Trailer of the Week: The Company of Wolves

Since we lost this year a couple of favourite actors of mine, I thought I'd include a trailer featuring the two of them together, as a sort of combined mini tribute.  So in loving memory of David Warner and Angela Lansbury, this is 1984's The Company of Wolves.

Trailer of the Week - Theatre of Blood

Getting back into the blogging saddle again, so amongst other things, we're doing this again!  However, there is a sad reason for this week's choice.  Today we all received the terrible news that legend of stage and screen Dame Diana Rigg has passed away aged 82.  She has had a huge, notable career; in recent years she gained a whole new legion of fans for the part of Oleanna Tyrell in Game of Thrones, however she first became a household name thanks for her role of Mrs. Emma Peel in The Avengers.  Taking over as Honor Blackman had departed the role of Cathy Gale, she instantly became a true icon of a character, not least for her fashions.  (Fun fact comics fans; one particular episode of The Avengers, A Touch of Brimstone, was a big influence on The Dark Phoenix Saga in the X-Men, down to the outfit Rigg wore).  She then followed that up with her role as Tracey in On Her Majesty's Secret Service; not just a Bond girl though, this was the one that 007 actually fell in love with, and with Rigg in the role, you can believe why.  The ending of OHMSS still knocks me for six to this day, it's my favourite of the whole series.  She had a whole bundle of great roles over the years, including a few wonderfully OTT turns, like in The Great Muppet Caper and Evil Under the Sun.  To pay tribute to her, I'd like to reference a personal favourite of mine, one where it's clear she's having the time of her life in the part; 1973's Theatre of Blood...

#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 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 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 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 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.

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...

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.

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.

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?

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.

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...

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!

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.