Over at Rupert Pupkin Speaks I went over a few (very few!) of my favorite first-time watches of non-new releases in 2018. I love looking over the year and thinking about what really stuck with me, and 2018 was a banner year for endlessly cramming movies into my brain, heart and eye holes.
January 15, 2019
January 04, 2019
Missing Christmas?
I wrote about two killer Santa movies (well, a movie and a segment) for my first stuff ever over at Daily Grindhouse! It was part of a really fun Advent horror calendar, and I highly recommend checking every day out. Big thanks for Rob Dean for asking and recommending me and to Matt Wedge for being a wonderful and encouraging editor.
... And All Through the House, from Tales from the Crypt, 1972
December 29, 2018
Just the Discs: Our Top 5 Blu-rays of the Year!
For my 10th (!!!) appearance on Just the Discs, Brian Saur and I each chose our five favorite Blu-ray releases of the year... before barreling through a pile of runner-ups because clearly the meaning of "top 5" can't be too strict with the embarrassment of physical media riches this past year.
December 01, 2018
Rescue Me: The Complete Series on Blu-ray from Mill Creek
In the first episode of RESCUE ME, just about every racist epitaph is used, and Donald Trump appears on a "to kill" list a firefighter makes in case a prognosis comes back with bad results. It's almost 15 years after its July 21, 2004 premiere, and as modern as the show looks, it's moments like that when you feel the weight of time.
I watched RESCUE ME pretty religiously for the first four seasons on DVD before dropping off for one reason or another. (Does it count as "religiously" if it's on disc only? Is it like attending mass through TV?) That led me to watch Denis Leary's previous show, THE JOB, which had a fair amount of actors that would end up on the latter show. Though it was a half-hour sitcom, Leary playing a cop in New York City with some of the same co-stars made it a strangely great companion piece that I recommend if you enjoy the muscular humor of RESCUE ME but prefer more laughs and less drama.
When I first put the first disc in, I was incredibly impressed by the clarity of the picture quality. However, obvious compression issues started popping up almost immediately: In some scenes, it almost "flickers" in the background. While it undoubtedly looks better than it ever had, this isn't a crystal-clear 4k restoration. The style of the filming doesn't help: The steel, cool-toned colors and constant smoke and fire effects don't hide many sins. Still, it's a show that looks as gritty as it frequently feels, and the eye gets accustomed to it quickly.
Every episode of all seven seasons (93 episodes in all, each one running roughly 45 minutes) is included. The set comes inside a semi-transparent design sleeve that covers a fairly sturdy box and two very thick cases: there's no disc-stacking here, and it's an attractive and easily accessible set throughout. The first contains seasons 1-4 on 8 discs, with 6-7 episodes on each disc. The second case contains seasons 5-7 also on 8 discs, with 4-6 episodes on the discs.
Highly recommended for people who love gritty dramatic stories with dark humor that turns absurdist pretty often. It's also a fascinating (though heightened) look at New York City was only a few years after the terrorist attacks.
Subtitles: Yes (English only)
Disc One Special Features: Episode 1 commentary with Leary and Tolan / Over 7 minutes of deleted scenes
Disc Two Special Features: Tolan & Leary commentary on the season one's season finale / Deleted scenes / Gag Reel / Behind-the-scenes featurette
Disc Three Special Features: Deleted Scenes / Gag Reel
Disc Special Four Features: Deleted scenes / Behind-the-scenes featurettes
Disc Five Special Features: Deleted Scenes / Location tour
Disc Six Special Features: Deleted scenes / Gag Reel / Behind-the-scenes featurette
Disc Seven Special Features: Deleted scenes / Gag Reel / This Is Not A Drill: Breaking Down "Seven"
Disc Eight Special Features: Deleted scenes / Behind-the-scenes featurettes / Set visit / Firehouse: Real Stories from America's Bravest
Images of the set. Click for the full size!
November 21, 2018
WHAT DID WE JUST WATCH?!?: Dream A Little Dream
I join the fabulous Lori and Andrew to talk about a weird, weird movie I've loved since I was a kid without fully understanding it. The Coreys weren't afraid to challenge us, not at all.
My hosts are brilliant, artistic (Andrew is an incredible designer who sells cool merchandise and Lori is an excellent writer) married couple and I was both intimidated and delighted talking to them. Follow them on Twitter, too: Elbee and Gizmetco!
November 17, 2018
JUST THE DISCS: Bad Ronald (Warner Archive) & Trilogy of Terror (Kino)
So I says to Brian I says, "Why cover BAD RONALD on "Just the Discs" when there aren't any extras?" And he said, "Well, they wanted Amanda Reyes to do a commentary, but there was a time issue, so they didn't" so *I* said, "Fair." Anyway, here we cover two 1970's TV movie creepy classics, and I talk about kind of also living in a wall for a time as a teenager and rant about how Richard Matheson thought the Zuni tribe was African. It's a fun time, I swear!
November 02, 2018
The Chilling Adventures of SPLATHOUSE!
Over on the Splathouse podcast, Mike and Sarah interview Joshua Conkel, a writer on the darkly delightful new Netflix show The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, and they also talk Teen Witch. Top that! I also join up with the wonderful Paul Farrell for a silly little sketch.
Also, check out the great Dead Ringers podcast!
I Always Feel Like Somebody's Watching Leigh
Sure, Halloween may be over, but just in case you're missing some spooky in your life, you can listen to Brian Saur and I discuss 1999's House on Haunted Hill and John Carpenter's wonderful TV movie Someone's Watching Me over on Just the Discs!
October 17, 2018
THE PiNK SMOKE: Tales from the Crypt!
I had a great time talking to Christopher Funderburg (who's barely familiar with the show!) and John Cribbs (who writes a vastly superior Tales from the Crypt column that everyone should read) from the wonderful film site The Pink Smoke about our five favorite episodes. We may not be professional cryptoboologists, but dammit, we got heart.
You'll need to be a member of their Patreon to hear the episode, but it's a truly wonderful site with some of the most gorgeously and thoughtfully written opinions and analysis on film on the internet, and they're more than worthy of your support. They're working towards being able to pay their writers, and as a freelance writer with a full-time job who knows that these sites are also run by writers who are shouldering working a website and editing on top of everything else... money is good, helpful and hard to come by.
October 14, 2018
The Best of the Best Horror of the Year
Playing catch-up here: This was released on my birthday, October 2nd, so bonus! "Tender as Teeth," an unusual zombie story written with Duane Swierczynski, has been republished by the great Ellen Datlow in The Best of the Best Horror of the Year anthology. This is the second time this little story has been republished, which is funny because I told Duane about the idea in a conversation we had about "ideas we like but will never get done for one reason or another." Now it's sharing a table of contents with Neil Gaiman, so that's not too bad!
Originally, my idea was for a book that would go in-depth on what reentering society would be like for former zombies, including support groups and how economics and being able to afford plastic surgery would impact those who could "fix" themselves vs those who couldn't "pass." It was a huge idea I narrowed down into a smaller glimpse into one notorious person's experience, and I cannot thank Duane, Ellen and Christopher Golden enough for making it a reality.
And I'm still proud I worked an I'm Gonna Git You Sucka reference into multiple horror anthologies at this point.