Phase GC of...THE HONEYWELL EXPERIMENT!

Since it's getting cold in the OcaDecaGonaGon, Virginia and I decided to take our lab monkey Chris Honeywell on a little trip to a warmer clime...so we dragged him onto the SS Clu Galuger and brought him into international waters (and you can do anything in international waters!).  And since we were sailing the high seas, I decided to inflict upon Chris the epic saga of man versus a cat inside a cat, Uninvited!  And to join in his humiliation, I decided to invite the director and producer of this unique flick, Greydon Clark!  Clark talks about this film that he made as one of the earliest direct-to-video features as well as his other great independent films like Angel's Brigade, Final Justice and Without Warning. There's talk of Clark's relationship with ace cinematographer Dean Cundy, how practical concerns help shape his films and dealing with the legendary Menahem Golan.  And, because I am a bad guy, I take him to task for breaking the young Corrine Bohrer's heart in the amazing video game based teen comedy Joysticks!

(Call me, Corinne....you could be my main henchman....just don't tell Virginia!)

Join me on my special cruise here!

Clark's autobiography, On The Cheap: My Life In Low-Budget Filmmaking, which breaks down his career in detail, is available on Amazon and on his website.  It's a great read, and if you buy it through his site, he'll personalize it!

If you would like to support this podcast and similar works--like the Patreon Exclusive Cinematic Mirage: The Theater of Movies That Don’t Exist and Pacific Rim Rialto, (first episode recorded and coming soon!) and would like to receive goodies in return (like the serialized epic Liberty and Wings of Fame, an audio chapbook), please consider becoming a Domicile of Dread Patreon. There are five tiers ranging from a dollar a month (which isn’t much, honestly) to ten dollars that can net you exclusive reviews, podcasts, movie commentaries and more.  Go to here to sign up!

...and if you'd just like to say 'Good Job,' consider buying me a Ko-fi and contribute to my efforts to upgrade my creative quest to make the world stranger!  Just go here to make a pledge!

Meanwhile, Over At Dread Media....#639

Right now, before we get into all the festivities of December, let’s dive into the wild world of Heavy Metal Dirtbags!  First up, Des and Darryll heads down to River’s Edge for a review of that forgotten gem of teen angst.  Then Des goes all Top Five on Y’All with the Top Five Heavy Metal Dirtbag Movies!

The trailer is below, as is a making of featurette, Richard Linklater talking about the film, and music from Hallow’s Eve and Surf Curse.

Listen to Dread Media #639 here

AN OPEN LETTER TO: Disney

Dear Disney People,

I hope you’re all doing well.  Please understand that what follows comes from a place of affection and love.  There is truth to the fact that you are more than just a series of movies but a part of Americana--some of my earliest memories regarding movies involve your studio (for example, seeing Robin Hood and Sword In The Stone at Radio City Music Hall), and seeing Fantasia on the big screen as a teenager was literally a transformative experience for me.  Hell, one of my dear friends works at your Orlando Park.  So this letter is not being written lightly. 

But I think you’ve been going down a bad path, and have been slowly doing so for quite some time.  And after thinking long and hard, I have come to the tough decision I’m about to discuss with you.  I suspect that there are a lot of people who share my worries and I have hope that my coming forward in a public forum might encourage others to voice their concerns.  I have no illusions that this decision will change the world, but I’m hoping in might coax some positive change in this dark direction you’ve been moving the House of Mouse in.

You see, I’ve decided I must Boycott you across the board.

This was a long time coming.  I could say that it’s been coming as far back as the 90‘s with the codification of the ‘Disney Princess’ model into a bland something that can be adapted to various mediums like live theater and live action, or the decision to shutter Touchstone, which was a place for darker and more venturous adult fare.  But I think the first niggling that you were no longer the company of my childhood was the introduction of ‘The Vault.’

You know exactly what I mean--your practice of releasing one of your films on video and warning everyone it’ll only be available for a little while, at which point it’ll ‘go back to The Vault’ and you’ll never have the chance again.  You created a false and urgent sense of scarcity designed to generate an imperative in the consumer.

By the way, what you didn’t tell people was that they weren’t getting the classics they thought they were.  You’ve made a practice of tinkering with your older works, using digital means make them more in line with ‘the Disney Esthetic’....which means removing some of the detail and nuance these films had.  Looking at how you removed all the folds and lines from Cinderella’s evening gown  shows a lack of respect for the heritage  you proudly claim as your own.

Anyway, the concerns really begin with the way you’ve been deliberately buying up Other People’s Stuff and co-opting them.  That these things have a large history before they were bought is irrelevant to you.  The more stuff you bought, the larger your share of the media pie.  If I remember correctly, you’re responsible for providing 60% media content now that you bought Fox and It’s Stuff.  That’s bordering on dangerous....

Especially since part of The Disney Way is to withhold the media you own to create scarcity.  Fox had a Repertory Department that made all their films accessible to college film society, repertory theaters and museums, allowing them to be discovered by new audiences.  But now theater owners are reporting you denying them to right to show things like Alien, the original Planet of The Apes series, the Die Hard trilogy, Home Alone, Miracle on 34th Street, How To Marry A Millionaire and The Rocky Horror Picture Show.  The ‘Vaulting’ of these films to force people to subscribe to your streaming service or buying your videos when you deign to release them is actively interfering with the business of smaller movie theaters and the continuing education of future film fans.

And speaking of your streaming service, and the increasing rumors that you’re going to take advantage of our present administration’s announcement that they’re not going to enforce the anti-monopoly Paramount Decision....you’re building a monopoly.

You’re building a monopoly that forcefeeds people The Disney Way to the detriment of others.

The Paramount Decision is one of the most important moments in film history.  It broke up studio monopolies, making theaters available to all studios and making studios compete with each other for space and the dollar.  It encouraged the growth of independent studios, which encouraged mainstream studios to up their game.  It created what is The Single Best Era of American Filmmaking--namely the 60‘s and 70‘s--and resulted in some of the most amazing and challenging films of all time.  By having a majority of the product, telling people they have to patronize the media services you own whole if they want to peruse it, you’re creating the kind of operation that the Paramount Decision was created to guard against.  If you do go forward with creating Disney Only Theaters, starving smaller independent theaters and your rivals, you’re no different than the studios of the 30‘s and 40‘s.  You’ll be a cyberpunk mega-corp that will blot out competition.

You’ll be a villain.

I don’t want you to be a villain.  I don’t want you to homogenize one of the mainstream art forms.  I want you to be a part of Americana, a rite of passage for every young kid that is enchanted by your classic and encouraged to make their own stories.  I want you to concentrate on finding new ways to put a sense of wonder into each generation rather than co-opting other franchise and recycling them over and over.  I have faith that you can remain a part of every boy and girls’ life without creating this bland and pale copy of former glories.

You’re better than that, guys.  But until you modify your present path into pop cultural darkness, I have to turn my back on you and travel a different road.

I know I am akin to Don Quixote raving about giants...but loving something means speaking up when that something is doing Bad Things.  Please think about what you’re doing.  Consider making the rich legacies of your past (both Disney and Fox) available by opening The Vault.  Be happy with your massive hold on pop culture and don’t try to find new ways to force your product on us.  Keep rivalries alive so that visual pop media can develop and grow and evolve in new and exciting ways.

I have faith you will do the right thing.  And when you do, I’ll be glad to catch up with you.

But until then I remain a person striving to live in a Disney-less world,

Thomas Deja

Hey!  Wanna Help Support This Blog And Get Cool Goodies In Return?  Then head on over to The Domicile of Dread Patreon Page and join me on my crusade to Make The World Stranger.  For as little as a dollar a month, you’ll get new fiction and exclusive essays.  Invest a bit more, and get other stuff including advance access to my new television podcast Thomas Deja’s Watching, the Patreon Exclusive Podcasts Cinematic Mirage and Pacific Rim Rialto, movie commentaries, special extra goodies, giveaways...and even the chance to assign me articles that’ll be published on this very blog!

AN OPEN LETTER TO: Elizabeth Banks

Dear Ms. Banks,

I hope this finds you well.  I am an admirer of your work both as an actress and as a director.  Granted, I do wish you would not answer any more phone calls from anyone of the last name of Gunn, as James and his brethren seems to delight in putting you in unpleasant situations, but that’s just me.

I want to address your recent comments about the disappointing returns from your Charlie’s Angels reboot.  As someone who likes you a lot, I’m a little concerned.

You see, I did not go to see this film.  I will freely admit to that.  But it’s not because a male uninterested in female led action pictures.

Quite the opposite, in fact!  I love female led action pictures.  Of the few actors I will go to see an action movie because of, most of them--Charlize Theron, Tessa Thompson, Taraji P. Henson*, Michelle Rodriguez, Michelle Yeoh--are women!  I actively want to see more female-led genre pictures, which has resulted in the past with me going to some very empty theaters to see films such as Atomic Blonde and Proud Mary.  I grew up in love with Pam Grier, who should be remembered as the Queen of Action Films long before Sigourney Weaver went toe-to-toe with some xenomorph mutha (literally!).

My reasons for not going is two-fold--one minor and one major.  The minor reason is that, being a person with disability on public assistance, I simply can’t see every movie in the theaters like I used to.  Here in New York, a matinee cost twelve-to-fifteen dollars, with a regular ticket costing twenty dollars or more!  I have had to pass on a number of films this year that, back when I was making more of a living, I might have taken a chance on (including, incidentally, two Spider-Man films that came out over the last twelve months).  I have to be more discretionary because I have so little in the way of funds.

But then there’s the major reason, which might be a little more complex.  My choice not to see your film ties in with the intellectual property you tied this film into.

I just really have no interest specifically in Charlie’s Angels.  I was not a fan of the TV series.  Yes, I did go and see the 2000 feature based on the presence of Cameron Diaz and Drew Barrymore....but the noisiness and loudness and aggressive....well, attitude of McG’s vision totally shut down my interest.  I couldn’t engage with that movie due to its ADD aesthetic, so I passed on the sequel.   Thus, I was not disposed to give another version of the property a chance--not only your film, but the two attempts to relaunch it as a television series in the two decades since that film version.

But even with my dislike of the property, I might have still given your film a try.  After all, as a fan of your work, I want to support you.  But the cast just turned me off.  I am not a fan of Kristen Stewart, and had no familiarity with the other two actresses, so I was not disposed to want to spend time with them in a property I did not care for.

Now, if you had the same cast in an original action film about three female detectives, I would have considered going.

If you had done a Charlie’s Angels reboot with, let’s say, Tessa Thompson, Samara Weaving and Diane Guerro, I would seriously have considered going.

(I’d still have to deal with my limited funds, but the likelihood of my scraping a plan together to see the movie would have increased.)

But since it was that cast and that property, I just had zero interest.  It’s as simple as that.

I have to also take into account my overall tiredness with films that are ‘franchise ready.’  So many movies these days are more concerned with world-building than telling a good story...even though the reason so many old properties became franchises is because they told a great story first.  The fact that this was obviously meant to be the start of a whole new series of films contributed to my decision to pass on your film.

So please understand that it’s not just simply ‘men don’t want to see female-led action films.’  I want to see more female led movies.   But given my limited budget, I have to be discriminatory in where I put my dollars and I’d rather place them in support of something--whether original or part of a franchise--that tells a good story and doesn’t spend loads of time teasing stuff we’ll encounter in the pre-assumed sequels.  Don’t paint me, and people like me who are financially limited in their entertainment budget, with one wide, reductive brush.

I hope you’re not mad at me because, as I have stated before, I am a fan.  It is my wish that we can move forward with you creating stuff that is awesome enough that I want to consume it.

I remain, with fondness,

Thomas Deja

*--speaking of Thompson and Henson, I would love to see the two of them teamed with Pam Grier on a generational action movie similar to what they tried recently with that Shaft reboot.

Meanwhile, Over At Dread Media....#638

It’s time to get super-heroic this week, as Des and I do a double feature of films that tackle that uniquely American genre.  First we look at this year’s ‘revisionist’ take on Superman from the pen of the other Gunn Brother, Brightburn.  Then we continue our exploration of how other countries view the super hero genre with Finland’s dubious answer to the Dark Knight Trilogy Rendel: Dark Vengeance.

The trailers are below, as are a feature on the top ten superheroes gone bad, a trip to the Finnish Comic Society, and music from In This Moment featuring Rob Halford (yes, solely because I make a joke about one of the characters in Rendel, and because Rob Halford rocks) and Pretty Wild.

Listen to Dread Media #638 here

Meanwhile, Over At Dread Media....#637

We’ve got a little candy box of international horror this week, as  Des, Adam, Brittney and Scott tackle Mick Garris’ multinational-directorial portmanteau Nightmare Cinema.  Then I head off into the woods to take a look at Greydon Clark’s 1980 Without Warning.

The trailers are here, as are Mick Garris talking about Masters of Horror and Nightmare Cinema, a feature on the man who played the Without Warning Creature...and The Predator, Kevin Peter Hall, and a System of a Down video directed by Nightmare Cinema co-director David Slade and
Without A Warning!

Listen to Dread Media #637 here

Meanwhile, Over At Dread Media....#636

It’s time for Des to put another obscure horror movie franchise under the microscope!  This time he teams with Duane to look at the Alexandre Aja’ take on The Hills Have Eyes and it’s sequel!  Also, Des has a few things to say about the state of the Dread Media Empire.

The trailers are here, as is a fan made trailer for a third part of the saga, a side by side comparison of the Craven and the Aja version.  Michael Berryman on acting nerdy and his experience with Motley Crue, a discussion of Aja’s early career, and music from Bringer of Rain and The Finalist.

Listen to Dread Media #636 here

HALLOWEEN HORRORFEST 2019 OVERTIME!: Freddy’s Dead: The Last Nightmare (1991)

Our Sponsor

Congratulations!  It took two extra days, but we made it to the end.  My overall thoughts about how this marathon went is after the review.

But we’ve got one last film, this one sponsored by Mike Blanchard!  Mike is the mastermind behind the GeekCast Network, providing specialized shows on Movies, Comics, Cartoons and more designed to unleash the geek in you!  Not that long ago, Mike had me on to discuss my Modern Fandom Manifesto--and baseball and potato chips and the awesomeness of Georges Batroc.  You can listen to the almost three hour conversation here.

Mike’s choice is appropriate given that this was intended to be the end of a famous horror franchise...until Wes Craven had an idea to go meta, and then there was this Champion Bout with a certain other super-slasher.

You know, there are some films I am a little harder on then they deserve.  It’s just that there are times where you can see what a film could have been, little glimmerings of promise in fields of just flat-out laziness that make me upset with the wasted potential.  This is one of those movies; there is are full stretches where you can see director Rachel Talalay trying to pull this film back into being a horror film...and then just shrugging and leaning back into the comic book super-villain schtick the series had fallen into.

Case worker Maggie Burroughs (Lisa Zane, who is luuuuurvely) becomes fascinated with a John Doe (Shon Greenblatt) who won’t go to sleep, has amnesia and is in possession of a news clipping about a missing woman in Springwood.  Now, we know from the opening sequence that John is literally the last teenager in a Springwood gone insane due to Freddy’s constant bloodthirst.  When Maggie decides to take John to the cursed town in the hopes of uncovering who he is, she learns something about her past and how she is connected to the dream demon.  This results in an effort by her, a dream therapist (Yaphet Koto, who seems to be enjoying himself because he gets to be someone, you know, not glowery) and a young girl he’s treating (Lezlie Dean) to destroy Krueger once and for all.

The plot I just gave you is worthwhile, and when it is dealing with Maggie’s character arc and taking advantage of the dream logic inherent in the franchise, I was appreciative of it.  Portions of the sequence involving the trip to Springwood achieve a creepiness that the immediately previous films in the series did not have.  There’s an attempt to extricate Krueger from the ‘son of a thousand maniacs’ bullshit by showing us his growing years under his adoptive father (Alice Cooper).  The general idea behind what Freddy wants, driven home by the line ‘Every town has an Elm Street’, is actually sound.  There’s about forty minutes of a worthwhile film here that bolstered with good performances by Zane and Koto....

...but then there’s the other forty minutes, which realizes that it’s a Freddy sequel and charges right into the silliness the franchise had become mired in.  There are two characters (one played by a young Breckin Meyer) who are there solely to become Freddy Fodder; they have one defining aspects--one’s movie deaf and one’s a stoner--and are there just to be killed.  There are winceworthy sequences with the residents of Springwood behaving movie insane (the cameo by Rosanne Barr is not really as bad as all that, but Tom Arnold’s turn...ugh) that cannot disguise their expository purposes with All Dat Komedy.  There is a second act twist that is pretty obvious from the first conversation between Zane and Goldblatt that is played for shock and tragedy but falls flat.  And there is the ending, which calls back to the first film but results in Zane becoming this knife-throwing savant that is flat-out silly.  Those forty minutes yanked away the moments of promise and cleverness gave me.

This is two different films that end up being at war with each other, and neither one comes out on top.  Every time Talalay pulled something interesting off, the script--and she was responsible for the screen story, although how much of the stupid stuff was added by actual screenwriter Michael De Luca I do not know--pulls something sophomoric.  Nothing is more indicative of this film’s tone than the fate of Ricky Dean Logan’s Carlos, which begins with some creepy ideas revolving around his movie deafness utilizing interesting sound design and ends with Freddy playing a chalkboard with his razor glove until the kid’s head explodes.

This was Talalay’s first feature,* and she had two other tries at theatrical success--the really awful Ghost In The Machine and the underrated Tank Girl--before finding legitimate success as a television director.  On one hand I liked a lot of what she did here; on the other hand, I kept rolling my eyes at the business-as-usual.

During the credits of the film, we are ‘treated’ to a clipshow of moments from the previous four Elm Street films...and it just reminded me of how far the series had fallen.  I don’t have the affection for it I have for Jason Goes To Hell, which went all in with its desire to do something different, and cannot recommend it.

And That’s A Wrap!

It took me two extra days, but I did it.  I want to thank all of my sponsors for programming the bulk of this marathon, some of whom took time from busy schedules to give me their choices.  Please try out their various creative endeavors that I linked in the individual essays.

I think this year was more satisfying to me than last year, and I’m probably going to stick with the ‘format next year.  There were a couple of real surprising gems I would not have discovered otherwise and some opportunities for me to write about why I like certain films.  I even got a chance to codify why one of those films I don’t get doesn’t work for me.  More importantly, I don’t feel as burnt out as I did at the end of last year.

If you’ve enjoyed this year’s Horrorfest, I strongly encourage you to join the Domicile of Dread Patreon.  There are five different tiers from $1 (where you’ll receive exclusive essays and other bits of writing) to $10 (where you’ll get lots more, including the ability to make me write essays about whatever you want!)...and patreons at all tiers get to participate in special events like this and receive special ‘presents’ like the audio chapbook Wings of Fame that will become available shortly.  Every little bit helps keep me above water and drives me in my journey of creativity.

Thank you for following me on this adventure.  If you’re new, stick around.  There’s lots of fun ahead here at The Domicile!

*--Talalay is another woman, along with Marys Harron and Lambert and Roberta Findley, whose name I would submit to refute Joshua ‘Peaches Christ’ Grannell’s claim that women don’t make horror in All About Evil.

HALLOWEEN HORRORFEST 2019 OVERTIME!: The Devil’s Rock (2011)

Our Sponsors

Welcome to the penultimate leg of our journey, sponsored by Evan from The Lurking Transmission!  Evan’s podcast presents a horror anthology every episode, a mix of horror fiction and music designed to tingle your spine and chill your bones.  Listen to the latest episode (and find links to other episodes and other ways to listen) here

Evan chose for me a entry from New Zealand, a bit of the ever-expanding genre of military horror called The Devil’s Rock.

Captain Ben Grogan (Craig Hall, who looks like Benedict Cumberbatch crossed with the Edge from U2) sneaks into a Nazi stronghold on a Channel island the day before D-Day.  His mission to sabotage the installation is...complicated when they find loads of dead Nazis, a member of the Waffen-SS specializing in occult services, and what looks like his dead wife Helena (Gina Varela) chained up in a room.  It turns out our last living Nazi, Meyer (Matthew Sunderland), was ordered to raise a succubus from Hell and he’s been working on a way to send her back.  Unfortunately, the ritual needs two people to complete....

This is basically a three-hander that is structured as a series of two-handers in the first two acts.  All three actors play off of each other well, even though I found director’s Paul Campion’s choice to overdub Varela with a more conventional ‘horror’ voice during her monstrous moments annoying...but then, there are a couple of time when Campion makes choices that made my eyes roll (can we please discontinue the use of a character vomiting to emphasize the entropic element’s horror?).  Even though there’s a ton of exposition in the second act, the script by Campion, Paul Finch and Brett Ihaka handles it very well; there is no feeling that everything stops dead.  Campion knows how to work his way around what was obviously a low budget feature, using canny editing to hide the fact that he can’t afford too advanced special effects.

The thing I liked about this film is how clean and simple it is even with all the expository argle bargle that could have muddied up the water.  There is a lot of grossness in the carnage left behind prior to our hero’s arrival, which adds to the ambiance.  Campion knows that the strength of his tale is in the pull-and-take between Hall and Sunderland, and wisely focuses on them.  Everyone has a character arc--even, to a very minor extent, the demon--and everything has a satisfying completion. 

There’s not much else I can say.  This is a solid little tale that comes in just under ninety minutes, has some good moments and creepiness, and does not drag in spite of all that back story.  I recommend it.

Tomorrow, only two (hopefully!) day late, is the finale of this year’s Horrorfest, and our sponsor is Mike Blanchard, the mastermind behind the Geek Cast Radio Network.  Mike has chosen Freddy’s Dead: The Last Nightmare, the...finale? of the Freddy Krueger franchise as it stood in the 90‘s.  Don’t pretend you forgot that one--it’s the one with Roseanne Barr in it.

Please join the Domicile of Dread Patreon to receive, depending on the tier, bits of writing and exclusive podcasts (like the upcoming Pacific Rim Rialto and the Halloween audio chapbook Wings of Fame), movie commentaries, even the chance to assign me articles for this very blog! 

Phase JK of...THE HONEYWELL EXPERIMENT!

We have another guest at the OcaDecaGonaGon, the esteemed genre writer J.A.Konrath.  The creator of the Jack Daniels Universe of splattery and funny suspense, Konrath has chosen the 1977 epic by Joe D’Amato and featuring the striking Laura Gemser, Emmanuelle and The Lost Cannibals.  Not only do we talk about this strange mash-up of softcore porn and hardcore cannibal gut munching, but we talk a lot about ‘New Grindhouse,’ film criticism and which film has the best presentation of pre-Guiliani 42nd Street!

You can indulge in all the nudity and blood (both literal and metaphorical) here

And That’s Not All!

Also available is the latest episode of With Umbrella, Charm and Bowler: That (other) Avengers Podcast, where Scott McGregor and I discuss ‘The Removal Men,’ the second Venus Smith story set against the back drop of the French Riviera.  Expect booze, charisma and music...lots of music.  Plus, for those of you interested in the more well known Avengers, we talk a bit about that franchise, too. 

Sidle up to the bar here 

If you would like to support this podcast and similar works--like the Patreon Exclusive Cinematic Mirage: The Theater of Movies That Don’t Exist and the upcoming Pacific Rim Rialto, and would like to receive goodies in return (like the serialized epic Liberty and Wings of Fame, an audio chapbook), please consider becoming a Domicile of Dread Patreon. There are five tiers ranging from a dollar a month (which isn’t much, honestly) to ten dollars that can net you exclusive reviews, podcasts, movie commentaries and more.  Go to https://www.patreon.com/Dejasdomicileofdread to sign up!