1990’s “Tremors” and I go a long way. It’s not just one of my all time favorite monster movies, but it’s also a childhood favorite and has a ton of nostalgic value. I first started watching it when my mom recorded it on VHS off of cable TV back in the heyday of the 1990’s. I wore that VHS out, suffice to say. I loved it and still love it. So imagine my surprise when in 1996, in came “Tremors 2: Aftershocks.” While this follow up is not at all like the original film it still manages to be pretty darn fun.
BAD MOVIE MONDAY: SUPERMEN DÖNÜYOR (1979)
Did you know they made a Turkish Superman??? Oh yes they did! SUPERMEN DÖNÜYOR (The Return of Superman) is a 1979 superhero movie starring Tayfun Demir, Güngör Bayrak, Yildirim Gencer, and Esref Kolçak. It was directed Kunt Tulgar, and yes that name made me smile. This film is, in my opinion, the perfect palate cleanser to all that depressing negativity surrounding modern superhero movies. I may not personally be a big fan of the genre, but I hate seeing people fight, and so I wrote this as a way to bring something positive to the discussion. I had originally included a bit of a rant about how people who watch this sort of stuff should watch different kinds of movies, but you know what? You all do you. It’s not my place to tell you how to live your lives. Maybe I’ll write something about this later, but just enjoy this review for now.
Cinema Crazed’s 2023 Holiday Gift Guide
It’s the holidays once again, and this year has been a hectic one for the self respecting movie geek. As is the case we’re introducing a handful of movies and TV shows that will make wonderful gifts for you or the movie lover in your life.
Remember that when you buy through us, you also support Cinema Crazed. We’re also always accepting donations, if you want to show us some love for our hard work and coverage.
Happy Christma-hannu-kwaanzaa-ka to you, and a Festivus for the rest of us.
Interview with J. Zachary Thurman, Director of Viral Short “Finley”
Virality seems to be the new aide to indie filmmakers these days. Especially with movie studios treating films like disposable products that they can use as a simple tax write off, many times the best way for filmmakers to get traction on their work is through viral means on the web. Among one of the more notable is J. Zachary Thurman’s short “Finley.” A horror comedy with a genuinely interesting story, “Finley” recently went viral on the likes of Youtube and apps like Tik Tok, the latter of which has inspired many horror tik tokers to post live reactions to Mr. Thurman’s short.
Genuinely funny, and downright fun, “Finley” is the tale of a haunted doll named Finley that comes to life to torment the owners of a new house. The problem is that Finley is really bad at trying to kill people, and eventually becomes an utter nuisance. Filled with great puppetry, a genuinely fun concept, and oodles of clever humor, “Finley” (now available on youtube) is a short film deserving of huge attention. J. Zachary Thurman took time out of his very busy schedule to discuss the short and his thoughts on horror comedies and filmmaking.
Nightmare on 34th Street (2023)
Like clockwork every year a studio releases a Christmas themed anthology for the masses, and almost always it’s a big letdown. It’s not really enough to inject the whole Christmas aesthetic. A genuinely scary story helps, too. “Nightmare on 34th Street” is a rambling, often nonsensical, unscary Christmas anthology movie that is literally all over the place. It re-uses actors, garners a whole cast that spend their time obviously reading from cue cards off screen, and director Crow doubles down a shoddy editing job that makes his film more confusing and jarring than scary.
Thanksgiving (2023)
Back in 2007 after the collaborative efforts of Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez known as “Grindhouse” flopped, one of the popular elements of the double feature that lingered on was the mock trailers during intermission. After delivering a very popular faux trailer with “Thanksgiving,” director Eli Roth finally gives us what we’ve been begging for almost twenty years later. Thankfully while the whole faux grindhouse aesthetic has fallen out of favor with mainstream cinema, “Thanksgiving” ends as a pretty great slasher film with its own merits to offer the horror genre.
The Bootleg Files: Jive Junction
BOOTLEG FILES 847: “Jive Junction” (1943 musical starring Dickie Moore and directed by Edgar G. Ulmer).
LAST SEEN: On DailyMotion.com.
AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: It doesn’t appear to have been released.
REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: There might be a music rights issue.
CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: Not likely.
When you think of the musicals of the 1940s, you probably think about the big-budget Technicolor productions from MGM or 20th Century Fox. Few people would immediately call to mind the output of Producers Releasing Corporation (PRC), the Poverty Row funhouse that churned out low-budget Westerns and thrillers. Every now and then, this cheapjack studio would put forth a musical – and while none of these films resonated within the popular culture, they provided enough silly distraction to help theaters fill their double features.
Continue reading