Fool's Views (9/9 – 9/30)

They warned me that my eyes would fall out someday if I kept watching this crap...

My friends!

Another slow month, but rehearsals for The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail down in WV have kept me occupied during the times when I wasn’t bashing away at HIDDEN HORROR (which is taking shape slowly but surely, and a shapely lass she is). But for the most part what we saw was worth seeing, and now it’s time to clear the plate before diving into the abyss that is the October Movie Challenge! I don’t expect this year to be nearly as bonkers as the past two (where I topped the century mark both times) – too much on the plate these days to do a full-on Scare-A-Thon, although I might take a stab at it in an alternate month in 2014, so stay tuned.

In the meantime, as always, feel free to leave your two cents worth – we’ll make sure you get some change back.

Enjoy!

THE AMITYVILLE HORROR TRILOGY (1979 - 1983) Blu-ray Review

On November 13, 1974, at his residence of 112 Ocean Avenue in Amityville, NY, Ronald “Butch” DeFeo strode from room to room and methodically shotgunned his parents and four brothers and sisters to death in their beds. He later claimed during his trial that he was instructed to carry out these murders at the behest of disembodied voices. 13 months later, the Lutz family moved into the vacated house, only to flee 28 days later claiming to have been besieged by paranormal phenomena. The Lutz’s story was turned into Jay Anson’s “true-account” haunted house bestseller in 1977, which was subsequently adapted into a feature film in 1979. The film was critically savaged, but enormously successful with moviegoers, eventually grossing over $86 million. With the sequel-happy ’80s just around the corner, it was a no-brainer that follow-ups would ensue…and did they ever. As of this writing, there are 11 separate Amityville films, including the not-bad Ryan Reynolds/Susan George remake of 2005, the first three of which have been recently given the Blu-ray treatment by the superb folks at Shout! Factory.