"Visions are worth fighting for. Why spend your life making someone else’s dreams?"

- Orson Welles in Ed Wood (1994)

In honor of the announcement of the re-make of Ed Wood’s cinematic magnum opus, Plan 9 From Outer Space, I thought that I’d take another look at Tim Burton’s biopic of the late director. This has been one of my favorite movies for a long time and while strictly a horror movie, I believe it fits nicely on our site.

Ed Wood is the story of… Ed Wood. The film starts on a rainy night where Ed, a writer and director for stage plays, arrives a little late for his latest play’s premiere. The turnout is… not so good. Later, the play’s reviews are lukewarm at best, outside of a remark regarding how realistic the uniforms looked. We see Ed at a day job delivering plants around the movie studio lot. At one delivery spot he overhears some women discussing an announcement of a movie about Christene Jorgenson, a man who had a sex change operation. Mr. Wood then decides he himself is the most uniquely skilled to direct the film. Why? Ed’s a cross-dresser. Not gay, merely more comfortable wearing women’s clothing.

His interview with the producer at screen classics turns out rather poorly to put it politely, but on his way back home, he meets Bela Lugosi who’s trying out coffins to see how they fit:

"This one’s too constrictive!" the famous actor roars, "I can hardly fold my arms!"

This coincidental encounter starts out rocky, but when Ed proves able to give Lugosi a ride home it sparks a friendship that manages to put the unemployed former Hollywood icon back into the movies while launching Ed’s own film career.

The first time I saw this movie it blew me away. This was one of the first biographical films I’d ever seen that I genuinely enjoyed. The acting is all well done from Johnny Depp starring as Ed Wood to Geoffery Jones as pseudo-psychic Criswell to George "The Animal" Steele portraying pro wrestler-turned-actor Tor Johnson to Martin Landau’s Academy Award-winning portrayal of legendary Bela Lugosi. Lugosi is my all time favorite Dracula actor and it was fascinating seeing this almost final chapter of his life. Another part I liked was the glimpses behind the scenes of Ed Wood’s movie-making. He was most likely an originator of the guerilla style of filmmaking, filming at locations without permits. A similar director who came along later is Larry Cohen, the man who brought us such cult horror classics as The Stuff, The killer baby trilogy: It’s Alive and Q - The Winged Serpent, all of which are upcoming reviews right here on Happy Horror!

I give this movie a 5 out of 5 and welcome it into our archives with open arms. If anyone’s interested in how they made really-low-budget films before the days of straight to video (or indeed, before video at all!), then this is an excellent choice.

So, until next time, this is Red Hawk signing out!

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We bring you sad news, this morning. Actor/comedian Harvey Korman has passed away, due to medical complications, at the age of 81.

You may have known Mr. Korman through his work in comedies such as Blazing Saddles, The Carol Burnette Show and The Pink Panther. Audiences enjoyed his work for decades so he will surely be missed.

Harvey Korman also contributed to the horror genre in his own way, particularly horror comedy. From episodes of The Munsters to Dracula: Dead and Loving It, Mr. Korman always brought his own style to the table.

Our hearts go out to his family and fans.

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Originally posted: June 25, 2006 @ 5:46am PST

"Jesus Christ, lady. I’m giving you seven friggin’ days. I can come over and kill the shit out of you now, if you’d like!"

- Tabitha in Scary Movie 3 on DVD

Well, I said I’d have a big surprise for Day 7 of Ring Week, and here it is! What’s that, you say? What does Scary Movie 3 have to do with Ring Week? Well, only the fact that one of the two major plots of the movie is a parody of The Ring, of course. The whole opening sequence of the movie is almost a scene-by-scene take on Ringu and The Ring, with some of the best scenes of the movie deal with the Ring plot, as well.

Let’s take a look…

Pictured: Pamela Anderson is about to meet Tabitha in Scary Movie 3 on DVD

The movie opens on a house where two girls (played by Pamela Anderson and Jenny McCarthy) are talking about the television, when one of them remarks on how she heard microwave rays shrink silicone. They both look down at their own chests, then start panicking, especially when they can’t figure out how to work the backwards remote control to turn the TV off. They run to the TV and turn it off manually and they start talking about the killer videotape, when the phone rings. As Pamela is talking on the phone, Jenny heads back to the stairs. After the phone call, some weird things happen in the area (fridge starts opening by itself, etc.) before she goes upstairs to find water dripping from the doorknob. She goes into the room to find Jenny sitting with her back to the door. Pamela shakes her shoulder, asking if she’s alright, and Jenny turns slowly, her body shriveled, her face deformed, like the victims of the American Ring curse. Pamela shakes her while repeatedly asking if she’s alright, which causes her head to fall off, and Pamela asks one more time if she’s alright. The TV flicks on again, showing the well with the girl. Tabitha as she’s named in this incarnation, rushes towards the screen and the angle changes to Pamela, against the door, zooming in on her chest, where a pair of rings circle her breasts. The screen goes dark except for those rings, which turn into the loops for the 3 in the title.

I love this movie, really. I felt that they did a great job blending together the movies they parodied (The Ring, Signs, 8 Mile, among others) into a coherent plot. One scene that was extremely funny was when Cindy (Anna Faris, reprising her role from the previous two movies) took the cursed tape to Shaniqua (Queen Latifah), and Shaniqua ends up in a fistfight with Tabitha’s mother from the tape. One of the scenes that was cut from the movie, but shown in the deleted scenes on the Scary Movie 3.5 edition of the movie, was a parody of the horse scene from The Ring. In the scene, the horse gets out of the trailer, rears back on its hind legs and starts punching at Cindy with its forehooves. Cindy kicks it between the legs, which sends it running to the edge of the ferry boat and over the side, like in the original. When Cindy looks over the side and sees the blood, however, there are bits of clothing in there, as well. When the camera cuts back to Cindy looking down, you see the horse standing behind her, amongst the crowd. The ferryman sees the clothes, turns to the crowd and proclaims, "Just a diver, go back to your business."

I’ve been a fan of the Scary Movie series since the first movie, when they parodied the teen slasher genre. I’ve seen every one in the theater, including Scary Movie 4 now, and have enjoyed every one of them. I was also looking for a good way to introduce this series to the Happy Horror website. My goal is to cover all types of movies with all types of connections to the horror genre, and this includes parodies and outright comedies.

So, it’s my great pleasure to bring this to you with a 5 out of 5. This concludes the movie reviews for Ring Week. However, there’s more to come later today, so keep your eyes peeled to the site! Until next time, this is Red Hawk signing out!

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