..and the winner is...

Phantom of the Paradise.. and YOU!

Yes.. I'm giving in and giving you all a treat this time - a brief respite from the usual jumping-out-of-your-seat frights that accompany a visit to Madblood Manorette with a thoroughly entertaining and all fun movie to eat your popcorn and drink your Sangre de Locos to. So sit back and relax (for the moment!) and marvel at the spectacle being served up in this razor-sharp (had to get a horrific image in there somehow) satire of the music business: it's an hilariously choreographed dance of music and mayhem as Paul Williams' impresario goes head-to-ummm.. mid-torso (?) with the always inspired William Finley as the sensitive artiste of the singer-songwriter variety.. stolen music, rigged contracts, true love, disfigurement and DEATH are all part of the toe-tappinest terror-show you'll ever see... And, actually - as horrific images go - you can't really discount the sight of Paul Williams rolling around on satin sheets with a bevy of beauties that include none other than the wonderful Cheryl 'Rainbeaux' Smith ! Now that's pretty scary to be sure (as illustrated in the fine lobby card seen above - which some lucky viewer will be taking home as a Mad-Raffle prize)...

You'll get all of this - and more - at tonight's Episode of The Son of Madblood!
(Including - but not limited to - the above lobby card and the below soundtrack.. don't miss the Mad-Raffle!)

And then there's...

THIS:


Which I also believe would make a nice Mad-Raffle prize for one of you lucky kids out there in our viewing audience.. I can almost hear the squeals of delight at the possibility of taking this one home.. It does seem that Phantom of the Paradise is measuring up to be the best fit for our up-coming show.. Yes - UP-COMING as in THIS SUNDAY! A big apology to all who planned and even showed up last Sunday to find the lab quarantined - it was for your own protection, I assure you. And I also assure you that Igor is, in fact, feeling much better.. I'm not sure if it's strictly due to all the drugs I've been pouring into his system or if he's really gotten over whatever bug was bugging him.. although the Raid did seem to help.. And I'm also sorry that news of Bones being "busted" struck so many devoted fans the wrong way - causing a panic and calls offering bail-out funds.. No, Bones was not in the clink - I was speaking of "busted" as in "broken" as in Bones was broken and is now, also - pleasantly on the mend and ready for Sunday's show.. Everyone's rush to support, however, was heart-warming..

This could be one of the best Son of Madblood shows yet, kids - I think the upcoming One-Year-Anniversary has injected a dose of excitement akin to the dosing I've been injecting into Igor (not only is he feeling better - but I think we finally knocked that Syphilis out for good).. We've got a brand-new show-specific pre-show game sure to entertain our live studio audience.. Plus - a special guest will be dropping in that's sure to be a big surprise.. So - we hope to see you at the Manorette this Sunday night.. Until then - don't be afraid to knock on the lab-door and put your two-cents-plus-tax in on which one of these possibilities you'd like us to be showing this Episode (or - if any suggestions for future showings)..

The Doctor will see you now......

Which Finley Do YOU Fancy?

Just a few of the many faces of Finley.. It's getting more and more likely that he'll be our man in one form or another for this next Episode of The Son Of Madblood.. Make your pick:


Family Man Finley - Eaten Alive?


Magic Man Finley - The Funhouse?


Musical Man Finley - Phantom of the Paradise?

For me - any Finley is good Finley.. I'm particularly partial to the highly stressed-out Father (go)figure of Eaten Alive.. And, ok - so Eaten Alive is not really in the running for this next Episode - but someday soon - I'm promising you.. Oh - and then there's that sweetheart Emil from Sisters.. talk about suave...

The Famous Son of Madblood Mad-raffle!

Well, kids - it may just have to be that we show The Funhouse considering that I just found this on the streetcorner. A more perfect Mad-raffle prize I could hardly imagine. I do love novelizations - ever since elementary school thanks to Alan Dean Foster and Alien - and I do love giving them away as prizes. That Dead & Buried one was a real find. I'm still hoping to show the 1978 Invasion of the Body Snatchers so I can raffle off this FOTONOVEL(tm) version of it that I found a while back. Plus - reading is good for you! Almost as good as watching movies. And with a novelization - it's kinda like doing both! (Pssst: Owen West is Dean R. Koontz! Larry Block is... Lawrence Block!)

Countdown.. to FUN!

NEXT EPISODE: SUNDAY SEPT. 28th! 7pm!
What Will We Show?



Hey kids, The Son of Madblood here.. I've been in the trenches and notching my stethoscope with all the movies I've put down in the quest to find the right one for this next Episode. I do feel on the verge of a breakthrough, however - at least I now have a short list of what we're NOT showing (and not because they necessarily are dreck - for the most part - but more because they just don't seem to click with the show's general mood):

NOT SHOWING:

1) Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things

An egomaniacal director, Alan Ormsby (co-writer/make-up/roustabout), forces his motley group of would-be-actors to spend a night on a graveyard island where they dabble in re-animating the dead and having party fun with Orville the corpse. Little do they know - but the dead were listening and are awake... It's kind-of a Weekend at Bernie's/Night of the Living Dead/Evil Dead scenario but, despite that I do have a soft spot for it - it just isn't scary. Some moments of eeriness somehow make it through the tongue-and-cheekiness - a credit to Bob Clark's direction of some of the zombies-coming-out-of-the-ground scenes with a good use of sped up film and mist. I like these scenes - they've got creepy.. and I do like all the weirdo acting-troupe stuff and all the pretty dismal humor - it's all as musty as the dead bodies rising from the graves. There's also a superlative music score by Carl Zittrer that sounds really scary. But, problem is: what lingers in the end isn't a feeling of dread or fright but a relief that you don't have to spend any more time with these annoying characters - even if they do have great clothes. Although it has a great pre-credit opening scare - it unfortunately takes over a half an hour more until anything at all happens besides a bunch of acting and bad jokes. I still would recommend it even though it's the least of Bob Clark's horror films - which include the great Black Christmas (which we DID watch) and Deathdream (which we WILL watch)..

2) Clownhouse

Three brothers must home-alone-it when their house is besieged by three homicidaly bent Clowns - and the youngest brother is phobicly afraid of Clowns! I know it's a favorite of one of our regulars so I tracked it down but it didn't make the cut for me. I don't know why - but I just couldn't get that creeped out by it. I think it took too long for it to get really going and centered so much on the kids that it started to feel childish. Directed by Victor Salva - it does make good use of some of the classic horror tropes that root themselves early in childhood: the quiet house, walking alone on the woods, closed doors and shadows are all exploited well and are frightening moments in themselves - but, again, it just took too long for anything to happen to make it a good movie for the show. It is an interesting movie, however (if you can get past the unsettling aspect that the director did time for molesting the main boy - that also made me not want to show it, to be honest) and has a lot of weird little nuances that keep it interesting. There's an other-worldliness and dreamlike quality where things just don't make sense logically to the point that - maybe there's something else going on here. That these murderous Clowns even show up at their particular home give the whole proceedings an air of some kind of Divine Intervention. And - Clowns are, basically - kinda scary. Maybe at another Episode...

3) A Real Friend

Ok, I admit it - I just watched this one for fun and not for the show - but it is a good companion piece to Clownhouse and fares a bit better in not feeling childish just because it's about a child. Part of a Spanish horror series - Films to Keep You Awake - it packs a whole lot into it's short-ish (73 mins) running time and it manages to be a lot, as well: scary, funny, touching, sad and truly horrifying. A young girl living alone with her Mother doesn't have many real friends but does have plenty of imaginary ones - they just happen to be Horror Movie Monsters! She hangs out with Leatherface! He sits next to her in class! This girl rocks! I wish she were my daughter! Enough with the !'s but it's just so awesome.. Unfortunately - because all of her friends are Monsters she may not realize that one of them is a little more real than the others - and this is when it gets real scary. It's a fascinating story with characters that deepen as it goes and layers and layers of ideas. I'm going to look for an excuse to show this one probably..

4) The Flesh & Blood Show

Just not that good..not really.

5) StageFright


Ok, kids - this is where it starts getting murky because this one is straddling the fence between the list of Not Showing and the list of Maybe Showing. And this is where you - The Son of Madblood Fans - can come in: if you've seen one of these Maybe Showings or want to see one or definitely don't want to see one - let me know; knock on the lab door - if you DARE! Or - if you have another suggestion that fits the 'theme' (do you see it - it's a loose one) I'd like to hear that, too..

MAYBE SHOWING:

1) StageFright (aka Deliria aka Aquarius)

This is one of the best in terms of the theme I'm aiming at - horror with a theatrical or show-type-ish backdrop - and this definitely fits the bill. I don't want to give too much away in case this is the one we watch but: a really cheesy musical/murder play is in rehearsal and there's a killer in the theater! And they've decided to lock all the doors!?! You'll see.. Director Michele Soavi worked as Dario Argento's assistant and did himself some learning - he brings a nicely stylized, witty and at times mind-boggling touch to what could have been a routine slasher picture. It takes a little while for it to kick in, though...

2) The Funhouse

The same people who said NOT to show Black Christmas are anti this one as well and we all saw how WRONG they were about that one; sooo..see down here * , near the bottom, for more about The Funhouse..

3) Phantom of the Paradise

Igor says you can't go wrong with this one and I tend to agree - this is a crowd-pleaser. Two problems: a) has The Son of Madblood crowd already been pleased enough by it? and b) it's not scary. Fun, yes - lots of fun.. but the screams it elicits are screams of joy and laughter - not fright and horror. Two solutions: a) I realize not every audience member has seen this - maybe we should do it for them? and b) I guess not every Episode has to be completely frightening.. but I do like hearing the audience jump and scream.. For those who haven't seen it: it's about a rock club and it's diminutive owner (Paul Williams), stolen music, revenge, murder, love and the mask.. it's Phantom of the Opera meets Faust meets Dorian Grey meets Rocky Horror (before there was one). And it's got "Beef".

4) Vampire Circus

This is a later Hammer horror and, as such, there's more of most everything: blood/horror/frenzy/sex/scares/violence are all upped. This one has a traveling theater troupe making it's way into a quarantined town only to bring a much more unspeakable terror. Carnage ensues.. As does our boy John Moulder-Brown. I'm just about to re-watch this one and I feel it could be just what I've been looking for.

So- stay tuned kids.. and it's a good thing I finished working on that new eye-drop formula - these orbs can use some lube.

Come.. if you DARE!!!!

The Indispensable Son of Madblood Complete Episode Guide

This is where you’ll be able to keep up with what we have been up to here at Madblood Manorette - all the previous Episodes in the order of their original “broadcast”. Here you’ll be able to re-live what the gang and I were doing each Episode as well as read about what movie we screened that night. I, The Son of Madblood, will review each of the films as I’m able - see, until we finally hire a nurse to help out around here in the lab I’m afraid I remain one busy doctor - mostly patching myself up after the seemingly endless amounts of accidents that befall me.. or baffle me.. just how DID my toe get caught in Morty’s rib-cage?. Unfortunately we haven’t been getting the kind of response to the ‘Nurse Wanted’ ad that we had hoped - for some reason it ended up running in the “back pages” of the local free newspaper and I’m afraid that the responses we got have not been all too medically minded. We’ve had our hands full... So the reviews will be updated here as often as I have the chance between operations and experiments. But, more importantly - if any of our friends from the audience would like to share their feelings on a particular film we watched - please feel free to knock on the lab-door and speak up.. If you DARE!!!!!

EPISODE 1: The Son of Madblood Meets The Son of Brain
This was our Premiere Episode - the first night Igor and I opened up Madblood Manorette to our friends to come by and watch a movie with us. It also saw the creation - from an ordinary ‘Brain-in-a-Box’ mail-order-kit - of the extra-ordinary really talking, really living and really cantankerous co-host-of-sorts: Brain. Just who he really is and how he seems to know so much about me, The Son of Madblood, remains a mystery to the day. Somehow he’s always able to change the subject whenever I bring it up...

The Lab-a-liscious movie for our Premiere Episode: The Revenge of Frankenstein

The audience reaction was mixed for this one and there was almost a fight when I suggested (to one of the people who actually really enjoyed it, no less) that it’s take on the personality schism issue was better handled than it was in the then current box-office-hit Eastern Promises. Igor, ever the faithful servant, intervened and no one was hurt.

It was a hard choice - the FIRST movie for the FIRST show - but I wanted something classy, classic, and Cushing. Something that not everyone in the audience would normally watch, perhaps. I felt it was an apt choice for The Son of Madblood’s coming-out as well as an exciting and intelligent film - my favorite of the Hammer Frankensteins with, I think, Peter “Props” Cushing’s most nuanced take on a character whose increasing megalomania he seems to relish portraying. And he kills a priest! Go “Props”! (Peter Cushing got the nickname in reference to the actor’s uncanny ability to just pick up a prop and use it in a scene without it having even been mentioned in the script - a tribute to his spontaneity).
More on The Revenge of Frankenstein to come...

Episode 2: Daydreams and Demons
In this Episode we got a peek into the hopes and dreams of some of the Gang here at Madblood Manorette when we saw the fantasies of Brain, Igor and myself amazingly come to life before the very eyes of our studio audience. The Son of Madblood asks: why can’t we all just get along here?

The Dreamin’-Lover movie for Episode 2: A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors

My favorite Nightmare. Patricia Arquette! Craig Wasson! (an Igor fave) Heather Langenkamp! (my fave) I like the sadness on hand here and the creepiness. These kids are suicidal - the idea of connecting the Freddy nightmares to a rash of teen-suicide gives this one a certain seriousness that is well0balanced with the more jokey aspects of the script. Zsa-Zsa Gabor and Freddy! Funny stuff.. And although this is the film where Freddy starts getting his funny (never my favorite aspect of the Nightmares) - it does keep y0u remembering: this guy was a child-killer. As the spooky tricycle-riding little girl in Kristin’s dreams reminds us - he took little kids down in his basement and killed them. He is to be hated. He is to be feared. And there is quite a bit of scary in this one. As well as being the one where we learn the origin of ‘the bastard child of a hundred maniacs”...
More on A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors to come...

Episode 3: A Very Scary Christmas
Christmas-time at Madblood Manorette and we share the warm feelings with some of our friends.. Minerva (our friendly neighborhood amateur Clairvoyant) and Bones Malone (our friendly neighborhood skeletal ‘Delivery’ guy) stop by with season’s greetings.. even Brain is in a festive mood and dressed as Santa.. But -wait - what did we just hear on the radio? Murderin’ Maguillicutty has escaped? The Santa-Claus-Killer? The Red Christmas Maniac? Brain had better watch out.. Why he didn’t just take off that Santa costume is beyond me... (Because - then THEY’VE won, Madbreath! -Brain)

The ‘Tis-The-Seasoning movie for Episode 3: Black Christmas (1974)

Despite the protests of Igor and some of our Manorette friends that it is “dull” - I said “No way - I love it - it’s scary as all get out” and showed it regardless.. The audience was screaming like never before and I was told by a few that this one gave them nightmares. A resounding success, I’d say - and one of my favorite Episodes because of it. People were jumping out of their seats! Some have never come back for another show BECAUSE of this one.. So - sit on THAT, Igor! I have to admit - I for a long time did not think too much of Black Christmas. It wasn’t until I got the chance to see it in a theater (by myself - not smart!) as an ‘adult’ that it truly chilled me and had me squirming.
More on Black Christmas to come...

Episode 4: Lust In Space
Madblood and the Gang somehow find themselves and the Manorette drifting in Space.. Igor is green? Madblood has antennae? Brain floats in the air? Just what is going on here as The Son of Madblood and crew forge into the Future in their New Year’s celebration.. Minnie visits via astral-projection... Bones stops by on his way to make a ‘delivery’ to Uranus.. An audience member is star-struck.. A Venusian drops by.. Will they ever find their way back without a map?

The Space-Case movie for Episode 4: Alien

Favorite - Movie - Ever.
More on Alien to come... (including a very personal Son of Madblood story)

Episode 5: There Will Be Mad-Blood
Special “Valentine to Brooke Shields” Episode in celebration of a) Valentine’s Day and b) the glorious return to television of Brooke Shields in ‘Lipstick Jungle’.. But Igor won’t stop bleeding uncontrollably all over the place. There is nothing The Son of Madblood can do to stop it! Minnie brings her friend Workout Wanda (our friendly neighborhood excercise guru) over to exercise Igor’s demons. A door-to-door Scientologist tries to get The Son of Madblood to renounce his love for Brooke Shields. Beer cures Igor’s woes.. Brooke Shields, herself, drops in to thank The Son of Madblood for not giving up on her and they perform a scene from the floundering ‘Lipstick Jungle’ together.

The Valentine to Brooke Shields movie for Episode 5: Alice, Sweet Alice

“Me and my rhythm box” Paula Sheppard just may have killed her younger and more spoiled sister moments before she is to take her first Holy Communion (Brooke Shields in her first movie role!) . Her aunt thinks so. The creepy yellow raincoat and never-as-creepy-as-it-is-in-this-movie see through plastic mask are pointing in her direction - but she’s just a kid.. She definitely does throw a cat. A maximum of scary from this somewhat small-ish film. I love all the screaming - the family is constantly screaming at each other - it’s HELL. I also love that it’s a period piece set, maybe 10 years pre-filming - to me it’s almost like a secret depth that the film keeps close to the breast. Alphonso will give most people nightmares...
More on Alice, Sweet Alice to come...

Episode 6: Cheers To You, Madmope
The Son of Madblood is depressed because Brain has gone on vacation - on a bike trip through Holland, no less. The Gang and various audience members try to cheer him up: magic tricks, jokes, Workout Wendy (Workout Wanda’s just as enthusiastic sister) tries to get him to exercise his blues away... Minnie shows up with some brownies she made from a recipe in his father’s lab-book.. Fozzie Bear drops by and tells some really good jokes.. Bones gets really small after eating too many of the brownies and serenades The Son of Madblood with the song “Tiny Dancer”..

The Little Friends movie for Episode 6: Basket Case

He’s so cute!
More on Basket Case to come...

Episode 7: Documentary of the Dead
The Gang has a Fourth of July cook-out right in Madblood Manorette and The Son of Madblood gets Bones to film a behind-the-scenes style documentary about the show. Brain has lost a hot-dog eating contest to Igor who only had to eat one hot dog because Brain doesn’t have a mouth. It is revealed that Igor is really a once-famous movie director who has givin it up since he realized his movies were starting to really suck.. Did anyone actually see ‘Shine a Light’? He has since found new meaning in life as The Son of Madblood’s trusted assistant. Minnie brings Madblood a duck. A visit from the Landlord leaves The Son of Madblood feeling all washed-up..

The Home-Movie-Holiday Cook-Out movie for Episode 7: Dead & Buried

Welcome to Potters' Bluff!
More on Dead & Buried to come...

Episode 8: Lordy-Lordy Madblood’s 40
In this Episode The Son of Madblood mourns the end of Summer and the end of Youth. The Gang (and Bones) return from the last day at the beach with horrible sunburns. Igor develops horrible blisters. There is a horrible seagull attack. A Singing Telegram arrives with birthday “wishes” . Workout Wendy has some exercises to keep The Son of Madblood young but, instead - his skin peels off from the sunburn. An Eternal Youth Serum from his father’s lab-book turns out to be nothing more than a very good skin cream. Minnie bakes a birthday cake that all enjoy.

The Back-to School/End of Summer movie for Episode 8: Phenomena

We dedicated this showing to one of our Manorette friends who had just gotten her Green-Card.. The tale of a young woman who moves to a foreign country, develops a relationship with an older man, and makes lots of new friends...
More on Phenomena to come...

Stay tuned for the next Episode - The Son of Madblood: The Early Years
Don't miss this all-new-scary-Episode thrilling you on September 28th!
Be there if you DARE!