"KEEP BUSTIN'."

Archive for the ‘Blog Post (short for weblog)’ Category

Programming note

Monday, November 2nd, 2020

I did a couple extra reviews last week, so I ran out of back log and I don’t have anything new to post like I normally would on a Monday… but I sort of need to play it by ear this week anyway. I’ll see if I’m able to concentrate enough to finish the ones I’ve been working on or if it will even feel right to post anything. Like, I might not post a monster movie review right away if a new civil war starts. Maybe wait until a couple days after the first important battle out of respect or whatever. But I promise I have some good stuff coming soon.

Anyway I just want to say stay safe everybody, take care of your mental state, we’re in this together, nazi presidents fuck off, let’s blow up this stupid Death Star and get ready for the next one.

The Shape of Evil: Confronting darkness through the ‘Halloween’ series

Wednesday, October 28th, 2020

Two years ago, but it seems closer to ten, a nice deputy editor for a new publication approached me to write a piece. He had been reading me forever and was working for this company with a bunch of money invested in it, could pay pretty well and expose me to some new readers not only on the web but a print magazine he compared to Rolling Stone. I said yes and we were going back and forth about what my first piece should be, and then my mom died.

Freelance gigs are usually a little stressful and all-consuming for me, but for some reason I still wanted to do it. Looking back at my emails, I was literally trying to schedule around the days off I had other than the one for the funeral. I agreed to write about the Halloween series, in conjunction with the upcoming David Gordon Green sequel. I watched all ten existing movies (including remakes) and came up with this piece that ties them all together thematically, in places addressing the grief and fears I was dealing with at the time. I took longer than I was supposed to and ended up with twice the agreed upon word count and I was so unsure anybody else would be interested that in my email I said, “If you don’t want it I understand, just let me know and I’ll use it on outlawvern.com and we’ll come up with something else for me to work on for you.”

Then the magazine (you will never see this coming) ran out of money, all the editors resigned, I don’t believe I ever got paid and the article could only be seen on the Wayback Machine. But I got no regrets because working on this helped me in a tough period of my life and gave me a better understanding of my relationship with the genre. So I’m proud to repost it here.

(I’ve kept their edits, so you’ll notice some British spellings in here.) (read the rest of this shit…)

New bonus on Patreon: Knight Rider: “Halloween Knight”

Friday, October 23rd, 2020

I realized last night that Halloween is a week away and I still feel like I’m just getting started on the seasonal festivities. Maybe October will have to be held over. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the OUIJA: ORIGIN OF EVIL review today, and over on Patreon I have a new post taking a look at a Knight Rider episode called “Halloween Knight.” There are some goofy Scooby-Doo elements, Halloween costumes and a bunch of references/homages/connections to horror movies, including the very obvious one pictured below and a slightly more obscure, much more surprising one that I’m excited to share with everybody.

CLICK HERE FOR “HALLOWEEN KNIGHT”

Thanks everybody, and there’s plenty more to come right here on outlaw vern dot com.

 
 

 

I was on Zebras In America again!

Friday, October 16th, 2020

The other day I was honored to return to the podcast Zebras In America now that I finally have a book to promote. I definitely need to get better at discussing this thing, but I love talking film with Scott and Marcus (as we do for most of the episode). They know their stuff, they appreciate a spectrum of “high” and “low” culture even wider than mine, and they’re not afraid to get emotional. (So of course I ended up talking about movies that made me cry.)

Things I forgot this time: I wanted to ask them if they’ve listened to Public Enemy’s new album, and to congratulate them on their recent episode with Charles Burnett. How am I the next guest after Charles Burnett!?

Thanks Zebras, I had a great time!

Worm on a Hook

Monday, October 5th, 2020

(read the rest of this shit…)

Happy October + Patreon bonus: Young Indy Halloween episode

Friday, October 2nd, 2020

Happy October, everyone! I’ll be celebrating the impending pandemic Halloween with my usual flurry of horror movie reviews, hopefully including at least a little slasher searching (though I don’t know how many undiscovered gems could possibly be left on earth). I’m also happy to say that I’m in the process of finally publishing my action-horror novel WORM ON A HOOK – I will of course post incessantly about it as soon as it’s available.

I should mention that those things are made possible in part by your generous support, including on Patreon, so as a thank you I have a new bonus post over there, this time about a Halloween episode of The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles directed by Dick Maas (THE LIFT). If you missed it last year, I wrote about a pretty funny Halloween episode of Walker: Texas Ranger. I plan to do at least one more Halloween episode post this month.

And this is a good place to ask – what’s everybody been watching and/or recommending this year? I’ve already found and caught up with some good ones, but you guys always tip me off to good stuff.

 

I made a techno song

Tuesday, September 29th, 2020

Happy Tuesday, everybody. I have another new thing to post. Call it New Tuesday.

This is ridiculous but I thought it would be funny if I, a non-musician, came out with a song out of the blue. I was listening to the MORTAL KOMBAT theme and decided to challenge myself to figure out how to make something like that. It doesn’t hit nearly as hard but it’s better than I thought I’d be capable of, so I’m proud of myself. It’s on Patreon right now – I might figure out a place to post it for free or lift the paywall or something but until then you can check it out there and let me know if it inspired you to throw a rave or not. Thanks everybody.

CLICK HERE ONLY IF YOU’RE READY TO HAVE YOUR FUCKIN SOCKS KNOCKED OFF BY THE HOT JAMZ

New on Patreon: ‘John Hyams: Sculpting With Fists’

Friday, September 25th, 2020

Back in 2016 I wrote a John Hyams chapter for what would’ve been a really cool critical anthology book. Unfortunately the publisher went under and it never found a new home. So, in honor of ALONE, I decided to post what I wrote back then as a Patreon bonus. Enjoy!

JOHN HYAMS: SCULPTING WITH FISTS

Profiles in Badass #2: Michael Jai White

Thursday, September 3rd, 2020

Hello! I’m periodically rolling out these Profiles in Badass columns from earlier this year that I’m sure many of you didn’t see in their original presentation behind a pay (and arguably ethics) wall on Rebeller. They’re written for a more general audience than outlawvern.com, so they might be pretty basic to some of you, but I think I did a good job putting a finger on the greatness of my various subjects.

For this one it’s important to know that Rebeller was owned by Cinestate, producers of Dragged Across Concrete, and I knew they’d want me to mention MJW’s part in that movie. But I have, you know, complicated feelings about it. They swore they wanted a diversity of viewpoints, and I figured this was a good opportunity to test their sincerity, so I didn’t hold back. To their credit I got no complaints, and the editor later mentioned that he liked me “trolling” them like that when I was arguing with him about something else. Anyway, I’m proud of this one.

(read the rest of this shit…)

Summer of 1985 wrapup

Wednesday, September 2nd, 2020

As September 1985 began, summer movies were still in the public consciousness. Turn on the radio and you were likely to hear Pat Benetar’s “Invincible (Theme From The Legend of Billie Jean)” (#12 on the Biilboard charts), Tina Turner’s “We Don’t Need Another Hero (Thunderdome)” (#4), John Parr’s “St. Elmo’s Fire (Man in Motion)” (#2) or Huey Lewis and the News’s “The Power of Love” (#1). August 30th had seen the release of AMERICAN NINJA, a culturally important b-movie and perfect bookend to a season that had started with GYMKATA. Unfortunately I really can’t get away with doing another review of it, because I’ve already done it twice; for my definitive take, read this review of THE 400 BLOWS and click through as I alternate between the five Antoine Doinels and the five AMERICAN NINJAs (a series I retroactively call The 400 Death Blows).

After AMERICAN NINJA, the summer movie season disappeared into the fall like a ninja into a puff of smoke. I know technically I could keep going until September 22nd, but I’m gonna guess nobody’s waiting for me to review PLENTY or SMOOTH TALK. So it’s time for a wrapup. (read the rest of this shit…)