Heaven Help Us All

So what's your favourite film about Old Nick, Beelzebub, Satan... The Devil? Is it Rosemary's Baby, The Omen, The Devil Rides Out, Prince Of Darkness or even Exorcist II? - Films that can strike terror deep into the heart of any God fearing or, more correctly, Devil fearing man.

Personally, as creepy as they are, none of the above gave me the willies as much as when I first saw THE DEVIL'S RAIN (1975) - a film I've not watched for years. I was young and impressionable back then and a lot less cynical. The Devil's Rain left its mark on me with its outrageous climax. It's one of those memorable old films that I'd love to see again, however I'm nervous at the prospect - not because I'd find the film too scary to watch but because I might end up discovering that the film is not as great as I remember it to be.

One day I'll track down a DVD of The Devil's Rain. I'm sure it will come across as a load of old low budget codswallop, but hey it's got William Shatner and Ernest Borgnine in it, plus real life Satanist Anton LaVey who is not only a technical advisor for the film but also plays himself - The High Priest Of The Church of Satan! What's not to like?

Here's the terrific trailer - it shows you pretty much all the the film's juicy bits! 'A melting Hell on Earth'. 'Heaven help us all when the Devil's Rain' (ouch!). Great stuff!

'I. Am. Canadian.'

I'm not but continuing the [almost subliminal] Canada is the new black theme that is currently massaging this blog - once again I present to you the World's greatest actor...

I Am Canadian - William Shatner

www.williamshatner.com

Canada is the new black

Yeah that's right eh? Canada is officially the new centre of world cool. I think it's time I slanted this blog towards Canada for the next month or so. So heading this way... a little bit of Matt Mays & EL Torpedo and the excellent Tokyo Police Club. For now though let me present to you the greatest Canadian actor that ever lived.. Mr William Shatner in Knights of the Round Table!


Credit due to whoever edited this great vid!

King of the Boogymen

My apologies for this post being a little premature but I won't be around for the next couple of weeks. Whilst I'm away I'll be missing my most favourite night of the year - All Hallows Eve - the night when that guy in the Shatner mask, Michael Myers, keeps returning to Haddonfield and slicing up teens...

"I met him fifteen years ago. I was told there was nothing left. No reason, no, uh, conscience, no understanding and even the most rudimentary sense of life or death, of good or evil, right or wrong. I met this six year old child with this blind, pale, emotionless face, and the blackest eyes, the devil's eyes. I spent eight years trying to reach him and then another seven trying to keep him locked up because I realized that what was living behind that boy's eyes was purely and simply evil..."
(Dr. Sam Loomis)

John Carpenter and Debra Hill's original Halloween came out in 1978. Every year since then filmmakers have been trying to find a new boogyman to scare people shitless. As I've mentioned above, Michael Myers has been back many times. We've also had umpteen Freddy, Jason and Pinhead movies. This year it's Jigsaw who will be threatening to cut us up in SAW III, which given I & II should be quite good. So, who will be the king of the boogymen next year? It looks like good old Michael will be regaining his crown...
October 2007 : Rob Zombie's re-imagining of Halloween


The Americanized Halloween 'holiday', driven by toy and greetings card companies, is becoming more and more popular every year over here in the UK . Soon it'll be as big as Christmas! This is fine by me as it's all good fun. If only we could have more references to Halloween's Celtic pagan roots and less of the pumpkins.

NORTH AMERICAN HALLOWEEN PREVENTION INITIATIVE
It's getting late and I'm feeling a little hungry, so I'm going to have a midnight Feast before I go to bed. It's time for me to sign off, I'll be back on Bonfire Night. Until then, be good little boys and ghouls.

You did it your way

It appears that the original Star Trek series is going to get a Star Wars style digital makeover so I thought I'd post this old clip:

The World's greatest actor, William Shatner toasts George Lucas. Hilarious. Just look at the stunned faces of Lucas, Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher as they're thinking 'Oh my God! What is he going to do?' Brilliant.

Viva Las Vegas

Four Nights in Vegas and I'm down only around $500 - it could have been so much worse.

Luckily I only played the slots, most of which looked pretty boring but I soon as I saw one themed on 'The Twilight Zone', 'Star Wars' or Universal Monsters I succumbed to temptation. $20 bills are soon swallowed up when playing 15-20 lines at a time at 5 times the single credit bet.

More expense... After being assimilated by the Borg at the Star Trek Experience I went to see two shows: 1) the fab Hairspray at the Luxor and psycho magician The Amazing Jonathan at my hotel the Sahara.


Even more expense..! I booked a day trip out to the spectacular Valley Of Fire in addition to a preplanned trip to Death Valley. As it turned out the DV trip was cancelled and I ended up going out to the West Rim of the Grand Canyon instead.


Despite the drain on my bank account I can't wait to come back here again. Vegas is hot. I mean hot Hot Hot: It was 107 Deg F in the shade for all 4 days, luckily I love the dry desert heat and enjoyed the blast furnace that is Nevada. The best place in the world to test Atomic bombs.

Weirdcritter has left the building. I'm now chilling out in Frisco, news at eleven...

Beam Me Up

As a former Goth I found it encouraging that there was a website for lonely old Goths at gothicmatch.com. In my youth, apart from lurking around graveyards I was also known to have a learning towards making first contact with people from other races, preferably those wearing lycra suits.

I guess you could say I loved the idea of finding a wormhole and seeing what on the other side. To boldly go where no man had gone before. So imagine my delight at finding Trek dating site trekpassions.com.

I'm not looking for a relationship with a guy in a red shirt because I know it won't last, and no, I'm definitely not looking for a Willy Crusher. Sadly I gave up any thought of finding my own Jolene Blalock years ago, you know the type - cute pointy ears and good with her fingers?

I'm guessing there may not be any short skirted Yeoman Janice Rand types out there anymore but who knows there might still be the odd Orion Slave Girl around? I'd set my phaser on stun for her.

Trek always did inflame the passions in a way no other TV series could. Perhaps this is the place for me to find love? Knowing my bad luck, I'd meet a beautiful woman only to find her sucking the salt out of me.
Let me just make it perfectly clear that I was never a fan of the Voyager persuasion (left), although a sexy Seven of Nine lookalike could assimilate me any time.

Is Vic There?

Another cool performance from the Greatest Actor In The World...Ever

Now it's impossible to top William Shatner but the VIC 20 was really Sh!t.

Old Skool Rampaks were much better: Hey Hey 16K

Kidneys On The Starboard Bow

The BBC reports today the weird news that my all-time hero, Boston Legal star, William Shatner has auctioned off his Kidney Stone! The auction raised $25,000 for charity.

"This takes organ donors to a new height, to a new low, maybe. How much is a piece of me worth?" said Shatner.

The operation to remove a kidney Stone is exceedingly painful. I wonder who bought it? Have they put it on display? Am I jealous? Hopefully it will be donated to the Smithsonian for future generations to appreciate.

Here's a reminder of Bill at his best