The incomparable Sir Christopher Lee.

Sir Christopher Lee, awarded the BAFTA (British equivalent to the Academy Awards) Fellowship at the 2011 BAFTA's. Incidentally, Lee performed in 266 films since 1948, making him the Guinness book world record holder for most film acting roles ever. He'll be 89 in May 2011...and I've been a big fan ever since my father made us watch Lee in the Hammer vampire films.

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Tim Burton's movies getting scaringly tiring.

I won't see Burton's latest flick, Alice in Wonderland. I'm gettin bored of Burton's dark, brooding take on everything he puts his hands on. But I realize that's Burton's MO. I'm also sick of his girlfriend, Helena Bonham Carter. Same dark, brooding, psycho in every movie she's in. And she's in every movie of Burton's.

Didn't see Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Corpse Bride, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (heard it sucked), Big Fish (heard it was great), Planet of the Apes (horrible), Sleepy Hollow (liked), Mars Attacks! ("C"), Ed Wood (liked), Batman Returns (liked), Edward Scissorhands (liked), Batman (liked), Beetle Juice (liked), and Pee-wee's Big Adventure (liked).

I guess I liked most of his earlier films. Christopher Lee's in Alice though. Lee rocks.

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TGIF! presents..."The Crazies" trailer!

This is loosely based on George Romero's "The Crazies" (1973). I love how remakes say "loosely based". Then why use the name of the original? Love the music ballad in juxtapose with the carnage and violence of the movie.

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Miss Allerdyce from "Burnt Offerings".

This movie frightened the shit out of me when I was growing up. And it was this scene in particular that still spooks me. The movie plot is confusing (look it up on IMDB) but I'll tell you this - the house this family is temporarily staying in "rebuilds" itself each summer by feeding on the lives of the family/caretakers. In this clip (which is near the end), Oliver Reed finds out that his wife has "transformed" into the old lady he thought his wife was looking after. Was there ever an old lady? It's confusing...just watch it.

(You're going to want to mute the jukebox at the very top of the blog before you watch any of these videos.) And no, Oliver Reed is not overacting at the end. His horrific screams are justified. Rent the movie. And scream yourself.

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My Scariest Movies.

In order. Maybe. They're all great flicks. I posted a couple vids from these movies below - check'em out.

1. The Exorcist
2. The Shining
3. House of 1000 Corpses
4. Burnt Offerings
5. The Ring
6. Aliens
7. Seven
8. The Omen
9. The Thing (remake)
10. Texas Chainsaw Massacre (original)
11. Salem’s Lot
12. Hellraiser
13. Jaws
14. Rosemary’s baby
15. Night of the Living Dead

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"You gotta be fucking kidding."

My favorite scene from John Carpenter's "The Thing" (remake).

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My favorite Scream Queen...Sheri Moon Zombie.

Sheri Moon Tribute - The most amazing bloopers are here

If you wanna see more pics of Sheri Moon, check out my post Women Celebs I Love #7.

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"I'm just gonna bash your brains in!"

My favorite scene from "The Shining". "WENNNN-DDDDDYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!"

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Happy 30th Birthday, Alien creature!

You age well, little dude.

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"Come, come see The Wicker Man."

I suppose the first observation one might make about the original 1973 British horror classic, The Wicker Man, is that Britt Ekland is naked throughout an entire song - chest and back (I found out online that the backside you saw in the film wasn't Britt's but a local stripper found at a pub; Britt wouldn't do the backside shot, but the chest is all Britt.). You know Britt - the Swedish bombshell who made her mark in the Bond film, The Man with the Golden Gun, married Peter Sellers, romanced Rod Stewart and had affairs with countless other celebrities? Unfortunately, I couldn't find an uncensored version of "Willow's Song" from the movie on Youtube:



My second observation is that this is a most excellent watch. I made a mention of it in my Christopher Lee post a few weeks back. The film was written by Anthony Shaffer, who wrote Sleuth (play and movie), Murder on the Orient Express (1974 - uncredited rewrite), Death on the Nile, among others. It's directed by Robin Hardy and starred Edward Woodward, Christopher Lee, Ingrid Pitt and Britt Ekland.

Here's the original UK trailer. There's also a 2nd trailer called "The Essential Wickerman" that goes into the plot with more detail.

Woodward plays a Scottish policeman who goes to the fictional Scottish isle of Summerisle to investigate a missing girl. Or is she missing? The policeman is a strict Christian, while the inhabitants of this Scottish isle are pagans. They believe anything they do to appease their gods will benefit their crops - anything.

It's a thriller, with a psychological bent + mystery + horror. And I absolutely LOVED IT. The Wicker Man is highly regarded by critics and film enthusiasts. Film magazine Cinefantastique described it as "The Citizen Kane of Horror Movies", and in 2004 the magazine Total Film named The Wicker Man the sixth greatest British film of all time. It also won the 1978 Saturn Award for Best Horror Film. A scene from this film was #45 on Bravo's 100 Scariest Movie Moments.

Cowboys for Christ, a sequel starring Lee, is in pre-production. A remake with Nicholas Cage was produced in 2006. SKIP IT. I saw a few scenes on Youtube; it bites. And don't just take my word - it won five 2006 Golden Raspberry Awards.

WARNING. The whole pagan undertone in this movie is NOT underplayed. There's plenty of nudity and graphic sexual talk. Look for naked couples copulating in a field, a naked woman masturbating on a grave and a very sultry Ingrid Pitt (famous for her work in the Hammer Film horror movies) in one, quick nude scene.

The one standout plot point for me concerned the dueling religions - paganism and Christianity - and the struggles Woodward encounted with both. Shot partly on location in Scotland, the scenery is gorgeous and is every bit important to the movie/plot as the storyline.

Quite delicious. I've received my 2-DVD commemorative set of the movie and am looking forward to the actor's commentaries. By the way, of the 260+ films that Christopher Lee has been in, The Wicker Man is his favorite. If you don't believe me, take Mr. Lee's advice.

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Women Celebs I Love #7 - Sheri Moon Zombie.

I first saw Sheri Moon Z. in her husband's (musician/director Rob Zombie) horror flick, House of 1,000 Corpses. Hadn't seen anything like that before. Freaked me out - and I consider myself a horror movie aficionado. Her character - "Baby" - annoyed the shit out of me. But I certainly wasn't going to get in an argument with Baby. And it was a good annoying, meaning I wanted to see more of her.

The sequel to that movie was The Devil's Rejects - which I enjoyed as well. Actually had some sympathy for the "bad guys" which is quite the feat in a horror movie. Since then Sheri's been busy with outings in Grindhouse (saw) and Rob's remake of Halloween (didn't see). She's been in Rob Zombie's music videos for years - I think she's his muse of sorts. Maybe not. She could be my muse any day. Nice work, Sheri! Aside from being absolutely gorgeous, you've become a certifiable "horror queen" and you're very good at it.

Wanna see more snaps of "Baby" - click on READ MORE! Torture me, baby. Torture me 'til it hurts bad. :)

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"MERRINNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN!!!"

Halloween means watching scary movies. And, at least in my opinion, there is no scarier movie than The Exorcist.

Now keep in mind that my father, brother and I consider ourselves horror film efficionados. Jas and I were raised on that genre - along with westerns, sci-fi and war flicks. The Mummy, Dracula, Frankenstein, The Creature from the Black Lagoon - we lived and died horror movies on Saturday nights while watching Shock Theater (Channel 18 in Milwaukee) with our father. Christopher Lee, Bela Lugosi, Boris Karloff, Lon Chaney - we saw them all. Since then I've seen some masterpieces - Halloween, Texas Chainsaw Massacare, Amityville Horror, House of 1000 Corpses, Aliens, The Shining, Night of the Living Dead, Jaws, The Thing (Kurt Russell remake), and so on.

But The Exorcist tops my list. It was the highest-grossing film of 1973, and it continues to be popular to this day. Entertainment Weekly voted it the scariest film ever made, and it falls at #3 on AFI's 100 Years…100 Thrills list. The juxtaposition of the sweet little girl and horrible demon adds to the movie's overall creep factor, as do the make-up, sound effects and the soundtrack. Truthfully, there's not a weak link in the entire cast - with very strong, convincing performances by all the leads, including: Ellen Burstyn, Lee J. Cobb, Jason Miller, Max Von Sydow and Linda Blair.

Here's the original trailer from the movie: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGdbbVcKJlc

The other aspect that made this scary for me was the reality in the premise. The walking dead, vampires, UFO's, Godzilla - that was make-believe. But growing up Catholic (still am), we're taught the Devil is real and that he has the ability to possess people - even innocent children. (Now if you're don't believe in a particular religion, then you'll obviously think believing in the devil is as whacked as believing in a killer lepruchan - but that's another blog post.) That reality scared the shit out of me. I had nightmares about the movie and I hadn't even seen it (I was 9 when it came out so it was quite a while before I had seen it). I think there was a manipulated photo on the book jacket cover (not from the movie) and I read the intro...whatever - I was terrorized. Now my Aunt Evelyn and Uncle Bob saw it in the theater and they confirmed patrons were getting sick and leaving in droves.

Watch the movie if you get a chance. Turn the volume up. And leave a night light on - just in case.

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