Frightday Night Film Recommendations: Social Commentary in Horror Movies

It’s Friday…

Ahem…

I mean Frightday…

And I have some recommendations for you to enjoy this weekend…

Okay…

This Frightday’s theme is…

Social Commentary in Horror Movies.

Since the passing of George Romero…

I have been thinking a lot about the social commentary in his films…

Like 1973’s The Crazies…

Or his penultimate creation of horror meets social commentary…

1978’s Dawn of the Dead…

And…

It reminded me of this commercial from my youth…

It’s like…

Hey…

You got your social commentary in my horror movie…

Hey…

You got your horror movie in my social commentary…

You see?

This is just another case of…

 

Two great tastes that taste great together…

 

And when social commentary in a horror movie is done right…

You can’t tell where one ends…

And the other begins.

 

So, let’s take a chronological look at the scariest, deepest, and possibly even unknown to you, Horror Movies with Social Commentary…In the years following Dawn of the Dead.

 

The Stuff (1985) – In a time when consumers are eating copious amounts of GMO’s, and other bizarre food additives, like live bacteria, nanites, and whatever mysteriously manufactured chemical compounds that we haven’t found out about yet…The relevance of this film and the irony that comes from it, is not lost on me…And will not be lost on you…It was made right smack in the middle of the 80’s, a time when consumerism and public willingness to follow a popular trend might actually rival current times…Director Larry Cohen (It’s Alive, Q: The Winged Serpent) poked fun at us, the viewer, because he knew if a product like The Stuff came out, and was marketed and popularized the way he portrayed it…We wouldn’t just buy The Stuff…We would wait in line for three days for The Stuff…Some social commentary seems timeless…Like it does in this film…Think about it…Celebrities sell us all sorts of horseshit these days…Clothing…Makeup…Liquor…Perfume…Dog treats…If you think that the social commentary in this film…You know…How mindless Americans consumers are helpless, hapless whores for anything a celebrity tells them to do…Isn’t relevant…May I remind you that the current American president is a former reality television star.

 

They Live (1988) – This film from the legendary John Carpenter…Came after eight years of Reagan’s failed economic policies…The social commentary in this film, uses a subversive alien species from another world that has infiltrated our society by blending in…As a way to shine a light on the two sides of the late 80’s American coin…Heads…You’ve got the homeless counter-culture, virtually created overnight by not only Reaganomics, but the fact that Reagan’s reversal of the Mental Health Systems Act caused mental hospitals around the country to close down in record numbers…Tails…You’ve got the uber-rich elites who are in on the joke with regards to the invasion, and reaping all of the benefits from it…Just like they were doing with the one-sided failed economic strategy of the 80’s known as Trickle Down Economics…Who better to kick the ass of these subversive aliens and their sycophantic sympathizers…Especially when he is all out of bubble gum…Than the late, great, Rowdy Roddy Piper…Here was a dude who fought for the underdog at a time when it seemed like nobody else would.

 

People Under the Stairs (1991) – This entry from another one of the greats, Wes Craven…Is one of the handful of 90’s horror films that I really dig…And yet another film that denounces the era of Ronald Reagan…So much so, that Craven modeled his antagonists in the film, The Robesons, played by Everett McGill and Wendy Robie, after Ronald and Nancy Reagan…Beyond that, it was also making a statement about the ongoing battle between rich white property owners, and the renters that they were taking advantage of…This film came just a few years after a judge sentenced one such slumlord to spend a month in one of his rat infested shitholes…The gentrification and subjugation of an entire community, especially in Los Angeles…Was truly relevant material for a horror movie especially considering it was released less than a year before the L.A. riots…It’s even a commentary on the way the LAPD had more concern for the rich, white property owner than they did for any member of the black community…The scene where the cops don’t believe our young hero, Fool…But do believe the Robesons, perfectly illustrates this well-known discriminatory practice…Socio-political life lessons aside…This was and still is, a bad-ass, smart, twisted, funny, fucked-up horror movie.

Candyman (1992) – From the utterly disturbed mind of Clive Barker…Comes another film that deals with the subjugation and gentrification of the black community…This film shows the stark divide that existed in one American city in particular…Chicago…The audience gets to experience not only the bridge between the worlds of reality and the supernatural…But also, the bridge between the world of an entitled, white graduate student, and the inhabitants of Chicago’s Cabrini-Green projects…This marginalized community is only the tip of the racism iceberg in this film’s narrative, when you consider Candyman’s origin story…Before he was Candyman…He was a man named, Robitaille…The son of a slave that managed to find success…Who was lynched for impregnating a white woman…Unlike the supernatural force known as Freddy Krueger…An entity who also began as a man…Also became the victim of vigilante justice…And also became something more powerful, to facilitate his vengeance…Robitaille committed no offense worthy of his demise…Therefore, his vengeance feels justified…It almost feels a bit like karmic recompense.

 

Land of the Dead (2005) – This film, that was much maligned by horror fans for its use of CGI, and not being able to reach the unattainable bar left behind by George A. Romero’s last foray into zombies, 1985’s Day of the Dead…This film was even criticized by fans of Romero’s social commentary…Claiming that it was too “on the nose” and lacking the subtlety of his previous work…I could not disagree more…Sure the occasional digital blood splatter can be irritating, especially if you like me, are a total whore for practical effects…But that aside…The social commentary is here in full force…And not all of it was as obvious as his critics claimed…Sure…This film which was created a few short years after 9/11…Was dealing with the effects of living in a paradigm shift under the tuteledge of not exactly our deepest thinker, George W. Bush…And…Dennis Hopper may have publicly admitted that he was creating a celluloid version of our former president when he uttered the words…”We don’t negotiate with terrorists”…But that aside, the world that Romero created was a society where a self-serving leader is surrounded by rich cronies who get to live a charmed life on the backs of those entrusted with keeping them safe…For the dangling carrot of a promise of a charmed life all their own…All the while…The mindless zombies out there…Are easily distracted by bombs bursting in air…Sorry folks…If that social commentary was too on the nose for you…Then you’re not really a fan of Romero’s work.

 

The Mist (2007) – When Frank Darabont tackled this, his fourth foray into the Stephen King multiverse…He knew that the film he was making would be less a film about monsters, and more a film about the pitfalls of xenophobia and militant piety…And the monsters we become when we fall prey to such dogmatic rhetoric…These themes were personified in the incredible performance of Marcia Gay Harden as Mrs. Carmody…She preached fear, exclusion and even extermination of those secular thinkers that happened to be trapped in the supermarket with her…Personally…I would rather contend with the Lovecraftian kaiju roaming within the enveloping mist…Than spend six minutes in Aisle 13 with that blindly devout zealot…But to her credit…That’s the point…She quickly established herself as the true threat…More frightening than the supernatural nightmare on the other side of the plate glass window…This film…All the way through to the mind-bending, heart-wrenching, soul-crushing final scene…Reminded me of Night of the Living Dead…My first taste of social commentary…A film that all the way through to the mind-bending, heart-wrenching, soul-crushing final scene…Confirmed our biggest fear…Humans are the real monsters…They always have been…And they always will be.

 

Eden Lake (2008) – Kelly Reilly and Michael Fassbender star as a couple that fall victim to a gang of  hostile and violent youths while attempting to enjoy a romantic and secluded weekend getaway…At first glance, most of us could be tempted write this off as another hoodie horror film…One that preys on the inherent fear of urban youths…A phobia that plagues not just British citizens, but most countries with an urban landscape…But this is more than that…The social commentary runs deeper…It speaks to a cultural shift that we should all be afraid of…Over the last two decades, children have been given more freedom…A deeper sense of entitlement…One that far exceeds that of equality…They have been empowered to not feel equal to their adult counterparts…But to feel far superior to them…They are defended by their parents and the adults in their communities…Even when their behavior is deplorable…In most cases…As a culture…We blame the parents and their shortcomings as parents, before we ever lay blame on the youthful perpetrators…I was a child in the 70’s…And a teenager in the 80’s…If my teacher, or neighbor, or any other adult told my parents that I had done something wrong…I wasn’t defended…I was punished…But these are the times we live in…So watch this film…And be afraid…For now…Because shit like this…Is cyclical.

 

The Purge: Election Year (2016) –  Considering that this franchise was spawned from what seemed like a straight-forward home invasion film…But was really a harsh, and unabashed commentary on the American social class system and the ever-widening divide between the haves and the have-nots…It is no surprise that this, the third installment would be layered with so much socio-political subtext, that it became more like a screaming declaration of what director James DeMonaco thinks is wrong with this country…First up…White Nationalism…In this film, the NFFA, or the New Founding Fathers of America, embody this belief by continuing to thin out the numbers of those members of the minority communities who either cannot afford the high cost of security against the Purge…Or those who cannot afford the high cost of insurance to protect their property…Next up…Gun Control…DeMonaco gives an unabashed open-handed slap to the face of the NRA in this one…How about the fact that while the entire country is out there…Armed to the teeth with assault weapons…Our hero…Played with bloody brilliant bad-assery by Frank Grillo …Either uses a handgun…Or a knife…Or his fists and feet to destroy his enemies…And finally…Religious Hypocrisy…In this film…Religious leaders not only condone the Purge…But support it in their God’s name…That’s crazy right? I mean what kind of bizarre dystopian nightmare have they created here? That would be like saying that Christians in this country were actively supporting the NRA…Or were actively members of white nationalist groups…Or actively supporting improving relations with Russia and Vladimir Putin because of his pro-Christian and anti-LGBTQ legislature…Yeah…That sure would be crazy.

 

Get Out (2017) – In Jordan Peele’s directorial debut…He creates a film that seamlessly blends the social commentary and the horror…And that commentary, isn’t one that I have seen in a horror film before…Sure…These themes were tackled in Justin Simien’s 2014 film, Dear White People…But with a mainstream horror film, Peele managed to reach a broader audience with his message…Specifically…He managed to reach more white people…Yes, that’s right…His message reached more white people than a film whose title literally addresses white people…And this is a crucially important message for our times…Ready? Okay…Here goes…We do not…I repeat…Do…Not…Live in a post-racial society…Because racism never left us, folks…It simply evolved…Sure…There are still those white people who shout racial epithets and commit hate crimes…Most of them can be found marching down our streets longing for those good old days when America was great…But some of them silently seethe anger, muttering hatred under their breath…Others pretend to be more socially enlightened…And these are the ones that Peele is highlighting…Upon meeting a member of the black community…They still manage to make them feel alienated and ostracized by seeing only their race…By mentioning their one black friend…Or their love and admiration of a black celebrity…Or like Bradley Whitford’s character does…Using terminology, or colloquialisms that are stereotypically associated with the black community…Most white people wouldn’t consider things like this racism…But I’m afraid…That’s not for white people to decide…The other side of this film is the immense sense of dread…This overwhelming fear that is palpably felt…Partially from the emotionally charged and outstanding performance of British actor, Daniel Kaluuya…And partially from the frightening feeling of losing ones self completely…This feeling could also be interpreted as social commentary…It is a feeling one might experience as a victim of enslavement, subjugation, or gentrification…A complete and total loss of identity…This is a superb socio-political scary movie that shines a light on a subject that should already be illuminated, as Neo-Nazis, the KKK, and other white supremacists still march down our streets.

The Summer of Science Fiction: This Time…It’s Gonna Get Above the 90’s

Last year…

My nephew, Nick said to me…

 

“Hey Unk…

What about Sci-Fi?”

So I created lists of some sick and twisted summertime sci-fi flicks…

 

And because his idea was so damn good…

I’m gonna do it again!

 

But this time…

I’ve got some current ones for ya!

 

So…

Turn off the lights…

Turn on the A/C…

And get ready for another dose of…

 

The Summer of Science Fiction: This Time…It’s Gonna Get Above The 90’s.

 

Let’s take another chronological look at the scariest, most bizarre and maybe even unknown to you, Science Fiction Movies from after the 90’s that you may not have seen…But should.

Ghosts of Mars (2001) – Originally designed to be a Snake Plissken film called, Escape from Mars…The studio did not want another box office failure like they got with Escape from L.A., so they changed the main character to Desolation Williams, and forced the casting of Ice Cube…Regardless of the fact that Carpenter felt even more burnt out at this point in his career…There are still a ton of things that work in this twisted little sci-fi horror film…Cube was even more of a bad-ass than Statham…And Natasha Henstridge was more of a bad-ass than both of them…As with most of Carpenter’s later films…This one was also maligned by critics…Not me…I love Carpenter…In my humble opinion…His worst films are still better than most critically acclaimed, snooze-fest, award winners out there…I would much rather watch Ice Cube kicking the lime-green ass off of these Martian ghosts, than two and a half hours of Queen Elizabeth’s heart-warming relationship with her favorite corgi, Mr. Buttonsworth…Or the life and times of Hubert Humphrey’s quirky, one-armed gardener, Ned…But that’s me…I’m just crazy like that.

Evil Aliens (2005) – This low-budget gore fest starts off with a bang, as we watch an alien abduction and subsequent anal-probing, taken to a level that would make Eli Roth cringe…Written and directed by Jake West, who created the original and mildly misogynistic zombie film called Doghouse…This film is a fast-paced, gruesome, ultra-violent, super-cheesy answer to all of those big-budget, family friendly alien invasion movies…It reminded me of Peter Jackson’s Braindead, AKA Dead Alive…Following the events of that brutal anal-probing…The viewer follows the host and crew of British TV Show, Weird Worlde as they investigate, and eventually battle it out with the invading aliens…This tongue-in-cheek splatter-a-thon tickled me…Makes me wish that Jake West would stop making documentaries about horror…And get back to making horror movies about horror again…I miss him.

 

Sunshine (2007) – The creative team behind 28 Days Later teamed up again for this one…Danny Boyle directed…And Alex Garland wrote the script about a group of scientists aboard the spaceship Icarus II, on a mission to try to reignite Earth’s dying sun…The difficult mission isn’t going to be the hardest part…When they discover the Icarus I…The ship that attempted this same mission, and failed seven years earlier…That’s when their own mission begins to disintegrate before their eyes…Rather than simply just a sci-fi flick about astronauts…This is a taut psychological thriller…With vibrant and interesting characters…All of whom are in their own desperate struggle to deal with the repercussions of not just the mission that they are on…But the cavalcade of events that are seemingly trying with all of their power to prevent that mission from being accomplished. 

 

Source Code (2011) – In his first film, Moon…Duncan Jones brought us a trippy, totally messed up sci-fi cult classic…And with this…His sophomore effort…He did it again…This film takes us on a mind-bending journey through time…Army Captain Colter Stevens, played by Jake Gyllenhaal…Is sent on a mission to the past…To a location of a recent bombing…He has eight minutes to find the source of the bomb and the identity of the bomber…This mission proves to be quite difficult…So we follow him, over and over again, on these eight minute missions…The whole time, his superiors are giving him instructions…And inadvertantly giving both Stevens and the viewer glimpses of the larger story…And when we finally get there…We are almost as surprised as he is.

 

Attack The Block (2011) – This film, written and directed by Joe Cornish…The man behind the awesome Ant-Man script…Shines the spotlight on two current sci-fi legends before they became them…From the new Star wars films, Lando Calrissian’s son, former storm trooper, and friend of the rebels, Finn…Played by John Boyega…and from the ever-amazing BBC series, Doctor Who, the unnecessarily controversial, thirteenth Doctor…Played by Jodie Whittaker…These two actors play characters in this film that begin as adversaries…But join forces as they evolve into members of a small group of survivors that are dealing with an aggressive alien invasion on Guy Fawkes Night…Look for the incredible Nick Frost (Shaun of the Dead), as horticulturist…Oh, I mean…Pot dealer, Ron…This film became an instant classic for me…But now with the heavy-hitting sci-fi street cred of it’s two main characters being in two of the biggest sci-fi franchises ever…It’s guaranteed to become a classic for everyone.

 

Grabbers (2012) – The premise of this film was all that I ever needed to fall in love with it…A giant, tentacled, blood-sucking alien arrives on a remote Irish island where Richard Coyle (Coupling), and Ruth Bradley (Humans)…Play police officers who have become unlikely partners…In order to defend themselves against the enormous creature…They and all of the other townspeople must get completely shit-faced…That’s right…You heard me…In this bizarre world created by director Jon Wright (Tormented, Robot Overlords) and screenwriter Kevin Lehane…You have to be plastered…You know…Drunk…In order to survive their attacks…There are plenty of comedic elements here, as there usually are when large quantities of alcohol are added. But the horror side of this horror-comedy is handled with skilled effects and intense action sequences.

 

Ex Machina (2015) – After writing some intense and incredible genre screenplays like…28 Days Later, the aforementioned Sunshine, and the incredible comic book adaptation, Dredd…Alex Garland stepped behind the camera and directed this, his first film…Domhnall Gleeson plays Caleb, a programmer who wins the chance to work with his idol, the reclusive CEO of the company he works for…Played by Oscar Isaac, the CEO has more in store for young Caleb than working side by side on lines of code…He has brought him to his isolated home to interact with the worlds first humanoid android…The android is called Ava, and is played to perfection by, Alicia Vikander (Soon to be Lara Croft in the Tomb Raider reboot)…This film is full of intense intrigue, strange seduction, and momentary morality…I dug this flick a lot.,..And I am anxiously awaiting his adaptation of Jeff VanderMeer’s novel, Annihilation…Currently in post-production.

 

Morgan (2016) –  No stranger to science fiction, Luke Scott gave us this, his directorial debut, following his work as a second-unit director on The Martian…Now, this film was wrongfully compared to the film that precedes it on this list…Nothing like Ex Machina, in my opinion, because that film dealt with the softer side of human emotions, and the chicken and the egg scenario of intellect driving desire, or desire driving intellect…This film on the other hand…Is about unbridled aggression and the inability to handle the inherent strength that will undoubtedly be endowed upon a sentient android…This is a darker film…And although there are unexpected twists and turns…There is much less mindfuckery than there was in Ex Machina…This film feels more like a thriller…And the performances are impeccable…Especially Anya Taylor-Joy, who is clearly the new Horror It Girl…And Jennifer Jason Leigh’s performance was out of this world…She just rocks…I highly recommend this underrated flick.

 

Life (2017) – The search for life on Mars…Why the fuck are we doing this? I mean seriously…The last time something got to the top of the Bad Ideas Pile this fast, was when John Hammond and his band of merry geneticists thought bringing dinosaurs back to life and putting them in a theme park was a good idea…Was their life on Mars? Sure…Shit…Who knows?…Maybe…Either way…Do we really need to find out? Apparently this bunch of unlucky astronauts are about to find out…That the answer to that question is a resounding…Fuck No…The dread that comes from this unlikely discovery is driven not by the claustrophobic environment…Nor the frightening exterior of the cold, black vacuum of space…Nor the ever-evolving creature that they are increasingly shown to be incapable of dealing with…But it’s the cast…These actors…Led primarily by Jake Gyllenhaal and Rebecca Ferguson…With equally intense and compelling performances by Ryan Reynolds and Hiroyuki Sanada…The way they react to their bizarre circumstances make the audience frightened for these characters that are outmatched at each and every turn.

Summer of Science Fiction: It’s Gonna Be In The 90’s…Again.

Last year…

My nephew, Nick said to me…

 

“Hey Unk…

What about Sci-Fi?”

 

So I created lists of some sick and twisted summertime sci-fi flicks…

 

And because his idea was so damn good…

I’m gonna do it again!

 

So…

Turn off the lights…

Turn on the A/C…

And get ready for another dose of…

 

The Summer of Science Fiction: It’s Gonna Be In The 90’s…

Again.

 

Let’s take another chronological look at the scariest, most bizarre and maybe even unknown to you, Science Fiction Movies from the 90’s that you may not have seen…But should.

 

Flatliners (1990) – Okay…I know a lot of you saw this pseudo-bratpackian flick about med students who dance with death for a sweet, sweet taste of the afterlife…But I just don’t care…The reboot, or remake, or reimagining, or sequel…Whatever the hell it was came out without much fanfare…But that original film…Is still an unsettling, and disturbed ride into the psyche…Or the afterlife…I’m still not sure which…This film…The original…Was directed by a pre-bat nippling Joel Schumacher, who had Jan de Bont (Speed) as his cinematographer…The film is groovy…On one hand, the cinematography looks gloomy and gothic…And somehow…At the same time…On the other hand…It is trippy and technicolored…Right away…It has a sort of otherworldly feel to it…Very haunting stuff…So for those of you that haven’t seen this one…Check it out…Especially if you found the trailer for the new one even a little bit tantalizing.

Body Parts (1991) – This flick from Eric Red, the man who wrote two 80’s classics…Near Dark, and The Hitcher…Tells a tale of transplantation gone wrong…Jeff Fahey plays a psychologist who loses an arm in a car accident…He then receives a slightly used one, in an experimental surgery…When he awakens…He’s the proud new owner of a mildly aggressive limb, and he starts to smell what’s cooking, as the arm gets more and more grabby with the ones he loves…Brad Dourif is awesome, as usual…He plays a starving artist whose work begins to gain notoriety once he starts painting with his very own, pre-owned arm…Even stuntman, John Walsh is great as the lumbering madman who…Well I wouldn’t say donated…How about relinqueshed?…Who relinqueshed his parts…But wants them back…Really freakin’ bad…A quarter of a century later…And this cat and mouse sci-fi thriller still kicks ass…And you should definitely check it out.

 

Alien3 (1992) – I take almost as much shit for loving this film, as I do for loving Halloween III: Season of the Witch…Well…Tough turtle turds, I say…This film was not only the directorial debut of one of my all-time favorite directors, David Fincher…But it also has what I consider to be the most memorable scene in any of the Alien films…

Just look at this picture…

That iconic scene…Along with…The shaved head of Sigourney Weaver…Amazing and strong as hell performances from both Charles Dance and Charles S. Dutton…The killer setting of an all-male space prison…More than make up for the minor flaws…Sure some of the early 90’s CGI looks like shit…But, doesn’t most?…Okay not Jurassic Park…But not everyone has Spielberg-level cash…Sometimes a film is wrongly maligned for minor flaws…But I truly believe that this film is a worthy addition to the franchise…And if you spent all these years avoiding it…Now’s your chance…I highly recommend that you get your hands on a special edition version of this film…The Alien Quadrilogy released in 2003, contained what’s called The Assembly Cut…It is the closest thing to what Fincher wanted…And gives you yet another reason to give this film a second chance.

 

Ghost In The Machine (1993) I’ve always dug this sci-fi serial killer movie…It is basically the same premise as Child’s Play, but instead of the killer’s soul inhabiting a doll…It jumps into a computer…Karen Allen who has starred in such classics as, Scrooged, Animal House, and John Carpenter’s Starman…But who I will always remember as Indiana Jones’ bae in Raiders of the Lost Ark…Is the intended victim of this cyber-killer…And must protect her son in the process…The computer effects are dated at times, because when it comes to CGI, we’ve come so far…But some of them are pulled off surprisingly well, and their timelessness adds to the film…Some of the outlandish kills in this flick are almost worthy of being in a Final Destination film…Especially the microwave scene…So…Give this one a go…Grab some popcorn…Um…But…Not microwave popcorn…Obviously…And enjoy!

 

Screamers (1995) – Here’s a two great tastes that taste great together moment…Dan O’Bannon, the man behind the concept and script of Alien…And the director of the cult classic Return of the Living Dead, adapted this screenplay from a story by Philip K. Dick, a man whose work has been, and will continue to be, adapted into some amazing sci-fi classics like, Blade Runner, Minority Report, and Total Recall…They come together in this futuristic dystopian nightmare where robots are the hunters, and humans are their prey…Called “screamers” because of the high pitched noise they make as they are attacking…These robots track their prey by detecting their heartbeats…The machines have evolved and like they always do…They want to eradicate all human life…Ungrateful metal bastards…Peter Weller (RoboCop) and Jennifer Rubin (A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: The Dream Warriors) star in this desolate and desperate sci-fi nightmare…And it is one that you should definitely watch.

 

Mimic: The Director’s Cut (1997) – I just recently found this one on Blu-ray…It was so awesome to see this, Guillermo del Toro’s first American film…And although he had so many issues with the studio executives stepping all over his junk…That he ran back to Mexico to start his own production company…He still somehow managed to create a sci-fi horror classic…Admittedly…He was pissed that he couldn’t get final cut on the film…So, this Director’s Cut, which looks absolutely beautiful in 1080p…Brings the audience as close to his original concept as possible…And what an original concept it is…A giant cockroach that pretends to be a man so that it can lure you in and kill you…How you ask? With either a giant shoe…Or a really big can of Raid…Hey…What did you expect…Karma’s a bitch.

 

 

Six-String Samurai (1998) – When I first saw this crazy post-apocalyptic flick…I thought Buddy, the title character, played by Jeffrey Falcon…Looked like Guy Pearce playing Buddy Holly…What I didn’t realize…But after seeing his killer moves in this flick…And it all made sense…Was that he had been acting in martial arts films out of Hong Kong for ten years prior to making this fim…So here’s the scoop…In 1957…The Soviet Union bombed the shit out of us…Leaving the country a wasteland…Except for one safe haven…Lost Vegas…There the country was ruled for the next forty years by King Elvis…And now that he has died…The search for a new King of rock and Roll is on…Buddy and his young sidekick, The Kid…Are working their way through the wasteland, in hopes of Buddy claiming the throne…Here’s the best way to describe this flick…It’s like that AMC show, Into the Badlands…If you were watching it…While on some serious LSD…And…Listening to The Cramps on vinyl…And..Well…That about sums it up…It’s equal parts bad-ass and funny…It’s a cult classic…And you should watch it…Right away.

 

eXistenZ (1999) – A warped body-horror sci-fi nightmare directed by…Yep, you guessed it…David Cronenberg…The king of body-horror himself…Cronenberg takes us on a wildly weird ride into a world where virtual reality gaming requires you to insert an “UmbyCord” into your “Bioport”…You’ve got to be one helluva dedicated gamer to create a new orifice and jam something in it in order to play…Who am I kidding…With this generation not only would it be acceptable…But before long it would be part of their lexicon…”Hey baby…Can I stick my UmbyCord into your Bioport?”…Oh these whippersnappers today…Anyway…This flick has an amazing cast that includes, Jude Law, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Willem Dafoe, and Sarah Polley…Add that to the creepy shit going on and the general mind-fuckery of Cronenberg…And you’ve got yourself a tasty sci-fi treat.