Midnight Marquee #76 1 Midnight Marquee MIDNIGHT MARQUEE Number 76 CONTENTS Number 76 September 2008 3 Marquee Mutterings: Editors Copyright 2008© by Gary J. Svehla Editorial Gary J. Svehla Published irregularly for free by Midnight Marquee Press, Inc. Susan Svehla PayPal donations are accepted to defray operating expenses. by Gary J. Svehla Articles and art should be transmitted electonically and will Graphic Design Interior remain the property of the writer/artist and copyright holder, 4 Forum/Against ’Em: Gary J. Svehla who will retain the rights. If material intended for publication is sent to us via regular mail, it is the sender’s responsibility Psycho... Most Influential to include return postage. No responsibility is taken for un- Cover Design solicited material. Modern Horror Movie? Title Page Design Edited by Anthony Ambrogio Editorial views expressed by writers are not necessarily those Gary J. Svehla of the publisher, Midnight Marquee Press. Nothing from this digital online magazine may be reproduced or shared in any 18 Halloween: Slicing and Copy Editor media without the expressed written permission of the pub- lisher. The Midnight Marquee Press offices are located at: Dicing the Urban Legend Susan Svehla 9721 Britinay Lane, Parkville, MD 21234; website: http:// www.midmar.com; e-mail: [email protected] by Daniel J. Graffeo Contributing Writers Letters of comment addressed to Midnight Marquee or Susan Anthony Ambrogio; Mark Clark; and Gary Svehla will be considered for publication unless the 24 Jamie Lee Curtis and Daniel J. Graffeo; Mark Allan Gunnells; writer requests otherwise. While the online digital publica- Jonathan Malcolm Lampley; Arthur Lundquist; tion is free, for those readers that do not have a computer, we The Virginity Myth Carl Schultz; Bryan Senn; Brian Smith; will print out a color copy of any issue for $10, to be shipped by Mark Allan Gunnells Cindy Collins Smith; Gary J. Svehla; by Media Mail. Steven Thornton; Neil Vokes Letters of comment are encouraged; please send all comments to [email protected] and label your comments “Com- 29 Plan 9 From Outer Space: Acknowledgments ments for issue #76.” Why the Plan Works Aaron Christensen; Warner Home Video; Fox Home Video; Universal Home Video; Bender We are always looking for writers to submit articles. Please by Carl Schultz discuss any article suggestions first with Gary J. Svehla at Helper Publicity; Scott Essman [email protected] and check the Style Sheet link on our website to get ideas for style and formatting. Length of ar- 31 DVD Reviews Illustrator ticles may vary. We take them long and short. But remem- Allen K. Koszowski ber, our emphasis is mainly on the classic horror and science by Gary J. Svehla ficiton movies of the Golden Age, but our definition of classic and Golden Age is not based upon specific decades or year Publisher of production necessarily, but upon the artistic content that 58 Grave Diggings Midnight Marquee Press, Inc. reflects the heart and style of early horror cinema. [Letters] Midnight Marquee #76 2 Digital reproduction means we sit at our computer and gawk at the monitor and enjoy the magazine online. We can no longer touch the pages, smell printer’s ink or bag and board the final product. We can download the PDF file and save it in a Midnight Marquee desk folder. We can even print it out at home and perhaps go to the local photocopying store to have the issue bound. So in a sense, the hard copy print out still exists for people who demand such permanence. But the bottom line is that readers of our magazine will have to learn to enjoy it in a new way. What excites me is that many people who never heard of Midnight Marquee or never saw a copy might finally be Welcome to the digital premiere of Midnight Marquee, typesetting became a reality. And then the 64k Kaypro arrived, exposed to a magazine that has continued to celebrate the now in its 76th issue and 45th year of publication. Think of this early computer unfortunately did not allow us to design world of classic horror movies since 1963. To all those fresh how technology has changed our magazine throughout the the entire magazine within the computer, but the text could be new eyes, welcome. Enjoy! Send your letters of comment decades. Debuting in the summer of 1963, when I had just shifted, edited, resized and reformatted. Soon we committed (hopefully, we will publish them). And to those loyal turned 13, it was then called Gore Creatures. The first issue to our lifelong love affair with the Apple Macintosh and at last subscribers and followers of the magazine, welcome back and was reproduced using hectograph gelatin pads (a few copies the entire magazine could be created on the computer using recharge. Keep those letters of comment coming as well! were typed using carbon paper and one or two were even hand publication software such as PageMaker and now InDesign. The new look Midnight Marquee uses color reproduction written). We evolved soon into ditto or spirit duplication, and The magazine continued to evolve and change throughout the to a much greater extent, and even when writing about then mimeo. Testing the offset printing waters, we produced decades. black-and-white horror film classics, color graphics may several issues that were half-mimeo and half-offset. Soon we But perhaps our biggest transcending action has been be introduced by way of photographs, lobby cards, posters, went to an all offset format, laying out each issue using cut- the evolution from hard copy print magazine to a magazine pressbooks and other colorful promotions created to promote and-paste layouts on oversized boards. Then the electronic produced digitally online. And even though this is our 76th black-and-white movies. For our reviews, DVD covers can typewriter with multiple fonts became available, and at home issue, it is the first to be produced in this new way. No hard now be reproduced in color. Our layout can evolve and grow copy version exists, unless a reader prints out the contents of more ambitious. The only limits are no longer financial but the issue using his or her own printer at home or at work. And only the limits of our imagination. this is our first issue of the magazine in full color. Hopefully, in our new digital domain, we will be able to Some collectors barely read (shame on them!) the publish more frequently Midnight Marquee and our companion contents of the magazines they faithfully collect, for their magazine, Mad About Movies, and hopefully revive Movie thing is the “bag and board” aspect of buying film magazines. Mystique. Keep checking our website for announcements of Maintaining their treasures in pristine near mint condition new issue availability. And between issues, enjoy our Midnight means avoiding touching, reading and flipping through the Marquee/Gary J. Svehla Blog that can also be accessed via our magazine pages. The major goal of such collectors is to keep website (http://www.midmar.com). Also, Sue has redesigned the magazine sealed and protected from human fingerprints our web site making it more informative and user friendly. and environmental factors (UV rays, acid rain). Our digital Please remember just how important your feedback evolution will no doubt affect these collectors the most. becomes. Midnight Marquee will only improve if readers Other collectors love the tactile experience of smelling respond to each new issue by writing us at midmargary@aol. fresh printers’ inks and turning back a cover for the very first com. All suggestions, ideas, criticisms, praise—anything. time. The simple touch of flipping through magazine pages We are always looking for new staff writers and articles that and feeling each and every page, studying every photo or piece would interest readers of either magazine. of art, reading the text and enjoying all the letters, articles and The new adventure begins, and hopefully, Midnight even the editorial, becomes the ultimate experience. For my Marquee won’t be seen as run of the mill. We believe that generation, this became a ritual cemented in our childhood our insight, passion and innovations will demonstrate why the and one that follows us through life. magazine has survived for 45 years. We believe the best is yet Until now. to come. Midnight Marquee #76 3 Even films such as Scream of Fear (aka Taste of Fear [1961]) and Paranoiac (1963) pale by comparison. These movies (and all the other inferior ones) simply copied the idea of the unidentified psycho who is revealed at the very end, but not much else. Arthur: Gary—“Psycho...what sub-genre or movies did it inspire?” How about the entire oeuvre of Brian De Palma? Gary Arthur, come on. That’s not correct! Vertigo (1958), Rear Window (1954) and any other number of Hitchcock films inspired De Palma, not just Psycho. True, Psycho’s influence is there...but De Palma was most inspired by the entire body of Hitchcock’s work and not Psycho alone! Arthur: Okay, let’s talk about specific De Palma Psycho knockoffs. Killings in Sisters (1973) and Carrie (1976) use Psycho death-music. Phantom of the Paradise (1974) and Body Double (1984) re-do the shower scene, as does Dressed to Kill (1980)—with a shower scene and an elevator-as- “shower-stall” scene. Hell, Dressed to Kill is practically a Psycho remake, from killing off the main character to cross- dressing killers to the psychologist’s explanation at the end. Most importantly, no Hitchcock film is as ruthless in making us care for a main character and then heartlessly killing him/her off, as Psycho.