Past Tense - Distant Envious Eyes Welcome The Drama Part I


The crash wasn't enough to bring the tow unhinged from the truck. But shook everything inside and like a quake - many of the objects and even chairs were toss about. The place was well crafted, still in one piece. You were on your hands and knees waiting for the next thing to happen and it didn't - at least a couple minutes of nothing.

A silent and slow rise to your feet. Turn the floodlights back on? Even for a moment? Did the lights make... whatever that was angry? It was dark, can't see anything. You hung for a few beats next to the switch. But flipped it 'on'. Looking out the main window, you saw nothing but forest. The same with the next window and the next.

Coming to the bedroom, you saw the dent first and then the window, blood draining down. What happened? You moved towards it and through the crimson saw on the ground, the other half of that bear. Half isn't quite accurate. There was a large bite mark in the area where the other part would've been. Something had killed the beast, broke it into two and threw half of it at the RV?

There is no way around it. It has - had happened. Again it popped in your head - 'turn the lights off', now beyond saving battery life. The floodlights were off once more. Then another thought came - shut the curtains in the dining area. Once more just as they were pulled, you saw them in the distance.

Red glowing eyes, looking at you. Thoughts ran in your mind. Was this some kind of creature? Or something else... supernatural. You were thinking that as you looked down and saw the used pot with some lingering pasta in it. And a somber conclusion - you didn't tell anyone where you were going. You wanted some 'me' time to test run the tow. You are alone - here, no cell signals, no distractions. No help coming.

Once again the roar happened. This RV isn't impervious - it will break with enough force, you need to take actions now, while time is still on your side. What can be used as a weapon or a makeshift weapon? Something lite enough to be carried if you had to flee from the truck and tow. Then another thought surfaced - you know how you came here. But what lies in the other direction? Sure the blanket answer is 'forest', but that's more than just a word.

Lost in the forest is a real thing and here, now - running in that direction; might as well slice open your wrists, you're dead. You are in this thing's backyard. So no matter what happens, you need to run or go for the truck, rush out in the same direction you drove in. Your mental plan is interrupted, it is howling once more.

But this time it sounded a lot closer. Dread. Fear. You take comfort that Hannah isn't here. Safe in her place, probably reading one of her books. You hope to see her again.

Half a bear thrown. Half a bear thrown. It's gonna be a long night.

Welcome to week two of "Limited Edition Horror" 2021; a two parter! In this brand new entry we are revisited by a classic invader from the deep space by way of "War Of The Worlds: A Video Scrapbook"...



I have very limited info - damn impossible to find. Can't even give you a street date. The website (store, fanboy merchandise) Monsters In Motion hosted a special screening of the 1953 motion picture to coincide with the 2005 Steven Spielberg remake. Don't ask. I can't find the screening date.

So I can't tell you much. This was not issued a slipcover nor insert. And is in fact a DVD-R with printed label, not some cheap ink jet glued on. And all the content inside appears to have come from somebody's VHS copy. Plus the audio on one - is messed up. The last bit I have is that this came in a red DVD case.

- - -

That website's exclusive could be bought in person at that screening and once again much later.

Paid $14.99 (not including shipping and tax) in late July 2020 from their website. They had earlier been going through their inventory to make room, getting rid of older products. And had discovered they still had a box remaining of this DVD and CD soundtracks from their event. Both are limited editions (same price). I'll cover that CD in a few.

Warehouse Find - We found a big box of stuff from a special screening of War Of The Worlds that was hosted by Monsters In Motion back in the early 2000's. We have a limited supply of DVD's and CDs from this event and we are now making them available to you!
- Monsters In Motion email advertising; September 5th, 2018

Yes. I forgot about the items for nearly two years then it popped back in mind. Do they still have them for sale? Yes. Yes they do, bought both.

Understand - at time time, I thought I was ripped off, a copy or bootleg. I've had some bad experiences with the site, they sell bootlegs; DVD-Rs and CD-Rs. The other merchandise is real; toys, books, model kits and figurines. I had to do the research and discovered, no - I have the real deal.



There was no pressed discs and it was in fact a website exclusive, under their banner "RetroFlicks". Interesting. The disc is unrated and region free.

It has three parts - all together the disc is 45:24 minutes long, presented in full screen in what appears to be from a VHS transfer; not that great, but watchable.

"Effects Outakes" is just that and has unrelated music - added since the footage is silent. So this is in stereo. Ranges from poor to fair. No remastering. You can find much of this footage in the 2020 Criterion release... remastered.

"Photo Gallery" is a slide show with sixty-nine images with info/trivia screens. And like with the above has added music, also in stereo. These pictures cover story boards, behind the scenes pixs and promotional images from varied sources. No remastering either.

"TV Pilot" is what most people bought this DVD scrapbook for. And looks the worst of the lot. A few generations, video cassette transfer. No remastering at all. Audio comes out from the left side only (was always in mono). This is less a pilot as it were an extended concept trailer; a good chunk of this presentation was done with conceptual artwork. The rest was done with actors in front of blue screens with models, optically merged. Only a tiny bit of the set were built for the actors.



I did some work on the bridge image, two shots stitched together. Man, you can see poor this is. The scrapbook is the only way to see the 'pilot' on DVD. The concept trailer is narrated by Leslie Nielsen (uncredited).

Sure, this is not really part of the 1953 film. It takes place in an alternate Earth (technologically advanced). The world has no nations, a globalist paradise. Farming of the seas is used to feed the masses (not limited to fish) and no child is born without government approval. This is when the interstellar battle happens.

Our war with the aliens took decades. Decades. We could not win the fight, but had victory because of a virus that effected the invaders. They died. The aliens who were not effected, retreat back to their mother ship, leaving Earth to reorganize.

Not wanting a second attack - Earth built six hyperspace vessels to find their home world. Force them to surrender or take the fight to them. We would've followed the crew of "Pegasus", ship number five. It is in effect, a one way mission; multi-generation crew, fifty men and women with various reasons to go after the extraterrestrials.

Pegasus is under the command of Col. James Anderson. Disaster hits them, no more communications with Earth or even the other hyperspace ships. Alone in deep space. They find their home world and discover they are plotting the next wave.

We get some aliens, humanoid cave men (yeah) and their underground base - that's it. As said, only some minor sets were built and all the costumes were repurposed from other TV productions. It needed a lot of work. But this project was to gain investors, proof of concept.

Their big deal was getting production designer Matt Jefferies from "Star Trek" (1966) to create the tech for the show. Don't know how much he accomplished other than some model work on the alien world. *shrugs* The concept trailer is 14:07 minutes long.

So? The woman on the bridge - is that part of the elevator or does she have braces? Polo survivor? And their space ship looks like a left over from Gerry Anderson.



This pilot is not on the 2005 "Special Collector's Edition", nor the '20 "Criterion Collection" releases (DVD and Blu-Ray). Can only find it here on disc. The pilot was made in the mid 1970s, produced by George Pal. The same Pal who produced the '53 movie.

I wish it was remastered, it's a real bit of lost sci-fi history. Well that's not 100% true. It can also be found on YoutTube - also not remastered.

Okay. At that special screening for the film they sold the scrapbook DVD and a limited edition CD soundtrack with sound effects. The idea is to add this to your model kit with a sound chip. Added value to your Martian War Machine model or statue.