![]() There’s a bit where Ezra, who has been holding lengthy conversations with his dead mother throughout the picture, reacts dubiously to one of his intended victims when she claims to speak to her own dead husband that made me laugh out loud. That, combined with Blossom’s talent, lend the movie an underlying dark humor that really makes it worth a look. The whole thing is peppered with documentary-like commentary from a purported investigative journalist who pops in during the most repellent scenes to address the audience directly with his commentary. Basically a fictionalization of the serial murderer Ed Gein’s pervese antics with repurposing corpses, there’s a weird charm to this movie thanks to the central performance by the late, great Roberts Blossom (memorably, he sells the car to Arnie in Christine) and indeed, the entire cast of satellite unknowns, who ground the lurid events in reality by virtue of their straightforward portrayals. #13 – Deranged – A misanthropic farmer, Ezra Cobb (the great Roberts Blossom in the only starring role I’ve ever seen him in), devoted to his ailing, elderly mother, develops strange attachments and compulsions upon her death. Strip away the filters and the neato title sequence and there’s nothing much to admire. There’s nothing in this to suggest those classics, thus the conceit feels gimmicky and unearned. Even if the title card emulated the Classic Universal horror films, such comparisons end there. There was no real horror to speak of, and I don’t know why this was presented in black and white with a cheap ‘filmic’ filter to mimic scratches and changeover marks (maybe to mask the amount of CGI? But when Man-Thing was shown in full color at the end he still looked pretty good…). I didn’t care about the bland, cliched hunter characters or the Bloodstone, and the action was not innovative and became snooze inducing. But even putting that aside this just wasn’t very interesting on its own. In terms of being an adaptation of WBN the comic character, it fails. So, to say I was underwhelmed by this MCU Halloween special, in which Jack is basically entirely sidelined by Man-Thing and a parade of dull, disposable characters is in itself an understatement. Glitternight, and heroes from the greater Marvel universe like Moon Knight, Brother Voodoo, and in the last episode, Iron Man. They tangled with colorful villains like The Hangman and Dr. ![]() I loved the weird tales of reluctant werewolf Jack Russell, his buddy Buck Cowen, and his sister Lyssa, cursed to become a werewolf herself on her 18 th birthday. I was allowed one issue a week as long as my grades and progress remained above board. To spur me on to academic achievement my mom bought a slew of Werewolf By Night comics from a flea market. I was an awful student growing up and in the mid 80’s and I was enamored by the TV show Werewolf. I have a deep history with the Werewolf By Night comics from the 70s. #7 – Werewolf By Night – A group of monster hunters gather outside a labyrinth for the honor to hunt a mysterious creature and earn the right to bear the powerful Bloodstone artifact, but soon find themselves unexpectedly facing two monsters. Wouldn’t mind revisitng this cast every October under Zombie’s capable and reverential hand. ![]() ![]() Hope there’s a sequel/spinoff at some point. I did miss Marylin, the Koach, Dragula, and the cat. A brilliant, goofy, orange pumpkin bucket ‘o fun watch, perfect for the season and the best thing I’ve checked out so far. There’s not much of a story or conflict, true, but sometimes it’s just fun to watch characters be characters. I guess I could see how if you never liked or watched the original show you might hate this, but growing up loving it as I did, this is a delightful recreation of the source material, even bringing in Igor (played in human form by the Seventh Doctor, Sylvester McCoy), Lester Dracula (Tomas Boykin) and Uncle Gilbert (Renata Kiss)! The humor is appropriately corny, back of a Count Chocula box-stuff, the period sets are beautiful and pop with brilliant color, and there are deep, loving references to the show, its creation, and the culture surrounding it, peppered liberally throughout (from the Car 54 Where Are You joke to the Leave It To Beaver excerpt – and Cassandra Petersen/Elvira, Pat Priest/Marylin, Butch Patrick/Eddie, and Dee Wallace all show up in cameos ). #5 – The Munsters – Rob Zombie’s take on the classic 60’s TV show follows Herman (Jeff Daniel Phillips) from his creation to marrying his beloved Lily (Sheri Moon Zombie), finding Spot in the Parisian sewers, and moving into 1313 Mockingbird Lane with Grandpa (Daniel Roebuck – here, the Count, because no Eddie yet). ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |