Halloween Film Review: Return To Halloweentown (2006, dir. David Jackson)

Posted on October 25, 2015 by Valerie Troutman

We’ve reached the end of the Halloweentown movies. I love how the trivia section for this movie on IMDb says that “Kimberly J. Brown has publicly stated her disappointment with the recasting of her role for unknown reasons even though Brown was fully available for the shoot.” Unknown reasons?

Hmm…flip her around.

Yeah, unknown reasons. Seriously, they parade Sara Paxton around at the beginning of this movie just to make sure you know they got a girl with tits, ass, and a slinky figure. I’m sure there were other reasons as well, but the Disney Channel does like to hire these kinds of girls. That’s not to say that I don’t like actresses such as Dove Cameron, Bella Thorne, or Debby Ryan, but they all share something in common aside from being entertaining. And let’s be fair to Sara Paxton, this movie wasn’t going to work anyways. Even if they had cast Brown in the role. Paxton isn’t a bad actress either. She’s just cast against type. When the three Sinister sisters show up to harass Paxton, Paxton looks like she should be with them. If they wanted to have Paxton in the movie, then they should have condensed the three Sinister sisters into one character who is sweet and kind, but ultimately evil, and cast Paxton in that part. She seems like she could have nailed that role. Let’s talk about the movie.

After we see some scary things such as a pumpkin, a gargoyle, and Sara Paxton, we see the most terrifying thing of all.

And if I didn’t know that there is a scene later in the movie where Reynolds is physically in the same room with Paxton, then I’d say that she is in this movie the way Pierre Kirby is in Movie A within a Godfrey Ho film.

Luckily, hot mom played by Judith Hoag returns who by the way played the original April O’Neal in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990). It’s funny that they replaced a girl like Hoag with Megan Fox, just like they replaced Kimberly J. Brown with Sara Paxton.

Joey Zimmerman also returns as the brother who only exists to be a smartass. But what about that younger sister that made such an impression on me that I don’t think I even mentioned her existence in my reviews of the other films? Yeah, they wrote her out of the movie. Now it’s off to Witch’s University in Halloweentown.

At least the cab driver makes an appearance in this movie. But they can’t even get him right. His face doesn’t move properly. I don’t remember his face making that much bone on bone noise. And I certainly don’t remember his jokes being so lame. Oh, well. We now arrive at Hogwarts…I mean Witch’s University where we meet the main villain of the movie named Silas Sinister.

That’s all well and good Silas, but I’ve seen Monster High and this guy has a much more impressive title.

This is when Paxton runs into the three Sinister sisters.

We can tell they’re evil not because they are rejects from Mean Girls (2004), but because they are desperately trying to make you forget that Paxton is miscast by acting over the top bad. Then we meet totally not Lucius Malfoy.

He informs Paxton that use of magic on campus will be grounds for immediate dismissal. As we find out, it’s Paxton’s fault. As you may recall, Marnie was bragging that she opened the portal between the real world and Halloweentown at the beginning of Halloweentown High. That resulted in a bunch of students from Halloweentown going to real world colleges. As a result, Witch’s University needed to increase enrollment so they opened it up to creatures other than witches. To level the academic playing field, witches are not allowed to use magic. We find this out when we meet Paxton’s Resident Advisor (RA) who is a genie.

I had an RA that was a gay business major who was followed by an Apartment Assistant (AA) that was an optometrist when I went to college. But I guess if they had her twitch her nose in one scene to get in a reference to Bewitched, and they’ve referenced everything else, then throw in I Dream Of Jeannie as well. Two more pieces of setup before I can leap over the rest of this nonsense, which includes time travel again. Yeah, because that part was clearly the best part of Halloweentown II: Kalabar’s Revenge.

That’s Paxton’s boy toy for this movie.

And that’s what the rest of the movie revolves around. Basically, Paxton is extremely powerful, and a group called the Dominion wants to use her to rule over the world. The rest of the movie is about that, which includes a scene where Paxton goes far back in time to find an old queen played by herself who becomes the Debbie Reynolds character. And how does it end?

Well, how do you think it ends? The same way as the others. The Cromwell witches use their magic to allegedly destroy the special amulet thingy that is like the ring from The Lord Of The Rings. They even directly reference Charmed again by having Paxton say “by the power of 3” before she, Hoag, and smartass brother do their thing. And yes, I said “allegedly” because they didn’t actually destroy it, but hid it away in case they wanted to make a sequel.

Actually, even though this didn’t work, I could’ve gotten behind a sequel where the brother turns evil. I mean they already used the term the Dominion and one of the things that made Star Trek: Deep Space Nine great is how long they spent slowly building up the ultimate war between the Federation and the Dominion. It could have been neat to see this character that was simmering on the back burner come to the forefront. Oh, well.

As you might have already noticed, this thing was doomed. One, shows or franchises that make the jump to college are the exception, not the rule. There is far too much upheaval that occurs when you do that. Two, Sabrina, The Teenage Witch was off the air, Charmed had worn out it’s welcome, and Harry Potter had just cranked up the maturity level to the point where kids not only could, but did die in that universe. It was also dominating the kids at a magic school thing in 2006, which this tried to compete with. The Disney Channel couldn’t compete. Sure Wizards of Waverly Place came out the next year, but that didn’t try to do the Harry Potter thing. Finally, the first film was a fluke, the second film fixed the problems of the first, and the third film should have spawned a TV Show, but didn’t. This just wasn’t going to happen.

Ultimately, a disappointing end to a reasonably enjoyable series of Halloween themed movies. Now I just need to watch those two Twitches movies before they expire at the end of this month.

Horror Film Review: Alone in the Dark (dir by Jack Sholder)

Posted on October 25, 2015 by Lisa Marie Bowman

“There are no crazy people, doctor. We’re all just on vacation.”

— Frank Hawkes in Alone In The Dark (1982)

What is the difference between being crazy and being sane? Why are some forms of delusion considered to be socially acceptable while others are condemned? Who is the ultimate authority on what is normal and what is abnormal? These are just some of the issues that are raised by the gleefully subversive 1982 horror film, Alone In The Dark.

We know that there’s something off about Dr. Leo Bain (Donald Pleasence) from the minute we meet him. His smile is a little too nervous and his constant patter of positive words sound a little bit too rehearsed and convenient. When he greets another doctor, he insists on hugging him but it’s an awkward hug. Dr. Bain seems to be trying just a little bit too hard. (In many ways, Pleasence seems to be poking fun at his best-known role, Halloween‘s intense and dramatic Dr. Loomis.)

Dr. Bain is in charge of a psychiatric hospital. He doesn’t believe in conventional therapy. Instead, his hospital is perhaps the most oppressively positive place in the world, a place where every delusion is treated as being perfectly normal and where the patients are treated very leniently.

In fact, security is only present on the third floor of the hospital. That’s because the third floor is home to four inmates who are criminally insane. Frank Hawkes (Jack Palance) is a former POW who suffers from paranoia and gets mad whenever he hears anyone curse. Bryon “Preacher” Sutcliffe (Martin Landau) is a pyromaniac. Ronald Estler (Erland van Lidth) is a gigantic child molester. And finally, there’s The Bleeder, who always hides his face. The Bleeder is a serial killer who is called the Bleeder because, whenever he kills, his nose starts to bleed.

Dr. Bain scoffs at the idea that these four even need security but, as he explains it, the state requires it. However, one night, the power goes out and the four of them manage to escape. As they make their way into the nearby town, they rather easily blend into the mob of “normal” people who are using the blackout as an excuse to go looting.

However, these four patients are on a very specific mission. They had all grown to trust their psychiatrist, Dr. Merton. However, Dr. Merton was eventually hired away by another hospital. Frank is convinced — and has convinced the others — that Dr. Merton was murdered by their new psychiatrist, Dr. Dan Potter (Dwight Schultz). They’re goal now is to track down Dr. Potter and kill him and his family.

Meanwhile, Dr. Potter has issues of his own to deal with. He’s a nice guy but he’s also a bit too uptight and rational for his own good. (Early on in the film, he gets upset when his wife tries to get him to go see a band called the Sic Fucks.) His younger sister, Toni (Lee Taylor-Allan), is visiting while she recovers from a nervous breakdown of her own. She manages to get arrested while protesting a nuclear power plant and, when she gets out of jail, she insists on bringing another protester, Tom (Phillip Clark), home with her.

It all leads to one long night, during which the inmates lay siege to Dan’s house. And, all the while, Dr. Bain worries about whether or not they’re all mad at him…

Alone in the Dark may come disguised as a slasher movie but actually, it’s a pitch black comedy, with a lot of the humor coming from the contrast between Dan’s rationality, Bain’s nonstop optimism, and the fact that every one else in the film is literally batshit insane. The final siege is a masterpiece of suspense and Palance, van Lidth, and especially Martin Landau are memorably frightening in their menacing roles. The film’s final scene deserves to be iconic.

Alone in the Dark is one of those horror films that definitely deserves to be better known. Do NOT mistake it for the Uwe Boll film.

Don’t Not Watch These 6 Trailers For October!

Posted on October 25, 2015 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Hi there! It’s time for another edition of Lisa Marie’s Favorite Grindhouse and Exploitation Film Trailers! Now, the trailer kitties have gone out and found not only 6 grindhouse trailers for us but 2 bonus trailers as well!

Warning: some of these trailers are NSFW. So, watch with caution!

Don’t Look In The Basement (1973)

Don’t Open The Window (1974)

Don’t Open The Door (1975)

Don’t Go In The House (1979)

Don’t Answer The Phone (1980)

Don’t Go In The Woods (1981)

And finally, here’s two bonus trailers!

Don’t Look Back (1967)

Don’t! (2007)

What do you think, Trailer Kitty?

Horror on the Lens: The Little Shop of Horrors (dir by Roger Corman)

Posted on October 25, 2015 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Enter singing.

Little Shop…Little Shop of Horrors…Little Shop…Little Shop of Terrors…

Hi! Good morning and Happy October the 25th! For today’s plunge into the world of public domain horror films, I’d like to present you with a true classic. From 1960, it’s the originalLittle Shop of Horrors!

When I was 19 years old, I was in a community theater production of the musical Little Shop of Horrors. Though I think I would have made the perfect Audrey, everybody always snickered whenever I sang so I ended up as a part of “the ensemble.” Being in the ensemble basically meant that I spent a lot of time dancing and showing off lots of cleavage. And you know what? The girl who did play Audrey was screechy, off-key, and annoying and after every show, all the old people in the audience always came back stage and ignored her and went straight over to me. So there.

Anyway, during rehearsals, our director thought it would be so funny if we all watched the original film. Now, I’m sorry to say, much like just about everyone else in the cast, this was my first exposure to the original and I even had to be told that the masochistic dentist patient was being played by Jack Nicholson. However, I’m also very proud to say that — out of that entire cast — I’m the only one who understood that the zero-budget film I was watching was actually better than the big spectacle we were attempting to perform on stage. Certainly, I understood the film better than that screechy little thing that was playing Audrey.

The first Little Shop of Horrors certainly isn’t scary and there’s nobody singing about somewhere that’s green (I always tear up when I hear that song, by the way). However, it is a very, very funny film with the just the right amount of a dark streak to make it perfect Halloween viewing.

So, if you have 72 minutes to kill, check out the original and the best Little Shop of Horrors…

Irish Eyes Are Smiling: THE QUIET MAN (Republic 1952)

Posted on October 24, 2015 by gary loggins

cracked rear viewer

With the passing of screen legend Maureen O’Hara today, I’ve decided to put aside my Halloween Havoc! series this evening to take a look at one of my favorite Maureen movies, THE QUIET MAN. Paired once again with John Wayne and director John Ford, Maureen shines as Mary Kate Danneher, a feisty, hot tempered colleen who refuses to honor her marriage vows until she gets her “fortune” from brutish brother Red Will Danneher (perennial big lug Victor McLaglen). Mostly filmed in Ireland by Winton Hoch, the countryside scenery is breathtaking in vivid Technicolor, with Maureen radiant as ever.

The story concerns American ex-boxer Sean Thornton (Wayne), returning to his Emerald Isle birthplace of Innisfree after accidentally killing an opponent in the ring. When he first sets eyes on Mary Kate herding sheep, he’s immediately smitten. Sean buys his family homestead from the Widow Tillane (Mildred Natwick), outbidding Danneher, who knows how…

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Horror Film Review: Prom Night III: The Last Kiss (1990, dir. Ron Oliver & Peter R. Simpson)

Posted on October 24, 2015 by Valerie Troutman

Prom Night III opens on a cemetery where we quickly settle on a gravestone for Mary Lou Maloney. Apparently, she was born in 1940 and died in 1957. Knowing the end of this movie, that really should say 1938-1955.

Then we cut to A Chorus Line (1985) if it were filmed by David Lynch. I’m so glad that they say this is supposed to be Hell at the end of the film cause not having seen the previous Prom Night films, I honestly wasn’t sure what I was looking at. Luckily, the only thing keeping you in Hell is a foot brace. Once Mary Lou gets that off she begins to terrorize a school with her ability to POV around the halls at night. That’s when we meet Jack Roswell (Terry Doyle). A simple man who just wants to mop floors and keep his alcohol chilled in the slop bucket. This was two years before it became the “it” thing to keep doughnuts in there.

Now since all horror films of this era had bad things happen in boiler rooms, he goes down into the boiler room. And what’s this? That’s a jukebox! Maybe if he’s lucky there’ll be some Foreigner or Tears For Fears on it. And that’s the cue for Sherilyn Fenn…I mean Courtney Taylor as Mary Lou Maloney to make her entrance. They knew each other and that’s not a good thing.

Standing in the boiler room, with his head hung low
Had no way out, his time was up
Heard the generic 1950s tunes, he could picture the scene
Turned around and saw Mary Lou, then like a distant scream
He heard “been a long time Jacky boy, did you miss me?”
He had lightning in his chest, and the very next day

He was found dead

Cut to a school assembly and we meet Alex Grey (Tim Conlon) playing La Bamba! That was common in films of this era. I mean Surf Ninjas (1993) used Barbara Ann, but at least here it makes sense since the film makes constant references to the 1950s for a reason. That’s when the principle reopens the gym by slicing off his finger with the giant ribbon cutting scissors. I’d say something must be going on here, but after what he just said before doing it, he probably just screwed up. I really don’t think Mary Lou had anything to do with this. He does seem that stupid.

Then his friend, who by the way is totally not supposed to be gay, tries to lure him into a summer reenacting On The Road while his girlfriend wants to lure him into a Hallmark movie on a ranch. Now Alex must go see the guidance counselor who has one of those penis cactuses on her desk that keeps getting in the way of the camera. Seeing as Alex is an idiot and can’t take her hints, he won’t be going to medical school anytime soon. I’m glad this scene was here so we know that he has the sexual imagination of someone who makes movies like Bikini Spring Break (2012). It’s important so that we actually believe that Mary Lou can use sex as a way to control him.

Now cut to what Alex believes is a romantic candle lit dinner. It’s about here where I realized that Tim Conlon reminds me of Bruce Campbell. So, since Alex needs to pick up a book at school, he goes inside and finds Mary Lou. He falls down where she proceeds to have sex with him on the American flag that he tore off the wall while the United States national anthem plays.

Just like Canadian teenagers are known to do. Waking up the next morning, Alex finds himself still at school, but during the day. Luckily he makes it to the bathroom.

Just like Italian Batman.

After Alex talks on a phone to voices from Fighting Street on the TubroGrafx-16 CD, we hear an announcement that the chess club tournament has been canceled. They are to report to the library to play with themselves. I guess even the guidance counselor has standards. Anyways, now Alex and his right ear ring rule friend look up an old newspaper about how Mary Lou died. Apparently, it was during a fire. Explains the burns on her face in a few scenes in the movie. Then Mary Lou gives him a hand job. We only hear the zipper, but before you know it, the test he was taking is over.

Then there’s a quick announcement for the girls weight lifting team. There’s a mandatory clinic on facial hair removal. I’m sure there’s also going to be a mandatory clinic for the boys ballet team on tucking. Especially on dealing with those pesky testicles by popping them back inside. But we don’t hear that part cause it’s football time!

After Mary Lou helps Alex out on the football field, we find out that Alex didn’t do so well on that test of his. The teacher was going to give him an F. No way that’s going to happen. The only F Alex is going to get is from May Lou. That’s when Mary Lou appears in the back of the classroom having made it look like a 1950s diner. I see nothing weird here. Slaughterhouse Rock did the same thing with an apartment two years prior to this movie. But there, someone was having sex on the other end of the wall pictured below.

Can Mary Lou top that? Mary Lou?

“How bout some of this. So tasty and hard and firm. And it just melts in your mouth.”

She’s got the lines, but it’s no scene of somebody getting killed with a porcelain penis like in A Clockwork Orange (1971). She then shoves a blender in his mouth and through his head. It’s a good scene, but I would have preferred if she had said this before putting a hole in his head:

“Bow down before the one you serve
You’re going to get what you deserve”

This is when Alex discovers the price of having a hot girl from Hell helping him out in more ways than one. He’s going to have to hide the body of his teacher. And look!

More American flags! Mary Lou truly is an American girl! Yankee Doodle Dandy even plays! Since Alex isn’t ready to tell Mary Lou to not come around here no more, he proceeds to hide the body in one of the cabinets. Now Alex’s friend pops up to remind us that the Cold War was going on in the 1950s and that the Soviet Union was still around in 1990.

Alex goes back to his home on Degrassi St. to find his girlfriend and family are throwing a little celebration for the perfect score he got from Mary Lou’s hand…I mean his on his test. Time to go back to the school at night and bury that body, but first we get a little reminder that sex ain’t coming his way from his girlfriend. Luckily, that’s what Mary Lou is for!

Of course Alex ultimately buried the body on the football field which causes a problem when he spots the teacher’s hand popping up through the field. Alex really needs to be more careful. I mean the camera crew is watching his every move from the bottom of the frame.

This is when the overall grades come out and the guidance counselor finds out that Alex is number one now. Since she once knew a student named David who figured out the password was “pencil”, she figures Alex must have broken into the computer system. Of course Mary Lou isn’t going to let this go anywhere.

Mary Lou drags the counselor into a dark classroom and makes her all wet. By that I mean she drenches her in battery acid. What did you think I meant? Mary Lou is a 1950s girl! After several of the best lines Ron Oliver wrote for this movie are said, Alex and Mary Lou have sex again. Then his parents reward him again for his good grades with a Harley Davidson. And they make sure we know that thing is from the good old USA!

I’m surprised they brought a Harley Davidson onto the set. Those things can be dangerous, which is why, according to the credits on this movie, they had a Harley Wrangler by the name of Jake “Live To Ride” Fry. After a reference to Cool Jazz, Alex dons his leather jacket and shades then gets a lecture from his dad on sexual frustration. Time to bury that body! Unfortunately, a football jerk shows up to give him a hard time. Mary Lou shows up to throw a perfect spiral.

This really is the funniest death scene in this movie. Anyways, now Alex thinks she has gone too far. Since Alex doesn’t decide to get creative in dealing with her, he simply tells her off. This leads to her throwing a supernatural hissy fit and disappearing. Now Mary Lou won’t leave him alone. Not even when the teacher is trying to show a sex ed film called Social Disease.

The police also show up and we know they are detectives because a short clip of the Dragnet theme plays. After having a nightmare about the bodies of the people Mary Lou killed rising from the dead, Alex’s sister and the boom mic wake him up.

At this point, the bodies have been found. Also, Mary Lou now visits his friend in the form of Alex’s sister. I can’t say I thought I would see another scene like this that had a giraffe in it after watching An Erotic Tale Of Ms. Dracula recently.

She tears out his heart literally. Now Alex is going to take things really seriously. He gets a shotgun, come Coke, and Stay-Ups, which I’m sure work much better than Sta-Ups from Nightmare On Elm Street 2. This is when some rap that samples The Guess Who’s American Woman kicks in. Then the cops show up and I must say it was nice of Blood Simple (1984) to make a guest appearance.

The police capture Alex. Then the boom mic pops down again just to toy with us by making us think Dolemite might show up to save Alex. Instead, Mary Lou shows up as a guard and basically lets Alex out of prison. I mean the movie has to have it’s climax at the prom. It’s in the title!

Ah, movies from this era truly had hideous school dance dresses, but I’d collect them if I could. After killing off George McFly…

Mary Lou, Alex, and the girlfriend go to Hell. Not a whole lot to this part other than that the girlfriend does have some sweet flamethrower action.

Luckily, there is a car in Hell. And after driving it through Mary Lou…

her body sends the 1.21 gigawatts into the flux capacitor to send them back to 1957. No seriously, they do this whole part like it’s straight out of one of the Back To The Future movies. So, girlfriend dies and Alex is stranded in the 1950s with Mary Lou.

Then the rap kicks in again over the credits. It’s stupid and campy, but kind of fun. And this has been another edition of Valerie talks way too much about a movie.

The TSL’s Daily Horror Grindhouse: Godmonster of Indian Flats (dir by Fredric Hobbs)

Posted on October 24, 2015 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Occasionally, before the main movie starts, the Alamo Drafthouse will show a clip from an old movie. In this clip, a picnic is ruined by the sudden appearance of a giant mutant sheep. Everyone screams while the sheep stares at them with that passive sheep look. Whenever this clip is shown, the audience laughs. And it is pretty silly, especially when it’s seen devoid of any another context.

Myself, I have to admit that I’m always amused when that clip is shown because I know that I’m probably one of the few people in the audience who knows that the scene comes from a 1973 film called Godmonster of Indian Flats. Thanks to Something Weird Video, I have actually seen the entire film and I know that it’s probably the best movie ever made about a giant mutant sheep.

Of course, it’s also the only movie ever made about a giant mutant sheep.

Having sat through Godmonster a handful of times, I’m assuming that it was meant to be satirical. At least, I hope it was meant to be a satire.

While Godmonster may be best known as being a film about mutant sheep, the majority of the movie’s screen time is actually devoted to the culture of the town of Virginia City, Nevada. Virginia City is a tourist town, where everyone dresses like they belong in the old west and where tourists enjoy watching carefully staged gunfights and hanging out at the old-fashioned saloon/brothel. The mayor of the town is evil old Mayor Silverdale (exploitation vet Stuart Lancaster). Mayor Silverdale is determined to keep the town in the past and, as such, he is upset when a real estate agent named Barnstable (Christopher Brooks) shows up and starts trying to convince people to sell their land.

So, Mayor Silverdale and Sheriff Gordon (Robert Hirschfield, who has some truly impressive sideburns) decide to frame Barnstable for murder. It turns out that Gordon owns a dog who knows how to play dead. One day, when they see Barnstable engaged in target practice, Gordon shouts, “YOU SHOT MY DOG!” The dog rolls over and plays dead. Everyone in town believes that Barnstable murdered Gordon’s dog and it turns out that everyone in town loved that dog. They even have a funeral, with a tiny casket.

(Don’t worry, the casket’s empty. As Gordon explains to Silverdale, the dog is visiting relatives in the next town over.)

So, the entire town decides to practice some frontier justice on Barnstable. However, as the mob chases after Barnstable, they end up stumbling across a laboratory. And, inside the lab, is a mutant. 8-foot tall sheep. The sheep escapes the lab and one member of the lynching party is accidentally killed. The town blames the sheep but actually, the sheep is a gentle, well-meaning mutant. Meanwhile, Mayor Silverdale views the sheep as another way to make money…

It’s up to Prof. Clemens (E. Kerrigan Prescott) and his hippie assistant, Mariposa (Karen Ingenthron) to protect the sheep. But where did the sheep come from? Well, Clemens explains that it all has to do with toxic nerve gas and ecological destruction…

Anyway, I’m probably making Godmonster of Indian Flats sound more interesting than it actually is. It’s never as much fun as you would expect a movie about a giant sheep to be. But, even with that in mind, where else are you going to see a giant sheep wandering throughout the desert?

Seriously, this is one of those movies that you should see at least once. It may not be any good but it is one of a kind.

Horror Film Review: The Last Wave (dir by Peter Weir)

Posted on October 24, 2015 by Lisa Marie Bowman

For whatever reason, I’ve lately found myself very much enjoying films about the end of the world. Who knows why. Maybe it’s because I’m dreading having to sit through another election year. Seriously, if the world just ended now, we could all be saved a lot of trouble.

Add to that, the weather’s been weird this year (and please do not take that statement to mean that I want to hear about climate change because seriously, that crap bores me to death). We got hit by snow earlier in the year. (I live in Texas, where snow is a big deal.) It rained more than usual during spring. Summer started late but when it did, it was hot and dry and there was not a rain cloud to be seen. Two days ago, out of nowhere, it started raining and right now, we are under a flash flood warning. Since I believe that existence is random chaos with no rhyme or meaning, I don’t necessarily think there’s any huge meaning behind the strange weather. But still…

The 1977 film The Last Wave is all about strange weather and, in many ways, it’s the perfect film to watch while you’re stuck inside, waiting for the rain to stop. (Watch it with Take Shelter and have a watery apocalypse double feature.) The film opens in the Australian outback. The sky is blue and clear. And yet the children at a small schoolhouse hear thunder rumbling in the distance. When it suddenly starts to pour down rain, the kids are excited. Their soaked teacher manages to herd them back into the schoolhouse. As the teacher struggles to calm the children down, we suddenly hear something pounding down on the schoolhouse’s tin roof. Suddenly, the windows are shattering as huge chunks of ice crash through them. Looking outside, the teacher is confronted with the sight of torrential rain, gigantic hail, and a perfectly blue and cloudless sky.

Meanwhile, in Sydney, three Aborigines are accused of murdering a fourth outside of a bar. Assigned, by legal aid, to defend them is David Burton (Richard Chamberlain), a complacent upper middle class attorney. Since David usually deals with tax law, he doesn’t understand why he has been assigned the case. However, he take is because he feels a strange link to one of the accused men, Chris Lee (David Gulpilil).

Much like Michael Shannon in the previously mentioned Take Shelter, David has been visions and dreams in which he sees the world flooded. As he researches the case, he begins to suspect that he may be seeing visions of the future….

Well-acted and visually stunning, The Last Wave is a thought-provoking meditation on nature of reality, the end of the world, the “old ways” vs the “new ways,” and whether or not humanity is even worth saving. On top of all that, it features an absolutely brilliant final scene!

All in all, it’s not a bad way to pass the time on a rainy afternoon.

4 Shots From 4 Films — In Memory of Maureen O’Hara

Posted on October 24, 2015 by Lisa Marie Bowman

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 is all about letting the visuals do the talking.

Sadly, it had been announced that actress Maureen O’Hara passed away this morning. As a lover of Golden Age Hollywood, Maureen was always one of my favorite actresses. (After all, we were both outspoken Irish redheads!) Maureen was one of the last surviving actresses from Hollywood’s golden age and, with her passing, a bit history passes too.

(I should also mention that Maureen played the mother of one of my favorite actress, Natalie Wood, in one of my favorite films of all time, Miracle on 34th Street. Whenever I see Miracle, I think about my mom.)

These 4 Shots From 4 Films are dedicated to the memory of the great Maureen O’Hara.

4 Shots From 4 Films

The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939, dir by William Dieterle)

Dance, Girl. Dance (1940, dir by Dorothy Arzner)

Miracle on the 34th Street (1947, dir by George Seaton)

The Quiet Man (1952, dir by John Ford)

Sláinte!

Horror on the Lens: Dr. Strange (dir by Philip DeGuere, Jr.)

Posted on October 24, 2015 by Lisa Marie Bowman

I knew that we’re all looking forward to seeing Benedict Cumberbatch play the title character in the 2016 MCU film, Doctor Strange. However, did you know that the Cumberbatch film will not be the first time that a movie has centered around the character of Dr. Stephen Strange?

It’s true! In 1978, there was a made-for-TV movie that featured the sorcerer Dr. Strange (played here by Peter Hooten) battling none other than Morgan Le Fay (Jessica Walter)! I watched it a few months ago with my friends in the Late Night Movie Gang and it was actually a lot of fun. I should admit that I have absolutely no idea whether or not it was true to the original comic book but still, it was enjoyable in a trippy 70s sort of way.

And you can watch it below!