Rocketship Weird Retro Captain's Blog - Weird Retro

I Have No Mouth, And I Must Scream (1967)

28/10/2014

Cover of the short story collection featuring story.

A post-apocalyptic short story by sci-fi author Harlan Ellison, published in 1967 and winner of the Hugo Award in 1968. It is infamous as being one of the most twisted and nightmare inducing pieces of fiction ever written. A claustrophobic tale of torture and unremitting despair.

The story starts 109 years after the annihilation of humanity by a self-aware supercomputer called AM, killing all but 5 people who AM keeps alive to torture as penance for causing it the pain of existence. AM prevents the 5 humans from committing suicide, keeping them alive in virtual immortality. They are all imprisoned in an endless sprawling underground complex. AM mutates and transforms the humans, torturing them both psychologically and physically, in more and more diabolical ways. Throughout the story the meaning of AM alters. At first in stands for Allied Mastercomputer, in reference to its original purpose in the war, then it's Adaptive Manipulator, hinting at it's new role as torturer. Lastly as Aggressive Menace!

In 1995 Cyberdreams published a point-and-click adventure game based on the short story, and co-designed by Harlan Ellison. The aim of the game is to prove that humans are better than machines, through their redemption. Throughout the game the player is confronted with ethical dilemmas. The ultimate aim of the game however is to shut down AM. If the player fails, then AM transforms the character into a "great, soft jelly thing" for eternity, so that it cannot harm itself or others, just as happens to Ted in the original short story. For many years the game languished as abandonware, unavailable to but. Until the rights to the game were acquired, and re-released in 2013 by Night Dive Studios.

The game was generally well received, being voted by Computer Gaming World as Adventure Game Of The Year when it was first released. They as listed it as one of the "150 Games of All Time", "Best 15 Sleepers of All Time" and "Best 15 Endings of All Time". More recently in October 2014 Gameinformer listed it as #22 of the "Top 25 Horror Games of All Time".

I Have No Mouth, And I Must Scream
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Screen shot from one the ending of the game.

Weird Music: Wesley Willis

27/10/2014

One of the ultimate characters of outsider music. A schizophrenic singer from the streets of Chicago, Wesley Willis gained global fame. His eclectic themed songs featured weird, often obscene and funny lyrics all sung over his electronic keyboards automatic accompaniment. He was brought to fame by Jello Biafra of the Dead Kennedys, who befriended the gentle giant who loved to greet people with a head-butt! So much so that the 6'5" over 300 pound singer song-writer had a permanent bruise on his forehead.

Willis laid his life out for all to hear in his songs. It's how he dealt with the world. Every annoyance, every quirk was sung over a Casio style repetitive drum beat and keyboard looped melodies. Before his death in 2003, Willis had recorded over 50 albums worth of songs.

Hellride is a term used by Willis to describe his demons brought on by his schizophrenia, first diagnosed in 1989. He said that his demons were attempting to destroy his "Harmony Joy Music" or "Joy Rides". Whatever drove Willis to create the music he did, much of what he produced are true works of genius. One of my personal favourites in Shit And Fuck, a scream at the world all played over a melodically lounge style backing track. A wonder to behold as an example of his music.

Weird Music: It Was A Graveyard Smash!

27/10/2014

What Halloween party would be complete without at least one playing of the classic novelty song Monster Mash, first recorded in 1962 by Bobby "Boris" Pickett and the Crypt-Kickers? The song was originally banned from the BBC in the UK for being "too morbid". However it was re-released in 1973, reaching #3 in the British charts. And that's probably when I first heard it, and had the song on a Top Of The Tots compilation album. An album I still have to this day, stashed away in a box somewhere. The creepy sound effects, the catchy chorus and the voice of Bobby Pickett doing an over-the-top impersonation of Bela Lugosi's Dracula, the song is a kitsch work of mad genius.

The song has been covered numerous times, the earliest cover version coming out the same year as the original in 1962, by "The Cool Ghoul" Zacherley who we profiled in our Horror Hosts section of the Captain's Blog. Famous B-movie horror stars have taken a stab at the song too. Boris Karloff sang a version on a 1965 episode of Shindig! And Vincent Price also recorded a version in 1977. The song has featured either in its original version of as a cover version in TV shows and movies ever since it was first released, becoming an essential part of any Halloween.

One of the most well known cover versions is by the hardcore horror punk band The Misfits, recorded in 1997. Coinciding with a VHS release of the Halloween cult classic stop-motion animation Mad Monster Party, first released in 1967. (Monster Mash didn't feature on the original soundtrack.) The cover version was eventually released as a single in 1999. One of my favourite covers however is the 1973 Spanish version by Mexican rock and roll stars Luis Vivi Hernandez.

In 1995 the song inspired a movie named after it. Monster Mash: The Movie featured Pickett in the role of Dr. Frankenstein. The movie was inspired by the song and based on the 1967 musical play "I'm Sorry the Bridge Is Out, You'll Have to Spend the Night" by Pickett and Sheldon Allman. The movie has an honourable mention in Weird Retro's Top Ten: Freaky Frankenstein Movies.

Weird Retro Fact: Joel Cohen and Alec Sokolow who directed Monster Mash: The Movie, were both co-writers on the Pixar classic Toy Story (1995) that came out the same year as Monster Mash.

Horror Hosts: Selwin

26/10/2014

Ray Sparenberg known as Selwin was a horror host on Indianapolis's WISH-TV between 1958 to 1963. The new channel (only 4 years old) bought the Shock Theatre package, and inspired by the horror host character Zacherley decided to create their own. Dave Smith who was the Program Manager at the time enlisted Ray Sparenberg, who himself was one of the station's directors to play the role. He was picked because he had a particularly maniacal laugh.

Unlike many other horror hosts who ad-libbed much of their on-screen banter, every word of Selwin's was scripted by Smith. Which he wrote just before the show aired, and was typed into the teleprompter by Sparenberg himself. The show ran every Friday night at 11:15pm, and was called Friday Night Fright Night. Possibly one of the influences of the horror film Fight Night (1985).

The name "Selwin" was supposed to give the character a sense of Britishness, which Sparenberg attempted badly to add to with a terrible fake British accent. He openly mimicked the make-up style of Zacherley, with added Zacherley style black cape, and a broad-brimmed hat. And initially wore claw-like rubber gloves, which he had to drop because they became to cumbersome to wear. The character and the show was massively popular, when the fan club Selwin's Society of the Shroud was formed, the station was swamped with requests for membership cards.

Kids TV: Ludwig

26/10/2014

Ludwig was a surreal kids cartoon shown on the coveted pre-evening news weekday slot on BBC TV. First appearing on our screens in 1977, Ludwig was a unspeaking egg-shaped mechanical alien that played classical music. He had a particular passion for the music of Ludwig Van Beethoven, hence the name. Ludwig lived and played with a variety of the woodland creatures, all watched over by a mysterious birdwatcher. In some kind of alien experiment, Ludwig would mischievously create strange situations for the woodland creatures to figure out. Ultimately sorting out the situation he had caused himself.

Ludwig was like some kind of egg-shaped Inspector Gadget, as a wide variety of implements would appear from inside his shell, to solve problems in the woodland. There was only one series made of Ludwig, made-up of 25 episodes that were 5 minutes long. The show was shown in the United States on the show Captain Kangaroo.

The series was produced by father and son team, Mirek and Peter Lang. Mirek Lang had worked on Czech Television before coming to the UK in 1968. They produced the show in their London home. As Peter said, "The series was shot on 16mm film, on a wind up Bolex camera in a spare bedroom in our flat..."

My Neighbor Totoro: Death And The Dark Theories Behind The Kids Animation.

25/10/2014

My Neighbor Totoro (1988), is one of the most famous of the animations to come out of Studio Ghibli, directed by Miyazaki. Coming some 6 years before Pom Poko, which made our Cult Film Friday list a while back. The landmark heart-warming animation, that propelled the beautiful work of Miyazaki and the Art Director Kazuo Oga to international fame, has a possibly darker underlying theme that many people may not be aware of. The cuddly Totoro hailed as one of the greatest characters in animation ever, and more beloved by fans than Mickey Mouse, has a dark secret. He is the messenger of Death!

Not only that, but there are those that believe the whole movie is based on the Sayama Incident. The murder of a girl in May 1963, and the subsequent suicide of her older sister in the city of Sayama some 60Km north west of Tokyo.

Now all of this is only rumour and supposition, denied by the film-makers, but the the evidence relating to this theory is quite compelling. Now, Studio Ghibli films and Japanese culture in general is often wrapped-up in references to the spirit world. Look at Spirited Away (2001) and Howl's Moving Castle (2004) as well as Pom Poko for examples of this. So for My Neighbor Totoro to have such themes running through it, isn't so unusual.

The theory goes like this... The older sister in the movie is called Satsuki, which is Japanese for May. The younger sister is called Mei (pronounced the same as May in English). The Sayama Incident took place in the month of May. The movie is set close to the Sayama area of Japan, and the name "Sayama Tea" 狭山茶 appears early in the movie on a tea chest as they are unpacking the house.

Like the story of the Sayama Incident, the younger sister went missing and the older sister searched frantically for her. In the movie, in the her search for Mei, Satsuki gets on the Catbus which has a sign on it that uses the Japanese characters for Grave Road (墓道) written on it. Some believe that this is Satsuki travelling with Totoro's help to the land of the dead to find Mei, who has died.

While missing, Mei sits down in front of a row of Jizō statues. These statues in Japanese culture represent the deity that is believed to protect children, and are used in ceremonies involving the death of a child. When Satsuki finds Mei and they go to see their mother, they only watch from a distance, because as the theory goes they are ghosts. The hospital the mother is staying in was a real place in the Sayama area. The mother of the girls in the Sayama Incident, died in a hospital of a terminal illness, paralleling the movie. Ah but the movie has a happy ending you say? Well the theory states that the movie isn't chronological, and that the father is writing much of the story from memory. Note the scene when the father is writing and looks out of the door to see his daughters sat high on a giant tree, engulfing (protecting and overseeing) the house. He smiles fondly, as if remembering a happy memory, and goes back to writing.

There are other theories, related to the lack of shadows the girls have after Mei goes missing. Studio Ghibli have simply said that there were no need for shadows, denying the supposed connection between the movie and the true story of the Sayama Incident. The whole thing may well be just an Internet conspiracy theory, but having recently watched My Neighbor Totoro after reading the theories, it does give an new and interesting slant on what already is a wonderfully surreal and magical movie.

Weird Retro Fact: Studio Ghibli's 1994 animation movie Pom Poko featured as a Weird Retro Cult Film Friday selection.

Cult Film Friday: Black Devil Doll From Hell (1984)

24/10/2014

The strap-line to Black Devil Doll From Hell is "Was it a nightmare? Or was it for real??" A question that many ask after their experience of seeing this movie. That has gained cult status for its bad straight-to-video shot-on-video low-budget flick that combines blaxploitation with a killer doll theme. (I guess someone had to at some point!)

The story (for what it's worth) is of a religious fanatic that buys a demoniacally possessed black ventriloquists dummy with dreadlocks. She buys it even after the ominous warning of the shop owner, that the doll has been bought by four different people before and always made its way back to the shop. She takes the dummy home and it proceeds to sexually assault her through most of the rest of the movie. The evil spirit of the dummy gets inside her, and they both plan to murder their enemies. That's about it for this 70 minute long piece of utter exploitation soft-porn trash.

Directed by Chester Turner, who also made the companion piece Tales From The Quadead Zone (1987). Both movies for only the most hardcore of cult film fanatics.

Weird Retro Fact: The movie was first mentioned in the Weird Retro In-flight Magazine article about the Vent Haven Museum for ventriloquist's dolls, called A Haven For Devil Dolls. The museum was also mentioned in the article Top Ten: Weird Places To Visit In The USA.

Retro Gaming: If It Has A Ninja In The Game It Will Sell!!!

23/10/2014

Ninja Golf released in 1990.

Still to this day, the adage of slapping a ninja character in what is essentially a crappy game seems to work. There are hundreds if not thousands of titles and new one being released all the time, that contain some element of the black suited assassin about them. Now not knocking it, as some of the absolute all time classics of retro gaming have been based around ninjas. Take the awesome The Last Ninja, first released on the Commodore C64 in 1987 by System 3. Becoming the most successful game for the C64.

However, many game makers wanted to cash-in on gamers love of the ninja with their own games. Some were successful, but some were always destined for the bargain bin of the local computer game store.
Here are some of those titles, you were likely to find sold at a heavily discounted rate. And still made you wonder why you bothered!

Let's start with Ninja Golf (1990). You have to love the cover image, with the ninja complete with golf clubs and a bandoleer of golf tees. They even copied the font style of The Last Ninja. Developed by BlueSky Software for Atari 7800 it seamlessly combines a scrolling beat 'em up with a golf simulation, as the ninja must fight his way across the golf course to where he hit his ball. A work of genius, or one of desperate game designers high on caffeine and herbal cigarettes?! The game has gained a bit of a cult following among retro gamers.

Now all retro gamers know of Alex Kidd, and the original game Alex Kidd in Miracle World (1986) that came pre-installed in the Sega Master System. But did you know about the Alex Kidd and Shinobi cross-over game that came out in 1990 for the Master System? No? Well let's enlighten you! A self parody of Sega's own well known Shinobi game, the game was released in Europe and USA (though in limited numbers in the US, making it very collectable today.)

Not weird enough yet? How about Ninja Hamster (1988), released on the C64 and the Sinclair ZX Spectrum. Produced by CRL, a now lost in the annals of gaming history British software company. The Brits did produce some of the best games in the 80s for the C64 and ZX Spectrum. It played just like the standard 2D beat-'em-up of the time, except with kick-ass animals! Zzap!64 the C64 gamers Bible thought the game was pretty lame. Sticking with the animal/ninja theme, there was 1991's Ninja Rabbits from MicroValue. Also released on the C64, but crossed over to the Amiga and Atari ST.

The game that sparked this post, was the brilliantly titles Ninja Scooter Simulator from 1988. Manufactured by the well known British cheap game maker Silverbird Software for the C64, ZX Spectrum and the Amstrad CPC. Inspired by the Japanese coin-op arcade game MetroCross from 1985. Made way before kids thought that riding a scooter was cool, you have to wonder what they were thinking.

In reality this side-scrolling game was neither a "simulator" or had really anything to do with ninjas. Despite flying skulls and spiked rims on the scooter, this was a standard jump-at-the-right-time do "stunts" game. Underneath the bizarre marketing premise, and surely the initial disappointment of players, Ninja Scooter Simulator was a very playable and somewhat addictive game.

Creepy Kids TV: Mr. Noseybonk

23/10/2014

The BBC TV show for young kids Jigsaw ran from 1979 to 1984, a show about puzzle solving that featured one of the most puzzling characters of all, Mr. Noseybonk. He was a bizarre and creepy mime character wearing a manically scary grinning mask with a massive phallic nose. Mr. Noseybonk wasn't the only surreal character in the show, he sat alongside the real mad inventor Wilf Lunn and the bizarre superhero duo the O-Men, but it was the sinister mime that stuck in children's minds and lived on in their nightmares. I guess this is what happens when the BBC allow pretentious artists to get involved in making TV shows for kids.

It could be claimed that Mr. Noseybonk, (just the name says it all) operated on different levels. Surreal and silly humour for the kids and then the "adult" under-tones that are plain to see to anyone going back and watching this creepy character in action. Take this YouTube clip as prime example. Here Mr. Noseybonk is in a greenhouse, and is growing some plants from seeds labelled "nosegays". What grows, very quickly, are Noseybonk like noses or penises depending on your age and how you view these things.

Weird Retro Fact: Sylvester McCoy and David Rappaport who played the bizarre comic superheroes the O-Men both came from a background in surrealist and avant garde theatre. McCoy went on to play the 7th incarnation of Dr. Who, and Rappaport featured as the character Randall in the darkly twisted amd genius kids movie Time Bandits (1981).

Creepy Kids Toy: Little Miss No-Name

22/10/2014

In her final death throws, before Little Miss No-Name was cast back into the pits of Hell from were she came, they tried offering her in a promotion with a brand of Instant Hot Chocolate. Just what every child needed when they settled down to bed with a hot streaming mug of chocolate before bed.

From the darkest recesses of the minds of toy makers Hasbro came this doll in 1965. Little Miss No-Name, the doll with "the" tear. Cynically designed to tug at the heart-strings of little girls, this doll dressed in a ragged burlap sack instead became a creepy icon of terrible toys. We were meant to pity her, like the famous painting of the Crying Boy it had the opposite effect. Instead many kids feared her, and what she may do to them at night.

Her enormous unblinking eyes that sucked at your very soul. That pinched mealy little mouth, the single permanent tear glistening on her cheek. She was Little Miss No-Name, because she was the embodiment of the malevolent evil that should no be named! Ever! Hasbro discontinued the manufacturing of the doll after only one year of production.