Everything is connected.

Just look at this chart. Just like the 1960’s Marvel Universe (King has referenced Steve Ditko numerous times and wrote part of the X-Men charity comic Heroes for Hope), everything and everyone is connected. I’ve discussed it in several articles this week, but it’s pretty amazing how interrelated everything is.

Everything is mostly in New England.

99% of KIng’s stories feel like they take place within ten miles of his hometown. Here are just a few examples.

Every main character is a teacher. Or a writer. And they have a past.

King started his career as a teacher. Many of his characters are teachers. If not, they are writers.

His characters are always dealing with a past tragedy.

So many of them are escaping a hometown and forced to come back to it. Often they are the survivors of some teenage catastrophe. So many of them have lost a brother and never gotten over that. That may be because King’s father left when he was two years old. And as a child, King apparently witnessed one of his friends being struck and killed by a train. He has no memory of the event, however (he also doesn’t remember writing Cujo or directing much of Maximum Overdrive, but that’s another story).

Greasers are jerks.

From Stand by Me to Christine to Sometimes They Come Back, greaser jerks abuse everyone. I wonder how many times a guy with slicked-back hair and a leather jacket broke King’s glasses in middle school.

Everybody has a gang of their own.

The Loser’s Club. Duddits’ protectors in Dreamcatcher. The kids in Stand by Me. The good guys often have an affiliation to childhood friends from their past.

Nobody should ever go back home, though.

As mentioned before, when they finally come back to their childhood home, like Salem’s Lot, nothing good comes of it. Your hometown is filled with repressed memories and often vampires. Stay in the city!

That said, I’ve just spent several weeks writing about his films and been truly entertained (for the most part, The Rage: Carrie 2 is still abusing me like a member of a 50’s gang as I run on the train trestle). I hope that you enjoyed this week of his films. What one is your favorite? Do you have any tropes I missed?

Check out our last Stephen King week.

Cat’s Eye

Maximum Overdrive

Sleepwalkers

Needful Things

Silver Bullet

Rebecca and I will be at the drive-in all weekend! You should go! It’s at the Riverside Drive-In Theatre in Vandergrift, PA!

In 1967, Gianni Garko played a character named Sartana in the film Blood at Sundown. While not the hero we’ll come to know and love this week, this character proved incredibly popular, particularly in Germany. Producers contacted Garko about a new series with a hero with the same name, but he wanted to create a protagonist concerned more with himself than vengeance.

Original series director Gianfranco Parolini loved James Bond, so his gadgets were added. An additional inspiration was Mandrake the Magician, which explains Sartana’s black cloak and seemingly supernatural abilities.

Often, when confronting Sartana, villains will hear his theme, the song of a dead man, and answer the door to find just his clothes or nothing at all. Then, he’ll appear and kill them. He uses trick weapons, like his signature four-barrel derringer. And as time goes on, Sartana begins to employ elaborate death traps, ala Dr. Phibes. He even has a robot assistant in the final of these five films!

So why are we spending an entire week on the character? Because he’s so cool, that’s why! Who else would adjust his tie in the middle of a gunfight? I’ve been always wanting to enjoy more Italian westerns, as I love the fact that they take an American archetype and put their own spin on it. The Sartana series is a veritable goulash of genres and inspirations.

This week, we’ll be covering the four official Sartana movies and the fifth spiritual sequel:

If You Meet Sartana, Pray for Death: The first film in the saga.

I Am Sartana Your Angel of Death: Sartana is set up for an impossible bank robbery that he did not commit.

Have a Good Funeral, My Friend… Sartana Will Pay: Sartana investigates the massacre of an entire town.

Light the Fuse…Sartana is Coming!: Millions of dollars in gold and counterfeit money lead everyone in a town to turn on one another, leaving Sartana and his improbable arsenal of weaponry in the middle.

I Am Sartana, Trade Your Guns for a Coffin: Sartana takes on a Mexican gang of stagecoach robbers.

Sure, there are plenty of other films with Sartana in the title, but these are considered the official canon films. The final one on our list is actually the third released, but the last film. And George Hilton takes over for Garko, so many don’t consider it official.

All of these films owe a debt to Sergio Leone’s films, particularly A Fistful of Dollars. There were over six hundred Italian westerns made between 1960 and 1978, so the fact that this character endures — much less spawned plenty of imitators — will be explored this week. Plus, the films are just plain fun, with outrageous gun battles and numerous double-crosses. I can’t wait to share them with you.

PS – Arrow is releasing a huge box set of these soon — including limited edition blu-rays of all five official Sartana films! The Complete Sartana comes out on May 26 and you can get it from Diabolik DVD!

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DRIVE-IN ASYLUM’s April 2018 is here! #11 has some great content, including four different authors making their DIA debuts!

This issue includes:

An exclusive interview with “HORROR HIGH” director Larry Stouffer. No, no, it’s not “RETURN TO HORROR HIGH” from the late 80s, this is the 1973 movie where a nerdy high school biology wiz develops a serum that transforms him into a monstrous alter-ego that destroys his enemies. Larry talks to Marshall Crist about the film’s development from conception to casting, post-production and its release to theaters via Crown International. Marshall makes his DIA debut with this great piece.

(Plus I did some crazy artwork for it…)

Also new to DIA is Ryan Clark, who offers his interview with screen writer George Abagnalo, who co-wrote “ANDY WARHOL’S BAD”. George talks about his association with Warhol and the creation of this shocking satire of suburban America, featuring a cast of sociopathic characters who all have the worst intentions.

Author Stephen Pytak also contributes his first piece, a profile of Ulli Lommel’s “Boogey Man” franchise of supernatural slashers, and Ryan Ellington from film blog Grindhouse Theology discusses the career of exploitation filmmaker Stephanie Rothman.

Sam Panico compares two movies titled “Frightmare”, one from 1974 and the other from 1983. Victor Leroi’s Video Nasty column features Nazi exploitation flick “Love Camp 7”, and Lana Revok from Facebook page STARTS TODAY! has an ad gallery of great vintage video store ads to take ya back.

And of course, there are tons of vintage movie ads to look at in this issue.

Each issue comes with a matte 4×6 print of a random horror, cult or exploitation movie ad.

Get yours today right here!

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Want to sit outside and watch POLTERGEIST, LIFEFORCE, THE FUNHOUSE, INVADERS FROM MARS, ALLIGATOR, THE BOOGENS, CRITTERS and THE DEADLY SPAWN?

Then you should totally show up to this! We are!

It’s April 27 and 28 at the Riverside Drive-In Theatre in Vandergrift, PA!