Images of Transportation and Vehicle Horror + ONE BIG CHALLENGE!

Hey, more meme! The latest joyous challenge amidst the blog world has been asked of me by both Christine of Fascination with Fear (BEWARE - The music WILL surprise you!) and Emily C. of The Quest to Watch Every Movie Ever (the most ambitious blog of all-time?), two of my favorite blogs around.

The challenge, which I've chose to accept, is to capture images that relate to a certain theme in horror. In my case, since it was a Christine that first challenged me, I thought of a shiny red car. And then, I thought of more vehicles in horror - the kind of planes, trains, automobiles, spaceships, boats, carts, carriages, and more that transported the horror of their films from place to place. So, here's a collection of images of the methods of transportation in which evil resides, which I captured from a few DVDs.

AND HERE'S THE BEST PART! (No, I didn't call the pizza dude.) I'm not telling you what I took them from! You get to guess what movies they come from in the comments below! Some are easy! Some are harder! Some are great movies! Some are awful! Consider this a one-time-only tribute to Kindertrauma Funhouse!

1. Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht

2. C.H.U.D.

3. Young Frankenstein

4. Jason X

5. Leprechaun

6. Snakes on a Plane

7. A Nightmare on Elm Street

8. The Blob

9. Jeepers Creepers

10. John Carpenter's The Thing

11. The Midnight Meat Train

12. Alien

13. The Monster Squad

14. Death Proof

15. The Evil Dead

16. Terror Train

17. Christine

18. Jaws

19. Riding the Bullet

20. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre

21. Satan's Cheerleaders

22. George A. Romero's Diary of the Dead

23. Lifeboat

24. The Car

25. An American Werewolf in London

26. Below

27. Maximum Overdrive

28. Bram Stoker's Dracula

29. Who Can Kill a Child?

30. Pulse (Kairo)

31. Joy Ride

32. Creatures from the Abyss

33. Duel

34. Trick 'r Treat

35. The Wicker Man

36. Halloween

37. Ghost Ship

38. Night Train to Terror

Show me your smartness!!!!

Midnight Movie of the Week #31 - THEY LIVE

If you've read anything I've ever written, particularly about independent cinema, you can probably see that I come from a mainstream background. This was never my choice, nor was it something people told me to do...it was simply what I learned via observation when I was young. I saw that what was popular on TV was what I was supposed to watch, that what was on the radio was what I was supposed to listen to, and that what was told to me by textbooks was what I needed to know about life. That's just the way life was presented to a farm kid with limited resources, because it's what was put in front of me. I didn't know any better, and I couldn't see outside this vision that had been forced upon me.

I always kind of knew I didn't want to go along with the flow - I was the only kid in my 2nd grade class who didn't show up to music class with a tape of The Beach Boys singing Kokomo - but I didn't know what to look for out there. Thus, my tastes ran toward what was offered, and I didn't question it as I aged. Movies with Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts were what was defined as good, and I knew better than to use that g-word when talking about the silly horror and sci-fi flicks I loved watching. Even as I approached college, I didn't question the cinematic order that had been placed in front of me, because it wasn't accepted by the people around me. So when I saw a movie called They Live (directed by John Carpenter) on that "guilty pleasure" known as MonsterVision, I loved it...but I didn't really get it. I couldn't see what the film really was.

Contrary to popular myths, going away to study as a young adult at a costly university didn't initially offer much to change the narrow view of arts and culture that had been instilled by society. But one day, out of curiousity, I opened up my film history textbook (A Brief History of the Movies, by Mast & Kawin) and started looking around to see if any of the "cult" movies I loved were even mentioned in the book. Surprisingly, I found that the book not only referenced They Live, but that discussion of the film stretched across three pages of their text.The argument these authors presented changed my view toward cinema entirely. It had been easy for me to call it a goofy sci-fi flick with Roddy Piper, alien friendly sunglasses, and that fight scene that nearly required a commercial break, but they called it something else. They called it "the most political film of the 1980s". They called it "radical", and not in the way Bill and Ted use the word. They called it a film in which the characters' "vision is at stake". And I immediately realized, they were right on. I rushed home from class and watched the movie again, finding that my vision of the film (and in turn, cinema in general) had changed completely.

If you don't know They Live - and really, you need to know it - the main point of the story is not just aliens and choreographed fight scenes. In the film, a nameless blue-collar worker (Piper) is given the ability to see not only the aliens that are colonizing our planet, but to see the subliminal messages that they are transmitting to society. By witnessing his journey, the viewer comes to realize that the media - primarily the TV, but also magazines, newspapers, billboards, and even the labels of products in the grocery store - consists entirely of messages planted with the intention of manipulating society to fulfill the aliens' needs. Only a select few humans, led by this blue-collar fellow, have their vision restored (via fight-worthy sunglasses) and are allowed to see the truth of the situation.

(Amidst the film's tools of manipulation, movies seem to be protected - and Carpenter even has an alien film critic mention that the films of himself and George Romero are against this conformist society. Carpenter seems to go out of his way to distance his film from the TV shows of the era by using his normal wide (2.35:1 aspect ratio) lens, which sets the film up to be difficult to be shown on (4:3) television sets. Unfortunately, the latest DVD version of the film succeeds in cropping the edges off of Carpenter's frame.)It's well worth mentioning that the aliens shown in They Live are presented in a manner entirely similar to the films of the 1950s that inspired John Carpenter to "watch the skies". These films, generally shot in black-and-white with big-eyed aliens - were often responses to the communist "Red Scare" of that era. Though the Cold War was still raging in the '80s, people didn't have a sense of urgency in looking for the truth within society. They were too distracted by their TV and other kinds of entertainment, which were busy telling them what to like and/or purchase. (This included those of us that were children....if you're older than 25, I bet you still have a television commercial from the 1980s that you can recite from memory. In my case, it's those damn My Buddy/Kid Sister promos.)

Sadly, I don't think much has changed since They Live was released. "Stars" like Justin Beiber and Paris Hilton exist thanks to overexposure via free television, where Ellen and Oprah live as the most trusted women on the planet. Everyday people who will conform to Hollywood's standards can quickly turn into Reality TV stars, which isn't too different from those who conform with the aliens' demands in the film and get to go "backstage at the show". (The film also points its finger toward politics, which reminds me that many believe America's current President was elected on the strength of his bumper stickers and t-shirts. That's all I'm saying there, because I don't know anything about politics and couldn't tell an Andromedan from Newt Gingrich.)Are we still living in the world Carpenter envisioned in 1988? Do "they" live while we sleep? I can't say for sure, but I'm keeping my eyes open. When I see young people picking their favorite actors or actresses because they look good on magazine covers or hear them talking about how much they love a song they've heard once an hour on the radio all week, I think of the conformity that They Live warned us about. And our precious movies are under attack too, thanks to services like Netflix and Redbox that do their best to suggest we conform with others who liked something we liked, while the theatrical experience is slowly phased out so viewers will be stuck in front of their TV having their options controlled by On-Demand services.

Like Joe Bob was doing that night on MonsterVision, those of us who do see the other side of the entertainment spectrum are responsible for doing our best to remind people that they don't have to OBEY or CONFORM. They can search for the types of films that those in power are sick of, and should know that subversive and important films like They Live - films that just might restore your vision - are waiting to be found.

Midnight Top Five - I'm completely out of juice...

Not actual juice, I'm actually drinking Gatorade at the moment, but metaphorical juice. (I still have a strong dislike for the fact that they put numbers on the Gatorade bottles, because I'm drinking part 2 without having drank any of part 1). My point is that I'm tired. Work has kicked me in the sack for a couple of weeks now, and I'm in one of those "one minute I'm glad I'm not at work and the next minute I'm exhausted and hating them" moments. I'm taking restorative measures, hence the Gatorade and the fact I'm watching the episode of Tales from the Crypt that Arnold Schwarzenegger directed. Y'know, the one that has William Hickey and Kelly Preston. I do so love Kelly Preston.

My other point is that I shouldn't be writing anything right now, but I'm determined to post tonight. I should have stayed on the couch and enjoyed myself, but I'm here instead. And that's inspired me to look at some horror movie characters who also should have stayed on the couch, so that I might learn from their mistakes.

Let's get to the list! (And, let's see how well this Gatorade lets me "perform".)

OH HEY! THERE'S SPOILERS HERE.

Randy Meeks - Scream & Scream 2 Us horror fans LOVE Randy. He's like the godfather of the horror blogosphere. But why...aside from his lust for Sidney...is he even at the party in Scream? My guess is that he wanted to show off his knowledge.

Let's face it, all of us horror lovers, get a massive kick out of "corrupting" the folks that say they "don't like scary movies". Randy is completely guilty of vanity, because he totally thought he could be a star if he presented his theories on Jamie Lee's boobs and "rules". He would have enjoyed staying at home watching these movies just as much, but he had to try and be the guy. And his choice put him at the scene of a bloodbath.

(I know, I know. Randy survived Scream. But he just had to pull it again in the sequel. And he became a victim of that classic folly...thinking you'll be a big fish in a big pond simply because you were a big fish in a small pond. One point, Olyphant.)

Dick Hallorann - The Shining Scatman Crothers, what's up with that? You won't shine on, because you trekked all the way across the country, leaving your TV and giant painting of a topless chick with an afro behind...to do that? I mean really, you might have completed the worst attempt at being a savior of all-horror-time.

That was your big plan? Just walk in and look around? You worked so hard to even get to the Overlook....and then you ended up looking like a fool. Do you like ice cream, Doc? TOO BAD. You're stupid and dead.

Cheryl Williams - The Evil Dead WHO GOES TO A CABIN IN THE WOODS AS THE FIFTH WHEEL? Especially when one of the dudes on the trip is your brother? Best case you're gonna be in a dark cabin reading a book while your brother has sex on the other side of a small wall. Worst case...what happened with the tree and after the tree. Seriously, you left a weekend at college for that?

Suzy Bannion - Suspiria You couldn't find a ballet school that was closer to home than GERMANY? I've heard of studying abroad (and I've practiced studying many broads), but this is ridiculous, Suzy. And you didn't do enough research to find out there was a thinly veiled cult their either? For shame.

Frankenstein's Monster - Any version of Frankenstein Now, if your brain is "abby something", maybe you can't make the right choices. But really, what's the big deal about being a created monster for exhibition. Fritz and his fire might be annoying, but do you have any idea what it's like in the real world? Getting a job, paying bills, dealing with society's "norms"? Dude, just stay on the shackles and get fed and don't worry about things! Trust me, it's way better than what else you could be doing.

Morgan Freeman once said "the world is a fine place, and worth fighting for". Tonight, I don't agree with the second part.

Now, I slide back to my couch, as I've switched to the Tales from the Crypt episode with Teri Hatcher and Miguel Ferrer. Oh yeah.

Random Horror Throwdown - Tales from the Crypt vs. Sleepy Hollow

There's no doubting that I look for order when looking at randomness. Case in point: When I have a chance to pit a movie that occurred long before the most famous version of its namesake (1972's much forgotten anthology Tales from the Crypt, which is dwarfed by the famed HBO series) against a movie that occurred long after the most famous version of its namesake (Sleepy Hollow, a far removed child of Washington Irving's Ichabod Crane tale), I take it. Can the Johnny Depp blockbuster hold off one of my unsung favorites? Let's go to the matchup!

VS.

The Movies: Tales from the Crypt (1972, Dir. by Freddie Francis.)
Starring: Joan Collins, Peter Cushing, Ralph Richardson.
IMDB Synopsis: Five people get lost in a crypt and meet up with a strange crypt keeper who tells them stories of how they died. (Note from The Mike: If you ever find yourself in this situation, remember to drink from the cup of a carpenter. Wait, what? Wrong genre? Oh, ok. My bad.)

Sleepy Hollow (1999, Dir. by Tim Burton.)
Starring: Johnny Depp, Christina Ricci, Christopher Walken, Christopher Lee.
IMDB Synopsis: Ichabod Crane is sent to Sleepy Hollow to investigate the decapitations of 3 people with the culprit being the legendary apparition, the Headless Horseman. (Note from The Mike: Total bonus points for use of the word "apparition", IMDB dude!)

The Casts:
Tales from the Crypt utilizes some of the best talents Amicus had available at the time, when Hammer films was starting to lose their grip on the stars that had made the studio king for almost two decades. We've got Peter Cushing, Ian Hendry, and Roy Dotrice, alongside Joan Collins (in the famous "And All Through The House..." tale) and Ralph Richardson as the growly cryptkeeper.

Sleepy Hollow, on the other hand, has Johnny Depp. I don't care about Johnny Depp like others do, so I'm close to giving the point to Tales. But then, I remember that Christopher Walken AND Christopher Lee show up. Yes, the two greatest people to have Christ in their name since JC are in this movie. Even in small doses, I gotta give Sleepy Hollow a point for that. (1-0, Sleepy Hollow leads.)

The Directors:
This is another tough call. Tales from the Crypt is directed by veteran cinematographer turned director Freddie Francis, who worked for Hammer for a long time, shot the best looking black-and-white horror film of all-time (that would be The Innocents), and directed a few other unsung horror hits like Paranoiac (the first Hammer film on Blu-Ray!), The Creeping Flesh, and Trog. (Ok, maybe Trog's not good...but I love me some Trog.) I've always found his name on a project of this era to be quite soothing.

But then there's Tim Burton. As much as I dislike his recent output, the man has made some amazing flicks. Based on Big Fish and Ed Wood alone, I have to give Sleepy Hollow another point. (2-0, Sleepy Hollow leads.)

The Plots:
OK, this is getting out of hand, but here's where Tales takes a stand. I freakin' love anthology horrors. Heck, I love them like most people love Shark Week. With five tales at its disposal, Francis' Tales from the Crypt plays like one of those scary story books I used to read as a kid. And Sleepy Hollow plays like a souped up version of the Disney version that terrified me as a kid (seriously, that headless horseman was AMAZING). So Tales from the Crypt gets a point here. (2-1, Sleepy Hollow leads.)

That Second Segment in Tales from the Crypt is REALLY Ahead of its Time:
Not really a question here, but I just have to take a moment to talk about this one. In the flick's second segment, entitled Reflection of Death, a fellow played by Ian Hendry decides to walk out on his wife and kids to run away with a wide-eyed mistress. On their car ride out of town, he has a horrible nightmare right before the car crashes and burns. From that point on, we get him shambling around in first person view, with people recoiling at the site of him. It's entirely on par with what we'd see later in the likes of Black Christmas and Halloween, and the payoff - though slightly cheesy - totally works for me. I kinda love this segment hardcore, and thus I'm giving Tales from the Crypt another point. (2-2)

My Experience with the Films:
Both of these films and I met during my first year at college. The newer film came out that fall, and I saw it twice theatrically; once with my high school friends over Thanksgiving break and later with my roommate and his girlfriend. To date, the latter viewing is one of my favorite experiences, as I may have elbowed said roommate in correlation with the film's biggest jumpscare, causing him to jump out of his seat.

As for Tales from the Crypt, it was one of the first movies I ever found at what would become my favorite video store for the next decade. I had never heard of the flick, and remember being completely excited by the concept, rushing home (via bus, that is) and popping it in immediately. I was between roommates at the time, and had the place to myself with no disruptions, and devoured the whole thing. And loved it. In fact, I'm pretty sure this was my first exposure to Amicus OR Hammer films...thus, it kinda opened one of the most awesome doors that's ever opened in my cinematic life.

This Choice is Like: Is it better to fade before a star or to ride the star's coattails? Sleepy Hollow took an established quantity and rehashed it, while Tales - while also based on stuff - seems to blaze a new trail for the series that would later become the biggest genre TV hit since Serling...yet nobody seems to remember it.

Doesn't really matter though, because somehow I've convinced myself that Tales from the Crypt is MINE. Everyone saw Sleepy Hollow that fall, and everyone's seen it since. Tales was probably relatively successful in its day, but my experiences with the film are solely personal. And...I kinda love it for that.

Sleepy Hollow is probably the better film, and I've revisited it plenty. And I don't even have a good analogy for why I'm doing this, but I'm giving the final point to Tales from the Crypt. (3-2, Tales from the Crypt wins!)

(Note from The Mike: Not to mention, the tagline for TftC is "Death Lives!" How forking cool is that? Honestly, this contest was over the second that oxymoron happened.)

About Zombies and Love.....

Recently, I was given the fantastic chance to participate in the ongoing The Lucky 13 festivities being cohosted by The Vault of Horror and Brutal as Hell. If you're unfamiliar, they're amazing sites that any horror fan who knows the difference between Jamie Lee Curtis and Randy Quaid should love. (For the record, one has famous parents, the other was in the movie Parents. That's THE difference between Jamie Lee and the wider Quaid brother.) I was luckily enough to offer my opinion in the post over at the Vault, run by diabolical mastermind B-Sol.

My contribution? A few words on my favorite zombie film, Romero's Night of the Living Dead. I know, I know. You've already seen that movie a dozen times and know all about it. Luckily for you, a lot of other fine writers chimed in with their favorite zombie films too! So, click on the images below to check out the picks over at The Vault of Horror and/or Brutal as Hell. Because you love zombies.

Don't you?

The Prowler

1981, Dir. by Joseph Zito.

I like to say that I don't like slasher movies. I think it's my way of convincing myself that, deep inside, I'm still the kid who scoured books by Leonard Maltin and Roger Ebert, and who later ate up film courses in college. In short, I'm trying to convince myself that I'm still invested in that long lost art of "quality cinema". But I won't deny that I submit to a slasher flick from the early '80s quicker than a timid Jenny Craig follower submits to fried foods at the county fair. I guess there's something to be said for the simple excesses in life.

And that's how I got to The Prowler, a 1981 slasher from Joseph Zito (Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter), which I'd long heard is one of the better slasher films of its era. I was also drawn in by the fact that the killer, as shown on the poster, looks a lot like the machine gun toting evil dudes from David's nightmare in An American Werewolf in London. Ties to an '80s horror with Corey Feldman and a John Landis film? I'm sold.

The Prowler starts, like many slashers of the time, with the setting event that prepares us for future killings. In this case, it's another killing, as the masked man (presumed to be just home from World War II), shows up at the year-end graduation dance and promptly puts a pitchfork through a pair of lovers on a gazebo. (Between this, The Innocents, The Dead Zone, and a few others I'm probably forgetting, I'm starting to think that nothing good ever happens on a gazebo.) From that point forth, we move up to modern day, where a party is being planned, a creepy old man is watching girls undress, and the sheriff (Farley Granger, 40 years removed from starring in Hitchcock's Strangers on a Train) is heading out of town for the weekend. None of this is new when compared to the movies of that year, but it's the way The Prowler handles itself that really won me over.

The setting drew me in from the start, as most of the action takes place in a couple of big houses that remind me of the Bates home from Psycho. This setting works extremely well for what the film offers, because it provides a contained environment that still seems to have sufficient room to spread the action out. The kills do spread out a little - there are a couple of memorable scenes in and around the pool - because, let's face it, kids who've just graduated NEVER stay where they're supposed to. But for the most part, the film uses its space well and provides a welcome alternative to the campgrounds we're used to seeing in these films.

The highlight of the film, beyond compare, is the makeup/effects work of the legendary Tom Savini. The kills are mostly committed via pitchfork and sword. and look about as grisly as is humanly possible. While I'm not sure I'd say this is Savini's best work - he's done so many great things that it's impossible for me to say which is my favorite - but I won't dispute the idea that they're extremely well-done.

The Prowler might just be another simply plotted slasher from the heyday of the movement, but I've got a feeling that it'll sit well with me longer than a lot of its companions. The killer has an original and memorable look, it's never dull, and there are even a couple of effective jump scares. I'd say that's more than enough for me to recommend it as a diversion that's among the best of its kind.

(Also, I viewed this via Blue Underground's newly released Blu-Ray disc of the film. The presentation is far from what you see on modern films released via the medium, but all accounts tell me this is the best the film's ever looked, and it doesn't appear to have been tampered with to get there. Not a bad presentation, considering the age of the film.)