Thursday, December 17, 2020

Retro Game Review | Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver (1999)

A long, long time ago I wrote an article about my favourite retro games to play around the holidays and one of the games I featured was Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver. Why? Honestly, there’s no good reason other than the fact that I first played it around Christmas of 1999. I didn’t look for it under the tree or pine over it in gaming magazines that year or anything. I just went to the rental store for something to play on a random December weekend, snagged a copy of Soul Reaver for the PlayStation because the graphics looked cool, and that’s it!

Many years later I would finally pickup a copy of my very own, but for the PC, and since then I install it during my Christmas break and at least play a few hours, if only to try and relive those memories for a little while.

It occurred to me that I had never really reviewed or talked about the game except to say that I liked playing it by Christmas light every few years, so I thought that might be a fun article to post!

Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver is the sequel to Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain, which released on the Sony PlayStation in 1996 and on the PC the following year. It was developed by Silicon Knights, who also did Eternal Darkness on the GameCube, and published by Crystal Dynamics, most notable for developing Tomb Raider.

Blood Omen was a top-down action RPG, which featured the titlular character Kain, a nobleman who has been killed and turned into a vampire. The story follows Kain as he seeks revenge for his affliction by destroying the nine pillars of Nosgoth – the fictional world the Legacy of Kain games are set in – only to find himself reveling in his new vampiric evolution.

The game was popular enough, mostly because of its adult theme and violence, all of which garnered it a sequel. Crystal Dynamics began development of “Legacy of Kain 2” immediately after the release of Blood Omen, but legal woes with Silicon Knights caused delays in the release and forced Crystal Dynamics to remove certain features and elements from the game. Ultimately, they broke through the legal issues and were able to publish Soul Reaver in the summer of ’99.

Despite having some of the game elements disabled, Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver is a fully-featured title set many years after the events of Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain. SPOILER ALERT! Kain, after defeating eight of the nine pillars’ guardians, came to the realization that he was the ninth guardian. In order to restore Nosgoth, Kain had to sacrifice himself, but would not. Instead Nosgoth began a slow decline into ruin, while Kain and his vampire brood continued to flourish and evolve. One of his most trusted lieutenants is Raziel, the main character of Soul Reaver.

In an amazing opening cutscene you get some of this backgroud story and witness Kain’s jealousy and aggression when Raziel evolves and grows wings – a gift Kain himself has not yet been given. In a fit of rage, Kain destroys Raziel’s wings and throws him into a swirling vortex to toil in agony for all eternity.

1500 years later, the Elder God of Nosgoth resurrects Raziel as a Wraith – a creature of the “spirit realm”, which can devour the souls of the dead. He gives Raziel the choice to hunt down and kill Kain, both out of vengeance and to restore the pillars of Nosgoth, ending the world’s decay. Thus, he names Raziel his Soul Reaver – which is a reference to the name of Kain’s sword – and sets him loose on the dying lands with his new purpose.

Sounds incredible, right! Well, it is. The story of the Legacy of Kain games is absolutely top tier. The gameplay would also become a very important part of what the series would become and that starts here, with Soul Reaver.

Unlike Blood Omen, which was top-down, Soul Reaver is in full 3D. It’s an action game with puzzle aspects. You can move Raziel through the 3D environment of both the spirit realm and Nosgoth, which adds extra depth to all the environments of the game as they can typically be navigated in both dimensions.

At its core, the game is really a Metroidvania. I can sense a lot of “gamers” just picked up their torches and took to the comment section to ream me out!

Metroidvania is a portmanteau of the titles Metroid and Castlevania, both known for their non-linear action adventure titles, where the player is placed in an “open world” of sorts – not just moving left to right through stages – but traversing back and forth through a sustained environment, unlocking new areas by getting new abilities or finding keys.

At first Raziel can really only shift between realms and devour souls, but soon gains abilities like phasing through gates that block his path or climbing certain walls. This allows him to find his way through the dying Nosgoth to hunt and kill Kain.

After encountering Kain for the first time, Raziel gains his main weapon – the soul reaver itself. Kain attempts to use his century old blade to kill Raziel again, but instead the weapon is destroyed and its essence becomes merged with Raziel as an ethereal extension of his arm. As the game progresses, you can gain new abilities to help in battling the vampire hordes that languish in the world, as well as upgrade the soul reaver.

The gameplay can honestly be a little repetitive and the environments, although mastered in beautiful 3D for their time, can feel a little too alike. That’s kind of typical for games of its time, but what makes Soul Reaver shine is pretty much everything else.

The voice acting and music are too good not to mention. If you’ve played video games, you know that the voice acting can be really abysmal, but that is not the case here. Many sites and magazines will list the Legacy of Kain series as the top 50 best voice acted games and it’s a worthy kudo.

The music is also a standout. It has a very industrial feel to it, which seems off considering the fantasy aspects of the game, but it totally works. Each area of Nosgoth has a unique theme, but the music will naturally change to suit the current situation. In a battle, the music will be more epic and exciting, while it will be more muted and subdued as the player explores each region.

The story is just so engrossing. Soul Reaver builds on the already great world created in Blood Omen, but really takes everything to the next level. And, if you can believe it, things get even better in its direct sequel, Soul Reaver 2, which actually incorporates time travel!

All-in-all, Soul Reaver is an absolutely amazing game and a real triumph of its time. Yes, it can be a little repetitive, but all of the seamlessly integrated story elements and cutscenes will absolutely grab you and keep you motivated to continue on.

I’ve been playing the game on PC for many years. I can’t recall exactly how the PlayStation version looked – and I’m sure it’s serviceable – but I have to say that PC is probably the way to go, if you can. It was also released on the Sega Dreamcast in 2000, which I hear is the best console version by far. I have to say that the game still looks amazing on PC at its highest resolutions on my 720p TV.

It took a little finagling to get a new controller to work for it, but the time was worth it. The game supports Direct Input, which was the standard in the late-90s, but these days most controllers us XInput. A quick internet search allowed me to find a tool that will map a controller to Direct Input for you easily. I actually plugged in one of my PlayStation Classic controllers, which use USB, and it really helps to simulate those nostalgic vibes!

For me, there’s something special about replaying Soul Reaver with nothing but soft Christmas lights to brighten my darkened room, but as I’m sure no one else shares that attachment, trust me – you can enjoy Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver any time of the year. So go ahead and do that! It’s actually on sale as I write this for $1.09 CDN on GOG.com (Windows PC version) and runs for $5.99 as a PSOne Classic on the Sony PlayStation 3 or PSP systems (NOTE: PSOne Classics can only be purchased from a PS3 console), so you really have nothing to lose!

Is there anything tradition, movie, or game that you like to enjoy during the holidays, but it has nothing to do with the season? I’d love to hear about it in the comments!

Merry Christmas,
R

Thursday, December 3, 2020

Five Classic Christmas Cartoons from the 1990s

Every year we carve out time to watch some of our favourite Christmas specials, like Rudolph, the Grinch, Frosty, and Charlie Brown. But what about the Christmas episodes of your favourite cartoon shows? It wasn’t just the big specials drawing people into the season. Pretty well every TV show you were watching likely had at least one Christmas episode if not one for every season!

Here are some of the best Christmas episodes from ’90s cartoons that I think you should check out this year!

The Ren & Stimpy Show – “Son of Stimpy”

Okay, I had to lead with this one, because it is way out there, but please indulge me.

The Ren & Stimpy Show was one of my favourite cartoons as a kid. This was one of the first cartoons that were (intentionally or not) really aimed at an older demographic, but the potty humour and ridiculousness made it borderline taboo so, of course, I just wanted to watch it more. Oddly enough, this show somehow aired beside Rugrats and Doug on Nicktoons in the US. In Canada, Ren & Stimpy aired later in the evening on Much Music, our (pun intended) much better version of MTV.

My parents were always very liberal with letting me watch whatever I wanted. Ren & Stimpy was where they drew the line, for some reason. I can recall one night convincing my father to let me stay up until 9:30 to watch TV – but totally not Ren & Stimpy – only to dastardly change the channel to Much Music just as the show was about to begin. He made me turn it off! I was scandalized! It wasn’t long before he relented however and the first episode I can recall watching was “Space Madness”, which had me hooked.

Like any TV show at the time, especially one that was technically made for kids, Ren & Stimpy had a Christmas episode. There’s actually two that I can remember! Today, however, we’ll be talking about “Son of Stimpy”, which aired in January of 1993. Yeah… I know. It was apparently typical of the show’s creator, John Kricfalusi, to be late with material, so I’m assuming this is one of those instances.

Now, bear with me, but the episode’s premise surrounds Stimpy having his first *ahem* fart, which leads him to believe he has just given birth. He names his son Stinky and pines over his disappearance, falling into a state of depression. Ren, who unsurprisingly doesn’t believe Stimpy created gaseous offspring, can only watch as his best friend falls into the depths of sadness, before striking out in a snowstorm on Christmas Eve to try and find his long-lost child.


This kind of stuff would only fly on Ren & Stimpy, but as absurd as it sounds it worked. I would about guarantee you’d never expect to have a vested interest in seeing a cat be reunited with his long lost fart on Christmas morning, but here it is.

You may be thinking there’s no way you’d sit down and watch something this ridiculous during the holidays, but can you honestly think of anything else like it? Nope! So strike a new path and take in “Son of Stimpy” this year. I guarantee you’ll get a gas out of it! HA! I kill me!

I couldn’t find The Ren & Stimpy Show anywhere to stream here in Canada, so if you want to check this one out you might have to dig around for an old DVD or search the web like I did for a VHS-ripped TV airing from the year 2008!

The Simpsons – “Marge Be Not Proud”

Everyone remembers The Simpsons Christmas episode “Simpsons Roasting On An Open Fire”, because – in a rare case – it was actually the very first episode of the series when it hit syndication in 1989. The first episode was intended to be “Some Enchanted Evening”, but because of a hiccup with the animation and it being mid-December, the producers decided to lead with a Christmas special.

But I’m not going to talk about that episode. I’d like to talk about another classic, which is “Marge Be Not Proud”. It’s hard to believe, but this was only the second Christmas-themed Simpsons episode to ever air, seven years to the day after the first show! Because the first episode was so well-received, no one wanted to touch a Christmas show for a very long time.

The story centers around Bart wanting a new violent video game called Bonestorm, which is of course a Mortal Kombat stand-in. When Marge refuses to buy it for him, he attempts to shoplift it from a local discount store. The episode is incredible poignant. We’ve all disappointed someone in our lives at some point and it’s easy to empathize with Bart in this situation, even if you didn’t do anything as egregious as shoplift.

At it’s core, “Marge Be Not Proud” is one of those really heartwarming episodes The Simpsons were capable of without losing the laughs. It’s hard to explain, but it doesn’t feel like the usual Christmas special you’d expect. I mean all the trappings are there; it features Santa (like you’ve never seen him before!) in a video game commercial, a department store at Christmas, and a Krusty Christmas Special, but at it’s core “Marge Be Not Proud” is just a sweet story about Marge and Bart realizing how much they need each other, while Homer and Milhouse (a.k.a. Thillho) handle the comic relief.

If you are subscribed to Disney+ then you can stream this episode right here or you can always track down one of the millions of DVD releases that are floating out there in the wild!

Stuuuuuff THIS up your stocking!

Bump in the Night – “Twas the Night Before Bumpy”

Unlike The Simpsons, I’m never sure how many people are aware of Bump in the Night or not, so I’ll start with a little about the show, if you’ll indulge me!

Bump in the Night was a claymation show that aired on ABC for two seasons from ’94 to ’95. Everyone remembers the ABC Saturday Morning cartoon block, because they always had the best bumpers to the tune of “After these messages we’ll be riiiii-ight back!” You know you were singing that in your head!

What some people might forget is that in 1993 a new set of bumpers were created, which featured a little green bug-eyed monster, a blue blob-looking creature, and a stitched together Raggedy Ann-style doll. Well, these would become the characters of the then newly-minted Bump in the Night!

The show followed the green monster, Mr. Bumpy, who lived under a 10-year old boy’s bed and his friends the blue blob Squishington and the boy’s sister’s doll, Molly Coddle, as they went on adventures in the night while everyone was asleep in the house. There was a whole cast of characters, which included antagonists Destructo, a robot action figure that constantly tries to keep Mr. Bumpy in line, and the Closet Monster, which is a living pile of clothes that lurks in the depths of the, well… closet.

There would usually be two stories per half hour episode, which almost always included a musical number that acted as a sort of clip show recounting the events of the episode.

ABC pulled out all the stops for Bump in the Night, casting veteran voice actors Rob Paulsen (Raphael from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) as Squishington, Gail Matthius (former Saturday Night Live cast member and Shirley the Loon from Tiny Toon Adventures) as Molly, and Jim Cummings (Tigger from Winnie the Pooh and Pete from various incarnations of Mickey Mouse cartoons) as Mr. Bumpy.

The show was a super fun and incredibly well-animated program that I instantly fell in love with when it started airing in ’94. It was a popular show, as well, but in ’95 was cancelled. I’m not sure why exactly, but I assume it has something to do with Disney buying into ABC around that time and the SatAM cartoon block being loaded with Disney programming like Gargoyles, The Mighty Ducks, and DuckTales.

In it’s final year, however, they made a huge Christmas special. As I said before, the clips in the show were usually under 15 minutes, although the occasional episode took up the whole half hour block. “Twas the Night Before Bumpy” had over an hour long runtime!

In the special Mr. Bumpy wants to get his hands on Santa’s sack and enlists his best pal Squishington to join him on a quest to the North Pole to find Santa’s workshop. Molly Coddle and the rest of the show’s characters remain at home attempting to put on a Christmas Pageant.

Along Mr. Bumpy’s quest he and Squish run into several characters in desperate need of gifts from Santa, including a South American earthworm by the name of Juaquin Gusanito Sin Manos, voiced by none other than Cheech Marin! The little monsters enlist the help of their new acquaintances to help them find Santa’s bag with the promise of whatever they wish for from it, although Mr. Bumpy is always working angles to keep all the wonderful presents to himself.

In the end, Bumpy and Squish find Santa’s workshop, which is protected by a paramilitary force of Elves and Snowmen that instantly make you think of the Clayfighter video games – clay animation was really seeing a big resurgence during this time. The episode is interspersed with original parodies of classic Christmas carols and even a Hannukah song!

My sister and I loved this special back in ’95. In my memory YTV, which I believe syndicated the show after it was cancelled by ABC, played “Twas the Night Before Bumpy” during their Christmas programming for at least a few years after, because I certainly made a point to catch it more than once in the 90s. Either that or I had it recorded to a VHS tape, but if I did it’s long gone. For years I couldn’t watch the special, which always irked me, despite it actually having a DVD release in the mid-2000s, but now anyone can enjoy it on the Wildbrain YouTube Channel, which is loaded with all kinds of great 80s and 90s cartoon content!


The ads can be a bit of a pain, but trust me – this one is worth it!

Batman: The Animated Series – “Christmas with The Joker”

Now we’re cookin’!

Batman: The Animated Series launched on FoxKids back in September of 1992 and essentially kicked off the entire Warner Bros. DC cartoon superhero “universe” we all know and love today. The style, attention to detail, and incredible story-telling and acting on display in Batman TAS make it not only one of the best animated TV shows all time, but just plain one of the best shows, period. For my money, this is the greatest portrayal of Batman ever outside of the comic books.

As is always the case with a great superhero there must be equally engaging bad guys and if there’s a more famous villain that The Joker, I’m not sure who it is! Batman, voiced by the incomparable Kevin Conroy – who is so good as the Caped Crusader, I have a hard time hearing anyone else in the role, much like Peter Cullen as Optimus Prime – had to have just the right actor to stand against him as The Joker. In what is probably one of the greatest casting choices of all time, Mark Hamill would take the bull by the horns and help to create an absolutely iconic version of The Joker that endures to this day.

And that all started with the series second episode, “Christmas with The Joker”. I say the second episode, but in reality it actually aired much later. As I mentioned the show started in September of ’92, but it came out of the gate with 65 episodes and immediately went into syndication, so the initial airings were kind of all over the place at the time. This particular episode didn’t actually air until November of that year, so there were likely at least 10 other episodes that technically preceded it.

“Christmas with The Joker” opens with the Clown Prince of Crime breaking out of Arkham in top notch Joker style, by somehow rigging a Christmas tree into a rocket and blasting off throw a skylight singing “Jingle Bells, Batman Smells”, which was likely the first time that version of the song was ever canonized!

He then goes on to somehow take over the television airwaves of Gotham City, broadcasting his own twisted Christmas special calling out Batman to jump through a series of elaborate traps to save Commissioner Gordon, Barbara Gordon, and Detective Bullock all on Christmas Eve.

The Joker absolutely steals the show, of course. I just can’t get over Mark Hamill’s version of the character. Much like I have a hard time hearing anyone other than Kevin Conroy voice Batman, I find it equally difficult listening to anyone else play The Joker. Hamill’s laugh and line delivery is absolutely perfect. And the best part of the whole episode? The Joker’s endgame was legitimately to give Batman a pie in the face. That’s it.

Absolutely brilliant!

Batman TAS had a fairly popular DVD release, which isn’t too hard to find secondhand, and recently landed on a really awesome Blu-ray set. You can also stream the show from various platforms, including YouTube for $1.99 CDN an episode.

Futurama – “Xmas Story”

Although I already featured a Matt Groening animated show I just couldn’t talk myself out of rounding out this list without mentioning one of my favourite episodes of his other seminal cartoon, Futurama.

Futurama, of course, follows the story of Fry – a dim-witted pizza delivery guy – who gets accidentally cryogenically frozen on New Year’s Eve 1999 only to awaken 1000 years later as the year 3000 begins! He gets another delivery gig for a company called Planet Express once he finds his only living descendant, Dr. Farnsworth, a quirky old professor. There he meets the rest of the cast, which includes Leela, the captain of the interplanetary deliver ship, Amy Wong, a rich intern at Planet Express, and Bender, a liquor-swilling, foul-mouthed, robot.

Futurama instantly became one of my favourite shows when it first aired in 1998. For many people, I feel like it was overshadowed by the immensely popular Family Guy, which began airing a few months later in 1999, but I always preferred Futurama, which itself aired for seven seasona and was even revived with some direct-to-DVD films in the late-2000s.

It’s first Christmas special, “Xmas Story” aired in the second season on December 19th, 1999 and has some of the most iconic jokes in the whole series.

It’s centered around Fry’s first Christmas in the future, which is now known as Xmas, but continues to keep many of the same traditions that were around in 1999. One major difference, however, is Santa Claus. In the year 2801 a real robotic version of Santa was created, which could determine if someone was actually naughty or nice. In true Terminator fashion, the robot went mad and started dishing out punishments for anyone who was naughty. Since then, the people of the world hide in fear during the night of Christmas Eve, lest they be judged by SantaBot and have to see what he has in his “sack of horrors”.

There’s also a great subplot in there with Bender stealing booze (which is basically food for robots in Futurama) from homeless robots, because that’s how Bender do.

Much like the iconic quotes Santa delivers in “Marge Be Not Proud”, robot Santa has some of the best lines from Futurama, like “Time to get jolly on your candy asses!” and “I’m going to shove coal so far up your stocking you’ll be coughing up diamonds!” All delivered by none other than John Goodman… Frosty from Frosty Returns!

Again, I can’t recommend “Xmas Story” enough. It’s available on many streaming platforms and the DVDs for Futurama are really easy to find for cheap. Here it is on YouTube for the slightly steep price of $2.99 CDN per episode!

And there you have it! Five classic ’90s Christmas shows that you might not have considered taking in this holiday season. Let’s face it, with the Covid-19 pandemic many people have nothing but time, so instead of just watching the usual fair, why not try something different? You can’t go wrong with these Christmas shows, I promise!

Merry Christmas,
R 

Sunday, October 25, 2020

Halloween 2020 | The Raccoons – Monster Mania (1988)

If you’re from outside of Canada, you’ve likely never heard of The Raccoons, although it did air in the US on the Disney Channel, I think? It was a cartoon created originally as a Christmas special titled The Christmas Raccoons for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) in 1980 by showrunner Kevin Gillis, who produced this show and more recently Atomic Betty.

After a series of TV specials, like The Raccoons on Ice and The Raccoons and the Lost Star, The Raccoons finally started airing as a regular television series in 1985 and ran until 1991.

It’s hard to describe exactly how beloved The Raccoons is up here in Canada, but I think you can liken it to something like The Smurfs. It was a wholesome, fun cartoon that anyone could enjoy. Oh, and they played hockey!

So, why am I bringing this show up now? It’s Halloween, for crying out loud!

Well, I always remembered watching an episode of The Raccoons that I thought was their Halloween special. I distinctly remembered watching TV one day and seeing a commercial that a monster episode was going to air around Halloween and that I was stoked! Well, I recently stumbled upon that promo – big thanks to the Betamax King on YouTube!

I saw this video a while ago, so I decided to add this episode of The Raccoons to my Halloween watch-list, which I curate during the off-months in preparation for September and October – yes, I’m a geek. It was just last week when I finally got to sit down to it!

And… this is most definitely not a Halloween special. Don’t get me wrong, it was fun and it definitely (kinda) had a monster in it, but it was apparent fairly quickly that this was simply aired around Halloween, but was not produced with that intent.

The Raccoons features anthropomorphic woodland animals that live in Evergreen Forest. It’s focused on three raccoons: married couple Ralph and Melissa and their live-in friend, Bert? Kind of a weird relationship there. They’re usually up against Cyril Sneer, a wealthy industrialist who is always trying to make a buck. His son Cedric is a friend to the eponymous Raccoons. It turns out the Sneers are aardvarks? I’ll be honest, when I was a kid I thought it was weird that they were the only two “monster” characters in the show, because I could never place what animal they were supposed to be. You live and you learn!

“Monster Mania!” is set during the summer. One day Bert and Melissa are hanging out by the lake (better watch out, Ralph!) and they see a fire-breathing monster emerge from the lake! Melissa grabs her trusty camera and manages to snap a blurry picture of the creature.

Ralph runs the local newspaper, The Evergreen Standard, so Melissa publishes her picture and the news story, which picks up national attention, bringing lots of news crews and monster hunters to the Evergreen Forest. This all plays perfectly into Cyril Sneers pockets as he benefits on the extra publicity.

The episode is an obvious nod to “real-life” stories about the Loch Ness monster or Ogobogo in Lake Okanagan, British Columbia. It even receives the moniker “Evie”, much like “Nessie” or “Oggy”. If you’re a regular reader, you know how much I love old paranormal TV shows, especially around Halloween, and they often prominently featured these stories, so I appreciate this premise for their “Halloween” episode.

As usual with the show, it features environmentalist motifs. Cyril Sneer wants to mow down the lake to make an amusement park to benefit from the monster’s exposure and all the news crews and thrill seekers visiting the lake are trashing the surrounding area. Guess who wins in the end? The environment!

When writing about The Raccoons you just can’t leave out the amazing music produced by Lisa Lougheed. For this particular episode, the producers featured a song called “Growin’ Up”, which plays in a hilarious scene while some of Sneer’s cronies – who were totally oblivious pigs – are trying to do a water-skiing demo. This is just one of the great songs Lougheed performed and produced for the series over the years, but the most notable song she did was without a doubt “Run With Us”, which was the outro music to every episode. Walk up to just about any Canadian in their 30s and 40s and ask them to sing “Run With Us”. I promise, you won’t be disappointed.

Anyway, spoiler alert – Cyril Sneer built the monster as a hoax to drum up business and, of course, The Raccoons foil his plans once again. Ralph – who was jealous at Melissa’s success the whole episode – gets to eat a little crow, too. Happy ending!

You know what’s really cool? It looks like Kevin Gillis is trying to reboot the series! I’ve seen some concept art for The Raccoons: The New Adventures, and it looks really great and pays homage to the old show quite nicely. I’m really looking forward to it! What’s also awesome is that it looks like all of the old episodes of The Raccoons have been legitimately posted to YouTube by the production company Run With Us Productions, so you can actually kick back and watch “Monster Mania!” for yourself!

It’s admittedly not a Halloween episode – in fact, another episode that aired years later titled “The Phantom of Sneer Mansion” would be a better fit – but it did play a part in my Halloween in 1988 and it was a great trip down memory lane revisiting The Raccoons!

Happy Halloween!
R

Wednesday, October 21, 2020

REGIONFREE Episode #2 | Halloween Special

Hey everyone!

Sorry things have been so quiet around here lately! I’ve had some other projects on the go – hopefully some that I can share with you soon! – and it’s been eating up my free time. Rest assured there is more Halloween-y RETRODEF content coming in the next week or so.

That said, tonight at 8PM ET we are livestreaming REGIONFREE Episode #2, which will be about all things Halloween and horror! You can check out the stream here:


If you want to check out the stream on VOD, you’ll have to subscribe to our Patreon. Please consider trying us out! If not, we do post clips of each episode to the YouTube channel after it airs!

Our first official episode, as well as our reveal show, are available for free on YouTube right now, so please check those out, too!


We hope to see you in the chat tonight during out Halloween episode!

Cheers,
R

Tuesday, September 29, 2020

Syphon Filter (1999) | Sony PlayStation | Game Review



By 1999, the year Syphon Filter was released on the Sony PlayStation, gaming was dominated by several trends. The first had actually evolved from a trend into the new standard for the vast majority of games going forward: 3D graphics and gameplay in partially 3D to fully 3D environments. 

The resounding success of Super Mario 64 in 1996 and many of the Nintendo 64 games that followed convinced publishers that 3D was not only the future of video games, it was the present. The PlayStation and Sega Saturn’s hardware weren’t as proficient as the 64’s when it came to 3D graphics but the pressure was on to produce 3D games. Both systems did go on to have some very good 3D games while 2D was seen as passé and games in that style dropped off significantly.

The other trend relevant to Syphon Filter was that of the stealth action genre. While 1997’s Goldeneye – the N64’s massively successful movie-based first person shooter – offered plenty of action and moments where the player must take on waves of enemies as is customary for the genre, the spy aspect did squeeze in a little sneaking around. It was to the player’s benefit to take out enemies quickly and quietly before the alarm was raised bringing reinforcements. The use of silencers was key as was good accuracy; often you only had one chance to silently take out an enemy and if you missed the heat would be on.



The following year saw the release of the game most responsible for the rise of stealth: Metal Gear Solid. Bringing in the elements that made its 8-bit predecessors in the series, Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake, unique, as well as adding in some new ones to the 32-bit realm, Metal Gear Solid was a masterpiece of, in its own words “Tactical Espionage Action”. The game’s entire premise was that of infiltration and in most places, a strategy of avoiding enemies rather than engaging them was key. Not only was it still quite different from other games of the time, it was a lot of fun. As much as gamers had enjoyed titles with a “guns blazing” approach – blasting all enemies like a space marine – this sneaky alternative proved to be extremely enjoyable. Successfully passing through areas undetected forced the player to be more thoughtful and creative. The game was a success as big if not bigger than Goldeneye so a wave of imitators was inevitable. 

Metal Gear Solid: Often imitated, never duplicated.

Which brings us back to Syphon Filter. Possibly you forgot that’s what this article is about. You are forgiven.

Developed by the little-known Eidetic, whose only game to that point was one of the absolute worst of the aforementioned wave of fully 3D games, Bubsy 3D, Syphon Filter is no Metal Gear Solid clone, but it’s definitely strongly influenced by the Konami title. The player finds himself in control of a covert agent Gabriel Logan engaged in a series of missions. The agency is tracking terrorist Erich Rhoemer, who has acquired a deadly biological weapon called Syphon Filter (which, yes, is similar to Metal Gear Solid’s FOXDIE) and has just launched an attack on Washington, DC. Just like Goldeneye and most spy movies, Logan’s quest brings him to a variety of locations throughout the world. The story is fairly standard and it’s not necessary to relate it here. Logan himself is a fairly bland character and his voice actor makes him sound approximately seventy years old.

The gameplay takes place in third person with Logan going through 3D environments and the player can rotate the camera as needed. While the camera isn’t perfect and you can sometimes end up with some inconvenient angles, it’s usually not enough to truly hamper you. It’s not a platformer requiring precise jumps like Super Mario 64 after all.

That isn’t to say precision isn’t required, though. Aiming certain weapons shifts the perspective to first person and it can be tricky if you’re under pressure from enemies. While the game favours a stealthy approach, Gabe is still going to see plenty of combat as enemies sometimes come at him in waves. But the real challenge lies in entering new rooms or areas where enemies have already taken up firing positions. Cover isn’t always available and even when it is, it’s tenuous.

I haven’t watched videos of people playing Syphon Filter so I only really know how I chose to play it. My main strategy involves almost constant movement once I’m in a gun battle. This frantic style of play enables you to dodge bullets but makes aiming difficult and weapons do run out of ammo. So in some of the later levels it can take several attempts to figure out the best way to navigate a prolonged battle. A few years later, I’d apply a similar strategy to the Max Payne games but it was easier there because of that game’s feature of being able to slow down time.

While Syphon Filter falls well short of the standard set by Metal Gear Solid in terms of gameplay, story, voice acting and music, it still does add a few neat wrinkles of its own. For instance, in taking advantage of the game’s decent lighting effects, some areas are dark enough to require you to use a flashlight. In certain instances this can be a calculated risk as light can alert nearby enemies when you’re trying to sneak past them.


Syphon Filter was well received and spawned two sequels in quick succession. I’m fairly certain I’ve played both; I know for sure I did play Syphon Filter 2 but can’t really remember much about it beyond it playing exactly like the original game. Beyond that trilogy there came several more I never played: Syphon Filter: The Omega Strain in 2004, Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror in 2006 and Syphon Filter: Logan’s Shadow in 2007. The latter three were all for the PlayStation 2 and were mostly lost in the shuffle during those years. But playing once more through the original has made me curious about them.

Syphon Filter may have been the byproduct of trends but it’s still a solid game that’s fairly fun to play and takes some skill to complete. I was even driven to frustration at some parts but I wouldn’t call the difficulty cheap or unforgiving. One just has to make the proper adjustments. In the end, Gabriel Logan never joined the upper echelon of classic video game characters but he sits somewhere comfortably in the middle as the protagonist of a pretty good series. That’s more than can be said for many others.

cole d'arc

Cole d'arc is a writer based out of Halifax, NS. He is a practiced blogeteer and professional lister at Five-O-Rama, is the man behind Cole Talks Comics on YouTube, and talks about movies and video games live from the Movie Discussion Pocket Dimension and The Final Dungeon

Wednesday, September 23, 2020

Memory, Blog | Gundam Wing on YTV’s The Zone

 I want to take you back now to… THE YEAR 2000! April 24th, 2000, to be exact. I was a teenager who was into geeky things and one of those things was anime. I’d had plenty of run-ins with anime from the ’80s onward – or as we called it, “Japanimation” (still don’t know why that didn’t stick). Some of my favourite shows as a kid were Astro Boy and Tekkaman, but at the time I had no clue they were any different from G.I. Joe or He-Man.

In my teenage years I had more of an understanding of the anime scene and would start to seek out some of the best stuff available, like Bubblegum Crisis, Akira, and Galaxy Express 999.

Most of the stuff that I wanted to get my hands on was hard sci-fi that just had a completely different look-and-feel that we didn’t get in the West. I was certainly drawn to that. The thing is, I wouldn’t say I was or am an “anime fan”. There are plenty of shows and movies that I absolutely love, which – although they certainly are anime – I don’t even really care to put in that “bucket”. I just enjoy them, because they’re awesome!

One of those shows – if not the show – is Mobile Suit Gundam Wing.

I stumbled upon Gundam Wing one night while doing my usual thing – channel surfing. I was a TV junkie as a kid and even into early adulthood. Honestly, it’s something I miss. It was totally normal for me to eat dinner and then spend the next six hours glued to the tube. On this particular day, which was Easter Monday in my neck-of-the-woods, I would’ve had a whole lazy day in front of the TV. Good times!

I watched just about anything and everything, but YTV (stood for Youth Television, maybe?) was definitely a station of choice. It was the place to watch cartoons in Canada, although Fox Kids certainly gave it a run for its money in the Saturday morning market during the ’90s. I want desperately to gush about YTV and its evening programming block called The Zone, but I’ll keep it brief for this post and just say that it contained slightly more “adultish” shows for the nighttime crowd and was a place a teenager could still safely watch cartoons without losing their self-perceived edge.

At the time, the phenomenon that was Dragon Ball Z was syndicating in Canada and the US. It wasn’t the show’s first kick at the cat, but in late-1999 and onto the early-2000s the show was being re-aired uncut for the first time, so the fervor for it was reaching new heights. I had seen an episode here and there of its predecessor, Dragon Ball, which aired a few years earlier on Saturday mornings and… it wasn’t really my thing. A friend of mine was all about Dragon Ball Z and kept recommending it, so I thought I’d give it a shot – heck, what did I have to lose? I had all the time in the world back then!

On the evening in question, however, Dragon Ball Z was not being aired. In its stead was Gundam Wing. I’m assuming that after seeing the resurging interest in DBZ that Gundam Wing was a bit of a safe bet to bring to North America. Unlike DBZ, which ran for over 150 episodes, Gundam Wing only had 49 and a sequel OVA (original video animation), which is geekspeak for an “anime movie”. Producing English dubs for the whole series was likely less of a scary investment and good way to see if more of this kind of thing would stick during primetime TV blocks in North America. But what do I know!?


In an effort to give the show a foothold, on its first night airing on YTV they played it in place of Dragon Ball Z, so all the fans of that show could give Gundam Wing their undivided attention. Even better was that instead of showing one half-hour episode, they aired three whole shows back-to-back! You could even vote for the show on The Zone’s website to let the station know if it was a hit or not. This was an event night and, boy, let me tell you, event nights on TV were absolutely my thing.

I’d give you a really cerebral description about Gundam Wing and it’s incredibly nuanced story, but at the end of the day it’s a show about giant robots. Awesome giant robots. Like, giant robots with laser swords and machine guns. That’s all I really need, if I’m being honest with myself. It didn’t hurt that it had a really excellent dub, which could always be hit-or-miss with anime. In a brilliant move, Ocean Productions – the company that dubbed this series as well as earlier iterations of Dragon Ball Z – brought in Peter Cullen to narrate some promos for the show. Not only was he Optimus Freakin’ Prime, but he did the same style of narration for Voltron, so it was a really nice throwback for kids like myself who grew up on those shows.

Anime or not, Gundam Wing is just a really great dramatic action show. Sure, the backdrop is a war between Earth and colonized space structures that circle the globe where giant robots are the primary weapon, but don’t let all that get you hung up. I really think it’s a show that anyone can enjoy if they just put aside the trappings of “anime” and give it a shot.

So, why have I written 1000 words about this TV show from my youth, you ask? Well, because recently I came across a VHS tape with a recording of this very night in question! It was amazing to sit back and relive those exact moments again 20 years later and I just wanted to share some of that.

As you can see, I’ve uploaded The Zone segments that aired during the show to the VHyesterdayS YouTube channel and I plan to upload some of the commercials that aired as well, but I think that will be a post on its own. There’s some really good stuff in there! I’ve also uploaded the theme songs for Gundam Wing in all their glory. As much as I’d like to upload the episodes in their entirety, we all know how that’d end. At the very least you can get a taste for the show’s look-and-feel to see if it’s something you’d like to seek out. Sorry for the hum on the audio – it’s an artifact of the tape. I did my best to clean it up, but it still a little buzzy.


I hope you enjoyed this little walk down memory lane!
R

P.S. This tape also has the Gundam Wing OVA I mentioned called Endless Waltz: Special Edition. This did air on YTV as well, but during the later block at night so the commercials aren’t for cartoons and cereal, but ads for adult stuff like toothpaste and the upcoming Sydney Olympics. If I find anything actually interesting, maybe I’ll post some clips from this block, too.

Friday, September 18, 2020

A Brew and a View | Alone (2020)

It’s been a long while since I did one of these videos, but I saw the opportunity this evening and decided to kick back with a cold beer and watch a movie! I’m just now realizing, however, that I’ve never posted a Brew and a View video to the site before. I guess they used to be a YouTube exclusive, but no more!

This time I actually decided to watch something new. I took in Alone, which just came out on VOD yesterday. As for the beer, I had a Boxing Rock Wild Axe pilsner.

Find out my thoughts about each in the video!


Cheers,
R

Thursday, September 10, 2020

DVD Review | UFO Abduction (1989) | The McPherson Tape?

So, back in January I made you a promise and I am absolutely about to break it into pieces. My apologies in advance, but I just couldn’t help myself!


I’ve talked about the many incarnations of filmmaker Dean Alioto’s UFO films, UFO Abduction and Alien Abduction: Incident in Lake County, both the TV and alternate film version, so I’ve clearly beaten this horse to death.

I acknowledge that, but it turns out this horse has a little life left! When I wrote about UFO Abduction, Dean Alioto’s first film foray – a shot-on-video found footage feature 10 years before The Blair Witch Project – I mentioned that it was difficult obtain a legit copy of the film outside of a few avenues, but that is no longer the truth!

It turns out that in October of last year POV Horror – a streaming site for found footage indie films – released a DVD copy titled The McPherson Tape: UFO Abduction, which includes the film, as well as several audio commentary tracks by the director and Found Footage Critic (which has also thoroughly covered the film), an alternate “Bootleg” version of the film, a making of featurette, and a few trailers.

I’ll be honest, I figured outside of a few limited run DVDs that Dean Alioto might print and sell himself that there would never be a full feature release of this short film, let alone one with so many extras.


What’s even more surprising is that there was also recently a Blu-ray release of the film! That’s right. The American Genre Film Archive (AGFA) and distributor Vinegar Syndrome – the place for cult film preservation and hard-to-find film releases – actually put out a high definition release of UFO Abduction in April of this year. This release contains – as far as I know – the same cut of the film as the DVD, but also comes with the Encounters TV segment about the film, which I mentioned in a previous post, and a Q&A from Fantastic Fest. As much as I wanted to pick up the Blu-ray, it’s neither easy nor inexpensive to buy Vinegar Syndrome releases in Nova Scotia, but I could get the POV Horror release at a decent price, so I opted for the DVD.

When I previously watched this movie I had to settle for a very poorly encoded YouTube video from an old VHS that was probably bootlegged and sold at UFO conventions in the early-90s. It made the experience incredibly sub-par, to say the least. Finally getting the see the film as it was intended was a real treat and I very much enjoyed it.

Here’s a video of my thoughts on the DVD!


One thing to note is that it is super weird that they branded this movie “The McPherson Tape”. The family – although I don’t think their last names are ever mentioned – are the Van Heese family. Hilariously, some of them are named Van Hesse on film’s credits. Either way, they are not the McPhersons! That name was the family name of the characters in the second of Alioto’s UFO films. I assume it was renamed this, because it gets more search hits and they wanted the DVD to sell better, but that’s speculation.

So, hopefully this is the last time – at least for a while – that I’ll cover these films. I can’t say never, because if somehow the “actual” The McPherson Tape did get a release, I would most certainly review that, as well!

Cheers,
R

Tuesday, July 21, 2020

REGIONFREE Episode 0 | Conventions, Scream Factory Friday the 13th Box Set, and more!

If you’ve been following me for a while now you’ll know that since 2013 I’ve been a member of a livestream movie discussion show called The Sausage Factory on YouTube.

We a lot of fun over the years, but the group decided it was time for a change. Not only in format and structure, but it was time to change the name and make a fresh start.

The show is now called REGIONFREE! If you’ve been following The Sausage Factory then you should already be in the know. We’ve migrated the social media and YouTube channels over already! If you weren’t following, REGIONFREE is a genre discussion show without borders. Any topic is up for grabs, but the panelists are certainly big time film buffs and horror fans, so that is often topic du jour.

We recently dropped our first show entitled Episode 0. In it we revealed the new name and some of the details on how content will continue go forward. You can watch the new episode on YouTube right now! Also, if you subscribe to the channel or follow us on Twitter and Facebook you’ll get smaller snippets of the live show dropped right into your feed.

Check us out! If you’re a fan of movies, I think you’ll dig it. There are more exciting improvements and changes coming when the show official starts on October 1st, 2020, just in time for Halloween!


Where to follow us!
YouTube: REGIONFREE
Twitter: @REGIONFREEYT
Facebook: REGIONFREEYT

Cheers,
R

Monday, May 25, 2020

Dracula (2020) Series Review

I'm back with another horror review and this time we're kicking back with a new version of an old friend in BBC's latest take on Dracula.

A special note, this video was made entirely in my car. Technology is awesome (even if the video is my usual level of lackluster).


I hope you enjoy!
R

Tuesday, May 5, 2020

VHyesterdayS: E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (1996)



This past weekend officially marked Halfway to Halloween. I usually go out of my way to try and bring a little spooky into the springtime - maybe take out a decoration or two, drink some expired pumpkin coffee, whatever works - but this year all I could muster was watching an old movie... and that movie was E.T. The Extraterrestrial!

I know, I know. It's not a horror movie, but honestly I've been getting lots of horror in my diet lately, so watching something fun seemed just the ticket.

E.T. is, of course, the classic story of a young boy who befriends a wayward alien lost on Earth and trying to find his way home. The cast includes heavy-hitters like Dee Wallace (the ultimate '80s mom) and Peter Coyote, and has a excellent young cast with Robert MacNaughton, Drew Barrymore, and Henry Thomas as the film's main character, Elliott. Oh, and it was directed by Stephen Spielberg. You might've heard of him?

E.T. is a family movie, but don't let that fool you. This is perfect fare for Halloween.

The film is set in late-Autumn, although if you're not from Northern California it might be difficult to tell. Have no fear, though! There are several scenes set literally on Halloween night that include costumes, jack-o-lanterns, and decorations.

There's one costume in particular that I always wanted as a kid. As E.T., Elliott, and his brother Michael head out trick-or-treating they run into Yoda. It has to be a $200 mask and, when I was as kid, I thought it was the greatest thing, but I was stuck with plastic smocks and masks that made my glasses fog up.

For all its window dressings as a kids' movie, E.T. is damn scary. I might be a bit biased in this (E.T. scarred me as a child - something that took me a very long time to get over), but just watch the opening sequence of the film and tell me if you don't get a little creeped out. Also, I think every kid can remember being traumatized by E.T. lying half-dead in a creek with a raccoon literally waiting to feast on his soon-to-be dead body.

Search your feelings, you know it to be true (sorry for all the Star Wars references).

Now, onto the tape!

The original release of E.T. was in 1988 and it has an iconic tape with a black cassette shell and green tape guard. I don't, however, have that version of the movie. I have the 1996 re-release, which comes in a swanky clamshell (to further masquerade the movie as something for children) and has its audio remastered in THX.


This release also includes 10 minutes of special interviews with the cast and crew appended to the end of the tape. It plays out like a vignette. There are snippets of the film with commentary from some of the cast and crew, producer Kathleen Kennedy, and - of course - Stephen Spielberg himself.

These interviews are great and all, but they're actually a small sampling of an hour and a half long documentary directed by Laurent Bouzereau. His documentary about the making of E.T. was included on the Laserdisc, which released beside the 1996 VHS.

Bouzereau actually did several of these documentaries for Laserdisc releases of Spielberg films, most notably Jaws, and although many of the others have managed to find their way onto DVD and even Blu-ray, the documentary for E.T. has never escaped the '96 LD.


In 2002 the Special Edition DVD was released, which was infamously retouched with digital effects and included some deleted scenes. Everyone recalls those "walkie-talkies". Later for the film's 30th anniversary it was released on Blu-ray - in the original theatrical cut - and again on UHD in 2017 to coincide with the 35th anniversary.

Regarding the '96 VHS, the video quality isn't anything to write home about. I have definitely seen better VHS transfers of other movies, which surprises me considering this a Spielberg film. I mean, considering their was a widescreen Laserdisc release right there, it might've been neat to sell this as a widescreen VHS, but I digress. The audio is definitely crisp. The THX digital transfer here is on-point. As a result, this VHS is definitely serviceable and probably the best way to enjoy the film on tape.

So, if you're looking to scare yourself just a little on the road to Halloween this year, consider taking in the classic E.T. The Extraterrestrial. It's a fun (and freaky) stroll down memory lane and there's no better way to get those nostalgic vibes then on an old dusty tape you probably have tucked away on a shelf at your parents' house. Oh, and don't forget the Reese's Pieces!

Happy Halfway to Halloween!

I hope you enjoyed,
R

Tuesday, April 28, 2020

Underwater (2020) Movie Review

I've had an itch that I needed to scratch when it comes to Underwater for some time and I finally managed to watch the film a few days back.

Here are my thoughts on video!


Hope you enjoy,
R

Monday, March 30, 2020

VHyesterdayS: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990)

Today marks the 30th Anniversary of one of my favourite films of all time, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, so it only seems fitting that I take in a viewing of the only copy of the film that I have ever owned, the original VHS!


The film was infamously produced by Golden Harvest - an independent film company - with the use of Jim Henson-created suits and features a story that was actually adapted fairly faithfully from the comic source material, much to the confusion of many youngsters at the time. New Line Cinema stepped in for distribution of the film, which went on to be the highest-grossing indie movie of all time with $200M in the box office until The Blair Witch Project took the crown almost 10 years later.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was directed by Steve Barron (director of Coneheads, executive producer of the ReBoot cartoon series, and director of a load of music videos you probably remember from the 80s), and starred Judith Hoag as April O'Neil, Elias Koteas as Casey Jones, and the voices of Brian Tochi, Robbie Rist, Josh Pais, and Corey Feldman (yes, that Corey Feldman) as the Turtles themselves!

1990 was probably the height of Turtle-mania. Although the comic was first published in 1984, it was the Fred Wolf cartoon series that brought the Turtles into everyone's homes in 1987, not to mention the astronomical Playmates toyline.

As you can imagine I, like any other kid at the time, was obsessed with the Turtles, but the idea of a feature film certainly wasn't something on my radar. Then one day I saw the trailer for the film and all bets were off.


What's bizarre about the trailer is that they used a different voice-over for Shredder, but with the same lines (for the most part). Seems kind of weird, considering the incredible performance that had been delivered by James Saito.

edit: As it turns out, David McCharen voiced The Shredder in the film in a voiceover. So maybe the voice in the trailer is actually James Saito? I've been watching this film for 30 years and didn't know that. You certainly do learn something new every day!

I actually don't remember seeing the trailer first. My first memory without a doubt was the poster, which included some kind of mock-up of the Turtles sneaking a peak from under a manhole cover, also featured on the back of the VHS.


Regardless, I had to see the movie and I had to see it right away. So, when March 30th rolled around we were naturally waiting in a gigantic line that weaved out of our little three screen movie theatre and spilled in front of the neighbouring K-Mart. After waiting for what probably seemed like hours we eventually reached the hallway just outside of the box office before my soul was crushed and I found out that all screenings were sold out.

We returned sometime later - I can only assume swiftly - and I got to see the Turtles in "real life" (as far as I was concerned) and all was well with the world.

But, as any 7-year old would, I wanted to watch the movie again! And again, and again, and again! Well, thanks to good ol' Saint Nick I would have that dream, as I found this copy of the film under the Christmas tree that December!

I can't recall owning a VHS tape before this. I have some old cartoon tapes around that might pre-date this film, but I truly believe that this was my first home video ever. Considering how many times I've watched it, it's in remarkably good condition!


Even though New Line did the theatrical distribution, the film wasn't released under New Line Home Video, because it didn't yet exist. New Line would wade into the video market once they made the play to get the rights for the Nightmare on Elm Street series in 1991 (they sold the home distribution rights to Media Home Entertainment in 1985). Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was released in the US under Family Home Entertainment. In Canada, oddly enough, F.H.E. didn't handle the video, but instead it was distributed by MCA via Alliance Releasing, which typically handled a lot of Canadian VHS. That's a little strange only because I had and rented metric tons of F.H.E. tapes when I was a kid, including the home releases of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon show! Distribution rights are weird.


This film - along with the rest of the film series - has received very weird home video installments. There were the original VHS tapes and later fairly bare bones DVD releases. Honestly, they didn't do much for me, so I just never felt the need to upgrade to DVD. I always assumed at some point the Turtles would get the proper video release they deserved, but I'm still waiting. There is a DVD and Blu-ray box set, which includes the two live-action sequels and the 2007 animated film, but again with little-to-no features to speak of. Word is the German release actually contains a commentary by the director. Again, distribution rights are weird.

So, you can pick up this flick for cheap on DVD or Blu-ray at your local Wal-mart, but - as always - I would say there's a certain charm to watching these movies on VHS. Especially, if you were in the target market in the late-80s. The patina on the tape adds a certain quality to the experience that I always find endearing, and none more so than my first ever home video, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Now, break out your favourite pizza and pay tribute to one of the biggest films from your childhood for it's 30th birthday!

Cowabunga,
R

Friday, March 13, 2020

Friday the 13th: Part III Japanese Bootleg and 3D Glasses


Nowadays 3D has completely permeated the entertainment industry. Just about any big film release has a 3D option at the theatre and with 3D HD TVs you can watch more and more 3D content in the comfort of your home.

In the '90s and early 2000s 3D movies had been something played out at least a decade ago; a technology that managed to kick out a few theatrical releases and went the way of the dodo. The last remnants were VHS and DVD releases of films littered with the hokey detritus of what once was. Movies like Amityville 3-D, Jaws 3-D, and even a few minutes of 1991's Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare.

Being a big Friday the 13th fan, however, the film that always piqued my interest was of course Friday the 13th: Part III. Oft loved by horror fans for the portrayal of Jason and simultaneously reviled for the acting, one thing that everyone could agree on was that the kills, although interesting, were clearly setups for the 3D effect that no longer added to the scenes, but left them standing out like a sore thumb.

In 2004, after picking up the From Crystal Lake to Manhattan box set I became more and more enamoured with the Friday the 13th films. Previously I would rent the VHS tapes from my local video store, but now I had them to watch as much as I desired. After viewing some special features about my favourite of the lot I became obsessed with the idea of seeing Friday the 13th: Part III the way it had been intended - in full 3D.

Thankfully, eBay was a thing and after some searching I came across a little device that could potentially make my dreams come true! It doesn't look like much, but by hooking up this little doodad to your rear-projection TV (I think it may only work with CRT sets, but I've never tried it on an LCD) it would cast a signal to the shutter glasses, which would cause them to essentially blink in the watcher's eyes.



If you coupled these glasses with the right kind of VHS or DVD it would create the 3D effect I was looking for! But how to find a copy of Friday the 13th: Part III in this format? It didn't exist, right?

Well, let's head to Japan!

After some browsing on a Japanese Yahoo auction site I eventually managed to find just the release I needed. The bootleg's box art is patterned after an official Victor VHD 3D release of the film, but I'm not sure if it's a dub of that VHD or if it's from a completely different release that just used the box art. Either way, the 3D black magic reportedly worked on it, so I purchased the bootleg and waited impatiently for the many weeks it took to arrive on my little island in Atlantic Canada.

I can still remember hooking it all up and trying it out for the first time. I had a small TV that had seen countless hours of video games and X-Files that would do just the trick. After messing around with the cables and getting the right batteries for the shutter glasses, I was ready to experience the film anew.

And it did not disappoint!


Now, before you get all excited let me be real with you; this isn't like the 3D films you're used to since Avatar. However, it beats watching the film in the old red and blue anaglyph 3D, which is actually an option if you picked up the Paramount Blu-ray release from '09.

Would I want to watch the movie like this every time? Nah, not really. It's fun now-and-then to throw on this version and see those old kitschy gore effects the way they were really meant to be seen, but watching the movie through the shutter glasses isn't exactly a treat and the bootleg I have is a little dark and not the best quality.

That said, it meant a lot to me to get to see the film this way back in '04 and even today. I'm doubtful we'll get a real, proper 3D release of the movie that would work on modern 3D TV sets. Heck, I don't even know if that sort of thing is possible! So other than a super rare opportunity to see the film in stereoscopic in theatre we'll be left laughing when Abel dangles that eyeball at the teenagers or when the snake attacks Harold on the toilet, wishing we were in on the gag.

Cheers,
R

Friday, January 31, 2020

Memory, Blog: The Sunday Night Ritual Revisited (Sorta?)

A little under a year ago I wrote an article about my old Sunday Night Ritual, which I pretty well never missed from 1996 right up until 2002!

The Coles Notes: I'd settle in to enjoy the last dregs of my weekend and watch The Simpsons, typically whatever other show Fox chose to air in between, and my favourite show of all time, The X-Files.

So, why are we talking about this crap again? Well, ever since I wrote that post I've had an unyielding urge to try and recreate that Sunday Night Ritual and I finally did it (kinda, sorta)!

I figured if I was going to attempt this, it made the most sense to start at the beginning, so let's travel back to the first night The X-Files aired on Sunday night, which was October 27th, 1996. What was on that night? Well, it being so close to Halloween, Fox decided to air back-to-back episodes of The Simpsons "Treehouse of Horror", with a re-run of the prior year's special (VI) followed by the latest edition (VII). Then The X-Files slid into their new slot with "Unruhe", one of the most well-remembered "Monster-of-the-Week" episodes from the series.

It was actually a full night of The Simpsons. Before airing the latest Halloween episodes, there were repeats of "22 Short Films About Springfield" and the "138th Episode Spectacular". "22 Short Films..." is one of my all-time favourite episodes and features a peak into the lives of some of the lesser-known residents of Springfield, including Bumblebee Man. The "138th Episode Spectacular" is the third clip show of the series, but the one everyone remembers, because it had early clips from The Tracey Ullman Show.


I have no idea if I watched these re-runs or not, honestly, but I thought it was too interesting not to note!

If I'm being honest, I probably didn't start out my night watching The Simpsons on this particular evening. At the time I was an avid watcher of 3rd Rock From The Sun, which was on at 9 o'clock AT on NBC. Luckily in 1996 this didn't rub against The Simpsons, because Fox would air the newest episode at 9:30. This would change the following year, however, when The Simpsons would lock in at 9PM followed by King of the Hill at 9:30. 3rd Rock From The Sun, however, moved to Wednesdays in 1997, so it all worked out!

I didn't particularly feel like revisiting 3rd Rock From The Sun for this Sunday Night Ritual, however. When I saw that Fox kicked off their new big Sunday flagship line-up with back-to-back editions of "Treehouse of Horror" I couldn't resist to watch that instead.

The Simpsons "Treehouse of Horror VI"



Although a re-run, this is probably one of my favourite Simpsons Halloween specials. If you're unfamiliar with the specials, they would feature three non-canon spooky stories set in Springfield. Let's examine each of them!

As good as "Attack of the 50 Foot Eyesores" is - its basically The Simpsons take on kaiju films - it isn't a stand-out for me. Still a lot of fun, though!

"Nightmare on Evergreen Terrace" is exactly what it sounds like; a spoof on A Nightmare on Elm Street. This one features Groundskeeper Willy as a Freddy-like character who is hunting down the children of Springfield because their parents were lazy and negligent, resulting in his death. The nightmare sequences in this episode are just such a great copy of what you would find in an ANOES film and the crazy colour palette of The Simpsons makes them that much more opulent to look at.


"Homer3" might be one of my most well-remembered segments from the entire series. This was the episode where The Simpsons went 3D. Homer, in an attempt to avoid his sisters-in-law Patty and Selma accidentally enters The 3rd Dimension. Ultimately Bart tries to save him, but Homer ends up sucked into our world, which he's quickly okay with after finding an Erotic Cakes store. I can recall the ads for this episode showing Homer in the "real world" and him being in 3D and I couldn't wait to see it. You have to remember that Toy Story had come out the year prior and 3D animation was all the rage, so it made sense for The Simpsons to have some fun with it.

The Simpsons "Treehouse of Horror VII"



The latest edition of the long-running Simpsons Halloween specials was great and contained some classic shorts even if they weren't quite as memorable as those in the prior special.

It starts out with "The Thing and I", in which we find out that Bart was actually a conjoined twin, but that his brother, Hugo, was so evil he had to be surgically disconnected and hidden away in the attic. It features some great lines from Dr. Hibbert.


Second up was "The Genesis Tub". Lisa accidentally creates a tiny society while working on her science fair project, which becomes much more advanced than our own society and comes to see her as their god and Bart as their devil. It's an okay segment, but nothing to write home about. It does have one of my favouite quotes that I still use to this day: "Why am I so fat?" You'll have to watch to understand!

"Citizen Kang" is probably the strongest short from the episode. The popular aliens Kang and Kodos, who first appeared in the original "Treehouse of Horror", return - this time abducting then-President Bill Clinton and Senator Bob Dole so they can impersonate them in a bid to take over the planet. It's a great dive into the foolishness of that election and has some really funny lines.

The X-Files "Unruhe"



This episode has all the trappings of an unmemorable MotW episode. It follows a serial killer, which was pretty routine for the show, but I guess it did add the paranormal element of "phantom photograpy". Oh, and Scully gets kidnapped! Real original! The thing is despite it looking weak on paper it's a really great show.

That said, I think the fact that it was the first Sunday episode, was basically their "Halloween" episode for the year, and had Pruitt Taylor Vince in a lead role make it memorable.

If you're not familiar with the name, Vince appeared in many different television and film roles through out the 90s and early 2000s, most famously Identity (2003), and has a very distinct feature that makes him stand out: an eye condition known as nystagmus, in which his eyes sort of vibrate back-and-forth.

It all comes together in a great episode that kicked off the shows Sunday night run, which lasted right up until the finale episode in 2002.


Now, I have to be honest with you... this was all a bit of a cheat. You see, I originally planned to re-create this ritual in October of last year. I wanted it to be a feature for my Halloween 2019 stuff, but no matter how hard I tried, I just couldn't squirrel away the time on a Sunday to make it happen. I was initially going to wait until next year to try again, but like I said before this has been on my brain since last February. I've tried repeatedly to make it happen and with my hectic life and busy work schedule it just kept slipping through the cracks.

So, I did what I had to and I just waited for the opportunity to present itself, which finally happened the past Tuesday. I know, I know. How can you have a Sunday Night Ritual on a Tuesday!? Finding two hours to sit down and relax just doesn't happen for me right now and I had to run with it.

Beside the fact that it was on the wrong night, it also wasn't very relaxing. After a long day at work, a quick supper, taking my eldest to swim class, and finally getting all the kids to bed I decided to shoe-horn this in and I just couldn't wind-down. Revisiting the episodes were all great fun, but when I used to watch these shows I would practically fall asleep it was so chill and that just wasn't the case this time around.

It also didn't help that I had to stream The Simpsons from Disney+, which meant I had to sit at my desk and watch these shows. That just doesn't jive. I have to be firmly ensconced in my couch or bed for true authenticity.

So this particular attempt at The Sunday Night Ritual was a bit of a failure. But I don't think I'm done there. I have to give this another try and really make it as authentic as possible, so instead of trying to cram the event in because I'm hankering to do it, I'm going to just take my time and make it work on a rare quiet Sunday, when (hopefully) the kids are all sound asleep and I can really enjoy it. Even if that happens in like 13 years...

Anyway, I hope you had fun with this trip down memory lane, if only to enjoy reading about the TV shows that aired that night.

Hopefully there are more to come!
R