OLD SCHOOL APRIL: WEEK THREE!

 This Old School April seems to be flying by unlike last year when I joined it late but seemed to have all the time in the world.  I did manage to read two actual booky-books as well as three GOOSEBUMPS-sized books (including 2 actual GOOSEBUMPS) plus a comic book (vintage 1972) which Kelsi specifically mentioned on her video as counting for the "picture book" prompt.  So there we are.  

First up is my second FEAR STREET book of all time (last year was my first); the 8th in the series entitled HALLOWEEN PARTY by R.L. Stine.  This puppy fulfilled 9 prompts, baybee:  Retro/Vintage, Time Warp, Throwback, Goonies, Halfway To Halloween, Once Upon A Forest, Scooby Doo, Back To the Future and Nirvana/Grunge.  A new student in town and her Uncle buy the old, haunted house on Fear Street and she then throws a Halloween Party -- but she only invites a specific few with seemingly no rhyme or reason.  The kids are puzzled as some of them don't really know each other let alone the 'new kid in town' who invited them.  They show up and the party goes along swimmingly until the lights go out.  They come back on to reveal a partygoers with a knife in his back.  The party continues from there with rather dangerous and scary things happening.  I enjoyed this one for what it was but it didn't blow my hair back overmuch.  A good one not fantastic.

Next read, I knocked a GOOSEBUMPS prompt off with GOOSEBUMPS:  VAMPIRE BREATH.  This is the edition I read and, unlike me, I prefer this artwork to the OG cover.  12 year old friends Freddy & Cara are in Freddy's basement/playroom when they accidentally knock over a cabinet while roughhousing.  ("Mom always said don't play ball in the house!").  Behind is a door to a secret room; or rather, an entire secret tunnel which leads them to a secret room containing a coffin.  They also discover a blue bottle.  Inside the coffin is a vampire named Count Nightwing.  Inside the bottle is something called 'vampire breath'.  The menacing vampire WANTS the vampire breath so that he can remember where he left his fangs and can return to his own time.  This was a really fun one and on the sillier side of Stine's GOOSEBUMPS oeuvre.  Not one of his best but fun all the same.This sucker (pun intended) fulfills 7 prompts!

Next I read yet ANOTHER GOOSEBUMPS book:  this time THE SCARECROW WALKS AT MIDNIGHT.  I'm a sucker for scary scarecrows and sadly there aren't enough really good scary scarecrow media.  This one, however, was a winner and I enjoyed it even more than VAMPIRE BREATH.  A brother and sister go to spend a vacation at their grandparents' farm.  Their grandparents look older and more haggard and don't seem like their usual selves.  Oddly, the grandparents' cornfield now has 12 scary-looking scarecrows where they used to have just one.  And the scarecrows seem to be coming to life.  As I said, this was a great GOOSEBUMPS story and is a newer reprint edition with a pretty nice new cover.  This scalliwag scarecrow fulfills 8 prompts!

The next book is the 'other' non-GOOSEBUMPS book that's the same size as a GOOSEBUMPS book and is also meant for kids/middle grade/YA and that's yet another edition in the WHO H.Q. series of non-fiction books which I've become semi-addicted to:  WHAT IS THE STORY OF DRACULA? by Michael Burgan and illustrated by David Malan.  Even though these books feature illustrations on almost ever page, I'm not counting it as a 'picture book' so this one fulfills 4 prompts.  As always, I'm loving the 'big head' cover artwork and this is one of my faves; especially the B&W colour scheme with only the name DRACULA, his eyes and his cape lining in red.  Awesome (bloody) sauce!  Of course, this is an account of Dracula from the mythical vampire of various cultures' folk tales to the writing of Bram Stoker's book to the stage plays and films from Bela Lugosi (as well as 1922's NOSFERATU) on.  Of course, there's nothing new for me to learn in this book but it was all nicely told featuring more splendid line drawings to savour!

Now the second actual booky-book I read was another non-fiction book:  the second installment in Stephen R. Bissette's CRYPTID CINEMA series:  THE BOGGY CREEK PRIMER.  If you don't already know, Bissette was the pencil artist on the classic DC Comics' run of SAGA OF THE SWAMP THING written by Alan Moore.  Nowadays, he's got a whole 'cryptid' thang going and he's appearing on various horror movie blu ray "special features" documentaries as well as giving us a lot of cryptid books.  The first volume of this series was Bigfoot-centric while this one features 'The Boggy Creek Monster' a.k.a the Fouke Monster featured in the epoch-making LEGEND OF BOGGY CREEK.  Other films in a similar vein are discussed as well including all those Schick Sunn Classics like BIGFOOT: THE MYSTERIOUS MONSTERS (remember that one, you'll be seeing it again in a minute).  The title world "primer" refers to the fact that this is apparently only the beginning chapters of a soon-to-be-published monumental tome.  This book fulfills 3 prompts.

And bringin' up the rear is that vintage 1972 comic book I mentioned:  THE PARTRIDGE FAMILY #13 from Charlton Comics.  I just snagged a copy of this on Devilzon since it's one I always wanted and, because Kelsi said comic books count as 'picture books', here it is.  Of course, I wanted it because it's an issue with a groovy 'spooky' vibe in the cover-featured story "The Cry in the Castle" written and drawn by Don Sherwood.  I can't recall if I ever had an issue of THE PARTRIDGE FAMILY comic book from Charlton but I have to say that Sherwood new how to churn out a comic book.  Sherwood drew HUGE panels (in this issue, at least) of just a single character's face i.e. a full page panel of David Cassidy with one word balloon.  I'll be this really cut down on his drawing time.  The stories themselves also are quite sparse in the writing category as I'm pretty sure I read the cover story completely in 3 minutes (and that's while pausing to admire the admittedly nice artwork which made each actor recognizable).  I wonder if Sherwood was copying from publicity photos?  Surely he must have been!  While there admittedly wasn't much content in the entire issue, it still had that wonderful early-70's look of Charlton comics (which I bought at the time) including all those Partridge Family adds for autographed photos of David Cassidy or Susan Dey's book on beauty tips and how to get boys.  In the mid-70's, when I went to the Pennsauken Mart with my grandfather, I would often pick up a paperback of THE PARTRIDGE FAMILY book series of mysteries often with heavy horror overtones such as TERROR BY NIGHT, THE HAUNTED HALL and MARKED FOR TERROR.  I still have them (the ones I got at the time, mind you, I didn't ever have them all) and should re-read one for Old School April but I fear it's probably a task for next year.  

Now it's on to the film watches.  First nostalgic watch was a documentary film I had back in the day on VHS called TWO ROOMS:  A TRIBUTE TO ELTON JOHN & BERNIE TAUPIN (1991).  This was back in the time when everyone suddenly realized how great Elton & Bernie were and made a tribute album covering their songs -- as well as this documentary about the whole history of the songwriting pair up until that time. 

Clips from this doc were Cerpts fodder back in the day and appeared on Cheeks' Video Cerpts.  This doc takes me right back to 1991 if, for no other reason, than what Bernie is wearing.  Holy crap!  A neon-blue do-rag and an open shirt, damn!  I thought YOU were the Brown Dirt Cowboy!!!  It's also a little sad to see the people in this doc who have since died:  Tina Turner, John Entwhistle, Sinead O'Connor.  This film only fulfills 1 prompt but it was a nostalgia bomb, I must say! 

The next film hearkens back to Stephen Bissette's BOGGY CREEK book up there and it's ...yes... BIGFOOT: THE MYSTERIOUS MONSTER aka THE MYSTERIOUS MONSTERS which I saw in da theater back in, I think, January 1977 (when Bissette mentions in his book the film was booked into Philadelphia and South Jersey cinemas).  The film itself was released in 1976 but I guess didn't get around to my wayz until January.  The poster image echoes the beautiful poster for LEGEND OF BOGGY CREEK and it was definitely deliberate.  I can't remember if the same artist did both but I wouldn't be surprised.  You will note down in the bottom left hand corner of the poster is the paperback book which I also bought at that time (and still own) which had the same cover as this movie poster.  That's ANOTHER book which would be a great re-read for Old School April but I guess that's another one for next year.  Peter Graves hosts/narrates this film with all the weight and authority his voice can muster.  The film was apparently first a shorter TV special just focusing on Bigfoot but it was expanded to include the Loch Ness Monster and the Abominable Snowman for cinema release.  I just love these paranormal-themed Schick Sunn Classics films (which include IN SEARCH OF NOAH'S ARK) we saw a lot of at the time since real scientific collaboration of evidence didn't seem like a priority!  One re-enactment in the film lifts the same "hairy arm smashing through a home's window" scene directly from LEGEND OF BOGGY CREEK.  Trashy pseudo-documentary at it's finest!  This one fulfills 2 prompts but it's nostalgia for me is on overload; taking me right back to my childhood years.  

This next film was on a Discord watch party but I was unable to watch it then so I watched my new 4K of Disney's BEAUTY AND THE BEAST which, yes, I had NEVER seen before.  Hey, you can't see EVERYTHING.  But I have seen it now because of Old School April.  And I enjoyed it very much.  Not as much as everyone else seems to but it was a very good movie.  Not a classic but very good.  And thank God it's one of the last of it's breed: actual honest-to-God animation instead of CGI crap.  Sorry CGI artists, no matter how much work and talent you put into it, CGI animation is nowhere near as good as REAL animation.  And THIS is REAL animation.  

Last nostalgic watch in the film categary is MEAN GUNS; a 1997 action flick which came out a couple years after PULP FICTION is is suffering from -- indeed, overdosed on -- Tarantino-itis!  Damn, this flick wants to be a Tarantino film SO BAD!!!  I understand this was a very popular movie rental in the late-90's video store days and I can see why.  It's a helluva lot of fun!  Practically non-stop bang bang shoot-'em-up!  And when the shooting stops and characters start having conversations, they're going for Tarantino-style dialogue like it's nobody's business.  Also the self-consciously (to me) constant use of Perez Prado mambo music is meant to evoke the masterful use of music QT uses in his films.  But, for all you QT haters out there, this movie is a prime example of how most people cannot do what Tarantino does.  Whereas Tarantino's dialogue from "I don't tip" to "Madonna's Big . . . uh . . . Richard" to "Royale with Cheese" are all masterfully written and SOMEHOW work as relevant scenes in QT's movies.  It's not just quirky, nonsensical dialogue for it's own sake.  And here, it's just quirky, nonsensical dialogue for it's own sake.  Having said that, it's so RIDICULOUS and obvious that this is what the MEAN GUNS filmmakers are going for that it's face-palm hilarious and a hoot to boot!  Combine this with gunplay that, admittedly, isn't particularly well-shot or edited, but damn near continuous and you have a bad movie which is hella entertaining.  And it sure hits that late 90's vibe nostalgia-wise.  I had never seen this one but it was recommended as a stupid good time by a couple people whose opinions I respect and it sure was that!  Ice-T plays Vincent Moon who brings together about 30 or 40 (not the 100 criminals letterboxd says) criminal mob members to a newly built maximum security prison which will have it's grand opening the following day.  Turns out, everyone gathered here has 'betrayed' the mob bosses in some way so the mob decided to punish them this way.  They are all going to be locked into the prison until midnight (or some time limit, I forget).  They are given tons of guns, knives and baseball bats and told to kill each other and, the final three survivors will get to split $10 million!  With a synopsis like that, whaddaya think you're in for?  Wild and wacky nonsense and this movie gives it to you!  Christopher Lambert (Tarzan & Highlander guy) is a nutso psychopath, Michael Halsey (Blake's 7) is a cool-as-a-cucumber killer and Deborah Van Valkenburgh (Warriors, come out and plaaaaaaayaaaaaaaay) is a fish out of water in this cartoon of a movie!

Speaking of cartoons, I watched 7 LOONEY TUNES & MERRIE MELODIES cartoons:  I LOVE TO SINGA (1936), CHOW HOUND (1951), HAREDEVIL HARE (1948) with, I think the first appearance of Marvin the Martian, DEVIL MAY HARE (1954) with the (possibly) first appearance of the Tasmanian Devil (I can't remember fer sure), BOYHOOD DAZE (1957), A PEST IN THE HOUSE (1947) with the OG voice of Elmer Fudd and Doc Gamble from the old time radio show FIBBER MCGEE & MOLLY:  Arthur Q. Bryan, and BEEP BEEP (1952) {is this the first Road Runner cartoon???  Again, who can remember these things?!?!?!}

On to the nostalgic TV watching thang.  I watched 5 episodes of THE BOB NEWHART SHOW (which also fulfilled the LIQUID DREAMS prompt of watching a TV show with a nostalgic crush of mine -- that being Suzanne Pleshette), 10 episodes of CHEERS, 4 episodes of TAXI, 5 episodes of NEWHART and 3 episodes of LAVERNE & SHIRLEY (also fulfilling the LIQUID DREAMS prompt with Cindy Williams).  

OLD SCHOOL APRIL WEEK TWO!

 WEEK TWO WAS A LITTLE SLIM FOR ME BECAUSE OF SOME ISSUES BEYOND MY CONTROL.

  That being said, this week's OSA is approved by the 'Old School Horror Posse'.  OK, so one of the reasons why I didn't get as much done as week one is because the evil overlords at my job poached an operator and we are now short-handed; consequently I got stuck working a double shift -- the second half being OVERNIGHT -- which means I worked from 2:30 in the afternoon until 7 am the following day.  Ain't like grand.  And very shortly, I will be stuck working 6 days a week until we get a replacement.  That being said . . . I'm gonna read books and watch movies while I'm at work, you SEE if I don't!!!  Now on to week two of OSA!

While I only managed to read two books in week two, I have some other books I'm reading but didn't finish yet.  The first book I read for week two was ANOTHER host rec:  GOOSEBUMPS:  THE BEAST FROM THE EAST and it was goofy and fun.  I liked it!  And while I didn't get many books read this week, BEAST FROM THE EAST fulfilled TEN count 'em TEN prompts:  Host Rec, Retro/Vintage, Neon, Time Warp, Free Willy, Goosebumps book, Fern Gully, Monster Squad, Goonies and Once Upon A Forest prompts!

After that, I only managed another of those 'WHO WAS/WHO HQ' books I'm currently obsessed with.  It's the one I told you about last week:  WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT THE LOCH NESS MONSTER? by Steve Korte.  I love how they STILL managed to do the cover art with a giant head on Nessie!  This book only fulfilled 5 prompts which only looks slim next to BEAST FROM THE EAST:  Free Willy, Fern Gully, Monster Squad, Goonies and True Life prompts.  

I managed to watch no nostalgic TV shows in week two; however I did knock off a few nostalgic movies -- all from the nineties -- THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER, THE ROCK, PATRIOT GAMES and A FEW GOOD MEN.  RED OCTOBER also fulfilled an extra prompt:  watch a Tim Curry movie.  The great, magnificent Tim Curry is in that one!  It's funny because I never really liked RED OCTOBER much (I've seen all 4 movies before) and loved PATRIOT GAMES; I found this rewatch that my opinion of RED OCTOBER went up and PATRIOT GAMES went down a little.  THE ROCK, meanwhile, is the biggest turd I've ever seen and my opinion didn't change that much; other than to wallow in the pure stupidity of it all making it now a fun watch.  And, of course, A FEW GOOD MEN is A FEW GOOD MEN.  I hadn't seen THAT one is so long that I had forgotten the presence of three of my favourite actors in it:  Kevin Pollak and the late, great J.T. Walsh!

I had completely forgotten they were in this!!!  Speaking of which, I had also forgotten the great Tony Todd was in THE ROCK!!!  I had the extreme pleasure of meeting Mr. Todd at the Monster Mania convention several years ago and he was such a friendly, generous gentleman!  I love him to bits!!!!  He elevates any movie he's in! 

PATRIOT GAMES, on this rewatch, is still awesome during it's first -- oh, I dunno -- hour? -- but really lags in a way I never noticed before.  And even the slam-bang finale didn't hold up as I remembered it.  This is interesting because I just bought the JACK RYAN 5 FILM COLLECTION 4K box set and the next film is CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER which I remember hating back in the day.  I wonder if I'll suddenly like it if I do a rewatch?  So yeah, that's week two in the books.  I'm hoping to do better during week three.  

OLD SCHOOL APRIL: WEEK ONE!

 ALREADY WE'RE A WEEK DOWN!!! 

Time flies like the wind . . . and fruit flies like bananas!!!  The first week of OSA '24 is in the record books and have I been a busy lil blue barracuda {CHOMP CHOMP}.  I'm a little surprised at myself for having read this many books in the first week; granted some of them were thin.  And I even managed to cram in a few host recs;

First read was a short novel/novella called BELOW by Laurel Hightower which was a Mothman book (as evidenced by the cover) without the word "Mothman" ever having been mentioned in the book itself.  This was a book I'm pretty sure was already read by our BB team leader Kelsi; at least I saw it on one of her videos and decided to read it.  It was pretty awesome sauce and actually there are a lot of other nasty, scary creatures in this book that are the REAL threat here.  I would recommend this one very much because it manages to pack a lot of unexpected twists and turns in it's brief page count.  Fulfills 4 host prompts: written by a woman, monster on the cover and/or in the story, novella and a book that will give you nightmares.

Next we have two books from my newest obsession:  the "Who Was" series of middle grade/YA books which they have about practically everything there is to make a book about.  I mean, they have a book about Travis Kelce, fer corn's sake!!!  These a short non-fiction books for kids and the two I read this week are "WHERE IS THE BERMUDA TRIANGLE?" and "WHAT WERE THE SALEM WITCH TRIALS?".  Most if not all of the books have that "big head" artwork on the covers which I love but inside every book there are line drawings on almost every page which are by different artists but all of which are very nice and descriptive of what the book is discussing.  I have to tell you I've become so addicted to these books that I've boughted myself about THIRTY of 'em!!!  So it's safe to say you'll be seeing more during Old School April.  As a matter of fact, I'm already reading "WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT THE LOCH NESS MONSTER?" as we speak.  Both books fulfill the prompts for written by a woman, non-fiction, Middle Grade/YA Book and the Salem Witch Trial one also fulfills "a book with witches".   

FIVE-MINUTE MYSTERIES was next and this one I saw on Cameron Chaney's Library Macabre youtuber video.  Cameron pulled it from his shelf saying he was gonna read it so I decided to pick up a used copy and read it too because it's gonna fulfill a HELLUVA lotta prompts.  Kelsi also had the same idea because, after watching Cameron's video, she ALSO pulled this book off her shelf to read for OSA.  And since we're all on the Blue Barracuda's team, that's gonna mean a TON of points for us CHOMP CHOMP!!!!  I was actually surprised how well these were written.  I thought, being a bunch of short stories taking 5 minutes to read, would mean they were throw-aways but no indeed they're all pretty great!  This whopper fulfilled ELEVEN prompts, yo!  This is owing to each short story featuring a different kind of monster.

Speaking of Cameron Chaney, the next book I read was a host rec from Kelsi of Cameron Chaney's own novel AUTUMNCROW HIGH: FRESH HELL and I absolutely loved this one.  This one I gave 5 stars and it wasn't even because I've watched the guy's youtuber channel for years and was being nice.  No, this is one incredibly good book in the style of those YA horror series like FEAR STREET of POINT HORROR etc.  Seriously, this is one terrific book and I can't wait till Cameron comes out with the next volume in the series.  Besides being a host rec, it fulfilled 5 other prompts!

The next book I devoured was another host recommendation called SHIT, ACTUALLY by Lindy West.  This is a non-fiction book which is quite hilarious.  West, the author of SHRILL, evaluates a lot of big big BIG movies of recent decades including SPEED, TWILIGHT, HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER'S STONE, FORREST GUMP, THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION and makes a case for why THE FUGITIVE is the greatest film ever made and there was no need to make any more movies after that because well they already made THE FUGITIVE.  This one fulfills 6 other prompts besides getting points for being a host rec.

Next is another book I read because I saw Cameron Chaney pull it offa his shelf in his "Shopping My Shelves" video for OSA.  It's a total GOOSEBUMPS knock-off called SPINE CHILLERS MYSTERIES:  PIZZA WITH EXTRA CREEPS.  Now this little puppy fulfills 10 prompts.  You heard me.  10 prompts in it's 116 pages and it's damn lucky it does because I hated hated HATED this one.  I wasn't paying strict attention, I guess, to Cameron's video because somewhere he must've said it's not only a GOOSEBUMPS knock-off but it's a CHRISTIAN GOOSEBUMPS knock-off.  So yeah, the main kid in the story -- the one who eats too much pizza with extra cheese which gives him an over-active imagination -- is constantly asking God what the Bible thinks about ghosts.  Now, this is not a problem in itself but the very concept of a CHRISTIAN kids horror book means that, by definition, ABSOLUTELY NOTHING SUPERNATURAL can happen in the book.  The kid and his family move into a haunted house which used to belong to a witch.  But the Bible does not allow for the existence of ghosts or werewolves or any other type of monster which is the bread-and-butter of every single GOOSEBUMPS knock-off as well as the R.L. Stine series itself.  Therefore, the entire book is a series of "Oh, there's a sinister figure in the attic gonna get me . . . oh, it's a dress dummy", "Oh, there's a scary ghost materializing in the corner of the attic . . . oh, it's a window curtain blowing in the wind", "Oh, in the darkened room, something grabbed my arm!!!! . . . oh, it's just the girl standing next to me.", "OH, there's a terrifying creature with yellow glowing eyes that lurks in shadows of the coal cellar . . . oh, it's a cat."  Literally NOTHING AT ALL happens.  Every so-called scare is just a misunderstanding or a BOO prank played by one of the kid's friends.  This is tres tres weak and I advise you to stay well clear of this series.  Pick up a GOOSEBUMPS instead.  I'm tellin' ya, I nearly DNF'ed this one and it's only 116 pages of big print.  Thankfully, it earned my team a lot of points.  Sheesh!  Guess they can't ALL be winners!

Then we come to the movies and telly watched for OSA. 

So this week I watched 3 count 'em THREE host recommendation movies:  THE GREAT MOUSE DETECTIVE, EVERYTHING IS TERRIBLE! THE MOVIE and THE HIDDEN and all three of demz wuz 4 outta 5 stars.  Awesome sauce and totally tubular each and every one of them!!!!  And point points points!  Then I watched the 90's made-for-cable-TV adaptation of the Stephen King short story (which I read when it came out in the PRIME EVIL paperback in 1988) THE NIGHT FLIER and that was much better than I thought it was going to be.  I really enjoyed that one.  Next came 4 rewatches of old school 90's-early 2000's (all before the year 2005 per the rulez) movies:  the three Dark Castle remakes of William Castle movies HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL (1999), THIRT3EN GHOSTS  (2001) and GHOST SHIP (2002) -- all of which I'm a big fan of, you haters -- and the classic SPEED this time on a beautiful 4K.  Wow, remember when Sandra Bullock was so charming before she started taking herself too seriously???

And for the nostalgic telly, I watched 6 episodes of CHEERS, 4 episodes of CLARISSA EXPLAINS IT ALL (Naaaaa naaaaa na naa naaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhh), 2 episodes of TALES FROM THE CRYPTKEEPER, 2 episodes of DARKWING DUCK and 1 episode of FRIDAY THE 13TH: THE SERIES.

Oh yeah, I also fulfilled three activity prompts:  I attended 1 official OSA Sprint, I ate 4 Eggos (actually since I'm diabetic I ate high protein waffles which is allowed under the rulez) and I wore a nostalgic outfit (i.e. my Blue Barracuda T-Shirt, CHOMP CHOMP!).  So I'll see ya back here for week two.

MARCH 2024 Top Ten List

 HERE IS A LIST OF THE FILMS I WATCHED FOR THE VERY FIRST TIME IN MARCH 2024.

1. CANDY LAND  (2022)
2. RED ROCK WEST  (1993)
3. THE KILLING FIELDS  (1984)
4. MOON GARDEN  (2022)
5. DEADSTREAM  (2022)
6. THE FACTS OF MURDER  (1959)
7. THE BOOK OF HARTH  (2022)
8. THE OFFENCE  (1973)
9. THE DRESSER  (1983)
10. SPOONFUL OF SUGAR  (2022)

In addition,  here is everything . . . and I DO MEAN EVERYTHING . . . that I watch in March 2024:

OLD SCHOOL APRIL: YEAR TWO FOR ME

 SO, IT'S A LITTLE OVER A WEEK UNTIL MY SECOND FORAY INTO OLD SCHOOL APRIL COMMENCES!!!!

  Last year, my Mom was really into my participation in Old School April as she was a fan of Kelsi's Slime and Slashers youtuber channel and watched it with me all the time.  She followed every book I read and movie/TV show I watched to complete the prompts and get points for my team the Blue Barracudas (CHOMP, CHOMP, BEEYATCHES!!!!).  Since my Mom is gone this year, I'm dedicating this year's Old School April to her memory because I know she'd love me participating once again. 

Of course, this year I am on the Blue Barracuda team (next year the "Legend of the Hidden Temple" teams will be gone in favour of an as-yet-undetermined theme and we hope to take it out in style!!!).  Of course, everyone and anyone is invited to participate and you can go to the Slime and Slashers youtuber channel and find all the prompts etc. right here. Kelsi has all the links you will need to participate in the comment section for this video.  I've been prepping for this since the beginning of March (or earlier) and these are the books I've put on my OSA TBR that fulfill prompts and will get me heaps of points for my barracudas:

I would also like to point out that those final four books are all written by David Sodergren and I don't into to try reading ALL FOUR of dem -- I'm hoping to pick one of them.  SATAN'S BURNOUTS MUST DIE and THE HAAR fill specific prompts so it'll probably be dem.

ADDENDUM:  After watching the new video on Cameron Chaney's Library Macabre youtuberz channel (co-host of OSA as well as fellow Blue Barracuda), I boughted 2 more books for Old School April:  POINT HORROR UNLEASHED: THE HANGING TREE by Paul Stewart & FiIVE MINUTE FRIGHTS by William A. Walker Jr. and you will see thei covers added above.  We'll BOTH be reading that one this OSA!

All the hosts for the OSA team (Silver Snakes, Purple Parrots & Blue Barracudas) also have host recommendatons for books and movies.  These are the host recs for movies which I will try to fulfill (because I own all of 'em already):

And these are the host book recs I will also try to fulfill since I own DEM already TOO!

  

Of course, there will be others added as I acquire more that fit the prompts.  So wish me luck and I will post in May with my results on what books I read and what movies & TV shows I watched that fit the nostalgic prompts.

MECHANICAL VIOLATOR HAKAIDER (1995)

 OR "人造人間ハカイダー" 

This mid-90's Japanese movie rips off more movies than I can shake a severed T-800 arm at!  Firstly, the events take place in a post-apocalyptic future where the government (called the Parliament) is a dictatorship that wants to bring peace and tranquility by preventing anyone from having free thought. 

King Gurjev . . . or is it Girjev?

But instead of Trump doing it, it's done by a weedy, white clad & feather-adorned fella called King Gurjev (Yasuaki Honda) -- interesting that his name is very similar to G.I. Gurdjieff . . . . who operates out of a completely white building and keeps an army of mind-controlled cyborg white-clad 'stormtroopers' in his capital of Jesus Town.  The wikipedia page for this movie says Jesus Town is built over the ruins of Jerusalem but I didn't get that from watching the movie.  Actually, I didn't get MUCH plot exposition from the movie until about halfway through when a group of rebels do a huge info-dump about what's going on.  Up until that point, there is only a tiny bit of dialogue and the movie just sort of begins and keeps barrelling along like a runaway train without explaining much. 

This, of course, is not meant to be a criticism as, by and large, I enjoyed the hell out of this movie.  But as you can see, it owes a LOT to a LOT of other movies such as any post-apocalyptic flick you can name as well as the white "stormtroopers" of STAR WARS.  But that's only the tip of the iceberg.  The movie starts with said band of rebels/criminals going through an abandoned underground system of tunnels looking for treasure. Instead they find a guy in black armor chained to a chair.  This is Hakaider -- a sort of Terminator-type figure -- who quickly breaks out of his chains and goes off blasting countless government 'stormtroopers' as the rebels tag along.  The TERMINATOR 2 vibes are increased by Hakaider's ownership of a motorcycle and the riding thereof.  When Hakaider is not wearing his full armor, he transforms instantaneously into a regular-looking guy named Ryo (Yuji Kishimoto) who one of the rebels/crooks Kaoru (Mai Hosho) immediately gets the hots for.  Meanwhile, King Gurjev (or Girjev, accounts vary) has his owner terminator-type guy (also in WHITE armour) named . . . wait for it . . . Michael (Toshiyuki Kikuchi but voiced by Kazuhiko Inoue)

Ryo and Kaoru

that he sends out to bash Hakaider to bits.  So the entire movie basically consists of constant action scenes.  It's kinda hilarious that the white stormtroopers constantly fire their guns at Hakaider to absolutely no effect -- and keep on doing it.  By this point, guys, you're just wasting ammo.  Be like Michael and use bazookas and stuff; that has a little more of an effect.  The gang of crooks turned rebels have the right idea since King Gurjev's idea of insuring a utopia is to lobotomize every citizen into compliance.  So we're definitely with the rebels and Hakaider/Ryo's fight against them (unless you're one of those idiots who think that's actually a good idea) and root along with them as they fight against that nasty ole government tyranny.  Now, as mentioned before, the inside of Gurjev's fortress is all white; white walls aplenty. 

Red Velvet Cake anyone???

The fun thing is that, when Hakaider gets inside and starts battling Michael and they shoot and/or are bashed into the walls, the interior is bright red so the walls look like they have open wounds!  All the interior wiring behind the walls is also solid red.  The wounds in the walls reminded me of a red velvet cake in some ways.  Really cool!  Besides the HEAVY 'borrowing' of ideas and styles from the Terminator movies, there are also some steals from things like the Mad Max movies including a camera shot barrelling down the road I swear is a direct lift!  Oh, and did I mention that the top of Hakaiders head (in the armour) is a clear dome with his exposed brain in it?  Noice! 

Michael

The design of Michael's armour does have something of a hint of "ULTRAMAN" to it and King Girjev's feathery get-up is very anime, unsurprisingly.  And there is one point where a character's severed head is attached to a mechanical monster which appears VERY Xenomorph-like (a la the ALIEN movies).  From a cursory look-around, I've seen a whole line of HAKAIDER action figures so this must be pretty popular in Japan.  It's fairly popular with me as it's a goofy good time.  I went into this thinking it was more like an ULTRAMAN ripoff with Kaiju monsters but it's not that at all; it's more of an anime live-action bang bang shoot 'em up and I'm good with that.