October Challenge: The Haunting

You have to love a good haunted house movie and this is a good haunted house movie, maybe even the best.

Again, my big surprise is I had never seen this one before.  I did see the 1999 remake back when it was new.

The Haunting (1963)

A great, moody, creepy movie that works on many levels.  Is Nel crazy or is the house haunted? Or both?  I think both.   There is a lot to like about this movie. Here are a couple of things I noticed watching it in 2011.  Amber Tamblyn today looks a lot like her dad did in this movie.  Secondly this movie accomplishes more with less than the 1999 remake.

This movie is almost cliche by today's standards; four people, staying in a haunted house investigating hauntings.  Classic stuff really.  This movie does it without gore, without any special effects to speak off and all with tone and mood.  Honestly I think this movie needs to be required viewing of all haunted house movie directors.
Nel's character is a bit whinny at times and we hear far too many of her thoughts that could have been better relayed through dialog.  Plus I would have liked to seen more psychic power from Theo.

Though now thanks to this movie and The Legend of Hell House and the House on the Haunted Hill (coming up soon I hope, though that one I saw years ago) I think I know exactly what to do if ever I change careers and become one of those guys investigates haunted houses.

Tally: 13 movies, 11 new.

Game material: Fantastic haunted house scenario.  I love how all the doors are off-center so the close an open all the time and how there are no right angles in the entire house.  Plus the history of house can be used as well.

October Challenge: The Witch's Sabbath (2005)

When you don't expect much from a movie and get nothing you are only mildly disappointed. When you expect nothing from a movie and get comedy of this sort then that is something else.  Witch's Sabbath is that kind of movie.

The Witch's Sabbath (2005)

The premise here is simple, even one I could use in a game.  Coven of witches, pretending to be strippers to get 666 victims for their dark lord. The 666 number seems a bit large, the cops would notice at 6 really (even less) and the strip club is the smallest, dingiest hole in the wall I have ever seen. But this little flick has some charm.   The actors don't seem to take themselves very serious, which is good since the acting is terrible.  The special effects are crappy, but fun.  If you like your gore plenty and often then this is a fun little flick.  Plus the film has Ron Jeremy in it. How can that be bad?
This is not a good movie and I am not pretending it is.  But is a stupid kind of fun.

It is worth sitting through for the witches' dark lord at the end.

Tally 12 movies, 10 new.

Game wise this is a perfect set up.  Strip-club or night-club where some mysterious goings on are well, going on, it's cliche, but still a classic.

When Blogs close

Dave over at There's Dungeons Down Under has announced that he is closing up shop and deleting his blog.

I have enjoyed his blog in the past and I am going to miss it.I wish him all the best.
Looking over his past posts it is hard to believe he has only been doing this since February of this year and has only a little more than 100 posts.  Certainly though his posts were quality filled and he always managed to get a large number of comments.

Blogs are ephemera. They, come they go, and they rarely last more than the few minutes it takes to read them.  One day even this blog will close. I don't think I am going to delete anything, that is not my style.

A few others have also come and gone without much fanfare.  I usually go through my roll and weed out ones that have not posted in a very long time.  There are few names I have not seen in a while too.  Maybe time to weed through that blog roll again.

There you are Rachel

The new cover of the next Rachel Morgan book, A Perfect Blood,  is now out.
http://kimharrison.wordpress.com/2011/10/07/cover-of-a-perfect-blood/

And we get to see a bit more of Rachel's face.

Looking forward to this one!

October Challenge: Flesh, TX

At some point the defacto home for strange goings on changed from dark castles and moors to the American countryside. "Good Evening" was replaced by "Where you goin' city folk?" as the phrase to send chills down your spine. That was what the creators of Flesh, TX must have thought. Too bad that is all they thought.

Flesh, TX (2009)

So what do we have here? Murder, cannibalism, incest.  It opens well with a mindless random killing, always fun in a slasher flick.
The sad thing here is that there could have been something good here. The elements are in place, but the execution was terrible.  The actors for the most part are terrible (with a notable exception), the script is not great and the audio is terrible.  The direction seems non-existent.
I guess the biggest issue is that the movie is just simply bad.

It could have been good and that is the real shame here.
I would like to see the actors in something else and see if they are actually bad or if movie was even worse than I thought it was.

I did get a chance to see Kathleen Benner in "Running on Empty Dreams" and she was much better in that.

Tally, 11 movies, 9 new.

Witches of the Coast

Since D&D 4 came out I have played with the Warlock class.  It was not exactly what I wanted in a witch class, but it was close.  Close enough that I wanted to play it right away and I did not feel the need to make a Witch class for 4e.

Well now even that option is filled.

In November WotC will release their "Heroes of the Feywild". I am expecting it to be like their "Heroes of the Shadowfell" which despite not talking about it much here I liked.

Included in it will be a new "sub" class, the Witch.
http://www.wizards.com/DnD/Article.aspx?x=dnd/4pr/20111007#76692

The witch looks like it fills the niche of a warlock that is more like a wizard.  Pretty awesome.
They are playing up the fey parts a bit, just like I did with my Faerie Witch from my various books.
So far I really like what I see and I am looking forward to this book.

I'll have to stat up a witch and a warlock side by side to see how they stack up against each other.

Maybe I will produce a 4e Witch and Warlocks book with some options after all.  Who knows.
But not till next year.

October Challenge: House of Wax (1953)

I have always felt that in the shadow cast by Cushing and Lee one of the truly greats gets forgotten, even by me. That great is Vincent Price. For a while Price meant horror to me and to the entire world. Even when he was reduced to playing "Vincent Van Ghoul" for the most anemic of all the Scooby Doo series. But not in this masterpiece, and it was Vincent Price that introduced movie going audiences to 3D.

But don't blame him for that.

House of Wax (1953)

In what must be the spiritual decedent of the Phantom of the Opera and the demented God Father of Price's later Dr. Phibes, Prof. Harry Jarrod is a demented, twisted, scarred man with a vision.  His vision is make the best wax museum in the world even if he has to cover his victims in wax to preserve them forever.  Its a crazy vision, but a vision all the same.
House of Wax though does suffer through some silly 3D gimmicks and suffers through some 50s steroetypes, but I can ignore these or be amused.
Really we have Price here at his best, a subtle mix of his more serious tone and his hammy best.
This movie also featured a young Charles Bronson as the mute Igor.  It was also a remake of the 1933 "Mystery of the Wax Museum" and was remade in 2005.  Of that movie we will not speak of.

Like most of the classics, I saw this one years and years ago.

Tally 10 movies, 8 new.