Mahakaal (1993, dir. Shyam Ramsay & Tulsi Ramsay)

Posted on October 9, 2016 by Valerie Troutman

This is my very first foray into the genre of Bollywood Horror. In fact, I wasn’t even aware this was a thing. I just knew that while looking for foreign knock-offs of famous American films, this one showed up on my radar. I decided to save it for October. Little did I know that this film came with a decade or so of horror films made by Bollywood prior to it. Even while I called this movie the Indian A Nightmare on Elm Street in the title of this post, it wasn’t really the first one. It’s just the one that is most well-known, and was an intentional remake of the original. Well-known to the point that it was even included in the Elm Street retrospective film Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy (2010). The other is very easy to find, but has no English subtitles.

This movie was done by the Ramsay brothers who were pioneers of the genre. While Khooni Murdaa (1989) wasn’t a remake of A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), you can see below why it became an issue for the Ramsay brothers who were in the middle of making their film when it was released.

Khooni Murdaa (1989, dir. Mohan Bhakri)

As a result, they either tweaked kills from the original movie, kept the style of the kill, or simply went with a kill from one of the other Elm Street movies. Full confession: I have only seen the first two, so I won’t be able to make sure I know which films all of the kills come from. With that little bit of exposition out of the way, let’s have some fun.

The movie begins with a shot of what looks like some sort of humanoid that appears like they are being crucified on a skull. Then the movie goes ahead and gives a shot of Freddy’s eyes.

Then we meet Seema (Kunika) as she wanders around Indian Freddy’s Boiler Room.

Eventually she runs into Freddy. Well, she runs into his claws to be more specific.

Note that she does indeed take it to the the stomach because she will wake up to simply find claw marks on her arm.

That’s a pretty nasty wound that you’d think she’d show somebody, but she won’t for awhile. Instead, it’s time for the directing credits to show up blinking like an old website before cutting to Anita (Archana Puran Singh) putting up a picture that appears to be somebody fighting a bear.

If that doesn’t make any sense to you, then don’t worry, because none of the tone whiplash in this movie is going to make sense.

We then meet the family, including her boyfriend Prakash (Karan Shah). I don’t recall anything about Nancy’s mother from A Nightmare On Elm Street (1984), but Anita’s father is with the police in this one.

Now we cut to her school where we meet the head of what I assume is the Tutankhamun gang.

He is telling everyone that someday, Anita will be his. This is as good a time as any to mention that Anita’s regular life in this movie comes across as worse than Freddy coming after her.

Then we cut to what must be a restaurant rather than a cafeteria.

It was nice of Rambo to make an appearance in this movie. The same goes for Michael Jackson.

That’s when the movie’s extremely annoying comic relief (Johnny Lever) enters the room. And what song off the Bad album would play for his entrance, but Thriller.

That was on the Bad album, right?

This guy is less like the “bad” Michael Jackson was singing about, and more like what Huey Lewis & The News were singing about in Bad Is Bad. He’s the worst.

Now Anita shows up sporting a bandage where she was wounded. For some reason they cut from Seema getting attacked in her sleep to a similar looking woman and her boyfriend. It was confusing, and it didn’t help that IMDb says that Anita is the center of attention, not Seema. I got them screwed up over and over throughout this film till I knew for sure that Seema was dead. Also, the self-referential joke that turns into breaking the fourth wall here isn’t funny. Nothing he says or does is funny.

Oh, and did I mention this guy is the worst with enough emphasis? In case I didn’t, when the Tutankhamun guy shows up, this guy proceeds to sexually assault him.

Don’t worry, Tutankhamun guy will get his turn to do some sexual assaulting of his own.

Once that is done, we get our first musical number. I’m sure that Wes Craven always intended his film to have musical numbers in them. Actually, I wouldn’t be surprised if he felt flattered, and thought this movie was hilarious. Stupid, but hilarious. I say that because when you watch the movie, you can tell the Ramsay Brothers were fans of the original. If you cut out the parts that don’t fit for an American market (inappropriate and otherwise), then you actually have an interesting variation on the original that also brought together parts from the other films in the series. As for this musical number, I think the Ramsay Brothers decided to work in From Here To Eternity (1953) for some reason.

I have to guess at which girl is Anita and which one is Seema here. I believe this one is Anita. This musical number seems to be here just to include breasts…

and a crotch shot.

After finding out that Tutankhamun guy’s friend is a fan of Siouxsie and the Banshees based on his shirt, Anita finally shows somebody those gigantic wounds on her arm. Unlike Nancy in the first film, Anita really doesn’t take an active role in fighting Freddy. She’s just kind of there. This is particularly hilarious considering they get their ending from that other big 1984 film that had one of the strongest female leads of the decade.

We now go home with Anita. I am trying very hard to keep these two straight.

She goes to bed, and we cut to the father looking at a picture on the wall. It’s of his dead daughter. We find out she died seven years prior before cutting to another dream sequence.

I think I have seen that before.

A Nightmare On Elm Street Part 2: Freddy’s Revenge (1985, dir. Jack Sholder)

That is Anita’s dead sister Mohini (Baby Sweetha) who is here to lead her into another Freddy place.

Things are getting more serious because Freddy has expanded his repertoire to include Dario Argento lighting.

Suspiria (1977, dir. Dario Argento)

While we are down there, we get some genuinely creepy shots. The Ramsay Brothers didn’t have such great success in the genre of Bollywood Horror for nothing. That includes Anita ripping part of Freddy’s face off.

I absolutely love how the father (Kulbhushan Kharbanda) comes in, and just shrugs the whole thing off as her fault. Let’s take a look at this. Here is how she looks when he enters the room.

There are clear as day claw marks on her arm, but nobody notices. Not even Anita, till he leaves, which is apparently no reason to call him and her mother (Reema Lagoo) back in for a look. The best part of this is when you can see the mother clearly looking at the claw marks.

Moving on, we get to see that Tutankhamun guy is also a fan of Iron Maiden.

However, before we have the opportunity to say “2 Minutes to Midnight to kill Freddy”, things go downhill.

They pin Anita down and squirt her with a garden hose after basically saying they are going to rape her. Luckily, this doesn’t turn into the scene from The Lonely Lady (1983) where Ray Liotta raped Pia Zadora with a garden hose.

The Lonely Lady (1983, dir. Peter Sasdy)

This uncomfortable scene is broken up with a martial arts scene.

The same thing happened in Dariya Dil (1988) during a badminton match.

Dariya Dil (1988, dir. K. Ravi Shankar)

I guess that’s part of the standard Bollywood formula. They insert martial arts scenes wherever they can. Unfortunately, the bad guys getting the crap kicked out of them is stopped by Anita’s two friends, who are then stopped by administrators at the school this is all taking place at.

After going to the cafeteria, the never funny guy does get in one good line about the scumbags concerning what just happened.

Remember tone whiplash? It’s time for another musical number right after this sexual assault. For some reason, during it we get this guy dancing like an Egyptian.

When the car doesn’t work, they have to stop at a hotel.

Yes, that is the same actor as never funny. There’s another character later that I’m quite sure is played by him as well. I think something is lost in the translation, but I am pretty sure they are poking fun at the running joke from Magnum PI where long lost brothers of Higgins would show up at the estate.

Anyways, the two guys played by the same actor go to peep through a keyhole to watch a woman paint her nails. Don’t worry. She spots them, drags them into her room, and beats the crap out of them. I’m really glad that pointless padding is this movie.

Speaking of padding, let’s cut out the rest of this part and just get to Freddy showing up again. After showing up to chase after Seema, he pins her to the ground.

Then she dies under a sheet, and her boyfriend Parma (Mayur Verma) goes on the run because he believes that they will try to pin the murder on him. It doesn’t work for him. The police catch up with him pretty quick.

As does Freddy when he lures Anita into a freezer room by making her see Seema’s body come alive under plastic.

This time he only leaves Anita’s arm with a burn on it.

Now we reach the point in the film where Freddy spoke to me through the movie to make me aware that the copy I had only wanted to display in widescreen when it was actually 4:3.

Ready for something random again? Now two unrelated women appear, and want to go see an Amitabh Bachchan film. On their way home they are chased by several bad guys when this happens.

Not funny guy shows up to rescue the girls dressed like Amitabh Bachchan’s iconic character from Shahenshah (1988).

Shahenshah (1988, dir. Tinnu Anand)

The character is essentially an Indian version of Batman. If Amitabh Bachchan looks familiar, then you probably saw Piku (2015) where he played the constantly constipated Dad, Baz Luhrmann’s version of The Great Gatsby, or one of his other 200+ acting credits.

What does that scene have to do with anything? Nothing! That’s why after Anita has a short conversation with her mother, Freddy decides to pay a visit to Param in jail. He remembers that the other film already did the hanging thing, so he decides to top that by scratching the walls to make snakes come out of them.

By the way, we are an hour into this two hour movie, and I was able to keep calling him Freddy because they haven’t said his actual name, nor have they explained why he’s around yet. That’s why Anita wakes up to tell her father Parma is dead, he finds him as such, and he finally decides to tell the family what’s going on.

Here’s the gist. Freddy’s name is actually Shakaal in this one. The father refers to him as an evil spirit in a human body. He would kidnap children in order to sacrifice them to increase his magical powers. We get a nice little flashback, which shows us his daughter being sacrificed by simply being tossed down a bottomless pit before he can stop it. He locks Shakaal in a coffin and buries him alive. But then he gets home and there’s Shakaal’s glove alive and well hiding behind some drinks.

He tosses it in the fireplace, which really doesn’t explain why he still had it in a drawer all these years later for this reveal. So, it’s off for Dad and Prakash to go and see if Shakaal is still in his coffin. What they find are pointless explosions…and snakes.

When that is over, we cut to Anita driving when Shakaal decides to make an appearance. He chases her into an aquarium, and pops up to say hi.

I love that shot.

Then we get more padding in the form of a foreshadowing holy man. I have to give them credit though. He says they should sever Shakaal’s body in half. Remember that Shakaal’s main thing is his glove. That’s when they cut to Evil Dead chasing after Bruce Campbell camerawork to take us back into Anita’s bedroom to wake her up. Well played.

You know the routine. She wakes up, she finds Shakaal’s glove, and it tries to strangle her.

There is one difference this time. Shakaal has decided it’s time to start moving away from the first film and into the second one because they find her on the floor of her room fighting as if the glove was actually there.

While the dad is having a drink, Shakaal decides to amp up his attacks. He reveals himself to the father, but is kind enough to disappear in a puff of smoke when he tells him to leave. That’s because Shakaal has got better things to do. First, he has to walk across the living room disappearing, and then reappearing closer to the camera, before he pays another visit to Anita.

With that little bit of green in his eyes, we now have a possessed Anita.

The scumbag from earlier makes another run at Anita who is possessed now so that the movie can pad itself out with more marital arts.

Now it’s off to the disco!

Sure, you can have another random musical number, but can we leave references to The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) to Egyptian Rocky Horror AKA Fangs (1981).

Fangs (1981, dir. Mohan Bhakri)

After her dance number, possessed Anita leads Scumbag right to A Nightmare On Elm Street 4 (1988).

My favorite part of this scene isn’t that Scumbag finally gets his comeuppance, but that after Shakaal breaks through the plastic and pulls him under, he magically reseals the plastic.

The next morning Anita wakes up to appear shocked at what happened.

That’s the last we’ll see of Anita being possessed by Shakaal. Hold on a minute there. That means Shakaal possessed Anita. He then went to school as her where the scumbag tried to stop her and her friends took care of him via fighting. Then Shakaal performed a musical number in front of him to get his juices going. That was followed by Shakaal taking him to his place where he proceeded to tease that they would have sex, then kill him. Afterwards, Shakaal left her body. Sounds like Shakaal did her a favor. Also, this screenshot did me a favor because I finally know that Scumbag is named Randhir (Dinesh Kaushik). He seems to have a been a B-Movie actor, but he did have some role in Sarfarosh (1990), which at the time of writing this is ranked as #65 of the top rated Indian Movies on IMDb.

Not funny and some more padding shows up before we can move on with this movie.

Now we find out that Shakaal is also a fan of Romero.

Day of the Dead (1985, dir. George A. Romero)

Finally, Shakaal decides to stop messing around, and just takes Anita in to be sacrificed like her dead sister.

Leather boyfriend and her family show up to all confront Shakaal. This includes Shakaal taking an axe to his head.

I’m sure if there were sequels to this movie, then no matter how much of Shakaal’s history they changed, or what actor they had playing him, they would always make sure to acknowledge that axe to the head by putting a dent there.

He also gets impaled.

But Shakaal finds an alternative power source and pulls it from himself. If you haven’t noticed by know, Shakaal is less like Freddy and more like Jason. He doesn’t talk either like Jason, which people who haven’t seen the Friday the 13th movies say.

After beating up leather boyfriend, Shakaal follows Anita down into his basement where he has a convenient guillotine in it to chop his own legs off.

Look, as long as crazy looking holy man from earlier said they needed to cut him this way, then it is a totally original thing and not a role reversal with Anita being the one to cause Arnold Shakaal to end up this way. Never mind this scene that follows.

That’s when leather boyfriend shows up to make use of the convenient hydraulic press.

I mean spiked ceiling that I don’t know why Shakaal had in his place anyways since he just appears to toss children down pits like he did with Anita’s sister.

With the family all reunited, they can throw “The End” at the screen.

They sequel bait this with Shakaal’s glove sticking out from his crushed body, but since there are no sequels, it doesn’t matter.

I do recommend this one. It may have come at the tail end of the Bollywood Horror renaissance, but it is fun to see a variation on A Nightmare On Elm Street (1984) that doesn’t just copy the concept, but actually tried to stay somewhat true to the original.

Music Video of the Day: Madhouse by Anthrax (1986, dir. Amos Poe)

Posted on October 9, 2016 by Valerie Troutman

Madhouse was banned from MTV because of its’ portrayal of the mentally ill. I didn’t think I was going to get to a music video that was actually banned from MTV till I got around to doing Smack My Bitch Up by The Prodigy.

I’m bipolar, major depressive, get migraines, have been on more psychiatric meds than I can count, have been a cutter, and have been a patient in a mental hospital (inpatient and outpatient) to only name a few things in this area that I have had some experience with in my life. The person holding a fake baby makes me think of a woman I knew while in a mental hospital that had postpartum depression so bad that they gave her shock treatment (it helped her significantly). The people that appear mentally handicapped bother me because one of my lifelong friends has a younger sister who is mentally handicapped. I grew up around her, and have known others in my life who are in the same situation, but for different reasons. The nurse at the beginning reminds me of what we nicknamed “vampires” at the mental hospital that would come to take blood samples from us early in the morning in our beds. The person who accidentally lets one of the patients fall out of the wheelchair and the doctors smoking reminds me of people I’ve dealt with that treat the mentally and physically ill like they are nothing but a burden to them and/or even as if they are criminals. The whole music video and song reminds me of late 2014 and early 2015 when my brain completely turned against me, leaving me actually thinking I was trapped inside of something like The Matrix. To quote the song:

“Trapped, in this nightmare
I wish I’d wake
As my whole life begins to shake
Four walls surround me
An empty gaze
I can’t find my way out of this maze”

There were other things that accompanied that experience, and no doctor can tell me why it happened. I was just lucky I came out of it eventually.

The point is that I completely understand why some people would find this offensive. However, what I see when I watch this music video is a controversial short film that is drawing a parallel between the internal state of the mind of the mentally ill–we all are to some degree–with the apparent chaos of heavy metal and the actual chaotic relief of a mosh pit. I think Ben Kingsley in Shutter Island (2010) said it best when he described a migraine like having razor blades being shaken around in your head. Personally, I don’t find this offensive, but frighteningly accurate.

All that said, I can see why this would get banned from MTV, and probably should have been. It’s one thing for me to stupidly seek out Still Alice (2014) when I clearly should have known it would remind me of my brain turning to tapioca, but I did, and couldn’t finish it even with several anti-anxiety pills in my system. It’s another thing to be simply watching one of the most popular networks of the era, then have this music video suddenly show up on your TV. Despite being banned, it was still very successful and pushed the boundaries of what could and couldn’t be done in music videos.

This is one of those music videos where we apparently only know the director. That would be Amos Poe who only appears to have directed five music videos, including the one for Animotion’s Obsession. He has done other work in film that includes the documentary The Blank Generation (1976) that was filmed at CBGB during the birth of punk rock.

Music Video of the Day: Feed My Frankenstein by Alice Cooper (1992, dir. Penelope Spheeris)

Posted on October 8, 2016 by Valerie Troutman

I thought this would be simple. It’s October, so of course Feed My Frankenstein by Alice Cooper would fit. Also, I find that I get more hits on artists and songs that people know. It was in Wayne’s World (1992). A perfect storm to feature as a music video of the day. I had no idea it would be so difficult to find out who directed it when it should have been obvious.

You would immediately think that Penelope Spheeris directed the music video. I went to the two major databases on music videos–IMVDb and mvdbase–but neither of them had a director listed.

At first glance, it looked like what I remembered from the movie. I pulled out my copy of Wayne’s World and played that sequence side-by-side with the music video. It certainly is the same set, but they actually look quite different.

The next thing that came to mind was that it made sense that she would shoot a little extra material for Alice Cooper so he would have a music video for his song. After all, she directed The Decline of Western Civilization movies and has a personal quote on IMDb that says:

[on why she does documentaries about metal and punk music] “I mean, look, you don’t see me making documentaries on Britney Spears, you know what I mean? Sweetheart of a little girl, you know. Or Madonna. That’s not my thing. I just like this harder edge stuff. That’s just me.”

My next step was to look up whether she did have any credits for directing music videos, and up came some results. She shot at least three music videos for Megadeth. However, that was only a tease because she actually directed the music video for Megadeth’s cover of Alice Cooper’s No More Mr. Nice Guy.

Luckily, the website Songfacts came to my rescue, and said exactly what I thought to begin with when I went in to writing this post. She shot some more footage to create an extended version of that scene from the movie.

I don’t know how that wasn’t in the two biggest music video databases, but there’s the series of steps I went through to find out that piece of information.

Sadly, that’s pretty much all I have on this music video. The difference between the music video and the film, is that you get the full song with all its’ sexual metaphors. The only other thing to mention is that Alice Cooper was originally going to perform School’s Out, but two weeks before filming, Mike Myers was told by the band’s manager Shep Gordon that he would be performing their new song, Feed My Frankenstein. Again, thank you Songfacts for that information too.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Hell by Squirrel Nut Zippers (1997, dir. Norwood Cheek, Grady Cooper, & Tom Maxwell)

Posted on October 7, 2016 by Valerie Troutman

We had the Rapture yesterday courtesy of Blondie, so today we go to Hell. I probably shared this story at some point, but I’ll do it again. I remember back during this time when my mom used to watch Regis & Kathie Lee. On one episode they had Squirrel Nut Zippers on there to perform. I don’t remember if it was this, Prince Nez, or Blue Angel. Shortly after, I went to Tower Records looking for their album. The people there had no idea who I was talking about. Eventually I did find the album. It’s one of the most unusual albums I own. It didn’t come in a regular plastic case, but half paper and half plastic. According to the cover, I was supposed to light it on fire because it says “do not hold in hand after lighting.”

It has some pictures of Satan in it. One is in the hole where you press to release the CD.

The disc was even one of those enhanced albums that came with content for your computer. It won’t work with my modern Mac, but the readme file still opens and has some backstory on the album:

When I first heard Katharine, Jimbo and Tom singing their hot songs off the “Inevitable” album on the radio last year I was taken back and amazed by the tremendous diversity and quality of the Squirrel Nut Zippers’ music. I felt like they were the “missing link” in the lost imagination of contemporary music and were successfully bringing together all that is old and all that is new and making it their own. I rushed out and bought “The Inevitable” album and immediately began trying to think up some way of doing something creative with the group. I wrote to Jimbo and Katharine asking them if there was anything that I could do for them in the way of a film or video project.

Luckily they were going to perform here in Atlanta just a few days after I sent them my letter. I went early to “The Point” that evening hoping to talk with someone from the group before the show. I had memorized their names from the album and thought I could easily recognize any of them. However, when I arrived, there were people dressed in ’20’s attire everywhere I looked and I didn’t have a clue as to who was actually in the band and who wasn’t. It wasn’t until Don made a move for the stage that I was able to distinguish a Zipper from the rest of the crowd. I talked to Don for a few moments and he introduced me to Jimbo. That is when this all began.

We didn’t exactly know whether this project would turn out to be a documentary film, video or enhanced CD-ROM but the important thing was to get started in documenting their shows while they were touring extensively last year. Last July, my wife, Leah and our daughter, Sydney, went with me up to Charlotte and Asheville where I began shooting the Zippers’ shows and becoming a permanent fixture in their crowds. Everywhere I went with the Zippers from North Carolina to California, I would overhear people in the audience and even the club owners commenting that it was the largest turnout they had ever for a music performance at their place. The Zippers were starting a glorious craze that I feel will intensify even more with the release of the “Hot” album.

I have always known while I have been making this project that I have been a part of something very special. This has always been the motivation that has kept me burning the midnight oil for days on end to get this project finished in time to make it onto the “Hot” album. I can only hope that what I have done captures at least a fraction of the wonderful experience of seeing the Squirrel Nut Zippers perform live and the diverse and comical personality, brilliant talent and dedication that makes up the band.

I cannot thank everyone in the Zippers enough for their extreme amount of cooperation, patience, openness and trust that they have shown Leah and myself. I also want to thank Lane Wurster and Mammoth Records for taking a chance with my project and Lane’s tireless effort in helping to get it completed.

And of course, this project would never have been what it is without the never-ending support of the one and only Shorty Brown.

Clay Walker
April 28, 1996

I don’t really have anything to say about the music video itself beyond mentioning that it was inspired by Twin Peaks. It does capture that throwback to the swing dance days that bands like Squirrel Nut Zippers were part of in the mid-90s. Out of the bands I remember from the time, they were the ones that really tried to sound like bands from that time period rather than having a more modern take on it.

There seems to be a little bit of disagreement between two sources about the directors of the music video. No one disagrees that Norwood Cheek and Grady Cooper directed it. Cheek directed a few music videos as well as working in other capacities in film. Cooper has done many things over the years including directing 67 episodes of Survivor. According to IMDb, Cooper also appeared in the music video. Cooper edited it as well. Both Cheek and Cooper produced it. I think we can even thank Grady Cooper himself since he appears to have been the one to make a high quality version of this music video available on YouTube.

John Leuba shot the music video and has the usual handful of credits on IMDb.

The part that there is conflicting information about is whether Tom Maxwell had anything to do with directing the music video. Whether he did, or he didn’t, he did write the song. More recently in 2014 he published a book called Hell: My Life in the Squirrel Nut Zippers about the history of the band. He also wrote a post over on Medium about why he wouldn’t be joining the band on their 20th anniversary tour in honor of this album.

Enjoy this throwback to a throwback!

Music Video of the Day: Rapture by Blondie (1981, dir. Keith MacMillan)

Posted on October 6, 2016 by Valerie Troutman

We had some fun the past couple of days watching Carman kill Satan and banish movie monsters from his house, but now it’s time for the Rapture.

I’m sure people know the historical significance of this particular music video by now, but I’ll restate it anyways. In the very early days of MTV, they rarely let blacks appear on the network. They of course had accusations of racism thrown at them. Thinking about it now, it was probably that they were operating on the fringe so much that they figured what little audience they had would go away, and they’d go under based on the demographics information they had. That’s my best guess considering it just took Michael Jackson having a big hit with them to get rid of that. However, during that period, this meant that Rapture by Blondie wound up being the first rap music video aired on the network.

As is often the case, Wikipedia has some good information. The music video was set in the East Village section of Manhattan. That’s exactly what it says over on Wikipedia. I’m not sure if that means it was actually shot there or not.

William Barnes was the guy in the long white suit referred to as the “Man from Mars”. According to IMDb, he went on to work on localizing video games such as Mario Party 5. He also choreographed the music video.

Graffiti artists Lee Quinones and Jean-Michel Basquiat make cameo appearances. Basquiat was hired after Grandmaster Flash didn’t show up for the filming.

Rapper Fab Five Freddy not only is mentioned in the lyrics of the song, but also made a cameo in the music video.

Wikipedia also mentions that much of the outside portions of the music video were shot in one take.

Keith MacMillan directed and John Weaver produced this music video. They both seem to have primarily worked on music videos for Kate Bush, but also did some work for Motörhead. The two as a team went by the name Keef. You can find Keith MacMillan under that name on IMDb. He has also used the name Marcus Keef. John Weaver on the other hand is buried under so many people with his name that I don’t even know if he is there. There are only two that have anything of note in their credits. One worked in the art department on three Playboy movies, and another was a director on the TV Show Dark Shadows.

Enjoy! I always do anytime we get somebody predicting the world will end on a particular day and time.

Music Video of the Day: No Monsters by Carman (1996, dir. Stephen Yake)

Posted on October 5, 2016 by Valerie Troutman

I don’t usually like to feature two music videos by the same artist in a row, but this is too perfect to not include during October as a companion to Satan, Bite The Dust.

In this music video, Carman recalls when he was kid watching scary movies. He’d get frightened and have trouble sleeping. However, he would then remember he’s Carman, and banish them from his house. One of them is even a man-gator. They also come for him as an adult by literally stepping out of the television. One of them is Frankenstein, and another looks like Uncle Fester with an axe. If only Rockwell had Carman with him, then he would’ve been fine.

Unlike Satan, Bite The Dust; I do have some info on this one. This music video is from the movie R.I.O.T.: The Movie (1996). Carman himself wrote the screenplay. I haven’t watched it yet, but I do have a copy. The film is padded out with music videos like this one. According to the credits on the film, Stephen Yake produced and directed the music video. There are a bunch of other credits that are all lumped together for all of the music videos in the film. They are too numerous to mention. Also, I have no way of knowing whether every single one of these people worked on this particular music video.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Satan, Bite The Dust! by Carman (1993, dir. ???)

Posted on October 4, 2016 by Valerie Troutman

I only found out about Contemporary Christian artist Carman this year thanks to The Cinema Snob review of this music video. From what I have watched of his material, his stuff is hilarious cheesy fun. I am largely guessing about the release date of this music video based on the release date of the album that had this song on it. I think that Stephen Yake probably directed the music video since he would go to direct the movie R.I.O.T.: The Movie (1996) that starred Carman. He also directed at least one music video for Carman. I can’t properly talk about this guy. Plus, I don’t need too. I’ll let Brad Jones do that, or you can just watch the music video. It’s fun. Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Princes of the Universe by Queen (1986, dir. Russell Mulcahy)

Posted on October 3, 2016 by Valerie Troutman

I had to do a Queen music video eventually, so why not do one of my all-time favorites from one of my all-time favorite movies. Plus, I think that Clancy Brown as The Kurgan is scary enough for October. I’ve tried to pick out music videos that fit with the month somehow if I could.

Going in to watching this music video, I figured it would just be Queen performing with cutaways to footage from the movie. I wasn’t too far off, but they actually bothered to do more than that. We get to see them performing on the set of one of the final battles that took place on the Silvercup rooftop stage at Elstree Studios, London. We also see Brian May play guitar as the castle from the film collapses. But more than that, we actually get to see Christoper Lambert clash swords with Freddie Mercury at almost exactly the two minute mark. Do you need more of a reason to take four minutes out of your day to watch it just to see that?

That’s really it. All the sources I find say that Russell Mulcahy not only directed the film, but also the music video on February 14th, 1986. I couldn’t find any other credits.

I wish there was more to say, but it’s a simple music video for a great song. Enjoy!

Late Night Cable Movie Review: Model For Murder (2016, dir. Dean McKendrick)

Posted on October 2, 2016 by Valerie Troutman

I am not sure why McKendrick didn’t just make this a sequel to Deadly Pickup (2016). I can take a guess and say that he knows HBO likes to rotate up films from Cinemax, which could cause one of the two to be brought up there, and leave viewers confused. Still, it’s shot in the same area. It has Billy Snow basically playing the same character as Deputy Randall. Sarah Hunter is back. Jon Fleming who played Rick in Deadly Pickup is also back. Sal V. Miers himself even makes a small appearance in the film having been the producer of both this and Deadly Pickup. Also, it is once again a procedural to find a killer while injecting sex here and there into the story.

The movie starts off…and welcome back to the world of the living, Rick!

Meanwhile, Sarah Hunter is standing in the background giving away the ending of the movie by looking very disapproving of this photo shoot. It’s not Rick’s fault the credits didn’t want to be placed over shots of the beach and birds flying this time around. That still doesn’t stop Hunter from getting a great look on her face.

That’s the look someone who is into you gives when you basically ask them to leave so you can have sex with someone else.

After that is completed, we cut to…whoa, whoa, whoa…

I’m pretty sure this is where you got killed by Carter Cruise in Deadly Pickup, Rick.

Deadly Pickup (2016, dir. Dean McKendrick)

Hmmm…I would say that Sarah Hunter resurrected Rick, but she was also killed off in Deadly Pickup. This completely breaks the continuity of the Dean McKendrick movies since I am pretty sure Sarah Hunter was killed off in Erotic Vampires of Beverly Hills (2015) too. I guess when all else fails, just blame Frankie Dell for creating another one of his mystery concoctions that brought Hunter and Rick back to life between movies.

During the photo shoot, Rick uses the excuse that the lighting isn’t right anymore, so they will have to shoot down on the beach a little later. This does not sit well with the model named Audrey (August Ames) who is already jealous of the other model named Jocelyn (Christiana Cinn), and was just arguing with her own manager David (Justin Berti) about it.

She proceeds to walk along the beach when it cuts to a seagull.

We know what that means.

Killed by a phallic shaped rock.

That’s when our heroes show up on the scene.

Deputy Randall got a promotion to Detective and has been partnered with Erika Jordan. They are legitimately good in this movie together. I could go for a series of movies where the two of them hunt down killers.

Considering this manager was arguing with Audrey next to a sign about “Conserving California’s Coastal Treasures”,…

that means we need Detective Randall and Erika Jordan to uncover a sex scene with Audrey from his past.

After the standard procedural scene of people standing around talking to each other, it’s time for Randall and Jordan to go check in with the producer–Sal V. Miers–about the body.

This is when Jordan makes sure to mention information that a woman could have killed Audrey.

Now we cut to Sarah Hunter trying to drop less than subtle hints to Rick that she is in to him. Then Jocelyn comes in to make Sarah Hunter leave, and comfort Rick by sticking one of her heels high in the air.

Once that is over, the good acting brigade shows up to question Rick as Jocelyn sneaks out the back-way. Hunter tells them that Audrey knew some things about Jocelyn that could hurt her modeling career, such as being a stripper on the side.

Now it’s off to the Mötley Crüe soundalike strip club so that Jocelyn can point suspicion back at the red herring of the shady manager from earlier. They also make sure to say that Detective Randall is having a bad break up with his wife. That way they have an excuse for a sex scene later.

Now our dynamic duo go and confront the sleazy manager at the house of the couple from Deadly Pickup.

They acquired enough evidence between scenes to arrest him just in time for Sarah Hunter to take a shower. After that, Hunter and Rick agree to meet later on, before we cut to Detective Randall drinking when Erika Jordan comes in to see him.

I’m amazed Detective Randall would want to return to the bar where he had to put down Carter Cruise.

Deadly Pickup (2016, dir. Dean McKendrick)

She takes him home since he is drunk, and they have sex. This one felt genuine like their characters had real feelings for each other. That was nice.

Now we go to Rick’s place where Sarah Hunter is in her best red dress. They have sex of course, but since Rick is suicidal, he essentially tries to kick her to the curb afterwards. Rick isn’t the brightest of people.

Lucky for Rick, our detectives get a hit that Sarah Hunter’s DNA was on the rock. You’d think Hunter would get Rick in the end, but she didn’t count on Detective Randall.

No one gets the final shot, but Detective Randall! Well, Erika Jordan gets in a shot too. I can’t think of any way to tie that in with Hunter playing Jade Empress in Bikini Avengers (2015). I’ve failed you.

Let’s wrap this up, Sal!

Detective Randall and Erika Jordan tell Sal the backstory on Hunter before getting a call for another case. Hunter was obsessive, which is what led her to become so attached to Rick that she killed to have him for herself.

“Pleasant dreams, my dear.”

This isn’t one of the best of these late night cable movies floating around. However, if you have to choose between this and Deadly Pickup, then this is definitely the one to watch. Billy Snow, Erika Jordan, and Sarah Hunter are three of the best actors in this movie. They carry the film. Deadly Pickup is dragged down by Carter Cruise trying to play a ditz when it really doesn’t seem to be in her wheelhouse. It’s noteworthy that this movie contains no girl-on-girl sex scenes. I was surprised. They always seem to find some way of working that in. I’m glad they didn’t though because it wouldn’t have made sense in this film, and they really do try to have a coherent story. The flashback sex scene is the only thing that stood out at me as not being necessary. You also get to see Jon Fleming do some acting instead of just showing up as a walking dead meat puppet in Deadly Pickup.

Still, I am waiting for one of these crime late night cable movies to measure up to Carnal Wishes (2015). Deadly Pickup is at the bottom, Wicked Deeds (2016) is in the middle, and this is the closest so far that I have seen.

Music Video of the Day: Dragula by Rob Zombie (1998, dir. Rob Zombie)

Posted on October 2, 2016 by Valerie Troutman

Nothing says 1998 like seeing Rob Zombie and a group of devils doing The Night at the Roxbury (1998) head bob.

The greatest thing about this music video is knowing that Robert Osborne and/or Ben Mankiewicz saw it, which lead to him hosting TCM Underground for awhile. Thanks to Rob Zombie’s brief time there, I was introduced to Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (1965).

I wouldn’t be surprised if the dancing lady is a reference to that movie. Then again, it could be any cult film from the 1960s.

Thanks to Wikipedia, I know some of the footage he uses. The bit about “superstition, fear, and jealousy” comes from the film The City Of The Dead/Horror Hotel (1960). The line is spoken by Christopher Lee. That part is played over footage from 1920’s Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde. The killer robot is from the The Phantom Creeps (1939). Frankenstein is in there too. I know I’ve seen the shocked woman at the beginning somewhere, but I can’t place it. I wanna say the 1958 version of The Fly, but it’s just a guess.

There’s plenty more in there, but those are the only ones I could find. If you can tell me more, then please do so.

The car in the music video and in the song title itself comes from Grandpa Munster’s dragster on The Munsters.

However, the car in the music video only resembles the car driven on the show.

This stuff came out in an interview that Rob Zombie gave with Billboard magazine. Don’t quote me on it, but I swear I remember him saying his dad or grandfather owned a Dragula, which is where the song came from. I could have just misheard it for Grandpa Munster. I couldn’t find a reference to that anywhere.

Of course Rob Zombie directed the music video before he went on to give us the backstory of Michael Myers that I don’t think anyone was asking about. After Halloween II (2009), I think it’s safe to say he was all but crucified. But being a zombie, it didn’t matter. He’s alive and well. Even 82-year-old John Hetlinger performed the song on an episode of America’s Got Talent back in July of this year despite not knowing what the lyrics mean–according to Songfacts.

Welcome to the club, Hetlinger! I have no idea what they mean either. This is one of those songs where I ignore the lyrics, and take Rob Zombie’s voice to be just another instrument. That goes for the music video that to this day is pure fun, whether it’s October or not.

Jeff Selis edited the music video. He’s edited over 100 music videos, and still is working today with artists like Beyoncé, Usher, Jennifer Lopez, Lana del Ray, Selena Gomez, Taylor Swift, and many more. It looks like before he was a music video editor, he was a location manager on films such as Body of Evidence (1993) and My Own Private Idaho (1991). I can’t find a credit for him working on a Madonna or Dogstar music video. That would be too awesome.

Dave Hussey was the colorist on this music video. He has worked on somewhere around 330 music videos with Ariana Grande, Taylor Swift, Eminem, Katy Perry, Britney Spears, OutKast, Aerosmith, The Offspring, Michael Jackson, and many many more. He has worked on two Madonna music videos.

Enjoy!