#Gabe Bartalos

[atomic-chronoscaph]

Jennifer Aniston and Warwick Davis - Leprechaun (1993)

[youngmonsters]

Tonight is the world premiere of 'DESTROY ALL NEIGHBORS!'

It has been literally ten years in the making.

JEEPERS!

[pierppasolini]

Rick Hearst and Gabe Bartalos photographed by Karen Ogle, on the set of Frank Henenlotter’s Brain Damage

[noxhell]

[fearsmagazine]

DESTROY ALL NEIGHBORS - Review

DISTRIBUTOR: Shudder

SYNOPSIS: William Brown is a neurotic, self-absorbed musician determined to finish his prog-rock magnum opus while working as an engineer at a recording studio. He currently faces a creative roadblock, a noisy and grotesque neighbor named Vlad. Finally working up the nerve to confront Vlad to keep it down, William inadvertently decapitates him. But, while attempting to cover up one murder, William’s accidental reign of terror causes victims to pile up and become undead corpses who torment and create more bloody detours on his road to prog-rock Valhalla. In addition, it is causing havoc on his relationship with his girlfriend.

REVIEW: Filmmaker Josh Forbes takes his skills as a director of music videos to serve up an old school horror film with one of the legendary special effects makeup designers, Gabe Bartalos (Basket Case 2/Frankenhooker/Leprechaun). DESTROY ALL NEIGHBORS is a wicked goopy comedy overflowing with practical effects and buckets of blood.

The plot is your basic tale of a stress filled and frustrated aspiring musician who is on his last nerve. A series of events culminates with his new bizarre neighbor moving in and pushing him over the edge. Confronting his neighbor Vlad is the first in a series of unfortunate events that is filled with death and mayhem. There is a quality to the narrative that feels reminiscent of 1985’s “Return of the Living Dead.” The story nicely focuses on William and his spiral out of control. To some degree it feels like a journey to an insane Oz.

The narrative is magically brought to life by a fantastic cast. Jonah Ray Rodrigues’ William is a blend of Joel from “Mystery Science Theater 3000” as he channels a bit of Bruce Campbell. He brings a lot of energy to the performance and seamlessly switches between mental states that showcases a classic mastery of slapstick. Adding his dynamic energy to the film is actor Alex Winter as Vlad. Best known for his role in “The Lost Boys” and the “Bill & Ted” film franchise, the great prosthetic makeup design permits him to create a unique performance. The rest of the cast is an amalgamation of talented actors that deliver unique performances that add to the horror and comedy.

DESTROY ALL NEIGHBORS has a classic look and feel, largely due to the practical effects and special effects makeup. The cinematography, framing, editing and lighting all harken back to the best of the 80’s franchise genre films.There were numerous moments where I found myself nodding my head and uttering “nice” at sequences and gags. Clearly they went through buckets of blood on this shoot. Ryan Kattner & Brett Morris’ score and music for the film nicely adds atmosphere, accentuates the mayhem and gore, and adds this fun take on Wliiam’s musical dreams. FYI, the official motion picture soundtrack will be available digitally worldwide on all digital platforms January 12th, including Spotify, Apple, Amazon, Bandcamp and SubPop.com.

Start 2024 the fright way with an instant genre classic, DESTROY ALL NEIGHBORS. It's a dandy of a gorefest thanks to esteemed special effects artist Gabe Bartalos. Jonah Ray Rodrigues and Alex Winter are among the noteworthy cast members, along with a monstrous score that make this an exceptional viewing experience. The film also makes for a wicked introduction to the bloody era of horror for younger viewers. An excellent reason to subscribe to Shudder this month, among many other reasons.

CAST: Jonah Ray Rodrigues, Alex Winter, Kiran Deol, Christian Calloway, Randee Heller, DeMorge Brown, Jon Daly, Phil Hendrie, Ryan Kattner, and Thomas Lennon. CREW: Director - Josh Forbes; Screenplay - Charles Pieper & Jared Logan; Producers - Russell Sanzgiri, Alex Winter, & Jonah Ray Rodrigues; Cinematographer - Will Stone; Score - Ryan Kattner & Brett Morris; Editor - Hank Friedmann; Production Designer - Kati Simon; Wardrobe Supervisor - Aoife Baker; Special Effects Supervisor - Ben Gojer; Special Effects - Atlantic West Effects; Special Make-Up Effects & Sculpture - Gabe Bartalos; Visual Effects Supervisor - Casey Price. OFFICIAL: www.watchdestroy.com FACEBOOK: N.A. TWITTER: N.A. TRAILER: https://youtu.be/ru1OuYNQDtY?si=yvtiKEj4sz3aMAiM RELEASE DATE: Streaming on Shudder January 12th, 2024

**Until we can all head back into the theaters our “COVID Reel Value” will be similar to how you rate a film on digital platforms - 👍 (Like), 👌 (It’s just okay), or 👎 (Dislike)

Reviewed by Joseph B Mauceri

[dare-g]

🖤

[mixreality]

It's SOOO boring at work today so

the whole escape-scene in one frame

[brokehorrorfan]

Enter the Video Store: Empire of Screams will be released on June 27 via Arrow Video. The Blu-ray box set includes five genre films produced by Charles Band’s Empire Pictures: The Dungeonmaster, Dolls, Cellar Dweller, Arena, and Robot Jox.

The Dungeonmaster is a 1984 fantasy-horror anthology with segments directed by David Allen, Charles Band, John Carl Buechler, Steven Ford, Peter Manoogian, Ted Nicolaou, and Rosemarie Turko.

Dolls is a 1987 horror film directed by Stuart Gordon and written by Ed Naha. Stephen Lee, Guy Rolfe, Hilary Mason, Ian Patrick Williams, and Bunty Bailey star.

Cellar Dweller is a 1987 horror film directed by John Carl Buechler and written by Don Mancini. Debrah Farentino, Brian Robbins, Pamela Bellwood, Vince Edwards, Jeffrey Combs, and Yvonne De Carlo star.

Arena is a 1989 sci-fi action film directed by Peter Manoogian and written by Danny Bilson and Paul De Meo. Paul Satterfield, Hamilton Camp, and Claudia Christian star.

Robot Jox is a 1990 post-apocalyptic sci-fi action film directed by Stuart Gordon and written by Joe Haldeman. Gary Graham, Anne-Marie Johnson, Paul Koslo, Robert Sampson, Danny Kamekona, Hilary Mason, and Michael Alldredge star.

The limited edition box set includes 15 postcards, five double-sided posters, Arrow Video membership card, and 80-page book featuring new writing by Lee Gambin, Dave Jay, Megan Navarro, and John Harrison plus archival material.

Each film is housed in its own Blu-ray case with reversible sleeves featuring original and new art by Ilan Sheady, packaged together inside a box with art by Laurie Greasley. Specs and special features can be found below.

The Dungeonmaster:

New 2K restoration from the original negative with original lossless mono audio

3 cut of the film: US theatrical version, pre-release version, and international version (under the title Ragewar)

Audio commentary with actor Jeffrey Byron, moderated by film critics Matty Budrewicz and Dave Wain (new)

Interview with actor Jeffrey Byron (new)

Theatrical trailers

Image gallery

Computer programmer Paul Bradford is sucked into a fantasy world by Mestema, a demonic sorcerer in search of a worthy opponent.

Dolls:

New 2K restoration from the original interpositive with original lossless stereo audio

Audio commentary by David Decoteau, Empire alumnus and friend of Stuart Gordon (new)

Audio commentary by director Stuart Gordon and writer Ed Naha

Audio commentary by cast members Carolyn Purdy-Gordon, Stephen Lee, Carrie Lorraine, and Ian Patrick Williams

Interview with editor Lee Percy (new)

Toys of Terror: The Making of Dolls - Interviews with Gordon, Yuzna, Purdy-Gordon, Williams, Charles Band, and Gabe Bartalos

Film-to-storyboard comparison

Theatrical trailers

Image gallery

A group of strangers find themselves forced to seek shelter at the isolated home of an old toymaker and his wife, only to find that the puppets and dolls have a vicious life of their own.

Cellar Dweller:

Additional picture restoration with original lossless stereo audio

Audio commentary by special make-up effects artist Michael Deak, moderated by film critics Matty Budrewicz and Dave Wain (new)

Grabbed by the Ghoulies - An appreciation of John Carl Buechler by film critics Matty Budrewicz and Dave Wain (new)

Interview with special make-up effects artist Michael Deak (new)

Original sales sheet

Original production notes

VHS trailer

Empire Pictures trailer reel

Image galleries

A comic book artist (Jeffrey Combs) with a penchant for the macabre takes inspiration from an ancient tome and unleashes an ancient evil.

Arena:

New 2K restoration from the last known surviving 35mm elements with original lossless stereo audio

Alternative full frame presentation

Audio commentary by director Peter Manoogian, moderated by film critics Matty Budrewicz and Dave Wain (new)

Interview with co-writer Danny Bilson (new)

Interview with special make-up effects artist Michael Deak (new)

Theatrical trailer

Image gallery

In the far future of 4038, a short order cook becomes the first human in 50 years to compete in an intergalactic boxing event on the far side of the universe.

Robot Jox

New 2K restoration from the original negative with original lossless stereo audio

Audio commentary by director Stuart Gordon

Audio commentary by associate effects director Paul Gentry, mechanical effects artist Mark Rappaport, and stop-motion animator Paul Jessel

Interview with actor Gary Graham (new)

Interview with actor Anne-Marie Johnson (new)

Interview with actor Paul Koslo

The Scale of Battle: David Allen and the FX of Robot Jox - Interviews with visual effects artists Steve Burg, Yancy Calzeda, Paul Gentry, Kevin Kutchaver, Dennis Muren and John Vincent (new)

Original sales sheet

Original production notes

Theatrical trailer

Image galleries

Men and women pilot giant machines in gladiatorial battle to settle international disputes over territory.

Also included:

15 postcard-sized art cards

5 double-sided posters

Arrow Video “membership card”

80-page perfect-bound book featuring new writing by Lee Gambin, Dave Jay, Megan Navarro, and John Harrison plus archival material

[basketcase1982]

Bud, are the Basket Case sequels worth watching

they absolutely are!!! i have notes though.

if you've seen Frankenhooker, BC2 was being filmed at the exact same time & with the exact same sfx artist (the legendary Gabe Bartalos), and were even pitched at the same meeting with Glickenhaus, so you might be able to imagine the shift in tone from the original. although Henenlotter is known for his distinct style, 1990 marks when he both had way more money to work with, and when he started to get really really really really goofy with it. BC3 reaches absolute peak fucking around, almost more comedy than horror.

basket case was not made with the mind that sequels could follow (they DIED at the end lol), so for that and a multitude of reasons I don't see them as a natural continuation of the first. Duane's characterization for one shifts to being very neurotic and mostly played for laughs, and the updated animatronic Belial is impressive, but really just not as cute as the og. i think of the sequels as more of a "what if?" alternate ending. but that's all my opinion, there's some people that like the sequels better than the original... you be the judge !

basically just know what to expect: over the top, fast-paced and silly :) if all else fails you can admire the amazing creature makeup/sfx, and the lead is kinda cute i guess..(<- insane)

also, BC2 leaves on a cliffhanger which wraps up in BC3, so i recommend watching them back to back!

[atomic-chronoscaph]

Leprechaun (1993)

[youngmonsters]

Vlad says happy Monday you fucks!

[pierppasolini]

Rick Hearst, Frank Henenlotter, Gabriel Bartalos, Karen Ogle and other cast and crew members behind the scenes of Frank Henenlotter’s Brain Damage

[moviesandmania]

Monster Squad - book by Heather A. Wixson

Monster Squad – book by Heather A. Wixson

Monster Squad: Celebrating the Artists Behind Cinema’s Most Memorable Creatures is a 2017 book published by BearManor Media.

“Journalist Heather A. Wixson turns the spotlight on twenty special effects pioneers and artists who helped shape the landscape of modern horror and sci-fi cinema throughout the 1970s, 80s, 90s, and beyond.

Featuring in-depth interviews with the legendary and visionary…

[dare-g]

Made a pop of Surgeon General!! This is my second custom for the horror film Skinned Deep!

[anhed-nia]

BLOGTOBER 10/14/2021: HALLOWEEN KILLS

Are my standards automatically lowered when I'm watching a slasher movie?

Maybe.

But I mean, how else am I supposed to have any fun?

Last night after I got out of David Gordon Green's HALLOWEEN KILLS—the first sequel to the second reboot, or something?—I brashly announced to social media that I thought it was the most entertaining HALLOWEEN installment since SEASON OF THE WITCH. Then, when people started responding with relief to hear that KILLS is actually decent, I fought the urge to send caveats to each person clarifying my judgment. I mean, this isn't a revolution. Characters who know they're in trouble will still investigate a dark house with nothing but a cheese knife, split up when they should stick together, and confront an unstoppable juggernaut themselves rather than call the police. But at least in this movie, where the characters commit to a community-based response, the latter point is specifically justified.

Much as 1981's HALLOWEEN II carried on directly from the end of the 1978 HALLOWEEN, HALLOWEEN KILLS picks up from the end of the 2018 HALLOWEEN, with Michael Myers escaping from the elaborate trap that Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis, natch) spent 40 years setting for him. As we do in the first Halloween sequel, we find the battle damaged Ms. Strode in Haddonfield Memorial Hospital where, in this version, her daughter Karen (Judy Greer) and granddaughter Allyson (Andi Matichak) anxiously await news of her condition. From here, though, instead of a long slow stalk'n'slash episode inside the hospital, the fed-up people of Haddonfield organize a little mob justice. Or maybe "organize" is putting it too strongly, but it's still fair to think, "Why didn't anybody try this before?"

Willingness to experiment is the main thing that keeps HALLOWEEN KILLS afloat, which can be hard to do within the confines of its genre. The slasher is perhaps the most proscriptive of all horror subgenres, with the methodical elimination of one character after another only elevated by the inventiveness of the murders. Despite the audience's cries of "DON'T GO IN THERE!" or "DON'T DROP THE KNIFE, WHAT ARE YOU DOING!" or "FOR GOD'S SAKE JUST LEAVE THE HOUSE AND CALL THE COPS!", you simply couldn't ask the average slasher cast to smarten up, or else the movie might be about ten minutes long. With a slasher movie, the suspension of disbelief is different from what it is in, say, an action movie, where one accepts the superhuman athletic prowess of e.g. Tom Cruise in completing an impossible mission, in exchange for the thrill of seeing it done. The viewer of a slasher movie has to accept that characters of at-least average intelligence will make themselves absurdly vulnerable, so that we can enjoy their (hopefully) creative conclusions. Recently, when I heard FX wizard Gabe Bartalos and director-cum-mime Tom McLoughlin discussing the production of FRIDAY THE 13TH PART VI: JASON LIVES, it occurred to me that at its best, the slasher is not unlike a Buster Keaton movie, in which the point is to set up as many outrageous spectacles as possible, physics and narrative coherence be damned.

The kills in, er, HALLOWEEN KILLS, really are a treat, cleverly executed and convincing. Between cinematographer Michael Simmonds and editor Tim Alverson, Michael Myers is imbued with an unpredictable speed and strength that gives his antics a satisfying visceral impact. I also appreciate that while the movie has a modern feeling for diversity, all of the characters are subject to the same fate. I recently heard a rising star writer swear that she would always buck the grim tradition of making black characters into mere kindling, and while I can respect that—understanding that blackness has historically signified doom in many a horror movie—I think that instating any type of formula for the fates of certain characters can be its own kind of mistake. Not to be all "I'm not racist, I hate everyone equally!", but in a movie with a large cast like HALLOWEEN KILLS, it makes the most sense for everyone to be equally threatened, just to keep things unpredictable. The difference here is that we really like most of the characters. There is no moral quality to their deaths, in the way of punishing wayward teens, and nobody is especially "asking for it". This, the twelfth HALLOWEEN installment (?!), is loaded with great bit performances and a wide variety of colorful characters; you hate to see them go, but you love to watch them leave.

Of course, HALLOWEEN KILLS is not without its flaws. The sheer number of characters in the movie—many of them returners from other sequels, and many of them played by original cast members—prevents any real pathos from developing. No sooner do we get excited for Allyson to join a vigilante ride led by original survivor Tommy Doyle (Anthony Michael Hall), then we're back in the hospital where Laurie is slowly realizing that Michael Myers is still on the street, and having a tortured debate with Karen about her responsibility in the matter. Things are further complicated when a different Smith's Grove Sanitarium escapee is mistaken for Myers, and full-on mass hysteria breaks out. This incident comes with some rhetoric about how "none of us are truly innocent", which is one of the tangled philosophical threads HALLOWEEN KILLS tries to follow. Which is sort of interesting, but also, sort of distracting.

After watching twelve of these movies, with varying degrees of engagement, I've come to think that maybe you can only do a Michael Myers story once. The entire point of interest about him is not something to be elaborated upon. He represents the void; his behavior is unexplainable, apparently unmotivated, and therefore unpredictable. What's scary about him is that he doesn't have any relationship to familiar human feelings, even revenge. Myers' version of Van Helsing, Dr. Loomis, tells us again and again in increasingly flowery terms that there is simply nothing behind Michael's eyes, and we should have listened, because the more filmmakers have tried to explain what Michael's whole deal might be, the more trouble they stir up.

"What if Laurie Strode is ACTUALLY Michael's sister?!"

"OK, then what?"

"Well, obviously he needs to kill all of his family members!"

"Why, though?"

"Ummmmmmmmmmmmmmm..."

Mercifully, HALLOWEEN KILLS doesn't try to give us any extra context for Michael's endless rampage, but it does spiral out on a lot of rumination on whose fault this all might be, as various characters produce complicated reasons why Michael might be the most angry at them personally. I appreciate the urge to give HALLOWEEN a little more pathos than it has in its purest state, but I don't know if it works much better here than it does in 2018's somewhat anemic, unfocused attempt to explore the impact of PTSD on Laurie Strode. I can't believe I'm about to say this, and neither can you, but the only HALLOWEEN iteration that really tackles that topic in a moving and successful way is Rob Zombie's HALLOWEEN II. And no, I won't take that back.

So, maybe there's a little too much going on in HALLOWEEN KILLS, and more internal debate than the story really asks for. But, it's fast-paced, fun, and fabulously violent. What more do you really want?

...Well actually, what I really wanted was to NOT be in a theater that deployed a Michael Myers guy to follow you to your seat and STARE at you. My love of horror is based in my very real feeling of being constantly threatened by life at large, so it does not extend to pranks, haunt attractions, or strangers who pretend (so I tell myself) they want to murder me. I wouldn't want to take away this dubious thrill from anybody who likes that sort of thing, but maybe instead of free Michael Myers masks (not that I'm ungrateful!), they could have handed out some of these types of things at the door instead: