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Before the rise of computer-generated imagery, the lords and masters of cinematic special effects were the make-up maestros who toiled with latex and glue, wire, wax and paint in poorly ventilated workshops to produce the brutes and beasts that haunt our collective unconscious. Down through the decades several achieved iconic status: Universal Studios monster maker Jack Pierce, ‘60’s splatter guru H.G. Lewis; The Exorcist’s Dick Smith and American Werewolf in London’s Rick Baker; Rob Bottin of The Howling and The Thing notoriety; Greg Nicotero of KNB FX. None, however, have reached the stratospheric, rock star heights of Pittsburgh native Tom Savini, a man whose contributions to the silver screen have inspired more fevered nightmares than any other in recent memory.

The 80s was the decade of films whose staying power rested not so much upon their plots but upon their memorable lines. "I'll be back." "I feel the need -- the need for speed!" "Wax on. Wax off."

And, of course, the one that can only be appreciated when done in the right accent: "That's not a knife. That's a knife."

If you were there, you're probably already remembering several other lines and scenes from Crocodile Dundee or its sequel Crocodile Dundee II. Paul Hogan, the man behind Mick "Crocodile" Dundee, came out of nowhere (technically Australia) and put the U.S. on a down-under kick. Hogan was joined by Linda Kozlowski as newspaper reporter and heiress Sue Charlton, the Man from Walkabout Creek began his adventures in the Australian outback and, as part of Sue's human interest story and social experiment, followed her back to New York city for some moments of culture clash. 

Kurt Russell and Kathleen Quinlan star as Jeff and Amy Taylor, a married couple from Massachussetts on the road to a new job and a new life on the west coast. But a chance encounter in the desolate southwest pits them against a gang of kidnappers and murderers who use the diners and truck stops as bases of operation, and who have been thus far successful at making people disappear forever.

When Jeff's Jeep Grand Cherokee breaks down on the side of the road in the desert, a friendly trucker (J.T. Walsh) offers them a lift. Jeff chooses to stay with the car while Amy goes with the trucker to a diner down the road to phone for a tow. While she's gone, Jeff finds the problem with the vehicle, fixes it and gets on the road to the diner -- only to find nobody has seen his wife there. Frantic, Jeff drives until he finds the trucker -- who also claims to have never met him, and convinces the police of the same.

Lena Headey and Michael Caine turn in expected magnetic performances in this modern day loose adaptation of the Charles Dickens classic, Twist.

In this version, the titular Oliver Twist (Rafferty Law) is a young adult, not a mere street urchin, who is living homeless and known for his large-scale grafitti art, which ends up in places most people would consider impossible to get to. His chance encounter with Red (Sophie Simnett) brings him to the attention of Fagin (Michael Caine), the leader of a ragtag group of apprentice con artists who are looking to set up an art dealer for a big heist, partly for the money and partly for revenge. Complicating matters emotionally for Oliver is the presence of the malevolent Sikes (Lena Headey), who has a dominant relationship with Red that interferes with her and Oliver hooking up. 

There's a part of me that thinks it simply isn't fair to write a critical review of F9: The Fast Saga. While it's little more than a bunch of action scenes, stitched together loosely with the threads of something resembling a plot, there's also the fact that it never pretends to be anything more than that, that the audience isn't intended to have their minds engaged in solving a mystery but merely to have their adrenal glands engaged through the harrowing automotive special effects.

But I'm going to do it anyway, because I need more word count than just that first paragraph.

In the world of The Purge franchise, the U.S. government has been supplanted -- through elections -- with a new breed of "founding fathers" who have pushed through laws allowing the population to participate in bloody mayhem in order to "purge" the hate from their systems so that the rest of the year might be peaceful. Beginning at sundown and ending at sunup, Purge Night gives people the right to kill anyone with impunity, with no intervention from law enforcement or other emergency services. 'Tis the season for horror movies (check these out) with Halloween incoming, thus you might wonder if The Forever Purge should be on your horror to-watch list. Let's continue.

A musical high.

SLAXX is the Canadian horror comedy film about the dark side of killer fashion. Produced in 2020, the film made its debut on Shudder and DVD last month to audiences worldwide.

Directed by Elza Kephart, SLAXX is the story of a young woman named Libby (Romane Denis) who takes a position at a trendy clothing store only to have her dreams of working in the fashion industry turn into her worst nightmare. The night before the big launch of the company's newest jeans, called Super Shapers, one of Libby’s co-workers steal a pair of the new jeans from the backroom and puts them on. Little does she know this particular batch of the new jeans have been possessed by the spirit of a young Hindi child laborer who died while threshing the cotton she picked to make them. Out for revenge and thirsting for blood, the jeans kill the worker and proceed to run amok through the store feeding off the blood of all its inhabitants.

Director Yasuzo Masumura brings to you his adaptation of Edogawa Rampo’s classic short story, Blind Beast, in all the horrific imagery that will leave some in shock at the grotesque portrayal of a blind sculptor and his next masterpiece.

A young model named Aki (Mako Midori) is abducted and finds herself held captive in a literal house of horrors, surrounded by severed body parts of women and giant statues of disembodied limbs (and other, shall we say ‘questionable’ body parts). Her abductor Michio (Eiji Funakoshi) introduces himself to her and lets it be known that she will be his next work of art.

Aki recognizes Michio from a previous encounter with the blind sculptor. She is, at first, defiant and fights to be set free; but she later succumbs to his advances and submits herself to his sightless world, allowing herself to be taken in to his lifelong ambition to perfect the female form thru his art.

When Star Trek: The Motion Picture debuted in theaters, it had been ten years since the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise had come together on television. For the fans, it was a huge event that made largely forgivable the opportunity taken by the SFX department to show how cool computer generated fractal graphics could look. It was the launchpoint for five more movies to come, sometimes calling back to the television show but mostly introducing new concepts and new aliens.

Dogs and mysteries have been the peanut butter and jelly of children's cartoons for decades, featuring such sniffing sleuths as Woofer and Wimper, Dynomutt, Hong Kong Phooey, and the whole gang from Disney's 101 Dalmations. But, of course, the king of them all has always been Scooby-Doo, the Great Dane mascot of Mystery Inc. For years, Scooby and the gang have been busting mysteries and proving that the things that go bump in the night are nevery more than a greedy person in a rubber mask.

On the other hand, however, there's Courage, a little pink mutt from Nowhere who defends his family from true weirdness, monsters, alients, and the like, often without them realizing it and always without reward. But never has the weirdness been anything explainable as a prosaic prank.

Arrow Video brings to Blu-ray the long-awaited special edition version of Bernard McEveety’s 1971 film, The Brotherhood of Satan.

The film follows the recently widowed Ben, his girlfriend Nicky, and his daughter K.T. on a road trip across the Southwest. During the trip they are witnesses to a horrific accident and head to the nearby isolated desert town of Hillsboro to report it to the Sheriff (played by L.Q. Jones). While there, they are met with a not-too-welcoming reaction from the locals, who are gripped by paranoia and fear due to a series of gruesome deaths and the mysterious disappearance of eleven of the community’s children. As more disappearances and deaths continue during their visit, Ben and his family find themselves joining the sheriff, a local priest and the town’s doctor, Doc Duncan (Strother Martin, Cool Hand Luke), but all clues lead to an evil satanic cult that is slowly gripping the town and its inhabitants.

Warner Brothers police drama with a twist, Prodigal Son, gets the Blu-ray release for its second season. Malcolm Bright (Tom Payne) continues in his role of consulting profiler for the police department, bringing his unique perspective to the solving of unique homicides. That perspective comes from the fact that his father, Dr. Martin Whitly (Michael Sheen), is the infamous serial killer known as The Surgeon. From his special accommodations at the Claremont Psychiatric Hospital, Martin stands ready and eager to "help" his son get into the minds of the various psycopathies he must unravel, all while getting further into Malcom's head as he struggles with repressed memories.

More relevant than ever, Profile is a story told in the daring cinematic method of screen grabs and video Skype calls. It' a slow burn of a film that ignites in supernova intensity in the third act.

Valene Kane plays Amy, a freelance journalist looking to break into a full time job with a huge story. Using Facebook, she establishes a profile that falls in line with those of other young girls in the U.K. who had been recruited by ISIS as brides. Once she makes contact with Bilel (Shazad Latif), private messages evolve toward video calls with each other, as Amy tries to make herself the perfect victim to be recruited.

But the longer Amy pursues her relationship with Bilel, the more she finds herself sympathizing with him, his motivations, and his causes, to the extent that she begins to isolate those around her -- who in turn act toward her in ways that mirror the rejections that seemingly forged Bilel into the man he is.

The second part of Batman: The Long Halloween didn't take long to release, thankfully overcoming the expiration of expectations that can hamper a story cut into two pieces like this. And it doesn't waste any time rushing through a number of holiday murders during which time Batman... does nothing. Why? Because Bruce Wayne (Jenson Ackles) has been mind-controlled by Poison Ivy (Katee Sackhoff), and has been regularly signing over assets at her bidding to her boss, Carmine Falcone (Titus Welliver). Fortunately for Bruce, Catwoman (Naya Rivera) not only notices his absence but also knows his secret identity, mounting a rescue mission that brings Batman back into the thick of things after nearly four months of stupor.

A Quiet Place I & II is one of those rare set of films where you can actually watch them back-to-back and get the feeling of having absorbed a single epic film. That's because AQP2 actually picks up right where the first leaves off (with a bit of a flashback that shows the arrival of the "totally not Gormogon" aliens and how quickly they begin to wreak havoc.

The aforementioned aliens have not so much invaded Earth as they have crashed into it. They're giant bugs -- blind, but attracted to the slightest noise to hunt their prey. The key to survival is to learn to remain as quiet as possible -- a difficult proposition for the Abbott family, who rig up a special oxygen-tank enclosed carrier for their infant son in order to keep him quiet. Mom Evelyn (Emily Blunt) does her best to protect the children while father Lee (Director John Krasinski) works on finding other survivors by monitoring radio equipment.

Flight to Mars is one of the earliest Atomic Era science fiction films that capitalized on the dream of interstellar flight. Being a product of its era, the story has an inherent charm in its simpllicity, and yet still delivers a story with political intrigue and raw action and romance.

Dr. Jim Barker (Arthur Franz) heads up a team of scientist who will be making the first manned mission to the Red Planet. Also accompanying him will be his scientifically capable assistant, Carol (Virginia Huston), who carries a torch for him that he's too blind to see. But Steve (Cameron Mitchell) sees it, and he works to get Carol to see that he's the right guy for her, even though he's just an embedded journalist there to document the flight and not a brainy rocket scientist.

Somehere in space live The Herculoids. That somewhere happens to be the planet Quasar, a quaint little rock inhabited by civilized cavemen and bizarre creatures. It's not much of a tourist attraction, but it must have immeasurable resources because the only visitors it ever gets either want to conquer the planet, take its resources, bury treasure on it, or enslave the inhabitants.

No wonder The Herculoids are such separatists. You land on Quasar, you get one warning and then you're done.

Almost Famous tells the story of William Millier (Patrick Fugit), a high school music journalist whose work gets noticed by Rolling Stone magazine, who then assign him his first story: a profile piece on an up-and-coming band, Stillwater. What the magazine doesn't realize, however, is that William is only 15 years old, having been promoted through school early due to some odd machinations by his mother (Frances McDormand) to obscure his age.

Touring with the band, William's experiences are both everything you would expect from living a rock-and-roll lifestyle, but also everything you would not expect, as the stereotypical band members and groupies are humanized through their personal struggles and foibles. Yes, there's the drugs and sex, but director Cameron Crowe shows this in a near tragic light, with all the consequences that come along with a life of excess.

When I first heard that Gotham was going to be followed up by a series called

Pennyworth, I thought, "Okay, Gotham was a wee bit of a stretch, going back to a pre-Batman version of the setting, but going back to Alfred's younger days is probably beyond a capable grasp."

I believe I was correct in this assumption. Even with Bruno Heller attached, Pennyworth seems to very little connection to the Fox series.

In this second season, Alfred (Jack Bannon) is something of a war profiteer. He runs a night club catering to both sides of the war, and puts his former military skills to the test by taking on the odd mercenary job here and there. Some of these jobs are at the behest of CIA field agent Thomas Wayne (Ben Aldridge), who enjoys a tenuous romantic relationship with resistance fighter, Martha Kane (Emma Paetz).