Expelled Grey Matter

Land of the Dead was the first new entry in George A. Romero's series of influential apocalyptic zombie films since 1985's Day of the Dead .  Instead of an isolated military base we got to see what society had become years after the dead had begun to rise, both for humans and the zombies, who had shown signs of growing intelligence in the previous movies.  By Land of the Dead some consciousness was returning to the creatures as they began rediscovering certain things rather than going through the motions of their past lives. Some, like Big Daddy, had even overcome most of the urge to snack on humans, as it was made clear in Day of the Dead that the hunger was instinctual rather than that for the nutritional needs. The thing is that Land of the Dead re-used some ideas that Romero didn't have the budget for in Day of the Dead , and was a bit of a stop-gap movie as the series lumbered to its conclusion.  I was eager to see that now that it appeared that the dead and the liv...

Different Seasons was the Stephen King collection that just kept on giving.  It was an anomaly for King at the time it came out, containing four novellas, three of which were not horror stories.  It was the point where he began to go beyond just doing genre fiction and, in some ways, maturing.  This side of king had always been there and bits had popped through in The Dead Zone  and The Shining , but this is where he just went all in without using the supernatural as a crutch.   The result was a collection of well-regarded stories that resulted in two of the most influential movies of their time, Stand by Me and The Shawshank Redemption .  The Breathing Method , the last story in the collection and the only horror entry, was never going to be made into a full movie, and if it ever does get produced will be lucky to be part of an anthology or television miniseries.  However, Apt Pupil  was still there for the taking, and understandably had be...

Imagine me sitting in an empty cinema in Scottsdale in 1994.  I figure that Cemetery Man is probably the safer bet than  Spanking the Monkey , largely because I don't have to say Spanking the Monkey out loud to a stranger and I figure if I'm going to watch a movie about incest it would probably be better to wait for video.  All I know about Cemetery Man is that there are zombies involved, and I'm game.  Dawn of the Dead is one of my favorite films, and I love horror, having seen quite a bit of mainstream and slightly off-kilter American horror.  I also like a bit of comedy with my horror, being a fan of Sam Raimi and Peter Jackson.  Also, this movie promises some nudity. However, I have no idea who Michele Soavi is.  It will be almost two decades before I see The Church .  In fact, at this point, I really have not seen a full Dario Argento or Mario Bava film.  I pretty much have no idea what Italian horror is like.  I don't even know g...

There was a time in the past when zombie movies had not overstayed their welcome.  At the time The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue was made pretty much the only film that that was using George Romero's particular type of zombie was Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things .  Despite Night of the Living Dead becoming a big hit it was really Dawn of the Dead that kicked off the whole genre.   Thus, the Spanish-Italian production The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue , also known as Let Sleeping Corpses Lie amongst a variety of other titles, was a bit of an anomaly.  It also meant that, though it owed a lot to Romero, it still had room to make up its own rules.  The result is a movie that has been rediscovered and appreciated in recent years as its take on the genre seems a bit fresh after the same plots repeated ad infinitum. George (Ray Lovelock) is on his way to visit some friends in Windemere when Edna (Cristina Galbó) backs into his motorbike. He demands...

I would make a reference to the Sony Spider-Man Universe dying with a whimper rather than a bang, but it didn't really even do that.  It died more with the underwhelming sound of a punctured whoopy cushion.  The cast and crew behind  Venom: The Last Dance wasn't really informed of what Sony's plans were, and it seems like neither was director J.C. Chandor, more known for doing mid-budget dramas than big-budget superhero films.  It's another case of someone getting their big chance and the studio either interfering with or just ignoring what they do. In this case it wasn't just the studio.  Audiences did as well, with buzz about the movie being as bad or worse than Morbius and announcements ahead of the release, which had been delayed for over a year, that this was it with Sony's attempts to keep Disney from being able to use characters from the Spider-Man comics.  That any of these movies were watchable is the true miracle.  If there had been any dri...

A recent internet discussion has been whether or not a woman should choose a man or a bear to be alone with in the forst.  There is a scene in Day of the Animals that makes that choice rather obvious, although it's pretty atypical as the animals seem to be attacking indiscriminately.  William Girdler, hot off of the big success of Grizzly the year before, gathered some of the stars - and the bear - from that movie for another film about animals attacking, one that has garnered a bit of a cult status by being weird, campy, ridiculous and somewhat effective all at the same time. Steve Buckner (Christoper George) is about to take a group of hikers up a mountain for a two-week hike back to the town of Murphy.  Along with him is a Native American guide named Daniel Santee (Michael Ansara), a reporter named Terry (Lynda Day George) and a number of others.  Both Buckner and Santee feel that something is off, and it turns out they are right.  A weakening in the Earth's...