NinetyForChill: The Podcast - SkimbleSHANKS presents: House (1985) with Gregory Carl

 NinetyForChill.com: The #Podcast

Episode 88: SkimbleSHANKS presents: House (1985) with Gregory Carl.

SkimbleSHANKS presents: House (1985) with Gregory Carl

October 4, 2022

Gregory Carl returns to "NinetyForChill: The #Podcast" to start #SpookyMonth off with a raucous horror comedy in "House". It seemed to be inspired by Sam Raimi's "Evil Dead" which led Cool Movies Darth to feel like it may have been trying to beat the more comedic "Evil Dead 2" to the punch. That is an appropriate vibe since the Vietnam themes were huge in the mid 1980s, and 1985 was the year that Cannon released the first two "Missing in Action" movies to tug on the coattails of "Rambo: First Blood: Part 2" publicity.

Allow me to get out of third-person. Happy Prof. Shurtleff of Illinois Central College? I (CM Darth) will try not to make so much light of violent death in this summation. This is my declaration of changing perspective. 

I know it is not a big deal, but I actually dropped this past podcast Tuesday (10/4/22). Exhaustion was getting the better of me on Monday, so I edited this episode as late as I could. It just had to be finished in time for WWE NXT like every other week. Once that happened Tuesday night, sleep was more important than this blog post.

Wednesday was not going to work for me since I finally secured the legendary Tim Bates of Evil Penguin Games to record a podcast. This meant my itinerary included my standard 7:30 am to 4 pm work day, watch and take notes about "The Night of the Demons", watch the extended edition of "AEW Dynamite" while getting my drink on, and then recording next week's podcast till midnight. Of course this meant Thursday was going to be a wash with my only motivation to stay up was to possibly join the other Bumble Bees at Pour Bros. Trivia night. The team was not there (Coincidently, three quarters of the team all had plans in Chicagoland this weekend.), so it was weed after a sampling of ciders and meads. The night was over. 

So after a day with blown out jeans (I thought the "Anyone else feel a draft in here?" line was solely for comic fiction.), I am at the keyboard to sum up my most recent conversation with Gregory Carl in regards to "House"...and his first foray into Springfield's Pinfall Wrestling. The latter topic was moved to after the movie discussion, so once David Tennant's request a "Wahoo", the non-marks can leave the show.

Gregory actually came to the show's rescue this week. No one else stepped up, and twats like @horrorman93IG who expressed initial interest (Don't hit the heart if you don't mean it.), blocked my account. Since he was one of the few who really wanted to be part of the proposed Kevin Smith panel, I owed him the time. Fortunately, "House" was more than worthy of a rewatch from him.

"House" is the portion of the Venn Diagram where "Evil Dead" and "Gremlins" intersects. "Evil Dead 2" was still years away from happening, so to feature so much slapstick comedy was unusual for the time. It is virtually a gore-free feature and harsh language is something that could be missed in a blink. It is not overly intense, which may undercut the Vietnam War PTSD themes, but it does not really do anything to make you denounce it for a lack of scares.

The tale could have been directed better. It holds itself back from being a legendary horror feature. But, "House" lays down the blueprint for PG-13 rated horror. PG-13 "horror" movies failing to think of this film when they are being developed is the true cinematic crime.

But, I do not want this podcast episode to be void of a love for gore effects. So, my most recent Netflix DVD was opened up. The feature is 1985's "Creature" which WhatCulture Horror had sold me on as a "The Thing" and "Alien" knock off.

Those Geordies sold it as something only the Italians could come up with, but this is low-budget, Yankee horror-fare. This one is solely for the curious. For me, fun was had. For the unofficial cinema snobs, forgiveness will be a hard find.

Follow me on Twitter @catbusruss. If you want to be on the show, contact me on Twitter or send an email to russthebus07@gmail.com. All we need is a theme, movie, director, or actor and a focus on sub 100-minute material. As long as the credits start before the 1:39:59 mark on the runtime bar, the movie qualifies.