It’s Alive Trilogy
Blu-ray
Director: Larry Cohen
Screenwriter: Larry Cohen
Cast: John P. Ryan, Sharon Farrell, Frederic Forrest, Kathleen Lloyd, Michael Moriarty, Karen Black
Distributor: Scream Factory
Rated PG/PG/R | 91/91/95 Minutes
Release Date: May 15, 2018

“There’s only one thing wrong with the Davis baby… IT’S ALIVE!”

A genuine auteur of low-budget horror and science fiction films, writer/director/producer Larry Cohen has made a career out of making audiences exclaim “holy fucking shit” in unison during his movies. Known for blaxploitation films like Black Caesar and Hell Up in Harlem, and horror flicks like Q: The Winged Serpent, The Stuff, and God Told Me To, Cohen is one the last true mavericks of cult cinema.

Cohen’s most beloved contribution to cinema, perhaps, is a series of films about monstrously deformed babies with razor-sharp fangs and claws. It’s Alive (1974), It’s Alive Again (1978), and It’s Alive III: Island of the Alive (1987) are inbred triplets hanging off one particularly fucked up branch of the Creepy Kid Family Treeâ„¢, the same gnarled oak that contains movies like The Bad Seed, Village of the Damned, Rosemary’s Baby, and The Omen. And like those classic films, they’re cautionary tales packed with scathing social commentary… and demon babies.

The Thing With Two Heads
Blu-ray|DVD
Directed by Lee Frost
Starring Ray Milland, Roosevelt Grier, and Don Marshall
Olive Films
Release Date: June 23, 2015

It’s been called one of the worst movies ever made. The late Roger Ebert gave it a resoundingly low one out of four stars in his review and deemed it to be a real snooze of a flick. Make no mistake, ladies and gentlemen, the 1972 American-International Pictures release The Thing with Two Heads has a premise that is absurd even for a cheap, sleazy exploitation feature you might have found on the lower half of a double or triple bill at your neighborhood drive-in back when most of the young men in town were being shipped off to fight and die in Vietnam.

Movies like The Thing with Two Heads aren’t designed to stand the test of time; they’re made with the express purpose of raking in the cash at the ticket counters and providing bored audiences fiending for a blast of cinematic insanity with a quick and affordable fix. Does this one deliver on its carnival funhouse promises, or do those promises go as unfulfilled as the campaign platform of your average Republican politician?

Set 22 years after the events of Jurassic Park, Colin Trevorrow‘s Jurassic World sees the dinosaur theme park fully restored and operational. But even with its success, the park needs to find ways to attract new visitors, and at InGen’s request, the science team created the Indominus Rex, a fearsome hybrid dinosaur that grows beyond InGen’s control. Now, it is up to Owen Grady (Chris Pratt), a raptor whisperer, Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard), the park’s CEO, and the island’s private security force to stop the monstrous creation before she can cause more damage.

In the film, Vincent D’Onofrio plays Vic Hoskins, the leader of Jurassic World’s private security force, who is also trying to utilize the park’s dinosaurs for military purposes. We had the opportunity to talk to D’Onofrio over the phone about the film, his character, and working with director Colin Trevorrow. We also had a chance to reminisce about working with Rick Baker on the set of Men in Black, and were reminded about Marvel’s code of silence.

Check out the full interview below.

Makeup extraordinaire and visual effects legend Rick Baker has announced his retirement. He is known for his work on Star Wars, An American Werewolf In London, Videodrome, Harry and the Hendersons, Coming to America, The Rocketeer, Ed Wood, Batman Forever, The Nutty Professor, The Frighteners, Men In Black, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Planet of the Apes, Tropic Thunder, Tron: Legacy, Maleficent, and many more.

But it is the reason why the makeup artists is retiring that is the most interesting thing. More on the story below.

The Incredible Melting Man
Blu-ray | Amazon Instant Prime Video
Director: William Sachs
Screenwriter: William Sachs
Cast: Alex Rebar, Burr DeBenning, Myron Healey, Rainbeaux Smith, Ann Sweeny
Scream! Factory
Rated R | 84 Minutes
Release Date: July 30, 2013

Written and directed by William Sachs (Galaxina), 1977’s The Incredible Melting Man stars Alex Rebar as astronaut Steve West, sole survivor of a fateful expedition to Saturn.

After he is exposed to an intense blast of radiation in space, West is shown unconscious in a hospital back on Earth, with bandages covering his face. His physician, Dr. Loring (Lisle Wilson), cannot explain what is happening to West or how he survived.

After the doctor leaves, West awakens and is horrified to find the flesh on his face and hands melting away. Hysterical, he attacks a corpulent nurse (Bonnie Inch) – one of the film’s more hilarious, unbelievable sequences in which the overweight nurse runs screaming (in slow motion) straight through a plate glass door. After killing the nurse, the crazed West escapes the hospital in typical “Monster on the Loose!” fashion.