Zombified!

Wasn't feeling great last night or this morning, so kept putting off a post.

Don't want to miss a day, however, so here are zombified versions of popular characters.

Aquaman

Bugs Bunny 

Mickey Mouse 

Spongebob Squarepants 

Snoopy

Garfield 

Zombie Smurf by mrtozkan 

Indiana Jones

For more posters like this,

go to Hollywood Is Dead

10 Movie Characters I Love

Bill R. from "The Kind of Face You Hate" tagged me in this meme, way back on April 4th. I somehow missed it. But since it is a fun meme, and right up my alley, I decided to post it now, better late than never!

So, here are the 10 Movie Characters I Love. These are the ones I just love watching, and, in some cases, wish I could be (at least for a little while).

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1) Michael Myers (Halloween films)



Michael was, and still is, the horror villain who scared the crap out of me. Lurking, barely hidden, behind car windows, bushes, clothes on a line, Michael watched you and waited. He was super-patient and always silent.

Watching the original "Halloween", late at night, in the dark, Michael can still give me the willies. I can't say that about many other characters.

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2) Jason Voorhees (Friday the 13th films)



Jason is the quintessential freaky, outcast kid back for vengeance. Doesn't matter that the kids who picked on him, or the girl who offed his mom, are all gone. He will continue to make everyone pay.

Never one who "fit in" myself, I guess I can understand Jason on that level. Maybe that is why he has resonated so long for so many horror fans. We get him. Creepy, but true.

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3) Indiana Jones (Raiders of the Lost Ark, etc)



Indiana Jones was smart, adventurous and brave, yet also a wee bit unsure of himself at the same time. He went on amazing adventures to exotic places and always won out over the bad guys. And he got the girl.

What boy in the early 80s didn't find a jump rope, a clothesline or something to use as Indy's whip?

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4) Mikey Walsh (The Goonies)



Where Indy was the adult we wanted to grow up to be, Mikey was the kid we were, having "adventures" with our friends.

Mikey gets to go on the real adventure we all dreamed we could have, finding a way to save his home and town in the process. And he does it with his friends, the Goonies.

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5) George Bailey (It's a Wonderful Life)



George is a great kid who grows up to be an even greater man. He doesn't ever do anything big and showy, the adventures he dreams of having. Instead, he stays home and does what needs to be done, standing his ground for what he knows is right.

George is the kind of man we want to be, in our heart, doing what is right no matter what may be easier, or more profitable, or even just "cool". Doing the right thing simply because it is the right thing to do.

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6) Rick Blaine (Casablanca)



Rick is the suave, cool, man-of-the-world who seems to have it all together. But, alas, he is just like everyone else, with his fair-share of heartbreak and pain.

At first cool and jaded, we soon see he still has a good heart. And when it comes down to it, he, too, does what is right. Even though it hurts.

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7) Lisa Fremont (Rear Window)



I went back and forth, unsure whether to include Grace Kelly's Lisa or Thelma Ritter's Stella in this list. Both characters, from Hitchcock's "Rear Window", are wonderful, as is James Stewart's L.B.

In the end, I chose Lisa, simply because she is my favorite of Grace Kelly's characters. Beautiful, smart, kind, witty, brave... She is just amazing. The fact that L.B. is so reluctant to marry her and settle down seems, to me, to be more about the awe he feels at living up to such a lady.

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8) Nick & Nora Charles (The Thin Man book and films)



Okay, so I cheated here. Obviously, Nick and Nora are two characters. But, I love them both, and can't imagine watching either of them apart. They work as a team, playing off one another like no other characters I know of.

Created by Dashiell Hammett, the characters came more to life in the movie and it's sequels. Played by William Powell and Myrna Loy, Nick and Nora are so great together, so much better than they are alone. Their banter is playful and adult, yet never mean or hurtful. They love each other, no matter what, and they "get" each other.

I wonder if we will ever see a couple like them in movies again.

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9) Clark Griswold (National Lampoon's Vacation movies, specifically Christmas Vacation)



Clark is the stereotypical suburban dad, trying to have the best vacation ever with his family, even if all hell has broken loose and everyone wants to just go home.

I think Christmas Vacation is the best of the movies, truly showing the heart of the man in Clark. He just wants to give his family, and himself, the perfect Christmas ever, the celebration he remembers from childhood, even if he is only remembering the best parts of it himself.

To me, he is just a normal dad, trying his best, no matter what common sense tells him.

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10) Yzma (The Emperor's New Groove)



Played with such gusto by the late, great Eartha Kitt, Yzma is the Disney horror villain who can never catch a break.

I just love how she tries so, so hard to be EVIL, yet is always thwarted. Yzma is diabolical, smart, creepy, everything that would make you think she will succeed in her nasty plans. But nothing ever goes her way. Just hilarious.

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So, there are my ten. Of course, tomorrow or the next day, I will read this and think about who should be here who isn't. But, that's life!

Not going to tag anyone in particular. I would love to see your "top 10", but only if you want to. Hope you liked mine!

Theme Thursday - MINERAL

MINERAL

This week's Theme Thursday theme - Mineral - proved a bit of a challenge. I mean, it's MINERAL for cripe's sake!

So, again I went with what I know and came up with:

MY BLOODY VALENTINE




Why, you ask? Well, because it's about MINERS. See, miners mine minerals. (bite me)

Anyway, MY BLOODY VALENTINE is a Canadian horror/slasher film released in 1981. To quote (non-miner) Inigo Montoya: "Let me 'splain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up."

See, long ago some miners were trapped in an explosion when their bosses left early for the big Valentine's shindig. Harry Warden was the only survivor, but he did so by eating the other dead miners. He is eventually rescued, goes bonkers and is sent away. But a year later, he returns and wreaks horrible vengeance. He warns the town to knock off any further plans to celebrate.

Flash forward twenty years and the younger set in town says "Phooey!" and decide to have their own party. Yup, you guessed it: Mayhem and Murder ensues! Is Harry Warden, the Miner, back? Hmmm? Well, rent or buy the movie and see for yourself.

This movie is a great, creepy, 80s slasher classic. The miner always gave me the chills, and it helped that mineshafts in general are claustrophobic, dark and eerie. Who knows what lurks ahead?

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Of course, the film was remade this year as MY BLOODY VALENTINE 3D. To quote (also-non-miner) Danny Noriega: "Some people weren't liking it!"



I did like it. Is it a great, Academy Award-winning example of the perfect horror film? Heck no. But then again, so very few are. What this movie IS is a fun, throw-back, slasher film that knows what the fans want to see. And it really delivers.

And the 3D, in my opinion (who else's opinion would it be, really?), is so great. It adds a feeling of almost "being there" to what you are watching. The opening hospital scene itself felt almost too real.

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Here is some more mine-movie-goodness for ya:

TRAPPED ALIVE came out in 1993. I never saw this, but from what I read, two women and some escaped prisoners end up in a mine shaft where a cannibalistic man-thing is out to get 'em. Sounds... like MST3K would love it.

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There is also a movie called CURSE OF THE FORTY-NINER, (aka MINER'S MASSACRE), from 2003. (Bet ya didn't think this would be a more than one shot sub-genre, did ya?) I didn't care for this movie. Like a drill at a mine, this was boring.

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In non-horror films, INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF DOOM saw our intrepid hero and cohorts having an adventure in a mine, even riding the coal cars as if they were in Six Flags.

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And mining was the profession of choice for the little men in SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS. Although this one can probably be called a horror flick, as the Evil Queen is trying to kill Snow White with poison hidden in an apple. Bitch.

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And, in the new FRIDAY THE 13TH, Jason has a sort-of lair in some abandoned mine shafts under the Crystal Lake campgrounds. Plausible? I don't know. But I thought it could be a good explanation as to how Jason was able to appear anywhere around the camp in the older movies: He had secret tunnels. I wonder if the writers had this in mind? Maybe?

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Like Indy in the coal cars, I went off track. Ah well...

Anyone remember any other miner/mine shaft horror flicks?