Dinner and a Movie with Moxie

 White Zombie (1932) In high school one of my favourite bands was White Zombie, I have fond memories of listening to their album Astro-Creep 2000 with my mum who was also a big fan.  My mum and I were also big fans of classic horror films, and I can remember one year around Halloween my mum and I were excited because Rob Zombie was hosting classic horror films on the Sci-Fi Channel.  From Rob Zombie hosting films that year, I discovered two of my favourite films, both being films that Zombie considered naming his band after, one was Carnival Of Souls, and the other being White Zombie from 1932 starring Bela Lugosi, which as we all know became the film that Rob Zombie would name his band White Zombie after.    White Zombie is an interesting film, it is a low-budget independent horror film, released in 1932 at the end of the silent era and the beginning of talkie films.   Most of the actors in the film, were well known silent era actors, who were struggling to keep their careers going in

 Casper (1995) So earlier this year, driving through Maine's Midcoast region, I found myself in a small town of Friendship Maine, and thought back to fond memories as a young teenager watching Casper, which was set in the small town of Friendship Maine.   Though most of the film was actually filmed in a studio in California, there were scenic shots done here in Maine, however the town of Friendship where the film is set was not one of those locations shot.  Instead the beautiful town of Rockport Maine stood in for Friendship, as it has a more quaint Maine village feel to it, and a more historic looking waterfront.  Which is understandable, as Rockport is a beautiful picturesque town on the Penobscot Bay.   If you are a fan of kid's movies you might recognize Rockport as the home of Andre The Seal, it also is the town that the town in Iron Giant is based on, and also I believe to be the town that inspired Collinsport Maine in Dark Shadows.   Another beautiful scenic shot in Casp

 Metropolis (2001) In 1927 German silent film director Fritz Lang released what might be arguably the best science fiction film of the silent era, with Metropolis.  The film helped to inspire mangaka Osamu Tezuka in 1949 to create a manga of the same name, even though Tezuka hadn't actually seen the film.   That manga became a well loved manga series, and in 2001 an anime was made of the classic manga.  The 2001 anime film diverged significantly from the original manga, and pulled in more elements from the original Fritz Lang film, and the resulting anime, is one of the greatest science fiction anime films released.   Metropolis was well loved by critics and fans alike, and is considered one of the must-see anime films.  Metropolis was directed by Rintaro, with a screenplay written by Katsuhiro Otomo.  The film was produced by Madhouse, and distributed by Toho (Japan) and Tristar Pictures and Destination Films (internationally).   Metropolis was met with high critical praise, and h

 One Body Too Many (1944) Films that mixed horror and comedy together have a long history dating back to 1920 with Haunted Spooks, and many of the biggest names of the horror genre have been in comedic horror films.  One of my favourite horror comedy films came in 1944 with One Body Too Many, which featured Bela Lugosi and comedic actor Jack Haley.   One Body Too Many is a comedic horror film about a wealthy man who dies, and has left a strange and very specific will regarding how his body will be placed in a glass vault on the top tower of his home under the stars, and that his family must stay in the house until the vault is built, they cannot leave for the couple days that it will take to prepare the vault, and the body must not be buried in any other way, and there are very specific consequences in the will if any of the instructions are violated.  But the family is against each other, and they hire an investigator to guard the body, but the investigator goes missing, and along com

 Invisible Ghost (1941) During the 1940's, Bela Lugosi, who ten years prior was one of the biggest names in the horror genre, after his legendary appearance as Dracula in Universal's 1931 film Dracula, had become nothing more than a supporting character, or a very low-budget b-film actor.  Some of those low-budget b-films were better than others, with 1941's Invisible Ghost definitely being a diamond in the rough.   This would be the first of nine films that Lugosi would do with Sam Katzman and Monogram Pictures, of those nine low budget films, some like Invisible Ghost were really well done, while others like Black Dragons, would be absolutely terrible.  Lugosi wasn't the reasoning for the films being bad, he took each role very seriously, and would give as much passion playing in a low budget role as he would in a big film like Dracula.   Bela Lugosi was one of the greatest actors of all-time, he was a true professional, and passionate actor.  Though he got cast in so

 Black Dragons (1942) After Bela Lugosi's contract with Universal Pictures ended, his career descended to a string of low budget b-films, and many of them were really not very good.  Bela Lugosi though took every role seriously, and there were times it felt that he was the only one that did.  In 1942 as World War 2 was going on, there were films made that were little more than anti-Japanese propaganda, and sadly Bela Lugosi was cast in one of those films, a spy movie with horror elements called Black Dragons.  As much as I love Bela Lugosi this film has always been hard for me to watch.  The film features heavy anti-Japanese sentiment bordering definitely crossing the line into racist propaganda, and also there is a brief anti-union scene, which is especially sad as Lugosi was a very strong advocates of unions.  Black Dragons is one of those films from a dark period of American history during World War 2, when sexism and racism were very mainstream popular concepts. Black Dragons w

 Taste The Blood Of Dracula (1970) The fifth installment of Hammer Horror's Dracula franchise, saw Christopher Lee donning the cape for the fourth time in the series.   Lee supposedly was reluctant to return to the role again, and the script originally was written without Lee reprising the role he had made famous, instead it had the character of Lord Courtley taking his place.  However without Lee Hammer's US distributors had no interest in releasing the film, so Lee was convinced to return to the role of Dracula.  This film also was censored in its original theatrical run in the US so that it was given a GP (PG) rating, but for the DVD version the edits to the nudity and violence were restored.   This film doesn't get as much appreciation from the fans as some of the other Hammer Dracula films, but it is still a great film, and maybe deserves another look. Taste The Blood Of Dracula was released in 1970, one of two Hammer Dracula films released that year, the other being T