Let’s ruminate on where some of our favorite TV shows will end up in 2013.

American Horror Story

The show is a little bit of a trainwreck, so let’s take it all the way. I want the next season to be set  in a summer camp in 1981. Yes, fans will complain it is a Friday the 13th/Sleepaway Camp/Cheerleader Camp/The Burning/etc. knock-off, but so what? Jessica Lange could be the head of the camp, and in addition to a machete-wielding maniac on the loose, you could have a very human bullying story, and a very non-human “creature in the lake” story. Maybe Jessica Lange is in cahoots with the maniac and they are serving the campers the flesh of the victims.

My second choice for the next American Horror Story? A haunted roller disco, circa 1974.

Dexter

I think that Deb, after shooting Laguerta in cold blood, is going to crack under the pressure. Eventually, I think she is going to confess - or try to confess, and Dexter is going to do anything and everything to keep her from doing so. Season eight may be the final season; it may not.

Either way, I have been struggling with how I would want to see the show end. There are three possible ways for the show to end: Dexter is killed, Dexter dies, or Dexter runs. I don’t like any of those options.

Teen Wolf

The first half of the Teen Wolf season two finale was awesome. The second half sucked monkey dick. Since they can’t go back and rewrite the end of the season, where should they go to bring it back to awesome? Honestly, I liked the path that (most) of the characters were on already: Gerard over-the-edge crazy, and bringing down Alison with him; Chris begrudgingly working with Scott to save his daughter; a new pack of wolves moving in. I think that season two was too soon to bring in a weird, experimental creature like the kanima; let’s go back to basics with werewolves, and just make them more interesting and vicious. As far as writing Jackson out of the show (actor Colton Haynes is not returning) I would be just as happy to open season three with the kids attending his funeral and leaving it at that.

The Vampire Diaries

As The Vampire Diaries was winding down for the winter hiatus, the show was finally starting to edge away from the teenage melodrama it had spent most of the season wallowing in. I am thinking that Professor Shane is going to use Bonnie’s power, Jeremy’s mark, and Hayley’s vulnerability to build an army of zombies. But classy zombies - not with rotting skin or anything gross (this is the CW, after all.) Maybe Hayley’s real parents are the Gilberts...? Maybe not, but there has to be something “shocking” there because they are making a big deal out of Hayley’s need for the truth about her birth parents. I want to see Caroline hookup with Klaus. They are cute together, and Tyler is being a douche. And holy hell, please put an end to this Elena-Stefan-Damon-Twilight bullshit.

The Walking Dead

Since season three is pretty much done with, let’s look at season four. What is going to happen now that showrunner Glen Mazzara is gone? Two showrunners in three seasons is not a good record. I don’t know who was responsible for season two (Mazzara or co-creator Frank Darabont; I suspect a little of both) but it was terrible (the last few episodes redeemed it.) Season three has been outstanding. What kind of differences could Mazzara and AMC have had that would have caused him to leave? Did AMC want the show to pull back? This season has definitely been boundary-pushing (Lori and T-Dog killed off early in the season; increased human-on-human violence; the loss of hope when Milton and the Governor discover the walkers have absolutely no humanity left) and if it follows the comics, you can count on an even more brutal second half of season three. If brutality is the issue, and AMC is pulling away, they may have just shot themselves in the foot. If money was the core issue, AMC is going to have to learn that, if they want to play in the deep end with HBO, they are going to have pony up like HBO. If it was a personality thing, stop being high-schoolers and give us our show back!

Just to be up front with you faithful readers, Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III is my favorite of the series for both personal and sentimental reasons. While I watched the first two entries in the series countless times on VHS, the 3rd one was the first that I got to see on the big screen. And not only that, but because I was about 15 at the time, I had to wait several hours outside the theater and beg an older couple to pretend to be my legal guardians so I could get in. Thankfully, someone took pity on me and let me come in with them. And after it was over, I wasn’t aware of the tremendous production problems that delayed it from a November 1989 release date to January 1990. I didn’t know about the massive battle with the MPAA to get the film down to an R rating. All I knew was that I finally got to experience a Texas Chainsaw Massacre movie in a theater and it blew me away.

Now in the hands of New Line Cinema, the production company that had been churning out Nightmare On Elm Street films for most of the decade and whom at that point had just acquired the Jason Voorhees character and made Jason Goes To Hell: The Final Friday, it seemed like Leatherface and family were in capable hands and about to get their due in front of a mass audience. However, the road from acquisition to final feature film was far from easy. We’ll get to that, but first the story.

On a rough time table, this could act as a direct sequel to Tobe Hooper’s original, or it also could technically be a few short years after the events of the second with Leatherface now surrounded by a new group of family members, with the exception of Grandpa whose corpse is still just hanging around. Michelle (Kate Hodge) and Ryan (William Butler) are a former couple that are driving cross country from California to Florida to deliver Michelle’s father’s car. On the way through Texas, they stop at a gas station and meet Tex (Viggo Mortensen in one of his earlier on-screen roles) whose just looking for a ride home and the creepy gas attendant Alfredo (Tom Everett). After a scuffle between the two over Alfredo peeping on Michelle in the bathroom, a fight breaks out, a shotgun is fired and Michelle and Ryan frantically drive off and abruptly decide to take a short cut that Tex had told them about.

Once nightfall comes, those back roads turn out to be a trap and lead the pair directly into the den of the demented Sawyer clan fronted by a meaner, leaner and far more terrifying Leatherface. What they didn’t count on was Benny (Ken Foree), a special ops soldier who uses these back roads on the weekends for hunting trips. From there on, it just becomes a battle for survival as Michelle goes from victim to fighter and Benny takes on the family one by one culminating in a fist to fist showdown with Leatherface.

Allow me to geek out a bit on why I love this movie as much as I do. It’s mainly because this particular entry has far more horror pedigree worth mentioning than any other sequel. First off, it’s directed by Jeff Burr who had debuted with the impressive anthology feature The Offspring (titled From A Whisper To A Scream here in the States) starring horror legend Vincent Price, and who’d also just come off of directing the vastly underrated Stepfather 2 with Terry O'Quinn. (Peter Jackson who had at that point only done Bad Taste& Dead Alive was also on the short list of directors attached before Burr got the gig.) Screenwriting duties went to splatter-punk author David J. Schow who would after this go on to write The Crow. I already mentioned Ken Foree in the cast who most genre fans know and love from George Romero’s Dawn Of The Dead, but then you’ve also got the lovely Kate Hodge, making her debut here but shortly after this, she would front the television series She Wolf Of London, and then there’s William Butler, whom at that point was getting killed by everyone on-screen from Jason to Freddy to the Ghoulies and zombies in the Night Of The Living Dead remake. (He’s currently a director/producer.)

We can’t forget about Leatherface himself, this time played by all around bad-ass R.A. Mihailoff. Of note is that the stunt coordinator of the film was Jason Voorhees himself Kane Hodder and he actually donned the Leatherface mask for a few shots during the big fight in the lake with Benny towards the end of the movie. Years later, both Kane Hodder and R.A. Mihailoff would square off against each other in Hatchet II! And for die-hard Chainsaw fans, looks for a quick cameo by Caroline Williams, Stretch from Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 as a news reporter. Director Burr had joked that after the events of Chainsaw 2, he imagined Stretch would become a journalist and continue trying to track down the Sawyer clan.

As I touched upon briefly earlier, this film was the victim of a lot of post-production troubles, primarily due to battling the MPAA while trying to make a pre-arranged street date. The MPAA were not happy about Tobe Hooper’s Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 playing in theaters unrated 3 years prior and it seemed like Leatherface was getting the brunt of that hostility. The film required more than a dozen re-edits and was forced to miss its initial November release date. Then there was the ending. Because this was New Line, they really wanted to build a new franchise off of Leatherface. Test audiences loved the character of Benny, and so although he died in the original cut, a new ending was filmed where he survived so that he could return to battle Leatherface again for the follow-up. But then… the movie tanked when it finally quietly opened in theaters in January of 1990 and New Line opted to let the rights go, which is a terrible shame because I would’ve loved to have seen more movies with this version of Leatherface and the Benny character.

Regardless of how the movie was received back in 1990, the DVD release of it features the unrated cut which reinstates as much original footage as possible and makes for a satisfying, more seriously toned Chainsaw movie. It’s still my favorite of the series and it’s worth checking out for Viggo’s amazing and looney performance as Tex, who has to be one of my favorite characters of the franchise. If you’d like to go a little more in depth on the making of Leatherface, you can check out these extensive interviews I conducted on Icons Of Fright with director Jeff Burr and star William Butler.

And I leave you with this bithcin’ teaser trailer that was made prior to shooting on the film which played with prints of A Nightmare On Elm Street 5: The Dream Child. It still to this day remains one of my all-time favorite teaser trailers to a horror sequel ever!

Tonight, ring in the new year with the Cryptkeeper and FEARnet's Tales From the Crypt marathon. As you might imagine, getting ready for a big New Year's Eve party is no easy feat for the aged emcee. Last week, we showed you a series of exclusive videos that take you behind-the-scenes of the Cryptkeeper's New Year's shindig. As you wait for the marathon to begin (4pm ET) catch up on how the Cryptkeeper gets ready.

A new year, new horrors to discover. What are we most excited about?

Maniac

The remake of William Lustig’s 1980 grindhouse classic Maniac takes a new spin with director Franck Khalfoun in the driver’s seat. Elijah Wood stars as Frank, the titular maniac, who scalps women to work out his mommy issues. What sets the new Maniac apart from the old is that this one is all told from Frank’s point of view, which takes the gruesome film to a whole new level of unnerving fright. Maniac made the festival rounds during 2012, and I was lucky enough to see it. What I am looking forward to is the reaction of other horror fans when they get a chance to see this uncomfortable little flick.

Evil Dead

I am intrigued to see what could bring original Evil Dead star Bruce Campbell back to the franchise (as a producer.) Although wasn’t Evil Dead II essentially a remake of Evil Dead?

Pacific Rim

There has been a lot of hype for Guillermo del Toro’s giant monsters vs. giant robots film, and in anyone else’s hands, I would chalk it up to generic blockbuster shlock. But del Toro is a mad genius, so I will trust anything he creates.

Carrie

I have far less faith in this remake than the other remakes on this list, but I am curious as to what director Kimberly Pierce will do with Carrie. Chloe Moretz always plays strong (and strongheaded) characters - I am not sure if she can play the timid pre-prom Carrie.

The Following

This is one of the top-rated new TV series of the season. Fox has a dodgy history with dramas (they have far more failures than successes - and even the successes haven’t been good television) but it is a fascinating concept (a serial killer is using technology to create a brainwashed cult of copycat killers that he can control from prison) created by Kevin Williamson, and starring Kevin Bacon.

Bates Motel

There have been a lot of Psycho sequels (and a prequel or two, I believe) but this one has a strong cast (led by Vera Farmiga and Freddie Highmore) and A&E seems to be putting its full support behind the project. I’m concerned about the fact that Bates Motel is set in the modern day, but I think if they essentially “ignore” Hitchcock’s Psycho, it will hold up just fine.

Hannibal

Bryan Fuller’s other NBC genre project, Mockingbird Lane, was DOA. I am excited to see what master of small screen quirkiness has come up with for such a famous franchise as Hannibal, but I don’t want to get screwed over again. NBC has yet to announce a premiere date for Hannibal, which doesn’t give me much hope.

A New Album from Nine Inch Nails

So I heard a rumor Trent Reznor might be releasing a new album this year under the Nine Inch Nails moniker. Reznor certainly hasn’t put aside music when he put aside the band name, but what is more exciting is that he is considering touring again. Count me in!

Castlevania - Mirror of Fate

I played a very, very early build of this entry in the Castlevania series at Comic-Con. Designed for the Nintendo 3DS, it looked cool and the 3D was quite nice. I want to see what the full game has in store.

Fantastic Fest

I have heard nothing but wonderful things about this hardcore genre film fest/social event in Austin. I am hoping this year I get to go. Horror movies, booze, food, more horror movies, and people who love horror movies for a whole week. Sounds like a little slice of heaven.

Sigh.

The one film in the Texas Chainsaw Massacre series I was not looking forward to revisiting was this one. But then again, it’s been several years since I last attempted to watch it, so perhaps time has been kind to it and its gotten better with age? Sadly this is not the case. Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation, aka The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 4 is as awful as I remember it being.

As I mentioned in yesterday’s article, I loved Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III. And as a huge fan, I was eagerly anticipating the next chapter in the Chainsaw saga, whatever that might be. Unfortunately, I waited a really, really long time. Back in those days, there weren’t frequent updates on the Internet as to the status of a project, which director was attached, which direction the franchise was going. Hell, there wasn’t an Internet! I had to rely on the pages of Fangoria and their Terror Teletype column to give me the first word on any new horror movies. And after a couple of years I finally read a blurb about a 4th Texas Chainsaw Massacre feature, this time being written and directed by Kim Henkel, the co-writer of the original film, which seemed promising. But then… nothing. Months and months went by and I never heard anything more about this mysterious Chainsaw sequel.

Finally, I managed to find a “rough cut” VHS of the flick at the time titled The Return of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre at a Fangoria Weekend of Horrors convention in New York City and could not be more excited to check it out later that evening when I got home. I mean, this was a brand new Chainsaw movie; a follow-up to Leatherface, my first theatrical Chainsaw flick. And to say I was disappointed would be a vast understatement. The movie failed on every possible level and stands as not only the worst of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre movies, but arguably one of the worst horror movies ever made.

The film opens with 4 teens, the main one being a gawky teen Jenny (Renee Zellweger) who’s pulling off the whole She’s All That thing. All the other characters think she’s an ugly duckling because she’s wearing glasses, yet us, the audience are all thinking ‘she is totally hot! With or without the glasses!’ Anyways, they’re all on their way to the prom when they get in a car accident on the road with another driver who seems to be badly hurt. Help arrives in the form of Vilmer (Matthew McConaughey) who shows up with his tow truck and immediately breaks the neck of the hurt motorist. “Well, he’s dead now!” Turns out he’s the head of the crazy Slaughter family, a group of cannibalistic lunatics that also have Leatherface in their clan.

Wait a minute… the Slaughter’s? Well, that’s the names they’re referred to on IMDB. Not sure if they ever actually say that name in the movie or in the end credits. (And no, I refuse to go put it on again.) But does that mean this is not the original Sawyer clan as established in the other 3 movies? That’d make sense considering its all new family with the exception of Leatherface, unless he’s a completely different person this go round. Oh, and I’m pretty sure there’s a Grandpa-esque character that’s just an old man in a chair.

Story-wise, the film tries really, really hard to just match the beats of the original movie. About 35 minutes in, the one jerk douche boyfriend gets a mallet to the head courtesy of Leatherface. A mere few minutes later, his girlfriend gets hung on a meat hook. There’s even a “Leatherface dancing with the chainsaw” ending shot like in the original, only all of these scenes do not even come close to their counterparts. They’re all poorly executed, not scary, hell they don’t even look cool. It’s not just the scares that fail; it’s the potential for suspense. For example, there’s one scene where Jenny is being held captive in the trunk of a car by Darla (Tonie Perensky), the normal looking girlfriend to Vilmer and she (stupidly) decides to get a bite to eat at a fast food drive-thru. First off, I thought they were cannibals? Why does she need a burger from a joint like this when they just captured 3-4 other people? Second, because of her looks, no one suspects what she really is, and hence a police car pulls up directly behind her in the line. This technically should’ve been a really tense suspenseful scene. Cops are right there, her victim is in the trunk of the car, but instead it just falls flat.

What about Matthew McConaughey and Renee Zellweger you ask? They’re huge Hollywood stars so they have to be good in this, right? Wrong. Zellweger does her best in the role of Jenny, but it’s so poorly written that we don’t care about her nearly as much as we did Sally, Stretch or Michelle in the previous installments. And it’s ironic seeing McConaughey here because he literally just gave an amazing performance as a cold blooded psycho in Killer Joe, yet here he’s just kind of emulating what Viggo Mortensen had already done better in Chainsaw 3 as Tex. Oh and for no reason whatsoever, a guy straight out of a David Lynch movie with no sideburns shows up at the end in a limo (I think he’s government?) to lick Renee Zellweger and play with his body modification. No explanation is ever given to who the hell he is and what connection he has to this family.

Rumor has it that Henkel had submitted this script to be Texas Chainsaw Massacre III and New Line rejected it. In fact, when Leatherface director Jeff Burr initially met for that movie, his recollection was that the original treatment involved a group of kids going to a prom. So once the rights expired at New Line, it seems Henkel made the sequel he had always wanted to make.

Honestly, this is the lowest point of any horror franchise. I guess if you had never seen a Texas Chainsaw Massacre movie, you might find aspects of this movie that are both surprising and entertaining, but compared to what’s come previously; it tarnishes the name & reputation of one of the greatest American horror series ever made. Sadly, this was the death nail in the coffin to the Leatherface that we knew. Because it took almost a decade before he'd see him (or at least a new interpretation of Leatherface) again. He’d be reborn for the Platinum Dunes remake which I'll tackle tomorrow!

You may have overlooked the 2008 Scottish offering known as Outpost, but seeing as it played multiple genre-friendly film festivals, stars Ray Stevenson, and earned some decent praise from the horror press (myself included), I'm going to assume that FEARnet readers have seen it by now. (It's about a group of soldiers who discover a nasty old Nazi experiment and do not live to regret it.) Those who enjoyed that flick will be pleased to know that not only is there an Outpost 2 available now, but there will soon be a third chapter. For the sake of this review, we'll focus on Steve Barker's Outpost: Black Sun.

I was fortunate to read a small mountain of amazing fiction in 2012, but 2013 has the potential to top it with ease. In addition to the books listed below (which I would not be surprised to find sitting in my Top 10 at year’s end), there’s plenty of stuff coming by authors I’ve just discovered, not to mention all of the surprises that the year no doubt holds. In other words, we’ve got a lot to look forward to – here’s just a taste of what I’m anticipating as the new year approaches.

NOS4A2 by Joe Hill (April 30) (William Morrow)

Joe Hill continues to solidify his voice with each passing project, and what I’ve read about NOS4A2 leads me to believe he’s fully embracing his horrific roots while putting his own gleeful spin on the genre’s tropes. The book is about Charlie Manx, a 140-year-old slice of sleaze with a predilection for children. Manx has a hidden place called “Christmasland” that promises to twist the cheerful connotation of its name into something hideous and terrifying, and it's there where he takes his children to play. Only one child ever escaped him, a girl named Victoria McQueen, and her path is about to cross Charlie’s once again.

While I’ve enjoyed his novels Heart-Shaped Box and Horns, my favorite thing of Hill’s so far remains his comic book series Locke & Key. Based on the information (and a small excerpt) that I’ve been able to track down about NOS4A2, it may well jump into that top spot once the reading is done.

I Travel by Night by Robert R. McCammon (May 31) (Subterranean Press) 

Early publicity material is calling this McCammon’s return to “flamboyant, go-for-broke horror fiction,” and that alone should have horror fans salivating. Before taking a sabbatical and returning to concentrate on the historical thrillers of his Matthew Corbett series, McCammon built a following with stuff like Baal, Bethany’s Sin and Swan Song. Night returns to those dark and twisted pathways in a story peppered with vampire queens, haunted priests and ghost towns buried deep in the Louisiana swamps. The cover copy alone is more atmospheric than some entire novels manage to be. If you’re just now getting into McCammon, rest assured the best is yet to come.

Joylandby Stephen King (June 4) (Hard Case Crime) 

Little is known about this, King’s second original novel for Hard Case Crime. We know it’s King’s take on the classic “whodunit”-style mystery; we know there’s a carnival, a murder, and a dying child. Really, isn’t that enough? If not, consider what Hard Case Crime editor Charles Ardai said in a press release: “…it’s a story about growing up and growing old, and about people who don’t get to do either because death comes for them before their time.” King seems to have finally stopped threatening us with retirement, content instead to churn out amazing gifts like 11/22/63 and “The Little Green God of Agony.” Joyland feels like it’s going to continue that momentum right into September, when King bookends the summer with…

Doctor Sleepby Stephen King (September 24) (Scribner)

In which King returns to a character from The Shining, one of his most compelling and masterful early novels, to continue the story of young Danny Torrance, who we all somehow knew wasn’t going to live a normal, quiet life after his father succumbed to the demons of that small Colorado hotel. I’ll admit I’m a little nervous about this one – The Shining is one of the sacred texts of the King bibliography, and this high concept approach to a sequel is either going to soar alongside the original or fall fast and hard on its face. Danny is using his ability to “shine” to comfort those near death when he runs afoul of a group of “psychic vampires” who feed off of the kind of energy Danny produces in abundance. Whereas The Shining was a claustrophobic tale about the disintegration of one family, Doctor Sleep will play out over a much larger scale. It may eventually divide King’s fanbase straight down the middle, but right now it’s got us all united in that universal game of “can’t September get here already?”

Pale Preachers by Tom Piccirilli (TBA) (Creeping Hemlock Press)

Tom Piccirilli’s 2012 has been the Year from Hell. Although he released one of the best books of his career with The Last Kind Words, he barely had time to enjoy it before being diagnosed with a brain tumor. Surgery followed, along with chemo and radiation treatments, and all reports indicate that Piccirilli is kicking cancer’s ass up and down the street. Therefore, it feels perfectly alright to me to look ahead to this zombie novella coming to us from the “Print Is Dead” imprint of Creeping Hemlock Press. Piccirilli has described this as a southern Gothic tale about a group of people dealing with a zombie uprising deep in the swamplands. If you’ve read Piccirilli’s take on Southern Gothic in A Choir of Ill Children, you’ll understand why I’m so excited about this. If you haven’t, go track it down and get it read before Pale Preachers comes out, which Creeping Hemlock hints is going to be sooner rather than later.

Shivers VII edited by Richard Chizmar (TBA) (Cemetery Dance)

The Shivers anthology is consistently one of the most loaded collections of its kind, gathering works from the darlings of the small press and parking them side-by-side with the genre’s biggest names. The upcoming installment is no exception. The table of contents is bookended with rare stories by Clive Barker (“The Departed”) and Stephen King (“Weeds,” the story on which the King-starring segment of Creepshow was based), and includes originals by Al Sarrantonio, Norman Partridge, Norman Prentiss, Ed Gorman, Bev Vincent and many others. That’s 26 stories and over 400 pages for twenty bucks, otherwise known as a no-brainer. No firm release date has been announced, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see this one in the first half of ’13.                                  

***
Blu Gilliand is a freelance writer of fiction and nonfiction. He covers horror fiction at his blog, October Country, and contributes interviews to the Horror World website. Follow him on Twitter at @BluGilliand. 

With his newer work failing to make the same connection with audiences that his masterpieces of the twentieth century did, there is an entire generation of horror fans who may not be as intimately familiar with Dario Argento as previous generations. To remedy that, we've compiled a guide to five Argento films every horror fan should see. This isn't solely a list of the mastermind's best work. In fact, this guide contains one of the director’s most maligned pieces. But to get a good understanding of Argento's aesthetic, one must take the bad with the good. These career spanning selections will give any viewer unfamiliar with the works of Dario Argento a crash course in the work of the prolific filmmaker.

Italian horror is noticeably different than typical American made horror films but it's the forward thinking nature of older Italian horror films and gialli that helped inspire the American slasher films of the early eighties. Argento was and still is a big inspiration for writers and directors working in the horror genre, today.
 
The following selections span Dario Argento's lengthy and primarily successful career and give viewers not familiar with his work a good jumping off point to explore more of the famed director's work.

Suspiria
Suspiria is the first entry in Argento's unofficial Three Mothers trilogy. It is Argento at his best. Suspiria is not a particularly cohesive film. But, most of Argento's greatest work isn't known for cohesion. His films are celebrated for being visually striking, over the top, and slightly bizarre; Suspiria is all of those things. It employs the use of bright, intoxicating color to tell a story. The film's score is amazing. Rock band Goblin brought their musical talent to the film; the combination of rock music and violent imagery work together as a perfect pairing.

Suspiria is a great place to start for anyone not familiar with Argento's work. It was the first Argento film I saw and it piqued my curiosity and left me anxious to seek out more of the master director's work. Each time I watch Suspiria, I discover a nuance I may have previously missed or subtleties that I hadn't picked up on beforehand. I enjoy Suspiria more each time I watch it. It has aged well. While there are certain aspects of the film that are dated, the set pieces and wardrobe don't immediately betray the film's exact age or make the viewer feel as though they are looking in to a time capsule.

Inferno
This is the next entry in the Three Mothers trilogy, so it is the logical next step after Suspiria. Like its predecessor, Inferno relies heavily on the use of color to tell its story. Inferno is even less cohesive than Suspiria and even more surreal. It has a very psychedelic quality to it.

Inferno’s strengths lie within its cinematography and set design. Inferno features some of the most bizarre, amazing; over the top imagery I've seen. The building and its secrets and maze-like passageways provide a much unexpected first time viewing experience. I was bowled over when I first saw Inferno. The underwater scene is breathtaking. Argento names this as one of his most sincere and purest films. He says that it was a hard film for him to make and that it took a lot out of him, creatively. It's not hard to see what he means after watching Inferno.

Mother of Tears
After taking in Suspiria and Inferno it's time to give Mother of Tears a look. It's one of the biggest letdowns of Argento's career, but it offers closure on the trilogy and it will give you an idea as to what contemporary Argento looks like. Mother of Tears lacks the punch of the previous entries in the trilogy. The bright intoxicating color scheme of Suspiria and Inferno was abandoned in favor of gratuitous nudity (featuring none other than Argento's own daughter) and the kind of excessive ultra violent imagery that came to prominence with the introduction of films like Saw. We see strangulation by intestinal tract and a lot of other gimmicks that the previous two films didn't employ. Decisions such as these served to the film's detriment.

In an apparent attempt to evolve, Argento moved away from what had worked best for him in the past. The result is disappointing and led to legions of outraged fans. However, to see how the director's career has progressed, get a taste for modern Argento, and bring closure to the trilogy, the film must be viewed - at least once.  Much time passed between the release of Inferno and the release of Mother of Tears.  There was huge fan demand for the release of the final film in the trilogy, which may explain why Mother of Tears felt rushed and as if attention to detail was not a concern.

Deep Red
Deep Red is one of Argento's most celebrated films. It's a masterfully crafted giallo. Argento gives his audience a major clue at the beginning of the film. However, it's done with such subtlety that if you blink, you'll miss it. Deep Red is a great choice for your first Dario Argento giallo. It’s more reserved than many other Argento titles. Deep Red, as the title implies, plays with color beautifully. The score, which is composed by rock musicians Goblin, is amazing. Deep Red is considered by many to be Argento's masterpiece. It's an excellent introduction to the director's collection of giallo films and to the giallo, in general.

Deep Red was the first Argento film that I saw, after Suspiria. It's less over the top than films like Argento’s Opera, and a perfect choice for a first time viewer of Argento's rather large body of gialli.  

Tenebre
Tenebre marked Argento’s return to the giallo, after veering in to supernatural territory with Suspiria and Inferno. Tenebre is among the director's best gialli. It features a great cast, including Daria Nicolodi, (Argento's long time collaborator and one time wife) and the legendary John Saxon (Black  Christmas) prior to his turn in A Nightmare on Elm Street.Tenebre is an excellent film. It's got some truly bizarre moments, but if you've seen the previous films mentioned, you should have an understanding and appreciation for the way Argento tells a story. Tenebre differs from Argento's other gialli because it hits the viewer over the head with a double twist ending. It certainly surprised me the first time I saw it.  

 

American Horror Story Episode 210
“The Name Game”
Written By: Jessica Sharzer
Directed By: Michael Lehmann
Original Airdate: 2 January 2013

In This Episode...

Sister Mary Eunice conducts a midnight search of the women’s living quarters. Inside Jude’s room she finds a cucumber and accuses her of “diddling herself” with it. As punishment, she assists Dr. Arden in giving Jude a heaping dose of electro-shock therapy. This leaves Jude in a haze, barely able to speak or remember her name, and with severely impaired motor skills. She does, however, manage to put on “The Name Game” on the jukebox Sister Mary Eunice bought for the common room, and she dives into a brightly-colored song-and-dance number with Jude singing and the other inmates backing her up.

The monsignor did not die on the cross. The Angel of Death visited him and told him he had work to do. That work was to free Sister Mary Eunice of the demon inside her. While Sister Mary Eunice is changing the dressings on the monsignor’s hands, he attempts to exorcise her. She laughs, pushes him away easily, and mocks him. She then starts teasing him with dirty limericks, takes off her habit, and rapes the monsignor - who was a virgin. Arden walks in on them mid-thrust.

Arden later goes out to the woods with a wheelbarrow full of chum to feed his mutants. Sister Mary Eunice joins him, completely unfazed at being caught, and asks Arden to lobotomize Jude. He refuses because Sister Mary Eunice wanted it too much. He pulls out a pistol and shoots each of his mutants dead, declaring his experiment finished. She dismisses this as a temper tantrum on Arden’s part. As if to show her he is serious, he turns the gun on himself, but chickens out and drops to the frozen ground, weeping. She declares he is being pitiful; he begs her to take pity on him. Sister Mary Eunice leaves him.

The monsignor has a private moment with Jude in the bakery. She is scarcely able to knead bread, but at least it gives her a goal. He apologizes to her and admits he believes Sister Mary Eunice is possessed, but she is too strong; he can’t exorcise her and he doesn’t know what to do. Jude finally speaks, two garbled words: “Kill her.”

Sister Mary Eunice finds the monsignor in the office, and teases him again. He is stronger in his determination against her, and the nun taunts him with all the ways he could kill her... but she knows he won’t. He knows that Sister Mary Eunice’s purity is still alive somewhere, and the demon allows her to reveal herself. She weeps and apologizes to the monsignor, saying she is tired of fighting. She embraces him, and he pushes her over the banister. She falls three stories and lands with a thud. The Angel of Death kisses her, promising to “take both of them.”

Arden and the monsignor stand over Sister Mary Eunice’s corpse, dressed in a white gown, clutching a rosary, and ready to be prepared for burial. Against the monsignor’s wishes, Arden believes that she must be cremated, to get the devil out of her cells. The monsignor relents begrudgingly, and Arden insists on cremating her alone. We soon discover that this is not because he wants one more go at the corpse (is it wrong that my mind instantly goes there?) but because he climbs on top of her, throws the lever, and rides into the furnace with Sister Mary Eunice.

Lana is pleased to see Kit in the common room, but he brings dark news: Thredson has escaped. Lana doesn’t believe it, but sure enough, Thredson strolls into the common room. Sister Mary Eunice has put him on the payroll. She was the one who released him. Thredson promises their therapy will begin tomorrow, and tells Lana that his baby was the only thing that was keeping her alive.

Thredson sneaks into Arden’s office, looking for some sodium pentothal with which to coerce the location of the incriminating confession tape out of Kit. Instead he finds something much better: Pepper delivering Grace’s baby. When Kit is brought to Thredson in a straightjacket for his therapy, Thredson takes him to see Grace and meet his son. This is the leverage he needs to loosen Kit’s lips. However, when he goes to the hydrotherapy room, the tape has been replaced with a children’s book. Lana appears and tells him that she is the only one who knows where the tape is hidden, and she will take it to the police if Thredson harms Kit.

And finally, towards the end of the episode, Jude begins to regain her speech. However, she can do little more than repeat the names of the inmates who filter in and out of her line of sight. Mother Superior comes to see her, hearing that she had been asking for her. Jude rambles about her daydreams of running off to Rome with the monsignor and getting married in the Vatican, but when she sees Lana, she becomes solemnly lucid and tells Mother Superior that she wrongfully admitted Lana to the asylum and begs her to help. 

Dig It or Bury It?

This episode didn’t sit right with me. Largely, my problems were with Arden. He goes out to feed his mutants, kills them, and then collapses into tears when he can’t kill himself. But I don’t think it was the suicide attempt that broke him - it was Sister Mary Eunice. And it just felt... wrong. Out of character. Here was a man who oversaw the murder of thousands of Jews in the concentration camps; a man who has made a career out of unspeakable human experiments. And a woman brings him down? A woman with whom he did not have a very close relationship with? It just felt wrong. 

Similarly out of place was the “Name Game” musical piece. Not because a musical fantasy sequence is so out of place for this show - I can accept that - but because it was random, it was lengthy, and it was something the show hadn’t done before and likely wouldn’t do again. It kind of felt like creator Ryan Murphy couldn’t get Jessica Lange for a guest spot on Glee, so he brought Glee to American Horror Story. 

Prophecies?

I have to assume that all of Arden’s experiments won’t allow him to die so easily. His storyline was never really finished. And it looks like we are flashing forward to the present: Thredson’s son has gotten himself a hooker. No good can come of that.

Kimberly Peirce's remake of Brian De Palma's Carrie, starring Julianne Moore and Chloe Moretz has been moved from March 15th to October 18th.

According to Variety, the move is to "better position the film for Halloween moviegoing." According to me, that's crap.

I have to speculate that they are doing reshoots or at least recutting Carrie, maybe after test screenings didn't go so well. Maybe post-production is just taking longer. Halloween is not a surprise - if the studio wanted a Halloween release date, why didn't they just set it up in October to begin with? 

October 18th is an interesting date to release Carrie. That same date will see the release of the action-fantasy film The Seventh Son, which also stars Julianne Moore. Spike Lee's remake of revenge flick Oldboy opens the week prior, and Halloween mainstay Paranormal Activity 5 opens the week after. While Halloween is certainly an appropriate time to release a horror movie - even audiences who don't like scary movies will seek out something to shriek at - but it also means significantly more competition. As it stands right now, the only other movie that is set to open wide on March 15th is the broad comedy The Incredible Burt Wonderstone starring Jim Carrey and Steve Carrell.

Taking Carrie's March 15th slot will be The Call, a "high-stakes thriller" starring Halle Berry and Abigail Breslin.

It seems counter-intuitive to have The Last Exorcism again, yet here we are.  The new poster for The Last Exorcism 2 sheds little light on the continuing story except that it directly references the first, right down to the white dress and contorted pose. Look again and you’ll see the possessed woman’s body actually forms a number two. Pretty smart.

As I understand it, the new movie starts off where the original ended, right after Nell was forced to birth her baby in the middle of a Satanic ritual. Read the synopsis below and visit the Facebook page here.

Continuing where the first film left off, Nell Sweetzer (Ashley Bell) is found terrified and alone in rural Louisiana. Back in the relative safety of New Orleans, Nell realizes that she can't remember entire portions of the previous months only that she is the last surviving member of her family. Just as Nell begins the difficult process of starting a new life, the evil force that once possessed her is back with other, unimaginably horrific plans that mean her last exorcism was just the beginning.

The movie hits theaters March 1.
 

"Grab your joystick and become Leatherface, the homicidal, chainsaw wielding maniac of your nightmares!"

So says the box for Wizard Video Games’ The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Atari 2600 game.

Claiming to be “The first violent and adult video game.” and considered one of the bloodiest video games of all time, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre debuted in 1983. It is a single-player game that has you working a chainsaw in an attempt to chop down as many people as possible before it runs out of gas.  Beware the wheelchairs, gates, brambles and cow skulls!
 
The video game is extremely rare, but you can easily get your hands on the ROM for the game that can be used with an Atari emulator.

According to the awesome blog Man Is the Warmest Place to Hide (Yep. That’s the tagline to The Thing.), there’s another version of this game floating around.

“An alternate, unreleased version of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre game has recently surfaced, although it's not clear if it was also programmed by Salvo and Klein. It takes a somewhat different approach by allowing Leatherface to create mysterious rainbow blocks with which to trap his victims (I'm serious) before attacking them with his chainsaw. It also allows two player gameplay - the other player controls the victim, who can shoot back at Leatherface with a gun,” Man Is the Warmest Place said.

Leatherface trapping his victims in rainbows. How poetic.

The young kiddies who never had a chance to play Atari may find the video below a bit laughable, but it will surely make the oldheads out there nostalgic for crappy side-scroller games, with ear drum-splitting sound effects. Watch Leatherface in action.
 

via ManIstheWarmestPlacetoHide

It’s winter, the wind is blowing, and you’re hunkered down ready to watch a zombie film on TV. Now all you need is a Walking Dead stuffed friend to snuggle up with.  “Cuddly” isn’t the first thing that comes to mind when thinking about Rick Grimes or Michonne, yet these plushies are cute as can be. Choose from Sheriff Rick Grimes, Michonne, Male Zombie, Female Zombie, and Grey or Black Tombstones.
 

$49.95 at House of Mysterious Secrets

Anchor Bay just announced that they will release Mimesis: Night of the Living Dead on DVD and Blu-Ray February 12. In Mimesis, a group of people are involved in a role playing game that turns out to be real. The movie stars Courtney Gains (Children of the Corn, Back to the Future) and Sid Haig (Rob Zombie’s Halloween, The Devil’s Rejects, House of 1000 Corpses), with a special cameo by original Night of the Living Dead star Bill Hinzman.

From the press release:

“In the film, a group of horror fans find themselves unwilling participants in a living nightmare that pays homage to a classic horror film. Seven complete strangers whose only common link is a love for classic era horror films are invited to attend an exclusive 'horror fan' party at a remote farm. But as the sun sets, these strangers soon find themselves within a real life version of the 1968 George Romero cult horror classic Night of the Living Dead!”

Fans can purchase the Blu-ray for $24.99, and the DVD for $22.98 , with pre-book on January 16. Fans will also have the opportunity to experience Mimesis at special event screenings across the country. More details on screenings to come.
 

As I mentioned in yesterday’s wrap-up of Platinum Dunes’ remake of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, it didn’t seem like the team behind that film were thinking in terms of “franchise” when they set about to re-introduce Leatherface to a brand new audience. If they had, then I doubt the ending of that movie would’ve had as many finalities with their core group as it had; something that earns that particular remake bonus points. So, after winning over the skeptical fans and in lieu of a slew of similar post-Chainsaw horror movies that followed like Saw and Hostel (which Chainsaw producer Mike Fleiss also was involved with), the PD gang started seriously contemplating an appropriate follow-up. And for them, the only story that made sense to tell was the one that came before the remake.

Granted, considering this version of the family was completely different from previous incarnations, die-hard fans were curious about the colorful cast of characters that surrounded Leatherface and how they came to be there. But also, Andrew Bryniarski’s unique new portrayal of the titan villain also piqued the interest of Chainsaw aficionados. And so at first, Platinum Dunes attempted to court back Scott Kosar who had scripted their first Texas Chainsaw movie. Unfortunately he was already on another project, so they got an initial story idea from David J. Schow (who had written Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III) and a screenplay from Sheldon Turner whom had also helped pen Platinum Dunes successful Amityville Horror remake.

This story for this one begins in 1969, a full 4 years before the events of the remake with Chrissie (Jordana Brewster) and Bailey (Diora Baird) driving across Texas with their boyfriends Eric (Matt Bomer) and his brother Dean (Taylor Handley) as the boys are headed back to fight in Vietnam. Eric’s already done a tour there and is thrilled to have his little brother joining him, but Dean doesn’t want to be drafted and is plotting to skip to Mexico with Bailey once they get close enough to the border. They encounter a group of bikers several times while in route and after one of them tries to rob them, they get in a massive accident on the highway and end up directly in the Hewitt’s neck of the woods.

Rewinding a bit, this prequel actually opens with the birth of Leatherface at the slaughterhouse where he’s born with cancerous sores and immediately thrown into the garbage. The baby’s cries are heard from the dumpster and Luda Mae takes pity and rescues him from his fate. She brings him home to her husband Charlie Hewitt (R. Lee Ermey) who upon seeing the boy calls him “the ugliest thing he’s ever seen”. During the opening credit sequence, we get to see Thomas Hewitt’s upbringing through photographs, all of which depict him constantly covering his face to avoid ridicule. Years later, Charlie manages to get him a job at the local slaughterhouse, but unfortunately the town becomes bankrupt and the slaughterhouse is closing down. This is the moment where the now grown Thomas takes a dark turn towards his inevitable destiny. He murders his boss, and while walking the road with a giant chainsaw is stopped by the Sheriff who Charlie abruptly kills to protect his adopted boy. This is when Charlie decides to don the Sheriff’s outfit and become “Hoyt”.

It’s funny – when I first saw this movie upon its initial release, I absolutely hated it. And I hadn’t revisited it since it came out in 2006. However, upon watching it now and with a little bit of context, not to mention when lined up with a marathon viewing session of all the other films, I actually find it interesting the route they took to define the origins of this family. The cannibalism angle was glossed over and ignored in the remake, but it’s most definitely in this version and it’s explained as something that the Hewitt’s resort to more out of necessity. And watching how all the characters come together to form this unit make the remake a bit more satisfying on subsequent viewings now.

I guess the main reason I didn’t like it back then was it came off a little bit too nihilistic and mean-spirited for my personal tastes. And I know this sounds ridiculous considering the series is called “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” but it’s not what I particularly liked about the series as a fan to begin with. Obviously, this is a prequel and in order for the first film to work and make sense, it means that everyone we meet in this movie (not included in the family) will meet a horrible fate by the end of it. And I’m OK with that, after all it is a horror movie. But there’s a good stretch in the middle where I feel like the torture of Eric (a character I actually liked quite a bit) and his brother Dean was too much. This is in the middle of an era of Saw sequels and Hostel movies and a dozen knock offs of those franchise flicks coming fast and furiously that by the time I got to this one, I just found myself thinking, “OK. Enough! I get it. I just don’t like this kind of horror.”

I also initially thought some of the “origin” elements they show to tie this film into the remake were just plain silly. “Oh, Uncle Monty got a bullet to the shin! We’d better cut off BOTH his legs since he doesn’t have legs in the remake!” However, I saw those aspects of the movie play differently this time. I just assumed they were pushing R. Lee to do his usual nasty Full Metal Jacket shtick again. But now I see what a sadistic, perverted manipulator the character of Charlie/Hoyt really is and how he essentially is responsible for encouraging and nurturing Leatherface to become what he becomes. The first time Leatherface uses the chainsaw in a kill is when a biker he’s fighting in the upstairs room falls on it. And it’s Hoyt that’s egging him on to do it. “Tommy, this is one of the boys that used to make fun of you! Get him!” Even with the Uncle Monty surgery scene, I now see it as Hoyt fixating himself as the sole leader of the family and using Leatherface to make that happen.

So overall now in retrospect, I kind of like this movie more than I originally did and can understand how they tried to flesh out the version of the family they created for this particular Texas Chainsaw universe. It stands on its own, as opposed to being a take on the Sawyer clan and for that I can applaud it. However, I also think the movie could’ve used just a tad more development in the writing stage to make it more satisfactory. Wouldn’t it have been awesome if more bikers showed up at the Hewitt house rather than just the one? Shouldn’t our “good” guy (being Eric and Dean) put up some kind of fight after all the abuse they took? Not for nothing but I don’t like watching people get the shit kicked out of them for 45 minutes and then just getting killed rather than putting up some kind of fight. Maybe they could’ve had a new member of the family that gets killed in this, hence they wouldn’t have to explain his/her absence in the remake?

In other words, it’s not perfect, but it’s not as bad as I remember it being. And I guess the best thing to come out of this is that Platinum Dunes producer Andrew Form got to marry leading lady Jordana Brewster. (Good for you, dude!) Also, although the unrated DVD has some nasty stuff in it, I strongly recommend watching the making of featurette on the disc "Done To The Bone" to fully see and appreciate the work of KNB EFX because a lot of it (including the great cow explosion) are barely noticeable in the final cut of the film.

And that my fellow fiends wraps up my weeklong series revisiting the entire Texas Chainsaw Massacre series. I hope you enjoyed it. And we hope it got you in the mood for the return of Leatherface tomorrow with Texas Chainsaw 3D!

Revisiting The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
Revisiting The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2
Revisiting Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III
Revisiting The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 4: The Next Generation
Revisiting The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Remake
Post Mortem with Tobe Hooper

I graduated high school over 13 years ago, and aside from the occasional wistful memory, I’ve had little desire to go back.  I’ve hung up my skater jeans, bone gloves, and prom king crown (no, seriously) a long time ago, but Persona 4 Golden has me partying like it’s 1999.

The Persona series has always hidden some dark themes underneath its high school sim exterior (Persona 3 had its characters committing symbolic suicide with guns to their heads) and Persona 4 Golden is no different.  You play as a high school student moving to the country town of Inaba to live with your detective uncle and his young daughter.  You arrive just as a series of mysterious murders are committed, with the killer leaving corpses dangling from the tops of buildings.  Stranger still, the victims are spotted on a mysterious television broadcast called The Midnight Channel prior to their deaths.

You’ll try to solve these mysterious murders with the assistance of your friends and your Personas, supernatural beings that you collect and power up in a method that bears more than a passing resemblance to Pokemon.  You can even fuse them together to create new Personas to pad out your ranks, and these fusions can gain extra stats and abilities from the Social Ranks that you have established with your friends and family.

That’s right, just like high school, you balance time with your friends and other cliques in order to enhance your standings in various arcana (the game takes a tarot theme and runs hard with it) which helps you out with your Personas and your own personal abilities.  You also have the ability to study, take part in extracurricular activities, and take on part time jobs to raise stats like Expression and Knowledge, which can help you out in interactions with others in order to help boost your Social Rank.  It’s a bizarre, self-sustaining organism, but I’ll be damned if it isn’t painfully consuming.

This consuming need to play Persona 4 Golden is part of the reason why this review is so difficult.  Putting the game down is a task that’s easier said than done, and the game’s fiendishly perfect balance of bite-sized gameplay (you could, in theory, play for only a “day” or two at a time in the game’s timeline, which translates to a few minutes of real time) with perfectly divvied out story beats gives it that “holy shit, where did the day go” quality that all seemingly simple, but engrossing games have.  Plus, this game is long…incredibly long.  To be honest, I haven’t even finished the main story, and I’ve already clocked over 36 hours in the game, and there are still several months of game time left. 

It also bears mentioning that Persona 4 Golden is a port of a Playstation 2 title to the handheld Vita, but it’s one of the finest ports I’ve ever seen.  The graphics are simple, but crisp and overwhelmingly colorful (the yellow menu screen is sure to blast your corneas the first time you boot the game up), which provides an amusing counterpoint to the game’s darker themes.  If the game focused merely on the themes of the story, which involve murder and the more base nature of the Personas (they spring forth from the more sinful desires of their owners, and are more than a little Jungian), it would be bleak and genuinely horrifying.  The injection of bright colors, bubbly J-pop music (why can’t I stop humming along?), and some ridiculously cartoonish elements like the oh-so-kawaii Teddie provide a light palate cleanser to the more horrific elements.  Atlus also thoughtfully added in some arbitrary Playstation Network support, which never provides full-blown multiplayer, but allows for some passive interaction with other players in a novel fashion.  You can quickly see what certain people chose to do at any point in the game (went to soccer practice, spent time with friends, etc.) to help you make your own choices.  Strangely, there is no option to trade Personas with other players, which seems like the most glaring of omissions.

Persona 4 Golden is pretty much the best game imaginable for fans of JRPGs.  It’s simple but all-consuming, dark and frightening but syrupy and cheerful.  It’s a fond reminder for old farts like me of the charming repetition of high school, even if we weren’t solving serial murders committed by a lunatic in an alternate dimension inside of the television.  Now if you’ll pardon me, I have to go decide which of two girls I want to date…not a problem I had in real life…

If you've been keeping tabs on the FEARnet website, then you'd know that we did something really special for our New Year's Eve 'Tales From The Crypt' marathon. We brought the Cryptkeeper back to life! And by that, I mean we fully restored the original Cryptkeeper puppet and created brand new video segments to play in between the episodes of our marathon. We even got John Kassir to come back and voice the Cryptkeeper! For those that actually went out and celebrated New Year's instead of watching our marathon (pfft) or for those of you that don't yet have FEARnet yet from your local cable provider (request it!), you're in for a treat. Below you can find all 6 brand new interstitials that were created exclusively by FEARnet! So if you're wondering what the Cryptkeeper thinks of our modern society, or how he'd fare at a rave or metal show or hip-hop alley, wonder no more! And you can also watch a batch of Tales From The Crypt behind-the-scenes videos from last week showing how we brought the Cryptkeeper back to life and put him in these wacky scenarios. Enjoy, boils and ghouls!

The first poster promised to deliver"The most terrifying film you will ever experience." and the first offical red band trailer kind of hit us over the head with its unexpectedly (yet welcomed) vicious spirit. Today, we continue the trend with the latest red band look at The Evil Dead reboot and it's a doozy.

Official synopsis: In the much anticipated remake of the 1981 cult-hit horror film, five twenty-something friends become holed up in a remote cabin. When they discover a Book of the Dead, they unwittingly summon up dormant demons living in the nearby.

Now that you've seen it don't forget to Share Your Scare.

First off, let’s just take a moment to give thanks for December 31, 1941, the day that Sean S. Cunningham, the creator of the Friday the 13th franchise was born. Do you think his first words were "ch-ch-ch- ma-ma-ma"?

December 31 also saw two monster movies, of a sort, hit theaters. In 1931, Director Rouben Mamoulian’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde debuted, earning star Fredric March and Academy Award. In 1957, The Strange World of Planet X, also known as Cosmic Monsters, The Crawling Terror, The Cosmic Monster, and The Crawling Horror, was released to very little fanfare. It’s a pretty stupid, yet enjoyable, film that includes your typical '50s monster movie elements: a scheming scientist, not totally explained experimentation, mutant insects, flying saucer men, and a theremin-heavy soundtrack.

Watch clips from both films below.

Title:Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Released: December 31, 1931

Tagline: Put yourself in her place! The dreaded night when her lover became a madman!

Title: The Strange World of Planet X

Released: December 31, 1957

Tagline: Man and alien unite to combat the most insidious peril the universe has ever known!