Expelled Grey Matter

Although many Stephen King books dwell on cosmic terrors and monsters that are often quite human, there have been a number of his books that dwelt on more traditional horror material.  He got vampires and werewolves out of his way early in his career, and there have been plenty of ghosts, but it wasn't until 2006 that he decided to enter the realm of zombies, despite being friends and often a collaborator with George A. Romero.  When it came time to do zombies King decided not to go with the traditional but instead added a healthy dose of technological fear.  For Cell  he pulled from movies such as 28 Days Later and added a hefty dose of Richard Matheson's  I Am Legend on top of it.  What he created still had many of the apocalyptic tropes that surround these stories, but it was something purely him.  It was also relatively short and pulpy.  It was one of the late-career novels that pulled King out of the mire of overlong epics he had been churnin...

Long before there were superhero universes there were comic books.  Detective Comics featured a tragic figure in the form of Batman, a rich playboy turned vigilante after witnessing the death of his parents.  It was dark and brooding with a host of unforgettable villains that Batman was constantly keeping from destroying Gotham City or, in some cases, the world.  So, when it finally came time to bring him to the small screen, the writers decided to go all-in on the comic aspect.   It worked, at least for the first couple of seasons before budgets were cut and actors started rotating out of their roles.  It made Adam West and Burt Ward instant superstars for a time, although it pretty much typecast them as the Dynamic Duo for the rest of their lives.  The Batmobile became an iconic vehicle.  The sets were perfect for newfangled color televisions, full of bright colors, while the fights were enhanced by comic sound effect balloons.  It was corn...

The Cabin in the Woods was deconstruction of a number of well-worn horror tropes while Scream started an entire trend of self-referential slasher films.  In between those two came a plucky horror comedy called Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon.  Somehow this slipped by me.  Horror from the 2000s - in fact, up to about the early 2010s - is some of the worst ever produced.  It was a time filled with bloodless PG-13 fright films and a handful that tried to carry on the legacy of Scream and just ended up being annoying. Behind the Mask is a bit different. Leslie Vernon (Nathan Baesel) is a budding supernatural killer.  The legend in the town of Glenn Echo is that Vernon was thought possessed by evil and, after killing his parents, was tossed from a cliff into a waterfall.  Since the body was never found it made the story ripe for urban legend.  The difference with Vernon, however, is that he has agreed to let a group of grad students led by Tayl...

It is always nice to see a series redeem itself and the  Predator franchise managed to do so with Prey .  Set in North America during the early years of the colonists' westward expansion it told the tale of a young Comanche woman encountering a Yautja on a hunting expedition to Earth.  It both explained where the gun came from in Predator 2 that was gifted to the cop after defeating the one hunting in Los Angeles as well as dragged the series out of the same quagmire the Alien franchise, which takes place in the same universe, was wallowing in.  There were some hints at where sequels would go at the end of the film, and they may someday be explored, but writer and director Dan Trachtenberg decided to go in a different direction.  Comic books and video games, as well as previous sequels, had explored the Yautja and hinted at their culture.  Up to this point, on film at least, all encounters had been from a human perspective.  This time around we get som...

Jaws must have struck some sort of nerve since low-budget studios kept trying to remake it throughout the 1970s even after ripping off Star Wars became more lucrative.  This trend even made its way to other countries, in this case Thailand.  Well, kind of South Korea as well.  Some scenes were reshot for the American market and, though made before Alligator , Crocodile was released in the U.S. a year later to cash in on that popular Jaws  homage.  Dr. Tony Akom (Nard Poowanai) has a good life with his wife Angela (Ni Tien) and daughter Anne. .  His friend John (Min Oo) is looking forward to getting married himself.  However, the world has different plans.  Atomic testing has led to violent storms and a giant crocodile terrorizing the rivers and lakes of Thailand.  After the crocodile kills his family Tony is distraught, but eventually plots revenge with the help of Tanaka (Kirk Warren), a mercenary type with a boat. Tony, John and Tanaka be...

In 2010 Stephen King released a novella collection called Full Dark, No Stars .  The stories it contained were much darker than most of his contemporary material, being less concerned about the supernatural and more about all the evil that human beings can do.  One of the novellas was called A Good Marriage , a rather memorable tale inspired by Dennis Rader, the BTK killer, who managed to convince everyone that he was just a normal guy involved in his community. Bob (Anthony LaPaglia) and Darcy Anderson (Joan Allen) are a couple that own a rare coin business, while Bob also makes money as an accountant.  They have two children, the oldest Petra (Kristen Connolly) about to get married.  They seem the ideal couple to their neighbors and friends, although Bob is a bit controlling when no one is around.  After they celebrate their 25th anniversary Bob goes off on his usual search for more coins.  This is while a serial killer named Beadie is murdering women in ...