The Thing That Crawls Down Your Throat

[The Folks @ TanneryWhistle.com]

One of my favorite low-budget horror films of all time is "The Unseen." It starts with a totally non-horror scene, a bank robbert filmed through a security camera in the bank. The guy that robs the bank is wonderful. He blows away the moniter along with a few people and drives away in a souped-up car playing some deafening heavy metal music on the tape deck. The guy is possessed by an alien, of course, but this is an alien that likes fast cars, heavy-metal music and steak dinners. Each time his "host" is gunned down, he simply crawls from the dying guy's mouth into the mouth of a new vidtim, including dogs, hookers, etc. Has anyone seen this thing?
Gary

[The Folks @ TanneryWhistle.com]

Well, what I am getting at here is the fact that an entire subdivision of horror is the films that deal with things that crawl down your throat. How many can you identify? I guess "The Alien" and all of the sequels would qualify. I'm not sure about the pod people movie. Do they crawl down throats? There are at least a dozen that I can't remember by name but that I saw. Does "Dreamcatcher" qualify even though it enters from the other direction? Interestingly enough, King's "anal worm" is called a Ripley in honor of the heroine in "The Alien."

[Ol' John Brown]

Yes, I have seen a movie or two with this idea and they work well.

I have seen the 'Alien' films and they rate among the best that 'conventional Hollywood' has to offer. As for 'The Unseen' it sound familier, but I'm not sure if i have seen the film . . . the following may or may not be from the aforementioned film . . .

Two hoboes are on the roof of a building shareing some shots from a brown paper bagged bottle when 'the thing' inside one of them wants a new host and crawls out of the mouth of one (leaving him dead) into the mouth of the other. I don't remember a whole lot of the rest of the film except that this makes life rough for the police in identifying the person or thing that they are after.

Another film along these lines worth seeing (who knows, it may be the same film I am talking about) is 'Lifeforce.'

One of the nice things about the film (for the 'guys' -- and I suppose some 'girls' to be kind of 'pollitically correct') is that a very attractive actress walks around nude, wet and possesing and/or infecting people. Those infected must infect and/or feed off of others within a certain amount of time or go nuts and explode into dust.

It's not a bad flick, it's pretty interesting the first time you see it, but I can't say that it is a really good film either. It's worth seeing just for fun but just don't expect to be blown away.

As for the anal worm in Dreamcatcher, well, the film was worth seeing in my opinion, but not for those parts. As you mentioned, the animal migration was pretty cool and I also liked the concept of 'The library/warehouse in the one character's mind. Other than that, I found the story okay but too mediocre and predictable. I had the whole thing figured out about 1/4 of the way through . . . not that I am a great film novice or anything but films that I can predict just piss me off -- King or not. If I pay the price for a theatre ticket or a movie rental, I want to be surprized.

I don't remember right off the top of my head how I rated the film earlier, I may have rated it higher than I am about to for the animal migration and the 'mind library' but that is really all it had going for it.

So, upon further reflection, I give the film 2 out of 5 hats.

Anyhow, kind of back to the subject . . .

Does anyone remember a very 'B' type movie in which something-or-another from some planet-or-another takes over the main character's tongue?
Her tongue jumps out of her mouth to kill people to survive and "keeps her happy" in return for being the host . . . i won't get into the details of this part, use your imagination if you dare . . . but it was intended to be scary (I think) but I laughed my hat off while seeing it. It was hilarious though I don't think it was supposed to be.

Oh well, some food for thought or some fodder for the throat . . .
Ol'JB

[The Folks @ TanneryWhistle.com]

Well, first off, I don't think it is fair to attribute the shortcomings of the film, "Dreamcatcher" to Stephen King. The movie bears very little resemblance to the book. King said long ago that the best thing that could possible happen when Hollywood bought one of his books is if they paid him but didn't make the film. The "mind library" reminded me of Ray Bradbury's Farenheit 451 in which all of the books have been destroyed, but in a remote and secret place, hundreds of people have created a libary of sorts. When they are introduced, they don't have conventional names but go by titles like, "Act I, Hamlet" or " ChapterTen of "Grapes of Wrath." They have memorized the books. I read King's "Dreamcatcher," and while it wasn't vintage King, it worked for me. It was filled with black humor. I remember a terrifying scene in which the military executed several hundred "infected" tourists and identified the bodies by placing video rental cards or credit cards around the necks of the dead...like dog tags. Also, the "evil alien" was pretty scary in the book. In the movie, he was ridiculous....especially when he "switched" from the cockney (evil) to standard English (good).

Movies like "the Unseen" also have marvelous dark humor which is missing from most of the "splatter" fillms. I loved the idea of an alien entity that loved rock and roll, steak dinners and fast cars. "The Unseen" also had a "good alien (Kyle McLauchian) who had come to Earth in pursuit of the evil alien. Unfortunately, Kyle also liked fast cars, steak dinners and rock and roll. The evil slug crawls down a lot of throats, including a young salesman, a hooker and a dog.

I just watched "Dog Soldiers" and I'm ashamed of myself.
Gary

[Ol' John Brown]

I'll have to agree with you there!

Most film versions of King's books and stories are very different. 'The Lawnmower Man' bears hardly any thing in common with the story other than the title.

The Shining upset King quite a bit. He wasn't happy with Kubrick . . . I loved the film to be fair about it but the TV mini-series (also pretty darn good) was much closer to what King had in mind.

Back to things that crawl down your throat (or otherwise invade your being) -- Have you seen John Carpenter's 'Prince of Darkness' (1987)?

Now here's a chilling flick! Not too much gore, just enough to make you cringe when needed. Both the throat and the eyes are invaded in this one. Lots of other bizzare stuff going on in the film too.

Alice Cooper makes a visit or two as well . . . he didn't seem to need any makeup to be frighening . . .

Dog Soldiers huh? I saw it too . . . I'm ashamed of myself as well.

Ol' JB