another quickie LEGO thingie thing thing here

Actually, my original idea was to make a post about album covers re-done using Lego bricks, but that one was near impossible to do: most, if not all the images were copy-protected and un-downloadable, and even the print-screens were of low-quality. It's a shame because there really are so MANY album covers that people re-did in Lego format, from the supremelly recreated so often "Abbey Road" cover by The Beatles, to even someone re-doing a Kraftwerk album cover! Anyway, you can do a search online yourself and surely you will find more than a few to get the point across... At least I was able to find this one, a re-creation of Queen's album "Queen II", complete to the shadowed faces!

LEGO recreates films (and NOT the Lego movies)

Over the years and especially since the interwebs, people have re-created some of their favorite movies and scènes using the Lego building blocks. I am sure that is what inspired the mega Hollywood board bank commitees to finance CGI movies of LEgo characters as depicted in mainstream media. Yet, for my money (the very little I make which is almost instantly transfered to rent, bills, debt, etc) I still prefer the DIY indie folks' versions of classic and iconic movie recreations using Lego. Here are just a few which I found, because strangely enough, most pictures online are protected and un-save-able 9which is why some of these are actually print-screens!).

The Wizard Of Oz

A Clockwork Orange

Halloween

The Shining

... and of course it wouldn't be complete without a couple from my favorite movie, THE THING:

Beto's Fritzi (Herrera) - always as delightful as ever!

I think the first time I was exposed to the character of Fritz (or Fritzi), sister of Petra, and both half sisters to the infamous Luba in Gilbert "Beto" Hernandez lore (from the pages of "Love And Rockets" comics and stories) was in the off-shoot mini-séries of the 90s "Birdland". As I found myself quite enthralled by her, I began to hunt down and collect more Beto books and comics to get more of my Fritz fix... although nothing ever came back to how she was portrayed and drawn in "Birdland" (I wrote about this elsewhere, but Beto's art began becoming more primitive and minimalist over the years to the point that at times it almost seemed as though it was done by a hack trying to imitate the Beto style, as well as the very disappointing "The Garden Of The Flesh" one-shot book in which Fritz appears in a non-speaking role - a dissapointment due to the fact that I felt Beto was "lazy" in his art in that book). Anyway, I always enjoyed Beto's pre-Y2K works especially the adventures of the "Luba" sisters, but I always had this soft (or hard!) spot for the lisping psychiatrist Fritz. I do believe there is another post on this very blog earlier on with an image of heras well. Here she is in one of her many "B-Movie" roles as a space ranger of sorts (with short hair). Enjoy!

Mary Lambert's PET SEMATARY (1989)-just a thought

What is really intriguing about the original film « Pet Sematary » (Mary Lambert, 1989), is that it remains with an aura of disturbance even if a lot of the production and performances can be viewed as slightly comical, or badly thought-out / interpreted. Allow me to attempt to re-phrase and explain. While the movie has some aspect which can still be considered creepy in this day and age, as it was in fact released just a year before we saw the political correctness movement explode in north America which would change the way we see, consume, talk, and of course, how films are made, in general many true horror enthusiasts don’t reguard “Pet Sematary” ‘s horror on film as some fo the best horror ever captured on film. Granted like many productions, it was plagued with some production failings and limitations, the main one being of course being limited to a film-length story and narrative (which in most cases will only allow a general outline and premise to be explored).

 

But perhaps I should say that for years I refused to re-watch “Pet Sematary” because it had a profound eeirie and disturbing effect on my psyche. For the longest time it was, along with another Stephen King adaptation “The Shining” (Stanley Kubrick), a very rare film which spooked me so much that I could never bring myself to re-visit it. However when my wife said she was game to see it with me, I jumped on the occasion and re-watched the film for a second time, the first since I had originally seen it in the theaters back in 1989. I will admit that I couldn’t really understand why the film scared the bee-jebbers out of me so much back then as the imagery which seemed to have scarred me back then seemed much tamer now. In essence, what scared the f*ck ut of me then did not have the same intense effect now, 30 years later. However I did get creeped out by other aspects which I won’t really discuss in much detail (such as the drugging of a cat, for example), save for something which I just simply can not quite put my finger on.

 

I do think that it is both the underlying theme of the movie (it’s general premise and what that entails on a philosophical perspective) as well as how a lot of the subject matter is treated which worst as a better form of on-screen dread. While the tone of the film is just not quite “there”, there is a definite below-the-surface-level feel to it which adds to the film’s effectiveness. The interaction between the lead characters also adds to the general theme of the film, as well as (SPOILERS!) that damn main road between the two houses where all the truck go zooming by like it was a highway. In any case, not everyone picked up on the film in itself as it may be reguarded by many as standard horror fare without much retainability value, but I thought it had something which not only too many modern horror films lack, but something which was not always explored and present even in the hey-day of King-penned horror of the era.

A comic book adaptation which is really not that easy to find!

Ok, Ok , OK, so...

Sometime in the 90s I stumbled upon a Heavy Metal magazine which had a very short piece drawn by artist P. Craig Russell, based on the H. P. Lovecraft short story "From Beyond", which was a better adaptation than the 1980s horror film by Stuart Gordon - of note I have NOTHING against the Gordon version of the film, especially now on DVD with the re-inserted bits which were chopped out of the film when it was released on VHS... In fact, I tend to prefer the "From Beyond" film to "Re-Animator" due to how the production and sound design was done. But that is not the subject of this short self-indulegeant post. No, in fact I wanted to mention that to this day I still have yet to re-find a copy of that Heavy Metal magazine featuring the "From Beyond" short story, which really hit the mark for me as it started out in basic black and white, and as the resonator device increased it's stumilation of the two protagonists' pineal glands, and thus forms and objects and creatures started seeping through the "beyond", color was slowly creeping in, until the very end when the "byond" became reality and in essence, full-color was acheived.

The short story was always something I enjoyed and have since long lost in my numerous life adventures throughout our reality. I surely must have lost the Heavy Metal issue in question along the way, and thought that maybe in today's interweb day and age that someone, somewhere would have re-posted the artwork, but aside from the top image in full color I shared here, nothing really can be found. I mean you can get gazibilillions of Jostin Beeber and Reehannah pictures until you can deffecate cardboard, but a little short story from the 90s? Ziltch! Maybe it was the artist himself who refused and denied allowance of sharing these images... Who knows? Anyway, hope y'all dig it nonetheless!

Can a film remake surpass it's original? (The Fly, The Thing, etc.)

Anyone who knows me knows I am against remakes, sequels, prequels, whatever. I have always been very vocal against these up until the 2011 prequel/remake of The Thing, at which point I finally accepted that the Hollywood machine had no soul and would remake anything and everything just to make money out of theater-goers (and home video markets, and now of course the streaming services). I always thought that, for the most case, when someone does sequels/prequels or remakes that they are lazy and profiteers; only in it to do the cash grab dance for the board members running the bog studios to inflate their own pockets and create propaganda adds about how piracy makes people lose money and their jobs, etc. But in all seriousness, one could stop in their tracks and realize that sometimes, remakes, prequels and sequels can not only have some merit, they can sometimes actually stand by their own selves quite properly without too much aid of their original. Such situations are very rare, but not impossible. And although I could spend hours researching this for more detail and accuracy, with the little to no readers presently on my blog, it is basically just a self-serving... well service!

THE THING (John Carpenter, 1982) : enjoying a larger-than-life boom or re-ignited followers, Carpenter's then big studio flop seems to be on everyone's love list these days, as though no one had access to the VHS tapes and then the DVDs in the few years after the film's original theatrical run. Although I myself was not a fan at first (my history with THE THING is well documented elsewhere ad nauseum), it grew on me a wee bit on home video (VHS) and sometime in the 90s I became a real die-core fan thanks to a widescreen release on VHS (up to that point I only saw the pan-n-scan 4x3 version for TV and regular VHS. Needless to say by viewing it in it's complete 2:35 widescreen format, I finally saw the scope of the vision originally intended, and of course as soon as I got access to a DVD player, THE THING was the first disc I bought! But all of this has been written all over the internet on various forums and whatnot during the mid-late 90s so it's nothing new.
Carpenter's THE THING isn't as much of a technical remake of the Christian NyBy 1951 THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD as much of a re-interpretation of the original source material. In fact, the 1982 Carpenter version is perhaps closer to the original short novel material than it's predecessor, and in that interpretation, stands pretty much alone on it's own two feet (or various morphing appendages, so to speak!). However, on paper, the 1982 version is a sort-of remake of the 1951 version, and yet it far surpasses it's senior by leaps and bounds on almost all levels.

THE FLY (1986) David Cronenberg - Perhaps the best example of when a remake surpasses the original would be Cronenberg's near masterpiece 1986 version, not that there is anything wrong with the "campy" fun of the original version, which in it's own defense has both an ambiance and it,s share of chilling moments. However the Cronenberg version is especially chilling and downright terrifying as it explores in slightly more vivid detail (warning: spoilers!) how such a transformation on a cellular level (molecular, actually) would affect not only the protagonist, but his direct entourage. Many will, like THE THING, only remember the more gruesome special effects and won't bother to pick up on the more existential themes, THE FLY is a terrific exploration of the complete transformation of a human being into an amalgam hybrid creature, as well as the nature of humanity and the "human" treatment of each other. The film succeeds with me (as well as resonates on a rather disturbingly deep level) as it is in some of it's more subtle moments, often played to pitch perfection by Jeff Goldblum, which the true horror rears itself. I may be the only one who cries at the end of the film when the Brundlefly/telepod hybrid points the barrel of the shotgun held by Geena Davis' character on it's own head, as perhaps the last remnant of humanity left in this horrible creature. I do strongly suggest you re-watch this film with an attention on the internal transformation of eccentric scientist Seth Brundle. Oh, yes the effects and quite something to enjoy without a doubt, as is Cronenberg's own unique vision, but it is also in the themes explored that the true chills come out. Whereas at the end of the original 1950s version, the one of the hybrid creatures begs to survive, the 1980s version sees it as Something which has outgrown any humanity.

Anyway like I said if I had more time and more ressources at this present moment in time, I would have come up with a better post, but for the purposes of what I set out to do, this has been done. Hope you enjoyed this trip down memory lane!

Couple of BTS pics from "The Stuff" (1985)

I was just semi-randomless surfing and found a couple of rare-ish behind the scènes pics from the Rob Cohen 1985 film "The Stuff", specifically for that puppet at the end of the film for the character of Chocolate Chip Charlie. Warning, these are in fact spoilers!