Keeping up with the Loomis

Deadly Movies | Connections

Sam Loomis

The surname Loomis has unwillingly become the name of choice in slasher films and, like so many Deadly Movies connections, it can be traced back to the master’s Psycho (1960). Sam Loomis, played by John Gavin, was Marian Crane’s boyfriend, hopelessly searching The Bates Motel for clues to the whereabouts of his AWOL girlfriend. The Loomis family would return to the Psycho universe in Psycho 2 (1983).This time Sam’s widow Lila Loomis (Marian’s sister no less, now a Loomis) and daughter Mary Loomis turn up to exact some bitchin Loomis revenge on Norman.

Dr Loomis

John Carpenter’s 1979 Halloweenutilised elements of Psycho to create a template that would become the modern slasher blueprint, but this wasn’t all he borrowed. He also grabbed his leading lady from Psycho stock, Jamie Lee Curtis, daughter of Janet Leigh (Marian Crane) and he directly borrowed a character name, Sam Loomis. Although rather than the grieving boyfriend, his Loomis was a child psychologist and obsessive nemesis to serial killer Michael Myers. Like Psycho before it, one film in a franchise is never enough for a Loomis. Dr Sam Loomis would return toHalloween in four more films and two remakes. It’s also worth noting that the character of Annie Brackett is played by Nancy Loomis.

Billy Loomis

Then it would be the turn of another horror legend, Wes Craven, creator of horror cornerstones The Last House on The Left (1972), The Hills Have Eyes (1977), and A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984). In 1996 Craven’s Scream would reference and parody the forefathers of horror, especially Halloween of which both score and movie feature directly in the film, as does the name Loomis. Here however Loomis is on the wrong side of the knife handle. Billy Loomis is the mastermind behind the ‘Ghost Face’ killings, while his mother Mrs Loomis (going all Mrs Voorhees) would take up the knife and mask in Scream 2 (1997). Although the Loomis’s would get name checks inScream 3 (2000) and Scream 4 (2011) no actual family members reappear. 

50 years, 12 films, 8 actors, 6 characters, 1 surname

Sam Loomis (John Gavin, ‘Psycho’ 1960)

Lila Loomis (Vira Miles, ‘Psycho 2′ 1983)

Mary Loomis (Meg Tilly, ‘Psycho 2′ 1983)

Sam Loomis (Viggo Mortensen, ‘Psycho’ 1998)

Dr Sam Loomis (Donald Pleasence, ‘Halloween’ 1978, ‘Halloween 2′ 1981, ‘Halloween 4′ 1988, ‘Halloween 5′ 1989, ‘Halloween The Curse of Michael Myers’ 1995)

Dr Sam Loomis (Malcome McDowell, ‘Halloween’ 2007, ‘Halloween 2′ 2009)

Billy Loomis (Skreet Ulrich, ‘Scream’ 1996)

Mrs Loomis (Laurie Metcalf, ‘Scream 2′ 1997)

Exit 13 Production News

Deadly Movies Indie Scene | Exit 13

Exit 13

Last time Deadly Movies spoke to Indie Filmmaker Andretti Dante he was in the midst of ‘Book of 1,000 Deaths‘ now he’s gearing up for his latest venture, road-trip horror ‘Exit 13‘. Hit ‘more’ for a full plot synopsis, as well as ways in which you can support the production and the perks available for investors.


In this chilling, psychological horror, five friends embark on a road trip but something goes terribly wrong, setting off a series of terrifying events that forces them to Exit 13, an exit that’s hauntingly familiar. Soon after, an unforeseen event occurs trapping the group inside an abandoned cabin. But this isn’t just any cabin, and it seems the dark and evil past has been re-opened.

With the recent passing of his mother and desertion of his father, Adam Payson is drifting into a dark and dangerous place, isolating himself from the one who loves him most, his girlfriend Madison. Unable to get through to him, she turns to Adam’s best friend Brandon for help.

Jealousy and rage begin to spread like a deadly virus as tensions run high, and through many twists and turns, secrets unravel and relationships are pushed to their breaking point. As a result, Madison experiences a disturbing encounter but when she awakes, the real nightmare has only begun; A member of the group is suddenly missing and in a race to find them and escape the demonic evil that is tormenting its new occupants, a shocking and deadly secret is discovered, one that could make this exit their last…

If you would like to support ‘Exit 13‘ please visit the project page over at KickStart

Movies You’ve Probably never Heard Of #14

‘The Wild Women of Wongo’ (1958)

Romance, Adventure..., Sexism!

Yay for exploitation cinema. Without it I wouldn’t have much to write about, and more importantly, the world of cinema would be deprived of the likes of ‘The Wild Women of Wongo‘. Sexist, and even some racist, stereotypes are the dish of the day in this piece of uber hilariousness from ‘director’ James L. Wolcott. Ok here’s the rub: The ‘wild women’ of the tropical island of Wongo are actually hot 50s type starlets mincing about the place in swimsuits (little effort here in tribal costume) with only savage beast-men for company. Meanwhile, as luck would have it, on a neighboring island are a tribe of equally sexy, and even more mincing, men, who coincidentally, live with a bunch of beast-like women. See where this is going? Anyway, after much dancing, sexy liaisons, lady-kung-fu, and stock footage crocodiles, the good looking tribes hook up, leaving the butt-ugly lot to have the kind of sex seen only by the most intrepid sexual fetishist. So the message of the movie is that good looking people are superior beings. Thank god we have moved on from 1958. Amen to that brother. Oooooh Yeah.

Deadly Movies Top 10 Cult Heros

Deadly Movies on Jameson Cult Film | Top 10 Cult Heros, Part One, 10 – 6


Check out Deadly Movies guest blog over at Jameson Cult Film Club, counting down the Top 10 Cult Movie Heros Part 1, 10 through 6. Exclusive to JCFC. Click here or on the image below to be forwarded to JCFC.

JCFC

Do You Remember When..,

.., Crappy Aligator Man wrestles an actual Alligator in ‘The Alligator People’ (1959)?

Man fights drugged up gator

‘The Alligator People‘ is a pretty solid 50′s sci-fi, creature flick. Ok there’s some pretty racist characterization in places (which you see coming from a 1959 film that has the tag-line “Terror In The Bayou”) and some very unexpected woman slapping and near rape. These moments of exploitation cinema sit rather uneasily In a film which, otherwise, is a fairly standard example of 50s B-movie sci-fi. So as you can imagine there are many-a-memorable moment to be found in ‘The Alligator People‘. But one moment sticks out in particular. After the titular Alligator-person goes from guy with bad skin condition (actually very good makeup effects) to full on man-gator (not so good), he takes off into the darkness of the bayou in his flimsy alligator rubber mask. Apparently man-gator is so pissed off by his ludicrous costume that he takes his frustration out on a real alligator (which is either dead or drugged). Cue fabulous scene of stuntman in crap rubber outfit wrestling catatonic reptile.

Horror’s Top 5 Cheap Scare Tactics

Deadly Movies | Top 5′s
Horror movies are not just known for their cliches and conventions but celebrated for them. They are in equal measure a hinderance to creativity and a device to meet audience expectation an enjoyment. Anyone who’s seen Scream (1996) knows all too well the plot and narrative devices used by filmmakers to facilitate such devices. One of the signle biggest cliches of the genre can be found in the camera tricks used to extract a cheap, or fake-out, scare from the audience. A scare that is either fake or a scare that isn’t caused by the true evil of the film. The filmmakers use these to highten nerves and expectations for the next scare, and to take you out of your comfort zone. Great fun, and great devices as they are, Hollywood has become rather lazy and uses the same old scare tactics over-and-over again. Here’s some of Deadly Movies favorite cliched scare tactics:

5: Sudden out-of-frame Vehicle:

Culprit: Final Destination's great bus kill prompted many a carbon-copy

Exterior Daytime, busy street sidewalk.
Paul, who earlier that day thought he was beeing followed, has met up with ethnic friend Lamar to have a coffee and laugh about how paranoid he was being. The two finish their no-fat lattes and bro-hug before Paul heads off to the library.
Paul: “Thanks for the chat man”
Lamar: “No problem dude. Just remember, there’s no such thing as an ancient Irish family curse”
Paul: “I know. Hey, wanna catch the game later (no specific game, just a game)?”
Paul says this while backing aimlessly out into the street when…, BANG enter bus/ambulance/truck from out-of-screen traveling at speeds way too fast for a busy city street because, more than likely, this isn’t even a composite shot it’s simple a lazy-ass CG bus that looks like shit if you watch in slow motion.
4: Sudden (often) Nonsensical Character Appearance:

Culprit, Scream: Silly Gale, it's not Ghostface it's just Dewey

Interior Night, suburban house
A young, sexy, vulnerable, frightened female is alone in spooky house. She hears a noise, someone or something is outside. She goes to the window to investigate. Did she see something move, or was it just the wind in the trees? She backs away from the window into the middle of the room, the camera tracks her movement, keeping her tight in frame. Suddenly she backs-up into someone, quickly turning around in terror and…., It’s good old Mark from next door who just popped over to bring that unimportant thing back which he borrowed last week before the movie started. You now know that Mark is either the killer when the reveal comes or that you just got punked by a lame fake scare tactic.
3: Figure in the Doorway in the Background:

Culprit, Halloween H20: Michael spends a lot of time walking past windows and doorways. He's behind you Cool J

Interior Night, living room.
The light switch isn’t working. Suzzy isn’t worried, there’s been a lot of roaming blackouts recently. Suzzy heads to the kitchen to get some candles (show sharp kitchen tool for finale exposition). As Suzzy potters around in the foreground, in the semi-darkness, looking for the candles. A dark figure walks past the kitchen door in the background (pull focus just too late). Someone is in the house. Their silhouette is incredibly well lit considering the lights are out, probably the moonlight somehow. Suzzy doesn’t know it yet, but in about 5 minutes she is about to be in a knife fight with some dude who’s three times bigger than she is.
2: Bathroom Cabinet Mirror Reveal:

Culprit, RZ's Halloween: Michael in the Mirror

Interior, dorm bathroom
Michelle is cleaning her brilliantly white teeth. Wearing hot-pants and a guy’s shirt, unbuttoned (no nipples showing though), Michelle always brushes her teeth wearing stilettos for some reason. Looking into the bathroom cabinet mirror as she brushes, Michelle is safe in the knowledge that she is all alone in the room reflected behind her. Time to floss! Better open the cabinet to get the floss. Michelle opens and closes the cabinet. Still that same old empty room in the reflection. Campus security is doing a great job. Flossing done, time to put the floss back in the cabinet. Oh No! This time when she closes the cabinet a really pissed off man has appeared in the reflection behind her, I don’t think it’s Michelle’s new Drama tutor. Michelle gets brutally macheted to death. He remains take a month to identify.
1: It’s Only a Fucking Cat!

I blame Jonsey from 'Alien' for all It's A Cat fake-outs

Interior, some kind of warehouse or industrial building.
Security Guards Brian and Trent investigate the messy warehouse with torches, someone has reported seeing an intruder in the area. The torch batteries are running out. Trent knew he should have bought Duracell. Brain (the elder securiy guard) tells Trent (new on the job, first shift tonight) how he hates investigating this particular warehouse, seems it has a dark past. Suddenly there’s a noise, Brian and Trent draw their guns. Slowly they move over towards the source of the sound when suddely something jumps out at Trent knocking him to the ground, what could it be? Leatherface? Brundel Fly? Aliens? Jason Fucking Voorhees? …, No, because writers are so lazy that in fact, IT’S A CAT, it’s always the bloody cat. Needless to say both Trent and Brian die in about 85 seconds anyway when the real, whatever it is, turns up.

Cool SAW Infographic

Deadly Movies | News


Check out this new Hi-Res info-graph which Deadly Movies received this week. It’s pretty cool and was put together to celebrate the UK DVD release of SAW The Final Chapter. If you’re a Jigsaw fan then knock yourself out with info on deaths, traps, boxoffice, and other such statacular stats. Click the thumbnail left to view full size.
Note: I still think SAW 3D (aka Final Chapter, aka SAW VII) was a big letdown. “All my work has been leading to this” says Jigsaw in the trailer. TO WHAT?!

Thanks to the guys at Way to Blue for sending this over. They’ve mocked up a little fairwell memorial video to the franchise which you can see here That’s some good funeral work boys.