Rick and Morty are part of the Dark Towner Universe...sorta...

 Ok, not EXACTLY but hear me out here. No Stephen King has never written about Rick and Morty, but Rick and Morty sure use plenty of Stephen King book references in the show. Since Rick and Morty come back for their third season tonight and the Dark Tower hits theaters on Friday, I thought I'd include all the Stephen King references (and other horror characters) that are in the show...so far. Honestly, I think me and the creators would be good drinking buddies.

1) Lawnmower Dog-

The second episode and they already are  paying homage to Kings work. The Lawnmower dog is, of course, a reference to the Stephen King short story the Lawnmower man. The episode also pulls from Animal farm, A Night mare on Elm Street and Inception. Oh! and the "Freddy" character says bitch a lot.. like a certain drug dealer we all know.

2.). Something Ricked This Way Comes-
 The title is a reference to Ray Bradbury's novel and film of the same name, Something Wicked This Way Comes. The Show however is pretty much based on the Stephen King book/movie, Needful things. Not to mention that the episode also references Pet Cemetery. Other references include Summer finding and using a monkey's Paw during the episode and the song The devil went down to Georgia is kinda referenced as Mr. Needful plays the fiddle

3.)  A Rinkle in Time-
 The Langoliers (book and TV show reference)
It's possible that the 4th dimensional beings in this episode are a reference to the monsters from the Langoliers. (the langoliers is about monsters who eat the past)







Other interesting Horror References 


M. Night Shamanaliens-The episode pulls from Inception, the name from the director.

Rick Potion #9-In this episode Rick and Morty Cronenberg the world. That's a reference to David Cronenberg the dude famous for all those monster movies in the 80s. Also Summer repeats a Jaws monologue.

.Auto Erotic Assimilation-This episode is a play on Invasion of the Body Snatchers. It also mentions face huggers from the movie Aliens.

Look who's Purging Now-The Purge..obviously.

Lastly, one of Summer's teachers was a Vampire! In Big trouble in little Sanchez her coach was a vampire.

Castlevania.. I wont be coming back for a second visit.

Castlevania is now available for streaming on Netflix..and we all need to stop acting as if it is spectacular. First of all let me put a spin on my review here. I'm a kid from the 80s, I had access to this game as my dad had a copy of it in his video store. The box was awesome, plus..vampires. I had to play. I remember being really disappointed becasue the graphics were just not the level of Mario brothers or even The Legend of Zelda. The game was ok, it was playable, it was not the best game I had ever played. It was often available at the video store, so apparently I wasn't the only person who thought this.

Fast forward to summer 2017 and there is a series available based on the game to watch. Well Castlevania might not have been the BEST game but the back story woudl make for an amazing move, I can totally see Liam Hemsworth as Simon..oh wait it isnt live action, and there is no Simon. Oh ok ..turns on cartoon.. animation looks low grade and half assed.. oh well why woudl I expect anything less from Castlevania.
So let me be serious for a second here..first of all the trouble stars with he open. Dracula falls in love with a human woman. There really isnt any development to this, no why or how..he just does. ok. She tries to help the people of the town.. I really don't know why they are sick through. I don't know how Dracula fits into all of this..and I also don't really know what she did, exactly, to help. Whatever they decide to burn her at the stake as a witch. Then they start going on and on about how this is good..I don't know what they were talking about, I was so bored I blacked out for a few minutes. Dracula is pissed and gives the town a year to pack up in leave. Spoiler they don't. I don't know WHY they don't, but they don't. Let me tell you right now that if Dracula told me hey, if you don't leave here I will rain hell down upon you..I'd get out.
A priest mocks Dracula and he then starts the hole fire raining down thing. Whoever wrote this story, by the way, hates church. It's pretty lame too. You get tirades against the Catholic church that I can only imagine comes from someone who got spanked by some nun way to many times as a kid. anyway, they invest this religious sect called the seekers who kinda take the place of the traditional holy cross thing in the series. Its annoying beyond belief.
Anyway then we finally meet Trever Belmont..not Simon..but Trever. Anyway. there is a pointless bar fight..he finds the seekers. They establish him (poorly might I add) as an anti-hero. In fact the character in no way is engaging or fun to watch..tie all of this up in animation so low grade that even the mouths don't sinc up to the words when the characters are talking.
Seriously this series is nothing but a hot pile of mess. I can say that the show does pick up in the last ten minutes of the last episode. However none of that fixes the fact that the entire series was established completely wrong. If you enjoyed Castlevania..I can only imagine it was becasue you disparately wanted to. It is not a good stand alone horror piece, it is not a well drawn animation, it is not a good companion or back story to the games. Its just.. a mess.

Why movies were better in the 80s and 90s

I just read an article today about how the raunchy R rated comedy is dead. Movies like Baywatch, Snatch, Rough Night and The House have all flopped this year. Except, quite frankly they did about what one woudl expect a summer comedy to do. Huge comedy hits are rare..not the norm. This doesn't mean we shouldn't be making them. They have an audience, just like sci-fi action films have an audience and horror movies and yes, super hero films.

Back in 1984 a pop culture comedy was made.. Nerds. This film spawned FOUR sequels and a bunch of straight to VHS B titles that attempted to cash in on the nerd gimmick. It was made for 8 million dollars and in total only grossed 60 million. A film like that wouldn't even get made today, and if it did..it most certainly wouldn't get  a sequel.

It's easy to say..well films like these are being taken over by Netflix or by indi film makers getting their films on one of the many streaming formats..except, that isn't happening at all. Go over to Netflix, Hulu or Amazon and try to find something to watch. The actual films available are high on film quality..low on writing quality. These films by no means have the quality of even second rate straight to VHS films of days gone by.

I grew up during the 80s and 90s..and my father owned a little small town video store. I saw an insane amount of movies. Every weekend me and a few friends would settle in with some pizza and the VHS in my room. The direct to VHS finds, the late summer releases no one went to see. The films big stars and newbie directors cut their teeth on before they went on to bigger things...those movies aren't made anymore. Yes, TV has changed and we have bigger and more expansive television choices..but tell me, on any given night are you really having to choose between shows you watch, or is it pretty much the same standard couple of shows worth watching it's always been? Netflix?? I literally just spent an afternoon watching films with great cinematography..and god awful writing. Sure they have a few good series, but a series isn't a movie.These days I'm lucky to find a new film worth watching every month, forget every weekend.

Unfortunately, those non-blockbuster but still pretty good movies just aren't being made that much anymore. Why? ..because with he except of horror, everything is given some huge budget, at least one "star" and sent off with the expectation that it's gonna make about 100 million dollars. Inevitably every year some article comes out about the "break through" horror hit. This year it was Get Out. Get out was made for 4 million bucks and so far has made 251 million dollars.  Even if it had only made 50 million though, it would have been a hit! For some reason these days, only horror films are allowed to reach a target audience and even..occasionally...flop.

Instead all of the movies at the box office are aimed at making sure studios get not just a return on investment but a mega return. The theater is just super hero film after rebooted super hero film. Gone are the iconic films that made the 80s great. I sincerely wonder what kids today are going to look back on with nostalgia. The idea that only blockbusters are economically worth making is insane. My dad once told me, he would rather have five business making 1000 than one business he had to count on to make 5,000. In movie making terms, this should be easy to understand...apparently it isn't. Francis Ford Coppola made four of the most iconic films in film history, but he can’t get a movie produced anymore. He recently stated “You try to go to a producer today and say you want to make a film that hasn’t been made before; they will throw you out because they want the same film that works, that makes money,”

The fact is, films these days have to be able to cross multiple formats. Studios wont even consider making a movie unless tt has a theme park ride, and several young adult novels,  a Broadway play, three sequels, two reboots..with their own sequels, and a possible tie in Netflix series already in the works. Remember what I said a while back about having several business making 1000 bucks instead of betting it all on one business making 5000. Right now the diversity in films just isnt there, and like any business..diversity is key. Eventually the huge blockbuster model is going to fall and fall hard..and when it does, I hope there will be a bunch of risk taking film makers ready to make me laugh, cry, and scream in fear.  With out risk taking the majority of the iconic 80s movies we all love would have never happened.