Random Film of the Week: The Honeymoon Killers

Posted on September 10, 2013 by geelw

While it’s not a horror film, Leonard Kastle’s The Honeymoon Killers manages to be a fairly intense drama/black comedy mix that gets your attention with its true crime story, stark black and white photography and excellent performances from the two leads. This is a film that gets under your skin right away with Gustav Mahler’s intense music setting an oppressively dreary tone for the story of Ray Fernandez and Martha Beck, aka The Lonely Hearts Killers, as they go about their nasty work of lightening the landscape of too-trusting mostly elderly ladies looking for love in all the wrong places.

Kastle, in his first and only studio film, managed to make an instant classic that’s also a fantastic low-budget flick as well as a pretty grim viewing experience if you’ve never seen it before. That said, there’s also a bit of very dark humor to be found here and the movie is a pretty compelling viewing experience thanks to the near constant level of suspense tempered with a near constant sense of dread…

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Random Art: Stuff to Not Wake Up and See #3 (Collect ’em All!)

Posted on September 8, 2013 by geelw

Hmmm… I spy with my little eye… Eek. Actually, this eye spider isn’t all that big like you see here, but they do tend to get right up in your face and lurk there until you happen to open your own eyes and see it there. You could say “the eyes have it”, with “it” being your undivided attention as this thing starts doing its thing.

Oh, yeah… you’ll want to not scream at all, as they tend to love hopping into that open mouth and taking a little trip inside. I guess you could slap a few rolls of double sided tape around the bedroom and maybe on the bed, but there’s a good chance all you’ll end up doing is lose some hair on your head and assorted body parts from turning in your sleep. Pleasant dreams!

Random Art: Stuff to Not Wake Up and See #2 (Collect ’em All)

Posted on September 7, 2013 by geelw

I was actually going to post this one later in the week, but what the hey. I’m in a good mood today or something like that. Actually, I’m making progress in reworking the bunch of stuff I lost on that USB drive, so I guess this is a happy face (sings: “Put on a happy faaaaaaace!”). Yeah, OK. Let me stop here before your eardrums fall out and/or someone mails me a puppy or something. Don’t so that, by the way. Animlas seem to like me, but I have eye allergies that act up something awful around most animals with hair (and some people, too).

Hey, I’m a happy guy, really I am! I think this piece is incomplete anyway, as it’s part of an older drawing I clipped out and blew up on my scanner before dinking around with it in a few paint programs. Enjoy (I guess)… and pleasant dreams!

Random Art: Stuff to Not Wake Up and See #1 (Collect ’em All!)

Posted on September 7, 2013 by geelw

Yeah, everyone has bad dreams, but you do wake up and usually things are back to some semblance of normalcy. On the other hand, you could be drifting out of dreamland and as your eyeballs are creeping open to catch that alarm clock a minute before it goes off, you see this mug staring into your mug. Feel free to swing a fist, pillow, pet or if you find it somewhat cute, give a big friendly hug. The surprise of any of the former actions will usually cause it to faint (a bit melodramatically, with a loud squeak and probably some gassy action), allowing you to make good your escape.

(OK, it’s just a portion of an old sketch I blew up and tinkered with in a paint program before making up a quick story behind the image. Just killing some time while downloading some files, folks…)

GOG.com Gets A Harlan Ellison Classic (Finally)…

Posted on September 6, 2013 by geelw

Well, well, well… I haven’t played I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream in about 15 years, but it’s definitely one of those games that sticks in the corners of your brain long after it’s been explored. Based on Harlan Ellison’s 1968 Hugo Award-winning story, this is an adventure game geared for adults that’s pretty unsettling and requires quite a bit of brainpower to make it through some of the trickier bits. Ellison himself appears in the game as the voice of AM, a not so benevolent supercomputer (OK, more like a slightly too malevolent supercomputer) that decided to put the last few remaining humans through the wringer in more ways than one. Best of all, gog.com has it now for a mere $5.99 and yes indeed, you sure look as if you need to be scared half to death this weekend.

Look at the bright side, though… at least you’ll be safe at home when you’re freaked out of your skin…

And If You DID Work Today, Black Curtain Studio Says, “Boo!”

Posted on September 2, 2013 by geelw

But not “Boo, you had to work today!”… it’s more like “Boo! You’d better NOT be working late, silly rabbit!” Yeah, as I noted with their first game One Late Night, these guys sure know how to make you dread office work. Well, guess what? They’re working on a follow up that, based on this teaser, will make you want to call in sick for about a month until your boss does something about that creepy space you have to slog to five days a week (and sometimes more… with NO overtime to boot! Bastard!). Anyway, go check out the original game (which has since gotten a Developer’s Cut version) and keep an eye and ear peeled (eww) for this new one when it finally gets a release date. Now, go get some sleep – your holiday is done and it’s back to the grind tomorrow (and those pissed off ghosts are waiting to jump you at the coffee machine…)

Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs: Pre-Order NOW (And Prepare To Hide Under Something Later)

Posted on August 16, 2013 by geelw

Frictional Games is teaming up with the VERY great and talented hands of the fine folks at The Chinese Room (who did a marvelous job with Dear Esther) to get horror and horror game fans some spine-shaking true scares in this upcoming “sequel”. If you’ve yet to play the original Amnesia: The Dark Descent, drop something and do so this weekend or so, as it’s quite a ride from start to finish…

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Shout Factory Zaps Out Another “B”-Flick Sci-Fi Bundle…

Posted on August 16, 2013 by geelw

Nice. At a measly $6.95, these four sci-fi “classics” of assorted quality (mostly of the “so bad they’re awesome” variety) work out to a no-brainer “BUY ME!” price of $1.75 each, which is a BARGAIN if you love old cheese and don’t mind falling off your couch or chair in a heap a few times.

Of this new set of four, Reptilicus is pretty darn amazing as it fails on so many levels (to a jaw-dropping extreme, in fact) but makes for a surprising great visitor’s guide to Denmark’s nightlife (you’ll see). And of course, The Brain That Wouldn’t Die is completely mind-blowing in many ways for what it brings to the table. See it and you’ll get my stupid puns in that last sentence. I’ll make sure I’m out of town when you come to chase after me with a blunt object. The other two are also pretty awesome in that bad way, but it’s been a few years since I’ve seen either (which means I just may have to get this disc at some point)…

I actually didn’t know this the the second entry in this series of MGM non-masterpieces (calling them “classics” is a bit of a stretch that makes me smile and almost feel sorry for someone who grabs these thinking they’ve discovered solid gold in the trash heap). The first disc’s a doozy as well, but EVERYONE who considers himself a sci-fi or “B” movie fanatic needs to have seen Angry Red Planet and The Man From Planet X at least once before they flee this mortal coil.The again, if these are your bucket list flicks… you’ve either seen way too many movies or just not enough. Consider taking long walks (at least five miles a day) and drinking a gallon of prune juice a week. You’ll live longer than your buddies laughing at you for liking such lousy films.

“Why so serious?” You ask? Well, you might actually drop dead after seeing these flicks if you go in thinking they’re “great” and your brain rage quits on you, but hey, what’s life without a little risk, I say? Don’t choke on that popcorn either, stay away from diet soda and watch out for the cat when you plop down on the couch (it’s hiding under that big pillow again, me-ow!)…

Deadly Premonition: The Director’s Cut Gets A Ridiculously Awesome iPad App…

Posted on August 15, 2013 by geelw

With Deadly Premonition: The Director’s Cut headed full steam ahead onto Steam soon and an even MORE enhanced edition, Rising Star Games is celebrating by making fans who don’t own iPads (that use iBooks 3.0 or later on an iPad with iOS 5.1 or later) want to run out and buy one just for a single (and VERY cool) new app that’s more a game encyclopedia packed to the rafters with pretty much anything and everything about the game.

Set to launch October 14, 2013, Deadly Premonition: The Director’s Cut – The Official Visual Companion is a whopping 352 pages of info (some of it interactive) including plenty of plot spoilers, art, maps of every location in the game, in-depth notes on the story and characters and even a soundboard/soundtrack function. Of course it’s also got a trunk full of SPOILERS, so if you’re planning on snapping this up with intent to ruin the game’s plot, it’ll do that just fine, thank you much…

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Random Film of the Week(end): Invasion of the Bee Girls

Posted on August 3, 2013 by geelw

(Thanks, DST3K!)

Was Invasion of the Bee Girls a modern feminist film disguised as a stupidly sexy 70’s exploitation flick? I’d say hell no, but for all its nudity and pervy middle-aged to old coots getting bedded and bumped off by a bevy of shapely babes with the power to kill any guy they mate with, there’s probably a message in there somewhere. I actually remember seeing this one as a kid one afternoon when it popped up on TV as a heavily edited (but still ridiculously racy) flick and it being a pretty hot topic at school the next day.

As I’ve “matured” and checked out the uncut version a few times since (hey, ONLY for research purposes!), it’s clear that all those hot and bothered guys (and a few gals) knew a while lot more about the birds and the bees that I did at that tender age…

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