At the Flicks At the Flicks

Welcome to the latest At The Flicks review show.

We are honoured this month to be joined by a special guest. The real life Neil has managed to turn up. That said, judging by our postbag it appears a lot of you were fooled by the excellent impression a fellow cast member provided, and many have asked if this could be a permanent replacement. Neil, nonplussed by all this attention, has said that he may want the impersonator to stand in for him when he is required to play in golf competitions. So it sounds like Neil will never miss another show.

We do start proceedings on this show on a sombre note as we reflect on the life and career of Sir Sean Connery. Each member of the review panel has their say on what the actor meant to them and what were some of their favourite Connery movies.

This was a rare moment of unity for the team. Oddly, there was another one later in the episode as everyone was in agreement regarding what the film of the month was. We won’t say what that is here, you will have to check the show out to identify the movie that created a rare moment of accord amongst the panel.

Don’t worry, unity doesn’t last long with this bunch. There had to be one film which caused an argument and this month that film was The Lie, one of the Blumhouse films now on Amazon Prime. A dark tale of a family in crisis, which was a remake of a German feature from a few years ago. Some thought it slow and ponderous, while other, more open minded reviewers, saw that it was at least the equal to the best work of the Coen Brothers.

Also on the review schedule this month was an 80’s vampire movie retrospective – a nod to what the reviewers were watching over Halloween. We have the classics Vamp and Fright Night to discuss. Phil makes the interesting point that they would have been even better if they had swapped casts!

Finally there is the always informative Darren’s Dash. This month in another flashback to Halloween, Darren reviews include Vivarium, Girls With Balls (which greatly interested one member of the team) and the childhood destroying The Banana Splits Movie (complete with sound effects as Graham and Neil decide to have a singalong of the theme song – a moment more horrific than the movie itself).

Our next review show, with the same team of Grumpy Graham, Naughty Neil, Juvenile Jeff, Punchy Phil and Dicey Darren, is our year end special. Given the year cinema has had, this could be a very interesting or a very short show!

See you then. Stay safe and wear a mask.

The best laid plans….

During March 2020, the At The Flicks team met with talented film makers Phil Haine and Tim Willrich (at the time of writing these notes, this was our last face to face interview). They had joined us to talk about their careers and in particular, their next project which was due to film in Gloucestershire during the Summer of 2020.

That project is Harmony, a ghost story built around music. Our intention was to air the interview in July as the film entered production.

We hadn’t factored on how much COVID-19 was going to disrupt everyone’s life.

Sadly, the production had to be moved and we thought it best to hold the interview until we could release it with good news. That good news is here. Pre-production is now well underway on Harmony, with plans to film in the originally planned locations during March and April 2021. On hearing that wonderful update, we thought the time was right to share our chat with Phil and Tim with you.

Apart from revealing a few tantalising bits about Harmony, we also talk about their award winning short films. One of the films we discussed, Stained, is an astonishing piece of work, and we include a link to it at after these notes. Please do not watch if you are eating!!!!

Phil and Tim, two great film makers who you will be hearing a lot about in the years to come. People, like all of us, who can’t wait for the world to change so we can go back to normal movie making and movie watching.

Enjoy the show and if you have any comments please feed them back to us.

Stay safe.

Our Stephen King journey concludes for the time being with this episode. In this show we discuss Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 version of The Shining starring Jack Nicholson and Shelley Duvall,

Joining us for this episode are Rich and Lewis from Cindemic Nerds Podcast. This turns out to be a much more critical look at the movie than was expected.

As you stay in the Overlook (best do it in the Summer and even then stay out of Room 237), you will find out:

- What Jack Nicholson did to get himself in the mad mood required

- Who came up with the idea of Danny talking to his finger

- What the “snow” actually was

- How the changes to Stephen King’s novel impacted on the Dr Sleep movie sequel.

As we said in the previous show notes, we are bringing new people in to give their view on Stephen King over the course of this series.

So, if you have a favourite Stephen King film or TV series and want to join us to talk about it, please drop us a line at jeffattheflicks@gmail.com. We aren’t recording the next batch until January, so please get in touch, we always love to hear from our listeners.

Stay safe and read King.

Our Stephen King journey continues. For this episode we discuss the 1979 TV version of Salem’s Lot, starring David Soul and James Mason.

The genre name that stand out amongst the credits however, is director Tobe Hopper. Yes, the man who directed The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is making TV horror! This was a fact we never told Neil, because if we had he would never have watched it.

Joining us for this episode is Niall from Movies In Focus. Niall certainly knows his Stephen King as his contribution to the episode shows (puts the team of three to shame!).

As you travel through the town of Salem’s Lot (best do it in the day), you will find out:

Why this was the costliest mini series ever made for TV up to that point in time
How writer Paul Monash also links to Carrie (the subject of the previous episode)
What the panel thought was missing from this three hour version
Why Jeff never drinks red wine while watching horror movies

As we said in the previous show notes, we are bringing new people in to give their view on Stephen King over the course of this series.

So, if you have a favourite Stephen King film or TV series and want to join us to talk about it, please drop us a line at jeffattheflicks@gmail.com. We aren’t recording the next batch until January, so please get in touch, we always love to hear from our listeners.

See you tomorrow to talk The Shining.

Before Covid 19 (if you can remember that far back), Lucy and Jeff discussed aspects of Stephen King’s work in general terms.

That resulted in much positive feedback from our listeners. It proved so popular that it lead to the At The Flicks team having a socially distanced planning session to discuss how we could take the idea further. Jeff, always fanciful with his ideas, suggested inviting Stephen King onto the show. An idea so outlandish and expensive, it caused Graham to almost choke on his beer. Ultimately it was Neil who brought it back down to earth, when, after his fifth or sixth pint said “I know, let’s do a series where we devote each episode to a top King movie or TV show”.

Graham and Jeff looked on in amazement and asked Neil to repeat that idea. It was too late by then, as Neil had fallen asleep.

But the idea stayed.

And so, our new series begins. Over the next few days we shall be talking Stephen King movies and TV mini series as our journey begins. To start, we are proud to present Carrie to you. Stephen King’s first novel and coincidentally, the first film based on his work.

To discuss Brian De Palma’s excellent movie, we have put the band back together. Lucy joins Graham, Neil and Jeff. The result - what a show! We go in-depth on the making of the film, the differences to the book, its meaning and the characters. Along the way you will find out:

* Why Pretty In Pink reminded the team of Carrie
* How the casting took place alongside that of Star Wars
* Which part Brian De Palma originally wanted Sissy Spacek to play
* What impact did that shocking ending have when the film first released in cinemas

We think our discussion could almost be a film commentary track!!!

One other idea we had with this series was to mix up the voices you hear on each show. We are bringing new people in to give their view on Stephen King over the course of this series, as you will hear in the next upcoming episodes.

So, if you have a favourite Stephen King film or TV series and want to join us to talk about it, please drop us a line at jeffattheflicks@gmail.com. We aren’t recording the next batch until January, so please get in touch, we always love to hear from our listeners.

See you tomorrow to talk Salem’s Lot.

Horror franchise – You’re joking, not another one!
You’re joking, not another one, is a quote made famous by Brenda from Bristol about another election. Brenda could also be talking about horror film sequels. Sequels that come so often they turn into that word “franchise”.
Are they any good, or are they just a Xerox copy of the original template. To make sense of it all, Lucy, Jeff, Graham and Neil discuss this horror film legacy. OK, so just Lucy and Jeff discuss it while Graham fiddles with the volume control and Neil hides behind that a mysterious crate in a corner of the room.
Lucy and Jeff each bring a favourite to the party and asks “where did it all go wrong”. Lucy has Saw and Jeff has Halloween.
It’s not all negative as we talk about some themes that can actually work when played out over a series. Finally we ask, what horror films could do with a franchise – their scope just far too limited with one movie. The answers to this might surprise you.
If we have missed your favourite horror series off this list, please let us know. As always, it would be great to hear from you.
Take care and stay safe – at least until the next Halloween show.