THE DANMAN CAN

Despite the title, Death Has Blue Eyes  (1976) is not a giallo. Nor is it a very good film. And really, the titular eyes are more green than blue. It's an everything-and-the-kitchen-sink affair—part spy spoof, part softcore porn, part supernatural thriller. The editing is atrocious, it's incredibly goofy, random, and makes almost no sense. In spite of all this (and largely because of all this), it's very  entertaining. DHBE is perfect popcorn fodder for weirdos and lovers of weird cinema, bless its heart.

Dream Demon  (1988) is a solid A Nightmare On Elm Street / Hellraiser  mashup with some cool effects, a few great gore gags, and impressive dream-like visuals for a low budget movie. It's very much of its time in that it has the look and feel of other late '80s British horror (including a generous helping of goofiness a la early Peter Jackson ). Lead Jemma Redgrave is decent, but a stronger actor could have carried the picture better. Timothy Spall  is of course a highlight, particularly when he gets the opportunity to ham it up in gooey, gross-out makeup. All in all, a neat little film but a bit too derivative of other (better) ones, a bit of a wasted opportunity to go more gonzo, and not a film I would feel the need to necessarily revisit.

John Carpenter 's best film,  my favorite horror film , and one of  my top 5 films  ever (and I'm not fucking kidding). Nearly everything about  The Thing  (1982) is perfect—from Carpenter's expert direction to Bill Lancaster 's bleakly comic dialogue to  Dean Cundey 's memorable cinematography to   Ennio Morricone 's sparse, cold score to  Rob Bottin 's gooey, unforgettable special effects (that hold up incredibly well to this day) to Kurt Russell 's ridiculous hat. Plus it has one of the all-time great endings. John Carpenter Films Ranked Top 20 Directors "I dunno what the hell's in there, but it's weird and pissed off, whatever it is." "You gotta be fucking kidding..." "I  mean  it." "I know you gentlemen have been through a lot, but when you find the time, I'd rather not spend the rest of this winter TIED TO THIS FUCKING COUCH!" "Yeah, FUCK you too!"

Ah, Re-Animator  (1985), a classic that never gets old. It's one of my  Top 100 Films . I first saw it at the way-too-young age of 12 or 13 and I've loved it ever since. I've seen (and owned) it on VHS, DVD, and Blu-ray. I've seen it badly projected in a conference room at  Rock And Shock , and now well-projected at the Luna Theater . I look forward to the eventual 4K UHD release (hopefully by Arrow Video ). Stuart Gordon 's splatter masterpiece has it all—camp, comedy, and gore galore, plus an indelible performance by Jeffrey Combs , who gets most of the memorable lines (and delivers them with aplomb). In my opinion, it belongs on everyone's Top 10 Horror list (it's on mine ). You can find my Stuart Gordon Feature Films Ranked list here . Herbert West:  I gave him  life .  Dr. Carl Hill:  It's rather like peeling a large orange.  Dr. Carl Hill:   Mr .  West! I suggest  you get yourself a pen!  "Cat dead. Details later?" Screa...

My friend Eric  recently asked me to create a theme song for a sitcom in which he stars called Dream Machine . You can read about the series here and watch the title sequence that Eric created (which uses my theme) below. Be on the lookout for episodes soon! Thanks for hiring me to collaborate on this Eric—it was fun!

For the fourth year in a row, on Bryan's birthday (and because it's the 16th day of the month, part of the  D B Mix Series  tradition), we've got two sweet new mixes for you! Read on to fill your ear and eyeholes with  DB Mix Series 11 – Rainbow Collection ! For those unfamiliar with these music challenges—my cousin Bryan and I alternately choose a concept, we each choose the appropriate number of songs (from our MP3 collections), make a playlist, share with each other, then I mix the playlists, design the album art, and share with everyone! You can check out the previous  DB Mixes  here . The concept this time was chosen by Bryan—20 songs with c o l o r f u l titles. His criteria were: album tracks only (no live, compilation tracks or b-sides, etc.), no using the same color twice (though different "hues" were fine), and no using the same artist twice. As you can see from the tracks we both chose, we had to get creative with a few of them to reach 20 songs...

I will never understand the hate for  Howard The Duck   (1986) . I have loved it since I was a child in the '80s, and I still do. It's ridiculous and fun, and it looks incredible on 4K UHD.

Recently I was inspired to tackle a passion project. Starting on May 8th—over the course of 10 days and totaling 19 hours—I created a new cut of Donnie Darko (2001) (my review here ), using footage from both the theatrical and director's  cuts of the film from Arrow Video 's 2017 Blu-ray release. I wish I had been able to use their recent 4K UHD as the basis of my fan edit, but I'm not quite set up in my home office to do that and output with correct color accuracy (since UHD uses HDR ) just yet. As it is, the quality is still fairly high and very watchable. For the most part,  Donnie Darko Redux  keeps the theatrical structure of the film intact, while incorporating the parts I like about the director's cut, but leaving out the parts that I don't (the pages of the book, the shots of Donnie's eye, etc). This IMDb page  provides a good comparison of the two official cuts of the film (though it's not comprehensive), to give you an idea of what I used and w...

If you've ever wondered what an entire album based around Chris Isaak 's " Wicked Game " would sound like,  Still Corners ' The Last Exit  is your answer. And that's not a back-handed compliment—I love that song and this LP is wonderful. But seriously, there's also a helping of Mazzy Star ,  Jesse Sykes , Neko Case , Air  and some Dire Straits  in SC's sound. Simple and catchy melodies, reverb-drenched vocals, twangy guitars, pretty without being too precious—lots to appreciate.

Donnie Darko (2001)— Richard Kelly 's surrealist, existential, metaphysical, superhero Sci-Fi time travel teen angster—turned twenty earlier this year (per its Sundance debut). Kelly's feature debut is clearly the work of a young filmmaker (though one who clearly had a vision, passion, and the means to make something special).  I appreciate the film for this though, as  DD 's "immaturity" only befits the characters and the story. I think that's why the film continues to find new audiences—it speaks to a certain age bracket and it serves as a reminder of why we identified with it, for those of us who saw it in when it was originally released. I was twenty-one when I first saw it and I think that was just about the right age to connect with the characters and the dialogue. Upon buying Arrow Video 's recent limited edition 4K UHD (which is a really marvelous package), I decided to watch the included theatrical and director's cuts on consecutive nights (h...