Public Domain Horror for Halloween | Top 5

Begun anew these streaming wars have!

With the VOD landscape once again becoming fractured as every media conglomerate attempts to wall off their own little garden of content, it has become a whirlwind of inconvenience (and expense!) to get eyes on a bit of pop-culture schlock with which to get your shiver on for Halloween. Well, be afraid, dead reader! Be very afraid, for your enterprising (and cheap!) friends over here at GUO have compiled a Top 5 list of horror movies anyone can watch.

This Halloween, GUO is proud to serve up five horrible tales of terror and the macabre whose copyright has, either due to age, bankruptcy, or incompetence, slipped beyond the grasp of corporate bean counters. All of these titles can be freely downloaded from The Internet Archive and can be owned and shown without fear or reprisal or DRM. No trick, these are a real treat!

Take your blood pressured medication, dig your nails into your favorite armchair, and join us on a journey into the dark.

5. Spider Baby or The Maddest Story Ever Told

This gem of a film is, depending on your past experience, either a dark, gritty take on The Addams Family or a lighthearted peek at the family freak show from Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Toss in a delightfully whimsical theme song crooned by Lon Chaney Jr. himself, and you've got a fun-filled fright fest from a family you'll be dying to spend time with.

Following the death of the patriarch of the genetically cursed Merrye family, distant relatives arrive with legal council in tow to take the children away. It is up to the family's loyal manservant Bruno to straddle the line between these folks from the city and his murderous wards to do what is best for the family. What follows is classic Old Dark House story featuring this macabre family attempting to... entertain for the night while Bruno wrestles with what fate is best for his adopted kin.

Lon Chaney Jr. (Larry Talbot (aka The Wolfman)) is charming as ever as the morally torn Bruno. Sid Haig (Captain Spaulding of The Devil's Rejects) gives a mesmerizing performance and the mute man-child Ralph.

Part humor, part horror, all fun, Spider Baby pulls off an ending most will be unlikely to see coming. This one certainly has the cred to pull of its subtitle of The Maddest Story Ever Told.

Master of Movie Monsters, Ray Harryhausen | Weekend Watchlist

When I was naught but a tiny nerd, there were few flights of fancy that could stand up to the creature packed features of visual effects mastermind Ray Harryhausen. Widely considered the father of special effects (well, pre-computer generated ones, anyway), Harryhausen’s stop motions creations elevated movie monsters from mere puppets to characters in their own right.
Mentoring under Willis H O’Brien, the stop motion artist who brought King Kong to life in 1933, Ray would strike it big with his amazing animation of a dinosaur ripping apart New York City in the 1953 film The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms. His list of credits doubles as a 'Best of…” list for the greatest flights of fantasy from the 50s, 60s, and 70s: Earth vs. the Flying Saucers, 20 Million Miles to Earth, The 3 Worlds of Gulliver, Mysterious Island, One Million Years B.C, Jason and the Argonauts, Clash of the Titans, and the Sinbad trilogy (The 7th Voyage of Sinbad, The Golden Voyage of Sinbad, and Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger) which he also helped write.

Sadly, Ray Harryhausen departed this mortal realm Tuesday, May 7 2013, at the ripe, young age of 92. In this very special edition of the Weekend Watchlist, we’re capturing one fame at a time while waving a fond farewell to The Master of Movie Monsters, The Sultan of Stop Motion, The Vizier of Visual Effects, Ray Harryhausen.

We kick off this Watchlist with a tribute from Jack Perez, a true fan and director of such delightfully kitschy films like Monster Island and Mega Shark vs Giant Octopus.

Star Wars Fan Productions | Weekend Watchlist

Happy Star Wars Day! Yessir, we nerds sure do love our puns! The fourth of May is a day reserved for celebration of science fiction fandom’s most beloved franchise, Star Wars, due to how “May the fourth” reminds people of that classic line “May the Force be with you” that Spock managed to shoehorn into every episode. While May 4th has only recently (2011) come to be officially recognized as Star Wars Day, the origins of the pun can be traced all the way back to 1979 when Margaret Thatcher was elected as the first female Prime Minister. A political party advertisement in The London Evening News wished Thatcher good luck stating "May the Fourth Be with You, Maggie. Congratulations."

And yet, as much as that classic trilogy of films did to set our imaginations free and revolutionize the process of filmmaking, where would it be today with the consumers fans. And so it is that we here at Growing Up Otaku celebrate the cash flow love of all those stargazing dreamers who have toughed it out through the intervening decades of mass produced crap, canon twisting ‘expanded universe’ stories, and atrocious prequels to nurture the love of the greatest sci-fi films of all time.

In order to get us all in the proper mood, ladies and gentlemen, our opening act. I give you YouTube sensation, Erock.

 

Star Wars to be Dubbed into Its 40th Language: Navajo

Manuelito Wheeler, director of the Navajo Nation Museum, has partnered with Lucasfilm and Deluxe to bring the original Star Wars film (that’s Star Wars: Episode IV: A New Hope to you kids out there) to the big screen once again. While Star Wars has long been a staple of sci-fi fans around the world, this latest version of the 1977 classic is being redubbed in a most unexpected language: Dine’, the language of the Native American Navajo Nation and the most widely used of all Native American languages. From The Hollywood Reporter:

There are not direct translations for many words in Star Wars, notes Wheeler. Dine, the Navajo language, often uses a description of what a word does to convey meaning so that several English words are needed to produce a translation. 

Wheeler said he hopes to avoid "what people saw in the old Kung fu movies when the lip movements didn't coincide at all with what was said. I don't want to disparage the Kung fu movies because I loved watching them, but this can become very distracting and we don't want to see that happen here."

Wheeler explains the importance of this translation, "By preserving the Navajo language and encouraging Navajo youth to learn their language, we will also be preserving Navajo culture."

The translation project has been underway for three years now. Auditions for actors to portray the leading roles of Luke, Leia, Darth Vader, and Han Solo began today.

Feel and Smell Robert Downey Jr. Iron Man 3 Coming to Japanese Theaters in 4DX

3D? Pfft! Who talks about 3D anymore? Okay, aside from the trolls on the Internet. Well, it’s time for even these new-hating fuddy-duddies to get over it and star whining a different tune. Welcome the next trend in maximum movie watching, 4DX!

4DX is a theater overhaul that takes your 3D big screen adventure to a whole new level with motorized seating, strobe lights, fog machines, bubble blowers, and, yes, Smell-O-Vision class aromatic vapors. Never heard of 4DX? It’s actually been around for a while. James Cameron’s 2009 film Avatar was the first feature that supported the 4DX format. Since that time, mechanical, odor-spraying theaters have begun to crop up all over the world in countries like Thailand, China, South Korea, Russia, Israel, and Mexico. Next on the list for this augmented reality theater experience: Japan. For an additional $10-13 on top of the 3D movie ticket price, viewers will feel and smell Robert Downey Jr.’s latest high flying Iron Man adventure in Nagoya, Japan. A further 12 titles are scheduled to grace Japan’s new 4DX theaters throughout the remainder of 2013.

Eager to get you butt on this new experience? You won’t have long to wait long. CJ Group, the folks behind the 4DX technology, are moving ahead with plans to bring the theme park ride experience to theaters in the United States by the end of the year with a goal of equipping an additional 200 movie houses within the next five years.

Disney Buys Lucasfilm. New Star Wars Trilogy Confirmed with Episode 7 Coming in 2015

A giant, cash laden bombshell exploded in Burbank, California as the press release went out stating that The Walt Disney Company has just closed a deal with George Lucas to purchase Star Wars and Indiana Jones adventure creation studio Lucasfilm for $4.05 billion, about $2 million cash in addition to 40 million shares of Disney stock. The deal not only includes the intellectual property rights to Lucas’ entertainment franchises such as Star Wars, but also all other business operated by Lucasfilm such as video game maker LucasArts, special effects house Industrial Light & Magic, and audio engineering firm Skywalker Sound.

As if that were not enough to keep snarky Internet commenters cracking wise for months, Disney went on to announce that Kathleen Kennedy, Lucasfilm’s next president, will serve as executive producer for Star Wars Episode 7. This next film in the Star Wars series is already slated for a 2015 release. This release will be followed up by Episodes 8 and 9 at yet to be announced dates. Lucas will be hired as a creative consultant on this new trilogy.

Full press release is available at Yahoo. You can skip the reading and listen to a recording of the conference call when this deal was announced embedded below.

Vin Diesel Posts Pics From the Set of the Third Riddick Movie

Normally I don’t post a lot of movie stuff, but the Mrs. would be in quite a tiff if she knew I had seen this and not spread the word ;)

 

Muscley macho movie man Vin Diesel has personally posted an early look at the forthcoming third flick in the Riddick franchise. On his Facebook page, Vin reminisces:

First time I posted about Riddick was back in 2009, Facebook was fresh...
They were asking me to come to the headquarters to talk about this new concept of communicating with fans. I was proud to lead that wave, yet all I was doing, was opening up about my passion - film.

So this picture of Our 2012 production of Riddick, is a cool victory for all of us... it shows that studios can be influenced by your voice.

P.s. Proud of Our Riddick team.

The third Riddick film is rumored to be a 2012 release and shooting for an R rating. Early details of the sequel to Pitch Black and The Chronicles of Riddick promise a return to the style first title in the series and leaves the titular character left for dead on a desolate world full of monsters and mercenaries hungry for Furian blood.

Check out more on Vin’s Facebook page.

Early web details of "The Amazing Spider Man"

Well, it seems that 2012 isn't just the apocalypse - it's also the release of a new Spider Man movie. Forget about the last 3 movies this is a new Spider Man cast starring Andrew Garfield, who shared the 2007 London Theatre Critics Circle Most Promising Newcomer Award. He's also known for his performances in The Social Network, The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus and Never Let Me Go. Apparently Toby Maguire, star of the last 3 movies, got out of the Marvel's web. Also on the cast roster is Dennis Leary and Irrfan Khan as the Proto-Goblin. Emma Stone is replacing Bryce Dallas Howard as the romantic interest of Spider Man for this movie. We'll have to wait and see if all these cast changes will doom the franchise, ala "Batman", or if the new cast can improve on the already proven cash earning series. Also added to the series is 3D! Hopefully there won't be actors flying out of the rafters as in the Broadway adaptation. Stan Lee, founder of the Spider Man series known for his onscreen cameos might just make it into this movie after not being in the latest X-Men First Class. He was quoted via Twitter "Warriors mine, grieve thee not that I have no cameo in X-Men 1st Class. ‘Tis just that the movie was filmed too far away for me to attend"

Movie Night : Godzilla Final Wars Streaming Online via Crackle

From the “because it’s cool I could” category, here is Godzilla: Final Wars! Why should you care? Because in the first THREE MINUTES of the movie, Godzilla fights a drill-sub in Antarctica. Yep! All the goods up front. Enjoy!

From Crackle: Godzilla: Final Wars

*edit* Bugger it all! why give me the option to get an embed code when the embedded window just says it won’t work?! Now everyone has to go watch Ask Grandpop again! Thanks Crackle…

Noir in the First Person

Whether it’s Blair Witch or Cloverfield or even the only good sequence of the Doom movie, whenever filmmaking attempts to tell its story in the first person it is heralded and ‘new’ or ‘revolutionary’. Well, feast your eyes upon the trailer for the 1946 Philip Marlowe movie Lady in the Lake:

While Robert Montgomery may be credited as the lead (and director), thanks to clever camera work Lady in the Lake successfully fulfills its promise of putting you in the staring role as the legendary detective. The occasional mirror gag only deepens the impact of just how successfully this film pulls off its unique style.

…And the movie ain’t half bad, either! Lady in the Lake features a delightfully abrasive Marlowe in a twisted murder mystery set against the Christmas holiday. I could not find this movie streaming online anywhere, but it has been released on DVD and occasionally pops up on the Tunner Classics Movies cable channel.