Fool's Views (1/27 – 2/16)

Use 'em or lose 'em, Doc.  Your choice.

Howdy, folks,

I gotta say, this has been the weirdest winter ever, both in terms of extreme temperatures and logy viewing parties on my part. I mean, when the polar vortex comes to town, shouldn’t it just be a natural reaction to just chill out, flip on the tube, and let the good times roll? In years past, when the weather wasn’t nearly as harsh, I’ve been known to bang out 50-60 movies in January without batting an eye. Yet, here we are with February in the rearview mirror and I have yet to crack the 45-flicker mark or even make it to the multiplex. Oh, the times, they are a-changin’. Granted, much of this has had to do with the ongoing promotion and celebration of HIDDEN HORROR (see Exhibit A), but even the Oscar race hasn't been able to spur the enthusiasm of days gone by.

That said, I’ve enjoyed the fine cinematic diet prompted by the good folks at Shout! Factory and Kitley’s Krypt, not to mention a little dose of nostalgia that sent Burnt Offerings (ergh) and Alone in the Dark (yes!) into the player in between bouts of filming a couple of horror shorts myself. Note: do not sign on for any future projects that involve lying dead in a snowbank in one’s undergarments. It just ain’t worth it.

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

Enjoy!

BAD MOON (1996) movie review

Bad Moon (1996) d. Eric Red (USA)

I’ll admit to having passed up this fuzzy wuzzy flick a few dozen times on the video shelf (remember those?) due to its lackluster moniker and poster art, and probably would have never thought twice about it had it not been for my recent acquaintance with James Newman’s recent terror-ific tome, 666 Hair-Raising Horror Movie Trivia Questions. Since James had seen fit to dedicate no fewer than six, count ‘em, six puzzlers to this DTV title, I figured that if I wanted to get a passing grade in lycanthrope class, I’d better check it out. (To be fair, longtime lycan expert Craig J. Clark had reviewed it on his blog back in 2008, but I don’t know that we knew each other back then.) To my surprise, it proved to be an entirely watchable popcorn flick, with one of the more impressive practical werewolf suits - supervised by f/x ace Steve Johnson - trotted out since the shapeshifting heyday of the 1980s. (However, the less said about the dodgy morphing sequences, the better.)