Purple Hill Witch

 

Really digging Purple Hill Witch, an awesome Stoner/Doom band from Oslo, Norway, who recently signed to Totem Cat Records, home of so many other fantastic bands! As I get to know the back catalogue, I'm following these guys on IG and salivating at the prospect of the new record!

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31 Days of Halloween:

Rob Zombie's 31 is a polarizing film, to say the least. Even in my own personal conversation about Horror, you know, the one flowing in my head pretty much ALL THE TIME, I have mixed opinions. It starts strong with Doomhead, wears on my nerves with its "King Dong" bag of dick and fuck jokes as we meet the cast, and then really comes up strong again when we get going on the plot. Yet, all that time spent annoying me with character "development" doesn't make me dislike the protagonists at all. What they go through saves them for me.

By the end, I am always intoxicated by 31, and it's often difficult to find something to watch afterward (unless I'm doing House of 1000 Corpses or Devil's Rejects). 

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1) The Killing of a Sacred Deer

2) The Houses October Built (2011)/Texas Chainsaw Massacre (50th-anniversary theatrical screening)

3) Loop Track

4) It's What's Inside/LONGLEGS

5) The Babysitter/Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein

6) The Hitcher/Lost Highway

7) GDT's Cabinet of Curiosities: Graveyard Rats

8) V/H/S Beyond

9) Killer Klowns from Outer Space

10) Terrifier 3

11) Summer of '84

12) Rosemary's Baby/Suspiria ('77)

13) Daddy's Head

14) Undead

15) Moloch/Tea Cup (episode 1)/ Evil Dead 2

16) Smile

17) Laura Hasn't Slept/Smile 2

18) Terrifier

19) The House of the Devil - Last Drive-in Presentation (original air date April 26, 2019)

20) The Woods

21) Rob Zombie's 31

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Read:

The pre-order went up for the next Laird Barron release on Bad Hand Books. HERE's the link and the solicitation below this amazing cover art by Samuel Araya. 

"Barron returns to Bad Hand Books with an all-new novella in his famed Antiquity setting. (Pretty) Red Nails features familiar hero Isaiah Coleridge—but he’s not at all as we remember him. This is Coleridge with a dark-fantasy twist. A tall, rangy mercenary armed with a deadly iron spear, Coleridge travels the benighted land astride a nameless piebald stallion while the grinning moon watches from above like a patient carrion bird. Alongside Lionel Robard and a battle-scarred war dog, Minerva, Coleridge faces off against a mad wizard and the horrifying Pale Ones on a quest to find the fabled city of Ur. For love. For lust. For pretty red nails."

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Playlist:

Drug Church - PRUDE

Chat Pile - Cool World

Skinny Puppy - Last Rights

Misfits - Static Age

Ministry - The Mind Is A Terrible Thing To Taste

Purple Hill Witch - Eponymous

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

• King of Pentacles

• Ace of Swords

• I: The Magician

The King (Prince) of Disks can be a bit of a cunt for matters of Earthly stability. He's a shake-up, a corporate higher-up who stops in to ensure things are running smoothly and routinely finds issues. That said, that kind of pragmatic assessment can lead to enlightenment and enhanced prowess. 

Drug Church - Demolition Man

 

BIG thanks to Mr. Brown, who clued me into the fact that comic writer Patrick Kindlon's band Drug Church has a new record out! Kindlon is kind of the pinnacle of the evolution of Punk Rock to me at the moment: he writes wonderfully subversive and thought-provoking comics, and he sings in an awesome band that has a social awareness that reminds me a bit of Fugazi, although turned somewhat inward. Really great stuff.

You can order the record HERE.

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31 Days of Halloween:

Not much to say about my viewing over the weekend. Rewatching the original Terrifier, I'm merely reminded how great the second and third entries are with an actual plot, although Leone's FX work is still great (although subdued by lack of budget), and it's interesting to see the Victoria character's origin again, given what she's become. That was Friday night; Saturday was Ti West's The Houe of the Devil with Joe Bob from The Last Drive-In episode aired during the first season of the show, back in 2019. House is normally a film I prefer to watch uninterrupted, but this is my second viewing in the last few months (I watched it when Maxxxine hit theatres, too), and I'd never seen Joe Bob 'do' the film, so it was time. Very cool factoids throughout.

Last night, I re-watched Lucky McKee's The Woods. This was his 2006 follow-up to May. May is one of my all-time favorite films. The Woods is... not a bad film by any means. However, something about it feels very hollow to me. I don't remember how I felt about this one when I first saw it upon the initial DVD release, but it definitely didn't move the needle with me this time. 

I feel like I am running out of time this month. There's been a couple not-so-great viewings, and there's a ton of stuff I want to get to. Might have to organize the remainder of my viewings. 

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1) The Killing of a Sacred Deer

2) The Houses October Built (2011)/Texas Chainsaw Massacre (50th-anniversary theatrical screening)

3) Loop Track

4) It's What's Inside/LONGLEGS

5) The Babysitter/Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein

6) The Hitcher/Lost Highway

7) GDT's Cabinet of Curiosities: Graveyard Rats

8) V/H/S Beyond

9) Killer Klowns from Outer Space

10) Terrifier 3

11) Summer of '84

12) Rosemary's Baby/Suspiria ('77)

13) Daddy's Head

14) Undead

15) Moloch/Tea Cup (episode 1)/ Evil Dead 2

16) Smile

17) Laura Hasn't Slept/Smile 2

18) Terrifier

19) The House of the Devil - Last Drive-in Presentation (original air date April 26, 2019)

20) The Woods

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Listen:

My friend Justin interviewed Chris Connelly on the latest episode of his YouTube show, Trailer Punk Podcast. Check it out!

Listening to this, I'm reminded I've still never tracked down a copy of Connelly's 2010 novel Ed Royal, and now I realize he has others! No excuses... 

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Playlist:

My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult - Confessions of a Knife

Oranssi Pazuzu - Muuntautuja

Blut Aus Nord - Hallucinogen

Oranssi Pazuzu - Live at Roadburn

Oranssi Pazuzu - Värähtelijä 

The Sisters of Mercy - Floodland

Perturbator - Nocturne City EP

The Body and Dis Fig - Orchards of a Futile Heaven

Various - Halloween Spotify Playlist

Orville Peck - Pony

Pastor T.L. Barrett and the Youth For Christ Choir - Like a Ship Without a Sail

Ennio Morricone - Black Belly of the Tarantula

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Cold Cave - Octavia

 

The final song on this year's Passion Depression, released back in March. I'm really just getting around to this one now. For whatever reason, none of Cold Cave's albums live up to the promise set by the first one I really heard, 2011's Cherish the Light Years, but this album's pretty great, and this final track is my favorite on it. You can head over to CC's Bandcamp HERE and take your pick. 

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31 Days of Halloween:

1) The Killing of a Sacred Deer

2) The Houses October Built (2011)/Texas Chainsaw Massacre (50th-anniversary theatrical screening)

3) Loop Track

4) It's What's Inside/LONGLEGS

5) The Babysitter/Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein

6) The Hitcher/Lost Highway

7) GDT's Cabinet of Curiosities: Graveyard Rats

8) V/H/S Beyond

9) Killer Klowns from Outer Space

10) Terrifier 3

11) Summer of '84

12) Rosemary's Baby/Suspiria ('77)

13) Daddy's Head

14) Undead

15) Moloch/Tea Cup (episode 1)/ Evil Dead 2

16) Smile

17) Laura Hasn't Slept/Smile 2

18) Terrifier

      

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Watch:

Okay. Bloody Disgusting posted the trailer for Beyond the Chamber of Terror a few days ago, and it looks like it will either be a gloriously goofy good time or unwatchable.

I guess the proof, as always, will be in the pudding.

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Playlist:

Moon Wizard - Sirens

Ritual Howls - Virtue Falters

Skinny Puppy - VIVI Sect VI

Human Impact - Gone Dark

The Cure - A Fragile Thing (single)

Cold Cave - Passion Depression

Cold Cave - Cherish the Light Years

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Ritual Howls - Turkish Leather Always Makes Me SMILE, Too

 

Ritual Howl's album Turkish Leather was released ten years ago on September 30th! Holy smokes. If you're not familiar, check out their discography on Bandcamp. Easily one of my favorite discoveries from the last ten years, for sure.

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31 Days of Halloween:

Last night K and I hit the Regal for Parker Finn's Smile 2. I'm not going to post a trailer because last week, before Terrifier 3, I noticed there was a HUGE spoiler image sandwiched in the quick succession of scenes they splice together, and that pissed me off.

That's not Finn's fault. I rewatched the first Smile Wednesday night, and I have to say, third viewing - first at home - Smile not only held up, but I now think it's one of the scariest flicks in recent memory. Sosie Bacon's physical acting - her posture, inflections and facial tics totally sell her anxiety as she spirals, a descent made all the worse by the fact that the movie begins with her patient demonstrating the exact blueprint for what she's about to go through. 

Chills!

So how does the sequel hold up? Well, our theatrical experience ranks as the worst I've had in years, but that's definitely not the film's fault. Blame instead the groups of high school students who walked in and out of the theatre on almost constant rotations. I used to be the guy who would stand up and tell people to shut the fuck up when they were talking during a movie, but nearly coming to blows during James Bond: Skyfall (2012?) delivered the epiphany that I had become part of the disturbance. The theatre is my church, and I've learned to grin and bear it. It's not nearly as hard now that I rarely smoke before a theatrical screening. I have a much easier time letting periphery noise go when I'm not hyper-focused. Also, these kids weren't talking so much as just walking in and out of the theatre, so what do you say, anyway?

Back to the actual movie. Smile 2 is fantastic; it's not as good as the original, but that's just my opinion. My Horror Vision co-host Missi felt this one matched the first film. One thing's for sure - Parker Finn is a Director I will follow from here out. He used the considerably bigger budget for this sequel to really expand his idea in a way that transcends the genre completely and sets up the next movie with a scale that makes me extremely excited.

In a nutshell, it might not make my top ten of the year - a hard thing to do in 2024 from the sheer volume of awesome films released so far this year - but it's fantastic, moves the series forward in a brilliant and exciting way, and should definitely be seen in a theatre. Just try to get a screening where the brats are sure to still be in school. 

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1) The Killing of a Sacred Deer

2) The Houses October Built (2011)/Texas Chainsaw Massacre (50th-anniversary theatrical screening)

3) Loop Track

4) It's What's Inside/LONGLEGS

5) The Babysitter/Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein

6) The Hitcher/Lost Highway

7) GDT's Cabinet of Curiosities: Graveyard Rats

8) V/H/S Beyond

9) Killer Klowns from Outer Space

10) Terrifier 3

11) Summer of '84

12) Rosemary's Baby/Suspiria ('77)

13) Daddy's Head

14) Undead

15) Moloch/Evil Dead 2

16) Smile

17) Laura Hasn't Slept/Smile 2

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Read:

I finished my third re-read of China Miéville's Perdido Street Station yesterday. Totally blown away again!

Now, onto Laird Barron's Not A Speck of Light, which I received from Bad Hand Books a week or so ago and have been chomping at the bit to read. I'm four stories in and it's just so wonderful to have new stories by one of your favorite authors. Barron's prose wraps around my brain like a massive alien wyrm slowly strangling the light from the sky. 

 

The plan is to read a couple of short stories in this new collection and then start Ivy Tholen's latest, Mother Dear, which I am also dying to tear into!

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Playlist:

Oranssi Pazuzu - Muuntautuja

Emilie Levienaise-Farrouch - Censor OST

Ritual Howls - Turkish Leather

Ritual Howls - Rendered Armor

Bauhaus - In the Flat Field

Ritual Howls - Virtue Falters

Sandrider - Godhead

Jim Williams - Possessor OST

Beastmilk - Climax

Skinny Puppy - Remission

My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult - Confessions of a Knife

Horrendous - Ontological Mysterium

Red Lorry Yellow Lorry - Talk About the Weather

Type O Negative - Origin of the Feces

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Card:

Today's Card is IV: The Emperor.

"The Rules that Govern All Life."

That's how my entry in the Grimoire begins. Also, it should be mentioned that this is obviously a very Martial card; Crowly writes about this tying into the card as the representation of the physical embodiment of authority. He also drops this little gem:

"... Aires means Ram. At his (the Emperor's) feet, couchant, is the Lamb and Flag, to confirm this attribution on the lower pane; for the ram, by nature, is a wild and courageous animal, lonely in lonely places, whereas when tamed and made to lie down in green pasture, nothing is left but the docile, cowardly, gregarious and succulent beast. This is the theory of government."

No wonder my friends and I tend to regard this card suspiciously! One of the interpretations I lean toward with The Emperor is "It will be decided for you," which sounds a bit chilling now, when juxtaposed with the above passage from The Book of Thoth. Anyway you cut it, the fourth Atu is not a great card to see in many respects, unless of course, you need a third party to get something done for you. 

New Music from Chelsea Wolfe!

New music from Chelsea Wolfe, and it reminds me that I sort of forgot about She Reaches Out to She Reaches Out to She, released a few months ago. This woman is such a prolific artist; very inspiring. You can pre-order the new E.P. HERE.

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31 Days of Halloween:

Woke up super early yesterday and caught Nico van den Brink's 2022 film Moloch from the beginning on Shudder TV. Solid modern Folk Horror flick from XYZ Films. Here's a trailer that's not too revealing:

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1) The Killing of a Sacred Deer

2) The Houses October Built (2011)/Texas Chainsaw Massacre (50th-anniversary theatrical screening)

3) Loop Track

4) It's What's Inside/LONGLEGS

5) The Babysitter/Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein

6) The Hitcher/Lost Highway

7) GDT's Cabinet of Curiosities: Graveyard Rats

8) V/H/S Beyond

9) Killer Klowns from Outer Space

10) Terrifier 3

11) Summer of '84

12) Rosemary's Baby/Suspiria ('77, DVD)

13) Daddy's Head

14) Undead

15) Moloch/Tea Cup (episode 1)/ Evil Dead 2

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NCBD:

Short list this week, and two of these books may be delayed. Let's take a look:

How many times have issues of The Last Ronin II: Re-Evolution been delayed? Hell, I'm not even sure anymore. I love this world and this book, so I'll take it when they give it, and honestly, a production on this level is worth the wait. 

Opting for the "B" cover on this final issue of Destro. The Energon Universe party is kind of over; I mean, it's still great, but as Mike Shinabargar and I have discussed on Drinking with Comics quite a bit the last few months, that initial excitement of introducing G.I. Joe into the mix crested with the Cobra Commander and Duke mini-series. Destro has been great, but with everything winding down toward one monthly book, well, something feels flattened.

There's really no way to even begin to discuss this book in any small way. Department of Truth is so much more effective a series read in trade; however, after catching up on the series with the first four volumes, there's just no way I can wait for it to be collected. 

Or can I?

This is the one I am most excited about this week, and it's also the one I've heard has been pushed back. DC, please get this one out before Halloween! Maybe it's Shinabargar's influence, but I've been digging some of these one-off Bat-books lately, and at a tight, three-issue duration, this Batman fights a Werewolf looks pretty rad.

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Playlist:

Type O Negative - Dead Again

Barry Adamson - Cut to Black

Moon Wizard - Sirens

Deth Crux - Mutant Flesh

Type O Negative - Bloody Kisses (Suspended in Dusk Vinyl)

Bauhaus - In the Flat Field

Walter Rizati - House By the Cemetery OST

Goblin - Suspiria OST

Joseph Bishara - Malignant OST

Various - My Halloween Spotify Playlist

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Card:

Today's card is V: The Hierophant.

The initial notes I made for this card, long ago when I began the Grimoire, reads: "Something more (Divine???) that guides life along its course." 

The Prime Mover. This does not have to be a religious interpretation—mine certainly isn't—but it can be. In reality, this can be any "higher" power imparting knowledge, even if it's just someone smarter or more versed than you. 

Crowley floods the card with extra meaning. The bull, the elephants, Horus. It all boils down to the ultimate template for the Magickal working: United the microcosm with the macrocosm, itself a reference to our study and how it seeks to draw upon the aforementioned Prime Mover.  

I LOVE my Anchor Bay DVD copy of Dario Argento's 1977 Suspiria. LOVE it. One of the awesome features is the third disc is the Score by Goblin. Still reeling from rewatching the film this p However, upon rewatching the film for probably the first time in five years (most previous time before was the 4K restoration's premiere on the big screen at the Egyptian Theatre for Beyondfest, complete with Mr. Argento present to discuss the film!), I realized that, like many DVDs, the picture leaves quite a bit to be desired. 

So, I'm finally going to upgrade, and after consulting my Horror Vision cohosts, I've decided the only place to go is Synapse Films.

Although no longer available on the Synapse website, this one is currently available for a cool $25 on Amazon. This is the one my compatriots recommended, and it also has high marks on Blu-Ray.com (Blu-Ray picture and sound review HERE)

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31 Days of Halloween:

Yesterday evening, I watched Daddy's Head, the new film by Writer/Director/Composer/Editor Ben Barfoot. This hit Shudder last Friday. It's an excellent piece of moody, haunting filmmaking and a strong recommendation, especially for fans of The Lodge, Goodnight Mommy, or Damien McCarthy's work. This is nowhere near as weird as McCarthy's work; however, there's a restrained balance employed in Daddy's Head that really strengthens the film and reminds me a lot of Oddity, in particular.

I'll also add that this film would make the perfect "Yang" to The Babadook's "Ying" in a Grief Haunting double feature. It's kind of the polar opposite of Jennifer Kent's film.

1) The Killing of a Sacred Deer

2) The Houses October Built (2011)/Texas Chainsaw Massacre (50th-anniversary theatrical screening)

3) Loop Track

4) It's What's Inside/LONGLEGS

5) The Babysitter/Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein

6) The Hitcher/Lost Highway

7) GDT's Cabinet of Curiosities: Graveyard Rats

8) V/H/S Beyond

9) Killer Klowns from Outer Space

10) Terrifier 3

11) Summer of '84

12) Rosemary's Baby/Suspiria ('77)

13) Daddy's Head/Poltergeist II*

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* First time watch. I was right to avoid the Poltergeist sequels all these years. Awful.

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Playlist:

Godflesh - Us and Them

Oranssi Pazuzu - Muuntautuja

My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult - Confessions of a Knife

Le Matos - Summer of '84 OST

M83 - Saturdays = Youth

Dreamkid - Chrissy (single)

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New Music from Jerry Cantrell!!!

 

The second single from the upcoming album I Want Blood, out next Friday, October 18th. Pre-order HERE.

 

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31 Days of Halloween:

Last night, K and I watched Anouk Whissell, RKSS, François Simard, and Yoann-Karl Whissell's Summer of 84 for the umpteenth time. This has emerged as one of my favorite films over the last couple years. It hits EVERY TIME. At first, I dismissed this as capitalizing on Stranger Things' popularity; however, it quickly became apparent that this was not the case. In the same way that Twin Peaks adopts the veneer of the TV night-time soap opera to subvert the genre, Summer of 84 does the same to the "kids on bikes" aesthetic popularized by Stranger Things.*

Summer of 84's ending is, in my opinion, one of the greatest in recent memory.

1) The Killing of a Sacred Deer

2) The Houses October Built (2011)/Texas Chainsaw Massacre (50th-anniversary theatrical screening)

3) Loop Track

4) It's What's Inside/LONGLEGS

5) The Babysitter/Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein

6) The Hitcher/Lost Highway

7) GDT's Cabinet of Curiosities: Graveyard Rats

8) V/H/S Beyond

9) Killer Klowns from Outer Space

10) Terrifier 3

11) Summer of '84

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* Yes, technically Kids on Bikes was invented and popularized in the 80s. By NO means am I suggesting ST invented it. I'm 48 - I grew up during the 80s. However, it didn't become an acknowledged "genre" - for better or worse - until later, and not a checklist-ready template until after ST.

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Playlist:

Various - My Halloween Spotify Playlist

Oranssi Pazuzu - Muuntautuja

Bauhaus - The Sky's Gone Out

Count Gorgann - Corpse Eater: Satanic Misery Live for the Dead

Steve Moore - Christmas Bloody Christmas OST

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Card:

Taking a break from the single card studies for a pull from Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

What's it say that the first card I lay down has my new friend here on it? 

• IV: The Emperor

• King of Wands

• XIII: Death

Action. Drive. Change.