Shifty Shellshock, the lead singer of Crazy Town – best known for songs “Toxic” and “Butterfly” – has died at the age of 49. No cause has yet been released.
Shifty, whose real name is Seth Binzer, formed Crazy Town with Bret “Epic” Mauzer in the ‘90s, with the band releasing their debut album, The Gift of Game, in 1999. That album, backed by the aforementioned singles, in addition to “Revolving Door”, would hit #9 in the US, going Platinum. Famed DJ Adam “DJ AM” Goldstein also worked the turntables on the album. Goldstein died in 2009.
A recent social media post has since been flooded with condolences from fans in the wake of Binzer’s death.
But Crazy Town would never have such a smash album – or song – again. Their second album, 2002’s Darkhorse, would peak at #120 on the Billboard charts. After failing to have a hit as big as “Butterfly”, Crazy Town went on hiatus in 2003. The following year, guitarist Charles “Rust Epique” Lopez died at the age of 36. In 2015, Crazy Town released their third and what would be their final album, The Brimstone Sluggers. Two years later, Mauzer announced his departure from Crazy Town. The band would later be reformed as Crazy Town X.
As for Shifty himself, in 2004, he released his only solo album, Happy Love Sick, which featured a song with Paul Oakenfold called “Starry Eyed Surprise”, which went hit #13 on the Top 40.
Binzer had been open about his struggles with addiction, even appearing on Celebrity Rehab and Sober House. Binzer had been arrested multiple times for various incidents, including a 2012 drug possession case. On that moment, Binzer stated, “I would like to sincerely apologize to the parties involved…I feel very bad for those who I have offended and those who have endured this situation.” In 2022, Binzer was arrested for a DUI.
While a short-lived blip, Crazy Town no doubt is still remembered for “Butterfly” and their place in the rap-rock fad of the late ‘90s and early 2000s.
Leave your condolences for the late Seth “Shifty Shellshock” Binzer in the comments section below.
The Pokémon Company holds regular illustration contests for fans to submit their artwork to possibly be used as official art for Pokémon trading cards, more recently made available to artists in the U.S. However, the company’s 2024 competition has had a new, not-so-fun wrinkle of controversy as AI-generated art has…
The Pokémon Company holds regular illustration contests for fans to submit their artwork to possibly be used as official art for Pokémon trading cards, more recently made available to artists in the U.S. However, the company’s 2024 competition has had a new, not-so-fun wrinkle of controversy as AI-generated art has…
The sci-fi horror A Quiet Place franchise is heading to New York with its latest entry, A Quiet Place: Day One, which is set to reach theatres this Friday, June 28th – and with the film’s release just hours away, the final trailer has arrived online to give us one last preview before movie-goers have the chance to watch it all on the big screen. You can watch the final trailer in the embed above.
While A Quiet Place and A Quiet Place: Part II were directed by John Krasinski, he has passed the helm of this one over to Michael Sarnoski, who earned a lot of positive attention with his feature directorial debut Pig (watch it HERE) a few years ago.
The story of A Quiet Place: Day One, which is credited to Krasinski and Sarnoski, does take place in the same world established in the first two movies, but doesn’t involve the Abbott family, the characters we followed through the first two movies. Deadline’s sources said that after seeingPig and being blown away by the film, Krasinski was quick to put Sarnoski on the short list of directors to take a meeting for the project. While insiders say Sarnoski’s vision for the film was still his own and different from what Krasinski had done with the first two, he still gave a pitch that fit the tone of the world they had created and felt he was the perfect fit for their next installment.
Krasinski is producing A Quiet Place: Day One under his Sunday Night banner, while Michael Bay, Andrew Form, and Brad Fuller produce through their company Platinum Dunes. Krasinski’s Sunday Night partner Allyson Seeger serves as executive producer.
The film stars 12 Years a Slave Oscar winner Lupita Nyong’o, Alex Wolff of Hereditary and Pig, and Joseph Quinn, who is better known as Eddie Munson from the most recent season of Stranger Things. Djimon Hounsou, who played “Man on Island” in A Quiet Place: Part II, reprises that role here.
Here’s the official synopsis: Experience the day the world went quiet.
What did you think of the final trailer for A Quiet Place: Day One? Will you be watching the movie this weekend? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
Charles Band’s company Full Moon will be releasing the goofball comedy Barbie & Kendra Crash Joe Bob’s Drive-In Jamboree this Friday, June 28th – and in anticipation of that release, the Full Moon streaming service Full Moon Features is shining a spotlight on the entire Barbie and Kendra franchise, a series they say “started out of the necessities of pandemic lockdowns and has since become one of our most beloved franchises!” Barbie & Kendra Crash Joe Bob’s Drive-In Jamboree is the fourth chapter in the franchise that began with Corona Zombies (now known as Barbie & Kendra Meet the Corona Zombies) back at the height of the pandemic and has continued through Barbie & Kendra Save the Tiger King and Barbie & Kendra Storm Area 51. All of those movies were released in 2020, so it’s been a while since the last Barbie and Kendra adventure.
Starting today, Full Moon Features is putting the spotlight on Barbie & Kendra Meet the Corona Zombies: Before they saved the Tiger King, stormed Area 51 and crashed Joe Bobb’s Drive-In, ditzy Barbie and her pretty pal Kendra’s first fandango was in this prime piece of absurdity! Part irreverent satire, part gonzo Italian zombie movie remix, all Full Moon mania, Barbie & Kendra Meet the Corona Zombies will have you smiling so wide, you’ll split your mask-strings!
Tomorrow, the spotlight will be shining on Barbie & Kendra Save the Tiger King: Called “An oddly cerebral, hilarious exploitation exemplar for the current millennium” (Art Ettinger, editor Ultra Violent Magazine), Barbie & Kendra Save the Tiger King sees Barbie and Kendra still trapped in their quarantine Hell and fixating hard on a ludicrous show streaming on the BPN (“Big Pussy Network”) that charts the early days of the notorious “Tiger King” himself, Joe Exotic. The ditsy American beauties soon hatch the perfect plan to save the flamboyant – and incarcerated – cat-cuddling madman from a fate worse than Carole Baskin. In the process, they face-down the perils of the jungle and the intrigue of true-crime lunacy all the while never, ever leaving the socially distanced safety of their living room!
Thursday is all about Barbie & Kendra Storm Area 51: Get ready for a heady dose of pandemic panic as the sexy and spacey dynamic duo turn on the TV and get tuned into a viral saga that takes them deep into the forbidden fortress of Area 51 and beyond. Combing insanely funny new footage with hilariously re-dubbed retro sci-fi cinema awesomeness (including wild footage from the classic David Friedman ’60s sexploitaion romp Space Thing!), Barbie & Kendra Storm Area 51 is wacky “coronasploitation” comedy at its weirdest!
And that brings us to the release of Barbie & Kendra Crash Joe Bob’s Drive-In Jamboree on Friday: The bimbos are back in the fourth – and funniest – “Barbie & Kendra” adventure yet! This time, our hapless heroines head to Vegas to crash horror host Joe Bob Briggs’ annual Drive-In movie meltdown and profess their love to the trash lovin’ Texan and his sexy sidekick Darcy. But as the ladies settle in for some primo cinematic slop, they learn that a ruthless land baroness Stu Dio is planning to turn their crush’s outdoor horror movie palace into a golf course! They already survived the Corona Zombies, saved the Tiger King, and stormed Area 51. But can Barbie and Kendra save the day, win the hearts of their heroes, AND still have time to catch a crappy flick or two? Find out this summer when BARBIE & KENDRA CRASH JOE BOB’S DRIVE-IN JAMBOREE!
Cameron and Sydney are joined in the cast by legendary movie host and drive-in critic Joe Bob Briggs, Diana Prince (a.k.a. Darcy the Mail Girl), Dave Sheridan (Scary Movie), and Sleepaway Camp‘s Felissa Rose, who takes on the role of Stu Dio. Sydney and Band were married at the end of last year, with Joe Bob officiating.
The first three Barbie and Kendra movies were built around stock footage from films like Hell of the Living Dead, Zombies vs. Strippers, Terror in the Jungle, Luana, Space Thing, and The Day Time Ended that was then dubbed over to tell new stories. There’s going to be a stock footage element to Barbie & Kendra Crash Joe Bob’s Drive-In Jamboree as well, with the 1977 Exorcist knock-off Ruby getting the dubbed-over treatment this time around.
Are you a Full Moon fan, and will you be checking out the Barbie & Kendra series this week? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
A Nightmare on Elm Street is one of those franchises that, despite its roller-coaster of quality across the series- is just too damn iconic to fall out of the favor of us horror fans. Wes Craven’s imagination birthed one of the most recognizable villains in horror history AND spawned a franchise that would include 8 movies and one crossover film pitting Freddy against Jason. From 1984 and all the way up until today- audiences remain invested in the potential for such a unique and powerful monster. And we still are holding out hope for a new silver screen outing soon. So, whether you’re re-watching the original film for the millionth time- or you’re slogging your way through the 2010 remake for… some reason- the fact remains that Freddy and his status as a slasher icon will never truly die. Unless… Chapter six in the Freddy saga- Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare (watch it HERE) sees a teenager from the future being sent back in time to the previous decade to help Freddy elevate his reach further than ever before. It’s a movie that stretches the goofy about as far as it can go- and then snaps the line in half and charges right through it. This was the first film in the series to be directed by long-time producer of the franchise, Rachel Talalay- and her vision for this movie was to create a funnier than ever finale for Freddy to fade out into the fog and conclude his reign of terror. Unfortunately, audiences weren’t exactly expecting Freddy’s last gasp to be so… silly. Weather you’re like me and actually appreciate when this series gets a little bit weird, movies like Dream Warriors and New Nightmare are the kind of films that blend the horror with the meta humor and in-jokes- but this movie is even too much for me.
In the past, we usually spend our time on the show discussing what makes a classic or cult classic movie so worthy of the hype that we put on it. But in the case of this movie- It’s not that simple. See, I don’t know many people who like this movie, and personally I just don’t connect with it. In some cases, like our previous episode with Leprechaun in the Hood– it can be so silly and campy that it’s entertaining in a “so bad it’s good” way- although I think that phrase has become very broad and now just seems to apply to any movie that sucks. In the case of Freddy’s Dead– I just want to deconstruct why I think I don’t like it. So, once again- Tyler, Lance… You’re uninvited to dinner this weekend.
Anyway, strap yourselves in folks because today we’re going to rewatch 1991’s Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare, and see if I can figure out exactly why after so many wild and wacky movies, this was the one that killed Freddy Kreuger. I’m Kier with JoBlo Horror Originals, and you’re watching Deconstructing.
So, in case you’re rusty on the plot of this insane movie- here we go. In the near future- The entire town of Springwood is missing their children and teenagers. Why? Because Freddy has killed them all. Would’ve been a cool scene to open the movie but instead we just see it like… typed out on a computer or something… So, that’s that.
Anyway, there’s one surviving kid in this future hellscape and Freddy intentionally spares his life and sends him 10 years into the past. The reason he’s done this will become clear later. After arriving in the past, our teenage John Doe is immediately scooped up by the police and taken to a psychiatric doctor as his entry into the past has left him with amnesia. This doctor happens to be the one person that Freddy is trying to find. Convenient. Well, this doctor is in charge of a group of troubled teens including Ricky Dean Morgan as Carlos, Breckin Meyer as Dylan, and Lezlie Deane as Tracy. And of course they’re now joined by Freddy’s time nomad known as John Doe and he is played (very badly) by Shon Greenblatt. Sorry, man.
The kids begin being haunted and harassed by Freddy as he picks them off one by one. This movie really comes down to a few things that I think contribute to what I would consider a massive failure of an ending to the franchise. So, where we would usually break down the film into our four key categories- today we’re going to shake it up and look into the four pillars that I think hold this movie up as a hot dumpster fire. The categories for today are: Story, where I break down the story beats and why they don’t work for me, Performances, where I discuss the good and bad turns from the cast, Entertainment Value, where I put the bullshit aside and focus on whether or not this movie delivers on the viewing experience, and finally we’ll cap it off with The Coffin Nail, where I decide what single element of this movie completely blows it for me. So, if you’re ready than make sure you like the video and try not to let Freddy into your dreams- and let’s hit play on The Final Nightmare.
STORY
Now that we know the plot of the movie- let’s talk story. So, John Doe is the future man with amnesia and he’s the only surviving teen in Springwood who was sent back in time with an ambiguous purpose from Freddy. This is automatically a completely trivial and convoluted way to set up the story. Like, it starts 10 years in the future- then in the first 3 minutes the movie is pushed back to the present day. And the character can’t remember anything so we’re literally back at square one and the first 5 minutes of this film is rendered completely worthless. John Doe gets immediately linked up with the exact group of people that Freddy needs to find and all we learn about these characters is that one is a psychiatric doctor with ambiguous childhood trauma, 3 teenagers with ambiguous behavioral issues (and ambiguous childhood trauma), oh and of course, we also get Yaphet Kotto as the quirky sleep scientist who seems to be the only guy in the movie that has shit to do at his job. Everyone else is just walking around or driving across town in the middle of the day.
The big reveal is Freddy’s plan which is kind of just spat out in exposition. Basically, Freddy kept one kid alive from the future to send him back to the present day so that Freddy could track down his long-lost-child and use her to raise hell on every elm street in the country. Or something like that…? I don’t know, this movie doesn’t really explain it and that’s about as much information as there is. The red herrings are also constant from that moment forward. First, we have a hilarious scene where the tragically over-acting John Doe learns that Freddy has a kid and instantly thinks he is the kid. Spoilers- It’s not him. Then, they say that Freddy’s child is a girl and we immediately think it’s Tracy who had been set up throughout the movie to have some kind of trauma involving her dad. It’s also not her. Well, there’s only girl left in the movie that it could be- it’s Maggie. By the time this reveal comes and the full truth is clear- we already know who it is because you literally eliminated every possible suspect before we even got to this point! WHO THE FUCK DID YOU THINK WE’D SUSPECT?
And it all culminates in Maggie learning how to use Freddy’s powers against him and pull him from the dream world into the real world where the crew can take him out one and for all. And what do we feel? Completely empty. Why? Because from the very beginning we didn’t care about these characters because of the impenetrable wall of ambiguity and lack of dimension they were given. So by the end, we really just don’t care. Or at least, I don’t. And this is MY rant!
PERFORMANCES
I hate John Doe. No disrespect to Shon Greenblatt but as the central character (for the first half of the movie) it’s important to have someone who can carry this thing. I mostly blame the writing of the character for he’s so boring, but Shon is responsible for delivering these lines like he’s made out of driftwood. He’s either dialed way to high up or down way too low and unfortunately, this movie gives him the displeasure of being our straight man for the first two acts. Not to mention the incredibly confusing performance turned in by Lisa Zane as Maggie. She’s all over the place with this movie. One minute she’s playing it subtle and kind of cold- next minute she’s a chill aunt, and then by the end she’s a dream warrior with the confidence to destroy Freddy (and the franchise-). It’s crazy to me that in a film that has Robert Englund and Yaphet Kotto in it- they couldn’t find more talented leads. I don’t know. Acting is definitely not easy but these people are fumbling lines all over the place, over-reacting, under-reacting, or just completely changing their character portrayal in the middle of a scene. It’s almost as bizarre as seeing Freddy impersonate the wicked witch of the west.
There are some performances that stand out which further adds the whiplash of watching this movie. Robert Englund is wonderful as usual. He’s so comfortable in the role of Freddy at this point that we can expect him to turn in a great performance. Same goes for Yaphet Kotto, and even the three kids who are not given great material but truly play it noticeably better than the film’s leads.
The performances are important in a movie to establish believability within the context of the story. If a movie has exclusively bad performances (like The Room or Cats) it can be fun to watch and laugh. But when you’re getting some very good performances contrasting against the bad ones, you end up with a weird disjointed cast that contributes to the movie’s odd tonal shifts and lack of focus.
ENTERTAINMENT VALUE
Okay, now we can have some fun. As goofy and disjointed as this movie is- there is absolutely some entertainment value to be had. First of all, some of these kills are pretty rad. The entire scene where Freddy is torturing Carlos with his hearing aid is pure Nightmare on Elm Street magic. It’s bloody, brutal, visually interesting, and intense as ever due to Englund’s acting. The same can be said for the silly-yet-scary scene where Carlos is unfolding a map and the size of it turns into an inescapable labyrinth. The claustrophobia is real here. Magical media industries provided the practical and VFX and man did they do some cool stuff here. I like the supernatural stuff in an elm street movie. It’s what floats my boat. And this movie does give us some damn good set design and Freddy makeup. Adding to the entertainment value is the movies iconic needle drops and musical score. The music in this movie is either amazing or hilariously bad. The scene where Dylan is getting stoned on the couch and sucked into the TV where Freddy torments him in a Super Mario style nightmare is probably the most unhinged thing this franchise has ever done. But it is definitely fun to watch and it helps the Iron Butterfly song “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida” plays when the sequence begins. Only to be completely undercut by the hilarity of the Hanna Barbera sound effects. Seriously, this very large sequence turns Nightmare on Elm Street into The Mask.
Also, Rosanne and Tom Arnold make a cameo (as well as Johnny Depp) and we even get the incredible moment when John Doe finally dies and gets the fuck off my screen. So, I guess some of this movie is okay.
THE COFFIN NAIL
Here’s the one element of this movie that I haven’t gotten into because I was saving it for this specific segment. To me, this movie has a lot of issues that truly make it a disappointing watch for Elm Street fans. But there is no bigger flop in this movie than the random Freddy origin they tried to give us. They show flashback dream sequences of Maggie as a young girl witnessing her father (Freddy before the fire) killing her mother and discovering his secret room of glove prototypes and weapons. The movie doesn’t do ANYTHING with this information. They merely try to connect Maggie to Freddy in as lazy a way as possible to make the story make sense. The thing is, it DOESN’T make sense. Freddy made a deal with “the dream people” to basically allow him to develop his urges to hurt people and giving him the power we know him to have. Why? It doesn’t bother to tell us. We get a shot of him getting bullied as a child, a shot of his dad trying to beat him as a teenager, and a shot of him burning and getting his powers. That’s his story. That’s it. Honestly, I’d have felt better about having no information beyond the previous movies. If you’re going to attempt to expand on Freddy’s origin- then just do it! Don’t tap dance around it at the last second just to make his death feel more impactful. It’s rude- and it completely fucked your movie.
Well folks, another episode down and another headache of a movie deconstructed. If you remember this movie fondly, I don’t mean any disrespect. I think had I had more nostalgia for this particular movie it may be on a higher level- but the truth is that I don’t enjoy it and now you know exactly why. Goodnight!
A couple of the previous episodes of Deconstructing… can be seen below,. To see more episodes, and to check out our other shows, head over to the JoBlo Horror Originals YouTube channel – and subscribe while you’re there!
The Black Steel Greatshield is a Greatshield that can only be obtained in Elden Ring’s Shadow of the Erdtree expansion. You’ll need to defeat a boss in a pretty well-hidden area to get your hands on this one, but those looking for top-tier physical and Holy protection should make an effort to do so.
The Black Steel Greatshield is a Greatshield that can only be obtained in Elden Ring’s Shadow of the Erdtree expansion. You’ll need to defeat a boss in a pretty well-hidden area to get your hands on this one, but those looking for top-tier physical and Holy protection should make an effort to do so.
Filmmaker Alfonso Cuarón has been nominated for many Academy Awards over the course of his career, and has even won a few Oscars along the way, including the Best Director awards for both Gravity and Roma. Now he has created and directed a seven-part limited series called Disclaimer for Apple TV+, and it has just been announced that the first two episodes of the show will premiere on Friday, October 11th. They will be followed by new episodes every Friday through November 15th.
Starring Academy Award winners Cate Blanchett (who took home the gold for her performances in The Aviator and Blue Jasmine) and Kevin Kline (who won for his performance in A Fish Called Wanda), Disclaimer is said to be “a gripping psychological thriller” and is based on the best-selling novel of the same name by Renée Knight. Here’s the synopsis: Acclaimed journalist Catherine Ravenscroft (Blanchett) built her reputation revealing the misdeeds and transgressions of others. When she receives a novel from an unknown author, she is horrified to realize she is now the main character in a story that exposes her darkest secrets. As Catherine races to uncover the writer’s true identity, she is forced to confront her past before it destroys both her own life and her relationships with her husband Robert and their son Nicholas. DISCLAIMER: Any resemblance to persons living or dead is not a coincidence.
Sacha Baron Cohen (Borat) plays Robert, with Kodi Smit-McPhee (X-Men: Apocalypse) as Nicholas. Also in the cast are Lesley Manville (Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris), Louis Partridge (Enola Holmes), Leila George (Animal Kingdom), Hoyeon (Squid Game), and Liv Hill (The Serpent Queen).
A press release informs us that Disclaimer is produced by Esperanto Filmoj and Anonymous Content. Cuarón serves as executive producer alongside Esperanto Filmoj’s Gabriela Rodriguez and Anonymous Content’s David Levine, and Steve Golin. Renée Knight serves as co-executive producer. Emmanuel Lubezki and Bruno Delbonnel serve as directors of photography and executive produce. Donald Sabourin and Carlos Morales also executive produce. The score is composed by Finneas O’Connell.
Are you looking forward to checking Disclaimer out once it starts airing on Apple TV+? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
Rick and Morty‘s seventh season pulled off a major feat that any cartoon would struggle with — substituting the voice talents. It may seem like a more trivial aspect of animation since actors are only heard, not seen. However, nailing the cadence and the soul of a character by embodying them through more than just an impression can really be felt by an audience. And Rick and Morty creator Dan Harmon feels they’ve successfully made the transition from the old to the new, whereas former voice actor Justin Roiland was replaced by new voice actors Ian Cardoni (Rick) and Harry Belden (Morty) amid legal controversy.
Harmon spoke with Variety about moving ahead with this season and feeling like the fans have accepted the new voices for the new era of Rick and Morty. Harmon explained, “That’s my perception. That the goal was accomplished or those that wanted it accomplished, that they’re like, ‘I can’t tell the difference. The characters are the characters, let’s move on.’ As far as I can tell, we’re past it. It worked, we transitioned to a new era and if the show sucks from here forward, it’s for the usual reasons any show can suck. Not because of these dramatic events.”
He was also asked if he feels like this season has been more of a reset for the show. Harmon replied, “I think a reset is a good way of looking at it. We had so much behind the scenes drama that I think we didn’t need a lot of irony and challenge on the screen narratively. I think the experiment became, can we accomplish the show moving forward? Can the fans not lose their favorite show, not be distracted by any of the turbulence? There was also another important reason to reset, which is we’re anticipating doing a lot more of these. This was always designed to be a show that could last thousands of episodes. And you can’t last thousands of episodes if you’re simply going to tell a serialized story about how your protagonist stops being the protagonist.”
Now that he can rest easy knowing that he has incorporated elements for the new era, he will not fret about where to go in the future of the series, “Plenty of time to figure it out. With something this satisfying for this many people, conversations like that happen all the time. And I would anticipate an announcement one way or the other about the future at some point in the future.”
