October Movie: Tales That Witness Madness (1973)

Tales that Witness Madness made it on to my list for one very, very easy reason.  The Pre-Doctor Who appearance of Mary Tamm aka Romana I.

Here is a very interesting story.  I almost caught this one on TV back in the mid 90s when I was working the night shift at a mental health care facility.  I had 8 schizophrenic patients that I was watching over.  That night I ended up with someone in the "Suicide" bed, so I ended having to watch them all night instead.

Tales is about 4 related tales of people going mad and the how they got there.  Or is it?  (cheesy I know).
The movie is much slower than I remember in the 30 seconds or saw I TV before I had to deal with real madness.  But finally seeing it was a real treat. I had wanted to see it for years and it never seemed to be on when I could watch it.

There are some really fun performances from the actors. Donald Pleasence, Joan Collins, Kim Novak and yes Mary Tamm were all great.  The stories have a real Tales from the Crypt or Creepshow feel to them.

Worth the wait.

Tally: Watched 10,  New 8

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This is Getting Stupid

The Deletionists at Wikipedia are going through and deleting all the RPG articles again.  There is a crew of them and they are pushing some sort of agenda, but there are not enough people to source the articles to save them.

So I am again asking for help.  I need third party sources. Tons of them.
Magazine reviews, newspapers, nothing is too small.

Here are the articles in danger:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_Buffalo
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_Loomis
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Soth
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vecna

Give me hand with these please!

October Movie: Bride of the Monster (1955)

Sometimes you just need a little Ed Wood.  I had been going through all the movies on my list and noticed that I didn't have any Ed Wood. Mostly because I had watched them all years ago.
This one is one of my favorites.
It's insane. Full of great 50 schlock like Atomic Supermen, rampant sexism and weird monsters.  Plus it has Bela Lugosi in it.

I had seen this one years back and then again for the MST3k version.  This makes a 3rd viewing.  I don't think I need a fourth.

My favorite scene though is still where Lugosi and the Monster battle in the end and they both blow up in an atomic explosion....right next to onlookers.  Oh Ed. I can't tell if you didn't have a clue or just didn't have a care.

Tally: Watched 9,  New 7

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Colorado Flood Relief Bundle from DriveThruRPG

DriveThruRPG/RPGNow does some pretty amazing charity releases.  Here is another good one.

The Colorado Flood Relief Bundle.

For $20 you get over $200 worth of PDFs.

There are a lot of great games in this bundle too.  Capes, Cowls and Villains Foul, Slasher Flick, Icons, Mutants & Masterminds, material for Deadlands, Savage Worlds and more.

A lot of great stuff.  You really should pick this up.

Layout

No post today.  Sorry.

Doing Eldritch Witchery layout.  Going a lot better than expected.  But I'll know more once I get more art in place.

October Movie: Jesús Franco's Count Dracula (1970)

After my most recent delve into Dracula I figure I should go with the master.

So we have Christopher Lee (natch) playing the Count as if he were Vlad Dracula and he cuts a pretty imposing figure too.  The movie is mostly the same sort of fare. But there are a lot of treats in this. Not only is Jesús Franco directing it but we also get Klaus Kinski as Renfield and Soledad Miranda as Lucy.  Both would later go on to star in other vampire movies; Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979) and Vampyros Lesbos (1971) respectively.

What this movie lacks in budget and gore it more than makes up for in atmosphere. This movie just oozes it. It is not a great film, but it is more faithful to the original story than Argento's. Plus there is no suggestion that Mina is nothing more to Dracula than a tasty snack.

In the end though I could not help but really enjoy this one.  Plus I love the huge Dracula 'stash on Christopher Lee.  I had this old copy of Dracula that had a picture of the Count when Harker first meets him, he had a long white moustache and the image stuck with me.

Tally: Watched 8,  New 7

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October Movie: Dario Argento's Dracula 3D (2012)

Wow.  Where to start with this one?
Ok for starters I was very excited to be getting a new version of Dracula for the screen. I was cautiously optimistic, Argento is a "name" and there was a chance it could be done right.
Also I had heard it was a homage to the Hammer Horror films of the 50s and 60s.

Well...it is a very pretty movie.  The HD is nice.

It IS a love note to the Hammer Horror. The visuals for that are down.  But that is where it ends really.
Ok what is bad? Well pretty much everything else.
Asia Argento can't act, at all.  Unax Ugalde makes wish for the nuanced and subtle performances of Keanu Reeves as Johnathon Harker. And Rutger Hauer (Van Helsing). Well Rutger has to eat too.
I will give Thomas Kretschmann (Dracula) credit though, he seems like a good actor. Interesting enough he is set to play Van Helsing on the new Dracula TV Series.

Again, we get the whole "immortal beloved" plot line; that is the idea that Mina (sometimes Lucy) is one of Dracula's past lovers. Sometimes it works, but most time I don't buy it.

Damn. I would have loved to have a good new Dracula remake.

Oh. So yeah. Pretty crappy movie really.

ETA: I am watching Jesús Franco's Count Dracula (1970) now.  I'll review that one soon too.

Tally: Watched 7,  New 6

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