I SAW STRANGER THINGS: SEASON 5 (THE 1ST FOUR)

Netflix's Stranger Things: Season 5 has begun (after an illimitable hiatus). This latest tributary is said to be the saga's finale, which grants it a greater, melodramatic draw. 

Stranger Things restarts in 1987, covering the big, dimensional rifts that have swept accursed Hawkins, thanks to heaps of supernatural manipulation, which we suspected would flame all the higher, thanks to the season's plethora of publicity stills and that terrific trailer, tingled by Queen/Highlander's "Who Wants to Live Forever".

Hawkins is also quarantined by the military (kept "under the dome," as it were), and for the sake of planting an anti-establishment cliche, is portrayed as mean and myopic as it searches for the powerful yet misconstrued Eleven, aka Jane Hopper. Meanwhile, our young, Hellfire Club chieftains have decided to hunt down their freaky, Pied Piper-bound foe, Vecna, before he enslaves and/or kills them; it's just a matter of pinpointing where he's burrowed. 

By design, the concept instills the required mystery and suspense (for one, that bathtub scene overflowed with pitch-perfect tension), simulating the progressing dread of Stephen King's Salem's Lot and It but with Hellraiser's seductive sadism, The Keep's unlocked ruination and a Gates of Hell-meets-Phantasm-meets-Elm Street undercurrent. That Stranger Things: Season 5 has surfaced while HBO Max's Welcome to Derry holds court is interesting, if not fortuitous, since it (pun intended) complements Derry's allusions. 

I can't judge Stranger Things: Season 5 in its entirety since only four parts are now queued (with three to land on Christmas Day and the finale on New Year's Day). All the same, everything seems in proper, atmospheric order with the previous seasons (even sweetened at a point by a nifty, Great Escape angle, per Episode 3, and a little Back to the Future, time travel per Episode 4). However, despite the cozy flow, something bugs me.   

I'm referencing the season's publicized contention. As one may know, Millie Bobby Brown lodged a harassment complaint against David Harbour. Though the conflict is said to have been curbed, its aftertaste lingers (perhaps due to the abundant scenes the two have together and those understandable reminders that can't help but creep through). This dents the saga's suspension of disbelief. Maybe I should have shrugged it off, but when the media ballyhoos a situation to such an egregious extent, how could I overstep the baggage? The stain, like Lady Macbeth's damned spot, pervades. 

Maybe by the time the final episodes roll, none of the behind-the-scenes discord will matter. However, for now, it seems that whatever the Upside Down spews can't match what ubiquitous materiality has carved. A real shame, too. Save that stuff for reality TV. When it comes to fiction, even the dark and sinister sort, I (and I do believe others) prefer it without the deflecting friction. 

GOODBYE, BURT MEYER

Toys and games are essential to children, and your creations were among the most useful to spark their formative years.

Among your fun-time inventions, kids could tackle Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots, Lite-Brite, MouseTrap and Toss Across, the variants of which prevail and delight just like your prototypes. 

Your designs were unique, with plastic pieces and challenging avenues. This isn't to take away from those elaborate video games and their related conceptions, but your formats couldn't help but connect with kids on a hands-on, personal level. 

In other words, what you designed became part of us. For that, Burt Meyer, we have memories to cherish, the special kind that last a lifetime. 

HAPPY THANKSGIVING 2025 (11/27)

 

MR. LOBO'S CINEMA INSOMNIA: HALLOWEEN RE-EDIT, FEATURING SCREAMWALKERS, THIS SATURDAY

Mr. Lobo's Cinema Insomnia's Halloween 2025, "live" presentation of Sean Q. King's Screamwalkers returns in its re-edited form on Twitch and OSI74/Roku this Saturday (Nov 29), commencing 10 pm with a pleasurable preshow.

The clever Screamwalkers introduces a feline variant of Scream's Ghostface, along with a marvelous, gnarly mummy, dispatching a Ten Little Indians setup that leads a group of college kids down a path of Grand Guignol carnage. The movie's monstrous manifestation is all part of a ritualistic, Egyptian, fertility mystery, which exudes a fun, old-school context, enlivened by terrific effects, stylish sets, a robust score by Howard Chirlin and Creepshow-ish cinematography by maestro King.  

Producer/director Aaron M. Lane, Sally the Zombie Cheerleader, Miss Wendy, Storm the Cat, Tim Caldwell of OSI 74's Somethin' Swave' Theatre and Mr. King were responsible for this bumper-brimming event, all of whom deserve heaps of credit for securing its grand, "misunderstood" place in history.

Be sure to relive all the weird, festive wonderment in its repackaged form. In other words, be there or be square!

Also, the Blu-ray, special edition can be purchased at

https://osi74.square.site/s/search?q=screamwalkers

R.I.P. UDO KIER

Beyond any doubt or debate, you ranked as one of my all-time favorites, Mr. Kier. 

Andy Warhol's Flesh for Frankenstein and Blood for Dracula sealed it, but even beyond those grand, quirky submissions, you made the rounds with a style that was equally exclusive and contagious. 

Whether the role was big, small or somewhere in-between, you hit it outta the park with such provocative, fun and devilish delights as Doctor Jekyll and the Women (The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Miss Osbourne), Suspiria 1977, The Mother of Tears, Skin Walker, House on Straw Hill (Expose), Modern Vampires, Dracula 3000, Shadow of the Vampire, Blade, BloodRayne, Spermula, Prince Valiant 1997, Barbwire, Johnny Mnemonic, Iron Sky, Iron Sky: The Coming Race, UFO in Her Eyes, End of Days, Armageddon, Epidemic, Grindhouse, Lulu and Jimi, Lola, Betty, Pan, Seduction: The Cruel Woman, The Salzburg Connection, The Berlin Project, Moscow on the Hudson, Hungarian Rhapsody, The Third Generation, Beethoven's Treasure Trail, Bacurau, Swan Song, The Editor, Fall Down Dead, Nymphomaniac, Pars: Operation Cherry, The Secret Agent, 11/2 Knights: In Search of the Ravishing Princess Herzelinda, Halloween 2007, The Island of the Bloody Plantation, Children of Wax, Keyhole, Far Cry, The End of Violence, Narcissus and Psyche, Pankow '05, The Fifth Commandment, The Roaring Fifties, Critical Mass, Masters of Horror: "Cigarette Burns," Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, The Adventures of Pinocchio, The New Adventures of Pinocchio, My Son, My Private Idaho, My Son What Have Ye Done, and a hearty spree of others, including music videos and voice work for video games and animation.

You had a luring personality and a twinkle in your eye that always made you a friend. Few personalities ever hold that unique draw, Mr. Kier, but you did, sir, because you were one of the special ones, one of those rare performers whose artistic benefaction has no choice but to age like fine wine. 

I SAW MGM+'S BILLY THE KID: SEASON 3 (THE BIG, FACT-FICTION SHOWDOWN)

I enjoyed MGM+'s Billy the Kid. Season 3 wrapped everything up in a nice, belligerent bow, even if the content was a good deal more speculative than not. 

That especially goes for the series' conclusion, covering as it did whether Sheriff Pat Garrett allowed Billy the Kid/William H. Bonney (aka Henry McCarty/Henry Antrim) to be let off the hook (i.e. live). Tom Blyth, as the titular figure, and Alex Roe's Garrett, in this regard, settled their friction in the end, as did Daniel Webber's irascible and stubborn Jesse Evans. Their swirling, twirling confrontational components gave the finale (the final two episodes) a nervous quality and as such, left this show one of the most spirited and satisfying adaptations to tackle Billy's perennial legend. 

However, the events prior to the last two episodes were no less important. How could they not be? We're talking the Lincoln County War, after all, which is nothing to sneeze at in the annals of American history. Like other parts of the MGM+ production, which incorporated modern allegory to redefine the past, the war's succession tottered between accuracy and fancy. The depiction was, all the same, impossible to dismiss, for it presented potent melodrama. 

I must admit, for the most part, the obvious, fictional filler was engaging, such as Billy's relationship with the make-believe Dulcinea (Nuria Vega). Something of this sort could have weighed the series with too much mush, but there was just enough strained romance to complement the continuous tension.

The darkening of Garrett's personality, however, didn't please me much. It's interesting in how it was rendered, but it's way off-kilter. It got to the point where Garrett seemed more in synch with Michael Shannon's Nelson Van Alden of Boardwalk Empire than what I've read of the historic lawman. What we got was an archetypical example of a righteous man who through unfortunate circumstance, rejects the virtue he once held close to his heart. That's not Garrett, not by a long shot. Granted, he may have let Billy skedaddle execution and reported otherwise (either for this series or in actuality). He may have also drank and gambled a lot, but was he ever abrasive to women? No, that just can't be, and there's not scrap of testimony to indicate he ever was.  

With that said, is any biographical drama ever close to the bone? Even the most popular ones, like The Elephant Man, Patton, Lawrence of Arabia, Gandhi, Ed Wood, Man of a Thousand Faces, Tolkien, J. Edgar, Dillinger 1973, Bonnie and Clyde, Serpico, Elvis 1979, Elvis 2022, Bohemian Rhapsody, A Complete Unknown ... the aforementioned Boardwalk Empire (in regard to Nucky Thompson) aren't a hundred percent on the mark. (Others examples, like Professor Marston and the Wonder Women, are nothing but slapdash propaganda. The less of their self-serving likes, the better.) 

Ah, well, it's just the way these things go. One must take the interpretations for what they are and learn to discern reality from "creative license." And so, on this basis, I adapted such a rationalization for MGM+'s Billy the Kid, just as I long ago did for Sam Peckinpah's Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, which might be my favorite of all the theatrical offerings, and even in that revered case, the content sure ain't gospel, right?

There'll come a point when I'll revisit  MGM+'s Billy the Kid. It's an engrossing melodrama made in a time when westerns are at best a marginal diversion. Who knows? Perhaps, this Billy the Kid will be one of the current crop to press the genre's big comeback. I, as well all who admire sagebrush sagas, would welcome that and be darn tootin' proud of it, to boot.