Spookytime - Undead

A couple of years ago, Chris and I came across this odd Aussie zombie flick on the boob toob, and sat down to watch it.

It turned out to be a festival of awesome and gore, capped off with one of the most ridiculous firearm contraptions I've EVER seen.

First, the website. A small warning - it's noisy and flash-heavy, so be aware of that before visiting.



So the basic premise is this: meteorites hit a town in NSW, Australia. Somehow (and this is not explained), people start turning into zombies. Then craziness ensues. Oh, and there are aliens helping to keep the infection contained. Because that makes sense. Read more about it over here.

And now for the gun list:
1 Remington 870 Slug Gun
2 Inglis Hi-Power
3 Beretta 92FS
4 Satin Nickel M1911A1
5 Norinco 77B
6 Colt Combat Python
7 Micro UZI
8 Smith & Wesson 916A Shotgun

The 916A is the wacky contraption I'm talking about. One of the characters, Marion, rigs THREE of these bad boys together. And shoots them. The ridiculousness is unparallelled. We haven't seen anything this nuts since Reggie's quad barrel from Phantasm II and IV. BUT WAIT, IT GETS BETTER! At the end of the movie a survivor, Rene, is seen with a QUADRUPLE shotgun.

Yes, friends, I have seen awesome. And it's made of four shotguns.

Spookytime - The Crow

The Crow, based on the comic by James O'Barr.


Some will say it's an action movie, but it's really horror. I'll give you action/horror if you prefer. It is a tale of revenge, witchcraft, magic and redemption. The film was very popular, but if you haven't seen it please check it out before the damn remake comes out. It tells the story of Eric Draven and Shelly webster, a couple who planned to marry on Halloween. They never made it to their wedding - they were brutally murdered the night before, on what is commonly referred to as Devil's Night. Eric is mysteriously brought back to life a year later by a crow that guides and goads him on a path of revenge/redemption. This movie is dark, as is the comic - its color pallette, subjects, and mood are creepy and interesting. Is Eric just a zombie killing machine, the angel of death, or on his own path to somehow atone for his self-perceived failure? You'll have to ride along and find out.

The movie stars Brandon Lee, son of Bruce Lee, who died just before filiming completed. He was killed on set by a dummy bullet stuck in a barrel propelled by a blank cartrige during a scene. Sad, as he seemed like he would have been a rising star based on his performance. The movie's director and producers decided to finish the film and shot the few remaining scenes without Brandon, opting instead for a script re-write and a stunt double. I think it wound up being a nice tribute to Brandon as people finally got to see his acting ability.

When I saw this film in theaters I made a mental note of the firearms on screen. This movie stood out to me as it seemed to be a collection or "who's who" of some of the most popular firearms at the time. The list can be found here on IMFDB Now that I look back at the list it seems the director or prop master chose guns for characters that somehow reflected their status or perceived status in the gang or the stereotypical gun they thought the character should have.

T-bird the leader of the thugs has a pistol. Blued Taurus Pt-92
Top Dollar the overall leader of the gang has a pistol but its shiny, Stainless Pt-92
Fun Boy the gang's brash sadist uses a S&W model 29
The cop, Albrecht uses what else? A Bretta 92fs
Pawn Shop guy has a Mossberg 500 Crusier of course
Bad Guy that's supposed to know what he's doing has something exotic a Calico M900
and a Mossberg bullpup.
Skank the guy who thinks he's in charge has a Desert Eagle
Generic Henchman get MAC 10's
and the skilled henchman get MP5's

So were they trying to stereotype the guns or did it just turn out that way? What do you think?