Holiday Flix: Daddy's Gone A-Hunting (1969)

It probably puts all of your Dads into perspective!  Today's Film is Daddy's Gone A-Hunting, a 1969 Thriller that I just kind of found.  I'm sure I'm by no means the first person to 'discover' it, but show of hands for those of you who remember it.  I thought so.  Hell, the Auto-Fill on IMDB requires me to put in half the Title and I *still* have to search for it a bit.  The Film comes to us from Mark Robson, a name that is not synonymous to me with much, but his Resume is pretty padded.  Most notably, he directed both Valley of the Dolls and Earthquake.  I also like that he made a Film called Phffft, even if I haven't seen it.  In addition, our Villain here is apparently still working, having 3 Credits on Fargo this year!  The Plot is all sorts of messed up, but interesting.  This woman falls for this man and gets pregnant.  He turns out to be crazy, so she dumps him and aborts their unborn child.  This makes him go crazy enough to stalk her after she marries a new man and gets pregnant with his kid.  Given her fertility rate, it is a good thing that she's not on The Handmaid's Tale!  I mostly picked this for the Title, but it does kind of work for the Holiday.  To see how crazy love (and mental illness) can make you, read on...

This is a Tale as old as Time.  Man meets Woman.

Man proves to be an insane person and Woman leaves Man.

Women has Abortion before leaving Man.  Woman meets new Man- gets pregnant again.

How cliché, right?

The creepy guy does two bad things early on.  One- he pretends to be someone else to get close to her and the soon-to-be-born baby.

Two- he stalks her.

Worse yet, he almost makes this a Christmas Film!!!

He keeps her from spilling the beans by threatening to out the Doctor who did the Abortion (as this is 4 years before Roe v. Wade) and ruin her new Husband's Senate Campaign.

Well, he takes care of the first part pretty quickly.

He eventually makes his big play: breaking in and stealing the baby!  He proves this by leaving the pictures he took of the baby in the house to taunt them.

He's crazy and evil, but that is good spacing!

This leads to the long Third Act where he taunts the Police and holds the baby.  Somehow, they never put his face up for people to spot, making this way too hard!

It all ends with a big confrontation on the roof.  Naturally, he falls to his death in front of a Theater playing Medea.  The End.

Considering how obscure this is, it is actually pretty darn good.  The Plot is simple enough, but they play with it nicely.  Our Stalker is subtle enough not to get caught and for them to just blame it on 'hysteria.'  Interestingly enough, the whole Third Act would not work just a few years later, as Roe V. Wade would make Abortion legal.  His whole plan involved keeping her from reporting a crime!  Aside from that accidental hilarity, the Film is quite tense and deadly serious.  It is actually Scored by John Williams!  I realize that he had to have worked pre-Spielberg, but it is still neat to see.  The Acting is good, though our Lead goes a bit hammy at times with her fright.  You can maybe excuse that as hormones (for the Character, you jerks!).  All in all, the Film is a bit long (nearly 2 hours) and a bit silly at times.  Credit for giving a Black Extra a line though (and making him an Authority Figure) in 1969.  Sadly, no matter how hard they tried, this Song never caught on...

Next up, some light-hearted Andy Sidaris nonsense.  Can they survive evil Pat Morita?  Stay tuned...

Lost in Translation?: House of Wax (1953)

I love Vincent Price.  I love House of Wax.

Naturally, I love this interesting Italian Poster that in now way prepares you for the Film too...

So Price is either coming in too late to help the folks of Gone with the Wind OR this is the fire from the opening.

Either way, the ghost is a strange touch.

Well, it is either that or he's actually possessed by Sam Beckett and this is just Al in his best outfit yet.

(Yes, I do understand it.  This is just a bit)

As usual, I present you with the original Version I found...

More fun with blurring and coloring for me!

Starz Struck: American Gods- Episode 4

As another week comes around, let's see if they figured out what this Show is about yet...

Instead of a neat-but-pointless Opening Bit, we get to see how Shadow and his wife met.

Their semi-charmed kind of life is interrupted when she decides that they should rob the Casino.  We know that he ends up in Prison, so this is no SPOILER.

This time, we see her life outside of Prison without him and how things got to where they were when the Show began proper.

Sticking with her, she gets to experience that bit from the beginning of last Episode.  No SPOILER as to how that goes though.

We also see how that strange bit from the end of the 1st Episode went down from the outside.

All of this builds up to...how the last Episode ended.  Joy.

How come we got the most Plot from a Flashback Episode?!?  Yet again, this looks pretty, is made well and generally feels interesting.  Yet again, not much of anything happens.  Am I getting repetitive?  Am I getting repetitive?  All jokes aside, I want this Show to be great and will stick with it for a little longer at least.  When it gets to a real Plot, it has to be amazing, right?  Speaking of amazing, how did Dane Cook end up on this Show?!?

Next time, there has to be a clear goal in sight.  How long can they keep this up otherwise?  See you then...

'90s Trash?: The Fear (1995)

Not to be confused with 1996's Fear.  Today's Film is The Fear, the Film that is actually the *precursor* to a Film I watched long ago.  I needed a Halloween Film without Michael Meyers and found The Fear: Halloween Night.  In retrospect, the Title does make it sound like a Sequel, but I sure as hell hadn't heard of this Film at the time.  Here's the thing: it isn't really much of a Sequel.  It is to this Film as Halloween III is to Halloween.  Although even that isn't completely fair.  That Film is basically a slight rehash of this Film, but without any continuity that I can see.  Unless the guy in that Film is the kid from the end of this Film, they are not connected.  So that is basically an even worse version of Damien: The Omen II?  Doesn't that already exist (in the form of 666: The Beast)?  So, with all of that aside, what is the Plot?  A guy wants to do an exercise for his Psychology Thesis Paper about people battling their fears.  To that end, he takes them to the Cabin where his Mother was killed and...yeah, you can see a slight problem here.  'Morty' shows up for the first time here.  He's a man-sized Wooden Doll that somehow channels your fears.  They can't agree on how it actually works here, so leave that for the Sequel (to make more confusing still).  There is only one real notable name in the Cast and his appearance here shows where he was at this interesting point in his life.  The Director here only has this credit as such, although he did Write for what appears to be French C.S.I.  A year after this, he did work on Space Jam...as an Assistant Location Manager.  To see what there is to actually fear, read on...

Opening a Horror Film with what is obviously a dream- so original.

Basically, you have Shadowy Figure, Scared Kid and Weirdos in Mask.  More on them at the end.

Our Hero is the guy who's having the dreams and he goes to his Professor to get approval for his Thesis Project.

Well, who better to help you with dream-based fears than Wes Craven?

He goes back to his Childhood Cabin with an assortment of people that includes his White Friend with Dreads, a Black Couple, his Girlfriend and his Friend's hangers on.

Also at the Cabin is Morty.  He's a doll that our Hero told his secrets to...but also was his boogeyman.  Confused?

After a dramatic day of his Exercise, they go to visit the scariest place on Earth- Santa's Village!

No, this is not a Christmas Film.  His Uncle just shows up and actually works there.  This is for you, Mick Foley!

I feel the need to point out that the Uncle tries to scare them with a Story of Black Peter, who is this guy below.  Saint Nick doesn't exist, but neither does black-face.

Is that a net positive?

They apparently stay there all day, as night comes during their visit.  Least believable part ever!

Oh and Morty possesses the Black Girl who believes in Reincarnation by trapping her on this train (which goes about 4 mph) and apparently raping her.  How does...why would...oh, screw it!

Things get all sorts of crazy as the Film finally remembers that it is Horror.  So we get...

- Dread Guy's Sister is revealed to be his Mother (after he kisses her) and he runs.  Morty ages her to death.
- Dread Guy was apparently the Campus Rapist, but is killed by...fear, I guess (and a head smash).
- Black Guy is found dead in Santa's Village and placed on a cross (since he hated Religion).
- Morty possesses Black Girl, jitters about and leaves her body when she falls off of a ledge (since he feared heights).
- The Uncle turns out to be the guy who killed Hero's Mom and is killed by Morty with a gun.

Our Hero comes to the realization that he 'killed' his Mom by telling his Dad about the affair.  That is then immediately undone with the Uncle reveal...so his 'dream young self' helps him solve a random puzzle and he escapes.

That is the best summary you'll get for this!

In the aftermath, our Hero quits College and talks about how the Police want answers.  Good luck with that.

Oh and Morty pops back out of the Lake for the Sequel...which ignores this Film.  The End.

This is not schwifty!  Right off the bat, I have to mention one thing.  Supposedly the DVD I have has been quite censored.  I've only seen THIS Version though, so I can't confirm that.  That would explain how choppily-Edited a few Scenes were.  Regardless of that, the Film kind of sucks.  It can't agree whether or not it wants to be full of jump scares or psychological Horror.  It will feature weird dreams and people talking about their fears...and then obvious jump scares.  It also features some confusing and vague magic for Morty.  He's somehow in two places at once (at least) and in disguise AND controlling people AND copying their voices.  What a Morty Sue!  It is just kind of dull for the first 40 minutes or so though.  The final half is so back-loaded that it is almost silly.  For example, White Guy with Dread is mad at his Sister's new boyfriend, that guy dies, he kisses his Sister like she's his girlfriend (which is fine, I guess), finds out that she's actual his Mother, freaks out AND she dies within a five minute span.  Good Lord!  Whether it was cut or not, it is still bad.  The 'Sequel' still has the pacing issue, but is less full of itself and goofier.  In addition, this Version is hard as hell to see anything in (another problem supposedly with THIS release).  At least they were 'classy' enough to cut to this Statue during the first Rape Scene...

Next time, Andy Sidaris is back for more silliness.  This time, more Cinemax stuff.  Stay tuned...

Lost in Translation?: Donnie Darko

I haven't ever really talked much about Donnie Darko.



I still won't yet, but here's a crazy cover from Japan that I 'spruced up a bit'...

Good stuff.

It does make the menace feel like much more of a Horror one than...whatever the actual Story is supposed to be about.

I kid, I kid- it's still no Izo.

For those wondering, here's the untouched Poster I found originally...

Still good, but it needed a bit more 'oomph' to me.  There you go.

Twin Piqued: Call For Help

Now that I'm feeling more in a mood to try and explain this madness, let's look at Episode 3 of...

Important Moments

- All sorts of crazy-ass stuff happens to Cooper.  Floating building, faceless lady and duplicates- oh my!

- Hawk tries to figure out Log Lady's message about using his Heritage to save Cooper.

- The Doctor spray-paints shovels.  This must be a Plot Point eventually.
- Cooper is...back?  He used to have a Mullet...and then a Toupee.  He wanders around Vegas.
- Lynch and Ferrer (R.I.P.) appear and find out about Cooper!

Theme(s)

The closest thing to a Theme in this insanity is Identity.  It mostly works here.
- Cooper and his whole thing.  There are three of him?  I don't know.
- Hawk has to make his 'cultural identity' somehow help him.  I don't know.

Weirdest Moment(s)

While it is hard to top the first 20 minutes of non-stop what-the-hell, the bit with Hawk in the Police Station is my favorite.  Plus I could make *some* sense of it.

- As Hawk and company go over what clues they have, they get side-tracked by a missing Chocolate Bunny until he's just so annoyed that he puts an end to it.  Great stuff.

As far as this Season as gone, it is the best.  The first 2 Episodes offered lots and lots of set-up.  They also offered a bunch of randomness with the whole 'glass box in NYC' thing.  That at least pays off here...a little.  There's more of the set-up stuff, but it feels like someone poked this Story with a stick a little bit.  Cooper's whole thing starts to finally go somewhere, we get stuff in actual Twin Peaks and, of course, my favorite Character shows up.  Sadly, Lynch's FBI *Director* doesn't get to do his full-on silly stuff just yet.  From what I've read, the next Episode amps up the silly overall.  This one gave us Cooper in a Realtor's jacket, rainbow vomit, chocolate bunnies and Cooper wandering around a Casino.  The randomness of people that show up here too is quite odd.  Why is Eugene here?  Why is one of the Mr. Show guys here?  Why is that lady who's eyes used to scare me here?!?  On the plus side, this has direction.  Said direction seems to completely ignore the whole murder mystery from the last Episode, but whatever.  Let's see if this one explains things before American Gods does.  Shut up, Meg.

Next time, more weirdness.  What else can I say at this point?  See you then...

Hulu Hoopz: The Handmaid's Tale- Episode 3

Saturday was more like Sad-day (for a few reasons) for me.  Watching this good, but depressing thing didn't help...

Without SPOILing too much, we see what happens when you fight the system and lose!

In some more Flashbacks, we see how the U.S. starts to change in the wake of the infertility epidemic.  Some people are getting very prude (and rude).

Back in the present, all signs point to June being pregnant, which gets her special treatment- for now.

In more Flashbacks, we see how draconian things started to really get after the power grab.

A large protest turns bad and, well, let's just say that a Pepsi won't solve this situation!

People show up to question June/Offred about what she may or may not know about a Resistance.  They won't ask nicely, will they?

That's all I can really say without SPOILERS, so...bye then.  The End.

All good things come to those who wait.  In June/Offred's case, it is only a matter of time.  In this Episode, we get to see both sides of the coin as far as Handmaids are treated.  If you are obedient and/or get pregnant, you are treated to luxuries (albeit ones that we would consider to be normal things).  If you fight back and/or can't get pregnant, it really *really* sucks to be you.  They aren't nice people, in case you hadn't figured it out yet!  This Episode sure gets dark and bleak pretty fast.  To the Show's credit, they make you care about these people.  They also do a good job of unraveling the backstory in a slow, but interesting way.  It doesn't feel like Lost, so good for them.  Don't binge watch this Show.  If you do, you'll need lots of Xanax and Therapy.  Just enjoy it like I do- one week at a time.  If you try to watch too much too fast, you'll end up like June here...

Good stuff, even if it does make the inside of that oven look like a nice head-warmer.  Can't stop now!

Starz Struck: American Gods- Episode 3

Another week, another look at Bryan Fuller's pretty-but-random Show known as...

In this week's neat-but-seemingly-superfluous opening, a woman is taken to the Underworld by Anubis.  Neat bit...but does it add anything to the Story?

In said Story, Shadow bargains more for his life against the guy who wants to bash his head in.  Does he win?

More weird-but-neat-looking Bryan Fuller stuff.  Kudos for getting Chloris Leachman though.

A weird aside with a Cab Driver, a Salesman and a Sex Scene involves this happening.  Interesting.

Are you thinking of snow?  Try thinking of snow?

Mandelbroit would be proud, at least.

What is up with Shadow now?  What is up with the Leprechaun?  Who's that at the door?

To find out, watch the Show.

Well, it is still neat to look at.  I still don't know what the actual Plot is.  I know that Mr. Wednesday is getting a group of Gods together for something.  After 3 Episodes, that's about all I've got.  All of the individual parts continue to be interesting.  I just keep waiting for this Show to come together and be amazing.  As it stands now, it is a series of neat and/or interesting moments.  The Acting continues to be quite good.  The Visuals are still quite good too.  It is good enough for me to stick around.  How long will that last though?  On the extra plus side, random Kids in the Hall Cameo!

Next time, more Plot?  Some Plot maybe?  See you then...