While Hollywood continues to search for new original horror material,it also continues to remake many of the horror from late 70s and the 80s.

  The Stepfather was made in 1987 and featured a fine performance by Terry O’Quinn (which the younger Gen may know from “Lost” as Locke) as a man looking and killing to get the “perfect”family. While a small film,it was limited released and didn’t do that well at the box-office. But once it hit VHS and cable,it developed a cult following.

  So thats why here in 2009,it has been remade for a new group of horror fans. Seeing Dylan Baker (Nip/Tuck) as the evil Stepfather didn’t exactly strike fear into me but thats not the point here,right? We want to know how the music to the movie is.
   And once again,for a soundtrack,”The Stepfather” isn’t bad. Featuring a whole slew of mid-tempo rock songs by groups like Filter,Seether and Mutemath,the selection doesn’t beat you up and crush your windpipe with heavy metal. Nothing really sticks with you as far as “I gotta get this!” but its a fine introduction to some bands you may not know(C’mon) and a refresher to some you do,like Filter.

   Worth asking for a Christmas present.

 I never thought a record label could ever beat TVT Records in terms on putting out fun quirky scores/soundtracks but I have to admit,Lakeshore Records is doing a damn fine job at changing my mind.

  While I generally do not like soundtracks because of the same boring ass songs or because they feature a star who contributes a throwaway song that didn’t make the cut on a regular album,the soundtrack to “College” rises above both traps and features some fun cuts.

    The album starts out with “Penny on a Train Track” by ex-Radish frontman Ben Kweller and the very funny “Jailbait” by Supagroup.
 But my favorite cut was by long time House music master Zach Corbell who released “All Good” under the name Zeroleen.
  The rest of this CD features songs by stalwarts Mustard Plug and new blood Champion and Oklahomos.
   So remember,the movie may suck but sometimes it can produce some fun music to listen to.

You can pick this up at any major chain store or Best Buy.

 What a terrible premise,you get handed a curse that says in 3 days,you get a one way ticket to Hell. What would you do or how far would you go to break that curse?

    Sam Raimi,the mastermind behind the “Evil Dead” films,returns to his old stomping grounds after helming the three huge “Spider-Man”films.
While he had written and had wanted to film “Drag Me”,the schedule wouldn’t allow him to as Spidey 3 was just gearing up.
   But now he has brought a very disturbing story to life as a young woman gets placed in a very tight space w/only those 3 days to escape.

 Christopher Young’s score is excellent,very taut and suspenseful. His use of horns and strings in the title track set the tone right away and never let up. You are scared in the first minute of the film and thats a wonderful treat any director wants. To have his audience unsettled before the credits roll.
   Young,no stranger to horror and the devil,decided to base his score around the one instrument associated with the Devil,the violin solo. It makes for some fright-filled moments to say the least!
  Despite being a “smaller”film,Young’s score is huge,with gothic vocals,a little homage to “Halloween” thrown in there as well (Mexican Devil Disaster). The theme for Christine is soft and bittersweet,you find yourself wanting to battle on her behalf because she is a good person in a bad way. A horror score with an emotional soul. And one with plenty of frights as well!

highly recommended!

Man In the Middle
John Amaechi w/Chris Bull
290 pages
ESPN Books

  John Amaechi is an amazing man with tremendous courage and heart. Born in the US,raised by a single mother while living in the UK,overcoming a bad childhood to develop into a world class basketball player would be story enough in this compelling story. But the trials and trails that Amaechi went through was compounded by one other fact,he was a gay. And being gay in a US professional sports league and being found out is a career killer.

John Amaechi is a very special player and man. Reading his story is a fine example of overcoming all sorts of terrible odds,be it a life-threatening injury,dealing w/the world of NCAA basketball,fighting one’s own sexual questions in a world where there are no easy answers.
  Amaechi laid back writing style is also refreshing,its not a gossipmonger type of of “kiss and tell” that passes for sports journalism these days. He tells it like it was,but the GAME isn’t the most important part of John,his love for his kids,be it as a mentor at Penn State or later on in the NBA and his love for his hard working single mom really grips the reader.
   The pressure and loneliness of being a gay male in such hostile conditions (his own lockeroom) is also telling just how little pro sports has come in acknowledging some of its best players may be gay. Can you even imagine what the reaction would be if LeBron James or Gilbert Arenas came out during the peak of thier careers? 
  While John early career in the NBA was not so promising,in fact he played all over Europe while sharpening up his skills. He was cut from many NBA teams in training camp before catching on w/Orlando at age 29.  After a miracle year in Orlando,rather then take the free agent money and run,he stayed on after passing up a 17 million dollar deal w/the Lakers.
    But broken promises led to John landing in Utah,not exactly known for supporting a gay lifestyle. It was here that he was allowed himself to BE himself but suffered for it in playing time.

  John retired from the NBA and is now in the UK,helping his country develop the love and passion for basketball that the rest of the world seems to have.

I highly recommend this book…..and in fact,I will give away a copy of it to the 3rd person who leaves a comment on the comment section.
Just leave me a email addy so I can find out where to send your book.

So someone over at United Artists (ahem,Mr. Cruise) decided to remake “Fame”. This despite no buzz,no heat and of course the lack of any original scripts sitting in UA’s vaults.

The studio throws together a no-name cast with perhaps Kay Panabaker being the biggest name among the students. They flesh it with some cool cameos by Kelsey Grammar,Debbie Allen and two ladies who have pretty good stage histories on the stage,Bebe Neuwirth and the awesome Megan Millally.

It wouldn’t have surprised me to see a lame soundtrack to this film as well but I have admit,this was much better then it had a right to me. Taking a page from Disney’s HSM playbook,UA decided to let the cast do most of the singing and for the most part it works.

Naturi Naughton does a fine job in singing “Fame” and “Hold Your Dream” and Megan contributes a fun track called “You Took Advantage of Me”.  But not everything works,one of the young leads,Asher Book,does the impossible in destroying the Gershwin’s “Someone to Watch Over Me”.

Its a hit or miss effort that deserves credit for trying instead of putting out a crap of retreads we have heard far too many times.

I do recommend this and think Ms. Naughton has a bright future ahead of her.

Paper Heart is a mockumentary by actress Charlyne Yi in which she goes around do discover what love is. She then falls in love in Michael Cera and we sit back and watch the wackiness begin. Yi and Cera both play themselves and they also decided to help score their film with some prodding from director Nick Jasenovec.

Nick, you should have kept quiet because this “score” is the worst piece of score music in a very long time. I think I can honestly say a group of 1st graders in music class have more talent then Cera and Yi in making music.

Think about all those Kill Rock Stars, K and Sub Pop cute little pop-punk artists that blossomed for a couple of years. The sound was very spartan, sparse but they had talent. Yi and Cera sound like they were given instruments for the first time and told to play them while being recorded.

And Yi trying to sing???? Who do I sue for ear damage and making my cat go crazy in attacking my CD player?
Paper Heart may be a little “personal” film for Yi and Cera but next time, save 100.00 bucks and hire a band that knows how to at least play a little.

Just bloody awful.

(written by Michael Sullivan)

Ray Garton “Ravenous” (Leisure Books)
2008  342 pages

Ray Garton is a new rising voice in horror and Ravenous is his take on what a good werewolves story should be. It has plenty of blood, death, sex and gore galore and taken in that context, this might be a great story on its own.

The story takes place in a small sleepy California town (think Big Sur) in which a woman is savagely attacked and raped by a creature. She fights back and looks to have killed her attacker but when it proves the creature may be much more then Sheriff Arlin Hurley’s department can handle, unexpected help arrives. But is the help just as bad as the killer?

But Garton makes two huge mistakes in my opinion. He created 2 great characters who could have served as a thrilling on going series in Sheriff Arlin Hurley and the werewolf fighter, Daniel Fargo. Garton writes about them wonderfully, creating a solid back story and creating both tension and an uneasy alliance w/Hurley having a hard time actually acknowledging such a thing as a werewolf despite the rising death count.

But Garton is also very sloppy with his plot-lines….so many weird deaths would draw a huge response but it takes almost the entire story before anyone other then Fargo comes to grips that people being torn apart and raped might not be human. And for well as Hurley and Fargo are written, the main werewolf, Irving Taggert is not. You don’t really know anything about him,why he is a werewolf, how he sustains incredible injuries while in wolf and human form and that it doesn’t affect him.

And the ending is one of the most lazy pieces of writing I have seen from a horror writer. Killing off your two best characters to drive a story, I can understand, do it just to have a ENDING is just garbage and really below Garton’s talent.

I will keep my eye out for his next novel in hopes that as he matures as a writer and that his storytelling also will improve. Ravenous could have been very special, instead it’s a total letdown.

(by Michael Sullivan)