Story Starters

'Eternal Sunshine' drug selectively erases memories

"Spider God" Temple Found in Peru

Stalked at midnight ... by a hearse

Vampire Moth Discovered

Woman arrested for killing virtual husband

Young blonde woman's ghost haunts restaurant

Let the Right One In

When this was on my “On Demand”, the artsy trailer and premise of this Swedish film didn’t exactly grab me -- a bullied boy’s relationship with a girl who turns out to be a vampire -- but a couple of genre sites have given it favorable reviews; to hear them tell it, “Let the Right One In” is far superior to the overhyped “Twilight”. I’ll have to check it out at some point...

Rise of the Lycans

I think I'm starting to suffer from "Underworld" fatigue, because the new trailer isn't doing a whole lot for me. Still, from spec script to full blown trilogy is quite the accomplishment.

Heroes: Dying of the Light

All in all, tonight's episode wasn't that bad. Robert Forster makes a great heavy. Nice touches of comedy with Hiro and Ando in Africa. We even got a decent fight scene between Peter and Sylar. After a rought start, it feels like things are slowly coming together. BTW, Claire Bennet's superhero name should be: The Possum!

New V series?

Old news by now, but the thought of a new “V” series brings back a lot of memories --mostly of the hot alien leader, Diana. After “Invasion” and “Threshold” flopped, I’m not exactly sure how they can pull this off. The revamped “Battlestar Galactica” is a “hit” for the Sci-Fi Channel, but it would get killed on one of the big three networks. There’d probably be a major attempt to make things more “realistic”, but cheese was a major part of the show’s charm. Who could forget the hybrid birth? Twins!

Story Starters

Eight real-life Doctor Frankensteins.

Girl who spontaneously bleeds from pores baffles doctors.

Hurricane washes up "ghost ship".

Millionaire businessman flees haunted mansion.

Poltergeist follows teen home.

Scientists fear mutant fish has started killing people.

Life On Mars

Never saw the U.K. version, so I didn’t know what to expect, but this turned out to be a pleasant surprise. I have to say, the marketing was a bit off. The commercials were all about the 70s and bad fashion, instead of focusing on the characters and their relationships -- which is really odd since the show follows “Grey’s Anatomy”. In my mind, a man trying to save his girlfriend from a killer, should be the heart of the story -- the stuck-in-the-70s stuff is just window dressing. I think audiences/viewers like to be asked questions. What if you had an affair with the wrong person? What if someone kidnapped your child/spouse? What if you only had days to live?

‘What if some major disaster separated you from your family?’, probably gets more traction than, ‘What if a giant, radioactive dinosaur woke up and started devouring the city?’ If you can put the audience in the shoes of your protagonist, especially with genre stuff, that’s half the battle.

Deaths of Ian Stone

Caught this on the Sci-Fi Channel over the weekend. Kind of hard to describe... I guess you could call it a low budget “Dark City” meets “Deja Vu”. Ian Stone is stalked and eventually killed by strange creatures that only he can see, only to wake up in a slightly different reality -- but always with the same hot blonde -- over and over. Better than I expected. Cool creature designs from Stan Winston. Things fall apart in the third act when people don latex and place other people in torture devices -- unless that’s your sort of thing...

There’s an interview with screenwriter Brendan Hood here. It’s mostly him lamenting the changes that were made and how he was shut out of the process, but it’s interesting nonetheless. Some stuff I agree with, others I don’t. I think the love story angle made the story seem less generic. Sure, it’s kind of corny, but sometimes corny works.

Fringe Pick Up

No “Fringe” tonight, but Fox picked it up for the rest of the season. Highest-rated new show among 18-49 year olds -- not overall viewers because that distinction would belong to “The Mentalist”, which is handily kicking Fringe’s butt. Meanwhile, “Sarah Connor Chronicles”, “Heroes” and one of my faves, “Life”, can’t seem to stop the bleeding...

Sanctuary

I dig Amanda Tapping as a brunette with a British accent -- kinda schoolmarm sexy -- but I’m not entirely sold on this. The story could have been stronger. The subplot with the mutant boy was a little weak. Some of the twists/reveals were completely telegraphed -- John killing the prostitute, the identity of Ashley’s father, etc. And what was up with Dr. Zimmerman swagger jacking Daniel Jackson? It was like they cut and pasted his character from an old “Stargate” episode. The green screen stuff was okay. Didn’t get in the way. All in all, the whole thing felt *really* familiar, borrowing here and there from sci-fi shows past. Not great, but light-years ahead of stuff like “Flash Gordon” and “Painkiller Jane”.

Angel Heart remake?

According to Variety, there’s an “Angel Heart” remake in the works... Hmmm. Back in ‘87, there was a ton of controversy surrounding the film because of the graphic sex scene with Mickey Rourke and Lisa Bonet -- who was doing her damndest to shed her sitcom good girl image. Strange picture. A little ahead of its time with the twisty ending and some creepy performances, but my overall opinion soured over the years. What seemed dark and daring to me as an adolescent, now looks cheap and exploitative. Damn you, maturity! I suppose they’ll trot out Beyonce or someone like that to play Epiphany in a PG-13 version. In fact, it’d probably be more fun to see who they’d cast in the major roles than sitting through the film again.