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[JohnIan101]

Past Tense - Not Just For Bikini Areas Part II


If there is another DVD re-release, I would love to have that commentary and documentary - all of which would fit on a disc, single side. How hard can it be? You can ditch "The Mystery Of The Wax Museum" to save space. Or if you want, a two disc set with it. Either way... I WILL BUY IT. Make it happen.



What's that? It's a model kit from Jeff Yagher. He has a tribute model series. Very detailed and created with passion.

This particular installment is called "House Of Wax Encounter". Only fifty molds were fashioned; it retailed for $250.00 each. Now you may think the price is ridicules, but the level of detail here is damn impressive. This fan made kit is roughly nine inches tall. It comes in a decorative box with instructions and a certificate of authenticity.

Man, I would love to own this, but I don't have that kind of greenback to spare nor skill to assemble or paint. This - as the name implies is in various pieces, waiting to be glued together and colored. The latter take a lot adeptness to render. Look at the image, it was assembled by a professional. That melted wax looks so real.

Okay. Before you ask. Yes. Yes, I did.

I censored the picture. The girl (who is a mini Sue Allen [played by Phyllis Kirk]) is nude, shackled to the table. And quite nicely sculpted, I might add. I debated on whether I needed to. It's a model (a hobby toy), not a real person. But decided to play it safe. Sorry.

The poster has Kirk in a bra and panties, rope tied, ready to go under the wax (shown on top). In the film it's strongly implied the girl is naked.

Sure, what is "GP" (on the poster)? This was a retired movie rating, roughly means; General audiences, Parental guidance suggested.

- - - - - - - - - -

Void.

Did you know, there was an aborted TV series based on the 1985 horror classic "H.P. Lovecraft's Re-Animator".

To quote Jim the duck, "What the hell?"



Above is the cover image for the pitch package for "Herbert West: Re-Animator", created by Transition Entertainment in 2009. The series was adapted for the small screen by Meredith Casey and William Butler. I have zero idea who was cast for the photographs. The pitch has several images.

A bit of background on the would-be show runners.

Butler was the writer for the Sci-Fi Channel abominations, "Return Of The Living Dead: Necropolis" and it's equally awful sequel, "Return Of The Living Dead: Rave To The Grave" (both 2005). And he also wrote "Gingerdead Man 2: Passion Of The Crust" (2008) as well as its sequels; "Gingerdead Man 3: Saturday Night Cleaver" (2011) and "Gingerdead Man Vs. Evil Bong" (2013). This should speak volumes of his talents.

It took me awhile to make the connection; Butler played Tom in the 1990 remake "Night Of The Living Dead".

Then we have Casey who to date - has done, only a single short, "Earth Day" (2001). She co-wrote and directed it.

The creative pairing feels quite random.

A teenage Victor Frankenstein for the new millennium. A dark, shy, somewhat sexy and narcissistic young man obsessed with finding the secret to life and discovering the formula that will re-animated the dead. His philosophy, "sometimes you have to cause death to lay the foundation for life" leave him often criticized and feared by his young contemporaries.

His unconventional theories about life and death make him notorious early on at Miskatonic University, yet he is respected as a brilliant young man of science. There are many layers to Herbert's complicated personality and throughout the series we will peel away those layers, discovering his mysterious past and the force that drove him to do what he does.

One by one, Herbert will eventually enlist, blackmail and coerce his fellow students into helping him, sometimes leaving them covering up for his horrible mistakes.

- Herbert West character description

The main drive of the show is the death of eighteen year old, Laura Parker. She is killed early in the season. Laura was a beloved friend to many and become the catalyst that brings a group of different classmates together under West to bring her back. He does... she becomes Herbert's beta. She is brought back to life with disastrous results.

Parker becomes one of the show's villains. She retained her mind, but snapped after coming back; her body is slowly rotting, deteriorating. She is obsessed - who killed her? And will created waves of pain to find the answer(s).

The series takes place during their freshman year in college, a university with a dark history linked to Dean Jonathan Halsey.

The campus is finally reopened after ten years of closure. It seems years ago, a student suddenly possessed with uncontrollable rage broke out into a violent murder spree that left half the campus up in flames. Officials never found out just what filled the young man with the desire to kill so many.

- series set up

Halsey has a dark agenda and is mixing science with the occult. He befriends West and becomes the young man's benefactor - for undisclosed sinister reasons. Herbert knows that Halsey wants to steal his research, but plays the game to have access to campus labs and resources.

There is no Dan Cain character from the feature - we have Randy Carter, Herbert's roommate. Megan Halsey (the movie) is now Megan Armitage, the school's bad girl. She is Carter's girlfriend, when she's not sleeping around. And is working with Halsey; spying on West and his frienemies for grades. Megan was expelled from her last school - Miskatonic is her last chance or be cut off from daddy's money.

There is no Dr. Hill in this re-telling.



From left to right, above - the characters: Staci Carter (15, Randy's tomboy little sister, high school student, works at the local café, "Dive"), Randy Carter (18, football player, an Arkham local), Harley Warren (17, semi-friends with Megan and secretly in love with West; yeah that model looks way older than her late teens), Herbert West (18 years old), Crawford Tillinghast (18, campus stud, troublemaker - reimagined Hill?) and Megan Armitage (18, psych student, bad girl).

Is that Laura Parker on the gurney on the pitch package? Don't know, in the character photo, Parker is an Asian girl. And yes, I see it too. Laura Parker is similar Laura Palmer from "Twin Peaks" (1990); the death of a beloved school girl that links/gather so many people together.

Here's another negative; the characters of Burke and Hare (both in their twenties); described as "The Silent Bob and Jay of the show". I wish I was joking. Both will do nearly anything for dollar. They're the ones who bring fresh specimens for Herbert.

Then there's Howie Peterson (eighteen), he's an aspiring sci-fi writer. We learn that his real last name is Lovecraft. H.P. is keeping a journal of all the strange things happening to be used for material in a future novel.



I remember when I first heard about this project, I thought it was a horrible idea.

But I'm not so sure now.

Granted, this pitch is lukewarm. But the overall idea isn't a bad one; Miskatonic University is effectively built over a Hellmouth ("Buffy" reference).

This could actually work under better hands.

Maybe.



If they can turn "Psycho" (1960) into a compelling series, "Bates Motel" (2013), I don't see why this can't happen for "Re-Animator". And having West as a college freshman is a great notion. I like that. My biggest problem is that they change too many rooted characters and axed Hill.

Anyhow, none of this came to pass. It never was produced beyond the investor's pitch; the package included a treatment for the pilot episode:

West tires out his formula on a dead monkey, it does reanimate for a short while then explodes into a pulp. Depressed he starts over from scratch. There's is more, such as a supernatural contagion on campus, but this is what you wanna know.

Here West has a reanimation injection gun (he built); it uses plasma and electricity to shock life into a body, it glows purple - it should be green. Or maybe it later becomes green had the series moved into a second or so season.