Chadwick H. Saxelid's Blog: Ghoulies, Ghosties, and Long-Leggedy Beasties, page 36

The Blair Witch Project (1999) - Trading Card #31

Mike's Anxiety
"I'll tell you the truth," admitted Mike as he stared at Heather's map of the area. "This is like... Greek to me. It's useless. So I'm just putting my trust in you, that you know where (the cemetery) is..." Heather seemed comfortable with that, but Mike felt compelled to add: "Although, I gotta tell you... I don't fully trust you." Still unflappable at this stage, Heather assured her pensive teammate that "we'll all look back at this and laugh heartily."

NARRATOR: They would not not look back at this and laugh heartily...

Atragon [Kaitei Gunkan] (1963) / The Witch's Curse [Maciste all'inferno] (1962) / Two Thousand Maniacs! (1964) - Newspaper Ad

Oakland Tribune - March 11, 1965
Now this my kind of triple feature.

First we have Atragon, a colorful and exciting Japanese science-fantasy undersea adventure that features a submarine that can also fly. Next up is The Witch's Curse, an Italian peplum that sends strongman Maciste into Hell itself, so he can lift the titular curse from a long-suffering Scottish village.

Last, but in no way least, is Two Thousand Maniacs! The story of a Southern town celebrating its Centennial by slaughtering wayward tourists from the North. This would be the first Herschell Gordon Lewis movie I was able to see (when it was released on home video, way back in 1982) and remains my favorite to this day.

This triple bill really is a cinematic banana split of 1960's genre staples. It is perfect. No notes.

Alien (1979) - Trading Card #28

 

Night of the Living Dead (1968) - Newspaper Ad

San Francisco Examiner - March 10, 1973
Here's a midnight show I would have loved to been able to see. Too bad I was only 5 years old at the time, not living in San Francisco, and Night of the Living Dead was a verboten film... again, at that time.

Sixteen years later I was living in San Francisco and I did see both Leviathan (1989) and, later that same year, Licence to Kill (1989) at the Presidio. So there.

Leatherface - A 1000 piece puzzle from Trick or Treat Studios

Dan Da Dan Volume 1 - Manga Review

An impulsive act of kindness by Momo Ayase kickstarts a friendship that, in turn, 'arouses' all manner of excitable and dangerous paranormal entities. 

How's that for an elevator pitch?

When I try and take a moment to gather my thoughts to write this review, I just start chuckling. I also roll my eyes. Because that is the overall effect this first volume of Dan Da Dan, or Dandadan, had on me. I chuckled, rolled my eyes, and enjoyed the hell out of most of it.

I also need to admit that I struggled with both the sophomoric sexual humor and almost lackadaisical approach to sexual violation and/or assault displayed in the opening chapter(s). That did not sit well with me, at all.

But as the story progressed, the Victoria's Secret level imagery combined with some otherworldly phenomena that managed too illicit some genuine chills. Then there was all that cute and combative banter between Momo and the friend she calls Okarun (for a reason best left unspoiled for those that have yet to read Dan Da Dan).

Perhaps, maybe, this is all meant to dramatize, or satirize, the tumultuous nature of youthful attraction to somebody that seems, at first glance, to be so-not-your type. Yet attracted you are and, no matter how hard you try to stop it, that attraction just wants to grow stronger.

On the less heavy-handed side of my critical read, there was enough prurient naughtiness, spooky creepiness, and meet-cute sweetness to make me want to read the next volume. Just to see what the hell happens next...

The Black Bird (1975) - Soundtrack

The liner notes state that the recording sessions for The Black Bird took place on September 15, 17, 19 and 23 and December 2, 1975, respectively. The IMDB has the first broadcast date of The Devil's Platform, the seventh episode of the short-lived series Kolchak: The Night Stalker, being November 15, 1974.

When I first saw The Black Bird, which may or may not have been on the CBS Late Night Movie, I thought Gil Mellé had composed the film's score. Because I recognized the film's opening title, note-for-note, from yet another Kolchak: The Night Stalker episode, The Spanish Moss Murders, which I had made an audio tape recording of.

Because of that recording that opening theme will forever be linked to The Spanish Moss Murders, but, as noted above, its first appearance seems to have been in The Devil's Platform. Off the top of my head I also remember it being used in the infamous headless biker episode titled Chopper.

Being a credit reader, because I wanted to know who was creating or working on whatever it was I watching, I began noticing that the 'music by' credit on Kolchak: The Night Stalker was Gil Mellé on some episodes and Jerry Fielding on others.

There has been no official release of either Mellé's or Fielding's music for the series, but when Intrada released The Black Bird, I knew I had to have it. Because it might be the only way I could have even the smallest snippet of music from one of my all-time favorite television shows.

The liner notes do not mention Kolchak: The Night Stalker, even though The Black Bird's main title is the subject of a brief critical examination. 

"The composer's jazzy, string-based riff on the Main Title is very much in sync with his work of the vintage." Nick Redman wrote of the score. "The mid-1970s saw him gradually abandon some of his earlier tropes and mannerisms in favor of a style that would increasingly feature electronics. Like many composers of the time, he felt that synthesizers would begin to play a much greater part in film music and he began to accommodate them accordingly. Discreetly at first, and here mostly in the opening and closing titles, he experimented gingerly. A busy motif, in counterpoint to the orchestral forces, makes its presence felt."

For me, the presence felt in that busy motif is Carl Kolchak, forever driving his yellow Ford Mustang around the streets of Chicago, searching for a story...

The Blair Witch Project (1999) - Trading Card #30

Heather Reflects
Although Heather admitted she got her team lost "for a brief amount of time," spirits were still high on the second day of shooting in the woods. "So what's up?" Josh asked Heather on videotape. "What's your take on the Blair Witch at this point? Does she exist?" Heather looked around, at the trees, the hills and the sky. "I don't now," she responded in a respectful, low-key fashion. "I don't know..." 

The Evil (1978) - Newspaper Ad

Oakland Tribune - March 7, 1978
My earliest memory of The Evil might be seeing a clip from it used to punctuate the opening to some televised special that focused on horror, science fiction, and fantasy films. The clip consisted of a panicking Andrew Prine saying something like, "We gotta get out of here," followed by shots of all the doors and windows slamming shut, trapping everybody inside.

Alien (1979) - Trading Card #27