Halloween Memories

The Countdown is over, and now it's Halloween once again.......

 

In the echoes of the past, the shape of the future can be found. What we now call Halloween, was once the pagan Celtic holy day "Samhain", a day in which they believed the veil separating the world of the living, and the "Other World" of the spirits, is at it's weakest. It was this day (or night rather), that they believed the spirits from the other side could cross over most easily, and thus they painted themselves up, both to ward off evil, and to be more recognizable to ancestors and deceased kin. Today, Halloween is more commercial, for kids it's about dressing up and candy, for adults (sadly) about dressing up and getting drunk (like every other holiday). But there still remain even amidst all of that, echoes of the Old Ways, and the old times in which the bonfires burned high and bright, as people told stories and played games and danced the night away. 

For me personally, Halloween has always been just about my favorite holiday. I say "just about", because Christmas, at least as a kid, was always right up there with it. But I think, getting into my early 30s now, that while there are still things about Christmastime I still am fond of, Halloween has been the most enduring. The imagery, the atmosphere, the celebration of ghouls and monsters, the great movies and cartoons that tend to get shown, the first sitings of pumpkin pie (my personal favorite), you name it. There's just a lot to love about the holiday, even as an adult, even if, like myself, you don't drink. I'd even go so far as to say that there is far more to enjoy during Halloween sober, but I digress.

Roar

Naturally, one of the things that stands out the strongest of my Halloween memories, are the costumes I wore. The earliest one I wore, or remember at least, was when I was about four or five years old, I went as "Spider-Man". I had a pair of Spidey pajamas at the time, and my grandmother made my face up in red and black web design (which is odd, because several years later, she decided she didn't want me partaking in comic book superheroes). I went around and trick or treated, likely for one of my first times. The following year, I do believe, I went as Superman, this time with one of those cheesy store-bought outfits, with the suit and the plastic mask. That was the only time I wore one of those. Another I remember, perhaps when I was about eight or so I suppose, I wore something similar to what the kid in the picture above is wearing: a cheeseball green dinosaur costume, though in my case my grandmother made it herself, and I painted my face green to go with it. I also went one year as a cowboy, even though I totally wasn't into them at all, complete with cut up carpet she had cut from little rugs to make chaps, and a cheap-as-hell plastic hat from a promotion Taco Bell had been doing in the late 80s.

The costume that probably became my favorite, even though it was never great, was two or so years in a row, my friend Harold and I went as Mario and Luigi, the Super Mario Bros., which to us was awesome, because we were both at the time obsessed with Mario and Nintendo. The first year wasn't much of a success, because all I had was some floppy brown hat she could find, and mis-matching suspenders, etc. But the next year, we did better, as we actually found red and green caps, and she sewed on "M" and "L" patches, and we came much closer to having matching red and green suspendered outfits. That was about the last time that I really got excited about dressing up, probably at the age of 12 I'd say. I still dressed up a bit in the following few years, but it became less of a big deal. When I was 16, three of my friends and I dressed up as weird, gothed-out versions of the "Four Horsemen of the Apocalype". I was, of course, Death, complete with "The Crow" looking face-paint. That was pretty much the last time I have ever really dressed up for Halloween. I might again someday, but I just really kind of fell out of it.

Ah the memories.....and the cavities....

One of the other big things, of course, was the candy. Just about all kids who live in any country where Halloween (or one of its ethnic analogs) is celebrated, loves the candy part. It is a part of it that I now, as an adult, can no longer really enjoy much, as I developed diabetes in my late 20s, but as I kid, I literally ate it up. I loved Reece's Peanut Butter Cups, Hershey bars (especially the dark chocolate ones), the little Mr. Goodbars, Butterfingers, M&Ms, Skittles, you name it. There were very few candies that I really didn't care for, one of them being those damn, stale orange marshmellowish "circus peanut" things. Another was candy corn, which I don't hate, and would eat, but didn't love. I also remember the only vaguely sweetened, chewey "wax lips" and other such allegedly edible wax "candy" things that used to exist when I was a kid. I don't really see those around anymore, so perhaps people wisened up and thought to themselves "maybe kids shouldn't be eating this shit", but as a kid, I for some stupid reason liked them. I guess it was just the novelty of it, more than anything.

When it comes to decorations, the more creative the better.

Trick or Treating in and of itself was something to look forward to. It was an adventure. Even with a parental figure or adult with you for supervision, it was this whole big thing of "we get to walk around at night", and it had this wild and exciting feel to it. The coldness of an autumn night, the crisp, almost tangible energy in the air (Perhaps from the Veil being thin? Perhaps from spirits being out and about?), just the whole ambiance of it. It was also a roll of the dice, and a somewhat scary proposition, going up to each house, to each porch, to each door, and knocking. You never knew if you were going to get candy, what KIND of candy, what kind of people they'd be, whether they'd have a dog, etc. etc. Some houses were dark, obviously not wanting visitors. Others would be totally made up, with people going all out, having haunted decorations and lights and whatever else, really getting into it all and trying to enhance the experience for the kids. It was fun, in a way that few things in life ever truly are. Yet, like many fun things, it also had an air of slight mystery and danger to the whole thing. And I guess that fit the Halloween feeling all the better.

The timeless classics.

And before I draw this to a close, I can't talk about my Halloween memories without talking about another part of it that was always important to me: the television specials and movies and cartoons that would play every year. I've already written a fairly in depth article on the subject of Halloween specials, but it needs to be embellished, for completions sake. As a kid, every year around different holidays, they always used to show many of the same specials around Christmas, Halloween, Easter, etc., and the Halloween ones were some of my favorites. Whether it was Disney's old 80s "Trick or Treat" special, or the classic Garfield special (arguably the best), or random other shit that would show like the hilarious "Mr. Boogedy", it was something I looked forward to almost as much as the dressing up or candy. Those specials, those shows and cartoons, and when I was a bit older, the cool classic horror/sci fi movie marathons, etc., all of those things helped shape me as a child, and I still love them to this day. From the still-amazing early Disney classic "Dancing Skeletons", to the Charlie Brown "The Great Pumpkin" special, it was all golden to me.

Awesome, but scared the bejesus out of me at a young age.

My strongest memories of Halloween growing up, were more of senses and feelings, than of specific events or candy or things. Much like Christmas, I was always bummed out the next day, after Halloween was over. Though Halloween was easier to get over, because I always had Thanksgiving and my birthday and Christmas to still look forward to. But that build up to Halloween Night, every year, was something genuinely special, no matter how hard other parts of childhood might have been, there were always certain times you could still find respite and joy within. Halloween was one of those special times. It was a culmination of elements, that combined to make real magic, if you were open and eager enough to see it, to feel it happening.

Whatever your plans are this Halloween/Samhain, make sure you take some time, for my sake, for your sake, to watch some old cartoons, or movies, or whatever. Make sure to stop when you're out after dark, and just stand there, take a deep breath, look up at the moon, look all around, and just drink it in. Even as one of us numbed, stupid adults, you can still feel "it" if you try hard enough. Even if just for a fleeting moment. And whatever you wind up doing for your Halloween, I hope you have a great time. Cheers!

Unnecessary Sequels: Fright Night

Here comes Round 3, and boy is it a doozy...........hold onto your butts........



So, usually, I would take a movie that I like, that is somewhat obscure, like the one I'm about to talk about, and put it in the "Silver Screen Stories" series, because it really is a great little film that more people need to know about. However, I am unfortunately compelled to place it in this series instead, because it also suffered the wretched fate of Hollywood trying to unnecessarily cash in on it's modest success, with a super-craptacular sequel that in many ways almost ruins the first film. And with that, let's dive right in!

Film: Fright Night
Year: 1985
Director: Tom Holland
Unnecessary Sequel: Fright Night II (1988)


Fright Night was one of many films from the 80s that can absolutely be labeled as an "80s film", because not only did it come from the 80s, but it embodies the 80s and belongs to the 80s. It wasn't quite as successful nor quite as famous as it's "teen vampire movie" counterpart, Joel Schumacher's 1987 hit "The Lost Boys", but it certainly was a success in it's own right. And I must say, in several ways I would venture to state that it's a better film, though Lost Boys was certainly a good movie. I'll say right away, that like many other things, the 80s knew how to do "teen vampire movies" right, as Night and Boys were both filled with clever dialogue, tight writing, and human characters you actually cared about. Unlike, basically, Twilight, or pretty much any other modern take on vampire nonsense.

In the 80s, vampires wore awesome Cosby sweaters.

The set-up of the film, is that young teen geek Charley Brewster, is a huge fan of classic horror movies, especially the "gothic horror" vampire films starring his favorite actor, Peter Vincent (played by the amazing Roddy McDowall). In fact, the movie gets it's name from Charley's favorite TV show, "Fright Night", which is hosted by Mr. Vincent (who himself is send up to both Vincent Price and long-time Hammer Films horror star Peter Cushing). So one night, while getting friendly with his high school sweetheart, Amy, he notices that a neighbor has moved in next door, and he spies some people carrying what looks like a coffin into the basement of the house. Being the horror geek that he is, he automatically assumes something is up, and sets about spying on his neighbor over the course of the next couple days, eventually discovering to his horror that, not only is his neighbor a real live (metaphorically speaking) vampire, but he's also responsible for the murders that have been plaguing his town recently. Left with no other recourse (so he feels) after his neighbor Jerry Dandridge discovers that his secret is known, and the vampire makes it clear that Charley is on his shit list very soon, he decides to go and seek help from the only man he believes can solve his little problem.

There's no mistake, this man makes the movie.

So now we get down to it. Peter Vincent, the character who, played so brilliantly by the tragically under-recognized and under-appreciated Mr. McDowall, completely makes this movie on his own. Don't get me wrong, if his role had been played by someone else, it might have still been decent, and this film on it's own would have still been a fun, interesting slice of the 80s. But WITH McDowall, the movie becomes, at least in my mind, a classic. Not only is he great in this role, but I also love this movie for the fact that it is one solid (and sadly rare) instance I can point to and say to people who have no idea who Roddy is, "There, THAT guy!". See, the thing is, most people do know about Mr. McDowall's work, he's just one of those guys where they aren't totally aware of it. He was/is fairly infamous in the role of Dr. Cornelius in the "Planet of the Apes" movies, though he is behind make-up and ape-mask. Fans of the widely known 90s cartoon "Batman: The Animated Series" would also recognize him as the voice behind the brilliantly played "Mad Hatter" villain. But in both cases of course, he's known more for his voice, not his face. But this was one role in a fairly successful film where his face IS shown, and he's really allowed to shine.

To make a long story short, Charley confronts Mr. Vincent as he's leaving his film studio where the "Fright Night" show is shot, and he tries to convince him that his neighbor is a vampire, and that he needs his "expert" help, as a long-time slayer of film vampires, in killing the fiend, before he kills Charley instead. Peter of course thinks the kid is bonkers, and gets out of there as fast as he can. Later on, after Charley has announced his fate to his girl Amy, and his kinda-sorta-pal "Evil" Ed, that he is going to try and kill Jerry Dandrige all by himself, if he can, they approach Mr. Vincent themselves. Fearing for Charley's sanity (not to mention his future jail-time), they convince him (with money) to come with them and "prove" that the nice neighbor isn't really a vampire at all. Problem is, after the faux test of proof to show Charley that Mr. Dandridge is just a normal dude, Peter Vincent accidentally sees no reflection when looking at Jerry in a mirror. He realizes then and there that vampires are real.

She's a hell of a wicked kissah.

So without giving too much away, after a further series of events, Mr. Vincent finally becomes convinced to attempt to play the role of "vampire killer" in real life, and he and Charley team up to take on the vile menace and his disgusting disciples. All in all, like I said before, it's really a great little film. In fact, while Tom Holland would go on to direct other well known horror films like the original "Child's Play" and a 90s adaptation of the Stephen King story "Thinner", I think his first movie (this one), was his best.

Even the poster sucks.

To me personally at least, the wholly uncalled for, unasked for, and unnecessary sequel that Fright Night received, is easily one of the very worst examples I can think of. Yes, it's even up there with the Jaws and Neverending Story sequels. It's that bad. The short version goes, the film was directed by Tommy Lee Wallace, who had previously done another unnecessary sequel in the form of "Halloween III: Season of the Witch". So that's already a bad start. But while the movie does retain it's top two stars from before, Roddy McDowall and William Ragsdale (Charley), the entire thing just screams "Why did you make this?" from beginning to end. Much like the many other films I've already brought to your attention in this little series of mine, the original Fright Night, had a rather well put together ending, and it was a very nice, self-contained story. This film undoes just about all of that, either directly, or indirectly. For one thing, it pulls the frequent Hollywood trick of "we couldn't get that actor back so we wrote her out and gave him a new girlfriend". That's exactly what happens, as Charley is now in college and no longer with his cute high-school sweetheart, instead now with a new girl, for convenience's sake. Not only that, but the writing and dialogue aren't snappy and memorable as in the first film, the plot and characters are no longer interesting, and the new villain, a shitty, "euro-trash" type vampire (a prototype for the modern era maybe?), named Regine, and her trashy, hipster, "New York party scene" reject crew, are incredibly uncompelling and lame.

The movie sucks to a degree that not even the Peter Vincent character can save it. Everything that was cool about the first movie, pretty much sucks in the second. The plot is incoherent and uninteresting, the pace of the film (unlike the original), is plodding and honestly boring for much of the film, etc. It really is just one of the worst examples you could ask for in a sequel that just never should have happened, as it tarnishes (to some degree) the legacy of the original film. But if that weren't bad enough, it isn't just that Fright Night got fucked by a shitty sequel. Nay, more recently (2011 to be precise), it got fucked even further, with a brand spanking new remake/reboot treatment. The only thing in film that is honestly worse than an unnecessary sequel to a great or even just decent film, is an even more unnecessary remake. And, not surprisingly, like most modern horror (or sci fi, or fantasy) remakes, from what I understand, the new film, starring none other than Colin Ferrel as the vampire, really sucked. In fact it sucked so bad that it got a direct-to-video sequel that totally ignores it and re-remakes the original with an all-new cast. Yup.

Funny thing, Colin Ferrel, while a good actor, who has played a few pretty strong roles in his time, also around the same time-frame starred in yet another unnecessary (and from what I understand, shitty) remake, this time of Total Recall. But you know, as this series of mine points out, among other things, Hollywood just never seems to learn. They figure that if something made money in the past, it might make money again now, and hell, that's a lot more secure of a proposal than taking a risk (like Hollywood used to do all the time decades ago), on totally NEW properties. But especially with movies like this one, the problem with remaking something like Fright Night, is that, as I stated at the beginning of this article, it was a product of the 80s. It embodies the 80s, it is every bit an "80s movie", and that is part of what makes it so great.

Remaking Fright Night? That would be about as dumb as, I don't know, trying to remake Gremlins. Oh..................wait....................


Till next time, keep your windows locked, and don't invite any neighbors in the house. 

Forgotten Gems: Demon's Crest

Time for more Halloween madness! Kick the tires and light the fires, big daddy......

The definition of hard.....

There have been many video games over the years that I would say fit into those classic Halloween themes, such as the one I covered last year, Monster Party. There's also the almost-always-awesome Castlevania series (which I will cover at another time, for sure), or the old Resident Evil games, etc. etc. However, one series that really stands out, is the Ghosts n Goblins series, both for it's own cavalcade of monsters, as well as it's screen-punchingly hard difficulty. One of the coolest monsters, and one of the most frustrating enemies in any of the games (Ghosts n Goblins, Ghouls n Ghosts, Super Ghouls n Ghosts), was the flame-red gargoyle called Red Arremer, otherwise known as Firebrand. That motherfucker would float and dive at you, at the worst times, killing you right when you're near the end of the game, and haunting your nightmares. Well, in their once upon a time seemingly unlimited well of wisdom, ol' Capcom decided to give the little bastard his own game.....

BEHOLD!............hey why's he green?

So in 1990, on the Game Boy no less, out came the eponymous spinoff, dubbed Gargoyle's Quest. As with many Game Boy games of the era, it had a cool but questionably odd cover art (white Kirby, anyone?), as RED Arremer, the new anti-hero Firebrand, was depicted as GREEN. Who knows....

One of the first games to allow you to play the "bad guy" from a previous game.

In the game, you play (obviously) as the demon Firebrand, who serves the ruler of the Ghoul Realm, King Darkaon, and strives to become the "Red Blaze" of legend, to thereby save the land from the armies of the King of Destruction, King Breager. The game was a unique mix of side-scrolling action/platformer, as well as having light rpg elements. You explore towns and maps from an overhead view, ala rpgs, and collect items and grow more powerful throughout the game. But the main action, as seen above, took place in that traditional side-scrolling view, and was definitely action oriented, with a mix of fighting monsters, floating on your gargoyle wings, and utilizing your cool wall-clinging ability. One of the elements that lends itself to the challenge of Gargoyle's Quest, is the fact that while you have wings, you cannot simply fly all over the screen as you please, the game instead allowing you to float for limited amounts of time, gauged by the little "W" bar at the bottom of the screen. The game sees you travel through various areas, fighting the five game bosses and collecting items to improve your abilities. In a rather fucked move on Capcom's part, the sixth and final boss battle, with King Breager, gives you an option before the battle, and depending on which option you choose in the dialogue, you either get to keep all your items and fight the boss normally, or are totally stripped of all your items, making you incredibly weak and virtually unable to actually beat the boss. A fine example of some of the total dick moves that certain classic games used to pull on players, though I'd label that one of the worst. If you beat Breager, you save the Ghoul Realm, and all is evil.....I mean GOOD again. That is until..........

BEHOLD!......that's more like it, eh?

In a somewhat surprising move that reversed the trend of the early 90s (along with Kirby's Adventure), of NES games getting sequels on the Game Boy (Kid Icarus, Metroid, etc.), in 1992 Capcom released a sequel on the NES, in all of it's full color 8-bit glory. In all honesty, while the first Game Boy game is awesome, I'm not really sure why they didn't just make it an NES game itself, as it certainly would have benefited, or at the very least, they could have released both games on both systems, as they did for certain other games, like Duck Tales.

Color suits him well, don't ya think?

Gargoyle's Quest II is very much the same type of game as the first, an rpg-like game where you travel around an overhead-view world map, and go to areas ("dungeons") in a regular side-scrolling manner. It would seem that while it's numbered as a sequel, the game is actually somewhat a prequel to the first, as it's supposed to feature a younger Firebrand, who is in training. While he is away training, a dark force called the "Black Light" comes and destroys his home, and naturally, once he returns, he must be the one to set off and find out what the hell (literally) is really going on. Again, it's a fun, though very challenging game, with various different landscapes to explore, and giant monster bosses to fight. Though I will say, one thing that the Gargoyle games have over Ghosts n Goblins, is that while both are very hard in their way, in the GnG games, half the difficulty comes from the awkward jumping mechanics. Whereas, in the Gargoyle series, you actually do have a much greater degree of control over your character, whether it be jumping at varying heights, floating in midair for limited time (which your bar increases, seen in the screen above, as you progress and get more items), or clinging to walls, which can and will really save your bacon innumerable times throughout the game. In another odd turn, GQII was ported to the Game Boy in Japan only, in 1993, and surprisingly, it was even given two extra levels. They were supposedly going to bring this "enhanced" version of the game to NA as well, but cancelled it. To me, even if they had, that's a rather cheap move on any game company's part, to release a game, and then just a year later release a "better" version of the game with more levels? I think a lot of people in NA would have been pissed if they'd done that. Though in all fairness, it wasn't unusual for Capcom of all companies to do things like this. Just look at Street Fighter II.......

Bad ass.

So now we come to the article's namesake, and my personal favorite entry in the series, in fact one of my favorite SNES games of all time, Demon's Crest. It would have made more sense for them to name the game "Gargoyle's Quest III: Demon's Crest", but instead they just dropped the original title completely, adding to the confusion of those who do not pay attention to such things. But make no mistake, it is in fact the third, and thus far last Gargoyle's Quest.

Well would ya just look at that......

Demon's Crest was, without a shadow of a doubt, one of those games that really showcased just what the SNES could do, when it released in 1994. Hell, '94 was already a bad ass year for SNES, what with the releases of Super Metroid (Metroid III), a great port of Mortal Kombat II, Final Fantasy III (VI), and Donkey Kong Country. Demon's Crest just added to that glut of awesomeness. And in all honesty, just as much as Super Metroid, FFVI, or DKC, Demon's Crest really displayed the height of the kinds of graphics and sound that it's games could be capable of. As you can see above, for its time, the level of graphical detail was rather incredible, and while you can't hear it by reading this article, the soundtrack was also bad ass, and featured some really fittingly creepy and mood-setting tunes.

The game starts off with a real bang, again as you can see above, that is the very first opening area of the game, and you immediately encounter this enormous, undead zombie/bone dragon. When I first rented this game, and fired it up, pressed start, and got into this area, and this thing just tramples on-screen, I was literally like "Holy Shit!". The battle itself, being the first of the game (and a clever way of getting you familiar with the controls by just throwing you in the water, unlike most modern games that force you through this painfully slow gameplay "tutorial"), isn't all that hard, but you are presented with a rather clever "psych-out" moment, as you beat this guy, he crumbles, and you exit stage right, feeling awesome about yourself, to the next screen, only to immediately have the even-more-crumbled bone-dragon head burst through the wall, and you kinda-sorta have to fight it a second time! Really a great way to start a game! One of the coolest openings to any game ever, really.

One of the cooler features of the game.

So the set-up of this game seems a bit different, to be sure. In the previous two games, Firebrand is presented more as an almost straight-up hero of his (admittedly "evil") monstrous Ghoul Realm, saving the day and such. In the third outing, the focus sees Firebrand seemingly growing beyond just serving demon kings and saving lands and such, instead showing him almost rather as a would-be conqueror in his own right. It seems that there are six magical Crests in the Demon Realm (what they call the Ghoul Realm now, which, as if it weren't clear in itself, is the place where the monsters Sir Arthur fights in Ghosts n Goblins/Ghouls n Ghosts come from), and anyone who attains all six, can basically wield god-like power, and "conquer all realms". That bit really reminds me somewhat of the six Infinity Gems in the Marvel Universe (which were, ironically enough, the focus of several big Marvel Comic cosmic story arcs in the early-to-mid-90s, around this same time).

At the outset of the game, it seems Firebrand has already come into possession of five of the crests, Fire, Earth, Water, Air, and Time. By defeating the demon bone-dragon in that opening battle, he collects the sixth, Heaven, but is left in a weakened state from the battle, and is set upon by another demon, Phalanx, who attacks you and takes them for himself. Somehow those damn things wind up getting scattered across the realm again, and it's up to you to go beat some ass and find them.

That son of a bitch.....

The game again features much the same gameplay, though the overhead rpg map style exploring is now replaced by a streamlined "Mode 7" 3D-ish flight around the world map, similar to the SNES Final Fantasy games (once you get an airship, that is). However, one major new addition, as can be seen above, is that as you collect the different elemental crests, you also gain the ability to transform into other gargoyle forms, which give you differing abilities. Your normal fire form, of course, allows you the same floating/wall clinging powers, as well as your fire breath. As you get the other crests, you can at will change into Ground Gargoyle (smashing stones), Aerial Gargoyle (can fly much better), Tidal Gargoyle (seen above, can breath/survive under water), as well as later Legendary Gargoyle and lastly Ultimate Gargoyle. It's a pretty cool new feature, and really livens up the gameplay. The game, much like the previous games, only features about six levels, though in this you have to backtrack to earlier levels with new powers to access hidden areas.


If I had one real complaint about Demon's Crest, that would be it: that it feels a bit too short. If it even had, say, one more full-length, seventh level, or better yet eight or more, it might feel like a bigger adventure. As it is, if you know what you're doing, you can kick some serious ass and the game will be over before you know it. That was the feeling I was left with upon beating the game all those years ago (the only one in the series thus far that I have beaten, without Game Genie), was that the fun ended too quickly. It's a really enjoyable game, and the controls and gameplay are even more fun and finely tuned than they were in GQI and II. So if it had been a bit longer, that would have made it more or less perfect. As it is, it's still one of the best SNES games in an already excellent catalog, by this man's estimation. And it, as well as the series as a whole, is totally "Halloween Material". So if you find yourself here in October, leading up to Halloween night itself, wanting to play some games that really fit the season? Then find yourself a copy (somehow....there are ways), and play these great games! And if you can only play one, make it Demon's Crest. You'll be glad you did.

Silver Screen Stories: It! The Terror From Beyond Space

Well, it's that time of year again, and so without further fanfare, here is the first in the 2014 Retro Revelations Halloween series!

It could very well scare you......to DEATH!

So I figured I'd kick off this year's Halloween countdown with a nice little slice of classic cinema. And for this, I decided to introduce you to none other than, while it may not seem like it on the surface, what would quietly become one of the most important science fiction/horror films in history, along with "Forbidden Planet". While not as widely or highly regarded as that bonafide classic, nor as successful in it's day, "It! The Terror From Beyond Space", is not only a pretty decent film, but also very important, if nothing else, for one major reason: it's massive influence on the genre, or more specifically, one key movie in the genre. Just as "Forbidden Planet" was a major influence on Star Trek and many other future sci-fi properties, "Terror" was, in point of fact, a direct influence on many films, but most importantly, 1979's "Alien".

An ill-fated rescue attempt on a dark, desolate planet.....

Whether screenwriter Dan O'Bannon or director Ridley Scott have ever fully admitted such, their 70s classic was absolutely inspired by "Terror", and even directly mirrors the film in many ways. In "Terror", the film starts as a spaceship has landed on Mars, on a rescue mission to look for survivors of a previous expedition that went "missing". Now in "Alien", the crew of that ship is responding to a strange, alien distress call (or so they thought, SPOILERS), which they assumed might be a ship in need of rescue as well. In "Terror", unlike Alien, they find a survivor of the wreck they explore, astronaut Col. Edward Carruthers, whom they assume has killed his crewmates to steal their rations to survive, though he refuses to admit it and insists that they were all killed by a mysterious force from the planet itself. Like "Alien", however, the crew decides to leave at once, unknowingly taking a very special, and very deadly stowaway with them as they leave...

Still pretty damn creepy......

The similarities don't stop with the setup though. The pace of the film is very slow and menacing, the film spends much of it's time in very dark, very isolated, very claustrophobic scenery, as the crew spends it's time hiding from/fighting their uninvited guest. The creature moves about the ship seemingly at will at times, hiding and traveling in air ducts, etc. At a certain point, a crew-member goes climbing into the ducts, hoping to drive the creature out. All things that in some way directly happen as well during the course of "Alien". The two films even employ the use of what were, for their time, hardly "big name" actors. All in all, I merely wanted to make it known the profound influence this film had on "Alien", as well as perhaps other films like the Italian "Planet of the Vampires", a movie itself that also had some influence on "Alien". The influence is a good thing, certainly, as there have been many great "send ups" to previous generation's films throughout movie history, and "Alien" is a great example of that.

Fighting for their lives.

Back to the movie at hand though. I remember seeing this on TV as a kid, most likely as part of TNT's MonsterVision, and at that age, naturally, it scared the shit out of me. Not as bad as some other movies did, but it was still damn spooky. The crew figures out early on that poor ol' Carruthers was innocent and telling the truth about the monster. Turns out, because water is scarce on Mars, this creature absorbs the fluids around it, including bodily fluids, and even bone marrow. And this is how it takes out crew member after crew member, always catching them alone, dragging them off into the air ducts or some other dark corner, and draining their bodies totally dry. That alone is, especially for a kid, a pretty frightening concept, and the movie does a great job with setting a scary and tense tone, taking the subject matter very seriously and not "camping it up" as some 50s films wound up doing.It presented the struggle to survive against this alien predator (see what I did there?), in a very convincing light (for it's time).

Seemingly unstoppable.

Another way in which the later "Alien" would seemingly mirror this film, is the way in which the crew of the ship seem terribly ineffective in their efforts to stop the creature. Of course, in "Alien" (SPOILERS) it doesn't help that there's also a psycho, sabotaging robot to contend with, but still, the crew in "Terror" try absolutely everything at their disposal to hurt or kill the creature, from axes, to guns and grenades, to fire, and even trying to trap the creature in the ship's nuclear reactor. But it seems to remain largely unscathed from every attack, and eventually chases the crew up the rocket, level by level, as they try to lock it out through a series of hatch-locks, which it is strong enough to eventually break through, one by one, till finally the crew is stuck up at the very top level, the ships control room.

The desperate, final confrontation.

So it winds up that the few survivors are about to become lunch for this horrible beast, just like the lone survivor in "Alien" (Ellen Ripley, oops, spoilers), and just like in that later film, again, it all comes down to a last ditch stroke of human ingenuity. In "Alien", that meant tricking the monster into getting sucked out the airlock, and then blasted by the ships thrusters. In "Terror", in the control room, as they are waiting for the beast to break through the final hatch and kill them, they realize that the ship's oxygen has been depleted at a rate far higher than normal, which they then deduce is due to the creature's large lungs. So, in desperation, donning their space suits to survive, they decide to flush all the oxygen out, suffocating the beast right as it's about to get them. (again....spoilers)

My memories of this as a kid, in spite of it scaring me, were pretty favorable, and upon watching it again as an adult, it holds up. It's not one of my very favorite classic sci-fi/horror films, but it is very good, and worth watching if you're a fan of those kinds of movies (which you totally should be), or even if you're just a fan of "Alien" and it's sequels, and are curious to see where some of it's major inspiration came from. It's very good taken either way, and I would highly recommend it as a nice, classic "chiller" to watch in this Halloween season.

Cheers, and stay tuned!

A Light in the Darkness: A Tribute to Robin Williams

 

On August 11th, 2014, Robin Williams passed away. Unlike so many media outlets and other folks talking it up at the time, I didn't personally care at all how he died. I didn't need to know the details of how it all came to an end, nor did I want to know. All I needed to know, or cared about, was the knowledge that he was gone. And the knowledge that went hand in hand with that: that our world was a little darker for his passing.

When I was a little kid in the 80s and early 90s, I didn't know much of Mr. Williams except for the old TV show "Mork & Mindy" (pictured above), which at one point in my early youth saw reruns on TV. Itself a spin-off of the show "Happy Days", which I was less familiar with, Mork & Mindy wasn't a great show, but it was quirky, and silly, and had it's own kind of charm, which was mostly attributed to Robins' portrayal of a weird, naive, but friendly alien. It wasn't one of my favorite shows, but I liked it, and of course it had his unforgettable alien catch-phrase "Nanu Nanu".

Fantastic casting, weird movie.

At some point in my childhood, I also remember seeing his first major film, his portrayal in the live action "Popeye the Sailor" film. In all honesty, even having gone back and watched it as an adult, the casting was really superb, the parts of Popeye, Olive Oyl, Bluto, Wimpy, and even Pappy, were all pretty much spot on. I don't have much memory from seeing it as a kid, except (of course) for the climactic scene involving a giant octopus. How could I forget that, it was a monster after all. It's not a bad film by any means, it just has a very off-kilter flow to it, and a very "odd" set of musical songs in it. Still, it's memorable, though hardly exemplary of how and why I would come to love and remember Robin Williams later in life.

Once again, great casting, and this time, also a great film.

I think my first two experiences, what I would call "genuine exposures" to Mr. Williams' work, came in the early 90s. One was his part as the voice of the Genie in Disney's "Aladdin", and the other, as can be seen above, was his part as an adult Peter Pan in Steven Spielberg's "Hook". Both were fantastic parts, really showcasing his talent and comedic genius, as well as just his downright likable-ness. It was during this time in the 90s when he had a real stretch of movies, in fact, that made it easy to see why a kid could become a big fan of his. Not only was he funny and amazing in Aladdin and Hook, but he also played the voice of Batty in "Fern Gully" (another great animated movie), the eccentric toy factory owner Leslie Zevo in "Toys", his unforgettable turn as "Mrs. Doubtfire", and of course one of the first movies I actually got to see in theaters (after that long childhood stretch where my grandmother said it was a waste of money), his role as Alan Parrish in the awesome "Jumanji".

It was a combination of all those movies, really, but most especially Aladdin and Hook, that really won me over and made Mr. Williams one of my favorite actors. His heart, his kindness, his humor, his frenetic energy, and his warmth, just really shined through on the screen. But this wasn't the end, fortunately. As I grew into my teens, I would be introduced to a whole other side of this man, and it wound up touching me even more deeply.

"O' Captain, My Captain"

In either my freshman or sophomore year in high school, I was finally exposed to what is, in my opinion at least, arguably his best film, 1989's "Dead Poets Society". This film really inspired me and inflamed my imagination at that tender age. After first seeing this film, and then later similar films that he would go on a stretch of in the late 90s, more somber and sometimes darker, but always more thoughtful films, it really fit right into the more somber, often darker, and ever thoughtful (and emotional) years of my teens. The changes in my own life were often very tough to deal with, and just as I had found Mr. Williams' energetic, weird, funny earlier roles an inspiration in my childhood, I found these later films (and the earlier "Poets") to be an even greater inspiration as I was struggling my way into adulthood.

Imperfect, but an amazing film nonetheless.

When I saw "Poets", it really inspired me with it's "never stop learning, question everything, and never be afraid to BE yourself" motif. Even with it's (SPOILERS) very somber ending, it still really spoke to me, and I would say it was definitely one of the most important films of that period of my life, ages 15-18. Even though I personally found it very hard sometimes to live by, I have always held onto his lesson about "Carpe Diem", trying to seize every day, and live it as if it were your last. Then in 1998, when I was 16 years old, "Patch Adams" came along, I would honestly say, right when I needed it to. I was going through very dark times, hard times, but I also had a heart full of fire, and a head drowning in ideas (and ideals). "Patch Adams", while not totally true to the life of the real man, was a great, bittersweet, but touching film, and it really inspired me on a personal level perhaps more than any other I have ever seen, before or since. Not that I want to be a medical doctor, but the story it told, of bucking rigid paradigms, and saying "Fuck the System", doing things your own way, and most importantly, trying to help people and make a difference, no matter who or what tries to hold you down and stop you.....all of that was music to my young ears. It really set my mind alight, and I was totally enraptured with thoughts of grand designs and saving the world after I walked out of that theater. That movie really meant a lot to me then, and I still remember it fondly now (even in spite of the one, super dark, totally unnecessary scene they made up for it).

Other movies from that period, that I also found inspiring and thought provoking, were "What Dreams May Come" and "Bicentennial Man". He had two really great stretches of films, first family films in the early to mid 90s, and then these more thoughtful, more mature fare in the late 90s, and it was all golden, for the most part. The 90s were really his decade, as much as they were the likes of Jim Carrey and others. And I can honestly say, that for all the other figures and persons who helped shape and mold me growing up, from Ray Harryhausen and Shigeru Miyamoto, to Ishiro Honda and Stan Lee, to Jim Henson and George Lucas, to Walt Disney and Edgar Allen Poe, or James Hetfield and J.R.R. Tolkien, etc., he absolutely stands among them.

He's gone, but of course, never forgotten. He'll always be one of the greatest of all time, and like anyone else, he should never be remembered for how he died, but instead, how he lived. RIP.

Childhood Memories: Dinosaucers

Totally 80s. Totally Awesome.

So I've mentioned before that when I was a little kid, I was a major dinosaur nut for many years, before that in turn evolved into being a major fanatic for monsters and mythological creatures of all sorts. I can't rightly remember exactly when my dinosaur fascination started, but it was definitely by the time I was around five or six years old. I had all sorts of dinosaur toys, a collection of dinosaur books, you name it. I ate up every TV special or cartoon about them that would come on, and I about flipped when I was able to go to a museum to see dino animatronics for the first time. In fact, arguably my most prized and favorite toy as a kid, for years, was this small (maybe 4 or so inches tall at most), squat little gray T-Rex toy that I named "Dino", and I carried that guy with me everywhere. Years before I evolved into the use of "thinking pencils" (for those of you who have ever utilized such things, you know what I'm talking about), Dino pulled triple duty, as my toy, my pal, and my "thinking item" when I would play or be off daydreaming.

But with all that said, the late 80s absolutely fueled my Dino-mania, in no small part because of three particular cartoons that all came on around 1987/88. One of them, "Dino Riders", was a somewhat Marvel Comics produced cartoon, that I will give it's own article at another time, but sufficed to say, while it was the most short lived of the three, it was sci-fi, fairly deep for a kids cartoon, and pretty awesome. The other two, which I clearly remember playing back to back (or so my memory tells me), when I was in first grade. The first was a cheesy (but fun) show called "Denver, the Last Dinosaur". It was about a group of kids who find a dinosaur egg that was unearthed by some construction site, and naturally, out pops a millions-of-years-old Dino, ready to embrace everything 1980s America has to offer. No seriously, Denver donned a pair of shades, wore "tubular" '80s shirts, and rocked out on a hot pink guitar. There was a bit more to it, but that was the main gist, and while I totally ate it up as a seven year old, it was definitely the weakest of the three.

About as '80s as it gets.

The other show, and the articles namesake, was a now little known classic called "Dinosaucers". Years before "Captain Planet" (another childhood favorite) came about, here was a show that featured a bunch of kids (teens?), who are lucky enough to meet up with a group of aliens who happen to be anthropomorphic talking dinosaurs. These kids become the "Secret Scouts", the only ones who (in general) know about these super awesome dino dudes, and the Scouts even get neat little rings, just like the Planeteers would years later. Though in this case, all the rings did was act as secret communicators to the Dinosaucers. Naturally, the Dinosaucers have enemies, otherwise there wouldn't be much of a show, and these came in the form of some real nasty baddies called "Tyrannos". All of these righteous (and bogus) characters come from a planet called "Reptilon", where everyone is an evolved, talking anthro-dino, and of course, the Tyrannos are a faction that want to ruin shit and control everything, and they've brought their fight to Earth.

These parties always get out of hand.

 So before I go any further, just for fun, let's do a quick roll call of the characters. Getting the boring ones out of the way first, the four human "Secret Scout" kids are Ryan and Sara Spencer (siblings), and their friends Paul and David. Far more importantly however:

The Dinosaucers were made up of their leader Allo the Allosaurus, Dimetro the Scottish accent Dimetrodon, Bronto Thunder the massive Apatosaurus (or as they were still also called back then, Brontosaurus, hence "Bronto"), Stego the obvious Stegosaurus, Tricero the lounge singer (just kidding, Triceratops), Bonehead the dumb but lovable Pachycephelasaurus (say that three times fast), Ichy the suave Ichthyosaurus, and last but not least, the lone girl of the group, Teryx the wise and graceful Archaeopteryx.

The Tyrannos consisted of their grumpy and loud-talking leader, Genghis Rex the evil Tyrannosaurus, his evil sister Princess Dei the Deinonychus (who doesn't appear much), Ankylo the bumbling Ankylosaurus, Quackpot the jokester Hadrosaurus (duck-billed guys), Styraco the Stryracosaurus, Plesio the slippery Plesiosaurus, and saving the best for last.......Terrible Dactyl, the sneaky, scheming Pterodactyl. Yes, that name is cheesy. And yes, it's fucking amazing.

He just now realized how terribly clever his name is.

As you can probably tell, from both that face-off pic up there, as well as reading all that, that the good guys and bad guys were kind of set up by the shows creators to be evenly matched and parallel to each other. Both sides have a ferocious leader, a giant long-neck (to borrow a phrase from The Land Before Time), a duck-billed guy, a horned guy, a hard-headed dumb guy, a water guy, a spike-tailed guy, and a flying person (since one is a chick). All in all, a nice set up, and many of the characters are rather entertaining, though of course the most-so would be the two pictured above, Quackpot and Terrible Dactyl himself. As was usually the case in 80s cartoons, the bad guys do tend to be hilarious and inept, but especially to a seven year old's perception, it was both epic and amazing. I wished like hell back then that I had a talking dinosaur pal. Hell, that'd still be pretty cool right now.

"Secret Scouts, HOOOOO!!!"

The show only lasted one season, sadly. It was a weekday cartoon, not a weekend one, so that season did at least consist of 65 episodes though. As was the case with most 80s cartoons, it was light in tone, and often featured incredibly silly plots and scenarios, but it was still a lot of fun, and I would even go so far as to say one of the better cartoons of that decade. And that is really saying something, as it was a decade chock full of bad ass animated content. The show featured the ongoing struggle between the two factions, which sometimes even saw them go back to their home planet Reptilon, as well as other semi-regular plot devices such as "Dinovolving", where the characters would devolve into their more primal, ancestral dinosaur forms to do battle. In some ways I think it was ahead of its time, and pretty creative all around, and it's really a damn shame, I think, that it isn't remembered and recognized up there with the likes of He-Man, Thundercats, Transformers, TMNT, etc. 

I also seriously lament the fact that no DVD of this show has ever yet been made. There's always a chance, as far more obscure shows have found their way onto DVD before. But it hasn't happened yet, and that really sucks if you ask me. Why? Because I'd buy it up in a hot minute, of course. I do believe there are still some episodes floating around on Youtube or wherever else, though they are poor quality, coming from old VHS recordings. If you get a chance, and have never experienced this show, take a look if you can find anything, because it really was one of a kind, and it is still one of my favorite shows from the 80s.

Childhood Memories: Pac-Man

In honor of his recent 34th birthday, I thought it was about time to give a little attention to a certain yellow dude from my past. The earliest games I remember in my life, at around age 3 or so, were Namco's Pac-Man and Dig Dug. Pac-Man was huge in the early to mid-80s, and years before Mario Mania swept the nation in the late 80s, Pac-Man Fever was a mass epidemic of epic proportions. So much so that he even had his own top ten hit single (of the same name). He had a cartoon, he had toys, he was on t-shirts and pajamas and lunch boxes, he had his own cereal and Spagettios knock off, you name it. In short, he was the very first true video game icon: a game character that was widely recognized and attained popularity that reached above and beyond the game that spawned him. Pac-Man was released in October of 1980 in the US, earlier that year in May back in Japan, and he quickly caught fire worldwide, as his game was arguably the first (besides perhaps Pong) that reached a mass audience, and appealed to men and women, children and adults alike.

Simple, elegant, addictive, classic.

I'm not sure where I first saw Pac-Man, but my earliest memory of it, is sitting at one of the table-top arcade cabinet models, at a local Roundtable Pizza when I was about 3 or 4. I didn't actually "play" the game at first, as my grandmother didn't often hand out quarters for me to "waste" (her words), at that age especially. So in those days, I would just sit down and see the "demo mode" playing, and at that age, I really couldn't tell whether I was controlling the game or not, and regardless, I just had fun pretending I was and watching the game anyway. The first time I ever did actually get a quarter to play it, I'm sure that I more than likely sucked complete ass at it, on account of, you know, being a toddler. But I still had a burning desire to play it, and it always fascinated me, what with it's foreboding mazes, scary (but fashionably colorful) ghosts, and Pac-Man's insatiable appetite for "Power Pellets".

They really don't make 'em like this anymore.

In the picture above you can see the style of arcade machine I mean. It was literally a table, that you could safely rest things like sodas and pizza on top of, to gleefully stuff your face while you blew quarter after quarter trying to master the mazes of Pac-Man. As you can also see above, Pac-Man received a (at the time unofficial) sequel of sorts in the form of "Ms. Pac-Man", a game which features slightly faster gameplay, and new mazes, as well as the astonishing graphical differences of "Ms." featuring lipstick and a bow on her head, to prove she was female. Whereas the four ghosts in the original game were called Inky (Blue), Blinky (Red), Pinky (Pink), and Clyde (Orange), in Ms. Pac-Man, the orange ghost was changed to "Sue", so that Ms. Pac-Man would have a female enemy. In the later game, Pac-Land (as well as in the Pac-Man cartoon), Sue's color is changed to purple, and she is made her own entity. As a kid,  I liked Pac-Man better, simply because "he was a boy", but I really enjoyed both games just as much.

A fun blast from the past.

As a fun bit of trivia for ya, gaming lore has it that the inspiration for Pac-Man originally came to character/game creator Toru Iwatani, while eating a pizza, and seeing that circular shape with a slice missing gave him the idea for the character of a giant mouth that ate things. The name "Pac-Man" also came from the the Japanese sound for eating, "paku-paku". Alternatively, the game upon release was originally called "Puck-Man" in some versions, because it's said the character also had a "hockey puck-like shape". Once the game was brought to America, most versions by then were officially called "Pac-Man", however. It's even been said that the American arcade publisher of the game, Bally/Midway, chose to change the name because they didn't want smart-ass kids covering the "P" in "Puck-Man" with an "F", thus making it......well, you get the gist.

A huge part of my early childhood.

What really cemented Pac-Man in my memory though, beyond just seeing/playing the game itself, was the 1982 Pac-Man cartoon. Produced by Hanna-Barbara, and featuring the voice of classic television actor Marty Ingels as Pac-Man himself, it was a cheesy but fun little show that presented the "Pac-Family" (Mr. Pac, Mrs. Pac, and Pac Jr., along with a Pac-dog and cat) as living in a "normal", Flintstones type world, where everyone were Pac-Man type persons. Except, of course, for the evil (see: mischievous) ghosts, who did the bidding of the mysterious Darth Vader look-alike, Mezmaron (a character invented just for the show, to have an arch-villain). The show featured other characters, such as Pac's nephew P.J., and later "Super-Pac", the Superman equivalent of Pac-Land (also based off of his own game, "Super Pac-Man").

Darth Sillious

During those very early years of my life, the Pac-Man cartoon was as big a deal to me, as Sesame Street, or Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood, or He-Man, or Scooby-Doo, or the Smurfs, or the Care Bears, etc. In fact, I must've seen it in re-runs, because I would've only been one or two years old at the time of it's original airing, so it obviously lasted on TV in syndication for awhile. The show was, of course, like most 80s cartoons, fairly silly in tone, but it was memorable to me, and I remember actually thinking that red-robed clown up there was actually pretty scary-looking to my 3 or 4 year old self. Each episode would more or less play out the same, Mezmaron would come up with some evil scheme to get those Power Pellets away from Pac-Man, and then somehow his ghost minions would find a way to bungle it up, Pac-Man would chomp 'em, and they'd go running back to Mezmaron's castle, just cartoony eyes, just like in the game. Naturally, I always found that absolutely hilarious.

This kooky NES cover was inspired by the look of the cartoon show.

As did the rest of the gaming world, when in the latter half of the 80s, Super Mario took over with a vengeance, I too kind of forgot about poor ol' Pac-Man a bit, and got wrapped up in the game that made me go from being just fascinated with games (Pac-Man), to the one that made me fall madly in love with them (Super Mario Bros.). But I never fully forgot about ol' Pac, and neither did the world. He got various new games, one of which I was particularly fond of, Pac-Mania, a slightly different take where Pac-Man could jump over ghosts in the maze, that I used to play on a friend's PC when I would visit. In the 90s he tried his hand at side-scroller platforming, and Tetris-style puzzling. And by the time the 3D gaming era had hit, Pac-Man was still there with us, in a bright shiny new 3D game of his own (the heavily Super Mario 64 inspired) Pac-Man World.

But through all his newer incarnations, the charm, fun, and addictively simple gameplay of that original 1980 gem, has never really been surpassed. As I bring this article to a close, it bears mentioning that right shortly after his 34th birthday passed in late May, Pac-Man was once again part of some significant gaming history, as he was officially unveiled as a new fighter in the newest entry of the popular Nintendo franchise, Super Smash Bros. It's significant, because for the first time in gaming history, we have what are basically the three single biggest gaming mascot/icons of all time, all together in one game, in the forms of Super Mario, Sonic the Hedgehog, and Pac-Man. And as an added bonus, while not quite on the superstar icon level as those three, classic gaming icon Mega Man has also been added to the mix, so it's a veritable "Who's Who" (almost) of classic video gaming superstars. Just a neat little testament to the enduring popularity of all of them, but especially the first true gaming "character", good ol' Pac-Man.

Just cool to see, honestly. :-)