With news that the remake of Maniac has finally gotten it’s Frank Zito in the form of Elijah Wood I thought it was high time that I shared my favorite scene from the original film by William Lustig. it’s this scene that I hope will make it intact and with little to no CGI to make it happen in as glorious a fashion as the original scene.
The latest “Scenes I Love” comes courtesy of the make-up FX magic by Tom Savini. In fact, this scene actually has him doing double-duty roles as not just the make-up FX artist but as an actor in the scene. This particular scene has been dubbed the “Disco Boy” scene and Savini ably stands in for the role of Disco Boy. We have him and his Disco Girl making out in their car when suddenly we see Frank Zito peeping in like some sort of Son of Sam copycat. Well, Disco Girl freaks out and Disco Boy attempts to act cool and protective. Little does Disco Boy know that he will soon be immortalized in a few seconds of blood and gore that goes down as one of the best “kills” ever put on film.
If there was ever a film that many people who hate grindhouse and exploitation films always like to point out as a perfect example of films that should never have been made it would be William Lustig’s classic 80’s splatter film, Maniac. This film has been called depraved, misogynistic, obscene and those are just the tame labels heaped on this horror film.
There had been talks down the years to make a direct sequel to the film, but the many plans to do so always never got past the development stage. In late 2010, the remake rights to Maniac was obtained by a French company and it looks like the world will soon be seeing a new take on this controversial film hitting the theaters in a year or so.
The film will be produced by the kings of horror remakes, Alexandre Aja and Grégory Levasseur, with Franck Khalfoun (director of the underrated P2) set to helm the project. It’s the role of the serial killer Frank which has been much discussed by fans of the film who either hate or love that a remake was being of it. While names such as Tom Sizemore has been discussed the role finally landed on the lap of a very unexpected choice: Elijah Wood.
Elijah Wood would be the last pick many fans of the original film would make, but I think this pick is interesting in many ways. For one thing, Wood can definitely pull off the serial killer look, just not the beefy way Joe Spinell did. Wood already has done the serial killer role as the mute and creepy Kevin in Sin City. Wood’s casting as Frank can also go a long way in making sure this remake puts it’s own stamp on the character and story. Finally, Wood has the boy next door look that goes against the stereotypical film serial killer.
While I’m still hoping that Aja would do more original film projects instead of remaking past horror films, I am impressed at how he has done with past horror remakes like The Hills Have Eyes and Piranha. Even though he’s producing and not directing I hope he still brings the sort of manic glee to the production that the two previously mentioned films seemed to have which translated to the screen.
My opinion is that if this remake recreates the Disco Boy scene in all its glory then the remake will be the greatest ever.
So, grindhouse fans what do you think of this remake and the casting?
Ok, I have to admit that I was a huge fan of the Fox Network early 90’s cop show 21 Jump Street. What can I say other than it was a show about cops who looked like teenagers so using TV logic they go undercover in high school as students to catch bad guys. I mean the show gave birth to Depp and Grieco, nuff said.
It’s been twenty years since that show first first premiered and now we have the long-awaited, much-anticipated film adaptation of said show set for spring of 2012. It’s going to be an action-comedy but still using the same premise as the show, but instead of taking the original characters from the show and just having new actors play them the film just returns to the 21 Jump Street program with a new batch of recruits. So, instead of Johnny Depp and Richard Grieco we get Channing Tataum and Jonah Hill instead. I did read that Depp will appear in this film in a major cameo. Now, here’s to hoping they’re keeping Grieco’s appearance as a major secret.
The first trailer has been released and it’s in glorious red band. So, as I look at the trailer I will assume that this film will either be a very hard PG-13 or a soft R rating.
21 Jump Street has a release date of March 16, 2012.
It looks like the Grand Theft Auto franchise from Take-Two Interactive and Rockstar Games will continue onward with a new title that was recently announced through a debut trailer.
Grand Theft Auto V looks to be a sort of sequel to Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas which was set in the fictional west coast state of San Andreas and the city of Los Santos. While not much else about this upcoming have been released to the public the reaction to the trailer has been extremely positive. This franchise remains one of the cornerstone of the console gaming industry. As more and more information becomes available from Take-Two Interactive, Rockstar Games and Rockstar North I am sure the hype for Grand Theft Auto V will continue to just go up.
There hasn’t been an announcement as to which gaming platform the title will come out on, but it would be a major surprise if this title doesn’t get a multiplatform release onto the Xbox 360, PS3 and maybe the PC and the upcoming new Nintendo console, Wii U.
So, anyone else excited by the prospect of another new Grand Theft Auto title?
The latest “AMV of the Day” is one that should elicit more than it’s fair share of “awwwwwws” and may even bring some to happy tears.
“Maya and Companion” is the latest AMV which has caught my eye and I’m glad that it had. I’ve been awash in blood and violence for the horror-theme month of October so coming across this video more than balances out all of October. The video takes scenes of the Azumanga Daioh character Sakaki and her pet kitty Maya. Those scenes alone would be enough to bring a smile to my face (this anime is one of my favorites), but editing the scenes together and pairing it with the song “Good Company” from the late 80’s Disney animated film, Oliver & Company, just sent the video into sweetness and big smile overload.
I must give thanks to this amv’s creator, kireblue, for making this video and I wasn’t surprised to read and hear that it was a huge hit with the con-goers at this year’s Otakon 2011 anime convention in Baltimore.This amv would’ve been one I wish I could’ve seen live with a full audience.
Anime: Azumanga Daioh
Song: “Good Company” – from Oliver & Company (sung by Myhanh Tran)
“Got bit. Fever hit. World turned to shit. Might as well quit.” — note from unnamed hanged man turned zombie
[some spoilers within]
The first two episodes of the newest season of The Walking Dead sees Rick and his group of survivors on the move after the events at the CDC which ended season 1. Their convoy to reach what they think as the safe haven of the US Army base at Fort Benning doesn’t get them very far as they come across traffic snarl of abandoned vehicles and wrecks on the main highway. Its during these first two episodes that the group begins to show signs of cracks in the group dynamic which could lead to a permanent splintering of factions. It doesn’t help that two young kids in the group have either gone missing or gets accidentally shot by a deer hunter’s bullet.
We also meet a new group of survivors in the form of the Greene family led by it’s country vet doctor in Hershel Greene, his eldest daughter Maggie, their ranch hand Otis and a few others. Its from the Greene farm that the previous spent most of it’s time though it did show some choice scenes back at the RV and the group searching for Sophia in the forest. We see another cliffhanger end the second episode with Shane and his new partner in Otis as they make their way to the local high school where a FEMA camp had been set up as a refugee center before it became overrun. While they got the necessary supplies needed to save Carl they soon find themselves besieged by a horde of zombies with just a security gate and a lose bolt keeping them at bay.
“Save the Last One” marks the third episode of this 13-episode season 2. Except for a brief pre-credits scene of Shane shaving his head and looking intensely at his reflection off of a steamed up bathroom mirror, the episode takes up right after the cliffhanger ending of the previous episode. Shane and Otis are running through the hallways of the high school they’ve gone into for safety only to have the zombies outside chasing in after them. This part of the episode is just one of four parallel subplots which includes Daryl and Andrea continuing into the night in their search for Sophia in the woods, Dale and Carol back in the RV and the rest of the group over at the Greene farm waiting to see if Carl will get the necessary he needs to survive.
The decision to cover all four threads in this episode was an interesting decision which doesn’t pay off for all. It would be the Shane and Otis section which would get the most action during the episode, but it would be at the Greene farm that we get some soul searching from the Grimes about whether its the best if Carl was just to die if just to save him the horror of having to try and survive in a world where something is always around the corner to tear into him. Andrea and Daryl has a conversation during their search that sounds just as similar though not as depressing and downbeat as Rick and Lori with theirs. We get more personal musings about faith, God and the need to live instead of just surviving.
Some of these dialogue-heavy scenes work like the ones between Andrea and Daryl. With each passing episode Reedus continues to make Daryl Dixon a well-rounded character beyond the racist redneck his initial introduction made him out to be. His Daryl shows much more than just being a badass in the show but also one who is more observant about those around him than he lets on. He sees how much Andrea is still hurting from Amy’s death from season 1 and understands the feeling of just ending it all though he doesn’t see it as the best option. The same goes with how Rick still remains optimistic about the world as it stands now and gives a wonderful speech to Lori about why Carl should have the chance to live instead of letting him die. Both Rick and Daryl seem to have much more in common than we realize though they each go about their optimistic viewpoint in their own particular way.
“Save the Last One” weaves too many concurrent subplots that at times they break some of the stronger scenes between Andrea and Daryl and those between Rick and Lori. Then there’s Shane and Otis in their attempt to escape the horde of zombies after them as they try to make it back to the Greene farm with their medical supplies. the episode tonight could easily have saved some of the scenes with Carol and Dale for the next episode since it looks like Sophia will remain missing. But all in all, tonight’s episode still moved the series forward despite the series still remaining static in terms of location for the group. While it didn’t hit on every note the show did bring up some of the more interesting themes from the comic book.
Despite the episode tonight having been uneven due to the juggling of several subplots to the main story it was fully redeemed by the ending which did a major deviate from the comic book source material and do so in a truly shocking way. I understand why the character in question made the decision that he made, but it still was one that sends this particular character past through the looking glass, shattering it and coming out changed on the other side and most likely not for the better. Plus, it was quite ballsy of Kirkman and the rest of the show’s writer to take out a character sooner than expected if one followed the book. If any episode really hammered in the point that the show will be going very far off the beaten path created by the comic book source material then it would be this one. “Save the Last One” is definitely one of the episodes in this show’s brief span, so far, that will be talked about for months to come.
Notes
It’s interesting to note that both Andrea and Dale has so far been written quite differently for the show than in the comic book. Will the writers continue to make them different from their comic book counterparts or will they gradually work them into finally becoming the characters fans ended up loving.
So far, the rules as to who can and who doesn’t become a zombie has remained vague outside of the survivors thinking it’s a virus transmitted by bites and injuries caused directly by the zombies. The comic book followed the Romero rules that any sort of death will result in the body returning to life as zombie as long as the brain is intact.
The episode being set mostly at night really made some of the scenes at the high school and at the RV look very dark that at times it was hard difficult to figure out what was going on.
Glenn got a bit more screen time in this episode and his interaction with Maggie Greene was good to see as these two would become quite integral in the group moving forward.
Lauren Cohan also got a bit more time during the episode to help flesh out her character as someone who seemed more well-adjusted to the new world than either Lori, Andrea or Carol. Though after finding out what had happened to one of her and her family’s oldest friends showed that deep down she’s as damaged by the zombie apocalypse as the other ladies.
I’m all for Sophia being found alive and all, but this season has put too much energy on this particular part of the storyline for far too long. They need to figure out a way to end this part of the show’s second season soon and do so in a way that makes sense or it would’ve been a wasted exercise in storytelling that took up almost a third of the season if not more.
Even with the episode set at night with minimal lighting the zombie make-up effects by co-executive producer Greg Nicotero and his band of make-up wizards at KNB EFX remain one of the highlight’s of the show. Example in point: legless zombie in the high school gym.
It’s been awhile since we’ve seen someone shown getting torn apart by zombies on this series, but tonight did a great job at showing how savage and brutal a death at the hands of a horde of zombies could be especially if the person in question being torn apart was still alive to experience it.
Some may think the season has been slow-going so far, but I like how it’s not all action. If there was ever one thing which always made zombie apocalypse stories very fun to read and watch is how they don’t just show gore and death, but also explore some heavy themes and ideas about faith, living versus survival and whether allowing the most helpless to remain surviving in such a terrifying world is such a good idea to begin with.
The episode’s title definitely played on the idea of saving the last bullet. Whether the episode means saving it for oneself as the final option out or to use it for a darker purpose to continue surviving would be up to the each individual to decide.
Lisa Marie has been posting some very good pubic domain horror films for the past couple weeks and I think it’s about high time I posted one of the best public domain films. This one happens to be a horror film and also happens to be one of the best horror films ever made. I would be of the mind to call this one of the most important films ever made in the last hundred years.
The film I speak of is George A. Romero’s classic and iconic horror film from 1968 simply called Night of the Living Dead. I’ve reviewed and posted this film from over a year ago, but it’s only been recently that Youtube has had a quality HD version of the full film uploaded to its site. Now, people don’t need to go find and buy the countless DVD versions of this film floating around in almost every store imaginable. I think even 7-11 and corner mom-and-pop stores carry a dvd of this film. This is why public domain films can be such a boon to films of the past (though also a curse since some transfers of pubic domain films are beyond awful) that tend rarely get a video release.
Fortunately, Night of the Living Dead is not one of those films. It’s the opposite in that it’s a film that many consider the birth of modern horror cinema and one of the perfect example of guerrilla filmmaking. It’s a film that didn’t just change how we look at horror now (gone are the gothic trappings that most horror had prior), but it also was one of the few horror films to successfully marry not just scares but thought-provoking themes and ideas. Even now most horror films fail to do one of the other let alone both at the same time.
The modern zombie genre of entertainment (films, stories, video games and even protest movements) owe it’s existence to this little low-budget horror film from the late 60’s by a Pittsburgh native and his friends who decided to pool their money together and make a horror flick. It’s a film that still stands the test of time. When all the hoopla over the Paranormal Activity nonsense, remakes of horror (both good and bad) and teen-sanitized horror goes by the wayside this film will continue to impress, remain relevant and still scare (pardon my French) the shit out of young people discovering it for the first time.
Every year there are always films of every genre and stripe which fly under the radar of most film-goers. Every film fan knows of several such films and always like to believe they were one of the few who actually saw it in the theaters when it came and went. In 2002, one such film was the psychological thriller/horror film Frailty by veteran actor Bill Paxton. This was to be his directorial debut on a feature-length film and for a first time it was a home run right from the start.
Frailty was done mostly through flashbacks as told to an FBI special agent by a man (Matthew McConaughey) and how this man knows the true identity of a particular serial killer around the Texas region who has dubbed himself the “God’s Hand”. It’s through this man’s retelling of the origins of the “God’s Hand” that we see the lives of a father raising two young boys as best he can until a sudden “vision” of divine nature changes their lives forever. The father begins to believe that he has been given a divine purpose to find and destroy demons who have taken on human form. To do this deed he has an axe he’s dubbed “Otis” to assist him. The reaction of the two young boys differ as their father goes about his new work. The older brother in Fenton Meiks believes what his father is doing to be illegal and makes him a murderer. On the other hand, the younger brother in Adam Meiks has taken on seeing their father as the hero that he sees him and supporting him in his new endeavor.
The film doesn’t inundate the viewer with much gore and violence. This is not say that the film lacked for killings. The father finds and “destroys” the demons given to him on what he calls “God’s list”, but the film doesn’t linger on these scenes of violence. It instead focuses on the reactions of the father’s two sons and the growing rift which gradually begins to grow between the three. It would be this rift which plants the seed of who would ultimately become the “God’s Hand” killer.
The film also manages to turn the theme of a father’s love for his sons and vice versa become a taut and disturbing study on the concept of faith. The film also does a great way of twisting the story in a way that we never know who the “God’s Hand” killer was until very close to the end despite everything being told by the man to the FBI pointing to specific individual. This was one of the few films which used the twist to the narrative properly and not as a crutch to make the film better than the source.
It’s this source, the screenplay in other words, which makes Frailty such an under-appreciated and great film. There’s rarely any instances where the story takes on leaps of logic that would break the audience from the world they’ve become invested in. In fact, I would say that the film was quite traditional in how it handled the story and characters. There’s wasn’t any special character and narrative quirks to make them stand out from the rest of the other roles. It’s from the performances by all involved, especially the very convincing ones from the two young actors playing the young Fenton (Matt O’Leary) and young Adam (Jeremy Sumpter), that sells the film. Matthew McConaughey as the man telling the story of the Meiks does a great job in a role that others might have gone overboard with. His restrained performance in concert with the young actors in the film would be another reason why Frailty became such a great film.
Performances, as great as they were in this film, required for a filmmaker to have a deft handle on his cast and the screenplay. This film was lucky enough to have a first-time filmmaker in Bill Paxton who played to the strength of the screenplay and trust in his actors. He didn’t try to be too cute or direct like someone with something to prove. I know that saying one directed a film with efficiency would be seen as a negative. In this instance I’d say that Paxton’s efficient direction helped the film stay focused on the story and the characters instead of trying to be flashy.
Frailty was, and still is, a film that seems to fly under most people’s radars, but it’s also a film that has gained quite a loyal following since it’s initial 2002 release. It’s a rare film that has continued to live up to it’s growing cult status not because of what people might have heard of it, but because it’s a rare film that stand on it’s quality. A film which, from top to bottom, made for a smart thriller with some horror aspects through in that didn’t try to fool it’s audience (even the twist in the story was a true genuine surprise instead of a story cop-out). If there ever was a film that needed to be seen by more people it’s definitely Frailty.
As I sit here collecting my thoughts on my next horror film review I went over on YouTube to look at a few favorite film scenes to help inspire me. One such scene I came across remains one of my favorite horror scenes ever. In fact, I would consider this one of my favorite film scenes I have ever seen and I have seen more than what’s considered normal.
The film the latest “Scenes I Love” comes from the classic and under-appreciated Day of the Dead. This would be his third zombie film and when it first came out was considered too dark and depressing. I don’t think I would disagree with those descriptions, but that’s not to say the film wasn’t great. The film just took awhile for people to finally appreciate it’s greatness and utter grindhouse vibe.
Now onto the scene that continues to be my favorite from this film. It involves the character of Capt. Rhodes as he tries to flee fro the horde of zombies which has breached the underground haven he and his men had called home. Just like the inspiring leader he was throughout the film, Rhodes leaves his men to fend for themselves as he goes for the cache of weapons and ammo to make a run for it. What he hadn’t counted on was the arrival of one smarter-than-the-average-zombie named Bub who has a bone to pick with dear old Capt. Rhodes.
What happens once the two get to doing their stand-off still remains one of the best scenes in horror ever. What made the scene great was how Rhodes reacted to the final situation he found himself in. If I ever meet such an end I would hope I go out with such words to utter.
Lisa Marie recently wrote up her very unique review of the James Bond film Live and Let Die and I’ve decided to use that review as the springboard for the latest “Song of the Day” entry. It’s easy enough to figure out that the latest choice is the similarly titled song from the film by Paul McCartney: “Live and Let Die”.
This song remains one of the most recognizable songs made specifically for a film. Most songs that become part of a film’s appeal tend to be pre-existing licensed songs and music. Live and Let Die would be the first James Bond film that would introduce Roger Moore as the British superspy and 007 agent. The song itself, written by Paul McCartney and his wife Linda, would become even more popular than the film through the years.
While the song has been covered by many bands and groups through the years it would be the cover by Guns N’ Roses in 1991 as part of their Use Your Illusion I album that many consider the best cover. I consider both favorite songs of mine, but I must pick McCartney’s original over the GnR cover by the smallest of margins.
Live and Let Die
When you were young and your heart was an open book You used to say live and let live you know you did you know you did you know you did But if this ever changin’ world in which we live in Makes you give in and cry Say live and let die Live and let die
What does it matter to ya When ya got a job to do Ya got to do it well You got to give the other fella hell
You used to say live and let live you know you did you know you did you know you did But if this ever changin’ world in which we live in Makes you give in and cry Say live and let die Live and let die
Through the Shattered Lens 