Latest news is John Carpenter is scoring Halloween 2018. Awesome! Can't wait! Some random art to help the hype.
Monday, April 23, 2018
Halloween 2018 - pics/art/hype
Another documentary, this time 40 year retrospective. Love the art!
Posted by CROPSY'S CRYPTKEEPER at 5:49 AM 0 comments
Thursday, April 19, 2018
Thursday, September 21, 2017
Pumpkinhead - (1988) review
Pumpkinhead should be approached like a dark fairy
tale. It’s a simple story of revenge, of
a father who loses it all and makes a deal with the devil, but realizes too
late that nobody makes it out alive when Pumpkinhead is summoned; he will eventually
consume your soul. The set pieces are
excellent, the creature FX spot on; this was Stan Winston’s directorial debut,
so it’s no surprise that the creature FX stand the test of time. The lighting and foggy wooded backdrop
certainly adds to that dark fairy tale quality of the movie.
Lance Hendrickson plays the father of a son who is callously
ran over by a dirt biker who seems more concerned about saving his own ass from
jail than helping the kid. His gang
promptly leaves the scene to call an ambulance, leaving one guy behind to tend
to the farmer’s son, but when Lance shows up he is hearing none of it, and
gives one of the best death stares in all cinematic history. His son was his world, and they took it away
from him, left him to die….but Pumpkinhead will set things right. Or so he believes, and in a fury he sets out
to discover an old back woods hag that is said to have strange powers. He knows Pumpkinhead is real enough, he saw
him as a kid, it terrified him and stuck with him all his life, but poor Lance (aka
Joe Harley) doesn’t know the steep price the witch demands for such a
summoning; she wants nothing less than his immortal soul. When Pumpkinhead is finally brought back to
life after being dug up from a foggy grave, Joe Harley begins experiencing
terrible bouts of pain and terror. He suffers
a vision of his son returning to life, asking him “what have you done daddy”. He sees through Pumpkinhead’s eyes as he
slowly tortures the teenagers involved in the death of his son, and it’s too
much for his simple mind to take. He
knows he has unleashed something worse than revenge, and it’s his Christian
duty to put an end to this madness.
Pumpkinhead’s design is grim and iconic; I remember always
wanting to rent the VHS at the local grocery store for the striking cover art
alone, same goes for the sequels. When
he does capture the target of his revenge he seems to toy with them for a while
before eventually releasing them from their torture through the final embrace
of death. He seems to love tossing
people around and dragging them over the ground, it’s not the quick death you’d
expect from the giant lanky creature.
One girl he really takes his time with, using his nails to gouge deep
rivets in her face, then tosses her through a window when he’s bored, it’s
awesome.
The movie is so very 80’s, two characters in particular
really stand out for their over-the top performances; Joel and Maggie. Joel is the alpha male cock-bag that runs over
the little kid with his dirt bike after guzzling beer and trying to show off,
then refuses to help and tries covering it up like a coward, turning on friends
at the drop of a dime. There’s something
horrible and entertaining about these over the top asshole types in 80’s
movies; they really came off as complete psycho-paths often worse and more
nerve grinding than the monster they would eventually meet their well-deserved
end to. He has an uncharacteristic turn
of heart later, but it comes too little, too late, after holding his friends
hostage at gun point to ensure they don’t rat him out to the police for a few
hours he decides to give himself up.
Maggie is just hysterical.
The way she spit fires her lines about “Only God can save us” really
tickles me every time I watch this. Her
self-induced hysteria after the bike accident is almost as funny as how she
comes out of it by looking at a Catholic cross that her boyfriend dangles in
front of her. She definitely gets it the
worse of the bunch, which was unfortunate because I could have used a few more
laughs on the way to the end, but this is a dark fairy tale, and there is
plenty of Velveeta to be had in the sequels.
Joe Harley figures out that Pumpkinhead is taking over his
soul with each victim he claims, in regret for his decision to release the
demon of revenge, and to save the remaining teens, he puts a bullet through his
own head, killing the creature as well, as it was tied to his own flesh. The carcass of Pumpkinhead lights on fire,
removing all traces of the nightmare.
I’d definitely recommend Pumpkinhead as a mood setter for
the Halloween season to come. It has
some of the best creature FX work I’ve ever seen, from Pumpkinhead to the Swamp
Hag; it all looks very well crafted and lit impressively in hues of orange and
blue. The atmosphere and mood more than
make up for any bad acting or technical gaffs, certainly a movie I plan on
revisiting time and time again for it’s simple pleasures.
Posted by CROPSY'S CRYPTKEEPER at 8:08 AM 0 comments
Wednesday, September 20, 2017
Friday, September 8, 2017
Limited Edition The Burning T-shirt by Cavity Colors
Posted by CROPSY'S CRYPTKEEPER at 12:31 PM 0 comments
Silent Night, Deadly Night - Shout Factory release
Holy jumping Jesus Christmas shit, Silent Night Deadly Night is getting a new release on blu ray, along with a Billy NECA figure! Now all your other toys can be punished! NAUGHTY!
Silent Night Deadly Night blu ray release news....
Community leaders tried to stop the release. The P.T.A. fought to ban it. Now one of the most controversial slasher films of all time is back in a new high-definition release! This new edition of the horror holiday favorite has been restored from the original vaulted film negative.
Silent Night, Deadly Night is the heartwarming story of little Billy Chapman who was traumatized by his parents’ Christmas Eve murder, then brutalized by sadistic orphanage nuns. But when grown-up Billy is to dress as jolly St. Nick, he goes on a yuletide rampage to “punish the naughty!” Santa Claus is coming to town … and this time he’s got an axe! Robert Brian Wilson and Scream Queen Linnea Quigley star in this jaw-dropping horror classic that a nation of angry mothers still cannot stop!
Bonus Features
- Original Theatrical And Unrated Versions Of The Film Taken From A NEW 4K Scan Of The Original Camera Negative.
- NEW Slay Bells Ring: The Story Of Silent Night, Deadly Night – Featuring Interviews With Writer Michael Hickey, Co-Executive Producers Scott J. Schneid And Dennis Whitehead, Editor/Second Unit Director Michael Spence, Composer Perry Botkin, And Actor Robert Brian Wilson
- NEW Oh Deer! – An Interview With Linnea Quigley
- NEW Christmas In July – Silent Night, Deadly Night Locations – Then And Now
- NEW Audio Commentary With Actor Robert Brian Wilson And Co-Executive Producer Scott J. Schneid
- Original Theatrical Trailer
- Original TV Spots And Radio Spot
- Audio Commentary By Michael Hickey, Perry Boykin, Scott J. Schneid, and Michael Spence
- Audio Interview With Director Charles E. Sellier, Jr.
- Santa’s Stocking Of Outrage
- Poster And Still Gallery
Now if you are the ultimate SILENT NIGHT DEADLY NIGHT fan then you’ll want to take note of two exclusive offers on the release—which are only available at www.shoutfactory.com while supplies last:
STANDARD OFFER
– Receive the Collector’s Edition Blu-ray with slipcover
– Receive a rolled limited-edition 18” x 24” poster of the newly-designed art from artist Joel Robinson
– Product will be one week earlier than the national street date of 12/5/17.
– Receive the Collector’s Edition Blu-ray with slipcover
– Receive a rolled limited-edition 18” x 24” poster of the newly-designed art from artist Joel Robinson
– Product will be one week earlier than the national street date of 12/5/17.
DELUXE OFFER (Limited to 2,000 orders only. US & Canada only)
– Receive the Collector’s Edition Blu-ray with slipcover
– Receive a rolled limited-edition 18” x 24” poster of the newly-designed art from Joel Robinson
– Product will be shipped one week earlier than the national street date of 12/5/17.
– Receive an exclusive, limited edition 8” tall “Billy/Killer Santa” doll created by NECA – N.E.C.A and officially licensed! This will only be available here on our site!
– Free Shipping.
– Receive the Collector’s Edition Blu-ray with slipcover
– Receive a rolled limited-edition 18” x 24” poster of the newly-designed art from Joel Robinson
– Product will be shipped one week earlier than the national street date of 12/5/17.
– Receive an exclusive, limited edition 8” tall “Billy/Killer Santa” doll created by NECA – N.E.C.A and officially licensed! This will only be available here on our site!
– Free Shipping.
Posted by CROPSY'S CRYPTKEEPER at 5:43 AM 0 comments
Wednesday, August 30, 2017
Horror Rises from the Tomb & Captain Kronos double header
Captain Kronos Vampire Hunter – Captain Kronos is a bleary eyed bore, a man with
unparalleled skills with the blade but not much else. He comes off as kind of a jerk. His hunchbacked companion, the good professor
Grost, is more worthy of our sympathies but even he seems kind of weak. He ruminates and sobs over being disfigured
after a group of local bar flies harass him about his ailment and meet their
end at Kronos’ swift blade. You would
think a vampire killer would have a stronger back bone to stand up to verbal
jabs, especially a hunchback. What sets
this movie apart is that the vampire ages its victims; turning young babes into
cancerous old crows.
They also use an
unusual method to detect vampires; if a dead frog in a box comes back alive a
vampire is near. I’ve never heard of
that one. At the end it’s revealed that
a short haired lesbo vampire is to blame for the accelerated ages of several
virgins around town, and Kronos and his hunchback companion set out to confront
her. She tries to hypnotize Kronos but
he uses his sword to reflect her hyno-magic back at her. After a brief stint of swashbuckling the
movie comes to and end and Kronos and Grost ride off to more adventures.
Horror Rises From the Tomb - Euro-sleaze at its pinnacle; an illogical,
gory, dark, and atmospheric homage to the spirit of Hammer, of monster worship,
and the slow burn of gothic styled horror.
Paul Naschy delivers the goods with a shoestring budget, the heart
behind the camera bleeds through the screen.
This is a love note for madmen inspired by the cinematic ghouls of yesteryear;
Karloff, Lugosi. Aged, cheap, a perfect
vehicle to deliver gothic gore brewed in Spain.
Quite appropriately it begins with a witch and warlock being led on a
death march; they will pay for their crimes of lycanthropy, of witch craft, of
renouncing all that is holy in kinship with Satan. The warlock is decapitated; the witch is hung
upside down and tortured in ways unique to her gender. Flash forward a hundred years and their curse
comes to fruition. The warlock is able
to possess the living, sending his mind slaves out to massacre the common folk,
and bring him the flesh of the living.
Beating hearts are crudely cut from the chests of screaming nubile
women. The terror and madness stretches
its dark pall across the countryside, simple village folk are made helpless
victims, food for Satan. With enough
fresh blood spilt the warlock resurrects his dutiful witch seductress in a
ritual that suggests nymphomania. The
film revels in sleaze with reckless abandon as the bodies pile up. Boobs and blood are the order of the day as
the witch seduces the men from the local village, ripping their throats out
when they close in for a kiss with the beautiful mystery woman that suddenly
appears at the end of their beds, like a wet dream made flesh. The warlock works his magic on the women,
leading to an orgy of destruction and terror. As things seem their darkest, as friend turns
upon friend, as fiend reign supreme, an old family relic comes to bear, one
that can fight back the ancient evil of Satan and his newly resurrected minions
of darkness. A silver pendant decorated
with the hammer of Thor turns out to be the secret weapon needed to end Naschy’s
reign of terror; both the warlock and the witch meet their end because of this
powerful relic that simply comes out of nowhere to end the film. Despite the large gaps of logic and against
all sense of finer taste I loved Horror
Rises from the Tomb. Naschy has a way of taking a cheap budget and
set and ratchet the exploitative charm to 11.
Some Naschy movies may suffer from a plodding storyline, but any lull in
the movie is quickly offset by gore and blood, even if it makes little
sense. You really got to turn your brain
off for this fare and let the tidal wave Euro-sleaze whisk you away. Horror
Rises from the Tomb is great fun for the fan of gothic horror, a classic
and Naschy at his pinnacle.
Posted by CROPSY'S CRYPTKEEPER at 12:52 PM 0 comments
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