Pet Sematary 2 and references to the original

Watched this one again today for some quasi-King points. I've always liked the movie, and I love that it has the same vibe/setting/director as the first. What I noticed this time is how often it references the original.

First off, it's set in the same city. There's a few times throughout where they mention the Creed family, and what happened to them. There's also a doctor that was familiar with the strange case of Church the cat, and that guy was a kook who could have probably had his own spin-off as a crazed taxidermist who reminisces of that Indian burial ground.

Furlong and company are in the pet sematary to relay the story of Louis Creed. The bully claims that Elle Creed went nuts and dug up corpses and licked their faces and whatnot, but for the director's sake, I think he elaborated. The bully said that Gage had maggots in his eyes when Louis dug him up, but he clearly didn't. I'm pretty sure Mary Lambert (director) said that if she did a part 3, it would be Elle Creed's story. Too bad that shitty remake came out and laid that idea to rest, because whatever she came up with would have been better than the remake.



But PS2 is a pretty fun movie. Clearly a step down from the original, a bit cheesy at times, but it has some good gore, and Clancy Brown steals the whole show as the asshole sheriff Gus. This is easily my favorite of his performances, and the dude was Mister Krabs. "I like money!"

This was back at the height of Eddie Furlong's career. Straight off of T2, he makes this one. Kind of a horror fan in iit, as his mother was a horror actress, and he dressed as Jason for Halloween during that one scene. He'd later go on to play a more hardcore horror fan in "Brainscan", which I was also kind of obsessed with as a kid, becaused I loved all three of these movies as a youth.

We're gonna need Two Turnips in Heat

Horror movies in ancient Greece?!?

I was just thinking about the first Omen movie, from 1976. It is excellent in soooo many different ways, of course: music, cast, abrupt beheadings (always an important consideration), and, perhaps mportantly... settings.

I think one big reason The Omen gets under all our skin is because it is largely set in places that had a lot of significance in Western culture. Rome, London, and... well, Israel, if not necessarily Jerusalem... I can't remember if there's a brief shot of Jerusalem somewhere in there, like right when Gregory Peck flies in, maybe... whatever. My point is that so many of our traditions and cultural history is rooted in those places. My hair almost starts standing on end when I just hear the names of those places, even without thinking of them in the context of a horror movie. You just think of London, Rome, and Israel, and you can just feel the weight of centuries and millennia of important human history. The movie draws upon that feeling, I think. You just feel like "oh wow, so many hugely important things that affected the destinies of millions of people, and BILLIONS of their descendants, happened in these locations. Now, in this movie... um... something ELSE is happening that may affect the fate of the world..." I get goosebumps just thinking about it.

So, here's where ancient Greece comes in. Why are there so few, if any, horror movies that exploit similar feelinds that we should have about ancient Greece? Athens, especially? I mean, Athens was a pretty damned important place in the development of democracy and philosophy, right? But I can't even think of any horror movies that plug into that, and try to give us a horror movie type of reaction to things that went down there. I mean, there are some SyFy channel type movies about minotaurs, chimeras, harpies, and various Greek mythological creatures. And Greek gods and heroes have their share of movies. But there's hardly anything that tries to create a horror movie type of shivery frisson feeling about trhe birth of democracy or philosophy. It feels funny even thinking about this, like it's a silly thing to think about. But why is that?

Maybe it's because democracy and philosophy at least try, or sometimes maybe just pretend to try, to be about being RATIONAL, whereas horror movies are all about the IRRATIONAL side of humanity. But, just in the sense of the weight of many, many centuries of human history, it seems like Athens could potentially elicit the same kind of reaction that we get from hearing about Rome, London, and Israel in The Omen.

I guess this could work in a time travel type of movie. Like, time travellers go back to ancient Athens and affect the developmen of democratic ideas... that would hugely affect all of western history, for as far back as written records go. That idea kind of gives me that shivery feeling, just from imagining the sheer scale of the significance of things that happened in that location. But it's different from the Omen feeling I get. I guess it's just because the things that happened in Athens don't give us a feeling of religious awe or majesty, like a lot of things that went down in the cathedrals and public places of Rome and London.

I don't know if I'm saying this very well, but I feel like I'm on to something here. Anyone have any thoughts about any of this???

RIP Rev D Wayne Love

Movies or books like Passengers (2016)?

Or Pandorum (2009)? Anything set on a large spaceship meant to transport colonists to another star system, over an extremely long period of time, but something goes wrong.

Now that I'm typing this, I am experiencing deja vu. Have I posted this question before, and just forgot?!? Sorry.

Whatever... anyway, there is an old story by Robert Heinlein that I liked a lot when I first discovered it, when I was in around fifth grade. Wait, I read the segment of this called Universe, apparently there is another segment that I'm not sure I ever read. I should seek that out. The collected, total version, including both segments, is discussed here.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orphans_of_the_Sky

I also read Proxima Centauri by Murry Leinster. I had a few books and anthologies of very old science fiction when I was a kid, I didn't even really understand that they were outdated in some ways.... anyway, Proxima Centauri is a short story.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proxima_Centauri_(short_story)

Anyway, I just noticed this little list on Wikipedia, so that'll give me a start. Does anybody here have any thoughts to add to this??
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orphans_of_the_Sky#See_also

The Bay (2012)

Anyone happen to catch this? It's On Demand this month, and I watched it.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1713476/

It's sort of a 70's eco-thriller, done in a found footage style. It's about an entire town getting really, really sick, and many people dying, because of a combination of environmental problems. The main thing that killed people seemed to be a mutated parasite that gew much larger than normal, and did yucky things to people. Anyway, I can't quite put my finger on it, but there's something missing, something lacking. Maybe a love story or some kind of subplot would have fleshed it out a little... not sure.

But, there's one scene in it that I think bears mention. Two cops who don't really realize what is going on in the town go to a house to investigate some kind of complaint, and they go inside, and they just get completely overwhelmed by what is happening. We don't see what they see. The camera is outside the house, in their police cruiser. But we hear them and the people they are trying to help, inside the house, and it's just a really effective scene. It's one of those times when not seeing it makes your mind fill in the blanks, and that makes it even scarier than it would have been if they just showed what happened. It's a really nightmarish scene.

Anyway, it got a 5.6 on IMDB, so that's fairly decent. I think I would roughly agree with that rating, overall. Well, check it out if you get a chance.

Who You Gonna Call?

Who you gonna call?......... PUMPKINHEAD!

https://whdh.com/news/2-young-sisters-walking-on-sidewalk-struck-by-dirt-bike-in-dorchester/

RIP Barbara Perry

You guys, I'm gonna come back and patch this into an earlier thread that I'm pretty sure I posted in the last few months. I just can't find it right this second.

I just wanted to mention, apparently Barbara Perry died this month. I primarily know her because she had a very minor part in the first Trancers movie. She was Mrs. Claus here:



But, I think she is interesting because she had one of the longest acting careers in Hollywood history: 84 years, from 1933 to 2017. That's... about three quarters of the time that Hollywood has even existed. I don't think she was ever super-famous, but she certainly hung in there for quite awhile.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Perry_(actress)

I posted something here recently about an actress named Carla Laemmle, who was in Dracula (1931) and The Phantom of the Opera (1925), and took a shitload of decades off before returning to Hollywood in this millennium, including several films in this decade.

Anyway, I like that kind of thing, trying to connect modern times to very remote periods in history by finding a person who was active in both times.

But, my main point here should be: RIP Barbara Perry.

Zac Efron as Ted Bundy

Anybody watch Netflix's new biopic "Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile"? It's based on a book, for those participating in this month's challenge, and it's a pretty interesting look into the mind of Ted Bundy, one of America's most infamous serial killers.

I'm not very knowledgable about the man except for his reputation, but this movie covers that prominent era of his life, yet it does so in a rather unconventional way. Ted Bundy is a serial killer, but this movie chooses not to focus on any of the actual murders. Sounds like a jip, but it ends up being a somewhat fascinating character study on the man and how his actions have affected the media and those who he'd had forrmer relations with.

Efron kills it as Bundy. No pun intended. Besides being a sexy stud, Efron has charisma, which is a prerequisite in playing a character that was known to be rather normal, and even somewhat charming fellow. And as far as the movie goes, he seems that way. Normal, but with something definitely off about him.

Pretty good flick, also featuring John Malkovich as a courtroom judge, Haley Joel Osmond as Bundy's ex's love interest, Jeffrey Donovan from Burn Notice, that nerd Jim Parsons from Big Bang Theory, and what do you know! It even has James Hetfield from Metallica! So yeah, it's a pretty good cast, good production values, et cetera. Check it out.

Tommy Lee Wallace's ... IT!!!

This was back in 1990, when the tv/miniseries era of Stephen King's works started taking off. I'd presume that's because his books were so long. I know his story for "IT" is some 1000 pages, so that couldn't all fit into just one movie. Not back then, and not today, either, apparently. Certain popular franchises can secure lengthy runtimes, but the 90s preferred the form of the miniseries.

IT: Chapter Two will be out soon. People are going to get their "IT" on, but which "IT" is worth IT? One is a fucking 90s tv-movie x2, and one is a polished Hollywood soiree. Obviously, people today will prefer the movie of today, which glorified an 80s aesthetic.

TV movies back in the day weren't so bad. Everyone can agree that Dark Night of the Scarecrow is a great fucking movie. And IT was a pretty gnarly mini-series, which featured a lot of popular Stephen King themes, like child protagonists, bullies, monsters, period pieces, et cetera.

The movie is back and forth between young and old versions of the characters. The newer films are separated by one, then the other. In the 90s way, you already know who's who in both sides of the story. Not sure how it is in the book, because I don't have time to read books. I just watch movies, including this 3 hour ordeal that features Tim Curry as a goofy circus clown.

I think Tim Curry is great. I can't believe I stood within 5 feet of that man. It breaks my heart to know that such a legend has been disgraced with a string of bad health problems. He could have done so much more. I was still holding out hope for Rocky Horror: Second Coming. Up until a few years ago, he could have done it! 😦

The cast for both halves the characters do great. The current kids are probably deemed cooler on account of pop culture, but the old cast made for a great effort. It also upsets me to know the fate of young Bill Densborough, Jonathan Brandis. He was a member of the 27 club, having hanged himself in 2003. Also, I miss John Ritter.

I guess the tv movies were pretty cheesy in some sense, but they might be Tommy Lee Wallace's most popular effort. Horror fans today are warming up to Halloween III considerably, but IT might be what he's remembered for. The only other thing I know he's done is some shitty Vampire movie with Mister Bovine Joney^{Bon Jovi}, and fuck that guy.

•belch•

IT's a good movie/miniseries. I like it.