Episode 1:
The Phantom Screencaps

For the record, Evolution was the first review page on which we posted a screencap. While it started as a desire to communicate more of the "flavor" of a particular movie, it soon became a fun pastime to find and show the strangest, most interesting, or most bizarre picture from each movie. In late 2003, we went from posting one screencap per review to three, which gave us more of a challenge to find not only striking pictures, but also to whip up some funny captions for each one. The whole staff has enjoyed doing this, but we're still usually picking from among a batch of studio-authorized press photos.

However, nothing comes close to some home-grown screencaps in terms of great pictures, and one of my personal favorite things to do is to take screencaps of my own off of the DVDs. Sometimes this is out of necessity; there simply aren't pictures of some older or more obscure films on the net. But it's also great sport to highlight some of the usually skipped-over images of more popular movies, and MRFH is all about looking out for the little strange guy.

In this series, I'll be showing off some of my favorite screencaps that I took and used on review pages; none of these were taken from any internet source. A "best of", if you will. Take my hand, don't mind the lye chemical burn, and come with me down memory picture lane...


from Not Another Teen Movie

This is perhaps my pet favorite of all the screencaps (but I love all of my children equally, yes, yes, my dears... okay, that was a bit creepy), mostly because the cosmic forces of both Mr. T and the ultimate role in any film collide here. Look at that majestic expression, the credit byline that just begs to be explained, the red-and-white cooler off to the right holding a yummy lunch. It's too much goodness in such a small package.


from PCU

Okay, technically this on my PCU website and not on MRFH, but I had to include this because it's the best of 63 choice pictures I took from that movie. This is in the middle of Droz's speech, and the now-frozen expression on his face is both hysterical... and kind of frightening. It gets scarier the longer you look at it; if you doubt me, just keep staring. See?


from Anaconda

What you're looking at here is the now-infamous POV shot of Jon Voight's face, looking from inside the snake down out to its mouth. Looks big in there, don't it? Like you could drive a Buick down its throat. Hm.


from Bio-Dome

One of my sole reasons for reviewing Bio-Dome was to capture this moment from the film, that of Pauly Shore and Stephen Baldwin both chowing down on Pauly's toenails. It's so incredibly outlandish and, yes, gross, that it boggles the mind how a director could film this scene and still look at himself in the morning.


from Ed

This is a screencap that doesn't even need a caption -- it just sorta writes itself in a vary obvious way.


from Invasion!

Not only is the whole concept of the bathtub mannequin disturbingly odd (and unexplained by the film), but the fact that it looks a heckuva lot like PoolMan makes all of us wonder.


from The Kentucky Fried Movie

For me, this screencap wouldn't be half as funny if it didn't use this guy, some actor whose name I don't know but has been in quite a few films over the past thirty years or so. He usually plays a jerk. Anyway, three symptoms of death, ladies and gentlemen. Just in case you're not sure about a loved one.


from The Return of the King (animated)

I took a TON of screencaps from this dreadful TV movie, and it was excruciating to pare them down to a mere three. This one, entitled "Mr. Happy Orc", is the odd-man-out of the group, as he only appears in a Ring-induced hallucination where Samwise envisions the entire world as his personal garden, and this very bubbly Orc comes onto the screen, waving and smiling at all before (naturally) devouring a small child nearby. Okay, I made that last part up.


from Six-String Samurai

Another scene that probably exists because some filmmaker thought it'd be interesting to write a dream he had into the screenplay. Woman Seduces Guy With Gum On Glasses. Beautiful.


from Zoolander

I wonder if Will Farrell ever has to explain his movies to his children.

Written By:
Justin

Posted On:
1.28.04

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