Black Gate

I had to go check to discover the last time I mentioned Mr. Goth Chick here in my weekly posts was back in 2012. It isn’t that I avoid mentioning him. Instead, it has everything to do with the adage that “opposites attract” and somehow, I ended up with someone who has little to no interest in anything scary. For the entirety of spooky season Mr. Goth Chick has always been conveniently busy during any of my typical celebratory events. Though he has indulged my desire to visit cemeteries while on vacation, and has accompanied me on the occasional ghost hunt, he is more than happy to send me off with Black Gate Photog Chris Z, along with his, Mr. GC’s, heartfelt thanks.

Between us, I can tell you Mr. GC absolutely hates a jump scare, leading my mother to speculate that it was nothing short of black magic which brought us together.

But even though he loves hot temperatures and direct sunlight, Mr. GC still understands that “my time of year” must be celebrated – mostly with nights out and presents – and this year he outdid himself.

This week Universal Pictures Home Entertainment sent out a press release announcing Alfred Hitchcock: The Iconic Film Collection, which will collect six of Hitchcock’s classics on 4K Ultra HD + Digital: Rear Window, To Catch a Thief, Vertigo, North By Northwest, Psycho, and The Birds. And though this collection isn’t releasing until November 26th, it’s available now for preorder on Amazon, which is precisely what Mr. GC did especially for me.

*Sigh*
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This last weekend Black Gate Photog Chris Z, Mrs. Black Gate Photog and I spent an evening doing my favorite Spooky Season activity – visiting a new haunted attraction.

During our pregame dinner we regaled Mrs. BGP with stories of our thrilling BG adventures like driving five hours in a blizzard to cover the Haunted Attractions Association show, doing Fireball shots from the trunk of the car before covering Cedar Point Amusement Park’s Halloweekend, and being freaked out by meeting a low-talking Norman Bates-y guy who made lamps out of old doll heads.

It was no wonder the people at the next table with the kids asked to be moved.

One of the topics was all the truly disturbing B-movie horror films we’ve come across, specifically the ones Chris Z. tried to coerce me into writing about. All the BG staff have heard the lecture from Big Cheese John O. about how we’re family-friendly and no, you can’t cover something called Zombeavers, and what the heck were you thinking trying to post about Zombie Strippers, etc., etc.

Actually, I’m probably the only one who has heard that lecture.

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Breakfast view, pre tour, and the St. Denis hospital set

I have been absent for the past few weeks while I chased one of my bucket list items. As nearly a life-long fan of the horror genre, a pilgrimage to Universal Studios Hollywood has long been an ambition – to go to the place that literally gave birth to the genre. So as part of a west coast tour, I finally had the opportunity to immerse myself in the wonders of a VIP day at Universal.

First, let me say there is nothing like being a VIP at Universal. Our day started with breakfast in a private, second-floor dining room near the entrance, which provided an amazing view of what was to come. There we met Andrew P., our personal guide for the day. As one would expect, Andrew was a literal encyclopedia of studio history and explained our 8-hour day (including a gourmet lunch stop) would be a combination of “behinds the scenes” tours as well as dips into the theme park side so we could experience the list of rides we gave Andrew in advance.

The great part about that was Andrew would be escorting us “backstage” of the rides to the front of each line, but even more importantly, would allow us to linger in these areas which were air conditioned. This was important because I chose to visit Universal during an unprecedented heat wave, so the day we were there it was 114, and as you could probably guess, I don’t do well in heat and direct sunlight.

We did a lot of lingering in the backstage area of the amusement park side of Universal, but I want to tell you about what I learned and saw on the working studio side.
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With both being released to streaming, I finally got around to seeing two horror films I told you about when their trailers were first released. Abigail hit theaters in April, while the indie film The Beast Within starring Kit Harington (Game of Thrones) made it to the big screen in July.

So, what was the final verdict?

Yes, for one, and a great big no for the other – and you may be surprised which was which.

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Alien: Romulus (20th Century Studios, August 16, 2024)

To begin, I’d like to review two important facts. First, with the 2019 acquisition of Fox, Disney became the owners of the long-running Alien sci-fi franchise. Second, in 2012 Ridley Scott, who created the original masterpiece that was Alien (1979), decided to leap back in after five other directors had a go at some portion of the story. This effectively scuttled the planned Alien movie we all deserved, which would have been a sequel to Aliens (1986) directed by Neill Blomkamp and would have ignored the movies which followed Aliens. This story would have reunited Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) and Hicks (Michael Biehn), and probably would have been awesome.

Instead, what we got was Sigourney Weaver permanently bowing out from the franchise, and two prequels from Scott, which were anything but awesome. Though nostalgia and eternal optimism caused die-hard fans to make Prometheus (2012) a technical box office hit ($130M budget against a $403M take), we’d learned our lesson by the time Alien: Covenant came around in 2017. It was considered a disappointment by Hollywood standards, bringing in less than half the ticket sales of its predecessor. Personally, I wished Scott would have kept his hands to himself.

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