NEW BLOG: RAVEN CASSIDEY

http://ravencassidey.blogspot.ie/

Inspired by the gruelling Halloween Countdown blog entries. What will become of this blog now? Stay tuned.

For those who, for some reason, enjoyed my blog entries last month, head on down to:

http://ravencassidey.blogspot.ie/

Halloween Countdown (Day 30: Trailer Trash)

Okay okay, this is yet another half assed entry to the Halloween Countdown. Bear in mind, I am still trying to finish off the final review at time of writing, and I was going to write up on Rob Zombie's "Halloween 2" for this blog post. But due to a long bank holiday weekend spent watching countless movies, along with the fact that I've been pretty run down this whole month, I don't have enough energy to squeeze in another one.

Not only that, after watching "Halloween 2", I didn't think I could pull off a half decent review of my thoughts on the film. And since my plan to feature a few Rob Zombie films this month hasn't panned out, what I'm going to do instead is write an article every week in November, on each film he has done, in the lead up to his gig in Amsterdam, which I plan to go as part of my birthday celebration/mini holiday.

Not only would I be able to have a look at his movies again, but it will give me something to write about for the next couple of weeks. Of course, I think one blog entry a week is more manageable than a blog entry a day. It was a good idea at the start of the month, but overall I find it a valuable learning experience, not to mention good practice at writing articles. If only I could find the same inspiration in the creative field. But one day at a time I suppose.

As much as I loved writing about what I saw this month, it would be nice to watch a film without having to fit in a review afterwards. Anyways, here are some of the upcoming attractions I will most likely write up on in the next couple of weeks. As for the last two trailers, they are both part of separate series of blog entries that I may have in mind next year.

House Of 1000 Corpses

The Devil's Rejects

Halloween

Halloween 2

The Haunted World Of El Superbeasto

Santa's Slay

Punisher: War Zone

And on a final note.....

Our main feature for this evening is....."The Nightmare Before Christmas" with the soundtrack dubbed with Tool's "Aenima" album.....yes it's a weird one alright. I love Tool, and while I do like "TNBC", I'm still a bit confused as to why someone would put these two together.

Halloween Countdown (Day 18: Falling Behind)

Ahem, so much for having blog posts done in advance, to help with the scheduling. I didn't take into account the combination of insomnia, gigs, birthdays and meeting old friends, not to mention working up my hours in work, in order to have next Friday off for the Horrorthon, which I'll most likely be writing about.....well, if I get the chance. I can see the blog posts waning down during this period, but I'll do my best regardless.

Taking into account that I'm falling behind in these blog entries, I will be taking a shortcut yet again. I got to thinking what scared the crap out of me when I was at a young age, movie wise. I was struggling with that, so I expanded on not only scares, but what I found disturbing also, not to mention finding other sources such as video games and television.

Oh yes, there will be spoilers.

1. Werewolf transformations in "Thriller" and "An American Werewolf In London"

I already talked about this in the "Day 1" blog post, but at the time I had planned to write about the film in a future blog post. I also planned to cover the films of Rob Zombie, but it was only through writing the actual blog posts that it does take a lot of the spare time that I rarely have these days. So if I don't get a chance to watch the movie, I may as well add it here. Like I said in the aforementioned blog entry, these scenes scared the crap out of me as a kid, and I still don't know how I ended up watching "An American Werewolf.....". I guess it was because of the "Thriller" connection that I was introduced to this by my parents.

And now.....

I am still impressed with the effort that was put into the effects for the transformation scenes, especially when you compare it to the shoddy CGI effects that are commonplace in Hollywood films today. Hell, just compare the change sequences of this movie to its sequel, "An American Werewolf In Paris".

2. Giant Animal in "The Muppet Movie"

I have been a fan of the Muppets ever since I was a child, but even back then I was a little disturbed by the character Animal. So that was the main reason why I found the scene where he drinks the growth serum in Dr. Bunsen Honeydew's lab scary to watch, even if he was scaring the bad guys away. It was only through watching "The Muppet Babies" cartoon where I started to warm up to Animal, as he wasn't so extreme in his characteristics, so when I did see the "grown up" Animal, I understood him better.

And now.....

Animal is one of my favourite Muppets, and is involved in one of my favourite scenes from "A Muppet Christmas Carol", where he had to play the drums slowly. The facial expression alone cracks me up, even to this day.

3. The ending of "Time Bandits"

I haven't seen this film in years, so I don't remember what it's about. All I know is that the ending was not only weird, but very disturbing. I think it was one of the first times where I saw an ending where nothing was resolved, and nobody lived "happily ever after". I'm only typing from memory, as I remember the feelings and the visuals, but I can't remember the how or why.

And now.....

I have the free DVD from The Daily Mail somewhere in the house. I've been meaning to dig it out and watch it, just to see if brings back any memories.

4. The killer rabbits of "Watership Down"

Again this was another film I watched as a kid, but don't remember much of it, other than the song "Bright Eyes", which I thought was a very sad sounding tune, and the violent, bloodthirsty rabbits. Now that I think about it, it's rare these days to find a "children's" film that's so dark and violent.

And now.....

Still have no memory what the film was about, and is on my "to-watch" list, if it ever comes on television.....but then again, I don't watch TV these days.

5. Freddy Krueger

I think I mentioned in one of the SAW blog posts that I never watched the "Elm St." series when I was young. I have heard of Freddie Krueger from the likes of my cousins and other kids at school, so I was intrigued by the character, even a little reluctant to watch the movies if I ever got the chance. The only time I ever seen the character onscreen was when Sky One showed the "Freddy's Nightmares" series, where if I remember correctly, he introduced the stories, much like "Tales From The Crypt". Freaky as he was, he wasn't exactly scary.

And now.....

I finally did watch the "Elm St." movies during my teens. I particularly enjoyed the first and third movies, as for the others, well, they vary in quality.

6. The ending of "Candyman"

Unlike the "Elm St." movies, this was one where I did watch it at a young age, and around the time the film came out. I remember watching this late at night, so it made the viewing experience that much eerie. As for the ending, it stayed in my memory for a long time as one of the creepiest finales of any movie I watched.

And now.....

This was another movie I was thinking of reviewing, because of the impact it had on me in the past. But in case I don't write about it this month: I find the ending, while a decent one, a little bit corny. And it didn't help that after all these years, the film hasn't aged well, and found it a bit rubbish, to be honest. Although I did like the actor who played Candyman, especially his voice, and some of the effects were pretty good for its time.

7. Gargoyle story from "Tales From The Darkside: The Movie"

I didn't know the actual title of this movie until today, but the final story with the gargoyles had a big impact with me when I watched it, and I always remembered how it ended.

And now.....

Because it's been many years since I've seen it, not to mention that I've only found out the title today, I would like to watch it again, to see if it was a decent gothic tale, or just a naff short story.

8. "Spider robots" from "Zero Tolerance" on the Sega Mega Drive

It's funny that nowadays I'm not a huge fan of first person shooters, and find a hard time to be immersed in them. Yet I played one of the earliest ones from the 16 bit era, and got into it so much, that when I turned around only to come face to face with a robotic spider-type enemy, I had a panic attack. Even my brother, who was in the room at the same time, had to comfort me.

And now.....

The dog in the first Resident Evil game not only surpassed the scare factor in a computer game, but still remains one of the scariest things I've ever experienced.

9. The "dead bodies" in "Ulysses 31"

This cartoon from my childhood has always left me wondering why the main characters were on a spaceship where the rest of the crew members float lifelessly above them, only to come back to life every so often. It was even more confusing by the fact that it was rarely explained whenever I watched it.

And now.....

You gotta love the invention of the internet.

10. The custard pies from "Bugsy Malone"

This one confused me as a child, as stupid as it may seem. And yes, I did figure out that the pies were meant to be like bullets, in the way that they killed people. But there was a period where I didn't understand how a custard pie could actually kill people. And it confused me even more when after the final battle scene, everyone starts singing while covered in custard cream. In a way, this could be viewed as the first zombie film I've ever seen.

And now.....

It's one of those funny icebreakers I have when talking to people.

And on a final note.....

I saw this posted on a friend's page on Facebook. It's from James Rolfe, the guy behind the Angry Video Game Nerd, and is from the Cinemassacre site, which does have a few interesting videos based on horror films. Not only did I find this funny, but it made me think about why I never questioned the origins of some of the vampire myths mentioned here.

Halloween Countdown (Day 12: Oh The Horror.....)

Once again I am distracted from writing about horror films. My reason is that I have just watched the live action horror that was the World Cup Qualifier, Ireland vs. Germany.

All I can say is, I miss Shay Given.

And on a final note.....

Soundtrack for the 90 minutes contains this track.

Halloween Countdown (Day 11: Living Dead)

I am tired. I really am. I feel like I'm running on empty this week. A combination of work, lack of sleep, and stress has left me feeling a bit worse for wear, physically and mentally, cliched as that statement is. Which is a pretty good excuse to tone down on the number of entries, as in all fairness, I'm the only one that reads them.

But then I got some inspiration. Last night I was having problems with copying music onto iTunes, so that left me in a bit of a pissy humour going to bed, and the following morning. After a long day and a lot on my mind, I checked my computer again, and everything seems to be working fine. So that cheered me up at least.

So with that in mind, it gave me an idea for a Halloween themed blog entry that involved music. I know it's not entirely movie related, but to be fair, watching a film (90-120 mins) and writing about it (which could take 2-3 hours, which does incorporate mini-breaks which are used to do on the spot editing, as I don't have time to do drafts), it does take a fair bit of time.

So I needed something that could at least stay true to the theme in hand, while taking a break from the cinematic side. Plus something that wouldn't take up most of the free time I rarely have these days. And hey, I need to have a little bit of fun. So I am going to do what I haven't done in many, many years; make a mixtape. Albeit an online one. I aimed for a 60 minute time limit, with 30 minutes for each "side". The sides are as follows:

Side 1: tracks that range from hard rock to cheese.
Side A: tracks that range from soundtracks to odd pieces of music.

Why "Side 1" and "Side A"? I got the inspiration from "The Melvins", where they have some vinyl singles that do this, most likely for the laugh. And I know some of these tracks may not really be considered "horror" material, but I was just going with the flow, picking songs out of my brain that I thought would seem appropriate

SIDE 1

Side 1 Track 1: "I, Zombie" - White Zombie
Appropriate opener, considering the fact that it was the title of the last blog entry.

Side 1 Track 2: "Scream" - The Misfits
Gotta include something from The Misfits, what with the ghoul make up and all.

Side 1 Track 3: "I Love To Say Fuck" - Murderdolls
This song was originally by lead singer Wednesday 13's original band "Frankenstein Drag Queens From Planet 13". I just like the production value on this version.

Side 1 Track 4: "Dream Warriors" by Dokken
How could I not put this bit of cheese on there? Plus it's the theme song from my favourite "Elm St" film.

Side 1 Track 5: "Ghostbusters" by Ray Parker Jr.
It was either this or "Thriller".

Side 1 Track 6: "Black Sabbath" - Black Sabbath
In the 60's a band called "Earth", after watching a Boris Karloff movie in the cinema, noted that people pay money to see scary movies. They came up with the idea of doing something similar with music. And thus, Black Sabbath came into being, and is responsible for almost the majority of my CD collection, in terms of influence.

SIDE A

Side A Track 1: "Halloween Theme Tune" - John Carpenter
.....why do you think I put this on here?

Side A Track 2: " It Took The Night To Believe" - Sunn O)))
The music is unsettling enough as it is. And they perform onstage to blinding amounts of dry ice, covered in black cloaks, and playing to room shuddering decibels.

Side A Track 3: "The Downward Spiral" - Nine Inch Nails
On an album filled with harrowing, bleak, and aggressive tracks, this little number is made that more disturbing by the sounds of screaming.

Side A Track 4: "Revolution Number 9" - The Beatles
Is it any wonder why Charles Manson was a Beatles fan?

Side A Track 5: "Hello Zepp" - Charlie Clouser
Sure I've written enough about the SAW series on this blog, but this track is still a great instrumental. Even if it was used in the trailers for "Valkyrie" and "The Box".

Side A Track 6: "Enter Sandman" - Rockabye Baby!
Goodnight all, sweet dreams.

Ten All American Videos!

Image found here:  http://thesocialgreen.com/2011/09/13/united-nonprofits-of-america/

Just thought I'd have a bit of fun, because it's July 4th. Which is.....

FUCK YEAH!

Gotta get me of of them.....or any nationality for that matter.....

Nothing more American than this guy.....well, except maybe The Punisher.....

No wait, I take that back.....

Here's something from America.....

I saw this in the cinema two days ago. I wonder if it's historically accurate.....

This guy is so American, even his name is Mr. America.....hmm, there's something oddly familiar about him.....

If that guy was Mr. America, then I say this woman should be Mrs. America. She may have turned 45 last Sunday, but I still would.....wait a minute, isn't she Canadian.....

And now, please rise for our National Anthem.....even though I'm not American.....