Philly gets a Compound Fracture

Philly Gets a Compound Fracture

A few months ago, Tyler Mane, Michael Myers from Zombie's Halloween, and I discussed his film "Compound Fracture" and the special screening he was putting together in Philly. He explained how they would tour with the film, a method of promotion that is rarely done, including a Questions and Answers segment and really use a grassroots approach to spreading the word and giving back to the fans. 

Last night I ventured out to Philly and attended this screening and let me say this....this might have been one of the best film going experiences I have attended. Tyler and his wife, Renae Geerlings wrote and star in Compound Fracture and you can tell, they set out to make a quality film, wanted to have some fun and accomplished both. Before I get to the film, let's talk about the experience itself....the screening was held at the Ritz East, which is a very nice theater..so nice that they even put the calorie count on the popcorn bucket, luckily, I wasn't worried about my waistline...I'm fat, the lie is over. Tyler and Renae are extremely inviting and personable and really want you, the invitee to have the best experience possible. From the Red Carpet treatment, to the give aways, the behind the scenes mini featurette (similar to a DVD extra) and they wrap the night with a very intimate Q&A. What struck me the most was their honesty about things...from it being tough to not try to control everything, to the writing process plus, what the future holds for Mane Entertainment. 

Dimension & Mane

Compound Fracture was the best film I've seen this year thus far, yes, better than Evil Dead, better than MaMa and better than the Texas Chainsaw 3-D films. This film has the elements of the Supernatural, Witchcraft and more importantly, protecting your family. Mane, plays the lead Michael, with Geerlings playing his Fiancee Juliette. Muse Watson, known best for his role at the fisherman in I Know What You Did Last Summer plays Mane's Father, Gary who is struggling with old age and dementia while Mane's real life pal, Derek Mears (Jason from the Friday the 13th remake) plays the villain William. Special shout out to Leslie Easterbrook here as she plays a very different role for her in a while, Annabelle, Gary's new wife who is being both mentally and psychically abused by him. 

Without spoiling the film, let me give you an overview - Michael's sister was killed by her Husband William, in the process, William is killed. This leaves her son in Michael and Juliette's hands. As they visit Michael's Father, Gary, you quickly see that things have spiraled out of control as Gary has built a "Witchcraft Compound". This takes you for a ride to the supernatural with a final showdown that has to be seen.

The story unravels as the film plays out...something that is a rarity in today's cinema. Typically, the story has to smack you in the face because studios are afraid to trust the audience actually has some brains...Compound Fracture is a slow burning film that plays like building train tracks..with each piece being laid out as the story progresses...very well done. The cinematography uses a great blend of grittiness, modern approaches and also security camera footage to capture the action. Plus, I have to tip my hat to Tyler, as he portrayed a hero that is actually a little vulnerable, really well. His on screen chemistry with Geerlings is genuine and shines through. Muse and Mears are great, plus, did I mention how much I love Easterbrook? Anytime you can see "Michael Myers vs Jason Voorhees" any horror nerd will lose their shit with excitement..that alone will sell tickets. 

In closing, I will say this...if this tour comes to your town, make sure you go. Make sure you support this group, make sure you spread the word. This is a perfect example of US taking back the movies from big studios and allowing creative people to make great films. 

Visit their site at www.CompoundFractureTheMovie.com  and see if they are coming near you. 

Medieval Medical Practices…definitely not like today, thankfully

Medieval Medical Practices…definitely not like today, thankfully.

In time chivalrous times of long ago when kings and queens ruled the land and their court of lords and ladies where the epitome of elegance and class. They were times where knights would be the saviors and champions of the kingdoms as they led battle after battle and romantically swept the women away on their feet. An era when wizards, dragons and other monsters would attack or defend the castle as part of the struggles that were known as the dark ages. These romantic notions are conjured up based upon Hollywood and the legends and lore of so long ago. No matter the danger at hand or the battle to be fought one thing was clear; the medical practices at the time might have been their worst enemy.

We obviously know that out medical practices in this day an age of technology and scientific advances are much more reliable and successful than back then. The belief of how disease was spread and started could be considered laughable at best, because the last time I checked when I get a stomach pain it isn’t a small troll inside me trying to get out, I have been known to be wrong in the past however.

I, for some odd reason, started to thinking about these medical practices while I was at the hospital about to get surgery on my sinuses and figured what the heck; let’s see what I can find out. To my shock, horror and humor I have found the following.

Hemorrhoids: There was a 7^th century monk who was actually the patron saint for hemorrhoid pain, that saint definitely got the wrong end of the deal on that one. Now get this one, he apparently developed hemorrhoids in his garden and sat on a stone which gave him the magical cure. The stone apparently exists to this day and can me visited by any sufferer looking to sit upon its magical surface for relief and cure. Of course if that did not work then you could always take the other approach which would be to use a red hot poker to burn them away.

Zodiac signs: Another practice was that depending on what astrological sign you were born under the doctor needed to be aware of certain things. If you were a Taurus the doctor should not make incisions in the neck and throat and avoid cutting any veins in this area. Now if you were a Virgo the doctor should avoid cutting open a wound in the belly and internal parts, looks like virgos didn’t last to long in life. Now being a Pisces I had to see what I was forbade from doing, and it looks like my doctor should not cut my feet, look like I make out in this deal of dos and don’ts of this surgical guideline.

Dwale: Dwale is a crude anesthetic used the same way that anesthetic is used today in the operating rooms by relaxing the individual to sleep and pain relief so as not to feel discomfort during surgery. Now that’s great if it weren’t for that fact that Dwale could kill you very easily. It was made up of a combination of lettuce juice, opium, vinegar and gall from a castrated boar, which doesn’t sound all that bad until you add the last ingredient which was hemlock juice. All you Wicca and Shakespeare followers will know hemlock juice from many plays and potions. Hemlock juice is some very serious stuff and attacks the nervous system and is a very affective poison, once symptoms start its usually over as it moves rather fast through the body.

Bloodletting: Bloodletting is the one cure that everyone has pretty much heard about so I won’t spend too much time on this one. It was the practice of cutting veins and letting the toxins within the body to flow out via the blood stream. This in practicality sounds like a viable solution if it were not for the fact that usually you bled to death. They would slice a vein open and let the blood flow, not everyone died, but it was a barbaric treatment to say the least. Now if they were trying to release the toxins after watching the movie Twilight I could completely understand that.

Trepanation: Now some people who know about or heard about this procedure sometimes confuse it with lobotomy. Keep in mind that this is not about removing sections of the front lobe of the brain, this is about drilling holes into your head/skull. This procedures of drilling or cutting a small square into your skull is believed to treat cranial disease or for mystical purposes, depending on what you want to believe. They felt that the evil spirits or demon trapped in the cranial area would be able to escape through the hole that was created, because demons and evil spirits are stupid and couldn’t possibly leave through the ear, nose or mouth…that would be just plain silly. Oh and if you thought this practice had long since gone the way of the Do-Do then you would be wrong, there are some people who still believe in this and some quack un-insured doctors willing to do it too.

Toothache: Some people have had toothaches and some have not, I have been fortunate enough to not have one, but I do know some people who have and they say it’s very painful. So here is a remedy I think should work for everyone that I found in my research plus it will save on dental bills. If you take a candle and burn it close to the tooth that is hurting then the worms, yes I said worms, that are gnawing at the tooth will fall out into a cup of water held close to the mouth and candle. See dentists are such con artists, they tell us we need to floss and brush everyday; how does that keep worms away? No wonder my dentists never told me about the candle trick, he would lose all his business, such a con.

Pimples: I’m not going to spend all that long on this one that I found, mainly because its so bizarre and inhumane, but I’ll touch base on it. A cure for pimples was to take two white puppies, had to be white, and before they could see, you would chop off their heads and then let it drain out by hanging them from their back paws. Once the blood was all out your would mix it with some white wine and then apply it to your face to reduce you pimples. Now 2 things come to my mind about this, first off I guess PETA didn’t exists back then and secondly I am beginning to wonder what Clearasil uses in their formula now.

Now there are a vast amount of other weird medical therapies used such as leeches & maggots, which by the way are actually used in modern hospitals today to help heal cuts and wounds, but for the majority the ancient practices are long gone away. One thing I found interesting was the fact that even though it was the dark ages, they did rely heavily on sterilization by washing wounds and washing and burning medical tools. The diagnosis’s might have been off and some of the remedies not so well planned out, but at least they knew that dirt was bad.

Be safe and remember that candles are better than brushing,
John Cannon

Harry Potter LEGO review - John shows he's a Gamer!!

Lego Harry Potter: Years 1-4 (A guide to witchcraft with legos.)

Lego Harry Potter has been out now for a number of weeks and I am not afraid to say it, I had the game reserved since I first found out about it. So for me that would mean I reserved my copy of it back in November 2009 at my local video game dealer, yeah go ahead and laugh I don’t care. I am a huge lego video game and have every single one they have come out with except lego rock band because that’s not really a game like the other lego games are. I own all the Star Wars, Indiana Jones and Batman games and was uber excited when the Harry Potter one was announced. Of course I have found out they are going to make a Spiderman and Transformers one too, so again the uber excitement has set in.

When I first heard about it and that you could do spells and fly on the brooms I initially was concerned for the game play and the intensity they might have put into it. I thought they may over think it and take away from the enjoyment that the other lego games provided to players. The other thing I was worried about was do I go with the deluxe edition that I would have to pay a little bit more for, but get the collectables they give with the game. I researched and talk to my video game dealer guru and he informed me it that the items you received with the game were crappy little pins and that it wasn’t the extra money, unlike the cool lego Indy key chain I got with the latest lego Indian Jones game. So with that Sofie’s choice of a decision out of the way I focused my concern on the game itself.

Now I will admit that I generally pick up the strategy guide book for all my lego games just to have should I get stuck in that one spot that annoys me to no end and need a little “guidance” with. Now as I talked with my non-regular video game dealer guru and asked when they would release the strategy guide he informed me they probably wouldn’t put one out because they don’t really do that for the lego games. Now once I was finished screaming and skinning him alive for being stupid in my mind I politely said, oh ok no big deal, but it was to me…oh well.

I got the game home and began to play it and I was bothered by it initially as you have to learn different spells and button functions that didn’t quite stay true to previous lego games. Some of the characters are a bit hard to control in general and you have to go through the game quite a number of times in order to find everything in order to get that beloved 100% complete status. Now I know every lego game you need to go through a number of times to complete, but this one was a bit excessive. As well the overall layout is a bit confusing as you traverse around the castle of Hogwarts and then the outside and courtyards, you tend to get lost rather quickly. I think that’s why I would have liked the strategy guide the most to reference some sort of map, but in the end I ended up making my own. There were a couple of glitches in the game and I had to restart the system because of them, but I guess that’s par for the course.

Now while I have said less than positive things about the game I do want to go on record and say once I got the controls and button functions down I did have a pretty good time playing it. I enjoy all the lego games and the motto is if it aint broke don’t fix it, and that’s how I felt the other games were until we got to Harry Potter. If I could say one thing to the designers of the game that would be to not over complicate a good thing, don’t put so much time into public area screens and just make the levels a bit longer instead.

I have only seen the first three films of the Harry Potter series and the game stayed pretty true to the films with the lego twist of comedy as they do in any of their games. I was glad to see that, but since I had never seen the fourth film in the series I was confused by the story line and was let down a bit by the final boss as he was rather simple to defeat while Myrtle was a bit more challenging to defeat.

All in all I would say if you’re a fan of the lego games and you have played them all then you will enjoy it and you might as well feed the addiction. If you have never played the games before then I would recommend playing one of the earlier lego games like the first Indiana Jones rather than the one with the Crystal Skull movie in it which is the second coming of Indy for lego.

Be Safe & pick up your toys when you’re done,
John Cannon