This week quiet unexpectedly, I found myself in the theater watching Dark Shadows. As I’ve been working on developing my movie prototyping work flow using my new iPhone 4S, I decided to shoot this quick review of the latest Tim Burton picture. The results may surprise you. It’s not quite the piece of pancake covered crap I was expecting. Nah, I say. Click on the video to find out my inner most thoughts on Dark Shadows.
The film starts in colonial America and then jumps forward to 1972 and a rather pleasant re-imagining of those shagadelic times with music from the era that could only be described as the “the best sounds to come out of the 70′s”. The cast lead by the ever bankable Johnny Depp was fleshed out by Michelle Pfeiffer, Jackie Earle Haley, Eva Green, Bella Heathcote, and the obligatory, at least when it’s a Burton film, Helena Bonham Carter. Chloë Grace Moretz who fills the role of the rebelious Carolyn Sotddard (angry teen with a dark secret) has turned into quite the little actress. We see her here so squarely between girl and womanhood that her distain of basically all adults just seems so believable. Christopher Lee makes an appearance in a brief scene and there’s even a sweet little cameo for Alice Cooper. Actually, they picked two of his best tunes to feature and I’m betting this film will sell a lot of his records.
Michelle Pfeiffer
This particular review is in fact, spoiler free. I hope to do a more in depth discussion on it with spoilers in tact on a future installment of MVP Mutant Radio. This film had some incredible CGI work in it’s climatic sequence. The practical makeup was extremely theatrical and overly dramatic. To be honest, it put me off in the trailer and early promotional shots. Actually seeing it realized in this full on Burton world, it completely worked and really harkened back to the original portrayal of Barnabus Collins.
My single complaint was that main characters origin story felt a little rushed. I’d love to have seen more of the original love triangle that got him cursed to eternity as a vampire in the first place. Of course we arrive in 1973 around Halloween time setting the stage for a full own live action Burton tilt to everything like you might seen in a film like Corpse Bride. “Hence the pumpkins in the yard.”
The inevitable sequel was solidly setup in the film’s last frames. Even thought I went in with a bit of a chip on my shoulder over my fondness of the scary original version, I find that I’m O.K. with the thoughts of another funny Dark Shadows film.
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Muticia the Movie Goddess appearing LIVE Saturday March 24th at the Mad Monster Party.
The Mad Monster Party is less than a week away! Everyone from Rutger Hauer to Brad Dourif and Mary Woronov will be there! Ace Frehley! Marky Ramone! Darth Vader! The list is endless! Download the latest edition of Exploited Cinema to get the full rundown on the Mad Monster Party and the Mad Monster Party Film Festival as Streebo and Muticia the Movie Goddess drop in for a greasy good time with the Kings of the VHS Vault. We go over one hundred and one reasons why you should be at the Mad Monster Party next week. Download and listen now to find out what the madness is all about!
MUTANT TV this week features a selection of Streebo & Brento V-logs and a few other odds and ends. Tune in after the leap!
Brent & Eric with Bradley Hinson after a MARANG show in 2010
The other day I got a cool opportunity to design the album cover for a band I have a lot of appreciation for. The band is called, “thank you, spaceman” and is fronted by my friend, fellow MVP player and former band mate, Eric Cook. Like so many indie bands, I think that many of those who’ve seen them would agree with me that TYSM was over before it’s time. That said, I really enjoyed their sound and original flavor and am thankful for the privilege to play with them on several occasions as an opener.
The Front Booklet Design
Eric did manage, by sheer tenacity and force of will to get this album completed despite the fact that the band was no longer gigging. Having had the chance to listen to it before it’s official release, I can report that it is excellent. An album that deserved some truly unique album art. Continue Reading…
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This week on Streeborama, we’re celebrating the 400th episode of Mutant TVwith a special Streebo Q&A session. In this long awaited Q&A, Streebo answers all of your questions about filmmaking, horror and MVP in addition to drawing the names for the Fangoria giveaway. You’ll have to watch the whole video to find out if you won. You can watch it just after the leap! Continue Reading…
Posted 5 months, 4 weeks ago at 12:40 am. Add a comment
This week I thought I’d take the opportunity to promote an upcoming project for my friend, bandmate and fellow MVP’r, Jeremy Mullis. About 8 months ago Jeremy shared his first attempt at short film with me, shot on an extremely low res camera and loosely edited. He called it, “Black Magic.” Even with the technical limitations, I found the concept interesting and encouraged Jeremy to expand the story beyond a single character in the original and to put it into proper script format. In short, he’s done that and is ready to put the people and resource together to shoot the film.
Speaking of the high concept, here it is. A young man, seeking to become powerful & rich, obtains an ancient demonic manuscript and attempts to summon a hellish demon to do his biding. He gets more than he’s bargaining for.
Here’s where you come in. So here are the facts as I know them. The film will require a cast of 3 actors and as many crew members as we can find to lend a hand. Two males & one female who can portray 17 – 22. The shoot should entail a single Saturday or Sunday once the locations are secure. The casting will be via individual reads either. This would be a no budget project, so there would be no pay to any participants, but you would be helping out an awesome guy who’s always been quick to help out on all of our projects.
As of now there’s no schedule as the final tweaks are still being put on the script. Jeremy hopes to shoot within the next few months. If you are interested in being a part of “Black Magic” either as an actor or a crew member, shoot Jeremy Mullis via facebook.
Hopefully, you all will have another rocking MVP week!
Jeremy Mullis aka The Ground Breaker Zombie from G.H.O.S.T.
Grease fiends, rejoice for Bat32 and Jdog have returned once more to spread the Word of Grease to the unwashed masses. This week the Lords of Grease are preaching the Gospel according to Friedkin – William Friedkin that is – you know – director of The Exorcist and The French Connection fame. The boys are talking Cruising, To Live and Die in L.A. and The Brinks Job. Here, I’ll let them tell you about it and dare I say this is not safe for your Grandmother. NSFG
Welcome to another episode of Exploited Cinema. Like Stephen Lack’s acting skills in Scanners, the guys have been lacking in episodes this month. The boys decided to bounce back with a William Friedkin triple feature. In OBSCURE it’s Cruising (1980) & To Live and Die In L.A. (1985). The VHS VAULT door has been blown off it’s hinges with The Brinks Job (1978). To finish the the show off we got The Legendary Runk on to talk Friedkin and a handful of other stuff. So get your yellow hanky out, soak it with rush and huff the night away!
This has to be a record for repeat appearances on Trailer Park Tuesday here at Mutantville.com. We first posted the trailer to Kevin Smith’s Red State when it was first released back at the end of last year and then again when the first limited theatrical tour was announced and again at the beginning of the month when Red State hit VOD. Even after all of this activity – Red State is still not finished!
Ha. Ha! Long time no causal Brento blog. Today I thought I’d share an interesting side project that I revisit from time to time. I’m creating a massive poster artwork called, “Enter The Net.”
Following in the footsteps of one of my favorite 3d artists, neelzonline, I’ve started my own Mega-Figure Poser project. In my case, the workflow happens entirely in
PoserPro 2010. To avoid scaling and just the general headache of exporting and importing, I’m skipping the Vue part and searching for a way to do this completely inside good ole Poser. Apart from that, I’m following the techniques which neelz lays out in his original thread. You’ll need to be a member of the Daz3d forums to respond but not to view.
neelzonline’s incredible 1111 figure image project can be viewed here.
Let’s face it, Mutant TV has a LOT of video content. Streebo recently posted our 350th video. To that end I’ve launched a dedicated sub channel for the Collector’s Corner video’s featuring Streebo & Johnny Brento. I’m calling it VHS Graveyard because I hope to focus my share of the videos on my ever expanding collection of rare and out of print horror VHS. The first episode includes a brief explanation and of the premise and a rather huge unboxing of 50 VHS fresh in from eBay. As you know, posters, toys, movies, posters and all kinds of memoribilia are fair game on Collector’s Corner.
I’d like to make one small correction to the schedule mentions in the video. Collector’s Corner is released here on Mutantville.com on Wednesdays, not Tuesdays. As always please leave feedback in the comment box and like or subscribe to the channel if the show works for you. Sorry, the first few are so dark. That gets corrected around episode 3.
This week Johnny Brento brings us a discussion of the 2000 Horror Thriller, The Calling where an unsuspecting woman is used as a pawn to bring to fruition the rule of the Antichrist.
On her wedding night, a young woman conceives a child during an hallucinatory encounter. Several years later, as her friends and family begin to behave strangely, she pieces together clues that lead to one conclusion…her son is the Antichrist!
