Skip to main content

Campfire Tales

Some of the movies I've rented in the last few months come courtesy of the one and only, Trailers from Hell. Since I'm a fan of a number of the featured directors on there, I'm inclined to check out some of their favorite movies. Some movies I checked out were really great (Vanishing Point) while some were so-so (the original Haunting). Still, it's a great site to find out about cult classics beyond some of the most well-known cult classics.

As of late, I've checked out a few movies Eli Roth and Edgar Wright have commented on. In particular, because of Roth, I hope to sit through the pure train wreck that is Exoricst II: The Heretic. But before I get to that, I plan on seeing a movie he references in his commentary for Three On a Meathook: Abby. A film whose distributor was sued by Warner Bros. because of its similarity to the original Exorcist, Abby: The Story of a Woman Possessed is a blaxploitation horror flick. Since I've never seen a movie like this (and the film isn't reviewed on a certain site I occasionally do reviews for), I plan on watching it this weekend.

In addition, thanks to Edgar Wright's commentary, I hope to see Raw Meat, aka Death Line, soon. Donald Pleasence in a movie about underground tube dwellers? Sounds promising to me. No, seriously.

I'm well aware that many of these movies are not great. A number of them were knockoffs or cheap cash-ins because of blockbusters of their day. Since I had never heard of these movies growing up (mainly because they were made before my time and not available at my local Blockbuster), I'm curious to see what's up. With the movies that I find surprisingly great, that's the reward. With the ones that are less-than-satisfying (or just flat-out suck), well, that's just part of the search.

All this said, I can't help but imagine some talented filmmaker in the future who finds tremendous value in the 90s equivalent of genre movies from the 70s. I'm talking Campfire Tales, Scream 3, and Jeeper's Creepers. What if some filmmaker with a tremendous talent just goes on and on about how incredible these movies are? Since I lived through the late 90s as a fan of horror movies, open to watch even something like Campfire Tales, I can't help but cringe. Hopefully, like Wright, Tarantino, and Roth know the difference between great films and entertaining films, this person will know as well.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Catherine Wheel

Originally posted: Tuesday, August 29th, 2006 Despite managing to release five proper albums, Catherine Wheel was one of those bands that always seemed to slip past the mainstream rock crowd. Yes, they got some nice airplay in their day, but people seem to have forgotten about them. You may hear “Black Metallic” or “Waydown” on a “classic alternative” show on Sirius or XM or maybe even on terrestrial radio, but that’s about it. For me, they were one of most consistent rock bands of the ’90s, meandering through shoegazer, hard rock, space rock and pop rock, all while eluding mainstream pigeonholing. Led by the smooth, warm pipes of vocalist/guitarist Rob Dickinson (cousin of Iron Maiden’s Bruce Dickinson), Catherine Wheel featured Brian Futter on lead guitar, Dave Hawes on bass and Neil Sims on drums. They weren’t a pretty-boy guitar band, but they weren’t a scuzzy bunch of ragamuffins either. Though the band hailed from England, Catherine Wheel found itself more welcome on American air...

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Ben Folds and Ben Folds Five

Originally posted on Tuesday, April 11th, 2006 : For some, Ben Folds Five was merely a one hit wonder. For others, the trio was a life-changer. Myself, I’m one of the latter. Being formally introduced with the “Battle of Who Could Care Less” video on 120 Minutes , I was very intrigued to know more about this piano-bass-drums combo. Once I heard Whatever and Ever Amen , I was hooked. As a matter of fact, out of all of my favorite bands, Ben Folds Five is one of the few that I liked right away and I have held the same kind of admiration ever since. Their three proper albums (and one b-sides collection) are staples in my record collection and they may very well be (or soon be) staples in your collection too. For a band that was once described as “punk rock for sissies,” you may realize how effortlessly these guys walked between fun, semi-goofy pop songs and some really deep and powerful stuff too. It helps that they had it right from the beginning and kept maturing. Ben Folds Five (1995) ...

Politics Shmolitics

Yesterday, the more pleas I saw for people to go out and vote, the more uncomfortable I felt. Plenty of the blogs I hit up everyday said something along the lines of "Vote and if you don't, don't complain." Folks, this is why I find discussing politics so alienating. There are plenty of reasons why I don't discuss politics on here or in my everyday conversations. The biggest reason is because I don't have a lot of interest in politics in the first place. By what I've seen, heard and read for the last eight years, political debates are usually pissing contests. Judging by the views I've processed, it would be easy to think that we're all slowly going downhill either on the left, right or down the middle. Yet I don't think we're going totally downhill or totally uphill. Debating the direction we're going seems futile, especially when adults start screaming at each other like they're in grade school. To my ears, political debates are s...