Actor David Soul passed away at 80. Soul had a couple of notable turns in the fantastic movie genre. Soul had the lead in one of my favorite, depressing movies, “World War III” (1982). The only bleaker end to a movie can probably be found in “The Thing” (1982). Hmmm. Both released in 1982. Obviously, a very good year! I think I posted about “WW3”, years past. Look it up and catch the flick. The clip included below is from the TV mini-series of Stephen King’s “‘Salem’s Lot” (1979). Soul gives a credible performance as a writer who stumbles upon [More]
I was intrigued with finally seeing this film as it starred Forrest Tucker, who made a few of my favorite 1950’s science fiction films namely “Abominable Snowman of the Himalayas” and “The Crawling Eye”. “Monsters” is my least favorite entry. I found it very difficult to follow the action for a couple of reasons: What I can glean from this snoozer is that scientists are conducting experiments concerning magnetism and cosmic rays and seem to have F’ed up and ripped a hole between our dimension and an unseen parallel dimension thus allowing an unwelcome invisible intruder to enter our space [More]
I want to like “Rose Red” but it is just not a very scary or suspenseful movie. I don’t really like any of the characters so that impacts my interest toward this two-night Stephen King television movie. It used to be a regular event for network television to buy one of King’s properties and then create a TV movie. Some were good, others not so good. I think this is one lesser quality King works. A team of ghost hunters head off to a notorious haunted property to see if they can find any evidence of activity. Their search will [More]
There were news items circling around where the plot from Steven King’s “The Stand” has been compared to the current global pandemic featuring the irrepressible COVID-19. King denied that there were really any similarities. As we progress through this mess, more details emerge as to the origin of the coronavirus. Did it begin in one of the “wet markets” in Wuhan, China, where a varied selection of animals are sold for consumption? It has also been mentioned that there are a couple of virology labs close by the wet markets where tests were being made on bats for who knows [More]
A mildly amusing Saturday afternoon diversion, “Graveyard Shift” was based on a Stephen King short story. Here it is fleshed out into movie length and a large part of that filling is loaded with oozing, despicable caricatures. A bunch of people you could care less about are tasked with cleaning up the lower level area of a mill located somewhere on the east coast. Maybe the extraction of all the crap which has accumulated down there over the years will alleviate some of the rat problem that infests the place. What is not known is that the mother of all [More]
Watching “The Mist” again recently got me to thinking about the original source material, Stephen King’s novella, and the faint memories I had of reading it. I watched the movie and then reread the story. The movie is very faithful to the story. But then there is that ending of the movie…. Once of the single most downer conclusions in popular culture storytelling, I would have to say. Granted, the scenario is imagined in the story but not actually executed. That grim prospect is dutifully carried out in the movie. Oh, it is an awful choice to go down that [More]
Stanley Kubrick’s visually stunning interpretation of Stephen King’s novel. I guess the two follow different plot trajectories. I never sat through the entire King tome. A cursed family moves into a rambling hotel to act as its caretakers during the winter. Seems the Overlook Hotel has some dark secrets of its own that start to manifest during the family’s stay. Expect a LOT of unsettling, frightening moments. The movie takes on the tone of a nightmare. Events, circumstances keep building up and piling on the dread factor. Famous Nicholson over the top performance. Amazing use of Stedicam during filming to move things [More]
My favorite episode from the cinematic horror comic, “Creepshow”. This movie captured the flavor of horror comics infamously represented by the line put out by EC Comics in the 1940’s and 1950’s. There are flourishes of garish, saturated colors which permeate several chapters of this episodic anthology and some transitions from live action to cartoon graphics. Genre heavyweights George Romero of “Night of the Living Dead” fame and writer Stephen King lent their talents to the weird goings on here. This clip details a murderous act of revenge enacted by a jealous husband upon his unfaithful wife and her lover. [More]