Previews and Reviews that are Z's Views
Jacob Trussell and Film School Rejects came up with their list of 10 Horror Posters That Are Seared Into Our Brains. Their list is a good one, but they didn’t find a spot for one of my favorites, George Romero’s Dawn of the Dead.
The Radioflash poster and trailer are here. Trust me, the trailer is better than the poster.
Each week JoBlo.com posts a feature called Awesome Art We’ve Found Around the Net. I always enjoy what JoBlo finds because with each post they list the artist’s name and a link to more of his/her art.
That’s where I found this cool Creature from the Black Lagoon poster by Jesus Prado. You can see more of Jesus’ art here.
Me-TV presents 8 Out-of-this-World Facts about The Invaders. They’re so good I had a tough time picking my top three, but here they are! Then click over for all of ’em!
5. The show is Jerry Lewis-level huge in France.
The French have a knack for developing cults around unexpected, overlooked pieces of American pop culture. Their Invaders fandom is a prime example, and it’s not just the how of it but the when of it. Thinnes himself explained the genesis of the French Invaders phenomenon in a 2008 interview with Premium Hollywood. “Back in the early ’80s, Patrick Poivre d’Arvor, who is a star anchorman with Télévision Française 1, he had a four-hour show on Sundays and he did a survey with the audience and asked… because they love American television, what would they like to see again,” Thinnes said. “And they got a lot of calls about The Invaders, so TF1 bought a few episodes and tested it and got a huge response. So they began running the series.” The reruns later jumped to cable and an “MTV equivalent,” airing in reruns for two decades.
6. Suzanne Plechette twice sacrificed herself as a friendly alien on the show.
Not all of the aliens on The Invaders had wicked motives. Some helped David Vincent along the way. In particular, Suzanne Pleshette of The Bob Newhart Show stands out, as she turns up twice, as two different such aliens. In the second episode, she plays a stripper who also happens to be an Invaders, albeit a “mutation” who can feel empathy. So she helps David, dying in the end. This is the first time we see the glowing red death of the aliens on the series. In the second season, Pleshette appears again as Anne, a more hot-headed alien who also gives her life in helping David. Those E.T. must have loved shifting into the shape of Pleshette.
7. The Invaders dabbled in zombies, too.
While it was never a huge ratings hit, The Invaders nevertheless spawned an expanded universe of tie-in books and comics. Perhaps the must interesting pulp Invaders novel was Army of the Undead, which centers around the alien Invaders turning humans into mindless “zombies.” What is perhaps most fascinating about its use of zombies is that the paperback hit stands in 1967 — a year before Night of the Living Dead. It was ahead of the curve.
Today we have Eduardo Risso’s riff on Mel Gibson as The Road Warrior. If you’re a fan of great art, then check out Risso’s Instagram.
I just learned that my buddy Shawn Surface has died of a massive heart attack. Shawn’s brother Paul posted the news on Facebook a few hours ago. I’m saddened and surprised. Shawn had been in poor health for a few years, but his recent posts had been positive and it seemed Shawn was doing better.
Comic fans in Florida will probably remember Shawn from his appearances at conventions throughout the state. Shawn was always smiling and upbeat. He was a fun guy to talk with and his art always had a joy to it. Shawn is probably best known for his art on Bubba the Redneck Werewolf, a comic series turned into a low-budget film. Surface was also planning a creator-owned series of his own called Mandi.
Over the years I commissioned Shawn to do pieces for my Stallone-themed sketch collection. You can see several of them here if you’re inclined to do so.
Shawn died way too young. Our thoughts and prayers go out to Shawn’s family, friends and fans.
Over the years many actors have played Dracula, but my personal favorite is Bela Lugosi. You can imagine my thrill to learn that Legendary Entertainment in partnership with Bela Lugosi’s estate will publish Bram Stoker’s Dracula Starring Bela Lugosi! The graphic novel will be out in late 2020!
“There have been great Dracula graphic novels, but to unite Bram Stoker’s novel in a faithful adaptation with the definitive Dracula in the form of screen icon Bela Lugosi is a dream come true,” – Legendary Comics SVP Robert Napton.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter.
It’s amazing how many actors got their start or appeared in The Faculty. Check out Everything You Didn’t Know About The Faculty presented by SYFY Wire.
Robert Forster, the actor best known for his Academy Award nominated role in Jackie Brown has passed away at the age of 78 from brain cancer.
Forster was one of those rare actors who made everything in was in better. I first became aware of Forster in the tv series Banyon. I liked him better than the show and often that seemed to be the case. The same could be said for his appearances in Reflections in a Golden Eye; The Black Hole; Alligator; The Delta Force; and so many more.
Forster was quoted in a 2018 interview with the Chicago Tribune…
“My career went like this for five years and then like that for 27. Every time it reached a lower level I thought I could tolerate, it dropped some more, and then some more. Near the end I had no agent, no manager, no lawyer, no nothing. I was taking whatever fell through the cracks.”
But Forster hung in taking whatever parts he could that would pay the bills.
Quentin Tarantino was a fan and had Forster audition for Reservoir Dogs. Ultimately Tarantino gave the part to Lawrence Tierney, but had another idea for Forster. And that was the male lead in Jackie Brown. Forster was nominated for an Academy Award and that restarted his career. Better roles continued, and Forster worked until his death — having two films, El Camino: A Breaking Bad Story and Phil coming out in 2019.
I loved Forster’s acting and his attitude about life. As he told this interviewer…
“You gotta be ready… Accept all things that give you a good attitude. Deliver excellence right now… And never quit. You can win it in the late innings if you don’t quit.”
Our thoughts and prayers go out to Robert Forster’s family, friends and fans.
The poster and trailer for The Courier are here and I like the looks of both.
This intense action-thriller unfolds in real time as two embattled souls fight for their lives. Academy Award® winner Gary Oldman (The Dark Knight franchise) stars as a vicious crime boss out to kill Nick, the lone witness set to testify against him. He hires a mysterious female motorcycle courier (Kurylenko, Quantum of Solace) to unknowingly deliver a poison-gas bomb to slay Nick, but after she rescues Nick from certain death, the duo must confront an army of ruthless hired killers in order to survive the night.
What do you think of the poster and trailer for Rattlesnake?
Time waits for no one.
When a single mother (Carmen Ejogo) accepts the help of a mysterious woman after her daughter (Apollonia Pratt) is bitten by a rattlesnake, she finds herself making an unthinkable deal to repay her debt. Written and directed by Zak Hilditch (1922), also starring Theo Rossi and Emma Greenwell, and produced by Ross Dinerstein (1922).
Here’s the poster and trailer for The Fare. It does have a bit of a Twilight Zone vibe to it. I hope the movie is as good as the trailer.
Check out this cool Cobra drawing by Nick Dragotta. You can see a larger version on Nick’s Twitter feed!
Today we have an unpublished splash page for Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller and Klaus Janson! You can see a bigger version at The Bristol Board.
Shannon Quinn says, Meet Aaron Kosminski—AKA Jack The Ripper; 10 Reasons We Know It Was Him, in her post at Listverse. Here are my choices for her three strongests arguments that Kosminski was the Ripper…
The DNA Evidence
A shawl that belonged to Jack the Ripper’s fourth victim, Catherine Eddowes, was purchased by a man named Russell Edwards in 2007. He was so determined to figure out the identity of the killer, that he had the shawl tested for DNA in 2014. This genetic material was traced back to one of Aaron Kosminski’s living relatives. Edwards was also the author of a book called Naming Jack the Ripper, where he lays out his analysis of the case over decades of research.However, there were claims that the scientist who analyzed the DNA, Jari Louhelainen, made a mistake in his analysis. Critics refused to recognize the DNA evidence until it was scrutinized in a peer-reviewed journal by other scientists who had nothing to gain from the results. In 2019, the data had, in fact, been published in The Journal of Forensic Sciences. It was confirmed that the DNA did, in fact, belong to Kosminski. However, critics still refuse to believe that accurate DNA evidence could exist on the shawl without contamination for over 100 years.[1]
He Had a Deep Hatred Towards Women
In modern studies of serial killers, one of the common threads is a deep-seated hatred towards women. This comes from a percieved notion that women are withholding sex from them after a string of female rejections throughout their life. They also may have had a terrible relationship with their mother. Jack the Ripper chose sex workers as his victims, and he removed the organs of these women. One of his victim’s faces was brutally savaged, showing that he was full of an irrational rage against this woman who he did not know.Aaron Kosminski was 23 years old at the time of the first murder. He never married, and had very bad luck socializing with ladies. According to Meville Macnaghten, the chief constable of Scotland Yard, Kosminski was known for having a deep hatred towards women. Macnaghten wrote, “This man became insane owing to many years indulgence in solitary vices. He had a great hatred of women, especially of the prostitute class, & had strong homicidal tendencies.”[4]
Kosminski Was Put Into An Insane Asylum
In 1891, Aaron Kosminski was confined to the Colney Hatch Asylum. The 5 “canonical murders” which have been officially credited to Jack the Ripper stopped soon after. Cambridge University has copies of Aaron Kosminski’s psychiatric records from the time he spent in the facility. According to the records, he heard auditory hallucinations that told him to do things. “He declares that he is guided and his movements altogether controlled by an instinct that informs his mind.” The documents also state that Kosminski grabbed a knife and threatened to slit his sister’s throat. It was clear to everyone, even his doctors, that he hated all women.Modern doctors have diagnosed him with paranoid schizophrenia. Some people have tried to claim that Aaron Kosminski was not a violent person, and that he was more inclined to act out in self-harm. He also refused to eat, for fear of being poisoned. So he would pick scraps of food out of the gutter, instead. However, according to Cambridge University, the references to “self-harm” were actually talking about frequent masterbation. And while he may not have been violent towards the other men in the asylum, he still has a record of violence towards women.[8]
Kosminski is just one of several suspected of being Jack the Ripper. It’s hard to argue with DNA evidence… but then again, Patricia Cornwell’s theory that Walter Sickert was Jack the Ripper also had DNA evidence!
Click over to Quinn’s post, read the rest of the evidence and let me know in the comments your thoughts!
