Kids Go To The Woods... Kids Get Dead

This was released last month, somehow it slipped by me.

It look like just another modern slasher that's attempting to be a throwback to everyone's favorite slasher decade, the 1980's. What's interesting about Kids Get Dead is the way they've released it. You can purchase the DVD or a digital download here - nothing special there obviously - but they're also touring the movie, doing screenings at various theaters and including a DVD in the ticket price, plus a live performance from a band featured on the soundtrack. Sounds awesome to me. Of course I live nowhere near anywhere cool enough to have any kind of special movie screening. DVD it is for me I guess.

The DVD itself sounds really cool too, from Amazon:

"Do you remember staying up late to watch your favorite horror host on local television? With VHS tape in hand to record all the action (and hopefully not tape over anything important - like your home movies) this nearly forgotten ritual was a mainstay of our youth.

"Kids Go To the Woods... Kids Get Dead" brings back the classic slasher flick - complete with horny teenagers, worthless cops, a crazy war vet and a masked killer. Complete with VHS static, fake commercials and vignettes with horror hostess Candy Adams. It's kind of like a GRINDHOUSE for the cable/VCR generation.

It's Casey's (Leah Rudick) birthday and to celebrate her and her friends are headed to a cabin in the woods for a wild weekend of sex, drugs and partying. A crazed Killer (Joseph Campellone) has other plans for them and it's up to Casey's younger brother Scott (Andrew Waffenschmidt), aided by a mysterious novel that seems to spell out their fate, to find their only hope of survival. This product is manufactured on demand using DVD-R recordable media. Amazon.com's standard return policy will apply."

Random Screenshots - The Hausu Edition

The Graves - Brian Pulido Directs

Brian Pulido (Chaos! Comics) gives movie writing/directing a shot.

Present day. Arizona. Megan and Abby Graves are inseparable sisters that couldn't be less alike. Megan just graduated ASU with a marketing degree. She's a self-assured, naturally attractive rock chick with a black belt that she likes to use. Abby just barely graduated high school. She's a cute, Hot Topic Goth who's caustic and afraid of her own shadow. They share one thing: a life-long obsession with comics and pop culture. Simply put, they are beautiful geeks. In a few days, Megan will start a new job at in New York. To send her off in style, the sisters go on a wild, pop culture bender that includes a trip to uncharted Arizona in search of a kitchy roadside attraction. Instead, Megan and Abby happen on Skull City Mine, a weather-beaten, abandoned mine town converted into a self-guided tour. But Skull City harbors terrible, vexing secrets. It appears to be haunted. Its caretakers are murderous. Victims' souls are ripped from their bodies right before their eyes, and that's only the beginning. When Megan suffers a near mortal wound, Abby must save her sister, but to do so, she must unlock the mystery of Skull City alone. Can Abby defeat the threats of Skull City and rescue Megan or are they doomed like all the other tourists before them?

While I love Bill Moseley and Tony Todd, and the lead girls in this are certainly non-ugly, I'm not too sure about this trailer. It looks like it could be decent enough, but Tony seemed to be hamming it up. A lot. Only one way to find out I guess.

I did get a kick out of the description above using the term "Hot Topic Goth". I'm thinking someone has an exclusive merchandising deal with a certain retailer. And Skull City? Isn't that where King Kong lives?

Brian seems like a really good dude though, so hopefully this works out okay for him. You can check it out at the 4th After Dark Horror Fest coming January 2010.

The Graves - Trailer
Video sent by dreadcentral

Frédéric Talgorn - Robot Jox

This is the music from Stuart Gordon's 1990 film Robot Jox, composed by one Frédéric Talgorn and performed by the Paris Philharmonic Orchestra. That's a pretty fancy group of people to have work on what is essentially Rock 'em, Sock 'em Robots: The Movie.

I would have LOVED if Mystery Science Theater would've gotten ahold of this movie. This is the type of thing Rifftrax should be doing more of, low budget horror and sci-fi made between 1971 and 1993. Sure doing mainstream "real" movies is cool, but I wish they'd mix it up a bit more and do something like this or, say, The Burning once in a while. Of course millions of people own a copy of Fantastic Four (DVD shoppers really bought into that whole "fantastic" thing), whereas maybe 12,000 people even know what Robot Jox is, so I can see why they'd stick with something a lot of people would actually own.

Track listing

1. Overture (03:35)
2. Prologue/The Battlefield (02:44)
3. Achille's Bedroom (01:38)
4. "Open Her Up!" (01:14)
5. "Crash and Burn"/Achilles vs. Alexander (06:57)
6. Achilles Leaves (01:44)
7. Fanfare for Athena/The Jock Strap Bar (03:38)
8. "Hey Jock, Old Buddy" (02:01)
9. The Traitor (01:55)
10. Alexander's Four-Legged Robot (01:09)
11. "That Won't Work"/Achilles to the Rescue (02:47)
12. Space Battle (02:24)
13. Transformation (01:07)
14. The Final Confrontation (02:34)
15. "We Can Both Live!"/End Titles (04:28)

Total Duration: 00:39:55

Part Man. Part Metal.

In Space Bastard news I've decided that as much as I like Space Bastard as a blog name, it's kind of pointless to have 2 sites. Especially being that SB is being update about once a week at this point. So I plan on kind of merging the two together. By that I mean that any stuff I would've posted there I'll just post here instead. I'll keep that site up, but for now I'll just be sticking to posting on this one.

Even More Stuff You Can't Do On Television

Things you're going to want to watch for:

The Downside to Discount Plastic Surgery or I Think George Lucas Is Gonna Sue Somebody

Son of Clouseau - Hey, at least this kid's Clouseau isn't as annoying as Steve Martin's

Sir Thomas Crapper - Inventor of the Flush Toilet

Quatrogenarian Wolf

A Diet - will it hurt? Really?

How does this guy keep passing the health inspection?

Death by Smell-O-Rama - This would be funnier if you could see it


Bring Your Creepy English Daughter to Your Shift on You Can't Do That On Television Day

Rectums are no place for needles

Alasdair's T Tee - The Toughest Tee in the World

An Orange Sliming?

Les Lye 1924-2009

From CTV Otawa:

"CTV Ottawa legend Les Lye passes away

Actor and broadcaster Les Lye passed away on Tuesday at the age of 84.

Born in Toronto, Lye came to Ottawa after graduating from Lorne Greene's Academy of Radio Arts in 1948.

He joined CFRA Radio, where he served listeners for more than a decade. It was at CFRA, that he worked with Rich Little and they collaborated on a comedy album, 'My Fellow Canadians' - a spoof of the Diefenbaker years.

In 1961, he joined CJOH-TV as a freelance writer and performer. It was here, that he forged a long-lasting partnership with Bill Luxton. Together, they created the popular 'Willy & Floyd,' which ran for more than 20 years. Such personalities as Alanis Morissette, Klea Scott, Bruno Gerussi and Margaret Trudeau would drop by for surprise guest appearances.

Opportunity knocked when producers of 'You Can't Do That on Television' were looking for a versatile actor to play the many adult "foils" for the kids. Lye answered the call and instantly became a household name around the world.

Lye is survived by his wife Johnni, three children Brett, Daralyn and Emily."

I was a huge fan of his when I was a kid since You Can't Do That on Television was on Nickelodeon very often. I'm very sad to see him go, he was always my favorite actor on the show. I'll try and get some more episodes of YCDTOT uploaded in honor of Les. Until then, I do have a few episodes already posted.

Big Lots - Cheap Ass DVD Watch Vol. 4

Okay, I swear I don't work for this company. But their deals are getting better and better and I want to make sure the dozens (dozens!) of people who read my non-music sharing* posts can try and get in on these insane prices. I swung by yesterday and stumbled upon their latest assortment, $3 TV Box Sets, sets even better than the ones they had for $6 that I mentioned last week. I spent $45 total (well, $48 after tax) and came home with:

Something like $680 MSRP worth of discs for $45. That was pretty much all I could afford to buy yesterday, but they had a ton more. To name a few:

Adventures of Superman - All seasons
Birdman & Galaxy Trio
Flintstones S1,2,3,4,5 and 6
Jacques Cousteau River Explorations
Josie & The Pussycats
Larry King - Greatest Interviews
Lois & Clark - All Seasons
Murphy Brown
Space Ghost and Dino Boy
Tales From The Crypt S1,2,3,4,5,6 and maybe 7 (sooo glad I bought these for $20-30 a pop when they came out)

Also they have some other box sets with a $10 price point. I didn't find any of these, however a guy on a forum I go to took this picture of the $10 sets:

That NFL set has 40 discs by the way. That's gotta weigh 9 pounds. But, the best deal of all, some are finding this Looney Tunes Collection Volume 1-5 set, list price $325, among the $10 DVD sets.

If you've got a Big Lots! (not sure the exclamation in necessary) nearby, go.

*Speaking of music sharing, I know, I'll get some stuff up later today.

Vampire Tickle Fight - A Manchester Morgue Compilation

Time for another Morgue compilation. I call this one Vampire Tickle Fight. Why? Because. That's why! No, I just really felt the image of Drac and a victim to be looked more like they were engaged in a rather heavy bout of tickle fighting given that both opponents fingers are in each others armpit region - a popular tickling spot. I don't know. Either that or some kind of Amateur Vampire Chiropractory. Dammit, I think I like that better. Balls. Oh well, that doesn't really matter, the music included on the compilation is what's important. And I think you'll all enjoy at least a few of the obscure (and the some not at all obscure) songs on this comp. The tracks that make up this compilation are all songs featured in films, mostly of the horror variety, but a few 80s comedy songs are here as well.

Keep in mind, these tracks all come from a wide variety of sources - CD, LP, DVD, VHS, and maybe even LD rips - so the sound quality is going to vary from track to track. They should all be quite listenable, the only real problem is that some tracks are a lot quieter than others. I ripped some of these myself, found some on torrent sites and random Google searching. Credit and thanks go out to the people responsible for putting the others online.

The tracklist: Artist - Song Title - Film Song Is Featured In

1. Warning
2. Turbonegro - All My Friends Are Dead - Cold Prey
3. Van Stephenson - No Secrets - Secret Admirer
4. Alan Jordan - Mind To Mind - Scanners II: The New Order
5. 2 Tite - Full Moon - Murder Party
6. Terrence Mann - Power of the Night - Critters
7. Shari Belafonte - Get Dead - Midnight Hour
8. The Originals - Supernatural Voodoo Woman - Sugar Hill
9. Paul Sabu - Cassie's Song - Hard Rock Zombies
10. Gene Evaro - Oh What A Love, Oh What A Life - Mirror Mirror
11. Shandi - Living on the Edge - Making The Grade
12. Eric Troyer - This is the Love - The Night Visitor
13. Unknown Artist - Zaniac - Freak Out
14. Nuclear Assault - Something Wicked - Warlock II: The Armageddon
15. The Fontanelles - Kiss Kicker 99 - Hobgoblins
16. Crispin Clover - Ben - Willard
17. Ricky Nelson - Hello Mary Lou - Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II
18. Showaddywaddy - Under The Moon of Love - Lesbian Vampire Killers
19. Calamari Safari - Theme from Poultrygeist - Poultrygeist
20. Detroit's Most Wanted - The Reynold's Rap - Lunatics: A Love Story

And, I've gone through and made little notes on each track below:

Turbonegro - All My Friends Are Dead from Fritt Vilt aka Cold Prey.

Van Stephenson - No Secrets from Secret Admirer. There is a soundtrack to this, but I must be losing my touch because I was unable to track it down. However, this was my favorite track from the movie, so I've included it.

Alan Jordan - Mind to Mind from Scanners 2. I had a lower quality rip of this, so I did this one myself using my R2 Scanners 2 DVD. Great song actually, check it out.

2 Tite - Full Moon from Murder Party. Not my kind of music at all, but dammit all this is a fantastic track from a rather hilarious movie.

Terrence Mann - Power of the Night from Critters. This one is pretty poor quality, but it's nearly impossible to find the full length version, so this is as good as it gets for now. I was surprised it wasn't played over the end credits, that was a hugely popular practice in the 1980s.

Shari Belafonte - Get Dead from Midnight Hour. Currently one of the most valuable Out of Print DVDs around. Starting at $129 on eBay, all the way up to $712 on Amazon. A message to the Amazon seller asking the price of a fully funtioning 1974 Gremlin for a barebones DVD of a TV movie from 1985 - Good luck, fucker!

The Originals - Supernatural Voodoo Woman from Sugar Hill. Fantastic theme song from the Zomblaxploitation classic. Raunchy and soulful, like any blaxploitation theme should be.

Paul Sabu - Cassie's Song from Hard Rock Zombies.Lovely tune, but it would've been more fitting playing over the credits of a movie called Power Ballad Zombies, or Mid-80s Puss Rock Zombies.

Gene Evaro - Oh What A Love, Oh What A Life from Mirror Mirror. Starring my favorite actress named Rainbow, Rainbow Harvest. Rainbow Ching's got nothing on Rainbow Harvest. Thanks to Vinnie for this one.

Shandi - Living on the Edge from Making the Grade, the Judd Nelson comedy from 1984. Anyone have the full soundtrack from this? Limited Edition of 1,500 was put out in 2005, couldn't find it anywhere though.

Eric Troyer - This is the Love from The Night Visitor (1989). Starring a very bearded Elliot Gould. This song, while very catchy seems a little too "wussy" for a movie about demons, hookers and ritual killings.

Zaniac! from Freak Out. Can't remember who this was credited to, fun Maniac-sounding track from the end credits of the film.

Nuclear Assault - Something Wicked from Warlock II: The Armageddon.

The Fontanelles - Kiss Kicker 99 from Hobgoblins. For me, one of the all-time most rewatchable MST episodes is show 907, featuring Hobgoblins. The Fontanelles performance was just one of many high points. The chorus from this poor song (which isn't actually too bad) is misinterpreted by Mike, Tom and Crow as everything from Pig Licker to Lick Kisser to Piss Taker....wait, that last one was mine.

Crispin Glover - Ben from Willard. I'm pretty amazed that I couldn't find this as an MP3 anywhere online. There's a creepy music video for this on the Willard DVD - which is where this rip comes from. Surprised that it wasn't all over the interweb already.

Ricky Nelson - Hello Mary Lou from Prom Night II. Not a fan of Prom Night (boring, fun music though), but Prom Night II and the incredibly comedic Prom Night III are both a blast.

Calimari Safari - Theme from Poultrygeist. Troma's finest hour? In my opinion, yes. At the very least, this has the funniest credits I've ever seen. A sample:

Andrew Monkelban... Wheelchaired Protester (as Andy Monkelban)
Chris Sciuto ... Looks Like a Dick
Elisabeth Sobocinski ... Pretty Young Protester
A.J. Verel ... Mexican with no Greencard
Debbie Rochon ... Famous Actress Hit by Beer
Elske McCain (hey, I've traded DVDs with her) ... Naked Protester
Nick Koenig ... Inside-out Jared / Head Cracked & Brains Scrambled Victim
Joshua Samuel Strauss ... Neckbrace
Keith Godejohn ... Soccer Leg Victim
Verena Jahnke ... Face in Deli Slicer
Ian C. King ... Head Cracker & Brains Scrambler Zombie
Purple Pam Shelby ... Fake Tits Ripped Off
Kevin Barnes ... Fake Tits Eating Zombie
Justin Bivens ... Make a Wish Zombie (as Justin 'Beast' Bivens)
Ryan Mead ... Princess Chicken Zombie
Steven A. Grainger ... Drumstick Victim
Bitte Andersson ... Gives Birth to Egg
Beth Charlesworth ... Afro Zombie
Louie Podlaski ... Spineless Victim
Trevor Black ... Mohawked Zombie
Gregory Paul Smith ... Dead Zombie in the Fry Bin
Charlotte Kaufman ...Dance-off Zombie #1
Sam Anderson ... Dance-off Zombie #2
D.J. Markuson ... Eyes Pecked Out Massacre Victim (uncredited)

Detroit's Most Wanted - The Reynold's Rap from Lunatics: A Love Story. Starring one of my favorite people, the gorgeous and talented Deborah Foreman. Also featuring a manic performance from the great Ted Raimi.

Get Dead

AD Vee has supplied a better quality version of Power of the Night. Get it here. Thanks AD!

If you enjoyed this one, I've got another one in the works I like to call Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Werewolves (patent pending).

Guido & Maurizio De Angelis - Black Inferno (Theme from Atlantis Interceptors)

This is Guido & Maurizio De Angelis' Black Inferno, the title track from the Ruggero Deodato film I predatori di Atlantide (aka Atlantis Interceptors, Raiders of Atlantis). Put out by Kangaroo Team Records as a 12" single in 1983, it features the theme as well as an instrumental version of the theme.

Download

Phelpster's Custom DVD Covers - Volume 5

With all the outrage over Amazon's choices for Night of the Creeps DVD covers (seriously, check everywhere, lots of bitching, I'm starting to feel bad for the designer) I am working on my own cover using one of the much loved original VHS covers. So I thought I'd show it off to get some feedback/ideas. And what better way to do that than another Phelpster's Custom DVD Covers post.

Remember, click on the images to be taken to the full size image on my Deviant Art page.

Up first, the Creeps.

This is actually my third cover for this movie. But I did the others a couple years ago, when I had no idea what I was doing and I'm just not happy with them. Now, I still don't quite know what I'm doing. I do a lot of flying-by-the-seat-of-my-pants winging it when I work. I just start throwing things around on a template and work it out until I like what I see. Really, you should see my layers window. Choas. However, I'm fairly happy with this one so far. I'm not quite done with it yet, but I thought I'd post it just because it's most of the way done.

And, who knows, maybe they'll catch wind of the less than stellar reception of their prposed covers and decide to just use the awesome Whitlow/Lively vs. The Legion of Undead Fratboys art after all. I'm still wondering if Sony will find a way to mention Jason Lively's relation to Blake Lively on the cover somewhere. Little sticker perhaps: "Starring the brother of Gossip Girl star Blake Lively".

Next, Deathdream

The late, the great Bob Clark directed this chilling tale back in 1974. Deathdream and Black Christmas (in my opinion, the finest of the Holiday-themed slasher pictures ever released) in the same year? Holy shit, this guy was on a roll. Anyway, Blue Underground put out a fine DVD release a few years ago, but I found this poster and it blows away the image they chose to use for their DVD. Their cover is pretty cool (despite a fairly garish front image) but his poster is too badass to ignore. Why is this image not on a shirt yet? While I was at it I kinda reworked the back cover as well.

Cannibal Girls

A film Ivan Reitman, Black Christmas star Andrea Martin and Eugene Levy would like to forget. Well, maybe not Levy. He has been in seven American Pie movies, he's a hard dude to embarrass. Note: Ignore the credits on the cover, those are from Eaten Alive which I used when making the Dark Sky template.

The Strangers

I did this cover immediately after seeing this poster on Final Girl way back before the movie even came out. Of course, as usual, the DVD comes out and they go out of their way to avoid using a great original poster image for the DVD cover. If I didn't know any better, I'd say these studios are just fucking with us. Teasing us with a cool poster, then throwing some dude who thinks he's the villain from The Town That Dreaded Sundown on the cover dragging someone by the feet with "UNRATED" splattered across the box.

Sure the UNRATED thing sells and Sack Race there is an imposing enough figure, but I just don't see how that image is better than the gray one-sheet.

Bucket of Blood

Dick Miller - one of many, many people who got their start working with Roger Corman - stars in Corman's 1959 film about talentless, and occasionally murderous artist Walter Paisley. The image I used for the front is from a poster from 1959. I thought it was interesting because the artwork was pretty similar to Daniel Clowes' style.

That's it for now. I do hope I don't come off as snotty when talking negatively about the DVD covers that studios put out. As a practicing designer I know what an absolute bitch it can be to put together a cover, even with pre-existing elements. So I mean no disrespect to any of the lucky individuals out there actually getting paid to make these things.

More Big Lots DVD Madness

Not content with just selling $3 DVDs, Cheap Furniture, and discontinued snack food (Burger King flamed-broiled potato chips anyone?) Big Lots, America's favorite weird-ass closeout store is branching out into ridiculously cheap TV box sets. Not cheap TV sets like these (which they also have), they're selling quality Warner Brothers box sets with high MSRPs (even a couple Blu-Ray sets) for the low, low cost of $6 a piece.

Here's my haul over the past week:



Here's a list of some of the titles people on DVDTalk's bargain forum are finding:

Animaniacs V1, V2
Blade Complete Series
Dallas - All Seasons
Dukes of Hazzard - Various Seasons
ER - Various Seasons
Friends - Various Seasons
Full House
History of Rock & Roll
Joey (Tribbiani!) - S1
Justice League Collection (3pk)
Looney Tunes Spotlight Collection 2
O.C. - Season 2
Pro Football Hall of Fame
Roots
Smallville - S7 Blu-Ray
Stephen Kings Nightmare & Dreamscapes
Super Bowl X1-XX & XXI-XXX
Thundercats
West Wing - Season 2
Where are you Scooby-Doo? S3
Wonder Woman - S1-3
Be careful picking up the Wonder Woman sets, people are also finding Wonder Woman - The Complete Series ($75 on Amazon currently) for $6 as well. Weird considering they have the individual seasons for $6 each as well.

I hope Big Lots continues to get more of these sets in at these ridiculous prices. If Warner's Val Lewton box set shows up, I'll shit.