Whine and Cheese

My love for horror-themed TV and movies is pretty well known. I'm always looking for things I've not seen. One of the podcasts I listen to is all about 1970's horror TV shows and movies. A recent post by them was about a British TV-series called "Thriller", which aired on British TV in the early 1970's.

Now there was an early 60's series in the USA called "Thriller," hosted by Boris Karloff. Both shows are excellent and had similar themes -- supernatural, mystery, and crime thrillers. The US series felt more like toned-down Twilight Zone, whereas the UK series seems to dwell more on murder mysteries, with the occasion supernatural twist.

I got the entire UK series on DVD for less than $20 on Amazon and it showed up earlier this week, so I've been binging on it. It's fun to watch as there are some British and US TV stars in the stories in their earlier days, such as Donna Mills, Hayley Mills, and Helen Mirren. According to Wikipedia, it was broadcast in the USA as part of the CBS Late Movie series.

This is probably my favorite time of year, cooler temps, changing leaves, and Halloween! This series is putting me in the seasonal mood.

Back in 1999, a co-worker and I were out of town at a training class and decided to catch a showing of "The Blair Witch Project". The shaky, found-footage movie was new and exciting, and left me feeling a tad queasy.

Normally, I don't do spoilers, but since the original film is from 1999, people have had a chance to see it. Briefly, three amateur film makers (Mike, Josh, and Heather) go into the Burkittsville, MD woods to look into the legend of the Blair Witch. In the course of things, Mike gets mad at Heather and kicks the map into the creek, they get lost, Mike goes missing and is never found, Josh and Heather find an old house, Josh is found standing in a corner (as is part of the legend), and Heather is attacked and apparently killed. The footage of the film makers is later found and made into the movie.

While it certainly looks like the Blair Witch got them, my mind put the pieces together a different way. I always believed that Mike and Josh took Heather into the woods and killed her, using the Blair Witch as a cover. Mike is largely responsible for getting them lost by intentionally losing the map for a stupid reason. Heather is the only one on camera that is attacked. I believe that Josh is responsible for leading Heather to the house and Mike is the one who attacks her from behind. Anyway, that's how I rationalized the movie.

Tonight, I saw "Blair Witch", the sequel to the original. In this movie, Heather's brother is enticed to go into the woods after a video possibly showing Heather is found. He takes his friends along with LOTS of video equipment, including a video drone, and bad things begin to happen.

It definitely has more of a supernatural vibe verses what I felt from the first one, and completely wrecks my theory regarding the original three characters. It was a decent flick with some good scares. No extra scenes at the end, but I didn't expect them.

Now I'm home and tired. Thank heavens the weekend is here.

After a long day of work, errands, and getting a tire fixed, I met my buddy Rob for dinner and a movie. We went to go see "The Conjuring 2".

This sequel tells another supernatural investigation by Ed and Lorraine Warren, this time they travel to London, England to help a family terrorized by the ghost of a elderly man. Weary of the stresses this is having on them, the Warrens reluctantly agree to go to monitor the situation, but become very engrossed in the supernatural goings-on in the home.

The first Conjuring movie gave way too much away in the previews. The sequel learned their lesson and loaded this movie with startling jumps and scares galore. The demon in the film takes on the form of a terrifying nun, guaranteed to spook anyone, especially anyone with a Catholic background. The theater was packed and the young lady sitting next to me was stereotypically jumping and screaming at every hair-raising moment.

With the scares and the wonderful 1977 setting, including the teenage girl room full of posters of Starsky & Hutch, The New Avengers (with Joanna Lumley), and pop stars of the era, I loved it.

Patrick Wilson, who plays Ed Warren, has some nice pecs under that shirt of his, though no bare chest scenes (darn it). My buddy Rob proclaimed this as the best horror flick I ever dragged him to. It's got a 70-something % rating on Rotten Tomatoes, which is high for a horror flick.

I have 18 of 20 pages of the next comic book issue colored. Only two more to go.

Usually when I am at the computer coloring comic pages, I try to find some horror movies of questionable quality to play. That way I am entertained and I don't usually have to pay such close attention. Today's selections were pretty much what I expected.

• "Lair of the White Worm" is late 1980's British movie based on a novel by Bram Stoker (author of Dracula). Amanda Donohoe stars as vampiric worshipper of a snake god who returns to her English home and starts attacking the locals. She is naked often and doesn't give a damn about it. It's wonderfully campy and stars a young Hugh Grant as a local lord who tries to stop her and save his girlfriend.
  
  
• "Devil Times Five" is an early 1970's horror flick about a team of psychotic children who survive a bus wreck and comes upon a group of adults at a secluded ski getaway. It stars some known actors in their earlier days, including Sorrel Booke (Boss Hogg from "The Dukes of Hazzard"), Shelly Morrison (Rosario from "Will & Grace"), and Leif Garrett as one of the psycho kids. There is a nice football player type guy who shows his nice butt in a scene. The kids are "rescued" by the adults and then the adults start getting killed off.
  
  
• "Funeral Home"is a 1980's Canadian horror flick, just another reason to love Canada. A young girl spends her summer with her grandmother, who is in the process of turning her former funeral home into a bed and breakfast. The B&B starts drawing folks who start getting killed off one by one. Is it the missing grandfather? The mentally-challenged handyman? It has a nice little twist (though not totally original) ending. The local deputy is the one who gives away the filming location when he ends a sentence at the end with a stereotypical "eh?"

Two more pages to go and a cover. I wonder what the next movie in my queue will be.