Night 31 of "The 31 Nights of Halloween Film Fest"

Well, my lovely ghouls, we have made it to the end of the Film Fest. Hope you had fun reminiscing about some favorites and maybe found a few new ones. While watching these movies I couldn't help but think about...

What have we learned from watching horror films?

1. Only the skinny survive! If you can't fit through small openings you will never escape.

2. If you leave your window/doors unlocked or open then you should not be surprised when the killer appears in your house.

3. If you hear something outside at night don't go out and offer yourself up to it.

4. Never trust the local sheriff, gas attendants, doctor, etc. They are part of it!

5. Hit him again.

6. Don't sit with your back to the killer with your eyes shut thinking "It all OK now". It's not. You only hit him once and now he's standing up.

7. After the third time #6 happens...learn from it!

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This is the last night to get your comments posted for the pendant giveaway. You can go back and leave a comment on any of the past movies. Since I've had so many wonderful people playing along I've decided to pick 2 winners! Winners will be posted later on Sunday. Good luck and have fun.

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Night 31...."Young Frankenstein"

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Directed by Mel Brooks (The Producers, Blazing Saddles and Dracula: Dead and Loving It) and released on December 15, 1974 by Twentieth Century Fox. Dr. Frederick Frankenstein inherits his grandfathers castle and all it's possessions. Despite his resistance to his grandfather's ideas he quickly changes his mind when he stumbles upon some hidden journals in his grandfather's secret library. With the help of his assistants Igor (Marty Feldman) and Inga (Terri Garr) Dr. Frankenstein will attempt to bring his grandfather's dream to life.

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This is the best of the best. The comedy is so silly it's stupid but at the same time it's really rather brilliant. Mel Brooks and Gene Wilder are at their finest here and it's a treat to watch them. The sets and atmosphere are beautiful and Peter Boyle is such fun as the monster. This is a yearly Halloween staple at my house and I can't wait to watch it tonight!

Madeline Kahn is great as Elizabeth/The Bride of Frankenstein. The best quote of hers...

"Oh. Where you going?... Oh, you men are all alike. Seven or eight quick ones and then you're out with the boys to boast and brag. You better keep your mouth shut. Oh... I think I love him."

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Some trivia about the movie...

1. The film was shot with many of the same props and lab equipment as the original Frankenstein (1931).

2. The howling wolf sound on the ride to the castle was made by director Mel Brooks.

3. The idea of Frederick's dart hitting a cat was ad-libbed on set. When Gene Wilder threw his dart off camera, director Mel Brooks quickly screamed like a cat to create the illusion.

4. The scene in which the creature contemplates throwing the little girl into the lake ("No more flowers. What shall we throw in now?"), is a homage to a scene in Frankenstein (1931). That scene was cut and not restored to the original until its video release 50 years later.

5. Gene Wilder conceived the "Puttin' on the Ritz" scene, while Mel Brooks was resistant to it, feeling it detracted from the fidelity to Universal horror films in the rest of the film. It was only when he saw it with a howling audience that Brooks was confident about the sequence.

6. Gene Wilder, Peter Boyle and Marty Feldman appear together in this film by virtue of the fact that their mutual agent had a deal with the movie studio.

7. The shifting hump on Igor's back was an ad-libbed gag of Marty Feldman's. He had surreptitiously been shifting the hump back and forth for several days when cast members finally noticed. It was then added to the script.

8. Rock band Aerosmith took a break from a long night of recording to see "Young Frankenstein" in 1974. Steven Tyler wrote the band's hit "Walk This Way" the morning after seeing the movie, inspired by Marty Feldman's first scene, the "walk this way... this way" scene.

9. When Mel Brooks was preparing "Young Frankenstein," he found that Ken Strickfaden, who had made the elaborate electrical machinery for the lab sequences in the Universal Frankenstein films, was still alive in the Los Angeles area. He visited Strickfaden and found that Strickfaden had saved all the equipment and had it stored in his garage. Brooks made a deal to rent the equipment for his film and gave Strickfaden the screen credit he'd deserved, but hadn't gotten, for the original films.

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Rules for pendant giveaway...

(1) comment about a movie per movie.

(1) extra entry by following this Blog and (1) extra for following on Twitter (You can only take the blog and twitter entries once for the whole contest).

(1) extra entry for Tweeting about this. Please use this message -Check out the "31 Nights of Halloween Film Fest" to win your choice of pendant from @LaughingVixen http://bit.ly/1wOVZb -- 3 Tweets a day max and no more than 1 an hour.

(1) extra entry for guessing the next film. I will tweet hints on Twitter about the next days movie and you can post your guess as a comment. Doesn't have to be right just your best guess.

Make sure to post each entry as an individual comment on any of the movies comment pages. You can comment on past movies. Make sure you can be contacted from your post.

Night 30 of "The 31 Nights of Halloween Film Fest"

I've joined in the fun over at Domestic Witch's October Blog Party. You can find a list of participating blogs that are having fun celebrating the season of Halloween. When you're done here take a broom ride over to her site and you'll see the list of blogs on the right side bar.
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Here at The Lounge we will have a "31 Nights of Halloween Film Fest". Check back each day to see which movie is featured and some days you may get more than one. They will be a random selection of my favorites. You can see all past selections on the sidebar.
****
Make sure to leave a comment for each movie as one lucky person will win their choice of pendant from Laughing Vixen Lounge at the end of the film fest. Please see rules at end of post.
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Night 30..."An American Werewolf in London"

It just doesn't get much better than this!
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Written and directed by John Landis (Animal House, The Blues Brothers and Thriller) and released on August 21, 1981 by Universal Pictures. David (David Naughton) and Jack (Griffin Dunne) are on a backpacking trip around Europe. While hiking through rural England they stop at a little pub called "The Slaughtered Lamb". After pissing off the locals they are sent out into the cold wet night with one caution..."Beware the moon and stick to the roads." Yah, our boys aren't too bright and are strolling across the moors in no time flat. They soon find out what the locals were warning them about. Werewolves!!!
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This is darn close if not my favorite horror film ever. The blend of humor and horror is spot on here. The effects were cutting edge and won an Oscar. I still prefer them to many overdone CGI effects. And the use of moon related songs is fun and effective. This is one of my yearly "must see" on Halloween.
I mean, can you really hear "Bad Moon Rising" by Credence and not think of this movie. Maybe I saw it young enough that it branded my brain.
Creepiest scene is the man being stalked in the subway terminal. I still find it scary.
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Some trivia about the movie...
1. John Landis originally wanted three other songs to add to the soundtrack: Cat Stevens wouldn't allow "Moonshadow" to be used because he had stopped allowing his secular music to be licensed for films following his conversion to Islam; Bob Dylan wouldn't allow his version of "Blue Moon" to be used in an R-rated film, as he had just begun his brief conversion to Christianity; and Elvis Presley's version of "Blue Moon" proved unavailable due to the ongoing lawsuits involving his estate.
2. The legal disclaimer in the closing credits reads, "Any resemblance to any persons living, dead, or undead is coincidental". This was also placed at the end of another John Landis project: Thriller (1983) (TV), which was reportedly inspired by (and held several allusions to) this film.
3. David Naughton was reportedly cast because John Landis had seen him in a television commercial for Dr. Pepper. I remember this commercial! He also had a top 40 hit song!! He was on a TV show in '79 called "Makin' It" and he sang the theme song. 8)
4. In 1997, the movie was re-recorded as a Radio drama by Audio Movies Limited for BBC Radio 1 in England. It was broadcast during Halloween that year, in short snippets throughout the day. Brian Glover, John Woodvine and Jenny Agutter reprised their roles from the movie.
5. Studio executives hoped John Landis would cast Dan Aykroyd in the role of David and John Belushi as Jack. John Landis refused.
6. John Landis came up with a film following an incident while shooting Kelly's Heroes (1970) in the countryside of Yugoslavia. While driving along a country road with a colleague, Landis encountered a gypsy funeral. The body was being buried in a massively deep grave, feet first, while wrapped in garlic, so as he would not rise from the dead.
7. Director Cameo: [John Landis] appears briefly near the end of the film. He is the bearded man who gets hit by a car and thrown through the plate glass window in Piccadilly Circus.
8. When trying to call home, the telephone number that David Kessler gives the operator (516-472-3402) contains a Long Island, New York area code. It is also an unusual case where an actual phone number is used.
9. At the very end of the film, an advertisement for Universal Studios is shown along with a suggestion to "Ask for Babs". This is a reference to a "Where are they Now" item featured towards the end of Animal House (1978), another film by John Landis.
10. This is the first film to earn the Academy Award for Best Makeup. That category was created in 1981.
11. The final look of the werewolf beast was based on make-up creator Rick Baker's dog Bosko.
12. The Werewolf Howl that was used for the film, was a combination of a actual wolf and an elephant, it was also said it was played backwards by the producer 'George Folsey Jr'. in the "Beware The Moon" documentary. Director John Landis also stated on the "Beware The Moon" Documentary that the Howl was a combination of 7 or 8 different animals.
13. Miss Piggy/Yoda-Creator/Voice Talent Frank Oz plays Mr. Collins of the American embassy, who attempts in vain to console David. His voice is also heard later, during the Muppet Show.
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Rules for pendant giveaway...
(1) comment about a movie per movie.
(1) extra entry by following this Blog and (1) extra for following on Twitter (You can only take the blog and twitter entries once for the whole contest).
(1) extra entry for Tweeting about this. Please use this message -Check out the "31 Nights of Halloween Film Fest" to win your choice of pendant from @LaughingVixen http://bit.ly/2v5w28 -- 3 Tweets a day max and no more than 1 an hour.
(1) extra entry for guessing the next film. I will tweet hints on Twitter about the next days movie and you can post your guess as a comment. Doesn't have to be right just your best guess.
Make sure to post each entry as an individual comment on any of the movies comment pages. You can comment on past movies. Make sure you can be contacted from your post.

Night 29 of "The 31 Nights of Halloween Film Fest"

I've joined in the fun over at Domestic Witch's October Blog Party. You can find a list of participating blogs that are having fun celebrating the season of Halloween. When you're done here take a broom ride over to her site and you'll see the list of blogs on the right side bar.
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Here at The Lounge we will have a "31 Nights of Halloween Film Fest". Check back each day to see which movie is featured and some days you may get more than one. They will be a random selection of my favorites. You can see all past selections on the sidebar.

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Make sure to leave a comment for each movie as one lucky person will win their choice of pendant from Laughing Vixen Lounge at the end of the film fest. Please see rules at end of post.

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Night 29..."Classic Monster Movies"

I love old black and white monster movies. Any and all of them. Atomic bugs, Woman that change into insects, The Universal Monsters, Critters from Outer space, Ghost, Zombies, Killer Bugs and just about anything that happens to grow really big! I'm a huge Mystery Science Theater 3000 lover so all the better if they're MST'd. Anyway and every way they are wonderful and make me laugh. If you visit my shop you will see many of them lurking around.

The trailers were great too. "It leaps! It Crawls! It takes over the world! Run!" I love this style and it show in the posters too. I couldn't think of anything better than to let their great artwork speak for them. This is just a sampling of the heaps of them out there.

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Rules for pendant giveaway...

(1) comment about a movie per movie.

(1) extra entry by following this Blog and (1) extra for following on Twitter (You can only take the blog and twitter entries once for the whole contest).

(1) extra entry for Tweeting about this. Please use this message -Check out the "31 Nights of Halloween Film Fest" to win your choice of pendant from @LaughingVixen http://bit.ly/10eYvS -- 3 Tweets a day max and no more than 1 an hour.

(1) extra entry for guessing the next film. I will tweet hints on Twitter about the next days movie and you can post your guess as a comment. Doesn't have to be right just your best guess.

Make sure to post each entry as an individual comment on any of the movies comment pages. You can comment on past movies. Make sure you can be contacted from your post.

Night 28 of "The 31 Nights of Halloween Film Fest"

I've joined in the fun over at Domestic Witch's October Blog Party. You can find a list of participating blogs that are having fun celebrating the season of Halloween. When you're done here take a broom ride over to her site and you'll see the list of blogs on the right side bar.
****
Here at The Lounge we will have a "31 Nights of Halloween Film Fest". Check back each day to see which movie is featured and some days you may get more than one. They will be a random selection of my favorites. You can see all past selections on the sidebar.
****
Make sure to leave a comment for each movie as one lucky person will win their choice of pendant from Laughing Vixen Lounge at the end of the film fest. Please see rules at end of post.
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Night 28...."Dead and Breakfast"

You will either love it or hate it!
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Directed by Matthew Leutwyler (This Space Between Us, Road Kill and Unearthed) and released on August 19, 2005 by Anchor Bay Entertainment. A group of young people, on their way to a wedding, stop for the night at a bed and breakfast in the little town of Lovelock, Texas. Upon waking they find some dead bodies and an evil spirit possessing the townsfolk, turning them into Zombies. Can they stop the madness before it takes over forever? And wow, can those Zombies dance. That's right, dance!
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The tagline for this movie was "It's like a bad horror film, only worse". That pretty much sums it up. This is a grade A hunk of cheesiness. Lots of squirting blood, jokes and Zombies. And yes, there is a roaming band (kinda like "Something About Mary") so you have singing Zombies that even do a little dance. It's silly, funny and bad in all the best ways.
And as an extra treat it has two of my favorites in it, Jeffery Dean Morgan (The Sheriff) and Jeremy Sisto (Ahhh, let's just say The Head). Also stars David and Ever Carradine.
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Some trivia about the movie...
1. When the group first gets to the bed and breakfast, they hear the song "The Freshmen" on the radio and sing to it. "The Freshmen" was written and performed by Brian Vander Ark, who appears as a zombie and wrote the original score to the film.
2. When the Sheriff is pulling the chainsaw out of the closet, an Evil Dead poster can be seen.
3. When Melody (Gina Philips) kills one of the zombies, the Sheriff (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) says, "Nice move, Buffy." Bianca Lawson, who plays Kate in the film, played Kendra on the Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV series.
4. 34 gallons of "blood" were used over the course of the shoot. 4.5 gallons of "blood" were used just to cut off Erik Palladino's head.
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Rules for pendant giveaway...
(1) comment about a movie per movie.
(1) extra entry by following this Blog and (1) extra for following on Twitter (You can only take the blog and twitter entries once for the whole contest).
(1) extra entry for Tweeting about this. Please use this message -Check out the "31 Nights of Halloween Film Fest" to win your choice of pendant from @LaughingVixen http://bit.ly/VlAB4 -- 3 Tweets a day max and no more than 1 an hour.
(1) extra entry for guessing the next film. I will tweet hints on Twitter about the next days movie and you can post your guess as a comment. Doesn't have to be right just your best guess.
Make sure to post each entry as an individual comment on any of the movies comment pages. You can comment on past movies. Make sure you can be contacted from your post.

Night 27 of "The 31 Nights of Halloween Film Fest"

I've joined in the fun over at Domestic Witch's October Blog Party. You can find a list of participating blogs that are having fun celebrating the season of Halloween. When you're done here take a broom ride over to her site and you'll see the list of blogs on the right side bar.
****
Here at The Lounge we will have a "31 Nights of Halloween Film Fest". Check back each day to see which movie is featured and some days you may get more than one. They will be a random selection of my favorites. You can see all past selections on the sidebar.
****
Make sure to leave a comment for each movie as one lucky person will win their choice of pendant from Laughing Vixen Lounge at the end of the film fest. Please see rules at end of post.
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Night 27...."The Texas Chainsaw Massacre"

Ick...Yuck...Eeew...Blaaaah.
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Directed by Tobe Hooper (Salem's Lot, Venom and Invaders from Mars) and released on October 1, 1974 by Bryanston Distributing. A group of teens are traveling the back roads of Texas wanting to visit the old home two of them grew up in. Running low on gas they try the local gas station but they are out. When they reach the house they decide to visit the neighbors to see if they have any gas they can borrow. Bad idea! The neighbors happen to be sadistic cannibals that are looking for some fresh meat.
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I saw this movie for the first time about 9 years ago. It was horrible and disturbing! Pretty sure I'd be OK never seeing it again. But I couldn't leave it off the list because it is a truly horrifying picture. The gritty look of the film makes it seem more like a documentary and therefore feels real. It's the dinner scenes towards the end that really leaves you with a disgusting and dirty feeling. It's just wrong on so many levels!!! But it does archive what many horror films don't. It scares you.
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Some trivia about the movie....
1. The movie wasn't released in Australia until the early 1980s.
2. When it was first released, the film was so horrifying that people actually walked out on sneak previews for it.
3. The film was rejected by the British film censors in 1975, but it did get a limited cinema release in the London area thanks to the GLC (Greater London Council). It was banned again in 1977, when the censors' attempts to cut it were unsuccessful, (for the purposes of a wider release), then it was banned again in 1984, due to the growing controversy involving 'video nasties'. In 1999, after the censors finally changed their policy, they took the plunge, and passed it uncut, for the cinema and video, after 25 years, since they first banned it.
4. The film was originally entitled "Headcheese", but was filmed as "Leatherface", then changed again at the last minute to "Texas Chain Saw Massacre".
5. Due to the low budget, Gunnar Hansen had only one shirt to wear as Leatherface. The shirt had been dyed, so it could not be washed; Hansen had to wear it for four straight weeks of filming in the Texas summer. By the end of the shoot no one wanted to eat lunch with Hansen because his clothing smelled so bad.
6. Tobe Hooper intended to make the movie for a "PG" rating, by keeping violence moderate and language mild, but despite cutting and repeated submissions, the Ratings Board insisted on the "R" rating for the effectiveness of what is onscreen and what is implied offscreen. Hooper had a similar ratings problem with the sequel.
7. According to John Larroquette, his payment for doing the opening narration was a marijuana joint.
8. Some urban legends say that the the "real" Texas Chainsaw Massacre took place near Poth, (a small town about 50 miles south of San Antonio). This is false. The film is fictional and based loosely on the life of Wisconsin serial killer Ed Gein (as is the classic Psycho (1960).
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Rules for pendant giveaway...
(1) comment about a movie per movie.
(1) extra entry by following this Blog and (1) extra for following on Twitter (You can only take the blog and twitter entries once for the whole contest).
(1) extra entry for Tweeting about this. Please use this message -Check out the "31 Nights of Halloween Film Fest" to win your choice of pendant from @LaughingVixen http://bit.ly/41kQm -- 3 Tweets a day max and no more than 1 an hour.
1) extra entry for guessing the next film. I will tweet hints on Twitter about the next days movie and you can post your guess as a comment. Doesn't have to be right just your best guess.
Make sure to post each entry as an individual comment on any of the movies comment pages. You can comment on past movies. Make sure you can be contacted from your post.

Night 26 of "The 31 Nights of Halloween Film Fest"

I've joined in the fun over at Domestic Witch's October Blog Party. You can find a list of participating blogs that are having fun celebrating the season of Halloween. When you're done here take a broom ride over to her site and you'll see the list of blogs on the right side bar.

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Here at The Lounge we will have a "31 Nights of Halloween Film Fest". Check back each day to see which movie is featured and some days you may get more than one. They will be a random selection of my favorites. You can see all past selections on the sidebar.

****

Make sure to leave a comment for each movie as one lucky person will win their choice of pendant from Laughing Vixen Lounge at the end of the film fest. Please see rules at end of post.

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Night 26...."Shaun of the Dead"

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Directed by Edgar Wright (Spaced and Hot Fuzz) and released on September 24, 2004 by Focus Features. Shaun (Simon Pegg) and Ed (Nick Frost) are happy to spend their days at dead end jobs and their nights at The Winchester Pub. That is until Zombies threaten their safe and comfortable lives. Now they must try to save their friends and family from the undead masses.

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This is one of the best movies to come along in a long time. It is a perfect blend of witty and smart comedy and outright horror. These guys are such huge Romero fans that the jokes are loving and the horror is spot on. There are plenty of inside jokes for those who follow the Living Dead/Horror genre movies but lots of laughs for the casual viewer too. I could go on and on but you know what I'm talking about. And if you don't know...go watch it now!

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Some trivia about the movie...

1. Frequent references are made to Big Al's claim that dogs can't look up. This is a reference to the commentary to the second series of "Spaced" (1999) in which Simon Pegg (Shaun) and Edgar Wright talk about Nick Frost (Ed)'s claim that the difficulty in shooting a scene with a dog was due to the fact that dogs can't look up.

2. The zombie that Shaun (Simon Pegg) and Ed (Nick Frost) find in their garden is Mary, the checkout girl from the film's credit montage. A short story detailing her transformation into one of the undead was featured in issue 1384 of the classic British sci-fi comic 2000AD. The issue went on sale 7 April 2004. The strip was called "There's Something About Mary" and was written by Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright (the film's co-writers) with art by Frazer Irving.

3. Because of the timing and the indisputable similarity of the names, the distributors were forced to hold the film back until two weeks after Dawn of the Dead (2004) was released in the UK.

4. While Shaun (Simon Pegg) and Liz flick through TV channels, a voice can be heard saying that claims that the epidemic was due to rage infected monkeys have now been dismissed as b... Liz turns off before the voice can finish the sentence. The voice is referencing 28 Days Later... (2002), another British zombie movie, in which the word zombie is never used, and, perhaps, Braindead (1992) ("Dead-Alive") from New Zealand as well.

5. When Shaun and the group are running out of Liz's flat they are all carrying weapons of some kind, but only Shaun actually hits any zombies. This was because only the cricket bat that Shaun was carrying was a padded fake, all the other items were real and would have hurt the extras playing zombies if they had been hit with them.

6. John and Bernie run the Winchester. These are the real names of the landlord and landlady who used to run Simon Pegg's local pub, the Shepherds in Highgate. John used to make toasted sandwiches for regulars, hence the reference to "the Breville out back." Pegg and Nick Frost were regular attendees of the Shepherd's Thursday night quiz, hence the line "we do the quiz" when Shaun is knocking on the Winchester's door. Chris Martin of Coldplay, who plays a zombie in the film, also used to attend quiz night.

7. Shaun berates Ed for calling the creatures zombies (which they are, of course). This may be referring to the fact that many zombie movies (including Night of the Living Dead (1968) and Resident Evil (2002)) never mention the word "zombie" at all. More likely this is a reference to Danny Boyle, director of 28 Days Later... (2002), and his insistence that it isn't a zombie movie.

8. When Shaun walks to the shops before heading to work when everything is normal, Shaun passes a road sweeper. On the road-sweeper operator's radio one can hear a news bulletin detailing how a space probe called Omega 6 entered Earth's atmosphere several days early over the southwest of England and broke apart over a well-built area. This a direct link to Night of the Living Dead (1968), in which a space probe breaks up over a small town in the USA, and the resulting radiation causes the dead in the local graveyard to come to life.

9. Night of the Living Dead (1968) director George A. Romero was given a private viewing of the film near his home in Florida. During the scene in which Ed (Nick Frost) yells into the phone, "We're coming to get you, Barbara," Romero was oblivious to the fact it was a direct lift from his film Night of the Living Dead (1968) and only found out later after a phone conversation with director Edgar Wright.

10. According to writer-director Edgar Wright in the DVD commentary, when Ed attempts to cheer Shaun up at the Winchester with plans of binge drinking, he is actually summarizing the events of the next day (Z-day) entirely in drinking references.

11. George A. Romero, creator of the films that this movie pays homage to and lampoons, was so impressed with Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright's work that he asked them to appear in Land of the Dead (2005), the fourth part of his Dead series, in cameos as zombies.

12. In the scene where Shaun discovers the Pete zombie in the bathroom, Shaun is talking and says the words "join us" - a well known quote from Evil Dead.

13. There are also multiple references to the scenes in Evil Dead II and Army of Darkness (i.e. where Ash replaces his severed hand with a chainsaw and dismembers Evil Ash respectively), where quick edits focusing on important objects (i.e. the chainsaw, the chains, etc.) are used in order to speed up and intensify the actions taking place. In the film these edits are seen when Shaun makes breakfast, whenever he uses the toilet, etc

14. Shaun tells Liz that he's going to take her to "the place that does all the fish". When he opens the phone book you can see that the restaurant is literally called ‘The Place That Does All the Fish’.

15. First part of Simon Pegg's and Edgar Wright's "The Blood and Ice Cream Trilogy". The other two parts are Hot Fuzz (2007) and The World's End (2010).

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Rules for pendant giveaway...
(1) comment about a movie per movie.
(1) extra entry by following this Blog and (1) extra for following on Twitter (You can only take the blog and twitter entries once for the whole contest).
(1) extra entry for Tweeting about this. Please use this message -Check out the "31 Nights of Halloween Film Fest" to win your choice of pendant from @LaughingVixen http://bit.ly/33Nprn -- 3 Tweets a day max and no more than 1 an hour.
(1) extra entry for guessing the next film. I will tweet hints on Twitter about the next days movie and you can post your guess as a comment. Doesn't have to be right just your best guess.
Make sure to post each entry as an individual comment on any of the movies comment pages. You can comment on past movies. Make sure you can be contacted from your post.

Night 25 of "The 31 Nights of Halloween Film Fest"

I've joined in the fun over at Domestic Witch's October Blog Party. You can find a list of participating blogs that are having fun celebrating the season of Halloween. When you're done here take a broom ride over to her site and you'll see the list of blogs on the right side bar.
****
Here at The Lounge we will have a "31 Nights of Halloween Film Fest". Check back each day to see which movie is featured and some days you may get more than one. They will be a random selection of my favorites. You can see all past selections on the sidebar.
****
Make sure to leave a comment for each movie as one lucky person will win their choice of pendant from Laughing Vixen Lounge at the end of the film fest. Please see rules at end of post.
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Night 25...."May"
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Directed by Lucky McKee (The Woods and Red) and released on June 6, 2003 by Lions Gate Films. May (Angela Bettis) has always been "different" and has trouble finding friends. Her best friend is Suzy a creepy old doll kept inside a glass box. May tries so hard to connect with the people around her like Adam (Jeremy Sisto) the boy she likes and Polly (Anna Faris) the girl she works with. But no one seems to understand May and no one sticks around for long. As May's mother once told her "If you can't find a friend make one".
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This is a wonderful movie. It's so much more than a horror film. Angela Bettis is so good in her role as May that you can't help feeling for this character. We can all see a little bit of ourselves in her. The wanting to be accepted, trying to get the attention of a certain boy, wanting someone to like you for who you are and all the other insecure feelings we all have. May just happens to be a little closer to the edge of sanity then most. It's both sad and scary to watch her slide into madness.
The look of the film and the music work well. There is some blood but it's not over the top. It's just used effectively. The scene with the blind children, Suzy and May it just hard for me to watch but wonderfully done. The best scene here will come at the very end of the last scene. The first time I saw it I was creeped out. It is so unexpected and so wrong on so many levels!!! It's subtle but very effective. You should really go check this one out.
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Some trivia about the movie...
1. Director Cameo: [Lucky McKee] The man with his girlfriend in the elevator, both times.
2. Originally the film opened with a lengthy introduction to May as a child. But when the film appeared to be taking too long to get to its point, most of those scenes were cut. The opening with the adult May, specifically the first scene with her and her doll, were shot quickly and only to make the point that May was lonely as quickly as possible.
3. The scene where Blank and May meet was a re-shoot. In the original scene, May was not cold and vague, but angry, and insulted people as they walked by on the street. The scene ended with the two of them in the park. That scene is still in the film but entirely replaced and reedited. It is now the scene where Adam and May meet and have there final talk in the park. The scene is told only through close ups, with both May and Adam glancing off camera. They were originally looking at Blank who was sitting beside her. But he was edited out of the scene completely.
4. There is a movie called "Roman" which is directed by Angela Bettis and stars Lucky McKee. A reversal of roles.
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Rules for pendant giveaway...
(1) comment about a movie per movie.
(1) extra entry by following this Blog and (1) extra for following on Twitter (You can only take the blog and twitter entries once for the whole contest).
(1) extra entry for Tweeting about this. Please use this message -Check out the "31 Nights of Halloween Film Fest" to win your choice of pendant from @LaughingVixen http://bit.ly/1w86ih -- 3 Tweets a day max and no more than 1 an hour.
(1) extra entry for guessing the next film. I will tweet hints on Twitter about the next days movie and you can post your guess as a comment. Doesn't have to be right just your best guess.
Make sure to post each entry as an individual comment on any of the movies comment pages. You can comment on past movies. Make sure you can be contacted from your post.

Night 24 of "The 31 Nights of Halloween Film Fest"

I've joined in the fun over at Domestic Witch's October Blog Party. You can find a list of participating blogs that are having fun celebrating the season of Halloween. When you're done here take a broom ride over to her site and you'll see the list of blogs on the right side bar.

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Here at The Lounge we will have a "31 Nights of Halloween Film Fest". Check back each day to see which movie is featured and some days you may get more than one. They will be a random selection of my favorites. You can see all past selections on the sidebar.

****

Make sure to leave a comment for each movie as one lucky person will win their choice of pendant from Laughing Vixen Lounge at the end of the film fest. Please see rules at end of post.

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Night 24...."Christine"

Body by Plymouth. Soul by Satan.

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John Carpenter (In the Mouth of Madness, Vampires and Ghost of Mars) directed this film version of a Stephen King novel. Released on December 9, 1983 by Columbia Pictures. Arnie (Keith Gordon) is a loser until he meets Christine. Despite his best friend Dennis' (John Stockwell) attempts to stop him, Arnie buys the broken down Plymouth Fury and falls in love. Unfortunately, Christine is a jealous lover and Arnie's world quickly spins out of control.

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This is one of my favorite movies. It's not too scary and the blood factor is very low. It's just a great little story. I know it varies greatly from the novel, but if you haven't read it then you're none the wiser. The nostalgia level is very high and probably one of the main reasons it appeals to me. Being a big fan of the Fifties I love the Fury and all the great music she plays. Plus it's also a great look back at the late 70's. The cars they drive and the music they use (mostly 70's remakes of 50's songs) are all great. And John Stockwell was just so cute! Some of you might remember him from a few movies around this time. Now he directs movies and every now and then pops up in them. The movie is a bygone era on a few levels and I love it.

Favorite part is when Arnie says to Christine "Show me" and she proceeds to fix herself. Too cool.

And she has my name. Different spelling but love it anyways. 8)

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Some trivia about the movie...

1. Scott Baio was considered to play Arnie Cunningham and Brooke Shields was considered for Leigh Cabot. But the film makers involved all felt the movie would be better served by casting "unknowns". (Thank goodness!!!)

2. Arnie's nemesis, Detective Rudolph Junkins, also drives a Plymouth Fury. The car Detective Rudolph Junkins is driving when he meets Arnie in the high-school parking lot is a 1977 or 1978 Plymouth Fury - a popular police car of the late 1970s.

3. Stephen King's popularity was such at the time that the film went into production before the book was even published.

4. To simulate the car regenerating itself, hydraulic pumps were installed on the inside of some of the film's numerous Plymouth Fury "stunt doubles", a mock-up in plastic that looked more like metal on camera than actual metal as it bent and deformed. These pumps were attached to cables, which were in turn attached to the cars' bodywork and when they compressed, they would "suck" the paneling inwards. Footage of the inward crumpling body was then reversed, giving the appearance of the car spontaneously retaking form.

5. Kevin Bacon was offered the lead role but ended up choosing Footloose (1984) instead.

6. According to Bill Phillips on the DVD Documentary, the movie technically didn't have enough violence to justify an "R" rating. But they were afraid that if the movie went out with a PG rating (PG-13 didn't exist yet), then nobody would go to see the movie. So he purposely inserted the word "fuck" and all its derivatives in order to get the "R" rating. He then commented that they were criticized at the time for their use of the word in the film.

7. As a joke, 'Alexandra Paul (I)''s twin sister, Caroline Paul, stood in for her during some scenes, most notably the ride on the bulldozer.

8. Stephen King suffered a near fatal car collision in 1999. In an example of life imitating art, King bought the van that struck him and personally beat it with a baseball bat before sending it to the junkyard to be destroyed.

9. After reading over the book, actor Keith Gordon (Arnie) and the costume designer came up with a visual way to show Arnie being possessed by Christine. As the movie progresses, Arnie begins to wear clothes that reflect the era of Christine's make. At various points, especially when Arnie is yelling at Leigh on the phone, Arnie is seen wearing button up shirts open with black t-shirts, black pants, and boots like a 1950's "greaser". When he's talking to Junkins (both times), he's wearing a leather vest over a button up shirt (a nod to western TV shows which were popular in the 50's), and he even starts to wear a red suede jacket like James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause (1955).

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Rules for pendant giveaway...

(1) comment about a movie per movie.

(1) extra entry by following this Blog and (1) extra for following on Twitter (You can only take the blog and twitter entries once for the whole contest).

(1) extra entry for Tweeting about this. Please use this message -Check out the "31 Nights of Halloween Film Fest" to win your choice of pendant from @LaughingVixen http://bit.ly/1BEQla -- 3 Tweets a day max and no more than 1 an hour.

(1) extra entry for guessing the next film. I will tweet hints on Twitter about the next days movie and you can post your guess as a comment. Doesn't have to be right just your best guess.

Make sure to post each entry as an individual comment on any of the movies comment pages. You can comment on past movies. Make sure you can be contacted from your post.

Night 23 of "The 31 Nights of Halloween Film Fest"

I've joined in the fun over at Domestic Witch's October Blog Party. You can find a list of participating blogs that are having fun celebrating the season of Halloween. When you're done here take a broom ride over to her site and you'll see the list of blogs on the right side bar.
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Here at The Lounge we will have a "31 Nights of Halloween Film Fest". Check back each day to see which movie is featured and some days you may get more than one. They will be a random selection of my favorites. You can see all past selections on the sidebar.
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Make sure to leave a comment for each movie as one lucky person will win their choice of pendant from Laughing Vixen Lounge at the end of the film fest. Please see rules at end of post.
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Night 23...."Return of the Living Dead"
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Directed by Dan O'Bannon and released on August 16, 1985 by Orion Pictures Corporation. While working his first day at a medical warehouse, Freddy (Thom Mathews) learns about the top secret toxic bodies down in the basement from co-worker Frank (James Karen). What else is there to do but go look at them and oops...accidentally set them and the toxins free. Meanwhile, Freddy's punk rocker wannabe friends are waiting for him across the street in the graveyard. Bad place to be when the toxins hit those bodies and well, you know the story.
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This has been a long time favorite of mine. I loved it when it came out (I was in Junior High) and was pleasantly surprised that it has held up over the years. Yes, this is a big slice of stinky cheese. The acting is bad, the writing is bad and the outfits....eeeh! The 80's! But if you are a fan of the Living Dead movies and you can appreciate a great bad movie then you have to give this a try. It makes me laugh and the soundtrack is great.
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Some trivia about the movie...
1. Tobe Hooper was originally slated to direct and it was supposed to be filmed in 3-D. Aaah! I did not know this. That would have been soooo cool!!!
2. The eye-test poster (seen most clearly after Frank and Freddy run into Burt's office after hearing the first re-animated cadaver) in Burt's office actually reads "Burt is a slave driver and a cheap son of a bitch who's got you and me here" if you put the letters together.
3. Some of the zombie extras were paid more to eat real calf brains in the film. Dan O'Bannon didn't want the actors to do anything he wasn't willing to do and ate some raw calf brains first in front of them.
4. After the "rabid weasels" are brought into the Resurrection Funeral Home and the tarp is removed, what is actually in the bags are those motorized toy monkeys that have the cymbals. The cymbals were removed for obvious reasons.
5. The film's German title is "Verdammt, die Zombies kommen", which is roughly "Oh Crap, the Zombies Are Coming" and the Danish title is "Ligene er ligeglade" which is roughly "The Dead Don't Care" - playing up the comical aspect of the film.
6. On the back of Freddy's jacket, in the theatrical version, the words "Fuck You" are displayed. After realizing that the shot could not be used in case it was ever shown on TV, a second jacket was made that says "Television Version" and can be seen in the TV version of the movie.
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Rules for pendant giveaway...
(1) comment about a movie per movie.
(1) extra entry by following this Blog and (1) extra for following on Twitter (You can only take the blog and twitter entries once for the whole contest).
(1) extra entry for Tweeting about this. Please use this message -Check out the "31 Nights of Halloween Film Fest" to win your choice of pendant from @LaughingVixen http://bit.ly/LOWY1 -- 3 Tweets a day max and no more than 1 an hour.
(1) extra entry for guessing the next film. I will tweet hints on Twitter about the next days movie and you can post your guess as a comment. Doesn't have to be right just your best guess.
Make sure to post each entry as an individual comment on any of the movies comment pages. You can comment on past movies. Make sure you can be contacted from your post.

Craft Zombie Contest from Creepy Queen Magazine

Are you a Craft Zombie?
Creepy Queen Magazine is having a great contest over on their website. It gives you a chance to show off your crafty side for Halloween. You could win over $300 in goodies. There are 10 different ways to enter. You can do 1 or all 10 of them. It ends on the 25th so get a move on and submit your work. Just click on the cute little green Zombie below and you'll be transported there! Here is my entry for Zombie Themed Craft...
Zombie Movie Charm Bracelet



It will be listed in the shop soon! Click here to check out my contest entry post and see pictures of the bracelet being made.

Night 22 of "The 31 Days of Halloween Film Fest"

I've joined in the fun over at Domestic Witch's October Blog Party. You can find a list of participating blogs that are having fun celebrating the season of Halloween. When you're done here take a broom ride over to her site and you'll see the list of blogs on the right side bar.

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Here at The Lounge we will have a "31 Nights of Halloween Film Fest". Check back each day to see which movie is featured and some days you may get more than one. They will be a random selection of my favorites. You can see all past selections on the sidebar.

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Make sure to leave a comment for each movie as one lucky person will win their choice of pendant from Laughing Vixen Lounge at the end of the film fest. Please see rules at end of post.

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Night 22...."28 Days Later"

Directed by Danny Boyle (Shallow Grave, Trainspotting and A Life Less Ordinary) and released on June 27, 2003 by Twentieth Century Fox. A monkey is set free from a lab. Bad move. The monkey sets off a chain reaction of a very nasty virus. 28 days later Jim (Cillian Murphy) wakes up in a hospital from a head injury having no idea what has happened around him. We follow Jim and a few other survivors on their journey through England and it's population of Zombie-like infected. Is there hope for the survivors? Is the whole world gone? Are there others left besides them?

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When I decided to go see this movie in the theater I figured it would just be another post apocalyptic zombie movie. I was wrong. This movie was brilliant and truly frightening. Coming out in the post 911 world with everyone fearing everything this movie worked great. I mean, with chemical warfare and such this movie didn't seem all that far fetched. So instead of another tired horror film I found myself sitting in the dark glued to the screen and leaving a bit freaked out. If you haven't seen this you should give it a try. Be warned it is a wee bit on the disgusting side.

The scene with Jim walking around London with no other people and no sound is a very eerie and impressive sight.

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Some trivia on the movie...

1. The decision to film on DV (using Canon XL1 cameras) was both an aesthetic and a logistic choice. On the aesthetic side of things, Danny Boyle felt that the harshness of the DV imagery suited the post-apocalyptic urban landscape and the grittiness of the film in general. In the production notes of the movie, Boyle points out that "the general idea was to try and shoot as though we were survivors too," and as such, a pristine 35mm widescreen image would have been antithetical to this notion. In terms of logistics, producer Andrew Macdonald claims that it would have been impossible to shoot the film on anything other than DV, especially some of the exterior scenes in London. As MacDonald points out in the production notes, "The police and the local authorities were quite happy to assist us because we could set up scenes so quickly. We could literally be ready to shoot with a six-camera set-up within minutes - something we would not realistically have been able to do if shooting under the restrictions of 35mm which takes a good deal more time to set up a single shot."

2. Scriptwriter Alex Garland acknowledges several sources as inspiration for his screenplay, notably John Wyndham's The Day of the Triffids (1962), George A. Romero's "Dead" trilogy (Night, Dawn and Day) and The Omega Man (1971). Direct homages include Jim waking up in the hospital from The Day of the Triffids (1962), the chained infected being studied from Day of the Dead (1985), and the scene in the grocery store (people in the mall from Dawn of the Dead (1978)), the stop for supplies that saw a run-in with infected children (also Dawn of the Dead (1978)), and the military holing up against the plague with outsiders partially to deliberately include females (also Day of the Dead).

3. The symbol used for this film is the international symbol for blood-borne biohazard.

4. The primary idea behind Rage was that every generation gets the zombies it deserves, and Alex Garland and Danny Boyle felt that the notion of the living dead wanting to eat peoples' brains was outdated. One of the original impetuses behind zombie movies was a fear of nuclear power and the possible ramifications it might have on humanity. As such, Garland and Boyle looked at what this generation is afraid of, and concluded that one of the biggest fears in modern society is a fear of diseases, a fear of a viral apocalypse, such as Ebola or Marburg. Indeed, Garland and Boyle were specifically inspired by such incidents as the recent anthrax and bioterrorism scares in London as well as the recent spread of mad cow disease and foot-and-mouth disease in the UK. As such, they decided to base their zombies on this fear of viruses.

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Rules for pendant giveaway...
(1) comment about a movie per movie.
(1) extra entry by following this Blog and (1) extra for following on Twitter (You can only take the blog and twitter entries once for the whole contest).
(1) extra entry for Tweeting about this. Please use this message -Check out the "31 Nights of Halloween Film Fest" to win your choice of pendant from @LaughingVixen http://bit.ly/sNef6 -- 3 Tweets a day max and no more than 1 an hour.
(1) extra entry for guessing the next film. I will tweet hints on Twitter about the next days movie and you can post your guess as a comment. Doesn't have to be right just your best guess.
Make sure to post each entry as an individual comment on any of the movies comment pages. You can comment on past movies. Make sure you can be contacted from your post.

Night 21 of "The 31 Nights of Halloween Film Fest"

I've joined in the fun over at Domestic Witch's October Blog Party. You can find a list of participating blogs that are having fun celebrating the season of Halloween. When you're done here take a broom ride over to her site and you'll see the list of blogs on the right side bar.

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Here at The Lounge we will have a "31 Nights of Halloween Film Fest". Check back each day to see which movie is featured and some days you may get more than one. They will be a random selection of my favorites. You can see all past selections on the sidebar.

****

Make sure to leave a comment for each movie as one lucky person will win their choice of pendant from Laughing Vixen Lounge at the end of the film fest. Please see rules at end of post.

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Night 21....The "Scream" Trilogy

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"Scream"

Directed by Wes Craven (Nightmare on Elm St., People Under the Stairs and Cursed) and released on December 20, 1996 by Dimension Films. High school. All of the people around Sidney (Neve Campbell) start to die off. The killer seems to be someone who has seen one too many horror movies. Everyone is a suspect. Can you figure out who?

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"Scream 2"

Directed by Wes Craven and released on December 12, 1997 by Dimension Films. Collage. The movie "Stab" has just been released and all of the people around Sidney start to die off. Can you guess who is carrying on the tradition?

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"Scream 3"

Directed by Wes Craven and released on February 4, 2000 by Dimension Films. While filming the 3rd "Stab" movie people connected to the movie start to die off. Then Sidney shows up and helps Agent McDreamy (Patrick Dempsey) solves the mystery.

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I really do love these movies. They shot a breath of new life into the horror genre with a perfect mix of scariness and comedy. It poked fun at the genre itself but in a very loving way and had an extreme sense of violence. I remember being a bit shocked by how brutal the first one was. As with anything else it becomes common place after awhile but at the time it was shocking.

The movies have to work to find a reasonable reason for the killer as the sequels keep coming (yes, there is a number 4 in the works!) but I think they do pretty good. The best parts are always the opening scenes. They are all wonderful but I think part 2 is the creepiest because it plays on the fear that even in a crowded room of people you still are not safe.

One of the best treats here comes in part 3. I've never been a big fan of Parker Posey but she is priceless portraying Gail Weathers in the 3rd Stab movie. Watching her and the real Gail (Courtney Cox) together is too funny.

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Some trivia about the movie...

Scream

1.Billy's surname, Loomis, is the same as that of Donald Pleasance's character in Halloween (1978), which in turn was the name of Marion Crane's lover in Psycho (1960).

2. When the killer smashes his head through a window and Casey hits him in the face with the phone, Wes Craven is actually wearing the costume and was really hit in the face.

3. Tatum's house is right across the street from the house in Santa Rosa, California used in Pollyanna (1960). It is also across the street from the house used in Alfred Hitchcock's Shadow of a Doubt (1943). The house in the opening scene was next door to the house used in Cujo (1983).

4. Billy's surname, Loomis, is the same as that of Donald Pleasance's character in Halloween (1978), which in turn was the name of Marion Crane's lover in Psycho (1960).

5. On "The Directors" (2007), David Arquette revealed that he presumptuously turned down the role of "Billy" in favor for playing "Dewey", which was originally written as a hunky, leading man part.

6. The use of caller ID increased more than threefold after the release of this film.

7. The idea of the pet door in the garage came from Williamson's assistant. Originally, Tatum's death scene was to be a fist fight with the killer, and having the door come down on her neck.

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Scream 2

1. Officers Richards and Andrews are named after Kyle Richards and Brian Andrews, the two child actors that Jamie Lee Curtis babysat in the original Halloween.

2. The third rule to surviving a sequel is cut from the movie, but is shown in the trailer. ""And #3. Never, ever under any circumstance assume that the killer is dead."

3. A number of sequences in Kevin Williamson's screenplay simply read "Wes will make it scary".

4. Any actor auditioning for the part of Derek had to perform the scene in the cafeteria where he sings "I Think I Love You" without accompaniment.

5. When we first see CiCi (Sarah Michelle Gellar) alone in the sorority house and on the phone with her friend, she says "They aren't going out anymore, Sarah broke up with Bailey when she found out he slept with Gwen." Sarah, Bailey and Gwen were all characters on "Party of Five" (1994), which Neve Campbell starred in for 6 years.

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Scream 3

1. The house used during the climax, where most of the killing takes place, is the same house used as a school in Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998).

2. Wes Craven filmed three different endings and didn't tell the cast which one he was going to use.

3. The film's original website was a spoof website for Sunrise Studios, the fictional company making "Stab 3", complete with a production list of upcoming films and cast bios of its "Stab 3" stars.

4. Liev Schreiber insisted that Cotton Weary should shrug off his white jacket in the opening teaser. This was mainly because Schreiber had been doing a lot of working out at the time and wanted to show off his pecs.

5. Neve Campbell made a deal which stated that she would only have to be on set just for 20 days, which is also why she isn't as predominant a character as she is in the other films.

6. The green outfit worn by Parker Posey while on set is the same one worn by Courteney Cox in the first movie. All sets for "Stab 3" were replicas of the originals since the sets were destroyed after Scream (1996) wrapped.

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Rules for pendant giveaway...

(1) comment about a movie per movie.

(1) extra entry by following this Blog and (1) extra for following on Twitter (You can only take the blog and twitter entries once for the whole contest).

(1) extra entry for Tweeting about this. Please use this message -Check out the "31 Nights of Halloween Film Fest" to win your choice of pendant from @LaughingVixen http://bit.ly/39tLhH -- 3 Tweets a day max and no more than 1 an hour.

(1) extra entry for guessing the next film. I will tweet hints on Twitter about the next days movie and you can post your guess as a comment. Doesn't have to be right just your best guess.

Make sure to post each entry as an individual comment on any of the movies comment pages. You can comment on past movies. Make sure you can be contacted from your post.

Night 20 of "The 31 Nights of Halloween Film Fest"

I've joined in the fun over at Domestic Witch's October Blog Party. You can find a list of participating blogs that are having fun celebrating the season of Halloween. When you're done here take a broom ride over to her site and you'll see the list of blogs on the right side bar.

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Here at The Lounge we will have a "31 Nights of Halloween Film Fest". Check back each day to see which movie is featured and some days you may get more than one. They will be a random selection of my favorites. You can see all past selections on the sidebar.

****

Make sure to leave a comment for each movie as one lucky person will win their choice of pendant from Laughing Vixen Lounge at the end of the film fest. Please see rules at end of post.

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Night 20...."Friday The 13th"

Is it over yet??!!! I'm peeking through my fingers.

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Directed by Sean S. Cunningham (A Stranger is Watching and Spring Break) and released on May 9, 1980 by Paramount Pictures. In 1958 two counselors were murdered at Camp Crystal Lake. Fast Forward 20+ years as Camp Crystal Lake is getting ready for it's grand reopening. This seems like a good idea to the owners despite the fact that the locals call it "Camp Blood". Hmmm...could this have been a early warning sign? Soon enough the counselors start to disappear one by one. Seems someone doesn't want Camp Crystal Lake to reopen. But who???

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Friday the 13th part III was the first real horror film I ever saw. My friend Mary and I begged my mom to let us rent it and for some reason she said yes. We were probably in about 6th or 7th grade at the time. We really wanted part I because it had Kevin Bacon in it but the one copy was rented out (this was in the day of independent video stores who rarely had more than one copy of something) so we had to settle for part III. Part III was in 3-D in the theaters but at home it just had lots of people holding stuff real close to the camera. Regardless of which part we ended up with it ended up scaring me to death!!!
The original is still a way creepy movie. The old grainy look it has from outdated film adds so much to the creepy feel of it. It's hard for me to watch the old parts of this series because it leaves me feeling icky, nervous and a little afraid of the dark. At the heart of it it's just a movie about someone walking around killing people. And putting it in the woods makes it all the worse. I doubt I'll ever want to go camping again in my life.

Yes, it may be a bit outdated but I think the effects are still great and creative. And yes, as the series goes on it gets harder and harder to watch. But Part X and Freddy vs. Jason were much fun and nice to see the series brought back to life. I'm sure most didn't care for it but I really liked the new 2009 remake/re-envisioning (I would say it's just the next chapter) of Friday the 13th. It's slick and shiny so it takes away some of the nervousness the old ones cause me but I was pleasantly surprised when it ended up being fun and a wee bit scary. A liked that in Jason's creepy house he had all the whistles hanging on the wall like souvenirs. Ick!

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Some trivia about the movie...

1. The movie was filmed at Camp Nobebosco in New Jersey. The camp is still in operation to date, and they have a wall of Friday the 13th paraphernalia to honor the fact that the movie was set there.

2. Composer Harry Manfredini has said that contrary to popular belief, the famous "chi chi chi, ha ha ha" in the film's score is actually "ki ki ki, ma ma ma". It is meant to resemble Jason's voice saying "kill kill kill, mom mom mom" in Mrs. Voorhees' mind. It was inspired by the scene in which Mrs. Voorhees seems to be possessed by Jason and chants "Get her mommy....kill her!" Manfredini created the effect by speaking the syllables "Ki" and "Ma" into a microphone running through a delay effect.

3. While most of the cast and crew stayed at local hotels during the filming, some of the loyal cast and crew members, including Tom Savini, and Taso N. Stavrakis, stayed at the actual camp site. They had Savini's Betamax VCR and only a couple of movies (Barbarella (1968) and Marathon Man (1976)) on videotape to keep themselves entertained, so each night they would watch one of these movies. To this day, Savini says he can recite those movies by heart.

4. Victor Miller had originally given Jason the name of Josh. After deciding that it sounded too nice, he changed it to Jason after a school bully.

5. Victor Miller's working title for the script was "Long Night at Camp Blood".

6. The movie was sold to investors strictly on it's name. There had not been a movie called Friday the 13th so they grabbed it, made up a poster and shopped it around. No one knew that they had no idea or script for it.

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Rules for pendant giveaway...
(1) comment about a movie per movie.
(1) extra entry by following this Blog and (1) extra for following on Twitter (You can only take the blog and twitter entries once for the whole contest).
(1) extra entry for Tweeting about this. Please use this message -Check out the "31 Nights of Halloween Film Fest" to win your choice of pendant from @LaughingVixen http://bit.ly/3VR0nT -- 3 Tweets a day max and no more than 1 an hour.
(1) extra entry for guessing the next film. I will tweet hints on Twitter about the next days movie and you can post your guess as a comment. Doesn't have to be right just your best guess.
Make sure to post each entry as an individual comment on any of the movies comment pages. You can comment on past movies. Make sure you can be contacted from your post.

Night 19 of "The 31 Nights of Halloween Film Fest"

I've joined in the fun over at Domestic Witch's October Blog Party. You can find a list of participating blogs that are having fun celebrating the season of Halloween. When you're done here take a broom ride over to her site and you'll see the list of blogs on the right side bar.

****

Here at The Lounge we will have a "31 Nights of Halloween Film Fest". Check back each day to see which movie is featured and some days you may get more than one. They will be a random selection of my favorites. You can see all past selections on the sidebar.

****

Make sure to leave a comment for each movie as one lucky person will win their choice of pendant from Laughing Vixen Lounge at the end of the film fest. Please see rules at end of post.

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Night 19...."A Nightmare on Elm Street"

Written and directed by Wes Craven (Last House on the Left, The Hills Have Eyes and Scream) and released on November 16, 1984 by New Line Cinema. The kids on Elm Street are having some unpleasant dreams. Funny thing is their dreams all have the same psychopath Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund) in them. Oops! Now they are starting to die! Can Nancy (Heather Langencamp) and her boyfriend Glen (Johnny Depp) convince an adult that the man in their dreams is the killer. Hmmm...probably not. It's up to Nancy to find Freddy in her dreams and drag him out into her reality for a big bad show down.

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This movie was like nothing else I had seen when it was new. Some of the images were just bizarre and freaky and the movie scared the beejeebies out of me! It became one of my favorite movies and I saw it way too many times. Plus there was that cute boy in it...Johnny something??

When my nephews wanted to see Freddy vs. Jason, when it came out in the theater, I insisted that it was only right they see the originals first. I was very sad when they laughed at both Elm St. and Friday 13th. They thought they were silly and not scary at all and just kinda stupid. I think this just goes to show what happens to a child when they have no parental control over what they watch. They grow up so desensitised from watching adult material all their young life that people getting brutally murdered is just boring. Friday the 13th was the first real horror film I saw and it still bothers me to this day (But more on that when we get to that movie!) I know the effects are a bit outdated and yes, Elm Street is a little on the cheesy side, but they still maintain their scare factor.

Best scene is Mr. Depp getting sucked in and spit out of the bed. Priceless!

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Some trivia about the movie...

1. Director Wes Craven claims to have named Freddy Krueger after a kid who bullied him in school and to have based his appearance on a disfigured hobo who scared him as a youth.

2. Johnny Depp accompanied friend Jackie Earle Haley to the auditions, where he was spotted by director Wes Craven, who asked him if he'd like to read for the part. Interestingly enough, Haley will be playing Freddy Krueger in A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010).

3. Wes Craven cast Joseph Whipp, who plays the inept sidekick of John Saxon's Lt. Thompson in this film, as the sheriff who endures David Arquette's inept Deputy Dewey in Scream (1996/I).

4. This was the first real movie by New Line Cinema. Before that, they were just a distribution company for college campuses.

5. Freddy Kruger was designed by Wes Craven to be the typical "silent" serial killer such as Jason Voorhees or Michael Myers. But in the sequels Freddy developed a cheeky persona that enabled him to be the black humored villain.

6. New Line Cinema was saved from bankruptcy by the success of the film, and was jokingly nicknamed "the house that Freddy built".

7. Over 500 gallons of fake blood were used during the making of the film.

8. For the famous blood geyser sequence, the film makers used the same revolving room set that was used for Tina's death. They put the set so that it was upside down and attached the camera so that it looked like the room was right side up, then they poured gallons of red water into the room. (The normal movie blood wasn't able to create the right effect for the geyser.)

9. This was Johnny Depp's first film.

10. In a deleted scene featured on the Laser Disc and VHS from Anchor Bay we learn that Nancy and many of her friends from the neighborhood weren't always only children, but had a brother or sister before they were killed by Freddy (during the scene in the basement just before Nancy's mother reveals she has Freddy's glove.)

11. Heather Langenkamp beat over 200 actresses for the role of Nancy Thompson, some of the other actresses who auditioned for the role of Nancy were Jennifer Grey, Demi Moore, Courteney Cox and Tracey Gold.

12. Wes Craven claimed to have drawn inspiration for this movie from 3 separate incidents involving young Cambodians, survivors of Pol Pot's genocidal "purges," all of whom died while apparently in the throes of a horrific nightmare. The story goes that first these young, otherwise healthy people would have a horrible nightmare, then refuse to sleep for as long as possible; when they finally fell asleep from sheer exhaustion they awoke with screaming and writhing, then died from a heart attack. In the last incident, the young man used a variety methods to try and stay awake that were incorporated into the film, including a hidden coffee pot. Some of the dialog between Nancy and her parents is based on this young man's attempts to convince his unbelieving parents that going to sleep would kill him.

13. Jack Nicholson and Robin Williams were both seriously considered for the role of Freddy Kruger.

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Rules for pendant giveaway...

(1) comment about a movie per movie.

(1) extra entry by following this Blog and (1) extra for following on Twitter (You can only take the blog and twitter entries once for the whole contest).

(1) extra entry for Tweeting about this. Please use this message -Check out the "31 Nights of Halloween Film Fest" to win your choice of pendant from @LaughingVixen http://bit.ly/265YA1 -- 3 Tweets a day max and no more than 1 an hour.

(1) extra entry for guessing the next film. I will tweet hints on Twitter about the next days movie and you can post your guess as a comment. Doesn't have to be right just your best guess.

Make sure to post each entry as an individual comment on any of the movies comment pages. You can comment on past movies. Make sure you can be contacted from your post.

Night 18 of "The 31 Nights of Halloween Film Fest"

I've joined in the fun over at Domestic Witch's October Blog Party. You can find a list of participating blogs that are having fun celebrating the season of Halloween. When you're done here take a broom ride over to her site and you'll see the list of blogs on the right side bar.

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Here at The Lounge we will have a "31 Nights of Halloween Film Fest". Check back each day to see which movie is featured and some days you may get more than one. They will be a random selection of my favorites. You can see all past selections on the sidebar.

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Make sure to leave a comment for each movie as one lucky person will win their choice of pendant from Laughing Vixen Lounge at the end of the film fest. Please see rules at end of post.

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Night 18...."Urban Legend"

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Directed by Jamie Blanks (Valentine and Storm Warning ) and released on September 25, 1998 by TriStar Pictures. Students of Pendleton University start to drop like flies. Natalie (Alicia Witt) notices a pattern in the deaths. They all resemble the urban legends they are learning about in class. Can Natalie and amateur sleuth Paul (Jared Leto) find the killer before there is no one left. Trouble is everyone seems guilty. Hate it when that happens.

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The fun of this movie is the legends themselves. The hook on the car door (I remember telling this one at slumber parties), "Aren't you glad you didn't turn the light on?" (The one I remember actually falling for! 8) and lots more. My absolute favorite being the opening scene. If you haven't seen the movie yet and don't want it spoiled then skip to after the yellow stars!!! When I was in Junior High I remember the police finding a woman's body down the road from our house. They figure someone got into her car when she stopped at a red light, killed her and dumped her body in the wooded area on the side of the road. Her car had been left on the side of the road and is what led to finding her body. It was quite a shock in suburbia land and it always stuck with me. I still refer to it as Dead Lady Corner (I know it's in poor taste but we were teenagers). So the opening scene of the guy hiding in the back of the car always gives me chills! I always check the backseat before getting in a car.

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This is pretty much standard slasher area here but the urban legends make it a little more interesting. Not tons of gore or really too scary but a fun watch none the less. And it is a hard task trying to figure out just who is the killer! The two high points for me is the presence of Robert Englund (Freddy Krueger himself) as Professor Wexler and Michael Rosenbaum (Lex Luther on Smallville) as Parker. As a big fan of both they are the frosting and cherry on the cupcake. 8)

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Some trivia about the movie...
1. When Paul and Natalie walk into the hidden room in Wexler's office, a puppet of Freddy Krueger can be seen just before they see the axe. Robert Englund, who plays Wexler, played Freddy Krueger in A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984).

2. The book sitting on the desk in Professor Wexler's desk in his class is "The Vanishing Hitchhiker," which is one of the seminal texts on urban legends.

3. At the end of the movie, students from an unnamed college recount the movie's events as an urban legend. They joke about the tale's validity, and one says, "And I bet Brenda was the girl from the Noxzema commercials." Actress Rebecca Gayheart, who plays Brenda in the film, did indeed appear in several commercials for Noxzema.

4. Joshua Jackson (Damon Brooks) cranks his car before he takes Natalie to "that" spot in the woods; when it cranks the radio plays Paula Cole's "I Don't Want to Wait" from the TV show "Dawson's Creek" (1998) also starring Jackson.

5. Brad Dourif, the actor who plays the stuttering gas station attendant at the beginning of the film, played the role of Billy Bibbit, who also had a speech impediment, in the film One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975).

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Rules for pendant giveaway...
(1) comment about a movie per movie.
(1) extra entry by following this Blog and (1) extra for following on Twitter (You can only take the blog and twitter entries once for the whole contest).
(1) extra entry for Tweeting about this. Please use this message -Check out the "31 Nights of Halloween Film Fest" to win your choice of pendant from @LaughingVixen http://bit.ly/1yMYdH -- 3 Tweets a day max and no more than 1 an hour.
(1) extra entry for guessing the next film. I will tweet hints on Twitter about the next days movie and you can post your guess as a comment. Doesn't have to be right just your best guess.
Make sure to post each entry as an individual comment on any of the movies comment pages. You can comment on past movies. Make sure you can be contacted from your post.

Night 17 of "The 31 Nights of Halloween Film Fest"

I've joined in the fun over at Domestic Witch's October Blog Party. You can find a list of participating blogs that are having fun celebrating the season of Halloween. When you're done here take a broom ride over to her site and you'll see the list of blogs on the right side bar.

****

Here at The Lounge we will have a "31 Nights of Halloween Film Fest". Check back each day to see which movie is featured and some days you may get more than one. They will be a random selection of my favorites. You can see all past selections on the sidebar.

****

Make sure to leave a comment for each movie as one lucky person will win their choice of pendant from Laughing Vixen Lounge at the end of the film fest. Please see rules at end of post.

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Night 17...."Poltergeist"

I remember seeing this at a friends birthday party and yes, it scared me!

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Directed by Tobe Hooper (Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Salem's Lot and Body Bags) and written by Steven Spielberg and released on June 4, 1982 by MGM/UA. The Freeling family starts to experience some "odd" going ons in their house. It's interesting until their little girl goes missing. Not knowing what to do the family brings in a group of paranormal experts to help. Can they help find Carol Ann before it's too late.

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I enjoy watching this movie. By today's standards it wouldn't be considered very scary but I think it's a nice mix of creepy and childhood scary. Meaning it plays on lots of childhood fears. The fear of the dark, the thing under the bed and of course the monster in the closet. Plus it has good actors and good effects. And really...who doesn't think that clown is freakin' scary looking?!!

I also found myself extremely nostalgic looking at all the toys in the kid's bedroom and at all the 80's electronics/fashions/etc. If you haven't seen it for awhile it might be a nice treat.

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Some trivia about the movie...

1. The hands which pull the flesh off the investigator's face in the bathroom mirror are Steven Spielberg's.

2. As an homage to his friend George Lucas, Spielberg populated the children's bedroom with Star Wars toys. He did the same in E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial (1982).

3. Heather O'Rourke, who played the little girl Carol-Anne, and Dominique Dunne, who played the teenage daughter, are buried in the same cemetery: Westwood Memorial Park in Los Angeles. Dunne was strangled into brain-death by her boyfriend in 1982, the year of the film's release. Six years later, O'Rourke died of intestinal stenosis.

4. The film was originally given a R rating, but the filmmakers protested successfully and got a PG rating (the PG-13 rating did not exist at the time).

5. The sound effect for the beast that attacks the house at the end of the movie is the source for the current MGM lion roar.

6. The house used to film this movie is located in Simi Valley, California where it still stands today. The family who owned it when this movie was filmed still live there today.

7. A common translation of the German word "Poltergeist" is "rumbling spirit".

8. Stephen King was briefly approached to write the screenplay. It would have been the first written by King directly for the screen, but the parties could not agree on the terms.

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Rules for pendant giveaway...

(1) comment about a movie per movie.

(1) extra entry by following this Blog and (1) extra for following on Twitter (You can only take the blog and twitter entries once for the whole contest).

(1) extra entry for Tweeting about this. Please use this message -Check out the "31 Nights of Halloween Film Fest" to win your choice of pendant from @LaughingVixen http://bit.ly/179JkS -- 3 Tweets a day max and no more than 1 an hour.

(1) extra entry for guessing the next film. I will tweet hints on Twitter about the next days movie and you can post your guess as a comment. Doesn't have to be right just your best guess.

Make sure to post each entry as an individual comment on any of the movies comment pages. You can comment on past movies. Make sure you can be contacted from your post.