General

From Cracked…

…a couple of interesting Halloween themed lists.

First up, 17 Most Unintentionally Funny Moments in Scary Movies:

http://www.cracked.com/photoplasty_1120_the-17-most-unintentionally-funny-moments-in-scary-movies/

The gifs are good.  My favorite is probably the very last one, regarding Friday The 13th Part 3, which was filmed for 3D but which some of those 3D effects didn’t look quite as scary when put into regular old 2D.

Next up are 5 Real-Life Horror Movies Deleted From Your History Books:

http://www.cracked.com/article_21742_5-real-life-horror-movies-deleted-from-your-history-books.html

#3, found on the first page of this link, is particularly gruesome as it details (and in one case shows!) a person who “survived” a scalping.  I’m tempted to include the photograph of the scalping survivor below, but it truly is quite revolting. Besides, if you really want to see it, you can do so by clicking the link above.

Don’t say I didn’t warn you, as this stuff is not for the faint of heart!

Movies

Cold in July (2014) a (mildly) belated review

I first heard about Cold In July when it was making the film festival circuit earlier in the year.  People said very good things about it and, given that it was based on a story by Joe R. Lansdale (Bubba Ho-Tep), I was intrigued.

The film was barely released to theaters but when it arrived on the home video market (without too much fanfare, sadly), I needed to see it.  Yesterday I finally had the chance to do so.

What I saw was a film that started somewhat slowly, taking its time to build the central character and going in a certain direction only to make several interesting twists and turns before, unfortunately, ending on a rather bland note.

The plot of the film, at least as much as I’m willing to reveal without getting into spoilers, starts with Richard Dane (Michael C. Hall) awoken by his wife late at night.  His wife heard something and, sure enough, it is apparent someone has broken into the house.  Richard goes to his closet and gets his handgun, then makes his way to the living room.  There, the very nervous homeowner confronts the robber and, without meaning to, kills him with a single shot.

Afterwards, the police arrive and go through the procedure of writing their reports.  They assure Richard that what he did was self-defense and there won’t be any problems afterwards.

They are quite wrong.

Richard is wracked with guilt at his actions.  So much so that he goes to the robber’s funeral.  There, he is confronted by the man’s father, a recently released convict named Russel (Sam Shepherd), and the elderly man makes menacing statements directed at Richard’s son.  At this point it appears we’re dealing with an “eye for an eye” situation…

Only things aren’t always what they seem and the story goes through several clever twists and turns.

To me, this was where the movie really started to soar.  Despite the obvious low budget and the filmmakers attempts at emulating early John Carpenter films, I was fascinated by the developments and, in particular, the scene stealing turn by Don Johnson.  His P.I. Jim Bob was easily the highlight of the second part of the film.

Unfortunately, and as I stated before, this intriguing film builds up to a climax that is neither terribly suspenseful or original.  Rather than leave me breathless and amazed, I was left thinking I’d seen this type of climax many times before…and better done (think Rolling Thunder).  Assuming the movie was true to Mr. Lansdale’s story, one gets the feeling that he came up with a lot of clever concepts but didn’t have a terribly original or clever way to wrap it up so he went for something tried and true.  And, unfortunately, not terribly great.

In the end, I can only offer a mild endorsement for Cold In July.  For most of its runtime this film is clever, original, humorous, and surprising but unfortunately gives you a very unsurprising ending.

Too bad.

General

Jury Duty, part deux

So last week I was summoned to Jury Duty and found myself in a rather small Jury Duty pool, certainly smaller than the previous crowd I was involved in several years before.

As the morning unfolded, I was surprised by how many times and in how many ways the people operating this offered apologies for our being there.  It began with their public service video that described the Jury Duty experience and what you could expect.  It noted attending this was a small sacrifice to make for this great country.  Yet, again and again, the message of pride was prefaced and/or followed up with profuse apologies for the disruption to our lives.

After the video was over, a lady appeared at the front and center of the room and essentially went over much of the same, including, yet again, offering profuse apologies for this disruption to our lives.  When she was close to being done the first two waves of potential jurors were called in and, once they were accounted for and gone, the movie The Blind Side began on the various monitors and the remaining pool of potential jurors, including me, sat back and waited to see when/if we were called.

In my case, the call came close to 11 A.M.  At that point, I kinda knew it was coming.  As I said, the jury pool this time around wasn’t all that large and, after four or so groups were called in and given the small amount of potential jurors left over, I figured my odds of getting selected were high.  I was right.

Thirty five of us were lined up and assigned numbers (I was 26) and taken downstairs and to the opposite end of a corridor from the trial room itself.  We waited around for nearly an hour before being let in and introduced to the councils and judge.

Then, it was off to lunch with the admonition to be back in that opposite end corridor by 12:45.  We were all back by then, but wound up waiting until nearly 2 P.M. before finally, finally being taken back into the chambers.

What followed was the process of council Q & A.  It was there that we were given some idea of what this upcoming trail was about.  Basically it went something like this: The defendant was a convicted felon allegedly found with bullets in his possession.

Not handguns.  Not machine guns, not mortars.  Not BB guns.  The man was accused of being found in possession of bullets, obviously a no-no for a convicted felon.  Reading between the lines (and making an assumption on my part), I had the feeling it wasn’t even a terribly large amount of bullets.  This assumption, by the way, was based on the questions asked by both Council members.

Now, I’m not a gun nut.  In fact, I feel there are way too many guns out on the street and, further, that people who quote the 2nd Amendment, including politicians and judges, too often ignore the whole “well regulated militia” statement.

Still, based on what little I heard about this case from our questioning, it was just as well I wasn’t selected to the final seven jury pool.  I don’t know how I would have reacted as a juror, but in the end it seemed the entire trial was a lot of fuss made for what amounted to a relatively small matter.  A matter that perhaps should have been dealt with before the trial itself.

Had the convicted felon been caught with a gun, on the other hand…

By the time I got out, it was a little before 5 P.M.  I, along with 34 others, had spent the whole day there, for the most part sitting or standing around and doing not all that much.  Seven of these people would now have to return the next day and perhaps the day after that for the trial itself (the judge felt the case might take 2-3 days).

Tough going.  No wonder there’s so many apologies offered.

Movies

Supernova (2000) coming to…BluRay?!?

File this under “I didn’t see that one coming”:

Shout! Factory, the company whose focus appears to be in releasing quirky, cult films of yesteryear, will be releasing the 2000 sci-fi horror film Supernova to BluRay in January of 2015 (read about it here).  Considering Shout! Factory’s previous releases, I’m expecting some pretty interesting bonus material here…perhaps even the film’s original Walter Hill rough cut.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Supernova is a film with a very peculiar history, one which you can read about here:

http://movie-memorabilia-emporium.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Supernova

According to the above, Geoffrey Wright was the movie’s original director but dropped out.  The legendary Walter Hill then took over and, effectively, “made” the film.  However, toward the end, when it was in the process of being edited for release, there were clashes between the director and the studios and Walter Hill abandoned the project.  Francis Ford Coppola (yes, Francis Ford Coppola!!!!) then came in and, using the footage available, assembled the theatrical cut which was unceremonially dumped into theaters with the directing credits listed to the pseudonym “Thomas Lee”.

The movie, at least in its theatrical incarnation, is a trainwreck, yet given the talent both in front of and behind the cameras, a most curious one.  I reviewed the film a couple of years ago here:

http://ertorre.com/randomthoughts/2012/12/16/supernova-2000-a-very-belated-review/

You should check out the above link, if only to see some alternate sequences that were presented in the original DVD release of a few years before, including the movie’s original, far darker alternate ending.

What makes Supernova even more fascinating to me is that it seemed the general theme and certain elements within are not unlike that of 2012’s controversial Prometheus.  In fact, I’d be bold enough to say that Supernova, if not a “first draft” of Prometheus, in some ways had to be an inspiration to that later film.  And why not?  Director Walter Hill is the producer of all the Alien films, from the classic Alien and Aliens all the way to, yes indeed, Prometheus.

Perhaps the inspiration was subconscious.  Or perhaps Mr. Hill was still smarting from the failure of Supernova and felt the general story (or rather story theme) deserved a second shot.

I don’t know, but I’m damn curious to get my hands on Shout! Factory’s BluRay the day it is available!

General

The 10 Most Evil Women in History…

…or so claims rantlifestyle.com:

http://www.rantlifestyle.com/2014/08/05/10-of-the-most-evil-women-in-history/

I’ll be the first to admit there’s something morbidly fascinating about reading lists like this.

What is probably the most scary is that for the 19 ladies mentioned, there are very likely hundreds if not thousands more that may well have done far worse in their lifetimes but whom history may well have forgotten or, even more frightening, might still be alive today but have managed to keep from being caught!

Movies

Without Warning (1980) a (ridiculously) belated review

I saw the very low budget sci-fi/horror film Without Warning one night while it was playing on cable way, waaaay back in the very early 1980’s.  Perhaps as early as 1981.

I remembered very little about it, but what I did recall stuck with me for decades.

Here’s the theatrical trailer.  Sorry for its relatively low quality (I couldn’t find anything significantly better), but in seeing this trailer, some of the stuff I remembered so clearly can be found within:

To elaborate, my main memories of the film involved the flying “organic” discs that the alien flings at its victims.  I remembered finding the whole thing so gory…again, for that particular time.

It would appear others remembered those details too because Shout! Factory has been kind enough to release Without Warning in a special edition BluRay with considerable bells and whistles.  After seeing the movie listing on Amazon a few times, I finally gave in and ordered it.  (A quick aside: I also purchased the original 1979 Tourist Trap and have pre-ordered the 1973 The Long Goodbye and 1972 Hickey and Boggs…viva the movies of the 1970’s!)

When the movie arrived, I simply had to see it from start to end and see what/why pieces of it had lingered in my mind for so very long.

What I found was a decent enough horror film that can rightly be called a precursor to the far better known Predator.  Certainly the plots of both films share this much in common: They both feature a mysterious and deadly alien hunter whose prey is homo-sapiens…and who has no trouble killing his prey in gruesome ways.

While Predator featured a bigger budget and, while scary, was primarily an action film, Without Warning’s focus is more toward horror.

Like Predator, the plot is quite simple: Two young men and two young women (included among them a very, very young David Caruso) head out the “lake” but before reaching it stumble upon some seriously strange locals at a run down gas station (Jack Palance and Martin Landau, both of hamming it up and turning their creepiness factor to “11”).  Martin Landau appears dazed, a veteran of the armed forces who may not have a grip on reality.  Jack Palance, on the other hand, is razor focused and imposing.  When the young ‘uns tell him they’re going to the lake, he warns them to stay away…for, he says there are hunters there.

What follows is a pretty decent (if not all that terrifically acted by the newcomers), Lovecraftian story involving the survivors of the trip to the lake and Palance and Landau’s characters as they face off against the alien threat.

The film was quite good in the early going, when we see people become victims to the aliens and, eventually, when the main characters gather together in the diner sequence.  If you’re a movie buff, you’ll find a couple of fascinating faces in that particular crowd, including the last acting appearance of the very best Mike Hammer there ever was, Ralph Meeker.

Shortly after this diner sequence, the film kinda slows down as we follow the young survivors of the lake and, unfortunately, during this period of time both Martin Landau and Jack Palance disappear.

But, fret not as they return in time for the climax which…well, is explosive, but all too obviously on a much smaller scale than the film’s makers would want us to believe.

Despite its flaws, I enjoyed seeing this for the most part forgotten film.  Is it classic cinema?  No.  Is it unjustly forgotten?  Probably not, though seeing all these veteran actors chewing the scenery is fun.  As for the gore that stuck with me all these years, I suspect by today’s standards all these scenes could be shown on TV completely uncut.

If you’re like me and have any memory at all about Without Warning, its a fun trip into the past.  For those who are thrilled with the idea of Jack Palance and Martin Landau facing off in a Lovecraftian horror film, you might want to give it a spin.  For everyone else, it might be a pass.

You know where I stand!

General

Jury Duty…

Yesterday was the second time in the past five or so years I’ve been called in to Jury Duty.

What I most recall from the first time was that I wound up sitting in the “waiting room” from when I arrived at approximately 7:45 A.M. and waiting…and waiting…and waiting…

During the course of that day maybe ten groups were called in to various trails.  Many of those folks returned.  One particularly unlucky guy was picked out and returned to the waiting room at least three times, I’m assuming each time being discarded from potential trials only to be re-selected and sent back to another one.

By close to 5 P.M., the alleged time we’re supposed to be “freed”, I had yet to be called and thought (along with “what a waste of a day”) that that would be it for me.

It wasn’t.

With only minutes to spare before five, the lady on the speaker says something to the effect of “Everyone who hasn’t been called until now, please come to the front.”  She then read off each juror number, including mine, and off we went downstairs to get scrutinized for a trail.

For over an hour the prosecutor and defense asked us questions and, in the end, I along with several others wasn’t picked, which was something of a saving grace considering the hour.  It was close to 7 P.M. and I had the impression the judge wanted to go forward with that particular trial then and there, figuring it would only take another hour or so to do so (it involved some youth that was arrested on Miami Beach for something or another).

But…what a wasted day.

Anyway, the second go around proved a lot more “exciting”.  There appeared to be far fewer people in the jury pool waiting room than before and, by the time they reached the fifth batch of summoned potential jurors, I had a feeling my number would be up.

It was.  At close to 11 A.M. (Unlike the last time I sat around only three hours) I was called in with another 34 people and off we went…

…to be continued!

Books/Literature

On creativity…

I don’t often post about “upcoming” projects because they have a way taking on a life of their own while unfolding in slow motion.  What I say at one point might well be invalidated by what happens a week, a month, or even several months down the line.

Similarly, it is difficult, especially in the early goings of writing whatever is my latest novel, to predict a time when said work will be “done”.  For Ghost of the Argus, the fifth and concluding chapter to the initial “larger” Corrosive Knights saga, I figured going in the novel would take around a year to write, revise, and release, which was approximately the time it took me to write my previous novels.

That initial assessment wound up being overly optimistic as the novel took twice as long, two years, to finish up.

Ghost of the Argus

The reason?  Unlike the other books in the series, I wanted this one to give the readers a lot more.  It had to have a great conclusion to that initial Corrosive Knights story line while featuring new and familiar characters all doing interesting things and not simply standing around.

It is perhaps because of the intensity and length of time involved in writing that book that, shortly before putting the very final touches on it and while driving home one day, the next book in the Corrosive Knights series came to me almost completely.  Bear in mind, up until that moment I had absolutely no idea where I would take this series following Ghost of the Argus.  Further, whenever ideas come to me for books, I usually start with a beginning and end and have to figure out the middle the hard way.  Here, the novel’s near entirety had appeared to me like a fever dream.

But it didn’t stop there.  A couple of weeks later, after beginning that novel, I had the idea for a novel that should precede it.  In this case, a more typical creative process occurred.  I had my start and ending and needed to write the middle.  However, it was clear to me this book would appear as Corrosive Knights #6 while my fever dream novel would be #7.

Which meant I was now writing two novels instead of one.

But there’s more!

Previously I mentioned that I had the concluding Corrosive Knights novel in a rough/framework format and wanted to get that one done -at least have a solid first draft- as well.  So I have three novels in the works.

A week ago, another thought came to mind.  There is a story in my short story collection Shadows at Dawn that I’ve always felt needed to be expanded into a full novel.  Once completed, this novel would stand alone and be unrelated to the Corrosive Knights series.  Frankly, after writing five Corrosive Knights books and having #’s 6, 7, and (a potential) 8 in the works, I longed to write something unrelated to that series.  So strong were my ideas that I rushed to the computer and started writing.  Next thing I knew, I had four potential books in the works.

Shadows at Dawn CoverI can’t help but think that the intensity and focus of work on Ghost of the Argus was so all consuming that once that novel was done and my mind was freed up, the story ideas roared out.

So that’s where I am, working on four different novels at the same time.  My plan, subject to change, is as follows: I’m going to write a strong first draft of each of these books, alternating my time each day to focus on them and not get “locked in” on any one.  Once I have the first drafts done, we’ll see which of the four books I decide to polish up and finish off (my guess at this point is it will either be the stand alone story or what will be Corrosive Knights book #6).  If I really get moving, there might be several novels available a lot quicker than they were before.

I’m keeping my fingers crossed that this will be the case!

 

 

Movies

Oculus (2013) a (mildly) belated review

Star power propelled me to want to see the 2013 horror film Oculus and, sadly, it proved to be just about the only reason to see this film.

Putting together -though they never actually share any screen time together, other than one little “portrait” piece towards the end- cult favorites Karen Gillian (the lovable Amy Pond on Doctor Who) and Katee Sackhoff (the tough as nails “Starbuck” from the Battlestar: Galactica remake series), you figure that if nothing else, having these two in the mix you’d have something worth watching.

Unfortunately, in the end the answer is no.

Not that Ms. Gillian and Sackhoff did a bad job.  They didn’t.  What let them down, what always seems to let films down, lies in the script.

A while back, I reviewed the Scarlett Johannsen film Under the Skin (if you’re curious, you can read the full review here).  I noted that the filmmakers were clearly going for a Stanley Kubrick-like “vibe”, but noted that:

Unfortunately, when one sees so many familiar echoes to the brilliant works of other artists, one can’t help but compare them to Under the Skin.  Doing so, even more unfortunately, reveals that this film doesn’t quite live up to what came before.

And this, my friends, winds up being the exact same problem with Oculus, for Oculus is essentially Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining, only switching a haunted hotel with a haunted mirror and having the in-danger siblings presented both in the present and via flashbacks that become, perhaps, illusions crafted by the mirror.  (It’s worth noting that The Shining also had an element of time/flashback to it, of the 1920’s and the then present 1980)

Good or bad, The Shining benefited tremendously from Jack Nicholson’s robust, sometimes waaaaaay over the top turn as the homicidal father.  Actor Rory Cochrane, as the homicidal father of Oculus, unfortunately enters and exits the film as an emotional enigma.  Before he goes “crazy”, he appears aloof and distant and therefore one cares very little about him.  When he goes crazy, he’s still aloof and distant, only now he’s carrying a handgun.

The plot of Oculus goes something like this: The modern day siblings, particularly Kaylie Russell (Karen Allen), want to prove that the horrifying things they went through as children were caused by this evil mirror her late father brought into the house.  To prove this Kaylie sets about going all scientific, recording everything and sprinkling alarms to remind them of the actual time and break the mirror’s illusions.

But the mirror, of course, has other things in mind.

The first hour or so of the film isn’t too bad.  Unfortunately, the movie hits its peak early on and kinda coasts along, never really building any more tension or intrigue until it reaches its downbeat and very stupid ending (who was shocked, shocked when the item Kaylie set up over the mirror wound up –gasp!– not doing what it was intended to?)

Anyway, a pass, despite the most interesting cast.

Books/Literature, Comic Books/Graphic Novels, Movies

Wanna get depressed?

Then by all means read this article from the normally very humorous Cracked.com, 3 Artists Who Got Screwed For Creating Iconic Characters:

http://www.cracked.com/blog/3-famous-characters-whose-creators-got-epically-screwed/

Though familiar with most of the creators described, I wasn’t aware of the Dwayne “The Rock” Hercules film being based on the writings of Steve Moore, though it doesn’t at all surprise me that like the other creators listed, he got nothing for his creative work when his work was translated into a film.

One thing that remains a certainty regarding all this: It’s all about the money.

When I first started getting into comic books in the very early 1970’s and over the years afterwards, one of the joys of reading books was the introduction of new, interesting (and sometimes not so interesting) characters.  They could be heroes or villains, civilians or aliens or something in between.  These new characters appeared in established books, often as co-stars or potential new rivals.  Sometimes the companies publishing the works felt strongly enough about the new character(s) that they merited their own book.

While many of those creations didn’t “click” with audiences either right away or at all, there were those that rose to starring roles.  Some, like Rocket Raccoon in the motion picture Guardians of the Galaxy, were essentially forgotten for decades before becoming popular.

Things changed in the mid to late 1980’s and into the 1990’s.  At that time comic book sales were very strong (though not as strong as in the Golden Age of the 1940’s) and some artists and writers made huge amounts of money from their works.  But at about that same time fans and creators alike realized many of the creators from the past, perhaps most notably Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster (the creators of Superman) and Jack Kirby (the creator/co-creator of almost everything Marvel), were shafted.  Despite companies making buckets of cash off their creations, these creators wound up receiving next to nothing.

At about that time, and with that realization, I noticed that “new” characters didn’t appear in comic books with the frequency they had before.  Sure, books kept being released, but the stories were more recycled and hardly ever featured new and interesting characters.  Because of the success of the Independent market, some big and not so big name authors and artists chose to release original stories featuring new creations that way, ensuring they retained control over their creative works.

Nonetheless, both Marvel and DC comics has benefited from, quite literally, over a half-century of creative works that were remained under their control.  And, in the case of the already mentioned Rocket Raccoon, this was a boon to Disney/Marvel…while Bill Mantlo, the creator of the character, was entitled to nothing.

But there is an interesting flip side to this particular coin.  If the studios can get away with using creations by (to the general public) unknown creators, they will also not hesitate in using the name of a “well known” creator to promote a work…if it helps create more exposure and money.

Witness the SyFy Network TV show Haven.  While not on the level with, say The Prisoner (one of my all time favorite TV shows), Haven is to me a very entertaining show featuring a scenic town and the oddball things that happen within it.  The leads are charismatic, the stories interesting, and I catch it whenever new episodes air.

Oh, and by the way, the show is “based on” The Colorado Kid, a novel by Stephen King.  What has the TV show to do with the novel?

Just about nothing.

In fact, other than a couple of characters work in the small town’s newspaper and something happened a few years before, there isn’t all that much resemblance between King’s novel and the TV show, yet it would be crazy for the producers of the show not to mention now and again the fact that the show is “based on” the King novel.

In the end, its all about money, right?

The Blog of E. R. Torre