Hello readers and casual fans! Just wanted to give you guys a somewhat horror-adjacent update on my life. I'll be making a few blog posts soon, but I'm trying to transition into full-time writing and have a ko-fi now (which you can see in that little coffee cup button on the left of the page).
Currently, I'm posting bits and pieces of my story bible for 'Bad Humors', a novel I'm hoping to finish before summer. If you'd like to follow the progress, check out the story, or just support me for the heck of it - - please visit my ko-fi page where I'll be posting all those juicy little tidbits.
If you were wondering what the novel will be about, by the way, it's a foray into my own flavor of Gothic horror. Victoria Moore, the servant on a dying estate, becomes the unwilling victim and companion to a vampiric nobleman who wishes to destroy and rebuild the manor she lives in piece by piece.
I'm on a Vincent Price kick lately. It's a bit nostalgia, and a bit surprise when I watch and re-visit and discover his films/shorts. The man really was a multi-faceted individual. Years ago, I even wrote a post about him. After Danny Kaye, Vincent Price is one of my favorite performers and artists of all time. Looking for camp? He's got a catalog. Looking for dark, twisted horror? He's got some of those too. Melodrama? Film Noir? Radio horror or detective schlock? Poetry? Cookbooks? Art critiques? Yep. All of the above. This intro paragraph was just an excuse to talk about how much I love Vincent Price, but I guess I should get to the meat of the post. My featured horror flick of the week, which I feel is an unappreciated but interesting film. It came out towards the later period of his career, and the plot itself is a bit tragic and camp. He had a lot of films in that particular category, but I feel like this one leaned more tragedy than any of the others. Madhouse.
Typically, if you know the vibe of a crazy/revenge plot with Mr. Price (Theatre of Blood, Doctor Phibes, House of Wax, etc.) you know without a shadow of a doubt that the twist is always that Vincent Price is definitely the serial killing maniac. Not so much in Madhouse, and that's part of why I love it. His performance, and the underlying sadness of the whole story. A man committed for the murder of his partner which he may or may not have been responsible for. A mystery. A melodrama. A horror film that actually kept me guessing until the end, and felt like a truly satisfying twilight film of Mr. Price's wonderful career.
If you love Vincent Price, and if you haven't seen Madhouse, please...PLEASE give this one a watch. You will not regret it. (Then give Dragonywyck a shot too, while you're at it. That one rocks too).
Listen - - okay, so you know when I start a sentence with that word, I'm about to give you a long-winded explanation about why I'm right when it's clear you're right. This movie IS bad. It's bad good - - bad good, in the way only an early to mid 90s movie can be. AND yes, it's not really a horror film, but it plays on tropes of a classic horror story. Plus, Tim Daly needs more love, and I must've watched this film 1000 times growing up. This does perhaps go back to the fact that my parents probably should've screened the stuff I rented more thoroughly, but here we are today. I 'm 35, somewhat well-adjusted, and I still love this wonderfully silly and incredibly problematic 'horror' comedy - - what's more, I'm recommending it to you, if you haven't seen it.
If you love old-fashioned shopping montages, Harvey Fierstein (you remember him, Robin Williams's brother in Mrs. Doubtfire), Sean Young at her most beautiful, and pseudo-science disguising itself as aromatic chemistry, give this one shot. Maybe take a shot or two in the process, but this is my pick for the week. It's just fun. (If you want something with the same plot, but more along the lines of legitimate horror, I do highly recommend Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde too.)
I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that convincing me to try newer films sometimes can be a bit of a chore. I like older movies more, oftentimes, because I don't like to take risks. I don't like to invest 90 minutes or more of my time in a movie I think might potentially disappoint me. I think I'm mature enough to own up to that now. However, recently I really have been trying to approach newer films more openly. I'm not saying I never watched or was willing to watch a new horror film, it was just never at the top of my list.
Vicious Fun was a movie I threw on when trying to browse for a movie on Shudder that myself and others in the room could at least potentially enjoy together. The plot seemed interesting enough. A magazine horror writer accidentally stumbles into a serial killer self-help group? I mean that could be good. Or bad. It's at least original...
It was fantastic. Beginning to end. I loved everyone in this movie, and what's more, I didn't even realize Julian Richings was part of the cast! Every single one of the killers and heroes in this movie chews the scenery until it's raw around the edges, and I finished this flick hoping for a sequel almost immediately. If you get the chance, do not pass on Vicious Fun.
Browsing through archive.org, I was looking for a good October cooking magazine. Maybe something from the 1950-70s - - when in doubt, if you find the right recipe cards, any month in that era could be scary. The horrors wrought on this world by Jell-O are too numerous to count. Then I saw this, and I couldn't resist George Hamilton's grin. Love at First Bite is and always will be one of my favorite iterations of Dracula.
It has been a little over 3 years since I last put finger to keyboard here, and the same goes for tackling the podcast. I've been doing a lot of little things off and on, but it had become harder to find inspiration to write and chat about all things horror. Rather than expand on that and describe what is essentially a lot of personal career drama and stress, I just want to say I'm back. I'm happy if you're an old reader to see you return, and if you're new - - well, this won't feel like a pause at all. Also, my bad for those broken links on some of the Youtube playlists, bruh. (That word sort of started as a joke, and now I can't stop throwing it into conversations. I need help).
To celebrate my return, I've got my Legacy Universal Monster collection on my desk ready to burn away the daylight and nightly hours. I have no specific plans for what or how many posts I'm going to throw out today or this month -- the blog-a-thon is a lot of pressure, and had gotten to a point it was difficult to keep up with last time around. So I'm just going to start writing and posting, see where it takes us. Maybe I'll post several today, maybe I'll be responsible and schedule them out. Who knows? At any rate, I hope you enjoy the ride.
Just to have a picture thrown up, here's an AI rendering I had no part in drawing of Dracula in a rap battle. Honestly, I think the onlookers in the back are the creepier monsters in the photo. (I'd like to reiterate this is AI, I did not draw it, I'm just in it for the dumb gag).
In this episode, Corey breaks down the good and the bad of the first 3 'Insidious' films, Maddy talks about 'Sinister' and Corey can't resist mentioning that questionable sequel as well.
Last year, I had intended to upload my yearly Halloween photos, but time got in the way and one week quickly turned into a month — then another, then yet another — and here we are less than half a year to our next Halloween and they are still sitting on my phone.
Well, my friends, no longer! Today I am finally posting them. Quick disclaimer, this is my roommate, my friend and next door neighbor, and my boyfriend. It was a safe and socially distanced holiday. Also, curling my hair to dress up as Michael Emerson - worth it, but I will never do that again. Two hours. Two HOURS!
In this 100th episode special - - we've finally done it. We've watched and evaluated the film you've all been waiting for, 'Night of the Day of the Dawn of the Son of the Bride of the Return of the Revenge of the Terror of the Attack of the Evil, Mutant, Hellbound, Flesh-Eating Subhumanoid Zombified Living Dead'. We also touch on the much lesser known piece 'Night of the Living Dead' and dinner staple 'Night of the Living Bread'. Join us as Maddy begins to regret ever allowing Corey to pick a movie.
Do you like Bauhaus? Do you like New York? Do you like crippling alcoholism and the inevitable crushing depression of death creeping up behind you while you watch yourself aging by the second? Then do we have the episode for you! This week, Corey and Maddy explore two unusual vampire classics, Larry Fessenden's first major feature 'Habit, and the ode to Catherine Deneuve and David Bowie's new wave gothic beauty, 'The Hunger'.
This week, only a few months late, we explore the works of Stephen McHattie and Bruce McDonald, a dark speaking horror flick, "Pontypool", and what may or may not be a spiritual sequel, "Dreamland".
Taking a shortcut to movies we just felt like watching, we took a bit of a break this week and only mildly regretted our choices. In this episode, Corey and Maddy discuss the Weird Al masterpiece, 'UHF' and the Seth Green's magnum opus, 'Can't Hardly Wait'.
This week we explore the delightful world of childhood best friends, from robot girls next door to - - robots in costumes, to nothing else because we're only reviewing two movies. First is Wes Craven's cult classic 'Deadly Friend' and the long awaited gritty adaptation of 'Banana Splits' none of us realized we were waiting for.
Starting off the New Year with some metal and mayhem. A good cop goes bionic in the 1980s satirical sci-fi classic, Robocop, while Soviet soldiers head to Germany during World War 2 to discover the true limits of medicine and madness in Frankenstein's Army.
Only four weeks behind, Found Footage-Tober finally meets its end with the mother of all found footage films: Blair Witch, and her sister sequels. Viral marketing, shaky cameras, creepy forests. Everything you need for a low budget masterpiece.
As October stretches into November, we continue our found footage journey with a couple of favorites, 'Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon', and 'WNUF Halloween Special'. This is also a horror pack featured episode.
At absolutely the last minute and into November, we've finally done it. We've begun releasing our 'Found Footage-Tober' event. Three episodes in which we discuss iconic and otherwise found footage films. This week we tackle 'Ghostwatch' and 'Host'.
Sometimes it's difficult to define why a film or book remains a permanent icon of its field. There are plenty that I've seen or read which don't quite click for me, and some over time become so terribly dated that they become reflections of a time instead of pure entertainment. The Exorcist is not one of those films or books. This week, I re-watched it on the big screen in an empty theater late in the evening. I may have had an early shift in the morning, but it was so worth the exhaustion.
It seems most stories involving demons, exorcisms, ghosts, ouija boards - - any and all of the above - - are always on a quest to recapture the simple effectiveness of The Exorcist. It's not just the story of good vs. evil, but each major character has their own struggles. The mother. Father Merrin. Father Karras. It adds something important to the struggle at the heart of this story. Dread sort of sneaks up on you as it builds up to the final battle, and if you haven't yet seen this one (somehow) I highly encourage you to finally watch it. If not tonight, then definitely on Halloween. You won't regret it.
