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Tag: Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner

Lifeforce & The Omen Horror Movie Talk

Full-frontal vampires from outer space? This is an existential threat that needs to be encountered head-on! And Roy and I are just the guys to do it. Our blather about “Lifeforce” (1985) has been posted here:

Is there anything creepier than creepy kids? Especially when they turn out to be the spawn of Satan? Next week, Halloween month continues with a Revelatory conversation about Richard Donner’s diabolical hit “The Omen” (1976).

Join us in a chorus of “Ave Satani” in the comments section – this is Jerry Goldsmith’s only Oscar-winning score – as we count to 666 on the next Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner, when we livestream on Facebook, next Friday evening at 7:30 EDT!

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October 8, 2022
Dark Yams & Childhood TV Trauma at Roy’s Sci-Fi

We got awfully hung up on yams last night in some truly unexpected (some might say disturbing) ways, during our discussion “Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark” (1973), one of the most traumatizing television experiences of our childhoods. I’ve yet to tally up the results of our informal poll, but it’s possible the malevolent yam people are second only to Karen Black’s Zuni doll from “Trilogy of Terror,” in terms of prepubescent nightmare fuel.

After a sweaty contemplation of the relative thrill of being bound by yams, things promise to be much less perverse next week, when we turn our attention to Tobe Hooper’s “Lifeforce” (1985) – which, after all, is only about naked French vampires from outer space.

All will be laid bare during our conversation, on the next Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner. Sharpen your vampire pick-up lines in the comments section (en français), when we livestream on Facebook, next Friday evening at 7:30 EDT!

“Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark”

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October 1, 2022
Dont Be Afraid of the Dark Feminist Horror

From the time of Adam and Eve, so many of the world’s woes have stemmed from some sort of transgression or disobedience. So in the context of “Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark” (1973), if William Demarest tells you not to open the fireplace, don’t open the fireplace!

You wouldn’t expect any profound subtext in a made-for-TV movie, but there is some pretty palpable feminist anxiety underpinning this tale of Sally, a housewife (“the perfect hostess”), played by Kim Darby, who’s alternately dismissed, neglected, or berated by her ambitious, career-driven husband, played by Jim Hutton. Her only friend tells her, “I don’t care what Women’s Lib tells me, the very mention of a mouse drives me crazy!” Sally’s isolation is made manifest when she’s left alone – in an old dark house, of course.

Sure, the acting is wooden (it doesn’t take much to divine that Demarest is thinking, “I used to work with Preston Sturges!”), the script flat, the set-up pedestrian, and the character motivations preposterous, but there is still something elementally creepy about being stalked by malevolent yams that rasp “Sally, Sally, we want your spirit!”

On the next Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner, we kick off Halloween month a day early, as we discuss the television movie we all watched for the first time as kids, either through our fingers or from behind the couch. The conversation will be sharper than a pocket full of straight razors, and the coffee will be laced with NoDoz. We’ll leave the lights on in the comments section, when we livestream on Facebook, this Friday evening at 7:30 EDT!

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September 29, 2022
Alphaville & Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark Review

Last night on Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner, we embraced the disorienting film noir dystopia that is Jean-Luc Godard’s “Alphaville” (1965). Special thanks to Christian Lalancette for joining us for this three-way conversation. If you disagree with any of the observations, Alpha 60 will have them redacted. Or you can simply employ Orwellian Newspeak, so that everything means its opposite.

Next week, we dive headlong into October a day early to kick off our annual month-long celebration of Halloween, as we recollect “Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark” (1973), the unforgettably creepy TV movie that brought trauma to all our childhoods.

Everyone drink in the comments section whenever we whisper “Sally, Sally….” I’ll have the crankiest disposition this side of William Demarest when we livestream on Facebook, next Friday evening at 7:30 EDT!

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September 24, 2022
Our Man Flint Spy-Fi Deep Dive

The conversation will be all about “spy-fi” on the next “Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner.”

A polymath on the level of Doc Savage (he’s a karate champion, brain surgeon, swordsman, and nuclear physicist), but with the sex appeal, sophistication, and gadgetry of James Bond (his cigarette lighter contains 82 death-dealing devices), Derek Flint effortlessly surfs the swinging ‘60s super-spy tsunami.

There were two Flint films – “Our Man Flint” (1966) and “In Like Flint” (1967) – with talk of producing more, but according to star James Coburn, the studio simply wasn’t set on investing very much in the franchise. Bond knockoffs were rather thick on the ground at the time. Nevertheless, Flint proved to be a breakout role for Coburn. “Our Man Flint” firmly established him as an above-the-title leading man, and one of the era’s reigning tough guys.

Of course, none of it is supposed to be taken very seriously (it’s not for nothing that the sequel, “In Like Flint,” is Austin Powers’ favorite movie), but that doesn’t keep Jerry Goldsmith from lavishing the film with his characteristic invention, including a breezy theme and abundant felicitous touches in the orchestration (requisite surf guitar, jazzy sax, romantic strings, accordion, electronics, mandolin, and Latin percussion). The composer had plenty of experience honing his espionage skills from his work on “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.”

I hope you’ll join us, as Roy and I will be at our manliest (and flintiest) when discussing “Our Man Flint,” on the next Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner. Your license to kill will be waiting in the comments section when we livestream on Facebook, this Friday evening at 7:30 EDT.

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September 15, 2022

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