House on Haunted Hill
An evening pause: For Halloween, I have decided to bring back this wonderfully staged classic from 1958, starring Vincent Price and directed by William Castle. No blood, no gore, but the worth every minute.
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Happy Reformation Day!
On October 31st 1517 German theologian Martin Luther nailed his Ninety-five Theses on the door of the Wittenberg university church.
The Reformation began.
Two movies in my life actually had me scared in the moment. This movie, House on Haunted Hill, when I was a kid. The Skelton coming out of the acid bath.
And this movie: ALIEN.
https://youtu.be/LjLamj-b0I8?si=IfZN6_-m6k3FA6uI
You never saw the alien, but you knew he was at some point right around the corner. Masterful!
A movie like the Exorcist? Was like a comedy to me.
And I will give an edge of the seat sweaty hands mention to the original, RAMBO.
Many other very good favorite movies.
And interestingly today, I do not have any interest to watch any movies now. Probably not for at least 15 or more years.
Nowadays, when you watch a movie or television show, you are being manipulated into a certain mindset. These producers have figured out exactly how to use their programs to sway public opinion, and they are all leftists in Hollywood. That‘s why I don‘t go to the movies or watch TV anymore.
There is a higher quality print of this at Archive dot Org.
(They have been having a lot of problems recently, you might not be able to stream it, but you can download it.)
Cotour–
Alien was good, Sigourney was very attractive, and they had me thinking it was the cat.
Tangentially, the book version of Salems Lot sucked me in one windy Fall evening.
David-
I would put forth the proposition, we’ve always been manipulated by TV and Movies, but now it’s totally in your face and people are waking up to it.
“Nowadays, when you watch a movie or television show, you are being manipulated into a certain mindset.”
Congratulations!
After 8 years of the most intense psychological warfare of all time…
You my friend have proven you are IMMUNE TO MIND CONTROL.
You’re ready for the next level.
https://t.ly/iL_9r
Cotour,
The Exorcist was a comedy. I watched it in first-run with several college friends of mine and none of us could keep a straight face. Admittedly, my friends were all high on Mary Jane at the time, but I was cold sober and laughed just as much. The sequels, I am told, were even more risible, but once was enough for me.
Too bad you have abandoned movie-watching. Not everything is woke crapola. There have been a number of very good war movies in recent years, for example. Midway, is great. Any of Liam Neeson’s revenge-driven action movies, starting with Taken, are good too. I particularly recommend Cold Pursuit. The Highwaymen, starring Kevin Costner and Woody Harrelson as the two Texas Rangers who took down Bonnie and Clyde is also first-class. And The Old Guard, a fantasy-action thriller, starring Charlize Theron as the several thousand-year-old leader of a small group of immortals who try their best to keep humanity from going off the rails is terrific – and a sequel is in the works.
I could go on.
Dick, since we are telling movie stories, I will tell one.
In my evolution to manhood early on I moved out of my father’s house and was “facing” myself. I rented a room in a house with several other men who I never met. It was a small dark room, one of four with a single bed and a free-standing closet and a bathroom down the hall.
I resolved as a demonstration of will for one year to not watch any TV, work every day of that year, save money and only read. And that is exactly what I did. I worked every day of that year, I only read books and slept. And I took a small portable TV I had in its box and put it on the shelf.
I however made one exception and that was to watch what I consider a classic and a great movie Cool Hand Luke which I came to understand would be played on a particular night. Besides the movie itself it is interesting and similar to another movie on the same level classic, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, which I might have made a similar exception for. What is interesting is to see the many other associated minor cast members that became very accomplished and well-known actors in their own right.
So, I come “home” after work, take a shower and I am hungry. So, I take a walk down to the local supermarket and I buy the ingredients for nacho chips with cheese, sour cream and salsa, dinner. But I have no way to cook anything so I will have to improvise, you have to melt the cheese.
I also buy aluminum foil; I have a cardboard box, and I have a hair dryer. So, I set up the TV and I get ready to make my nachos. Being hungry not really thinking things out as I should have. I place the aluminum foil on the box and manufacture a pan of sorts, set up an evenly laid out group of chips and place cheese on them and I think you can figure where this is going.
So, there is the box on the floor with all of the chips and cheese carefully laid out on the aluminum foil and I am sitting on the floor with the hair dryer in my hand and my grumbling stomach I am looking at the beautiful scene with great anticipation. And then I turn the hair dryer on.
And as you might have guessed ALL of the chips, and the cheese went flying off of the box and were blown on to the floor. I found this to be very, very funny in its desperate ridiculousness and I had a good laugh which I needed at the time :)
I happily watched Cool Hand Luke and ate cold chips with cold cheese, salsa and sour cream and I put the TV back in its box and continued my self imposed media denial and long hard look in the mirror.
I liked Exorcist III—-better than the original:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VfqEvutzdiI
The dialogue between the detective and the priest was wonderful—and Brad Dourif was at his best.