Lagoon Watch: The Creature Walks Among Us (1956)

I quite like the original Creature From the Black Lagoon.  It's just really well shot, has a compelling story, and it is nigh-impossible to beat the creature design.  I just love the way that fella looks.

I'd love to see an updated remake, but when I consider what it'd be like without Julie Adams, well, I have a moment of pause.  And it's that moment of pause that's kept me from ever watching the sequels, two of which I own on a DVD set I purchased at least a decade ago.  But I told myself I was going to watch both sequels this October, because, hey... why not?  I mean, aside from the glaring mistake of not including Julie Adams.

This one image is more or less that whole movie in a nutshell

Alas, we're not here to ponder Julie Adams.  We're here to talk about the inevitable Universal sequel, The Creature Walks Among Us (1956).  Actually, it's the sequel to the sequel, but I watched the damn things out of order, so, there you go.

Full Review of Kino Lorber's "Phantom of the Opera" 2-disc BluRay collection

Lon Chaney, man of 1,000 faces, as The Phantom of the Opera.

Credit Kino Lorber

Preamble:  This review was originally released at Texas Public Radio.  As I'm a bit obsessive about losing columns at other sites, I'm archiving it here.  But, if you haven't read this one yet, I recommend clicking the link back to TPR and giving them a hit rather than reading here.

Full disclosure - The disc was a review copy provided by Kino Lorber to Texas Public Radio, and this column was edited with the generous help of NathanC of TPR.  

2015 marks the 90th anniversary of the release of seminal American horror/thriller, The Phantom of the Opera starring Lon Chaney. The film stands as a hallmark of both horror film and silent cinema, and as a survivor of the many mishaps and hardships that befell many other films of the era. Today, it continues to thrill audiences.

This fall, Kino Lorber delivers a terrific two-disc Blu-ray set which fans of the film will enjoy as they dig in to the treasure trove of special features, and those newly arrived to the film can enjoy for the magnificent presentation and contextualizing available in the special features.

Lon Chaney, in both his make-up and performance as Erik, remains such a recognizable concept that The Phantom of the Opera has endured in the popular imagination while the film’s contemporaries have faded, surviving mostly in the domain of serious film buffs and historians. The film stamped itself onto the zeitgeist thanks not just to the film’s perennial Halloween showings, but because it brought audiences something both novel and universal in its shadowy tale of outsiders and the chilling wonder of the unknown.

Follow PaulT as he watches 31 horror movies in 31 days!

PaulT (aka: PlacesLost) is watching and commenting upon a horror movie a day all October.  

Check it out over at his blog.

Halloween Watch: Trick 'r Treat (2007)

Well, this was a nice surprise.  I think a few of you had suggested this one to me over the years, but I'd always look at the poster and think "eh, this is one of those movies with a 'scary' antagonist that's more visually interesting than actually all that scary".

I watched the movie with pal SimonUK, and as the WB logo went up, he said "You know, I think this is going to be one of those movies people wind up watching every Halloween."   Which, about 2/3rds of the way into the movie, I paused the movie and said "yes, I can see why you'd say that, and I think you're right on the money."

Ann Miller and The Signal Watch wish you a happy October 1st

Halloween Close-Out

Well, that was a whole lot of Halloween on this blog.  I hope you kids enjoyed it.

I figured I might as well do a real Halloween blowout here once, so, that was it.  I like me some Holidays, for sure, but Halloween and it's focus on lightweight scares, costumes and candy has always been a favorite.

In days of yore I might have tried to make more of Halloween night itself, but these days I'm pretty happy just to spend the evening in the driveway and get the chance to see the kids come up in their costumes.  And this year we had a heard of turtles.  Man, there were a lot of kids.

Some great costumes from Adventure Time characters to Kermit the Frog to Witches and Werewolves to somebody named "Minecraft Steve", who was the kid across the street with a box on his head.  And, because memes never really die, we had The Honey Badger.

Jason and Amy came by, so we had some company as we handed stuff out to the trick-or-treaters.  It's always more fun with company.

Anyway, it is a weird Halloween partially because the next several days are going to be nuts.  I have serious meetings at work followed by a work trip to Denver that will last all of 36 hours and end on Monday.

Hope your Halloween was fun!

If what I saw at CVS when I popped in this evening was any indication, we are now officially in the Christmas season.

Happy Halloween, Y'all!

About this time you people should be heading home to deal with little ones and to hand out candy.  I hope your Halloween season was spooktacular!

Trick or Treat, smell my feet.

Halloween! "Frankenstein" and Edgar Winter!

If you finish listening to this all the way through, get yourself some Halloween candy as a reward.

Happy Halloween! Sheila Frankenstein - Von Helsing!

Hi!  I'm Sheila Frankenstein!

this happened.

Happy Halloween! Monster Mash!

You are now legally allowed to play this song until midnight, and then it needs to go back in the vault for another year.

Happy Halloween! The Fonz!

The Fonz in costume

Happy Halloween! Lee & Cushing!

If you have to ask, you may Google it.

Happy Halloween! Vincent Price!

It would simply be bad form to celebrate Halloween without a nod to Mr. Price.

Halloween! Garth Marenghi's Darkplace!

If you've never watched Garth Marenghi's Darkplace, I cannot recommend this BBC show highly enough.

Here's the first episode.

Halloween! Mickey Mouse in "The Haunted House"!

Back when Mickey was still scrappy and not afraid to throw a punch.

Happy Halloween! Paul Lynde!

October Watch: House (1986)

I kind of suspect this was a "you sort of had to be there" thing in 1986.  I think I was a full 45 minutes into the movie before I figured out it was supposed to be funny.

Sorry to those of you who have a fondness for this movie.  I think my comedy/ horror allotment was already filled first, in 1987, by Monster Squad, and then in 1993 when I saw Evil Dead II and Army of Darkness.

Octoberama! War of the Worlds on the Radio!

On October 30th, 1938, the Mercury Theater performed a radio show adaptation of HG Wells' War of the Worlds.  I expect that most of you will have heard of this presentation.

On the eve of Halloween, 1938 - war brimming over in Europe, Asia in chaos, science and engineering on the march despite a decade of financial instability - Americans tuned into the radio for their after dinner relaxation.  Sure, everyone knew Halloween was coming, but like the first April Fool's joke sprung on you each year, it may not be the first thing on your mind.

The broadcast was the one that supposedly set the nation into a panic and had people driving around, shooting at water towers and running from imaginary space men.  It also ended in folks calling for the head of Orson Welles - well before he decided not to sell any wine before its time or voice the monster planet in the Transformers Movie.

AXE COP. NICK OFFERMAN. GO!!! (Halloween, Cartoons and Awesomeness)

If you're like me, you're busily trying to model your entire work persona off Ron Swanson, head of the Parks Department on NBC's Parks and Rec.*  Ron Swanson is played by the amazing Nick Offerman, the man manly enough to be married to Megan Mullally.

Mr. Offerman is now also The Voice of AxeCop.**

Here is the first clip from the upcoming show, an adaptation of one of the "Ask AxeCop" mailbag sections popular in the comic strip.

Bear in mind, the strip is written by a 6 year old. That may fill in some important blanks as you consider the mind-boggling sequence about to beset your eyes.



*and, seriously, Parks and Rec is one of my favorite shows right now
**thanks to Kristen B for the link!

October Watch: House of Wax (1953)

When I was, maybe, 13, House of Wax (1953) showed on local UHF affiliate, KBVO.

It scared the bejeezus out of me.

I haven't seen it again since, nor did I catch the 00's-era remake featuring... sigh.  Paris Hilton.

House of Wax was my first full Vincent Price film, and while it may not be as straight up creepy as House on Haunted Hill or weird as The Fly, it still freaked me out pretty well when I was the right age.  It also gave me a lot of respect for Vincent Price as someone other than a guest star on The Muppet Show and Batman.

The film, while gothic in spirit, is shot during the era where Technicolor required a lot of light, and movies were offering up all sorts of color to compete with the monochromatic invasion of the television screen.  The movie was originally seen in 3D, but I've only ever seen it on television, so...