Movie of the Week: The Living Dead at the Manchester Morgue

A longtime favorite of mine, long before I had youtube, or even a home computer. I first found it as a  bootleg VHS dub of a Japanese laserdisc (dubbed into English with Japanese subtitles) at the hipster video rental store. To add to the cultural dissonance, this Spanish / Italian co-production was filmed in the U.K., and amassed 16 different titles from the various distributors around the world. I'm simply using my favorite title for this blog post. On Netflix it goes by Let Sleeping Corpses Lie, even though when it played theatrically here in America it was titled Don't Open the Window.

If you haven't seen this before, or even heard of it, then you might be surprised by the quality of filmmaking. This isn't a Lucio Fulci imitation, it's something more competent, even intelligent (it was also made in '74, years before Fulci or anyone else in Europe started doing Zombie movies, so I don't know of any precedents besides George Romero). Why it isn't more famous is a mystery to me, because it's excellent.

Extra Trivia: Edgar Wright allegedly used its U.S. trailer as the inspiration for his phony trailer Don't in the 2007 film Grindhouse. 

Movie of the Week: Return of the Living Dead (1985)

In the Summer of 1985 I turned 16, and Return of the Living Dead came to theaters. My two friends and I gained admission to the film without adult chaperones, a sizable victory for boys our age. We sat behind three girls. As the film started, one girl whispered something in her friend's ear. The friend turned around and gave me a cursory once-over, then turned back and said, clearly, "his hair is too long". And I sat there, beaming, "someone almost liked me."

The TV spot used the song Partytime by 45 Grave. 

Not a good song in retrospect, but it inspired me to buy the soundtrack LP, which shifted my interest from heavy metal to punk rock in a matter of weeks. From there it was the Repo Man soundtrack (the ultimate 80's punk primer), then Black Flag's Damaged album, then the Dead Kennedys and the Cramps, beginning a lifelong pursuit of authenticity and originality in music. And then I shaved my long hair down to a buzz cut.

Movie of the Week: Surf II (1984)

Movie of the Week: Terrorvision (1986)

Take this Movie of the Week recommendation with a grain of salt. This is no masterpiece, but it also has many things to offer that most films don't. 

Terrorvision is at its best during the first half, which reads like a satire of what happens to baby boomers when they become parents. Mom and Dad are selfish Me Generation narcissists who are too involved in their own fun to give much regard to their children or their elders. Grandpa is a shell-shocked war vet, going senile and living in the family's subterranean bomb shelter. The kids are spoiled and complacent. The art direction throughout is colorful, and the premise allows the integration of clips from classic horror movies, complete with wraparound narration from a TV host named Medusa. Plus, the lovely and inimitable Mary Woronov looks and acts like something out of a Sally Cruikshank cartoon. 

So all of that is great, but once the real movie starts, it seems to have nowhere to go. The screenplay needs a third act, or at least, protagonists that aren't so irritating. Assuming this film was made for youngsters, why are the teenagers just as shallow as their parents?  Diane Frankin (not her usual charming self) and John Gries (a.k.a. King Vidiot) get the most screen time, but they aren't any more fleshed out as characters than these two. Is the target audience supposed to relate to the fact that they care about nothing besides watching Mtv? I realize that Terrorvision is full of caricatures, but there's no one to like.

After the first 40 minutes or so, it turns into something between E.T. and Gremlins, two movies that helped ruin Hollywood in the 80's. Feel free to shut it off when the teenagers and the alien raid the fridge. You won't miss much after that.

Despite all that, Mary Woronov. And a great theme song.

Movie is not embeddable. Click on above image or here to be directed to the youtube page. 

Spawn of the Slithis

Incident on Station 3

Not of This Earth

Cross Static

Delta Mission

Sentry

Freeze Capsule

Friday Night Gallery, Part 3 of 3

Season 2, Episode 15: A Feast of Blood

Season 3, Episode 5: You Can Come Up Now, Mrs. Milligan

Season 3, Episode 11: Something in the Woodwork

Movie of the Week, Encore Edition: Screwballs (1983)

After School Special: The Day My Kid Went Punk (1987)

It's finally here… after many years of waiting, someone has uploaded The Day My Kid Went Punk to Youtube in near-entirety (looks like just the last minute or so is missing). 

It doesn't quite live up to the TV guide ad (above), but then, how could it? The writers have seemingly no familiarity with the subject matter. Granted the the kid is on the extreme end of the fashion scale, but still… at around the time this program aired, I was nearly getting my ass kicked at hardcore shows on weekends just for wearing my stupid spray-painted army jacket. And even I would have bust up laughing if I saw this poseur walking through the hall at school. He looks a cross between Boy George, Bret Michaels and King Vidiot from Joysticks:

But punk was more than the fashion statement this show regards it to be. That's what makes it pretty worthless as a social services program for teens; it doesn't acknowledge the obvious evidence regarding punks. Many of them feel alienated from their families and communities. Many have difficulties at home, and run away or drop out of school long before they're 18. But here, it's just a case of a suburban kid who inexplicably decides to give himself a makeover to look more edgy, and continues living his over-achieving, over-privileged lifestyle, and his parents wring their hands in concern and embarrassment over his clothing and the Halloween temporary color he sprays into his hair every morning, but they eventually give in and do what he wants. Even Degrassi Junior High respected the maturity and sophistication of its audience more than this.

Anyway, it's worth seeing just for for Bernie Kopell, so here it is:

Movie of the Week: Zapped (1982)

Friday Night Gallery (part 2 of 3)

Season 2, episode 4: A Fear of Spiders

Season 2, episode 21: The Caterpillar

Season 2, episode 22: Green Fingers