I join the Bell Media Radio Network national night time show “Shane Hewitt and the Night Shift” to talk about the hottest costume trends for Halloween and why we like to be scared at the movies.
Listen to the whole thing HERE!
Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Vampires… but were too scared to ask!
Folks have a fear and fascination with bloodsuckers like Count Dracula and Akasha, the ancient vampire Queen of the Damned and others, so, to celebrate Halloween I’m bringing in vampire expert Prof. Stanley Stepanic of The University of Virginia to, not exactly shed some light one the subject, because, according to lore, that might make the vampires burst into flames, but to give us a lively history of the undead.
To date he has published three textbooks that have been released in recent editions – these are “Dracula or the Timeless Path of the Vampire,” “Russian and East European Film”, and “Russian Folklore”. His latest book, a novella titled “A Vamp There Was,” is set in 1920s Virginia, and looks at the vamp archetype… that of a desirable woman who manipulates men. A young man from Virginia investigates the secrets of her past and the devastating effect on the men who fall for her.
Professor Stepanic teaches a popular class on Dracula at The University of Virginia which covers the history of the vampire from pre-Christian Slavic belief to the present and often appears on lists of students’ favorite University courses.
Then, at the end of the show I share a taste of an interview I did with director Matt Reeves. He’s directed movies like “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes,” “War for the Planet of the Apes” and “The Batman” with Robert Pattinson, but here we talk about his unique vampire film “Let Me In.” It’s a remake of a Swedish film, but unlike so many remakes, this story of a bullied young boy who befriends a young female vampire who lives in secrecy with her guardian, really works and is perfect Halloween viewing.
Listen to the whole thing HERE! (Link coming soon)
Here’s some info on The Richard Crouse Show!
Each week on the nationally syndicated Richard Crouse Show, Canada’s most recognized movie critic brings together some of the most interesting and opinionated people from the movies, television and music to put a fresh spin on news from the world of lifestyle and pop-culture. Tune into this show to hear in-depth interviews with actors and directors, to find out what’s going on behind the scenes of your favourite shows and movies and get a new take on current trends. Recent guests include Chris Pratt, Elvis Costello, Baz Luhrmann, Martin Freeman, David Cronenberg, Mayim Bialik, The Kids in the Hall and many more!
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Richard joins canada’s number one mid-morning show “The Marilyn Denis Show” to talk about movies and television show to make your skin crawl on Halloween! We talk about a pair of chillers on Crave, “Come Play” and “The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It,” Disney+’s “Lego Star Wars Terrifying Tales,” the Amazon Prime reboot of “I Know What You Did Last Summer,” the world’s most popular TV show, Netflix’s “Squid Game” and “Halloween Kills,” in theatres now.
Watch the whole thing HERE! (Starts at 20:28)
A Saturday matinee screening of Paranormal Activity was the first and only time I have ever heard anyone actually scream in a theatre. I don’t mean a quiet whimper followed by an embarrassed laugh or a frightened little squeal. No, I mean a full-on, open throated howl of terror.
The release of Paranormal’s prequel last weekend got me thinking about other big screen scream worthy scenes. So just in time for Halloween are some leave-the-lights-on movie moments.
If Alfred Hitchcock had any doubts about the effectiveness of the shower sequence in Psycho they must have been put to bed when he received an angry letter from the father whose daughter stopped bathing after seeing the bathtub murder scene in Les Diaboliques and then, more distressingly, refused to shower after seeing Psycho. Hitch’s response to the concerned dad? “Send her to the dry cleaners.”
The shower scene was terrifying but at least it was allowed to stay in the movie. In 1931, Frankenstein star Boris Karloff demanded the scene in the movie where the monster plays with a little girl, throwing flowers in a pond be cut from the picture. It’s a cute scene until the beast runs out of flowers and tosses the little girl into the water, leaving her to drown. Karloff, and audiences, objected to the violence against the youngster and the scene was shortened, then removed altogether and remained unseen until a special videotape release 48 years later.
More recently, The Exorcist (now beautifully restored on Blu Ray) so traumatized audiences with shots of the possessed Regan MacNeil’s 360-degree head spinning that in the U.K. the St. John’s Ambulance Brigade were on-call at screenings to tend to fainters. Star Linda Blair says she wasn’t traumatized by the film, but admits there has been one long lasting side effect. “You wouldn’t believe how often people ask me to make my head spin around,” she says.
Blair may have been unfazed while shooting her gruesome scenes, but not all actors emerge unscathed. Elisha Cuthbert was so grossed out while shooting the notorious blender scene in the down-and-dirty flick Captivity she says she felt “physically ill twice” and had to have a bucket nearby.
Scary scenes one and all, but recounting them begs the question, why are we drawn to them?
The quick answer comes from Alfred Hitchcock who said, “People like to be scared when they feel safe.”
Did you love “Halloween III: Season of the Witch”? Wipe it from your memory. What about “Halloween H20: 20 Years Later”? Fuhgeddaboudit. How about “Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers” or any of the other masked killer films that came after John Carpenter’s 1978 slasher classic? They don’t exist. When you lay down money for a ticket to the new “Halloween” you are erasing four decades of slashing and dashing and seeing a direct follow-up to the original film.
Jamie Lee Curtis returns as Laurie Strode, the resourceful babysitter who, forty years ago, bravely stood up to masked killer Michael Myers (Nick Castle). The intervening years have seen her raise her now estranged daughter Karen (Judy Greer) and live in a home fortified with booby-traps in case Myers should reappear. “He’s waited for this night,” she says. “I’ve waited for him.”
At the beginning of the film Myers—known as ‘The Shape’ in the first movie—is still paying the price for killing his teenage sister Judith and the subsequent slaughter of four others. Tucked away in Smith’s Grove Sanatorium he is silent, a man who hasn’t spoken since committing his first murder at the age of six.
When Aaron Korey (Jefferson Hall) and Dana Haines (Rhian Rees), two British true crime podcasters, try to pry and interview out of Myers they arrive just before the Bogeyman escapes on October 31, 2018, put on the famous mask and reboot his killing career with an eye toward the one victim who got away all those years ago.
The 1978 and 2018 movies share more than a title and a leading lady. They share structural DNA and frights galore. The 2018 film feels fresh, timely and like a throwback to the moody low-fi scares of the original slasher flicks.
Castle is as eerie as always but it is Curtis who steals the show. Strode is grown up, suffers from PTSD and by her own words is “a basket case.” What she is not is broken. “I prayed every night for him to escape,” she says, “so I could kill him.” The trauma of 40 years ago has hardened her but she’s a warrior and a survivor who uses the great personal price Myers extracted from her as fuel to keep going. It’s tremendous stuff and in the #MeToo era the kind of heroine reclaiming her power that should make audiences cheer.
“Halloween” is both a reboot and a bloody love letter to the director who started it all, John Carpenter.
Zomald Trump and “Canada AM” lifestyle expert Katie Savage look at tricks and treats to make Halloween great at your house!
Watch the whole thing HERE!
Richard (as Zomald Trump) hosts the “Canada AM” Halloween costume Parade!
Watch the whole thing HERE!
