Scarecrow's Blog From the Darkside

For the life of me, I don’t know why director John Sturges’ (a magnificent director of westerns) Hour of the Gun (a film that says more happened after the gunfight at the OK Corral) isn’t heralded as a sterling example of how to direct a western about Earp without necessarily all-the-way glorifying him. Oh, he’s considered justified in sense for seething with a desire for vengeance considering his brother, Virgil, is crippled after being shanghaied by Ike Clanton’s hired guns and another brother, Morgan (running for election as County Marshall) is shot-gunned from behind while playing pool (and waiting for election results which, tragically, dictated he had won, when up against one of Clanton’s paid politicians) in a saloon. A local in Tombstone saw the Virgil shooting but Wyatt promised to keep his testimony secret so it isn’t presented in a court of law. So the gunmen involved in two shootings are dispersed, either to kill Earp or to “disappear”. Clanton has his own posse work ...

I was quite sad about James Garner’s passing, and because he’s an actor I enjoy (I think his work in various types of comedies, whether romantic, western, or drama, speaks for itself), so a dedication him on the blog seemed appropriate. I write mostly about horror, sci-fi, erotica, and cult, but I also have quite a fondness for westerns. One of my favorite roles portrayed by Garner was his intense, gritty Wyatt Earp in Hour of the Gun, quite a different type of character and performance than what you would see in his “Support Your Local…” western comedies. While I did think Robert Ryan was wasted in Hour of the Gun, seeing Garner in a part that required this serious, brooding side rarely seen by him—unlike his charmer television classic characters in the likes of Maverick & The Rockford Files—was neat. I have a second western I’ve never seen I will be reviewing for the blog called A Man Called Sledge I’m looking forward to. I’m even planning to review television episodes of ...

FD 5 My favorite scene in Final Destination 5 doesn’t necessarily feature a gruesome, imaginatively staged death, but it factors exponentially in how frightening “death’s design” can be. Unlike a human mastermind such as Jigsaw and his protégés in how they design death traps that require their “specimens” to act on potential escape methods, FD series doesn’t technically allow such rescue of themselves. Sure it’s possible that one can “replace their fate with someone else handy” but most of the time this isn’t in the cards. The scene I loved was the hero’s walking through a kitchen in the back of a restaurant as he prepares to cook. All the “tools of trade” are seen as weapons of mass destruction. The presentation of these cooking tools would indicate that they are harbingers of doom. I was tickled at how macabre they were established. FD is a popular series almost exclusively because of how death executes victims. Typically (and FD 5 is no different), the victims are all r...

All Cheerleaders Die (2013) Still sorting out my thoughts on this movie, but I can say that this was a hell of a good time for yours truly. Of course, a movie about cheerleaders is always the kind to polarize some and excite others, but I was definitely surprised at how much I actually enjoyed the wild free-for-all of differing elements. The "tonal wallops" that exist in the film seems to be the major criticism along with "female objectification" so forewarning I guess is appropriate for those who haven't seen this. I guess I'm just a Chris Sivertson/Lucky McKee fanboy because their work seems to cause this major divide of hate them or love them. I'm certainly a McKee fanboy, but while many just loathe pretty much anything Sivertson puts out, I seem to like his stuff. I'll try to put together my review for this film on the blog after some reflection. You have been warned. http://brianscarecrow88.tumblr.com/post/92093779806/brooke-butle...