SPUTNIK  (in space, no one can hear you read) 

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I’m pleased to welcome back Mark Spangler for another one of his insightful reviews…

In the days of yore, we quaked to Quasimodo, dreaded Dracula, and feared the Frankenstein monster.  The wolfman had us howling while the mummy had us screaming for mommy.  Soon came atomic monsters, horrors from Hammer, and later still, demon-possessed little girls, slashers, freaks, cannibals, and zombie hordes. There was and still is much to be afraid of when we venture out into the darkened theaters we love so well. The most terrifying element in the history of the horror film, however – or any genre for that matter –  is the dreaded “s”’ word.  Yes, we’re referring to the unmentionable, the taboo, the hideous…  subtitles.

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Vintage Space Invasion films get a Blu-ray Boost from Australia!

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Boy, that quarantine sure made me appreciate my physical media collection. With so many folks at home streaming, most services had to reduce their quality and, with a few exceptions, didn’t have much I was interested in anyway. I already stood on my physical media soapbox last year so today I’m going to focus on some of the products themselves. Imprint Films is a new premium blu-ray label courtesy of an Australian company called Via Vision Entertainment. Last March (just before the Apocalypse) they advertised their first five releases; films that were never upgraded to Blu-ray before. Three of these, I really wanted in my collection and quickly pre-ordered despite the steep shipping charges. They finally arrived last week and I eagerly watched all three. Was it worth it? Well, let’s dive in and see. Also note that, despite coming from the land down under, these releases are all Region Free and will play on US Blu-ray players.

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Hunting Boba Fett at Chicago’s “Days of the Dead!”

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Us middle-aged dorks sure have it made these days. Just about everything we loved as kids is back, and stronger than ever. Let’s take STAR WARS for example. This weekend sees the release of a new film and just after I got to see Jeremy Bulloch (Boba Fett from The Empire Strikes Back) at Chicago’s Days of the Dead . Despite the twenty-seven-year difference, the two films have been mentioned together a lot these days, with critics calling this latest installment “the best since Empire.” I can’t say if I agree with that yet as I won’t get to see it till Sunday, but totally understand why The Empire Strikes Back is used as a benchmark for STAR WARS greatness.  It’s got a great story, the first appearance of Yoda, that amazing battle on Hoth, a twist ending concerning the relationship between Luke and Vader, defied movie standards by not having the good guys win, and featured one of the coolest bounty hunters in ANY galaxy, let alone one far, far away. It’s no wonder its a critical and fan favorite. It’s also no mystery why so many of us flocked Days of the Dead to celebrate the great Boba Fett and the man behind his mask.

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Devil’s Tower & the 40th Anniversary of “Close Encounters!”

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I admit that my love of the film Close Encounters of the Third Kind inspired this year’s summer road trip. The Devil’s Tower National Monument in Wyoming had played a pivotal role in the film and, after touring all the great UFO hot-spots in the Southwest last year with the other Dave, seemed like the next logical place to go. This amazing geologic feature is considered sacred to Native Americans and is also this country’s very first National Monument with no short thanks to President Theodore Roosevelt. Despite its history, I don’t think I’m alone when I site Close Encounters as my first introduction to it.

I was seven years old back when the film was released and, at that time, much more enthralled with another 1977 blockbuster, STAR WARS.  My only connection to the film was via a “bendy” alien figure my Grandma bought me (Grandma always understood my interests better than my idiot parents did).

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It’s Always the Right Time & Place at the Dr. WHO inspired “Blue Box Cafe!”

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 The 2015 Terror Dave Road Trip beings!

There comes a time in everyone’s life when you just plain need a vacation! We Terror Daves are no exception as the responsibilities of our daily lives have kept us hopping these past months; inadvertently driving our attention away from this blog. Thankfully the site has been doing pretty well despite our blatant neglect and we’re hopeful this year will see a brand new Dave a Dawning (so to speak). After all, behind Terror from Beyond the Daves is a friendship between two fanboys who share many diverse interests; many of which explored on this site.

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Book Review: You Won’t Believe Your Eyes

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There are so many movie guides out there today that it is really difficult at times to choose which ones we should buy. They range in quality from very good (like Bill Warren’s “Keep Watching The Skies“) to dreadful (like Rob Craig’s “It Came From 1957“) but at least one thing can be said, movies from the 1950’s are getting more coverage than ever. When it comes to movies, my favorites all came from the 1950’s. No other time period has been more prolific when it comes to monster and science fictions films. Though many of these films are now considered classics, there were many stinkers as well. At least most of these stinkers have their own charm and are still fun to watch even today. The book I am reviewing today, “You Won’t Believe Your Eyes: A  Front Row Look at the Sci-Fi/Horror Films of the 1950s“, by Mark Thomas McGee and R.J. Robertson, covers these movies in a way not really seen before, which is why I highly recommend it.

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