Totally Killer

If you’re looking for a serious horror movie, you’re in the wrong place. Totally Killer is a Halloween meets Back to the Future slasher comedy starring Kiernan Shipka (Jamie), who travels back to the 80’s in a home-made time travel machine, determined to stop the “Sweet Sixteen Killer” before his first kill.

While watching the movie, you see the big difference between generations. It’s funny to see a Gen Z’s reaction when catapulted to the 80’s. Even though, I think it must be more funny in real than in the movie. Most of the new generation would be completely lost in pre smartphone times. If we wanted to do any research in the 80’s and 90’s, we had to go to the library. If we needed to call some one, it was a fixed phone or bust. We didn’t spend all of our time with our nose in a screen, we were hanging out with friends in stead. Life and technology have changed drastically since the 80’s, but I’m not going to start a rant about that cause I’ll end up writing a book.

For those who have lived the 80’s, don’t expect a historically accurate movie. It’s a mindless slasher comedy full of anachronisms:

  • Several Game Boy games can be seen when Jamie enters the van of Lurch. The movie takes place in October 1987 but the Game Boy was released in July 1989.
  • Billy’s amusement park has a drop tower ride in several scenes. The first drop tower ride was commissioned in 1996, nearly ten years after the movie is set.

The costume designer, Patricia J. Henderson, was spot-on. I wonder how much time she’s spent in thrift shops, unless she made everything herself (which I doubt). Either way, she did her homework!

TLDR; Totally Killer is a fun movie for a Saturday horror night. As long as you don’t expect an award winning masterpiece, you’ll have a good time.

Trick or Treat 1986

Our annual Halloween tradition is to decorate the apartment with Jack-o’-lanterns, eat pumpkin oven pasta and watch horror movies. This years’ movie line-up was supposed to be Insidious: The Red Door and The Pope’s Exorcist. We changed this last minute to watch the heavily advertised Trick or Treat 1986 on Bloody Disgusting.

A bullied teenage boy is devastated after the death of his heavy metal idol, Sammi Curr. But as Halloween night approaches, he discovers that he may be the only one who can stop Sammi from making a Satanic comeback from beyond the grave. – IMDb

If you like the 80’s, heavy metal, old cassettes,… this movie is an absolute gem. I can’t believe – with all the horror I’ve watched and music I’ve listened to – I’ve never heard about it before.

Both Gene Simmons and Ozzy Osbourne appear in the movie. Simmons was offered the role of Sammi Curr, but he opted the cameo role of Eddie’s friend, rock DJ Nuke, instead. He claimed that he did this as a tribute to famous rock DJ Wolfman Jack, his childhood idol. Osbourne, however, has two scenes as a conservative preacher denouncing rock/metal. It made me laugh that of all people, Ozzy was the one doing these scenes. The irony!

I have to admit that if Sammi Curr (portrayed by Tony Fields) would have been real, I would have been a great fan. The song Trick or Treat by Fastway is a hit, I’ve instantly added it to my playlist. It’s weird to discover “new” things of the 80’s in 2023 while I grew up in that era. Too bad Fastway didn’t release more albums than the OST for Trick or Treat, I would have loved their music.

Such a great discovery! Thanks to Sardoken for checking Bloody Disgusting while I was preparing the pasta. A perfect Halloween themed movie for all the metal heads out there!

Marvel’s Guardians Of The Galaxy

We’ve played many games last year and Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy was, hands down, our favourite.

Let me get this out of the way: we loved everything about the game except the combat, which we ended up tolerating. Everything else was over the top and made our first week of Christmas holidays unforgettable.

The game transitions between the youth of Peter Quill and his life aboard the Milano. The best thing to do in his past life is to visit his old bedroom which is, by far (and I can’t stress this enough), the most amazing place ever! I wish that I could visit it with my VR set. (Ian Livingstone’s Fighting Fantasy & Samantha Fox, is Peter my hidden brother?)

In his present life, Starlord is surrounded by the best crew in the universe. They’re constantly talking to each other in the background, sometimes joking, philosophising and often arguing, making you feel much less alone than you’d usually feel in a solo game.

I’ll be honest, I wasn’t too hot playing a Marvel game. I’m not really a superhero fan and I hate The Avengers. I think that Marvel’s universe is to cinema what Mc Donald’s is to food: junk for a braindead generation that can only open its mouth to be fed explosions and battles that last so long that they make you sleep.

However, we had planned to begin December with this game, so we forgot our prejudices and we launched ourselves into the Galaxy that’s supposed to be saved by a bunch of misfits accompanied by an Alpaca (yep, you read well).

I could write about the plot, the characters and the beautiful landscapes for many pages but, let’s face it, no one would care and, anyway, it wouldn’t translate the most important thing in this game: the ambiance. The huge 80s vibe, the many props, the sense of humour, the retro sci-fi landscapes, everything contributes to creating an amazing ambiance that you can only experience in the game. So, quit reading this tedious post and go rescue the Galaxy, you won’t regret it!

Added bonus: As you can see above, there’s an in-game photo feature that allows you to customize your screenshots and it’s freaking awesome! I can tell you that I’ve made enough wallpapers for a few years.

We’re Ready!

One of our greatest pleasures at the end of the year is to build LEGO houses for our Christmas town while watching corny movies. This year, we’ve built Santa’s Visit and it was super fun! It’s the third house from the left on the panoramic. My only regret is that I didn’t take any picture inside the house because it’s really cool and very detailed.

We’ve watched Home Sweet Home Alone and it was much better than what people say, I actually had a few good laughs. Then we watched The Holiday, I had no idea that there was a Christmas movie with Jack Black seducing Kate Winslet, but it was pretty entertaining.

Our Xmas tree is up. We’ve used coloured lights this year and I don’t think that we’ll ever go back to white lights. For us, Christmas isn’t about classic interiors or design decorations, it’s about colours, toys and 80s movies. We both grew up between the 80s and the 90s and our childhood nostalgia has probably something to do with our vision of Christmas. That’s why December will always be a month spent at home, in pyjamas, playing cool games, watching a ton of things on TV and being all dreamy around our Xmas tree.

We didn’t wait for Black Friday, we did all our purchases at the beginning of November, to avoid being victim of the worldwide electronic shortage. I won’t reveal what’s under our tree yet, I’m not even supposed to know. However, we already treated ourselves with some early Xmas presents: 2 new Nintendo Switch Oled and 2 XBOX Elite Wireless Controller Series 2 for our PCs. For the rest, we’ll have to wait the 25th.

December is about to begin… Our PCs are filled with new games, there’s a ton of movies and TV shows to watch on streaming, we even have a lot of books and comic books to read. We’re ready for the greatest time of the year!

I won’t be posting much in the coming weeks, but I’ll make sure to catch back in January. Until then, we wish you all (the only 3 people who visit our blog and the Chinese spam bots), an excellent end of 2021.

Night Stalker

We enjoy watching documentaries on Sunday at lunch. And we’ve been spoiled during the last 4 weeks with an awesome reportage about the killer who terrorised the residents of Los Angeles and San Francisco from June 1984 until August 1985.

Through the recounting of the two detectives who were assigned to the case, we get to relive chronologically the murder spree until the arrest of the serial killer.

Richard Ramirez invaded homes, murdered men, women and kids. He also raped women and kids of all age. He pretended doing so under the influence of Satan but, in the end, he was just a kid who grew surrounded by the wrong folks.

He was brainwashed by his cousin who shown him pictures of the atrocities he committed during his tours in Vietnam. Bad influence and drugs are what pushed Ramirez to cross the line. However, he was supported by a group of people who were attracted to him for his dark, satanic aura. In the end, I don’t knows who’s the most pathetic, the killer who said “The Devil made me do it” or the people following him because, you know, Satan and stuff…

Timeline

I don’t usually advertise Youtube channels. Actually, I really wish that there would be a serious alternative to Google’s video hosting service, since getting rid of Google was one of the best moves I’ve ever done. However, there are some really interesting channels out there.

If, like us, you’re a huge 80s fan, you should really watch Weird History‘s Timeline. They’ve released 10 episodes, one for each year, about the best decade mankind has ever known and they’ve already announced the future release of a Timeline dedicated to the 90s.

Even if it doesn’t pack absolutely all that I love about the 80s, it does an excellent job at bringing back great memories, I even learned a few things. I just would have wished for a bit more pop culture and less American sports.