Hang out thread….

Updated on October 5, 2023 By Ken Begg 42 Comments

It’s like Risky Business! The cat’s away and the mice can play. Post about whatever you wish while I’m gone. What are you watching? What are you reading? Spill, baby, spill.

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  • The Rev

    All right, now that he’s gone, let’s talk about what a dick Ken is! God, he’s such a dick! So inconsiderate and stingy and mean —

    Wait, what do you mean he’s coming back in a few days?

    ……………..

    BOY THAT KEN IS JUST THE BEST GUY EVER YESSIRREE I LOVE HIM AND WOULD NEVER LIBEL HIM NO WAY NO HOW

  • Eric Hinkle

    Well, if it matters, right now I’m going back and forth between a collection of Tim Powers’ fiction and a Dover Thrift Edition that contains adventure stories like ‘The Most Dangerous Game’ and ‘The Man Who Would Be King’. Granted the first is far more suited to October.

    Talking horror fiction, does anyone know if a very short and incredibly creepy Richard Matheson story titled ‘Graveyard Shift’, among other titles, was ever adapted to TV? It feels like it would have been great for one of those Tales from the Darkside clones that used to be all over television.

  • KeithB

    Yeah, I just read one of those with lots of “adventure” stories. There was one about the Indian Mutiny that was great! I have to keep telling myself, though that these stories were written for ten cents a word or whatever, and probably did not have much historical research behind them.

    I also have the new Tim Powers in my queue.

  • Beckoning Chasm

    Last night I finished the 4K extended versions of the Lord of the Rings films. Very well done, and impressive in 4K. But this time around I started to find the big battle sequences kind of dull. There are way too many of them, and I know they’re all in the books, and all important, but I think the films could have benefitted from trimming those a bit. The most interesting one is the first one, when it’s just the main cast against a small group of Orcs. The stakes seemed more real than watching giant seas of soldiers plowing into each other.

    Still, I’m glad I have the set. They’re great films.

  • 🐻 bgbear_rnh

    I hear he promises video tapes and them pulls them away like Lucy with a football.

  • Eric Hinkle

    Has anyone else heard the rumor where Disney plans to remake Bambi, but this time his mom’s going to live? Because her death in the older movie is
    apparently ‘too depressing’.

  • kgb_san_diego

    Surely, not even live-action Disney corpos are THAT stoopid…

  • kgb_san_diego

    I was about to chime in “Yes, they did!”. But then I remembered that I watched Stephen King’s Graveyard Shift. I’ll have to dig up the Matheson story.

  • Gamera977

    I would not be surprised…

  • Gamera977

    I started off Halloween with a mummy theme. Got an early start this year. Watched all five of the Universal movies except ‘Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy’ and all four of the Hammer films.

    And five out of nine have the exact same plot. (sigh) Still they’re fun movies.

    Now on to the Brendon Frasier movies, ‘Bubba-Ho-Tep’, and the Mexican Aztec mummy movies. Are there any other good mummy films?

  • You could try Pharaoh’s Curse. It’s more a Vampire flick than what I’d consider a Mummy Movie, and it’s kind of meh, but I still liked it.

    Outside of that, there really aren’t that many good Mummy movies. More of them than good Bigfoot flicks, but still.

  • Beckoning Chasm

    Thanks for the good, hearty laugh!

  • Rock Baker

    Ask anyone close to me and they’ll tell you I’m a big fan of the Chipmunks (specifically their 80’s/90’s incarnation). Turns out they were even cooler than I thought. I recently ran across an 80’s preview special called ALVIN GOES BACK TO SCHOOL. In it, the boys (played by midgets in parade costumes) guide some students through a tour of the upcoming saturday morning season on NBC. The reason I bring all this up is because John Hoyt plays one of the teachers. The Chipmunks worked with John Hoyt! And it was likely one of the last things Mr. Hoyt did.

  • Rock Baker

    There was a Paul Naschy movie in which he played a mummy (REVENGE OF THE MUMMY, maybe?). It’s a mummy movie, no denying it, but in construction it more foreshadows the slasher cycle of the 80’s. Oh wait, you said GOOD mummy movies… Fan that I am of 60’s regional films, I’m keen on DEATH CURSE OF TARTU, about an American Indian mummy.

  • Rodford Smith

    I’ve been watching the Disney Tomorrowland episodes from the Fifties on DVD.

  • Eric Hinkle

    The story I’m talking about sometimes also ran under the title ‘Faces’. In case that helps.

  • It’s The Mummy’s Revenge, and I should have known Naschy did a mummy movie. He did every other monster under the moon, after all.

    Speaking of Naschy and Mummies, there’s also Assignment Terror, which has a mummy in it, along with other monsters. I guarentee the quality on none of these, as I was nine or so when I saw Assignment Terror and I’ve never seen The Mummy’s Revenge. That said, the Naschy flicks I’ve seen have been most entertaining.

  • Eric Hinkle

    Oh, yes, if you can watch Svengoolie where you are, tonight he’ll be showing The Crawling Eye right after Killer Klowns from Outer Space, which is on now.

  • Gamera977

    Thanks guys! I have ‘Death Curse of Tartu’ but somehow forgot about it. I ordered a set of Naschy films, not sure if it has ‘The Mummy’s Revenge’ on it but I’ll check it out. And I’ll see if Amazon has ‘Pharaoh’s Curse’ for rent.

  • Gamera977

    FYI: Deep Discount DVDs is running a Halloween sale on horror DVDs and Blu-Rays with a 15% discount if you order three or more.

    I picked up a nifty if expensive set of regional folk horror films ‘All The Haunts Be Ours’, two more La Llorona films (the 1931 film and a recent Guatemalan version), and a set of Paul Naschy films.

  • What I’ve seen of Naschy’s stuff hasn’t exactly been good, but usually entertaining.

  • Every October I do this thing I call A Month of Horror. I watch something Horror related every day. Not that this is much different from every other day of the year, mind you, but still.

    Just as a general list, I’ve watched the following so far: As Above, So Below; Demons; Demons 2; Man Made Monster; The Comedy of Terrors; The Church; The Curse of the Doll People; and Dawn Breaks Behind the Eyes. I recommend As Above, So Below and The Comedy of Terrors without reservations. If you’re interested in Pizza Shlock, the Demons Twins are great. And skip Dawn yada yada unless you want to waste an hour of your life.

  • Gamera977

    I’ve only seen one of Naschy’s films so far. It was decent if not that good. If they weren’t on sale I probably wouldn’t have bought them.

  • Gamera977

    Ohhh ‘The Comedy of Terrors’ is the only one I’ve seen of those. Going to have to check some of them out, thanks!

  • Gamera977

    Over the last few days I’ve watched a few Asian horror movies on YouTube. YouTube’s translator has some odd mixed results when it comes to subtitles. Still it’s interesting to see something odd and different, the Indonesian Pocong or Shrouded Ghost and the Filipino Aswang are an interesting change from the standard Western werewolves and vampires.

  • I’ve just finished the new Monster Hunter Files collaboration from Larry Correia and Jason Cordova. It’s was a decently fun way to kill a few hours, but I preferred the Ringo collaborations.

    Still, it will hold me until the next main chronology MHI book comes out.

    Since I’ve been traveling non-stop for work the last 2 weeks, I’ve mostly been watching YouTube monster movie documentaries, since I prefer to watch movies with someone else around. That and Call the Midwife reruns, because I’ll watch any soap you want if it has British accents and it’s billed as a “historic drama”.

    We did watch the T-Fest movies at the house over the weekend, mostly pretty fun, although I found Phantom Empire to be a bit of a slog. I kept wishing for Gene Autry and that cardboard robot instead. Jamie OTOH liked it and seemed quite sad that I didn’t.

    My vacation starts tomorrow, so not a lot of movies in my near-future. Sorry we couldn’t make Texas this year, but already have all my travel arrangements made for Spring 2024.

  • Eric Hinkle

    Enjoy your vacation. I hope you get to see a lot of fun bad movies.

  • Eric Hinkle

    If that’s the one with Price, Lorre, and Karloff being confronted with a murderous Basil Rathbone, then I can honestly say that I love it too.

  • Doubt it, I’m on a cruise to Canada, so depends on what the weird cruise ship version of TCM is showing. Although since it’s October they may have some horror movies on the big screen.

    I need to download some of the Universal stuff that’s currently on Prime to my Kindle.

  • Ken_Begg

    Lucy bends / kneels down when she does that, so no go for me these days.

  • Ken_Begg

    ”
    because I’ll watch any soap you want if it has British accents and it’s billed as a “historic drama”.”

    Cue up those recent Anne Boleyn and Cleopatra shows!

  • *shudders* I do have some standards. They don’t even have good costuming to drool over (which is basically my major standard of judgement). And I was reasonably entertained by The Other Boleyn Girl. Cleopatra isn’t British anyway, although more Commonwealth than Egyptian I suppose.

  • Eric Hinkle

    Whatever they show I hope you enjoy it.

  • Gamera977

    Yeah, that’s the one I was thinking of. Super fun film.

  • Gamera977

    Well it’s here, ‘The Paul Naschy Collection II’. ‘Collection I’ was out of stock. If these are decent I’ll pick up the first one when it comes back in stock.

    ‘Hunchback of the Morgue’
    ‘A Dragonfly For Each Corpse’
    ‘The Devil’s Possessed’
    ‘Exorcism’
    ‘The Werewolf And The Yeti’

    About half of those have commentaries which should be interesting.

  • Gamera977

    Oh and I picked up the new Doctor Who collections- Pertwee: Season III and Hartell: Season II. I hope they finish up all the seasons for the first Doctor (WILLIAM HARTELL!!!) and the reconstructed seasons for Troughton.

  • It’s worth the effort to find.

  • Indeed it is.

  • The Story is in Best of Richard Matheson under the title Day of Reckoning.

  • Ken_Begg

    No, no, the first Doctor was a little black girl. William Hartnell is like Doctor #7,389.

    IT’S CANON!!

  • Ken_Begg

    Disney Corp, dying on the vine and they STILL can’t figure out to start a Disney Classics streaming service featuring all their old content. Dopes.

  • Ken_Begg

    No, but it was a BBC production, I think.