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Spooky Movie Night

  • Island of Terror

    Presentation for Friday 02.13.15
    Alex missed a good one tonight. The Amazon UK blu-ray looks great – even revealing some monster-operating wires that no one would notice in old VHS copies. Peter Cushing, as always, brings charm and charisma to the proceedings as he and another scientist travel to a small island off Ireland to investigate a dead body found with (wait for it) . . . no bones! Seems some reclusive scientists on the other side of the island have accidentally bred "silicates" – slimy, crawling slug-like creatures that divide & multiply like cells – who inject a substance that melts down the bones of their victims. One gruesome scene caught us all off guard. Summer was not happy. Still, an overall enjoyable SMN!
  • Forbidden Planet

    Presentation for Friday 02.06.15
    Revisiting a classic of the sic-fi film world this week. Great film with grand ideas, space dudes brimming with testosterone, cute Anne Francis strolling around in her space age mini skirts, an invisible id monster and, of course, Robby the Robot. Only the annoying drone of some of the "futuristic" sound effects detract from an otherwise stellar evening of classic cinema!
  • The Living Coffin

    Presentation for Friday 01.30.15
    13 years into SMN, and I'm always looking for something new that's been off my radar. Enter, the Mexican horror film. Hey, it's a Mexican-western-mystery-horror film – what's not to love! It's a reworking of the classic Mexican legend of the crying woman. Fun and entertaining. Some good creepiness, all while not taking itself too seriously.
  • The Magnetic Monster

    Presentation for Friday 01.23.15
    Curt Siodmak. Really, that's all you need to know. One thing I've learned in 13+ years of Spooky Movie Night, is that Mr Siodmak was kinda The Man. He wrote screenplays for classics like The Wolfman, House of Frankenstein and I Walked with a Zombie. Here he tells a gripping tale of two A-Men (Atomic Men) who are investigating the presence of a strange magnetic field that appears suddenly in a small town. The source is eventually traced to a new atomic element that uses the magnetic field to convert energy to matter. As it grows out of control, it threatens to throw the earth off it's orbit. Classic 50's post-war end of the world potboiler!
  • Dead of Night

    Presentation for Friday 01.16.15
    Now THIS is why I bought that region-free blu-ray player!! Without it, we would have never seen this absolute gem that's unavailable in the US – which would have been a crime! An architect shows up at a country manor for contracted work only to find that the house – and everyone in it – have been appearing in his recurring nightmares. He knows some bad mojo is afoot as he keeps predicting people who enter the story and events that eventually unfold. Several eerie tales unfold in anthology style, shifting in tone without taking you out of the film's grip. The kids and I were blown away. Simply fantastic!
  • Unearthly Stranger

    Presentation for Friday 01.09.15
    Another win for the region-free player as we load in the UK blu-ray of an amazingly intellectual treatment of the same sort of concept explored in the fun, but ultimately less satisfying, "I Married a Monster from Outer Space". Had never seen this one and I was surprised by it's depth of emotion for what is essentially a B movie. I chalk it up to the Brits, who prove again that they can do creepy sci-fi in a though-provoking way that transcends the genre. Certainly earned our applause as the credits rolled.
  • The Quatermass Xperiment

    Presentation for Friday 01.02.15
    The American title of this British classic was "The Creeping Unknown"– and a fitting title that is! This is a creeping, slow-burn of a chiller. A rocket returns from space with one survivor and only empty clothes left of his two crew mates. To make matters worse, there seems to be something very wrong with the survivor...and he's getting worse by the day. Crotchety Professor Quatermass throws his scientific weight around while trying to get to the bottom of what became of the missing astronauts. Tension builds steadily in this cerebral alien invasion film – Fun stuff!
  • The Phantom Carriage

    Presentation for Friday 12.26.14
    Summer was asleep early, so Corbin, Alex and I opted for a rare silent film. The plot sounded compelling: Every year, the last soul to die before the clock chimes in the new year is forced to drive death's carriage for the next year, picking up all the lost souls who have died. The special effects from this 1920 Swedish film were impressive for the period. Sadly, at 107 minutes, the film goes on too long (some editing was needed). What was unexpected was that this ended up a pretty potent tale of redemption. Obvious Christian undertones gave us a good post-film discussion. Would been about perfect if it'd just been about 20-or-so minutes shorter.
  • Planet of the Vampires

    Presentation for Friday 12.19.14
    Beautiful blu-ray transfer of a classic Italian sic-fi that's a bit on the deceptive side where it's title is concerned. Let me say this up-front: This is NOT a vampire film. What it is, however, is some pretty engaging space opera fun. A race of bodiless aliens mess with the minds of space explorers, causing them to violently turn on one another. The dead come back to life, and things start to feel more like a zombie film than anything having to do with vampires. Fun stuff though...lack of actual vampires notwithstanding!
  • The Reptile

    Presentation for Friday 12.12.14
    Last year's Christmas gift of a region-free blu-ray player has led to GREAT fun as I'm able to find stellar Amazon UK discs to replace my washed-out, scratched up, taped-from-TCM copies. Case in point, this week's pristine blu-ray of Hammer's 1966 classic, The Reptile! The film is just some great, creepy fun, and it looked & sounded better than I've ever seen! The story is sort of a werewolf-vampire-creature from the black lagoon mashup. While the kids may not appreciate its technical aspects – they really dug this classic gem from the Hammer House of Horror!

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The Art of Being Alien

Alien



"Four short words sum up what has lifted most successful individuals above the crowd: a little bit more. They all did what was expected of them and a little bit more"


A. Lou Vickery



I remember seeing the first Alien movie when it was released in the summer of 1979. I was 13 years old and I don't remember how I pulled off seeing it by myself since it was rated R (my mom dropped me off & picked me up), but there I was snuggled into my seat in the awesome Eastwood Theater.

I was not prepared for what I was about to see. If you've seen the movie, you can imagine where I'm going . . .

The movie's most famous scene is where, after an alien creature implants an egg inside one of the characters, the thing hatches and bursts right through the man's chest. Spun my head completely off my shoulders. The shock left me on edge for the rest of the movie.

The movie was a big success and spawned three sequels. In 2004 the creature battled another modern movie monster in the less-successful Alien vs. Predator, which itself spawned a 2007 sequel. These new movies are not high art by any stretch – but then again they don't pretend to be. Like 'em or not, the franchise is well-branded. You buy a ticket and you know what to expect: an extraterrestrial monster mash and bloodbath.

Which is exactly why I love what New Zealand movie channel SKY TV did earlier this year to promote it's airing of Aliens vs. Predator. They took an approach that was completely alien, if you will, and created a campaign that works so well because it is so utterly unexpected.

Check 'em out (click to enlarge):


Avp-1

Avp-2

Avp-3


I think these are just fantastic! In a very different way they caught me off guard as much as the "chestburster" (yes, that's it's "official" name) did 30 years ago in the Eastwood.

Never underestimate the power of the unexpected. Catching your audience off guard works best when you can play against what's expected. Reminds me of a great brainstorming exercise called 180-degree thinking (maybe I'll post about that sometime). Think against type. Yes, even against your established branding to a degree.

As the AVP (see, I know the hip little abbreviation for Aliens vs Predator) example illustrates, this sort of thing needs to be done both strategically and with excellence.

In what creative ways ways could a company or product's brand equity be leveraged to do something completely out of left field? Can you think of any examples you can share? If so please comment!

This sort of thing reminds me to stretch my imagination.

And that's a good thing to remember.


Posted at 12:13 PM in Branding, Design in Pop Culture, Inspiration |

Comments

James

Hypothetically speaking, if a Socialist ran for office as a semi-centrist he might shock the citizens. Don't know if this is what you meant though.

Posted by: James | April 10, 2009 at 01:52 PM

Todd Adkins

Well "Clem",

That certainly would be unexpected. Against type – and even against how the Presidency has been historically branded. So yes, I'd say that fits!

Posted by: Todd Adkins | April 10, 2009 at 04:44 PM

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