Classic Ross Amico

Tag: Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner

Night of the Living Dead Discussion

Thanks to Bill Scurato, managing director of Country Gate Players, for joining us last night on Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner, for a lively discussion about “Night of the Living Dead” (1968). We talked about the actual making of the film, its social relevance, and its undying influence. Reanimate the archived program by clicking here:

George A. Romero’s underground masterpiece was featured as part of a Saturday night film series Bill is curating this month at Country Gate Playhouse in Belvidere, NJ. Tonight at 8 pm, there will be a showing of the original, Roger Corman-directed “Little Shop of Horrors” (not to be confused with the later Mencken & Ashman musical).

On October 29th & 30th the Players will present a “live experience” that will incorporate a screening of Ed Wood’s masterpiece of incompetence, “Plan 9 from Outer Space.” Think “Rocky Horror” meets “Mystery Science Theater 3000.” Among other horrors, Roy will actually sing. And dance. For more information, visit https://www.countrygateplayers.org/upcoming-shows-events

Next week, we’ll conclude Halloween month with special guests Michael Rizzo and Marybeth Ritkouski of the weekly webcast SciFi Distilled. In what has now become something of a holiday tradition, M&M will join R&R for a lighthearted conversation about the classic television series “The Munsters” (1964-66). Costumes will be worn!

We’ll be looking for you on Mockingbird Lane. Leave your macabre, comical comments, when we livestream on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, next Friday evening at 7:30 EDT!

https://www.facebook.com/roystiedyescificorner

October 22, 2022
Romero’s Night of the Living Dead Horror Classic

Prior to “Night of the Living Dead” (1968), cinematic zombies were eerie, but mostly harmless. Generally, they did the bidding of Bela Lugosi or wandered like somnambulists through Val Lewton films. But that all changed overnight when filmmaker George A. Romero turned them into flesh-eating “ghouls” (as he called them; the word zombie is never uttered). Now, it seems, the zombie apocalypse is here to stay.

However, few films in the genre are so well executed. Romero’s lean and mean thriller has the simplest of premises and the lowest of budgets, yet good writing, editing, and direction, and a matter-of-fact tone make this one of the most convincing horror movies ever made. Especially since, as would always be the case throughout Romero’s zombie cycle (he made six “Dead” films in all), the chills are informed by real-world social and political subtexts.

“Night of the Living Dead” serves as both the last gasp of 1950s B-movie drive-in fodder and the dawn of contemporary horror. And people were indeed horrified. The film opened a month before the MPAA ratings system was implemented, and it was distributed to theaters as typical Saturday matinee fare. Critics were appalled and children were scarred for life.

We’ve become so desensitized, yet there’s a power to this film that will never die. Roy and I discuss George A. Romero’s implacable classic on the next Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner. Wander glazed in the comments section. Our intestinal fortitude will be on display as human flesh is on the menu, when we livestream on Facebook (and Twitter and YouTube), this Friday evening at 7:30 EDT!

https://www.facebook.com/roystiedyescificorner

October 20, 2022
Night of the Living Dead Livestream This Friday

A great compliment from Vinny Foti regarding our show on Friday evening. Everything goes better with a cheesesteak and pierogies. Be sure to order out in advance of our discussion of “Night of the Living Dead” (1968), on the next @[100063986017424:2048:Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner]. We livestream on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, this Friday at 7:30 pm EDT. Thank you, Vinny!

October 16, 2022
“The Omen” Didn’t Scare Me

Granted, the film’s gruesome set-pieces are all pretty unforgettable. But I’m sorry, “The Omen” (1976) just didn’t scare me. Then again, my dad took me to the drive-in to see “The Omega Man” when I was five. So I was probably fairly well inured to stuff-and-nonsense like the son of Satan being born to a jackal. Atticus Finch and family terrorized by the Devil’s Rottweilers? A little silly, don’t you think? But Charlton Heston, the last man on earth, battling legions of plague-induced zombies? That sh** can happen!

Few would deny that the 1970s was a very strange decade. It was an era when audiences could accept supernatural Rottweilers doing the bidding of Satan, and a successful franchise spun out of “The Doberman Gang.”

One thing I think we can all agree on is that little kids are creepy. Also, David Warner looks sinister even when he’s supposed to be one of the good guys. (I was amused to learn that Warner held on to the film’s iconic severed head for years – until it was taken by his wife when they divorced.)

FUN FACT! Jerry Goldsmith’s Oscar-winning music can be used to underscore almost any situation.

Lawn crew pulls up at development [Cue “Ave Satani”]

Sniff carton to discover milk has turned [Cue “Ave Satani”]

Squirrel hangs upside down from tube feeder [Cue “Ave Satani”]

Try it!

Then check out our conversation about “The Omen” on last night’s Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner.

Next week, we’ll be joined by Bill Scurato, managing director of Country Gate Players. Bill is presenting a Saturday night film series this month (with a 100th anniversary screening of F.W. Murnau’s “Nosferatu” tonight at 8:00) at Country Gate Playhouse in Belvidere, NJ.

On the 29th & 30th the players will present a “live experience” assimilating Ed Wood’s masterpiece of incompetence, “Plan 9 from Outer Space.” We’ll learn more about it, when we discuss one of the films shown at Country Gate this month, George A. Romero’s seminal zombie classic, “Night of the Living Dead” (1968).

So leave your brains in the comments section. Human flesh is on the menu, when we livestream on Facebook, next Friday evening at 7:30 EDT!

https://www.facebook.com/roystiedyescificorner

PHOTO: Rubber bands had to be put around the muzzles of the “Satanic” Rottweilers in order to make them look like they were snarling

October 15, 2022
The Omen Is It Scary Or Just Confusing?

The unholy love-child of “Rosemary’s Baby” and “The Exorcist,” “The Omen” (1976) proved to be the fulfillment of a prophecy that big-studio mainstream demonic horror was here to stay.

But is the movie particularly scary?

Sure, it’s got atmosphere to burn, with a creepy nanny and a Jerry Goldsmith score replete with mumbo jumbo Latin chorus. But it’s more of a Hitchcock film (perhaps by way of Brian DePalma) than anything that’s going to make you sleep with the light on or haunt your consciousness.

Granted, the big set-pieces are pretty unforgettable. But how many of them make any sense? “The Omen” is puzzlingly devoid of psychological, mythic, or even biblical resonance, despite the characters’ repetition of a passage from the Book of Revelation.

What it did have was enormous success at the box office, which allowed director Richard Donner to make “Superman,” and for that, at least, we are blessed. For 20th Century Fox, this son of a jackal proved to be a lucrative cash cow. Of course, Fox is now a subsidiary of Walt Disney. To contemplate that Disney is now in a position to crank out more “Omen” films is scarier than anything in the movie.

Anyway, it ain’t “The Exorcist,” but the power of friendship compels me… to show up for our discussion of “The Omen.” Unleash your Satanic rottweilers in the comments section. I’ll be feeling every one of the 666 minutes of the next Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner, this Friday evening at 7:30 EDT.

https://www.facebook.com/roystiedyescificorner

October 13, 2022

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