Movie Madness Marathon - 2015 edition

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Morthrai
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Re: Movie Madness Marathon - 2015 edition

Post by Morthrai »

Movie #10 - This is another of the core DC movies, David Cronenberg's "Scanners". It's got everything: corporate intrigue, weird medical experiments, psychic powers and Michael Ironside as the bad guy.

In the words of cartoon icon Strong Bad "Your head asplode!" :twisted:
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Re: Movie Madness Marathon - 2015 edition

Post by Phulish »

The pilot movie for Kolcheck is a nice classic, one scary scene isn't heralded by music,(the stairs scene).
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Re: Movie Madness Marathon - 2015 edition

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I am still a little behind but I might just throw the Kolchak pilot movies into the list! What I really need is a recommendation for something to inspire some Out-Law and wilderness/wastelands DC action, but not the obvious ones like Mad Max, Cherry 2000 or even Hell Comes To Frogtown :D

All suggestions welcome.
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Re: Movie Madness Marathon - 2015 edition

Post by Phulish »

The ORIGINAL "The Hills Have Eyes? In the early '80's was a movie where a bus was robed then damaged in the desert, stranding it's passengers. The "Sin City" movies have a DC social vibe. Stallone's movie "Cobra" has a cult like gang of killers. John Wayne's McQ, he's the first actor to use the MAC-10 SMG. HEAT is a good one for street violence, PC style. "Harley Davison and the Marlboro Man" as well. :D Not scary, but setting appropriate.
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Re: Movie Madness Marathon - 2015 edition

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Movie #11 - Another nice and honest, no-nonsense B-movie this time. 1974's Killdozer was based on a 1940s short story by Theodore Sturgeon. A construction crew working on a remote island run over a mysterious rock, apparently an ancient meteorite, buried at the site of an ancient temple. Would you believe it if I told you that the bulldozer that hit the rock takes on a mind of its own, and goes on a murderous rampage amongst the workers? Betcha didn't see that coming huh! :twisted:

Very much made in the style typical of the time but it knows where it lies in the pecking order of movies, and maintains its internal logic well enough. An enjoyable enough way to spend an hour and a quarter.
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Re: Movie Madness Marathon - 2015 edition

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As I only managed to fit in a 30 minute BBC documentary let's call this 11.5 ;)

"The Strange Affair Of Frankenstein" is an episode from a 1986 BBC series, in which old-style gent Robert Symes investigates how classic weird tales came about. Now, I must admit I don't recall the show from back then and this is currently the only episode officially available so I ahve no idea what the other episodes were about. Leaving that aside it's an enjoyable trip through the back story of 'The Modern Prometheus' and all the literary goings-on at Byron's Swiss residence.

Actual movies catch-up restarts tomorrow :D
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Re: Movie Madness Marathon - 2015 edition

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Movie #12 - Going for the "seventies giant monster" category here, this time I took a look at "Food Of The Gods". This 1976 flick features a strange substance that causes creatures in a remote area of Canada to grow to giant size - wasps, rats, worms, chickens!

It's no worse than you might expect, and to be absolutely fair it is far superior to "Empire of the Ants". :lol:
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Re: Movie Madness Marathon - 2015 edition

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Number 13 - I was lucky enough to find the complete DVD set of the classic anthology series "Night Gallery" in a thrift shop earlier this year so I set to work with the pilot episode :D

Part 1, 'Cemetary' is a southern Gothic tale featuring Ossie Davies as faithful retainer to an elderly, frail, but rich gentleman artist. The old man's louche, no-good nephew (Roddy McDowall, wrestling with a Su'rn accent) is hanging around waiting to collect his inheritance as the sole remaining family member...and what's up with that painting on the wall?

Part 2, 'Eyes' has Joan Crawford as a blind woman given a chance to see once more but only for 12 hours. Most notable about this segment is that it was directed by Steven Spielberg and you can spot some of his style even here.

Part 3 'Escape Route' features a runaway Nazi war criminal who finds his past coming back to haunt him. Bet you can't guess what happens! ;)

All three segments were scripted by the show's creator Rod Serling (the Twilight Zone guy), this has everything that you might expect from a multi-Emmy winning screenwriter with an eye for the macabre and strange. No big shocks and no gore here, just a slow creepiness and a chill down the spine :) Looking forward to getting through the rest of these.
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Re: Movie Madness Marathon - 2015 edition

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Movie #14 - A genuine Hammer classic. "Curse of Frankenstein" was their first Frankie film, and with Universal Studios on their case they were not allowed to utilise anything from the earlier US movies. Fortunately they had nothing to worry about! Peter Cushing stars as the baron, bent on assembling his creation at all costs. Played magnificently by Christopher Lee, Hammer's monster was just as memorable as Boris Karloff's creation without breaching copyright. Also, as Hammer's first full-colour picture the cinematographers really went for it - especially with the reds :D

The Hammer output was always best when they played it straight, and this is one of those times.
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Re: Movie Madness Marathon - 2015 edition

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Movie #15 - Time for a bit more Cronenberg. "Videodrome" features James Woods as cable TV producer Max, who does a deal for some new programming only to be drawn into a nightmarish and hallucinatory conspiracy. There's plenty of DC content in this one: a global conspiracy, TV addiction, unsettling mental and physical aberrations, man's inhumanity to man...all of which are also Cronenberg traits of course!

The movie is scary and weird but also prophetic. The continued expansion of visual media means that producers need more and more content to fill airtime, and a look at any TV guide will reveal that these people really will show ANYTHING. Where will it all end? :?
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Re: Movie Madness Marathon - 2015 edition

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Movie #16 - Possibly the first zombie film on this year's list is also the first modern zombie film. George Romero's "Night of the Living Dead" has the recently deceased getting up and attacking normal humans. This is apparently something to do with strange radiation from a returning space probe. A disparate group of people hole up in a house to survive the night and "hijinks ensue".

Seriously, as it's Romero's classic there's no point in me going into details as you should have seen it by now? ;) After this amount of time the tropes first seen here are now the cliches, but it had to start somewhere!
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Re: Movie Madness Marathon - 2015 edition

Post by ReHerakhte »

I have to admit to not following this thread too closely but now going back and properly reading it, there's some great game fodder here!
I have a suggestion that "maybe" fits in but more as a piece for inspiration rather than a direct influence for DC games.
A Canadian made sci-fi TV show called The Starlost, basically a huge spaceship carrying Earthlings who don't know they're on a spaceship.

I never saw the show but I vaguely recalled write-ups where some episodes had DC-ish happenings so I decided to try and find it on the web and so, here's the Wiki page: - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Starlost

Visiting the Wiki entry shows that although there weren't as many as I thought, there's a few that have possibilities such as Gallery Of Fear episode in which a computer (obviously an AI!) desires to be autonomous and tricks the protagonists into helping it achieve its goals.
Then there's Mr. Smith Of Manchester where the ruler is polluting the biosphere by making weapons and especially The Implant People, an episode where people are controlled by a despot via mandatory implants that can induce pain.
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Re: Movie Madness Marathon - 2015 edition

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Movie #17 - Sequel to the previous entry, "Dawn of the Dead" features a group of survivors who this time decide to hole up in a shopping mall. As there's plenty of supplies in there and the place can be locked down and cleared of zombies, it makes sense. After a while however, internal tensions begin to show and the arrival of a biker gang who want the mall for themselves doesn't help the situation.

Pretty neat and self-contained, Romero this time has the budget to go full gory colour. There's also some satirical content to do with the march of consumerism and the comparison of the walking dead to shoppers. "They're after the place. They don't know why; they just remember. Remember that they want to be in here." 8)
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Re: Movie Madness Marathon - 2015 edition

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Movie #18 - A British TV miniseries this time, "The Uninvited" was a 1997 drama about a drowned coastal village whose former inhabitants conceal a sinister and altogether inhuman secret. It almost seems of another time, with a plot and setting that could have come straight from the pen of John Wyndham. It's actually very effectively done, with a surprisingly small amount of SFX. It was the brainchild of former "Eastenders" soap star Leslie Grantham, and whilst not breaking any new ground it manages to avoid slipping completely into cliches - but only just 8)

Full disclosure: I have only dropped this into the list because I recently managed to track down the DVD for £3 (about $5 US) and just binge-watched it!
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Re: Movie Madness Marathon - 2015 edition

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Movie #19 - Once again featuring those two horror stalwarts Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee, 1973's "The Creeping Flesh" has Cushing's character returning from far-off explorations with a prehistoric skeleton. However, the skeleton might not be finished with the being-alive thing! (The observant among you may notice that this is the same plot device used in 'Horror Express' which I covered earlier) Add in a side plot where the professor's daughter is as yet unaware that her 'dead' mother was actually locked in the lunatic asylum for years. Then add in another side plot where the professor comes to believe that evil is actually a virus that could be inoculated against by using cells from the skeleton.

Eventually all is resolved to varying degrees. as one might expect from this kind of film. Pretty decent overall actually :)
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