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STILL UNSOLVED: Max Headroom’s Creepy TV Attack!

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Written by Dr. Jose

On the night of November 22, 1987, unsuspecting Chicagoans just settling in for a quiet evening of TV were treated to an incredibly bizarre occurrence on their television sets, one which – to this day – remains unsolved.

The first part of the incident happened on (then-independent) WGN, during The Nine O’Clock News. In the midst of a sports replay, the channel suddenly went black. Fifteen seconds later, it fuzzed back to life – only this time, it wasn’t the news. It was a mysterious being clad in a Max Headroom mask, hopping around like a mad person. There was no audio, and almost as quickly as it started, it ended; quick-thinking engineers in the studio switched the station’s broadcast frequency. Once back on the air, the bewildered sports reporter quipped, “Well, if you’re wondering what’s happened – so am I.” However, this was only the beginning – the main event would happen two hours later.

Around 11:15PM, just a few minutes into the “Horror of Fang Rock” episode of Doctor Who which was showing on the public access channel WTTW, the masked maniac struck again. Seemingly out of nowhere, all across Chicagoland, WTTW’s reception began to crackle and break-up, and viewers were once again confronted by the disguised phantom – but now the visuals included sound. For the next minute and a half, the bizarre hijacker held the channel hostage and commanded the audience’s attention by moaning out cryptic messages, writhing about, and eventually dropping their pants and being spanked with a fly swatter.

* * *

For those unfamiliar, Mad Headroom was a popular omnipresent TV mascot at the time – similar to Spuds Mackenzie, Elvira, and The Noid. The character (played by Matt Frewer) originated from a British made-for-TV movie, but became wildly popular worldwide thanks in part to his retro look and odd vocal tics. Soon, Headroom was appearing on talk shows, pitching soft drinks, and even hosting his own television program. It was one month after this program was cancelled that the pirates illegally seized the Chicago airwaves.

Another important thing to note about this “signal intrusion” is how rare something like this was then. Nowadays, almost every American has the necessary tools to “hack” – a computer and an internet connection – sitting in their bedrooms. But back then, there was no modern Internet (at least in the form that we know it now) – everything was phone systems, microwaves, and satellites. And to pull off a feat like this required major in-depth knowledge of the task at hand – not mention some heavy-duty equipment to pull it all off.

So who are the mysterious people behind the infamous intrusion? It seems everyone was a suspect at one point – from jaded telecommunication workers who had access to the right paraphernalia, to bored teenaged phreakers from the Chicago suburbs. While the incident caused a stir – even the FCC and the FBI were briefly involved – no one was ever caught nor charged with the crime. And now, 30 years later, it doesn’t look like anyone ever will be.

Below is the actual footage from the signal intrusion that occurred on November 22, 1987. Enjoy the nightmares!

https://youtu.be/eF4SljcoSzs

 

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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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