Eddie’s 31 Days Of Halloween 2019: Day 18: Stephen King’s Thinner (1993)

There are a couple of things that I believe in this world and one of those is that you can not have horror with the master of horror Stephen King. The man is famous for having so many books that have been turned into films like It, Carrie, Stand By Me, Pet Semetary, Cujo, and many more. You also can not have an Eddie’s 31 Days Of Halloween without a Stephen King film and the one I chose for today is the 1996 film Thinner. The film stars Robert John Burke (RoboCop 3) as Billy Halleck, a hot shot lawyer from New England who has it all which includes his unhealthy weight. After a night out celebrating a victory in the court room, Billy by accidentally kills an old Gypsy woman (Antonette Schwartzberg). Unfortunately for Billy, he may have beat the system, but the 106 year old Patriarch of the Gypsys (Michael Constantine) puts a curse on him that will make him lose weight until he dies. The film also stars Joe Mantegna (Baby’s Day Out) as Richie, Bethany Joy Lenz (One Tree Hill) as Linda Halleck, Lucinda Jenney (Rain Man) as Heidi Halleck, Kari Wuhrer (Anaconda) as Gina Lempke, Sam Freed (Coneheads) as Dr. Houston, Daniel von Bargen (RoboCop 3) as Chief Hopley, John Horton (Texas) as Judge Rossington, and the film was directed by Tom Holland (Child’s Play).

The thing that I loved about the film has to be the transformation over time from a plump Billy Halleck to an almost dead/corpse looking Billy Halleck. That definitely took some work for good ol Robert John Burke to go in the fat suit for who knows how long a day to having to go through make up to look almost like an undead corpse. So, the make up and special effects department definitely deserves some kudos for that as they did a wonderful job. One thing that got to me in this film is that it literally took him constantly stuffing his face for his wife to finally tell him that he needed to get checked. No it wasn’t the fact that he lost 40 lbs in like two weeks or the fact that he was constantly stuffing his face right in front of her and he still lost weight. I was expecting the judge to look more like a lizard, but ended up looking like a flaky grandpa from the original Texas Chain Saw Massacre. It gets a little carried away at times especially with what Joe Mantegna does in the film, but I guess it gets the job done. I loved seeing Kari Wuhrer in the film as she was the object of every teenage adolescent in the 90’s or at least she was for me. She does a decent job although I thought she was more Italian with her accent than she did Romanian, but that could also be the price of growing up in America. I definitely think that this is a film worth checking out when you get a chance. ZI am going to give the film an B- for a final grade.

Soundtrack Saturdays: Gun Love by Slade Craven

I love movies that actually take the time to create a fake band with real songs for their film to make it feel more authentic. We saw that last week with Steel Dragon and now we get that with the straight to video film Turbulence 3: Heavy Metal. Turbulence 3: Heavy Metal was the third film int he Turbulence series and this time it took on a different direction than the previous three films. Slade Craven (played by John Mann) is a famous metal musician with a lot of haters, but it doesn’t phase him as he prepares to play his final show on board an Airplane for the world to see. The only problem is that the plane is then taken over by terrorists and a very deranged man. One of the cool things about the film is that Slade Craven manages to perform one song which is also our featured song for today called Gun Love. The song is pretty cool as it has that Industrial rock feel to it similar to bands like Skinny Puppy, Ministry, and so many more. The film also stars Rutger Hauer, Craig Sheffer, Joe Mantegna, Gabrielle Anwar, and so many more. Check out the track below:

Soundtrack Saturdays: Bastardizing Jellikit by Primus

I figured since we covered Primus for the album of the week, I would include them one more time this week and I found something from them for Soundtrack Saturdays. Back in 1994, 20TH Century Fox released the film Airheads which starred Brendan Fraser, Steve Buscemi, and Adam Sandler as members of a rock band called The Lone Rangers. The band is struggling to get signed or even to get heard so they decide to hijack a radio station and hold everyone hostage until they get a record deal. The film also starred Joe Mantegna, Michael McKean, Chris Farley, Ernie Hudson, Judd Nelson, and the very sexy Nina Siemaszko, but enough about the film. The soundtrack for the film Airheads featured the likes of White Zombie, Prong, Anthrax, Candlebox, Motorhead with Ice-T and Whitfield Crane, Stuttering John, and so many more. The film even featured a performance from White Zombie, but for today’s Soundtrack Saturday track we are featuring Primus with the track Bastardizing Jellikit. The song if you guessed it features a cool bass line from Les Claypool but it also features a little more guitar as it starts very eerie and the tempo is slow and brooding. The guitar playing on the track is phenomenal as Larry LeLonde does his thing on the six string and it flows well with Les’s bass grooves. I definitely suggest checking out the track below, but you should also check out the film cause it’s a classic. Plus, Steve Buscemi looks like Rex Brown of Pantera in the film (I think we found someone who could play him in a film).