Midnight Cinephile Podcast Part IV: A Weng's Chop Thanksgiving with Brian Harris

You asked for more and you got it!  Okay, well technically no one asked....I just sorta assumed that you wanted more because I haven't received any "Cease & Desist" letters or emails.

Anywhoo, check out the latest episode of MC.  My special guest this week and in the enigmatic and always fun Brian Harris.  Publisher and Co-Editor of Weng's Chop Magazine.....Brian is an import voice in the genre and I"m privileged to call him my friend.

Grab a beer, make yourself a turkey sandwich and don't skimp on the cranberry sauce because it's The Midnight Cinephile comin' at ya!




And as always you can download it directly HERE!

Incident In Lake County: Alien Abduction - A Cornucopia of Other Worldly Fright

Alien Abduction:  Incident in Lake County
1998
Directed by Dean Alioto
Written by Dean Alioto & Paul Chitlik
Starring Benz Antione, Kristian Ayer & Gillian Barber\
Unrated  -  Approx 93 Min.

Taglines:
None

Alternate Titles:
Incident in Lake County - US Alternative Title
Extrañas criaturas (Strange Creatures) - Argentina
Alien Abduction - Australia
Estranhas Criaturas (Strange Creatures) - Brazil 

Alien Abduction: The McPherson Tape - UK

Back in the 90's there was a resurgence in the fascination of aliens and UFO's.  You couldn't change the channel without hitting on a show about UFO sightings, reports of abductions, specials about Area 51, Groom Lake and Alien Autopsies.  It was a pretty awesome time to be a UFO enthusiast!  It was toward the end of this extra-terrestrial boom that we were treated to this little slice of found footage terror.  About a year before The Blair Witch Project took the world by storm, Incident at Lake County quietly aired in people's home via cable channel UPN and promptly freaked out people like me.

Just your typical dysfunction family Thanksgiving!

The brothers go to check the fuse.  

If you read this blog at all, then you know I'm freaked out by aliens.  Fire in the Sky nearly killed me when I saw if for the first time.  Shows like Unsolved Mysteries and Sightings routinely kept me cautiously looking skyward when driving down a lonely country road by myself at night.  Then this came along.  It was presented the same as the Alien Autopsy special, in that a preamble states that the authenticity of the video is up to the viewer to decide, yadda yadda....you know the drill.

We are introduced to a family getting ready to sit down to Thanksgiving dinner.  (Ah HA!  It's a Thanksgiving themed movie!  BRILLIANT!  They've fused aliens with my favorite food based holiday.  Those diabolical bastards!).  Young Matthew is playing around with a video camera and decides that he'll film the festivities.  Like pretty much any family, this one is dysfunctional.  Mom's alcoholic, the oldest son is a bit of a douchebag.....another teenage son is having naked time with his girlfriend upstairs....you get the idea.  As the turkey is being carved, there's a bright flash of light and the power goes out.  The three boys go out to check the fuses.  That's when they stumble across a landed UFO and aliens slicing open cows with a laser beam.  The aliens spot the boys and follow them back to the house, launching a campaign of terror upon the household.

It's hard to make out, but that's an alien cutting up a cow with a laser beam.  

It seems a little odd that the aliens would dick with these people for half the night instead of just abducting them or whatever they're going to do....but then again, for all I know, aliens are a bunch of douche-nuggets who get off on scaring humans.  Bunch of jerks.

I've got nothing.

Renee ain't lookin' so good.....

Anyway, aliens appear in the house, outside the house, etc in a series of fairly disturbing and poorly lit encounters.  Remember this whole thing is being shot via camcorder (with a light attachment).   The electricity in the house has been knocked out so we're pretty much seeing everything through flashlights and candles.  While it can be a bit frustrating sometimes, it certainly adds to the doom laden atmosphere that this film generates.  All in all, it's a pretty solid entry into the found footage genre that is worth a look.  Especially  if you're like me and equally fascinated and terrified by aliens.

That right there is Nightmare Fuel for a person like me.  Thanks alot!

Midnight Cinephile Tally

Death Toll:  One for sure.....the hot chick.  Why is it always the hot chick.  I don't think it's a spoiler to tell you that they all get abducted....after all it's in the title.  What became of them?  Who knows....maybe they're all dead and laying mutilated in a field somewhere.

Nude O Meter:  Well, technically there's one set of boobs.  However, they are pixilated.  Damn, gypped again.

Things That Go Bump In The Night:  Call them what you want.  Aliens, Greys, etc....these evil little bastards are definitely not just looking to phone home.  Fucking aliens, man.   They creep me out.


Final Thoughts
This definitely has to take the award for strangest Thanksgiving themed horror movie that I've ever seen.  Just the whole merging of turkey, stuffing, pumpkin pie and alien abductions seems SO wrong to me on so many levels.  Oh well, at least it wasn't Christmas!

Final Rating
Three out of Five Pizza Rolls

What The Hell Happened?

Okay so, as you may have surmised, October turned out to be a complete bust for me as far as a Halloween extravaganza.  Started out strong and then it just kinda died.  Well, there's a few reasons that this happened.  First and foremost was a family emergency which took out mid to the end of the month for me.  It was just too hard to concentrate on anything.  Things are getting better though, so (hopefully) things will return to a more normal schedule as far as releasing posts and articles.

I hope that you all had a spooky Halloween and did something fun.  The Mrs and I caught one of the extremely limited re-releases of John Carpenter's 1978 babysitter slasher classic, Halloween.  It was absolutely awesome to see it on the big screen in a brand new HD transfer with 5.1 surround sound.  For a movie that I have seen about 1.6 trillion times, it was a totally new experience on the big screen.  Pure horror goodness.

Now, you may be asking, what comes up for November?

Well, you can expect a review of the killer turkey flick ThanksKilling, as well as a look at Eli Roth's  faux Grindhouse trailer for the as-of-yet-unrealized Thanksgiving film.  I'll be taking a look at Garfield's Thanksgiving Special and will touch on some more Thanksgiving goodness as well!

Which brings me to my next point:  Starting this month on Midnight Cinephile, you can expect to start seeing more non-horror fare being talked about here as well.  Now, horror was, is and always will be our number one passion here, but we also don't want to ignore the cornucopia of other films, tv shows and specials that also make up our insane viewing habits.  Because sometimes ya just want to write a thousand words on Mother, Juggs and Speed, ya know?  I want to make it feel like one of those great old UHF stations from back in the day, like WQTV (Channel 68) or WNDS (Channel 38).  They used to show all kinds of stuff in the witching hour.  Old games shows, Twilight Zone reruns, Gunsmoke reruns, Dark Shadows etc, and of course some strange movies!  Of course we can't forget early basic cable favorites like USA (Up All Night, Saturday Nitemares and Commander USA!  YES!), TNT (Monstervision) and of course, early Sci-Fi Channel.

If it wasn't for those stations, I never would have had my first taste of films like Cobra, Reform School Girls, Rambo, Better Off Dead, Death Wish, Vice Academy and of course most of Troma's output.

So there you have it.  It's going to be the same old MC, just with a new twist and more variety injected into it.  Pizza rolls and soda are still the preferred snack of choice 'round these parts.  You'll never see calorie listings here!  So sit back and enjoy!

Nuttin' But Love,
Your Friendly Neighborhood Midnight Cinephile.