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Fred Gwynne: Munster on the Screen, Monster in our Hearts

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Fred Gwynne, born July 10th, 1926, gave the world a lifetime of lovable antics and treasured memories. Anyone fortunate enough to have grown up watching The Munsters will remember Gwynne’s career best as the endearingly clumsy patriarch of the monster-friendly family, Herman Munster.

Gwynne’s playful role as this gentle giant gave the already established look of Boris Karloff’s most famous role (Frankenstein) brand new life. Underneath the box-top cranium Gwynne rejuvenated a familiar looking icon and brought decades worth of giggles rather than screams as he lumbered around smashing down doors (accidentally) and breaking through walls episode to episode.

(Image courtesy of Uncle Oldie’s Collectibles)

Gwynne brought humor to a character whose counterpart previously embodied pathos and dread, but he did so without one moment of disrespect to the revered Frankenstein franchise – even though it was a departure from the gothic take on the reanimated abomination sewn together by Dr. Frankenstein.

I must stress that Herman Munster is not the classic creation of Victor Frankenstein, but the similarities are undeniable, and not just in their dapper good looks.

(Image courtesy of The Red List)

Gwynne’s Herman – much like Karloff’s counterpart – was all too eager to fit in with his neighbors, but they just couldn’t see past the monster on the outside. However, Herman proved to his viewers that it doesn’t matter what we look like on the outside, it’s who we choose to be on the inside that makes the difference.

Gwynne’s portrayal was that of a loving father who was always ready to offer his son Eddie (Butch Patrick) sound words of wisdom, and was ever supportive to his vampire wife, Lily (Yvonne De Carlo), proving to be a genuine TV role-model.

(Image courtesy of Tumblr)

With an irresistible smile and contagious charm, Fred Gwynne shone in the role. His Herman wasn’t afraid to just simply be himself regardless if he fit in or not.

Not content to leave the genre just yet, Fred Gwynne would play another pivotal role which would leave a lasting impression upon horror fans for generations to come. Still the gentleman as always, Gwynne would play the kind-hearted neighbor who would both befriend the Creed family and gravely warn them about “that damn rohd” that had claimed so many local pets.

(Image courtesy of Movie Stills Database)

Though the movie was not about his character, it’s hard to imagine Stephen King’s Pet Semetary without Fred Gwynne playing the crucial role of Jud Crandall. As the audience, we can’t help but hang onto every word he says.

When he begins to explain the darker nature of what lies restlessly beyond the make-shift graveyard, we all feel the temperature drop. Whatever scares him immediately scares us. Even South Park featured a character who was the spitting image of Gwynne’s Crandall, once again demonstrating the impact his career has held over our culture.

“Sometimes dead is better,” he would warn Louis Creed (Dale Midkiff) with a heavy air of foreboding, but already the Creeds were doomed. The accursed powers silently waiting outside the limits of the Pet Semetary had patiently launched their evil schemes against the Creed household. Desperation can lead a man to do unwholesome things, and after all, “the soil of a man’s heart is stonier.”

For a lifetime of both laughs and chills, we fondly celebrate the successful life of a kind man and honor his memory.

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‘Evil Dead’ Film Franchise Getting TWO New Installments

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It was a risk for Fede Alvarez to reboot Sam Raimi’s horror classic The Evil Dead in 2013, but that risk paid off and so did its spiritual sequel Evil Dead Rise in 2023. Now Deadline is reporting that the series is getting, not one, but two fresh entries.

We already knew about the Sébastien Vaniček upcoming film that delves into the Deadite universe and should be a proper sequel to the latest film, but we are broadsided that Francis Galluppi and Ghost House Pictures are doing a one-off project set in Raimi’s universe based off of an idea that Galluppi pitched to Raimi himself. That concept is being kept under wraps.

Evil Dead Rise

“Francis Galluppi is a storyteller who knows when to keep us waiting in simmering tension and when to hit us with explosive violence,” Raimi told Deadline. “He is a director that shows uncommon control in his feature debut.”

That feature is titled The Last Stop In Yuma County which will release theatrically in the United States on May 4. It follows a traveling salesman, “stranded at a rural Arizona rest stop,” and “is thrust into a dire hostage situation by the arrival of two bank robbers with no qualms about using cruelty-or cold, hard steel-to protect their bloodstained fortune.”

Galluppi is an award-winning sci-fi/horror shorts director whose acclaimed works include High Desert Hell and The Gemini Project. You can view the full edit of High Desert Hell and the teaser for Gemini below:

High Desert Hell
The Gemini Project

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‘Invisible Man 2’ Is “Closer Than Its Ever Been” to Happening

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Elisabeth Moss in a very well-thought-out statement said in an interview for Happy Sad Confused that even though there have been some logistical issues for doing Invisible Man 2 there is hope on the horizon.

Podcast host Josh Horowitz asked about the follow-up and if Moss and director Leigh Whannell were any closer to cracking a solution to getting it made. “We are closer than we have ever been to cracking it,” said Moss with a huge grin. You can see her reaction at the 35:52 mark in the below video.

Happy Sad Confused

Whannell is currently in New Zealand filming another monster movie for Universal, Wolf Man, which might be the spark that ignites Universal’s troubled Dark Universe concept which hasn’t gained any momentum since Tom Cruise’s failed attempt at resurrecting The Mummy.

Also, in the podcast video, Moss says she is not in the Wolf Man film so any speculation that it’s a crossover project is left in the air.

Meanwhile, Universal Studios is in the middle of constructing a year-round haunt house in Las Vegas which will showcase some of their classic cinematic monsters. Depending on attendance, this could be the boost the studio needs to get audiences interested in their creature IPs once more and to get more films made based on them.

The Las Vegas project is set to open in 2025, coinciding with their new proper theme park in Orlando called Epic Universe.

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Jake Gyllenhaal’s Thriller ‘Presumed Innocent’ Series Gets Early Release Date

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Jake gyllenhaal presumed innocent

Jake Gyllenhaal’s limited series Presumed Innocent is dropping on AppleTV+ on June 12 instead of June 14 as originally planned. The star, whose Road House reboot has brought mixed reviews on Amazon Prime, is embracing the small screen for the first time since his appearance on Homicide: Life on the Street in 1994.

Jake Gyllenhaal’s in ‘Presumed Innocent’

Presumed Innocent is being produced by David E. Kelley, J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot, and Warner Bros. It is an adaptation of Scott Turow’s 1990 film in which Harrison Ford plays a lawyer doing double duty as an investigator looking for the murderer of his colleague.

These types of sexy thrillers were popular in the ’90s and usually contained twist endings. Here’s the trailer for the original:

According to Deadline, Presumed Innocent doesn’t stray far from the source material: “…the Presumed Innocent series will explore obsession, sex, politics and the power and limits of love as the accused fights to hold his family and marriage together.”

Up next for Gyllenhaal is the Guy Ritchie action movie titled In the Grey scheduled for release in January 2025.

Presumed Innocent is an eight-episode limited series set to stream on AppleTV+ starting June 12.

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