When Cthulhu Calls You'd Better Answer!

I think you were missing Dr Willett. I know that I was, and it took time for me to realize that he had been replaced by a detective, a sidekick and a wife. I guess Hollywood is convinced that unless we have a sex interest, it can't be a good story. I do like your review, though. Very well done.

Not really. I can accept that in a modernization as long as the end result is okay. I think I managed to miss the whole comedic tone of the movie the same way I missed it in RE-ANIMATOR. I was watching RE-ANIMATOR while trying to assemble a piece of furniture and I missed all the wonderfullness of it and thought it stunk. Later I heard Roger Ebert saying how terrific it was and how funny so I decided to revisit it, and I loved it. Maybe with RESURRECTED I was just zoning out or something.

That is very possible, too. I've done that myself. Although, to be honest, I STILL don't like Re-Animator or the Unnameable series, either. Of course, that's just me.

I love Jeffrey Combs. Maybe with another actor in the role I wouldn't have liked it as much, but he's just so perfect. I was also put off a bit by the gore factor, but I adjusted. UNNAMEABLE II was better than the first one, I actually enjoyed it because it gave Randolph Carter a bit more to do, but of course its still at best a second tier flick.

Combs is excellent, but I just don't like the fact that the Hollywood writers think that you have to add so much gore to Lovecraft. There is also the sex interest that has been added to every Lovecraft film made by a major studio. One film that I do love, though, is "In The Mouth of Madness". It's not Lovecraft, but it sure feels like it.

You've got to have the gore and the sex for the target audience the 19 year old male. IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS should have been a Lovecraft film it felt more like one than many that said they were.

Have you seen the 1963 movie "The Haunting"? No sex, no spewing entrails, no heads lopped off and no monster, creature or whatever on stage. It quite literally scared the hell out of me, simply because it DEMANDS that you participate. It's so well written and well acted.

Um, I hate to admit it but I never liked it. I hated all the voice-over work by Julie Harris. I would have liked it much better without hearing her thoughts all the time. The  camera work was nice though.  Couldn't help but notice that Sam Raimi stole it for EVIL DEAD. And of course Robert Wise's direction was very good as well.

I just thought it was the best way to scare you without blood, gore and sex. The novel was brilliant, too. Not everyone likes that, though. My son much prefers the horror with special effects. Of course, he's 36 and I'm 66. I think younger people do prefer the special effects and the blood and gore.

No doubt about it, they do. I don't need special effects myself, and when I get 'em I don't need 'em to be spectacular because I grew up with men in monster suits and space ships hanging on wires so as long as the story is working what do I care. It takes a lot to pull me out of the moment.

You are certainly wise beyond your years. I remember being excited by the 1930s Buster Crabbe Flash Gordon serials. I think the special effects budget for them was around $.35 per episode. They were bad, but the stories were exciting. I do admit that I am old, and have the old man attitude that the story is more important than the effects. It's nice to see someone as young as you with that attitude.

We had a kids' show on tv everyday called Captain Mac's Adventure Show and they ran those along with Sheena, and Johnny Weissmuller's Tarzan, and even old Clyde Beatty serials. I ain't as young as I look.

Actually, your picture looks very much like Kirsten Dunst, and she is only 27 or so. I guess I assumed that you were about that age. Your picture doesn't look any older. If you remember those, though, you must be older.

That's the wonderful thing about the internet, you never know who anyone really is. Actually that was taken when I was 30ish. I retired from the Pissed Office about 2 years ago and am fairly surprised that I lived long enough to do so. That place really will kill you, one way or the other. Funny that you think I look like Kirsten Dunst. I write occasional to a guy who used to be an exercise rider fpr Secretariat (that horse was the one true love of my life, although we never met) and he thought I looked like Debra Paget! I don't see that one at all!.  When I was 16 and doing the blonde thing, a friend's mother said I looked like Mia Farrow.

You do look like Kirsten Dunst, at least to me. My picture was taken this past Christmas, so I still look very much like that. I retired after 6 years of Navy, 6 years of Air Force and 22 years of Air National Guard. Four Meritorious Service Medals, two Purple Hearts from Nam and seven letters of commendation. That will age you quickly, believe me. You also seem to have good bone structure so I'll bet you are still attractive. No, I"m not trying to pick you up. At my age, and with my background, I simply say what I think and hope that those I talk with will understand that

No problem. Do you remember the first movie you ever saw?

Yes, a Bob Steele western. Dad took me to the movies when I was 6 years old, in 1949. Black and white. Dad would NOT take me to Frankenstein or Dracula, though, until I was around 12. What was your first movie?

I'll never forget it, it warped me for life. It also makes it pretty easy to figure out my age. It was THE THING. It was right before we moved from Ohio to Florida so I couldn't possibly have been more than more 4 and 1/2. Even thought it scared me silly, I loved monster movies from that day forward. I met Kenneth Tobey at a horror convention in 1994. It was like going full circle.

Wow!!! I remember that one. James Arness was the critter. The first real "horror" I saw was "Them", also with James Arness and James Whitmore. Then, "Creature From the Black Lagoon". Great stuff.

Fess Parker was also in THEM, he had a small part as a fighter pilot who gets thrown in a psycho ward after getting buzzed by the queen ant. I had a majot crush on Fess Parker when he was doing Davey Crockett on Disney. And a lot of the first2 BLACK LAGOON film were actually shot in Florida not more than a couple of hours from where I lived. A lot of underwater stuff was shot in Silver Springs including Sea Hunt. Lloyd Bridges old show.

I watched Sea Hunt every time it was on. I had a huge case of preteen lust for Julie Adams from Black Lagoon, too. I actually met Fess Parker in 1956 when I visited Disneyland in California. I am also from Ohio, and live there now.

I understand he has a vinyard out there with his own lable. We were from Cleveland. My father was born in Columbus. He eventually moved back to this small town around Canton.

I had not heard that. Would not surprise me, though. He seemed entirely too nice to be a celebrity when I met him. My teen aged hero worship seemed to almost embarass him. I'm from Springfield, and I'm back there now. Been all over with the military, but I came home for Mom and Dad. They both died in the 90s, so now I'm here for my mother's sister, who just had her 90th birthday.

My mother dies in 2000 just 2 months after my daughter's twins were born, she'd just turned 90, and my father died a year or so before that he was 88. Well. I have to call it a night. I have to get up very early tomorrow. Yuck. I'm not a morning person. I'm not a night person either. I'm only good from about 11 in the morning to about 10 at night. I have a real small window. Talk to you later.