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“At the mountains of madness”: Universal reboot?!?

Well this is an interesting turn of events if it does get confirmed, and that is a big if, nay, make that a HUGE if. The troubled project “at the mountains of madness” has been kicked around furiously at Universal for some time, with various names thrown around, attached, detached, etc.

Now, Universal France had a blurb which was promptly taken down yesterday, with two new names which surprised the hell out of me: the post referred to director Jean-Pierre Jeunet (“Alien Resurrection“) at the helm, and the storyline would replace (or combine) the character of Danforth with H.P. Lovecraft himself (?!?).

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“Thesis” – (1996, Spain, 125 Minutes – rated R)

I am working my way back to director/writer Alejandro Amenabar’s earlier works, and “Thesis” is his feature debut. I first became aware of Amenabar with “the sea inside” and a bit later with “the others” (2004 and 2001, respectively), and have been amazed by his storytelling talent as a film maker.
Here we have a rare combination of entertainment, great writing and original thinking. Much like with Christopher Nolan and his brother Jonathan, I now know going in that whatever film bearing his name will be interesting to say the least.

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JBoD double matinee: Oz encounters and a skin flick

“Incident at Raven’s Gate” – (1988, Australia, 94 minutes – rated R)

This was also released as “encounter at Raven’s Gate”, most likely due to elements reminiscent of Steven Spielberg’s “encounters of the third kind”. However, the aliens in “incident at Raven’s Gate” aren’t the least bit friendly, as we’ve seen now in many a horror film from Oz, everything out in the Bush is menacing.

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Midnight Movie Madness: “the plague of the zombies”

“The plague of the zombies” – (1966, UK, 91 minutes – NR)

How about some cartoons before the main attraction? You can either rent or stream “Happy Tree Friends” cartoons before watching “the plague of the zombies”: short and oh-so-very-cute animations with cartoonish beavers, elks, hedgehogs, anteaters, bears and squirrels getting ‘dispatched’ in extremely gruesome ways…
In Jesse Jackson’s tone: enucleation, decapitation, immolation, evisceration, amputation, the list goes on.


So good it even makes me wince at times, and you have to love the little public service tips at the end of each short: “don’t forget to floss”, “a smile doesn’t cost anything”, etc.
And if you are familiar with the series, you ought to revisit it every so often. It will keep you sane in a mad world. Yes, really.
Now, onto our feature, “the plague of the zombies”: in late 19th century England, Sir James Forbes (Andre Morell) receives word from a former student practicing in a small village in Cornwall that strange deaths are occurring amongst the local population.

Watch the trailer here:


The former student, now Doctor Peter Tompson (Brook Williams), is relieved to see Sir James turn up to assist, but his wife Alice (Jacqueline Pearce), well not so much.
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Midnight Movie Madness: tentacle difficulties and uncivil serpents

This week, two films which can be broadly characterized as creature features: Mystery Science Theater 3000’s skewering of Lamberto Bava’s “Devil Fish” and Larry Cohen’s “Q: the winged serpent”.
Bava’s “Devil Fish” was ‘remade’ in 2010 for the SyFy channel as “Sharktopus”.
Interestingly, many elements of “Q: the winged serpent” were ‘borrowed’ in 1998’s “Godzilla” as well, but not credited to Cohen…
Doing a review of an MST3K is like reviewing a review, in a way, but “Devil Fish” is so bad that this “commented” version made it much, much more palatable.

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Spoofing old horror: “creatures of the Pink lagoon”

“Creatures of the Pink lagoon” – (2006, USA, 71 minutes – NR)

Sometimes trying to decide on a good movie to review doesn’t mean the movie has to be all that great. I think there should be something interesting about it which doesn’t necessarily figure in the budget number, cast or other factor, since the review is always going to be subjective after all.

It’s black & white, not in color!

And since I’ve been fighting the flu most of the week, with cocktails of Sudafed and Vodka, I got in the mood for some silliness.

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Midnight Movie Madness: “Squirm”

“Squirm” – (1976, USA, 92 minutes – VHS rated PG; DVD rated R)

From the ‘70s, we have in “squirm” yet another “nature strikes back” offering, although this one doesn’t preach, it entertains.
During a severe storm, power lines are downed near the small Georgia town of Fly Creek. As a result of live wires sweeping across the mud, bloodworms crawl out at night to devour the unsuspecting inhabitants of the county.

Watch the trailer here:

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Midnight Movie Madness: “Immortal”

“Immortal” – (2004, France, 103 minutes – rated R)

Well aren’t you lucky..? Two Midnight Movie Madness recommendations within a week!

This is a bit of a curio for sci-fi fans. Written and directed by Enki Bilal, based on two graphic novels from his Nikopol trilogy, “la femme piege” and “la foire aux immortels” (“the female trap” and “the carnival of immortals”).

Watch the trailer here:

Bilal (born Enes Bilalovic) moved to France at age 9, in 1960 or so.

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Midnight Movie Madness: “the girl who kicked the hornet’s nest

“The girl who kicked the hornet’s nest” – (2009, Sweden, 147 minutes – rated R)

The third installment of Stieg Larssen’s ‘Millenium‘ trilogy moves deeper into a dystopian present made of corrupted power cells both part of and unknown to government bureaucracy, in other words, the tapestry widens.

That was obscure, but the trilogy takes its time exposing Larsson’s vision of power and its abuses, of unseen environments where human monsters are made, flourish and devour everything available to them. Provided it is sanctioned, and at times even without approval.

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