HIGH VOLTAGE (2018)

Written and Directed by Alex Keledjian
Starring Luke Wilson, David Arquette, Allie Gonino & Ryan Donowho

The band Hollow Body started out with a singer too scared to sing. With washed up and over the hill bad boy, JImmy (David Arquette) get them in front of people and use his pull with Rick (Luke Wilson) to get a record deal.  Then she got hit by lightning and everything changed. Now, she has become something more. Something dangerous...and evil.
This is an odd movie. It takes it's time to build up to what changes everything. It takes time to establish its characters so that when the movie shifts into horror territory it has more of an impact than ever. It also takes a look at how much the record business has changed. It's more about You Tube metrics and Instagram followers than talent. But, with the scars of lightning crisscrossing her body Rachel has a talent that, pun intended, is electrifying.
David Arquette does a great job as the washed up rock star you can see his desperation to get back into the lime light no matter what the cost and when a minor attack by Rachel restores his voice he considers her worth every penny. Allie Gonino does a great job at the innocent little girl who becomes a monster born of electricity. When she performs on stage she makes you watch her as she gyrates through every song.
Like I said at the beginning; this is an odd movie, but you know what? The world can use more odd movies. It doesn't try to be like anything else and it's probably one of the most original movies I've seen this year.
High Voltage is an odd little flick and that is a good thing.
A great thing.

 

CINEMA WASTELAND REPORT OCTOBER 2018

This year was the My Bloody Valentine reunion. That was interesting to me because it meant that the director and three actors from Pinball Summer would be there. Time to get my vinyl soundtrack signed. I decided to do that first thing Friday and they were all so happy to see it. Look down at the bottom of the post for the lovely folks that signed my stuff.
We got to see all of our Wasteland family and Martha and I watched a short film blocks that had a couple of stand outs. The Clown Dies @ Midnight was hilarious. James Bell's The Bliss was amazing and I told him I want the soundtrack. He said he was working on it.
Later, Dandelion, Dan and I went to see The Boogens. Everyone was watching the show and making comments, you know, like you do at Wasteland. Anyway this old fart at the end of our aisle leaned over and told us our commentary was ridiculous and to be quiet. I don;t think he saw me as I was sitting between my children. I leaned forward and yelled Calm Down! He went to sit somewhere else and I noticed that people started commenting louder after he opened his yap. We managed to say ridiculous all weekend whenever he was within earshot.
Saturday morning we watched some cartoons. This one will give you nightmares, I promise.

 

Then it was off to Pete Chiarella and Toby Klein's hardcore wrestling hour. There was a match that they put patio blocks on top of the mat and also brought in some light tubes. It looked painful.

We also got to see an uncut print of My Bloody Valentine and then the cast came out and answered questions. I got to ask the director my one question from Pinball Summer. I wanted to know if he was being meta during the final scene where they are having a pinball tournament and they were playing a machine that had the cast painted on it. He kind of joked about it, but just said they did it for the true fans of the movie who would have noticed something like that. Probably not my favorite answer, but he was having a good time.

We went to The Olympia for food and ice cream. I had the chicken paprikash again as they were out of the Cuban sandwiches. I had pumpkin pie ice cream which was super delicious.
Then it was back to the convention where A Ghastlee Ghoul's Night at the Movies gave us music and games. I lost the trivia to Pete, but he gave me the trophy anyway. I discovered that while I am super good at answering trivia questions I suck at writing them.
I went back to the room for a nap with the intentions of getting up to watch Pinball Summer.
My alarm did not go off. It's okay, I have a copy of my own.
So, the next day we got up and said goodbye to our friends and came back home. It always goes by way to fast for me.
It was a great time.

CINEMA WASTELAND REPORT APRIL 2018

The lovely Martha Waltz along with two of our offspring, Daniel and Dandelion, headed down to Ohio for our twice a year journey to the best of all conventions...CINEMA WASTELAND! The journey was uneventful which is always nice. I made many breakfast sandwiches to fortify our trip and we took enough snacks to feed a third world country for a month.  There was only one cancellation Belinda Balinski (sp) had the flu. They had a card out to send to her so I signed that. Two epic panels were the Dee Wallace panel which I did capture on video and will post on the YouTube soon. Later we talked to her and I mentioned that she was in the comic book The Howling:Revenge of the Werewolf Queen and I made her laugh. We went to Ground Zero to see if they had a copy, but they didn't. Funny thing is the owner didn't even know about it so he ordered a copy for himself.
Then the gentlemen of Horror High did a magnificent panel they are Pat Cardi, Terry Carter and Austin Stoker. Also on video headed up as fast as my crappy wifi will allow. I think I'll post links here as they get put up.
The Hardcore Wrestling Hour brought the bittersweet news of Toby Klein's retirement from the business, but the matches were gruesome as Hell. All we have come to expect from the one and only Pete Chiarella.
Caught some classic B&W Disney in the morning on Saturday.
Chatted with Tom Sullivan and gave him a copy of Divine Exploitation. He gave me a cool Necronomicon notebook and Martha Immediately snatched that up.
Saw many friends; Mike Watt, Amy Lynn Best, Bill Zebub (More on him later) Matthew Skelley, Gary Kent (More on him in a minute), the guy who sells t shirts that I never remember his name, Henrique Couto, Troma Dan, Gonzo, Pete Chiarella, The Splattertude gang, Gunga Jim, Ken Kish and people who I have probably forgotten. 
Love and Other Stunts is a documentary about Gary Kent the world's nicest stuntman. It is an epic film and I encourage everyone to go see it. Having Gary there with it made it super special and I did get a copy of that along with the soundtrack where Gary sings on two of the songs.
The epic news that J.R. Bookwalter is releasing Robot Ninja on BluRay made me super happy.
I did get a copy of Sadist of Notre Dame from Severin and it is such a great print with some super extras on it. Now if we could get Robert Monell and Stephen Thrower to agree on where the interiors of the cathedral were shot then we would be in business. 
We went to our favorite restaurant The Olympia for food and I tried the Belgian Waffle ice cream. It was awesome.
I tried watching The Wild Women of Wongo with Gunga Jim, but the print was bad and I have a great print of it so it made my eyes hurt to watch.
A Ghastlee Ghoul's Night At The Movies was great. Great music. Lots of laughs and I won a couple of prizes. Also, I don't know what PJ Soles eye looks like so I botched an answer. There was a young kid there named Jared that was as smart as a whip and did great. He can be the new trivia guy. I'm retired.
Martha and I watched Chanber of Horrors with the Fear Flasher and Horror Horn gimmicks. It was excellent. I've seen it before. We laughed every time it went off because nothing gross happened any of the times it went off. I was surprised to see a Tony Curtis cameo in the film.
The the midnight showing of Exploitation by Bill Zebub. Nathan Rumler was there so he lost his pants pretty early on. It's kind of a Wasteland tradition. I already have the three and a half hour version of the film so this one went pretty quick except that I was tired. 2 AM is Waaaayyyyyy past this old farts bed time. Another winner for Bill Zebub.
On Sunday we went around and said our goodbyes. Martha bought some things from Cathy, another Wasteland tradition for the Waltz Family. She has the coolest stuff.
Then off to Kalamazoo for the final tradition of Wasteland...White Castle! I tried one of their crab cake sliders. I would get one again, but with no sauce.
Didn't care for the sauce.
Now for the long six month wait for the October show.

LOVE AND OTHER STUNTS 2018

Forever and a day ago a Yahoo Group decided to attend a Midwest convention called Cinema Wasteland. I went and it was literally a life changing experience for me. That many people that knew stuff that I knew. I had found my tribe and Ken Kish is my Patronus. Years later after I had developed a wonderful friendship with the only and only Pete Chiarella he mentioned that stunt man Gary Kent was coming to Wasteland. I had seen most of the movies he worked on so I was super excited that he was coming. He wrote an autobiography Shadows and Light that he sold out when he appeared at Wasteland. I had to buy one online and I devoured it. One of the best books about Hollywood and the independent film movement.
Jump ahead to this year and Cinema Wasteland 2018 and I was so happy that Gary Kent was going to be there with director Joe O'Connell. Together they had made a documentary chronicling Gary's life.
I knew I needed to watch that. I got lucky that they were selling copies of the film and the soundtrack that Gary sings on as well. They even threw in a cool t shirt and I finally got Gary to sign my copy of Shadows and Light.
If you've read the book it gives you every facet of Gary's life. The documentary managed to expound on that by showing us where Gary had been. How he came through life to be one of the most fearless stunt men in the history of film. It has great parts, sad parts and when you come through to the other end you have been exposed to the life and times of Gary Kent. Probably one of the best documentaries about a single person I have ever seen. Hats off to Director Joe O'Connell for giving us a love letter to a man that manages to touch anyone's heart that he comes in contact with. I hope for a DVD release with an abundance of extras. Maybe a commentary by these two men that have managed to create such a wonderful film.
Honestly, The movie showed at 10:45PM, we had driven four hours to get there and it was way past my bedtime and I could have watched another hour without a problem.
If the film comes to your area and you have any interest in film of any kind you must go see this movie. If not, wait for the release and treat yourself to an amazing film. 

SUPERNATURAL: An opinion

After a little over a year I have finished the full twelve seasons of the CW show Supernatural. For the two people in the universe unaware of this show it tells the tale of the Winchester family. They save lives and fight monsters. You know, the family business. Throw in a sweet Impala and a litany of monsters from around the globe and you know you are in for a good time.
Right?
I really love this show. I prefer the episodes where they are working a case, finding and destroying monsters. Each season has a bigger picture plot always looming in the background. Hell, for the first five seasons it was the same plot that dealt with the Biblical Apocalypse.
Fun times.
I appreciate a show with legs like this. Every year year they think of something to raise the bar. Season 13 will have them teaming up with Scooby Doo. The shows where they acknowledge themselves are the best. The episode where they are sent to the dimension where this company makes a show called Supernatural is probably the high point of that. When they discovered that their exploits were being chronicled in a series of pulpy novels was also good.
There are things they have done that I am not happy about. Killed people that I really cared for. Just shows how good a show can be when you care that much to get angry about the death of a fictional character. Everyone picks a team. If I had to pick one it would be Team Dean. How can you not appreciate a man who never backs down from what he believes in no matter what and loves pie to the degree that Dean Winchester does?
And I do not see what people see in Crowley. Can't stand the little fucker or his mother, Rowena. People do, but that is not for me.
In a world where a typical TV season is 8 episodes long with no chance of a second one, it's good to know that for the foreseeable future we will have Supernatural by our side.
To save people.
Kill Monsters.
You know, the family business.
On a side note. Every year I engage in a thing called National Novel Writing Month or NaNoWriMo for short.
Next year I have the perfect idea for a Supernatural novel. Hell, if it works I'll even try and submit it to the company that publishes those things.

UPDATE: Now that I am forced to wait for new episodes on a weekly basis I must say that I am not fond of the waiting. I'm thinking of going back to watch the Leviathan season again just for fun.