4 Shots From 4 Films is just what it says it is, 4 shots from 4 of our favorite films. As opposed to the reviews and recaps that we usually post, 4 Shots From 4 Films lets the visuals do the talking!
This October, we’re using 4 Shots From 4 Films to look at some of the best years that horror has to offer!
4 Shots From 4 1979 Horror Films:
Alien (1979, dir by Ridley Scott)
Beyond the Darkness (1979, dir by Joe D’Amato)
Fascination (1979, dir by Jean Rollin)
Zombi 2 (1979, dir. Lucio Fulci)
“I’m actress Milla Jovovich, and I will be portraying Dr. Abigail Tyler in The Fourth Kind. This film is a dramatization of events that occurred October 1st through the 9th of 2000, in the Northern Alaskan town of Nome. To better explain the events of this story, the director has included actual archived footage throughout the film. This footage was acquired from Nome psychologist Dr. Abigail Tyler, who has personally documented over 65 hours of video and audio materials during the time of the incidents. To better protect their privacy, we have changed the names and professions of many of the people involved. Every dramatized scene in this movie is supported by either archived audio, video or as it was related by Dr. Tyler during extensive interviews with the director. In the end, what you believe is yours to decide. Please be advised, that some of what you’re about to see is extremely disturbing.”
And so began the 2009 film, The Fourth Kind! Milla Jovovich plays Dr. Abbey Tyler, who is still emotionally devastated by the murder of her husband and who finds herself interviewing a lot of potential UFO abductees in Nome, Alaska. You may remember that, when this film came out, there was a lot of online debate over whether or not it was based on a true story. That’s because the film was advertised as containing actual “documentary footage” of Dr. Tyler talking to hypnotized alien abductees. Often times, during the film, a split screen was used so you could watch the “original” Dr. Tyler interviewing a patient while, at the same time, Milla Jovovich and an actor “recreated” the scene for the film.
Of course, the really interesting question here isn’t whether or not the documentary footage was real. Instead, to me, the real mystery of the film is why, if you had all of this amazing footage of real people freaking out under hypnosis, would you then make a movie starring Milla Jovovich, Will Patton, and Elias Koteas? It seems like a better idea would be to just make a documentary and save a lot of money on paying the cast.
Anyway, as you probably already guesses, the documentary footage was faked as well and there is no Dr. Abigail Tyler. Still, you have to admire the amount of effort that director Olatunde Osunsanmi put into trying to convince us that we were watching something based on a true story. I mean, he went far beyond just using the whole shaky cam stuff that most found footage horror movies fall back on. Wisely, Onsunsanmi made sure that none of the actors in the found footage were more attractive than the actors in the movie that was supposedly based upon it. Anyone who has seen enough “based on a true story” movies knows that the real people never look as good as the people hired to play them. I mean, honestly, this is a gimmick that Orson Welles would probably have appreciated. That said, Welles probably would have gotten better performances out of the actors in his fake documentary. When Milla Jovovovich is more convincing as a psychologist than the woman who were told actually is a psychologist, it’s a problem.
As for the film itself, it has a few effective jump scares. There’s a lot of people yelling in strange voices and, when Abbey’s daughter vanishes, Milla Jovovich does a good enough job communicating the anguish that any mother would feel if her child was abducted by aliens. Dependable actors like Will Patton and Elias Koteas show up and do what they can with underwritten roles. The Fourth Kind isn’t a bad movie but its storyline and characters are never as interesting as its gimmick. It’s the type of horror film that might make you jump while you’re watching but, a week later, all you’ll remember is Milla Jovovich introducing herself.
Watching The Creeping Terror is an October tradition here at the Shattered Lens. How could anyone resist a film about a killer carpet, especially one that features a random dance party?
And enjoy the film!
Happy Horrorthon! Being lectured to by Two Sentence Horror Stories is as fun as going to an office meeting, at 4 pm, on Friday, December 24th, there are 102 slides, and you have to pee. In short, I watched this so you don’t have to. It’s really been awhile since I watched something so mediocre that it only excelled at being hamfisted trash.
I’ve written many times that horror and science fiction can be great at making political points and raising awareness: Twilight Zone wove great stories with salient issues to America’s living rooms, Night of the Living Dead looked civil rights right in the eye, and Friday the 13th exposed how hockey goalies had taken over the Summer Camp industry.
What do all of the above have in common that Two Sentence Horror Stories does not? They were entertaining and good stories first. I get that some people are angry, but that is no excuse for making terrible television. You have an opportunity to use great stories and subtlety to express yourself and CHANGE people’s minds, but if all you have is a political statement and a boring story- you devolve into lecture and people tune out. The point of using political messages in Horror is BECAUSE your goal is to get through to the other half of the country who disagrees with you.
The greatest example of horror with a message is Night of the Living Dead. Wes Craven discussed Night of The Living Dead and “At the end you realized [George Romero] made a political statement.” AT….THE….END!!!
People have their views. People have views that are different. People have views that are straight up wrong. Now, we are totally and openly polarized so getting people to see your point of view takes the MOST care and effort. It is not the time for hamfisted mediocrity. It’s the time for brilliance!
Two Sentence Horror Stories starts with the social evil right out of the gate and hammers us endlessly with their point of view. Every single episode has the worst mixture of terrible dialogue, confusing plot points, and amateurish camera shots. In essence, it is a failure and shouldn’t even be watched on the elliptical.
Two Sentence Horror Stories- begins with the first sentence of a horror cliche’. Then, you see someone beleaguered by a social evil. No one supports them until it’s almost too late. Then, the social evil is easily smacked in the face. The second sentence of the horror cliche’ appears. Lastly, we get a take home assignment and have to watch Ken Burns’ lesser known works.
The show puts the dilemma right in your face without nuance. I agree with the social message, but it’s as subtle as a brick to the face and the messages in this show aren’t even ground breaking.
They build the story around the message instead of the message around the story. You need to entertain first, get the audience to identify with your protagonist, and then get us to think. This is never done. Lastly, the messages they’re spoon-feeding us aren’t even new ideas and everyone is on board with these ideas. Therefore, the show fails to even break new ground when it’s haranguing us. It’s like they’re shouting at the Mayo Clinic to stop using leeches.
In summary, this show is boring, not scary, and preachy about issues that no one is disputing! Maybe, next week’s episode will be on how we all have to start drinking water and stop drinking bleach.
If this video doesn’t give you nightmares, nothing will.
When the video starts, it seems like it’s a simple lesson in dog ownership. If you’re going to walk your dog, don’t lead him around a post-apocalyptic hellsite and don’t allow him to urinate on an old TV. Because, if you do, the TV will apparently come to life and start yelling at you.
But then the kids show up and …. oh my God. I mean, children are creepy to begin with but when they all show up with an adult’s face — AGCK!
Anyway, stay away from those deserted warehouses, people. They may be aesthetically pleasing but something bad always seem to happen to people who wander too close.
Enjoy!
The world of Degrassi is like our own but not quite.
For instance, on Degrassi, Kid Rock was named Kid Eldrick. When Darcy started posting racy pictures of herself, she posted them not on MySpace but instead on MyRoom. A few seasons later, when Alli created the infamous I Hate Holly J group, she did so not on Facebook but instead on Facerange. Oddly enough, I think Degrassi‘s Twitter was called Twitter as well, which just proves that Twitter is the one social media network that you can’t escape.
Finally, in the world of Degrassi, students did not read Twilight and then fantasize about being a vampire’s lover. Instead, they read a series of YA books called …. Fortnight. Of course, this was before Fortnite itself became a thing but still, it’s always somewhat amusing to hear Degrassi students talk about how romantic they find Fortnight to be.
In tonight’s episode of Degrassi, it turns out that Clare Edwards (Aislinn Paul) is not only obsessed with Fortnight but she’s also having dreams about her classmate, Declan (Landon Liboiron). It kind of makes sense because Declan is totally a vampire name. The first problem is that Declan is dating the seemingly-evil-but-not-really-that-bad Holly J (Charlotte Arnold). The second problem is that Clare might be turning into a vampire herself.
In this episode’s subplot, Sav (Raymond Ablack) directs a music video and Degrassi‘s house band, Studz, performs House Arrest for the thousandth time. Even though Spinner (Shane Kippel) graduated several seasons ago, he’s still Studz’s drummer. It’s all so Sav can try to win back Anya (Samantha Munro), which was a storyline that just went on and on.
This episode first aired on May 7th, 2010.
A young couple — both of whom are dressed in clothes that appear to come from the 1890s — enjoys a romantic and sunny excursion to an isolated island. Unfortunately, their day is ruined when they’re discovered by a buck-toothed hunchback named Colin (played by Hal Borske). Death and dismemberment follows.
Somewhere in New York, three sisters are informed that their father has died but that neither they nor their husbands can receive a cent of their inheritance until they fulfill one very specific requirement. According to their father’s impossibly elderly attorney (played by Neil Flanagan, who is made up to look like an old witch from a community theater production of MacBeth), the sisters and their husbands must spend three nights in their father’s mansion. Of course, the sisters agree.
Upon arriving at the mansion, they discover that the mansion is being looked after by two maids and a hunchbacked, buck-toothed handyman named …. COLIN! Within a few minutes of meeting everyone, Colin eats a live rabbit while everyone watches. Later the remains of the rabbit shows up in one of the sister’s bed, along with a note that reads, “Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit!”
Speaking for myself, I would probably leave as soon as I saw the handyman eating a live rabbit. I mean, none of the sisters appear to be struggling financially but then again, greed is a powerful force. Instead, everyone settles in for their three-night stay, which leads to 1968-style sex scenes and a lot of footage of people sitting around and talking about nothing. For a low-budget grindhouse film, this is an extremely talky movie.
Anyway, eventually people start dying. Someone gets pitchforked. Another person is found hanging by his ankles. There’s a rather bloody disembowelment and someone else loses their head. Bloody X’es are left on doorways. Who is doing the killing? Hmmm …. well, Colin is the obvious suspect since we already saw him kill two people for absolutely no reason. But, it turns out that Colin has a little help. That’s right! The Ghastly Ones comes with a twist ending that you’ll see from miles away.
So, what exactly is The Ghastly Ones? It’s an extremely low-budget film, full of unlikable people dying in various grotesque ways. It’s an oddly moralistic film, with everyone dying because their greed prevents them from doing the sensible thing and leaving the house. It’s also apparently a period piece, with everyone dressed like they belong in the 1890s even though you can clearly hear the sound of cars in the background of a few scenes.
In short, this is another Andy Milligan film! Filmed on Staten Island and featuring a largely amateur cast (though one of the husbands is played by Richard Romanus, who went on to appear in Martin Scorsese’s Mean Streets and has since had a respectable career as a character actor), The Ghastly Ones is just as bad and weirdly hypnotic as you would expect any Andy Milligan film to be. Milligan even makes a cameo of sorts in the film. Listen closely and you can occasionally hear him off-camera, feeding the actors their lines and, at one point, telling one of the sisters to “roll over.”
It’s a terrible movie and yet, it’s also strangely fascinating. I think that’s because Milligan’s ineptness was matched only by his anger and that anger (along with a lot of pressimism) courses through the entire film. Every frame of the film drips with Milligan’s sincere disdain for the greedy and selfish characters who appear throughout the movie and, as you watch, it becomes obvious that Milligan had more sympathy for Colin than for any of his victims. (Of course, two of Colin’s victims were just two innocent people in love who were trying to have a nice picnic so perhaps it’s for the best not to dwell too much on what that might mean.) Milligan directs this story with an intensity that doesn’t quite make up for the lack of talent involved but, at the very least, it does keep things vaguely interesting. “Who are the Ghastly Ones?” Andy Milligan seems to be asking. “We all are.”
By the way, between this and Guru, The Mad Monk, I have now watched two Andy Milligan films in one week. Pray for me.
Vacation Gone Awry is an old-fashioned text adventure where you wake up on the first day of your vacation in Germany and you discover that your family has disappeared!
Searching your three-room cabin doesn’t do much good. Your wife and your daughters are nowhere to be found. Even looking under the bearskin rug doesn’t reveal the trap door that I had been led, by years of playing text adventure games, to expect. Finally, I went outside, got in the car, and decided to just drive away.
Right, it’s not going to happen. Your family may have abandoned you but you abandoning them is not an option.
If you do go back to the cabin, you will eventually discover what has happened to your family. Like many of the puzzles in Vacation Gone Awry, the solution to this problem is to specifically look at everything. That may sound easy but the cabin is do detailed that it can be easy to get distracted. I wasted ten turns in the cabin’s bedroom, trying to open my wife’s makeup bag before I finally accepted that it wasn’t an important clue.
Once you discover what has happened to your family, you are free to once again get in your car and attempt to drive into town. However, while driving, this happens:
It seems that aliens have accidentally lost a piece of their spaceship and now a group of research scientists are on the verge of opening it up and killing everyone in the vicinity, including you and your family. You have no choice but to make your way through a blizzard, find the research station, and stop them!
Your enjoyment of Vacation Gone Awry will depend on how much patience you have for searching locations and solving puzzles. This is one of those text adventures where no door can simply be opened. Instead, you have to figure out how to unlock it. Finding the solution will often depend on not only carefully reading the descriptions of the location but also taking a closer look at things that you may have already examined. Especially when compared to more recent works of Interactive Fiction, Vacation Gone Awry is puzzle-driven instead of plot-driven.
It’s challenging but, if you’re a puzzle person, there is enjoyment to be found in the game. Vacation Gone Awry is available for free on several sites. I played it at the Internet Archive.
Good luck saving your family!
The scene below comes from the 1979 Lucio Fulci masterpiece, Zombi 2.
In this scene, a mysterious boat is floating towards New York City. Two cops are sent to check the boat out and, as they eventually discover, the boat isn’t quite as deserted as they thought it was.
Now, there’s a few reasons why this scene is important. Number one, Zombi 2 is an Italian film that was designed to pass for an American film. (Technically, it was sold as being a prequel to Dawn of the Dead, which was released under the title Zombi in much of Europe.) In order to maintain the illusion, Italian filmmakers would often spend a day or two shooting on location in a recognizable American city. More often than not, that city would turn out to be New York.
Number two, since Zombi 2 was promoted as being a bit of a prequel to Dawn of the Dead, one could argue that this scene shows how the whole zombie apocalypse began in the United States. It wasn’t radiation from space or Hell running out of room. No, instead, it was juts a boat floating from an island in the Caribbean all the way to New York.
This scene is also memorable because of the “boat zombie,” who is one of the best-known of the movie zombies. Even people who have never heard of Lucio Fulci will probably recognize the boat zombie. He’s an icon of the undead!
Finally, this scene sets up one of the greatest closing shots in the history of zombie cinema. New York beware!
Yesterday, Erin shared the cover. Today, I’m reviewing the book! That’s what teamwork is all about!
This 1971 novel is all about an 18 year-old named Teena Halliday. Needless to say, anyone with a name like Teena Halliday is going to be young, beautiful, and innocent. Teena was perfectly happy living in a Mediterranean villa with her mom but then her mom had to go off and get remarried. With her mom heading off to South America on a whirlwind honeymoon, Teena is being sent to Massachusetts, where she’ll stay with the Rentlows, some distant relatives that she has yet to actually meet. Teena is hoping that, once she’s in Boston, she’ll get the chance to spend some time with her father. However, when Teena arrives, her father is nowhere to be seen.
Instead, Teena is met by the mysterious but handsome Rory, who takes her to Rentlow Retreat. Teena meets the Rentlows and discovers that they’re a bit more eccentric than she was expecting. Neither Uncle Charlie nor Aunt June seem to be happy to see her and Teena’s cousin Estrella obviously views Teena as being competition for Rory’s attention. In fact, the only person who seems to be the least bit welcoming is Jeremy Rentlow.
Jeremy is a world-renowned sculptor, despite the fact that everyone and everything that poses for him seems to end up dead. The family seems to always be nervous around Jeremy. Could it have something to do with those rumors that Jeremy might be a vampire? Teena isn’t quite sure what to make of Jeremy, especially when he starts to tell her that she’s the most beautiful woman that he’s ever seen and that she simply must pose for him. Teena is hesitant but what else is she going to do? I mean, she has to do something to pass the time, especially considering that her dog Scuffy dies of a mysterious “wasting” disease shortly after Teena arrives at Rentlow Retreat.
Of course, soon, Teena is not only starting to feel a bit anemic herself but Jeremy suddenly announces that they’re going to be married and Teena is not to leave the estate! Is Jeremy a vampire or is he a human with serious and dangerous control issues? Is Teena being drained of blood or is she feeling weak because of the stress of the situation in which she’s found herself? You can probably guess the answer to both of those questions.
Just like Air Force One Is Haunted, The Vampire Curse is one of the books that I found while searching through my aunt’s old paperback collection. It was a fun and (at 196 pages) quick read. It’s very much a gothic romance first and a vampire story second but there’s an undeniable charm to the efficiency with which author Daoma Winston told the story. Everything you could want from a gothic romance is here: breathless, first person storytelling, an old house, an eccentric family, a dark secret, passionate kisses and, of course, a hedge maze. There’s always a hedge maze.
The Vampire Curse was an enjoyable read. I’m a bit stunned that Lifetime has never adapted the book into a film. If they can turn everything credited to V.C. Andrews into a “film event,” surely they can find some time for The Vampire Curse.
Through the Shattered Lens 