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Lifelong Friends & Weddings & Happily Ever Afters
Stock Photo – NOT actual wedding day
I *poofed* again. This time with good reason though. My best friend of the past 25 years got married this past Saturday and so this past week was crazy busy. I wish I could post a photo of her because she was absolutely gorgeous but suffice it to say, despite the fact that I loathe weddings with a fiery passion, it was a beautiful one and incredibly happy-making. 🙂
I just have a couple of more work things to catch up on and I’ll be good to go on jumping back into the Portland Film Fest films and my usual indies (and I’ve even watched a few things like THE BABADOOK here recently!). AND I’ll start making my rounds again (seriously guys, how do you manage to blog and read all those blogs and do everything else?? How did I used to do this? It’s insanity!). 😉 I am also determined to fit in watching MAD MAX: FURY ROAD this week b/c dammit, I’m the only one who hasn’t seen it!!! Grrr-bunnies…
I’m hoping to fit in at least 3 films this week (*fingers crossed*) b/c I have a VERY important FROZEN themed birthday party to attend for my niece this weekend, so I will once again be busy.
Till then, though I’m sure you’ve already seen it, since I think this is totes amazeballs, I leave you with this brilliant editing job. Enjoy and happy Labor Day, guys! 🙂
No More Nightmares
Horror maven Wes Craven died today, age 76, from his battle with brain cancer. Normally I don’t post things like this but I think we all know how influential NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET has been in my life (I’ve only mentioned it a time or two…). It’s my favorite horror series; I own 2 documentaries about it (if there are more, PLEASE let me know because I need them!); have a sweet NOES shirt that I was gifted a couple of years ago; used to fall asleep to the theme song that I would play on repeat on my phone (what? It was soothing!) and had my proudest “parent” moment ever just the other day when my ex-bf’s kid sent me a story to read that he’d written for Creepypasta that had a Krueger homage in it. *wipes away happy tears* I am proud of the horror education I instilled in my kiddo.
The first SCREAM also made an impact on me as I was 16 when it came out (yes, I’m old, I know) and it was one of my first horror movies. It was so irreverent, so scary (at the time) and so fun. It made me realize movies didn’t have to come in a pre-packaged form and be like all the rest. Important knowledge for a girl who was nothing like anyone else in her small Southern town or her family.
And Mr. Craven knew that change was good such as when he wrote and directed this bit from one of my favorite films, PARIS JE T’AIME:
So goodbye, Wes Craven, and THANK YOU for all the nightmares.
The Terror Within
It’s fairly safe to say that I pretty much LOVED The Terror Within. It’s amazingly cheesetastic (thank you 1989!) dystopia with a dash of fun.
The story starts with a group of people in a bunker – there’s only a handful because it seems most of humanity was wiped out by something only vaguely referenced as “the accident”. There are other groups of people out there (one of the issues this group faces is that their radio contact goes out another bunker) but it’s not really explained why these people aren’t just living together in one big bunker society. A couple of the group are out scavenging on the surface for food and supplies (living up top is a big NO NO!) and get attacked. So of course another couple of people go out to find them and boy are they all careless and tra-la-la about the fact that at any given moment they could die due to the BIG BAD that is of yet only peripherally mentioned. Seriously, they’re laughing and joking and just enjoying being in the sunshine. They KNOW that two of their peeps just died – what is wrong with these people?
Hey ma, look, no hands!
While out, they find a camp that’s pretty much been ripped to shreds along with the people that were in it (this totally puts a damper on their frolicking). They also discover a survivor, a beautiful woman who is terrified of them and whatever’s after her. They convince/kidnap her to take her back to Bunker Land all the while exclaiming over how neat it is they found her since people can’t live on the surface anymore. Once back at BL, they run tests on her and care for her injuries only to find out that she’s PREGNANT!!!! Seems pregnancy is a thing of the past also, that or just really rare. But uh-oh…when they brought her in she was three months pregnant but now, 20 minutes later she’s six months pregnant! *cue spooky evil music* Wanna know why? Because THIS is the daddy!
Hey baby…
WTF? See this is why people have to live underground in Bunker Land. These things (which are oddly and to me hilariously called “Gargoyles”) are a result of “the accident”. Not sure what they were doing before but now they’re running around impregnating any woman they can get their hands…paws…um..you get the idea…on. NOT PRETTY.
What follows is a straight up Alien rip-off, complete with baby gargoyle ripping it’s way out of it’s mother’s stomach and a battle for survival within the confines of the bunker. Who lives, who dies? Can these people ever go up top again? How can these things spawn interspecies’lly? Is interspecies’lly a real word??
The best part? There’s a second one! Yay!! It’s not on Netflix streaming so I haven’t watched it yet but I am very excited about this. Full of nudity, blood and silliness, this is definitely a good way to pass the time!
Son of Rambow
Son of Rambow
The story, based in the 1980s, starts off with an ultra religious family who has lost the patriarch of their family. Will Proudfoot (Bill Milner) misses his father desperately, loves to draw and is incredibly shy and quiet. Due to his religious upbringing, Will has never seen television and as such, is sent into the hallway whenever his class watches movies. More than happy to oblige, he sits and draws. One afternoon while he is waiting in the hall, Lee Carter (Will Poulter) appears. He’s been sent out of his class for getting into trouble, which we find out is a common occurrence. Next thing you know, he’s stolen Will’s artwork and engaged him in a scuffle that ends up breaking a fish tank and landing them both in trouble. What follows is the start of a friendship, although an unusual one at first. Will accidentally sees “Rambo” at Lee’s house while in hiding from Lee’s older brother. Will is intrigued and obsessed as it’s his first ever movie. And since Lee is making a film for a young filmmaker’s competition, he and Will decide to team up and film “Son of Rambo”. As the story unfolds, we see their friendship grow, we see Lee’s loneliness and Will’s confusion with his family’s religion. We see them change and we see them fight.
And on a completely random note, the film also features a visiting French New Wave kid who is so cool that everyone falls in love with him and ends up playing a ninja in “Son of Rambo”. And because of him, we also have one of the most fabulous scenes of all time, wherein a bunch of kids have started up a “club” on school premises where they sit around and smell lip balms and comment on how they really really smell like cupcakes. How freaking awesome is that? So so quintessentially 80s.
Cinema Schminema 