Steve Oedekerk (born November 27, 1961) is an American comedian, director, editor, producer, screenwriter and actor. Oedekerk is best known for his collaborations with actor Jim Carrey (particularly the Ace Ventura franchise), his series of “Thumbmation” shorts and his film Kung Pow: Enter the Fist (2002).
Oedekerk gained popularity with his series of “Thumbmation” shorts: Thumb Wars, Bat Thumb, The Godthumb, Frankenthumb, The Blair Thumb and Thumbtanic.
Trivia:
Is highly involved in Martial Arts.
Is best known for the “Thumb” movies.
Was a contestant on “Star Search” (1983), and appeared on the TV series “Full House” (1987) as Joey Gladstone’s (Dave Coulier) competitor on Star Search in the episode “Star Search”.
Prehistoric Women is a 1950 science fiction adventure film, written and directed by Gregg C. Tallas and starring Laurette Luez and Allan Nixon. Released by Alliance Productions, this independent film was also titled The Virgin Goddess. Prehistoric Women is seemingly influenced by and is similar to the 1940 film One Million B.C.. A remake (sometimes known as ‘Slave Girls’ ) was made in 1967, and starred Martine Beswick.
Tagline: Savage! Primitive! Deadly!
Plot: Tigri (Luez) and her stone age friends, all of which are women, hate all men. However, she and her Amazon tribe see men as a “necessary evil” and capture them for potential husbands. Engor (Nixon), who is smarter than the rest of the men, is able to escape them. He discovers fire and battle enormous beasts. After he is recaptured by the women, he discovers fire and drives off a dragon-like creature. The women are impressed with him, including their prehistoric queen. Engor marries Tigri and they begin a new, more civilized, tribe.
Cast
Laurette Luez … Tigri
Allan Nixon … Engor
Joan Shawlee … Lotee
Judy Landon … Eras
Mara Lynn … Arva, the usurper
Jo-Carroll Dennison … Nika
Kerry Vaughn … Tulee
Blood Mania is a 1970 grindhouse, horror film from Crown International Pictures. Starring Peter Carpenter, Maria De Aragon, Vicki Peters, and Reagan Wilson. Directed by Robert Vincent O’Neill.
Tagline: Plunge Into a Night of Unspeakable Terror!
A nightmare of unspeakable terror, this Gothic-like horror tale is about a young doctor who’s haunted by a questionable past and entrapped in a hopeless present by jealousy, blackmail and finally, murder!
Meteor is a 1979 disaster film in which scientists detect an asteroid on a collision course with Earth and struggle with international, cold war politics in their efforts to prevent disaster. The movie starred Sean Connery and Natalie Wood. It was directed by Ronald Neame and with a screenplay by Edmund H. North and Stanley Mann, “inspired” by an MIT report Project Icarus. The movie co-starred Karl Malden, Brian Keith, Martin Landau, Trevor Howard, Henry Fonda, Johnny Yune, and Katherine DeHetre.
Tagline: There’s No Place On Earth To Hide!
Many elements of the movie’s plot were used in the 1998 films Armageddon and Deep Impact.
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A 2009 film with the same title and a similar plot, Meteor (TV miniseries), was broadcast by NBC as a 4-hour, 2-part miniseries.
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is a 1974 American independent horror film directed by Tobe Hooper, and written collaboratively by Hooper and Kim Henkel. The film stars Marilyn Burns, Gunnar Hansen, Teri McMinn, William Vail, Edwin Neal and Paul A. Partain. While presented as a true story involving the ambush and murder of a group of friends on a road trip in rural Texas by a family of cannibals, the film is completely fictional. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre started the six films of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre film franchise revolving around the character of Leatherface, portrayed by Hansen in this film. In drafting his story, Hooper took into account the history of Wisconsin serial killer Ed Gein, as well as perceived lies of the American government. Producing on a budget estimated around $140,000, Hooper cast relatively unknown actors for his film, drawing people mainly from the areas surrounding the Texas filming locations. Principal photography of the film took place between July 15 and August 14, 1973. When the film was completed, Hooper struggled to find a distributor for the film because of the graphic depiction of violence; when he did secure a distributor the MPAA gave the film an R-rating, instead of the PG-rating Hooper had intended. Bryanston Distributing Company released The Texas Chain Saw Massacre theatrically on October 1, 1974.
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Because of the content, several foreign jurisdictions banned the film. Initial critical reception of the film was mixed, receiving both praise and criticism regarding the atmosphere, story, characters, and graphic content, but it became a strong commercial success, grossing $30.8 million at the United States box office. Despite the mixed critical reception, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre has gained a reputation as one of the greatest and most influential horror films of all time, originating several topoi common in the slasher film genre including the characterization of the killer as a large, hulking and faceless figure and the use of power tools, knives and blunt objects as murder weapons.
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Trivia:
The actress whose character was hung up on a meat hook was actually held up by a nylon cord that went between her legs, causing a great deal of pain.
During the dinner scene towards the end of the film, when Leatherface cuts the girl’s finger, he actually does cut her finger because they couldn’t get the fake blood to come out of the tube behind the blade
The movie wasn’t released in Australia until the early 1980s.
Director Tobe Hooper claims to have got the idea for the film while standing in the hardware section of a crowded store. While thinking of a way to get out through the crowd, he spotted the chainsaws.
When it was first released, the film was so horrifying that people actually walked out on sneak previews for it.
After getting into the old-age makeup, John Dugan decided that he did not ever want to go through the process again, meaning that all the scenes with him had to be filmed in the same session before he could take the makeup off. This took about 36 hours, during a heat wave where the average temperature was over 100 degrees, with a large portion of it spent filming the dinner scene, sitting in a room filled with dead animals and rotting food. Edwin Neal who played the hitch-hiker claimed “Filming that scene was the worst time of my life… and I had been in Vietnam, with people trying to kill me, so I guess that shows how bad it was.”
The film was shot in chronological order.
The chainsaw used in this film was a Poulan 306A, with a piece of black tape covering the Poulan logo in order to avoid a possible lawsuit.
The film was rejected by the British film censors in 1975, but it did get a limited cinema release in the London area thanks to the GLC (Greater London Council). It was banned again in 1977, when the censors’ attempts to cut it were unsuccessful, (for the purposes of a wider release), then it was banned again in 1984, due to the growing controversy involving ‘video nasties’. In 1999, after the censors finally changed their policy, they took the plunge, and passed it uncut, for the cinema and video, after 25 years, since they first banned it.
The film was originally entitled “Headcheese”, but was filmed as “Leatherface”, then changed again at the last minute to “Texas Chain Saw Massacre”.
A family was actually living in the house that served as the Sawyer family house in the later half of the movie. They rented out their house to the film crew and continued to stay there during the entire shoot.
The human skeleton in the house at the end of the movie was a real human skeleton. They used a real one because a human skeleton from India is far cheaper then a fake plastic skeleton.
Tobe Hooper allowed Gunnar Hansen to develop Leatherface as he saw fit, under his supervision. Hansen decided that Leatherface was mentally retarded and never learned to talk properly, so he went to a school for the mentally challenged and watched how they moved and listened to them talk to get a feel for the character.
Leatherface had “lines” in the script that were gibberish with little side notes indicating what he was trying to say.
Alternate titles for the film included “Headcheese”, “Leatherface” and “Stalking Leatherface”.
The close-up of Leatherface cutting his leg on the chainsaw was the last shot to be filmed; the actor was wearing a metal plate over his leg, which was then covered with a piece of meat and a blood bag.
Edwin Neal, who played the Hitchhiker, said that making the film was more miserable than his service in Vietnam and said that he might kill director Tobe Hooper if he ever saw him again.
Due to the low budget, Gunnar Hansen had only one shirt to wear as Leatherface. The shirt had been dyed, so it could not be washed; Hansen had to wear it for four straight weeks of filming in the Texas summer. By the end of the shoot no one wanted to eat lunch with Hansen because his clothing smelled so bad.
Tobe Hooper intended to make the movie for a “PG” rating, by keeping violence moderate and language mild, but despite cutting and repeated submissions, the Ratings Board insisted on the “R” rating for the effectiveness of what is onscreen and what is implied offscreen. Hooper had a similar ratings problem with the sequel.
The soundtrack contains the sounds an animal would hear inside a slaughterhouse.
Contrary to popular belief, this film is not a true story. It was filmed from 15 July 1973 – 14 August 1973, while the opening narrative claims that the real events took place on 18 August 1973, so it would be impossible for the film to be based on actual events which had not happened at the time of filming.
The van the kids drive in the movie belonged to Ted Nicolaou, who worked as a sound recordist on the film.
Gunnar Hansen said that, during filming, he didn’t get along very well with Paul A. Partain, who played Franklin. A few years later, Hanson met Partain again and realized that Partain, a method actor, had simply chosen to stay in character even when not filming. The two remained good friends up until Partains’ death.
Leatherface’s teeth were prostheses made especially for Gunnar Hansen by his dentist.
Tobe Hooper used a stunt double for Sally’s leap through the window; all the same, Marilyn Burns actually hurt herself shooting the insert of her falling to the ground.
Gunnar Hansen hit his head on doorways and other objects several times during the shoot because the Leatherface mask severely limited his peripheral vision and the three-inch heels he wore made his 6’4″ frame too high to clear all obstacles.
Even in his lift boots, Gunnar Hansen could run faster than Marilyn Burns, so he had to do random things when chasing her through the woods (you’ll notice in one head-on shot that he starts slicing up tree branches in the background).
Edwin Neal said, in a documentary, that he read for the part acting like an eccentric nephew of his and that, luckily for him, it was exactly what Tobe Hooper was looking for.
Some urban legends say that the the “real” Texas Chainsaw Massacre took place near Poth, (a small town about 50 miles south of San Antonio. This is false. The film is fictional and based loosely on the life of Wisconsin serial killer Ed Gein (as is the classic Psycho (1960)).
Marilyn Burns’ costume was so drenched in fake blood that it was virtually solid by the last day’s shoot.
Marilyn Burns, whose character was chased by Leatherface through the undergrowth, actually cut herself on the branches quite badly, so a lot of the blood on her body and clothes is real.
The financing for this film came from the profits of a previous film the production company had made – Deep Throat (1972).
Since the film’s original release, the location used as the Sawyer family house has changed completely. It’s now an open field, with no indication there had ever been a house there. The house itself has been relocated and fully restored. It is now operated as the Junction House Restaurant on the grounds of the Antlers Hotel complex at 1010 King Street in Kingsland, Texas.
“Entertainment Weekly” magazine voted this the the second scariest film ever made, behind The Exorcist (1973)
Gunnar Hansen wore three-inch heels so that he was taller than the rest of the cast, but it meant that he had to duck to get through the doorways in the slaughterhouse.
Originally had a two-week shooting schedule, but filming ultimately took four weeks to complete.
The company worked seven days a week, 16 hours a day, in the summertime in one of Texas’ notoriously brutal heat waves.
One of the crew members, Dorothy J. Pearl, accidentally injected herself in the leg with formaldehyde while preparing one of the props.
The film’s distributors Bryantson Pictures were allegedly discovered to have Mafia connections.
According to John Larroquette, his payment for doing the opening narration was a marijuana joint.
Many of the film’s original locations were later featured in Headcheese (2002) (V), a short film named after one of “Chain Saw’s” early titles during production in 1973.
Shot on a budget of only $60,000.
This film has a long and troubled “relationship” with German law. The original theatrical version was denied a rating and was therefore cut. In 1982 the film was put on the index for youth-endangering media. Then, in 1985, the film was banished by the Munich district court and all existing copies were confiscated. In 2007, after the 25 year period, the indexing was confirmed. Over the years the film was released in various versions, mostly cut. Since April 2008, the new German licensee, Turbine Medien, is trying to get the banishment revoked and the film removed from the index. Due to the “efficiency” of German bureaucracy, this has not yet been successful (as of September 2009).
Barbara Bach (born August 27, 1947) is an American actress and model best-known as the Bond girl from the James Bond movie The Spy Who Loved Me (1977). She is married to musician Ringo Starr, former drummer of The Beatles.
In 1971, Bach co-starred with two other Bond girls, Claudine Auger and Barbara Bouchet in the mystery La Tarantola dal ventre nero (a movie of the giallo kind) and had small roles in other Italian films.
In 1977, her role as the Russian spy Anya Amasova in The Spy Who Loved Me gained her recognition as an international sex symbol. Her character Anya is seen as the first Bond girl who is an equal to Bond, since she is also an experienced spy. The following year she appeared in the movie Force 10 from Navarone. She did lose a role to actress Shelley Hack when she auditioned for the television series Charlie’s Angels. Bach has 28 films to her credit, although she has not worked as an actress since the mid-1980s. She has appeared in Playboy several times, from 1977-1981, 1985, and 2008.
Bach holds a Master’s Degree (UCLA, 1993) in Psychology. She started the Self Help Addiction Recovery Program (S.H.A.R.P.) with the help of George Harrison, Eric Clapton and Patti Boyd, who was a former wife of both Harrison and Clapton. Bach and Starr created The Lotus Foundation, a charity with many sub-charities.
A published interview with her in the late 1970s proclaimed her “Queen of the B-Movies”.
Attended the famous Beatles concert at Shea Stadium in 1965 which is 15 years before she would meet her future husband, Beatles drummer Ringo Starr.
Barbara’s photo was featured on the cover of “Playboy” magazine in January 1981. Inside was a photo spread of Barbara, too. She made several other appearances in “Playboy” related to her movie work, especially as a “Bond Girl” in The Spy Who Loved Me (1977).
Barbara was sent to Rome as model for the noted “Seventeen” mag. There she fell in love with an Italian businessman, Augusto Gregorini, who was 11 years her senior. At the age of 18 she married Augusto and moved with him to Rome where she began her film career.
Born in Queens, the eldest of five children. Her mother was Irish Catholic, her father was Austrian Jewish and her Grandmother was Rumanian. Her father was a New York City police officer.
Has involved herself in charity work, including the Live Aid connected “Fashion Aid”, and “The Rumanian Angel” appeal which was set up with Olivia Harrison and Yoko Ono, George and John’s widows. Barbara worked with the “Parents For Safe Food” Campaign. In 1991, with help from Pattie Boyd (George’s ex), she set up a free clinic for addicts called SHARP (Self Help Addiction Recovery Program) in London.
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While traveling through England in May 1980 Ringo and Barbara suffered a near-fatal car crash, miraculously surviving with few injuries. Ringo decided he never wanted to be separated from Bach again. They married less than a year later.
It was between Barbara and Shelley Hack to replace Kate Jackson on “Charlie’s Angels” (1976). The New York-born Barbara was deemed too European and sophisticated for the role and Hack won the part. Hack was not keenly accepted as an “Angel” by audiences, however, and left after only one season.
Haunted Harbor was based on a novel by Ewart Adamson (writing as Dayle Douglas).
The serial was budgeted at $170,099 although the final negative cost was $207,856 (a $37,757, or 22.2%, overspend).
It was filmed between 14 April and 18 May 1944. The serial’s production number was 1395.
No other Jungle serial was released by Republic for nine years after Haunted Harbor.
This was the last serial adaptation made by Republic.
This was writer Ronald Davidson’s first time as a film producer. His first writing credit is the 1937 Republic serial The Painted Stallion.
Chapter Titles:
Wanted for Murder (25min 1s)
Flight to Danger (15min 33s)
Ladder of Death (15min 33s)
The Unknown Assassin (15min 33s)
Harbor of Horror (15min 33s)
Return of the Fugitive (15min 32s)
Journey into Peril (15min 34s)
Wings of Doom (15min 33s)
Death’s Door (15min 33s)
Crimson Sacrifice (15min 33s)
Jungle Jeopardy (15min 33s)
Fire Trap (15min 34s)
Monsters of the Deep (15min 34s)
High Voltage (15min 34s)
Crucible of Justice (15min 33s)
This serial’s story source was a novel written by Ewart Adamson, using his “non de plume” of Dayle Douglas. The 256-page novel was published by Mystery House of New York on June 12, 1943, and purchased, for $1000, for this serial on December 6, 1943 by Republic Pictures Corporation. This was Republic’s last serial to be adapted from another medium. Every serial that followed was original material written by studio-assigned writers.
Frankenstein 90 is a French comedy not a sequel to any previous Frankenstein, but rather film that melds elements of outrageous Horror of the 80s with Romantic comedy and a large touch of Young Frankenstein(1974). Starring Jean Rochefort, Eddy Mitchell, and Fiona Gélin. Written by Alain Jessua and Paul Gégauff and directed by Alain Jessua.
Frankenstein 90
Plot: A scientist Victor, a direct descendent of the infamous Baron Frankenstein, assembles bodies parts to create a new kind of human being, animated with an electronic brain. The creature, Frank, is well-mannered and affectionate, but is occasionally prone to acts of unintended violence. Seeing that his creation is strongly attracted towards women, Victor creates a female companion for him. But then, like his legendary forebear, humankind turns against Victor. Distraught and alone, the creature takes sanctuary in the home of his ancestors, Castle Frankenstein…
DVD Available here!
Make Up Department Dominique Colladant … makeup artist
Reiko Kruk … makeup artist
Special Effects Department Dominique Colladant … special effects
Georges Demétrau … special effects
Reiko Kruk … special effects
Friday the 13th Part III is the third film in the Friday the 13th series. The 1982 movie was the first film in the series to feature Jason Voorhees wearing a hockey mask that has become his prominent trademark. The film was released theatrically in 3-D. Much like its sequel Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter, this film was intended to end the series. Unlike its sequel and the later film, Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday, this film did not include a moniker in its title to indicate as such.
Tagline: A New Dimension In Terror…
Mrs. Voorhees getting made up
Some of the deaths were edited in order to avoid an “X” rating, including: Andy’s death, which showed his right leg being cut off and his stomach being torn open; Vera’s death was cut of bloodshed and her subsequent reaction (this was cut for supposedly looking “too real”); Edna’s death was cut of excessive blood flow; Chili’s impalement with the red-hot poker was cut of steaming blood hitting the floor; Debbie’s original death showed blood spraying across her chest and face.
Alternate ending dream sequence (cut from film)
Blueray Edition $19.99
Make Up Department Allan A. Apone … special visual makeup effects
Larry Carr … assistant makeup artist
Shannon Ely … hair stylist
Carl Fullerton … makeup effects
Louis Lazzara … assistant makeup artist
Cheri Minns … makeup artist
Kenny Myers … assistant makeup artist
Frank Carrisosa … special visual makeup effects
Douglas J. White … special visual makeup effects
Stan Winston … makeup artist (uncredited)
Special Effects Department Martin Becker … special effects
The Pit and the Pendulum is a 1961 horror film directed by Roger Corman, starring Vincent Price, Barbara Steele, John Kerr, and Luana Anders. The screenplay by Richard Matheson was based on Edgar Allan Poe’s short story of the same name. Set in 16th century Spain, the story is about a young Englishman who visits a forbidding castle to investigate his sister’s mysterious death. After a series of horrific revelations, apparently ghostly appearances and violent deaths, the young man becomes strapped to the titular torture device by his lunatic brother-in-law during the film’s climactic sequence.
The film was the second title in the popular series of Poe-based movies released by American International Pictures, the first having been Corman’s House of Usher released the previous year. Like House, the film features widescreen cinematography by Floyd Crosby, sets designed by art director Daniel Haller, and a film score composed by Les Baxter. A critical and box office hit, Pit’s commercial success convinced AIP and Corman to continue adapting Poe stories for another six films, five of them starring Price. The series ended in 1965 with the release of The Tomb of Ligeia.
Film critic Tim Lucas and writer Ernesto Gastaldi have both noted the film’s strong influence on numerous subsequent Italian thrillers, from Mario Bava’s The Whip and the Body (1963) to Dario Argento’s Deep Red (1975).Stephen King has described one of Pit’s major shock sequences as being among the most important moments in the post-1960 horror film.
Tagline: Until now no one has dared to film this …… the most diabolical classic of all time!
Corman has noted that making the film was a pleasurable experience: “I enjoyed The Pit and the Pendulum because I actually got the chance to experiment a bit with the movement of the camera. There was a lot of moving camera work and interesting cutting in the climax of the film.” Filming went smoothly, and Corman attributed the ease of the production’s shoot to the short but comprehensive pre-production planning he did with the major technicians. “We achieved what we did on a low budget because we carefully planned the whole production in advance of starting the cameras. Thus, when we moved into the studio for fifteen days of scheduled shooting, we didn’t have to start making decisions. Because of our pre-production conferences with Director of Photography Floyd Crosby and Art Director Daniel Haller, everyone knew exactly what to do, barring any last minute inspirations on the set.”
To create the flashbacks revealing Nicholas’s traumatic experiences, Corman and Crosby attempted to shoot them in a manner that would convey to the audience the character’s horror in dredging up nightmares trapped in his subconscious. Corman insisted on these images having a dream-like quality, “twisted and distorted because they were being experienced by someone on the rim of madness”. Corman decided to film the flashbacks in monochrome, since he had read that some psychiatrists believe most people dream in “black-and white” imagery. Crosby used wide-angle lenses, violent camera movement, and tilted camera angles to represent the character’s feeling of hysteria. The sequences were then printed on blue-tinted stock which was subsequently toned red during development, effectively producing a two-tone image. The highlights were blue, with the shadows rendered as red, producing a deep, bloody quality. The image was then run through an optical printer where the edges were vignetted and a twisted linear distortion was introduced.
Make Up Department Ted Coodley … makeup artist
Special Effects Department Pat Dinga … special effects
Visual Effects Department Ray Mercer … photographic effects
Albert Whitlock … matte artist (uncredited)
