Spooky Saturday takes a look back at a film that was decidedly not. Tom Cruise‘s The Mummy wasn’t the only film to kill a revival of Universal Pictures’ monsters before it ever got started. 13 years earlier that honor went to Hugh Jackman, Kate Beckinsale, and Van Helsing. While a financial success, the negative response to the film killed any similar future projects for more than a decade.
…
Throwback Tuesday take us back to the only Blade movie worth a damn, and, not uncoincidentally, the only one of the trilogy directed by Guillermo del Toro. It’s also the only one that finds a way to make vampires, in this case “Reapers,” legitimately creepy. Blade II isn’t a great film by any means, but it is unquestionably the high-water mark of the franchise.
…
1979’s Phantasm is an usual film. Self-financed and relying on amateurs and those just getting a start in the business, the horror flick is arguably more professional than many independent movies produced today. Credit to writer/director Don Coscarelli who manages to hide the deficiencies of the talent on-screen with its unusual look and feel limiting what was needed from a performance standpoint as much as possible. As with any low-budget horror movie, the acting is often a sore spot, but even with its rough edges the film is still more inventive and memorable than many studio productions.
…
Spooky Saturday takes us back t0 a movie that even if it contained a commentary track by Carson Daly filmed inside the TRL studio could still not be more 1998. Wesley Snipes stars as the Marvel Comics character who helps out a doctor bitten by a vampire and protects the world from skeezy vampire withe delusions of grandeur (Stephen Dorff) from taking it over. The film is notable for aspects of its style which look to have heavily influenced the first Matrix movie and for making Blade the character look good on film.
…
Flashback Friday takes us back to the 2005 remake of John Carpenter’s film of vengeful spirits returning to enact revenge 100 years after their death on the town that wronged them. While the effects of the remake are noticeably better than the original, and effort has been made to tie the characters closer together, the 2005 version of The Fog is lacks the vibe, style, and unsettling nature of the original.
…
