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One of the earliest Alien rip-offs was made for US television. We take a look back at 1981’s The Intruder Within.

Much like Jaws, Star Wars and Mad Max before it, the success of 1979’s Alien prompted studios and producers the world over to make their own hastily-made rip-off movies. Thanks to – shall we say – enterprising filmmakers like Roger Corman and Norman J Warren, we got cheap and cheerful fare like Barracuda (1978), Battle Beyond The Stars (1980) and Inseminoid (1981).

One of the earliest Alien clones to emerge like a shambling monster, though, was The Intruder Within – a low-budget TV movie that cheekily borrowed all sorts of ideas from Ridley Scott’s hit, but transplanted the entire thing from a spaceship in the future to an oil rig in the post-energy crisis early 1980s. As you can probably imagine, it isn’t a lost classic, but it’s fascinating to revisit, both...

Special effects master and creature creator Stan Winston is best known for making the monsters seen in such hit films as "The Terminator," "Invaders from Mars," "Aliens," "Alien Nation," "Predator," "Jurassic Park," "Congo," and "The Relic." He also provided makeup and other eerie beings for "The Thing," "Starman," "Edward Scissorhands," "Batman Returns," and "The Island of Dr. Moreau." He received an Oscar nomination in 1982 for his work on the robot comedy "Heartbeeps." His monsters indelibly changed genre cinema for decades, and his death in 2008 was an immeasurable loss. 

Winston also directed a few notable projects. He directed the music videos for Guns N' Roses and Michael Jackson. Winston also helmed the amusement parks-only 3-D "Terminator" interquel "T2 3-D: Battle Across Time" in '96. Winston only ever directed two feature films: the very, very, very odd cop-teams-up-with-a-gnome comedy "A Gnome Named Gnorm" in 1990, and the horrifying monster revenge thriller "Pumpkinhead" in 1988. 

"Pumpkinhead,...

It’s a very musical episode! Director and Tfh Guru, Allan Arkush, returns to talk about his favorite rock and roll movies with hosts Josh Olson and Joe Dante.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

No Nukes (1980)

Amazing Grace (2018) – Dennis Cozzalio’s Oscar nominee reactions

The Magnificent Ambersons (1942) – Glenn Erickson’s Criterion Blu-ray review

Get Crazy (1983) – Allan Arkush’s trailer commentary

Rock ‘n’ Roll High School (1979) – Eli Roth’s trailer commentary

Blackboard Jungle (1955) – Allan Arkush’s trailer commentary

Rock, Rock, Rock! (1956) – ​​Jesus Treviño’s trailer commentary

Mister Rock And Roll (1957)

Go, Johnny, Go! (1959) – Allan Arkush’s trailer commentary

Hail Hail Rock And Roll! (1987) – Allan Arkush’s trailer commentary

The Girl Can’t Help It (1956) – Dan Ireland’s trailer commentary

Hellzapoppin’ (1941)

Innerspace (1987) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review

Almost Famous (2000) – Allan Arkush’s trailer commentary

Wayne’s World (1992)

The Graduate (1967) – Neil Labute’s trailer commentary, Glenn Erickson’s Criterion Blu-ray review

Scorpio Rising...

It’s no secret that Stan Winston has been hugely influential on my love for special makeup effects (you can catch up on our previous Stan Winston Week celebration Here) as well as his uncanny ability to create memorable characters that endure the test of time. When it comes to the films of 1981, Winston ran the gamut of makeups and effects that year, contributing to projects like The Hand and Friday the 13th Part 2 all while delivering show-stopping creations for both Gary Sherman’s Dead & Buried as well as the family-friendly comedy Heartbeeps by Allan Arkush, two wildly different films that perfectly showcased Winston’s diverse skill set and enthusiasm for the craft.

As a kid, Heartbeeps was a movie that I came across due to the involvement of Andy Kaufman. My friend’s parents were huge fans of his work and they rented the movie on a whim,...

This article marks Part 3 of the Gold Derby series reflecting on Horror Films at the Oscars. Join us as we look back at the spine-tingling movies that earned Academy Awards nominations, including the following films from the 1980s and 1990s.

On the heels of the lukewarm reception for “Alien” (1979), horror cinema still struggled to break through at the Oscars with the start of the 1980s.

Stanley Kubrick‘s “The Shining” (1980) was not voters’ cup of tea, though it did earn Razzie Award nominations in Worst Director and Worst Actress (Shelley Duvall). Likewise, Brian De Palma’s “Dressed to Kill” and Peter Medak’s “The Changeling,” both now considered horror classics, were not embraced at the Oscars.

The one 1980 horror film that did strike a chord was “Altered States,” the trippy collaboration of director Ken Russell and screenwriter Paddy Cheyefsky. It landed nominations in Best Original Score and Best Sound.

The...

There are two types of bad movies: The ones the zeitgeist deems bad (like, say, The Room, Birdemic, or Academy Award winner Crash) or the ones the critics refuse to adorn with their approval. The following video is concerned with the latter, though there is a little overlap with the former, if only for the fact that movies like Manos: Hands Of Fate never culled a sizable amount of reviews.

This Looper video listicle compiles 10 films currently holding a 0 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes. There are a few easy targets in there—Manos, obviously, as well as that ubiquitous staple of shit cinema, Mac And Me—but there’s also a few would-be blockbusters and some forgotten symbols of misguided ambition.

For example: Have you even heard of 1981’s Heartbeeps, the robot-centric comedy starring Andy Kaufman, Bernadette Peters, and “a garbage child robot”? Or Roller Boogie, the ...

Close your eyes and you can hear the music of John Williams without trying too hard. You know the greatest hits and can probably hum through most of them from start to finish, even if the extent of your musical career is plunking out “Heart and Soul” on your grandparent’s piano.

The legacy of Williams’ music extends beyond the cinema. The “NBC Nightly News” theme? That was him. That fanfare you’ll be hearing once the Olympics arrive? Him, too. A fan of that “Sunday Night Football” march that leads up to kickoff? Guess who.

And even though the world now recognizes Williams for his trademark triumphant horns and sweeping orchestral strings, this was a composer who, a year before “Jaws,” was penning acoustic love themes so ’70s they would make Burt Bacharach blush. So as much as we remember the soundtracks to dizzying flights across space and wide shots of dinosaurs in paradise,...

Terminator

Directed by James Cameron

Written by James Cameron and Gale Anne Hurd

1984, USA

In 1984, James Cameron released his sci-fi thriller The Terminator: the story of a killer cyborg sent from the future, and programmed to kill the mother of a future rebel chief. Arnold Schwarzenegger is the automated hit man roaming around present-day Los Angeles to eliminate Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton). Her only hope is the guerrilla fighter Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn) who has followed the killer machine back through time in order to protect her. Terminator has long staked its claim as a classic for the ages (The Library of Congress even added it to its National Film Registry in 2008) and three decades later, Termiantor is still the best film James Cameron has directed, a resourceful low-budget thriller that recalls the canny exploitation work of George Miller and John Carpenter. While the film made a considerable profit for Orion Pictures,...

Andy Kaufman alive? Or Andy Kaufman hoax? New York City-born comedian Andy Kaufman, little known outside the United States but well-remembered in the U.S. by those who watched the late ’70s / early ’80s television series Taxi, is alive, married, and has a (previously unknown) grown daughter who goes by the name of McCoy. Well, if — and that’s a big if (or perhaps a small one, considering people’s willful gullibility and/or downright stupidity) — you believe the story reported in numerous outlets in the last couple of days: Andy Kaufman may have faked his own death of lung cancer at age 35 in 1984 so he could escape the limelight. (Photo: Andy Kaufman) At the New York-based Andy Kaufman Awards last Monday night, November 11, 2013, a woman claiming to be Kaufman’s daughter — calling herself "McCoy" (reportedly the name Kaufman used when checking himself into hospitals) — appeared on stage with Michael Kaufman,...

Dread Central has a deep-seated love for classic movie monsters and the artistry that brings them to life so when the opportunity arose to showcase the work of the legendary Stan Winston, we thought we'd celebrate Halloween with "7 Days of Stan Winston's Famous Monsters"!

For those who may be unaware of the legacy he's left behind, special effects maestro Winston first rose to prominence in Hollywood with his Oscar-nominated work on the 1981 comedic cult classic Heartbeeps and since then created countless iconic creatures and numerous subtle prosthetic effects that forever changed the world of film and the effects industry as well.

During his 35-plus-year career, Winston dabbled in the worlds of dinosaurs, aliens, cyborgs, superheroes, the supernatural and the super-awkward with his work on films like The Terminator, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, The Thing, Aliens, The Monster Squad, Predator 1 & 2, the Jurassic Park trilogy, Edward Scissorhands, A.I., Pumpkinhead, Dead & Buried,...

We start the Top 7. You finish the Top 10.

This week’s “Question of the Week” on Jeff Bayer’s “Movie B.S.” podcast is inspired by Sparkle, a remake of the 1976 film that features actress/singer Whitney Houston in her last on-screen performance. This question is, “What dead performer do you wish had made one last movie before they died, and what would it be?”

In honor of Houston, and many others who left us before giving us the movie that they should’ve made last, here’s a list of the Top 7 Imaginary Last Performances from Dead Actors.

7. Phil Hartman

Last Film: The PG-13 family action figure actioner Small Soldiers, 1998.

Should’ve Been Last Film: While it certainly came out some time after 1998, the long-anticipated, now-forgotten Simpsons Movie just wasn’t the same without Phil Hartman, who voiced classic side characters on the TV show like Lionel Hutz and Troy McClure.

(Rock 'n Roll High School director Allan Arkush, above. Photo courtesy of NBC.)

by Jon Zelazny

Editor’s Note: this article originally appeared at EightMillionStories.com on April 24th.

Jersey City native Allan Arkush has enjoyed a prolific career in television, currently producing and directing for the hit series “Heroes.”

He started in show business at Bill Graham’s legendary Fillmore East concert theater in New York City, then worked for the equally legendary low-budget movie producer Roger Corman. 2009 marks the 30th anniversary of Arkush’s solo directorial debut, the beloved cult classic Rock ‘n Roll High School.

I met with Arkush in his home office in West Los Angeles, and tried to keep from drooling all over his killer record collection.

Did you go to Springsteen last night? I thought he was amazing.

Allan Arkush: He really was. I thought it was interesting that he started out with some fairly dark songs: “Badlands,...

Stan Winston, the Oscar-winning special effects, creature and makeup artist whose innovative creations include the full-scale animatronic dinosaurs in "Jurassic Park" and the futuristic Terminators, has died. He was 62.

Winston died Sunday at his home in Malibu after a seven-year battle with myeloma, a Stan Winston Studio spokeswoman said.

During a film and TV career that spanned four decades, Winston collaborated with such filmmakers as Steven Spielberg and James Cameron and worked on some of his generation's most memorable films.

He won four Oscars, for the visual effects in "Jurassic Park," "Terminator 2: Judgment Day" and "Aliens" and for makeup on "T2." He also earned Oscar noms for his work on "AI: Artificial Intelligence," "The Lost World: Jurassic Park," "Batman Returns," "Edward Scissorhands," "Predator" and "Heartbeeps." He was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2001.

In the early years of his career, during which he worked primarily in television,...

Stan Winston, the Oscar-winning special effects, creature and makeup artist whose innovative creations include the full-scale animatronic dinosaurs in "Jurassic Park" and the futuristic Terminators, has died. He was 62.

Winston died Sunday at his home in Malibu after a seven-year battle with myeloma, a Stan Winston Studio spokeswoman said.

During a film and TV career that spanned four decades, Winston collaborated with such filmmakers as Steven Spielberg and James Cameron and worked on some of his generation's most memorable films.

He won four Oscars, for the visual effects in "Jurassic Park", "Terminator 2: Judgment Day" and "Aliens" and for makeup on "T2." He also earned Oscar noms for his work on "AI: Artificial Intelligence", "The Lost World: Jurassic Park", "Batman Returns", "Edward Scissorhands", "Predator" and "Heartbeeps". He was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2001.

In the early years of his career, during which he worked primarily in television, Winston garnered five Emmy noms, winning for "Gargoyles" and "The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman."

Praise for Winston poured in Monday from his showbiz friends and colleagues.

"Stan was a fearless and courageous artist/inventor," Spielberg said. "And for many projects, I rode his cutting edge from teddy bears to aliens to dinosaurs. My world would not have been the same without Stan. What I will miss most is his easy laugh every time he said to me, 'Nothing is impossible.' "

Producer Kathleen Kennedy told The Hollywood Reporter: "He has a tremendous impact in the world of special effects and makeup and bringing things to life that, for the most part, only existed in people's imaginations. We had an extraordinary working relations with Stan going back over 20 years. He was one of those wonderful personalities to have on the set because Stan was always laughing, always making jokes, and ultimately he delivered what you often thought was impossible."

Said Calif.