THE UH-OH! SHOW REVIEW

  Viewing “The Uh-Oh! Show” at the Florida SuperCon convention was a unique event for me. I got to hear from the cast and director, Herschell Gordon Lewis, before they showed the movie. They shared some of their experiences while on set. Herschell also talked about some of the ideas behind the movie, and what to expect while watching it. What really made it unique was not only that the audience was watching it for the first time, but it was also the cast’s first time. They were really excited to see the final product.

  Herschell also discussed “The Uh-Oh! Show” the day before the screening of the movie. He mentioned that this was not your typical horror movie. They made it with the intention to “entertain” the audience. I wasn’t sure what to make of that until he showed us the trailer for the movie.

  Before getting into the overall movie, let me give you a little idea of what the Uh-Oh! Show was all about. Basically, it was an old fashioned game show with a nice horrific twist. The contestant was brought on stage to answer a couple of questions. Answer the questions correctly, and win some amazing prizes. The prizes were so enormous; you knew they had no intention of ever rewarding the contestant. If you answered the question incorrectly, it wasn’t simply losing your prizes, or getting a pie in the face. You had to spin the giant “Wheel of Misfortune” that determined which body part you were about to give up.

  So what was so “entertaining” about this game show? Well, this wasn’t the typical horror movie where you see someone cut off a person’s body part, and they yell in excruciating pain. In the show, if someone got their leg cut off, then they would just laugh about it. Everyone was having a good old time while this person was getting sliced up including the audience. Just before the person was about to get sliced up, members of the audience would yell “uh-oh,” and then cover themselves with raincoats. And no, Jackie, the host of the show, nor his lovely hostess, Champagne, were the ones doing the cutting. For that, they had Radial Saw Rex, who carried a huge electric saw to do his dirty work. For the contestants, it didn’t end there. We got to see scenes of them after the show as the doctors tried to piece them back together.

  No, the movie was not just about contestant after contestant going on stage, and getting sliced apart (although I wouldn’t have objected to that). There was more to the story than that. As one might expect with a show like that, there was going to be a great deal of people that would object to it. Surprisingly, Jackie was one of the first people to object to what was happening on the show. This caused a constant conflict of interest between him, and Fred, the show’s producer. Fred was dreaming big things for the show, while Jackie was having his doubts about the show’s direction. Another person who had issues with the show was Jill, a local reporter. Her boyfriend went on the show, and hadn’t been seen since. She was out to end the show, and find out what happened to her boyfriend with some unexpected help. 

  Obviously, the game show itself was “entertaining,” but what else made this movie “entertaining?” First, it had some great characters. Jackie and Champagne were terrific stereotypical game show host and hostess respectively, but they also had great off stage personalitites as well. Radial Saw Rex really enjoyed his job. It seemed like he had won the Super Bowl every time he came on stage to cut up the contestants. He kind of reminded me of Terry Crews (White Chicks and Get Smart). Fred was also a good character, especially when he showed how obsessed he was with the show, or got angry. He yelled at and intimidated almost everyone into transforming the show into his vision for the show. Then there was Jill, who didn’t seem like the smartest of reporters, but made up for that with determination. Also, I can’t forget the surprise appearance of Herschell himself. He was very funny playing a role similar to that of the Crypt Keeper from Tales of the Crypt.

  For those looking to be “entertained” by horror, I think you will enjoy the transformation the show made. Fred transformed the show from the Uh-Oh! Show into the prime time hit Grim Fairy Tales. While there was plenty of blood in the Uh-Oh! Show, Grim Fairy Tales was more like a true horror story. There were horrific twists on two popular fairy tales: Little Red Riding Hood, and Hansel and Gretel. It seemed like an awkward change of direction for the show, but was still enjoyable. Also amusing, were the shots of people watching the show. They showed people, who usually watched the Uh-Oh! Show, at home watching the Grim Fairy Tales for the first time. It was hilarious how the at home audience seemed fooled into liking the new show.

  After watching this movie, I have to agree with Herschell, this was an “entertaining” horror comedy. The game show was great because everyone enjoyed watching the contestants lose, and then get a limb chopped off. The fairy tales quenched your thirst for more of the typical horror story. Some awesome characters, including some that I didn’t even touch on, carried the story. There were also plenty more funny moments in this movie; you just have to be on the look out for them. I give this movie 3 pools of blood.

  HorrO

* Check out my Florida SuperCon 2010 review for more information about The Uh-Oh! Show, and the Herschell Gordon Lewis events at: Florida SuperCon 2010 Review  Also, find video of the pre-screening event at: HorrO's YouTube Channel 

FLORIDA SUPERCON CONVENTION 2010 REVIEW

   

  

  Florida SuperCon, a place where fans of all kinds of genres, came together for 3 days of fun. Cosplay, which was a big part of the convention, gave fans an opportunity to dress up, and take part in contests and photo shoots. Comic book and anime fans enjoyed events such as, “The History of Anime,” “Anime You Should Watch,” “DC Comic Book Legends,” and a “Fantastic Four (1994) Film Screening.” There were celebrities from a variety of TV shows, movies, and even wrestling to take pictures with, and get autographs from. And for horror fans like you, and me, there was plenty to do, as I take you through my 3 day journey of the Florida SuperCon convention.

  When I walked in on the first day, I couldn’t help but notice the instant party atmosphere. Arriving later in the day, I could tell fun had already overtaken the convention. I didn’t waste too much time making my way to my first event, which was “Filmmaker Workshop with Herschell Gordon Lewis.” For those of you who don’t know, he is known as “the Godfather of Gore” because he created the “splatter film.” He made the movie “Blood Feast,” which was the first “gore” film ever made. It didn’t take too long for me to realize that this guy really knew what he was talking about. He was an excellent speaker, as he took everyone through a list of filmmaking items.

  Ghost hunting had a big presence with several different teams presenting throughout the weekend. The first team I got to see was the Florida Ghost Team at “Ghost Hunting 101.” They basically gave an introduction to who they were, and what ghost hunting was from their point of view. They explained the difference between ghosts and demons, and some of their first experiences ghost hunting. With many people interested in ghost hunting, they listened intently on tips for beginners such as, the importance for doing your research, and not working alone.

  After stopping by “The Uh-Oh! Show Panel” (more on that later), I concluded the night at a film screening of “Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead.” This was Lloyd Kauffman’s latest film combining chickens, zombies, and musicals (yes I said musicals). After seeing some of the scenes in this movie, I still can’t believe they included musicals. The story centered on Arbie, who was willing to do about anything to win back his ex-girlfriend Wendy. Anything included getting a job at a new local fast food chicken chain whose chicken was basically possessed. There were plenty of interesting characters, and disgusting scenes. This movie may change your thoughts on fast food chicken. Once the movie ended, we were told that there was going to be a comic book release of a sequel to this movie in October. We also got to see quite a performance one of film’s presenters from Troma.

  As I walked through the doors on the second day, it was as if I went from realty into a fantasy world. Fans of all ages charged through the door ready for the adventures to come. Some of them enjoyed an opportunity to dress up as their favorite characters, while others were just happy to be there. For me, I started off the day by meeting Lou Pizarro, who is the star one of my new favorite shows “Operation Repo.” It was funny how the first thing he asked us was if we had made our car payments. He was extremely nice, and very willing to talk with us. Later that day, on the way to get something to eat, he came up to us, and asked about a certain item he was looking for. I was happy to find out there will be an “Operation Repo” movie coming out in August.

  After talking with Lou, I took the opportunity to take the first of several tours around the exhibition room. There were vendors selling all sorts of things such as, comic books, autographed pictures, movie posters, and toys of your favorite characters. If you liked comic book art, there were all kinds of artist with their own versions of famous characters, and even some of their own characters. Then there were the celebrities for you to meet, get autographs from, and take pictures with. Some of this year’s celebrities included Richard Roundtree (Shaft), Fred “The Hammer” Williamson (Dusk Til Dawn), and John Wesley Shipp (The Flash). I can’t leave out the wrestlers such as, Greg “The Hammer” Valentine, The Nasty Boyz, and Terri Runnels.

  From there it was off to “Meet the Ghost Hunters International.” Robb Demarest, Brandy Green, and Scott Tepperman were the speakers at this event. They talked about the show in general, some of their personal experiences, and took a great deal of questions from the audience. Immediately following that was the “Lloyd Kauffman Q&A.” Lloyd Kauffman is the President and Co-Founder of Troma Entertainment Film Studios, and director of movies such as, Tromeo and Juliet, and The Toxic Avenger. He was a naturally funny guy, as he answered almost every question with some kind of joke. For example, check out one of the videos I posted where he mentioned the latest Sex and the City movie. Not long after that was the third event of the day I attended, which was “Richard ‘Shaft’ Roundtree on Stage.” We learned about how he got his role as “Shaft,” and heard some stories from his experiences on set. One of the more interesting things he shared with us was his opinion of the latest “Shaft” movie with Samuel Jackson. It appeared as if he was not a fan of the script. It is not often that you actually get to meet someone that you met on Twitter, but I got the chance to finally meet Geretta Geretta (Demons). We had a good conversation (finally in person), and she was extremely nice, even taking a picture with me. She will be working on a new movie in October, and I hope to bring you all the information about it from Geretta of course.

  Finally, one of the main events of the convention was about start, which was the “SuperCon Championship Wrestling Presents: ‘SuperCon Mania!’” I witnessed this event for the first time last year, and got a big kick out of it, so I wasn’t going to miss it this year. Neither was most of the convention because the room was packed for this event. How could it not be when you have great wrestling matches such as, Robin vs. The Geico Caveman, Duke vs. Cobra Commander, and the Prince of Persia vs. The Kool Aid Man. You must think I am joking, but I assure you I’m not. Just check out some of the video I posted. These people actually wrestle as some of your favorite, or least favorite characters. The fans had a great time cheering, and booing the wrestlers. They were all wrestling for the championship belt that was currently owned by the Geico Caveman. Batman came to Robin’s aid after his match with the Caveman, which set up the championship match of the night: Batman vs. The Geico Caveman (too funny right). It was another great match with the Caveman getting disqualified to retain his belt. I’m telling you, this event was worth the price of admission itself.

  I finished off the night with a couple of film screenings. First was Herschell Gordon Lewis’s 1964 movie “Two Thousand Maniacs.” I had already seen “2001 Maniacs” with Robert Englund so I was interested to see how similar the two movies were. I even asked Mr. Lewis if he had seen “2001 Maniacs,” and he said he had seen part of it. He thought there were different approaches to how both movies were done. After that movie, there was a pre-show event for the next screening, which was “The Uh-Oh! Show.” We got to hear from several of the cast members about some of the stories on the set, and the movie. Then came the screening, which was cool because the cast watched it with us, and for the first time. You could see them laugh, and smile at scenes as it brought back memories of the shoot for them. As for the movie, you are going to have to stay tuned for my review coming soon.

  Day three, boy was I tried, but I had to keep trucking on. First up was “How to Start a Paranormal Investigation Team,” presented by the Florida Ghost Team. One of the more interesting things that happened during this presentation was that they played some strange sounds that they had recorded from some of their investigations. Whether you believe in ghosts or not, it was pretty creepy hearing some of those sounds, and voices. I hate to take credit for things, but I think I started an interesting conversation. I forgot what caused me to ask the question, but I asked the presenter about the “Paranormal Activity” movie. To my surprise, she actually said she liked the movie, and had talked with some of the people who made the movie. The conversation then went on to some other movies such as, “The Exorcist”, “The Exorcism of Emily Rose”, and “The Haunting in Connecticut”. She said that “The Exorcism of Emily Rose” followed closely to the true story. She didn’t really care for “The Haunting in Connecticut.”

  From there, it was back to the exhibition room for another look at all the great stuff that was on display. I wanted to make sure I didn’t miss anything, plus it was good to see some of the celebrities again. Then I got to see a charity auction of some comic artists’ work. It was good to see that while everyone was having fun, people were still thinking about raising money for people in need. I always enjoy a good auction especially watching people try to out bid each other, and no I didn’t win anything. Next was “Paranormal 411: Pictures from Beyond ‘Ghost Hunting Photography’” presented by the Alpha Ghost Team. Yes, another event about ghosts. What can I say, it was interesting whether you believe, or not. I do have to say it was just as interesting to watch and listen to the presenters, as it was to watch and listen to the audience. Some people were very passionate about their belief in ghosts. The ghost team put on a PowerPoint presentation about how to go about taking pictures during a paranormal investigation. They talked about the dos and don’ts of taking pictures, and how to determine if you really were looking at a paranormal picture. It was a very professional presentation, and I appreciated them answering my questions (you got to ask questions at these events). Exhausted, I ended the day by watching a very funny short film showcase before sadly ending the convention.

  As I hope you can tell, this was an extremely fun event to attend. There were all kinds of things for you to do no matter what you were a fan of. The event wasn’t dedicated to horror, but I was still able to find plenty of horror related things to entertain me, not to mention all the other great events going on. Of course, I left out a whole bunch of things such as, the video game contests, comedy show, and other events by many of the celebrities. It really was a fantasy world type of event with so many people dressed up, letting loose, and having fun. Just think about, the person sitting next to you may have been dressed up as a tall zombie clown. You never know now do you. I give Florida SuperCon 5 pools of blood for sure. Hope to see you there next year!

 

  HorrO

**Don’t forget to check out the videos on my YouTube Channel!**

  

THE TWILIGHT SAGA: ECLIPSE REVIEW

  After reviewing New Moon, I promised to only do a review of Eclipse if I thought it was better than New Moon. So to my surprise, here I am writing this review. Yes, it was better than New Moon, but that is not to say that I liked the movie. The Twilight series is like the flu, the more you have it, the more immune you get to it. Maybe I have gotten so use to it, it just didn't bother me as much. However, there was plenty to complain about, so let me get the complaining started. 

  After the movie opened by showing us how Riley became a vampire, it quickly went to Edward and Bella in a meadow. Now where have I seen that before? Hmm, oh yea, New Moon started off with Bella in the same meadow! The difference was that this time it was not a dream. Are you kidding me, they couldn't start off somewhere different this time. To make matters worse, they ended the movie in the same damn meadow. Come on now; was that town so boring that the only place to hang out was a meadow? It was Edward and Bella's special place. Whatever, I challenge the next movie to start off somewhere else. Ugh, they had to show Edward sparkle in the meadow too. Don’t get me started on the sparkling again!

  Not long after that, we got to see ANOTHER scene of Victoria getting chased by vampires, and wolves. Seriously, how many times do we have to see someone chase that woman? No one ever catches her, and you know that they aren't anyway no matter how close they make it seem. They just love showing that slow motion speed running (looks as dumb as that sounded) the vampires do. Then Emmett got a little too eager to catch her (because he didn’t get the memo that said NO ONE will catch her), and jumped over to the wolves’ territory. Oh, another reminder that the vampires, and wolves don’t like each other. They must think their audience pays so much attention to Edward and Jacob that they can’t remember the vampires and wolves hate each other. Some of us get the point!

  In Twilight, Edward got to spend more of the movie with Bella than Jacob, and the roles reversed in New Moon. So how would it play out this time? Well, it turned into a nauseating ping-pong match. First she’s with Edward, then Jacob, back to Edward, back to Jacob, back and forth. Am I making you dizzy yet? That was nothing compared to having to watch that go on and on. Now you know why I watch horror movies. Bella loves Edward, but doesn’t want to hurt Jacob’s feelings. Jacob continued to pitch her reasons why he was better for her than Edward. Even if he had a great PowerPoint presentation, he still wouldn’t be able to convince her. He came close after scoring his first real kiss with her, but it still wasn’t happening. Thanks for coming Jacob, but Bella will be marrying Edward, and becoming a vampire. Your parting gift was having half your body paralyzed, and having your ego wounded.

  Seriously, the whole movie boiled down to the continuous dramatic scenes of either Bella talking with Edward, or Jacob. Time after time, there were dramatic conversations all over the places, whether it was about whom she loved, or why she wanted to become a vampire. It was like they couldn’t help themselves. “I want to be a vampire.” “No, you shouldn’t become a vampire.” “I love Edward, and I love you too Jacob, but not in that way.” Don’t go with Jacob.” “You lied, I’m going with Jacob.” Man, if I really had my Predator bodyguard with me, I would have told him to take my head as a trophy right there. Instead, I was reduced to pulling out some of my hair. And then each conversation included that dramatic pause to drag the scene out even longer. Why???

  As if those scenes weren’t awkward enough, there was one scene where Jacob, Edward, and Bella were all in a tent at the top of a freezing cold mountain. Because Edward did such a good job of picking the location, Jacob cuddled up with Bella in order to keep her from freezing to death. Instead of the dramatic conversation between Bella and Team Edward or Team Jacob, the two-team captains got a chance to talk about Bella as she slept. And what a strange conversation it was. As a guy, I couldn’t imagine really having that type of conversation with another guy unless maybe I was drunk. They were talking about what would happen if she chose the other team, and why she wanted to be a vampire. I think I liked it better when they hated the other team. Actually, instead of this weird conversation, I say they just have a fight to the death, and Bella marries the winner. I hope a show like Saturday Night Live makes fun of that scene. I don’t even want to get into how ridiculous Jacob looked carrying Bella up the mountain time after time. Just turn into a wolf, and someone find Bella a saddle!

  After all my ranting, you may be wondering why I said I liked this movie better than the previous one. Well, that is because I am still wondering the same thing. Just kidding, there were a few things that were better than the previous movie. For one, the acting was better. I am not saying they are great actors, but they did do a better job. Maybe I was fooled because I have gotten use to them in their roles, or it could be that it took 3 movies to master their roles. As I said before, the dramatic conversations were nauseating, but at least the acting was better. Also, after the numerous times they focused on Jacob’s abs in New Moon, they actually chose to take normal shots of him this time. The first time that he was shirtless was the only time they really made a point of them. Yea, he was shirtless most of the time, but they let Taylor act and not be about how hard he worked out.

  While I am not a big fan of their continued use of slow motion in every action scene, I thought they were shot a little better. At least they tried to be more creative in the action, and actually showed some fighting. That was probably why I liked this movie more. For those of you that have been reading my thoughts on True Blood, which can be found on the Horror on TV page, (shameless plug), you know that I have called for an epic vampire-werewolf battle. Well, there wasn’t anything epic about this fight, but it wasn’t a total waste of a fight either. It was entertaining enough for a movie that wasn’t about the fighting. The only thing that didn’t make much sense was how easy the Cullens and the wolves beat the young vampires after all the talk about how powerful they were. All we saw were the young vampires getting torn to pieces. I know the Cullens actually practiced for the fight, but did they really have to defeat the young vampires so easily? Oh yea, and why did the wolves just sit there, and watch them practice like they were the practice squad scrubs?

  One last thing I will give the movie credit for, and that was giving some other characters a chance to be seen, and heard. For the few that haven’t read the books (mostly us guys), they gave us the back-stories to some characters such as, Jasper, and Nikki. It was nice to see how they became vampires. It gave their characters some importance rather than just being another vampire. Also, it was good to give us a break from Bella, Edward, and Jacob. The best back-story was the one of how the wolves came to be. I guess nothing beats a good old Indian story by the campfire.

  For all the guys out there that had to see the movie, I am sorry you had to go through that. If it is in the cards for the future, don’t worry, I survived and so will you. I heard if you take the ghost from Paranormal Activity with you, it would increase your survival rate. There was plenty to complain about, but just remember that this movie was written for the fans of the books. The rest of us outsiders will never understand why, at midnight, there was a line from one end of the mall to the other to see this movie. And yes, there are going to be two more of these movies so don’t even think we have heard the end of this madness. After New Moon scored 0 pools of blood, I will give this movie a huge break, and give it 1 pool of blood.

 HorrO

Check out my: New Moon Review