Fifth Annual 31 in 31...Day Six..."Abandon all hope ye who enter here"

As Above So Below / 2014

Whoa. How did I miss this one? I have heard great things since it's release a year ago and just now was able to catch it at home. SO MUCH BETTER than I had hoped for. It takes the tired found footage approach and enriches it with a deep story, mythology and a dash of the occult. Admittedly, I had low expectations going in so I was pleasantly surprised with the unrelenting pace and interesting story. Scarlett sneaks into Iran at the beginning and finds a giant Black Bull Head in a cavern with strange writing she has been searching for - this leads her to the catacombs of France, a locale that is used to creepy perfection. She, along with her cameraman, an old flame, and some shady spelunkers take on a mysterious trek deep into the Earth to find some kind of revelation and treasure. Nope.

There's an intense claustrophobic vibe as they crawl over bones, witness seances and visions, and continue to go deeper into the darkest corners below.

NOPE!


I cannot spoil this journey here, but what they find essentially leads to most evil of places of earth. It becomes a race to escape as the party members are slowly consumed by madness and the caverns themselves. Super creepy. Various freak out scenes include booby traps, a telephone a la 1960, a lost cavern dweller, and a Knight's Tomb. Ridiculous and effective atmosphere throughout. Oh, and did I mention demons? Hordes and hordes of them always at their (our) heels...

NOPE!!!


A very effective film given its conventions. I only wish I Had seen it in a darkened theater.

Fifth Annual 31 in 31...Day Five..."Killer's coming." - 1200 POSTS! -

Prom Night / 1980

Whoa, what a sizable turd this is. Jamie Lee Curtis and Leslie Nielsen can't even save it, but it's a fun watch if for no other reason than for laughs. Some truly awful and neverending disco dance scenes...they have to be seen to be believed! Haha.



The plot, death scenes and even the killer (glitter sock mask!) are very generic and not very memorable. You can tell they wanted to make Carrie and Halloween into one movie and didn't really succeed at getting close to either. I'm not sure if it was the version I watched on TV, but this was one of the DARKEST movies ever, I couldn't see ANYTHING in many scenes. Haha. And these actors are supposed to be 16 or 17 years old in this movie. These are some of the oldest looking teens I've EVER seen...

Fifth Annual 31 in 31...Day Four..."Oh we all walk the Wibberly-Wobberly walk."

Hardware / 1990

Another one from the tail end of the Golden era of the 1980s. Richard Stanley made a name for himself with this movie and was highly regarded as the next big thing in the genre. It's very much a hybrid of Terminator, cyberpunk and slasher film. Boy loves girl. Boy finds disassembled war droid in the wastelands of Apocalyptic Earth. Boy gives girl droid as a gift. Droid comes to life. Chaos reigns! A young Dylan Mcdermott plays the central role and Iggy Pop gets a nod as an only heard radio DJ. Motorhead's Lemmy also has a cameo as a water taxi driver. Ha!

There's a ton of style over substance here, and upon a recent repeat viewing, this holds up well. I only wish we had been gifted with more by this Director before he disappeared.

Two of my posters accompany this as well as some MARK 13 artwork. This is what you want, this is what you get!



MARK 13 battle droid sketches.

Fifth Annual 31 in 31...Day Three..."You ever done it under the shower?"

Slaughter High / 1986

What a truly awful and fun movie this was! Terrible acting, cliched horny teenagers, abandoned schools (way out in overgrown woods!), nerd revenge and practical gut busting effects! Perfect late night 80s cheese. Marty is bullied and made fun of by his more popular classmates and suffers a horrible accident by their hands. Years later at a reunion, those responsible start dropping like flies - is Marty to blame? A true cult film and one that has to be seen to be believed...low budget fun from the mid 80s! Just to let you know how crazy it gets...moments after a girl sees her friend brutally slaughtered and having her guts splashed on her face, what does she do? Why she goes to take a bath in the abandoned school's bathroom of course...and of course the bathtub gets filled with HCl acid and she melts into a skeleton. HA! Classic.

My created poster artwork is above. Where the student body is going to pieces! HAHA!

Turning that S into and F!

Fifth Annual 31 in 31...Day Two..."You are all my children now."

A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddy's Revenge / 1985

The Red-Headed Stepchild of the Elm Street series. The "Friday the 13th Part V" of Freddy films. This one was about as far away from the original as you could get - only the character of Freddy and a mention of Nancy make it to the sequel. It's very unintentionally funny now, even though I'm sure they didn't set out to make it that way in 1985. There's a good bit of self awareness evident and over time, Part 2's cult status has only grown. The opening School Bus Ride to hell is still one of the best openings in the series. I'll never forget the chestbursting scene or seeing Freddy jump through a glass door and disappear into thin air in the commercials. Good times.

More of my art and alternate versions below.

Love the contrast on this one. Overall, it might be my favorite of this set.



"Help Yourself, F*CKER!"

Fifth Annual 31 in 31...Day One..."I dunno what the hell's in there, but it's weird and pissed off, whatever it is."

John Carpenter's The Thing / 1982



One of the all-time great alien/body horror films. It ranks right up there with Alien, The Fly (1986) and to some extent, Predator. Superb cast, direction, atmosphere and special effects, all with great subtext. I share a recent reviewer's thoughts in that "The Thing reminds us that we human beings are but vulnerable packages inside vulnerable sheathing" and that "Death and decay, horror and pain, can exist just beneath the surface of normality." I can't think of anything that's more frightening than that.

Below is some additional art I've made in honor of this masterpiece. Enjoy.





Some rougher pieces, made to mimic the early 80s newspaper ads we were all so fond of in your youth.





And a Macready doodle...

The Fifth Annual '31 in 31' begins...

It's that time of year again, kids. Hard to believe I started this half a decade ago and I've been crazy enough to keep it going. You'll notice a slight name change in that it now reads 31 instead of 30 in 30 - because, after all, October DOES have 31 days. Don't know why I waited this long to change it. Anyway, there will be horror, there will be gore, there will be zombies, vampires, Godzillas, aliens, maniacs, and so much more!

I'll try to do a little extra for each day, perhaps a poster (or three) and maybe some original art too! For now, though just sit back and relax. It's gonna be a good one.

Oh yeah, did you lock the back door?

Heh heh...Welcome to Primetime, Bitch!