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Goth Chick News: Frankenstein’s Monster Gets One (Maybe Two) Loving Tributes

Goth Chick News: Frankenstein’s Monster Gets One (Maybe Two) Loving Tributes

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Just in time for Spooky Season, I have two bits of exciting news about one of our favorite classic monsters.

For over a year I’ve been talking about Guillermo del Toro’s adaptation of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein for Netflix. News has been incredibly scarce from the jump, to the point of rumors coming and going that del Toro had shelved the project as he has so many other others (over 30 to be precise).

However, in January quite a lot of very specific information came out about Frankenstein including a cast list, a brief description of project details, and the fact that in March 2022 Netflix optioned the visual representation of Frankenstein, owned by Elizabeth S. Wrightson. This is the imagining of the monster that American artist Bernie Wrightson (1948-2017), Elizabeth’s husband, developed in 1983. This seemed to indicate that del Toro would be delivering a reimagining of Frankenstein rather than simply a retelling of Shelly’s work.

And this is all important as the first exciting announcement comes from our friends at Centipede Press.

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Ellsworth’s Cinema of Swords: Dragons and Wolveses

Ellsworth’s Cinema of Swords: Dragons and Wolveses

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Wolfhound (Russia, 2006)

The Barbarian Boom of the ‘80s was the first normalization of fantasy as a mainstream genre for the movies. As the boom faded in the ‘90s (Xena notwithstanding), it seemed as if fantasy film had been just another passing phase. But then, in the early 2000s, along came The Lord of the Rings and Pirates of the Caribbean series: the Second Normalization of Fantasy Film had arrived, and as we’re still living with it in 2024, it looks to be permanent.

So, now we’re livin’ large and eatin’ good, right? Absolutely — as long as you’re something of a picky eater. Because along with normalization comes mediocrity and commercialization. I kid you not: Behold the KFC promotional toys for eragon!

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An Astonishing Bit of Modern Horror: The Substance

An Astonishing Bit of Modern Horror: The Substance

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Demi Moore in The Substance (Mubi, 2024)

Just staggered out of the cinema, shell-shocked and delirious, after witnessing what will undoubtedly be the best film I’ll see all year.

Coralie Fargeat’s audacious debut film, Revenge (2017), concerns a young woman called Jen, who is raped and left for dead by three men. Over the course of the film we are witness to Jen’s transformation from a meek, fun-loving person, into a vengeful spirit of death. The film is stunning to look at, painful to watch, and brutal as all hell. If you have indeed seen it, then you might think you have an idea of what to expect from The Substance.

You have no idea.

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Biggus Footus, Part III

Biggus Footus, Part III

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Primal Rage (Talent One, 2018), Wild Men (Goocher Films,
2017), and The Bigfoot Project (Fallen Films, 2017)

This is Part III of my new watch project. All Bigfoot (or similar) movies, no Yetis allowed. They must be films I haven’t seen before. All free to stream. Read Part I here and and Part II here.

Primal Rage – 2018 – Tubi

In tents? It had its moments.

Any good? Ooh, this was a good one. A survival horror with a dash of Deliverance and a sprinkling of Predator, this one features an Uber-Sasquatch picking off hapless hikers and hunters using primitive tools and forest camouflage. It’s a great looking monster, and the film is chock full of extreme practical gore. Chock full. I love it when former fx artists direct movies (see Harbinger Down), as the effects work is always front and center and beautifully shot.

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Goth Chick News – My Pilgrimage to Universal Studios Hollywood

Goth Chick News – My Pilgrimage to Universal Studios Hollywood

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Breakfast view, pre tour, and the St. Denis hospital set

I have been absent for the past few weeks while I chased one of my bucket list items. As nearly a life-long fan of the horror genre, a pilgrimage to Universal Studios Hollywood has long been an ambition – to go to the place that literally gave birth to the genre. So as part of a west coast tour, I finally had the opportunity to immerse myself in the wonders of a VIP day at Universal.

First, let me say there is nothing like being a VIP at Universal. Our day started with breakfast in a private, second-floor dining room near the entrance, which provided an amazing view of what was to come. There we met Andrew P., our personal guide for the day. As one would expect, Andrew was a literal encyclopedia of studio history and explained our 8-hour day (including a gourmet lunch stop) would be a combination of “behinds the scenes” tours as well as dips into the theme park side so we could experience the list of rides we gave Andrew in advance.

The great part about that was Andrew would be escorting us “backstage” of the rides to the front of each line, but even more importantly, would allow us to linger in these areas which were air conditioned. This was important because I chose to visit Universal during an unprecedented heat wave, so the day we were there it was 114, and as you could probably guess, I don’t do well in heat and direct sunlight.

We did a lot of lingering in the backstage area of the amusement park side of Universal, but I want to tell you about what I learned and saw on the working studio side.
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The More-Ish Nature of Chinese Costume Dramas

The More-Ish Nature of Chinese Costume Dramas

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Good afterevenmorn!

I have not all that long ago espoused my love for Chinese Dramas on here. I was gushing about The Untamed, which still reigns supreme for me for a myriad of reasons. Not least of all because I’ve only watched one other all the way through since then. It’s that weird thing when a love for one of the genre makes all others in that genre pale by comparison. I still desperately want a copy of The Untamed on DVD or Blu-Ray for my collection. But I didn’t want to get on here to rehash my old loves for you. Tempted though I am.

I’ve gotten ahead of myself here. Let me start from the beginning.

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Five More Things I Think: Marvel Edition

Five More Things I Think: Marvel Edition

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Last week I did a Ten Things I Think I Think on the deep dive I did with seventeen Marvel movies. I watched nine more to finish off this really fun movie watch, so here are Five More Things I Think – Marvel Edition. Twenty-six movies, and Ultron was the only on I didn’t care for. That’s pretty good.

Shang Chi
Avengers Ultron
Ant Man 1
Avengers Civil War
Dr. Strange 1
Thor 3 (Ragnarok)
Spider Man: Homecoming (1)
Spider Man: Far From Home (2)
Ant Man 2 (& Wasp)

1) LOVE THE HUMOR IN THOR

I enjoy the Ant Man, and Guardians of the Galaxy movies in large part, because of the humor. Except for the second Thor movie, that totally applies to the God of Thunder’s Marvel appearances.

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Biggus Footus, Part II

Biggus Footus, Part II

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Bigfoot: The Lost Coast Tapes (New Breed Entertainment, 2011), Sasquatch
(North American Film Enterprises, 1976), and Bigfoot (Syfy, 2012)

This is Part II of my new watch project. All Bigfoot (or similar) movies, no Yetis allowed. They must be films I haven’t seen before. All free to stream. Read Part I here.

Bigfoot: The Lost Coast Tapes – 2012 – Tubi

In tents? Very nearly.

Any good? I’m not a fan of found footage movies, and of the scores produced over the years I can probably count the films I’ve enjoyed on one hand. This one isn’t too bad, but it falls foul of the ‘film everything’ trope, when just dropping the camera and running might have resulted in a higher survival rate. The ‘squatch fodder in this film is a production crew out to expose Bigfoot as an elaborate hoax, but realizing a little bit too late that there might be some truth to it all.

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Ten Things I Think Think: Marvel Edition

Ten Things I Think Think: Marvel Edition

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At loose ends and not too keen on writing over the Labor Day holiday weekend, I decided to start a week-long Marvel deep dive. I had re-watched Guardians of the Galaxy stuff for the third one, so I set those aside. And I had watched the Logan movies not too long ago, so I skipped X-Men stuff.

With those parameters, I re-watched (with a couple first watches):

Avengers: Infinity War
Avengers: Endgame
Iron Man 1
Captain America: The First Avenger
Iron Man 2
The Amazing Spider Man 2 (Andrew Garfield – first watch)
Thor 1
The Avengers
Thor 2: The Dark World
Iron Man 3
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
The Fantastic Four 1
Venom (first watch)
The Fantastic Four 2: Silver Surfer
Spider-Man 1 (Toby Maguire)
Spider-Man 2
Spider-Man 3

That’s a lot of Marvel And I really enjoyed the re-watch. Because I figure the world always needs more of my opinion, it’s time for another Ten Things I Think I Think – Marvel Edition.

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Ellsworth’s Cinema of Swords: Pirates Rise from a Watery Grave

Ellsworth’s Cinema of Swords: Pirates Rise from a Watery Grave

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Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (USA, 2003)

It’s hard to remember now, but a mere quarter-century ago, the pirate movie genre was dead and over, ninety years of cheesy swashbuckling and occasional scalawag glory doomed to the ash-heap of history. And then, grinning with malice, pirate films rose like drowned zombies and shambled back to the screen, more raffish and rakehelly than ever. And who do we have to thank for this unforeseen and unholy resurrection? A committee of corporate bean-counters at, of all places, Walt Disney Pictures — damn their eyes!

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