Hybrid Halloween Moments!!!

 

Happy Halloween! I've got today and tomorrow off and intend to soak up the atmosphere. First, woke up with The Misfits Hybrid Moments in my head! That has to be a boon that this will be a good day.

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31 Days of Halloween:

I had a spectacular October 30th last night. Here's what I watched:

Not for everyone, but Cary Grant and Peter Lorre are enough to make me love this classic Halloween comedy. The word "Madcap" got thrown around a lot back in this era, but this one deserves the description - it juggles so many plates that, even if some don't exactly 'land' for me, it's just a pleasure to watch.

Classic late-period Romero. I love this flick, flaws and all, and would take this any day over Schumacher's Falling Down, which, in the "man at the end of his rope" sub genre, definitely gets more love. 

If I love Romero's Bruiser, well then, I guess I have to marry Robert Englund's directorial debut, 976-Evil. I know this is not a 'good movie.' Couldn't care less. I think 976-Evil is the epitome of how great late 80s Horror could be, and it totally nails the Nightmare on Elm Street tone that none of the NoES movies except the original manage to.

1) When Evil Lurks/VHS 85/Adam Chaplin

2) Tales From the Crypt Ssn 1, Ep 6 "Collection Complete"

3) VHS

4) All You Need is Death

5) Slashers (2001)

6) The Beyond/Phenomena

7) The Convent

8) Evil Dead 2

9) The Autopsy of Jane Doe

10) Totally Killer

11) Ritual (Joko Anwar)/The Final Terror/Grave Robbers

12) Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (w/Joe Bob)

13) Never Hike Alone/Never Hike in the Snow/Never Hike Alone 2

14) Puppetman

15) Creepshow Season 4 Episode 1

16) Return of the Living Dead

17) Don't Look Now

18) When Evil Lurks

19) Barbarian

20) Demons 2/All Hallows Eve

21) May

22) Let's Scare Jessica To Death

23) The Birds/30 Coins Ssn 1 Ep 1

24) 30 Coins Ssn 1 Ep 2/The Church

25) Elvira Mistress of the Dark

26) To Kako (Evil)/To Kako: Stin epohi ton iroon

27) Tourist Trap (w/ Joe Bob)/Totally Killer

28) Amusement

29) The Rocky Horror Picture Show/There's Nothing Out There

30) Arsenic and Old Lace/George A. Romero's Bruiser/976-Evil

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Read:

In keeping with my annual Halloween traditions, I re-read James O'Barr's The Crow yesterday and began Rick Spears and Rob G's Teenagers From Mars upon waking this morning.

The Crow never fails to affect me; still the greatest love story I've read and the purest contemplation of grief I know. O'Barr's art and words drip with the Post Punk bands that grew to sway my tastes as a metalhead in High School, my obsession with Joy Division's Substance and Still and The Cure's Pornography following fast on the heels of my introduction to this dark, beautiful angel.

I love this book so much. The characters are, at this point, old friends I love to check back in on every year. 

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Playlist:

Type O Negative - Paranoid (single)

Claudio Simonetti and Goblin - Phenomena OST

John Carpenter w/ Alan Howarth - Prince of Darkness OST

John Carpenter w/ Alan Howarth - Halloween III: Season of the Witch OST

The Cure - Pornography

Night Verses - Every Sound Has A Color In The Valley of Night: Part 1

Wytch Finger - The Dance EP

The Sisters of Mercy - Floodland

Trust Obey - Fear and Bullets (1998 Edition)

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Card:

A single card from Missi's Raven Tarot for this perfect Halloween morning:

When Every Day is Halloween, October 31st just means we're about to begin another journey around the sun toward the next one. 

Skinny Birds

 

A few days ago, Heaven Is An Incubator posted some old-school Skinny Puppy. Hearing it put me in the mood to dig out 1984's Remission, and it's kinda been stuck in my headphones since, so let's start the day with "Sleeping Beast."

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31 Days of Halloween:

K and I went to see Hitchcock's The Birds on the big screen last night. The film still holds up, although here are a couple of observations I don't know that I made previously about the film:

• I'm guessing Cary Grant must have been Hitch's first choice for Leading Man Mitch Brenner because Rod Taylor feels like a stand-in. Not to say Taylor is bad; on the contrary, I rather think he does a smash-up job. There's just something about his physicality that makes me think Hitch originally had Grant in mind for the role.

• There's almost a full hour of lead-in. This isn't bad, and in fact, I was mostly engrossed; however, the weird practical joke Tippo Hedren's Melanie Daniels plays on Mitch unfolds rather slowly and then gives way to the Brenner family's very odd dynamic, none of which is ever mentioned. Why is one of Lydia's children in his 30s and the other looks to be about 10? I kept thinking I was forgetting some odd revelation, like Cathy is really Mitch's daughter and the mother passed away, or something like that. When that didn't happen, I was left wondering. What I have arrived at after sleeping on the film is I think there are a lot of little things in this one that make the overall tone expectant and slightly off, which adds to the overall tension.

• Not every scene of the titular birds attacking 'works' as well as I remembered they did - and I just rewatched this a couple of years ago - but the final sequence with Melanie and the Brenners barricaded in the house is fabulous and more than a little frightening.

• Suzanne Pleschette worked as a small-town school teacher before recovering from her bird attack and moving to the big city, where she married a successful psychologist.

1) When Evil Lurks/VHS 85/Adam Chaplin

2) Tales From the Crypt Ssn 1, Ep 6 "Collection Complete"

3) VHS

4) All You Need is Death

5) Slashers (2001)

6) The Beyond/Phenomena

7) The Convent

8) Evil Dead 2

9) The Autopsy of Jane Doe

10) Totally Killer

11) Ritual (Joko Anwar)/The Final Terror/Grave Robbers

12) Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (w/Joe Bob)

13) Never Hike Alone/Never Hike in the Snow/Never Hike Alone 2

14) Puppetman

15) Creepshow Season 4 Episode 1

16) Return of the Living Dead

17) Don't Look Now

18) When Evil Lurks

19) Barbarian

20) Demons 2/All Hallows Eve

21) May

22) Let's Scare Jessica To Death

23) The Birds/30 Coins Ssn 1 Ep 1

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Playlist:

Forhist - Eponymous

Sexores - Salamanca

††† - Good Night, God Bless, I Love U, Delete

Wytch Finger - The Dance EP

Cristobal Tapia De Veer - Smile OST

Skinny Puppy - Remission

New Order - Movement

The Final Cut - Consumed

Skinny Puppy - Bites

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Tonight At the Gates of Hell, Jessica

 

From Dan O'Bannon's classic Return of the Living Dead. SSQ is a band I know nothing about but damned if this song doesn't fit its scene in the movie like a glove. Or lack thereof. Interesting note, singer Stacey Q. is the artist behind the 1986 hit single "Two of Hearts," which was in heavy rotation on popular radio when I was ten years old and subsequently floats to the surface of my brain a couple times a month (at least) ever since. That's the power of radio, ladies and gentlemen.

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31 Days of Halloween:

John D. Hancock's 1971 Let's Scare Jessica to Death is a film I've been meaning to watch for years, and I finally got around to it yesterday afternoon. Here's a trailer for the remastered version Scream Factory put out a few years ago:

I didn't love this film the way some of my Letterbxd compatriots do, however, it's a fairly strong entry into the "urban flight" subgenre of the late 60s/early 70s. It's interesting to note that what I'm referring to as "urban flight" really prefigures the 70s error of Folk Horror. This was a direct reaction to a major societal shift in America at that time, where white people who lived in urban areas did what many white people do and overreacted to the influx of minority populations, fleeing "Back to nature" in more rural areas of the country. In the vernacular of the day, this was often referred to as "White Flight," or perhaps more generously, Urban Flight. There's an absolutely killer article by Devin Faraci about this disguised as an analysis of Michael Winner's 1974 film Death Wish in the back of Brubaker and Phillips's Kill or Be Killed, issue number one. Unfortunately, the extras in Brubaker/Phillips's monthlies generally do not get included in the collected editions, so if you're interested, you'd have to hunt this down in a back-issue bin. 

Perhaps as fitting dessert for being racist little shits, 70s Folk Horror often (but not always) arises from transplanting said fleeing urbanites to a rural setting that ultimately has something evil to hide. The evil almost always ties into some kind of Pagan or Naturalism, so I'm not really sure what the message is there other than "be afraid of everything." That said,  this formula worked for a while. More prevalent in novels that were then sometimes adapted to film, the best example of this Urban Flight/Folk Horror that I know of is Tom Tryon's Harvest Home, published in 1973 and was adapted into a 1973 tv miniseries in 1978. I have not yet felt the urge to track down the adaptation, seeing as I felt the novel was so good, to see it reworked for television felt... cheap to me. I might be wrong; maybe it's a banger. But I doubt it.

Let's Scare Jessica to Death definitely uses this same idea, however, I enjoyed the fact that this film is considerably more ambiguous about its rules and even sets up a correlation to a classic monster I did not see coming. Some of the narrative inner monologue we hear grows a bit tiresome, even if there is a question of its veracity, but I'm nitpicking here. The two things about this one I loved the most were A) Orville Stoeber's score, which predates Carl Zittrer's similar score for Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things by ten months and had to have been an influence on it. Children Shouldn't Play's score is one of my all-time favorite scores, so it should be no surprise to hear that the music was what finally roped me into watching this one. B) Speaking of influencing other films I love, Jessica also predates Gary Sherman's Dead and Buried by a decade, and there is no doubt Sherman drew from Jessica in the creation of his Seaside Horror classic. 

Alright, enough of the impromptu history lesson; here's the current tally for my 31 Days of Halloween:

1) When Evil Lurks/VHS 85/Adam Chaplin

2) Tales From the Crypt Ssn 1, Ep 6 "Collection Complete"

3) VHS

4) All You Need is Death

5) Slashers (2001)

6) The Beyond/Phenomena

7) The Convent

8) Evil Dead 2

9) The Autopsy of Jane Doe

10) Totally Killer

11) Ritual (Joko Anwar)/The Final Terror/Grave Robbers

12) Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (w/Joe Bob)

13) Never Hike Alone/Never Hike in the Snow/Never Hike Alone 2

14) Puppetman

15) Creepshow Season 4 Episode 1

16) Return of the Living Dead

17) Don't Look Now

18) When Evil Lurks

19) Barbarian

20) Demons 2/All Hallows Eve

21) May

22) Let's Scare Jessica To Death

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Play:

Puppet Combo/Torture Star's Night at the Gates of Hell hit Switch a few months back, and other than the initial release, I don't think I've posted anything else because I haven't had a lot of time to play the game. Last night, I dug in for about two hours and really immersed myself in it. Verdict?

This might be my favorite of the 80s Horror-themed games these folks have released so far (nothing's coming close to No One Lives Under the Lighthouse).

The game goes all-in on 80s Horror tropes by even including nudity! I mean, that was not something I'd ever expected to see in a game, but topless women are indeed one of the major ingredients in 80s Horror, so hats off for taking it that far (while it's possible that, since before buying a Switch in 2022 I had not played a video game since the original Nintendo, I am just being naive and nudity filtered into the gaming experience a long time ago, but I doubt it). Also, the violence and gore are cranked to ten, which makes sense - the creators have stated this game is a love letter to the films of Lucio Fulci and Bruno Mattei, so again, to fully expand on the quantifiable criteria of those films, you can't really half-ass the gore. And as usual with Puppet Combo/Torture Star, the sound is exquisite and a major part of the scares in this one. Like Nun Massacre, Night at the Gates of Hell conjures an anxiety that I haven't felt in Horror since I was a kid watching many of the films I love for the first time.

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Playlist:

Halloween Spotify Playlist

Rein - Reincarnated

Frankie and the Witch Fingers - Data Doom

Twin Temple - God is Dead

Huey Lewis and the News - Sports

Orville Peck - Bronco

Billy Joel - The Stranger

Tear for Fears - Songs From the Big Chair

Nick Cave and Warren Ellis - Lawless OST

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Card:

I'm going to Missi's Raven Deck for a single card this morning; just want a big picture at the moment:

Trump XIV is Art in the Crowley/Harris deck, and that's generally how I think of it. However, here I'd have to say the message is clear and has way more to do with the actual act of "Tempering," as in expectations. After a wonderful but exhausting weekend with my sister, her husband and my parents in town looking for houses, I think we're all caught up in the panic of moving on short notice (they have to be out by November 15th) and not seeing things for how they actually are. My parents especially need to temper their expectations of how this is going to change their lives, but also, I also think the rest of us have to work with them on that while adjusting our own sense of how this is going to go. I have no doubt they will find 'the right' house, however, it's going to take more time than they currently have. This means accepting the idea of putting their things in storage and having them move in with us for a bit, so they can actually see houses here without having to drive down for the weekend and then leave again. 

I'm the White Rabbit

 

From their 1990 MASTERPIECE, Confessions of a Knife. I've probably posted this one half a dozen times here before, and I'll probably do so again. Doesn't matter - classic track from a classic album, and a staple of my October listening.

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31 Days of Halloween:

I totally missed the fact that Creepshow was returning to Shudder for a fourth season this October, so when I saw it drop this past Friday, 10/13, though I was busy watching Never Hike Alone 2, I made a note to try to get to at least one episode over the weekend. Sunday night I did, and in typical Creepshow fashion, the first episode was pretty damn great. The opening segment "Twenty Minutes with Cassandra," written by Jamie Flanagan and directed by Greg Nicotero is everything about this show that is great. I loved that they leaned into humorous but not comedic territory, and what I mean by that is the humor comes from the characters in relation to the situation, not simply the characters or the situation. This one stars Samantha Sloyan and Ruth Codd, both of whom I knew from Mike Flanagan's previous work (Writer Jamie is his brother). The second segment "Smile" was also good; however, "Cassandra" really stole the show here. I'm hoping the rest of the season will stand as strong. 

1) When Evil Lurks/VHS 85/Adam Chaplin

2) Tales From the Crypt Ssn 1, Ep 6 "Collection Complete"

3) VHS

4) All You Need is Death

5) Slashers (2001)

6) The Beyond/Phenomena

7) The Convent

8) Evil Dead 2

9) The Autopsy of Jane Doe

10) Totally Killer

11) Ritual (Joko Anwar)/The Final Terror/Grave Robbers

12) Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (w/Joe Bob)

13) Never Hike Alone/Never Hike in the Snow/Never Hike Alone 2

14) Puppetman

15) Creepshow Season 4 Episode 1

16) Return of the Living Dead

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Playlist:

Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats - Blood Lust

Ennio Morricone - John Carpenter's The Thing OST

Type O Negative - Origin of the Feces

Zeal and Ardor - Eponymous

Halloween Spotify Playlist

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

Misfits - American Psycho

Type O Negative - Dead Again

Sleep Token - Sundowning

The Damned - Evil Spirits

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

• Four of Swords 

• I: The Magician

• IV: The Emperor

Lots of Fours in my vocabulary of late, which tends to indicate Stability first and foremost. I read this one as a reminder to keep one eye on the structure of the life we've built out over the previous year. I harbor a lot of plans, as does K, and often pretty easy to look right past what you have. The Skill and Wisdom of the Magus (Magician) tempered by the structure of linear thinking (my read on The Emperor in this particular instance) is a great structure for moving forward. 

All I Ever Wanted Was A Totally Killer Autopsy

 

I'm back from L.A. and ready to go full October. Let's start with some Bauhaus. For my money, one of the greatest songs this band ever recorded. Not easy to say, becuase 98% of all their songs could fall into that category. I mean, there are really no less-than-stellar Bauhaus songs, and yes, I'm counting Go Away White when I say that. Something about this one, though, really resonates in a timeless manner. Maybe it's the title, maybe it's the upright bass, maybe it's the genuflective lyrics that seque into nonsense - conceivably to stress how ridiculous existential contemplation actually is. Whatever the case, this is one for the ages.

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31 Days of Halloween:

I re-watched The Autopsy of Jane Doe on Monday night. I don't know; the first time I saw this film, it floored me, but every subsequent viewing has just rubbed me the wrong way. I love the performances, but there are little things about the script that irk me. Like the Sheriff's timelock of "I need a COD by morning because otherwise, I can't explain her presence at the crime scene to the press." What? How are the press gonna know? 

Honestly, I'm being a bit of a prick here. I think my real issue is that, between my first and second viewing of this flick, I saw the Director's Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark and hated it so much it spoiled this. I need to give Troll Hunter another shot because that's one I've only seen once and long before either of those others. Interestingly enough, my prejudice wasn't strong enough to spoil this year's Last Voyage of the Demeter, so maybe my issues with Jane Doe are legit. I don't know.

Next up, last night's movie was Nahnatchka Kan's new Amazon Original Totally Killer. This one was at Beyondfest, and my Horror Vision Cohost and I almost went; however, the day it played ended up being a low-key one, so we did not. Here's a trailer:

I was certain I would dislike this, however, turns out I really enjoyed Totally Killer. It's clever, but not in an overly ostentatious manner. Also, it's just a lot of damn fun! If you're afraid this was going to be another cutesy Blum House take on the post-modern Slasher, well, yeah. It kind of is. For me, however, it's one that really worked. Also, they freakin' NAILED gym class in the 80s.

1) When Evil Lurks/VHS 85/Adam Chaplin

2) Tales From the Crypt Ssn 1, Ep 6 "Collection Complete"

3) VHS

4) All You Need is Death

5) Slashers (2001)

6) The Beyond/Phenomena

7) The Convent

8) Evil Dead 2

9) The Autopsy of Jane Doe

10) Totally Killer

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Playlist:

BADBADNOTGOOD - IV

Nabihah Iqbal - Dreamer

Harsh Symmetry - Imitation

Boards of Canada - Geogaddi

Boards of Canada - Music Has the Right to Children

Sleep Token - Take Me Back to Eden

Van Halen - Eponymous

Zeal and Ardor - Eponymous

Boris/Merzbow - 2R0I2P0

Emma Ruth Rundle & Thou - May Our Chambers Be Full

Deth Crux - Mutant Flesh

Medeski, Martin and Wood - Uninvisible

Bauhaus - The Sky's Gone Out

Final Light - Eponymous

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Card:

Just one card, this time from Missi's Raven Deck, for today:

A reminder to think BIGGER! Literally, just before pulling this card, my thoughts were mired down in a very localized, small facet. This is a reminder to "I've been doing a lot of thinking lately. And I've started to focus out beyond the edge of the board. On a bigger game."

Leaders of Men

 

I don't have a lot in me at the moment, so here's some old-school Joy Division, one of my favorite tracks from the Warsaw days.

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31 Days of Halloween:

1) When Evil Lurks/VHS 85/Adam Chaplin

2)Tales From the Crypt Ssn 1, Ep 6 "Collection Complete"

3) VHS

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NCBD:

Here's what's waiting for me when I finally make it into a comic shop:

I still haven't started this series yet, so I will inevitably wait for all five issues to come out before I read. That kind of sucks, but the fact is this had a crazy low print run, thus my problems acquiring issue one (which I still don't have, hence why I haven't started it).

Finally: Apocalypse!!! I have no idea where this is going to lead; I'd originally expected old En Sabbah Nur to show up in X-Men: Red, where his wife is waging war on Storm and her people. Having him show up here has me questioning a lot of what I thought was going on. 

Daniel Warren Johnson doing a new Transformers comic that takes place in Robert Kirkman's Energon Universe? No way I'd miss this. I'm pretty selective with what I acknowledge, let alone spend time/money on as far as The Transformers; the only books I've read are the original Marvel comic and the Simon Furman continuation of that about ten years ago, Regeneration. Movie-wise, it's just 86 and the cartoons that predated it. Nothing else, so the fact that this ties into that world - or at least as far as I think I understand this Energon Universe - is a pretty big selling point. Of course DWJ at the helm is the other.

We finally get to see more of what Orchis is doing to Scott. There was a time I would have welcomed his torture, but call me crazy, Cyclops has actually become a pretty solid character in the post-Hickman continuity. I love how all the characters I found the least interesting or downright annoying are now stalwarts of my interest.

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Playlist:

Damone - From the Attic

Ruby the Hatchet - Fear is a Cruel Master

Umberto - Prophecy of the Black Widow

Spotlights - Seance EP

Mastodon - Once More 'Round the Sun

Young Widows - Old Wounds

Siouxsie & The Banshees

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Day of the Dead

 

As is my custom, here's Opeth's Dirge for November to initiate our Day of the Dead. I'm not quite sure how Opeth became my official band of the month November, but it happened. I'll be digging into the band's back catalogue all month, and Blackwater Park is always where I start that particular journey.

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31 Days of Halloween:

10/1 - Trick 'r Treat

10/2 - Barbarian

10/3 - Hellraiser ('84)

10/4 - Phenomena

10/5 - Hellraiser (2022)

10/6 - The Dark Backward

10/7 - Sick/The Beyond

10/8 - Werewolf By Night

10/9 - Something in the Dirt

10/10 - Let the Right One In Episode 1/Lux Aeterna

10/11 - My Best Friend's Exorcism/Grimcutty

10/12 - Smile

10/13 - Monstrous/VHS (Amateur Night segment)

10/14 - Halloween Kills

10/15 - Halloween Ends/Ed Wood/Plan 9 From Outer Space

10/16 - Spider Baby/101 Scariest Horror Movie Moments/Night's End/Behemoth

10/17 - Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon

10/18 - Random Acts of Violence/Two Witches/Let the Right One In Episode 2

10/19 - Footprints on the Moon/976-EVIL

10/20 - Alison's Birthday/Tone Deaf

10/21 - Elviria's Haunted Hills/Popcorn

10/22 - Resolution

10/23 - The Endless

10/24 - VHS 99

10/25 - Tigers Are Not Afraid

10/26 - Bliss

10/27 - Deadstream/Host

10/28 - The Convent

10/29 - Lot 36 (GDT's CoC ep. 1)/George A. Romero's Dawn of the Dead 3D/Return of the Living Dead

10/30 - Lords of Salem

10/31 - 31/Treehouse of Horror XXXIII/Hocus Pocus/Night of the Living Dead (68)

That's a wrap on yet another 31 Days of Halloween. Of course, my love of Horror movies doesn't stop there - I'm actually taking K to see Smile this evening - but there's a TON of non-Horror I need to get to, and November/December is typically the time of year when I get psyched for the, ahem, 'Prestige' pictures the studios release, and that carries over into my daily life as well. 

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Read:

Still inspired by seeing Lucio Fulci's The Beyond: The Composer's Cut at Beyondfest last month, I returned home from Los Angeles and began re-reading Eibon Press's outstanding The Beyond series, where Stephen Romano and Pat Carbajal adapt and explore Lucio Fulci's masterpiece:

I've been wanting to do this re-read for some time, as it will dovetail nicely with me finally ordering a copy of the recently released Escape From The Beyond #1.

I very much dig Romano's extrapolation of the over-story Fulci thinly draped across his three "Gates of Hell" films, and can't wait to see where he takes the sequel, now firmly new territory. The previous books from Eibon - The Beyond, The Gates of Hell, and House By the Cemetery - are all adaptations with flourishes that hint at being further advanced in this new series. 

Whether by intention or after sight, Fulci built an extremely ripe mythos with these three films, and it's awesome to see so talented a creator as Romano - who clearly loves the material - do what the master himself never got the chance to do. 

Bring it all together. 

There will, of course, be those who say the ending of The Beyond is perfect and shouldn't be messed with. To that, I'd say I agree with the first half; if someone were to remake or plan a film sequel, I'd be a lot more trepidacious. Swapping mediums gives Romano and now artist Jeff Zurnow an unlimited bag of visual tricks, so let's see what they do with it. If you don't end up liking it, these books need not affect the film at all. But imagine the possibilities; we've all wondered what happens after John and Liza end up in Schweik's painting...

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Playlist:

Various -Shawn's Halloween Playlist

Ritual Howls - Turkish Leather

John Carpenter - Lost Themes

John Carpenter - Lost Themes II

John Carpenter - Lost Themes III: Alive After Death

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Card:

Being that November 1st is, in some manner of speaking, the beginning of my new year, I wanted to make this pull pretty comprehensive. To that end, I began with the Raven Tarot:

I see this as denoting a return on the investments of my time/energy on various projects.

Next, to move beyond the general scope, I wanted to pull a spread using Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, (which you can buy HERE.)

Ace of Cups and Swords both imply breakthroughs, with the addition of the Eight of Cups telling the breakthroughs may come in the form of recognizing my errors and thus, correcting them. Again, this all seems to point to my current project. 

Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross - Halloween Theme

 

Reznor and Ross covering John Carpenter's legendary score. Happy Halloween, everybody! Remember to check those candies for razor blades.

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31 Days of Halloween:

10/1 - Trick 'r Treat

10/2 - Barbarian

10/3 - Hellraiser ('84)

10/4 - Phenomena

10/5 - Hellraiser (2022)

10/6 - The Dark Backward

10/7 - Sick/The Beyond

10/8 - Werewolf By Night

10/9 - Something in the Dirt

10/10 - Let the Right One In Episode 1/Lux Aeterna

10/11 - My Best Friend's Exorcism/Grimcutty

10/12 - Smile

10/13 - Monstrous/VHS (Amateur Night segment)

10/14 - Halloween Kills

10/15 - Halloween Ends/Ed Wood/Plan 9 From Outer Space

10/16 - Spider Baby/101 Scariest Horror Movie Moments/Night's End/Behemoth

10/17 - Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon

10/18 - Random Acts of Violence/Two Witches/Let the Right One In Episode 2

10/19 - Footprints on the Moon/976-EVIL

10/20 - Alison's Birthday/Tone Deaf

10/21 - Elviria's Haunted Hills/Popcorn

10/22 - Resolution

10/23 - The Endless

10/24 - VHS 99

10/25 - Tigers Are Not Afraid

10/26 - Bliss

10/27 - Deadstream/Host

10/28 - The Convent

10/29 - Lot 36 (GDT's CoC ep. 1)/George A. Romero's Dawn of the Dead 3D/Return of the Living Dead

10/30 - Lords of Salem

After watching Rob Zombie's Lords of Salem for the third time last night, I'm pretty sure I consider it his masterpiece. I'll always love House and Rejects, but Lords is something else entirely. At first pass I didn't much care for it; then, a few years later I rewatched it and realized I was completely applying my frustrations with his other films to this one. I came around, and regularly described it in conversation (where I was often defending it) as, "It's Zombie doing Argento." There's certainly some truth to that, but to leave it there is a disservice to the film. Lords of Salem is the first completely serious, mature, elegant film he's made. Again, not that there aren't other movies by Mr. Zombie that I love (I dig most of them to one degree or another), but he has certain affectations that repeat throughout his oeuvre and sometimes prevent his films from being, first and foremost, Rob Zombie films. Lords of Salem shatters these restraints and becomes something else. The film is extremely visceral and, at times, downright unnerving in a pure psychological way. Its imagery is like nothing I've ever seen - even in Zombie's other films - and the mechanism by which the Horror in his story takes root and unfolds leans on folklore, myth, drawing a damning line between the pathos of modern humanity and our ancestors, proving we're not dissimilar enough to judge the past. 

I'd had the itch to watch this one of late, and I'm glad I waited until Devil's Night to do so. Next up, 31!

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Read:

One of the books I picked up within the last two weeks but only just got around to reading 

I had no idea this was even coming out when I saw it on the shelf at Rick's Comic City. A few years ago, Butcher from The Horror Vision let me borrow the old FantaCo Night of the Living Dead prestige series, something I had never read. Now,  American Mythology Comics has joined with Romero's Image Ten to release a series that seems as though it will re-tell and expand on the story from the film we all know and love. Of interesting note, the scene in the FantaCo that really made the series for me was having the tribulations Ben describes as preceding his arrival at the farmhouse actually brought to life. We see that again in this book, so despite being a bit of a repeat if you read those FantaCos, it still signals - to me at least - that we may be in for a fun ride here. We'll see. 

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Playlist:

✝✝✝ - Vivian (single)

✝✝✝ - Initiation/Protection

The Sisters of Mercy - Floodland

Here Lies Lucy - Heaven or HLL EP

John Carpenter and Alan Howarth - Halloween III: Season of the Witch OST

John Carpenter and Alan Howarth - Prince of Darkness OST

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

For every inspiration, multiple, digressive pathways branch out and weaken its fundamental strength. Remain true to the voice of the idea. 

Directly referencing my current project once again. When I look back at previous posts that I made close to the completion of my other books, I notice the cards always begin to speak directly about the project of the moment. It's a good sign, these tools that allow my subconscious to speak directly to my oft-distracted conscious mind, reminding it how best to approach my craft when it nears completion and, thus, release into the world at large.

A final reminder, only a few hours left to back Grimm's Kickstarter for The Art of the Bound Tarot hardcover art book. Back the project HERE.