Chad

Undeadcow

I'd always dismissed A Bucket of Blood as early low budget public domain fluff but ended up having fun with it. The beatnik gags are great and Dick Miller really carries the show with his desperate needy/whiny character. Light hearted enough to be fun with a nice ironic humor and gruesome premise. The "Telltale Heart" style hallucinations at the end were fun and really made sense with the character.

SethDLH

I felt much the same when I first watched this movie.

Spiderbite

This is another title that is not streaming on Netflix but is available for free streaming if you have Amazon Prime.

Mondo Kane

I still remain surprised that this was made in 1959. It just seems like all the dark humor seen in this would've been way too unacceptable for 50's cinema. But maybe it's because of it's indie roots that it was able to slide by the censors?

therja

This just reminded me of an episode of It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia. Can anyone guess which?

On another note, it's always so much worse to see a pet get killed than its owner!

DaveyJoe

Frankie the Cat does not fare as well as Rhubarb the Cat.

DaveyJoe

Walter: 1 DEA: 0

I love this movie.

Spiderbite

This movie does nothing for me. I seem to remember watching it for a past horror challenge but I don't remember how long ago it was. Seems it was a subset and I remember it didn't enthuse me then.

Dick Miller was 31 when he made this movie. Did the guy always look 60 years old no matter what age he was?

My rating: * out of *****

Trevor

A true classic imo. None of the characters are particularly likable, but they're all interesting. Dick Miller gives a great performance.

I wasn't sure what we were going to get in this film. It's almost more a social commentary on postmodern art than a horror film. Well scripted and nice technical work for a B grade budget.

I think I like it better than its 'sister' horror/comedies Corman did about the same time.

nezumi

It's been a couple of years since I last saw this film, but it only occurred to me this time around how much the plot seems lifted from an EC comic book. From the pulpy plot to Walter's ironic demise, the movie would have been right at home between the covers of Tales From the Crypt. Walter Paisley is almost the prototypical Crypt protagonist: a sad sack who's barely clever/unlucky enough to hatch a sinister scheme. You can practically see the thought bubbles hovering over Dick Miller's head as the poet's words echo in his mind.

I was planning on watching something else tonight, but I think I'm going to watch Chopping Mall for the Dick Miller/Walter Paisley connection.

Trevor

I like your connecting game and may play it next year.

Good point on the Tales From the Crypt comic resemblance; but I get the feeling that Walter is more mentally deficient and almost innocently unaware of his horrific actions.

jacob_b

It was a fun movie. Kind of dragged at the start, but I did end up enjoying it along the way. It's a short movie, as well, which is always a plus. Something I would probably watch again because of the length and some of the laughs it brought (especially the hand jesters).

nezumi

It's not so much a game. I'm not one to plan out what I'm going to watch for these challenges. Sometimes one film just leads to another and so on.

About EC Comics and Walter's deficiencies: It's funny, but I almost feel that in a different draft of the script, the cafe owner could have been the protagonist. He would also have made an ideal lead in a Crypt tale. Greedy and scheming, he's willing to let a simpleton murder several people in order to turn a fast buck. One major failing of the film is that it lets the cafe owner off the hook for his culpability in Walter's murders. All he has to do is pick up the phone, but the promise of a huge payday is too great a temptation. Fear of being killed may play a factor, but I do feel that money is the larger motive.

rbrown498

As is often the case, I've got to agree with you, Trevor. As much as I like Creature from the Haunted Sea, this movie is simply better made. I feel that Little Shop of Horrors pales in comparison with either of those two.

Did anyone see the remake from the mid-90s that debuted on Showtime? It was released on VHS under the title The Death Artist and starred Anthony Michael Hall in the Dick Miller role and Justine Bateman in the Barboura Morris role. It wasn't bad.