Episode 49: Wonder Woman!

Episode 49: Wonder Woman!
Produced by Relevant to Our Interests
Scripting by Frank Shaw and John Belliston
Edited by: Frank Shaw
Graphic Design by: Nathan Newell
Intro Music: Morning Activities by F.G. Shaw
Outro Music: Morning Activities by F.G. Shaw

Forever behind, and never ahead. Episode 49 John and I talk about Wonder Woman. This movie was surprisingly good, and honestly if it could be pulled out of the greater DC Universe and stand on it's own two legs it would be even better. The DC Universe is suffering, and all reports that peoples attitude on Justice League are mixed. Wonder Woman suffers for being tied to the overarching DC Universe. It's too bad, because Gal Godot makes a fantastic Diana. I'm not sure what Warner Brothers is going to do with their franchise, but if the Justice League's performance is any indication, things do not bode well for the future of DC. I've seen rumors thrown around, but until I see something solid all I can do is speculate. At least their television franchises are fun. 

Here is a link to the one of the bigger insane fan theories. It's a fun little Reddit thread. It's fun to speculate. 

Episode 28: Horror Movies pt. 2

Episode 28: Horror Movies pt. 2
Hosts: Frank Shaw and John Belliston
Special Guest: Chris Thames
Produced by Hobos in the Back Row
Scripting by Frank Shaw and John Belliston
Edited by: Frank Shaw
Graphic Design by: Nathan Newell
Intro Music: Piano Sonata mvnt 1 by F.G. Shaw
Outro Music: Piano Sonata mvnt 3 by F.G. Shaw

Just in time for Halloween, Notes! Not a lot of notes this week just movie lists!
Give these movies a watch, then listen to the podcast to hear our thoughts. 

Franks films:
They Look Like People
Creep
He Never Died
Would You Rather

All of Franks films are currently available to watch on Netflix.

John's Movies:
Troll Hunter
The Voices
Zombeavers
Deathgasm
Don't Blink

All of John's movies are available to stream on Netflix

Chris' List:
Sinister
Curse of Chucky
Trick r' Treat
Event Horizon
The Thing
John Dies at the End
The Witch

Curse of Chucky, Event Horizon, John Dies at the End are available to watch on Netflix.

Happy Halloween!

Episode 19: Kaiju Films

Episode 19: Kaiju Films
Hosts: Frank Shaw and John Belliston
Produced by Hobos in the Back Row
Scripting by John Belliston and Frank Shaw
Edited by: Frank Shaw
Graphic Design by: Nathan Newell
Intro Music: Piano Sonata mvnt 1 by F.G. Shaw
Outro Music: Piano Sonata mvnt 3 by F.G. Shaw


John and I discuss Kaiju movies. John goes into detail about the history and craft of film making the movies. We talk about the major franchises that have become popular over the years. We also discuss a couple of things that we found interesting.

Show notes are coming. John has a list of films that will be posted soon. The post will be updated!

UPDATE:

Here are a few notes that John has provided:

First up here is, what I would think, is a very complete film list of giant monsters. All the way from 1920's to present day. It's the Giant Monster Movie List! It lists the year, and the giant monster that features in the film.

Here is the wiki page that lists all the Kaiju monsters that have appeared in cinema (at least as far as we know). There's a lot.

John mentions this a few times during the episode, it's Kaijucast and while I have had the opportunity to sit down and listen to an episode or two yet.

And finally here is the documentary that Kaijucast produced, there's a lot of great interviews with the original cast and crew of the original Godzilla movie. It's pretty cool.

Episode 18: Deadpool

Episode 18: Deadpool
Hosts: Frank Shaw and John Belliston
Produced by Hobos in the Back Row
Scripting by Frank Shaw
Edited by: Frank Shaw
Graphic Design by: Nathan Newell
Intro Music: Piano Sonata mvnt 1 by F.G. Shaw
Outro Music: Piano Sonata mvnt 3 by F.G. Shaw

John and I discuss Deadpool. We  give our thoughts on the film and what it's success means. We also talk a bit about the new Ghostbuster's trailer, Red Button ice cream and Vin Diesel.

There aren't any other notes on this episode, though over the next week we'll be sharing some videos from NerdSync's youtube channel in which they discuss several aspects of the character of Deadpool. It's a fun channel (with a great podcast) so stay tuned and check it out.

Episode 16: Star Wars Episode VII

Episode 16: Star Wars Episode VII
Hosts: Frank Shaw and John Belliston
Special guest: Richard L. Sanders
Produced by Hobos in the Back Row
Scripting by Frank Shaw and John Belliston
Edited by: Frank Shaw
Intro Music: Piano Sonata mvnt 1 by F.G. Shaw
Outro Music: Piano Sonata mvnt 3 by F.G. Shaw

John and I are joined by author Richard L. Sanders where we discuss our thoughts about the newest addition to the Star Wars franchise. We throw out some crazy theories as well as discuss our likes and dislikes about the franchise in general.  The conversation is more rambling than normal, but is still a lot of fun.

There are a lot of links, but many will be posted through out the next couple of weeks, as they include several videos from Youtube. The ones below all lead to articles though and are worth a read.

First up is an interview given to Rolling Stone by Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill.

Here's a theory (one of many) about Rey's background, and it's personally the one I hope is true.

Here is the article mentioned in the podcast where the fan debunks the 40 plot hole article on the Huffington Post.

Here's the link to Darth Jar Jar. 

Finally, here's the article on the deleted scene of Maz Kanata's use of the force.

Episode 14: John Hates What You Love, A Nightmare Before Christmas

Episode 14: John Hates What You Love, The Nightmare Before Christmas
Hosts: Frank Shaw and John Belliston
Produced by Hobos in the Back Row
Scripting by Frank Shaw and John Belliston
Edited by: Frank Shaw
Intro Music: Piano Sonata mvnt 1 by F.G. Shaw
Outro Music: Piano Sonata mvnt 3 by F.G. Shaw

Even when he likes a movie John is happy to ruin it for everybody else. John and I discuss the film A Nightmare Before Christmas: We talk about what kind of film it actually is (Christmas or Halloween), what some problems of the movie are, and some crazy fan theories. Hopefully it'll make you rethink the way you watch this movie.

Not a lot of notes this episode:

Here's a link to an article discussing Harry Selick firmly stating his opinion about what sort of film the movie is.

Here's a Mental Floss list detailing things you might not know about the film, unless you've read a lot of stuff about it online, watched the commentary to the movie or listened to our podcast (or any other podcast) on the movie. Still, a fun list.
(*Editor's Note: John and Frank don't actually touch on most of the items on this list.)

Finally! Here's Tim Burton's original poem.

As an added bonus here's Korn singing Kidnap the Sandy Claws.

James and the Giant Peach Review

James and the Giant Peach (1996, dir Henry Selick)

Roald Dahl seemed to understand children. His novels speak to them, both exploring the darker side of life that they are unwilling, or unable to speak about to adults but also to that sense of wonderment that the world has to offer one who has only a minimal experience with it. The best adaptations of his work capture both things and cater to the child watching and not to the adult. This is not to say that adults can’t enjoy those works, but that it’s not the adult that matters.

James and the Giant Peach tells the story of James Henry Trotter (Paul Terry) who is living comfortably with his father and mother in a small cottage by the sea. They picnic, find shapes in clouds and talk about visiting New York City on his birthday. It is in the cloud shapes that the narrator tells us, with the image provided by the clouds themselves, that James life changes when his father and mother are tragically killed by an escaped Rhinoceros.

We are propelled forward in the story and James now lives with his Aunts, Spiker (Joanna Lumley) and Sponge (Miriam Margolyes) who treat him very poorly: He is forced to sleep in a leaky attic, made to do all manner of chores and tasks, and fed fish heads and bits of food that he rescues from the garbage. Spiker and Sponge are detestable Ms. Lumbley and Ms. Margolyes play them in such a way as to not simply make the characters cruel, but downright loathsome.

While rescuing a spider a strange old soldier (Pete Postlethwaite)  finds James and gives him a bag of crocodile tongues. The soldier warns him not to spill the contents of the bag and that they will bring him happiness and adventure. Shortly thereafter James trips, spilling the tongues on the ground next to an old dead peach tree below his aunt's house.

A tree near where the tongues spilled grows a giant peach and Sponge and Spiker proceed to sell tickets for the public to see it. After the crowds have left they send James out to pick up the garbage around the peach. He decides to take a bite of peach and as he does one of the lost crocodile tongues burrows its way into into the handful of peach and is eaten by James. Spiker and Sponge come looking for him and he crawls into the hole  in the peach that he had made. He transforms as he crawls into the peach from a real little boy to his stop motion counterpart and soon discovers giant magical bugs inside.

The bugs: Miss Spider (Susan Sarandon), Mr. Grasshopper (Simon Callow), Mr. Centipede (Richard Dreyfus), Mrs. Ladybug (Jane Leeves), Earthworm (David Thewlis) and Glowworm (Miriam Margolyes) quickly become James’ friends. They cut loose the peach from the tree and then set out to go to New York City.

The movie, like many stop motion films seem to, is a musical. With only four songs, and the closing credits song “My Name Is” sung by Randy Newman, it barely qualifies. Unlike the musical numbers for the film the Corpse Bride, I didn’t feel the songs detracted from this film.

The acting is ok: Paul Terry is charming as James, and both actress playing Sponge and Spiker are perfect. The voice acting in the rest of the film isn’t bad by any means, but isn’t particularly great either, the actors (all of whom are fantastic actors in their own right) just didn’t fully click with me.

The animation is wonderful though. I love stop motion and if the entire film had been stop motion I would have been pleased. It’s not however, but what is there is great. I would love to see more from Henry Selick as he seems to have a knack for stop motion films. Stop motion seems to be going through a small resurgence and I hope with the technological advances made with computers adding the effort of the puppeteers we will see more of them in the years to come.

The live action sequences are very surreal and this fits the film and the story well. There’s never a full sense of time period, but one get’s the impression that it’s long ago. There’s also a dream like sense to the live action sequences.

The question is: should you watch it? Yes. Absolutely! Mr. Dahl’s stories are magical when done correctly and that, to me is in always in disregard to the adults that might be watching. James and the Giant Peach is a magical film for children that adults that haven’t forgotten their inner child can enjoy.

Episode 13: Stanley Kubrick

Episode 13: Stanley Kubrick
Hosts: Frank Shaw
Produced by Hobos in the Back Row
Scripting by Frank Shaw
Edited by: Frank Shaw
Intro Music: Piano Sonata mvnt 1 by F.G. Shaw
Outro Music: Piano Sonata mvnt 3 by F.G. Shaw

Frank's flying solo this episode. John is recouperanting from some illnesses and sadly couldn't join in on the festivies this time. So listen to Frank talk for an hour about how awesome Stanley Kubrick is. It'll be fun!

No real links this time. Just a run down of Stanley Kubrick's filmography and a suggestion on a couple of documentaries to watch.


 1999 Eyes Wide Shut

 1987 Full Metal Jacket

 1980 The Shining

 1975 Barry Lyndon

 1971 A Clockwork Orange

 1968 2001: A Space Odyssey

 1964 Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

 1962 Lolita

 1960 Spartacus

 1957 Paths of Glory

 1956 The Killing

 1955 Killer's Kiss

 1953 The Seafarers (Documentary short)

 1953 Fear and Desire

 1951 Day of the Fight (Documentary short)

 1951 Flying Padre (Documentary short)

and now for a couple of documentaries you should check out.

2001 Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures 
1996 Cinefile: Stanley Kubrick – The Invisible Man 
2001 2001: The Making of a Myth 
1999 Steven and Stanley, Remembering Stanley Kubrick: Steven Spielberg
2007 Lost Kubrick: The Unfinished Films of Stanley Kubrick 

I've seen all of the above documentaries, and they are all worth checking out if you have further interest in the man and his films.

As of right now A Clockwork Orange, and 2001: A Space Odyssey are available to stream on Netflix.

Review of Corpse Bride

Corpse Bride (dir. Tim Burton, Mike Johnson. 2005)

Tim Burton is known for making quirky, darkly humorous films. Some are heavier on the quirky portion: like Pee Wee Herman’s Big Adventure and Big Fish. While others are more ensconced in dark humor: like his Batman films, Sleepy Hollow and Sweeney Todd. Corpse Bride fits somewhere in between: It’s definitely dark, considering the plot and the tone the film sets within it’s animated world. But it’s not sinister in any way (few of his movies are) and has a cheeky feel to it that both embraces the dark elements, while injecting an anachronistic humor into them.

The story is of a young man named Victor Van Dort (voiced by Johnny Depp), whose parents have arranged for him to marry Victoria Everglot (Emily Watson). Her parents have only agreed to the marriage to this young man of “new money” because their own fortune has waned and they’ll soon find themselves in the poor house. They are dismissive of Victoria’s nervousness and concern for love (“What does love have to do with marriage?”) citing that this is likely the only way they have of becoming wealthy again and what she wants doesn’t matter.

Victor and Victoria meet each other for the first time just before the wedding rehearsal, where Victoria peeks in on Victor playing the piano. They timidly fall for each other before they are interrupted by Victoria’s parents. During the rehearsal, Victor falls nervous and is unable to speak his lines, he fumbles the wedding ceremony and is chastised by Pastor Galswells (Christopher Lee). Victor goes to the nearby woods where he practices his lines, becoming more confident and more smitten with Victoria as he does. When he finishes the last line he thrusts the wedding band, which he had fumbled and dropped during the rehearsal, confidently onto what appears to be an extended branch. The branch turns out to be bony hand of Emily, or the Corpse Bride. She accepts his vows and takes him to the underworld where the dead reside.

The film follows some fairly standard tropes from there: Victor tries to get back, and manages to return long enough to speak to Victoria before being whisked away to the underworld again by Emily. Victoria’s parents arrange a new marriage to the sinister Barkis Bittern (Richard E. Grant), who originally appears during the wedding rehearsal and looks so sinister as to only be lacking a neon sign around his neck stating that he’s actually the villain. Victor resigns himself to stay with Emily agreeing to make their marriage official. The underworld returns to the surface to perform their wedding ceremony, which will kill Victor in the end after drinking a poisoned wine. During the ceremony Emily realizes that Victor and Victoria belong together and refuses to go through with it stopping Victor from drinking the wine. Barkis crashes the party and it’s revealed that he killed Emily years ago for her dowry and that’s what he intended to do to Victoria until he found out her family was penniless. He ends up drinking the wine while mocking Emily and dying, being pulled into the underworld by the other dead for his punishment.

I am mixed about this film. It’s definitely a children’s film, and should be taken as such, though the themes are more mature though in many ways cliched. The overall tone of the film, the notion of love at first sight, and love despite being forced into the marriage predominate. As do the ideas of willful misunderstanding. Individually all the pieces are that make up the film are good: the voice acting is solid. The animation is fantastic! The music by Danny Elfman is great.

However the movie hovers between a musical and nonmusical, and that’s one of those things that bug me. At first blush, it seems like a musical, the opening song gives it that drive you’d expect, but then another musical number doesn’t happen for some time. In total the film only has four musical numbers. I am not opposed to musicals, and in fact find myself occasionally enjoying them. I can’t help but feel the sort of limbo between musical and nonmusical this movie finds itself in ultimately weakens it. The songs that are there are good and I honestly think it would have been better served as a full fledged musical. Overall it comes across as a half-hearted attempt and just falls flat.

My other issue is with the plot. It’s just not remarkable. I know it’s based on a Russian folktale and is ostensibly a children’s film. Neither fact has any bearing on my thoughts of the plot. I suppose the cliched themes metioned above may have something to do with my issues, but over all just don’t find it that engaging. I think it could have been better served by being a television film or as I stated above, being turned into a full fledged musical. The cliched themes would have fit better, and the musical numbers would have helped keep my attention focussed.

Now with that being said, you may get the impression that I disliked this movie. That is not the case; I actually do like it, it’s just not as memorable as some of Tim Burton’s other work (both written and directed). If you are a fan of animated movies you should absolutely watch this (if you haven’t already). And if you’re a collector of such films then it’s definitely one you should have.

Episode 11 Zombies.

Episode 11: Zombies
Hosts: Frank Shaw and John Belliston
Contributing Guests: Aubrey Spivey
Produced by Hobos in the Back Row
Scripting by Frank Shaw
Edited by: Frank Shaw
Intro Music: Piano Sonata mvnt 1 by F.G. Shaw
Outro Music: Piano Sonata mvnt 3 by F.G. Shaw

We have a great conversation about zombies on this episode, talking about the folklore, the evolution and the social popularity. There's some technical difficulty with the episode, mostly internet problems. Still a fun conversation with a lot of references in the notes to follow.

This first link is the first of many detailing the George Romero films, specifically the cultural significance of Night of the Living Dead.

Here is a link from The Wire to an article detailing the history of the zombie. It barely touches on the actual history. It does quote this article from the New York Times that details the cultural significance of zombies when in relation with slavery, which is well worth the read. And here's another 'History' of the Zombie from NPR (referencing the New York Times article again), going in a bit depth than The Wire's article. This link is looking at the idea of zombies/ghouls touching on the idea of the monsters from different cultures. This short blurb with a quote about "zombies" from the Epic of Gilgamesh. This article is short, but fairly thorough, history of the zombie going from the Epic of Gilgamesh and the Bible all the way to current saturation (2014). And finally an article dealing solely with the Haitian zombie from Discovery News.

This article details the social commentary of several of the major zombie films over the years. This link is to Amazon, for the book Better Off Dead: The Evolution of the Zombie as Post-Human. And finally this Slate article on the current trend for fast zombies.

This Wired article/interview with George Romero, and here's a link to the official Birth of the Living Dead website. This documentary is currently available on Netflix and Amazon, and is a must watch if you are a zombie fan.

Here is a brief article discussing the difference between the traditional zombie and the ghoul (ghul) of Arabic myth. And this dissertation goes into depth about the mythological ghoul of Arabic culture and myth.

And here are some lists: This first one is the top 15 Zombie films of the 21st Century (as of July 2015). This list is the top 40 zombie films of all time.

Hellraiser Fan Films Part 1

All three of the fan films I'm reviewing this week are view-able online. Links are included at the beginning of each review. The actual video quality on all three are lacking, having been posted on Youtube before higher fidelity was available, or having been made before higher fidelity was available, on equipment that is old or outdated by today's standards. 

Hellbent: A Hellraiser Chronicle (Fraught Productions, Dir. by Geoff Harner, 1993)

Hellbent is the first film  I watched for these reviews, which is fitting because it was the first fan-film made based off the Hellraiser IP. It tells the story of Whitfield a drug addict looking for a fix in his small British town. Trying several friends and potential hook-ups he finally finds himself wandering the streets empty handed when a transient offers to to sell him a box that will give him the pleasure that he seeks. He buys the box and, locked in his garage, he solves it. Instead of summoning the cenobites however the box begins to bleed. Unfathomably, Whitfield decides to taste the blood which seems to cause him agony, making his eyes bleed and him writhe in pain. His friend Owen arrives moments later to discover Whitfield in the garage surrounded by hanging hooks with his eyes bleeding. Whitfield tells Owen that he’s crossed over into “heaven” and tries to get Owen to try the blood from the box. Owen refuses and Whitfield summons the chains to hook Owens flesh then proceeds to cut him down with a sword. We see Whitfield one last time, his eyes blacked out and menacing.

The movie is rough, but considering it was filmed in 1993 for what was obviously a shoestring budget and on what appears to be a camcorder, this is no surprise. The effects are cheap but there are a couple of nice moments, a stop-motion cut of nails going in around somebody's eye, for instance. The acting is unconvincing and the actual framing of each scene is also somewhat poor overall with the camera shaking, and framing the action at odd angles.

It’s not a good movie, but given the nature of the film this is forgivable. These are obviously a group of friends who enjoy making film and have built up a large backlog of independent movies over the last 20 years, and still appear to be making films. Is it worth watching? Yes, but only if you like the Hellraiser franchise and want to see some love given to the IP by a group of enthusiastic individuals. It’s only 10 minutes, so it’s easy to watch and appreciate. Otherwise, give it a skip.

                                                                                                           

Hellraiser: Prophecy (Dir. Jonathan Kui, 2006)

(part 2 here).

The second film is Hellraiser: Prophecy. This tells the tale of the beginning of the second Angelic war that has begun between Michael and Gabriel. Interested in seeing Michael win in order to keep the status quo in Hell, Lucifer (Jeremy Yost) has come to earth in human form to find somebody to solve the Lamentation Configuration for him so he can access the Labyrinth and recruit the cenobites to fight on the side of Michael. He does so by tricking Natasha (Lori Pyzocha) a graduate student in theology who’s currently trying to translate a Grimoire of the Gash into solving the puzzle box. She does so and summons four cenobites who take her back to the Labyrinth. The lead Cenobite, Angelique (Monica Dus) listens to Lucifer’s proposal and agrees to help, but only if he comes back to the Labyrinth and speaks to Leviathan himself. He does so, but realizes at last minute that it’s a trick when the hooks appear and begin to tear his flesh. Angelique tells him that it this was the Cenobites plan all along. At that moment he appears to unleash his own power and the film ends.

It’s a rough film. There are some genuinely fun moments, and the plot is amazingly thought provoking and cool. Sadly the execution isn’t there. It’s a bad film, but only when compared to films that have a greater budget. Some of the special effects are clever and well done, like the hooks going into Natasha and Lucifer’s flesh, and the solution of the puzzle box (though that might be a borrowed asset honestly). The acting is poor. There are some performances better than others, Jeremy Yost as Lucifer has a few good moments, as does Monica Dus as Angelique. But none of the performances are great, though there are some passable moments. The makeup has the potential to be good but, it fails. Angelique’s makeup is almost awesome, except you can see parts of her hairline from under the skullcap. The other Cenobites appear to have masks on. Butterball’s mask is nearly convincing, but the “Spike” cenobite.... oh, what a terrible mask.

The filmmakers have made two Hellraiser films, as well as making of documentaries for the this film. I will look at the other film that they have produced next week (Hellraiser: Deader-Winter’s Lament). This film is short, about 20 minutes divided up into two parts on Youtube. It is worth watching, once again, if you’re a fan of the Hellraiser franchise, otherwise skip it.

The Tontine (Dir. Scott Hampton, 2006)

Part 2.

Part 3.

This film is only tangentially a Hellraiser film as it’s adapted from a story from the Hellraiser comics from the early 1990’s. The film is about a group of 6 individuals who enter into a tontine* with each other. They have each put in a small amount of money but who are really benefitting from increased luck that occurs after each individual dies. After the agreement is reached they play a game of Russian roulette until one of their numbers dies, increasing the luck of the remaining members. They agree to meet once every three years and play russian roulette, randomly killing off one of their members until only one remains, gaining the pool of money they each invested as well as the luck and fortune of each of the previous members. The tontine works. Their luck increases with each death, all of them becoming wealthy and successful in their various lives. The narrator of the film recalls how he met Eric, the first victim of the tontine and the one who proposed it. Noting how Eric arrived knowing his darkest secrets and seemed to arrive with this information from a mysterious book called the Drawn Veil. The other members note similar meetings with Eric. Each meeting goes similarly with only one hiccup through the course of the film.

This movie is well done. Very well done for what is a fan film. It’s not directly a Hellraiser film, it has no cenobites, puzzle box, or the Lamentation Configuration, but it was adapted from a story in the first run of Hellraiser Comics from the early 1990’s**. The plot is solid, the cinematography is fantastic as well. The acting, for the most part is good. In fact there are instances where the acting is very good. Unfortunately I am unable to find a proper cast list for this movie so am unable to give proper credit for the stand out performances. The actor who plays Eric does a great job, as well as the actor who plays Lloyd. The Narrator (Ryan) does ok. Well enough to carry the film though his narration is much better than his on screen time. The whole film could be expanded into a feature length, at thirty minutes though it’s doesn’t waste any of the viewer’s. time.

Sadly, it appears that Break of Dawn of Productions isn’t active any more. They have several more films on their Youtube channel, but the last update was four years ago. They are a talented group of filmmakers and know how to play to their strengths in order maximize the quality of their production. Should you watch this? Absolutely! Even if you’re not a Hellraiser fan, if you have 30 minutes check this movie out. It’s divided into three parts, having been put on Youtube back when only 10 minute intervals were viable. The quality of the acting, directing and cinematography makes this movie well worth checking out.

*A Tontine is an agreement between investors where the payout is increased by the other investor’s shares once that investor dies. They are not legal here in the US, but here is an article by the Washington Post that goes into what a tontine is historically and the potential for modern tontines.

**I have searched for which issue this particular story comes from and who the other is, but have thus far come up short on information. If any readers happen to know, please comment or email us so we can update this review.

Episode 10: Hellraiser films.

Episode 10: Hellraiser films
Hosts: Frank Shaw and John Belliston
Contributing Guests: Chris Thames
Produced by Hobos in the Back Row
Scripting by Frank Shaw and John Belliston
Edited by: Frank Shaw
Intro Music: Piano Sonata mvnt 1 by F.G. Shaw
Outro Music: Piano Sonata mvnt 3 by F.G. Shaw

John and I are joined once again by Chris Thames to discuss the Hellraiser series. We discuss the first film in depth as well as the novella The Hell Bound Heart. Then we discuss each subsequent films as well as a potential remake and a brief discussion of the comics and other novels.

This link leads to The Hellbound Web, a fan website for all things Helraiser. Sadly it doesn't appear to have much activity any more, but there is some fun stuff still on the website. Including a link to a variety of fan films, some of which I'll be reviewing for the weekly review.

Here is the Hellraiser wiki, another site full of info about the movies, and with no activity .

Finally here's a review of all the Hellraiser films by Katie Rife and the AV Club. Give it a read for a different perspective on the franchise.

The Babadook review

Starting today we will be doing weekly reviews on things related to the current podcast. We are in the midst of a horror themed run, and so our first many reviews will be on horror films related to the current theme. The current episodes topic (Episode 9: Horror) leads us a review of The Babadook.

(A note on spoilers: When discussing more recent works we will endeavor to keep the spoilers to a minimum, something we do not do on episodes of the podcast. The reason for this is simple, we want the reviews to be either a recommendation or a warning about the topic of review, urging you to either check it out or avoid it. For older works however we will happily spoil them, anything older than a couple of years is fair game.)

 It’s become rare for these days for horror films to take a subtle approach to story telling. To let the tension and anxiety build while still telling a coherent story that is absent of cheap jump scares or over the top gore. American horror films have suffered overall in the last decade by becoming saccharine and absent of truly horrifying elements in an attempt to appeal to a wider audience. There have been a parade of remakes from both Japanese horror cinema and European horror cinema, most of which fail simply because the filmmakers didn’t capture what made the original truly frightening. While the horror of Japanese films are often lost due to cultural difference, the horror of European films revel too much in the gore and violence that is no longer accepted by the PG-13 going audience of the U.S. It's no surprise that a film comes along that is truly frightening and engaging while not resorting to cheap gimmicks, isn’t an American film, but an Australian production. The Babadook, directed by Jennifer Kent (her first feature length production) embraces what horror films used to be: a long slow simmer brought to an intense cathartic boil. It shirks expectations simply by being a throwback to more classic horror films, where the idea of the monster was enough to terrify the audience.

   

    The film itself focuses on Amelia (Essie Davis) and Sam (Noah Wiseman) a mother and son who have a strained relationship. Sam, who is only six, has become a burden of stress for his mother, lashing out violently at times and being constantly hyperactive. He’s convinced that the boogeymen and monsters under his bed are real and will eventually come to get him, leading him to build several contraptions to fight them off. Amelia, due to his violent behavior, has felt compelled to pull him out of school early in the film, leading her sapped of what remaining energy she had.

Amelia’s herself is lonely and still grieving in denial for her husband who died taking her to the hospital six years previous to give birth to Sam. It’s not just her grief and her denial of it that define Amelia, but the underlying resentment towards Sam for her husband’s death. It’s subtle but apparent at the beginning of the film, and only serves to intensify as the move bears itself out.

Early in the film Sam asks his mother to read from a pop-up book he finds stashed away in a cupboard. The book, entitled Mr. Babadook, tells of a supernatural entity whose only purpose seems to be to torment the reader and eventually kill them. The book frightens Sam but seems to frighten Amelia more. She hides it, but it does nothing to assuage her or  Sam’s fears, so she tears it apart and puts it in the garbage bin. A few days later it appears again, this time taped up with new writing directed at Amelia depicting her killing her dog, Sam, and then slicing her own throat.

This is where the film picks up intensity. We watch while Sam’s violent anxiety increases and Amelia, even more sleep deprived, begins to act out against him. She takes him to a doctor in the hopes that placing him on sleep medication will help both he and her sleep and help to calm both their anxiety. Her plan fails and the visions and torment of Mr. Babadook soon begin to manifest in real life, becoming more intense as film goes on. Eventually leading to an ending that is both satisfying and laden with questions.

    I find a successful horror films to be one that has a satisfying plot arc, yet still contain unanswered questions for the viewer to ponder. The Babadook succeeds amazingly well in this: The nature of what the Babadook is, is never completely answered. By leaving the nature of the entity open to interpretation, the film manages to put the horror firmly in realm of the psychological. To add to this effect, Mr. Babadook himself is never fully revealed in the real world, only illustrated in the book. There are flashes here and there, but the movie never gives you a big reveal of what, or who the monster is. And that’s refreshing.

    Amelia and Sam play the mother son dynamic incredibly well. It seems to be the constant dilemma, to find a child actor that can actually act, but Jennifer Kent and casting director Nikki Barrett were fortunate to find a very talented young man in Noah Wiseman. He portrays Sam convincingly. Essie Davis as the beleaguered Amelia falls into her role with ease as well. Both actors capture the characters in such a way that there is a palpable fear of what might come next for them. 

  Also successful is the script, the moments early in the film where Sam builds his contraptions, catapults and boobie traps, aren't simply bits of characterization. The script puts these devices in, and their use becomes evident later in the film. The script plays out the subtext of the characters with some intensity. There's never a wasted line.

    As the director Jennifer Kent has succeeded on multiple levels. This is a movie that you can come back to and revisit time and again and still have the sense of unease of the first viewing: because of the deliberate pacing, the fact that it doesn’t rely on either jump scares or simple gore effects, and the fact the monster is in the viewer's mind as much as it is in the characters in the film. Mrs. Kent has succeeded in creating a horror film that actual embraces the horror, and delivers that to the audience.

    I don’t want to give numbered ratings on our movie reviews. It’s a simple guideline and easy to do, but when it comes to film there’s only one question that really needs to be answered: should I watch it? The answer to that question for The Babadook is yes. If you enjoy horror films, even only once in awhile, put this one on your list to view. It’s worth the time. 

The Babadook 

(2014, dir. by Jennifer Kent, starring Essie Davis and Noah Wiseman)

Episode 9: Horror Films.

Episode 9: Horror Films
Hosts: Frank Shaw and John Belliston
Contributing Guests: Aubrey Spivey and Chris Thames
Produced by Hobos in the Back Row
Scripting by Frank Shaw and John Belliston and Aubrey Spivey
Edited by: Frank Shaw
Intro Music: Piano Sonata mvnt 1 by F.G. Shaw
Outro Music: Piano Sonata mvnt 3 by F.G. Shaw

Here it is! Episode 9: Horror films. This is the first of four episodes that will cover horror films. John and I are joined once again by Aubrey Spivey and Chris Thames and discuss what makes a film horror. We discuss the major genre of horror films and talk about a few of our favorites.

 Here is the Horror on Screen website. The reviews of the films are fairly short, but the list of horror films on the site is pretty expansive (though by no means complete). This link is the graphic showing the major genre's and sub-genre's of horror films. We on the podcast didn't completely agree with the sub-genre's but we felt the five major genre's were right on the money.

The Blood-Shed is a website that covers horror in a multitude of media (as well as some non-horror topics). It's a great little site for those that enjoy novels, comics and games as well as movies.

Finally here is the list of the movies we touch on in the podcast. Thanks goes out to Aubrey Spivey for compiling a majority of it:
28 Day Later – 2002 – Danny Boyle
Alien - 1979 - Ridley Scott
Audition -  1999 - Takashi Miike
Battle Royale – 2000 – Kinji Fukasaku
Bug – 2006 – William Friedkin
Cabin in the Woods – 2012 – Drew Goddard
Cape Fear – 1962 – J. Lee Thompson
Carrie – 1976 – Brian De Palma
Cigarette Burns – 2005 – John Carpenter
Coraline - 2009 - Henry Selick
Critters - 1986 - Stephen Herek
Dale and Tucker vs Evil – 2010 – Eli Craig
Dead Snow – 2009 – Tommy Wirkola
Dead Snow 2: Red vs Dead – 2014 – Tommy Wirkola
Drag me to Hell – 2009 – Sam Raimi
Event Horizon - 1997 - Paul W.S. Anderson
Frankenstein – 1931 – James Whale
From Hell – 2001 – The Hughes Brothers
Godzilla – 1998 – Roland Emmerich
Halloween – 1978 – John Carpenter
Hard Candy – 2005 – David Slade
Hellraiser-1987-Clive Barker
Honeymoon – 2014 – Leigh Janiak
Hostel – 2005 – Eli Roth
House on Haunted Hill – 1999 – William Malone
Lake Placid – 1999 – Steve Miner
Let the Right One In – 2008 – Tomas Alfredson
Martyrs – 2008 – Pascal Laugier
Megan is Missing – 2011 – Michael Goi
Nekromantik – 1987 – Jörg Buttgereit
Night of the Living Dead – 1968 – George A. Romero
Oculus – 2013 – Mike Flanagan
Otis – 2008 – Tony Krantz
Quarantine – 2008 – John Erick Dowdle
Rose Red – 2002 – Craig R. Baxley
Saw – 2004 – James Wan
Shadow of the Vampire- 2000- E. Elias Merhige
Shaun of the Dead - 2004 - Edgar Wright
Sinister-2012 - Scott Derrickson
Society - 1989 - Brian Yuzna
Teeth – 2007 – Mitchell Lichtenstein
The Babadook – 2014 – Jennifer Kent
The Cell – 2000 – Tarsem Singh
The Thing - 1982 - John Carpenter
The Watcher – 2000 – Joe Charbanic
Tremors – 1990 – Ron Underwood
Trick 'r Treat – 2007 – Michael Dougherty
Wrong Turn – 2003 – Rob Schmidt

Episode 8: Bad Adaptations.

Episode 8: Bad Adaptations
Hosts: Frank Shaw and John Belliston
Produced by Hobos in the Back Row
Scripting by Frank Shaw and John Belliston
Edited by: Frank Shaw
Intro Music: Piano Sonata mvnt 1 by F.G. Shaw
Outro Music: Piano Sonata mvnt 3 by F.G. Shaw

Here's episode 8!
Frank reviews the Fantastic 4 movie. We discuss why bad adaptations happen and break things down into literary works, comics and videogames.

An EW article discussing Josh Trank's tweet about the good film he had, insinuating that studio meddling caused the bad movie.

An io9 article categorizing Philip K. Dicks films from best to worst (according to the author). Gives a short review on each film.

Here's a EW slide show ranking the worst comic book adaptations.

Uwe Boll interview on Eurogamer.net from 9 years ago. I think the attitude is changed with the publishers from what Uwe Boll has to say here, but at the time he may have had a point. The gaming industry was a different environment back then as well.

New Podcast coming soon.

 
In a couple days our new podcast will hit. John and I discuss bad adaptation movies: I review the Fantastic 4, we talk about cinematic tofu Nicholas Cage, and give our thoughts as to why bad adaptation happen all while bemoaning the terrible films we've seen for this podcast.

Fantastic 4... Sad.

Our upcoming podcast, releasing next week, is on bad adaptations. John has been eagerly watching the Joel Schumacher Batman films. I went to see the new Fantastic 4 movie... I'm going to save my full review for the podcast, but I'll just say that the film made me sad. On so many levels.

Episode 7: Antman and Absurdism

Episode 7: Antman and Absurdism
Hosts: Frank Shaw and John Belliston
Produced by Hobos in the Back Row
Edited by: Frank Shaw
Intro Music: Piano Sonata mvnt 1 by F.G. Shaw
Outro Music: Piano Sonata mvnt 3 by F.G. Shaw

We discuss Ant-man. How much we either like or disliked it.
Here's the IMDB page for the film. A lot of trivia on the trivia page. 
Here's a link to a timeline of the production for the film: Edgar Wright's involvement and eventually leaving the production after Marvel Studios gains the rights back from Artisan Films. We don't go into a lot of details in the podcast, but if anybody's interested this is pretty interesting and cool.

There is a lot more coming in Absurdism in the next week from John, but here's some links to get you started:
366 Weird Films covers a lot of films, many I haven't seen some I have. It's a pretty long interesting list though some of the movies are a bit difficult to find. Some are on Netflix, a few are on Youtube or can also be found Amazon. Some are just difficult to easily track down.

Here's a link to a blog entitled Absurdism Today. There are only two posts but it excellently details what Absurdism is as a philosophical movement. It's much more academic than we go into in the podcast.

Oddball films has this post specifically on Absurdist Cinema. The entire blog is pretty awesome and you can find a lot of movies detailed that run the absurdist spectrum. It's worth a look and you can spend quite a bit of time here.

Finally, here's another list from Absurdity in Cinema that gives another short list of absurdist movies.

Episode 5: Chew

Episode 5: Chew
Hosts: Frank Shaw and John Belliston
Produced by Hobos in the Back Row
Edited by: Frank Shaw
Intro Music: Piano Sonata mvnt 1 by F.G. Shaw
Outro Music: Piano Sonata mvnt 3 by F.G. Shaw

John and I have a long rambling conversation about the comic Chew. It's not for the faint of heart, the comic that is, not our conversation.

For the uninitiated Chew is a comic by John Layman and Rob Guillory about an FDA agent Tony Chu who is a cibopathic, which means he has the ability to see the past of anything he eats. The comic is full of cannibalism, people with strange food powers, alien fruit that tastes like chicken and a fighting rooster named POYO!

Check it out here.
Or here.
The movie is in the works and David Tennant has been confirmed to play Mason Savoy.

Episode 4: John Hates What You Love: Firefly.

Episode 4: John Hates What You Love: Firefly
Hosts: Frank Shaw and John Belliston
Produced by Hobos in the Back Row
Edited by: Frank Shaw
Intro Music: Piano Sonata mvnt 1 by F.G. Shaw
Outro Music: Piano Sonata mvnt 3 by F.G. Shaw

Here's the newest episode of the show!
This one might rub folks the wrong way a bit, but it still proves to be a fun conversation.
We have a lengthy discussion about Firefly, discuss the purpose of science fiction and criticize Joss Whedon (again).
Give it a listen.

UPDATE:

The show notes are not nearly as extensive as the last few times.

Here's a link detailing the wherefore and why of Firefly's eventual cancellation and how Fox mishandled the series.

This link is a short essay on where the series could possibly go after Serenity. Interesting read, and honestly I'd love something like what the author suggests (I'm sure John wouldn't be opposed either).

Here's a link to Margaret Weiss Productions page on the Firefly RPG. I mention in the podcast that I played the RPG. The version I played was the original version (also by Margaret Weiss Production) and was actually called the Serenity RPG. It was limited to stuff in the film initially. Well it's been republished as the Firefly RPG now and has a few supplements out as well. The game mechanics are sound and the quality and flavor of the books are fantastic. If you like RPG's and you like Firefly it's worth your time to pick this up. I can attest it's a solid system.