DREAM DATES GONE WRONG - part 3

A version of this series originally appeared in MY DREAM DATE WITH A VILLAIN.

Fascinator, from THEY LIVE

 Sleestak, from LAND OF THE LOST

Phantom of the Opera

Kevin Geeks Out About Evil Dogs of 1978

Edgar Allen Poe made black cats a staple a horror, you still see them each year as Halloween decorations.

But as far as horror movies go, it's dog territory.

Because people fear dogs.  (And it's much easier to direct a canine.)

Specifically, dogs have been harbingers of death in films of the 70's and 80's, ushering in the worst kinds of destruction.  I don't know if this goes back to earlier centuries, where dogs carried diseases, but you can see this theme play out in a number of films including: Cujo, The Pack, Play Dead -- and don't forget the dog who hosts the monster in The Thing.

In this two-part video-review, Rusty Ward and I look at two stand-out films from 1978.  (I'm still not sure if one was ripping off the other -- you be the judge.)

ZOLTAN, DRACULA'S DOG and DEVIL DOG: HOUND OF HELL 





Full disclosure: the reason we did two episodes is that when Rusty suggested we watch ZOLTAN, I got excited because I thought it was DEVIL DOG.  So we ended up watching both.

BATMAN Pancakes

This morning I had a dream that I made my kids some Batman pancakes. When I woke up, you can imagine my disappoinment that it was just a dream. (And I can imagine your disappointment in my dream-life. Get over it. I married my dream girl, so now I have to fantasize about delighting my sons with novelty superhero breakfasts.)

When I googled the phrase BATMAN PANCAKES I hoped to find an inexpensive kitchen tool, like a cookie-cutter in the shape of the Bat-logo, but for a griddle. (I've seen the same thing with making eggs in the shape of handguns.) But instead, I came across this online diary about a transgendered college student - and while the headline is about "homosexual non-demoninational batman pancakes", it's not a queer reading about Batman and Robin. As a matter of fact there's no mention of the Caped Crusader outside of the attention-grabbing headline.



For now my quest continues to find the easy pancake maker that strikes fear in the heart of criminals.


*** Related links ***

Flickr photo filed under Batman Pancake, looks more like Frank the Rabbit.

Here's two great T-shirts from Natalie Dee that are no longer available.

Blog devoted entirely to Batman Cookies and that includes Solomon Grundy cookies. (thanks Lia!)

Save the Date: 2/24/10

And finally:



we should note that The Coen Brothers did let character actor Peter Stormare get his pancakes two years later in The Big Lebowski when the German Nihilists eat at Dinah's Original Pancake & Chicken House.



Lastly: Stormare played Dracula in the 2005 movie The Batman Vs. Dracula. It always comes back to Batman.

He Is Legend: Richard Matheson 101

Richard Matheson is one of my favorite authors. For all the great science-fiction and horror he's written, I think his best book is a World War II novel title The Beardless Warriors. My friend Larry summed it up best that Matheson is a "deceptively simple" writer.

None of that analysis appears in this episode, but we do cover his cult-movie work.

Note: you can alseo watch the YouTube version which is 20 seconds longer.