Bonus Doc: Terror in the Aisles- The TV Cut

 What happens when a Film that once existed solely as a Special Feature gets its own?

Well, for some backstory, the 1984 Documentary I covered recently was first rediscovered and put on the Blu-Ray release of Halloween II.

It's also the version that cut Mustapha Akkad's credit, so nothing is perfect.

In 2020, Terror got its own release and that came with Special Features of its own.

Besides the usual- Interviews with people involved- they also included the TV Cut of the Film.

How different is it?
Let's find out...

For starters, they didn't go through this version of the Film and restore it.

So, I put this shot from the previous Review in for comparison.
Do you miss the crisp HD look at Pleasence talking directly at you through the screen?

The main difference here is that they use a whole bunch of DIFFERENT Films for Clips and references.

It is not a full replace, but you get to see stuff that features less (or no) blood and no Nudity.

As such, let's put a Film in that was super recent at the time- Firestarter.

Remember in that last bit I talked about how they used different Films due to content.

Well, I should also point out that they include THE ENTIRE Dream Sequence from An American Werewolf in London.

The shooting, the stabbing and all of the nightmare fuel of it!

Credit to the Editors in some regards though.

The part where they talk about Nudity is obviously different for the TV Cut.

That involves selective cutting, like going right to the lady diving into the Ocean in Jaws, rather than letting you see the back of her for a few seconds.

This Version also features A TON of Universal content here too.

We get the Metalluna Mutant, The Creature from the Black Lagoon, the giant Mantis and the Film that inspired the fear of all cat owners.

The Incredible Shrinking Man.

The TV Cut also features footage from a Film I somehow haven't seen (or completely forgot that I have)- The Funhouse.

Remember, this was put in there to make it safe to run on TV in the '80s.

What even were the standards.

Lastly, I should mention that stuff you wouldn't even think of for a Film called Terror in the Aisles is in this Cut.

For example, the Book Collecting/Burning Scene from Fahrenheit 451.

At least they accidentally included something that has inspired real fright in the last couple of years.

All in all, the TV Cut is fine...but maybe bother restoring that one too, folks?
Just a suggestion.

Doc(umentary) Hollywood: Terror in the Aisles (1984)

 What is Horror?
Well, forget that question- this is about TERROR Films.

This is Terror in the Aisles, a 1984 Documentary about Thrillers and the Horror Genre.  It was actually released in some areas as That's Shock!, as a play on That's Entertainment, a pair of '70s Documentaries about Hollywood Films.

This one is a pretty loose attempt to show you a bunch of Horror Movie clips.
There's sort of a message.
There's sort of a point.

Nowadays it would be done on AMC and spread out over like 7 Episodes, so doing it in 80 minutes is a treat.

To see how this nearly forgotten Documentary was restored in recent Years, read on...

Donald Pleasence is here to talk to the Camera during a full Screening of...I guess lots of Films.

He talks about fright and human emotions for a bit in his great voice.

The Film occasionally tries to make a point.

Something about how we seek out terror.
Something about how we enjoy it.

Oh and let's make this topical (and then dated in a week) with him talking about how Texas Chainsaw Massacre was based on the life of Ed Gein.

For some reason, he says it as 'Ed GUY-ne' and not 'Gee-n.'

He also says that, well, he was also a...

'It was acceptable in the '80s...'

Since it is not just about Horror Films, they have more free reign with the clips/segments.

This one heavily features bits from Nighthawks, Vice Squad, Dressed to Kill and Marathon Man, for instance.

Clearly it is not!

For pacing, the Film splits up the Movies selected somewhat by Theme.

After talking about Villains (above), it turns to terror from other places.

Cue Alien, The Thing and, oh, hi Jeff.

I should mention that Donald is not our only Sometimes Narrator.

Nancy Allen also pops in at times, like to talk about how Horror Movie Victims tend to be Women.

Liked Donald, she also doesn't mention when she herself is included in the Clips chosen...

'Dressed to Narrate'

The best and worst thing about the Film is the sheer eclectic nature of the Films highlighted here.

So many are ones you'd imagine- like Rosemary's Baby, Jaws, Psycho and Night of the Living Dead- while others are just a bit odd.

For instance, brief clips can be seen of 1975's Bug (below), Suspiria and even Frogs.
That's a trio that definitely.... goes together?

In summary, some light reflection on humor nature from Donald Pleasence, a shotgun blast of random Film Clips (how else do you have Scanners and Konga in one Film?) and...that's it.

It's weird and kind of fun, even if there's not much of a point.

The End.

I wish I had more to say.

Of course, I wish the Film had more to say.

If you're not big into Films or, you know, obsessed with them like I am, you will probably get more out of this. 
You'll have seen less of the Films. 
You'll have not heard the points 40x by now.

That said, I was entertained.  
It is a bunch of great Films, many silly ones and some less mentioned ones all in one package.

I must again point out some recency bias as the first 1/3 heavily uses Scenes from Nighthawks and Vice Squad- two Films from 1982.
If that's why we get the 'You've got to be f***ing kidding me' Scene from The Thing, I guess I can live with that.

Kudos for mixing in stuff like The Brood, Wait Until Dark, Ms. 45 and others in with the more obvious fare.

Seriously, look at this selection of Films mentioned (for the VERY complicated Film Credits at the end) here and tell me you can find a throughline....

Next up, a proper Halloween Review that is STILL not Trick 'r Treat.  Sorry, but this one is hopefully good and cheesy!  Stay tuned...

Tubi Thursday: The Brain Eaters (1958)

 An act of God named Ian has kept me from going to Illinois (for now).  To get my fix, here's a forgotten Sci-Fi Thriller shot and set in Illinois.

If the Story feels familiar, just wait.  It's...

A Couple drive into Riverdale, Illinois, but find nothing but dead animals, missing people and...

…some sort of metal capsule.

A bunch of military guys and Scientists investigate.

This is one of those Films with LOTS of narrations to fill in the gaps dialog-wise, so its basically like watching the Film with me describing the Plot here.  Hurray?

A strange man is walking around with a strange object as well.

We see people get attacked- like at a Military Blockade-, the man arrives and then they get up like nothing happened.

Figure out what this is yet?

The Lead Scientist sees his Dad act strangely and then they find strange bite marks on the back of his neck.  What is the source of it?

He studies a strange furry object that they found by him and it latches onto his arm, so he has to burn it off.

So, to be clear, this is an adaptation of The Puppet Masters, a story that wouldn't get an official adaptation until 1994.  It would also get a shout-out in The Faculty as being 'better' than Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

Our Heroes try to contact help, but the lines are controlled by alien-controlled humans.  That's how you do the 'No Signal' Cliché in 1958.

Sorry, no Satellites for you.

They figure out that they must destroy the cone on its own.

In the Climax, they meet Dr. Cole, who is the oldest of the controlled humans.  He's played by...Leonard Nimoy...in a long beard and wig?!?

Our Hero's Lady is controlled as well and she tries to stop him at the last moment.  He manages to electrocute the Cone, killing the aliens, but he dies alongside her.

Oh well, our Secondary Lead- from the beginning- can celebrate.  The End.

A pretty fun, but also kind of dry Sci-Fi Film.  There's nothing bad here.  It has good Acting, decent effects (the creatures only show up like 3x), some Action and a good Plot.  It's based on a good Story, so that last part was a given.

The odd thing is just how much Narration you get and how much feels like it happens after the fact.  Looking back, the fact that our Lead isn't narrating should have been a clue, huh?  Why do they do this?  Does it add to the Story?  Is it how the Book is written?

Whatever the reason, this makes the Film feel more like a Sci-Fi version of Dragnet?  If that works for you, great.  As for me, I'd just like the Story told in full without this weird flourish.

The Brain Eaters is a good Film with some odd choices made.  That said, I'd still recommend it AND the Film that it was apparently a Double-Feature with...

Seriously, why is there so much Narration as a Post-Script?!?  Otherwise, the Film is quite good and has a Leonard Nimoy role before Star Trek.

Poor Bastards of Cinema: The Puppet Masters

 After some consideration, my original pick for this one doesn't quite pan out.
Plan B.

In The Puppet Masters, alien parasites control people.  Simple stuff.

Our Hero is controlled and uses his connections to get close to the guy in charge of Security for The President's arrival.

And yes, it is the guy from Dirty Harry.

Naturally, our Hero (and his previous victim) get two new helpers for their mission.

Ouch face.

Said men then set up The President for an alien parasite of his own!

...but the good guys show up to kill them.

I guess they didn't feel like trying to, you know, capture them and free them from the parasite.

So they're dead.

The original pick was the first victim (used for this set-up).  The problem- he doesn't appear in this bit.  At all.

Seriously, he's not shown being killed or saved.  
Maybe he's behind the door that (initially) traps the President, but we get no closure on-screen.

Oh well, I'll settle for these Poor Bastards instead.

The moral: just assume that anyone could be an alien's host.  Look what happens when you don't!

Next time, some people try to help a woman in need.  They're also quite keen with running up to fight a Cop, which is odd.  See you then...

No Pods For You!: The Invasion (2007)

 Alright, one last Body Snatcher Film!  This is The Invasion, the 2006/7 Remake/Update of the Classic Story.  This is the last one- so far- and the one that got an Asylum Version.  Weird that I reviewed *that* Film like 10 years ago and only just did this one, huh?  Life is strange and so am I.  This Film was an attempt to modernize the Story (even though the last one was in 1993) and make it more realistic.  Sadly, it means no more Pods.  Before we were forcibly removing Tide Pods from teenagers' mouths, a Studio was doing the same with these Pods.  The Film is another one of those weird cases where a Studio hires a guy (the Director of Downfall) to make the kind of of Movie he makes...and then they get upset when he makes the kind of Film that he makes.  Why is your Film so somber and about people's feelings?  Where are all of the car crashes and shoot-outs?  No worry- they brought in the Wachowskis (with James McTeigue) to shoot a bunch of a new Action Scenes.  To put things into perspective, they spent $10 million on these Reshoots, while the Budget of Body Snatchers was just $13 million in total.  Is the Film disjointed or can you ignore it?  Is it a worthy (and necessary) update of the Story?  To find out, read on...

In a bit that actually fits into the Asylum Version of The Omen (in 2006), a Space Shuttle crashes and people look into it.

One of them is a Bacterial Expert/Geneticist and he gets infected with germs from the survivors.

When he sleeps, the germs take over and make his face look all freaky.

Since there are around 7 Billion people, but this is still a small World, that guy is the Ex-Husband of our Heroine, who's a Psychologist (and not a General Practitioner like in the Book).

She's dating Daniel Craig, who's got some sort of nebulous accent that isn't quite British, Australian or American.

They made sure to market this Film around him, since he literally had to stop shooting this for a day to publicly be announced as the new James Bond.

As more people get infected (but it's the First Act, so it's low-key), the pair have dinner with some folks.

The Sheriff from Robin Hood: Men in Tights (also M.A.N.T.I.S.) plays a Russian Guy here who talks about freedom and individuality.

Some subtle foreshadowing there.

Weird stuff continues to happen as people act different, her Patients report strange behavior in relatives (right out of the Book) and people start killing their dogs (who suddenly don't like their Masters).

Our Heroes figure out that it has something to do with a weird skin sample Kidman found earlier.  It mutates in weird ways that even Craig's future Casino Royale Co-Star Jeffrey Wright can't explain.

The Scientists quietly sneak away to work on a cure (good luck surviving in the meantime, everyone else!).

Kidman is separated from her Son (who is with her Non-Podded Dad).  A convenient man on the Subway explains that she needs to look calm to blend in.

Thought: instead of some of the early filler, let us see this guy and how he figured this out!

The big change here is that you have to be infected in some way and then fall asleep for the toxin to transform you.  If you want more explanation for how this actually works, forget it!

This gives us the big tension hook of the Film as Kidman was infected earlier when her Ex spit all over her.  Yummy.

Can she stay awake for the next few days?!?

Skipping to the finish here, she keeps nearly succumbing to it (even having her kid give her the Pulp Fiction heart-starter once!), since she can't think of a basic medication that any Psychologist would know about.

She has to escape more Non-Pod People and this involves...an obvious Reshoot Scene where she's literally driving a car that is on fire so that she can bring her son to the Doctors.

You see, her son had Encephalitis early on, so he's immune.  There's that ailment again!

In the aftermath, they gloss over how they somehow dosed millions of people- including every World Leader, it seems- and things are back to normal.

These Aliens don't replace and destroy you, so just take a shot and you're all good.

Back in the normal World, Craig wonders when violence in the Middle East will end and Kidman seems to...think about how maybe the mind-controlling Aliens were right?  The End.

It sure thinks that it has alot to say, that's for sure.  Right off the bat, I don't want to seem like I'm being too negative.  No, I haven't been replaced by alien slime!  I think that the Writers and Director wanted to say something about how we would be stronger in many ways without individuality and emotion, but ultimately we would give up too much to achieve that goal.  I liked it better in Equilibrium.  The big problem for me is that I can't quite tell if Kidman is truly against this.  She doesn't want to be an alien symbiote- granted.  However, she seems to consider how 'good' things might be, until her Ex says that her son- as an immune person- has no place.  With that and the Ending bit, did she only really turn against them due to her son being in danger?  There's also some odd focus on people and things that don't really matter much in the long-term.  The bit with the Russian Ambassador is a bit too long for the pay-off of him being turned to be worth it for me.  Likewise, they spend a bunch of time on a Patient that ultimately matters little.  She has 2 big Scenes and is later seen being taken away, leading them to look into her Medical History and see the Encephalitis bit...which matters for the Son.  It's weird seeing that be a shared Theme- also involving a little boy both times- in these two otherwise-disconnected Films.  As mentioned earlier, the push and pull between the Reshoots vs. Original Film are jarring to me.  Imagine if Harold & Maude suddenly had them in a big Car Chase, for (silly) instance.  They also proved to be dangerous, as their Lead and some Stunt People got hurt shooting them.  The Invasion is, ironically-enough, a Film that seems to have an identity...which it eventually loses.  Oh well- enjoy this Product Placement...

Next up, I'll look at a weird bit of Social Commentary by way of early '60s Sci-Fi.  I hope you like talking and basically nothing else.  Stay tuned...

'90s Class?: The Puppet Masters (1994)

 Before you see DC's Film about people fighting mind-controlling alien fish that latch onto your body, watch this one.  It's (Robert A Heinlen's) The Puppet Masters, a 1994 Film based on a Book.  Mind you, a total of NINE Writers (none of them Heinlen, since he died in 1988) worked on it too.  Too many cooks?  I hope not.  The story involves, well, what I just teased.  I've known about this Film for a long time, mostly due to it sounding like Puppet Master and its seemingly-never-ending Series of Films.  Now I actually watched it!  Was it good?  The Director is Stuart Orme, a British man most known for Directing lots of Music Videos in the '80s.  The Writing process was more complicated, as a total of NINE people worked on it.  Notable names include David S. Goyer, who has written some very successful- and very divisive- Films.  The push-and-pull was apparently between the Studio and people related to the Heinlen's Estate.  Would we get a faithful adaptation or a broader, more major market one?  To find out, read on...

A spaceship crashes in the Midwest and seems to be affecting the Residents.

A Government Agent- Donald Sutherland-, his Son- Eric Thal- and an Expert in Theoretical Biology- Julie Warner- arrive to find out what is up.

Also Richard Belzer, which is about how much of a role he gets.

The Townspeople seem to be controlled by some sort of creatures and go on the attack!

They manage to fend them off and escape, bringing a (dead) alien back with them.

They study the creature and find out that it can control humans via tendril that enters the brain.  They can maneuver people around like puppets, hence the Title.

Belzer ends up controlled by one- when it got him is not 100% clear (a pattern)- and tries to escape with data he/it stole on what they knew about the aliens so far.

It escapes and our Heroes have to hope that it doesn't relay the information.

In the meantime, they need to figure out how to stop them!

It turns out that it didn't escape.

Despite them checking people thoroughly in the last Scene, they don't check our Hero and he nearly gets the President infected.

Captured, his Dad tries to break him free.

They figure out some secrets about the creatures as they continue to infect the surrounding Town from where the ship crashed.

A romance between our Hero and Warner is thwarted when a creature gets on her and runs off with her body.

How did it get on her?  Something to do with it being on his cat (from earlier?) and getting on her outside.

How did they stop them?

With guns, of course.

Also something involving spreading a viral version of Encephalitis (since the creatures are 60% brain).

However, one last Puppet Master gets on Sutherland, leading to a climactic finale where his Son shoots him in the shoulder and kills the creature.

Well, this time when Sutherland was mind-controlled by an Alien, it had a happy ending!

In true '90s Fashion, our Heroes walk off in a long shot making (mostly ADR) banter.

Seriously, it's in plenty of Films like Rush Hour, for instance.  The End.

A fun, somewhat shallow experience.  The Film is paced and set differently than other *actual* Body Snatcher Films.  They find out about the Aliens pretty much right away.  This one jumps right to 'figure out how to fight them.'  Of course, to reach feature-length, they still have people constantly fail to protect themselves and get infected.  For instance, they specifically say they can't use the Local National Guard to save the Town (since it was infected).  So why do the Soldiers not do ANYTHING to stop said National Guard when they show up?  Oh right- so the Plot can happen.  Our Hero being controlled early on is a good twist and I'm kind of sad that they didn't do more with it.  Having him break out (admittedly there are side effects) kind of undermined the drama for me.  It showed that they could break out without the worst side effects (a now-free Belzer would kill himself at the loss).  So when Warner is controlled, is it as dramatic?  Not really.  The Aliens look really neat and they work around limitations of the time.  They almost solely use practical effects here (save for bits like an alien door and bits of Screening)- great.  The Acting, as a whole, is quite good.  I wonder what would have happened if it didn't take so many Writers to make this one and so many Producers trying to set this tone.  It's been a long time since this one- why not a Remake closer to the source material?  Until then, just remember to use your best assets to find Aliens, even if it means showing a little skin.

Next time, I look at my second Body Snatcher Film.  Wrapping up the Remakes, it is the 2006/7 Version with added Car Chases.  Stay tuned...