Evil Nostalgia! Phantasm II on HBO and big screen viewing of John Carpenter’s They Live @ the Colonial Theatre!

Welcome back!  And, boy, it sure does feel good to be back in the wide world of evil!  With a new job, new wife, and practically a whole new life, my once idle hands were struggling to juggle my new found life.  Where to begin?  What to say?  How can I build up that base I had over a year ago!  Has the evil come back to me to guide my hands again?  Has my “dark passenger” returned?  (Dexter reference as I’ve caught up on all 7 seasons in the last month).  We’ll see what happens with Its Bloggin’ Evil.  No one knows where this road may lead the amateur horror fan site.  I might not be as swanky by going to all the conventions and movie screenings like Freddy in Space.com or be an ultra-reviewer like Cinesploitation.com (whom I use to write for).  Both of those sites have shunned me from doing what I need to do, what I care to do, what I love to do.

Phantasm II poster

Lets start this off on the right severed foot with Phantasm II.  You may be wondering why Phantasm II.  Well, it just happened to be on HBO Zone last night and I sat, with my now wife, and we watched.  I subjected her to Angus Scrimm’s The Tall Man and the othet dimension dwelling evil dwarfs.  You would think one like myself owns all the Phantasm films.  Don’t get me wrong, I do!  I proudly bought the limited edition UK Sphere box set and have yet to open the sucker.  I joyfully viewed after years of not opening the box set and not viewing the film anywhere else. My eyes were glued to the 32” TV and I probably had the wide and bright eyes of a fat kid in a candy store.  What a way to start off (or to rekindle) It’s Bloggin’ Evil!

Don Coscarelli’s sequel just brings a grin from ear to ear even if the writing is a bit over-the-top, but hey, that’s the masterful dialogue of the 80’s and who can argue with that?  Some might also dislike Phantasm II for the scab step-in roll filler James LeGros to fill the shoes of A. Michael Baldwin’s original character Mike.  LeGros became the one who “shan’t be named” because Baldwin continued the character in the third and fourth sequel.  However, Phantasm II brings back the deadly spheres, the pint sized evil dwarfs, and always sinister, never a minister, The Tall Man with special effects that are the epitome of 80’s glory.  As you can see from the image on the left, this is what to expect – in case you’re sheltered self never seen Phantasm II.  You can thank Robert Kurtzman and Greg Nicotero who had a helping hand in creating realistically stunning exaggerations of body horror.  Throw Mark Shostrom into the mix and you have a party of special effects gold.

theyliveposter

Next stop – John Carpenter’s They Live!  Obey The very same night as Phantasm II, I sat on our couch thinking what to do with my wife.  We had no plans for a Friday night (sans boring married couple).  She had no idea what to do.  That is when it donned on me!  I remembered that the Colonial Theatre in Phoenixville, PA was having a 25th Anniversary screening of They Live.  After fairly little convincing, I managed to get my wife to come along to the 10:10pm showing.  I think she was glad she attended because the turn out better than what she expected. Conform  When we screened Night Breed months ago, the turn out was not as grand and we didn’t receive any free swag!  For They Live, fans of the cult film flooded the theatre and the freebies was a pair of black shades, two pieces of a bubblegum, and a “Chew Bubblegum Kick Ass” sticker with Roddy Piper!

BUY AND DO NOT QUESTION AUTHORITY

BUY AND DO NOT QUESTION AUTHORITY

As you can see, we had lots of fun.  The 35mm screening had all the imperfection glory, but that won’t deter us fans away from catching all of Roddy Piper’s catch phrases.  You never know how outdated a film can be after 2.5 decades, but the dialogue and the actions of 80’s filmmaking leads my heart home.  We will attend more screenings at Colonial especially Hammer Film’s The Brides of Dracula and Grisly in the coming months.  I can’t wait!

 

Williamson’s Trek to Nowhere. Death Journey review!

In the midst of my own journey as I move north to face new challenges (and to move in with my fiance), I find the time in this busy futuristic lifestyle of packed boxes and neglected rest to sit and watch Fred Williamson’s 1976 Death Journey released by Code Red DVD.  I adore Code Red; their fans get what they ask for as Code Red’s ears are surely open and ready to receive the intake of rare and outrageous selections.  However, Death Journey marks my very first concern for the DVD label as I’m not sure what pinpoints to be very unique of this example of blaxploitation besides being very bland.

When two New York City lawyers fear their case against a crime lord will die with the rest of their murdered witnesses, they hire Jesse Crowder, a former cop whose mercenary tactics are undesirable but effective.  His $50,000 mission is to escort Finley, a former account of the crime lord, across the country to testify, but at every turn, trouble lies and waits for Jesse and Finley.

Watching Death Journey was painful.  I hate to admit that, but the truth must be told.  Being exposed to various convoluted stories, my mind has become a complex web of complexities.  This back-to-back sequel to No Way Back, also released in 1976, bares a simple-minded story and executed in a simple-minded way.  Pointless exposition describing their every action boggles down the flow of the plot and the obviously bad choreographed fight scenes reveal the faux blows, the dimwitted edited and the placing of the shot directly on a downed villain to show that he has been knocked out by Crowder’s martial arts skills.

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Homeless Bum vs Evil! Hobo With A Shotgun review!

Just last night I was sparing with one of my editors for another review horror website about meaning behind the term “grindhouse.”  My editor believes that no such word should exist and the entire meaning behind the term is just a loo to generate business for studios looking to recapture a 70’s ultra-violent culture with in a cinema medium.  Whereas I believe the sleazy retro-fierce genre still lives and breathes today, spanning over 40 years.  Every genre goes dormant for some time; the zombie genre went dormant all through the nineties before making a ridiculous comeback at the turn of the millennium.  Whether me or my editor is right or wrong, the facts are undeniable that violent, exploitive and gruesome movies are still being produced today and being labeled a “grindhouse” film is still up for debatable grabs.  Hobo with a Shotgun is one of those violent, exploitive and gruesome films made in modern day.

A traveling hobo rides the rail into a wretched town filled with homeless exploiters, pedophile Santas, disrespectful murderous punks and a crime lord named The Drake and his two merciless sons Ivan and Slick.  All the Hobo wanted was peace and to gain enough money to buy himself a lawn motor from the local pawn shop  Instead, the town got to him pushing him over the edge causing him to buy a single barrel, pump-action justice delivering shotgun!  Even if you jay-walked, the Hobo took vigilantism one shell at a time.

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