Happy Birthday Scotty Mac

Today is Yellow Razor interviewee and all around cool fellow Scott MacDonald's birthday! He's only 33 but don't hold that against him. If you see him, wish him the best and check out his site: eurocultav.com

Tell him I sent you!

Giallo Meltdown!

That is Richard's book! Your first clue is his picture, the second clue is his name. Congratulations amateur detective, you're in a giallo! Avoid sexy ladies and psychedelic wall paper. It's for your own good. Or don't. Look I can barely update this blog more than once a month at minimum.

What I can do is sing Richard's praises. He's an author, see and he wrote a book. Go look at your bookshelf. I'll wait. Is Richard's book there? No? Well buy it! That's the only way we are getting out of here alive.

http://www.amazon.com/Giallo-Meltdown-Richard-Glenn-Schmidt/dp/150783912X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1432733514&sr=8-1&keywords=richard+glenn+schmidt

Eurocult AV

Hey there. I've been writing a few reviews for Scott over at Eurocult AV. I'm not going to link to my reviews specifically because I think you should read them all.

Interview With A Scott

You guys know Scott over at EuroCult AV, right? Well if you don't here's your big chance! Scott is a brilliant guy and he runs an awesome website. Don't mention Rob Zombie though. I mentioned him once but I think I got away with it.

            

File Photo

1. Tell us something about yourself. Anything.

I'm working with a couple of friends to get a horror film off the ground called Bad Reputation.  I like to describe it as the Before Sunrise of Death, 2 people meet on a bus, arrange a date one of them doesn't survive it. We tried the Indie Go Go route a few years ago, that didn't pan out, so now we're going the Sam Raimi route.

I bought an 8mm camera, lights, and I am making my first short in 8 years, only this time on film.  I've taken my feature script and boiled it down to it's conceptually essentials, and am planning on shooting it sometime in 2015. If anyone wants to help out, we'll probably have another IGG for the short,  you can contact me directly at Scott@eurocultav.com.

2. What is your favorite horror film?

The Beyond

3. Give me 5 other favorite horror films.

In no particular order.

American Werewolf in London
The Wicker Man
Martin
The Thing

4. What other 5 horror films should I see right now?

I would like to recommend something new, but I haven't been impressed by a modern horror film in years, so just looking at my shelves....

Lorna: The Exorcist (Crab scene, creepy)....

Blue Eyes of the Broken Doll

Island of Lost Souls

Mystics in Bali

Maniac Cop 2

5. Favorite film monster? (vampire, mummy, Seth Rogen, werewolf, etc.)

I'll be boring zombies.

6. Favorite giallo?

Short Night of Glass Dolls

7. Put these things in order: cherry cola, Tobe Hooper's Lifeforce, pizza, David Cronenberg's The Fly, strawberry jelly:

Pizza would be first, but I'm in Austin, and there's like 1-2 stellar pizza joints in this city, and they don't deliver to my house, so if anyone in the NYC/NJ area wants to mail me a pizza from my homeland, ask Brad for my address. I will allow him to give it under this circumstance.

After that

Cronenberg's The Fly

Cherry Cola (though I try to avoid drinking soda these days)

Lifeforce

Strawberry Jelly (I hate strawberry jelly)

8. Five favorite horror film directors.

Lucio Fulci

George A. Romero

Mario Bava

John Carpenter
Jean Rollin

9. Black gloved killer or axe wielding madman?

Black gloved killer

10. Name a horror film that you love that most folks don't.

Friday the 13th: The New Beginning

11. How many times have you seen Friday The 13th Part 2?

7-8

12. Black Christmas or Halloween?

Halloween

13. First horror film you loved?
Friday The 13th VII: The New Blood

14. Argento or Fulci?

Fulci

15. 5 Classic Doctor Who serials for horror fans to watch?

To avoid saying shit like Genesis of the Daleks and Caves of Androzani. I'm just going to go from the top of my head....

The Keeper of Traken

State of Decay

The Daemons

Enemy of the World

Mawdryn Undead

16. Scariest horror film you've seen?

Impossible, I never declare a -est of anything.

17. Best horror film of 2014?

I heard the Babadook was good, but since I haven't seen it yet, the closest I saw to good was Pieces of Talent, and it wasn't great, but entertaining.

18. Best horror film you saw last year? (regardless of the release year)

Legend of Hell House

19. Worst three horror remakes?

1. Rob Zombie's Halloween.

2. Rob Zombie's Halloween.

3. Did I mention Rob Zombie's Halloween?

20. A horror remake that worked for you.

See the great slate of horror remakes we got from the late 70's to the early 90's, everything from Philip Kaufman's Invasion of the Body Snatchers to Scorsese's Cape Fear. If you mean the post-Dawn of the Dead/The Ring remake slate then Friday the 13th, because it wasn't a remake, it was another Jason movie. You basically had multiple groups of teenagers get killed by an undead psycho in a hockey mask.  There is no way a studio will ever remake the original Friday the 13th, Jason sells tickets, Mom doesn't, so basically F13 was a remake in name only.

21. Is there a horror film you'd like to see remade?

No. I used to think if I thought a film was less than good than maybe a remake could make it better. For example, I hated the original Prom Night as a kid, but the Synapse Blu-ray opened that film up to me on a whole other level, and the remake of that was just poor.

22. 5 guilty pleasure horror films.

I have no guiity pleasures. I will watch most things if they are made with art in mind.

23. If your residence was in danger of sliding into the 5th dimension, what dvds/blurays would you save?

Can we skip ahead 2 weeks and say Grindhouse's The Beyond?

24. What is in your bluray player right now?

My daughter watched Bridge to Terabithia last night, so that.

25. If you could make me watch any five films what would they be?

Withnail and I

Love Exposure

Children of Paradise

Picnic at Hanging Rock

All About My Mother

26. List a favorite film that might surprise us.

Mary Poppins, I watch it at least once a year.

27. If you could sit down and watch a film with it's director what would it be?

Any film by John Cassavetes with John Cassavetes (and yes, I realize he's dead).

28. What's the best album of the 90's?

Emperor - Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk

29. 5 desert island albums?

Emperor - Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk

Katatonia - Last Fair Deal Gone Down

Joy Division - Unknown Pleasures

Ramones - Rocket to Russia

Bruce Dickinson - The Chemical Wedding

30. Dr. Pepper, Mr. Pibb or neither?

None, unless you want me to have an asthma attack and DIE!

31. Could you describe the area (room) in which you usually watch films?

A messy living room black leather sectional couch, 50" LED TV.

32. Name a film you didn't like but upon reevaluation, you did.

Easy Rider, the Criterion Blu made that one shine.

33. Put the Gates Of Hell trilogy in order of personal preference.

The Beyond

House by the Cemetery

Gates of Hell

34. What do you make of The House Of The Devil?

One of the better modern films, great start, lousy finish.

35. What horror film do you think you have recommended the most to people?

Probably something by Fulci or Argento.  It depends who I'm talking to.

36. Rollin or Franco?

Am I picking between children, Brad?

37. Favorite 3 films from each ^^^ director.

Rollin

The Iron Rose

Requiem for a Vampire

Fascination

Franco

Lorna: The Exorcist

Virgin Among the Living Dead

Girls in the Night Traffic

38. The Lords Of Salem. Zombie's best film?

Rob Zombie has no good films.

39. Name a horror film that you will never, ever watch again.

Anything by Rob Zombie.

40. Upon purchase of a region free bluray player what disc purchases are essential?

Aside from Twitch of the Death Nerve, all Arrow Bava's, Arrow's Withnail and I, Second Sight's Return of the Living Dead (original soundtrack), Second Sight's Re-Animator, the BFI's Herzog collection and Nightbirds, the Italian Blu of Dellamorte Dellamore.

41. Top 5 slasher films.

1. Maniac

2. Halloween

3. Pieces (I don't quality this as gialli).

4. New York Ripper (close to gialli, close to slasher).

5. Black Christmas

42. Put these in order of personal preference: Argento, Bava and Fulci.

Can't do it, but will say since Argento's filmography is incomplete, and continues to worsen he'd probably be last.

43. The Exorcist or any of the myriad ripoffs?

The Exorcist. 

44. Leave us with another horror film recommendation.

I said earlier that I am not generally impressed by modern horror, and for the most part this is true.  I also have a terrible memory, because I saw the World Premier of Stephen Biro's American Guinea Pig: Bouquet of Guts and Gore at the Housecore Horror Film Festival in 2014, and was extremely impressed by the film.  It was violent, and disturbing in all the right ways, and an excellent continuation of the Guinea Pig series in both the way it handles violence, and stylistically. 

Quick Thought On Dawn Of The Dead

I didn't like zombie films. But I don't know that I really had seen many. White Zombie I had seen, taped off of television back in the 80's, and I didn't care for the voodoo type zombies. I liked vampires and monsters. Also I liked slasher films that I saw (cut) on cable.

The box for the VHS tape of Dawn Of The Dead creeped me out. I'd see it in the video store and steer clear. You remember the one. Roger, recently undead, is sitting up in a three picture panel. Yeesh.

No Thanks.

All of this changed one very late night in the late 90's at Matthew's house. Upstairs, in between his and his sister's room is an open air television room. Matthew threw in a VHS of Dawn (much to my (more than likely) silent) chagrin. How wrong was I? You know how wrong I was. I've forgotten plenty since but I haven't forgotten that night. This is the ultimate zombie film and only a few can really even challenge that title. It just goes to show that you can't judge a book by it's cover and you should occasionally go outside of your perceived comfort zone. I try to remember this when Richard is putting over musicals.

The Year Of The Fulch

Hello? Good grief, I hope you haven't been here the whole time. Yeah so, hey. Sorry it's been so long. I did miss you. If that helps. Richard and I are recording tonight and we are plotting the triumphant return of Hello! This Is The Doomed Show! Plus if I can get myself in gear I'll post here a bit more often. Brad, you didn't even tell folks Merry Christmas. Sorry y'all. Happy New Year!

This dude.

We're planning on contributing to the worldwide phenomena that's occurring worldwide called The Year Of The Fulch! So hopefully we'll finish up our Fulci series. And Troy Howarth is releasing his Fulci book that we are all VERY excited about. And we're giving away a baby elephant. Stay tuned.

Horror Anthologies?

Well, the Christmas season is upon us and with Scream Factory's release of Tales From The Crypt (containing one of my favorite holiday segments: All Through The House) and The Vault Of Horror on bluray got me to thinking: What are your favorite horror anthology films? While certainly not exclusively made by British horror film company Amicus, they made a lot of great films to pair up with Creepshow and the like. I'm going to say my favorite is Tales From The Crypt followed closely by From Beyond The Grave. What can I say, I'm an Anglophile. What say you?

Contest! Alarm! Win!

Hello to all my fine friends worldwide! As you may know, this year Scott MacDonald of EuroCultAV.com asked me to do some reviews for him. I was flattered and excited to do it. Scott is a cool dude that is very knowledgable about genre films and I have used his site as a buying guide for a while.

Time came around to do his holiday guide and he again kindly asked me for a submittal. Richard did several as well. Scott is giving away a pack of blurays AND a region free bluray player!

Head over there and sign up! You want to win. I want you to win. We are winners. And don't you want something to play Arrow's Bava blurays on?


http://eurocultav.com/Articles/EuroCultAV_com_Best_of_and_Hol/eurocultav_com_best_of_and_hol.html

Carl Interviewed Me!

Hello and hello. Don't you wish that Carl would interview me? Wish granted. That was easy.


DATACOLT



Carl's blog has received the Yellow Razor Big Blue Thumbs Up Seal Of Approval. And that is non negotiable.

EuroCultAV Review

Scott MacDonald asked me to write a review for EuroCultAV and I jumped at the chance. Because I'm not writing anything else, am I? Eh? I don't have a blog that needs updating. Oh wait, I do! Whatever. Lazy.

Here's the review:   Brad's EuroCultAV Review


Thanks Scott!

EuroCultAV Holiday Bonanza!

Hello kids. The fine folks over at EuroCultAV are putting together a holiday gift guide and best of 2014 list. As part of the promotion they are having a contest sponsored by 220-Electronics.com and are giving away a region free Sony bluray player! So keep your eye on eurocultav.com, like them on Facebook if you haven't and watch this space! Because aren't we all tired of being shackled by the man and his 'region coding?' I say no more. The line has been drawn in the sand, the gauntlet thrown, and various other appropriate cliches. YOU COULD WIN A REGION FREE BLURAY PLAYER!

Happy Halloween!

I hope everyone has a great day and remember, everyone's entitled to one good scare!

Carl is Datacolt

My friend Carl (interviewed here: Interview With A Carl) has started a blog. It's a world beater! Expect some cross blog promotion in the future! Carl cares and he shares. Enjoy!



http://datacolt.wordpress.com

Dracula Prince Of Darkness

A few quick thoughts on Dracula Prince Of Darkness:

1. The bluray is the third copy I have of it. The Anchor Bay double disc, the dvd set with Frankenstein Created Woman and The Legend Of The Seven Golden Vampires, and the bluray.

2. The bluray looks fantastic.

3. Terrence Fisher doesn't get enough credit as a great horror director.

4. The bluray really reveals the amazing production design and the atmospheric lighting. 

5. If you can't have Peter Cushing, Andrew Keir is a more than acceptable substitute.

6. Male lead Francis Matthews (veteran of Hammer film appearances AND he's in a pretty dang good giallo: Five Women For The Killer) sounds exactly like Cary Grant.

7. One of my all time favorite 'hey it's that guy!' actors, Charles Tingwell is in it. He is great in the Miss Marple films of the early 60's and in one of my all time favorite films, the Australian comedy The Castle. (Everyone in my life gets a steady stream of Good on ya Dale's, Looks like everyone's kicked a goal, and This is going straight to the pool room.)

8. Barbara Shelley is very good in this. She knows they are all doomed from the jump.

9. There is a great 30 minute documentary on the disc featuring Barbara Shelley, Francis Matthews and Mark Gatiss.

10. I can't decide if I love this or Horror Of Dracula more. Two of the three copies I have were gifts from Elizabeth. That's a lot for Horror Of Dracula to overcome!

11. You should buy this bluray if you like Dracula, Hammer films, gothic horror films or fun. 

Halloween No Time Posting Blues

Hey y'all. I meant to blog more this month but there's been a rash of birthdays, weddings and family reunions. I am keeping a list of everything we have watched in October and I will definitely post about that. Also I'm going to start delving into the Halloween Box Set soon. So I have that going for me.


In the meantime head on over to Jeffrey's blog if you haven't lately. He's smack dab in the middle of Slashtober 3D. Good, good stuff!


http://nessuntimore.blogspot.com/search/label/slashtober%203d

Halloween Season

Yesterday was Elizabeth's birthday. I love how it kicks off the Halloween season. This year I'm going to try to mix up some favorites and classics with some unseen films. I sometimes get trapped into watching films over and over. Any suggestions?

Heather's Horror Blog Of Mostly Horror

My friend Heather recently moved back to Illinois. Heather, RIP. No wait, she's not dead!

She worked with Elizabeth and she lived across the street from us. Then she moved...across the street from us. It was the easiest move I ever helped with. Anyway, as you can guess, I roped her into watching horror films with us. She was terrified of horror films at first but we eased her in, starting with some more popcorn type horror films like Cabin In The Woods. From there we hit some slasher classics, haunted house films and general what have you. I knew we had her when she watched Halloween: The Curse Of Michael Myers on her own on Netflix. And all by her very lonesome she bought a Mill Creek horror film pack. That is a time honored, traditional horror film fan move.

Terror. Pure terror.

I sent her home with a ton of films and she said she was going to start a blog and review them. Being a procrastinator of the highest order and a man that makes wild, intricate plans and proclamations, I didn't think it would come to fruition. But...it has!

Yes, ladies and gents, Heather has started a horror blog. And I'm very excited! Why don't you give it a look and give her your comments, tips and helpful suggestions!


Heather's Horror Blog Of Mostly Horror:

http://hbmoviereview.blogspot.com

Films Richard Got Right That I Didn't

Richard and I talk a lot of movies. A lot. And from time to time he expresses fondness for something that I didn't care for. It would be foolish for me to dismiss him out of hand because Richard (as we all know) is an enthusiastic, perceptive viewer. So I often go back and rewatch these films and discover that he is indeed, correct.

One such film is He Knows You're Alone. Elizabeth and I saw it early in our combined slasher viewings and despite of (or because of) it's similarities to Halloween and it's unmasked slasher villain, I didn't think much of it.

But a rewatch proved Richard right. It has an opening aped by Scream 2 that is clever, a determined detective and plenty of early 80's slasher goodness to go around. I've often thought that the time between Halloween and 1981's slasher onslaught was a bit of a dead period, excepting Friday The 13th of course (I said relatively, Prom Night and Terror Train!). But it's not nearly as barren as I thought. This is a good one.

In The Minority

I like Rob Zombie's Halloween films, the House Of Wax remake and My Soul To Take, all commonly disliked films by the greater horror community. I know this is a broad generalization but what horror films do you like that you seem to be in the minority on? Share your shame!

Yep.

Richard Of Doomed Moviethon's Favorite American Horror Films Of The 1990's

As part of our cross blog promotion (like he needs my help!) feast upon Richard's picks from that greatest of decades, the 1990's!

5. Popcorn (1991)

When I finally got around to watching Popcorn (sometime in the 2000s), I immediately ripped my leg off so that I could repeatedly kick myself for not taking a chance on this earlier. So anyway, this film is just strange; a mishmash of slasher, splatter, and classic horror conventions with an oddly heartbreaking scene thrown in for good measure. Make sure you see this one.

 4. Child's Play 2 (1990)

I never re-watch the original Child's Play but I find myself returning to the first sequel a lot ever since I first saw it when I was in my teens. This film is nightmarish, gruesome, and at times, insanely claustrophobic. The inclusion of my teenage crush, Christine Elise (Emily Valentine of "Beverly Hills 90210"), is also a huge bonus.

3. The Blair Witch Project (1999)

If nothing else, this is one of my divisive horror experiences of all time. Some people claim they were terrified and some think it is just stupid. What I love about this movie is the enveloping tone. It's not just the found footage gimmick, this movie has real atmosphere and characters, actual characters. It helps that competent actors portray those characters but yeah, I love this film. The only thing scarier than this film was the drive home from the theater on a lonely stretch of highway afterwards.

2. Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992)

Over the years, this just gets more and more amazing to my eyes. For all of Francis Ford Coppola's hubris, I think this is one of those times where it is well earned. The amount of care and detail put into the production design is staggering. People harsh on Keanu Reeves in this but for me, it's one of his most tolerable performances. I mean seriously, who the fuck likes Jonathan Harker anyway? Literally anyone can play a nothing character. At least Reeves makes him a pitiable chap. Great date movie.

1. The Exorcist III (1990)

Sometime in the mid-90s, I got this tape for a dollar when a ma and pa video store in Jupiter, Florida went out of business. I got this and Blue Velvet, neither of which I knew anything about. Boy did my brain get friggin' raped that weekend! This film attempts to make up for the misunderstood misfire of Exorcist II: The Heretic by making it bloodier but not much weirder (not sure if I like or dislike this). This is the film that endeared me to George C. Scott and Brad Dourif who both attempt to scream over all the insanity to some degree of success.


Thanks Richard!