This past week saw a Dark Knight Rises publicity blitz from the marketing bods at Warner Bros who were clearly waiting for the dust to settle from the seismic box-office impact of The Avengers. In all two new TV Spots, 8 new posters, 8 new banner ads (see above), and four new images (exclusive to Empire Magazine) were released within a five day promotional splurge. So let’s take a look at Warner Bros’ sack’o treats. Continue reading
There’s something wonderfully romantic about movies set at sea. Whether it’s Quint, Hooper and Brody hunting down that shark, Carl Denham sailing off to Skull Island, or Captain Nemo’s deranged submarine. The sea is a great setting for horror and sci-fi and the ghost ship is one of horror’s more underused plot devices. So avast ye scurvy dogs, gather up ye booty and cast away upon the fine frigate Deadly Movies in a celbration of the Top 5 best ghost ship movies.., or shove it right up ye poop deck. How are those nautical puns working out for you? Continue reading
Where’s Waldo/Wally? was first published back in 1987. The concept, as you well know, is to find the stripy shirted nerd amongst a group of sketchy randoms. But dear friends, imagine my wonder when, whilst watching the 1978 TV movie Cruise Into Terror, I realised that Wenda (the female Waldo/Wally) had made her media debut some nine years prior on this less than illustrious TV movie. Take a look at the above image for all the proof you’d ever need. Where’s Walda? On a fucking boat off the coast of Mexico searching for an Egyptian sarcophagus .., that’s where.
On this week’s episode: The Iron Sheik is Samuel L Jackson, Joseph Gordon Levitt has a new pot plant, The Avengers (of sorts), The Dark Knight Rises trailer 3, Peter Ustinov’s beard, Amber Heard is a good lesbian, Arnie is better than The Hunger Games, and 50s Bmovie science.
Peter Ustinov in Logan’s Run
Yeah, yeah Logan’s Run isn’t a horror movie. Fine. Moving on. Perhaps this is better suited as a celebration of all Pete Ustinov’s great movie beards sported throughout his illustrious career. But you’ve got to love this one in particular, not only for it’s mad bushiness, but because it’s perfectly complicated by a bunch of feral cats. As the last man alive in Washington DC, billed simply as ‘Old Man’, Ustinov plays above age aided by god-like face foliage and enough cats to rival Eleanor Abernathy the Crazy Cat Lady. He sure does like cats. His beard may indeed be a deceased cat, a rumour I can’t confirm. In the fictional world of Logan’s Run humans outlast their usefulness at age 30 and are disposed of accordingly, that is until the world of clean shaven, pasty faced, 29 somethings lay their youthful peepers on Peter Ustinov’s mighty beard and realise both the folly of youth and shaving. Hurrah!
Here’s an interesting connection between 1951s The Thing From Another World and 2011′s The Thing (prequel). While you’re probably aware of the connections between the John Carpenter’s 1982 The Thing and Its 2011 prequel, you may not have thought that Matthijs van Heijningen Jr’s film actually draws on elements of both the original novela by John W Campbell and Howard Hawk’s The Thing From Another World. Most interestingly is Ulrich Thomsen’s Dr. Sander Halvorson (from the 2011 movie) who’s motivations and appearance are remarkably similar to Robert Cornthwaite’s Dr. Arthur Carrington (from the 1951 movie), even down to a passion for furry hat fashions. See for yourself above (I’ve made both black and white for illustrative purposes). I stick by the fact that the 2011 film deserves a little more credit than it gets, and its knowledge of not just Carpenter’s film but of the entire 75 year cultural lineage of the story’s varying incarnations only warrants a reevaluation of its place in the cannon.
In this non 3D episode: Michael Bay gets his grubby hands on Michael Myers, red-out is the best editing technique ever, I can’t find the Hunger Games line, Hipster 3D glasses, eggs, bleeding rabbits, and more! Continue reading
A weird joke this one. With a tad more attention to detail this would have played much better. During the obligatory “Somebody get me the Ghostbusters” montage The RMS Titanic finally arrives in New York City (at that point in time) some 77 years late, along with the ghostly apparitions of those poor soles that didn’t make it off the ship alive. The odd thing is that the model makers (and presumably Ivan Reitman and his editing team) failed to notice the huge historic error in their portrayal of the world’s most infamous ship wreck (or just didn’t give a shit). Considering the wreckage was discovered in 1985, the point when the world learnt that she was in two halves, Ghostbusters 2 (some 4 years later) depicts the ship intact with the outdated huge hole theory. Ooops. And if you want to be really picky the Titanic would’ve docked at Pier 54 not 34. Still.., It’s a great scene that fits well within Ghostbusters humour and the ghostly passengers are a great touch (there’s even a ghost crew member pushing a passenger’s luggage trolly!). Oh that and the dock supervisor who calls in the sighting, and delivers the awesome line “Better late than never” is none other than Cheech Marin, who likely thinks this is another case of a bad batch of weed.
Eggs. According to Wikipedia eggs are laid by females of many different species such as birds, reptiles, and amphibians. True, but the article neglects to mention aliens, dinosaurs, monsters, and ghosts. What a load of shit. If you want to know the true science of the humble egg then join Deadly Movies this Easter to celebrate the great and the good of that rarest of egg, the movie egg. Continue reading
Easter is one of the few Holiday’s which horror hasn’t (until fairly recently) exploited and mined for that oh so sexy treasure; The easy buck (unintentional rabbit joke). Valentines Day, Christmas, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and even Birthdays all have namesake horror movies. So Deadly Movies has been digging deep this Easter weekend you bring you horror’s best (tenuously linked or themed) Easter cuts. (Note, these aren’t really in any particular order). Continue reading
Happy April Fool’s Day fools. Let’s get this festival of foolishness underway with a look at five great reasons to watch the infamous 80s slasher April Fool’s Day (1986 – also known as that movie with Biff in it). Be warned, if you haven’t seen this most excellent curve-ball of a horror (it’s really a slasher film in name only) the following does contain the key spoiler to the film’s all-or-nothing gag. Onwards ye fools.
5: An into-camera opening sequence. As if to set the tone for a film which is going to play with its audience, the opening scene is an into-camera montage of our key group of characters. Long before every-other jerk with a digital camera started making first-person horror films this was a neat way to get us underway. Continue reading
On this week’s Vlog: Alfred Hitchcock finds me in the shower, none of my friends have seen The Hunger Games, Robocop gets a makeover, Chloe Moretz is the new Carrie, Childs Play gets two new instalments, and an old woman gets fed to some trolls. Continue reading
