2020 Vision

I make no apologies for that title.  Anyway, it's time to have a look ahead across the coming year, to see a few things I'm looking forward to in the world of film.  Now you'll notice that most of the titles on here are big studio properties; that's not due to a personal preference of mine, it's more that such projects by their nature tend to be more stable, and more visible in the long term compared to indie fare.  I'm also going to skip over in this list stuff being released relatively early in the year, just so I'm not blogging about it twice in quick succession, so I'm not mentioning 1917 or JoJo Rabbit right now, as I'm already going to see at least one of those within a week.

Top Ten of 2019

OK, so it's time for my favourites of the year.  Now, just to qualify, these are my own personal favourites out of the newly released, and film festival previewed, films released to British cinemas during the last twelve months.  I'm not getting into the nitty-gritty of what counts as a "2019" movie or not, life's too short to waste on things like that, this is my list, of my favourites and I want to talk about them.  Also, keep in mind that the order is 100% utterly arbitrary, so chances are if you ask me again in a week or two, the exact running order bar the top slot will be different.  Hell, I'm catching up with at least a couple of major titles from this year on New Year's Day (Little Women and/or Jojo Rabbit), in order to make sure my movie year is off to a good start, and given what I've been hearing, either of those might just make it on here if I was doing this list a bit later.  This is purely about what I feel like at this exact moment in time.  OK?  OK, so let's start with a few runners up...

Canary Duty - Cats

You may be wondering why the hell I'm bothering with this one; hell, cats have been known to eat canaries after all.  Well the thing is that there's been a lot of... performative outrage over this one ever since the first trailer came out, and I admit that in coining the line "Dr. Moreau's Reject Pile" I was part of that.  A lot of these bad reviews have been huge scale attacks on the whole thing, some being oddly very well worded for something where the press screenings were only a few days ago.  So I thought I should go in with a more level head in mind.  I should mention that though I'm familiar with the stage show, and actually have a few friends that have done Cats costumes before, I haven't actually seen the whole thing, so this is me going in completely fresh, no real expectations about how it "should be", just a filmgoer saying "OK movie, impress me!".  I'm writing this opening paragraph before going in, so let's see if the hyperbole was justified...

:one attempted viewing later...:

Jesus wept.

Just One More Thing - The Limits of Cinema

As the year is winding down, I'm sorting out a few final blog posts of the year.  There'll be a look at some good films of this year, my top ten, and a look ahead to stuff I'm looking forward to in the new year. I might also do a favourite films of the decade list, but I might leave that a little while, as I have some catching up to do for a few major titles.  I'm also planning out what I'm seeing in the new year, what previews and such I can get to as "Canary Duty" material; for example, I'm currently on to see a preview of next series of Inside No. 9 in early January, that should be done by the second weekend of 2020. 

Canary Duty - Martin's Close

Another day, another TV preview and Q&A with Mark Gatiss at the BFI to write up.  This time it's the latest of the BBC's Ghost Stories for Christmas, an adaptation of Martin's Close by M.R. James, starring Peter Capaldi in a magnificent wig.  Seriously, just look at that thing.  His actual hair was getting to that stage by the end of his time on Doctor Who!

Canary Duty - Dracula Episode One (Spoiler Free)

If my War of the Worlds review has taught me anything, you can't judge a full series just by one episode.  So obviously what I say here can only reflect on the single episode I saw at the BFI's preview for this series, but I can say right now that this episode on it's own knocks it out of the park!  Steve Moffat (who was there with co-creator Mark Gatiss and many of the cast and crew) did the usual thing he does at these preview events and asked us very nicely not to give away any big surprises, including whether or not there are big surprises, so I'm going to do my best to avoid any here.  I won't go into any big reveals, nor whether or not I guessed anything ahead of time, nothing like that, just the shape of this one's storyline, the performances, and the feel of the production.  If even that is too much of a spoiler, my TL/DR version is as follows; this is a full blooded production, great scares, surprising number of laughs, feels true to the book and character whilst bringing some new things to the table, a must-watch recommendation from me.  Right, now all of that's out of the way, let's go right in.  Carpe Jugulum!

Thirty Years Since "There are worlds out there...", and other Doctor Who memories

So here's an interesting little anniversary; it's thirty years ago tonight that Survival, the last official episode of the original run of Doctor Who (dubbed "The Classic Era" these days) aired.  The end of a 26 year run.  I was at an event at the BFI a few Saturdays ago, a special screening of The Curse of Fenric to big up the release of the Season 26 Blu Ray set (now due out in early January), part of it was a Q&A with Ace herself Sophie Aldred, and the show's script editor Andrew Cartmell.  In the Q&A, Cartmell said that it wasn't an official, outright cancellation, it was that the BBC were effectively "ghosting" them, just saying that they were putting the show on hold for a bit... and just never answering the question about when it was going to start up again.  As such, John-Nathan Turner asked Cartmell to add in a little speech to the end of the last episode to be broadcast, Survival, and that has become one of the most well remembered parts of the show to a lot of fans...

Canary Duty - The War of the Worlds (BBC) Episode One

No-one would have believed, in the last year of the 2010s, that humanity would witness two separate versions of the ur-text for alien invasion narratives come to the television screens, in the form of mini-series.  And yet, across the production offices of the worlds, both Fox and the BBC regarded the text as it came into the public domain, and slowly (very slowly in the case of the Beeb!), but surely, they drew their scripts together...

Trailer of the Week - Pink Floyd's The Wall

Do you have a film that you're really sure if you like or not?  One of those ones where you keep coming back to it, keep giving it chances, but are still unsure if you really enjoyed, or felt satisfied by the experience?  We all like to think our opinions about movies are clear cut, that something either "good", "bad", or "meh", but c'mon, we all of one of these!  Well, for me one case is Alan Parker's film of the legendary Pink Floyd concept album The Wall.

October Horror Movie Challenge 2019 – Round Up & Awards

First of all, NOOOOOOO!!! I missed the last day of Blogtober!  My achievement ruined!  How will I cope?  Oh yeah, with this mindset.  Thanks Windsor!

Anyhoo, with the month finished, that's it for another year of my October Horror Movie Challenge!  Another October gone by, and yet more reasons for me to question why I am a fan of this genre at all.  Still, I've actually achieved a new record this year; last year was my previous best with 49 titles watched, this year I made it to 52!  W00t!  Now, whether I deliberately try to exceed that next time or not, I'll need to think about, this year was a bit exceptional with the Twilight and Halloween marathons.  I suppose it will depend if in charity shop hunting this year I find something that would make for a good marathon then.  Still, now it's time to have one last plug of the JustGiving appeal (which is already my most successful one to date!), and have a quick wrap up of my final thoughts on the films, giving out a few awards.

#Blogtober 30 - Trailer of the Week - From Beyond the Grave

Since I've nearly finished Blogtober, the big day of Halloween is tomorrow, and the Justgiving page has been my most successful yet (BTW, please consider throwing a few pennies in).  Therefore, for today's trailer, I've picked something appropriate that I know I can have a lot of fun writing about.  Wasting no time on pre-trailer waffle (I'll just waste the time afterwards instead!), here's 1974's From Beyond the Grave...

#Blogtober 29 - Halloween Bloggery - Dr. Terror's Vault of Horrors

Remember the BBC's own horror host?  On Halloween night 1992, the same night that the legendary Ghostwatch aired, there was a horror night on BBC2.  It was hosted by Dr. Walpurgis, a character played by Guy Henry (who after being buried in make up for this role, would be buried in CGI for playing Tarkin in Rogue One), with dialogue written by horror author and film critic Kim Newman.  He was such a hit that, after being rebranded Dr. Terror, there would be several horror showings on BBC One hosted by him, across 1993 to 1996.  Recently, thanks to various bloggers, such as VHiStory, many of these have been put up on YouTube, including over an hour of the interview segments from the 1992 Halloween night, so I thought I'd share a bunch of ones I could find on here.  I've also arranged a YouTube playlist to have them in order.  Ah, we need more wisecracking demons to spice up film screenings.  Enjoy!

#Blogtober 28 - Thoughts on Doctor Who News

I'm planning on a bunch of Doctor Who related blogs for next month, in time for its anniversary date on the 23rd, but for now I thought I'd do a little look at a few cool things related to Doctor Who that have happened this month.  As the great podcast Verity puts it, these are the little nuggets of Doctor Who delight that fill me with glee.  Before I get into things, no this won't include spoiler stuff from next series; there have been some location pictures circulating recently, showing something pretty major that's turning up, but I'm not going to casually let that one slip.

#Blogtober 27 - Book Review - Ghoster by Jason Arnopp

It's safe to say that a lot of horror creators have not adjusted well to the existence of mobile phones, often trying rather contrived ways of avoiding characters easily calling for help.  Now some more astute creators have simply worked out that being able to make a call might not be as much help in some situations.  For example, the show and film Ghost Stories has a great section where a character on a phone constantly doesn't harm the tension one little bit, not least for it giving us the classic line "Fucking O2!".  Others have realised that the ever presence of not just mobiles but social media connections can be in and of itself a source of terror.  There's actually a film out this weekend, Countdown, which is basically "What if Ring or Final Destination but with an app?".  For a more thoughtful take though, there's the recently released novel Ghoster, by Jason Arnopp.

#Blogtober 26 - Halloween Bloggery - Misty Early Channel 4 Memories

Who else here has a vague memory from childhood of some weird, forgotten bit of TV?  You know, one of those things where you're not even sure if you was something you actually watched, or if it was something you dreamt up?  Well, for years I've had something like that; I can't be sure of exactly when I saw it, but I was pre-Primary School definitely, so about only 4 or 5 years old.  What makes this thing so vivid was the fact that I only came in at the end of... whatever this show/film was, so I had no context for what was happening.  I remember a kid in a normal suburban house (like mine, to add to the paranoia) being menaced by some huge, amorphous mass of stuff, at one point getting out of a scrape with a He-Man figure, and there being something disturbing about the ending.

#Blogtober 25 - Halloween Bloggery - No, not that one...

I've been thinking a bit about cases of films and shows having similar titles recently.  A while ago at a pubmeet, someone mentioned liking the show The Good Wife, which led me and a friend down a tangent of discussing Vyvyan's rant about The Good Life until we realised the mistake.  Well, with the horror genre, this could lead to some hilarious issues, as there are a few cases of kids films with very similar or identical names to fright films.  This almost certainly did lead to quite a few traumas for children when parents didn't have a close enough look at what the video store gave them back in ye olden tymes, or if they just click on the first thing that a streaming service suggests when they type in the word today.  So I thought I'd have a quick look at a few notable examples of this sort of thing; consider this perhaps a warning to look very carefully at exactly what categories Netflix lists a film under before you put something on for the kiddlywinks...

#Blogtober 24 - Canary Duty - Terminator Dark Fate

I have been burned by the Terminator franchise before.  I saw this on the horizon, and whilst the trailers looked promising, my enthusiasm for this series has been long worn down by the likes of "talk to the hand", Christian Bale's orphan voice, and a "COPS" montage.  So I approached this up until the first reviews came out more out of curiosity than excitement.  When those articles dropped though, I was still thinking "OK, maybe it's just a case though that after Terminator Mega Dryve anything would seem better".  Well, now I have seen it, and I won't beat around the bush; not only are good Terminator films back, but there's a lot in here which might just make this (after a bit more time for reflection and rewatching) my favourite one since the original.

#Blogtober 23 - Trailer of the Week - The Mutations (aka The Freakmaker)

This week, it's a trailer for a film I have an interesting history with.  I finally got to see it about this time last year for my October Challenge, and whilst it was far from a satisfactory cinematic experience, it was a good feeling to wrap up a long standing little loose end in my life, one going back two decades.  This is the story about me, and... THE MUTATIONS!!!  First, the trailer, that will give you a very solid idea of the plot and contents of this film....

#Blogtober 22 - Halloween Bloggery - Apocalypse of the Blood Freak

It's a free film recommendation today, for a new indie low budget horror project.  And when I say low budget, I mean a £200 budget.  From a London based film collective, Tite90 productions, this takes a very experimental approach, with particular notice to horror tropes and cliches, not really making fun of them like Darkplace, more having a dialogue with these elements.  It's partially inspired by a pair of cult titles; Blood Freak and Troll 2.  For the first, it's in the way that even in many old exploitation horrors, there was a definite attempt to make a real heartfelt point.  From the second, it's from the way you'd sometimes have sequels that have no real connection to the originals.  Following its own  particular DIY Filmmaking manifesto, nicknamed DOGGO, this has a "decentralised" approach, with several members of the crew creating their own sections, within the resources available, and the whole thing linked together with careful editing. With inventive visuals, in a nightmare logic narrative, which goes all the way from pastiche to genuine mindfucks of the highest order, this is a real treat, and I'm not just saying this because a friend of mine made it and narrated it. So, for free on YouTube now, just in time for Halloween, enjoy Apocalypse of the Blood Freak!

#Blogtober 21 - Halloween Bloggery - Commercial Break

Something a bit different today, with a help from a few friends, I decided to put together a little compilation of terrifying/creepy/grotesque adverts from our childhoods.  Let's start with the most obvious one; a while ago (geez, it was over a decade ago!), Channel 4 did their list of The 100 Greatest Scary Moments, and this little tribute to German Expressionism was one of the only commercials to make the list.  They actually went all in on this, using old-fashioned hand-cranked cameras to give it that uneven, unnatural movement silent films often had.  Beware the Judderman my dear, when the Moon is fat...

#Blogtober 20 - Canary Duty - The Day Shall Come

Real on the ball film criticism round here, getting to this a week after release!  I know, real life stuff and this whole challenge thing getting in the way.  Anyhoo, Chris Morris is one of the great satirists of our times, and his 2010 film Four Lions is one of my favourites, a biting take on the war of terror highlighting the uncomfortable fact that many that go for causes such as IS do so because... well, because they're kind of idiots.  It makes the point that a lot of fanatics, ready to use violence to achieve their aims, probably don't understand all that much about their causes in the first place.  The Day Shall Come makes for a good companion piece for Four Lions, as it's also about a rather inept revolutionary, but here it's all about the role that government forces do to make such people look a much larger threat.  Whilst I don't think that this one is as successful as Morris' first film, this is still a great slice of comedy with a powerful point to make.

#Blogtober 19 - October Horror Movie Challenge - Canary Vs. The Halloween Franchise

Woo, it's all done!  I've finished the whole Halloween franchise for the Challenge this year!  I have a complete view of this series in entirety as a phenome- wait, sorry, what's that YouTube?

Oh.  Huh, more next year then.  Well, in the meantime, having gone through all of the films released so far, here's my ranking for the series, entry by entry.  I'll go favourite to least favourite, as I don't think number 1 is going to be any kind of surprise.

#Blogtober 18 - Halloween Bloggery - Scream, Misty, and The Thirteenth Floor!

Hey kids, COMICS!!!  Yeah, going a bit different today, talking about the funny books.  Now Rebellion, the current publishers of 2000 A.D. have been buying up the rights to a few older British titles in recent years, for republication after a long time in limbo.  Two major titles included in there are Misty and Scream.  Misty was an interesting one in that it was intended for girls, but had excellent stories of terror and the supernatural; full points to them for recognising that yes, people other than teenage boys liked horror way back in the seventies!  Scream was another anthology, from the mid-eighties, which had a more general mix of horror themed strips.  Rebellion have been releasing some collected trade editions of quite a few of the strips from these, but the last few years they've gone a step further, and produced some special edition comics for Halloween featuring all new stories!

#Blogtober 17 - Trailer(s) of the Week - Elm Street Oddities

Time for a little reel of extended trailers related to the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise, as discovered by The Duke Mitchell Film Club.  First of all, who here remembers the Freddy Krueger TV series?  Called Freddy's Nightmares, it ran for a couple of seasons, and was basically an anthology show.  There were a few episodes connected to the Nightmare on Elm Street storyline, including the pilot, but mostly they were unrelated horror stories, with Freddy acting as a greek chorus, basically being this show's Cryptkeeper (although the Tales from the Crypt TV series started after this began.  Hmm, I wonder...).  Now there isn't a full DVD boxset out there; there was only one, three episode DVD released in the UK yonks ago, but you can see a couple of episodes as they are bonus features on the Nightmare on Elm Street complete collection Blu Ray set.  But well before that though, a bunch of episodes got released on VHS in the UK; here's an advert from the time...

#Blogtober 16 - October Horror Movie Challenge - The Two Curses of Michael Myers

So one of the things I was wondering whether or not it would be pulled out of the Pumpkin for my horror movie challenge this year was in fact one of the first to be drawn out; the entire Halloween series.  Yep, all of the films they've done so far, and I suppose I was tempting fate when I got all of those blu rays together, for as soon as I did, they announced that two more of the things are being made.  Well, at least I'll be all caught up for them.  Now I'm going through all twelve so far released Halloween films for this.  Some of you may be going "hey wait a minute, there's only 11!", and you'd be right, but so am I.  See, Halloween 6: The Curse of Michael Myers was the first one made by Dimension Pictures, under the supervision of the Weinsteins, back when they were infamous for messing with films in post production, and not infamous for other, more serious matters.  The film has a tonne of reshoots, and re-edits, to the point that the film that got into studios had almost 70 minutes of different footage to what was originally intended.  For years, the original version, called The Producer's Cut, was something of an oddity amongst bootleggers, but recently the full thing has been restored and is now fully available on Blu Ray.  Therefore this post is about me having a look at both the versions I've seen, to say what works or doesn't about each version, which is better, and overall are either versions actually good movies, or even good Halloween sequels.  Going to get a bit spoilerly for this, including giving away how Halloween 5 ends (but that one is really not a loss; seriously, don't watch Halloween 5!), let's begin.

#Blogtober 15 - Fun with Sci-Fi Trivia

So I was cleaning up some stuff, getting ready another batch of things for my eBay, and I found this little thing.

This is a classic Sci-Fi trivia set... and by "classic" I mean it was printed in 1996.  I've actually used this thing in preparing some quizzes before.  I took a bit of inspiration from The Technical Difficulties podcast, which had the challenge of "if this is an answer from a 1984 Trivial Pursuit set, what's the question", and made comedy gold out of it.  Seriously, need a proper deep belly laugh, go check out their podcast and later videos.  Finding this particular set though made me decide it would be fun to have a brief look at the wide world of geekdom, and see what exactly has changed in the realm of SF & Fantasy since these questions were written.

#Blogtober 14 - October Horror Movie Challenge - Canary vs. Twilight

Well, I did it.  I kept the promise made when I started my fundraiser this year, and have sat through all five Twilight films.  I am still recovering.  Before I take the discs along to Computer Exchange, let's have my final thoughts on the franchise, film by film followed by a general overview.  Now before I start, let's be clear that I am focusing on the films specifically, I haven't read the books (I'd need to have gotten a lot more in the fundraiser before I give up that much of my time to them!), but I know of one or two things that are different in the films, so I might make reference to those.  So let's get to it, in lots of spoilery detail; hang on tight spider monkeys!  (I can't believe I just typed that!)

#Blogtober 13 - Canary Duty - #LFF2019 Round Up Part Three

As I speak, London Film Festival 2019 is wrapping up with the closing night film The Irishman.  I was tempted by that screening to the honest, but I am all wrapped up in this October Challenge thing, and it's three and a half hours long!  So with another successful line up coming to an end, it's time for me to wrap up my own coverage of what I've seen; three titles left, let's get into it.

#Blogtober 12 - Halloween Bloggery - Podcast Recommendations 2

Well, my first podcast recommendations episode went down well, so here's a few more favourites.  This was definitely the plan all along, and absolutely not at all because I realised I completely blanked on a few obvious titles, honest gov'!

#Blogtober 11 - Theatre Review - Mites

Oooh, something a bit different today, going a bit cultured with actual theatre, with real people in front of me and stuff!  Yep, a friend of mine let me be a +1 to a performance of Mites, a new absurdist play currently on at the Tristan Bates Theatre at the Actor's Centre in London.

#Blogtober 10 - Silly Movie Trailer of the Week - Bloodbath at the House of Death

I have strayed far from my roots, going for trailers that are far too respectable, we need something utterly ridiculous.  Help us out Kenny Everett!

#Blogtober 9 - Canary Duty - Knives Out (as seen at #LFF2019!)

I was just going to have this as part of another general post of rounding up London Film Festival titles, but this is a very big title, I'm still buzzing about it the morning after seeing it, and I have a lot to say.  That said, I should point out that this is of course going to be completely spoiler free, although given this is a very twisty murder mystery, with some surprises and revelations coming thick and fast at points, that's quite a hard task.  I am bigging this one up, even though it's already quite a high profile release this year, because I genuinely want this to succeed as best it can (not least because Rian Johnson has said he'd love to do more Benoit Blanc mysteries if it succeeds).  So without further ado, let's plunge the blade into Knives Out!

#Blogtober 8 - Canary Duty - #LFF2019 Part Two

Keeping my London Film Festival coverage going in manageable chunks, and definitely not just stretching things out to make sure I have enough things to make blog posts about for this month, honest gov'!, let's carry on going through my LFF journey.  Three more films to discuss, let's get cracking!

#Blogtober 7 - Halloween Bloggery - Alien War

Short one today, as I have a few other things going on, I just want to share something very cool I found on YouTube.  So this weekend, amongst other things, I had a good time at the Namco Station arcade in London; nice evening, I won enough tickets to get a stuffed Pac-Man ghost, but that got me thinking about the fact that there just aren't a lot of good arcades anymore.  I know why, rise of online multiplayer games and such, but it's still a shame, video arcades were great social venues.  One I used to go to a lot was the top of the Trocadero in Piccadilly Circus, Funland.  As I'm writing this, I'm actually getting a bit nostalgic for a day when Street Fighter IV had just been launched; I remember the line for the arcade cabinets, the guys who had obviously already figured out all the combos and supermoves, and getting my arse handed to me first time I got on.  Good times, but it's not that exhibit at the Trocadero I want to talk about today.

#Blogtober 6 - Canary Duty - #LFF2019 Part One

I've been very busy this week with screenings at the London Film Festival, a whole bunch of fascinating titles, so let's have a look at the first three films I've seen.  I've included as much detail on their release dates as possible, so let's get to it, there's a lot to talk about.

#Blogtober 5 - Halloween Bloggery - Podcast Recommendations

Today I'd like to recommend a few horror related podcast series and/or episodes.  I've been getting very much into podcasts the last few years, they are especially good for doing the long walks that are my main form of exercise, and it's clear that their popularity is not weaning at all.  It does make the old-school radio fan in me happy that the audio medium is still going strong, just in a different form.  So let's have a good selection for Spoopy Season.

#Blogtober 4 - Canary Duty - Joker

It's safe to say that this has been something of a controversial release, and I'm not just referring to director Todd Phillips pumping lead into his feet every time he opens his mouth whilst on the press junket. I've already done a whole article talking about some of the reactions to it, so I guess today we're going to see whether all the palaver from both it's pre-emptive supporters and detractors has been worth it.

...:One viewing later:...

No.  No it was not worth it.  Nor is really worth going to see.

#Blogtober 3 - Trailer of the Week - Intruder

I was a bit hesitant about having this one, as the trailer is a bit spoilery, but it's been on my mind recently, so I want to have a chat about it.  What I'm going to do is have a 100% spoiler free first paragraph, recommending the film, and a deeper discussion, trying my best not to give the game away, after the page break.  So to start, if you want a fun retro slasher this Halloween season, I definitely recommend tracking down 1989's Intruder, it's available on pretty good blu rays from Synapse Films in the States and 88 Films in the UK.  It's got good acting, fun camerawork, pretty damn spectacular gore effects, and you get to see the future director of Spider-Man being murdered.  Plus it deviates from slasher cliches in some notable ways, including avoiding the sleazy, somewhat misogynistic areas that this sub-genre can fall into a little too often, and delivers a real gut punch of an ending.  Now that shock ending isn't given away in the trailer, but the identity of the mystery killer is (even though it's really not too hard to figure out in the film), so if you want to go in really fresh, just go find a copy and check it out!  (Heheh, check it out, it's set in a supermarket, it's fu- nevermind.).  Some more details and hints at spoilers after the video and page break.

#Blogtober 2 - October Horror Movie Challenge - Faces of Death

For the last few years I've been doing this challenge, I often have on the list one of the infamous Video Nasties, so I can work my way through most of them.  Thing is, for a lot of the ones on the main Section II lists (the 72 films that were charged under the Obscene Publications Act, 39 of which were prosecuted, 33 weren't), I've reached the point where what I have left are some of the more extreme titles, and a lot of the utter crap that got lumped in there.  So for the one on this week's list, I decided to make my watching of it directly linked to the fundraiser, as an incentive to get through it, as it's directly for a good cause.  I think this is perhaps the only case this particular title has done some real good, as it's one of the big ones in the field.  So in the mindset of "let's get this done quickly", here are my thoughts on the truly infamous Faces of Death...

#Blogtober 1 - Blogtober Begins and Creepy Puppetry

What's this?  Two crazy daily challenges this month?  Yes, in what I can only assume is some sort of cry for help, as well as my regular #octoberhorrormoviechallenge, I'm taking the #Blogtober challenge too.  The rules of this are very simple; post new blog content every day in October.  What will I be posting?  Well my main thoughts about the films I'm viewing for the OHMC I'll be putting on my Instagram feed, which will also show up on my Twitter and Tumblrs too, but I may have on here a few discussions about what I've been seeing on here too, if it's something special I have a lot to say about, and if it would count as a "Canary Duty" title.  There are a few other non-horror things I'll be seeing on regular release, and at the London Film Festival, too, so I'll have my thoughts on them here too. But mostly though, since it is Spoopy Season too, I'll be having on here some fun little Halloween and horror related links.  I've been tormenting anyone following me on the socials with them every year for a while now, complete with the Silver Shamrock jingle, so I might as well use them to bulk things out on here.  Right, one post a day for a month, let's see if I can commit to at least something regular on here for a change!

October Horror Movie Challenge 2019 - Play Along at Home

October begins tomorrow, and thus so will my latest October Horror Movie Challenge.  My Justgiving page is still up, we're still doing the appeal for Crisis, please give generously.  It's currently at the point where I have unlocked infamous video nasty Faces of Death, I'll be doing that early on, but still need a little bit more in there before I'm forced to tackle the entire Twilight Saga.  Today though, it's time for me to do a few recommendations for those of you who'd like to try it for yourselves.  The recommendations I did for 2016 and 2018 all still stand of course, and again I suggest giving Shudder's library of titles a try; use the one month trial, that's all your Halloween viewing sorted for a fiver.  Here's another set of recent titles that I recommend giving a try.  If some of these are exclusive to particular streaming services I'll make sure to mention it.  Before I start, a quick shout out to some ones I have blogged about on here before; do check out Train to Busan and One Cut of the Dead if you haven't already.  Right, with that done, let's get started, in alphabetical order, with...

Trailer(s) of the Week - The Gates of Hell Trilogy (City of the Living Dead, The Beyond, The House by the Cemetery)

Decided to do a bumper selection today; last week we had a knock-off of one of Lucio Fulci's zombie films, so this week, I thought I'd cover the real deal.  Now Zombi 2/Zombie/Zombie Flesh Eaters was a big hit worldwide, and did help to solidify the George A. Romero rules for the undead (plus it gave us the sight of a zombie fighting a shark).  However, for me where Fulci's work with the living dead really hit its stride is where he went next with them.  Seemingly taking a bit inspiration from Dawn of the Dead's tagline, "When there's no more room in hell, the dead will walk the Earth", he made a loose trilogy of films with merged undead horror with a surrealist, ethereal, cosmic horror sensibility.  It's a trilogy purely in a thematic sense, in that they deal with similar ideas, rather than any plot details... which is good because if you've come to these films for a coherent plot, you're really in the wrong place!  Let's open up the Gates of Hell to have a peak...

Canary Duty - A Shaun the Sheep Movie : Farmageddon

The Shaun the Sheep film in 2015 was a thing of wonder and joy.  A great transition from short-form TV into full feature length, whilst still keeping a lot of the heart of the show intact, namely near pitch perfect sort-of silent animated comedy.  Plus it managed to have a genuinely heartfelt storyline, getting a real emotional response out of all but the most stone-hearted.  Not bad for a stop-motion spin-off with no real spoken dialogue.  So all in all, a pretty tough act to follow, and going for a "IN SPAAAAAACCCEEE" sequel can often be a somewhat variable prospect in terms of what it can do for a franchise.  So, does Farmageddon end up more a Super Mario Galaxy, or a Hellraiser Bloodline?

Halloween Bloggery - Another Game

Forty days left till All Hallowe's Eve, so it's time to start sharing random cool thematically appropriate stuffs.  This time it's a short film I saw on the big screen last year as part of a horror shorts showcase.  It's from the same team behind comedy feature film Ashens and the Quest for the Game Child (and the upcoming Ashens and the Polybius Heist), including star Dan Tomlinson, director Riyad Barmania, and internet funnyman himself Stuart Ashen.  It's a fun little creepy tale, all about the risks of gambling, and the "it'll never happen to me" fallacy.  I'll let the short, which is now officially available on YouTube, speak for itself, enjoy Another Game.

Please consider donating to my regular Halloween fundraiser for Crisis!

Silly Movie Trailer of the Week - Nights of Terror/Burial Ground/The Zombie Dead/Zombi Horror

Been too good on here recently, we need some silly schlock as we're going into the Halloween season, dammit!  And what better place is there for that than the wild world of Italian zombie cinema?  Today's entry is from one of the several dozen pieces of undead exploitation that were made shortly after Dawn of the Dead (retitled Zombi) and Zombi 2 (Zombie Flesh Eaters) were big hits at the European box office.  In fact, this one tried to pass itself off as Zombi 3 on occasion, something quite a few films tried before they made an official one.  This is 1981's Nights of Terror, aka a whole bunch more alternative titles I'm not going into again, and let's see a UK video dealer's trailer for it!

Bonus Trailers - Commemorating Breakaway Day

A special extra selection of trailers today, as this marks the twentieth anniversary of the Moon being blasted out of orbit.  What do you mean you don't remember that?  Why, it was all recorded in this fine documentary series, which first broadcast... twenty four years and nine days before the disaster happened....

Trailer of the Week - The Shining

A little later than planned, but given that it's exactly seven weeks till Halloween today, I thought I'd move these to Thursday until then.  On Sunday the final trailer dropped for one of my most anticipated films of the year, Doctor Sleep, the sequel to The Shining.  I really dug the book, looks like it captures the story pretty well, and it seems to be doing that tricky task of balancing the book and film versions of the story.  Plus it's cool being in cinemas where the first trailer played, and hearing a few people gasp or otherwise react when they realise what exactly this film is.  So with that in mind, now's a good time to look back at one of the simplest and most effective horror film trailers of all time...

Lessons not Learned - Exorcist II: The Heretic

Here’s a little something new for on here; I thought I’d take inspiration from Yahtzee’s little irregular column and every so often have a look at particular cases of a film crashing and burning, to see what could be learned from the mess, and evidence that it wasn’t.  I’m not going to do a full evisceration of a review of these films, as plenty of other smarter folks than I have done that.  No, I’m purely going to focus on cases where there were only one or two obvious factors behind the failure, and see if those crop up again with any subsequent major flops.  With this in mind, let’s start with one of the most notorious cases of sequelisation ever… John Boorman’s Exorcist II: The Heretic.

Yeah, this fits the tone the first one established.

Canary Duty - It Chapter Two

I wonder how many people were taken genuinely by surprise when at the end of the 2017 It, the title card came up saying It Chapter One?  Those that read the book or remember the TV version knew that the story of the Stephen King had two strands; one with a group of kids facing Pennywise, the other with them returning as adults to finish the clownish creature off.  This gave the makers of this version a solid way to take care with a common problem King adaptations face; his novels are bricks of words, hard to condense down to feature length.  So by splitting it as one film with the kids, one with the adults (as opposed to the novel's and TV version's method of switching between the two), we can have one film that can stand on its own feet, which if they didn't get a sequel would work as it's own film.  Plus it means enough time to let the story breathe properly. So two years after becoming a genuine horror blockbuster phenomenon, how does the long awaited second chapter hold up?

October Horror Movie Challenge 2019 - Fundraising Begins, With a New Twist!

This year, I am once again taking part in what has turned out to be one of the most enduring things to come out of the IMDb message boards (outliving the boards themselves!), The October Horror Movie Challenge!  The rules are simple; across October's 31 days, watch at least 31 horror movies, and at least half of them (so more than 16) must be ones you are watching for the first time.  As in previous years, I'll be going for as many as I can fit in, including a few new cinema releases, stuff at the London Film Festival (already booked my tickets!), but the main bulk of them coming from what I've been gathering from charity shops and the like across the year, on a random draw basis.  There are a few interesting marathons potentially on the cards this year, so I'm once again doing this sponsored, raising money for Crisis.  If you have liked my witterings about film this year and want to show your appreciation, please give what you can to my appeal, help prepare the homeless and those that would help them for the coming winter.

Goodbye Uncle Terrance

I don't really like having to do these, but I really thought it necessary in this case.  Yesterday Doctor Who fans around the world received the sad news that writer Terrance Dicks had passed away.  He is a figure whose impact on the world of Doctor Who, and indeed on the youth of Britain for many years, cannot be overstated.

Trailer of the Week - Drop Dead Gorgeous

A random rewatch from my pile for this week's trailer.  I hadn't thought of this film in years, then an article for its 20th anniversary reminded me of how much I had previously enjoyed it... well, enjoyed the last hour of it, I came in partway through a TV screening the first time.  So 50p's worth of credit in a CEX later, I got a copy for a rewatch, and thankfully this was one of those times my good memories were quite correct.  If anything, I think it was even better than I originally gave it credit for.  This is 1999's dark comedy gem, Drop Dead Gorgeous.

Summer Ends - My Favourite Season Begins!

So as of tomorrow, it's the end of Summer.  Autumn right around the corner (well, it will be if climate change hasn't gotten that bad yet!).  Which means it's time for me to dust this off again; cue the music!

"TWO MORE MONTHS TILL HALLOWEEN!
"HALLOWEEN!
"HALLOWEEN!
"TWO MORE MONTHS TILL HALLOWEEN!

"SILVER SHAMROCK!"

A New Cause - Nice for the 2023 Worldcon

So as I mentioned last week, the 77th World Science Fiction Convention, Worldcon, was held in Dublin, and a grand time was had.  As usual after conventions, I now have an excess number of new books to read, a big recommendation list of things to catch up on (the Hugo Awards alone will do that), and a tonne of ideas for new panels I'd like to try running or contributing to at future events.  In fact, I've already started researching a few of the panel ideas, and am beginning to realise just how deep a rabbit hole some of these ideas are.  The good thing is that I do have a while before I need them, as Worldcon isn't going to back in Europe for a while.  Now next year's Worldcon is in New Zealand, which is a teeny bit out of reach for me, barring a sudden windfall.  2021 was formally confirmed as being Washington D.C., which I am toying with going for, if certain changes are made to who is residing in that large pale home there by the time of the con.  Currently there is only one bid for 2022, Chicago, and that's unlikely to change by the time of next year's vote.  Which makes 2023 the interesting one, as it's the first one in a while to now be a four horse race.

Just One More Thing - Killing Jerks

Decided to dust off an old title for here; Just One More Thing is the title I'm going to use for commenting on things that are happening, where I get to flex my inner Charlie Brooker.  For this week, I thought I'd talk about the Joker.  That trailer for the new R-rated Joker dropped this week, and I'm really not liking the look of it.  Not that it looks badly made, or poorly acted, or anything like that, and let's face it, you'd have to work hard to present a worse Joker than Jared Fucking Leto.  But the subject matter is bothering me; it's another story of a white guy getting treated a bit badly, told he can't have a thing he wants, deciding to take it out on everyone in a disproportionate way, and we the audience are asked to sympathise with them.  In the age of mass shootings every fucking week in America, it's very poor timing for this kind of thing, and in general I've never liked that sentiment.  The closest I ever came to really liking that sort of thing was Falling Down, only because at the end the film makes damn clear "Michael Douglas is the bad guy here", though only by literally saying it out loud.  But it's not really the film itself I have an issue with; it's some of the fans reacting to the premise, and how it links to the film's most likely source material.

A Look at the London Film Festival 2019 Line-Up!

It's that time again!  No, not for that, the other time.  No no, one along, next shelf down, by the bag of Quavers- yeah THAT time again!  October will be time for the annual BFI London Film Festival (LFF), now in it's 63rd year.  I have been going along to stuff there regularly since 2014, there are always some real treats to be found in store.  Also, in keeping on brand with my regular October Horror Movie Challenge (yeah, we're doing that on this blog again too), I always try to check out as much of their genre content as I can, and there's usually a fair amount of that to be found, especially since they started having a regular "cult" strand.  So with this in mind, the full line up has been announced today, let's have a look at some of what's in store this year?  Now this isn't necessarily going to be everything I see there (I'm not made of money and free time you know!), but they are things of my interest.

Yes, this is a real promo from back in the day!

Canary Duty - FrightFest Weekend Special

Yeah, trying something new out this time!  I saw a bunch of new horror films this weekend, two on general release, three at Arrow Video FrightFest, so I thought I'd do one big blog post of all five in one go.  Forcing myself to cut down on the waffling by just having one big paragraph per film.  Let's see how that works out after the page break.

Trailer of the Week - Train to Busan

So D23 has been going on this weekend, the latest boasting session from the juggernaut dominating global entertainment at the moment.  One big thing was showing off the cast of Marvel Studios' The Eternals.  Now that one is going to be interesting, as that property started off as Jack Kirby at his most... Kirby, a lot like his earlier Inhumans and New Gods stuff.  I'm really hoping though that Marvel learned from how the Inhumans series went down like a lead balloon  The cast was on stage for the presentation, including big names like Angelina Jolie, Gemma Chan, Kit Harrington, and Salma Hayek.  There was also at least one other person there who's not nearly so much a household name, at least in in US and UK; Ma Dong-seok (aka Don Lee), a Korean actor making his English language debut in the Eternals, playing Gilgamesh.  I've seen him before, in terms of physical presence and charisma, he's an excellent choice.  If you'd like to see a good example of him in action before seeing The Eternals, then that's one of many, many reasons to seek out today's trailed film; the 2016 horror disaster blockbuster Train to Busan.

Canary Duty - The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance (Episode 1)

Ah, I knew I kept that BFI Membership for something!  Last night myself and a friend got to attend at the BFI Southbank a special preview event for one of Netflix's most anticipated productions of the year; the prequel series to 80s fantasy classic The Dark Crystal.  I have had a fondness for that film since I first saw glimpses of it on an old Palace Video promo reel, and I have quite a few good friends for whom it means a lot to them, so I have had big "pleasedon'tsuckpleasedon'tsuckpleasedon'tsuck" feelings about this one?  So were my concerns valid?

Trailer of the Week - Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

So it's a bit late, been busy at Worldcon in Dublin, but I wanted to write at least something on here, so let's do something related to my weekend.  On Sunday the latest Hugo Awards got announced, and it was quite the evening, from the first acceptance speech onwards.  Given the number of women and non-caucasian creators who received awards, I think it's safe to say that the days of the Sad Puppy movement are well and truly dead.  I was in the bar when a lot of the awards were announced, there were some big cheers for quite a few of the announcements including everyone going nuts when AO3 received the award for "Best Related Work".  Another one that got a great response was Best Dramatic Presentation Long Form, which went to today's title...

Trailer of the Week - Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films

Studios and film production companies these days are very much in the vein of major corporations, it's extremely rare to have an actual face of such organisations.  Sure you have some notable producers around, but few are synonymous with particular companies, bar a few notable exceptions, like Kevin Feige at Marvel Studios, Jason Blum for Blumhouse, and a certain pair of brothers who's entire cinematic legacy has gone down in infamy with them we will not discuss further.  But back in the day, the name of the producer was as big a selling point as the stars and/or director for some projects.  Which is funny, because quite a few of these names, if they weren't part of a big established studio, were basically Del-Boy-esque wheeler-dealers when it came to managing their projects.  You had Sir Lew Grade, who had good success on TV, but not so much in film, Dino De Laurentiis, always trying to one-up the big successes in his demented, continental way, and then there were Menahem Golan & Yoram Globus, the minds behind Cannon Films, subject of this documentary...

Trailer of the Week - Evil Under the Sun

Sorry for the quiet around here; a lot of personal stuff has been going on, including starting a new temp job, so not as much time for writing and seeing films.  But I'm going to try to keep more regular, this is basically my sort of therapy.  I'm aiming to do at least ten posts per month about various things, although I'm having to prepare a little backlog of posts as I have Worldcon in Dublin this month too.  So if things are erratic again, that's why.  Anyway, back to where I left off.  With the trailers I'd just done some Miss Marple, so let's turn our attention to Hercule Poirot, with 1982's Evil Under the Sun

This was the second outing for Peter Ustinov as the Belgian Sleuth, after Death on the Nile in 1977, and like that one the script was done by Anthony Shaffer, who also wrote The Wicker Man, and more relevant to this genre Sleuth.  It follows the path of the book well, with the main changes being the tone (it's another Guy Hamilton film, so high camp is the order of the day!) and the location.  The 1941 novel was set in Devon, and was based on a real hotel, Burgh Island, which I'd like to go to some time.  In fact, when this story was adapted for the Poirot TV series, they filmed at that hotel, using all the authentic details, like the weird tractor thing you have to use to get there when it's high tide.  This film on the other hand takes place in the Adriatic sea, near a Tintin-style made up country (ooh, another famous Belgian!).  It was filmed in Majorca in Spain, and whatever else you can say about this one, it looks gorgeous, the locations are superb.  Hamilton was rather limited by the English village surroundings in The Mirror Crack'd, here he's playing to his strengths.

As I said, a Guy Hamilton film means a larger-than-life style (look at his Bond films!), and this cast is no exception.  It's a fantastic group of performers in and of itself (James Mason, Sylvia Miles, Roddy McDowell...), but they all seem to be having a ball and letting loose.  There's a centre-piece moment of Diana Rigg and Maggie Smith singing a duet of a Cole Porter number, which is basically a polite way of telling each other to go f*** themselves, and it is glorious to watch.  The main mystery itself is a little bit rushed, although that may be because the film ditches a few red-herrings and such from the book, it streamlines the plot, which is fine when making a story feature length.  Also, the ending is a prime example of "the evil voice" principle in these mysteries, including milking the reveal to a ridiculous degree.  That's this film in a nutshell, it takes the humour up to almost an absurd level, but remembers that it has to deliver a satisfying whodunnit, so it knows when to reign things in, and importantly the murder itself is no laughing matter.  I do have a lot of fun with Ustinov's Poirot films, and whilst I think Death on the Nile is the better film, I think I enjoy this one more, if that makes sense.  I am curious to check out the TV films he did as Poirot though, especially as one of them includes David Suchet in the cast.

Bonus Trailer, here's a TV spot for the film, with some more of Ustinov talking to the audience as Poirot directly.  I love the way he pronounces "Rated PG"!

Trailer of the Week - The Mirror Crack'd

The little Agatha Christie season I'm having on here continues with an attempt to bring Miss Marple back to cinemas, in a way that's a bit more faithful to Christie's characterisation of her.  Now this was made in the wake of a few other successful Christie adaptations, namely the 1974 version of Murder on the Orient Express, and the 1977 take on Death on the Nile.  Both of those were Poirot stories, so it makes sense to give her other great detective a go.  In fact, for the lead, they got one of the cast of Death on the Nile, as Angela Lansbury played one of the suspects in that (and she's fantastic in the role, devouring the scenery beautifully!).  Note, this was four years before her run as noted serial killer Jessica Fletcher in Murder She Wrote.  So then, how's the film itself?

Canary Duty - The Dead Don't Die!

There are some filmmakers who have obvious talent in all the important ways, but I have a somewhat variable relationship with their works.  For example, despite my rants about Man of Steel (still from what I can tell the most read thing on this blog), I do still think that Zack Snyder is a genuinely good director, (even if he does overdo the slo-mo a lot) it's just the subject matter that's the problem.  Another case is Jim Jarmusch.  There are quite a few of his films I have a lot of trouble getting into, to the point that I start to think a lot of the most tired jokes about "quirky" indie filmmakers out there might be right on the money.  But when he's on point though, I dig it immensely, such as with Only Lovers Left Alive.  So I was a bit uncertain going into The Dead Don't Die, as to which mode he was going to be in  On the one hand, hey, a zombie movie, and all the interviews and such out there shows he has a lot of love and affection for the sub-genre.  On the other though, the trailer did show him to be at his most Jarmusch-y.  So what did I think of the end result?

Canary Duty - Annabelle Comes Home

Quick disclaimer before I start; I'm not quite up to date with the whole Conjuring-Universe thing; I didn't get round to seeing The Nun or The Curse of La Llarona, so if there are extra references to those in Annabelle Comes Home, they went right past me.  That's for the one of you reading this who has Marvel levels of respect for the continuity of this franchise.  Now the Annabelle films form a variable little series, or should we call this a sub-series.  I was actually at the UK press screening for the first Annabelle, which at the time seemed quite novel, creating a full shared universe from a new horror property.  In the end though, the scariest thing from the finished film was the paper masks we all got given.  Annabelle Creation though was a lot better, with a more interesting story, a better period setting, likeable characters, and the daring to put the children in a horror story in actual danger.  About the only real niggle I had with it was the slightly forced elements to fit the events of that one in with the events of the first Annabelle (and a heavy-handed bit foreshadowing for The Nun).  So now we have this one, which isn't quite a prequel like the others, from what I can tell it fits in between the first and second Conjuring movies.  So how does this one stack up?

Trailer(s) of the Week - The Miss Marple Quartet

I make it very clear that I lean into genre fare on here, and I make no apology, and take no shame in that.  But variety is the spice of life as I often say, so let's go for a bit more high-brow on here; since we've just had the trailer for Knives Out drop, how about a set of stylish murder mysteries, starring once of the true great detective characters, Agatha Christie's Miss Jane Marple?  Well, sort of...

Now let's get something clear; Dame Margaret Rutherford's Miss Marple is very different to the version in Christie's original books.  In the novels and short stories, Marple was the sort who could quietly sit by the sidelines, and get a good overview of events, often not getting too stuck in herself directly until the end.  That's definitely not how Rutherford does things; her Marple is all too keen to get stuck in up to her arms in the mysteries, often personally calling out the guilty parties herself.  Both takes work for their versions though, so this not being faithful to Christie is far from a deal breaker.  If you want to watch a more faithful take, look up the BBC version from 1984 to 1992, starring Joan Hickson in the role.

Canary Duty - Midsommar

Now when I started doing this blog, my aim with all of my Canary Duty articles was to get them done ASAP.  Since I'm not doing these from press previews (not yet; hint hint any future employers of me out there!), I am just trying to get in to the first screening I can, and get my thoughts on the film up here immediately.  That was much harder to do in this case, and I don't just mean because of how late the screenings were; I had to really second guess and reassess my impressions of this one, because like his previous film Hereditary, Ari Aster has come up with something very challenging in Midsommar.  How you respond to it will be up to you, but to really dig into the hows, whys, and whethers of this film working, I will have to hint at a few spoilers, even if I don't entirely give the game away.  So I'll put above the page break my final verdict; Midsommar is very uncomfortable film, both in terms of hinting at subject matter and in character dynamics, it's gorgeously filmed, has a solid backbone of a character arc for the lead, and truly memorable imagery.  It's far more unnerving than it is traditionally "scary", and if you are familiar with the "Folk Horror" subgenre (one very major title in that field in particular) it won't surprise you, but this is one of those films where it's more about the journey than the destination.  If the idea of having a 140 minute simulation of a bad trip is something you think you can handle, go for this.  So with all that out the way, if you don't mind me circling Spoiler City Limits, let's dig a bit deeper after the trailer.

Treats for the Rest of the Year!

I had a look at my favourite five films in cinemas of the year so far, so let's follow up by having a quick peek at some films I'm very excited about seeing later on in the year.  I'll have ten on here, in chronological order of UK releases, and we'll go from August onwards.  Before the list itself, let's get the obvious two out of the way; yeah, I'm really keen on catching both Frozen 2 and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, both have got a lot to live up to, and it will be fascinating to see if they can pull it off.  For this list though, I'm going to focus on here a few lesser known titles, one's that deserve a bit more buzz.

Indie Watch - Knife + Heart

Knife + Heart is a brand new French Giallo set around the world of late 70s gay porn films.  I think from that statement I'd have either already sold you on this, or you know very well that this isn't for you.  I could just stop here, but I might as well continue the pretence of this being a professional operation, so if you are interested, read on...

Half Term Report 2019

WHOOOOOAAAAHHHH, WE'RE HALF WAY THERE-ERE!!!  WHOAH-OH!!!!

I don't apologize for that at all.  Anyway, we're halfway through the year, so I thought I'd do a quick top five of my favourite films I've seen at the cinema this year.  Will I still think these are the top when it's time to do my top ten of the whole year list?  We'll see then, but for now, let's start with...

Trailer(s) of the Week - Dawn of the Dead

One thing I've been listening to over the last year has been the superb Evolution of Horror podcast.  A fine discussion of the genre, host Mike Muncer breaks the genre down to separate sub-genres, and discusses with various guests the main titles that have truly shaped that branch of horror.  So far there have been four seasons, with the subject for the fifth already announced as the evolution of Occult movies, focusing on tales of Witchcraft, Satanism, and the Devil.  It's well worth going back through the first few seasons too, on Slashers, Ghost Stories, and Folk Horror.  The latest season that just wrapped up is on the topic of the Zombie film, ending with the viewer's top ten.  I was thinking of doing my own top ten zombie films, thinking that it would be fairly easy given how damn ubiquitous the undead buggers are, but I genuinely couldn't make up my mind.  There are a tonne of crap zombie properties out there, but when the subgenre is good, it's really damn good!  So as a result, I thought what I'd do instead is have this week's trailer post be a look at several different promos for perhaps the film that shaped the subgenre the most, and one that would definitely fit somewhere into my personal top ten, 1978's Dawn of the Dead...

Indie Watch - In Fabric

So here's a new irregular little strand for this blog; this a discussion of indie titles or other smaller profile films that I've seen in previews or at festivals and such; now they are getting a proper release, I can give proper reviews for them.  Keep in mind that for some of these cases it might be close to a year since I last saw them, so let's hope my fuzzy memory is up to the task.  Fortunately, the first film I'll be discussing in this strand is one that you do not forget easily.  Coming this week to Curzon Cinemas and a few other places, it's Peter Strickland's In Fabric, which I saw at the London Film Festival last year.

Silly Movie Trailer of the Week - Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III

So Child's Play came out on Friday, and there's a fun scene of Andy and his friends watching The Texas Chainsaw Massacre II, which seems to give Chucky some very wrong ideas.  I thought as a result I might have that one on here, but I covered it on the Tumblr a while ago, and while that was an early brief article, I don't want to repeat myself just yet.  However, then I double checked and realised I hadn't done it's direct sequel, which is an interesting little tale of the film itself, but hoo boy the trailer... just watch!

Canary Duty - Child's Play

Before I get into the review, I should note that this film exists for somewhat nefarious reasons.  See, the original Child's Play was made by MGM/United Artists, but as Child's Play 2 started shooting, in 1990, they were bought out by the firm Quintex, who didn't want to make horror movies.  So the sequel, franchise, and character rights to Chucky were sold to Universal.  They did pretty well out of them over the years, with Bride of Chucky being one of the most fun of the post Scream slasher boom, and the last couple of straight-to-video ones being pretty damn good. As for Quintex... they went bust in 1991; deciding not to do a sequel to a film that earned a 400% profit margin shows the kind of thinking that lead to that.  But MGM did hang on to those rights to the original, so now we have this version (via the resurrected Orion Pictures), which I suspect purely happened so they can keep the name for another few decades.  It does irk a lot of people (including me) that this was done without series creator Don Mancini, or original Chucky voice Brad Dourif, who are still working on a new TV series to follow on from 2017's Cult of Chucky.  Still, despite the shady motives, what's the final product like?

Canary Duty - Brightburn

Now for those that many years ago read my Man of Steel rant and some of its follow-ups might guess, I have been very curious about this one for a while now.  I have a lot of fondness for the character of Superman, so you might think I'd be against a film that's all about the concept "what if Clark Kent was more like Michael Myers".  Actually, I like the idea immensely!  With a "dark reflection" story like this, you can have a proper examination of what it is that makes Superman... Superman.  Why did he become the hero rather than the villain?  What if the wholesome upbringing by Jonathan & Martha Kent, which to me far more shapes who Superman is than his Kryptonian heritage, had gone very wrong? A film like this has a lot of potential to explore that idea then, but does it achieve that goal?  What's more, whether or not it does, how well does it work as a horror film?

Silly Movie Trailer of the Week - The Banana Splits Movie

Originally I had something else planned for this post; in fact I was going to drop a whole "silly" movie trailer angle altogether just keep more general. But then this thing happened.

Canary Duty - Men in Black International

The original Men in Black is still a pretty good movie; hard to remember past the dumb retread of MIBII and the "OK but with issues" of III, but it was a bit of a game changer back in the day.  It was perhaps one of the first blockbusters since the original Ghostbusters to go for such a high-concept approach and making it work so well in action/comedy terms, at least not one based on an already well-known brand.  (Before anyone @s me, yes I know it was based on a comic, I typed "well known brand", it was one lessor Malibu title!)  I think the trouble the sequels had was a studio mistaking form for function; that every single ingredient had to be there for the audience to like it again, hence an immediate retreat to the J and K dynamic, when the first film gave a definitive end to that.  Now this one, operating Will-less shall we say, is doing what the sequels should have done; open things up a bit, explore more of the world of the MIB, give us some new faces with a slightly different dynamic.  So does it work?

Canary Duty - Ma

Hmm, it seems "kindly woman played by a noted character actress turns out to be psychotic" movies are like buses; you wait for ages, no sign of any, and then two come along at once.  Seriously, there's often a little cluster of these sorts of films all at once (Misery, The Hand that Rocks the Cradle, Single White Female), and then a while without them.  We recently had Greta, directed by Neil Jordan and with Isabelle Huppert in the title role, and now we have Ma, a Blumhouse project re-uniting Tate Taylor and Octavia Spencer, the director and star of The Help.  So, how does this one rate in this grand tradition?

Trailer of the Week - Dave Made a Maze

So a side project I've had has been my Silly Movie Trailer of the Day blog on Tumblr.  That's been a lot of fun, but it's something I've dropped in and out of so many times, and I've realised that one of the reasons why is that, though it has been good writing practice, doing those articles for daily release does mean eating up a lot of other writing time for things like my blog, fiction I'm working on, and freelance articles.  Besides, Tumblr's future is looking... interesting at the moment.  So with this in mind, I thought I'd split the difference, go for a weekly schedule, and co-ordinate most of my writing on here from now on.  Right then, let's have a trailer for something very thematically appropriate...

Why start with Dave Made a Maze?  Well, given that the titular character is a bumbling artistic type who's problem with never seeing various creative projects through to a proper conclusion, and in turn roping in quite a few friends to such matters... dunno, I can't see any significance, can you?

Canary Duty- X-Men Dark Phoenix

Hey, so yeah, fell out of touch on here a while ago, didn't I?  I know I keep doing this, so I've decided to try a new little strategy to stay regular; a change of identity.  Yep, I'm changing the names of the blog, doing a bit of a tidy up, and starting a new look for here as The Film Canary.  Plain and simple, I'm looking to be a bit of a film explorer, going into new releases or long running series to see if the way is safe for all, or if things get a bit toxic.  I have a Limitless cinema card, and I get a lot of my discs second hand, so it's low risk for me.  So with that in mind, for this inaugural post under the new format, let's take a look at today's big new release in the world of superhero movies... well, it's a release in the world of superhero movies, not sure big is the word...