05 October 2005

Gordon (1986-1988)

1986 - From Beyond - I love the idea that swimming around us, invisible and filled with teeth, are disgusting sea creatures separated only by vibrations. Some of the dialogue borders on cheesy and some of the SFX aren't the greatest, but this is still very solid horror. Interesting that this is the second movie in a row where Gordon both cast his wife as an evil shrew and killed her off violently. Knowing there's a director's cut coming out (hopefully) soon, it's hard not to notice where the MPAA's dirty fingers had been: Dr. Pretorius' first appearance from beyond seems particularly chopped. We really need a widescreen version, too. In the open matte VHS transfer I just watched, you can see Ted Sorel's neck hanging out of the Pretorius-monster's extended head. Hopefully, Dolls is selling well enough to encourage MGM with the SE of this. Wikipedia has a nice article on the pineal gland that seems relevant to this film:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pineal_gland

1988 - Kid Safe: The Video - SCTVer Andrea Martin, playing a little girl left alone in her house, manages to knock every piece of living room furniture over, burn toast, hang up on 911, drink gin, get blood-like ketchup on her face, and trip-out after sticking a fork in a toaster. Triaminic certainly got their money's worth when they hired a for-real horror movie director to create this. Added bonus: not only do we get to see Ralph from Dolls sing about stopping, dropping and rolling, we also get to see the sexual tension between him, a nurse and a fireman boil over. For the types of thing you were forced to watch in school, this would've been something pretty fun.

(comment in the main post)