I was looking for something "light" to watch that I haven't seen yet. I can tell you there's a lot. My want to watch and read list is gigantic and I just keep adding to it. I really enjoyed The Babysitter so I thought I'd take a stab at the sequel The Babysitter: Killer Queen. (See what I did there?) Although not as good as the first, it was laughably bloody and entertaining. 

*SPOILER ALERT*

Two years later and following the events of the first movie, Cole is now ostracized because his family and friends think he made it all up since there was no evidence left behind. His family has him on all kinds of medication and want to enroll him in a psychiatric high school.

There's a new mysterious girl at school named Phoebe with the same cat tattoo (hint) as his old babysitter Bee, she seems like an outsider, and there's a rumor she killed her parents. Melanie, Cole's neighbor and best friend that he has a crush on and looks surprisingly like Bee, invites him to escape his parents new high school recruit meeting and go to a lake party. Little does he know that Phoebe will also be attending for different reasons.

Melanie looking like Bee.

Cole, Melanie, and their friends end up on a houseboat, where we find out that Melanie joined Bee's cult and they only invited him because they need his "innocent" blood to be mixed with the blood of a sacrificed friend. All his so-called friends are in on it, took the devil's oath, and resurrected the original cult minus Bee. I really like that all the same actors and characters were back. 

Old blood cult members.

Luckily Phoebe is riding a jet ski and Cole escapes with her to a rocky canyon. Along the way they kill some of the members but before doing so you get to see in flashbacks how Bee recruited them for her cult. This is what I wanted in the first movie because I feel like there's extensive back story, so that was very satisfying. 

Phoebe's familiar with the rocky canyon because it's where her parents have their cabin. She is on a hunt of her own and was left a key, her old stuffed animal, and a note in her locker and wants to know where they came back from and why it's leading her here. Her and Cole hide out in an underground room of the cabin while what's left of the old cult members and his ex friends search for him. Cole and Phoebe get a little closer, using an old reference, Once Bitten style. I'm making this old reference because there's too many dated and pop culture references throughout the movie that I'm sure the young ins won't catch. MC Hammer, The Warriors, Teen Wolf, and The Outsiders to name a few. The references just seem like filler for the dialog.

Cole & Phoebe.

In the end we find out Cole isn't an innocent anymore, Bee was also Phoebe's babysitter (hence her cat tattoo too), rigged the whole new ritual to end the blood cult, and she originally gave up her soul to save Phoebe. The blood cult book gets left on the beach for another day or another installment. I give it three out of five vials of blood.

Trailer...

I kept hearing rumblings about the movie Psycho Goreman, the local theater showed it as one of their Thursday Night Terror movies, and people kept telling me I would like it because it's a horror comedy. I watched it and I have to say it was just ok. Here's my review...

***WARNING SPOILERS***

A brother and a sister, Luke and Mimi respectively, accidentally resurrect an intergalactic evil demon and control it by using a gem that it's bonded with after playing a game they made up called Crazy Ball. That's the story. Honestly it really needed more of a plot. Reminded me of a budget version of The Gate with a retro wave soundtrack and heavy weird religious undertones. It wanted to be a funny spoof of 80s horror, but it's just not that funny. 

The kids name the demon Psycho Goreman or PG for short, and Mimi controls him to do her childish whims. She is an asshole and her father is lazy. (I should mention there's no "f-word" in this movie. Is it meant to be wholesome with all that gore?) I can understand why her mother and brother are so frustrated. Psycho Goreman kept threatening them saying "you will suffer an eternity for this" and I was really hoping he would kill them in the end. Unfortunately he just turns their innocent friend into a throbbing brain-looking blob and opens his mouth wide enough to eat his enemies bodies whole. There is a cool part at the end where he makes a sword out of the bones of his enemy...at least I think that's what happened? All the while, the intergalactic council and his long lost followers try and figure out how to rebury him.

Very cool sword.

At one point in the middle of the movie there's a Psycho Goreman montage where he and the kids start a band together, go shopping with mom, stroll down the street, and hang out at a diner. It seemed odd and forced. There's random lessons scattered throughout that make no sense too. I was trying to figure out where all this was going, and it didn't go anywhere.

This is where we learn PG can open his mouth really wide.

It's very predictable, the characters are unlikeable, and the plot is lacking. The only thing it has going for it is the practical gory special effects and PG's makeup. I give it one demon out of five. (I know harsh, but I can't like everything! Go watch The Gate instead.)

Trailer....all the "funny" parts are in it.

An ad kept popping up that it's free to watch the documentary Vampira and Me on Tubi, so with my open afternoon yesterday, I decided to settle in and learn more about Vampira. 

I found the movie to be interlaced with sadness, but made with love. Her friend R.H. Greene, the "me" part of the documentary, interviewed Maila Nurmi aka Vampira for this film. Her mystery is unveiled and you hear her speak in her own words from the start of her career to the depressing finish. Most of the film is her interview, very little archival footage of Vampira, and clips from the 1950s.

Maila was ironic and often referred to as a "beatnik" in the movie. She was an independent thinker and went against the norms of the 1950s. She loved the Addams Family cartoons since they satirized the "normal" family, and wanted to be a part of an Addams Family show if it was ever made for TV. She was discovered several times in the early part of her career, but the role that would define her came from an unexpected place...a costume ball. She dressed up as her favorite character, the mom from the Addams Family, now known as Morticia and won best costume. A local Los Angeles TV station liked her look and made a spot for her as the first horror host. Her timing was perfect. 

Inspired by Bizarre Magazine she changed the styling from the party and her husband gave her the name Vampira. But don't think she was Bettie Page, she was the antithesis. While Bettie was the girl next door with a little S and M thrown in behind closed doors, Vampira encompassed feminine strength as a glamour ghoul. There was no cheesecake, she played it straight while being erotic. Her tiny waist and dark sex appeal was the opposite of being a mother and housewife of the 1950s. Which garnered her immediate fans and she even has a rockabilly song named after her!

Sadly there's almost no records of her playing Vampira since everything was done live on TV back then. There's a two minute commercial included in the film and a couple scenes where she was a cult celebrity on other TV shows. Luckily there's hundreds of photos and stills, and she still has the power to excite a fan base even today!

One of the odd parts of the film was the emphasis on how she was good friends with James Dean, but made it very clear that they were never lovers. It was this relationship that ended her common law marriage. She mentioned that they were "psychically drawn to each other" and knew each other in another life. Then he tragically died in 1955 and she was teary eyed talking about it in the film.

Her show was canceled abruptly ending her 15 minutes of fame, and she sank into poverty taking odd jobs here and there. She would make odd appearances as Vampira in the later 1950s but basically lived as a recluse. In 1966 she recorded her thoughts for an eventual memoir that never happened. Those tapes are lost or damaged as well. Even without a book, Vampira is still being discovered and adored by all the punks, goths, and social outcasts because she embodied freedom of expression! 

There is a mention of her working to revamp (pun intended) Vampira but she didn't like the direction the new version was going in and quit working on it. That character eventually became Elvira. Maila sued, stating Elvira ripped off Vampira, but she didn't have enough money to purse it further and lost. Honestly without any recordings of Vampira it's hard to know, plus didn't Vampira steal her look from Morticia? I digress...

Was this a good movie? No, but it was interesting to hear directly from her. I give it 3 1/2 rooms of billowing clouds of smoke out of 5. Here's the trailer...

I'm staying away from cat topics for a little bit because the passing of my Ginger kitty is still raw. So here I am reviewing one of the cult classics that's been swirling aound on my list of movies to watch... The Brood from David Cronenberg. (I reviewed the original Rabid a few years ago.)

I'll preface this by saying I'm not a fan of kids in horror movies...also I'm not a fan of kids. Although, I feel like if the parents are cool, the kids are usually cool too. I don't think I can relate to kids for a lot of reasons. I never wanted kids, I was an only child growing up, and I came from a broken home where I was raised by my mom and grandma. The idea of having kids just seems like a burden that I would never want. I know I have a lot of psychological damage from my upbringing, so watching a horror movie about kids doesn't appeal to me at all. Off the top of my head... The Babadook, meh. Constant screaming kid. The Omen, meh. Super boring. Children of the Corn...ok a little better than meh. You get the idea. The Brood appealed to me after I read an article that Cronenberg wrote the movie about his personal life and going through a divorce and custody battle with his daughter. Now this I can relate too.

Cronenberg's early movies have a look about them, and The Brood can be grouped in the same category as Rabid. They are filmed in dreary overcast Canada, they often feel like you are watching them from the middle of an ongoing story, experimental medical facilities looming, and they combine psychological issues with bodily horror. 

***Spoiler Alert***

The Brood is about a couple ~ Frank and Nola (who has amazing fluffy disco hair) and their daughter Candy. Nola is sequestered at the Somafree Institute of Psychoplasmatics treatment facility for controversial treatment of her psychological dysfunction. Frank picks up Candy from her weekend visits with her mother and he sees bruises and scratches on her back. Frank then confronts Nola's doctor. He hopes to get full custody of his daughter if he can prove Nola is abusing her.

Frank getting tough. 

Side note: He reminds me of Misha Collins that plays Castiel on Supernatural. See below.

Frank leaves Candy with her grandmother, Nola's mother, and we find out that Nola was abused by her mother. Her mother is then attacked by a child monster and beaten to death in her own kitchen. Candy finds her dead on the floor and even sees the monster. (We the audience really only see it at a glance at this point, so it's pretty creepy.) 

Here's your glance.

Nola's father comes back to town for his ex-wife's funeral and is bludgeoned to death by the little child monster too. Frank chases the monster through the house and kills it. The monster is described as having no retinas, no speech, no teeth, no sex organs, a stored "yolk sac" type lump, and no navel which means it's not born the traditional way. 

Meanwhile Frank is trying to build evidence against the doctor for custody of his daughter and befriends one of his ex-patients. The patient blames the doctor for his festering lymphosarcoma growth, that is briefly shown in all of it's off-putting putrid glory. 

We find out that Nola is the "queen bee" after 27 other patients are removed from treatment facility except for her. Foreshadowing....

Poor Candy is still trying to have a normal childhood going to school, but wait there's more of those child monsters! Two of them kill her teacher after Nola suspects she has a relationship with Frank, (not because the teacher has a mom Brady mullet. The hair in this movie is pretty great.) She's killed in front of all of Candy's classmates, and then the two minions abduct Candy. So now we know that it's Nola controlling these little monsters.

This teacher knows Frank's life is complicated. Check out that look.

Frank finds out that Candy is being held with "the disturbed kids in the work shed that your wife is taking care of. " Huh?! We find out that Nola is the monsters real mother and they are the product of her rage. She manifests them as growths on her body that become large enough sacs to hold what looks like a small baby, we see her then open the bloody sac with her teeth and lick it clean. Nola states to Frank she'd rather "kill Candy before I let you take her away from me". 

The ultimate in body horror. Nola uses her body to make her own monsters. (Check out her hair. I wonder if she uses hot rollers to keep it so bouncy?)

But in the end Candy is saved by her father after he kills her mother, and we see a couple lumps on Candy's arm... possibly her manifestation of psychological trauma as a silent witness this whole time?

It's really a movie about a father's fight for his daughter and the trickle down damage a dysfunctional family life can have. I wish I was fought over. Instead my real dad turned full custody over to my mother and I never saw him again. I was 5, around the age of Candy in the movie. I liked this movie because I could relate. I feel that often you bring your own experiences to watching a movie. I give it 4 and a half stomach sac growths out of 5. Candy is def going to need therapy after everything she's seen.

Poor Candy. I was traumatized for her.

The trailer in all it's late 1970s glory...

Well, the end is here. I started watching Supernatural when I started blogging almost four years ago. It's been with me since Fluffy's beginning, and it's fitting that we said Goodbye to Ginger this week AND the Winchesters. She loved Sam and sitting with me to watch Supernatural. This last part of the 15th season is 7 episodes. I was hoping for Crowley's return, one last glimpse of Rowena, or even a happy ending for Dean with Lisa and Ben. Nope. We got none of that.

Little Ginger with her Sam doll.

In summary....The beginning of this second part has a lot of pop culture references to Scooby Doo, Highway to Heaven, Baby Yoda, Knight Rider, and Goonies. It makes it a little lighter because if you recall Jack is being mentored by Death/ Billie to kill God/ Chuck and knows in doing so he is going to die too. He's a da bomb ~ no literally ~ he's going to blow up. Sam and Dean try to recruit Amara to work with them in killing her brother God/ Chuck. She does help them keep him captive. 

Death/ Billie.

They find out Death/ Billie wants to become the "new God" and return things to the proper order. That means the dead stay dead and anyone that has been resurrected will go back to being dead. i.e. Sam, Dean and many of the people they spent their lives saving. That's really not good. Hunters and friends start disappearing and they blame Death/ Billie, only it's really God/ Chuck making everyone disappear, until the only people left are Sam, Dean, and Jack. 

Jack gets sent to the "empty" to explode so he doesn't hurt anyone on earth. We find out Cas made a deal with the "empty" to return when he finds true happiness. His love of his family on earth has made him truly happy. Cas and Death/ Billie get sucked into the "empty". They are gone forever. Jack is back on earth.

Jack feels a presence that's still alive and it's a dog, that looks like my old dog I had growing up. They also find Michael. God/ Chuck brings back Satan, Michael kills Satan, God kills Michael, and God beats up Sam and Dean. Are you with me so far? Meanwhile Jack is absorbing tons of power along the way from God/ Chuck, so much so that God/ Chuck ends up without any power and is made human again, Jack becomes the new God and repopulates the world, and works in harmony with Amara.

Jack as the new God is his signature jean jacket, now white.

The last episode brings the show full circle. I'd say if you only want to watch one episode of these last 7, watch this one. Season 15 Episode 20 "Carry On". Dean gets to keep the dog, there's pie, the Winchester's dads journal is brought out, an old vamp from the first season is brought back. Sam and Dean do their vamp nest hunting routine and Dean quietly gets impaled and dies leaving Sam to "carry on". Dean goes to heaven where he's reunited with Bobby and we see time pass very quickly on earth. Sam has a son named Dean, but does he marry Eileen?! We don't know. Then Sam dies and is reunited with Dean in heaven.

Doggo named Miracle and Dean.

That's pretty much all of it in a nutshell. There's a lot of development in Dean's character leading up to his death, he becomes more sensitive and really gets in touch with his emotions. He's not just comedy relief with hard edges anymore, and Sam gets the family he always wanted. 

You can see my thoughts on the other seasons 1&2, 3&4, 5&6, 7&8, 9&10, 11& 12 , 13, 14, and 15 (the first part).

It's been a little over a year since I wrote about Supernatural, and it's finally on Netflix with season 15, and let's just say it's the beginning of the end ~ literally. They only have the beginning half of season 15 available to view and they have announced that it will be their final season. I'd say 15 years of a TV show is a pretty good run. It aired until the end of March 2020, and then there were production delays due to Covid-19, so we hope to see the finale later this year...or in my case, whenever it becomes available on Netflix.

I'm not sure if it's me or if I've just watched so much Supernatural, that I felt that these 13 episodes didn't have the passion that past seasons had, and they only brought back characters to make it interesting. Ok, I know that sounds harsh, but the story is Chuck/ God is back on earth causing trouble. Another apocalypse. Duh.

I do like some of the characters coming back, and I really hope Crowley makes an appearance in the last part of season 15 because he was always a favorite of mine, but the acting seems off and I should mention that even my cat Ginger who is in love with Sam isn't interested! She didn't watch any of these episodes with me! So let me review...

The Winchesters and Cas are left in a cemetery to fight all the spirits from hell that were released by Chuck/ God. Sam shot God, so there's a piece of Sam's soul in him and vice versa. Chuck/ God is sick of this version of this earth and essentially Chuck/ God becomes the enemy.  This is introduced in the first three episodes.

Then we are back to monster of the week, with the underlying story of God's rage. He is on a rampage and takes away Sam and Dean's "luck" and destroys all the other worlds, dimensions, and parallel universes that he's made and will soon destroy earth as we know it.

Sam has visions of the other Sam and Dean's that are out there and how they are fighting.

There were some hints at a relationship between Rowena and Ketch, but they both die and Rowena becomes queen of hell. Sam falls for Eileen another hunter but she ends of leaving to hunt on her own. It's disappointing that none of the characters get any "action" in the sexy sense of the word.

MEH S15 E1 "Back and to the Future" The evil souls look like zombies and it looks like a set from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, to the point where Jack even says "it's a Hellmouth thing". Sunnydale in Buffy was on the Hellmouth. We get to see the killers from a previous season John Wayne Gacy, Bloody Mary, Lizzie Borden, Jack the Ripper (also I'm convinced that it real life Jack the Ripper was a woman).

MEH S15 E2 "Raising Hell" Even Kevin Tran is back. We learn that The Darkness/ Amara is in Reno and God is trapped on earth. He needs her to leave.

 MEH S15 E3 "The Rupture" Jack's body dies, Ketch dies, Rowena dies, but not before we have this beautiful witch shot of her.

 MEH S15 E4 "Atomic Monsters" Chuck/ God finds his ex-girlfriend Becky. Yes, THAT Becky that also married Sam is back and she has a nice family that Chuck/ God makes disappear. This is a monster of the week episode with vampires....and Chuck/ God.

 MEH S15 E5 "Proverbs 17:3" Another monster of the week with werewolves. Lilith comes back in a new body.

MEH S15 E6 "Golden Time" Monster of the week, this time it's witches. Eileen the deaf hunter comes to Sam in ghost form and he brings her body back. His spell work is turning out to be really good and he's replacing Rowena in that skill set, so much so that Dean calls him a "Samwitch". (Ok, I might have snort laughed at this in real life.)

MEH S15 E7 "Last Call" Dean's "Eye of the Tiger" karaoke is referenced and it's more like a filler episode.

MEH S15 E8 "Our Father Who Aren't in Heaven" Donatello is back and Jody and Donna are referenced. Lilith is sent to find Michael who's in the form of Sam and Dean's brother Adam. Adam is back.

MEH S15 E9 "The Trap" Now they need a leviathon blossom for a spell, a reference to the big bad from several seasons ago. Claire and Benny are mentioned and Jody and Bobby are seen in a vision.

PLUS S15 E10 "The Heroes Journey" Garth the hunter and werewolf comes back. He was another favorite of mine. He's married with a family and is a werewolf dentist now. Black and white sequence of Garth and Dean tap dancing is fun. Sam and Dean loose their luck, but Garth tells them where they can get it back, The episode ends with Werewolves of London playing. This is a cute episode. It's funny, gory, and I think really showcases that Sam and Dean will get by with help from all the friends they've made along the way.

MEH S15 E11 "The Gamblers" Sam and Dean go to Alaska looking to get their luck back at a pool hall, meanwhile Jack is back and instructed by Death to kill angels and eat hearts to gain strength so he can fight Chuck/ God.

MEH S15 E12 "Galaxy Brain" Chuck/ God begins the destruction of worlds, Jody is in this episode and Alex is referenced. Kaia is back. Both Kaia's switch dimensions so they are back in the right place.

MEH S15 E13 "Destiny's Child" Jack's next quest puts him in the Garden of Eden where he gets his soul back. Sister Jo, Ruby, and Meg are in this episode.

And that's all we get!

Lots of blood draining this season, the music is more contemporary remakes which are terrible, but the addition of honky tonk and country is better and suits the show. All the women working with the Winchesters wear the same thing as the men... a plaid flannel over a shirt and jeans. It's like there was no imagination. I'm hopeful the ending will be epic. They really brought back a lot of characters and if you don't know the history it might be a little confusing this season.

I will always relate to Dean. I often say what he says before he says it and the fact that he was lactose intolerant (like me) for an episode just solidifies that we share the same personality. Lol.

You can see my thoughts on the other seasons 1&2, 3&4, 5&6, 7&8, 9&10, 11& 12 , 13, and 14.

As always thanks for reading. I know I've slowed down blogging. I'm just overwhelmed with the state of the world and I've been working full time this whole time trying to keep my business up and running, so my blogging rhythm is all thrown off. Thanks for sticking with me though. 💗

From horror movie fans, I've heard mostly good things about the Nic Cage movie Mandy. I've been planning to watch it for a while, and I wanted to go in blind. I knew he was in it and it was gory ~ that's it. After I saw his performance in Color Out of Space, I think he's cemented his place in the horror movie genre and let me just say Mandy is a 1980s-heavy metal-fantasy-nightmare-revenge-love story, so a little bit for everyone. No really, it is!

***SPOILER ALERT***

This movie is divided into three parts, the first is The Shadow Mountains 1983, where we see Red played by Nic Cage and his girlfriend Mandy played by a haunting Andrea Riseborough and their comfortable understanding relationship. They have a big cabin the the woods that's covered in widows so you're practically outside. It feels early 1980s with Regan on the radio, the woods, nature, and the remnants of the 1970s interest in the occult floating around in the air.

Mandy is a fantasy artist. She draws things you would see on heavy metal album covers or on the side of 1970s vans. She wears metal band T shirts, reads fantasy books, and has long black straight hair that gives off witchy vibes. She also has a scar on her face that's never quite explained, but we do know that her father liked to kill defenseless animals. (She talks about it, but thank goodness it's not shown in a flash back. Yikes.) Her character is mysterious and hypnotizing. She has an unspoken history that's captivating. Her interaction with Cage makes his acting seem wooden, almost bored, but don't worry he's showcased in the second and third parts of the movie. The next segment is called Children of the New Dawn.

We are then introduced to this cult when they drive by Mandy walking down the road. The leader, Jeremiah, can't stop thinking about her. He tells one of his cult members to kidnap her and bring her to him. Brother Swan uses the Horn of Abraxas (a sort of flute type thing) to summon a demon biker gang called the Black Skulls. The cult sacrifices one of their own to the biker gang so the gang will help kidnap Mandy. A "Blood for blood" deal. When we see the bikers about to home invade the cabin it's reminiscent of the killing scene from The Lost Boys. Already this movie is invading the soft space in my heart.

Mandy (2018)

The Lost Boys (1987)

Of course they successfully kidnap Mandy and they put drops in her eye and sting her with the biggest bug I've ever seen. (Gross.) She starts hallucinating. (Really drugging her is the only way they could ever get her to stay there.) Jeremiah says that she called out to him "silently" and he plays her his album. We find out the cult leader was a musician, but he wasn't successful in the way he wanted to be so he forms this cult instead. He thinks he can take anything he wants because the voice inside his head told him he could. Mandy laughs at the music and at him, humiliating him in front of his followers.

Meanwhile Red is tied up with barbed wire outside. The cult has Mandy in a sleeping bag, they hang her up and set her on fire for Red to watch. She's burned to ash and they stab Red and leave him tied up. Eventually he frees himself and vows to seek revenge on the bikers and the cult. Now it begins. He has an emotionally charged screaming session in the bathroom in his cabin and it's AMAZING. Just look!

Using this bathroom to prep in the morning for work would def keep me awake and raring to go!

I love it.

This is the Nic Cage I want to see in movies! The over-the-top psychotic rage acted out in his underwear in a day-glo bathroom. Scenes like this give me life! Now you know something big is going to happen.

Red goes to his old friend and picks up some weapons. You don't find out how they know each other or why his friend is storing his weapons or how he knows how to forge a scythe thingy, but that isn't the point ~ you don't care! You just want to see him use the stuff! We also find out from his friend that the bikers were once people and bad LSD caused them to turn into demons that like pain. Um ok. Hellraiser much? Again this movie comes for my heart.

In the final third part of the movie called Mandy, it's the action fight sequence that's been building up. Red finds the bikers, then offs them one at a time, he even takes one down single handedly! The one is so coked out watching porn it's hard to believe they can get their shit together to be called by the Horn of Abraxas. Anyway, Red is covered in blood, and reminds me of Ash from The Evil Dead  (1981) AND there's even a chainsaw fight! Now this movie really has me hooked.

Nic Cage covered in blood and being crazy. 

(This pic is a little fuzzy because I photographed it from my TV)

Bruce Campbell covered in blood and being Bruce Campbell.

After killing all the bikers, Red snorts some cocaine and finds the "real" drugs in a jar. He takes a tiny taste and it melts his face off....figuratively and visually. Then Red goes to the LSD maker to find the cult. It's a trippy scene ~ there's even a lion!

The cult members are holed up in a church that has underground tunnels. He kills some of the members, but not all. Does this mean there will be a sequel? He dramatically kills Jeremiah and says "I'm your God now", then walks away in slow motion as the church burns. Kinda epic.

There's a lot to unpack in this phantasmagorical movie. It's interspersed with cartoon dream sequences, a cheddar goblin, and psychedelic colors. Red truly becomes one of the characters in a fantasy novel that Mandy reads about. It's a wild ride. I give this movie 4.5 out of 5 boxes of mac and cheese ~ only because I want more back story on the characters, Mandy was stupid for essentially telling the cult where she lives, and their cabin has bad feng shui with couches facing away from doors and windows. Anyho...

Here's the trailer...

Last year I sponsored a kickstarter for a documentary about iconic 1980s horror movies called In Search of Darkness. I received a digital and DVD copy and decided to watch it. You have to really like 80s horror and documentaries since it's about 4.5 hours long! Honestly it's really not a problem for me, especially since this movie is peppered with famous horror movie actors, directors, writers trailers, and behind the scenes...AND Elvira is in it!

(See this picture. I'm that Gen X kid that had to entertain themselves, parked in front of the TV for hours absorbing all the horror I possibly can.)

This movie follows the decade year by year interviewing people about their involvement in certain iconic movies, discussing the elaborate and inventive horror movies of the 1980s. It also highlights how horror movies can be a coping mechanism for dealing with real life, the thrill of finally being able to buy and curate your movie selection because of VHS tapes, how influential the VHS cover art was, the practical special effects, how horror dipped it's toes in 3D, the horror villain franchise, the rise of the scream queen or final girl, the soundtracks, the dedicated and inclusive fandoms and MORE!

Yes it covers the expected Fri the 13ths and Halloweens, and they mentioned a couple movies I always meant to see and forgot about. I can now say that they've been added to the elusive "list" that I have of things I'll eventually watch. (Seriously though, I do have a list.)

Some movies that I was surprised to see included in this "iconic" list are Fade to Black, Full Moon High, Q: The Winged Serpent, Dolls, and 976 Evil. I am glad that they included the Troma Films too. Once you see any of those, they stick with you like slime.

It'll be interesting to see where contemporary horror movies develop in terms of story lines. The 1980s seemed to be rich with innovative new ideas and lately movies seem to be lazy with remakes. The horror community is hungry for original ideas. Anything new is exciting and welcomed with open arms, because of the fact it's different! (At least that's how I feel.)

The other thing to think about is VHS tapes. They are destroyed and lost. So many B horror movies are not being transferred to a new medium and shared. So many stories will be forgotten. I give it 5 out of 5 Be Kind Rewind stickers. Also I don't know how they made it only 4.5 hours. It could easily be 10!

Here's the trailer...

I was so excited to see my name in the credits!!! (I'm a super dork.)

Currently the same collaborators are collecting money through a kickstarter for a 1980s Sci Fi version called In Search of Tomorrow. You can find information about donating here.

I'm going to review THAT Cats.

Let me begin with ~ I saw the Cats musical ~ or should I say meow-sical? production when I was 12 years old. I was a smitten kitten and loved it. What's not to love? It's about cats! It was an immersive experience with the set being a giant junkyard, and the characters only consisting of actors dressed as cats, there were no "people" in the show. Each performer was covered in a lycra unitard trimmed in plush fur and their markings, movements, and attributes are what made them distinct characters in the musical. I was enthralled with the costumes, the acrobatic prowess of the performers, their cat-like nature, and the synth-y keyboard music. I left with a Cats sweatshirt and the soundtrack on audio cassette. (Yes, I'm dating myself now.) When the production rolled through town again ten years later, I was there, still fully in love with everything about it. The latest movie is not the stage production.

I love all these cat costumes and their furry heads are the best part! 

***SPOILER ALERT***

Cats the movie, follows pretty much the story of the musical with a few tweaks here and there. It has cats, rituals, magic, singing and dancing, and the moon. What could go wrong?

The story is based on T.S. Eliot's Old Possom's Book of Practical Cats. (I've written about it before when I blogged about Edward Gorey.) It's about a gang of cats called the jellicle cats that go the the jellicle ball once a year where one of them is picked by a wise cat named Old Deuteronomy to be "reborn" in the Heaviside Layer. It's a place where you can be the cat you've always wanted to be, it could be heaven, or it could have to do with cats having nine lives, it's never really explained. Throughout the musical each cat is introduced and you learn their backstory and why some of them would want to go there.

The first few minutes into the movie it's hard to tell if it's going to be a cartoon because of the heavy CGI on the actors cat ears and tails. They have the faces of the actors and they almost look projected on to the bodies, anthropomorphic cats. At first it's a little disturbing, but by the end of the movie you're used to it. I can see where they thought this might have been a good idea. It's the perfect way to experiment with advanced CGI and I'm sure the actors thought it was cool to be turned into cats. I was hoping that this would update the story, but honestly I think it would have been better with the lycra and faux fur. It was hard to make out the individual cats like in the musical, most of them just look like tabbys, and the fur looks almost flat, without texture. Don't get me wrong the tail and ear movements were pretty accurate, but the costuming ~ if you can call it that ~ falls flat.

The movie takes place on the street set in a theater district. The main scene is performed in a run down theater. It looses the charm of taking place in a dingy junkyard.

The dancing is good, and includes a lot of styles, but its's lacking in the acrobatic style. Most of the leaps and jumps look computer generated, and it takes away from the performance. I did enjoy that they made Skimbleshanks, The Railway Cat, a tap dancer. I'm a tap dancer from way back, and he starts slow with paradiddles and works his way up, it's great!

Here's his full scene if you can stand 4.5 minsutes of it. Lol.

The comedic parts interspersed throughout the movie are BAD, with a capital B. In the original musical, the whole story is told through songs. In the movie, it was mostly told through songs, but there was some hokey comedy bits fit for a five year old. I was waiting for a fart joke. This ruined the tone of the movie.

Taylor Swift's part is miscast. She is meant to play a sexy cat and has one featured song. Sorry Taytay, in my mind you are not a slinky sexy cat. You are a tall young girl that's annoying. In the movie she swings down on a fake moon and sprinkles catnip on the cats. Was this added to give her a bigger role? Not really sure. It seemed completely out of place.

Old Deuteronomy is played by Judi Dench, whereas in the stage production it's normally a male role. It enjoyed this switch-up, and after some research I found out she was meant to be in the very first production of Cats in 1981, but got injured before it opened.

Jennifer Hudson is the best part of the movie. Anytime she sings, it's like she stops time. Her rendition of "Memory" is powerful and dare-I-say moving? It's absolutely beautiful.

A new song was written by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Taylor Swift for this movie called "Beautiful Ghosts". It's also an equally great song, but it really needs a stronger singer to perform it in the movie.

Overall, I'll say it again, the singing by Jennifer Hudson is the best part of the movie. Don't expect any purrs from me. I predict with the other scathing reviews it's recieved, they will help elevate the versions of Cats to cult status. I give it 1.5 meows out of 5.

Here's the trailer. A little disappointed it doesn't have the original overture because it was so atmospheric, but a reworked version of it...

Here's the original overture...