Thursday, May 30, 2013

Toxic

First appearance: The Toxic Avenger (1984)

The tale of a nerd who is picked on and thrown into toxic waste. This improves his self confidence, so he goes around destroying bad guys and becomes the monster hero of a small New Jersey town called Tromaville. Thus spawning numerous sequels, cartoons, musicals and comic books (one of which I participated in).


Friday, May 24, 2013

Daleks

 First appearance: Dr. Who and the Daleks

Weird movie version of popular TV show. The movie starred Peter Cushing as the eponymous Doctor. The plot of the movie is pretty much the same as the TV serial "The Daleks" only this time the Doctor is a human named Doctor Who (Doctor might be his first name, I don't know). Susan is still his granddaughter but now so is Barbara, Ian's still Barbara's boyfriend. You'll also notice some Daleks also have claws and snazzy paint schemes.
It's interesting to note that Peter Cushing makes no mention of the character nor the two Dr. Who movies (the second one was called "Daleks — Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D." and was based on the TV serial "The Dalek invasion of Earth" it performed poorly so the third Dalek film was never made) in his  Autobiography.


Friday, May 17, 2013

Rhoda Penmark

First appearance: The Bad Seed (1956)

Little Rhoda Penmark is really not happy that she didn't win the "Best Penmanship" medal at school. She's especially not happy Claude Daigle did win it. Sadly, Claude has an accident at the school picnic. So why isn't Rhoda more upset about Claude's accident?

I don't know why it took me so long to get around to seeing this flick. It's great. Patty McCormack is occasionally terrifying as Rhoda. Especially when her control over her mother or the situation starts to slip. The movie ends differently then the novel and play it's based on. The Hays code's "Crime can't pay" attitude forced the movie to change the ending resulting in one of my favorite movie endings ever and one of the goofiest post credit sequences I can think of.



Friday, May 10, 2013

Crawford Tillinghast

First appearance: From Beyond (1986)

A pair of scientists, the perverted Dr. Pretorious and his research partner Crawford Tillinghast, build a device known as the "Resonator" hoping to see into other dimensions. Unfortunately it works and Pretorious is killed by the weird creatures now visible thanks to the device. Tillinghast is arrested for the murder and thrown into a mental institution. While under treatment at the mental institution Dr. Katherine McMichaels discovers Tillinghast's pineal glad has been affected by exposure to the "Resonator" and decides he might be suffering from schizophrenia because of this. She decides what would be best for Tillinghast is to go back to the scene of the experiment.
Turns out that even though the creatures ate his head Pretorious is alive, well and just as perverted in the other dimension and he really wants back into our dimension.

I still can't understand how this movie and Re-Animator aired on WUAB-43 out of Cleveland on Saturday afternoons when I was a kid. When it was finally released on DVD a couple years back I picked it up having vague memories of enjoying it as much as Re-Animator. I was right but it really leaves you feeling like you need a shower after watching it.


Friday, May 3, 2013

Herbert West


First appearance: Re-Animator (1985)

A scientist attempts to discover the secret's of life but runs afoul of a jealous professor. With the help of his roommate he continues his work in secret. Mayhem ensues.
One of my favorite horror flicks. It originally inspired a desire in me to become a doctor. I met Jeffery Combs at a comic convention once and told him this. His response?
"You're a sick, sick man."
Dr. West is still one of my favorite characters.