Sunday, March 24, 2019

FAREWELL, LARRY COHEN...


You rose in television, creating "The Invaders" and "Blue Light", and contributed stories to "The Defenders"; "The Fugitive"; "Branded"; "Checkmate"; "Columbo"; "Masters of Horror" and "Way Out".


On the theatrical stretch, you hit the directing/producing/writing jackpot time and again, with "Bone"; "Black Caesar"; "Hell up in Harlem"; "Original Gangstas"; "Return of the Seven"; "God Told Me To"; "Full Moon High"; Return to Salem's Lot"; "Scream, Baby, Scream"; "Q: the Winged Serpent"; "The Stuff"; "Special Effects"; "Perfect Strangers"; "Deadly Illusion"; "As Good as Dead"; "Best Seller"; "El Condor"; "Delirious"; "I, the Jury"; "The Ambulance"; "See China and Die"; "Captivity"; "Phone Booth"; "Cellular"; "Guilty as Sin"; "Wicked Step Mother"; "Uncle Sam"; "The Private Files of J. Edgar Hoover"; "In Broad Daylight"; "Body Snatchers" (the third, chilling chapter in the film franchise); "King Cohen" (a clip-crammed, biographical homage); the "Maniac Cop" trilogy; and last but by no means least, the "It's Alive" quartet. (After viewing any part of that fearsome foursome, how could anyone ever dare enter a delivery room?) 
  

As many fans can attest, your environmental themes and irreverent humor were a distinguishing factor in your work, making you as influential as John Carpenter, George A. Romero, Wes Craven and Tobe Hooper.


Thanks for all the fun, scares and madcap exploitation, Mr. Cohen. You've made our lives ever-so-offbeat, and for that, evermore fulfilled.

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