WELL GODDAMN HERE I AM!! What’s good? Zombie Zane here coming at ya live and always direct from the seven six one oh seven. This week at DEH we’re talking about alien abductions, the film ‘FIRE IN THE SKY,’ and I’m gonna be giving you my top ten horror/sci-fi movies. And of course we’ll be reviewing episode three in the Masters of Horror series. I know that MOH doesn’t have jack shit to do with our main topic, but who cares. Our blog, our rules. So why not kick on back and check out this weeks shit. It’s good and you will love it!! But on second thought, this episode of MOH DOES have a sci-fi element to it. SHIT, we rule! Not really, it was just a happy coincidence.
As I said in the afore mentioned paragraph, I’m gonna give you a list of my top ten cross genre horror films. Now on an average, I’m not a huge fan of pulsars, quasars, and moons and shit like that. The sci-fi genre is not one of my favorite genre’s but when you add the horror element into it, ehh, it gets better. And there are
a shit load of good horror/sci-fi films out there. So, on that note, let me give you my list:
ZOMBIE ZANE’S TOP TEN HORROR/SCI-FI MOVIES
10. At the number ten spot ya gotta have 1983's "TWILIGHT ZONE: THE MOVIE." Some of the names associated with this film of short stories are as follows...John Landis, Joe Dante, and of course, one Mr. Steven Spielberg. My favorite one of these shorts has got to be the one with the kid who can wish for something and make it happen. Remember his sister with no mouth? CREEPY!! And remember the story with the small creature who was fucking shit up on the wing of the airplane? MORE CREEPY!! And what about this line..."Wanna see something really scary?" Fucking classic!
9. Coming in at the 9 we got the film "THE FLY" from 1986. This film stars Jeff Goldblum and is directed by David Cronenberg. It also stars Geena Davis by the way. Ya can’t have a horror/sci-fi list without one or two monster movies and this one had to make the cut. Nothing better than a half fly- half man puking up acid everywhere and losing various body parts. And by the way, the original film isn’t that bad either so ya may wanna look into that as well.
8. Monsters, monsters and more monsters! Another monster movie that had to make the cut is 2008's American made monster movie, "CLOVERFIELD." Another one of those (now famous) found video tape deals. I must admit, it was a little over-hyped for me but nonetheless, I liked it. It was kinda cool to see a monster besides Kong and Godzilla fuck up New York. Plus this movie has a killer soundtrack.
7. Returning once again to the 80's, how about the film, "VIDEODROME." Another offering written and directed by David Cronenberg. This outer body horror/sci-fi flick stars James Woods and Deborah Harry (a.k.a. Blondie) This movie deals with mind control and conspiracies and is in my humble opinion, (was) a bit ahead of its time. So if you happen to stumble upon a TV channel that broadcasts extreme violence and torture, STAY AWAY!! Or you’ll end up like Max Renn.
6. Ok, out of the 80's and into the 2000's with the movie, "PANDORUM." Dennis Quaid and Ben Foster head up the cast in this sci-fi/horror thriller. Now this movie got shit on pretty good due to the convoluted plot but still, it had an element of horror in my opinion. I mean fast moving outer space creatures, dead bodies, and the possibility of going insane. If that ain’t horror, shiiiiiit. Pretty trippy stuff, Jack.
5. It would not, COULD NOT, be a true horror/sci-fi list without the movie, "ALIEN." Ridley Scott directed this iconic film which went on to spur three other films and even the whole AVP thing. (Which, eat ass.) But I digress. This film was everything you could possibly want in a horror/sci-fi feature. I’ll never forget the first time I saw the ‘chest burster’ burst out of that poor dudes gut. I could practically write a book about this film and what it meant to me but I’ll spare ya. Just if you haven’t seen it, YOU SUCK!! Just kidding. But all kidding aside, one of the best films ever made.
4. At the four, we have this here movie: 1998's "THE FACULTY." Horror master Robert Rodriguez and Kevin Williamson team up to make this high-school alien horror film. It’s one bad motherfucker. I loved everything about this movie. From the plot to the killer soundtrack this movie is one of my all time favorites in the cross genre horror.
3. Time to rock it old school! We goin’ back to the 50's y’all. 1953 to be exact. "WAR OF THE WORLDS." No, not the 2005 Spielberg remake. This is the real deal here. I know that there wasn’t CGI and all that cool shit that we have now, but this movie really is good. It has that old school nostalgic kinda feel to it. It’s the kinda film you watch on a Sunday afternoon and pig out on junk food, ya know? It’s considered to be the best sci-fi film of the 50's and it won an Oscar for special effects. So, on that note, GO WATCH IT!!
2. So if you’re still reading this, we’ve just about come to the end. And we’ve listed some pretty good films, no? Okay, the next to last film on my list, is the Carpenter remake of "THE THING." When I was a kid, this movie frightened the shit outta me!! Nasty little alien that takes control of your body and then discards you like a used condom. (Was that a bad analogy?) In any case, I DVR-ed this movie like a couple of days ago and plan to watch it over the weekend. You should join me.
1. Last but not least we have the film, "THE FOURTH KIND." This list wouldn’t be complete without an alien abduction movie now would it? Now this film is ‘loosely’ based on real events but it seems like now all the movies say that so you can really take it with a grain of salt. Nevertheless, this film stars Milla Jovovich as Dr. Abigail Tyler an Alaskan based psychotherapist whose patients video taped sessions offer some of the most disturbing counts of alien abduction.
Well, there it is. And kudos to you if you stuck with me for the whole list. And if you just scanned it and are still reading the end, well, kudos to you to I guess. That’s all I got for now, be sure and check out the talented Sasha Slaughter as she tells you about Travis Walton and the film, "FIRE IN THE SKY." Until next time, take care, stay a-scared and I am out.
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The movie starts off in Snowflake, Arizona with a truck speeding out of the woods. The truck pulls into bar and five visibly shaken men get out of the truck and walk slowly into the bar. They sit down and Mike Rogers, the boss of the logging company that the men work for, goes to the pay phone and calls the police to report his co-worker and best friend Travis Walton missing. The Sheriff shows up and question the men tirelessly about what exactly happened. The men all tell the same story.
They tell the Sheriff that while on the way home they see bright red lights above the trees. They followed the lights to get a closer look. They stopped a few feet away from what looks like a saucer hovering in the sky. Travis immediately gets out of the truck and runs toward the saucer, trying to get a better look. The men in the truck yell for him to come back but Walton stands there staring at the sky. Just then a beam of blue-green lights comes from the craft and strikes Travis and he falls to the ground and doesn't move. Travis' co-workers get scared and they take off in the truck. They stop a few feet down the road and Mike tells everyone to get out because he's going back to get Travis. Upon returning there is no sign of Travis anywhere, or the saucer they saw in the sky.
The cops don't believe the story and they suspect that the men may have murdered Travis and are making this story up. The next morning there are volunteers, men on horses, dogs, and helicopters combing the woods where Travis disappeared. One of the dogs finds something buried in the ground, and they believe they found Travis Waltons body, but it turns out to be the skeletal remains of an animal. Mike Rogers runs into some little creeper named Jarvis who believes in UFO's and wants to hear his story so he gives Mike his card and tells him to call if he wants to talk.
Meanwhile the police are trying to get the men to confess to the murder of Travis Walton because no one believes their UFO story. The entire town is convinced they had something to do with the disappearance and possible death of Walton. The Sheriff of the town asks Mike and his men to take a lie detector test to prove their innocence, but they refuse. Dallis, one of Travis' co-workers isn't cooperating with the investigation so Mike and TC go to find him and ask him to cooperate and take the lie detector test with him and he agrees. The town is holding a meeting to talk about whats going on with Travis' disappearance. Everyone is convinced that Travis is dead and Mike and his crew are responsible. Just then Mike appears at the meeting and pretty much tells everyone to shut the fuck up and if they have anything to say, to say it to his face. No one says a word and he walks out.
The five men go to the police station to take lie detector tests. The examiner asks them questions about the night of Travis' disappearance and if they did actually see a saucer in the sky. All of the men have the same answers except for Dallis. His test was inconclusive so the Sheriff tells them to come back tomorrow to do it again. Mike spazzes and tells him they're not coming back. After they walk out of the police station the examiner reveals that aside from the inconclusive test, all of the men passed the polygraph test.
Mike goes home after the test and his wife tells him they've been getting prank phone calls for the past few days. The phone rings and Mike answers it. The voice on the other end says that he's Travis and that he's at a gas station and he needs help. Mike, Travis' brother, Mikes sister Dana, and TC go to see if it was infact Travis calling from a gas station in Arizona. They pass one gas station with pay phones but theres no one there. They think it was a hoax but Mike drives to another gas station in town and they pull in. Dana sees someone huddled up and naked by an ice machine and they all realize it's Travis. He's freaking out and screaming when people try to touch him so Mike calls the creepy UFO guy to come talk to Travis.
The UFO guy shows up and starts taking pictures of Travis and asking for a urine sample. A huge fight breaks out and Travis sits there, staring blankly out the window until he sees what looks like an alien handprint on the window, and he starts freaking out. They end up calling 911 and he's rushed to the hospital. By this time he's completely silent and as they wheel him to the ER he's having flashbacks of what happened to him. After he calms down, Mike visits him and admits to him that they left Travis after he was struck by the light beam and that he came back to look for him. Travis got angry that they left him and Mike told him that it was his fault, that if he hadn't have left the truck, it never would have happened.
Travis gets out of the hospital and runs into the Sheriff who accuses Travis of making up the story so he can sell it to the tabloids to get money. He says he doesn't believe Travis and he'll be there when Travis decides to tell him the truth. They have a welcome home party for Travis and he starts to have more flashbacks of his ordeal. They become intense and he freaks out and hides under a table. His flashbacks are of him waking up in a cacoon like thing and falling out of it, but he floats. On his way out of the room he's in, he stumbles across a dead human body in one of the cacoon things he was in. He freaks out and tries to get out of the room. He floats into another room filled with what he thinks are spacesuits, but actually turn out to be aliens. They wake up and catch him and then drag him down a narrow hallway.
They put him on a table and rip of his clothes and then wrap him in some type of latex. They cover his whole body, including his face. Then one alien uses a metal object to cut out a whole in the latex covering his mouth, and a whole to expose an eye. They put some type of brown gooey stuff in his mouth and then they put a metal tool down his throat. They then pry his eye open and this white milky stuff goes into his eye. A metal laser comes from the ceiling and attaches itself to the thing in his mouth and a tiny drill comes out of it and goes towards his exposed eye, just before it reaches his eye, he wakes up in the hospital psychologists room.
He told the shrink and his close friends and family what happened and the shrink believes he's telling the truth. The Sheriff heard the whole thing but is still convinced they are lying and says he'll be there when they decide to stop lying. Fast forward two and a half years later and Travis is married to Mikes little sister Dana and they have a little boy and a girl on the way. Mike stopped talking to Travis the day at the hospital when he told Travis this whole thing was his fault. Travis decides to visit Mike and try to talk to him. They go for a ride and Travis takes Mike to the place where he was abducted. Travis admits that it is his fault and he never should have gotten out of the truck. He tells Mike he's not angry with him and they become friends again. AWWWWWW!!
Although I don't really know if I believe that this happened, this movie was actually pretty good. The actors were great and the acting itself was believeable, which is important. The special effects weren't amazing, it was 1993 afterall, but they looked real and the aliens were hella creepy! The scenes of his flashbacks where the aliens were experimenting on him were great. They showed everything the aliens did and it looked so real. There were some differences between the movie and what Walton described happened to him. The writers of the movie actually got complaints from Ufologists because they said it was exaggerated and some of it was inaccurate. One of the most inaccurate parts of the movie was his time spent in the UFO. It has almost no resemblance to what Walton said actually happened. Overall I'd give this a 2.75 out of 5. It was pretty good and I actually enjoyed watching, it kept me wanting to know what was going to happen next. So there you have it gals and ghouls. Don't forget to check out Zombie Zanes top Sci-fi/Horror movies and his review of Masters of Horror episode 3: Dance of the Dead. And as always faithful readers, check back next week for new stuff here at Dead End Horror.
