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Retro Rewind: Happy Birthday Gary Busey- The Man, the Myth, the Werewolf Wrangler

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Written by Patti Pauley

Back at the ripe ole’ age of four, an unlikely hero came into my world. He was funny, looked to be about ten feet tall on screen (to four-year-old me anyway) and had balls of steel when it came to wrangling an extremely pissed off, one-eyed werewolf. That my friends, is the man, the myth, the no-bullshit taking Gary Busey and today is his birthday.

 

 

It was about 1986, and my parents and grandparents were nestled in the living room of our apartment watching some movie I was told repeatedly that I wasn’t allowed to see with them. Of course, what 4-year-old actually listens, right? I persisted with walking back and forth from the hallway to the living area to catch glimpses of this forbidden visual on our boxed TV set until my sucker of a Dad finally gave in and made a seat right next to him on our plaid-colored couch. That’s when I knew I had fucked up; for a short time at least anyway.

The movie in question was Stephen King’s Silver Bullet and even though I was a pretty tough kid growing up in a horror-loving household, Silver Bullet scared the ever loving piss out of me. As I was getting comfortable with my little bowl of popcorn, the scene where the werewolf jumps through the window of one Stella Randolph came to pass and I was both fascinated and terrified beyond comprehension. Of course, I put on my little brave face and toughed through the movie because goddammit, I asked for this. And I was going to prove to the parental units I could handle this film. But really inside I was shitting my pants. However, one thing made the whole experience a little easier for my horrified little self: Uncle fucking Red.

Uncle Red, played by Sir Gary of Busey, served as both a hero and comedy relief in this tale of full moon terror and I found myself laughing hysterically at his character every time he would show up on screen with his sarcastic wit and funny little quips. That stupid little Jack-Ass joke he tells to Marty was the goddamn funniest thing I had ever heard in my four years on Earth I tell you. And throughout the film Busey’s character slowly became a sort of a Superhero type figure in my eyes. He was the guy who gave his niece and nephew the benefit of the doubt on the claim that Tarkers Mills hosted a mythical murdering monster; and that the children knew who he was underneath all the animal fur. What a swell guy! He even had a silver bullet made for them, even if it was just for piece of mind in his own thought process.

Towards the end however, with that climatic build-up on Halloween night with a full moon, Marty, Jane, and Uncle Red with his winning subscription of Popular Mechanics, is a moment that will live in infamy in horror film and in my own twisted little world when Uncle Red comes face to face with Reverend Werewolf. I was on the edge of my seat. Was this the end of Red? Is this new hero of mine going to get clawed to smithereens?

FUCK NO!! Gary Busey said it’s rumble time and wrestled a werewolf. Just take that sentence in one more time. GARY BUSEY WRESTLED A WEREWOLF. WWF style starting with breaking a chair onto the back of the beast. It’s the main event and my new-found hero was showcasing those chest hairs of steel. It was glorious. Especially to a little person like myself jumping up and down rooting for the demise of this scary as hell giant dog. That was the day Gary Busey became an unsung hero in my book.

Happy 73rd birthday Gary Busey! Somewhere, someone is pissing on a stack of Yankees, Phillies, and Indians baseball cards to celebrate.

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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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