Hulu Recommendation Friday -- The Best Chrismukkah Ever

In 2003, Jody and I were still pretty new to life in the Southland. We were also both very busy, especially Jody who was attending USC for Film School at the time. During mid-term week and finals week, she would pretty much spend the full week on campus. During these times, I would drive from our apartment in Crenshaw to the USC campus to spend breakfast with Jody and then I would head out to work and school out in Glendora and Claremont. Then at night, I would stop by the USC campus to eat dinner with Jody and return to our apartment to work on papers, read for class, or prep for my weekly D&D game while listening to the sounds of helicopters and police sirens.

2003 was also when The O.C. came on the air. I avoided the show like the plague for its first season. I had no interest in watching the 00's version of 90210 -- though I guess that job is now being done by 90210. It wasn't until the summer of 2004 that I began to watch the show. Jody had caught an episode from late in the season and it had piqued her interest by the sheer absurdity of the narrative. Eventually, we added the show to our Netflix queue and we've been hooked ever since.

Yes, the show was an evening teen soap, but its combination of geek references and self-referential style was just the thing to give Jody and me a few laugh. Doug Liman's direction of the first episode is magnificent, and we have been big fans of Josh Schwartz since we saw The Best Chrismukkah Ever episode. What red blooded male comic book collector hadn't wished that his girlfriend would dress up as Wonder Woman as a Christmas present? It was laugh out loud funny.

The first season, and the last season, of The O.C. are the best seasons of the show. They both maximize the elements that make the show worthwhile -- family, friends, and geek references. The show got lost in the middle somewhere as show runners took the show in less satisfying directions, but the show's finale is one of my favorite episodes of television.

Enjoy "The Best Chrismukkah Ever"

TCM Celebrates Christmas, but Not on Christmas Day

Turner Classic Movies is arguably the best channel on television, especially if you are a classic film fan. Every Thursday, in the weeks leading up to Christmas Day, the channel will be highlighting some classic holiday movie fare. Many of the films are not as well known as they should be, and others are annual staples in the Lindke household.

Cinerati-friend J.C. Loophole of The Shelf blog has been kind enough to share these Thursday schedules with us, as well as some comments regarding the upcoming TCM film festival in Los Angeles in April 2010 which will be showing a restoration of Fritz Lang's METROPOLIS.

One interesting twist to the schedule is that TCM is airing a Sherlock Holmes Marathon on Christmas Day that they have called, punny enough, "Holmes for the Holidays." While it makes a certain amount of sense from a market standpoint, the new Guy Ritchie Holmes film is coming out on Christmas Day, it doesn't strike me as particularly "Christmassy." The only Holmes story that makes me feel remotely in he holiday spirit is the wonderful YOUNG SHERLOCK HOLMES directed by Barry Levinson and written by Chris Columbus. YOUNG SHERLOCK HOLMES is one of those Lindke household holiday staples. Columbus' own HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER'S STONE is also on that list of Lindke holiday must sees.

Let's have a look at what TCM is offering this holiday season.

Thursday, Dec. 3

8 p.m. – A Christmas Carol (1938), starring Reginald Owen and Gene Lockhart.

9:15 p.m. – Little Women (1949), starring June Allyson, Elizabeth Taylor, Janet Leigh and Margaret O’Brien.

11:30 p.m. – Tenth Avenue Angel (1948), starring Margaret O’Brien and Angela Lansbury.

1 a.m. – 3 Godfathers (1948), starring John Wayne, Pedro Armindáriz, Harry Carey Jr. and Ward Bond.

3 a.m. – Hell’s Heroes (1930), starring Charles Bickford and Raymond Hatton.

4:30 a.m. – Bush Christmas (1947), starring John Fernside and Chips Rafferty.

The John Ford/John Wayne version of 3 GODFATHERS is a masterful demonstration of how a genre film can use tropes from other narrative milieu to create a powerful film that is both touching and beautiful. Like many great films, this one is a remake of a story that had been filmed at least twice before. More recently, the story was adapted -- with significant changes -- into anime with TOKYO GODFATHERS. 3 GODFATHERS is one of Wayne's strongest performances, those performances that are so often overlooked when people want to scoff at Wayne's talent, and is the kind of Christmas film we need more of today.

Thursday, Dec. 10

8 p.m. – It Happened on 5th Avenue (1947), starring Don DeFore, Ann Harding and Gale Storm.

10 p.m. – Fitzwilly (1967), starring Dick Van Dyke, Barbara Feldon and Edith Evans.

Midnight – Love Finds Andy Hardy (1938), starring Mickey Rooney, Judy Garland and Lewis Stone.

2 a.m. – Susan Slept Here (1954), staring Dick Powell, Debbie Reynolds and Anne Francis.

4 a.m. – Little Women (1933), starring Katharine Hepburn, Joan Bennett, Paul Lukas and Frances Dee.

Thursday, Dec. 17

8 p.m. – Christmas in Connecticut (1945), starring Barbara Stanwyck, Dennis Morgan and Sydney Greenstreet.

10 p.m. – Holiday Affair (1950), starring Robert Mitchum and Janet Leigh.

11:30 p.m. – Never Say Goodbye (1946), starring Errol Flynn and Eleanor Parker.

1:30 a.m. – Period of Adjustment (1962), starring Tony Franciosa, Jane Fonda and Jim Hutton.

3:30 a.m. – Beyond Tomorrow (1940), starring Harry Carey, C. Aubrey Smith and Maria Ouspenskaya.

Thursday, Dec. 24 – Robert Osborne’s Christmas Picks

8 p.m. – Remember the Night (1940), starring Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray.

9:45 p.m. – Christmas in July (1940), starring Dick Powell and Ellen Drew.

11 p.m. – Chicken Every Sunday (1948), starring Dan Dailey and Celeste Holme.

1 a.m. – Meet Me in St. Louis (1944), starring Judy Garland, Margaret O’Brien, Lucille Bremer and Mary Astor.

3 a.m. – In the Good Old Summertime (1949), starring Judy Garland and Van Johnson.

5 a.m. – The Shop Around the Corner (1940), starring Margaret Sullavan, James Stewart and Frank Morgan.

As much as I enjoy Nora Ephron's YOU'VE GOT MAIL, most of its strongest moments are directly out of IN THE GOOD OLD SUMMERTIME and THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER. These are two of the best romantic comedies ever produced. While they are based on the same story, they are magical in their differences and each provides a different glimpse into what makes romance work. Critics often complain about how much of modern cinema is adaptation, as if this means some sort of dilution of creativity. IN THE GOOD OLD SUMMERTIME and THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER are perfect demonstrations of how adaptation can result from inspiration.

Friday, Dec. 25 – Holmes for the Holidays

8 p.m. – The Hound of the Baskervilles (1939), starring Basil Rathbone, Nigel Bruce, Richard Greene and Wendy Barrie.

9:30 p.m. – The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1939), starring Basil Rathbone, Nigel Bruce and Ida Lupino.

11 p.m. – The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970), starring Robert Stephens, Colin Blakely and Genevieve Page.

1:15 a.m. – Sherlock Holmes’ Fatal Hour (1931), starring Arthur Wontner, Ian Fleming and Jane Welsh.

2:30 a.m. – The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959), starring Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee, Andre Morell and Maria Landi.

4 a.m. – A Study in Terror (1965), starring John Neville, Donald Houston, Georgia Brown and Anthony Quayle.

Traci Lords is Dejah Thoris!

From the folks at The Asylum, those masters of Mockbuster films, comes A Princess of Mars.

Antonio Sabato Jr. is John Carter.

Traci Lords is Dejah Thoris.

I cannot make this up.

Hey Disney! This is what happens when you take forever with a public domain property.

The Asylum version of A Princess of Mars comes out on December 29, 2009. I don't care how mind-numbingly bad this is. I must own it. I must own it.



Thanks to Bill Cunningham for the tip.

Reality Blurs Following in Paizo Footsteps with Agents of Oblivion Beta

While the news isn't new, it is well worth repeating. This past June, Reality Blurs announced they were releasing a pdf of the Beta version of their Agents of Oblivion Player's Guide for the Savage World's game system.

The Agents of Oblivion setting fills a nice gap in the roleplaying game marketplace. The setting combines modern espionage with elements of horror to create an exciting gaming environment. The vast majority of horror roleplaying games ask the following question, "what happens when everyday people encounter the horrors from the beyond?" Agents of Oblivion, like Pelgrane Press' excellent Esoterrorists, asks, "what happens when extraordinarily skilled individuals encounter horrors from the beyond?"

These games navigate the waters of the "action horror" genre, a genre that presents unique challenges to writers and game masters. It's hard to create the tension required to maintain an atmosphere of horror when those combating the horror are skilled at what they do, but that is a necessary component of horror games and stories. One need only watch a season of "Supernatural" to see some of the challenges the action horror genre doles out to writers. Week to week the episodes alternate between the deadly serious and the comedic, and when the episodes are serious the stakes are usually extremely high.

Raising the stakes is one way to maintain that tension. The higher the stakes, the more likely we are willing to believe that the Winchester brothers must pay some cost in blood and sanity in order to save the day.

Using comedic relief is another way -- believe it or not. When writing a comedic episode or adventure, the writer knows that he/she can "turn it up to 11." The risks to the characters may be lessened to some degree, but the limits of what can occur become limitless because you don't need to worry if your horror element accidentally becomes parody or farce. If it does, it only adds to the flames of fun. The light-hearted elements also make the tense moments, or the "gotcha" moments, a little more visceral due to the contrast. One doesn't want to over use humor, as it quickly can become silly, but it is a tool that should be incorporated in action horror.

Another way to increase the underlying horrific tension, and the key way to do it in a black ops vs. eldritch horror game, is to raise the stakes by threatening third party characters. The characters -- children, spouses, teachers, important politicians -- must be three dimensional characters to give their deaths consequence, but if you can achieve that end then it becomes easy to maintain tension. Certainly the players, or the viewers of a show like Supernatural, know that the protagonist's lives aren't as at risk as they would be in a Lovecraft story (or a Call of Cthulhu game session), but they should know that their characters are capable of failure. And if they fail to save someone worth while, that can create a memory that lasts well beyond the campaign.

Every now and then it is nice to step away from the traditional Epic Fantasy roleplaying game, or the hopeless despair of a game like Call of Cthulhu, and an action horror game like Agents of Oblivion can fill that slot nicely. Especially when it is free.

Hulu Recommendation Friday: Fright Night

It wasn't quite the TWILIGHT or NEW MOON for Gen X movie goers, but it was a rollicking good time. FRIGHT NIGHT manages the careful balance between comedy horror and teen dramedy. Think of the film as Ferris Bueller meets the Hammer films catalog and you won't be far off. I also find it hard to imagine that a franchise like BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER could have come to fruition without FRIGHT NIGHT.



Roddy McDowall is wonderful as the combination Van Helsing and local horror movie host -- like Zomboo. More to the point as local horror movie host Van Helsing poseur who is called to combat the forces of Darkness to help a teen whose neighbor happens to be a vampire.

There's a phenomenon in horror films that I haven't written about before, and it's the underlying cause of the reason people tend to open doors when the audience knows better. Essentially, it's the fact that most characters who are in horror movies believe that they are in the real world. You know, where supernatural stuff doesn't really exist. One way that one can begin to categorize horror movies, and their characters, is how meta-aware they are that they are in a horror story.

For example, the only real difference between your typical Lovecraftian professor and Manly Wade Wellman's John Thunstone is that Thunstone knows at the beginning that he is in a horror story and he acts accordingly. In Lovecraft's horror, the breakdown of the psyche of the protagonist is often triggered at the point they realize they are in a horror tale -- this is usually the case in horror movies as well. In Wellman's Thunstone tales, Thunstone's awareness allows him to combat evil in ways that others wouldn't. One can also compare the characters in "Supernatural" to characters in most other horror films/television shows. The Winchester's meta-awareness is what sets them apart and enables them to avoid opening doors best left closed.

FRIGHT NIGHT plays with this concept a lot, and has fun with it. At first, only Charley knows he's living in a horror movie. Eventually, Roddy McDowall finds out, and though his character should know how to defeat evil the tension between real vs. supernatural makes him less effective at combating evil than he would otherwise be.

Sadly, the film cannot be viewed as an embedded film on a non-Hulu site, but it can still be viewed at Hulu at the link provided. I don't think I like these "Crackle" hosted items on Hulu because they cannot be embedded.

Click on the link or the picture and have a good time.

Cthulhu 101 by Kenneth Hite -- Go Buy It Now!!!

I have mentioned Kenneth Hite's works before on Cinerati. He's written everything from Children's books and roleplaying game products to Fortean magazine columns and "must read" companion books to the fiction of H.P. Lovecraft -- he's also written an illustrated guide to U.S. History.

Hite's latest venture requires all of the skills highlighted in Hite's wide ranging bibliography. Cthulhu 101 by Kenneth Hite is one of the most informative and entertaining For Dummies-eque books I have ever read, and it is the first in what will be a line of "101 Books" by Hite's Atomic Overmind Press. The book some how manages to be a delightful and light-hearted introduction to the fiction of H.P. Lovecraft suitable for the completely uninitiated, while also containing enough in jokes to satisfy a wide array of Lovecraft fans.

Do you have no knowledge of Cthulhu and H.P. Lovecraft? That's okay because Hite's informative and humorous tone will introduce you to the character and author in a way that piques interest without being a substitute for the experience. Hite deftly educates readers about Lovecraft, the Lovecraftian circle, and their place in modern horror fiction in bite sized content that reads like a fun conversation. Most sections begin with a question. For example, "Who is Cthulhu?" These questions are followed by a response, which may or may not be humorous. For the aforementioned question, the answer is a straightforward one:

"Cthulhu is a monstrous being invented by the author H.P. Lovecraft in the short story 'The Call of Cthulhu.' Lovecraft wrote the story in 1926, and Weird Tales magazine published it in 1928."

His answer to "I mean, what does Cthulhu look like?" is more humorous.

Are you a gamer who has played the Call of Cthulhu roleplaying game, but want to know more about the character and author? This book is a great place to start and has a reading list in the back and directs readers to some of Hite's favorite stories. If you are an old D&D gamer who has a copy of the original Deities and Demigods, there is a nice in joke for you on page 49.

Have you read all of Lovecraft's writing, but are wondering what the best film based on Lovecraft's fiction is? He's got you covered. If you want to know which Lovecraftian films to avoid, Hite's got a pretty good list. This list contains Cthulhu Mansion, and Hite's description of the film is one of the funniest film reviews I have ever read -- "There is, in fact, a mansion in this movie. The rest is lies and theft."

Hite is a little hard on August Derleth, who is to Lovecraft as L. Sprague de Camp is to Robert E Howard, but is as fair to Derleth as any Lovecraft "purist" can be. This is to say, while Hite is critical of Derleth he makes sure to point out that one of the better Mythos tales -- "The Thing that Walked on the Wind" -- is a Derleth tale.

As an aside, I'm one of those who -- like the Cimmerian -- is more forgiving of de Camp than many of my fellow Robert E Howard fans. Maybe it's because for all that de Camp butchered and infantalized Conan, deC amp's Harold Shea stories are must reads for any fan of Fantasy literature.

Hite's prose is spot on throughout the book and the illustrations by Drew Pocza are a nice counterpoint to the information -- with one exception. While Pocza's black and white illustrations are well drawn and engaging, his cover does leave something to be desired. Pocza's digital colored Cthulhu on the cover lacks the charm of the interior illustrations.

Don't let the cover, printed in the villain colors* of purple and green, fool you. This book is a must own -- go buy it now!

* -- Green and Purple are the standard villain colors in four-color comic books. Think about all the iconic villains, particularly Marvel, and how many of them are green and purple themed.

Is Mel Gibson Preventing New "Fahrenheit 451" Film?

In an interview with Tor Books, Ray Bradbury enthusiastically discusses his desire to see Frank Darabont's adaptation of Bradbury's classic Fahrenheit 451 into a feature film completed -- but there seems to be a road block in the way. Mel Gibson owns the rights to make the Fahrenheit 451 film and isn't helping with the raising of funds for the film.



Is Gibson sitting on the film rights until he can have full control of the project? Does anyone know more information?