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Midnight Movies Group Resources
FOR INFORMATION ABOUT THESE-- INCLUDING THE GROUP'S FREE HORROR LIBRARY -- , SEE FIRST RESPONSE.
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They're Dead But They Won't Stay Down
OK, during the Halloween festivities I googled "singing zombies" just to see what came up, and this did. It's a sort of zombie music video for "Dust In The Wind" (ironic, huh?) The puppets in it are pretty cool. It features the worst muppet-style singing I've ever heard (which I found hilarious, but I have a very weird sense of humor). If you can stand the singing that long, it's only 4 minutes.
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Short Christopher Lee Video Interview From CNN
CNN’s The Screening Room visits horror legend, Christopher Lee on the set of "The Resident" his first Hammer film in 34 years. Lee, 87, gives the interview from a wheelchair and doesn’t look well, but his mind is clearly as sharp as ever.
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So What Have You Watched Lately?
Last week, I found an inexpensive DVD of this relic from childhood while shopping for Halloween candy at K-Mart. It was an impulse buy, and it was worth the 10 bucks just for the memories.
This is a stop motion animated, movie-length depiction of a monsters convention held at the castle of Baron Von Frankenstein (voiced by none other than Boris Karloff). The castle's usual occupants include the Frankenstein creature and his smarter and sarcastic mate (Phyllis Diller), Yetch (Allen Swift) a flunky whose voice sounds like Peter Lorre's, and the doc's seductive assistant Francesca (pop singer Gale Garnett, of "We'll Sing In The Sunshine" fame).
The monsters who attend the convention include Dracula, the Wolfman, the Mummy, the Creature From the Black Lagoon, the Invisible Man, and Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde, among others. Some conventioners are unhappy that Frankenstein intends to leave "the monster business" -- including "the secret of total destruction" -- to his kind-hearted human nephew Felix (Swift), and they plot against him. Occasionally we get a break from the action when a character launches into a musical number, such as the Bride's love song to the creature, "You're Different" (yup, Phyllis Diller SINGS. Talk about horrifying!)
Actually, the jazzy musical numbers by Maury Laws are one of the 94-minute film's better features. The animation and sets are impressive, and the voices well-done, particularly by Swift, who plays several characters, and whose celebrity voice impressions here include a dead-on James Stewart as well as Lorre.The whole "party" was created by the production team of Jules Bass and Arthur Rankin, who also brought us "Frosty The Snowman" and "Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer." This was their attempt to do something a little more ambitious and sophisticated, and while some of the one-liners get a little risque for a kiddie flick, its one glaring flaw is that the frequent jokes just aren't very funny. I remember laughing my way through this in the theater as a kid in 1967, but the humor just doesn't hold up. It's mostly punning of the Forrest J. Ackerman variety, and almost all of it falls flat. (Forrie was rumored to have had some involvement with the script, but he actually didn't. If he had, it probably would have been a lot funnier.)
It's still a kick to see it all again, though. "Mad Monster Party" cashed in on the popularity of "The Munsters" and "The Addams Family," and while it doesn't work as well as either of those, it's still a cheerful way of revisiting a simpler time for a jaded old horror fan like myself.
So what have you watched lately?
The Worst Witch (1986 TV)
Mildred is one of the young girls at a prestigious witch academy. She can't seem to do anything right and is picked on by classmates and teachers. The headmistress of the school, Miss Cackle, has an evil twin sister (Agatha) who plans to destroy the school. Can Mildred foil the plan before the Grand Wizard (Tim Curry) comes to the Academy for the Halloween celebration you'll never forget?!!
The Offspring (1987)
The uncle of an executed murderess relates four stories of his hometown, Oldfield, to a reporter: an elderly man pursues a romance with a younger woman, even to the grave and beyond...a wounded man on the run from creditors is rescued by a backwoods hermit with the secret to eternal life...a glass-eating carny pays the ultimate price for looking for love on the outside...and Civil War soldiers are held captive by a household .of orphans with strange intentions for them. Cameron Mitchell plays Sgt. Gallen.
Are Zombies America's Godzilla?
Are Zombies America's Godzilla?
Zombies have been enjoying a heyday of late, but why are Americans so obsessed with the walking dead? One theory is that Westerners love zombies for the same reason Japan loves giant monsters: they represent technology gone awry.
James Turner, an editor for O'Reilly Media, claims that zombies share a kinship with Godzilla. His theory is that, just as Godzilla was inspired by the dropping of the atomic bomb, Western filmmakers (Romero aside) latched onto zombies in the wake of Three Mile Island, the recognition of AIDS, the Ebola outbreak, and similar medical and technological disasters. He goes on to posit that the increasing popularity of zombie movies involving a biological outbreak suggests a Western ambivalence toward biotechnology.
It's an interesting thought, though perhaps a bit reductive. Certainly zombies have been used to comment on biotechnology, but they've also been used to comment on a number of social issues, including consumerism, corporate greed, and the objectification of women. And what causes the zombie outbreak is often less important than what comes afterward. Still, Turner makes an interesting case that biotechnology-based zombies could evolve to more acutely reflect our biological and technological fears:
Blackberry-spawned abominations, anyone? Dawn of the Single-Payer Healthcare Undead? What about, They Came From H1N1?
He's far more convincing when he talks about the important differences between giant monsters and zombies, namely that it's the military and scientists who fight Godzilla, where zombies fall to resourceful and self-reliant survivors.
Americans must like the idea that, as out of control as our hubristic science might become, a good machete and a 12 gauge in the hands of a competent man or woman can always save the day. The 2003 bestselling title, The Zombie Survival Guide, offers the same message of self-reliance. (I'm not sure what lesson we can take from the success of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.)
A Brief History Of Zombies [Forbes]: view link
Zombies have been enjoying a heyday of late, but why are Americans so obsessed with the walking dead? One theory is that Westerners love zombies for the same reason Japan loves giant monsters: they represent technology gone awry.
James Turner, an editor for O'Reilly Media, claims that zombies share a kinship with Godzilla. His theory is that, just as Godzilla was inspired by the dropping of the atomic bomb, Western filmmakers (Romero aside) latched onto zombies in the wake of Three Mile Island, the recognition of AIDS, the Ebola outbreak, and similar medical and technological disasters. He goes on to posit that the increasing popularity of zombie movies involving a biological outbreak suggests a Western ambivalence toward biotechnology.
It's an interesting thought, though perhaps a bit reductive. Certainly zombies have been used to comment on biotechnology, but they've also been used to comment on a number of social issues, including consumerism, corporate greed, and the objectification of women. And what causes the zombie outbreak is often less important than what comes afterward. Still, Turner makes an interesting case that biotechnology-based zombies could evolve to more acutely reflect our biological and technological fears:
Blackberry-spawned abominations, anyone? Dawn of the Single-Payer Healthcare Undead? What about, They Came From H1N1?
He's far more convincing when he talks about the important differences between giant monsters and zombies, namely that it's the military and scientists who fight Godzilla, where zombies fall to resourceful and self-reliant survivors.
Americans must like the idea that, as out of control as our hubristic science might become, a good machete and a 12 gauge in the hands of a competent man or woman can always save the day. The 2003 bestselling title, The Zombie Survival Guide, offers the same message of self-reliance. (I'm not sure what lesson we can take from the success of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.)
A Brief History Of Zombies [Forbes]: view link
Together At Last! Dinocroc Vs. Supergator!
Together At Last! Dinocroc Vs. Supergator!
First there was Dinocroc, and then there was Supergator (both produced by Roger Corman, of course). Now the long-awaited smackdown stomps onto DVD next year, with some David Carradine thrown in for good measure. Check the monsters.
Over at Undead Backbrain, Robert Hood and Avery Guerra have the full story. But in a nutshell, it's a giant crocodile. Fighting a spiny supergator. Gnashing of teeth!
First there was Dinocroc, and then there was Supergator (both produced by Roger Corman, of course). Now the long-awaited smackdown stomps onto DVD next year, with some David Carradine thrown in for good measure. Check the monsters.
Over at Undead Backbrain, Robert Hood and Avery Guerra have the full story. But in a nutshell, it's a giant crocodile. Fighting a spiny supergator. Gnashing of teeth!
Terror Night (1987)
AKA Bloody Movie
The final directorial effort from the late filmmaker Andre De Toth, Terror Night is a schlocky horror flick featuring such B-list performers as Alan Hale Jr. of Gilligan's Island and Dan Haggerty of Grizzly Adams. Set in a creepy mansion, the film follows a cast of characters as each one enters the house... and meets a different gruesome fate. Lance Hayward, a silent movie star, appears as various characters, killing quite a handful of unfortunates, using various weapons. Cameron Mitchell plays Detective Sanders.
The final directorial effort from the late filmmaker Andre De Toth, Terror Night is a schlocky horror flick featuring such B-list performers as Alan Hale Jr. of Gilligan's Island and Dan Haggerty of Grizzly Adams. Set in a creepy mansion, the film follows a cast of characters as each one enters the house... and meets a different gruesome fate. Lance Hayward, a silent movie star, appears as various characters, killing quite a handful of unfortunates, using various weapons. Cameron Mitchell plays Detective Sanders.
