PODCAST: "Son of Frankenstein" (1939) and "Son of Dracula" (1943) - Halloween 2021 - Horror Sequels w/ SimonUK and Ryan

Watched:  09/06/2021

Format:  BluRay

Viewing:  a whole lot

Decade:  1930's and 1940's

Director:  Rowland V. Lee and Robert Siodmak (I KNOW)

For more ways to listen

We check in on the boys and see what the kids are up to! One back in the old family villa and the other heading to Louisiana for some jambalaya, we assume. Two franchises rise yet again, stitched together from ideas new and old as we look at the third in the series for each, and sink their teeth into familiar tropes as well as all new stories and characters!

Main PodCast

Frankenstein movies podcast

Music:

Son of Dracula Theme - Hans J. Salter Orchestra

Son of Frankenstein Theme - Frank Skinner

Halloween 2021

The Signal Watch PodCast · Halloween 2021 - Horror Sequels

FRIDAY Watch Party - THE WOLF MAN! (insert howl sound here)

Universal kept putting out horror films after Bride of Frankenstein, and would hit it big again - zeitgeistwise - with The Wolf Man in 1941.  

No, he does not look like a dog or wolf, he absolutely looks like a guy with a glandular problem and in need of a dentist.  But that's not the real terror of the film.  It's a movie about curses and bad luck.  And trying to convince people that Claude Raines could have fathered Lon Chaney Jr.  (Mrs. Wolf Man must have been 7'3").  

Still, it's a fun picture and perfect for the days leading up to Halloween!

 

Day:  Friday 10/22/2021

Time:  8:30 PM Central/ 6:30 PM Pacific

Format:  Amazon Watch Party

Cost:  $3 - $4

LINK HERE ON FRIDAY TO WATCH 

also - announcing SIGNAL WATCH NOIRVEMBER

Unrelated:  Horror podcast episodes!

The Universal Monsters Hallow-Scream Watch Party series is meant to be a casual good-time as we check out the run of horror movies that started with Dracula and have become staples of culture the world over!  Everyone knows what these monsters look and act like, but it's probable most people haven't ever actually seen the movies they're in!  So, come watch!  

Starting just two years after the silent era, these movies quickly became the blockbusters of their day, bringing strange ideas most people hadn't considered, wild visuals, and complicated creatures to the screen.  And, ever since, studios have been looking to recapture this particular lightning in a bottle.

We think you'll enjoy watching along and checking out the creepfest that is Universal Horror!

Japan Horror Halloween Watch: Hausu/ House (1977)

Watched:  10/22/2021

Format:  HBOmax

Viewing:  First

Decade:  1970's

Director:  Nobuhiko Ôbayashi

Uh.

I don't know what I just watched, but it was maybe the best thing ever? 

I mean, truly, I could not look away.  This movie is batshit, and I love batshit.  Like, it starts out batshit and just keeps going, changing and getting better.  I can truly say, I did not know what was going to happen next.  

Anyway, any attempt to describe the movie is a fool's errand, so I will not.  But I will definitely be rotating this into my scary movie faves.

Kiddie-Horror Watch: Return to Oz (1985)

noticing the poster makers realized they needed to not tell everyone their favorites aren't really in the movie

Watched:  10/21/2021

Format:  Disney+

Viewing:  First

Decade:  1980's

Director:  Walter Murch

I am categorizing this movie as a kid's horror movie, because (a) that's how Jamie, who has seen it, pitched it to me, and (b) this is a horror movie.  Starring and for kids.  I don't know if that's what anyone set out to make, but that's what it is.  Dorothy returns to a post-apocalyptic Oz where everyone is "dead", and she's pursued relentlessly by murderous creatures.  This is AFTER she's almost given experimental shock treatment to make her forget Oz.  There's a headless woman and her cabinetry of de-capitated heads she can wear who is going to enslave Dorothy for future decapitation.  Dorothy's then put into some weirdo Saw type situation and has to outmaneuver the guy playing with her life.  

All of which would be fine - kids can take a lot - except that the movie is joyless and a slog.

Hallow-Scream Watch: Killer Workout/ Aerobicide (1987)

Watched:  10/21/2021

Format:  BluRay

Viewing:  First

Decade:  1980's (so, so 1980's)

Director:  

A few weeks ago, tweeter Dr. PopCulture BGSU posted a picture or two from a movie of which I'd never before heard discussed, Killer Workout (1987), and I vowed to watch this movie at some point.  Well, our own JimD decided, YES, we would both see this movie, and so a copy showed up in the mail.  

I am genuinely supportive of the genre film preservation going on in weird little corners.  There's basically no reason anyone should work to preserve and distribute Killer Workout.  It's a very low-budget film with no bankable stars, bad cinematography, as wobbly a plot as you're going to find, and zero logic.  Sort of.  But.  Movies like this were an important part of the cinema world for a long time, and they've mostly disappeared as VHS players and tapes have headed to the bin.  It's weird that we may lose a lot of movies because of dedication to a format.

Olive Films is a newer but growing distribution company doing good work out there, bringing a wide range of film types to the market - from respectable classic film to.... Killer Workout.  They seem really cool and I need to spend more time reviewing their catalog.  I would LOVE to know more about their efforts to preserve and distribute films - but I have a lot of questions about their presentation of Killer Workout.  It *seems* like they had an idea to not just get the movie out there, but retain some of the VHS experience.  

Wonder Woman at 80

 

art by Phil Jimenez

Today is being celebrated as the 80th Anniversary of the arrival of Wonder Woman in All-Star Comics #8.  

It's no secret we're big fans of Princess Diana/ Diana Prince/ Wonder Woman around these parts, and we're thrilled that Wondy is, today, as popular - or more so - than ever, thanks to any number of factors.  And, we think she could reach even higher heights!  After all, we firmly agree in her mission of peace and justice.  Plus, twirling!

Anyway, I can either do a TL;DR post about the greatness of Wonder Woman as character, property, icon, etc... OR I can cut it short and let you just bask in the tremendousness of 80 years of lassoing for Truth!

art by Alex Ross

WW84 is an imperfect movie, but it did give us this sequence of Wonder Woman in action as I imagine a Tuesday goes for her

I like many, many animated takes on Wonder Woman, from Super Friends to the WB Animated movies.  But this 3 minute sequence from Brave and the Bold is the most Wonder Woman ever packed into 3 minutes.  

and now.... twirling

JLC Hallow-Watch: Halloween Kills (2021)

Watched:  10/20/2021

Format:  Peacock

Viewing:  First

Decade:  2020's

Director:  David Gordon Greene

SPOILERS

So, this isn't a movie, it's the second act of a three part film about Michael Myers and the residents of Haddonfield.  Maybe the third part of a 4 part film, if you want to think of the 1978 film as the prelude.  

I haven't read anything about the movie as I was trying to avoid spoilers, but it's got a very low reviewer rating on Rotten Tomatoes, which... fair enough.  Horror sequels usually stand alone, using some of the same characters.  But, much like Halloween 2 from the 1980's (now erased in this continuity), this chapter acts more as an extension of the prior film.  Halloween 2 picked up as Laurie Strode was whisked away to a hospital and Myers tracked her down.  This one does similar - picking up from the end moments of Halloween 2018 on the same truck ride where we left the Strode women.

Doc Watch: 15 Minutes of Shame (2021)

Watched:  10/19/2021

Format:  HBOmax

Viewing:  First

Decade:  2020's

Director:  Max Joseph

There's something weirdly "student film"-ish about this documentary.  From the "let's start this with a quote" business to a third act diversion that isn't actually on topic, as interesting as it is.  It's the sort of "this is too good not to rationalize its inclusion" stuff I found myself doing when working on docs in college.  It also locks into a political POV that I think keeps the film from reaching a necessary and broader audience, undermining its impact.

But - the overall premise and most of the talking heads are great.

Co-Produced and narrated by Monica Lewinsky, the film looks into how the internet has weaponized shaming/ cancel culture, but really how you can wake up one morning and your whole life is now public and awful, and you have absolutely no say in how it plays out.  

Noir Watch: The Dark Past (1948)

Watched:  10/18/2021

Format:  TCM Noir Alley

Viewing:  First

Decade:  1940's

Director:  Rudolph Mate

Ellen Corby - domestic

A mash-up of two kinds of mid-20th century films, this one is quasi-noir, I guess, mostly because it echoes other films which are definitely noir.  But it's one part "trapped in a location with a criminal and his organization" which you'll know from The Petrified Forest to Key Largo, and one part "hey, kids: psychology!" - which pervaded any number of movies in this era, from Nightmare Alley to Miracle on 34th Street to Highwall. 

But, basically, a very young William Holden plays desperado Al Walker, whose gang just busted him out of prison, killing a couple of guards and a warden en route.  He and his gang (and his girl, played by Adele Jergens) hide out in the home of Lee J Cobb and Lois "Miss Moneypenny, herself" Maxwell, where they're entertaining a few guests.

It becomes a psychological cat and mouse game as Cobb tries to both save his own skin and that of his guests, and maybe cure the insane murderer, so long as he's got a few hours to hang, anyway.  

It's absolutely buckwild how both medicine and therefore psychology were seen in this era as quick miracle cures that could happen overnight.  I guess when the answer is "20 years ago we didn't have penicillin", everything seems possible.  

As a "we're all trapped in here with criminals" movie, you can do much better.  As a "mid-20th Century psychology" movie... it's just under par.  But, Lee J. Cobb makes for a convincing doctor, Adele Jergens is terrific as Holden's girl.  Holden is very good, himself, but he's early here and when you know movies where he's able to do more and with better dialog, this is definitely a less notable role for him.  

I'm fascinated with the gigantic country/ woodland getaway homes of this period.  I've seen dozens of movies with country houses like this, from Christmas in Connecticut to many-a-noir, and the movies always place actors in gigantic, spacious cabin/ houses that read as "set for a play" much more than a dwelling, and always seem bigger than anyone's actual home.

The movie also has Ellen Corby, who played a domestic in a dozen movies I've seen - and does so again here, but she's always around in some capacity as a "regular" person - be it a nurse, whatever.   I need to start an Ellen Corby tracker, because she went uncredited for years and was maybe the hardest working woman in Hollywood for decades. Yet, no one ever talks about her.  But she has 265 IMDB credits.  265!

Vincent Price Watch: The Pit and the Pendulum (1961)

Watched:  10/17/2021

Format:  DVD

Viewing:  First

Decade:  1960's

Director:  Roger Corman

It is insane that I've never watched this movie.   With Corman directing, Vincent Price starring and a set-up that would become classic and - as Jamie pointed out - feels positively Bond-ian, it's a fun watch.  

It's a period piece, sometime during the Spanish inquisition (don't ask me when.  They're wearing those frilly collars I think of as 16th Century), and the events are around fallout of the Inquisition.  It's a genuinely screwed up story, maybe more thriller than horror, but there are genuine moments of creepiness and chills here and there, which I frankly wasn't expecting.