Maximum Overdrive (1986)

 

When Earth passes through the tail of Rea-M rogue comet, the machines come to life and start to kill mankind. A group of survivors is under siege from fierce trucks at the Dixie Boy truck stop gas station and they have to fight to survive.

Maximum Overdrive is a 1986 American comedy horror film written and directed by Stephen King. The film stars Emilio Estevez, Pat Hingle, Laura Harrington, and Yeardley Smith (Who voiced Lisa Simpson in the animated hit show "The Simpsons") The screenplay was inspired by and loosely based on King's short story "Trucks", which was included in the author's first collection of short stories, Night Shift, and follows the events after all machines (including cars, trucks, radios, drones, arcades, vending machines, etc.) go sentient when Earth crosses the tail of a comet, initiating a world-wide killing spree. The plot is as simple as an AC/DC drumbeat.

Yes it's fucking stupid, yes its fucking dumb, yes its fucking whatever negative word you might wanna say, but if you want silly action, this is for you. Its not the most complex of plots of course, but if you like watching stuff get blown up or people hit by cars or trucks, or watching little leaguers getting neatly pressed by steamrollers, this delivers.

Where's Spider Man

There's a lot of fun and splatter going on at the Truck Stop, but still the most entertaining sequences in "Maximum Overdrive" take place elsewhere. The scene at the beginning, for instance, where a massive bridge decides for itself to lift open while plenty of traffic is crossing, or the brutal footage at the baseball training field where the vending machine starts firing off soda cans at the coach and kids.  It probably just thought they were thirsty after a hard day of practice. 

It is as bad as it's reputation would have you believe but at the same time it enters the "so bad it's good" range because of how silly it all is.  In recent years, King has admitted that he didn't know what he was doing and that he was snorting cocaine at the time.  Cocaine's a Hell of a drug. 

Dude took a coke can to the head. I'm switching to Pepsi.

The movie begins with a cameo from King and his wife, as an ATM machine calls him an asshole. That ATM machine must have had to sit through this film.  The comet that passes our planet makes machines go crazy and kill humans. Literally, that's all you need to know. There's no need to worry about subtext or character development. Just watch machines kill people and people kill machines and enjoy 96 minutes of your life without the need to make decisions.

Run!!! We have to get off of this film set. 

There's something for everyone in this film, like waitresses flipping out and screaming at bulldozers before being shot ("We made you! We made you!"), plenty of AC/DC, including the song Who Made Who that was written for the film. There's an ice cream truck that tries to kill the survivors. The machines demand gasoline via Morse code and a kid shooting a drive-in menu board to get revenge for his dad. Crazy shit going on. 

This film has cokehead 80's acting at its finest. Its even edited like a cokehead edited it. You may think this is a detractor... but it actually encapsulates a section of Hollywood that somehow got things done in an era where tinseltown skidmarked on a lot of things in a post Star Wars hot MTV time.  So grab some beers and prepare for mindless entertainment.

Trivia:

When asked why he hasn't directed a movie since "Maximum Overdrive", Stephen King responded "Just watch Maximum Overdrive."

Stephen King, being a former cocaine addict, later admitted that he was "coked out of my mind" the entire time he was making this picture and often didn't know what he was doing. He remarked that he'd like to try directing again someday, this time sober.

About a year after the movie was released, the Green Goblin truck was taken to Silent Rick's Towing and Salvage in Wilmington, NC. The jaw, lower teeth, tongue and tops of the ears were gone and what was left was burnt severely. John Allison of Wilmington, NC saw it there and purchased it. He later had to sell it and Tim Shockey of Piketon, Ohio purchased it on February 19, 1987. Tim displayed it in his video store, Uncle Jim's Videoland, in Waverly, Ohio for several years until he sold the business. He moved it to his back yard for about 20 years. It was then moved into his garage and he started restoring it in 2011. Tim spent 2 years, nights and weekends restoring the head. He now travels across the USA and Canada taking it to horror & comic cons.

Evil's wheels.

While shooting the scene where the steamroller rampages across the baseball diamond, Stephen King requested that the SFX department place a bag of fake blood near the dummy of a young player who would be run over by it. The desired effect would be that a smear of blood would appear on the steamroller and be re-smeared on the grass over and over, like a printing press. While filming the scene, however, the bag of blood exploded too soon and sprayed everywhere, making it appear as if the boy's head had also exploded. King was thrilled with the results, but censors demanded the shot be cut.

The "Dixie Boy" truck stop was a set constructed 10 miles outside of Wilmington, North Carolina. It was convincing enough that several truckers tried to stop in, and eventually the producers had to put announcements in local papers saying that the "Dixie Boy" was just a movie set.

AC/DC was selected to make the music for the movie by Stephen King himself.

An accident occurred on July 31, 1985 during shooting in a suburb of Wilmington, North Carolina where a radio-controlled lawnmower used in a scene went out of control and struck a block of wood used as a camera support, shooting out wood splinters which injured the director of photography Armando Nannuzzi; as a result, he lost his right eye. Nannuzzi sued Stephen King on February 18, 1987 for $18 million in damages. The suit was settled out of court.

It's been long rumored that George A. Romero actually ghost directed a large portion of the film while King was seeking treatment for his cocaine addiction. Many fans of Romero's work have noted that film features many of his distinct camera angles and editing choices. While King has never admitted this upfront, he has mentioned that Romero was constantly on set and King would frequently ask him for advice about directing.

The original scripted ending had the Dixie Boy survivors deal with one last obstacle before escaping, a machine gun mounted coast guard boat. There was also to be one last shot of the city of Wilmington being destroyed by the machines (rumored to have been done via a matte painting).

The head on the main truck is based on that of Marvel Comics' Green Goblin.

Some trucks used in the movie were from local businesses and the actual names of the businesses remained on the trucks in the movie.

While filming the scene where the ice cream truck flips over, the stunt didn't go according to plan. A telephone-pole size beam of wood was placed inside so it would flip end over end, but the truck only flipped once and slid on its roof right into the camera. Gene Poole, dolly grip on the film, pulled the cameraman out of the way at the last second. Subsequently, Poole's name is listed on one of the time cards when Bill is putting his card back after being told by Bubba that he must work more hours than he is going to get paid for.

Stephen King originally wanted to cast Bruce Springsteen in the lead.

Shit happens

Stephen King is a huge fan of AC/DC, and when he got to meet them he asked them if they would provide music for this movie. He also offered the band a role in the film, but AC/DC declined stating they are not actors. Claims that there is a scene with the band on a boat are untrue. However, the band agreed to do the soundtrack after Stephen King sung "Ain't No Fun (Waiting Round to Be a Millionaire)" from their 1976 album Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap. King sang the entire song from start to finish and the band laughingly agreed that if he was such a fan they would do it for him. AC/DC perform all but two songs featured in the film, including two unreleased mixes of previously recorded songs, and the entire 1987 album "Who Made Who" is the soundtrack to this movie. AC/DC wrote a new track called Who Made Who, and various instrumentals, only two of which appear on the album. The rest of the songs are from previous AC/DC albums. At the time of the release many music stores had no idea the album Who Made Who was a compilation soundtrack for this movie, and many mislabeled the album as an AC/DC greatest hits. Limited pressings of the album did feature the movie's logo, stating it was the soundtrack to Stephen King's Maximum Overdrive, but this was later removed from future pressings.

It is because of this movie that Evil Dead became a franchise. Stephen King loved The Evil Dead (1981) and his high praise of the film is largely credited with its success. While making this film he heard Sam Raimi and the other creators were having difficulty making a sequel. King brought this to the attention of producer Dino De Laurentiis who helped Raimi make Evil Dead II (1987). Had King not been working with De Laurentiis on this movie at the time the horror franchise may never have gotten past the original.

Several of the radio-controlled trucks used for the Dixie Boy siege broke down throughout filming, which delayed production as every time a truck would break down and get repaired, another truck would also break down.

Coked up and ready to direct

In Maximum Overdrive, the characters talk about going to an island named Haven where there are no cars. The TV show Haven (2010), also based on King's work, premiered in 2010. In the season 2 episode Haven: Love Machine (2011), cars and boats are seen coming to life and attacking humans much as they did in this film.

Yeardley Smith is greatly embarrassed by this film

Stephen King later called this "a moron movie"

Despite the plot which says that all machines in the world come alive and begin killing people, Camp and the Curtis' cars never becomes sentient. Even Hendershot's car, identifiable by the license plate BUBBA stamped on it, never comes alive itself and (along with nearly all of the other cars in the truck stop parking lot and in other scenes) remains sedate throughout the entire movie.

In the film, the Earth passes through the comet's tail on June 19, 1987. On June 19, 1999, King would be hit, and nearly killed by a distracted truck driver. The number 19 has been prominent in his writing for most of his career.

The song being played by the marauding ice cream truck is 'King of the Road,' by Roger Miller.

In the film the character Brett says to the Bible salesman "eat my shorts" under her breath. Yeardley Smith voices the character of Lisa Simpson on The Simpsons (1989), whose brother Bart says that same tag line. The line is also used in The Breakfast Club, another movie starring Emilio Estevez.

In the game room of the Dixie Boy truck stop, they had a Bally Night Rider pinball game, a Williams Pokerino, and a few video games: a Cinematronics Star Castle, a Atari Tempest Cocktail and a Konami Time Pilot '84 in a Stern cabinet. Fairly early on in the movie, the Night Rider playfield glass smashes itself, and very late in the movie, for a split second, you can see the games being plowed into by a semi truck.

Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation (1995)

 

A group of teenagers get into a car crash in the Texas woods on prom night, and then wander into an old farmhouse that is home to Leatherface and his insane family of cannibalistic psychopaths.

Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation is a 1995 American slasher film written and directed by Kim Henkel, and starring Renée Zellweger, Matthew McConaughey, and Robert Jacks as Leatherface.

Not sure what to make of this film. You have a young McConaughey and a young Zellwegar in a film that could have derailed their careers. Fortunately for them it didn't come out until after they became stars. MCconaughey is a deranged, bug-eyed hillbilly with a remote-controlled leg, and Renee Zellweger as a "teen" victim, running, screaming, and jumping through windows!

The film is your basic teenagers on the way home from the prom get lost and stuck and run into spooky family in the middle of nowhere - mayhem ensues. One of the biggest gripes that people have with this film (which is saying a lot, because there is nothing but stuff to gripe about) is that Leatherface seems to have become a transvestite.

If looks could kill he woudn't need a chainsaw

Why the focus on Leatherface being a transvestite? Leatherface is a side character anyway, it is Vilmer (McConaughey) who is the star. If you don't believe me that he's more the star than Leatherface, count how many people Leatherface, or anyone else, kills with a chainsaw in the movie (hint: none). Vilmer is the new head of household in the backwoods family, working as a tow-truck driver/reckless murderer and who has the fascinating addition of an electric leg that is operated by remote control. And have I mentioned his fucking robot leg? 

There are two deaths in the film, both of side characters. One is run over with a truck. The other has his neck broken. In a movie titled "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation," one would expect gory murders a plenty--though that is far from reality in this case. There is no blood, no guts, and no chainsaw killings. The Leatherface character does absolutely nothing in the film. Excuse me. He does do something. He dresses up like a woman and shrieks his chainsaw above his head while screaming wildly.

Bridget Jones has fucked up here

And what's with the ending? The man and the woman in the trailer have a different person dubbing their voices for them? Why? And what about the airplane flying around and then suddenly hitting a character in the head and oil comes out of their brain? What? There's also some rubbish about the Illuminati, but I won't even bother going into that.

The whole thing works better as a kind of demented screwball comedy, rather than a true horror film. If you have enough beers, this MIGHT be good for a few laughs, but it would take quite a few beers.

Just a normal family dinner

Trivia:

When asked about this movie, Renée Zellweger said, "It was dangerous. I don't know if any of it was legal. It was a great workout. Running from a guy with a live chainsaw is excellent motivation. It was a lot of fun. It was my first role, really. I couldn't believe that somebody was going to trust me with that, that somebody was going to take this chance (on me). I was really grateful. I have no shame about that (movie)."

Despite the title, absolutely zero people are massacred via a chainsaw.

Renée Zellweger reflected on this movie in a 2016 interview, and said: "It was very low budget, so we all shared a tiny Winnebago that the producer of the film--it belonged to him, it was his personal camper. So, you know, make-up was in the front seats and there was a table in the middle for hair, and there was a tiny little curtain by the bathroom. That was where you put your prom dress and your flower on. It was ridiculous. How we pulled that off, I have no idea. I'm sure none of it was legal. Anything we did was a little bit dangerous But what an experience. It was kamikaze filmmaking."

Don't you dare use my name in the promotion of this movie

Matthew McConaughey had just graduated college and planned on moving to California when he auditioned for this movie. He read for the part of a young motorcyclist who rescues Jenny at the end and rides off with her into the sunset (a role that was eventually eliminated). Before he left, writer / producer / director Kim Henkel asked if he knew of anyone who might be right for the role of the villain, Vilmer. McConaughey suggested two friends from acting class and left. He was about to get in his truck and drive to California when he stopped and realized, "What was I thinking?" He immediately turned around and asked Henkel, "Hey, can I audition for Vilmer?" Henkel gave him a spoon from the kitchen, told him to pretend it's a knife and tasked him with scaring his secretary. Then, in the middle of the audition, he told him to pretend his mechanical leg was malfunctioning. McConaughey was so convincing that he won the role of Vilmer on the spot.

Matthew McConaughey (Vilmer) and Renée Zellweger (Jenny) came to fame two years later, with A Time to Kill (1996) and Jerry Maguire (1996), respectively. Both shared the same talent agency. When Sony, which owned this movie's distribution rights, was preparing to re-release it, , highlighting the pair, their agent threatened a lawsuit against the studio, claiming their clients were being unfairly exploited. The agency also said that if Sony released this movie on the backs of their names, neither would appear in any future Sony releases. The film was eventually given a brief, limited theatrical release in September 1997.

The hospital scene at the end featured two actors and one actress from The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974). John Dugan, who played Grandfather in "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre", is the cop. Paul A. Partain, who played Franklin Hardesty in "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre", is the orderly. Marilyn Burns, who played Sally Hardesty in "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre", is the patient on the gurney (credited as "Anonymous").

Matthew McConaughey says his Dazed and Confused (1993) catchphrase, "All right, all right, all right" in this movie.

Intended by writer /producer / director Kim Henkel to be the "real" sequel to The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974). The characters of Vilmer and W.E. were intended to be the Hitchhiker and Cook characters from "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre". Jim Siedow was approached to reprise his role as Cook, but was unable to.

This was filmed on-location at an abandoned farmhouse in Pflugerville, Texas and nearby Bastrop. The majority of the cast and crew were locals from Austin, aside from David Gale, a stage actor from Houston. Most of the filming took place at night, and was described by Make-up Artist J.M. Logan as "very, very rough for everyone."

My brother here is tired of what's-her-name's face, and he wants a new one. It just so happens to be, he wants this face right here!

This movie is recursive in that it opens with an intertitle referring to two "minor, yet apparently related incidents," a joking acknowledgment of the previous two sequels. Justin Yandell of "Bloody Disgusting" interprets this movie as a cynical re-imagining of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974), with Henkel parodying his own work. He cites Leatherface's ineffectiveness at dispatching his victims, as well as the archetypal teenage characters as evidence of this movie being a commentary on the declining state of horror movies in the late 1980s and early 1990s: Leatherface, once efficient, methodical, and nearly silent, now struggles to competently capture or kill his victims, all the while screaming like a petulant child. The family, no longer backwater cannibals, dines on pizza instead of the fresh meat of their victims. The dinner sequence, originally one of the most effective and horrifying scenes ever committed to film, goes so far off the rails, it climaxes with Jenny turning the tables on her captors and scolding Leatherface into sitting down and shutting up. The ineffectiveness of it all of this is intentional, and we know this because a man in a limo pulls up and openly acknowledges it.

When W.E. comes in with the sawed door, he bickers at Vilmer and Darla, saying, "Look what your brother did to this door." This line is very similar to what Drayton says to the Hitchhiker in [ The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974),] when they came home with Sally. Drayton, upon seeing the sawed door, shouts "Look what your brother did to the door!"

Bill Johnson, who played Leatherface in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (1986), was offered the role of Leatherface.

Writer, Producer, and Director Kim Henkel said the characters were purposefully written as cartoonish caricatures of American teenagers in the time this movie was made.

I'm just a sweet transvestite, from Transsexual, Transylvania.

[ at about 1 hr, 4 min. ] Darla (Tonie Perensky) is wearing a sleeveless dress. When Vilmer throws Darla on the top of a table that has mechanical stuff and junk on it, and gets on top of her, in real life she got slightly injured. Tonie got a cut below her left elbow, and there is a patch of blood a few inches long. But Tonie finished filming the scene anyway. Tonie is a real trooper.

Has been noted for its implementation of a secret society subplot driving Leatherface's family to terrorize people in order to provoke them to a level of transcendence. In a retrospective interview, writer / producer / director Kim Henkel confirmed that the basis of the subplot was influenced by theories surrounding the Illuminati. Commenting on this movie's ominous Rothman character, Henkel stated, "He comes off more like the leader of some harum-scarum cult that makes a practice of bringing victims to experience horror on the pretext that it produces some sort of transcendent experience. Of course, it does produce a transcendent experience. Death is like that. But no good comes of it. You're tortured and tormented, and get the crap scared out of you, and then you die." Other references to the Illuminati are made in this movie's dialogue, specifically in the scene in which Darla tells Jenny about the thousands-years-old secret society in control of the U.S. government, and makes reference to the President John F. Kennedy assassination. Critic Russell Smith noted in discussion of this plot point: "Could the unexplained 'them' be an allusion to the insatiable horror audience that always makes these gorefests a good investment, or is it a cabal of governmental powermongers?"

In a 1996-released documentary on the making of this movie, Kim Henkel stated that he wrote the characters as exaggerated "cartoonish" caricatures of quintessential American youth. Henkel cited the murder cases of serial killers Ed Gein and Elmer Wayne Henley as influences on his involvement on this movie and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974). Henkel also deliberately wrote themes of female empowerment into the script, specifically in the Jenny character: "It's her story. It's about her transformation, her refusal to shut up, to be silenced, to be victimized. And by extension her refusal to be oppressed. Even by culture. Bringing Jenny into a world in which the culture was grotesquely exaggerated was a way of bringing her to see her own world more clearly that is to say, my intent was to present a nightmarish version of Jenny's world in the form of the Chainsaw family in order to enlarge her view of her own world."

Well, first, I'm gonna kill you. It ain't no fuckin biggie.

Another element noted by critics and movie scholars is this movie's overt references to cross-dressing in the Leatherface character, which was briefly explored in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974), but implemented to a greater extent. Robert Wilonsky of the Houston Press commented on this movie's treatment of the character, writing that this movie "turns Leatherface (Robert Jacks) into a cross-dressing nancy boy who screams more than he saws." According to Robert Jacks, he wrote the character as one who assumes the persona of the person whose face he wears: "The confused sexuality of the Leatherface character is complex and horrifying at the same time", he said in a 1996 interview. Movie scholar Scott Von Doviak also took note of this, likening Leatherface's presentation in this movie to that of a "tortured drag Queen."

In developing this movie, Executive Producer Robert Kuhn stated: "I wanted to go back to the original, and he (Kim Henkel) did, too. We agreed on that right off. And the first major thing was getting him to write the script. I raised the money to get it written, and for us to start trying to put this thing together. Then we went out to the American Film Market in Los Angeles and talked to a bunch of people about financing. At that point, I'd raised some money, but not nearly enough to make the film, and we looked at the possibilities of making a deal with a distributor. But I knew there wasn't any hope of us making one we could live with. There never is. Kim would say, 'Hey, so-and-so is interested, and it might be a deal we can live with.' So we'd talk to 'em and I'd ask three or four hard questions, and I'd just kind of look over at Kim and he'd say 'Yeah.' Then I'd go back and start trying to raise some more money. I just started going to everybody I knew and I got it in bits and pieces, wherever I could."

The chainsaw is a McCulloch PRO MAC 700. A 70.5cc saw.

Matthew McConaughey originally auditioned for a hero role that was later cut, then recommended a couple of friends for the role before auditioning himself.

Near the end of Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III (1990), Ken Foree asks Viggo Mortensen why they are doing this. Viggo says because they are hungry. Ken asks Viggo if he ever heard of pizza. In this movie, Tonie Perensky is shown bringing pizza home for the family.

Sweet Sixteen (1983)

 

Teenager Melissa moves into a small town filled with racial prejudice and bullying, and each time she meets up with one of the boys in town, they end up murdered - but who is the killer?

Sweet Sixteen is a 1983 American slasher film directed by Jim Sotos and starring Bo Hopkins, Susan Strasberg, Dana Kimmell, and Patrick Macnee.

A beautiful lonely girl named Melissa tries to make new friends from a town she's currently living in. The only problem is, each of the boys that she spends time with end up brutally murdered. Her sixteenth birthday is on the way, but Melissa turns out to be a suspect when it seems she's the last person who has seen her boyfriends alive.

This was not generally a well-regarded slasher movie back in the 80's since it did not contain a lot of graphic violence or gruesome Tom Savini-type special effects. It is more of a murder mystery. And the identity of the murderer is pretty obvious,  I found it to be mostly a snooze fest and I fell asleep twice and had to run it back to pick up from where I dozed off. 

Don't fret dude.  This movie made my eyes bleed too. 

The movie is nicely shot with quite nice photography and good directing but just as with many other slasher flicks from the 80s, the movie suffers from being too dark at times. The acting is actually pretty good though and Melissa's character is easy to sympathize with, even though she's a complete slut. Not that I'm complaining, because without the occasional spot of nudity, this would be a lot less enjoyable, the actual horror content being fairly lame.

Most of the film consists primarily of dull police procedure, as Sheriff Dan Burke (Bo Hopkins) slowly pieces together clues to discover the identity of the killer, plus some clichéd racial tension between the town's rednecks and local Indians, none of which is particularly thrilling.

Not even close to being among the best slasher films of the 80's but you could catch some fond memories of that time period if you grew up then as I did. 

Trivia:

Patrick Macnee replaced Leslie Nielsen, who was forced to withdraw from the film because of scheduling problem.

Final film of Henry Wilcoxon.

Dana Kimmell starred in the third Friday The 13th film Part 3 in 3-D (1982) one year earlier. She and Michael Pataki both appeared on episodes of Charlie's Angels. Michael Pataki and Don Shanks both appeared in the Halloween films. Pataki in Part 4 like his installment in the Rocky movies too, Rocky 4. Don played the series' iconic villain Michael Myers in Halloween 5.

The Giant Behemoth (1959)

 

Marine atomic tests cause changes in the ocean's ecosystem resulting in dangerous blobs of radiation and the resurrection of a dormant dinosaur that threatens London

The Giant Behemoth (a.k.a. Behemoth the Sea Monster in the U.K. and The Behemoth) is a 1959 black-and-white science fiction giant monster film distributed by Allied Artists Pictures. The film was produced by Ted Lloyd, directed by Eugène Lourié, and stars Gene Evans and André Morell. The screenplay was written by blacklisted author Daniel Lewis James (under the name "Daniel Hyatt") with director Lourié.

The Giant Behemoth was one of the last giant monster-on-the-loose films of the 1950's,  And this amazing beast doesn't fucking show up until 50 minutes into a 79 minute film. The story itself isn't horrible but god damn in a giant monster movie let's have a little more giant monster. 

The Biggest Thing Since Time Began!

It was King Kong's Willis O'Brien and his assistant Pete Peterson, that brought the Behemoth to life. This was basically a copy of the Beast From 20,000 Fathoms and not nearly as good. The original script for this film was about an invisible radioactive monster that dwelled in the ocean. The backers of this film turned the script down, saying they didn't like the idea of an invisible monster.  Who in the blue hell thought it was a good idea to have an invisible monster?  

For the most part, the actors do a credible job although Gene Evans (Dr. Karnes) overplays his part a bit. "The Giant Behemoth" isn't bad, but it's basically a rehash of a plot that had already been done - and done better. Good, but not great, for this type of thing.

SEE the Beast that shakes the Earth! LIVE in a world gone mad! WATCH the chaos of a smashed civilization! FLEE from the mightiest fright on the screen! NOTHING so Big as Behemoth!

Trivia:

Willis H. O'Brien and Pete Peterson completed a significant amount of the stop-motion animation on a table in Peterson's garage.

The original stop-motion puppet of the Behemoth is owned by Dennis Muren.

Many of the sound effects are taken from King Kong (1933), including Fay Wray's scream.

US prints do not have Douglas Hickox sharing the directing credit with Eugène Lourié, nor list Leonard Sachs among the cast. The UK version's credits, on the other hand, leave off the entire special effects crew.

There are lots of The Beatles connections in this movie. Jessie Robins (as Jessie Robbins), who played Aunt Jessie in Magical Mystery Tour (1967), is in a scene drinking tea whilst the radio reports are airing. Norman Rossington, who played Norm in A Hard Day's Night (1964), is one of the men killed in the car when the Beast tosses it into the Thames. Lastly, in the scenes showing a deserted London, in one of the streets is the block of flats The Beatles live in at the start of Help! (1965).

To save money on an already tiny budget,the attacks on London and the ferry were filmed without sound. Many people are seen talking but there is no dialog. Sound effects were added later. The reporter at the ministry is shown in close up, but his mouth movements and dialog don't match. He also has a distinct American accent.

The helicopters in the movie are a US H-5 Dragonfly and an H-19 with RAF markings.

Several clips from the film were used in Knots Landing: Giganticus II: The Revenge (1989), Knots Landing: Dial M for Modem (1989) and Knots Landing: That's What Friends Are For (1989) to represent the fictional Japanese kaiju film "Giganticus".

Unlike his contemporaries, the Rhedosaurus (from The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1953)) and the eponymous monster of Godzilla (1954), who both walk on the ocean floor, Behemoth is seen swimming under water in the Thames. However, to save money on animation, only his back legs move; his forelegs are stationary.

In the original story treatment, the Behemoth was originally going to be an amorphous radioactive blob, but the producers wanted a dinosaur creature similar to the Rhedosaurus from The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1953). Eugène Lourié, the director of that film, directed this one, as well as assisting on the screenplay.

The audio commentary by Phil Tippett and Dennis Muren on the film's DVD and Blu-ray release generated some ire among enthusiasts of Willis H. O'Brien. Many found the comments by Tippett and Muren to be condescending and misinformed as the pair lambasted the film and didn't offer much information with many of their statements ending with "I don't know".

Wolfen (1981)

 

A New York cop investigates a series of brutal deaths that resemble animal attacks.

Wolfen is a 1981 American crime horror film directed by Michael Wadleigh, and based on Whitley Strieber's 1978 novel The Wolfen. It stars Albert Finney, Diane Venora, Gregory Hines and Edward James Olmos. The film follows a city cop who has been assigned to uncover what is behind a series of vicious murders. Originally, it is believed the murders are animal attacks, until the cop discovers an ancient Indian legend about wolf spirits.

Based on a novel by Whitley Strieber, Wadleigh, who also co-wrote the script with David Eyre, alludes to the killers' identity, but wisely keeps them off screen throughout most of the film. When only a pair of evil red eyes peer through the darkness, the imagination creates the horror. The killings and victims are subjectively seen through the killers's eyes with cinematographer Gerry Fisher's striking use of thermographic images, which add a surreal element. However, Fisher's non-thermographic photography is equally beautiful and turns the empty shells of churches and apartment buildings in the South Bronx into an otherworldly landscape consistent with the supernatural aspects of the story.

Wolf-O-Vision

Unusual film that takes a very different path from the traditional werewolf movie. The use of the negative image when we see through the eyes of the wolves is great, its less plastic than ordinary SFX and far more realistic than CGI.  

This is a serial killer crime thriller with a huge twist and part of that twist is that the film is so well made that no matter how far fetched it may seem, you truly understand it and enjoy it.

The old decayed and abandoned New York is the majority setting for Wolfen, which suits its style to the ground and provides some chilling moments, especially as Albert Finney portrays one of the most unhealthy and out of shape detectives ever devoted to lead character. It's refreshing to see an older film like this where talent overrides appearance.

James Horner (Aliens, Enemy At The Gates, Troy) provides the chilling old-school orchestral soundtrack, which really sets the scenes on edge and the dialogue is all original, making the characters all very believable and down to earth.

"They can hear a cloud pass overhead, the rhythm of your blood. They can track you by yesterday's shadow. And they can tear the scream from your throat. There is no defense."

It's a "message" horror film--it tries to give us a little moral message about civilization, the environment, Indians...   Albert Finney looks like he's drunk most of the time.  Gregory Hines is more than a simple sidekick, although how he gets from pathology to being a street sniper is brushed over without explanation. 

"Wolfen" withholds any glimpses of the titular creatures until the film's final ½ hour, but the wait turns out to be well worth it. The rampaging beasts are revealed to be both beautiful to look at and remarkably savage to behold as well, their eyes bespeaking both supreme intelligence and invincible power; no wonder that Eddie Holt holds them to be gods

I am surprised that more people don't talk about this film as it is pretty good but it seems to have escaped major attention due to the Howling and An American Werewolf in London which were released around the same time frame. It is worth viewing at least once if only to say you've seen it.

Yeah I've been drinking....fuck you.

Trivia:

Dustin Hoffman seriously wanted to play the role of Dewey Wilson, but was refused the part by director Michael Wadleigh who really wanted to work with Albert Finney, who was his favorite actor. It was the only time in his career that Hoffman was rejected for a part.

The film was the first movie to use a thermographic visual photographic look to represent the point-of-view of a character, in this case, the wolfen. The type of effect shot has been used in a number of movies to show the POV of a character, usually villainous, like a beast. One notable example of the popularizing of this kind of visual effects perspective is its use in the "Predator" films.

Director Michael Wadleigh's cut of the film that he handed to the studio in Febuary 1980 before his removal from the film in post-production, was over four and a half hours.

Composer Craig Safan wrote an original score for this film and was replaced at the last minute by future Academy Award winner James Horner, who had only 12 days to write and record his score.

One of the few films to be released theatrically with the "Megasound" sound system format. Megasound was a movie theater sound system created by Warner Bros in the early 1980s. It was used to enhance the premiere engagements of a handful of Warner features. Theaters equipped for Megasound had additional speakers mounted on the left, right and rear walls of the auditorium. Selected soundtrack events with lots of low-frequency content (thuds, crashes, explosions, etc) were directed to these speakers at very high volume, creating a visceral effect intended to thrill the audience.

The film was delayed because the effects for the Wolfen were unusable and the filmmakers had to hire another effects company to handle them.

Nothing to see here.  Just a dude dancing on top of a bridge.

First filmed adaptation of a Whitley Strieber novel. Others that would follow would be "The Hunger (1983)" a couple of years after then later "Communion (1989)."

According to director Michael Wadleigh, a dozen police sharpshooters were employed and positioned all over the place as the wolves were considered wild and uncontrollable animals. These sharpshooters were ordered to shoot to kill if a wolf got out of the enclosed area.

The theatrical trailer contains scenes/dialogue not present in the movie: When Van der Veer jumps out and startles his wife, the trailer shows a clip of their bodyguard reaching for his gun which is not present in the film; when Executive Security is reviewing the video of Becky Neff, someone says "team her up with Wilson". In the film, the head of security says "I want her."; the trailer includes a scene where Dewey and Becky, en route to the South Bronx, are talking in his car about the mysterious nature of the killings. This scene is not in the film; an overhead shot of the moon and clouds in "Wolfen-vision" that is present in the trailer is not in the film; in the scene where the Wolfen lures Becky up to the second floor of the abandoned church, there is a voice-over from Dewey (although it is NOT Albert Finney's voice) where he tells her that something was trying to lure her upstairs and separate them.

Director Michael Wadleigh's only non-Woodstock related film.

Trade Paper 'Variety' reported that the film "...was reportedly recut several times (four editors are credited)".

Rather than go for a big name supporting cast, director Michael Wadleigh decided to cast unknowns or actors that appeared on Broadway, which included Diane Venora, who beat out over 200 actresses for the part and Gregory Hines.

It will tear the scream from your throat.

A specific day-for-night shooting process was used to create the nocturnal point of view of the "killers".

The DVD sleeve notes state that the predators' perspectives were simulated with the use of a Louma crane and Steadicam camera.

Prior to the start of filming it was Albert Finney's idea that he and Gregory Hines hang out together to develop a camaraderie as their characters would show in the film.

Wolfen was the word used by the Dutch farmers who settled in America to describe the Indians and the wolves as wild animals. The original script for the film opens in the 17th Century.

The "Canis Lupus" mentioned in the film is a real zoological term. The species has thirty-nine subspecies. Though Canis is the term for the canine species, "Canis Lupus" is the term for "Gray Wolf". Another werewolf film would use real wolves as well, "Blood and Chocolate". Though Canis Lupus is in there just like this film, they would primarily use "Canis Rufus"-- Red Wolves.

The setting for the transient home of the wolves was shot in the South Bronx (intersection of Louis Nine Boulevard and Boston Road). The church seen in the opening panorama shot was located at the intersection of E 172nd Street and Seabury Place. The shot of this neighbourhood is from the north looking roughly south-south-east. The decrepit site of ruined buildings was no special effect. The church was built and burned exclusively for the film. Urban decay in the South Bronx in the early 1980s was so widespread that it was the ideal production setting.

The movie poster for this film is visible in an alley in the final minutes of "Joker" (2019).

Production on the film began in October 1979 and the production was halted in Febuary 1980 due to budget concerns as well as the dailies.

When the movie was being filmed, major parts of New York's boroughs were undergoing re-gentrification. This was incorporated into the story that if First Nations NAM protesters and iron worker 'sky walkers' were skin changers, or werewolves, and worked high rise construction by day, and hid in the ruins of Queens and hunted the inhabitants of New York City by night, thus creating a police investigation.

A brotha's gotta work.

Debut feature film of actress Diane Venora, and almost the first film for actor Gregory Hines, it being his second, as History of the World: Part I (1981) had premiered about a month earlier.

The source novel's title was changed from "The Wolfen" to simply "Wolfen" for the movie.

"The Wolfen" was Whitley Strieber's first novel.

This was Albert Finney's first film appearance since "The Duellists" in 1977, which had only been little more than a cameo because his then-girlfriend Diana Quick was also cast.

For Die Hard fans: Reginald VelJohson (Al Powell in Die Hard) as the morgue attendant who slaps the dead man on the gurney.

The score for this film by James Horner as highlighted in the final street showdown in front of the courthouse, can be heard, in part again within the 1982 Star Trek 'Wrath of Khan' score as the antagonist theme titled 'sneak attack' on the soundtrack.

The area shown in the opening neighborhood panorama was visited by President Carter in the fall of 1977. He stopped on Charlotte street between Boston Road and East 170th Street (also visible in the opening) and walked among the piles of bricks from demolished buildings. It was not until the mid 1980s that single family homes were built in this section of the city.

The book ends with the world discovering the truth about the Wolfen which implies that they will all be eventually hunted down and made extinct.

The Mummy's Ghost (1944)

 

Kharis the mummy is given a sacred potion that grants him eternal life to search for his lost love, Princess Ananka, despite the unending curse that haunts them.

The Mummy's Ghost is a 1944 American Universal Studios horror film, directed by Reginald Le Borg. It is the second of three sequels to that company's The Mummy's Hand of 1940. The film is the sequel to The Mummy's Tomb (1942). Lon Chaney, Jr. again takes on the role of Kharis the mummy. The story was continued in the 1944 sequel The Mummy's Curse.

"The Mummy's Ghost" is a sequel to "The Mummy's Tomb" (1942). In that film Kharis the Mummy (Lon Chaney) perished in a house fire. Also the old high priest (George Zucco) dies of old age while handing over his powers to a new high priest. In this film we find out that not only did Kharis survive the fucking fire unscathed but the old high priest turns up still alive as shit.  This is the third of four movies in the original "Mummy" franchise.

NO CHAINS Can Hold It! NO TOMB Can Seal It!

I'm not saying The Mummy's Ghost is any worse than the rest, it's just the same god damn thing. The movie features both John Carradine and Lon Chaney Jr. again in the role of the mummy. Chaney invests some character into Kharis this time, allowing him to become visibly angered, frustrated, and even saddened during the course of the movie. The biggest drawback for this chapter is that Robert Lowery and Ramsay Ames are pretty lousy as the two leading lovers.  Chaney's ass was usually drunk by 12 noon.

Among the solid supporting cast are Frank Reicher as the doomed Professor Norman, Harry Shannon as the Sheriff, Lester Sharpe as the helpful Doctor Ayad, and the always welcome Barton MacLane as a clever police inspector who tries to come up with an alternative means of dealing with the mummy on the loose. An adorable little dog named "Peanuts" has his moments, as well. Martha Vickers has a bit as a student in Reichers' class.  Director Reginald Le Borg keeps it moving along adequately, to help it clock in at an appreciably brief running time of 61 minutes.

It is rumored during Kharis' raging attack on the night-porter (Oscar O'Shea) in the Scripp's museum, that Chaney actually slammed the old man into a real pane of glass, smashing it and injuring O'Shea. Alcohol has not been ruled out. 

There's an amusing part where the locals, lead by Barton MacLane's cranky Inspector Walgreen, cunningly fashion a disguised pit in which to topple the Mummy, who doesn't even notice the fucking thing and just walks straight past!  

The ending of the film is most notable - the monster gets the girl! But it's a short lived victory, as the Mummy and his kidnapped bride succumb to a swampy grave, an ancient Egyptian curse is fulfilled - "The fate of those who defy the will of the ancient gods shall be a cruel and violent death".  At least she has been spared a life of married bliss with that jerk off Hervey.

A Hot Chick.  The only thing that makes the Mummy's dead arm come to life.

The plot holes and lack of continuity in the Mummy series are well known and have been pointed out in many knowledgeable sources. Kharis is a killing machine and not a sympathetic creature as some of the other Universal monsters are. His tendency to kill senior citizens is yet another reason not to root for him. Watching The Mummy's Ghost isn't the worst way to spend an hour and is essential if your are following the series.

Now swear by the ancient Egyptian gods, that you will never rest until the Princess Anaka and Kharis have been returned to their rightful resting place, in these tombs...

Trivia: 

In the scene where Kharis trashes the Scripps Museum, Lon Chaney Jr. drove his fist through real glass--it was supposed to be breakaway glass, but the prop man forgot to replace it before shooting started--and a shard of it flew up and cut him through his mummy mask in his chin. In this scene, Kharis can be seen bleeding, and it's real blood.

Although there are rumors that Lon Chaney Jr.'s scenes in the "Mummy" series frequently used doubles for Chaney, director Reginald Le Borg stated that Chaney did his own scenes in this film.

According to director Reginald Le Borg in a 1989 interview, Lon Chaney Jr., as Kharis, went overboard in the scene in which he strangles Frank Reicher, although Chaney blocked the camera from picking up Reicher's reaction. The veteran actor was moaning, and exclaimed, "He nearly killed me!" According to LeBorg, Reicher was a veteran and didn't make a formal complaint, but the next day the director noticed his neck visibly bore the effects.

The opening scene introduced Kharis simply walking out of the woods with no explanation or rationale. Director Reginald Le Borg was able to talk producer Ben Pivar into shooting a prologue set in Egypt with John Carradine and George Zucco in order to give Kharis' introduction a basis in logic.

Acquanetta, who was initially cast as Ananka, slipped and fell in her first scene on the first day of shooting, suffering a slight concussion. She was replaced by Ramsay Ames.

Second of Lon Chaney Jr.'s three "Mummy" features, filmed from August 23-September 1, 1943, but not released until June 30, 1944 (copyrighted 1943) .

Lon Chaney Jnr. often said that being made up as the Mummy character was his least favourite make-up. There is a photo of the actor on set during production of "The Mummy's Ghost" where he is pinching his own nose in disgust.

Part of the original Shock Theater package of 52 Universal titles released to television in 1957, followed a year later with Son of Shock, which added 20 more features.

A Scene with Robert Lowery & the Dog at the 50 minute mark in the movie (50:30 seconds), Robert Lowery picks up the dog & says "Where is She?", puts the dog down & you hear a Sqweeky Dog Toy sound .. and the dog runs across a bridge with Lowery, after the Mummy.

This is one of a very few Universal Horror Classics where the female lead doesn't survive the film.

The Werewolf (1956)

 

Two scientists come across an auto accident and find an unconscious man in the wreck. They take him back to their lab and inject him with a serum they have been working with. Unfortunately, the serum has the effect of turning the man into a murderous werewolf.

The Werewolf is a 1956 American horror science fiction film directed by Fred F. Sears and starring Don Megowan and Joyce Holden.

Set in contemporary times (i.e. the 1950s), the storyline follows an amnesiac man who, after being injected with "irradiated wolf serum" by unscrupulous doctors, transforms into a werewolf when under emotional stress. The film "marks precisely the point in which horror, which had been a dormant genre in the early '50s, began to take over from science fiction", and is the first of only three werewolf films made in the US during that decade, preceding Daughter of Dr. Jekyll and I Was a Teenage Werewolf (both 1957). The Werewolf was released theatrically in the US as the bottom half of a double feature with Earth vs. the Flying Saucers (1956). 

It happens before your horrified eyes!

This little B picture from 1956 grows on you, with repeated viewings. Steven Ritch is superb as the tormented Duncan Marsh, nice guy family man turned into a monster by two unscrupulous scientists. There's something strangely believable and compelling about his plight, as he tries to make sense of his confused memories, while being pursued by a posse, and wondering who he can trust. The supporting players are all fine in sympathetic roles, especially Joyce Holden as the nurse who does her best to help the lost and terrified Marsh. Eleanore Tanin is also very good as Marsh's wife, and Don Megowan plays a macho but caring lawman, who realizes the fugitive is a human being, as well as a monster.

Scientists turn men into beasts!

Good little werewolf movie, packs a bit of an emotional wallop thanks to Ritch's unfortunate situation and it's effects on his family and the paranoid, afraid community of Mountaincrest. The mountainous setting is rich with atmosphere and it's a breath of fresh air from the usual movie lot sets. This film uses dissolves when Ritch turns from human to werewolf and vice versa from the same make-up man behind "The Return of the Vampire."

I must still point out that there is a PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE-like moment late in the film where it goes from pitch black outside to daytime and back again due to lousy editing. It's pretty silly and very noticeable.  I'm not sure what possessed them to release it like that but it looks stupid as shit. 

Shit starts to get emotional.  I'm not crying, you're crying.

Trivia:

When first released, this movie played as the bottom half of a double bill with Earth vs. the Flying Saucers (1956).

The werewolf in this film was the screen's first science-fictional, non-supernatural lycanthrope. While possessed of incredible strength and ferocity, he could be killed by ordinary bullets ( don't need silver bullets ) and didn't require a full moon to cause transformation.

This isn't the first time Clay Campbell created a werewolf makeup. He used the same techniques to create the monster for an earlier film, The Return of the Vampire (1943).

Director Fred F. Sears also served as the narrator in the opening sequence.

Probably to save time and/or money, shots of the werewolf fleeing the posse near the climax, were shot "day-for-night" while the posse shots were filmed during real nighttime.