Batch o’ Hatch: Catching Up with What’s Now and Next

NOW:
Marilyn Manson - I’m sure there will be complaints.
Is the shock rocker still relevant? Well he may not be in the news like he used to be, but he sure knows how to cause a stir. In his latest video for the song “Running to the Edge of the World”, he appears to take abuse to the next level. Check out the graphic video below. The song is actually not bad.



Phantogram - Just makes you wanna bob your head.
Electro dance music isn't really my thing, but this band has grabbed my attention of late. Check out the duo’s new song, “Don’t Move”, the latest from their upcoming mini album Nightlife.



R.E.M. - Simple video, very good song.
They may have called it quits, but that doesn’t mean their music has died. Check out their video “We All Go Back to Where We Belong”. It’s a black and white that features a shy and smiling Kirsten Dunst. I forgot how cute she is.



Arcade Fire & Neil Young - Are the Canucks taking over?
Live collaboration on the song, “Helpless” from the 2011 Bridge School Benefit Concert. Check out the video below:



NEXT:
Kings of Leon & Arctic Monkeys - Two good things that go great together.
KOL’s documentary Talihina Sky is coming out November 1st. Also tomorrow the Arctic Monkeys will release their next single “Suck It and See” with the B-side “Evil Twin”. See video below. The song kicks ass!



Atlas Sound - Chill Vibe
Bradford Cox, lead singer of Deerhunter, releases Parallax on November 8th. Take a listen to the single, “Angel is Broken”



R.E.M. - Part II
The influential indie rockers will release a greatest hits collection November 15th titled Part Lies, Part Heart, Part Truth, Part Garbage: 1982- 2011. Check out the trailer:



DCFC - Codes and Keys Remix EP
Not really big on remix albums because they’re usually shit, but I’ll probably give this one a chance. Take a listen to the latest track, “Some Boys”, from the November 22nd release. The original version is one of the better songs from Codes and Keys.



The Black Keys - Lonely Boy Dancing
The duo that made the blues mainstream is set to release their next album El Camino December 6th. Check out their video for the first single “Lonely Boy”. I really dig the tune and the dancing is amazing!

Music Video Monday! Mick Smiley: "Magic"

Dammit.

Okay, guys. If I had realized ahead of time that Halloween was my turn to do Music Video Monday, I would have saved "Thriller" for today and I wouldn't have had to rack my brain to think of something good (debatable). I guess I would have had to rack my brain a couple weeks ago instead, but, meh. Hindsight's 20/20, so I won't beat myself up too bad.

The song "Magic" by Mick Smiley always stands out to me when it plays in Ghostbusters. You know the scene - Walter "Dickless" Peck, played by William Atherton, shuts down the 'busters' ghost containment unit, and all of the spirits and spooks the boys caught throughout the film escape. There's something about the song that's just creepy, and it makes the scene of the escaping ghosts even more eerie.

The actual music video for "Magic"...not so much. The Ghostbusters version of the song is actually a different version than the "official" one, which is slower and more of an '80s love song. The video does start out pretty creepy, however - seems like a Twilight Zone episode is starting when we see the black and white imagery of a rain-drenched cafe. The rest of the video is a strange mix of goofy (old lady at around 0:56) and sexy (any scene featuring the video's dark-haired vixen, particularly the one around 2:25 - which is probably going to remind you most of the scene from the film, by the way). Anyway, the video's below. Happy Halloween!

p.s. If anyone wants to suggest some music videos more befitting Halloween, feel free to do so in the comments. Maybe you can redeem me.

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween from:

Nick

 

Pat

 

Tiff

 

and Robert

 

Obsessive Cinematic Disorder: John Carpenter is Starting to Look Like Lo Pan

This is a recent picture of director John Carpenter, who is currently 63 years old.

 This is a picture of David Lo Pan.

Lo Pan is a character from Carpenter's Big Trouble in Little China which is, all things considered, one of Carpenter's lesser known films. Lo Pan is an ancient sorcerer who appears either as a wizard-like character or the disabled old man seen above.

I might be over exaggerating the similarity, but it would have bothered me to not share it through this post, which is part of the LAMB's spotlight on Carpenter. The above picture of the director is one that the LAMB used as well, and I first noticed the similarity when I saw it on their site. Weird thing to notice but, what can I say. Carpenter's getting older. Life imitates art.

Don't get me wrong - I love BTiLC. Like I said, the film isn't as well known as Halloween or The Thing, but it's a great flick in my opinion. It's just the right combination of adventure and humor and, if nothing else, Kurt Russell turns in a hilarious and charming performance as smooth-talking trucker Jack Burton.

And I have nothing against the director - just the opposite, in fact. However, if anyone spots a youthful-looking Carpenter dressed like this:

 contact the local authorities, as he probably has an evil scheme in mind.

Favorite Scene Friday!: The 13th

Horror movies do not scare me. Strangely enough, I have the ability to detach myself from the movie I'm watching, so rarely do I ever get creeped out. However, that wasn’t the case when I first saw today’s Favorite Scene. To this day, it’s the last horror movie to give me nightmares. In my defense, I was around 10 years old. I’ll set the scene.

If I recall correctly, it was a Saturday night. My parents and I were visiting family friends. The parents were downstairs watching movies, while the kids were playing upstairs. I came downstairs for a drink and as I walked by the family room I poked my head in to ask my mom or dad something. As I did, out of the corner of my eye I saw a young Kevin Bacon lying in bed smoking a cigarette (years later I would learn what he was really smoking.) My eyes were glued to the screen because I wasn’t supposed to be there, but up to this point no one had told me to leave. Now I’m totally into it when I see him reach for his forehead and before I could turn away, I saw it. The scene that changed my 10 year old life forever. The scene that for weeks made me run and jump into my bed after turning out the lights and without totally spoiling it for you, the scene that made those quiet moments just before I fell off to sleep scary as hell.

I hope you enjoy and if I don’t get a chance to tell you before Monday, Happy Halloween!

Unseen Halloween: April Fool’s Day

In April Fool’s Day, Muffy St. John (???), played by Deborah Foreman, invites some of her college pals to her quiet, secluded lake house. The diverse group of friends all meet on a ferry, as they have to take the vessel to meet Muffy at the lake house.

The ferry takes off and all of Muffy’s friends are generally juvenile and goofing off on the boat (spoiler alert – April Fool’s Day is bigger than Christmas in this movie’s universe and everyone LOVES a good prank). Once the ferry gets to the lake house dock, a grisly accident befalls one of the boat’s deckhands and he’s quickly rushed off to the mainland because HISFACEHASBEENCRUSHED. The accident puts the friends on edge for obvious reasons, but also because their pranks were partly to blame. After meeting up with Muffy in the house, however, everyone begins to have a good time and the accident on the boat is all but forgotten.

But then one of the friends goes missing and both tension and fear arise. Is the injured deckhand back for revenge on the goofy friends? Muffy starts to act awfully strange as well. The weekend soon becomes a nightmare as everyone struggles to survive and solve the mystery.

April Fool’s Day is a weird flick, but it’s surprisingly fun in its first half. Some of the pranks throughout the film are genuinely inventive. Plus, Thomas F. “Biff Tannen” Wilson is in the film as Muffy's friend Archie.

Like I said, the film has some oddities. It’s mostly plot points, but acting and writing are to blame as well. At one point, Chaz (Clayton Rohner), a character that occasionally films things and has a hot girlfriend, tells a complete stranger (the deckhand) that his “Hostess Twinkie is hanging out.” When the guy looks down at his crotch, Chaz kisses him on the cheek and walks away.

The film is kind of like a more sophisticated Friday the 13^th film in a way. Same setting (lake house), same scenario (horny group of young people getting picked off by a vengeful killer). The production values seem better than what the F13 series was producing around the same time (1986) and the acting is somewhat better as well. Producer Frank Mancuso Jr. also produced a lot of the F13 films, so the similarities have an obvious explanation.

As I mentioned, the film is fun in its first half, but becomes decently creepy and dark when a twist of sorts is revealed. As I alluded to, it’s also implied that the deckhand is responsible for the creepy goings-on at the lake house, but that doesn’t really make sense since HISFACEHASBEENCRUSHED. This is just me talking, but if my head is borderline destroyed and I’ve been taken to the hospital, the last thing I’d want to do is leave said hospital for revenge.

In conclusion, the film is a good one due to its tone and goofy ‘80s-ness, but just barely, as the story and elements of the writing are pretty oddball.

Side note: Occasionally the EH Team and our crew will find/come up with drinking rules for movies, and this one really lends itself to a drinking game. See below.

April Fool’s Day Drinking Game

One drink every time someone says “Muffy” or a derivative

One drink every time someone gets pranked

One drink every time Archie pops his collar

One drink every time Rob indicates that he’s unhappy or mad

Two drinks every time a fly is mentioned

Two drinks every time a knife is thrown into the ground

Finish your drink at the big toast about midway through the film

Music Video Monday! The Shining Edition: 30 Seconds to Mars & Slipknot

Good Monday to everyone! I’m going to start the week off by cheating a little. Don’t judge me, I’m doing it for your enjoyment. As you know, we here at the Hatch usually give you one music video on Monday, but in trying to stick with The Shining theme, I couldn’t decide between two music videos that give winks to Kubrick's legendary film. Since it’s 1980 release, The Shining has had a major influence on the horror movie genre, but as you’ll see in today’s selections, it has bled into the world of music videos as well.

The first is from the theatrical Jared Leto and his band 30 Seconds to Mars and the second comes from what used to be the creepiest and heaviest metal band from Iowa Slipknot. I hope you enjoy The Shining inspired videos and remember: AlL wOrk aNd NO PlAy, MAkEs JacK A dUll BoY. If you have nothing better to do on a slow Monday, let us know which band does a better job of capturing the pure creepiness of The Shining.

REDRUM: Not Just Your Average Caribbean Club Cocktail

Sorry about yesterday's post - just a little Halloween prank. Now here's the real deal.

The Shining: Nick's Take

So what’s the big deal about The Shining?  What sets it apart from other Stephen King movies or other horror movies for that matter?   Why are we honoring it this Halloween?  I can answer all three questions with one answer:  Because it is one of the greatest horror movies ever made.

Everything about The Shining makes you feel uneasy in some way.  Whether it be the godawful carpet of the haunted hotel or Jack Nicholson making out with a corpse – we’re talking full tongue, here – or the face of Shelley Duvall or the whatthefuck scene I posted a few Fridays ago, this movie has got it all and that’s why we, among countless other blogs, lists, people, ghosts, etc., are giving it the illustrious Open Hatch approval.  Which by now obviously means gold – opinionatingly speaking.  Anyone who’s both read the novel and seen the movie knows that the two stand apart in great respect.  I’m willing to bet that Kubrick was pissed once he finished reading the novel simply because he didn’t think of the idea first.  The similarities are without a doubt plain to see, but the differences are monumental comparatively speaking; an axe vs. a mallet, a maze vs. a zoo of animated animal hedges, the survival of the hotel vs. the burning down of the hotel (there are only two references to a basement boiler in the movie whereas the novel has it as a major plot point; so major in fact that the hotel burns down at novel’s end due to the overheating boiler  . . . I could go on and on.  I won’t say which I prefer because both are great in their own right.  I did however see The Shining for the first time when I was about 11 or 12 and have watched it many, many times since.  I didn’t read the book until I was in college, roughly 19, and I haven’t read it since, so I guess I’d have to admit that the movie does sort of hold a special little place in my warped mind.

Courtesy of Wikipedia

As I mentioned before, everything about this movie is creepy.  The collective beauty of the cast alone is enough to make you not want to waste your time.  Tiffany mentioned at one point that she thought Danny was a cute little boy and I bit my tongue.  The mop of hair on that poor boy is ridiculous.  I should mention though that the boy in the TV miniseries remake is even worse.  A bowl cut of bad acting is about as nice as I can be.  I also find it terribly amusing when we’re taken down to Scatman’s Miami hotel room . . . the naked afro’ed ladies on the walls are pure delight in a “Whoa!” kind of way.  A slew of scenes are merely images seen from Danny’s point of view of the various hotel ghosts fiddling about.  I hadn’t seen a haunted movie done so well until I watched Insidious.  Being released in 1980 meant Jack, Shelley, Scatman, and the rest of the cast were making their last ditch efforts to save '70s fashions so even the comforting thought of I’d look good in that escapes you entirely.  I think the fairy tale vomit of Shelley Duvall’s first outfit is top ringer for scariest Halloween costume ever.  You guys know what I’m talking about.  Being the younger brother of twins, I can fully attest that twins are odd and the scene(s) of Grady’s twin daughters only proves my point.[1]  The “Gimmie the bat!” scene is incredibly awesome on both a freaky level (Jack Nicholson) and a comedic level (Shelley Duvall) and I absolutely adore The Simpsons’ Tree House of Horror take on it.  Don’t be surprised if it winds up on a Favorite Scene Friday in the future.

I can’t list all of what is terrifying about The Shining, but I would be remiss if I didn’t at least mention what Jack Nicholson brings to the table.  Watching him speak to Lloyd (the bartender) about breaking Danny’s arm is alarming on a number of levels.  To get my meaning, I’d advise you to watch that scene over and over, each time paying full attention to a different aspect.  For example, at first focus directly on his eyebrows while he speaks and next time focus on his arms and next time the tone of his voice, etc. etc.  Absolutely incredible.  Another good one is the scene where he talks to Wendy from inside the walk-in pantry.  It’s like you can feel the madness breaching the locked door and striking Wendy in her big ‘ol bug-eyes.  When I read Stephen King’s idea of The Shining, I tried to place Jack Nicholson’s image into the “Jack Torrance” character as King wrote him.  Let’s just say I can see why Kubrick went the route that he did.  Nicholson makes a much creepier madman with an axe.  He’s off-kilter throughout the entire movie, to see him try to redeem himself by letting Danny escape (novel reference) just wouldn’t convey as well on screen.  That’s not to say I think Kubrick’s “Jack Torrance” is better.  King hits you on a much deeper level with his “Jack Torrance” because we read him as “under control (for the most part) to mad to ‘love over hate’ to full blown wickedness.”  It’s hard to convey that on screen.

This movie is on nearly every Top 50 Scariest Movies lists, but I don’t think it’s often listed as number one.  I’m not so sure I agree with that.                

[1] I wrote this on purpose to prove a point that my brothers don’t give a shit about reading the blog.  Thanks, guys.

The Shining: Robert's Take

If I can engage in understatement, The Shining is an excellent horror film. Nick points out that every aspect of the film is scary, and I completely agree. It might be the most unsettling flick I've ever seen. And is there anything scarier than someone you love losing their mind and trying to kill you?

I read something about The Shining once and it's always stuck with me. I can't remember where it comes from – a review I think – and for the life of me I can't find it online. If anyone can help me attribute this to the comments' originator I would appreciate it. It goes something like this – The Shining is a great horror film because it's every horror story rolled into one. The film has ghosts. It has a haunted house and a madman. It has zombies and even a werewolf in a way. Indian burial grounds, possession, poltergeists, skeletons – you name it.

I love this movie. I love the performances and the tone of the film. I love the unsettling beauty of the opening. I love the behind the scenes stories that I've heard over the years – the trademark obsession and intensity of director Stanley Kubrick, the dissatisfaction Stephen King – who wrote the novel the film is based on – felt with the finished product. I shudder to think of the borderline torture Kubrick put his cast and crew through, particularly Scatman Crothers and Shelley Duvall.

One of my new favorite things about the film is the debate about what actually happens to Jack Torrance. You might believe that Jack is continually reincarnated and drawn to the hotel, or you might think that he was pulled back through time and absorbed into the hotel's past at the end of the film. Whichever of the two theories you believe, the film provides evidence for both, and I think that's a great thing. I do, however, personally believe the reincarnation theory. At one point, Jack says, "When I came up here for my interview, it was as though I'd been here before." I also recall a scene where Jack tells Lloyd the ghost/imaginary bartender that it's good to be back.

The Shining is the type of film that really makes me think and I'm glad that the talented group of people behind it came together to produce such a great piece of art and entertainment. The effort obviously involved more work than play, but the finished product is anything but dull.

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The Shining Shindig

We just started watching The Shining! In honor of the film, we're watching it in Jacksonville's historic Carling building, which has its fair share of ghost stories. We've been watching the movie for a little while now though, and nothing creepy so far.

Keep an eye out for our review/tribute tomorrow.

Favorite Scene Friday! Session 9: I Live in the Weak, and the Wounded (Spoilers Ahead!!)

Today's Favorite Scene Friday! comes from a very underrated horror film.  While it's not your standard slasher movie full of creative kill scenes and bloody gore, to me, Session 9 is the scariest kind of scary movie - the psychological horror.

In this scene you see the movie's main character, Gordon - a man who has completely unraveled.  At the start of the film, Gordon and his crew of asbestos workers have come to clean up an old, abandoned insane asylum.  They all have one common goal - get in, get the job done and make their money as quickly as possible.  However, it isn't long before each of them realizes that nothing at Danvers Asylum is what it seems.  And as tensions build among the workers, the evil lurking in that building begins to prey on each of them. 

This is actually the final scene of the film and might be a spoiler for some.  The reason I say "might" is that there is so much going on in the movie building up to this moment that, if you've never seen it, you'll still be able to watch it in its entirety without having full realization until the end.  However, if you're already familiar with the story line, but not the ending, this will spoil it for you.  Just know that the creepy voice you're hearing in this scene will stick with you for days. 

When I first watched it, Session 9 scared me more than anything I had seen in a long time.  It left me feeling disturbed and....unsettled, I guess.  The storyline isn't necessarily original, but it still packs a pretty powerful and scary punch.  And while the acting can be a bit cheesy at times, it's definitely worth checking out if you haven't seen it. 

Unseen Halloween: Wishmaster

Every year around Halloween I try to check out horror films that I’ve never seen before. It feels like I’m starting to scrape the bottom of the barrel. If anyone has any suggestions for Unseen Halloween, I’d be glad to hear them.

I had never seen Wishmaster until the other night. If you still haven’t seen it, and before you rush off to check it out, allow me to point out that the only reason I watched it was because my cable and internet were both out. Oh, and the film is really, really bad. 

Meet Alexandra, played by Tammy Lauren (the casting call must have read “Must be able to convincingly act like you’re having violent mental breakdowns and nervous episodes for half the movie). She works as an appraiser or something for an auctioneer firm. After a mishap at the city’s docks that kills Sam Raimi’s brother, a centuries-old, evil Djinn is released and wreaks havoc in Alexandra’s (or, Alexandraaaa as the Djinn calls her) life. You see, when a dock worker drinks a little too much on the job, he accidentally drops a crate that was containing the imprisoned-in-a-jewel Djinn (that’s where Raimi goes splat). Another dock worker steals the jewel (apparently all dock workers are drunks and thieves according to this film) and pawns it off, and that’s where Alexandra gets involved. She spends the rest of the movie trying to outsmart the Djinn.

One of the big plot points about the movie is that, if the Djinn is able to grant three full wishes to someone, he can unleash hell on Earth or something. Here’s the thing, though. Every “wish” he grants is actually a horrible, twisted nightmare version of what the wisher actually wanted. And most of the time, the results don’t even make sense. For instance, a pretty department store girl wishes that she could stay young and beautiful forever after the Djinn buys a suit. And he turns her into a mannequin. 

I get that he’s evil and he just wants to cause suffering, but there’s not a whole lot of logic behind the wishes he grants, and he does that sort of thing throughout the whole movie. You wish for the Djinn to die, he puts a bullet through his own head but it heals right up. You wish to know what he is and you just get stuck in his crystal world with him for a while (that one in particular makes no sense), you wish to escape from your shitty job and you get locked in a straightjacket in the famous Houdini water case escape trick.

And that’s why the ending makes absolutely no sense. It’s obvious the whole film is leading up to Alexandra outsmarting the Djinn with her final wish, so when she finally unleashes it at the film’s climax, it’s a complete let-down. I was wondering what she could possibly think of, what wish she could make that would win the day, considering that the Djinn seems to just do whatever he wants when someone makes a wish. So Alexandra wishes (spoiler alert) that the dock worker hadn’t been drinking that morning. Seriously. That’s it.

The film's got some good technical effects and some very bad computer effects, and features appearances from Robert Englund (Freddy Krueger), Kane Hodder (played Jason Voorhees a bunch of times), and Tony Todd (Candyman).

Batch o’ Hatch: Jax Film Fest, The Nerd Lunch Podcast, and Halloween and Our Tribute to The Shining

Jax Film Fest

On Saturday and Sunday this past weekend I volunteered at the Jacksonville Film Fest. Volunteering apparently meant just standing around a lot.

Seriously though, I think the fact that there were a lot of volunteers and we didn’t have much to do is just a testament to the fact that so many people care about the film fest and wanted to volunteer.

Other than standing around, not much happened for me. Although, while I was walking down the sidewalk on a dinner break Saturday night, a nice (and crazy) bike riding gentleman decided to serenade me. I guess he wanted some cash but I pretended to make a phone call and ducked into a restaurant. I also witnessed a flash mob – but I don’t think it can be considered a flash mob since most of the volunteer staff knew about it and told me to go check it out.

I talked to some interesting folks and I think I’ll definitely participate in the fest next year – I may just attend some parties and screenings, however.

Nerd Lunch Podcast

If you’ve got some spare time and you want to confirm your suspicions that I’m just one giant walking awkward pause, check out this week’s episode of the Nerd Lunch podcast. We chat about different films and TV shows that may or may not live up to their own hype – my topic was HBO’s The Wire.

It may have been my first attempt at podcasting, but the Nerd lunch Podcast regulars (CT and JEEG from Nerd Lunch and Pax from Cavalcade of Awesome) were on their A-Game as usual. You can listen to the podcast on iTunes.

If you want to spice up your listening experience, take a drink of your favorite booze every time I say “uh”, “um”, or any derivative. Between that and listening to us talk about stalking Bruce Campbell, torture, and zombies, you should have a good time.

At one point in the podcast I mention a quote about The Wire from Community. I failed to mention that I got the full quote, the name of the episode – and the actual clip – from two message board users on IMDb. Thanks, IceTruckDexter and arcangle66!

Halloween and Our Tribute to The Shining

Last but not least for this installment, I’d like to point out some of the Halloween-related stuff we’ve done this month so far.

Favorite Scene Friday! Jaws: Quint Scares The Shit Out Of Us 

Favorite Scene Friday! Twilight Zone: The Movie: Airplane Gremlin 

Music Video Monday! Michael Jackson: "Thriller" 

Music Video Monday! Metallica: "One"

Music Video Monday! TV On The Radio: "Wolf Like Me"

When Werewolves Pop Up In Other Films

What Happened After…John Carpenter’s The Thing

A Peek Through The Hatch: The Walking Dead Season 2 

We’ll be doing some other Halloween-related posts, including a big tag-team review of/tribute to Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining, which’ll hit the blog this Saturday, October 22^nd.

Music Video Monday! TV On The Radio: Wolf Like Me

"My heart's aflame, my body's strained, but God, I LIKE IT!"

We're celebrating today's Music Video Monday with werewolves and full moons and other things spooky and fun.  This song, by TV On The Radio, has soul for days and always makes me want to dance my ass off.  It's a go-to for me when I need a little pick me up.  And it's pretty damn sexy too...

"Feeding on fever
down all fours
show you what all that
howl is for"

We dare you to give this song a listen and let us know if you aren't breaking it down too!

A Peek Through The Hatch: The Walking Dead Season 2

Tonight marks the start of the second season of The Walking Dead. Tune in to AMC tonight at 9:00 EST if you're interested. AMC wants to get you ready for the premiere – if you wanna pick up what they're putting down, head here.

I have to be honest – I wasn't completely wowed by the first season when I originally saw it. It seemed heavy on the character drama and a little lacking in the zombie department. It just didn't really seem to go anywhere – both literally (after a group of characters including Sheriff's Deputy Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) triumphantly escaped Atlanta, they went right back there in the next episode) and plot-wise. Certain things were left hanging, and not in a cliffhanger way – it just seemed like they were forgotten. A character gets stuck in Atlanta and then goes missing (Rick and the others returned to Atlanta in that one episode to find him) and the fate of the father and son duo that initially rescued Rick at the start of the show was left unresolved. A smaller complaint is that the show premiered on Halloween – it was a great way to cap off the scariest month of the year but it seemed a little wrong to watch 90% of the show after the Halloween season had ended.

I've re-watched a few of the first season's episodes, however, and I've realized that it's better than I first thought. I just hope that this new season (which seems to feature plenty of zombie action) wraps up some of what the first season left hanging. And I'm glad that it's premiering with a few weeks of October left.

Oh, and I wonder if Stephen King ever wrote an episode for this season...

Ashes & Fire - The Perfect Combination: A Cold Beer, My Thoughts & This Album

The thirteenth album from the ever eclectic Ryan Adams was released this past Tuesday and I suppose since he’s been out of sight for nearly two years, it was given very little fan fare. It’s really a damn shame because Adams remains one of the greatest songwriters of my generation. Sure there’s no denying that he’s taken some miscalculated risks over the past 10 years, but if you’re a fan, then you know he’s always been the type of artist that zigs when you want him to zag. I think that’s refreshing when compared to the countless sellouts that keep producing the same garbage because they know it’s going to sell, or even worse totally change their sound to attract more of the masses. I’m all for making a buck, but to lose all musical creativity to do it is almost unforgiveable. Okay I’ll stop before I go somewhere I never intended.

I assume because of Adams’ past experiments, Ashes & Fire has been placed in a wide range of music genres. I’ve seen it labeled as Rock, Alt/Country, Folk, Country and even Adult Alternative. It gives me the impression that the record could catch the attention of more than just the hard-core Adams’ fans. However in saying that, if he does attract a new group of listeners, I hope they’ll really take their time with this album (I'm going on four nights straight) because Ashes & Fire won’t blow you away on the first couple of listens. Like most of his emotionally charged songs, this album will slowly seep into your head and heart, stirring up memories of love lost and love gained. It will induce self reflection, encourage happiness and hopeful beginnings. To truly give this album its just due, you need to find yourself a comfortable hide out, press play and absorb Adams’ voice, the strum of his acoustic guitar, the beauty of Norah Jones’ piano and his ever present poignant lyrics.

From “Do I Wait?”
“I waited in the wings
For you to appear
But you’re never coming back
And we’re never going to feel
Like we did”

This is probably the closest thing to Heartbreaker he’s released in a long while and I think that’s what most Adams’ fans wanted. It’s soulful, heartfelt and truly moving. It’s everything that’s best about Adams, but it’s not Heartbreaker. It doesn’t have the energy of his solo debut, however it’s a more mature, grounded and introspective Adams. A man who sounds like he’s accepted his life choices, including marriage, with arms wide open. It’s the Adams I love and thank for getting me through some tough times in my life.

Do yourself a favor, take a listen to these standouts: : “Do I Wait?”, “Dirty Rain”, “Ashes & Fire”, “Save Me”, “Come Home”, “Lucky Now” and “I Love You But I Don’t Know What To Say”. While you’re at it, go back into his catalog to sample these: “Oh My Sweet Carolina, “Call Me On Your Way Back Home”, “Damn Sam, I Love A Woman That Rains”, “Come Pick Me Up”, “To Be the One”, “Why Do They Leave”, “In My Time of Need”, “Two”, “Everybody Knows”, “Don’t Fail Me Now”, “She Wants to Play Hearts”, “The Shadowlands”……. To hell with that, spend an afternoon and find out for yourself, I promise you won’t be disappointed.

What Happened After…John Carpenter’s The Thing?

**SPOILERS AHEAD!** 

The Thing is king. And its kingdom is suspenseful, creepy, and bloody horror. It’s more than a scary movie, though. It’s a mystery. It’s a thriller. It’s stuffed with social critiques (we as a society inherently fear and mistrust others; we destroy the environment; loss of identity). The Thing is related to the vast number of zombie films out there. The monster isn’t just the thing from another world – it’s us.

If you’re unfamiliar with the film, here goes: An American crew at a base in the Antarctic must battle an alien after it slaughters the inhabitants of a nearby camp and moves on to their own.  The alien isn’t your typical xenomorph, however – it can essentially “infect” any living organism so that it morphs into an evil and alien – yet otherwise physically identical – replica. In fact, the Thing that infiltrates the American base is a Thing-ified dog. Tensions rise and explode when the Americans can no longer tell if their fellow crewmembers are human or not.

The tone of the movie is really what makes it great. The film is claustrophobic – that tiny facility suffocates the characters and us, the viewers. The Thing or one of the assimilated crewmembers could be just around that corner. It's agoraphobic – the characters can't leave the camp – the open Antarctic is nothing but a massive expanse of snow and ice. The Thing could be out there.

One of the great…things…about the film is the beginning – it's so intriguing and confusing to see that helicopter chasing after a lone husky. When we find out that the men from the helicopter were the remaining Sweds Norwegians, the mystery just grows. Although the film makes it clear that the Norwegian crewmembers were either killed by The Thing or during an unfortunate skirmish with the American crew, we'll soon see exactly what happened thanks to this year’s prequel. 

But what happens after The Thing ends? It's nearly impossible to resist wondering. We all remember that MacReady – played by Kurt Russell – and Childs – played by Keith David – were the only two survivors of the ordeal, and when last we saw them, they were exhausted and sitting around their burning base after one final (?) confrontation with the Thing.  

What became of MacReady and Childs? Was one of them The (a) Thing? Are they both human and The Thing(s) survived the explosion? If The Thing(s) survived, are MacReady and Childs forced to continue the battle in the unforgiving Antarctic?

It might be kind of silly to speculate about all this. The whole point is that we have no idea what happens after the film ends. We're supposed to feel the same sort of tension and uncertainty that MacReady and Childs felt.

That hasn't stopped me from wondering, however. It's a great ending but it's also a shitty ending. What the hell happens? We spend the whole movie watching these characters elude Things and then the film just ends. I always really hoped that it wasn't MacReady, but then that might mean that Childs was an alien. If that was the case, MacReady would be alone and, quite simply, fucked.

So this was my initial theory – MacReady and Childs were both still human (and perhaps a Thing lived on). Here's why I thought this. At the end of the film, an infected Blair, a character that wore glasses throughout the whole movie, no longer needed his spectacles. This indicates that the thing does not replicate imperfections.

MacReady and Childs are visibly exhausted and beat up at the end of the film. They’ve seen better days. Therefore, they’re not Things, because they wouldn’t show any sign of weakness.

But I had to throw that idea out the window, for a number of reasons. First of all, if either MacReady or Childs were a Thing, they could have just faked being human. And even though Blair seems to have gotten better as a Thing and the creatures are all visibly much stronger than humans (think of the scene where the Palmer Thing raises Windows up over his head), there’s a problem. At one point in the film, Norris, a character who turns out to have been a Thing, has some sort of heart problem. He’s scrambling to do something and he grabs his chest, visibly in pain. Norris Thing’s heart problem would seem to indicate that the alien mimics organisms so completely, that it recreates their imperfections.

So, my theory about MacReady and Childs not being infected based on their tired states is bullshit, since it isn’t made clear if alien copies reproduce human weaknesses.

What I think isn’t really important, anyway. I’m like any other armchair filmmaker – I can speculate all I want. However, The Thing has been sequel-ized by everything from TV networks to comic books and video games.

For instance, I found out through Wikipedia that SyFy had plans for a miniseries sequel that never came to fruition. In a great script review by Patrick Sauriol at Corona Coming Attractions, we learn that the miniseries would have shown what happened after a Russian team found the frozen remains of MacReady, Childs, (so in this miniseries they died – or perhaps one of them was The Thing and it just allowed itself to freeze again) and The Thing and then used the alien to create a biological weapon. Years after the Russians discover The Thing, a plane with a sample of the alien's DNA crashes in the desert and The Thing begins to infect animals and the residents of a small town.

Dark Horse Comics published some sequels of their own. The comics explain that MacReady was the only survivor of The Thing’s rampage and that Childs became infected. Seems like whoever wrote the comics was a Kurt Russell fan as well.

So that covers my speculation and what others did and attempted to do with sequels, but what about something official, something that’s tied to Carpenter’s original film?

Some readers might be surprised that an alternate ending to The Thing was filmed. According to IMDb, the ending showed a rescued MacReady getting a blood test that proves that he was human. Apparently it was just filmed as a precaution in case audiences didn't like the original ending. So while this ending isn't official, it gives us some reason to think that MacReady wasn't an alien. After all, Carpenter could have filmed this alternate ending with Keith David, but he didn't.

But hold on – we can't really say Childs was a Thing either. IMDb also claims that Keith David told a horror convention audience that he was still a human at the end of the film. Said David, "Well, I don't know about (Kurt Russell), but it sure as hell wasn't me."

I know what you’re thinking – “Screw all this other stuff – what does Carpenter think happens after the film ends?” Well, in March 2004, Carpenter reportedly told Empire Magazine that he had an idea for a sequel that would feature MacReady and Childs, both having survived the ordeal.

I’d like to get my hands on this Empire issue, because the source of this information (Wikipedia, of course) mentions some odd details about frost bite obscuring MacReady and Childs’ faces to hide the obvious fact that they’ve aged since 1982. That’s a lot of frost bite. I’m sure the CGI de-aging effects that we’ve seen in recent films (X-Men: The Last Stand and Tron: Legacy) could do a much better job than frost bite makeup at this point.

So that’s all I’ve got. A lot of research down the drain and it’s still a mystery. It’s a good kind of mystery, though. Was MacReady a Thing? Was Childs? Were they both still just scared humans, holding on to what little sanity and warmth they had left, hoping that their alien nightmare was finally over? Whatever your theory is, you may never find out if it’s correct. But consider this: given enough running time, prequels can become sequels…

Favorite Scene Friday! Twilight Zone: The Movie: Airplane Gremlin

So here we are with our second installment of our favorite horror scenes for October. I think Nick and I were recently talking about this film, and I honestly can't remember who thought of "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" so I'm giving him credit for this one as well. You'll notice that the scene couldn't be embededd and you'll have to watch it directly on YouTube. I guess I'm cheating a little bit, since this can't really be considered just a scene. But the whole thing is great, so give it a watch if you have time. And if you want my actual favorite part, click here - but be warned.

I like airplane movies in general - Air Force One, Executive Decision, Flight Plan, and Red Eye, to name a few. There's obviously something naturally tense about airplanes - maybe the fact that you're essentially stranded up in the air, maybe the fact that you're confined to such a claustrophobic space.

But this segment of 1983's Twilight Zone: The Movie, directed by George Miller, is probably my favorite airplane scene. And it has always scared the shit out of me. John Lithgow's perfect, terrified, manic performance. The tension and music. And that...thing. A gremlin, I guess, although, to my knowledge, it's never actually called that in the segment. The idea that a monster could be on the wing of your plane during a terrifying storm drives the fear center of my brain crazy.

That gremlin's face - one only a mama gremlin could love. I always wondered what happened to him after he flew off. Did he land on another plane to wreak havoc? Maybe he met up with Stripe the Mogwai and they started an airline so they could screw with all the planes and collect on the insurance money.

Happy Friday! And stay scary, my friends.

When Werewolves Pop Up In Other Films

**spoiler alert!**

In honor of tonight's October full moon, I thought I'd post about everyone’s favorite hairy beasts. That’s right, my friends and yours – werewolves.

The monsters aren't just a creepy, awesome part of horror cannon - they represent the beast inside of us – our primitive base instincts that slip out every now and then.

If you love werewolf movies, you’ll know some of the more famous incarnations of the beasts – David Kessler from An American Werewolf in London, Eddie Quist from The Howling or Larry Talbot from The Wolf Man.

These are just a few examples. I counted 24 werewolf films on Wikipedia's "werewolf fiction" page before I gave up counting at 1964's Face of the Screaming Werewolf -  and I was far from the end. So clearly there's a ton of werewolf-centric films, but the beasts pop up quite often in films that aren’t otherwise about werewolves.

For instance, werewolves feature quite a bit in the Harry Potter series. Hogwarts professor Remus Lupin turns out to be one of the creatures (should have looked at his name more carefully, Harry) in Prisoner of Azkaban and his transformation scene is actually one of my favorites.

And Lupin isn’t the only werewolf in the series. A character named Fenrir Greyback is another werewolf and one of Voldemort’s henchmen.

You probably haven't seen Waxwork, and if you haven’t, don’t beat yourself up. The uneven 1988 film concerns a group of friends who end up battling the horrors of a dangerous waxwork museum where the displays come to life. The displays are just wax until the kids step into them, and they feature a ton of classic monsters (and the Marquis de Sade…?). If you have seen the film - it's on Netflix instant, or at least it was at the time of this writing -  you’ll know that a werewolf features prominently in one scene. The beast is played by none other than John Rhys-Davies. 

You may not have seen Waxwork, but I hope you've seen Monster Squad. The classic '80s film is about a group of kids who must battle Count Dracula and his crew of classic monsters – Frankenstein's Monster, The Creature from the Black Lagoon, The Mummy, and one helluva Wolfman.

The Wolfman (and his nards) is played by Jon Gries and he does a great job. The creature effects were done by Stan Winston (he of Jurassic Park fame) and the Wolfman – known in the film as “desperate man” – is sufficiently brought to life. Fun fact - Gries plays a werewolf in another non werewolf film - Fright Night Part 2.

Francis Ford Coppola’s Dracula has a very…promiscuous…werewolf – which is actually just the Count (Gary Oldman) in wolf-man form.

Winona, get back to bed!

Ford Coppola's film is a great one in my book, and the werewolf scene is disturbing and creepy.

Trick ‘r Treat, an under appreciated, segmented (akin to Creepshow) horror film from ­­ Michael Dougherty, features a story with a surprise twist in which a group of women are actually werewolves. Now that I think about it, the segment might be my least favorite of the bunch, but the film as a whole is solid.

Let me put up a disclaimer before I go on here. Van Helsing is a terrible movie. The acting is piss poor and the story makes about as much sense as Jodie Foster in Nell. 

That being said, the film does treat us to some generous werewolf action. Kate Beckinsale's character’s brother is a werewolf, and then Van Helsing himself becomes one of the beasts at the end of the film (briefly).

On a final note, joblo.com today reported that the upcoming reboot of The Lone Ranger – a film we’vediscussed before – is back on, after being briefly shelved. As previously reported, the flick will apparently feature some werewolves of the Native American variety (AKA, the best variety). 

Beware the moon!