Well, once again, I got restless and redesigned Teleport City. A couple years ago, I split all the travel, book, and music stuff off into a separate site. At the time it seemed like a good idea. It wasn’t. So it’s back. And of course, all sorts of older articles are broken, but at least I didn’t have to rewrite every single link. Plus, Jenny Agutter now stares at yo invitingly from the top of the page.

We also reviewed CHRISTMAS EVIL.
1980’s Christmas Evil is, I believe, the first of the Killer Santa Claus movies, which is odd if true. Used properly, Santa can be almost as creepy as a clown or a ventriloquist dummy, yet is sadly underutilized in popular culture. Maybe Santa is still too powerful a symbol. Luckily, maverick writer/director Lewis Jackson decided to blaze a trail by creating one of the first psychotic movie Santa Clauses, opening the floodgates for killer leprechauns, Uncle Sams, and perhaps, one day, cupids.

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FLASHBACK—-

It was the mid-1990s. The internet was more than just a gleam in Al Gore’s eye, but only just. It was a time when hour-long page downloads were barely even irritating; a time of getting lost in the cul-de-sacs of Geocities; and a time when the line, “It’s a UNIX system! I know this!” in Jurassic Park didn’t necessarily provoke a groan from the audience.

It was also the time when the appreciation of marginal cinema came into its own. B-movie websites sprang up like mushrooms; but it was not long before a handful of them separated themselves from the pack.

These webmasters and their works, the depth and breadth of their knowledge, their unabashed obsessiveness and perhaps above all their sense of humour would set a glorious example to those who would aspire to follow in their footsteps: Alan Gallauresi and Rob Trevino of Oh, The Humanity; Scott Hamilton and Christopher Holland of Stomp Tokyo; Kenneth Richard Begg of Jabootu’s Bad Movie Dimension (which started life as Ken’s World Of Awful Movies); and Freeman Williams, aka Dr Freex, of The Bad Movie Report.

In those days, giants walked the earth.

And even as the experts were decrying the “de-socialisation” supposedly caused by the internet, lovers of weird and wonderful movies were making new friends and enjoying an unprecedented sense of community. Inspired by the examples before them, others would found their own B-movie websites and bring their own peculiar perspectives to the reviewing table. It was not long before these webmasters, scattered all over the world, were corresponding by e-mail, coming together in an unofficial kind of mutual admiration society.

And then one day, one of them had an idea: suppose they came officially together? Why not hold a Roundtable, in which each of the participating sites reviewed the same movie? After some back-and-forthing, seven websites agreed to tackle the 1957 schlock masterpiece, The Brain From Planet Arous.

It was November, 1999. The event was dubbed BRAINATHON ‘99. It was the birth of the B-Masters’ Cabal…

FLASHFORWARD—-

It is now November, 2009: our 10-year anniversary; and to celebrate, our member websites have again come together to wreak terrible vengeance upon a single, unfortunate movie. And not only is the occasion marked by the rare – unique? – participation of every single member site, but we have also succeeded in luring back to the fold the man whose suggestion started it all, way back in 1999: Andrew Borntreger of Badmovies.org. This time, the film in question is William Grefé’s drive-in non-classic, Sting Of Death.

Welcome, one and all, to STINGATHON ‘09!!

Click the banner to do the jilla-jalla-jellyfish with the B-Masters’ Cabal!

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For the latest installment of That Was Then, This Is Now, Chad Denton, Zack Handlen and myself try something a little different, examing how film-makers from three distinct eras in the history of cinema went about the problem of bringing to the screen that most idiosyncratic of writers, Edgar Allan Poe. 

We also discuss Poe’s writing generally, look at how well (or not) our films reflect their sources, and have a chat about cinema’s apparently irrestible urge to turn Poe into one of his own fictions.

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Edgar Allen Poe (1909) at And You Call Yourself A Scientist!

The Avenging Conscience (1914) at And You Call Yourself A Scientist!

The Raven (1915) at And You Call Yourself A Scientist!

The Premature Burial (1962) at The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

The Black Cat (2007) at The Duck Speaks

And The Conversation
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In Tough Assignment (1949), a news reporter and his photographer wife go undercover to get the story on a cattle rustling ring that’s been strong-arming the local butchers to buy their bootleg beef.

No, seriously, that’s the premise.

And in unrelated matters, please see this blog post: What should I do with ZombieMart?

No full reviews this week (or last, right?), but TC did crank out a few Shrimp Chips for y’alls amusement.

Ypotron — Psychedelic Eurospy adventure!
Con Licencia Para Matar – Catsuits and bikinis, go-go dancing and espionage from Mexico
Dead Space: Downfall – animated film prequel to a video game. Zombies in space.
Love and Murder -Another Bollywood addition to our growing “Guys Dressed Up As Skeletons” collection.

In the Hoopla category…
All the old Leisure, Music, and book review material from Teleport City has found (or will) a new home of its own: Jet Set Tramp is the new place for what I’m looking at as a site about travel, adventure, food, spirits, and entertainment written about from the point of view of nerds who don’t have a whole lot of money. It seems every travel site is either for rich people, crusty hippies, or families, so with any luck, Jet Set Tramp will be an alternative.