Star Wars Flashback: Happy Halloween, Ben Cooper

This Halloween is going to be a damp, soggy one for me with Hurricane Sandy beating up the east coast, so I thought that I would warm my geeky heart with a trip down Halloween memory lane to a much simpler time. A time when Halloween costumes were easy to find and cheap to purchase. A time when a flimsy piece of molded plastic, a thin elastic strap, and an easy-to-tear vinyl suit bearing a copyrightable logo could pass for a Halloween costume. A time when Halloween itself was all but owned by Ben Cooper, Inc.

I don't know much about Ben Cooper, Inc. as a company, other than that it had the licensing rights to produce cheap Halloween costumes of just about any character you could think of during the 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s. These costumes were everywhere when Halloween season rolled around, so much so that it became synonymous with Halloween itself when I was growing up. Talk to anyone around my age or older (or even slightly younger) and I'll guarantee that they've worn at least one Ben Cooper costume for Halloween during their lifetimes. Of course, I'm being modest--they probably wore several Ben Cooper costumes, since they were so easy to find and purchase. Thanks to Ben Cooper, Inc., even the most negligent and emotionally distant parents could provide their kids with a passable Halloween experience.

Looking back, I'm amazed at how much chutzpah Ben Cooper, Inc. had in its selection of characters to market as Halloween costumes. It even produced costumes based on the Rubik's Cube toy and Atari's Asteroids video game. (Click here to see RetroCrush's list of the worst costumes produced by Ben Cooper, Inc. and its competitors.) I kept my costume Ben Cooper selections limited to Star Wars--I had the costumes for Darth Vader and a Stormtrooper, in that order--and in honor of that, I've assembled a picture gallery of Ben Cooper Star Wars costumes based on pictures that I've found around the net. Not all of them are here--I couldn't find a decent picture of a Ben Cooper Yoda costume--but I found enough to let you know that we've certainly come a long, long way in terms of license Halloween costumes. Click below to see the gallery, including the Ben Cooper R2-D2 costume. (Yes, there really was a Ben Cooper R2-D2 costume. That's chutzpah for you.)

Darth Vader:

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Stormtrooper:

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Luke and Leia:

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C-3PO and R2-D2:

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Boba Fett:

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Chewbacca and other Star Wars aliens:

Check out other Ben Cooper, Inc. retrospectives at the Shroud of Thoughts blog, Retroland, PlaidStallions, and the Official Star Wars Blog.

Giant Insects Reign Supreme in Wii's Escape from Bug Island

I'm a big fan of "big bug" movies, so it would seem obvious that I would pick up a copy of a survival horror video game called Escape from Bug Island for my Nintendo Wii, right? Well ... not necessarily. When the game first appeared in the U.S. back in 2007, it was panned by most video game reviewers. Yet with this game's drop below the $10 price point, I recently decided to give this game a chance anyway to see if the critics were right. Speaking as a big bug movie fan, they weren't.

I can think of several survival horror video games for the Wii that have better graphics, better level designs, and better stories. Even Wii's other bug-centric game, 2009's Deadly Creatures, has better production values. Yet where Escape from Bug Island really delivers is where it delivers the most: It's got plenty of big, icky, human-eating bugs ... and that is AWESOME! Read on for my complete review.

In Escape from Bug Island, you play as Ray, a university freshman who reluctantly accompanies Michelle (Ray's secret crush) and Mike (Ray's best friend) to Beelzebub Island, an isolated location that's perpetually shrouded in a thick fog, so that Michelle can study the island's insect population. After Michelle and Mike wander off from the characters' camp site, Ray goes after them and encounters the island's many monstrous residents while searching for his lost friends.

Bug Island is a basic game as survival horror titles go. The graphics lack polish and the music cues are few in selection. The game's story is simple--there aren't many characters, and there are no puzzles to solve or secret codes to remember. Even the game's time travel subplot, which has you playing some of the levels again with new weapons and unlocked areas, doesn't complicate the overall story or game play. That said, the game's dialog is written in a hokey style that openly pokes fun at the game's b-movie premise. (Case in point: one of your weapons is a can of bug spray.) Bug Island isn't the same over-the-top exercise in camp as Zombies Ate My Neighbors! or Stubbs The Zombie, but its attitude of self-mockery is impossible to miss.

The game is played mostly from a third-person perspective, with occasional shifts to a first-person perspective depending on the weapon(s) you are using. Your weapon inventory grows from simple blunt objects (a stick, a baseball bat and rocks) to more sophisticated means of self-defense (knives, swords and guns) as the game progresses, and each level consists of maze-like forests, swamps, caves and ancient ruins that you have to traverse from beginning to end. Even though controlling Ray's walking and running motions through the Wii nunchuk is somewhat clunky at times (he doesn't handle sharp turns very well), controlling the weapons through the Wiimote is both accurate and intuitive.

A giant centipede feeding frenzy.

As the game's title suggests, Bug Island provides an ample supply of bugs for you to avoid, squash, beat, shoot and/or kill. The bugs range in size from a foot long to human height to car-sized, as well as various points in between. They include centipedes, flies, cockroaches, spiders, crickets, praying mantises, moths and maggots. (Curiously, spiders are the only arachnids in the game--over-sized scorpions, ticks and mites are nowhere to be found on the island.) These bugs crawl on you, jump at you, fly into your face, stab at you with their claws and cut you with their sharp mandibles. They buzz, screech and make other noises that one would expect to be made by really big bugs. The only normal-sized insects are the ones that fly together in large swarms that will eat you alive in a matter of seconds if you attract their attention. Fighting off this menagerie of creepy critters will inevitably make your skin crawl, so much so that anyone who has entomophobia and/or arachnophobia should avoid this game.

If the big bugs aren't enough, Bug Island provides plenty of other monsters as well, including sharp-toothed flying fish, bear trap-like carnivorous plants, giant frogs, and King Kong-sized apes with exposed brains and glowing red eyes. There's also a selection of human-animal hybrids such as lizard women, dog-like creatures with human faces, and a delightfully disgusting human-insect hybrid that has a steady stream of maggots dripping from its abdomen.

Indeed, Bug Island has enough monsters to rival any Resident Evil game, and the scares they produce are intensified by the game's use of ambient noises and pervasive application of fog. In a practical sense, the fog hides some of the game's graphic shortcomings, but it also leaves you guessing time and time again as to what will crawl, jump or fly towards you next.

If you're a creature feature junkie like me, then Escape from Bug Island is the game for you. It's the worst camping trip that you'll love to play.

Skew (2011) Movie Review: When Video Cameras See Dead People

I missed last weekend's premiere release of Paranormal Activity 4, but I did have the time to watch another kind of "found footage" movie called Skew, which was written and directed by Sevé Schelenz and has won a few awards on the indie film circuit. Read on for my complete review.

Skew is about three friends--Simon (Rob Scattergood), Rich (Richard Olak) and Eva (Amber Lewis)--who go on a cross-country road trip to a friend's wedding. Simon brings along a video camera to record the trip and their numerous stops at gaudy tourist attractions. As the journey progresses, the camera starts to exhibit peculiar quirks: distorting sounds, skipping video frames, turning on by itself, blurring people's faces, and seeing things that aren't really there. Is the camera acting as a window into the supernatural, or is it providing clues to the characters about their ultimate fates?

Even though it has the look and feel of a found footage film, Skew isn't actually a found footage film because the footage you see is never "found". Instead, the film is shot in such a way that requires you see the story strictly through the camera's lens, both when Simon is using the camera and whenever the camera turns itself on. (Hint: Rich and Eva don't see the exact same things that Simon does when they look through the camera's viewfinder.)

Another significant difference is how and when the footage is shot. In many found footage movies, much of the footage is out of focus or shot in the dark in order to establish and maintain the moods of mystery and suspense; on the other hand, Skew is shot mostly during the day with ample amounts of sunlight. Such brightness provides its own sort of unease, particularly when it calls attention to the camera's odd behavior and the strange events it allows Simon to witnesses. Whenever the camera turns itself on, it is usually facing something other than the characters but you can eavesdrop on what the characters are saying; these scenes of disjointed voyeurism add to film's prevailing atmosphere of confusion and dread.

Skew is essentially a ghost story, although it is not the kind like The Haunting (1963) and Poltergeist (1982) where ghosts are the central point that moves the plot forward. The movie is more like The Devil's Backbone (2001) and Head Trauma (2006), movies where supernatural beings and paranormal occurrences coexist alongside the living as a sort of warped reflection of reality. To be more specific, Skew tells the story of what happens when a supernatural phenomenon enters the life of someone whose sanity is already beginning to unravel.

An anonymous specter ... or a familiar face?

With its unique approach to the found footage genre and its clever use of the supernatural as a backdrop for a character-driven drama, I found myself thinking about Skew long after the final credits rolled. Even though it was clear from Skew's style that its ending would be a grim one, I could not guess how the story of Simon, Rich and Eva was going to end as I was watching it. There are some points in the movie where the dialog feels scripted, but it's not enough to detract from the overall narrative.

Skew may frustrate viewers because it deliberately obscures some of its key plot points. There's a connection between the blurred faces and the ghosts that appear through the camera, as there is a significance to when a person is viewed for the first time through the camera's lens and when a person's face becomes blurred. Unfortunately, these narrative rules are not applied clearly or consistently, resulting in two off-screen deaths--and possibly a third--that are heavily inferred but never explicitly confirmed, as well as a final image before the end credits that's more baffling than it is revealing. There's also an awkward subplot involving a police officer; even though the subplot provides a tense interrogation scene that reveals important information, it leads up to a character death that's far too contrived and improbable to be shocking.

If you already despise the found footage subgenre of horror cinema, Skew isn't going to change your mind. Yet if you're willing to try something that takes a fresh (and somewhat flawed) approach to the subjective horrors that can be witnessed through a home video camera, Skew is worth your time. Skew is currently unavailable on DVD or Blu-ray, but you can probably watch it on demand on various video sites around the Internet.

The Complete Batcave, Lego Style

If Bruce Wayne ever decides to re-design the Batcave, he may want to talk to these guys first:

Meet Carlyle Livingston II and Wayne Hussey, two Lego aficionados who took it upon themselves to make this astonishingly detailed Batcave replica. According to Discovery.com, "This is the culmination of about 400 hours of work over three months, completed in March. This intricate Batcave employs the use of four motors to operate some cool features, such as the Batmobile's turntable, a lift for the vehicle and a wall with rotating costumes and weapons. The masterpiece also integrates lighting, bringing to life this grand project. ... Weighing in at 100 pounds, the duo estimates the creation to use about 20,000 pieces 'but it’s probably much more.'"

Looking at pictures of this amazing feat, two things immediately came to mind:

1. This Batcave set dwarfs every other Batcave play set ever made, both in terms of details and features, with room for all of the iconic Bat vehicles.

2. I really, really need to pick up a copy of the Lego Batman 2 video game.

Click below to see more pictures of the Lego-ized Batcave.

A Gallery of Gleefully Ghoulish Dolls by Shain Erin

I found some interesting pictures the other week that I thought I would share on my blog, pictures of horrific, malformed dolls made by Shain Erin. I've seen quite a few horror-themed dolls and action figures over the years, but very few of them are as creepy as those produced by Erin. In fact, they remind me of the dark, enigmatic dolls from Richard Sala's giallo-esque graphic novel, The Chuckling Whatsit.

According to the profile Erin provided on his Wordpress site, "For the last several years I’ve been preoccupied with dolls: I see them as a long under appreciated art form with virtually unlimited expressive possibilities. I’m inspired by traditional world art figures (kachina, bochia, nkisi, namchi, shadow puppets, etc.) while working to push the boundaries of what a “doll” is as far as my imagination and skills will take it. ... These are not comforting toys; they can be challenging and defiant, disturbing and enchanting, irrational and frightening, beautiful and sad. They have stories they yearn to tell, and they hold secrets they will never give up. I like to think of dolls as spirit vessels and the making of a doll a kind of offering or invitation. It’s always a collaboration between me and whatever spirit comes forward."

Unfortunately, the Wordpress site that I quoted above, which features his work from 2008 to 2011, is the only site that I have been able to find so far that it directly linked to Erin. Neither his official site nor his Esty page are working, so I have no idea how to contact him to find out if he still makes the dolls or how to purchase them. Click below to see a picture gallery of some of his dolls, dolls that evoke thoughts of ghosts, zombies, mummies, and other macabre nightmares.