Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1920)
Robert Lewis Stevenson was one of those rare good writers lucky enough to be famous in his own time. I may not like Treasure Island but a lot of people do and even more did at the time of its original publication. They got Stevenson over his inevitable Sophomore Slump (a Romance named Prince Otto that not even English teachers read anymore) and on to The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
Among English language horror classics it has the benefit of being short and Stevenson’s Presbyterian countryman immediately seized on it for a parable for sin, full stop. Using it in sermons as A Cautionary Tale without the slightest of Spoiler Warnings helped to make the book a best seller. Stage adaptions sprang up immediately, becoming their own worldwide sensation. At least five film versions preceded this one, two of which are lost to us by the time of this writing.
So why ignore the three we have in favor of 1920’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde? Well, because this is the one I own. And it’s the one with John Barrymore in the title role(s). His name recognition alone should make up for everything…including the film’s problems. Great casting has carried it down through the decades but it shares more with Thomas Russell Sullivan’s stage adaption than with its Stevenson’s novel. Making this a prime example of how Adaption Decay bowdlerized good stories long before the dawn of cinema, and will probably continue to do so until the sun goes nova. So down your mysterious potion of choice, people. This will probably get depressing. Continue reading Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1920)
Drunk on VHS Podcast – Robots and Monsters
After months of playing message tag across several social media platforms, I finally dropped in on the Drunk on VHS Podcast and talked the ears off its estimable host, Moe Porne. Drunk on VHS is but one part of CouchCutter.com, your one stop shop for cult, horror and exploitation news, reviews, videos, opinion pieces and pop culture ephemera for those of a certain taste.
The Cabin in the Woods (2012)
The Traumatic Cinematic Show: Ep. 54 – Groundhog Day
A holiday so insignificant that most people forget when it even is but that didn’t stop the @TCPodcastCrew from featuring it for an episode. The guys discuss one of Bill Murray’s best films so tune in and find out if any of the guys see their shadow or if an early spring is on it’s way.
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Find us on Twitter at @GenXnerd, @Greymattersplat, ,@AYTIWS, and the whole cult @TCPodcastCrew
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Groundhog Day (1993)
Some sci-fi films are aggressively marketed as such with stirring trailers and boastful news stories about how good they are, how much they cost, or some conflation of the two. Others sneak into the movie dead zone of early February, marketed as comedies from the team that brought you Ghostbusters and Caddyshack. Groundhog Day‘s not generally regarded as a sci-fi movie, but it introduced more people to the idea of stable temporal loops than anything outside of Star Trek. Sci-fi fans should totally claim it while the claiming’s good. Comedy fans (assuming such people still exist) don’t seem to be using it.
Anyway, it’s a classic that hasn’t aged a day in the years since its release…apart from a minor point about long distance telephone lines sure to confuse anyone would can’t do research or remember the early 1990s. Technical stuff aside, Groundhog Day‘s still a frighteningly accurate portrait modern ennui and its dozens, if not hundreds (or three hundred millions) of permutations. It’s not as “funny” as some entries on the resumes of its director or its headliner, but it is more human. We would also accept “humane” as a descriptor, since the movie goes out of its way to ground its Out There, SF ideas in the simplest terms. Every age needs that. Everyone needs a Groundhog Day.
Not that I’m advocating everyone go out and start acting as if there were no tomorrow. That would be silly. That’s at least half the reason Goundhog Day exists. It’s a very silly film, knows this, and uses that as a stalking horse. We go in thinking this is another Bill Murray vehicle, an industrial strength delivery system for his jokes. Inevitably, we lower our emotional defenses, allowing the movie to sucker punch us by making us feel something, the shady bastard. What gave it the right? Continue reading Groundhog Day (1993)
Cosmopolis (2012)
The Traumatic Cinematic Show, Ep. 53: 80s Month #4: Cloak & Dagger
80?s month has come to an end and to finish it off proper the trio delves into a Dabney Coleman classic Cloak & Dagger. Find out what the inside of a Atari cartridge should look like, if there is life after staring in ET, and how people communicated before cell phones. Will Mr. DeMoss crack the code and expose the top secrete plans to the world? Will Mr. Wickliff find the hidden message this film was trying to portray? Will MuGumBo be able to stay awake through the full discussion? Find out these answers and many more right now by listening to the show!
Send hate mail to TrauamticCinematic@gmail.com
Find us on Twitter at @GenXnerd, @Greymattersplat, ,@AYTIWS, and the whole cult @TCPodcastCrew
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The Traumatic Cinematic Show, Ep. 52: 80s Month #3: Re-Animator
Who hasn’t wanted to dabble in the fine art of bringing the dead back to life? Well in this weeks episode the trio delves deep into the warped mind of H.P. Lovecraft and the film Re-Animator which is loosely based on one of his stories. Will the crew succeed in bring back a recently deceased listener? Will DeMoss explain why H.P. Lovecraft was a lonely soul tormented by freakish nightmars? Will Mike share the secrete of the glowing serum in the syringes so those at home can bring back ex loved ones? The only way to find out it to listen right now!!
Remember we have a voice mail now so you can troll the show with ease from your cell phone! 765-396-8666
Send hate mail to TrauamticCinematic@gmail.com
Find us on Twitter at @GenXnerd, @Greymattersplat, ,@AYTIWS, and the whole cult @TCPodcastCrew
And we have a spiffy newly cleaned site http://traumaticcinematic.com
Check out Tom Jenner (creator of our intro song) and his many project at the following links-
https://www.facebook.com/imageblownout http://www.youtube.com/user/imageblownout
An Announcement: Down with the Sickness
Sorry, guys: those twelve days of silence were brought to you by the worst case of food poisoning I’ve ever had and my recovery from it. Normal service should resume shortly, I just wanted to drop you all a line appreciating your patience.
I’m currently writing next week’s reviews…which largely means re-tooling the plans for last week’s that I didn’t get to, occupied as I was by Magog larvae. We’ll just pretend that didn’t happen and start next week up fresh and ready. In the meantime, here’s this thing I found that has nothing to do with anything. I just found it an exceptionally well-edited piece of music video work that deserves more study and/or attention. I’m sure, in some wacky parallel dimension where I teach editing classes instead of taking them, some better-paid version of me is already using it as the basis for a six-week course. The most succinct description I can give it? “Tron: Legacy in four minutes and twenty-seven seconds.”