*****SUPERNATURAL SPOILERS!***** 1973: “There Is Only One” For context, I was all of seven years old (!) when I first saw the late William Friedkin’s “The Exorcist” theatrically in early 1974, and yes, I was waaaay too young, but it’s okay, because I was raised by wolves. Even as a young monster movie fan at…
Author: A Middle Aged Geek
I am a happily married, progressive-minded, middle-aged science fiction geek. My interests included photography, reading, movies, Halloween, and all kinds of nerdy-niche things. After months of prodding from my wife (and my friends), I decided to 'throw down' with a blog of all of my nerdiest of nerdly thoughts and musings... here's hoping you enjoy!
“Star Trek: Very Short Treks” (2023) are single-joke shorts that miss more than they hit…
*****STARSHIP-SIZED SPOILERS***** To fans of Star Trek: The Animated Series (1973-4) like myself, I was delighted to see the opening of the first of five Star Trek: Very Short Treks unveil recently, as I loved its tongue-in-cheek reimagining of the Paramount+ Star Trek into, which is now rendered in nostalgically cheesy, Filmation-style animation. The short…
“Twilight Zone: The Movie” (1983) is a colorful homage to Rod Serling’s creation but with more shadow than substance…
*****SUPERNATURAL SPOILERS!***** The Ghosts in the Room Few movies in my lifetime have incurred as much ill will during their production as 1983’s “Twilight Zone: The Movie,” the filming of which led to the gruesome deaths of actor Vic Morrow and two children (Myca Dinh Le, Shin-Huei Chen) in 1982, after a helicopter accident was…
Hulu’s “No One Will Save You” (2023) is a well-crafted exercise in style over substance…
*****FLYING SAUCER-SIZED SPOILERS!***** Writer-director Brian Duffield has crafted a few sci-fi/horror movies where a protagonist is left to their own resources to deal with with a cataclysm or conspiracy (“Love and Monsters” “The Babysitter”). That template is used once again with his latest movie, “No One Will Save You,” which stars Kaitlyn Dever (“Last Man…
Son of CreepIECon! “CreepIE Aftermath” returns to bedevil the Inland Empire a second time this year……
Son of CreepIECon… Debuting in February of 2022 and returning in February of this year, the Inland Empire’s current biggest and steadiest horror convention gains more notice and attendees with each outing. I’ve covered the previous two CreepIECons for this site, and I was more than happy to do so again for an unexpected second…
The Night the Cylons Landed: September 17th, 1978…
Last week marked the 45th anniversary of a show I was absolutely nuts about as a kid. I couldn’t let September 17th, 1978 go unmentioned. Oh, and apologies for borrowing the title of this column from a two-parter of the otherwise sacrilegious “Galactica: 1980,” but it seemed to fit… What’s This? In the second half…
Disney’s adaptation of Ray Bradbury’s “Something Wicked This Way Comes,” 40 years later…
*****SUPERNATURAL SPOILERS!***** Adapted by my favorite author Ray Bradbury (1920-2012) from his 1962 novel, the 1983 movie of “Something Wicked This Way Comes” was a troubled production. I heard this firsthand from no less than Ray Bradbury himself at San Diego Comic Con 2005. There were reported disagreements with director Jack Clayton (1974’s “The Great…
“Meg 2: The Trench” (2023) hits rock bottom, but it’s not such a bad ride…
*****MEGALODON-SIZED SPOILERS!***** Five years ago saw the summer release of “The Meg,” a Chinese-US coproduction based on a 1997 book by Steve Alten (I swear). “The Meg” was a big, silly, check-your-brain-at-the-door action flick that wisely chose not to compete with “JAWS” in terms of direction, innovation, skill, or talent. If anything, “The Meg”’s humble…
Retro-Musings: “The Creature from the Black Lagoon” trilogy (1954-1956) was the last of Universal’s classic monster movie franchises…
******GILL-MAN SIZED SPOILERS!***** When I was a kid, I was all about monsters. In those bygone days before the internet, my very first magazine subscription (at the age of eight) was the late Forry Ackerman’s “Famous Monsters of Filmland” magazine. The monsters of the classic Universal movies (Dracula, Frankenstein’s monster, the Mummy, the Wolfman) were…
The unlikely episode that launched Star Trek: “The Man Trap” (1966)…
*****STARSHIP-SIZED SPOILERS!***** When fans today think of the ‘first’ Star Trek episode, they tend to (not incorrectly) think of the pilot episodes “The Cage” and “Where No Man Has Gone Before,” but neither of those pilots were broadcast first. In fact, “The Cage” wasn’t broadcast in full until 1986 (the same year I bought it…
“Barbie” tells a different kind of ‘Toy Story’…
*****DREAMHOUSE-SIZED SPOILERS***** I don’t go to the movies much these days. The COVID pandemic reinforced my natural introvert tendencies, and after buying a digital projector, my wife and I have spoiled ourselves rotten with theatrical-looking movie nights right at home. However, this past Sunday was “National Cinema Day,” where most movie theaters across the US…
Disney+’s “Ahsoka” (2023) gives a popular Star Wars character her own spinoff…
*****STAR DESTROYER-SIZED SPOILERS!***** The character of “Ahsoka Tano” first appeared in the animated Star Wars TV series “The Clone Wars,” the pilot of which was released theatrically in 2008. Having seen that feature-length pilot, I can tell you it was abysmal, and it put me off any chance of watching the series for most of…