Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

 ... you can learn from:

Special Effects (1984)

Neville: Like I always say, I don't know what I like 

until I see it. And then I know I don't like it.

Have any of you seen this sleazy 1984 Larry Cohen film? (Redundancy after redundancy there.) I only saw it a few weeks ago because the fine folks at Radiance Films put out a gorgeous new restoration of it on blu-ray and it was exactly what I wanted from a sleazy 1984 Larry Cohen film that stars Eric Bogosian as a movie director who decides to use a real life murder he commits as inspiration for his next movie. It's kind of Larry Cohen's spin on Vertigo and it's terrific. I totally felt like I needed to take a shower afterwards. Anyway speaking of Eric Bogosian, a happy 73rd birthday to the character actor whose career has as of late gotten a bump thanks to the double-punch of Uncut Gems and the Interview With the Vampire series. And speaking of the latter -- we have a trailer for the new season, baby! Sweet Rockin' Lestat gimme! I'm surprised they officially changed the name of the show to go with the book though.

Interview With the Vampire... excuse me, 

The Vampire Lestat returns on June 7th.

Army of Maniac Cops

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I don't think any of us appreciate how good Bruce Campbell looks in William Lustig's classic 1988 B-movie Maniac Cop - I've posted about it myself before but, still. It deserves repeating. More repeating. I got to see the movie projected on 35mm with Mr. Lustig there for a Q&A last night at the Roxy Cinema just around the corner from my office and man that movie is just a good time at the movies. They're screening the print again tonight - it's the director's own copy! - along with the sequel, if you're free and open to fun things I recommend it. For fun. And here's a video I took of Lustig telling a little story last night:

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William Lustig talking about hm and Larry Cohen coming up with MANIAC COP #maniaccop #williamlustig #larrycohen #film

A post shared by Jason Adams (@jasonaadams) on Jun 13, 2018 at 6:10pm PDT

5 Off My Head: Siri Says 1976

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It took Siri seven times to give me a good answer to the question "Pick a number between 1 and 100" today - she kept choosing numbers that we've already done for this series. But she eventually landed on a goodie - pick number seven was "76" and so today we're going to focus in on The Movies of 1976.

I had a pretty easy time snatching out five films from this year for my top five (these are some of my all-time faves right here) but there are a whole heckuva lot of runners-up (I could make a top ten list of just horror movies from 1976) and there a whole heckuva lot of movies I've never seen but should see. That is all to say that this was a fine time for movies, y'all. How fine? Let's see!

My 5 Favorite Movies of 1976

Carrie

(dir. Brian De Palma)

-- released on November 16th 1976 --

The Tenant

(dir. Roman Polanski)

-- released on May 26th 1976 --

Chinese Roulette

(dir. RW Fassbinder)

-- released on November 16th 1976 --

Logan's Run

(dir. Michael Anderson)

-- released on June 23rd 1976 --

Taxi Driver

(dir. Martin Scorsese)

-- released on February 8th 1976 --

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Runners-up: Rocky (dir. John G. Avildsen),  Marathon Man (dir. John Schlesinger), All the President's Men (dir. Alan J. Pakula), The Man Who Fell to Earth (dir. Nicholas Roeg), The Omen (dir. Richard Donner), Burnt Offerings (dir. Dan Curtis)...

... Alice Sweet Alice (dir. Alfred Sole), Murder By Death (dir. Robert Moore), Assault on Precinct 13 (dir. John Carpenter), Network (dir. Sidney Lumet), Family Plot (dir. Alfred Hitchcock), God Told Me To (dir. Larry Cohen), The Food of the Gods (dir. Bert I. Gordon)...

... The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane (dir. Nicolas Gessner), Obsession (dir. Brian De Palma), Heart of Glass (dir. Werner Herzog), The House of the Laughing Windows (dir. Pupi Avati), Lipstick (dir. Lamont Johnson), Sybil (dir. Daniel Petrie), The Town That Dreaded Sundown (dir. Charlies B. Pierce), Sebastiane (dir. Derek Jarman)

Never Seen: In the Realm of the Senses (dir. Nagisa Ôshima), Bugsy Malone (dir. Alan Parker), The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (dir. John Cassavetes), Harlan County USA (dir. Barbara Kopple), 1900 (dir. Bernardo Bertolucci), Freaky Friday (dir. Gary Nelson), Seven Beauties (dir. Lina Wertmüller ), A Star is Born (dir. Frank Pierson), Je t'aime moi non plus (dir. Serge Gainsbourg)

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What are your favorite movies of 1976?

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5 Off My Head: Siri Says 1982

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Welcome to our weekly (or whenever the hell I feel like doing it) series called "Siri Says When" -- last week when I asked Siri to pick a number between 1 and 100 she gave me 80 - today she gave me 82. And truth be told I'm kind of glad that Siri has stuck me in the early 1980s just now because this stuff is comfort food - I was a little kid and blissfully unaware that we had a horrible president, and I would like to pretend now, even if only for a few moments, that I am blissfully unaware of what a horrible president we're about to have. 

Of course now that I've gone and made my choices from the movies of 1982 they're mostly all dark adult films (save one) that would've terrified me as a kid (I mean, two Fassbinders!) so even I can't stick to my escapist principles for very long. Oh well. The heart wants what it wants and apparently what my heart wants is to churn and ache and bleed. Happy thoughts!

My 5 Favorite Movies of 1982

Querelle

(dir. Rainer Werner Fassbinder)

-- released on August 31st 1982 -- 

The Thing

(dir. John Carpenter)

-- released on June 25th 1982 -- 

Fitzcarraldo 

(dir. Werner Herzog)

-- released on October 10th 1982 -- 

Poltergeist 

(dir. Tobe Hooper)

-- released on June 4th 1982 -- 

Veronika Voss

(dir. Rainer Werner Fassbinder)

-- released on May 13th 1982 --

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Runners-up: One From the Heart (dir. Francis Ford Coppola), Tenebre (dir. Dario Argento), The Year of Living Dangerously (dir. Peter Weir), Q: The Winged Serpent (dir. Larry Cohen), Blade Runner (dir. Ridley Scott), Tootsie (dir. Sidney Pollack), Halloween III: Season of the Witch (dir. Tommy Lee Wallace)...

... Creepshow (dir. George Romero), Basket Case (dir. Frank Henenlotter), Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean  (dir. Robert Altman), Fanny & Alexander  (dir. Ingmar Bergman), Slumber Party Massacre (dir. Amy Holden Jones), E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial (dir. Steven Spielberg)

Never Seen: Burden of Dreams (dir. Les Blank), Diner (dir. Barry Levinson), Liquid Sky (dir. Slava Tsukerman), Frances (dir. Graeme Clifford),  Koyaanisqatsi (dir. Godfrey Reggio)

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What are your favorite movies of 1982?
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I Am Link

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--- Double Damn - Over at this Henry Cavill fan-site they got to interview Alain Moussi, the stuntman who was Henry Cavill's stunt-double in Immortals; he's also done stunt-work on films like X-Men: Days of Future Past and Pacific Rim, and he's about to tackle the actual on-screen leading role in the remake of Kickboxer. Anyway he seems like a charmer, and he tells a funny story about pranking his girlfriend with tales of Henry Cavill nudity, so click on over.

--- Forever Cathy - I've been telling you about Schitts Creek, the hysterical new Canadian comedy with Eugene Levy and Catherine O'Hara, for a few weeks now - well it premieres tonight in the US and Vulture has a lovely chat with its two stars right here. I love the repeated instances Catherine's obvious humility shining through - "Let's not act like it's some big coup" - even though Catherine O'Hara of all people has no reason to be humble.

--- Video Star - David Fincher's beginning to have his fingers in so many pies I can't keep up - I can't remember if we'd heard about the comedy series he's making for Netflix or not? It's called Living On Video and it's about the dawn of the music-video in 1983 Los Angeles; some kid from The Killing just got cast in the lead but more importantly the beautiful and under-exploited Sam Page is also cast, as "a meteorologist trying to transition into game-show hosting." I can totally see it. (thanks Mac)

--- Love At Any Age - There's not a ton to this news-story behind the headline but oh what a headline - apparently Bill Murray was seen putting the moves on Catherine Denueve at a restaurant in Los Angeles a couple of days ago. Can you imagine? That is the coolest pick-up scene ever. I need them to have a torrid public love affair.

--- Rosemary's Birthday - I missed Mia Farrow's 70th birthday on Monday - happy belated birthday, Mia! - but thankfully Time magazine was there and they shared a glorious collection of photographs running through the course her several decades in the public eye. (Thanks Mac) Oh and on a related note there've been some raised eyebrows about her son Ronan's inclusion on Out magazine's recent list of hot gay bachelors, since Ronan's never come out.

--- Death Squad - Not only has the cast been revealed for the terribly ill-advised American remake of Pascal Laugier's brilliant and blistering 2009 horror film Martyrs, but apparently the thing's already been filmed too! I guess it was smart of them to just get 'er done and avoid the internet noise. I don't recognize any of the people cast in it but I wouldn't have recognized any of the people cast in the original either so that can't be a knock against it.

--- Hot Time - I haven't read this entire thing yet but Variety did a pretty comprehensive look at the butchering of 54, the "Ryan Phillippe's ass at da club" movie we love despite its awfulness because, you know, Ryan Phillippe's ass, just as the film's brand-new Director's Cut played in Berlin. The good news is the movie's apparently going to play all over the place, and get released (probably on VOD) later this year! We've been waiting for this for a long long time.

--- Bitter Tears - Another movie that played at Berlin that we're very very very interested in seeing is Christian Braad Thompsen's documentary called Fassbinder: To Love Without Demands, which is that's right you guessed it about the career of the great Rainer Werner Fassbinder. The Playlist reviewed it today and it sounds smashing, with interviews with lots of Fassbinder folks.

--- The Winged Stacie - Because I was away at the end of last week I never got to link to the final couple of entries in Final Girl's VHS Week, so head over there to hear Stacie Ponder take on Larry Cohen's Q: The Winged Serpent (a personal fave), Christophe Gans' Brotherhood of the Wolf, and Stuart Gordon's Dagon, which she inspired me to post about right before I left. (And thanks for the shout-out, Stacie!)

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Quotes of the Day

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Oh this is a delight! The delight of the day! The wonderful website The Dissolve - y'all do visit there right? I don't think I've linked up to them before but every time I visit there's something amazing waiting for me - has outdone themselves today with this Oral History of Larry Cohen's amazing 1982 cult film Q: The Winged Serpent, which I guess has just come out on BluRay. You should know that we here at MNPP adore QtWS (indeed I just got a copy of its glorious poster, seen to the right, for my birthday, and this reminds me I have got to get that sucker good and framed). Anyway from the oral history of the movie, my favorite bit is from the section where they talk about actually filming at the tip top of the Chrysler building here in New York:

Director Larry Cohen: It was very dangerous. Seventy-seven stories above the street, no guardrails, no windows, completely exposed on all sides. It was like a platform, really. A platform in space. And if you stepped off the platform, that was the end of you. You’d go flying down into the street. So it was a hairy place to shoot a movie. But we couldn’t afford to build the top of the Chrysler Building, so we had to do it at the real place!

Actor Malachy McCourt: I was racking my brain for any sort of unusual incidents, but the only ones I know of are the consternation caused by the folks in the film being on top of the Chrysler Building and shooting machine guns at the nonexistent monster.

Actor Eddie Jones: Yeah, I remember being on the Chrysler Building, firing bullets, and the casings were falling down onto the street, so the cops came. But by that time, thankfully, most of the shooting had been done.

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Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from:

Q: The Winged Serpent (1982)

Kahea: I am the plumed serpent, I fly, and I crawl... 

I have fallen, but I shall rise again! 

One of my birthday presents this year from the boyfriend was a glorious original copy of the poster for this movie...

... designed by famed fantasy artist Boris Vallejo. Ugh, so amazing! Coincidentally though, today is also the birthday of Q's writer and director Larry Cohen, without whom we'd never had any of the It's Alive movies, or The Stuff... what a sad world that would be. Happy 72nd birthday, Larry!

I Am Link

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--- Hot Dame - I ran out of time yesterday so I didn't get to participate in this week's "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" over at The Film Experience, which blows since I love the hell out of the movie they did - Double Indemnity, with one of Barbara Stanwyck's very best performances, and if you know Barabara Stanwyck you know she's got a whole lot of great performances.

--- Parenthetical - The first teaser poster for Lars Von Trier's Nymphomaniac actually made me laugh out loud, so that's something. When are we supposed to get this movie? I want this movie. I want this movie something crazy.

--- Asian Special - Because when you think "yakuza thriller," the first name that pops to mind is Daniel Radcliffe - the ex-wizard is set to star in Tokyo Vice, which is based on a book about a reporter's real-life experiences bringing down a Japanese mafia boss. 

--- Wonder Twins - Marvel head honcho Kevin Feige isn't giving a solid answer but all clues point to The Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver indeed being in the second Avengers movie, as Joss Whedon inferred last week.

--- And Speaking of Marvel, the dude who played Jackie Robinson this Spring in 42 named Chadwick Boseman is currently rumored to play Black Panther for the studio - they apparently want their "Phase Three" films to include the character.

--- Tea & Brains - This thing was so dead I forgot it was a thing, but now like the final word in its title Pride and Prejudice and Zombies has lurched back to life - Lily Collins, the Snow White nobody remembers, is set to star; some guy that directed two Zac Efron movies is set to direct.

--- Tight Spaces - Last week we heard that Brad Pitt and Shia LaBeouf were going to make a WWII tank thriller called Fury with the director of End of Watch - Logan Lerman, who was so so great in Perks of Being a Wallflower, has just joined the cast, too.

--- Dragon Wars - Q the Winged Serpent is going to be released on BluRay! Because nothing needs to be crystal clear more than the sight of those cops fighting that dragon all made out of Play-Doh. (I love this movie.)

--- Pointy End - I haven't read this yet because I haven't watched this week's episode yet but my pal Sean interviewed Maisie Williams, aka Arya on A Game of Thrones, aka a shocking little ball of talent.

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I Am Link

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--- The Deen Machine - I've pretty much given up hope on Lindsay Lohan at this point, and if you've ever seen anything Bret Easton Ellis has tweeted you know just how insufferable a bore he is, so the only thing that's kept my interest in these two douches new project, the porny-ish The Canyons, is the third douche in their triumvirate, the hot straight porn star James Deen. The Playlist has some pics from behind the scenes, and that one caught my eye. Also adding to the sleaze factor, Gus Van Sant has joined the cast. This movie really just seems to be an excuse for some of Hollywood's creepiest gays to stare at Deen's dick in person. I suppose I can't fault them, though. I mean, hello hypocrisy! That is also how I would use my power. For good.

--- Non Blondes - Although it's not an entry in his "Best Shot" series proper, Nathaniel did a kinda sorta take on it for Vertigo off the cuff the other day since the film's on all of our minds thanks to that Sight and Sound poll. I do declare that it is entirely impossible for me to pick a single shot from Vertigo as my favorite, and I refuse. My sanity demands it!

--- Other Than Efron - While you're over there you should check out what he had to say on The Paperboy trailer, and not only because it'll give you yet another chance to stare at Zac Efron's bum in briefs. After all, you can get that here. Nat actually talks about other things! Imagine that.

--- Month Off - Seven Psychopaths, Colin Farrell's re-teaming with his In Bruges director Martin McDonagh, has just jumped ahead on the release-date calendar from November 4th to October 12th. Have I been a good boy this year? First this happened with The Master and now with this. All of my most anticipated movies are coming to me for a change!

--- Speaking of The Master, Paul Thomas Anderson surprised a bunch of people out to see a screening of The Shining last week with a double-feature of his new movie, its first screening anywhere. Slash rounded all of the reactions (all raves) that've made their way online. Can you imagine? I would've crapped my pants.

--- Man or Munster - THR chatted up MNPP fave Cheyenne Jackson on his role in Steven Soderbergh's Liberace movie as well as his role in Bryan Fuller's Munsters remake Mockingbird Lane. Great things ahead for Chey guy!

--- Gull Bait - Several more pictures of Sienna Miller as Tippi Hedren and Toby Jones as Alfred Hitchcock in The Girl have surfaced and these ones are probably my favorites yet. Love the shot, seen there, of Sienna mid-bird attack. It's the first time I've felt real Tippi coming from her. "Felt real Tippi" is such a euphemism for something.

--- Pop Art - I remember bitching about the "Crazy 4 Cult" pop art show being in LA last year, well out of my grasp - well it's moved to NYC this year, so I guess they heard me. My powers are incredible! Slash has a bunch of images from the show; it opens this Thursday and runs until September 1st, and it's like a ten minute walk from where I sit right this moment. I like that!

--- And finally, this rememberance of working with Bette Davis from the director Larry Cohen - he who made the immortal It's Alive triology and Q: The Winged Serpent! - is well worth your time. It's totally amazing, actually. Read it.

I Am Link

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--- Maniac Mania - This might be the coolest sentence I'll write all month - Drive director Nicholas Winding Refn is teaming up with writer-producer Larry fucking Cohen and director William fucking Lustig to produce a prequel to Maniac Cop. I could replace every word in that sentence with a slap across the face and it would be less dramatic. Holy shit, you guys! I doubt there's any way to cram Bruce Campbell into this but if they could figure that out I might just turn into a pile of ecstatic goo. I mean, not that Bruce looks like he did in Maniac Cop anymore, but still...

--- Rubble Ripper - The AV Club got to chat with Mr. Busy, Joss Whedon, and there's a whole lot of talk about horror what with The Cabin in the Woods being the major topic of conversation, and therefore I pronounce this interview golden. I could listen to Joss talk about horror all my forever. They also get him to kind of say that his one-time-rumored BBC series with Anthony Stewart Head called Ripper, based on his Buffy character, is sort of dead, but Joss doesn't really commit to that - he says he never knows when an idea's really dead and when it's just gestating, waiting for the right moment.

--- Spook Chatter - Talking about the state of horror today in the wake of Cabin in the Woods is a big thing right now; over at The Film Experience Michael brings up the role of irony, and ironic detachment, and humor, in where we stand on the spooky things these days.

--- And speaking of, BD points out that there are a couple of Cabin related books that came out this week - there's a novelization of the story here, and then there's this Official Visual Companion, which I need on my shelf like yesterday.

--- Rough 'Rents - The writers of The Descendants (including Community dean and Angie-leg-aper Jim Rash) are already making an action-comedy with Kristen Wiig, and now they've sold a second script - it's called The Way Way Back and it's about a teenage kid on Summer vacation who goes through some shit. Said shit will now involve a boozing stepdad played by Steve Carell and a mother played by Toni Collette. I'm so happy Toni keeps getting work, y'all.

--- Alien Invasion - Slash has word that Nacho Vigalondo's second film Extraterrestrial is getting a release here in the US in June. They really liked the movie, a lot of people did - I wasn't all that crazy about it myself, to my disappointment. But hey the lead guy Julián Villagrán spends the first ten minutes in very tiny underpants so it's not all a wash.

--- And speaking of underwhelming movies getting a release, Amy Heckerling's laugh-free scare-free horror comedy Vamps got picked up by Anchor Bay and will be out around Halloween. Boo.

--- Fire Balls - Add two more names to that list of possible Catching Fire directors - Moneyball's Bennett Miller and Francis Lawrence, who gave us Constantine and I Am Legend. I'm not really a fan of either so I'm still on Team Impossible Cuarón.

--- Prez Accounted For - Darren Aronofsky's getting ready to direct Noah but his next project's already being talked up - he wants to do something called The General, about George Washington. They say it will be "deconstructionist," like Unforgiven. Seeing as how we're talking about Darren Aronofsky I doubt anybody was thinking it was gonna be a straightforward anything.

--- The Hitchcock Kid - I was just watching some of The Karate Kid on TV the other day and wondering why Ralph Macchio had just up and vanished and here we are, today he gets cast in the Hitchcock movie about Psycho (the one with ScarJo and Anthony Hopkins) as the film's screen-writer Joey Stefano. Too cool.

--- Tina, Bring Me - Park Chan-wook has opened up about a couple of things via here, sharing some details on his English-language debut Stoker, which stars Nicole Kidman and Mia Wasikowska and Matthew Goode, which is filming now. And he's planning on making The Ax next, which he almost did before - it's a remake of a French film about a murderous chemist. That might be in English as well.
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Happy 60, Rick Baker

How much movie magic do we owe to the brain of make-up artist and special effects genius Rick Baker? Much, yo. Much. Here are ten of my favorite things from him. Bow down, y'all.

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