25 Years of The Undertaker: The Rise

Being that this upcoming Thanksgiving marks the 25^th anniversary of Mark Calaway’s  tenure in World Wrestling Entertainment with the debut of his character The Undertaker and that he is by far my favorite Wrestler and one of my heroes from childhood to now and I have to honor him in this series of blogs that are to follow the different eras of “The Phenom”.  

I was first familiar with Mark Calaway due to his time as Texas Red in World Class Championship Wrestling and his time in WCW as Mean Mark Callous with the Sky Scrapers with his soon departure “Up North”.

In the 1990 4^th annual Survivor Series featuring the 4 on 4 Team elimination matches as always one of the top villains was The Million Dollar Man Ted DiBiase’s Million Dollar Team facing off against The American Dream Dusty Rhoades, Koko B Ware, and Bret “The Hitman” Hart and his tag team partner Jim “The Anvil” Neidhart. The rest of the Million Dollar team consisted of The Honky Tonk Man, and Greg “The Hammer” Valentine and a mystery partner.

There was much speculation of the identity of the Mystery Partner ranging from Macho Man Randy Savage to Virgil and there was in fact a giant egg that was in arenas at the time and many speculated that the mystery partner was inside the egg.

DiBiase soon announced the identity of his 4^th competitor “led to the ring by his manager Brother Love, Weighing in at 320lbs From Death Valley, I Give You…The Undertaker”

A Somber funeral march began to play as announcers Roddy Piper and Gorilla Monsoon reacted to a 6ft 10in man in black that grimly strode to the ring and started off the match against the Future Champion and Hall of Famer Bret Hart. 

Soon Koko was tagged into the ring and flew off the ropes at his opponent who was soon caught in midair by the pale destroyer who quickly turned him upside down and dropped him on his head in what Monsoon instantly labeled “A Tombstone” and Koko was pinned and rolled out of the ring.

The Undertaker would also eliminate Dusty Rhoades who would then attack Brother Love resulting in Taker coming to his aid being counted out and therefor eliminated from the match. For the brief time that he was in the match he left a large impression on the crowd and the millions watching at home.

Soon it was announced that Brother Love would soon relinquish his managerial duties of the Undertaker and his new manager was announced to be William Moody aka Percy Pringle III but to WWE fans he would always be Paul Bearer.

Paul would lead The Undertaker to the ring carrying a mysterious Urn that The Undertaker would draw his power from and would make quick work of the Jobbers in squash matches before placing them in a Body Bag.

I have to admit that there was a slight fear that I had of The man and I can tell you that I had been ringside during this time and The Undertaker had a presence and when he would walkout it was all silence. 

It was announced that at Wrestlemania VII that The Undertaker would face Superfly Jimmy Snuka and at the event the crowd was amazed during the match at the short work that The Taker made of the future Hall of Famer and legendary wrestler.  

This was the beginning of the Streak at 1-0.

The Undertaker continued his dominance of the WWF Superstars leading to a feud with former Champion The Ultimate Warrior after locking him in an airtight coffin.

Warrior seeking to learn the secrets of death turned to Jake Roberts to get over his fear of the Deadman only to be betrayed by “The Snake” who was revealed to be in with The man in Black all along.

This storyline was quickly dropped after The Warrior left the WWF in 1991 and Jake the Snake was soon locked in a feud with Macho Man Randy Savage after Taker and Jake destroyed his wedding reception.

However The Undertaker was soon announced in the Main Event of the 1991 Survivor Series as Hulk Hogan’s “Gravest Challenge” for the WWF title.

The feud leading up to the event found Hogan facing off against The Undertaker and soon Ric Flair found himself involved in the storyline and interfered in the match with a steel chair costing Hogan the match and giving The Undertaker his first WWF title.

This reign was short lived as Hogan won the title back at the Tuesday in Texas event 7 days later using controversial methods to defeat the Deadman resulting in the vacating of the title.

It was soon after the 1992 Royal Rumble on Saturday Night’s Main Event that while Jake The Snake was about to attack Randy Savage and Elizabeth with a Steel Chair that The Undertaker turned face by stopping the assault.

 Facing off against The Snake at Wrestlemania VIII making his streak 2-0.

It was after Wrestlemania that The Undertaker and Paul Bearer began to feud with the Monsters of the WWF such as the Berserker, Papa Shango, and The Ugandan Giant Kamala. It was the feud with Kamala that came to an end of the 1992 Survivor Series that was the world’s first introduction to The Casket Match.

The purpose of the Casket Match is simple and that is to place your opponent into a casket and close the lid. This was the beginning of many of these matches to come.

At the 1993 Royal Rumble was attacked and eliminated by a The Giant Gonzalez  who gave the undertaker his first real “beat down” resulting in a match at Wrestlemania IX in Las Vegas.

Coming to the ring with a funeral chariot with a large vulture the undertaker took what Gonzalez had to dish out and then gave it back to him and Gonzalez then chloroformed The Taker getting himself disqualified and Taker was soon carried to the back of a stretcher leaving Gonzales celebrating for “Killing The Undertaker”…That is until the bell tolled again and the Undertaker emerged from the back rejuvenated and beating the Giant back to the Back and with the DQ making the Streak 3-0.

While The Undertaker was continuing to feud with Gonzales and Curtis Hughes to Summerslam with Yokozuna dominating the WWF as the champion stating that there was no competition, a feud was inevitable.

While Lex Luger was Captaining the American team with the Steiner Brothers against Yoko’s Fanatics of Ludwig Borga and the Quebeckers  and after teammate Tatanka was put out of action following a beating from the team it was announced that The Undertaker would join Team USA.

The Feud with Yoko resulted in yet another Casket Match and with the advantage in the Undertaker’s corner The champion had some tricks to his advantage.

With the match won and the champion soon being placed in a Double Wide Double Deep Casket The Undertaker soon found himself being attacked by a large amount of heels from the locker room area and after Yoko Smashed Paul Bearer’s urn Taker was placed in the Casket and was wheeled to the back Broken and defeated.

Again the Lights went down and The Undertaker appeared on the screen declaring that he will return and all mankind will witness his Rebirth and that he would not “Rest in Piece”.

Soon the Undertaker would be seen rising to the sky with all wondering if he would ever be seen again.

He would Rise again

In our next Chapter. 

I Spit on Your Grave III: Vengeance is Mine

Well Kiddies another Halloween season has come and gone and we find ourselves in a bleak November watching the three ring circus that we call the 2016 Presidential Campaign and well as I find myself   finishing up the last of my pumpkin ale and editing the footage that I shot this past season and I decided to check out some of the new releases that I have missed over the past month.

I am a frequent follower of I Spit on Your Grave, The Remakes as well as the follow ups to the remakes.

Now I don’t Consider I Spit on Your Grave 2 to be a sequel considering that it has no characters in this flick than in the first film or neither does it mention the events from the film either.

With the upcoming  sequel to the original Déjà vu with Camille Keaton returning as Jennifer Hill and Meir Zarchi's direction that is now currently in Post Production which I have to say that I am in fact looking forward to that flick.

That being said I Spit on your Grave 3 definitely came in under my Radar and it is in fact a sequel to I spit on your Grave (2010) with Sarah Butler reprising her version of Jennifer Hill. I find it interesting that this flick has been released with all of the hype surrounding the sequel for the original and this outing is helmed by a different director R.D. Braunstein  however Zarchi remains on as a producer.

Now as I stated earlier in my review of the remake that Camille and Sarah’s performances were different and both characters went into different directions and that does come into play here in this flick.

Taking place years after the events of the 2010 film Jennifer Hills has changed her name to Angela and is in therapy trying to come to grips with her experiences. Angela is haunted by flashbacks and the thoughts and fantasies of murdering men that she encounters leads her to the decision to join a support group for the survivors of sexual assault.  

Soon after her first group session she makes a friend in Marla, played by Jennifer Landon (Michael’s Daughter).  Soon Jennifer and Angela are “Terrorizing” many men that they encounter from a drunk in a bar to the stepfather of one of the other members of their group feeling that the law is refusing to help the victims of sexual assault and the members range from a young woman being molested by her stepfather and a man who’s daughter was assaulted and the perpetrator was released on a technicality resulting in her suicide.

Eventually Marla is murdered by her ex-boyfriend and Jennifer/Angela feels that the police are going to do nothing about the crime and once again takes justice into her own hands and soon there after begins to become the executioner for the assailants for the others in her support group attracting the attention of the police detectives.

Now some of my Horror reviewing brethren have already placed reviews for this film stating reviews in the negative due to the slasher feel in the second half but I liked that aspect of the film as it made me feel that I was watching a female version of Death Wish 2 just with knives in the place of Guns.

Jennifer is able to use seduction to entice the men into some of the compromising positions to gain the advantage however this does not always work in the flick but I feel that it helps the film in giving it a feeling of reality and vulnerability for the direction the character to take.

Now I have to talk about that side of the character as at times I felt that I was watching a remake of Ms.45 as like the character in that film Jennifer begins to see evil in the face of every man that she sees and soon begins to target them and I was almost thinking that she was going to don a Nun costume instead of a tight red dress. Luckily the film while taking us on that direction that is not the destination that we arrive at for the character.

Like the second film in this series and unlike the 1978 original and it’s 2010 Counterpart I liked the fact that there were male characters that were in fact not sleezy or rapists and were both while trying to help our Fatale in lending support in either legal or emotional capacities.

Now the kills were of all kinds of awesome! I can see where many will consider them to be all too graphic I have to point out that this is the era of torture porn and the Human Centipede  so I have to admit that I have seen worse and they are appealing to the sadistic crowd but it is not like the characters are all to innocent either.

As I stated earlier this film had more of a Death Wish feel than any real horror feel to it and I like that aspect to the film. And is definitely worth a look for fans of this particular subgenre but for the others I say go easy on the film and watch a lighter film as your follow up.

5 Dead Bodies

9 Imaginary Dead Bodies

1 Breast  (flashback scene)

4 Beasts

Penis stabbing, slicing and chomping,

Lead pipe to the anus with a sledge hammer

Stabbing

Shooting

Bashing

Gratuitous testicular tasering

Kudos to Sarah Butler for returning to the role

2 ½ Stars

Check it out

007 Spectre

As I stated many times here in The Video Creep I am a massive fan of Ian Fleming's British Super Spy 007 and it is no secret that I am familiar with all the films as well as their literary, Video Game, and now Comic counterparts. 

Now I have been hearing about Spectre for quite some time and there is a unique backstory to this entry in the series. 

The fact of the matter is that Ian Fleming had a partner many years ago that was able to prove that he was the created of the terrorist league SPECTRE as well as it's founder Ernst Stavro Blofeld . 

This information came to light before the release of the epic Thunderball that was also the creation of 

Needless to say lawsuits as well as competing films followed which gave us Never Say Never Again among other 007 Ripoffs. 

Well the truth is that all of the key players in this controversy have all passed away the lawsuits and issues have been resolved and now Spectre is back in the EON rebooted era where it belongs. 

I am also excited for this flick due to the new era that it does represent with the new MI6 supporting cast now officially in place with Ralph Fiennes officially taking on the role of Bond's boss M who takes on a far more physical approach to the role than any of his predecessors and the returns of Ben Whishaw as Q and Naomie Harris as Moneypenny and I am going to give a nod to Rory Kinnear as Bill Tanner. 

It has been often said that a hero is only as good as his villain and the half a century of James Bond films has given us some of the best so and our primary villain Christoph Waltz who I am not going to give too many details of the character to avoid spoilers. 

Former WWE World Heavyweight Champion Dave Bautista also appears in this flick as a principal henchman working his way up in the spectre organisation who reminds me of both Oddjob and Jaws. I hope to see more from this character in future installments in the franchise. 

Naturally one of the usual perks of the James Bond Franchise is the beautiful "Bond Girls" with in the lead role as James Bond's love interest.

I have to give props to Monica Bellucci adding Bond Girl to her resume and proving that some women get better with age. 

As I stated earlier I have been following this production from it's announcement and I was one of the first to preorder my ticket from the Alamo Drafthouse in DFW. 

Now The Alamo did have some great plans for the flick and with an opening night sponsored by Zodiac Vodka which I enjoyed a Vesper Martini and many fans cosplaying as characters with an Aston Martin to be sitting in the front of the theater. 

I assume that the weather was not cooperating and the Aston Martin was there, It was probably the Vanish from Die Another Day...That is what I was telling people. 

Now let's get to the flick. 

Taking place soon after the events of Skyfall MI6 has been merged with MI5 and with a new security and surveillance company taking over the protection of Britain as well as much of the world and they are looking to scrap the Double Os feeling that they are unnecessary.

Bond after receiving an email from M (Judi Dench) in the event of her death is doing what he does best investigating (In his own way) a mysterious terrorist organisation that was originally Quantum but now is under the control of a new mastermind that is worse than Mr. White and has a link to 007's past and his childhood. 

In the words of the original Q the flick has "All the Usual Refinements" Action Packed Opening, Beautiful Women, Exotic Locations, Fast Cars and big explosions. the film is full of references to the other James Bond Franchise films. Definitely a movie for guys who like movies. 

Skyfall was a great film and this is a great follow up for it. 

Check it out and enjoy for the Bond Fans

Halloween Picks: HauntShooter and Tales of Halloween

   

                                

Well Kiddies we are in full swing this Halloween season with the release of my first narrative film in 7 years as well as my work with HauntShooter this season with Anjanette and Bri. 

Friday night after the release of All Holliw's Eve Anjanette and headed out to Grand Prairie and the Strangling Brothers Haunted Circus which was awesome and the footage looks great with all the goings on at this haunt. 

The footage will be uploaded soon 

Saturday Bri and I hit the road to Amarillo to shoot the Haunt located at the Big Texan Steak Ranch and were greeted with some of the best hospitality and Food at one of Texas' best attractions. 

That footage will be edited and uploaded soon as well. 

During this busy weekend I still made the time to head out to the Alamo Drafthouse  to enjoy a good Pumpking Ale and check out a screening of the new Tales of Halloween. 

                                    

   

I have been looking forward to this film for quite some time while hearing about it in the Newsfeeds with the Buzz in the inner circles. This Flick was well worth the Hype.

An Anthology film taking place on Halloween night in an unnamed town Tales of Halloween features 10 Short Films from some of the top genre filmakers in the business today. They refer to themselves as The October Sociaty.

Adrianne Barbeau plays our friendly narrator as a radio DJ talking to listeners channeling her character from The Fog. The film features tales ranging from a Halloween Legend of Sweet Tooth, A tale of feuding neighbors, a child running amock with the Devil and Killer Pumpkins.

With the lack of a wraparound the stories are surprisingly smooth in the transitions with graphics informing us of the new story. I am amazed that the films all maintain the same look with the range of talent used to combine in the film

Many other Genre Veterans also make appearences in the flick. Adam Green, Lynn Shaye, Kristina Klebe, John Landis, Barry Bostwick and Barbara Crampton among others.

19 Dead Bodies
0 Breasts
15 Beasts
Disembowlings
Impaleings
Jaw Ripping
Stabbings
Burnings
Heads Roll
Eyes Roll
and Literal Pumpkin Heads.

5 Stars
Check it out

Halloween Picks:The WNUF Halloween Special

It’s another Halloween season and WE’RE BACK IN BUSINESS!!!

That’s right, If you were watching last season We began a new Format for HauntShooter where I have been fortunate to have my friends along my side and naturally as always my longtime (and Suffering) producer Anjanette is by my side and we are also joined by Bri in this new venture that we are going on.  

                                                  

I am very happy with the direction that I am going in this business venture and I am pleased for the results.

Along with Hatch and Craven’s Slaughterhouse we have shot The Dark Path Haunt as well as The Texas Scaregrounds and we are traveling to shoot other Haunts and Events to come this season.

I also have a passion for my Ipad and I have been able to check out some flicks around the net for the upcoming Halloween flicks.

While I concluded my Halloween pick series I plan on continuing in giving all of you anything I see that I think that you may like. There are movies being made everyday and many of them are destined to become classics.

Now many of you know that I am a massive fan of the Found Footage genre and most of it’s films and there are many different types and then this film is in a different class all together.

The WNUF Halloween special has been out for a couple of years but I have only just now been able to check it out.  

Now this flick is a guilty pleasure for me as I had heard the hype on the internet with many of my movie blogging brethren singing the praises of the originality of the flick and I have to agree with them.

Now this is not a Found Footage flick it takes the form of a recorded event on Halloween night that we are being showcased by an unknown presenter. This presenter is frequently fastforwards this special through commercials and news packages that they aren’t interested in.

The flick at first show a Halloween night newscast where the anchors feature stories related to Halloween during the satanic panic of the late 1980s. All the while the anchors are promoting the following Halloween special which is conducting a séance at a local haunted house.

Well as you can guess things go array for the broadcast.

Shot on video and made to look like an old vhs recording the film also features recreations of small time commercials that were frequent at the time and are clearly the subject of parody and add to the comedy of the film but is often used to break the tension going on in the film and sometimes I have to wonder if this is a good thing.

There are a few predictable twists but it is still worth a look for the originality of it’s direction.

5 Dead Bodies

0 Breasts

3 Beasts

1 Dead Cat

Cheesy Commercials

Bad news anchors

2 Stars

Check it out.