




NOTES:1) If only Jaws: The Revenge was as good as the Jaws: The Revenge poster.
2) The action-packed poster for The Swarm is effing hot stuff.
3) I need to watch Dressed to Kill again soon.
My forays into the world of gialli have been woefully few; truth be told, it's a subgenre I'm not all that crazy about- but I want to be crazy about it, so I'm gonna keep a-tryin'. Who knows, some day perhaps gialli and I will really hit it off. However, even if we never mesh, at least I can say I tried! Choosing Suspiria for the Film Club is like eating brussel sprouts simply because they're good for you, or maybe it's like going on a date with an ugly person who everybody says is nice. Fingers crossed!
Siiiigh. She looks like an extra from the recently released DVD Dawn of the Dead '78: The Special Needs Edition.







Jon loses his right hand in the accident- his right hand, his drawing hand...his moneymaker. Though he's fitted with a super-sweet robot-looking metal hand, it doesn't give Jon enough control to work a brush properly and he can't continue working on his strip. You may be surprised to find out that this is a bit devastating to Jon. As someone who draws for a living, I could certainly sympathize with his plight. I can't imagine losing my right hand- or rather, I can imagine it and I don't like the results. I tell ya, the only thing preventing me from getting in barroom brawls like every weekend is my fear of breaking my hand and being unable to work. I suppose I could just roundhouse kick everybody, but that's not nearly as much fun as punching someone and sending them flying through those swinging saloon doors. Not that I've ever done it, but it does look cool- though not as cool as when you toss someone and they go sliding down the bar on their belly, shattering beer steins as they go. Then the prostitutes are all like "Oh my!" and they lift their ruffled skirts and scurry away; the piano player in the stripey shirt and the little hat keeps right on playing as if nothing has happened, and the drunk guy at the bar who looks like an old(er)-timey Walter Matthau lifts his drink right as the guy on the bar slides by so he doesn't lose a precious drop of his ripple.
There's a good chance that The Hand would be an absolutely ludicrous film were it not for Michael Caine and Oliver Stone. However, Caine puts in a great performance- one not nearly as odd and over-the-top as the one in, say, The Swarm- and Stone approaches the material as a character study of a man pushed to the brink. He doesn't skimp on the horror, though, and every time the eeeeevil hand gets busy, it's extremely violent and bloody...and not as laughable as you might expect.
The Hand isn't what I expected- what I expected was kooky, silly fun. It is kooky, silly fun, I suppose, but in a very serious way. I couldn't help but imagine what a remake of this film would be like; I doubt there would be as much time spent with the characters, building an actual story. Here, the "action", so to speak, is a long-time coming. I think in an updated version the hand would get down to business much quicker. There'd also be a scene with some guy and some girl making out...she isn't ready to go "all the way" and so the dude would take off in a huff. After she falls asleep, the hand would crawl under her shirt and she'd be all "Jeff, I told you I didn't want to. Jeff, stop it. Jeff...?" and then she'd see the severed hand grabbing her boob and she'd be like "Ahhh!" and then the hand would kill her.
From there, the ball just kept on a rollin'. Damn you, Scream 2...damn you to HELL!










Imagine if there was a story to be told somewhere between parts two and four, just add water (from Camp Crystal Lake, duh), insert a leaner, meaner, faster Jason Voorhees, set to "blend" and you've got the recipe for what Dunes, writers Damian Shannon and Mark Swift and director Marcus Nispel got cookin'.As JA points out, umm...Part 3 comes between Parts 2 and 4. And yeah, Parts 2-4 take place very close to one another chronologically. I mean, is it simply going to be some sort of "Jason Chronicles"? Like, umm...Jason kills people at the camp and stuff? BAH I SAY.







Look how he's posed all nice, like a senior portrait. And don't you think the flapping flap is a nice touch?
I'm about to embark on a journey fraught with many dangers...let's call it The Quest for a Get-Together. Wine, women, men, probably no song, fake turkey, real turkey, and crappy movies. Will I return from this adventure with my mind and soul intact? I should hope so...growing up, they didn't call me "Pitfall Harriet" for nothin'*.
I sincerely wish you all a wonderful holiday...even if you're not American and your day won't include gluttony and sloth in the name of the day where the Pilgrims gave thanks and began the long process of hostile land takeover and genocide**. Hooray!
You can read more deets about the film at Bloody-Disgusting, but I'm going to point you to my pal JA's blog My New Plaid Pants for the skinny, because you should be reading it anyway.
You're damn right it is, Charles Nelson Reilly. As the kids today might say, OMG! My Two-Year Anniversary Spectacular was decidedly less than spectacular, so I figured I'd take the opportunity presented by this milestone post to embark upon a little journey down memory lane. Grab a beer or a fruit smoothie and feel free to join me as I reminisce, and be sure to add some sweet, sweet reminiscin's of your own.
This picture has nothing to do with anything, and it's only here to break up all the text. Oh, how I've gone on!I really dig this concept of synchronized reviews of movies we've not seen before, and if anyone else out there wants to join in the fun, just drop me a line. GASP! I'll call it The Final Girl Film Club! Yeah! I'll be like Oprah and her Book Club! Except, of course, I'll be cooler than she is because...again, well, who isn't. I'll be sadder, though, because I'm not a powerful billionaire who knows the cast of Friends.Begin a Film Club I did on April 2, 2006, selecting Bloody Murder...a real stinker, to put it kindly.
In other news, I loathe that show Friends.
I must say, though, after sitting through it and ruminating upon it, I could really only think of 5 things that were really wrong with it:We Film Clubbers have chugged our way through 12 selections, and there's no end in sight. The universe is within my grasp!
1. The plot
2. The dialogue
3. The acting
4. The directing
5. The fact that it was a horror movie, yet it was never, ever even a little bit scary

Oh, that Charles Nelson Reilly. Always keepin' it real!