Staff 10 October 2009 Things We Like 1,098 views One Comment Print This Post  Email This Post

Every Saturday, the editorial staff of Monkey Goggles and some cool friends of our site will rummage though bookshelves, toy boxes, DVDs, music collections and stacks of assorted stuff to pick out a few choice items that will make your life better.

This week, we welcome movie tips from the staff of the best video rental store in the known universe: Scarecrow Video!

Scarecrow Video’s Rental of the Week: “Black Devil Doll From Hell” (1984), directed by Chester Novell Turner

Some movies are so bad that they’re good. “Black Devil Doll From Hell” is so bad that you can’t even believe you’re seeing it. Filmed on what appears to be a home video camera and furnished with a soundtrack provided by the “demo” button on a cheap Casio keyboard, “Black Devil Doll” doesn’t even qualify as low-budget. This is no-budget filmmaking at its finest. Watching this movie you get the idea that Chester woke up one day, grabbed his camera, and enlisted some friends from his Philadelphia neighborhood to make a horror film.

The plot revolves around a good church-going woman named Helen Black (Shirley L. Jones) who purchases a demonic ventriloquist’s dummy at a thrift store. The dummy (which appears to be a Charlie McCarthy doll, spray-painted black) is a foul-mouthed pervert who clubs her over the head, ties her to her own bed, and proceeds to rape her. Following this rather unconventional sexual awakening, the once pious Ms. Black spends the rest of the movie trying to find another lover who is the doll’s equal. With absolutely no regard for cinematic convention, “Black Devil Doll” manages to be simultaneously disgusting and charming. Fans of early John Waters films will appreciate and enjoy this obscure gem.  – Rhias Hall

SouthernMedia’s News Music Search Archive

Isn’t it great to discover that someone else is obsessed with something so you don’t have to be? This site gathers local news themes from all over the country, along with the music provided to all of them by the network, and arranges them by date so you can find the one you remember from long ago. It’s also good if you need some theme music for entering a room. Personally, I’m going with the “Theme from ‘Firepower’” from KATV in Little Rock. Back to you, Geoff. – David Wahl

KnuckleTattoos.com

Full disclosure: KnuckleTattoos.com is the brainchild of my friend Nathan Black, a prince amongst men. That said, you don’t have to know Nathan — a man I would describe as a zen hoodlum — to appreciate good knuckle tattoos. All you have to be is a fan of Robert Mitchum’s performance in “Night of The Hunter,” to recognize that some truisms can only be successfully communicated through implied fisticuffs, and to have a favorite eight-letter word or phrase like “TRUE LOVE,” “RESTLESS,” “STAY CALM,” “EPIC FAIL” or “DEAR JOHN.” I’ll probably never work up the nerve to get a set of knuckle tats myself — I have to agree with Brian Setzer, who once cautioned against getting tattoos “where a judge can see” — but I share Nathan’s admiration of the twain-fisted communicator. And for the record, my knuckle tattoos would say “UNEDITED.” – Geoff Carter