WISE WORDS:

 

CLASSIC MONSTERS OF THE MOVIES #36: DRAC, FREAKS, SEQUELS & HAUNTS

Classic Monsters of the Movies #36 will satisfy all with a Hammer hunger, in particular one for Terence Fisher's spectacular sequel, The Brides of Dracula (as Daniel Horne's colorful cover celebrates), along with its stars Peter Cushing, David Peel, Yvonne Monlaur, Martita Hunt and Freda Jackson.

To extend the vampiric theme, one will also find a tasty essay on the 1970s Broadway Dracula and John (Saturday Night Fever) Badham's 1979 adaptation of such, headlined by the suave and reprising Frank Langella, Shakespearean icon Laurence Oliver and the always nuanced Donald Pleasence.  

Ah, but there's more, for #36 contains a seminal passage on Tod Browning's controversial but beloved Freaks, an overview of popular, new and old sequels, including Final Destination 2 & 3, Friday the 13th: Part 8, The Bride of Frankenstein, Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman, House of Frankenstein and Dracula's Daughter, a plunge into Neil Marshall's hair-raising sojourn, The Descent, a conscientious continuation of haunted-house cinema, featuring The Changeling, Burnt Offerings, The Others, The Innocents, A Ghost Story and The Uninvited 1944, a candid chat with Melvyn Hayes, the adolescent Baron of Hammer's redefining The Curse of Frankenstein, plus a new crop of product reviews in "Sweeney Todd's Cellar." 

This issue's edifying contents are delivered by the knowledgeable Nige Burton, Jamie Jones, John Logan, Jonathan Rigby and Steve Nallon, who ensure that #36's photo-laden, 84 pages are as satisfying as any horror periodical can achieve.  

Order today and be amazed!

https://www.classic-monsters.com/shop/product/classic-monsters-magazine-issue-36/

I SAW KILL BILL: THE WHOLE BLOODY AFFAIR

Due to my daunting schedule, I have a hard time catching movies beyond the three-hour mark, but for the sake of Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair, I tackled the hefty load. 

There's not much I can say about the Quentin Tarantino sojourn that hasn't already been said, whether regarding its two-movie cut(s) or its bold, 35mm, epic re-edit. The story of Uma Thurman's Beatrix Kiddo, aka the Bride, is known and accepted (avoiding any cause for rehashing), and for those who love the lady's vengeful quest, nothing quite compares.  

The differences in presentations can be diagnosed as small or large, depending on one's vantage, with a famous, black-and-white sequence now projected in blazing, violent color, with nips, tucks and additions fixed throughout the streams and flows to create a sublime seamlessness, which doesn't render the previous version(s) obsolete. On this basis, The Whole Bloody Affair is a masterpiece that neither detracts from nor diminishes its legendary foundation. It's a big, bold companion piece, and an astounding, breathtaking one, at that. 

Seeing the adventure in massive progression, (despite the fifteen-minute intermission), might be the superior way to embrace it, for its martial-arts, Sonny Chiba/Bruce Lee/Kung Fu splendor is all the more mesmerizing this way, allowing it to recall bit by bit the long string of spirited, 1970s inspirations that shaped it. 

And it isn't just 1970s, martial-arts cinema that The Whole Bloody Affair invokes. It's the 1970s in general, with garish, pulse-pounding, cultural nuances galore, all geared for a Game of Death prize, swirled with a sprinkle of a 1970s UHF airing of The War of the Gargantuas, just for good, allegorical measure. In addition, the use of the Ironside theme is a nostalgic, pitch-perfect touch, and perhaps among Tarantino's music cues, it resonates like no other in capturing the ideal, thematic mood (though much can be said, as well, of David Bowie/Giorgio Moroder's Cat People: "Putting Out the Fire" inclusion in Inglourious Basterds. Still, I'll side with the Ironside novelty as Tarantino's sporadic summit.) 

Such creative tactics make The Whole Blood Affair a visual time machine, one that doesn't merely return to those precise periods when Volume 1 and Volume 2 surfaced, but to the type of filmmaking that most modern moviemakers (even the solid ones) tend to avoid, perhaps because they either choose to forget what came before or wish to forge something new and (ahem) improved. 

Tarantino, however, remembers and respects the artistic good ol' days and the sincere, drive-in/grindhouse filmmaking that made Kill Bill an endearing homage. The Whole Bloody Affair is the epitome of reflective, avant-garde filmmaking that salutes the past, so that it may dominate the present and in turn, influence action cinema for the future.

PHOENIXVILLE PUNK ROCK FLEA MARKET: HOLY NIGHT MARKET, ROOT DOWN BREW CO (12/12)

 

MR. LOBO'S CINEMA INSOMNIA: BLOOD FREAK, THANKSGIVING SPECIAL

Mr. Lobo's Cinema Insomnia offers a tasty, new "misunderstood" dish: the monster-"turkey" epic, Blood Freak. 

Director/narrator Brad F. Grinter coscripted this 1972, hippy/drug-oriented opus with Steve Hawkes, who plays its doomed biker/Vietnam vet, Herschell. As poor Herschell's luck would have it, he lands a job at a turkey farm, where a couple of company scientists transform him into the titular, rampaging beast, a sort of spiritual, vampiric cousin, if one will, to The Giant Claw, or so some cinema buffs have argued. 

This Ed Wood-ish entry is lots of fun, with its profound, drug-warning message, scary tactics and pretty girls, but it becomes even more fulfilling thanks to Mr. Lobo and special guest Sally the Zombie Cheerleader, who fringe it with plenty of off-the-cuff stuffing.

One can own a copy of this fine serving (and even gain on-screen credit) if one orders the Blu-ray release. It can be procured and secured at

https://osi74.square.site/s/search?q=blood%20freak

R.I.P. CARY-HIROYUKI TAGAWA

As Mortal Kombat's shape-shifting, soul-sucking sorcerer Shang Tsung, you held widespread command, and for that, fans shall always respect you.

However, as a consummate character actor, you couldn't help but make the rounds in a barrage of other engaging excursions and pop-cultural events: Planet of the Apes 2001, License to Kill, The Phantom 1996, Elektra, Big Trouble in Little China, Tekken, Tekken 2: Kazuya's Revenge, Man with the Iron Fists 2, Showdown in Little Tokyo, Teen Titans: Trouble in Tokyo, Showdown in Manila, The Perfect Weapon, Nemesis, Sky Sharks, The Tomb (aka Edgar Allan Poe's Tomb of Ligeia), Not of This World, The Last Emperor, 47 Ronin, Provocateur, Memoirs of a Geisha, The Slanted Screen, White Tiger, Black Cobra, Duel of Legends, Picture Bride, Hachi: A Dog's Tale, Soldier Boyz, Blizhiniy Boy: The Fighter, American Me, American Dragons, Bridge of Dragons, Raven: Return of the Black Dragon, Lost Warrior: Left Behind, By the Will of Genghis Kahn, Natural Causes, Balls of Fury, The Dangerous, Danger Zone, Day of Reckoning, Johnny Tsunami, Kubo and the Two Strings, Skin Trade, Top of the World, Snow Falling on Cedars, Beyond the Game, Thunder in Paradise 3, Pearl Harbor, Mission of the Shark: The Saga of the U.S.S. Indianapolis, L.A. Takedown, Looking in the Mirror, Junction, NetForce, Faith of My Fathers, Girl Games, Little Boy and Diamond Cartel. 

Your television and streaming spots are also notable, which include Star Trek: The Next Generation, Superboy, Heroes, Alien Nation, Man in the High Castle, Lost in Space (the Netflix revival), Poltergeist: The Legacy, Stargate SG-1, Babylon 5, Grimm, Blue Eye Samurai, Raven, Renegade, Seven Days, MacGyver, Moonlighting, Mission: Impossible (ABC's 1989, sequel series), Hawaii, Baywatch, Nash Bridges (covering 12 episodes), Hardball, Revenge, Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child, Vengeance Unlimited, Sabrina the Teenage Witch (1990s run), The Librarians, Hotel, Knots Landing, Walker Texas Ranger, Jake and the Fatman, Peaceable Kingdom, Cybill, Teen Wolf, Duck Tales and CBS' recent Hawaii 5-0. 

However, if I had to choose a favorite of your portrayals, it would be a tossup between two: one being your role as the irascible Eddie Sakamura in Rising Sun and the second being the stealthy Zylyn in the short-lived but spirited Space Rangers. 

Nevertheless, no matter the role, you were one of those gents who covered it all, and as such, you were easy for some to take for granted. Even so, for those with an astute eye for talent, you were nothing less than expressive royalty, Mr. Tagawa: a man who added so many fine facets to so many of our favorite sojourns. 

HOUSEL/AIRSHIP 27 STOCKING STUFFERS

With the holiday/Christmas season upon us, I wish to toot my own horn and remind folks of three Airship 27 offerings I contributed to (each illustrated in the good, ol' pulp tradition). I do believe they'll make swell gifts for friends and family.

There's my latest, The Persona, Vol 3: Silver Skin, wherein my New Pulp hero, Michael Mansford, aka the Persona, and his betrothed, Stacey Standish, crash in the Amazon and encounter a silver-skinned specter who hopes to transform Earth to his insidious liking.

On the short-story side, The Phantom Detective, Vol 3 contains my yarn, "The Phantom of the Garage," which pits the titular, masked vigilante, Richard Curtis Van Sloan, against a disfigured kingpin, who's putting the squeeze on Sloan's WWI buddy, Jerry Lannigan. (This swell volume also contains top-notch tales by Carson Demmans, Michael Black and Fred Adams Jr.) 

Last but not least, there's an "oldie but goodie," which has seen a pleasing resurgence in recent months: my novella, The Hyde Seed. In this one, a former boxer, Pepe Rodriguez, must battle a cerebral demon that takes on a life of its own. The Hyde Seed smacks of The Twilight Zone's "The Big Tall Wish" and "Steel," as well Rocky, The Set-Up, Body and Soul and The Champ. 

All three volumes can be purchased through Amazon, with quick deliveries assured; so stuff a little Airship 27 in your stockings this holiday season and rejoice, my friends ... rejoice! The New Pulp phenomenon is stronger than ever!

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Michael+Housel&i=stripbooks&crid=45WSA0TQJBDR&sprefix=michael+housel%2Cstripbooks%2C150&ref=nb_sb_noss_1

& (for Persona #3)

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1969285044?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title