Review: “The House on Skull Mountain” (1974)

Featuring a nearly all-black cast and unexpected themes of racial identity and interracial harmony, The House on Skull Mountain takes what could otherwise have been a throwaway low-budget cash-in on the blaxploitation craze and turns it into something far more interesting.

While its making it to the screen may have been propelled by the Shaftgeist, the sensibilities of this odd little movie are rooted firmly in the classic gothic melodramas of Mario Bava, Hammer and Amicus.

Of course, that’s not to say that it’s not also totally hilarious and good for some seriously un-PC laughs. Scream, Fagula, Scream!

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Video: “The Curse” SNL Digital Short

SERGIO! (John Hamm)

The people at Saturday Night Live must have been reading either my mind or my review of the 1987 trash classic Faceless, because this weekend they produced one of the most awesome sleazy saxophone horror skits in history.

In it, businessman Andy Samberg is cursed by a mystic (after stepping on a dreamcatcher) and visited by a shirtless, pony-tailed sax player named Sergio (a hamtastic John Hamm).

It’s basically Thinner meets the guy that plays the saxophone in The Lost Boys, only twice as scary as former and not nearly as frightening as the latter. And it ends just like Lars Von Trier’s The Kingdom!

You can check out the short over here at Hulu – which has fast become the most annoying site on the Interweb thanks to its useless and deceitful non-embedding feature. Get it together, people…

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Earbleed: Lady Gaga, “Teeth”

Or, “Pardon Me, But Your Fangs Are In My Go-Go Boy”

I’m not quite sure whom the joke is on here, but check out the gay vampire S&M production of Chicago that is apparently the new Lady Gaga video. I’m not sure if it’s trying to be sexy or so-bad-it’s-funny (probably a little from column A, etc.); regardless, methinks someone has been watching too many reruns of The Lair.

If nothing else, I’m relieved that she has a new single out that doesn’t sound exactly the same as her last three. That’s how I spell R-E-L-I-E-F!

Watch the impossibly chiseled dance antics, below…

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Bits & Pieces: Get “Buried” with Ryan Reynolds, “The Walking Dead” gets a green, and more!

• Apparently Saw 3D and Paranormal Activity 2 are in a sissyboy slapping contest over directors and pre-Halloween release dates. Related: No one gives a flying fuck about Saw 3D or Paranormal Activity 2.

• Danny Boyle (28 Days Later, Slumdog Millionaire) will return to his stage roots when he directs a new theatrical adaptation of Frankenstein in London next year for renowned producer/director Nicholas Hytner (The History Boys). Fingers crossed for a Bollywood-style dance number!

• AMC has officially greenlit a Walking Dead series, based on the zombie comics and produced by The Mist-ermind Frank Darabont. Looks like A-list horror television ain’t undead yet!

• Speaking of A-list horror television, Dexter’s Michael C. Hall picked up a SAG Award to go along with his Golden Globe over the weekend. Congrats, Morgan!

Future Mrs. Buzz Ryan Reynolds, with friend (from Blade: Trinity)

• Lionsgate has picked up Sundance hit Buried (the fest’s first sale), which stars Ryan Reynolds as a guy buried alive by terrorists for ransom. If there’s one guy I could be stuck in a box with for 90 minutes without getting bored, it would probably be Ryan … here’s to hoping that it’s very warm in that coffin and that he needs to lose all his clothes very early on.

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Exhumed Review: Sam Worthington in “Rogue”

Sam rocks out with his croc out

I was just doing some site maintenance (no, really…) and I realized that at this point I have written over 170 full reviews of horror films on this here site.

That’s quite an accomplishment …  if by “accomplishment” I mean “cause for serious re-evaluation of my resources, time, and overall path in life”.

But I figure I may as well make use of all this wasted time, so every once in a while I’m going to feature an oldie-but-goodie review from days past here on the blog.

This week’s feature: Greg Mclean’s totally underrated 2007 giant crocodile flick Rogue, which just so happens to star a then-unknown Sam Worthington, who is currently charming audiences in everything from Avatar to Terminator: Salvation to that awful trailer for the Clash of the Titans remake.

Yes, before he was fighting baby-legs, giant blue cats and Christian Bale, Sam was battling a hungry (yet chubbily adorable!) giant crocodile with Radha Mitchell and Michael “That Guy from Alias” Vartan. How did he fare?

Check out the full review to find out!

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