Video - Star Trek Warp Jumps Through the Years (1979-2021)

Although I'm more facinated by the changes over time to the transporter effect this look at the way the Warp Jump has altered over the decades is pretty interesting. 

The Bloody Pit #119 - THE GOLDEN ARROW (1962)

For years John Hudson and I have used this podcast at cover the films of Antonio Margheriti. These shows have ranged from westerns to gothic horror to military action to science fiction and goofy Disney styled comedies. This time we tackle an Arabian Nights kind of tale the director made in 1962 and for Mr. Hudson it will be his last in the series. Not that he is leaving the podcast! Nope. He’ll be sticking around to cover a variety of different kinds of movies in his inimitable fashion. But The Bloody Pit will continue to cover Margheriti movies with a new co-host taking over and this episode is the hand-off! Adrian Smith will assume the position of fellow explorer of the long career of the director with this being a branching of his blog focused on the subject called Blogeriti. So, in this show I first talk with Hudson about our subject and then I do the same with Adrian. It may make for a long episode but we still don’t completely cover the plot dense madness of the film in question! So much happens in this thing. 

Between the three of us we discuss the cast and crew of THE GOLDEN ARROW (1962) with a few funny stories about the production. We look over star Tab Hunter’s career and make fun of his casting in this very Arabian tale. Aren’t all Sultans blonde? We marvel at the beauty of the Warner Blu-Ray and wish for more of Margheriti’s color films from the same period to be given similar treatment. The complicated story the film tells is only partially dissected because it is packed with so many odd details and strange characters. Of course, that is part of what makes the film so fun! The special effects come under examination with the usual excellent miniatures complimenting the flying carpets and magical arrows. There are many sideroads taken as we talk with the strangest being our digression into American sitcom titles. Sorry about that – it couldn’t be avoided. And what IS the plural of genie? 

If you’ve anything to comment about in this episode please write us at thebloodypit@gmail.com or drop into the show’s FaceBook page. Thank you for listening and, if you can, let others know about what we do here.

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THE HOWLING (1981) Poster Art

Rewatched this tonight and it really holds up! The smart, clever script combined with assured direction, an excellent cast, wonderful music and stellar cinematography make this a winner - a classic even. Thumbs up to the Scream Factory Blu-Ray!

The Bloody Pit #53 - THE BEYOND (1981)

This episode we take a trip to the dank, mist enshrouded, sweat covered land of Louisiana for a blast of gore drenched Italian horror from maestro Lucio Fulci! The Three Stooges of Euro-Trash descend into the cellar of the Seven Doors Hotel to see if they can find the Book of Eibon while dodging the outstretched arms of eye-gouging zombies. Sense and nonsense merge into a rich tapestry of mad events loosely connected to the hotel and it's new owner Liza (Catriona MacColl). Can handsome doctor McCabe (David Warbeck) unravel the mystery at the heart of the horror or will he, too, succumb to the dark forces from The Beyond?

The recent GrindHouse Releasing Blu-Ray of this seminal horror film was the catalyst for Jeff, Troy and Rod to rewatch this violent creep show and high definition does nothing to dampen their love. Easily the best the film has ever looked on home video it gains so much in detail and visual depth that it becomes an even better experience. The movie's many narrative lapses and structural oddities are discussed as well as it's dread filled atmosphere and superlative Fabio Frizzi score. Clearly Fulci was more interested in realizing a long series of surrealistic, nightmare-like sequences concocted to unnerve and disturb, but among his dream imagery assault are moments of pure Gothic beauty as well. One of a kind filmmaking and a classic regardless of it's faults.

If you listen to the show on iTunes please rate & review the podcast there. It helps others find us and generally makes us feel good! You can join us on the Bloody Pit Facebook page as well where show links are posted along with odd images from the movies we cover. Thank you for listening and we'll be back soon! Oh! And I do refer to the podcast as The Bloody Podcast at the beginning of the show. This is not a rebranding attempt! It's just me verbally stumbling as we get back into the groove of recording. 

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The Bloody Pit #46 - MARS ATTACKS! (1996)

Twenty years ago Hollywood gave us two similar but very different alien invasion movies. One was serious and the other comedic; one was a huge hit and the other barely made back it's budget; one was basely manipulative and the other cruelly sarcastic. And, in fact, one was completely terrible and the other brilliantly funny. It doesn't take much thought to know in which direction this podcast will go but with a little luck we can make it entertaining. We're going to try!

I am joined once again by artist extraordinaire Mark Maddox to discuss the two dystopian alien invasion stories MARS ATTACKS and INDEPENDENCE DAY. Both of us saw these films on initial release and, in a shocking turn of events, we had identical reactions. This means that we spend the majority of this show in agreement instead of at each other's throats! I hope this doesn't disappoint fans of our previous James Bond episode but I promise that Mark and I will be back to insulting and harassing each other soon enough. (All it will take is picking another topic and we'll be screaming abuse back and forth like children denied their favorite toy.)

Of course, the discussion does meander a fair amount as each co-host follows several connecting threads to bizarre and unexpected places. With such large and eclectic casts packed with so many amazing actors there is almost no way we could have stopped ourselves from talking about some of the more interesting performances. So, expect to hear a few dozen movies get mentioned that have nothing to do with the subjects at hand. Sorry.

If you have any comments or questions please write us at thebloodypit@gmail.com and we'll be glad to hear from you. Mark Maddox's work can be seen at his website and I recommend going over there to check it out. Thanks for downloading and listening! 

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THE BLACK HOLE (1979) Poster Art

This recent look back at Disney's big budget science fiction epic at the James River Film Journal site is well worth reading. I've never been a fan of the film even though I find it fascinating for the futuristic imagery, the wasted cast and the special effects. It's a snooze of a movie but it is required viewing for genre fans. Just have lots of caffeine nearby before you settle in. I can't believe this hasn't been released on Blu-Ray. 

The Bloody Pit #34 - CANNIBAL APOCALYPSE (1980)

John Hudson returns to the Bloody Pit to help me discuss this amazing cannibal gore film from director Antonio Margheriti. Shooting in Atlanta, Georgia during the cooler months of the year gives some fascinating texture to the film and lends a little gravity to the plot about deranged Vietnam Vets. And when your story revolves around a virus that somehow transfers cannibalism between people like the flu you need all the seriousness you can muster! Luckily this is one of the very few Margheriti films that has been released to DVD in the US with extras! Among those extras is a very nice 54 minute long documentary about CANNIBAL APOCALYPSE that includes interviews with the director as well as actors John Saxon and Giovanni Lambardo Radice a.k.a. John Morghen. This gives us a little more insight into the film than we usually have and allows for some examination of the ideas presented, which I like!

Before we dive into the film Hudson and I catch up a bit with discussion of our upcoming Alice Cooper encounter; John's history with Tarantino theatrical screenings; his rewatch of The Sopranos; my journey through the Hannibal TV series and a general concern for the winter weather. Once we attack our main topic I start with some information on the legendary Italian screenwriter Dardano Sacchetti who is responsible for so many of the classic Euro-Cult films of the 1970's and 80's that entire books should be written about him! As the podcast continues we complain about the often inappropriate score along with an audio example of the sound of blood dripping from meat - high strangeness. There is some talk about flamethrowers and exploding dogs as well as the real animal cruelty in the sewer scenes. We touch on the use of wood as a metaphor (I'm not kidding) and end up wondering what words rhyme with Saxon. Yeah, we're all over the place in this one.

Thank you for downloading and listening to the show. We can be contacted at thebloodypit@gmail.com for any comments or complaints. At the end of this episode we lay out the plans for future Bloody Pit shows about Antonio Margheriti as well as the other movies that will be covered in the next few months. We hope you enjoy what we're doing and please stay safe and warm.

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Matte Paintings from DRACULA (1931)

These are the amazing matte paintings from the Universal classic version of DRACULA (1931). The film is on my mind because later this month I'll be going to see both the Tod Browning version and the simultaneously shot Spanish language version at a Fathom Events screening. The chance to see this double feature on the big screen is very exciting! 

DEAD & BURIED (1981)

Something strange is happening in the foggy northeastern coastal town of Potters Bluff. A vacationing photographer (Christopher Allport) is snapping shots on the local beach when he's interrupted by a beautiful barefoot girl (Lisa Blount). She flirts shamelessly with him, captivating him completely until a group of people attacks him from behind. The disparate group beat him mercilessly, ties him to a post on the beach and burns him with a can of gasoline. That night the photographer's body turns up in his wrecked microbus on a nearby road. He appears dead until the local mortician/coroner William Dobbs (Jack Albertson) touches him and the hideously charred body screams in pain. Sheriff Dan Gillis' (James Farentino) investigation finds that the victim was checked into a local hotel and that the sheriff's own wife had visited the man the day before. Gillis' wife Janet (Melody Anderson) explains that she was buying photo equipment for her grade school class from the man; when her story doesn't gibe with the school's principal the lawman begins to doubt her. The poor photographer barely has time to come out of his coma before his beach seductress slips into his hospital room and finishes him off for good. 

Faster than you can say 'murder-crazed mob' another visitor to the area is attacked and viciously killed by folks that appear to be normal members of the community. When this body turns up, Gillis knows he definitely has a murderer on his hands and is starting to think the two dead bodies must be related. To complicate matters, Gillis hits a pedestrian with his truck on a late night patrol. Horrified that he may have killed someone, the sheriff's even more stunned when the person's severed arm takes on a life of its own and the fellow pops up and runs off... pausing only to retrieve the missing limb! When particles of the arm test as dead flesh at least three months old, Gillis begins to question Dobbs about the possibility of reanimating corpses. Dobbs scoffs at the notion. Then a murdered hitchhiker's corpse disappears from the mortuary and the photographer's body goes missing from his coffin. A supernatural explanation seems to be more and more likely...

Almost completely missed in its original theatrical run, Dead & Buried is one of the lesser known cult horror films of the '80s. Its reputation grew slowly over the past few decades by virtue of repeated cable broadcasts, its single VHS release and finally Blue Underground's DVD and Blu-Ray releases. Like a lot of the film's fans I caught up with it on HBO in the early '80s and rented the videotape from my local video store repeatedly. I will never forget the shock of the last image of the film, one that turns a solid little horror movie into a near classic. The film is very well produced on nearly every level with good to great performances, creepy cinematography and a screenplay that knows just how much not to say! Director Gary Sherman proves himself to be quite adept at blending the small town New England feel and the undead creepiness to make a smooth and frighteningly different zombie story. His use of long, single takes and odd camera placement always enhances the terror and dark humor. His choice to keep red out of the film's color palette is very effective, as is the slightly retro look of much of the town. Potters Bluff feels like a contemporary town most of the time but every now and then a vintage detail will make the place seem adrift somewhere in the mid-1950s. 

Of course, knowing that this was Jack Albertson's last film always make me a little sad. Not because Dead & Buried isn't a worthy final bow, but because he's so much fun here that it would've been great to have him reprise the role. In one of the extras on the DVD set Robert Englund mentions that Dobbs the mortician could've been a franchise character much like Freddy Kruger. I agree. He certainly has a much more interesting motivation than some other sequelized boogeymen, but looking at the diminishing returns for the Tall Man character in the Phantasm movies maybe it's best that the film flopped. Strangely, the two roles I'll always remember Jack Albertson for are Uncle Charlie in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and this one — saint and sinner.

I've been such a fan of Dead & Buried for so long that it was a shock to hear director Sherman talk about his disappointment with the way it turned out. On his commentary track with BU's David Gregory, he explains that originally there was much more black comedy in the film. He points out how much of the humor was removed, more gore was added and several scenes rearranged to meet the requirements of the money people. It's a shame that even though Sherman put together his own cut of the film, the print was destroyed so that the distributors wouldn't have to spend money to keep both versions. It's enough to make a film nut cry! To think there was an even more unusual version of this dark little gem, one we'll never get to see, is a bit like getting poked through the eye with a long needle. Still, Dead & Buried is a great little movie. Shrouded in fog, cloaked in mystery and haunted by the sounds of Dobbs' beloved Big Band music, Potters Bluff is a place I love to visit... even if I wouldn't want to live there.

THE GOLDEN VOYAGE OF SINBAD (1973)

As The Golden Voyage of Sinbad begins, the fabled nautical adventurer (John Phillip Law) and his crew are sailing on the open sea when they spot a strange flying creature. Frightened by an arrow fired by one of the sailors, the creature drops a small golden tablet. After Sinbad ties the object around his neck he has several nightmarish visions of a tall man dressed in black and a dancing girl with an eye tattooed on the palm of her hand. When a storm blows the ship off course, Sinbad is sure the land they come upon is connected to his dream somehow. Going ashore alone he encounters the man in black from his vision. The dark man (Doctor Who's Tom Baker) identifies himself as Prince Koura, a sorcerer who claims the golden tablet as his own and demands its return. Escaping into a nearby city, Sinbad is met by the benevolent, golden-masked Grand Vizier (Douglas Wilmer), who explains Koura's bid to obtain ultimate power. To gain this power, the wizard must unite the three separate pieces of a magical sign. The golden tablet Sinbad wears about his neck is one of these pieces, while the Vizier controls another. When combining their two segments they discover a map that can lead them to the third and so together they vow to foil Koura's evil scheme. A rich man's wastrel son and the slave girl Margiana (Caroline Munro), whose tattooed hand may play a part in stopping the Prince, join Sinbad on the journey. They set sail for the legendary isle of Lemuria with Koura and his henchmen in close pursuit.

Of the three Sinbad movies made by Ray Harryhausen, Golden Voyage has always been my favorite. Most people prefer 1958's The 7th Voyage of Sinbad and I can understand that, but I feel the story in Golden Voyage is better and I really like John Phillip Law in the lead role. He seems much more suited to the character and even affects an accent to add to his performance. It also helps that Caroline Munro — one of the most beautiful women to ever grace the silver screen — is the only female on display here, giving us more time to stare longingly at her tanned body and lose ourselves in her lovely eyes. (And she's not even a special effect!) 

Although Jason and the Argonauts will always be Harryhausen's greatest film, this one gives him plenty of moments to shine and he capitalizes on all of them. Each creature brought to stop-motion life here is a wonder to behold with beautiful details and amazing, flowing movement. I'll never get over my original childhood fear of the prow of Sinbad's ship, which comes to life under Koura's power. It's a combination of the blank, unchanging face of the wooden woman and the creepy sounds of her moving that send chills down my spine.

There are two showstoppers in Golden Voyage that rival the skeleton fight in 7th Voyage. One is the grotesque one-eyed centaur that battles a mighty griffin, the other the living, six-armed statue of Kali. The fight between Kali and Sinbad's crew is a masterful bit of action that bears repeated viewings. With all these pyrotechnics you might expect the film to be a bit too broad, but my favorite moment in the film is the quiet scene of Koura's new homunculus awakening to life. The detailed facial expressions and body language of the small winged beast is mesmerizing; this is one of the best animation sequences of Harryhausen's career. Moments like this make Golden Voyage a wonderful film that will go on entertaining audiences for generations to come.

It's often said that 'They don't make 'em like they used to' and this film is a perfect example of that statement's truth. The clearness of purpose that can be felt behind Harryhausen's fantasy films is almost never evident in cinema today. Each of his movies feels as if it were crafted by people who cared very much about making the best possible film they could create. These stories weren't shaped by committees, vetted by a legal department or altered by businessmen looking for a good Happy Meal tie-in. These films were put together by people in love with the stories and in love with filmmaking. Any story changes were done for budgetary or time constraints, not because the vice-president of marketing thought his kids would like a blue monster instead of a green one.

So much of what has been lost over the years in Hollywood is a plain unwillingness to admit that creativity needs both freedom and limits — the freedom to attempt new and untried things and the limits imposed by schedules and money. If a Sinbad movie were to be made today there would be more effort put into the toy and fast food tie-ins than on the script or pre-production. And you know what happens when that approach is used? The Mummy, The Mummy Returns, The Scorpion King, Spider Man 3, the Transformer movies and the 1998 Godzilla film... Empty marketing tools camouflaged as entertainment. But you won't find the folks behind those bad movies agreeing with me — each one made more than $100 million domestic. Who needs a good story, well told, when the audience seems perfectly happy with crap? Give the people what they want. Thank goodness that the Harryhausen films are still around to let us see the qualities we can hope for in a fantasy film.

GOLDEN VOYAGE OF SINBAD (1973) - images and poster art

Without a doubt this is my favorite of Harryhausen's Sinbad films. I need to watch the Blu-Ray soon! 

Ray Harryhausen - RIP

I just learned that famed stop-motion special effects man and filmmaker Ray Harryhausen has passed away at age 92. Although not unexpected this is very sad news for me and any fan of classic fantastic cinema. I have spent hundreds of hours being entertained by Mr. Harryhausen's brilliant work and I will spend many more in the years to come. I will never be able to fully thank him for the joys he crafted that fired uncounted imaginations around the world. I got to meet the Great man in the late 1990s and got him to autograph my Laser Disc of JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS and a lobby card from the film as well. He was a wonderfully nice gentleman and fielded what I'm sure were a series of silly fanboy questions with wit and generosity. I wish he had been able to make at least ten more movies.