Howdy there, Scream Freaks! Boy, if y’all didn’t know better, you’d probably think we traded our digs at the Howl-Inn Grub & Spirits for our new favorite toy store, Toy Federation, ’cause that’s where we spent ‘nother weekend diggin’ through collections of plastic goods from yesteryear and today while shootin’ the breeze with horror legends. Ran by a swell bunch of horror lovin’ fan boys, these new amigos of ours are puttin’ their store to great use in the face of all the convention cancellations, makin’ it an intimate meetin’ ground for folks to continue seein’ stars from their favorite fright flicks.
This time ’round, they flew in seasoned stuntman James Winburn whose long and successful career is most celebrated for a fall he took from a second story balcony as Michael Myers in John Carpenter’s original Halloween. Bein’ one of the first actors in an exclusive club to play the infamous Shape, we were plenty excited to hear some of James’s stories from the set, but even happier he was willin’ to give Screaming Soup! a few minutes to talk ’bout his involvement with other cult classic movies and actors.
An easy goin’ workhorse, James was a hoot to talk to as he unloaded encyclopedias worth of old Hollywood knowledge on us. Talkin’ through recent dental work he had done, James shares his association with Michael Myers as a horror icon, recounts the horrifyin’ street violence surroundin’ the production of 1991’s Popcorn, recalls jokes he pulled on the set of Ilsa She-Wolf of the SS, fondly remembers the late Robert “Maniac Cop” Z’Dar, and shares some of the hardest hits he’s ever taken in the stunt business. In hindsight, the injuries segment’s a bit long, but we feel it’s important to document as much of these kinda stories as possible for the benefit of anyone interested in bein’ a stunt man and to really capture what a conversation with James is like.
There’s so many more of his movies we wanted to ask James ’bout (like the fact there’s a Gong Show movie), but we got a fantastic handful of behind the scenes stories ya ain’t gonna find anywhere else. Check the video out below, and enjoy!
Other than that, be sure to catch up on all past Screaming Soup! Seasons, check out this week’s Howl’n Hottie, read recent reviews for the newer horror films and comics we’re checkin’ out in our blogs, R-Rated Reviews and Sequential Slime, and help us get the word out about the web’s #1 animated horror host show! Please use our social buttons in the upper right corner of the site and follow our tweets, subscribe to our video channels, like our Facebook, watch and share all our vids, and keep that fan mail comin’. You can also warm up some Screaming Soup! leftovers with reruns currently playin’ on Beta Max TV, Sluggo’s The Vortexx, and Mr. Lobo‘s OSI 74!
Howdy there, Scream Freaks! Yee-ow! Our ears are burnin’, and we think it’s ’cause y’all wanna know if we saw the new Halloween do-over yet and what we thought of it. Well, we sure as shootin’ saw that sucker the second it hit the silver screams in our parts, and let us tell ya . . . it ain’t bad!
We had our hang-ups goin’ into this shake-up of such a beloved horror series, but we survived Halloween: H20 and Rob Zombie’s attempts at resettin’ the Halloween timeline, so how much worse could this be? Honestly, we think the trailers come off kind of silly lookin’ like Laurie’s been sittin’ on her porch with a shotgun for 40 years, waitin’ for Michael to come after her like he’s set to go off on significant anniversaries of that infamous night from ’78. Makes sense if Michael and Laurie still had that siblin’ rivalry revealed in the original part two from ’81, but we knew goin’ into this flick the filmmakers nixed all that, leavin’ Michael without any motivation for bein’ obsessed with a random girl he tried to kill one night.
Havin’ seen the movie now, the characters and their motivations make sense and the story’s not quite as ludicrous as the trailers hint. For starters, all the waitin’ and paranoia bullshit completely stems from Laurie who suffers from some serious post traumatic stress the last 40 years. She’s a damaged character who is just mentally ruined by that night in ’78 and copes by bein’ a survivalist nut while buildin’ up Michael’s bogeyman lore the same way Dr. Loomis did in past movies. In reality, or at least the way we see it, Michael’s just been chillin’ at Smith’s Grove Sanitarium these last 40 years, probably never even thinkin’ ’bout that one girl that got away. In fact, nothin’ he does is motivated or even aimed at Laurie or her family. Without seein’ or hearin’ from Laurie since ’78, Michael simply escapes a bus transportin’ him to a maximum security prison and then kills folks left and right without rhyme or reason like a shark attackin’ anythin’ that moves. He coincidentally runs into a lot of folks associated with Laurie’s family which makes sense for a small town, but the only reason he reunites with Laurie is due to outside forces literally puttin’ her in his homicidal path. Michael was never huntin’ her ’til he was practically dumped at her doorstep.
The film’s good overall. Mandy loved it, givin’ it her own 5/5, but we agree there’s some questionable castin’ and were a little frustrated at first when it seems Laurie’s 40 year master plan is to shoot Michael in the face which goes south pretty quick. We don’t like how much of old man Michael we see without his mask, but was impressed with the filmmakers keepin’ with the continuity of his eye bein’ fucked up from Laurie stabbin’ him with the coat hanger in the original film. And while they do away with all the supernatural thorn cult stuff that supposedly explained why Michael was such an invincible super slasher, he’s still a killer with juggernaut strength like in Halloween 4, crushin’ skulls and bustin’ through barriers.
What’s a little disappointin’ is the level of involvement from the original talents and filmmakers from Halloween ’78 that initially got fans like us excited for this reinvention of the franchise. Namely director John Carpenter, and Jamie Lee Curtis and Nick Castle reprisin’ their iconic roles as Laurie and the shape. Carpenter’s only back in the game as an executive producer, leavin’ the directin’ and writin’ to newer blood, but makes his presence felt as one of the three composers providin’ a synth score that reinvigorates the original theme he created decades ago. It’s always fun to watch Jamie fight Michael again, but we already blew our comeback load with H20, so this repeat performance is already tainted by that, even with her new approach to playin’ Laurie as an agoraphobic survivalist. Her co-star Nick Castle jumps back in the coveralls to resume his gig as one of the many folks to play Michael in ’78, but just like then, he shares the role with another actor in the 2018 version, makin’ it almost impossible to know when it’s him for nostalgic enjoyment.
The pros greatly outweigh the cons, however, and we promise ya the movie is worth the ticket of admission and a great way to celebrate this Halloween season. It’ll definitely be some time before we can process how it compares to the past movies and where it fits on our list of best to worst Myers films though. But in the meantime, Mandy’s already wantin’ to see it a second time, and we’re not far behind her!
Other than that, be sure to catch up on all past Screaming Soup! Seasons, check out this week’s Howl’n Hottie, read recent reviews for the newer horror films and comics we’re checkin’ out in our blogs, R-Rated Reviews and Sequential Slime, and help us get the word out about the web’s #1 animated horror host show! Please use our social buttons in the upper right corner of the site and follow our tweets, subscribe to our video channels, like our Facebook, watch and share all our vids, and keep that fan mail comin’. You can also warm up some Screaming Soup! leftovers with reruns currently playin’ on Beta Max TV and Sluggo’s The Vortexx!
For all you fearmakers out there workin’ on your next scary feature, remember to shoot it our way as an entry in our Scream Freak Film Contest! Three winners will be reviewed in our 50th episode and promoted to all the Scream Freaks lookin’ for the next big thing Hollywood’s too scared to capitalize on. The deadline is open ’til we publish our 49th episode!
And remember to deface your calendars for Screaming Soup!’s first official convention appearance at Mad Monster Party Carolina Feb. 22-24 2019 where you can meet and greet the talents behind your favorite animated horror host show for free autographs!
Howdy there, Scream Freaks! Lock your doors and turn the lights off, ’cause it’s time for an all new episode of Screaming Soup! Yessir, we’ve officially stepped out of the Howl-Inn Grub & Spirits and hit the open road of the Crosslands where its truly highways or dieways. Clues are given for future storylines, we have the most horror icon cameos on the show to date, and we finally get a lead for how to kick Buzzkill out of the picture for good.
This time around, we review a unique little film called Monster Man that’s all about a monster killing people with a monster truck. ’bout time! 2 buds (who we call dumb and dumber light) race to a wedding to confess their love for a slut, but get stopped by bangin’ hitchhikers, mutilated hicks, septic shakes, and Yoda sexcapades. As funny as it is scary, you gotta skip down and watch this review NOW!
A special note about this episode that’s also a spoiler (you’ve been warned!), we just wanted to point out we animate our shows a year in advance for scheduling reasons, and this was produced well before Wes Craven passed away last year. So, if you maybe get a little confused by Wes’ appearance or anything he says, that’s why. It was amazing how so many unexpected emotions came over us here at Screaming Soup! when we heard of his passing, proving just how much of an impression he left on our lives for a guy we never had the pleasure to meet. We’ll always miss Wes and treasure his amazing work he shared with us over the years.
Other than that, be sure to catch up on Screaming Soup! Seasons 1-2 after watching the latest Season 3 episodes, check out this week’s Howl’n Hottie, read recent reviews for the newer horror films we’re watching in our R-Rated Reviews blog, and help us get the word out about the web’s #1 animated horror host show! Please use our social buttons in the upper right corner of the site and follow our tweets, subscribe to our Youtube channel, like our Facebook, watch and share all our vids, and keep that fan mail coming.
Howdy there, Scream Freaks! You know, we’re not big fans of Hollywood remaking classic horror movies, ’cause so many of them were good the first time around! For example, The Omen, Fright Night, Nightmare on Elm St., maybe The Fog . . . but then there are those memorable monster movies that were poorly executed and deserving of redemption. One such film we always wanted to see remade or even remake ourselves would be the Incredible Melting Man . . . why’re you laughin’?
We reviewed sploosh face in season 2 of Screaming Soup! and had plenty of time to brainstorm what would make it a better movie after pointing out everything wrong with it. Despite its problem deciding whether or not it was going to be a horror parody, endless slow-mo running, silly scenes of seniors snatching lemons, and hambone acting, the concept of a guy melting away has a lot to offer if done right. The movie is already famous for make-up artist Rick Baker’s special effects, but if coupled with a convincing character for the audience to connect with, this could have easily been The Fly of its day.
If made in our vision, we’d still have the accident in outer space with the astronaut, resulting in his fatal meltdown. It starts slowly at first, but accelerates and gets worse, forcing him to be held for observation on some kind of military base. As he melts, his brain gets more and more unstable, making him attack people whose plasma slows down his melting, motivating him to kill more people out of desperation for preserving his own life. Sounds more or less the same movie so far, but the biggest difference would be developing the astronaut’s character more through conversations with friends and loved ones during his stages of meltdown. In the original, he barely spoke and just ran around like a mad gorilla taking chunks out of people in the boonies. He looked cool melting, but echoes of his deadly mission and sad stares at women through windows wasn’t enough to make you shed a tear for his demise as a human puddle by the end. Relationships, interacting with people, sharing thoughts and fears would easily bring the audience closer with his grim journey, making them actually give a shit when he dies. Regarding the effects, we’d definitely put him in situations that makes his condition worse. Like having to loose flesh squeezing his gooey body through things to attack someone or have to dissolve in some sewer water when escaping the military base, loosing limbs along the way. Just harmful situations that make sense and elevates the scares and gore of his appearance as the movie progresses. Lastly, wherever he goes, its with purpose like maybe returning home to be with his wife who he finds banging his best friend/doctor from the base which sends him into even more of a rattled rage. This has a lot of possibilities for being a really good gore flick . . .
But then again, what do we know? We like killer tomato movies!
Other than that, be sure to catch up on Screaming Soup! Seasons 1-2 after watching the latest Season 3 episodes, check out this week’s Howl’n Hottie, read recent reviews for the newer horror films we’re watching in our R-Rated Reviews blog, and help us get the word out about the web’s #1 animated horror host show! Please use our social buttons in the upper right corner of the site and follow our tweets, subscribe to our Youtube channel, like our Facebook, watch and share all our vids, and keep that fan mail coming.
Howdy there, Scream Freaks! Hope you enjoyed the 4th of July as much as we did. While you were shoving hot dogs in your faces, cannon balling into the shallow end, and running to the emergency room to treat firework injuries, we were having a Thing marathon!
The Thing has to be one of the scariest horrors imagined. That is, the alien from “John Carpenter’s The Thing.” The original Howard Hawks “Thing From Another World” was about a damn vegetable man trying to bash everyone. No, Carpenter definitely tapped into some great body horror with a whole reimagining of this monster attacking from the inside, representing what could arguably be a loose metaphor for fears at the time like AIDs. A monster whose every cell is its own entity, willing to do anything to survive, causing everyone who comes in contact with it to become paranoid and crazily anti-social for fear of being infected by the merest touch. Dark Horse comics was cool enough to continue the ’82 movie’s storyline in the 90’s with a few mini-series titled after the original movie, “Thing From Another World,” and was a great follow up for horror fans that didn’t disappoint. When interest picked back up in the late 2000’s to take another cinematic pass at such a influential movie, the filmmakers wisely told a story not even the comics did which is the obliteration of the Norwegian camp that dug up the Thing before it arrived at the American research station in the ’82 version. In retrospect, the 2011 story was good. The filmmaker really did their research, and the scene where the guy is combined into the 2 headed monster is pretty unsettling. The only shortcoming was the digital effects that just didn’t stand up to Rob Bottin’s slimy creature designs from the 80’s. It all felt too artificial and wasn’t really as gross as it should have been. We still hold the worst effect to be the transformation in the helicopter. It just didn’t look organic at all, but more like a jigsaw puzzle breaking apart with clean CGI wire innards blowing out!
Anyway, we got on a Thing kick and heard a KISS song recently that inspired us to edit together another Re-Make Re-Mix video for you Scream Freaks we hope you enjoy. It shows you all the good parts from the original Howard Hawks movies and most the goodies from the remakes. Enjoy!
And be on the lookout for the next episode of Screaming Soup! coming 7/20/15!
Otherwise, be sure you’re caught up with the rest of Screaming Soup! Season 2, use our social buttons in the upper right corner of the site and follow our tweets, subscribe to our Youtube channel, like our Facebook, watch and share all our vids, and keep that fan mail coming.
That’s pretty much it for now, so I’ll see ya’ later Scream Freaks!
Howdy there, Scream Freaks! This week your host with the most was trying to enjoy some “Zombeavers” on Netflix, when all the fun was suddenly sucked out of the room when my girlfriend, Mandy, saw her one hot button trot across the screen. “They have a dog in this movie?” she gritted, “You know they’re just going to kill it. That’s the only reason why any animals are in horror movies anymore!”
Now, if you recall our review of “Monster Dog,” you’re aware Mandy is a big animal lover and never wants to see any harm done to them, but come on – it’s a movie! It’s not a real! It’s just a bunch of animatronics and CGI shit all over the screen whenever you see a poor critter taken out as a warm up to the characters you’re about to watch get slaughtered. And what about those characters? We can watch people get sliced and diced in every sick way imaginable, but as soon as an animal is found dead on screen – BOOM! Demands are made to change the movie, pouty walk outs happen, and sometimes tears come on like tsunamis.
You remember “Shark Night”? We were psyched to see that when it came out, but holy shit, it was Niagra Falls the moment that hick throws the poor dog into the shark infested waters toward the end. Of course, I don’t budge from the theater because I’m too cheap, but I’ll be damned the dog lives and even helps kill a shark! Rejoice from Mandy, right? Nope. Just a lot of swearing at the filmmakers for putting her through such a traumatic experience. Same thing happened when we saw “Cowboys VS Aliens” at the theater. She found it impossible to enjoy the movie, because the filmmakers let the audience think a dog was killed for about half the movie before showing him alive and well at the very end. What the fuck? It lived, right? What’s the problem? But no, now it’s all about the dog’s owners were killed in the movie and who will take care of it now?
I gave up my side of this argument a long time ago.
What’s even worse is she has her favorite horror movies of all time that actually contradict this whole attitude toward critter deaths in movies. Like John Carpenter’s “Halloween.” Holy fuck, Michael Myers fucking strangles a dog on screen, and the characters even talk about him eating dogs! But it’s not a problem, because, “They’re just showing what an embodiment of evil he is,” she says. That’s why she has no problem watching it every Halloween. And “Jaws” is another favorite of hers. We just watched the 40th anniversary screening at the theater, and I remind her every time that there’s a dog that goes missing in it, and we can easily assume the shark at it. But nope, not an issue. It’s insinuated but never shown. Wow, kind of like you insinuate these ownerless pets in movies will never find anyone to care for them and die alone?
And forget seeing any movie where the animal is the bad guy (besides “Jaws” of course). You couldn’t pay her to sit through “Cujo” or “Prophecy.” She played with the idea of watching “Jurassic World” with me, but dropped it altogether once I warned her how they feed the dinosaurs. We can watch people get chomped in half by CGI dino teeth all day long, but we draw the line at off screen goat feedings.
To bring an end to this rant, this is just something personal your host deals with when watching horror movies and most of my friends think it’s hilarious. Now, this is obviously a long running gag (for me, not so much Mandy) that’s been going on for years now, but I have come to respect Mandy’s feelings on the subject despite my annoyance at some of her viewpoints. Maybe she’s right, and horror could maybe lay off the deaths of poor innocent varmints and just give us more human deaths with depth and character that do a better job of driving the story. We can still have our killer animal movies of course, like giant alligators or rabid rabbits needing to be blown out of their damned existence, but let’s take a proactive step back from our monsters and killers slaughtering an animal for the sake of doing it. But at the same time, remember . . . it’s just a movie! It’s all fake with animal owners getting fat checks off professionally trained critters and special effects guys playing with make-up and pixels. Except “Cannibal Holocaust.” Those were real animal deaths. And so was “The Giant Gila Monster.” The star actually told me they blew that critter up for the film, because it was the days before animal rights. Damn.
By the way, did you ever see “The Beyond”? Remember that great scene when the blind woman is hunkered down next to her seeing eye dog and trying to find the evil force in the room with her just before her dog is possessed and shockingly eats out her throat! That was cool.
Otherwise, be sure you’re caught up with the rest of Screaming Soup! Season 2, use our social buttons in the upper right corner of the site and follow our tweets, subscribe to our Youtube channel, like our Facebook, watch and share all our vids, and keep that fan mail coming.
That’s pretty much it for now, so I’ll see ya’ later Scream Freaks!
Screaming Soup! 