Today’s artwork of the day has a Thanksgiving theme!
Now, it may not be obvious from looking at the poster above but 1972’s Blood Freak is a film that is uniquely suited for today’s holiday. What’s the film about? Well, in short, it’s about a kinda beefy dumb guy who gets a job working at a turkey farm. He spends all of his time surrounded by turkeys. Well, except for the time that he spends smoking dope!
That’s right — marijuana! The weed with roots in Hell!
He takes a few hits off a joint and, when next he awakes, he discovers that he has been transformed into a blood-thirsty monster that has the body of a man and the head of a turkey!
No, this movie is not a comedy. At least not intentionally. However, it is a classic. And so is the poster! Needless to say, the woman on the poster never appears in the film but the artist, whoever he was, did an excellent job of capturing the essence of the turkey monster.
The only unfortunate thing about the poster is that it doesn’t include a picture of the narrator. That’s right, Blood Freak has a narrator. He pops up randomly through the film, sitting behind a desk and smoking a cigarette. At one point, his narration is interrupted by a sudden coughing fit.
Happy Birthday, Erin! If it weren’t for your Artwork of the Day posts, then these posts probably wouldn’t exist. I can’t thank you enough.
Okay, so why did I pick out this particular music video?
The title fits with Erin’s handle on here.
It starts off with a big picture of something you would find on a pulp novel that she would post. The mermaid later on also looks like something I would expect to see on an Artwork of the Day post.
Just like The Warrior by Scandal that I featured for Lisa’s birthday, this was also shot by Texas Chainsaw Massacre cinematographer Daniel Pearl.
Also, it connects exploitive artwork together with dancing thanks to director Kenny Ortega.
Speaking of Kenny Ortega, he has racked up an impressive list of accomplishments over the decades.
Recently he brought us what I have been told is an abomination of a remake of The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
He also brought us the nightmare fuel that is the High School Musical films.
He choreographed Material Girl for Madonna.
A year before this music video he choreographed what has been deemed in recent years to be one of the most homoerotic music videos of the early-80s. That being the one for Billy Joel’s Allentown. Billy Joel himself is quoted in the book I Want My MTV about the video. He said that when it blew up on the Internet, he went back and took a look at it. He sees it too, but said that he honestly didn’t notice at the time. I believe him. It does look like a David DeCoteau 1313 movie at times except with dance and set to music. However, it still looks like a good representation of what Joel is singing about. I can see the homoeroticism going over Joel’s head.
Oh, and he is credited with single-handedly destroying Billy Squier’s career with his music video for Squier’s song Rock Me Tonite that he made a year after this one. If you read this Lisa, anytime you want, just tell me, and you can take one of the days to do a post on that music video. I would love to see you tear it apart by talking about everything wrong with the horrifying dancing in it.
There was some justice on that fifth one. Based on his music video credits on mvdbase, it appears that after Rock Me Tonite, almost nobody wanted to work with him. That wouldn’t matter too much though since he was also working on films like St. Elmo’s Fire (1985), Pretty In Pink (1986), and Dirty Dancing (1987), to name a few, before also going on to direct Newsies (1992) for Disney.
As for The Tubes, they are a San Francisco band that has important connections to the formation of MTV.
In the early days of MTV, one of the things they were in desperate need of was cable subscribers. One of the most successful ways they spread cable was through the infamous “I Want My MTV” slogan. That goes back to the funny $1 story with Mick Jagger. Another way they got cable subscribers was by proving the network was having an effect on the record industry rather than just being a curiosity. This is where The Tubes play a big part.
John Sykes and Tom Freston were sent by Bob Pittman to Tulsa, Oklahoma because that was where they had the highest concentration of subscribers according to Freston. One night Pittman got a call from them with some news. They noticed that a record store in the area was sold out of The Tubes. Since they were the only one playing The Tubes, according to Pittman, they knew it had to be them. Pittman said that was the first evidence they had that they were causing records to be sold.
The music video for their song Prime Time was played on the first day of MTV. They also had a few more made in 1981 before having a big hit with She’s A Beauty. It was in heavy rotation on the network. It’s a prime example of the kind of music The Tubes made. They were known for things like What Do You Want From Life? (consumerism/media), Talk To Ya Later (sex/politics/media), and the song White Punks On Dope, which is about their own fans.
That’s the one where their lead singer would come out as the character named Quay-Lewd wearing ridiculously high platform heels while being dressed like some combination between a classical musician and a punk. In the performances I have seen on YouTube, they would have him get pinned down by a falling stack of amps during the instrumental portion. You can see a reference to that when “Beauty” and the kid plow through a stack of amps.
Chuck, my new concert correspondent, has this to say about seeing them live (you can also read it in the comments below):
There are very few bands I haven’t seen in concert at least once. The Tubes in concert were right at the top of my “best” list. They were absolutely incredible. If you didn’t love them when it started, you certainly did when it ended. They weren’t really concerts, but life changing, spectacular events.
At one of their concerts in Santa Monica, the ensemble on stage during their last song of the night included a full choir, three or four high school cheerleader squads, the UCLA drum corps and marching band, around 70 jugglers, dancers, acrobats, various musicians, circus animals, (including an elephant) The Tubes themselves, and gawd knows what else. Everyone in the audience was jumping on their seats, which isn’t easy in folding theater seats. We were all hoarse from singing along (screaming along?) during “WPOD”
… and all this was AFTER most of the audience had the crap scared out of them during a way too real “terrorist takeover” lead-in to “Funky Revolution.” Something no band would dare attempt nowadays.
The kid was played by the late Alexis Arquette. It was her first acting job at the age of 13.
(Lisa recently discovered that she only has about 8 hours of space left on her DVR! It turns out that she’s been recording movies from July and she just hasn’t gotten around to watching and reviewing them yet. So, once again, Lisa is cleaning out her DVR! She is going to try to watch and review 52 movies by Wednesday, November 30th! Will she make it? Keep checking the site to find out!)
The next film that I watched off of the DVR was Day of Reckoning, a film that premiered on the SyFy network on October 8th.
Day of Reckoning was one of the handful of films that premiered as a part of SyFy’s 31 Days of Halloween. There was a time when the SyFy network used to air a new film every week. That was a golden age for those of us who enjoy live tweeting and snarking online. Unfortunately, it would appear that the network made a change in their business model and SyFy drastically cut back on the number of original films that they produced and/or bought each year. Now, if you want to see an original film premiere on SyFy, you either have to wait for Shark Week or October. It’s unfortunate but that’s the way things are.
This year, it seemed as if almost all of SyFy’s October premieres were essentially remakes of It Follows. Day of Reckoning is unique because it went the opposite route. In no way is this film a rip-off of It Follows.
16 years ago, during an eclipse, Earth was attacked by a pack of dogs from Hell. That’s not just me being overdramatic. Fissures literally formed in the ground and these dogs sprang out from the depths of Hell. For 24 hours, the hellhounds terrorized and killed. And then, much like a wealthy, mask-wearing murderer at the end of the annual Purge, they just vanished. Naturally, the survivors built barriers over the fissures and hoped that the dogs would never return. But now, another eclipse is approaching and some people are terrified that it’s going to happen again.
And you know what?
Those people are right.
Day of Reckoning follows one family and their effort to get to safety during the canine apocalypse. The father (Jackson Hurst) is still feeling guilty for not being home when the dogs first showed up. He’s determined not to fail his family for a second time. His wife (Heather McComb), meanwhile, just wants a divorce and his teenage son (Jay Jay Warren) just wants to hang out with his girlfriend.
Fortunately, a crazy uncle is coming to the rescue! Crazy Uncle Ted (Raymond J. Barry) has built an underground bunker and he’s invited the family to come join him and his wife (Barbara Crampton). However, the family first has to reach the shelter and that’s going to mean dealing with not only dogs but a lot of stupid people as well. You know how that goes. Can the family survive 24 hours of hellhound purging?
Crazy Uncles have been getting blamed for a lot lately. As of right now, you can go to about a hundred different sites and find all sorts of guides for how to talk to your crazy uncle during Thanksgiving. Apparently, the solution is to repeat tired soundbites. Personally, I would think a better solution would be not to worry about it and just enjoy your holiday but what the Hell do I know? With the character of Ted, Day of Reckoning pays tribute to the occasional wisdom of the crazy uncle and therefore, it’s essential Thanksgiving viewing.
Beyond that, Day of Reckoning is pretty much a typical SyFy film. It’s a bit more serious than most but, ultimately, it follows the same pattern. A group of characters have to get from one location to another without getting killed by a paranormal threat. It won’t take you by surprise but Raymond J. Barry and Barbara Crampton are both well-cast and, if you’re a fan of SyFy movies, you’ll probably enjoy Day of Reckoning.
Silence is one of the most anticipated films of 2016. Directed by Martin Scorsese, it tells the epic story of three Jesuits in Japan. Reportedly, Scorsese has been trying to get this film made since at least 1996.
For a while, of course, there was some doubt as to whether or not Silence would even be done in time for 2016. In fact, it looked like the film might get pushed back to 2017 and, as a result, would fall out of Oscar contention.
If this story sounds familiar, it’s because the same thing nearly happened to Scorsese’s last film, The Wolf of Wall Street.
Will Silence have the same Oscar success as Wolf of Wall Street? It’s hard to say. The subject matter could be a hard sell. I’m excited about it but then again, I love Scorsese and I come from a culturally Catholic background. Will non-Catholics who love Michael Bay be as excited about Silence as I am?
Who knows? To be honest, the trailer is full of striking images but I find myself wondering if this is going to be one of those visually impressive but emotionally detached films, the type that you respect more than you enjoy.
King of Classic Horror Boris Karloff was born on this date in 1887. The actor is beloved by fans for his work in genre flicks like FRANKENSTEIN, THE MUMMY , THE BLACK CAT, THE BODY SNATCHER , and many other screen tales of terror. But Karloff had always prided himself on being a working actor, and stepped outside the genre bounds many times. He excelled in some early gangster classics (THE CRIMINAL CODE, SCARFACE), played George Arliss’ nemesis in HOUSE OF ROTHSCHILD, was a Chinese warlord in WEST OF SHANGHAI, an Oriental sleuth in Monogram’s MR. WONG series, the psychiatrist in THE SECRET LIFE OF WALTER MITTY, and a scientist in THE VENETIAN AFFAIR . And then there’s John Ford’s THE LOST PATROL.
The film itself tells the story of a British troop traveling through the Mesopotamian desert circa 1917. When their leader is shot dead by an unseen Arab bullet, the stoic Sergeant…
Of course, her name was originally Frigga. It was only after she was kidnapped, forced into prostitution, and had her eye removed as a punishment that Frigga became known as One Eye.
And, in much the same way, They Call Her One Eye was originally known as Thriller, A Cruel Picture. It was a Swedish picture, a feminist-themed revenge flick that had been banned for both its brutal violence and its explicit sexual content. In 1974, when American International Pictures brought Thriller to America, they cut out the hardcore sex scenes, left the violence untouched, and gave the film a new name: They Call Her One Eye.
They also came up with the absolutely brilliant artwork seen above! Even if They Call Her One Eye wasn’t one of the best and most subversive grindhouse films ever made, it would still deserve a place of honor just because of this poster.
I finally broke down, and went ahead and bought the book I Want My MTV. It’s a fascinating read so far. I am still in the founding years, but whether there was systemic racism or even next to none, they were destined to run into a color barrier issue. There was enough bad ingredients and thinking to make sure it happened. Perhaps that’s the reason why it only took two years for it to fall while being riddled with inconsistencies in between.
I bring that up because while I saw this music video many times as a kid, it wasn’t till now that I noticed it is a music video I would have thought verboten by MTV. Instead it was Super Freak by Rick James. That actually has an interesting story. It wasn’t rejected because James was black. It was rejected by a black woman at MTV who thought it was “crap” and wasn’t going to let that be the representation of her people on the network. I can totally get that. That video essentially took the set of an early-70s ABBA music video, threw a couple of props in, added some women fawning over James, and called it good. The song is great, but the video is underwhelming to say the least.
As for Electric Avenue, it is one of those music videos they showed from time-to-time as an example of an 80s one-hit-wonder. That was his biggest hit. It isn’t fair to call him a one-hit-wonder him though. Even to this year he is still in the news. According to Wikipedia, he is slated to receive a lifetime achievement award from Guyana–his country of birth. He’d been around since the mid-60s with the group The Equals. You might not recognize the name The Equals. You have probably heard one of their songs. They did Police On My Back, which was later covered by The Clash.
The music video also shouldn’t be cited as simply an example of a one-hit-wonder. One of the things that is clear in the pre-MTV setup chapters of I Want My MTV is that artists were already chomping at the bit to have films that didn’t just overlay their music over scenes. They wanted film that knew how to use their songs, their meaning, and would be a representation of the song. It was not as revolutionary as Herbie Hancock’s Rockit. Still, it does get the gist of the song across to the audience.
It has Eddy watching TV at the beginning. He finally turns it off, walks towards the TV, and creates one of the most iconic bits in music video history. He drops into a pool of water trying to reach his television. He then appears to wash up on the beach in the real world where what appears to be two white cops/vigilantes are on the prowl. He seems to be stalked by these two people who I am pretty sure are white. In the end, it is a shot of has face.
According to Wikipedia:
“The song’s title refers to an area historically known as Electric Avenue; a reference to the first place electricity lighted the streets in the market area of Brixton, South of London. This is an area known in the modern times for its high population of Caribbean immigrants and high unemployment. Tensions grew until violence hit the street now known as the 1981 Brixton riot. A year later, this song played over the airwaves.”
I’m really curious about when and how much this music video aired on MTV considering the content. I know his music fit with the kind they wanted to play. Wikipedia says it was thrown in for racial diversity. That doesn’t change the fact that it screams unplayable by MTV during this time.
Director Steve Barron made it. He is one of the most influential music video directors of his time. I’ve already covered three of them, and I wasn’t even trying. He seems to have directed all but a couple of Eddy Grant’s music videos.
I want to make special note that I put 1983 as the release date for the music video even though IMVDb says 1982. Mvdbase even says the music video came out in January of 1983. That’s because while it was a big hit in the UK in 1982, based on the Wikipedia article, it didn’t make its way to the United States until 1983.
They say that practice makes perfect, and you know what? In the case of micro-budget auteur Israel Luna, that’s absolutely true — his 2011 effort The Ouija Expriement was a sorry piece of shit, and his 2015 follow-up, The Ouija Resurrection : Ouija Experiment 2 is a perfectly sorry piece of shit.
True, our writer/director obviously has a bit more money to play around with here (most of which is squandered on embarrassingly lame CGI) but this film — also known as either The Ouija Experiment 2 : Theatre Of Death or, simply, The Ouija Resurrection — ups the ante in the terribleness department by actually having the gall to think it’s clever rather than simply stupid.
Evidently Luna has convinced himself that his first flick has somehow attained “cult classic” status — which, I assure you, it hasn’t — because the premise here in round two is that…
In recent weeks, Ouija : Origin Of Evil has meet with a surprisingly positive critical and commercial reception, but you know how we do things here at TFG : why review the “real thing” when low-budget alternatives are available? To that end, I plunked myself down in front of Netflix the other night and watched writer/director Israel Luna’s 2011 “found footage” horror The Ouija Experiment, as well as its sequel (which we’ll get to in our next write-up), just to say I did my part to support the current Ouija craze without putting a dime in Hollywood’s pocket. As it turns out, though, I shouldn’t have wasted my time.
Cranked out for the paltry sum of $1,200, Luna’s flick is the sort of thing I probably should have enjoyed just to maintain my reputation as a connoisseur of zero-budget filmmaking, but try as I might — and believe me…
Before I forget, The Independent Spirit Award Nominations were announced earlier today! In a year that has yet to see a Spotlight, a Mad Max, or even a Big Short, the Oscar race remains undeniably murky. Maybe the Spirit nominations will help to clarify things.
(Sad to say but I haven’t seen most of the films that were nominated. They’ve either just opened down here in Dallas or they’ll be opening next month. So, you’ll have to forgive me if I can’t provide much commentary beyond saying that I look forward to seeing and reviewing them all for myself!)
(I will say, however, that I’m happy to see that American Honey was nominated because, even though I missed seeing the film, it’s directed Andrea Arnold. Arnold’s previous film, Fish Tank, is pretty much one of my essential movies.)
BEST ACTOR Casey Affleck, “Manchester by the Sea”
David Harewood, “Free In Deed”
Viggo Mortensen, “Captain Fantastic”
Jesse Plemons, “Other People”
Tim Roth, “Chronic”
BEST ACTRESS Annette Bening, “20th Century Women”
Isabelle Huppert, “Elle” Sasha Lane, “American Honey”
Ruth Negga, “Loving”
Natalie Portman, “Jackie”
BEST DOCUMENTARY “13th”
“Cameraperson”
“I Am Not Your Negro”
“O.J.: Made in America”
“Sonita”
“Under the Sun”
BEST INTERNATIONAL PICTURE “Aquarius” (Brazil)
“Chevalier” (Greece)
“My Golden Days” (France)
“Toni Erdmann” (Germany and Romania)
“Under the Shadow” (Iran and U.K.)
BEST FIRST FEATURE “The Childhood of a Leader”
“The Fits”
“Other People”
“Swiss Army Man” “The Witch”
BEST FIRST SCREENPLAY “Barry”
“Christine”
“Jean of the Joneses”
“Other People” “The Witch”
JOHN CASSAVETES AWARD (best feature made for under $500,000)
“Free In Deed”
“Hunter Gatherer”
“Lovesong”
“Nakom”
“Spa Night”
Through the Shattered Lens 