Saturday morning cartoon show theme songs are the songs that played in our heads when we were kids, the catchy and well crafted tunes that will stay with us for the rest of our lives.
Just thinking about shows like Muppet Babies, Scooby Doo Where Are You?, Thundercats, Hong Kong Phooey or Josie and the Pussycats makes the theme song come to mind, demonstrating the power of the cartoon theme song.
In 1995 MCA released an album called Saturday Morning Cartoons' Greatest Hits featuring The Ramones, Sublime, Liz Phair, Helmet and Reverend Horton Heat covering cartoon theme songs, and those childhood tunes were changed forever- in a good way.
The album also came with this full length home video, featuring all of the music videos for the songs on the album as well as Drew Barrymore and her friends reacting to each video while looking all alt 90s.
Proofreading is necessary drudgery and, at least in my case, not done as much as it should be. Proofreading is absolutely crucial when a book is going to print, and that’s a long hard slog. Grant Snider at Incidental Comics finished proofreading files for his first book, which we will all look forward to. The experience inspired him to doodle about the process. Editors will be mystified to see these marks, so they might want to purchase a poster for future reference.
by Casey Chan on Sploid, shared by Adam Clark Estes to io9
South Park is unabashedly vulgar. The language can be crude and the action is sometimes, um, a little much—but the comedy is biting, the issues are relevant, and it’s done so much to change what television looks and sounds like today. Kaptain Kristian dives into how the language of a cartoon could affect reality and the concept of censorship in this fun look into the history of South Park.
We replaced the doorknob to our studio and it couldn’t be more fitting - considering that it’s where all the weird creative ideas originate AND it’s also where the cat usually vomits 😩 #aliceinwonderland #disneyart #disney #doorknob
It’s been about six years since we first got word of the Alamo Drafthouse’s plans to expand to New York. They technically succeeded in 2013, if you count Yonkers as part of New York; most New Yorkers do not, and so this week we’re celebrating the fact that the Alamo Drafthouse Downtown Brooklyn is finally, at long last, in business. /Film got a tour of the facility earlier this week, just ahead of the theater’s official launch, and we’ve got all the details on the new location below.
Welcome to the Alamo Drafthouse
If you’ve been to a Drafthouse location before, much about the Brooklyn location will seem familiar, right down to the Overlook Hotel carpet in the entryway. Like the other locations, Alamo Drafthouse Downtown Brooklyn prides itself on its strict “no talking, no texting” policy, its eclectic mix of blockbusters, indies, and repertory screenings, and its gourmet food and drink offerings (which can be served right to your seat during the show).
But also like the other locations, Alamo Drafthouse Downtown Brooklyn has its own idiosyncracies. One of the first things you see in the lobby is a giant blown-up photo of New York City as seen in King Kong, complete with an Empire State Building prop piece and a Fay Wray doll for photo opportunities. It’s meant as a nod to the theater’s location; never mind that the Empire State Building is in Manhattan and the Drafthouse is in Brooklyn.
Entering the House of Wax
Further down you see the entrance to the House of Wax, the theater’s on-site bar and museum. It’s completely unique to the Downtown Brooklyn location of the Alamo Drafthouse, as well as completely unique, period. Lining the walls are glass display cases showcasing waxworks from Castan’s Panopticum, an exhibition from 19th century Berlin. You’re greeted by rows upon roads of death masks (wax models of corpse faces) upon entry, and further in you’ll find wax replicas of diseased body parts, modified body parts, and more. My personal favorite is one in the back corner of a woman in the midst of a C-section, the baby halfway out of an incision in her belly. She’s positioned right next to a wax statue of Fritz Haarmann, a serial killer nicknamed “the Butcher of Hanover.”
It’s an incredibly odd theme for a bar, and it’s exactly what makes the House of Wax worth a visit even if you’re not in the mood for a movie. There’s an extensive selection of craft cocktails and a rotating menu of 39 local beers, all the better to keep your hands busy while you wander around gazing at the curiosities and flipping through the small selection of records. If you’re lucky, you might be able to catch a live event at the small stage area in the back. Brooklynites with a taste for the macabre can make a full day of it, with the Morbid Anatomy Museum and Green-Wood Cemetery just a short train ride away.
What Makes Alamo’s Movie Theater Special?
But the real draw of the Alamo Drafthouse, of course, is the movie theater. New Yorkers are already spoiled for choice on that front, and lately we’ve even seen a rash of Drafthouse-style theaters that serve food and drink during the show (e.g., the Nitehawk in Williamsburg and Syndicated in Bushwick). So what makes the Drafthouse special?
Well, for starters, there’s the vibe of the place. The Alamo Drafthouse Downtown Brooklyn just feels like heaven for a certain kind of film geek — the kind that loves the fact that the theater hallways are decorated with LP covers and vintage Turkish movie posters (some of which are ridiculously, endearingly inaccurate for the movies they’re purportedly promoting). It’s hip in a way that makes you feel hipper for being there, quirky in a way that invites endless exploration, and above all, it’s inviting. At a recent event, I heard more than one person joking that they could happily live at the Drafthouse forever. I may even have been one of them.
That comfortableness extends to the theaters themselves. There are seven in all, with capacities ranging from 4o seats to 188, some outfitted with RealD 3D and one capable of 35mm projection. All seats are leather and generously sized — those who suffer from a lack of legroom at other theaters should find themselves able to relax here — and tables are outfitted with bag hooks in addition to the usual pile of menus, pens, and paper pads for ordering. It’s fair to say there’s not a bad seat in the house. The front row is still less than ideal, as it is in most theaters, but at least at the Drafthouse the front row consists of soft, wide recliners to help you get a better angle.
Then there’s the selection. In its first couple weeks, the Alamo Drafthouse Downtown Brooklyn plans to show everything from blockbusters like Doctor Strange, to acclaimed arthouse flicks like Moonlight and The Handmaiden, to real oddities like The Greasy Strangler. Again, though, this is New York: we can find that stuff anywhere. What makes the Drafthouse worth going out of your way for is its repertory and specialty programming, carefully curated by Cristina Cacioppo.
We’ll get the usual Drafthouse series like Girlie Night (slumber party faves), Terror Tuesday (self-explanatory) and Weird Wednesday (offbeat genre picks). But there’s also Cherry Bomb, the “punk rock sister” of Girlie Night, highlighting bad-girl flicks Times Square, Ladies and Gentlemen, and The Fabulous Stains. And Shouting at the Screen, a blaxploitation and black cult cinema series with Wyatt Cenac and Donwill on hand to comment on the action.
What’s Next for the Alamo Drafthouse?
Even with everything the Alamo Drafthouse has going for it, though, New York could prove a tough market to crack. CEO Tim League is well aware of the special challenges of the New York scene, as he told us:
Well, it’s bigger. I mean, it is movies, right? So it’s intimidating, honestly, coming into a market like New York and there’s already so much great work being done. I mean, we’re a testament to the fact that it’s really hard to open a theater in New York. But for the size of the population, it’s still pretty underscreened. I think there’s always room for people that are doing good programming and good work, so we’re very much an “all ships rise” type.
New York already has plenty of movie theaters, including others that offer in-cinema dining. But League is not worried:
It’s not vexing. If they do it well, then it’s great. I’m in full support of everyone putting together good cinema experience. A lot of the traditional movie experiences that aren’t really trying hard enough anymore, we need to make sure that people are excited about coming to the movies. So I think this small sector of dining and cinema can be good. A lot of those concepts do a great job. I think iPic does a really good job at what they do. It’s different from us, they have a different personality, but their presentation’s great, the food’s pretty good. We’re just aiming for a different demographic.
Part of Alamo Drafthouse’s strategy will be to make sure that their Brooklyn location is, well, Brooklyn-y. Much of that, League explained, will come from local employees like programmer Cristina Cacioppo and promotions manager Mike Sampson:
I think our philosophy, wherever we go, whether it’s a market as important as New York or moving into a smaller market, it’s really the same in that we hire local people to do it. This isn’t being controlled out of Austin. Cristina and Mike [Sampson] have almost complete autonomy to do what they want to do and program to their sensibilities.
[…] Cristina lives here, this is her neighborhood. It’s Cristina’s voice, largely, that’s going to be reflected in the programming. So I think that’s the biggest indicator that, yes, there’s a lot of Brooklyn in this space because we’ve given voice to Brooklynites.
Although Alamo Drafthouse Downtown Brooklyn is the theater chain’s outpost in New York, League hopes it’ll be the first of many:
We’re certainly looking for projects. We don’t have anything in the pipeline. I kind of wanted to get this open and make sure that what I think is right is, that we can work in the market, and if we do, certainly we’re going to be looking at other spots. There’s plenty of great opportunities and neighborhoods. As you guys know, it’s so segmented. There’s lots of places that could use a movie theater.
HBO’s The Night Of felt like a one-and-done. From the very beginning, it was billed as a miniseries, not an ongoing drama, and the storyline came to a definitive conclusion in the series finale. (Yes, some unanswered questions remain, but they felt less like cliffhangers and more like a purposeful effort to close out on an ambiguous note.) But The Night Of was also a big, buzzy hit — the kind of show that’d seem like a shoo-in for a renewal in other circumstances. So naturally, HBO is weighing the possibility of a The Night Of season 2.
Casey Bloys, HBO’s president of programming, is very upfront about his desire to see The Night Of continue. Asked by Variety whether he’d want another season, Bloys responded:
Yes, absolutely. The only issue with doing another season is for them to come up with an idea that excites them. Steve [Zaillian] and Richard [Price] are talking and sharing ideas. I think it’ll be a longer process, probably. Both of them take their time and will only do something they’re really passionate and excited about. They’re not going to do another season just to do another season.
Zaillian has said before that they haven’t ruled it out. “We’re thinking about it and if we come up with something we all feel is worthy of doing, we’ll do it. This was designed as a stand-alone piece,” he said in August. “That being said, there are ways of certainly kind of taking what it feels like and what it’s about and doing another season on another subject.”
The Night Of is a remake of the British show Criminal Justice, which ran for two seasons. The Night Of was based on the first season, which centered on a young man accused of murder after he wakes up next to a woman who’s been stabbed to death. The second season of Criminal Justice followed a completely different storyline involving a housewife suspected of killing her abusive husband.
The Night Of could conceivably follow a similar model, which would make it more like an anthology series a la Fargo or True Detective than an ongoing drama like Game of Thrones. It’d make more sense than trying to pick back up with the Naz storyline, which seems to have run its course. (Even star Riz Ahmed seems to think so, saying last month that “to me, the piece feels complete.”) Bloys claimed not to know what a The Night Of season two would look like, but speculated that it would introduce a new case:
I don’t know. My guess is, it would be [one case in a season]. I think they’re talking about a lot of different variations, so at this point, all I know is that they’re talking about it. They haven’t come to us with anything. They’re just trying to get themselves excited about a take.
Even if The Night Of leaves Naz behind, though, that doesn’t rule out the possibility that other characters could return. Bloys, for one, would like to see John Turturro‘s John Stone again. “That would be my hope,” he said. “I think that’s what they’re thinking. But all of it is speculation at this point.”
Run The Jewels have been active in the political sphere this election cycle, most notably with Killer Mike famously supporting Bernie Sanders in the Democratic primary. But in the present climate of fear and uncertainty, the time feels… (in post TUNES // Run The Jewels – Talk To Me from Hullabaloo. More by this artist at )
It’s been a fair while since Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows. The Guy Ritche films were super fun, but the franchise has taken a backseat somewhat as talent go out and focus on other things.
However, it seems Warner Brothers are trying to fast track the film finally. According to Variety, the film is getting pushed forward, and in a pretty serious fashion. The studio is assembling a writer’s room with some serious power behind it, bringing in Guardians of the Galaxy’sNicole Perlman, Baywatch’s Justin Malen, Rogue One‘s Gary Whitta, Tomb Raider‘s Geneva Dworet-Robertson and Snowden‘s Kieran Fitzgerald. The group will help ‘shape the script and story’
That is a lot of talent to work on one film. ‘Writers rooms’ are becoming more of a thing now, but thus far have been saved mostly for shared universe development. That doesn’t appear to be the case here, but one source told Variety that the idea is to cut out the process of loads of re-writes by different writers as is common now and just get a lot in one room to work on the story at once.
I’ll be quite interested in seeing exactly how this ends up playing out.
Robert Downey Jr., Jude Law and Guy Ritchie are all expected to return.
If you’re a Quentin Tarantino fan, then you know that there are tiny connections that link all of his movies together so that they all exist in the same universe. Tarantino actually clarified how these connections work earlier this year after The Hateful Eight was in wide release:
“There are actually two separate universes. There’s the realer than real universe, and all the characters inhabit that one. Then there’s this “movie” universe, so From Dusk Till Dawn and Kill Bill take place in this special movie universe. Basically, when the characters from Reservoir Dogs or Pulp Fiction go to the movies, Kill Bill and From Dusk Till Dawn is what they go see.”
Now a stylish new video illustrates perfectly and entertainingly how all these movies are connected by jumping back and forth between them. There are even some of the more subtle references that you may have never picked up on, including some stuff from one of Tarantino’s “lost” movies.
Watch the Quentin Tarantino universe video after the jump!
If you found yourself a little confused at how some of these chunks of Tarantino’s movies fit together (some of the clips are used just to help guide the video along in a fun way), there are explanations of some of the less obvious connections over here (thanks to Beyond the Frame). There were some that I actually wasn’t even aware of until I read through these explanations, so if you’re not a hardcore Tarantino fan, you might just learn something.
Oh, and if you’re in the mood to go down a long Quentin Tarantino path today, be sure to check out our own Jacob Hall’s ranking of every single character from his movies. It’s broken down into Part One, Part Two and Part Three, so enjoy!
Even though Joel & Ethan Coen were expressly against the idea of The Big Lebowski 2, they are totally cool with John Turturro creating a spin-off focusing on his character, the purple-clad, bowling-ball-licking Jesus Quintana. After all, Turturro had created the character before The Big Lebowski was even a movie, so why not?
The Big Lebowski spin-off is called Going Places, and it’s inspired by Bertrand Blier‘s 1974 French film Les valseuses. A set photo was posted when production began a couple months ago. Now the first official photo has surfaced online, and it features Jesus doing exactly what you’d expect him to be doing: bowling.
Here’s the photo which comes from a press release for the movie:
And along with that, we have an official description of the story as well:
John Turturro plays Jesus Quintana in GOING PLACES, a film about a trio of misfits whose irreverent, sexually charged dynamic evolves into a surprising love story as their spontaneous and flippant attitude towards the past or future backfires time and again, even as they inadvertently perform good deeds. When they make enemies with a gun-toting hairdresser, their journey becomes one of constant escape from the law, from society and from the hairdresser, all while the bonds of their outsider family strengthen.
In addition to John Turturro reprising his role of Jesus Quintana (as well as directing), the cast includes Bobby Cannavale, Audrey Tautou and Susan Sarandon. That’s a solid, interesting assembly of talent, but I’m left wondering just what kind of movie we’ll be seeing here. John Turturro’s directing style in movies like Romance & Cigarettes and Fading Gigolo doesn’t exactly emulate Joel & Ethan Coen, but there are flares of Woody Allen in there. Maybe this will be something much different than he’s done before, or maybe he’ll bring some of that Coen flair to his movie this time.
As of now, there’s no release date for Going Places yet, but with an image being released, it’s safe the say the movie is looking for a distributor. If that’s the case, there’s a chance we could see this movie pop up at Sundance in January next year. That would be a good place to start some buzz, especially since The Big Lebowski had its world premiere at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival on January 18, 1998.
The new season of Sherlock has gotten a release date… 1 / 1 / 2017. So new years day we get the return of Sherlock Holmes (Benedict Cumberbatch) and Dr. John Watson (Martin Freeman)… at least on BBC One. But word is that PBS will also have it on the same day here in the U.S.
by Eve Peyser on Gizmodo, shared by Adam Clark Estes to io9
Today is a very sad day for memes, because Twitter killed its viral video app, Vine. Vine, while never “profitable,” was responsible for the internet’s most prolific and viral memes. To honor the beauty that was Vine, let’s take a tour through 10 vines that forever changed meme history.
There are tons and tons of videos these days that are edited to sync with a particular song and the timing makes people “ooh” and “ahh.” For example there might be a video of some guy dancing randomly in a home video but somehow when played with Beyonce’s “Lemonade” it works perfectly and people laugh as the video goes viral. This is such a video only it’s 100% natural and not edited at all. This is the video from a car that captured a high-speed highway police chase while blasting the Beastie Boys’ ‘Sabotage’ on the radio. The passing of the vehicles syncs up perfectly with the song. P.S. this would have been way cooler if this moron didn’t have a crack in his windshield. You can’t win them all.
3% is a new thriller series from Netflix set in “a world sharply divided between progress and devastation, where people are given a chance to make it to the ‘better side’, but only 3% of the candidates succeed.” Sounds like a compelling concept. Watch Netflix’s 3% trailer now after the jump.
Netflix’s 3% Trailer
Netflix’s original programming line-up is not limited to American productions. 3% is the streaming service’s the first Brazilian original series and one of Netflix’s first shows produced in a language other than English. It is a reboot of a 2011 web series of the same name created by Pedro Aguilera (El Revenge) which had its pilot episode produced and uploaded to YouTube (it’s no longer online).
The international setting gives the series instant production value, even when some of the future visual effects may not be up to the level that we usually expect from modern television. The concept is more interesting to me than the footage I see in the trailer above, but I’ll give the series a chance next month when it premieres.
The series is produced by City of God/Blindness cinematographer César Charlone, written by Pedro Aguilera, with episodes directed by Jotagá Crema, Daina Giannecchini, Dani Libardi, and César Charlone. Here is the official synopsis from Netflix:
In a post-apocalyptic world cruelly divided between progress and devastation, you only get one chance to improve your lot — and only 3% will succeed. A world divided into progress and devastation. The link between the two sides – Offshore and Inland – is a rigorous and painstaking system called The Process. Everyone in Inland has a chance to go through The Process to live a better life in Offshore. But only 3% make it through.
The first season of 3%, eight hour-long episodes, will be released on the Netflix streaming service on November 25th, 2016.
Looking for a way to justify your love of objectively awful cinema? Just tell people you’re a genius. Those are the broad strokes of a study published earlier this year that sought to quantify so-called “trash films.”
Film scholar Keyvan Sarkhosh, of the of the Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics, conducted the study. Published in the journal “Poetics,” the appropriately titled “Enjoying Trash Films,” made use of online survey data collected from 372 participants.
The researchers asked participants to list the words they associated with “trash films.” Participants also provided information about where and when they watch the subpar movies, listed examples of movies they thought fit the description.
Some of the study’s findings are unsurprising. For example, they concluded that “trash films are low budget films, which do not correspond to the mainstream standards and taste.” Prominent examples listed by participants included “low budget horror films” like “Sharknado,” “Plan 9 from Outer Space,” and “The Toxic Avenger.” Almost 90% of the surveyed “trash film” audience was male. Their reason for enjoying the movies is one you’ve likely heard before: “trash films” are both entertaining and funny.
The part that may shock you is that most of the people watching these movies are quite intelligent. Sarkosh himself describes them as a kind of cultural connoisseur:
“We are dealing here with an audience with above-average education, which one could describe as ‘cultural omnivores.’ Such viewers are interested in a broad spectrum of art and media across the traditional boundaries of high and popular culture.”
So, next time you’re catching flak for watching B-movies, politely remind your critics that it’s a sign of your superior intellect, and you’ve got the science to back it up.
Male or female – what were your born as? I’m sure I don’t have to re-iterate the narrative that has suddenly overcome the American society. But it’s the whole ridiculous “gender” issue. It’s ridiculous...
Before I even attempt to dissect this video I will say right off the bat that we all know this is 100 times funnier because the person who gets smacked is an attractive blond. I have no clue how long the harassment took place. I have no idea how pissed off her little brother was either. What I do know is that this six seconds should be the lead campaign message on a Donald Trump ad. “Mess with men, and this is what happens.” Slap in the face videos have become a staple in viral culture. Whether they are right are wrong (clearly they are wrong) is up to the masses. But if there’s one thing I’m 100% sure of it’s this: if you’re looking for one of those eye raising type things to improve your otherwise boring day, these are the types of videos that will do so. And…
Even though Back to the Future Part II predicted 2015 as the year the Chicago Cubs would win the World Series, the team didn’t make it to the Major League Baseball championship game until this year. Over the weekend, the Chicago Cubs won the pennant, and they’re headed to the World Series to face the Cleveland Indians in a Midwest baseball battle for the ages. Fans around the country are excited, and even those who don’t care much about baseball are happy for the team to get a crack at the championship for the first time since 1945.
Sadly, one fan who isn’t around to see this miracle finally come to fruition is Harry Caray, the iconic sports broadcaster who spent the final 16 years of his career covering Chicago Cubs games. He passed away in 1998, but he famously predicted that “as sure as God made green apples, some day the Chicago Cubs are going to be in the World Series.” Well, here we are, and even though Harry Caray is no longer with us, that didn’t stop him from celebrating.
You may remember that Will Ferrell played Harry Caray several times on Saturday Night Live, appearing on Weekend Update and even hosting his own show about space. Well, Ferrell made an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live! last night to celebrate the historic achievement by the Chicago Cubs, and it’s just as hilarious as you’d expect.
Harry Caray is just as confused as ever in his appearance on Jimmy Kimmel, but at least he’s excited about seeing the Chicago Cubs in the World Series. Hell, even though I don’t loyally follow baseball, thanks to movies I watched growing up like Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and Rookie of the Year, I’m pretty damn excited myself. Of course, no one is as elated as Bill Murray, who has literally been waiting his entire life for this day:
It’s been 71 years since the Chicago Cubs went to the World Series, but it’s been even longer since they won. The last time that happened was back in 1908, so there’s a lot of happiness riding on this championship game. Here’s hoping Bill Murray gets to throw out the first pitch at one of the games, Will Ferrell gets to announce the game as Harry Caray, and Matthew Broderick and Alan Ruck are in the stands saying, “Hey batta, batta, batta, batta suh-wing batta!”
Happy Halloween everyone, it’s that time of year where ghosts and ghouls roam the streets, people can dress up as their favorite characters without looking weird and children go out trick-and-treating, resulting in them binging on candy.
Halloween is also the time of year where we can watch horror movies, ranging from the classics to unknown gems. However, for all the great horror movies and monsters that have graced the screen, there was also been some silly horror creations that filmmakers expect us to be scared of. It could be the result of a good idea poorly executed, an atrocious idea to begin with or simply a case of poor production values. So let us celebrate some ridiculous monsters in cinema history.
Bear (2010): A Psychic Bear
On the surface, a grizzly bear would make a perfect monster for a horror film, or at the very least be a “Jaws” clone, even if you can go onto Youtube to watch videos of cats scaring off the beast. The 2010 movie “Bear” managed to ruin this simple premise of a group of people fighting off a bear in the woods and it has been referred to by some as one of the worst horror movies ever made.
“Bear” shows four unlikeable 20-somethings getting attack by the titular bear after they killed a different bear in the woods – the grizzly even has a flashback to the event. During the bear’s attempt to terrorize the people he gets electrocuted by a makeshift cattle prod and trapped in a car. Then there was the ridiculous twist of the bear having psychic powers and forcing victims to confront their unresolved issues.
Besides the twist, “Bear” has also become infamous because of its awful production values, ranging from bad lighting placement, boom mics in some shots and having a man running around in a cheap bear costume.
Orca (1977): A Vengeful Killer Whale
Out of all the monsters to make it on this list, orcas (also known as killer whales) are vicious beasts to their prey, viciously biting and throwing their prey around before finally killing it. Alone and in captivity, they have even killed their trainers on several occasions, leading to the documentary “Blackfish”. So you’re asking why 1977’s “Orca” is a ridiculous offering? Well, it was a essentially a “Jaws” copycat that starts off with having an orca kill a great white shark as a piece of filmmaking posturing. Like the previous entry in this list, it’s also a revenge film in that a male orca is aiming to get back at Captain Nolan (portrayed by Richard Harris), who killed his pregnant mate. The orca’s scheme involves depleting the local fish supply and destroying the town’s electrical infrastructure so the townspeople would turn against Nolan. The film’s final battle features an epic stare down between Nolan and the orca as well.
Maximum Overdrive (1986): Killer Trucks
“Maximum Overdrive” is the first and only movie to be directed by horror author Stephen King, based on his short story “Trucks.” In “Maximum Overdrive” all electric devices have turned into killing machines – including from ATMs, chainsaws, vending machines, a steam roller and most famously a big rig with a Green Goblin mask after a comet passes Earth. The machines’ actions range from being rude by just throwing soda cans in someone’s crouch to literally crushing people to death.
King has been very frank about his experience directing “Maximum Overdrive.” He came off as childish (and worse) during production, which he has since admitted was due to being on copious amounts of cocaine when making the movie. He has even made the claim that “Maximum Overdrive,” despite being directed by him, is the worst adaptation of his works. When asked why he never directed another film, he frequently responds by saying “just watch Maximum Overdrive.”
Black Sheep (2007): Carnivorous Sheep And Weresheep
The 2007 horror-comedy “Black Sheep” was advertised with the tagline “there are 40 million sheep in New Zealand and they’re pissed off’,” taking the most harmless animal possible and turning it into a bloodthirsty monster. Also, a bite from one of these fluffy killers can turn a person be human-sheep hybrid. Thanks to animatronics from Weta Workshop, these gargantuan weresheep at least look decent (as much as a gargantuan weresheep can look, anyway).
Set in a nation known for its delicious lamb (and where the amount of sheep outnumber the amount of humans), “Black Sheep” toys with the trope of genetic experimentation gone wrong. Or in this case, gone right, since the goal of the scientist actually was to take sheep and make carnivorous versions of them that are capable of turning humans into weresheep monstrosities after one bite. What went wrong is that one of these mutant sheep was let go by environmental activists. Without giving away too much of the plot, we’ll just tell you zoophilia is involved and explosive flatulence is what saves the day.
Night Of The Lepus (1972): Rabbits
Many of the monsters that appear on this list are in horror-comedies, so they have the excuse of never meaning to be taken seriously. “Night of the Lepus” is one film that can’t make that argument because it treats its premise about giant rabbits terrorizing the American South-West seriously. Based on the novel “The Year of the Angry Rabbit,” “Night of the Lepus” sees a town being overwhelmed by a bunny population boom after the local predators (coyotes) died out. Not wanting to poison them with cyanide, they instead turn to genetic experimentation to see if they can mess with the rabbits’ birthrates. As you can imagine, one of the experiments goes wrong and a carnivorous rabbit gets loose into the gigantic rabbit population, leading to waves of killer bunnies.
The film used a variety of hokey special effects techniques like rabbits running around miniature sets, men dressed up as rabbits and putting ketchup on the rabbits’ nose after they ravaged a victim. It’s also slammed by critics for bad acting and poor directing. In the end, the only thing notable about “Night of the Lepus” is the fact that it was Deforest Kelley’s last acting role outside of the “Star Trek” franchise.
The Swarm (1978): Bees That Hate Sound
“The Swarm” was a ’70s horror-disaster film that had a pedigree cast including Michael Caine, Katharine Ross and Richard Chamberlain. It was even directed and produced by Irwin Allen who also produced “The Poseidon Adventure” and “The Towering Inferno.” Despite all this, “The Swarm” is often regarded as one of the dullest movies made in that era. In fact, Michael Caine went as far as to claim it was easily the worst movie in his entire acting career.
“The Swarm” attempted to be a hybrid of the movie trends that were each so very popular in the 1970s, namely “Jaws”-like animal attacks and disaster movies. In it, we see dangerous South American bees making it to Marysville, Texas. There, they begin killing people, attacking trains and helicopters, and even invade a nuclear power plant. In the end, they discover it was alarm sounds that attracted the bees to the city, so they lure them out to sea where they douse it in oil and set it on fire to kill off the brutal bugs.
Troll 2 (1990): Vegetarian Goblins
“Troll 2” is infamous for being one of the worst movies ever made, earning it cult status. Even if you’re not familiar with the film, you’ve probably stumbled onto this glorious bit of acting at some point by chance or had a friend tell you about it. Despite its title, “Troll 2” isn’t actually a sequel to the 1986 movie “Troll,” nor does it feature it any trolls. The monsters are in fact vegetarian goblins who turn people into greenery by contaminating their victims’ food. Once in leafy form, the goblins can then eat them. It takes a young boy urinating over a meal to save his family.
“Troll 2” originated as a screenplay called “Goblins” by director Claudio Fragasso as a way to let his wife to air her frustrations about their friends becoming vegetarians. It was then retitled by the production company to “Troll 2” to piggyback off the actual “Troll” film. “Troll 2” was also a difficult production due to the communication problems between the English-speaking cast and Italian crew, as well as only having a budget of $200,000. Despite the movie’s campy tone, Fragasso has defended his work, saying he was making a serious horror film.
The Happening (2008): Trees
After burning his bridges with Disney when making “Lady in the Water,” M. Night Shyamalan moved on to his follow-up film “The Happening,” the first and only R-rated movie in his career. In “The Happening” people start to commit suicide when exposed to a neurotoxin. It turns out the source of the neurotoxin is trees, which are believed to be fighting against humanity for the environmental destruction they have caused. The trees have even somehow figured out how to prioritize their killings so that they kill off large groups of people. If you haven’t seen the film, note that this isn’t a bunch of trees come to life or are walking or anything like that. These are trees being trees, complete with multiple shots of trees just standing there in the wind.
Shyamalan expected audiences to be scared of trees and the wind. He also explained away that the toxin killed certain people but not others because they were “good people”. The survivor in the opening scene was a so-called good person, but this was only explained in the screenplay, not on-screen. Meanwhile, Mark Wahlberg and Zooey Deschanel were spared because of their love.
Birdemic: Shock And Terror (2010): Exploding Birds That Spit Acid
“Birdemic: Shock and Terror” was a romantic horror movie that earned a cult following because of its laughably awful CGI, awful dialogue and acting, and nonsensical plot. Many claim it’s perfect for showing budding filmmakers how not to make a movie. “Birdemic” was the brainchild of James Nguyen, a man who says he was influenced by Alfred Hitchcock and even trademarked that he is “Master of the Romantic Thriller”.
“Birdemic” was Nguyen’s attempt to homage “The Birds” and the first half was a tedious, poorly made romantic movie. The fun really begins during the second half when the CGI birds start attacking because of global warming. In fact, the DVD commentary explained global warming is also responsible for them spitting acid and being randomly explosive. Nguyen only had $10,000 to spend and the special effects definitely reflect this. The actors are often seen waving their arms around hitting badly superimposed vultures and eagles. It’s so wonderfully bad that it’s almost good. Almost.
The Leprechaun Series: An Obnoxious Leprechaun
If you ignore his roles in “Star Wars: Return of the Jedi,” “Willow” and the “Harry Potter” franchise, then Warwick Davis is best known for playing the murderous leprechaun in the aptly titled “Leprechaun.” It also stars a young Jennifer Aniston before she landed her breakout role on “Friends.” In the first film, Aniston’s family has moved into a home where they find a magical four-leaf clover and a bunch of gold coins. However, those gold coins belong to the titular leprechaun, who goes on a killing spree in order to get them back.
Despite the first film being a flop, they didn’t stop with just one. It somehow managed to spawn five sequels and a reboot film. The settings for the sequels were eclectic, including one set in outer space and two in “the ‘Hood.” During the Leprechaun’s seven-movie run, it became known for his over-the-top kills that mix comedy and gore as well as for its awful one-liners. Some of his silliest moments include a riding a tricycle and rapping in a club. The 2014 reboot attempted to take the franchise down a more serious route, but it also underperformed critically and financially.
Sharktopus (2010): A Half-Shark, Half-Octopus Hybrid
There have been movies with sharks in them and there have been movies involving a killer octopus before. There have even been movies between mega sharks and giant octopi. Naturally, the logical next step is to make a movie that combines the two in one and that’s exactly what happened in the 2010 SyFy movie “Sharktopus”. In “Sharktopus” the US Navy commissions a team of geneticists to make what they thinks is the perfect weapon: a hybrid with the head of a shark and the tentacles of an octopus.. However, as expected in these type of movies, the military loses control of their creature and the Sharktopus goes on a rampage, killing people on a beach.
Staying out of the ocean isn’t enough for the film’s stars to save themselves from Sharktopus because the creature is able to walk on land as well as swim in the sea. “Sharktopus” was produced by B-movie supremo Roger Corman and starred Eric Roberts. Being a TV Movie for SyFy, the CGI effects were lacking, to say the least. However, the movie was made with a tongue-in-cheek tone and somehow spawned two sequels.
Rubber (2010): A Psychic Tire
“Rubber” is an indie meta-horror comedy directed by Quentin Dupieux. It’s a movie that tried exploring the genre in a completely different way by incorporating intermissions of people watching the movie they’re in and trying to kill each other in order to make it end earlier. Why? For no reason, because the first intermission explains that the movie is an homage to the concept of “no reason.” A tire then becomes a psychokinetic killer for no reason.
“Rubber,” the film being watched by the viewer and the actors from the intermissions, follows a tire named Robert that has come to life and developed psychic powers. It first uses them against the local wildlife before moving up to people, blowing up their heads “Scanners”-style. While Robert does this he is being watched by the intermissions audience in an intentionally pretentious message about the media, explaining that the audience in the movie (and we, the movie’s actual audience) constantly yearning for violence leads to more violence. It’s the type of movie festival critics love, but general audiences were split on whether it was too artsy or gloriously stupid to the point of being amazing.
ThanksKilling (2009): A Demonic Turkey
505 years ago, a Native American shaman used necromancy to summon a demonic, murderous turkey to kill all Caucasians. Now it’s back and trying to kill the descendants of the white man who first angered that Native American. With a premise like that, what could possibly be bad about this film? Everything, naturally, but gloriously so.
“ThanksKilling” was made on a budget $3,500 and it shows, having some of the worst acting ever put to film and a terrible puppet for the killer turkey (named Turkie, no less). The movie is filled with poor sex jokes and has Turkie being intentionally crass all throughout. It’s also filled with the turkey dropping a beautifully painful collection of one-liners, the worst (or best) being the turkey having sex with a woman while saying “you just got stuffed!” “ThanksKilling” is so beloved for being horrible that it received two sequels, the last one being funded through Kickstarter for $112,248.
Jack Frost (1997): A Killer Snowman
A year before the release of the Michael Keaton family movie, there was already a movie called “Jack Frost” involving a man who turned into a snowman. The 1997 horror-comedy was a critically panned effort that somehow managed to get a sequel, as well as a proposed remake originally slated for December 2016. “Jack Frost” has one of the worst costumes in film history, so bad that the DVD cover could be seen as misleading advertisement. Most people only remember it for being one of Shannon Elizabeth’s first acting roles (American Pie would only come out two years later).
“Jack Frost” begins with a serial killer (conveniently named Jack Frost) getting driven by a prison van to his execution. However, the van crashes into a truck containing genetic material, causing Frost to mutate into a snowman after merging with the snow because… eh, science. Jack describes himself as “the world’s most pissed off snowcone.”Now an abominable snowman, Jack kills his victims in a variety of ways including decapitating a kid with a sleigh, strangling a woman with Christmas lights, shooting icicles and freezing a bath tub. He is eventually taken down by a group of people using hair dryers.
Killer Condom (1996): Literally A Condom That Kills
It wouldn’t be CBR without at least one comic reference. Based on a comic book of the same name by Ralf König, “Killer Condom” sees the city of New York being plagued by living carnivorous condoms. Naturally, the film doesn’t even try to take itself seriously, with the American trailer for the movie using the glorious tagline “it’s the rubber that can rub you out.” The story follows Detective Luigi Mackeroni as he investigates a series of bizarre attacks in the seedy Hotel Quickie (yup): condoms are eating the penises off the men who wear them. The poor detective manages to avoid this fate, but not before losing a testicle to an evil condom instead.
Here’s something that’s possibly the most interesting thing about the film: famous Swiss surrealist artist H. R. Giger, best known for his work on the “Alien” series, worked as a creative consultant on the movie.
What’s the most ridiculous horror movie monster you’ve ever seen? Let us know in the comments.
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I am sorry. I saw this and could not unsee it, so I sent it to you.
In further proof that everything is stranger and more terrible in Australia, footage of an enormous banded huntsmen spider dragging a dead mouse up a fridge in Coppabella, Queensland, went viral on social media this weekend. Pizza rat has never felt so quaint.
“I Dare You” by ntesign Jules Winnfield dares you to say “what” again in this Pulp Fiction inspired design!
