TedStixon

2nd Jun 2022

Highlander (1986)

Question: In the director's cut (which seems to be the most widely available version these days), what's the deal with all the backflips in the opening fight? The editing is very awkward. Fasil goes from running, to doing backflips, then back to running, then back to doing backflips several times, seemingly between shots, during a short section of the fight. Is it just bad editing? Or is the movie trying to suggest that it's a different person doing the flips? Or... what? It's so confusingly edited.

TedStixon

Answer: The Director, Russell Mulcahy, started his career making music videos. He was known for using fast cuts and tracking shots.

Answer: I always felt the idea was given he was trying to move very rapidly whilst also being silent. In a garage with those shoes on your footsteps are very loud. Perhaps he was trying to confuse MacLeod as to where he was.

lionhead

I'm not asking why he's doing backflips. I'm asking why the editing is so confusing, since he goes from doing backflips, to running somewhere completely else, then back to backflips at the first location between edits. (Look up the clip "The Highlander (1986) 1080p : Underground parking Fight Scene. Epic!" on YouTube and pay attention around 4:20.) He also loses his sword whenever we see him doing backflips, even though he's carrying it when he's running. The editing makes absolutely no sense.

TedStixon

I know the scene. As I said, it's supposed to look like Fasil is confusing MacLeod by moving around a lot. Him losing his sword as he does it is already a corrected entry.

lionhead

Ah, got ya. Sorry, misunderstood what you mean. It just seemed very awkwardly edited to me.

TedStixon

Trivia: The film features some well-known public figures and performers in strange cameos or small early roles. For example, model Fabio, basketball player/coach Patrick Ewing and future megastar Samuel L. Jackson all appear in the trippy dream sequence. (Albeit Jackson's voice is dubbed.) And legendary television/radio host Larry King is also briefly shown eating lunch during the diner scene early in the film. (The camera briefly lingers on him for about two seconds during the establishing shots).

TedStixon

Trivia: Much of the ending was restructured and reshot to make the climax more action packed. In fact, the entire exorcism scene and the character Father Morning was added in lengthy and rather expensive reshoots. In the original ending, Kinderman simply shoots Patient X/Father Karras/The Gemini Killer to stop the madness, then leaves the room. The studio felt the ending was a little too short and anti-climactic, and had William Peter Blatty write a new climax to end the film with a bang.

TedStixon

Trivia: The weird, jittery parasites that are on the bottom of the shuttle to Fhloston Paradise are actually an incredibly simple effect. They're Bumble Balls, an early 90's pre-school toy that shake, jitter and roll around with an inner motor. They were simply dressed up with fleshy rubber "prosthetics" to make them look like parasites. There's also a rumor that pieces of "Boglins," an 80's line of grotesque toy puppets, were used to dress up some of the "parasites" as well.

TedStixon

2nd Jun 2022

Cult of Chucky (2017)

Trivia: At one point, there was reportedly going to be a scene that explained Andy was well-off financially and had some minor wealth due to receiving insurance money and large pay-outs because of all the murders he witnessed and trauma he went through as a child. It was eventually decided that it simply wasn't necessary for this to be explained.

TedStixon

2nd Jun 2022

Cult of Chucky (2017)

Trivia: The film was leaked, in its entirety, less than two weeks before it debuted on DVD, Blu-ray and Netflix.

TedStixon

2nd Jun 2022

Seed of Chucky (2004)

Trivia: Was originally going to go into production in 1999 shortly after the release of "Bride of Chucky," but was indefinitely halted following the Columbine Shooting. Studios got cold feet about horror movies for a while, and given the script dealt with violence and children, they especially wanted to distance themselves from it. It finally went into production and was released five years later.

TedStixon

2nd Jun 2022

Seed of Chucky (2004)

Trivia: Just a fun detail that you might not pick up the first time... Tiffany calls up the widow of one of her victims to apologize for killing her husband. She refers to her as "Mrs. Bailey." If you pay close attention in "Bride of Chucky," it's briefly alluded that the cop in the opening scene (that Tiffany kills) is named "Bailey." (It's on his Zippo lighter.) So it's his widow that Tiffany calls in "Seed of Chucky."

TedStixon

2nd Jun 2022

Seed of Chucky (2004)

Trivia: The only "Chucky" movie to contain overt nudity. Both a real woman's and a plastic doll's (graphically detailed) breasts are seen.

TedStixon

Show generally

Question: Are the official canonical comic book sequels (Buffy season 8, 9, etc./Angel: After the Fall, etc.) available for purchase digitally anywhere? I checked Amazon and didn't see them. Unfortunately, the trade paperbacks and collections are prohibitively expensive, since some of them seem to be out-of-print.

TedStixon

31st May 2022

The Exorcist III (1990)

Trivia: Brad Dourif has stated that part of the reason Karras' physical form morphs into the Gemini Killer whenever the killer "takes over" his body was because actor Jason Miller (who plays Karras) was struggling with severe alcohol addiction, and it had begun to affect his memory, making it difficult for him to memorize the Gemini Killer's long diatribes. They kept Miller's scenes short and with minimal dialogue, while Dourif (playing the killer) handled all of the lengthy speeches and monologues.

TedStixon

31st May 2022

The Exorcist III (1990)

Trivia: Director William Peter Blatty (who also wrote the original film and the novel it was based on) absolutely hated the much-reviled second film, "Exorcist II: The Heretic." Thus he went out of his way to make sure this film contained no references to it at all, and didn't consider it canonical to this film. (Similar to how "Highlander 3" ignores the second film or how "Halloween H20" ignores the events of "Halloween" 4-6).

TedStixon

31st May 2022

The Exorcist III (1990)

Trivia: Director William Peter Blatty's original cut of the film was believed to be lost, as the studio could not locate the footage. However, an old videotape containing much of the lost footage was found in 2016, and Blatty was able to splice the VHS-quality footage into the movie to assemble an impromptu "director's cut" shortly before his death. The "director's cut" was finally released on Blu-Ray through boutique company Shout Factory in late 2016.

TedStixon

31st May 2022

The Exorcist III (1990)

Trivia: At one point, the Gemini Killer says the line "it's child's play," and the film cuts to a little red-haired kid. This is a cute little in-joke, as the Gemini Killer is played by Brad Dourif, who voices the killer-doll Chucky (a doll with red hair) in the "Child's Play" horror movie series.

TedStixon

31st May 2022

The Exorcist III (1990)

Trivia: Director William Peter Blatty wanted to title the film "Legion" after his novel the script was based on, while the studio (understandably) wanted to call it "The Exorcist III" for brand-recognition reasons. Blatty absolutely hated "Exorcist II: The Heretic" and felt that the title "The Exorcist III" would suggest this movie followed that one, so he countered by suggesting they title the film "The Exorcist 1990." The studio eventually won out and went with "The Exorcist III."

TedStixon

Trivia: There is a persistent rumor that Daniel Craig was going to have a cameo as a member of the Illuminati. Craig allegedly would have played Balder the Brave, a sibling of Thor. While it has not been 100% confirmed, reports suggest Craig was cast in the role, but ultimately dropped out due to a sudden rise in COVID cases during the film's production. (He didn't want to risk travelling and getting his family sick.) Thus, the character was simply written out and replaced with another Marvel hero.

TedStixon

24th May 2022

Halloween (2018)

Trivia: Officer Richards (the cop who talks about banh mi bread) is played by Charlie Benton, an actual police officer who specializes in homicide investigations. He was hired as a consultant on the film, but was so charming and likeable behind the scenes, they decided to give him a small role as the ill-fated cop. His partner Officer Francis is played by Christopher Allen Nelson, an award-winning effects and makeup artist (and occasional actor) who did some uncredited makeup work on the film.

TedStixon

24th May 2022

Halloween Kills (2021)

Trivia: The film was released in theaters and on the streaming platform Peacock simultaneously. This is because producer Jason Blum's previous 2020 film "Freaky" underperformed at the box office due to extreme COVID-19 restrictions. Blum felt that releasing it both in theaters and on Peacock would allow fans who couldn't go to the theater the chance to see it. The decision was met with some backlash from the industry. Thankfully, the film still performed well in theaters, grossing over $100 million.

TedStixon

24th May 2022

WandaVision (2021)

Trivia: The budget for the show reached as high as $25 million per episode, making this the most expensive television show of all time at the time of airing. Subsequent MCU shows have had roughly the same budget-level per episode.

TedStixon

Trivia: The final major theatrical film to feature Bruce Willis before his retirement from acting in 2022 due to Frontotemporal dementia. (While he starred in several films after, they were primarily direct-to-video and streaming films with very limited theatrical releases).

TedStixon

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