10 Best Movie Jump Scares!

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Meg Shields and Film School Rejects posted their choices for 10 Jolting Jump Scares That Don’t Feel Cheap.  Let me say from the start that I’m a sucker for a good jump scare.  It’s not safe to be sitting to close to me during a horror movie because I will not only flinch, I will jump.

Sheilds’ list is a good one, but there are three great jump scares that didn’t make her list that would have made mine…

Play Misty For Me (1971)  Clint Eastwood plays a popular DJ who’s had a one night stand with a woman who comes unhinged when he dumps her.  There’s a scene where Eastwood wakes up to find her in his bedroom that has a great jump scare.  I saw this in a drive-in when I was 13 and I’ll admit that I jumped more than Clint Eastwood — and he came out of his bed!

Carrie (1976)  The final scene of the movie.  I saw this at a midnight movie when I was 18.  I came out of the seat and probably scared my date more than the jump scare.

Friday the 13th.  Again, the final scene.  I saw this on HBO and had no idea what was coming.  In fact it was well after midnight and I got up to walk over to turn off the tv (no remote control in those prehistoric days) thinking the credits were about to roll.  They were but not before that classic jump scare!

8 Out-of-this-World Facts about “The Invaders”

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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.

RIP – Shawn Surface

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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.

Bram Stoker’s Dracula Starring Bela Lugosi Coming in 2020!

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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.

RIP – Robert Forster

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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!

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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.

The Poster and Trailer for “Rattlesnake” are Here!

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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).