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| FEO NEWS FOR SUMMER 2026: - JUNE - The detritus of old Horror/Thriller history can be found here. These are archived news items, many of them linked outside of this website. |
CONQUEST OF THE PLANET OF THE APES is 54
For those who just wanted to See the Apes, they got what they paid for. Those who hoped that this third sequel would live up to the first and third movie, well, this is what they got with CONQUEST OF THE PLANET OF THE APES. And - JUDGE DREDD is 31
Throughout the long history of the Comic this movie is based on, we never saw Dredd's face. Okay, but this movie also stars Sylvester Stallone! How ya gonna pay the big bucks to an A-List actor and not show his face? Unfortunately, once that happened, Dredd stopped being the Judge of mystery and became the face of Rocky and Rambo. Is that why the box office suffered over JUDGE DREDD? Plus - SPIDER-MAN 2 is 22
When it comes to a director being up against the wall with his mega-budget picture, you can't get worse than being up against the evil act of the September 9, 2001 World Trade Center attack. And yet, in a new world where there are no superheroes to save the day, Director Sam Raimi pulled off the seemingly impossible. No one could have blamed him if SPIDER-MAN flopped, but it was a box office slam-dunk! The sequel was quickly put into production, striking while the "iron is hot" as they used to say in Hollywood. Could Sam Raimi pull off a miracle twice with SPIDER-MAN 2? Also - FLIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD is 19
If you can't make your Horror comedy funny, at least make it fun! In 2007 Director and Co-Writer, Scott Thomas, did just that with FLIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (known in some countries as PLANE DEAD). Wassmor - THE TWILIGHT SAGA: ECLIPSE is Only 16
There was no way I could be fair to this franchise. I just didn't connect with the story - at all. Yet I am fortunate to have people in my life who also love to review movies. Such a person was Mark Worthen when he reviewed THE TWILIGHT SAGA: ECLIPSE. Finale - HAPPY HORROR THRILLER BIRTHDAYS TO -
By E.C. McMullen Jr.
YOU DUG IT
3. OBSESSION in its 7th weekend still holds onto #3 this week despite two major movie debuts and a 28% loss in box office against a 88 screen cut. This movie is the Horror hit of the summer and of 2026, having made over 371 times its Production budget and, at only #3 might hit the unprecedented 400X mark before leaving the Top Ten. 5. DISCLOSURE DAY is possibly the worst performing movie in Steven Spielberg's history as a director. Dropping from last weekend's #2 spot with a 56% loss in box office against a 467 screen cut, this is a depressing time for all us fans who grew up remembering Spielberg making our childhood summers extra special. 6. BACKROOMS, in its 5th weekend, lost only a minor 34% in box office despite a whopping huge 455 screen cut. This movie has made 33 times its Production Budget and might have another two to three weeks on the Top Ten. 7. SCARY MOVIE in its 4th weekend, loses another 52% of its box office. This time against a 721 screen cut. Still, having made nearly 7 times its budget, this might still reinvigorate the franchise. 8. MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE in its 4th weekend, stumbled from last weekend's #6 bleeding a gout of 62% loss in ticket sales against a 427 screen cut. YOU BURIED IT 11. LEVITICUS, in only its second weekend, stumbled from last weekend's 9th place, right off the Top Ten. Opening on just over 1,060 screens and suffering a box office loss of 62%, this movie never stood a chance. Figures calibrated from reporting by Box Office Mojo and The Numbers. Should there be differences between the two, I err on the side of caution and post the most positive numbers. And - 21 Years of Steven Spielberg's WAR OF THE WORLDS
"But wait!" You may say. "H.G. Wells wrote the novel. Shouldn't you call it H.G. Wells WAR OF THE WORLDS?" Not if you saw what Steven Spielberg did to it. And We saw it on opening day! Steven Spielberg's THE WAR OF THE WORLDS. Plus - HAPPY HORROR THRILLER BIRTHDAYS TO - SUNDAY -
Actor, Writer, Producer Felicia Day (DELUSIONAL, BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER [TV], MYSTERY WOMAN, EUReKA [TV], DR. HORRIBLE'S SING-ALONG BLOG, RED: WEREWOLF HUNTER, ROCK JOCKS, SUPERNATURAL [TV], MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000: THE RETURN, THE MAGICIANS [TV], SPOOKED [TV], MONSTER HIGH [TV], TIM TRAVERS AND THE TIME TRAVELERS PARADOX) is 47. BEGINNING OF THE END is 69
Big Horror is in! Quick! Let's make a giant dinosaur movie! But everybody is making giant dinosaur movies! How can we compete on our budget? Then let's make a giant insect movie! You mean like that new movie, THEM? Is it a hit? Oh yeah! Yeah! Let's make a movie just like THEM! But, y'know, cheaper. We'll call it, Beginning of the Them! That's asking for a lawsuit. Fine! Uh... how about BEGINNING OF THE END? SATURDAY -
Writer, Director, Producer J.J. Abrams (JOY RIDE, ALIAS [TV], LOST [TV], FRINGE [TV], CLOVERFIELD [all], STAR TREK [2009], SUPER 8, STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS, ALMOST HUMAN [TV], REVOLUTION [TV], BELIEVE, DEAD PEOPLE, WESTWORLD [TV], OVERLORD, CASTLE ROCK [TV], LOVECRAFT COUNTRY [TV], LISEY'S STORY [TV], UFO [TV]) is 60. THE QUATERMASS EXPERIMENT Turns 69!
DOCTOR WHO? Poo! Before there was Doctor Who there was Nigel Kneale's mega-popular QUATERMASS: a fantastically brilliant boffin disguised by nature as a common as mud schlub, battling against the forces of evil aliens in order to save earth. Take a trip back to 1956 and read about the movie franchise's first stumble, thanks to a BBC that sold the movie rights, paid the author nothing, and didn't care what happened next. What happened next was that the American investor (and uncredited co-Producer) demanded that British scientist Quatermass be played by American actor Brian Donlevy - who didn't like the material, didn't like the very idea of the character, and didn't even attempt a British accent. Also, the investor wanted a plum role for his girlfriend and top billing, and got that too. That's Margia Dean on the poster. But that's all trivia, read Kelly Park's review of THE QUATERMASS EXPERIMENT aka THE CREEPING UNKNOWN. 28 DAYS LATER is 24
Wanting to be experimental, though not avant garde, Director Danny Boyle wanted to try his hand at Horror. He wanted that news video look without making a "lost footage" movie. To that end he shot this movie in Standard Definition, using Arriflex cameras as well as Super 8mm film and even recording to magnetic tape, using a Canon XL-1. If they ever offer this movie in 4K it won't matter. You can't know the difference between the DVD and a Bluray. Danny got the look he wanted, and made the movie he wanted. The rest is the classic Horror cinema history of 28 DAYS LATER. Snoop Dog's HOOD OF HORROR is 19
With a micro-budget look (though $5 million in actual budget) and an intentional greasy slickness, this movie captured the "So Bad It's Good" ethos that filmmakers from Roger Corman to Lloyd Kaufman have lived and live by. With Snoop as the Crib Keeper, the Hood may already be the depths of Hell and the choice isn't whether or not you're going there, but if you'll be cursed to stay there. The only way out of the pit is up in the anthology movie, Snoop Dog's HOOD OF HORROR. M3GAN 2.0 is an Adorable 1 Year Old
The first sequel is always tough. Especially when your own audience describes your main villain as a female version of a long popular, multi-sequeled villain with decades of IP movies and their own TV series. It's not easy breaking out of that niche. And like that more widely known villain, repurposing the monster into a good guy is fraught with peril. It's one thing for the killer to be an unstoppable evil killing children and late teens, but once its an unstoppable good guy killing children and late teens for their micro-aggressions, the value dims. A bad guy can get away with that, yeah, but a Good Guy? Sure, James Cameron turned his unstoppable bad guy death machine into an unstoppable good guy wound machine with TERMINATOR 2, but that was 35 years ago and he's James Cameron! So this sequel didn't do well at the box office, but this is why I enjoyed M3GAN 2.0.
ALIEN: THE ILLUSTRATED STORY Turns 47
Back in 1979 there were Creepy and Eerie graphic Horror magazines, as well as the new kid, HEAVY METAL magazine. But no color comic was more bloodsoaked with graphic gore than Archie Goodwin and Walter Simonson's graphic adaptation, ALIEN: THE ILLUSTRATED STORY. And the result? HEAVY METAL's version was the first graphic novel to ever hit the New York Times Bestseller list. Plus - THE HURT LOCKER Turns 18
I saw it in theaters and from the big screen to my ears and eyes, the team that made it, under the leadership of Director Kathryn Bigelow (NEAR DARK), had me feeling as if I'd be hurt by the Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) in the movie, THE HURT LOCKER.
THE GIANT GILA MONSTER is 67
Now lissen up all you Hep Cats and Swingin' Chicks! If there's ever a reason for a schlocky Science Fiction Double Feature, this is it. This movie was made to be shown as part of a cheap double feature! This kind of SciFi schlock inspired the creation of the major minor movie company, Troma! This is what created a reason for Mystery Science Theater 3000 to exist! And yes, this is the kind of movie Double Feature that inspired Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino to make their own Double Feature, GRINDHOUSE! This is THE GIANT GILA MONSTER, man! And - THE KILLER SHREWS is 67 too
Dig it, Daddy-O, this misbegotten half of the creature feature is the Mad Scientist committing Mad Science on a deserted island! This is what the professor could have become on GIlligan's Island - if they had more liquor! As such, this is THE KILLER SHREWS. Plus - THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA is 64
One time A-List actor, Cary Grant, may have looked upon an aging Vincent Price and his late surge back to A-List. True, Vinny was acting for low budget mini-major studios like American International Pictures, but the money was great, the audience didn't care who released what, and Vince was treated like Hollywood royalty: Like Cary used to have and wanted back. Thinking that he too could benefit from Horror movies, he found that Vincent Price hadn't played the Phantom and he could own the classic role. And in Technicolor! He approached Hammer Studios and they were stoked to have a guaranteed draw like Cary Grant. Of course, there had to be changes. Cary may be playing the villain but his brand is the "Good guy". "I say, old shoe, your contemporary, Jimmy Stewart, has a career that's never suffered from him playing Good Guys or Bad Guys." "Yes, but I'm the Good Guy." "You want to play the Phantom as a Good Guy?" "Yes, or I won't do the picture." They really wanted Cary, so Hammer raised the budget Grant demanded, had their ace scribe, Jimmy Sangster, write in an evil henchman who would actually do all the nasty work, and the lavish set building began. Script complete, Cary still didn't like it (he didn't like a script from a Master Scribe like Jimmy Sangster? The Cad!). The Phantom character, Eric, was sympathetic, but still a villain. Still too much Horror. "Now see here, old twat, you came to us! We're a Horror movie studio and you are the one who asked for this classic Horror Revenge story. Horror is what fans and critics who love the book and author Gaston Leroux want." "I've changed my mind," said Cary, and Poof! he was gone. So much for a Gentlemen's Agreement. Hammer already spent much of the budget on sets for a promised Cary Grant. Now what were they going to do with THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA? Also - THE OMEN is 50
The world of filmmaking stood up and took notice when Director William Friedkin's THE EXORCIST, based on the novel by William Peter Blatty, became such a monster smash hit. Movies of defeating the devil - without actually destroying him - were in high demand but few knew the formula. All manner of nitwit Devil movies from THE HOUSE OF EXORCISM to THE DEVIL'S RAIN and more, were released with high first weekend returns and a box office freefall the following week. A few, like THE CAR, were even decent despite themselves. But there was a specific group of religious people who seemed to have a knack for bringing the box office in Christian musicals and movies - and they weren't Christians. Jewish showbiz folks were creating Christian entertainment better than Christians could. From hits like Jesus Christ Superstar to Godsend? Christ all mighty there seemed no end to it (but there was: Leonard Bernstein's MASS. Great Cthulhu, what an insipid piece of crap! You could find more genuine emotion back then from a Coca Cola TV ad). But all of these stopped dead when it came to Horror. Nobody seemed to understand the secret sauce that Friedkin pulled off (adapting a NYT bestseller written by a deeply devout Catholic author who believed it all with dead seriousness). Then three Jewish men: Producer Harvey Bernard (THE BEAST WITHIN, THE GOONIES, THE LOST BOYS), Writer David Seltzer (THE HELLSTROM CHRONICLE, PROPHECY, THE EIGHTEENTH ANGEL, REVELATIONS [TV] - plenty of Christian themes), and Director Richard Donner (SCROOGED - I know, right? Christian theme again!) were ready to give it a shot and, in 1976 they succeeded beyond reason with THE OMEN. Wassmor - John Carpenter's THE THING is 45
This is the theatrical flop that became a cult classic in home video, then moved so far beyond cult classic it became one of Universal Pictures hottest properties and a crown jewel of their intellectual properties. This was more than a case of bad marketing or promotion by the studio. Test audiences were appalled by it. Critics reviled in its theatrical release, "Your movie embraces everything a Horror movie should be! We hate it!" yet this movie didn't gather dust, languishing in ye olde video rental booteeks. To the contrary, businesses had a hard time keeping the movie in stock. Folks would rent it - then steal it! This wasn't limited to mere big city hits, either. Universal Studios suits, like all major studios of that era, were ever cautious of "How will it play in Poughkeepsi? How will it play in the midwest? The bible belt?", found itself embraced by every strata of audience tier. A mere decade later and it was being praised for the cinematic achievement it always was and many a harsh critic, finding themselves impugned by their own readership, hurriedly gave it "another chance". A pretty, petty way that professional movie critics bow and scrape when the audience stops listening to them and turns against them. New audiences come of age every year, so let's refresh for the uninitiated, why your grandfather's movie remains one of the best Horror movies ever and a must for any movie fan's library. John Carpenter's THE THING. NotherThing - BLADE RUNNER Is 45, too
When pointing out great movies that bombed in theaters, only to achieve mad success in home video, John Carpenter's THE THING is not a fluke. This movie, released the same day, month, and year against it, is proof of that. Just what the hell was going on, on June 25, 1982, anyway? I'll tell you. Steven Spielberg's E.T. The Extraterrestrial was winning its third straight weekend at #1. It was the biggest Summer Spielberg ever had. In its 3rd weekend, E.T. experienced a 51.9% Rise in ticket sales: Unheard of! Back to the point, in case you never knew, Ridley Scott went straight up against John Carpenter in the same year and weekend. Both movies are considered great, monumental achievements in cinema. Both crashed and burned against Steven Spielberg's One-Two punch of POLTERGIEST and E.T. (both of which aged and fell while Carpenter and Scott's movies soared). In the case of John Carpenter, though the critics trached him and his movie, he never had to change a thing about THE THING. Ridley Scott, on the other hand and over the decades, was lavishly praised for a movie he thought was deeply flawed "Your child's face is severely deformed, yet its so well dressed!" Scott would eventually go to the editing bay 5 times for 5 different drafts, before he was finally happy - or at least satisfied - with BLADE RUNNER. Finale - HAPPY HORROR THRILLER BIRTHDAYS TO -
Writer / Producer / Director Timur Bekmambetov (NIGHT WATCH, DAY WATCH, WANTED, 9, APOLLO 18, THE DARKEST HOUR, ABRAHAM LINCOLN: VAMPIRE HUNTER, UNFRIENDED, HARDCORE HENRY, SEARCHING, PROFILE, UNFRIENDED: DARK WEB, RESURRECTED, BLOAT, WAR OF THE WORLDS, MERCY) is 64.
LAND OF THE DEAD is Old Enough to Drink All the Beer
What can it hurt? They're dead! It never matters how many people are raving for your movie online. All that ever matters are the ticket sales. When your movie goes wide and lands high on the box office top ten, then drops like a stone, you've lost your hardcore fans. That's what happened when the much anticipated LAND OF THE DEAD fell off the Top Ten in only one single week. And - TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN is 16
It was astounding how fast the TRANSFORMER franchise tanked. Out of all of the great stuff in the first Michael Bay movie, he publicly chose to double down on all of the worst of his first. Even fans of his TRANSFORMER movies point to this as where it all went wrong. This is why TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN gets so much flak. Plus - HAPPY HORROR THRILLER BIRTHDAYS TO -
Actor Nancy Allen (FORCED ENTRY, CARRIE [1976], DRESSED TO KILL, BLOW OUT, STRANGE INVADERS [1983], THE PHILADELPHIA EXPERIMENT [1984], ROBOCOP, POLTERGEIST III, ROBOCOP 2, ROBOCOP 3, MEMORIES OF MURDER, ACTING ON IMPULSE, AGAINST THE LAW, THE PASS, CHILDREN OF THE CORN 666: ISAAC'S RETURN, KISS TOLEDO GOODBYE, MY APOCALYPSE) is 76.
HAPPY HORROR THRILLER BIRTHDAYS TO -
Musician Glenn Danzig (Bands: SAMHAIN, THE MISFITS. Solo: DANZIG) is 70.
Yep. And he also directed MTV's first broadcast music video, The Buggles, "Video Killed The Radio Star". Russell directed most of Elton John's music videos since the 1980s and his name dominates the list of the most iconic music videos of all time, including The Vapors: "Turning Japanese", Kim Karnes: "Bette Davis Eyes", Duran Duran: "Hungry Like The Wolf", Bonnie Tyler's "Total Eclipse of the Heart", and way more.
Mulcahy's Quick-Cut cinema-style of hallucinatory, dreamy, often nightmarish visuals, coupled with a creative use of dutch-tilts and chiaroscuro, were so often copied by lesser directors that, in modern retrospect, his work is both lauded for being the best of what music videos had to offer, as well as being the worst. His style so over-imitated that, like a song played too often on the radio, people got sick of it. Yet it unquestionably defines the era. Russell's stylistic imprint never left the music video industry however, and you can see the color of his influence in some of todays most favored music videos from The Weeknd's "I Can't Feel My Face" to Sia's "Unstoppable" and beyond.
Happy Birthday, dude! Writer and Director Joss Whedon (BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER, ALIEN: RESURRECTION, BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER [TV], FIREFLY [TV], ANGEL [TV], SERENITY, DR. HORRIBLE'S SING-ALONG BLOG, DOLLHOUSE [TV], THE CABIN IN THE WOODS, THE AVENGERS, AGENTS OF S.H.I.E.L.D. [TV], IN YOUR EYES, THE AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON, THE NEVERS [TV]) is 61.
YOU DUG IT
2. DISCLOSURE DAY steps down to the second spot on the Top Ten but the staggering box office drop in ticket sales shows us what Universal Pictures was telling us all along when they didn't release the Production Budget figures. This Steven Spielberg Thriller lost a whopping 62% of its box office in its second weekend. 3. OBSESSION steps down from last weekend's #2 spot with only a 25% drop in ticket sales against a mere 15 screen cut. This means it is still playing on more screens than it had on opening day. And that's after 5 weekends on the Top Ten. This movie isn't just the most profitable of the year so far, but might become the most profitable movie of the 21st Century - thus far. It's also one of those rare movies where the Critics and the Audience agree with each other and the ratings of both average in the high 90s. 4. BACKROOMS holds on to its position from last weekend with a mild 35% drop in ticket sales despite a huge 553 screen cut. 5. SCARY MOVIE continues its fall, stepping down from last weekend's #3 with a 53% drop in box office against a 779 screen cut. 6. MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE slows its descent in its third weekend with a 37% drop in ticket sales despite a huge 1,160 screen cut. 8. LEVITICUS debuts from NEON. Figures calibrated from reporting by Box Office Mojo and The Numbers. Should there be differences between the two, I err on the side of caution and post the most positive numbers. And -
When the blues hit and sunny stories miss, these earthy tales offer Gallows humor, Graveyard grins, gift-wrapped in dread and presented with the quiet comfort of someone who knows the dark. A collection not only for the lost and lonely. From the creator of Feo Amante's Horror Thriller, E.C. McMullen Jr. presents 41 of his sharp short stories that blend the distant with the intimate, the serious with the absurd, and the monstrous with the humane. GRIM GRINS & MORBID MIRTH is available for pre-order and is coming this September 1 in Print and eBook. Plus - HOUSE OF USHER Turns 66
Writer, Director, and Producer, Roger Corman, was out to show the world that he was more than just the King of Schlock (back at a time in his youth when, for financial reasons, he preferred not to be stuck with that moniker and the budget ceiling that came with it). To that end Roger hired popular TWILIGHT ZONE scribe, Richard Matheson (THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN, I AM LEGEND, THE LEGEND OF HELL HOUSE), to reset Edgar Allen Poe's short stories into feature film length and format, a score by mega-popular exotica musician, Les Baxter, and hired still popular though aging Vincent Price (who was eager for Edgar) into doing a series cycle of Poe movies (for the Princely Price of 1/3rd the budget of the movie!). Every single movie was a hit, becoming part of the Corman-Poe Cycle, and still maintains the highest bar for Edgar Allen Poe movies after nearly a century. It's 2026 and despite many other movies based on this tale, none have ever reached the level achieved by 1960's HOUSE OF USHER. Plus - ALIEN Remains One of the Most Influenced AND Influential Science Fiction Horror Movie After 47 Years!
Take the Deepest dig into our review and the once lost history of ALIEN. Finale - HAPPY HORROR THRILLER BIRTHDAYS TO -
Writer / Producer / Director Uwe Boll (BLACKWOODS, HOUSE OF THE DEAD, ALONE IN THE DARK [all], BLOODRAYNE [all], BLUBBERELLA, SEED [all], FINAL STORM, APOCALYPSE Z, LEGEND OF THE RED REAPER, THE PROFANE EXHIBIT, PRISONERS OF THE SUN, ZOMBIE MASSACRE 2, HOUSE OF EVIL) is 60. SUNDAY -
Writer Christa Faust (HOOD TOWN, CONTROL FREAK, MONEY SHOT, SINS OF THE SIRENS [antho], BAD MOTHER, PEEPLAND, MONEY SHOT) is 58. It's Two Years After This Movie's Exact Date When THE THIRTEENTH FLOOR Happened
Find out why Producer Roland Emmerich's best movie ever, may be 1999's THE THIRTEENTH FLOOR. GHOST BREAKERS is 86
Dan O'Bannon and John Carpenter were inspired by old Horror movies like IT: THE TERROR FROM BEYOND SPACE, and Mario Bava's PLANET OF THE VAMPIRES. In fact, both Dan's ALIEN and John's THE THING have a chestburster scene a la, PLANET OF THE VAMPIRES. Stanley Kubrick found inspiration for THE SHINING in the movie ERASERHEAD. And Comic, Writer, and Actor, Dan Aykroyd? His inspiration for GHOSTBUSTERS was this movie, THE GHOST BREAKERS. LIFEFORCE is 41
Based on Colin Wilson's novel THE SPACE VAMPIRES, his energy vampires used intimacy and sex to drain their human food of energy. Because they were beautiful to human eyes, they were irresistible. Because they were aliens, they were naked all of the time. There was no point in making the movie unless the aliens were going to be naked. Which meant the "queen" had to be naked and so had to be beautiful from head to toe. Many actors refused to be in the movie for this specific point. In fact, a group of young German women who appeared for casting all agreed to refuse to undress for full nudity as required. Then they discovered that the young woman who led them into their "revolt" did it so that she could get the part. That's just one of the crazy things that happened during the full production of LIFEFORCE. MINORITY REPORT Is 24
Now that we're actually living in this movie's future, how well has MINORITY REPORT held up? DAHMER is also 24
If you've ever read the Thomas Harris novel, RED DRAGON, or have seen the movie, MANHUNTER, then you are aware that real life investigators, who are best at their job, will find themselves unable to stop thinking about their subjects and begin thinking like their subjects (like the Thomas Harris fictional character of Special Agent Will Graham, or the real life FBI Agents, John Douglas and Rober K. Ressler, who one on one interviewed convicted serial killers, digging deep into their psyches.) "Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you." When such people reach a horrific point where they find themselves starting to think like their subjects, it tends to make them great at their job. They have a feel for what the killer thinks, how they think, why they would think this and not that, and what their next likely move will be. This is a heavy cost. The agents can't stop visualizing the murders as described to them, thinking of the emotional release the killers experienced when doing it, and they often require significantly long down time away from the job or therapy to cope and "bring them back", or an early retirement. This is what actor Jeremy Renner experienced after he chose to embody the real life of serial killer Jeffrey DAHMER. Enki Bilal's IMMORTAL AD VITAM is 21
A flop upon release, this movie spent the last 21 years slowly building a huge following. The indifferent DVD release in the U.S. sold out so strong that it was re-released as a Steelbook edition with extras. Then Bluray with extras. How does a foreign market flop get this much belated attention? Read my review of Enki Bilal's IMMORTAL, based on his long running Heavy Metal magazine comic, NIKOPOL. SATURDAY -
Actor Nicole Kidman (DEAD CALM, MALICE, TO DIE FOR, PRACTICAL MAGIC, EYES WIDE SHUT, THE OTHERS, BIRTHDAY GIRL, PANIC ROOM, DOGVILLE, THE HUMAN STAIN, THE STEPFORD WIVES, INVASION, TRESPASS, THE PAPERBOY, STOKER, BEFORE I GO TO SLEEP, STRANGERLAND, THE FAMILY FANG, SECRET IN THEIR EYES, THE KILLING OF A SACRED DEER, TOP OF THE LAKE, THE BEGUILED, DESTROYER, BIG LITTLE LIES [TV], THE UNDOING [TV], NINE PERECT STRANGERS [TV], THE NORTHMAN, ROAR [TV], BABYGIRL, SPELLBOUND, HOLLAND) who is 58. JAWS is 51
50 years ago today, Steven Spielberg's JAWS hit the theaters and the crowd's jaws hit the floor. My Pop was a surfboarder and later, a body surfer: It was just his thing. To my knowledge he never tried out for competition, he did it for personal enjoyment. This is why I was born in Florida and spent part of my childhood growing up near the coast. Of course, I'm talking about Florida so all of it is near the coast. Before JAWS, Pop never lived anywhere that wasn't within walking distance to a natural body of water. Then in 1975 he saw this movie and he discovered (to his astonishment) that he couldn't do it anymore. He couldn't float in the Atlantic ocean, waiting to catch a wave, while the anxiety of growing paranoia pestered, wondering what he couldn't see beneath the surface, that could see him. Lakes were no better. He always knew there were Alligators and Crocodiles in Florida's fresh water, but that was abstract knowledge until he saw this movie. It preyed on his mind so much that two years later, in 1977, he moved his family to Arizona. That, for better or worse, is the life-changing effect that a story or movie can have on people, and this remains the power of Steven Spielberg's JAWS.
THEM is 71 Years Old
In the early 1950s concern over what the A-Bomb could do was all the uncertainty by the scientists themselves. "What could it do? What Couldn't It Do? Radiation could create disturbing mutations!" Though true, it was a mistake to leave something like this hanging in the air, surrounded by question marks, because Hollywood could only see tiny creatures turned into giants. The 1950s were filled with Big Horror craziness in the West and Kaiju Koo Koo in the east. Humans were shrinking, growing, and all manner of insects and wotnot were turning into giants and one of the most perennial popular, over 70 Years Later, was the one that didn't turn the lead woman character into a Damsel in Distress, but a take-charge Scientist capable of getting things done and leading the charge! Who could have made such a movie in 1954? THEM! And - CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST is 46
Or 41 if we're going by the U.S.A. release, which I do. The thing is, Italian Director Ruggero Deodato made a Lost Footage cannibal Horror movie so realistic that he was tried and convicted in an Italian court and sent to prison. In the days of practical make-up effects, the effects were practically too damn realistical! The court was convinced that people were actually murdered for his movie. Deodato wanted some of the actors in question to come to Italy and testify on his behalf, but there was this one sticky problem... a possible prison sentence as Ruggero's accomplice. Well, more than one problem. See, Ruggero decided to include actual cannibals in his movie for the sake of realism. He followed them around, film running, as they went about their daily lives of doing blood thirsty cruel, atrocious things to each other and especially animals and human outsiders. Oh, you saw SALO? THE HUMAN CENTIPEDE? A SERBIAN FILM? BONE TOMAHAWK? TERRIFIER? Damn good movies all, but no, they come nowhere close to preparing you for CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST. This is why. Plus - HAPPY HORROR THRILLER BIRTHDAYS TO -
By E.C. McMullen Jr.
HAPPY HORROR THRILLER BIRTHDAYS TO -
Actor Jacob Anderson (THE THINGS I HAVEN'T TOLD YOU, GUNRUSH, CHATROOM, 4.3.2.1., DEMONS NEVER DIE, COMEDOWN, GAME OF THRONES [TV], OVERLORD, DR. WHO [TV - 2021 - 2022], INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE [TV], TIMESTALKER, BAD APPLES) is 36.
HAPPY HORROR THRILLER BIRTHDAYS TO -
Actor Marie Avgeropoulos (PERCY JACKSON & THE OLYMPIANS: THE LIGHTNING THIEF, HUNT TO KILL, FUGITIVE AT 17, CULT [TV], THE 100 [TV], NUMB, ISOLATION, DEAD RISING: ENDGAME, JUI JITSU, THE PAINTER) is 39.
GHOSTBUSTERS II is 38
If you can believe it, back in the Horror movie glory days of the 1980s, studios would have a surprise hit movie so huge they could not wait to destroy it with a sequel. Yes you read that right. Studios went out of their way to intentionally destroy any hope a franchise could have by rushing through a shitty sequel. If the rights belonged to the studio itself, it often involved a cheaper budget, with cheap writers, a cheap director, and rehashing the story and jokes of the first one: Like a stand-up comic explaining every joke after telling the punchline. 20th Fox, renown for its corporate culture of burn the profits of the first movie, was as surprised as anyone that Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, was actually a better movie. Then they released ALIENS and OMG! The damn movie was at least the equal of the first ALIEN. Columbia Pictures saw the profitable catastrophe 20th Century Fox was going through and wanted no part of it, which is why they waited nearly five years before releasing a guaranteed franchise killer to GHOSTBUSTERS. The horrifying result to the Columbia studio heads was, the damn movie came too close to being good. This is the tale of doing everything wrong and nearly being right: GHOSTBUSTERS II. Finale - HAPPY HORROR THRILLER BIRTHDAYS TO -
Writer Joyce Carol Oates is known for her novels, which are mostly dramas, and her short stories, which are mostly Horror! Happy 88th!
YOU DUG IT
1. DISCLOSURE DAY hits number one on its debut, but barely. When A-List writers like David Koepp and Steven Spielberg, on a project Directed by Steven Spielberg, and Produced by Steven Spielberg, with Composer John Williams on the side put out a movie, but then the movie studio, Universal Pictures chooses to get cagey with announcing the Production budget? Man, that just don't add up and this weekend audiences apparently figured that out themselves. This movie is number one despite a surprisingly low world-wide box office of $92 mil. 2. OBSESSION once again pops right back up to #2 from last weekend's #4 making a unheard of total of making over 286 times its Production Budget! And yet, the jump back up to #2 is not so much because its doing better than it did last weekend. Its current box office - In Its 5th Weekend - is a slight 25% drop from last weekend against theaters adding 163 more screens! Its rise in the Top Ten is because all of the movies above this Focus Features release last weekend, dropped below it this weekend. Every single one! For example - 3. SCARY MOVIE had a great opening weekend, only to go into freefall in its second weekend with a massive 73% drop in ticket sales, despite adding 14 more screens. That said, its already made nearly 6 times its Production budget so it should be deep into its profit margins. 4. BACKROOMS suffered a 57% drop in ticket sales in its third weekend, falling from last weekend's #2 and losing 161 screens. A24 and the makers of this movie aren't crying though, as its already made 26 times its Production Budget. 5. MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE goes into freefall with a 70% drop in ticket sales in only its second weekend, this movie fell from #2 to its current position, despite losing no screens. You Buried Nothing This Week Figures calibrated from reporting by Box Office Mojo and The Numbers. Should there be differences between the two, I err on the side of caution and post the most positive numbers. And -
When those blues hit and sunny stories miss, these earthy tales offer Gallows humor, Graveyard grins, gift-wrapped in dread and presented with the quiet comfort of someone who knows the dark. Truly a collection not only for the lost and lonely. From the creator of Feo Amante's Horror Thriller, E.C. McMullen Jr. presents 41 of his sharp short stories that blend the distant with the intimate, the serious with the absurd, and the monstrous with the humane. GRIM GRINS & MORBID MIRTH is Coming this September in Print and eBook. Plus - THE LEGEND OF HELL HOUSE Turns 53
Richard Matheson's novel, HELL HOUSE, was loaded with sexual perversions as befitted the ghastly former owner, Emeric Belasco, who was reputed to haunt the mansion. Matheson's novel was practically porn, one of its selling points in fact: Debauchery and Devilments! As Richard also wrote the script, he toned it down, trading all the sex for more scares and horror. That said, planted throughout the movie are the seeds of the novel in every scene of THE LEGEND OF HELL HOUSE. Released on the Same Day, Same Year, in Direct Competition, and both by 20th Century Fox, was BATTLE FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES is 53
By the fourth movie the franchise was getting more political with every sequel so it wasn't attracting the audience it once had. Watching the movies today and seeing the 1960s - 1970s Woke ethos of using the movies to address racial subtext is cringey. Why? Because 20th Century Fox used the concept of oppressed and enslaved APES for America's racial subtext! E-Freaking-GAD! Still, there remained a core audience that, as Primate is my witness, was going to flock to the theaters to the bitter end! That bitter end would be BATTLE FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES. Also - PROPHECY Turns 47
It often seems as if the more Political filmmakers want their movie to be, the less realistic it becomes. The science is supernatural ( Buried beneath the embarrassing Folksy "Woke" of the 1970s is a great monster movie in PROPHECY. Wassmor - GREMLINS 2 is 36
1990 was a great year! Thanks to U.S.A. President Ronald Reagan super-charging the arms race, Yugoslavian Communists, no longer supported by the Soviet Union, ended their 45-year monopoly of power on Jan. 22. The USSR, which suffered under the typical economic depression that follows Socialism / Communism (Communist Party took over in 1922), fully collapsed, being unable to outspend Capitalism, and surrendered their One-Party power over the government on Feb. 7. The U.S. / Soviet Summit reached a new accord on nuclear armaments, finally dismantling the threat of a nuclear holocaust for the forseeable future, on June 1 What's more, The U.S.A. ended a brutal Police State in Panama on Jan. 3. South Africa freed political prisoner, Nelson Mandela, on Feb. 11 The Hubble Space Telescope was launched on Apr. 25. And on June 15, Joe Dante's GREMLINS 2: THE NEW BATCH, with Christopher Lee, opened in U.S. theaters! Stilmor - TOMB RAIDER is 25
It was the new millennium. The gut punch of September 11 was months away and just as Comic book movies like TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES, THE MASK, THE CROW, BLADE, and THE X-MEN were suddenly a great idea, so Hollywood was wondering, 'Why not Video games? And why not start with the hottest video game right now? After all, it's a lot like RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK, but with a large busted woman all barely dressed for the hot sultry weather of the jungle!'! The question was, of course, "But who?" Then out of the clear blue it was announced that Angelina Jolie of the cult hit, HACKERS, was signed on, and the fanboys went nuts for TOMB RAIDER. AzWel - BATMAN BEGINS is 21
When it comes to fan fights, even fans of other actors in pointy ears agree that this movie was the best first movie. This is why, BATMAN BEGINS. N'Then - THE INCREDIBLES 2 is 8 Years Old
And we're still waiting for THE INCREDIBLES 3: FROZONE! I mean, come on! He's the only Super left! Every comic fan knew that THE INCREDIBLES was modeled on Marvel Comics, FANTASTIC 4 with some WATCHMEN thrown in for good measure. Except Pixar did what 20th Century never could: Make such a team of superheroes fascinating, fun, popular, and exciting. The villain was completely villainous: vain, selfish, indifferent to human suffering, wholly evil, and an all-around creep. Where to go from there? This is the review and tale of how an alumni of Stephen Spielberg's Amazing Stories, as well as The Simpsons, King of the Hill, The Critic, and the Director of IRON GIANT, Brad Bird, took 14 years to make it work, and proved in one weekend that a sequel like THE INCREDIBLES II rocked! Finale - HAPPY HORROR THRILLER BIRTHDAYS TO -
Comic Artist Martin Blanco (THE LEGEND OF JOE MOON, NIGHT JUNKIES, JOHNNIE GRUESOME) is 52. SUNDAY -
Writer Jeremy Dyson (THE LEAGUE OF GENTLEMEN [TV - 1999 - 2002], THE LEAGUE OF GENTLEMEN'S APOCALYPSE, FUNLAND [TV - 2005], PSYCHOBITCHES [TV - 2013], GHOST STORIES, THE LEAGUE OF GENTLEMEN [TV - 2017]) is 59. THE MONSTER THAT CHALLENGED THE WORLD Turns 69
With GOJIRA in 1954 and GODZILLA in 1956, theater audiences were going all Kaiju-goo-goo! Studios from Japan to Hollywood to England were revving up or pumping out Big Horror monsters in stop-motion and rubber suits. United Artists wanted in on the fast money but everybody had a damn dinosaur or gorilla movie. So much so, that smaller studios were churning out overgrown insect (THEM) and spider movies (TARANTULA). One even had an overgrown regular lizard (GIANT GILA MONSTERS)! It was a seller's market for Big Horror and the big studios could outbid the smaller studios or just rip off people like Ray Bradbury and worry about the fall out later. Even in a sellers market, one has to look for a buyer among the studios suddenly being inundated with Big Horror movies. Yet in 1955 a real life something, utterly bizarre and unexpected, happened in the California Mojave Desert. Because of that, screenwriter David Duncan (RODAN) had his story: THE MONSTER THAT CHALLENGED THE WORLD. SATURDAY -
In 2000, this actor did three Horror/Thriller movies, which were all released in 2001, then disappeared. Forrest vanished! Wherever he is now, a Happy Birthday goes out to 73 Years of THE BEAST FROM 20,000 FATHOMS
A year before GOJIRA was released to Japan, this Big Horror monster movie was released in the U.S.A., and it rocked the box office! Ray Harryhausen's stop motion animation was flabbergasting and the story by Ray Bradbury made you believe in THE BEAST FROM 20,000 FATHOMS. And - THE ISLAND OF DR. MOREAU is 49
There were so many unnecessary choices that could have wrecked this movie and nearly did. Yet the aging former A-Lister and past his prime star, Burt Lancaster, saved it through sheer force of acting ability like he'd never shown before. Unfortunately this was a summer of 1977 releases and even people born in 2007 probably know what that means. The original Star Wars obliterated every other summer movie in 1977. But that was a long time ago and this is why THE ISLAND OF DR. MOREAU is worth your time.
Today is Stephen Spielberg's DISCLOSURE
And - PREDATOR is 39
20 and 30 something Horror movie fans are continuously agog at just how good late 1970s and 1980s Horror movies were. When you watch many of these movies, certain now defunct studios keep re-appearing in the opening credits: AVCO (PHANTASM, THE HOWLING, SCANNERS, ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK), ORION (MAD MAX, THE TERMINATOR, FRIGHT NIGHT, ROBOCOP), New Line (THE EVIL DEAD, A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET, CRITTERS). The major studios from Paramount to Warner Bros. could barely keep up and Universal Pictures was so adrift they wouldn't know a hit movie if they had one, and were known in that era for inanely misjudging how to guide, promote, or distribute the movie they had, and repeatedly snatching defeat from the jaws of victory (John Carpenter's THE THING, VIDEODROME, FIRESTARTER, TREMORS). When it came to movie studios and Horror and Science Fiction, the risk-taking minis were constantly kicking the big budget majors right off of the screens. There was just one thing the majors had that the minis didn't: An enormous back-log of long tail money making movies spanning nearly a century, and the cash to buy the minis out. Which brings us to PREDATOR. Plus - JURASSIC WORLD is 11
Well, it was no JURASSIC PARK or even LOST WORLD: JURASSIC PARK for that matter. And when Steven Spielberg didn't have a Michael Crichton penned novel for a blueprint, he floundered worse with JURASSIC PARK III in 2001 than Jan de Bont did with 1999's THE HAUNTING (and Jan had the novel for a bluprint!). In addition to being his otherwise awesome self, Spielberg had access to the best experts money could buy and, for well over a decade, none of them had anything worth the expense of a big budget sequel. At one point though, I'm guessing some folks among the Comcast cronies looked at what Michael Bay was doing with TRANSFORMERS, pulled their lips from their lattes and sighed, "Instead of visionary bullshit like Crichton and Science, how about we make a movie for the public school audience, based off of our Jurassic Park toy commercials from back in the 1990s?" Perhaps from such inspiration, JURASSIC WORLD was born!
THE OBLONG BOX is 57 Years Old
Vincent Price and Christopher Lee in an Edgar Allen Poe story? Yes please! It was censors, not the make-up techniques of the day, that limited the realism of the more grotesque disfigurements in this 1969 movie of corruption, betrayal, murder, racism, romance, and revenge. The cast and crew were all at the top of their form when they brought audiences, THE OBLONG BOX. And - 36 Years of Brian Yuzna's SOCIETY
The 1980s was, for some, a time of identity confusion and Body Horror, ushered into the Horror fan's realm by the likes of David Cronenberg and John Carpenter, who reigned. But just as David and John's early Horror movies were in a place most audiences weren't prepared for, Indie auteur Brian Yuzna (FROM BEYOND, RE-ANIMATOR) capped off the decade with his masterstroke that many remain unprepared for: SOCIETY. For Horror fans who have heard of Screaming Mad George but have yet to see what is so Screaming Mad about his practical effects make-up work? This is the movie that earned him his name. Believe me when I say that clips and stills on social media aren't enough. Talk to me after you've seen this movie in full! Plus - JURASSIC PARK is 33
33 Years ago audiences were awed by something the actors in this movie couldn't see: the most realistic dinosaurs in cinema of that time: JURASSIC PARK. Also - HAPPY HORROR THRILLER BIRTHDAYS TO -
Actor Ivana Baquero (ROMANSANTA: THE WEREWOLF HUNT, ROTTWEILER, FRAGILE, A CHRISTMAS TALE, PAN'S LABYRINTH, THE NEW DAUGHTER, ANOTHER ME, GELO, FEEDBACK, HIGH SEAS [TV], BLACK FRIDAY!) is 31.
SUPER 8 is 15 Years Old
Released on June 10, 2011 in the U.S.A., this movie may have germinated like this (I can't be sure, I wasn't there). One day Steven Spielberg met with J.J. Abrams, perhaps at one of Chuck Lorre's private San Diego Comic Con parties, and in essence said, "I like the cut of your jib!" J.J. might have replied along the lines of, "I don't get it." Steve is a man of action, so likely got to the point, "I think we should make a movie together!" J.J. probably said something like, "Okay, but we have to have an explosion or crash in the first five minutes." Steve, who may have looked like he was rethinking his invitation, would naturally ask why and J.J. may have said, "I can't direct a movie or show without an explosion or crash in the first five minutes. Did you see my brilliant creation, LOST?" Steve: "Ah. Yes. Of course. The ol' 5 minute Gotcha." J.J. "I'm reluctant to use words like Genius when describing myself, but: Crash in the first 5 minutes! Then an explosion! When that jet engine -" Steve: "I understand. I mentored Michael Bay." J.J.: "Michael Bay is God." Steve: "Yes... Yes, well, at least your name has value. Let's make this god damn thing." J.J.: "Does it have a title?" Steve: "SUPER 8." J.J.: "I don't get it." And - HAPPY HORROR THRILLER BIRTHDAYS TO -
Actor Frankie Faison (CAT PEOPLE, EXTERMINATOR 2, C.H.U.D., MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE, MANHUNTER, THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, FREEJACK, THE LANGOLIERS, PREY, HANNIBAL, RED DRAGON, HIGHWAYMEN, MESSENGERS, FOR SALE BY OWNER, CIRQUE DU FREAK, ASSUMPTION OF RISK, THE SOUNDING, THE GRUDGE [2020], THE KILLING OF KENNETH CHAMBERLAIN, THE GRUDGE [2020], REDEMPTION IN CHERRY SPRINGS, HELLO TOMORROW! [TV]) is 76.
DAMIEN: THE OMEN II is 48
Was it a Supernatural Curse that befell this movie? No, but this was the trouble that fell over production of DAMIEN: OMEN II. Plus - HAPPY HORROR THRILLER BIRTHDAYS TO -
Actor Johnny Depp (A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET, EDWARD SCISSORHANDS, FREDDY'S DEAD: The Final Nightmare, ED WOOD, DEAD MAN, THE ASTRONAUT'S WIFE, THE NINTH GATE, SLEEPY HOLLOW, FROM HELL, PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN [all], SECRET WINDOW, THE CORPSE BRIDE, Tim Buton's SWEENEY TODD: THE DEMON BARBER OF FLEET STREET, Tim Burton's ALICE IN WONDERLAND, THE TOURIST, DARK SHADOWS, TRANSCENDENCE, TUSK, INTO THE WOODS, YOGA HOSERS, ALICE THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS, FANTASTIC BEASTS AND WHERE TO FIND THEM [all], MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS [2017]) is 62.
YOU DUG IT
1. SCARY MOVIE The Wayan Brothers are back in control and the SCARY MOVIE franchise has never had a bigger weekend! Debuting at #1 on 3,490 screens and bringing in over 3 times its budget in the world market, this is the movie that knocked the predicted Number 1 to Number 2. 2. MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE debuts from Amazon MGM in 2nd place with an unhealthy opening of $54 million plus change in the world wide market. With a Production budget of $170 million, it has to make over $340 million just to break even before marketing costs. As it stands right now, this movie made less in its opening weekend, in the world market, than #1 made in the U.S. alone. 3. BACKROOMS moves to #3 in its second weekend but the box office drop tells the story of a 68% loss in ticket sales despite no cut to its screen count! That said, its still made over 21 times its Production Budget, 4. OBSESSION stepped down from last weekend's #2 with a mild 7% drop in ticket sales. That's outstanding in the face of two major studio debuts this weekend and its already made over 225 times its Production budget. YOU BURIED IT 17. MORTAL KOMBAT II drops off the Top ten by 7 places with a 76% loss in ticket sales against a 1,125 screen cut. The game may still have its fans, but it found no love on the Silver Screen. Figures calibrated from reporting by Box Office Mojo and The Numbers. Should there be differences between the two, I err on the side of caution and post the most positive numbers. And- GHOSTBUSTERS Turns 43!
All the highschool grads who saw it at the theaters in 1983 are in their 60s! Watching this movie looks as if it was all so easy to shoot, but its birth agony was anything but! There were a ton of changes made to the script, the props, the monster, everything. A huge part was written specifically for Eddie Murphy, not as some blue-collar schlub looking for a job, but a fellow scientist. Eddie, however, wanted nothing to do with any of his old Saturday Night Live alumni. Only nobody knew that until nearly the last week of the shoot. So Eddie chose his path, Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis chose theirs, we got a great movie without Eddie, and Ernie Hudson was brought in at the last minute and now has a franchise that extends into the 2020s! Read why GHOSTBUSTERS remains a classic and a textbook example of great genre moviemaking. Plus - GREMLINS Turns 43
1983 and Hollywood gossip had it that Steven Spielberg couldn't stop himself from micro-managing his directors. This all stemmed the none-too-quiet rumor getting printed in fan magazines that Steven hired Tobe Hooper to direct POLTERGIEST, but when it came to the day to day operations, Steve kept coming to the set and taking over. The Directors Guild of America had to do something, but what? Many Directors were also Producers. How do you protect one without stepping on the toes of the other? A decision had to be made. So when it came time to Produce this movie, Steven once again hired another director, Joe Dante (THE HOWLING). Once again, Steve came to the live set, interrupting everything just by his presence. However, the d.g.a, made a few subtle changes to the game. The Director calls the shots on a live set and when he gives the orders, those who want to stay will follow them or get escorted off the set.
Words to that effect. So when Steven shoulder rolled a passive-aggressive "Anything I can do to help?" offer, Director Joe took advantage of the moment and said, "Why yes there is." And what Joe ordered Steve to do became just one part of the humorous behind-the-scenes legend of GREMLINS. Also - LET THE RIGHT ONE IN Turns 18
Remember seeing this when you were 21? Well now yer 39! You're almost 40! And Eli is still 12... If you haven't seen this in a while, take a moment to remember the slowly startling charm of LET THE RIGHT ONE IN. Wassmor - PROMETHEUS Turns 14
Ridley Scott wanted another shot at ALIEN. George Lucas inverted his once original and inspiring Star Wars saga into a pile of rendered lard where only white humans ran a galaxy full of aliens and those humans were all related, practically inbred. Ridley thought that would work for his own sequel/reboot/retconn (he never seemed sure) so he made a human-centric universe full of no mysteries and Ancient Astronauts (Scott is bananas for the long debunked fraud, Erich von Däniken), just like that, the ALIEN concept, which had a great foundation in a far younger Ridley Scott's Direction and a great launch under the guidance of James Cameron, sputtered out and hit the mud under the squandered shepherding of its Producers. Ridley, however, had a chance to turn around a long moribund franchise still running on the 20 year old fumes of ALIENS. Did he do that with PROMETHEUS? AsWel - HEREDITARY Turns 8
Actor Toni Collette (THE SIXTH SENSE, FRIGHT NIGHT, KRAMPUS) had done enough "dark" films. She was done with Horror, she wanted more fun light comedies like Little Miss Sunshine! Fortunately, however, she read Writer Ari Aster's HEREDITARY and, well, you already know how damn irresistable a great Horror story can be. Finale - HAPPY HORROR THRILLER BIRTHDAYS TO -
Actor Lexa Doig (JUNGLEGROUND, WHILE MY PRETTY ONE SLEEPS [TV], TEEN SORCERY, CODE NAME PHOENIX, NO ALIBI, JASON X, THE 4400 [TV], STARGATE SG-1 [TV], BA'AL, FIREBALL, V [TV - 2010], CONTINUUM [TV], AURORA TEAGARDEN MYSTERIES, ARROW [TV], CHUCKY [TV], GOOSEBUMPS [TV]) is 52. SUNDAY -
There are some people - whom you've never met - that you just like. And I like today's birthday girl, TASTE THE BLOOD OF DRACULA is 56
I hardly need to tell any fan of Horror how popular a Horror actor Christopher Lee was. He was larger than life in movies and, hell! Co-starring with the major Horror icons of his day from Vincent Price to Peter Cushing to recording a Heavy Metal album in his 90s, he was larger than life in real life! There's a lot of Horror movies out there and there's a lot of Vampire and Dracula movies out there. Now let me tell you why, if you haven't, you should watch TASTE THE BLOOD OF DRACULA. SATURDAY - D-DAY
Actor Robert Englund (SLASHED DREAMS, EATEN ALIVE, THE FIFTH FLOOR, DEAD & BURIED, GALAXY OF TERROR, A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET [original series], THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, C.H.U.D. II, NIGHT TERRORS, THE MANGLER, WISHMASTER, URBAN LEGEND, STRANGELAND, PYTHON, JASON VS. FREDDY, 2001 MANIACS, HATCHET, DANCE OF THE DEAD, JACK BROOKS: MONSTER SLAYER, RED, ZOMBIE STRIPPERS!, NIGHT OF THE SINNER, FEAR CLINIC [TV], GOOD DAY FOR IT, THE MOLE MAN OF BELMONT AVENUE, STRIPPERS VS WEREWOLVES, INKUBUS, LAKE PLACID: THE FINAL CHAPTER, ZOMBIE MUTATION, KANTEMIR, THE FUNHOUSE MASSACRE, ABRUPTIO, NATTY KNOCKS, and so much more!) is 79. INVADERS FROM MARS is 40
Tobe Hooper wanted to make a family Science Fiction Horror movie from his childhood. But he also wanted it to be fun like he remembered. Like the original from 1953, it had to have plenty of moments when it tipped its hand and let you in on the secret. But for whatever reason in 1986, few got the joke behind Tobe Hooper's INVADERS FROM MARS. 22 Years Ago Today, Luc Besson's DISTRICT B13 Hit the US Hard
When this first hit the shores of France, they were in the throes of a series of flabby, self-indulgent, and regrettably disappointing MATRIX sequels. Lux Besson's movie was the lean mean action Thriller the MATRIX once was but would never be again. In 2003 when MATRIX fans walked away bummed out from the MATRIX sequels, REHASHED and REGURGITATED, they had no idea that Luc Besson was gearing up production. It would be nearly another three years before Mark Cuban's tiny boutique distributor, Magnolia, secured the rights for USA DtV release (the best Mark can do, which is better than most on his distribution level). This is why a 22 year old mini-masterpiece remains one of the most High-Octane Thrillers ever made! DISTRICT B13. MAN WITH THE SCREAMING BRAIN is 20
Bruce Campbell? Well, we all love Bruce. In fact, from time to time Bruce tests just how much we love him by Writing, Producing, Directing, and Starring in movies like MAN WITH THE SCREAMING BRAIN. THE OMEN Turns 20
When it comes to Remakes, sometimes I think, 'Yeah, it could have been better.' Usually, however, I watch the result and think, 'What's the point?' What was the point of Gus Van Zant's PSYCHO remake? What the hell was the point of Ridley Scott rebooting ALIEN with not one but TWO stillborn prequels? What was the freaking point of remaking THE OMEN?1 1 Now they're remaking THE OMEN again? No. They already did. It was released on April 5th of 2024. It didn't get much attention but it was inexplicably Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.
IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE is 72
By 1953 Universal Pictures had thrown in the towel on keeping their original monsters, DRACULA, FRANKENSTEIN, THE MUMMY, THE WOLF MAN, THE INVISIBLE MAN going. They wanted fresh blood! Inspiration (copying someone else), came along in the 1950s with 20th Century Fox's mad success with THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL in 1951.That same year saw the unbelievable success of Producer Howard Hawks' independent production (distributed by RKO), THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD. Universal had to jump on that and not put out a cheap-o production like all the Poverty Row mini-studios were doing. THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON would be just the monster UP was looking for, but before that, the studio swung for the fences with IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE. Plus - HAPPY HORROR THRILLER BIRTHDAYS TO -
Composer Tyler Bates (BLUE FLAME, DEEP DOWN, NOT LIKE US, ALIEN AVENGERS, SHRIEK IF YOU KNOW WHAT I DID LAST FRIDAY THE THIRTEENTH, STRANGE FREQUENCY, CITY OF GHOSTS, DAWN OF THE DEAD [2004], THE DEAD WILL TELL, THE DEVIL'S REJECTS, SLITHER, SEE NO EVIL, 300, GRINDHOUSE, Rob Zombie's HALLOWEEN, DOOMSDAY, DAY OF THE DEAD [2008], THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL, WATCHMEN, Rob Zombie's HALLOWEEN II, THE HAUNTED WORLD OF EL SUPERBEASTO, TRANSFORMERS: WAR FOR CYBERTRON, SUPER, SUCKER PUNCH, SYM-BIONIC TITAN [TV], CONAN THE BARBARIAN, THE DARKEST HOUR, GOD OF WAR: ASCENSION [VG], THE SACRAMENT, KILLZONE: SHADOWFALL [VG], NOT SAFE FOR WORK, FLIGHT 7500, GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY [all], JOHN WICK [all], THE BELKO EXPERIMENT, SALEM [TV], ATOMIC BLONDE, 24 HOURS TO LIVE, DEADPOOL 2, THE PUNISHER [TV], FAR CRY NEW DAWN [VG], PRIMAL [TV]) is 61.
POLTERGEIST Turns 44
44 years ago today, the Cinema Summer of 1982 in North America was called Steven Spielberg's One Two knock-out punch, as his two movies dominated the summer. They knocked out other major movies that would come to be regarded as better movies like Ridley Scott's BLADE RUNNER and John Carpenter's THE THING. But how could a PG Horror movie with a cast of nobodies overwhelm everything else? Welcome to the dawn of fan power and the blockbuster summer. Steven was hot, coming off of wildly successful movies like JAWS, CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND, and RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK. Spielberg was coupled with his director Tobe Hooper, still hot among Horror fans for THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE, as together they were creating the cinema's decade that would come to be known by unborn generations as the ultimate era for Horror movies. This is how audiences felt when they sat before massive screens, surrounded by giant theater speakers, and were lured into the world of POLTERGEIST. And - HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN is 22
By 2004 there were two great fantasy franchises and Warner Bros. had them both! THE LORD OF THE RINGS through WB's company, New Line, had finished its run in 2003, the previous year, but H.P. had another 5 novels to go and the next one was HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN. Plus - SPLICE Turns 17
When SPECIES came out it was largely sold on the fact that the Oscar winning artist of the still mega-popular ALIEN movie, H.R. Giger, was the designer here as well. Advanced sales of Giger art books on the movie were sold ahead of release. What's more, Oscar winning actors, Ben Kingsley and Forest Whitaker were also in it. It was directed by Roger Donaldson. Finally, it was sold on its R rating and promised the nudity of its star, Natasha Henstridge. Unfortunately SPECIES was Produced and Written entirely by Dennis Feldman (VIRUS). Giger soon realized that MGM (wallowing in the dregs of their SUPERNOVA era) didn't want a great Science Fiction Horror movie like ALIEN, they wanted Giger's name on a cheap movie so they could sell it as if it was the next ALIEN. "Well what does all that have to do with Vincent Natali and Guillermo Del Toro's movie?" Because while it was in production, it was decided that this movie would be sold like it was an heir, not to a great movie like ALIEN, but a dreary ALIEN wannabe that had already sank and died in the diminishing returns of Direct To Video land sequels. Compounding the bad marketing was the fact that original Canadian distributor, Entertainment One, was going to give up and dump it direct to video, which probably didn't help the first weekend box office returns on SPLICE. Also - HAPPY HORROR THRILLER BIRTHDAYS TO -
Actor Keith David (John Carpenter's THE THING [1982], THEY LIVE, LADY KILLERS [TV], FINAL ANALYSIS, NAILS [TV], THE PUPPET MASTERS, GARGOYLES [voice], THE GRAVE, SPAWN [TV], PRINCESS MONOKE [voice], PITCH BLACK, FINAL FANTASY [voice], 29 PALMS, THE CHRONICLES OF RIDDICK, DIRTY, SPAWN: The Animation, CHAIN LETTER, NOW HERE, SAMUEL BLEAK, THE INHERITANCE, SMILEY, CLOUD ATLAS, UNION FURNACE, SONS OF LIBERTY, IF I TELL YOU I HAVE TO KILL YOU, RANGE 15, RICK AND MORTY [TV], TALES FROM THE HOOD 2, YOU MIGHT BE THE KILLER, LIVERSPOTS AND ASTRONOTS [TV], KIDS VS MONSTERS, THE SEVENTH DAY, FINAL SPACE [TV], BLACK AS NIGHT, THE GATEWAY, NOPE, FROM THE SHADOWS, TIM TRAVERS AND THE TIME TRAVELERS PARADOX, SHELBY OAKS, PORTAL TO HELL, HAZBIN HOTEL [TV]) is 70.
PSYCHO II Turns 43
It's 43 Years Later, and we're still talking about PSYCHO II. It took 22 years to make the sequel that no one thought could work. You can't follow an Alfred Hitchcock movie. Preposterous! It's foolish to even try. But there were hundreds of big name PSYCHO fans living in Hollywood who worked in the industry. They were among the tops in their field and they would love to give it a shot. Except for Universal Pictures who held the rights. In 1983 sequels had to be made quick and cheap. Unless your name was George Lucas or Steven Spielberg, nobody should risk spending more on the sequel than was spent on the original. And even those two came with doubts that they could equal the master, Hitchcock himself. Then Hitchcock himself recommended a Director. With that blessing, actor Anthony Perkins, who uniquely made Norman Bates all his own, said he'd do it. The rest, as is said, is the history of PSYCHO II. Plus - HAPPY HORROR THRILLER BIRTHDAYS TO -
Actor Bonnie Aarons (CAGED HEAT 3000, MULHOLLAND DR. [TV], MULHOLLAND DR., SPECTOR'S ROCK, WRISTCUTTERS: A LOVE STORY, I KNOW WHO KILLED ME, INALIENABLE, HELL RIDE, DRAG ME TO HELL, DAHMER VS GACY, THE CONJURING 2, THE NUN [all], JAKOB'S WIFE, FRANK, I LIVE ALONE, THE BELL KEEPER, CAMP PLEASENT LAKE, LITTLE BITES, MARTINEZ MARGARITAS AND MURDER, IF IT BLEEDS, EVER AFTER, SPECTER'S ROCK) is 48.
Horror Artist Mike Soznowski (SATAN'S 3-RING CIRCUS OF HELL) is 64.
HAPPY HORROR THRILLER BIRTHDAYS TO -
We say a last goodbye to Actor Morena Baccarin (FIREFLY [TV], SERENITY, SANDS OF OBLIVION, STOLEN LIVES, V [2009 - TV], HOMELAND [TV], SON OF BATMAN, BATMAN: BAD BLOOD, DEADPOOL [TV], GOTHAM [TV], DEADPOOL [all], TO YOUR LAST DEATH, GREENLAND, HOME INVASION [TV], LAST LOOKS, ELEVATION, DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE, ELEVATION, GREENLAND 2: MIGRATION) is 47.
Writer Bill Breedlove (Various short stories) is 66 or something.
Writer, Publisher, Warren Lapine (ABSOLUTE MAGNITUDE magazine, Wilder Publications, THE KISS INTERVIEWS, JUST LIKE THE JETSONS AND OTHER STORIES) is 62.
YOU DUG IT
1. BACKROOMS is the YouTube sensation that became this week's Number One with a wide release on 3,442 screens and a massive world wide box office of over $125 million. It made over 12 times its budget in its first weekend! 2. OBSESSION stepped back down to #2 this week, but not for a lack of trying as it brought in an unbelievable 14% plus in box office up from last weekend's box office and added another 126 screens to this week's new total of 2,781 screens. Now in its 3rd weekend its brought in over 155 times its Production budget. OBSESSION is now the biggest movie distributor Focus Features has ever had. Here's hoping they don't F* up the relationship between themselves and the movie makers. 9. PASSENGER in its second weekend drops from last weekend's #6 debut with a 69% drop in ticket sales despite no screen cuts. 10. MORTAL KOMBAT II drops from last weekend's #7 with a 67% drop in ticket sales against a 1,123 screen cut. 14. PROJECT HAIL MARY after 73 days at the world box office, drops off the Top Ten with a total of nearly $680 million against a $200 million Production budget. That's 3.4 times its budget before advertising and marketing costs. Figures calibrated from reporting by Box Office Mojo and The Numbers. Should there be differences between the two, I err on the side of caution and post the most positive numbers. And - NOSFERATU is 97
Released in Germany in 1922, it would be another six years before the vampire made its way to New York City. The "Roaring 20s" in NYC had already experienced the German made METROPOLIS and the city, and so the U.S., was hungry for more. However, Director F.W. Murnau didn't make a Science Fiction Horror movie like Fritz Lang. Murnau made a Supernatural one. For an early 20th Century America still sick with Superstition, NOSFERATU became the new century's THE EXORCIST, and for the first time in bloodsucker lore, a vampire could die by sunlight. Plus - 45 Years of Lucio Fulci's HOUSE BY THE CEMETERY
A favorite among Fulci fans, read why this still cherished movie is So Bad It's Good after nearly half a century! THE HOUSE BY THE CEMETERY. Also - MR BROOKS is 22
The sinister character of Mr. Brooks has no redeeming qualities. He is everything we should hate. So how did co-writer and Director Bruce A. Evans (STARMAN, STAND BY ME) get us to like him? Read my review of MR BROOKS. Finale - HAPPY HORROR THRILLER BIRTHDAYS TO -
This writer's work was so profound, that many a modern day Televangelist is so befuddled, as to quote from this writer's works; believing it to be in their Bible! In fact, Dante's interpretation
of what the afterlife must look and feel like, not only contradicts the
Christian bible, but is widely held (by western
Christians who apparently don't even read their bible) as THE
actual view of what happens to a person after death. In essence, more
western Christians believe in Dante's version of the afterlife than their faith in their Bible's vision (and they probably
never read Dante either!)! So Happy Birthday to - SUNDAY -
In 2023 I finally added Colin Farrel to this list. I'd never want to put someone in our favorite genres who didn't want to be here, but with his long cinema history now in plain hindsight, Colin's overall ouvre has a distinct twist to nearly every movie he makes. That twist is invariably dark humored and dark fantasy even when its not outright Horror, Thriller, Mystery, and / or Suspense. Nearly all of his crime movies have a Science Fiction or Supernatural element or, in some cases, a borderland of cryptozoology that exists between Science and Supernatural - whether by intent or extraordinary circumstance. So without further ado, a Happy Birthday to Actor Colin Farrell (THE WAR ZONE, MINORITY REPORT, PHONE BOOTH, THE RECRUIT, DAREDEVIL, TRIAGE, ONDINE, FRIGHT NIGHT, TOTAL RECALL [2012], WINTER'S TALE, THE LOBSTER, TRUE DETECTIVE [TV], SOLACE, FANTASTIC BEASTS AND WHERE TO FIND THEM, THE KILLING OF A SACRED DEER, THE BEGUILED, LEGEND OF CAMBRIA [TV], THE GENTLEMEN, ARTEMIS FOWL, AVA, VOYAGERS, AFTER YANG, THE NORTH WATER [TV], THE BATMAN, THIRTEEN LIVES, THE PENGUIN [TV], SUGAR [TV], BALLAD OF A SMALL PLAYER [TV]) is 50. THE ARRIVAL Turns 30
Writer and Director David Twohy (PITCH BLACK, IMPOSTOR, BELOW, THE PERFECT GETAWAY) has spent his career bubbling just below the surface of "Breakout". He's written and directed some good movies, with some great moments, but as of this date, no great movies. That said, there's always just enough about his stories to keep you coming back and THE ARRIVAL is no exception. THE SUM OF ALL FEARS is 24
In his life, Tom Clancy had a huge following for his best selling novels. Novels so minutely accurate to the intricacies of real world governments and their various weapons programs and technology, that the CIA and NSA found themselves both intimidated by and attracted to his fiction. As often happens, once you gain an expertise on a subject, there will be those who are peddling a lie that won't like your facts and they won't like your freely speaking about them. But in life, Tom was so huge that everything that had his touch turned to gold. Not just his novels, but when he turned his attention to making the most realistic Video War Games anyone had ever seen, those too became bestsellers. Holy shit how Hollywood wanted a piece of that action! And it worked! One Tom Clancy movie after the next was a hit: I'm talking world-wide market hit. Unfortunately, the actors in Tom Clancy movies would catch such flack from their peers that they'd back off making any more. Which is why, during Paramount Pictures run of Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan movies, the titular character is played by a different actor every time. Further, every actor who played Jack would, at some point, badmouth Tom Clancy and so their role. This is what happened when Harrison Ford left the franchise with SUM OF ALL FEARS. SATURDAY -
Actor Keir Dullea (BUNNY LAKE IS MISSING, 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, DE SADE, BLACK CHRISTMAS, IL DIAVOLO NEL CERVELLO, WELCOME TO BLOOD CITY, THE HAUNTING OF JULIA, BRAINWAVES, BLIND DATE, THE NEXT ONE, 2010, ALIEN HUNTER, SPACE STATION 76, FAHRENHEIT 451 [2018], VALLEY OF THE GODS) is 89. WRONG TURN is 23
Let's say you were a big fan of Tobe Hooper's THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE or Wes Craven's THE HILLS HAVE EYES. You've been a fan so long you dreamed up your own story of cannibal rednecks that you feel is just different enough to be welcomed by Horror fans. Are you right? The only way to be sure is to put it all on the line and find out for yourself. Practical SFX artist, Stan Winston, who won an Emmy for his creature creations in GARGOYLES, won an Oscar for his creations in TERMINATOR 2, won a 2nd Oscar for his creations in JURASSIC PARK, and created the Hockey Mask for Jason in FRIDAY THE 13th 3D (was rewarded for his years in the franchise by being left uncredited), Produced and Created the inbred rednecks for WRONG TURN. It would be his last Slasher movie. THE STRANGERS is Old Enough to Vote
Horror writer Monica J. O'Rourke (SUFFER THE FLESH, Editor of DECADENCE ONE, DECADENCE TWO) wrote the movie review for THE STRANGERS way back in 2008. But did she like it?
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INTERVIEWS Matt Jarbo's interview with Feo Amante at The Zurvivalist. James Cheetham's Q&A with Feo Amante at Unconventional Interviews *. Megan Scudellari interviews Feo Amante and Kelly Parks (of THE SCIENCE MOMENT) in The Scientist Magazine. Check out our interview at The-Scientist.com. REFERENCES Researcher David Waldron, references my review of UNDERWORLD in the Spring 2005, Journal of Religion and Popular Culture entry, Role-Playing Games and the Christian Right: Community Formation in Response to a Moral Panic (downloadable pdf). E.C. McMullen Jr.
*Linked to archive.org |
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GRIM GRINS & MORBID MIRTH Debuts in September
