Alam Nyo Ba?

I have watched the original Ghostbusters, a movie that was released when I was an infant, many times over the decades, but the majority of my viewings were packed into the earliest years of my life – and I remember, even as a little kid, being fascinated by the beauty of the “Female Student” participating in Venkman’s rigged ESP test. One of my girlfriend’s all-time favorite movies is the coming-of-age dance movie The In Crowd, which she watched on repeat as a kid. The actress who played the Female Student in Ghostbusters, Jennifer Runyon, had a lead role in The In Crowd, so we’re both very sad to hear the news that Runyon has passed away at the age of 65.

Runyon was born in Chicago, Illinois on April 1, 1960, the daughter of radio DJ Jim Runyon and actress Jane Roberts. She followed her mother into an acting career, making her screen debut in the 1980 Christmas slasher To All a Goodnight (which was directed by David Hess of The Last House on the Left). From there, she landed a job on the soap opera Another World, appearing on 111 episodes as a character named Sally Frame.

She did a lot of TV work through the ’80s and ’90s, appearing on episodes of Boone, The Fall Guy, The Master; Magnum, P.I.; The Highwayman, Charles in Charge, Who’s the Boss?, Dear John, Valerie, Quantum Leap, Booker; Murder, She Wrote; Beverly Hills, 90210; and Vinnie & Bobby, plus the miniseries Space and the TV movies Six Pack, Pros & Cons, Dreams of Gold: The Mel Fisher Story, Blue de Ville, Tagteam, and Till Death Do Us Part.

The most popular TV movie she ever worked on was 1988’s A Very Brady Christmas, where Runyon replaced Susan Olsen from the original sitcom as Cindy Brady after Olsen dropped out due to a contract dispute (and because the filming schedule conflicted with her honeymoon plans). A Very Brady Christmas was a major TV event that year and the second highest rated television film of the season. 37+ years later, I still remember sitting down to watch that premiere airing with my family. Last December, A Very Brady Christmas was shown on MeTV’s House of Svengoolie, and Runyon was interviewed in that episode.

In addition to To All a Goodnight, Ghostbusters, and The In Crowd, Runyon’s film career included Up the Creek, The Falcon and the Snowman, Flight of the Spruce Goose, 18 Again!, A Man Called Sarge, and Killing Streets. After marrying Todd Corman, the nephew of legendary producer Roger Corman, in 1991, Runyon largely stepped away from acting, working as a teacher and focusing on their children: son, Wyatt, and daughter, Bayley. They have both worked in the entertainment industry, as Wyatt was a production assistant on the 2013 Corman production Piranhaconda and Bayley is an actress with over 20 credits to her name.

If you grew up on the ’80s like I did, chances are that Jennifer Runyon spent a good amount of time on your TV screen.

After appearing in the 1993 Corman horror film Carnosaur, Runyon didn’t act again until 2015. In the last decade, she has worked on Silent Night, Bloody Night 2: Revival; Bloodsucka Jones vs. the Creeping Death, Terror Tales, Gunfight at Silver Creek, and Spectral Squad: The Haunting of Sophie Lawson. She also had her own cooking podcast.

Runyon still seemed to be in great health and spirits in December, but it’s being reported that she was diagnosed with cancer quite recently and her fight with the disease was very brief. Our heartfelt condolences go out to her family, friends, and fans.

The post Jennifer Runyon of Ghostbusters, A Very Brady Christmas, and The In Crowd has passed away at age 65 appeared first on JoBlo.

PLOT: A 19-year-old criminal, Tommy, is kidnapped and forced into a rehabilitation process by a dysfunctional couple, Chris and Kathryn, who try to make him a “good boy.” Tommy must find a way to escape.

REVIEW: I’ll always love a movie that isn’t quite what it seems on the surface. Even when you see the poster for Heel, with a family looking picturesque only to notice the chain and dog collar on one of them, and you know you’re in for something different. And with two powerhouse actors at the forefront, it’s hard not to have high expectations. The story follows Tommy, a public nuisance who spends most of his nights partying and being a hooligan. If left unchecked, he’s going to be yet another criminal who makes society worse. He’s kidnapped by a mysterious family and chained up, and they try to teach him how to behave and atone for his past behavior.

Stephen Graham (who was in last year’s fantastic one-take TV show Adolescence) is extremely layered as Chris. There’s something off about him, and it’s all bubbling beneath the surface. Yet there’s still a kindness there, where it feels like he’s genuinely doing this with the best of intentions. When Tommy needs punishment, it’s almost a punishment to Chris as well. I loved his dynamic with Andrea Riseborough’s Kathryn, who plays his voice. She’s very subdued, having lost her son, and is a bit shut off from the world. But she clearly agrees with her husband’s methods and is the ying to his yang.

I can’t remember the last time I disliked a character as much as Anson Boon’s Tommy. He’s such a little shit and the way he treats people is pure selfishness. He thinks of only himself and it works so perfectly for this story. If they didn’t go as far with these qualities, the rehabilitation would have felt out of place or harsh. But this is what Tommy deserves and it really allows for a more nuanced story to unfold. Boon does a tremendous job and has you feeling for him by the end. And it’s extremely impressive what he’s able to do while chained up for most of the film.

There are moments of beauty amongst the dark chaos, and director Jan Komasa refuses to color things black and white. There’s a lot of morality that stays in a uniquely gray area, and it makes everything so much more interesting. It really challenges you as, especially in the first act, everyone seems like an antagonist and seems to fit in a box, one way or another. But perceptions can change as the human element is put more at the forefront and decides to avoid putting things in a binary way.

Even the title, Heel (originally titled Good Boy but changed due to the dog movie from last year) has multiple meanings. You can take it in the professional wrestling way of the name for the antagonist, of which the film has many. Or you can think of it in terms of the command used in dog obedience, where the dog is taught to walk on or off a lead. Like the story itself, it’s really in the eye of the beholder as to which carries the most importance.

Heel does the impossible and actually had me rooting for the kidnappers. As disturbed as they were as human beings, they had the right motivations. Tommy is a misguided and terrible person who was never going to change on his own. Sure, the methods are pretty harsh but he’s far enough gone that it feels like a suitable option. And as dark as the concept is, this is a human story that has deep familial roots. I won’t deny that it’s not dark, but it’s shockingly more heartfelt.

Heel releases to theaters on March 6th, 2026.

Heel

GREAT

8

The post Heel Review: A Performance Powerhouse with a unique look at the human condition and familial bonds appeared first on JoBlo.

Plot: FBI analyst Grace Ashcroft is sent to investigate a case at a hotel where she’s ultimately forced to face her past.

Review: Much like a crowd of zombies after hurling a leaking gas tank into the oncoming horde, Capcom is on fire right now. The time-honored game studio unleashed the latest chapter of its Resident Evil franchise late last month, Resident Evil: Requiem, and it’s an all-timer. From the start, Requiem takes a different approach to the hallowed horror franchise by putting you in control of Grace Ashcroft, an FBI analyst with a traumatic past, an anxiety disorder, and personal demons to exorcise. As Grace, your boss tasks you with investigating a rash of mysterious bodies, the latest body having been discovered at the Wrenwood Hotel, where Grace’s mother met her untimely end several years prior. Gathering her wits and limited expertise in fieldwork, Grace investigates and quickly discovers that the past is far from over, and the reason she’s a walking disaster is that the horror will start again if she doesn’t get her s**t together.

By placing us in Grace’s shoes, Requiem leaves players feeling vulnerable as they explore the hotel, Grace’s labored breath catching with each discovery, and startling revelations about a shadowy organization, Umbrella, striving to create bioweapons out of humankind, living or dead, it doesn’t matter. On a similar path to uncover the truth about Umbrella’s latest apocalypse in the making is Leon S. Kennedy, a seasoned veteran and fan-favorite hero of the Resident Evil franchise. By giving players control of two vastly different characters, Capcom splits the game into two halves. Grace traverses the game’s terror-inducing, haunted-house-like beats. At the same time, Leon tackles the more action-heavy sections like a ’90s action hero on steroids, complete with one-liners and grimdark humor that make him a fan favorite.

Among many stand-out elements of Resident Evil: Requiem is the game’s pacing. The writing team knows exactly when to end a chapter of the game, pushing you toward set pieces involving over-the-top action or the next piece of a dark mystery. At the center of both game types is Requiem‘s villain, Dr. Victor Gideon, a former Umbrella Corporation researcher obsessed with carrying out the eugenicist legacy of Oswell E. Spencer. Antony Byrne plays Dr. Gideon to perfection, introducing a corrupt antagonist who’s oddly charismatic, creepy, and dangerous. Beyond his imposing look, with his infected complexion, Icabod Crane-like headgear, and crooked gold teeth, I love, love, love Dr. Gideon’s voice. It’s strangely soothing, and one of the best voice performances I’ve ever heard in a video game.

Regarding gameplay, Resident Evil: Requiem never stops perfecting old tricks or introducing new ways to fight your way through hell while playing as either Grace or Leon. While not as skilled as Leon, Grace is a survivor, constantly innovating and using her know-how to craft items that give her an advantage. At the start of the game, Grace can barely wield Leon’s Requiem revolver. When she takes aim, her hands tremble, the gun sways, and you essentially need to fire it on a wing and a prayer. However, as Grace makes her way through the game, she becomes more capable, her aim steadies, and by the end, she’s firing that cannon as straight as an arrow. It’s an awesome progression, and we love to see it. In the handful of reviews I’ve seen, critics aren’t giving Grace’s evolution enough credit. She’s a fantastic addition to Resident Evil‘s pantheon of heroes, and I’d like nothing more than to continue her story in another game.

Meanwhile, Leon’s gonna Leon, with his knee-slapping one-liners, no-holds-barred attitude, and fearless approach to reducing zombies to nothing but a pile of mince meat. I played through the game on a PlayStation 5, and the control over both characters was flawless. I never felt the game hitch, my character never misbehaved, and if I died, I knew it was my fault, not the game’s. Capcom has spent decades polishing the Resident Evil gameplay experience, and its efforts have never been as rewarding as with Requiem.

Another outstanding element of Requiem is that the game doesn’t forget its roots. Included in the dread-filled adventure are all the puzzle elements you remember from the game’s past. Find the key, read the document, locate the missing fuse, fill a tank with gasoline. All the stars are here! Still, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, and Requiem does an exemplary job of impeding progress through puzzles without losing the game’s killer pace or sense of urgent exploration. Furthermore, while some Resident Evil games tend to dip in quality during the game’s final act, Requiem feels like a game comprised of three Act 1s stitched together for a non-stop injection of fun, action-packed immediacy. In my experience, there are no boring stretches, and, as I said, switching between Grace and Leon and back again feels like a formula Capcom has perfected and should use in RE games in the future.

If you’re looking for Resident Evil: Requiem to do more than play the hits, don’t worry, there’s some cool stuff waiting for you in this game. For example, the infected behave differently in Requiem. Blind zombies, for example, will only react to sound, so if you don’t make any noise, you can usually sneak past them pretty easily. However, if you want to use this quirk to your advantage, you can throw a bottle toward an enemy, and the blind zombie will follow the sound, swinging its IV pole in blind rage, damaging nearby enemies to a significant degree. In fact, if you’re strategic about it, you can get the blind zombie to take out some of the game’s stronger foes, like the Butcher, or Chunk, a massive, blob-like zombie slithering through the halls of the Rhodes Hill Chronic Care Center. There are other enemies with behaviors that could work to your advantage, but I don’t want to spoil all the fun. My advice is to get creative. The game allows for several combinations of combat and antagonism that could turn the tide in your favor.

I remember buying the original Resident Evil sight-unseen from Planet Comics in the Smithhaven Mall on Long Island, New York, in 1996, and having it change my opinion of what horror video games could be. I’ve played every mainline entry in the franchise (and many of the spinoffs and offshoots), with my favorites being Resident Evil, Resident Evil 2, Resident Evil 4, Resident Evil 7, and Resident Evil Village. If RE 7 felt like an homage to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and Village was a twisted fairytale that was never concerned with taking itself too seriously, Resident Evil: Requiem is a shining example of how dedication, hard work, and imagination can take a decades-old property and make it feel like an essential example of how video games are still capable of blowing our minds. Resident Evil: Requiem is not only an early Game of the Year contender, but it’s also an entry that stands out as one of the best in the RE franchise. I’m already counting the days until Capcom officially announces DLC for Requiem, and I’m the proud owner of Grace Ashcroft’s Fortnite skin. I started my second playthrough of the game last night and don’t plan to stop until I’ve at least gotten all the alternate costumes. Or, until Capcom’s Pragmata comes out next month. Whichever comes first.

Resident Evil: Requiem

AMAZING

9

The post Resident Evil: Requiem (Video Game) Review: A Nonstop Fright Fest in Capcom’s Legendary Horror Series appeared first on JoBlo.

PLOT: A young woman, Macy, fights for survival after being abducted by a deranged, monster-like figure who wants to raise Macy as their child.

REVIEW: It feels like there’s very little effort in putting together a brand new slasher villain, instead relying on relics of the past. Don’t get me wrong, I love the old guard as much as the rest of you, but I’m always craving something new. Thankfully, with shades of other famous horror villains, there’s a new killer in town. And she likes to wear porcelain doll masks and wear dresses.

Dolly follows a couple as they head into the woods to a beautiful lookout, with the prospect of a proposal on the horizon. Unfortunately for them, they’re interrupted by a crazy woman obsessed with dolls and must fight for their own survival. It’s a pretty basic setup, but most slashers are. It’s really about the atmosphere and the tension. Oh, and the kills. Can’t forget about those. Most of the story follows Macy as she’s being held captive by the crazy woman known as Dolly. I always prefer when a film tells a singular story and doesn’t try to add too many elements to try and spice things up.

The film is shot in a bit of a grindhouse style, with proper grain and film imperfections. There’s also what seems to be a bleach bypass, which lowers the saturation and gives the visuals a worn-out look. These kinds of movies will always benefit from being shot on film versus digital, and I wish more would take this path. I really enjoyed it, and it helps with the backwoods aesthetic. All the performances are good, with Fabianne Therese really impressing. Sean William Scott isn’t around as much as you’d think, and Ethan Suplee continues his streak of wonderfully disturbed characters.

Dolly goes in some pretty unexpected directions and can be quite brutal. The deaths are few but very impactful. I was also impressed with how the FX work is handled, with a jaw rip being an absolute standout. They appeared to be practical, maybe with a bit of CGI enhancement, but they always look great. However, some of the blocking when it comes to the kills can be a bit “let me just stand here so you have enough time to kill me.” That will always annoy me, and it feels a bit lazy.

It’s cool to see a slasher villain that’s not just a hulking man (even if instead it is a hulking woman). There is no doubt plenty of comparisons to be made to Leatherface, especially the more Next Generation version of the character. In fact, it can get a little blatant, especially with some of the mannerisms. But I still found Dolly to be creepy enough that she’s able to overcome the obvious similarities. There’s only so much you can do with a brutish slasher villain. Professional wrestler Max the Impaler brings a good physicality to the role. And I like that her main tool of destruction happens to be a shovel, as we don’t see that often.

I think where it stumbles is its betrayal of the grounded nature of it all. As much as the film wants to be on the more realistic side, it can get a bit absurd at times. There’s one moment in particular that had me rolling my eyes with how over the top it got. It doesn’t help that some of the character decisions are just colossally stupid. Especially in the third act. I’ve heard the term “Fairy Tale” bandied about, but outside of a few abstract shots, it doesn’t really fit the motif. I always like a movie that makes me feel like I need to take a shower afterwards, but Dolly feels a bit lost. There are some really interesting ideas here, but it sometimes devolves into dumb slasher territory when it could have stuck with its more interesting cat-and-mouse, psychological approach. And it’s going to be tough to avoid the Texas Chainsaw Massacre comparisons when you blatantly recreate one of the most famous scenes.

Dolly is playing in theaters on March 6th, 2026.

Dolly

AVERAGE

6

The post Dolly Review: A violent introduction to a new killer that feels a little too familiar in its approach appeared first on JoBlo.

Cody

Earlier this week, legendary actor Bruce Campbell shared some troubling news with his fans and followers: he has been diagnosed with “a type of cancer that’s treatable, not curable,” and will be undergoing treatment over the coming months. Thankfully, as he says, “I am a tough old son-of-a-bitch and I have great support, so I expect to be around a while.” And in an effort to stir up as much well-wishes and good vibes for him as I can, I have looked back over his career and picked out some of his best roles.

Since he is best known for his work playing the hero Ash in the Evil Dead franchise, I have left those excellent movies and TV show off the list, because we all know them already!

MANIAC COP (1988)

Here’s something unfortunate: when Bruce Campbell talks about Maniac Cop, he makes it quite clear that he’s not aware he’s talking about one of the coolest and most underrated horror movies of the 1980s. He brushes the movie off and mocks the script by Larry Cohen – but Maniac Cop is awesome, and the best horror movie we’ve ever gotten with a St. Patrick’s Day setting.

Directed by William Lustig, the film blends slasher horror with police thriller elements as New York City is terrorized by a uniformed killer who turns out to be the vengeful undead cop Matt Cordell, played by Robert Z’Dar. While much of the investigation is led by hard-boiled detective Frank McCrae (Tom Atkins), the focus eventually shifts to flawed and desperate officer Jack Forrest (Campbell), who is framed for murder and forced to confront the killer to clear his name. Campbell was surrounded with a strong supporting cast, including Laurene Landon and Richard Roundtree, and the film has a dark, noir-like atmosphere. It launched a franchise, with Maniac Cop 2 being one of the rare slasher sequels that surpasses its predecessor… despite the fact that it has much less Campbell in it.

SUNDOWN: THE VAMPIRE IN RETREAT (1989)

The horror comedy Sundown: The Vampire in Retreat, directed by Anthony Hickox, is a quirky, entertaining movie that deserves more attention. It takes place in the desert town of Purgatory, where Count Mardulak (David Carradine) has gathered the last remaining vampires to live in isolation under the protection of hats, sunblock, and UV-protected glass. He’s also working on getting a fake blood synthesizing plant up and running in hopes that his kind will no longer have to feed on humans; they’ll be able to live in harmony with them. Unfortunately, there’s a group of vampires in town who don’t like that plan. They’re ready to resort to violence to make sure that the idea of existing on synthesized blood doesn’t go through. Armed with guns that fire wooden bullets, they’re going to stand up for their right to feed on humans.

There’s a lot going on in Sundown, with a vampire civil war taking up the last 40 minutes or so, and Bruce Campbell doesn’t have a lead role like we know he should. He’s a small part of the ensemble, playing vampire hunter Robert Van Helsing in an adorably goofy, dorky, and quite amusing way. Most of his scenes involve interactions with vampire Sandy White, who’s played by Deborah Foreman of Valley Girl and April Fool’s Day – and that is a major selling point for me because Campbell and Foreman are two of my favorite actors. (They would share the screen again a couple of years later in Lunatics: A Love Story.) The ensemble also includes Maxwell Caulfield, M. Emmet Walsh, Jim Metzler, Morgan Brittany, John Ireland, and Dana Ashbrook, among others.

THE ADVENTURES OF BRISCO COUNTY, JR. (1993 – 1994)

One of the great disappointments in television history is the fact that the “weird Western” series The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. only lasted for one season on Fox and we’ve never gotten any follow-ups of any sort, in any medium. But at least we have these twenty-seven episodes of greatness to go back to and enjoy repeatedly.

The show was commissioned in response to the success of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. A Fox executive tasked that film’s screenwriter, Jeffrey Boam, and his collaborator Carlton Cuse with developing a TV series inspired, like the Indiana Jones franchise was, by vintage movie serials. Since many of those serials were either Westerns or sci-fi, Boam and Cuse decided to blend the genres together, telling the story of lawyer-turned-bounty hunter Brisco County, Jr. (that’s Campbell’s role), who’s on the trail of the outlaw who murdered his father. Brisco is supervised by lawyer Socrates Poole (Christian Clemenson), in competition with bounty hunter Lord Bowler (Julius Carry), and has a love interest in con artist Dixie Cousins (Kelly Rutherford). The show combined classic Western elements with steampunk and out-of-time technology, a dash of time travel, and a whole lot fun, and Campbell proved to be a great TV star. The show was expected to be the breakout hit of the year, but the ratings weren’t there, so it was cancelled when, based on the quality, it truly deserved to go on for multiple seasons.

TORNADO! (1996)

I’ll admit, this one is pure nostalgia for me. You’ve seen Twister. You’ve seen Twisters. But have you seen the mockbuster Tornado!, which premiere on Fox just days before Twister reached theatres in 1996? I tuned in to catch that premiere and thoroughly enjoyed watching Bruce Campbell chase storms in one of the better TV movies of the time.

Directed by Noel Nosseck and written by future Oscar nominee John Logan, Tornado! follows a team of storm chasers in Texas attempting to deploy a scientific device into a tornado to collect data that could improve early warning systems. You know, the exact same story as Twister, but in Texas instead of Oklahoma. Campbell plays Jake Thorne, a storm chaser who’s not as cool or funny as Ash, but he’s a good lead in his own right. The film is short (83 minutes) and simple, and exactly what you’d expect from a TV equivalent to Twister. It’s not quite as exciting as the blockbuster version of the story and the effects aren’t as dazzling, but it provides a good time, and Campbell had a strong supporting cast. Shannon Sturges holds her own while bouncing dialogue back and forth with him as his love interest, and it’s always nice to see Ernie Hudson and L.Q. Jones in action. Jones’ Ephram, Jake’s grandfather, has a dark history with tornadoes and is basically the film’s equivalent to Dr. Loomis from Halloween or Quint from Jaws (and therefore Captain Ahab from Moby Dick), going on a rant about a tornado, the monster that ate his world, being “God’s blind fury” and having “a devil’s heart and a dead soul.”

RUNNING TIME (1997)

Inspired by the single-take illusion of Alfred Hitchcock’s Rope, writer/director Josh Becker pushed the concept further with Running Time, adding a “ticking clock” time element into his story and expanding the scope. He crafted a low-budget crime story that unfolds in real time as the camera follows characters across a city, with hidden cuts masked by movement. To avoid glaring color and lighting changes, the movie was shot in black & white. Campbell plays Carl, a man who’s just getting out of prison after serving five years. He’s picked up by his old friend Patrick, who has gotten him the “welcome back” gift of some time with a prostitute – who turns out to Carl’s high school flame Janie. Carl and Janie reconnect, but they don’t have much time. Carl and Patrick have some place to be within 25 minutes of him walking out of the prison gates. This destination is a heist worth $250,000. Do you think everything goes as planned? Hint: you can spot one of the cuts just by the fact that droplets of blood disappear from the camera lens.

Shot in ten days for $120,000, Running Time is a well-executed, interesting experiment in filmmaking/editing and a good, fast-paced crime drama.

JACK OF ALL TRADES (2000)

Sam Raimi’s production company Renaissance Pictures was behind the popular syndicated TV shows Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Xena: Warrior Princess, both of which feature Campbell in multiple episodes as a character named Autolycus. By 2000, Hercules had ended and Xena was winding down, so they tried to replicate the success of those shows with the sci-fi series Cleopatra 2525 and the action comedy Jack of All Trades, which had half-hour episodes that were often paired together as the Back2Back Action Hour. It didn’t work; both shows quickly sputtered out. But at least Jack of Trades gave us twenty-two episodes of amusing Bruce Campbell action before it faded into obscurity.

Bruce plays American secret agent Jack Stiles, who is sent to the French-controlled island of Pulau-Pulau by President Jefferson in 1801 so he can plot against Napoleon and thwart other threats against the United States – often while dressed up as a masked hero called the Daring Dragoon, and aided by English spy Emilia Rothschild (Angela Dotchin). This serves as both a recommendation and a reminder to myself that this show existed and I haven’t watched all of its episodes yet.

BUBBA HO-TEP (2002)

Based on the novella by Joe R. Lansdale and directed by Don Coscarelli, Bubba Ho-Tep may be the film Campbell is best known for outside of the Evil Dead franchise. It takes an absurd premise of an elderly man in a Texas nursing home who insists he’s Elvis Presley teaming up with a resident who believes he’s John F. Kennedy to battle a soul-sucking mummy and turns it into something unexpectedly heartfelt. At the center of the film, Campbell delivers what may be the best performance of his career while buried beneath an Elvis wig, sunglasses, and old-age makeup.

Campbell’s Elvis is tired and reflective, grappling with regret and mortality… and dealing with the fact that he has a growth on his pecker. While the story is packed with comedy and thrills, Campbell grounds it with surprising emotional depth, making his Elvis feel human rather than a parody. In a better world, this would have earned him an Oscar nomination.

MY NAME IS BRUCE (2007)

In My Name Is Bruce, which Bruce Campbell also directed and produced from a script by Mark Verheiden, Campbell parodies his own B-movie legacy by playing a washed-up, egotistical, hard-drinking version of himself who is mistakenly believed to be a real-life monster hunter. A devoted fan kidnaps him and brings him to the tiny town of Gold Lick, Oregon, hoping this movie hero can save the town from the scythe-wielding spirit of Guan-Di, a Chinese deity and the patron saint of bean curd, who is out to avenge the death of Chinese miners buried in a cave-in a hundred years earlier. Bruce quickly comes to believe that this is all a show being put on for his benefit, a surprise birthday present from his ineffectual agent. So he goes along with the citizens’ monster-hunting plans… and finds himself in completely over his head when he realizes that Guan-Di is real, and really dangerous. When first faced with the powerful, murderous spirit, Bruce is cowardly and inept, but by the time the third act rolls around, he steps up to redeem himself and become a hero for the first time ever in his real life.

My Name Is Bruce is a really fun movie, a hilarious parody of Campbell’s career and a tribute to the fans that have elevated him to heroic status. Campbell is highly entertaining as this goofball send-up of himself, and the film is packed with references to both his better movies and his lesser ones. To fill out the supporting cast, Campbell turned to several familiar faces he had worked with before, including Danny Hicks, Tim Quill, Ellen Sandweiss, and Ted Raimi in three different roles. Campbell was so committed to bringing this story to life that, as documented in the DVD special features, he even went so far as to build downtown Gold Lick as a backlot on his own property in Oregon.

BURN NOTICE (2007 – 2013)

Created by Matt Nix, this USA Network spy drama series got the sort of run The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. should have gotten a decade earlier. After being “burned” and cut loose by the CIA in the middle of an operation, undercover agent Michael Western (Jeffrey Donovan) returns to his hometown of Miami and teams with his mother Madeline (Sharon Gless), former IRA fighter ex-girlfriend Fiona (Gabrielle Anwar), and his friend Sam Axe (Bruce Campbell), a Navy SEAL-turned-FBI informant, to land gigs as a private investigator while also digging into the mystery of why he was burned in the first place. This goes on for a total of seven seasons and 111 episodes, as the P.I. side job is a major distraction.

Michael Westen is the star of this show, Sam Axe is just a supporting character – but he’s there every step of the way, being entertaining in that way only Bruce Campbell can be. As one fan on reddit said, Burn Notice is “the most Bruce Campbell we are ever going to get. Seven magnificent seasons where he is in every damn episode, killing it.” Not even Ash vs. Evil Dead could come close to giving us as much Bruce as this show did. And, of course, Sam Axe proved to be so popular with viewers that he even got his own spin-off prequel movie, Burn Notice: The Fall of Sam Axe, which was directed by Donovan and served as a lead-in to the fifth season in 2011.

HYSTERIA! (2024)

The Peacock series Hysteria! only lasted for one, eight-episode season, but it was a wild ride that had me hooked from beginning to end. I binge-watched this one as quickly as I could, enjoying spending time with the characters and eager to see how the mysteries were going to be resolved. A coming-of-age thriller, the show is set in the 1980s and follows a high school heavy metal band of outcasts that capitalize on the Satanic panic that grips their town when a local kid turns up dead and appears to have been the victim of cult activity. By pretending to be Satanists, these kids are finally able to start building up a fan base – but, of course, this decision makes them the target of suspicion. Because not only was someone killed, and not only have there been cases of abduction and pentagram graffiti vandalism, but there also seems to be something supernatural at work in their small Michigan hometown.

Among the adults drawn into the chaos is the town’s police chief, played by Bruce Campbell. He’s a nice, rational guy, but as the show goes on he starts to have more and more bizarre experiences that cause him to question whether or not he really should be so nice. While the story focuses heavily on the teenagers, Campbell is a reliably charismatic presence whenever he’s on screen. At times, Hysteria! teases the idea that his character might be about to deal with some Evil Dead-style situations, but it never goes quite that far.

And More

Bruce Campbell has more than 170 acting credits to his name, so this is just a small sample of what you can find when you look beyond the Evil Dead projects and dig deeper into his résumé. There is a lot more out there, like cameo appearances in Sam Raimi superhero movies (the Spider-Man trilogy, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness), Hallmark movies (One December Night, My Southern Family Christmas), an episode of The X-Files, the Fangoria production Mindwarp, alien movies (Alien Apocalypse, Terminal Invasion), his oddball passion project Man with the Screaming Brain… the list goes on, and one thing is always true: no matter what he’s in, Bruce Campbell always shines brightly.

The post Beyond Evil Dead: Some of Bruce Campbell’s Best Non-Ash Roles appeared first on JoBlo.

Here’s some disappointing news: it has been reported by Bloody Disgusting that tonight’s episode of The Last Drive-in with Joe Bob Briggs will be the series finale. This news has been confirmed on Joe Bob’s own Patreon account, The Lost Drive-in. An epic era is coming to an end… but it’s not all doom and gloom, because Shudder will still be airing four The Last Drive-in specials throughout the rest of the year. Tonight is just the end of the non-special show.

Joe Bob Briggs

Joe Bob Briggs made his debut as a drive-in movie critic in the early ’80s and soon earned a job hosting movies on The Movie Channel, where Joe Bob’s Drive-in Theater ran from 1986 to 1996. That was followed by the TNT series MonsterVision, which he hosted from 1996 to 2000.

That was followed by an eighteen-year stretch of darkness, but then he made his triumphant return with The Last Drive-in with Joe Bob Briggs on Shudder. The Shudder era began with a 13-film marathon on July 13, 2018 – an event that Joe Bob thought might be his last rodeo. But so many people tuned in for that marathon, it crashed Shudder’s servers and convinced them to give him an on-going series, mixed with holiday specials.

While the early seasons of The Last Drive-in were weekly double features, just like the MonsterVision days, there has been some tinkering with the format recently. Season 6 brought us one movie every other week, and season 7 has brought us monthly double features. The final episode airs tonight, March 6, at 9pm ET on Shudder and AMC+, and will be available on demand beginning Sunday, March 8.

On The Last Drive-In, the world’s foremost drive-in movie critic hosts eclectic horror movies, talking about their merits, histories and significance to genre cinema.

The Last Drive-In with Joe Bob Briggs is produced by Matt Manjourides and Justin Martell and directed by Austin Jennings. Joe Bob is joined on every episode by Diana Prince as Darcy the Mail Girl.

Specials

Courtney Thomasma, EVP, Linear and Streaming Products, provided the following statement: “Joe Bob Briggs has been a Shudder staple since 2018, when his original 13-movie marathon ‘broke the internet.’ Since then, he and Darcy the Mail Girl have continued to delight Shudder fans with double features and seasonal specials tailored to horror buffs and cinephiles alike, always offering plenty of surprises. We look forward to sharing these four new specials with Drive-In Mutants everywhere.“

The first of four post-series specials will be Joe Bob’s Wicked Witchy Wingding, will is coming our way April 24th at 9pm ET. The double feature of occult flicks continues Briggs’ eternal campaign to establish Walpurgisnacht as an American horror holiday.

A reason for the end of the series was not given. For now, Darcy has just commented, “We are only allowed to say so much right now (there are even certain words/phrases we aren’t permitted to use), but I will answer any questions you have to the best of my ability. The #1 question is about JB’s health, so let me assure you he’s doing fine…Spry AF, even!!” Future plans have not been revealed, but she has confirmed that Joe Bob will continue doing his live show tours and Jamboree events.

Ending The Last Drive-in with Joe Bob Briggs seems like a bad move for Shudder and their subscriber numbers, but we’ll see how it goes for them. For now, I’m just grateful that we’ve gotten eight years of the show.

Are you sad to hear that The Last Drive-in with Joe Bob Briggs is coming to an end? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

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Michael Chaves made his feature directorial debut with the Conjuring Universe-adjacent horror film The Curse of La Llorona, and has followed that up with the actual Conjuring Universe entries The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It, The Nun II, and The Conjuring: Last Rites. Eleven months ago, we learned that he had signed on to make his first movie that doesn’t have anything to do with The Conjuring or its spin-offs at all: a survival thriller called Yeti. Now, Deadline reports that he has started assembling his cast, which will include Chris Pine (Star Trek) and Sofia Boutella (Rebel Moon).

Synopsis

Yeti was originally set up at Sony and Picturestart a couple of years ago, under producer Jon Silk’s first-look deal. But Silk is now a film executive at the Netflix streaming service, so the project has moved from Sony to Netflix. Picturestart is still involved, with Erik Feig and Jessica Switch producing for the company, alongside Dan Kagan. Hans Ritter and Pine serve as executive producers.

Peter Gaffney and Sean Tretta have written the script for Yeti, which takes place deep in the Alps, where an avalanche unleashes something primeval from the glacial ice. With no hope of rescue, a father and his daughter must fight to survive against a merciless predator that blends in with the snow. 

Cast

Pine will be playing the father in that scenario, with Iona Bell (The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping) as his daughter. Ray Winstone (Damsel) is also in the cast, but there’s no word on the roles he or Sofia Boutella will be playing.

I would more excited about this project if it were one of the Jean-Claude Van Damme or Steven Seagal yeti projects being unearthed and revived (possibly even as a team-up vehicle for those two now that they’ve set aside their differences). It seems we’ll never get to see Van Damme or Seagal fight yetis, but I am interested in seeing what it looks like when Chris Pine crosses paths with one.

Are you interested in Yeti? What do you think of the cast that has been assembled for the film? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

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