THE LAST BROADCAST




I finally got around to viewing THE LAST BROADCAST after about a decade or so. You know how it is... things to do, not enough time... I had missed it at its screening at SXSW, but I remember hearing quite a buzz about it, being the first digital feature and it was made for something like under $1000.

Then 1999 came along, and with it, THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT, which was kinda sorta like THE LAST BROADCAST, but it was on film... and REAL, (or so I would've been convinced had I been taking in all the internet hype at the time - and had never gone camping before) and more importantly, it was picked up for distribution and made a shitload of money, and ushered in a decade of vomit-inducing camerawork and shoddy faux-amateurism all reaching for the brass ring in the hopes for a similar payoff.

Time ultimately is the final judge, no matter how good the boxoffice or hype... Others have done a much better job at documenting the history of both films - I'm much more concerned with how well they hold up now, and I have to say THE LAST BROADCAST is the more satisfying of the films. But then, both films have entirely different purposes, and both are marketed as horror films, which LAST BROADCAST isn't.

LB is a 'psuedo-documentary' (the term used when I took a class about it in film-school), and it follows the format of a documentary for a good 95% of its running time. BLAIR WITCH was sold to the audience as a "documentary", the leavings of 3 film students who disappear into the woods, but only the severely thick-headed would believe that after 20 minutes of watching it. Most of the documentary backstory was not a part of the film itself, but was used in publicity - the website, a tv special, CURSE OF THE BLAIR WITCH, which is where its resemblance to THE LAST BROADCAST is strongest.

BLAIR WITCH does fit the description of being a 'horror' film, in that taking the events at face value, it does appear to support a supernatural presence at work.
THE LAST BROADCAST, while it does play with the notion of supernatural forces present, it pretty much shoves that notion under the bus, and actually very cleverly.

What THE LAST BROADCAST is concerned with is media, and how media is used in perceiving "truth", whatever it is decided to be by whoever puts it together. At the time when it was released, "Cops" and "America's Most Wanted" were pretty much the definition of reality television; now there are entire cable networks devoted to it and almost any type of crime you can think of. The networks have their DATEBOOKS and 48 HOURS, devoted to a solid evening of murder television, all attempting to get at the 'truth' of the matter.

There's a lot to chew on well after watching LB, and there's some value in repeat viewings - it may look very crude now, but there was a lot of effort put forth in getting things to look purposely 'bad'. Those going in expecting a horror picture will be extremely disappointed, but the film ultimately is more intellectually stimulating than crowd pleasing. BW, on the other hand, didn't have anything else on its mind other than giving the audience a scare - and when substance was grafted to it, shotgun-wedding style (what Joe Berliner attempted to do with BOOK OF SHADOWS: BLAIR WITCH 2), it just didn't take.

Although both are thoroughly to blame for these goddamn 'ghost-hunting' shows currently clogging up the airwaves...

Douchebags and Snotty Pricks make The Internet Go Round and Round...

Pretty silly, but I guess it's time to make A Big Statement -

What kicked this off was a comment on a review of CLOVERFIELD on Stacie Ponder's wonderful horror blog (that you should be reading) FINAL GIRL. If you've been following me for awhile, or at least checking the archives like, HERE, HERE, and of course, HERE, it's pretty evident that I don't think much of the movie enterprises connected with J.J. Abrams -- going as far as calling it 'cinema for douchebags'.

Not that it matters in the long run - everyone appears to love this stuff, much like a kitten batting a dangling toy and following a light when you shine it deep into its eyes - I REALLY, REALLY don't; going as far as to claim my remarks by name, rather than under the popular pseudonym, "Anonymous".

It doesn't win you popularity - and a couple of Stacie's readers took my 'douchebag' remarks to heart, labelling me a 'snotty prick'.

Touche.

My assumption on readers of this blog, however many or few that may be - is (1) that you have a working brain and (2) you may have an opinion. At least that's how I'm couching the writing.

If you don't agree with something I've said, you can write to me about it, or you can just not read it anymore, if it's that offensive. I don't go out of my way to BE offensive for shock value, but if I strongly feel about something, I'm gonna say it and we deal with the aftermath.

With the dumbing down of society and the lack of any sort of asethetic value or conditions, "Snotty Prick" is becoming more and more of a badge of honor.

ADDENDUM

well, it appears that I have been thoroughly schooled by the two who objected to my remarks - so I won't have to worry about offending those assholes ever again. ;p

Nothing like writing off people WHOM YOU'VE NEVER MET AND WHO YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW - no Christmas cards for them this year...

A Muppet Wicker Man







A work of disturbing genius....

Winter Viewing + GUILTY... Of Being WHITE!! Film Series

With Winter actually being... Winter, as witness to the recent snow and bone-chilling cold, it stands to reason that a lot of time is being spent in a prone position, with covers pulled up and cats at either end warming extremities.

Writing goes very slowly for me - at least in writing something that isn't an article or a review - I'm scheduled to finally have that article on Kansas filmmakers seeing print sometime later this year - I haven't pushed to really finish it yet, since everytime I think it's finished, more time and more news pops up. Taking another whack at a feature-length script is quite something else -- what was a quick n' dirty idea turned into something that I'm actually having some fun with... and that more than likely will never end up in front of a camera lens, at least in this initial version.


Have been passing the time by watching the old THRILLER series with Boris Karloff - which is scheduled to make its debut on legitimate DVD later this year in a tricked-out-with-extras complete run release. That doesn't mean that I should just instantly throw out my 'gift' set, which landed in my lap last year, which were taken from broadcasts on the Scream Channel.

Vintage tv like this probably has a hard time finding an audience now - most of the market for it would be the over 40 crowd, people who have heard of the show, but were born after its run; and the over 60 crowd, people who actually saw the show during broadcast. It's not quickly paced and it's in black and white, and it mainly features people who are nearly dead now - not great reasons for the under 30 set to sit down and watch it...

It's not as well known as TWILIGHT ZONE; THRILLER started out as an anthology mystery show, adapting pulp novels of the time, and it gradually drifted into straight horror... I've only delved into the first 10 episodes so far, and only one sort of had a whiff of the supernatural - an episode featuring Rip Torn, who has nefarious relatives attempting to scare him out of an inheritance.

Part of the fun of watching shows like this, is seeing established stars in the beginning of their careers, like Leslie Nielson, Cloris Leachman, Mary Tyler Moore; and actors in their waning years, like Mary Astor and Charles McGraw. Plus, it's a window into a whole other world and culture, almost -- one that I'll be doling out over the next couple of months.




A quicker fix is CASINO ROYALE, the notorious James Bond parody of the 60's -- which is almost being pushed from memory, due to the more faithful 2006 rendition/franchise reboot with Daniel Craig. The 60's version is a mess - a glorious mess, in my opinion, but it's usually remembered as an artifact of what NOT to do in making a movie (although a successful one - it was one of the highest grossing films for 1967). It was previously released on disc a few years ago, with some decent extras, but the 40th Anniversary disc actually delves a little deeper into the film and its making, featuring a commentary by a couple of Bond scholars (which is pretty good - it was a lot more substantial than I thought it would be), and a 5 part featurette on the history of the film, and how things got out of control...

I've always wanted to run a film series for February, since it's "Black History Month", taking on the more 'in your face' films -- "GUILTY... Of Being WHITE!!"


Exhibit #1 - MANDINGO

this notorious, button-pushing film, that has had some critical rethinking over the last few years, thanks to bloggers like Dennis Cozzalio (Sergio Leone and the Infield Fly Rule) and Greg Bunche, whose MANDINGO PROJECT posting will suffice as an introduction, to those who dare take the plunge and rent this baby. He goes into detail regarding the novel, and in the changes from novel to screen, and does the same for its follow-up, DRUM, another 'Exhibit', but one that's very hard to find as of late.

Book of the month for the "GUILTY... Of Being WHITE!!" series is the recently published MONDO MANDINGO, which goes into obsessive detail into Kyle Onstott's series and what they wrought.

A LOST Thought...

Obviously, I've invested a lot of time in this show to stick it out to the bitter end... but I wonder -

Has it ever occurred to anyone since midway through the first season, that instead of scattering around like roaches every time something happens, if anyone on the show actually took like, 2 minutes to actually LISTEN to someone else, or ask questions, or even THINK about what they're doing, a lot of the drama would be avoided, or cut back considerably?

I'm sure there's a lesson there...

Those Kids... (in Lawrence, KS)




The ThroughAGlass guys, Jeremy and Chris, have been pretty busy over the past couple of years... their feature musical, AIR, has been screening around the country and the world; but when would it finally be able to get into the public's sweaty hands?

April 6, 2010 - Cinema Epoch (the same people who released fellow Lawrence filmmaker Patrick Rea's THE EMPTY ACRE) are bringing AIR to the public at large... and you'll also want to keep your eye open about where to get the soundtrack album, too.

Since I mentioned Patrick, I also need to mention that more news and stills about NAILBITER have surfaced on the Dread Central and Bloody Disgusting horror websites... the news is indeed good, and I can say that I look forward to meeting fellow crew and cast again sometime this spring...

Craig Ferguson Puts It All In Perspective For You


FUCK the Jay/Conan Late Night Wars... a pox on both their houses.

Craig Ferguson has been the one person to make Late Night somewhat exciting again... you never know exactly what's going to happen, and the man knows when to call bullshit when he sees it.

Here are two clips, from Thursday night's show - encompassing the late night wars, Haiti and Rush Limbaugh. You won't see this sort of commentary on any other show!