[PHOTOS] ‘House on Haunted Hill’, Directed by William Castle, 1959
Posted: January 25, 2017 Filed under: Art & Culture, Entertainment | Tags: 1950s, Cinema, Haunted, Horror, House on Haunted Hill, Movies, Scream, Skeleton, Thriller Leave a commentPsycho Shower Scene Documentary
Posted: January 23, 2017 Filed under: Art & Culture, Entertainment, Mediasphere | Tags: Alfred Hitchcock, Cinema, Entertainment Weekly, Feature film, Horror, Jason Segel, Psycho, Rooney Mara, Shower Scene, Sundance Film Festival, suspense, Thriller Leave a commentClark Collis writes: The new documentary 78/52 gives a closer look at the shower scene from Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 terror classic Psycho with assistance from a lengthy list of interviewees, including Guillermo del Toro, Peter Bogdanovich, Elijah Wood, Bret Easton Ellis, Neil Marshall, Danny Elfman, Karyn Kusama, Apocalypse Now editor Walter Murch, Janet Leigh’s actress daughter Jamie Lee Curtis, and Anthony Perkins’ filmmaker son, Osgood Perkins. The film’s title refers to the number of setups (78) and the number of cuts (52) in the notorious sequence.
[WATCH – psycho shower scene doc 78/52: Exclusive clip]
Written and directed by Alexandre O. Philippe (Doc of the Dead), 78/52 was showcased as a work-in-progress at Fantasia’s Frontieres International Film Market. Read the rest of this entry »
[VIDEO] #AmericanCarnage: The Dystopian Rhetoric of Trump’s Inauguration Speech
Posted: January 21, 2017 Filed under: Entertainment, Humor, Mediasphere, White House | Tags: American Carnage, Carnage, Donald Trump, Dystopia, Horror, Inauguration Speech, ISIS, media, news, POTUS, Reason.tv, Urban, video, zombie apocalypse, Zombies Leave a commentDemocrats Today Magazine
Posted: January 14, 2017 Filed under: Art & Culture, Comics, Humor, Mediasphere, Politics | Tags: Democrats, Horror, Illustration, media, Nancy Pelosi, news, Parody, pulp fiction, satire, Thriller Leave a comment[VIDEO] ‘Elf’ Recut as a Thriller
Posted: December 26, 2016 Filed under: Entertainment, Humor, Mediasphere | Tags: Cinema, Elf, Horror, Movies, Mystery, Parody, satire, Thriller, Trailer, video, Will Ferrell Leave a comment
Thought your holiday family dinner was a nightmare? Wait until you see your favorite elf in this creepy version of the holiday comedy. At least now you’ll definitely be up all night to wait for Santa Claus.
‘The Monster that Challenged the World’, 1937
Posted: December 20, 2016 Filed under: Art & Culture, Comics, Entertainment | Tags: 1930s, Cinema, design, Horror, Illustration, Monster Movies, Movies, Poster Art, Thriller, typography, vintage 1 CommentSource: arcaneimages
Movie Poster: ‘The Deadly Mantis’, 1957, Artwork by Ken Sawyer
Posted: December 2, 2016 Filed under: Art & Culture, Entertainment | Tags: Adventure, design, Dryococelus australis, Giant Fijian long-horned beetle, Goliathus, Horror, Illustration, Insect, Movies, Science fiction, The Deadly Mantis, Thriller, typography, Universal International Leave a commentThe Deadly Mantis (Universal International, 1957). Science Fiction.
Starring Craig Stevens, William Hopper, Alix Talton, Donald Randolph, Pat Conway, Florenz Ames, Paul Smith, Phil Harvey, Floyd Simmons, Paul Campbell, Helen Jay, Keith Aldrich, William A. Forester, and Paul Frees. Directed by Nathan Juran. Artwork by Ken Sawyer
Source: Mudwerks
Dracula’s Daughter: ‘What Do You See in My Eyes?’
Posted: October 23, 2016 Filed under: Art & Culture, Entertainment | Tags: Cinema, Cinematography, Dracula, Dracula's Daughter, Film, Horror, Movies, Photography, Thriller Leave a comment‘The Wolf Man’
Posted: October 18, 2016 Filed under: Art & Culture, Entertainment | Tags: Cinema, Halloween, Horror, Movie Stills, Movies, Photography, The Wolf Man, Thriller, Title Cards, vintage Leave a commentSource: Mudwerks
‘Hair-Raising Hare’: Bugs Bunny
Posted: October 16, 2016 Filed under: Art & Culture, Comics, Entertainment | Tags: Animation, Bugs Bunny, Cartoons, Halloween, Horror, Thriller, Warner Bros Leave a comment
Source: Mudwerks
[PHOTO] EXCLUSIVE: Donald Trump Capturing and Torturing a Human Child
Posted: October 14, 2016 Filed under: Entertainment, Humor, Mediasphere, Politics, The Butcher's Notebook | Tags: 2016 Presidential Election, Donald Trump, Horror, Insect, Monster, Mystery, Photography, satire, spoof, Thriller, vintage 2 CommentsMovie Poster: ‘Le Retour de L’Homme’
Posted: September 1, 2016 Filed under: Art & Culture, Entertainment | Tags: Cinema, design, Films, Horror, Illustration, Movies, Mystery, Poster Art, The Invisible Man Returns, Thriller, typography Leave a commentHitchcock Poster: ‘The Next Showing of Psycho Begins at…’
Posted: August 26, 2016 Filed under: Art & Culture, Entertainment | Tags: 1960s, Alfred Hitchcock, Cinema, design, Horror, Illustration, Movies, Mystery, Poster Art, suspense, Thriller, typography Leave a commentWhat Does a Nice Girl Do When a Scaly Alien Wants to Marry Her?
Posted: August 17, 2016 Filed under: Art & Culture, Comics, Entertainment | Tags: Adventure, Aliens, Books, design, graphics, Horror, Illustration, Pulp, Science fiction, Thriller, vintage Leave a comment[VIDEO] Rare Behind-the-Scenes Footage of Jack Nicholson Preparing for the Famous Axe Scene in ‘The Shining’
Posted: August 6, 2016 Filed under: Art & Culture, Entertainment, Mediasphere | Tags: Cinema, Horror, Jack Nicholson, Movies, suspense, The Shining, Thriller, video Leave a comment
Movie Poster: ‘Creature from the Black Lagoon’
Posted: August 5, 2016 Filed under: Art & Culture, Entertainment | Tags: Cinema, design, Horror, Illustration, Movies, Poster Art, Thriller, vintage Leave a commentPulp Fiction: ‘The Creature’
Posted: April 3, 2016 Filed under: Art & Culture, Comics, Entertainment, Reading Room | Tags: Dell Books, design, Horror, Illustration, Paperback, Thriller, typography, vintage Leave a commentMAD Magazine #5, June-July 1953, 10¢
Posted: December 19, 2015 Filed under: Art & Culture, Comics | Tags: 1950s, Bill Elder, Cartoons, Comic Books, EC Comics, Horror, Illustration, Mad Magazine, Parody, satire Leave a commentMovie Poster: ‘The Day the World Ended’
Posted: December 18, 2015 Filed under: Entertainment | Tags: design, Horror, Illustration, Movie Poster, Sci-fi, Science fiction, Thriller, typography, vintage Leave a commentBelgian poster for The Deadly Mantis, 1957
Posted: December 17, 2015 Filed under: Art & Culture, Comics, Entertainment | Tags: 1950s, design, Global Panic, Horror, Illustration, Movie Poster, Movies, Poster Art, Science fiction, Thriller, typography, vintage Leave a commentBelgian poster for The Deadly Mantis (1957)
Source: arcaneimages
[PHOTO] Reading ‘Weird Tales’, 1949
Posted: November 30, 2015 Filed under: Art & Culture, Comics, Entertainment | Tags: 1940s, Comic Books, Horror, Magazines, Pulp, Weird Tales Leave a comment‘L’HORREUR’: New York Daily News Front Page for Saturday, Nov 14, 2015
Posted: November 13, 2015 Filed under: Breaking News, Global, Mediasphere, War Room | Tags: Horror, Jihadism, journalism, L'Horreur, media, New, New York, New York Daily News, Paris, Paris Attacks, Suicide Bombs, Tabloid Leave a commentMovie Poster: ‘Texas Chainsaw Massacre’
Posted: November 3, 2015 Filed under: Art & Culture, Entertainment | Tags: Cinema, design, Horror, Movies, Poster Art, suspense, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Thriller, typography, vintage Leave a commentHappy Birthday to Godzilla, King of the Monsters, who Debuted Today in 1954
Posted: November 3, 2015 Filed under: Art & Culture, Entertainment, Japan | Tags: Adventure, Cinema, Godzilla, Horror, Monsters, Movie Posters, Movies, Poster Art, suspense, Thriller Leave a commentCharles Burns sketchbook, 1987
Posted: November 1, 2015 Filed under: Art & Culture, Comics, Entertainment | Tags: 1980s, Black & White, Charles Burns, Comic Art, Horror, Illustration, Inking, Mystery, Sketchbook, Thriller Leave a commentthebrikstolboard – johnnytwentythree
Movie Poster: ‘The Shining’, 1980
Posted: November 1, 2015 Filed under: Art & Culture, Entertainment | Tags: Cinema, Horror, Jack Nicholson, Mystery, Poster Art, Scatman Crothers, Shelly Duvall, Stanley Kubrick, Stephen King, The Sining, Thriller, vintage Leave a commentAlfred Hitchcock’s ‘The Birds’, 1963
Posted: October 30, 2015 Filed under: Art & Culture, Entertainment | Tags: 1960s, Alfred Hitchcock, Animation, Cinema, Horror, Movies, Mystery, Photography, suspense, The Birds, Thriller 2 Comments31 Days of Horror, Vol. 4
Posted: October 29, 2015 Filed under: Entertainment, Mediasphere | Tags: Adventure, Cinema, Classic Cinema, Godzilla, Hollywood, Horror, King Kong, Los Angeles, Movies, Mystery, Thriller, video, vintage, Warner 1 CommentLike many great things, it all begins with an ape.
Like many great things, it all begins with an ape. Earlier cinema may have included some oversized spectacles in the past, but it was the arrival of King Kong that created a whole new genre of horror—the giant monster movie. A smash success, Kong had few imitators until Ray Harryhausen, a protégé of Kong Special Effects master Willis O’Brien, adapted Ray Bradbury‘s The Lighthouse and brought forth The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (included in this earlier edition of our “31 Days of Horror” series).
Now the giant monster genie was truly out of the bottle, where it soon spawned parallel veins of monster movies. In the States, we explored our Cold War anxiety with a series of atom age monstrosities, while in Japan filmmakers used Godzilla and his fellow Kaiju (“strange beast”) to initially explore the horror of Hiroshima and Nagasaki before taking a ’60s super heroic turn. And now, with the recent announcement of 2020’s Godzilla vs. Kong from Legendary and Warner Bros., those two veins become one again!
This groundbreaking achievement in movie-making is not just a supreme icon in the realms of the films of the fantastic, it is rightly regarded as one of the best movies of all time, period. On a mysterious and dangerous island, a film producer captures a giant ape and brings him back to New York in the hopes of capitalizing on his prize.
Son of Kong (1933)
Released the same year as King Kong, sequel Son of Kong is a tribute to the prodigious skills of Willis O’Brien and company. The film opens on the day after King Kong fell, and Carl Denham (Robert Armstrong), is facing financial ruin. Fleeing back to the South Pacific, Denham meets Hilda Peterson (Helen Mack), and the two find themselves again stranded on Skull Island, where Denham finds an unlikely, lovable ally in the Son of Kong. This lost treasure is coming to Blu-ray on October 27, both on its own or as part of Warner Home Video’s new Special Effects Collection.
Mighty Joe Young (1949)
Lightning struck again when the team behind King Kong reunited to create another towering ape: Mr. Joseph Young. This simian may be shorter, but the SFX are just as Kong-sized. A slick nightclub owner (King Kong veteran Robert Armstrong) discovers the giant ape frolicking in Africa as the beloved pet of a young girl (Terry Moore). He brings both to Hollywood as a floor-show sensation, until some no-goods ply Joe with booze and the blitzed behemoth goes bonkers. Available on Blu-ray October 27, either on its own or in Warner Home Video’s new Special Effects Collection.
Them! (1954)
After The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms proved to be an enormous breakout success for Warner Bros., ever-capable director Gordon Douglas was tasked with delivering up “another Beast.” Although marketed in a similar fashion, the film that Douglas and his team delivered ended up being a whole other sort of giant monster movie—and an even bigger success. Part police procedural, part character drama, part military, Them! is 100% a Warner Bros. picture of the 1950s—and its stature only increases with age (no wonder it makes its Blu-ray debut October 27 and also appears on the Special Effects Collection Blu-ray set). Starring James Whitmore, James Arness and Edmund Gwenn, Them! begins in New Mexico with a child wandering in shock, a ransacked general store, and a battered corpse full of enough formic acid to kill 20 men. It ends with an epic struggle in the 700 miles of storm drains under Los Angeles.
The Black Scorpion (1957)
A lean budget goes a long way when the master of movie miracles, Willis O’Brien(King Kong), is on hand to deliver up the SFX. After unexpected seismic activity unleashes a swarm of stupendous scorpions from the bowels of the earth, a pair of geologists leads the vanguard tasked with dispatching them back. Co-starring Richard Denning (Creature from the Black Lagoon) and pin-up queen Mara Corday (Tarantula).
The Giant Behemoth (1957)
The horrors of the Atomic Age threaten Britain when thousands of lifeless fish wash up on its shores and fishermen are found dead at sea. Two scientists investigating these mysteries discover something far more frightening than their worst nightmares: a giant, radioactive sea creature horribly mutated by the effects of radiation staggers from beneath the ocean depths bringing death to every living thing in its path. Even worse, they realize the monster is heading for London! Read the rest of this entry »
Homage To Psycho: A Halloweenization of Shower Interrupted, Art by Al Buell
Posted: October 28, 2015 Filed under: Art & Culture, Comics, Entertainment | Tags: design, Halloween, Hitchcock, Homage, Horror, Illustration, Mystery, Painting, Psycho, suspense, Thriller Leave a commentA Homage To Psycho. A Halloweenization of Shower Interrupted, art by Al Buell.
First Issue of MAD Magazine, 1952
Posted: October 27, 2015 Filed under: Art & Culture, Comics, Entertainment, Humor | Tags: Anthony Bourdain, Art Baltazar, Artist, Harvey Award, Harvey Kurtzman, Horror, Illustration, Lettering, Mad Magazine, New York City, Parody, satire Leave a commentFirst Issue of “Mad Magazine”, 10/1952
Happy birthday, Harvey Kurtzman and Mad Magazine! In October 1952, the very first issue of a new comic called “Mad” was issued, written almost entirely by Kurtzman. It soon came under Senate investigation (thus entering the records of the National Archives), which led to the comic book being transformed into the magazine still going strong today.
One of these early issues of Mad is on display in the Archives’ permanent exhibit, The Public Vaults, in Washington, DC.
(via National Archives Foundation on Facebook)
[VIDEO] Cat Doing a Fairly Decent Impression of Jack Nicholson in ‘The Shining’
Posted: October 26, 2015 Filed under: Entertainment, Humor, Mediasphere | Tags: Cats, Horror, Jack Nicholson, Movies, Mystery, Stephen King, The Shining (movie), Thriller, Tumblr, Twitter, Vine Leave a comment
Mickey Mouse in the Haunted House
Posted: October 23, 2015 Filed under: Art & Culture, Comics, Entertainment, Mediasphere | Tags: Animation, Disney, Ghosts, Halloween, Horror, vintage Leave a commentHalloween is Coming
Posted: October 21, 2015 Filed under: Art & Culture, Comics, Entertainment | Tags: Cartoon, design, Greeting Card, Halloween, Holiday, Horror, Illustration, Spooky, vintage Leave a comment[PHOTO] Golden Gate Bridge
Posted: October 12, 2015 Filed under: Entertainment, Humor | Tags: 1950s, Bay Area, Horror, Monsters, Movies, Octopus, Photography, San Francisco, Sea Monster, Thriller, vintage Leave a commentMovie Poster: Alfred Hitchock’s ‘Psycho’
Posted: October 11, 2015 Filed under: Art & Culture, Entertainment | Tags: 1960s, Alfred Hitchcock, Cinema, design, Horror, Illustration, Mystery, Psycho (movie) Poster Art, suspense, Thriller, typography, vintage Leave a commentAlfred Hitchcock: ‘The Birds’, 1963
Posted: September 29, 2015 Filed under: Art & Culture, Entertainment, History | Tags: Academy Award, Actor, Alfred Hitchcock, Cinema, Horror, Jessica Tandy, Movies, Mystery, North by Northwest, Paris Hilton, Psycho (film), Rod Taylor, Romance, Suzanne Pleshette, The Birds (film), Thriller, Tippi Hedren, Vertigo Leave a commentA few nights ago, I watched Alfred Hitchcock’s ‘The Birds‘, for the first time in decades. I wonder why? I’ve seen restored versions of Psycho, Read Window, and Vertigo multiple times, but for some reason I’d missed re-watching this one. It was a pleasure to see again. And to see Tippi Hedren with fresh eyes.
I was surprised to discover a curious resemblance between actress Tippi Hedren, at age 33, and Paris Hilton, now 34. The resemblance is minor, but notable.
And I’m not the first to notice it. A brief Google search shows seekers asking if Tippi and Paris are related. (they are not) In the course of this, I also rediscovered that Tippi Hedren is the mother of actress Melanie Griffith. Born in 1957, Melanie Griffith recalls visiting the set during the filming of The Birds, in 1962, when she was a little girl.
I was also pleased to find that the earthy and vivacious brunette female co-star is Suzanne Pleshette, another detail I’d forgotten. She has features similar to Elizabeth Taylor, or a young Stockard Channing.
Notice, in the photo below, how the 33 year-old Hedren has similar features, or facial expression, to the 34-year old Paris Hilton. See a similarity? I think it’s there.
Since we all know the story, and suspense isn’t a factor, I was free to pay closer attention to Tippi Hedren‘s performance, and to the interpersonal drama between the main characters, played by Rod Taylor, Jessica Tandy, and Suzanne Pleshette.
What a strange, dark, pensive, Freudian, romantic-erotic narrative! Where much is left unsaid, but implied. Jealousy, loneliness, abandonment, flirtation, hostility, attraction, are all explored, but not resolved. I’ve always thought of Vertigo as being the most neurotic, sexually obsessed, repressed, fixated story in Hitchock’s canon, but I had underestimated the peculiar storyline of The Birds. Before the actual birds take over the story, there’s a lot of familial and romantic turbulence. And the cast is wonderful.
Tippi Hedren looks so elegant, mischievous, and glamorous, one can see why Hitchcock selected the untrained model, fixated on her, and elevated her to movie star. Much is written about Hitchock’s abusive, controlling personality, and troubles with female leads, no need to cover that here, Hedren was no exception. Leaving all that aside, it was a pleasure to simply marvel at how lovingly photographed the neophyte actress is, and how well-crafted the film is. The moody San Francisco and northern California seaside locations, the special effects, the sound design (no music, only bird sounds make up the film’s score) the cinematography…besides being one of the most famous horror movies of all time, it’s also a terrific early 1960s time-capsule. Next time you watch it? Forget about the birds, and follow the other elements of the story. Perhaps you’ll find it as rewarding as I did.