TV glitches can be a nightmare. In most cases, they’re simply annoying, but sometimes they’re a hypnotizing and surreal works of art.
Some of it is relaxing.
Some is quite disturbing.
top lists
Top 20 Mars Movies, or 99 Years of Mars in Cinema
It may seem that cinema and Mars aren’t in a particularly good relationship. First, we had some early 1910s-1920s productions that were more about pacifism and communism than space travel – let alone Mars. Then came the time of the cheesy and naive 1950s productions, and believe me, it won’t take them long to put a you smile on your face if you watch these oldies now. When – finally! – science fiction got some big budgets in the early 1980s, it didn’t help much either – the visuals got better, but the overall feeling often remained the same. However…
”Mission to Mars”, 2000.
…we terrans don’t surrender easily, do we? We are quite stubborn creatures. Most Mars movies were box office flops, but it never prevent us from trying again and again.
”Robinson Crusoe On Mars”, 1964.
99 years is a whole lot of time, and some beautiful films were shot, ranging from childish or gory production to some hyper-realistic and incredibly plausible stories.
Let’s go! Mars it waiting. Continue reading
Top 17 Highest Grossing Horror Movies Of All Time
As I mentioned yesterday…
“It” (2017) is about to become the biggest horror box office success ever, as its current box office of stands at… $666.6 million. Nice number. Just $6 mln away from beating M. Night Shyamalan’s “The Sixth Sense” (1999) with $672 mln…
…and then something clicked in my mind. Wait, was “Sixth Sense” a horror? Wow! Okay. Mojo knows better. So, given this curiousity and the upcoming Halloween, I decided to examine some other highest grossing horror movies…
- “The Exorcist” (1973) casted out $400,214,478 with dark magic and that means 3rd place.
She floats, too.
- A solid death grip guaranteed 4th place Spielberg’s “Jaws” (1975) and impressive $470,653,000.
- On 5th place we see again that M. Night Shyamalan was still showing some signs of life in 2002… with $408,247,917.
- On 6th place “Hannibal” (2001) is chewing his $350,100,280 with a glass of Chianti (1991 “Silence of the Lambs” had $275,726,716 and that means 11th place).
- “The Conjuring” and “The Conjuring 2” were indeed good at conjuring an impressive amount of cash out of the horror-loving public – $318,000,141 and $311,270,008 respectively, so that would count as 7th and 8th.
- Then, things get rough. Various sources cite “Se7en”, “Ghostbusters”, “Shutter Island”, “Van Helsing”,
“Sex in the City”come on, guys, these aren’t really horrors. Even “Hannibal” is hard for me to consider a horror movie (but it had Anthony Hopkins whose smile is already scary by itself). But Bill Murray?
This is a true horror film. Just look at their faces. Holy shit. That’s Bill-motherfuckin-ghostbuster-Murray! (This was a quote. I didn’t invent it. Jim Jarmusch and RZA did.)
- Bill Murray is not scary.
- Obviously I would love to skip all these “Resident Evil” remakes and prefer to do a Halloween costume for a hamster plus I love “Event Horizon” but…
- …but “Resident Evil: The Final Chapter” (2017) grossed $312,242,626 and “Resident Evil: Afterlife” (2010) – $300,228,084. Now I’m curious, how many years will pass till they reboot the franchise? 2? Whatever. 9th and 10th places are theirs. “Resident Evil: Retribution” (2012) had $240,004,424, by the way, which guarantees 17th place.
- Lets move on. “Annabelle: Creation” (2017) is the only horror sequel more successful than the original with astonishing $291,100,361, that is 11th place. The first film, “Annabelle“, has the privelege of being the only horror movie on the list with a sweet name and $256,873,813. That counts as 13th place (don’t ask me where is the 12th, because it means you weren’t reading carefully and I’ll cancel you from the subscription lists).
- Ah, almost forgot. In the old times, when Harrison Ford wasn’t only rebooting all kind of franchises (sorry, old joke) and Robert Zemeckis was an interesting director to follow, there was a film called “What Lies Beneath” (2000). It had $291,420,351. I didn’t watch it because my parents didn’t allow me to look at Michelle Pfeiffer…
…at the age of 11, so if anyone thinks it is a horror… that would be 10½th place.
- “The Village” is supposed to come 14th with an impressive $256,697,520 but since it’s not nice to have 3 M. Night Shyamalan movies on the list lets move on. But it was a scary film. I watched it when I was 15 years old on a big screen. So not sure how scary it would be now. But it made a long-lasting impression.
- “Get Out” was creepy, but it wasn’t really a horror. A good tense thriller? Yes. As Jay said, “…Peele isn’t exactly trying to horrify you; he’s trying to unsettle you. And he’s doing that exceedingly well.” I love the film and it was a nice debut, so lets just mention it had $252,434,250 which is a lot for a film like that.
- The American remake of the classic Japanese horror “Ringu” grossed $249,348,933 in 2002 and could have taken 15th place… but that was a remake. By the way, guess which movie was the first on the list of the scariest eyes in horror?
- I would like to admit that I deliberately skipped “Prometheus” with its impressive $403,354,469 (potential 3rd place) and “Alien: Covenant” with $238,862,031 (potential 18th place – yes, they call it a box office flop now) because I don’t think they were horror movies although some may consider them such. The 1979 “Alien” was a horror movie. The rest was just tense science fiction.
- To end things on a positive, hm, note… “Blair Witch Project” takes 16th place with $248,639,099.
- And the winner is… “Paranormal Activity” with its $15,000 budget and $193 mln box office. But it’s not in the top since we weren’t discussing most profitable horror movies which is what really matters, not the box office.
End of line.
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Almost forgot. Since it’s Halloween, I must admit that I’ve always been rather indifferent to this holiday (and it’s not celebrated so much here in Europe), but seeing many fellow bloggers dedicating the whole month to horror movies, trashy costumes, DIY-s, beautiful Halloween cupcakes and soul cakes (soul cake…beautiful name) makes me love a little bit more.
Top 10 Soviet Science Fiction Movies
Here is my Top 10 Soviet sci-fi movies with a dozen of modern trailers I made specially for it while studying some video editing.
†1924-1988 selection.
Beautiful new ambient, shoegaze, dreampop, synthpop and techno soundtracks included.
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1. ”Stalker”, 1979.
A cerebral timeless masterpiece by Andrei Tarkovsky, probably the most renowned and influential Soviet/Russian director. Loosely based on a story by important Soviet science fiction writers Strugatsky brothers (and seen by many as a prophecy for several upcoming catastrophes including Chernobyl), “Stalker” could be interpreted as a philosophical tale about destiny and choices. But there’s much more that that. It’s simply one of the most important cinema achievements ever, let alone science fiction. The story follows three men as they penetrate deeper into into a mysterious area called “The Zone”, each of them for a different purpose. A thinking sci-fi geek’s must-see. This movie is like a Universe, there are always new layers to discover. Read more here and here.
Music by Bowery Electric.
2. ”City Zero”, 1988.
Theatre of the absurd, a mysterious tragicomedy, a dark metaphor. The late 80-s, without doubt, were the most prolific period for the underground culture in Soviet Union, especially rock music but also cinema. ”City Zero” is the finest dark offspring of that epoch. The film is normally classified as sci-fi/mystery – but if you analyze every single scene separately, there’s nothing completely impossible. It’s the sum of all parts that is greater than the whole… The famous headcake scene actually happened once in Russia. But looking at the whole story makes you feel like slowly drowning in the swamp… It’s kind of ”Donnie Darko” goes on ”Mulholland Drive” in ”The Twilight Zone” atmosphere. My full review here. Watch online here.
Music by Auktyon (Аукцыон).
3. ”Dead Man’s Letters”, 1986.
Directed by K. Lopushansky, surely the most faithful of all Tarkovsky’s followers (he worked as assistant on ”Stalker” set), this film is a heavy and realistic portrayal of the end of the world. Endless piles of rusty metal, interminable yellow twilight, dirty radioactive puddles of mixed water and blood. And dead bodies. Dead bodies everywhere. Men, children, women. Everywhere. There is no hope here. It’s finished. There is no ”if”. The doomsday clock has moved. We are just witnessing the final decay of small group of survivors that will last several months, probably. There is not even a single hint about their survival. It’s a death rattle. Just a matter of time. My full review here. Watch online here.
Music by Ital Tek.
