Chadwick H. Saxelid's Blog: Ghoulies, Ghosties, and Long-Leggedy Beasties, page 28

Bride of Re-Animator (1990) - Soundtrack

Although Re-Animator (1985) had enough of a music budget to allow for a small orchestra, Bride of Re-Animator did not. Composer Richard Band only had a couple of synthesizers and some electronic samples of orchestral instruments to work with.

While Band did bring back his memorable, albeit controversial, comedic riff on Bernard Herrmann's theme for Psycho, to emphasize the film's darkly comedic tone, the true highlight this time around is a passionate melody referred to as the Bride Theme.

"[This new theme] actually translates into three different characters," Band says in Randall D. Larson's liner notes for this Dragon's Domain release. "It's used not only for Dan's memories of Meg from the first movie, but his relationship with the Italian girl Francesca. And then, since Meg's heart is placed into the Bride once she's built, there was a corresponding romantic element there. We didn't want two or three love themes to cover all of this, since they're essentially all coming from the same place, so I composed a single love theme to cover all those elements."

Band also used the Bride Theme for when West first meets the re-animated Bride. "It goes past what we know the theme to signify," Band explains in the liner notes. "She is his accomplishment. We know he's always been in love with himself, but he's also been in love with what he wants to accomplish, so here it's like he's finally met his dream, he's finally met his own love, so that love theme becomes part his as well."

One thing about this score that I find equal parts amusing and distracting are Band's frequent use of phrases from his scores for both Puppet Master (1989) and Puppet Master II (1990). Images of Tunneler, Blade, and Pinhead always creep to the forefront of my mind and crowd out any and all things Re-Animator whenever I hear them. So it goes.

Screamers [L'isola degli uomini pesce] (1979) - Newspaper Ad

Oakland Tribune - May 8, 1981
Roger Corman and New World Pictures took a considerable amount of heat for this infamous bit of advertising hyperbole, one that had audiences and critics hurling accusations of false advertising. Screamers was an Italian fantasy film, original title The Island of the Fishmen, that did not feature men getting turned inside out. 

Although a monster movie that appears to stitch together plot elements from both The Island of Dr. Moreau and Creature from the Black Lagoon, the movie is yet another gap in my viewing history that I really should fill before departing this mortal coil.

The Blair Witch Project (1999) - Trading Card #46

Missing Map
"Did you take it?" Heather asked Josh with an unforgiving look. He didn't appreciate the question or its implications. "I'm not playing head games, man," Josh snapped back. "We gave it back to you after map check yesterday - you've always had the map." Heather acknowledged this fact, but still maintained that "I've always had the map in the same place, and if it's not here, one of you had to have taken it." 

The Curse of Frankenstein (1957) / Horror of Dracula (1958) - Newspaper Promo

San Francisco Examiner - May 5, 1965
A double-bill of the legendary hits that ushered in the era of Hammer Horror opened at the Golden Gate and Mission Drive-In Theaters on May 5, 1965. I envy those that were able to see and enjoy it.

Alien (1979) - Trading Card #43

Towering above the "Nostromo" explorers are the seemingly mummified remains of a fantastic space creature! 

Momo The Blood Taker Volume 1 - Manga Review

Tokyo is plagued by a string of murders where the victims are drained of blood. While the city whispers about vampires, detective Mikogami Keigo seeks to avenge his murdered lover. As he stalks "The Man With Two Faces," Mikogami catches the attention of a mysterious silver-haired girl.

Even though, to borrow and paraphrase a quote from Dr. Fallada (Frank Finlay) in Tobe Hooper's Lifeforce, "that [silver-haired] girl is no girl," Momo nonetheless stumbles across the thin line it desires to dance upon. Which is too bad, because there is a lot about Momo that I really, really like. Maybe could even love. 

There is just one gigantic obstacle to my being able to enjoy to the utmost all the bloodletting and monsters splashing across the black and white pages of Momo The Blood Taker. That would be Momo Persephone Dracula her-own-damn-self.
Momo appears to have become a vampire when she was a child. Although her soul, or her consciousness, has aged some 200 years, her body has not. Physically she is still just a kid. Mentally she is an adult.
Off the top of my head, while I type these words, I can name at least four examples of the 'ancient soul in a child's body' trope. Claudia in Interview with the Vampire, Homer in Near Dark, The Anointed One in Buffy The Vampire Slayer, and Eli in Let the Right One In.
And that is just four. There are a lot more than those, I am sure.
What differentiates Momo from the above titles is just how sexualized she is. It was so over the top in its fetishistic approach to showcasing her in, um, well, very sexy lingerie and the not at all unsubtle implication that she, uh, did some vampiric 'cuddling' with an unconscious and mortally wounded Mikogami was just off-putting.
Part of me wants to think it was intentional, but I doubt it.
Which is disappointing, because I really, really liked the nightmarish and dapper Man With Two Faces and the escalating vampire menace.
But I will be doing a little research, as well as a some soul searching, before I decide whether or not to read the next volume of Momo The Blood Taker.

Death Ship (1980) - Newspaper Ad

Oakland Tribune - May 2, 1980
On paper Death Ship sounds terrific. A haunted derelict Nazi ship roams the ocean, ramming and sinking any vessel unlucky enough to cross its path. If any survivors are unlucky enough to climb aboard, well they will not be surviving for much longer. Because the ship needs blood...

Yet when unspooling across the big, or small, screen, Death Ship is lethargic and aimless. Stars George Kennedy and Richard Crenna are given very little to do. The same can be said of the titular Death Ship itself, which comes across as an underwhelming presence and unimaginative threat. 

The whole endeavor just sits there and... sinks.

The Blair Witch Project (1999) - Trading Card #45

The Rock Piles
"We woke up this morning, just like two seconds ago, and there are piles of rocks outside of our tent," declared a shaken Heather on videotape. "There are three, actually..." These rock piles appeared similar to the seven ritual piles on display in the Black Hills cemetery. "Whatever it is at this point, we're obviously no wanted here," Josh added with disgusted finality. "So let's get the hell out." 

Breakheart Pass (1975) - Soundtrack

Jeff Bond's liner notes point out that Jerry Goldsmith's "skill at fashioning highly propulsive and rhythmically inventive action music" made him the perfect choice to score this Charles Bronson starring hybrid of western and spy thriller set aboard a speeding train. 

Goldsmith's "disjunctive main theme for brass backed up by synthesizer" is "book-ended by a bold fanfare for horns that acts as both a building block of much of the score's rhythmic material and a musical stand-in for the train's whistle and engine roar."

I don't know if I would go as far as Bond does, when he declares that the main theme is "one of the most exciting and satisfying in the composer's career." But I am comfortable stating that this soundtrack offers a robust and entertaining listen. Another solid and satisfying offering from the composer of so many of my all-time favorite film scores.

The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942) - Newspaper Ad

San Francisco Examiner - May 1, 1942
The Ghost of Frankenstein was the third sequel to 1931's Frankenstein and the first wherein Boris Karloff did not play the monster. This time around Lon Chaney Jr. wore the iconic make-up. He did okay, but was unable to bring forth the kind of emotion and character that Karloff had.

It is not a bad movie, per se. Just inferior to the three films that preceded it.

I also need to share this personal factoid, the film's utterly bonkers ending imprinted in my memory. Of all the Universal monster movies I watched as a child, the ending to The Ghost of Frankenstein proved to be the most memorable.