Just another Friday night

It's the latest twist

Thursday Top Ten: My Top ten DVD guilty pleasures

These are the top ten DVDS that I can't believe I own and that I love. Maybe i shouldn't love'em but so help me I do! So here they are...

10-Prophecy: A Monster Movie (1979)

A movie about a mutant killer bear. What's not to love!



Behold the sleeping bag scene.



9-Howard the Duck (1986)

I saw this in the theater when it came out. I have a fondness for it that I can't explain. Plus Lea Thompson is damn hot!



8-Amityville 3-D (1983)

It's total poop, but seeing it makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside with nostalgia. Plus it's got excessive 3-D fish menacing.



7-TROG (1970)

I spent more then a few Saturday afternoon watching this ridiculous film. Trog's rampage has to been seen to be believed.



6-Ghoulies (1985)

A low rent Gremlins clone. Cheese filled and harmless.



5-Don't Go In The Woods..Alone! (1981)

Oh so bad...really no words can do it justice. James Bryan I love you...



Revel in the glory of the end theme!



4-Flesh Eater (1988)

Ridiculous zombie "epic", feturing the best drunk Dracula ever! They"re DEAD THINGS!!



3-Shreik Of The Mutilated (1974)

Awesome...or is it? Details. Details.



2-Howling 2: Your Sister Is a Werewolf (1985)

It's all about Chris Lee in those shades and those end credits. Howl!



And now my guiltiest of guilty DVD pleasures...

1-Gossip Girl The Complete 1st Season

Yeah I own it and I love it. Don't ask me how our why I get addicted to stuff like this on television, but I blame it on those damn soap operas I watched on TV when I was home sick from school as a kid. That and it has an evil Michelle Trachtenberg.

THE ULTIMATE SHOWDOWN!

Check out the killer trailer for Ford Austin's upcoming shocker Dahmer vs. Gacy! Who will win?

Aliens love synthesizer music

Invasion from Inner Earth (1974)
aka They

Director: Bill Rebane

Writer: Barbara J. Rebane

Starring: Paul Bentzen, Debbi Pick, Nick Holt, Karl Wallace, Robert Arkens, Arnold Didrickson,

"About 8000 years ago, the planet Mars came within very close proximity to the Earth— even closer than our own moon."

Those Guys, You know...They

Ah 70's regional filmmaking, it can be a fun rewarding experiance watching one of these films. It can also a real head scratcher. When it comes Wisconsin homeboy Bill Rebane you get a bit of both. I've had the strange pleasure of seeing a couple of his films before. Well not learning my lesson from watching those gems and from UFO: Target Earth . I cracked open the Nightmare Worlds - 50 Movie Pack DVD from Mill Creek Entertainment again and put in another "classic" Rebane flick.

Me brain hurts

Out in the middle of East Jesus, bush-plane pilot and nature dude Jake Stephens (Holt) returns from hunting. He tells his sister, Sarah (Pick) that the wildlife has all but vanished. There's three other people staying with the brother/sister team at their cabin. Three "researchers" who are doing "science" out in the woods. They've been staying at the cabin for the better part of a month and are getting ready to head back to civilization. There's Eric (Wallace), the handsome leader of the team. There seems to be a little romance between Eric and Sarah we're told. It doesn't really amount to anything though. Next is Andy (Arkens), the bitchy know it all. Last is Stan (Bentzen), the older joker and wise sage dude. So Jake takes the three to the nearby town of Hightower in his plane, while city hating Sarah decides to stay at the cabin. In Hightower air-traffic controller Sam warns Jake not to land because everyone in town is dying of some plague-like sickness. Sam himself appears to be sick as well and when Jake tries to land Sam runs out on to the landing strip and promptly drops dead. Wisely deciding not to land, Jake heads off to Bear Creek Lodge, which has it's own airfield as well. At the lodge, the boys split up. Stan and Andy go to start the generator, whilst Jake and Eric use the shortwave radio in the lodge. All they can get is static. Meanwhile Stan and Andy hear strange noises and see a creepy red light. The four decide to head back to the Stephens cabin.

Snowblind

Back at the cabin they theorize and theorize and theorize some more about what the F is going on. Wait! Before you're bored into a coma the film cuts to strange interludes involving late-night TV talk show where the guests talk about having alien encounters. A teenage boy and a girl vanish into thin air while watching the show, for no particular reason. Another of these interludes features a radio DJ going crazy because there's no one else alive. Plus we get some scenes of people panicking as UFO's attack cities, killing people with red smoke. Meanwhile back at the Stephens cabin, our gang slowly dwindles in number. First Andy, when he takes the plane and the red light blows him up. Then Jake, when he tries to reach town on his snowmobile. He collapses and disappears. Our final three head out to try and find some answers. The three get split up, one dies and two reunite and we're treated to a amazing headache inducing ending, which I won't got into because really you need to see it and scream “What the fuck?!?!” like I did.

Run, Sarah, Run

What I both love and hate about a Bill Rebane film is his total disregard for the audience and narrative technique. Do you want action? Well screw you because old Bill is going to give you talk and nothing but. Want to know what these aliens are all about? What about the creepy voice on the radio that talks to our heroes once in awhile? How about what that red light? How does it tie-in? Well, Bill ain't spilling. This film defies being called good or bad. It's a strange 70's low-budget film that in the end has a quaintness to it. Strangest of all, for a film that's 90% talk, it's never really boring. I didn't even fall asleep during it. Plus it's got a synthesizer music, that sounds like it was done on your little brother's Casio. You can't beat that.

Hump Day Posters: Summertime Killer

UFO: TARGET SNORES

UFO: Target Earth (1974)

Director: Michael A. DeGaetano

Writer: Michael A. DeGaetano

Starring: Nick Plakias, Cynthia Cline, LaVerne Light, Tom Arcuragi, Phil Erickson,

"Curiously, what the hell do we know about electricity?'

UFO hottie 

I grew up watching In Search of ... with my parents as a kid. That's most likely were I developed my interest in paranormal and UFO phenomenon. So when a film about UFO's, especially one made in the 70's you can count me in. So when I found the Nightmare Worlds - 50 Movie Pack DVD from Mill Creek Entertainment, which includes a plethora of UFO related movies. In particular the title UFO: Target Earth jumped out at me. I was hoping it was one of those groovy 70's pseudoscientific "documentaries" that used to play on Saturday afternoon TV back in the early 80's. Well, it wasn't one of those. What it was well...

Look out!

So there's this university communications researcher/Kyle MacLachlan enthusiast Alan Grimes (Plakias) who is sitting in his office on the night of a big thunderstorm. He picks up the phone to make a call and accidentally overhears two military types authorizing a scramble of jets to investigate strange lights in the sky near a lake. Later he stares out the window and has a troubling flashbacks to his childhood. So he decides to do some snooping into phenomenon near the lake. The next day he meets with the college's resident astronomer. Alan inquires about the possibility of flying saucers. They talk for what seems like hours about the possibility of UFO's and alien life. Afterwards I woke up and Alan was visiting a mysterious psychic woman named Vivian. She gets all weird and says something about a local reservoir and feeling an alien presence.

Psycho Viv

Alan goes to the local military base and asks to use the military's communication equipment. The military doesn't want anyone messing with their stuff. So Alan goes to some of his colleagues. With the help of the collage's "high tech" computer Alan and Vivian head off to the lake. Alan goes off to set up some sensors leaving Vivian at the camp. The the movies only effective scene she starts to hear creepy alien voices over the walkie-talkie. She freaks and runs into the woods. Alan and two colleagues who show up to help him out go in search of Vivian. The three fnd her in the middle of a burnt circle of broken threes. She babels about aliens in the lake and they take her back to camp. That night on of them falls sick and Alan starts to see a strange face in one of the monitors. It seems they need Alan's imagination(!) to fix their broke-ass spaceship. Alan turns into a geezer as he is exposed to the alien presence. The audiance is treated to lots of groovy 70's computer screen savers and the UFO flies off into the stars.

Get used to this

Well there was a part of me that dug the weird anything goes 70's charm of this film. It started promising enough with mocumentary footage of people talking about their UFO experiences. And then a Pink Floyd like song called "Between The Attic and The Sky" with photos of UFO inserted into the opening credits. Then the movie proper starts an we get a strange voice over telling us that a young man (Alan) trying to make a phone call will have his life changed forever. Things pick up again when he goes to see psychic Vivian. But in the middle of their conversation the screen fades to black. It does that a few times, trying to be all dramatic and crap. But it turns out more comical then anything else.

Alan: I've heard that you feel extra-terrestrial presences. Beings around us.

Vivian: Beings? - That word is too - dimensional. Energy. Yes. I feel that. I feel as if I might somehow…

Alan: Communicate with them?

Vivian: No – with "it.” Yes, I would like that. - Why do I feel so aware now?

Alan: Listen, I have to make an appointment. Do you have some time tomorrow?

Vivan: I don't know.

Fade to black.

WTF???!!!

Looking good Alan

But once he goes to see the Ray Bradbury lookalike astronomer I started to doze off. Man did they just go on and on. Now I really don't mind a slow pace in a movie, but you got to give me something. Interesting characters and or story. Like I said there's one effective scene. If there'd been more of that and less uninteresting theorizing about what could be in the lake, maybe I could have held off with the sleepy eyes. Clocking in at barely 80 minutes it seemed more like 120. Since I kept falling asleep, waking up and to having to rewind to were I dozed off. To add insult to injury we're subjected to a trippy and way to long 2001 style, filmed for a buck light show. Maybe you need to be high to enjoy this movie, at least the ending anyway. Well there's always The Fourth Kind to look forward to. Or maybe Wham Bam Thank You Spaceman.

Behold...