8 Things To Which I Am Looking Forward In October

Posted on October 1, 2023 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Welcome to October! October is a big month here at the Shattered Lens. It’s the month when we devote the majority of our time to the horror genre. It’s time for our annual Horrorthon! Last year, we had a record number of Horrorthon posts. I’m hoping that we break that record this year but, even if we don’t, it should still be a lot of fun!

Here’s what I’m looking forward to in October!

Killers of the Flower Moon — So, technically, it’s not a horror film, though it does deal with a horrific incident in American history. That said, Martin Scorsese’s latest is the film that I have most anticipated getting to watch this year. I know that I’m not alone in that. We’ve all read the rapturous reviews. We’ve seen the enigmatic trailers. This month, on October 20th, we’ll finally get a chance to see it for ourselves!
The Killer — One week after we get a new Scorsese film, we’ll be getting a new film from David Fincher! Again, it may not be a horror film but it is a movie from one of our best filmmakers.
The Holdovers — If you can’t get into David Fincher’s latest film, you can check out the latest from Alexander Payne, The Holdovers! Along with Killers Of The Flower Moon, Barbie, and Oppenheimer, The Holdovers is expected to be an Oscar contender come awards season.
Pain Hustlers — And if you can’t get into The Killer or The Holdovers, you can check out Pain Hustlers. 2023 is the year of Emily Blunt!
The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial Trial — The final film from the great William Friedkin is scheduled to be released on Paramount Plus and Showtime on October 6th.
Horror Movies, Horror Movies, and more Horror Movies! — If you can’t enjoy watching horror movies, classic and otherwise, in October, when can you enjoy watching them?
The Fall Of The House of Usher — Mike Flanagan’s upcoming Netflix miniseries promises an update to Edgar Allan Poe’s classic tale of gothic horror!
Halloween — It’s my favorite holiday! I can’t wait to see all the decorations, all the parties, and all the costumes!

October’s going to be a great month and those of us at TSL can’t wait to celebrate it with you! What are you looking forward to in October?

Artwork of the Day: Barn

Posted on October 1, 2023 by Dazzling Erin

by Erin Nicole

Happy October! When my family lived in Oklahoma, this abandoned barn was near our house. Lisa always said it was haunted and maybe she was right! The last time I drove through the town was three years ago and the barn was still there. Still abandoned. Maybe still haunted.

Horror Insomnia File #61: Replica (dir by James Nguyen)

Posted on October 1, 2023 by Lisa Marie Bowman

What’s an Insomnia File? You know how some times you just can’t get any sleep and, at about three in the morning, you’ll find yourself watching whatever you can find on cable or streaming? This feature is all about those insomnia-inspired discoveries!

If you were having trouble getting to sleep last night, you could have logged onto Tubi and watched James Nguyen’s Replica.

Filmed in 2005 but not released until 2018, Replica tells the story of Joe Thomas (James David Braddock), a computer chip salesman who has been in a bit of a funk ever since he received a new kidney. His sales are down. His pet bird is mocking him by chirping loudly. His morning drive is boring. (We know this because, for some reason, the film shows us almost every mundane moment of that commute.) He’s in danger of losing his job but then, while hanging out at the Golden Gate Bridge, he happens to spot Dr. Evelyn Tyler (Lana Dykstra) jogging by. Evelyn is the same doctor who performed Joe’s kidney transplant! Joe strikes up a conversation with her and soon, they’re dating!

(In this movie, dating means eating at a San Francisco theme restaurant, riding a carousel, and running along the beach before heading back home so that Evelyn can model a bikini for a slack-jawed Joe.)

Life is perfect! Joe’s in love and he’s even managed to sell a gigantic amount of computer chips to Evelyn’s boss, Dr. G (Rick Camp)! But then Evelyn is killed as the result of a very slow car collision. Joe is in mourning. Detective Le (David Nguyen) keeps popping up and suggesting that the car accident that took Evelyn’s life may not have been an accident at all. (“We found semen in the body,” Detective Le earnestly says while speaking to Evelyn’s boyfriend.) But then, one day, Joe happens to spot a woman who looks just like Evelyn, except for the fact that she has dark hair and tramp stamp that identifies her as not being Evelyn. Quicker than you can say Vertigo, Joe is trying to get his new girlfriend to wear a blonde wig and dress just like Evelyn!

Director James Nguyen is best known for directing the Birdemic films. Replica was actually filmed long before Birdemic but it shows that, even early in his career, Nguyen had his own definite aesthetic. Everything that made Birdemic so memorable — the terrible sound quality, the pointless shots of people driving, the nonstop references to Hitchcock, the falling-in-love montages that suggest that Nguyen has never actually been on a date, and the suggestion that we’re supposed to take this film seriously — is present in Replica. If Birdemic claimed to actually be about the dangers of harming the environment, Replica claims to be a film about the ethics of cloning. While Birdemic featured the characters going out to see An Inconvenient Truth, Replica opens with Joe watching Christopher Reeve advocate for stem cell research. Reeve is listed in the film’s credits, even though it’s obvious that Nguyen just taped an appearance that he made on a talk show. Tippi Hedren and Kim Novak are also credited, even though both are only featured in archival footage that shows up on Joe’s television.

In typical Nguyen fashion, any attempt to say anything serious about cloning is negated by the fact that the film’s villain has invented something that he insists on calling “a clone-a-tron.” (That said, the actor playing Dr. G overacts to such an extent that it’s hard not to appreciate his effort to bring a little life to the movie.) The film comes out against cloning, despite the fact that Joe pretty much owes what little happiness he has to it. All in all, it’s a pretty stupid movie but it’s also short so there’s something to be said for that. In the end, for better or worse, this is a film that could have only been made by James Nguyen. If you got a good laugh out of Birdemic, prepare for more of the same with Replica.

Previous Insomnia Files:

Story of Mankind
Stag
Love Is A Gun
Nina Takes A Lover
Black Ice
Frogs For Snakes
Fair Game
From The Hip
Born Killers
Eye For An Eye
Summer Catch
Beyond the Law
Spring Broke
Promise
George Wallace
Kill The Messenger
The Suburbans
Only The Strong
Great Expectations
Casual Sex?
Truth
Insomina
Death Do Us Part
A Star is Born
The Winning Season
Rabbit Run
Remember My Name
The Arrangement
Day of the Animals
Still of The Night
Arsenal
Smooth Talk
The Comedian
The Minus Man
Donnie Brasco
Punchline
Evita
Six: The Mark Unleashed
Disclosure
The Spanish Prisoner
Elektra
Revenge
Legend
Cat Run
The Pyramid
Enter the Ninja
Downhill
Malice
Mystery Date
Zola
Ira & Abby
The Next Karate Kid
A Nightmare on Drug Street
Jud
FTA
Exterminators of the Year 3000
Boris Karloff: The Man Behind The Monster
The Haunting of Helen Walker
True Spirit
Project Kill

Music Video of the Day: Bullet With Butterfly Wings by Smashing Pumpkins (1995, directed by Samuel Bayer)

Posted on October 1, 2023 by Jedadiah Leland

The world is vampire

For a period of time in the 90s, you couldn’t go anywhere without hearing that. It was one of the original memes, thanks to both the song and the video that was made to promote it. The video, which was inspired by photographs of a Brazilian gold mine, was filmed in a quarry near Simi Valley. While the extras dressed like miners and were meant to represent the Biblical lepers who asked Jesus to heal them, the band goes for a glam rock look. It pays to be in the band.

This video was directed by Samuel Bayer, who has done music videos for everyone who is anyone.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Ghost Town by The Specials (1981, directed by Barney Bubbles)

Posted on September 14, 2023 by Jedadiah Leland

Filmed at a time when there was widespread rioting happening in not just London but all across Europe, the video for Ghost Town features the Specials driving around London and looking at a once bustling city that appears to now be a deserted ghost town. Much as with The Clash’s London Calling, the overall theme here seems to be that London is drowning and everyone lives by the river. According the band’s bassist, the car was borrowed and the original owner was not happy when he discovered that the camera used to shoot the scenes of London had also scratched up the side of the car.

Barney Bubbles was a graphic artist who also branched out into shooting music videos. Before his tragically early death at the age of 41 in 1983, Bubbles did videos for not only The Specials but also for Elvis Costello and Fun Boy Three.

Enjoy!

Here’s The Trailer For Mike Flanagan’s The Fall Of The House of Usher

Posted on September 12, 2023 by Lisa Marie Bowman

With October approaching, it’s time for yet another Mike Flanagan-directed horror miniseries to premiere on Netflix. This year, he’s bringing us what appears to be an updated version of The Fall of the House of Usher. Here’s the trailer. The series itself is scheduled to be released on October 12th!

Music Video of the Day: Run To You by Bryan Adams (1984, directed by Steve Barron)

Posted on August 1, 2023 by Jedadiah Leland

In this video, Bryan Adams promises “the other woman” that he will never stop running to her even though he loves his wife and knows that she deserves better. Run To You is one of the best “obsession” songs of the 80s.

The video, which was shot in London and Los Angeles, features Adams singing in both the rain and on the beach and as the seasons changed, haunted by his obsession with his mistress. Also appearing in the video is actress Lysette Anthony, who has previous starred in Krull before appearing as the subject of Adams’s obsession.

This video was directed by Steve Barron, who is another one of those directors who worked with everyone who was anyone.

Enjoy!

Retro Television Reviews: The Tower (dir by Richard Kletter)

Posted on February 19, 2023 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Sundays, I will be reviewing the made-for-television movies that used to be a primetime mainstay. Today’s film is 1993’s The Tower! It can be viewed on YouTube!

The plot of 1993’s The Tower could probably best be described as, “Paul Reiser gets a job and gets everyone killed.”

Technically, Paul Reiser is playing Tony Minot, a guy who would rather spend his time in his apartment, composing new age synthesizer anthems and eating left over pizza, than actually go to work. But make no mistake about it. Tony is basically Paul Reiser, all the way down to the neurotic mannerisms and the bad jokes.

Anyway, through the help of an old friend, Tony has gotten a job. He’s going to be working in a state-of-the-art tower, one that is totally run by a computer system known as CAS. CAS is designed to eliminate any and all security threats. For instance, when an unauthorized pigeon lands on the tower’s roof, it doesn’t take long for CAS to reduce that pigeon to a bunch of floating feathers. Tony has been told that it’s very important that 1) he have his security card with him at all times and 2) that he not damage his security card in any way.

So, of course, Tony damages his security card.

With the help of a security guard, Tony still manages to get inside the tower but, since his card doesn’t work, CAS considers Tony to be a security risk. When Tony proceeds to casually violate several security rules and stays in the building after hours, CAS decides to destroy him. Unfortunately, since Tony is kind of needy and always has to have people around him, everyone else in the building ends up getting killed too.

(This is a 1993 film and it was made for television so none of the kills are especially interesting. One guy gets caught in the closing doors of an elevator. Someone else gets trapped in an overheated sauna.)

The majority of the film deals with Tony crawling around the building, just like Bruce Willis in Die Hard. CAS is determined to kill both him and his potential love interest. We’re supposed to be angry at CAS and concerned about the world’s dependence on technology but you know what?

THIS IS ALL TONY’S FAULT!

Seriously, if Tony hadn’t damaged his card, none of this would have happened. Tony was specifically told not to damage his card but obviously, it didn’t occur to him that maybe he should try to follow the rules of his new workplace during his first day on the job!

The Tower is very much a film of its time. That’s obvious just from the cartoonish CGI and the fact that someone thought casting Paul Reiser as a Die Hard-style action hero was a good idea. Beyond that, it’s a film that’s very concerned about the rise of computers and technology. In 1993, I’m sure audiences were like, “OH MY GOD! COMPUTERS CAN’T BE REASONED WITH!” but, when I watched the film last night, I was just like, “So, they don’t have voice or facial recognition? What type of company is this?”

Anyway, The Tower is not exactly a good movie but it’s oddly watchable. Maybe it’s just because of how strange it is to see Paul Reiser doing the whole Die Hard thing. (Before anyone asks, The Tower was not meant to be a spoof. In fact, it takes itself pretty seriously.) Or maybe it’s just the fact that, by the end of the movie, you’ll totally be on the Tower’s side.

Go, CAS, go!

Another Halloween Has Come and Gone

Posted on October 31, 2022 by Dazzling Erin

Another Halloween has come and gone and with it, another Horrorthon. We hope you have had a wonderful October and that your November brings you much to be thankful for!

And remember, just because you didn’t see the Great Pumpkin this year, doesn’t mean that he won’t be there for you next October. I think Linus can explain it best: