Horror Hound Countdown Day... Oh... Who Cares?

Crap! I saw the following announcement on the Horror Hound Weekend forums today:

We are saddened to announce that due to a recently-diagnosed medical situation, Christina Lindberg has been forced to cancel out of this November's HorrorHound Weekend event. Christina will be undergoing immediate surgery next week and we at HorrorHound, and Synapse Films, wish Christina the best and pray for a healthy and speedy recovery.

In the midst of this diagnosis - Christina feels very sorry to all her fans whom have planned trips to the Indianapolis area to meet her, obtain autographs, witness a rare Q&A, etc... and despite her personal trauma - she has somehow assured that anyone coming to this convention event will still have a chance to walk away from the show with something special. Her manager, Rickard Gramfors, will be flying in from Sweden with a package of special autographed pictures, DVDs and other items that will be available for purchase at the Synapse booth.

A screening of They Call Her One Eye will still occur, to be followed by a special career presentation on Christina, as well as a presentation of the "Origins of Swedish Sin" from Rickard, who is also a film researcher, collector and expert on Swedish exploitation cinema.

Christina promises to try and attend a HorrorHound Weekend event in the future to hopefully meet with all the fans who will sadly miss out on this highly-anticipated appearance.More importantly, we urge fans to bring get well cards and well wishes to the Synapse booth, which will be brought back to Christina as she recovers.

Nathan Hanneman

HorrorHound Magazine

Gerald Chandler

Synapse Films

I am beyond sad by this news. This was like a once and a lifetime deal. She doesn't do conventions and I was completely psyched to have her sign my One Eye pressbook. Don't get me wrong. We'll still have a good time, but this is a HUGE blow to my enthusiasm for this one. Christina Lindberg was the one person that I really wanted to see, but alas it was not meant to be.

sniff..sniff...

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Horror Hound Countdown Day #8

Well, there was a brief scare that Roddy Piper was gonna pull out of the show, but that was averted. Sadly, two other celebs that I was really looking forward to seeing HAVE decided to pull out. Stephen Geoffreys and Sybil Danning will not be attending the show and I am completely bummed.

If you remember back during the Teen Sex Comedy marathon, I sang Geoffreys praises in Faternity Vacation and told of his later career in the gay porn industry. Of course before he went down that dark and hairy path, he appeared in two pretty major horror vehicles (Fright Night and 976-Evil) both of which I am a pretty big fan of.

Sybil Danning I remember most for Reform School Girls, but she also had a leading role in the schlockfest, Howling II: Your Sister is a Wolf. She's kinda a trash film icon and I was really looking forward to meeting her.

This really puts a damper on the little movie countdown I have going. Fright Night was up next and 976-Evil and Reform School Girls were also on my list. Also gone from the guest list (although I'm not mourning it too hard) is Matt Helms, the wild boy from Cabin Fever. Of course, this was another movie on my list for the countdown... which is getting shorter... and shorter...

Here's hoping that we've seen the last of the celebs jumping ship.

>>> READ MORE ... you know you want to.

Horror Hound Countdown Day #7

Midnight Madness

(1981)

When we featured Summer School, I mentioned how it was a non-horror movie with connections to the convention and with Midnight Madness we have a similar situation. While there is absolutely no horror content in the film, it does star American Werewolf in London's David Naughton (an attendee at the November convention) in his first feature film role. While it certainly is dated, it is still good fun and a movie that I remember fondly from my younger days.

I've talked a lot about the old days back when our family used to have one of those illegal converter boxes that piped HBO into our house for free. It seemed like back then there were certain movies that HBO played constantly and this was definitely one of them. Despite it's everpresence, my sister and I watched it just about every time it was on and before we knew it the word "fagabeefe" had entered our lexicon for good.

The story is about five or six teams of college kids playing a scavenger hunt type of game that takes them all over the city, solving clues to figure out the final destination and get there first. The mastermind of the game, Leon, runs the game from his nerdly lair and follows the teams' progress through each of his elaborately set-up "missions" to attain clues. Oddly enough, Joe Belfiore, inspired by this movie, created a similar type of game while he was at Stanford which eventually inspired the movie "The Game." Weird, huh?

Anyway, the plot is as simple as can be. Each of the teams represent a different cliched college subgroup. You've got the nerds (led by Eddie Deezen!), the meatheads, the girls, but most importantly you've got the good guys (led by Naughton, of course) and the bad guys (led by Stephen Furst at his shlubbiest). It plays out exactly as you'd expect, but it's still fun to watch as, one by one, the teams fall victim to their own quirks and fall behind in the race. Of course the end is a free-for-all scramble to the final destination ending with... well, you know.

Notice the DVD cover. It's pretty bad when your big names are David Naughton and Eddie Deezen! But you've gotta give Disney props for not featuring Michael J. Fox's name above the title (although his picture is pretty prominent). What? I didn't mention the Disney or the Fox? Yeah, this movie was stealthily released by Disney as their second ever PG rated feature (Black Hole was the first) and it is also the feature film debut of Michael J. Fox (billed here simply as Michael Fox). Honestly, it's pretty amazing how much effect this film has had on popular culture, yet still it remains relatively obscure.

Video Goodness!

Midnight Madness - Mr. Carson's Obese Male Child

Midnight Madness - 8,800 Keys

Midnight Madness - Meat Machine!

Midnight Madness - Mrs. Grimhaus

Midnight Madness - FAGA BEEFE!

>>> READ MORE ... you know you want to.

Horror Hound Countdown Day #6

Night of the Living Dead
(1990)

Make no mistake, the original Night of the Living Dead (released in 1968) is my favorite movie of all time. And given my general stance of horror remakes, it probably comes as a shock that this is one that I actually like pretty well. I'm sure that it has something to do with the fact that a lot of the people behind the original had their hands in making this update. As the original film has fallen into the public domain, it's nice that we have the opportunity to support the creators of the seminal classic... the fact that it is a pretty decent movie in its own right? Well, that's just icing.

News of the NOTLD remake came at a pivotal time in my first wave of horror fandom. When news came down that the king of splatter, Tom Savini was gonna make his debut as a feature film director on this one... well, that practically sent me into convulsions. I followed the production closely. I HAD to see this movie. And when it finally dropped, it was one of the first major "film events" of my life.

Needless to say, there's a lot of nostalgia attached to this film for me. Still, I'm not above admitting its flaws. William Butler turns in an absolutely cringe-inducing portrayal of Tom, while a number of the effects fall short of what you'd expect from an FX team handpicked by Savini. Uncle Rege getting hit by the steel poke looks exactly like the lump of rubber he is and when Johnny's head hits the tombstone... let's just say that I've seen more lifelike manequins at JC Penneys.

Still, there are some things in this film that are just stellar. The updated storyline plays with the viewers expectations of the film. It takes the things you know by heart and skews them just enough to catch you off guard with a new twist. Likewise, the new zombie makeups are phenomenal. Based on actual, grisly death photos they look less like homely townies and more like the lumbering corpses they are. But the most impressive thing about this movie are the performances of the two leading men. Tony Todd as Ben gives every bit of a riveting performance as Duane Jones did in the original. And on the other side of the coin, Tom Towles as Harry Cooper is the perfect a-hole foil Ben. These two really serve to bail out a movie that could have been dead on arrival and propel it into the sublime.

On the wall in my office I have a pressbook from Night of the Living Dead (1990) signed by Tom Savini and Tony Todd. At the convention I'll be adding Tom Towles' name to that list and, just like when I was a kid waiting for the premeir of the NOTLD remake, I can't hardly wait!

Video Goodness!

Night of the Living Dead (1990) - Trailer

Night of the Living Dead (1990) - Twist on the Classic Cemetery Scene

Night of the Living Dead (1990) - Uncle Rege's Big Rubber Head

Night of the Living Dead (1990) - Redneck Zombie Hoedown (Mega-Spoilage!)

>>> READ MORE ... you know you want to.

Horror Hound Countdown Day #5

They Live
(1988)

It may seem odd today, but back in the day, wrestlers didn't get movie scripts thrown at them willy-nilly. You had to be truly great... or freakishly large before anyone would even think of putting you in a film... and even then it was often an excrutiatingly painful affair. Look at Hulk Hogan. He was the most famous wrestler of the 80s... probably the most famous wrestler EVER and his greatest film role was a cameo in Rocky III... as a character named Thunderlips. Sure he had Mr. Nanny and Suburban Commando, but even these abysmal turns as leading man came well after his former nemesis "Rowdy" Roddy Piper's career defining role as leading man in John Carpenter's They Live.

Piper was a perfect choice for the role of Nada, a working stiff trying to make his way in the late eighties' world of crass commercialism and yuppie entitlement. He exudes an everyman quality that makes him the perfect choice as the proactive underdog, struggling against extra-terrestrial rule. But more importantly, he has the butt kicking chops to hold his own in an all-out actioner such as this. The seemingly endless fight between Piper and Keith David is the thing of legend in nerd circles... mostly because you know that these two hulking men are actually beating up on one another a little bit. Each blow is filmed up close and personal and there's not mistaking the fact that these two actors are really right there in front of you, abusing one another.

Above everything else, though, the most memorable thing about the film is Piper's dialogue. Even more than his physical abilities, Carpenter really exploited his ability to deliver some vitriolic wit at the drop of the hat. It's been said that the famous "bubble gum" line was intended as a wrestling catchphrase that Piper never used, and it ended up becoming one of the most famous lines in movie history (how it got left off of AFI's 100 Movie Quotes list is beyond me). But personally, my favorite is when he tell the old lady, "You... you look like your face fell in the cheese dip back in 1957." A hateful non sequitur that makes me laugh just thinking about it.

Video Goodness!

They Live - Trailer

They Live - The "Bubblegum" Scene

They Live - The Infamous Fight Scene

The Fight Scene Mixed with the South Park Parody

>>> READ MORE ... you know you want to.