Monster of the Day

It's undoubtedly a sign of imminent senility, but each Fest it's more likely that, when perusing the absolutely essential roster of What We Watched assembled by Chad R., that I see a title or two and think, "What the hell is that?" This year it was The Dead Don't Talk, and it took several…

OK, so I flew into Dallas -- no flight delays, yay! -- and got picked up at DFW by Chad R. He took me to LJS for dinner (postponed from my previous trip when my flight was delayed 11 hours) and then we headed to Chez Petersen. As noted before, Sandy and Wendy have…

Or at least it's playing at 4:00 PM all week at my local AMC theater. I already have my ticket for Friday. Even better, as it's playing under their "fan faves" banner, the ticket was half the price of a regular ticket. Sweet. Anyway, here's your chance to see the film again--or for the…

The Skittles Monster! Taste my Rainbow Fist, Ultraman!Off to Dallas tomorrow morning. Have a great week, everyone.

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…