Link Dump: 1-6 October

Here’s a bit on what I’ve been reading as of late–mainly from those with the sufficiently poor judgment as to follow me on Twitter. Seriously, you folks are awesome, and I wanted to highlight your stuff to the 8 or so people who read this blog 😉  Mainly I read your movie reviews, I’ve seen many of these, but a few I have not, and I’ll be getting to those soon.  I don’t like to review individual films so much–I know my limitations–but enjoy reading yours very much. Here, I thought I would match the reviews to where we can find online viewing of trailers and full movies,just for convenience.  There’s a few non-movie reviews tucked in here, too.

These links are no real order, but do check out these fine purveyors of horror and B-movies!

• Forgotten Films on Attack of the Crab Monsters (1957).  Watch it here.  Forgotten films has also done some fine posts on Bloody Birthday (1981); Ghoulies (1985); House (1986); Lady Frankenstein (1971); and Shocker (1989).

George Wendt!

• Horrorpedia and Stigmatophilia both take on Hack-O-Lantern (aka: Halloween Night) from 1988.  I hate it when Grandpa ends up a satanic cult leader!

• Also on Horrorpedia are good takes on Unman, Wittering and Zigo (1971); The Godsend (1980); and The House on the Edge of the Park (1980):

• 2,500 Movies Challenge on The Brood (1979), which has been serialized on YouTube in ten parts: one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, and ten.  Dave’s review of House of Wax (1953) also caught my eye.

• Daily Grindhouse offers a list of “50 Cult Movie Books Every Film Fan Should Own.”  I am a book lover too, so I loved this set of posts: parts 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5.  I think the essentials here are numbers 36, 31, 28, 20, 19, 13 (these last three are my all time favorites) 10 and 2.  Some of the works included seemed like filler to get to 50, while some good ones seemed to go missing.  Maybe we just have different tastes, and I should do up my own list.

• Ruthless Reviews on Live Like a Cop, Die Like a Man (1980). All Hail Deodato!

• Horror-Movies.ca ponders if George Romero has haters, many of (at least the initial) comments seem to see this as a misperception, however.

• Smug Film looks at different ways to consume the original Halloween films, which films to watch in what order, and which ones to leave by the side of the nearest road in “Halloween 4, 5, 6: The Most Fascinating and Flawed Trilogy in Film History.”  Not sure the definitive case is made for most flawed in film history, but these are pretty misconceived.

• 3S Horror (the 3 S’s stand for “Slashers, Starlets, and Sleaze!) takes up two of my all time favorites, both from 1972: Invasion of the Blood Farmers and Silent Night, Bloody Night in the same review.

• Midnight Cinephile on Rocktober Blood (1984), a slasher set to the then-up and coming glam metal scene, or something.

• Church of Splatter-Day Saints reviews are not to be missed, and I loved the new takes on Beast From Haunted Cave (1959), Blood Song (1982), Slumber Party Massacre (1982), and Alien Prey (1978).

• Horror Movie Project remembers Tales from the Dark Side: The Movie (1990).  As well as Dracula’s soul brother, Blacula (1974) and The Howling (1981).

• Rupert Pupkin Speaks had a number of guests say a word about their handful of underrated horror films deserving of more attention, and I found in these lists by Alexander Huls (his blog), Dean Treadway (his blog), J. Brad Wilke (his Twitter), Jesse Nelson (founder of Exhumed Films and DiabolikDVD), Justin Bozung (his blog) and Goregirl (her blog), a number films I had not seen or even heard of, which I can’t wait to get into:

Also starring Alan Ormsby of Children Shouldn’t Play With Dead Things (1973), fwiw.

Yes, Paul Sorvino!

• Video Drones has a short but funny satire on the badly dated gender roles on The Forbidden Planet (1956).

• Speaking of gender, Be Careful! Your Hand! has free advice on bagging a Disney princess as a wife.

• Wide Weird World of Cult Films has started a 15-part series on horror characters most deserving death, starting with two from 1988: Pepe from Ghosthouse and the old man in Night of the Demons.  Can’t wait to see who gets the proverbial (or real) axe next . . .

• Isaac’s Picture Conclusions on Scar (2007).  Not familiar with this movie, but throwing it on the “to watch” list, despite its apparent lack of coherence.

• Lost Highway on Robot Jox (1989).  Loved this when it came out, shocked to learn the screenplay was written by none other than Joe “The Forever War” Haldeman.  Also check out the Lost Highway post on Message from Space, a 1978 Japanese riff on Star Wars.

• Three fun reads from Furious Cinema lately have been short posts on The Serpent and the Rainbow (1988); Devil Times Five (1974); and The Host (2006).

• Lastly, have a look at the Do-It-Yourself Giallo Kit to get your very own (fake) movie title, director, and plot in the Italian crime/thriller spirit. Such as: A Golden Armadillo on the Cold Metal Table (dir. Sergio and Martino de Alberto) in which: “An American model is killing off the members of a certain business.  A female journalist accidentally destroys some crucial evidence about the the killing. When another person is found murdered, she is on the verge of solving the mystery when she is killed by the real culprits: a secret society made up of the people she most trusted.”  Loads of fun . . . for five minutes.