tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-81309122604083018012024-03-18T20:00:34.043-04:00Life Between FramesLife Between Frameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18186028067136953502noreply@blogger.comBlogger1610125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8130912260408301801.post-1031405972055328982024-03-18T20:00:00.001-04:002024-03-18T20:00:00.243-04:00Books of 2024: Week 12 - Dirty Harry: The Long Death<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-ebtlJc8LT9hQipgGGAAgm7ivznSXznKql7hv4LEuFfLMxl703W-BI-a1oOVB4z-prC39KtlzfQbK7PY-7rQMbjX2l4CLmEu4dpdg-sOou6AUuYWljnyMztFc2ifzYo0mlODacZ_JaAfLsM7VDgKiBeTdrBGWHxDTpOntRFFN6_gUcM9NsJpQ97UoV0qK/s1384/dirty-harry-the-long-death.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1384" data-original-width="824" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-ebtlJc8LT9hQipgGGAAgm7ivznSXznKql7hv4LEuFfLMxl703W-BI-a1oOVB4z-prC39KtlzfQbK7PY-7rQMbjX2l4CLmEu4dpdg-sOou6AUuYWljnyMztFc2ifzYo0mlODacZ_JaAfLsM7VDgKiBeTdrBGWHxDTpOntRFFN6_gUcM9NsJpQ97UoV0qK/s320/dirty-harry-the-long-death.jpg" width="191" /></a></div><p>Cody checks out the third book in the Dirty Harry series.</p><span><a name='more'></a></span><p><br /></p><p>DIRTY HARRY #3: THE LONG DEATH by Dane Hartman</p><p><a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2024/01/books-of-2024-week-1-dirty-harry-duel.html" target="_blank">Duel for Cannons</a>, the first book in the series of Dirty Harry novels that Warner Bros. ordered when it looked like Clint Eastwood was done with the Dirty Harry films (he would eventually come back for two more movies after this twelve-book series ran its course), had one of the all-time great opening lines: “Boopsie’s head exploded.” It’s clear that everyone involved knew that line couldn’t be topped, because so far neither of the following books I’ve read has even attempted to reach the level of “Boopsie’s head exploded.” Book 2, <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2024/02/books-of-2024-week-6-dirty-harry-death.html" target="_blank">Death on the Docks</a>, opened with talk of a Dodge pulling into a driveway. Now Book 3, The Long Death, begins with the line, “She had always been proud of her feet.”</p><p>That may not be the most gripping opening line for an action book, but it kicks off a first chapter that is a harrowing read. The woman who’s proud of her feet is a college student named Barbara, who gets abducted by a couple of mysterious attackers. The chapter doesn’t end with her getting bound and loaded into their vehicle, though. Nor does it end when two young men pick her up, battered and drugged, when she’s walking down the road and they nearly hit her in their Firebird. Instead, a lengthy car chase ensues, during which the author makes sure we’re desperately rooting for Barbara and her rescuers to get away from their relentless pursuers. Things don’t turn out well for them... and yet the chapter still doesn’t even end when the Firebird crashes off the road. No, the person who wrote this book wanted to make sure the first chapter would have a really disturbing, gut punch of an ending. And they succeeded.</p><p>Barbara’s ordeal comes to the attention of San Francisco-based Inspector "Dirty" Harry Callahan when her corpse is discovered – and the story gets tied in with the third Dirty Harry movie, <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2018/04/the-dirtiest-bastard.html" target="_blank">The Enforcer</a>, in a big way due to the fact that her corpse is found in the basement of a place that belongs to Big Ed, the leader of a militant group who was played by Albert Popwell in The Enforcer. Oddly, Ed’s last name has been changed from Mustapha to Mohamid for this book, much like Sunny, Harry’s neighbor / love interest from <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2018/03/a-mans-got-to-know-his-limitations.html" target="_blank">Magnum Force</a>, was renamed Keiko when she showed up in the second book. The other books also featured Lieutenant Al Bressler (from <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2018/02/do-you-feel-lucky.html" target="_blank">Dirty Harry</a> and The Enforcer) and Frank De Georgio (from Dirty Harry, Magnum Force, and The Enforcer), but they got to keep their names. Bressler is still present for this book, but De Georgio is on vacation. Also back for this one is Captain Avery from Magnum Force.</p><p>The Long Death follows Harry as he investigates Barbara’s death and tries to prove Big Ed’s innocence, and every once in a while heavily-armed henchmen will come along to try to deter Harry from the case. This never works. Harry is able to dig up information on a white slavery operation, and it all builds up to a shootout in a nightclub that was easy to imagine playing out on screen in a Dirty Harry movie and a climactic confrontation on an island that would have been very different from anything we ever saw in a Dirty Harry movie.</p><p>Warner hired two authors to write the Dirty Harry movies under the shared pseudonym of Dane Hartman: Ric Meyers and Leslie Alan Horvitz. I couldn’t tell you which author wrote which books, but while reading The Long Death I did get the impression that it was written by a different author than Duel for Cannons and Death on the Docks had been. The dialogue and characters felt different this time around, with Harry coming off like an out-of-touch old man at times. For example, we don’t need moments like the one where our cool hero is appalled by the dancing youngsters on American Bandstand. This is also a darker, rougher book than its predecessors, with plenty of off-putting lines and moments, as well as some questionable descriptions of people. </p><p>The subject matter is quite troubling, which is a big reason why it comes off as being rougher than the previous two books, despite the fact that the descriptions of violent acts aren’t quite as over-the-top as what came before. The other author had a knack for describing violence that made every shooting sound like Tom Savini was doing the FX work. This writer does drop in some gross stuff – like a villain being said to puke his brains out when Harry shoots him in the top of the head, plus a shootout in a morgue than had me thinking of <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2017/04/ash-vs-evil-dead-morgue.html" target="_blank">an episode of Ash vs. Evil Dead</a> – but the descriptions fall short of what can be read in Duel for Cannons and Death on the Docks. Which is surprising, because this author is the one who actually name-checks slashers like <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2018/08/40-years-of-halloween-halloween-1978.html" target="_blank">Halloween</a>, <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2020/01/40-years-of-friday-13th-friday-13th-1980.html" target="_blank">Friday the 13th</a>, and <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2014/05/youve-made-your-mother-very-proud.html" target="_blank">Mother’s Day</a>, as well as some Dario Argento movies. He even has Harry watch the ending of <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2016/10/springmill-drive-in-70s-horror-film.html" target="_blank">Deep Red</a> in one scene.</p><p>I didn’t enjoy The Long Death as much as the first two books, but it was still a good, action-packed read, and I’m still hyped to be making my way through a series of Dirty Harry books.</p><script src="chrome-extension://ebeglcfoffnnadgncmppkkohfcigngkj/js/injected/req.js"></script>Life Between Frameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18186028067136953502noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8130912260408301801.post-21573758834632743342024-03-15T20:00:00.002-04:002024-03-18T13:03:56.104-04:00Worth Mentioning - As Cool as a Corpse<p>We watch several movies a week. Every Friday, we'll talk a little about some of the movies we watched that we felt were Worth Mentioning. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2024/03/as-cool-as-corpse.html" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="692" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigrL0Pu6dfpdbkHhZVt4irUURk3cX-Tj7YuiMJy7g9aQ5N_jIPk85Q9xJVQMHPHRatYhW7ZWSxicqt5uSAx4RO_raOYgzuTDJnmpTLtZLD4IX_GnrH1L5oBOrupzuMG94Ht27pM1hqEv3QrpaCrLlwNo9OP-PJqCgXqfHgffHHLwVGMs5H5adjeg0pLVxl/s320/Night-Shift-poster.jpg" width="221" /></a></div><p>A couple different night shift stories.</p><span><a name='more'></a></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrREEXoB-ceIWQ9OTIi6Ua9LrNBnCY_FuOEWV_U4BJnxxxwC-GCI4Wx2NPxSA4zyXuVfISAZSYOORa-lXALY0G_-BHKXN8Exgm9h1BzL8mI09tIcyfwpMvoW2a_fq7YdzsnBXu5HIXMaR2RKd75BNLaATDF2xU6177LLD9KQekkGMYhUk5yvkKy9od6Dvz/s1924/Night-Shift-Phoebe-Tonkin.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1010" data-original-width="1924" height="168" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrREEXoB-ceIWQ9OTIi6Ua9LrNBnCY_FuOEWV_U4BJnxxxwC-GCI4Wx2NPxSA4zyXuVfISAZSYOORa-lXALY0G_-BHKXN8Exgm9h1BzL8mI09tIcyfwpMvoW2a_fq7YdzsnBXu5HIXMaR2RKd75BNLaATDF2xU6177LLD9KQekkGMYhUk5yvkKy9od6Dvz/s320/Night-Shift-Phoebe-Tonkin.png" width="320" /></a></div><p>NIGHT SHIFT (2023)</p><p>There have been multiple films, shorts, and TV shows that have used the title Night Shift over the years – so many, in fact, that it’s one of those titles that should be retired for a while. I’m not sure why someone would still want to use the title at this point, but I am sure that most of the things that have called Night Shift could have been called something else that would have made them stand out from the pack a bit more. Despite the overuse of the title, a new movie called Night Shift has just made its way out into the world... and this one is a decent thriller, if you don’t mind jumping over some logic hurdles.</p><p>Written and directed by Benjamin China and Paul China, a.k.a. The China Brothers, the film stars Phoebe Tonkin as a young woman named Gwen – and Tonkin does a great job of carrying large portions of the film entirely on her shoulders, even if her natural Australian accent occasionally emerges while she’s speaking her American character’s dialogue. The story begins with Gwen arriving at a desert motel so she can begin working her new job: the night shift at the All Tucked Inn. First, she gets a walkthrough from her boss Teddy Miles, with Lamorne Morris delivering such a fun, amusing performance that most viewers will be left wishing there was a lot more Teddy in the movie. But Teddy heads out after a while, leaving Gwen to work the front desk in this creepy place by herself. And by the way, not only is the motel infested with rats and roaches, but it’s also said to be one of the most haunted locations around.</p><p>Sure enough, as the night goes on, Gwen experiences some very strange, scary things. Eventually, there’s even talk that an escaped mental patient – someone Gwen has history with – might be lurking around the property. She also has some interactions with a runaway played by Madison Hu and a comically ridiculous couple played by Patrick Fischler and Lauren Bowles.</p><p>While it’s only about Gwen working a night at the All Tucked Inn, this Night Shift has plenty going on in it. The story takes twists and turns and remains interesting throughout. The problem is, when all of the answers are revealed at the end, it just brings up several logic questions that the China Brothers didn’t bother to deal with. So you might be left wondering how multiple things in the story were possible... but if you can overlook those things, Night Shift does making for an entertaining 83 minute viewing experience.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyEmeRuLnpIMfGOfcTRPVahKEqeKoem0iahUP5Oo0J5Zf9_4V35An0jpDNULfHjNArQMb6T2dbKO4DYNPG614WJ20MedEuv_kn9jHJUY4HQHYZjZR9H5TMtui2lHOSxDEaLhIqaSxZuGhV8PQnHRWUSNd41omcVFsOvhOZVkNx71SzoecGG73x5jXWsy55/s720/Sometimes-They-Come-Back-greasers.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="320" data-original-width="720" height="142" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyEmeRuLnpIMfGOfcTRPVahKEqeKoem0iahUP5Oo0J5Zf9_4V35An0jpDNULfHjNArQMb6T2dbKO4DYNPG614WJ20MedEuv_kn9jHJUY4HQHYZjZR9H5TMtui2lHOSxDEaLhIqaSxZuGhV8PQnHRWUSNd41omcVFsOvhOZVkNx71SzoecGG73x5jXWsy55/s320/Sometimes-They-Come-Back-greasers.png" width="320" /></a></div><p>SOMETIMES THEY COME BACK (1991)</p><p>Stephen King got in on the Night Shift title action way back in 1978, when that’s the name he slapped onto his first short story collection – a collection that included the stories that have given us such films as <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2018/10/hunt-them-down-and-watch-them-die.html" target="_blank">Graveyard Shift</a>, <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2023/07/escape-is-not-option.html" target="_blank">The Mangler</a>, <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2023/11/its-burning-through-to-my-soul.html" target="_blank">The Boogeyman</a>, and <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2013/07/stephen-kings-children-of-corn.html" target="_blank">Children of the Corn</a> (not to mention TV projects like <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2023/08/the-most-devastating-experience.html" target="_blank">Chapelwaite</a> and <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2020/07/creepshow-gray-matter-house-of-head.html" target="_blank">Gray Matter</a>) over the years. The 1991 film Sometimes They Come Back is another adaptation of a Night Shift story. Lawrence Konner and Mark Rosenthal wrote the screenplay for this one, then the story was brought to the screen by director Tom McLoughlin, the filmmaker who was responsible for <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2011/01/nothing-this-evil-ever-dies.html" target="_blank">Jason Lives: Friday the 13th Part VI</a> – the movie I credit with making me a horror fan back in the ‘80s.</p><p>Tim Matheson stars as Jim Norman, whose family moved away from his hometown back in 1963, when he was nine-years-old. Now it’s 1990 and he’s taken a teaching job in the town, so he moves back into his long-abandoned childhood home with his wife Sally (Brooke Adams) and son Scott (Robert Hy Gorman of <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2018/03/the-worlds-gonna-end-bloody.html" target="_blank">Leprechaun</a>). From the beginning, it’s clear that coming back to this town was a bad idea, because Jim keeps having flashbacks to the death of his brother Wayne (played in those flashbacks by Chris Demetral), who was murdered by a gang of four greasers while walking Jim (the younger version is played by Zachary Ball) through a local train tunnel. That was the event that drove the Norman family out of town... although they didn’t have to worry about most of those greasers being brought to justice, because their 1955 Chevy was smashed by a train immediately after they killed Wayne. Three of them died in that crash.</p><p>Of course, since this is a King story, Jim has to worry about more than just bad memories. His students start getting murdered, and each time one of them dies, they’re replaced in the class by one of the greasers. Richard (Robert Rusler of <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2016/09/did-you-ever-see-dream-walking.html" target="_blank">A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2</a>), Vinnie (Nicholas Sadler), David (Bentley Mitchum of <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2014/06/scare-nightmares-away.html" target="_blank">Demonic Toys</a>), somehow they’ve all been resurrected as supernatural beings. They’re out to get Jim – and he needs to find a way to stop them without seeming like a total maniac, since as far as the school board is concerned, these guys are just regular students. And yes, the fourth greaser, Carl (played by Don Ruffin in flashback) does get drawn into the 1990 end of the story – and when he shows up, he’s played by <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2022/03/guessin-ill-just-keep-em-guessin.html" target="_blank">Newhart</a>’s William Sanderson!</p><p>Sometimes They Come Back is an interesting troubling story, and McLoughlin brought it to the screen in an entertaining way. This movie was originally a CBS TV movie, so it’s not as intense as it could have been otherwise, but it still makes for an enjoyable, occasionally unnerving viewing experience. The “lost brother” aspect also gives it an emotional edge that has always gotten to me. Since this first aired when I was 7 years and was released on VHS sometime soon after, this is one of those movies I watched during the first few years of my horror fandom. I liked it then, and I like it now, more than thirty years down the line. It’s a good supernatural horror story that has stuck with me for decades – but nothing in it disturbs me as much as the realization that I’m further removed from my first viewing of this movie than the Jim Norman character is from the death of his brother in the movie.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9A-uAYswFN3TI40lZhjhLBt_vDdy6voY3rz9qVLGmVblv-1BUz5HeKww5ehNp8uKUqeanAPSx6NyZbonZjv4ofDNzjKFraC4WnKxD43Hm-UZtVoXRZ-Voj1zxEery_iAXOI4iCmmcZ0AraJU4l1tapsgJdkD4_dnuuqyA-BW6BUWPd_LGy9uGxrrdX3vc/s1920/Sometimes-They-Come-Back-family.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9A-uAYswFN3TI40lZhjhLBt_vDdy6voY3rz9qVLGmVblv-1BUz5HeKww5ehNp8uKUqeanAPSx6NyZbonZjv4ofDNzjKFraC4WnKxD43Hm-UZtVoXRZ-Voj1zxEery_iAXOI4iCmmcZ0AraJU4l1tapsgJdkD4_dnuuqyA-BW6BUWPd_LGy9uGxrrdX3vc/s320/Sometimes-They-Come-Back-family.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><script src="chrome-extension://ebeglcfoffnnadgncmppkkohfcigngkj/js/injected/req.js"></script><script src="chrome-extension://ebeglcfoffnnadgncmppkkohfcigngkj/js/injected/req.js"></script>Life Between Frameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18186028067136953502noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8130912260408301801.post-3918386714207218632024-03-13T20:00:00.026-04:002024-03-14T15:56:04.523-04:00Video Scripts: Black Phone 2, Super 8, Red State<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2024/03/video-scripts-black-phone-2-super-8-red.html" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="1330" data-original-width="2700" height="198" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAQAGfGwjA0VBZNkjcOsmAewe1v35Y6ZSrzhtutV-7PylUclxeQwQsYSOMDSD8jBoNMAAe_yc1HW35T10LbzcwR-hq0Ly-_xGOawd0sVzekz_PEWFVJTFifm1lVkqWG2mYalqtG4NZsnT3OC2PCnGf3g6QzkAcTlmmjKwWbiXbywtPz1jbPEKhqpjPBDQT/w400-h198/black-phone-super-8-red-state.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p></p><div><div>Cody shares more JoBlo videos he wrote.</div><div><br /></div><span><a name='more'></a></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div><div>I have been writing news articles and film reviews for <a href="http://ArrowintheHead.com">ArrowintheHead.com</a> for several years, and for the last few years I have also been writing scripts for videos that are released through the site's YouTube channel <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqDKUrpIT1131kLHtvsFzLA" target="_blank">JoBlo Horror Originals</a>. Recently I started writing video scripts for the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/c/JoBloOriginals/videos" target="_blank">JoBlo Originals</a> YouTube channel as well. I have previously shared the videos I wrote that covered </div><p>- <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2020/07/video-scripts-frailty-dead-calm-shocker.html" target="_blank">Frailty, Dead Calm, and Shocker </a></p><p>- <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2020/09/video-scripts-100-feet-freddy-vs-jason.html" target="_blank">100 Feet, Freddy vs. Jason, and Pin </a></p><p>- <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2021/02/video-scripts-night-fare-poltergeist.html" target="_blank">Night Fare, Poltergeist III, and Hardware</a> </p><p>- <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2021/04/video-scripts-elm-street-3-texas.html" target="_blank">A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation, and It's Alive</a></p><p>- <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2021/07/video-scripts-dark-city-mute-witness.html" target="_blank">Dark City, Mute Witness, and The Wraith</a></p><p>- <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2021/09/video-scripts-army-of-darkness-cannibal.html" target="_blank">Army of Darkness, Cannibal Holocaust, and Basket Case</a> </p><p>- <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2021/12/video-scripts-halloween-timeline-pit.html" target="_blank">Halloween timeline, The Pit, and Body Parts</a></p><p>- <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2021/12/video-scripts-halloween-6-jason-goes-to.html" target="_blank">Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers, Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday, and The Thing (2011)</a></p><p>- <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2022/02/video-scripts-monster-squad-trick-or.html" target="_blank">The Monster Squad, Trick or Treat, and Maximum Overdrive</a></p><p>- <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2022/03/video-scripts-fish-called-wanda-night.html" target="_blank">A Fish Called Wanda, Night of the Creeps, and Jason Lives: Friday the 13th Part VI</a></p><p>- <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2022/04/video-scripts-race-with-devil-speed.html" target="_blank">Race with the Devil, Speed, and Romancing the Stone</a></p><p>- <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2022/05/video-scripts-maniac-cop-3-wargames.html" target="_blank">Maniac Cop 3, WarGames, and Night of the Living Dead (1990)</a></p><p>- <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2022/06/video-scripts-rock-witchboard-friday.html" target="_blank">The Rock, Witchboard, and Friday the 13th Part 2</a></p><p>- <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2022/06/video-scripts-intruder-saving-private.html" target="_blank">Intruder, Saving Private Ryan, and Big Trouble in Little China</a></p><p>- <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2022/07/video-scripts-first-power-psycho-1960.html" target="_blank">The First Power, Psycho (1960), and Hot Fuzz</a></p><p>- <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2022/08/video-scripts-cat-people-1982-bride-of.html" target="_blank">Cat People (1982), Bride of Re-Animator, and Con Air</a></p><p>- <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2022/09/video-scripts-moulin-rouge-hills-have.html" target="_blank">Moulin Rouge (2001), The Hills Have Eyes Part 2 (1985), and The Stuff</a></p><p>- <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2022/10/video-scripts-children-of-corn-1984.html" target="_blank">Children of the Corn (1984), Bone Tomahawk, and Fight Club</a></p><p>- <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2022/10/video-scripts-departed-halloween-4.html" target="_blank">The Departed, Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers, and Ginger Snaps</a></p><p>- <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2022/11/video-scripts-silver-bullet-last-action.html" target="_blank">Silver Bullet, Last Action Hero, and Children of Men</a></p><p>- <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2023/01/video-scripts-flesheater-christmas.html" target="_blank">FleshEater, Christmas Vacation, and Lethal Weapon</a></p><p>- <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2023/01/video-scripts-thing-monkey-shines.html" target="_blank">The Thing (1982), Monkey Shines, and Friday the 13th (1980)</a></p><p>- <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2023/03/video-scripts-p2-lethal-weapon-2-frozen.html" target="_blank">P2, Lethal Weapon 2, and Frozen (2010)</a></p><p>- <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2023/04/video-scripts-lethal-weapon-3-blob-1988.html" target="_blank">Lethal Weapon 3, The Blob (1988), and Lethal Weapon 4</a></p><p>- <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2023/05/video-scripts-fast-and-furious-dance-of.html" target="_blank">The Fast and the Furious, Dance of the Dead, and The Rage: Carrie 2</a></p><p>- <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2023/06/video-scripts-puppet-master-2-fast-2.html" target="_blank">Puppet Master, 2 Fast 2 Furious, and Castle Freak (1995)</a></p><p>- <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2023/07/video-scripts-tokyo-drift-fast-furious.html" target="_blank">The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, Fast & Furious, and Halloween III: Season of the Witch</a></p><p>- <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2023/08/video-scripts-fast-five-dog-soldiers.html" target="_blank">Fast Five, Dog Soldiers, and Tremors 3: Back to Perfection</a></p><p>- <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2023/09/video-scripts-drag-me-to-hell-3d-horror.html" target="_blank">Drag Me to Hell, 3D '80s Horror, and unmade Mission: Impossible sequels</a></p><p>- <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2023/10/video-scripts-sleepaway-camp-tremors-4.html" target="_blank">Sleepaway Camp, Tremors 4: The Legend Begins, and 2001 Maniacs</a></p><p>- <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2023/10/video-scripts-gremlins-furious-6-lone.html" target="_blank">Gremlins, Furious 6, and Lone Wolf McQuade</a></p><p>- <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2023/11/video-scripts-last-showing-grindhouse.html" target="_blank">The Last Showing, Grindhouse, and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003)</a></p><p>- <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2023/12/video-scripts-christmas-horror-puppet.html" target="_blank">Christmas Horror, Puppet Master vs. Demonic Toys, and Furious 7</a></p><p>- <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2024/01/video-scripts-drive-horror-comedies.html" target="_blank">Drive (2011), 1986 horror comedies, and the upcoming Alien movie</a></p><p>- <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2024/02/video-scripts-murder-party-twisters.html" target="_blank">Murder Party, the upcoming film Twisters, and Hellraiser</a></p><p>Three more videos that I have written the scripts for can be seen below, one for the JoBlo Horror Originals channel, one for JoBlo Originals, and one that was released on the JoBlo Upcoming Movies channel.</p><p>With a sequel to Scott Derrickson's Joe Hill adaptation The Black Phone on the way, I was asked to put together an article on <a href="https://www.joblo.com/the-black-phone-2-sequel-how-could-it-work/" target="_blank">The Black Phone 2</a> - and the text from that article was then used as the basis for a video: </p><p><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="358" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/O88bbzV9tdM" title="YouTube video player" width="637"></iframe></p><p></p><div><div>For the Revisited series on the non-horror JoBlo Originals channel, I looked back at the 2011 film Super 8, written and directed by J.J. Abrams and produced by Steven Spielberg: </div></div><div><br /></div><div><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="358" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/yAYYPc2Le-E" title="YouTube video player" width="637"></iframe></div><div><div><p>And for the Best Horror Movie You Never Saw series on JoBlo Horror Originals, I wrote about Kevin Smith's 2011 horror film Red State. I was hoping this would reach Kevin, and apparently it did. I was told that he saw <a href="https://www.joblo.com/red-state-best-horror/" target="_blank">my write-up</a> and "loved it."</p><p><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="358" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/zSBN02v2c5s" title="YouTube video player" width="637"></iframe></p><p></p><div>More video scripts have been written, so another batch of videos will be shared here on Life Between Frames eventually. In the meantime, keep an eye on JoBlo Horror Originals and JoBlo Originals!</div><p></p></div>
</div></div><script src="chrome-extension://ebeglcfoffnnadgncmppkkohfcigngkj/js/injected/req.js"></script>Life Between Frameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18186028067136953502noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8130912260408301801.post-75678046501749458932024-03-11T20:00:00.017-04:002024-03-12T08:43:14.955-04:00R.G. Henning's Sackhead<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2024/03/rg-hennings-sackhead.html" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="1500" data-original-width="971" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimz785AEJKdDQB0HNErOcu11h9mCgPZSN2hjHhUmOVvrC0lF20NNRE_HoKgw32ubTHi8xp9csxcz4UazCUIlHVFmB9aE6-fFwy1UloRF8glaQRG__qNeiJj9XEYKHEfivK7yLGwIHzFYqXHTw0HN3XeAR_PgegNhMI96ldifYiBUylZiU1_-yBPpiRLRxa/s320/Sackhead-Friday-the-13th-Part-2.jpg" width="207" /></a></div><p>Cody checks out R.G. Henning's celebration of Friday the 13th Part 2.</p><span><a name='more'></a></span><p><br /></p><p>SACKHEAD: THE DEFINITIVE RETROSPECTIVE ON FRIDAY THE 13TH PART 2 by R.G. Henning</p><p>Critics who reviewed them at the time of their release may have told people that the movies that make up the Friday the 13th have no merit at all, but they’re very important to me. Friday the 13th is my favorite franchise, and I credit <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2011/01/nothing-this-evil-ever-dies.html" target="_blank">Jason Lives: Friday the 13th Part VI</a> – which I first caught of glimpse of when I was just three years old – as being the movie that got me into horror. Which, in turn, helped enhanced not only my interest in film specifically, but also in storytelling in general. If it weren’t for the Friday the 13th movies, my life would be very different in every way, from the professional level to my personal relationships. Because of these movies, I have made important personal connections with people I never would have met if Friday the 13th had never existed. So I celebrate every single entry in this franchise, to varying degrees, and I enjoy seeing others celebrate them as well. Therefore, as soon as I heard that author R.G. Henning had put together a book that exists solely to celebrate the awesomeness of <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2020/02/youre-all-doomed.html" target="_blank">Friday the 13th Part 2</a>, that book was placed on my “must read” list. </p><p>For 277 pages, Henning poured his love for Friday the 13th Part 2 out on the page when writing <a href="https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0BRLZ51CG/arrowinthehea-20" target="_blank">Sackhead</a>, starting off by explaining just why he finds this one to be “the sequel without equal,” with reasons including his feeling that it has the most likeable characters in the franchise, the best heroine (the very popular Ginny), and the most realistic portrayal of the woods-dwelling slasher, Jason Voorhees. In this movie, Jason wasn’t yet the hockey masked juggernaut that endures in pop culture, but was instead presented as a backwoods fellow with a sack over his head. Thus the book’s title. We get a recap of the first film’s success and discussion of the sequel’s production, and then the presentation of Sackhead becomes quite unique.</p><p>While celebrating the film, Henning also displays some strong creative writing skills, dropping in novelization sections in which the events of the film are recounted through the specific perspective of each of the characters. Jason, Ginny, returning (but short-lived) Part 1 heroine Alice, returning doomsayer Crazy Ralph, the new batch of victims, Henning tells the story of the movie through the eyes of each one of them, digging into the thoughts of each person. After these dives into the minds of the characters, the author also profiles the actors who brought the character to life, discussing their experiences working on the film, the experiences others had working with them, and dropping in interview quotes. </p><p>There are also sections called "Asked & Answered," where Henning covers common questions about things like certain kills, what happened to missing characters, Jason's appearance, and much more.</p><p>One of the reasons why Henning loves Friday the 13th Part 2 so much is, of course, nostalgia. I feel that same nostalgia for Part 2 and the rest of the franchise – and the older I get, and the tougher life gets, the more I just want to wrap myself up in that nostalgia and disappear into it for a while. Reading Sackhead allowed me to do that for a chapter or two at a time, because Henning did a great job of not only explaining the elements that make Part 2 such a great sequel, but also of capturing the atmosphere of the film on the page. I didn’t expect those novelization-like passages, but I thoroughly enjoyed them – even though the previous book I read was the official <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2024/03/books-of-2024-week-10-friday-13th-and.html" target="_blank">Friday the 13th Part 2 novelization</a> by Simon Hawke, so you might think I would be tired of reading the story of that movie. I wasn’t. That’s how much I love these movies, and how good Henning’s writing is. </p><p>I’ve had a passion for the Friday the 13th films since the 1980s, and Henning’s passion for Part 2 has been burning all that time as well. If you’re a fan who loves these movies (or this particular movie) as much as we do, I think you’ll enjoy Sackhead. The Friday the 13th movies deserve to be celebrated, and I had a good time attending the celebration of Part 2 that Henning threw with this book.</p><script src="chrome-extension://ebeglcfoffnnadgncmppkkohfcigngkj/js/injected/req.js"></script><script src="chrome-extension://ebeglcfoffnnadgncmppkkohfcigngkj/js/injected/req.js"></script>Life Between Frameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18186028067136953502noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8130912260408301801.post-17728185457383371422024-03-08T20:00:00.022-05:002024-03-11T08:15:35.876-04:00Worth Mentioning - Always Stay Two Steps Ahead<p>We watch several movies a week. Every Friday, we'll talk a little about some of the movies we watched that we felt were Worth Mentioning. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2024/03/always-stay-two-steps-ahead.html" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="666" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5ob26OWfzRKH5HtttdvJ0NXxCjEkivdwThcn2CJMcL3h7naTCJNgjwOcwHs_8hWeSRK4w-jN2GX3YybKupM5dvalHw4arf9l65mMjn39UUoJnRnqd6zQPjF3jd5LNOA_KsABSv3-8o2Qb5TYhdP_Ch4qxIXt3eVmbJ7aviVsXtz37PjRYAV1UZ5DivXe0/s320/Doctor-Jekyll-2023.jpg" width="213" /></a></div><p>Hammer returns with an update of a classic tale.</p><span><a name='more'></a></span><p><br /></p><p><i>The following review originally appeared on <a href="http://ArrowintheHead.com">ArrowintheHead.com</a></i></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinC-ufLT8mz4_XwjQr2jlb78ma9m9Zo19p5cwXfYw_IRjNg96AjzxHfs1PkymGfLQTcOWZ4lF50Hz1nFrKJjbNTYQRJCLavKTfZspu87okzCtLcnUyXKXzi_WCyDze6pkD7Ykv5nPOYjiKtqq_-joULlJ6auw3ubTsCPsucW8tQt8k8vkG5fiOVZjXWeJ6/s1200/Doctor-Jekyll-Eddie-Izzard.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="627" data-original-width="1200" height="167" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinC-ufLT8mz4_XwjQr2jlb78ma9m9Zo19p5cwXfYw_IRjNg96AjzxHfs1PkymGfLQTcOWZ4lF50Hz1nFrKJjbNTYQRJCLavKTfZspu87okzCtLcnUyXKXzi_WCyDze6pkD7Ykv5nPOYjiKtqq_-joULlJ6auw3ubTsCPsucW8tQt8k8vkG5fiOVZjXWeJ6/s320/Doctor-Jekyll-Eddie-Izzard.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p>DOCTOR JEKYLL (2023)</p><p>Founded in 1934, the Hammer film production company became very popular when it started releasing horror films in the mid-1950s. From that point through the early ‘70s, Hammer was one of the biggest names in horror... but then they found it hard to compete with the big horror films of the late ‘60s and early ‘70s, and things gradually fell apart for them. In 1979, the company went into liquidation. Attempts to revive the Hammer brand began in 2008, and we’ve seen some notable releases from the company in recent years: <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2015/06/what-kept-you-so-long.html" target="_blank">Let Me In</a>, The Resident, The Woman in Black, and The Lodge among them. In 2021, the revived Hammer Films teamed with the UK’s Network Distributing to form a new company called Hammer Studios Ltd. In 2023, that company was acquired by the John Gore Organisation – and now, the first release from Hammer: A John Gore Company is director Joe Stephenson’s Doctor Jekyll, “a modern interpretation” of Robert Louis Stevenson’s 1886 novella <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2023/12/books-i-have-read-in-2023-last-batch.html" target="_blank">Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde</a>. This wasn’t a project that was developed by Hammer, it’s one that was already in the works when they picked it up, but it’s fitting that this new Hammer should get rolling with an update of a classic horror story. Especially since this is material the original Hammer dealt with in The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll (1960) and Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde (1971).</p><p>Films like those have helped ensure that most of us are quite familiar with the concept Stevenson came up with so long ago: London-based doctor Henry Jekyll, “a reputable gentleman”, finds a way to transform himself into a repugnant, evil fellow called Edward Hyde, and is then horrified by his alter ego’s violent behavior while his transformations into Hyde become more and more difficult to hold off. Scripted by Dan Kelly-Mulhern, this film’s take on the idea moves the setting into modern day and centers on Doctor Nina Jekyll, the granddaughter of Henry Jekyll who has inherited the family mansion – and has also taken up the research that caused her grandfather so much trouble. Just like the Jekyll of the source material, Grandpa Jekyll made a discovery that turned him into someone twisted and evil, with dimmed empathy receptors. So of course, why wouldn’t Nina want to dig into that same research?</p><p>This version of Doctor Jekyll is getting a lot of attention due to the fact that the title character is a trans person played by gender fluid comedian/actor Eddie Izzard, who prefers the use of she/her pronouns. But Nina being trans has nothing to do with the overall story, and the fact that young Nina is played in a flashback by child actress Lettie De Beaujeu indicates she must have transitioned at a very young age. The mention of Nina being trans is really just a way to allow Izzard to play the character, which was a great choice, because Izzard has always been awesome, whether in (as she puts it) “boy mode” or “girl mode.” The only down side to this situation is the way Stephenson and Kelly-Mulhern chose to portray the Jekyll-to-Hyde transformations. Instead of there being a physical transformation to differentiate the Jekyll and Hyde characters, the switch between personalities in this film are imperceptible. Characters (and the audience) can never be sure exactly when Izzard is playing Jekyll and when she’s playing Hyde, because this Hyde is a schemer and a manipulator. It’s an interesting approach, but it means that Izzard isn’t able to really let loose in the Hyde persona until very late in the 89 minute running time.</p><p>For the most part, Doctor Jekyll plays as a drama rather than a horror film. We enter the world (or the mansion) of the reclusive doctor from the perception of a young man named Rob Stevenson, played Scott Chambers – who, under the name Scott Jeffrey, has produced nearly 100 low budget genre films over the last decade, including Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey. Rob is a former thief and drug addict who has just been released from prison and needs a job so he’ll be able to see his daughter, who was born while he was locked up. Although Jekyll’s assistant Sandra Poole (Lindsay Duncan) doesn’t believe Rob is right for the job, Jekyll is drawn to the young man and hires him to be her caretaker while she recovers from a broken leg. We’re then treated to a lot of scenes of Rob settling into his job at the Jekyll estate, interacting with Jekyll (or is it Hyde?), and just hoping to stay on the right path. Even though his ex Maeve (Robyn Cara) is trying to pull him back into a life of crime.</p><p>I didn’t expect Doctor Jekyll to be such a low-key drama when I started watching the movie, but it’s interesting enough as the dramatic scenes play out... and really didn’t need the occasional attempt to create a jump scare by dropping loud noise on the soundtrack. How are we even expected to jump at a moment like the one where Jekyll finds Rob snooping around in a hallway when Rob has a goofy smile on his face as he turns to face his employer? Rob is a goofy, awkward fellow in general, which I assume was a choice made by Stephenson and Chambers. It makes this a unique performance to watch, as Chambers certainly wasn’t leaning into the ex-con stereotypes.</p><p>Hammer doesn’t have a new classic on their hands with this new take on Doctor Jekyll, and horror fans who check it out hoping to see some rampaging Hyde action are going to be disappointed, but it’s an okay drama that plays around with some familiar concepts. Then the horror kicks in, leading to an ending that I’m not quite sure about. I enjoyed watching the film overall, but I’m not going to feel compelled to have more viewings in the future. So I would recommend checking it out and giving it a try, but be aware that the pace, tone, and the presentation of Hyde are probably not what you were initially expecting.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTPSNv0ImSY1jSOfbT0AgGGmfIz_mzgPu3B8pfA7J68Q_WtQzUrI0Q19gxFw-5OsMTYJ48kveVLS8lWgXkapsqIL5suUZ09Jj9t-Pef4gWcDz-YINuSSbhS-rxkFUCRl8om5Uoq581NWViK9tUdPyESOhUNIKLmexY53TwKS8HvnDH8pRRdz1KG9V2QoSW/s1200/Doctor-Jekyll-Eddie-Izzard-Scott-Chambers.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="630" data-original-width="1200" height="168" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTPSNv0ImSY1jSOfbT0AgGGmfIz_mzgPu3B8pfA7J68Q_WtQzUrI0Q19gxFw-5OsMTYJ48kveVLS8lWgXkapsqIL5suUZ09Jj9t-Pef4gWcDz-YINuSSbhS-rxkFUCRl8om5Uoq581NWViK9tUdPyESOhUNIKLmexY53TwKS8HvnDH8pRRdz1KG9V2QoSW/s320/Doctor-Jekyll-Eddie-Izzard-Scott-Chambers.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><script src="chrome-extension://ebeglcfoffnnadgncmppkkohfcigngkj/js/injected/req.js"></script><script src="chrome-extension://ebeglcfoffnnadgncmppkkohfcigngkj/js/injected/req.js"></script><script src="chrome-extension://ebeglcfoffnnadgncmppkkohfcigngkj/js/injected/req.js"></script><script src="chrome-extension://ebeglcfoffnnadgncmppkkohfcigngkj/js/injected/req.js"></script><script src="chrome-extension://ebeglcfoffnnadgncmppkkohfcigngkj/js/injected/req.js"></script>Life Between Frameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18186028067136953502noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8130912260408301801.post-54073065901744167362024-03-06T20:00:00.028-05:002024-03-07T06:43:46.167-05:00Creepshow - The Hat / Grieving Process<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2024/03/creepshow-hat-grieving-process.html" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="666" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiyk1-nwe2dhYQJfA__VMAm0Bna9J76buepYGw_KiuDeSdrgpvDBUB9lRcbprh2DFg-r5IT8psv_RoDpbAGmEFni6CmKS4rRNrIFb0MRXs8_3dISDe0FRG_hmkqXhSI6yrU5DEXn8ibiPGw16x12IsEInyGKakybijAu2TP4nR9OcbUqv_1e5qrBO69r-H/s320/Creepshow-season-4.jpg" width="213" /></a></div><div><br /></div>Cody moves on to the second episode of Creepshow season 4.<br /><p></p><script src="chrome-extension://ebeglcfoffnnadgncmppkkohfcigngkj/js/injected/req.js"></script><span><a name='more'></a></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUpBHHUaGt2_yN-pVv9CnEyBYL_TYuoJXiz0jIqQAZQifKbgYiGgKs2-96iL8wTdoBtBx1Gu039JyrpHbQ5IBX1Xjipz-APpXuBi5LfmhwlGRJcNXLLv2fvax-j3EWXAjAH258vnboFsf5oTn1pDj4rwj8Vv-hS5PoRpvC_ImMKpvsadxojViDbMXPzWvk/s1280/Creepshow-The-Hat-Grieving-Process.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUpBHHUaGt2_yN-pVv9CnEyBYL_TYuoJXiz0jIqQAZQifKbgYiGgKs2-96iL8wTdoBtBx1Gu039JyrpHbQ5IBX1Xjipz-APpXuBi5LfmhwlGRJcNXLLv2fvax-j3EWXAjAH258vnboFsf5oTn1pDj4rwj8Vv-hS5PoRpvC_ImMKpvsadxojViDbMXPzWvk/s320/Creepshow-The-Hat-Grieving-Process.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div>Almost every episode in the Shudder horror anthology series Creepshow (which is a continuation of the franchise George A. Romero and Stephen King began with the film <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2019/09/the-most-fun-youll-ever-have-being.html" target="_blank">Creepshow</a> back in 1982) is split into two separate stories, and the first story in the second episode of the show’s fourth season is tied back to the very beginning of the show... behind the scenes, anyway. That’s because this first story, called The Hat, was written by the duo of Byron Willinger and Philip de Blasi, who previously worked on Creepshow to write an adaptation of the Stephen King short story <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2020/07/creepshow-gray-matter-house-of-head.html" target="_blank">Gray Matter</a> for the premiere episode. Willinger and de Blasi didn’t contribute any further stories to season 1 and they missed out on seasons 2 and 3, but here they are, back for season 4.</div><div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgl5aTyOZijocvCVovcYLSlajiyhCMeR0t2_3upu9LGWX0x8yPbJfYBco4EEmtpt2qPNyIDens8zbKWnch0fq4LeIrDPQDqgmq7NfRczS8_HPDlyKCSJn-l1ygztfQAWW2I-KyRcQAFSIAq9gYOqCe52Qg6ODSl8eNrgm9HvQcGYVfSqywUwYKXxINq4SB3/s1280/Creepshow-The-Hat-title.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgl5aTyOZijocvCVovcYLSlajiyhCMeR0t2_3upu9LGWX0x8yPbJfYBco4EEmtpt2qPNyIDens8zbKWnch0fq4LeIrDPQDqgmq7NfRczS8_HPDlyKCSJn-l1ygztfQAWW2I-KyRcQAFSIAq9gYOqCe52Qg6ODSl8eNrgm9HvQcGYVfSqywUwYKXxINq4SB3/s320/Creepshow-The-Hat-title.png" width="320" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>The Hat was also brought to the screen by a duo: twin sister directors Kailey Spear and Sam Spear, neither of whom had any prior Creepshow credits. They had horror anthology experience, though, having directed a few episodes of the CW show Two Sentence Horror Stories. They made their Creepshow debut in kind of a big way, because this episode basically serves as a Spear sisters showcase: they directed both of the stories that make up its 53 minute running time, and they did a good job of presenting the stories in the traditional Creepshow style.</div><div><br /></div><div>The Hat stars Ryan Beil – an actor who is eerily reminiscent of Jon Lovitz in a lot of ways – as novelist Jay, who is struggling with writers block while trying to meet the deadline for his latest work. His agent (Marlee Walchuk) suggests using a good luck charm to break the block, so he procures a homburg hat that was worn by his idol, best-selling author Stephen Bachman (the name being a tribute to Stephen King and his pen name Richard Bachman), who mysteriously walked away from writing world after delivering multiple classics. As soon as Jay places that hat on his head, he writes like a man possessed, dropping so many words onto the page in such a short period of time, it’s clear this hat is giving him abilities beyond normal human capabilities. Of course, he gets extremely attached to it, his personal life falls apart, he loses his significant other (played by Sara Canning), and we’re in for a horrific twist.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfnl1bdFOvRTzQ-bt3LnB34Q4RbSc5lbBwcQXr-aUv_dSmnQUdeNwj2btgQQYNXnupFadlyokK-T_9RYvciRSUwmdisRQGIFeJr3UwkpHgNwTnj499AE1IIanBu344JpLFFxeA1kbNq5yOjSurTMyXjOhrAqZH_NTwCcd_mqGYKu8CpiPYLJlHYYxkefdY/s1280/Creepshow-The-Hat-Sara-Canning-Ryan-Beil.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfnl1bdFOvRTzQ-bt3LnB34Q4RbSc5lbBwcQXr-aUv_dSmnQUdeNwj2btgQQYNXnupFadlyokK-T_9RYvciRSUwmdisRQGIFeJr3UwkpHgNwTnj499AE1IIanBu344JpLFFxeA1kbNq5yOjSurTMyXjOhrAqZH_NTwCcd_mqGYKu8CpiPYLJlHYYxkefdY/s320/Creepshow-The-Hat-Sara-Canning-Ryan-Beil.png" width="320" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>As a writer who is often trying to pack a lot of writing into a short period of time and has many ideas in mind that I don’t have time to type out, I enjoyed watching how The Hat plays out, and was almost left wishing I had such a hat of my own... until I saw exactly what was going on with Jay’s hat. This was a pretty cool story that I could definitely imagine being featured in a comic book like Creepshow is meant to be (inspired by the old school horror comic books from EC Comics).</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_DkwYdnLGeamodHuINrK_W1Th67rZSWy6NdQNypL0QpqPklodAsWzmnlW6EtmhcGjqKf5e4FmhGeC2qBaL7GCF_xZ06Tbv8_KVV2W0JxgkpXefqrQZFmnzfHsSsVT85shIDc_lHeK3iOoRE8lRpuITc7mqG5hEJCJ0BmL8bs_1dLxJ8goFfOc90f15rIV/s1280/Creepshow-Grieving-Process-title.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_DkwYdnLGeamodHuINrK_W1Th67rZSWy6NdQNypL0QpqPklodAsWzmnlW6EtmhcGjqKf5e4FmhGeC2qBaL7GCF_xZ06Tbv8_KVV2W0JxgkpXefqrQZFmnzfHsSsVT85shIDc_lHeK3iOoRE8lRpuITc7mqG5hEJCJ0BmL8bs_1dLxJ8goFfOc90f15rIV/s320/Creepshow-Grieving-Process-title.png" width="320" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>The episode’s second story, Grieving Process, marks the Creepshow debut of Mike D. McCarty, who wrote the script with Creepshow regular John Esposito, who previously contributed the season 1 story <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2020/09/creepshow-night-of-paw-times-is-tough.html" target="_blank">Night of the Paw</a>, the season 2 stories <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2021/04/creepshow-model-kid-public-television.html" target="_blank">Model Kid</a> and <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2021/05/creepshow-pipe-screams-within-walls-of.html" target="_blank">Within the Walls of Madness</a>, and the season 3 stories <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2021/10/creepshow-skeletons-in-closet-familiar.html" target="_blank">Skeletons in the Closet</a> and <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2021/10/creepshow-stranger-sings-meter-reader.html" target="_blank">Meter Reader</a>. This one begins with a woman named April (Rachel Drance) being attacked and left with a neck wound after work one night. Her husband Richard (Sachin Sahel) and Jean (MaeMae Renfrow) are there to support April as she recovers from the attack... but there’s something different about her now. April’s behavior has changed, her eating habits change, and since this is a horror story we can be fairly certain that this isn’t a case of post-traumatic stress. No, there’s something horrific and probably supernatural going on here.</div><div><br /></div><div>Grieving Process has a very different vibe from The Hat, allowing the Spear sisters to show off the fact that they can work with different tones and styles of horror, even within the same episode of a series. It’s an interesting story that’s well-told and features some nice creature effects. With the combined strengths of The Hat and Grieving Process, the second episode of Creepshow season 4 manages to be a step up from the first episode of the season. It’s always a good thing to see when a season gets better as it goes.</div></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgE1g36bbCEx1UIsmQJ5u4krGim9are0upchviJ7xTGllKdw4Dnp_7Q61LNnNfad0h3aM12bLGC0mQtz5-1vjNjT6JArT4E-KEKQrLf4CFSS1SZu-q2ac2daEZoCM9XuCxXqms1vYvsJP5LcVgufveMbzkTmTYZ8iE_Hzq0OMyuIc8_LsX435zjoF_Ot5Uc/s1280/Creepshow-Grieving-Process.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgE1g36bbCEx1UIsmQJ5u4krGim9are0upchviJ7xTGllKdw4Dnp_7Q61LNnNfad0h3aM12bLGC0mQtz5-1vjNjT6JArT4E-KEKQrLf4CFSS1SZu-q2ac2daEZoCM9XuCxXqms1vYvsJP5LcVgufveMbzkTmTYZ8iE_Hzq0OMyuIc8_LsX435zjoF_Ot5Uc/s320/Creepshow-Grieving-Process.png" width="320" /></a></div><script src="chrome-extension://ebeglcfoffnnadgncmppkkohfcigngkj/js/injected/req.js"></script>Life Between Frameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18186028067136953502noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8130912260408301801.post-47151995247378485732024-03-04T20:00:00.016-05:002024-03-05T07:27:10.843-05:00 Books of 2024: Week 10 - Friday the 13th and Friday the 13th Part 2<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2024/03/books-of-2024-week-10-friday-13th-and.html" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="358" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhugYGvlt-e1T8fKURy9T_OVwYhEy7ALMIXCQtwYMu7fa6mbKGgpK1Yh6Qjvs931p7R0P8Deo7g0JEBoNItxn69pLE8iQGpSOOugbUrbYUBfUZkuiZhCLFR5YZDA5czVvdoGhs-xqL4Pj0ZjnCYRvd3sh4T-cxmta5mlSDSW_x_vQLav3_xYmgD1Ni-41_4/s320/Friday-the-13th-Simon-Hawke.jpg" width="191" /></a></div><p>Cody reads a pair of Friday the 13th novelizations.</p><span><a name='more'></a></span><p><br /></p><p>FRIDAY THE 13TH by Simon Hawke</p><p>When <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2012/01/new-dimension-in-terror.html" target="_blank">Friday the 13th Part III</a> was released in 3-D back in 1982, the film was such a big deal that Paramount Pictures even hired Michael Avallone to write a novelization. Four years later, they hired Simon Hawke to write a novelization of Jason Lives: Friday the 13th Part VI – a film that brought iconic masked slasher Jason Voorhees back from the dead after he remained in the grave (and in the hallucinations and nightmares had by the lead character) throughout the fifth film. That book must have sold well, because Paramount quickly hired Hawke to write belated novelizations of the original <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2014/06/long-night-at-camp-blood.html" target="_blank">Friday the 13th</a> and <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2020/02/youre-all-doomed.html" target="_blank">Friday the 13th Part 2</a>... and even a second novelization of <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2013/04/in-memory-of-richard-brooker.html" target="_blank">Friday the 13th Part III</a>. Sure, why not? These books are long out of print and increasingly hard to find, with used copies going for hundreds of dollars. Even as an obsessive fan of Friday the 13th franchise, I can’t tell you they’re worth the prices they usually go for. But if you manage to come across a copy for a more reasonable price (or if you just manage to find the text from the books somewhere online), they are a fun read. </p><p>For the novelization of the first movie, Hawke packed the story into 192 pages, sticking close to what we saw on the screen. Sometimes novelizations are written from shooting scripts and therefore have scenes that were written for the film but didn’t make it into the finished product, but that’s not the case with this book. While the beginning of the film is different from what Victor Miller wrote in the screenplay, as it was originally envisioned as having a more elaborate opening sequence, Hawke wrote what we see in the movie, not what was in Miller’s script. Scene by scene, the book follows the movie through the story of a group of hapless young people gathering together at Camp Crystal Lake to get the place ready to open for the first time in over twenty years, then getting knocked off by a mysterious attacker one-by-one. Hawke stuck so closely to the movie we’re familiar with, he even resisted the temptation to fix the dialogue error where camp-cook-to-be Annie refers to the incoming campers as “kids,” then soon after says she hates when children are referred to as “kids.”</p><p>Of course, the book isn’t just the movie scenes translated into prose, as Hawke was able to drop in moments here and there where we get insight into what some of the characters are thinking in certain moments. As someone who has watched <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2020/01/40-years-of-friday-13th-friday-13th-1980.html" target="_blank">Friday the 13th</a> many, many times, I was surprised to find that Hawke had a very different read on the characters and their interactions than I did. For example, he has the Brenda character actually being charmed by Ned’s prankster / joker antics, and even laughing after he tricks her into thinking he was drowning just so he can kiss her when she’s giving him mouth-to-mouth. I don’t think the movie Brenda appreciated that at all, and she seemed to grow increasingly tired of his non-stop goofery. According to Hawke, the sex scene we see between the Jack and Marcie characters was the first time they ever had sex with each other. I doubt it. And when Jack is relaxing with a joint afterwards, Hawke imagines that he was worried, wondering whether or not Marcie was on birth control. He looked pretty chill to me.</p><p>So I don’t agree with Hawke’s view of the characters, but I still enjoyed seeing one of my all-time favorite movies get turned into a book.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhthIr9CdPjbWUxEMXYp52CqcxN7cPxOGrLiYaGt8wlRW75CNrwQVdI7ESlQOGgATHQubXVqzF55_bdNdSS-mx3Rm1YtSfgpDHRWLEx1eVCh2_tKXC0hgEg5hf4F_LWCZL_MWEamIFOqGqdY5eBJ27AGdL7BSpuDbeel2fU0ChXXRQLTniLXE0iBI0h9i-N/s666/Friday-the-13th-Part-2-Simon-Hawke.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="666" data-original-width="395" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhthIr9CdPjbWUxEMXYp52CqcxN7cPxOGrLiYaGt8wlRW75CNrwQVdI7ESlQOGgATHQubXVqzF55_bdNdSS-mx3Rm1YtSfgpDHRWLEx1eVCh2_tKXC0hgEg5hf4F_LWCZL_MWEamIFOqGqdY5eBJ27AGdL7BSpuDbeel2fU0ChXXRQLTniLXE0iBI0h9i-N/s320/Friday-the-13th-Part-2-Simon-Hawke.jpg" width="190" /></a></div><p>FRIDAY THE 13TH PART 2 by Simon Hawke</p><p>Five years after the events of Friday the 13th, a counselor training center is opened in Crystal Lake. That turns out to be a very poor choice of location. The killing spree carried out at Camp Crystal Lake by Mrs. Voorhees – a middle-age woman seeking revenge for the drowning death of her son Jason – may have been brought to an end when the last surviving counselor decapitated Mrs. Voorhees with a machete, but somehow Jason is still alive. He’s living in the woods, hiding his face under a white sack, and ready to kill anyone who ventures into his territory.</p><p>As with his novelization of the first movie, Simon Hawke sticks close to what we saw on the screen for his take on Friday the 13th Part 2, going through the story scene-by-scene but also taking the occasional opportunity to find out what characters are thinking in certain moments. His read on the characters doesn’t differ from my own as greatly this time around... although I’m not sure about his idea of what Jason is thinking and feeling in some of the moments where he goes into that character’s mind. I really disagree with his idea of Jason’s childhood. He imagines that Jason had a hateful, potentially evil edge to him from the moment he was born. I don’t like that idea; that’s too Michael Myers for me. Jason may have looked different from the other children, but I’d like to think he was a good kid before the tragedies.</p><p>There is a Jason passage that would probably be of great interest to a lot of fans, and that’s when Hawke tries to explain how Jason can still be alive when his mom was previously out to avenge his death. He tells us that Jason did drown, but eventually rose from his watery grave – a resurrection apparently attributed to an ability he always had to heal very quickly from any injury. Including death, as it turns out. Jason returned to Camp Crystal Lake while regenerating his rotting flesh and accidentally burned down a cabin or two. When people showed up with the intention of re-opening the camp, he had to retreat to his own makeshift shack in the wilderness. From the woods surrounding the camp, Jason witnessed the murders committed by his long-lost mother. Then saw her get decapitated. So now he’s out to avenge the woman who died trying to avenge him. That was always a logic gap that had to be overcome to enjoy Friday the 13th Part 2 (and I never had trouble making that leap, because it’s an awesome sequel), and Hawke did an admirable job of trying to fill in that gap.</p><p>If you like Friday the 13th and Friday the 13th Part 2, chances are high that you’ll like Simon Hawke’s novelizations of the films. Just don’t pay high prices for them.</p><script src="chrome-extension://ebeglcfoffnnadgncmppkkohfcigngkj/js/injected/req.js"></script><script src="chrome-extension://ebeglcfoffnnadgncmppkkohfcigngkj/js/injected/req.js"></script>Life Between Frameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18186028067136953502noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8130912260408301801.post-64549932145766335792024-03-01T20:00:00.041-05:002024-03-04T15:52:58.921-05:00Worth Mentioning - Can't Fight This Feeling<p>We watch several movies a week. Every Friday, we'll talk a little about some of the movies we watched that we felt were Worth Mentioning. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2024/03/cant-fight-this-feeling.html" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="1481" data-original-width="1000" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqi3eyki7rECqhlqB4QxctMIZf9mEgq0neNw9wMnI7cP-w8fpeAan5ZflJCqM59zSFQEKA22mKkiGsXuqnyLbwcaxVmRBohLeAh4uzewl1L9T2O8JJm7kcmycsPadcxJnKodAzRsf_jmeRXgqaQ0ll3kzuK-1suUV6kweL5Hh5KeVdJvJ_unhg0DmpVebq/s320/Lisa-Frankenstein.jpg" width="216" /></a></div><p>Diablo Cody horror comedy, Charlie Sheen thrills, and Zac Efron drama.</p><span><a name='more'></a></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrmn9BGR9KIg43NXmNJhW0itHE-FGMtBUYnH8sEwCPyioZebD9TW44TB7O2sEgxBMXdHbqh-jGwLpwcCYvvxTCslAa2FqULOxknELK2AO6N8gGBeZq6tUQOloBgKmK-GsaSZZ2LIjmpnR9IbKqNrksHvTi2gEUnmYydTa2NaWpUCXKgPVky58wSQ9mENaO/s1581/Lisa-Frankenstein-Cole-Sprouse-Kathryn-Newton.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1054" data-original-width="1581" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrmn9BGR9KIg43NXmNJhW0itHE-FGMtBUYnH8sEwCPyioZebD9TW44TB7O2sEgxBMXdHbqh-jGwLpwcCYvvxTCslAa2FqULOxknELK2AO6N8gGBeZq6tUQOloBgKmK-GsaSZZ2LIjmpnR9IbKqNrksHvTi2gEUnmYydTa2NaWpUCXKgPVky58wSQ9mENaO/s320/Lisa-Frankenstein-Cole-Sprouse-Kathryn-Newton.png" width="320" /></a></div><p>LISA FRANKENSTEIN (2024)</p><p>The Diablo Cody-scripted horror comedy <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2021/09/hell-is-teenage-girl.html" target="_blank">Jennifer’s Body</a> was a box office failure when it was released back in 2009, but it has gathered a cult following in the years since – and I was ahead of the curve on that one, because I loved that movie from the moment I saw it on its opening weekend. Since I’ve been a fan of Jennifer’s Body for almost fifteen years now, I was hyped when I heard that Cody had written a new horror comedy called Lisa Frankenstein. Directed by Zelda Williams (daughter of Robin Williams), Lisa Frankenstein reached theatres just in time for Valentine’s Day this year... and what do you know, it was a box office failure, just like Jennifer’s Body. But I’m already starting to see this one gather a cult following, and while I didn’t enjoy it as much I enjoyed Jennifer’s Body, I would count myself as a member of the Lisa Frankenstein cult.</p><p>Kathryn Newton of the fun horror comedy slasher <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2022/05/freaky-friday-13th.html" target="_blank">Freaky</a> stars in this one as Lisa Swallows, a teenager in 1989 who has been, understandably, deeply impacted by the fact that her mother was murdered by an axe-wielding home invader a couple years earlier. I thought the axe murderer would have something to do with the story, but no, that’s just a piece of back story that has nothing to do with the events that play out over the film’s 102 minutes. Lisa’s dad Dale (Joe Chrest) has already moved on and married a very unlikeable woman named Janet (Carla Gugino), but Janet does have a teenage daughter named Taffy (Liza Soberano) who is doing her best to embrace Lisa as a sister and improve her social status. Taffy is such a likeable character, and written so much against the “popular girl in a teen movie” stereotype, with Soberano turning in such a good performance, that Taffy nearly steals the movie out from under Lisa and the zombie that she starts hanging out with.</p><p>Lisa likes to spend her free time in an old cemetery out in the woods, and her favorite grave there belongs to an unmarried young man who died from being struck by lightning in 1837. After she has a traumatic experience at a party, Lisa goes out to the graveyard and tells this dead man, “I wish I was with you.” Meaning, she wishes she was dead. But the corpse takes it the wrong way – and one night, when Lisa is home alone watching George A. Romero’s <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2018/01/a-spook-ride-for-trolls.html" target="_blank">Day of the Dead</a>, the dead, rotting, worm-infested fellow comes walking into her house. Thankfully, she’s able to clean him up a bit, and while the guy (played by Cole Sprouse) isn’t able to talk, he and Lisa are able to strike up a good friendship.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCkcr8rDME8CMiY34pwgj4jEslBuZI6tAXEz3xRe5zj1Lr8TCG01saUJHWKzM8bhMND88EfImjdTaMCbXwvRRxFAoB1nKcUOB4L3RRRuye-JthNlR71Ia7LGERd6ZqVp_BlDDx8nMGeDCew3p4c6lv7nVffcAXgHTW_zaF6Iyzy2Ujoc8s25LgvLDiJLHi/s1581/Lisa-Frankenstein-Liza-Soberano-Kathryn-Newton.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1054" data-original-width="1581" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCkcr8rDME8CMiY34pwgj4jEslBuZI6tAXEz3xRe5zj1Lr8TCG01saUJHWKzM8bhMND88EfImjdTaMCbXwvRRxFAoB1nKcUOB4L3RRRuye-JthNlR71Ia7LGERd6ZqVp_BlDDx8nMGeDCew3p4c6lv7nVffcAXgHTW_zaF6Iyzy2Ujoc8s25LgvLDiJLHi/s320/Lisa-Frankenstein-Liza-Soberano-Kathryn-Newton.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><p>Then people get murdered. When I heard that Lisa Frankenstein was going to involve Lisa and the corpse killing people so they can get him some fresh body parts (which adhere to him when he gets zapped by electricity in Taffy’s faulty tanning bed), I got a bit concerned about the movie, because I didn’t want to see something that attempted to have me rooting for a teenage serial killer. But the murders were presented in a way that didn’t bother me too much, since they’re committed by an overzealous zombie and/or take out characters who deserved some comeuppance. So that worked for me just fine. And it leads to the appropriate ending.</p><p>Lisa Frankenstein gets better as it goes along. On first watch, I found the early stretch of the film to be a little rough because it didn’t feel like the comedic aspects were being handled in the most effective way. I would see a scene that was clearly meant to be funny, but would be left feeling that it could have been funnier if it were shot or edited in a different way. If the moments had more energy to them. But by the second half of the film, I was into the Lisa Frankenstein groove and everything was going smoothly.</p><p>Lisa Frankenstein is a good movie, like Jennifer’s Body was. It’s a shame not very many people show up when Diablo Cody writes a horror comedy, because I want to see more of them from her.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIolGAY5Nlay5B-LjSkZUooIljnp7w7TGscz_y4YINNr3wvpFZedf73eq7zRhAhxgiidwH86su6N7aSQhy1jhI0lvYenDGGT-vLf1Y0TTrvqDCIdaGHS4k1t3e-72xn_tKJVN9LmIavMQ9fVINW2bfqqQAlTuhSxtse71Gp9zIDolm69ZZpLLWBoqc6TJB/s1280/Bad-Day-on-the-Block-Under-Pressure-Charlie-Sheen.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="718" data-original-width="1280" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIolGAY5Nlay5B-LjSkZUooIljnp7w7TGscz_y4YINNr3wvpFZedf73eq7zRhAhxgiidwH86su6N7aSQhy1jhI0lvYenDGGT-vLf1Y0TTrvqDCIdaGHS4k1t3e-72xn_tKJVN9LmIavMQ9fVINW2bfqqQAlTuhSxtse71Gp9zIDolm69ZZpLLWBoqc6TJB/s320/Bad-Day-on-the-Block-Under-Pressure-Charlie-Sheen.png" width="320" /></a></div><p>BAD DAY ON THE BLOCK (a.k.a. UNDER PRESSURE) (1997)</p><p>At the end of the ‘80s / start of the ‘90s, stuntman-turned-director Craig R. Baxley brought us a few films that I feel rank among the coolest action movies ever made: <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2016/08/the-bloody-brilliance-of-self-made.html" target="_blank">Action Jackson</a>, <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2016/03/nothing-is-serious-until-it-is.html" target="_blank">I Come in Peace</a> (a.k.a. Dark Angel), and <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2016/09/a-rag-for-walking-dead.html" target="_blank">Stone Cold</a>. A few years after that, he made the thriller Bad Day on the Block, which is also known as Under Pressure, a film that I hadn’t even heard of until a couple weeks ago. When I’m hanging out with blog contributor <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/search/label/Priscilla" target="_blank">Priscilla</a>, we like to spend our Saturdays watching themed movie marathons. I had a few Charlie Sheen movies I was wanting to revisit, so I decided to put together a Sheen marathon, and to fill out the day I dropped Under Pressure – which was the title on the copy I watched – into the mix. And I found it to be a solid little movie. Nothing close to Action Jackson, I Come in Peace, or Stone Cold, but a decent way to spend 88 minutes.</p><p>Sheen stars as Lyle Wilder, a firefighter who has been called a hero in the press, but for his neighbors – particularly the Braverton family, played by Mare Winningham, David Andrews, Noah Fleiss, and Chelsea Russo – he turns out to be a real pain. His personal life has fallen apart, so when he’s not at work he spends his days sitting at home, his anger steadily rising as he takes note of everything he doesn’t like about his neighbors. Some of the things that set him off are totally understandable. The Bravertons definitely aren’t the perfect people to be living beside. But Lyle’s behavior becomes more and more inappropriate, and before long he’s killing people, holding hostages, and drawing the suspicions of a police officer played by John Ratzenberger from <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2013/02/memories-mayhem.html" target="_blank">Cheers</a>. </p><p>Both of this movie’s titles are fitting. What plays out in the script written by Betsy Giffen Nowrasteh certainly constitutes a “Bad Day on the Block”, while “Under Pressure” fits because Sheen’s performance is so intense, he really does make Lyle Wilder come off as a human pressure cooker. As soon as you see this guy, it’s clear that it’s only going to be a matter of time before he explodes into violence. When he does, Baxley brings it to the screen in an interesting way.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgotmGOJn6_xqY3EeqUX-7JWrxf4ZQWK2RYD2u4D4OrYWS09VDhrkemyNzjQ185qxWZLwGUJWYJbql0W0NzCqkZXlH8XwIcw3sE0q0m0HTzsrrLnpjvCL6nI5gIXl3zUdvr9oL-Lc_Rsa3jsOzN_r3aEoPjTFfa8s3-Y1frQRkbcuuPawzaqb6PWhTfKaM-/s1638/The-Iron-Claw-Von-Erichs.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="922" data-original-width="1638" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgotmGOJn6_xqY3EeqUX-7JWrxf4ZQWK2RYD2u4D4OrYWS09VDhrkemyNzjQ185qxWZLwGUJWYJbql0W0NzCqkZXlH8XwIcw3sE0q0m0HTzsrrLnpjvCL6nI5gIXl3zUdvr9oL-Lc_Rsa3jsOzN_r3aEoPjTFfa8s3-Y1frQRkbcuuPawzaqb6PWhTfKaM-/s320/The-Iron-Claw-Von-Erichs.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p>THE IRON CLAW (2023)</p><p>Some fans know members of the Von Erich family as wrestling icons. Others are mainly aware of them through stories of the Von Erich curse. Even though I was a wrestling fan for a while during my childhood in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, I had never heard of the Von Erichs until it was announced that writer/director Sean Durkin was going to be making a biopic about them: The Iron Claw, named after one of their popular wrestling moves... but while watching the movie’s 132 minutes play out, I felt like I learned a lot about the people who made up the Von Erich family. And definitely came to understand why people talk about a Von Erich curse.</p><p>Holt McCallany plays Jack "Fritz" Von Erich, a retired wrestler who never got a shot at the championship – and he’s aiming to make up for that by raising his many sons to be championship-chasing wrestlers. The oldest son, Jack Jr., died in a tragic accident at the age of 6 back in 1959 (he was electrocuted by a trailer tongue and collapsed face-first into a puddle of melting snow... and the curse began), but Fritz had more sons he could turn into wrestlers. At the heart of this story are those sons; Kevin (played by Zac Efron), Kerry (Jeremy Allen White), David (Harris Dickinson), and Mike (Stanley Simons). It’s clear from the start that Fritz - as depicted in the film - only cares more about his family’s wrestling legacy, being indifferent to his sons on a personal level. Mike doesn’t even want to be a wrestler; he’s a musician. But eventually he has to wrestle, because Fritz needs somebody to win a championship.</p><p>The Iron Claw follows the Von Erichs from 1979 through the ‘80s, and it’s a story of building tragedy as we watch Fritz’s championship aspirations tear his family apart son by son. There are fun moments, some wrestling action, and some great classic rock tunes on the soundtrack, but for the most part, watching this movie is quite an upsetting experience. One brother dies from pushing himself too hard and not taking care of his health during his run for the championship. Another suffers a devastating injury in the ring. Another gets a major injury of his own in a motorcycle accident. Everything falls apart, and it’s infuriating because things didn’t need to go the way they did. </p><p>What’s especially shocking about all of this is the fact that the true story of the Von Erich family is even more tragic than what’s shown in this film. There was another son, Chris, who didn’t make it into the film. He was also wrestler, and his life was also destroyed by the championship ambitions. To fully bring the pain and tragedy the Von Erichs endured to the screen, Durkin would have had to make a limited series rather than a feature film. If there's one positive thing to say about it all, it's that, thankfully, Kevin Von Erich has said that his father was a much better person than the movie version of Fritz.</p><p>There’s a lot of intense drama on display in The Iron Claw, and it’s been surprising to see that the movie hasn’t gone up for any of the major awards. Work worthy of Oscar nominations went into this one. Just look at Zac Efron as Kevin Von Erich. The guy turns himself into a living version of an ‘80s <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2016/02/by-power-of-grayskull.html" target="_blank">He-Man</a> action figure while also handling the dramatic moments Durkin threw at him, and he doesn’t get major award recognition for it? That’s a shame.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFbrTEOxs8ucdtrU-t7MaHq3tXR9VyR5AEaH9qX8_Rk3gM63_-WuCED3of-ZweeQmLldiWbsCVNWWBrVlE-r4E5mqn05kj1bo0nDCdEn36JoWTipyNzJNWUXg4Jw9X2KnlxmBaab9KAk6t3T5hU43muzCz3uqOtYt6VOGmkVoHjlBb0nFHhCMrSxMDgzCb/s1581/The-Iron-Claw-Zac-Efron.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1054" data-original-width="1581" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFbrTEOxs8ucdtrU-t7MaHq3tXR9VyR5AEaH9qX8_Rk3gM63_-WuCED3of-ZweeQmLldiWbsCVNWWBrVlE-r4E5mqn05kj1bo0nDCdEn36JoWTipyNzJNWUXg4Jw9X2KnlxmBaab9KAk6t3T5hU43muzCz3uqOtYt6VOGmkVoHjlBb0nFHhCMrSxMDgzCb/s320/The-Iron-Claw-Zac-Efron.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><script src="chrome-extension://ebeglcfoffnnadgncmppkkohfcigngkj/js/injected/req.js"></script>Life Between Frameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18186028067136953502noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8130912260408301801.post-17011162831056113042024-02-28T20:00:00.002-05:002024-02-29T08:12:19.632-05:00Video Scripts: Murder Party, Twisters, Hellraiser<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2024/02/video-scripts-murder-party-twisters.html" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="666" data-original-width="1348" height="198" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPl5NbE0gSKrihgHe48zhmykj_NXa-aAeJgHSbmJfXy5JND4ge6x1R6Fssdnrt-zp89fxfSAl-rYLrkJ4AdpEmipRtrWMdviVQux08JcbZ3BVHj5dbJEJyUB94-GxZcCBpYLEI8ea6GzT1bj-ht-q18LMnULO_B45aAMeKUKL0zoDgpvYbcyEa5onNOem0/w400-h198/murder-party-twisters-hellraiser.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p></p><div><div>Cody shares three more JoBlo videos he contributed to.</div><div><br /></div><span><a name='more'></a></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div><div>I have been writing news articles and film reviews for <a href="http://ArrowintheHead.com">ArrowintheHead.com</a> for several years, and for the last few years I have also been writing scripts for videos that are released through the site's YouTube channel <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqDKUrpIT1131kLHtvsFzLA" target="_blank">JoBlo Horror Originals</a>. Recently I started writing video scripts for the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/c/JoBloOriginals/videos" target="_blank">JoBlo Originals</a> YouTube channel as well. I have previously shared the videos I wrote that covered </div><p>- <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2020/07/video-scripts-frailty-dead-calm-shocker.html" target="_blank">Frailty, Dead Calm, and Shocker </a></p><p>- <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2020/09/video-scripts-100-feet-freddy-vs-jason.html" target="_blank">100 Feet, Freddy vs. Jason, and Pin </a></p><p>- <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2021/02/video-scripts-night-fare-poltergeist.html" target="_blank">Night Fare, Poltergeist III, and Hardware</a> </p><p>- <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2021/04/video-scripts-elm-street-3-texas.html" target="_blank">A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation, and It's Alive</a></p><p>- <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2021/07/video-scripts-dark-city-mute-witness.html" target="_blank">Dark City, Mute Witness, and The Wraith</a></p><p>- <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2021/09/video-scripts-army-of-darkness-cannibal.html" target="_blank">Army of Darkness, Cannibal Holocaust, and Basket Case</a> </p><p>- <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2021/12/video-scripts-halloween-timeline-pit.html" target="_blank">Halloween timeline, The Pit, and Body Parts</a></p><p>- <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2021/12/video-scripts-halloween-6-jason-goes-to.html" target="_blank">Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers, Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday, and The Thing (2011)</a></p><p>- <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2022/02/video-scripts-monster-squad-trick-or.html" target="_blank">The Monster Squad, Trick or Treat, and Maximum Overdrive</a></p><p>- <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2022/03/video-scripts-fish-called-wanda-night.html" target="_blank">A Fish Called Wanda, Night of the Creeps, and Jason Lives: Friday the 13th Part VI</a></p><p>- <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2022/04/video-scripts-race-with-devil-speed.html" target="_blank">Race with the Devil, Speed, and Romancing the Stone</a></p><p>- <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2022/05/video-scripts-maniac-cop-3-wargames.html" target="_blank">Maniac Cop 3, WarGames, and Night of the Living Dead (1990)</a></p><p>- <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2022/06/video-scripts-rock-witchboard-friday.html" target="_blank">The Rock, Witchboard, and Friday the 13th Part 2</a></p><p>- <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2022/06/video-scripts-intruder-saving-private.html" target="_blank">Intruder, Saving Private Ryan, and Big Trouble in Little China</a></p><p>- <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2022/07/video-scripts-first-power-psycho-1960.html" target="_blank">The First Power, Psycho (1960), and Hot Fuzz</a></p><p>- <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2022/08/video-scripts-cat-people-1982-bride-of.html" target="_blank">Cat People (1982), Bride of Re-Animator, and Con Air</a></p><p>- <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2022/09/video-scripts-moulin-rouge-hills-have.html" target="_blank">Moulin Rouge (2001), The Hills Have Eyes Part 2 (1985), and The Stuff</a></p><p>- <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2022/10/video-scripts-children-of-corn-1984.html" target="_blank">Children of the Corn (1984), Bone Tomahawk, and Fight Club</a></p><p>- <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2022/10/video-scripts-departed-halloween-4.html" target="_blank">The Departed, Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers, and Ginger Snaps</a></p><p>- <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2022/11/video-scripts-silver-bullet-last-action.html" target="_blank">Silver Bullet, Last Action Hero, and Children of Men</a></p><p>- <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2023/01/video-scripts-flesheater-christmas.html" target="_blank">FleshEater, Christmas Vacation, and Lethal Weapon</a></p><p>- <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2023/01/video-scripts-thing-monkey-shines.html" target="_blank">The Thing (1982), Monkey Shines, and Friday the 13th (1980)</a></p><p>- <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2023/03/video-scripts-p2-lethal-weapon-2-frozen.html" target="_blank">P2, Lethal Weapon 2, and Frozen (2010)</a></p><p>- <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2023/04/video-scripts-lethal-weapon-3-blob-1988.html" target="_blank">Lethal Weapon 3, The Blob (1988), and Lethal Weapon 4</a></p><p>- <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2023/05/video-scripts-fast-and-furious-dance-of.html" target="_blank">The Fast and the Furious, Dance of the Dead, and The Rage: Carrie 2</a></p><p>- <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2023/06/video-scripts-puppet-master-2-fast-2.html" target="_blank">Puppet Master, 2 Fast 2 Furious, and Castle Freak (1995)</a></p><p>- <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2023/07/video-scripts-tokyo-drift-fast-furious.html" target="_blank">The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, Fast & Furious, and Halloween III: Season of the Witch</a></p><p>- <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2023/08/video-scripts-fast-five-dog-soldiers.html" target="_blank">Fast Five, Dog Soldiers, and Tremors 3: Back to Perfection</a></p><p>- <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2023/09/video-scripts-drag-me-to-hell-3d-horror.html" target="_blank">Drag Me to Hell, 3D '80s Horror, and unmade Mission: Impossible sequels</a></p><p>- <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2023/10/video-scripts-sleepaway-camp-tremors-4.html" target="_blank">Sleepaway Camp, Tremors 4: The Legend Begins, and 2001 Maniacs</a></p><p>- <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2023/10/video-scripts-gremlins-furious-6-lone.html" target="_blank">Gremlins, Furious 6, and Lone Wolf McQuade</a></p><p>- <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2023/11/video-scripts-last-showing-grindhouse.html" target="_blank">The Last Showing, Grindhouse, and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003)</a></p><p>- <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2023/12/video-scripts-christmas-horror-puppet.html" target="_blank">Christmas Horror, Puppet Master vs. Demonic Toys, and Furious 7</a></p><p>- <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2024/01/video-scripts-drive-horror-comedies.html" target="_blank">Drive (2011), 1986 horror comedies, and the upcoming Alien movie</a></p><p>Three more videos that I have written the scripts for can be seen below, two for the JoBlo Horror Originals channel and one that was released on the JoBlo Upcoming Movies channel.</p><p>For the Best Horror Movie You Never Saw series, I wrote about Jeremy Saulnier's 2007 horror comedy Murder Party:</p><p><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="358" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/eWvHT9IBTt0" title="YouTube video player" width="637"></iframe></p><p></p><div><div>Later this year, we'll be getting folllow-up of sorts to Twister. I put all of the available information on Twisters together in <a href="https://www.joblo.com/twisters-everything-we-know/" target="_blank">this article</a>, and it ended up serving as the basis for this video:</div><div><br /></div></div><div><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="358" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/F1Oj1KvBI0o" title="YouTube video player" width="637"></iframe></div><div><div><p>And for the '80s Horror Memories docu-series, I wrote about Clive Barker's 1987 classic Hellraiser:</p><p><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="358" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/LCibu2K1Qa4" title="YouTube video player" width="637"></iframe></p><p></p><div>More video scripts have been written, so another batch of videos will be shared here on Life Between Frames eventually. In the meantime, keep an eye on JoBlo Horror Originals and JoBlo Originals!</div><p></p></div>
</div></div>Life Between Frameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18186028067136953502noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8130912260408301801.post-18027086515741569262024-02-26T20:00:00.004-05:002024-02-27T09:06:02.234-05:00Books of 2024: Week 9 - The Gunslinger and Black Tears<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2024/02/books-of-2024-week-9-gunslinger-and.html" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="667" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhM6If-4pucyTWyXQO4IQOorR0l1N-rKwNI_LRDdWmfLvcOH4yR23lId09AwIvNGznKU67wEQEVSVILxgKQnqG0Yy-uEK72Jnq3wfUCxKVLpfjQaz5wCeYGG2eRXS7ZRpDmnIasc9isW5IoOoa9om6IL7t9R2ljn9m3HWjBVnJ42wfzfzwScVyqIeFulBSk/s320/the-gunslinger.jpg" width="213" /></a></div><div><br /></div>Cody reads Stephen King and Charles Campbell.<span><a name='more'></a></span><p><br /></p><p>THE GUNSLINGER by Stephen King</p><p>Stephen King said he wrote the book <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2024/02/books-of-2024-week-8-running-man.html" target="_blank">The Running Man</a> (published under the Richard Bachman pen name) in just one week. On the opposite end of the spectrum, we have The Gunslinger, which King gradually wrote over a dozen years. The first couple sections of the five-part story were written in 1970, when he was still a college student, drawing inspiration from a poem he had read during his sophomore year: Robert Browning’s “Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came.” When he was having trouble writing <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2023/03/books-i-have-read-in-2023-first-13.html" target="_blank">Salem’s Lot</a>, he returned to The Gunslinger and wrote another section of it. The fourth section of the book was written soon after he finished working on <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2023/06/books-i-have-read-in-2023-second-13.html" target="_blank">The Shining</a>. The final section was written in late 1981, and all five were published separately in the pages of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. Then, in 1982, he gathered all five sections together and sent The Gunslinger out into the world as a novel. The fact that the sections were written so far apart from each other is somewhat evident in the book, as the style of writing does change a bit as it goes on; the first two sections especially come off in a different way than what follows. But it all holds together as a fascinating story.</p><p>The Gunslinger is the first chapter in what is considered to be King’s “magnum opus”, the Dark Tower saga, which consists of eight novels and a short story and ties in with many of King’s other novels in various ways. It’s set in a world that, in the unrevised version of the first book, seems to have been a lot like ours at one time, complete with people being aware of the song “Hey Jude,” although we’ll also learn that this world exists within a single molecule of a weed dying in a vacant lot. Making it more clear that it isn’t exactly the world we know is the fact that eventually a character will show up saying they were somehow transported into this world from the one they were previously living in, and the place they describe as their homeland is modern day New York City. So it’s a different place, but with some overlap, like “Hey Jude.” Following the space age, this world somehow reverted to a sort of medieval existence, but instead of knights it had gunslingers. Then everything fell apart, and now it’s a mixture of a post-apocalyptic wasteland and the Old West. The lead character is the gunslinger Roland, who is pursuing the mysterious Man in Black across the desert while also trying to reach the Dark Tower, which exists at the point where all worlds and universes meet in a single nexus. Twenty years after publishing The Gunslinger, King would go back and revise the text to make sure Roland’s world was clearly more separate from ours and to rework anything that didn’t perfectly match up with the books that followed – but I’ll admit, I have never read the revised version. The only Gunslinger I’m familiar with is the one that reached shelves in 1982.</p><p>The early works of King stir up a lot of nostalgia in me, because I was a young kid in the ‘80s and early ‘90s, back when he truly was a Literary King. A highly-respected, incredibly prolific writer who frequently dropped nightmare fuel onto the page, and every time a new book was published it was A Big Deal. My local library didn’t even keep the King novels on shelves with books by other authors. His work was kept on a separate bookcase in its own section, and I think there was a King-related poster on the wall beside this bookcase. Since I became a horror fan at a young age, I was drawn to this bookcase every time I went into the library – even though I was so young, my focus should have been on the books in the kids' section, down in the basement of the library. (And I did spend a good amount of time down there, especially since they had some of those awesome Crestwood House monster books.) I started reading some of the books that were on that King bookcase... and out of all of the books that were there, it’s The Gunslinger that presses my nostalgia buttons the most. </p><p>I still remember the first time I read this book, sometime in ‘91 or ‘92, at which time I would have been 7 or 8 years old. It was a 1988 edition of the book that featured illustrations by Michael Whelan, and I started reading it when I was staying at my older sister’s house one night. Everyone had already gone to bed, but I wasn’t ready to sleep yet. So I opened The Gunslinger and was immediately captivated by this character Roland and this strange world he inhabited. The night went on as the pages went by, but I didn’t want to stop reading the book. Even though I started to feel extremely tired, I just kept going through it, trying to see if I could get through it all in one sitting. I don’t recall if I managed to accomplish that goal or not, but I know I got very far into it. And loved it. </p><p>The Gunslinger is very different from the average King book, but it also happens to be one of my King books. It basically reads like a Western, but one where demons and monsters lurk at the edge of the story at all times, and occasionally they emerge onto the page. It’s about a gunslinger making his way across the desert, but there are also acts of magic, people crossing between dimensions, creatures that are called Slow Mutants, and a flashback to a sort of medieval kingdom. It has an ending of sorts, since Roland does catch up with that Man in Black by the end, but it also leaves you knowing there’s a lot more story to come – because Roland still needs to reach the Dark Tower. And it’s going to take several more books for him to do that.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBXJ8QEJS6-tSDxvOy-tB2uQBaYMsklchhQk1FdfylAsRxKJ2VQ-VmQ2MOfTtPh1EYjW8NIWNBMdHkdEeMvfcO2W3pfPgJ_hfaqqpOTD8xwciw90tgE4-R-qZ7W9qjBu8hWk6cV-He-3iw4vVPgdRukCorGDXHQD-J81nkWthlBUq53P_bxfAsHaSjk13Y/s500/Black-Tears-Charles-Campbell.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="326" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBXJ8QEJS6-tSDxvOy-tB2uQBaYMsklchhQk1FdfylAsRxKJ2VQ-VmQ2MOfTtPh1EYjW8NIWNBMdHkdEeMvfcO2W3pfPgJ_hfaqqpOTD8xwciw90tgE4-R-qZ7W9qjBu8hWk6cV-He-3iw4vVPgdRukCorGDXHQD-J81nkWthlBUq53P_bxfAsHaSjk13Y/s320/Black-Tears-Charles-Campbell.jpg" width="209" /></a></div><p>BLACK TEARS by Charles Campbell</p><p>When I read Charles Campbell’s murder mystery <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2023/12/books-i-have-read-in-2023-last-batch.html" target="_blank">Midnight Rider</a>, I was under the mistaken impression that it was the first novel he had written. Turns out, it was actually from deep into his bibliography – so, left wanting to read more of his work after Midnight Rider, I decided to circle back to the book that actually was his first, Black Tears. </p><p>Set in small town South Carolina, this supernatural horror story centers on a woman named Theresa Barnwell, who starts seeing the ghostly figure of a young boy who carries around a cane fishing pole. And that’s when things in her life start to get strange and frightening. There are mysterious floods in her house, she hears a sound like rain in her head all the time, her cousin dies in a car accident that seems to have involved that young boy in some way. It’s soon apparent that Theresa and her family are in danger, so she has to solve the mystery of this young boy in hopes that she’ll be able to save her own life and the lives of her children. The mystery she has to solve goes back several decades and has something to do with her family history.</p><p>Black Tears isn’t the most well-polished book around; there are punctuation issues and some awkward dialogue passages, but if you can brush those aside, you’ll find that Campbell has crafted an interesting horror tale. It took me a while to really get invested in what was going on, but once I did, the book took me on a fun ride. My favorite section came when the Barnwell family decides to go on a water park vacation even though their supernatural issues haven’t been resolved yet. Campbell spends several pages telling us the details of this vacation, but this all turns out to have been build-up to trouble, so when the horrific events kick in, they’re even more effective after we’ve been reading about the Barnwells going through the vacation motions. That leads into an action-packed finale that takes up a good percentage of the book’s pages.</p><p>This one didn’t have me locked in from the start, but it grabbed me eventually, and as it went on, I could more and more clearly imagine it being brought to the screen as a Blumhouse production.</p>Life Between Frameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18186028067136953502noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8130912260408301801.post-7974454101147543482024-02-23T20:00:00.035-05:002024-02-26T07:10:25.559-05:00Worth Mentioning - Kill Nothing but Time<p>We watch several movies a week. Every Friday, we'll talk a little about some of the movies we watched that we felt were Worth Mentioning. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2024/02/kill-nothing-but-time.html" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="1280" height="256" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlfhj-yTys0UkEyLHlucDLRkenNeD87fi1aVeYamsVzDoAeVwXHbJ_Rm9E4S4TLLr_mPt_FAB4Ftq6bMETKoq-zEpc9qMaSjTfLeeIwYU6f8UXCk4vLDpOZISBhN1YVRG7oSZhhgtZAk5bRshcAQtTyd8EdLwPwoI0PQ2ka5EPXRjy_Qr8hJ6PhoIcZBK3/s320/The-Texas-Chainsaw-Massacre-Beyond-Horror.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Cody watches The Texas Chainsaw Massacre again, plus a new horror movie.<div><br /></div><span><a name='more'></a></span><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSks6gBU8dFfbbGZzANZIka4Td5UD6u41Kf_Uzi6xSn-GSqicIMPI2_hdqTYlKX5TjhfzrGDC1RUGsBeGmHday8lyMikIAfhWJhYgZC8BPRU5pezD48qq9OYaPCrwGi1zEhrhpl2XsTQyb03mSGCuyinsIkIdio_sLg9msJGMJzD8WMb_B8SMFukxX64Mi/s1280/The-Texas-Chainsaw-Massacre-Joe-Bob-Briggs-crew.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSks6gBU8dFfbbGZzANZIka4Td5UD6u41Kf_Uzi6xSn-GSqicIMPI2_hdqTYlKX5TjhfzrGDC1RUGsBeGmHday8lyMikIAfhWJhYgZC8BPRU5pezD48qq9OYaPCrwGi1zEhrhpl2XsTQyb03mSGCuyinsIkIdio_sLg9msJGMJzD8WMb_B8SMFukxX64Mi/s320/The-Texas-Chainsaw-Massacre-Joe-Bob-Briggs-crew.png" width="320" /></a></div><p>THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE (1974) – 2020 FAMILY REUNION VIRTUAL EVENT, NIGHT 2</p><p>Back in 2020, Exurbia Films hosted a “family reunion virtual event” in which viewers were able to watch director Tobe Hooper’s classic horror film <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2016/01/a-whole-family-of-draculas.html" target="_blank">The Texas Chainsaw Massacre</a> along with legendary movie host and drive-in movie critic (not to mention Chainsaw super-fan) Joe Bob Briggs and members of the film’s cast and crew. It was a two-night event, with co-writer/producer Kim Henkel and cast members John Dugan, Edwin Neal, William Vail, Teri McMinn, Allen Danzinger, and Ed Guinn watching the movie on the first night – and I wrote about that half of the event <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2023/08/got-some-weirdness-going-down.html" target="_blank">last August</a>. On the second night, Joe Bob watched the movie with Henkel and crew members Larry Carroll (editor), Ted Nicolaou (location sound recordist), Wayne Bell (production sound and music), Ron Bozman (production manager), and Daniel Pearl (cinematographer). Since last year marked the fiftieth anniversary of the events depicted in the movie and this year marks the fiftieth anniversary of its release, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre has been on my mind a lot lately – so I decided to take in another viewing of “Night 2” of the Exurbia event.</p><p>As with Night 1, the movie plays out in the middle of the screen while the screens showing Joe Bob and all of the crew members are shown around the sides and bottom of the central image. If you’re a Chainsaw super-fan like Joe Bob, chances are you won’t learn a whole lot about the making and release of the film from watching this presentation... but it didn’t need to be especially educational to be worthwhile. It’s just fun to watch the movie along with some of the people who had a hand in making it. And viewers who haven’t spent a good portion of their time digging into Chainsaw information will probably learn quite a bit. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0oGgnwW09Jz7_PxHfihr7sje2qtQcXCPkCs_PKsse256oqzdeUqgysjfKAsHVjhdqlKx4Dqi-er0sFOxeiMeYGn33fCXyoGtMgAQXaABI4J4iX05jTMY8TvWqhyphenhyphenAshN5gora_zHkWPC4fxuE8wFmoUmjVswJqczlV6Nfn-d3OQ_kTslnMQ7fvSNEiB8-8/s1280/The-Texas-Chainsaw-Massacre-Sallye-Richardson.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0oGgnwW09Jz7_PxHfihr7sje2qtQcXCPkCs_PKsse256oqzdeUqgysjfKAsHVjhdqlKx4Dqi-er0sFOxeiMeYGn33fCXyoGtMgAQXaABI4J4iX05jTMY8TvWqhyphenhyphenAshN5gora_zHkWPC4fxuE8wFmoUmjVswJqczlV6Nfn-d3OQ_kTslnMQ7fvSNEiB8-8/s320/The-Texas-Chainsaw-Massacre-Sallye-Richardson.png" width="320" /></a></div><p>As the movie goes along, we hear that Hooper and Pearl considered shooting the film on 35mm, but that thought was set aside due to the fact that Hooper wanted to be able to shoot scenes handheld, and there were only a few 35mm cameras available that could be used for handheld shooting at that time, and they were out of the project’s budget range. That’s why they ended up shooting on that beautifully grainy 16mm film stock viewers have been watching for the last fifty years. Nicolaou talks about the fact that the van the characters ride around in the movie belonged to him, and the crew didn’t go easy on it. There’s talk of scavenging for animal bones that we used to decorate the home of the chainsaw-wielding Leatherface and his cannibalistic family. There’s the amusing detail that the owner of the house used for the Leatherface residence thought the crew was only going to be using the place for three days, when they were actually there for a couple weeks. Pearl reveals that the flashlight held by the victim character Franklin wasn’t just a regular flashlight; it needed to be more powerful for the film they were shooting on. So there’s a 650 watt bulb in that flashlight, connected to a battery belt that was hidden in Franklin’s wheelchair.</p><p>There are also, of course, mentions of some of the bizarre moments that everyone endured on the set, like when Hooper just let heroine Marilyn Burns scream for eleven minutes straight. And if you’ve ever wondered how Wayne Bell created that awesomely strange score for the film, he tells some of it here, letting us know that he used children’s musical instruments, cymbals, and a stand-up bass, plus pots and pans. When characters first enter Leatherface’s home, we hear the sounds of animals on the soundtrack... and it turns out those weren’t recordings of animals or even of Gunnar Hansen as Leatherface, but rather a recording of Bell’s father making animal sounds.</p><p>Joe Bob and the crew members had so much to say about the movie, their conversation continues for twenty minutes after the end credits have finished rolling. So this night of the event lasted for 104 minutes, just 1 minute shorter than the cast night of the event.</p><p>I love The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and love hearing stories about the making of it. I am one of those fans who has spent probably too much time digging into this movie... so I appreciated having the chance to share this viewing of the film with Joe Bob and the crew members.</p><p><br /></p><p><i>The following review originally appeared on <a href="http://ArrowintheHead.com">ArrowintheHead.com</a></i></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiq7OrxogRmKBH0KjLcZrKtoKAWL4STT2FfdhEfQ3wLdpI0DR0jvyaBLQohKDHiJu6zubXuwhR65Tw4sNASYe7gXAGFsvY5T0Vqraajcx0PmyBvDBzrnIS0CPpkJCJuJtoLfswgJqUcTgOVjPE86KTHkcMrx_1NQ_sZo_nMQrl1LkyzfHYZeTJMMDM1DMs/s1000/Lovely-Dark-and-Deep-Georgina-Campbell.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="460" data-original-width="1000" height="147" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiq7OrxogRmKBH0KjLcZrKtoKAWL4STT2FfdhEfQ3wLdpI0DR0jvyaBLQohKDHiJu6zubXuwhR65Tw4sNASYe7gXAGFsvY5T0Vqraajcx0PmyBvDBzrnIS0CPpkJCJuJtoLfswgJqUcTgOVjPE86KTHkcMrx_1NQ_sZo_nMQrl1LkyzfHYZeTJMMDM1DMs/s320/Lovely-Dark-and-Deep-Georgina-Campbell.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>LOVELY, DARK, AND DEEP (2023)</div><p>Teresa Sutherland wrote the screenplay for Emma Tammi’s 2018 horror Western The Wind and was part of the writing staff on the Mike Flanagan series Midnight Mass, and now she has made her feature directorial debut with the horror film Lovely, Dark, and Deep, which she was inspired to make after hearing “real-life conspiracy theories surrounding the unusually high number of unsolved missing person cases that happen in national parks and forests”. She came up with a theory of her own... something dealing with an ancient supernatural force that still operates in these isolated places “where it still gets dark”... and delivered it in the form of a movie that has some interesting ideas, but doesn’t make for a very satisfying viewing experience.</p><p>Georgina Campbell, whose breakthrough role in the genre hit <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2023/04/come-for-night-stay-forever.html" target="_blank">Barbarian</a> (not to mention a BAFTA win for Murdered by My Boyfriend) has led to her landing roles in things like Bird Box Barcelona and an upcoming film directed by a Shyamalan daughter, stars in Lovely, Dark, and Deep as a young woman named Lennon, who has taken a job as a ranger at the Arvores National Park with an ulterior motive: when she was a child, her sister Jenny went missing in this park, and she intends to scour the land in hopes of figuring out what exactly happened to her sibling. When a ranger stationed in a remote location disappears, leaving behind only a note where he said he owes the land a body, Lennon gets the chance to replace him for 90 days, which she’s going to spend searching through the back country. One of the podcasts Lennon listens to at a couple different points in the movie informs us that Arvores National Park has the highest number of missing persons cases out of any place in the world, which certainly deepens the mystery she’s trying to solve. It’s an interesting set-up, and Campbell was a strong choice for the lead. She has the acting skills and the screen presence to carry the entire film on her shoulders, which is very important since she’s the only person on screen for long stretches of it. </p><p>While Campbell does a great job with the material she was given to work with, she was let down by the script a bit, as we don’t really get to know Lennon as a person. We know she’s deeply traumatized by the disappearance of her sister, she’s quiet and has such high anxiety that she’ll chew her fingernails until her fingers bleed, but I don’t feel that I know much about her beyond that. There’s nothing to go by other than her drive to find missing people.</p><p>Sutherland took the slow burn approach with this one, so we end up spending a lot of time watching Lennon quietly make her way around the forest, going about her ranger duties. This sort of build-up needs to lead to a great pay-off to be worth the time spent on it... but the movie doesn’t have that. Instead, there comes a point where it goes completely off the rails, with Lennon slipping into some different plain of existence where she’s just bombarded with trippy visuals for a stretch of 40 minutes or so. This part of the film will still work for some viewers who are more inclined to go along for the ride with something like this, but for me there are few things more irritating than when a movie turns into nothing but scene after scene of a character just bumbling their way through nightmares. Especially when there’s no Freddy Krueger around to liven things up.</p><p>Lovely, Dark, and Deep is not something I’ll ever want to watch again, but the writer/director does show promise with it. As mentioned, there are interesting ideas in the story, they just didn’t come together in a way I found to be satisfying. The concept of this film would have worked very well for a short film, but there’s not enough substance here to sustain the feature running time. Padded out beyond reason, the movie’s 87 minutes eventually start to feel interminable. When we reach the end, the destination wasn’t worth the journey, because things kind of just sputter out. But even when it’s frustrating to watch, which is for a large percentage of the time, it’s still a nice movie to look at, as Sutherland and cinematographer Rui Poças were able to capture some great images of the forest where it all takes place. (The story is set in the United States, but the filming location was Portugal.)</p><p>So we have intriguing ideas, a good lead actress, and nice cinematography, yet the movie still falls short. I think Sutherland could make an effective horror movie at some point, but Lovely, Dark, and Deep just didn’t work for me.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiER0ZnVlOIoEh9fvTD0onecqzjz5Z7SxdSSmXuqUMWJu8aVdHsWRYXSclVni2t0GeAT3fuBW34kolJ3-dwBmsDvfHJdoISATsyXk5LCQRrigUF3Rk3ktMRc9ja6Mn1yf_XwG9UFRIfQcvEedYUGTDyIhkhurHiydATzL229pZeAVIkHOU4j5I54AxVvkZG/s1389/Lovely-Dark-and-Deep-trippy.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="711" data-original-width="1389" height="164" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiER0ZnVlOIoEh9fvTD0onecqzjz5Z7SxdSSmXuqUMWJu8aVdHsWRYXSclVni2t0GeAT3fuBW34kolJ3-dwBmsDvfHJdoISATsyXk5LCQRrigUF3Rk3ktMRc9ja6Mn1yf_XwG9UFRIfQcvEedYUGTDyIhkhurHiydATzL229pZeAVIkHOU4j5I54AxVvkZG/s320/Lovely-Dark-and-Deep-trippy.jpg" width="320" /></a></div></div>Life Between Frameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18186028067136953502noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8130912260408301801.post-42390034708665802872024-02-21T20:00:00.036-05:002024-02-22T16:20:54.776-05:00Creepshow - Twenty Minutes with Cassandra / Smile<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2024/02/creepshow-twenty-minutes-with-cassandra.html" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="666" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiyk1-nwe2dhYQJfA__VMAm0Bna9J76buepYGw_KiuDeSdrgpvDBUB9lRcbprh2DFg-r5IT8psv_RoDpbAGmEFni6CmKS4rRNrIFb0MRXs8_3dISDe0FRG_hmkqXhSI6yrU5DEXn8ibiPGw16x12IsEInyGKakybijAu2TP4nR9OcbUqv_1e5qrBO69r-H/s320/Creepshow-season-4.jpg" width="213" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>Cody checks out the first episode of season 4 of Shudder's Creepshow series.</div><p></p><span><a name='more'></a></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS4cbnBHfvO7E4ll-29wMTPUhSOYDI9I5D4jX2x53yCy_LwWN_PUb1BtGm727y0RH3bcni2AdxP5vkask3x7FwXOjSDcmfD1ua8YlnuKs4ZI67PJOrbXZy_novhtkudPxQE9jtbqcJM19ggmkttMUtuStPVu6XrrHurNESkOstp6Z2IVHufGWXWbg6nA0N/s1280/Creepshow-season-4-episode-1.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS4cbnBHfvO7E4ll-29wMTPUhSOYDI9I5D4jX2x53yCy_LwWN_PUb1BtGm727y0RH3bcni2AdxP5vkask3x7FwXOjSDcmfD1ua8YlnuKs4ZI67PJOrbXZy_novhtkudPxQE9jtbqcJM19ggmkttMUtuStPVu6XrrHurNESkOstp6Z2IVHufGWXWbg6nA0N/s320/Creepshow-season-4-episode-1.png" width="320" /></a></div><div><div><br /></div><div>After a two year gap between seasons, the fourth season of the horror anthology show Creepshow, a continuation of the George A. Romero / Stephen King franchise that brought us two feature films back in the ‘80s glory days (<a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2019/09/the-most-fun-youll-ever-have-being.html" target="_blank">Creepshow</a> in 1982 and <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2011/02/good-to-last-gasp.html" target="_blank">Creepshow 2</a> in 1987), finally reached the Shudder streaming service on Friday, October 13, 2023... but this new batch of episodes brought some changes to the series and the way its stories were presented. In previous seasons, there would be moments with our skeleton host The Creep, who never spoke (like in the original movie) but still managed to be the one showing us each of the stories. Season 4 doesn’t feature any footage of the Creep in physical form, we only see an illustrated version of him on the pages of the Creepshow comic books that contain the stories we’re shown. This was also the first season that Shudder decided to give a binge release, dropping all six episodes on the same day, whereas previous seasons were given “episode a week” releases. Hopefully the extended break between seasons, the lack of Creep moments, and the binge release aren’t an indication that Shudder and/or creative supervisor Greg Nicotero are losing interest in the show, because I would like to see it continue on for more seasons.</div><div><br /></div><div>We’ll have to wait and see what the future holds. In the meantime, let’s dig into season 4...</div><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0VEu4RuJsgrwkNFlaFwUFS5EvgJ4lxblanzSNoReoHpadJdjWuZL-E6fIZY07xH76nLrcQtoSuuoPA0VowKPOKNV8fd3HfP7nX7HeeXhhK8ucw8AQUNIARRZ3P1CFNGcXjIljgF2wnOPGoQm7IP1EAzCSCOzz1LRTi0rcrw_SnM4e2nB2vtmwEnVfOORi/s1280/Creepshow-Twenty-Minutes-with-Cassandra.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0VEu4RuJsgrwkNFlaFwUFS5EvgJ4lxblanzSNoReoHpadJdjWuZL-E6fIZY07xH76nLrcQtoSuuoPA0VowKPOKNV8fd3HfP7nX7HeeXhhK8ucw8AQUNIARRZ3P1CFNGcXjIljgF2wnOPGoQm7IP1EAzCSCOzz1LRTi0rcrw_SnM4e2nB2vtmwEnVfOORi/s320/Creepshow-Twenty-Minutes-with-Cassandra.png" width="320" /></a></div><div><br /></div>Almost every episode of the Creepshow series is split into two separate stories, and that’s the case for all of the season 4 episodes, so it delivers twelve stories over the course of its six episodes. The first story of the first episode is called Twenty Minutes with Cassandra and was, fittingly, directed by creative supervisor Nicotero. On this one, Nicotero was working from a script by Jamie Flanagan, a sibling of genre filmmaker Mike Flanagan who has written for the Mike Flanagan-produced shows <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2020/10/i-know-fear-when-i-see-it.html" target="_blank">The Haunting of Bly Manor</a>, Midnight Mass, The Midnight Club, and The Fall of the House of Usher. Since Twenty Minutes with Cassandra has that Flanagan connection, it also seems fitting that it happens to star two Flanagan regulars: Samantha Sloyan and Ruth Codd.</div><div><br /></div><div>Sloyan plays Lorna Snell, who has just gotten home from work and ordered a pizza when a strange young woman named Cassandra (Codd) shows up at her door, knocking frantically and asking to be let in. As soon as Cassandra enters, it turns out she doesn’t need help, she just has a warning for Lorna: there’s a monster outside, and no matter what she does, it’s going to come in and kill her in twenty minutes. If she runs, it will kill anyone who crosses her path. If she calls for help, it will kill anyone who shows up. So now Lorna is stuck with this weird woman in her house, with Cassandra saying she wants to help her make the last minutes of life meaningful. And sure enough, when other people show up – like a delivery man and a pizza boy – they do get killed by a monster... a large, talking mouse creature.</div><div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2nfEHgJtvh85IDxhQ0nBiaA6EEWhbc6Wn0K2NXD_aVBRxcnL2ItR2WCPX8m1ytW8hyphenhyphenmk6XnBE_k0G1pvOXE0bd2XY__jvw__pTCjxL5Bu5lE2lZW2xzFD3nZ0rn4CCQW0osEqmZH4XiqD9VjAFpZuLKXe8GGkQsWESKHcjQ6l23ApyNsIpwfDdDa1Vq8U/s1280/Creepshow-Samantha-Sloyan.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2nfEHgJtvh85IDxhQ0nBiaA6EEWhbc6Wn0K2NXD_aVBRxcnL2ItR2WCPX8m1ytW8hyphenhyphenmk6XnBE_k0G1pvOXE0bd2XY__jvw__pTCjxL5Bu5lE2lZW2xzFD3nZ0rn4CCQW0osEqmZH4XiqD9VjAFpZuLKXe8GGkQsWESKHcjQ6l23ApyNsIpwfDdDa1Vq8U/s320/Creepshow-Samantha-Sloyan.png" width="320" /></a></div></div><div><br /></div><div>Twenty Minutes with Cassandra is a dialogue-heavy story with a fun, quirky tone to it, and as it goes along it becomes clear that one of Flanagan’s goals with the script was to subvert expectations. That’s a tricky thing to do, as sometimes it can result in something being not quite as satisfying as it might have been if it played closer to the traditional rules. I ended up feeling that Twenty Minutes with Cassandra was a bit lacking, as there are ideas brought up that could have added something cool and exciting into the story, but they’re not pursued. Like when the possibility of a monster fight is mentioned, then brushed aside. So after a while, the story just sputters out, ending not with anything exciting going on, but instead with two characters just sitting on a couch, having a chat.</div><div><br /></div><div>My favorite thing about that story was the scene where Lorna talks to the incredibly nice pizza boy (Franckie Francois)... which is a surprising thing to be able to say about something that involves a talking mouse monster.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgENcdLDgqKoovQsC7waJvVnFb_-vnKdLKK6YPyvXrIpm4UGz9WRYUmWvZVFIBNGA0vEWAHYwSOO3XBV7pLsshh59FnarDavy3JNFwl9bDxNgVFRg-A1RqdpKdW31DGNMHLARmq1VCeP_a7Uv49ymL5Ww1EaJwfrMnL62x5ChF0faV6omciHv_JCvpnNXQ_/s1280/Creepshow-Smile-title.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgENcdLDgqKoovQsC7waJvVnFb_-vnKdLKK6YPyvXrIpm4UGz9WRYUmWvZVFIBNGA0vEWAHYwSOO3XBV7pLsshh59FnarDavy3JNFwl9bDxNgVFRg-A1RqdpKdW31DGNMHLARmq1VCeP_a7Uv49ymL5Ww1EaJwfrMnL62x5ChF0faV6omciHv_JCvpnNXQ_/s320/Creepshow-Smile-title.png" width="320" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>The episode’s second story comes from director James Harrison, who has been with the Creepshow franchise since the beginning, having composed the iconic score for the original film. Titled Smile, this one was written by Mike Scannell, who previously wrote a (pretty good) horror movie called He’s Out There back in 2018. Scannell was definitely not out to subvert expectations with his story, as it’s very much your typical horror anthology show sort of story – and, refreshingly, it plays out in half the amount of time Twenty Minutes with Cassandra took up, as somehow a story with “Twenty Minutes” in its name managed to take up over 35 minutes of this episode’s 53 minute (and 30 seconds) running time.</div><div><br /></div><div>Smile stars Matthew James Downden as photojournalist James Harris, who wins a humanitarian award for a striking photo he took during a conflict in Buenos Aires. As he and his wife (Lucie Guest, who had a role in the <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2023/02/masters-of-horror-dance-of-dead.html" target="_blank">Dance of the Dead</a> episode of Masters of Horror back in the day) make their way back home to their son, they’re freaked out by a mysterious photographer who keeps taking Polaroid pictures of them... and somehow, the pictures show moments that haven’t happened yet. It’s like the photographer is a few seconds ahead of them in time. While trying to figure out what’s going on, James also starts thinking back on his time in Buenos Aires, and we come to understand why he’d be menaced by supernatural images.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJDRatyOLeqeOXlbnX_HOoRY4PZUpPkpbbEr4X-P8IB_GzBjJ-3QMc0g8unryZqzXFkUQyjw31u1khGwY-_bP1Rwr_Oycwph_vy-EN7OYB1vxPxt8R3rVvFM_dQHW580ogYCbuDQl2G0gHkl1Qhcd2NExxMjbSiG80pyG9luPHycu9thDd4SSWPB05tP8u/s1280/Creepshow-Smile.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJDRatyOLeqeOXlbnX_HOoRY4PZUpPkpbbEr4X-P8IB_GzBjJ-3QMc0g8unryZqzXFkUQyjw31u1khGwY-_bP1Rwr_Oycwph_vy-EN7OYB1vxPxt8R3rVvFM_dQHW580ogYCbuDQl2G0gHkl1Qhcd2NExxMjbSiG80pyG9luPHycu9thDd4SSWPB05tP8u/s320/Creepshow-Smile.png" width="320" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>Smile feels like it would have fit right in with the episodes of any number of other anthology shows, but it doesn’t really have a Creepshow vibe to it, so I’m kind of split on this one. It’s a fine horror anthology story, despite the predictable ending coming off in a rather dopey way, but it’s not much of a Creepshow story.</div><div><br /></div><div>I enjoyed watching the first episode of Creepshow season 4, even though I found both of the stories to be underwhelming in their own ways. Here’s hoping the stories will improve from here on.</div></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhy-Zf6LI9UBYwu_-Ns23CLBqaT58kga2UamdqsFPhmCywyX_3xlpyQB99_7WMyD0Sa989XiipFiIOUYcpXH1EOBRa9e725ZKbW3-V03Lx9NVapzFWIm8QfYdgnQqLEtdWhUuCxS5Z1dhoS4fhyO4LyRCRMTaY5dkXNa3mmqIcH2PV951WaeZwgEZxHU7Lu/s1280/Creepshow-The-Creep.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhy-Zf6LI9UBYwu_-Ns23CLBqaT58kga2UamdqsFPhmCywyX_3xlpyQB99_7WMyD0Sa989XiipFiIOUYcpXH1EOBRa9e725ZKbW3-V03Lx9NVapzFWIm8QfYdgnQqLEtdWhUuCxS5Z1dhoS4fhyO4LyRCRMTaY5dkXNa3mmqIcH2PV951WaeZwgEZxHU7Lu/s320/Creepshow-The-Creep.png" width="320" /></a></div>Life Between Frameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18186028067136953502noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8130912260408301801.post-64048536724317184672024-02-19T20:00:00.012-05:002024-02-20T07:22:46.670-05:00Books of 2024: Week 8 - The Running Man<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2024/02/books-of-2024-week-8-running-man.html" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="795" data-original-width="477" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZBLufa2LgYSOKurBClzWzxASPjfeB7l-29UjpGh2WvTXT1YYBPFKJUyf1XzWm-W6jOcxCzZ_GaPqy7PYygWxBD1S02RqCu42mgoWD1qoMQvYDsPEkPbCIkBMZi6rNxKWawRy7jsThr1aCmGOlvO9x7ZlMNPzSJR1Afa6oB09VO2T-qb4azcItLHx9Dfia/s320/the-running-man-richard-bachman-stephen-king.jpg" width="192" /></a></div><p>Cody goes on the run with a Bachman book.</p><span><a name='more'></a></span><p><br /></p><p>THE RUNNING MAN by Richard Bachman (a.k.a. Stephen King)</p><p>Published under the Richard Bachman pen name, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1982197102/arrowinthehea-20" target="_blank">The Running Man</a> is another book that author Stephen King wrote while in his “angry young man” phase, which is reflected in other Bachman books like <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2023/09/books-i-have-read-in-2023-third-13.html" target="_blank">The Long Walk</a> and especially <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2023/06/books-i-have-read-in-2023-second-13.html" target="_blank">Rage</a>. (The Bachman book <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2023/12/books-i-have-read-in-2023-last-batch.html" target="_blank">Roadwork</a>, on the other hand, was written out of grief when King was mourning the death of his mother.) All four of the early Bachman books fit very well together, and they do all read like the voice of a writer who was someone largely, but not entirely, separate from King. It’s interesting to read these books and compare them to the books King had published under his own name. You could believe Bachman was someone else, if not for the King-isms that slip through... and the Maine connections. In The Running Man, we even get reference to Derry, the place that would end up becoming the setting of King’s epic It years later.</p><p>Like The Long Walk, The Running Man is set in a dark future where American citizens happily go along with games that result in the deaths of contestants. King was envisioning game shows being taken to extremes when writing this book, but at the same time he was also predicting the rise of reality shows. While Games Network programs like Swim the Crocodiles, How Hot Can You Take It, and Treadmill to Bucks (which forces people to walk on a treadmill while answering trivia questions and only accepts contestants who are chronic heart, liver, or lung patients) may be shot in a controlled studio, the one called The Running Man sends its contestants out into the world on their own, with the caveat that they have to shoot their own videos – which are like the confessional moments we see on so many reality shows – and send them in to the network.</p><p>Down-on-his-luck Ben Richards doesn’t watch the shows that are broadcast on the FreeVee to distract people from their poverty-stricken lives in the polluted hellhole that used to be America, but his young daughter is sick, he can’t get a good job, and his wife isn’t making enough money as a prostitute to buy the medicine their kid needs, so he’s driven to audition for a chance to be on one of Games Network’s horrific shows. He ends up being cast on The Running Man, where he’ll be set loose and given a twelve hour head start before the authorities and hitmen called The Hunters will be sent after him. He’ll win one hundred New Dollars for every hour he’s on the run. If he manages to stay alive for thirty days, he’ll win the grand prize of one billion New Dollars. But this is unlikely to happen, because the longest any Running Man has ever lasted is eight days.</p><p>It’s clear from the start that this is not going to go well, and King keeps the reader on the edge of their seat throughout by packing 100 chapters into the book’s 300 or so pages, each one counting down (Minus 100 and Counting, Minus 99 and Counting, etc.) Counting down, we can be sure, to heartache and disaster. Ben has a rough trip around New England while he’s on the run, and there’s danger lurking at the edge of every moment.</p><p>King has said that he writes an average of around 2000 words a day, but he knocked out The Running Man incredibly quickly; apparently he wrote this book in just one week. Knowing this, I’m left wondering if the book could have been better if King had spent more time with it. While it’s a good read, there is a feeling that it could have been improved with some polishing. That more could have been done with the concept and characters. The chapters hurtle toward the conclusion too quickly in the final third or so, there’s information we don’t get because Ben doesn’t get it, even though we had information he wasn’t privy to earlier in the book, and it feels like the idea of Games Network-employed Hunters could have been enhanced, because most of the trouble Ben has is with regular police officers. I enjoy The Running Man, at least up to a point, but it doesn’t quite reach its full potential.</p><p>Five years after The Running Man was published, the story got an <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2016/05/a-game-nobody-survives.html" target="_blank">awesome film adaptation</a> with Arnold Schwarzenegger in the lead. It’s almost nothing like the source material, but it’s a lot of fun. Given that the movie is so different from the book, the door is still open for The Running Man to receive a more faithful adaptation. That would be interesting to see, especially if it ended up being directed by Edgar Wright, who was said to be working on just such a project a few years ago.</p><p><br /></p>Life Between Frameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18186028067136953502noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8130912260408301801.post-82352184721727323732024-02-16T20:00:00.045-05:002024-02-20T07:21:57.703-05:00Worth Mentioning - Too Beautiful to Die<p>We watch several movies a week. Every Friday, we'll talk a little about some of the movies we watched that we felt were Worth Mentioning. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2024/02/too-beautiful-to-die.html" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="1141" data-original-width="530" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjd-E-BU8-0bJrMNgL0mTrb9LEyzgvm34fUNyLgYoEEnNBMgTHf2X_oImA-YueeUN_oDhmCyXTguKLfMPqk-bh0EvausjJzPeHEWUrirgGFFnhvfP27QH5AJWqTy4ZH95AtSLv1rWJu19AHYuaOaFue3GmMmlKbhtJjqa8JGHEw6CnVdwQSahVXIaKOuKkH/w186-h400/Heavenly-Bodies.jpg" width="186" /></a></div><div><br /></div>In which supporting players take the lead.<div><br /><span><a name='more'></a></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmlze1op3rGDGf6MaL7SOgcQbu3bDGe5Qsq00tJn6b3jPWMjNLpEK48cQdOIuih79AM66ZDz7Pc3f4m41nTOCbaKT_U-nT3EIROLGCnemT9NaO3MkbeHw5pUzAYQ1SoNJNymsnAi96XVqfVBlr7q2q7N2euRvUjHegwo2exmErt2brzj77t4t-qReYYBkd/s1280/Heavenly-Bodies-Cynthia-Dale.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="698" data-original-width="1280" height="175" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmlze1op3rGDGf6MaL7SOgcQbu3bDGe5Qsq00tJn6b3jPWMjNLpEK48cQdOIuih79AM66ZDz7Pc3f4m41nTOCbaKT_U-nT3EIROLGCnemT9NaO3MkbeHw5pUzAYQ1SoNJNymsnAi96XVqfVBlr7q2q7N2euRvUjHegwo2exmErt2brzj77t4t-qReYYBkd/s320/Heavenly-Bodies-Cynthia-Dale.png" width="320" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>HEAVENLY BODIES (1984)</div><div><br /></div><div>Many of us watch at least one Cynthia Dale movie a year, even if that’s not a name we’ve committed to memory. In fact, many horror fans (including myself) just saw Dale this week, in a movie we make sure to watch every February: the 1981 Valentine’s Day slasher classic <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2014/02/once-upon-time-on-sad-valentine.html" target="_blank">My Bloody Valentine</a>. I haven’t seen Dale in much other than that movie, even though she has continued to work in film and TV throughout the decades, but this month I did discover that she had the lead role in a 1984 drama called Heavenly Bodies... and when I watched it, I was stunned to see that her role had to be one of the most physically exhausting performances ever put on screen. I almost got exhausted myself, just watching how much Dale had to do in this movie.</div><div><br /></div><div>Her character is Samantha, a young single mother who has big dreams of running a dance-ercize studio. She rents space in a rundown old warehouse and transforms it into a studio, then proceeds to lead several highly active classes over the course of the film’s 89 minutes. As she goes, she strikes up a complicated relationship with football player Steve (Richard Rebiere), gets offered the chance to host an exercise show on TV, and ends up on the bad side of Jack Pearson (Walter George Alton), the rich and powerful owner of a rival dance-ercize studio. This puts Samantha’s own business in danger, as Jack moves to buy the warehouse out from under her... and the only way to save her studio Heavenly Bodies is to challenge Jack’s students and instructors to a dance marathon. They will dance-ercize until they drop, and the last person standing wins the warehouse for their studio.</div><div><br /></div><div>The sole directing credit for prolific character actor Lawrence Dane, who also wrote the screenplay with Ron Base, Heavenly Bodies never goes very long without dropping in another scene of Samantha doing her dance exercises or just dancing around, and it’s incredible to watch Dale in action because it’s astounding that she was able to do all of this – especially while keeping a smile on her face most of the time.</div><div><br /></div><div>The film has just enough story to get by and has some good dramatic scenes here and there, but it’s mainly a showcase for Cynthia Dale, wrapped in a fun ‘80s package. I’ll be watching it again someday to soak in the ‘80s atmosphere and marvel at what Dale was capable of, both physically and in the acting department.</div><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8VLMMSlSmmEDZbtIIAzV6L9Hcf3yKgMzxt-SfydoTJIOXsBxcEtgWZ23M9XhmgobX0NSHlmhR_f0CqfQRBqt_7UM2JhTXZ6FCRGHvAdgvCWkwHwixmNpb1oKBAhbSiZSMShoNFkv9pXRU4grYj23sx8J0dmwMeCIOJU9-gmAxacr29accQ4aJj3F1Um2V/s1920/Prime-Rise-Lee-Montgomery-Toni-Hudson.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8VLMMSlSmmEDZbtIIAzV6L9Hcf3yKgMzxt-SfydoTJIOXsBxcEtgWZ23M9XhmgobX0NSHlmhR_f0CqfQRBqt_7UM2JhTXZ6FCRGHvAdgvCWkwHwixmNpb1oKBAhbSiZSMShoNFkv9pXRU4grYj23sx8J0dmwMeCIOJU9-gmAxacr29accQ4aJj3F1Um2V/s320/Prime-Rise-Lee-Montgomery-Toni-Hudson.png" width="320" /></a></div><p>PRIME RISK (1985)</p><p>I know Toni Hudson from her supporting roles in a couple of movies I have watched a whole lot of times in my life – the 1985 comedy Just One of the Guys and the 1990 slasher sequel <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2016/05/theres-roadkill-all-over-texas.html" target="_blank">Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III</a>. But the same month Just One of the Guys reached the screen, Hudson also had a lead role in the thriller Prime Risk... and while some movie-goers might have seen her in both that month, I get the impression that not many people saw Prime Risk, as I not only hadn’t seen the movie until almost forty years after it was released, I also had never heard of it before. It’s kind of odd that Prime Risk slipped into obscurity the way it did, because it’s actually a solid movie with an interesting cast.</p><p>The sole writing and directing credit for Michael Farkas, the film sees Hudson playing computer engineer Julie Collins, who discovers that an ATM machine at a local bank sends out tones that can be picked up by car radios. When she makes that discovery, she happens to be in the car of Michael Fox (Lee Montgomery), a down-on-his-luck guy whose dream of becoming an airplane pilot is getting delayed by financial issues. So Julie offers to bring Michael in on an ATM robbery scheme... and since Michael is having money trouble, he agrees to take part. Even if the movie was already about Julie and Michael deciphering the tones sent out by the ATM machine and using the information to create fake bank cards they can use to empty every bank account of $200, it still would have been an interesting, fun ‘80s thriller. But there’s more going on than just that.</p><p>While Julie and Michael work on their scheme, a mysterious group headed up by Keenan Wynn is also going around their town, disrupting the workings at a bank (and the surrounding mall) with radio signals and even committing murder. When it’s revealed what this group is up to, the scope of Prime Risk expands, the stakes get higher, and Julie and Michael’s ATM robberies look quaint. I’m not sure the bigger story was really necessary, as I probably would have preferred to just see Julie and Michael’s ATM story play out, but Prime Risk would have been a very different movie without it, because more than half of the 98 minute running time is dedicated to Julie and Michael trying to stop Wynn’s group from carrying out their plans.</p><p>Along the way, we get an appearance by the great Clu Gulager, who is always welcome on my screens. (Sidenote: Gulager's wife, Miriam Byrd-Nethery, was also in Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III.)</p><p>I know Toni Hudson as a supporting player, but Prime Risk proves she could be a great lead as well. This thriller she starred in deserved to get more attention than it’s been given over the decades.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5iD96DEDBhHPoz_AK6ajENJBrZG8RKMJJOmRY4NPOE52dw5fiYLd5flmUQ0HD-48dpKNuIKRynTQ6LcdqSOA5Xf1oJImC_SPct8gfkVEF0EgVwLqLmaK3xon0MVWjbfh0Z6eHoVlY-fB39IPDz8GtPGZX59slqyTjk72-5BWlOGMIJ7R7rzi_x3W8kmaN/s1728/Necromancer-Elizabeth-Kaitan-Cayton.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1728" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5iD96DEDBhHPoz_AK6ajENJBrZG8RKMJJOmRY4NPOE52dw5fiYLd5flmUQ0HD-48dpKNuIKRynTQ6LcdqSOA5Xf1oJImC_SPct8gfkVEF0EgVwLqLmaK3xon0MVWjbfh0Z6eHoVlY-fB39IPDz8GtPGZX59slqyTjk72-5BWlOGMIJ7R7rzi_x3W8kmaN/s320/Necromancer-Elizabeth-Kaitan-Cayton.png" width="320" /></a></div><p>NECROMANCER (1988)</p><p>Sometimes Elizabeth Kaitan (or Elizabeth Cayton, as she’s credited on this movie) would show up as a victim in something like <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2013/09/carrie-vs-meat-terminator.html" target="_blank">Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood</a>, <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2022/01/worth-mentioning-if-looks-could-kill.html" target="_blank">Silent Madness</a>, or <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2017/12/slashing-through-snow.html" target="_blank">Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2</a>, and sometimes she would land a lead role – as she did on director Dusty Nelson’s horror film Necromancer, released the same year as Kaitan’s Friday the 13th movie (not to mention the Arnold Schwarzenegger / Danny DeVito comedy <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2017/06/i-am-left-over-crap.html" target="_blank">Twins</a>, which she also appeared in). </p><p>In this one, which was scripted by Bill Naud, Kaitan plays college student Julie Johnson, who recently got out of a relationship with her drama teacher Charles DeLonge – because how could a beautiful young woman like her resist the goofy, middle-aged Russ Tamblyn? Even though their relationship is over, Charles has given Julie a role in his latest play... but immediately after Julie receives this good news, something terrible happens. Three of her classmates sexually assault her. She doesn’t want to go to the police about it, but when her friend Freda (Rhonda Dorto) sees an ad in the paper offering people a chance to get revenge, she decides to pursue this option. It involves meeting with a witch, a necromancer to be exact (played by Lois Masten), who unleashes a demon on the people who have wronged Julie. Not only do her attackers get a visit from this demon... which appears to them looking like Julie, then undergoes a transformation that involves a stage where it looks like Julie is wearing gloves made of Jell-O... but so does Charles, who isn’t quite the nice, charming goofball he appears to be.</p><p>Most of the people who have run-ins with the demon deserve what they get, but of course things get out of hand and Julie has to find a way to stop the demon from wrecking her life and the lives of people she cares about.</p><p>Cheap and poorly made, Necromancer doesn’t provide a very good viewing experience... unless you happen to have a soft spot for Friday the 13th alumni and trashy movies from the ‘80s and early ‘90s, as I do. As bad as some of these movies get, I would still be hard pressed to not get at least some enjoyment out of watching them. So I had fun taking in the badness of Necromancer.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdCNRaLoh7BrVL_kYZVPiUd3y1DckDAMCcUXe2Ae0z3w4v60PrUhtbCDfrznRvvUAXIusW-kJDFiHXehAF-FdnXwE4zpZOTnO2vWmLTGM6zLyMc28zKQg4bWrJ2fwC3NcXvRF_e1gLdw85glWgOWFXpSx84jyQ2MFaLjugsmAhQO8KWEKqbQj-SkNAwmZx/s1728/Necromancer-Lois-Masten.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1728" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdCNRaLoh7BrVL_kYZVPiUd3y1DckDAMCcUXe2Ae0z3w4v60PrUhtbCDfrznRvvUAXIusW-kJDFiHXehAF-FdnXwE4zpZOTnO2vWmLTGM6zLyMc28zKQg4bWrJ2fwC3NcXvRF_e1gLdw85glWgOWFXpSx84jyQ2MFaLjugsmAhQO8KWEKqbQj-SkNAwmZx/s320/Necromancer-Lois-Masten.png" width="320" /></a></div></div>Life Between Frameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18186028067136953502noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8130912260408301801.post-37486382524127678252024-02-14T20:00:00.026-05:002024-02-15T07:02:39.804-05:00A Goodbye to Netflix's DVD Rental Service<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2024/02/a-goodbye-to-netflixs-dvd-rental-service.html" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="622" data-original-width="936" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwKX8cHVGHRTBazvIBYFIVgOPokb8hUbYsLt3lhSLfE90c5v-3NiEWUbXDwkn4lfDPzrJSXtWHL1H8NQJ9zCxsF9wUH68DplVESIJ_cO7ym4bdn-jlRBv3dRRnN2dzxRLawg_7gWT_LNOXUg6g04OFbGTay4_34WmMooQq0tIy-YTBR-cP0fUcdNckBmED/s320/Netflix.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div><br /></div>Cody mourns the end of the Netflix DVD rental era.<br /><p></p><span><a name='more'></a></span><p><br /></p><p>Today, Netflix is the biggest streaming service in the world... but when the company started back in 1997, founded by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph, the idea was that it would be sell and rent DVDs through the mail. (Although the idea of selling DVDs was quickly dropped, making it a rental-only service.) In 1998, the first DVD enter to be rented from Netflix was a copy of <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2018/08/30-years-of-strange-and-unusual.html" target="_blank">Beetlejuice</a> – which is quite a coincidence, since Beetlejuice might also be the first movie I ever saw in a theatre. I wasn’t a Netflix user from the start, though. I didn’t get my first batch of Netflix DVDs until 2000... and I don’t think it was my idea to start using the service, I think my mom brought it up to me. I was 16 at that time and had been getting her to take me to video stores throughout the area so I could rent movies ever since I was a little kid. When I started using Netflix, I didn’t even see it was a replacement for video stores, it was just another source of movies to add to the list of places I could get movies from. Although I had a steady stream of Netflix DVDs flowing through my house at all times, I still continued going to the local video stores until they died out around 2010.</p><p>I may have been two years late to the Netflix party, but I continued using the DVD rental service right up until they decided to bring it to an end last September. On September 29, 2023, the company shipped out their last DVD (a copy of the True Grit remake)... and I was really sad to see the DVD rental service end, because it had come to mean a lot to me over the 23 years I was a customer. I rented DVDs from the company from the age of 16 until 39, which is quite a chunk of life.</p><p>When the service was shutting down, they offered to send PDF copies of “Your DVD History”, and I was sure to get one of those PDF reports so I could preserve that history. According to this report, I rented 3744 DVDs (there were a couple Blu-rays in there as well) from Netflix over my 23 years as a subscriber, which comes out to an average of about 163 movies per year. Not too bad. Especially since I have been taking regular trips to Brazil for the last decade, which meant I wasn’t able to rent DVDs during the times when I was out of the country. I’m sure that knocked down my average substantially.</p><p>I didn’t remember this, but apparently the first DVD I ever rented from Netflix, on August 18, 2000, was The Erotic Witch Project, a nudity-packed parody of <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2012/05/missing-presumed-dead.html" target="_blank">The Blair Witch Project</a>. That makes sense, since I was 16 years old, interested in nudity, and a fan of The Blair Witch Project. That was quickly followed by the three <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/search/label/Shaft" target="_blank">Shaft</a> films that had been made in the ‘70s, since I was catching up on the franchise after seeing the Samuel L. Jackson Shaft movie in the theatre two months earlier. And so began the Netflix rental spree that kept going until it was no longer possible.</p><p>Wikipedia tells me that Netflix charged by rental in those early days. I don’t remember that, but I know that when monthly subscriptions became possible, I had my mom subscribe to the “4 DVDs at Once” plan, which is the most DVDs you could get from the company at one time. We lived in mid-Ohio, which was a great spot to be when it came to these rentals, because there was a Netflix shipping center not far away, in Cleveland. They could send a DVD out one day and I’d receive it the next, allowing me to keep the rentals going at a very quick pace. In an ideal week, they’d send a DVD (or two, three, or four) on Monday, I’d receive the rental(s) and watch on Tuesday, get it (or them) into the mail on Wednesday, and Netflix would receive the return and send out the next DVD (or batch of DVDs) on Thursday. I kept my rental queue packed to the 500 disc limit for all 23 years I used the service, so there were always plenty of movies to choose from.</p><p>The first couple years, I would only rent Netflix DVDs when I was at home. But then I decided to continue renting while I was out of state visiting relatives as well. I used to spend every July with my paternal grandmother in Indiana, so for the month of July I would change the shipping address to her address and would get my Netflix DVDs delivered there. The shipping center I dealt with there was in Indianapolis, and compared to my set-up in Ohio it took an extra day for movies to get back and forth, but it still worked well. My grandma passed away in 2010, but when my father was diagnosed with leukemia I also started spending more time at his place in Indiana – and when I was there, his address became my Netflix shipping address. When I went back home, it would switch to my Ohio address. My parents passed away in 2017 and I had to move from Ohio to Tennessee in 2018. When I did, my Netflix shipping address became a Tennessee address. Unfortunately, the nearest shipping center was in Atlanta, Georgia, so the shipping times became longer, which was a bummer.</p><p>When you rent 3744 DVDs from a place, shipping them in and out of multiple locations, it makes sense that it would be something important to you. But there’s another reason why the Netflix DVD era is so special to me. It’s because from the year 2002 through 2018, I had an awesome dachshund named Zeppelin – and since I was already renting Netflix DVDs from the day he arrived in my home, it didn’t take him long to realize that the sound of me ripping off the front flap of a Netflix envelope meant that I was about to take something out to the mailbox. That sound became a regular part of my dog’s life. Every time he heard that sound of an envelope flap being ripped off, he would hurry over to the door, ready to walk out to the mailbox with me. Since the sound of a Netflix envelope meant something to my dog, that made it something that was special to me as well.</p><p>Netflix started streaming in 2007, and since I was already a DVD customer I had access to the streaming service as well. Of course, I took advantage of it. A new way to watch movies! These days they focus heavily on original content, but back at the start they built up the service by acquiring all kinds of movies, and I remember watching some oddball stuff on there. I think Blood Shack was in the mix, some micro-budget indies, and one of the first movies I ever watched on there was the 1974 John Wayne movie McQ. I didn’t anticipate that Netflix would someday ditch DVD and Blu-ray rentals entirely, becoming a streaming only company, but that’s how it went.</p><p>Netflix announced that the DVD service would end in September of 2023, and at the end of August – almost 23 years to the day after my first rentals – I rented my last batch of Netflix DVDs: <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2020/03/these-films-should-be-played-loud.html" target="_blank">Welcome to Spring Break</a>, The Left Handed Gun, <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2021/08/quentin-tarantino-ghost-writer.html" target="_blank">Past Midnight</a>, and a quadruple feature: Scorpion Thunderbolt, Temple of Hell, Cannibal Curse, and A Dog Called Vengeance. That’s how an era came to an end and another tie to my past has been severed. I move forward without grandparents, without parents, without Zeppelin (he passed away in 2018), and without Netflix DVDs and their red envelopes, which made that unmistakable sound when the front flap was ripped off.</p><p>I’m still a Netflix subscriber, using the streaming service regularly. But I’m really going to miss those DVDs.</p>Life Between Frameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18186028067136953502noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8130912260408301801.post-85413122120692963582024-02-12T20:00:00.010-05:002024-02-16T06:58:50.042-05:00Books of 2024: Week 7 - Jaws<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2024/02/books-of-2024-week-7-jaws.html" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="1848" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhu2WhWJhZb0qWsW57IQK3grb7aUQqw0X2Li38QGExej95RnF2xcGE9IswaNHlNOcmuZlGwQMB1v7yw-tl-vr0LiEmWw_GXGTH210dueVJozzaRU8s1cTUofK-bNwNFtXU_EtGfZyu44WZM_0vx0ZY42XpOkpAbJeNSWWRsR5KTl4GzEI5E1t8db1XhQN7D/s320/jaws-peter-benchley.jpg" width="208" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>Peter Benchley's Jaws isn't the best version of the story.</div><p></p><span><a name='more'></a></span><p><br /></p><p>JAWS by Peter Benchley</p><p>In most cases when a book receives a film adaptation, I prefer the source material. But then there are examples like Peter Benchley’s novel <a href="https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0345544145/arrowinthehea-20" target="_blank">Jaws</a>, which reveal that just because someone has the original vision for something, that doesn’t mean they were able to realize the full potential of the story. Benchley came up with a great, intriguing, simple idea for a book – but the story of Jaws didn’t reach its full potential until Benchley’s ideas were filtered through director Steven Spielberg, producers Richard D. Zanuck and David Brown, and screenwriter Carl Gottlieb (as well as the people who did uncredited work on the script) on their way to the screen in the <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2015/07/40-years-of-panic-on-4th-of-july.html" target="_blank">film adaptation</a>.</p><p>Benchley’s novel is set in the small Long Island community of Amity (which became a separate island in the film), where a large great white shark starts munching on people who venture into the water. While the movie indicated that there was something unusual about the strength and behavior of this killer shark, Benchley includes moments that show this is just your average fish. It isn’t attacking people because it has a taste for human flesh, it’s not a malevolent being, it’s just a fish that eats people because it mistakenly thinks they’re its usual prey, thrashing through the water in distress. At least, that’s the case until the last couple chapters, where the shark no longer behaves like a typical fish. Those last chapters kind of read like Benchley wrote them in a rush to finish – which would make sense, because he admittedly procrastinated on writing the book for a while after setting up a publishing deal, and only hustled to complete the first draft after his agent warned him that the publisher would take back the advance they paid him if he didn’t deliver the manuscript. Then a good bit of rewriting went on, but some underwhelming elements still made it to publication.</p><p>The characters are the same in the book as in the film... in name and occupation, anyway. Spielberg wasn’t impressed with the way Benchley had written them, though, and was able to bring much more humanity to these people in his film. Martin Brody is the Chief of Police in Amity, and there isn’t a whole lot to him other than his struggle to do his job of keeping the people safe while this hungry fish swims around. There’s career fisherman Quint, who was inspired by a real Long Island shark hunter named Frank Mundus, but doesn’t have the film Quint’s U.S.S. Indianapolis background. He only gets involved toward the end of the book. Ichthyologist Matt Hooper is called in to give his opinion on the shark issue, and he’s a wealthy fellow who happens to be in a different class than Brody is. He’s more like the rich people who come to Amity for summer vacation – and in the book, Brody’s wife Ellen is also of that class. She was a summer person who met Brody and ended up staying in the area, which has left her unhappy because she misses her rich summer person past. Which leads to the worst section of the book, where a few chapters are entirely devoted to Ellen trying to relive her past, just for a moment, by seducing Hooper and having a one day affair with him.</p><p>The Ellen/Hooper affair is in the book because Benchley was told to drop some sex into it. He first attempted to accomplish this by including a scene where Ellen has sex with her husband... then he was told by the editor at the publishing house that there was no place for “wholesome marital sex” in a book like this, there had to be an extramarital affair. So Ellen and Hooper hook up, something that thankfully did not make it into the movie.</p><p>There is some good shark action and suspense in this book, but it’s still surprising how many of its 278 pages are focused on things other than the shark. Like the Ellen/Hooper affair, or Brody finding out that that Mayor Larry Vaughn is so insistent that the beach remain open not because he’s worried about the town’s finances but because he has been making real estate deals with a mobster and can only pay off his debts if the beach is open and summer people are coming to town. This is completely unnecessary, and another thing that was rightfully left out of the movie. For the middle stretch of the book, the shark fades into the background while we learn things about people that lessen our opinions of them. Then Benchley wraps things up by sending Brody, Hooper, and Quint out on a boat together. Not for a multiple day adventure like in the movie, but a series of day trips.</p><p>Benchley had a great idea, and Jaws is an interesting, if not entirely satisfactory read. The way it plays on the page just pales in comparison to the film version, as Spielberg turned Benchley’s idea into one of the greatest movies ever made.</p>Life Between Frameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18186028067136953502noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8130912260408301801.post-60775874781808145462024-02-09T20:00:00.010-05:002024-02-12T07:19:02.508-05:00Worth Mentioning - An NFT Horror Story<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2024/02/an-nft-horror-story.html" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="843" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFdJKluaLpP58R97f7cFrpN-p2vKzJB4YkWsTlNtd5uqgnWN3zai1Kt3k1rWWslp-m_9rXrcYwNmaadDtecrvLc_9NsGObdSaL4I4PiY2Phq2odfD4DrKm4qdcZAEzitc7PnAKKmomwWrHtMuIDs9yRg6RfbrKIFtZo4lffJNwWE9Rfw2r2R8fJEafzsVE/s320/KillRoy-Was-Here.jpg" width="211" /></a></div><p>Cody talks about Kevin Smith's NFT horror movie.</p><span><a name='more'></a></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQWFSw8uhfQiXqnaTV2xmS7kWuWCrK-zsNcV2bbeno3RgCSgMnbzhLL9oPIY9sb3JC1KAHslUVBoJb_kA4yP_41HVTf0Zr1We3xCUQbaSMcdFvia6XC_dut0zOLy293YGdRQFiZwyAH6PM13iqXqllbo19DtuNyBK0fxQ_JbURx_Zghyphenhyphenx6Z-z6wYS1xZBb/s1199/KillRoy-Was-Here-Roy-Huggins.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="675" data-original-width="1199" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQWFSw8uhfQiXqnaTV2xmS7kWuWCrK-zsNcV2bbeno3RgCSgMnbzhLL9oPIY9sb3JC1KAHslUVBoJb_kA4yP_41HVTf0Zr1We3xCUQbaSMcdFvia6XC_dut0zOLy293YGdRQFiZwyAH6PM13iqXqllbo19DtuNyBK0fxQ_JbURx_Zghyphenhyphenx6Z-z6wYS1xZBb/s320/KillRoy-Was-Here-Roy-Huggins.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p><i>Elements of this KillRoy Was Here review originally appeared on <a href="https://www.joblo.com/where-is-killroy/">ArrowintheHead.com</a></i></p><p>The concept of the Kevin Smith horror movie <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2014/10/violence-for-violences-sake-walrusyes.html" target="_blank">Tusk</a> came out of an episode of Smith’s SModcast podcast in which he and his co-host Scott Mosier started out joking about the idea of a walrus-themed body horror movie and then, in the midst of the banter, Smith was inspired to actually make the movie. (And I’m very thankful that he did.) Smith’s horror anthology KillRoy Was Here started out in a similar way. It has its roots in an episode of the Edumacation podcast, where Smith and co-host Andy McElfresh “accidentally brainstormed a Christmas horror anthology” that would revolve around the child-eating creature known as Krampus. Smith and McElfresh wrote a script and were moving ahead with the film, which was first called Comes the Krampus! and then re-titled Anti-Claus, but then it got abandoned when Michael Dougherty’s <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2015/12/santa-got-murdered.html" target="_blank">Krampus</a> movie was released. It only sat dormant for a few years before Smith decided to rework it into something else… and the result is KillRoy Was Here.</p><p>The script was rewritten. The Christmas element was ditched. Smith had revealed the names of the Anti-Claus stories (The Krampus vs. The Third Grade, Hitler’s Krampus, Mask Masker, The Proposal, and wrap-around The Bad Babysitter), and judging by those, it appears most of the stories were replaced. Krampus was swapped out for a new character called KillRoy, inspired by the “Kilroy was here” graffiti that became popular during World War II, showing a long-nosed man peeking over a fence. In this case, KillRoy started out as a Florida man named Roy Huggins, who was raised on a farm and became the designated chicken killer at a young age. Roy was a soldier in the Vietnam War, not World War II, and when he was captured by enemy soldiers he got loose, killed a whole lot of people, and cannibalized one of the corpses. He had to be locked up in a mental institution, and when the place caught on fire Roy was left to burn. Now he’s a supernatural being who stalks the Florida swamps, and his burns have left him looking a lot like that figure in the Kilroy graffiti. </p><p>Roy’s back story is told very quickly up front by a bad teenage babysitter; Wendy, played by Harley Quinn Smith, who turns in a very solid and believable performance as this bad babysitter. While watching a little girl named Tyler (Zoe Burney, who has some amusing lines and line deliveries), Wendy decides to tell the kid all about the legend of KillRoy. We’re shown four stories that involve the character: Sunny, Miss Bowers, Father Pat, and Gator Chaser. Then The Bad Babysitter brings the film a twisted ending.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6B0NgVvaxN4d8DPc4bJIK5uJ5AsnlYeKXKylL3gV37VUMPSaMvxmO01qe_O8iEPkPmKZif_e_sqElqETeAWxmpFyYd-XjV79WFlLJorz5xtupUBTb9LsFcIS31oEuZ5bz3Z0A2DuB9lFhyzWhIjxTclwmzM6rq3VQhyhUNQB929OBnZIHo2Yuz1LAtXXD/s1600/KillRoy-Was-Here-Daisy-McElfresh.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6B0NgVvaxN4d8DPc4bJIK5uJ5AsnlYeKXKylL3gV37VUMPSaMvxmO01qe_O8iEPkPmKZif_e_sqElqETeAWxmpFyYd-XjV79WFlLJorz5xtupUBTb9LsFcIS31oEuZ5bz3Z0A2DuB9lFhyzWhIjxTclwmzM6rq3VQhyhUNQB929OBnZIHo2Yuz1LAtXXD/s320/KillRoy-Was-Here-Daisy-McElfresh.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p>In Sunny, we get Smith regular Betty Aberlin (always remembered for her work on Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood) as a mother whose young daughter Sunny (Daisy McElfresh) was stricken by a mysterious heart problem soon after Sunny’s dad died of the same issue. There’s something fishy going on here, of course, and KillRoy is going to show up to make sure the guilty – and maybe some innocents as well – will be punished. Surely Alvelo plays Miss Bowers, a teacher who’s going through play rehearsals with a couple of her young students. Miss Bowers isn’t from Florida, so it’s up to the kids, and goofball janitor Chet (played by Jason Mewes), to tell her about KillRoy. George Carlin once told Smith that his dream acting role would be to play “a priest who strangles children”. Sadly, Smith didn’t get the chance to cast Carlin in such a role. Ralph Garman doesn’t do any strangling as Father Pat, but he is a scumbag who takes the young children of detained illegal immigrants on “camping trips” every month, right before the kids get deported to their home countries. Thankfully, KillRoy is around to interrupt Father Pat’s latest camping trip. We watch another repugnant human being in action when Chris Jericho shows up to play the Gator Chaser (actually, the character spells it GaterChaser), who gets his kicks by destroying people’s lives on his livestreams. GaterChaser’s fun times come to an end when he meets a woman played by Neela Howard.</p><p>The segments are pretty good, moving along at a nice pace, featuring some righteous retribution, and giving KillRoy multiple chances to hack people to pieces. The main issues come from confusion about the mythology. Things said about KillRoy don’t always line up with things that we see, we get some information out of order, and sometimes it’s tough to get a handle on what the character is actually about. Wendy informs us that KillRoy has a psychic bond with children; if a kid says his name, he thinks they’re calling him. But it’s okay for her to say his name, because she’s “too old for him”. She doesn’t tell us that you have to say KillRoy’s name three times for him to appear – but we see name references being counted in Sunny, which comes before we’re told about the “three times” rule in Miss Bowers. Along the way, we learn that there’s actually no age limit. When the movie was first announced, KillRoy was referred to as “a baby-eating monster”, much like Krampus. In the midst of production, a crew member suggested that maybe KillRoy is actually working on behalf of children instead, and Smith decided to go with that. But the idea of KillRoy being a protector of children goes against information given in Miss Bowers, which was apparently shot before the change of approach was implemented. Also, I have no idea why KillRoy does what he does in the Gator Chaser segment.</p><p>Despite the confusion, I had a good time watching KillRoy Was Here – which has a running time of just 63 minutes, so a viewing doesn’t take much out of your day. The movie was made on a minuscule budget as a project with film students at the Ringling College of Art and Design in Sarasota, Florida (thus the Florida setting), and it has that scrappy “let’s put on a show” feeling throughout. Some viewers may be put off by the budgetary limitations, but it worked fine for me, since I watch micro budget horror movies all the time.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiM2TP6RqxzCNBSHgftgdrtPVzG9k0tvyaB0xib5fa942YVVixDovBKazUPYzTzE2xrqKPZBvEPqr7ea3bNTxVLG5IKPHSeexI-7qpPJnTjMdqKnJZHTJTJXvMxhnvvOmwCbFjNnwwEF_Ue-TBnlcSbYdY_kJhPZw9zlM6vkMIweLbtkjvVGFXjwz0_T6J4/s1280/KillRoy-Was-Here-Miss-Bowers-Surely-Alvelo.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiM2TP6RqxzCNBSHgftgdrtPVzG9k0tvyaB0xib5fa942YVVixDovBKazUPYzTzE2xrqKPZBvEPqr7ea3bNTxVLG5IKPHSeexI-7qpPJnTjMdqKnJZHTJTJXvMxhnvvOmwCbFjNnwwEF_Ue-TBnlcSbYdY_kJhPZw9zlM6vkMIweLbtkjvVGFXjwz0_T6J4/s320/KillRoy-Was-Here-Miss-Bowers-Surely-Alvelo.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p>KillRoy Was Here hasn’t been seen by many people, but it is famous (or infamous) for being the movie that Smith decided to release as an NFT. I’m not sure how well that release worked out. The investors probably got a nice amount of cryptocurrency out of it, and yet releasing the movie as an NFT seems to have been the equivalent of dropping it into a void, as far as viewer engagement online is concerned. Although there are 1000 NFT copies out there, only a few reviews have shown up on sites like Letterboxd and reddit, and the single review currently on IMDb was written by someone who saw it at a film festival in the theatre Smith owns. There’s a chance that over a thousand people have seen KillRoy Was Here, and yet only maybe ten have said anything about it. Clearly, there’s little overlap between those who are into NFTs and those who enjoy discussing films online. Although the movie was officially released a year and a half ago, there has been so little said about it, there are probably many fans who aren’t even aware that it was ever released at all. For some of those who are aware, the concept of NFTs is so off-putting and/or incomprehensible, they’ll never have access to it anyway. Unless it’s released in another format someday, KillRoy Was Here is practically a “lost film” at this point. The Kevin Smith movie that only a fraction of his fans have seen.</p><p>Given that the running time is so short, it’s odd that Smith decided to remove an entire segment from the movie, but that’s what happened. It’s called The Lost Chapter, and it was split into ten parts that were dropped randomly throughout the various NFTs. The segment seems to be about a car accident involving an impaired driver and a child on the road… but it’s likely that no one will ever see this segment in its entirety, unless they go on a KillRoy NFT buying spree or the movie gets a more traditional release someday, where the segment could be included as a deleted scene or reintegrated into the movie. I have my fingers crossed for the traditional release option, because I would gladly add a copy of KillRoy Was Here to my physical media collection, to keep the Kevin Smith Movie section complete. I’m a Smith fan and a horror fan, so this movie is right up my alley. But I’m also a collector, so I would love to have a copy of KillRoy Was Here that I could hold in my hands. If that’s not feasible, at least drop it onto a streaming service so more film fans can check it out. That’s not only bringing entertainment to a wider audience, it’s also a bit more profit for the investors.</p><p>It’s a shame that KillRoy Was Here has been locked away, as it was a fun concept with franchise potential. I’m sure it would find a following among fans of Smith and the horror genre, if only more people could see it.</p><p>In the meantime, the only way to see KillRoy Was Here is to purchase an NFT (now on the secondary market) or get an NFT savvy friend to show you their copy. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCRu5nVMDIW2jnxwntplE_hw8HrKh8QW9KHbOlEXek79f0TtkPcGmOYBy9qdCIHr2cBhnzteIhAzOuw_vLapGE6fewg0Aywr4x8Cd5RpSVAIvJqQHQXbmF2qAhPBo7Nu6A7_FSNHxcjvTwY1IaHvXJp4F8oMkDOmm3JN2RK-wNy1Ov8JHEZKkMxxLY7VJI/s1262/KillRoy-Was-Here-Harley-Quinn-Smith.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="506" data-original-width="1262" height="128" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCRu5nVMDIW2jnxwntplE_hw8HrKh8QW9KHbOlEXek79f0TtkPcGmOYBy9qdCIHr2cBhnzteIhAzOuw_vLapGE6fewg0Aywr4x8Cd5RpSVAIvJqQHQXbmF2qAhPBo7Nu6A7_FSNHxcjvTwY1IaHvXJp4F8oMkDOmm3JN2RK-wNy1Ov8JHEZKkMxxLY7VJI/s320/KillRoy-Was-Here-Harley-Quinn-Smith.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Life Between Frameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18186028067136953502noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8130912260408301801.post-90849568951430860732024-02-07T20:00:00.011-05:002024-02-14T12:53:09.472-05:00Dissecting Slashers: Lovers Lane (2000)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2024/02/dissecting-slashers-lovers-lane-2000.html" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="1500" data-original-width="1000" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7eIk5r49ja9qcSiq9rL_WyeePvNXtHBd70kW1WV3d5o7sU5MAIDSLIvdnHliDVmy62P0dk7n80kYG66CCwcJvd1ljImuoqOkYY2Fiyg3NR8VIxHLqYAwTSB_ttvc88aEREISzoPUX1xPgXln_6ddHjh6RIZHWCHL5bGNUNxltXPzr46_c0OZ3zcosHf9H/s320/Lovers-Lane.jpg" width="213" /></a></div><p>Cody examines a less-popular Valentine's Day horror movie.</p><span><a name='more'></a></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoqf0gcwsFl-SWMJyuy8cfTDDKCG6nVKkgzpBunxQOph1MT2_vNZB44-4peGm1MSd6nyWmjzzlBNta2lyJsfW1T0s6KyL96queOAojqJiFMRT85gSSojrOTBhNLtRC8uQ1fUmIzD5Ee2OFo9h5OFllket78oaBZQe1Gp3RdvBWR8XAcFhnA2jkSA-GCEQ6/s720/Lovers-Lane-Billy-OSullivan.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="720" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoqf0gcwsFl-SWMJyuy8cfTDDKCG6nVKkgzpBunxQOph1MT2_vNZB44-4peGm1MSd6nyWmjzzlBNta2lyJsfW1T0s6KyL96queOAojqJiFMRT85gSSojrOTBhNLtRC8uQ1fUmIzD5Ee2OFo9h5OFllket78oaBZQe1Gp3RdvBWR8XAcFhnA2jkSA-GCEQ6/s320/Lovers-Lane-Billy-OSullivan.png" width="320" /></a></div><p><b>BACKGROUND</b></p><p>Sure, I could have picked a more popular movie to write about for this pre-Valentine’s Day edition of the Dissecting Slashers series. When choosing which movies to celebrate the upcoming holiday with, most horror fans would go for the 1981 classic <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2014/02/once-upon-time-on-sad-valentine.html" target="_blank">My Bloody Valentine</a>, its 2009 <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2014/02/once-upon-time-on-sad-valentine.html" target="_blank">remake</a>, or even the 2001 slasher <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2023/02/love-is-arduous-journey.html" target="_blank">Valentine</a>. And it’s true, I would choose any one of those movies over Lovers Lane myself. But those movies already get plenty of love. Today, I decided to dig into a movie that doesn’t get much love at all - although it did recently get a Blu-ray release with some nice extras.</p><p>I don’t have a copy of that Blu-ray, but reviews of the extra features have revealed that Lovers Lane came about because the film’s writers and producers Geof Miller and Rory Veal had just lost a major source of income. They were working for CBS in the Movie of the Week department when the network decided to stop making movies of the week... which meant that projects Miller and Veal had been working on just ceased to exist. So they decided to pivot into films, which Miller already had experience with, having worked on the screenplays for Sean S. Cunningham’s aquatic horror movie DeepStar Six and the horror comedy sequel House IV. Inspired by a well-known urban legend about an escaped maniac with a hook for a hand, they wrote the script for what would become Lovers Lane. Then raised a budget of $500,000 to get it into production with Jon Steven Ward – whose only previous directing credit was a 1995 Joe Estevez action movie called Equal Impact – at the helm.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2VBcqspWESn5qfrXRKBJYpXV81Mqwn2gei8LhTWZNJ_C-t1PrJO48DuUOgfEICrN5uLBk8EhN3u2hrVRV7TzyoWFlKIc-_UFvCOjfC8ZILFtbsKPtu2Yq3fc9QT34S56hyeRLVt2Nxd-XChE-aS2a_YNx1HS4VseTuhxS01KoyIUp3O3AnppJoif9HEfw/s720/Lovers-Lane-Washington.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="720" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2VBcqspWESn5qfrXRKBJYpXV81Mqwn2gei8LhTWZNJ_C-t1PrJO48DuUOgfEICrN5uLBk8EhN3u2hrVRV7TzyoWFlKIc-_UFvCOjfC8ZILFtbsKPtu2Yq3fc9QT34S56hyeRLVt2Nxd-XChE-aS2a_YNx1HS4VseTuhxS01KoyIUp3O3AnppJoif9HEfw/s320/Lovers-Lane-Washington.png" width="320" /></a></div><p><b>SETTING </b></p><p>Lovers Lane was filmed in Washington state, and while the surroundings are often obscured by the darkness most of the film is enveloped in (most of it takes place at night), there is a nice shot of the countryside at the end. The primary setting of the film is a small town in Huson County, mainly represented by the high school, a bowling alley, a restaurant, and a gas station. As the title implies, there’s a popular, secluded spot out in the country that couples of all ages like to drive out to so they can have private conversations – or, in most cases, hook up in the back seat. Or maybe on the front seat. They’re probably not all that picky.</p><p>Most of the characters make a trip out to Lovers Lane at some point in the film. Not even the fact that there’s a homicidal maniac on the loose is enough to deter them. When one group of teens finds the corpses of a couple friends at Lovers Lane, they speed back toward town and end up crashing in the woods. Their car out of commission, they’re forced to seek shelter in the nearest farm house. Of course, no one’s home. Except for some more corpses.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVwpkTCyoXzS0allMhWs15PQZTBM6o_fRKdP07EkvA-nPNxTH90Rnb7e1xnZFyowyeOblhDdRTHJ4qMSYLaGVetwR2q_7MOJEQ4soPrcSZIjbqr50CcMQ8HCfOXdS4dV8FrBLaIYcgsXUFxoxjYs3X82twaEv9M_zduC_sJRjkP8zJXtkBsXM0g1LoS5C7/s720/Lovers-Lane-killer.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="720" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVwpkTCyoXzS0allMhWs15PQZTBM6o_fRKdP07EkvA-nPNxTH90Rnb7e1xnZFyowyeOblhDdRTHJ4qMSYLaGVetwR2q_7MOJEQ4soPrcSZIjbqr50CcMQ8HCfOXdS4dV8FrBLaIYcgsXUFxoxjYs3X82twaEv9M_zduC_sJRjkP8zJXtkBsXM0g1LoS5C7/s320/Lovers-Lane-killer.png" width="320" /></a></div><p><b>KILLER</b></p><p>Here’s the story as we know it for most of Lovers Lanes’ 89 minute running time: psychiatrist Jack Grefe was treating a man named Ray Hennessey, who had an unhealthy obsession with Harriet Anderson, the wife of Jack’s half-brother, police officer Tom Anderson. Harriet was cheating on Tom with a man named Ward Lamson – and when Ray followed Harriet and Ward out to Lovers Lane on Valentine’s Day and saw them hooking up, he flew into a homicidal rage and used a hook to murder both of them. For the next thirteen years, Ray is locked up in Meston State Hospital under the care of Jack, who tries to reach him through the anger and rage that has consumed his life. When Valentine’s Day rolls around again, Ray escapes from the state hospital, killing his way out and stealing his hook, which Jack was kind enough to keep on display in his office. Once he's out in the field, this slasher alternates between calm sneaking and relentless pursuit, between lying in wait and busting down doors. Just like the pros that came before him.</p><p>Ray’s focus is now on the teenage daughters of both Jack and Tom, the super-bitch popular girl Chloe and the quiet outsider Mandy. He kills his way through Huson County on his way to get to the girls, leaving the message “Prison Food Sucks” in more than one location. Never mind that he was in a state hospital, not a prison. Ray’s outfit pairs his blue Meston State Hospital coveralls with a grey hoodie that helps conceal his face. A reasonable enough costume for a low-rent slasher, as he happens to be.</p><p>But Lovers Lane has some curveballs to throw at its viewers. This is a story of sick, dangerous obsession, but Ray Hennessey ends up being overshadowed by other characters. The ending leaves the door wide open for a sequel where Ray might have actually gotten his chance to shine, but that sequel was never made.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiazGuEPwx13QukK_Cg4RoI0b6NJGPTHp3Ygsj5yd-AcPFMNhOw4mxhmjhzJZjYs3XnSjNifEIbyyNuBYWWlbaY3NkuHI6_gmLeEuRXIheU9U9VW9qk1l_xAQPQnXnVpKwXzC29zdFvGs8VXkJN8LJyM5lpTPw0FJTo89sCKjzCISgzA-0Y0U8r46HBDpQB/s720/Lovers-Lane-Erin-J-Dean.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="720" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiazGuEPwx13QukK_Cg4RoI0b6NJGPTHp3Ygsj5yd-AcPFMNhOw4mxhmjhzJZjYs3XnSjNifEIbyyNuBYWWlbaY3NkuHI6_gmLeEuRXIheU9U9VW9qk1l_xAQPQnXnVpKwXzC29zdFvGs8VXkJN8LJyM5lpTPw0FJTo89sCKjzCISgzA-0Y0U8r46HBDpQB/s320/Lovers-Lane-Erin-J-Dean.png" width="320" /></a></div><p><b>FINAL GIRL</b></p><p>The killer in this movie is your Michael Myers (<a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2018/08/40-years-of-halloween-halloween-1978.html" target="_blank">Halloween</a>) type of slasher, and the final girl, Mandy Anderson, was definitely meant to be your Laurie Strode type. Played by Erin J. Dean, she’s smart and bespectacled, and while her classmates are filing into their high school, Mandy can be found sitting on the front steps, reading a book. Dean was not given much to work with and wasn’t able to make Mandy a very interesting character. She’s kind of just hanging around for most of the movie. She’s there, but she’s barely registering. When things fall apart, she does prove to be capable of handling the situation better than others. She does her best to stay in control, plots escape, and even plays medic to injured fellow teens. </p><p>Mandy is the daughter of Tom and Harriet Anderson, and thanks to her negligent father taking her around to crime scenes, she was even at Lovers Lane on the night her mom was killed - which gave the little girl the chance to give her mother’s bloody corpse a box of chocolates.</p><p>Teen Mandy isn’t part of the popular crowd, but she’s not too far down the social totem pole, despite having to deal with some rude comments. She’s always on the periphery. For example, when the popular kids are at the bowling alley, Mandy happens to be sitting nearby, doing her homework. New-girl-in-town cheerleader Jannelle quickly makes friends with her, and when dorky Doug needs a date for his friends’ get-together, it’s Mandy he turns to.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDi6iEm0fjAlhxUwLgDb9zXSKVHa1uWERuqepdziwvYg32qongIFOyutk5zTqbQblHBMZ3kbCxUyTed2gErLH9N0_LMR2e547Jh72hSS_DPQLaockrZW0nGoBMt_0DIiAn_gOtye9fKorHUFFgIoIU3zPj216EdUSo27RfIO69o5WJ2SAkPJ0EVb6JHQlK/s720/Lovers-Lane-Anna-Faris-Erin-J-Dean.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="720" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDi6iEm0fjAlhxUwLgDb9zXSKVHa1uWERuqepdziwvYg32qongIFOyutk5zTqbQblHBMZ3kbCxUyTed2gErLH9N0_LMR2e547Jh72hSS_DPQLaockrZW0nGoBMt_0DIiAn_gOtye9fKorHUFFgIoIU3zPj216EdUSo27RfIO69o5WJ2SAkPJ0EVb6JHQlK/s320/Lovers-Lane-Anna-Faris-Erin-J-Dean.png" width="320" /></a></div><p><b>VICTIMS</b></p><p>Mandy isn’t the only person who barely registers as a character in this movie. Viewers will be hard pressed to be interested in or care about any of these folks. On the list of potential victims are Riley Smith as popular guy Michael Lamson, who happens to be the son of the late Ward Lamson and school principal Penny Lamson (played by Suzanne Bouchard). Michael has never been told the truth about what happened to his dad, but Mandy reveals it to him when she comes to realize that Ray Hennessey wants to kill them just like he killed her mom and his dad. There’s Billy O’Sullivan as the goofy guy Doug, who at least has a couple memorable moments. Megan Hunt’s Cathy and Collin F. Peacock’s Tim are they to hold on to each other, act douchey, and get killed. Ben Indra is the scheming Bradley, who is there to be a shoulder to cry on for bitchy popular girl Chloe (Sarah Lancaster) when Michael breaks up with her.</p><p>Chloe is the character who stands out most of all, and this is due to just how awful she is. She describes herself as the “best piece of ass” in town... and when Bradley doesn’t instantly jump her bones when they reach Lovers Lane, she gets especially hostile and repugnant.</p><p>Lancaster has had a successful career beyond Lovers Lane, appearing on many episodes of the comedy spy TV series Chuck, but if there’s one thing someone knows about this movie it’s probably that it features an early screen appearance by Anna Faris, who plays the friendly cheerleader Jannelle (and would go on to be married to Ben Indra for a while). Faris doesn’t really get to show her comedic abilities in this movie, but there’s a hint of it in there when she knows the killer is after her and she awkwardly grabs three knives to protect herself with.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0NFWiIM6s7w1svcNQwLtB4nHyXuLWHJTiB-1-XKfHL9LkWiawQta-07HWULxlhuTiuVLi38oCMMV3tItNZ5dDJ3eFDCFDhE2KDixetCKTd6OLSDgKIK50OOZiYtNWlk-cAA3fp59h0s3Uf6zf_AMcjcul67_-IFivxdclZU1H69fvziuFrXd552oMilMR/s720/Lovers-Lane-bloody-corpses.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="720" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0NFWiIM6s7w1svcNQwLtB4nHyXuLWHJTiB-1-XKfHL9LkWiawQta-07HWULxlhuTiuVLi38oCMMV3tItNZ5dDJ3eFDCFDhE2KDixetCKTd6OLSDgKIK50OOZiYtNWlk-cAA3fp59h0s3Uf6zf_AMcjcul67_-IFivxdclZU1H69fvziuFrXd552oMilMR/s320/Lovers-Lane-bloody-corpses.png" width="320" /></a></div><p><b>DEATHS</b></p><p>Lovers Lane has a decent body count, it reaches into the double digits, but the kills are weak. The majority of the murders happen off screen, people just keep stumbling across bloody bodies. Even when someone does get killed on screen, you don’t get to see much of what’s happening to them. The killing blows will either be obscured by something, or they’ll be happening out of frame. You do get to see someone’s leg get stabbed to a table, and there’s some bloody slashing near the end of the film. I guess something positive could be said for the fact that most of the on screen violence is dished out to a killer rather than victims.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhl4FYcvAOd-bLEPwiDHm02HvQQzkkmkKhEUyHsISCMpNeI0WjSvC0vfIDo6iLKDqP-xqx3Zx2T8mv_29vxcmUxQK7rW-y_WnLtIpy4cGXc50Oe2e0BqTAXFdb97j31ZfMMoPKNsK_e6X-3uWqPteh3q8Cxj8pqtG81sYk6TJ_XBdRj9VvwGU4lrgY_VZKn/s720/Lovers-Lane-Sarah-Lancaster.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="720" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhl4FYcvAOd-bLEPwiDHm02HvQQzkkmkKhEUyHsISCMpNeI0WjSvC0vfIDo6iLKDqP-xqx3Zx2T8mv_29vxcmUxQK7rW-y_WnLtIpy4cGXc50Oe2e0BqTAXFdb97j31ZfMMoPKNsK_e6X-3uWqPteh3q8Cxj8pqtG81sYk6TJ_XBdRj9VvwGU4lrgY_VZKn/s320/Lovers-Lane-Sarah-Lancaster.png" width="320" /></a></div><p><b>CLICHÉS</b></p><p></p><p>Lovers Lane appears to include the “sex equals death” clichê on a couple different occasions, but if there’s one positive thing you can say about this film it’s that it contains some unexpected swerves. Things are not always as they appear. That said, lovers lane hook-ups in genre clichê in general. So is the inclusion of comic relief dweebs like Doug, super terrible popular girls like Chloe, and the scene where characters attempt to scare their friends by smearing ketchup on themselves and pretending to have been injured. The scenario of the characters getting in a car crash and having to seek shelter in a nearby empty house wasn’t exactly thought up for the first time here. But the biggest clichê of all in this movie is also one of the most ridiculous clichês in horror: it’s the scene where someone is taking a creepy walk through a location and ends up getting scared by a cat.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEga5B0QQeh4MREAvmeNM7mCJxz1itdJHkOhksBFsuPoHaeNSaDaVvwpixsdzzz_7Xyxy58DqKW9Vw4oIYCBXBa4Fy-oDekBt_A5crOqFZuUv9KvD6G8mZhCeZcpYlOvEoUgVfqkMKyAkPsXR2_X2rTSmsc6AI_b-u1cU9CKarPiTTJDZ70B_luiZP4O0pAu/s720/Lovers-Lane-Ray.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="720" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEga5B0QQeh4MREAvmeNM7mCJxz1itdJHkOhksBFsuPoHaeNSaDaVvwpixsdzzz_7Xyxy58DqKW9Vw4oIYCBXBa4Fy-oDekBt_A5crOqFZuUv9KvD6G8mZhCeZcpYlOvEoUgVfqkMKyAkPsXR2_X2rTSmsc6AI_b-u1cU9CKarPiTTJDZ70B_luiZP4O0pAu/s320/Lovers-Lane-Ray.png" width="320" /></a></div><p><b>POSTMORTEM</b></p><p>Lovers Lane didn’t turn out to be a particularly impressive movie and there aren’t a whole lot of fans of this one out there. Still, it was successful, as a distribution deal with the Blockbuster chain of video stores was enough to cover the entire $500,000 budget. Then the rentals brought profit, even though the filmmakers actually burned down a house when setting off an explosion in some of its rooms. So it’s surprising that Miller, Veal, and Ward never moved forward with the sequel that the film’s final moments set up.</p><p>Then again, it’s not all that surprising, since Lovers Lane doesn’t really deliver most of the elements you put on a slasher movie expecting to see. Sure, you have teens getting knocked off one-by-one, but these characters are exceptionally poorly written, and you can’t even get a kick out of watching them get killed off because so much of the violence is off screen. The amount of off screen kills and lack of bloody effects in this movie are a real bummer. </p><p>Lovers Lane isn’t very interesting for most of its running time, but it is almost saved by the twist(s) concerning the killer. Almost.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdX3enBUyDdt2DS2V1NxTlU68H4yhPzWdFEcnJrDMl7KhfRBmSBKVOTTZkDghO-eybyX0c3Z1bnKxIWk1QBYwnqHsN4Ih7q7p31OdANv0PYuX0L4lvkjTedSTaEE_kkT6dQBfb6ghmCAttFuYqFdVHUMwKLCq7GYKkaW_dezzdOv6vELI0N89JoWPOQnkQ/s720/Lovers-Lane-house-explosion.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="720" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdX3enBUyDdt2DS2V1NxTlU68H4yhPzWdFEcnJrDMl7KhfRBmSBKVOTTZkDghO-eybyX0c3Z1bnKxIWk1QBYwnqHsN4Ih7q7p31OdANv0PYuX0L4lvkjTedSTaEE_kkT6dQBfb6ghmCAttFuYqFdVHUMwKLCq7GYKkaW_dezzdOv6vELI0N89JoWPOQnkQ/s320/Lovers-Lane-house-explosion.png" width="320" /></a></div>Life Between Frameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18186028067136953502noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8130912260408301801.post-50437623581509682512024-02-05T20:00:00.002-05:002024-02-06T09:23:31.223-05:00Books of 2024: Week 6 - Dirty Harry: Death on the Docks<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2024/02/books-of-2024-week-6-dirty-harry-death.html" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="595" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3hATVaGo3CYeoYP7o5sJx6yIQ7-oLhP9C2cC408BHjxITGcUEtjUGj4qu1MEfFk1pBfn0b2ejbRJOjSYHEhgLU4fK0axiq6hZLCSLBkoSeqcOXVY_SuMtYjyB4PKLTZV12K8tx5S3FNn9BcsFh5Z2gxjbEoHDUikroW7_xUTOL0gbkFoQU4RP3MBVr04v/s320/Dirty-Harry-Death-on-the-Docks.jpg" width="190" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>Cody checks out the second novel in the Dirty Harry series.</div><p></p><span><a name='more'></a></span><p>DIRTY HARRY #2: DEATH ON THE DOCKS by Dane Hartman</p><p>Clint Eastwood said he was done playing San Francisco-based Inspector "Dirty" Harry Callahan after the third film in the franchise, <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2018/04/the-dirtiest-bastard.html" target="_blank">The Enforcer</a>, which was released in 1976. Wanting to find some way to cash in on the film series, Warner Bros. brought Dirty Harry back in a series of books, with Ric Meyers and Leslie Alan Horvitz writing twelve books under the pen name Dane Hartman. These books were published from August of 1981 through March of 1983 – then came to an end because Eastwood agreed to come back for a fourth Dirty Harry movie, <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2018/05/go-ahead-make-his-day.html" target="_blank">Sudden Impact</a>, which was released in 1983. (And then he returned again for <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2018/06/out-of-bullets-out-of-luck.html" target="_blank">The Dead Pool</a>, released in 1988.) I started off this year by reading the first book in the Dirty Harry series, <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2024/01/books-of-2024-week-1-dirty-harry-duel.html" target="_blank">Duel for Cannons</a>, and now I’ve made my way through the second book, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0BV8SCNB6/arrowinthehea-20" target="_blank">Death on the Docks</a>.</p><p>Duel for Cannons was a tough act to follow, and it was clear that it was going to be as soon as I read the first line: “Boopsie’s head exploded.” Death on the Docks doesn’t even attempt to top that, getting started in a much more low-key fashion. The first line in this one is, “It was way past midnight when the blue Dodge convertible belonging to Bernard Tuber pulled into his driveway.” Not exactly exciting. But don’t worry about this second book holding back on the action and violence, because by the end of the prologue Bernard Tuber, his bodyguard, his wife, and the two Tuber children (ages 6 and 3) will have been executed by assassins. Just like in Duel for Cannons, the violent acts are described in bloody detail. Bodies are blown open by shotgun blasts, a head explodes (again), a skull is fractured. It’s like Meyers and Horvitz were told to make these books as violent as possible and pack them with descriptions of gore that never could have made it to the screen if the books became movies.</p><p>The Tuber murders take place in the city of Palo Alto, which is outside of Dirty Harry’s jurisdiction, but Lieutenant Bressler (who was featured in the films <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2018/02/do-you-feel-lucky.html" target="_blank">Dirty Harry</a> and The Enforcer) of the SFPD decides to loan Callahan out to Palo Alto so he can help solve the case. For Harry, it’s obvious from the start who had Tuber and his family killed. Bernard Tuber was in the running to become president of a local chapter of the Brotherhood of Longshoremen, so of course the retiring president, Matthew Braxton, had him killed so he wouldn’t be around to oppose Braxton’s chosen successor John “Bull” Ryan. Don’t expect any twists or turns in this story. Harry has solved the case by the end of the first chapter, the rest of the book is all about him trying to prove that he’s correct so he can bring Braxton and Ryan to justice.</p><p>Braxton is a union president, but he lives and operates like a powerful mob boss, and he has plenty of henchmen and corrupt people to throw in Harry’s way. This means we never go too long without some kind of action sequence breaking out, whether that involves Harry facing off with assassins, getting his apartment peppered with shots from silenced guns (a sequence reminiscent of something that happens in John Carpenter’s <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2016/01/new-years-siege.html" target="_blank">Assault on Precinct 13</a>), finding himself in the middle of a dock riot, or being lured into a trap by a corrupt cop. The first book in this series had Harry going on a trip to San Antonio, Texas, and this Braxton case also causes him to have to leave California, ending up on an island in the Caribbean... where some major gunfights play out.</p><p>I didn’t enjoy Death on the Docks quite as much as I enjoyed Duel for Cannons and I couldn’t envision this one being a movie quite as clearly as I could envision a Duel for Cannons movie when I read it, but it was an entertaining read that delivered plenty of bloody action and tough guy heroics. I don’t think any Dirty Harry fan would be disappointed with this one.</p><p>It’s worth noting that Bressler isn’t the only returning supporting character from the film series, as Death on the Docks also features an appearance by Frank De Georgio (from Dirty Harry, <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2018/03/a-mans-got-to-know-his-limitations.html" target="_blank">Magnum Force</a>, and The Enforcer). Sunny, Harry’s neighbor / love interest in Magnum Force, also sort of returns in this book, but for some reason the author(s) decided to call her Keiko rather than Sunny.</p>Life Between Frameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18186028067136953502noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8130912260408301801.post-88695242272278978702024-02-02T20:00:00.021-05:002024-02-05T07:32:59.847-05:00Worth Mentioning - A Power You Can't Imagine<p>We watch several movies a week. Every Friday, we'll talk a little about some of the movies we watched that we felt were Worth Mentioning. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2024/02/a-power-you-cant-imagine.html" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="1535" data-original-width="1000" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaBCDZC4rMXeYnn3_BLE0BDkQ-0drZX_uOC8xM-9QTjO5Q3NTGebrzuZv2NiLqOZX9e-CMMIxAj9pCt0mifKhosvzRDWRh5xHoBzBNK89dTuUn3hBVFO1BfvF8w6K8_NIL724mJ6g97Cranup2GfWJh4Wjzs7ZCbh0_t_PlW4-7zI8c2M1Bw1POAjsQBkD/s320/The-Believers-1987.jpg" width="208" /></a></div><div><br /></div>Forgotten horror, a tarnished King, and a fallen star.<br /><span><a name='more'></a></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijl4zsBV07r1kxOn_Pd3VjOorqxMHo0EseAKVyRNRXvj9G-hQgCXkgsYNCxxA-H_Fh5Ti3xYT4rRuHyT380z22CKG4IekuLOaDvI9t6jpA5RMZNFTJzSRc6uK7gqpZ1hacHAG_-46Eamrjs177XLRBQ-PLTJayKDRkSGEas3yj_rS_hkF5q-s2nLhXGfxx/s1920/The-Believers-Robert-Loggia-Martin-Sheen.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1040" data-original-width="1920" height="173" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijl4zsBV07r1kxOn_Pd3VjOorqxMHo0EseAKVyRNRXvj9G-hQgCXkgsYNCxxA-H_Fh5Ti3xYT4rRuHyT380z22CKG4IekuLOaDvI9t6jpA5RMZNFTJzSRc6uK7gqpZ1hacHAG_-46Eamrjs177XLRBQ-PLTJayKDRkSGEas3yj_rS_hkF5q-s2nLhXGfxx/s320/The-Believers-Robert-Loggia-Martin-Sheen.png" width="320" /></a></div><p>THE BELIEVERS (1987)</p><p>There’s no use crying over spilled milk, but spilled milk does give Martin Sheen’s The Believers character Cal Jamison plenty to cry about when it causes his wife to be electrocuted to death by a faulty coffee maker. While grieving their lost loved one, Cal and his young son Chris (Harley Cross) move from Minneapolis to New York City, where they rent a home from landlady Jessica Halliday (Helen Shaver). That’s a good move for Cal’s love life, since Jessica becomes his new romantic interest, but a bad move for their safety, because Cal and Chris have arrived in New York just as the city is being hit by a series of child murders being carried out by a cult that practices a black magic version of brujería requiring human sacrifice. Of course, Chris will eventually be targeted by this cult.</p><p>Directed by John Schlesinger from a screenplay by Twin Peaks co-creator Mark Frost (whose script was based on a Nicholas Conde novel called The Religion), The Believers has plenty of crazy stuff to show us before we get to the sequence where the cult attempts to sacrifice Chris, with Cal trying to stop them with the help of his gun-toting lawyer Marty Wertheimer (Richard Masur) – who may be the best lawyer a person could ever possibly have, since he’ll raid a location full of homicidal cultists right beside you. Jimmy Smits plays police officer Tom Lopez, who has a really intense, creepy brush with the cult, while Carla Pinza plays Cal’s housekeeper Carmen Ruiz, who tries to do some brujería of her own to counteract the cult’s activities. Robert Loggia is Lieutenant Sean McTaggert, the lead investigator... and, like Tom Lopez, he has a really bad experience because of the cult. Jessica goes through her own horrifying ordeal because of them – and what happens to her is based on a popular urban legend.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgT7b6YcmV6onciBe6QRm01Ga25NQT7bfa03jh7agkWXC8OCDdNR5XSIVdY5H5llVZWl1nsDOli9NekZEOCBptnEaJVme6WCBg2_xtnTm9oH42VSqC9Y6lf5b0ydWWa8Pc01N0PygYiBXfOHdGYnyuaMiA6islC00D1p4HqTLY-eusvsvMraOeQfXZgja4t/s1920/The-Believers-Helen-Shaver.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1040" data-original-width="1920" height="173" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgT7b6YcmV6onciBe6QRm01Ga25NQT7bfa03jh7agkWXC8OCDdNR5XSIVdY5H5llVZWl1nsDOli9NekZEOCBptnEaJVme6WCBg2_xtnTm9oH42VSqC9Y6lf5b0ydWWa8Pc01N0PygYiBXfOHdGYnyuaMiA6islC00D1p4HqTLY-eusvsvMraOeQfXZgja4t/s320/The-Believers-Helen-Shaver.png" width="320" /></a></div><p>It’s surprising that The Believers is so obscure these days, because the movie feels like the sort of prestigious genre film that could stand alongside the likes of <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2012/10/rosemarys-baby.html" target="_blank">Rosemary’s Baby</a>, <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2013/02/the-exorcist.html" target="_blank">The Exorcist</a>, <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2013/09/the-omen-1976.html" target="_blank">The Omen</a>, etc. I don’t think it’s quite as great as those movies, but it is very good, and deserves to have more attention directed its way. I may not have ever even heard of it until my JoBlo co-worker Eric Walkuski did a “<a href="https://www.joblo.com/the-believers-1987-best-horror-movie-you-never-saw/" target="_blank">Best Horror Movie You Never Saw</a>” <a href="https://www.joblo.com/best-horror-movie-you-never-saw-the-believers-1987/" target="_blank">write-up</a> on it... which is very strange, considering the high profile names that were involved with it.</p><p>There’s also a special treat for <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2016/04/flesh-to-flesh-and-bite-to-bite.html" target="_blank">Return of the Living Dead Part II</a> fans in this movie, as J. Peter Robinson composed the musical score for both films and there are moments where the music is reminiscent of his music from the zombie movie. (If you want to compare them, just beware that there are copies of Return of the Living Dead Part II where Robinson’s music was replaced.)</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3F-avQSeE9pt7IiR1-CVqJDxv4WLD6BZKRDQwzgtk5iEcfNmmyRjRymfvYIdL1AW1kgvUGiA3dRQz-OTRouxM9kKlsc0yiGNqp9RmGJOpRJrPjmx2ev7IEPGFERx_9iZXZISLRJxVywjD9-5BXF0XZ1hVleig1hUmj2EEifZyhuZn8DXJ8OdA-_fJBGNX/s1920/Priscilla-Jacob-Elordi-Cailee-Spaeny.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1040" data-original-width="1920" height="173" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3F-avQSeE9pt7IiR1-CVqJDxv4WLD6BZKRDQwzgtk5iEcfNmmyRjRymfvYIdL1AW1kgvUGiA3dRQz-OTRouxM9kKlsc0yiGNqp9RmGJOpRJrPjmx2ev7IEPGFERx_9iZXZISLRJxVywjD9-5BXF0XZ1hVleig1hUmj2EEifZyhuZn8DXJ8OdA-_fJBGNX/s320/Priscilla-Jacob-Elordi-Cailee-Spaeny.png" width="320" /></a></div><p>PRISCILLA (2023)</p><p>The Priscilla Presley biopic Priscilla was written and directed by Sofia Coppola, but she was pulling information from what one would assume to be a reliable source: Priscilla Presley’s 1985 memoir Elvis and Me, which Priscilla wrote with Sandra Harmon. Priscilla is also credited as an executive producer on the film, so it would seem that she approved of what Coppola was bringing to the screen, even though the daughter she had with Elvis definitely didn’t approve of it. An email from Lisa Marie Presley to Coppola leaked online, showing that Lisa Marie had the following reaction to the Priscilla script: “My father only comes across as a predator and manipulative. As his daughter, I don't read this and see any of my father in this character. I don't read this and see my mother's perspective of my father. I read this and see your shockingly vengeful and contemptuous perspective and I don't understand why?”</p><p>It’s understandable that Lisa Marie would be concerned, because Elvis – as played by Jacob Elordi – does not come off well at all in this movie. I haven’t read Priscilla’s memoir, so I don’t know what was or wasn’t actually in there, but if the movie reflects things as they were, Elvis was not a good partner to her at all. The Priscilla movie is basically a 113 minute string of scenes where Elvis exhibits either questionable or appalling behavior. He enchants Priscilla (believably played by Cailee Spaeny throughout, from ages 14 to 27) when she’s 14, living on an Army base in Germany with her parents, and he’s 24, serving in the military. Once he gets out of the Army, he moves Priscilla to Tennessee with him and enrolls her in school, making sure she’ll finish her education while also apparently waiting until she’s of age before he’ll let their bedroom makeout sessions go all the way. Her underage days aren’t the only times when he rejects her advances; judging by this movie, Priscilla’s memoir must have contained frequent complaints about a lack of sex in their relationship, as Elvis turns her down multiple times for multiple reasons as the movie goes along. Eventually they’re married and have a child, but Elvis cheats on her on more than one occasion and is often a total jerk to her. He grooms her, he drugs her, he breaks her heart. Elvis is awful in this movie.</p><p>Elvis Presley is called the King and held up as one of the greatest stars who ever lived, but anyone who watches Priscilla is going to be left with the impression that he was a total creep. Whether or not he was, well, I guess only Priscilla knows.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXJPZ69UYTzR5hUG98Rj8YT0PZA0atVAeWmeDAMTiIAiWgvjuVyPHuL0zqhwPKlNVdIanrQ9qmKnkYwO1vgjLvVT5A-ToF3gS74Lj4v2moxV5sKvs4MRwf3Qs7PbfdNJGEvwxyugeurIDn5CKxCJ2Us1nTfPXLu6Ex62n467mGF9bDgTiTHSKDjucmr54k/s1920/Stardust-Claire-Danes.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="796" data-original-width="1920" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXJPZ69UYTzR5hUG98Rj8YT0PZA0atVAeWmeDAMTiIAiWgvjuVyPHuL0zqhwPKlNVdIanrQ9qmKnkYwO1vgjLvVT5A-ToF3gS74Lj4v2moxV5sKvs4MRwf3Qs7PbfdNJGEvwxyugeurIDn5CKxCJ2Us1nTfPXLu6Ex62n467mGF9bDgTiTHSKDjucmr54k/s320/Stardust-Claire-Danes.png" width="320" /></a></div><p>STARDUST (2007)</p><p>I never really watched director Matthew Vaughn’s 2007 fantasy film Stardust, which is based on the book of the same name by Neil Gaiman. I think I put it on when the DVD was first released back in the day, quickly lost interest in it, and barely paid attention to it, focusing on something else as it played out. But then I was assigned to cover the film for the JoBlo Originals YouTube channel last month, so I had to finally give it a fair chance. Trying it again sixteen years later, I found that it is a decently entertaining movie. The problem this time was, I made the mistake of reading <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2024/01/books-of-2024-week-5-on-location-in.html" target="_blank">Gaiman’s book</a> before watching the movie... so then when I did watch Stardust, I was disappointed by how different it was from the source material and had to adjust to it.</p><p>Gaiman’s book is a fantastic adventure that could have been turned into a film along the lines of classics like The Wizard of Oz and Labyrinth. In fact, my favorite character in the book was someone who’s most often referred to as the “little hairy man” and reads like he would have fit right in with the creatures of Labyrinth. But Vaughn wasn’t interested in making a movie like those. He wanted to take a more grounded approach to the adaptation he wrote with Jane Goldman, never wanting to go too far into magical fantasy territory. Even when characters use magic, he wanted to find a want to have some reality to it. So Stardust is a much more down-to-earth film than I anticipated... and Vaughn and Goldman decided to leave out the little hairy man completely.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSU_3UU5pj77lGSDdQlPXTZypL0vE1jrmLTsnjghTPtpTo3Ih0oj_WjCLOfXsZQ31cKDpdZPcvErJjKH2wqSHWS_UAvk208RXGZS0MuX6VeJTYVju4jp2td9syqGymOjtPF2aQdKAs5Ke0WHVxPX-M5-d2-dn18SxJaPzRmeXXu_a2xTURHYUKjSED6cXe/s1920/Stardust-Charlie-Cox-Sienna-Miller.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="796" data-original-width="1920" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSU_3UU5pj77lGSDdQlPXTZypL0vE1jrmLTsnjghTPtpTo3Ih0oj_WjCLOfXsZQ31cKDpdZPcvErJjKH2wqSHWS_UAvk208RXGZS0MuX6VeJTYVju4jp2td9syqGymOjtPF2aQdKAs5Ke0WHVxPX-M5-d2-dn18SxJaPzRmeXXu_a2xTURHYUKjSED6cXe/s320/Stardust-Charlie-Cox-Sienna-Miller.png" width="320" /></a></div><p>Charlie Cox stars as Tristan Thorn, a young man who lives in an English village called Wall, so named because of the wall that runs along the edge of town, separating it from the magical land of Stormhold. Tristan is infatuated with local girl Victoria Forester (Sienna Miller), who is out of his league and close to getting engaged to a guy played by Henry Cavill. But Tristan gets her to go out with him one night – and when they see a falling star, Victoria makes a deal with him: if he retrieves that fallen star for her, she’ll marry him. So Tristan crosses the wall in search of that star... not away that the fallen star is actually a humanoid being, Claire Danes as Yvaine. Or that the star fell out of the sky because it was hit by an enchanted necklace sent out by the dying King of Stormhold (Peter O’Toole), who has told his sons – including Mark Strong and Jason Flemyng – that whoever finds the necklace (which, unbeknownst to them, is now worn by Yvaine), they will become the next King. Tristan also doesn’t realize there’s a witch called Lamia (Michelle Pfeiffer) searching for the star, because if she cuts out the star’s heart and consumes it she’ll be restored to youth. So he’s in for a much bigger, more complicated journey than he could have imagined.</p><p>Witch encounters and swordfights ensue, and Robert De Niro also shows up as the captain of a flying ship with a crew that captures lightning bolts to sell to a fellow played by Ricky Gervaise.</p><p>Stardust is very different from the book, but it does retain some of the heart of the book and drops more action into the mix. It makes for a fun viewing experience, if you can settle into the right mindset and see it as something separate from what Gaiman wrote.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhY3DmcRvM61oErSPS0JEqTSByd8fg0qHlGTCtJrg87svBGO1a17ezvhNoSKUQqIqnrFwuKliwxgf2PPqYrZXWVWYSWaDtmx7u8Y4LvAcB2LywEh9xNySyiLPXaFfHF7NgDSleZUVg1npxKRxY4l2d-xweoM-oa36fp8z-hk59-KJYjzV2ezUWD638XTlXY/s1920/Stardust-witches-Michelle-Pfeiffer.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="796" data-original-width="1920" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhY3DmcRvM61oErSPS0JEqTSByd8fg0qHlGTCtJrg87svBGO1a17ezvhNoSKUQqIqnrFwuKliwxgf2PPqYrZXWVWYSWaDtmx7u8Y4LvAcB2LywEh9xNySyiLPXaFfHF7NgDSleZUVg1npxKRxY4l2d-xweoM-oa36fp8z-hk59-KJYjzV2ezUWD638XTlXY/s320/Stardust-witches-Michelle-Pfeiffer.png" width="320" /></a></div>Life Between Frameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18186028067136953502noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8130912260408301801.post-87399221734221640552024-01-31T20:00:00.005-05:002024-02-01T06:20:59.239-05:00Videos En Español: Lethal Weapon 3, The Departed, Fast & Furious<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2024/01/videos-en-espanol-lethal-weapon-3.html" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="665" data-original-width="1319" height="201" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCYZdaaFHYJ7cHG8IbY1sTWJyw41URKP5TOEF2drSqqSrzs-GX6ID9HfngbYyMF8bb5ZjTL8JPezPdp5o4DW9cxqG_E8d9ulK7kL_4g8V4sfmQ0KCXT-6po8paZtOk36g8G2Smp2YT7nhGj5OWFigzmKBKG21upV7SgKzBxyJ7sEtAHlp2FsMDolh94XAO/w400-h201/lethal-weapon-3-the-departed-fast-furious.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p></p><div class="post-body entry-content" id="post-body-6002732630985718189" itemprop="description articleBody"><div class="post-body entry-content" id="post-body-2385426493405250777" itemprop="description articleBody"><span><a name="more"></a></span><p>Three more of Cody's videos have been translated into Spanish.</p><span><a name='more'></a></span><p><br /></p><p>I have been writing news articles and film reviews for <a href="http://ArrowintheHead.com">ArrowintheHead.com</a> for several years, and for the last couple years I have also been writing scripts for videos that are released through the site's YouTube channels <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqDKUrpIT1131kLHtvsFzLA" target="_blank">JoBlo Horror Originals</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/c/JoBloOriginals/videos" target="_blank">JoBlo Originals</a>. (You can find links to many of the videos in <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2023/07/video-scripts-tokyo-drift-fast-furious.html" target="_blank">this article</a>.) JoBlo recently launched the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@jobloenespanol/videos" target="_blank">JoBlo En Español</a> channel, and now some of my video scripts are being translated into Spanish for that channel as well!</p><p>The first three of my videos that were translated into Spanish were <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2022/12/videos-en-espanol-hills-have-eyes-part.html" target="_blank">The Hills Have Eyes Part 2, Night of the Creeps, and Witchboard</a>. Next up were <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2023/02/videos-en-espanol-night-of-living-dead.html" target="_blank">Night of the Living Dead (1990), Con Air, and Big Trouble in Little China</a>, then <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2023/07/videos-en-espanol-rock-children-of-men.html" target="_blank">The Rock, Children of Men, and Speed</a>, and then <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2023/08/videos-en-espanol-fast-and-furious-2.html" target="_blank">The Fast and the Furious, 2 Fast 2 Furious, and Lethal Weapon</a>, followed by <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2023/11/videos-en-espanol-lethal-weapon-2-tokyo.html" target="_blank">Lethal Weapon 2, The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, and Saving Private Ryan</a>.</p><p>Now three more can be seen below, with translations produced by Juan Sebastian Jimenez.</p><p>First up is the Revisited video I wrote on director Richard Donner's Lethal Weapon 3, which I feel is a step down from its predecessors:</p>
</div></div>
<p><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="358" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/cI2X0HWoDoY" title="YouTube video player" width="637"></iframe><br /></p><p></p><div>Then the Revisited video I wrote on Martin Scorsese's The Departed was translated: </div><div><br /></div><div><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="358" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/3s3gvtM4rA0" title="YouTube video player" width="637"></iframe><br /><p>My Revisited journey through the Fast and Furious franchise continued with a look at director Justin Lin's 2009 film Fast & Furious, and the video on that film also got the translation treatment:</p><p><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="358" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/JF34hH4g5HA" title="YouTube video player" width="637"></iframe></p><div>More video scripts have been written, so another batch of videos will be shared here on Life Between Frames eventually. In the meantime, keep an eye on JoBlo Horror Originals, JoBlo Originals, and JoBlo En Español!</div><p></p></div>
Life Between Frameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18186028067136953502noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8130912260408301801.post-88361846946967970562024-01-29T20:00:00.003-05:002024-02-01T16:22:54.978-05:00Books of 2024: Week 5 - On Location in Blairstown: The Making of Friday the 13th and Stardust<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2024/01/books-of-2024-week-5-on-location-in.html" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="750" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZJylAcWGfmdcGlr8z8PJfsmPJIgNZQolMDih_Eh1-94OVgmPfij3inbjlZHOGJ3oX9U1Up_HInDHSUOBJ0d6m0i6BZ7sWq70IDwEiKROLrHEUvtUbf2TVEGVjPDxza4g25JAvxiJlwlGv6Px5X_HIp7GvpRxmKHXuC_EssMBRFSM2AmJkXN1fUrLO81kI/s320/On-Location-in-Blairstown.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>Cody hears about the making of Friday the 13th from a questionable source, then reads a fairy tale.</div><div><br /></div><span><a name='more'></a></span><div><br /></div><div><div>ON LOCATION IN BLAIRSTOWN: THE MAKING OF FRIDAY THE 13TH by David Grove</div><div><br /></div><div>Friday the 13th is my favorite franchise, so I will always be interested in hearing stories about the making of the films that make up that franchise. I have read David Grove’s 2005 book <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2022/12/books-i-have-read-in-2022-last-13.html" target="_blank">Making Friday the 13th: The Legend of Camp Blood</a>, which covers the entire franchise (up to the point of publication) a couple times, even though I’ve never really been a fan of the book because Grove talks so much trash about the sequels as the book goes along. That book is greatly overshadowed by Peter Bracke’s <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2022/12/books-i-have-read-in-2022-last-13.html" target="_blank">Crystal Lake Memories</a>, which was published around the same time and is packed with information without being negative about the films. It was always clear that Grove really only liked the first movie, so when he published another book that was entirely about the original film, it totally made sense. But as much as I love Friday the 13th, I was hesitant to read <a href="https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00WT2UURU/arrowinthehea-20" target="_blank">On Location in Blairstown: The Making of Friday the 13th</a> – not only because I wasn’t a big fan of Grove’s previous book, but also because there were allegations that Grove had fabricated at least parts of both of his Friday the 13th books. To be specific, original Friday the 13th star Adrienne King has come out and said that Grove never interviewed her, nor had he even attempted to get in contact with her. Even though the books have quotes from King in them...</div><div><br /></div><div>It took a decade, but my curiosity finally got the best of me and I decided to give On Location in Blairstown a chance, because I love the idea of director Sean S. Cunningham and his cast and crew heading out to a New Jersey campground back in 1979 and creating horror greatness. I just went into the book knowing that I could never be sure if a passage had any truth to it, or if it had been made up. Basically, I had to read it as if it were a work of fiction about the making of one of my favorite movies instead of “the last word on the making of Friday the 13th” that Grove says he intended it to be. As I went through it, there were stories I recognized, that I’ve heard from other sources, and if there was any information that I hadn’t heard before, I didn’t take it as fact. Especially when there’s some insinuation that King and Cunningham might have had something of an affair during the production, despite the fact that Cunningham’s family was there with him at the location. I remember that being a controversial aspect of On Location when it first came out, and as far as I’m concerned, that “information” is something that should be completely disregarded.</div><div><br /></div><div>Overall, as a Friday the 13th fan, I did find On Location in Blairstown to be an interesting enough read, it’s just a shame it was put together in a questionable way.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZ7qXE0ilKEzTXxbGKXjGRc8pivQRA3UEKM2jAi7zpbz-cRHKC9qQUcSsZVX0t85h3-mgEbRQ0nc4rTDQmx1CkYf-gG5QmVxmB7xYEaTRp9MPgg1Ma1ULOmxNpw3RcsebIlPo49kNMGV0p1ZB4rdKcCp6u-UvM2ooHGBDWdNZ_129BaOLYekBixndMMpvY/s1000/Stardust.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="560" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZ7qXE0ilKEzTXxbGKXjGRc8pivQRA3UEKM2jAi7zpbz-cRHKC9qQUcSsZVX0t85h3-mgEbRQ0nc4rTDQmx1CkYf-gG5QmVxmB7xYEaTRp9MPgg1Ma1ULOmxNpw3RcsebIlPo49kNMGV0p1ZB4rdKcCp6u-UvM2ooHGBDWdNZ_129BaOLYekBixndMMpvY/s320/Stardust.jpg" width="179" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>STARDUST by Neil Gaiman</div><div><br /></div><div>Fairy tales aren't something I generally feel an urge to read, and I didn’t expect to be reading Neil Gaiman’s “fairy tale for grown-ups” <a href="https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0063070715/arrowinthehea-20" target="_blank">Stardust</a> any time soon. But I was assigned to write about the film adaptation of Stardust for the JoBlo Network, so I figured I should read the source material as part of my research. And I’m glad I did. I wouldn’t usually choose to read something that involves fairies and unicorns, but I had a good time reading this story.</div><div><br /></div><div>The story begins in 1839, in the English town of Wall, which has that name because of the wall that runs along the edge of town and separates it from a magical land called Faerie. Every nine years, on May Day, the beings that inhabit Faerie hold a market event in the meadow outside Wall. The rest of the time, the gap in the wall between the two lands is under twenty-four hour guard. When a Wall resident named Dunstan Thorn crosses over into Faerie, he ends up being enchanted by a young woman named Una, who is kept as a slave by a witch-woman called Ditchwater Sal. The witch makes Una spend most of her time as a bird, but she’s in her proper form when she meets Dunstan. They have sex and Dunstan returns to Wall... where, nine months later, a baby is delivered to his door. Turns out he and Una have had a son. Dunstan raises this son, named Tristran. Eighteen years later, Tristran has become infatuated with fellow Wall resident Victoria Forester. He gets her to go out with him one night, but she won’t give him a kiss. When they see a falling star, Victoria tells Tristran she’ll give him anything he desires if he retrieves the fallen star for her. So Tristran sets out to find the star, crossing over into the land of Faerie. And going on a much bigger adventure than he anticipated.</div><div><br /></div><div>Turns out, the star that has fallen to the ground is a person. Or at least she has a humanoid appearance. Her name is Yvaine, and she was knocked out of the sky when she was hit by a topaz pendant that was tossed into the sky by the dying Lord of a land called Stormhold. The Lord once had seven sons, but they’ve been killing each other off to get closer to the throne. The dead ones are still hanging around as ghosts. Three sons are left alive, and whoever finds the topaz pendant – now in the possession of Yvaine – will replace their father on the throne. Meanwhile, a trio of decrepit witches have also seen the star fall from the sky. One of them goes to find where it has landed... because if they cut out Yvaine’s heart and consume it, their youth and beauty will be restored. The witch uses magic to cover up her true appearance, but every time she uses other spells on her journey, her real looks start to come through.</div><div><br /></div><div>Tristran is the first to reach Yvaine. Even though he’s surprised to see that the star is a woman rather than a rock, he still goes through with taking her back to Wall. And thus has to deal with witches and the sons of Stormhold coming after her. Along the way, there are encounters with a unicorn, goats that have been transformed into people, and the crew of a ship that flies above the clouds, on a lightning-hunting expedition. Early the story, Tristran also becomes acquainted with a character who is usually referred to as the “little hairy man”, and happened to be my favorite character in the book because he would have been right at home in one of my childhood favorites, Labyrinth. Sadly, “little hairy man” didn’t make it into the Stardust film adaptation at all.</div><div><br /></div><div>The “fairy tale for grown-ups” description of Stardust is interesting, because most of the time the book is quite family friendly. You’ll just occasionally bump into something that parents might not want their children to read about. Like the sex scene between Dunstan and Una in the first chapter, another sex scene involving a prostitute later on, an F-bomb, a throat slitting, and a unicorn’s head being hacked off with a meat cleaver. Things get rough, then they go right back to being family friendly.</div><div><br /></div><div>Throughout, Gaiman keeps the story flowing at a good pace, and I really enjoyed his writing style, which made a story that didn’t seem appealing to me on the outside quite engrossing and entertaining to read.</div></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>Life Between Frameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18186028067136953502noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8130912260408301801.post-10124014377969388852024-01-26T20:00:00.023-05:002024-01-29T14:24:34.515-05:00Worth Mentioning - Love Requires Sacrifice<p>We watch several movies a week. Every Friday, we'll talk a little about some of the movies we watched that we felt were Worth Mentioning. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2024/01/love-requires-sacrifice.html" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="665" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhP5fvytVFyz_AcRKocToI-5AYLWsy3-EffLD1r-TTCXsX_i8vWjAgsR7wt0jRNstN7ddVU1QtmLhgd8IFElo3ESfZxID01WE6yM4AL474FQ4SZ0OxalqzfYyJWRYoliaFF8df9Hcj2rVUEubE3ER9_8GvPv_gvHQWLjXtagkYVXRXILLhswBZLRaSpua0h/s320/Talk-to-Me.png" width="213" /></a></div><p>One horror movie lives up to the hype, the other is more troubled.</p><span><a name='more'></a></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8HMCj_lHXyWNaDMxQw2rtju3TkAGRMWfj72jLmISOZMXImz3NhQ43hDNe3s70SSz3RRUhdvL7kaLB49Fz5cF6d2hQWocmhITw6QbUEgElxL5MitJK01lTIaUlUdCa8bPS2ZxJf8s-a9BK80BWdzOenZdo5cCMtv37v39lru417D-l8BovBkA7Ha7fH5F8/s1200/Talk-to-Me-hand.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="675" data-original-width="1200" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8HMCj_lHXyWNaDMxQw2rtju3TkAGRMWfj72jLmISOZMXImz3NhQ43hDNe3s70SSz3RRUhdvL7kaLB49Fz5cF6d2hQWocmhITw6QbUEgElxL5MitJK01lTIaUlUdCa8bPS2ZxJf8s-a9BK80BWdzOenZdo5cCMtv37v39lru417D-l8BovBkA7Ha7fH5F8/s320/Talk-to-Me-hand.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p>TALK TO ME (2022)</p><p>Talk to Me is a movie I was admittedly hesitant about at first. It’s the feature directorial debut of YouTubers Danny and Michael Philippou, and the idea of YouTube vloggers making a movie just isn’t an instant selling point for me. Of course, it doesn’t help that I had never heard of the Philippous before their movie was announced. I’m sure the news was much more exciting for their dedicated subscribers. But then it started to look like Talk to Me was a movie that most horror fans should start getting excited about, or at least curious to take a look at. Especially when it started receiving praise from the likes of Steven Spielberg, Peter Jackson, Jordan Peele, George Miller, and Ari Aster. Something that received that sort of positive word of mouth it something I needed to see for myself.</p><p>Written by Danny Philippou and Bill Hinzman (not the Bill Hinzman who was featured in <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/search/label/Night%20of%20the%20Living%20Dead" target="_blank">Night of the Living Dead</a> and made <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/search/label/FleshEater" target="_blank">FleshEater</a>, of course) from a concept by Daley Pearson, Talk to Me is a new variation on the classic horror cautionary tale showing us why we shouldn’t mess around with Ouija boards – or anything sort of like Ouija boards, because in this movie the method of communicating with the dead is a weird ceramic hand. Sophie Wilde takes the lead as teenager Mia, whose peer group has started throwing parties around their creepy hand thing that lets them talk to the dead. Since Mia just lost her mother to suicide a couple years earlier, she is curious about talking to people on the other side, so she starts participating in these get-togethers. Even though they go a step further than the usual Ouija seance: saying “talk to me” allows you to talk to the dead. Saying “I let you in” causes you to be possessed. Possession is usually the end of the good times, but these teens have fun getting momentarily possessed and watching their friends get possessed. Until this situation goes horribly wrong, like everyone should have expected it to from the start.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjz5wAucLwrw8RH6lP7G3mSZfGVfSlCY_GBhwLD8nJr-zfcb1_4jWn0G7ltCNqAORvPIe1NNAmRku1BkRUdQdadwLO9KuLktCJayGq459nxDTjYT5VeFsdX0hdOTCIxRDz7RcDf5RoHfdNaf2cFqLQYxgjovn4QQadT2A8qmupdsnXhx0Z3uDBCD7f66u0Q/s1920/Talk-to-Me-Sophie-Wilde.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjz5wAucLwrw8RH6lP7G3mSZfGVfSlCY_GBhwLD8nJr-zfcb1_4jWn0G7ltCNqAORvPIe1NNAmRku1BkRUdQdadwLO9KuLktCJayGq459nxDTjYT5VeFsdX0hdOTCIxRDz7RcDf5RoHfdNaf2cFqLQYxgjovn4QQadT2A8qmupdsnXhx0Z3uDBCD7f66u0Q/s320/Talk-to-Me-Sophie-Wilde.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p>The Philippous did a great job bringing this somewhat familiar story to the screen while dropping in their own ideas and giving us interesting characters to watch and worry about. The movie gets their directing career(s) off to a roaring start, but it also features a star-making performance from Wilde, who I suspect is going to go on to some high-profile work just like they’re likely to.</p><p></p><p>When viewers start hyping something as “one of the best horror movies I’ve seen in years”, I’m not often as impressed by the movies as those hype-builders are. But in the case of Talk to Me, but I was impressed and surprised by just how good the movie was. There are some seriously unnerving things going on in this film.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEir-zx5G0GEEJE_6myAoFbrD34PePJpq5_mty2JpOsPtkGKxzIjyyzGqFkDDZ8C5xEr1DG2yk8bEZT7GchfS6Wv4j7m1yUibyYo7Rxd5AoJEgn5qvKT31tUHGZeoxmGB07RM5TdAUl3Pd47atkIYo5WBU2PkGpCGeoAS-qvEbWpt-dIsBmIgNY6YhYToBCn/s1920/Night-Swim-pool.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="1920" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEir-zx5G0GEEJE_6myAoFbrD34PePJpq5_mty2JpOsPtkGKxzIjyyzGqFkDDZ8C5xEr1DG2yk8bEZT7GchfS6Wv4j7m1yUibyYo7Rxd5AoJEgn5qvKT31tUHGZeoxmGB07RM5TdAUl3Pd47atkIYo5WBU2PkGpCGeoAS-qvEbWpt-dIsBmIgNY6YhYToBCn/s320/Night-Swim-pool.png" width="320" /></a></div><p>NIGHT SWIM (2024)</p><p>Universal Pictures, Blumhouse Productions, and James Wan’s production company Atomic Monster had great success when they teamed up for the January 2023 release <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2023/03/its-insane-right.html" target="_blank">M3GAN</a>, a killer AI-enhanced doll movie that raked in the cash and became a minor pop culture sensation. So they tried to replicate that success with the January 2024 release of the horror movie Night Swim, with which they intended to “ruin swimming pools” for viewers. But Night Swim didn’t get nearly as much attention or box office dollars as M3GAN did, and it’s not hard to understand why. Not only is the concept of a haunted swimming pool just not as fun as the idea of a dancing, killer doll, but the movie is a bit half-baked as well.</p><p>Directed by Bryce McGuire, Night Swim is based on a short film McGuire made with Rod Blackhurst back in 2014. That short had a running time of just 4 minutes and starred Megalyn Echikunwoke as a woman who has a creepy swimming experience. Echikunwoke didn’t make it over to the feature, though. Instead, the film stars Wyatt Russell as Ray Waller, a baseball player who has been forced into retirement by MS. He and his wife Eve (Kerry Condon) move into a new home with their kids Izzy (Amélie Hoeferle) and Elliot (Gavin Warren), the biggest selling point for their new property being the massive swimming pool in the backyard that Ray will be able to use for his physical therapy. Unfortunately for them, the pool is deep enough that it taps into an underground spring... and there are some nasty things in that water, because it’s not a natural spring. It’s a supernatural spring.</p><p>Night Swim is at its best in its build-up, the dramatic scenes with the Waller family as we watch them settle in at the home and start using the pool. The scary element is low-key at first (aside from the opening sequence where the previous owner’s daughter drowns in pool), but once the horror really kicks in during the second half the movie gradually unravels. There’s possession, there are aquatic ghouls that look like zombies from <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/search/label/The%20Walking%20Dead" target="_blank">The Walking Dead</a>, there are people seeping black goo from their faces... and when you type it out, that all sounds pretty cool, even though the possession is just the usual “possessed dad” stuff. But the way it’s all brought to the screen makes it feel like Night Swim has gotten desperate to find a way to make it all make sense. As a horror story, it’s not very involving or effective. But it's an okay viewing experience.</p><p>All of the actors cast as members of the Waller family do fine work in their roles. It’s just a shame actors like Russell and Condon were wasted on what happens in the second half of this movie. Sure, the idea of a haunted swimming pool isn’t that inspiring to begin with, but it still could have turned out better than it did.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHutxYwN0kcWVsJ2WbuR0Lg-N-NL_JeUPpsLbkZYz2oq7HmHAJ1qawJfdlheEbG3akvtE0B24zc8I1WoEo6M6Bv0uQTGsrCbb_pDSsdCp25KUAP4SChLh1jIibSEDj0GiraqldBybEc8TVxscoAIWIiKQ6FoQbCLWSoGixfMPNbSAcncsjzDv6fy7n0g4s/s1500/Night-Swim-cast.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="1500" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHutxYwN0kcWVsJ2WbuR0Lg-N-NL_JeUPpsLbkZYz2oq7HmHAJ1qawJfdlheEbG3akvtE0B24zc8I1WoEo6M6Bv0uQTGsrCbb_pDSsdCp25KUAP4SChLh1jIibSEDj0GiraqldBybEc8TVxscoAIWIiKQ6FoQbCLWSoGixfMPNbSAcncsjzDv6fy7n0g4s/s320/Night-Swim-cast.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Life Between Frameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18186028067136953502noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8130912260408301801.post-16975320317149606562024-01-24T20:00:00.029-05:002024-02-27T08:55:10.688-05:00Video Scripts: Drive, 1986 Horror Comedies, Upcoming Alien Film<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2024/01/video-scripts-drive-horror-comedies.html" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="835" data-original-width="1934" height="173" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhu_ky_uIPOcgaPwUhSrqyIIhD2U8-7RAOCtQd-tMfWhdbaTHRgMrjmxiQpv0CJ7wsQwORk1DCBIeaolzcfCWkl7gVxavYYi0wDBVoGcasv-FJxJLaCLzzn51BNLblOKjy8ByNdQPKtecDuwTFrS-6EBocaIh9gVdGs36llq8jYJvfoArrasPBWbymyClzG/w400-h173/drive-jason-lives-alien.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p></p><div><div>Cody shares some more JoBlo videos he contributed to.</div><div><br /></div><span><a name='more'></a></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div><div>I have been writing news articles and film reviews for <a href="http://ArrowintheHead.com">ArrowintheHead.com</a> for several years, and for the last few years I have also been writing scripts for videos that are released through the site's YouTube channel <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqDKUrpIT1131kLHtvsFzLA" target="_blank">JoBlo Horror Originals</a>. Recently I started writing video scripts for the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/c/JoBloOriginals/videos" target="_blank">JoBlo Originals</a> YouTube channel as well. I have previously shared the videos I wrote that covered </div><p>- <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2020/07/video-scripts-frailty-dead-calm-shocker.html" target="_blank">Frailty, Dead Calm, and Shocker </a></p><p>- <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2020/09/video-scripts-100-feet-freddy-vs-jason.html" target="_blank">100 Feet, Freddy vs. Jason, and Pin </a></p><p>- <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2021/02/video-scripts-night-fare-poltergeist.html" target="_blank">Night Fare, Poltergeist III, and Hardware</a> </p><p>- <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2021/04/video-scripts-elm-street-3-texas.html" target="_blank">A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation, and It's Alive</a></p><p>- <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2021/07/video-scripts-dark-city-mute-witness.html" target="_blank">Dark City, Mute Witness, and The Wraith</a></p><p>- <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2021/09/video-scripts-army-of-darkness-cannibal.html" target="_blank">Army of Darkness, Cannibal Holocaust, and Basket Case</a> </p><p>- <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2021/12/video-scripts-halloween-timeline-pit.html" target="_blank">Halloween timeline, The Pit, and Body Parts</a></p><p>- <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2021/12/video-scripts-halloween-6-jason-goes-to.html" target="_blank">Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers, Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday, and The Thing (2011)</a></p><p>- <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2022/02/video-scripts-monster-squad-trick-or.html" target="_blank">The Monster Squad, Trick or Treat, and Maximum Overdrive</a></p><p>- <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2022/03/video-scripts-fish-called-wanda-night.html" target="_blank">A Fish Called Wanda, Night of the Creeps, and Jason Lives: Friday the 13th Part VI</a></p><p>- <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2022/04/video-scripts-race-with-devil-speed.html" target="_blank">Race with the Devil, Speed, and Romancing the Stone</a></p><p>- <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2022/05/video-scripts-maniac-cop-3-wargames.html" target="_blank">Maniac Cop 3, WarGames, and Night of the Living Dead (1990)</a></p><p>- <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2022/06/video-scripts-rock-witchboard-friday.html" target="_blank">The Rock, Witchboard, and Friday the 13th Part 2</a></p><p>- <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2022/06/video-scripts-intruder-saving-private.html" target="_blank">Intruder, Saving Private Ryan, and Big Trouble in Little China</a></p><p>- <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2022/07/video-scripts-first-power-psycho-1960.html" target="_blank">The First Power, Psycho (1960), and Hot Fuzz</a></p><p>- <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2022/08/video-scripts-cat-people-1982-bride-of.html" target="_blank">Cat People (1982), Bride of Re-Animator, and Con Air</a></p><p>- <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2022/09/video-scripts-moulin-rouge-hills-have.html" target="_blank">Moulin Rouge (2001), The Hills Have Eyes Part 2 (1985), and The Stuff</a></p><p>- <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2022/10/video-scripts-children-of-corn-1984.html" target="_blank">Children of the Corn (1984), Bone Tomahawk, and Fight Club</a></p><p>- <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2022/10/video-scripts-departed-halloween-4.html" target="_blank">The Departed, Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers, and Ginger Snaps</a></p><p>- <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2022/11/video-scripts-silver-bullet-last-action.html" target="_blank">Silver Bullet, Last Action Hero, and Children of Men</a></p><p>- <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2023/01/video-scripts-flesheater-christmas.html" target="_blank">FleshEater, Christmas Vacation, and Lethal Weapon</a></p><p>- <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2023/01/video-scripts-thing-monkey-shines.html" target="_blank">The Thing (1982), Monkey Shines, and Friday the 13th (1980)</a></p><p>- <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2023/03/video-scripts-p2-lethal-weapon-2-frozen.html" target="_blank">P2, Lethal Weapon 2, and Frozen (2010)</a></p><p>- <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2023/04/video-scripts-lethal-weapon-3-blob-1988.html" target="_blank">Lethal Weapon 3, The Blob (1988), and Lethal Weapon 4</a></p><p>- <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2023/05/video-scripts-fast-and-furious-dance-of.html" target="_blank">The Fast and the Furious, Dance of the Dead, and The Rage: Carrie 2</a></p><p>- <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2023/06/video-scripts-puppet-master-2-fast-2.html" target="_blank">Puppet Master, 2 Fast 2 Furious, and Castle Freak (1995)</a></p><p>- <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2023/07/video-scripts-tokyo-drift-fast-furious.html" target="_blank">The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, Fast & Furious, and Halloween III: Season of the Witch</a></p><p>- <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2023/08/video-scripts-fast-five-dog-soldiers.html" target="_blank">Fast Five, Dog Soldiers, and Tremors 3: Back to Perfection</a></p><p>- <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2023/09/video-scripts-drag-me-to-hell-3d-horror.html" target="_blank">Drag Me to Hell, 3D '80s Horror, and unmade Mission: Impossible sequels</a></p><p>- <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2023/10/video-scripts-sleepaway-camp-tremors-4.html" target="_blank">Sleepaway Camp, Tremors 4: The Legend Begins, and 2001 Maniacs</a></p><p>- <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2023/10/video-scripts-gremlins-furious-6-lone.html" target="_blank">Gremlins, Furious 6, and Lone Wolf McQuade</a></p><p>- <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2023/11/video-scripts-last-showing-grindhouse.html" target="_blank">The Last Showing, Grindhouse, and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003)</a></p><p>- <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2023/12/video-scripts-christmas-horror-puppet.html" target="_blank">Christmas Horror, Puppet Master vs. Demonic Toys, and Furious 7</a></p><p>Three more videos that I have written the scripts for can be seen below, one for the JoBlo Originals channel, one for JoBlo Horror Originals, and one that was released on the JoBlo Upcoming Movies channel.</p><p>For the non-horror Revisited series, I wrote about the awesome 2011 Nicolas Winding Refn / Ryan Gosling film Drive:</p><p><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="358" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/bK3MjNeDm4w" title="YouTube video player" width="637"></iframe></p><p></p><div>For the 80s Horror Memories docu-series, I covered the horror comedies that were released in 1986, including Jason Lives: Friday the 13th Part VI and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2. There was a mix-up in the end credits, so a different writer is listed in there, but I was the one who wrote this episode:</div><div><br /></div><div><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="358" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/mOAAV3ZUzks" title="YouTube video player" width="637"></iframe></div><div><div><p>Later this year, we'll be getting a new Alien movie that has been directed by Fede Alvarez. I've been putting all of the available information together in <a href="https://www.joblo.com/fede-alvarez-new-alien-movie-romulus/" target="_blank">this article</a>, which ended up serving as the basis for this video:</p><p><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="358" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/CM0ThOr09o0" title="YouTube video player" width="637"></iframe></p><p></p><div>More video scripts have been written, so another batch of videos will be shared here on Life Between Frames eventually. In the meantime, keep an eye on JoBlo Horror Originals and JoBlo Originals!</div><p></p></div>
</div></div>Life Between Frameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18186028067136953502noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8130912260408301801.post-73386124761094106202024-01-22T20:00:00.020-05:002024-01-30T06:37:46.373-05:00Books of 2024: Week 4 - Cujo<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2024/01/books-of-2024-week-4-cujo.html" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="1874" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4i27VbCgsFMV-a-OC6QA7DYRcF5vsqIqHRQcAu2zbb6NoqpyVhZSf7z64A8YsafOwJKyhqDvHU9gOSvMTdghqbN1GEpLT2ifvfzv33S8MgCHlhJ7j0NrW5kKjV9_IY8lVsU7Ccz6y57P_nYDLzvUJRL7fV2AowkmAgQR3Pg-Hlk0le7RF0UAty-1LIB2f/s320/Cujo-Stephen-King.jpg" width="205" /></a></div><p>Stephen King tells Cody a story about a rabid dog.</p><span><a name='more'></a></span><p><br /></p><p>CUJO by Stephen King</p><p><a href="https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1501192248/arrowinthehea-20" target="_blank">Cujo</a> is a fascinating addition to Stephen King’s bibliography – and it happens to be a book that he barely remembers writing at all, because he did so while at the height of his struggle with alcoholism. Reading through it with that in mind, it’s stunning that the book even makes sense, let alone that King still managed to make it detailed and engrossing while drinking himself into oblivion. Is King so talented that his ability still shines through while he’s deep under the influence, or did he have to do a whole lot of editing during his sober moments?</p><p>Everyone knows that Cujo is about a rabid dog. The book and its <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2018/01/theres-nothing-fiercer.html" target="_blank">film adaptation</a> became so popular, people reference the titular dog quite often... and in most cases, it doesn’t even cross their minds that King got the name from the news, as Cujo was the (media’s misspelling of the) alias used by one of the Symbionese Liberation Army members responsible for the kidnapping and brainwashing of Patty Hearst. But, proving that he was never one to be afraid of writing a long build-up, King waits until we’re 150 pages deep into Cujo’s page count of 400 before he even has the rabid Saint Bernard attack anybody. Cujo is bitten by a rabid bat early in the book and spends the early parts of the book gradually getting sicker and sicker, but much of those first 150 pages are taken up by the drama of everyday life.</p><p>The main characters are the Trenton family, who moved from New York City to the small town of Castle Rock, Maine a few years earlier. Vic Trenton owns an advertising company, and has to deal with a business emergency when the red dye in a cereal that his company has created the advertisements for starts causing children to poop and puke red... which, of course, at first scares parents into thinking their kids have internal bleeding. While Vic works to save the cereal company’s reputation, he also discovers that his wife Donna has been having – but recently ended – an affair with a local guy, a real scumbag named Steve Kemp. Vic and Donna are just starting to patch up their relationship when work takes Vic out of town.</p><p>Meanwhile, there are also chapters that center on a Castle Rock woman named Charity Camber, who badly wants to visit her sister in Connecticut with her young son, but her abusive husband Joe, who runs an auto shop in the barn on their property, doesn’t like Charity to go anywhere. Still, when Charity brings up the idea of going to Connecticut, Joe comes around to agreeing to let her go because he sees it as an opportunity to go on a Boston adventure with his best drinking buddy while she’s out. Why are we spending so much time with all this drama? Because it’s setting the stage for a series of circumstances and some coincidences that will allow Donna Trenton and her 4-year-old son Tad to become trapped in her malfunctioning Pinto on the Camber property for a couple days, with no one around to help her while the Camber’s rabid dog waits outside the car, waiting for the chance to tear Donna and Tad apart.</p><p>There are still passages in Cujo that seem unnecessary, some asides with at least one other Castle Rock resident that don’t add all that much to the story, but for the most part it all works. And while the threat of a rabid Saint Bernard is a very down-to-earth concept, there’s also a supernatural angle to the book where it’s implied that the situation with Cujo also has some kind of connection to both a dead serial killer that used to stalk Castle Rock (as seen in the book <a href="https://lifebetweenframes.blogspot.com/2023/12/books-i-have-read-in-2023-last-batch.html" target="_blank">The Dead Zone</a>) and the monster that Tad fears is lurking in his closet. A being that King strongly implies might be real.</p><p>Once Donna and Tad are trapped in the Pinto by Cujo, reading the book almost becomes a frustrating experience, but for a good reason. The reader becomes so invested in seeing how that situation is going to play out, it can be irritating to go away from that scenario and have to read more pages about Vic’s advertising problems, Charity’s time in Connecticut, or even Steve Kemp acting like a douchebag. We want to get back to Donna and Tad. But King ties all of these threads together nicely in the end.</p><p>It’s a good story, even though it’s heartbreakingly tragic. It’s deeply sad for everyone involved, from the various people who are attacked by Cujo, to Cujo himself. He was a good dog until that bat bit him and sickness drove him out of his mind. The things that happen aren’t really Cujo’s fault. It was just terrible luck.</p><p>Cujo is a bit too sad for me to consider it one of my favorite King books, but he certainly did write a hell of a book about such a simple idea as a rabid dog. Even though he was hammered while he was writing it.</p><p><br /></p>Life Between Frameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18186028067136953502noreply@blogger.com0