Showing posts sorted by relevance for query doug long. Sort by date Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by relevance for query doug long. Sort by date Show all posts
Tuesday, January 6, 2026
REST IN PEACE - LAWRENCE P. RAFFEL & DOUG LONG
Thursday, June 20, 2024
BRING ON THE BIG BUGS - THEM! (1954) TURNS 70!!!
Unleashed upon a hungry-for-sci-fi movie-going public in the summer of 1954, Them! was the first of the “big bug” movies and proved to be the year’s biggest moneymaker for Warner Brothers. Originally slated to be shot in color and 3D, the studio cut the budget at the last minute, although the stark black and white cinematography may have worked to its advantage, yielding an impressively eerie visual landscape. These elements, combined with extraordinary sound design, art direction, and solid ensemble performances, resulted in a true genre classic that would go on to earn an Academy Award nomination for its imaginative and thrilling special effects.
Friday, December 13, 2024
UNWRAPPING THE MUMMY!!! (1932, 1959, 1999)
THE MUMMY (1959) d. Terence Fisher (UK)
THE MUMMY (1999) d. Stephen Sommers (USA)
One of the most enduring classic horror archetypes, The Mummy has appeared on film almost since the inception of cinema, with numerous silent efforts preceding Universal's landmark production in 1932 starring Boris Karloff.
Friday, February 14, 2025
HITCHCOCK’S PSYCHO LEGACY: FROM SHOWER SCENE TO BATES MOTEL
PSYCHO II (1983) d. Richard Franklin (USA)
PSYCHO III (1986) d. Anthony Perkins (USA)
PSYCHO IV: THE BEGINNING (1990) d. Mick Garris (USA)
PSYCHO (1998) d. Gus Van Sant (USA)
Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho is not just a film; it’s an institution in the world of cinema, one that redefined the horror genre forever. Based on Robert Bloch’s 1959 novel, audiences were introduced to Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins), a seemingly mild-mannered motel owner with a dark and twisted secret. The film's groundbreaking narrative, shocking twists, and chilling atmosphere have influenced filmmakers for decades.
Friday, November 22, 2024
THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES (1939) / (1959): A CLASSIC REBORN!!
THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES (1959) d. Terence Fisher (UK)
Though not the first fictional detective, Sherlock Holmes is arguably the best-known. Over 25,000 stage adaptations, films, television productions, and publications have featured the detective, and Guinness World Records lists him as the most portrayed human literary character in film and television history. Tonight, we’ll be celebrating two film versions of Arthur Conan Doyle’s celebrated sleuth’s oft-adapted tale, The Hound of the Baskervilles.
Saturday, December 9, 2023
KING KONG (and SON OF KONG) 90TH ANNIVERSARY JAMBOREE!!
SON OF KONG (1933) d. Ernest B. Schoedsack (USA)
It’s almost impossible to overstate the importance the original 1933 King Kong has had on the monster movie genre and on the history of cinema overall. As such, it’s easy to lose sight of the fact that there was a time before Kong, and that there were individuals who brought the character and the film surrounding him into existence. People like producers Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack, writers Edgar Wallace, James Creelman, and Ruth Rose, special effects wizards Willis O’ Brien and Marcel Delgado, composer Max Steiner, sound effects pioneer Murray Spivack, and stars Robert Armstron, Bruce Cabot, and the legendary Fay Wray.
Friday, September 29, 2023
ABBOTT & COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN (1948) TURNS 75!!!
By the late 1940s, The Wolf Man, Frankenstein’s Monster, and Dracula had become more friends than fiends to audiences. In a flash of inspiration, producer Robert Arthur hit upon the idea of pairing his hit comedy team of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello with the creepy creatures. Though nobody, especially Abbott and Costello, were enthusiastic about the experiment, the results were astonishing.
Friday, February 2, 2024
SON OF FRANKENSTEIN (1939) / YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN (1974) ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL!!
YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN (1974) d. Mel Brooks (USA
From the moment the original Frankenstein from Universal Studios was released in November of 1931, the landscape of cinema changed forever as Mary Shelley’s creation became a household word overnight. Unsurprisingly for Hollywood, further adventures featuring the Frankenstein monster followed, some critically acclaimed, others derided, while the fan base grew, passed on through generations of horror fans.
Friday, January 24, 2025
LES DIABOLIQUES (1955) & H.G. CLOUZOUT: THE FRENCH HITCHCOCK
Slip into the dark and suspenseful world of “The French Hitchcock,” Henri-Georges Clouzot (The Wages of Fear), and his extraordinary nonpareil of suspense, 1955’s Les Diaboliques, where nothing is as it seems and every twist keeps you on the edge of your seat. Set in and around a remote boarding school, a frail wife (Vera Clouzout) and her romantic rival (Simone Signoret) plot to murder her cruel, abusive husband (Paul Meurisse). But when things do not go as planned, the two women are thrust into a terrifying psychological nightmare where nothing is what it seems.
Saturday, December 16, 2023
IT CAME FROM 1953!! (INVADERS FROM MARS, WAR OF THE WORLDS, ROBOT MONSTER, IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE)
INVADERS FROM MARS (1953) d. William Cameron Menzies
WAR OF THE WORLDS (1953) d. Byron Haskin
ROBOT MONSTER (1953) d. Phil Tucker
By the closing of the 1940s, it seemed that audiences had grown weary of the classic monsters of yesteryear, and were hungry for new thrills. Those exciting new stories came not from moldy crypts or ancient curses, but rather from beyond the stars. With space exploration already a going concern among the world powers and reports of UFOs starting to make their way into the public consciousness, it was no surprise that filmmakers also cast their gaze to the heavens, imagining what fresh wonders and threats might make their way toward our little planet.
Thursday, July 18, 2013
MEN IN SUITS (2012) movie review
Men in Suits (2012) d. Woodward, Frank H. (USA)
As any discerning horror fan knows, practical effects will always rule the day over those plinked out on a keyboard. There’s something about the physical impact of a space-occupying element that cannot be denied, and one of the best examples comes in the form of a genuine monster on set. Be it a Predator, the xenomorphs from Alien, or even Robot Monster’s awesome diving-helmeted lovelorn extraterrestrial, there is nothing quite like a guy-in-a-suit flick. Now, at long last, filmmaker Woodward, who cut his documentary teeth on Anchor Bay’s Masters of Horror behind-the-scenes featurettes, has created a fascinating and compelling 90-minute lovefest for the unsung heroes beneath the fur, flippers, fangs and zippers of some of the genre’s most memorable creations.
Sunday, December 29, 2013
RAZE (2013) movie review
Raze (2013) d. Josh C. Waller (USA)
Two attractive women clad in white tank tops and gray sweatpants stand opposite one another inside a cylindrical brick room. The blinking red lights of surveillance cameras flicker in counterpoint to their panting as each sizes the other up. Then, without warning, they proceed to pound, punch, kick, pull, choke, slap, bite, and savage one another’s bodies until one lies dead and bleeding on the dirt floor. This scenario plays out over and over (and over) again in director Josh Waller’s feature debut, a film that resembles a live-action 90-minute Mortal Kombat video game session, only with more blood, tears, camera angles, and flash cuts (and only slightly more exposition).
Wednesday, December 31, 2014
Fool's Views (12/16 – 12/21)
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| AC after nine Hellraiser movies.... |
Back again!
This week was relatively quiet, right up until I headed up to Oshkosh to hang out with the gang and bear witness to my first “Franchise Marathon,” a long-standing tradition of amigos John Pata, Eric Egan, and Ashley MerCleod who have endured such epic series as The Amityville Horror, The Howling, Leprechaun, Children of the Corn, Saw, Final Destination, and so on, all in one sitting. This time around, well, let’s just say it involved a certain puzzle box…
As always, feel free to leave your two cents worth – we’ll make sure you get some change back!
Enjoy!
Monday, July 30, 2012
Fantasia Day 11 (Sunday, July 29)
Sing it, Mitch!
Sunday may be a day of rest for some, but not for the Fantasia faithful. This whole rest thing…yeah, I vaguely remember something along those lines, but it’s kinda fuzzy. Or maybe that’s my vision. Or my brain after nearly 50 films…
There simply aren’t enough hours in the day to do everything one would like to do, so I slept for an extra hour (making for a grand total of five, gah) and then rolled out of bed to get some writing done. Completed the log for the day, then dashed off to meet with writer/director Rob Grant and lead actors Mike Kovac and Scott Wallis from Mon Ami for a little midday interview about their slick little indie film that could and does. The interview went well, with the gents all friendly articulate types, then the decision had to be made as to whether to head home for lunch/blog posting or see the new Thai action flick, The Kick. I rolled the dice in opting for the former, only to learn from my Chicago buddy Neil that I had missed “the best martial arts movie of the year,” in his estimation, better even than The Raid, which blew both of us away. So, there you go. Choices, my friends. Sometimes they go your way, sometimes not.
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
Fool's Views (12/19 – 12/25)
Hey kids,
Welcome to 2012! But, before we dole out the year-end goodies, we need to commune with the remaining 2011’s Views. Wouldn’t you know it, since they were the final weeks, and since I had little to do after placing my meager offerings to the femalien under the tree, I dug out the eyelid toothpicks and again drank deeply from the cinema pools. The Chicago public library continued in my catch-up of notable civilian films gone by, Netflix kept the horror blood pumping, and the penultimate Cronenberg features in our year-long examination unfurled before us. Good stuff.
As always, feel free to leave your two cents worth – we’ll make sure you get some change back.
Enjoy!
Friday, May 11, 2012
Fool's Views (4/30 – 5/6)
Once again, I find myself completely blessed by the company I keep and their adventurous, idiosyncratic tastes in cinema. Several of the newer horror features were sneaked via peeking over Film Monthly.com regular Jason Coffman’s shoulder as he winnowed his way through a pile of screeners, while a couple more were among the score of flicks smuggled home courtesy of Belgian blood brother Gert Verbeeck. There was also a mixed bag crop multiplex harvesting contributing to the pile; not nearly as much ripe fruit this time out, but to everything there is a season, I suppose.
Also managed to polish off my HorrorHound articles and get those turned in, so that’s off the to-do plate. Next up, memorizing my lines for this summer’s production of Inherit the Wind with Festival Theatre and shooting a potentially nifty student film about the notorious “MK Ultra” experiments of the 1950s. Good times and never a dull moment. Keep you posted!
As always, feel free to leave your two cents worth – we’ll make sure you get some change back.
Enjoy!
Friday, January 9, 2015
Civilian 2014 Wrap-Up and Year-End Stats!
Back again!
Having addressed the horror genre in the previous entry (hey, this is HORROR 101 after all), it’s now time to give the civilian flicks their moment in the sun. As before, all titles listed were encountered for the first time from January 1 to December 31, 2014 (i.e. no repeat viewings were eligible), with top picks denoted with an asterisk. (*)
FOR PREVIOUS YEARS' RECAPS, CLICK HERE
TOP CIVILIAN RELEASES OF 2014
Saturday, November 22, 2014
NIGHTBREED (1990) Director's Cut Blu-Ray Review
Nightbreed (1990) d. Barker, Clive (USA)
Based on his novel Cabal, Clive Barker’s follow-up to Hellraiser exhibits as many of that film’s strengths (vivid, original storyline, exemplary makeup effects) as its weaknesses (uneven performances, gore without scares, jarring jokes). Craig Sheffer stars as Boone, a troubled mental patient whose implication in a series of violent murders leads him to Midian, an underground “other-world.” Within this subterranean city, we encounter the “Nightbreed,” a wonderfully grotesque collection of freaks and mutants (wonderfully realized by makeup designer Paul L. Jones) that populate the shadows of the human world, unable to venture into the light.
Wednesday, August 31, 2022
CAT PEOPLE (1982) Blu-ray/UHD review
Cat People (1982) d. Paul Schrader (USA) (118 min)
After years in orphanages, Irena (Nastassja Kinski) reunites with long-lost sibling Paul (Malcolm McDowell), who soon reveals a more-than-brotherly attraction to her. Seems the two are the supernatural offspring of panthers, doomed to mate only with their own humanimal kind, as any other coupling results in fanged-and-clawed death for their unsuspecting partner. Needless to say, this throws a wrench into zookeeper Oliver's (John Heard) romantic designs on the exotic female newcomer.
Monday, February 20, 2012
Fool's Views (2/13 – 2/19)
Say hey, you wonderful warped wackjobs! Thanks for stopping by for yet another go-round with the Fool.
Well, wrapped up my run of A Wrinkle in Time with Milwaukee’s First Stage Theater this past weekend, and while I’m happy to be back home in the Chi-town groove, I confess I’ll be sorry to not find myself tesseracting around geodesic domes with nearly as much frequency. Due to the final stretch also including a nasty head cold in the mix, there was little to do but answer the siren call of the many DVDs hauled up north with me as I convalesced, pleased at the various “theme nights” which presented themselves (not to mention a certain excursion to the wilds of Oshkosh for another bout with the beloved House of Horrors). From bugs going boom to fistfuls of fu, from Blair gone bad to beating the Streets, we hope you dig it too.
As always, feel free to leave your two cents worth – we’ll make sure you get some change back.
Enjoy!
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