Today is the first day of our annual October Horrorthon! In honor of our favorite time of the year, here is a special edition of Lisa Marie’s Favorite Grindhouse and Exploitation Film Trailers.
The six trailers below all have one thing in common! Can you spot it?
Enjoy and happy Horrorthon!
2. Lisa Lisa (1977)
3. A Black Veil For Lisa (1968)
4. The Haunting of Lisa (1996)
5. I Am Lisa (2020)
6. Lisa Frankenstein (2024)
For today’s Halloween edition of Lisa’s Marie Favorite Grindhouse Trailers, I present to you, without comment, 6 trailers for six horror films that I feel are unfairly overlooked. If you’re still looking for something to watch this Halloween night, I recommend any of the films below!
Happy Halloween!
1. Lisa (1989)
2. A Field in England (2013)
2. Two Orphan Vampires (1996)
3. Scream and Scream Again (1970)
4. Messiah of Evil (1973)
6. Lisa Lisa (1977)
So, here’s the thing about Lisa, a horror-thriller from 1990 that shows up occasionally on This TV.
It’s got a great title.
Seriously, this film has got one of the greatest titles of all time. I would almost say that you really don’t even have to pay attention to the movie because the title itself is so perfect that the plot doesn’t even matter. The only thing that would make this title even better would be if they had added a “Marie” to the end of it but oh well. You can’t have everything.
This is a movie about a girl named Lisa and, speaking as a girl named Lisa, I have to say that it’s incredibly true to life. Lisa (Staci Keanan) is a smart and amazingly talented 14 years old and not alllowed to date by her incredibly overprotective mother, Katherine (Cheyl Holland). So, instead of dating, Lisa spends her time stalking a serial killer. See, Katherine thought she was protecting her daughter but instead, she’s only inspired her to take an even greater risk. That’s why you need to let the Lisas in your life do what they want.
Admittedly, Lisa doesn’t know that Richard (D.W. Moffett) is a serial killer. She doesn’t even know that he owns a successful restaurant. All she knows is that he looks like a model and he drives a nice car and it’s fun to follow him around Venice Beach. When she jots down his license plate numbers, she hacks the DMV to get his name, address, and phone number. Soon, Lisa is calling him up and having flirtatious conversations with him.
It’s all good fun, except for the fact that Richard is also known as The Candelight Killer and he’s got a thing about calling people and leaving them messages right before he kills them. It’s all very ritualized. For instance, it’s very important that his victims be in the process of listening to his message when he kills them. To be honest, though, that sounds like he’s taking a lot of risks. I mean, what if someone came home and didn’t immediately check their messages? Would Richard just have to hide behind the drapes for hours until the did? Of course, Richard would be even more out of luck if this movie were made today because who has an answering machine anymore?
Anyway, Richard is obsessed with discovering who is stalking him and Katherine is obsessed with keeping Lisa out of danger and Lisa just wants to actually be allowed to full celebrate having the greatest name ever. Did you know, for instance, that Lisa may have started out as a shortened form of Elizabeth but that it became so popular on its own that it was one of the most popular names in both the United States and the United Kingdom for several decades? And, even though it’s no longer in the top ten as far as names are concerned, being named Lisa is still one of the greatest honors that can be bestowed upon anyone? Lisa means God’s Promise by the way. And….
What? Oh yeah, the movie.
Well, anyway, it all leads to pretty much what you’re expecting it to lead to. Plotwise, the movie may be predictable but the Staci Keanan, Cheryl Ladd, and D.W. Moffett all gives good performances and director Gary Sherman keeps the action moving at a steady pace. It’s dumb but entertaining, kinda like cinematic junk food. Plus, it has a great title. What more do you need?
It would be impossible to talk about K-pop without putting up as a “Song of the Day” a track by one of the most popular K-pop girl group of the last couple years. I am talking about YG Entertainment’s quartet known as Blackpink.
The group made their debut on the K-pop scene on August of 2016. The quartet are seen as taking up the YG Entertainment K-pop legacy with the disbandment of the ultra-popular quartet girl group 2NE1. Even their stylistic choices have been compared to their predecessors who were able to combine both the cutesy image seen by many as K-pop with the edgier sound of hip-hop and R&B.
For the most part, most of their singles since their debut in 2016 have what the group itself call as their “Black” concept which leans heavily on hip-hop, drum and bass and R&B influences. The choice for today’s Song of the Day is the group’s first foray into introducing their “Pink” side.
“As If It’s Your Last” still retains the highly-energetic beats and tempo of their previous releases, but also incorporates the more traditional dancepop influence in K-pop. While it helps showcase their cute side both in their vocal deliveries and the music video, the song still manages to mix in some reggae and moombahton influences.
This gives “As If It’s Your Last” not just a dance house edge but the familiar catchy hooks of traditional bubblepop K-pop.
Earlier today, on a whim, I decided to do a YouTube search for any songs titled “Lisa.”
This was the first one that came up. Other than what I saw in that Runaways movies, I have to admit that I don’t really know anything about Lita Ford (and, to honest, I can’t even remember if her character had more than 6 lines in that film). According to Songfacts, Ford wrote this song in honor of her mother, who was dying of cancer. This is one of those songs where you can literally feel the heart beating underneath the lyrics.
As for the video, it’s pretty simple but there’s nothing wrong with that.
Enjoy!
Today, the Shattered Lens is kicking off a special birthday celebration for our fellow contributor, Lisa Marie Bowman, with a set of “Lisa” themed reviews. My contribution to the Everything Lisa festivities is one of my favorite John Hughes films, Weird Science. I love this movie.
Weird Science is basically about two teens, Gary (Anthony Michael Hall, a Hughes favorite) and Wyatt (Ilan Mitchell Smith), who have the house to themselves and come up with a crazy idea to build themselves a girl. With the use of a computer and a modem, & a little Einstein & Mozart, they end up with Lisa (Kelly LeBrock), who acts as something of a genie in their lives. It requires a bit of suspension of belief but for the subject matter, it’s actually fun.
Neither Wyatt nor Gary are very popular individuals. They get picked on by a set of wisecracking bullies (played by Robert Downey Jr. And Robert Rusler), never get invited to any parties and are pretty much left to daydream about how cool they could end up being, only if. Wyatt also has his brother, Chet (a pre-Aliens Bill Paxton in a funny turn), who extorts things from him at every turn. This is where Lisa comes in.
One of the first things she does is to take the boys out on the town. It’s here that she asks them what her name is going to be. The boys decide on Lisa as the name, and she runs with it (even changing the license plate on the car). While the partying seems like something completely out of their comfort zone, by the end of the night, they’re well adjusted. Mind you, it’s helped with a lot of drinking and laughing.
Eventually, the boys slowly grow in popularity after being seen at the mall with Lisa and her throwing the biggest party in town at their house. Like with every John Hughes movie, there’s always a message here, and the boys go a little overboard in chasing their popularity when they try to create another girl for the bullies (which of course goes wrong in so many ways). Eventually, Lisa decides that what the boys really need is something that will build their character. Bringing in a group of Road Warrior-like motorcycle thugs, Wyatt and Gary engage in a standoff that they eventually win (which also wins them kudos).
I’ve seen this movie so many times, it’s ridiculous. When I got my first car, I decided to name it “Lisa”, after this movie and the line that a drunken Gary yells while Wyatt drives – “He doesn’t even have his license, Lisa!” While it may not be Hughes’ magnum opus, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, it holds a special place for me.
A Happy Birthday shout-out goes out to our own Lisa. Have a great day today!!
Through the Shattered Lens 