Universal Dork

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The Seventh Curse: Indiana Jones….on Acid!

March 11, 2014

I finally checked out a movie I’d been wanting to see now for the longest time-The Seventh Curse from 1986! This is surely one of the coolest movies that you’ve never seen! This Chinese action/ adventure/ horror movie has got it all and I’d really expect no less from a flick by Ngai Kai Lam. If you aren’t familiar with Lam you’ve missed out big time for a long time. Most famous for “Riki-Oh:The Story of Ricky” from 1991, which is seriously one of the coolest movies ever made, The Seventh Curse is equally as good in different yet similar ways. I guess I’d best have to describe The Seventh Curse as Hong Kong’s fucked up version of Indiana Jones, and I mean that in the best way possible.

This one has it all really, a young adventuresome cop deep in the jungles of Thailand tries to rescue a beautiful girl from being sacrificed by the evil “Worm Tribe”. In doing so he’s captured by an evil witch Doctor who casts seven “Blood Curses” on him, which burst through his legs periodically. When the seventh bursts, it will affect his heart killing him swiftly. Betsy (a strange mane for a member of The Worm Tribe), the hot jungle vixen he saved, stops the curse with an antidote, that she draws from the most peculiar place(trust me).

This however will only protect him for one year, so on the advice of his friend Wisely (Chow Yun-fat) he heads back to Thailand to find a permanent cure. Serious adventure ensues as the cop and his mercenaries battle the evil sorcerer of the Worm Tribe, a ridiculously hideous blood hungry baby-like creature, and finally “Old Ancestor,” a skeleton with glowing blue eyes that’s got some impressive kung fu chops himself and can transforms into something far more sinister!

Sound like fun? You bet it is! Throw in some great 80’s style monster effects, some great sets, jungle adventure sequences, top notch kung fu, some nice gore and a bunch of really bizarro plot twists and you’ve got a true genre classic that is not to be missed by any fan of awesome odd ball cinema. The Seventh Curse is just as cool in my opinion as Riki-Oh and it really makes me want to hunt down down more of Lam’s movies. This one pretty hard to find on dvd, but I’m sure it could be downloaded somewhere on line, or you could buy it on Amazon.com. If you’re craving some wild offbeat 80’s adventure then this one movie NOT to be missed!!!
“Stage Fright” Will Be the Best Scream Flick of the Year!

March 6, 2014

Just saw this awesome trailer today for “Stage Fright”, nope it’s not a remake of the Hitchcock movie of the 1950’s. This one looks more like it owes more to Wes Craven’s ‘Scream’ and I mean that in the best way possible! The trailer looks incredibly fun, packed full of action & plenty of thrills. I remember the first time I saw ‘Scream’ in the theater way back in 1996, it was like going to Disneyland-I mean it really felt like I was on roller coaster ride and the audience ate it up. It was one of the most fun times I’ve ever had in an actual theater. The movie had just the right amount of comedy, a cool unique concept and ton of scares but it wasn’t a sickening torture flick either. I’d go as far to say it was a perfect horror flick.

Now watching the trailer to Stage Fright is giving me that same feeling again, one which I think is most often missed these days in horror cinema. This is the first full feature from director Jerome Sable, but it looks like it’s going to re-energize the slasher film in a big way. For me a slasher movie has got to have something special going for it for me to even give it a chance. This one takes place at an upscale musical theater camp and involves a masked maniac who truly hate the genre-check this shit out! Oh yeah it also stars Minnie Driver & Meatloaf!

Also this is not to be confused with the 1980’s “Stage Fright” also known as “Deliria” or “Aquarius” with the killer with the Owl Head! But that one was pretty cool too!
‘Curse of the Wendigo’ Delivers the Chills!

March 1, 2014

The wendigo folklore is always intrigues me, I love most anything that has to do with the legend. I was pleasantly surprised when I recently picked up “The Curse of the Wendigo” which had completely gone under my radar when it was released here in the USA in 2011. What drew me in even more to this comic book was the artwork, which was done by The Walking Dead’s Charlie Adlard. It was cool seeing his artwork in full color and I’ll be the first to admit that when Tony Moore left TWD I really wasn’t a big fan of Adlard. Over time though his art has grown on me however The Walking Dead comic series has more recently become a bit of a bore.

I almost imagined I was reading a new Walking Dead story line, which felt pretty damn good. It can be pretty hard to disconnect when Charlie has done well over a hundred issues of TWD thus far. However the artwork is really the only thing similar, this story is a sweet and simple and It reminded me a bit of the movie “Ravenous” of which I am a huge fan of. The story takes place during World War I, French and German soldiers are forced to put aside their differences to try and take out an unseen force that’s slaughtering their men. The story is also a bit of a mystery as well and has a little more going for it than just blood and guts.

It’s a pretty cool little 64 page horror story that was a delight to read. Curse was originally released in Europe in 2009 and Dynamite released it here in 2011. I think this tale would make a great movie concept. The world needs more wendigo on the big screen anyway, I mean just how many wendigo movies are actually out there? Hmm…future blog post I think!

So If you’re looking for a creepy original graphic novel with some great artwork to check out give Curse of the Wendigo a try!
Step Aside Hank Pym, Cuz Here comes Antboy!

February 22, 2014

Just saw this neat little trailer for Denmark’s first superhero film – Antboy! This actually looks like a ton of fun, sure in the trailer it looks a little bit Spider-man-y as far as the origin story goes but this one is bound to be more fun than The Amazing Spider-man 2! This one is set for release in April 2014 and if anything it’ll be a neat little comedy.

I’d love to see some smaller studios bring to life some original or smaller scale comic book heroes, it’d be a great thing to start getting some good indie comic book based movies. I like a lot of the superhero movies, but I don’t love really any of them except for maybe The Avengers and the two Hellboy movies. Maybe this next string of movies will change my mind? In the mean time here’s a superhero movie that won’t piss off any fanboys…
Five Cool Horror Flicks to Watch Out for in 2014!

February 22, 2014

Good horror movies are hard to find these days and 2014 is looking a little slim in the way of quality fright flicks! But fear not! I have gotten together five cool movies that I think everyone should be watching out for this year. Seek these out instead of the next tired installment of Paranormal Activity!

1. The Station: “The crew of a remote weather research station in the German Alps find that a retreating glacier is turning the local wildlife into ravenous biological monstrosities, in this timely horror thriller from director Marvin Kren (Rammbock).”

This one has me pretty excited. It’s reminds me a bit of John Carpenter’s “The Thing” from the trailer and that’s always a good thing! There’s just not enough good monster movies out these days but this one looks like it might have the chops! Plus Marvin Kren’s first movie Rammbock was pretty damn good too!

2. Almost Human: “Mark Fisher disappeared from his home in a brilliant flash of blue light almost two years ago. His friend Seth Hampton was the last to see him alive. Now a string of grisly, violent murders leads Seth to believe that Mark is back, and something evil is inside of him.”

Sounds pretty rad to me, I’m a huge fan of alien movies and this one has a little bit of “Fire in the Sky” type feel to it mixed with classic 80’s style horror. I am excited alone just by the super radical movie poster!

3. Cooties: “A mysterious virus hits an isolated elementary school, transforming the kids into a feral swarm of mass savages. An unlikely hero must lead a motley band of teachers in the fight of their lives.”

It seems Elijah Wood has become quite the horror hound recently. I think that’s pretty awesome as Wood is a great actor and delivers some pretty quality films usually. Although this one is a zombie flick, which I must admit normally doesn’t really excite me anymore, it’s got a unique enough plot and strong enough cast to make this one a cult classic! Unfortunately there’s no trailer yet!

4. Sick Boy: “Sick Boy is about a babysitter (Skye McCole Bartusiak) hired to look after a young boy apparently suffering a strange illness—and things only become stranger once she arrives at the house.”

To me this one looks pretty damn freaky. Kids in horror movies are can be incredibly frightening and the thought of this weird ass sick kid in his room downstairs freaks me out. It’s looks like it’s going to be a great installment in the “babysitter’ horror genre. I think this one might already be available as it’s trailer was released back in 2011, so I’ll review this soon hopefully!

5. The Babadook: “A single mother, plagued by the violent death of her husband, battles with her son’s fear of a monster lurking in the house, but soon discovers a sinister presence all around her.”

From what I have read thus far about this Australian movie is that it’s scary as hell. With a silly name like The Babadook this one better be! I’m pretty intrigued by this one as it’s already been praised as on of the best movies at Sundance in 2013. Check out the trailer:
Comic Book Cover of the Week! Golden Age Hellboy!!

February 14, 2014

Hellboy and the BPRD have both moved up the ranks these days as probably my favorite comic book series currently on the market! The reason for that being really being one man, Mike Mignola! Mignola is a visionary, he’s been doing comic books for ages and his artwork is unmistakable. He has always been a fave of mine since the 1980’s and his Hellboy universe has grown extensively through the years. I am personally surprised at how many of my friends that read comic books still AREN’T reading the Hellboy and BPRD stuff! It’s better than anything Marvel is putting out that’s for sure-here’s one of my fave Hellboy covers-number 14 where Mignola creates the Golden age Hellboy!!
Don’t Fear The Davis Baby! Just Download it for Free!

February 10, 2014

I’m taking a moment here to share a new song from my latest musical endeavor The Davis Baby! Yes it’s named after that little mutant monster baby from the 70’s horror flick “It’s Alive”. See back in the mid 90’s I lived in Wisconsin & I played in a pop punk band called Ben Grim, we were inspired by bands like Descendents/ALL, The Doughboys, The Hard-ons ect, we released some records and toured around the US with our best buddies Fun Size (one of the best pop punk bands of the 90’s). It was some of the best times of my life, as Bryan Adams might say. So I decided to put together a group today that sort of brought that old Ben Grim sound back.

We wrote four songs of crunchy old school power pop the way we would have done it back in the Ben Grim days. The project features my former band mate Joel Vega, who sang and played guitar in Ben Grim with me, my old pal Kevin Carl from lates 80’s/90’s band G-Whiz & Jim Wadsworth my good friend/fellow D&D player from Portland, Oregon band Danger Death Ray. We posted a FREE/name your price download of our new song “Laid to Rest”. It’s meant to be free but bandcamp doesn’t just let you list the track as purely “free”. So please no need to pay just download it!

It’s gonna be featured on our upcoming split ep with Higley (Kevin Carl & Duane Kiener of G-Whiz, Kris Roe of The Ataris & Bill Stevenson of Descendents/ALL/Black Flag) out soon on SP Records. The song also features Mark Arnold from Big DRILL Car on guitar. Which we were fully stoked to have play on it as Big DRILL Car remains to this day one of my favorite bands ever!

Download The Davis Baby for FREE here https://thedavisbaby.bandcamp.com/

Like us on Facebook HERE!

I’m trying to get the word out on this project, and it’s tough in this day and age to get anything out there on your own in the vast sea of the internet, so if you like it please help me share the song-maybe we’ll record more or start playing live!
All Zombies Step Aside! Make Way for ZOMBEAVERS!!!

February 8, 2014

You’ll be DAMNED! Or Beaver Dammed that is! Just saw this trailer today and though I’ve said in the past that I was almost completely over the zombie genre these days I never mentioned anything about Zombeavers!! Yes! You heard that right, we’ve got a full on zombie beaver movie coming out this year to look forward too!

Now normally I’d pass this off as some terrible Syfy original movie trying to reap the success of movies like Sharknado but this one looks pretty awesome. It also doesn’t look like it entirely relies on bad CGI but perhaps a little bit of cool practical effects too-also I’m hoping that when people get bit that they actually do start to become human/beaver hybrids and that wasn’t a mere dream sequence in the trailer! This one is on my radar, check out this outrageous trailer…
Junkyard: A Truly Breathtaking Animated Short!

February 5, 2014

Check out this animated short film that was just released online today called “Junkyard” by Dutch animator Hisko Hulsing. It’s easily some of the most breathtaking animation I’ve seen in quite some time. Here’s the trailer:

It recalls Ralph Bakshi in style by utilizing rotoscoping as in movies like The Lord of the Rings” and “Fire & Ice”. This is a pretty powerful little film clocking in under 18 minutes in length. Check it out in it’s entirety HERE!
Comic Book Cover of the Week: Superman the Werewolf Slayer!

February 2, 2014

Superman #422 is quite an interesting issue to say the least, Superman battles werewolves! Yeah back in 1986 Superman had a full on battle with some seriously pesky lycans . To me it’d seem like Supes would have no problem kicking a werewolf’s ass-but that’s apparently not in this issue titled “Bad Moon Rising”. He not only gets his ass handed to him but the werewolf, after the beat down, rips off Superman’s costume and dons it himself! Yeah he leaves Superman naked in the streets of Metropolis and what’s even more funny is that Superman’s worried about “being arrested for indecent exposure”!!!

This issue certainly leaves something to be desired (I think it’s awesomely funny as hell though), but it has the most terrifying cover of any Superman comic book, brilliantly drawn by The Killing Joke’s Brian Bolland!! It’s funny how such a creepy cover could contain such a ridiculous comic adventure beneath. One thing is for sure, Bolland doesn’t fuck around when he draws comic book covers-it’s one of my personal faves!