Assemblog: September 21, 2012

Grease 2: “Friday night . . . talent show!”

New this week on Popshifter: Danny calls Bob Mould’s Silver Age “flawless;” Cait thinks Coal Porters’ Find The One is “gorgeous;” Elizabeth Keathley introduces a new series on “linear television” I look at the art of Frankenweenie; chat with Andrea and Paul of horror lecture series The Black Museum; give you the goods on Fantastic Fest 2012; and review Jason Lapeyre’s great new film Cold Blooded.

Congratulations to Popshifter Contributing Editor Paul Casey, who has joined the editorial staff of Issuu, the cultural supplement of Trinity News and Ireland’s top student magazine. You can check it out here.

The TIFF Vanguard blog has gone to sleep until next year. If you haven’t already, don’t forget to check out my reviews of Here Comes The Devil, Sightseers, and Thale.

But before I sign off on the TIFF front, I must mention this. Come Out And Play, a remake of a 1970s horror film called Who Can Kill A Child? screened at Midnight Madness this year. I actually didn’t know much more than that—hadn’t even watched the trailer—but my interest was piqued by tweets about director Makinov (just the one name) and his introduction to the film. It even made news on The Hollywood Reporter, who noted that “cloaking his true identity, he wore a mask while directing the film in order to separate his ego from the process.”

This weird behavior carried over into the intro to the film, which you can see for yourselves thanks to the power of the Internets! Question: Is it just me or do you hear the chainsaws?

Another genre festival is upon us, or at least those lucky enough to live near Catalonia: Sitges. I talked about it back in June, but now their full line up has been released. It’s nothing short of magnificent, with dozens of films listed.

Last week I mentioned the great news about You’re Next being released in theaters in 2013 and this week, we have a date on the home video release of V/H/S: December 4! (Have you seen the trailer for this yet? It’s terrifying.) Thanks to Fangoria for the news.

/Film has presented an infographic from Short Of The Week called “Hollywood’s Waning Creativity.” Yep, that title says a lot, but you should take a look at the images as well as the discussion it promotes. There’s a lot to think about and to be blunt, a lot of blame to go around.

Joy at discovering a blog post not only about Grease 2 but its SOUNDTRACK turned to crushing disappointment when I realized the tone was less than, uh, complimentary. Look, I know Grease 2 is a shitty movie. But I don’t care. And yes, I own the soundtrack on vinyl, but I could probably sing the whole thing from memory. Thankfully several people defend Grease 2‘s honor in the comments.

One good thing about this is that I can still write the definitive, praiseworthy article on Grease 2 someday, in which the layering of actor Maxwell Caulfield’s accents will be discussed at length. So there’s that to look forward to, everyone.

—Less Lee Moore, Managing Editor