Expelled Grey Matter

Child's Play was a pretty decent hit in 1988, spawning two sequels.  Chucky became a horror icon along with Jason, Freddy and the lot, although by the third movie the story involving Charles Lee Ray constantly trying to switch his soul into Alex had pretty much played out.  Where most franchises at the time would have continued with diminishing returns in the direct-to-video market it appeared that producer and writer Don Mancini did the smart thing and ended with Child's Play 3 .   In 1998 that changed.  Child's Play 2 and Child's Play 3 had increasingly seen Chucky become more of a darkly comic character so, when the character was brought back for Bride of Chucky , the comedic aspects were emphasized.  Mancini didn't make the mistake of trying to change Chucky into a sympathetic character, but found humor by introducing his girlfriend, who sets everything in motion for yet another resurrection. Tiffany (Jennifer Tilly) arranges for Chucky's (Brad Dourif...

Probably the best thing I can say about Charles Band is that he was a lower-budget version of Roger Corman.  His business model was about the same.  Churn out movies on the cheap, some of which resembled popular films of the day or were close to certain properties he wished he had, and make money.  While Empire Pictures was able to get films in the theaters it was Full Moon that initially made Band castle-in-Italy money.  He cornered the direct-to-video market with help from a distribution deal with Paramount. That deal went south in the early '90s, pretty much hamstringing Band and Full Moon for over a decade.  The death of David Allen, who did many of the stop-motion effects that made Band's movies look more expensive than they were, didn't help.  Although in recent years he has made a bit of a comeback, largely due to the nostalgia for the classic Full Moon movies, things were never again quite the same.  There were also many low points, and The Gin...

After the success of A Nightmare on Elm Street Wes Craven was feeling the need to step back a bit from the violent horror films he had become known for.  For that reason he began working with screenwriter Bruce Joel Rubin on an adaptation of Diana Henstell's novel Friend .  Although the general concept remained the same as the movie we got it was supposed to emphasize the love story between the main characters as well as point up how bad adults could be, effectively making many of them the true villains of the film.  This was conceived as a PG-rated movie that would have some dark sci-fi elements but, for the most part, be family friendly.  Unfortunately, once Warner Bros. realized they had hired the guy who directed A Nightmare on Elm Street , they started demanding a number of changes. Paul (Matthew Labyorteaux) is a teenager skilled in the science of robotics.  He has built his own creation, BB, that has the beginnings of true artificial intelligence, and he...

There was a time when the influence of television on society was a concern.  I have always believed a lot of that concern was from a movie industry that was scared that people would stop coming to theaters to deal with unruly kids, sticky floors and stale popcorn when they could do the same at home for free.  However, from its inception forward there were dire warnings of its deleterious effects on society.  Ray Bradbury wrote short stories and an entire novel about it, there were horror movies like The Twonky that featured a literal killer television and all sorts of criticism throughout the mediums first five decades against parents that left their children to be babysat by the boob tube.  Then along came the internet to take that focus off of television and begin the whole cycle anew.  Every single thing that was said about television was said about the internet.  There are again fears that people will stop going to theaters but that is less the fault of...

There are so many movies that do whatever they can to hide their main monster.  Animatronics often were touchy, rubber suits look like rubber suits, and when they did the reveal there was usually qite a bit of darkness and fog to cover up how sketchy everything looked.  Not so with The Brain .  This movie had a miniscule budget, but most of that went into creating the creature, and director Ed Hunt was not going to be shy about showing it.  Dr. Anthony Blakely (David Gale) is a popular television psychologist whose show, Independent Thinking , has captured most of the town of Meadowvale in its spell.  Broadcast from the Psychological Research Institute, Blakely is on the verge of taking his show nationwide.  However, there are concerns in Meadowvale about strange murders and suicides.  When Jim Majelewski (Tom Bresnahan) plays one trick too many at school his guidance councilor Mr. Woods (Kenneth McGregor) convinces Jim's parents to refer him to P...

The Green Mile was a unique reading experience.  The story came out as a series of six short paperbacks in 1996.  The method was both to keep readers from skipping to the ending as well as to provide an experience similar to how many stories were released in the 19th century.  Often the stories of authors like Charles Dickens would be released that way or in magazines, with the intent that the family gather around and read them and anticipate what would come next, much like how serialized television is done now.  What could easily have been a gimmick turned out to be one of King's best stories in quite a long time.  Reissues were released in full novel form and it was quite obvious that at some point the story would become a movie, given the success another King movie revolving around a prison, The Shawshank Redemption .  It turned out that the director of that movie, Frank Darabont, was excited to write and direct The Green Mile as well. Paul Edgecomb (Dab...

There are numerous movies that almost fit the slasher genre way before Halloween hit the theater.  Often Black Christmas   is cited as one of the earliest and most influential, while The Abominable Dr. Phibes and its sequel have many elements of this style of film.  The true granddaddy of all slasher films, though, would be Mario Bava's 1971 A Bay of Blood . Countess Federica Donati (Isa Miranda) is murdered one night by her husband (Giovanni Nuvoletti), who tries to make it look like suicide.  However, just as he is putting the finishing touches on his work, he is dispatched by an unknown killer.  With the count's body nowhere to be found and everything looking like suicide the property is set to pass on to an heir, and Renata Donati (Claudine Auger), the daughter of the Count, expects that to be her.  She arrives at the property with her husband Alberto (Luigi Pistilli) and their children to stake their claim. Problem is, they learn from fortune teller A...