Schlock and Awe

I was born in the ealry 1980s but I am a child of the 1990s.        It is the decade I grew up, the decade where my tastes really formed.  I like snappy dialogue, flannel shirts, boot leg jeans and short skirts.  I had a Rachel as a teenager.   It was in the 1990s where I became to really love going to the movies.  Almost every week I went to the cinema.  It's not surprising that it's this decade of Wes Craven's work that I really conncet with.  I didn't know it the time, but Craven was one of those directors that shaped by tastes as much as Tim Burton and Steven Spielberg.  And it's in this decade where Craven really hits his stride and makes some of his great movies that changed where horror went, yet again. NIGHT VISIONS 1990      Night Visions moves and feels like a television pilot.  And before you ask; yes I would have watched at least three seasons of James Remar and Loryn Locklin solve cri...

S&A DOUBLE:  ARACHNOPHOBIA ( DIR FRANK MARSHALL, 1990) & THE SWARM (DIR IRWIN ALLEN, 1978)      I remember as a kid, many a scary movie moments would have me running from the room.  But there was also two movie trailers (or ads for TV) that would have the same effect on me.  One mintue I was sitting on the floor by the TV the next there was a only a cartoon puff of smoke in the shape of my general person.  These were  Arachnophobia from 1990 and The Swarm from 1978.  I think the notion of being covered in bees with the constant screaming gave me anxiety nightmares.  Watching both of these movies last week was a first for me, because with all the creepy crawlies it makes me itchy.  Inscets, Bugs and Spiders have always made great Monster Movies, Crawley Features if you will.  Whether they are radio actively giant like in Them ! or Tarantua , more experimental like Phase IV or Creature Freature like Cronenber's The Fly ...

     I was getting frusted with writers block.  So I decided to play a game I love to play on Twitter.  Plan a 24 hour movie marathon.  I work in a bookstore, and I generally like recomending books to people and curation as a whole.  I loving planning what movie would play well at what time.  A movie that would fit at 8pm would bomb at 4am.  Some of the best theatre experiences I have had has been at 3am, being bleary eyed in the stage of sleep and awake watching something that becomes transcendant.  The first time I saw Hellraiser was at such a time slot, and the dreamy imagination of Clive Barker's Master Piece blew me away even more than it would have if it was jut me alone my couch on a Wednesday night.  And I would like still loved it on that Wednesday night watch, it just wouldn't have been a that transcendant viewing.      When creating a 24 Hour line up there are certain guidelines I like to follow.  A Mo...

     Brian De Palma always said that he considers Hithcock a genre.  Which is something I tend to agree with.   The world of borrowing, influences and straight out Rip Offs in movies is a wide and varied pace.  And Wes Craven made such an indelible mark on Horror with his creation of Freddy Krueger, it changed how Slasher's, Creature Features and Horror movies in general.  As part of my Craven Kick I wanted to look at the impact that A Nightmare on Elm Street had on the decade after it.  The next four movies I am looking at are examples of how movies in a ten year period looked through the prism or Shadow of Freddy Krueger. What the following movies are trying to do is display two running realities at the same time.  And what I find watching these four movie is  different forms of Freddy, espeically in the squeal - be weird if he wasn't, keep  showing up. DREAMSCAPRE, DIR JOESPH RUBEN, 1984      I'm starting with...

Wes Craven was one of the  defining directors of the 1980s.        By 1984 Horror was already turning to a more supernatural and creature features, but A Nightmare on Elm Street refined it and perfected it.  And because of this, and Craven's general talent, he worked a lot in the 1980s.  Even what is to come in his career I would say the 80's is considered his peak.  The Nightmare and what Craven could do with it define what kinds of movies he was allowed to make.  Within these confines, Craven was still able to make a wide verity of movies that are filled with different ideas.   THE HILLS HAVE EYES 2 1984      Yes, it's the movie where the dog gets a flash back.  But to be fair, Beast saw some shit in that desert.  My first reaction to Wes Craven's sequel to The Hills Have Eyes is that it looks a lot like the original.  As in Wes went back to the shed, picked up the same camera and lenses and went...