Random Film of the Week: THE DARK

Posted on January 17, 2014 by geelw

John “Bud” Cardos’ one hundred and ten percent wretched sci-fi horror flick The Dark is one of the best reasons for better movie theater security guards and well-caffeinated ticket booth clerks. I paid to see this R-rated waste of time when I was 15 and it was four bucks I still want back. This is one of those “so bad it’s worse” “cult” films that boggles the mind as to not only how it got made, but how it got into theaters. And this is coming from someone who loves crappy movies to death.

Allegedly, Tobe Hooper was in on this mess as the initial director before being replaced by Cardos, but I’d gather he split or was canned because whatever script was presented to him scared him off. Or he was merely killing time before *not* directing Poltergeist a few years later (*ziiiing!*). This won’t be a long and loving look back at this dopey flick, so don’t get too comfortable. In every way possible, this film reeks of people showing up to work just to collect whatever paycheck was promised them (and probably some drugs as well), and that’s a shame…

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The Indie Gala January Bundle Gets Deadly… And You’ll Get A Premonition When You Buy It…

Posted on January 17, 2014 by geelw

Ha! ANY chance to write more about one of my favorite games is a good thing, so here you go. Over at the Indie Gala site, their January bundle just got even more interesting, going from a must buy pack to “If you DON’T buy this bundle, you’re nuts!” deal. $5.19 got you seven games up until today when Deadly Premonition: The Director’s Cut was added to the deal and three more Steam games are coming soon. Nice.

The Steam version of DPTDC adds a ton of bonus content, Steam-specific achievements and (Xbox 360) controller support (sure you CAN play with a mouse and keyboard, but this is ONLY recommended if you already do so and are GREAT at it). As for the game proper, it’s a surprising throwback that won’t win any awards for visuals, but has a story that’s quite interesting on a few emotional layers. In addition, the game is a homage to all sorts of cool stuff and packs in movie trivia like a boss (just drive around and listen to the banter for some fun knowledge dropping). Sure, it won’t look amazing at all on that 50″ or three screen monitor setup and the game isn’t going to task your overclocked gaming rig at all. But good, quirky games like this don’t need fancy system defying visuals to be awesome, I say.

That, and the rest of the games in the bundle are all pretty unique in their own right. You’ll see soon enough. Now go spend a few spare bucks (part of it will be going to charity, so it’s okay!) and have a great(er) weekend!

Random Film of the Week: Body Parts

Posted on January 17, 2014 by geelw

While flawed, Eric Red’s 1991 horror film Body Parts works for about two-thirds of its running time until it goes to pieces and collapses into a heap. It’s a variation on The Hands of Orlac and other potentially possessed parts flicks that makes for a fairly freakish time thanks to Jeff Fahey’s committed performance, Red’s mostly solid direction and an outstanding score by Loek Dikker that drives the film right from the main title sequence.

Like Oliver Stone’s even more flawed horror flick THE HAND, there’s some good stuff in here, some bad stuff and some flat out crazy stuff. But Red’s film is a lot more compelling and even more interesting on the visual side of things up until the aforementioned belly flop into silly quasi-Frankenstein’s monster/evil scientist with a bizarre agenda territory…

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