Friday, October 23, 2009

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.

14 comments:

  1. daily tweet 3 for 10/23 dreamzz12{at}aol{dot}com


    http://twitter.com/DeeGee13/status/5115179905

    dreamzz12{at}aol{dot}com

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  2. I haven't seen this but boy was I off the mark with my guess ha. dreamzz12{at}aol{dot}com

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  3. Would that be Christine?

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  4. dreamzz12{at}aol{dot}com

    I guess tomorrow's movie is Christine!

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  5. Christine made me want a Plymouth Fury really bad!!!!!! Just wished the movie followed the book more considering Roland D. Lebay was actually the one that sold Christine to Arnie and not his brother. He was also it's possessor which explained her "instant body work" It's what Roland D. Lebay did in the military motorpool. Also when the kids get killed it's actually him and not Arnie driving Christine. Other than that it was OK. I shouldn't have read the book first tho. I may have liked the movie more

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  6. Post for @JerseyGrlinFl
    Guess...Christine.

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  7. My favorite film of all time next to "Young Frankenstein". This film is one I can watch over and over and never tire of it. My favorite part is with the half dog and the crutch. And when the naked chick gets her wish.

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  8. Ewww...raw calf brains. Yucko.

    )O(
    boo

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  9. Oh, this is an awesome classic. My brother has it at home and is always watching it! LOL

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