Monster of the Day

I've said it before, but I'll say it again. It must be weird to design a monster that's meant to appear in one episode of a 50 chapter show that is part of a long, long skein of shows.

This will be a short week (as will next week) as I leave for Texas on Thursday. I'll see some of you there. This will be last Fest in Dallas--unless we find another home for it--so expect further Fests to be in Utah.

Who's had a weirder directorial career than Bob Clark? Black Christmas. Murder by Decree. Porky's. A Christmas Story. Rhinestone. Baby Geniuses. Man, that's quite a spread.Clark did a lot of horror early on, though. 1972 saw Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things. 1974 saw his next two movies, Black Christmas and our subject today,…

Wes Craven had a *lot* of horror movies that are basically forgotten now; Deadly Blessing, Deadly Friend, Serpent and the Rainbow, Shocker, The People Under the Stairs, Vampire in Brooklyn (starring Eddie Murphy as the titular undead!), the Production Hell entry Cursed, My Soul to take. On the other hand, he made The Last…

I don't think Sam Raimi's Drag Me to Hell is as forgotten as Peter Jackson's The Frighteners. Of course, it was also made nearly 20 years more recently. And in any case, I also don't think it's reputation remotely matches its worth. It's not a perfect film, and the worst aspect is that you…

+ Sometimes famous directors make a pretty decent to great horror movie that for some reason becomes all but completely forgotten. Peter Jackson returned to his horror roots (albeit cleansed of the lowbrow gonzo comedy and insanely manic gore) with 1996's The Frighteners, starring Michael J. Fox. The film has flaws, including a plot…

So we entered the home stretch. Host Paul, who's over the years shown a pleasing ability to offer up out of left field choices, picked the typically awful Hallmark romance Santa Tell Me. It's the kind of thing were Chad offered up a truly obvious ending for some side characters that apparently was too…

I clean forgot that between Bloodbeast and Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires I showed that atrocious (cough, cough) "Derek Flint" telemovie Dead on Target. I think it's the last thing I reviewed on the site. The years haven't been any kinder to it; it's terrible.After 7 Golden Vampires I showed The Pink Panther…

It was time for something more linear after the incomprehensible Bloodbeat, so the Rev provided the beloved Hammer / Shaw Brothers co-production The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires. This had vampires, Chinese vampires (not hopping ones, alas), boobs, tons of crazy kung fu and Peter Cushing in his last time playing Van Helsing.…

After Plan 9 B-Fest used to show what I called Brain Melters. Eight hours in and in the middle of the night, the audience's brains were pretty malleable and especially vulnerable to films that made no damn sense. Usually these are hippy-dippy movies, but this year I showed the super crazy slasher flick Bloodbeat…