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MY FAVORITE YEAR (1982). Charming little film about early days of television with a Sid Caesar like show hosting a famous but past his prime Movie Star, Allan Swan. PeterO'Toole is very good as AS, and probably based on Errol Flynn and solid support from Joseph Bologna, Laine Kazan, Jessica Harper, Bill Macy and Mark Linn-Baker in his debut. The flavor of the time (1954) is captured well and there are a lot of eccentric characters and a lot of genuine laughs. Also an appearance out of retirement for Gloria Stuart (THE OLD DARK HOUSE, THE INVISIBLE MAN and, later, TITANIC) and her scene is quite moving.
One of the very first films my wife and I saw together and since it wasn't a school night,I suggested we see another one. She had enjoyed this one, so off we went -to see NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD ::big grin::! ****

That's quite a double feature! Fluff of life and fluff of death.

Indeed so::big grin::! Variety is the spice of life....
She hadn't seen NIGHT before and really impacted her, especially the Matricide scene (She put her head on my shoulder to hide her face while repeating "ET, Phone Home" she told me later) and being pissed at the ending.

LOL, ET phone home? That's funny! There's good reason to seek ET for comfort and protection. Yeah, Night doesn't have a happy ending, but your date obviously did.

Tenebre, 1982. 10/10

Director: Dario Argento


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I watched Lucio Fulci's 'The Beyond' (1981) this morning. It's been quite a long time since I've watched and found, despite its awkward dialogue and some bad acting, that I enjoyed it.

The score by Fabio Frizzi is great, and the atmosphere is one which the viewer can easily sink into and enjoy. There's some truly shocking scenes in this film as well. The "spider scene" is especially cringe-worthy!

And of course, I adore endings which implicate something timeless and/or cosmic, such as the climax of 'The Beyond' certainly does.

I don't know what DVD copy most folks own, but the one I have features some interesting interview with Catriona MacColl, David Warbeck, and even Fulci himself. Is it strange that I enjoy hearing stories about Fluci almost (though not quite) as much as the film itself?

And, despite the infamous inconsistencies of its plot (they don't bother me), the film does have substance. Especially interesting is the theme of eyes in this flick. Does evil makes us blind? I believe there's much evidence in the affirmative.

BLACULA (1972). Not a classic by any means, but much better than it sounds with William Marshall wonderful as the title character and a barnstormer of a beginning. A lot of humor, although not exactly PC, but some good scares, particularly one involving Slo-Mo...scared the hell out of Me at 11::EEK!::::smile:: ***1/2

Zombie (1979).

It's been awhile since I've watched this Fulci classic. It has it's faults, ones which are typical to b-movies, but man, is it greatly entertaining! I love the decision to take zombies back to their voodoo origins, while keeping with the modern theme of 'zombies as flesh-eaters'.

Fulci is certainly a master of schock, and the special effects in Zombie, as they were in The Beyond, are fantastic. And although I will go with Romero's Dawn of the Dead over Fulci's Zombie any day, I will say that the make-up on the zombies in this film is superb, highly original, and better than the simple white/purple face of those featured in Dawn of the Dead.

And the zombie vs shark scene is superb. Interesting enough, this scene was shot without Fulci's permission! I'm glad it was.

Doesn't that film have one scene where a black guy gets rammed and pinned to a wall by a car, and just before he collapses, to "get revenge" at the driver, the guy takes out his switchblade and stabs the grill of the car?

I saw part of that movie as a kid, and that car scene was impactful, but I still had to roll my eyes. Not sure what the point of that scene was... pure silliness? Also, I think it was featured by a parody horror host who was making fun of it.