unscrupulous Company who hired the crew and their desire to capture the alien "crew expendable", and even Jonesy the cat and humanity's desire to co-habitat with non-human life. Like I mentioned last month with BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN and its companion BFI book, these are written for those who enjoy this level of analysis (maybe over-analysis). I enjoyed it a great deal. The book is highly recommended if you're fascinated by socio-political themes in film. And ALIEN is recommended even if you aren't, because it's an incredible piece of cinema. Have you read Stephen Thrower's Nightmare USA book? I think it is OOP now. But for anyone interested in non-mainstream horror it is a must read. Nightmare USA is on my dream own book list. Shame it's OOP, I'd love to own it.
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Ultimo Gallos
Grimlock
Dreams SUCK!Nightmares live FOREVER!
Posts: 14,400
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Post by Ultimo Gallos on Dec 14, 2018 15:13:46 GMT -5
Have you read Stephen Thrower's Nightmare USA book? I think it is OOP now. But for anyone interested in non-mainstream horror it is a must read. Nightmare USA is on my dream own book list. Shame it's OOP, I'd love to own it. I preordered it the day it hit amazon. Got it in weeks later and over the course of 2 weeks at work read most of it.
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Nr1Humanoid
Hank Scorpio
Is the #3 humanoid at best.
Posts: 5,482
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Post by Nr1Humanoid on Dec 14, 2018 16:28:12 GMT -5
Apostle.
I am usually not a fan of period piece horror but decided to give this one a chance and I am glad I did.
Great story, great characters played by talented actors, a flawed hero, a morally ambiguous villain, tons of atmosphere, tension, kickass gore, character deaths that hits you hard.
It left some unanswered questions that could of used some explanations but I personally didn't mind.
Creepy and scary for non jaded horror fans of which I am no longer sadly.
Highly recommended. Two hours never flew by so fast.
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Post by KAMALARAMBO: BOOMSHAKALAKA!!! on Dec 14, 2018 16:48:33 GMT -5
Nightmare USA is on my dream own book list. Shame it's OOP, I'd love to own it. I preordered it the day it hit amazon. Got it in weeks later and over the course of 2 weeks at work read most of it. When did it come out? It looks like the cheapest one I can find is about $50 on Amazon. Is it possible for another printing?
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Ultimo Gallos
Grimlock
Dreams SUCK!Nightmares live FOREVER!
Posts: 14,400
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Post by Ultimo Gallos on Dec 14, 2018 19:34:54 GMT -5
I preordered it the day it hit amazon. Got it in weeks later and over the course of 2 weeks at work read most of it. When did it come out? It looks like the cheapest one I can find is about $50 on Amazon. Is it possible for another printing? 50 is cheap if it is the hardcover,which was 80 or 90 when it came out. The paperback,which is what I got,was 40. Both came out in 2008. For a bit the paperback was selling for 130. Might go order the 50 buck copy for my uncle.
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Paul
Vegeta
Posts: 9,247
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Post by Paul on Dec 14, 2018 19:49:50 GMT -5
I know most remakes/reimagings suck but I'm kind of interested to see what they do with the new Child's Play movie next year. I'm a big fan of the original series and I think there are a lot of new and unique things they could do with the new movie. I have a feeling they're getting rid of the silly voodoo aspect of the original.
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Nr1Humanoid
Hank Scorpio
Is the #3 humanoid at best.
Posts: 5,482
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Post by Nr1Humanoid on Dec 15, 2018 13:59:00 GMT -5
Been reading Fangoria's backlog.
Losing track of how often I hear it's not really horror... follow by lame attempts at describing it differently. Yet they crave horror fans attention, hence the interview.
It's like using the word wrestling with Vince.
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Post by DSR on Dec 15, 2018 22:01:19 GMT -5
Have you read Stephen Thrower's Nightmare USA book? I think it is OOP now. But for anyone interested in non-mainstream horror it is a must read. I've heard of the book, but didn't hear about it until after it had gone out of print. Never tried to grab a copy.
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Post by DSR on Dec 15, 2018 23:25:05 GMT -5
LAND OF THE MINOTAUR (1976) is an English/Greek horror picture in which Donald Pleasence plays a kindly old priest who, along with a private detective and an attractive blonde woman, investigates a small town under the spell of a pagan cult led by Peter Cushing. Pleasance and Cushing do what they can with the material, but the pacing is too slow, the camera work is too static. Brian Eno provides some interesting synthesizer sounds on the score. I will say the ending is pretty exciting, but not exactly worth the hour and 10 minute slog to get to it. Oh, and the private detective is absolutely awful, refusing to think about clues that are tied to religion because he's an atheist. Like, fine, the devil may not exist, but that doesn't necessarily stop devil worshipers from getting up to some nastiness. Overall, this film's a bore. I said "a bore", not a bull!
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Ultimo Gallos
Grimlock
Dreams SUCK!Nightmares live FOREVER!
Posts: 14,400
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Post by Ultimo Gallos on Dec 15, 2018 23:31:22 GMT -5
Have you read Stephen Thrower's Nightmare USA book? I think it is OOP now. But for anyone interested in non-mainstream horror it is a must read. I've heard of the book, but didn't hear about it until after it had gone out of print. Never tried to grab a copy. I was lucky was posting at a forum the author posted at. So had a early heads up on it. Saw half of 80s SOV "classic" Terror at Tenkiller tonight on B Movies TV. What I saw was entertaining. Then got called away and missed the last half.
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Post by DSR on Dec 15, 2018 23:35:16 GMT -5
I've heard of the book, but didn't hear about it until after it had gone out of print. Never tried to grab a copy. I was lucky was posting at a forum the author posted at. So had a early heads up on it. Saw half of 80s SOV "classic" Terror at Tenkiller tonight on B Movies TV. What I saw was entertaining. Then got called away and missed the last half. I have TERROR AT TENKILLER. I saw it once when I rented the VHS as a kid and once when I bought it on DVD and don't remember anything from it. *shrug*
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andrew8798
FANatic
on 24/7 this month
Posts: 106,084
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Post by andrew8798 on Dec 15, 2018 23:39:06 GMT -5
So really not much trivia for Tonight's Sven.
Next week they doing a Three Stooges Movie
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Ultimo Gallos
Grimlock
Dreams SUCK!Nightmares live FOREVER!
Posts: 14,400
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Post by Ultimo Gallos on Dec 15, 2018 23:39:16 GMT -5
I was lucky was posting at a forum the author posted at. So had a early heads up on it. Saw half of 80s SOV "classic" Terror at Tenkiller tonight on B Movies TV. What I saw was entertaining. Then got called away and missed the last half. I have TERROR AT TENKILLER. I saw it once when I rented the VHS as a kid and once when I bought it on DVD and don't remember anything from it. *shrug* That's the drawback to B Movies Tv,it is a live stream and you can't pause it. So you have to watch it went it when it airs. Their FB promises something big for their Saturday Sleaze movie at midnight tonight.
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