DAILY CALL SHEET: DECMBER 30, 2025

The Night Walker (1964) Sure, Irene's husband Howard is a millionaire inventor, but he's also psychotically possessive, has an obsession with cuckoo clocks, and records everything that happens in his home, which Irene is never allowed to leave. After Howard seemingly blows himself up, Irene is haunted by surreal dreams of his disfigured ghost lumbering around the house. Convinced her increasingly weird nightmares are more real than fantasy, Irene exercises her new found freedom to return to her old digs in the back of a beauty parlor. Alas, the strange dreams and death follow her there. For once, William Castle eschews any of his trademark gimmicks and counts on the names of Barbara Stanwyck and Psycho scribe Robert Bloch to attract viewers instead. The gamble pays off in a slightly above average thriller, but a gimmick would still have been nice.

TIL: Just because someone uses gimmicks doesn't always mean it's a bad thing. Writing for Catholic Culture, Fr. Jerry Pokorsky notes, "The word 'gimmick' usually has pejorative connotations. A gimmick is a trick or device intended to attract attention, publicity, or the business of a going concern. But not all gimmicks are unworthy of holiness. Jesus is the Master of holy gimmicks. His mighty deeds attract our attention and direct it to the 'going concern' of our salvation … His miracles—healing the sick, raising the dead, and feeding the multitude—are holy gimmicks. He intends to attract our attention so that we recognize the authority of His words as our going concern … [Jesus'] holy gimmicks ensure we encounter the words of eternal life until we see God." 

The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939) Like most filmed versions of the classic tale, this one retains the basic story of a victimized Romani girl offered asylum within the walls of the church by the titular character, and like most versions it changes her pursuer from a corrupt clergyman to a lecherous public official. However, similarities aside, this take on Victor Hugo's novel is widely considered the best live-action adaptation to date, thanks mostly to Charles Laughton's heartbreaking turn as Quasimodo ("Why was I not made of stone, like thee?") and the absolutely massive sets recreating medieval Paris, especially the exterior of Notre Dame cathedral. No arguments from me.

TIL: The broader concept of granting asylum in religious places predates the Church. The ancient Hebrews even had entire cities of refuge for those who killed someone accidentally. For Christianity in particular, the practice was first recognized in Roman imperial law under the Code of Theodosius in 399 AD, and then sanctioned by Pope Leo I in 460 AD. By the end of the 18th century, however, officially recognized sanctuary was abolished in most places. These days, some individual churches may attempt to offer sanctuary, but it is not canonically recognized and carries no legal status with the authorities.

DAILY CALL SHEET: DECEMBER 24, 2025

The Road Warrior (1981) Leather-clad Max Rockatansky is back and he's madder than ever about the post-apocalyptic dystopia his world has become. This time around, Max finds himself reluctantly offering to protect a small band of survivors operating a barely-working oil refinery in exchange for a few tanks of gas. This is no easy task, however, as a small army of motorized marauders led by Lord Humungus wants all of the fuel for themselves and are more than happy to rape, torture, and murder all who stand in their way of getting it. Luckily, Max has a dog, a feral child, and a gyro pilot to help even the odds a bit. The first Mad Max is a bona fide cult classic, but this follow-up is something else entirely. Not only did it help set the standards for all '80s action flicks to follow, it also shares rarified air with such movies as Jaws, Star Wars, Alien and Halloween, in that it became a template for an entire subgenre of film.

TIL: It's easy to see how The Road Warrior became the source material for around 25 to 30 knock-offs (most of them Italian for some reason). After all, if a filmmaker could get his hands on a desert, a dune buggy or two, some cheap explosives, and a few scraps of leather clothing, then, voila, he could make himself a low budget Maxploitation movie. Not necessarily a good one, but passable at least. Of course, such reliance on another artist's work for inspiration comes easily to us humans. As Hans Urs von Balthasar noted, it's God himself who is the initiating author, director, and principal actor in the "theo-drama" of salvation. He is the transcendent source of all authentic creativity, narrative capacity, and the overarching true story of existence. As such, all human stories, at their best, are sub-creations participating in and pointing toward the original divine narrative.

Harold and Maude (1971) Death obsessed nearly-twenty Harold spends his time driving a hearse, faking suicide attempts, and going to stranger's funerals. It's at one of these he meets 79-year-old Maude, a quirky, upbeat septuagenarian who lives life by her own rules. The two quickly become romantically involved, much to the disgust of most everyone, especially Harold's snooty upper class mother, who unsuccessfully tries to find a more acceptable younger girl for Harold through a computer dating service. Harold wants nothing to do with anyone but Maude, however, as she is the first person to convince him life is worth living and to make the most of his moments of earth. But will time itself allow the odd couple to be happy together? With its lovably eccentric characters, dark yet surprisingly gentle comedy, and a nothing less than heartwarming soundtrack from Cat Stevens, this has deservedly become one of the most beloved cult movies of all time.

TIL: One of the funnier scenes in the movie is when Harold is sent to talk to his priest about his relationship with Maude and the clergyman nearly vomits at the thought of the two engaging in sex. Now, of course, the Church objects to any sexual relationship outside of marriage, but contrary to what the movie portrays, it has no prohibitions against marriages with wide age gaps between the spouses. Canon 1083 §1 states only that a man before completing his 16th year and a woman before her 14th year cannot validly marry (though many dioceses raise this higher to align with civil law). Naturally, prudence is recommended due to potential challenges like differences in life stages, energy for raising children, or companionship in later years. But, as long as both parties are freely consenting and open to life (even if naturally impossible due to age), the Church would not disapprove of Harold and Maude.

DAILY CALL SHEET: DECEMBER 16, 2025

 

Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964) Not long after he pens a tune in her honor, young Charlotte's married lover John has his hands and head chopped off, and it sure looks like the blood-covered belle is responsible. Nobody can prove it, though. Decades later, in an effort to save her family estate from being torn down by the Highway Commission, the spinster Charlotte seeks help from her cousin , the local doctor, and an insurance investigator obsessed with the long ago murder. Unfortunately, John's hands and head show up as well, which doesn't bode well for Charlotte's tenuous grip on sanity. And if Charlotte really was the original killer and is now losing her marbles, does that mean more meat cleaver murders are on the way? This spiritual sequel to Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? Is top tier hagsploitation with another great turn from Bette Davis, who really made the most of her later roles.

TIL: St. Pope John Paul II described old age as a "favorable time" for life's fulfillment, a phase of maturity, serenity, and preparation for eternity, blessed by divine favor in Scripture (e.g., long lives of Abraham and Moses).  He described the elderly themselves as "guardians of shared memory" and "privileged interpreters" of values that guide society. Pope Francis expounded on this, criticizing the modern "throwaway culture" where the elderly face abandonment, isolation, and marginalization. In a way, the hagsploitation genre kicked off by Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? and Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte embodied JPII's philosophy. Rather than consign elderly actors to the film vaults, it gave legendary thespians like Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, and Olivia de Havilland another chance to prove what made them legends to begin with.

Extra Terrestrial Visitors (a.k.a. Pod People) (1983) Stranded on Earth, something that looks like the unholy offspring of ALF and the Great Gonzo gets ticked off when egg poachers destroy her nest and decides to take her anger out on a rock band camping in the area. Well, alleged rock band. You can decide for yourself if they're deserving of that title. Anyway, one egg survives, and quicker than you can say E.T., the newly hatched alien makes friends with a little boy who christens the creature Trumpy. And as all MSTies know, Trumpy proceeds to do stupid things. However, will Trumpy's silly shenanigans be enough to calm his mad mommy down, or is a sad ending for all involved inevitable? This flick is featured on one of my favorite episodes of MST3K, so it's dear to my heart, but divorced from the show, it's … it's not great.

TIL: Not quite the same response as Trumpy's mom over her murdered children, but in 2 Samuel, there's the story of Rizpah, a concubine of the late King Saul. To atone for Saul's massacre of the Gibeonites, King David allows them to execute seven of Saul's descendants, including Rizpah's sons. As was the law, the boy's bodies were hung on gibbets to be eaten by birds and beast. Rizpah wasn't having it, though, so she camped by the bodies for five months, protecting them from desecration. This shamed David so much, he finally gave them an honorable burial alongside Saul and Jonathan. In response to this righteous act, God ends the famine he had imposed on Israel. So, while it doesn't take away the pain, Rizpah's dignified response to her personal agony becomes a catalyst for broader reconciliation for an entire nation. God can work all things, even the worst ones, for the good of those who love Him.

DAILY CALL SHEET: DECEMBER 11, 2025

The Human Vapor (1960) Ishirō Honda takes a break from directing the Big G to helm this smaller scale thriller in which the police find themselves baffled by a series of seemingly impossible bank robberies. It turns out the thief/murderer is a librarian who, thanks to a well-meaning scientist's experiments, can assume a gaseous form. His reason for pilfering the depositories and leaving a trail of bodies? Love. He wants to use the money to help further the career of a talented Noh dancer he is besotted with, even though she herself is horrified when the source of his funding is revealed. Can the authorities find a way to nab hold of a man who can't be grabbed, or is a woman's touch needed? The Human Vapor is a nifty little sci-fi treat with a surprisingly touching performance from its female lead. If only the subtitles in the version I watched didn't keep referring to the titular character as "the gas man."

TIL: Say what you want about "the gas man," but at least he had good intentions, right? Yeah, well. Intentions are one of the three constitutive elements that determines if a human act is a sin. However, as the Catechism points out, a good intention (for example, that of helping out one's beloved advance in her art) does not make behavior that is intrinsically disordered such as murder or robbery, good or just. In short, the end does not justify the means. This is because sin is not a matter of subjective motive but an objective offense against truth, reason, and love for God and neighbor. Now, good intentions can sometimes influence the degree of responsibility or gravity of a sin, but they cannot change the fundamental moral quality of an act. As for bad intentions, like deliberately intending to commit a grave sin, that kind of speaks for itself.

Queen Kong (1976) If you thought gender flipping in movies started with the 2016 version of Ghostbusters, you've never met Queen Kong. In a world where women are macho and men are meek, movie producer and captain of the good ship Liberated Lady, Luce Habit, kidnaps small time con artist Ray Fay to star in her next adventure flick to be set in deepest, whitest Africa. Once on site, however, Ray catches the eye of a giant amorous ape who eventually ends up chasing him throughout London. The twist is, he sort of likes being chased. This attempt at feminist comedy was only allowed a limited release in Italy and Germany due to lawsuits from Dino De Laurentiis, who inexplicably thought it might hurt the box office of his own King Kong remake. Of course, this just guaranteed Queen Kong a certain cult appeal, but whether it deserves it will likely depend on if you find its Z-grade versions of Benny Hill jokes funny or not.

TIL: The Church holds to the truth that, while equal, men and women are distinct in their masculinity and femininity by divine design, with complementary differences that enrich human relationships and reflect the relational nature of God (as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit). That's why, as Pope Francis explained in Amoris Laetitia, the Church rejects ideologies that view gender as fluid, self-determined, or detached from biology, as such views erase essential human differences and the anthropological basis of the family. However, despite the necessity of the difference between the masculine and feminine, the Catechism notes that men and women share a common vocation to stewardship of creation, work, and service to others, with no inherent hierarchy based on sex. So, there's no problem with a woman being the ship's captain or a man being the "damsel" in distress, just as long as the inherent gender differences are still recognized.

DAILY CALL SHEET: DECEMBER 7, 2025

Don't Open Till Christmas (1984) Guys dressed as Santa Claus are being offed in various ways, and Scotland Yard seems helpless to find the masked killer. As the body count escalates, the police decide to send a bunch of undercover Santas onto the streets. The killer isn’t biting, though, and instead kidnaps a stripper to be the supreme sacrifice to all the evil that Christmas is. This distraction works, allowing the maniac to resume his Santa-slaying ways. Can nothing stop him? And what’s it all got to do with the mysterious package the lead investigator received marked “Don’t open till Christmas”? With all the head-spearing, face-grilling, and castration, this British attempt to replicate American slashers is actually more sleazy and brutal than many of its Yank counterparts.

TIL: Some Christians, particularly from evangelical, Reformed, or fundamentalist traditions, oppose the modern figure of the all-knowing, all-seeing Santa Claus (distinct from the historical Saint Nicholas), arguing that it can subtly erode faith rather than build it. Pope Paul VI was a little kinder. In a general audience on December 15, 1976, the pontiff noted, "Truly, there is something else that brings us to the threshold of the world of fantasy and poetry: the Christmas tree, 'Santa Claus,' and finally, for those who want to see into the historical and religious reality of Christmas: the nativity scene." The hope was that the childlike joy inspired by the former traditions would lead people to look into Christmas's true profound meaning represented by the latter.

London After Midnight (1927) Despite the protestations of his family and staff, Roger Balfour's death is ruled a suicide by Burke of Scotland Yard. Five years later, a sharp-toothed, wild-maned man in a top hat and his extremely pale female companion take up residence in Balfour's mansion. Oddly, the deathly-looking duo's lease bears the signature of the deceased Balfour, prompting Burke to reopen his investigation. All signs point to vampirism, but things may not be as they seem. One of the holy grails of missing films, the only way to "watch" London After Midnight now is either through slideshows of film stills and production photos organized based on copies of the script, or, more recently. through attempts to add some motion to the existing images with the aid of A.I. Sure, it would be nice to have the original film, but what we do have is enough to get the intentions of the movie across. The results may not be quite as visually astounding as some of its expressionistic horror peers, but Lon Chaney's acting and makeup are excellent and creepy as always, and it's a good dry run for Tod Browning before taking on Dracula.

TIL: If you think it's useless to invest time in something composed of pieced-together fragments, then you may as well toss out your Bible. As the Church attests, we don't have access to the original documents. What we do have are copies of copies whose contents are verifiable through fragments recovered piecemeal over the centuries. For most modern translations, the Old Testament draws heavily from bits and pieces found in the Dead Sea Scrolls, which date from 3rd century BC to 1st century AD. As for the New Testament, it's confirmed mostly from the tattered remains of 2nd–3rd century papyri. The good news is that there are literally thousands of these fragments and more being discovered from time to time, which has allowed translators to accurately assemble a text that reliably reproduces the original biblical authors while weeding out transcription errors or later additions that may have creeped into individual snippets.

DAILY CALL SHEET: NOVEMBER 13, 2025

The Running Man (1987) Falsely accused of crimes against humanity, Arnold Schwarzenegger is forced to participate in a government-sponsored game show in which contestants must avoid being hunted down and killed on live television. His pursuers consist of outrageously themed assassins such as Dynamo, an opera singer clothed in Christmas lights who has the ability to toss lightning, and Fireball, a jet-pack wearing firebug armed with a flame thrower. The film has little to do with Stephen King's original novel of the same name, but it does have a nifty synthesized score by '80s stalwart Harold Faltermeyer, dance choreography by Paula Abdul (not joking), a pitch perfectly cast real life gameshow host Richard Dawson as the smarmy antagonist, and Arnie at his wisecracking prime. This is celluloid comfort food, nothing more.

TIL: Written around 200 AD, Tertullian's treatise De Spectaculis (On the Spectacles) pretty much summed up the Church's position on sports involving death, particularly gladiatorial combat. Among his criticisms were that such games promoted cruelty over compassion, eroded Christian virtues by inciting rage and bloodlust, and encouraged hypocrisy by applauding murder in the stadium while condemning it elsewhere. The Romans brushed off such complaints until around 404 AD, when a Christian monk named Telemachus barged into the Colosseum and inserted himself between two gladiators, urging them to stop what they were doing. The audience quickly stoned him to death. Despite this initial reaction to Telemachus' protest, however, Emperor Honorius was inspired by the monk's sacrifice to issue an edict banning gladiatorial combats across the empire.

The Faculty (1998) The teachers at Herrington High don't just act like they're from another planet, they are from another planet. At least, the slug-like alien parasites infecting them are. Fortunately, the freaks and geeks amongst the student body are able to figure out the invaders aren't too wild about caffeine and are able to convince the resident "drug" dealer to donate his stash to the resistance. What, didn't the suppliers at your high school deal exclusively in powdered caffeine? Anyway, just because the kids have a weapon doesn't mean the war is over. For that, they have to identify the queen parasite, but the growing number of infected aren't going to give up her location without a fight. For a post-Scream angsty teenage take on Invasion of the Body Snatchers, this is actually pretty entertaining, even considering its bad guys could easily be killed off with a case of Monster energy drinks.

TIL: While some breakaway sects like the Mormons and the Seventh-day Adventist Church have a problem with some drinks containing caffeine, traditionally Christians have embraced them, at least since the late 1500s. Now don't tell the Protestants, but if you're a Christian and you enjoy a cup of joe in the morning, you owe some thanks to Pope Clement VIII. You see, because coffee made its way to the western world from Muslim countries, it was considered by many Christians at the time to be Satan's beverage of choice, and the Pontiff was eventually asked to forbid its drinking. However, being reasonable, Clement thought it best to taste the stuff first. After a few sips, the Pope declared the devil's drink too delicious to be left to the infidels, and "baptized" it with his blessing. Within 50 years, the first coffee house opened in Rome, and spread throughout Christendom from there.

DAILY CALL SHEET: NOVEMBER 11, 2025

 

Pajama Party (1964) Teen-aged Martian Go-Go is sent to Earth to act as an advance scout for an invasion. As so often happens, though, Go-Go becomes enraptured with beach babe Connie, and decides to put off his duties to help save her aunt from being swindled by the terrible trio of J. Sinister Hulk, Chief Rotten Eagle, and the statuesque Helga, who apparently owns little clothing other than bikinis. As if that wasn't enough plot, surfer-hating biker Eric von Zipper shows up once again to do the things he does. If you're a fan of AIP's other beach party movies, there's no reason you won't find a little something to like in this one, though Tommy Kirk is a definite step down from Frankie Avalon and musical guests The Nooney Rickett 4 shouldn't even be mentioned in the same breath as Little Stevie Wonder. Really, most of the fun is simply spotting all the appearances of stars from Hollywood's heyday.

TIL: Pajamas as the two-piece sleepwear we think of them today really only emerged during the Victorian era. They certainly didn't exist in Biblical times. Back then, the tunic which served as the primary undergarment for men and women both was worn night and day, and worked just fine for bedtime. If things got a little chilly, folks might keep their daytime cloaks on as well. This all-purpose clothing was so important that both Exodus and Deuteronomy contain demands that if a poor person surrendered their cloak as collateral for a loan, it still had to be brought back to them before sunset so they wouldn't be vulnerable to the cold while they slept. Not doing so was considered an unrighteous act in the eyes of God. Even when it comes to something as mundane as pajamas, God expects us to treat others charitably.

Faces of Death (1978) This pseudo-documentary follows a phony pathologist as he travels the world gathering footage of "real" deaths. His finds include a guy getting eaten by an alligator, Nazis dying in battle, parachuting accidents, lots of animal slaughter, an electrocution, and decadent diners beating a monkey to death with tiny hammers so they can eat its brains. Most of the gross stuff in the movie was eventually admitted to have been faked, but the real things like footage from an actual autopsy will still be too much for many. It's hard to explain to the YouTube generation what a big deal this collection of clips was in the pre-Internet days, especially since the whole exercise is pretty dismal in hindsight, but back then Faces of Dearth was a must see for curious teens. My friends and I even skipped class to watch the VHS once we found a copy. Of course, we also skipped class to watch Attack of the Killer Tomatoes, but the point remains.

TIL: If you want a more adult, less sensationalist way of looking death in the face, the Church recommends the spiritual practice of memento mori, a Latin phrase meaning "remember you must die." Based on the advice of Ecclesiastes 7:2 where it says, "It is better to go to the house of mourning, than to go to the house of feasting," memento mori is the act of meditating on the reality of death, not as a source of fear, despair or cynicism, but as a catalyst for living a holy, purposeful life detached from materialism. Practical ways of doing this include praying the Litany of the Dead, contemplating the Last Things (death, judgment, heaven, hell), or wearing a memento mori medal. If you want to go a little more extreme, you can always copy St. Charles Borromeo and sleep with a skull next to your bed. No matter how you engage in memento mori, though, remember the end goal isn't just to remember you will die, but also memento vivere, to remember to live.

DAILY CALL SHEET: NOVEMBER 8, 2025

Magic (1978) Let's get this straight. We've got the director of Ghandi and A Bridge Too Far, the screenwriter of The Princess Bride and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, the composer of the scores to Patton and Chinatown, and a cast full of award winning actors like Anthony Hopkins, Ann-Margret, and Burgess Meredith, and they all came together to make a movie about … a mentally ill ventriloquist who wants to find a way to be free of his murderous, trash-talking dummy and thinks true love will do the trick? Yeah, that's exactly what they did, and they were all dead serious about it, too. Hopkins even learned ventriloquism so his performance would be authentic. Yes, the plot is better suited to some B-movie schlock fest rather than the typical prestige films this crew is associated with, but go with the flow and you'll be rewarded with some top tier acting.

TIL: Not all Saints were genteel stoics. St. Simeon Salus, aka Simeon the Holy Fool, often feigned madness to bring attention to Christ's teachings. Some of his tactics included tripping strangers in the street, pelting women with nuts, and dragging himself around on his bottom. And don't even bring up the dead dog incident. Nobody seemed to mind, though, because when there was no audience, Simeon was busy feeding the poor, exorcising the possessed, and teaching the Gospel. One of the more memorable things Simeon liked to do was carry around a puppet which would harangue passers-by about their sins and shortcomings, at least that's what it did when it wasn't busy insulting Simeon himself. If it sounds like modern ventriloquists ripped off Simeon's act, they did, which is why he's now considered the patron Saint of ventriloquists and puppeteers.

Frightmare (1974) If you think your family has problems, imagine being poor Jackie. Both her father Edmund and stepmother Dorothy have just been released from the mental asylum where they've been confined for almost 15 years, Dorothy for being a cannibal, and Edmund for covering up his wife's diet. Dorothy's not quite cured, though, so Jackie has to start slipping her animal brains to munch on. However, that may not be enough satisfy Dorothy's hunger for human flesh, nor that of Jackie's stepsister Debbie, who it turns out might just be a chip off the old block. The Times of London called this flick "nasty, foolish and morally repellent," so naturally it's something of a cult classic these days.

TIL: With her little brown packages full of animal brains, Jackie means well, but you can't just let family member's problems slide. As the Catechism notes, "charity demands beneficence and fraternal correction." This means if you truly love a family member, you won't have a passive tolerance of their sins but an active concern for their spiritual well-being, particularly when grave (mortal) sins that could endanger their soul are involved. I'd say cannibalism falls into that category. That being said, fraternal correction doesn't always mean direct confrontation in every instance. Use a little prudence, keeping in mind that correction must serve amendment and healing, not judgment or conflict.

DAILY CALL SHEET: NOVEMBER 6, 1925

 

Frightmare (1974) If you think your family has problems, imagine being poor Jackie. Both her father Edmund and stepmother Dorothy have just been released from the mental asylum where they've been confined for almost 15 years, Dorothy for being a cannibal, and Edmund for covering up his wife's diet. Dorothy's not quite cured, though, so Jackie has to start slipping her animal brains to munch on. However, that may not be enough satisfy Dorothy's hunger for human flesh, nor that of Jackie's stepsister Debbie, who it turns out might just be a chip off the old block. The Times of London called this flick "nasty, foolish and morally repellent," so naturally it's something of a cult classic these days.

TIL: With her little brown packages full of animal brains, Jackie means well, but you can't just let family member's problems slide. As the Catechism notes, "charity demands beneficence and fraternal correction." This means if you truly love a family member, you won't have a passive tolerance of their sins but an active concern for their spiritual well-being, particularly when grave (mortal) sins that could endanger their soul are involved. I'd say cannibalism falls into that category. That being said, fraternal correction doesn't always mean direct confrontation in every instance. Use a little prudence, keeping in mind that correction must serve amendment and healing, not judgment or conflict.

Now Showing at a Blog Near You: For Aleteia, I take a look at Triumph Over Evil: Battle of the Exorcists, the first Vatican approved documentary on the ritual of exorcism and those who perform it.

VOYAGE TO THE PLANET OF PREHISTORIC WOMEN

Back in 1962, the Russians made a pretty nifty film called Planeta Bur about a group of astronauts and their robot who run into a brontosaur while exploring the surface of Venus, and then have to escape as the planet's weather goes nuts. Thanks to the heroic sacrifice of the robot, who gets left behind, most of the astronauts make it back home. It's enjoyable and brisk, running a mere 72 minutes. However, when the rights for the U.S. distribution of the film were acquired by American International Pictures, they decided Roger Corman could somehow make two movies out of the footage. Which, of course, he could.

The first film, Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet, was a fairly faithful dubbed version of the original, with a few new scenes featuring Basil Rathbone thrown in for good measure. Think Raymond Burr in Godzilla. It was marketed directly to TV stations and became a Saturday afternoon staple. The second movie, Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women, is a different beast altogether. According to screenwriter/director Peter Bogdanovich (who wisely asked not to be credited), Corman came to him saying AIP might give the film a limited theatrical run, but only if they found a way to stick some chicks in it. Well, in Hollywood, a job's a job, so Bogdanovich called in Mamie Van Doren and a gaggle of blondes, dressed them in sea shells, and rewrote the story so their presence would almost make sense. Almost.

What you get with Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women is the story of a group of astronauts and their robot who run into a pterodactyl while exploring the surface of Venus and immediately kill it. Unfortunately, it turns out the flying reptile was the object of worship by a matriarchal society of telepathic Venusian women who like to hang out at the beach. Using the awesome power of being female, the ladies call upon their planet to punish the invaders with floods and volcanoes. The male invaders are chased off, but the robot they inadvertently leave behind inexplicably becomes the women's new god. It might all be okay if the men and women weren't so obviously in two separate movies and voiceover narration wasn't required to make it all halfway understandable. As it is, the movie's enjoyably silly, but it's undeniably a hunk of junk.

It's funny how so many of these types of movies have male astronauts running across matriarchies. There's Cat-Women of the Moon, Queen of Outer Space, Abbott and Costello Go to Mars, and so on. I guess it's because you have to go to space to find such arrangements, as earthly matriarchal societies—defined as those where women hold dominant political, economic, and social power over men in a mirror image of patriarchy—are widely considered by most anthropologists to be mythical or unattested to in historical records. Sure, there have been matrilineal societies (descent and inheritance through the female line) and egalitarian systems with strong female influence (the Iroquois or Mosuo come to mind), but real matriarchies have been difficult to identify outside of feminist revisionary texts.

There have been a few reasons speculated for this. Some suggest that men's evolutionary physical advantages gave patriarchal systems an edge when it came to territorial expansion, especially through warfare. Others think that as economies shifted from domestic horticultural setups to movable wealth (e.g., cattle, tools, trade), they played more into the strengths of male hunter-gatherers than they did female nurturers. And, of course, some point to the boogeyman of religion, especially those pesky Abrahamic faiths (Judaism, Christianity, Islam) which are accused of emphasizing patrilineal descent and male authority. Some, in a fit of wishful thinking, even like to imagine that these patriarchal religions crashed the ancient matriarchal party, killing off the female deities and leaving a male-created God in their place like some robot abandoned on Venus.

Fantasies aside, whether or not monotheism encourages patriarchy is arguable. However, at least when it comes to Catholicism, the male-female dynamic is a bit more nuanced than just saying men are in charge. As St. Pope John Paul II notes in his apostolic letter Mulieris Dignitatem, the Church affirms that while the sexes have distinctly ordered, though complimentary, roles, women still have an essential equality with men in personhood, grace, and mission. This complementarianism results in a unity of the masculine and feminine that enriches each other in mutual self-giving, elevating both sexes rather than one oppressing the other. So, the Church's view is definitely not matriarchal, but neither is it egalitarian, as the role of the sexes is not identical, nor is it patriarchal in the oppressive sense, as men are called to recognize and serve the dignity of women. Because of this, JPII explicitly states that any type of patriarchal domination, even those times it may have occurred in a Church setting, is a post-Fall distortion of what God actually intends for men and women.

Not that AIP, Corman, or Bogdanovich were thinking about any of this when they churned out Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women. They just wanted a movie with some chicks in it. By that measure, they succeeded.

(By the way, if you'd like another take on this old clunker and what it has to do with Augustine and paganism, check out the guest review from reader Xena Catolica from a while back.)

DAILY CALL SHEET: OCTOBER 17, 2025

Alice in Wonderland (1903) While drowsing in her garden, Alice spots a giant white rabbit and follows him down a hole. There, with the aid of a magic fan, she is able to pass through a small door to Wonderland. Once inside, she tries to befriend a dog, meets a baby that turns into a pig, and attends the Mad Hatter's tea party. Eventually, Alice ticks off the Queen and has to escape being executed. It's amazing all the things you can get done in a few minutes when you put your mind to it. This first ever film adaptation of Lewis Carroll's beloved book is heavily abridged, originally running 12 minutes, but now just 9 in the only existing, heavily damaged copy available for viewing. Though all the scratches and artifacting give the film a bit of a David Lynch feel, overall, it's a little pedestrian by modern standards. Even so, it's enough to get the point across until you can watch longer, weirder versions.

TIL: Those of a certain age might remember Reader's Digest Condensed Books, a surprisingly popular series of hardcover anthologies published from 1950 to 1997. Each edition typically featured 2–5 abridged (or "condensed") versions of bestselling novels, allowing readers to whiz through a book without committing to the full-length work. Don't want to wade through the entirety of War and Remembrance or East of Eden but still want to get the basics of the story? Not to worry, Reader's Digest has you covered. It's most daring abridgement was probably in 1982 when the company released the Reader's Digest Condensed Version of the Bible, which reduces the size of the Old Testament by about 50% and the New Testament by 25%. This makes for brisker reading but, obviously, is utter crap if you want to make sure you get all the nuances of the book's complex theology. Still, if it gets you started on the journey, go for it.

Unknown Island (1948) A fortune-seeker talks his rich fiancée into chartering a trip to an island where dinosaurs supposedly still thrive. Along for the journey are a lecherous drunken captain, a semi-drunken first mate, a heroic seaman who starts off the movie in a drunken stupor, and a ship full of racially ambiguous stereotypes who probably had to get drunk to play these parts. Once on the island, things go awry as the motley crew cross paths with a bunch of dinosaurs that look like low-budget prototypes for those inflatable T-Rex costumes, and a guy in a gorilla suit that we're meant to believe is a giant sloth. More or less taking the island part of King Kong and making it the whole movie, this no-budget quickie is easy viewing for those who find old films with shoddy effects charming. 

TIL: Back in the 6th century, St. Brendan the Navigator undertook a seven-year voyage that legends say took him to a number of unknown islands. There was an isle of crystal pillars (icebergs, maybe), a "paradise of birds" inhabited by singing avian saints, and a moving island that turned out to be a whale's back. The most astonishing was a gem-covered island inhabited by ageless saints with whom he spent 40 days praying and feasting. After Brendan's departure, the island vanished into a mysterious fog. As late as the 16th century, sailors in the area still reported seeing this island appear and disappear. However, whether the tales are entirely factual or not, the unknown islands encountered by St. Brendan have come to symbolize the spiritual trials and divine wonders to be experienced on the Christian journey.

DAILY CALL SHEET: OCTOBER 11, 2025

 

Silver Bullet (1985) Every full moon, a series of brutal murders rocks a small town in rural Maine, and neither the sheriff nor the local vigilantes seem to be able to do anything to put a stop to what they assume is just some maniac. Only a young paraplegic and his older sister seem to have an inkling of what the killer really is, and once they figure out the identity of the cursed culprit, they call on their alcoholic uncle Gary Busey to help defeat the beast. Deep inside, you know it’s not technically a good movie, but it’s got Corey Haim in a tricked-out wheelchair, Canada's favorite Anne of Green Gables, and Gary Busey playing Gary Busey, all battling a werewolf who's not above using a baseball bat to break some skulls. How can you not enjoy it?

TIL: One questions the wisdom of parents who leave their children in the care of alcoholic uncle Gary Busey, but any port in a storm, I guess. Actually, the Catechism notes that the Fourth Commandment ("Honor your father and mother") extends beyond the parents to the entire "household of faith." Relatives are supposed to share in the family's mission to build up one another spiritually and practically, complementing parents without supplanting them. As St. John Paul II wrote in Familiaris Consortio, "All members of the family, each according to his or her own gift, have the grace and responsibility of building, day by day, the communion of persons, making the family a school of deeper humanity."

Now Showing at a Blog Near You: This week for Aleteia I take a look at a tale of baseball and miracles. My review of Soul on Fire.

DAILY CALL SHEET: OCTOBER 4, 2025

The Amazing Colossal Man. (1957 ) Lt. Colonel Glenn Manning saves a pilot who has crash landed in a bomb testing site, but gets a heaping dose of radiation for his efforts. The good news is that Glenn's burns begin to miraculously heal. The bad news is that's because he's slowly expanding to giant size. The really bad news is that his heart isn't growing at the same rate and will eventually explode from the stress. The worst news is that his mind can't handle what's happening, causing Glenn to go on a psychotic rampage in Las Vegas, which wouldn't be that odd of an occurrence in Sin City except for the fact that Glenn is 50-feet tall at the time. There's lot to enjoy in this Bert I. Gordon flick, not the least of which is that the title character, with his bald head and giant diaper, comes across as nothing less than a Kong-sized baby throwing a temper tantrum.

TIL: Speaking of growing, John Collins writes in Our Sunday Visitor, "In our contemporary culture 'spiritual growth' is a term that has become not only ambiguous but annoyingly vague. Used in various ways by people of different faiths (and sometimes by people of no faith), this is a term that conjures up a multitude of images: Eastern meditation, vision quests in California, a variety of New Age explorations and all the rest. … Ultimately, as Catholics, we must realize that if we wish to grow spiritually, we cannot follow the paths or the ideas of others religions. … For the Catholic, spiritual growth can be nothing but a continual turning to Christ. In this we come to understand an astonishing truth, that spiritual growth is really a growth in relationship, a constant deepening of our relationship with Christ."

Good Boy (2025) Against the advice of just about everyone he knows, an ill young man named Todd moves into his grandfather's abandoned home in the middle of nowhere. Todd dismisses warnings that the place is haunted, but his faithful retriever Indy isn't so sure, especially once an ominous dark shape only the dog can see starts to emerge from the house's dark corners. Can Indy be a good enough boy to save his beloved master from whatever's coming for them, or is it already too late? Unfortunately, the movie lets slip what's really going on about half way through the film, but the visual approach of telling the story entirely from the dog's perspective is so well done (and ultimately emotional) that you'll want to stick with it to the end.

TIL: One of the consequences of the ancient Jewish purity laws is that dogs aren't portrayed all that well in the Bible. Most of the verses in which they appear paint puppies as generally filthy scavengers fit only to serve as metaphors for moral or spiritual uncleanness. An interesting exception is the book of Tobit, in which a random pooch shows up to travel with Tobias and the angel Raphael. The dog's presence is never explained, leaving theologians to speculate he's there as a symbol of unwavering companionship and steadfastness in the face of adversity, mirroring the loyalty of Tobias and Raphael to God despite their trials. Whatever the reason, Tobias' adopted doggie is the rare good boy in the Bible and deserves a nice scratch behind the ears.

DAILY CALL SHEET: OCTOBER 2, 2025

Gas-s-s-s, or if you prefer the onscreen title, Gas! -Or- It Became Necessary to Destroy the World in Order to Save It (1970) After a hastily scribbled military unleashes a lab-created gas that kills everyone on the planet over the age of 25, hippies, bikers, and football players inherit the Earth. Looking for something more groovy than post-apocalyptic Dallas, flower children Coel and Cilla hit the road for a series of perplexing psychedelic adventures. As the pair cross America, they meet a motorcycle-riding Edgar Allan Poe, giant papier-mâché heads of JFK and MLK, and God, but even the Almighty isn't able to help the film make any sense at all.

TIL: No, the hippie peace symbol is not a broken inverted cross as some have suggested. It's actually the letters N and D superimposed on each other and was created in 1958 by British artist and designer Gerald Holtom as a symbol for the nuclear disarmament movement. As a symbol, the cross obviously has its own meanings. It started showing up prominently in Christian art around the 3rd Century as the religion began to move out of the shadows. At that time, it was seen as a sign of victory over death and evil, a meaning it still carries to this day. However, by the medieval period, its superimposed lines became to be seen as a representation of the intersection of divinity (the vertical line) and the world (horizontal line).

Invasion U.S.A. (1985) A force of Latin American guerrillas led by Soviet agent Richard Lynch start making noise along the Florida coast. Unable to handle the situation themselves, the government asks retired CIA operative Chuck Norris to look into the matter, but he's not interested, at least not until the bad guys kill his best friend. He's barely had time to get involved, though, before hundreds of guerrillas descend on the suburbs of Miami where they wreck a subdivision and shopping mall. This really upsets Chuck, which, as we all know, doesn't bode well for the guerillas. Objectively bad by any critical standard, but that's irrelevant as this flick, more than any other, is the likely birthplace of all those Chuck Norris memes.

TIL: When it comes to evaluating any form of warfare, including guerrilla tactics, the Church's framework, as always, rests on Just War principles. Guerrilla warfare often risks violating the principles of proportionality (the harm caused must not outweigh the good achieved) and discrimination (combatants must distinguish between military targets and civilians, avoiding indiscriminate violence). Guerrilla campaigns that employ such methods, especially of the type seen in Invasion U.S.A. where there is the intentional targeting of civilians in populated areas, are deemed immoral. Resistance movements such as those employed against the Nazis in WWII, however, might be defensible as long as they meet Just War criteria.

DAILY CALL SHEET: SEPTEMBER 22, 2025

Frankenstein Meets the Space Monster (1965) Believe it or not, Mars needs women, again. This time around it's because an atomic war killed all the females on Mars except for the planet's Princess, and one woman can only be expected to do so much. On their way to steal all of Earth's female breeding stock, the Martians, buttheads that they are, decide to shoot down a Terran android astronaut named Frank and then melt half his face off. Afterwards, while the now disfigured Frank terrorizes Puerto Rico and picks a fight with a messed up mutant, the Martians look for girls in bikinis. Sure, it ain't great, but you can't say it skimps on the ingredients one looks for in a Saturday B-movie matinee.

TIL: Who taught the Martians women exist only for sex and you can just snatch them up when it's time to breed? Guess the Martian sexual revolution was a complete failure too, huh? The Church teaches that sex has a dual purpose: procreation yes, but also union. As Pope Paul VI pointed out, the unitive purpose of sex is emphasized as a means of fostering love, intimacy, and mutual self-giving (between spouses within the sacrament of marriage, of course). Going further, Pope John Paul II’s Theology of the Body notes that sex can be a physical sign of the “communion of persons,” mirroring the love within the Trinity and expressing the spouses’ commitment to each other. Do better, Martians.

Goldfinger (1964) Supremely evil bullion dealer Auric Goldfinger is up to something no good involving Fort Knox and Her Majesty's Secret Service wants Agent 007 to find out what it is. Armed with his usual assortment of gadgets, Bond tussles with dapper henchman Oddjob, attempts to charm mercenary pilot Pussy Galore, and tries to avoid getting cut in half with a laser. All in all, it's just another day on the job for the world's top super spy. Though it's pretty close, Goldfinger likely isn't the best of the classic James Bond movies, but when it comes to highlighting the expected tropes (catchy theme song, questionably named Bond girls, over the top archvillains, etc.), Goldfinger is the standard.

TIL: It's always weird how a piece of metal could become so valuable to mankind, but here we are. In fact, gold seems to always had meaning to various cultures beyond just wealth. For the ancient Egyptians, it represented the flesh of gods like Ra. The Incas, Mesopotamians, and ancient Chinese all used it in their rituals as well. Even the Jews and Christians recognized its symbolic value as a representation of God's divine nature, holiness, and eternal glory. The Ark of the Covenant was overlaid with gold, the Temple was covered in it, and Heaven was described as a city with streets made from the stuff. It's still an earthly thing though, so Psalm 119 is sure to remind us to love God's commandments more than the finest gold.

DAILY CALL SHEET: SEPTEMBER 12, 2025

 

The Long Walk (2025) Sometime after a civil war has caused the U.S. to slip into fascism and economic collapse, teenaged boys from across the country volunteer for an annual state-sponsored competition in which participants must walk at a predetermined pace without stopping or face immediate execution. The last one still walking (and therefore alive) is the winner, who is then showered with wealth and celebrated as a symbol of dogged American determination. This grueling take on Stephen King's allegory about the sacrifice of youth to endless wars and the rat race in general is one of the better adaptations of the author's work in some time. However, a character decision at the very end of the movie, likely written to reflect the filmmakers' own bleak world view, is completely misguided and nearly ruins the whole thing.

TIL: Unlike The Hunger Games, in which teens are forced to participate, those who take part in The Long Walk voluntarily submit their names for inclusion in hopes of escaping impoverishment. This leads to one of the many interesting philosophical discussions in the film (it is a movie entirely about people walking and talking after all) in which some of the boys wonder if their participation makes them just as guilty as those in power who sponsor the contest. Despite the mitigating circumstances of abject poverty, the Church might say yes. As the Catechism notes, one cannot cooperate with an intrinsically evil act without sufficient proportionate reason. By participating in a death-driven game, one risks causing scandal (leading others to sin or weakening their moral resolve) and undermining the Church’s witness to life.

Now Showing at a Blog Near You: For Aleteia this week I take a look at 'Triumph of the Heart', one of the few faith-focused films I can honestly recommend for everyone. This imaginative take on the last days of Maximilian Kolbe is very well done.

DAILY CALL SHEET: SEPTEMBER 6, 2025

 

Dr. Strange (1978) Extra-dimensional sorceress Morgan Le Fay possesses a young lady named Clea and orders her to kill Earth's Sorcerer Supreme, Tom. Weakened by his near death at Clea's hands, the wizened wizard looks for a potential successor, and surprisingly finds him in Clea's psychiatrist, Stephen Strange. Le Fay knows she must take out this new threat, but she also finds Strange's porn-stache and white man's afro oddly appealing. Will Strange succumb to Le Fay's wiles or face her in battle on the astral plane. A must-see for comics fans in the 70s desperate for live-action fare, but let's not kid ourselves, there's good reason this pilot movie never went to series.

TIL: It's pretty clear in Church teaching that magic in the real world can never be used for good, even if the goal is well intentioned like trying to cure an illness or help a loved one. This is because magic is an effort to gain power apart from God by attempting to control or manipulate hidden forces. And, since these forces are outside of God, they can open a person to demonic influence or deception, not something to be recommended. Ah, but what about things like prayer and sacramentals (holy water, blessings, medals, etc.), why aren't they considered magic? Simply because any supernatural help that might come from their use is entirely at the discretion of God and not through human mastery.

Now Showing at a Blog Near You: Review: My latest for Aleteia takes a look at Light of the World, the new animated feature which gives a glimpse into the ministry of Jesus through the eyes of John, the youngest Apostle.

DAILY CALL SHEET: SEPTEMBER 2, 2025

Deathstalker (1983) Musclebound barbarian Deathstalker (who names their kid that?) is tasked by a witch to locate three magic items that will grant their bearer ultimate authority over everyone. However, the evil sorcerer Munkar, who already has one of the items in his possession, convinces Deathstalker to participate in a Mortal Kombat-style tournament to determine who will become the ruler of all. With its ogres, imps and magic weapons, this silly Conan cash-in has just about everything it needs to appeal to anyone who rolled a d20 back in the day. Unfortunately, the fact that every male character-even the hero-has creepy rapist tendencies dampens the fun a bit. What was with Roger Corman and that during the '80s, anyway?

TIL: When the Catholic Church claims that Scripture, tradition and the magisterium grant it authority, she’s able to do so by what the Catechism calls motives of credibility. As it notes, “So ‘that the submission of our faith might nevertheless be in accordance with reason, God willed that external proofs of his Revelation should be joined to the internal helps of the Holy Spirit.’ Thus the miracles of Christ and the saints, prophecies, the Church’s growth and holiness, and her fruitfulness and stability ‘are the most certain signs of divine Revelation, adapted to the intelligence of all’; they are ‘motives of credibility’ (motiva credibilitatis), which show that the assent of faith is ‘by no means a blind impulse of the mind.’” In short, the Church doesn't just have authority because she says so. There are proofs.

Bigfoot (1970) A number of women are reported to have been kidnapped by what appears to be a tribe of bigfoot/human hybrids (also known as guys in gorilla suits), but the police are skeptical and don't put too much effort into the case. As a result, it's left to the local motorcycle club and a professional acquirer of freak show exhibits (nice work if you can get it, I guess) to mount a rescue. However, it turns out the women have been taken to provide mates for an actual Bigfoot, and the big guy's not too eager to let his new ladies go without a fight. Bigfoot's a cheap, slipshod production with too much filler, but at least John Carradine seems to be having a lot of fun.

TIL: Arranged marriages are not inherently evil and therefore not expressly forbidden by the Church. However, they are only valid if both spouses give their free and full consent to the union. If either party is forced or coerced into marriage, the sacrament is considered invalid. This applies even to cultures where arranged marriages are common (which apparently includes tribes of bigfoot/human hybrids). While the Church recognizes the cultural value of family involvement in an impending marriage, if one of the intended spouses is not entering the marriage freely and without reservation, it really doesn't matter what the rest of the family wants.

DAILY CALL SHEET: AUGUST 28, 2025

Incubus (1982) After a number of women in a rural Wisconsin town are assaulted so horribly that their uteruses rupture (sorry, ladies, I'm just telling you the plot), a doctor and a pushy reporter decide the police aren't up to the task of finding the killer and look into the incidents themselves. They not only discover that their town has a history of Satanism (the original kind, not that silly Anton LaVey stuff), but that it's presently being targeted by a demonic shapeshifting sexual predator. John Cassavetes slums it in this grimy and rather mean spirited 80's flick that's not exactly a slasher, but still plays like one since it's 1982 and that's what filled seats at the time.

TIL: The existence of demons is a given in Christianity. However, the specific belief in an incubus, a male demon who seduces or assaults women in their sleep, is arguable at best. There's no explicit mention of incubi in Scripture and early theologians like Augustine were highly skeptical of the idea that demons could sexually interact with humans. By the Middle Ages, though, some Christians were warming to the idea. For the few who might still believe in incubi, old demonology manuals like Malleus Maleficarum note ways to fight an incubus include going to confession, making the sign of the Cross, and reciting a Hail Mary. However, since that pretty much applies to any demon, it really doesn't matter if it's an actual incubus or not.

Life of Brian (1979) Though born just one manger down from Jesus, Brian Cohen is now an unassuming and insignificant nebbish growing weary of living with his domineering single mother under the oppressive Roman occupation of Judea. Through a series of increasingly ludicrous events, Brian finds himself a member of the Roman resisting People's Front of Judea (not to be confused with the Judean People's Front, those tossers), a very confused passenger aboard an alien spaceship, and a very, very reluctant false-messiah. The Monty Python boys decide to take some pot shots at what they see as the sillier side of religion and the results, while not all the way up there with their Holy Grail, are almost always absurdly funny.

TIL: While the Vatican did not officially condemn it, lots of other religious groups did come out against Life of Brian on its initial release under the assumption that it would be blasphemous. This caused Python member Michael Palin to publicly admit the group was originally going to satirize Jesus, but after reading through the Gospels for material, they couldn't find anything about Him to mock. Instead, they went after those who blindly follow religion without evidence or reason, which the Python's considered to be anybody who adhered to any kind of religious belief. If only they had done a little more research beyond the Gospels into the likes of Augustine, Aquinas, Bonaventure, etc., they might have realized they were once again working under a common atheist misassumption and were not, in fact, the smartest people in the room.

DAILY CALL SHEET: AUGUST 16, 2025

 

After Hours (1985) I lose a lot of movie reviewer cred when I confess I don't enjoy most Martin Scorsese films. Oh, I absolutely admit most of them are brilliantly made, but I just don't like them. After Hours is one of the exceptions. It's the story of a bored out of his mind businessman who decides to break his monotonous routine and head into downtown New York to hook up with a woman he just met earlier in the day at a café. He then proceeds to have one of the weirdest and worst nights anybody could possibly have. It's a dirt simple premise, but full of pitch black humor that really works if that's your thing. Plus, it's Scorsese, so it's brilliantly made.

TIL: Boredom's not necessarily a bad thing. Take the origin story of St. Ignatius of Loyola, for example. After being hit by a cannonball (that's not the boring part), Ignatius found himself stuck in bed for a long time recuperating. With nothing else to do, he requested some books, preferably romance novels (I don't know why, you'd have to ask him). Unfortunately for him, but quite fortunate for the world, the only available reading material that could be scrounged up was a book on the lives of the Saints. Ignatius wasn't thrilled at this, but with no other choice, he gave it whirl. Needless to say, that bout of boredom put him on the road to founding one of the most important religious orders in Church history. Boredom is like anything else, it all depends on how you use it.

Escape from the Bronx (1983) It's been years since the events of 1990: The Bronx Warriors and our hero Trash has spent most of that time trading in illegal ammunition and shooting helicopters down with his pistol. That changes when an evil corporation (is there any other kind in movies) decides to jump start some gentrification by setting all of the Bronxites on fire, starting with Trash's parents. In response, all of the gangs in the borough unite with Trash as their reluctant leader and put in action a plan to abduct the President of the United States. Second verse same as the first, so if you liked the first movie, you'll find the sequel a hoot.

TIL: There are at present 68 Catholic churches in the Bronx and, as befits the eccentricity of the borough, there are some odd stories surrounding some of them and their related institutions. These include tales of miraculous healings and priests with mafia connections. The most storied spot, though, appears to be the Jesuit run Fordham University. There you'll find mentions of the ghostly construction worker who bangs on the walls, the shade of a theater patron who hangs out in the balcony, and the usual assortment of cold spots in the basement. Some claim the place is haunted because it was built over Rose Hill Manor and a former hospital/morgue. However, one also suspects that parts of the Exorcist being filmed at the school might have sparked a few imaginations.

DAILY CALL SHEET: AUGUST 13, 2025

 

Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger (1977) Poor Sinbad. The princess he intends to marry calls off the wedding until the legendary sailor can find a cure for her brother the prince, who has been turned into a baboon by their wicked step-monster. Since the princess is Jane Seymour, Sinbad quickly agrees to the mission, but his efforts are hindered by ghouls, a giant walrus, a mechanical minotaur, and a saber-toothed tiger. Fortunately , Sinbad gets a little help from a one-horned troglodyte helpfully named Trog (no relation to Joan Crawford's pal). Arguably the least of Ray Harryhausen's Sinbad movies, but it's still Harryhausen so that's like saying it's the least donut out of a dozen Krispy Kremes.

TIL: Though nobody knows exactly where the original stories of Sinbad came from, once they were added to the One Thousand and One Nights near the end of the Islamic Golden Age, the Sinbad stories spread worldwide. One of the odd places they showed up was in a 17th century manuscript written by a monk of the Syriac Orthodox Church at Saint George in Aleppo. Along with various prayers, homilies, and a noncanonical version of the Apocalypse of Peter is the complete Seven Voyages of Sinbad. Weird, but as Dr. David Calabro notes, "Rather than propounding a specific religious doctrine, most Arabian Nights tales either teach general moral values or aim simply to entertain. Thus, they flow easily between religious traditions."

In the Mouth of Madness (1994) Insurance investigator John Trent is hired to track down Sutter Cane, an uber-popular writer whose books are beginning to outsell the Bible. As the search for the missing Cane intensifies, the super-skeptical Trent is horrified to discover that reality is starting to merge with Cane's Lovecraftian fiction, a result of the sheer number of people who choose to believe in the author's work. As society crumbles and insanity rules, Trent begins to worry that even he might be just another one of Cane's creations. Almost anything John Carpenter is fun (yes, even some parts of Memoirs of an Invisible Man), but most fans rightfully consider In the Mouth of Madness to be the last of his truly great theatrical releases, due in no small part to Sam Neill's completely committed performance.

TIL: It's a well-worn trope in fiction that God (or anything else for that matter) only has any real power because people believe in Him, and should enough folks cease to believe, then God (or whatever) would be powerless. Some even try to claim this is biblical, pointing to Mark 6 where it says Jesus couldn't perform many 'deeds of power' in his hometown of Nazareth because there was little belief to be found there. Alas, that interpretation, which basically make humans the real God, is wishful thinking. In the Bible, Jesus has the power to heal anyone regardless of their belief, but he never coerces anyone into being healed. Instead, those who seek such from the Lord submit to healing willingly, while those who reject Him are allowed to go their own way. It's the same way as when God offers his love, but allows people the choice to reject it and be separated from it for eternity.