I never like to have an idea without getting input from others. And when I decided to share my True Heroes of Horror throughout the month of October, I knew I couldn't possibly honor everyone. Thankfully, there are always Midnight Warriors out there to join the FMWL party. A half dozen of my favorite folks on the interwebs offered up their own lists of their Top 10 Heroes of Horror...and the resulting mega list has me doing my patented fistpumpdance of joy.
First, let's recognize the awesome Midnight Warriors who added to this megalist....
I gotta say, these fine folks brought their best to the table, and are a testament to horror fans everywhere. The names listed vary across hundreds of years, cover both genders, and are varied from authors to actors to TV hosts to directors. Heck, they even named some folks I'd never even heard of. Really. I feel like a proper tool.
Between the six of them and the one of me, we listed 42 names. And I'm going to share them all with you now. Names will be listed in alphabetical order, and the name of each voter will be shared in parentheses.
The following True Heroes of Horror received one vote each....
Clockwise from Top: Atkins, Lewton, Wood, Peterson, Pitt, Perkins.
Tom Atkins (Morgan), Clive Barker (Marvin), Joe Bob Briggs (The Mike), Poppy Z. Brite (Nicki), Lon Chaney Sr. (The Mike), Roger Corman (Andreas) (Note from The Mike: Corman was officially the last cut from my list; my #11. Kills me to have left him off!), David Cronenberg (Andreas), Fred Dekker (Morgan), Guillermo del Toro (Marvin), Johnny Depp (Christine H.), Robert Englund (Morgan), Adam Green (Nicki), Herschell Gordon Lewis (Nicki), Val Lewton (Andreas), Takashi Miike (Nicki), Morgus the Magnificent (Nicki), Kim Newman (Andreas), Anthony Perkins (Christine H.), Cassandra Peterson (Nicki), Ingrid Pitt (Marvin), Roman Polanski (Andreas), Anne Rice (Christine H.), Susan Hill (Christine H.), Mary Shelley (Christine M.), Bram Stoker (Christine M.), James Whale (Andreas), Edward D. Wood, Jr. (Christine M.), Mary Woronov (Andreas).
That's 28 of our 42 right there, which means 14 folks received more than one vote. Also, the fact that Mary Woronov got on to this list MAKES MY DAY. I <3 Mary Woronov.
The following True Heroes of Horror received two votes each....
From Left to Right: Lugosi, Craven, Hitchcock, Argento
Dario Argento (Morgan, Christine H.), Bruce Campbell (The Mike, Morgan), Wes Craven (Morgan, Christine M.), Jamie Lee Curtis (The Mike, Morgan), Alfred Hitchcock (Christine H., Nicki), Boris Karloff (The Mike, Marvin), Christopher Lee (The Mike, Marvin), Bela Lugosi (Christine M., Andreas).
There go 8 more, leaving us with only 6 folks who received votes from three or more of our 7 voters. A lot of my favorites are in here, and I expected many to do better. The Hitchcock thing makes me think too, because I argued with myself for days about whether he should be on my list. Love the guy more than any filmmaker ever, but in the end I didn't feel his impact was specifically "horror". Semantics can trip me up. Anyway, glad to see others voting for him!
The following True Heroes of Horror received three votes each....
H.P. Lovecraft (Marvin, Christine M., Andreas), Tom Savini (Morgan, Marvin, Nicki.)
An interesting combination if I've ever seen one. And I didn't vote for either of these guys, which makes them the top folks on the list who didn't make my ten. And now, we've got just Four of our 42 folks left to name!
The following True Hero of Horror received 4 votes....
Vincent Price (The Mike, Marvin, Christine M., Christine H.)
I don't know why, but sometimes I get the feeling horror fans don't like Vincent Price any more. Clearly that was not the case among our small sample of voters, as he gets the fourth most mentions of anyone. I'm quite OK with that.
The following True Heroes of Horror received five votes each....
Stephen King (The Mike, Morgan, Marvin, Christine M., Christine H.), George A. Romero (The Mike, Morgan, Christine M., Christine H., Nicki)
For a while, it looked like Stephen King was gonna run away with this thing. The first four lists I received had him on them, as did mine. Then he dropped off to land in this tie for second. It's also worth noting that it's me and the ladies of the internet who love Romero. Why's that worth noting? Because if you read the word "ladies" like Isaac Hayes would say it, then it makes The Mike sound cool.
And then....there was a True Hero of Horror who received six of a possible seven votes....
John Carpenter (The Mike, Marvin, Christine M., Christine H., Nicki, Andreas).
Like I said at the beginning...these results make me FISTPUMPDANCE. John Carpenter might not have been #1 on my list (he might have been too, I was too scaredy-pants to pick a #1) but I have no problem with him winning the vote here. It brings me happy.
As do all the Midnight Warriors out there! I want to thank these fine folks for joining in the October fun, and I sincerely want to thank everyone who's watched the True Heroes of Horror train pass through FMWL this month! I've been truly humbled by all the comments and kind words about the posts, even if I haven't always been the best host and responded to them. Y'all have helped remind me what I love about horror this month, and that's exactly why I keep writing this stuff. Seriously, thank you all so much.
With that, the True Heroes of Horror experiment at FMWL has passed. But for how long? I've had a blast putting my posts together, and it's quite possible I'll bring them back in the future for all the people I left off my list. Ten is such a small number anyway, isn't it?
Until next time, I'm The Mike, and you're all awesome. Don't forget it, because Halloween is only 364 days away!
Maniac Cop is one of those movies I'd always heard the cool horror fans talk about, but never checked out anyway. I'm not sure if I was just trying to be a nerd rebel or if I was afraid it was gonna be one of those movies that SAYS it stars Tom Atkins and Bruce Campbell but really only has small doses of said actors. Maybe it was a combination of both (or maybe it was the fact that my first brush with director William Lustig was the laughable, yet entertaining, Uncle Sam - which I never took too seriously), because I just kinda let Maniac Cop be up until recently.
Curiosity never lets go, however, and I finally found myself sitting down with Synapse Films' new blu-ray disc of Maniac Cop this evening. And now I'm kicking myself, because those cool horror kids obviously know what cool is.
Maniac Cop is pretty much the story of a maniac, dressed as a cop, who puts a hurtin' on anyone and everyone in New York City. He's one of the '80s most imposing killers, towering over victims in his proper uniform and police hat while brandishing a club that has a knifey surprise inside. This presentation makes him one of the most ominous killers of the decade, even if he isn't at all stealthy. In fact, the Maniac Cop presents himself more like Frankenstein's monster and other lurching killers than your run-of-the-mill slasher killer, because he's actually a seemingly undead gigantor with a chip on his shoulder.
And when you've got a seemingly undead gigantor, you gotta call in the pros. It appears the Ghostbusters wouldn't take this case, which leaves a bunch of cops on the case - including Atkins, Campbell (playing the honest cop who was set up, presumably by the Maniac Cop himself), Richard "Shaft" Roundtree and veteran gruff guy William Smith (who I most love for being Conan the Barbarian's dad). We sadly don't get a lot of Atkins and Campbell on-screen together - possibly because the combination of such amazing elements could have combusted the space-time continuum - but both actors are very welcome as foils to Robert Z'Dar (I checked, he's NOT a robot despite his name) and his massive Maniac Cop frame. (And, if I'm being honest, I kinda wanted a little more Atkins than Campbell. Bruce's character just wasn't quite "groovy" yet.)
Maniac Cop combines elements of the slasher genre with the inner city style that made Lustig's previous films Maniac and Vigilante so intriguing, particularly capitalizing on the latter film's gangland focus. Some of the police scenes feel like they'd be more at home in an action film of the '80s, with Smith and Roundtree occasionally appearing to not even know they're in a horror film. The balance between police drama and horror isn't hard to find, and the gritty realism of some scenes - even ones with Sam Raimi as a news reporter talking about tensions in the city or a shockingly beardless George "Buck" Flower as a nice homeless man - occasionally makes the film seem a little more serious than it is.
Then the film speeds to a cheesy final act that's full of violence and silly carnage, which makes me dig it even more. I'm not sure the finale does anything really well - though I did find the final moments very pleasing - but it's at least a fun wrap-up to the film's interesting set up.
I think my thoughts on the finale not doing anything extremely well are indicative of the whole film's quality. I don't know if I'd really call Maniac Cop a good film compared to Lustig's preceding films - Maniac provided a more interesting look at a killer and Vigilante gave us a crime story that involved us in the inner city action - but there's still a lot of charm to be found in this movie. Maniac Cop is a brute of a film, just like its killer, and it's a lot of fun to see its mixture of genres play out. With its unique villain and its horror heroes leading the charge, Maniac Cop should at least provide an entertaining viewing experience for horror fans who are simply looking for a campy thriller.
If you have questions or suggestions not regarding a specific review, or would like to recommend a movie to The Mike, feel free to email him at frommidnightwithlove(at)gmail(dot)com!
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