Cinema News

The Blob Screenwriter Has Died

Kay Linaker, who wrote the screenplay for The Blob, passed away on April 2008. She was 94 and would have turned 95 in July. For more complete information on her careers as both a writer and an actress, see her entry at IMDb, here.

Manatees In Merbeings Documentary

Did a posting of an old “Mermaid” account at Cryptomundo in 2007, stimulate the involvement of a certain location in an upcoming documentary film? According to the Ashley Park Press, this notice was referenced: “In 1869, two Toms River fishermen reportedly caught a monster resembling a mermaid. A copy of the report is available [here]” Reporter Matthew McGrath says in his article, “Mermaids or manatees? ~ Filmmaker: Sea goddesses may have been sea cows,” that Toms River, New Jersey was visited by a documentary filmmaker: Ancient legends, Renaissance fairy tales and modern comic books all tell stories of mermaids, the [...]

Happy Birthday, Lon Chaney!

April Fool’s Day is Lon Chaney’s birthday. Chaney (April 1, 1883 – August 26, 1930) was an American film actor, nicknamed “The Man of a Thousand Faces,” whose macabre characterizations are classics of the silent screen. Both of Chaney’s parents were deaf, and as a child of deaf adults, Chaney became skilled in pantomime, which can be seen in his skilled acting for his many difficult roles. He is especially remembered as the Phantom of the Opera (above) and the Hunchback of Notre Dame (directly below). Chaney had many bizarre, almost Fortean roles, including the clown Flik in Laugh, Clown, [...]

X-Files Monsters Return

Ten years after the last “X-Files” movie hit theaters, the team behind the hit sci-franchise is tossing out some tidbits about the sequel, currently scheduled for release on July 25, 2008. The film, which has not yet been named, will mark the return of David Duchovny as Mulder and Gillian Anderson as Scully, two FBI agents who investigate the paranormal. It is being directed by Chris Carter, creator of the series that ran on Fox from 1993 to 2002. “I know what I want it to be, but Fox has ideas of their own,” Carter said of the title. “I [...]

Night of the Demon Remembered

Nick Redfern alerts me to the fact a character actor of some note, Brian Wilde, 80, died on March 20, 2008. Like Nick, I recall Wilde for his role of Rand Hobart in the classic 1957 UK movie Night of the Demon (Curse of the Demon in the USA). For me, the film was a pure Jungian psychological look at strange phenomena and “paranormal” events, including the appearance of a mystery felid and a “demonic” creature. (Years later, I would write two books ~ The Unidentified & Creatures of the Outer Edge, with Jerry Clark, which touched on these same [...]

Beyond Loch Ness And Beyond

When Beyond Loch Ness was first broadcast on Sci Fi Channel on January 5, 2008, I didn’t get a chance to watch it. Tonight, from 7-9 PM Eastern, I viewed the film. It was my first chance to see this one. But then, I had to. After all, I am a cryptozoologist. The body count was ten people, one coyote, and several so-called “Nessies.” The experience was your typical cable B-movie sci-fi fare. The plot wasn’t too bad for a revenge film, the acting was first rate, and the special effects were mostly good. The creatures (a “60-foot plesiosaur mother” [...]

10,000 BC and Terror Birds

If you haven’t seen 10,000 BC, I highly recommend you give it a second chance for your weekend viewing before it leaves the big screen. I find it discouraging that one of the major movie criticisms being heaped on 10,000 BC is that there was not enough blood and gore, that the slicing and dicing of humans, with full-screen blood spatter, did not fill every scene. What, I must ask, is wrong with old-fashion storytelling? 10,000 BC is a movie that will grow on people as viewers take in what they have in front of them. It is an elegant, [...]

Wild Man of The Navidad, Humm?