Spotting young obscure horror film actors in other flicks often sends me down rabbit holes of curiosity. Here are three of them, hardly heartthrobs, which you may or may not know:
Cabin Fever: not the modern one, the Eli Roth original, in which a young Sheriff visits the cabin and extolls the virtues of hard pardying, even when all around are rotting away from a flesh-eating disease. Yep, he's the pardying lawman on the lookout for campfire fun.
Enter Independence Day with Will Smith, in which the same actor appears as a young kid. Turns out he's been acting a while and most curious of all, went on to write, direct and produce 50 independent flicks of his own, so much so that a documentary was made of his film-making, in which he's labelled a genius auteur! You would think that such praise would have got him noticed but quite the opposite. He disappeared entirely from public view in 2015! His name: Giuseppe Andrews.
Fright Night: again the original starring Roddy McDowell ably assisted among others by one Evil Ed, a memorable young boy with a very infectious laugh. Alas Ed succumbs to the nefarious whims of the undead and ends up with a crucifix brand on his, well, 'ed.
Again, in a complete change of tack, Evil Ed then goes on to get very busy starting in countless pornos for his sins and we horror buffs are left with nothing but his hyena chuckle. His name: Stephen Geoffreys.
Scary Movie: the first of the sinister satires, this original included a young actor who's character's particular schtick, was, well, having a small d*ck, much to the amusement of his pals in the college changing rooms. Naturally annoyed, he goes on to be abruptly dispatched by the film's killer and I abruptly forgot about him.
Until recently, when fully-grown, he popped up in Arrow (2014) and did a very good job of a Police Captain. A very busy actor indeed, he's reprising his Scary Movie role in this year's remake, 26 years later! His name: Lochlyn Munro.
Do you know of any acting obscurities, sudden departures or bizarre changes in direction in the worlds of sci-fi and horror films and TV?
Some recent telly I've seen.
Sphere: an underwater sci-fi flick from donkeys years ago, I saw it back then and I'm pretty sure I read the novel on holiday. The film was produced by Michael Crichton, so I assume he wrote the novel. It's not one of his theme parks but it is a destination.
The film reminds me a lot of ALIEN. I don't know if that was intentional. The crew mess scenes where they sit around drinking coffee could be from Ridley's Nostromo.
I like the central conceit, that whatever the main protagonist dreams actually happens. It's made clear that the dreams are heavily influenced by his reading of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, including a giant squid attack no less!
There's echoes of Event Horizon too, but I guess any film about first contact with an alien intelligence will touch on gradual human madness.
Arrow: my personal quest to watch all 180 episodes of this DC series about the Green Arrow goes on unabated. I'm about half-way. Malcolm Merlyn (John Barrowman) has just become Ra's Al Gul, after being handed the title by the Green Arrow himself. You'll recall that in the Dark Knight films Liam Neeson played Ra's, a curiously compelling character with a passion for levelling cities.
The Flash has made another appearance and it's all building up to a DC Arrow/ Flash crossover, Crisis on Infinite Earths I think it's called, which itself spawns an adjacent 180 episodes of the Flash! I'm unsure yet if I can keep up with the Speedster. I'll stick with the Bowman for now.
Anyone else seen Arrow?
What are you watching or have you watched of late?
Trouble is, you can't see it! It's that secret!
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I adored my Century 21 Toys Joe 90 attached case as a kid. It was a magnificent toy crammed with all Joe's trademark gizmos.
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The secret inner compartments folded up neatly to finish up with this cool as a cucumber black case.
Have you any Joe 90 stuff?
