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Jane Asher (born 5 April 1946) is an English actress and author. She achieved early fame as a child actress. She has worked extensively in film and television.
Asher has appeared in television shows and films such as Deep End (1970), The Masque of the Red Death (1964), Alfie (1966), The Mistress, Crossroads, Death at a Funeral (2007), and The Old Guys. She also appeared in two episodes of the 1950s TV series The Buccaneers alongside Robert Shaw. She was Paul McCartney's girlfriend from 1963 to 1968.
Asher has been nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for the film Deep End and the British Academy Television Award for Best Actress for television performances in A Voyage Round My Father (1982) and Love Is Old, Love Is New (1982).
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The Unborn is a 1991 American science fiction horror film directed by Rodman Flender and starring Brooke Adams, Jeff Hayenga, James Karen, K Callan, and Jane Cameron. The film's plot concerns a couple who cannot have children; they attempt in-vitro fertilization, but strange things start happening to the mother while she is pregnant.
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Terence Fisher (23 February 1904 – 18 June 1980) was a British film director best known for his work for Hammer Films.
He was the first to bring gothic horror alive in full colour, and the sexual overtones and explicit horror in his films, while mild by modern standards, were unprecedented in his day. His first major gothic horror film was The Curse of Frankenstein (1957), which launched Hammer's association with the genre and made British actors Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee leading horror stars of the era. He went on to film several adaptations of classic horror subjects, including Dracula (1958), The Mummy (1959), and The Curse of the Werewolf (1961).
Given their subject matter and lurid approach, Fisher's films, though commercially successful, were largely dismissed by critics during his career. It is only in recent years that Fisher has become recognised as an auteur in his own right. His most famous films are characterised by a blend of fairytale myth and the supernatural alongside themes of sexuality, morality, and "the charm of evil", often drawing heavily on a conservative Christian outlook.
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Witchfinder General (titled onscreen as Matthew Hopkins: Witchfinder General) is a 1968 British period folk horror film directed by Michael Reeves and starring Vincent Price, Ian Ogilvy, Hilary Dwyer, Robert Russell and Rupert Davies. The screenplay, by Reeves and Tom Baker, was based on Ronald Bassett's 1966 novel Witchfinder General. The film is a heavily fictionalised account of the murderous witch-hunting exploits of Matthew Hopkins (Price), a lawyer who falsely claimed to have been appointed as a "Witch Finder Generall" by Parliament during the English Civil War to root out sorcery and witchcraft. The plot follows Roundhead soldier Richard Marshall (Ogilvy), who relentlessly pursues Hopkins and his assistant John Stearne (Russell) after they prey on his fiancée Sara (Dwyer) and execute her priestly uncle John Lowes (Davies).
Made on a low budget of under £100,000, the film was produced by Tigon British Film Productions. In the United States, where it was distributed by American International Pictures (AIP), Witchfinder General was retitled The Conqueror Worm (titled onscreen as Matthew Hopkins: Conqueror Worm) by AIP to link it with their earlier series of Edgar Allan Poe adaptations directed by Roger Corman and starring Price; because its narrative bears no relation to any of Poe's stories, American prints book-end the film with his poem "The Conqueror Worm" being read through Price's narration.
Witchfinder General eventually became a cult film, a development partially attributable to Reeves's death nine months after its release. Several prominent critics have championed the film, including Tim Lucas, J. Hoberman, Danny Peary, Robin Wood and Derek Malcolm; their praise has highlighted its direction, performances, and musical score by Paul Ferris.
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Michael Myers is a character from the slasher film series Halloween. He first appears in 1978 in John Carpenter's Halloween as a young boy who murders his elder sister, Judith Myers. Fifteen years later, he returns home to Haddonfield, Illinois, to murder more teenagers. In the original Halloween, the adult Michael Myers, referred to as The Shape in the closing credits, was portrayed by Nick Castle for most of the film and substituted by Tony Moran in the final scene where Michael's face is revealed. The character was created by John Carpenter and has been featured in twelve films, as well as novels, video games, and comic books.
The character is the primary antagonist in all the franchise's films with the exception of Halloween III: Season of the Witch, which is a standalone film disconnected from the continuity of the other films. Since Castle and Moran put on the mask in the original film, six people have stepped into the same role. Castle, George P. Wilbur, Tyler Mane, and James Jude Courtney are the only actors to have portrayed Michael Myers more than once, with Mane and Courtney being the only actors to do so in consecutive films. Michael Myers is characterized as pure evil directly by the filmmakers who created and developed the character over nine films. He typically kills using a chef's knife. In the films, Michael wears a white Halloween mask, as well as coveralls, which he usually steals from a victim. The mask used in the first film was a Captain Kirk mask that originated from a cast of William Shatner's face made for the 1975 horror film The Devil's Rain.
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Advanced Dungeons & Dragons is a comic book that was produced by DC Comics under license from TSR.
From 1988 to 1991, DC Comics published several licensed D&D comics, including Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, Dragonlance, Forgotten Realms, and Spelljammer. Advanced Dungeons & Dragons debuted in October 1988, after the Dragonlance series.
Dan Mishkin was the primary author during the title's three-year run.
Creator Jeff Grubb also wrote four fill-in issues. Michael Fleisher also wrote for the series. Jan Duursema was the primary artist for the comic book series for three years. Duursema drew issues #1-22, 24-30, 33-36, and Annual #1 (1988–91), while Ron Randall also provided artwork for issue #8, and Tom Mandrake illustrated issues ##23, 31-32, and Annual #1 (1990-1991).
Elliot S. Maggin served as an editor for DC from 1989 to 1991 and oversaw the licensed TSR titles, including Advanced Dungeons & Dragons.
In October 1991, the TSR license expired, with Advanced Dungeons & Dragons ending at issue #36.
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High-density polyethylene (HDPE) or polyethylene high-density (PEHD) is a thermoplastic polymer produced from the monomer ethylene. It is sometimes called "alkathene" or "polythene" when used for HDPE pipes. With a high strength-to-density ratio, HDPE is used in the production of plastic bottles, corrosion-resistant piping, geomembranes and plastic lumber. HDPE is commonly recycled and has the number "2" as its resin identification code.
In 2008, the global HDPE market reached a volume of more than 30 million tons.
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The Joshua Tree is the fifth studio album by the Irish rock band U2. It was produced by Daniel Lanois and Brian Eno, and was released on 9 March 1987 by Island Records. In contrast to the ambient experimentation of their 1984 release, The Unforgettable Fire, the band aimed for a harder-hitting sound within the limitation of conventional song structures on The Joshua Tree. The album is influenced by American and Irish roots music, and through sociopolitically conscious lyrics embellished with spiritual imagery, it contrasts the group's antipathy for the "real America" with their fascination with the "mythical America".
Inspired by American experiences, literature, and politics, U2 chose America as a theme for the album. Recording began in January 1986 in Ireland, and to foster a relaxed, creative atmosphere, the group primarily recorded in two houses. Several events during the sessions helped shape the conscious tone of the album, including the band's participation in the Conspiracy of Hope benefit concerts for Amnesty International, the death of their roadie Greg Carroll, and lead vocalist Bono's travels to Central America. Recording was completed in November 1986; additional production continued into January 1987. Throughout the sessions, U2 sought a "cinematic" quality for the record, one that would evoke a sense of location, in particular, the open spaces of the United States. They represented this in the sleeve photography depicting them in American desert landscapes.
The Joshua Tree received critical acclaim, topped the charts in over 20 countries, and became the fastest-selling album in British history at that point. According to Rolling Stone, the album increased the band's stature "from heroes to superstars". It produced the hit singles "With or Without You", "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For", and "Where the Streets Have No Name", the first two of which became the group's only number-one singles in the US. The album won Grammy Awards for Album of the Year and Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal at the 1988 ceremony. The group supported the record with the Joshua Tree Tour throughout 1987, during which they began to perform in stadiums for the first time in their career.
Frequently listed among the greatest albums of all time, The Joshua Tree is one of the world's best-selling albums, with over 25 million copies sold. U2 commemorated the record's 20th anniversary with a remastered re-release, and its 30th anniversary with concert tours and a reissue. In 2014, The Joshua Tree was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, and was selected for preservation in the US National Recording Registry, having been deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress.
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Minsc is a fictional character in the Baldur's Gate series of Dungeons & Dragons role-playing video games developed by BioWare and Larian Studios. He originated from the pen-and-paper Dungeons & Dragons sessions held by the lead designer of Baldur's Gate, James Ohlen, and was expanded upon by the game's lead writer, Lukas Kristjanson. His video game debut was in Baldur's Gate as a companion character who can join the player's party. He also appears in the sequel, Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn, the expansion, Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal, the 2015 game Baldur's Gate: Siege of Dragonspear, the 2023 game Baldur's Gate 3, as well as in promotions relating to the titles. Minsc is voiced by Jim Cummings in his original video game appearances, and by Matt Mercer in Baldur's Gate 3.
In the storyline, Minsc is a ranger, originally tasked with serving as a bodyguard to the witch Dynaheir as part of a "dajemma" (rite of passage). When Dynaheir is captured by gnolls, Minsc asks the player to help free her, after which both characters are available to assist the player. Eventually, the player's party is captured and when Dynaheir is killed by the mage Jon Irenicus, Minsc teams with the player in the pursuit of justice. A berserker, he has a strong desire to uphold good and be heroic, though with an extreme fervor that causes those around him to regard him as possibly insane. His animal companion is a miniature giant space hamster named Boo, with whom he often consults.
Since his introduction, Minsc has been regarded as one of the best and most popular elements of the Baldur's Gate games because of his demeanor and attachment to Boo, according to reviewers from IGN, GameSpot, and Eurogamer. Other reviewers from publications such as CVG have regarded him as one of the greatest aspects of PC gaming, while game developers have noted a preference for him. The web comic Megatokyo added Boo as a character in their publication, while Largo (for whom Boo serves in the comic as his long-suffering conscience) took on aspects of Minsc. His absence from subsequent gaming titles has also been lamented by several publications.
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House of Wax is a 1953 American mystery-horror film directed by Andre de Toth and released by Warner Bros. A remake of the studio's own 1933 film, Mystery of the Wax Museum, it stars Vincent Price as a disfigured sculptor who repopulates his destroyed wax museum by murdering people and using their wax-coated corpses as displays. The film premiered in New York on April 10, 1953, and had a general release on April 25, making it the first 3D film with stereophonic sound to be presented in a regular theater and the first color 3D feature film from a major American studio. Man in the Dark, released by Columbia Pictures, was the first major-studio black-and-white 3D feature and premiered two days before House of Wax.
In 1971, House of Wax was re-released to theaters in 3D with a full advertising campaign. Newly struck prints of the film in Chris Condon's single-strip StereoVision 3D format were used for this release. Another major re-release occurred during the 3D revival of the early 1980s. Warner Bros. later released a loose remake of the film in 2005.
The Library of Congress later selected the film for preservation in the National Film Registry in 2014, deeming it "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
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Twins of Evil (also known as Twins of Dracula) is a 1971 British horror film directed by John Hough and starring Peter Cushing, with Damien Thomas, real-life identical twins former Playboy Playmates Madeleine and Mary Collinson, Isobel Black, Kathleen Byron, Damien Thomas and David Warbeck. This was the Collinson sisters' final acting roles.
It is the third (and final) film in the Karnstein Trilogy, based on the 1872 novella Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu. The film has the least resemblance to the novella and adds a witchfinding theme to the vampire story. Much of the interest of the film revolves around the contrasting evil and good natures of two beautiful sisters, Frieda and Maria. Unlike the previous two entries in the series, this film contains only a brief lesbian element.
The film was released in the U.S. as a double feature with Hands of the Ripper.
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"Seven Bridges Road" is a song written by American musician Steve Young, recorded in 1969 for his Rock Salt & Nails album. It has since been covered by many artists, the best-known versions being a five-part harmony arrangement by English musician Iain Matthews in 1973 and a similar version recorded by the American rock band the Eagles in 1980.
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Kansas is an American rock band formed in Topeka, Kansas in 1973. They became popular during the 1970s initially on album-oriented rock charts and later with hit singles such as "Carry On Wayward Son" and "Dust in the Wind". The band has produced nine gold albums, three multi-platinum albums (Leftoverture 5x, Point of Know Return 4×, and The Best of Kansas 4×), one other platinum studio album (Monolith), one platinum live double album (Two for the Show), and a million-selling single, "Dust in the Wind". Kansas appeared on the US Billboard charts for over 200 weeks throughout the 1970s and 1980s and played to sold-out arenas and stadiums throughout North America, Europe and Japan.
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Onibaba (鬼婆; lit. "Demon hag"), also titled The Hole, is a 1964 Japanese historical drama and horror film written and directed by Kaneto Shindō. The film is set during a civil war in medieval Japan. Nobuko Otowa and Jitsuko Yoshimura play two women who kill infighting soldiers to steal their armor and possessions for survival, while Kei Satō plays the man who ultimately comes between them.
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Frank Alexander Langella Jr. (born January 1, 1938) is an American actor. He eschewed the career of a traditional film star by making the stage the focal point of his career, appearing frequently on Broadway. He has received numerous accolades, including four Tony Awards and a Screen Actors Guild Award, in addition to nominations for an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, and two Golden Globes.
Langella made his Broadway debut in the 1966 play Yerma. He since established himself as Broadway star winning four Tony Awards, his first two for Best Featured Actor in a Play playing intellectual lizard in Edward Albee's Seascape (1975), and a wealthy and cruel landowner in Ivan Turgenev's Fortune's Fool (2002) and Best Actor in a Play for his roles as Richard Nixon in Peter Morgan's Frost/Nixon (2007), an elderly man suffering from Alzheimers in Florian Zeller's The Father (2016). He was also Tony-nominated for Dracula (1978), Match (2004), and Man and Boy (2012).
Langella's reprisal of the Nixon role in the film production of Frost/Nixon directed by Ron Howard earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor.[3] Langella's other notable film roles include parts in Diary of a Mad Housewife (1970), Mel Brooks’s The Twelve Chairs (1970), Dracula (1979), Dave (1993), The Ninth Gate (1999), Good Night, and Good Luck (2005), Starting Out in the Evening (2007), Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (2010), All Good Things (2010), Robot & Frank (2012), Noah (2014), Captain Fantastic (2016), and The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020).
On television, Langella portrayed Supreme Court Justice Warren Burger in the HBO movie Muhammad Ali's Greatest Fight (2013) and Senator Richard Russell Jr. in the HBO film All the Way (2016). Langella also had a recurring role as Gabriel, the KGB handler for the lead characters in the FX series The Americans (2013–2017) and Sebastian Piccirillo in the Showtime tragicomedy series Kidding (2018–2020).
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Ghost Story is a 1981 American supernatural horror film directed by John Irvin and starring Fred Astaire, Melvyn Douglas, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., John Houseman, Craig Wasson, and Alice Krige. Based on the 1979 novel of the same name by Peter Straub, it follows a group of elderly businessmen in New England who gather to recount their involvement in a woman's death decades prior when one of them suspects her ghost has been haunting him.
Ghost Story was the final film for Astaire and Fairbanks, the final completed film for Douglas and the first film to feature Michael O'Neill. The film was shot in Woodstock, Vermont; Saratoga Springs, New York; and at Stetson University in DeLand, Florida. Ghost Story was released in the United States on December 18, 1981.
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Fred Astaire (born Frederick Austerlitz, May 10, 1899 – June 22, 1987) was an American dancer, actor, singer, musician, choreographer, and presenter, whose career in stage, film, and television spanned 76 years. He is widely regarded as the "greatest popular-music dancer of all time". He received an Honorary Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, three Emmy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, and a Grammy Award.
As a dancer, he was known for his uncanny sense of rhythm, creativity, effortless presentation, and tireless perfectionism, which was sometimes a burden to co-workers. His dancing showed elegance, grace, originality, and precision. He drew influences from many sources, including tap, classical dance, and the elevated style of Vernon and Irene Castle. His trademark style greatly influenced the American Smooth style of ballroom dance. He called his eclectic approach "outlaw style", a following of an unpredictable and instinctive muse. His motion was economical, yet endlessly nuanced.
Astaire's most memorable dancing partnership was with Ginger Rogers, with whom he co-starred in ten Hollywood musicals during the classic age of Hollywood cinema, including Top Hat (1935), Swing Time (1936), and Shall We Dance (1937). Astaire's fame grew in films like Holiday Inn (1942), Easter Parade (1948), The Band Wagon (1953), Funny Face (1957), and Silk Stockings (1957). For his performance in Irwin Allen and John Guillermin's disaster film, The Towering Inferno (1974), Astaire received his only competitive Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor, and he won the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture and the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role.
Astaire received several honors including an Academy Honorary Award in 1950, the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award in 1960, the Film Society of Lincoln Center tribute in 1973, the Kennedy Center Honors in 1978, and AFI Life Achievement Award in 1980. He was inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960, American Theatre Hall of Fame in 1972, and the Television Hall of Fame in 1989. In 1999, the American Film Institute named Astaire the fifth-greatest male star of Classic Hollywood cinema in 100 Years... 100 Stars.
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I'm not a fan of dance in general, and I've never seen any movie with Fred Astaire nor Ginger Rogers in my life... but I am into some kinds of jazz music, and if someone asked me what big band music was, I would show this video. I can't think of a better way to introduce it; I regard "Sing Sing Sing" as the archetype of big band jazz, and if I can't appreciate dance myself, I can at least recognize that it sometimes adds a fun visual to music.
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The Resurrected (also known as The Ancestor and Shatterbrain) is a 1991 American supernatural horror film directed by Dan O'Bannon, and starring John Terry, Jane Sibbett, Chris Sarandon, and Robert Romanus. It is an adaptation of the H. P. Lovecraft novella The Case of Charles Dexter Ward. Originally intended for a theatrical release, the film was shown at various film festivals before being released direct-to-video in 1992.
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In the Mouth of Madness is a 1994 American supernatural horror film directed and scored by John Carpenter and written by Michael De Luca. It stars Sam Neill, Julie Carmen, Jürgen Prochnow, David Warner and Charlton Heston. Neill stars as John Trent, an insurance investigator who visits a small town while looking into the disappearance of a successful author of horror novels, and begins to question his sanity as the lines between reality and fiction seem to blur. Informally, the film is the third and final installment in what Carpenter refers to as his "Apocalypse Trilogy", preceded by The Thing (1982) and Prince of Darkness (1987).
In the Mouth of Madness pays tribute to the works of author H. P. Lovecraft in its exploration of insanity, and its title is derived from the Lovecraft novella At the Mountains of Madness. Distributed by New Line Cinema, In the Mouth of Madness received mixed reviews upon release, but has gained a cult following.
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Spectre is a 1977 American made-for-television horror film produced by Gene Roddenberry. It was co-written by Roddenberry and Samuel A. Peeples and directed by Clive Donner. It was one of several unsuccessful pilots created by Roddenberry, and one of several pilots in the 1970s in the occult detective subgenre. The pilot follows the adventures of William Sebastian (Robert Culp), a former criminologist and occult expert, and his colleague, Dr. Amos Hamilton (Gig Young), a physician and forensic pathologist, as they visit the United Kingdom to investigate a case involving the aristocratic Cyon family. The cast includes John Hurt, James Villiers, Gordon Jackson, Ann Bell, and Majel Barrett.
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The Dunwich Horror is a 1970 American supernatural horror film directed by Daniel Haller, and starring Sandra Dee, Dean Stockwell, and Ed Begley. A loose adaptation of the novella of the same name by H. P. Lovecraft, the film concerns a young female graduate student who is targeted by a man attempting to use her in an occult ritual taken from the Necronomicon. The screenplay was co-written by Curtis Hanson, while Roger Corman served as an executive producer on the film.
The film's distributor, American International Pictures, had tentatively planned an adaptation of the Lovecraft story in 1963. Executive producer Corman hired Haller to direct, as he had previously directed several features for him, including Devil's Angels (1967). Though set in the fictional Massachusetts town of Arkham, principal photography of The Dunwich Horror took place in and around Mendocino, California in the spring of 1969. The film marked Sandra Dee's first adult role, following the break in her contract with Universal Pictures, and she envisioned the picture as a major departure from the films she had appeared in as a child and teen actor, in which she had been presented in a very wholesome way.
The Dunwich Horror premiered in Chicago in January 1970, and screened throughout the country that year, as well as internationally. Critical response was divided, with some critics praising the film's technical elements and adaptation of the source material, while others felt the performances were ineffective, and the film generally mediocre. Despite this, some contemporary film scholars, such as Alain Silver, have championed it as one of the best film adaptations of a Lovecraft literary work. Film historian Rob Craig similarly deemed it "one of the most overall successful adaptations of a Lovecraft source work ever committed to film." Aesthetically, the film has been noted for its psychedelic posterized imagery.
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Isle of the Dead is a 1945 American horror film directed by Mark Robson and made for RKO Radio Pictures by producer Val Lewton. The film's script was inspired by the painting Isle of the Dead by Arnold Böcklin, which appears behind the title credits, though the film was originally titled Camilla during production. It was written by frequent Lewton collaborator Ardel Wray. It starred Boris Karloff. Isle of the Dead was the second of three films Lewton made with Karloff, and the fourth of five pictures Robson directed for Lewton.
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Cat People is a 1942 American supernatural horror film directed by Jacques Tourneur and produced for RKO by Val Lewton. The film tells the story of Irena Dubrovna, a newly married Serbian fashion illustrator obsessed with the idea that she is descended from an ancient tribe of Cat People who metamorphose into black panthers when aroused. When her husband begins to show interest in one of his co-workers, Irena begins to stalk her. The film stars Simone Simon as Irena, and features Kent Smith, Tom Conway, Jane Randolph, and Jack Holt in supporting roles.
Production began in 1942, when Lewton was placed in charge of developing RKO's low-budget horror films. He brought together a team of filmmakers that he had worked with in the past, including Tourneur, editor Mark Robson and screenwriter DeWitt Bodeen. Cat People was the first film upon which the team worked. They were given the title by an RKO executive, who instructed them to develop a film from it. After researching various horror films and cat-related literature, Bodeen and Lewton developed the script with Lewton doing extensive uncredited work on the story. The film was shot at RKO's studios reusing sets from previous films such as The Magnificent Ambersons. During editing, Robson developed a technique later called The Lewton Bus, a jump scare that Lewton used in his subsequent films.
Cat People had its premiere at the Rialto Theatre in Manhattan on December 5, 1942, before having a wider release on December 25. Contemporary critics were tepid, though the film did well at the box office, being one of RKO's biggest hits of the season. Several horror films of the 1940s and 1950s were influenced by Cat People, either drawing on the film's shadowy visuals or containing a female character who fears that she possesses a hereditary trait that makes her transform into a monster. The film was followed by a sequel, The Curse of the Cat People, in 1944, and a remake, directed by Paul Schrader, was released in 1982. The film has become well known, though created as a B-movie, being selected by Library of Congress for preservation in the National Film Registry in 1993. Retrospective reviews of the original have been much more positive, with praise directed at the film's atmosphere and sophistication, with the critic Roger Ebert describing it and the other Val Lewton productions as landmark films of the 1940s.
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The Vision is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by Roy Thomas and artist John Buscema, the character first appeared in The Avengers #57 (published in August 1968). The Vision is loosely based on the Timely Comics character of the same name who was an alien from another dimension. The character is an android (sometimes called a "synthezoid") built by the villainous robot Ultron created by Hank Pym. Originally intended to act as Ultron's "son" and destroy the Avengers, Vision instead turned on his creator and joined the Avengers to fight for the forces of good. Since then, he has been depicted as a frequent member of the team, and, for a time, was married to his teammate, the Scarlet Witch. He also served as a member of the Defenders, and is the father of Viv Vision.
The Vision was created from a copy of the original Human Torch, a synthetic man created by Phineas T. Horton. Ultron took this inert android and added more advanced technology to it, as well as new programming of his own design and a copy of human brainwave patterns. The result was the Vision, a synthezoid driven by logic, but possessing emotions and being able to achieve emotional growth. As an android, the Vision has a variety of abilities and super-powers. In the 1989 story "Vision Quest", Vision was dismantled, then was rebuilt with a chalk-white appearance and now lacked the capacity for emotions. A greater understanding of emotions was regained in 1991, his original red appearance was restored in 1993, and his full personality and emotional connections to memories were restored in 1994 in his first self-titled limited series, Vision. Another four-issue limited series, Avengers Icons: The Vision, was published in late 2002. From 2015 to 2016, Vision had his own series again written by Tom King, during which he attempted to live in the suburbs with an android family, of which the only surviving member, his daughter Viv Vision, then joins the Champions, whom Vision oversees.
Since his conception, the character has been adapted into several forms of media outside comics. Paul Bettany plays Vision in the Marvel Cinematic Universe films Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), Captain America: Civil War (2016), and Avengers: Infinity War (2018), the television miniseries WandaVision (2021), and the animated series What If...? (2021).
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Last Samurai Standing (Japanese: イクサガミ, Hepburn: Ikusagami) is a 2025 Japanese Netflix original live-action television series adapted from the novel of the same name written by Shogo Imamura. Starring Junichi Okada, Yumia Fujisaki and Kaya Kiyohara, and set in the late 19th century during the Meiji period, the series takes place at the Tenryūji monastery in Kyoto.
The first two episodes of the series premiered at the 30th Busan International Film Festival in the On Screen section on September 18, 2025. Following its festival release, the six episodes series became available to stream worldwide on Netflix from November 13, 2025.
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During filming of the 1987 film Predator, the studio's insurance company would not agree to insure the production unless a bodyguard was hired for Sonny Landham (Billy) - for the sole purpose of protecting people from Sonny. The bodyguard followed Sonny everywhere to ensure he didn't get into a fight, since he was well known to be violent and short tempered.
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Creedence Clearwater Revival, commonly abbreviated as CCR or simply Creedence, was an American rock band formed in El Cerrito, California, in 1959. The band consisted of the lead vocalist, lead guitarist, and primary songwriter John Fogerty; his brother, the rhythm guitarist Tom Fogerty; the bassist Stu Cook; and the drummer Doug Clifford. These members had played together since 1959, first as the Blue Velvets and later as the Golliwogs, before settling on Creedence Clearwater Revival in 1967. The band's most prolific and successful period, between 1969 and 1971, produced 14 consecutive top-10 singles (many of which were double A-sides) and five consecutive top-10 albums in the United States, two of which—Green River (1969) and Cosmo's Factory (1970)—topped the Billboard 200 chart. The band performed at the 1969 Woodstock festival in upstate New York and was the first major act signed to appear there.
CCR disbanded acrimoniously in late 1972 after four years of chart-topping success. Tom had quit the band the previous year and John was at odds with the remaining members over matters of business and artistic control, all of which resulted in lawsuits among the former bandmates. John's disagreements with Fantasy Records owner Saul Zaentz led to more court cases and John refused to perform with the two other surviving members of the band—Tom had died in 1990—at Creedence's 1993 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Though the band has never publicly reunited, John continues to perform CCR songs as part of his solo act, while Cook and Clifford performed as Creedence Clearwater Revisited from 1995 to 2020.
CCR's music remains popular and is a staple of U.S. classic rock radio airplay. The compilation album Chronicle: The 20 Greatest Hits, originally released in 1976, is still on the Billboard 200 and reached the 600-week mark in August 2022. It has been certified 12-times platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America for at least 12 million copies sold in the U.S.
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BRZRKR is a comic book series created and written by Keanu Reeves and Matt Kindt, and illustrated by Ron Garney. The comic follows an immortal half-human, half-God warrior, known as B or Berzerker. Cursed and compelled to violence, he has fought and killed his way through the ages, but now works for the U.S. Government completing missions too violent and dangerous for anyone else.
The first issue of the 12-issue limited series was published on March 3, 2021, by Boom! Studios. It raised more than $1.4 million USD in its funding campaign on Kickstarter. The series was initially announced to be illustrated by Alessandro Vitti, but this was later changed as the art was handled by Garney instead.
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Uncanny X-Men, originally published as The X-Men, is an American comic book series published by Marvel Comics since 1963, and was the longest-running series in the X-Men comics franchise. It features a team of superheroes called the X-Men, a group of mutants with superhuman abilities led and taught by Professor X.
The title was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, met with a lukewarm reception, and eventually became a reprints-only book in 1970. Interest was rekindled with 1975's Giant-Size X-Men #1 and the debut of a new, international team. Initially under the guidance of artist Dave Cockrum, writer Len Wein, and especially writer Chris Claremont whose 16-year stint began with August 1975's Uncanny X-Men #94, the series grew in popularity worldwide, eventually spawning a franchise with numerous spin-off "X-books" including The New Mutants, X-Factor, Excalibur, X-Force, Generation X, and other titles like the simply titled X-Men.
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Joseph Samachson (October 13, 1906 – June 2, 1980) was an American scientist and writer, primarily of science fiction and comic books.
In 1955, he created (with artist Joe Certa) the Martian Manhunter in the pages of Detective Comics #225. Usually credited as author on the initial strip, some commentators believe that he may have produced the plot, but that writer Jack Miller (who most believe succeeded Samachson in writing the character with the next issue), may have produced the first script. Don Markstein's Toonopedia also suggests that Samachson wrote "many subsequent" appearances of J'Onn J'Onzz rather than just the first. Jerry Bails also lists Samachson as having co-created the historical DC character Tomahawk. In 1943 Samachson also created the character Two-Gun Percy, which first appeared under the DC Comics imprint All Funny Comics and was drawn by Bernard Baily.
In 1975, DC Comics adapted an unused story he wrote in the 1940s featuring the Seven Soldiers of Victory into a six-part serial in Adventure Comics #438-443.
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Batman Begins (2005) was the first live-action appearance by Scarecrow, a villain dating back to Batman's earliest comic stories. While considered for the 1960s television series, he was never used. He was also meant to be the main villain in the fifth Tim Burton/Joel Schumacher movie that was shelved.
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The Clock King is the name of three supervillains appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The first Clock King debuted in World's Finest Comics #111 (August 1960), and was created by France Herron and Lee Elias.
The Clock King, primarily William Tockman, have appeared in several media adaptations, such as Batman (1966), portrayed by Walter Slezak; and Arrowverse TV series, portrayed by Robert Knepper. Additionally, an original incarnation, Temple Fugate, appears in shows set in the DC Animated Universe, voiced by Alan Rachins.
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1941 is a 1979 American war comedy film directed by Steven Spielberg and written by Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale. The film stars an ensemble cast including Dan Aykroyd, Ned Beatty, John Belushi, John Candy, Christopher Lee, Tim Matheson, Toshiro Mifune, Robert Stack, Nancy Allen, and Mickey Rourke in his film debut. The story involves a panic in the Los Angeles area after the December 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor.
Co-writer Gale stated the plot is loosely based on what has come to be known as the Great Los Angeles Air Raid of 1942, as well as the bombardment of the Ellwood oil refinery, near Santa Barbara, by a Japanese submarine. Many other events in the film were based on real incidents, including the Zoot Suit Riots and an incident in which the U.S. Army placed an anti-aircraft gun in a homeowner's yard on the Maine coast.
1941 received mixed reviews and was not as financially successful as many of Spielberg's other films, but was still a moderate box office success. It received belated popularity after an expanded version aired on ABC in the 1980s, with subsequent television broadcasts and home video reissues, raising it to cult status.
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Hellraiser is a 1987 British supernatural horror film written and directed by Clive Barker in his directorial debut. Based on Barker's 1986 novella The Hellbound Heart, the film's plot concerns a mystical puzzle box that summons the Cenobites, a group of extra-dimensional, sadomasochistic beings who cannot differentiate between pain and pleasure. It stars Andrew Robinson, Clare Higgins, Ashley Laurence, and Doug Bradley as the leader of the Cenobites.
Development of the film began before Barker's novella was published. Disappointed by previous adaptations of his work, Barker elected to direct himself, appropriating several actors and crew from his earlier career as a playwright. With the backing of independent producer Christopher Figg and financing from New World Pictures, filming took place in London in autumn 1986.
Hellraiser had its first public showing at the Prince Charles Cinema on 10 September 1987. It was widely released in the United Kingdom by Entertainment Film Distributors, and was a considerable commercial success, grossing $30 million from its $1 million production budget. Critical reception was initially divided, but the film has since been evaluated as a classic of the horror genre.
The film launched the Hellraiser franchise which includes nine sequels, the first seven of which featuring Bradley reprising his role as Pinhead. A reboot, also titled Hellraiser and executive produced by Barker, was released in 2022.