Monster Crap: September 2019

Monster Crap Inductee: Prophecy

Bipedal Mutant Killer Bears Will Find You…

1979

10 years. 10 years since this site has existed. 10 years since I tested out an idea site I had for Blogspot. A lot can and has happened in 10 years.

I’ve covered many forms of Monster Crap, from the embarrassingly terrible attempt to Americanize Godzilla to dreck by one Uwe Boll to films on Mystery Science Theater 3000 to the films of the studio company known as The Asylum to my hatred of Universal Studios to films I grew up with as a kid and those nostalgia glasses needed to be cleaned quite a bit to porn films (thanks Porno Pete) to films that I don’t what the hell was going on. Through it all, I believe I have for the most part been able to keep things extremely humorous.

Heck, the stars of Monster Crap films have done a lot in 10 years from sadly pass away, to becoming world champion to getting a huge freaking break and sometimes even winning a damn Oscar to finding someone they love to hell, even becoming freaking mayor.

Congratulations Knox County, Your Mayor Is Jacob Goodnight. Keep Your Eyes In Your Heads At All Times And Avoid Run Down Hotels

And of course, a lot has happened to me. Both good and bad. Since starting this site, I have lost both my grandfathers, one of my uncles, and a two interns sadly. But I have also gone to several great wrestling events, concerts, and horror conventions. I have also hired another intern to make for the ones no longer with us. I have seen many great movies. I have seen one of my favorite teams win a sports championship and hell, just these last few months, I have moved out of the place I had been living in for 22 years and am in a new house where I don’t have to mow the fucking lawn.

And now we get to the 10^th anniversary induction, a induction that I had you choose out of films that I was only going to nominate this once and never again because I liked every single one of them. And for several days out of that week, it was a close call to see who would win. But one would pull ahead and ultimately get this slot. And that film is a film about mutant killer bears.

Hey, I Might Do More Bear Jokes In This Induction

And I’m glad I started off with Christopher Walken because some of you may have heard Prophecy and thought “that movie where Christopher Walken is the archangel Gabriel?” And my response to that is no, that was “The Prophecy” and this is just “Prophecy”. And before you say that is not really a huge difference, I would like to say I agree with you, but with films like “The Final Destination” being a sequel to Final Destination and “The Predator” being a sequel to “Predator”; films like “The Intruder” and “The Intruder” as well as “Changeling” and “The Changeling” being two different movies; as well as films sharing the same title for no other reason than they are lazy like we have two movies called The Thing, you really need to talk to Hollywood about that.

Anyway, in the 1970s…a huge thing besides disco, Woodstock, the Vietnam War, and Nixon being corrupt as hell, was helping the environment against the scourge that we make in pollution.

By The Way, That Guy Is Italian Because In The 70s, We Really Didn’t Know The Difference Between Italians And Native Americans.

Right, Chief Jay Strongbow? Or Should I Call You Luke Scarpa

That rant will make sense when we get to the movie. But back to the movie itself.

We liked doing films that talked about the damage we are doing to the environment (or with horror, if we are not careful, the environment will get revenge on our asses.

Just Like That Frogs Movie I Did A Few Years Back

Enter Hollywood North, a period of films being made in Canada for either cheaper values or for the natural environment up there that still continues to this day. And also enter John Frankenheimer, who at that time was a huge name in making political thrillers and decided to step a little out of his comfort zone in making a horror movie. For the film’s stars, they would get Robert Foxworth (a sort of name in the 70s), Talia Shire (who was a name after being in the first two Rocky movies as Adrian and the first two Godfather movies as Connie), another really good actor in Richard Dysert, and a relative unknown at the time in Armad Assante.

And speaking of Richard Dysert, this is the first actor in one of my inductions that was also in one of my favorite films of all time.

Yep, A Few Years After This Movie…He Would Be Copper In John Carpenter’s The Thing.

And of course, we have a few people from past Monster Crap inductions like Tom McFadden (who was in Uncle Sam and 976-EVIL), Burke Bynes (who was in Child’s Play 3), Eric Mansker (who played a bodyguard in Leprechaun In The Hood), and Frank Welker (who was in so many inductions that I have lost count).

So with all that out of the way, let’s get into this fun film.

We begin with the old school Paramount logo.

Yeah…Paramount Extremely Hates Horror Movies If You Go By The Word Of Many People Who Have Worked There. But Because They Make So Much Money For Them, They Continue To Make Them.

We then see flashlights in the dark and a very generically font of a title sequence.

As we get the opening credits, we find out that these flashlights belong to rescuers, who have come to find some missing lumberjacks.

Let’s Hope These Lumberjacks Aren’t Just Simply Putting On Women’s Clothing So They Can Hang Around In Bars.

The rescuers also have dogs. One dog senses something and runs towards it with everyone else following. The dog jumps off a cliff, but is saved by the harness on it as the rescuers try to pull it back up. But something has grabbed the dog and the rope snaps signaling that either way, that dog is dead.

Don’t Even Think About Running Off To Do That.

They never heard the dog hit the ground so two of the three are going to climb down the cliff after it. They get down to the ground, but soon they are missing as well as the third guy hears horrifying screams from them as their ropes are cut and sent back up. This third guy decides “No Man Left Behind” so I’ll go down there and check it out. Of course he slips and falls on his way down and lands on some rocks. The fall doesn’t kill him, but it does basically make him paralyzed and with one of the rescuers dead next to him….

A roar and his screams signifies that he is royally dead meat.

So the next morning, we see the guy’s bloody helmet floating on a stream cut with shots of the beautiful outdoors.

Oh And These Dead Bodies Just Hanging There. But At Least We Showed That Nature Is Beautiful.

We then cut to Maggie Verne playing on the cello for an orchestra concert.

Hey Talia Shire Or As Rocky Would Say “Adrien!!!!!”

She is having some issues by the look on her face for a moment, but she gets right back to normal and no one in the audience is any the wiser. After the concert is over, we find out that Maggie is pregnant and has not told her husband, who she thinks would probably not want to have it because in his opinion, the world is such a mess that it would be unfair to bring a child into it. The friend who noticed her issues and who she is talking to about this tells her that it is her choice and no one else’s. This friend wants Maggie to tell him now and Maggie says she needs to pick the right time.

Meanwhile, we see an ambulance go, but we have to go to the park to see Native Americans protesting the way they are being treated.

Sadly, I Think Their Treatment Got Only A Smidge Better.

Meanwhile, we see the ambulance arrive at a run down part of the city. Here, we meet her husband Rob, who is a doctor and has to clean a baby up from some rat bites, then put the baby in the hospital because the baby is sick.

After cleaning it up, he leaves and complains outside about the conditions of the building. He also hates that nothing will be done about this and that these people really can’t move anywhere better so it is rather a hopeless endeavor, but one he must do anyway…although he wishes things were different.

A government agent comes by and tells Rob that he is needed to write a report on the situation in Maine between a paper mill and a group of Indians called Opies. The Paper Mill brought a whole lot of land to work for their operation and the natives say it is theirs. The dispute is at a standstill, but they believe EPA investigation would make things easier for one side to win over the other. It takes some convincing, but Rob goes along with it and takes his wife Maggie with him to Maine.

When they get to Maine, they meet a father with his two kids preparing for a camping trip.

Rob and Maggie then meet the head of the paper mill, Bethel Isley.

We also see a dog being airlifted from the forest and we find out that it is all that is left of the search and rescue team that wasn’t found. We then first hear of Katahdin, which is an Native American legend, according to the film. I looked it up on my end and the only Katahdin I see is Mt. Katahdin, which is in Maine so someone did their research for the most part. I say for the most part because Katahdin means “Greatest Mountain” and the legend that supposedly protects that area is Pamola, a creature with wings of a bird, body of a man, and head of a moose.

Also Mascot For The Baxter Brewing Company In Maine

Meanwhile, the Katahdin in this movie is supposed to be a sort of bigfoot that is larger than a dragon, but with eyes of a cat. Bethel definitely finds this whole Katahdin business a joke and believes the Opies killed the people, but is very courteous to the Vernes as much as possible, probably knowing why they are here. Of course, then we meet the Opies who are having a blockade.

One of them just so happens to be the leader John Hawks.

Hey Armand Assante. Remember When I Talked About Hollywood Not Caring About The Difference Between Italians And Native Americans? This Film Sadly Is Another Reminder Of That.

Isley tries to reason with John, but John is not having any of it. He then eventually loses his patience and has one of his employees in Kelso try to chainsaw the tress that is holding the chains.

No, Not That Kelso!!!!

Yeah, That Kelso.

This resolves into a fight of chainsaw vs. axe as John grabs one and refuses to let him cut down the tree. He even says that Kelso will have to cut his head off before this tree goes down. Rob is not happy seeing this and tries to reason to stop, but Bethel is insistent. Kelso gets the upper hand and at Bethel’s orders, makes Kelson threaten to chainsaw John.

With this threat, the lead female native Ramona (and John’s wife) unlocks the chains and ends the blockade.

The Actress Playing Her Is Actually Part Native American On Her Mom’s Side.

While the paper mill eventually gets what it wants to ending the blockade, Rob is extremely pissed and lets it be known how bullshit that act was.

The Vernes are led to their cabin, where they will stay while Rob makes his report. At the cabin, Maggie records herself playing on the cello via tape recorder while Rob goes fishing. Rob notices something strange in that a giant obviously mutated fish eats a duck.

After that, he goes home and cooks the smaller fish he caught while talking about the giant fish he saw which he thinks was a world record in size. He eats with his wife and his wife just waves it off as being Maine since Maine was where Paul Bunyan and his ox Babe were from, which is kinda true in that there are a variety of places that claim that is where Paul Bunyan was born and in this case, its Bangor, Maine (other places being in Minnesota, Michigan, and Wisconsin).

Anyway, they talk about how peaceful it is out here. Maggie subtly tries to work up the nerve to tell her husband she is pregnant, but Rob keeps going with not wanting to have another child out in this world. Rob also may be afraid as he doesn’t even know when asked as he doesn’t know a lot of things anymore. He feels like despite all he has tried to do, he keeps ending up where he started. Maggie tells him that she loves him and he responds by saying the same to her before they start making out. However, it goes no farther than that as obviously there is an animal at their door making noises. Rob goes to see what it is, but as soon as he answers the door, he finds a racoon in the midst of a seizure.

The racoon gets out of the seizure and starts attacking.

Robert eventually sends the racoon into the fire, burning it to death.

Meanwhile, that family we saw at the airport earlier is hiking in the woods. The daughter has to be told to turn off her radio as the father thinks he heard something. He finds it is nothing so she turns the radio back on. We then see a bunch of kayakers racing against each other.

But it is merely Maggie watching the race from a bridge as Rob is on the phone talking to his friend and sending tissue samples for the dead raccoon they encountered as Rob believes something was obviously wrong with it. John and Ramona show up and say that they want to tell Rob and his wife Maggie their side of the conflict with the paper mill. He explains that his people are violently ill and some of it is what makes it appear like they are drunk, but alcohol has no bearing on what is happening to them. Also, they mention that there have been a rash of children that we born dead and deformed.

The two natives then take the Vernes to where the Opies live, of course visiting the teepees on the outside part of their settlement where Ramona’s grandfather M’Rai lives.

Not Italian, But Not American Native American As He Is A Canadian One.

Rob then talks about how a few days ago, he was encountering people fighting for room in a single living space yet they have a whole forest. John tells him that those people fought way too late. As M’Rai talks about how there are tunnels also underneath the land, Rob notices very strange burn marks on his hand.

They look at the area and mention the legend of Katahdin. M’Rai tells them that he has seen Katahdin not that long ago. As they see something big in the water, Rob also starts to notice strange stuff on the roots of the trees.

Oh and that thing in the water? A giant tadpole.

Since this pond feeds into the river where the paper mill is, Rob obviously thinks something is up. So he goes to the paper mill as Bethel gives him a tour. Robert asks questions and Bethel (getting angrier as he has to defend his mill) each time tells them that he can test the water supply as it has been done many times and it has been clean, despite the use of contractors for how they get their wood via transport. As they get back on the boat to head back to the cabin, Maggie steps in some

On the boat back to the cabin, Maggie says that she believes him. Rob makes note of the mud on her boots as there is silvery stuff on it. He finds out that the silvery stuff is dry and mentions how in school he was given a trick question of what is the only liquid that isn’t wet. When Maggie asks what the answer was, Rob tells her it is mercury. That night, he looks at a history of mercury on how it was used for wood to keep it dry and not get algae, but it’s widespread use was stopped in 1956 when it was found to be responsible for 100,000 deaths in the town of Minimata, Japan.

Whatever, you want to say about the film being false, this info is very huge to people who know the history of ecological disasters with the only things wrong in what he was saying is the number of deaths weren’t that many and the time when it was stopped. You see, between 1932 and 1968, a chemical company Chisso Corporation (then known as Nichitsu) discharged effluent that contained mercury from their plant in Minimata. This methyl mercury contaminated the fish and this fish was what the local population ate. People got sick with a neurological syndrome caused by this mercury that was eventually given a name. It’s called Minimata Disease. Look this up if you dare as what you will find is not pretty.

Robert explains that basically the reason mercury is never found in the water is because it all goes to the bottom. He says that the water is contaminated from all the evidence shown earlier and that contamination goes towards the babies of the people who eat the food from the lake. This makes Maggie very upset, although it will take 10 days to a week to where they can be sure that it is mercury that is infecting these people.

Now it is time for the scene that everyone who has ever seen this movie remembers. Remember that family that was hiking earlier? Well, they are camped out and asleep when they are awakened by our monster also known as Katahdin.

Unfortunately For Them, Katahdin Is Not Looking For Any Picnic Baskets

The girl screams which awakens the boy and father. The son tries to run while in his damn sleeping bag.

And if you remember Friday The 13^th Part VII, this can only end in a hilarious death.

And We Don’t Need To See The Father And Girl Killed To Know That They Are Also Dead

The next day, Robert is getting blood drawn from the Opies.

However, this all ends with Bethel, his boys, the sheriff, and the deputies arrive to the Opies settlement.

That family who had been killed that night have been found and the Opie men are getting blamed for it with several of them getting arrested. John is going to get arrested too, but John decides to be a suspicious idiot (even though we know damn well he didn’t do it) and run away.

Even When He Was Getting His Feet Wet In Acting, Armand Assante Already Knew How To Betray The Law

He gets away. Robert Verne wants to go to Mary’s Bend (where the death’s took place) and Ramona agrees to take him and Maggie there. The helicopter takes them there (despite the pilot’s apprehension that he doesn’t like the way the sky is looking). As the helicopter is landing, we see claw marks.

Oh and it starts to rain.

Because Of Course It Does

Robert sees the claw marks. He asks Ramona what could have done this and Ramona thinks a bear perhaps did it.

I’m Sure You Would Expect Me To Make A Stephen Colbert Joke, But Before He Got His Job On CBS, We Found Out Stephen Colbert Is A Bear Lover.

Of course we also see claw marks higher up to let us know that this bear is tall.

Or Climbed Up A Tree Just To Do That

Oh and they find a bit of skin left by the creature.

Of course, John Hawkes also shows up.

Maggie gets out of the helicopter to look at some traps that poachers left by the stream and hears noises. She goes to the noises to find something horrifying. Her cries of despair call over Robert, John, and Ramona and they find in those traps….

Mutant Bear Cubs.

Well, Looks Like This Will Not Be The Day Where Humans And Bears Can Co-Exist Peacefully. Better Head Back To Gummi Glen.

Yeah, this is probably enough proof to tell people that the Opies are innocent. Also, there are two cubs, but only this cub is alive as with these traps, the other cub drowned. Ramona thinks they should let it die, but Richard rightfully points out that yes, this is the proof they need to tell people that something else killed that family. It is also evidence that if shown, that paper mill is going down hard as even in the late 70s, something like this would not fly with the EPA which had been established 9 years earlier….would so be young enough to be willing to burn whoever is responsible for this. They want to leave by helicopter, but the pilot says no way are they flying out of here in this weather and considering who would die in a helicopter crash the same year as this movie came out, I don’t think you wanted to become like Thurman Munson.

They need to find someplace warm to keep the mutant cub alive and Ramona recommends they go to the teepees where her grandfather lives at. They get to the place where several other Opies are waiting for them, but M’Rai is not one of them. They set up a table in one of the teepees where they put the mutant cub down and wrap it up to keep it warm. They tell the Opies to send people from the newspaper, the sheriff, and people from the paper mill to show them this horrifying creature.

Kudos To Whoever Did The Effects For This Cub.

Robert then notices his wife looking unhappy as she sees the mutant cub. Unfortunately, he is more concerned with this cub and asks for supplies from his bag. That night, Robert finally tries to calm his wife down and she finally tells him that she is pregnant. She explains that because she ate what the mother of those mutant bear cubs ate, she is worried about her child. Robert asks why didn’t he know and Maggie rightfully points out that he didn’t want to know.

Yeah, Considering How Robert Has Been Kind Of So Focused On His Work That He Didn’t Notice Completely Obvious Signs That Something Huge Was Up (Especially As She Kept Playing That Part Of His Recorder About The Mercury-Contaminated Fish Causing Mutations In Offsprings), This Is Definitely On Him.

After all of this, Robert is finally understanding of her plight. But we can’t get to further into this as Ramona tells Robert to come to the teepee. Inside, we see that the bear cub is crying for help from his mother and if you know anything about how protective mother bears are to their cubs, shit is about to hit the fan.

But first, the vehicles finally come with Bethel, the sheriff, and people from the papers. John decides that since his run earlier, he better stay in the tunnels under the teepees until they are gone. Bethel wonders what the hell is the meaning of this summoning and Robert says the proof they need of their mess is all here. The people who arrived all see the mutant cub and are horrified, especially knowing what this means.

The Look Of A Man Who Just Realized That The Very Business He Owned….Is Going To Be Fucked Beyond Recognition

Bethel leaves the teepee, upset about this with Robert behind and we get this bit of dialogue.

Robert: Did you know?

Bethel: I didn’t want to.

When dealing with anyone higher up having a huge fall because of the actions of someone under them (in this case, the contractors who put chemicals in the wood to keep it from rotting), more often than not, you will find that is ultimately the answer that the higher ups have. In business as a boss of a big corporation that has a million jobs on the line, most truly do not want to know every bit of what their company is doing for fear that their own conscience would bring about the end to their own success by self-reporting their own mistakes or any sign of weakness. In fact, you see it with our own damn president who even doesn’t want to hear you sneeze or cough because he stubbornly sees not being able to control your own body a sign of weakness. It’s always a case of inflated ego that is flimsily patched to get that hot air, but doesn’t want anyone bringing it up. And more often than not with anything that brings someone down to Earth and into failure is ego.

Hell, Some People (Like Antonio Brown Here) Are Willing To Lose Millions Of Dollars Because Of The Almighty Ego

Now you remember a few paragraphs ago, I said shit was about to hit the fan because mama bear was obviously coming. Well, we get a fake scare at first with M’Rai finally showing up in a bear blanket to wonder why everyone is here and then we get the real scare as mama mutant bear is here.

Kelso (the guy who earlier nearly killed John with a chainsaw and is also here) is the first among this group to die.

An Opie tries to protect people in the teepees and he gets it.

John comes out as a fire has started and tells everyone to get into the tunnels. The helicopter pilot is wounded by the bear.

Robert is able to get the helicopter pilot to safety. We hear other people screaming while our survivors are in the tunnels hoping to wait things out. After several minutes of nothing but silence, the sheriff grabs his flashlight and sees if the coast is clear.

Safe To Say It Wasn’t As Katahdin Kills The Sheriff And In This Case, Probably Killed The Deputy Too

Katahdin takes the dead mutant cub and runs away as M’Rai looks on.

When daylight hits and the fire has all but died down, the survivors come back up looking at the burnt remains of all the teepees and a vehicle. They are thankful that M’Rai is still alive. Robert says that the helicopter pilot is still alive, but definitely needs to go to the hospital, but John tells them that the town is too far away and since the Opie settlement is closer, they go there. Except for Bethel as he decides that there is an old communication tower about 6-7 miles on top of Mount Emery (which would probably be really Emery Pass, which leads to Dorr Mountain) so he can radio for help.

Bethel takes this mission alone as a way to hopefully make up for his mill creating this whole mess by his own conscience. Unfortunately for Bethel, he finds the remains of the dead mutant bear cub the mother took being eaten by bugs.

Of course, that means that Katahdin is there. Bethel tries to make it to the radio tower, but it is locked and the gate around it has barbed wire. He tries to go under the gate, but Katahdin kills him so no help is coming from the outside.

And Thank You, Richard Dysart, For Giving Us A Silly Death Face. Monster Crap Has Had Loads Of Those Over The Years.

Richard, John, Ramona, Maggie, and M’Rai get to the settlement with the injured pilot, but find that word travels real fast and the settlement has been abandoned. They take the wounded pilot inside so he can rest as M’Rai sings a prayer. John goes off with a bow and arrow and finds an abandoned vehicle. John goes back and tells everyone about it. They all get on, but in the middle of the night, Katahdin stops them from getting into town.

And Where Do You Think You’re Going?

It capsizes the vehicle, and kills the wounded pilot as everyone else escapes.

Everyone else gets to the river as everyone but M’Rai decides to swim towards the cabin which is across it. The bear cub had been biting Maggie’s neck and does it again in the river. Robert sees her in trouble and in a rare case of choosing his wife over his work, he grabs the cub and drowns it.

M’Rai decides that he is going to try and reason with Katahdin. That goes about as well as you would expect.

Tip: No Point In Trying To Reason With Mutant Killer Bears

Afterwards, the bear decides that it is going run after them. They get to the cabin and see Katahdin go under the water….and just assume it is dead.

Um…Bears Can Swim, You Guys.

While we know Frank Welker does the bear noises, I guess since we’re at a good place as any to talk about the guy in the mutant bear suit. This would be the first (albeit uncredited) role for former 7’2 college basketball player Kevin Peter Hall. He majored in Theatrical Arts at George Washington University while he had a college basketball scholarship down there. After college, he moved to Venezuela to try playing pro basketball down there, but quickly lost interest in it. Afterwards, he would go to Los Angeles and work with college friend Jay Fenichel in doing stage musicals. Because of his size though, Hollywood would soon come calling for him to play big monsters and this was his first role. A few years later, he would meet Alaina Reed on the set of 227 (she played Rose Lee Holloway) and they would marry off-screen in 1988 (where they have two kids) and 1989 on camera for the show. You may also know him from two roles he took.

Predator In “Predator” And Harry In “Harry And The Hendersons”.

We’ll get more into Mr. Hall during the aftermath of this review portion, including his tragic end.

Suddenly, bubbles started showing which causes worry. Then the bubbles stop and they think they are okay. The bear then pops up, showing that it is very much still alive.

I’m Ready For My Cover Shoot For Mutant Bears Illustrated

They all run into the cabin and try to barricade the door, but that does little to protect them from Katahdin, who punches a hold through the roof.

Little Humans, Little Humans, Let Me In!!!!!!

Robert shoots the bear off the roof. After some more waiting as they hope the bear is dead, Katahdin shows it is not as it busts through the wall.

NOT VERY NEIGHBORLY!!!!!

Robert shoots the bear with the shotgun and John shoots it with arrows, but the bear still will not go down. John continues to shoot it with arrows, but the bear kills him.

Robert grabs the arrow just as the bear grabs him, so Robert decides to start stabbing Katahdin with the arrows.

Robert stabs Katahdin in the eye and since the mutant bear obviously only had that one eye, it is blind.

It lets Robert go and falls into the water, breaking the docks.

Robert is not done yet as he jumps on Katahdin and continues with the arrow stabbing.

He stabs it to the point where the bear goes underwater, where it dies.

The next day, Robert and Maggie fly home.

You would think the movie is over, but not yet as we see that Katahdin and cubs were not the only mutant bears out there.

Yep….There’s A Daddy

And now the movie ends.

While the movie did make back its budget (almost doubled it), it came out in the same month as another movie which well, completely overshadowed it.

So yeah, because of that, the mixed to negative reaction to it, and because the director admitted later that he was dealing with a serious case of alcoholism during the film, Prophecy is sadly seen by almost everyone around the film as a bit of a disappointment.

Now for what happened to everyone. Robert Foxworth (who played Robert Verne) continues to do well and really does well at voice acting with his biggest role being Ratchet in those Michael Bay Transformers movies. Talia Shire (who played Maggie) continued to be in Rocky movies as well as other stuff. Richard Dysart (who played Bethel Isely) was in my favorite movie of all time in John Carpenter’s The Thing and was in LA Law. Armand Assante (who played John Hawkes) went on to be John Gotti in the 1996 TV movie, but sadly will be mostly remembered for playing Rico in the Judge Dredd movie with Stallone.

Yeah, That “LAW!!!!” Line Is Never Going To Be Forgotten No Matter How Hard He Tries

9 years later, Victoria Racimo (who played Ramona) would get her biggest break in 1987 as Nurse St. Cloud in Ernest Goes To Camp, but ultimately stopped acting around 1996. But probably the most interesting person who worked on this film was a mime at the time named Tom McLoughlin, who years later would become a writer and director with his most famous film being as the director of Friday The 13^th Part VI: Jason Lives.

Now comes the part where we talk about people in this film who are no longer with us. Steve Shemayne (who played one of the Opies) died 4 years after this film at the age of 41. George Clutsi (who played M’Rai) would die in 1988 at the age of 83. Everett Creach (who played Kelso) died in 1994 at 60 years old. Jaye Durkis (who played the sheriff’s deputy) died in 2000 at the age of 65. John Frankenheimer (who was the director) would die in 2002 at the age of 72 due to a stroke caused by complications during spinal surgery. Graham Jarvis (who played a character named Shusette would leave this mortal coil in 2003 at the age of 72 from multiple myeloma. Charles H. Gray (who played the sheriff) passed away in 2008 at the age of 86. Jim Burk (who played one of the rescuers) died in 2009 at 76 years old from heart failure. Richard Dysart would pass away in 2015 at the age of 86 from cancer. Tom May (who played a lumberjack) died in 2015 at the age of 82. Bob Terhune (who played another rescuer) passed away in 2016 at the age of 88.

But probably the most tragic was the passing of the man in the bear costume, Kevin Peter Hall. He had a car accident and needed a blood transfusion. Unfortunately for him, someone messed up and he contracted HIV, which he announced while filming the Harry and the Hendersons TV series. His last film would be as a Charon in a film that finally got released to DVD in 2016 in Highway To Hell. He would die in 1991 from AIDS. If there is ever an award for best movie or tv series actor in costume, it should be named in his honor.

My personal opinion of the film is I enjoy the hell out of it. It is an environmental film that for the most part does its research for the damages caused by our actions towards the environment. Everyone seems to take this movie very seriously (in the case of Talia Shire, missing scenes of Rocky 2 to finish this film). The kills are great and the effects are something to behold for a film that not many people know about. I would recommend this film and am more than happy with reviewing it, despite me not considering it crap….but majority rules, I guess. And I’m happy to have done this site for 10 years.

Now for what is next. It is Rutger Hauer Month and…

I’m Back….

Yeah, I know. And I guess you will do your usual schtick of giving me the movie with glee.

I would have love to have done that, but it seems the fans picked the most predictable of choices from your little list. But don’t worry, next month…I have something for you that has been more that a year in waiting. But for now….here you go.

Monday, September 30, 2019

RIP Candy Samples

Saturday, September 28, 2019

Monster Crap Inductee: Prophecy (1979)