Irwin Yablans Company released Laserblast to the world on 1 March 1978.

It was one of Charles Band’s first productions. And it shows that he came out of the gate knowing what the kids would like. In this case, young kids — tweens even.

Everyone knows this film sucks. That’s because the people on Mystery Science Theater 3000 told them so! They mock Leonard Maltin throughout for giving the film 2.5 out of 4 stars. Don’t get me wrong. Maltin is an idiot. But I don’t find that rating out of order. Despite the vitriol, the film is quite watchable.

The film gets the standard complaints. The acting is bad! The film features professional and even great actors. But I’ve come to see complaints about acting as almost always useless. Can you tell me how the acting is bad? If not, who cares? And critics are particularly harsh with poor Kim Milford. But that isn’t the acting. That’s people not liking the character. The character is immature. He’s a middle-school kid. Don’t let him being in his mid-20s confuse you!

But the main thing that really works in this film is the special effects. David Allen did the main stop-motion effects as he did in much better Charles Band productions like Puppet Master, Dolls, and Oblivion. And these alone make the film worth watching.

The film has a major problem. The script is a comedy. But it isn’t directed that way. Much of the first act is funny as written. But it just lays there on the screen. And I say this knowing full well that it is overall well-directed.

So as usual in situations like this, I’m not saying Laserblast is a great film. And it certainly isn’t a film that is aimed at me. But I suspect there were a lot of 13-year-old boys in 1978 who would enjoy a film about a soft-spoken young man getting revenge on all the people who were mean to him. And the science fiction stuff just makes it that much better.

What I hate is the way people equate a film made for others with a bad film. There is much to like in Laserblast. You can dismiss it all you like. But it doesn’t make you smart or cool to recycle old and mostly invalid criticisms as if you came up with them.

So here are the options. You can watch Dolls, which features even more David Allen stop-motion work in a perfect and ridiculously fun film. Click here! Or you can watch Laserblast with an open mind and try to find what’s good in it.

Laserblast (1978) poster via Wikipedia under Fair Use.

John Turturro is 69 years old today. He was born on 28 February 1957.

Turturro is one of the best actors alive. I feel a little strange highlighting him. But he also takes really interesting roles in really interesting films.

A good example is the character Pino Frangione in Do The Right Thing. The character is as racist as can be. During the filming of it, one of the young crew members had a near-breakdown because his racist rants were so real. He was also in three other Spike Lee films.

And then there is Brain Donors. In it, Turturro plays Roland T Flakfizer, an unscrupulous attorney who literally chases ambulances. It is a crazy film where he does an excellent Groucho Marx without doing an impression. It is tons of fun!

There are so many other interesting films with Turturro. He gets cast as some fairly crazy characters. For example, there’s The Search for One-Eye Jimmy (1994). And his creepy neighbor character in Secret Window. Or his insane turn as a chess master in The Luzhin Defence. And there is him playing a fairly normal character in the excellent Fear X.

John Turturro is probably most associated with the Coen Brothers. For example, he plays a shockingly believable psychopath in Miller’s Crossing. And he plays The Jesus in The Big Lebowski and the difficult Pete in O Brother, Where Art Thou?

But the film I want to highlight is Barton Fink. It is a horror comedy classic. Turturro plays an understandable but extremely annoying young writer with his first job in Hollywood. He kind of hooks up with a serial killer, which is only one of the many things that go wrong for him. It’s similar to my worst nightmares!

Image cropped from John Turturro by PhilipRomanoPhoto under CC BY 4.0.

The Silent Movie Theatre presented Birdemic: Shock and Terror to the world on 27 February 2010. Soon after, Severin Films picked up the film and toured it around the country before releasing it on disc.

The film is the brainchild of auteur James Nguyen. And given my writing, you might think I admire him. But he soils the very idea of independent filmmaking. He has no concept of drama or even basic storytelling. And he produces films with no care for the audience. He should not be allowed within 2,000 feet of a camera.

Let’s contrast him with Chris Seaver. I don’t really like his films. But they are well-made. And he makes themfor a particular audience that does like them. What’s more, he is better today than he was 30 years ago. As far as I can tell, Nguyen thinks filmmaking is a joke. And more important, he doesn’t think his films need to get better.

I just watched Birdemic 2: The Resurrection. He is slightly more competent than before. The film is very slightly more polished than the first. But it is filled with what killed the first film: pointless scenes with no dramatic momentum.

I understand! Most people think the first film was bad because of the absurd digital birds. We could look past that. But it’s hard to get past pointless scenes that go on and on like the “stock options” scene in the first film. (We endure the same scene this time but it’s the same actor giving a director a million dollars for his film project.)

The end of the film is the group driving around in an RV stopping periodically for “adventures.” Look: Some zombies! Look: some cavemen! The only thing that has changed is that now Nguyen is winking at the audience. But he’s not fooling anyone. Everyone knows he still has no interest in making a good film.

I admire people who make any kind of art without many resources. But I expect them to at least try to do good work. I don’t think that James Nguyen likes film. According to IMDb, he is in pre-production for “Birdemic: the Musical.” Normally, that kind of thing means an artist has run out of creativity. In Nguyen’s case, it just means more of the same.

Here’s the film if you dare. It isn’t fun — not even in an MST3K way.

Birdemic poster via Amazon under Fair Use.

Columbia Pictures released El Mariachi throughout the United States on 26 February 1993.

Robert Rodriguez made this film for $7,000. When Columbia bought the film, they spent a couple hundred grand on it to improve the sound (a common problem with low-budget films) and to transfer the 16mm negative to a 35mm print. But the bottom line is that he really did make this remarkable film for almost no money.

I recommend watching El Mariachi at least once with the director’s commentary. Normally, these are useless. But Rodriguez really does present his many tricks for producing and shooting on a budget. Of course, they are all easier said than done. But aspiring filmmakers will eat it up!

I saw this film at the time at Cinema 21 in Portland, Oregon. And I was shocked. How did he do it?! This is the case throughout the film, but especially when the main character repels down a wire and lands on a moving bus. (Rodriguez explains how he did this in the commentary but it doesn’t make it any less impressive!)

But you don’t have to watch El Mriachi as an aspiring (or failed) filmmaker. It is just a very entertaining mistaken-identity film. I think it’s better than anything Hitchcock did with the form. (Are you surprised?!)

Sadly, I cannot find a good copy to embed. Almost all lack English subtitles. That isn’t too big a deal. It isn’t a dialogue-heavy film! Archive does have an English dub. And I’m all for that! The Spanish-language version is dubbed too! But this print is from a VHS so it is cropped from the 1:85:1 aspect ratio. But it still works!

El Mariachi (1993) poster via Wikipedia under Fair Use.

Christopher George was born on 25 February 1931.

Look at that face! George was meant to star in westerns. And he did appear in a few. But he got a late start. He joined the Marines at the age of 17. And he stayed in for four years. After that, he went to college. So he was pushing 30 before he even started acting. His first screen credit was “George the Warlock” on the first season of Bewitched. He was 34 at that time. And it’s an impressive debut. He plays George, an ex-boyfriend of Samantha.

His feature film debut was the lead in The Gentle Rain, although he is better known for the following year’s El Dorado. But his main credit during the 1960s was as the lead in the TV series The Rat Patrol. He later starred in the short-lived TV series The Immortal.

Not that I care. By the mid-1970s, he was reduced to guest star roles on TV shows and supporting roles in TV movies. And that’s when he started taking more interesting roles. This started with Grizzly. But it led to other roles in lower-budget films.

Part of his revitalized career was his casting as the lead in City of the Living Dead. It is arguably my favorite Lucio Fulci film, which is saying a lot since I love his films in general. But sadly, the two men did not get along and never worked together again. (I blame it on the 20 pounds of live maggots!) He did make another European film, Pieces, which is worth checking out.

Sadly, Christopher George died of a heartattack at the age of 52 in 1983. I do wish he had stayed around because he really should have left us more psychotronic delights. Still, what he did leave is pretty good. Now we are going to watch City of the Living Dead.

Christopher George via the City of the Living Dead trailer. It is in the public domain.

Barry Bostwick is 81 years old today. He was born on 24 February 1945. And we are so much better off for it!

Everyone knows Bostwick because of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. But if that’s all you know about him, you are misinformed. For one thing, he works constantly. You’ve seen him in a lot of stuff without knowing it. And the part of Brad Majors is the opposite of the kinds of roles he normally plays. Brad is the lamest character in the film. The criminologist (Charles Gray) and Dr Everett V Scott (Jonathan Adams) are way cooler than he is!

Bostwick is a great actor. He also seems to be a crazy man. Or maybe he is just that good an actor. Over the last few decades, he’s an actor I’m pleased to see popping up in small roles in interesting films. The man has good taste in film! He had small but (typically) unhinged roles in two Diani & Devine films The Selling and Diani & Devine Meet the Apocalypse.

Tales of Halloween (2015) is a great example of why I love Barry Bostwick. He stars in “The Night Billy Raised Hell.” In it, a little boy tries to egg the house of an old man played by Bostwick. But the old man stops him and apparently takes the kid on a night of serious pranks (actually, more felonies). As usual, Bostwick doesn’t hold back. And it works brilliantly.

But in order to truly appreciate Barry Bostwick, you need to watch Megaforce. It is a rare film where he gets top billing. And it is something else. It answers the age-old question, “Can right-wing reactionary politics co-exist with homoerotic spandex?” And the answer is clear: not yet!

Barry Bostwick via Wikimedia under CC BY 2.0.

Terence Fisher was born on 23 February 1904.

He worked his way up in the London film industry of the 1930s — starting as a clapper. From there, he became an assistant editor. And he worked as an editor for about a decade for Warner Brothers.

I think editing is the best preparation you can have for directing films — especially modest-budget films. Because editing is the key to film syntax. Having a good eye is great. But if you don’t have a good idea of how what you shoot will cut together, you (or your editor) will have a lot of trouble!

He directed films for a couple of independent production companies before landing at Hammer Film Productions in 1951. From its founding to the mid-1950s, Hammer produced low-budget crime and mystery dramas. So Fisher made those kinds of films for them. For several years, he worked about half-time for Hammer and half-time for other independent companies like Association of Cinema Technicians and Cybex Film Productions.

In 1957, Terence Fisher’s career took a turn. Hammer had been experimenting with science fiction. In fact, Fisher directed one of these, Spaceways (1953). But the turning point for Hammer was 1955 when they produced the science fiction horror film The Quatermass Xperiment. Fisher wasn’t involved with that, but Hammer picked him to direct their first true horror film, The Curse of Frankenstein.

Fisher ultimately directed five of the seven Frankenstein films, the first three of the nine Dracula films, the first of four Mummy films, and its only werewolf film, The Curse of the Werewolf. He also directed The Devil Rides Out — a much loved film that I’ve never connected with (but the issue is Matheson’s script, not Fisher’s direction). Overall, he directed about twice as many films as Hammer mainstays Roy Ward Baker, Freddie Francis, and Jimmy Sangster combined.

Since I’ve recently written articles on the Frankenstein and Dracula series, let’s watch The Curse of the Werewolf to celebrate Terence Fisher — primarily because I haven’t seen it before.

Terrence Fisher via Dracula Fandom under Fair Use.

Kyle MacLachlan is 67 years old today. He was born on 22 February 1959.

MacLachlan is an interesting actor. He is a skilled actor. But we know him because he played odd characters. And sure, any professional actor can play weirdos. But some actors just click in such roles. Steve Buscemi comes to mind. But he is odd-looking. And he didn’t get his teeth fixed. MacLachlan is arguably attractive enough to be a star. But the weird trumps it for some reason.

I always associate MacLachlan with David Lynch. And not just any David Lynch. I associate him with the most accessible David Lynch. I first noticed him in Dune. And I became a fan with Blue Velvet. He charmed the world in Twin Peaks, before people realized that Lynch had again bitten off more than he could chew. The show was the ur-Lost — but it didn’t even try to make sense after the first season.

But Kyle MacLachlan starred in the perfect film in 1987, The Hidden. And by “perfect,” I mean perfect for him. The character is so much odder than anything else he got to do. The only real exception is Zack Carey in Showgirls. The problem there is that the film is so high-brow, you don’t even notice it!

(That was a joke about Showgirls. I am not a fan of the film. It isn’t bad. It’s just not my thing. Had a giant space alien insect climbed out of Elizabeth Berkley’s mouth, I would have loved it — naked or fully clothed!)

Since those days, MacLachlan has worked primarily as a character actor. So there aren’t a lot of great options for a film to watch right now. And frankly, it doesn’t matter. There’s really only one of his films I care about deeply. And I don’t care if I highlighted it four months ago. Not enough people have seen The Hidden. So watch it now!

Image cropped from Kyle MacLachlan by Georges Biard under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Universal Pictures released Murders in the Rue Morgue on 21 February 1932. It premiered at the RKO-Mayfair Theatre a week and a half earlier.

The title of this film is a reference to the Edgar Allan Poe short story. But it isn’t the same story at all. The “corpse in the chimney” is about the only thing they share. The reason is simple. This film was produced right after Dracula. But it wasn’t released until Frankenstein had its run.

Bela Lugosi was riding high and Universal had high hopes for Rue Morgue. But it was not to be. It did well at the RKO-Mayfair but wider audiences weren’t especially eager. And why would they be? The title isn’t especially exciting. It referenced a 90-year-old short story. More importantly, people were probably a bit bored with horror at that point. The Mummy, released later that year, also underperformed. But it is likely that Universal was responsible. United Artists released White Zombie the same year and it did pretty well. And then it went on to do great over the following years.

Murders in the Rue Morgue is a good film, though. It is what would become common for Lugosi: a mad scientist film. In fact, it’s quite a lot like White Zombie. But the production values are so much better here. The production started with about double the budget. But after the success of Dracula, the budget was doubled.

And OK has a good print of Murders in the Rue Morgue. So let’s give a watch now!

Murders in the Rue Morgue (1932) poster via Wikimedia. It is in the public domain.

Richard Matheson was born on 20 February 1926.

No writer is more iconic than Matheson in the world of psychotronic film. He’s also one of those guys who I wish I knew less about. He whined and bitched his way through every interview I’ve ever read. And I get it. The world respected and loved him. But the world didn’t pay a lot for the pleasure. He did okay. But he wasn’t rich. And as he got older, that annoyed him. He would have done better if he were coming up now. Of course, the competition is way worse!

He wrote the novel I Am Legend. It’s good. But I’m more interested in it because it is the basis for The Last Man on Earth — one of my favorite movies. The Shrinking Man was his other big novel. It was the basis of the films The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957) and The Incredible Shrinking Woman (1981).

But he is iconic because of his work for television and American International Pictures (AIP). For example, 16 episodes of the original run of The Twilight Zone were written by him or based on his stories. These included some of the best-loved episodes like “A World of His Own” (Keenan Wynn can write people into existence), “The Invaders” (Agnes Moorehead is menaced by tiny space aliens), and “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet” (William Shatner has a very bad flight).

He also wrote the screenplays for a number of great TV movies. These include Duel (1971), The Night Stalker (1972), and The Night Strangler (1973). As for the AIP films, Richard Matheson wrote half of the Roger Corman Poe cycle. And he wrote the fantastic The Comedy of Terrors.

Since I haven’t talked much about Duel around here, let’s watch it to celebrate Richard Matheson’s birthday. It’s one of those films that I saw as a young boy that works just as well today as it did back then.

Image cropped from Richard Matheson by JaSunni at PicasaWeb under CC BY-SA 3.0.