Chadwick H. Saxelid's Blog: Ghoulies, Ghosties, and Long-Leggedy Beasties, page 50

The Blair Witch Project (1999) - Trading Card #9

"Witchcraft is a scientific study of energies and materials," declared self-admitted witch Lucan Johnson in a 1971 TV interview (front). "It's neither intrinsically good or evil. The practice is called Wiccanism - for all intents and purposes, it's a new religion, reborn back in the 1940s, though its origins go back to pre-Christian Europe. We lost most of the records during the burning times..." Johnson considers the Blair legend to be the most famous case of witchcraft in America.
Lucan Johnson
After twenty-five years, you might think a cursory Google search of the name Lucan Johnson coupled with Curse of the Blair Witch would lead to some background information about whether or not the actor used their real name or not. Nope. Nothing.
But I'm also not inclined to venture too deep into the backstory rabbit hole of The Blair Witch Project. Not right now, at least...

Godzilla vs. Megalon [Gojira tai Megaro] (1973) - Newspaper Ad

Oakland Tribune - Wednesday, June 16, 1976
It took three years, but the film English speaking audiences know as Godzilla vs. Megalon plopped into our local theaters and drive-ins on June 16, 1976.
This would be the first 'new' Godzilla movie I would see on the big screen, but may not have been the very first I would have seen. I know that I sat through a matinee screening of King Kong vs. Godzilla at the Southshore Twin Cinema, at some point. That was one of three Kid's Matinees I remember seeing there. The other two would be the 1966 Batman movie and the first third of 1970's Yog: Monster from Space.
Godzilla vs. Megalon would also serve as a memorable example of bait-and-switch movie marketing, because Godzilla and Megalon did not fight while standing atop the World Trade Center in New York City. Something the advertisement appears to promise.
Adult me knows and understands that the artwork here was designed to resemble the artwork for the remake of King Kong that would be getting a Christmas release that same year. But 10-year-old me wanted and expected to see Godzilla and Megalon duke it out in New York City.
They did not.
The poster also promises something "All new never before seen!" Which is as true as it is false. The movie itself, and the monster it adds to Godzilla's rogues' gallery, are, indeed, new. But a great deal of the film's special effects are not. A lot of its footage is recycled from earlier, and far more generously budgeted, movies.

Something else worth noting is that our downtown theater had Godzilla vs Megalon double-billed with William Castle's production of Bug (1975). I don't remember if we started or finished the double-bill with Godzilla vs. Megalon, but I do remember Bug scaring the ever living crap out of me.
More on that later...

Godzilla vs. Megalon [Gojira tai Megaro] (1973)

Oakland Tribune - Wednesday, June 16, 1976
It took three years, but the film English speaking audiences know as Godzilla vs. Megalon plopped into our local theaters and drive-ins on June 16, 1976.
This would be the first 'new' Godzilla movie I would see on the big screen, but may not have been the very first I would have seen. I know that I sat through a matinee screening of King Kong vs. Godzilla at the Southshore Twin Cinema, at some point. That was one of three Kid's Matinees I remember seeing there. The other two would be the 1966 Batman movie and the first third of 1970's Yog: Monster from Space.
Godzilla vs. Megalon would also serve as a memorable example of bait-and-switch movie marketing, because Godzilla and Megalon did not fight while standing atop the World Trade Center in New York City. Something the advertisement appears to promise.
Adult me knows and understands that the artwork here was designed to resemble the artwork for the remake of King Kong that would be getting a Christmas release that same year. But 10-year-old me wanted and expected to see Godzilla and Megalon duke it out in New York City.
They did not.
The poster also promises something "All new never before seen!" Which is as true as it is false. The movie itself, and the monster it adds to Godzilla's rogues' gallery, are, indeed, new. But a great deal of the film's special effects are not. A lot of its footage is recycled from earlier, and far more generously budgeted, movies.

Something else worth noting is that our downtown theater had Godzilla vs Megalon double-billed with William Castle's production of Bug (1975). I don't remember if we started or finished the double-bill with Godzilla vs. Megalon, but I do remember Bug scaring the ever living crap out of me.
More on that later...

It - A 500 Piece Puzzle from Aquarius

The Strange House, Volume 2 - Manga Review

What started out as a simple, albeit rather sinister and morbid, hypothetical regarding how and why a doorless and windowless room would exist in a detached house uncovers a baffling and unsettling mystery. Or does it?

The first volume of The Strange House hooked me good with its chilling and intriguing blend of labyrinthian mystery and menacing atmosphere. What, if anything at all, was going on with the design plans of those houses?

Yes, houses. There are two of them. At the moment. But I would not be the least bit surprised if a few more strange houses were discovered in future volumes.

While I did hope and expect for there to be some intriguing developments in this second volume, which I was surprised and delighted to find I had to wait for, I was just a tad gobsmacked by the direction the story wound up taking.

It is still unclear as to whether or not there will be any kind of rational explanation here, or if there truly is something malevolent and murderous going on. As ludicrous and logic defying as the theories posited by the mystery loving Kurihara might seem to a rational mind, every revelation about the houses appear to point towards something odd and unusual.

Just how strange and how unusual the ultimate answers may or may not be remains to be seen. Judging by this volume's cliffhanger ending and its cryptic teasers for volume three, which will be released in April of 2025, whatever answers or questions are uncovered or asked are bound to chill and unnerve this particular reader.

April 2025. That's four months from now. I am going to have to wait four months to find out what happens next...

So it goes.

Angel Heart (1987) - Soundtrack Collection

I remember plucking William Hjortsberg's novel Falling Angel from the paperback rack at a local store, way back in 1982, and giving it a brief once over. I did so because there was a blurb from Stephen King himself stating, "A terrific book. I've never read anything like it." The publisher ad copy, just beneath Hjortsberg's name, also promised that the book was a spellbinding novel of terror and the occult.
Despite all that, I passed on getting and reading Falling Angel. Why? No idea. I was fourteen and the book's artwork did not look scary enough to me, maybe? That was forty-two or so years ago, after all, and I wasn't taking notes.
Five years later a friend and I attended a matinee screening of Angel Heart that left us creeped out and good and rattled. That experience got me to track down and read Falling Angel. As much as I liked and admired the movie, I thought the book was even better.
I also purchased this soundtrack. which muddied the score presentation with snippets of dialog and sound effects from the film. Another shortcoming is the absence of the recording of Girl of My Dreams used in the film. Thanks to Angel Heart and its soundtrack, the song's melody became an ear worm that haunts me to this very day.

'Salem's Lot by Stephen King - Newspaper Ad

San Francisco Examiner - October 26, 1975
I would not make it all the way through the novel 'Salem's Lot until well after the broadcast of the 1979 mini-series, which is what the "major Warner Bros. film" promised in this ad eventually became.

Alien (1979) - Trading Card #6

After months of cold sleep, Captain Dallas and his crew rise from the tomb-like bed chambers and stretch their stiffened muscles.

Interesting that the character of Captain Dallas is mentioned, but the pictured crew members in the image consist of, left to right, Parker (Yaphet Kotto), Kane (John Hurt), and Ash (Ian Holm). I do like the foreboding description of the sleep chambers as being tomb-like.

Anaconda (1997) - Soundtrack Collection

I am unaware if an expanded edition of Randy Edelman's score for Anaconda has ever been planned or released. Which means I am stuck with this 30-minute sampling of the highlights, which is better than not having anything at all.
Edelman's score leans into the adventure aspects of this delightful and unpretentious "little" creature feature. Anaconda combines a dash of Creature from the Black Lagoon with a whole lot of Jaws, with the end result being an entertaining monster mash of a movie.
I loved seeing the grin on the late Gene Siskel's face, and the twinkle in his eye, when he said, "I give this movie thumbs up for Jon Voight and the snake, how's that for film criticism!" I agree, they were both impressive as hell in Anaconda.
So was Edelman's score. Expanded release, anyone? Anyone?

The Blair Witch Project (1999) - Trading Card #8

Front: The basement of Rustin Parr's secluded house, where the bodies of seven missing children were discovered. Each child had been ritualistically murdered and disemboweled. Parr admitted to the killings but told authorities that he was obeying a voice in his head - the voice of an old woman - who commanded his actions. Rustin Parr's house burned down in 1942, although it inexplicably resurfaced in 1994 footage shot by missing students Heather Donahue and Michael Williams.
Slain and BuriedI did not realize that the house Heather and Michael stumbled across was supposed to be Rustin Parr's house when I first saw the movie, as I was not all that focused on the backstory mythology of The Blair Witch Project at the time.
Griggs House, the actual house the cast and crew filmed in, was demolished a few years after the release of the movie. Despite efforts to preserve it, so that fans and likeminded weirdos (like me) could visit the location and have their picture taken while standing at the precise location Michael was at the end of the movie. So it goes.