Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Treasure Hunt; SCORE!

Cool thrift store find of the day. I've got a weird relationship with Lynch's films. Wild At Heart is my absolute favorite and was an influence on me, but I've often found myself loving and hating his other films at the same time. Take Lost Highway-I loved every second of that film until it ended and I yelled "What the F-?!?" at the screen. I don't know why, it was so good, then something went wrong for me, similar experiences with Blue Velvet, Eraser Head, and the Elephant Man, but I just hated Dune and hated it even more when I discovered Alejandro Jodorowsky was set to make Dune with Moebius, Dan O'Bannon, and HR Giger (at least they got to go on and team up with Ridley Scott for Alien, but still, Dune by Jodorowsky would have been incredible!).
Anyway, regardless of how I feel about his films, I have enormous respect for Lynch as a man and an artist and his new song Crazy Clown Time is awesome!

My Heroes Have Always Been Monsters Part 12

The first thing that ever truly scared me so bad that I couldn't sleep for a week was an episode of George Romero's horror anthology tv series Tales From The Darkside featuring a little white monkey demon that lived in a little closet.






"Inside The Closet" was directed by FX master/gore guru Tom Savini-a name that didn't mean anything to me back in elementary school, but years later would be one that I sought out in my journey deeper into the world of horror.








Tales From The Darkside ran from '83 to '88, after the success of Romero's film Creepshow. That show haunted me as a kid, and I was one that would have nightmares if I saw a commercial for a Friday The 13th film. But the show never seemed quite as scary as the opening, until I saw "In The Closet". My heart was racing even before the reveal of the monster and when it was finally shown in all it's horrible glory, my mind shut down and I fled the room!
I'm not giving away any plot points, I'm just recommending you hunt down this episode. It's a fantastic series and has been collected on DVD. TV and horror have only been right together a few times, this is a shining example of a win.
Here's the opening...
Keep watching the sky, nerds!

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Kitty In A Casket's Bride of the Monster!
These guys are new to me, but so far I like what I hear!

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

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Thunderkiss '65 by White Zombie. I used to jam to this album on the back roads out in Hickville where I grew up. 

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The band is Plan 9, this is their video. I dig this, but I just found out the singer passed away back in September of '08. Really bums me out, I just found out about them recently. I guess there were two albums.
 Great Misfits legacy band here. 

Exploding Toy Box

OOO! Look what Diamond Select has coming..!

And a new Munsters tv show is in the works too. It's a good time to a fan!

Zombie Attack in Miami..?

CBS Miami has been reporting an incident about a naked cannibal found eating the face of another naked man. When told to stop by the police the man looked up, growled and returned to eating the victim's face. The cop had to shoot him, which had no effect, so the cop shot a few more times to finally take him down.

Now, the cops are blaming a new LSD for the incidents...In my youth, I had some experiences...Those experiences NEVER led me to being naked or eating my friend's face. And I've NEVER heard of such a thing occurring. For the sake of the world I hope the LSD angle is true and the cops get the drug off the street, because we know how the alternative ends...















Tuesday, May 22, 2012

My Heroes Have Always Been Monsters Part 11


Another pick from my kid, and one of my faves from childhood; The Wolfman! There hasn't been a glut of great werewolf films since Lon Chaney Jr-A few of note being Hammer's The Curse of The Werewolf, American Werewolf In London, Dog Soldiers, and I always enjoyed the Howling series and the tv show Werewolf. But Universal's The Wolfman will always take the top spot and I've got to give a thumbs up to Frankenstein Meets The Wolfman (with Bela Lugosi as the monster)

Here's the trailer for Frankenstein Meets The Wolfman...
Keep watching the sky, nerds!

New Flick Time!

This looks awesome!






















Here's a look at the red band trailer!

My Heroes Have Always Been Monsters Part 10

I didn't grow up near a comic shop, but the grocery store had a spinner rack. That rack never had Swamp Thing. I been following Detective Comics, Spectacular SpiderMan, The Punisher, and Daredevil, but I knew there was a whole world I was missing out on.
But there was a magical trip to Knoxville (the biggish city 45 minutes from my hometown) that finally put me next to a comic shop. I don't remember why we at that strip mall, but next door to where we were going was a comic shop and my parents dumped me there while they did whatever the hell they were doing.
I started digging through the long boxes, desperately searching for all those cool titles I'd only heard of, Swamp Thing was at the top of my list. This cover to the left was the first issue I pulled out of the box and the first of four I bought that day.
Len Wein and Bernie Wrightson created Swamp Thing who made his debut in 1971 in House of Secrets. His series debuted in '72 and was a successful and popular run, but sales began to dwindle towards the end. It was brought back ahead of the Wes Craven film adaptation. Writing duties were turned over to Alan Moore and the book became the first comic to abandon the Comics Code, becoming an adults only title. Moore's run is also notable for the great artists who worked on the book (Rick Veitch and Steve Bissette) and for the introduction of John Constantine, Hellblazer.
 Though sales dropped in the 90's and the book was cancelled, the character remained a fan favorite. There was a new Vertigo series in 2004 written by Andy Diggle. That series kicked off with Swamp Thing as the antagonist and his daughter Tefe trying to stop him. Swamp Thing's old nemesis Anton Arcane returned in a bloody story arc and horror comic legend Richard Corben contributed to some issues, but unfortunately low sales doomed that series, but fans would get a treat when Swamp Thing returned in Geof Johns' Brightest Day series.
Now the new series is set to crossover with another character that started off in the regular DC universe and crossed over to the adults only Vertigo, Animal Man (another favorite of mine, and currently one of the best books on the shelf).
I don't see much point in talking about the two movies, although the first isn't the worst thing ever and has some interesting moments. The tv series from USA network that ran nearly 100 episodes is much better and is now collected on DVD in three volumes.
 A search on Youtube will get you to the animated series I'm sure, but you don't want to go there...The theme song alone, ugh (shudders).
Hopefully this new Swamp Thing series will be around for a long run, Not one issue has been a disappointment.














Keep watching the sky, nerds!

King Vulture's Sound Attack

Richard Kern's dark and gory video for Sonic Youth's "Death Valley '69" featuring Lydia Lunch. Manson inspired madness, from Bad Moon Rising.

Friday, May 18, 2012

My Heroes Have Always Been Monsters Part 9

Alice Cooper quite literally saved my life. I won't get into all the dark details, but I had resigned myself to exiting this world when the single for "Hey Stoopid" came out. It was an anti-suicide song at a time when I was too immature to see other options and too depressed to care. "This ain't your daddy talking...your story ain't so shocking" and "They win, you lose!" really resounded with me and gave me a reason to keep slogging through the crap. I'd been a fan of Alice since I caught Class of 1984 on late night tv and "I Am The Future" was the theme song for the film. I had known his name since I was very young because my cousin had Alice's posters hanging in his room and in 1989 when the video for "Poison" came out my mother flipped out and banned his music from our home because she knew what a sick, satanic freak he was and wouldn't stand for me watching his videos..! Good luck enforcing that!  I became obsessed and had to have every album and skipped lunch, pocketing my lunch money to save up for every cassette I could lay my hands on.
Alice's music has been a staple for more than two thirds of my life. I still play Dada, Love It To Death, Last Temptation, and From The Inside on a regular basis and will be catching him with Iron Maiden this summer!
What inspired this chapter was news that The Strange Case of Alice Cooper will finally be available on DVD on May 22, 2012. The description below comes from the Amazon listing...



The Strange Case Of Alice Cooper is more than a concert film. It is the warped tale of one man's descent into madness, a theatrical rock 'n' roll spectacle that could only emerge from the twisted imagination of Alice Cooper. Filmed during a stop on the Madhouse Rock Tour in 1979, Strange Case was inspired by Alice's stay in a New York sanitarium and the people he encountered there. Vincent Price introduces the proceedings as ghoulish doctors and transvestite nurses cross paths with dancing bottles of alcohol. All the while, Alice performs songs off his album From The Inside, as well as many of his most well-known and best-loved hits.

The DVD also contains a brand-new commentary track by Alice Cooper.
[Setlist]
  1. From The Inside
  2. Serious
  3. Nurse Rozetta
  4. The Quiet Room
  5. I Never Cry
  6. Devil's Food
  7. Welcome To My Nightmare
  8. Billion Dollar Babies
  9. Only Women Bleed
  10. No More Mr. Nice Guy
  11. I'm Eighteen
  12. The Black Widow
  13. Wish I Was Born In Beverly Hills
  14. Ballad Of Dwight Fry
  15. Go To Hell
  16. How You Gonna See Me Now
  17. Inmates (We're All Crazy)
  18. School's Out

Pair this with the Welcome To My Nightmare concert film and you have an amazing double feature of shock rock awesome. 

Keep watching the sky, nerds!

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Electric Frankenstein 'Up From The Street' from the epic album How To Make A Monster!

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

My Heroes Have Always Been Monsters Part 8

The Invisible Man has always fascinated me. Think of the possibilities, think of the torture..! HG Wells wrote the novella in 1897 and Universal Studios made the film in 1933 directed by the great James Whale, who also directed Universal's Frankenstein.






Happy Mad Scientist Day, nerds!

Monday, May 14, 2012

Treasure Hunt; Score!

Thrift shop score! Hangman from Milton Bradley, 1976, with Vincent Price on the cover!


Here's the comercial, plus some other crap at the end.

My Heroes Have Always Been Monsters Part 7

    Re-Animator remains one of my all time favorite movies. Based on the story Herbert West-Reanimator by  HP Lovecraft, it's a gore soaked take on the Frankenstein story with wild and disgusting effects from start to stop. Directed by Stuart Gordon (who has done other masterful adaptations of Lovecraft-Dagon, From Beyond, Castle Freak) and produced by Brian Yuzna (who would go on to make the sequels Bride of Re-Animator and Beyond Re-Animator), the movie follows the exploits of Herbert West, a young doctor who develops an chemical agent that can bring the dead back to life. Unlike Dr. Frankenstein, who becomes horrified and disgusted with what he has created, West accelerates his experimentation, feverishly trying to perfect the dosage, and overcome death once and for all. His roommate becomes entangled in West's madness and together they run headlong into a downward spiral of violence and horror.
West is played by Jeffrey Combs,  who has starred in eight Lovecraft adaptations, Re-Animator is his most famous role. Combs is the anchor of the film, with his steely coolness and never backing down from the madness.


Keep watching the sky, nerds!

King Vulture's Sound Attack

Who Was In My Room Last Night by the Butthole Surfers!

Sunday, May 13, 2012

Nightbreed The Cabal Cut Gets A Screening!

YEA YEA YEA! Bloody Disgusting posted a story I'm stoked about! A new cut of Clive Barker's fantastic Nightbreed! Based on Barker's novella Cabal that appeared in the sixth volume of his Books Of Blood, the film crashed and burned upon release and Barker cried foul against the studio for ruining the film, but the Nightbreed has a dedicated cult following and the news of additional footage, getting closer to Barker's original vision, is a godsend for fans. Here's the story Bloody Disgusting ran; (visit their site, by the way, they're great!)


The “director’s cut” of Clive Barker’s Nightbreed has been a highly sought-after and highly intangible experience for horror fans ever since the film’s release over two decades ago. And while those seeking it out may not have crossed the finish line quite yet, there’s now a “Cabal Cut” which may be the closest we ever get to Barker’s original vision. And it’s playing LA’s New Beverly Cinema on June 10th, hosted by Days of the Dead.
In 2009 Seraphim’s Mark Miller contacted Morgan Creek and found out that there may well be more to the Myth than anyone had thought. Two European encoded VHS tapes were discovered and sent to Phil and Sarah Stokes, who run Clive Barker’s website, Revelations. They viewed the tapes and saw what nobody had seen in almost 2 decades; additional Nightbreed footage. Phil and Sarah transferred the footage to DVD and, with Clive’s approval, announced to the world that missing footage for Clive’s film had been found. Inspired to see Clive’s original vision come to light, filmmaker Russell Cherrington, longtime friend of Clive Barker and Seraphim, took the DVD back to England and, working with editor Jimmi Johnson and Clive Barker’s original Script, created the new cut ofNightbreed composited from two the VHS sources and the original Warner Brothers DVD. The original cinema release of Nightbreed was fused with the workprint to create The Cabal Cut.
Head to Occupy Midian for more details. 
Posted by EvanDickson on May 12, 2012 @ 8:14pm 





Friday, May 11, 2012

New Flick Time; The Loved Ones

Have you seen the trailer for THE LOVED ONES? This looks like a lil' bit of fun!




Starring Xavier Samuel, Robin McLeavy, Jessica McNamee, Richard Wilson and Victoria Thaine, “Lola Stone asked Brent Mitchell to the prom, but Brent said no, and now he’s screwed. What happens when Lola doesn’t get what she wants? She enlists Daddy’s help to throw a prom of her own, where she is queen and Brent is king — whether he likes it or not. THE LOVED ONES is what happens when puppy love goes horribly, violently wrong. Brent should have said yes…

Thursday, May 10, 2012

My Heroes Have Always Been Monsters Part 6

I'm letting my son pick this chapter of My Heroes Have Always Been Monsters and he picked the second horror movie I've shared with him, The Bat (the first was The Fly, both starring Vincent Price).
Townes had this to say about The Bat; "The Bat was kinda scary because he had the metal claws. It was pretty awesome because it had Vincent Price in it."
How many 8 year olds do you know who knows Vincent Price? It's a great film, maybe not Mr Price's best, but the villain is great!
Keep watching the sky, nerds!


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Angry Samoans with LIGHTS OUT!

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

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My old buddy, Angus, hipped me to these guys-The Upper Crust w/ Let Them Eat Rock!

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

King Vulture's Sound Attack

Sabbath, the Gillian era!

The End of Faust Finally Upon Us?

So. Supposedly in October and November we will be getting issues 14 and 15 of David Quinn and Tim Vigil's Faust, Love of the Damned, which will mark the end of the series after twenty five years. I've been following this book for about twenty two of those years (my buddy Jase and I found our first copies of Faust after scouring the floor of the Knoxville Comic Con when we were fourteen) and it's been twenty two years of frustration.
For those of you who don't know Faust it is not a nice comic book and the main character, John Jaspers, is no hero. The black and white book is notorious for hardcore graphic violence and hardcore graphic sex, often mixing the two in a shocking concoction that hasn't lost a bit of bite in all these years.
I got hipped to the comic through Fangoria that did an excellent article on that book and others published by the creators' indie imprint Rebel Studios (Dog, Springheel Jack, Darkstar). I'd seen nothing like Tim Vigil's art and had to have every issue, well good luck with that! Every shop I went to for years, every booth at every comic con, treated Jase and I like hell spawn crapping on their Fantastic Fours when we'd ask about Faust-and yet these men of high morals would still sell this adult title to fourteen year olds without a second thought. Once a shop owner got red faced and started yelling about how he'd never carry that trash in his shop.
You've probably noticed the numbers don't add up-fifteen issues in twenty five years with no set schedule for when an issue would come out...not to mention two other mini-series spinoffs. Issues were so hard to find, since most were purchased pre-internet. But now it's almost over and I'm relieved. Really! I've been waiting for more than two decades to see how the series ends and I'm anxiously looking forward to reading the last issue, so I can put this dark little obsession away and stop thinking about it.
Oh and there was a movie. I wish I could recommend it, but it just wimps out every step of the way, which is bizarre because the director, the great Brain Yuzna (the ReAnimator films, Return of the Living Dead 3, Progeny) has made far more extreme films, Beyond ReAnimator for example, but with Faust he just didn't take it anywhere near the level of gore (much less sex) that one would have expected. That's all I'll say about the film, I'm no critic, and people should make up their own minds.
It's hard to believe it's been twenty five years, those bloody, disturbing covers still seem so fresh.

You Should Know Vincent Locke







Monday, May 7, 2012

King Vulture's Sound Attack

Rockabilly icon, actor, producer, wrestling manager...A true renaissance man..!
Johnny Legend doing his eponymous hit Pencil Neck Geek!

Sunday, May 6, 2012

My Heroes Have Always Been Monsters Part 5

I caught Frank Henenlotter's Basket Case late one night and at first thought I was watching a pretty stupid movie, but about half way through I realized it was pretty wrong and it creeped me out pretty bad. To me this movie loses nothing with age and remains a freaky classic like the classic Troma Films and the works of John Waters.

You Should Know Bernie Wrightson



 

Dario Argento's Bloody Dracula

Dario Argento is one of my all time favorite directors and I'm excited to see him tackle one of the classic monsters. I would have preferred it be the Frankenstein movie he wanted to make in the 80s, but let's take what we can get! Here's the leaked trailer with work in progress special f/x. Below is the maestro talking about the film, it's importance and his process. 

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The Cramps' Bikini Girls With Machine Guns!

You Should Know Kelley Jones




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The Fly by the Mummies from the Mummies Play Their Own Records!

My Heroes Have Always Been Monsters Part 4

It's starting to look like a sausage fest in here, where's all the women at? How about Vampirella? What's not to love about a kick ass lady-vamp from the planet Drakulon dressed in one of the most impractical costume in the history of comics?

















And yes, there was a movie...

Treasure Hunt; Score!

Free comic book day was yesterday and in the awesome dollar tent I found a Wrath of the Spectre and a Charlton Comics Ghostly Tales! 

Thursday, May 3, 2012

My Heroes Have Always Been Monsters Part 3

One of the most iconic images in rock is the Misfits skull, which is based on that weirdo up there, The Crimson Ghost. This was a great serial from 1946. The first thing that captured my attention was the cassette cover of The Misfits Collection, with the neon ylleowish/green close up of CG, flipped it over and checked out the song titles-Horror Business, I Turned Into A Martian, Ghouls' Night Out, Die Die My Darling, etc-and I was sold I had to hear this band. It was only years later that I found out about the film serial. Ham-fisted and creepy at the same time!

Keep watching the sky, nerds!

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Keith Morris's (Black Flag/Circle Jerks) newest band. Fantastic!

John Dies At The End

I'm a big fan of Don Coscarelli's work, this looks amazing!




Treasure Hunt; Ghost Manor

Charlston Comics published this great series from 1968 to 1984. You can see thumbnails of every cover here.

Before I had Fangoria, Ghost Manor fueled my love of horror. This issue to the left was my favorite.

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One of my favorite tracks from the final Ramones album.